Food Innovation

[wow_happens28]

3 points of interest in the RIBT story>>>

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ricebran-technologies-sells-srb-business-110000770.html

1. At the top, not part of the story is says in bold italics,
Asset Sale is First Step of Previously Announced Strategic Review

2. In the second paragraph it says,
while not jeopardizing the estimated $54.4 million in federal and $46.0 million in state net operating loss carryforwards that the Company had amassed as of December 31, 2022.

3. NO DJ release and NO posting on home page yet< why the secrecy?

My guess is something else in in the works, like selling the rest of the company. I asked Dew about the NOLS. RIBT has 8,000,000 shares which includes 2,000,000 unexercised warrants that are in the money. A buyer could use up 10% of the $104,000,000 NOLS, it is worth $1.20 per share. Add the value of the stock and a minimum $2 stock? Dew's last comment to me, "An acquiring company would be able to use, at most, 4-5% of the federal NOLs each year, about $2M per year. The state NOLs are harder to quantify and might not be worth anything in the worst-case scenario. ". I based my $2 stock(low guess) partly on that comment.

The stocks I sold yesterday, the money went into RIBT today.

{Please don't post this at the RIBT board. I want to honor the companies secrecy, assuming they have a good reason to not posting DJ release.

" Another one of me is born every second"?

[gfp927z]

Nice bounce for RIBT :o)

And made it back to the 200 MA. Looks like 'glass half full' is the current consensus, so a good sign :o)



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Re-post - >>> Lab-made chicken from_two_companies_receives USDA support:


https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=172190272

https://www.wsj.com/articles/chicken-grown-from-cells-headed-to-u-s-dinner-tables-a964fe7b


The first approvals Wednesday went to Alameda, Calif.-based company Good Meat, an arm of food-technology company Eat Just, and Berkeley-based Upside Foods


…Cultivated meat is typically produced by placing certain poultry and livestock cells into stainless-steel tanks known as bioreactors, where they are fed nutrients and oxygen before being harvested and formed into meat products.

Its proponents say the field has the capacity to reduce global reliance on tending livestock, which requires large amounts of land and water and releases greenhouse gases. However, the production of cultivated meat is also energy-intensive and supporters say companies will need to use renewable energy to reduce their environmental impact. An analysis from the University of California at Davis released last month found that producing cell-cultivated beef could require more energy and emit more greenhouse gases than conventional beef, with its environmental impact depending on what kinds of ingredients are used.

… The burgeoning cell-cultivated meat and seafood industry still faces an array of scientific and economic hurdles to producing food in enough volume and at a low-enough cost that it can viably compete against conventional meat and seafood. While many companies have been able to grow small amounts of meat from cells, producing larger volumes is significantly harder, according to industry officials, investors and outside scientists.

See #msg-171336227 for related info.

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>>> USDA approves Upside Foods, Good Meat to sell cultivated chicken


Yahoo Finance

by Brooke DiPalma

June 21, 2023


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/usda-approves-upside-foods-good-meat-to-sell-cultivated-chicken-210908105.html


On Wednesday, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) granted approval for Upside Foods and Good Meat, a subsidiary of Eat Just, Inc., to produce and sell their lab-grown cell-cultivated chicken products in the United States.

Both companies are gearing up to debut their products with well-known restauranteurs. Upside Foods plans to debut its products at 3-Michelin star chef Dominique Crenn's Bar Crenn in San Francisco. Good Meat is teaming up with celebrity chef José Andrés at one of his restaurants in Washington, DC, though there's no word on which one or when customers will start seeing the meat on the menu.

Good Meat's products have been available in Singapore since 2020 and are sold everywhere from fine-dining establishments to roadside vendors. In a press release, Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of GOOD Meat and Eat Just, called its entry into the US market a "major moment for our company, the industry and the food system."

Upside founder and CEO Uma Valeti told Yahoo Finance on Wednesday that it believes its "delicious, complex, and whole-textured chicken product" will "set the gold standard for the industry."

Both companies cultivate their meat by placing chicken cells in large steel vessels. They then feed the cells nutrients to help them multiply and grow. It takes the meat about two to three weeks to develop and be harvested before it's ready to eat. On its website, Upside compared the process to that of brewing beer, "but instead of growing yeast or bacteria, we grow animal cells."

