Pivot Food Investment

"The deadly pig virus that jumped from Africa to Europe is now ravaging China’s $128 billion pork industry and spreading to other Asian countries" - Bloomberg: African Swine Fever Is Spreading Fast and Eliminating It Will Take Decades, June, 2019

Every factory farming system struggles with catastrophic disease episdoes. Notable examples include the avian flu, infectious salmon anemia , and mad cow.

"Claims of price manipulation have been floating around for years, but a government filing means criminal charges could follow." - New York Times: Why Chicken Producers Are Under Investigation for Price Fixing, Jun 2019 

CNN: 6.5 million pounds of beef recalled due to salmonella outbreak, Oct 2018.

"Starr Surplus Lines Insurance Co. can’t recoup a $10 million insurance payout from a food supplier it alleged was responsible for the recall of 1.7 million pounds of salmonella-tainted chicken, a federal court in Maine ruled Aug. 2...The ruling reflects the second wave of litigation that typically follows outbreaks: First come the personal injury cases, then the insurance suits." - Bloomberg, Aug 2018.

Plant-based foods sales grew 31% over the past two years. Comparitavely, the total U.S. retail food dollar sales grew just 2% over the past year. “It is inherently more efficient to make meat directly from plants rather than cycle feed crops through animals” – The Good Food Institute, 2019.

"Voters in California overwhelmingly approved Proposition 12, which will enact stricter rules on how much space farmers must give to egg-laying hens, veal calves, and breeding pigs. The idea is that all of those animals should have enough room to stretch out their wings, claws, and paws. The measure has major ramifications for the rest of the country, because it also means that grocers in California won't be able to sell any meat or eggs that come from out of state and don't adhere to the new regulations. That means farms across the US that want to sell their wares in the nation's most populous state will be forced to comply with California's new rule." - The Business Insider, Nov 2018. 

"About 3.4 million chickens and turkeys and 5,500 hogs have been killed in flooding from Hurricane Florence as rising North Carolina rivers swamped dozens of farm buildings where the animals were being raised for market, according to state officials." Bloomberg: 3.4 Million Poultry, 5,500 Hogs Drowned in Florence Flooding - Sept 2018.

"Tyson Foods’ plan for a $320 million poultry production and processing complex near Tonganoxie was placed on hold Tuesday by the company following intense public criticism of the project’s potential harm to community members." - Capital Journal, Sept. 2017.

"Food Navigator USA:Fairlife, Coca-Cola, hit with second wave of lawsuits over animal abuse allegations, June 2019.

"The combination of trade risk and expanding meat supplies could result in “one of the biggest corrections we’ve seen in the industry in several years" - Wall Street Jourmal: 2.5 Billion Pounds of Meat Piles Up in U.S. as Production Grows, Exports Slow, Jun 2018