Against The Grain

What Against The Grain does

Against The Grain is a regional, service-based food-waste upcycling company founded in 2020 and headquartered in Medford, Massachusetts, operating across New England with 22 employees. The company collects edible by-products — principally spent grains from breweries, spent grains and residual from distilleries, apple pomace from cideries, and miscellaneous food production waste (cakes, etc.) from large producers and manufacturers — and redistributes them to local farm partners for use as animal feed, sitting one tier above composting and anaerobic digestion on the EPA Food Recovery Hierarchy.

The core operating model is route logistics: Against The Grain provides toters/totes to producers, collects them on a cadence matched to the customer's production schedule, and delivers the materials to farm partners across the region. For higher-volume accounts requiring liquid vacuum tankers, roll-off containers, or tractor-trailer loads, the company partners with Agri-Cycle to extend its service capability. Pricing is custom, quote-based, and influenced by materials handled, customer location relative to existing routes, and proximity of receiving farms; the company explicitly does not pass through tipping fees, positioning the service as a cost-saving alternative to composting, anaerobic digestion, or landfill. Annual reported throughput totals 4,652,041 lbs of by-products diverted, with claimed offsets of 77,797,406 gallons of water saved and 1,492,948 lbs of CO2 prevented, which the company packages into partner sustainability reports.

Go-to-market is sales-led, executed primarily through dedicated partner sign-up forms on the company website for each industry vertical (breweries, distilleries, cideries, large producers/manufacturers, and miscellaneous). Named partners include Boston Beer (Sam Adams), CBC, Democracy Brewing, Notch Brewing, and Lord Burlington Cider. The company has no disclosed funding history, no parent or institutional ownership, no patents or proprietary technology filings, and no AI/ML capability — it is fundamentally a regional logistics and redistribution operator with a sustainability value proposition. Management has publicly stated intent to invest in higher-tier processes over time that move further up the Food Recovery Hierarchy toward human-consumption products.

Name

Against The Grain

Legal name

Against The Grain

Website

https://againstthegrainne.com

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Against The Grain is a New England food-waste upcycling service that collects spent grains, apple pomace, and other edible by-products from breweries, distilleries, cideries, and food producers and redistributes them to local farms as animal feed.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Food Waste Upcycling Services

NAICS

Postharvest Crop Activities (except Cotton Ginning) (115114), Support Activities for Animal Production (115210)

SIC

Agricultural Services (700)

akta.pro primary industry

Food Waste Reduction & Diversion Services (Donation, Animal Feed, Source Reduction Programs) (EUAIAEAH)

Keywords

• Food waste upcycling
• Spent grain collection
• Brewery waste management
• Edible by-product redistribution
• Animal feed sourcing

Headquarters

HQ city

New England area

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Supply Chain, Personnel, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Waste Collection and Redistribution Service: Against The Grain charges beverage and food producers for collecting and managing their edible waste by-products (spent grains, apple pomace, cakes, etc.), redistributing these materials to local farm partners as animal feed. The company does not pass on tipping fees to customers, making their service cost-competitive compared to composting, anaerobic digestion, or landfill disposal.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Against The Grain is a food waste upcycling service that collects spent grains, apple pomace, cakes, and other edible by-products from breweries, distilleries, cideries, and food producers, then redistributes these materials to local farm animals throughout New England as animal feed. The company provides toters/containers to producers, schedules collection based on the producer's production volume, and delivers the materials to a network of farm partners. The service is positioned as a cost-effective, higher-tier alternative to composting, anaerobic digestion, and landfill disposal, with annual impact tracking and reporting offered to partners.

