Designing a Climate-Friendly Food Company, World’s Largest Cultivated Meat Plant Breaks Ground + More

Image Credit: Believer Meats

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.

Believer Meats has broken ground on what it claims to be the world’s largest cultivated meat facility in North Carolina. The 200,000 square foot facility will have the capacity to produce 10,000 metric tons of cultivated meat. Chile-based plant-based food startup NotCo has drawn in $70 million of funding to grow co-branded alliances with other food giants. Meanwhile, instant grocery app Getir has acquired its competitor, Gorillas, for $1.2 billion. Uber Eats has agreed to pay $10 million in a settlement with the City of Chicago for listing local restaurants in its app without permission and charging excess  commission fees.

And this week, we are excited to announce launch of our new 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 check out our first few episodes:

#5: De-Commodifying Carbon and Our Industrial Food Systems
#4: We’re at the Beginning of a Food Revolution, with Sam Kass 
#3: Looking to Our Indigenous Past For a Regenerative Future, with Nathalie Kelley
#2: Is The World Better With Your Business In It? with Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever
#1: Introducing: New Food Order

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1. Designing a Climate-Friendly Food Company, with Julia Collins – New Food Order

What would it look like if we completely re-designed the food system, product by product? In this week’s episode, we speak with Julia Collins, Founder and CEO of Planet FWD, a carbon management platform for consumer companies to bring climate-friendly products to market.

2. Believer Meats Breaks Ground on World’s Largest Cultivated Meat Plant – Food Dive

The North Carolina-based facility will be 200k sq ft with the capacity to produce at least 10k metric tons of cultivated meat.

3. Chile: Bezos-Backed Food Startup NotCo Bucks Trend to Raise $70M – Bloomberg

NotCo signed a joint venture with Kraft Heinz in February to manufacture plant-based versions of its products. It will use the funds for similar B2B co-branding licensing agreements.

4. Getir Acquires Grocery App Rival Gorillas in $1.2B Deal – Financial Times

The combined group worth $10b represents a fall in valuation as investors turn against lossmaking tech startups

5. Uber Eats to Pay Millions for Listing Chicago Restaurants without Consent – TechCrunch

Uber has agreed to a $10m settlement with the City of Chicago for listing local restaurants in the Uber Eats and Postmates food delivery apps without the restaurants’ consent, as well as for charging excess commission fees.

6. By the Numbers: The State of the World’s Soil in 2022 – AFN

From widespread soil degradation in Africa to Iowa’s quickly disappearing “black gold,” the numbers show how urgent the world’s soil situation is.

7. Here’s a Map of Starbucks Stores That Voted to Unionize – CNBC

More than 250 stores across nearly 40 states have voted to unionize since 2021.

8. The Future Is Asian: Green Queen Publishes 2022 Edition of Award-Winning APAC Alt Protein Report – Green Queen

A new report by Green Queen Media argues that while plant-based meat sales may be flat in the US and Europe, in Asia Pacific, the alternative protein industry is booming.

9. Group Shaping US Nutrition Receives Millions from Big Food Industry – The Guardian

Newly released documents show an influential group that helps shape US food policy and steers consumers toward nutritional products has financial ties to the world’s largest processed food companies.