Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Spring has finally sprung in Colorado but I’ve been here just long enough to bank on one or two major snowstorms before summer. Besides the improving weather, here are a few things I’m currently excited about:
- Kroger just announced that they will provide $2.5M in grants to upcycled food producers as part of their Zero Hunger/Zero Waste Foundation. I continue to be impressed with both the scale of funding they are putting forward and the willingness to support burgeoning and experimental solutions to tackle food waste.
- Lots of food waste and sustainability reports have come out over the past few weeks. There’s now a dedicated section for them in this edition of the newsletter including UNEP’s Food Waste Index Report, and a little something from the ocean – a user manual for Queen Conch Aquaculture in Florida and the Caribbean.
- The One Earth Film Festival is this week, for some entertainment and a break from Zoom calls.
As always, please keep the updates, announcements, reports (and even the corrections!) coming. I know so many of you have exciting things brewing for the Spring and Summer and I can’t wait to feature them in the coming months.
Thank you,
Eva
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In the Headlines
Kroger to Invest in Upcycled Food Startups – Food Business News
A New Searchable Directory Focuses on Women Innovators in Agrifoodtech – AgFunder Network Partners
Seebo Scores $24M for AI-Powered Food Waste Reduction Tech – Food Dive
What We Are Reading
Systems Level
The Activists Working to Remake the Food System – The New York Times Style Magazine
Pacific Coast Collaborative Joins Businesses and Governments to Attack Food Waste – Waste 360
Winter Storm Slams Texas Food Supply Chains, Logistics Networks – Supply Chain Dive
How Women Are Changing the Philanthropy Game – The New York Times
Manufacturer & Consumer-facing Level
Sweetgreen to Go Carbon Neutral by 2027 – The Spoon
Meijer and Flashflood Expand Food Waste Program Across Grocery Stores – The Spoon
Skal Gotland Spirits Launches Vodka Made From Food Waste – The Spoon
Nestle CEO: We Don’t Have to Sacrifice Shareholders to Fight Climate Change – Fortune
The AI-Driven Platform Powering the Future of Fresh Food – Forbes
The Plastic Bag is Doomed. Here Are Better Alternatives Backed by Walmart and Target – Fast Company
Coke’s Newest Bottle is Made From Paper – Fast Company
Zero Grocery Is the Sustainable Online Supermarket That Aims to Make Your Life Less Plastic – Vogue
Farm Level
Here’s How We Can Repurpose Food Waste to Grow Healthier Crops – Anthropocene Magazine
The Environmental Upside of Modern Farming – The Wall Street Journal
5 Cool Measurement Tools Attempting to Quantify Regenerative Agriculture – GreenBiz
Policy
**Correction from the last edition**: Rhode Island does have an existing state-wide organics ban. You can learn more about it and helpful resources from the Center for Ecotechnology.
Massachusetts continues to make food donations easier, allowing foodservice entities and retailers to donate or sell food at cost directly to individuals without fear of liability. Getting these types of bills passed and into law is an effective way to get pre-made and smaller batches of food to those in need quickly and safely. This is especially valuable for local restaurants and grocery stores that may not have the bandwidth to establish formal relationships with food recovery organizations.
Montana, already notorious for stringent limits on the sale and donation of milk, has introduced another bill requiring milk producers to provide a “code date indicating the number of days after pasteurization that the unit of grade A milk should be fresh, healthful, and safe when purchased by a consumer.” The phrasing for this bill is problematic because it bundles both “quality” and “safety” into a single label, two messages that should have separate phrasing as not to confuse consumers. It’s unclear how new or different this bill is from existing legislation so I will keep an eye on this and provide updates as I hear them.
Reports & Resources Spotlight
Food Waste Index Report 2021 – UN Environment Programme
Everything You Need to Know About M&A in the Food Industry – Trendline by Food Dive
2021 AgFunder AgriFoodTech Investment Report – AgFunder
Winter Report 2021: Preparing for the World to Reopen – International Food Waste Coalition
Queen Conch Aquaculture: Hatchery and Nursery Phases – Megan Davis & Victoria Cassar, Florida Atlantic University