Thrive E&S and SIAG Social Impact Series: Sustainable Food for People, Planet, and Profits: How Innovation is Making the Food Business More Environmentally Friendly
From livestock, fisheries, farming and transport, food production is now responsible for more than 25% of global carbon emissions and undue harm to local ecologies. Concurrently, extreme weather and shifting seasons pose climate change impacts to sustainable farming. So, how can we feed our people without starving our planet and profits?
Innovative new businesses, including some right here in San Mateo, are exploring ways to produce food with a smaller environmental footprint. Learn how the sustainable techniques and practices of these businesses impact food justice and thus racial justice by improving community access, creating green jobs locally, and fighting climate change globally. Join Thrive’s Environment and Sustainability TAG and SIAG (Social Impact Advisory Group) for our Social Impact series to learn about this innovation and future opportunities.
Impossible Foods will discuss their model of making meat and dairy products from plants and its impact.
Plenty Inc. will share how vertical farming allows them to grow food without pesticides and using significantly less water and land.
Ouroboros Farms will explain their system of aquaponic farming, which combines aquaculture (a system of growing fish ) and hydroponics (a system of growing plants without soil) to create a water-efficient, sustainable, and chemical-free way to grow plants and raise fish.
Full Harvest will describe how creating a business marketplace for imperfect and surplus produce tackles the problem of the 33% of food that is wasted at the farm level, contributing to hunger, poverty, climate change and sustainability.
Featuring: Rebekah Moses, Head of Impact Strategy, Impossible Foods Inc.; Dr. Nate Storey (PhD), Co-founder and Chief Science Officer, Plenty; Ken Armstrong, Owner and Founder, Ouroboros Farms; Christine Moseley, Founder and CEO, Full Harvest. This session will be facilitated by Maya Tussing, Partner and Co-Founder of Fairlight Advisors.
Supported by: Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, Peninsula Clean Energy (PCE), and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E).
Zoom link will be sent to registrants before the event.
SPEAKERS
Rebekah Moses, Head of Impact Strategy, Impossible Foods Inc.
Rebekah Moses leads impact strategy at Impossible Foods, a company addressing climate change and sustainable food futures through plant-based meat. Her work focuses on how product innovation and consumer behavior can maximize environmental outcomes and business growth. She works with Impossible Foods teams to integrate environmental and social mission into core strategy. She has worked at the intersection of ecology, agriculture, and international development in the Middle East and domestically. Rebekah’s research contributions can be found in journals like the Public Library of Science (PLOS) and Journal of Applied Ecology, as well as via the USAID Water and Livelihoods Initiative online.
Dr. Nate Storey (PhD), Co-founder and Chief Science Officer, Plenty
Nate Storey (PhD) is the co-founder and chief science officer of Plenty, an AgTech business with a mission to improve the health of people, plants, and our planet. Nate has extensive experience in plant production and equipment design. Prior to Plenty, he founded Bright Agrotech, an agriculture company that created hardware, software and services to advance the indoor and vertical agriculture industries. Nate received his PhD in Agronomy from the University of Wyoming with an emphasis in vertical plane hydroponic production.
Ken Armstrong, Owner and Founder, Ouroboros Farms
Ken Armstrong has been living the commercial Aquaponics dream for the last 8 years. Ken's enthusiasm and passion for Aquaponics and sustainable food systems comes through in the presentations and tours, as he relates his experiences running the longest continually operating commercial farm as well as one of the largest Aquaponics facilities in the United States. He has shared his experience as the Keynote Speaker at the 2016 Aquaponics Association conference, as well as presentations at Google, Etsy, Air B&B, Sandisk and NetApp helping to inspire the Tech world to invest in sustainable agricultural systems.
Christine Moseley, Founder and CEO, Full Harvest
Christine Moseley is a passionate serial social entrepreneur. Currently, at Full Harvest, she is solving the massive food waste problem at the farm level. Full Harvest is the first B2B marketplace for surplus and imperfect produce, connecting food & beverage companies directly to farms with produce that would otherwise go to waste. Christine has over 15 years of experience in the logistics and food industries at both Fortune 100 companies (Maersk, P&G) as well as high-growth food start-ups. In her last corporate role, she assisted Organic Avenue, an NYC healthy food + juice start-up, in doubling in size as Head of Strategic Projects and Business Development. Christine holds an MBA from Wharton Business School and a BA from the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill. She was recently recognized as Inc.’s Top 100 Female Founders and Fortune's #2 'Most Innovative Woman in Food & Drink.
FACILITATED BY
Maya Tussing, Partner and Co-Founder of Fairlight Advisors
Maya Tussing provides investment and risk management services to nonprofits and philanthropic individuals. Prior to Fairlight, Maya was an investment advisor with Alesco Advisors where she co-led the West Coast office. Over the last 20 years, she has held senior risk management roles at firms such as BlackRock, Barclays Global Investors, Visa, and GE Capital. She is a graduate of Pomona College and holds an MBA in international finance from the University of Washington.
