Walmart has made an investment in vertical farming company, Plenty. Can the mega-retailer, with its money and reach, make vertical farming the future of agriculture? CNBC's Melissa Repko reports: Walmart said Tuesday that it is investing in vertical farming company Plenty and plans to carry the start-up’s leafy greens in all California stores later this year. The big-box retail giant did not disclose the size of the equity stake or the terms of the commercial deal, but said a Walmart executive will join Plenty’s board. Walmart’s investment is part of a $400 million round of funding for … [Read more...]
Are the Swiss Preparing their Farms for a Disaster?
Switzerland is about to pass a piece of legislation supporting domestic farming. Like the country's vaunted program of mandatory military training, the farm program aims to make Switzerland more self-sufficient by securing the agricultural resources to feed all its people. Bloomberg's Mara Bernath reports: The main aim is to secure the country’s ability to feed its 8.4 million inhabitants. In terms of calories from animal products, Switzerland has already reached self-sufficiency albeit only at first glance: Factoring out imported fodder, the country can only provide three quarters of the … [Read more...]
The Shrinking U.S. Wheat Crop
Farmers were already cutting down on the amount of wheat they planted this year in response to a global grain glut, but the plains have been dry this year and the U.S. wheat crop could be even smaller than expected. As you can imagine that's having an effect on wheat prices. Benjamin Parkin writes at the WSJ: Now weeks of hot, dry weather in the Dakotas and Minnesota have been particularly hard on spring wheat, prized for high protein content that makes it well-suited for specialty breads and pastries. That could mean higher food prices for consumers if millers end up paying more for … [Read more...]
Monsanto Adding New Methods to its GMO Creation
The Wall Street Journal's Jacob Bunge reports that Monsanto is attempting to stay ahead of its competitors by adding new technologies to its genetic modification tool kit. New gene editing methods like the much publicized Crispr-Cas9 and the lesser known Exzact are changing the way scientists modify organisms. Bunge writes: ...seed giants and Farm Belt upstarts view gene editing as the new front in genetic technology, potentially offering a cheaper and easier method of tweaking plants’ DNA. Emerging technologies such as Crispr-Cas9 and Exzact allow scientists to change a plant’s … [Read more...]