From air-grown meat and supply chains running on a blockchain, through artificial pollination to vertical farms, we present three extraordinary agri-food tech start-ups that push innovation to the outer limits.
Agri-food tech industry on the wave of sustainability
Agriculture and the food industry are among the sectors most heavily affected by the trend of sustainability in business.
Therefore, the funding of agriculture and food technology innovations, agri-food tech for short, supports the rise of start-ups that are pioneering technologies beyond our imagination.
Let’s take a look at the breakthrough technology of these start-ups.
Examples of agri-food tech start-ups
AirProtein
A food start-up focused on creating protein alternatives out of the air. Literally…
The process is similar to making soy flour but requires less time and resources. Basically, they take elements from the air we breathe – carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen – and shuffle them with water and mineral nutrients. After that they use a probiotic production process where cultures transform the elements into nutrients. Where crops require months to go from seed to harvest, air protein’s probiotic production process is ready for harvest in hours. Air protein flour is produced with an 80% protein content, compared to soy protein flour that has 40% and the rest is oil.
Pebble Labs
An agricultural start-up focused on protecting food against pests and diseases, which are responsible for reducing agriculture productivity by 40% and aquaculture crops by 50%. Pebble Labs uses so-called Directed Biotics technology, which enables it to target specific particles to protect the animals’ and plants’ health.
It uses two ways to fight pathogens and other pests:
– To fight viral pathogens, Directed Biotics uses probiotic bacteria to deliver RNAi, which turns off the replicating ability of the pathogen.
– To fight other pests, Directed Biotics uses a targeted microbe that activates the immune system of the plant or animal.
Edete
An agricultural start-up that is using advanced technologies to provide artificial pollination.
Their technology is based on two simple steps.
Step 1 is Pollen Harvesting. They mechanically harvest the flowers, separate the pollen from the flower and store it for more than a year. Then they use a proprietary method to secure the best fertilization and fruit setup for higher crop yield.
Step 2 is Pollen Distribution. In the blooming season, the stored pollen is distributed by proprietary high-efficiency artificial pollinators which spray the dry pollen on the plants. The machine uses algorithmic sensing to get as close to each tree contour as required. To target the flower the pollinator uses electrostatic deposition.
Point of view
“We want to use our platform to show people the many innovative and marvellous start-ups that are out there,” said Soulmates Ventures founder Hynek Sochor. “Many of these start-ups have the potential to invent a product that can revolutionize industries. We have to find these start-ups and help them grow so that each industry can switch to a sustainable business model as easily as possible.”
Resources
https://www.airprotein.com/science
https://www.pebblelabs.com/what-directed-biotics-does/
https://www.pebblelabs.com/
https://www.edetepta.com/
