A farm can’t operate without its farmer. That’s why new initiatives are underway to help keep the farmer and rancher on the farm and ranch.
Fostering support: At the American Farm Bureau Federation’s (AFBF) 105th annual convention in Salt Lake City, President Zippy Duvall announced a peer-to-peer platform where members everywhere can anonymously share their struggles. It’s part of an ongoing effort to lessen mental health stigma in the agriculture industry and provide resources to help.
Inari Agriculture is working to seed the future.
Who: Inari, a startup based in Massachusetts and known as the SEEDesign™ company. The company is using cutting-edge gene-editing technology to develop seeds that can do more with less. In other words: they want to make seeds for corn, wheat, soybeans, etc that use less water, land, and fertilizer. (The goal is to increase yield in corn, wheat, and soybeans by as much as 20%.)
What: The startup’s latest fundraising round wrangled $103M, bringing its total equity raised to over $575M. Big-name investors include Hanwha Impact, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the State of Michigan Retirement System, Rivas Capital, NGS Super, Flagship Pioneering, RMC Private Market Funds, and more.
Why: Inari has spent the last year establishing and proving that its SEEDesign platform can multitask, editing multiple native genes in a plant at the same time through AI-powered predictive design. The ultimate goal is to produce more food using fewer resources and synthetic chemicals, and to strive for a more sustainable, nature-positive food system. This money will help the company enter its commercialization phase—aka, farmers and other seed customers will soon be able to order these seeds.
Soundbite: “These investments represent further external validation of Inari’s innovative technology and confidence in our creation of significant economic and environmental value by delivering our breakthrough, nature-positive products to seed customers,” said Inari CEO Ponsi Trivisvavet.
Short Corn Packs a Punch
Dynamite comes in small packages—which can be true with new seed technology. What’s...
Congress to EPA: What’s Your BEEF with Meat Packers?
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering new regulations that take aim at meat and poultry processors.
And some members of Congress have a BEEF with the EPA’s proposals.
The proposed rules: In late January, the EPA released the details of its proposed “Clean Water Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Meat and Poultry Products Point source category.”
Huh?
Basically, the EPA formally published its proposals to combat wastewater contaminants that come from slaughterhouses.
Okay… that makes more sense.
At the heart of the rules proposal is a concern from environmental groups about nitrogen and phosphorus pollutants that originate from slaughterhouses. In some cases, the wastewater goes directly into waterways. In other cases, the water goes to municipal wastewater treatment facilities.
But not everyone is on board with the EPA’s suggestions…
Congress responds: Last week, two U.S. representatives—Eric Burlison (MO) and Ron Estes (KS)—pushed back against the EPA and introduced the “Banning EPA’s Encroachment of Facilities (BEEF) Act.” If passed and signed by President Biden, the law would prohibit the EPA from finalizing, implementing, or enforcing the rule.
According to the lawmakers, the proposed rules place undue burden on small processors—costs that can be absorbed by larger companies.
Soundbite: “The… proposed regulation isn’t just an attack on family-run small businesses, it’s an attack on rural communities,” said Burlison. “These meat and poultry processors are the lifeblood of our communities. The BEEF Act… lets these hardworking Americans do what they do best, produce safe, affordable food for our families.”
University of Illinois Makes Big Mooves in Milk Production
Pump it up: Scientists led by Matt Wheeler at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are...