"We founded it with a vision that the agrifood market was going to go through a deep disruption that was needed to move from a system that was delivering cheap calories, to a system that would be able to deliver affordable nutrients," Archambeau tells AgFunderNews on a new episode of the Future Food podcast.

Fast forward to today and the European firm has made around 40 investments across the suppy chain and recently announced the closing of its second fund on €360 million.

Hear Eric talk about when and where exits will come to the industry -- something so many of us are wondering! How agrifoodtech fits into the impact investing world, and much more!

For those of you who aren't knowledgeable about the fertilizer industry, Amy gives a great description. Enjoy this episode with a powerhouse of agtech, Amy Yoder.

It raised $4.6 million for its April 2019 seed round, which saw Y Combinator make its first-ever investment in a ‘clean meat’ company.

Last year, Shiok Meats netted $3 million in bridge funding from investors including UK firms Agronomics and Impact Venture, US trust VegInvest, and UAE-based Mindshift Capital, before closing a $12.6 million Series A round led by Dutch aquaculture-focused fund Aqua-Spark.

The Future Food News Review features leading journalists in foodtech and agtech sharing and discussing their top headlines of the week, hosted on Clubhouse.

See below for a list of participating journalists and the articles they introduced; some of them joined purely for the discussion and debate. 

We always strive for diverse voices on Future Food News Review, so if you're a journalist covering food systems, agtech or foodtech, or know someone who is that would make a great edition, please reach out to danielle@foodtechconnect.com or louisa@agfunder.com.

Sonalie Figueiras - Green Queen Media

• Article: Food System Change: ‘Who’s Making Decisions, Who’s Benefiting, Who’s Gaining The Wealth?’ Errol Schweizer’s Got Questions

Errol Schweizer - Forbes/TheCheckOut 

• Article: How New York City Delivery Workers Are Rewriting The Rules Of Gig Work
• Article: Not Just Junk: Why We Need To Re-Think Food Processing

Louisa Burwood-Taylor - AFN

• Article: Bowery bags ‘biggest-ever’ vertical farming raise with $300m Series C
• Podcast: Up, up and away! Irving Fain on building Bowery's biggest vertical farm yet

Chloe Sorvino - Forbes

• Article: JBS Cyberattack Shines A Spotlight On The Biggest Risk To Big Meat: Consolidation

Jenn Marston - The Spoon

• Article: Tesla May Soon Open Its Own Restaurant

Sam Silverstein - Grocery Dive

• Article: Amazon to open its first Fresh supermarket with checkout-free technology

Kristen Hawley - Eater

• Article: Delivery Apps Are Making Concessions to Restaurants. But Who Pays?

Thin Lei Win - ThinInk

The Future Food News Review features leading journalists in foodtech and agtech sharing and discussing their top headlines of the week, hosted on Clubhouse.

See below for a list of participating journalists and the articles they introduced; some of them joined purely for the discussion and debate. 

We always strive for diverse voices on Future Food News Review, so if you're a journalist covering food systems, agtech or foodtech, or know someone who is that would make a great edition, please reach out to danielle@foodtechconnect.com or louisa@agfunder.com.

Esther Honig - The Nation

• Article: The Story Behind Your Salad: Farmworkers, Covid-19, and a Dangerous Commute

Sonalie Figueiras - Green Queen Media

• Article: Cell-Cultured Meat Pioneer Memphis Meats Is Now UPSIDE Foods, First Chicken Product To Launch This Year Pending Reg. Approval

Errol Schweizer - Forbes/TheCheckOut 

• Article: What Questions Should We Be Asking about Cultured Meats?
• Article: How Fast Food Workers Are Finally Getting $15 an Hour

Elaine Watson - Food NavigatorUSA

• Article: Brave New Animal Free World

Joe Fassler - The Counter

• Article: Regenerative Agriculture Needs a Reckoning

 Luke Winkie - Vox

• Article: Right-wing coffee companies want to make coffee great again

Louisa Burwood-Taylor - AFN

• Article: Ginkgo Bioworks to go public at $15bn valuation as agrifood SPAC frenzy continues

Chloe Sorvino - Forbes

Bettina Makalintal - VICE

Challenges lie ahead. Energy efficiency and costs are still battles to contend with and other vertical farming groups have struggled to live up to their promises of international expansion. But Bowery founder and CEO Irving Fain has an answer for everything.

