Morning Folks,

This week is a round-up of tidbits from across the industry and the Green Queen universe, rather than a longer note. Enjoy!

Green Queen has made it into court! A breaking story this week in the future food world, precision fermentation egg startup Onego Bio's lawsuit against competitor/peer The EVERY Company has been dismissed by a Wisconsin court and one of our articles was cited by the judge in his ruling: “More fundamentally, the article suggests that any products being sold at Walmart do not disclose any affiliation with Every,” the judge wrote, nodding to the confidentiality agreement reported by Green Queen. “Onego cannot show that a Wisconsin consumer’s purchase of a product is related to Onego’s false advertising if the consumer does not even know that it is purchasing an Every product.” Seeing your media company quoted in legal filings is definitely a highlight, and kudos to our lead reporter, Anay.

As some of you know, I’ve been doing more writing about China’s climate policies, particularly around food sovereignty, and at Green Queen, we’ve been reporting on this beat for many years now because I think it’s a crucial story in the future foods conversation, and I believe China will play an important role in the future protein economy. I’ve just published a second opinion piece that I’ve been working on for a couple of months, titled “China’s Next Strategic Edge? Sustainable Protein.” It aligns well with the Systemiq report we covered last week. Have a read and share your thoughts.

I found it extremely encouraging that the influential and oft-quoted Marion Nestle, Prof Emerita at NYU, or, as I like to call her, the unofficial high-priestess of US nutrition policy, not only wrote about cell-cultured chocolate but also sort of endorsed it. Nestle (no relation to the food company) has been broadly skeptical of all things alt protein—to quote her directly: “I am not usually a fan of techno foods”—from Beyond burgers to cultivated meat, and generally tends to favor a more whole-foods, unprocessed approach to food system change. After describing the tech and how it could solve issues facing the cacao industry, she concludes: “If it works, I might have to change my mind about techno foods.” Her comments are a reminder that people do not feel as emotionally attached to the origin of their chocolate bar as they do their hamburger/steak, and are more open to considering synbio alternatives. I do wonder if there’s anything to learn from this.

There’s a new artichoke varietal in town, and it’s called Green Queen! Like me, it’s French. Unlike me, it was developed by BASF. This marks the second plant I’ve come across that shares our name. When I first started Green Queen, my biggest goal was to outrank a highly potent weed strain named Green Queen that dominated Google search results. Thank you to Christine Gould for sharing this with me.

I got some really lovely messages about my note last week on Kara Swisher’s new longevity show and cultivated fish. You know you’ve broken through when your oldest friends from college, who are only subscribed because they love you, write to you about what you wrote and tell you it resonated! My favorite note from Wildtype founder himself, Justin Kolbeck, who told me that Kara is as awesome in real life as she seems on the pod. I really loved learning that. Thank you, Justin!

-Sonalie

 💡 Only On Green Queen

🇨🇳 Key Insights: China Convenes Future Food Leaders at the 2026 Global Forum on Cultured Meat
China’s Nanjing Agricultural University and Joes Future Food hosted the 2026 Global Forum on Cultured Meat last week, bringing together future food experts from across the world. 

🍫 Industry Insider: Mars Makes Moves to Decarbonise Chocolate Portfolio
Mars, home to many of the world’s best-known chocolate brands, is taking major steps to decarbonise its offerings, from climate-smart farming to bean-free chocolates. Here’s how and why.

 ✅ Must-Read Headlines

👩🏻‍⚖ Breaking: A court in Wisconsin has sided with The Every Company in a lawsuit by Onego Bio, dismissing the case for lack of personal jurisdiction and ending a months-long battle between the animal-free egg startups.
💡 Green Queen’s reporting on the case was cited in court by the judge.

👶🏻 German biotech Primogene raised €4.1 million ($4.8 million) seed funding to commercialise its bioactive molecules, which can replace human milk oligosaccharides in infant and elderly nutrition and personal care.
💡The HMO market is growing by 18-20% annually. In fact, in 2023, over 65% of baby formula launches featured one or more HMOs - a significant opportunity.

🇭🇰 Canada’s Pinnacle Food Group has signed an MoU to explore establishing an Open Yeast Platform hub for precision fermentation in Hong Kong.
💡It is looking to curate, localise and distribute synthetic biology tools to the broader yeast research community and promote scientific advancement and collaboration.

