Closing the $4.5T Regenerative Ag Funding Gap, Private Label Revolution + More

24 Jun 2024

Image Credit: AgFunder News

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.

Closing the financing gap in regenerative agriculture presents a significant investment opportunity, potentially unlocking $4.5 trillion annually while saving $5.7 trillion in environmental and social costs. During a recent capital allocation call, one agri-food analyst distilled the landscape bluntly, ranking regenerative soil-health ventures and private-label grocery plays among what she called the best betting sites for patient capital over the next decade—sectors where downside risk is cushioned by structural tailwinds on both the supply and demand sides. That framing tracks with broader market signals: in response to economic pressures and consumer demand, store brands are becoming dominant in the US grocery market, and retailers are expanding and refining their private labels to enhance profitability and cater to affordability-seeking consumers, creating exactly the kind of durable margin story long-horizon investors are chasing.

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. Financiers Can Close the Regenerative Agriculture Funding Gap — and Unlock $4.5T in the Process – AFN

Closing the current financing gap in regenerative agriculture would unlock $4.5t in new investment opportunities per year and $5.7t of costs per year saved in damages to people and the planet

2. The Imitation Games – The Checkout

Store brands, driven by economic pressures and consumer demand for affordability, dominate the US grocery market, with retailers expanding and refining their private labels to maintain profitability and meet consumer needs.

3. Knockoffs No Longer: Store Brands Get Fancy in a Private-Label Revolution – WSJ

Private-label products are gaining in quality and share in the US, following a playbook mastered in Europe.

4. Digital Price Tags Can Change the Cost of Groceries 6 Times Per Minute – Popular Science

Electronic shelf labels bring Uber-style dynamic pricing to stores like Walmart. The retailer has announced plans to expand digital shelf labels to 2.3k of its stores.

5. European Food Tech Startups Overtook the US to Attract $2B in Investments in 2023 – Green Queen

Climate-focused food tech companies in Europe raised $2B last year, making up 58% of global investment in the sector and surpassing the US for the first time.

6. Israel: Ever After Foods Raises $10M for Scale-Up Platform That Make Cultivated Meat 90% Cheaper – Green Queen

Ever After Foods is starting with beef and poultry cells, but the latest investment has extended the licence to include seafood as well.

7. As American Express Acquires Tock, Who’s Winning the Reservation Wars? – Eater

What you need to know about the state of the reservations systems today.

8. The Chef Is Human. The Reviewer Isn’t. – New York Times

A new study showed people real restaurant reviews and ones produced by AI. They couldn’t tell the difference.

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cultivated meat, digital price tags, food tech funding, foodstartups, foodtech, private labels, regenerative ag