Arcadia Biosciences looking to grow a healthier world with GoodWheat and GoodHemp

GoodWheat products includes flour enriched to be healthier, contain less gluten and last longer GoodHemp is a commercial brand of what it calls genetically superior hemp seeds Also has active nutritional oils development program and animal feed ingredients business What Arcadia Biosciences does: Arcadia Biosciences (NASDAQ:RKDA) wants to put better tasting, higher nutrient and lower gluten whole wheat in your shopping cart - and give you genetically superior hemp while they are about it. Set up in Davis, California as a research and development company in 2002, Arcadia is engaged in pioneering research on improvements to crops. Chief among them is GoodWheat. Arcadia’s portfolio of wheat flour ingredients which offer healthier enriched and whole-grain wheat options while providing the same baking quality, taste, and texture as traditional wheat with a longer shelf life.  The GoodWheat high-fiber line, for example, offers the benefits of high-fiber without the need to add an extra source of fiber in the form of corn starch or another additive. That gives the food companies and consumers the benefits of more fiber without the downside of having to shoehorn in additives that diminish texture or taste. Using patented Arcadia trait technology, the storage life of whole wheat flour can be extended by slowing the enzymatic processes that reduce shelf life. Because milled flour from wheat carrying Arcadia trait technology oxidizes more slowly, it cuts down on the bitterness associated with whole-wheat products. In the third quarter of 2020, the company signed a strategic business venture with Three Farm Daughters, a majority female-owned North Dakota-based consumer food company, to develop and market food products using Arcadia’s patented GoodWheat technology. Since then, the companies have launched multiple Three Farm Daughters-branded food products, including pastas and flour, that leverage the enhanced nutritional profiles of GoodWheat ingredients.  The company has also turned its expertise with wheat to another crop with GoodHemp, a commercial brand of what it calls genetically superior hemp seeds. GoodHemp delivers superior emergence and growth characteristics, and is available as both seeds and transplant starts. Its Complia varieties help growers meet compliance requirements because of their ultra-low THC profiles. On top of that, some GoodHemp varieties are also tolerant to a variety of diseases. In the third quarter of 2020, Arcadia closed a transaction with Industrial Seed Innovations (ISI), an Oregon-based industrial hemp breeding and seed company, to acquire its commercial and genetic assets, including seed varieties, germplasm library and intellectual property. ISI’s popular Rogue and Umpqua seed varieties which become part of Arcadia’s portfolio, alongside the GoodHemp line of genetically superior hemp seeds, transplants and extracts. The company also produces plant-based oils using safflower plants – a robust, oil-rich plant – to produce high levels of nutrients that are not prevalent in people's diets. It launched its first product, SONOVAGLA Safflower Oil in 2012 and maintains an active nutritional oils development program. And Arcadia also has a line of GoodWheat nutritional ingredients for animal food manufacturers designed especially for farm and companion animals based on the same technologies developed for people. In November 2020, Arcadia announced a series of strategic transactions with Bioceres Crop Solutions which saw it sell its membership interest in Verdeca, the HB4 soybean joint venture the two companies had formed in 2012. Bioceres also acquired license rights to Arcadia’s GoodWheat technologies in South and Central America, for which Arcadia will receive future royalties on all sales. How is it doing: Arcadia Biosciences has been making solid progress so far in 2021. In February, the company revealed that the US Patent and Trademark Office had awarded the company a patent for its high fiber resistant starch GoodWheat. Arcadia Biosciences noted that this latest patent, the 28th patent for Arcadia's GoodWheat non-GMO wheat platform, broadens protection of the company's platform of specialty wheat ingredients with improved nutrition profiles. The company also said the patent broadens its intellectual property estate to include short deletions that may be obtained with CRISPR and similar genome editing tools.  Arcadia noted that its high fiber resistant starch GoodWheat varieties have eight times the total dietary fiber, with 30% fewer calories compared to conventional wheat varieties, along with reduced gluten and extended shelf life.  Aside from its partnership with Three Farm Daughters, Arcadia is also bringing its GoodWheat high fiber wheat to market in North America through a partnership with Bay State Milling and Arista Cereal Technologies, under Bay State's HealthSense brand portfolio. Earlier in the same month, Arcadia announced that four of its GoodHemp varieties have all passed the rigorous standards of the US Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies (AOSCA) variety review board. The four varieties are Rogue, Umpqua, Santiam and Potomac, the company said. Chet Boruff, CEO of AOSCA, said the goal of seed certification is to maintain varietal purity to ensure that growers receive the pure, high-quality seed they expect. GoodHemp is Arcadia's commercial portfolio of genetically superior hemp seeds, transplants and extracts introduced in 2019. In the boardroom in February, Arcadia boosted its board with the appointment of Debbie Carosella, a food industry executive and former manager as a director. Carosella is the former CEO of Madhava Natural Sweeteners, which provides natural alternatives to refined sugars and artificial sweeteners. She was also previously the senior vice president of innovation for Dean Foods/ WhiteWave Foods, where she led the development of value-added brands. Prior to that, Carosella was on the executive leadership team at ConAgra Foods where she was both a general manager and innovator for numerous brands in various food categories. On the financing front, at the end of January, Arcadia entered into definitive agreements for a private placement, priced on an at-the-market basis, to raise gross proceeds of approximately $25.1 million The company said several institutional and other accredited investors would purchase 7,876,784 shares of its common stock at a price per share of $3.1925. Additionally, Arcadia said it had also agreed to issue to the investors' warrants to purchase up to 3,938,392 shares of common stock with an exercise price of $3.13 per share, would be immediately exercisable and expire five and one-half years from the issue date. Arcadia said it intended to use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes, which include building its global GoodWheat family of consumer brands, development of its e-commerce, direct-to-consumer digital marketing infrastructure to launch its Three Farm Daughters branded pasta and flour products, and to fund its Archipelago Ventures Hawaiian hemp cultivation and mainland CBD extraction operations. Back in December 22, 2020, Arcadia had closed a previously announced $7.7 million registered direct offering, which it planned to put toward GoodWheat digital marketing programs, brand and retail channel development. That offering of 2.6 million shares was priced at-the-market at $2.93 per share. Additionally, the company issued 2.6 million share purchase warrants in a concurrent private placement. The warrants were sold for $0.13 and have an exercise price of $3, fetching gross proceeds of $327,000.  Arcadia's last quarterly results, released in November 2020, saw the company post revenue of $314,000 in the three months ended September 30, 2020, compared to $392,000 in the same period in 2019. It narrowed its net loss year-over-year to $6.4 million, $0.60 per share, from $14.2 million, $2.04, per share. The company attributed the slimmer loss to a $7.8 million non-cash expense recognized in the third quarter of 2019 based on a significant increase in the fair value of common stock warrant liabilities compared to $1.1 million of non-cash income recognized in the third quarter of 2020 associated with a decrease in these liabilities. Inflection points: Building global GoodWheat family of consumer brands, Developing e-commerce, direct-to-consumer digital marketing infrastructure for Three Farm Daughters branded products News on Archipelago Ventures Hawaiian hemp cultivation What the boss says: Arcadia Biosciences CEO Matt Plavan said in February's patent news statement: “This newest patent further strengthens our position as a leader in crop innovation bringing value and nutritional improvements to wheat products, and ultimately to consumers,” He added: “Wheat is one of the most widely consumed crops in the world, and our GoodWheat portfolio offers incomparable functional benefits to food companies and health benefits to consumers with the same taste and texture as conventional wheat.” Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com