26. June 2019
Germany, which ranked fourth for agri-foodtech investment in 2018, pulling in $109 million across 21 deals, according to AgFunder and F&A Next’s recent report, is better known for its food tech successes than agtech — restaurant delivery group DeliveryHero and meal kit leader HelloFresh both listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange at multi-billion dollar valuations. But a deal last week — $100 million in funding for vertical farming group infarm — brought Germany’s agtech industry into focus. And while agriculture is still far off making the economical contribution that Germany’s well known industrial sectors do, the country still has a not insignificant 16 million hectares (39 million acres) of farmland employing 1.4% of the workforce, around 700,000 people.
24. June 2019
The "need" for meat we have brought on ourselves. Meat, or the everyday, cheap consumption of ham, sausages, roast & Co, has become a status symbol even before the car. A symbol of prosperity. After the two world wars the fifties brought new desires that had to be fulfilled on an everyday basis. Bratwurst and butter every day and cheap, please. In order to overcome this supposed need and its fulfilment (and to avert the climate crisis by the way), we need new vocabulary. Apart from the necessary research and development in the large areas of agriculture, there must be a rethink in society.
19. June 2019
How can Europe profit from innovations in agtech and how can the industry support farmers in identifying the right solution for their fields and stables? Dopatch Lab-Founder Patrick Walsh is convinced that Europe needs to think bigger in oder to be a global leader.
18. June 2019
In order to meet today‘s challenges in agriculture, you need to stay grounded - literally. Farm & Food spoke with Johanna Buntz and Dr. Thomas Gäbert about the diversity on german fields, drones and topsoils.
05. June 2019
We need to carefully use technologies like CRISPR, says Ruud van den Bulk, Wageningen University in an interview with Farm and Food 4.0. Companies and institutes are looking at Brussel these days. The next European Parliament is expected to make gene editing and connected research a little easier.
23. May 2019
Sustainability. Quality. Health. Profitability: Only a few of the key words you can basically find in every teaser referring to agricultural research, events or articles. They may seem overused when talking about tomorrow’s food production system. They are, however, almost redundant when we look at today’s agricultural stakeholders: farmers, innovators, start-ups, investors. Farm & Food spoke to one of those stakeholders at the F&A Next 2019, which took place in May in the Silicon Valley of agriculture and agtech-research: Wageningen University. Dan Harburg, Senior Director Innovation at indigo, was part of a debate regarding the question “How to create value for farmers?”.
27. March 2019
Developments in the agri-food sector have rarely been as exciting as in recent years. The sums invested in AgTech and FoodTech have grown rapidly since 2015. Innovative start-ups are the trendsetters of a new agri-food system, and established companies are recognizing the opportunities for collaboration. At our Farm & Food Congress in January we talked about current technology trends, successful cooperation and investments in start-ups.
07. March 2019
In 2013 Professor Mark Post presented the first burger from cell cultures. Its production cost 230,000 euros. Since then, numerous start-ups have been established in the field of meat cell culture. The latest addition to the family has been the presentation of the first in vitro steak with three-dimensional structure by the Israeli company Aleph Farms in December 2018. What may sound strange today could soon end up on your plate. A fitting topic for the Farm & Food 2019 conference. Didier Toubia, managing director and co-founder of ALEPH FARMS, presented the technology used, the timeline of the market launch and the planned market price of his Clean Meat. The technology for production has originally been used in human medicine.
20. February 2019
If you want to talk about the digital future in farming and food production, you have to look at the status quo: who does benefit and what do these benefits actually look like? Did past trends fulfill their promises? What do future challenges look like? Question like these made for the first panel at this year's Farm & Food 4.0. We need to talk about things like animal welfare, fertilizer, air pollution etc., but "we are on the wrong track", says Michael Horsch, founder and CEO at HORSCH Maschinen. In his opening statement he mentioned the challenges directed at tomorrow's agriculture.
09. January 2019
Maximilian von Löbbecke founded the Farm & Food 4.0 Congress in 2016 and entrusted the German Farmers’ Publishing House (Deutscher Bauernverlag) with the content management and overall responsibility in 2017. How does he see the current state of digitisation in the agriculture and food industry? Which challenges exist on the side of producers and consumers? He shares a few thoughts on this in the following interview.
