3 under-the-radar forces in food Jim Giles Fri, 12/18/2020 – 01:00 Last week, I unpacked three hype-worthy trends shaping our food systems. Now I want to shine a light on three behind-the-scenes forces that aren’t generating headlines but should be. Let’s drive straight in. 1. Our two-tier food system The story: Online marketplaces that connect consumers with small-scale producers have boomed during the pandemic. Membership at Crowd Cow , a marketplace for craft meat and seafood, doubled in April alone. Thrive Market tagline “healthy living made easy” is closing in on 1 million members following a 50 percent jump this year . The backstory: This is good news from a sustainability perspective, because both companies provide additional sales channels for producers that practice organic and regenerative agriculture. They’re also using zero-waste commitments and new packaging technology to aggressively tackle the delivery sector’s waste problems. These achievements make
3 big trends headlining a tumultuous year in food Jim Giles Fri, 12/11/2020 – 01:45 I’m going to try to make sense of this tumultuous year, starting with three trends from the past 12 months that I see as key to the immediate future of food. 1. An insane year for alternative proteins The trend: By Dec. 1, venture capitalists invested a whopping $1.5 billion in alternative proteins during 2020, according to the latest data from the Good Food Institute . That money close to double the 2019 total is making the industry increasingly visible. At the start of the year, the Impossible Burger was available in around 150 stores now you can find it in more than 15,000. Newer alt proteins are also coming. Just last week, Singapore became the first country to approve the sale of lab-grown meat . And while the field may not need further incentives, it got one anyway: This week, the XPRIZE Foundation announced a new $15 million competition focused on chicken and fish alternatives . Th