Food From Thought: April 2022
Tender Food raises $12M seed round, Black Sheep Foods is on Delta's in-flight menus, and Meati begins direct-to-consumer sales.
Food innovation is a sustainability story.
As the world’s population grows, alternative protein development will help to ensure that we are able to produce enough healthy, affordable food to support 10 billion people or more. It’s about creating a more sustainable, resilient food system.
But that’s just part of it. As the last few years have highlighted, the global food supply chain is also a potential failure point, falling victim first to Covid-related disruptions in 2020 and more recently to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. About 9% of the world’s wheat exports come from Ukraine — rightly called the “breadbasket of Europe” — and its port of Odessa is a key hub in the European food supply chain. If the conflict continues to drag on there is a very real chance that its impacts will start to echo around the world.
Innovation in alternative proteins — whether it’s plant-based, cell cultured, fermented, or otherwise — is helping break this dependence on traditional, global supply chains and it can’t happen a moment too soon.
Speaking of innovation, we recently invested in 2 companies developing plant-based meats that are textured to look and feel more like the real thing: Plantish and Tender Food. Plantish salmon is a fully structured boneless fillet while Tender Food is spinning plant-based fibers into “whole muscle” cuts like chicken breasts, pulled pork and steaks. Take a look at their technology in action here.
Abbot’s Butcher
Aleph Farms
Aleph Farms Reveals Plan to Replace the Whole Cow as Alternative to Intensive Cattle Farming
Aleph Farms is About to Send Cow Cells to Space. Here’s What They’re Looking to Learn
Cultured Collagen? How Aleph Farms is Using Technology to Replace the Whole Cow
Alpha Foods
Beyond Meat
Black Sheep Foods
Delta Upgrades Vegetarian Catering With New Plant-Based Menu
Earth Month: How Delta is doing our part for a sustainable future
Will Your Nose Know Lamb? Black Sheep Foods is Betting it Will
BlueNalu
Gathered Foods
Geltor
Imagindairy
Matrix FT
Meati Foods
I ate the mycelium chicken backed by David Chang. And it’s stupidly good.
Meati Foods & The Better Meat Co. Lawsuit Escalates Over Mycelium
Meati Begins Direct to Consumer Sales of its Meat Alternatives
Miyoko’s Creamery
Mosa Meat
Cultured Meat Law Breakthrough in the Netherlands as Public Samplings Approved
The Netherlands House of Representatives Passes Motion to Legalize Samples of Cell-Cultured Meat
Nobell
Plantish
Tender
UPSIDE Foods
New Doc 'Meat the Future' Chronicles the Lab-Grown Meat Industry's Revolution
UPSIDE Foods Invites the Public Into “World’s Most Advanced Cultivated Meat Facility”
Ag Update: How do alternative proteins impact beef demand?
Food Navigator: Milk producers weigh into cultivated meat labeling debate: ‘The lexicon must incorporate the considerations of diverse companies in this space…’
Green Queen: Israel’s Alt Protein Sector Saw 450% Increase In Investments In 2021, Says New Report
JDSupra: U.S. District Court Grants Summary Judgement Against Louisiana Alternative Protein Labeling Law
McKinsey: Make room for alternative proteins: What it takes to build a new sector
Meat + Poultry: Addressing price parity with plant-based protein
New York Times: New York’s Mayor Is Building an Agenda Around Food. Will It Satisfy?
TechCrunch: Here's Y Combinator's Answer to Cultivated Meat's Scaling Problem
Wall Street Journal: Oatly’s Growing Pains Trip Up Pioneer of Oat Milk