Agtech Action | Week of 04.02.22 - 04.08.22
Agtech Action is a weekly newsletter highlighting current events in the world of agtech, and some light-hearted commentary
Will the new SEC rules upend the SPAC craze, the vegan mafia and Beyond Meat, and Walmart raises wages for truck drivers. British Airways begins indoor farming, Pinterest bans climate ‘misinformation’ and the world food price index rises.
The theme of the agtech week is waste—that includes poop. A lot of talk lately about how food and ag should mitigate waste (e.g. food waste, packaging, etc.) but I would like to reframe that into how waste can be repurposed for new value. If you are quesy about poop talk, don’t read this week’s newsletter during dinner. Enjoy.
Food and the World:
SCOTUS to take up case challenging California's Prop 12
Farmers expect to slash corn acreage, increase soybeans
USDA Encourages Enrollment of Grassland into Working Land Conservation
U.S. Considers Vaccines to Protect Poultry from Deadly Bird Flu
Rain and Snow Bring Moisture and Slow Planting
What In-Season Plant Tissue Tests Can Tell You About Fertility
Vilsack Sees ‘No Significant’ Gains from Opening Conservation Reserve
California has driest January through March in 100 years
Rising fuel costs deliver another shock to overtaxed trucking sector
Ag Poll: War in Ukraine Means Higher U.S. Farm Costs
Bird Flu Losses may be Significantly less than 2014-2015 Epidemic, says Vilsack
¼ of Africa’s population facing a food security crisis (0:00 mark)
Basis for Cattle Could Shift from June Discount to June Premium to Cash
Russian Invasion Continues to Take its Toll on all Ag Sectors in Ukraine
Restaurant, ‘hard-hit’ business aid shelved in Senate, for now
Food prices to rise 4.5% to 5% this year (0:00 mark)
China to buy More Pork for Reserves as Prices Slump
USDA Raises World Corn Stocks, Beating Trade Expectations
FSIS Asked to Recall Beef Over Failed Antibiotic Tests
What changed when Ugandan farmers rated input quality and local vendor services
Ethiopia: Aid convoy enters territory controlled by Tigrayan forces
World food price index up 12.5% (0:00 mark)
Steakhouses continue to grow (1:05 mark)
Walmart raises wages for in-house truckers (0:35 mark)
Agtech in the News:
Animal protein started it, will plant-based end it? (great take on plant-fed and plant-based proteins from Janette Barnard)
Singapore scientists working on better ways to produce healthier plant-based food
Ex-Monsanto scientist gets 29-month sentence for espionage
Impossible Foods Tests a Tastes-Like-Meat Patent in Court
ClearLeaf announces distribution agreement in C. America (a Sustainable Agtech Challenge finalist and winner)
World’s biggest tropical crop bank opens in Colombia, taking food research high tech
Start-ups in Africa have raised $1.8b in Q1-22, 2.5x the amount raised in Q1-21
Benson Hill cuts deal to supply soy to Kellogg's MorningStar Farms
Cell-Based Meats Need An Ideal Matrix To Grow On
Alternative proteins ‘will not save the planet’ report warns
Kalera opens vertical farming facility in Denver
Why the Pesticide Shortage Could Alter the Way Farmers Do Business
Confusing a user with a beneficiary in the messy middle
Urban greenhouse firm Gotham Greens set to double its footprint this year
Ynsect expands to the US with mealworm farm addition
Food processing wastewater can serve as fertilizer in seaweed cultivation
EU approves four GM crops for use in feed and food
The Better Meat Co. to debut mycelium foie gras
British Airways to start airport farming
Climatech Precision Robotics Company Announces $80 Million Cash Infusion
Fun:
3 new ways to empower your entrepreneurial community
Poop-to-pots are no gimmick (check in with Manure Challenge finalists CowPots)
A Legacy Watermelon Farmer Turned NASCAR Cup Race Winner
Pizza more expensive than a subway ticket in the Big Apple (0:40 mark)
Helpful Resources:
Drug Enforcement Administration issues a warning: This episode of Around Farm Progress connects with DEA about the danger of counterfeit opioid pills flooding the market, and what it means
PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor First Look
Interesting Reads:
Space lettuce: UC Davis engineering plants to correct bone loss during space travel
Tobacco has new role to play in cultivated meat production - Israeli biotech says
Did The ‘Vegan Mafia’ Overhype Beyond Meat Stock?
