Tarique Arsiwalla

BDiSInsights: Last year, I shared a post questioning the business case of Beyond Meat, and recent developments (article in Dutch below) have further validated that skepticism: "Meat substitute manufacturer Beyond Meat has seen a significant decline in demand for its products in the first quarter of this year. Sales of the American company fell by 18 percent to the equivalent of 70.4 million euros." This serves as a stark reminder of the importance of evaluating business initiatives based on merit rather than ideology. While it's tempting to champion ideologically driven projects, the reality is that success always hinges on meeting consumer demands and market dynamics. Beyond Meat's struggles underscore the dangers of prioritizing ideology over market fit. This lesson extends beyond (sic) the food industry to other sectors, such as renewable energy, where ambitious projects face serious challenges, not in the least due to operational realities, or worse, a blindspot for efficient alternatives such as nuclear energy. As business leaders, it's imperative that we approach every opportunity with a critical eye and a commitment to evidence-based decision-making. Let's use this as a catalyst to reassess top-down initiatives and ensure they are grounded in sound business principles rather than ideological fervor. #BusinessStrategy #MarketFit #BeyondMeat #ConsumerDemand #RenewableEnergy #EvidenceBasedDecisionMaking #BDiSInsights https://lnkd.in/evXS7tGR

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Elise Bijkerk Plant and animal based food industries should work together. Especially creating all kinds of hybrid foods where taste, texture and functionality does not change for the end product. But have a tremendous impact on the carbon and land use issues we face. Like Lucas Metsaars always tells us in his posts, that in baked products, like cake it is no problem to replace a part of the real egg with a plant based one. The same is for animal based milk and desserts, butter, cheese, salami, minced meat, ham etc. As a consumer you will not notice the change in taste or texture, but our planet will :-) The only change will be on the packaging of your favorite cake where it says 60% animal egg and 40% plant based egg is used to produce this cake. So the plant based and animal based food industry should work together to make the best plan for change the way, we produce our favorite foods. And animal based food industry knows they have to change so let´s help them transition to more plant based foods as smoothly as possible. They are not the enemy, but just another stakeholder in the ecosystem who can help save the planet by convincing their loyal customers "that they can have their favorite cake and eat it" if the cake is made more sustainable. #degrowth #plantbasedfoods #organicfoods #regenerativefarming #fruitsandvegetables Plant Based Foodie Forever

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🇪🇺 The Big Story: The EU's First Public Cultivated Meat Tasting - that and more inside Green Queen Media's #FutureFoodWeekly 🇳🇱 Exclusive: Meatable Hosts the EU’s First Public Tasting for Cultivated Meat at Dutch HQ 🎥 Food, Inc. 2 Sheds Light on Big Food, UPFs, Modern Slavery & Cultivated Meat – But Lacks Focus 📚 Price Parity, Job Creation & Investment: Highlights from The Good Food Institute’s Alt-Protein State of the Industry Reports 2024 💰 Mosa Meat Secures €40M in Funding to Expand Production and Speed Up Launch of Cultivated Meat 🇫🇮 Factory 01: Solar Foods Opens World’s First Commercial-Scale Facility for Air Protein 💵 Perfect Day Faces $134M Lawsuit by Manufacturing Partner for Breach of Contract & Unpaid Bills 🇫🇷 French Court Suspends Government Ban on Use of Meat-Related Terms on Plant-Based Food 🍫 Voyage Foods Pens Deal with Cargill to Expand Cocoa-Free Chocolate & Nut-Free Spreads 📈 The State of European FoodTech: Funding Declines, More Deals, Alt-Protein Wins & Promising Future 🇩🇪 Fully Plant-Based: REWE Opens First 100% Vegan Supermarket in Germany 🥛 Major Losses for Minor Figures, But Oat Milk Brand Now Looks to Become Profitable by 2025 🍔 The 50CUT Burger: US Butchery Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors Embraces Blended Meat with Mush Foods Partnership 🇺🇸 Health Remains Americans’ Key Consideration for Plant Proteins and Cultivated Meat 🌱 Flexitarian Diets Can Reduce Emissions & Help Meet 1.5°C Climate Goal: Study Read the full version here: https://lnkd.in/eywC7xt6 #GreenQueen #altprotein #futurefoods #cultivatedmeat #innovation #sustainability #climatechange -------- Want to see more posts like this? Hit the 🔔 button on our profile so you don't miss any updates. Or subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest in alt protein and sustainability: https://lnkd.in/eMJ7WwXC

