urbanSTL

St. Louis-led partnership wins $80M federal grant to develop 'climate-smart' agriculture production

A partnership group led by Crestwood-based renewable energy producer Roeslein Alternative Energy won an $80 million federal grant to fund development of so-called "climate-smart" agriculture production.

RAE and 13 public and private entities received the funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program, which this week awarded $2.8 billion in 70 projects as part of a first pool of funding. Another round of grants will be announced later this year.

The RAE partnership's grant will fund a five-year pilot project, called Horizon II, to enhance climate-smart markets, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve carbon sequestration in producing corn, soybean, pork and beef commodities. The project will be developed in Iowa and Missouri where much of the corn, soybeans and pork are produced in the U.S., officials said. Farmers, livestock producers and landowners will be compensated for reducing greenhouse gases and carbon sequestration in soil through a carbon credit program.

https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news/2022/09/15/st-louis-roeslein-partners-on-80m-climate-smart-ag.html?cx_testId=40&cx_testVariant=cx_5&cx_artPos=7#cxrecs_s

sc4mayor wrote: ↑

Oct 08, 2021

BioSTL invested in Benson Hill when it needed money. Now it’s worth $2 billion
https://news.stlpublicradio.org/show/st ... -2-billion

“What an incredible moment for St. Louis and for everyone who has been part of this company,” Bolten recalled on Friday’s St. Louis on the Air. “Just to be there at the center of commerce for the U.S. and really the world, and see our little company from St. Louis — not so little anymore, but growing quickly — there, center stage. The whole building was lit up with Benson Hill. Times Square was lit up with Benson Hill. What a day.”

“We can build those great companies in St. Louis. St. Louis has more plant science PhDs than any other city in the world. We have tremendous intellectual capital here, the beginning of these great companies [like] the Danforth Center, the legacy of Monsanto, now Bayer. We have an incredible opportunity to be the leader in plant science startups.”

Their IPO was a massive fraud intended to provide exit liquidity for the original investors. Sad.

You pretty much have to be a criminal to have used a SPAC to take your company public during the most recent bull market. Just because the SEC is asleep at the wheel doesn't mean that the law isn't being broken all the time by nearly everyone operating in the VC scene.

Pretty hard to paint with too broad a brush when it comes to finance. Almost everyone involved is either a criminal or an attorney that gets them off the hook for their routine criminality. Just because I don't have a JD or other advanced degree doesn't mean I don't understand how markets work or that I somehow wouldn't know what "small cap" means. I really couldn't care less how much smarter you think you are than other people, but it is usually polite not to trumpet that kind of viewpoint. Benson Hill has performed poorly because its business doesn't make money, and the market (on the other side of the bear market hysteria) thinks that it is not likely that it ever will. 

Ebsy wrote: ↑

Sep 20, 2022

Pretty hard to paint with too broad a brush when it comes to finance. Almost everyone involved is either a criminal or an attorney that gets them off the hook for their routine criminality. 

I bet you got laid in college.

JaneJacobsGhost wrote: ↑

Sep 20, 2022

Ebsy wrote: ↑

Sep 20, 2022

Pretty hard to paint with too broad a brush when it comes to finance. Almost everyone involved is either a criminal or an attorney that gets them off the hook for their routine criminality. 

I bet you got laid in college.

lol

Do the naysayers realize there's such a thing as a long term investment? The market isn't a ponzi scheme. It looks like one to some people who play the market looking for a quick buck. That or a slot machine. But in the end, you're buying a share of a business. Dividends are real. If a company is profitable it's definitely worth having a slice of the pie, even if you never plan to sell it. And it's better still to get in early, when it's just an idea and not a company. To invest early, so that the idea can become something. In some very real ways it's not all that different than me coming to my donors and saying "if you put money in this thing I will give you joy." The only difference is that a businessman with an idea says they'll give you more money if you put in a little to begin with . . . just so long as the idea works out. (I can't actually promise that my little art project will give you joy. I just promise to make a good faith effort at joy and beauty. Crap happens. Maybe the soloist gets sick. Maybe the widget doesn't sell. But if you get in early you get more joy. Or more money.) Yeesh, I'm a frigging composer and I know enough to know there's a point to the darn thing. My financial adviser is not a criminal. Ordinary people can safely invest in the market without needing to buy a kit of starter stocks to sell to their hundred best friends. If you do it right it's safe, but probably un-sexy. My lawyer friends aren't criminals either. And I don't particularly think I'm a criminal, simply because we have a little stock through some retirement accounts, some employee stock purchases, and even a little play money in a market account. The financial markets are a big part of why we can have things like air conditioning and computers. Capital fuels innovation. It absolutely needs regulation so people don't slip ponzi schemes in. (Or worse.) But I'm not about to suggest doing away with the entire banking industry and everything it represents. Money makes the world better. Markets make the world better. (Usually.)

High-profile agtech firm opens new 48,000-square-foot production facility in Hazelwood

A California-based agriculture firm has expanded its presence locally, opening a new 48,000-square-foot production facility in Hazelwood. 
Pivot Bio Inc. has begun operating from its new “Product Success Center” at 639 Lambert Pointe Drive as it continues to build out the facility for manufacturing of its products that serve as a replacement to synthetic fertilizers for crops. It will also house research and development efforts.

The new Hazelwood facility marks an expansion in St. Louis for Pivot. While headquartered in Berkeley, California, Pivot has made St. Louis a key hub of its operations for several years, with two lab spaces located at BRDG Park on the campus of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in Creve Coeur. Founded in 2011, Pivot is focused on developing and commercializing crop nutrition technology it says is more climate friendly and efficient to use than existing options for growers. That has meant developing products that “deliver nitrogen to plants without the negative impacts of synthetic fertilizer” such as greenhouse gas emissions. It has raised hundreds of millions from investors, including a $430 million Series D funding round closed in 2021. It has been backed by investors with local ties, including Bunge Ventures, the venture capital arm of Chesterfield-based agriculture giant Bunge (NYSE: BG), and the former Monsanto Growth Ventures, which was the venture capital arm of Monsanto Co. (now Bayer Crop Science). Among its other investors are Continental Grain Co. and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a climate-focused investment firm founded by Bill Gates.

Pivot has more than 500 employees. That includes 22 full-time employees in St. Louis, a figure the company said it expects to more than double in the coming years as it expands locally with its new facility.

https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news/2023/09/07/pivot-bio-hazelwood-production-facility-expansion.html

Benson Hill is facing de-listing by the NYSE. I'm not clear on what went wrong with them. Can anyone provide a Cliff's Notes version?  

https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/new ... 2023-09-15

Lots of potential, but not yet profitable. And it probably won’t be profitable for a few years at least.

Their IPO was a ponzi scheme. All according to plan.

You spend a lot of time defending Benson Hill for free.

Damnit are we going to have to count the last post as a homicide

We will make sure to count the homicide against the county and not the city.

But in all seriousness, what is the evidence for a Ponzi scheme (unless you consider the stock market as a whole a Ponzi scheme which is a whole other discussion)?

They just haven’t been able to turn a profit and the stock has gotten whacked for it.

I think Ebsy just has a general ax to grind. Or maybe they get some kind of kick out of baiting GC.