On June 16th, 2021, in margin of the United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021, we held an Independent Dialogue with some of the most brilliant minds in the FoodTech industry. The Dialogue explored the various sustainable approaches of FoodTech entrepreneurs, the impact they want to create, the challenges they face along the way, and the changing attitudes of both investors and consumers.

The Event

This time, we joined forces with the United Nations to help the world hear all the voices that play a role in food systems. We wanted to offer a powerful opportunity to meaningfully engage with and explore sustainable food systems, collectively and resiliently through the Food Systems Summit Dialogues.

What is The Food System Summit?

The UN Secretary-General, António Gutierres, called on all world leaders to take part in a historic Summit in 2021 to help establish the future direction for food systems and accelerate collective action to that end. This reflects the increasing awareness that transforming food systems is central to achieving all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragilities and inequalities in food systems: it underscores the urgent need to ensure that food systems are more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient. This Summit will serve to present to the world the fact that we must all work collectively to transform the way the world produces, consumes, and thinks about food.

This historic Summit serves as an opportunity to engage all citizens as stakeholders in the food system, and to bring about tangible, positive changes in the world’s food ecosystem. That is precisely why we at Forward Fooding wanted to play our part by conducting an Independent Dialogue focused on innovation to transform our food system.

As we’re dealing with one of the most critical challenges of mankind, we couldn’t have chosen a better moderator for this webinar than Anne Le More. After two decades with organizations around the world in New York, the Middle East, and Africa focusing on peace & security, humanitarian crises, development, environment, and climate action, Anne is now continuing her commitment to promoting multilateralism and bringing about a more equitable and sustainable world through independence and entrepreneurship. We are very honored to have had her chairing this session and introducing the United Nations Food System Summit.

We also had the honor to be joined by the Deputy to the Special Envoy for the United Nations Food Systems Summit, Dr.Martin Frick, who opened the panel with a keynote. Martin Frick is the Director of the Climate, Energy and Tenure Division at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. He previously served as the Representative of Germany to the International Organizations in-country, including the Secretariats of the UN Convention to Combat Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the UN Convention to Combat desertification (UNCCD). Prior to this assignment, he led E3G’s – Third Generation Environmentalists, a leading climate change think tank – Programme Leader for climate diplomacy from November 2010 to June 2012. Dr. Frick has been a German diplomat since 1996.

Following Dr Martin Frick’s keynote, Anne le More asked Osnat,  Maija, Alvyn, Fotis, and Jevan, founders of some of the most impactful FoodTech startups operating across the whole food supply chain, and selected within our Foodtech 500 2020 finalists, to share with us their solutions to transform the industry.

Osnat Michaeli, Co-founder & CMO at Infarm ( #5 of the 2020 FoodTech 500)

Osnat Michaeli is the Co-Founder and Chief Brand Officer at Infarm, the world’s fastest-growing farming network. In 2013, Osnat Michaeli and her co-founders, Erez and Guy Galonska founded Infarm to spread their shared passion to eat better, grow their own food, and eliminate chemical pesticides and transport kilometers while still enjoying all the flavor and nutrients. With her rich background in film, advertising, journalism, and communication, Osnat is transforming Infarm into one of the most innovative challenger brands, and one of the few to stand at the unique intersection of agriculture, technology ,and sustainability. From Infarm’s Berlin headquarters, Osnat collaborates with retailers, chefs, designers, and other stakeholders to develop food concepts that support freshness, transparency, sustainability and quality across the Infarm network. Osnat drives company culture and internal communication champions initiatives of diversity and inclusion, and inspires creativity and design innovation. Her brand not only poses challenges to the industry, but also serves as a compass by which to guide the rapidly expanding company.  

Osnat stressed that the Covid pandemic highlighted the fragility of our supply chain and the importance of local production and safe food. Furthermore, she sees the future in a more optimistic light as 50% of consumers in the next decade will be millennials and Generation Z, who are typically highly educated and prefer local, healthy, and diverse.

Maija Itkonen, Co-founder & Chief Innovation Officer at Gold&Green Foods (#22 of the 2020 FoodTech 500)

Once an industrial designer, Maija Itkonen is now a prime disruptor of the food industry with a mission to change the way we eat. Maija co-founded Gold&Green® Foods in 2015 with the vision of breaking the meat habit through uncompromised plant-based protein with all the nutritional and environmental benefits. The unique combination of golden oats and green legumes is the signature base of all Gold&Green® products. Today, her hero product Pulled Oats® is sold in over ten countries around the world. 

When not spending time in Helsinki with her husband and four children, Maija can be found at the Gold&Green® design lab where she continues to innovate toward a sustainable, healthier, and more flavorful future.

