At the 2018 Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City, thousands of attendees walked the aisles in search of the new products that will grace grocery store shelves in the coming year. But at The Future Market pop-up, an exhibit within the show, industry insiders caught a glimpse of the food products that are not only redefining the food world today, but over the next 25 years.

The third edition of the Future Market pop-up exhibit at the Fancy Food Show featured 31 concept food products built into a personalized digital shopping interface that suggested how and what you may be buying in the grocery store of the future.

The Future Market’s 3,600 sq ft pop-up exhibit at the 2018 Summer Fancy Food Show.

At the beginning of the digital shopping experience, customers would answer six quick questions on one of our touchscreen shopping kiosks in order to identify their “Food ID” profile type. Based on a shopper’s Food ID type, the most fitting concept products would be presented to them. Shoppers could then add products to a virtual cart where they’d receive additional information about their selections in their inbox (concept products currently aren’t for sale, yet).

Start shopping by answering six simple questions to determine your Food ID personalized food profile.

 

Exploring the future of food with a Future Market brand ambassador.

Shoppers would add their favorite products to a virtual cart where they could send themselves more info on the products and their underlying innovations. Concept products are not for actual purchase, yet.

Virtual Cart

Each concept product represents an extrapolated vision of where emerging technologies and behaviors in food today could end up over the next 25 years. From cellular agriculture, to personalized nutrition, to regenerative agriculture, the concept products show how everyday food products will eventually transform as a result of food innovations such as these.

Concept products, on “sale.”

Concept products are visions of what emerging technologies, like CRISPr, may enable for everyday food products in the future.

In addition to the concept products, the Future Market showcased four emerging food companies that are aggressively redefining the food system today. Each company exemplifies a core theme that’s shaping the future of food, including food waste reduction, plant-based foods, and vertical farming.

¡Yappah! is a new brand from Tyson Innovation Lab that exists to help fight food waste and address other sustainability challenges. ¡YAPPAH! products incorporate ingredients like upcycled proteins, and rescued vegetables and grains.

Fora makes dairy free foods worth celebrating. Their flagship, “FabaButter” is the first non-dairy butter that is the true 1:1 replacer to dairy butter. Made with clean ingredients, including “aquafaba”, it tastes, feels, and functions like dairy butter.

Farm.One grows over 500 different specialty produce crops year-round in ‘vertical’ farms in New York, using hydroponics and LED lighting. With a focus on flavor, rarity and a technology-driven approach, in just two years since launch, the company counts restaurants with a total of 18 Michelin stars among its customers.

Ocean Hugger Foods offers delicious and sustainable plant-based alternatives to popular seafood proteins. Their flagship product, Ahimi®, world’s first plant-based alternative to raw tuna and is perfect for use in sushi, poke, tartare, ceviche and more.

The Future Market Brand Ambassador & Leadership team.

Visit the Future Market website or follow on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter to learn more about the project and stay in the loop for future pop-up exhibitions.

All Photos by Liz Clayman / Instagram & Twitter: @lizclayman

The post Exploring the Future of Food at Summer Fancy Food 2018 appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

On June 30th, 2018 The Future Market will be debuting a brand new, 3,600 sf Future Market pop-up exhibit at the Summer Fancy Food Show in NYC. Building on the success of the previous two pop-ups at the Fancy Food show, The Future Market is also debuting three new concept products and four featured brands.

New Future Market Concept Products

Make sure to also stop by and see the new Future Market exhibit in the Crystal Palace at the Jacob Javits Center during the 2018 Summer Fancy Food Show, where you’ll also be able to explore more with three new concept products:

Sensum

One of the most difficult parts of maintaining your Food ID, personalized nutrition profile is tracking the food that you eat on a daily basis. Measuring what goes into your body is a crucial step in any personalized nutrition regimen but who has the time to manually photograph, weigh, and scan everything on your plate?

Enter Sensum: the first premium dinnerware platform with built in visual capture and near infrared (NIR) mass spectrometer sensors that scan, analyze and record the food that hits your plate, fork, and mouth. READ MORE.

Potato CRISPRs

Potato Crisprs are made from the Perfect Potato, gene edited with Crispr technology to give you everything you ever wanted in a salty snack, without any of the stuff you don’t. Our potatoes have been Crispr perfected in the lab to maximize flavor and nutrition for your enjoyment and well-being. You’ll love how much extreme potato flavor we’ve packed into each chip alongside the delicious ranch and sour cream & onion flavor that’s been built right into the potato itself with just a few easy DNA edits in the lab. Once you snack with Potato Crisprs, you’ll never go back to any other potato chip! READ MORE.

Future Market Featured Brands

Within the Future Market pop-up will be four innovative food products that embody some of the most progressive and forward thinking approaches to food today:

¡YAPPAH!: a new brand from Tyson Innovation Lab that exists to help fight food waste and address other sustainability challenges. ¡YAPPAH! products incorporate ingredients like upcycled proteins, and rescued vegetables and grains. These Protein Crisps are crunchy, tasty snacks that also provide the good stuff like chicken and veggies. It’s a snack that helps fights food waste AND delivers the flavor nuance of a meal.”

Fora: Fora makes dairy free foods worth celebrating. Our flagship, “FabaButter” is the first non-dairy butter that is the true 1:1 replacer to dairy butter. Made with clean ingredients, including “aquafaba”, it tastes, feels, and functions like dairy butter. It has been endorsed by Michelin-starred chefs, and has won the 2018 Sofi Award for Best Dairy/Dairy-Alternative Product. [Disclosure: Mike Lee is an advisor / shareholder in Fora Foods, makers of Faba Butter.]

Farm.One: Farm.One grows over 500 different specialty produce crops year-round in ‘vertical’ farms in New York, using hydroponics and LED lighting. With a focus on flavor, rarity and a technology-driven approach, in just two years since launch, the company counts restaurants with a total of 18 Michelin stars among its customers. In the next few years, Farm.One will replicate its novel farms in new urban centers around the US and the world.

Ocean Hugger Foods: Ocean Hugger Foods offers delicious and sustainable plant-based alternatives to popular seafood proteins. Founded by Certified Master Chef James Corwell, the company’s mission is to alleviate the pressures on our vulnerable oceans through culinary excellence. Their flagship product, Ahimi®, world’s first plant-based alternative to raw tuna and is perfect for use in sushi, poke, tartare, ceviche and more.

The post The Future Market: New Concept Products, Featured Brands & Pop-Up at Summer Fancy Food 2018 appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Every week we track the business, tech and investment trends in CPG, retail, restaurants, agriculture, cooking and health, so you don’t have to. Here are some of last week’s top headlines.

News in retail continues to steal headlines in weekly top news. Amazon slashed prices up to 43% at Whole Foods on its official first day as owner of Whole Foods, adding to the competitive pressure of the fast-changing $800 billion supermarket industry. Target finally cut ties with Hampton Creek, explaining that food safety allegations were too much of a risk for the retail giant, despite the FDA’s conclusion that their products were safe. Blue Apron’s Chief Financial Officer Brad Dickerson revealed the struggles behind e-commerce subscription services and a break down of their spendings and losses, which has amounted to $31.6 million.

In restaurant news, Starbuck’s digital ordering system has taken off successfully and managed to change consumer behavior in such a way that should inspire envy in Silicon Valley types. Restaurants turn to data-mining from social media, review sites, and tracking apps to stay competitive.

And finally, a new kind of eating disorder born from wellness culture called orthorexia that obsesses over consuming foods that are “pure” and “clean.”

Check out our weekly round-up of last week’s top food startup, tech and innovation news below or peruse the full newsletter here.

Our newsletter is the absolute easiest way to stay on top of the emerging sector, so sign up for it today and never miss the latest food tech and innovation news and trends, Already signed up? Share the love with your friends and colleagues!

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1. Amazon Cuts Whole Foods Prices as Much as 43% on First Day – Bloomberg

Cutting prices at the chain with an entrenched reputation for high cost is a sign that Amazon is serious about taking on competitors such as Walmart, Kroger and Costco.

2. Inside Amazon + Whole Foods: The First Day – Food Dive

Strategically discounted prices and new signage promoting the grocer’s online shopping platform were on display in Whole Foods.

