Yolélé

Finally! At Yolélé we are thrilled to announce that our #Fonio is now available for #foodservice operators at US Foods! #chefs #glutenfree #universitydiningservices Chef Pierre Thiam #culinary #foodserviceoperators #sustainability #sustainablefoods University of Massachusetts Amherst Howard University Arizona State University University of Oregon Oberlin College

One of the latest #Fonio brews, a #GratefulDead citrus lager coming from Dogfish Head and The Boston Beer Company. https://lnkd.in/ebSq-Pca #BrewingForImpact Yolélé Chef Pierre Thiam #Sustainability #ClimateAction

Periodically, I search for Black-owned food brands because I like to keep my ear to the streets and stay in the know about the cool and necessary things my community is creating. Last night, that search produced a list of brands, some I familiarized myself with months ago, one new discovery, and another I used almost five years ago: Yolélé. Seeing it on the list brought me back to a time when I used it regularly, often outside of what it’s probably intended for, lol. If you’re someone of color, you know how essential rice is in our meals. But sometimes, speaking for myself, I can go overboard and overly indulge without thinking much about it, since it’s been a staple in my diet since childhood. Every now and then, it’s good to switch things up, which is how I became a fan of Yolélé’s fonio. Fonio is a West African grain that serves as a great rice substitute, but I used to incorporate it into my smoothies to help me feel satisfied after heavy lifting workouts. I felt healthy and invincible afterward, kind of like I developed Thor-like strength. Supernatural powers are developed separately and based on other factors, so don’t bank on that, but do go out and grab your own pouch. They also come in a variety of flavors. Plus, I had a brief interaction with Chef Pierre Thiam and Philip Teverow a few years ago, which only added to my fondness for the brand. It’s great to know there are cool humans behind the physical product, too. Interested in my smoothie blend? Here’s what I used to whip mine up.

Periodically, I search for Black-owned food brands because I like to keep my ear to the streets and stay in the know about the cool and necessary things my community is creating. Last night, that search produced a list of brands, some I familiarized myself with months ago, one new discovery, and another I used almost five years ago: Yolélé. Seeing it on the list brought me back to a time when I used it regularly, often outside of what it’s probably intended for, lol. If you’re someone of color, you know how essential rice is in our meals. But sometimes, speaking for myself, I can go overboard and overly indulge without thinking much about it, since it’s been a staple in my diet since childhood. Every now and then, it’s good to switch things up, which is how I became a fan of Yolélé’s fonio. Fonio is a West African grain that serves as a great rice substitute, but I used to incorporate it into my smoothies to help me feel satisfied after heavy lifting workouts. I felt healthy and invincible afterward, kind of like I developed Thor-like strength. Supernatural powers are developed separately and based on other factors, so don’t bank on that, but do go out and grab your own pouch. They also come in a variety of flavors. Plus, I had a brief interaction with Chef Pierre Thiam and Philip Teverow a few years ago, which only added to my fondness for the brand. It’s great to know there are cool humans behind the physical product, too. Interested in my smoothie blend? Here’s what I used to whip mine up.

If you're going to invest so much of your life into building something, why not build something meant to last? This is the question that pushed us toward our current path… one rooted not in startups, but in building industries. Building institutions. Building economic engines that outlive their founders and restructure the economic DNA of nations. Because we’ve seen this story before. During America’s Gilded Age, the Robber Barons built massive industrial systems: railroads, steel, energy. But they built them through extraction, consolidation, and exploitation. Their empires transformed nations, yes, but often at the expense of the very people whose labor powered them. Today, a new kind of industrialization is emerging—one that creates prosperity instead of consuming it. CassVita is where I first realized what this shift could look like. In the early days, we struggled with identity. Were we an agtech startup? A processing company? A CPG brand? None of those definitions truly captured what we were building. As the company matured, the clarity came: We weren’t building a product; we were building capacity. Industrial capacity. And industrial capacity compounds institutional strength; institutional strength builds nations. By building Africa’s largest cassava processing network, we didn’t just attain a manufacturing breakthrough. We unlocked an entire domestic supply chain. Suddenly, multinationals didn’t need to rely on imported starches and derivatives. Governments no longer had to drain foreign reserves to bring in basic ingredients. Farmers weren’t forced into the margins of the economy; they were pulled into the center of it. This is the opposite of the Robber Baron model. Instead of extraction at scale, it is inclusion at scale. Instead of creating empires on the backs of communities, it creates communities on the backs of industry. And none of this is possible without a financing philosophy that matches the mission. We have been fortunate to be backed by investors who understand “building to keep” instead of “building to flip.” That mindset forces discipline. It rewards stable economics, strong operations, and long-term thinking over short-term hype. Because, in the end, the real question isn’t whether a business can grow fast. The question is whether it can endure. Whether it can become part of a nation’s economic backbone. Whether it can uplift communities for generations. Whether it can outlive the founders who built it.

