Patrick Smith

Katie Stebbins, Ellen Brown, and I have just released the first two episodes of our new podcast series, focused on the "Food is Health" opportunity. Integrating the views of Agriculture, Food, and Health. This podcast is designed to bridge the gaps across the entire value chain. Whether you're at Nestlé, involved in ingredient sourcing, working on the farm, or focused on metabolic health, you'll gain insights into how different sectors collaborate to make nutrition more affordable, improve health outcomes, boost farmer profitability, and reduce costs. GLP-1s are disrupting healthcare by changing diets, which means CPG companies need to reformulate their products. Ingredient suppliers now require crops with higher nutrient density, produced at scale and lower costs. Meanwhile, farmers are accelerating the transition to regenerative farming to meet these demands. Our podcast will introduce you to the people leading these changes and driving innovation across the food system. We're releasing episodes every other week, each one highlighting actionable steps toward creating a food system that benefits everyone—from the ground up. The first two episodes are live now, with more on the way. We'd love your feedback—how can we make this podcast even more valuable for those who see the potential in the "Food is Health" movement and want to drive real change? Tune in Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gjZq4vfs Apple: https://lnkd.in/g4zZPRt9 #FoodIsHealth #Entrepreneurship #Investing #Innovation #AffordableNutrition

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The Washington Post just posted an article about "mushrooms as the darling of sustainability" and showcased various industrial applications of fungi. Among other, they showcased the pioneering work of our friends on MycoWorks with philip ross, and Ecovative - the mycelium technology company, both paving the way for fungal applications for a more sustainable trajectory. It was also mentioned how scientific researchers are "pioneering new ways for fungi to better manage environmental problems such as transforming food waste into novel edible materials, eliminating toxins like heavy metals at contamination sites, devouring plastic pollution, or improving soil as an impressive organic fertilizer". I caught one new solution that was new to me - PACT Outdoors makes kits for backpackers with mycelium tablets that breaks down 💩 quickly, killing bacteria that can disturb ecosystems. The usecases of mycelium and fungi are - endless! https://lnkd.in/diZPyqYY #Fungi #Mycelium #Biotechnology #Pioneeers #NewFuture

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Holy sh*t! David has done it again! As someone who has inspired many founders and capital into Agtech in the past decade, his latest technology has huge implications for food security, quality, and climate change mitigation. If you're interested in learning more, check out the 10-minute video at the end of the article . Its worth the watch! #Agtech #FoodSecurity #ClimateChangeMitigation https://lnkd.in/eh-xynSD

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Are you an early-stage business service provider or startup founder? (Yes? Read on.) I'll be at the Venture Atlanta Conference this week and looking for new guests for the BIP Ventures Extraordinary Pursuits Podcast. If the following criteria look relevant, let's meet up. The deets: 🎙️ Each episode is 'commute length' – around 30 minutes 🎙️ Two formats: Masterclasses and founder stories 🎙️ Topics: Anything that impacts startup teams (recent topics have included taxes, sales teams, hiring, GTM, and KPIs) If you'd like to join me for a conversation, please say hi if you see me! You're also welcome to DM me here or on the Venture Atlanta app. Get a sense of the podcast here: https://lnkd.in/egcy7kEh If you know of someone I should meet, please tag them below or forward this to them!

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With roots in food systems investing, I know how complex and entrenched the issues are when it comes to ensuring communities have fresh, accessible, nutritional, and sustainable food options. The PATH Foundation’s grant work with 4P Foods is an excellent case study for how to drive meaningful change in local food systems. It also underlines that such transformative efforts require radical collaboration, mission alignment across stakeholders, and various forms of capital. This evaluation report from Hudson Varick Resources is a valuable read for anyone in food systems-oriented impact investing, philanthropy, grantmaking, etc!

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Mindful mountain biking is more than just a personal hobby for me—it aligns with my passion for transitioning into the realm of climate change solutions. Check out this insightful read on Nature's Heart-Shaped Wave to dive deeper into the connection between our actions and the environment. #climatechange #climatechangesolutions #climatepolicy #nativeplants #biodiversity #vote #nature https://lnkd.in/gQnsiYVJ

