Sustainability in food and agriculture has become a critical focus as our global population continues to grow and the impact of traditional farming practices on the environment becomes more apparent.
In a dazzling convergence of minds at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore from October 31 to November 2, 2023, the Asia-Pacific Agri-Food Innovation Summit 2023 left attendees hungry for more—more innovation, more sustainability, and, of course, more incredible bites on food and agriculture.
To gain insights into the future of sustainable food and agriculture, we reached out to three influential leaders in this space, posing three key questions to each. Their thoughtful responses shed light on the challenges, innovations, and opportunities that lie ahead.
Sonalie Figueiras
Sonalie Figueiras, a renowned social entrepreneur, is the creator of Green Queen, a Hong Kong-based platform promoting social and environmental change. With over a decade of experience, she’s an esteemed speaker on eco-wellness and sustainability, addressing audiences at prestigious events such as TEDx and Harvard Business School. She is also the mind behind SourceGreenPackaging.com and Ekowarehouse, global platforms for sustainable packaging and organic product sourcing, respectively.
How important or viable is food as a climate solution? Is there anything you are excited or sceptical about?
Food is the most important climate solution. One-third of all global greenhouse gas emissions come from our food systems. crucial, and that’s why it’s so important; nobody seems to be aware of this fact. And so food and agriculture is not a mainstream climate topic. So right now, with everything getting so much worse with the climate crisis, it’s absolutely vital. It’s crucial. It’s just imperative that food be placed as one of the key areas that we talk about in climate, alongside energy and transport, because it’s arguably more important. Food is so important for many reasons.
One, the production of food causes huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, which then worsen climate change. Two are climate change and weather-related. Climate change affects how we grow our food and our supply of food. So it’s a two-pronged problem. And of course, food is related to so many other things that worsen climate change. For example, water usage, land usage, deforestation, biodiversity loss—all of that worsens climate change, and food growing is directly related to that. So it could be argued that food should be the absolute most important thing on the agenda.
What do you think of food tech and the landscape right now?
What do I think of the food and food technology landscape right now? There is no doubt that globally, future food, food technology, and alternative proteins are having a bit of a down moment. The hype that has been apparent in the last few years has died down. Macroeconomic conditions have changed the funding environment, and investors, especially ventures, are much less focused on food and agriculture, which is problematic because, as I said earlier, food is so important. However, there are some positives from this contraction, which are that we’re getting more reasonable valuations, entrepreneurs are focusing on profitability, and we’re kind of getting away from the hype cycle.
What’s really crucial, again, to understand is that all the reasons that we need food technology and future food innovation have not changed. See my answer to question one. So the real reason that we’re all here is viable, necessary, and has not changed. The conditions for business and things like valuations and how big the rounds you can raise are—that’s different. That’s changed. But overall, I think the sentiment in the space is that, yes, things are a bit down, but in about six to twelve to 18 months, we will be where we need to be, which is building and progressing and continuing to invest in solutions that are crucial.
What are the gaps or issues you see that drastically need addressing
The gaps that we need to address are: one, working on behavioural change around reducing meat consumption and reducing food loss. The two most important things that an individual can do to fight the climate crisis are: this information, this understanding, and this knowledge are simply not there. Consumers think recycling is the most important thing to do for the climate, which couldn’t be less true. So there’s a lot of knowledge and communication gaps around climate when it comes to food and agriculture. So people just don’t seem to understand. Governments don’t understand, investors don’t understand, and entrepreneurs don’t understand, but crucially, consumers and regular folks don’t understand, and so that really needs to change, and we need to invest much more in the demand side of things.
So getting consumers to understand why they need to change their food habits and, as a result, look at future food solutions in their daily lives I’m excited about a lot more people wanting to move into food. There’s a talent gap in terms of sustainability, but especially in food. We need more people in the industry than ever. But what I’m seeing is that, because it’s such an exciting space, people keep wanting to get into it. So I think we’re going to see a lot more people dedicate their lives to climate-proofing the food system.
Blair Crichton
Blair Crichton, co-founder of KARANA, a plant-based meat company, prioritises biodiversity, farmer-friendly practices, and regenerative farming. A native of Hong Kong and lifelong environmentalist, Blair launched KARANA in 2018 to fill a market gap for healthy and delicious plant-based meats. Three years later, they collaborated with small farmers in Sri Lanka, producing jackfruit-based products like ground meat and dumplings. Blair’s background includes roles at Impossible Foods, New Age Meat, and The Good Foods Institute, along with experience in finance.
