The 2024 IIFH Partner Summit brought together forward-thinking leaders from industry, investors, academia, startups, foundations, research institutions and more. It is this level of uncommon collaboration that is at the heart of the Institute and why so many people from across the world chose to be in the room with us. We share a common purpose, to drive forward impactful science-driven solutions that address the challenges faced by both our food systems and healthcare systems.
Abigail Stevenson, chief science officer of Mars, struck a powerful chord when she declared, “Ours is the first generation that cannot claim ignorance of today’s global and societal challenges.” She reminded us all that with knowledge comes responsibility: “We have an obligation to leave the world better for the generations that follow.” Her call to action was clear — we must unite to drive transformative innovation and create a healthier, more sustainable future for everyone.
We kicked off the first day with a panel that explored shifts in the food industry since 2015, focusing on the evolving role of venture capital, business leadership, and research. Harold Schmitz, founding partner at The March Group, discussed venture capital’s maturity in food innovation, while H. Rao Unnava, dean at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, emphasized creating leaders who drive transformation. Justin Siegel, faculty director of IIFH, highlighted the growing importance of use-inspired academic research to foster practical advancements.
Harold Schmitz pointed out that “the global health challenge is not under nutrition anymore. It is over nutrition.” This is reflected in an important recent publication in The Lancet. This is a major driver behind many of the Institute’s projects. We are working with groups like The Periodic Table of Food Initiative, the American Heart Association, and The Rockefeller Foundation to address the nutritional needs of communities around the world.
Christian Tillegreen, director of planetary health at the BioInnovation Institute (BII), addressed one of the elephants in the room – GLP-1s. He addressed the transformational impact on the food industry and the health and well-being of those on the drugs. Though these pharmaceuticals were originally created to aid those with Type-1 Diabetes, today we are seeing a dramatic rise in their use for treating the obesity crisis.
Christian reinforced the role of BII to drive transformational life science innovations from research to commercialization. This is accomplished through strategic collaborations with academia, investors, and industry leaders. He also shared that UC Davis and BII are expanding their collaboration to accelerate the commercialization of discoveries in protein nutrition important to consumers around the world.
Moderated by Harold Schmitz, the panel session that followed examined GLP-1’s role in satiety and weight management, with insights from Heather Leidy, associate professor at University of Texas, Austin, on the synergy between food and GLP-1 for weight management. John Melo, chief executive officer of Digestiva, presented Digestiva’s mission to improve protein access globally, leveraging GLP-1’s benefits.
The final session of the day, and a crowd favorite, tackled the gaps in women’s health. Emily Fritz, head of nutrition at Digestiva, was a thoughtful and engaging moderator leaving us with many of her own nutritional insights. She left us with a call to action to leverage the complexities of women’s health to continue advancing scientific discoveries that can translate into practice and commercialization, creating science-based products that meet women’s needs.
Courtney McHugh, former vice president at UTA Ventures, addressed “the power of the female consumer” and how to thoughtfully build companies that serve women’s health. Courtney highlighted that “85% of purchases are influenced by women.” Rachael Mack, director of performance nutrition for UC Davis Athletics, addressed unique nutrition needs for female athletes. She pointed out challenges with the incoming generation of female college athletes having an incredibly limited skillset in and around food, while also battling underconsumption of food resulting in physiological and performance symptoms. Roberta Holt, cooperative extension specialist at UC Davis Nutrition, emphasized nutrition’s impact on metabolic health, highlighting challenges specific to women and hormones across the lifespan. Roberta addressed a complex question from the audience that highlighted a woman’s risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and loss of lean body mass naturally happening with menopause and starting in the perimenopause period – regardless of your nutritional or exercise status. Now women are taking pharmaceuticals that are further reducing their lean body mass and muscle mass. Roberta responded with a call to action to design a dietary pattern of intake that enables a natural GLP-1 effect that is beneficial over a woman’s lifespan.
