Companies

• Pivot Bio — nitrogen-fixing microbes as the future of fertilizer
• Bellwether Coffee — aims to improve coffee industry with better roasting, importing, etc.; new model of Verified Living Income to price coffee for sustainable sourcing
• Red Sea Farms — growing crops (tomatoes) in saltwater
• Heray Spices — sells ethically-sourced saffron from Afghanistan; working to shift production from opium — Eater
• Renewal Mill — upcycled flours and baking mixes from oat and soymilk production
• Nemo's Garden — growing plants in pods underwater in the ocean (Messy Nessy)

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Ideas

• An ingenious system of farming on floating hyacinth mats offers climate resilience: researchers working in Bangladesh show how this ancient form of food production increases farmers' incomes and food security — Anthropocene Magazine
• Deforested land sprung to life after a coffee pulp treatment — after only two years, 80% of a test plot smothered by the waste product was home to young trees (link needed)
• Harnessing microbial ecology to prevent ice formation on crops: certain bacterial strains are producers of ice, while others can keep those populations in check — Inside Climate News
• The potential for agroforestry in the Midwest by integrating crops like hazelnuts, chestnuts, or blueberries — Mongabay
• Levels of regenerative agriculture (resource)
• Using CRISPR to activate genes to allow food crops to grow in saltier water
• The modern backlash against lab-grown meat has surprising parallels to a resistance movement a century ago against "artificial ice" — Pessimists Archive
  • 1931 newspaper headline: "NATURAL ICE IS BEST CLAIM EMINENT PHYSICIANS"
• How Audubon is working with cattle farmers to certify "bird-friendly beef" — a striking example of the alliances needed to protect and regenerate our environment
• How beef (in a different agricultural system) could be good for the planet — a long read that countered a lot of underlying assumptions — The Art of Eating
• Vanilla is complicated and amazing — the history and culture behind it — Atlas Obscura

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Problems

• Developing nations pay for rich countries' hunger for healthy, exotic food: a new study shows that high-income countries place enormous demands on developing countries' pollinators by importing crops that rely on them; pollinator services can be modeled using the principle of "virtual water" — Mongabay
  • Virtual pollination trade uncovers global dependence on biodiversity of developing countries — Science Advances

Related

• Strange Harvests — Edward Posnett
• Thriving Together: Salmon, Berries, and People — Jess Housty
• Animal, Vegetable, Junk — Mark Bittman
• Farming Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis — Project Drawdown
• Planet Palm — Jocelyn C. Zuckerman
• The World-Ending Fire — Wendell Berry
• Coffeeland — Augustine Sedgewick