Pinterest bans climate misinformation from posts and ads
What we learned from the Big Oil hearing
The 12 Most Unforgettable Descriptions of Food in Literature
Market with a mission: non-profit grocery stores help heal ‘food deserts’
Companies race to count CO2 ahead of SEC climate rule
Big Apps Made a Meal Out of Local Restaurants. Food Delivery Co-Ops Are Fighting Back.
Wind energy hits a milestone: 2nd highest source electricity (1:05 mark)
The controversial biofuel threatening British Columbia’s forests
The return of ‘good fire’ to eastern U.S. forests and grasslands
IFPA urges final action on ocean shipping reform
Is Agriculture Ready for Autonomous Tractors?
Livestock Manure Demand Increases
India's sugar sales to race to record high as summer demand peaks
UK farmers call for weedkiller ban over Parkinson’s fears
Green Cover and Partners Expand Free Seed Program to Encourage Crop Diversity on U.S. Farms
Conservation Practices--A Ginsu Knife for Agriculture
SXSW 2022: Building the Sustainable Startups of the Future
Distrust in science threatens progress
Vilsack Says Only 1.8 Mil. of 4 Mil. Expiring CRP Acres Will Be Re-Enrolled
U.S. Farmers Plant More Sunflowers as Ukraine War Curbs Supply
Zimbabweans abroad switch to food delivery apps to help family at home
U.S. EPA Denies 36 Refinery Biofuel Waivers; Gives Most of them Some Relief
No poop for you: Manure supplies run short as fertilizer prices soar
Finance:
Proposed SEC rules would upend SPACs' special status (be aware agtech startups!)
Omnivore launches new $130M venture fund focused on agritech and climate sustainability
Utah pension directly acquires Louisiana farmland for $37M
Venture capital fund invests in regenerative brands
Australia’s carbon market faces increased scrutiny
Warakirri buys stone fruit assets for Farmland Fund
Paine Schwartz, Mitsui, Rabo Complete 50 Pct Ownership Deal with Hendrix Genetics
3Bar Biologics, Rizobacter to Collaborate on Testing Fermentation Technology in Argentina
Social commerce platform Tushop set for Kenya growth after raising $3 million pre-seed funding
Umiami Bags $30 Million Series A Investment For Plant-Based Chicken
Season Health raises $34 million in Series A funding
Treeswift is using drones to monitor forests
Gates Foundation, Qatar Fund pledge $200m for climate-adaptive agriculture
IntegriCulture debuts animal serum-free tech to radically reduce cultivated meat costs
Farmland LP completes second fund, raises over $130 million
Better Origin banks $16m in Balderton-led Series A for its AI insect mini-farms
Proterra extends post-fire loan to support Deli Star relocation
Theme of the Agtech Week: Waste — Turning Trash into Treasure
I could not help but notice the array of fertilizer/manure articles this week. The authors of some of these articles suggest utilizing animal poop as a replacement with a looming shortage of fertilizer inputs and downstream products (see Russia). And while those stories per se are noteworthy, they illustrate a bigger topic to dive deeper into for this week’s newsletter—waste. Waste is a particularly timely topic in food, especially when we talk about the amount of food waste—from groceries, restaurants, etc.—or the packaging associated with popular food brands and products that we consume. But we often do not look much further upstream the food and ag value chain than the consumer side when we search for waste.
For example, processing chicken is extremely water intensive (I believe it is several gallons per head of chicken). When you look at soybean processing, 30% of the bean is composed of carbohydrates (soluble and insoluble), most of which is wasted. I highlight those examples not to criticize chicken processing or soybean processing, but to emphasize the point that waste is merely hidden or un-utilized value. Think about if we could filter, re-process that water in chicken plants and recycle it or reuse it for other purposes; or if innovators developed novel techniques to process the waste carbohydrate in soybean into high value, nutritional products.
The task of an agtech startup is developing a solution to an existing problem. Waste in the food and ag value chain presents enormous opportunities for innovators to solve a problem, create new value and get some funding to scale that solution. Waste not, want not.
Thanks for tuning in and please share our newsletter.
BD
Brandon Day is the Chief Operating Officer of The Yield Lab Institute, the global agtech think-tank, non-profit arm of The Yield Lab global network of venture capital funds and accelerator programs. The views, opinions and commentary expressed are solely those of Brandon Day.