\nArticle content<\/h2>\n \u201cI remember the first time I walked into one of our potato storages,\u201d McCain\u2019s chief growth and strategy officer, Peter Dawe, said in a recent interview. \u201cIt\u2019s a football-field size. The potato pile is 40 feet high and it just goes back forever.\u201d<\/p>\n Potatoes at a McCain french fry factory.<\/span> Photo by Martin Bureau\/AFP via Getty Images<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe indoor farm could actually help with developing new potato varieties, at least some day, but McCain\u2019s $65-million investment to become the single largest shareholder in GoodLeaf isn\u2019t really about potatoes at all. The move has been informed by what Dawe called the \u201ccommon logic\u201d underlying the hundreds of millions of dollars McCain has funnelled into a series of food startups and tech firms since 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey all fit a narrative and a view of the world and where we think it\u2019s going,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a shift happening.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n
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This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n\nArticle content<\/h2>\n For McCain, climate change represents two challenges: it\u2019s harder to grow crops and consumers are turning against brands they see as making matters worse. New agriculture technologies have attracted investments from Silicon Valley of late, but industry observers believe that an evolution in agriculture will still depend in large part on the old guard: the big, traditional food companies that can help upstarts achieve scale.<\/p>\n
McCain has pledged to use regenerative agriculture techniques on the 370,000 acres it relies on worldwide by 2030, in an effort to make its crops more resistant to the sort of extreme weather that is expected to become more common as climate change progresses. The first of three McCain Farms of the Future is operating in Florenceville, N.B. \u2014 the town on the banks of the St. John River where the company built its first French-fry plant in 1957 \u2014 to develop new practices and demonstrate their viability.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n
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This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n\nArticle content<\/h2>\n The company hasn\u2019t disclosed the exact figures but Dawe said the total investment since 2018 is in the \u201clow hundreds of millions\u201d for six main ventures: GoodLeaf; Simulate, a plant-based chicken nugget startup; the Simple Root brand of vegan cheeses and dips derived from the wonkier potatoes unfit for McCain fries; crop management firm Resson that uses satellite and drone imagery; a 49-per-cent stake in Fiddlehead, a data-science company based in New Brunswick; and US$55 million in Strong Roots, an Irish frozen-food brand that makes cauliflower hash browns, root vegetable fries and other starchy alternatives to potatoes.<\/p>\n Agronomist Cesar Cappa and head grower at GoodLeaf Farms in Guelph, Ont., inspects micro greens.<\/span> Photo by Glenn Lowson for National Post<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe McCain investments are part of a \u201cmassive amount\u201d of capital flooding the agri-food sector to fund new technology, according to Steven Webb, who heads the Global Institute for Food Security at the University of Saskatchewan. That wave of interest has produced new agtech darlings, but the old food companies still have a role to play.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n
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This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n\nArticle content<\/h2>\n Webb called them \u201cbig incumbents\u201d \u2014 McCain, or the poultry giant Maple Leaf Foods Inc., which has moved dramatically into plant-based protein processing. Those large companies have the reach, and the expertise, to fill the gap between emerging technologies and outfits that can help successfully bring them to market.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just money,\u201d Webb said. \u201cThey bring market knowledge. They bring reach. They bring skill.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n The rise of indoor farming is exploding, but Canada is lagging behind <\/span> <\/h3>\n<\/li>\n Growing up: The next frontier in farming is vertical and it could cut Canada\u2019s reliance on imported food <\/span> <\/h3>\n<\/li>\n Why processing beans, peas and lentils could solve Canada\u2019s \u2018commodity conundrum\u2019 <\/span> <\/h3>\n<\/li>\n Michael McCain whacked a hornet\u2019s nest \u2014 and those who know him aren\u2019t surprised <\/span> <\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n <\/section>\n<\/section>\n\n
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This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n\nArticle content<\/h2>\n McCain, for example, noticed that GoodLeaf\u2019s investor base skewed toward the \u201cthe technology world,\u201d Dawe said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we bring something unique,\u201d he said. \u201cOur goal isn\u2019t to create a food venture fund, as some of our competitors are.\u201d<\/p>\n
What McCain can offer, and tech firms can\u2019t, is contacts among the largest restaurant chains in the world. The company\u2019s $10 billion in annual sales skews heavily to the food-service sector, and McCain sales reps have started helping pitch GoodLeaf products to their existing clients in the Toronto area, Dawe said.<\/p>\n
That ends up working out for both sides. GoodLeaf gets introductions to major buyers in the industry and McCain gets to branch out from fries and hash browns. \u201cNow we\u2019re also relevant,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause we can be part of their salad or their garnish.\u201d<\/p>\n
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