Mark Schneider

The global #foodsystems 🌍 are facing increasing challenges due to unpredictable #climate shifts, geopolitical unrest, and escalating expenses. Roughly 40% of cultivable land is degraded, and 2 billion individuals are grappling with #malnutrition, highlighting the critical need for immediate action. Alarmingly, a third of the food intended for human consumption ends up lost or wasted, exacerbating the difficulties in ensuring food security on a global scale. A more sustainable and efficient food production and global food supply chain will have to feed 9,7 B people by 2050, despite of this, #ClimateSmartAgriculture and #Agrifood only receives 4% of climate financing. Swift action, creativity, and #teamwork are essential in overcoming these obstacles. I am delighted to be a part of the #Food #Innovation Hubs Global Initiative, spearheaded by the World Economic Forum and supported by a diverse group of partners. Together, we are taking on these challenges directly. Looking ahead to the upcoming Food Innovation Conference in #Dubai, UAE, taking place from May 13-15, I am excited to engage with like-minded individuals and organizations to exchange insights, cultivate collaborations, implement cutting-edge technological solutions, enhance cooperation, and speed up innovation in global food systems. Learn more about the initiative's impact and the event here: https://lnkd.in/dvscRynP Let's innovate for impact! #RFFS24 🌱🚀 Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives Museum of the Future

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Insightful research piece from our xdeck partner McKinsey with xdeck alumni Veylinx on consumers' willingness to pay - or not to - for green consumer products: 📶 Generally, there seems to be a willingness to pay a price premium, although consumers do not always walk the talk ↔️ Yet, whether that premium fully covers the extra cost for making a green product depends very much on the individual demand features and product composition ➡️ Thus, consumer-packaged-goods companies should move beyond the general question to engaging an actually analytical, fact-based approach on developing, manufacturing and marketing green products #consumerpackagedgoods #sustainability CC Sebastian Gatzer Marcus Keutel Frank Sänger Peter Breuer Dr. Markus Gick Dr. Robert Günther Anouar El Haji Georg Kühl Link to article in the comments

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Lots of insights on the German Fermentation Summit around CAPEX finance models, feedstock variations, AI for bioprocessing, cross-value chain collaborations & risk-reduction of food & feed companies. Here's the summary: 𝗖𝗔𝗣𝗘𝗫 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹𝘀: New business models and smart collaborations between startups, corporates and equipment suppliers are needed. Still governmental support will be required to close the CAPEX bridge for short-term profitable business models. The German government need to act now to strengthen local startups.  𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝘃𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀: Side streams alone do not provide sufficient quantities for large-scale fermentation facilities. Other sugar sources are needed and ideally, CO2 as feedstock can be used which is available in a lot larger quantities. 𝗔𝗜 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝗶𝗼𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴: AI models can help to reduce the time and money required for optimization work like feedstock optimization, process design, product formulations, etc. This is urgently needed as we need to iterate faster to find better and more cost-efficient solutions. 𝗖𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀-𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: Startups in the sector cannot solve all issues at the same time. The importance to focus and to align incentives for efficient collaboration is key for each company. 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗸-𝗿𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗳𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀: Investing and partnering with startups is a great way for large companies to hedge their portfolio towards future disruption. There were some great examples like Cremer Holding and Fermify. Thanks a lot for organizing the event Food Harbour Hamburg and Food Campus Berlin! Hope to be part of the same event next year. #fermentation #bioprocessing #biobased #precisionfermentation #biomassfermentation #meatalternatives #dairyalternatives #foodinnovation #bioeconomy

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Methane emissions are heritable, farmers and ranchers have been using selective breeding for centuries and trust this approach, breeding for lower emissions in persistent and long term, does not require daily intervention or cost and is equally applicable in all production systems. Step 1:  Assess emissions and develop an action plan. You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Companies should assess and disclose their baseline methane emissions from their dairy and beef sourcing to effectively reduce supply chain methane. Great piece Vrashabh Kapate and Meryl Richards

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Healthy food is a pathway for food transformation. There is no better business case than improving human health. The great news is that if you optimise for health, nutrient-dense, wholesome, or even clean food, then you end up with ingredients that have a positive impact on the environment, sourcing from nature-positive or even regenerative food producers. You can only have one with the other. I'm excited to be interviewing and hearing about these 3 innovative food companies: Dominie Fearn, Charlie Gilpin and Sam Moss

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Back from two days in The Hague with Impact Europe on the themes of #BusinessofImpact and #CapitalIdeas. A good time to meet, share and learn and most importantly to contribute to creating a bigger eco system of impact investors. Two interesting reports were presented if you are curious to learn more: - How to do Corporate Impact Investing https://lnkd.in/dd4iCNRU - Social Procurement https://lnkd.in/d43i35gt With the Corporate Leadership Council for WEF Global Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship we discussed some joint challenges as corporate social investors and in a couple of sessions we made deep dives into impact and CSRD. How do we keep social impact at the forefront? Let's continue the movement and make sure that our joint global aspiration of leaving noone behind gets the attention and action it needs 💥

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#netzeroemissions #agrifood #worldbank #plantbasedmeat #2050 #foodtech These actions, which are urgently needed, offer three additional benefits: improving food supply reliability, strengthening the global food system’s resilience to climate change, and safeguarding vulnerable populations.