3. Target Ends Relationship with Troubled Startup Hampton Creek – Bloomberg

The retail giant decided to end the relationship after receiving what it described as “specific and serious food safety allegations about Hampton Creek products,” despite the FDA’s conclusion that their products are safe.

4. Blue Apron’s Struggles Show Why It’s Tough to Make It With E-Commerce Subscriptions – Bloomberg

The business model for subscription boxes turns out to be much tougher than it sounds, because of the high costs of getting and keeping customers. The company spent $94 in the past three years to acquire each subscriber and $144m on marketing in 2016.

5. Starbucks Teaches Silicon Valley a Lesson in Tech – Barron’s

The company’s digital ordering system has become  major hit, changing consumer payment behavior in a way that should inspire envy in Silicon Valley.

6. To Survive in Tough Times, Restaurants Turn to Data-Mining – New York Times

Startups and established companies are both scrambling to deliver immediate data on sales, customers, staff performance or competitors by merging restaurant information with data from sources such as social media, review sites, and tracking apps.

7. Is Wellness Culture Creating a New Kind of Eating Disorder? – Quartz

British actress Daniella Isaacs was once entrenched in the world of wellness until realizing that she had orthorexia, an eating disorder about a moral fixation on consuming “pure” and “clean” foods.

8. Arable Capital Partners Closes Debut Fund at $300m – Global AgInvesting

Arable aims to fill the funding gap that exists in the food and agriculture sectors. The funds will be spent on operating businesses in agriculture.

The post Amazon Cuts Whole Foods Prices 43%, Target Splits With Hampton Creek + More appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Every week we track the business, tech and investment trends in CPG, retail, restaurants, agriculture, cooking and health, so you don’t have to. Last week everyone was buzzing with the news that mayo upstart Sir Kensington’s was acquired by Unilever for $140M. Another big story was the revelation that the produce packs that come with Juicero’s high-tech juice machine could be easily squeezed without the use of the device. Soylent has issued a voluntary recall of its powder due to the infiltration of milk products and food scientists have discovered a new method to build successful recipes. Check out our weekly round-up of last week’s top food startup, tech and innovation news below or peruse the full newsletter here.

Our newsletter is the absolute easiest way to stay on top of the emerging sector, so sign up for it today and never miss the latest food tech and innovation news and trends, Already signed up? Share the love with your friends and colleagues!

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1. Unilever is Buying Mayo Upstart Sir Kensington’s After Rebuffing Kraft – Bloomberg

After rejecting a $143B takeover proposal from Kraft earlier this year, Unilever is purchasing Sir Kensington’s for a reported $140M.

2. Silicon Valley’s $400 Juicer May be Feeling the Squeeze – Bloomberg

After funding Juicero, a startup that makes a $400 juice machine and has raised $120M, two investors were surprised to learn that the company’s juice packs could be squeezed by hand without using its high tech device.

3. Is Food Made From Waste the New, Hot Trend? – Food & Wine

According to a new census, the number of startups making food waste products has increased 500% since 2011.

4. Flavor Networks Reveal Universal Principle Behind Successful Recipes – MIT Technology Review

Food scientists have identified a new method they call food bridging to connect ingredients that may not share flavor molecules. By finding a third ingredient that shares common flavors with two ingredients not previously linked, a successful recipe can be built.

5. Wait-Free Dining App Allset is Growing 30% MOM

San Francisco-based startup Allset, an app that allows busy diners to pre-book, pre-order, and pre-pay for restaurant meals, has raised $3.35M through two seed rounds and is aiming to launch in every major U.S. city and London by 2018.

6. Soylent Issues Recall Over Possible Milk in Supposedly Milk-Free Product – sfist 

Soylent has issued a voluntary recall of its 1.8 powder over the potential presence of milk, which is not listed as an ingredient. The cross-contact was caused by a temporary breakdown of production and packing processes by the company’s co-packer.

7. Big Food Bets Small: Leading Food Corporates Amp up Startup Bets – CB Insights

Some of the biggest food companies have launched investment funds as they lose marketshare to upstarts.

8. Coca-Cola Can Now Gather Data From Your Smartphone in the Grocery Store – New Food Economy

Over the last year, Coca-Cola has partnered with 250 Albertsons grocery stores to introduce google-integrated endcaps that can serve up targeted ads based on data gathered from your smartphone.

9. CVS Expands Better-For-You Food Lineup – Supermarket News

CVS is rolling out 27 better-for-you food items in an effort to remain relevant and be viewed as a resource for healthy products and items that fulfill its customers’ health needs.

10. Craft Beer Bet Returns 2800 % to Early Investors – CNN Money

TSG Consumer Partners has agreed to pay $265M for a 23% stake in Scottish craft brew company Brewdog, pushing the startup’s valuation to $1B. The company was initially funding through crowdfunding campaigns, and with this funding, its early 1,329 investors will see a 2800% return on investment.

The post Unilever Acquires Sir Kensington’s, Juicero Feels the Squeeze + More Top News appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Every week we track the business, tech and investment trends in CPG, retail, restaurants, agriculture, cooking and health, so you don’t have to. Last week’s top news features challenges for big food brands looking to stay relevant to younger consumers and competition for restaurants from grocerants, a new trend of grocery stores with dine-in options. Also, Panera sold to JAB Holding Company for $7.5B and General Mills’ VC arm 301 Inc. invested $3M in granola startup Purely Elizabeth.

Check out our weekly round-up of last week’s top food startup, tech and innovation news below or peruse the full newsletter here.

Our newsletter is the absolute easiest way to stay on top of the emerging sector, so sign up for it today and never miss the latest food tech and innovation news and trends, Already signed up? Share the love with your friends and colleagues!

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1. Paleo Meal Delivery Service Mealmade Launches Brick-and-Mortar Outpost

Mealmade, a San Francisco-based Paleo meal delivery company, is launching an app, adding weekend delivery, opening a brick-and-mortar retail space and they’re hiring!

2. Can Food Companies Keep Pace with Millennials’ Preferences? – FoodDive

As Big Food brands work to appeal to younger consumers, they face competition from smaller, millennial-led companies that can better meet rapidly changing consumer preferences.

3. How Eat Real Creates Market-Based Incentives for Healthy, Sustainable Food

Through its EatREAL certification program, the United States Healthful Food Council (USHFC) partners with third-party registered dietitians to certify that operators’ menus, operations and supply chains are healthful and sustainable.

4. 3 Myths About Modern Agriculture – Scientific American

Myths get in the way of our ability to restore degraded soils that can feed the world using fewer chemicals.

5. A Coffee Empire Grows, as Panera is Sold to JAB Holding Company – New York Times

German conglomerate JAB Holding Company has acquired Panera Bread for $7.5B including debt. The opportunity to return to the private sector attracted Panera founder Ron Schaich to the JAB deal.

6. This New Startup Wants to Deliver Healthy Baby Food to Your Doorstep – Fortune

Soon-to-launch baby food delivery startup Yumi has raised several millions of dollars, including from Ali Partovi, Matt Mullenweg, founder of Automattic, and Philip Krim, co-founder of mattress company Casper.

7. General Mills’ VC Arm Invests in Breakfast Food Startup – Fortune

301 Inc is investing $3M in Purely Elizabeth to acquire a minority stake. The granola and cereal startup is currently sold in 10k retailers.

8. Thrive Market’s Startup Distribution Network – MHM

With sales growing at 25- 50% per month, the online grocery retailer is building out its distribution network, starting with a 361k-square-foot facility in Indiana that helps meet the demands of its 400k+ members.

9. Why ‘Grocerants’ Are the New Trend, Taking Bite out of Restaurants – USA Today

Grocerants—grocery stores with dine-in options—generated $10B in sales in 2016. Convenience and affordability are attracting customers away from traditional restaurants.

10. Food Courier Deliveroo Launches Platform for Restaurants to Open Delivery-Only Kitchens – VentureBeat

European food delivery startup Deliveroo unveiled a new platform that enables restaurants of all sizes to open in new locations without committing to costly public premises.

The post Big Food Struggles to Attract Millennials, Panera Sells for $7.5B + More Top News appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

In tandem with the launch of the Food+Tech Job Board, we are thrilled to launch the Food Startup Growth Series. This series will give you an inside look at the strategies, challenges and best practices of fast-growing food startups.

