ChrysaLabs: https://www.chrysalabs.com/Today’s episode features Sam Fournier, CEO and co-founder of ChyrsaLabs. I had the chance to briefly meet Sam at World AgriTech. Thank you to Sachi Desai and the Bayer team for the intro. And when I heard what they were doing, I immediately asked if he’d ever be willing to come on the podcast. This idea of providing real time soil information on nutrients has been tried before and as far as I know the tech just hasn’t worked. But ChrysaLabs has been at this since 2018 and have a track record of reliably providing this information, which is something that I think is super exciting for the future of agriculture. I wanted to ask more though about how the tech works, how affordable it could be for farmers and agronomists, what impact this could have on management decisions, and where Sam wants to take the company from here. For some background: Prior to founding ChrysaLabs in 2018, Sam held strategic positions in the development of smart cities implementation projects, electric recreational vehicles manufacturing and electric vehicle sustainable power plant solutions. He holds a B.A. in political Science from Sherbrooke University and an MBA from Laval University, and is driven by his vision for a more sustainable agriculture ecosystem. 

I’ve never been to space, but it has been said that from outer space there are three man-made technologies visible: the Great Wall of China and electric illumination of the world’s largest cities are the first two. The third are the green crop circles created by center pivot irrigation.&nbsp;It has been said that the center pivot irrigation system is “perhaps the most significant mechanical innovation in agriculture since the replacement of draft animals by the tractor”. Today, over 50% of the irrigated field acres in North America are using the center pivot concept. And other modern agricultural countries are catching up, such as Brazil, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.&nbsp;It’s no coincidence that this agricultural technology was invented by someone who farmed on top of the largest aquifer in the western hemisphere: the Ogallala Aquifer which is sometimes called the High Plains Aquifer.&nbsp;Geologists estimate the aquifer was formed about 5 million years ago by ancient erosion from the Rocky Mountains carried eastward by rivers, along with the additional accumulation of countless rains and snows. It now stretches beneath 174,000 square miles, underlying parts of eight states: South Dakota, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma and New Mexico, which makes up most of what we call the great plains.&nbsp;This area has been the setting for numerous big ag stories over the years, from the great cattle drives of the 1800s that we covered in our Cattle Kingdom episode, to the land grab of the Homestead Act to the dirty thirties of the dust bowl. But there is no doubt that the center pivot was a major game changer, and it allowed the tough settlers of this rough country to turn this desert land into one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world.&nbsp;I’ve had the chance to live in two different agricultural areas made possible by the Ogallala aquifer: in the panhandle of Texas where I lived and worked in Amarillo and Dumas, Texas. Then years later I lived in Northwest Kansas where I commuted up to my job in Benkelman, Nebraska. So I’ve been able to see firsthand what this incredible resource can do for farming and for rural economics when combined with the revolutionary ag technology we’ll discuss today: the center-pivot invented by Frank Zybach.&nbsp;Frank definitely fits my criteria for these history episodes as an ag innovator that I wish I could interview if they were still alive. It highlights the impact innovation can have on the ag economy and carries valuable lessons for all of us aspiring ag innovators out there. But it also is a case study about agricultural sustainability. The aquifer is a limited resource, built from snowmelt coming off the rocky mountains over thousands of years. In the 72 years since Frank Zybach patented his invention, water levels in many parts of the Ogallala Aquifer have dropped drastically, many times larger than what could possibly be replenished. Resources:“How Center Pivot Irrigation Brought the Dust Bowl Back to Life” - Smithsonian Magazine“The Boys from Valley - Frank Zybach” - McCook Gazette“A History of Irrigation Technology Used to Exploit the Ogallala Aquifer” by Stephen White and David KrommFrank Zybach: A man who revolutionized agriculture - INEDA<a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-ogallala-aquifer/"...

Voyage Foods: https://voyagefoods.com/Jennifer Barney's Business of Food Newsletter: https://jenniferbarney.substack.com/I continue to be interested in pursuing episodes that are more on the food side of the industry. I think at first glance some of these stories might make you question whether it really belongs on an agricultural podcast. But I really believe consumer interest and food trends will drive the future of agriculture just as much if not more than any ag technology will. So it’s really important for all of us in agriculture to keep a close watch on these trends and connect the dots about what impact this could have on our industry.&nbsp;Guest hosting today’s episode is Jennifer Barney. Jennifer has been very generous with her time to bring us several episodes over the years, all focused on food companies. In the past she has featured companies like: Teffola, WonderCow, Alexandre Family Farm, Bibamba, Ugly Fruit Company, Neutral Foods and Seal the Seasons.&nbsp;She is a successful food entrepreneur, having founded, grown and sold an almond butter company called Barney Butter. Today she works with consumer packaged goods company as a consultant and writes the weekly email newsletter “The Business of Food”.Jennifer is going to be interviewing Voyage Foods founder Adam Maxwell.&nbsp;A native of Boston, Adam Maxwell, was drawn to a food career from an early age, pursuing his first professional experience as a 14 year-old pastry apprentice at James Beard award-winning restaurant, Clio. He continued working in fine dining while studying food science at McGill University. But before graduation, Adam left school to work at Chew Innovation Labs. It was there that he met one of his co-founders for Voyage Foods, Kelsey Tenney. After his time at Chew, eh went to work for Endless West, the worlds’ first and only molecular wine and spirits company. His belief that everyone deserves to enjoy their favorite foods without compromising on tastes, the risk of future access or sacrificing dietary needs led him to launch Voyage Foods in 2021. 00:00&nbsp;Intro00:31&nbsp;Meet Adam Maxwell of Voyage Foods01:20 Introducing Guest Host Jennifer Barney02:23&nbsp;Jennifer Barney Interviews Adam Maxwell03:04&nbsp;Adam Maxwell's Background and Voyage Foods' Mission06:49&nbsp;Innovative Food Processing Techniques09:55&nbsp;Sourcing Sustainable Ingredients13:29&nbsp;Challenges and Opportunities in Food Tech17:34&nbsp;Scaling Up Voyage Foods and Future Plans33:01&nbsp;Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Dr. Trey Malone Profile: https://ag.purdue.edu/directory/tjmalone#:~:text=Trey%20Malone%20is%20an%20agri,on%20agri%2Dfood%20supply%20chains.Trey's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/treymalone MS-MBA Joint Degree: https://agribusiness.purdue.edu/degrees/ms-mba/Dr. Trey Malone is an agri-food economist and the Boehlje Chair in Managerial Economics for Agribusiness in the department of agricultural economics at Purdue University. His work focuses generally on strategic marketing and strategic decision making especially as it relates to what universities can do for industry. He has published over 60 research articles in outlets including Food Policy, Journal of Business Venturing Insights, and the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.&nbsp;Before Purdue, he worked as an ag economist with the University of Arkansas, and before that at Michigan State University. His insights have been featured in popular press outlets, including the New York Times, TIME Magazine, CNBC, CNN, USA Today, Fast Company, and Popular Science. And now the Future of Agriculture podcast. This episode has been a long time in the making. I’ve known Trey, at least from a distance for years. He almost came on the show earlier this year, but then was offered his dream job to move from Arkansas to Purdue so we put it on hold until now. In addition to being an ag nerd, I’ve always had an interest in economics, specifically what drives markets and what drives behavior. I read Freakonomics years ago and am a listener to podcasts like Planet Money. So why it took me so long to realize that what i”m trying to do here with the Future of Agriculture is bring together my science and tech nerdiness with my business nerdiness is beyond me. When I say that this show is really at the core about ag economics, a lot of you long time listeners are probably saying “DUH!”, but to be honest I never consciously thought of it that way.&nbsp;I share all this with you because I’m hoping this episode is just the start of featuring many other economists. No, i”m not going to stop covering agtech or sustainability or science or the other topics we we cover here on the show. But I do want to make a concerted effort to highlight the interesting work our countries 2,000+ ag economists are doing. And this episode with Trey is a great place to start.&nbsp;

Farmland LP: Back on the show today is Craig Wichner of Farmland LP. I had been reading in the news some of the big moves Craig and his team were making to acquire and add value to more farmland. And I thought, wow, this must be a tough environment just based on the prices of some of these specialty crops and the jump in interest rates. But what Craig shared surprised me, and I’m excited to share it with you today.&nbsp;If you need a little refresher from Craig’s first appearance on episode 298 back in February 2022, here is some background:&nbsp;Craig founded Farmland LP in 2009 with a simple yet powerful idea: to combine regenerative agriculture with proven real estate management practices from the commercial property sector.&nbsp; Thanks to that approach, Farmland LP is the largest fund manager focused on organic farmland in the U.S., delivering strong financial returns alongside demonstrable environmental and social benefits. Craig is responsible for day-to-day management, business strategy, and all investment activity at the firm.&nbsp;&nbsp;Craig is an outspoken advocate for verifiable, data-driven standards for sustainable farmland investing so investors and consumers can look beyond misleading labels and support beneficial farming practices.&nbsp;

Gallagher: https://am.gallagher.com/en-US I’m pleased to welcome Gallagher Animal Management Chief Executive Lisbeth Jacobs onto the show today. There is nothing like the battle-tested point of view from a company that has been an innovator and market leader for a long time. In Gallagher’s case, it’s in technology for animal management. A quick description from their website: Founded in 1938, Gallagher is now known and respected in over 100 countries as a family-owned business built on customer-led innovation. From the electric fence to the cloud, Gallagher’s connected and customisable ecosystem of solutions empower our customers to work responsibly, productively, and profitably to protect what matters most.So their customers are ranchers and livestock raisers, particularly those who raise livestock on pastures. And I love the juxtaposition of this pastoral customer grazing livestock like has been done for thousands of years, using the latest technology like virtual fencing which they sell under the brand e-shepherd. Lisbeth and I will talk about e-shepherd specifically, as well as Farmote, which is a joint venture between Gallagher and Barenburg to commercialize technology for automated pasture monitoring.&nbsp;&nbsp;Lisbeth Jacobs joined Gallagher as Chief Executive - Animal Management in April 2021 and thrives on providing strategic leadership across the global footprint of the Animal Management operations. &nbsp;&nbsp;Prior to this Lisbeth held senior leadership roles at the leading edge of applied innovation and sustainability with Fletcher Building, Uniservices, The Icehouse, and global steelcord &amp; steelwire company Bekaert where she worked and lived across Europe, China, the Middle East, and North America.   Lisbeth holds a PhD of Engineering from the University of Auckland. And her background in both business leadership and engineering both shine through in today’s episode.&nbsp;

Full Harvest: https://www.fullharvest.com/Software is Feeding The World Newsletter: https://www.rhishipethe.com/sftwMetal Dog Labs: https://www.metaldoglabs.ai/I’m really excited to share today’s episode with Christine Moseley. This problem of food waste is one I’ve been interested in since starting this podcast. The first episode I dedicated to the issue was episode 040 clear back in early 2017 with Jonathan Bloom of Wasted Food. Then we’ve had other episodes with people like Olympia Yarger of GOTERRA, Abi Ramanan of Impact Vision, Larry Clarke of Nanoguard and Justin Kamine of Do Good Foods all talking about food waste. And if I’m being honest, I don’t think the needle has moved in how much food gets wasted every year. But I applaud the efforts of all of these people and Christine to take on such a massive and complex problem.&nbsp;But I won’t be asking the questions today. I’m very pleased to welcome Rhishi Pethe back onto the show to host what I believe is his fifth episode. For anyone who doesn’t know, Rhishi has has extensive experience in artificial intelligence, supply chain &amp; logistics, product, data &amp; technology strategy, robotics &amp; computer vision, sustainability, and data interoperability. He has held leadership roles at Mineral (an Alphabet company), The Climate Corporation (Bayer), Amazon, and other technology companies. He has led two startups through exits, and one through a spin out.&nbsp;Rhishi is also the creator of the free weekly newsletter “Software is Feeding the World”, which I highly recommend and I will leave a link in the show notes where you can subscribe for free. It is always a please to pass the mic over to Rhishi and I appreciate him hosting Christine today.&nbsp;And speaking of Christine….Christine Moseley, Full Harvest Founder + CEO, is a passionate serial entrepreneur. At age 17, she started a music education non-profit, Musical Empowerment, which is still growing nationally 16 years later. Currently, at Full Harvest, she is solving the food waste problem at the farm level with technology. Full Harvest is the first B2B platform for surplus and imperfect produce, connecting large farms directly to food &amp; beverage companies.Christine has over 15 years of experience in the logistics and food industries at both Fortune 100 companies (Maersk, P&amp;G) as well as high-growth food start-ups. In her last corporate role, she assisted Organic Avenue, an NYC healthy food + juice start-up, double in size as Head of Strategic Projects and Business Development.&nbsp;Christine holds an MBA from Wharton Business School.&nbsp;Two really smart people talking about one of the greatest challenges our food system currently faces. Enjoy this conversation between Rhishi Pethe and Christine Moseley.&nbsp;

Ag Done Different Newsletter: https://agtechmarketinginsights.substack.com/"Reclaim Your Market Power: The Agribusiness Blueprint for Strategic Influence" : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aO__6x2ze9QSe_e7jyWvCKJzh-4-I7yW/view?usp=drivesdkSchultz Collaborative: https://www.schultzcollaborative.com/As lead category designer at Schultz Collaborative, Dan Schultz helps agtech companies around the world design their category and think differently about how they commercialize their products.Dan is vehemently opposed to telling boring stories, sales pitches thoughtlessly read off spec sheets, oversold technobabble, undersold innovation, and venture money wasted on vanity marketing metrics. Dan helps companies stop droning on about incremental improvement and start building movements.He is the author of the weekly newsletter Ag Done Different. You can read his full weekly newsletter at agtechmarketinginsights.substack.com

Sabanto: https://sabantoag.com/FoA 241: From Drives to Driverless with Craig Rupp of SabantoI’m really glad to get Craig Rupp back on the show today. Some of you might remember his interview on episode 241, where Craig shared the incredible journey of building 640 Labs which he sold to the Climate Corp and became the FieldView Drive. At that time, we also talked about his newest venture, Sabanto, which is bringing autonomy to agriculture.&nbsp;Since that episode over three years ago, Craig and the team at Sabanto have evolved their offering from autonomy as a service to a kit that allows dealers and farmers to convert the equipment they already have to include autonomous capabilities. Along with that, they offer a service for remote operating and monitoring, which kind of blows my mind. Craig is hiring a team of remote tractor drivers to monitor several autonomous tractors at once, and we’ll talk a lot about that in today’s episode. Sabanto has also found an interesting niche in sod farmers. They work with farmers across basically all crops, but the amount of passes these sod farmers have to make in a given year, makes an offering like Sabanto has really compelling. This is also an episode about the evolution of on-farm autonomy and what the future might look like as adoption continues to grow.&nbsp;For a refresher on Craig’s bio:&nbsp;Raised on a farm in Iowa, Craig Rupp started his career in 1988 as a hardware engineer at Motorola, designing and developing the first GSM and Iridium mobile stations and John Deere in 2002, developing the Starfire receiver and Greenstar display.In 2012, Craig founded 640 Labs, envisioning a simple iPad as a data collection and monitoring device for agriculture. Acquired by Monsanto in 2014, he made his FieldView Drive one of the most ubiquitous and low-cost data collection devices in agriculture.In 2018, Craig founded Sabanto, a company that provides autonomous solutions for agriculture. He was the first to autonomously plant a farmer’s field in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, Texas, and Indiana.I really enjoy whenever I get a chance to talk to Craig, his intelligence and real world experience comes through in the wisdom that he shares.