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Pick of the day (courtesy Green Queen Media) It is all a question of seeing the glass half empty or half full. While Europe might have beaten the US in 2023 (what I cannot reconcile with my data), the overall volume is low when compared to the underlying markets. Furthermore, if I understand the graph with projections for 2024, the PE/VC European market is expected to halve (back to pre-pandemic levels), this means that a number of companies that funded back in 2020/2021 and 2022 will be incapable to further fund themselves (what I witness daily). As a result, defaults will continue to rise. What the markets really needs is consolidation (of technologies) and exits. #sustainability #foodtech #agtech #climatechange

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Years ago, when the TransCap Initiative's work on systemic investing was in its infancy, we were looking for cases of traditional impact investing that were financial successes but failed to deliver deep, structural, and lasting change in the systems that matter most for human prosperity, including food and agriculture. Learning about Jason W. Ingle's early-stage investment in Beyond Meat was a turning point for us, as it provided a compelling story through which to explain the limitations of single-asset investing. "To maximize impact, we need to see the fuller picture and identify opportunities for our portfolio companies to reinforce each other," says Jason in this article published under his new firm Third Nature Investments. That's #systemicinvesting in a nutshell. https://lnkd.in/dg9vb3et

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AI-powered startup Helios has launched what it claims is the world’s first global platform to forecast prices and availability of soft commodities from fruits and vegetables to cocoa. Founded in Dec 2022 by ex-Google AI/ML engineer Eden Waller Canlilar and former Boston Consulting Group principal Francisco Martin-Rayo, Helios uses AI to translate climate, economic, currency and political risk signals into actionable insights for CPG companies, hedge fund managers, and ag commodity traders. Helios has a granular view of how climate affects a crop’s growing season globally, with daily and historical climate data for over 14 million locations, claims Martin-Rayo, who says interested parties can sign up for a free trial and onboard themselves in minutes. “For the first time… users can monitor a crop’s growing season across key countries, quickly determine supply availability and forecast global price shifts. You choose the commodities and growing regions that matter most to you and receive custom weekly reports that highlight major risks, trends, and changes.” #agtech #foodtech #ai #artificialintelligence #commodities #foodprices AgFunder

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And the Winners are... We’re pleased to announce the winners of this year’s Soy Innovation Challenge: 🏆 Grand Prize: Clean Label Solution for their breakthrough Bi-Pass Pro+ that enables beef and dairy cows to digest soybeans more efficiently, both reducing the need for palm oil in cow feed and reducing methane emissions. 🥇 First Runner Up: EDEN Concept Fill develops Cellyfill cushion products from soy hulls as a sustainable alternative to polyurethane foam. 🥈 Second Runner Up: NeuEsse creates OmegaSkin™ from soy protein as a human skin substitute for treating serious wounds and burns with minimal to no scarring. 🥉 Third Runner Up: Renewable Green Composites makes plastics and polymer building blocks from soybean meal to improve the sustainability of some plastics. Read more about these innovative and sustainable uses for soy at https://lnkd.in/gbKPzpVh #soy #SoybeanMeal #SoyInnovationChallenge #Sustainability #Innovation #StartUps #USSOY United Soybean Board U.S. Soy Mac Marshall Clean Label Solution LLC Mohammad (Mo) Arshadi, PhD www.eden-cellyfill.com Nancy Levens, Assoc. AIA NeuEsse Inc. Joseph Connell Renewable Green Composites, LLC Scott Loethen The Yield Lab Institute Cellyfill (tm) by E.D.E.N Concept Fill

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Must listen-to bi-weekly podcast; https://lnkd.in/eiYWjtXT #podcast #AIAtScale #AIAtScalePodcast #FrugalAI

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"More than a sustainability buzzword, #regenerativeagriculture is a transformative agricultural approach that can offer environmental #sustainability to #coffeeproduction.  But the amount of investment and attention it’s received from large multinationals as well as more niche specialty coffee brands makes it a clear asset for business growth – begging the question why." In this insightful article, Olga L Cuellar Gomez speaks with Ricardo V. Pereira (Purity Coffee) and Mickey Mcleod.(Salt Spring Coffee) about regenerative agriculture aims to achieve, why it has become more popular across the coffee industry and beyond, as well as the corporate benefits it can bring at large. https://lnkd.in/eedK-xnE

