An interview with Christine Moseley, founder of Full Harvest, one of Forward Fooding’s top 500 Food Tech startups.

Christine Moseley, founder of Full Harvest

 

It’s time to put a face to the name…

We asked our FoodTech 500 top-runners to give us a bit of insight into how they started out as a company and their thoughts on the role of technology in Food innovation. Meet Christine, the mastermind behind Full Harvest, connecting food and beverage brands and processors directly to farms online to buy discounted, imperfectly-shaped produce that would otherwise go to waste. Let’s see what Christine had to say.

So tell us a little bit more about you! Where did the idea for your FoodTech company come from?

Christine: During my time helping to scale one of the first green juice companies, Organic Avenue, I was frustrated at their $13 green juice prices due to using perfect looking produce just to immediately process it. As a serial entrepreneur, I wanted to figure out a way to make healthy food more affordable and moved to SF to start a company to do so. At that time, I came across a shocking food waste report that stated 40% of food is wasted and 20B pounds of excess produce is wasted at farms per year. Appalled, I went out to the largest romaine farm in the U.S. to see what was actually happening. The issue was worse than I thought as I found myself standing knee deep in beautiful, edible romaine leaves as far as the eye could see that they were about to waste because they were only harvesting 25% of the plant- the heart. The remaining 75% of the romaine plant would be churned back into the ground – completely wasted- just because the grocery stores only wanted the heart. I vowed at that moment to create a company to solve the farm food loss problem and knew that technology was needed to do so. By creating the world’s first B2B marketing place for imperfect and surplus produce, I realized I could significantly help the environment, while also lowering the cost of healthy food products.

How is tech central to your business?

Christine: At Full Harvest, we are redefining how technology is used to solve one of the world’s largest problems – food waste – the third largest contributor to global climate change. Our business is built on three technology pillars. Through our marketplace, we’ve created an efficient and transparent way to help farmers sell surplus and imperfect produce to food and beverage brands. We also use technology to work with farmers to develop innovative products and specs from previously unused produce or produce byproducts that can be sold to food and beverage companies. And lastly, the data that we collect from these transactions will help food producers and manufacturers drive sustainable practices throughout the entire supply chain.

Why do you think it’s important to see the food industry embrace tech?

Christine: Food is the single greatest lever to creating a healthier and more sustainable future – a future that will be greatly impacted by climate change and the need to feed nine billion people. These challenges will require bold and innovative solutions that transform the way we grow, manufacture and distribute food in a fast, scalable way. Today, Full Harvest and many other companies are demonstrating the critical role that technology can play in bringing this vision to life. In partnership with our farms and some of the world’s most recognized CPG brands, to-date the Full Harvest marketplace has helped rescue tens of millions of pounds of produce which has:

– Saved 5.5M KG of CO2, the equivalent of 1,150 cars off the road

– Saved 925M gallons of water, the equivalent of 17M people’s annual water needs

We’re looking forward to helping our partners grow their impact in the years to come.

 

 

Want to know more? Check out Full Harvest’s full profile here.

Congratulations again to Full Harvest for ranking 10th in the “Surplus & Waste Management” category of the Foodtech 500 list.

To find out who else made it into the FoodTech 500; the top Food Tech companies in the world, click here.

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