Credit: Wesley Tingey

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 this week’s top headlines.

The fragility of the global food system came into sharp focus this last week when The Economist released an article detailing the long-term human cost of Putin’s war in Ukraine. Our food system is already been weakened by climate change, Covid-19, and an energy shock. If war drags on, hundreds of millions could fall into poverty and famine would ensue.

Meanwhile, too few producers with too much power is starting to make our food system look like the global financial landscape just before it crashed in 2008. Everyone has a role to play in fixing this crisis, particularly agrifoodtech innovators out there who are facing a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to ignite the changes that will lead to a stronger, more sustainable food system for everyone.

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1. The World Is Tipping Towards Mass Hunger – The Economist

“The widely accepted idea of a cost-of-living crisis does not begin to capture the gravity of what may lie ahead,” if Putin’s war on Ukraine further weakens an already battered food system. It is everyone’s job to fix this crisis.

2. The Food System Is Headed for a 2008-Style Collapse – The Guardian

Too few producers with too much power make the food system resemble the global financial system before it crashed in 2008.

3. Food Inflation 101: What It Means for Agrifoodtech Innovators – AFN

War, climate change, and Covid-19 have sent the price of key agricultural commodities skyrocketing. The situation could pose a “once-in-a-lifetime chance” for agrifood innovators.

4. “Look Inside Your Bag of Potato Chips” to Understand Food Inflation – Wall Street Journal

WSJ explains how the war in Ukraine is impacting oil, gas and agricultural commodity prices and driving up input costs for CPG products. One chip company profiled says potatoes are now 20% more expensive while cooking oil costs are up 300%.

5. We Need More Research on ‘Forgotten’ Crops – Food Navigator

As the food crisis accelerates, key players in the food chain need to look beyond rice, maize, wheat and soya to ancient grains such as millet, sorghum and buckwheat to build a more secure, nutritionally diverse food future.

6. Do Good Foods Launches “Carbon-Reduced” Chicken at Grocery Stores – Food Dive

The company turns surplus food from grocery stores into healthy feed for cage-free chickens that eventually become food for consumers. Do Good Foods notes that each chicken product keeps four pounds of food waste out of the landfill.

7. Upcycling Startup Koa Nets $10m to Repurpose Cocoa Pulp – Food Ingredients First

A byproduct of the chocolate industry, cocoa pulp has potential as a value-added food ingredient. Koa will use its funding to increase processing at its Ghana plant tenfold.

8. What 1 Year Without Aid Looks Like for Restaurants – Restaurant Dive

The absence of Restaurant Revitalization Funds is impacting businesses and plunging them into financial danger. Restaurant Dive breaks the situation down by the numbers.

9. Timeless Seeds is Growing Specialty Grains With Regeneration in Mind – Civil Eats

Conventional wheat is King in Montana, but a group of organic farmers are making a name for themselves growing nutrient-dense specialty crops that restore the soil and surrounding rural communities.

10. Agtech Investment Firm Anterra Closes $260m Fund II – AFN

The fund will invest in entrepreneurs developing biotech and digital solutions across the agrifoodtech value chain, from ag fintech and crop science to animal health and consumer tech.

11. Motif FoodWorks Unveils First Commercial Plant-Based Meats – Green Queen

Motif MoBeef, MoPork and MoChicken will be launching from now into 2023 with foodservice locations, retailers, and private-label distributors. Distribution kicks off with the MoBeef patties.

12. Imagindairy secures $15m in Seed Round Extension – Food Business News

The Israeli startup developing animal-free milk protein expects to launch its first products in 2023. Funding will go towards further research and development.

The post Food Inflation 101, The Coming Food Crisis + More appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Sanjeev Krishnan

This is a guest post by Sanjeev Krishnan, Chief Investment Officer and Managing Director at S2G Ventures

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global health and economic crisis like none we have seen in our lifetime. In the food supply chain this has impacted employees that ensure that food is planted, harvested and processed, grocery shelves are stocked and food is available to all people. It takes a global village to feed the world, and we have seen selfless sacrifice and silent grit to ensure the continuity of our food system. Because, if our food supply breaks down, this pandemic may move from a crisis to a catastrophe.

Over the past several months several cracks have shown up in the food supply chain. The pandemic is challenging the nature of our global supply chain, stressing logistics networks and reinforcing the importance of labor. There are concerns about food nationalism, continued access to labor and redefining the nature of food security from global to national systems. While now is the time for urgent action – from government and private sector – there is a need for longer-term investments required for building a more innovative and resilient future food system.

Our team at S2G Ventures spent several months researching and monitoring COVID-19 and its implications to better understand these questions, keeping a close eye on the news cycle, conducting extensive desktop research and speaking with various experts across many fields. We spoke to epidemiologists, healthcare professionals, farmers, entrepreneurs, philanthropists and other investors to gather insights and develop our perspective on the implications of COVID-19 on the world of food and agriculture. We have compiled our finding into a report that explores the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic to the food and agriculture industry and identifies the areas of innovation critical to building a healthier and more sustainable food system.

As an investor in companies across all stages of the food system, we believe our role in the recovery is to ensure we build a more stable, resilient, sustainable and healthy system. We will continue to invest in entrepreneurs and innovations that are the catalysts for meaningful progress. Below, we offer a summary of our report, which can also be downloaded in full here.

Pandemics 101: A History of Recovery & Innovation

Taking a look back in time, the world suffered a deadly pandemic in 1918. The Spanish flu, whose origin is believed to be a farm outside of Kansas City, spread quickly across the globe. Although the world was not as connected, World War I was still ongoing, and troops were being shuttled between the United States and Europe. Between 1918 and 1919, the Spanish flu is believed to have infected nearly a third of the global population and killed between three and 20 percent of those who were infected. In the end it killed between 40 and 50 million people. In the years following the Spanish flu, there was a bright period of innovation that included the adoption of the Bell telephone and modern medicine. It was an event that helped shape the future.

Between the Spanish flu and today’s pandemic, there have been seven major epidemics or pandemics. Each varies in mortality, duration and contagion, but ultimately all come to an end. The economic recovery period that follows a pandemic-induced recession is generally different from traditional economic recessions. Pandemic-induced recession recoveries have generally seen a V-shaped recovery, while traditional recessions have varied between V-, U-, W-, and L-shaped recoveries. The global financial crisis of 2008 saw a L-shaped recovery. Typically, economic recessions have a longer duration and deeper economic consequences.

The coronavirus pandemic is unique among prior events. While many events have temporarily shut down regions, none have had the same global shutdown that we are currently facing today. So, despite being able to draw comparison and insights to learn from pandemic economics, the situation is different due to a staggering rise in globalization, digitalization across many sectors and the rise of fiat currencies. Pandemic economic history teaches us that one of the hallmarks is that innovation plays a critical role in the future normal that emerges. As professor Katherine A. Foss notes, “disease can permanently alter society, and often for the best by creating better practices and habits. Crisis sparks action and response.”

While the direct effect of COVID-19 is on the population – with infection rates, social distancing and shelter-in-place restrictions and continued operations of only essential businesses – there are significant implications across many industries. The second order consequences of coronavirus are reshaping industries, catalyzing innovation and encouraging resilience in business planning. Although the lasting impact on many industries is unknown, we see exciting innovation accelerating across automation, telemedicine, virtual reality and transparency systems (i.e., blockchain or similar technologies).

Everyone Eats – Pandemic Proof Demand, but Supply?

While the food and agriculture sectors are generally more resilient in bad economic situations, there are several sub sectors that rely heavily on in-person labor and are currently strained due to the unique social distancing pressures placed on businesses. One significant pressure point is meat processors. Several large meat companies have been forced to shutter processing facilities due to COVID-19 outbreaks. Smithfield had to shut down one of its pork processing facilities that supplied roughly 5 percent of the U.S. pork supply, while JBS had to close a Pennsylvania facility that processed beef. The second-order consequence of these closures is the farmer, who may be forced now to cull their herds of cattle and hogs. The strain on this pressure point affects not only the farmer, but also the consumer. Wendy’s felt the effects of this during this past week, when nearly one-fifth of all 1,043 locations ran out of beef.

While it will take an extended period of time to fully understand the implications of consumer purchasing data coming out of the pandemic – more specifically if the duration of the consumer behavior shift will be a ‘fad’ or ‘trend’ – certain areas of the market are seeing a quick adoption of trends that were previously accelerating. As slaughter-house closures have increased, plant-based meats sales have jumped 200 percent. Plant-based meats remain a small portion of the market, but this is a significant and notable demand signal from consumers.

