April 3, 2020

IFSL Cohort Spotlight: Karl Kratzke

Karl Kratzke is Building our Food System

Karl Kratzke manages large building projects at PURIS, a leader in pea-based proteins and starches. The IFSL program gave Karl the background he needed to pivot into building facilities that form the backbone of our food system. We talked with Karl about his new role, his IFSL experience, and the supply chain implications of our current pandemic. 

You changed companies in January, part-way through your IFSL experience. What is your new role?

I changed roles from working as a general contractor to working for PURIS. We are the largest pea protein manufacturer in North America and involved end to end in the supply chain from breeding the non-gmo seeds to finished products. As a Senior Capital Project Manager I support capital projects that build out our processing capacity across all of our locations. Right now we are building a facility in Dawson, MN that will more than double our current capacity. 

People have the perception that COVID-19 is creating a supply chain crisis. Do you see that at PURIS?

People are surprised that produce and meat are back on the shelves, but they can’t get flour and toilet paper. I bake sourdough bread as a hobby and every other week or so I buy a ten pound bag of bread flour. But now it’s gone; you can't find it anywhere. We had an interesting discussion around the supply issue this week as an IFSL class. One of my classmates pointed out that trendy products aren’t disappearing. With so much uncertainty people have resorted to staples, to very traditional products that feel safe.

The challenge is, the way that supply chain works, retail grocery stores have contracts for perishables, like produce and meat, to come in weekly because they typically have a high turnover rate. Non-perishables like flour or toilet paper usually stay on the shelves for much longer periods of time. When everyone goes out and buys toilet paper, that behavior creates scarcity because there isn’t a re-order already set up.

That initial chaos of trying to buy up products did trickle back up the supply chain to people like us who make ingredients. Some of our customers were trying to buy additional volume above & beyond their typical orders. Just like grocery stores are limiting orders on products to make sure there is enough for everybody, we are also monitoring order sizes so we don’t push anyone out. If we sold all our product to one or two big guys, smaller customers and startups we work with could be shoved out of the marketplace. Lots of suppliers are doing that kind of monitoring right now to keep things fair.

Has COVID-19 impacted your own work so far on capital projects?

I thought COVID was really going to derail things, but so far it’s all moving along as planned. All of our procurement and fabrication we initiated a long time ago. Long lead time equipment is still on track. We’re in an early phase for construction, so we are on track there. We do have some contingencies in place, but there is no crystal ball for this. We will plan as best as we can and tackle the changes as they come.

Because we are in the food industry, we are considered an essential business. All of our existing facilities are still running. There is certainly a heightened awareness of how people are feeling and empowering employees to stay home when not feeling well. But since our work is related to food, our practices are already built on a high concern for proper hygiene.

Do you have a sense yet for what your ‘new normal’ will be once things settle down?

The only thing that changes is social distancing, and I don't think that will stay in place. I do think we may see a lot more openness around working from home. Minnesota is under a “stay home MN” rule. For engineering and project management, that transition felt pretty flawless. I think we’ve actually seen our team become more productive.

We used to have meetings where management would be together in a conference room and plant personnel would call in from our facilities. Now with everyone on Zoom, it really levels the playing field. Everyone has to communicate the same way, and everyone has an equal voice.

This week, we had our first virtual “off-site” leadership meeting, and it was implemented so flawlessly that you would think it's how it's always been done. The technology we have at our fingertips today gives us the ability to work, learn, and collaborate in an online environment better than ever before. On the other side of this, I think we will see a shift where remote learning and working become the new norm.

How has your IFSL experience helped you navigate this new role?

At work, I'm in design meetings weekly where we talk about facility set up, and I’ve been able to contribute based on what I learned in our IFSL food security/food defense module. We got into a conversation about food defense recently, and I started rattling off.

WIth my contractor background, my input usually revolves around cost of work & constructibility. However, in a recent meeting discussing our future packaging lines, the topic of food defense came up. As food defense is a relatively new and evolving concept, our design experts were a little shocked to hear me rattle off ideas I had been thinking about in our food defense module.

Things like access control, mitigating the potential for adulteration of products by making certain points more secure—like interlocking doors that can’t open when a process is running. You need to know where you are vulnerable and have the proper countermeasures in place. It was this great role reversal where the tables were turned and I became the expert. My background is as a builder, but IFSL is helping me contribute more in the planning stage and protect the future of our product and our customers.

What prompted you to apply to the IFSL program?

We’ve been using food as fuel, and I saw a shift coming up where that won’t continue as in the past. I've worked in organic grains, ethanol, and soybean crush operations. I've built all these facilities and they all overlapped with food at some point.

We have a growing population that needs to eat, and we can't meet those needs with our current system. Rotating soybeans and corn and turning corn into ethanol is probably not the best way to utilize our soil and feed our growing populations.

By 2050 we are projected to increase our world population by two billion people. That next thirty years is my entire career. I saw IFSL as an opportunity to shift my focus, to get a better background in the food system, and to prepare for that change. The curriculum feels even more relevant now that I'm working for a company that supplies ingredients for plant-based proteins and meat substitutes.

The trends that I perceived were supported by the IFSL program content, but IFSL has also opened up new ways of thinking for me. I thought of hunger and food insecurity as a problem for somewhere else. In Minnesota, we’ve got food growing everywhere, farms everywhere! But we got into some studies that showed the percent of people who are considered malnourished right in our backyard. There are counties in Minnesota where 30% of the population is not getting what they need. I was shocked to find that it was the same or worse across the country.

Before, I was thinking hypothetically about the future. But going through the IFSL classes is making me realize that these issues are happening now; this is the world we are living in.

What advice would you give to those considering this IFSL program? And would you say your advice is any different now given our current pandemic? 

If you are considering joining the next cohort, you probably should! Of all the people in my class, I probably had the least background in the space coming in. But I’ve also probably learned the most.

How I’d translate that into advice is this: even if you feel like IFSL is outside your wheelhouse or more than your day to day responsibilities, there is still a lot you will be able to implement. What I’ve learned was helpful for me even before I switched careers, and it is super helpful now, too.

With our current situation, it is even more important to understand your supply chain for food. This pandemic has put stress we have never seen on our markets and supply chains. Knowing how they all work together—how a small change here or there can have a vast impact down the line—gives you the ability to solve problems from that bigger picture systems perspective.

For more information about the University of Minnesota’s IFSL Program, visit https://ifsl.umn.edu. IFSL Program applications are accepted on a rolling basis for the next cohort. Download a program brochure or schedule a consultation call for more information.