Happy Tuesday. AgriTech company EightFold Farms is breaking ground by using innovation to overcome food deserts and tackle food inequality in DC.

In today’s edition:
⚡️ Tesla to layoff most of 500-person team in supercharger division

🚜 170-square foot mobile mushroom farm to combat food insecurity

🌳 €11mn to accelerate nature-positive efforts by European businesses

🔋 Energy (1-Min Read)

Tesla supercharger firings  = Electric vehicle (EV) woes?

What happened: Tesla is laying off the majority of its 500-person team working in its Supercharger division, which calls into question the direction of the company's charging strategy and could potentially damage the Electric Vehicle (EV) rollout.

The intrigue: CEO Elon Musk has long described the company's Superchargers — the world's largest EV charging network with more than 50,000 plugs — as a competitive advantage and key to EV sales growth. The network accounts for 74% of all ultra-fast chargers in North America. 

Why it matters: Tesla’s imminent slowdown may put a damper on the region’s EV ambitions. BNEF forecast in its Long-Term Electric Vehicle Outlook that there needs to be around 400,000 ultra-fast chargers in North America to serve a fleet of 40 million battery-electric vehicles by 2030. A range of automakers also recently struck deals with Tesla to allow their EVs to charge on the company's network, including General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Rivian and Volvo.

The theories:

1. Some speculated that Musk may believe Tesla doesn't need many workers now that the design and engineering phase of the network buildout is largely complete.

2. Others speculated that the charging network was not meeting internal profitability targets. Most listed charging companies have yet to achieve profitability. Slowing charger rollout should see increases in the utilisation of current chargers. We may even see a change in Tesla’s pricing strategy, which historically has undercut the competition. (Full story here)

 🚜 AgriTech (1-Min Read)

Eightfold Farms fighting food deserts in DC

What happened: EightFold Farms is launching an urban agriculture venture in Wards 7 and 8 — part of a new wave of initiatives reimagining how to address food inequality in some of Washington D.C.'s poorest neighbourhoods.

Food Desert: East of the Anacostia River is a notorious food desert, neighbourhoods with high poverty rates, limited car access, and many residents living more than a quarter of a mile from a supermarket. 

No options: The District has over 70 major grocery stores, but only three are located in Wards 7 and 8 — and one, a Safeway, was recently in danger of closing due to shoplifting. Many residents rely on corner stores that don't always stock fresh ingredients or healthy items. 

Solution: EightFold’s first venture is a 170-square-foot mobile mushroom farm, which will launch this coming week. Their vision is to establish a growing network of small, commercial farms throughout Wards 7 and 8 and stimulate the micro-local economy by feeding residents using underutilised spaces like lawns and rooftops alongside more mobile units for mushrooms and other "high-value" crops. (Full story here)

🐘 Nature (1-Min Read)
EU's A-Track project races toward a nature-positive future

What happened? A new EU-funded project called “A-Track” aims to accelerate and scale nature-positive efforts by businesses, financial institutions and European governments.

Details: The project, valued at €11mn, will run over four years. By combining tools and approaches, it aims to promote the integration of biodiversity in corporate decision-making and financial and national policies. 

Resource availability: The initiative will gather experts in measuring and valuing biodiversity to provide companies with information and data while fostering innovation for nature-positive outcomes. 

Why is it important? Last month, an assessment by the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) showed many EU countries are lagging behind in disclosing their biodiversity-related risks, while corporate nature-related financial risk assessments are climbing up investors’ agendas. (Full story here).

💭 Little Bytes (1-Min Read)

💬 Quote: “We are definitely seeing evidence of lost investment to other parts of the world.” — Chris Stark, ex-head of the UK’s Climate Change Committee statutory body

📊 Stat: More than 200 dead and 160,000 displaced as torrential rain wreaks havoc in Kenya — FT

📺️ Watch: Coffee plants that can alert farmers if they’re dry or diseased

🛗 Snippets for your lift conversations (1-Min Read)

• The Biden administration Tuesday sought to spur the growth of sustainable jet fuel, seen as crucial to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, with a system of tax credits for producers

• The Biden administration is allowing graphite, a key battery metal, to be temporarily exempt from Inflation Reduction Act sourcing requirements. The concession to industry should theoretically let more EVs qualify for consumer credits.

• According to a new report from the Building Research Establishment (BRE), improving England's poorest housing could generate £135.5bn in societal benefits over the next 30 years, including reduced carbon emissions.

• A European developer of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) projects has inked a contract with a technology company worth 3.3 million tonnes, in the largest announced durable removals deal in terms of volume to date.

• The butchering of livestock carcasses remains a challenging task to automate. It requires a human hand due to the risk of leaving meat on the bone, which impacts profits. Recent progress in computer vision and AI is making previously difficult-to-automate tasks, like carving chicken breasts, more feasible.

 🎣 Gone Phishing (1-Minute Read)

Three of these stories are true, one we've made up. Guess which:

• Emotional support alligator taken and released in swamp

• Over $12,000 was found in a toilet at a KFC in Ohio 

• Local library finds rare book collection hidden in the ceiling

• Family discovers gigantic bee colony in the wall of their home