AgTech And Nature: Room For Growth
How technology can play a role in minimizing the biodiversity impacts of agriculture
🪸 We’re Superorganism, the first VC for startups that benefit biodiversity. Each month we publish thoughts from the frontline, company updates, and a round-up of new happenings in the nature tech world.
May 22nd was World Biodiversity Day, a national holiday in Superorganism’s books, and a cause for celebration and reflection on our place in the natural world. This planet holds more biodiversity than any other in the universe (a distinction we expect to hold for quite some time). And one of the reasons it does is thanks to the work and stewardship of people, communities, and organizations around the globe. Indeed, one of this month’s biggest papers quantified how overwhelmingly, conservation works to counter biodiversity loss.
But you can’t talk about biodiversity loss without talking about agriculture.
There are five primary drivers of extinction: land use change, overexploitation, invasive species, pollution, and climate change. Agriculture has been a major contributor to all five, with an ecological footprint that has grown with changing population and dietary needs.
Humans need to eat. In the past 50 years, the population of the earth has roughly doubled, from 4 billion to 8 billion. In the next 50 years, we will add another 2.5 billion people to the planet, a 30% increase, before growth peaks and begins to decline. The challenge we are faced with is to feed that population boom, and improve nutrition, without degrading nature.
Already, around 40% of Earth’s ice- and desert-free land is used for agriculture. Of that, approximately 80% is dedicated to livestock grazing and growing livestock feed. This month, with Dr. Sarah Garland of Triple Helix Institute, we released a whitepaper exploring the overlap between agriculture and biodiversity, and the role technology can play.
To ensure a healthy global population, and to do better by nature, change is needed. In the report, we explored with Dr. Garland some areas where ag tech can lessen the harms of modern agriculture. The scale of the challenge is significant:
67% of global deforestation by agriculture has been driven by expanding animal pastures and fields for growing animal feed.
Excess runoff from agriculture is responsible for 75% of global eutrophication (think: the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico).
70% of all global freshwater is used for agriculture.
This whitepaper explores ways that advances in technology, particularly genetic technologies (one of Triple Helix’s specialties), can be used to improve land conversion, pollution, and resource use. Within our own investing, we have considered the use of many tools to fight the extinction crisis within agriculture, from regenerative ag to synthetic biology to indigenous land practices.
We’re proud to have supported several companies at the nexus of agriculture, food, and nature in the Superorganism portfolio:
Amini provides better environmental data and AI-powered insights for Africa, which helps to insure rural farmers, monitor supply chains, and improve growing plans around increasingly unpredictable weather.
Ovipost grows insects at scale as feed for pets and aquaculture, displacing more ecologically intensive inputs like beef and forage fish.
Planet A Foods produces a delicious chocolate alternative that avoids tropical deforestation from cacao farming and is resilient to climate change pressures.
Sway makes biodegradable, thin-film plastics from regenerative seaweed, with a significantly improved land and water footprint vs. other bioplastics made from corn, soy, or potatoes.
Consistently, we’ve found that startups that design for reduced ecological impacts often outperform on other axes like nutrition and supply chain resiliency. The need for change is vast, but as agriculture is a multi-trillion dollar global industry, so is the opportunity.
To the entrepreneurs rethinking how to feed the planet in better harmony with nature, the world is your oyster. 🦪
Notes from the Field
Updates from our portfolio companies, and from us at Superorganism
🌐 Cecil is seeking individuals with diverse data skills, such as Python, SQL, and GIS, to test a range of nature data analysis workflows. Don't miss this opportunity to be a part of their launch. Email alex@cecil.earth
🌳 Funga is hiring a forester, and will be at the National Conference of Private Forest Landowners in Denver June 25-26.
🌊 Inversa and Sway were front and center in this Washington Post piece. We also loved this Imagine5 quote: “Seaweed is the most generous material on earth.”
🪴 Rosy Soil published its 2024 LCA, and is hiring a sales manager and part-time social media manager.
🪸 As for us at Superorganism in May…
Spoke at World Species Congress, Natural Capital Investment Americas, Greenbiz Circularity Chicago, X Prize Rainforest, and Accelerate 2050
Invested in two new companies (stay tuned)
Were featured in Climate Hack Weekly
Visited friends and collaborators in Washington DC, New York City, Chicago, and San Francisco.
Launched our jobs board! (More on this in our May update)
🦅 New Investment: Spoor
Wind energy can be a win-win-win: good for climate, energy, and business. But it has a mixed record with birds. Although avian deaths by wind farms are orders of magnitude lower than from causes like feral cats, buildings, and cars, they have led to permitting delays that can cost billions of dollars. These in turn lead to more time with fossil fuel-derived power.