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People often ask me why I only work in food. It’s simple: there’s plenty of important work to do. People also ask how my work (innovation) is a climate solution. That’s a little more complicated. It’s complicated because… People don’t see the connection between food and climate. People don’t see a problem with how we produce our food. People don’t think we need to change anything. People don’t see food innovation as a solution. Project Drawdown makes it all clear. “Nothing else we do rivals the sheer geographic size of the global food system…Together, croplands and grazing lands cover ~38% of the Earth’s land surface. To put this in perspective, all of the world’s cities and suburbs cover less than 1% of Earth’s land.” “The food system’s giant footprint makes it the largest driver of habitat and biodiversity loss on Earth. Nothing else comes close.” “The food system is also by far the biggest user of water on Earth, siphoning off around 70% of the world’s water withdrawals. This figure climbs to an astonishing ~85% if you consider ‘consumptive’ use… It is also the most pronounced water polluter worldwide, mainly due to fertilizer runoff…” “If we consider the larger food system...the total emissions from the food system rise to ~34%. That makes food the single largest emitting economic sector – larger than power generation, industry, transportation, or buildings.” What are the most important solutions to these problems? 1. Improving Food System Efficiency - reduce food loss & food waste - reduce red meat & dairy consumption 2. Protecting Ecosystems - curb deforestation & protect vital ecosystems - shift away from beef, soy, and palm oil - improve carbon markets (which overpromise & underdeliver) 3. Improving Farming Methods - improve fertilizer management (use less, more precisely) - improve soil management (by regenerating degraded land) - reduce methane emissions (from rice & livestock) 4. Cleaning Up The Larger Food System - reduce methane emissions from landfills (i.e. cut food waste) - implement clean cooking worldwide - improve refrigerant management (incl. food shipping) 5. Rewilding Agricultural Lands - restore former agricultural land to natural ecosystems - ex. forests, savannas, grasslands, coastal ecosystems 6. Implementing Regenerative Agricultural Practices - ex. cover crops, permaculture, agroecology, conservation farms - but don’t see it as a silver bullet because… - the most effective solution is to cut emissions at the source And that takes us right back to food innovation. Sometimes it’s a simple ingredient swap. Sometimes it’s designing a new product from scratch. Sometimes it’s stretching a brand into a new category. Sometimes it’s about disrupting unsustainable incumbents. Sometimes it’s about scaling good brands who care about this. It’s all food innovation. It’s all a climate solution. It’s all urgently important. And it’s why I only work in food. #food #innovation #sustainability

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As Paulig Group, we are certainly in good company here - thank you Financial Times for the acknowledgement. A few things come to mind following this....firstly, to drive impact, we need scale, scale, scale - more companies, more collaboration up and down the value chain and more transparency. Better collaboration between governments and also between governments and businesses is required. No one source has the means or the answers to address the climate challenge, but working together can go a long way. Secondly, the climate challenge is costly, complex and resource heavy. Finding ways of securing focus especially during challenging times like these is not easy, but must be done - one part of our solution is our internal climate fund that ensures we can fund our journey at all times. Climate programs are ones with no off switch - once you're committed you're in it one way or the other.

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Public and private investment across the value chain accelerated electric vehicle adoption. Similar investment would have power to catalyze alternative protein adoption. Read more in our new article “Sustainable Synergies: Lessons from Electric Vehicles for the Alternative Protein Sector” written alongside The Good Food Institute and Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Read here: https://lnkd.in/ec84MivN #sustainability #climate #foodtech #altprotein #alternativeprotein #electricvehicles

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A sustainable form of food production - essential to future food security , yet the implementation of Regenerative Agricultural practices prove challenging in complexity and costs to many farmers…yet it is vital to biodiversity protection. Showcasing a Farmers Program running in Europe. #RegenerativeAgriculture #FoodSecurity #BiodiversityProtection

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Market-based approaches with a focus on value chains. Understanding investors' decision-making to better support companies in developing countries. The UNDP's response to the 2024 evaluation session is music to my ears. "Without the private sector, the Sustainable Development Goals will not be achieved". - Marcos Neto, UN Assistant Secretary General and Director of UNDP's Bureau for Policy and Programme Support. There you have it. Entrepreneurs, businesses and investors have the capacity to find answers to making our societies function within planetary boundaries and more equal social outcomes. The term “social business” should not exist. The purpose of business is to solve the problems of people and planet profitably and not profit from creating problems. Read the full address by Mr. Neto here: https://lnkd.in/ecradtvV #SDGs #Purpose #PrivateSector

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I am thrilled to share our latest triumph in sustainable agriculture. What started as a humble trial on land exhausted by 25 years of intensive potato cultivation has blossomed into a beacon of hope for the future of farming. Over the past two years, we've poured our hearts and expertise into revitalizing this soil. This year's crop stands as a testament to our dedication and innovation. Despite the challenging conditions of dry heat in Northern India, our NHempCo Vijaya One-Fiber strain has not only survived but thrived without the application of manure. This remarkable resilience is evident in the average height of our hemp plants, reaching an impressive 9 feet, significantly faster than last year's growth. Even in patches where plants initially struggled, they are now on their way to reaching the sky. We've also faced pest challenges head-on. By implementing organic pest management strategies from the start, our plants have overcome these obstacles, standing strong and healthy. This success story isn't just about hemp. It's about the potential for sustainable agriculture to transform and heal our land. We're excited about the future and the endless possibilities that lie ahead. Namrata HempCo Limited #SustainableAgriculture #HempRevolution #NHempCo #InnovationInFarming #GreenFuture #HempFiber

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