For now, however, cultivated meat will come at a cost. Valeti told Yahoo Finance the company will start with premium pricing.

“Our aspirational goal at the moment is to beat the conventional prices....we're going to start out with premium pricing when we come into the market...that's because we are on a small scale," Valeti said back in December when it received FDA approval. He said prices will likely come down over time. "We expect our products to be at parity with conventional meat, but that's going to be 5 to 15 years away.”

As of now its production center, known as the Engineering, Production, and Innovation Center (EPIC) can produce up to 50,000 pounds, with plans to expand capacity to 400,000 pounds.

A spokesperson from Good Meat said pricing for its products will be similar to those at the upscale restaurants where it's being offered. He added that the company is willing to lose money as it gains customers' interest.

"We strive to work with restaurant partners to price our chicken dish on par with traditional dishes. We're not making money on sales, in fact, we're losing money, but it's important that our consumers are paying what they would for a traditional dish. As we scale, the cost will come down."

Neither company plans to enter grocery stores in the near future. Good Meat said it will be "quite a while" until it will hit grocery stores.

The industry is only beginning to heat up though. Per Grand View Research, the cultivated meat market was valued at $246.9 million last year and is set to grow at an annual rate of 51.6% from 2023 to 2030.

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>>> Novo Nordisk Foundation: CO2 as a sustainable raw material in our future food production


Novo Nordisk Foundation

13 Jun, 2023


https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/novo-nordisk-foundation-co2-as-a-sustainable-raw-material-in-our-future-food-production-301848326.html


COPENHAGEN, Denmark, June 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In a new consortium, companies and university researchers will create a sustainable source of proteins for human food derived from CO2. The aim is to help fight the rising global problems with food insecurity and greenhouse-gas emissions from agriculture. Two leading foundations are supporting the initiative with up to DKK 200 million (€27 million).

Food insecurity is a rising global problem. A recent UN-led report shows that more than 250 million people faced severe hunger during 2022, which was an increase of 65 million compared to the year before.

To counteract this development, we need to establish a sustainable, safe and stable food production that can feed a growing world population.

With this aim in sight, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Novo Nordisk Foundation are funding a new consortium that will utilise CO2 to produce proteins for human food.

The consortium combines knowledge and expertise from Novozymes A/S and Topsoe A/S, two leading companies within biotechnology and chemical engineering, respectively, Washington University in St. Louis in the US and the Novo Nordisk Foundation CO2 Research Center (CORC) at Aarhus University in Denmark. The total funding from the two foundations is up to DKK 200 million (€27 million).

"By utilising CO2 for food production without involving agricultural land use, this ambitious consortium addresses two of our biggest global challenges: supplying nutritious food to a growing world population and mitigation of climate change. This has the potential to be the first step towards a novel bioeconomy providing a more sustainable, safe and stable food production, reducing the strain on nature's resources in multiple ways," says Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, CEO of the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

An alternative to animal protein

The basic idea is to provide a more sustainable way of producing proteins through fermentation – a way of producing food we have been using for millennia.

By using biological and electrochemical processes, the consortium partners will process CO2 and turn it into acetate, which is vinegar – a well-known substance already present in the metabolism of the microorganisms used for fermentation. The acetate can then be used to produce proteins that can be used directly in food for humans.

By creating alternatives to animal proteins, we can reduce the need for meat and dairy production, which puts a significant strain on our natural resources by using land for the animals and growing crops to feed them. In addition, using acetate derived from CO2 directly in the fermentation process will eliminate the need to use sugar, which is a big part of fermentation processes. This will free up substantial agricultural areas currently used for sugar production.

Thus, converting CO2 into acetate and using it to produce proteins for food will enable us to decouple part of our food production from land use and make room for biodiversity. This will be a major contribution to a more sustainable society.

Making use of existing production facilities

The first step for the consortium is to optimize and evaluate three potential production technologies and mature them. The goal is to lift all technologies to demonstration scale (TRL 6 or above) within two years.

