Meatless Meat Fizzling, Food Tech’s Opportunity Amid Food Crisis + More

Image by Christian Zelaya for Forbes

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.

Momentum for plant-based meats appears to be withering as consumers weed out the market and investors tread lightly with less money. As Forbes’ Chloe Sorvino writes, there are too many brands struggling for space on supermarket shelves, and the shake-out has begun.

Elsewhere, FoodHack’s Sam Panzer writes that despite the numerous challenges food innovators face right now, there are still opportunities for climate-forward companies and sound business models.

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1. Lifeless Market for Meatless Meat – Forbes

When it comes to plant-based meats, consumers are ruthlessly weeding out the market while investors tread lightly now that money is more expensive than it’s been for a decade.

2. A New Bill Wants to Ban Mergers in Food and Ag – Civil Eats

The legislation is an attempt to halt corporate monopolies in the food system, and would put an indefinite moratorium on mergers and acquisitions for food and ag businesses.

3. The Tricky Restructuring of Global Supply Chains – The Economist

The pandemic and war in Ukraine have triggered a “once-in-a-generation” reimagining of capitalism. Depending on several factors, it could either descend into protectionism or improve resilience and the overall food system.

4. France’s HappyVore Raises €35M ($36.8M) – Green Queen

The company aims to reinvent meat using vegetable-based ingredients that are locally sourced as much as possible. HappyVore will use the new funds to scale up, including opening a new facility in Chevilly.

5. Indoor Farming Company Little Leaf Farms Secures $300M – Horti Daily

New capital will support Little Leaf’s growth and expansion of its new farms, including the opening of a greenhouse in Pennsylvania this summer.

6. Rohlik Lands $231M Even as Instant Delivery Cools – Forbes

Czech instant delivery startup Rohlik has managed to raise Series D funds despite the aforementioned turbulence in the space. Funds will go towards expansion and R&D.

7. Mobile Restaurant Service Wonder Bags $340M – Food Dive

The New Jersey-based company currently has 19 restaurants where chefs cook curbside from a food van. Funding will enable Wonder to expand around the tri-state area in the US.

8. Planning for the Impossible – TechCrunch

Impossible Foods founder and former CEO Pat Brown discusses his company’s goals for climate change, and how anything that helps reduce dependence on animal agriculture is a step in the right direction.

9. Mission Barnes’ Cultivated Fat ‘Ready for Market’ – Vegconomist

The alternative protein company has unveiled its cultivated fat product that can be incorporated into plant-based meat products to give them more flavor. The USDA and FDA must grant Mission Barnes regulatory approval before it can sell to consumers.

10. Animal-Free Dairy Startups Hit Back at Non GMO Project Claims – Food Navigator

Change Foods, Perfect Day and others weigh in on the Non GMO Project’s claims that “synbio dairy” is an environmental and agricultural threat.

11. What the Hell Is Happening? And What It Means for FoodTech – FoodHack Global

War and inflation have made profitability and cheap cash hard to come by for food tech companies. Despite these massive challenges, opportunity for many parts of the sector remains strong.

12. Mars and Perfect Day Develop Animal-Free Chocolate Bar – Food Dive

This is CPG giant Mars’ first foray into plant-based chocolate. Available to order online, the CO2COA bar is billed as a more eco-friendly chocolate, and is part of Mars’ plan to be net-zero by 2050.