🌿 The Future of Food: A Deep Dive with Daniel Skavén Ruben

From Farm to Future, Daniel walks us through where the world is heading when it comes to food.

I'm excited to bring you a conversation with Daniel Skavén Ruben, the author behind one of my favorite newsletters, FoodTech Weekly. Daniel is a self-described food tech and sustainability geek. He’s also the founder of Solvable Syndicate which invests in early-stage global foodtech and climatetech impact startups.

In our interview below, Daniel dives into the rapid advancements and challenges in the food industry, from vertical farming innovations to breakthroughs in functional foods. Whether you're passionate about FoodTech or curious about how technology can drive positive change in our food systems, this is a must read.

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1/ What inspired you to launch FoodTech Weekly? What are your overall impressions on the pace and rate of development in the industry?

Food is one of the core things that connects us as humans. It’s of course fuel for our bodies, but it’s so much more. Food is telling us where we’re coming from, where we’re at, and where we’re going. Food is identity, culture, religion, and ethics. It’s nostalgia and memories. It’s joy and community, with friends and family.

On a bigger level, the food system is one of the largest industries on Earth. It’s the sector with the largest environmental footprint in terms of e.g. land use, freshwater use, and greenhouse gas emissions. It’s the industry impacting human health more than anything else. It’s the system using the most animals. It’s the industry creating the most livelihoods, and it’s one of the largest industries in terms of GDP. We built the modern food system to deliver high yields and cheap calories in order to eradicate hunger, and it’s been very successful at that. But there have been many unintended consequences that we now have to deal with.

So it’s a massively impactful system. And right now, it’s rapidly being reshaped by scientific breakthroughs, and private sector innovations. This holds the promise of creating a future food system that is environmentally sustainable, nourishing, humane, and resilient. This is exciting. And I wanted to share those developments and stories with the world. That’s why I started FoodTech Weekly.

On the one hand, the pace of development is fast. Billions of dollars are invested every year. Thousands of startups are founded every year that try to tackle food system issues.

On the other hand, the sector is significantly underinvested when considering the massive impact it has on e.g. planetary health and human health. There are huge barriers that are holding back development, from regulatory obstacles, to technical obstacles, to consumer acceptance obstacles. I wish the transformation would go faster.

2/ How do you see vertical farming evolving in the next decade, and what innovations are most critical for its success?

Vertical indoor farming companies raised billions of dollars in funding between 2014 and 2022. Hopes were high – these companies offered to produce for example fresh leafy greens close to consumers, without herbicides and pesticides, and with a low water footprint. But many companies overpromised and underdelivered. They had failed to appreciate how complex it is to run an entire farm operation. The farms were expensive both to build and to operate; the abundant LED lights, sensors and HVAC (climate control) require lots of electricity, and labor is still costly. Many companies failed to deliver the projected unit economics and profits. Valuations dropped and funding dried up; many of the vertical farming companies had to do massive layoffs or shut down entirely. So is this type of farming irrelevant? No – but it likely makes the most sense for certain crops, in certain geographies. Planning will improve, and valuations and expectations will be more realistic. I think we’ll see more standardization, and less experimentation, going forward. Vertical farming will be a part of the future food system, but it will not replace outdoor and greenhouse farming.

3/ What are the most promising technologies currently being developed to optimize the food supply chain, and how can they help reduce food waste and improve efficiency?

EAT-Lancet and other expert reports are clear that we need to shift to healthy and sustainable diets, and at least half food waste. Policy can do a lot, but many exciting technologies will help us reach these goals too. 

• CRISPR can help with crop breeding; biotech and synbio in general hold incredible promise

• Tech that enables regenerative agriculture can have significant positive impacts. 

• There’s also massive greenhouse gas emissions stemming from for example livestock farming, the application of nitrogen fertilizers, and the cultivation of rice.

  • We see startups working on new feed additives, doing selective breeding, and even developing masks for animals, to help block and capture methane emissions from cows and sheep. 

  • Many startups are working on fossil free fertilizers, and others are developing better nitrogen fixing crops, reducing the need for nitrogen fertilizer. New rice varieties are being developed that decrease the growth of methane emitting bacteria.

• Alternative proteins, whether plant-based, cell-cultivated (lab-grown) or precision fermented, can help reduce the need for conventional animal-sourced foods

• In terms of food waste, companies are working on better cold chain technologies, smarter packaging that can detect food waste or slow down the ripening, SaaS solutions to reduce over ordering in food service, and so on

• Data, AI and machine learning can help optimize the food value chain from farm to fork

• Water tech is an exciting field – drip irrigation, smarter irrigation, and more efficient wastewater management are examples of technologies that can help cut water use.

• Commodities such as cocoa and coffee beans have huge environmental impacts as cultivation is linked to deforestation (which drives climate change); many startups are working on alternatives to cocoa and coffee that will deliver the same taste, price, and convenience, but without the adverse environmental and social impacts

4/ What advancements in functional foods are you most excited about, and how do you think they will impact consumer health and wellness?

Functional foods have existed for a long time – probiotic yoghurts, fortified cereals, green tea, high omega-3 fish, dark chocolate high in flavonoids, fermented foods etc – all said to provide additional health benefits thanks to certain bioactive compounds etc. I’m seeing a lot of innovation, in everything from enzymes that can convert sugar to fiber in your gut (Zya), to functional drinks that promise to lower your blood sugar spikes (Good Idea), to iron compounds mixed into your food (Ironic Biotech) that counter iron deficiency common not least among women and girls. And so much more. There are countless examples of functional foods that can help improve consumer health and longevity.

5/ In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges and opportunities for reducing the environmental impact of food production, and which startups are leading the way?

The food system is responsible for about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions, 70% of freshwater use, and 50% of habitable land use. Livestock and fisheries, plus land use for livestock and crops for animal feed, is about half of total GHG footprint for ag. By replacing high emitting foods like beef and dairy with fish and poultry, or (better yet) plant-based foods, emissions can be cut drastically. This is easier said than done, because people everywhere love animal sourced foods. New technologies are coming online both to cut the environmental footprint of production of animal sourced foods, as well as functional substitutes to animal sourced foods. Everyone has heard of companies like Impossible, Beyond, and Oatly; on the horizon is the next generation of alternatives to animal sourced foods. These can be for example plant-based, cell-cultivated, precision-fermented, mycelium-derived, and they will need to be as good or superior to the products they look to replace, before we can expect consumers to adopt them.

About ⅓ of food produced in the world is lost; in emerging markets, much food is lost post-harvest, and in mid- to high-income countries, 30% of food is lost at the supermarket, foodservice, and consumer level. There is therefore huge potential to cut this waste, and there are thousands of companies looking to do just that. There are apps that help rescue and sell (or share) surplus foods from e.g. restaurants, like Too Good To Go, OLIO, Karma, FoodCloud; there are SaaS and/or hardware solutions to cut food waste at the restaurant level such as Winnow and Generation Waste; there are companies selling food with short expiry dates at a discount – such as Motatos, Imperfect Foods, Martie, and Beans; there are dozens of companies with coating solutions for fruits and vegetables to increase shelf life (such as Apeel Sciences); the list could become very long indeed!

6/ Looking ahead, what are some emerging trends in the food tech industry that you believe will significantly shape the future of food?

At a macro level, by 2050 we need to nourish 10 billion people without using more land and water, while lowering GHG emissions. And we need to truly nourish people, not just provide them calories. There are no silver bullets. We will need sensible policy, information, and education. And we will need to see hundreds of billions of dollars invested into new products, services, and business models that can help advance a food system that is environmentally sustainable, nourishing, resilient, humane, and equitable.

We’ll see much more around alternatives to animal sourced foods, as well as technologies to decarbonize how we currently raise animals for food. We’ll see a lot around food as medicine, and we’ll gain a greater understanding in how the 25k biochemical compounds in food impact human health. We’ll find ways to cut the use of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and fertilizer. We’ll become better at upcycling nutrients, and monetizing food industry sidestreams – e.g. turning fruit pits into oils, spreads, and dairy alternatives. Regenerative agriculture will gain steam, and we’ll find new alternatives to beloved conventional crops like coffee, cocoa, and palm oil, that have problematic side effects.

If we succeed, a new food system will emerge, that is friendly to human and planetary health - I think that’s a future worth looking forward to!

I hope you enjoyed this interview with Daniel. If you’ve got any more questions, please share them in the comments and/or on his excellent newsletter, FoodTech Weekly I’m looking forward to doing more interviews especially with food innovators, are there any industry experts that you’d like to hear from? Share in the comments below.

🎨 About the artist

Jim Burns, A British illustrator known for his detailed hard science fiction and fantasy art.