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LOOK at the picture and now think logically. No thought has gone into the plant or how you manage the plant. All the thought is HOW MANY PLANTS can we fit in the space. imagine now workers on a trolley working the crop all of the levels they have to reach and how long it takes to work the plants. Forget the Plant work load, think about the picking how many strawberries in a punnet , how many punnets in a tray and how many trays can they safely handle on a picking trolley. How many trolleys would you need as they have one track on the foor so that one trolley has to work 4 rows of plants 2 on each side and then 20 levels high ? How many times does he have to travel up and down , How long does this take in NON production time. So now you are thinking about the man going up picking Strawberries then coming down with the strawberries and these then moving to cold storage and onto grading / packing . The staff are all in each others way and it is 100% a logical nightmare. Think about crop removal how are you going to replant, What about Hygiene how do they clean the gutters from one crop to the new one. THE ISSUE IS THESE PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW OR UNDERSTAND LARGE SCALE COMMERCIAL HORTICULTURE. They see short term wow this looks good. How many companies are now trying to sell systems for Vertical Farms. How many of these have been in Horticulture before VF ? Notice you never see how many Kg of fruit or product these companies produce all we see is Beautifull pictures. End of my rant for the day. #verticalgrowing #hydroponicgrowing #Britishfarmers #investors #asda #Tesco #hydroponics #automation #crunchberg #warehousegrowing #greenhousegrowing #cucumbers #tomatoes #salads #leafygreens

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Food Tech Congress has kicked off, and what better way to start than with a discussion on "Food for Body and Mind" covering innovations in functional ingredients ☘ I can't wait to follow up together with Sjacco V., Bart Van Hooland, and Adam M. Adamek, PhD in the session on "Gut Health and Microbiome" where we discuss the status of the field and how to balance well-being via nutrition 🌻 Find us in the Tech Talk stage at 14.30, I promise we will make it lively 😎 Are you attending Food Tech Congress and want to learn more about Bactolife? Come find me 📣

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Some highlights from FoodTech Weekly #193 (https://lnkd.in/dcY4h5ER) this morning: 💶 Cultivated meat startup Mosa Meat of the Netherlands has secured €40M in funding led by Lowercarbon Capital and M Ventures . Notably, German billion euro poultry meat processor PHW Group joined the round. In related news, Dutch cultivated pork startup Meatable just hosted the first public tasting event for cultivated meat in the EU 💰Greeneye Technology of Israel has bankjed $20M from Deep Insight and existing investors including e.g. Syngenta Group Ventures and JVP. The company’s technology — which can be retrofit to work on most existing machines — can detect and spray only those areas with weeds, rather than hitting the actual crops or bare ground. This saves money and also limits environmental damage 💶 Weenat of Nantes, France has been splashed with cash — €8.5M (appr. $9M) in Series C to be exact, from European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF), Pymwymic, LIBERSET, and IDIA Capital Investissement. The company's tech helps farmers optimize irrigation, predict and monitor frost, protect crops from bio-aggressors, and more 💰 Washington, U.S. rock removal startup TerraClear Inc has grabbed $15M in funding. The company aims to free farmers from the chore of rock picking, by using computer vision, AI, and robotics 💶 Swedish AgTech startup OlsAro has bagged €2.5M (appr. $2.7M) in fresh funding in a round led by Future Food Fund and PINC, and joined by AgFunder, FLORA Ventures, Mudcake, and current investors. The company develops crops that are more heat-tolerant and with improved nitrogen efficiency, reducing the reliance on synthetic fertilizers 🐄 The Danish government has set aside DKK 518M (appr. $74M) to help farmers finance a feed additive that can reduce enteric methane emissions from cattle by up to 30%, as part of efforts to meet Denmark’s climate goals 💶 Espoo, Finland startup NPHarvest has secured €2.2M (appr. $2.3M) from  Nordic Foodtech VC and others; the company has developed a novel solution for collection and recycling of up to 90% of the excess but valuable nutrients from wastewater. The end product is ammonia salt, commonly used in the fertilizer industry 💶 Saveggy of Lund, Sweden has pulled in €1.76M (appr. $1.87M) in investment for its edible coating that can help extend shelf life for fresh fruits and vegetables, and reduce the need for plastics. Investors in the round included Unconventional Ventures, LRF Ventures, Almi Invest GreenTech and business angels 🤩 New jobs at John Deere (U.S.), BioFeyn (U.S.), REDUCED (Denmark), Root Global (Germany), FUL Foods  (Netherlands) ...and much more! Subscribe now at: https://lnkd.in/d8mUXXH5 #FoodTech #foodtechweekly #agtech #startups #funding #tech #innovation #farming #technology #food #agriculture #science