Coronavirus is notably changing how consumers shop, prepare and consume food. Between 2009 and 2018, out-of-home eating rose from 50.1 percent to 54.4 percent of the market. Now, with social distancing limited the ability to eat at restaurants, many are turning to preparing food at home or ordering delivery or takeout. And, despite food being a resilient sector, the bifurcation between grocery and food service has become clear.

In the grocery store, private label market-share gains are poised to accelerate, as consumers tighten spending and look for value-focused alternatives. However, we expect consumers to prioritize a balance of value and better-for-you brands instead of a complete tradeoff to value, consistent with the consumer megatrend towards better-for-you products.

Taking a step back, and observing the broader food value chain, we observed three primary delivery vulnerabilities in the food system:

1. Agricultural inputs to farms (e.g., seeds, animal feed, fertilizer, et al.)

2. Farm products to processors, packagers, spot markets and export markets

3. Food to retail distribution

This is important, because the global food system relies on a just-in-time economy, where inventory levels are intentionally kept low. Meaning, that regardless if there is enough supply in existence, it may not be able to reach its proper destination if the supply chain is disrupted.

China, which provides a good example because it is further along in the lifecycle of the pandemic, has been suffering from this problem the last several months. Upstream and downstream logistics are a major challenge; at the ports there are thousands of frozen meat containers piling up because the trucking has effectively collapsed. Meanwhile, ports are running out of power, stoking fears that much of the food currently stored there will go bad. There is also an American company that makes immunization equipment for chicken that said their containers had been docked at Chinese ports for four weeks. Although China is doing its best to ensure that the grain planting season is not missed, the logistics of this supply chain are making it increasingly difficult.

The Future of Food – COVID-19 and Calories

While we continue to watch the situation, and the strain it is placing on the food system, we view the common thread that could bridge the existing system to the future as technology. Consumer purchasing behavior coupled with innovation may drive changes in market share and pressure existing players in the market. Although we have not seen COVID-19 create a new trend, we have seen several trends that were in motion pre-coronavirus further accelerated by the pandemic, including alternative protein, indoor agriculture, digitalization of agriculture and grocery and food as medicine.

Although animal agriculture remains a large and growing market, the pandemic has exposed challenges with the industries long production cycles, centralized production and limited processing facilities. It has allowed for faster consumer adoption of alternative proteins, including plant-based protein, fungi, algae and other biomass concepts including cellular meat. Notably, some of these technologies are further along than other, for example plant-based protein has been a trend for several years, while cellular meat remains in a research and development phase. We continue to believe that whatever the next generation of protein is, it will be driven by production speed, price and taste.

A second trend we believe is accelerating is food as an immunity. The convergence of food, science and technology may unlock this sector and usher in a new era in microbiome, functional ingredients, precision and personalized nutrition and medical foods. Prior to COVID-19, this was largely driven by nutrition-related disease, but the pandemic has exposed at-risk populations, with approximately 90 percent of hospitalized patients having one or more underlying condition, with the most common underlying condition being obesity.

Beyond specific trend acceleration, several themes emerge throughout this research that we believe may be catalyzed and emerge in a post-COVID-19 world. Digitalization will likely be driven by dis-intermediation to allow for new relationships with the consumer and to reduce risk throughout the supply chain. Decentralized food systems allow for the automation of local (alternative protein and produce) and the reshaping of complex perishable supply chains to reduce shrink and waste. They are also more omnichannel congruent as e-commerce, specifically online grocery, adoption accelerates. De-commoditization in the food supply chain, coupled with technologies that place deflationary pressure on the industry, may help catalyze breeding for attributes beyond yield (taste, protein content, et al), a return to polyculture farming and a shift from a strict focus on yield to profit per acre. Lastly, food as an immunity has the potential to bridge healthcare and food production and consumption for treatment of specific nutrition-related chronic lifestyle diseases, as well as change the future of brands to focus on unique, functional ingredients. a

Our full report, The Future of Food in the Age of COVID,  is available online.

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Sanjeev Krishnan, Chief Investment Officer and Managing Director at S2G Ventures

Sanjeev has nearly 20 years of experience in sourcing, executing, managing and exiting venture and private equity investments, including a focus in agriculture and food companies. As Managing Director, Sanjeev is active in developing investments and managing portfolio companies including, serving on many portfolio company boards. His portfolio work ranges from genetics, crop protection, soil health, digital/IOT, crop insurance, merchandising, indoor agriculture, novel flavor and ingredients, new protein development, unique processors and brands that will feed this changing consumer.

He is passionate about the role of innovation, entrepreneurship, markets and system investing as a theory of change. Sanjeev has worked in the intersection of sustainability, technology and health in many regions, including Europe, Africa, Asia and North America.  He has invested over $500 mm in venture and growth stage firms throughout his career.

Sanjeev began investing as a co-founder of the life sciences practice of the IFC, the $99 billion private investment arm of the World Bank. His previous investment roles include CLSA Capital Partners, Global Environment Fund, World Bank Group’s IFC and JPMorgan. Sanjeev is a graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

About S2G Ventures: S2G Ventures (Seed to Growth) is a multi-stage venture fund investing in food and agriculture. The fund’s mission is to catalyze innovation to meet consumer demands for healthy and sustainable food. S2G has identified sectors across the food system that are ripe for change, and is building a multi-stage portfolio including seed, venture and growth stage investments. Core areas of interest for S2G are agriculture, ingredients, infrastructure and logistics, IT and hardware, food safety and technology, retail and restaurants, and consumer brands. For more information about S2G, visit www.s2gventures.com or connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post Pandemic Proof: S2G Ventures on Why Resilient, Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems are More Important Than Ever appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Food+Tech Connect and The Future Market are hosting Biodiversity: The Intersection of Taste & Sustainability, an editorial series featuring interviews with over 45 leading food industry CEOs, executives, farmers, investors and researchers on the role of biodiversity in the food industry. Read all of the interviews here. 

Creating a regenerative and more biodiverse food system will requires significant investment. FoodShot Global is doing just that by helping innovators tackle some of our greatest food system challenges through its integrated capital platform of non-dilutive, equity and debt funding. Below, I speak with founder and chairman Victor Friedberg about white space opportunities  and capital structures that can help us transition to a regenerative and biodiverse food system at scale.

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Danielle Gould: Is biodiversity a priority for FoodShot Global? If so, how and why?

Victor Friedberg: Yes, biodiversity is a priority for every organization I’ve built in the food sector. While I could argue for biodiversity as an end in itself, I would rather make the case that striving for biodiversity is an opportunity to create a new generation of flavorful, nutrient-dense and sustainable food products — and the agricultural systems that can support them. Consumers will drive the growth of this new biodiverse food system by voting for policies and practices that support its development, and, over time, businesses and organizations will reap the benefits of this biodiverse system by reducing risk (climate, supply, economic) and generating growth.

DG: What is FoodShot Global doing or planning to do to promote biodiversity?

VF: I founded FoodShot Global to identify global food system challenges and invest in groundbreaking solutions. With Sara Eckhouse, the Executive Director, and a world-class consortium of Founding Partners – including Rabobank, Generation Investment Management, MARS, the Innovation Institute for Food and Health at UC Davis, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Builders Initiative, Armonia and the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture – we’ve built a capital continuum of non-dilutive, equity and debt funding to address global food system challenges.

In our inaugural year, we are focusing on healthy soil because it is the foundation of agriculture. Rich, biodiverse soils are essential to achieving the healthy, sustainable and equitable food system that will feed 10 billion people. In order to catalyze innovation to build a regenerative and sustainable soil system, FoodShot Global established the $525,000 GroundBreaker Prize for research, social enterprise and policy advocacy. We have also aggregated up to $10 million a year in equity investments and $20 million in debt financing. With our Founding Partners – and additional supporting partners ACRE Ventures, The Soil Health Institute, The Nature Conservancy, the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research and Activant Capital – we leverage our collective thought leadership, networks, market access, pathways to commercialization and convening capacities to accelerate the development, deployment and impact of new techniques, technologies and breakthrough science that will enable soil to be the engine for a 21st century regenerative, biodiverse, nutrient-rich food system.

DG: What is the business case for products that promote a more biodiverse food system?

