How to Transform Food Systems

The future of our food system sustainability is being developed at the convergence of biology, human innovation, artificial intelligence - and hundreds of millions of bugs! Nature's most efficient protein factories have been hiding in plain sight. While we've been debating sustainable food futures, black soldier flies have been quietly demonstrating how to create abundance from what we've overlooked. I visited the Innovafeed facility in Nesle, France with Mathilde Barge to explore how AI is helping reshape our core food systems. Innovafeed has built something remarkable: a system where these flies - with metabolism 25x more efficient than cattle - transform agricultural by-products into high-quality protein and oils. These ingredients replace resource-intensive fishmeal and fish oil in aquaculture and animal feed, addressing our protein challenge without requiring additional farmland, driving deforestation, or depleting oceans. AI systems continuously analyze millions of data points across their facility, predicting growth patterns and optimizing conditions in real-time. It's running today and producing nutrition with 80% less carbon impact than conventional methods. When we talk about sustainability, we often frame it as a sacrifice. This approach reveals the opposite: abundance through smarter systems. Using technology not to extract more from our world, but to create regenerative loops where outputs become inputs. And it's proof that transformative AI doesn't only emerge from Silicon Valley, but often in unexpected sectors like agriculture where practical problems demand inventive solutions. The technologies pioneered in these unlikely places - where insects meet algorithms - will ultimately reshape how we feed our planet. The future belongs to those who see possibility in what others have overlooked. My gratitude to CEO Clément Ray for the warm welcome at the factory and to Nadège AUDIFFREN and Enzo Ballestra, for making this insightful visit possible! #CircularEconomy #FoodSystems #SustainableInnovation #AI #FutureFarming The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation

If we are serious about growing the regenerative food movement and bringing better food to more people then we need to take a systematic approach to collaboratively ensuring that everyone can win across the entire value chain, while simultaneously reducing everyone's risk. Here's a (not so) novel idea. Let's call it the regenerative roundtable. Here's how it could work: A farmer, a brand, a retailer, and an investor all take a seat at the same table (at the same time) to share the risks and rewards of building a better food system. Farmer - I would like to grow X, Y, and Z because I know these things will help build soil health and contribute to ecosystem biodiversity while also helping my farm become more resilient and financially viable. I need help building a market and reducing my risk of growing them. Brand - If you will agree to grow them, I will agree to purchase them. I will do this up front before a seed is in the ground to help you reduce some of that risk. I will use them to manufacture consumer products that are beneficial for human health and help educate the consumer on why they should support regeneratively grown crops, to help build this market. Retailer - If the farmer will grow it and the brand will manufacture it then I will agree to buy it. I will agree to do this upfront to help reduce the risk that both of you are taking. I will also do my part to help educate the consumer and build a market for these beneficial crops, and will also work to help reduce the costs of what can be an excrative distribution system to get it on my shelves. Investor - If the farmer will grow it, the brand will manufacture it, and the retailer will buy it, then I will fund it. I will agree to do this upfront to help all of you reduce risk. Having everyone in the same room committed to the same goals helps me reduce my risk, making it easier to fund. In this scenario, the farmer, the brand, the retailer, and the investor can all win. Everyone is incentivized to bring better food to more people and to do so in a way that reduces overall risk. Why can't we have more conversations like this? Why can't we get all of these people together, in one room, all at the same time, and talk about systematic change and collective wins? Currently, this is being piecemealed together by brands alone (and sometimes brands and retailers), but rarely by all stakeholders at the same table. The true winners of the regenerative roundtable? Consumers. By making upfront commitments and helping to collectively reduce risk, consumers will be offered better food that is more affordable and more accessible. But it takes a systematic approach by all of the stakeholders– an approach that says “how can we all win” instead of “how can I win, even if it's at the expense of others”? Until we change that approach, we’ve got a long hard road ahead of us... 

🌱 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗼𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻'𝘀 new report on Financing for Regenerative Agriculture https://lnkd.in/gA7QXnfv highlights the challenges and enormous opportunities ahead given the recent challenges to funding food and agriculture. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗮𝗽: Current funding (~$40B annually) covers only 10% of the cost of transforming our food systems. Yet the business case is compelling: improved soil health, water retention, climate resilience, and financial returns through cost savings and price premiums. 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗮𝗽: Strategic deployment of catalytic capital from philanthropy and impact investors to: • Provide technical assistance and support for farmers • Reduce risks to attract commercial investments • Promote innovative financing models • Develop market infrastructure • Assist underserved regions The market is maturing, with growing momentum from farmland investors, blended finance vehicles, and forward-thinking banks. However, more coordinated action is needed to make regenerative practices the new standard in agriculture. What's most exciting is that early movers are already showing what's possible, from blended finance funds supporting smallholder farmers to institutional investors transforming degraded land into thriving regenerative operations. 💭 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀: The transition to regenerative agriculture is not just an environmental imperative—it's a massive commercial opportunity. But to unlock it, we need patience and strategic capital. I'm curious to hear from others working in this space. What innovative financing models are you seeing? What's working? What's needed? #𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗔𝗴𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 #𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 #𝗦𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 #𝗙𝗼𝗼𝗱𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀 #𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲

Smart food innovation starts by understanding the consumer's needs. Transformative food innovation starts by understanding both the consumer's needs and the farmers' needs...and, as a result, those innovators are more likely to produce regenerative outcomes. If food innovators would listen to farmers more often, here's one thing that they'd hear a lot: Farmers need a market for more crops than just the main cash crops. They also need to be able to sell the rotational crops and the cover crops that contribute to soil health. How do I know? Three different ways. (You can read the full article in my most recent Substack post 👉🏾 https://lnkd.in/g83rUa4W.) First, I had a transformative meal at Blue Hill At Stone Barns, a two-Michelin-starred restaurant in the Hudson Valley. Before serving us, renowned Chef Dan Barber, co-owner of Blue Hill, explained the core idea: We were going to “eat the rotations”, he said. In order to transform the food system, our meal would not just include bread made from wheat, for example; it would also include the rotational crops (e.g., legumes like soy beans) that support soil health, which is ultimately the source of wheat’s nutrients and flavor. (Shout out to Philip Teverow and Chef Pierre Thiam at Yolélé ; Michelle Lorge's team at Simple Mills; and Andy Cato and crew at Wildfarmed for how they apply this to CPG.) Second, I talked to Casey McCausland, a Midwestern regenerative farmer who knows exactly how rotational crops and cover cropping could transform his operation. The problem? There’s not a big enough market to buy those complementary crops. Finally, I've been honored to learn from Alisa Knapp, a new collaborator with my team at Smoketown, LLC. Her innovation practice, called Grows Together, is a pioneer in innovation strategy that incorporates the crop diversity needs of regenerative agricultural systems. What Alisa taught me seems simple, kind of like Chef Barber's idea to "eat the rotations", but it is sneakily difficult to execute (also like Chef Barber's idea to "eat the rotations"). Here it is: At the beginning of the innovation and menu development process, we just need to talk to farmers in our supply sheds — farmers like Casey McCausland. We need to ask about their current crop rotations and future plans. We need to ask what it would take to move one step further in their regenerative journey. And we need to be willing to act on what we hear. With help from Alisa at Grows Together, Smoketown, LLC and I are all-in. Are you? Link to Kristine Root and Regenified™'s recent study, mentioned in the slides: https://lnkd.in/gj2hJ4q3 #regenerativeagriculture #esg #nutrientdensity #agriculture #futureoffood #innovation #npd