If you're a vertical farming enthusiast, or a newbie keen to learn about this exciting industry, this episode will take you on a journey of Bowery's founding, why they decided to build all their technology in-house, their growth plans, how they're breaking into new crops and digging into crop genetics to do so, and the overall mission and hopes for the industry at-large. 

Enjoy!

"At some point, most of the compounds have been made, have been tested and it becomes harder and harder to really introduce new products that are significantly better than what's already there," says Dr. Marijn Dekkers, the former CEO of the world's biggest ag chemicals and seeds business Bayer.
"New ways of controlling diseases and insects have dropped off a cliff over the last 20 years," adds Eric Ward, the CEO of AgBiome, a startup working on creating crop protection products using naturally-occurring microbes.

Microbes, they say, are the next frontier for crop protection.

Listen to this podcast (or read the transcript) to find out why Dekkers joined the board of AgBiome, his views on the agchemicals industry today, and how AgBiome is approaching this challenging space with backing from high profile investors like the BIll & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The journalists joining this week are:

Ximena Bustillo - POLITICO (https://www.politico.com/newsletters/weekly-agriculture)

Sam Silverstein - Grocery Dive (https://www.grocerydive.com/news/amazon-unveils-aplenty-its-newest-private-label-food-brand/598223/)

Leah Douglas - FERN (https://www.motherjones.com/food/2021/04/a-year-later-conditions-for-many-food-workers-at-high-risk-of-covid-19-remain-the-same/)

Jenn Marston - The Spoon (https://thespoon.tech/restaurants-breakup-with-single-use-plastics-has-begun/)

Lela Nargi - The Counter (https://thecounter.org/funding-investment-plant-based-proteins-meat-consumption/)

Chloe Sorvino - Forbes (https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2021/04/15/maker-of-mushroom-sourced-bacon-raises-40-million-to-reach-grocers-at-scale/?sh=498070b472d1)

Louisa Burwood-Taylor - AFN (https://agfundernews.com/grab-confirms-record-breaking-40bn-spac-deal-archrival-gojek-nears-18bn-merger.html)

Errol Schweizer - Forbes/TheCheckOut (https://www.thecheckoutradio.com/podcast/episode42-ufcw)

Elaine Watson - Food NavigatorUSA

Megan Poinski - Food Dive

Sign up for the Food+Tech Connect newsletter here

Sign up for the AgFunder Weekly newsletter and research here

Joe Fassler - The Counter (https://thecounter.org/agrivoltaics-farmland-solar-panels-clean-energy-crops/)

Sarah Mock - freelance (https://sarah-k-mock.medium.com/no-your-great-grandfather-did-not-know-how-to-fix-our-food-system-83775d4f1852)

Larissa Zimberoff - Bloomberg and freelance (https://technicallyfood.substack.com/p/gene-editing-our-precious-tomato)

Sonalie Figueras - Green Queen Media (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-impossible-foods-m-a-exclusive-idUSKBN2BV2SF)

Alicia Kennedy - Eater and freelance (https://www.eater.com/22315684/vegan-cheese-history-ingredients-process-grocery-brands)

Kristen Hawley - Expedite (https://www.expedite.news/p/tock-to-squarespace-for-400-million)

Elaine Watson - Food NavigatorUSA (https://tinyurl.com/35sa4rv3)

Ximena Bustillo - POLITICO

Megan Poinski - Food Dive

Errol Schweizer - Forbes and TheCheckout Podcast

But how exactly is the company going to achieve this? And what role does technology play across its convoluted supply chain globally?

The weekly Future Food News Review features leading journalists in foodtech and agtech sharing and discussing their top headlines of the week, hosted on Clubhouse. This was our second edition and featured:

• ~ Kim Severson, The New York Times
• ~ Chloe Sorvino, Forbes
• ~ Greenaway, Twilight, Civil Eats
• ~ Megan Poinski, Food Dive
• ~ Kate Cox, The Counter
• ~ Cathy Erway, New York Magazine
• ~ Kristen Hawley, Expedite
• ~ Monica Watrous, Food Business News
• ~ Brett Anderson, NYT
• ~ Sonalie Figueiras, Green Queen Media
• ~ Leah Douglas, The Food & Environment Reporting Network
• ~ Jennifer Marston, The Spoon
• ~ Errol Schweizer, Forbes
• ~ Elaine Watson, FoodNavigator

Expect a nuanced conversation about alternative proteins, picking up on news about Eat JUST's $200m funding round and consumer survey, the approval of the organic label for hydroponically-grown produce, how farmers are responding to the pandemic-induced restaurant industry shutdown in choosing what to plant, how states are rolling out Covid-19 vaccines for food system workers,  how junk food companies are using TikTok to advertise to young people, and many more!