Product overview

Against The Grain operates as a food waste upcycling service that collects edible by-products from breweries, distilleries, cideries, and food manufacturers, redirecting them to local farms as animal feed. The company offers specialized waste management services tailored to each producer type (Brewery, Distillery, Cidery, Food Maker, and Miscellaneous), using a totes/toter collection system that provides containers for producers to fill with spent grains, apple pomace, cakes, and other by-products. Against The Grain then collects these materials on the producer's schedule and delivers them to farm partners throughout New England. The core offering also includes impact tracking and reporting that quantifies environmental benefits including pounds of waste upcycled, water saved, and CO2 emissions prevented. The company positions itself as a superior alternative to composting and anaerobic digestion, offering cost savings, higher environmental offsets, and frequent service to minimize odors.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Brewery Waste Management Collection and upcycling service for breweries that diverts spent grains and other brewing by-products to local New England farms for use as animal feed, with scheduled pickups based on the brewery's production volume.
• Distillery Waste Management Collection service for distilleries that diverts spent grains and distillery by-products to local New England farms as affordable livestock feedstocks, with collection scheduled to the distillery's production schedule.
• Cidery Waste Management Collection and upcycling service for cideries that diverts apple pomace and other cidery by-products to local New England farms as animal feed, with collection scheduled to the cidery's production volume.
• Food Maker Waste Management Waste management service for large food producers and manufacturers that collects edible by-products for farm animal consumption, leveraging the Agri-Cycle partnership for high-volume operations requiring liquid vac tankers, roll-off containers, or tractor-trailer loads.
• Miscellaneous Producer Waste Management Edible by-product waste management service for miscellaneous food and beverage producers (such as wineries and bakeries) that turns waste into animal feed by delivering it to local New England farm partners.

Quantifiable outcome

• 4,652,041 lbs of by-products diverted from waste streams annually
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Local Farm Partners (New England)coreOthersAgainst The Grain has established relationships with numerous local farms throughout New England that receive and utilize collected by-products (spent grains, apple pomace, cakes) as animal feed. These farm partners are integral to the company's upcycling model and Food Recovery Hierarchy positioning.
• Agri-CyclecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAgainst The Grain has a partnership with Agri-Cycle for handling large collection operations that require specialized equipment including liquid vac tankers, roll-off containers, and tractor-trailer loads. This extends their service capability to large production breweries and food production facilities.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• Regenis: A food waste and organics-to-energy company running anaerobic digestion and nutrient recovery facilities. Competes with ATG at the Food Recovery Hierarchy level one rung below (anaerobic digestion vs. animal feed), as ATG explicitly positions itself against this category.
• Natural Upcycling: A spent grain and brewery by-product upcycling company that produces animal feed and other products from brewing waste. Direct competitor in the spent grain upcycling vertical, the same niche ATG has built its core business around.
• Loop Resource: A B2B marketplace and logistics platform that connects food manufacturers with surplus/by-product buyers, including animal feed operations. Directly comparable to ATG's role as a matching and routing layer between producers and farm consumers.
• Feedback: A food waste reduction and redistribution organization running programs that move surplus food up the Food Recovery Hierarchy. Operates as a thought leader and operator in the same upcycling-for-feed category ATG serves.
• Agri-Cycle: A food waste and organic by-product collection service in the Northeast that operates vacuum tankers, roll-offs, and tractor-trailers to redirect organic waste from farms, food processors, and food waste generators. Against The Grain's existing partner for large-volume work, Agri-Cycle is the closest direct peer by service offering and geography.
• ReFeed: A food waste upcycling platform that collects and redistributes edible by-products from food producers to animal feed and other value-added uses. Operates a similar farm-network-plus-routing model as Against The Grain, though in European markets.

Broad incumbents

• Republic Services: A large U.S. waste and recycling services company with food waste and organics processing offerings. A potential broad incumbent competitor in the food waste diversion space, though not a direct brewery-specialist.
• Waste Management Inc. The largest North American waste and environmental services company, with growing food waste and organics recovery offerings. Could compete with ATG if it expands into brewery-specific upcycling programs in New England.
• Casella Waste Systems: A major regional solid waste, recycling, and organics hauler in the Northeast U.S. with food waste and organics diversion programs. Operates in the same geographies as ATG but as a much broader waste-services incumbent, not a feed-upcycling specialist.

Emerging players

• Full Harvest: A B2B marketplace for surplus and imperfect produce from farms and food producers. Adjacent category (produce rather than brewery by-products) but overlapping business model of redirecting edible surplus into downstream human/animal use.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/against-the-grain-ne

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Against The Grain