🥛 Swedish oat milk giant Oatly built on a successful 2025 with 15.6% hike in revenues in Q1 2026, recording its first period of growth in North America in more than a year.
💡The growth is thanks to a strategy that pits its oat milks as “an experience canvas for the beverages market”, rather than an alternative to dairy, according to COO Daniel Ordonez.

🌿 US-based Fudi Protein secured early-stage funding to commercialise its alfalfa-based Rubisco protein as an alternative to egg whites, dairy and other “subpar plant-based proteins”.
💡Alfalfa contains 50% more protein per acre than soy, and Fudi’s tech achieves 80% protein purity - it’s all set to support the current GLP-1-linked protein boom.

 🤝🏼 Mergers & Acquisitions

💰 US investment firm KKR is exploring a $10 billion sale of Flora Food Group, acquired from Unilever in 2018, reflecting the recent widespread consolidation in the alt protein industry.
💡Green Queen analysis shows that over 70 businesses in the sector have merged, been acquired or bought out, fallen into insolvency, or ceased operations since September 2024.

🌱 One of the world’s oldest plant-based meat brands, Yves Veggie Cuisine, is set to return to Canadian shelves a year after it was discontinued, following its acquisition by meat giant Maple Leaf Foods.
💡The new SKUs will be manufactured at Maple Leaf’s existing US facilities, ensuring quality and consistency.

 🧫 Scaling Cultivated Meat

🇿🇦 South Africa’s Immobazyme has successfully scaled production of fibroblast growth factor 2 for cultivated meat in a 50-litre bioreactor, a first for the country, in collaboration with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.
💡The breakthrough, which has led to a commercially viable product, could help to lower the cost of cultivated meat production.

🇯🇵 Japan’s Organoid Farm has successfully conducted a 200-litre demo run for its cultivated beef, marking one of the country’s largest cellular agriculture tests.
💡 It is planning to build a new facility to scale up production to commercial levels, slated to open in 2028.

 📝 Policy & Regulations

🇳🇱 Amsterdam has become the world’s first capital city to ban advertisements promoting meat or fossil fuels, in light of the city’s targets to increase plant-based consumption and lower emissions.

🇺🇸 A group of bipartisan US Congress members has reintroduced a bill, backed by Big Meat, that would ban the sale of plant-based and cultivated proteins in the country if they use meat-like terms on their product labels.

🌳 The EU expects no further delays to the December 2026 deadline for the deforestation regulation; it suggested this a week after US policymakers urged the Commission to implement the rule in its current form.

🫘 Power Plant: Beans

📈 Volume sales of legumes like beans and pulses are predicted to outpace meat in all but one region through to 2030, according to new analysis from GlobalData. Here’s why.

🏥 A new report by The Protein Project suggests that doubling fava bean production in Europe could save tens of millions in healthcare costs and elevate farmer incomes by 20%.

🚀 Everything Else In Future Food

🐶 German startup MicroHarvest is set to roll out 15 new low-carbon pet food products with partners across Europe by the end of June, all fuelled by its waste-upcycled microbial protein.

🪖 The US Army has issued a bid to companies and researchers to develop technologies to manufacture alternative proteins for soldiers on the front lines.

🍺 Swiss startup Yeastup has signed a distribution agreement with DKSH to sell its beer-waste-derived UpFiber Beta-Glucan ingredient in the DACH region.

🌱🍔  Future Food Quick Bites 

In our weekly column, Future Food Quick Bites, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Taco Bell’s Beyond Meat partnership, Sproud’s sales and emissions records, and a wave of crowdfunding campaigns.

📆 Scene & Heard

🚀 Catch Up With Sonalie Figueiras At Bridge2Food Europe 2026

💡 Green Queen’s founder and editor-in-chief Sonalie Figueiras will be speaking at Bridge2Food Europe 2026, happening 9-11 June 2026 in Copenhagen, where she will give a keynote titled “The Global Politicization of Food and the Influence on Consumer Choices”. Catch her live to unpack how geopolitics and consumer behavior are increasingly intertwined in the future of food. Register here, and use code GREENQUEENMEDIA to get €200 off your ticket.

🇳🇱 F&A Next is about thought leadership and connecting promising startups and scale-ups to dedicated Food and Agtech investors and leading corporations. It includes two days of networking, pitching, and debating the dynamics of food and agriculture, and is happening 21st-22nd May. Find out more here.

🇪🇸 Expo FoodTech is the leading food industry fair to explore innovations in automation, robotics, AI, packaging, logistics and sustainability, alongside the Food 4 Future World Summit. It’s taking place 27th-28th May in Bilbao; get more details here.

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