The consortium partners have several relevant production technologies and facilities at their disposal, which enables them to take advantage of already existing infrastructure to verify and scale the new developments expected from the collaboration. This is a great opportunity to create synergy across the different technologies involved in the collaboration and makes it possible to speed up the upscaling process significantly.

"The possibility to engineer biology to efficiently produce protein for human nutrition from simple raw materials has been around for some time. With this programme, there is a possibility to develop a completely climate-neutral way of transforming CO2 into protein without the use of land, water, and fertilizer. I am excited and proud that we can contribute with technology and knowhow that makes this transformation possible – it holds tremendous potential for having biosolutions solve major world problems," says Claus Crone Fuglsang, Chief Science Officer in Novozymes A/S.

Beneficial for low- and middle-income countries

Once scaled up to production, the technologies developed by the consortium can represent a paradigm shift in our approach to food security, especially in low- and lower-middle-income countries. The technologies are estimated to be able to produce enough protein for more than 1 billion people every year, creating a stable source of nutritious food for people living in areas with limited potential for conventional agriculture.

An important goal for the two foundations is to make sure that the technologies are disseminated globally and are accessible at an affordable price in countries where they can be of greatest use. This will be ensured by global access agreements with the consortium partners.

"The technologies offer a big potential to provide food security globally, especially in low- and middle- income countries. It is therefore very important that the technologies can be implemented in areas of the world where they can benefit the most at a fair cost. This is ensured with the setup of this consortium," concludes Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen.

Funding and consortium partners
The two foundations are each funding half of the activities in the consortium.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is funding activities at:

Novozymes A/S – a global leader in biosolutions.
Washington University in St. Louis.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation is funding activities at:

Topsoe A/S – a global leader in carbon emission reduction technologies.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation CO2 Research Center (CORC) at Aarhus University.
The total funding budget is up to DKK 200 million (€27 million) and covers a two-year period. If the work in the consortium is successful, it will be possible to continue the support for later stages of the project, where the technologies can be matured even further.

About the Novo Nordisk Foundation

Established in Denmark in 1924, the Novo Nordisk Foundation is an enterprise foundation with philanthropic objectives. The vision of the Foundation is to improve people's health and the sustainability of society and the planet. The Foundation's mission is to progress research and innovation in the prevention and treatment of cardiometabolic and infectious diseases as well as to advance knowledge and solutions to support a green transformation of society.

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>>> Else Nutrition Reports 23% Sequential Revenue Growth in the First Quarter of 2023


Else Nutrition Holdings Inc.

May 15, 2023


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/else-nutrition-reports-23-sequential-113000994.html


Conference call will be held on Monday, May 15 at 10 AM ET

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 15, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ELSE NUTRITION HOLDINGS INC (BABY) (BABYF) (0YL.F) ("Else" or the "Company") the Plant-Based baby, toddler, and children nutrition company, today reported first quarter 2023 financial results for the period ending March 31, 2023. The financial statements and MD&A are available on SEDAR under the Company’s profile.

First Quarter 2023 Financial Highlights

1Q23 total revenues were $2.9M, an 82% increase versus $1.6M in 1Q22, and a 23% increase versus $2.3M in 4Q22. Revenue growth continued to be hampered by product shortages. While the company increased its production pace, the demand for its products also continued to grow, a combination that challenged available supply, especially in the first half of the quarter. Management estimates the revenue loss from inventory constraints was roughly $1M in 1Q23.

Sales to brick-and-mortar retailers in the US and Canada during 1Q23 increased by 105% versus 4Q22. As of 1Q23, Else products were listed in nearly 12,000 stores in North America, compared with 1,200 stores in 1Q22. Management expects to reach 20,000 listed stores and 50,000 points of distribution by the end of 2023.

Sales in Canada, via Amazon and brick-and-mortar retailers increased over 240% in 1Q23 versus 4Q22 and represented over 28% of the Company’s formula sales.

Retail sales velocity is growing, and as additional products are added to existing accounts, annual revenue per store is improving as well.

Cash balance as of March 30, 2023, was $10.1M CAD, including restricted cash and short-term bank deposit.

Recent Business Highlights

Expanded distribution to more than 7,000 CVS stores, more than 750 Walmart stores, over 440 Loblaws stores, over 600 Sobey’s stores and to 161 Giant Food Stores.

