Lab Meats Face Financing Woes & New USDA Data for Online Shopping

**The last 12 months have been challenging for cultivated meat and seafood companies trying to raise capital.

AGFunderNews.com says preliminary data shows funding for cultivated meat startups peaked at nearly $1 billion in 2021, dipped to $807 million in 2022, and then sharply last year, falling 78% to $177 million.

This comes against a backdrop of a 50% drop in agri-foods tech investing in 2023.

**In 2022, the USDA’s Economic Research Service’s Eating and Health Module captured, for the first time, national data concerning the prevalence and frequency of Americans doing online grocery shopping.

The data revealed that nearly nine in ten people, 15 and older, reported they usually shop for groceries either online or in person.

Of these, about two in 10 had bought groceries online within the past 30 days.

**Last week, a federal District Court in Arizona vacated the registration for over-the-top applications of dicamba on dicamba-tolerant soybeans and cotton.

The Ag Retailers Association disagrees with the decision, noting the determination should be made by a science-based regulatory agency.

The ARA says, the timing of the decision will be extremely

disruptive to ag retailers, distributors, manufacturers, and farmers planning to use the products this year.