East of Edenworks

We went to go visit the Edenworks fish and greens ecosystem farm in Brooklyn, New York. They use broad-specturm LED lighting for continuous production indoors, all year long. The microgreens are in floating aquaponic containers, fertilized by the microbially-digested fish waste from below, and they thrive on this nutrient stream. Results: the greens and fish are quite yummy and popular at the local Whole Foods.

Some details that caught my interest:
• 90% of American seafood is imported and 40% is mislabelled (!)
• Fish are 40x more efficient than cows at converting feed to body mass
• Over 50% of all fish meals come from aquaculture ($160B globally)
• Edenworks’ aquaponic microbiome improves conversion of nitrogen to plant yield by 18x over indoor hydroponics

The mislabeled product is shockingly high. There are some extreme examples, like red snapper and tuna, that are mislabeled at a rate of 87% and 59%, respectively. 100% of yellowtail / hamachi in sushi restaurants was mislabeled and was actually amberjack. It’s not just bycatch. It’s intentional substitution of cheap species for desired ones, or overfished / illegally caught species for less threatened and marketable ones. This persistent fraud Is detrimental to consumer choice, consumer health (e.g. allergies, avoiding heavy metals or chemical contaminants) and sustainability (due to the inability to effectively choose).

The exec summ from this Oceana study explains how fraud was quantified and has a few stats on levels of mislabeling by channel and species.

In part, the issue is traceability from hook to plate, ensuring that the right species is caught in a safe and sustainable location and sold to consumers as such. In part, the issue is that the world doesn’t have enough wild stocks of the fish that consumers want to eat. High quality, properly labeled, and end-to-end traceable aquaculture is a solution.

FD: we are investors in the seed round… and seed capital is very topical here!