Terviva: https://terviva.com/Today’s episode is long overdue. For the past 15 years, today’s guest: Naveen Sikka, has been working to commercialize the pongamia tree. There are several things that are special about this emerging crop. First, it’s a legume, so like soybeans, peas, lentils, chickpeas and other legumes, the plant forms symbiotic relationships with nitrogen fixing bacteria, so in short, it can fix its own nitrogen from the atmosphere. Although the crop does still require some fertilizer - just a fraction of what is required for a lot of other crops. Also like other legumes, the beans are very high in oil and protein. But unlike those crops it’s a tree, which can have benefits in terms of productivity, soil health, and adaptability to certain parts of the world. So you have this supertree, that is a nitrogen fixer that is a perennial and adapted to both periods of flooding and periods of drought, and most of all it produces a versatile and nutrient dense crop. Naveen’s going to share a whole lot more about pongamia, but I wanted to start with answering, why is all of this effort worthwhile?&nbsp;And it is indeed a lot of effort. Naveen and his team are having to attack this from every angle to turn this tree into a viable commercial crop: developing genetics, growing practices, markets, processing, attracting interest from farmers, and educating potential consumers just to name a few. But they’re making real progress, and I find their commitment to the cause to be inspiring and certainly helpful to all of us hoping to make real contributions to the ag industry.&nbsp;To give you his formal bio here before we jump in: Naveen Sikka is the founder and CEO of Terviva, an agricultural innovation company partnering with farmers to grow pongamia, a climate-resilient tree which helps to reforest land and revitalize communities. Under his leadership, Terviva has unlocked pongamia’s potential as a super tree capable of providing meaningful climate-change solutions. After more than a decade of innovation, Terviva has established an equitable and transparent supply chain where they harvest and transform pongamia beans into bioenergy and sustainable food ingredients called Ponova®.

BovEye: https://boveye.com/ Flyover Whiskey: https://flyoverwhiskey.com/FarmAfield: https://www.farmafield.com/Andrew Minarick tells Tim about his latest company, BovEye, which is using computer vision and AI for remote livestock verification. As you’ll hear this is extremely important to his customer base which is not producers, but instead agricultural lenders. We also talk about his experiences in starting Flyover Whiskey, working for FarmAfield,&nbsp; getting his MBA at Stanford, and more. Cool stuff all the way around and a very fun conversation for me.&nbsp;Andrew grew up on a small ag operation in North Bend, NE and has worked as an engineer and operator across a number of early-stage AgTech ventures, with a current focus on livestock production and financing technologies. He holds a B.S. in Biological Systems Engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he was a member of the Engler Entrepreneurship program and holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Andrew lives in Omaha, NE where he serves as the Founder/CEO of BovEye.

In this unique solo episode, Tim Hammerich shares his framework for thinking about the future of agriculture. Drawing inspiration from a recent keynote at the 4th annual Soybean Research Forum and Think Tank, Tim discusses the rationale behind the podcast and shares the four key questions (plus a bonus) that guide his exploration into agricultural innovation. 00:00&nbsp;Introduction and Purpose of the Podcast00:36&nbsp;Inspiration from a Recent Keynote01:49&nbsp;Reflecting on the Podcast's Journey04:26&nbsp;Challenges in Discussing the Future of Agriculture08:31&nbsp;Framework for Thinking About the Future of Agriculture09:38&nbsp;Current Trends and Historical Insights12:20&nbsp;Innovations on the Fringes13:43&nbsp;Considering Unpredictable Changes18:33&nbsp;Conclusion and Final Thoughts

PURIS: https://www.puris.com/Growing Pulse Crops Podcast: https://growingpulsecrops.com/Nicole Atchison is the CEO of PURIS Holdings, a vertically-integrated plant-based food company that operates from field to fork in primarily yellow peas. Nicole leads the agriculture side of the business, including contracting with growers, seed development and breeding, and innovation in product development. Her brother Tyler leads the ingredient side of the business. PURIS operates throughout the entire supply chain from developing genetics to developing new markets.&nbsp;“So if you're making a high protein cereal, you need a different pea protein than if you're making a plant-based beverage, which is still using a pea protein. But those two pea proteins are slightly different. And that's really the innovation that we do on our processing side, is we create these different proteins with different functionalities so that they can work in these different applications.”&nbsp;- Nicole AtchisonAtchison describes the wet protein processing they are using that provides a unique protein stream with a lot of potential for furthering plant-based protein production. She sees potential for pulse proteins in providing protein sources for both consumer beverages and medical nutrition. As they ramp up production, PURIS Holdings is also active in ongoing efforts to regulate the impact of foreign pulse crop processing and imports affecting both global and domestic markets.“I'm a huge advocate for pulse based ingredients because I do think that as much as we want and encourage people to have and eat whole pulses, that's not where the American consumer is today. We like convenient foods, packaged and processed. That's where our market is. And so we need to be able to drive these crops into those channels as well and that's why processing is so critical to the market.” - Nicole Atchison

Syngenta: https://www.syngenta.com/en[Soil Sense Podcast] Soil Health Assessment with Jordon Wade, Ph.D.FoA 364: Supporting Soil Health with Dr. Steve Rosenzweig and Dr. Abbey Wick [Soil Sense Crossover]Future of Agriculture 123: Nerding Out About Soil Health with Dr. Abbey Wick of North Dakota State UniversityFuture of Agriculture 162: Cannabis Inputs with Dr Colin Bell of Mammoth MicrobesReally excited this week to bring Dr. Matt Wallenstein onto the show. Matt is the Chief Soil Scientist for Syngenta Group, where he leads their efforts to enable farmers around the world to improve their productivity and profitability through science-based innovation through soil health. Part of that team is my good friend and co-host of the Soil Sense podcast Dr. Abbey Wick, who you’ve heard on this show in the past. As well as Dr. Jordan Wade, who was a guest on a very fascinating episode of Soil Sense a year or so ago that I’ll have to link to in the show notes because it’s a great one. Anyway, so Matt’s putting together this dream team of soil scientists and I had to bring him on the show to figure out what I can about what they’re up to.&nbsp;Prior to joining Syngenta in 2022, he was a professor and department head of Soil and Crop Sciences at Colorado State University. His research focused on how the soil microbiome interacts with plants and the environment. He also co-founded a startup called Growcentia, which commercialized a phosphorus solubilizing microbial consortia developed in his academic lab and went on to develop other biostimulants. A cool connection there is one of Matt’s co-founders at Growcentia was actually on this show five years ago. I didn’t know Matt at the time so that’s more of a coincidence than anything else, but that’s episode 165 if you want to find that deep track.&nbsp;Anyway, i’ll drop you into today’s conversation when Matt is telling me what attracted him to this position, even though he already had a startup and a thriving career at Colorado State when he decide to make the leap two years ago to Syngenta.&nbsp;

FarmTest: https://farmtest.ag/Iowa Nitrogen Initiative: https://www.agron.iastate.edu/portfolio/iowa-nitrogen-initiative/Today’s episode is a really unique concept and potential game-changer for how we think about on-farm technology, management practices and research. Historically, universities and agribusinesses would conduct randomized controlled trials for the best data on how products work. But these trials are limited on where they can take place and how many replications could take place, so when a farmer says “what about MY field and MY management?” it’s not surprising that the bottom line comes down to: your results might vary. But we don’t know for sure or by how much.&nbsp;But with advancements in technology, why can’t every field include some sort of trial to understand how that product is performing? This has been done in the past with check strips that a farmer would plant as sort of a control, but this is far from precise or scientific.&nbsp;It just so happens that Nick Cizek is a bit of an expert in precision measurement and experimentation design, and he has created in FarmTest a way from farmers, their advisors, input companies and researchers to run real experiments on farm without interfering with a farmers operation. They are essentially increasing the scientific rigor of on-farm trials while removing the hassle factor. And today we talk to Nick about that as well as a user of the product: Dr. Mike Castellano of Iowa State University and the Iowa Nitrogen Initiative which conducted 270 unique on-farm trials last year to analyze nitrogen applications. He says that current university nitrogen recommendations are very coarse and really only differ based on broad geographies and whether the crop is after corn or soybeans, but with this data they are already finding consistently predictable differences in fertilizer requirements based on other important factors like soil type, crop residue management, and drainage.This has big ramifications not just for research but for optimizing individual farm management practices and determining which inputs and technologies should be utilized and where and how much. Obviously this also could be very handy for input companies to more accurately represent their products because in agriculture the honest answer to “does it work?” is “it depends.”&nbsp;Nick Cizek is an applied physicist specializing in precision measurement (Ph.D. Stanford). Before founding FarmTest in 2019, he worked for 4.5 years at The Climate Corporation / Monsanto / Bayer Crop Science. Specifically, he led teams designing and executing in-field trials to measure the performance of advanced nitrogen management systems. He initially joined Climate to help design and deploy a sensor network to collect local data to improve the value of their predictive agronomic optimization models. FarmTest envisions a future where all farms optimize their management practices based on statistically rigorous in-field performance data.&nbsp;FarmTest builds software tools to automate on farm performance testing on commercial farms. We help researchers and growers design and analyze statistically robust field trials using commercial farm equipment. We make this easy by embedding product trials in variable rate prescriptions that account for all the nuances of each growing operation's fields, equipment, and management practices, and all the randomization, replication, and blocking needed for a statistically sound trial that produces a usefully small least significant difference.Dr Mike Castellano’s work aims to increase the productivity, profitability, and environmental performance of crop production. To achieve these outcomes, he uses a systems approach and strong...

Cultura Technologies: https://culturatech.com/Metal Dog Labs: https://www.metaldoglabs.ai/Software Is Feeding The World Newsletter: https://www.rhishipethe.com/sftwIf there’s been a theme on this show over the past few months, it’s what does tech collaboration look like? Is it lip service or will it lead to real outcomes? You’ve heard from Lawrence King, Claudia Roessler, Mark Pendergrast, Jim Ethington and others all talking about this. Today, we hear from another leader who has proven experience in agtech collaboration, Jeff Schreiner.&nbsp;Jeff is the senior vice president of global collaboration at Cultura Tech, a company that has acquired technology companies focused on agriculture across the value chain. Jeff is interviewed by Rhishi Pethe in today’s episode about collaboration, data, regulation, and the future of agriculture.

Headstorm: https://headstorm.com/AGPILOT: https://headstorm.com/agpilot/Arable: https://www.arable.com/FoA 256: Agtech Collaboration and Data-Driven Decision Agriculture with Jim Ethington of ArableToday's episode features Arable CEO Jim Ethington. Jim first appeared on this show on episode 256 back in 2021 and I was pleased to get a chance to sit down for a second interview with him in person at World AgriTech in March.&nbsp;His background is impressive. Prior to joining Arable in 2018, he spent 10 years at The Climate Corporation where he was VP of Product and grew the company to 50 million paid acres and built a team from 10 to over 600 individuals. So he started at Climate in 2008 when they were still called Weatherbill and stayed with the company through the big acquisition in 2013 and for years after that.&nbsp;So Jim has been thinking about the challenges and opportunities in digital agriculture for a long long time and it shows in the insights he shares in this episode.&nbsp;If you’re not familiar with Arable, they are an ag technology company that provides data insights and recommendations to help farms be more productive and sustainable. Specifically they have created an intuitive system for farmers and agronomists to optimize irrigation, fertilizer applications and other important farm decisions. This is all based around their Arable Mark 3 device.&nbsp;Jim is also one of the guests suggested by Lawrence King at Headstorm to give one of their client testimonials. Similar to Amie at Wilbur Ellis and Claudia at Microsoft, I wanted to make this one a full length episode because Jim is someone I wanted to have back on the show anyway to get an update on Arable and more of his insights on the future of ag. And he doesn’t disappoint. I’ll drop you into the conversation where he’s explaining the key insight from farmers that informs the work they do at Arable.&nbsp;

Headstorm: https://headstorm.com/AGPILOT: https://headstorm.com/agpilot/AgVentures Alliance: https://agventuresalliance.com/AgLaunch: https://aglaunch.com/FoA 068: Farmers Investing in AgTech with Spencer Stensrude of Ag Ventures Alliance and Matthew Rooda of SwineTechFoA 117: Bridging the Gap Between AgTech Entrepreneurs and Farmers with Pete Nelson of AgLaunchToday's episode features Pete Nelson and Margaret Oldham from Aglaunch and Spencer Stensrude at AgVentures Alliance. If you’ve been a long time listener to this show - i mean a REALLY long time listener - you heard Spencer back on episode 68 in 2017 and Pete on episode 117 in 2018. I’ll link to both of those classics in the show notes. Since that time the two organizations have partnered together based on a shared mission of investing in farmer-led innovations. They each have unique aspects to their models, which i’ll let Pete, Margaret and Spencer describe to you. But they also are joining forces in a way to put the farmer at the center of investing in and incubating early stage agtech companies.&nbsp;There are some really interesting points brought up in this conversation that I’ve been thinking about a lot since we recorded it a couple of months ago. Things like, should billion dollar unicorn exits be the measure of success for venture capital? Or number of viable lasting companies? Or maybe jobs and economic impact on communities? Is the fact that venture capital gets poured into so many businesses that fail a feature or a bug when it comes to advancing agriculture? And does the fact that we are in a commodity driven business mean that by definition, all of the value created by companies will eventually get squeezed out and extracted by low cost leaders? Some thought provoking questions that I think you’ll enjoy pondering as you listen to Spencer, Margaret, and Pete.&nbsp;Spencer Stensrude invests at the intersection of transformational technology and agriculture. He is the CEO of Ag Ventures Alliance, which is a farmer-owned cooperative with a mission to increase farm profitability. They make venture capital investments in startups with a direct impact on farmers. Before joining AgVA, he started and operated some small businesses, invested in income-producing real estate, and worked in the commercial lending industry.Pete Nelson has been experimental farming, venture investing, and creating innovation hubs in agriculture with farmers across the US and Canada since 1997. He is currently co-founder and President of AgLaunch, a nationally recognized farmer-led innovation platform for advancing the next generation of agricultural technologies.Margaret Oldham is the Vice President of Innovation at AgLaunch. She is an experienced marketer and coach with a reputation for...