Else products were listed in nearly 12,000 stores in North America, compared with 1,200 stores in 1Q22 reflecting 10 times growth.

Significantly increased in-store sales velocity. For example, according to Spins data, the sales velocity of our Toddler Organic product in natural food stores grew by more than 50% in the last year (measured in 12-week periods).

Expanded production capacity by adding a second manufacturing facility in the US and launching its first production facility in Europe. The additional facilities will increase the Company’s production capacity by about three times, greatly reducing the risk of future out of stock situations. The Company anticipates the new scaled manufacturing capacity to significantly decrease its manufacturing costs, beginning in 2H23.

Entered the Canadian market with the launch on Amazon.ca and in brick-and-mortar stores. The success of the launch exceeded expectations given a fast entry into major retailers across the country and the strong demand for Else’s products. The Company expects to be listed in more than 3,000 Canadian stores by the end of 2023.

The Company plans to enter Western Europe in 2H2023. The initial launch will be in the UK via Amazon and natural food distributors, with other European countries to follow.

The Company plans to enter Australia in 2H2023. The initial launch will be via Amazon to be followed by drug and grocery chains.

Received critical approval by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the infant growth study protocol for the testing of the Else Infant Formula.

Management Commentary

Hamutal Yitzhak, CEO of Else Nutrition, commented, “In 1Q23, Else returned to strong sequential growth, after two quarters in which we experienced severe product shortages. Over the past months we secured two additional manufacturing facilities in the US and Europe. The two new facilities have more than tripled our current production capacity, mitigating the risk of future out-of-stock situations.

Although our manufacturing facilities are fully operational, out of stock and product shortages were still a limiting factor for sales growth in the first quarter. Limited inventory continued to force us to prioritize retails orders over Amazon and our E-store orders. We estimate the revenue impact due to the product shortage to be approximately $1M in 1Q23, mostly in January and February. In March and April, we have begun to see a rebound in our ecommerce sales as we have been building inventory to meet the growing demand.

Our sales to retail stores accelerated in 1Q23 as retailers are seeing strong sales of our products and we continue to grow our store count. Else is becoming a recognized national brand in the US, carried by major grocery and drug retailers. Our customers now include prominent retailers such as CVS and Walmart, as well as leading e-commerce sites such as Amazon and Walmart.com. We expect to reach 20,000 retail locations by end of 2023.

Our international expansion remains strong, growing over 200% in 1Q23 versus 4Q22. Our launch into the Canadian market in 3Q22 was above our expectations, and the consumer enthusiasm has continued. In recent months we entered the Chinese market, and while our presence is currently nascent, we are continuing to make inroads.

As we look out over next few months, we remain focused on our growth objectives to become a global leader in the plant-based nutrition arena. We plan to increase the number of retailers we sell in and expand our shelf space in those stores. We remain enthusiastic about our international expansion. Our entry into Canada in August had a much greater than-anticipated start, and we expect to reach 3,000 stores in Canada in 2023. Furthermore, we are excited to enter the UK and Australia in the second half of 2023, and to continue our journey into the large Chinese market.

In 2023 we remain on track to begin our infant growth clinical study for the FDA and European permits. Receiving FDA approval is a very high priority for Else Nutrition, as we believe that becoming the first non-dairy and non-soy FDA-approved infant formula will be transformational for the valuation of the Company.

FDA Update

As part of the pathway to bring its infant formulation to market under FDA and other authorities’ approvals, Else concluded two successful preclinical safety studies during 2021 and 2022 on its plant-based infant formula, to demonstrate safety and nutrient bioavailability of the infant formula and its ingredients. The results demonstrated proper growth, similar to dairy-based infant formula, in a neonatal preclinical model, as well as the infant formula protein efficiency and quality. Those are the key two steps out of three, on the path to obtaining the FDA and other regulatory permits to bring the product to market.

In February 2023, the Company announced that the Institutional Review Board (the ethical committee) approved the infant growth study protocol for the testing of the Else Infant Formula.

