🐄 Milk Goes Eco + Meat Price Upswing, Euro Fish Fight, and more...

Your morning cereal is going to be coming to you carbon-free thanks to new milk money for startup Neutral.

Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Mark Cuban Companies are mooooving money—$4M to be exact—towards the company’s carbon-neutral milk.

Deja-moo: If the name sounds familiar, take note: Neutral is not the same as the late-90s indie band Neutral Milk Hotel. It was founded in 2019 by former Nike executive Matt Plitch.

How it works: Neutral uses carbon footprint studies across the whole dairy food chain, from fertilizer for feed to supply chain logistics, to understand what minimizes carbon in dairy production. They then steer—and in some cases pay for—farmers to change production practices, pushing towards carbon neutrality.

For example: This fall, Neutral backed dairy farms in seeding pastures with plants that are rich in tannins. Tannins help reduce methane production in cows. Neutral is also working on plans to plant trees in pastures and install new systems on farms for managing methane-producing manure.

They also buy certified offsets from other parts of the dairy industry to address remaining emissions.

Where this goes: Neutral eventually plans to expand into carbon-neutral versions of other foods. They began with dairy because it’s relatively universal. And, according to Breakthrough Energy Venture’s investment committee business lead, it’s impactful: dairy accounts for 3% of all global emissions.

Neutral’s milk will be hitting store shelves over the next two months—just in time to pair with cookies for Santa.

Quick Hits

→ Biden’s $1B biofuel line item. The president’s restructured Build Back Better plan included the specific appropriation as Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack eyes sustainable aviation fuel as a key for the industry.

→ The (bird) flu season is back. Namibia suspended imports of live birds and poultry products from the Netherlands and Germany after new cases of the H5N1 bird flu surfaced.

→ Aquaculture advocates bring forward bill. Senators from ocean-bordering states have introduced new legislation to support the development of an offshore aquaculture industry in the U.S. that would enable the raising of fish in federal waters.

→ French farmers fear fertilizer. Producers in the European nation stepped up October fertilizer purchases as shortage fears surged, creating unstable commodity markets.

→ $30M to Aussie carbon company. Loam Bio—previously named Soil Carbon Co—raised the Series A funding to scale their business of inoculating crops with symbiotic microbial fungi to boost soil carbon capture.

→ Robo-pollinators. Researchers at West Virginia University have created StickBug, a six-armed robot that will help pollinate various crops in greenhouse environments, an effort to aid in the decline of natural pollinators.

There’s no denying your grocery bills have climbed steadily through 2021. Since September 2020, food prices have risen by 4.5%, and you’ve likely felt that in your pocketbook.

A closer look: USDA ERS reported that wholesale beef prices increased 14.2% from July-August 2021. Beef is up 6.5% from a year ago, poultry and fish prices are up 4.5-5%, and pork prices have climbed 6.3%.

Bringing home the bacon: Or maybe not? The price of bacon is up 30-40%. Nationally, hog numbers are down. “Demand is very good. Everyone wants bacon, but we have fewer pigs,” Mary Kelpinski, CEO of the Michigan Pork Producers Association, said.

The meat of the issue: Supply chain issues and labor challenges, a constant theme these days.

From the ERS report: “Prices have been driven up by strong domestic and international demand, labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, and high feed and other input costs.” Winter storms, drought, and cybersecurity attacks that led to processing facility closures also played a role.

But we’ll keep pigging out: The higher prices will not scare away the record domestic demand the U.S. has seen in 2021, said Purdue ag economist Jayson Lusk. Which is great news for livestock producers working to make ends meat.

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The feud between French fishermen and the U.K. continues with both parties equally gill-ty of pushing their bounds.

In December 2020, a deal was reached that permitted European fishermen to fish British waters if they proved they had fished there prior to Brexit (January 2020). French and British authorities have argued ever since then over the documentation required. Britain has refused permission to many French boats in some of the richest fishing grounds in the Northeast Atlantic.

It’s not a sea-cret that the U.K. and France don’t see eye-to-eye. According to the French Prime Minister, Jean Castex, if the U.K. fails to cooperate with French demands on its fishing licenses, it could hurt the entire EU. Brexit’s Minister, David Frost, said he hopes this view is not held widely across the EU as this expression is “very troubling and very problematic.”

Soundbite: “It’s not a war, but it’s a fight,” French Seas Minister Annick Girardin said.

And after weeks of warning, a French patrol vessel took retaliatory measures, fining two British trawlers, and detaining one of them, due to their lack of license to operate on French waters.

You need to ‘clam’ down. The U.K. is not backing down and is now considering taking legal action under the Trade and Cooperation agreement.

Where this goes: France is threatening even more customs checks on British ships headed toward the rest of Europe, which could delay goods just in time for the holidays. The EU’s executive body will continue talks with France and the U.K.