Meatless meat, fishless fish, chickenless chicken? Is the biotechnological food revolution the way we save the planet and feed the hungry? Or will food in the future be produced through vertical farming and fish farms? Who will sell the machinery and IT? Which food sector companies will make investors a lot of money?
Here you can discuss all topics and companies related to the food sector and its future, as well as technological development.
Has anyone looked into the Disruption of Agriculture?
Could we get a thread going? I’ve been waiting for agricultural robotics, vertical farming, and cellular agriculture. There was an article in Helsingin Sanomat about cellular agriculture.
I bought a couple of small lots of a vertical farming company called Kalera ASA, mentioned in some thread, but I’d like a broader thread, perhaps in the style of the Energy thread.
Have you found any investment opportunities? My venture-type small investments in this future industry would be possible and welcome. Small sums looking for big returns.
Feel free to send a private message too; I can try to open a thread myself at some point, but are there other interested people with targets in mind?
I spotted some LED lighting system suppliers before the Christmas holiday.
@viljo I was wondering the same thing this morning while reading the article.
The companies are probably still in such an early stage that investing is very risky.
There’s an episode of Pörssipäivä on Yle Areena where the chairman of the share savers is interviewed. He had invested in a Chinese food tech firm listed on some US stock exchange, but the investment wasn’t very successful. It’s worth listening to the episode 
When investing in the food industry, and especially in food production, a few challenges come to mind that make this sector unappealing:
An interesting exception to this is fishing, because when fish run out in the sea, the only option left is some startup fish farm, and valuable fish are already well-priced. As I understand it, almost every company that has tried to commercialize this fish farming has so far more or less failed from an investor’s perspective.
@viljo and @Pohjolan_Eka, this might not be directly related to disruption, but during the COVID spring, greenhouses sold out instantly as people got excited about growing their own (organic) vegetables, and desired models weren’t available again until autumn. I believe the gardening trend will continue in the future, and there will be a market for easy home greenhouse systems, lights, irrigation systems, etc. This might not be the same kind of profitable “megatrend” Viljo is looking for, but I personally find this field sympathetic and ecological; decentralizing and localizing food production is sustainable. If I could find a good investment opportunity related to this field, I would be interested from both a content and return perspective.
@Pohjolan_Eka a disruption in agriculture doesn’t have to be about growing food; it could be, for example, autonomous tractors (or their software), etc. Kalera grows lettuce and such, and that’s agriculture, but everything else is interesting.
That’s why I thought a general thread. Usually, companies right at the beginning are very risky.
Yeah, I’d rather buy into companies that sell the machinery or software for this agricultural disruption. A general thread could be interesting if there are such companies on the stock market.
Exactly, I tried searching for them once, and I only found ones owned by private equity firms.
I haven’t read the article, but recently Yle’s “Mitä maksaa” (What Does It Cost) program discussed the future of food production and in another episode, the food export business.
That first episode presented some interesting future scenarios. It piqued my interest, even though the sector is quite challenging, as @Pohjolan_Eka noted. However, I’m personally interested in the equation where there are constantly more hungry mouths, and current production methods cannot meet future needs. Food production can still be significantly enhanced with technology, and potential investment cases could very well be found in that field, so I would definitely be interested in a dedicated thread for this topic!
You could post something there if you find anything; I believe that in the coming years, agriculture will be made more efficient and also more sustainable than before. It has already been made more efficient (intensive farming), which has ensured large amounts of food production.
This is certainly intertwined with vegetarian trends and the fish situation in the oceans, etc.
Absolutely, just set up the thread. It can be a pretty light start. I’m sure we’ll get interesting stuff and different perspectives over time. If there are direct companies, just set up threads for their own companies!
My own view is that vertical farming will grow and is a thing of the future. We certainly can’t talk about business for years yet, but I think it’s key when it comes to sustainable development and agriculture. Changes in agriculture will surely be even harder to implement than the energy transition, but anything is possible if/when there is political will. This is also a core issue when it comes to climate change.
@Pohjolan_Eka I agree. A company that supplies software/equipment to these would be very interesting.
@jaska1 @Pohjolan_Eka Trimble Inc. is at least one such company.
https://investor.trimble.com/static-files/81e80b9b-b4e5-4e2e-91cd-fb161aebdfe3
Here’s the Helsingin Sanomat article (paywall?)
And here’s an old Solar Foods presentation (2019)
However, a grow-op company like this exists in Finland. Unfortunately, it’s not on the stock exchange; it seems they can get capital from other sources.
Trimble seems to be getting into a lot more than just agriculture. It’s a pretty big company, there would be a lot to explore Thanks for the tip.
Trimble acquired Tekla from the stock exchange back in the day, that was my first ownership bought off the stock exchange.
Interesting company!
@Airbook, do you follow Trimble? Do they often acquire expertise? It seemed to have developed nicely before.
The agriculture part seemed to be a newer thing, not many years old. There could be good growth opportunities there, and they probably have the muscle to advance things.
@Pohjolan_Eka In the Foreign Stocks thread, there’s been recent discussion about MustGrow, which fits this trend – they develop organic preservatives and pesticides for agriculture.
I’m not familiar with Trimble as an investment, but I am as a user of their products. As I understand it, Trimble is a company focused on all aspects of measurement and design. In agriculture, Trimble’s positioning and automation systems have been in use for perhaps two decades already, so in that sense, the field isn’t new to them.
Otherwise, you might find Trimble in, say, an excavator at a nearby construction site or on a designer’s computer.
One of Trimble’s competitors in agriculture is Ag Leader, which is also worth checking out if you’re looking into the industry.
I don’t know if I’m going too deep into specific companies or if the aim was broader scalability, but I’ve previously encountered a couple of vertical farm companies through my work, and they impressed me, even though I don’t understand anything else about the field.
Vertical farms are a great idea, but they can’t really compete on price with “Old School” farms. I guess there’s a niche market for them where people are willing to pay for freshness outside the normal growing season, and maybe in places where land is expensive and scarce (Japan comes to mind), the costs might be closer to commercially viable operations.
Evergreen Farm’s website does a great job of explaining how much more produce they can grow per square meter, but their promotional material doesn’t highlight the most important piece of information: what is the cost of growing produce this way…?
The technology seems interesting, but it’s a case of “show me the money.” Tractors are still churning in the fields and greenhouses are bustling, but vertical farms aren’t very visible yet… which gives reason to doubt their profitability.