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Excited to present the first investment by Regeneration.VC in the Netherlands 🇳🇱 Meridia is an Agtech company specialised in field data in supply chains such as cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber and soy that rely on millions of smallholder farms. This is an investment close to my heart. Yes, we all want to have our favourite cup of coffee or chocolate bar without contributing to deforestation. But how? That's where Meridia comes in. Through a long history of land mapping- and titling with smallholder farmers and real presence on the ground they have developed unique mapping technology, data verification & analysis capabilities and an extensive data set. Recently, the European Union has now put new regulations in place (EUDR), that mandate key crops trading in Europe like coffee and chocolate don't come from deforested sites. These crops can come from thousands of small-holder farms - not an easy problem to solve. The Meridia Verify® SAAS solution solves this, as it allows companies to verify field and physical flow data, validate EUDR compliance and get actionable resolutions for major risk contributors— all in real time. We are investing alongside a number of key industry players and are looking forward to working with the great Meridia team including Thomas Vaassen, Beatrice Moulianitaki and Tom Hazeldine. #regeneration #circulareconomy #eudr

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Interesting and inspiring as always

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IFOAM Organics Europe WE DID IT! Great news the Nature Restore Act of the EU is passed. Let´s start by rebuilding/restoring our beautiful Europeaan country side as fast as we can. The fastest way is switching to more organic farming without chemicals and pesticides. Who is with me! #organicfarming #wholeplantbasedfood #artisanfood #foodandhealth Plant Based Foodie Forever

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The biggest topic at F&A Next? AI in Food, including in a talk by Rabobank global head of W&R innovation Roland van der Vost. (Peep the Foodbytes data on the big screen!) 3 critical ways AI is impacting the food system: - Scaling diversity of growers by uniting non-standardized data from field to finance for better client support - Building enriched scenarios that can help translate long-term uncertainty into short-term decisive action - Harnessing unstructured data to align interests, creating access to collective data and empowering decisions Discover 150+ global startups pioneering next-gen AI solutions for food and ag in the Foodbytes hub. #Foodbytes #AI #AgTech #GenAI #MachineLearning #FoodSystem Rabobank Wholesale Banking North America Eline Boot Andrea Jaeger Nimish Garg Robin Jasperse Marco Capitanio

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🌾🚀 Top developments this week in Food Tech and Innovations: 🥩 Mosa Meat's Major Milestone: Dutch company Mosa Meat secures €40M to ramp up production, signaling a bold leap forward in the cultivated meat market, with a tasting of its pioneering burger slated just before its Singapore launch. 🌱 McCain Foods Bolsters Plant-Based Portfolio: Following an initial investment in 2021, McCain Foods completes the acquisition of Irish plant-based brand Strong Roots, reinforcing its commitment to expanding in the plant-based sector. 💼 Global Food Properties and Cresa Join Forces: In a strategic merger, Global Food Properties combines with Chicago-based real estate firm Cresa, aiming to optimize office and manufacturing space solutions for businesses. 🐾 Nestlé's Major Investment in Pet Nutrition: Nestlé announces a substantial €472m investment in a new pet-food factory in Italy, underscoring its expansion and innovation in the pet nutrition industry. #FoodTech #CorporateExpansion #PlantBasedFuture

