Alumni Profile

Konbit: Turning urban food deserts into thriving small farms

Turning urban food deserts into thriving small farms. Improving nutrition for millions through harnessing urban neighborhoods to grow food.

The global pandemic has underscored the vulnerability of our food system, and the fragility of populations less connected to nutritious food. In the U.S. alone, more than 5.6% of the population lives in food deserts, concentrated in urban areas. The opportunity to empower communities to engage in productive agriculture, using insights and tools developed over two decades in controlled environment agriculture (CEA) is profound and would enable communities to grow nutrient-dense foods while also creating jobs, encouraging entrepreneurship, and growing local economies.

Konbit, a social entrepreneurship organization is a B Corp., a private, for-profit public benefit company. Under the driven leadership of its CEO, Sanjay Rajan, Konbit aspires to catalyze networks of community-centric social entrepreneur-farmers, starting with Native American lands. In these territories, the problem is even more acute, with endemic poverty being compounded by severely degraded soil incapable of supporting even small-scale agriculture. The innovative approach to establishing guild-based bio-intensive farming practices, including four-season food production, uses geodesic domes. The expected output will create nutrient-dense foods in connected communities, harness indigenous practices and crops now lost to industrial agriculture, and reduce waste footprint, while creating employment and occupational opportunities. The Company expects to offer this program across indigenous lands in North America.

Working with Larta Institute on their 2021-2022 USDA Phase I C-TABA award, Konbit is finalizing their commercialization plan, long-term strategic priorities, customer value proposition re-definition, pricing, and business modeling for their Phase II submission to USDA.

Konbit has found a solution to one of humanity’s greatest necessities, a way to fight hunger and poor nutrition. With so much of the world’s population still living in urban food deserts, Konbit is working one territory and one neighborhood at a time to help turn this around.

UN Sustainable Development Goals
Larta Programs
Larta Products
Founders

Sanjay Rajan

Co-Founder & CEO
Konbit

Kendra Kuhl

Operations Officer
Konbit
Connect

Valuable and pragmatic insights with the long view shared by Larta enable Konbit as a climate action public benefit corporation to continue its whole systems catalysis of food sovereignty and equity across Native American lands and urban BIPOC food deserts.

Sanjay Rajan

Founder & CEO

Alumni News

July 14, 2021

Colville Tribes and Konbit partner together for community farm project; backed by USDA grant

Food Insecurity is an issue that millions of people face worldwide. The same is no different for a vast amount of citizens in the United States.

The Ventures Fellows program is a 9-month hands-on experience – we invest in diverse innovators to pilot good ideas that help communities become more resilient in response to the impacts of climate change.

The Ventures Fellows program is a 9-month hands-on experience – we invest in diverse innovators to pilot good ideas that help communities become more resilient in response to the impacts of climate change.

The Ventures Fellows program is a 9-month hands-on experience – we invest in diverse innovators to pilot good ideas that help communities become more resilient in response to the impacts of climate change.

Initiatives

SBIR Commercialization Assistance Programs (CAP)

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