The Case For Investing In The Good Food Supply Chain

Guest post by Humaira Faiz, associate director of impact investing at Arabella Advisors, and Eric Kessler, founder and managing director at Arabella Advisors. The views expressed are are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the views of Food+Tech Connect.

As Americans’ desire for healthier, more sustainable food options increases, the good food marketplace is rapidly maturing, creating opportunities for interested investors to drive social, environmental, and financial returns by helping to build a stronger good food supply chain.

At Arabella, we believe the recipe for a good food system has three essential ingredients:

1. A culture that demands good food
2. An infrastructure that supplies good food to meet that demand
3. A policy environment that enables a good food system to take root

Opportunities For Investing in Good Food

Developing the infrastructure to supply good food will require more than what philanthropy alone can deliver. Most of the solutions we need must come from private-sector commitments—specifically, from investments in companies across the food supply chain that can bring more sustainable, healthy, and affordable food to market.

Already, entrepreneurs and innovators are hard at work developing solutions designed to meet the good food market demands of the future. Below, we identify current opportunities across five areas of the good food supply chain—places where we believe capital investments can yield both compelling investment returns and meaningful impact in expanding the supply of good food.

Arabella’s commitment to building a better food system—and our ongoing work with policymakers, entrepreneurs, investors, and philanthropists—has afforded us insight into the rapidly developing good food supply chain. As we continue to monitor the investment landscape, we are very excited by the volume and diversity of direct investment deals that are emerging, and the potential for both social and financial returns. We look forward to hearing from and speaking with our clients and other partners about these opportunities for impact.

Please email us at goodfood [at] arabellaadvisors [dot] com to learn more about specific investment opportunities that work to build a good food system that provides access to healthy, sustainable, and affordable food for all.

Internet of Food is an editorial series exploring how we might use technology, new business models and design to guarantee healthy, safe and sufficient food for everyone. Join the conversation between March 23 and April 29. Share your ideas in the comments, on Twitter using #internetoffood, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn, and follow the conversation by subscribing to our newsletter.

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Humaira Faiz works with foundations and individuals to help them understand the field of impact investing, develop strategies, and create investment structures that achieve their social and environmental goals. Humaira has several years of investing experience, including with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. Humaira holds an MBA from New York University, and a BS in finance and a BA with honors in English from Rutgers University.
As founder and senior managing director of Arabella Advisors, Eric Kessler has helped build a social venture firm dedicated to making philanthropy more effective. Now, Eric is leading Arabella’s Good Food practice, which supports philanthropists and impact investors who are pursuing solutions to one of the great challenges of our time: transforming our food system to make delicious, nutritious, sustainably produced food accessible for all. Eric also serves on the Executive Committee of the James Beard Foundation, founded the Chef Action Network, and helped judge the 2016 Good Food Awards.