As a final step before initiating the study, the Company has now submitted the infant growth study protocol to the FDA for review and is awaiting the FDA confirmation, in parallel to continuously seeking for a comparator formula which is currently unavailable due to the continuous infant formula shortage followed by several recent product recalls in the US.

Conference Call

Hamutal Yitzhak, CEO and Co-Founder, will hold a conference call to discuss the quarter's financial results at 10:00 a.m. (Eastern Time) on May 15, 2023.

Interested parties can listen via a live webcast, from the link available in the Investors section of the Company's website or at https://app.webinar.net/baVn86WGdw0

A replay will be available after the call, in the Investors section of the Company's website at https://app.webinar.net/baVn86WGdw0

About Else Nutrition Holdings Inc.

Else Nutrition Holdings Inc. is a food and nutrition company in the international expansion stage focused on developing innovative, clean, and plant-based food and nutrition products for infants, toddlers, children, and adults. Its revolutionary, plant-based, non-soy formula is a clean-ingredient alternative to dairy-based formula. Else Nutrition (formerly INDI) won the "2017 Best Health and Diet Solutions" award at Milan's Global Food Innovation Summit. The holding company, Else Nutrition Holdings Inc., is a publicly-traded company, listed on TSX Venture Exchange under the trading symbol BABY and is quoted on the US OTC Markets Q.X. board under the trading symbol BABYF and the Frankfurt Exchange under the symbol 0YL. Since launching its Plant-Based Complete Nutrition for Toddlers, made of whole foods, almonds, buckwheat, and tapioca, the brand has received thousands of powerful testimonials and reviews from parents and gained national retailer support from Sprouts Farmers Market, and achieved rapid sales growth. Else became the #1 Best Seller on Amazon in the Fall of 2020 in the New Baby & Toddler Formula Category. It recently won the 'Best Dairy Alternative' Award 2021 at World Plant-Based Expo and was a Nexty Award Finalist at Expo West 2022 in the Plant-Based lifestyle category.

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Re-post - (APPH, LOCL) - >>> High-tech farming startups have been crushed:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/high-tech-farm-startups-are-laid-low-by-financing-drought-pests-1bf6a60a

https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=171989758


Startups that promised to make farming a high-tech business are withering, suffering from rising costs, tight financing, pests and other problems that have troubled traditional agriculture for centuries.

Investors poured billions of dollars into companies such as AppHarvest and Local Bounti that grow lettuce, tomatoes and other crops in indoor farms that use advanced technology such as sensors and robots to offset weather-related risks, use less water and produce more consistent crops. Shares of the two companies are down more than 95% since they went public in 2021, and in recent months at least four companies in the sector have shut down or filed for bankruptcy...

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>>> Steakholder Foods® Unveils 3D Bio-printing Business Model


Steakholder Foods Ltd.

May 25, 2023


https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/steakholder-foods-unveils-3d-bio-printing-business-model-301834537.html


The business model will focus on selling 3D bio-printers and bio-inks designed to develop delicious, nutritious, safe, and consistent cultivated meat from ethically harvested cells.

3D bio-printers: the Company is developing Ready-to-Cook 3D printers, for the production of hybrid cultivated products, incorporating a unique printing process that gives the product its fibrous texture.

Bio-inks: the Company is developing various bio-inks to print different species, and will offer customization options intended to allow clients to purchase bio-inks for any type of species they would like to produce, tailored to their specific needs and preferences.


REHOVOT, Israel, May 25, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Steakholder Foods Ltd. (Nasdaq: STKH), an international deep-tech food company at the forefront of the cultivated meat industry, today announced that it has focused its business model to target B2B meat manufacturers and cultivated meat producers, by offering manufacturers the ability to produce a cultivated meat product that aims to closely mimic the taste, texture, and appearance of traditional meat. The Company intends to monetize its 3D printers and bio-inks that are needed to support printer operation.

The Company's competitive advantage lies in its top-of-the-line expertise in 3D bio-printing technology and its ability to create highly–sophisticated, structured end products that aim to closely mimic real meat in terms of taste, texture, and appearance.

