The very first meal that American astronaut John Glenn ate in space consisted of applesauce and sugar tablets. Luckily, what astronauts eat now has evolved. Companies like Mission: Space Food are designing high-quality, nutrient-dense foods to satiate astronauts' appetites and earthlings' nutritional needs. 

In this episode, we spoke with Graham Greene, the Chief Product Officer at Mission: Space Food, who also happened to be a chef and butcher at Michelin-starred restaurants worldwide. We chatted about the constraints of designing food for space, Mission: Space Food's new multisensory product for astronauts and earthlings alike, their philosophy around personalized nutrition, and the future of food in space. 

Dope Coffee is amplifying Black culture through coffee. While their site sells hand-selected, diverse coffees from around the world, coffee-related foods, and skincare products for melanated skin, their overarching platform launches Black creativity out into the world. We talked to Chel, Dope Coffee's Chief Product Officer and co-founder, about how they're holistically approaching coffee while weaving in hip-hop, nutrition, and discussing issues important to the Black community.

How do you turn food waste into a viable protein? At Oberland Agriscience, they are feeding food waste to black soldier flies with voracious appetites. We interviewed Greg, Oberland's founder, and learned how they're creating a nutrient-rich feed ingredient for agriculture and aquaculture (like your favorite sustainable farm-raised fish) that's high in protein and produces zero waste. 

After a few years of R&D, they've figured out how to use black soldier flies throughout their entire lifecycle. Even better, the flies in their closed-loop facility are massively reducing (and building awareness around) food waste in Nova Scotia.

We admit, the picture that comes to mind of fly larvae eating their way through a pile of food waste may generate a visceral reaction, but we PROMISE that you'll get over it once you hear how inspiring their mission is.

In this episode, we interview the founder of InnerPlant, Shely Aronov. Her new technology builds biosensing capabilities into plants that provide early detection of crop issues with targeted, actionable data and recommendations for farmers. 

InnerPlant is creating a valuable technology that can be planted right in the field. Their biosensing plants react to crop stressors and transmit location data, recommendations, and more back to the farmer. This allows farmers to proactively address the issue before it becomes widespread in the field. Because InnerPlant operates on the microbiological level, problems are identified much earlier and more acutely than what would be seen by the naked eye. 

Learn what inspired Shely to start InnerPlant, how this technology works, and how it can be applied to many types of agriculture--from finding fungus in soybean farms the size of San Francisco to identifying nutrient deficiencies in regenerative agriculture. We also discuss high tech farming, how the entire food industry is being affected by COVID-19, and what all of this means for the future.

In Singaporean or Malaysian slang, "Shiok" means 'fantastic or delicious'. In this podcast, you'll meet Durga from Shiok Meats, a cell-based, clean meat company based out of Singapore. Their mission is to create healthy, clean, delicious food without harming animals.

Similar to cultivating a new plant from a plant cutting, Durga explains how Shiok's technology isolates cells from an animal and then grows them in a nutrient-rich solution. They only produce the meat portion instead of the entire animal--which is extremely helpful for chefs and cooks who hate peeling and deveining crustaceans.

In this episode, you'll learn about their process, their philosophy, the importance of clean meat, why Singapore is an excellent place to start a cell-based protein company, and much more. 

We interview Kerry Kakazu, a plant scientist in Honolulu, who started Hawaii's first vertical farm called MetroGrow Hawaii. They produce specialty crops, like herbs, corn shoots, butter lettuce, and an extra-salty ice plant, using hydroponics and aeroponics. Learn why chefs and customers love their products so much that they're expanding to a larger location (where they will sell food to the public too!) Hear some of the challenges and rewards of building a vertical farm on Oahu.

For more fun and food-related content, check out our site at www.evolve.ag. 

Will we soon look back and laugh about the days when we used to get milk from a cow? The answer is a resounding "yes" if TurtleTree Labs has anything to do with it. Tucked in a Singaporean tech co-innovation space, TurtleTree Labs is growing milk, cellularly, in a lab. Inspired by a lack of clean, raw milk in the region, they are producing fluid milk identical to what comes out of a cow, or a human, or even a snow leopard. Learn how they plan to introduce this to the market from inside-out and make a global impact.

Ghost kitchens, adaptogens, and compostable packaging-oh my! These are just a few of the hot new trends in food and food tech you'll start seeing more of this year. We share what's new in food tech and what you'll be snacking on in 2020. Get the scoop on our top 5 food trends: