Food | Ag | Ideas Week
Event description
Food | Ag | Ideas, led by Naturally MN and partners, is an annual multi-day series of speakers, events, tours, and demo showcases to highlight innovative ideas, make connections across the sectors, invite leaders to join Minnesota’s entrepreneur and innovation ecosystem, and move our industry forward,
In 2023, the theme of FAI is focused on the Future of Food + Ag Innovation: Healthy People, Planet. Centering the ways in which the food system operates is critical to ensure the future and sustainability of our value chain.
Come ready to learn and network on October 9th and 10th for the two days of panels at the Minnesota History Center, and don’t miss out on the array of pre-conference events and experiences starting on October 3rd.
Meet the speaker
Priera Panescu, Ph.D.
LEAD SCIENTIST, PLANT-BASED
GFI
Priera’s role at GFI focuses on accelerating the plant-based meat industry through analyzing their plant-based protein landscape, identifying emerging technological solutions and bottlenecks, and communicating with other scientists about advancing alternative protein research. Priera has bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and math from the University of California, Santa Cruz as well as a master’s and a doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to joining GFI, Priera spent almost a decade focusing on polymer, formulation, and materials chemistry research. Particularly, she honed these skills for food security applications by creating novel sustainable agriculture materials and compounds.
Upcoming events
View all events
Alt Protein Pipelines: Building a customized course around open-access resources
Discover practical ways to incorporate GFI’s resources into both new and existing educational programs.
Society of Environmental Journalists Annual Conference 2025
Join GFI at this Southwest-based conference that explores the increasingly important role of environmental journalists! We will be exhibiting at the event to educate attendees about the power and potential…
Re-Thinking Food: From Plate to Planet
Join GFI’s Bianca Datta in attending Re-Thinking Food: From Plate to Planet! This experience will bring together leading researchers, policymakers, and industry experts to explore the latest science and innovations…
2025 AOCS Meeting (American Oil Chemists’ Society)
Join GFI experts at the AOCS Meeting to explore research on land use efficiency and the environmental impact of plant-based meats.
Protein diversification: A strategic lever for sustainable impact
What does meaningful protein diversification look like in practice? Join GFI for a webinar covering insights from the World Benchmarking Alliance on their latest benchmarking results, Nestlé on their corporate…
Midwest Climate Summit
Don’t miss Sheila Voss, GFI’s senior vice president of communications, at the 2025 Midwest Climate Summit as she co-leads a dynamic workshop exploring how alternative proteins can help address the…
Future Food-Tech Chicago – Sustainable Proteins & Ingredients
Join GFI’s Amanda Hildebrand at Future Food-Tech Chicago as she moderates a panel on Scaling Biomanufacturing: Optimizing Facilities and Bioprocess Design, diving deep into the infrastructure, cost, and regulatory considerations…
Building Your Alt Protein Career
Discover academic and industry career paths in the alternative protein sector, and get inspired by real-world experiences and actionable advice from our guest speaker.
