Meet Sneha Singh, GFI India’s Managing Director

Sheila Voss: Sneha, I’m so happy to have this conversation with you today, and I just wanted to ask you a few questions so that we can get to know you and others can get to know you. So my first one is really about your career path and your life path. What was it, and when did you realize that you wanted to channel your energies and use your skills to help build a better future via alternative proteins?

Sneha Singh: I think from as far back as I can remember, I’ve always been an advocate of trying to find ways to save nature because I think growing up, we had this whole whirlwind wave of recycling and reusing and being sustainable. That wave was just getting started. I remember documentaries and things coming out, and it really moved something in me to try and find a way to have my career path line up with that very early on. Soon after I finished university, I started volunteering with nonprofits and different organizations to try and do that. I always wanted to have a career in social impact and more specifically, in climate change.

So for about five years, I was at the London Wildlife Trust in London. I was stewarding all of their HR and strategy, working quite closely with the leadership team there, and that was a huge learning curve of how we can do so many things to bring nature closer to people and bring nature back into people’s lives. There was a lot of emphasis on rewilding London, and I really thoroughly enjoyed that for the five years I was there. But with my roots in India and wanting to eventually move back, and also taking a 20,000-foot view of where is the biggest impact possible, I started reading about the little things. And there are so many things for climate impact you can get involved in right? There are a million issues that need attention. I read more and more about the role of food. I educated myself about my own food footprint, and started taking on in a personal capacity, how I can change that, evolve, and learn more. And as I went on that journey, I also started researching what kind of nonprofits are there in India that I could go on to work for. Should I make the transition back to India? When I was doing that, because I was doing a lot of research in the UK, there were a couple of recommended charities that came up, and GFI was featured in one of those lists.

And it was very interesting because it was the only nonprofit working on food. Everybody else is working on energy or nature, or, you know, water, soil health, regenerative ag, there’s so many things, but in terms of actual food-on-your-plate style solutions, it just intrigued me quite a bit because I hadn’t thought about the problem in the way GFI was talking about the solution. And I really found that interesting. I read up more, sent my expression of interest in. I felt really inspired by the theory of change, and by the mission. At the place I was personally in my life, I was also evolving in my own food choices, and my journey towards being more plant-based and that kind of just all came together. I was meeting the moment almost like, okay, this is happening to me in my personal life, and I’m reading about this, and I’ve come across this organization doing great work, and hey, they also have a presence in India, so amazing. Let me see if there’s some way that I can kind of make all of these dots join up. And yes, after finding a way through, I found myself at GFI India in June of 2019 through a lot of conversation with colleagues in GFI, both in the U.S.and in India. So that was the journey. And honestly, I have only been learning every day.

I’ve been with GFI five years now, and I think every day is a school day, and I think that’s what’s most incredible about this sector —there is so much promise in the science and technology. And I’m a biomedical scientist by my first degree, a lot of these protein pathways were familiar from my university experience. So it’s not alien to me at all, any of this, but to see it completely applied in a different light and the translational opportunity for research to address this problem that if, if we don’t fix this, we’re not going to be able to fix a lot of the things that are wrong in the world. I think it’s such a big opportunity. It’s also quite overwhelming sometimes that, oh my goodness, what have we set out to do? But it’s inspiring on more days and intimidating on fewer.

Sheila Voss: Oh my gosh. I love everything about that, just the convergence of your professional and personal interests and that moment in time, right, where all the stars lined up— that’s a nod, well, that’s a wink from the universe, right? I love how you made the analogy to GFI being like school, because I often think that way. I’ve been here now four years, and I feel like I’m in a college course every day and every week, in a good way right? The people here, and then the content of and the field itself— it’s constantly evolving, the science of it, the policy landscapes. So I love that. And then the culture, too. Everybody has this curiosity and learning mindset and growth mindset. And then your last point there about the mission. You’re right, we did not take an easy mission at all. And yes, it can be overwhelming, but GFI breaks it down. And so in that sphere, what can we do? What kind of interventions, plural, can we do? So all of that resonates with me. I feel like this could go on for hours—you and I, because we’re catching up, right? Okay, so now let’s talk about GFI India for a little bit. From your vantage point and your role, how would you describe GFI India’s role in creating change for our food system?