Headstorm: https://headstorm.com/AGPILOT: https://headstorm.com/agpilot/Carbon Robotics: https://carbonrobotics.com/Paul is the founder and CEO of Carbon Robotics. What Carbon Robotics is doing is novel and interesting in and of itself, and we’re going to talk a lot about that in today’s episode. But it’s important to note that Paul has a really impressive history of building technology companies outside of agriculture.Before starting Carbon Robotics, he co-founded Isilon Systems, a distributed storage company, in 2001. Isilon went public in 2006 and was acquired by EMC for $2.5 billion in 2010. In 2006, Paul co-founded Clustrix, a distributed database startup that was acquired by MariaDB in 2018. Immediately before Carbon, Paul served as Director of Infrastructure Engineering at Uber, where he grew the team and opened the company’s engineering office in Seattle, later focusing on deep learning and computer vision.&nbsp;So in today’s episode we’re going to talk a lot about laser weeding, building a field robotics company, Paul’s views on artificial intelligence and where he sees applications for the tech in agriculture, and the challenges an opportunities ahead for carbon robotics and agtech in general.&nbsp;I’ll drop you into the conversation where Paul is explaining his desire to jump from tech to agtech, and how that transition has been for him.&nbsp;

Headstorm: https://headstorm.com/AGPILOT: https://headstorm.com/agpilot/Azure Data Manager for Agriculture (ADMA): https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/data-manager-for-agricultureAg Powered Services: https://agpoweredservices.com/"Scaling Sustainability Through Bayer &amp; Microsoft Partnership": https://www.bayer.com/en/agriculture/bayer-and-microsoft-partnership Today's episode features conversations with Claudia Roessler and Mark Pendergrast. A quick heads up on a couple of things before we dive in: first, both of these interviews were recorded at World Agri-Tech in San Francisco and they were other conversations happening in the media room for part of the time, so I hope you’ll forgive a little bit of background noise. Second, similar to Amie Thesingh’s episode last month, I originally recorded these interviews to be spotlight episodes featuring the work Headstorm does. Just like in Amie’s case I thought this story warranted a full-length episode, so we will focus on the work Microsoft and Bayer are doing together, but I will also include the role Headstorm is playing in all of this as well. Just a heads up on that.&nbsp;You heard from both Claudia and Mark as part of our Generative AI episode which was #409, but the focus today is on this initiative started by Microsoft with their Azure Data Manager for Agriculture, or ADMA. We’ll also explore the collaboration with Bayer Cropscience, in particular they’re Ag Powered Services Platform that brings together agronomic data for a variety of applications.&nbsp;Because sometimes this data stuff can get a little abstract, I think it’s probably helpful to level-set with some basics. Starting with cloud services. I think most of us intuitively know what a massive leap forward cloud computing has been for technology in general. From software applications to file storage to other sources of data - cloud computing is how we are able to power digitization. The cloud is not new obviously. But what has become clear is that just giving people access to the cloud isn’t enough to really tap into the power of all of this information - it’s just a place to store it. Moving from stored data to actionable data is a very very heavy lift - especially in an industry like agriculture.&nbsp;So, Microsoft started creating industry-specific data management platforms. They describe this as “industry-specific data connectors and capabilities to connect farm data from disparate sources.” They’ve been successful with similar efforts in other industries like retail, finance and healthcare, and last year they unveiled Azure Data Manager for Agriculture, a continuation of the work they were doing with FarmBeats, which you might remember from episode 266 with Microsoft’s Ranveer Chandra.&nbsp;So when it comes to making data more valuable, the cloud is a massive step forward, now we have another massive step forward in ADMA, and we’re also going to talk about what could be yet another massive step forward Bayer’s Ag Powered Services. Bayer is providing additional data infrastructure that they first developed to use internally, and now are offering to other companies that rely on agronomic data to power their various digital applications.&nbsp;The ultimate goal here though is that data no longer becomes the bottleneck to progress. If a buyer, for example, wants to pay a farmer more for certain agronomic practices, all they need is...

Headstorm: https://headstorm.com/AGPILOT: https://headstorm.com/agpilot/Phospholutions: https://www.phospholutions.com/Sentinel Fertigation: https://www.sentinelfertigation.com/I’m a firm believer that in the U.S. our agricultural research and extension programs at our land grant universities truly are national treasures. But of all the outstanding research that’s done at these institutions every year, not enough of it seems to get commercialized. Today we highlight two young entrepreneurs that each began their entrepreneurial journeys at their respective campuses, and are today growing real businesses helping farmers with different aspects of nutrient management.&nbsp;Today, you'll hear from Hunter Swisher, founder and CEO of Phospholutions which initially commercialized research done at Penn State. He does a great job talking about some of the major issues with the status quo when it comes to phosphorous. If you haven’t looked into it before it’s seriously eye opening.&nbsp;Then we’ll move west to Nebraska, where Jackson Stensell formed his company Sentinel Fertigation based on research he was doing as a grad student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He also focuses on nutrient management but specifically on irrigated crops.&nbsp;Hunter Swisher currently serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Phospholutions, Inc., which he founded prior to graduating with his B.S. degree in Plant Sciences from Pennsylvania State University. Phospholutions is a sustainable fertilizer company with the mission of improving global phosphate efficiency.&nbsp;Jackson Stansell is the founder and CEO of Sentinel Fertigation. Sentinel Fertigation leverages satellite imagery and geospatial data to empower precision nutrient management - particularly for nitrogen fertigation. Originally from Dothan, Alabama, Jackson did his undergrad at Harvard where he also played football. He was pursuing a masters degree at Nebraska when he turned the research he was doing into a business and decided to put his PhD on hold to commercialize the technology.

Headstorm: https://headstorm.com/AGPILOT: https://headstorm.com/agpilot/4AG Robotics: https://4ag.ai/ As you heard a bit about in last weeks episode, mushrooms are an incredible indoor crop with a ton of advantages and potential. But they are also extremely labor intensive.&nbsp;“When you have a crop that doubles in size every 24 hours, you're often picking mushrooms at the end of the shift because you know that they'll start colliding with other mushrooms or their caps will open up by the next morning. So you pick them too quickly. Whereas if you know, I can come back in three hours and pick that, you'll gain the extra yield and weight that'll come with it. A robot is, is able to do that, that you know, shift labor can't accommodate.”Sean O’Connor and the team at 4AG Robotics are bringing automation to this industry. But they’re not the first to have this idea, which means they have to work a bit harder to gain farmers’ trust.&nbsp;“Decades of people saying that we're gonna solve harvesting through automation, much like the rest of agriculture as well, and decades of people being wrong. So that barrier for acceptance of an MVP is very low, and you gotta have something that truly adds value to them from day one.”Today is not only an education in mushroom farming, but a candid look on what it takes to bring technology to an established industry. Sean O’Connor&nbsp; of 4AG Robotics on today’s Future of Agriculture podcast.

Headstorm: https://headstorm.com/AGPILOT: https://headstorm.com/agpilot/Ecovative: https://www.ecovative.com/ MyForest Foods: https://myforestfoods.com/ I’ve been meaning to do an episode on mushroom farming and mushroom technology for a long long time. But the right story just never presented itself. Then I got connected with Ecovative and about the same time got in touch with the subject of next weeks’ interview and all of a sudden I have two fascinating stories of fungi! And these aren’t far-fetched companies: they are proving commercially that mushroom farming shouldn’t be kept in the dark when it comes to the future of agriculture. In fact, when you think about the vast diversity of fungi that exist in nature, it’s surprising to me that we haven't seen more done to commercialize them for food, fiber and other resources (relative to domesticated plants and animals). But there are reasons to believe that’s starting to change, and will likely be accelerated through advancements in biotechnology in my opinion.&nbsp;So this is a great time to bring on Eben Bayer, co-founder and CEO of Ecovative, which he co-founded clear back in 2007. Ecovative is now the leading mycelium technology company in the world. He is also Co-founder of MyForest Foods, and is listed as an inventor on 64+ patents.&nbsp;Eben grew up working on his family's farm in Vermont, where he began thinking of mycelium as a new category of material with myriad possibilities. He has since developed mycelium technology into the basis of sustainable innovations across industrial categories, including applications in construction, packaging, food, automotive, fashion and apparel.We will of course focus on his work in food and specifically on the bacon product made from his mycelium.

Headstorm: https://headstorm.com/AGPILOT: https://headstorm.com/agpilot/Wilbur-Ellis: https://www.wilburellis.com/ Today's episode features Amie Thesingh, president of ag solutions and chief technology officer at Wilbur-Ellis. Today’s episode is a perfect compliment to last week’s episode with Brad Fruth of Beck’s Hybrids. Both Beck’s and Wilbur-Ellis are well-established family-owned companies that aren’t just resting on their laurels. They’re looking ahead and wanting to be on the cutting edge of technology and innovation. Like last week’s episode, the perspective Amie shares is both grounded in the realities of how agriculture really works, but also forward-looking and open to how the industry is evolving and changing.&nbsp;In Amie’s role, she has to wear three different hats:&nbsp;Strategy and business development for the company as a wholeRunning their ag solutions business, which includes digital solutions, sustainable grower solutions, and their proprietary products portfolio - really focuses on innovation and the futureAnd the IT function - how they’re using digital and data internallySo it’s a big job for the 103 year-old leading international marketer and distributor of agricultural products, animal nutrition and specialty chemicals and ingredients.Amie joined Wilbur-Ellis in 2020, bringing deep strategy, commercial and general management expertise to her role, along with experience that spans the food, agribusiness and technology industries. Before Wilbur-Ellis, Thesingh held a variety of leadership roles at Cargill, where she developed and executed solutions for farmers, including new product development. Most recently, she was Vice President of Strategy, Marketing and Innovation for Cargill’s protein businesses in Latin America, Europe and Asia. She created the first global strategy and acquisition portfolio across these regions, identified the critical levers for aggressive organic and M&amp;A growth, and subsequently took responsibility for go-to-market and innovation improvement efforts.And that’s where i’ll drop you into today’s conversation, where Amie is talking about her valuable experience at Cargill, and how that set her up for her current role at Wilbur-Ellis.&nbsp;

Headstorm: https://headstorm.com/AGPILOT: https://headstorm.com/agpilot/Software is Feeding The World: https://www.rhishipethe.com/sftwBeck's Hybrids: https://www.beckshybrids.com/ The word “innovation” is tossed around quite a bit - I’m guilty of overusing it myself. But what does it mean? There’s probably no better person to dig into this question at least in agriculture than Beck’s Hybrids director of innovation Brad Fruth.&nbsp;“Ideas are cheap.&nbsp; Motivated people that are passionate about their ideas is what is lacking.”Beck’s Hybrids is the largest family-owned retail seed company and the third-largest seed brand in the country. But it’s Brad’s views on innovation and adding value to customers that really stand out today me in today’s episode.“Focus on what we're good at, which is seed, and the selection of seed, the placement and management of it, but then partner with best in breed on everything else.”Today, Brad shares some of the specific ways Beck’s Hybrids adds value to their farmer customers, and he shares openly and candidly his views on the current state of ag technology.&nbsp;“If you don't have a good value prop and you're not delivering value, then this is just the inevitable. Right? And so the industry probably needs a little bit of belt tightening to make sure that you are delivering direct farm value and you're just not blowing smoke.”&nbsp;Brad Fruth of Beck’s Hybrids sits down with guest host Rhishi Pethe on today’s Future of Agriculture podcast. Brad is the &nbsp;is the director of innovation at Beck’s. He started there as an intern and has now worked there for about 20 years. Over that time, he has been dedicated to converging IT, data and agriculture into real solutions for farmer customers. This background gives him a perspective that you will really enjoy hearing because it is both technical and relatable, and always focused on what makes a meaningful impact at the farm level.&nbsp;Today’s interview was put together by our guest host, Rhishi Pethe. This is now the third episode Rhishi has brought to the program after Verdant Robotics in 391 and Lavoro Agro in 404. As many of you know, Rhishi writes the newsletter Software is Feeding the World. If for some reason you are not subscribed, you’ll find a link to do so in the show notes.

