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September 24 · Issue #4 · View online
Dedicated to curating tech products and startups solving the world's most pressing problems, including climate change, pollution, and sustainability.
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Hi guys, It’s Aleks & Andrea here!
In the next couple of decades, the world’s population will reach almost 10 billion, it’s getting kinda crowded in here and the demand for food is growing exponentially!
There’s no denying that our global agricultural systems will have to radically transform to avoid further environmental and social problems, the question is, what are the best approaches and how can tech help us achieve them?
In this week’s newsletter, we highlight the latest research and companies that are trying to create sustainable food ecosystem around the world.
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Globally, food and agriculture are a $7.8 trillion industry. At the same time, they are one of the largest sources of environmental impact, with around 1.3 billion tons of food and packaging waste produced every year. Furthermore, agriculture contributes to water scarcity, soil degradation and the destruction of biodiversity. The farming crisis: what’s at stake
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Arvegenix: Developing a new cash-crop called pennycress that can be added to field rotations between corn & soybeans. The winter cover crop protects the soil from erosion and soaks up nitrogen pollution - while providing income for farmers.
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BrightFarms: Building and operating greenhouses in urban and suburban areas to meet booming demand for hyper-local produce. They have partnered with supermarkets such as Giant, ACME and Pick ‘n Save to bring the farm to your nearest store to maximise its freshness.
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mOasis: Non-toxic gel-like soil additive that help seeds get farther on less water.
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RipeIO: Blockchain technology for the food supply chain. Its algorithms crunch data to calculate sustainability scores, as well as scores for spoilage and safety levels.
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Trace Genomics: 23andMe for soil health: uses machine learning and genomic testing, it can ID microbes and other biological data in soil, helping farmers maximise yields.
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Did you know that the livestock industry potentially emits up to 18% of greenhouse gases? There’s gotta be a better way. What if we could grow enough meat in a lab to satisfy at least some of the world’s meat demand, and at the same time solve all the problems of animal welfare and environmental impact? The future of meat is cheaper, faster and more environmentally friendly.
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Inside the Quest to Make Lab Grown Meat | WIRED - YouTube
Could lab-grown burgers be the food of the future? Lab-grown meat. Clean meat. Cultured meat. ‘In vitro ’ meat. In the future, “meats” do not have to come directly from animals, but instead can be grown from animal cells in the labs. Production of cell-cultured meat involves retrieving a live animal’s adult muscle stem cells and setting them in a nutrient-rich liquid. Proponents claim future techniques could allow these cells to make many burgers without collecting more cells from an animal. Lab-grown meat could reduce greenhouse emissions by 78-96%. The base technology needed to produce laboratory meat is already there and appears promising. At the moment, there are a handful of global start-ups working on high-tech meat alternatives. Memphis Meats, Hampton Creek, Just, Finless Foods, SuperMeat (Israel), and Mosa Meat (The Netherlands)and Beyond Meat are a few of the companies working on it. Thanks to them, we may be witnessing the start of the next food revolution: cellular agriculture. How soon will we be eating a real meat burger made using technology, while leaving the animals alone? Well, we already have proof that artificial burgers are possible — in 2013, the first lab-grown hamburger was cooked. The experiment took two years and cost as much as $325,000, financed by the Google co-founder Sergey Brin. The burger was created by Cultured Beef, a project of the Maastricht University in the Netherlands headed by Mark Post, a specialist in tissue engineering. The next steps were a cookbook and a fictitious restaurant with a “menu of in vitro dishes that may one day end up on your plate”. As the first lab-grown burger demonstrates, this technology is advancing, but the horizon of commercialising clean meet is still far from clear. One of the main questions now is whether these startups can get the funding, regulatory approval, and consumer acceptance necessary to market their products on a global scale? Cultured meat may have environmental and ethical appeal, but its success in the marketplace depends on far more than technological and economic viability. Forget your steak, the future of meat is 3D Kitchen and food waste can be dramatically reduced with 3-D printing. Every aspect of eating–from how food looks, to the nutrition it delivers, to the impact it makes on our environment–is being transformed by the 3-D printing industry. That includes, death-free meat. These vegan steaks being printed by Jet Eat are designed to emulate the appearance, texture, taste, and reaction to heat of actual beef. |
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Boston is a city that has been breeding multitudes of technologies disrupting food and agriculture. The city has become a hub of food and farm startups that are working towards creating more sustainable food systems.
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Here are two of the city’s most notorious startups revolutionizing the food supply:
Makes seed treatments that help seeds resist high temperatures or drought conditions. The results so far include a 10 percent increase in crop yields across the board. The company has raised $250 million in new venture capital investments, one of the largest funding rounds for a private company in Massachusetts in 2018. A company that creates shipping containers decked out with enough hydroponics equipment and tools to produce two to four tons of produce a year, in any climate or location. Whether you’re on a lot of concrete or pavement, you won’t need good soil, which is what most urban areas are short on. |
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These hubs across the world are seeking the next big break on food innovation:
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Chobani Incubator: Based in New York, it runs a four-month program for food startups, including working together on-site with its team members. Has a focus on building sustainable business and nutrition/food labelling.
Terra Accelerator: Based in San Francisco, it combines RocketSpace’s global tech ecosystem and startup network with Rabobank’s food + agribusiness expertise. They focus on startups that are seed funded and ready to launch in both food-tech and ag-tech.
H-Farm: Based in Italy, they’ve partnered with Cisco, to invest in early-stage startups that are developing innovative solutions for the food and agriculture industry.
The Good Kitchen: A London-based social enterprise accelerator that supports entrepreneurs tackling food poverty all over the world.
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Which one creates more greenhouse gas: transportation or animal production? Gerardo Urbina gave his answer based on some data and facts. He talked about his reason why and how he decided to be a vegan and indicated the possibility to create a food revolution with science and technology.
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Sustainable Food: Let's Start a Revolution! | Gerardo Urbina | TEDxNagoyaU - YouTube
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World Economic Forum on Twitter: "Banning plastic bags and straws is a drop in the ocean. Here's what else we need to do
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Your feedback means a lot to us. 💚Let’s connect on twitter and let us know what you think or email us at: planettechnewsletter@gmail.com. 🌎 Till next week, Aleksandra, Andrea, and Jessica. 💚
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