Image source: New York Times

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.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is threatening to cut off international shipments of wheat, spurring shortages and pushing the price of the crop higher amid spiraling inflation and supply chain challenges. The two countries make up nearly a quarter of the world’s global supply of wheat.

Cell-cultured and plant-based meats continue to go head-to-head in the race to dominate the alternative protein market. Both Wildtype and Next Gen Foods raised $100 million for their cultured salmon and plant-based chicken, respectively.

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Check out our weekly round-up of last week’s top food startup, tech and innovation news below or peruse the full newsletter here.

1. Ukraine Invasion Threatens Global Wheat Supply – New York Times

Russia and Ukraine together produce nearly a quarter of the world’s wheat, and coming disruptions could fuel higher food prices and social unrest.

2. Can $100M Get Wildtype’s Cell-Grown ‘Sushi-Grade’ Salmon into the Wild? – TechCrunch

The company plans to use funding to begin distributing its product to high-end chefs and grocery stores. It is still currently awaiting FDA approval.

3. Singaporean Plant-Based ‘Chicken’ Maker Snags $100M – Bloomberg

Next Gen Foods plans to expand to the US, starting with major cities, pitting it against Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat.

4. Arizona Starbucks Stores Votes to Unionize, As Reorganizing Drive Gains Momentum Across the US – The Counter

The Mesa Starbucks store is the third company-owned location to vote in favor of unionization since December.

5. Kristen Bell Invests in Cottage Cheese Maker Good Culture’s $64M Round to Build a Sustainable Cultured Foods Platform – Forbes

Cottage cheese makers touting nutrient-dense ingredients and sustainable agricultural practices are staging a massive comeback for the category that was once twice the size of the yogurt market in the US.

6. Kraft Heinz Creates Joint Venture with AI-Powered Foodtech Startup NotCo – Food Navigator

The plan is to combine NotCo’s patented tech and expertise in plant-based formulation with Kraft Heinz’s brand portfolio and scale.

7. Geltor Celebrates Commercial Scale Manufacture of Animal-Free Collagen – Food Dive

The partnership with Arxada increased Geltor’s fermentation production capacity from tens of thousands of liters to millions of liters in just two years.

8. Black Farmers Fear Foreclosure as Debt Relief Remains Frozen – New York Times

Lawsuits from white farmers have blocked $4b of pandemic aid that was allocated to Black farmers in the American Rescue Plan.

9. Moss.Earth Is Using NFTs & Crypto Carbon Credits to Fight Climate Change in the Amazon – AFN

NFTs and other “web 3.0” tools are how the Brazilian startup plans to digitalize carbon credits and preserve the Amazon rainforest.

10. Amsterdam: PlantLabs Nabs $57M As Indoor Farming Funding Surges – Crunchbase

The funds will be used to open more production sites outside the Netherlands, in North America and in Europe.

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