VF: The business case for healthy, biodiverse soil is simple: without it, eventually the economics of the planet will degenerate with the soil. We’ve set up an economic agricultural system in which we make massive withdrawals (nutrients, water, organic matter) with meager deposits. Nature is already starting to make its margin call, and the ripple effects of that on our agricultural system and for farmers has been profound – reduced yields, entire crop seasons wiped out, floods, drought and wildfires.

But beyond this macro frame for soil, there is a market case for building biodiversity into our food system. Food brands, whether CPG, food service or ingredient, will be seeking out unique and powerful flavors and new functionalities that differentiate them from their competitors and provide customers with unique food experiences. And just like investors diversity their portfolios to mitigate risk in the face of market volatility, we need to diversify our food system to reduce vulnerability to pests and disease that could lead to catastrophic crop failures.

DG: What investments need to be made to create a more biodiverse food system?

VF: Investments that prioritize biodiversity need to be made throughout the entire food system. When it comes to soil, these could include capital investments into soil analysis systems that measure soil fertility, nutrient content and compaction; soil inputs including bio-pesticides, inoculants and microbial seed coatings; intelligent farm management systems that offer predictive analytics; market innovations that increase the profitability of cover crops and crop rotations; and seed varieties that prioritize flavor and resiliency. At a systemic level, we need to invest in genetics that allow more diverse crops to compete in the marketplace, new ingredients that efficiently integrate biodiverse, nutrient-dense crops into food at a large scale, infrastructure to distribute fresher food that delivers to consumers the flavor and functional benefits of biodiverse crops, research that links the functionality of biodiverse crops and efficacy around human health, and support for the rural and indigenous communities that can grow biodiverse crops.

DG: How might we reinvent capital structures or create incentives to create more investment in biodiversity?

VF: There are existing capital structures that will continue to be effective at investing into brands, ingredients, agricultural products, services and land. A broad range of venture funds, including S2G Ventures, the one I co-founded, are doing incredible work in the sector. An increasing number of investors share common values around a more healthy, sustainable and equitable food system, and they see the opportunities to generate both financial returns and impact.

But shifting the food system and bending it back towards biodiversity will be difficult. Doing so at the needed speed and scale will require innovative models, including permanent capital, evergreen funds, land funds and real estate investment trusts that can provide time and resources for transition. This will allow the creation of virtual vertically integrated supply chains that are not owned by the brand/manufacturer but are so tightly bound by the specifications, agreements and incentives that they function as vertically integrated systems (with the potential for biodiverse and regenerative crops). We also need debt instruments that can be made accessible to farmers or structures that provide farmers with upside ownership for taking on the difficult work of transitioning to a biodiverse system.

DG: What are some of the most important things investors, food manufacturers, retailers and other key actors across the supply chain can do to support biodiversity?

VF: Identify, adopt and promote .

DG: What, if any, exciting products, technologies or services are you seeing that support a more biodiverse food system?

VF: One example is Dan Barber’s work at Row 7 Seed Company, an innovative, system-level start-up that is naturally breeding seeds for flavor and functionality rather than for yield and other efficiencies. Row 7 is using creative partnerships, such as the collaboration to incorporate the Koginut squash into SweetGreen salads, to market these crops. Another company I’m a co-founder of, Alpha Food Labs, is building biodiversity into the product development processes by leveraging the insights and early-adopter power of the Alpha community to create food products that use functional ingredients from various geographies and cultures.

There are also CPG companies with “hero” ingredients that are bringing biodiversity to grocery stores. Lavva, a best-of-class non-dairy yogurt, which I am the executive chair of, is a great example of the benefits of a biodiverse mindset. Lavva’s hero ingredient is the Pili nut, a tree nut with amazing emulsification properties and high mineral content from the volcanic soils in which it grows. Kuli Kuli is another company that is using a hero ingredient by building a product line based on the mainstreaming of Moringa.

Finally, Patagonia Provisions and the Land Institute have developed an interesting project to build a market for Kernza, a perennial long root grain. On the soil biodiversity systems perspective, there is a tremendous amount of innovative work being done to create biological soil inputs, inoculants, and microbial seed coatings, as well as new models and techniques for larger-scale farms that are implementing rotational farming.

DG: What is your vision for what a more biodiverse food system looks like in 10-15 years?

VF: The vision for the next 10-15 years is dependent on three macro frameworks:

1. First, that renewable energy becomes both politically and economically massive so that crops are no longer used for biofuels.

2. Second, that meat consumption continues to reduce in the Western world (partly through scaling of meat alternatives), that developing countries do not drastically increase meat consumption, and that large-scale regenerative meat farming becomes viable.  These conditions must be met so that the massive, industrialized mono-cropped acreage currently dedicated to biofuels and animal feed can be reclaimed for agriculture that embraces biodiversity and meets consumer demand for biodiverse products.

3. Third, that agriculture is able to adapt to climate change and associated GHG levels. A recent Harvard report found that levels of carbon dioxide from human activity are making staple crops such as rice and wheat less nutritious and could result in 175 million people becoming zinc deficient and 122 million people becoming protein deficient by 2050.

The demand for biodiversity in food will come from both the ability of science to discover new ingredients and from the ability of innovative brands and chefs to promote the health and wellness benefits of the widest range of crops and flavors. In the world, scientists have identified about 1.75 million different species, including 950,000 species of insects, 270,000 species of plants, 19,000 species of fish, 9,000 species of birds, and 4,000 species of mammals. This is only a small portion of the total number of species on Earth. There are millions more species yet to be discovered and named. About 25 percent of the medicines used today are taken from or modeled on chemicals found in plants, animals, or other living things. We are just beginning to realize the human benefits of biodiversity.

We need to de-commodify commodities. We have built a food system that is designed to extract and discard identity, diversity and value from our crops.  In the future, corn, soybean and wheat will be a smaller percentage of overall acreage in the world. Instead the future is our ability to be able to efficiently. And the enabling driver assumption is that soil biodiversity, through a broad range of solutions, whether low tech farm management best practices or high tech regenerative soil interventions have regenerated soil ecosystem diversity and organic matter.

Read all of our biodiversity interviews here and learn more about Biodiversity at The Future Market.

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Victor E. Friedberg,  Co-Founder, Seed 2 Growth Ventures (S2G); Founder and Chairman of FoodShot — MoonShots for Better Food ; Executive Chairman of Lavva ; Co-Founder of Alpha Food Labs

Victor has been at the forefront of innovation, global development and sustainability for over 20 years. As Co-Founder of S2G Ventures he has been a principal force in developing the S2G mission, culture, strategy and team.  Through his work, he has pioneered system investing as a strategy for investing into food and agriculture and applied this approach in building the S2G portfolio.  As Managing Director, Victor lead the S2G investments into Beyond Meat, sweetgreen, Ripple, Maple Hill Creamery, Apeel Science, Ataraxis. FishPeople and Lavva.

He is Founder and Chairman of FoodShot Global — Moonshots For Better Food an innovative investment platform to accelerate global food system transformation with partners Rabobank, Armonia, Generation Investment Management, MARS, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Builders Initiative, FFAR, The Innovation Institute for Food and Health at UC Davis and The Stone Barns Center For Food and Agriculture.

As Executive Chairman at Lavva, Victor guides forward-looking business strategy to establish pathways to brand aligned sourcing, manufacturing and new product development. He works collaboratively with the management team at Lavva to provide support for key opportunities and needs for the day-to-day execution of the business as needed.

He was named by Forbes Magazine one of the Top 25 deal makers and influencers in Consumer Products in 2016.

The post FoodShot Global on Investing in a Regenerative, Biodiverse Food System appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

From January 7 – February 8, Food+Tech Connect and The Future Market are hosting Biodiversity: The Intersection of Taste & Sustainability, an editorial series featuring interviews with over 45 leading food industry CEOs, executives, farmers, investors and researchers on the role of biodiversity in the food industry. See the full list of participants and read about why biodiversity in food is important here. 

Smart capital and innovation ecosystems that prize diversity are key to creating a regenerative, biodiverse future at scale. For Food System 6 (FS6), a non-profit accelerator that helps food and agriculture entrepreneurs and organizations accelerate their growth and impact, both genetic diversity among plants and animals and cultural diversity in the entrepreneurial ecosystem are critical to creating regenerative food systems.

