Farmer-owned cooperatives Caledonia Farmers Elevator (CFE) and Keystone Cooperative, Inc. announced today that they have completed a comprehensive due diligence process and have formally agreed to pursue a merger. Following a three-month period of evaluation and analysis, the Boards of Directors of both cooperatives have unanimously approved moving forward with a member vote on the proposed merger.
The due diligence process allowed both organizations to thoroughly assess the opportunities, synergies and long-term benefits of combining their operations. Cooperative leaders determined that a merger would create greater opportunities to serve farmer-members, invest in strategic assets, enhance operational capabilities and strengthen the future of agriculture across Michigan.
“This partnership is a natural fit for two organizations that share a commitment to serving agriculture,” said Scott Logue, President and CEO of Keystone Cooperative. “Together, we will leverage the power of our cooperative advantage to strengthen our operations, invest in our future and deliver greater value to our farmer-owners, employees and Michigan communities.”
If approved by members, the combined cooperative would unite organizations with deep agricultural roots, complementary operations and a shared commitment to the success of family farms. The employee teams from both cooperatives will collaborate to identify efficiencies, share expertise and deliver an expanded portfolio of products and services to customers while maintaining a strong local presence in the communities they serve.
Joel Stoepker, CEO of Caledonia Farmers Elevator, said, “This proposed merger represents an exciting opportunity for our members and our communities. Throughout this process, we have been impressed by Keystone’s commitment to cooperative values, employee development, and long-term investment in agriculture. By joining together, we believe we can build on CFE’s strong legacy while creating new opportunities for future generations of farmers.”
Caledonia Farmers Elevator has built a strong reputation serving member farmers throughout west and central Michigan with specialized expertise, innovation and integrity. The cooperative’s operations consist of five Michigan locations, including its main location in Caledonia.
Keystone Cooperative is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana and serves farmer-members and customers through a network of 245 facilities across Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, providing agronomy, energy, feed, livestock and grain services. More than 1,800 employees work each day to help farm operations succeed.
Farmer-members of both cooperatives will have the opportunity to vote throughout November and at a Special Meeting on December 15, 2026.
Employers can now fund nutritious food stipends through Instacart for employees in True Rx’s dietitian-led weight and diabetes programs
INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 21, 2026 — True Rx Health Strategists, the family-owned, pharmacist-led pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) based in Indiana, today announced a first-to-market partnership with Instacart, a leading grocery technology company, that lets employers pay for healthy foods as part of the pharmacy benefit plan. Through Instacart Health Fresh Funds, employees with diabetes or weight management needs can receive monthly funds to spend on approved nutritious foods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, seafood and dairy from grocers on Instacart. Participants partner with a True Rx dietitian to help select the foods to support their health goals.
Demand for GLP-1 medications continues to grow, and the cost of covering them for weight management is forcing employers into hard decisions about coverage. To help employees no matter what their employer decides, True Rx has expanded its True Outcomes: Weight Management program to anyone who wants to lose weight, whether or not their plan covers GLP-1s. FDA labeling for these medications calls for their use alongside a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity, so even employees on therapy need support beyond the prescription. Instacart Health Fresh Funds helps employers provide that support through category-specific stipends that can be used to shop from any grocer on Instacart, with the convenience of same-day delivery.
Instacart Health Fresh Funds and True Outcomes
This partnership is the latest step in True Rx’s commitment to food as medicine, focused on the science of how healthy foods and medication, when appropriate, work to support better health. The Instacart Health Fresh Funds offering builds on True Rx’s True Outcomes clinical programs for weight management and diabetes. Members work one-on-one with True Rx’s own pharmacists, registered dietitians and clinicians, rather than an app or a call center, on personalized nutrition, lifestyle coaching and sustainable health improvements. In a six-month pilot of True Outcomes: Weight Management with members using GLP-1 medications, participants achieved weight loss of up to 15%, and 90% took part in monthly virtual visits.
How it works
After enrolling in a True Outcomes program and completing a qualifying session with a True Rx dietitian or clinician, members receive an Instacart Health Fresh Funds code to use with a new or existing Instacart account. Employers choose a monthly amount of $50 or $100 per member, and the balance is refilled each month for up to six months while the member stays enrolled. Because funds are tied to program participation, employer dollars go to members who are actively engaging with their care team.
The program is designed to close the gap between a meal plan and a grocery cart, one of the most common barriers to weight loss. True Rx dietitians build meal plans and share recipes with members, who can then shop for the ingredients on Instacart using their Fresh Funds stipend. Dietitians use what members buy using Fresh Funds to guide follow-up conversations and reinforce progress.
In keeping with True Rx’s transparent pricing, employers are only billed for the funds members actually use. Aggregate utilization and clinical outcomes are tracked and reported to employers to demonstrate program success.
“As a pharmacist-led PBM, we’re guided by the science of what improves member health and what delivers the best outcomes for employers,” said Adrienne Williams LaBorwit, CEO of True Rx Health Strategists. “Medication plays an essential role, and so does nutrition. We can give a member excellent dietary guidance, but that guidance is more valuable when we also help make it actionable. By connecting clinical support with Instacart Health Fresh Funds, we’re giving employers a practical way to build food as medicine into the pharmacy benefit.”
“Helping people put nutrition guidance into practice starts with making the food they need easier to access,” said Sarah Mastrorocco, vice president and general manager of Health at Instacart. “Through Fresh Funds and our network of trusted grocers, we’re helping True Rx members use employer-funded dollars to shop for nutritious foods that support their health goals, with the convenience of delivery to their door. Working with True Rx, we’re giving employers a practical, scalable, and measurable way to engage and support their employees’ health.”
