Field Notes Issue 616 Field Notes Issue 616 Field Notes Issue 616

[21^st July 2022]

This week food prices and retail are a focus in the headlines both in Aotearoa New Zealand, and internationally.

A survey has shown New Zealand shoppers have a shopping bill 25% higher than their Australian counterparts, while a new large-scale study by the ‘High Value Nutrition’ National Science Challenge will fund 75% of the diet for 200 participants over a three-month period in a $4 million project to assess and improve health outcomes for kiwis with locally produced foods.

Overseas, food inflation has increased 10.4% in the United States, reaching a 40 year record, and analysis reveals that some of the emerging food delivery giants have failed to deliver profitability amongst ongoing growth. This lack of profitability is causing investors to lose appetite and many organisations such as Getir, Go Puff and Gorillas are reducing their geographic footprint and staff numbers as they seek to reinvent models to profitability.

In other stories, the global dairy trade price index is down 5% in the latest auction, and Fonterra Cooperative group are operating in limited capacity in Sri Lanka while the country continues to struggle with political and economic challenges.

High-protein edible crop variety developed that ‘thrives’ on fallow land [14 July, Food Navigator]

Switzerland-based seed supplier Jatro Power announced its latest development, a new edible and high protein variety of the jatropha curcas seed that thrives in fallow land. Jatro Power has high hopes for the variant’s commercial prospects as a high protein ingredient in baked goods and as an edible oil. The plant’s environmental benefit as a CO2 recycler on fallow land was also highlighted.

Tags: International, Farming systems, Environment & Emissions

SCiFi Foods reduces the cost of cell-based beef 1,000-fold [13 July, Food Dive]

Cultivated meat producer SCiFI Foods announced that through gene modification, it has discovered a way to reduce its production cost of cultivated beef by 1000-fold. Typically requiring more surface area to produce, through genetic modification using CRISPR technology, SCiFi Foods creates more beef cells in the same space. SCiFi Foods CEO Joshua March commented that the advancement is another step at bringing the price of cultivated meat to a reasonable price for consumers, one of the industry’s largest challenge.

Tags: Alternative Proteins, Food Innovation 

Cell-cultured coffee: Meet the start-up making filter arabica in a lab [13 July, Food Navigator]

Paris-based start-up Stem aims to be the world’s first to bring cell-cultured coffee to the masses. Co-founders Henri Kunz and Dr Chahan Yeretzian aim to use similar technology used in cultivated meats to create an alternative means of production for coffee that reduces “coffee’s toll on the planet”. The process works by extracting DNA from the coffee leaf, and bioprinting cells that then can be ground into coffee.

Tags: Alternative Proteins, Food Innovation 

Overseer faces evolution over revolution [13 July, Farmers Weekly]

Following a recent review, NZ-based farming software Overseer is reassuring concerned users that a replacement software is not on the table. Overseer CEO Jill Gower commented that genuine issues outlined in the review, such as real-time tracking, would be implemented as an additional tool used with Overseer rather than a new program entirely.

Tags: Environment & Emissions, Agritech, Farming System

Greek victory over ‘feta’ as EU court takes Danish imitation off the table [19 July, Food Navigator]

The EU court has ruled that the Danish have failed to fulfil their obligation under EU laws by continuing to sell “feta” cheese. Denmark is recommended to stop its use of the term quickly because it is a Greek-protected designation of origin product, accounting for nearly 10% of all Greek food exports. 

Tags: International, Policy & Regulation, Trade & Exports