Sneha Singh: Yeah, I think India has got a lot of strengths. My parents are pharmacists. They trained, learned, had the majority of their careers in India before they moved to the UK for I think the more latter part of their career growth. I think I’ve seen them in the peak biotech boom in India, when the pharma industry and the biotech industry really transformed in India, and the ability that the Indian ecosystem had to coalesce around promising technology, innovation, genetic drugs, the opportunity to kind of be a manufacturing hub to scale. I witnessed that for the pharma and the biotech world from the insides of my house, and it was very revolutionary, because I remember those numbers were not in the billions of dollars that they are today. I still remember my mom telling me a story because she applied to be a doctor. She’d given her exams to be a doctor, but she didn’t make the cut. And somebody said, oh, she can go and study pharmacy, and it wasn’t even a very well known field, but she kind of dived into it and went into it anyway. But something that was very new, and again, a story that my mom tells me is, and it’s not the greatest from a climate perspective, but the revolution around packaging, plastic packaging, for drugs, for medicines, to make them more resistant to the natural elements, was something that she taught for the first time. She didn’t learn it, but she taught it so my parents have been witness to a lot of innovation in the biotechnology, in the pharmaceutical world.

And I feel like I am there for food. I’ve seen the wonderful R&D innovation capacity and manufacturing scale up capacity that India has. There is a lot of scientific talent in India. I think there’s a lot of amazing scientists. There is a lot of curiosity and outward thinking. There is generally a positive mindset towards, hey, how can we find a solution to this problem? And often people say that India was one of the countries that put a rover on the moon for like, a fraction of the cost, because they were able to do it, they were able to find solutions in a cost effective manner. And I think that is definitely a strength that India has, and a role that India can play when it comes to being a global powerhouse for smart protein, as we call it in India, I think there is so much work that has already been done for the foods industry when it comes to infrastructure, when it comes to processing plants, and similarly, on the biotech side, when it comes to capacity for fermentation, et cetera. I think there’s just a lot of translational work that can be done to join a lot of these dots in parallel. I think India is quite rich and strong from an agricultural standpoint, such a diversity of crops, varied weather, different states in India with different strengths when it comes to agricultural output and with the huge spotlight on the International Year of Millets that happened last year, and the signaling from the government to really take millets on as a crop of importance. In my five years since I’ve moved back to India, I haven’t seen anything millets on the front shelves of stores like I did last year.

So there’s also a government that understands the importance of indigenous crops, the application of indigenous crops, and I feel like we are quite ripe for the coming together of those two or three aspects, the manufacturing piece, the scientific talent piece, and then our indigenous crops and the agricultural heritage that we have. I think those are the things in India that really excite me. And of course, in addition to a scientific talent pool that we have, we also have the biggest young population in the world today—people who are looking to embark upon newer careers, who are looking to apply themselves in emerging fields, who are quite climate conscious as well, you know, so I think there is an opportunity for the youth of India to look at ways of finding careers in social impact, finding careers in climate aligned fields, and one of them could be smart protein.

Sheila Voss: Oh my gosh, I love that too. You know, anchoring to a country’s strengths and legacy tradition, like what they’re really known for, and layering in smart protein into those strengths is a theme I think, that multiple GFI teams are doing. And then your last point about not only talent, talent as well as consumers, right? So it’s people looking to enter into a field and channel their professional and personal energy and time into something that really is a scalable solution, but then also beyond that, the broader spectrum of consumers who want different choices and have values that really go into their food choices. So with regard to the future for the next year or few years, when you think about the GFI India team that you lead today, what are a few of the goals that come to mind in the short term future, in the next two years?

