Food & Agriculture
Automating the Harvest, One Strawberry at a Time
First, let’s clear one thing up: the strawberry is not, in fact, a berry.
It’s what botanists call an “aggregate accessory fruit,” meaning that the flesh of the fruit is derived from the receptacle that holds the ovaries. And those seeds all over the outside?...
What the Latest Round of Food Contamination Recalls Say About Ag Innovation
It’s happened again. Last month, the United States Department of Agriculture announced a nationwide recall of more than 12 million pounds of raw beef due to new concerns over possible salmonella contamination.
Microsoft is Coming for Agriculture. Is That a Good Thing?
Here’s a headline I didn’t expect to see: “Microsoft Bringing AI to Ag.” From the author of that headline in Farm Journal: “Standing before a crowd of farmers at the 2018 Farm Journal AgTech Expo, keynote speaker Josh Henretig voiced what...
Food 2.0: Genetic Engineering Our Way to the High-Performing Crops of Tomorrow
It all started with the lowly tomato.
One of the original North American food crops, Europeans first started cultivating tomatoes with the help of Native Americans in the 17th century. As a food source for the settlers, tomatoes were healthy, plentiful...
Bonumose: U.S. Patent to be Issued for “Enzymatic Production of D-Tagatose”
On September 21, 2018, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office issued Bonumose LLC a Notice of Allowance on its patent application for “Enzymatic Production of D-Tagatose.” The USPTO’s action recognizes the importance of Bonumose’s unique process for producing high-yields of low-cost...
Food Insecurity Is the Biggest Threat to Life On Earth, Except That it Isn’t
Are we running out of food?
The short answer is yes. As of 2016, there were roughly 815 million undernourished people in the world. Beyond that, several billion suffer levels of serious micronutrient malnourishment.
But the United...
MIT OpenAg Is the Future of Agriculture. Here’s How We’re Helping
The MIT Media Lab is reimagining the food supply. It’s called the Open Agriculture Initiative (OpenAg) and it is staffed by a team of researchers that has been working since 2014 to create healthier, more engaging, and more inventive future food...
Why It Matters That We’re Talking About Gender Discrimination in Agriculture
Agrilyst CEO Allison Kopf has something to say.
After several years in agriculture, she’s seen the impact that gender discrimination can have on women in the industry, leaving them feeling overlooked, marginalized and left out, particularly when it comes to conference...
Agrifood Conversations, a New Agriculture Innovation Webinar Series
iSelect Fund, The Van Trump Report and The Yield Lab Institute are pleased to announce the launch of a new weekly webinar series entitled Agrifood Conversations featuring the best in agricultural innovation. With in-depth presentations from some of the leading companies...
Agrilyst: Developing New Tools to Help Indoor Farmers Thrive
Based in Brooklyn, NY, Agrilyst’s SaaS-based platform provides indoor farmers with data-driven insights to make more profitable production decisions, optimizing labor cost efficiency and improving crop yield. With Agrilyst, indoor growers create seeding plans, schedule harvests, assign tasks, manage climate and...
It’s Getting Cold in Here: Transforming Modern Refrigeration With Control and Efficiency
Based in Boulder, Colo., Rebound Technologies is commercializing a freeze point suppression cooling cycle technology that targets the most critical part of the cold chain: refrigeration.
HerdDogg: Bringing IoT to the Field
The small town of Marshall, Calif. probably isn’t the first place most people would expect to find the latest in precision agriculture, but don’t tell that to Josh and Albert Blake.
That’s because Blake’s Landing Farms, a dairy operation located about...
Ag Venture Capital: Here’s What Investors Are Watching in 2018
From AgDaily: Software, social media and the latest wearable gadgets might be getting all the attention, but its the technological changes that are shaking up the agriculture market that are really going to change lives over the next decade. And it’s...
Agrilyst Closes Strategic Funding Round
Agrilyst, the intelligence platform for indoor farms, is pleased to announce the recent closure of its latest strategic fundraising round. New investors included iSelect Fund, Argonautic Ventures, Horizons Lab and Onlan Capital Ventures, with existing investors Compound and New York State...