Headstorm: https://headstorm.com/AGPILOT: https://headstorm.com/agpilot/ELO Life: https://elolife.com/ Pairwise: https://www.pairwise.com/home New Leaf Symbiotics: https://www.newleafsym.com/ Harpe Bio: https://harpebio.com/"Biologicals are ‘economically unfeasible’ According to Report: The Shortcomings and Opportunities" by Upstream Ag Insights: https://www.upstream.ag/p/biologicals-are-economically-unfeasibleI considered a title for this episode that was something like “The Biological Revolution Coming to Agriculture”.&nbsp;I decided against it, and not just because it’s over-dramatic and the word ‘revolution’ is tossed around way too much, but because it would give many listeners the wrong idea of what this episode is about.&nbsp;This is not an episode about biologicals, which has become a catch-all term for things like biostimulants, biopesticides, biofungicides, and bioherbicides. I’m not a fan of trying to categorize things as “biologicals” for the following reasons:&nbsp;The term “biological” doesn’t tell a farmer customer anything about what the product will do for them. Is it effective? Is it profitable? What value does it have? In fact, in some cases calling it a “biological” is used to almost justify that it’s not as effective. Which brings me to my second point.&nbsp;The term “biological” comes with a lot of baggage. Decades of new products emerging with promises that at best don’t work in all cases, and at worst appear to be snake oil.&nbsp;Some of the benefits of a biological don’t have incentives in place to actually return value to farmers. Meaning, if for example, a biological can improve quality or boost the marketing story of a commodity or reduce emissions, how will the farmer see the money back from their investment?&nbsp;There are products that aren’t purely a biological or a synthetic chemistry, but deliver great outcomes for farmers. They get lumped in at times with biologicals because they have nowhere else to go. We’ve heard this on this show with Sound Agriculture’s SOURCE that uses chemistry to improve the performance of natural microbes, or Vestaron who has peptide products for pest control, and today will add a natural chemistry company to that list in Harpe Bio, which uses formulations from plant extracts for a suite of herbicides.&nbsp;Lastly, the entire industry is looking for ways to reduce reliance on synthetic chemistry whether that’s due to resistance, regulation, or other factors. So being a “biological” is just becoming less and less of a differentiator.&nbsp;With all of that said I do believe that advancements in biotechnology will have the single biggest impact of any technology on the future of agriculture. And that’s what I want to talk about here in this episode and highlight four companies that are doing some fascinating work driven by biology, that I had the chance to sit down with at World Agri-Tech this year.&nbsp;So that intro might sound like I’m both criticizing biologicals and calling them the future of agriculture. Let me clarify: my point is that we need to stop lumping everything into this biologicals category and making judgments about a vague category and instead look at how companies and products can stand on their own merits and

Headstorm: https://headstorm.com/AGPILOT: https://headstorm.com/agpilot/Today’s episode features Headstorm CEO Lawrence King. Lawrence has over 18 years of technology strategy consulting experience. He got his start in agtech with Farmlink over eight years ago where he built an engineering team. That company ran into some hard times, and Lawrence found himself with a talented team of engineers and no work to do. He tapped into his contacts in agtech looking for strategy and engineering talent and Headstorm was born.&nbsp;Today, Headstorm has worked with companies all throughout agriculture and in similar industries who want to implement large-scale technology initiatives in their businesses. He’ll give us a few examples of what that looks like. Also, Headstorm recently announced a product of their own called AGPILOT, which uses generative AI to give ag retailers and other agronomists a new interface to record and access their data which ultimately allows them to better serve farmer customers.Lawrence has a lot of battle-tested wisdom about what works and what doesn’t work in agtech, and he shares a lot of those insights in today’s interview.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Headstorm: https://headstorm.com/AGPILOT: https://headstorm.com/agpilot/Hemprino: https://www.hemprino.co.nz/ Prime Future Newsletter: https://primefuture.substack.com/ We’ve all heard the stats about how little of what consumers pay makes it back to the farmer or rancher. Some producers, like New Zealand sheep farmer Paul Ensor, are seizing the opportunity to capture more of that value. "A lot of farmers don't know where their produce goes once it leaves the farm gate, but we're very well connected and we know what standards they require for us to grow the wool under. And so it's all about adding value and the best way to do that is be better connected to our end customer, farm to fashion."Paul is capitalizing on this farm to fashion opportunity in a number of ways, including his own natural fiber brand called Hemprino, which is a blend of 80% fine merino wool and 20% hemp.&nbsp;"There's a lot of wool blended with synthetic fibers to give it various attributes, whether to make the yarn stronger or more durable or give it some stretch. So we thought, well, why can't we do that with another natural fiber?"Hemprino has been successful and Paul says he’s having a lot of fun, but running a consumer focused business on top of a farming operation, is not an easy challenge to take on. "The supply chain is very challenging. So like when the wool leaves the farm, it's almost at times up to 18 months before we can have a garment to sell. So just all that managing that time from leaving the farm gate to hitting the store, if you like, has been quite challenging."Paul Ensor of Hemprino talks to guest host Janette Barnard on today’s Future of Agriculture podcast.

Headstorm: https://headstorm.com/AGPILOT: https://headstorm.com/agpilot/Bayer Announcement: https://www.bayer.com/media/en-us/bayer-pilots-unique-generative-ai-tool-for-agriculture/Bayer AgPowered Services: https://www.bayer.com/media/en-us/bayer-collaboration-with-microsoft-connects-farm-data-to-address-lack-of-data-interoperability-in-agriculture/Microsoft World Agri-Tech Reflections: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/industry/blog/sustainability/2024/04/02/world-agri-tech-2024-pioneering-agriculture-resilience-with-ai/Claudia Roessler World Agri-Tech Reflections on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/claudia-roessler-microsoft_world-agri-tech-2024-pioneering-agriculture-activity-7180973495110057984-Bay4?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktopFoA 111: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning with Jeremy Williams https://futureofagriculture.com/episode/future-of-agriculture-111-artificial-intelligence-and-machine-learning-with-jeremy-williams-of-monsanto&nbsp;FoA 361: Meet Norm, FBN's AI-Powered Ag Advisor with Kit Barron and Charles Baron https://futureofagriculture.com/episode/foa-361-meet-norm-fbns-ai-powered-ag-advisor-with-kit-barron-and-charles-baronFoA 266:Microsoft Wants to Democratize Data-Driven Agriculture https://futureofagriculture.com/episode/foa-266-microsoft-wants-to-democratize-data-driven-agriculture&nbsp;FoA 345: Alphabet's Moonshot to Scale Sustainable Agriculture via Machine Learning with Dr. Elliott Grant of Mineral https://futureofagriculture.com/episode/foa-345-alphabets-moonshot-to-scale-sustainable-agriculture-via-machine-learning-with-elliott-grant-of-mineral&nbsp;“Yield Maps Killed Agtech Software, Can AI Fix It?” https://tenacious.ventures/insights/yield-maps-killed-agtech-software-can-ai-fix-it&nbsp;Bailey Stockdale LLM Benchmarking: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/gbstockdale_anthropic-claude-opus-is-the-new-leader-in-activity-7173365123196112896-SkEt?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

SWAT MAPS: https://swatmaps.com/Follow Paul Sullivan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SullivanAgroThese Field Report segments are short occasional episodes where we will hear from the people who actually use and hopefully benefit from the innovations we discuss on the show.&nbsp;We’ve already been doing this through the spotlight segments that have aired at the end of about one episode every month. I’ve really enjoyed these sort of customer testimonials that are provided from our quarterly presenting sponsors.&nbsp;So I’m taking what we were doing with those spotlights and creating standalone episodes with a similar concept: only now sometimes it will be associated with the sponsor, and sometimes not - just profiles of farmers and other users of agricultural innovations giving their report from the field.&nbsp;In today’s case, Paul Sullivan is a certified crop consultant and agronomist in Eastern Ontario. He has operated his agronomy services firm, P.T. Sullivan Agro, since 1997, and started using SWAT MAPS in recent years. This part of Ontario which is just outside of Ottawa, is mostly corn, soybeans and wheat. Paul’s work focuses on developing crop plans around nutrient management, pH, pesticides, and some genetic recommendations as well.&nbsp;Before starting the business, Paul spent eight years as a soil and crop advisor with the ministry of agriculture and food covering three counties with the provincial extension group there. So he has a long history of working directly with farmers to solve agronomic problems.

Variable Rate done RIGHT with SWAT MAPS: https://swatmaps.com/University of Saskatchewan Precision Agriculture Certificate Program: https://admissions.usask.ca/precision-agriculture.phpI wanted to have a conversation about cutting edge tools and the future of digital agriculture, and I definitely think we succeeded in bringing that to you today. Both Steve and Preston are thinking deeply about the best ways to collect and analyze data, think about variability, and utilize this deeper understanding for real world outcomes on farms.&nbsp;Dr. Preston Sorenson is a research associate in the department of soil science at the University of Saskatchewan. His work focuses on mapping soil properties using a range of data sources, usually from satellite imagery and elevation data. He also works a lot with soil sensor systems, in particular for rapid carbon measurements. And carbon measurement is something we definitely get into today.&nbsp;Dr. Steve Shirtliffe is a professor also at the University of Saskatchewan but in the department of plant sciences. As I mentioned in the opener, he pivoted his career about seven years ago from his focus in agronomy to now working in the area broadly referred to as digital agriculture. His focus is on crop imaging and understanding in-field spatial variability and what causes it.&nbsp;Steve and Preston talk about digital tools, ag data, artificial intelligence, and what the future might hold for precision agriculture.

Variable Rate done RIGHT with SWAT MAPS: https://swatmaps.com/The Context Network: https://contextnet.com/Today's episode features Christian Guffy of the Context Network. I wanted to bring Christian on the show to talk about talent and growing a client services firm. I think those are both interesting and important topics that I haven’t done a good job of covering on the show.&nbsp;In client services, which is the business I’m in with the consulting that I do, all you have to sell is your talent. So finding ways to recruit, retain and develop talent is extremely important. It’s important in any business, but especially in a business where your people’s abilities is the only thing you have to offer. Christian had some great perspective on this and some interesting insights into the way Context operates.&nbsp;For some quick background here, and some context on Context: Christian is a Partner at The Context Network and has been with the firm in a variety of roles for 10 years. He has a wide range of experience in working with clients across the food and agriculture value chain with notable focus on the upstream crop and animal sectors. He has worked with clients in the development and execution of strategic plans along with market and competitive intelligence. He has also advised companies on corporate financial planning including capital expenditures, business unit divestitures, and strategic acquisitions. Context's clients are many of the largest companies in the agriculture industry including manufacturers in crop protection, animal health, ag equipment, seeds, processing and handling, and many others.

SWAT MAPS: https://swatmaps.com/Corteva Agriscience: https://www.corteva.com/These new Field Report segments are short occasional episodes where we will hear from the people who actually use and hopefully benefit from the innovations we discuss on the show. We’ve already been doing this through the spotlight segments that have aired at the end of about one episode every month. I’ve really enjoyed these sort of customer testimonials that are provided from our quarterly presenting sponsors. So I’m taking what we were doing with those spotlights and creating standalone episodes with a similar concept: only now sometimes it will be associated with the sponsor, and sometimes not - just profiles of farmers and other users of agricultural innovations giving their report from the field. In today’s case, Brett McArtor is a senior research associate at Corteva Agriscience based in Johnston, Iowa. Corteva has three major focuses: crop protection, seed, and digital which supports those other two - and that’s where Brett works. Since graduating from Iowa State, Brett has remained focused on working with farmers to perform trials and research projects on their operations. He thinks of it as farmer-led science to figure out how new products fit into their management systems and affect their bottom line. He also brings that information back to the company to help formulate or position products to better suit farmer needs.

Variable Rate done RIGHT with SWAT MAPS: https://swatmaps.com/WonderCow: https://wondercow.com/The Business of Food Newsletter: https://jenniferbarney.substack.com/I believe that there are a lot of opportunities for those of us in agriculture in paying attention to food and health trends.&nbsp;I don’t personally love the term “food is medicine”, but obviously poor diet is a major cause of health problems, and we would all be better off to spend more of our time and probably our dollars prioritizing health and nutrition in our food choices. And that includes food supplements.&nbsp;But even I, who loves thinking about cutting edge things in food and ag, was pretty shocked to hear last year of the trend of people including colostrum from cows in their diet. Colostrum being the milk produced by the mother at the time of giving birth.&nbsp;As you’ll hear today, there is a growing number of health-conscious consumers that are looking to the unique nutritive bioactive properties of colostrum and this powder is selling for big bucks.&nbsp;Where there is a health trend - there is an agricultural opportunity. And that’s what we’re going to explore with guest host Jennifer Barney and dairy farmers Rob and Erica Diepersloot who are founders of WonderCow - powdered bovine colostrum for human consumption.

Variable Rate done RIGHT with SWAT MAPS: https://swatmaps.com/ProducePay: https://producepay.com/Today's episode features ProducePay founder Pablo Borquez Schwarzbeck. Born and raised in a 4th generation farming family from Mexico, Pablo brings over 20 years of experience in the fresh produce industry. After growing up on the family farm – Campos Borquez, a premier supplier of fresh asparagus and grapes to the United States and Canada – Pablo went on to work for The Giumarra Companies, managing grower relations in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and the United States. Pablo returned to the family farm as Chief Financial Officer, then went on to complete his MBA at Cornell University, where the idea of ProducePay was started, founded and launched.&nbsp;Last year the company announced that longtime board member and advisor Patrick McCullough would take over as CEO, and Pablo moved at that time into the role of Executive Director of the board. But as you’ll hear in this interview he is just as energized as ever about their mission and their future.&nbsp;We talk about the challenges of the produce trade and why there is so much waste and so many intermediaries involved, why he thinks there in a position to create a better model, what role financial technology has in their ability to pull it off, how interest rates and investor sentiment impact companies like ProducePay, and how his transition has been from founder to CEO to board director.&nbsp;There’s a lot to this story but a good place to start is acknowledging that we all want quality produce to be at the store every time we show up, whether its in season locally or not. For that to happen, there’s a lot of people involved around the world, and a lot of waste along the way. ProducePay may have started as a way to better capitalize farmers, but now they have their focus on how they can help those farmers manage price risk.&nbsp;And the guy who started it all is today’s guest, Pablo Borquez.&nbsp;

Variable Rate done RIGHT with SWAT MAPS: https://swatmaps.com/Lavoro Agro: https://www.lavoroagro.com/Software Is Feeding The World Newsletter: https://www.rhishipethe.com/sftwWork with Rhishi: https://www.metaldoglabs.ai/Brazil has officially overtaken the US to become the top corn exporter in the world. And companies like Lavoro Agro are seizing a huge opportunity to bring more technology to Brazilian farmers. "A US corn farmer is gonna be two times more productive than that Brazilian farmer, and the difference really is gonna come down to technology. And that technology comes in the form of inputs. And inputs is really where Lavoro plays." That's Lavoro's Chief Digital Officer, Alex. Wimbush. Today, he sits down with guest host Rhishi Pethe, who was also his colleague when they both worked at the Climate Corporation. I'm noticing a lot of companies out there almost have like a FOMO about AI and you know, some of these new tools like ChatGPT. Are you feeling the pressure from certain folks, like, Hey, we need to use ChatGPT, or we need to use, you know, whatever the latest shiny object is?This episode is a fascinating exploration of product management, Brazil. In agriculture and ag retail." I haven't seen yet any real true sort of sustained higher value input plus services plus products plus digital type offering. Rhishi Pethe interviews Lavoro Agro's Alex Wimbush on today's Future of Agriculture podcast.

