San Carlos, California-based Iron Ox, a farming innovation company with expertise in plant science, robotics and artificial intelligence, has hired former Impossible Foods executive Rebekah Moses as VP of impact strategy.
Moses joined Iron Ox in January after five years as head of impact strategy for Impossible Foods, where she helped make environmental and social impact a part of corporate strategy. Focusing on research, operational sustainability and thought leadership, her team enabled Impossible Foods to achieve positive environmental outcomes and business growth.
Moses led collaborations with the United Nations, universities and other non-governmental organizations to highlight the role of plant-based meat in addressing the climate and extinction crises. She also worked closely with key customers, including Starbucks, Disney and Walmart, to maximize environmental benefits and revenue.
Moses, who joined Impossible Foods when it launched commercial operations in 2016, established credible, objective, third-party-verified environmental claims on packaging and other collateral. Her team empowered consumers to align shopping to their environmental values.
Most recently, her team led development of a business case for plant-based manufacturing in low-income economies, developed a business-wide greenhouse gas emissions inventory and 1.5C-aligned climate targets across the whole value chain.
Prior to joining Impossible Foods, Moses supported public sector agricultural development and agricultural research at University of California at Berkeley, Stanford University and California Polytechnic State University’s coastal ecosystem ranch. She has worked at the intersection of ecology, agriculture and international development in the Middle East and domestically.
“Iron Ox is transforming the traditional agriculture sector into a center of innovation, and Rebekah’s experience in food tech, agriculture and sustainability is a perfect fit and key strategic asset,” said Iron Ox CEO and Founder Brandon Alexander. “Her insight and passion for the planet will strengthen our mission of making the food system scalable, secure and sustainable.”
Moses has a master’s degree in International Agricultural Development from University of California at Davis. Her climate and food system research contributions can be found in the Public Library of Science, Journal of Applied Ecology and in collaborations with the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research and the Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.
“We can make monumental shifts in how we build food systems to address climate change – and indoor farming will play a big role,” said Moses, who joins Iron Ox’s leadership team and reports directly to the CEO. “The agriculture industry urgently needs to help mitigate and adapt to climate change, water scarcity and topsoil depletion. Iron Ox’s innovative approach to farming provides immediate efficiency improvements, and long-term paths to a resilient, diversified and sustainable food system.”
Iron Ox, which helped pioneer the field of autonomous farming, grows crops in proprietary greenhouses designed from the ground up to mitigate the environmental impacts of agriculture – a data-driven approach backed by plant science, robotics and artificial intelligence. Iron Ox’s closed-loop system maximizes plant yield, expands growth cycles and enhances nutritional value. The result is nutritious, locally-sourced food with ultra-low environmental impacts.
Iron Ox operates farms in Northern California and last year broke ground on the 535,000-square-foot greenhouse farm in Lockhart, Texas. The company is scaling up, with its robotics team working alongside plant scientists, growers and data scientists.
Iron Ox produce can be found throughout California at Whole Foods Markets and at San Francisco Bay Area markets such as Bianchini’s and Mollie Stone’s. Sales outside of California are expected to begin early this year with the first harvest from the new Texas facility.
Last fall, Iron Ox announced a $53 million Series C funding round led by new investor Breakthrough Energy Ventures, an investment group backed by many of the world’s top business leaders and dedicated to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
Iron Ox is using its latest funding round to expand its intellectual property portfolio in robotics and artificial intelligence. The company is accelerating its efforts to hire plant scientists, engineers, greenhouse operators and roboticists to join their dynamic team.
Iron Ox claims to have redesigned every step of the farming process, from seed to store shelf.
For more information, visit ironox.com.