In accordance with Steakholder Foods' new business model, the products it plans to offer:

1. 3D bio-printers

The Company's 3D printers are state-of-the-art technology designed to produce cultivated meat products that mimic the texture, taste, and appearance of conventional meat. The Company is developing two types of printer platforms:

Ready to Cook (RTC) printer

The flagship product, the RTC printer, produces a hybrid cultivated meat product made from a mixture of cultivated and plant-based ingredients.

The Company plans to offer lab- and industrial-scale printers using one of two types of technology to produce different end products. DropJet technology, based on drops of gel-based materials to create a 3D structure, is ideal for producing fish and seafood products, while for all other meat products, Fusion technology extrudes paste materials through a narrow nozzle, enabling the creation of fiber texture that best simulates conventional meat fibers.

3D printer for incubated products

The Company's innovation team is developing a 3D printer for an incubated product, such as tissue-engineered steak, considered the holy grail of the industry. This printer is expected to be a future value proposition for the Company when economies of scale support a market for fully cultivated products. This printer is designed to produce a fully matured, cultivated, printed meat product, which will require live cells to grow, differentiate, and mature, forming complex fibrous tissue that resembles the texture and taste of conventional meat.

2. Bio-inks

Bio-inks are an integral part of the Company's 3D printing technology. Steakholder Foods' bio-inks are made of plant-based ingredients and cultivated cells. They are developed to ensure the production of tasty, safe, and consistent products. The Company plans to offer customization options intended to allow clients to create bio-inks for any type of species they would like to produce, tailored to their specific needs and preferences. The bio-inks will be available for purchase alongside the 3D printers.

Arik Kaufman, CEO of Steakholder Foods: "By offering 3D printing production methodologies to B2B clients, Steakholder Foods has the opportunity to become a backbone supplier that enables the production of products that consumers seek and expect. Our 3D bio-printing technology and customized bio-inks reflect our commitment to revolutionizing the food industry."

About Steakholder Foods

Steakholder Foods Ltd., formerly MeaTech 3D Ltd., is an international deep-tech food company at the forefront of the cultured meat revolution. The company-initiated activities in 2019 and is listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker "STKH" (formerly MITC), with headquarters in Rehovot, Israel.

The company is developing a slaughter-free solution for producing cellular agriculture meat products, such as beef and seafood, by offering manufacturers the ability to produce a cultivated meat product that aims to closely mimic the taste, texture, and appearance of traditional meat— as an alternative to industrialized farming and fishing. With its membership in the UN Global Compact, Steakholder Foods is committed to act in support of issues embodied in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which include strengthening food security, decreasing carbon footprint, and conserving water and land resources.

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[wow_happens28]

I already feel the relief. Like walking out of my first AA meeting. I knew my drinking days were over. 41 years later, still sober

[gfp927z]

I guess it will be a relief to finally get some 'closure' to the RIBT saga. Following a stock closely for years, an emotional attachment develops, and there can be a sense of loss once the company is history. I once followed some bio stocks very closely for years, but in biotech the stocks often live on virtually forever as sub-penny 'shells'. Hopefully RIBT will end in a buyout or merger so the 'saga' has a clear resolution :o)



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[wow_happens28]

I think they were waiting for the official Q1 before making the final deal. Next week is my guess
.

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With the RIBT conf call, it was very short and no Q+A? Sounds like they might be in the 'quiet period' of a deal for the company, merger, etc. Just a guess though. Should be interesting to see what happens.



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[wow_happens28]

I think we will see a divestiture next week. They are bringing in a man and his company that specializes in the rules, regulations, forms to fill out, etc. I think it is a done deal, the price? I have no idea. I have my hopes and fears. Nobody outside the company knows how good or bad Q1 was.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ricebran-technologies-names-william-j-200600370.htm

He only will make $4500 per month. If he as to be making a deal himself from scratch, he'd demand more, so deal is done, IMO.

https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/1063537/000143774923009991/ribt20230410_8k.htm

I'd like $3.00 per share, but doubt that happens. With the stock rising, I guess $1.50 the lowest. But, I have never ever seen a divesture , when parts are sold to various parties. If just a normal sale, I doubt they'd bring in CXO Partners. Maybe Monday we get the story, that is when Keneally takes over the the CFO resigns.