We're still testing out this format and would love to hear your suggestions for great journalists for us to include to ensure we're bringing diversity of thought to the headlines discussed.

👋 Join us every Friday at 7a PDT on Clubhouse

Featured articles this week:

https://agfundernews.com/eat-just-raises-200m-from-qatar-sovereign-wealth-fund-microsoft-cofounder.html

https://agfundernews.com/just-how-this-startup-became-the-first-to-serve-cell-cultured-meat-in-a-restaurant-podcast.html

https://www.fooddive.com/news/7-in-10-us-consumers-would-substitute-cell-based-chicken-for-that-from-an-a/597298/

 ​https://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Article/2021/03/24/Alternative-proteins-will-account-for-11-of-global-protein-market-by-2035-predicts-report

 https://thecounter.org/farmer-spring-planting-palisade-peaches-colorado-california/

 https://agfundernews.com/hydroponic-produce-can-be-certified-organic-us-federal-court.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/23/dining/independent-restaurant-coalition-stimulus-money.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytfood

 https://civileats.com/2021/03/22/are-junk-food-companies-using-tiktok-influencers-to-target-kids/

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/22/deliveroo-ipo-food-delivery-app-seeks-valuation-of-up-to-12-billion.html

https://thespoon.tech/gopuff-raises-1-5-billion-to-deliver-you-goods-in-under-a-half-hour-around-the-clock/

https://www.grubstreet.com/2021/03/philip-chong-canal-street-market-chinatown.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/errolschweizer/2021/03/23/how-new-york-city-is-revolutionizing-good-food-policy/?sh=301b5d43779e

• how EAT JUST managed to get regulatory approval ahead of other cultivated meat startups
• from plant-based to cell culturing
• how investors reached a $1bn valuation for the company
• new formats in the pipeline
• advice for entrepreneurs 
• Josh's moonshot idea

So we decided to co-host an episode with Infarm's two cofounders, and brothers, Guy and Erez Galonska, to dig in to this growth.

Expect to hear about their surprising commitment to sustainability, focus on their core customer -- the retailer -- expansion of their plant science team and evolution of their differentiated business  model.

The time for automation in the food and agriculture industry is now. But are the robots ready to be unleashed?

Our recent webinar with Josh Lessing from RootAI and Igino Cafiero Bear Flag Robotics tackles the inherent challenges of the space, and how to improve it forward in a post-COVID19 world.

Learn more about how these 2 trailblazers are automating harvests in greenhouses (RootAI) and retrofitting existing machinery with autonomous tilage equipment (Bear Flag Robotics), and how they are preparing agriculture as we know it for the new normal.

That’s why we focused the second episode of our new What The Fork?Digitalks by AgFunder series on Asia, and how agrifood businesses and investors here are tackling Covid-19. AgFunder’s hand-picked lineup of thought leaders also shared their thoughts on where the region’s investment landscape is headed as the pandemic eases.

Joining AgFunder founding partner Michael Dean were:

• Anuj Maheshwari, managing director, agribusiness, at Temasek – a Singaporean sovereign fund and top tech investor with close to $222 billion assets under management;
• Suresh Sundararjan, managing director and group head, global corporate services, at Olam – a Singapore-based agribusiness corporation which is a major player in the global food commodity trade;
• Matt Kovac, executive director at Food Industry Asia (FIA) – an advocacy group representing the interests of food manufacturers, producers, and retailers across the region.

We talk about how they moved into the very different world of regenerative agriculture, what regen ag means to them, their first investment – the acquisition of livestock management app PastureMap -- and more generally about where they see the future of our food systems.

Lew and Nick are driving for a more mainstream adaption of regenerative agriculture. They believe it could be the key to remodeling our existing food systems in a healthier and more sustainable way. There are a lot of aspects that need to come together to make the shift to a more regenerative system, so stay tuned to hear about how Lew and Nick believe we can facilitate the change.

When you combine the developing world’s desire to replace staple grains — that have dominated their diets for centuries — with increasing amounts of animal-based protein, with the over-consumption of meat and protein in the developed world, alongside a growing desire in multiple corners of the world to eat fewer animal-based products, there’s clear pressure on the globe’s protein supply.

