Reflections on Food as Health, Cultivated Protein, and Supply Chains

Last year, we published a report "Trends Shaping the Future of Food in 2023". A year later, we wanted to check in with some of our team members who weighed in on the report to get their take on how these trends are evolving into 2024. In the last episode, we dove into agtech trends, and in this episode, we'll look at some of the supply chain and foodtech trends. We talk to Dan Ripma about food as health, Kate Danaher about supply chain resilience, and Larsen Mettler about cultivated protein.

Key Takeaways:

• Food as Health: A changing consumer mindset and scientific advances are fueling the food as health space. We are seeing greater convergence between the private and policy sectors while larger players are increasingly interested in using food to improve outcomes for government health insurance programs. Some exciting areas include perioperative nutrition and the pairing of physical products with digital platforms.

• Supply Chains: Covid-era supply chain disruptions led to a spike in technologies and innovations around port optimization, inventory management and tracking, and supply chain transparency. In the maritime industry, where decarbonization directly hits the bottom line, ocean intelligence technologies that can help companies make better business climate and regulatory decisions are seeing greater adoption.

• Cellular Protein: While the sector has been impacted by the difficult fundraising environment of the past year, we have also seen specialized companies within the supply chain having success with smaller, longer-term CapEx plays. There is increasing scrutiny around costs and go-to-market strategies, but technologies such as AI and digital twins can help companies scale more effectively. For companies looking to fundraise, being able to communicate KPIs and key milestones is more important than ever.

Be sure to listen to part one of our reflections series, where we cover agtech trends.