Variable Rate done RIGHT with SWAT MAPS: https://swatmaps.com/TransparentSea: https://www.transparentseafarm.com/[Video] "How America's Biggest Indoor Shrimp Farm Sells 2 Million Shrimp Every Year": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AK_RQ1uaGs[Video] "Tour of TransparentSea Farm's urban shrimp farm": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wnyi1Sc6pk Today’s featured conversation is with Steve Sutton, founder and CEO of TransparentSEA Farm in Southern California. I’m excited to share this one with you. I became very interested in indoor aquaculture this past year. As I think about vertical farming for vegetables, my biggest concern comes down to spending big dollars on real estate, technology, energy and labor to produce a product that really isn’t that valuable - both in terms of dollars and nutrition. However, with fish, you have a much more valuable product than say lettuce. So, why haven’t we been talking more about indoor aquaculture? That was the question I asked myself, and it turns out, some people HAVE been talking about this - a lot. And it’s exciting, but also carries with it a lot of the same realities as all of indoor agriculture. It was very interesting to get into these realities with Steve on today’s episode. Even if you’re not interested in aquaculture at all, this episode is worth listening to because the parallels to other farming systems are evident. He also calls attention to some serious issues with labeling, and changing consumer behavior that I think is really important for anyone in a food-related industry.&nbsp;But first, a bit of a shrimp farming primer: not only are these little critters delicious, nutritious, high in protein and extremely versatile - i’m trying hard right now not to quote Bubba from Forest Gump - but they are very efficient. They are ready to be harvested in just four months with a feed conversion ratio of 1.4 pounds of feed for one pound of gain. For reference, that’s better than all the other major proteins like chicken, pork, beef, etc. You can also set up an indoor shrimp farm anywhere. Steve’s is relatively close to the ocean, but that’s mostly because he wanted to be close to the demand - he’s making his own saltwater on site, as you’ll hear.&nbsp;Steve’s background is after attending Columbia University he spent a year on Wall Street and decided it wasn’t for him. Wanting to make an impact he got very interested in fisheries which led to a master’s in marine conservation from the University of Miami and a career in aquaculture that ultimately led to him starting TransparenSea which has been in operation for about two years.

Variable Rate done RIGHT with SWAT MAPS: https://swatmaps.com/Forage Capital Partners: https://foragecapitalpartners.com/Jim Taylor of Forage Capital Partners. Jim has been involved with financing growth companies for over 20 years and has created and managed seven different funds prior to Forage. He was a founder of three growth equity funds, three subordinated debt funds, and the Farm Credit Canada Ventures direct investment program. Jim has raised and managed over $500 million dollars of growth capital in the Ag food industry.&nbsp;Jim has carved out a reputation for himself as the go-to person for anyone with an ag or food company with a proven product and business model that is ready to take on outside investment for growth. His approach makes so much sense to me as someone who can be a bit skeptical of a lot of what I see in early stage venture capital. But we’ve never covered this on the show, so I’m very excited to share with you this conversation with Jim Taylor.

Variable Rate done RIGHT with SWAT MAPS: https://swatmaps.com/Kessler Ag Ventures: https://kesslerag.ca/FoA 398: The Evolution of Precision Agriculture with Cory Willness and Derek Massey of Croptimistic TechnologyThis is the first installment of a new series of the podcast called "Field Reports", where we will hear from the people who actually use and hopefully benefit from the innovations we so regularly discuss on the show.&nbsp;I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, because in this respect, the show has been very one-sided. We hear from the visionaries that are creating new ventures, technologies, programs, research and ideas. But we too rarely hear from those that try them, buy them, and have to make them work in practice and in the field.&nbsp;We’ve been doing this a little bit through the spotlight segments that have aired at the end of about one episode every month. Those are sort of customer testimonials from our quarterly presenting sponsors. I’ve really enjoyed these stories and the tried and true perspectives that come from them. So I’m going to make these short standalone episodes and a regular thing: sometimes with users of the technology from the sponsor, and sometimes not - just profiles of farmers and another users of agricultural innovations.&nbsp;In today’s case, Tyler Kessler owns an independent agronomy consulting business in Southern Saskatchewan alongside his wife, Brooke Dorgan. The company provides a range of agronomic and precision agriculture services for farmers who want to optimize yield, improve soil health, and reduce your environmental impacts. They are also a service provider of SWAT MAPS, our presenting sponsor this quarter.&nbsp;Before incorporating the business in 2015, Tyler worked in ag retail for eight years and spent a couple of years with an ag chemical manufacturer. He says in those days he wasn’t seeing a lot in precision ag that convinced him it was really adding a lot of value to farmers. But then he discovered SWAT MAPS.&nbsp;

Variable Rate done RIGHT with SWAT MAPS: https://swatmaps.com/Verdi Ag: https://www.verdi.ag/Arthur Chen is the CEO of Verdi, which is helping to climate-proofing agriculture with the world's first scalable platform to personalize healthcare for plants, helping the world's largest food brands radically optimize farm productivity and sustainability. In 2022, Verdi saved farmers over 7 million liters of water. Prior to Verdi, Arthur conducted precision agriculture research sponsored by Mineral at Google X.&nbsp;Arthur and I talk about variable rate irrigation, gaining traction as a new agtech company, and how technology like Verdi’s can make an impact on the future of agriculture.&nbsp;

Variable Rate done RIGHT with SWAT MAPS: https://swatmaps.com/Cquesta website: https://cquesta.com/FOA 200: Drones for Spraying, Seeding, and Pollinating with RantizoMichael Ott is the CEO of Cquesta, a deep root trait company that helps crops tolerate stress and earns carbon credits to farmers with no change in agronomic practices.&nbsp; Michael is also the Founding CEO and Board Member at Rantizo, the nation's largest drone-spraying company.&nbsp;Before Rantizo, Michael worked in corporate venture capital backed by Monsanto, Novozymes and Bunge, where he invented a patented technology that delivers a tiny amount of nitrogen to a rice seed as it grows.&nbsp; Michael has a Master's degree in Chemistry from the University of Iowa and two decades worth of experience in finance and agriculture.&nbsp; He is an author on five patent applications and has raised over $180 million in investments over the course of his career. Michael was named PrecisionAg 2021 Entrepreneur of the Year.Michael and I talk about Cquesta and what makes this technology unique, what’s not working in the current soil carbon market paradigm, how they plan to bring together seed companies, farmers, carbon credit buyers and others to make this model work, why he jumped right back into another agtech startup right after Rantizo, and more.

Variable Rate done RIGHT with SWAT MAPS: https://swatmaps.com/Agricultural Economic Insights: https://aei.ag/AEI.ag Presents Podcast: https://aei.ag/podcast/David Widmar is an agricultural economist specializing in agricultural trends and the farm economy. Through his research, he supports agribusinesses and farmers in their strategic and planning efforts. David is the Managing Partner of Agricultural Economic Insights, AEI.ag, which he co-founded with Dr. Brent Gloy in 2014. Prior to AEI, David was a researcher with the Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University and served as the economist for the Kansas Department of Agriculture. I highly recommend you subscribe to AEI’s content and go check out their podcast, AEI.ag Presents. I especially recommend their season on the 1980s farm crisis.In today’s episode, David and I discuss farmland values, the impact of higher interest rates, how to think about risk, and how to manage volatility in things like markets and inflation.&nbsp;

Variable Rate done RIGHT with SWAT MAPS: https://swatmaps.com/Cory Willness on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cory-willness-78b76246/Derek Massey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derek-massey-61aa909a/SWAT Agronomy Podcast: Apple, SpotifyFOA 211: Ground Truthing AgTech with Cory Willness: https://futureofagriculture.com/episode/foa-211-ground-truthing-agtech-with-cory-willness Cory Willness and Derek Massy are the co-founders of Croptimistic Technology, the creators of SWAT MAPS. Cory is the CEO, and Derek is the CTO. They’ve been working on building precision ag tools for about 20 years together. Cory says he’s the hustler and Derek is the hacker. Derek is an electrical engineer and software developer. His dad was a farmer and Cory came to him in the early 2000s to start building software together. At that time, Cory was an independent crop consultant and the owner of CropPro Consulting, which is a company he still owns today that does agronomic consulting in Western Canada.&nbsp;It’s through these early experiences of building digital tools that Cory and his fellow agronomists on his team could use, that led to them building a company to sell tested and proven technology that they were already using in the field. We talk about many things in this episode, from the evolution of precision agriculture, to building a profitable company in agtech, to why after many years they decided to take on an investor in 2021, and what the future might look like for precision agriculture and agtech more generally.

Variable Rate done RIGHT with SWAT MAPS: https://swatmaps.com/Zordi: https://www.zordi.com/Casey Call on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/casey-call-03a3b03b/Technology in agriculture can help reduce production costs and improve efficiencies, but it can also open up new possibilities for quality that goes beyond the average consumers’ expectations.&nbsp;“Our economic picture is to be able to capitalize on growing a better product and supplying a better product to the consumer, but also being able to kind of fix our labor costs and control those to a certain point.”That’s Casey Call, co-founder of Zordi. Which I first thought was a robotics company focused on building robots for greenhouse agriculture. Turns out they are that and more - using their own proprietary technology to build&nbsp; and operate their own greenhouse farms.&nbsp;“Getting people access to this produce is kind of the key. When people start having our strawberries, they're like, oh, well we get it now. And so getting more and more of this infrastructure built, getting more and more access to these things in stores, I think is the path that we're on.”&nbsp;This focus on quality and the latest in technology has some thought-provoking insights on the path forward.&nbsp;“We're gonna have to seek technology solutions. We're gonna have to seek new ways of planting, harvesting, processing, and selling food to people if we want to maintain a good quality of life.”Casey Call was born and raised on a fourth generation family owned vegetable and grain farm in New York State. After completing his degree in Ag Science at Cornell he moved across the country to become the agronomist for Grimmway Farms / Cal Organic in the central valley of California. Earning his MBA on nights and weekends, he eventually went to work at ag management software company, Granular which was later acquired by Dupont. At that time he moved on to become the Head Grower for Plenty, an indoor vertical farming company.&nbsp;All of these experiences led him to become the co-founder of Zordi, where he works alongside founder and CEO Gilwoo Lee to more fully automate fruit and vegetable production in greenhouses. As you’re about to hear, Zordi acquires varieties from around the world, such as Korean and Japanese Strawberries, to grow and manage them with a fleet of harvesting and scouting robots. Then they market and sell those premium varieties through grocery stores.&nbsp;This is a massive project that they’ve taken on, and they’ve made significant progress in a short time. I respect Casey’s perspective as one of the few people I know with firsthand growing experience on family farms, corporate farms, vertical farms, and greenhouse production systems. So it’s interesting to see the ways he’s combining this unique skill set.

Turn your data into actionable value with SWAT MAPS: https://swatmaps.com/Toby Kiers, PhD website: https://tobykiers.com/Toby's TED TALK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjwvaF3P_5Q&amp;t=273sScientists are discovering incredible interactions between plants' roots and soil dwelling fungi called mycorrhizal fungi. These relationships are integral to how plants function, including of course, our crops. But despite their importance to fundamental aspects of plant development, there's still so much we have yet to learn."We know, for example, that the fungi, when it colonizes the root system, it can actually change the gene regulation of the plant, such that the plant is no longer able to access nutrients directly from its root system. It kind of creates an addiction onto the fungi that makes it so the plant is giving more carbon to get at the nutrients."That's Dr. Toby Kiers, an evolutionary biologist who studies these mycorrhizal fungi. She shares why this work is so important for biodiversity, for crop development, for soil health and for carbon sequestration. "We did some research that found that about 13 billion tons of CO2 are allocated every year from plants to mycorrhizal networks across the earth, so that that includes all kinds of mycorrhizal fungi, also associated with forests. But that's a huge number, right? That's equivalent to one third of the emissions from fossil fuels."The functions and strategies that these fungi perform in nature will blow your mind, and I can't help but wonder about the possibilities for the future of agriculture. Professor Toby Kiers is an evolutionary biologist who earned her PhD from UC Davis. She has been Professor and University Research Chair of Evolutionary Biology at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam since 2014.&nbsp;&nbsp;Kiers is famous for uncovering ancient biological markets that take place beneath forest floors, in which different trees and fungi barter for essential resources such as phosphorus and sugar. Kiers co-founded the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN).

Put AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/Prime Future Newsletter by Janette Barnard: https://primefuture.substack.com/ "Cattle Kingdom: The Hidden History of the Cowboy West" by Christopher Knowlton: https://www.amazon.com/Cattle-Kingdom-Hidden-History-Cowboy/dp/1328470253/ref=sr_1_1" It was a Darwinian struggle across the open range, as it often is in a capitalist society. A struggle to survive, to outcompete, to adapt on the fly, to changing circumstances brought on by new technology, emerging monopolies, changing regulations, fluctuating markets, and fickle weather. From one angle, the story of the Great Beef Bonanza is a record of remarkable human ingenuity and technological advancement. From another, it's a case history of the calamities that befall those who ignore economic or ecological realities in a single-minded pursuit of the American dream. The open range cattle era and its role in shaping America deserve to be more broadly known if only as an instructive cautionary tale."That is a passage from "Cattle Kingdom: The Hidden History of the Cowboy West" by Christopher Nolton. That is going to be the basis for today's very special history episode about an interesting and pivotal time in American history, but also in the history of industrialized agriculture. Joining me for this is the person who recommended "Cattle Kingdom" to me, and someone who has been a regular on the show, Janette Barnard.This book is both instructive about how bubbles form, but also some really pivotal beginnings to what we know today as agriculture, especially on the meat side of the business, which is what Janette covers in her wonderful weekly newsletter called Prime Future.