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Nice to see RIBT back to 1.00, and the chart is starting to look promising again. Sounds like a potential sale of the company might be in the cards (?), or at least some type of restructuring, based on the recent comments from management.

Your idea of another company using RIBT's listing to go public sounds interesting, although I'm not too familiar with how that overall process would work. The alternate 'SPAC' route has been out of favor lately, but might have a resurgence if the overall market conditions continue to improve.

With the food and agro sectors I have mainly stayed with the larger cap names, so nothing too exciting. I figure these provide some stability to the portfolio, and should be fairly 'recession-proof' -

Coca Cola (KO)
Diageo (DEO)
Flowers Foods (FLO)
Hershey (HSY)
Kroger (KR)
Mondelez Intl (MDLZ)
Nestle (NSRGY)
Pepsico (PEP)



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[wow_happens28]

Italy’s ban on cultivated meat could set the industry back

https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/28/italy-ban-cultivated-meat/

Just when the U.S. government was getting more comfortable with the concept of cultivated meat, the Italian government put forth a bill banning the use of lab-grown food.

The process of making cultivated meat includes a method, like precision fermentation in a laboratory, that uses animal cells without slaughtering the animals.

Reuters reported that the bill “aims to safeguard the country’s agri-food heritage,” according to the country’s agriculture minister, Francesco Lollobrigida, who also said, “Laboratory products in our opinion do not guarantee quality, well-being and the protection of our culture, our tradition.”

The bill will now go in front of parliament, and if passed, any violation of the law in the future could result in fines of up to €60,000, or about $65,000.

In a response to the proposed ban, Cellular Agriculture Europe called it “bad public policy,” and that it would “reduce consumers’ ability to choose the food they want,” especially new products for those “who are concerned about animal welfare and the environmental impact of their food.”

Currently, Singapore is the only country allowing sales of cultivated chicken. Good Meat was the first company to get approval to sell its cultivated chicken product there and received a U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance last week, joining Upside Foods, as the only two companies to move to the next stage of commercializing their products in the U.S.

Dozens of companies, both in the U.S. and elsewhere, are not far behind in getting cultivated, or cell-cultured, meat products on the market. In the U.S., these companies have to receive approval from both the FDA and U.S. Department of Agriculture before commercializing their products in this country.

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>>> Cultured meat firm resurrects woolly mammoth in lab-grown meatball


Tech Crunch

by Paul Sawers

3-28-23


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/cultured-meat-firm-resurrects-woolly-mammoth-in-lab-grown-meatball/ar-AA19aVqD?OCID=ansmsnnews11


Truth, as the saying goes, is often stranger than fiction. The very notion of resurrecting the long-extinct woolly mammoth was the stuff of fantasy not that long ago, but scientists are already working on ways to achieve something close to that, using DNA from soft-tissue in frozen mammoth remains and meshing it with that of a modern-day elephant.

But while such “de-extinction” projects may or may not ultimately succeed, one company is already laying claim to having produced the first meat product made from mammoth DNA.

Vow, an Australian cultivated food company that creates meat in a laboratory setting from animal cells, says that it has used advanced molecular engineering to resurrect the woolly mammoth in meatball form, by combining original mammoth DNA with fragments of an African elephant’s DNA.

There’s little question that cultivated meat is coming, evidenced by the countless companies raising vast swathes of venture capital funding to produce meat and fish in a lab from animal cells, as well as the fact that companies are now starting to receiving the blessings of regulators such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). But while pork sausages and seafood make sense insofar as they are food that people are familiar with, Vow — which closed a $49.2 million round of funding just a few months ago — is clearly upping the ante with its foray into the world of extinct animals.

It’s worth acknowledging that there is a sizeable element of marketing magicianship to this announcement. The very concept was devised by communications agency and WPP-subsidiary Wunderman Thompson, which tells us something about the intent here — this is very much a promotional campaign for Vow. But at the same time, it’s also a promotional campaign for cultured meat in general, and the role it could play in creating a sustainable protein source that doesn’t involve killing animals. By some estimations, around 60% of greenhouse gas emissions from food production emanate from animal-based foods, double that of plant-based equivalents.

