AsianScientist (Dec. 23, 2019) – Farm to fork has been the traditional model of food production, but will that be enough to feed nine billion people by the year 2050? Furthermore, as we grow the world’s agricultural capacity, what is the toll of prolonged, intensive farming on the environment? Questions like these have no straightforward answers, but solving them will require governments, academia and industry stakeholders to pool their resources and collaborate on new paradigms of cultivating grain or meat.
Seeing food security as a challenge and opportunity, New York- and Singapore-based venture capital firm Big Idea Ventures is investing big in science-backed methods to produce new protein. Its New Protein Fund, which closed in April 2019 with more than US$50 million committed, is being used to support research and development into plant-based food products, plant-based food ingredients and technology and cell-based meats.
“THE FIRST COMPANY [WE INVESTED IN] WAS CALLED SHIOK MEATS—THEY DO CELL-BASED SHRIMPS… AND THE SECOND ONE WAS A COMPANY CALLED CONFETTI FINE FOODS [WHICH WORKS ON NUTRIENT-DENSE VEGETABLE CHIPS],” SAID MR. CHRISTIAN H. CADEO, MANAGING PARTNER OF BIG IDEA VENTURES (ASIA).
Both companies are based in Singapore, he added, noting that the island nation is fast becoming a hotspot for food innovation. Find out more about what Cadeo thinks about food innovation in this video:
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Copyright: Asian Scientist Magazine.
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