After an initial surge driven by consumer curiosity and “better for you” credentials, plant-based meat growth has stalled as consumers’ expectations in terms of taste, texture, price or degree of processing have not been met. Beyond Meat’s revenue have therefore been declining for six straight quarters. Amid this challenging demand environment, the business models of…
Driven by the growing awareness prompted by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, global sales of nutraceuticals have seen a substantial upsurge over the last few years. Nutraceuticals are defined as foods that combine the benefits of both nutrients and pharmaceuticals. They are generally categorized into two primary categories: Dietary supplements: vitamins, minerals, enzymes… Functional…
With the emergence of a new generation of weight loss drugs poised to reshape the healthcare industry, the landscape of consumer diets may also be on the cusp of a massive transformation, sending ripples through the food and beverage sectors. New weight loss drugs known under the acronym of GLP-1, embodied by Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic…
If plant-based food keeps struggling as illustrated by Beyond Meat’s underwhelming metrics in the second quarter, innovation in the alternative protein space keeps going unabated. This is hardly surprising, given that the long-term challenges of the food supply chain remain intact, namely the need to massively increase food production to meet rising demand (2 billion…
The concept of indoor vertical farming gained significant momentum during the Covid-19 crisis as lockdowns exposed the vulnerabilities of the food supply chain and highlighted the need for more reliable and local sources of food. This context, coupled with the sustainability benefits of indoor farms such as reduced water usage, pesticide elimination, and reduced transportation,…
If sales of plant-based meat stalled in 2022, there are nevertheless some sources of resilience in the plant-based category with dairy-free milk, and specifically oat milk, keeping growing at a robust pace as illustrated by the Q4 figures from SunOpta (+23% sales growth for its plant-based milks with volumes up double digit, including +37% for…
As alternatives to conventional proteins keep gaining attention from policymakers, food producers and start-ups alike to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and land and water usage, insects are gradually rising as a major sustainable option. When compared to beef, insect protein production consumes 90% less land, 50% fewer resources and produces up to 200 times lower…
A milestone was reached in the quest for electrification of the agricultural machinery industry in recent weeks, as CNH, the manufacturer of New Holland and Case IH equipment, unveiled its 120HP “T4 Electric Power Tractor”, the sector’s first all-electric light utility prototype with autonomous features. While autonomous features have already made significant inroads into the…
The agriculture industry has been slow to embrace new technologies and is still largely non-automated and non-digitized. But technology adoption now seems to be hitting an inflection point with artificial intelligence and robotics capabilities aimed at farming operations making a giant leap, as illustrated by the recent introduction of a fully autonomous tractor by Deere. These…
Despite the recent slowdown in the plant-based food category, alternatives to conventional meat keep gaining attention from policymakers, food producers and start-ups alike, amid livestock production producing high greenhouse gas emissions and requiring more land and water per calorie of food than crops. Accordingly, in his recent executive order on ‘biotechnology and biomanufacturing innovation’, Joe…