Catch up on how tech is reshaping food and ag for better human and planetary health, with commentary and curated updates in Issue #139 of the Better Bioeconomy newsletter:

🏭 Latam sugar giant Magdalena is building a 650,000-L precision fermentation facility in Guatemala, targeting high-value molecules

🍫 Puratos to launch the world’s first cell-based chocolate for commercial use by end of 2026

🔁 California Cultured completes first commercial-scale run of plant cell-cultured cocoa using $3k reusable plastic bioreactors

🛒 Nestlé launches Snack Vibes in Germany using Planet A Foods’ cocoa-free chocolate alternative

🐶 Magic Valley launches Australia’s first cultivated meat for dogs

🌾 Vietnam has nearly doubled its low‑emission rice target two years early by reducing adoption risk

🌽 Crop Diagnostix uses RNA sequencing to flag crop disease up to four weeks early

🍌 Tropic raised $105M Series C to scale gene-edited banana varieties and deploy TR4-resistant Cavendish from 2027

⚡ PlasmaLeap raised A$30M Series A to deploy zero-emissions, on-farm nitrogen fertiliser production from air, water, and renewable electricity

🥛 Verley raised €32M Series A to scale its precision-fermented whey proteins and launch in the US by year-end

🍼 Guoke Xinglian raised $14.6M Series A+ to scale up precision-fermented human lactoferrin with human-identical glycosylation

🎯 AgZen raised $10M Series B to scale real-time spray monitoring that cuts chemical inputs by up to 50% without yield loss

🧫 baCta raised €7M seed to produce astaxanthin via AI-optimised yeast fermentation for cosmetics and nutraceutical markets

🌱 Amatera raised €6M to accelerate climate-smart crop breeding by screening at the cell culture stage

🧬 Bindbridge raised $3.8M to design molecular glue herbicides that turn weeds’ own protein recycling machinery against them

🤖 Living Models raised $7M to build AI foundation models for plant genomics and compress the seed development cycle

🍫 Cellva Ingredients raised $3.8M pre-Series A to scale its cocoa-free chocolate ingredient made from coffee production waste