The main challenge highlighted by Maija is the obstacles presented by the reluctance of many consumers. Thus, the most important thing is educating people and making them understand what the new normal is. Another key aspect is the willingness to invest in factories and hardware. Without infrastructure, FoodTech companies cannot do research on their own. Fortunately, we are seeing more and more investors willing to invest. As Maija says, “It is also very important to be proud of who you are and to make your own strengths.”

Alvyn Severien, Co-founder & CEO at Algama Foods ( #13 of the 2020 FoodTech 500)

Food-lover and passionate entrepreneur Alvyn Severien founded Algama with two childhood friends. With several years of experience in consulting and finance, he decided to launch a company with the aim of positively impacting the food industry. Alvyn is leading the development of the company in France and the USA. Drawing on culinary savoir-faire and biotech, Algama is designing great-tasting food enhanced with algae that meet consumers’ needs and respect the environment. As a speaker at the major food events in the past few years (Seeds & Chips, SIAL, Summer Fancy Food Show, etc.) or at global conferences (Climate Change Conference, World Expo Milano, World Economic forum etc.), Alvyn has been able to convey ALGAMA’s vision of the food of the future across the world: his expertise on microalgae and the pioneering work of the team have always been of great interest to the food community.

Alvyn establishes that we cannot supply everyone with clean and local food, so we must find new solutions that take into account everyone on the planet. There are big upcoming challenges to overcome, so now we must ensure that we can put the right solutions in place. In addition, Alvyn states that education is not only a major issue for consumers, but also for companies.

Fotis Fotioadis, Founder & CEO at Better Origin ( #82 of the 2020 FoodTech 500)

Fotis Fotiadis is the Co-founder and CEO of Better Origin. Better Origin is a Cambridge-based startup tackling food waste through insect biomass conversion, which is pioneering the transformation of organic waste into animal and human food. Fotis holds an MPhil in Sustainable Engineering from the University of Cambridge and a MEng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Sussex.

Better Origin envisions a future where nature and technology work in harmony to accelerate the transition to a sustainable planet. Using insects combined with patented technology, they are fixing the broken link in the food chain, reducing food waste and global emissions while improving on-farm health and productivity. Their cost-effective, decentralised network of patented AI-powered insect mini-farms converts excess nutrients into essential nutrients on a farm-by-farm basis.

Fotis believes that regulation and policy play an important role in the future. Working with the regulator to unlock certain packages to drive the industry forward is a priority. Policies are vital if we are to introduce sustainable solutions on a large scale. Fotis explains that many new technologies take time to become cost-effective, but if policymakers help entrepreneurs by offering carbon credits, tax emissions, or other real incentives, it would provide a significant boost to overcome the initial inertia and to have wider choices available more quickly.

Jevan Nagarajah, Co-Founder & CEO at Better Dairy (#324 of the 2020 FoodTech 500)

Jevan Nagarajah is the Co-Founder & CEO at Better Dairy. He has over 10 years of experience across banking, technology, and food at companies including HSBC, Rocket Internet, SumUp and Ritual.co. He holds a BSc Mathematics (First Class Honours) from Imperial College.

At Better Dairy, their mission is to combat the hugely unsustainable practices of dairy farming. Dairy farming is a leading contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and inefficient allocation of resources like water. However, plant-based alternatives are also not up to par since many of these have inferior flavour, varied nutrition, and limited usability as food ingredients. 

That’s why Better Dairy uses synthetic biology and yeast fermentation to produce synthetic dairy. Their products seamlessly plug into existing recipes and supply chains by being molecularly identical to traditional dairy. Additionally, their products retain all the nutritional value and protein-density of traditional cheese, without the added starches or oils. Better Diary has already tested in the lab and began production of their first results. As they move forward, the two primary challenges they face are refining government regulations to make them more suitable for sustainable purposes, as well as ensuring that their scientific methods in place for producing dairy from yeast are effective. 

We then wrapped up the dialogue by opening the floor to our attendees for a Q&A session with our panelists.

At Forward Fooding, we are incredibly proud to have hosted this Independent Dialogue. We loved hearing more about the entrepreneurial journeys and the inspiring stories from some of the incredible entrepreneurs from the ‘2020 FoodTech 500’s pack’ who are re-designing our Food System.

A big thanks go to all our speakers,  for taking the time to share their words of wisdom and inspire other entrepreneurs to enter this space. Another huge thank you to all the attendants who came along and joined us to celebrate this amazing pack of entrepreneurs who are bettering our food system every day with their inspiring work!

Last but not least, a very special thanks goes to Anne Le More, for agreeing to chair our event and being an amazing moderator for this session!

If you’ve missed this event, fear not,  you can watch the video below!