In this episode, I speak to Sara Eckhouse and Victor Friedberg from FoodShot Global, an investment platform focused on Moonshots for Food. Precision Protein is their new focus area.

They always have a unique take on issues and their view on the protein debate is certainly refreshing and a break from the simplistic meat vs plants take that many have entered into in recent years.

So I hope you enjoy!

Al's company IntelinAir uses images captured from airplanes to help farmers identify problem areas in their fields and make decisions that can reduce the burden of their activities on the environment, such as water usage, pesticide usage and so on. It can also importantly help increase the efficiency and therefore the bottom line of those farming businesses that typically operate on very tight margins.

So I hope you enjoy this farmtech episode and thanks for listening!

This is part of a new series of webinars AgFunder is hosting to navigate the crisis. This first episode features Dave Friedberg, founder of The Climate Corporation, agtech's first unicorn which sold to Monsanto for $1bn, and Blake Stevens, principal at Alexandria Ventures, part of real estate investment juggernaut Alexandria Real Estate (NYSE: ARE) and lead on its agtech efforts. They were joined by myself and my colleague Rob Leclerc, founding partner at AgFunder, one of the most active investors in foodtech and agtech.

These special hour-long sessions are longer than you're used to, but I hope you still find them interesting!

We actually recorded this just as the pandemic was kicking off and before that oat milk rush, so you’ll hear limited conversations about that but what’s really cool is how he answers my typical question on how you view the future food system in 2050; a lot of what he says now feels extra relevant given the challenges Covid-19 has presented and ways in which the food system has had to adapt.

We also talk about his new food ventures which includes a focus on combatting diabetes and how he transitioned from IT to food in the 1990s.

This is an extra special and slightly longer edition of Future Food but please hang in there as there are a lot of great insights! As always, thanks so much for listening.

I catch up with Amanda nearly 5 years after we first met to find out more about the re-brand, the new product line Veles, and the challenges she's faced in building this business.

Of course, our planet continues to face the same environmental challenges it did before the pandemic.

Danone, the French multinational yogurt and dairy products company, certainly agrees; the company, a classified B-Corp, is a frontrunner in the food industry for tackling sustainability issues — recently recognized for its work reducing deforestation — and last year launched a coalition to look into the widespread adoption of regenerative agriculture practices in the dairy sector. 

Working with Danone in that coalition is Connecterra, a Dutch AI startup using data and analytics to help dairy farmers become more efficient. Connecterra is charged with measuring the impact of different farming practices as the coalition looks to create a set of guidelines for farmers at the end of the initiative in two years’ time. (Full disclosure: Connecterra is an AgFunder portfolio company.)

So I sat down today — virtually of course — with Cees Jan Hollander, global director of farm relations at Danone and Yasir Khokhar, CEO of Connecterra, to find out how the coalition “Farming for Generations” is going and check in how Covid-19 is impacting their businesses. If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt aware of the devastating impact Covid-19 is having on the dairy industry after food service demand dried up and you’ve no doubt seen the upsetting videos of large amounts of milk being dumped in the countryside.

Hollander and Khokhar offer some fascinating insights there — hint: consumer demand for milk products has increased dramatically; as Khokhar referenced “breakfast is having a come back with everyone being at home.” We also discuss how the pandemic is accelerating other trends such as a move towards more localized production, which happens to fit neatly into Danone’s existing local production strategy.

We talk about the contrast between launching a cleaning products business and a food business, why food was the next step for him, the key mistakes and lessons learned from Method, how he and his colleagues chose the pea as the key ingredient for their products and his moonshot hope for the food system.

Adam is set to speak in-person at the Future Food-Tech Summit next month in San Francisco - don't miss it! Find out more: https://futurefoodtechsf.com/

Rob first started working with our other founding partner Michael Dean when they set up an agriculture business in West Africa at the start of the decade before founding AgFunder in 2013.

We talk about agtech acquisitions, food trends, the impending shift to look at food as medicine, lessons he's learned since starting to invest and who is favorite team member is - hint, it's me!

We cover the entrance of the large food companies into the plant-based space, the role GFI took in getting government funding and policy advances for the sector, how alt protein companies are communicating about their use of genetic technology, costs of cultivated meat, white spaces of innovation for entrepreneurs, how to separate the winners from the losers, and of course, what Bruce had for breakfast.

