Disruptive changes coming in technologies of food production, finds report

- Breakthroughs in agricultural cleantech uncovered and profiled in "Latest Agricultural Technology Innovation," published today by Kachan & Co. -

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Nov. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - Changes in the way food is grown will soon represent risk to existing dominant players worldwide and create new opportunities in agriculture, a new report finds.

Increasing population, climate change, rising fossil fuel prices, ecosystem degradation and water and land scarcity are making today's food production methods increasingly unsustainable and driving important new innovation in agricultural technology, according to cleantech analysis and consulting company Kachan & Co.'s latest report published today, Latest Agricultural Technology Innovation: Companies and breakthroughs most likely to help the world produce more food with less.

"Agricultural technology innovation hasn't been as high profile as other cleantech sectors like renewable energy or transportation, but it potentially has more immediate importance to us as a species, particularly if we start seeing crisis events around food availability," said Kachan Analyst Shannon Payne, primary author of the report. "And while attracting only a fraction of the capital of other cleantech segments, there's an active exit climate, with innovative companies consistently being acquired by leading firms."

The 59-page study defines the agricultural cleantech category. It uncovers and profiles dozens of promising companies developing new clean, sustainable agricultural technologies. Sectors examined in the report span crop farming (including natural fertilizers and amendments, biological control of weeds, pest and disease, precision irrigation and fertilization, land management, biotechnology, tools and equipment, waste innovations and transport decay prevention), controlled environment agriculture (including hydroponics, aeroponics, vertical farming and improved greenhouses), sustainable forestry, animal farming waste innovations and aquaculture (including health and yield, containment and waste innovations).

The report found aquaculture to be the fastest growing sector of the category, growing at 8-10% per year. The report profiles 9 important aquaculture technology vendors.

One of the sectors profiled by the report—innovations aimed at increasing crop yields—has been increasingly associated with genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. But alternative approaches are being promoted by new companies.

"There are an increasing number of approaches to increasing yield and controlling pests that are 100% natural," said Kachan Managing Partner Dallas Kachan. "We found companies that stimulate plant growth through selective breeding, by activating plants' natural defense mechanisms or by harnessing plants' own gene repair mechanisms. Innovative companies in agriculture are increasingly leveraging biology, and not chemistry or genetics."

From hundreds of agricultural cleantech companies around the world, the report identifies and profiles 57 at the leading edge of agricultural cleantech: 312 Aquaponics, Advanced BioNutrition, AeroFarms, AgLocal, Agradis, AgraQuest, Agrinos, Airstream Innovations, Alterrus Systems, AquaSeed, AquaSpy, ArborGen, ATD Manure Management Systems, Becker Underwood, BioDiscovery, Blue River Technology, Bright Farms, Chromatin, Cibus, Divergence, DripTech, Eden Research, EOSi, Exosect, Goemar, Grasslands, GreenScene Agritek, ImageTree, Jiangxi Tianren Ecology, Landec, Livestock Water Recycling, Lufa Farms, Marrone Bio Innovations, Martin Industries, Montana Microbial Products, Nobel Environmental Technologies, NovaGreen, NuAgri, Open Ocean Systems, OVRsol, Performance Plants, Plant Health Care, Portable Farms, Precision Planting, Purfresh, PureSense, ScoutPro, SemiosBIO, Solum, Targeted Growth, Trimble, Triton Logging, Trophomax, TruLeaf, TyraTech, Urban Barns and Vestaron.

The report is available for purchase and immediate download at http://www.kachan.com/report/agricultural-cleantech-technology-innovation-report. It is intended for companies across the agricultural value chain, from small technology developers to large multinationals, investors seeking disruptive innovation, service providers seeking promising agricultural companies as clients, policy makers and others.

About Kachan & Co.
Kachan & Co. is a cleantech research and advisory firm with offices in San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver. The company publishes research on clean technology companies and future trends and provides consulting services to large corporations, governments and cleantech vendors. Kachan staff have been covering, publishing about and helping propel clean technology since 2006. For more information, visit http://www.kachan.com.

SOURCE Kachan & Co.