Put AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/Featured Podcast Episodes: "The Future of Ag is De-Globalized" on The Business of Agriculture"What an Aging, Shrinking Population Means for Ag (and Everyone Else)" on The Business of Agriculture"Marc Arnusch on how farmers are using ChatGPT" on Agtech...So What?"An Agtech Marketing Masterclass with Dan Schultz" on The Modern Acre"Crop Resilience Redefined: Power Pollen Revolutionizing Corn" on Farm4Profit"Driscoll's Global Commitments and Climate Smart Strategies with Marta Baptista" on Fresh Takes on Tech"Why You Should Definitely Try Ostrich Meat" on The Farm Traveler PodcastOther Resources Mentioned: FoA 186: Five Trends for the Future of AgricultureFoA 238: Five Barriers Limiting AgricultureFoA 342: Leading from the farm: insights from farmer innovators"The End of the World is Just the Beginning" by Peter ZeihanFoA 380: Equity Capital for Farmland with Ben Gordon and Kyle MehmenFoA 379: The Farm Entrepreneur Mindset with Evan Shout of Maverick Ag<a

Put AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/CNH Industrial: https://www.cnhindustrial.com/FoA 349: Robotic Harvesting and Beyond with Kyle Cobb of advanced.farmFOA 180: The Journey of an AgTech Entrepreneur with Colin Hurd of Smart AgSoftware is Feeding The WorldUpstream Ag InsightsMarc Kermisch is the Industrial Global Chief Digital and Information Officer of CNH Industrial. Under his leadership, the Company’s Information Technology (IT) and Digital organizations are focused on delivering easy to use, mobile first digital experiences, coupled with advanced vehicle technology that drives productivity for customers. He is also responsible for leading the Company’s global product engineering, industrial design and R&amp;D teams, strengthening its alternative propulsion offering and overseeing product safety and compliance. All of these efforts ensure the Company’s vast product portfolio meets the highest standards for customers.I probably don’t have to introduce CNH Industrial to you, but the short version is that they are an agricultural and construction capital equipment manufacturer. His own description of his job is to deliver deliver software to customers, dealers and employers that is easy to use to makes their job easier every day. &nbsp;Make sure you stay tuned to the end of today’s episode for a more detailed spotlight of Adam Henkel and how he’s using technology like Farmwave on his farm.&nbsp;

Put AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/Texas A&amp;M Website: https://agecon.tamu.edu/people/fischer-bart/Southern Ag Today: https://southernagtoday.org/As we approach the end of 2023, one thing that many in agriculture thought would happen this year that hasn't is a new farm bill. "The farm bill attracts this outsized attention. It's carrying some baggage that probably was not envisioned, you know, 80 to a hundred years ago when this process was started."That's Dr. Bart Fisher, who spent eight years with the House Agriculture Committee, and today is a professor of ag policy at Texas A&amp;M. The lack of a farm bill brought up a lot of questions for me about this legislation. Like what are the impacts of not having this bill in place? What causes these types of delays and are these farm bills which have been around since the 1930s even still relevant?"It's just incredibly important for the productive capacity of this country that we maintain a safety net for growers because it costs so much to produce."Bart gives me quite an education about the past, present, and future of the farm bill. We talk about some of the nuances to getting these bills passed, and what goes into these farm bills from support programs to crop insurance, to conservation and beyond, and we cover the impacts of the policies on farmers and rural economies. "Farm bills aren't written for the good times. They're written for the bad times. One of the challenges though is that even though they're written for the bad times, they're often written during the Good Times." Dr. Bart Fischer is a research assistant professor and co-director of the Agricultural and Food Policy Center in the Department of Agricultural Economics. His applied research focuses on solving real-world policy problems for agricultural producers and on anticipating potential policy changes for Congress to consider. Before joining Texas A&amp;M University, Fischer served for more than eight years on the House Agriculture Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was involved in every major agricultural policy development in Washington, D.C. over the past eight years, including the 2014 and 2018 Farm Bills. He is the 5th generation to be raised on his family’s wheat, cotton, and cattle operation in Southwest Oklahoma and he continues to be actively involved.For those of you not real familiar with the farm bill: it’s an omnibus law that is addressed every five years to provide an opportunity for policymakers to address agricultural and food issues. We will reference a few of the titles of the farm bill by number in this episode, so just so you have it fresh on your mind, we’ll talk about title one, which is commodities. These are all of the price support and income support programs for the most widely-produced commodities that are produced. We will also talk about Title 2 which includes conservation programs and title 4 which is focused on nutrition and the SNAP program, which is formerly known as food stamps.&nbsp;

Put AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/másLabor: https://www.maslabor.com/Edward Silva is the CEO of másLabor and AgWorks, the nation’s leading providers of H-2A (agriculture) and H-2B (non-agriculture) labor solutions. As one of six children of Portuguese immigrants, Edward and his brothers grew up farming in California's Central Valley for their family's almond and grape operation. Edward's academic background includes studies in International Agricultural Development at the University of California, Davis, and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. He has dedicated his company’s mission to saving U.S. businesses by helping them secure the workforce they need to successfully run their operation. másLabor, under his leadership, represents more clients in more industries and geographies than any other service provider for H-2 visas.One cool part of today’s story is that Edward had reached out to me cold years ago in October of 2020 when he was fresh out of business school and looking for a business to buy. I read his message later in today’s episode and explain why it was so memorable and why it’s so cool that here he is three years later as a guest on the podcast.&nbsp;So not only do we talk about the need for ag labor and some of the challenges around the H2A process, but we also talk about entrepreneurship through acquisition, and Edward’s journey of starting a search fund to find an existing agricultural business to buy, and how that led to masLabor.&nbsp;

Put AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/[Founders Podcast] #324 John D. Rockefeller (38 Letters Rockefeller Wrote to His Son)[Morgan Housel Podcast] "My New Book, Same As Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes"Today’s combine harvesters are modern marvels capable of harvesting thousands of bushels per hour, including cutting, threshing, cleaning and capturing the grain. But the path from hand tools to the mechanical harvester is a fascinating one; which involved several farm shop innovations, intellectual property battles, labor challenges and pioneering business practices that are considered standard today. So buckle up for this one, because our subject for today’s episode, Cyrus Hall McCormick, was right in the middle of a lot of it all.&nbsp;Other Resources: [YouTube] THE ROMANCE OF THE REAPER " 1937 INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER PROMO FILM CYRUS MCCORMICK[YouTube] Alex Plaza- McCormick Reaper Documentary[Wikipedia] Obed Hussey[Richmond Times-Dispatch] “Jo Anderson” [Forbes Archives] Forbes Greatest Business Stories of All Time[Wikipedia] Cyrus Hall McCormick[Washington Post] Harvester: The Company That McCormick Built[PBS.ORG] Cyrus McCormick (1809 - 1884)[MIT] Cyrus McCormick: Mechanical Reaper[Investors Business Daily] Cyrus McCormick Revolutionized Farming Worldwide With The Reaper

Put AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/Rhishi Pethe's Software Is Feeding The World Newsletter: https://www.rhishipethe.com/sftwVerdant Robotics: https://www.verdantrobotics.com/Verdant Robotics is offering a smart sprayer that helps farmers reduce labor and input costs. But don’t let the word “robotics” in the name fool you: their technology, although very cutting-edge, hooks right onto existing equipment like any other farm implement.&nbsp;“Here at Verdant we have a slogan called 'autonomy last.' So even though our co founders and early employees all were foundational in the birth of that (autonomous vehicle) industry, it's the last thing that we're going to do. The majority of the value that we're going to provide the grower is automating the machine on the back. That's actually where the value is being provided.” - Curtis GarnerAutomation doesn’t necessarily mean autonomy. That’s Curtis Garner, founder and CCO at Verdant Robotics. A lot of the team, like Chief Operating Officer Brent Shedd, came from the world of self-driving vehicles, but they are now laser focused on farmers, and building the next generation of smart tech-enabled farm equipment.&nbsp;“If you're a grower and you're looking at&nbsp; an implement that isn't software defined, you should really rethink the way that you're evaluating the long term viability of the equipment&nbsp; on your farm. Because you want implements that will only increase in value to your operation the longer that you own them.” - Brent SheddCurtis Garner and Brent Shedd from Verdant Robotics join guest host Rhishi Pethe on today’s Future of Agriculture podcast.

Put AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/Eiwa: https://eiwa.ag/Today's episode features Carlos Hirsch, Chief Revenue Officer at Eiwa. Carlos is passionate about the intersection of agriculture, technology, and people. He has been in the Ag Industry for over 20 years and built an accomplished career in seed production, technology development and SaaS businesses. He has an agronomy degree from ESALQ in Piracicaba, Brazil and an Executive MBA from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He joined Eiwa in August of 2021 and resides with his family in St. Louis, MO.Carlos and Tim talk about what makes data problems in agriculture unique versus a lot of other industries. Their solution, that they call the Eiwa Vault, combines all types of data sources like weather, machinery, satellite, drones, field notes etc. and puts them all in a place and format that makes them accessible to other tools and ultimately, actionable decisions. Their original market for this are researchers and R&amp;D teams so they could spend more time on leveraging the data and extracting insights, but they’ve also moved into offering this to large commercial farming companies as well. This has a lot of implications for the big wave in advancements in artificial intelligence, which we seem to be experiencing right now.Stay tuned to the end of today’s episode for a detailed spotlight of Jason Diekevers and how he’s using technology like Farmwave on his farm.&nbsp;

Put AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/Gold Leaf Farming: https://www.goldleaf.ag/Today’s episode features the Director of Asset Management at Gold Leaf Farming, Sawyer Clark. Gold Leaf was founded in 2017 by Brandon Rebiero and Jack McCarthy. Sawyer met Jack while they were both in business school at Stanford, and soon became a part of the team.&nbsp;In today’s episode, Sawyer and I talk about Gold Leaf’s model for investing in farming, specializing in just a few permanent crops, how they add value after acquisition including transitioning to organic, hiring top talent, and embracing technology. We also have a lengthy discussion about the types of technology that has worked - and not worked - for their operation.&nbsp;Sawyer describes himself as a farm kid from Oregon's Willamette Valley, where his family continues to grow hazelnuts to this day. He spends his time at Gold Leaf Farming split between acquiring new properties and leading operational initiatives with the farm team - especially those regarding the company's sustainability practices.Before joining Gold Leaf, Sawyer served as an Intelligence Officer in the U.S. Army, bootstrapped and joined a couple startups, and completed a short stint in a family investment office. Sawyer received an MBA and MS in Environment &amp; Resources from Stanford University.&nbsp;

Put AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/"10 years on from Climate Corp’s $1bn acquisition, David Friedberg reflects": https://agfundernews.com/david-friedberg-reflects-10-years-on-from-climate-corp-1bn-acquisitionThe Production Board: https://www.tpb.co/Almost exactly 10 years ago, an acquisition was announced that caused many people in the technology and investment community to pay more attention to what was happening in agriculture: Monsanto was buying The Climate Corporation, which was founded by David Friedberg.&nbsp;"Climate.com became the standalone software product for farmers, and that really is kind of the reason Monsanto bought the company, and really kind of set the first big precedent for digitization of agriculture."Today David reflects on the Climate Corp journey and the Monsanto acquisition with AgFunder’s Louisa Burwood-Taylor, and he shares his current thoughts on agtech now that a decade has passed. "I do think that there's going to be some big opportunities for the next transformation in agriculture in multiplex precision gene editing and in metagenomics in the soil microbiome, even in breakthroughs in biologics or other platforms that can discover the next set or the next range of biologics."David and Louisa cover everything from genomics and biologics to precision fermentation, what keeps him up at night, and where agtech is headed in the decade to come.&nbsp;"I think the world will be surprised by how much we see acceleration and advancement in productivity in ag and food systems in the next 10 years."AgFunder’s Louisa Burwood-Taylor sits down with David Friedberg on today’s Future of Agriculture podcast.

Put AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/Silver Spring Foods: https://www.silverspringfoods.com/ Today's episode features Eric Rygg of Silver Spring Foods. This is a fun story for me, not only because I like horseradish, which I definitely do. This is a story of what’s possible when you carve out a niche and make moves to vertically integrate. There are also some great insights here about product positioning both to consumers and to retailers, and some of the challenges and opportunities of processing a marketing farm products. I particularly enjoyed learning about how the team at Silver Spring took it upon themselves to study the chemistry of what makes horseradish hot, and from that research they developed their own heat index for horseradish, they call a zing factor. So it’s kind of like the Scoville Heat Index in hot peppers. For the zing factor, one is beginner, or the least amount of heat, and 5 is the hottest, which will definitely give you that zing that travels up into your nose. Eric and I also hit some big trends like healthy food and regenerative agriculture along the way.&nbsp;Eric is the great-grandson of Ellis Huntsinger who founded Huntsinger Farms and Silver Spring Foods in 1929. Silver Spring Foods is the world’s largest grower and processor of horseradish based in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Eric’s mother Nancy, who took over the family business at a young age when her parents tragically passed away while she was in business school at Stanford, remains the CEO and chairman of the board to this day. She has led the company for over 50 years now. Eric worked in all parts of the family business before becoming president of Silver Spring Foods in 2018.&nbsp;Make sure you stay tuned to the end of today’s episode for a spotlight segment with Indiana farmer Jake Smoker about how he’s using technology like Farmwave on his farm.&nbsp;

Put AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/Advancing Eco Agriculture: https://www.advancingecoag.com/AEA's Equity Crowdfunding Campaign: https://wefunder.com/advancingecoagRegenerative Agriculture Podcast: https://regenerativeagriculturepodcast.com/John Kempf on Twitter: https://twitter.com/realJohnKempfToday’s episode will challenge several commonly held assumptions about the future of agriculture. Take regenerative agriculture, which most define by the ability to improve soil and sequester carbon. But these are outcomes, even by-products, not the complete definition of regenerative, says John Kempf.&nbsp;John is a leading crop health consultant and the founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture. He designs innovative soil and plant management systems to help growers realize the benefits of regenerative transition right away. We talk about what it means to be regenerative, the results they’ve seen from working with over 10,000 farmers across 4M acres, why they’ve launched an equity crowdfunding campaign and how we can all start to look at agricultural problems and solutions through a more regenerative lens.A quick bio on John: John Kempf is the founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture, a plant nutrition and biostimulants consulting company. A top expert in the field of biological and regenerative farming, John founded AEA in 2006 to help fellow farmers by providing the education, tools, and strategies that will have a global effect on the food supply and those who are growing that supply. John is the host of the Regenerative Agriculture Podcast, where he interviews top scientists and growers about the science and principles of implementing regenerative agriculture on a large scale.Through intense study and the knowledge gleaned from many industry leaders, John is building a comprehensive systems-based approach to plant nutrition - a system solidly based on the sciences of plant physiology, mineral nutrition, and soil microbiology. He has a unique ability to simplify and clearly explain very complex concepts in the areas of soil and plant health. He skillfully discusses the larger social and environmental impacts of food, agriculture, and ecology. John’s mission is to provide support to the world’s farmers and globally impact our food supply.