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🌱 Excited to share key findings from the bachelor´s thesis from Nasia Varitis (International Business) on sustainable food production for NGN - New Generation Nutrition. Client Situation: NGN is a #social enterprise specializing in consultancy, training, and R&D for #insectbased food and feed. With offices in The Netherlands, Spain, and Nigeria, they aim to expand to Latin America, starting with Colombia. Their mission is to promote #sustainable #feeding systems by replacing traditional protein sources with insect-based alternatives, economically benefiting smallholder farmers. 👀 Research Objective: the study, aimed to support NGN's expansion by assessing the feasibility of establishing a low-tech #BlackSoldierFly (BSF) farm in Valle del Cauca, #Colombia, by 2024. 👉 Key Conclusions & Recommendations: 🦗 Feasibility Assessment: After analysing available resources, costs, and sustainability factors, we concluded that the project is feasible. 🚛 Supply Chain & Operations: Recommendations include planning for transportation challenges and ensuring infrastructure robustness. 💲 Financial Implications: Strategies involve building partnerships with local restaurants for food procurement. ♻ Sustainability & Governmental Aspects: Education initiatives for Colombian farmers and collaboration with governmental institutions like ICA and CVC are advised to address regulatory gaps and build trust. This research aims to provide NGN with actionable insights to support their mission of promoting sustainable food production. Looking forward to driving positive change in the food industry together! #SustainableFood #Innovation #Research #ColombiaExpansion #NGN #FoodSecurity #SocialImpact #circulareconomy #businessinnovation #bachelor #research #internationalization Dr. Sonja Floto-Stammen Marieke M. Brinkman MEd. MA Natalia Naranjo Guevara Raffaela Schreurs

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Article in German newspaper Rheinische Post Mediengruppe on our food forest in the Netherlands. Coining this type of #agroforestry as merging agriculture with the ecological principles of a primeval forest. The result is food production, combined with restoration of biodiversity and carbon sequestration. The article is also mentioning the emerging co-operation of Stichting Voedselbosbouw Nederland, Rhine-Waal University and others in supporting farmers in this transition. Farming for the future! #Nahrungswald #biodiversity #Klimawandel #Landwirtschaft #voedselbos

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11 years old! Can you believe it?? This technology seems so new and such a thing of the future it’s sometimes hard to wrap our heads around the fact that lab-grown meat is actually almost 11 years old. The first cultivated burger patty was produced at Maastricht University and put to the test at a 2013 London news conference where food critics were served a hamburger made from cattle stem cells. If you want to see their reactions go to https://lnkd.in/eNSSTffd Since then, more than a decade has passed and lab-grown meat companies are growing. I don’t think this is going anywhere, but what about you? Where do you think lab-grown meat is going? #FoodSafety #Food #FoodSafetyAndHygiene #LabGrownMeat #FutureofFood

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Bright Green Partners has recently launched "BGP Expert Talks", a series that deep dives into the world of alternative proteins with top industry experts. In its first conversation, Floor Buitelaar, Managing Partner, and Maiko Van Der Meer Expert, discuss the future of alt proteins for business, providing insights for decision-makers in the sector. Listen now for insights on the current and future trajectory of the sector, covering all aspects from consumer preferences and regulatory shifts to price and gaining stakeholder approval: https://bit.ly/3y8Nfge

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🇵🇾 The Netherlands is the 2nd worlds largest agriculture products exporter in the world with dairy (cheese), seeds, vegetables (onions, tomatoes) and chicken and cattle meat among the most exported foods. 📽 Journalist and film maker Kadir Lohuizen travelled around the world to interview farmers, technicians and distributors to understand global food systems, 4 great documentaries and 1 book are the results. He put 4 countries in the spotlights: 1️⃣ The Netherlands - exporting greenhouse products such as onions, tomatoes, meat, cheese and seeds; 2️⃣ The USA - the worlds #1 exporter of agrifoods of which notably soy, maize and wheat and cattle farms that are unique in size (big-bigger-biggest); 3️⃣ Kenya - with lake Victoria as a global fishery supply, and becoming Europe's vegetable and herbs garden and: 4️⃣ China - leading in large scale greenhouses, smart delivery and now the 2nd largest producer of dairy. Observations? 🚢 Transport by air is still the norm for perishable goods like vegetables, yet, due to retailer requests, amd where possible, shipment is changing to ocean vessels to reduce GHG emissions. 👨‍🌾 Consumer preferences for local food co-exists with and an increasingly global food production system. Consumers expect their greens around the year. Production specs may well be based on another continents' consumer needs (babymais, chicken wings..) 💡What would be of interest is to learn more about food packaging and processing, to preserve nutritional value, extend shelf life and avoid food waste, and how food streams provide for the recommended healthy diets - food for thought for a a new series ; ) I can warmly recommend to view the 4 documentaries via Dutch ‘NPOStart’ (Dutch and English spoken & subtitled) viia https://lnkd.in/diPqFfuA Also, find a copy of 'Food for Thought' in which summarizes Lohuizens his findings, with a good introduction from Professor @Imke de Boer of Wageningen University & Research, beautiful photographs and great infograpics. #foodsystems #production #global #sustainability #foodsecurity #nutritionsecurity

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