Enter Spoor. Spoor uses AI to detect bird species and movements around offshore wind turbines. Their offering monitors impacts to birds 24/7 on live turbines and can better site new projects to ensure they are out of major flyways.
Within our Climate x Biodiversity thesis, Spoor has their eagle eyes on helping the world reach net-zero emissions, while minimizing impacts to nature. Our hope is that Spoor can speed permitting times for needed renewable infrastructure, while ensuring a complete audit trail on biodiversity impacts from siting through implementation.
Ecosystem news
🌲 Nature-Based Carbon
Carbon Offset Projects Face Trust Issues, Wildfires. Insurance Could Help. | Bloomberg
Yellen Embraces Carbon Market Potential With Integrity Push | Bloomberg
Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Salesforce Launch “Symbiosis”, Pledging for 20M Tons of Nature-Based CDR Credits
The potential of carbon markets to accelerate green infrastructure based water quality trading | Communications Earth & Environment | Nature
Can Forests Be More Profitable Than Beef? | New York Times
Nature Credit Markets - CI position
🏭 Industry and Nature
It’s time for companies to consider an ‘Internal Price on Nature’ | One Earth
Why Gaia is on a comeback and nature tech is booming | The Fifth Estate
Trump Vows ‘Day One’ Executive Order Targeting Offshore Wind | Bloomberg
How 3M Execs Convinced a Scientist the Forever Chemicals She Found in Human Blood Were Safe | ProPublica
Lawyers to Plastics Makers: Prepare for 'Astronomical' PFAS Lawsuits | New York Times
Can the $8.7 Billion Demolition Industry Get a Green Makeover? | Bloomberg
💰 Funding
Fonseca Species Conservation Fund | Re:wild
Bezos Earth Fund Announces $100 Million for AI Solutions to Tackle Climate Change and Nature Loss
🕸️ Systems
Tracking Illicit Brazilian Beef from the Amazon to Your Burger | Yale E360
Biodiversity loss is biggest driver of infectious disease outbreaks, says study | The Guardian
What Biodiversity Can Measure | Living Carbon
We wanted solarpunk, instead we got monoclonal antibodies | Homeworld Collective
🦧 Conservation
Migratory freshwater fish populations ‘down by more than 80% since 1970’ | The Guardian
Herd of 170 bison could help store CO2 equivalent of 43,000 cars, researchers say | The Guardian
Wounded orangutan seen using plant as medicine | BBC
3D ocean assessments reveal that fisheries reach deep but marine protection remains shallow | Nature Communications
Alaskan rivers are turning orange. Climate change could be to blame. | The Washington Post
Elephant-nose fish ‘see’ farther by electric sensing when in groups | Nature
World record broken for living thing with most DNA | BBC
🚣 And good luck to Kat Bruce, Chrissy Durkin, Aoife Luscombe, Lorena Nichols, Madeline Craig, and Jess McIver, the team behind Sea Change. These six women work in the fields of nature, climate and corporate sustainability, and will be rowing unaided around the entire British coastline, documenting biodiversity, microplastics, and more the whole way. Bon voyage!
Thank you!
Thanks for reading and for supporting Superorganism, and a special thank you to everyone who went above and beyond this month with introductions, diligence, advice, and help to founders:
Amanda Ackerman, Evan Arnold, James Bailes, Jason Boehmig, Karla Brollier, Teal Brown-Zimring, Andrew Chang, Joanna Cohen, Mark Cox, Alex Dehgan, Arjun Durr, Camila Ferraz, Sarah Garland, Dan Gluesenkamp, Maddie Hall, Ask Helseth, Taylor Holshouser, Parker Hughes, Jo Jensen, Diana Kaba, Kate Kallot, Fabio Kestenbaum, Zach Knight, Erwin Kooij, Daniel Kriozere, Ben Lamm, Marcus Lima, Alex Logan, Johny Mair, Armando Mann, Sara Marquart, David Marvin, David Meyers, Janina Motter, Will O'Brien, Tom O'Keefe, Bola Olusanya, Jonathan Palmer, Chloë Payne, Andrew Peterson, Jonathan Pines, Chris Przybyszewski, Bailey Richardson, Beth Richtman, Rachel Rivera, Diego Saez Gil, Phil Saksa, Jeremy Schneider, Holger Seidel, Gemma Shepherd, Aadil Siddiqi, Jordan Soriot, Francesco Stadler, Jinal Surti, Nate Truitt, Raviv Turner, Sonam Velani, Alex Weisberg, and Chris Wu.