Bonumose: Creating Healthy, Affordable Sugars From Agriculture Waste Products
The modern world has a serious problem with sugar. As of 2015, the average American consumes more than 129 pounds of sugar each year, according to the USDA, more than double what we ate two generations ago. And, unlike in previous...
What iSelect Is Looking For in the Companies It Invests In
So people ask me what the optimal, or perfect, iSelect investment opportunity looks like. And there's a scientific, or a finance type of answer that I can give you that we're...
Agrible: Helping CPGs Leverage Farm-Level Predictive Analytics
Supply chain management for the agriculture industry is a tricky thing.
First of all, the industry itself is sprawling and opaque. It all starts with farmers in the field, but as soon as those crops are harvested they move on to...
10+ Questions Facing Agriculture and Where to Find the Answers
The agriculture industry is facing a series of intertwined, complex issues over the next several decades. Conventional wisdom suggests that we face a critical supply shortage driven by four key questions:
Can we produce enough food?
- The...
iSelect and Agriculture: Why We’re Investing
So we're focused on four sectors: agriculture, healthcare, energy,...
Dr. Todd Mockler on Plant Science, Genomics, and the Future of Food
Dr. Todd Mockler is one of the world's leading experts on plant genetics and has dedicated his career to better understanding how the genetic code of different types of plants impacts their behavior and responses. As a member and principal investigator with the...
ProteoSense: Do You Really Know What’s in Your Food?
Food safety represents a major new front in consumer safety and public health.
The risk of foodborne illness isn’t just for the history books, and thanks to recent cases such as those that struck national brands like Chipotle, Chi-Chi’s, Peter Pan...
Benson Hill Biosystems Raises $25m Series B, Reveals CRISPR 2.0
Benson Hill Biosystems has identified a more precise and efficient gene-editing tool than CRISPR Cas-9, according to Matt Crisp, CEO.
Source: BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: Benson Hill Biosystems Raises $25m Series B, Reveals CRISPR 2.0 - AgFunderNews
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Meet the Companies That Are Revolutionizing Organics
The market for organics is changing, fast. According to a new report published this week in The Wall Street Journal, sales of organic crops are soaring, but the prices paid for those products are dropping steadily due to...
Holganix for Property Managers: Stronger Turf, Better Profits
Green, LEED, and environmental sustainability are all becoming increasingly important to tenants and customers. Simultaneously, how a property looks, from the grass to the ornamental plants, also carries weight in the leasing decision. But, landscaping is a cost center that has to be managed. And...
Benson Hill Biosystems and the Changing Face of Agriculture Technology
The global population is booming, diets are shifting and urbanization is rising. Never has so much been asked of agriculture to meet the needs of our society. Never have the external risks to agriculture advancement been greater, whether from changing climate, limited natural resources, concerns...
Holganix: Probiotics Are Changing Agriculture In a Big Way
It’s often the smallest things that make the biggest differences in our lives. Consider probiotics, for instance. Probiotics are living organisms—typically bacteria, yeasts and other microorganisms—that work in partnership with the human body to improve our health. Unlike bacteria that can cause disease,...
Benson Hill Biosystems Receives AgFunder Innovation Award
We are thrilled to announce that AgFunder has named iSelect portfolio company Benson Hill Biosystems to its annual list of "Most Innovative" startups, including it on its list of "The 5 Most Innovative U.S. Startups at Series A and Beyond" alongside AgBiome, Blue River Technologies,...
Rise of Rural America: Opportunity in Agtech
Author J.D. Vance made the case for rural America in his 2016 book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” sparking a months-long debate about the role of city vs. country in our economy, our lifestyles and our politics that’s still ongoing.
We learned the full scope...
Next Phase of Agricultural Innovation Begins Now
With the announcement this morning that Bayer will finally buy U.S. seed maker Monsanto in a $57 billion dollar all-cash deal, the consolidation of the ag market is fully underway.
As a result, gone...
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