Below I speak with Renske Lynde, co-founder and managing director, about the incubator’s holistic approach to supporting innovation among farmers, producers and entrepreneurs. True systems change, she argues, requires long term investment from investors, foundations and VCs. Current capital structures could scale biodiverse and regenerative agricultural systems, they just require more patience and greater investment in infrastructure and processing.

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Danielle Gould: Is biodiversity a priority for Food System 6? If so, how and why?

Renske Lynde: Biodiversity is the cornerstone of a healthy, thriving ecosystem; therefore addressing biodiversity is one of the fundamental facets of building a healthier food system for all, which is our core mission at Food System 6.

We take a view that all levels of biodiversity – genetic, species and ecosystem – are critical to the thriving, interconnected and complex system that makes life on earth possible. For us, creating a Sixth Food System is about ensuring that the planet can continue to sustain future generations and we believe that biodiversity moves beyond sustainability and, as such, is foundational to building regenerative systems.

DG: How does Food System 6 define and think about biodiversity?

RL: Biodiversity is a multifaceted issue within the FS6 program, as we focus our curriculum around the interconnectedness of each of the complex factors influencing the overall ecosystem. In an attempt to simplify an inherently complex issue, we can break the FS6 perspective into two distinct, yet deeply interrelated categories: genetic diversity amongst plants and animals and cultural biodiversity throughout the entrepreneur ecosystem.

The first issue – plant and animal biodiversity – is one that has been gaining traction across the food ecosystem recently. With the increased selection and hybridization of organisms for traits like stability and growth, much of the industrial food system has de-prioritized previously crucial elements like nutrient density. As our food’s ability to nourish us diminishes, larger quantities are needed to fulfill us, and more additives are necessary to supplement for flavor. Not to mention the increased use of chemicals and hormones necessary to maintain the health of an increasingly fragile genetic ecosystem. We have traded in traits like natural pest resistance and immunity for more commercially attractive attributes like growth rates and product size.

From monocropping to genetic modification selective breeding, we are jeopardizing our ability to have an adaptive and regenerative food system, even as we watch the world around us change drastically and with increasing speed. On the bright side, there is a growing trend in innovation to focus on this issue through the breeding and selection of heritage breed plants and animals. Companies like Emmer & Co, Row 7, Sfoglini and Heritage Foods are playing an important role in bringing the conversation of genetic diversity to the table.

Perhaps a more nuanced, but equally important aspect of this conversation, is that of diversity within the entrepreneurial landscape. The biodiversity of community is just as essential to healthy ecosystem growth as genetic diversity is to the long-term viability of agricultural crops. Core to our program is the understanding that economically, racially and culturally diverse ecosystems build richer and more robust environments for innovation. The research is continuing to show that diverse organizations have increased productivity and profit, broader networks and advanced consumer insights; additionally, diverse teams have been shown to iterate faster and smarter than their competition. There has also proven to be a strong connection between native communities worldwide (who tend to have a stronger connection to natural systems) and those that are actively focused on promoting biodiversity. Companies such as Tanka Bar, Native Harvest and Extensio are examples of solutions that address both sides of the equation by supporting marginalized communities and creating market opportunities for biodiverse, culturally relevant products.

DG: What is Food System 6 doing or planning to do to promote biodiversity?

RL: Farmers have long evolved crops to produce an amazing diversity of plants that are naturally pest resilient and capable of producing life-sustaining nutrition. It is our mission to surface and support those who are doing so in a holistic and systems-focused manner. Thus, the FS6 portfolio supports a culturally, racially and socially diverse selection of farmers, producers and entrepreneurs who are innovating around the ideas of regeneration in the food and agriculture ecosystem.

DG: What is the business case for products that promote a more biodiverse food system?

RL: The business case is simple: without biodiversity, we will see the extinction of our food system as we know it … and we are already seeing signs of the collapse. Monoculture production has become a global hazard for all and, as such, addressing biodiversity is much more about making a case for humanity’s survival than it is about food politics. As the climate warms and weather patterns become more severe, we will continue to see even greater crop damage and loss. Increasingly, we are seeing that companies have recognized that sustainability matters and that protecting and promoting biodiversity is a necessary next step in securing supply chains in a quickly changing world. However, the major players can (and need to) play a bigger role in reversing the damage caused by monoculture production by building diverse supply chains that mitigate against losses. We must adopt new models for business that take into consideration the true cost to the environment and its inhabitants.

As an example, investing in factory farming has become a value destructive decision because we know that poor animal welfare leads to an array of major supply chain problems like swine flu or fraud. By examining the opportunities to invest in solutions that promote species and production diversity, we can secure supply chain investments that may have a longer horizon but over time lead to value creation across the entire production and consumption value chain.

DG: What investments need to be made to create a more biodiverse food system?

RL: There is significant work happening in agroecology and wildlife conservation to create more biodiverse ecosystems. There are many Native American Tribes working to save diverse seeds and bring these indigenous products to the market. We are seeing new and safer technologies for seed breeding and hybridizations; agronomists are identifying wild seeds that are suitable for small and medium scale cultivation. Regenerative and biodynamic farming practices are becoming a part of large food companies land holdings – albeit on a very small scale. Heritage animal breeds are being revived as their benefit to habitat reconstruction and overall role in a healthy ecosystem and diet becomes better understood (more specifically, for their nutrient density and role they play in grassland reconstruction).

With all of these innovations in the ecosystem, we need to take a less reductionist and extractive approach to investing in, and creating new, ecosystem-based markets. For instance, quinoa – the beloved superfood from the Andes, has seen a sharp rise in demand over the last 20 years, leading farmers to abandon the nearly 3,000 varieties that farmers have developed over centuries of cultivation – in favor of a few to satisfy the export market. It is untenable farming practices like this that endanger the seeds and plants that are essential to life. Investments need to take a holistic view regarding the assets and resources that are required to enable biodiversity to flourish and we need to see more investment in the infrastructure and processing elements that will support biodiverse foods. One of the ways that this can happen is by focusing on and investing in right-sized innovation in the food and agriculture space, rather than furthering the practices that produce higher yields for a only a handful of crop species. This requires us to think about innovation beyond the emerging technologies that are sexy and exciting and to focus instead on building solutions that address the needs of small to medium scale production and regenerative applications.

DG: How might we reinvent capital structures or create incentives to create more investment in biodiversity?

We don’t necessarily need to reinvent capital – if leveraged in the right way, the current capital infrastructure can be used – we just need to start investing in some of the products and services that are in alignment with these objectives around biodiversity. Ultimately, what we need is for the gatekeepers of philanthropic capital to start leveraging their knowledge and networks in order to support and scale innovations that are building biodynamic and regenerative practices. If the traditional investors, foundations, and VCs could join forces, we could revitalize our capital infrastructure to support the complex needs and longer ROI cycles of regenerative agriculture. The philanthropic leaders who have been advocating for biodiversity should be supporting these companies and engaging in market-based solutions to scale them; the investor community should be revising their metrics of success in order to accommodate for the more holistic returns associated with regenerative investment opportunities.

From a policy perspective, we need an increase in the incentivizes and mechanisms that promote these kinds of shifts in production – as we have seen around the conversation of soil health in California. We need to expand policy dialogue, across the board, to include incentives that promote biodiversity.

DG: What are some of the most important things investors, food manufacturers, retailers and other key actors across the supply chain can do to support biodiversity?

RL: Players in the food space need to challenge the assumption that biodiverse production systems cannot scale or feed the world. We need to recognize the importance of diversity within the entrepreneur, investor, and farmer ecosystem and to interact with all stakeholders to advance change; where this is not possible, we need to support the kinds of intermediaries that function at the edges of the stakeholder ecosystem to help support innovation with these goals in mind.  Lastly, we need to stop investing in innovations that do not prioritize impact and transformation.

DG: Are there certain products you would like to see more of in the food industry — either in foodservice or CPG — that would help promote a more biodiverse agricultural system?

RL: The biggest step that we could take in the direction of a more biodiverse ecosystem would be to increase the diversity of all staple crops and bring back genetic diversity of grains. Adjacent to that, we need to promote the proliferation of heirloom varietals and animals and integrate them into products that the consumer will be able to find on the average grocery store shelf.

Read all of the interviews here and learn more about Biodiversity at The Future Market.

