Netherlands Archives - Food Planet Prize

Across the African continent, 33 million smallholder farmers produce the majority of the region’s food—yet many live on less than $1.50 a day, with limited access to markets, information, or cold storage. Their soils, long strained by extractive farming and chemical dependence, are losing fertility, while climate change tightens its grip. But a quiet transformation blending entrepreneurship with ecology is taking root.

Enviu Agrifood is reimagining the continent’s food systems as regenerative, inclusive, and climate-resilient ecosystems. Launched in 2020 by the Dutch impact venture-building company Enviu, the organization is creating a new generation of investible, self-sustaining ventures that work for both people and the planet. Their mission is to replace extractive food systems with circular, regenerative ones that ensure prosperity for farmers while healing the Earth.

Enviu’s approach is rooted in systems thinking and social entrepreneurship. Rather than treating symptoms like food waste or low yields in isolation, they build interconnected ventures that tackle multiple pressure points simultaneously. Over the past five years, Enviu has developed four complementary businesses across Kenya and East Africa that together form a living blueprint for systemic food transformation.

*_{Florence Mwakavi, a farmer in Ukia, Makueni County, Kenya, is standing on her regenerative farm, holding peas she harvested from her land.}*

The first two, Sokofresh and Shambani Pro, target the problem of post-harvest food loss, which accounts for nearly 40% of all produce that does not get consumed. Sokofresh provides solar-powered cold storage and digital market access directly to farmers, guaranteeing offtake and income stability. Shambani Pro turns unsold or imperfect produce into high-value processed goods, building rural value chains where waste becomes an opportunity. According to the organization, they’ve already served over 20,000 farmers, prevented more than 5.8 million kilograms of food loss, and mitigated 224 metric tons of CO₂ emissions.

The next phase of Enviu’s work is turning farming itself from extractive to regenerative. Their ventures Halisigro and Zawiri Foods make regenerative agriculture financially attractive for smallholder farmers. Halisigro equips and trains farmers to restore soil health through intercropping, composting, and agroforestry, while Zawiri Foods connects them to premium buyers of regenerative produce, ensuring profitability within just one year of transition. Already, over 1,000 farmers have adopted regenerative practices through Enviu’s programs, revitalizing 300 acres of farmland.

_{Belice Kimanthi, a farmer in Kee, Makueni county, Kenya, is pictured with her papaya trees. She has adopted regenerative agriculture techniques to improve her yields while farming in semi-arid conditions.}

According to the organization, incomes have gone up by 20–300%, biodiversity is returning, and young people and women are finding renewed purpose in agriculture. About 70% of participating farmers are women, many of whom are now leading local training groups and cooperative enterprises. Enviu’s ventures are designed to be commercially viable within two to three years, ensuring long-term sustainability without dependence on aid.

*_{A swale built to capture and retain water, a key feature in regenerative agriculture, makes the farm productive all year round.}*

Enviu Agrifood offers more than ventures—it offers a vision. A vision where food systems nourish people and planet alike, where farmers are entrepreneurs of regeneration, and where markets reward sustainability. Enviu is proving that the future of food can be both profitable and good for the planet, rooted in resilience, powered by people, and grown in harmony with nature.

Learn more about Enviu Agrifood.

Written by Sarah Souli
Photos provided by Enviu Agrifood

Food industry side streams could revolutionize the fat and oil industry with a sustainable and scalable alternative to traditional palm oil and tropical fats. The initiative claims that NoPalm Ingredients has pioneered a new, parallel fats and oils industry that is land-free, carbon-smart, and rooted in circularity.

Fats and oils make up a large but often overlooked environmental challenge within the global food and beauty industries. Palm oil, while known for its cost-effectiveness and versatility, is a major driver of environmental degradation. It is prevalent in approximately 60% of fast-moving consumer goods, including food, personal care, and pet food. The production of palm oil is responsible for significant tropical deforestation, biodiversity loss, and 1.5% of the world’s CO₂ emissions.

The growing demand for palm oil, which increases by 4% annually, is projected to grow by an additional 22 million tons by 2030. This surge would necessitate land expansion equivalent to 1.5 times the size of Ireland.

Land conversion for palm oil has already devastated rainforests in Indonesia, Malaysia, and increasingly in West Africa and South America, undermining the systems we rely on for clean air, stable weather, and healthy soil. Meanwhile, the food industry generates massive quantities of waste, much of it made up of side streams; by-products from processing sugar, dairy, starch, and other raw materials rich in carbon sources, which the initiative says are ideal for microbial fermentation.

*_{Jeroen Hugenholtz walking in the lab, in front of a fermenter, the core of NoPalm Ingredients biotechnology.}*

NoPalm Ingredients claims to offer a ground-breaking solution through its fermentation platform. Utilizing yeast and side streams from the food industry, such as potatoes and dairy by-products, the company produces fermentation-based oils and fats. These are grown in large fermentation tanks in a process akin to beer brewing, where yeast converts these undervalued by-products into high-performance fats resembling the structure and function of palm oil and other tropical fats like shea and coconut.

_{A smaller reactor where fermentation is carried out.}

Because production methods do not rely on agricultural land or tropical crops, NoPalm Ingredients argues that its products are made from decoupling fat production from land use, deforestation, and seasonal volatility, offering a radically more sustainable path forward.

By using side streams as feedstock, NoPalm Ingredients upcycles undervalued by-products and claims to eliminate emissions from their disposal. This delivers a double environmental benefit: preventing the release of methane and CO₂ from waste degradation and replacing one of the most emission- and land-intensive commodities in the global food system.

The company claims that its products are non-GMO and can replace traditional fats in existing food products without the need for reformulation or process alterations. This capability, the initiative says, is crucial for encouraging widespread industry adoption on a global scale.

*_{A soft fat that NoPalm Ingredients produces, with an example of food applications (fudge and bonbons) that could be made with it.}*

Learn more about NoPalm Ingredients.

Written by Gilly Smith
Photos provided by NoPalm Ingredients

Country: Netherlands

Country: Netherlands

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