Meet Patrick Mateer and Alex Piasecki, CEO and CFO respectively of Seal the Seasons, a North Carolina-based startup that believes our food system should provide health and wealth for all. Seal the Seasons partners with local farms to freeze, market and distribute the best quality fruits and vegetables.  The produce is then sold at stores providing consumers with high-quality sustainable produce available year-round. Seal the Seasons provides farmers with a living wage and improves access to nutritious food. It also donates 20 percent of its profits to organizations working to end hunger.

While the company now operates only in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and Georgia, the short-term goal is to expand to New England and New York with the expectation that they will eventually scale local models across the country. Seal the Seasons is in the process of hiring key marketing and sales positions over the next 12 months to drive growth and deliver local produce to consumers beyond North Carolina. In 2016, Seal the Seasons closed an undisclosed seed round and grew from selling produce in seven local stores to over 500 across the state. It was also recently accepted into the FoodFutureCo accelerator program.

I spoke with Patrick and Alex about their strategy for scaling-up, their company culture, and why they think it’s an exciting time to be part of the food innovation market.

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Danielle Gould: What’s keeping your team busy right now?

Patrick Mateer & Alex Piasecki: Seal the Seasons is operating on all cylinders during the growing and harvest season. We’re currently focused on three areas to scale our business. Our operations team is focused on working with our co-packing partners and sourcing our delicious berries to be frozen. Our strategic team is working with the sales team to pitch new accounts and expand our number of doors and facings. Finally, our marketing team is deep in a re-brand. We’re redesigning our packaging to better match our company, story and mission to our visual identity.  

DG: What are your growth goals for the next 12-24 months, and how do you plan to achieve those goals?

PM & AP: We have a colossal mission: to make local produce available year-round for everyone. We take “everyone” seriously–which requires an ambitious but focused geographic growth plan to scale Seal the Seasons local model across the country. Our goal for the next 12-24 months is to make local produce available outside of North Carolina. We’re launching Georgia Grown and Florida Grown local products across the Southeast this summer. Be on the lookout for Seal the Seasons to come to a new store near you!

DG: What does your company culture look like, and how have you developed that culture?

PM & AP: Seal the Seasons is a family that shares a passion for local food and transparent supply chains. Our company culture is to say yes, tell it how it is, and collaborate together to take action. We keep it real in the office and always keep the final objective in sight while supporting each other in our pursuit of company milestones. We like to ask questions of each other to test basic assumptions and we’re always thinking about redundancy.

DG: How are you preserving your company culture as you scale up?

PM & AP: Seal the Seasons has a no bulls#*t attitude, but we love to have fun. We preserve our culture by living it and by keeping each other honest and accountable. New employees are often surprised about how we share problems throughout the team and practice a higher level of internal transparency than most early-stage businesses. Our teammates are our biggest motivators and the most important part of our support network. To unwind, we love to do team lunches and after-work drinks to stay up to date on each other’s lives, ranging from new family additions (congrats Bryan!) and to our founder’s love life.

DG: What do you know now that you wish you would have known when you started scaling your company? What are the biggest challenges and lessons learned as you’ve grown your company?

PM & AP:  As a first-time entrepreneur, I work with a lot of mentors and advisers. We have incredible gratitude for their time and support, but when starting a business, we initially found processing some of their passionate viewpoints to be conflicting. Mentor whiplash can be challenging to deal with. I’ve learned to trust my instinct and always come back to our core brand mission when mentors give difficult or conflicting advice. Mentors are critical, but entrepreneurs must remember success comes from innovation and risk-taking, not from following the traditional path.

DG: What will someone who works for you be able to add to their resume?

PM & AP: When you’re doing something no one has ever done before, you have to be creative and comfortable with the risk to execute effectively. As a startup, working like MacGyver is key. Anyone that works at Seal the Seasons can add bootstrapping/creativity, risk-taking and self-management to their resume. We are the opposite of micromanagers and require people that can own their objectives, postulate solutions, then implement and execute.  Our team works with limited resources and we expect focused results.

DG: What job(s) are you hiring for, and how will those positions help drive growth in your company?

PM & AP: We will be hiring several marketing and sales positions over the next twelve months. Watch Food + Tech Job Board to see all our positions as they open! These positions will be with retail grocers, foodservice, data analytics, social marketing, and PR/field marketing. Sales and marketing drive growth; we’ll be looking for hires that are at the top of their sector and have success working at scale.

DG: What kind of training do you offer for new employees who may be switching from other industries or who are just out of school?

PM & AP: Beyond onboarding new employees to our systems and company HR policies, we train our employees on a project-by-project basis to get them to work quickly. We only hire employees out of the industry or with transferable skills so you should feel at home in week one. Local food should be a passion before you apply.

DG: What’s your favorite interview question?

PM & AP: Why are you coming to work at a risky startup where payroll isn’t guaranteed, when you could have a higher paying job with greater security and more benefits at an established company?

DG: Why do you think it’s exciting to be working in food right now?

PM & AP: Food is a rapidly changing environment in the 21st century. Consumers are shopping differently, spending over $12 billion in local farmers markets, forcing conventional grocers to transform the physical layout of stores and emphasize the “farm-to-table” movement. Legacy brands are struggling to react and stay relevant; launching new products like pumpkin spice Cheerios isn’t going to solve the modern consumer’s needs.

Innovation in grocery is especially relevant in the frozen aisle. Legacy CPG has left significant whitespace in the category, allowing brands like Yasso, Luvo, or Evol to capture market share. The journey of Seal the Seasons experience is no different. Our localized supply chain business model gives us a distinct advantage over the rest of the category, allowing us to deliver new consumer benefits at a competitive price. Our team loves to see new buyer reaction to our product and receive consumer emails about their positive product experience. The most exciting part of our job is working with all the farmers and the consumers that make it possible for local food to nourish its local community.

Check out exciting food tech, design, management, operations, development and food science positions at Food+Tech Jobs.

The post Seal The Seasons Aims to Expand its Farm-to-Freezer Model Across the Country appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

One third of all food produced in the world is wasted. That’s about $400B a year, finds a recent report by the Waste and Resources Action Program. The majority of that food waste is discarded in landfills and results in 3.3 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases annually.

To shed light on ways we can reduce waste in the food supply chain from farm to fork, Marylhurst University’s Online MBA in Sustainable Business program created the infographic below. Based on data from GreenBiz, The Organic Trade Association, Environmental Leader and other sources, it illustrates how converting farm waste into energy, embracing innovative, green distribution technologies, creating corporate sustainability initiatives, and more can help build a more efficient and sustainable food chain while increasing the bottom line for food businesses.

The graphic shares some interesting statistics on the potential of green production methods. For example, the market for converting global waste into energy is expected to jump from $17.98B in 2012 to $28.57B in 2016. It also notes that long-term sustainability initiatives can reduce waste while generating savings. For example, in 2012, ConAgra saved $22M while reducing carbon emissions by 26,700 tons and landfill waste by 23,000 tons. In 2009, food and beverage companies with green initiatives in place experienced a 19% decrease in energy costs year over year, a 17% decrease in waste and disposal cost, a 5% overall reduction in operating costs and, very interestingly, a 15% increase in customer acquisition, according to the graphic.

Consumers care increasingly more about what’s in their food and how it’s produced. In fact, 78% of families say they choose organic food, the graphic states. One thing is clear after a spin through this graphic: Food corporations, governments and startups alike need to embrace innovative solutions for waste reduction throughout the supply chain.

Want more food waste innovation inspiration? Check out these posts:

• Handpick Turns 150M+ Food Porn Posts into Recipes, Aims to Reduce Food Waste
• Upcycling Food Waste into Fertilizer to Catalyze a New Green Revolution
• How Mario Batali’s Restaurants Are Fighting Food Waste
• Waste Not, Want Not: 6 Technologies to Reduce Food Waste

The post Reducing Food Waste & Creating a Sustainable Supply Chain [Infographic] appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

A lot of people argue that healthy, organic food is expensive and inaccessible to the masses. To challenge this belief and inspire people to rethink their ability to eat better without breaking the bank, Edible Impacts launched a project called #30DAYStoSHINE.

Founders and self proclaimed “edible impactors” Alex Monroe and Brooke Sunness ate all organic, whole food, vegetarian meals on a budget of $5-7 per day for 30 days in New York City. They shopped for ingredients exclusively at Whole Foods and documented their 3 meals a day on their blog including recipes, photographs and daily nutrition and cost breakdowns.

