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Hedging Against Global Supply Chain Shortages
COVID-19 has had an enduring, adverse impact on global supply chains. What started as a hand sanitizer and toilet paper shortage has evolved into a multifaceted supply chain breakdown affecting numerous manufacturing pipelines.
By Rebekka Boekhout
August 9, 2021
COVID-19 has had an enduring, adverse impact on global supply chains. What started as a hand sanitizer and toilet paper shortage has evolved into a multifaceted supply chain breakdown affecting numerous manufacturing pipelines. At the heart of these disruptions is something small and unsuspected by those unaccustomed to tech design: semiconductor chips.
Semiconductor memory chips store data on computers and storage devices. They play a pivotal role in various technologies; everything from smartphones to cars to, you guessed it, container farms need semiconductors to function. A shortage of something this essential can upend the market as we know it and slow the pace of indoor agriculture’s growth.
Jumpstarted by pandemic mayhem, supply chain failures have become a consistent cause for concern for businesses across the globe. How has this issue become the norm in the current business landscape? Well, the answer comes down to simple economics: supply cannot meet demand.[1]
Read the rest of the article here
USDA To Invest More Than $4 Billion To Strengthen Food System
The new effort will strengthen the food system, create new market opportunities, tackle the climate crisis, help communities that have been left behind, and support good-paying jobs throughout the supply chain
Investments Will Support Biden Administration’s
Effort to Strengthen Critical Supply Chains
Release & Contact Info
Press Release
Release No. 0125.21
Contact: USDA Press
Email: press@usda.gov
WASHINGTON, June 8, 2021 – Citing lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and recent supply chain disruptions, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced plans to invest more than $4 billion to strengthen critical supply chains through the Build Back Better initiative. The new effort will strengthen the food system, create new market opportunities, tackle the climate crisis, help communities that have been left behind, and support good-paying jobs throughout the supply chain. Today’s announcement supports the Biden Administration’s broader work on strengthening the resilience of critical supply chains as directed by Executive Order 14017 America's Supply Chains. Funding is provided by the American Rescue Plan Act and earlier pandemic assistance such as the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021.
Secretary Vilsack was also named co-chair of the Administration’s new Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force. The Task Force will provide a whole of government response to address near-term supply chain challenges to the economic recovery. The Task Force will convene stakeholders to diagnose problems and surface solutions—large and small, public or private—that could help alleviate bottlenecks and supply constraints related to the economy’s reopening after the Administration’s historic vaccination and economic relief efforts.
USDA will invest more than $4 billion to strengthen the food system, support food production, improved processing, investments in distribution and aggregation, and market opportunities. Through the Build Back Better initiative, USDA will help to ensure the food system of the future is fair, competitive, distributed, and resilient; supports health with access to healthy, affordable food; ensures growers and workers receive a greater share of the food dollar; and advances equity as well as climate resilience and mitigation. While the Build Back Better initiative addresses near- and long-term issues, recent events have exposed the immediate need for action. With attention to competition and investments in additional small- and medium-sized meat processing capacity, the Build Back Better initiative will spur economic opportunity while increasing resilience and certainty for producers and consumers alike.
“The COVID-19 pandemic led to massive disruption for growers and food workers. It exposed a food system that was rigid, consolidated, and fragile. Meanwhile, those growing, processing and preparing our food are earning less each year in a system that rewards size over all else,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “The Build Back Better initiative will make meaningful investments to build a food system that is more resilient against shocks, delivers greater value to growers and workers, and offers consumers an affordable selection of healthy food produced and sourced locally and regionally by farmers and processors from diverse backgrounds. I am confident USDA’s investments will spur billions more in leveraged funding from the private sector and others as this initiative gains traction across the country. I look forward to getting to work as co-chair of the new Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force and help to mobilize a whole-of-government effort to address the short-term supply challenges our country faces as it recovers.”
The Build Back Better Initiative will strengthen and transform critical parts of the U.S. food system. As it makes investments through this initiative, USDA will also seek to increase transparency and competition with attention to how certain types of conduct in the livestock markets and the meat processing sector have resulted in thinly-traded markets and unfair treatment of some farmers, ranchers and small processors. Among other investments in the food system and food supply chain, Build Back Better will specifically address the shortage of small meat processing facilities across the country as well as the necessary local and regional food system infrastructure needed to support them.
Funding announcements under the Build Back Better initiative will include a mix of grants, loans, and innovative financing mechanisms for the following priorities, each of which includes mechanisms to tackle the climate crisis and help communities that have been left behind, including:
Food Production: Food production relies on growers, including farmers and ranchers, workers, and critical inputs. But a diminishing share of the food dollar goes to these essential workers. USDA will invest in the current and future generation of food producers and workers throughout the food system with direct assistance, grants, training and technical assistance, and more.
Food Processing: The pandemic highlighted challenges with consolidated processing capacity. It created supply bottlenecks, which led to a drop in effective plant and slaughter capacity. Small and midsize farmers often struggled to compete for processing access. USDA will make investments to support new and expanded regional processing capacity.
Food Distribution & Aggregation: Food aggregation and distribution relies on people working together throughout the food system and having the right infrastructure to gather, move and hold the food where and when it is needed. This system was stressed during the pandemic due to long shipping distances and lack of investment in local and regional capacity. USDA will make investments in food system infrastructure that can remain resilient, flexible and responsive.
