Welcome to the latest edition of Global Signals, your regular update of new and interesting signals in the world of AgriFoodTech.
This newsletter is designed to inform New Zealand agritech of the latest global sector developments, and spark new ideas. You can join us on LinkedIn to join the discussion.
Kia pai te rā,
Melissa (FutureCentre.nz) and Shane (Callaghan Innovation)
The business offers a suite of monitoring systems that help everyone from farmers to some of the world’s biggest businesses practise regenerative growing methods and measure the environmental impact of their crops and supply chains. They also help farmers find companies who want to buy their carbon credits.
This last part is fascinating, as it solves a real business problem for farmers. If we see the carbon offsetting market pick up in New Zealand what might that mean for the sector?
Microendo is the world’s first biotech company focused on creating crop-specific fertilisers. Using microorganisms from the crop itself, their fertiliser is not only organic but actually enhances the plant’s natural microbiota.
Their vision is to remove pesticides and chemical fertilisers from farming to protect soil health. The mission does double duty here - it would also allow growers to market their produce as organic and maybe even save them money.
This kind of biotech-driven, targeted approach is smart. I suspect the kicker will be if it’s as effective as the chemical stuff - what other obstacles might we find in the way of more natural solutions?
New Zealand agritech company Halter has raised $85 million in an over-subscribed Series C funding round, which they say will help them offer services to boost farms’ sustainability and productivity.
Headed up by Craig Piggott, Halter provides a collar (a ‘fitbit for cows’) that allows farmers to virtually control where their herd goes, and record crucial information like whether a cow is on heat.
Halter is an example of a company with an emerging climate mission that is also extremely cognisant of the financial pressures of farming in New Zealand. Where else can we look to make low-cost climate gains? And does climate action always look like doing something extra - rather than doing less?
Trapview describes themselves as a bodyguard for crops. Founded in Slovenia in 2017, their pest control system utilises years of data to monitor, forecast and ultimately target insects with far less insecticide - if any at all.
It’s estimated that pests cause USD$220 billion dollars’ worth of agricultural damage every year. However, some of those pests also play a crucial role in local ecosystems, and dousing them in chemicals can cause significant environmental damage.
With more targeted pest tech, how might farmers decide on which bugs they want to stick around?
QScale site in Montreal is looking to grow 2,800 tonnes of small fruit and more than 80,000 tonnes of tomatoes per year in a new facility co-located with one of their data centres.
Pretty much everything on the internet first passes through a data centre, which are being increasingly criticised for their carbon footprint, as they operate 24/7, using a lot of power and generating a lot of heat (that is currently unutilised).
QScale’s is experimenting with converting this heat into food production. With a rumoured new data centre in the Waikato, could we also see this being adopted locally? And what other issues do we need to consider here, like labour?
I usually avoid dystopian fiction because I believe our impact on the planet is scarier.
Roubini’s book certainly reinforces that belief with the central question of ‘will a deadly pandemic finish us before the transition to machines is complete?’
Whether the field is technology, foreign policy, economics or epidemiology, Roubini encourages us to be afraid, and maybe even panic. But his intention however is to spur us to action and face the looming challenges of climate change, pandemics, and economic instability.
I am glad I read this book, and found it both riveting and important. Futurists are often accused of having a bias for positivity, however no-one would accuse Roubini of that. Perhaps we need to be shocked into making a better future by better seeing than the alternative.
We’d love to hear your feedback so we can continue to share relevant monthly reads with you.
Don’t forget to share with us any signals or interesting innovations you’ve come across so we can spread the word. We enjoy seeing NZ companies be creative, innovative and push the boundaries, it makes for insightful reading.