Channel: CNBC Make It

Category: News & Politics

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Description: James Rogers, founder of Apeel Sciences, learned that one of the main causes of global hunger isn’t that we as a species aren’t capable of growing enough food, it’s that so much of it goes bad before it can be consumed. The reason food goes bad is fairly simple: Oxygen comes in, water goes out. If he could find a way to stretch that out, he might be able to make a dent in global hunger. James thought, if we could slow the process of steel from oxidizing, why couldn’t we do the same for a ripe avocado? Here’s how Apeel became a $2 billion start-up looking to end world hunger. Samir Ibrahim didn’t have a singular “aha” moment that led him to his multimillion-dollar business and a crusade to fight climate change 8,000 miles from his home in Orlando. It’s been 10 years since Ibrahim and his co-founder Charles Nichols launched SunCulture, a start-up headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya that helps farmers grow food without relying on rainfall by using solar-powered irrigation systems instead. SunCulture was born out of conversations Ibrahim and Nichols had about the growing threat of climate change while they were college students at New York University and Baruch College, respectively. After learning more about the rising popularity of off-grid solar technology, they decided to build a solar power system that could help small farmers. “We learned that climate change is creating more food insecurity across the world, and one of the largest groups of people living in poverty is smallholder farmers,” Ibrahim tells CNBC Make It. “Climate change is making the rain more unpredictable and unreliable, so farmers are losing crops all the time.” He continues: “We also realized that if smaller farms weren’t growing enough crops, we wouldn’t have enough food to feed the world in the next few decades – so we started to think about how to solve that problem.” Subscribe to CNBC Make It.: cnb.cx/2kxl2rf About CNBC Make It.: CNBC Make It. is a new section of CNBC dedicated to making you smarter about managing your business, career, and money. Connect with CNBC Make It. Online Get the latest updates: cnbc.com/make-it Find CNBC Make It. on Facebook: cnb.cx/LikeCNBCMakeIt Find CNBC Make It. on Twitter: cnb.cx/FollowCNBCMakeIt Find CNBC Make It. on Instagram: bit.ly/InstagramCNBCMakeIt #CNBC #CNBCMakeIt #foundereffect How I Raised $650 Million For My Food-Saving Start-Up | Founder Effect