#Agrifood

The self-described ‘spaceship of the cultured meat industry,’ Australia’s Vow has become only the third company in the world to bring a cell-based meat product to market. Its cultured quail has received the green light from Singapore’s food regulator, whetting the appetite of the world’s culinary elite.
Vow Founder and CEO George Peppou explains how the company based in Alexandria, New South Wales, went from founding to first sales in just five years – an unrivalled achievement in a segment where many spaceships crash back to earth.

This week we bring you our evoke^AG. 2024 series with Tress Walmsley and Ponsi Trivisvavet joining our contributor Jayne Cuddihy in conversation to explore how they're working together to unlock the full potential of seed.

Finite resources, demand for sustainable production and the need to recycle and re-use are driving the move to a circular economy with potential benefits for the planet, producers and consumers.
Here thought leaders already putting circularity into practice unpick what’s needed to take the discussion beyond waste management to value creation.

Carbon is the currency of modern agriculture, so it’s no surprise that attendees at AgriFutures evoke^AG. 2024 were keen to know how Australia’s ag sector can overcome its stubbornly slow adoption of low-carbon solutions. As we hurtle towards 2030 (D-Day for most decarbonisation pledges both in Australia and internationally) market and regulatory pressures to reduce GHG emissions are bearing down upon the agrifood supply chain. Despite the urgency to respond, Australian producers aren’t yet flocking to low carbon production.

Here, top academics, early adopters, and sustainable livestock feed innovators share their truths on why adoption is lagging, and how we can drive faster progress.

Youth climate rallies, rising costs of living, food insecurity and farmers taking tractors to the streets in protest. To solve the world’s environmental problems Dr Lewis Akenji, Managing Director of the Hot or Cool Institute, says we need to tackle social tensions first – and that means addressing food systems sustainability with a five-step approach for a future-fit agrifood culture.

We often hear about the “cutting edge” or the most advanced technology or product but what about something that’s so radical and un-tested that it’s at the “bleeding edge”?
That kind of innovation can fill a gap in the market and deliver significant premiums but comes with risk.
A diverse group from the agrifood supply chain, both in Australian and export markets, share their insight in developing something new and finding a market willing to pay for it.

A $60 million investment program designed to galvanise the research and adoption of agritech in regional farming areas has been launched by Charles Sturt University, Australia’s largest educator of agricultural students.

Water. Soil. Nutrients. Climate. All critical components of a successful farming enterprise. But is there any component more fundamental than trust; that fragile commodity which we take for granted when we’ve got it – but find impossible to ignore when it’s lost.
But what exactly is trust, and how can agrifood producers not only build trust – but protect it?

If global food waste were a country, it would be third largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind the United States of America and China. The scale of the problem is well quantified, and solutions exist, but for food systems entrepreneur and founder Abi Ramanan, barriers to implementation remain, and caution is needed as we embrace technologies like artificial intelligence.

For 137-year-old Brownes Dairy, the secret to long term success is keeping it fresh. And being obsessed – in a good way – with what their customers want.

Take cutting-edge agrifood technology, build lasting collaboration to drive further innovation, test at scale and value-add – creating benefits not just for one business but an entire community. It’s an approach to innovation that gives the work of the Future Food Systems CRC an ‘exceptional edge’ and one the CRC is keen to showcase at evoke^AG. 2024. 

Mimicking thunderstorms, livestock disease detection, Artificial Intelligence (AI) for beekeepers and the world’s first real-time food and fibre verification tool are just some of the exciting innovations from companies selected to participate in the AgriFutures AgXelerate Program.