In “Silicon Valley Firms Plant Roots in Farm Belt”, published April 6, 2015 in The Wall Street Journal, authors Ilan Brat and Jacob Bunge discuss the role of venture capitalism in developing technology solutions to current farming problems:
“A spate of recalls in the 2000s, of food that sickened or killed hundreds of people, alarmed the nation’s farmers and spurred federal legislators to clamp down with new food-safety regulations,” the article states. “A burgeoning array of companies are hoping to benefit from a new mandate for more stringent and consistent food-safety testing and tracking, something on which food companies currently spend billions every year.”
It continues: “They include South San Francisco-based Icix North America LLC, which develops software to help food retailers track the route of products to market through suppliers and shippers. Invisible Sentinel Inc., based in Philadelphia, is rolling out systems designed to quickly check food and beverages for pathogens like salmonella and listeria, incorporating hand-held indicators resembling a pregnancy test. And RapidBio Systems Inc. says it can cut hours out of the process for testing leafy greens and other foods for various toxic pathogens through its hand-held device that can do it in minutes where the food is harvested and processed.”
Read the full article here (subscription required) and learn more about the RapidBio Systems solution here.