Sneha Singh: There’s a huge opportunity to do a landscape analysis like speaking to the strengths I just touched upon. What are the numbers we can ascribe to the capacity that we have, whether it’s infrastructure, whether it’s equipment, whether it’s manufacturing. I think there is a huge opportunity to map what the ecosystem is like, and then where is the translational opportunity for smart protein there? That’s something that we’re very excited about. And we’ve identified some projects. Of course, we can’t do all of it all at once, because these are huge landscape analyses, but definitely prioritizing some in the short term, and trying to take that information to decision-makers, stakeholders—whether it’s on the policy side, whether it’s on the industry side, whether it’s a bit of both, to see how can this leap be facilitated, or how can we plug these gaps that we know will be creating backward linkages for the right groups, whether it’s smallholder farmers, people emerging from university who want to enter the workforce, etc. I think those kinds of projects really excite me.

I think it’s also the messaging piece that we’ve been working on steadily for the last year or so— the protein diversification messaging piece for India. India has, unfortunately, really high numbers when it comes to malnutrition, stunting, wasting. It is a protein-deficient country, and I feel like there is so much opportunity that we can tap into here which can directly impact nutritional outcomes. So what kind of steps or projects do we need to identify that are doing studies from a nutritional perspective for alternative proteins, that are leaning into ways in which these can be procured and seeded into more government feeding programs, and we can find ways to have canteens or bigger establishments adopt smart protein as a high protein offering in their menus or in their feeding program. I think that’s a huge opportunity from a nutritional outcome, health outcome perspective. 

I also feel like we want to undertake the kind of project that we’re going to design around —we’re still finalizing all those things, but a definite value proposition or an outcome that we can for smart protein around: What are the successful linkages for farmers and what is the quantifying benefit for them to enter into these value chains? If production of smart protein in India grows steadily, what does that growth story look like? I think those kinds of big questions and projects and initiatives that are designed around answering these questions are part of landscape analysis. Where are we? Where do we need to go? Nutritional outcomes and possibility of smart protein plugging into nutritional outcomes and then finding across the value chain, backward linkages towards farmers and strengthening that quite deliberately, quite mindfully, quite consciously. I think any projects that we do will speak to those outcomes, and I’m quite excited about getting those off the ground next year.

Sheila Voss: Listening to you just now, I’m thinking about how some of those same exact dimensions of the work are manifesting in the U.S. team, in the Europe team, in the Brazil team. But even though they’re the same issues regionally, they’re going to look different in terms of how that flexes and how that manifests, right? I think that’s just another reason why GFI as a global network, that structure continues to make so much sense. Because we, of course, are also focused on mapping of the landscape and making sure that we have capacities in the research ecosystem, in our scientific ecosystem, in the commercial and industry ecosystem, and the policy and regulatory ecosystem. And we’re also concerned about health, not only the personal health and nutrition benefits, but also public health. And it’s fascinating because those are common priorities for us, but as you talked about, it’s going to look different. It’s going to take regional expertise and regional nuance to really address those in ways that stick and that stay and that can be built on.

Sneha Singh: I also think that, just speaking to your point, India is so diverse within itself as a country. Food changes state to state, like every few 100 kilometers, the staple food changes, the language changes. There’s so many languages. It’s a very diverse country with so many sensitivities and cultural nuances that thinking that there’s going to be a one size fits all is just not possible in India. It doesn’t happen, right? And I think that adds to the layer of complexity that we are trying to tackle here. And therefore there might be certain regions or certain states where we can lean into and have a particular kind of engagement when it comes to smart protein. There might be certain ministries that understand the health angle, or we haven’t even touched on antimicrobial resistance as a topic of engagement yet in India, I think there is growing recognition of AMR, but it’s not quite front and center for sure. So there’s some work to do there. So there’s plenty of opportunity. There’s plenty of ways to lean into what is even within India, more regionally contextual, state wise. And that’s another layer to the approach there. But yes, I think that’s what underscores the reason for doing analysis and doing data mapping and benchmarking. That is empirical information that is unique to India, and that’s the starting point.