Lord have mercy on Africa. I just spent $23,000 on certifications for one product. Let me break down the hidden cost of exporting from Africa. Recently, a German organic tea company wanted our Congolese honey. Premium price. Long-term contract. Dream client. They needed: EU organic certification, glyphosate residue testing, heavy metal analysis, and full traceability from hive to port. The product? Perfect. Forest honey from one of the most pesticide-free ecosystems on Earth. The paperwork? $23,000 and four months. Let me show you what "compliance" actually costs for African exporters: 💣 Organic Certification: $8,000-$15,000 Requires third-party inspections, documentation of every input, annual renewals. 💣 Choose between USDA, EU, or JAS depending on target market. 💣 Lab Testing: $2,000-$5,000 per batch Microbiology panels (E. coli, salmonella, mold), heavy metals (lead, cadmium, arsenic), pesticide residue screening. Western buyers won't touch your product without this. 💣 Traceability Systems: $3,000-$8,000 Digital or paper tracking from source to shipment. Training farmers to document harvests, creating batch codes, maintaining audit-ready logs. 💣 Insurance & Liability: $3,000-$6,000 annually Product liability coverage that Western buyers require before placing orders. Total: $16,000-$34,000 before you ship a single kilogram. Most individual African farmers can't afford this. Most small cooperatives can't either. So they stay locked into local markets where premium honey sells for $3/kg instead of $25/kg internationally. This is why aggregators matter. Lubembo Co., we absorb compliance costs across multiple producers. We invest in certifications once, then multiple farmer groups benefit. We maintain relationships with ISO-accredited labs in Nairobi. We've built traceability systems that work even in areas with limited internet. But here's what frustrates me: Western buyers demand all this documentation (rightfully—food safety matters), yet there's almost no support for African suppliers to actually obtain it? NGOs fund "capacity-building workshops." What we really need is capital for certifications and lab testing. I recently spoke to a women's beekeeping cooperative in Kitui, Kenya, producing exceptional honey. They had a buyer in Germany ready to order 2 tons monthly. The deal died because they couldn't afford $12,000 for organic certification and testing. That's not a market failure. That's a financing failure. We need impact investors and development finance institutions to recognize that compliance infrastructure IS development. Fund the certifications. Subsidize the lab tests. Help cooperatives access documentation systems that unlock premium markets. Because right now, the compliance tax is keeping Africa's best products exactly where they've always been: invisible to the buyers who'd pay the most for them. #Lubembo #TradeAfrica #Invest

🌱✨ “Food Is Medicine” isn’t just a theme - it’s a movement. On World Food Day, we joined Arizona State University’s Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation at ASU’s Tempe campus to explore how we can eat for our health and the planet’s. From Indigenous wisdom and ancestral intelligence to organic farming, fonio, and fresh produce prescriptions — trailblazers like Chef Pierre Thiam, Denisa Livingston, Selena Ahmed, Kathleen Merrigan, PhD, and Michel Nischan shared what it really means to cultivate sustainable health. 🌾🥗 Read ASU’s full feature: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/ekTdYAqN #FoodIsMedicine #WorldFoodDay #FoodTank #SustainableFoodSystems #ASU #SwetteCenter #SproutsFoundation #UNFAO #EatForThePlanet #HealthyFoodForAll