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Renske Lynde, Co-founder and Managing Director of Food System 6

Renske Lynde has worked in the non-profit sector on food, agriculture and nutrition policy issues for nearly 20 years.  Her work has included grassroots education and community organizing, strategic campaign development, quantitative policy analysis, and legislative advocacy.  She began her career in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy working on behalf of small-scale sustainable agriculture producers and went on to build direct markets for Pennsylvania farmers in the Philadelphia marketplace. Renske subsequently directed Advocacy and Research for the San Francisco Food Bank working primarily on cross-sector partnerships to improve the federal food stamp and school lunch programs. She holds a BA degree from Boston University in Political Science and Psychology and a Masters in Public Policy from UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy.

Renske is a Co-Founder and Managing Director of Food System 6, a non-profit, impact-focused accelerator based in the Bay Area that supports mission-driven entrepreneurs who are transforming how we grow, produce and distribute food. FS6 runs a 4-month cohort program that is designed to meet the individual needs of each of the accepted portfolio companies accepted and currently has an active portfolio of 23 companies working all throughout the value chain from on-farm innovations to consumer products.

FS6 collaborates with a wide range of partners and supporters across philanthropy, the investment sector, and with companies such as Annie’s and Google. FS6 is working to elevate the concept of blended capital to scale impact in the food system and to develop innovative financing approaches for its entrepreneurs.

Renske is also an active impact investor and philanthropist in the food system, and a member of Toniic, an impact investing group.

The post Food System 6 on Scaling Food System Innovation appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

The conversation about the future of food has exploded over the past half decade. Much ink has been spilled examining virtually every new food innovation from lab grown meat, to soil-free indoor farms, to new forms of genetically modified foods.

One of the forces behind this food tech movement are a legion of starry-eyed entrepreneurs fueled by millions in venture and corporate funding, looking to transform this $5 trillion industry into one that’s more efficient, sustainable, delicious, and healthy.

But just as many of these new, high-tech ideas will have a big impact on the future of food, so will many older, lower-tech ideas that have resurfaced into the zeitgeist. One quick walk down the supermarket aisles is a reminder of how the food industry aspires to produce simpler, more wholesome food that evokes attributes of the past, before food became an industry.

Organic. Free Range. Grass-Fed. The premium buzzwords of today simply describe how all food, by default, was made yesterday. What’s old has become new, but as we continue this conversation about the ideas that will carry us into the future, one very old concept is surging back into the food dialogue: food biodiversity.

The Intersection of Taste and Sustainability

Food Biodiversity, or more specifically, agrobiodiversity, is defined as the variety and variability of the plants, animals, micro-organisms, and biocultural systems linked to food. That’s the technical definition.

This variety and variability brings strength and resilience to food ecosystems, as it’s much harder to bring down a system where a diverse constituency of organisms both support and compete against one another to advance the health of the ecosystem.

The Irish Potato Famine is a stark reminder of what can happen when a critical food source lacks biodiversity, as a single disease was able to wipe out enough of the monocultured potato supply that 1 million people died of starvation and sickness.

Biodiversity is crucial to the health and safety of our food supply. But to us, biodiversity in food means something even more. Biodiversity sits at the intersection of taste and sustainability, where we can simultaneously satiate an eater’s desire for new, interesting foods, while supporting a more diverse cornucopia of foods being cultivated in the world.

Globally, 75% of our food comes from just 12 plants and 5 animal species. This enormous level of consolidation around just a handful of food sources not only magnifies the impact of any attack on the food supply — like the Irish Potato Famine — but it also consolidates our taste buds around just a few flavor experiences.

Of course, these few ingredients are remixed within the industrial food complex as a diverse ecosystem of brands, which gives the illusion that we’re eating from variety, but there is so much more to taste and experience in the world.

Eating from a more diverse selection of foods can reduce our reliance on the small handful of industrialized crops for our sustenance. For example, creating more demand for foods like Moringa, a nutrient-dense superfood from Southeast Asia, Fonio, a drought-resistant ancient grain from West Africa, or Kernza, a deliciously sustainable grain from the United States, provides a chance to simultaneously enrich our bodies, our planet, and the communities that cultivate these foods.

These foods are all great places to start, but they’re just the tip of the iceberg, as we humans in aggregate only eat 150 out of 30,000 edible plant species which leaves an entire world of flavor to explore.

Sustainable, Biodiverse, and Selfish

Forging a closer union between food that sustainably bolsters biodiversity and food that’s selfishly delicious, is a formula that will enable the sustainable food movement to truly attain scale and longevity. You can get a lot of people on board for a cause rooted solely in altruism, but you can get even more if you can also tie that cause to a selfish benefit.

These two causes — one altruistic, one selfish — need not be mutually exclusive. For example, Patagonia Provisions’ Long Root Ale, the first beer to be made from the environmentally enriching grain, Kernza, is a great example of how we can do right by our taste buds and the planet. A more biodiverse food system simply grows our opportunities for more products like Long Root Ale.

This approach of making more irresistibly delicious foods, that enrich the individual, from more sustainable or regenerative ingredients, that enrich the planet, is necessary to further mainstream the idea of food that’s great for people and planet.

In food, great taste gives you the license to promote other virtuous causes, and flavor is the vehicle that will bring us to a more biodiverse and sustainable food system.

To Learn More About Food Biodiversity:

• Biodiversity, an online exhibit at The Future Market
• Join the conversation at #biodiversefood

The post The Future of Food is Biodiverse appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Emerging technologies are transforming how we produce, distribute, and consume what we eat by bringing food to people instead of bringing people to food. A new report by the Refresh Working Group featuring Food Tank, Google, the US Chamber of Commerce, and more than twenty other partners, called Refresh: Food and Tech, from Soil to Supper, highlights more than 20 digital platforms and artificial intelligence algorithms being adopted across the U.S. food supply chain by farmers, distributors, grocers, retailers, and consumers.

Today, AI and machine learning offer the opportunity to bring a greater level of certainty to the notoriously uncertain business of farming. By using the processing power of AI to collect and analyze multiple sources of data out in the field, farmers are working with analytical tools to make decisions and generate predictions about their yields. Craig Ganssle drew upon his military experience in radio and infrastructure systems with the United States Marine Corps to create FARMWAVE, an app that helps farmers identify plant pathogens, bugs, and weeds. It works by integrating with smartphone cameras, drones, machinery, and field sensors: all of the necessary components in creating the connected farm of the future.

FARMWAVE is part of a new generation of apps like PlantVillage and Plantix that use deep learning algorithms to diagnose plant diseases and pests in a matter of seconds, not days or weeks. They will prove critical to addressing food security in the coming decades, for it is estimated that global food production will need to increase 25-70 percent by 2050 in order to nourish a population predicted to reach 9-10 billion in the next thirty years.

The benefits of AI in the food system are not limited to farming. Distributors, grocers, and consumers are also leveraging machine learning tools to improve the way that we buy and eat food—from Shelf Engine’s “predictive ordering” system to Calorie Mama’s visual food journal. Most importantly, emerging technologies are helping to create more equitable food systems.

Wholesome Wave has launched a card-based payment platform that supports an initiative called Wholesome Rx. It utilizes a machine learning algorithm that aggregates data from supermarket loyalty cards to generate coupons for nutritious foods and personalized diet recommendations. This fruit and vegetable prescription program is administered at participating health clinics and used by Medicaid patients who want to eat more fresh produce. The platform captures the entire shopping trip and offers incentives for making healthy food purchases beyond produce.

AI tools are also helping to build the food banks of the future. A new spin on popular home meal kits, Feeding Children Everywhere developed the Fed40 app using AI technology to deliver nutritious meals to food insecure families. By filling out a simple request form, families in need can receive 40 prepackaged, dehydrated red lentil jambalaya and apple pie oats right to their door. The app is especially geared toward working families who might not have the time to trek out to a food bank.

The report makes it clear that our food system is entering a new frontier. AI is becoming part of the infrastructure of the food system. Refresh’s stories and profiles suggest AI might also make it easier for people working all along the food chain to collaborate and innovate together.

Join a conversation on the Refresh report with former Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and members of the Refresh Working Group on Wednesday, December 5^th at 5:30 PM CST at https://refreshfoodandtech.com/food-tech-live-stream-with-former-ag-secretary-tom-vilsack-on-12-5/. Learn more about the Refresh report and the Refresh Working Group at www.refreshfoodandtech.com.