The duo found that it is possible to eat plant-based, organic foods on a small budget, and they published their findings to empower others to eat better too. They drafted a 25 page manual, including recipe ideas, sample shopping lists and tips for eating healthy food on the cheap, as well as a comprehensive budgeting spreadsheet, which helps eaters create cost-plans for ingredients and recipes.

We chatted with Alex and Brooke via email to learn more about their findings from the project, their business model and their current project “exposed,”. Our interview has been edited for brevity.

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Food+Tech Connect: Can you tell me more about the inspiration for Edible Impacts?

Edible Impacts: We both love eating delicious foods including seeds, fruits, leaves, stems and roots, insatiable wild meat from the sea and tree nuts. We spend a lot of time discussing various preparations for these types of foods, shopping for these foods and researching histories of these food. Through our journeys into researching, cooking and consuming whole foods we became inspired by the opportunity to build social communities around food. Our conversations and research then began moving towards advertising, psychology, sociology, and philosophy. Finally, we decided we had some ideas that could create new perceptions about food…and here we are.

FTC: What is your business model?

EI: Through partnerships with small and large businesses and public organizations we are creating non-traditional campaigns and messages, what we call edible impacts, that influence consumers through mainstream marketing channels including online, social, and print media.

FTC: What impact do you hope to have?

EI: We are addressing a need gap that we see in the way in which whole foods are represented (or misrepresented) today. By building greater curiosities around food, challenging the current food system, and rearranging the framework that drives a person’s decisions, we are confident we can reduce the size of that gap.

FTC: What were your key takeaways from the #30DAYStoSHINE campaign?

EI: It’s easiest to write out our findings in list form.

1. How easy it is to cook, shop, prepare and make food once you understand a few insights that the campaign has taught us: Use quality, unprocessed, organic ingredients, pair with a legume or grain and top with quality olive oil and salt/pepper.

2. Organic food is even more affordable than we expected. We have pinpointed which foods drive up the grocery bill (meaning only to be eaten occasionally) and those organic staples that can be turned into many delicious creations.

3. The importance of being curious and willing to take risks in the kitchen – i.e. not following recipes or traditional rules and beliefs like roasting a banana to eat with beans and rice or making pizza out of something that isn’t white or wheat flour.

4. Learning about the short term gains from eating a balanced whole foods diet including increased energy, clarity, satiation, a closer connection to our bodies and a deeper appreciation and gratitude for our food and meals.

FTC: What’s next for Edible Impacts? Can you tell me more about your second project “exposed,”?

EI: We have created a #30DAYStoSHINE Manual, which anyone interested in eating on this budget or taking on the campaign as a challenge can do so. We hope to get more individuals and corporations to take on the effort as a challenge on a larger scale, so our objective is to continue buttressing the American understanding about accessibility, affordability, and tastiness of whole foods.

“exposed,” is the [un]dramatic reintroduction to [good] food.  It is a solution that we believe can create a massive paradigm shift in the way people view [good] food. “exposed,” is a social value collaboration concept–interest groups working collectively to create dynamic social campaigns that represent a shared vision and influence diverse audiences. By collaborating with creative doers, social influencers and industry leaders and aligning them to a cohesive message that challenges our food choices and puts [good] food on the stage, we can make an impact, one that is exponentially influential.

We’ve created three iterations of “exposed,” and are now focused on finding partners who are truly interested in the growth of this message.

• Real People Real Food: challenging identity. what makes you, you.
• Kids Menu: challenging the dismal consistency in children’s food options offered by most restaurants.
• What Lies Ahead: challenging “healthy” food appeal by removing “healthy” from the messaging

The post Edible Impacts Cooks Up Blueprint for Eating Organic on $6 a Day appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

FTC has been producing events left and right this summer. Last Tuesday, 100+ members of the food tech community joined us for our “How Nutrition Tech Personalizes Eating” Food+Tech Meetup. Five innovators who are leveraging technology to make food healthier, more transparent and personalized discussed their missions, business models and technologies, as well as their lessons learned.

Check out our recap of the evening below. We will also be publishing videos of the presentations in the coming weeks, so stay tuned. You can learn more about our Food+Tech Meetup and get notified about future events (don’t miss our Fail Friday Meetup this Thursday, June 25) here.

We’d like to thank our killer food sponsors Ox Verte, Meal Maison, Krunch Kitchen and Brewla and our host R/GA Accelerator. Learn more about R/GA’s new hospitality tech accelerator project Techstars METRO Accelerator here. 

Data-as-a-service startup Edamam sells access to real-time food and nutrition data to food, health and wellness companies including The New York Times, Nestle, Samsung and Epicurious. After launching as a B2C business, Edamam listened to its customers and pivoted to B2B. Founder Victor Penev told the group that his team built its product for consumers because it’s the easiest way to sell a product to other businesses. For other data-driven food startups, Penev says data is an asset and he advises owning it rather than selling it outright. Edamam has raised $1.9M in funding to date.

Ingredient1 helps shoppers discover healthy foods and empowers them to inform the market and make positive food change. Since launching in beta in April 2014, the startup has amassed a database of food product information that’s three times as large as the USDA’s; it contains 30k products and 20k ingredients. For brands and retailers, Ingredient1 offers data and analytics on new and relevant foods, as well as what shoppers care about and what products they are most likely to buy. “Ingredient1 focuses on ingredients now. Later iterations may focus on personalized wellness,” founder Taryn Fixel told the Meetup group.

Power Supply offers tasty and healthy meals made by networks of independent local chefs and delivers them via custom refrigerators at partner activated fitness and wellness communities (i.e CrossFit boxes, yoga studios, etc) in Washington DC and Los Angeles, CA. Its meals cater to people with specialty diets, chronic diseases and those who want to focus on clean eating. Co-founder and CEO Patrick Smith advised the group to have negative operating capital, because it allows your startup to fund itself until it finds product market fit. He also highly recommends focusing on a specific niche like Power Supply does because it limits the competitive field and makes customer acquisition easier. Smith encouraged the group to read Getting to Plan B by Randy Komisar, Zero to One by Peter Thiel, Effectuation.org by Saras Sarasvathy and Drive by Dan Pink. Power Supply raised $515K of debt financing in December 2013.

HowGood researches and rates the environmental and social impact of food products and partners with grocery stores to display its ratings in 26 states. Its app helps customers identify products that fit their values and its rating labels enable stores to showcase their commitment to transparency and sustainability. The startup spent 5 years researching and building its database of sustainable food using data from sources including the USDA, Animal Welfare Approved and Seafood Watch, co-founder and CEO Alexander Gillett told the group. Products that have a high HowGood rating have seen in-store sales increase by an average of 31%, according to Gillett. Customers upgraded an average of 3 products to more sustainable alternatives in stores that use HowGood’s ratings, which translates to a $2.31 sales bump per transaction, Gillet noted. HowGood raised $2 million in seed funding in September, 2014.

Meals to Heal offers personalized nutrition solutions for people suffering from chronic medical conditions. Its three tier approach includes personalized healthy food delivery, educational resources and nutrition counseling. Founder Susan Bratton had a lot of advice and lessons learned to share with the group. Regarding product development, she said “listen to what your customers want and build for them.” Bratton recommended following the Lean Startup Method; “Nothing is sacred, fail fast,” she said. When it comes to marketing, Bratton recommended testing in small dollar amounts to see what’s working and what’s not. Meals to Heal participated in Startup Health.

The post Nutrition Tech Innovators Share Business Insights & Lessons Learned appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Looking to launch a kick-ass food, food tech, ag or agtech crowdfunding campaign of your own? Take our Crowdfunding for Food Entrepreneurs Bootcamp e-course, taught by Lisa Q. Fetterman, who raised $1.3 million through two Kickstarter campaigns for her sous vide startup, Nomiku.

Got suggestions for other rad campaigns? Share them in the comments below. Hungry for more? Be sure to check out other food crowdfunding projects we’ve covered in the past here.

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The Fresh Connection, the NYC-based local food logistics company that works with sustainable producers and startups like Norwich Meadows, Quinciple and FarmerWeb, launched a Kickstarter campaign to help buy a delivery van (it currently leases its trucks). With the hope of increasing capacity, scaling its operations and expanding its customer base, The Fresh Connection is looking to raise $49,000 on Kickstarter. It has raised $11,000 so far and has 15 days to go.