True Rx announced the partnership today during its True Conversations webinar, “The Pharmacy Benefit’s Missing Ingredient: Lessons from Blue Zones on Lowering Chronic Disease Costs,” featuring Blue Zones founder Dan Buettner. To watch the full conversation, visit https://truerx.com/webinars/lessons-from-blue-zones.
Instacart Fresh Funds will be available in January 2027 to True Rx employer clients with members enrolled in True Outcomes: Weight Management or True Outcomes: Diabetes Management. Employers and brokers interested in adding Instacart Fresh Funds can learn more at truerx.com.
Manmade seed pods grow in a planting port without additional user input or horticultural knowledge
Anu™, a modular indoor farm and consumable seed pod supply company, has received a $500,000 Phase IIB Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Purdue University alumni Scott Massey and Ivan Ball met while developing NASA-funded, controlled-environment hydroponic chambers. They co-founded Anu, which is a “Food is Medicine bolt-on solution.”
Massey said, “Food is Medicine is an emerging market focused on applying nutrition in clinical, evidence-driven settings and measuring whole-health outcomes. Anu’s agricultural technology therefore becomes healthcare infrastructure.”
The SBIR grant will be used for multi-cavity tooling of the Anu-patented, compostable Plug-and-Grow™ Seed Pods which are shelf-stable. The seed pods, to be manufactured at Goodwill of Central & Southern Indiana, are preloaded with seeds and nutrients; seed varieties include leafy green vegetables, fruiting plants, herbs and flowers.
Pods plug into a planting port, are water activated by the automated growing system, and grow without additional user input or horticultural knowledge.
“This presents an order-of-magnitude labor improvement for indoor farming,” Massey said. “It consolidates skilled-labor-intensive agronomy, nutrients and nursery seedling germination management into a turnkey consumable usable in both Anu systems as well as hydroponic systems agnostically through Open Garden Upgrade.”
“Multi-cavity seed pod production makes decentralized Food is Medicine programs easier to deploy, replicate and expand across health ecosystems, now supported with our unconstrained, automated manufacturing line capable of producing millions of seed pods annually.”
The grant also supports testing to quantify the nutritional quality of Anu-grown Pure Produce® grown closer to consumption. Massey said previous testing showed it has approximately twice the average nutrient density of store-bought equivalent red leaf lettuce varieties, with certain nutrients such as Vitamin B measuring as much as 10 times higher.
“The Phase IIB work will expand this evidence base as Anu scales its Food is Medicine platform where the objective is not simply to produce more food, but to reliably produce and validate the nutritional outcomes healthcare providers are ultimately seeking,” he said.
The Phase IIB grant follows Anu’s NSF SBIR Phase I and II grants for $256,000 and $970,993, respectively, and matching funding from Elevate Ventures. The company also received financial support from Purdue Research Foundation.
Food is Medicine efforts
Massey said rather than ask a hospital or clinic to become an expert farmer, Anu provides a standardized, automated cultivation platform that delivers food-production outcomes predictably and with dramatically less specialized agricultural labor.
“Anu’s manufactured seed pods are designed to abstract those agricultural inputs into a standardized consumable,” he said. “This enables controlled-environment cultivation to be overseen by existing health and nutrition professionals, including dietitians.”
Massey said the pods also can be operated by non-specialist labor such as a student apprentice, rather than a dedicated, skilled agricultural manager.
“Our solution reconnects society broadly to sustainably growing the most flavorful and nutritious food,” he said. “The massive leap in labor efficiency also conserves time and empowers all people to grow Pure Produce.”
Massey said the Phase IIB award therefore scales more than a manufacturing process.
“Our long-term objective is to convert controlled-environment agriculture from a skilled-labor-intensive, outcome-driven production business into a standardized outcome-driven system,” he said. “Plug-and-Grow Seed Pods provide the agronomic inputs, Anu cultivation systems control the growing environment, and healthcare and education partners can focus their labor on nutrition, patient engagement, learning and measured outcomes.”
CARMEL, Ind. & AURORA, Ohio. (October 6, 2026) — SEPRO Scientific and Oase today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding establishing a strategic partnership to expand access to innovative surface water technology solutions for customers across the United States and Canada.
The partnership brings together Oase’s technology and product knowledge with SEPRO Scientific’s field and technical expertise, proven capabilities, and long-standing commitment to water stewardship.
Together, the companies will focus on helping customers address complex surface water challenges with technologies supported by practical expertise and science-led management strategies. The initial collaboration will focus on professional water management applications that support the protection and restoration of surface water.
“Our focus is helping customers make informed decisions and achieve better outcomes through science-led solutions,” said Tyler Koschnick, president and CEO of SEPRO Scientific.“Oase brings strong technological and manufacturing capabilities, while SEPRO Scientific brings decades of water management experience and a practical understanding of how solutions perform in real-world conditions. Together, we expand the tools available to water professionals and provide the technical support needed to implement them effectively.”
The partnership is designed to evolve alongside customer and environmental needs. As the relationship develops, SEPRO Scientific and Oase plan to evaluate additional technologies and applications that can help water professionals address emerging water quality and aquatic ecosystem challenges.
“SeDox Max and SchlixX Plus give us a strong starting point, but the real value of this partnership is helping even more customers accelerate improvements in water quality and sediment health,” said Jeremy Sweet,Chief Sales Officer, Water Technology, Oase. “SEPRO’s technical expertise and established field network bring our restoration solutions directly to the professionals who manage lakes and ponds every day. Together, we can extend the benefits of waterbody restoration across North America.”
