Newsletter
Smart Protein Insights | October 2021
A year is an eternity in smart protein - especially this year. You last read this Insights newsletter in October 2020, right after the first virtual Smart Protein Summit. The 12 months since have been... eventful. We’ve had major developments across the world in regulation, government support, investment, and technology advancement in a sector which continues to push through barriers. Through it all, it’s been amply clear that advancing smart protein is one of our best bets at staving off future pandemics, climate change, food insecurity, and malnourishment - all catastrophic threats to our public and planetary health over the next decades.
Smart Protein Insights | October 2020
The smart protein sector’s trailblazing future successes are likely to come from Asia, which bodes well for global climate resilience and food security. Just this month, Impossible Foods made several exciting new announcements including its Hong Kong retail expansion, Omnipork partnered with McDonald’s in Hong Kong, Eat Just, Inc. announced a partnership to manufacture in Singapore, and Turtle Tree Labs won a World Cup for startups. The Indian ecosystem is poised for a similar takeoff. Our Future of Protein Summit (2019) was the staging ground for the smart protein sector in the country. Against the backdrop of a global pandemic, climate crises, and the breathtaking continued rise of alternative protein everywhere, the virtual Smart Protein Summit 2020 was similarly catalytic. Read more about it and a number of other exciting developments in our newsletter this month.
Smart Protein Insights | September 2020
At the Smart Protein Summit, we are underlining what you already know to be true: that 'normal' means zoonotic diseases, future pandemics, less land and water, further climate crises. It also means a world of increasing scarcity. But we have the opportunity to transcend ‘normal’, and to build a world of abundance from the ground up. If we want to look forward to a decade of promise and a more resilient planet, the time to act is now. Join us at the Summit, as we chart a path towards that abundant future. For details check out the website and don’t forget to register! In this month's newsletter, we are also serving you delicious insights on fermentation as a pillar of alternative protein with our State of the Industry report, launching our Plant-Based Dairy webinar, and sharing some news from the rapidly heating East Asian landscape from Beyond Meat, Eat Just, Inc., and Green Monday Group. Read on to find out more.
Smart Protein Insights | August 2020
This month, we’re taking the opportunity to articulate our vision for that future, by announcing our Smart Protein Summit. The Summit - a rebrand of previous years’ Future of Protein Summit - is a recognition of the tectonic shifts already underway and of the opportunity to lay the groundwork for a more sustainable, healthy, and just food system. The newsletter also contains immensely encouraging signs from Australia, where a pivotal protein alliance holds promise for farmers and industry alike, and the Netherlands, where our partners have got the ‘Protein Shift’ well and truly underway. For this and other news of the success of GFI India’s Smart Protein Innovation Challenge, as well as some major new announcements from the GFI family, read our August newsletter.
Smart Protein Insights | July 2020
In the midst of the pandemic and financial uncertainty, global industry leaders like Oatly, Perfect Day, and Beyond Meat are going from strength to strength. Meanwhile, 2020 may well be the staging ground for plant-based meat in the Indian market as this month saw exciting forays from all corners (including Bollywood!) If we’re going to build a thriving sector from the ground up, though, we’ll need the kind of visionary stewardship that countries like the Netherlands and Israel are providing. This month’s Smart Protein Insights covers all this and more - read on to find out about how the India Smart Protein Innovation Challenge is going, about an excellent (and punny) new seafood research resource from GFI, and KFC’s plant-based and possibly cultivated future?
Smart Protein Insights | June 2020
At GFI India we are laser focused on building an ecosystem. If we do this successfully in India it will be a model for other low and middle income countries to follow, to build a resilient protein supply. This month, we launched our Smart Protein Challenge to inspire a generation of scientific and entrepreneurial talent. News from around the world in this sector includes the work done by our colleagues in APAC to launch a list of innovators in (ex-India) Asia, while the Canadian federal government and the EU made promising strides. Read all this and much more in our June newsletter
Smart Protein Insights | May 2020
In the midst of a pandemic, signs of hope for a more resilient food system emerge. GFI’s State of the Industry Reports on plant-based and cultivated foods show record investment in these categories, with the U.S. leading the way. GFI India announced its partnership with AAK to build a launchpad for smart protein. Indian startups, Evo Foods and Mister Veg were accepted into incubators and garnered investments. All this and much more in our May newsletter.
Smart Protein Insights | April 2020
This month's Smart Protein Insights newsletter contains the usual letter from the Managing Director's desk as well as a slew of our GFIdeas India Webinars which are now weekly! Varun Deshpande also wrote a blogpost about how the smart protein sector can navigate the world created by COVID-19. You can read all this and more in our monthly missive.
Smart Protein Insights | March 2020
This month's Smart Protein Insights newsletter features a letter from the Managing Director's desk about why it is clearer than ever that we need to fundamentally rethink global protein supply chains as the world grapples with COVID-19 pandemic. It also features a blog post from our GFI founder Bruce Friedrich about his India trip, the GFI U.S. Plant-based Market Overview which pegs the grocery sales of plant-based foods in the last two years to $5 billion and our First GFIdeas India Webinar, along with What We Are Reading and In case You Missed Us.
Smart Protein Insights | February 2020
Our very first newsletter. This month's Smart Protein Insights contains a letter from the Managing Director's desk, with Varun Deshpande writing about the year that was and what we hope to achieve this year, the Future of Protein Summit highlights, our article for IPGA on the occasion of World Pulses Day focusing the attention on pulse protein's tremendous promise to power the global plant-protein revolution and our What We Are Reading recommendation list as well as the list of events GFI was at.