Home-growing startup Cloud Farms launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring NIMBUS, its personal farm system, and BIOME, its window greenhouse to market. Together, the products allow you to grow full size vegetables with automatic watering and natural light. Cloud Farms hopes to raise $100,000 to fund the final tooling of BIOME and NIMBUS and to secure a commercial space in Brooklyn for assembly, packing and shipping.

After 14 years of community building and farming, City Slicker Farms is hoping to create a permanent home in West Oakland, CA. It’s looking to raise $25,000 on Barnraiser to transform a 1.4 acre vacant lot into a thriving community space complete with a community garden, fruit tree orchard, playground and greenhouse. It has raised $14,000 of its $25,000 goal and has 2 weeks left in the campaign.

Insect protein continues to gain steam. Crik Nutrition launched an Indiegogo campaign to produce the world’s first cricket protein powder. It’s raising $10,000 to help finance packaging, micro testing, raw ingredient procurement and the manufacturing deposit for its nutritionally dense and eco-friendly bug-based protein powder. With 20 days remaining in the campaign, Crik has raised 150% of its goal.

SaloonBox wants to deliver the makings for craft cocktails right to your door. Its looking to raise $40,000 on Kickstarter to launch its curated cocktail subscription service. It will feature recipes from some of San Francisco’s best mixologists (to start) along with all the ingredients you need to make them. The campaign has raised almost $36,000 and has 11 days left.

The sustainable alternative to the electric kettle, MIITO seeks to reduce energy and water waste with a sustainable, simple and adaptable device that heats liquids directly in its vessel. With 3,500+ backers, MIITO has exceeded its Kickstarter campaign goal of $167,383, raising a whopping $475,931. It will use the funding for an alpha test series, initial manufacturing and preparation for mass production.

Feather Coffee is a mobile-coffee startup that donates a percentage of profits to support rare disease organizations. All funds from its Kickstarter campaign will go towards purchasing the first Feather Coffee trailer and working to prove that its ’cause-brewing’ model is a profitable and scalable business.

Hivemind makes a bee hive scale with satellite communication links and a web interface that helps commercial beekeepers become more efficient. And now, it has launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise $74,000 to integrate WiFi connectivity and build a compatible smartphone app for backyard beekeepers, educators and hobbyists. Funding will go towards R&D, which includes electronics design and firmware, compliance testing and  app development.

Beer tech startup ManCan recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to take its new product, the ManCan 128, from prototype to production. Self described as a brewery in your fridge, the ManCan 128 is a one-gallon personal keg system that keeps beer fresh and carbonated. With two weeks left in the campaign, ManCan has exceeded its $70,000 goal and raised $143,457.

The post Food Crowdfunding: From Cricket Powder to a Craft Cocktail Subscription Box appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

 

We published 22 thought-provoking responses on everything from normalizing insect consumption to Uber-ifying food distribution. Dig Inn founder Adam Eskin discusses democratizing the farm-to-table movement, Food Tank president Danielle Nierenberg explores how technology helps small-scale farmers prosper and cultivates educated eaters, Yummly COO Brian Witlin looks at how we can leverage data to incentivize healthy eating and much more.

Check out the wide array of insightful submissions in our roundup below, and make sure to share your thoughts in the comments section.

Why We Need to Uber-ify Food Distribution 

Jennifer Goggin of FarmersWeb makes a case for applying Uber’s on-demand model to local food distribution, in order to catalyze a healthier future.

Dig Inn on Democratizing the Farm-to-Table Movement 

We chat with founder Adam Eskin about Dig Inn’s innovative supply strategy, the role tech plays in operations and his plans to cultivate a veggie revolution.

Bringing Amazon-like Innovation to Healthy Fast Food 

Alex Yancher  of Pantry believes companies like Munchery and Sprig are pioneering a new fast food model, one he hopes will bring healthy, affordable food to the masses.

We Need to Harness the Power of Insects to Feed the World

Exo co-founder Greg Sewitz believes bugs are integral to a sustainable future. He’s helping eaters get over the psychological hurdle via cricket protein bars.

Enabling Healthy Eating with Personalized Food Identities

6SensorLabs co-founder Shireen Yates explores how startups are helping people eat healthier through personalized food identities, especially people with food allergies.

Let’s Make Food Production Personal & Start a Home Growing Revolution 

Grove Labs co-founder Gabe Blanchet explores how home growing can make food production more efficient while bolstering the local food movement.

Arming Consumers with the Tools to Demand Real Food

Lawrence Williams of USHFC discusses how REAL Certified empowers consumers and the foodservice industry to support real food, helping catalyze a better future.

Feeding Billions by Empowering Millions to Farm

Freight Farms co-founders Brad McNamara and Jon Friedman weigh in on why enabling fresh food production in any environment is crucial to ensuring safe, healthy food for a growing population.

Optimizing the Microbiome from Farm to Table

In order to feed a growing population, Scott Shibata of Diagenetix proposes we start recruiting from the trillions of microorganisms that are already in the field.

Creating Full-Stack Food Chain Solutions

Cover co-founder Mark Egerman explores how to use tech to create lasting food chain infrastructure change in order to enable a better future for production, distribution and consumption.

Reimagining, Not Reinventing, Food Distribution

FreshRealm founder Michael Lippold claims we don’t need to rebuild food distribution infrastructure. We need to foster an evolution by connecting its players more efficiently.

Photo via MFarm

Tech Helps Farmers Prosper & Empowers Educated Eaters

Food Tank’s Danielle Nierenberg and Sarah Small explore how innovative technologies and initiatives are cultivating a brighter future for farmers and eaters.

Let’s Facilitate Healthy Eating by Simplifying Grocery Planning 

KickDish founder Alex Greve explores how grocery tech services like Instacart, AmazonFresh and Google Express can help eaters make healthier, more economical food choices.

Leveraging Data to Incentivize Healthy Eating & Improve Food  

Brian Witlin, COO of Yummly, discusses why harnessing data and creating financial incentives for healthy eating, will help us reimagine food production, regulation and consumption.

Reconnecting Diners & Chefs to Ensure a Better Food Future 

Feastly founder Noah Karesh is bringing the sharing economy to food and empowering chefs and eaters to celebrate real, authentic food experiences.

Image via National Geographic

Linking Gardeners & Urban Farmers to Ensure Fresh Food For All

Ryan Albritton of Sprouthood believes connecting gardeners and urban farmers and enabling them to be co-cultivators of the same farm is key to ramping up fresh food production.

Programming the Global Food System, from Smart Seeds to Distribution Robots 

Rebecca Chesney of the Institute for the Future imagines a networked food future, in which natural and artificial objects can communicate and work together.

Upcycling Food Waste into Fertilizer to Catalyze a New Green Revolution 

WISErg CEO Larry LeSueur believes that tackling food waste is fundamental to doubling production by 2050 while also cultivating a sustainable, profitable supply chain.

Harnessing Existing Distribution Infrastructure to Make Sustainable Food Mainstream

Baldor CEO TJ Murphy explores how to leverage operational expertise and industry-tested best practices to bring new levels of efficiency to the sustainable food movement.

Food Supply Chain Transparency is Key to a Healthy Future

Peretz Partensky of Sourcery discusses how new tech and decentralized business models are tackling the least transparent part of our food system: the supply chain.

Catalyzing a Food Revolution through Connected Ecosystems & Open Innovation

Expo Milano’s Feeding the Accelerator Curator Johan Jorgensen explains how moving from silos to ecosystems, closed labs to open innovation is critical for a better future.

How Hampton Creek Aims to Guarantee Healthy, Safe & Sufficient Food For All

We chat with Hampton Creek CEO Josh Tetrick about re-engineering the food system, the wild success of Mayo Gate and why an IPO may be in the startup’s future.

The post Internet of Food Editorial Series Recap appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

For the past 2 months, we’ve hosted the Internet of Food Series with Seeds&Chips to explore the question: “How might we use technology, new business models and design to guarantee healthy, safe and sufficient food for everyone?”. We’ve had 21 submissions from food tech innovators.

