“How Can We Do Business as if Life Truly Matters?”— Interview with The Happy Pear, David Flynn
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
Be The Earth is proud to invest in The Happy Pear — a plant-based, regenerative food and farm business rooted in Greystones, Ireland. Founded in 2004 by identical twins Dave and Steve, it began as a tiny veg shop with a big dream: to help people eat more veg, joyfully.
Today, that dream has grown into over 80 plant-based products (that they have sold over 25 million of!), a café and shop, bestselling cook books, a thriving recipe club and app, and a 4-acre organic regenerative farm.
We sat down with Dave to hear about their story, hopes and dreams — and the bigger questions shaping the future of food, business and the planet.
What are you most excited about right now?
Right now, I’m fascinated by kōji.
We’ve been into fermentation for years — sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha — but kōji is advanced fermentation. It’s a mould, the precursor to miso and tamari, and it opens up this whole world of deep umami flavour.
If you’re interested in zero waste, kōji is extraordinary. It can transform ingredients that might otherwise be discarded into something rich and complex.
We’ve started inoculating white and brown rice, and eventually we’ll make our own miso and tamari — though that’ll take years. But we’ve started, which is really fun!
I tasted one of our early batches over the weekend — it was so pungent, so layered, I could barely describe it. You know when you taste something that you’ve never had before, and it’s like wow. It felt amazing in my gut.
That’s exciting!
How did The Happy Pear begin?
We started The Happy Pear in 2004, so we’re going over 20 years now.
Steve and I are identical twins. We grew up competing for love and attention from day one — that’s the nature of being twins. By 19, we were classic overachievers: semi-professional rugby players, playing baseball for Ireland, even modelling because it was a good way to meet girls.
Then at 21, Steve turned to me — we were still sharing a room and a wardrobe — and said, “Dave, I’m going travelling. I’m not coming back until I’m happy. And you’re not coming with me.”
We’d barely spent a night apart before that. But he left to find meaning and purpose. This was pre-social media — you could actually go explore and follow your own direction without having this social shadow follow you.
Through that time, we both became deeply interested in food, particularly plant-based food. We realised food sits at the heart of everything — health, politics, environment, economy. What you put on your plate affects your wellbeing and the planet.
So in 2004 we came back and opened a little veg shop in our home town of Greystones. It all spawned from there.
From that small shop we grew into a café, then products. We’ve now sold over 25 million items, written seven cookbooks, built an online community with millions of followers, launched an app, and started an organic regenerative farm. The shape of the business has changed, but the mission hasn’t: help people eat more veg, make conscious food decisions — and ultimately have as much fun as we can along the way.
Really, it’s always been about joy – as much as food and everything else.
What’s the greatest change you’ve seen over 20 years?
It feels like now we’re at a precipice. There’s geopolitical tension, economic instability, massive polarisation. Maybe I’m just more aware now at 46 than I was at 20, but it feels heightened.
At the same time, there are incredible solutions emerging.
In food especially, the opportunity is clearer than ever. Organic and regenerative farming can grow nutrient-dense food that benefits human health, soil health and biodiversity — and tastes amazing.
Yes, ultra-processed foods are everywhere. Diet-related disease is rising. But there are also more people incubating solutions than ever before — that’s the greatest change.
It’s both an extreme challenge and an extreme possibility.
What are you most proud of at The Happy Pear?
Honestly, I'm as excited today as I was the day we started 21 years ago.
If I had to choose one thing, it’s the farm — it’s the part I enjoy the most and where I’m constantly learning. You realise it all comes back to soil.
Healthy soil grows healthy plants, which nourish healthy insects, animals and humans. Working regeneratively has deepened my understanding of interconnectedness.
It feels like a privilege to steward land in a way that builds life rather than depletes it. I’m incredibly grateful for that journey.
What does regenerative business mean to you?
It’s more than ticking boxes like living wages or mission statements. Those matter — but real life and business is complex. It’s hard to align every piece. I don’t find many examples in real life. We are a B Corp Certified business which is a start.
To me, a regenerative business is one that’s constantly able to regenerate itself and the systems it touches. Sustainability is not enough, it needs to catalyse positive change.
A regenerative business has to be hugely mission-driven, because it’s very easy to make money doing harm and selling sugar. It’s easy to make money doing bad things. Extracting from nature is profitable.
But how the hell do we use business as a force for regeneration? That’s the solution we need. Maybe it requires new taxation models, new incentives, penalties for environmental and health damage. We need systemic change.
There’s a lot to despair over — but also so many green shoots of possibility. It’s a really exciting time.
In this time of great transition, what are you here to nurture?
Capitalism needs redefining.
There needs to be real examples and role models of businesses doing things differently. Running a mission-driven company within traditional capitalist structures is very challenging. Funding is still based on extraction: how quickly can you grow, how quickly can you repay, what is your exit strategy, how do you maximise profit? It’s all based on capitalism.
And typically, you make a profit by cutting corners. Exploiting nature. Selling cheap, ultra-processed food.
We hear about “patient capital” and “impact investing”, but in reality, often the same pressures apply. When does the model genuinely shift?
Because we’re running out of planet, and people are increasingly becoming infertile. The system — the game — needs to change.
I feel called — even in a small way — to help nudge that dial. To ask: how can we do business as if life truly matters?
If you could have one last meal?
Pumpkin.
It’s one of my favourite vegetables. In Ireland it’s very easy to grow, and it’s such a good source of starch, which lasts all through winter. It’s full of nutrition.
Last night I made a beautiful pumpkin, carrot and red lentil soup. I’d have that with fresh sourdough from our bakery and a big dollop of hummus. That’s heaven.
What gives you the greatest hope?
My two-year-old daughter.
When I look into her eyes, she’s free, curious, completely open. She’s so interested in everything. She reminds me that each of us carry that nature within — we’ve just learned so many layers of socialisation.
But the opportunity for change within each one of us is so immense. She reminds me of that so much.
When I feel overwhelmed, like what the hell is going on, hanging out with her gives me more hope than anything.
