• New Food Finance Podcast

  • Written by: Gerard Wynn
  • Podcast
New Food Finance Podcast cover art

New Food Finance Podcast

Written by: Gerard Wynn
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  • Summary

  • On this podcast, we discuss how to reduce the environmental imapct of food production, through technology, science and policy, in interviews with thinkers, decision makers, entrepreneurs and farmers.

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/new-food-finance-podcast--5682894/support.
    Gerard Wynn
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Episodes
  • Jerry Nelson - Can AI help write the next IPCC climate report?

    Jerry Nelson - Can AI help write the next IPCC climate report?
    Apr 30 2024
    I interviewed Jerry Nelson, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois. His research career has spanned climate change and food security, as well as agriculture policy, trade and development. He is one of the world’s greatest experts on the economics of food security in an era of climate change. What he has to say on this really matters. My three top takeaways from this week’s podcast were:
    1. A very interesting idea by Jerry for uniting two very topical issues – AI and climate change. Regarding the next IPCC report, due out by 2029, Jerry made an interesting connection between the recent news that the world’s biggest AI developers have run out of internet, to train their models, with the great difficulty that IPCC authors are having, to read and curate all the world’s thousands of journal articles on climate change. He suggested the world’s academic journals throw open their doors – at present many are behind paywalls – to give AI access to these articles. In other words, to allow the AI models to get back on track with their training, in return for helping draft the next IPCC report! AI doing good!?
    2. Second, regarding another of his expert areas, on the climate resilience of the food system, I asked Jerry whether he was hopeful for new, more resilient crop varieties. He said there were advances in developing more drought-tolerant crops. But the problem is heat. Cereals that evolved in the Mediterranean just don’t perform well, once temperatures exceed around 31C. And many regions where these crops are grown today will exceed 31C. We also chatted about the possible role of biochar to sequester carbon in the soil, something Jerry is researching just now.
    3. And finally, when I asked Jerry about his reaction to a recent, stunning streak of global warming, with 10-straight, monthly records, through March, he said he was “scared”, partly because the relevant experts say they don’t know where the warming is coming from, implying climate change could be worse than expected, and partly because of the potential, direct consequences, for example for sea level rise.


    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/new-food-finance-podcast--5682894/support.
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    30 mins
  • Can farmers reap biodiversity market benefits?

    Can farmers reap biodiversity market benefits?
    Nov 22 2023
    My key takeaways from this podcast were:
    • Trinity Agtech believes that carbon is just one part of the story, that farmers have much more to offer in terms of environmental benefits
    • Their accounting tool is called Sandy, as “another person on the farm”
    • The tool is used to measure changes in soil carbon, as well as farm impacts on soil, natural capital, biodiversity and water
    • Carbon is still a big part of what they do. They measure changes in soil carbon – which farmers can monetise via offset markets – using a combination of soil sampling and modelling
    • They find that farmers can use Sandy, and evidence of improved biodiversity, to achieve a premium on their carbon offsets.
    • They cite one example where a farmer sold carbon offsets for £100 per tonne of CO2 avoided, because of additional biodiversity improvements, versus average trades of £35-40/ tCO2
    • But this market for biodiversity premiums is in its infancy Trinity Agtech is a young company only a few years old, but says it already has 1,500 farming customers in Britain and the EU
    • The company plans to expand next into the United States and South America


    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/new-food-finance-podcast--5682894/support.
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    31 mins
  • Can peptide-based bio-pesticides displace synthetic chemical pesticides?

    Can peptide-based bio-pesticides displace synthetic chemical pesticides?
    Sep 28 2023
    Here are my main learning notes from this podcast, an interview with Anna Rath, CEO of Vestaron, the peptide-based pesticide company:
    • Vestaron’s product focus is peptides, or short-chain proteins. Anna says that they have the same reliability and efficacy as chemical pesticides, but more precision targeting, and therefore safer use.
    • Vestaron’s products are based off naturally occurring toxins such as spider and scorpion venom. That poses a challenge for product manufacture. Spiders inject venom, but clearly injection is not an option for commercial products. So, Vestaron has developed oral products, which, when mixed with another substance, can reach the target nervous system through the stomach wall.
    • The pairing of its active ingredient with a “gut disruptor”, which is specific to different types of insects, enables its peptide to kill a target insect, while sparing non-target, beneficial insects, pollinators and wider wildlife. Neither the gut disruptor nor the active toxin is harmful to vertebrates, including people, Anna says.
    • Vestaron sees its competitors as chemical insecticides, because the company can compete with their high efficacy in insect kill. It sees most microbe-based biological controls as in a different category, with a lower efficacy, at least in the insecticide market.
    • In the U.S., Vestaron’s peptides are classed as an emerging technology, by the EPA, and as such can access an expedited regulatory path, but still have to prove their safety to the same standard as chemical pesticides.
    • Partly because of a potentially slimmer regulatory approval process, Anna says that Vestaron can develop a new product in six to seven years, spending around $20 million, compared with around $350 million and 11 to 14 years for a traditional chemical insecticide product.
    • The company’s first product is already approved for use in the U.S., Mexico and Canada, while the company is working towards entry into the EU market, which it expects by 2025 or 2026, if not sooner through expedited processes.
    • The company’s first product is a broad-spectrum insecticide, which kills moth and butterfly larvae by ingestion, as well as a contact product killing small, soft-bodied insects like aphids.
    • Anna draws parallels with a shift in the pharmaceutical industry, about 40 years ago, which she sees now coming to the agricultural chemical industry.
    • That shift is away from what Anna terms “small molecule discovery”, namely broad-spectrum chemicals that it turns out run into problems with wider side effects, in agriculture’s case on the environment, or in pharma’s case on human health. Over the past several decades, pharma has shifted to large-molecule, protein-based human health solutions, such as antibody and enzyme-based remedies, which are more specific in how they bind to target molecules, and so have fewer unwanted side effects.
    • Anna sees Vestaron as being able to disrupt the chemical pesticide market in the same way as Genentech or Amgen disrupted the pharmaceutical market, as the first company bringing protein-based solutions to the chemical pesticide industry.


    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/new-food-finance-podcast--5682894/support.
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    31 mins
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