Plus, New Forests makes first forestry investment in the US South | Pymwymic backs Norwegian agri-tech startup transforming precision agriculture.
A group of investors has called on the food and drinks sector to be more transparent about the healthiness of its sales in a move to encourage greater accountability for the impact of unhealthy products on public health.
Investors, which include Legal and General Investment Management, Pictet Asset Management, Nest and CCLA, have written to the chief executives of PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Mondelez, Kraft Heinz, Kellanova and General Mills, asking them to follow in the footsteps of companies such as Unilever and Danone in adopting internationally-accepted nutrition standards for publicly reporting the healthiness of their sales.
The action, which was coordinated by responsible investment NGO ShareAction, was motivated by concerns that an over-reliance on sales of less healthy products leads to poor diets and sicker societies, which harms economic productivity and threatens long-term business success and financial returns, and that a lack of transparency hinders investors’ ability to fully assess risks and opportunities.
More specifically, the investors, who collectively manage £2.34trn (€2.9trn) in assets, and ShareAction are asking the food and drinks companies to commit to adopting one or more of the internationally accepted nutrient profiling models used to define healthy food, rather than their own in-house versions. They have also asked that these companies enhance transparency through regular reporting of metrics on the healthiness of sales and products, so that shareholders and customers can hold them to account for their impact on public health.
According to the World Obesity Federation, the economic impact of overweight and obesity is expected to surpass $4trn (€3.8trn) by 2035 and more than half the global population will be living with overweight and obesity within 12 years if prevention, treatment and support do not improve.
New Forests makes first forestry investment in the US South
New Forests, the global investment manager of nature-based assets, has announced the acquisition of 90,791 acres (36,741 hectares) of a forestry estate in Oklahoma from Rayonier, the timberland real estate investment trust.
The investment, which is part of a separately managed account, is New Forests’ first forestry investment in the US South, which accounts for over half the timber production in the United States. The forest is located close to large sawmills, pulp and paper mills, which the company said underpins its timber sales.
Jeff Briggs, managing director, North America at New Forests, said: “We are aiming to develop a carbon project, while maintaining an active harvest programme and managing the forest on an optimised timber and carbon regime. Additionally, we will be supporting the local circular bioeconomy by focusing on producing sawtimber-sized logs while sequestering additional carbon compared to traditional management practices in the region.”
Pymwymic backs Norwegian agri-tech startup transforming precision agriculture
Dutch impact investors Pymwymic have co-led a €9m funding round with Nufarm, an Australian agricultural chemical company, into Norwegian agri-tech startup Kilter.
Kitler, which is focused on the precision weeding market, has developed the AX-1, an autonomous robot equipped with a proprietary single-droplet nozzle technology that reduces herbicide use by up to 95%.
Pymwymic said the technology offered farmers a sustainable, efficient alternative to traditional weeding that minimised chemical inputs and costly labour demands while enhancing both crop and soil health.
The Series A round also included participation from existing shareholder SBGI and new investors Natural Ventures and ProAgInvest. The funding will allow the company to continue developing sustainable farming practices and expand into more crops and geographies.
Pymwymic said Kilter’s solution addressed the urgent need in global agriculture for more sustainable solutions for weed control in the face of rising herbicide resistance, stricter chemical regulations, and the increasing costs of manual labour.
The investment in Kilter is the seventh in Pymwymic’s Healthy Food Systems Impact Fund II, which focuses on early-stage agri-food scale-ups that offer solutions in areas like sustainable farming, food waste reduction, and regenerative agriculture.