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About The Author:

Sarah Papazoglakis is a Client & Content Manager with Swell Creative Group, an award winning creative agency that helps companies and causes solve the world’s biggest problems. For the past 15 years, Sarah has been working at the intersection of storytelling and social action. At Swell, she blends research and analysis with writing, community outreach, and issue advocacy to curate media and public debates at the center and periphery of the tech sector. Sarah has a PhD in Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

The post The Growth of AI and the U.S. Food System 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 this week’s top headlines.

As consumer tastes change, the ten largest packaged-food companies in the U.S. have lost approximately $17 billion in revenue  over the past three years. To combat lost market share, Campbell and Hershey’s are betting on salty snacks.  Campbell’s acquisition of Snyder’s-Lance for $4.87 billion and Hershey’s buy out of SkinnyPop for $1.6 billion. And more capital continues to flow into food startups. Frozen meal delivery service Daily Harvest raised a $43 million Series B round led by Lightspeed.

In retail news, grocers have been absorbing the rise in food prices in order to stay afloat in the increasingly competitive market. Brandless received a star-studded second close of its $35m Series B round that included Steph Curry, Randi Zuckerberg and Jessica Seinfeld.

The Trump administration’s new policies reap bad news for small and organic farmers. Last Friday, it withdrew an Obama-era rule that would have increased animal welfare standards for organic poultry. The newly passed GOP tax bill will only benefit 4% of US farms and cause many farmers to lose health insurance.

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

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1. Campbell, Hershey Bet That Salty Snacks Will Reignite Sales – Bloomberg

As consumer tastes change, 10 of the largest packaged-food companies in the U.S. have seen about $17 billion in revenue evaporate over the past three years. To combat lost market share, Campbell and Hershey’s are betting on salty snacks.

2. Campbell Soup to Buy Snacks Company Snyder’s-Lance for $4.87B – CNBC

The deal is the largest ever in the soup company’s 148-year history. It points to the opportunity big food companies see in snacks, appealing to the increasing number of people who eat and shop on the go.

3. Hershey Nears $1.6B Deal to Acquire SkinnyPop Parent Amplify – CNBC

The deal values Amplify at $12 a share, a 71% premium. It comes as Hershey doubles down on its efforts to move beyond chocolate.

4. The Future is Frozen (Daily Harvest Raises $43M) – Medium

Lightspeed has led Daily Harvest’s $43m Series B round and joined the company’s board. The frozen food category presents higher customer retention and margins, enabling Daily Harvest to invest more aggressively in continued product innovation and growth.

5. Product Information Firm Label Insight Gets $21M in New Funding – Food Dive

The funding round was led by Delta-v Capital alongside River Cities Capital Funds. It will be used to hire additional employees with a focus on data science, sales and marketing.

6. Ireland: Nuritas Raises $20M Series A for AI Ingredient Discovery Platform – AgFunder

Funding was led by Cultivian Sandbox in partnership with agrochemical giant BASF’s human nutrition and pharmaceutical subset. New capital will go toward expansion in the US market.

7. Whole Foods’ 365 Has Sold $10M Worth of Product on Amazon – Food Dive

The natural and organic brand is now the number two best-selling private label line after Amazon Basics. Private label brands account for 0.2% (or $450m) of Amazon’s $177b in estimated revenue.

8. Why Steph Curry, Randi Zuckerberg, and Jessica Seinfeld Invested in This Generic Grocery Store – Fortune

Brandless, the online retailer of generic consumer products, has a star-studded second close of its $35m Series B round. Funding was led by New Enterprise Associates.

9. Tovala Raises $9.2M Series A Round to Fund Expansion – The Spoon

Funding was led by Origin Ventures, bringing total raised to $13.14m. New capital will be used to grow its user base and company.

10. FarmWise Raises $5.7M Seed Round for Vegetable Weeding Robot – AgFunder

The round was led by Playground Global with Felicis Ventures, Basis Set Ventures and Valley Oak Investments. The startup will use funding to commercialize its automated weeding robot.

11. USDA Nixes Higher Animal Welfare Standards for Organic Label – SF Chronicle

On Friday, the Trump administration withdrew rulings that would have increased animal welfare standards for organic poultry.

12. Most American Farmers Will Be Hurt by the GOP Tax Bill – Mother Jones

Only 4% of US farms with around $1m in annual sales are in a high enough tax bracket to benefit from the lower rate. The bill puts farm co-ops at risk, adds to pressure to cut federal farm spending and may cause farmers relying on Obamacare to lose health insurance.

13. Cargill Goes Tech With Plan to Nurture New Wave of Food Startups – Bloomberg

Techstars Farm to Fork Accelerator is a partnership with Cargill, Ecolab and Techstars. The initiative will focus on food security and safety, and will begin accepting applications next month.

14. A Year in Review: 2017 Food and Agriculture News – Food Tank

2017 saw a monumental shift in global politics, a series of natural disasters and indications of growing malnutrition and obesity. Yet, the growing movement for food security, justice and sustainability are effecting change in the food system.

15. The Top 10 Farm Tech Deals of 2017 (How Many Can You Name Without Clicking?) – AgFunder

The largest funding rounds went to Indigo Agriculture’s $203m Series D, Plenty’s $200m Series A, Maihuolang’s $150m Series A, Farmers Business Network’s $110m Series D and Uptake’s $117m Series D.

16. CaliBurger Launches Facial Recognition Pilot for Fast Ordering – The Spoon

The facial recognition kiosk will pilot at CaliBurger’s Pasadena location and will roll out to its 40 locations next year.

17. The Future of Grocery Shopping Has Arrived in China – Quartz

China’s second biggest online retailer, JD, plans to open hundreds of unmanned convenience stores built with facial and image recognition technology.

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!

The post Campbell and Hershey’s Bet on Snacks as Top 10 CPGs Lose $17B, Daily Harvest Raises $43M + More appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

What a momentous day for the food tech community. Meal kit startup Blue Apron, which in just five years grew to $795 million in sales, launched its IPO today.

It was a lackluster debut, which has been the focus of most all media coverage, but I wouldn’t write the startup off just yet. Yes, the company raised just $300 million at a $1.9 billion valuation, one third less than it anticipated before Amazon announced it was acquiring Whole Foods. It offered 30 million common stock shares at $10 per share, which was a significant cut from the $15 to $17 it estimated just two weeks ago. Yes, shares spiked slightly in the morning to $10.46 but ended that day back at $10.00. But no one is talking about the positive impact it might have on the food system and public health.

We caught up with co-founder Matt Wadiak at the New York Stock Exchange to see what the IPO might mean for farmers and eaters, and we couldn’t be more excited by what he had to say.

“This is just the beginning for us,” Wadiak told me this morning. “It’s a great milestone. And this empowers us, as a public company, to really get in and change the food system and the way food is grown. [By] engaging more deeply with our agroecology team, with our farmers, with our cattle ranchers, with our fisheries all over the world, [we can] really bring agriculture into the mainstream focus of Americans and educate them that not all food is grown equally, that not all food is equal. We really want to advocate for regenerative agriculture, for better organic systems, and through the reduction of system inputs lower the price of sustainable agriculture and increase the availability to Americans. We think that not just good nutrition, but good food, good ingredients is a basic human right, just like clean air and fresh water.”

You read that right. Blue Apron has an agroecology team and they are committed to regenerative agriculture, which goes further than sustainable, organic agriculture by focusing on regenerating soil and ecosystems.

According to Wadiak, the IPO gives Blue Apron more leverage to promote this vision. “We raised a big round, so we’re going to continue to invest into our food system, into our supply chain, engage more deeply with farmers, and continue to invest more deeply in our internal team.”

What does it mean to invest in the supply chain? Blue Apron already provides a free soil testing service to the farmers it works with that allows them to evaluate the nutrient load in their soil. With that data, Blue Apron then makes recommendations for crop families the farmers could be growing to improve soil health and yields. For example, if a farmer grew a brassica last season, the company might recommend it grow a legume this season to fix nitrogen naturally. Blue Apron then guarantees that it will purchase the full crop production and uses it in a future recipe.

By combining this service with sensor technologies, heat units and satellites, Blue Apron is developing a “national database of farms and growing conditions, so we can predictively analyze from germination to harvest time when that food will become available at harvest and by measuring the yield output estimates we can predict that and put in our menus in an appropriate forecast, so we can plan our menus around it,” explains Wadiak.