Put AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/Paine Schwartz Partners: https://paineschwartz.com/Today’s episode features Kevin Schwartz of Paine Schwartz Partners. This is a really interesting look at the food and ag industry from a totally different perspective. Kevin and his team are investors, but they’re not trying to invest in early stage startups like a venture capitalist would, or into farmland like other investors might. They focus on companies that already have proven their product, but for one reason or another might be looking to sell or take on an investor.&nbsp;Paine Schwartz Partners focuses their investing in these companies into two general categories: productivity - which includes seed and other inputs and technologies that help farmers and ranchers produce more efficiently and profitably. You’ll hear Kevin use the word “upstream” a lot, and he means upstream in the value chain, so these types of companies/products and services. Then their second area of investing is further downstream into more food companies, specifically those associated with health and wellness.&nbsp;I enjoyed the chance to ask Kevin about the evolution of private equity investing in food and agriculture and their approach from investment thesis development to research and due diligence to value creation strategy to portfolio construction. We also talk about the rise of environmental, social and governance ortherwise known as ESG and impact investing as well as how interest rates impact these companies and PSP’s ability to carry out their strategies. A lot of interesting stuff here that I’m learning for the first time, so I love episodes like this.&nbsp;If you’re an ag nerd but not a finance nerd, there might be a few terms that are foreign to you. I won’t do a full glossary here, but I encourage you to pause and look them up if needed, but stay to the end, because I think there’s some real insight in this episode.A quick bio on Kevin before we dive in: Kevin Schwartz has been an investor in the food and agribusiness industry for more than two decades. Today he leads Paine Schwartz Partners as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner.&nbsp;Raised in the town of Moline on the border of Illinois and Iowa, his great grandparents were subsistence farmers in Iowa and his grandfathe, uncle and father all worked at John Deere.&nbsp;Kevin began his career at Goldman Sachs in the late-1990s, and then moved into private equity working for two organizations, Fremont Partners and American Industrial Partners, before coming to the firm which at that time was called Fox-Paine in 2001.

Put AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/Farming Without The Bank: https://www.farmingwithoutthebank.com/"Becoming Your Own Banker" by R. Nelson NashFarming Without The Bank PodcastMary Jo Irmen is the author of the book Farming Without the Bank and a Infinite Banking Concept Practitioner who has set out to change how the farming industry is financed. She has helped farmers for 13 yrs see that there are financial solutions for them and the next generations. Mary Jo's mission is to take a 100 year old financial process and turn it around by making the bank plan B rather than plan A, give farmers back control, and allowing the next generation to take over without having to buy the farm from the bank with each generation.It’s important for me to note here, that I’m coming to this interview with a personal interest in this infinite banking concept. I’m not a farmer, but I see where it might be a good addition to my personal wealth-building strategy, and I also see where people who rely on banking even more than I do, like farmers, would benefit even more. That said, I’m not a financial or insurance expert. This is not advice. Please talk to an expert before making any financial decisions. This podcast is to try to better understand the infinite banking concept and the tools that go into building your own infinite bank.&nbsp;Let’s start with the 101 version. Here’s how I understand it: We all use banks - well most of us. We all have a general sense of how they make money - and we know they make that money from us. So let’s say for a minute that we see all the money that banks siphon from us through the course of our normal financial lives and we think,&nbsp; “wouldn’t it be nice if we could be our own bank and keep more of that money for ourselves?”&nbsp;You might think “sure that’s possible if you’re sitting on a big chunk of money that you can just borrow from and lend to, but what about the rest of us?”In the process of accumulating wealth maybe you have a 401k, maybe some real estate, but those aren’t assets designed to be used as a bank to borrow cash from whenever you need it and pay that money back whenever you can.&nbsp;However, there’s another type of asset that is better designed to be used as both a wealth-building tool and a bank. That asset is a certain type of whole life insurance through a dividend paying mutually owned life insurance company. If you’re first hearing about this, it may sound weird. It definitely has taken me a long time to try to get my head around this. But there are aspects of these policies that give you just the flexibility you need to become your own bank: making loans to yourself, repaying yourself, and still accumulating wealth over time. Our guest here has spent 13 years not only doing this, but helping others do the same. She even wrote the book about it, called Farming Without The Bank.&nbsp;This may be an episode you want to listen to multiple times to try to absorb. Or maybe you’re a lot quicker than me and you’ll get it the first time. There are other resources that we mention in the show and I link to in the show notes, most notably the book “Becoming Your Own Banker” by Nelson Nash, who created this concept.

Put AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/Follow Farmwave and Craig on TwitterFoA 237: Use Cases for Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture with Craig Ganssle of Farmwave: https://futureofagriculture.com/episode/foa-237-use-cases-for-artificial-intelligence-in-agriculture-with-craig-ganssle-of-farmwaveToday's episode features Farmwave's harvest loss system, some broader perspective on artificial intelligence in agriculture, and how to build an agtech company that adds real value to farmer customers. Farmwave founder and CEO Craig Ganssle is my guest today. Craig first appeared on the show back in episode 237 in late 2020, where we talked a lot about Craig’s military and technology background and how he has applied it in agriculture. Today, we focus on creating real value for farmer customers, the role of artificial intelligence, and the journey of a successful agtech entrepreneur. If you’re still a little fuzzy on what Farmwave does, the most succinct way to sum it up is to say that they’ve built an autonomous harvest loss system that uses cameras and vision based AI to detect harvest loss in real time and deliver those results in the cab in real time without ever having to stop. Craig first discovered artificial intelligence while serving in the United States Marine Corps as an intelligence communications operator with the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). He was later honorably discharged in 2001 for medical reasons. Craig then spent 15 years as a senior engineer with Verizon Wireless prior to founding Farmwave.Craig is so open about his journey and the lessons he has learned along the way, so all of you who are trying to build or operate a business in agriculture will be able to pull something valuable from this episode.

Soy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/"The Alchemy of Air" by Thomas HagerFoA 325: Electrified and Distributed Fertilizer Production with Nico Pinkowski of NitricityFoA 337: Synthetic biology for nature-based and data-driven farming with Travis Bayer and Adam Litle of Sound AgricultureFoA 348: Investing in the Future of Fertilizer with Sarah Nolet of Tenacious VenturesFoA 370: [History of Agriculture] William J Morse, the Father of the US Soybean IndustryWe learned in elementary school that soil, water and sunlight were what plants needed to survive. But for us to produce not just plants, but also food; food for billions of people, many of which live far away from the farm….we need fertilizer. Especially nitrogen. Lots and lots of nitrogen.&nbsp;Crops need other nutrients as well, but none are more essential than nitrogen. Before the 1900s, that nitrogen mostly came from manure or compost, or the very slow process of microbes that are able to fix small quantities of nitrogen from the air.&nbsp;And that last point, the fact that nitrogen is all around us in the air, was the basis for what is likely the greatest agricultural technology in history: the Haber-Bosch process, which involved the discovery and commercialization of how to convert atmospheric nitrogen in the air into the building block of modern agriculture: fixed nitrogen.&nbsp;The Haber-Bosch process, commercialized in the early 1900s is still where we get our nitrogen fertilizer today, for the most part. It’s estimated that without this process, 2-3 billion of the world’s population, about 40% would starve to death. If that doesn’t hit home hard enough, it’s also estimated that about half of the nitrogen in your body derived from a Haber-Bosch facility.&nbsp;Listen to this short excerpt from Alchemy of Air by Thomas Hager, which is the book that much of today’s episode is based on. Hager says: “While the population nearly quadrupled during the 20th century, food production, thanks first to HB, second to improved genetic strains of rice and wheat, increased nearly seven fold. That is the simple math behind today’s era of plenty”

Soy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/Claire Taylor: https://www.nuffieldscholar.org/scholars/2023/claire-taylorClaire Taylor grew up on a small beef farm on the west coast of Scotland and went on to study Politics and International Relations at Edinburgh University. She is a passionate storyteller and writer, with almost a decade of experience working with the BBC and the Scottish Farmer – first as a reporter and later as political editor.Claire and I discuss her current pursuit: to travel the world in order to understand what she calls the anti-farming agenda, and learn what it means to have productive and honest conversations about the future of farming. Be sure to stick around to the end of today’s episode for a spotlight segment with Ohio farmer and United Soybean Board vice chair Steve Reinhard. What do you think? Do you think there really is an anti-farming agenda out there? And if so, what needs to be done to turn the tide on that? I’m always glad to hear from you either on Twitter or the contact form on the website.

Soy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/Fractal Agriculture: https://fractal.ag/Ben Gordon is the founder and CEO of Fractal Agriculture, a passive farmland investment partner that invests alongside farmers rather than competing against them for land. After serving as an Infantry Officer in the U.S. Army, Ben worked in ag tech, management consulting, and private equity due diligence before his most recent role leading Corteva Agriscience’s carbon program.&nbsp;Kyle Mehmen is a partner at MBS Family Farms, a successful family-owned, family-operated corn and soybean operation in Plainfield, Iowa. Kyle and his family are ardent stewards of their land, leaning into sustainability balanced with profitability.I’ve had the opportunity to interact with both Ben and Kyle in different capacities throughout the years. I worked with Ben’s team at Corteva to host some webinars last year on soil health, and Kyle was featured on this show as part of our Farm Data series with INTENT back on episode 226. So it was fun to reconnect with both of them.&nbsp;This is a fascinating concept though, so whether you’re a farmer, investor, or someone just generally curious about the future of agriculture, I think you’re really going to find this one interesting. We’ll kick things off by getting right the point about what Fractal is doing, having Ben explain the thought process behind the business, then having Kyle share why he’s excited about the potential here for his farming operation.&nbsp;

Soy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/Soy Innovation Challenge: https://www.thesoychallengelive.com/Farmer Coach: https://farmercoach.ca/Maverick Ag: https://maverickag.com/Hebert Grain Ventures: https://hebertgrainventures.com/FoA 302: Farm Business Strategy with Kristjan HebertFoA 303: Implementing a Farm Operating System with Kristjan HebertEvan Shout is the president and co-founder of Maverick Ag, a business consulting and risk management firm in Western Canada. He also sits as president, co-founder, and lead coach at Farmer Coach, an education and coaching program for primary producers in both Canada and the US. These organizations fall under the Hebert Group of Companies, which also includes Hebert Grain Ventures, a 30,000-acre grain and oilseed operation in southeast Saskatchewan, where Evan sits as Chief Financial Officer.I had the privilege of hosting Evan’s business partner, Kristjan Hebert on the show last year back in episodes 302 &amp; 303. Those were very popular episodes about farm strategy and farm operating systems. We follow that up with today’s episode with Evan Shout about the entrepreneurial mindset and how apply that mindset to running a modern farm business.&nbsp;Spotlight Segment: Mac Marshall is the vice president of market intelligence for the United Soybean Board, where his job as part of the strategy team is to best position farmer leaders and directors to have the best information for making strategic decisions that are going to determine the fate of the soybean industry for years to come.&nbsp;He studied economics as an undergrad, and started his career with the US Bureau of Labor Statistics where he covered livestock, meat, cotton and consumer packaged goods. This background in economics and commodities analysis led to a job with Monsanto in corporate strategy then government relations before he joined the soybean board in 2020.&nbsp;He says strategic decisions from the farmer-led board have had major impacts on soybean farmers for decades, and shares some of the actions they are taking today to make sure the commodity continues to enjoy its demand and distribution for years to come. One example, he says, is the use of soy in renewable diesel.&nbsp;

Soy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/More About Jim Rogers: https://www.jimrogers.com/Today’s episode features Jim Rogers. I will first admit that this episode is pretty selfish. I found Jim’s books, particularly “Investment Biker” “Adventure Capitalist” and “Hot Commodities” in college when I was trying to figure out where my interests were and where I might like to start my career. I already had an interest in agriculture, international travel, and investing, so they had a huge impact on me. In fact, I decided to start my career in commodities in no small part because of his writing. So, when I had the chance to interview him on his thoughts about the world generally, I jumped at it. This one might be a bit different from our normal content because Jim is looking at broader economic and geopolitical drivers from an investor perspective and not so much as a “ag person” but I think his perspective is extremely valuable. The other reason this one might be a little bit different is I couldn’t help but become starstruck by him. He really had that big of an impact on me at a formative age.&nbsp;If you weren’t a wannabe investment geek in college like I was, let me give you some biographical background.&nbsp;Jim Rogers, a native of Demopolis, Alabama, is an author, financial commentator and successful international investor. After attending Yale and Oxford University, Rogers co-founded the Quantum Fund, a global-investment partnership. During the next 10 years, the portfolio gained 4200%, while the S&amp;P rose less than 50%. Rogers then decided to retire – at age 37. Continuing to manage his own portfolio, Rogers kept busy serving as a full professor of finance at Columbia University Graduate School of Business, and, in 1989 and 1990, as the moderator of WCBS’s ‘The Dreyfus Roundtable’ and FNN’s ‘The Profit Motive with Jim Rogers’.From 1990-92, Jim Rogers fulfilled his lifelong dream: motorcycling 100,000 miles across six continents, a feat that landed him in the Guinness Book of World Records. As a private investor, he constantly analysed the countries through which he travelled for investment ideas. He chronicled his one-of-a-kind journey in “Investment Biker: On the Road with Jim Rogers”. Rogers also embarked on a Millennium Adventure in 1999. He travelled for 3 years on his round-the-world, Guinness World Record journey. It was his 3rd Guinness Record. Passing through 116 countries, he covered more than 245,000 kilometres, which he recounted in his book “Adventure Capitalist: The Ultimate Road Trip”. His book, “Hot Commodities: How Anyone Can Invest Profitably In The World’s Best Market”, was published in 2004. Another of his books “A Bull in China” describes his experiences in China as well as the changes and opportunities there.

