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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Nanoracks

ADIO Invests $41M to Improve Farming on Land, at Sea, and in Space

The Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) announced today it will invest AED 152 million (~$41 million USD) across three ag tech companies to develop new ag tech innovations on land, at sea, and in space. According to a press release sent to The Spoon, ADIO has partnered with U.S.-based Nanoracks, India-based FreshToHome, and UAE-based Pure Harvest for the initiatives. 

ADIO said in today’s press release that the new partnerships will promote more innovation in ag tech specifically as it relates to food security challenges. One major issue highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic is the fragility of the global food system. In response, various countries, including Singapore, China, and those in the European Union, are fostering innovation at the government level in an effort to improve local food production, build more traceability into the supply chain, and establish more trust between consumers and food producers.

In the United Arab Emirates, one regionally specific challenge is growing more food in a desert climate, in which the ag industry deals with minimal water supply, non-arable land, and climate change issues like drought and rising temperatures. ADIO’s investments are in companies that can both assist in solving these regional challenges and address the issue of food security on a global scale.

Hence, space farming. Nanoracks, one of ADIO’s three new partners, uses the International Space Station and is building the first-ever space research program for ag tech. Its StarLab Space Farming Center in Abu Dhabi will research facility focused on food production both in space and in “equally extreme climates on Earth.” (Spoon readers will recognize Nanoracks as the company that made the Zero G oven, capable of baking cookies in space.)

ADIO’s FreshToHome partnership, meanwhile, will expand the latter’s operational and processing capabilities across land and sea in the UAE. FreshToHome operates an e-commerce platform for fresh produce and controls every point along the supply chain. ADIO said in today’s release that the partnership will also focus on innovations for fish farming and cold chain technology.

Finally, Pure Harvest will use the new partnership to advance its technology and processes for produce grown in controlled environments. That includes more artificial intelligence, robotics and automation, and machines optimized for desert temperatures. The company will also advance work on its commercial-scale algae bioreactor facility to grow Omega-3 fatty acids.

The new partnerships are part of ADIO’s AgTech Incentive Programme, which the Abu Dhabi Government’s Ghadan 21 Accelerator Programme established in 2019. Previous investments from the AgTech Incentive Programme include the $100 million (USD) investment ADIO made in April across four companies: AeroFarms, Madar Farms, Responsive Drip Irrigation, and RNZ.

The Space Station Just Got More Fun with the Arrival of Wine and a Cookie Baking Oven

If you’re looking for literal high-end food, space is evidently the place as two different delectable payloads shot up to the International Space Station (ISS) over the weekend. A Cygnus rocket launched on November 2 and successfully docked with ISS today carrying a bottle of wine from Europe and a cookie-baking oven from the U.S., all in the name of (delicious) science.

TechCrunch reports that like a celestial sommelier, the French startup Space Cargo Unlimited sent a samples of red wine to the space station. Sadly, astronauts won’t be able to enjoy this astro wine, but instead just have to keep it up in space for 12 months before it’s sent back down to Earth. According to Quartz, this space faring wine mission is formally called “Mission WISE, for Vitis Vinum in Spatium Experimentia” and will study how exposure to space radiation and being in a state of constant free-fall impacts biological aging processes.

It might be a little on-the-nose that a French startup sends up wine while an American company figures out how to bake chocolate chip cookies in space, but here we are.

Space.com writes that typically on the space station, food is heated or reheated via hot water. The new oven, which was built through a collaboration between Zero G Kitchen and Nanoracks, is actually quite fascinating. It’s a cylindrical chamber, and food is held in special silicone trays with 40 micron filters that allow heat and steam to escape and are held in aluminum frames so they can be securely racked. It’s quite complicated, and I recommend reading all the details on Zero G’s site.

As rich entrepreneurs like Elon Musk with his SpaceX and Jeff Bezos with Blue Origin push space flight with an eye towards traveling to Mars, there are a number of startups shooting for the culinary stars. Last month, Aleph Farms said it had grown small scale cell cultured muscle tissue aboard the ISS. Space Roasters wants to roast coffee beans using the heat of re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere, and Australian company Vostok Space Beer is creating, well, beer that can be imbibed in space.

Operating on a much bigger scale is a company like Japan’s Space Food X, which is a consortium of 30 technology and food companies as well as universities and investment firms, all working to figure out the daunting task of food production in space.

One thing’s for sure, any space-faring journey to Mars is going to require meals paired with more than a few bottles of Pinot to help pass the time.