As demand for sustainable food outpaces supply, the companies that have the best chance of winning the hearts and dollars of eaters are those that are investing in the growth of the supply chain. With the acquisition of BN Ranch and its investment in its supply chain, Blue Apron is setting itself up for success from an ingredient perspective. That being said, there are still tons of areas for concern, which we’ll dive into over the next couple of weeks.

As I wrote earlier, I wouldn’t write Blue Apron off just yet – things are just starting to get really interesting.

Check out our full interview below and share your thoughts on the Facebook Live Post.

Have questions for the Blue Apron team? Let us know!

The post With IPO, Blue Apron to Invest More in Regenerative Agriculture 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 and organizations.

Many foodservice operators are benefiting from the halo effect of sustainability, but it’s hard to tell how truthful their sustainability claims really are. Similar to what LEED certification did for the building industry, United States Healthful Food Council (USHFC) is bringing transparency and guidance to the food industry by creating market-based incentives, programs and tools to increase the profitability of healthy, sustainable food.

The non-profit offers three programs: recipe analysis and menu labeling, nutrition consulting services and a certification program. Through its Responsible Epicurean and Agricultural Leadership Certification Program (REAL), it partners with third party registered dietitians to certify that operators’ menus, operations and supply chains are healthful and sustainable. For operators, REAL Certification offers a great marketing tool, as well as access to products from a network of certified ingredients suppliers at a discount. To date, there are 500 foodservice operations have received REAL Certification, including Restaurant Nora, Chipotle’s Shophouse, Bare Burger, Google, Stanford University and Boulder Valley School District.

USHFC is the brainchild of Lawrence Williams, an entrepreneur with a long history of tackling big challenges. Prior to USHFC, he worked with Elon Must to develop a collaboration between SpaceX and NASA to develop a domestic commercial crew and cargo for space travel. He also worked with Craig McCaw and Bill Gates’ Teledesic to negotiate with the FCC to make broadband access ubiquitous through the use of low-Earth orbiting satellites.

Lawrence’s experience in the tech world has always informed how he operates USHFC. Creating a new market and a new certification is no easy feat, but will perseverance USHFC has gotten some of the most reputable brands on board. Now, like any good entrepreneur, Lawrence realizes that its going to take a different skill set to scale the organization, so he is bringing on a new CEO.

I spoke with Lawrence about the biggest challenges he’s faced in scaling, how he’s treated his non-profit more like a startup and how new leadership will impact the direction of EatReal.

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

Lawrence Williams: We are currently in the process of finalizing and rolling out our updated certification standards, which we’re calling REAL 3.0. For the first time, this new certification will include numerous levels of certification (REAL, Silver, Gold and Platinum), which will allow for a deeper dive on some of the more complicated issues. We are also hosting the Eat REAL Roundtable and Eat REAL Kitchen Sausalito next week, where we will gather industry and NGO leaders for a two-day working group to weigh in and finalize the standards. 

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

LW: This is an exciting time for EatREAL! We just completed a merger with another nonprofit (The Institute for Responsible Nutrition), and are working through incorporating their board and leadership team into our organization, as well as the creation of a scientific advisory board to inform our standards. We are also in the final stages of hiring on a new CEO, who will be able to step in and scale our certification program to meet our growing demands. In the next year or two, we are going to work on expanding our consumer-facing brand and expand our footprint with the REAL 3.0.

DG: What does your team look like?

LW: We are a small and self-motivated team distributed between Washington, DC, Nashville, Chicago and San Francisco, supported by a nationwide network of registered dietitians. With fewer than ten people running a nationwide certification program, everyone here wears many hats.

DG: What does your company culture look like? How have you built your company culture?

LW: We have tried hard to act and operate more like a scrappy startup than a typical not-for-profit organization. Even though we are a non-profit, we try to function as a mission-driven business, not a charity.

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

LW: We spend a lot of time making sure we bring in the right cultural fit and we have weekly all-team meetings.

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?

LW: Externally, the biggest challenge in scaling has been working with the foodservice industry, which can be challenging because generally speaking the hours are very long and margins quite small.

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

LW: Working with EatREAL to help transform our food system provides an opportunity to make a make a huge difference on what is probably the issue of our time. Food is integrally linked to the health of all people and the planet.  

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

LW: We are currently hiring a new CEO, which, as you might imagine, is quite pivotal for the development of the organization.  This new leadership will determine the direction of EatREAL in the coming years – for a non-profit at this stage in its lifecycle, the input of our new CEO has the clout to fundamentally influence our brand recognition within the marketplace and to consumers.

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?

LW: Working for EatREAL offers an opportunity to dive into the flow of an active and expanding organization while still being supported by your teammates.  Here, a new hire or a new graduate will be able to explore a variety of avenues within the nonprofit world in order to discover which of their areas of interest are the most applicable and enjoyable in practice.   

DG: What’s your favorite interview question?

LW: What motivates you to want to join our team?

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

LW: There is no denying that food is a hot-button issue across the board right now.  It is a dynamic time to be involved in the industry as we are confronted daily with new developments, policies, science, and research.  What’s more is that food culture is inextricably linked to a variety of different issues and industries – whether on the side of social dialogue around such topics as race, socioeconomic status, and disease, or around industries such as distribution, education, and technology. As such a central component to our daily lives, food serves as an intellectual and ideological hub for people from many backgrounds and industries to converge and exchange ideas and information.

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

The post Eat REAL Creates Market-Based Incentives For Healthy, Sustainable Food appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Dishes that promote more sustainable food systems: (clockwise from upper left) Bone marrow & parsley salad, St. John; beet infused asian carp, Miya’s; carrot tartare, Eleven Madison Park; rotation risotto, Blue Hill.

In the recent history of fine dining, there have been a handful of notable dishes that transcend the table and make a statement about how our food system should operate. To name a few:

• Nose-to-Tail, Circa 1994: Chef Fergus Henderson, of St. John in London, opens his restaurant and becomes a vocal proponent of nose-to-tail eating. He turns bone marrow into a luxury dish and delights farmers and butchers everywhere by getting the public to celebrate more parts of the animal, reducing food waste and bringing additional income to those who make meat.
• Invasavorism, c.2010: Chef Bun Lai, of Miya’s Sushi in New Haven, Connecticut, starts serving invasive species — like Lionfish, Asian Carp, and Knotweed — on his menu as a way to use aquatic bycatch and to strengthen the local food system.
• Plant “Proteins”, c.2012: Chef Daniel Humm, of Eleven Madison Park in New York City, mesmerizes diners with a beef-tartare-inspired dish entirely made from carrots. The dish is served tableside with your server grinding whole carrots through a meat grinder.
• Rotational Dining, c.2013: Chef Dan Barber, of Blue Hill in New York, creates his seminal, “Rotation Risotto” dish. A mix of “soil-supporting grains and legumes, cooked and presented in the manner of a classic risotto,” it’s a delicious plate that reinforces rotational agriculture that’s better for the soil.

All of these chefs have used their platforms as restaurateurs and influencers to promote mindful deliciousness. For those lucky enough to have been to these restaurants, the ability to dine on something so pleasurable while supporting sustainability feels like you’re getting away with something.

But we (eaters, cooks, farmers, food makers, food media, etc.) can’t let the kind of food you see at those restaurants start and end there. For every cupcake, avocado toast or cronut that catches on like wildfire, we need more dishes that feature offal, bycatch, plant based foods and rotation crops to also dominate menus everywhere.

The above examples are dishes that only a tiny fraction of the world can experience. In their current form, they may never scale beyond the small group they were designed for. It’s great that these chefs have a media platform to talk about the ideas underlying these dishes, but the food system by-and-large doesn’t feed people like this. Outside of major metro areas there are many who have never heard of these chefs and their ideas.

How might we democratize the most high-minded food ideals practiced in Michelin starred kitchens so that everyone can have them? I’m not talking about lobes of foie gras topped with quenelles of caviar, but dishes like Rotation Risotto, which promotes rotational agriculture and biodiversity.

How do we get someone like General Mills to put Rotation Risotto in every Wal-Mart? How do we get Tyson to make offal a billion dollar consumer product? How do we get Red Lobster to serve bycatch? How do we get McDonald’s to put a veggie burger on the menu in America?

We at the Future Market explored this question with our Crop Crisp prototype product. With Crop Crisps, a mass-market cracker was made in four flavors where each flavor was based on a crop in a four-crop wheat rotation.

