WUR and GIANT LEAPS partner to accelerate transition to alternative dietary proteins

Wageningen University & Research is delighted to announce our participation in a new Horizon Research and Innovation Action called GIANT LEAPS. This EU-funded project aims to accelerate the transition from animal-based to alternative dietary proteins. This dietary shift is key to reducing the footprint…

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Enough inaugurates mycoprotein facility

Food tech startup Enough recently inaugurated their mycoprotein facility, a supplier for the alternative protein market. The new factory will produce up to 60,000 tons of Enough's Abunda protein by 2027, which is equivalent to growing a cow's worth of protein every two minutes, explains the company.…

Ulé Beauty

France: Combining cosmetics and vertical farming turns out to be blossoming

"Currently, we are growing three plants that do not grow in Europe as it doesn't make sense to focus on molecules that we can already find locally. We work with botanists and universities to test various genetics and grow exotics," says Lindsay Azpitarte, creator of the cosmetic brand Ulé. Powered by…

Iceland farm grows carbon-neutral algae

Most vertical farms grow greens like lettuce or spinach, but a facility in a remote corner of Iceland, run by a startup called Vaxa Technologies, grows microalgae instead. The farm is on the site of a geothermal power plant so that it can run on the plant’s renewable energy. It uses natural carbon…

Innovafeed raises US $250M in series D financing round uni

Innovafeed, a producer of insects (Hermetia Illucens) for animal and plant nutrition, announced it raised US$250 million in Series D funding. This round, led by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), also includes existing investors Creadev and Temasek, and new strategic and financial investors: global…

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Northern Marianas College secures more than $500K for vertical mangrove crab farming

As part of Northern Marianas College’s efforts to promote economic diversification and workforce development, its Cooperative Research, Extension, and Education Services-Aquaculture and Natural Resources Program secured a $536,000 grant to construct mangrove crab (Scylla serrata) farming demonstration…

Mushrooms are abundant in Ecuador, but underappreciated

“In Ecuador, there are plenty of mushroom species, but the educational part is missing. That’s why I’m growing, in large part, by myself and educating others on it with Club de micología Ecuador. There we can educate anyone in the area on local mushrooms and sustainability,” says Thibaut Wagner, founder…

Hawai: Widespread power outage leaves thousands of trout dead in aquaponic farm

Farming is a tough business, and Dobovan knew that it wouldn’t be easy when he set out in 2016 to start Hawaii’s first rainbow trout and watercress aquaponic farm. He had spent years experimenting and found they paired well. At the same time, he knew there wasn’t any trout and not close to enough…

Indian insect farming startup secures $3.4m seed round

Indian insect biotech startup Loopworm has raised $3.4 million in seed funding co-led by Indian agrifood VC Omnivore and WaterBridge Ventures. Loopworm is the first Indian technology startup to farm insects for animal feed. Titan Capital and leading angel investors, including Godrej Agrovet chairman,…

zmescience.com

Japanese airline adds insects to their inflight meals

A Japanese airline has recently introduced a range of inflight meals containing crushed cricket powder in order to promote food sustainability. Crickets are nutritious and relatively popular as street food in some parts of Asia, but the reason for this airline menu change is that crickets have a much…

The future of fashion: made from mushrooms

Our closet is likely full of all kinds of materials like leather, cotton, nylon, and polyester just to name a few, that contribute to fashion's sustainability crisis. Biomaterials investigator Dan Widmaier explains how we could look to nature for sustainable replacements for these much-used materials and…

US (NY): New vertical farm opened to create fungi-based bacon

If all living organisms on Earth evolved from a single cell 3.5 billion years ago, it stands to reason that they’re a lot alike. And, scientists have noted that fungi are characteristically even closer to animals than plants, which helps Eben Bayer, co-founder and CEO of MyForest Foods, argue that fungi…

The Netherlands: Turning insects into fertilizer, feed and oil

With a couple of trucks at a time waste streams are brought into Protix' production facility in Bergen op Zoom, the Netherlands. And, many larvae are quite content with that as it feeds them entirely. With that, they're forming the basis of both new protein-rich animal feed products and organic…

The quest for a fully-autonomous vertical shrimp farm

Created by Vertical Oceans – a startup previously called Aqualogix – the system has been developed by John Diener and co-founder Enzo Acerbi. John worked in the conventional shrimp sector, for Gold Coin and SyAqua until 2016. “At that time I visited hundreds of shrimp farms around Asia and I kept seeing…

Harnessing the power of algae in the desert

Raffael Jovine trained in molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale, did his PhD in marine sciences at UC Santa Barbara and completed research at MIT. In 2013, he founded and is now chief scientist of Brilliant Planet, a company that uses seawater, sunlight, and wind to grow food in coastal deserts,…

UK: Building pilot indoor bivalve farm in Cambridge laboratory within three years

While the oceans are still hugely efficient at producing bivalves such as mussels and oysters, it would be complacent not to consider a future when producing them in urban environments had its merits. A bout of food poisoning incurred after eating his first-ever oyster might have put many people off a…