Today, we are thrilled to close the series with an interview with Josh Tetrick, CEO of Hampton Creek, a food startup that’s on a mission to make affordable, sustainable and delicious food available to the masses. The maker of plant-based products has seen unprecedented growth and made a ton of noise over the past year and a half. In less than one year, the startup’s Just Mayo product was being sold in 20k stores. Food giant Unilever brought a lawsuit against Hampton Creek, which was later dropped but reportedly tripled the food startup’s sales. Hampton Creek also raised a $90M Series C led by Khosla Ventures and Horizons Ventures and announced a partnership with Compass Group, the largest foodservice provider in the world.

Check out our interview below to hear more about how technology enables Hampton Creek to create better, more affordable products, the impact its Compass Group partnership hopes to have and why an IPO may be in its future.

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The post How Hampton Creek Aims to Guarantee Healthy, Safe & Sufficient Food For All appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

This year has been jam-packed with exciting food tech events, and there are lots of awesome conferences, summits meetups and more to come. Here are our top picks for kick-ass food tech gatherings this Spring and Summer. Let us know if there are any we missed in the comments below, and we’ll add them to the list.

The Greenhouse Project Benefit – April 23 – New York, NY

Join New York Sun Works for their annual benefit to help build more innovative science labs in urban schools. With your support, they can bring their Greenhouse Project Initiative, which uses hydroponic farming tech to educate students and teachers about the science of sustainability, to more schools.

Silicon Valley Meets Sacramento: Hot Opportunities in AgTech – April 28 – Sacramento, CA

Moderated by Roger Royse, founder of Silicon Valley AgTech and organizer of RoyseLaw AgTech Incubator and the RoyseLaw Silicon Valley AgTech Conference, this panel will discuss the current opportunities, successes and challenges, specifically, the drought in the Central Valley, dominating the AgTech space. Panelists include John Matthesen, Jack Coots, Ephraim Lindenbaum, Patrick Dosier and Bob Adams. Get tickets here.

Meat Matters – April 28 – New York, NY

Join Chefs Collaborative for a rare opportunity to explore the Food Network Kitchen with great chefs and great food. Meat Matters will feature 5 nationally-renowned cooks, 5 cooking stations, a butchery demonstration, beer and wine as well as signature cocktails from New York Distilling Co. All proceeds benefit Chefs Collaborative. Get tickets here. 

Food+Tech Fundraiser Partay for Jimmy’s No. 43 – April 29 – New York, NY

Help jimmy’s no. 43 get back on its feet after the recent E Village explosion! Join us on 4.29 for a Food+Tech Meetup/fundraiser/celebration of owner and local food hero Jimmy Carbone. They’re be lots of networking, local snacks from Quinciple, Food360 and Made by Lukas and drinks from The Brooklyn Brewery, Brooklyn Winery, Brooklyn Farmacy and Hella Bitters. 100% OF THE PROCEEDS will go to Jimmy’s. RSVP here!

Fresh Food: The Prescription for a Healthier America – April 29 – Philadelphia, PA

Organized by St. Christopher’s Foundation for Children, the 3rd bi-annual FreshRx symposium will gather experts in the health and nutrition fields to discuss the powerful link between health and diet. It will be held at the Urban League in Philadelphia. Register here.

Strategy to Shelf: An Insider’s View on Bringing Food Products to Market – May 7 – Cambridge, MA

Hosted by Northeast Les Dames d’Escoffier, The Food Loft and Massachusetts Specialty Foods Association, this panel will offer advice on everything from product development, packaging and manufacturing to distribution and finance and will share best practices and helpful tips for building a sustainable, profitable food product business. RSVP here.

NRA Show – May 16-19 – Chicago, IL

Join the 44,000+ attendees at this year’s National Restaurant Association Show to learn more about the challenges, opportunities, trends and topics  in the hospitality and foodservice industry.  Learn more and register here.

Tech To Table – May 20 – New York, NY

Featuring Sarah Sclarsic of Modern Meadow, Jared Koch of Clean Plates, Christopher Washington of Radicle Farms, Rachna Govani of Foodstand and moderated by our creative and editorial lead Nina Meijers, this panel will discuss the booming opportunities and challenges in the food technology world. Purchase tickets here.

Eat Retreat Bite – May 21 – Philadelphia, PA

Brought to you by Squarespace in partnership with Fair Food Philly, Eat Retreat will host its first ever community pop-up! Chat with local bakers, farmers, roasters and distillers while snacking on olive oil, cheeses, oysters and ice cream. As a member of our community, get $10 off with the code “SQSPBITE” here.

TECHmunch NYC – May 21 – New York, NY

Organized by BakeSpace.com, this traveling conference teaches food and lifestyle bloggers how to take their blogs to the next level. Over 20 TECHmunch conferences have been held in cities all over North America but this event marks the fifth visit to New York.  Join  200+ food and lifestyle bloggers, culinary media and expert panelists for this must-attend event for bloggers. Get your tickets here.

RootedNY: Farmstead Cheese – May 24 – New York, NY

Join RootedNY for a day trip to Sprout Creek Farm in Dutchess County for an informational farm tour, cheese tasting and a farm-to-table lunch. Your ticket includes round trip transportation from Manhattan. Sign up here.

Foodstand Spotlight – June 1 – New York, NY

In partnership with Slow Money NYC, Foodstand invites entrepreneurs, creators and innovators in the food space to its monthly event series. The night will feature five 5 minute demos, a panel of experts, audience collaboration and networking opportunities. Get your ticket or sign up for the livestream here.

Agri Investment Forum – June 3-4 – Toronto, Canada

This two day, annual conference unites agri-entrepreneurs, corporate strategics and investors from all across North America to discuss the growth and potential of agri-businesses. Attendees will explore an array of categories in the agri-business space, including agricultural waste management, aeroponics & agriculture, bio industrial products, biofuels & renewable feedstock, crop science & precision farming, forestry products & management, livestock & animal health and nutraceuticals & functional foods. In addition to moderated discussions, panels, keynote addresses and networking opportunities, 15 companies will present their business models and investment opportunities.  Register now.

Slow Living Summit – June 3-5 – Brattleboro, VT

Presented by Strolling of the Heifers, the 5th annual Summit will explore “the journey of food” through its five Summit tracks: food entrepreneurship, food systems, nourishment and wellness, food justice and access and food policies. Learn more and get tickets here.

Take Photos Like a Pro, Without Being a Pro – June 5

Presented by Foodstand, NYC based food photographer Evi Abeler invites you to a virtual workshop where she will teach you the ins and outs of taking beautiful food photos. From restaurants to markets to your plate, Evi will explore the most common settings for taking food photos. All levels welcome. Register here.

Edible Business at Stony Brook Southampton – June 5-7 – Southampton, NY

Hosted by The Food Lab at Stony Brook Southampton, this event will bring together today’s leading thinkers in food business, media and policy to discuss the path towards healthy regional food systems. This three day event features tastings, dynamic discussions, networking sessions, as well a pitch/feedback session with investors. Learn more and get tickets here.

Bite Silicon Valley Conference – June 5-7 – Palo Alto, CA

This three day conference at the Levi’s Stadium unites the food tech world in Silicon Valley. Featuring keynote addresses from José Andrés of ThinkFoodGroup and Josh Tetrick, CEO of Hampton Creek, this inaugural event will explore how we can use cutting edge technology and prior knowledge to secure a safer future of food. Our founder Danielle Gould will be moderating “The Renewed Debate About GMOs” panel. Get tickets here.

FTC is thrilled to be partnering with BITE SV for an informal happy hour immediately after the conference on Saturday, June 6. You’ll have a chance to meet and network with our speakers and other attendees to continue the conversation about the days thought-provoking topics. Wine and light bites will be served. As a member of our community, get 20% your happy hour ticket with code “FOODTECHCONNECT” here.

FMI Connect – June 8-11 – Chicago, IL

Join  400 retailer companies and 12,500+ professionals at FMI Connect 2015. Featuring 40+ education sessions, 700+ exhibitors and much more, this three day conference seeks to unite food retail professionals to discuss emerging trends,  view new products in the market and connect producers with suppliers. Register for tickets here.

Balle Conference – June 10-12 – Phoenix, AZ

Phoenix will host the 13th annual Balle Conference, bringing together business owners, social entrepreneurs, community funders, policy makers, conveners, network builders and local economy leaders. This year’s conference will explore the trends, challenges and lessons learned in local economies. You can get your ticket here.