Sheila Voss: Yes, yes, yes. And your one-size-fits-all comment is also, of course, really relevant to your third point that you made earlier about farmers and people on the front lines of food production and really nailing what the value proposition is for them. Farmers, as we know, are also not a monolith. The various different ways that people are growing food is different, farm by farm. And so that approach that really looks at the diversity within that community and right-sizes and makes it easy to and valuable to folks to transition, and that the incentives are there, etc. So yes, that approach of really zooming in and what’s going to make the most sense for a particular region is so important.

Sneha Singh: Yes, because all of the farmers in India are smallholder farmers. It’s not as industrialized in India at all. We’re still a developing nation. The government’s done excellent work to provide benchmarking data, especially food production. We have reliable data, but because this is a nascent industry, data that is specific to smart protein, there is still data darkness there. So that’s a gap definitely to bridge there, and also just having an understanding that we are on the journey of development. We’re on the journey to economic growth. So there’s different levers there. We don’t have all the information, and therefore, context is widely different in India.

Sheila Voss: So let’s go ahead with our final question. This is a bit more personal, zooming in on you. So what is something that someone may not know about you just by looking at your very impressive resume and just by looking at your LinkedIn profile? Tell us a little bit more about something that someone would not know.

Sneha Singh: I think two things. Maybe one is my love of gardening. I think the fact that I have many, many plants. I have too many plants for the average Mumbai flat.

Sheila Voss: There’s no such thing. No, there’s no such thing as too many plants. That’s not a thing. That’s not a thing.

Sneha Singh: I have about 45, which is a lot. So, all of my windows are window gardens, and I take a lot of joy in spending, you know, a whole Saturday with my helper gardener, who is the community gardener, who comes and brings new saplings and cuttings. So I try to avoid buying plants, but just utilizing cuttings from a community garden, so that the overgrowth doesn’t get thrown away, and it just finds a home in my home, and they thrive as well because they’re not displaced too far from their original habitats. That’s great. So I’m a nature lover. I’m a gardener. I really enjoy watching plants grow, and I think they teach you patience. There’s a way of nature working, and I think there’s immense learning if you just observing nature. So I think that’s that whole part of me, which is very nature aligned. I don’t have a TV in the house. I’m no device person, apart from my phone and my laptop for work.

And I think the second thing about me is that I’m a trained dancer. So I have learned quite a few forms of dance. I used to teach when I was in the UK. I was a part of a former theater community. I have choreographed lots of performances and shows. I was running community dance classes for over two years. I’m still in touch with some of my friends from there whenever I go back. In India, because Indian weddings are a big thing, I often get pulled into choreographing Indian weddings from time to time. So that’s something that people probably don’t know about me—that I have a whole creative side to me as well, which I quite enjoy, that side of dance and expression and writing and everything. So I haven’t found as much time in the last couple of years for lots of reasons, work-wise to devote towards my creative side. But I’m optimistic that I will go back to it because, yeah, it’s a very huge part of my personality.

Sheila Voss: Oh my gosh, I love both of those little insights. Clearly, you’re singing my tune on the plant side. I will go on record saying there is exactly no such thing as too many plants. So there’s that. And then I love the creative side. I think everybody needs some version of that, right? Whether that’s a physical outlet or an artistic outlet, or anything that gets that other side of your brain and your body and your mind and your heart just energized and filled up. And I think that that actually helps on the work and career side. 

Absolutely, I know that I could keep talking with you for a long, long time, and this interview could be hours, but I want to be respectful of your time. Thank you so much for carving out time. So, so glad that you are in the role that you’re in and bringing everything that you bring to the role— not just your subject matter expertise and your skills, but just the leadership model that you have and the team that you lead. I myself love every single engagement I have with your team—so bright, so committed, so collaborative, and I think that that, in a large way, is modeling your style. So thank you so much.

Sneha Singh: You have been so kind and so generous. I’m very grateful that I carved out this time. The last one hour chatting to you has not felt like a work call at all. Super refreshed and reenergized. Thank you so much, Sheila, and thank you for all of the interest in the work we do. And thank you for the opportunity to highlight this as a part of GFI’s broader global work. Thank you.