Aaron Brodkey (left) and Theo Mourad. Photo credit: Bruno Postigo
Aaron Brodkey (BA ’18) and Theo Mourad (BA ’19)
You’ve heard of beef jerky. But what about beet jerky? If University of Michigan graduates and longtime friends Aaron Brodkey (BA ’18) and Theo Mourad (BA ’19) have their say, their vegan jerky will become everyone’s go-to healthy snack. Their product is sold under their brand, THEO’s Plant Based, which was founded in Chicago in 2021.
Mourad came up with the idea for beet jerky during the COVID-19 lockdown after working as a chef in training at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, a high-end farm-to-table restaurant in upstate New York. Inspired by that experience, as well as his years working on farms and in other restaurants, Mourad used his downtime to experiment with a beet jerky recipe.
Mourad chose beets because of their health benefits, flavor and rich color. “Beets are a really underappreciated vegetable,” he says. “They are one of the healthiest foods there are, but people aren’t eating them. Our beet jerky makes it a little bit easier for people to be healthy.”
What began as a hobby turned into a serious business after Mourad shared product samples with Ann Arborite Tim Redmond (BA ’70), the owner of Skinny Farm of Scio and a pioneer of the natural foods industry. Mourad had worked for Redmond for two summers while he was at U-M.
We’re really trying to incorporate social and environmental considerations into what we do.”
“I didn’t know at the time that I was pitching the concept to Tim, but that’s what I ended up doing,” says Mourad, who graduated with a degree in psychology, social action and community change. “I was just excited to share my beet jerky, but Tim saw potential in it.”
Brodkey also saw similar potential. He began advising Mourad on the side, offering business advice he gained from his job at a venture capital firm that supports plant and cell-based food companies. Brodkey—a graduate of the Program in the Environment, a joint program between the School for Environment and Sustainability and the College of Literature, Science and the Arts—came on board full time as the company’s co-founder in January 2022.
“We’re really trying to incorporate social and environmental considerations into what we do,” says Brodkey, who notes that THEO’s uses compostable packaging and regenerative organic practices. The beets aren’t peeled, for instance, which means that 96% of the raw beet (“even the ugly parts”) is used in their jerky, while the leaves are used as compost by the organic farms that source the beets.
The product is sold online at Whole Foods Markets in the Midwest, including both Ann Arbor stores; at all Argus Farm Stop locations in Ann Arbor; and in dozens of natural food stores around the country.
“What’s most important to us is to make products that are truly good for the earth,” says Brodkey. “We want to build a regenerative organic vegetable brand where we can have different plays on vegetable products that are at the intersection of flavor, nutrition and sustainability.”