THINK&ACT: The Future of Food – June 10 – San Francisco, CA

The THINK&ACT series seeks to create connections between startups and large organizations. Featuring demos from Pantry, Kite Hill, Orange Chef, FarmX, Sereneti, Bitty Foods, Kuli Kuli, Revive Foods, Sourcery and 6Sensor Labs, this event will focus on successful food startups in the booming industry. Snag an early bird FREE ticket here.

Change Food Facing Factory Farms Salon – June 16 – New York, NY

Join 2015 TEDxManhattan speakers Kendra Kimbirauskas of the Socially Responsible Agricultural Project and Michele Merkel of Food & Water Justice at this salon to discuss ways to increase public awareness and to combat factory farms. Purchase tickets here.

Food+Tech Meetup: How Nutrition Tech Personalizes Eating – June 16 – New York, NY

Join us and host R/GA Accelerator at our Meetup to hear from nutrition tech companies on how they operate and feed the diverse preferences of consumers. The Meetup will feature presentations from Victor Penev of Edamam, Taryn Fixel of Ingredient1, Patrick Smith of Power Supply and delicious bites from Ox Verte and Meal Maison. Snag a ticket here.

Techstars METRO Accelerator is the world’s first technology accelerator focused on improving every aspect of the hospitality and food value chain. From now until August 3rd 2015, interested teams can apply online at www.techstarsmetro.com.

Menus of Change – June 17-19 – Hyde Park, NY

Menus of Change, the Business of Healthy, Sustainable, Delicious Food Choices, is an initiative developed by the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in collaboration with Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. This three day summit unites culinary, business, public health and environmental science leaders to tackle issues such as sourcing, healthcare and food supply. Learn more and register here. 

RootedNY: Blue Point Oysters and Beer – June 20 – Brooklyn, NY

Join RootedNY for a trip to Blue Point, Long Island to visit local producers Blue Island Oyster Company and Blue Point Brewery. Learn how they grow their oysters and brew their beer (and of course have a tasting along the way!). Snag a ticket here.

The Seed Experience – June 20-21 – Brooklyn, NY

Join 100+ exhibitors, world renowned speakers, doctors, nutritionists and athletes who are looking to lead healthier and eco-friendly lifestyles at the Brooklyn Expo Center for the fourth annual expo and conference. The festival will feature cooking demonstrations from top chefs, various workshops and screenings of award-winning films. Tickets include 30 days FREE membership to FMTV. Reserve yours here.

Who Moved My Plate? – June 23 – London, UK

Brought to you by Grubpreneurs, this networking event will explore how technology is disrupting the food and food tech space. Featuring talks from Hussein Kanji, Founding Partner of Hoxton Ventures and Oli Ashness, founder of Simply Cook, Who Moved My Plate? will tackle food tech trends, subscription services and mobile discovery. Snag a ticket here.

FOOD IT 2015: Macro to Micro – June 24 – Stanford, CA

Featuring 30+ speakers and judges, the second annual FOOD IT conference will unite startups, VCs, IT innovators and food and ag sector players to discuss the biggest challenges in the industry. The conference is organized by the Mixing Bowl, a business-focused forum that connect innovators in the tech, food & ag sector, in collaboration with FEED Collaborative. Get your ticket here.

FoodBytes! 2.0 Summit – June 25 – San Francisco, CA

Join investors, technologists, media and others to see live demonstrations from innovative startups in the food industry such as Ipiit, Back to the Roots, Noble Brewer, Thistle, No Food Waste and more. Reserve your ticket here.

Summer Fancy Food Show – June 28-30 – New York, NY

Hosted by the Specialty Food Association, the SFFS is the largest specialty food trade show in North America. It will feature 180,000+ products, 25,000+ buyers and 2,500+ exhibitors. Learn more and register here. 

Foodstand Spotlight – July 6 – Brooklyn, NY

In partnership with Slow Money NYC, Foodstand invites entrepreneurs, creators and innovators in the food space to its monthly event series. This month, hosted at Brooklyn Brewery, the night will feature five 5 minute demos, a panel of experts, audience collaboration and networking opportunities. Get your ticket or sign up for the livestream here.

33entrepreneurs’ #33USTour – July 8-30 – Various Cities

33entrepreneurs will be hosting 10 StartUp Contests across the country this July on a quest to find the most innovative companies working in wine, food & beverages and travel tech. Three finalists from each city will be brought to Bon AppeTech, for food and beverage startups, or Phocuswright, for travel tech startups and the top three startups will be given $100,000 in equity investment plus a three-month acceleration program in France. Find the city nearest you and apply here.

IFT15 – July 11-14 – Chicago, IL

Join 23,000+ food scientists and tech professionals from 90+ countries to learn about the recent trends, the latest products and the newest innovations that are driving food science. Not to mention, you will have access to 1,000+ exhibitors and 1,000+ technical research presentations. Register here.

Palo Alto Food Startup Bootcamp – July 18 – Palo Alto, CA

Local Food Lab’s one-day intensive workshop will teach you everything you need to know to get your food startup off the ground. You’ll learn everything from customer discovery, market and industry analysis, financial forecasting, sales and marketing strategy, development of a social mission statement, fundraising and pitching. Learn more and sign-up here. 

Intro to Food Processing: Licensing and Selling – July 20 – Brooklyn, NY

Learn first-hand how to comply with federal regulations needed to launch your food business at Brooklyn Grange. This workshop will feature panelists Rob Dondorf, Chief Food Inspector at NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets, Peter Trunk, Food Specialist at the FDA and be moderated by Robin Puskas, Chef/Owner of NYC Kitchen Co. Reserve you spot here.

Food & Agri Business Management Program – July 21-31 – Ithaca, NY

Hosted by Cornell University and Sathguru Management Consultants, this program will explore the economic, social and environmental issues that impact the agribusiness industry. Learn more here.

Restaurant Tech: From Sourcing to Reservations – July 22 – New York, NY

Join our Meetup to get an inside look at how a handful of startups are working to improve restaurant operations and optimize the dining experience. You’ll hear from founders from Bento Box, Improvonia, Reserve and Dig Inn. Learn more about our Meetup and snag a spot here.

The Power of Produce – July 23

During this free webinar, Anne-Marie Roerink from 210 Analytics, LLC will explore the biggest insights from The Food and Marketing Institute’s inaugural report, The Power of Produce 2015. The report features data on the produce retail industry, path to purchase, mega trends, shopper suggestions and more. Register here.

Los Angeles Food Startup Bootcamp – July 25 – Los Angeles, CA

Local Food Lab’s one-day intensive workshop will teach you everything you need to know to get your food startup off the ground. You’ll learn everything from customer discovery, market and industry analysis, financial forecasting, sales and marketing strategy, development of a social mission statement, fundraising and pitching. Learn more and sign-up here. 

Spoon University Brainfood Conference – July 25 – Brooklyn, NY

Join Spoon University for the 2nd annual Brainfood conference. Topics will include food and technology, female food entrepreneurs, new food startups and sustainability and food sourcing plus a live food demo from Michael Cirino. Added bonus, FTC’s very own Nina Meijers will be speaking! Snag a ticket here.

IAFP 2015 – July 25-28 – Portland, OR

Hosted by the International Association for Food Protection, this meeting unites 2800+ industry, academic, governmental food and safety professionals from six continents to discuss current and emerging food safety issues. Learn more and register here

Ag Supply Chain School and Field Tour – July 28-30 – Visalia, CA

This tour unites agri-business and food industry specialists for a unique opportunity to see and experience the extensive on-farm practices of one of the most intensive agricultural regions in the world and learn first-hand from growers, consultants, scientists and local agri-business experts. Register here. 

Global Sustainability Summit – August 19-21 – Denver, CO

Developed by The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), the Summit was created to help companies incorporate sustainability into their business models. It will address emerging issues and trends, technology and innovation, packaging and waste, education and communication, natural resource challenges, sustainable supply chain and sourcing and sustainable agriculture.  Learn more and register here.

Ag Innovation Showcase – September 14-16 – St. Louis, MO

In its seventh year, the Showcase seeks to bring together ag’s biggest names, innovators and investors to explore the convergence of ag and tech. Presenting companies in the past years have raised $430m post-showcase and 6 have been acquired. Register now.

