Whoops: Ecologist Thomas Crowther, a former leader of the UN’s Trillion Trees Campaign whose lab suggested — just four years ago, mind you — that 1.2T more trees could seriously reduce carbon emissions, is… now asking everyone to cool it with the planting bonanza? Huh. OK. Turns out countries and companies have been planting trees as cover for not cutting emissions, so now Crowther is walking back his whole tree-planting schtick.
In today’s email:
Chipotle: The chain continues to bet big on automation.
Wild western: Meet the man behind fashion’s iconic Nudie Suit.
Around the web: How America came to run on Dunkin’, Whac-A-Mole but with elves, and more.
👇 Listen: PB&J, macaroni & cheese… the restaurant business & robotics?
The Big Idea
Chipotle’s love of robots continues with autonomous farming
The food industry is going all-in on robots.
2023-12-20T00:00:00Z
Sara Friedman
When you think of Chipotle, you probably think of burritos, guacamole, and tortilla chips.
But what should really spring to mind are robots.
The brand is going all-in on automation. First, it introduced Chippy, a robot tasked with cranking out tortilla chips; then came Autocado, a guacamole-making robot; and finally, a robot built to assemble your salads and bowls.
Now, Chipotle is bringing robotics to the source of its ingredients:the farm.
The company’s $50m Cultivate Next venture fund recently invested in Greenfield Robotics, an agtech startup that makes AI-based, autonomous robots to support regenerative farming.
How are they gonna pull that off?
Per Chipotle, the robots:
Can continuously cut weeds between rows of crops 24/7.
Reduce reliance on harmful chemicals traditionally used to kill weeds.
Minimize risk for farmers and make farming more sustainable.
With Chipotle’s investment, Greenfield Robotics will add more capabilities to its robots, including soil testing, crop planting, and microspraying.
Future of farming
Beyond the bots, Chipotle’s fund is also investing in Nitricity, a fertilizer startup that uses artificial lightning to create cleaner, more energy-efficient fertilizer.
Nitricity’s tech mimics a natural process in which lightning strikes break down nitrogen in the air before rainwater brings it into the soil.
The startup is currently testing its process with lettuce farmers in California’s Salinas Valley.
Year of the bot
Chipotle isn’t the only restaurant hopping on the automation bandwagon — chains are increasingly experimenting with AI in the kitchen:
Wendy’spartnered with Google Cloud to launch AI-powered voice automation at the drive-thru.
Also partnering with Google, IHOPadded AI-generated food recommendations for customers ordering online.
Sweetgreenacquired Spyce, a robotics food-prep company, to automate its salad assembly process.
Plus, some restaurants are going fully futuristic with $25k robot waiters.
Free Resource
Ah, yes… a handy little checklist
This is not for you readers who are high-tech goons.
But if you’re wondering if you should embark on an AI crusade within your own company, here’s a chalk-up of some of the process.
This AI adoption checklist helps you scope out tackling automation. It outlines essential action items on the business side that shouldn’t be skipped.
Chuck E. Cheese is rolling out a “grown-up menu” across its ~600 US locations. The menu, which includes four new pizza flavors — one, notably, with pineapple — spicy meatballs, wings, and desserts, is part of the company’s strategy to lure in parents. The chain is also exploring a sale, targeting a $1B valuation.
SNIPPETS
Google will pay $700m to settle its antitrust lawsuit with state attorneys general. The company will now allow Play app store developers to charge users directly, paying $630m to consumers who may have overpaid for apps and $70m to the states.
Comcastannounced hackers accessed ~36m Xfinity customers’ data — including usernames, passwords, names, dates of birth, and partial social security numbers — in October. America’s largest cable operator regularly ranks among the nation’s most-hated companies, and, uh, this probably won’t help.
Bright idea: If you see a Mercedes-Benz with turquoise exterior lights on, it’s driving itself. The new indicator was approved in California and Nevada, the only states where the automaker’s self-driving tech is legal.
Touchy subject: Volkswagen reportedly heard enough negative customer feedback about its cars’ touchscreen controls that it will bring buttons back to all future vehicles. Huge win for old folks.
Even more car tech: TomTom and Microsoft are launching a “fully integrated, AI-powered conversational automotive assistant.” The GPS company will demo the new tool at next month’s CES.
Unilever will shed its Elida Beauty portfolio, which includes brands like Q-tips, Caress, and VO5. Its buyer, private equity firm Yellow Wood Partners, already owns brands like Suave and Dr. Scholl’s.
Christie’s expects to end 2023 with $6.2B in art and luxury goods sales — up 7% from 2019, but down ~25% from last year, when it sold off the late Paul Allen’s $1.5B art collection.
Lucky find: A glass vase bought at a Goodwill in Richmond, Virginia, sold for $107.1k at auction. The vase, somehow without a single chip, was made by renowned Italian architect and designer Carlo Scarpa.
Don't miss this...
Our kick-ass team and entrepreneur community came up with 7 data-backed predictions for 2024. What’s trending next year? Check’em out in this week’s Trends.
Cowboy Couture
The 90-year-old man who built a Western wear empire
Manuel Cuevas is the Beyoncé of Western wear. Working with his mentor, Nudie Cohn, he took a suit, known as the “Nudie Suit,” and turned it into a legend.
Instantly recognizable for their grandeur, Nudie Suits are worn on red carpets, in music videos, and on movie screens around the world. They sell for tens of thousands at auction and have influenced countless western wear designers across the country.
Over the years, Manuel has become a legend too, his unique brand of glammed-up country garb represented in museums and on red carpets, earning him accolades and proteges of his own. Eighty-three years in, he’s still sewing.
🇩🇪 On this day: In 1963, the Berlin Wall opened for the first time since its construction over two years prior, allowing ~4k West Berliners to visit family in East Berlin.
Yesterday we asked if you’d recently been let down by a five-star online recipe.
Here’s how you voted:
Respondents got burned by “marry me” chicken, Paul Hollywood’s panettone, a caramel-apple pumpkin pie, and… an elk heart?
One reader has a hot tip to save time and your guests’ stomachs: “ChatGPT for recipes… Each recipe has been delicious, and you can ask it to sub out ingredients!”
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Today's email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah and Sara Friedman. Editing by: Ben “Bellies the bot’s bountiful barbacoa burrito bowl” Berkley.
