Agricultural startups receive a showcase in Davis

Twelve food and agriculture startups made their pitch to investors and other business experts during a two-day conference at the University of California, Davis, aimed at promoting tech innovations that could help farmers, ranchers and others in the food sector.

Dubbed the Ag Innovation Showcase, the event last week—organized by the Larta Institute in partnership with the UC Davis World Food Center—was an offshoot of an annual conference held in St. Louis that's now in its ninth year. This was the first such conference in California. Los Angeles-based Larta provides training and assistance to entrepreneurs.

The event also featured discussions about animal health, food and beverage processing, drones and robotics, water management, nutrition and food quality, and IoT—or the "Internet of things"—on the farm, which refers to the connection of devices, machines and other objects to the Internet.

But the conference focused on giving the 12 companies—chosen from a field of more than 40—a platform to present their ideas, hear feedback, network and raise money. Since 2009, participating companies have raised $510 million after making their presentations at the conference, organizers said.

"What we've done over nine years at the Ag Showcase is essentially curate content for a community and create conversation among them," Larta founder and CEO Rohit Shukla said. "It's about the broader community across the country and across the world."

The companies presented a range of products and services aimed at crops, dairy and livestock. They were grouped into five categories: agricultural biotechnology, animal health, diagnostics, farming innovations and food science.

Chris Belnap, CEO and cofounder of Resilient Biotics in El Cerrito, was one of the entrepreneurs looking to make connections at the conference. His company develops alternatives to antibiotics in livestock production, by using data analytics to track disease outbreaks and discover microbial therapeutics.

"I've seen the power of using microorganisms to manipulate biological systems," he said. "What I've observed in animal production is a huge need for new therapeutic solutions to address infectious disease."

Citing a need for preventive solutions for animal diseases, Belnap said he thinks his company can accomplish that "through manipulation of their microbiomes."

Four of the companies displayed innovations in biotech, including Miraculex, which works out of San Francisco, Davis and New York. The company makes protein sweeteners derived from a red fruit that company founder and CEO Alan Perlstein calls "miracle berry."

The almond-shaped berries produce a protein that binds to taste buds, allowing nonsweetened foods, especially those that are acidic, to taste sweet for up to half an hour after eating the berry's pulp. Perlstein is growing the berries, which come from a shrub, in a hydroponic system in Davis. To speed production of the proteins, the company also created strains of lettuce through biotechnology that express the proteins, allowing for a faster harvest.

"Our company is focused on mass-producing these proteins and formulating them into food products and bringing them to market," he said.

Perlstein said he is targeting two potential markets: food manufacturing and the medical field, the latter because the berries may allow cancer patients who lose their ability to taste during chemotherapy to enjoy food.

Miraculex wasn't the only company in the sugar-substitute business. Virginia-based Bonumose produces tagatose, a natural sugar the company says is low in calories, does not raise blood-sugar levels and does not cause tooth decay.

Several companies at the showcase are trying to solve agricultural problems in the field.

San Francisco-based Trace Genomics provides soil testing using genomics data to detect disease-causing microbes. Los Angeles-based UAV-IQ provides drone-based aerial scouting services specifically aimed at grape growers. Wisran in San Francisco provides software aimed at increasing farm efficiency by targeting worker productivity and farm-equipment logistics. Affingen, based in Switzerland, uses genome-editing technology to control plant tissues and enhance desired traits without affecting the plant's overall function. Canada-based BVT, which stands for bee vectoring technology, uses commercially raised bees to deliver natural compounds for pest management.

For poultry producers, Missouri-based Heartland Farm Energy makes a ventilation system that captures the ammonia-filled air from the barn and uses it to heat incoming fresh air, reducing energy costs and improving bird health.

In the area of food safety, Davis-based Astrona makes a hand-held device that detects pathogens to monitor food contamination in less than an hour. SnapDNA, based in Menlo Park, makes a hand-held device that detects pathogens within hours through DNA testing.

For food processors, Davis-based InnovaNutra produces formulations from natural ingredients that stabilize colors and tastes during food processing.

The 12 companies weren't the only ones sharing their innovations. A group of UC Davis mechanical engineering students showed off a prototype of a drone they designed to disperse vermiculite that carries predatory mites, which kill crop pests such as spider mites.

The drone is equipped with a hopper that transports the vermiculite with the predatory mites, delivering the beneficial insects to a field as it flies by. Using a remote, the operator of the drone can control administration of the dose from the ground.

The drone can fly for about 15 to 30 minutes or up to 40 minutes with different battery configurations, said Patrick Jones, one of the students involved in the project. With proof of concept completed, he said the next step is scaling up, "so you can easily have a system where it flies, you land, refill the hopper, switch out the battery and it flies again."

"I think at that point, we can pretty much hand it off," he said.

(Ching Lee is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at clee@cfbf.com.)