Blog

January 2021 Newsletter

Posted January 1, 2021
in Blog

Dear Friends & Colleagues,

I would like to introduce you to Littlefoot Ventures – a food systems consultancy dedicated to empowering business, nonprofits, and foundations to take bold action in the areas of environmental stewardship, waste prevention, and natural resource management with the goal of making our food system more resilient to the challenges that lay ahead. Primary services include:

Strategy development and implementation
Philanthropic advising
Stakeholder mapping and network design

Littlefoot Ventures represents a culmination of knowledge and experiences from my thirteen years of operating as a food systems practitioner, and I am dedicated to creating value to leaders in the industry to do more to protect our planet and natural resources. My passion for serving clients is driven by the simple beliefs that:

We will only create change if there is coordinated effort and multi-stakeholder engagement across the food supply chain.
Pre-competitive collaboration trumps individual action.
Consumers are ready and waiting for food brands to see them as capable and discerning partners to create change.

In the spirit of Littlefoot’s values of collaboration and celebration, I’ve created a newsletter as a simple way for us all to keep abreast on relevant news, research, policies, and events that are helping us all advance solutions to future-proof our food system.

I hope you find it valuable, and I can’t wait to work with you.

Welcome to Littlefoot,
Eva Goulbourne

Have a story or an exciting announcement of your own, contact us so we can include it in the next newsletter.

Announcements

PepsiCo Aims for Net-Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2040 – Reuters

Unilever and Alibaba Launch AI-Powered Closed-Loop Recycling System in ‘Waste Free World’ Initiative – GreenBiz

UNFI Sets Sights on Halving Food Waste by 2025 – Grocery Dive

Surplus Food Marketplace Too Good to Go Raises $31M to Expand in the U.S – The Spoon

Mondelez Agrees to Buy Rest of Paleo Chocolate-Bar Maker Hu – WSJ

Goodfish Raised $4M for Upcycled Salmon Snacks – The Spoon

Google Takes on Food Waste with Food Tech Innovations Built By X – The Spoon

In the News

How Matriark Makes Nourishing Food Products from Would-be-Waste at Scale – Waste 360

Just Salad Debuts Meal Kit Brand to Fight Food Waste, Plastic Packaging – The Spoon

Upcycled Certification Standard Gets the Go-Ahead – Food Business News

Biden’s Climate Plan Relies on Farmers Who Are Often Climate Skeptics – Civil Eats

Food Waste Recycling Sees Setbacks During Pandemic – Sustainable Brands

One of the Most Under-Used Resources in American Ag Is a Waste Product: Corn Residue – Modern Farmer

New Delivery Service Cuts down on Takeout Waste by Sending Your Food in Reusable Packaging – Fast Company

A Nation’s Economy Divided: Breadlines vs. Bread Makers – Bloomberg

Fishermen Team up with Food Banks to Help Hungry Families – NPR

Hunger and food insecurity are not the same. Here‘s why that matters–and what they mean. – The Counter

This Startup Turns Food Waste into New Brands – Fast Company

Policy

State Level

The COVID pandemic continues to have devastating and complicating effects on food insecurity, food donation logistics, and even food scraps recycling in this country but we have reason to remain optimistic on the policy front. In the past two months alone, both Delaware and New York have introduced bills designed to enhance liability protections to promote more donations for those in need.

While New York City has had to halt all organics collection programming through June of this year, the state is still on track to roll out the state-wide organics ban, effective January 2022. To join the organics ban(dwagon), the District of Columbia and New Jersey have also introduced policies aimed at reducing the amount of food sent to landfills.