What a couple of weeks it has been - summer has finally arrived in the UK, and we are loving the sunshine!
We are thrilled to announce that we have recently been accepted as one of the 70 SMEs in the UK participating in the Ellen McArthur Big Food Redesign Challenge.
Back in September 2021, the big food redesign study set out the potential of circular design for food to tackle greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss while also supporting farmer livelihoods and offering opportunities for businesses.
With nihilo we set out on a mission to create high value, sustainable commodities using up-cycled food side streams and locally grown nutrient-dense crops, supporting local and circular food production systems. Our starting point: coffee without the coffee bean.
And we fully agree with the foundation's mission that ‘rather than bending nature to produce food, food can be designed for nature to thrive’.
(Image taken from Ellen McArthur The Big Food Redesign: Project)
Why?
In this newsletter, we want to dive a bit deeper on some of the themes we have been looking at a lot closer over the last few months, which helped shape our mission and value proposition.
The global food ecosystem is responsible for ⅓ of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and it is responsible for ½ of the human induced pressures on biodiversity.
For both sustainability and health reasons, we need to change our food production systems. However, transforming the food system to one that is nature positive will take time and requires investment, but we need to act now, together with the large FMCGs and retailers to accelerate positive impacts and reap significant benefits:
- New market opportunities for alternative foods. With nihilo we want to tap into alternate use cases and applications for locally grown and sourced crops and plants and up-cycled ingredients.
- Progress on climate and biodiversity goals. We want to create strong brand equity, by putting a face to our brand showing where our product comes from. With nihilo we want to be transparent on our product’s ingredients origin, how they have been processed, and what carbon footprint they have.
- Support farmers' livelihoods. We want to support farmers as they transition to regenerative farming. By working with partners in the supply chain we will be part of designing some regenerative farming systems to explore new applications and use cases for ancient and new diverse crops and plants. Especially now that the Agricultural Transition period started in the UK, in which the government gradually reduces and then stops untargeted Direct Payments, and starts to invest money to support sustainable farming practices, creating habitats for nature recovery and making landscape-scale change such as establishing new woodland and other ecosystem services.
- Improve supply chain resilience. With a focus on local production, we want to help avoid some of the supply chain shocks and shortages we have experienced in the last few years. Through supporting the development and the implementation of new and more diverse regenerative farming systems in the UK, suppliers in the UK will also become more resilient.
- Get ahead of regulations. A wave of regulations is coming our way. From stricter product labeling, to measurement of scope 1,2 and 3 emissions, food manufacturers and brands need to reconsider their ingredient supplies for new product development and reformulation. With nihilo as an ingredient supplier to these stakeholders we hope to support them.
Through many conversations with a number of stakeholders, we have made quite a bit of progress on our concept and are constantly looking how we can evolve our product to fit market needs. We are working on some exciting stuff and hope to share it with you soon!