Crop Crisps are the CPG version of the Rotation Risotto, in cracker form. While our limited edition run was handmade in Brooklyn, the design of the box suggests a mass produced product similar to what you see in a Wal-Mart or Costco. We did this intentionally because we wanted to show what it would look like when progressive ideas make it into the mainstream, like how a Gucci sweater can eventually trickle down to the Gap.

Crop Crisps: a Future Market concept product. Each cracker flavor is based on a different crop from the same four-crop rotational planting.

Great new dishes with the power to shift the food system will always emerge from places like Blue Hill and Eleven Madison Park. But to truly shift the food system we have to move these ideas to the masses.

Everyday eaters can help these dishes make the jump into the mainstream. How? Next time you’re at a butcher shop, ask for an “off” cut of meat. Any butcher worth their salt will eagerly talk you through how to prepare it. Next time you’re eating something with a great story like Rotation Risotto, share the story on your social networks, not just a FOMO-inducing beauty shot.

It may sound like a series of small actions, but remember that the cupcake, avocado toast and cronut all caught on after a steadily growing stream of social posts. These trends tend to go viral once an editor at Food & Wine decides to write about why their Instagram feed is covered in avocado toast, but it all starts with the people making noise.

We as eaters have the power to decide what the next food trends are. Isn’t it time we start promoting more trends that can impact the food system?

This is also posted at The Future Market.

The post Good Food, Trickling Down appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Guest post by Civil Eats. The opinions expressed are not necessarily the opinions of Food+Tech Connect. 

Like many of you, we feel heartbroken in the wake of this election, and our ideals as a country are being challenged. However, a new resolve has also emerged, like a phoenix rising from the ashes of this contentious campaign cycle. We see those around us pivoting and making personal commitments to new kinds of work to improve the lives of all Americans.

Journalism will play an important role over next four years and we believe that now more than ever we need to tell the stories of those who have been marginalized in our society, and those who are working to make change. We need to break down complex policy changes and shine a light on the people and elements of the natural world they impact the most. And with Trump’s transition team pledging to actively “fighting the so-called good food movement and undoing Obama-era agricultural and environmental policies,” now is the time to remember why this work matters.

When we founded Civil Eats in 2009, our idea was to support a growing community of people who were concerned about our food system. We wanted to profile people changing the food system from the ground up as well as covering Washington and the policy that has impacted what we eat.

We focused on individuals making change in their everyday lives because we believed that change truly happens on the ground. From sustainable agricultural practices, food justice, and nutrition, to state and federal policy, Civil Eats has reported on the most important food and agriculture stories of our time. And the site has become a trusted news source producing meaningful, nuanced content, which is overlooked in our current media landscape. It’s for these reasons that we were awarded the James Beard Foundation’s Publication of the Year in 2014.

Since then, Civil Eats has continued to break important food policy news and spark positive change. The site was the first to break the news that FDA will start testing for glyphosate in food. And it was the first national news site to report on the Navajo Nation’s new junk food tax (with media partner Mother Jones) and helped catalyze a conversation about dietitians rallying against Kraft’s new seal on its Singles.

The team has reported extensively on pesticide exposure and worker health, the move toward antibiotic-free meant and cage-free eggs, the impact of additives in food such as emulsifiers on human health, the fight for fair wages for food workers, and on the value of biodiversity on farms.

And unique in the food media space, Civil Eats has had an ongoing mission to cover issues of diversity and food justice in our reporting, and it has actively sought out reporters and commentators and leaders of color. We believe these very issues are at the very heart of the divide in our country today, and we will continue to create a platform for much-needed dialogue and discussion on race and food.

Like America, Civil Eats is now at a crossroads. As an independent media outlet, we’ve never taken outside funding or advertising. Instead, we rely on support from foundations and our readers, and raising money for good reporting is getting harder every day. Our current president-elect ran a campaign that consistently maligned the media, and some say social media and the misinformation spread there won him the presidency. Some smart people fear that good journalism is not long for this world.

We know that’s not true. We need good journalism now more than ever as many of the policies that have improved the food system over the past eight years will likely be challenged in new ways. We want to be there to hold this administration accountable, but we need your support in order to do that. Today, Americans need to be more creative than ever before when it comes building a better country for all, and the food movement holds so many shining examples. We hope that Civil Eats can continue to cover these and other important stories.

Please consider attending our first, in-person benefit in San Francisco on Tuesday, November 29, donating, and signing up for an annual subscription if you have not yet done so. We need your support now more than ever.

Together, we hope to continue to speak truth to power and fight for a better food system for all.

The post What Happens Next in the Food Movement is Why Civil Eats Matters appeared first on Food+Tech Connect.

Guest post by Dr. Robyn Metcalfe, director/founder of Food+City

The digital revolution is on track to completely transform our food system.  We’re not the only ones who think so: technology companies such as IBM, entrepreneurs such as Jorge Heraud, and philanthropists such as Bill Gates all agree that we are only beginning to see big changes in how we produce and consume food.  We can’t wait to see what develops. Our 2016 Food+City Challenge Prize plans to witness the revelation of this new revolution.

In 1750, Scientific Agriculture in Britain launched the beginning of a dramatic increase in food production. It was scientific because it depended upon measuring, improving and creating new technology. Jethro Tull, the inventor of the seed drill was among those who optimized the use of land. By the mid-1800s,  another revolution occurred, the Industrial Revolution, when inventors applied new technologies such as steam power to enable humans to make things by machine rather than by hand. Food traveled to cities by rail, transforming food distribution throughout the world.  During the early 19th century, we felt the impact of the Technological Revolution when steam, electricity, other technologies made it possible to grow, process, and deliver food at scale. All three of these revolutions depended upon entrepreneurs who discovered new technologies and opportunities to improve our food system.

Now, with the Internet of Things and the digital revolution promising as yet undiscovered applications, we have a food revolution in the making.  We’re not the only ones anxious to see how technology, in the hands of smart entrepreneurs, will change our food system. Food+Tech Connect has plenty of food startup workshops and programs to launch enthusiastic food entrepreneurs. Food incubators and startup competitions are sprouting everywhere. Thought for Food, offers $10K in prizes for student and young professionals food startup teams; 33 Entrepreneurs from Bordeaux, France is actively supporting food entrepreneurs with a competition for a $100,000 prize; Bon Appetech hosts an event that awards prizes to 10 food startups, and in Italy, Barilla’s YES BCFN has an annual competition for food startups that rewards winners with 10,000 euros.

We suggest a fresh and bold perspective. One that’s out of the box: the big box grocery store, boxed food storage, and the boundaries implied by the structure of any box. Our food system is organizing a market-driven revolt from an older-technology-driven food system to one that is the Internet of Food. The production, storage, transport, processing, and preparation, design, and consumption of food is a network that begs for a systemic solution. We can’t fiddle with one end of our food system without feeling a ripple at the other end.

Our Food+City Challenge Prize encourages entrepreneurs throughout the system. Applications of technology to solve freight system management, testing of perishable commodities, payment and investing in food, delivery and distribution hardware and software, smart kitchens, storage lockers, light and energy systems for enclosed growing systems. The potential for systems integration is huge. And the requirement for ideas that scale is even more critical.

Everyone is moving to cities. We focus on cities as the place for innovation. Cities are dense, highly populated landscapes where improvements in our food system can have their greatest impacts. Cities are an agglomeration of interests that require mutual adaptation and cooperation. And standards. The home+work proximity begs for solutions that integrate life in the workplace and with personal space. High land values in urban centers demand a food system that optimizes small spaces with larger agricultural spaces.

The Food+City Challenge Prize invites all these ideas to compete on February 6th, 2016. The ecosystem of food startup incubators and competitions can work together, engaging entrepreneurs around the globe to think systematically, if not revolutionarily, to discover how this new food system will best serve our increasingly urban global population.

Submit your online application for the Food+City Challenge Prize by October 15. Learn more and apply here. 

Desert running and a PB&J sandwich—what connects these topics? A tenacious curiosity to see what you can learn by just jumping in! The same sense of wonder that called Food+City Director Robyn Metcalfe to run the great deserts of the world has led her to take on the task of mapping our current food supply. A historian, desert distance runner, and food futurist with a lifelong hunger to take on irrational challenges, Robyn Metcalfe marvels at what it takes to simply create a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

The post Food+City Challenge Prize Supports the Good Food Revolution 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.

______________

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.

 

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.