Expo Milano 2015  – May 1-October 31 –Milan, Italy

Taking place in Milan, Italy from May through October, Expo Milano is the first world’s fair devoted entirely to food. It’s expected to draw 20 million visitors and exhibitors from 140 countries to showcase and explore how technology can help guarantee healthy, safe and sufficient food for all.

Amongst the many exhibits, the USA Pavilion will showcase the United States as a food, culture, science and business innovator and collaborator. Using interactive exhibits and state-of-the-art digital media, the pavilion will highlight products and companies that are working at the forefront of sustainability, nutrition and health, technology and innovation. The USA Pavilion is also hosting a food tech startup accelerator called Feeding the Accelerator. Learn more and apply here.

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The post Must-Attend Food Tech Events: Spring/Summer 2015 Edition appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Guest post by Peretz Partensky, co-founder of Sourcery. The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views of Food+Tech Connect.

Food cultures and technology have always been intimately linked. We used technology to grow tomatoes in winter and peas in the fall. We used technology to develop our current food system, which maximizes for calories and efficiency through centralization. Centralization has benefits, but it also means we can’t have a say in what we eat or where it comes from.

Today’s technologies can finally tackle the least transparent part of our food system: the supply chain.

The locavore and organic movements are often seen as elitist and expensive, but in the distant past, everything was local. It was only with the advent of modern technologies – transportation, refrigeration, and new crops – that we gained access to a variety of food in all seasons and climates. Centralized distribution systems made it possible for producers to specialize in one product, which they could then raise with maximum efficiency. This lowered prices for the consumer, but it came with a hidden cost.

Our current, centralized system is efficient and inexpensive. It is also opaque. How and where your produce is grown is extremely difficult to track. The system developed to move large orders of homogenous products, not to maximize for the health of produce, consumers, farms or the environment.

Sourcing is especially hard for restaurants, which deal with multiple suppliers. According to the National Restaurant Association, Americans spend $709.2 billion dollars in restaurants every year or 47 percent of the food dollar. Helping restaurants control their sourcing is key to changing the way our supply chains works. Finding local, responsible producers who chefs trust may not add significantly to the cost of a single tomato order, but the overhead in terms of time at scale makes it extremely expensive.

A restaurant that accepts whatever produce is offered them, without asking questions, can meet almost all of their needs through three or four vendors.

In comparison, a restaurant in the farm-to-table model may have to pay 100 invoices a month from 15 different suppliers, each operating on different payment terms.

Foodservice businesses are incentivized to consolidate back of house operations. They cut back on ingredients and the number of suppliers they order from, even when local farms are available. A restaurant in Sacramento could end up buying produce from the farm next door without even knowing it, only to have it sent to a distributor in San Francisco and hauled all the way back. In the centralized model, the logistical cost at scale trumps all others.

A number of things are coming together to make tracking and selecting our food easier.

First, a growing desire for transparency is motivating more consumers to seek out the food they want. Consumers want information about where their food comes from and how it was produced, so they can make informed decisions. Transparency, quality, and value are important. Food producers and distributors are beginning to see that transparency is marketable.

At the same time, technology is making new, decentralized business models possible. Disruptive technology is reducing the cost of many loosely connected parts. Sourcery lowers the cost to restaurants of sourcing their food from a variety of producers. Sourcery connects restaurants with their local farms and handles the entire overhead – a kitchen can order from 100 suppliers, but they’ll only have to pay one invoice.

Our modern food system involves a complicated supply chain, but we have the technology to make sure the healthy choice is also the easy, affordable choice.

Internet of Food is editorial series exploring how we might use technology, new business models and design to guarantee healthy, safe and sufficient food for everyone. Join the conversation between February 17 and April 2. Share your ideas in the comments, on Twitter using#internetoffood, Facebook or LinkedIn. 

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Peretz is the Co-Founder of Sourcery. Sourcery’s mission is to create economically and environmentally sustainable food ecosystems by developing products and services that improve communications and commerce between buyers and suppliers.  Prior to founding Sourcery, Peretz coached a basketball team in Afghanistan, got a master’s degree in Literature from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD in Biophysics from the University of California, San Francisco.

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Guest post by Larry LeSueur, CEO of WISErg. The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views of Food+Tech Connect.

Back in the 1970s, the Nixon administration’s controversial agriculture secretary Earl Butz implemented a number of programs designed to improve farming efficiency and lower the cost of food for consumers. With an emphasis on commodity crops like corn and soy, the effort did increase production and lower some prices but also had several negative consequences.

In less than a generation, small family farms became an endangered species as scale became essential to profitability. The extensive use of petrochemical-based fertilizers and pesticides along with crop monocultures created a vicious cycle of soil depletion and artificial enrichment that negatively impacted overall soil health. And as the American diet shifted to less expensive, but less healthy convenience foods made possible by low-cost inputs, there was an alarming increase in maladies like obesity, diabetes and heart disease. We got more food, but not better food.

Jump ahead four decades, and a number of forces are converging to once again change the face of the food industry. In recent years, increasingly health-conscious consumers have become concerned with not just what they eat, but where and how the food they eat is grown. In a return to the past, we now want better whole foods rather than packaged foods, but the definition of “better” has expanded to include attributes like pesticide-free and sustainably produced. Grocers large and small have responded by devoting more shelf space to organic and locally sourced produce and meats. This, in turn, is prompting producers to rethink their practices while creating an opening for smaller farms to once again operate profitably.

But it’s not just consumers that are focusing on sustainability in the food supply. Governments from the federal level down to the municipal level are now paying much more attention to what happens to food after it leaves the farm, with an emphasis on reducing the amount of uneaten food that ends up in landfills. In particular, state and local governments from Massachusetts to California have implemented policies that require consumers and businesses to recycle or compost food scraps, even imposing fines for non-compliance. As if on cue, technology and data have arrived to help transform the food industry and to meet these twin challenges.

Today, new smart systems allow grocers to convert food scraps into a nutrient rich organic fertilizer while providing data and analytics that help them identify the operational sources of waste and better manage inventory to reduce the loss. Reducing food waste isn’t just critical to the profitability of grocers, it’s important to ensuring an adequate food supply for an ever increasing population.

As these solutions become more commonplace, they promise to change the equation for food production by driving down the cost of organic farming practices, while increasing yield rates and making better use of the food being grown. As growers are presented with new, economically competitive options to traditional petroleum-based fertilizers, they will find it easier to maintain soil health and produce healthier crops, which can have the follow-on effect of reducing the need harsh chemicals necessary to fight pests and disease common in unhealthy plants.  In other words, today’s technology is helping to produce more food that’s also better food.  Ultimately the entire food ecosystems wins and the farmer’s hard work is realized in better food that is consumed and not trashed.

These innovations in food production are poised to drive a new “green revolution.” And they couldn’t be more timely. By some estimates, we’ll need to double the production of food in the U.S by 2050. When you consider that nearly 40 percent of the food produced today ends up as waste, it’s clear that the food production cycle needs a serious upgrade. We’ll need to do a much better job of harnessing technology and implementing new sustainability practices to ensure an adequate supply of good, healthy food for everyone.

Internet of Food is editorial series exploring how we might use technology, new business models and design to guarantee healthy, safe and sufficient food for everyone. Join the conversation between February 17 and April 2. Share your ideas in the comments, on Twitter using#internetoffood, Facebook or LinkedIn. 

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Larry LeSueur is committed to driving change through innovation. Motivated by the principle that there is hidden value in food waste, Larry co-founded WISErg, a bio-clean technology company leveraging software, biology and clean-tech values. WISErg’s focus is to minimize the food waste generated by retail grocers, commercial kitchens and other food-handling organizations while converting food waste into nutrient-rich organic fertilizer. WISErg’s technology empowers customers to better understand the causes of waste and better manage their food-based inventory and practices to prevent loss from occurring.

As CEO, Larry provides the strategic leadership for scalable revenue growth, technology improvements, partner and supplier relationships, and product and fertilizer sales efforts.

Prior to WISErg, Larry’s work experience spanned 20 years with Microsoft and Avanade. His areas of expertise include infrastructure technologies, strategic alliance development, customer experience initiatives and developing internal synergies between sales and engineering.​

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