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🍷 Big shoutout to Archer Roose Wines, one of our SoGal Ventures portfolio companies, for their groundbreaking collab with Cornell University! They released a research with the Food Science Department on sulfite formation in canned wines and is getting serious attention in the media! 🥂 🔬 This is more than just a win for Archer Roose—it’s a huge moment for the whole canned wine industry. As Co-Founder & CEO Marian Leitner-Waldman puts it, “This study isn’t just about showing how Archer Roose ensures premium quality, it’s about pushing the entire industry forward. We’re breaking old perceptions and driving innovation.” This is how change happens—raising standards, sharing knowledge, and inspiring a whole category to evolve. 🍇🎉 Check out the research here: https://shorturl.re/7frkq #innovation #cannedwine  #foodscience #womeninbusiness #industrydisruption

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🚀 Exciting Opportunity 🚀 Wanted to throw a shout out to Daniel N. as well as iHub Innovation Hub of Utah for helping this get started. We're thrilled to announce the beta launch of our cutting-edge AI Website Companion software! 🌟 Are you sick of the same old RFI's? Our software revolutionizes the way you interact with website visitors by actively guiding them through your sales funnel, ensuring a seamless and engaging experience. 🔍 Want to join as Beta Testers? - Reduce Lead Loss: Don't let quality traffic slip away; keep visitors engaged. - Gain Control: Direct the user journey for better outcomes. - Enhanced Analytics: Gain actionable insights to improve user experience. By participating in our beta program, you will not only get early access to Riffy but also receive a discount when we go live! 💡 👉 Interested? If you have a website and are eager to enhance your customer experience, we want to hear from you! https://lnkd.in/dcjpdkwT (~1min) #LeadGeneration #AI #BetaTesters #WebsiteOwners #CustomerEngagement #Analytics #TechInnovation #Startup

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🚨 Sad News in the Food Tech World 🚨 I am sad to share the news of SciFi Foods' closure. This innovative start-up, known for its groundbreaking work in cultivated meat, had the vision to produce a $1 burger that is both affordable and sustainable. CEO Josh March mentioned in a LinkedIn post "Great technical execution wasn’t enough. The zeitgeist around meat alternatives went from boom to bust. It became effectively impossible to raise the tens of millions needed for a small commercial launch; much less the hundreds of millions needed for full commercialization." In my article last week, I highlighted how foodies expressed their reluctance to buy alternative meats that aren't affordable. This sentiment underscores the uphill battle to make such innovations accessible to the masses. While SciFi Foods' journey has come to an end, its mission and vision continue to inspire. Will we ever see the realization of their dream for a truly affordable and sustainable alternative meat? Only time will tell. https://lnkd.in/gsbxZ8by #FoodTech #Innovation #Sustainability #CultivatedMeat #FutureOfFood

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In thinking through the system design of food system and climate, I am now anchored around taste, nutritional density, and affordability. With an even narrower focus on metabolic health. If you get the "Productivity of Nutrition", essentially the nutrition version of total factor productivity right, then the supply chain will adapt to efficiently deliver that nutrition. Nutrition and taste are positively correlated, so you get the taste as a positive attribute. If taste and nutrition are stronger, you likely reduce waste and cost because you deliver more value per unit. Nutrition also improves health, so you have that positive externality. And to get better nutrition in a crop, and livestock, you need better soil health because nutrition comes from soil. To get better soil health, you need more carbon in the ground. To get more carbon in the ground, you need to move away from synthetic fertilizers to microbes. Each of these is tough, but an improvement in one, leads to positive externalities in others. Those combined effects are the components that drive an exponential function.

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Check out this article on Food Cycle Science (a Power Sustainable Lios portfolio company) featuring CEO Bradley Crepeau! We’re very proud of the work Brad and his team are doing to combat #FoodWaste.

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Indoor farming has attracted over $6 billion in investments since 2019: It's a year-round method of crop production that optimizes space through its use of vertically stacked layers. It’s projected to grow (10% by 2032, reaching $96 billion*), yet many are struggling to deliver returns. Notably, AppHarvest recently filed for bankruptcy after reporting a net loss of $177 million, highlighting the challenges in achieving profitability in this sector. ⬆️On the up - Plenty® is one to watch - they are flush with funding from SoftBank and have formed a JV with Abu Dhabi-based Mawarid Holding Investment .They are building a network of indoor farms, likely starting with an indoor strawberry farm in Abu Dhabi. If successful, it would help elevate indoor farming as a more marketable proposition - particularly in locations that are too dry for traditional farms. Indoor farming has appeal for sure..but they an infrastructure-heavy, pricey endeavor that has proven incompatible with venture exit time frames. This begs the question around the sustainability of funding models in industries focused on longer-term growth. #VentureCapital #IndoorFarming #Investment #Sustainability #Agriculture *Statista