Key quote: "Our goal is not to change anybody's metrics for food choices; our goal is to change the foods so that the plant-based and the cultivated alternatives have significantly lower external costs, no need for antibiotics, and a fraction of the climate impact so that consumers choose them because they are the most delicious and most affordable alternative."

Enjoy!

"I'm very optimistic and excited about what the world will look like in 2050 but I think it is helpful though to think about where we've come from in order to think about where we're going."

Tune in to hear why Jack think CBD is not hot and the problem with fad diets and why the sugar tax on sodas - fizzy drinks to my British pals - doesn't make sense.

Don't miss the end when we talk about how the livestock industry could come to terms or even benefit from the wave of plant-based and cultivated meat alternatives coming down the pipe. Enjoy!

We talk on many topics including smallholder farmers, concerning data regarding biodiversity but one can’t get through a conversation with Bayer without addressing its pesticides. The company has come under serious fire for its glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup, which is made by its now-subsidiary Monsanto. Environmental organizations have also been lobbying for it to be banned, as some researchers have linked its use to bee deaths. Klaus calls it a “very emotional topic” to him, having led the company’s task force in addressing the ugly issue, for three years.

“[There are] very heated debates in the public on the safety of [neonicotinoids] to bees. And it's absolutely true if you apply this class of chemistry in the wrong way, it's toxic to bees. So it is a matter of massive stewardship, positioning of these insecticides in the right place, in the spring cycle, and not in the wrong place,” says Klaus. “For example, spraying into flowering of bee attractive crops is a no-go with this class. What I realized is that at one point of time it was very difficult to have a fact-based conversation. It became very emotional.”

This episode, though heavy, is full of important insights from Klaus, who addresses pertinent issues in the bigger agriculture picture. Don’t miss it!

In this episode, we discuss the vast untapped potential of the natural world for our nutrition; just 15 of the 50,000 edible plants on the earth provide 90% of our calories! So Sofia founded Brightseed to unearth the bioactive compounds in plants that have positive impacts on our bodies using artificial intelligence and computational biology.

"Thirty years from now I think for sure we will know much more about the impact that food has on us. More or less, the level of science today is vegetables are good so have more of that, but I think in 30 years time, from the moment we are born, we're going to know exactly what foods we should eat, and for what purpose, and we are going to be able to source them, and enjoy their benefits."

Sofia also provides great tips for other female founders.

Enjoy!

(Disclosure, Brightseed is an AgFunder portfolio company and I work for AgFunder.)

Jennifer is an expert marketer with a career spanning many different industries outside of agriculture, most recently at StubHub the event ticketing business, so it's really interesting to hear about her transition into this industry.

Jennifer does a great job explaining the work of Indigo that has transformed from a seed technology to a full service for farmers and a supplier of sustainable ingredients for food companies. And she talks about her marketing strategy.

"When I look at our brand, I think it's a really curious brand that's asking really important questions," she said giving an example of research she's doing into consumer signals. "If growers can be incentivized to put carbon back into the soil, do consumers care?"

I absolutely loved this conversation with Jennifer and please hang in there for some excellent insights around the 25 minute mark and onwards.

Enjoy!

Walter Robb, the former co-CEO of Whole Foods, was a key player through the transaction and for many years at Whole Foods before it.

A proponent of whole and natural foods, Walter is increasingly exposed to new food technologies through his work as executive-in-residence at agrifood tech investment firm S2G Ventures, TPG's the Rise Fund, and managing his own consultancy and personal portfolio through Stonewall Robb Advisors.

In this second edition of Future Food, I chat to Walter about his food preferences, his contrarian views of the plant-based meat trend, the role of big data in food, and how the Amazon deal came about -- did you know Whole Foods was looking for a digital partner?

We also talk about his vision for the future of food and hopes of providing fresh food to underserved communities. 

As an incredibly experienced food retailer with extensive knowledge and opinions on eating well, Robb's take on the future of food and the development of new technologies is unique. It's also essential listening for consumers thinking about new food tech trends, corporates wondering how to approach new innovation -- he offers some specific advice here -- and grocery-focused startups

Since selling Climate Corp, David became an investor himself, quietly building a portfolio of companies from fark to fork for his investment company The Production Board over the last five years.

This episode is my exclusive conversation with David where he revealed further details about The Production Board and offered his vision for the future of food.

David is a visionary and the insights he offers on what and how we will be eating in the future are inspiring, exciting, if perhaps a little scary.

I hope you enjoy this special first edition of Future Food!