Day two kicked off with an address from two California leaders, Ami Berra, U.S. Representative, and Fiona Ma, California State Treasurer. Ami Berra highlighted the importance of breaking down silos to work together to advance innovations in food and health. With a background as a practicing physician, Ami shared “What really brought me to the food conversation was my role on the Foreign Affairs and Intelligence committees. When I look at the insecurity and instability around the world, I see how food and water insecurity are displacing populations. I started thinking about how we can solve these challenges. The ‘aha’ moment was when I started to think about who does food the best – UC Davis.” He cited visits to UC Davis where he was introduced to groundbreaking research identifying novel ways to address nutritional challenges for communities in Africa, disruptive food technologies expanding our access to protein, and more. He addressed the role of government to ensure academic centers are properly funded so they can continue working with industry to solve the societal and global challenges of today. He said, “Imagine what would happen if we leaned into food innovation. Let’s be the center of solving these grand challenges here at UC Davis. Let’s invent the future.”
The conversation segued to an important conversation on the circular bioeconomy, moderated by Darren Logan, vice president of research at Mars. Jorge Leal, chief executive officer of Magdalena, presented carbon-efficient feedstocks and the importance of creating prosperity and well-being through the circular bioeconomy. Peggy Furth, co-founder of Sonomaceuticals, LLC, spoke on upcycling chardonnay to improve human and planetary health through the creation of the delicious chocolates tasted at the end of our first day of the Summit. Selena Ahmed, global director at the American Heart Association, explored foodomics as a means to honor cultural food diversity through the work being done by The Periodic Table of Food Initiative.
We also dug into the new technologies and business models shaping sustainable food systems. Gitta Coaker, professor of plant pathology at UC Davis, shared UC Davis’s role in sustainable systems. She shared many areas of research happening across campus, from water management technologies protecting our limited natural resources to precision genome editing helping to reduce government oversight, how the molecular composition of food changes with the climate, and the commercialization of these technologies for impact. Ralph Jerome, venture partner at The March Group, discussed 21st-century sustainable business models. He said, “The mistake often made is thinking invention is innovation. The limiting factor is not our ability to invent. Creating the innovation models that allow us to reproduce and distribute inventions is the limiting factor. The business model is the engine that makes the invention sustainable over time.” Understanding the capabilities and power of the industry being entered is key to success. Ilias Tagkopoulos, director of the USDA/NSF AI Institute for Next Generation Food Systems, emphasized AI’s critical role in advancing food systems, showcasing the power of AI to revolutionize businesses by assisting in processes to do things faster, better, and cheaper.
The day wrapped up with an incredibly insightful discussion with leading CEO’s Kat Cole, John Fieldly, and John Foraker. They shared experiences on guiding products through market challenges, focusing on the impact of branding, leadership, and perseverance in achieving success.
John Fieldly, chief executive officer of Celcius, a company that he was tasked with turning around and grew from $5 million in sales to $1 billion, shared that Celcius had to cross “many valleys of death” along the way. He said, “In retail you have 30 to 60 days to perform. Each step you make is super critical. Shelf space is so valuable. You have to make sure your product is paying its rent.” Their focus on profitability allowed them to develop a strategy that not only met investor expectations, but propelled the company forward.
John Foraker, chief executive officer of Once Upon a Farm, shared some hard lessons they had to identify and pivot from. He said, “It’s all about finding product market fit. You are constantly trying to listen and learn. The biggest insight we got was that 80% of our consumers were coming in through the baby category. Though 75-80% of those consumers were actually kids ages one to eight years old. We were marketing it as a baby product, so we had to change to a kid focused brand. We changed the packaging, added ‘no sugar added’, brought in bright colors, among other things. Early in 2020, we modernized the brand and the velocities exploded. We had invested a lot in marketing. That is the biggest ‘make the company moment’ we’ve had.” John regularly shares the tough lessons he has learned through his LinkedIn channel so others can benefit.
Kat Cole, chief executive officer of AG1 brought in the dynamics of Direct to Consumer (D2C) strategy. She said, “The choice to stay D2C allowed us to have a purist philosophy at AG1 – hence the ‘1’. If something is needed for a common gap in nutrient or gut health, in a healthy diet, then if it can go in that scoop, it should. Had we been on the shelf, we would have been incentivized to develop separate products to create a bundle. One of the advantages of being D2C is that we do not have those dynamics.” She went on to say that “The make or break moments for AG1 have been saying no to the temptations and remaining focused on our core principles.”
These brands have disrupted their respective categories and are building new business models that can be leveraged to continue advancing products that are both good for people and the planet.
