June 14, 2025
Spotlight Stories
Spotlight 1 – The Globe and Mail looks at nitrogen’s role across food systems. Check it out, here.
Spotlight 2 – Investigate Midwest provides some great detail on how the May Illinois dust storm is representative of how climate shifts are spreading. Read the story, here.
Spotlight 3 – AgWeb says that a quiet crisis is unfolding rapidly in American agriculture as the average age of farmers continues to move higher. Take a read, here.
Industry Updates
Pro Farm Group has received the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) coveted Green Chemistry Challenge Award for Design of Safer and Degradable Chemicals. The award follows the development of RinoTec technology, a biocontrol agent produced from a novel bacterial organism found in nature and enhanced through proprietary, patented fermentation and processing methods. The resulting insecticidal and nematicidal property offers a new and unique mode of action with the potential to replace or reduce the use of standard synthetic pesticides used to control soil-dwelling and foliar crop pests on millions of acres around the globe. [link]
Landscape Enterprise Networks (LENs) has released its first Impact Report, highlighting significant progress in landscape resilience and climate outcomes from regenerative agriculture across Europe. LENs brings together businesses, NGOs, public bodies, and land managers to co-fund environmental improvements at scale. Since 2021, the platform has channeled more than €24 million (~$27.4 million) directly to farmers and land managers. Backers include Diageo, Nestlé, and PepsiCo, supporting initiatives in the UK, Hungary, Italy, and Poland. LENs practices — like soil cover, crop diversity, habitat restoration, and livestock integration — boost resilience while improving carbon storage, biodiversity, and water quality. The entity now has 47,705 hectares under regenerative practices and anticipates continued growth in the years ahead. [link]
A microscopic enzyme could be the key to helping nitrogen fertilizers stick better to the soil and prevent runoff that causes harmful algal blooms, according to a new review article published by a Michigan State University research team. Led by College of Natural Science Dean Eric Hegg, the paper compiles years of research on an enzyme known as NrfA that plays a key role in keeping nitrogen in soil. Krystina Hird, an MSU Ph.D. candidate and first author on the paper, said studying NrfA could help farmers not only avoid polluting nearby waterways but also save money by reducing their need for fertilizer. The findings are published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. [link]
A group of investors, funders, and farming organizations are partnering with nonprofit the TransCap Initiative (TCI) to design a new finance infrastructure for regenerative agriculture in the Midwestern US. Both the Walton Family Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation are supporting the initiative, the second phase of which will last six months. Phase two of the “systemic investing prototype” will see participants designing a financial platform that can deploy multiple types of capital across the regenerative agriculture space. Critically, the initiative seeks to match the right capital with the right practices or interventions at the right time in order to finance the transition to regenerative agriculture at scale. [link]
Key Carbon, a Vancouver-based private equity firm specializing in climate and biodiversity action, will partner with Lithuania’s InSoil to support regenerative agriculture across Europe. Under the agreement, Key Carbon will invest over $114 million (€100 million) into InSoil’s zero-interest Green Loans, providing vital financing to small and medium-sized farms transitioning to sustainable practices. InSoil (formerly HeavyFinance) offers zero-interest loans to farmers in exchange for a share of carbon credits. [link]
Funding for food tech startups “slowed significantly” in the first quarter of the year as investors shift their focus toward artificial intelligence, according to a Pitchbook report. The food tech sector captured $1.4 billion in investments across 202 deals in the first quarter, Pitchbook said. That’s close to a 50% drop in capital and a 15% decline in deal count year over year. Some investors are pulling back from the food tech sector all together. The number of unique investors with deals in the space declined 54% from its 2021 peak through the first quarter of 2024. [link]
Israeli foodtech startup Lembas has emerged from stealth with “GLP-1 Edge,” a bioactive peptide that triggers the production of GLP-1 and other gut hormones that regulate appetite and metabolism. Founded in 2024, Lembas has raised a $3.6 million pre-seed round led by FLORA Ventures, with participation from Bluestein Ventures, Fresh Fund, Longevity Venture Partners, Maia Ventures, Siddhi Capital, Mandi Ventures and SDH. Lembas’ patent-pending technology, utilizing AI to discover, design, and screen bioactive peptides, is licensed from Tel Aviv University, and has attracted interest from global food and supplement companies keen to address a “massive unmet need,” claims the firm. [link]
A project designed to help Brazilian farmers transition from livestock farming to plant-based food production is getting off the ground. ProVeg zeros in on boosting profitable, sustainable, and fair agriculture by producing vegetables instead of animals. The Cultiva Project offers full technical support to producers who currently work with livestock to migrate to the production of plant-based foods using an agroforestry model. This includes agronomic, legal, marketing, and credit access support. Agroforestry models combine trees with crops and promote an economically viable, environmentally sustainable, and socially fair alternative for family farmers, according to ProVeg Brazil. [link]
Global food and beverage company Nestlé revealed that its largest coffee brand, Nescafé, sourced nearly a third of its coffee from farmers implementing regenerative agriculture practices in 2024, significantly beating the company’s goal to reach 20% by 2025. The company’s achievement was announced with the release of its Nescafé Plan 2030 Progress Report, detailing the brand’s progress on its strategy to improve the sustainability of coffee farming. Nescafé launched the strategy in 2022, with a commitment to invest over $1 billion in the plan by 2030. [link]
In a landmark move, four UK water companies (Affinity Water, South Staffs & Cambridge Water, Wessex Water and Southern Water) have partnered with Wildfarmed’s regenerative wheat farmers, offering financial incentives of up to £200 per hectare of retained nutrients. The group aims to reduce agricultural run-off, limit pesticide pollution and improve the health of freshwater ecosystems, particularly by tackling eutrophication at the source. This initiative represents a strategic shift in the sense that UK water utilities are now investing directly in land management to reduce their downstream treatment costs. [link]
The conversation surrounding ultra-processed foods (UPFs) in the US is about to be taken up a notch, with the country’s food regulator reportedly looking to create a definition for such products. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is hoping that its description would encourage companies to label their offerings as ‘non-ultra-processed’ the same way products are marketed as sugar- or fat-free. While the effort is being led by the FDA, it includes other agencies too, such as the Department of Agriculture. Once a definition has been drafted, the government will open it up to public comments before finalizing it in the months ahead. [link]
Impossible Foods CEO Peter McGuinness suggested that the plant-based giant could enter the blended meat space to entice more flexitarians. In 2024, nearly every American household that bought a vegan burger also purchased conventional meat, highlighting how exclusively plant-based eating is still niche. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Mr. McGuinness made the case for why flexitarians are the brand’s biggest growth opportunity, noting that a sizable portion of flexitarians could quadruple Impossible Foods’ revenue in a short period. [link]
In Case You Missed It…
In late April, the Good Food Institute released its State of the Plant-Based Meat & Dairy Industry report for 2024. See more, here.