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At last week’s ClimateTech Coffee 🚲 Bryan White and I were joined by Kimberly Gilbert, PhD to hear about her work on Carbon Neutralization and Ocean Storage (CNOS) through her company pHathom. Here’s a recap: The ocean naturally absorbs CO2 over time, but we’ve added so much that the ocean has become increasingly acidic. Ocean pH has dropped from 8.2 to 8.1 globally over the last hundred years, and as pH drops it becomes harder for coral-based organisms to form shells. To combat this, Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) is an intervention that both reverses ocean acidification and removes CO2 from the atmosphere. Challenges with traditional OAE: - When you add the alkalinity into the ocean, it spreads out. It’s hard to measure the change in pH. - You don’t know exactly when the extra CO2 will be absorbed. Modeling and measurement companies are trying to help with this problem. Advantages of CNOS: - Co2 is captured directly at a coastal power plant or refinery, and then the concentrated Co2 is pumped into water that has limestone (and/or other alkaline materials) in it.  - This means the Co2 is dissolved onsite and the pH can be equilibrated onsite, which makes accurate measurement more feasible. Factors that affect progress:  - We’ll start seeing more companies enter in this space as the chemistry and its impacts are better understood and seen as safe  - Local and national permitting are a huge bottleneck - On the international permitting level, the London Protocol has a blanket ban on ocean geoengineering for anything except for research. There were good reasons for doing that, but it’s unclear who decides when that can change and the circumstances under which the ban is lifted. (Note: pHathom is not doing geoengineering; it’s doing water treatment on-site and releasing it back as ocean water) Open questions for the category/technology: - Can they come up with enough low-cost alkalinity sources, and get them in a way that doesn’t cause additional environmental damage or Co2 emissions?  - This approach will require pumping a lot of water. How much will that cost and how can the cost be driven down?  - Putting 100 plants’ worth of bicarbonate into the ocean is likely fine for ocean health relative to the climate benefit, but what is the point where the tradeoffs cross over? Some groups doing good work in this space:  [C]Worthy Carbon to Sea Initiative  University Research: UC Santa Barbara, University of Tasmania, GEOMAR, Dalhousie University, Scripps Join us for the next one in May! Details coming soon, and you can get updates by subscribing to the series page here: https://lnkd.in/g7DTGm2V

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Leaving Regenerative Food Systems Investment grateful for the introductions from friends and amazing discussions about collaboration. Lots of people rooting for each other. I need a break, but I’m enthused and energized for what’s to come. The latest release from Merge Impact provides a look at our client Impact Dash 2.0. Designed to support other supply chain professionals. 🧠 Make #sustainability sense of your supply chain data with #analysis and #reporting. ✅ Verify whether or not your supply chain is actually #regenerative. 💪 Generate claim #integrity. 🌎 We’re “middle earth” tech as my new friend Barry Bronson from (Esotico Pasta) labeled it. 👀 #Transparency reduces friction & the need for more stakeholders handling your #data. We’re really excited for what’s to come at Merge. Here’s our product launch demo in case you missed me: https://lnkd.in/gEjGxa49

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An insightful interview on the fundraising market for early-stage Food and Ag Tech companies, where I was honored to represent our community. Grateful for the opportunity and the unwavering support from our investors, customers, and dedicated team. Together, we are committed to transforming the Food Supply Chain through data-driven solutions for better outcomes. #FoodTech #AgTech #Innovation #AI #FoodSupplyChain #FreshFood Supply Change Capital, York IE, Array Ventures Trevor Cox, Mahendra Rajan, Bruno Ruas de Pinho, Thiago Mourao, Joseph Guss, Nicole Brunner

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California just banned 6 synthetic dyes from food sold in schools: red 40, yellow 5, yellow 6, blue 1, blue 2, and green 3. This is not a fringe ban, it could have serious (and really positive) impact on America’s food. To size the issue - Of the 400,000 products in the USDA food database … 63% of candies 50% of sports drinks 31% of sodas 24% of snacks contain these dyes. Over 51,000 products (12%) of EVERYTHING in the USDA database contain these additives. Removing harmful dyes is a no brainer. Big CPG is already doing this in other parts of the world. For consumers who don’t know the reasons (although a growing number of people are aware of the harms), a little consumer education would go a long way. Interested to see how the industry responds … Thanks to Bertrand Amaraggi and GoCoCo for the data! New Fare Hallie Bonnar Yuka Jerold Mande

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