Image source: Civil Eats

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. This month’s newsletter is sponsored by Institute of Food Technologists (IFT).

The highest court in one of India’s 28 states ruled last month that “Mother Nature” has the same legal status as a human being, claiming that the natural environment is part of the human right to life, and that humans have an environmental duty to future generations.

Groups like Los Deliveristas Unidos are organizing delivery workers at Doordash, Uber Eats and other apps who are demanding better working conditions, despite a lack of employee protections—and often being undocumented.

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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. Indian Court Rules That Nature Has Legal Status on Par with Humans—and That Humans Are Required to Protect It – Inside Climate News

The judge invoked the power of the government to act as a guardian for those who cannot care for themselves.

2. The Next Frontier of Labor Organizing: Food Delivery Workers – Civil Eats

Groups like Los Deliveristas Unidos are organizing delivery workers at Doordash, Uber Eats and other apps who are demanding better working conditions, despite a lack of employee protections—and often being undocumented.

3. Brightseed’s First AI Detected ‘Phytonutrient’ Comes to Market Alongside a $68M B Round – TechCrunch

Brightseed’s machine learning platform Forager identifies and categorizes plant compounds. It has already mapped two million, considerably more than are characterized in scientific literature.

4. Courtney Boyd Myers: A Call to Clean Up the Plant-Based Food Industry – Vegconomist

Methylcellulose, soy lecithin, low erucic acid and tapioca maltodextrin are a handful of the unappetizing ingredients found in plant-based products. Myers calls out brands flooding the market with heavily processed foods and the resulting consumer distrust.

5. Estonia: Gelatex Claims to Have Solved One of Cultivated Meat’s Biggest Scaling Hurdles: Affordable Scaffolding – Green Queen

The company claims that its nanofiber scaffolding system is now able to support the production of 300 tons of cultivated meat per year.

6. Starbucks Plans Wage Increases That Won’t Apply to Unionized Workers. – New York Times

The initiative was announced as labor organizers have won initial votes at more than 50 stores, including several this week.

7. Indian Grocery Startup Zepto Raises New Funds at $900M Valuation – Reuters

The company has raised $200m to further expand, signaling growing investor interest in a sector where companies are luring customers with instant deliveries.

8. White House Will Host First Food Insecurity Conference in 50 Years – CNN

President Biden will convene a conference in September focused on ending hunger and improving nutrition across the nation, as the US sees higher rates of food insecurity amid the pandemic.

9. Diversity and Resilient Food Systems Are Crucial to Avoid Even Worse Global Food Price Crisis – Food Ingredients First

IPES calls for food industry players to build regional grain reserves, diversify food production and restructure trade flows, reduce biofuels, livestock numbers and reliance on fertilizers and fossil energy in food production.

10. Why Have There Been No Great Worker-Owned Restaurants? – MOLD

Few restaurants have turned to worker-ownerships as a means to radically reimagine the industry. Why is it that in conversations about ‘sustainability’ we talk about vegetables but not about people?

11. Sweetgreen to Open First Pickup-Only Location in DC – Restaurant Dive

The dining room-free format features grab-and-go shelves and will only take orders placed on its website, app or third-party marketplaces.

12. Stanford Gets $1.1B for New Climate School From John Doerr – New York Times

The billionaire venture capitalist said the study of climate change and sustainability would be the “new computer science.”

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