The GuidePost: January 2024
Eion announces first carbon removal delivery to Stripe, Ascribe applies for EPA registration, and more.
As we continue to see significant growth within the regenerative agriculture sector, it’s vital for key players within the industry to build on this traction.
That’s why Trailhead Capital has teamed up with Proof to create a Regenerative Agriculture Working Group with the objective of uniting industry stakeholders to identify and align key Impact KPIs for Regenerative Food/Ag businesses. The objectives of the Regenerative Agriculture Working Group include:
Identify and build consensus around leading regenerative agriculture KPIs to promote harmonization and deeper insight generation in the sector.
Increase sharing of learnings, trends, and best practices in regenerative agriculture performance measurement.
Establish this working group as a thought leader in the regenerative agriculture space among various essential players [Farmers, Companies, Investors]
Discuss and strategically plan around macro trends related to the sector
Currently, Proof is working on creating an in-depth blueprint of “key performance indicators (KPIs) identified by a working group of regenerative agriculture experts and practitioners.” This blueprint will provide industry data to regenerative agriculture investors and businesses while also “[promoting] harmonization for impact measurement.”
The first two of six categories within the blueprint have been released:
Expand the amount of regeneratively managed land ⬅
Reduce atmospheric carbon ⬅
Reduce food waste
Conserve water
Improve food nutrition and nutrient density
Increase biodiversity
To read the Impact Category #1: Expand the amount of regeneratively managed land in its entirety, click here. To read the post on Impact Category #2: Reduce atmospheric carbon, click here.
What’s more, Proof was invited to speak at the RFSI Europe conference and provide an update on the working group outputs as part of a break-out session titled “Measuring and Reporting Regenerative Impact.” Look for more from the Regenerative Agriculture Working Group in the near future.
General Updates
Developing natural crop protection and fertilizer products to help farmers reduce disease and increase yield without harming the environment or human health.
CropLife: Loveland Products and Ascribe Team Up to Launch Biofungicides for U.S. Row Crops
Businesswire: Ascribe applies to EPA for registration of revolutionary biofungicide Phytalix®
Breakthrough solutions for crop loss and food safety.
The Modern Acre: Realistic AgTech Valuations, Cold Plasma Tech & Going Broad and Narrow with Dan White, Co-Founder and CEO of Clean Crop
Clean Crop Blog: Clean Crop Receives Award from Economic Development Incentive Program
A platform for developing and financing nature-based carbon projects.
Ma Earth: Nature as an Investable Asset Class with Troy Carter (Earthshot Labs)
Emergence Magazine: The Forest Beyond by Earthshot Labs
Removing atmospheric carbon permanently and verifiably, with enhanced rock weathering on soil.
Eion Blog: Announcing Our Stripe Delivery: From Vision to Validation
Carbon Herald: Eion Makes First Delivery Of Enhanced Rock Weathering Carbon Removal To Stripe
Investing alongside farmers to fund farms that drive profit and impact.
Emma Fuller Blog: Fractal’s theory of change
Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food [Podcast]: Emma Fuller - Making Soulless Capital Who Doesn't Care About Regenerative Agriculture Invest in It
Harnessing forest fungal networks to address the climate crisis.
Forbes: This Start-Up Taps Into A Hidden World To Restore Biodiversity And Capture CO2
Deep Tech Newsletter: Mycotech, Machine Learning, and Mushrooms with Funga's Josh Parrish
The world’s largest product sustainability database.
The recreation access network.
The Modern Acre [Podcast]: AgriTourism, Hunting & More - A Different Kind of Ag Marketplace with Nic De Castro, Founder & CEO of LandTrust
E-commerce for the local food system.
Will Reagan Blog: Regionalizing Food Systems
Supply Chain Quarterly: 3 Vs of Supply Chain Innovations Awards honor companies impacting the supply chain
Pioneering game-changing solutions to the health, environmental, and animal welfare challenges posed by animal agriculture.
Fast Company: Why this lab-meat startup is keeping cows in the equation
PR Newswire: Omeat Completes Construction of Pilot Plant in its Steady March to Scale Up
A single platform to capture and analyze all food safety and quality data.
The Founder Mindset [Podcast]: Erik Westblom Bonus Content
Revolutionizing agrifood with AI.
Whole genome sequencing of the soil microbiome.
Feedstuffs: Trace Genomics, EarthOptics introduce new accuracy for carbon measurement
Future Farming: DNA soil analysis, what’s involved and the benefits it provides
Regenerative Food Systems Investment (RFSI) Europe - February 28-29, 2024 - Brussels, Belgium
RFSI Europe will explore the critical role capital plays in enabling food system transformation across Europe and beyond, with presentations, panel discussions, Q&A, round table discussions, pitches and networking to connect the people, organizations, concepts, and concepts that will drive lasting change for soil health, food quality, human nutrition, and planetary well-being. Trailhead maintains a long-lasting partnership with RFSI and several of our portfolio companies, such as Mad Capital, will be in attendance this year. Also Proof, our partner in the Regenerative Agriculture Working Group, will be presenting an update on the working group outputs at RSFI Europe this year.
World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit - March 19-20, 2024 - San Francisco
The Trailhead team will be in attendance at the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit for the third year in a row, as will a host of our portfolio companies. The event brings together over 2,500 agtech decision makers for breakout sessions, start-up pitches, investor sessions, networking opportunities, and more.
Q1 ICM Partner Coffee - February 2024
Trailhead Capital is excited to partner again with Impact Capital Managers (ICM) to host another Partner Coffee Hour with the local Denver / Boulder ICM community. To learn more about ICM, visit their website.
AgFunder News: 2023 in review: Beyond Meat in ‘survival’ mode, ‘jaundiced’ indoor ag investors, AI in every pitchdeck
Food Business News: Clean solutions to plant protein challenges
Nasdaq: From Farm to Future: Shaping the Future of Food with Alternative Proteins
U.S. Senate Committee On Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry:
Innovation in American Agriculture: Leveraging Technology and Artificial Intelligence
VA News: Healing and health through regenerative agriculture
Washington Post: How age-old food science could make fake meat taste better
Wired: Can Rock Dust Soak Up Carbon Emissions? A Giant Experiment Is Set to Find Out
Institute of Food Technologists: Regenerative Ag, Food Safety Change Agent, Inside the Genomics Institute
Discover opportunities across our network of transformational companies, including:
Analytics Engineer - CamoAg. Help build, maintain, test, and document data pipelines for modeling to support CamoAg’s SaaS products serving the agricultural sector.
Senior Software Engineer - Earthshot Labs. Lead the frontend development of Earthshot’s internal web application used for geospatial carbon analytics in nature-based solutions.
New Accounts Manager - Fractal. The New Accounts Manager role will be essential in building Fractal’s sales team and will be the first hire solely dedicated to bringing in new customers.
Partnerships Manager - Provision Analytics. Provision’s Partnerships Manager will find, activate, and optimize partnerships that grow the adoption of the company’s food safety software.