Our food system

Food Impact

Key Stats:

13.6 Gigatonnes CO2e p/a 26% of total emissions.

The environmental impact of our food system is huge. On top of the carbon footprint of the sector, it is also responsible for 80% of deforestation and 69% of freshwater withdrawals.

Source: World Resource Institute, FAO, Global Forest Atlas

 

Global Emissions %

The innovators

Open source food sustainability data

One of the biggest barriers to a sustainable food system is the lack of transparency around supply chains and the ability of consumers to make informed decisions.

Greener Beans

Making sustainable shopping more easy and rewarding (U.K.)

Open Food Facts

An open-source database of 1.7 million food products (France)

Animal Agriculture & meat alternatives

Animal agriculture makes up a whopping 5.8% of CO2e emissions. Whether its meat alternatives or reducing the emissions from animal agriculture, these companies are accelerating the shift to a low carbon food system.

Aleph Farms

Lab-grown steak without harming animals or the planet (Israel)

 

Impossible Foods

Produce a plant-based alternative to ground beef for burgers (U.S.)

Bennamann

Capture and process biomethane from animal waste (U.K.)

 

Mosa Meat

Lab-grown steak without harming animals or the planet (Israel)

Beyond Meat

Plant-based burgers, sausages and ground beef provider (U.S.)

 

Black Sheep Foods

Plant-based lamb alternative provider (U.S.)

Eat Just

Plant-based scrambled egg alternative (U.S.)

 

Higher Steaks

Aims to produce lab-grown pork (U.K.)

Sustainable Crop Productivity

Agriculture has the power to reduce and sequester megatonnes of CO2e through improved crop farming practices. Whether it’s finding an alternative to fertiliser or spreading good farming practices across the world, these are the folks making change happen.

Climate Farmers

A digital platform for regenerative farming (Germany)

 

Soil Capital

Help improves soil health, sequester carbon and sell carbon credits (Belgium)

Phytoform Labs

Using AI and genome editing to design better sustainable crops (U.K.)

 

Soil Heroes

Connects farmers and business to create profitable regenerative agriculture (Netherlands)

Pivot Bio

Developing an alternative to fertiliser using microbes to fix nitrogen (U.S.)

 

WeFarm

A digital platform for farmers across Africa to drive productive smallholder farming (U.K.)

Small Robot Company

Developing robots to fight crop weeds (U.K.)

 

Supply Chains & Reducing Waste

So your food has left the field and it’s on its way. Now we just need to get it onto our tables. These companies are making sure supply chains are what they say they are and food waste is minimised from field to fork.

Chinova Bioworks

Natural preservatives from mushroom for food & drink (Canada)

 

Satelligence

Using satellite imagery to reduce deforestation through farming (Netherlands)

Impact Vision

Uses hyperspectral images and ML to detect bad food (U.S)

 

Olio

Food sharing app for consumers to reduce waste (U.K.)

Phylagen

Using dust particles to determine origins of goods (U.S.)

 

Too Good To Go

Work with food retailers to help sell leftover food & drink (Denmark)

Ryp Labs

Developing a label that preserves fruit (U.S.)

 

Winnow

A digital platform to help reduce commercial kitchen food waste (U.K.)

Who’d we miss?

Did we miss any great innovators, do reach out and let us know.