Author Archives: Michelle Paratore

About Michelle Paratore

Management consultant obsessed with food justice, food politics, food start-ups, food sustainability, and eating food too...

Omnichannel Grocery Is Open for Business—and Ready to Grow

Hi readers – it’s been a long time! I wanted to share with you all some fresh-off-the-press research I published with colleagues at Bain & Company and partners at Google unpacking the drivers of slower adoption in online grocery shopping … Continue reading

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Mighty Wild: Bringing the Acorn to Your Pantry

Over the years, I’ve been intrigued and excited by food startups that introduce consumers to a unique ingredient through a tried-and-true form factor. Great examples are Exo’s cricket flour bar and Kuli Kuli’s moringa bar. Last week, I sat down … Continue reading

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Love with Food and the Disruption of Focus Groups – Takeaways from the Mixing Bowl Food IT Conference (continued)

Note: This is the second post covering takeaways from The Mixing Bowl’s June 20th conference on Food IT: Soil to Fork. The first post focused on Pantry Labs and the potential for smart refrigerator technology. A particularly interesting afternoon session … Continue reading

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Pantry Labs and the Promise of Smart Refrigerators – Takeaways from the Mixing Bowl Food IT Conference

On Friday, June 20th, the Mixing Bowl, in partnership with the FEED Collaborative, held a conference entitled, “Food IT: Soil to Fork.” The event featured an impressive collection of speakers and food and agriculture startups. I’ll be sharing my takeaways … Continue reading

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Flying Bird Botanicals: Tea with Integrity

The tea industry has been pulling the wool over consumers’ eyes. Unbeknownst to most drinkers, many of whom are choosing to drink tea for healing and soothing benefits, teas can be packed with pesticides, toxins, added flavors, and GMO ingredients. … Continue reading

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Rising to the Food Waste Challenge: Panel Recap

In December, Local Food Lab and Edible Startups hosted a panel highlighting innovative approaches to food waste entitled, “Rising to the Food Waste Challenge.” It was a fascinating conversation and, given it felt like we barely scratched the surface, is … Continue reading

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Kuli Kuli: The Next Superfood, and a Way to Support Women in West Africa

Nutrition bar startup Kuli Kuli has been on quite the ride over the past six months: launching on indiegogo in May, raising over $50K via the campaign, enlisting a co-manufacturer and perfecting the product, shipping over 9,000 bars to over … Continue reading

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Stanford Food Summit 4

Stanford hosted Food Summit 4 on October 30th with the caption of “growing pathways to careers in food systems.” Below is a quick recap of the most interesting nuggets I gleaned from the event, following four main themes. 1) Growing … Continue reading

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Event recap: Panel on Online Grocery Delivery – Good Eggs, LolaBee’s Harvest, Plated, Webvan, and Free Spirit Farm

Last month I worked with Local Food Lab to put together a panel focused on the online grocery delivery business model, in its various manifestations. We had the pleasure of hosting the event at the Dutch consulate’s beautiful space on … Continue reading

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Rip van Wafels: SF-based startup brings a new coffee routine to American consumers

Rip van Wafels unveiled a brand-new website this month (featuring awesome infographics) detailing the unique, ritual consumption of its product. Beyond creating a deliciously authentic Dutch-inspired stroopwafel (two thin layers of wafel surrounding a caramel filling), is determined to redefine … Continue reading

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