Each day at 5 p.m. we collect the five top food and supplement headlines of the day, making it easy for you to catch up on today's most important natural products industry news.

January 22, 2019

2 Min Read
5@5: Farmers play huge role in global carbon reduction | Postmates raises $100M in pre-IPO funding
WIND FARMING: Turbines capture the wind on the prairie.I-stockr/istock/thinkstock

To curb climate change, we have to suck carbon from the sky. But how?

Farmers will play a huge part in mitigating future climate change, as scientists are encouraged by recent studies showing that properly managed land can be a carbon-reducing powerhouse. Many farmers already implement sustainable farming techniques such as using cover crops to increase yields and soil nutrients. However, use of the land for carbon reduction could eventually conflict with food production techniques, which will become a huge problem when global food demand rises dramatically over the next few decades. Read more at National Geographic …

 

Postmates raises $100M in pre-IPO funding for expansion of online food delivery service

 

Courier-based food delivery company Postmates has closed a pre-IPO $100 million funding round led by BlackRock, Glynn Capital and Tiger Global. The company plans to go public in 2019 as well as increase its already massive reach of 400 U.S. cities (and Mexico City). The majority of this most recent funding will be allocated toward improving the technology that would help the more than 250,000 merchants partnered with the company distribute their products to consumers faster and for a better price. Read more at Ag Funder News 

 

One company’s battle to ensure Whole Foods takeout cartons are safe

The scandal involving Whole Foods’ PFAS-containing takeout packaging began with the city of San Francisco’s blanket ban of this cancer-linked class of 3,000 to 5,000 compounds. The FDA had approved some of these chemicals for food packaging, which is why no flags were raised initially, but organizations such as the Environmental Defense Fund argue that notable studies of PFAS’ negative effects went unsubmitted to achieve this clearance. Now, Cascades Sonoco Inc., which still supplies takeout containers to Whole Foods, has removed PFAS from all its environmentally responsible packaging—but consumer concern persists. Read more at Bloomberg 

 

It’s pretty and pink and all over Instagram—but is today’s ‘diet’ food good for you?

The global health and wellness industry is now worth well over $700 billion, and has laudably propelled good-for-you movements such as sustainable, organic farming practices and non-GMO ingredients to the forefront of every health-conscious consumer’s mind. But today’s product marketing and the “clean-eating” trend can be insidious on several fronts—here’s what to keep in mind when trying to market authentically and helpfully to consumers. Read more at Refinery 29 …

 

Amazon Go, one year old, has attracted a host of cashierless imitators

Both startups and retail giants alike are emulating Amazon Go’s ‘just walk out’ approach to streamlining the shopping experience. Amazon’s foray into cashierless store technology just one year ago “gave the space validity and forced competitors to look for a way to compete,” although it’s still up in the air as to which of the many pilots will turn into full-scale rollouts. Read more at Bloomberg  

Subscribe and receive the latest updates on trends, data, events and more.
Join 57,000+ members of the natural products community.

You May Also Like