“The goal behind creating the mammoth meatball was really about starting that discussion around food, and what that decision to eat meat really means to the world at large, by bringing an extinct protein back to life,” James Ryall, Vow’s chief science officer, said in a video promoting the mammoth meatball.

Ryall said that the company first identified the mammoth myoglobin, a protein that is key to giving meat its color and taste, and then used publicly available data to identify the DNA sequence in mammoths.

“We filled in any gaps in the DNA sequence of this mammoth myoglobin gene, by using the genome of the African elephant, the mammoth’s closest living relative,” Ryall said. “We inserted the mammoth myoglobin gene into our cells using a very low-current and high-voltage charge. Then we continued to grow and multiply these cells just as would occur in a mammoth thousands of years ago. And the amazing thing about this is that not a single animal needed to die to produce the mammoth meatball.”

This isn’t the first time scientists have created food products from extinct animals. Back in 2018, a VC-backed Silicon Valley startup called Geltor made gummies using protein from a mastodon, another distant relative of elephants. However, in this latest instance, it’s believed that nobody has actually tasted one of the mammoth meatballs. Speaking to the Guardian newspaper, Professor Ernst Wolvetang, from the Australian Institute for Bioengineering at the University of Queensland which worked with Vow in this project, suggested that it’s probably not safe to try the meatball just now.

“We haven’t seen this protein for thousands of years,” Wolvetang said. “So we have no idea how our immune system would react when we eat it. But if we did it again, we could certainly do it in a way that would make it more palatable to regulatory bodies.”

The mammoth meatball is set to be officially unveiled at Nemo Science Museum in the Netherlands today.

Cultured meat firm resurrects woolly mammoth in lab-grown meatball by Paul Sawers originally published on TechCrunch

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>>> Lab-grown chicken clears FDA safety hurdle


CBS News

by Aliza Chasan

March 21, 2023


https://news.yahoo.com/lab-grown-chicken-clears-fda-020946735.html


Lab-grown chicken has taken a step closer to hitting American grocery stores.

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday cleared cultured "cultured chicken cell material" made by GOOD Meat as safe for use as human food. While the FDA said the lab-grown chicken was safe to eat, GOOD Meat still needs approval from the Agriculture Department before it can sell the product in the U.S.

If approved, acclaimed chef José Andrés plans to serve GOOD Meat's chicken to customers at his Washington, D.C. restaurant. He's on GOOD Meat's board of directors.

"The future of our planet depends on how we feed ourselves," he said in a press release. "And we have a responsibility to look beyond the horizon for smarter, sustainable ways to eat."

The FDA previously gave the green light to lab-grown chicken made by Upside Foods in November.

Upside Foods and GOOD Meat both use cells from chickens to create the cultured chicken products.

Once cells are extracted, GOOD Meat picks the cells most likely to produce healthy, sustainable and tasty meat, the company explained. The cells are immersed in nutrients inside a tank. They grow and divide, creating the cultured chicken, which can be harvested after four to six weeks.

"It's real, delicious meat with an identical nutritional profile to conventionally raised meat but with less impact on our planet and less risk of contamination," GOOD Meat said on its website.

GOOD Meat's chicken is already sold in Singapore.

Global livestock accounts for nearly 15% of greenhouse gasses, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations found in 2013. Advocates for lab-grown meat say it can help cut back on methane emissions and combat climate change (LOL).

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Yes, it sounds like RIBT management could be looking at all 'strategic options', based on the CC comments. It might be to re-focus the company on the most promising and profitable areas, or to sell the company, etc. These would be 'material events' that have to be disclosed, but it sounds like it might still be in the review stages.

Sorry to see the stock tank so much. These tiny stocks are full of risks and surprises, so I guess it 'goes with the territory'. But hopefully it will get a bounce back to the 1.00 area.


>>> Despite the progress in parts of the company in 2022, notably in the rice and specialty milling businesses, the Core-SRB has not moved forward as we wanted it to and the value-added derivatives business continues to suffer major market and operational challenges. Accordingly, we were not able to achieve the goal of positive adjusted EBITDA.

The Board is in the midst of a strategic review of all the possibilities for RiceBran Technologies. These alternatives are at various stages of review. And given the sensitive nature of this process, I am currently unable to provide any further details.<<<



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