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Every week we track the business, tech and investment trends in CPG, retail, restaurants, agriculture, cooking and health, so you don’t have to. Here are some of this week’s top headlines.
In a contrasting turn of events in the agricultural industry, Aerofarms has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, reflecting the sector’s struggle with dwindling funding and waning venture capital enthusiasm. Meanwhile, Brazil’s JBS is taking a progressive step by initiating the construction of a cultivated meat factory in Spain through its subsidiary, BioTech Foods, where it aims to produce over 1,000 metric tons of cultivated beef annually.
In other news, we’ve wrapped the first season of our podcast in partnership with AgFunder: New Food Order, a nuanced investigation into the business of tackling our climate and social crises through food and agriculture. Read all about why we launched the podcast, and be sure to subscribe and share!
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1. AeroFarms Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection, CEO Steps Down – iGrow News
The investor group’s main objective is to ensure AeroFarms maintains regular operations throughout the Chapter 11 filing, serving its growing customer base and strategic selling partners, including planned retailer expansions for the rest of 2023.
2. Brazil’s JBS Starts Building Lab-Grown Beef Factory in Spain – Reuters
The factory should produce more than 1k metric tons of cultivated beef per year under its subsidiary, BioTech Foods.
3. VC Investment in Indoor Farms Plummets 91% – Pitchbook
Indoor farms raised $75.8m globally across 14 deals in the first three months of 2023, down 70% in deal value from the previous quarter and 91% year-over-year.
4. UK: Meatless Farm Exec: ‘The Business Has Unfortunately Made All the Teams Redundant’ – AFN
Plant-based meat startup Meatless Farm has laid off most of its employees after failing to secure funds to help it stay afloat.
5. Chat GPT Creates Robot Gripper for Harvesting Tomatoes – Vertical Farm Daily
TU Delft and the Swiss technical university EPFL published their findings on the process of designing a tomato-harvesting robot to address food supply challenges.
6. ChatGPT Founder-Backed Uncommon Raises $30M in a Series A for RNA-Driven Cultivated Pork – Green Queen
The biotech startup uses patent-pending RNA technologies to produce bacon and pork belly from a single animal cell sample.
7. Inside Costco’s Billion-Dollar Bet on $4.99 Rotisserie Chickens – Forbes
To ensure a steady supply of the customer favorites, the retailer built a slaughterhouse — a feat poultry leader Tyson couldn’t pull off. Forbes got a rare look.
8. $400M+ Ex-Pizza Robot Company Zume Shuts Down – Nation’s Restaurant News
Zume sold its robot pizza business in 2020 to pivot toward sustainable packaging and Picnic laid off employees earlier this year; what’s happening to pizza robots?
9. Sweetgreen Will Automate All New Stores, Target Suburban Markets – Restaurant Dive
Sweetgreen plans for all of its new restaurants within the next five years to be automated through its Infinite Kitchen system.
10. Infarm Quits Europe As Vertical Farming Withers on the Vine – Sifted
Infarm previously had operations in the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark. It has decided to shift its focus to regions such as the Middle East.
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