Good Morning
What we’re reading this week:
Axios’ Joann Muller tests out Ford’s new electric F150 Lightning
Noah Smith discusses the future of energy and climate policy with Ramez Naam in an incredible interview.
We’ve all heard that cow burps = carbon emission, but have you heard that whale poop = carbon sequestration?
John & Ann Doerr donated a record $1.1b to kickstart Stanford’s new climate school
The International Energy Agency, in a new report, sees the addition of roughly 320 gigawatts of generating capacity this year, led by solar and wind.
The Greendicator
Top Deals of the Week
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc012690d-6b13-40ca-8b0e-1474c919d28b_543x733.png)
Arcardia, an eight-year-old startup based in Washington, D.C.that has created an API enabling consumers to share their energy use with businesses, raised a $200 million Series E. The round, which was led by JP Morgan (the #1 fossil fuel bank), values the company at $1.45 billion valuation. (A)
Carbon Clean, a startup aiming to capture harmful factory emissions, raised a $150M Series C led by Chevron (the 7th largest oil & gas company) (TC)
Pachama, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that uses artificial intelligence to verify carbon credits, raised $55 million in Series B funding led by Future Positive (R)
Voyage Foods, a one-year-old Oakland, Ca.-based startup that is creating environmentally sustainable food alternatives (it makes versions of peanut butter, coffee and chocolate, among other things), raised a $36 million Series A funding co-led by funds managed by UBS O’Connor and Level One Fund (FD)
Azumo, a six-year-old display maker based in Chicago that uses sunlight-readable, reflective “LCD 2.0” technology that it says can reduce LCD power consumption by as much as ten times, has raised $30 million in funding. Anzu Partners led the deal (F)
Electric last-mile delivery startup GetHenry raised a $17.4M seed round led by LocalGlobe (TC)
Common Energy, a five-year-old startup based in New York that provides project owners with a SaaS platform to manage and monetize complex, multi-tenant distributed generation projects, raised a $16.5 million round from S2G Ventures. (SB)
Tomorrow Farms, a one-year-old startup based in New York that's developing animal-free foods for consumers (it's not revealing what foods just yet), raised $8.5 million in seed funding. The lead was Chris Sacca's Lowercarbon Capital (TC)
Optivolt, a five-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based startup that says it has developed shade tolerant solar systems to power electric devices and machines, just raised $8.2 million in seed funding led by Atlas Innovate. (O)
Infrascreen, a three-year-old startup based in Neuchâtel, Switzerland that uses nanotechnologies to increase the energy efficiency of greenhouses, raised a $1.5 million seed round; investors included Investbridge Capital and ACE & Company. (FD)
Green Theory
Eat Globally, Act Locally
Rejoicing in the delight of a homegrown meal, you sink your teeth in, knowing you’re enjoying the most local crops. From lush backyard gardens to inner-city herb closets, the practice of sowing, growing, and harvesting your own food satisfies more than hunger. Getting your hands dirty, chatting at the farmer’s market, and smiling over a delicious dinner number among the joys of bringing your diet closer to home.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbba91cef-4dc2-484e-9956-ce86293bb741_4032x3024.jpeg)
Eating locally stands as a common suggestion for living a more sustainable lifestyle. Just take Montreal’s McGill University food services page, for example: “Local food doesn’t have to travel as far to arrive on your plate, so it helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions…improving our carbon footprint.” Back in the US, organizations such as the EPA promote campaigns such as Local Foods, Local Places to help protect the environment. While the virtues of small-scale farming abound, does eating from nearby operations really matter for the environment?
Research out of Iowa State University illuminates the drastic environmental gap between large, industrialized operations, and medium-sized, Iowa-based growers. California ships its bounty far and wide, growing over half of US produce, primarily via large-scale methods. Across 18 vegetables, the team found that the typical Iowa farm requires only 1 gallon for every 10 used in California, and generates half of the emissions of their California counterparts. Sounds simple: Iowa farming beats California’s…but not so fast. McGill is correct that local foods don’t travel as far, and this research serves as evidence of input-efficient Iowa farms, yet the environmental impact of food extends far beyond shipping & packaging.
Counterintuitively, eating crops from farther away may sometimes help protect the environment. Iowa sits almost entirely on the Jordan aquifer, so it makes sense that California’s drought-prone high desert serves as a thirstier place for crops, on top of the troubles with large-scale growing.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa3cd9601-066c-4fcf-b30a-4009ef0eb307_555x599.png)
Still, other areas suffer from even less water than California, and draining water resources just to save on shipping emissions may not net out in favor of the planet. Our World in Data presents the case for not fretting over local eating rather well: “GHG emissions from transportation make up a very small amount of the emissions from food and what you eat is far more important than where your food traveled from.” Yes, supply chain costs make up almost 20% of food emissions, though greenhouse gas sources such as packaging and processing also help extend shelf life and reduce food waste. Avoiding foods flown by air may, in fact, make a big difference, as emissions are 50x higher than via boat. Still, this elite set of jet-setting crops accounts for less than 0.25% of food travel. In other words, a holistic look at resource use helps show how boating bananas from the tropics can better protect the earth than attempting to grow them in unsuitable regions.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7495e77c-b788-4908-aa3c-c1426f0aa19d_1581x1600.png)
Supporting local farmers helps promote the local economy, and growing a small basil plant could be the first step toward building a vibrant dinner that brings your community together. Establishing deeper connections—with the land, the people around us, and the food that sustains us—all serve as welcome benefits of engaging with nearby growing. At the same time, we must pay attention to the truly damaging aspects of food production: animal agriculture and monocropping, to name a few. Looking for local food, or making it yourself, represents an adventure into a more thorough understanding of what’s on your plate, and may serve as a more sustainable substitute for some of the foods you enjoy today. In service of reducing your diet’s carbon footprint, however, your effort may be better spent looking at the types of food you eat, the scale of growing operations, and double-checking that no one asked your food to ensure its tray table is in the upright and locked position.
The Closer
A lace bug in Indonesia.