Fixing Food Waste with Packaging Innovation

Posted on November 29, 2018December 5, 2018 by Chris Sworder

Only two-thirds of food grown makes it to the consumer, at which point up to half of what’s left goes to waste. Innovation in food packaging is an effective way to tackle food waste, as extending shelf life of a product reduces waste throughout the supply chain. We spoke to two innovative companies to understand more about the market: Apeel Sciences and Food Freshness Technology. We discovered that there are three significant drivers for innovation in packaging. The first is reducing... Read More »

What’s New at the Big 3? A Look at the Innovation of Bayer-Monsanto, Corteva, and Syngenta-ChemChina

Posted on November 1, 2018November 12, 2018 by Chris Sworder

We have been speaking to innovation teams from the Big 3 players in plant science, Bayer-Monsanto, Corteva (DowDupont's agricultural business), and Syngenta-ChemChina, to gain insight into their approaches to engaging innovation, how this is changing with the mergers, and where else in the ecosystem they scan for agtech inspiration. Bayer-Monsanto Bayer Growth Ventures will incorporate approaches from both organizations' previous efforts to expand into new areas. Bayer previously focused on collaborations and partnerships, exemplified best by Joyn Bioworks, a joint venture between Bayer and Ginkgo Bioworks. Monsanto has a traditional... Read More »

Technological Innovation in Aquaculture

Posted on August 27, 2018August 27, 2018 by Chris Sworder

We need more seafood to meet demand for protein. It took over a generation to industrialize livestock processes, and the environmental and social consequences of that development are being brought into sharp focus. The aquaculture industry is much further back on that curve, with environmental concerns beginning to come to light. Whether it is ecologically damaging aquaculture practices in Southeast Asia or the environmental consequences of large fish escapes or managing problems like sea lice, many factors are driving innovation in... Read More »

Aquaculture: A Regional Look at a Global Industry

Posted on August 14, 2018August 16, 2018 by Chris Sworder

Introduction Globally, about 2% of overall calorie intake and 15% of protein intake comes from seafood both wild-caught and farmed. The most recent available data on global seafood production puts the total annual amount in 2015 at 138 Mt (million metric tons), of which 60% was wild-capture landings (including 20 Mt reduction fisheries) and 40% aquaculture production. Of this 40%, around 75% of the tonnage comes from finfish (as opposed to molluscs, crustaceans, etc.), and finfish account for 62.5% by... Read More »

Meatless sliders at White Castle, Mars bars with added protein – what’s happening in protein innovation?

Posted on May 16, 2018May 16, 2018 by Chris Sworder

Over a year ago, we outlined in this blog how various innovators are tackling the problems that are affecting the protein value chain. The analysis a year ago concentrated on meat alternatives and innovators that were bringing down the resource intensity of certain parts of the protein supply chain by using insects or other methods. The problem, highlighted then, was that “food-related greenhouse gas emissions could account for half of the emissions the world can afford if global warming is... Read More »

Biostimulants – the nexus of biotechnology and fertilizer

Posted on April 19, 2018April 19, 2018 by Chris Sworder

As we look forward to welcoming some of the leading thinkers in bio-based chemical and agricultural innovation at Cleantech Forum Europe in Antwerp on May 14-16, we thought we would take a look at one leading technology that is set to have an impact in the agriculture & food industry - biostimulants. What are Biostimulants? It has taken some time to identify biostimulants as its own market. An article from 2015 highlights the difficulty of defining a biostimulant as opposed to a... Read More »

Gene editing in agriculture & food: Accelerating the second green revolution

Posted on March 16, 2018March 16, 2018 by Chris Sworder

Why are we talking about this? Pressure on global resources to support our food system is growing, and even outpacing ability to meet demand. Genetic engineering is a useful tool to maximize yield in an increasingly resource-stressed world. “CRISPR-Cas9 is a step change for agritech, it allows plant breeders to implement the vast wealth of knowledge accumulated in the last hundred years into a wider range of crop plants. It has and will continue to accelerate crop science research into... Read More »

A Feeding Frenzy in Agriculture – Cannibalism and M&A Prey

Posted on February 21, 2018February 21, 2018 by Chris Sworder

It’s always difficult to get a big picture of the agriculture industry. It’s huge. However, two big things are important: mega-mergers and bountiful exits. Big companies In recent years, we have seen a number of mergers that would see large percentages of market share across the Agriculture & Food sector concentrated in an even smaller number of companies. Just as one small example, with this set of mergers shown on the right, 70% of the world’s pesticide market and 83%... Read More »

A Year in Review: A look back at the 2017 Global Cleantech 100

Posted on January 10, 2018January 11, 2018 by Chris Sworder

As we look forward to the release of our 2018 Global Cleantech 100 (GCT100) on stage at Cleantech Forum San Francisco on January 22nd, we thought this would be a good opportunity to take a look back at how both our 2017 Global Cleantech 100 fared since making the list last January, and of our GCT100 alumni, in general. The Global Cleantech 100 Program The Global Cleantech 100 list is our barometer reading of the global innovation community's shifting views... Read More »

Feeding Fish to Fish: How Insect Farming Fixes Fishmeal

Posted on December 7, 2017December 7, 2017 by Chris Sworder

At the beginning of 2017, I wrote a piece of research quoting Winston Churchill’s 1932 article Fifty Years Hence, in which he predicted that we would all be eating chicken grown in laboratories. While that is slowly becoming a reality (through companies such as Memphis Meats), there is another area of protein consumption that would likely have seemed even more absurd in 1932 – aquaculture. Currently, to produce 1kg of farmed fish ready for human consumption, it takes 1.5-2kg of... Read More »

Cleantech Group

Author: Chris Sworder