What do you think of food tech and the landscape right now?
I think the landscape is pretty dynamic. There’s a lot going on both upstream and downstream. Obviously, there is quite a bit of concern about funding departing the states right when it’s most urgent, and that was a recurring theme over the conference. But there’s just some really cool innovation and some very passionate people participating, which is great for us as a brand and definitely challenges the capital market environment.
What innovations have you been most excited about?
And as well, I think broad brushstrokes that people apply to the industry, for example, presuming that all plant-based products are the same and they’re all heavily processed, or that the performance of the industry all mirrors beyond meat, which just isn’t the case in terms of opportunities for us really. It’s the B, approach that we’re taking and the traction that we’re getting in the food service, as well as the fact that we have a cleaner label solution, this whole plant and regeneratively grown, that definitely seem to be resonating and getting traction in terms of innovations that I’m most excited about.
I think it’s sort of outside food tech, but related. More on the AG space, but just the emergence of innovation around nature-based solutions and the biodiversity credit markets, which I think are absolutely necessary to enhance our food system.
Transition the upstream production that is obviously a big part of food technology into a more sustainable manner and give the sort of, I guess, financial incentives for upstream players to push biodiversity to transition to nature-based solutions. That’s exciting for us as a company that sits across the value chain and does a lot of work upstream to promote agroforestry.
As a brand what are the biggest challenges and opportunities that you see?
I think the present space also needs to take a step back and really look at the customer, and I think they understand what they really want. There is certainly really cool stuff happening, but I think oftentimes what consumers actually want, with so much focus on deep, deep tech, is part of the solution. But there are also other solutions available now that perhaps resonate more with a short and clean ingredient list that is less heavily processed.
I think we need to work together as an industry to address those consumer concerns, educate them, and also come up with products that meet them where they are. That’s a big part of what we’re doing at KARANA.
Tony Verb
Tony Verb, a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and author with over a decade in Asia-Pacific, is the Co-Founder of Carbonless Asia. This firm, dedicated to low-carbon technologies, recently published his book “Decarbonising Asia” after a year-long research project. He’s also the Co-Founder of GreaterBayX, a cross-border investment platform focusing on China, urbanisation, and technology. With diverse experience in venture capital, investment banking, and startup ecosystems, he has collaborated with global industry leaders like Microsoft, Siemens, HSBC, and many others
What do you think of food tech and the landscape right now?
To answer the first question, the food and agritech landscape globally is in the best shape it’s ever been. I think ten years ago there was not much going on and people realised that food is essential for innovation, agriculture is essential for food innovation, and both are critical for developing not only the people but also the planet.
So taking science more seriously in this space, I think, is good news for everyone. And this is very much a deep tech-induced vertical or verticals, and that is good for real smart people doing real smart work and building real smart solutions. And the future of food and agritech will be one.
I’m talking about mass-scale food and agriculture, tech, success stories. food security, which is coupled with universal applicability and, most importantly, economic scalability. Cheap products and services will be coupled with big commercial opportunities and sustainable practices, which are now a consideration in practically all markets around the world. So I’m pretty excited about the landscape, and I’m also pretty excited about the future.
Is there anything you are excited or sceptical about?
I’m excited mostly about the future, and I’m not excited specifically about anything. I would probably prefer not to name companies or highlight certain solutions, but to talk about food’s role in decarbonisation is huge, and I’m not going to cite here various percentages of how much food is responsible for the global carbon footprint.
What role does food play in decarbonisation?
Let’s just say it’s significant. The different studies you’re looking at are suggesting different things. It is significant. But beyond decarbonisation, it’s also related to biodiversity; it’s also related to human health, and quite frankly, we need to get food right, and within that is also food waste, right? As we know, again, depending on what studies you’re looking at, around 30% to 50% or 30% to 60%, depending on the geographies as well, of the food produced is wasted at different points and levels of the value chain. And if that alone were fixed, then nutrition globally could be fixed, and the carbon footprint per unit of food or food stuff could be decreased accordingly. So I think that’s an area that requires more work and a lot of focus because we are also running out of fertile land despite the great innovation that fertilises various landscapes like deserts through different initiatives. So, long story short, food waste is an area that, also from a decarbonisation perspective, is my focus, and otherwise, food is very important for decarbonisation but also for other planetary priorities beyond decarbonisation itself.
In the grand banquet of innovation, these leaders are setting a table where sustainability is not an afterthought—it’s the main course. The future of agri-food is not just green; it’s a vibrant kaleidoscope of flavours that respects our planet.
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