Markets & Consumers: The U.S. spends more on health care and less on food than any other high-income nation; yet the U.S. has higher rates of diet-related illness and a lower life expectancy than those nations. At the same time, many socially disadvantaged and small and mid-sized producers do not have equitable access to markets. USDA will support new and expanded access to markets for a diversity of growers while helping eaters access healthy foods.
USDA will continue to make announcements through the Build Back Better initiative in the months to come. Today’s announcement is in addition to the $1 billion announced last week to purchase healthy food for food-insecure Americans and build food bank capacity, putting the total announced thus far at more than $5 billion.
USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. In the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA is transforming America’s food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production, fairer markets for all producers, ensuring access to safe, healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate smart food and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America, and committing to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. To learn more, visit www.usda.gov.
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FREE WEBINAR: CEO Panelists To Discuss "How To Get Indoor Farm Up and Running" on July 22, 2020 @ 2 PM EST
Whether just starting out or looking for fresh new ideas to bolster a current operation, the CEO panelists joining the July 22, 2020, Indoor Ag-Conversations free webinar series from Indoor Ag-Con will offer participants a wealth of business-building ideas to get a farm going and growing
Leaders From Kalera, Vertical Harvest, Artesian Farms, & Danforth Plant Science Center Join Indoor Ag-Conversations Webinar Series
LAS VEGAS (July 13, 2020) –Whether just starting out or looking for fresh new ideas to bolster a current operation, the CEO panelists joining the July 22, 2020, Indoor Ag-Conversations free webinar series from Indoor Ag-Con will offer participants a wealth of business-building ideas to get a farm going and growing. Moderated by Claire Kinlaw, Director of Innovation Commercialization, The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, "How To Get An Indoor Farm Up & Running" webinar panelists include Daniel Malechuk, CEO, Kalera; Nona Yehia, CEO & Co-Founder, Vertical Harvest; and Milan Kluko, CEO, Artesian Farms LLC.
During the 60-minute session, the panel will cover a number of topics and issues like:
Crops: types, traits, sourcing
Customers: profiles, targets, buying interests
Selling: direct to consumer, distributors, grocery chains
Technology: what’s best suited for geography, crop, scales of production
Founding Team Skills: technical, agronomic, sales/marketing, biology/genetics
CapEx – How and where to access funds to get established
Indoor Ag-Conversation webinars are free to industry members. To register for the upcoming July 22, 2020 session, visit www.indoor.ag/webinar. Indoor Ag-Conversations presenters include:
Claire Kinlaw, Director of Innovation Commercialization, Danforth Plant Science Center --Claire combines science research and business knowledge along with experience with startup companies to support commercialization of innovative technologies in agriculture. She began work at the Danforth Center in February of 2019. She promotes the commercial impact of the Center’s intellectual property through such activities as patent filing, license agreements, and oversite for an innovation incubation program (IN2, funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation). IN2 accelerates early-stage agriculture technologies into the market through the execution of validating research for companies in collaboration with the Danforth Center.
Daniel Malechuk, CEO, Kalera -- A food industry veteran, Daniel Malechuk has spent his career managing and growing several of the world’s leading food, grocery, and produce companies. As a leader in the industry, Daniel has worked in both sales and supply chain optimization and has built sustainability programs for companies such as Shamrock Foods, Kalera HyCube, Keysource Foods, and ALDI. While at Shamrock Foods, Malechuk led the retail division and drove explosive revenue and profitability growth and expansion across the Southwest. Daniel also served as Vice President at Keysource Foods, where he led company strategy and sales operations and negotiated contracts with some of the world’s largest food companies, including ConAgra, Carnival Corporation, PF Chang’s, ALDI, and Sysco.
Nona Yehia, Co-Founder & CEO, Vertical Harvest -- Nona Yehia is uniquely positioned in the vertical farming sphere. She is at once a practicing Architect and the Co-Founder and CEO of the 1st vertical hydroponic greenhouse in the United States. Vertical Harvest of Jackson Hole is a cutting-edge commercial-scale greenhouse that not only grows food for communities, in communities~ but futures for those who need it most.
Following her passion for local food and experiences growing up with a brother with developmental disabilities, Nona conceived of a three-story hydroponic greenhouse that employs people with developmental disabilities while producing local food for the community year-round. In 2016 Vertical Harvest opened its doors.
Milan Kluko, CEO & Co-Founder, Artesian Farms LLC & Berrien Processing Solutions (BPS) -- Milan Kluko has been in the environmental engineering, alternative energy, agriculture, and solid waste industry as an engineering consultant, developer, vendor, and technology supplier for 38 years. For nearly four decades he has worked on developing recycling and solid waste reduction programs, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, and low impact development projects worldwide. From 2001-2015 Mr. Kluko worked on worldwide projects as a sustainability consultant for the Coca Cola Company. During the past several decades his focus has been primarily on “project-based” assignments gaining significant expertise with a wide variety of environmental, agriculture, alternative energy, and recycling systems starting in 1982.
Indoor Ag-Con LLC created the new Indoor Ag-Conversations series to share content originally planned for its May 2020 in-person annual conference that was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. More details on the upcoming and future sessions, as well as recordings of previous webinars, are available at www.indoor.ag/webinar.
ABOUT INDOOR AG-CON LLC
Founded in 2013, Indoor Ag-Con touches all sectors of the business, covering produce, legal cannabis, hemp, alternate protein, and non-food crops. In December 2018, three event industry professionals – Nancy Hallberg, Kris Sieradzki, and Brian Sullivan – purchased Indoor Ag-Con LLC, setting the stage for further expansion of the events globally. For more information, visit: www.indoor.ag