Soy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/Prime Future Newsletter: https://primefuture.substack.com/Leachman Cattle of Colorado: https://leachman.com/URUS: https://www.urus.org/In agriculture, we have exponentially more examples of people collecting data than we do of people using data to unlock real value supported by real dollars. Cattle genetics company Leachman Cattle is one of those few who demonstrated the ability to do just that. "You know, we kinda had set our own course to analyze our own data, to gather our own data to store it. And that's just been part of our model. It certainly wouldn't have been the cheapest route to go. But if you go the cheapest route, which is you put your data in a breed association, then we wouldn't have had any proprietary data or indexes. And I think it is that information and the way we use that information that. That led to the opportunity that we had to do business with URUS."That’s Lee Leachman, and Uris, who he mentioned there at the end, just agreed to acquire a majority stake in Leachman Cattle to take these proven proprietary genetics and build programs around them that optimize the entire value chain. "We want to build systems that capture value for dairy farmers and beef cattle ranchers that bring more money back to the farm. And to do that, we've gotta optimize these animals from conception to consumption, and we've gotta have enough structure to pass the value back."Lee Leachman chats with Janette Barnard on today’s Future of Agriculture podcast. Lee’s going to share more about his background and his company during the conversation, but I actually wasn’t a part of this one. This interview was conducted by my good friend and occasional co-host on this show, Janette Barnard. Long time listeners know Janette from previous episodes that she has co-hosted with me, and I hope you all are subscribers to her email newsletter, which is called Prime Future, which you can signup for at primefuture.substack.com.

Soy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/Canopy Farm Management: https://canopyfm.com/Savanna Institute: https://www.savannainstitute.org/Kevin Wolz and I talk about the fundamentals of agroforestry, their potential in the midwest, what these systems look like, and the barriers and opportunities to agroforestry becoming a bigger part of the future of agriculture, especially in the midwest where Kevin is focused.&nbsp;In 2013, Kevin co-founded the Savanna Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing and promoting perennial and tree-based regenerative agriculture systems. Under Kevin’s leadership, the Institute quickly gained recognition for its transformative research, education, outreach, and breeding efforts.Kevin is also the CEO of Canopy Farm Management. He is leading that company to drive innovation in tree establishment and management via a mobile fleet of state-of-the-art farm equipment, appropriate automation, and holistic strategies for tree-crop integration.&nbsp;Make sure you stay tuned to the end of today’s episode for a spotlight segment featuring Michigan farmer Laurie Isley. She shares some of the cool conservation practices they are adopting and some of the initiatives she’s a part of as a director for the United Soybean Board. Thanks so much to the soy checkoff for supporting the Future of Agriculture podcast.

Soy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/Dr. Paige Stanley's website: https://paige-stanley.com/FoA 222: Digging Deeper Into Regenerative Agriculture with Paige Stanley: https://future-of-agriculture.captivate.fm/episode/foa-222-digging-deeper-into-regenerative-agriculture-with-paige-stanleyMetrics, Management, and Monitoring (3M) Project: https://www.noble.org/3m/Dr. Paige Stanely is an interdisciplinary scientist working to understand how grazing management can sequester carbon in soils to help mitigate climate change and build more resilient rangeland ecosystems. She draws on a wide range of disciplines including soil biogeochemistry, grazing and rangeland ecology, agroecology, rancher sociology, and political ecology to approach research questions holistically. Paige is particularly interested in the use of “regenerative grazing” (or adaptive multi-paddock grazing) by ranchers on rangelands -- a form of high-intensity, short duration grazing with potential for increasing soil C sequestration.We really have a great and wide ranging conversation here about regenerative agriculture, from the challenges of carbon measurement to grazing management to carbon nitrogen ratio dynamics to producer economics to rancher sociology and beyond. Really a lot of fun to talk to Paige again. Speaking of which I should mention that this is her second appearance on the show. Her first episode, which also happens to rank up there as one of my favorite episodes, was number 222, back almost three years ago in September of 2020. In fact that’s a great one to go back and listen to after you finish this one, it’s titled “Digging Deeper into Regenerative Agriculture”.&nbsp;We’ll kick off today’s episode with Paige recapping what led her into the long process of understanding what it takes to properly sample, analyze, and measure soil carbon sequestration. I think this is really relevant to the current discussion which seems to take for granted, how difficult it is to get this right with a high level of accuracy.

Soy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/Sustain-A-Grain: https://www.sustainagrain.com/The Land Institute: https://landinstitute.org/Today’s episode features Peter Miller and Brandon Schlautman, Ph.D. of Sustain-A-Grain. Sustain-A-Grain has a two-part mission: to introduce consumers to Kernza® perennial grain and to support family farms in growing Kernza®. The team has been growing Kernza® themselves for nearly 5 years in close collaboration with The Land Institute—where Kernza® was first developed. They are certified seed dealers, handlers, and growers, and they work with dozens of farmers across the Great Plains to grow and market their grain. They also work with food companies, restaurants, breweries, and distilleries to source high-quality Kernza®.&nbsp;This is an interesting episode about the potential for perennial grains, and what it takes to commercialize a brand new crop. The problems are different that what you would expect. For example, Kernza® has received a ton of press and excitement from some pretty big end users, which sounds like a great thing, and ultimately it is. But Peter and Brandon have to find ways to build the supply chain in a way that buyers remain happy, farmers remain profitable, and supply and demand can grow together at a sustainable pace. No easy task. We’ll talk about the research and breeding efforts that continue to go into the crop and what this means for farmers, food companies, and the future of agriculture.&nbsp;Peter Miller, CEO &amp; Co-founder, has global agribusiness experience and previously worked in three early-stage startups, including helping to launch FarmLead’s online grain marketplace. Peter has over 10 years of operations and private equity experience in the ag industry. He holds an MBA from University of Illinois.Dr. Brandon Schlautman, Chief Science Officer &amp; Co-founder, is a crop scientist who previously led cranberry breeding and domestication efforts at University of Wisconsin and perennialization of edible legumes at The Land Institute. Brandon serves as the Research Director for a $10M National Institute of Food and Agriculture grant for perennial cover crops and holds a Ph.D. from University of Wisconsin.We begin the conversation with Brandon talking about where this all started, the place where Kernza® has been developed over the past 20 years: at The Land Institute.&nbsp;

Soy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/Perry Agricultural Laboratory: http://www.perryaglab.com/FoA 370: [History of Agriculture] William J Morse, the Father of the US Soybean IndustryJoining me today is the Chair of the United Soybean Board, Meagan Kaiser. Meagan has an impressive background growing up in agriculture and pursuing a degree in Soil Science from the University of Missouri. This set her up to join her family’s soil laboratory business, Perry Agricultural Laboratory which has been around for forty years based in Northeast Missouri. She is now a soil scientist and the chief operating officer for that business, and at the same time she farms with her husband, Mark, on the other side of the state in northwest Missouri. We will certainly talk about soil and about farming in today’s episode, but she’s here in another capacity, as the chair of the United Soybean Board, where she leads a group of 77 farmers who share one goal: to increase return on investment for US soybean farmers.&nbsp;It was a treat to talk to Meagan about the role of the soy checkoff and some of their many approaches to creating value for farmers: from infrastructure to biofuels to health and nutrition to innovation and technology.&nbsp;

Soy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/FieldClock: https://www.fieldclock.com/Sometimes in agtech we get a little too focused on solutions that are still years away from reaching widespread adoption, and overlook providing practical solutions for today’s problems on the farm.&nbsp;Joshua Farray is the CEO of FieldClock which helps track and manage farm labor. They’re a great example that ag technology doesn’t have to mean big venture capital bets on a world that’s drastically different than it is today.&nbsp;Through their customer-focused approach, FieldClock has remained laser-focused on helping farmers and farmworkers with very practical tasks like clocking in and out, getting paid properly for piecework, and keeping compliant with labor regulations. Joshua has a family history in the produce trade, and that’s also where he started his career. But int 2011 he decided to get into tech, and helped a lot of people in his network modernize their business through technology. His network was mostly made up of farmers and people in agriculture, and he eventually started building the product that would become FieldClock along with his co-founders which included farmers in Washington State. Joshua started off as CTO of the company and took over as CEO about a year ago.&nbsp;I appreciate FieldClock’s customer-centric approach and relentless focus on challenges related to managing labor. I hope you’ll find the product and the conversation as interesting as I did.

Soy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/Alexandre Family Farm: https://alexandrefamilyfarm.com/The Business of Food Newsletter: https://jenniferbarney.substack.com/Today's episode features Blake Alexandre of Alexandre Family Farm. Blake is based in Crescent City, California on the far north coast of California. He and his wife Stephanie have been dairying there for over 31 years, and has raised five children who have started coming back to the family operation full time. They have been an organic dairy for about 25 of those 31 years, and in 2017 they started selling dairy products under their own brand, which is Alexandre Family Farm. There’s a whole lot more to the story, but he tells it much better than I do.&nbsp;This story was put together by my guest co-host for today’s episode, Jennifer Barney. As you might recall from previous episodes, Jennifer is a consumer-packaged goods (CPG) expert who lives in the Central Valley of California and got her start in the food industry 16 years ago when she founded the almond butter brand Barney Butter. She also writes a great weekly newsletter called The Business of Food that you should subscribe to. I’ll leave a link for that in the show notes.&nbsp;We covered so much in our conversation, that I thought the best way to share it with you and still come somewhat close to our normal format was to share highlights, so I’ll be popping in throughout today’s episode to narrate around some of the thought-provoking points Blake made about what they’re doing and his views on the future of agriculture. Starting with some backstory on the farm and the business.

Soy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/Soy Info Center: https://www.soyinfocenter.com/Studying the past is one of the most important activities for not only gaining perspective on the current state of the industry, but also to zoom out and get a better vantage point on where things may go from here, and what factors may drive it in that direction. That’s why, perhaps ironically, studying the history of agriculture is essential for a podcast that claims to be about the future of agriculture. Plus, I think most of you are just a little bit nerdy about agriculture like I am and enjoy knowing more about its history.One of the things that has held me back from ever trying one of these episodes is that I worried it could very easily become a boring lecture of random facts and names and dates that didn’t really provide the real context I was hoping to provide. So I wondered, “what is the FoA approach to learning more about the history of agriculture?” And I came up with this: I’ll focus on a specific person who I wish I could go back to that time and interview. Then hopefully that individual’s story can provide insights and context into the time in a relatable way, and allow us to connect those experiences to our current situations.&nbsp;Keep in mind that this is an experiment, so if you like it or if you don’t like it, I’d sure like to know either way. I think you know where to find me by now, but [email protected] is probably the easiest to remember.&nbsp;All right, let’s get into it. Today’s guest that I wish I could interview if he were still alive today is William J Morse, considered by many to be the father of the U.S. soybean industry. When William graduated from Cornell with a bachelor’s of science in agriculture in 1907 he started his job two days later at the age of 24 with the US Department of Agriculture He was hired as an Agrostologist. That’s a term I don’t think is used too much any more, but agrostology is the study of grasses. Which is a little odd because he would end up studying soybeans, not a grass at all. Whether he knew it or not, but soybeans would be his focus for his entire 42 year career, all at USDA. What’s incredible is during that time, the U.S. soybean industry would grow from an obscure forage crop sparsely grown in parts of the southeast to one of the top three most important cash crops in the country, grown on over 11M acres. Now today that number is over 80 million acres, but the meteoric rise of the soybean during William Morse’s life was just incredible. I try to think of something like that happening today. Think about hemp that had all of that hype, and I think it’s grow today on something like 7k acres in the US, I mean almost nothing. But in one man’s career he saw the birth and growth of a major industry that is one of the most important crops in American agriculture today. How did this happen? What were the catalysts for this growth? What lessons can we pull from this for today’s agriculture and the agriculture we want to see in the future?&nbsp;

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comINTENT: https://intent.ag/Randy Barker is the CEO of INTENT, an Agricultural Company focused on the use of technology to accelerate new innovations in agriculture. Randy is the co-founder of the business which draws on his vast global experience in launching agricultural technologies in over 30 countries over the past 25 years. INTENT serves a wide range of customers from startups to multinationals in their quest to improve adoption using data science &amp; digital technologies.Long time listeners might recall hearing previous episodes with Randy and others from INTENT here on this show. They started the company around the same time this podcast started I believe, and we’ve always been really aligned in the mission to try to accelerate innovation, so it has been really cool to watch their development. Today, Randy gives an update on the company as they’ve evolved from managing farmer trials to offering a suite of digital solutions to customers and adding sustainability measurement and monitoring to their list of services. We also get a little bit into their approach to artificial intelligence, some of the continued challenges with on-farm data collection, and the importance of providing not only accurate data, but relevant context.&nbsp;Randy began his career in Canada for the largest network of ag input retailers in progressively senior roles, ultimately as Director of Crop Protection. He then joined Monsanto Canada as Vice President of Crop Protection serving agriculture, forestry and industrial businesses. Randy relocated to Monsanto’s global headquarters in St. Louis taking on various senior leadership roles with global responsibility.&nbsp;

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comCorteva Agriscience: https://www.corteva.com/Replenish Nutrients: https://replenishnutrients.com/Today’s episode features Brian Lutz. Brian leads the Farming Solutions &amp; Digital sub-function within the Research &amp; Development organization for Corteva Agriscience.&nbsp; In his role, Brian is responsible for the development of digital solutions that support the R&amp;D pipeline and enable Corteva’s business.&nbsp; Brian joined Corteva in 2021 in the Portfolio Strategy Program Management role and continues to contribute to the company’s long-term strategic planning.Brian and I talk about the role of digital tools in the future of agriculture. No, not another app or piece of software farmers are expected to use, but how a company like Corteva can leverage these tools internally to produce superior products and outcomes for farmers. Through this discussion we cover a variety of important topics, such as farmer data, biologicals, artificial intelligence, and more.&nbsp;Prior to starting at Corteva, Brian was Chief Science Officer at The Climate Corporation, and was also a member of Bayer Crop Science’s R&amp;D Leadership Team.&nbsp;Brian was raised on a fourth-generation corn and soybean farm in Ohio and remains closely connected to his family’s farming operation. Make sure you stay tuned to the end of today’s episode for a spotlight of Replenish Nutrients which is based in the Calgary area with their CEO Neil Weins.

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comAgGateway: https://aggateway.org/Today’s episode features Jeremy Wilson of AgGateway. Jeremy has been a passionate advocate and catalyst for digital connectivity throughout his professional agriculture career, working within organizations serving farmers including crop insurance, data collection and analysis, systems development, and field agronomy as a consultant for three decades. Leading up to his current role at AgGateway, Wilson was a highly active participant for more than a decade on some of the organization’s most important connectivity projects and volunteer leadership roles, including chairman of the Precision Ag Council and the SPADE project. He also served as chairman of AgGateway’s Board of Directors. Jeremy says his other real passion outside of ag data is farming, and he continues to operate the 800-acre family grain farm he was raised on near Olney, IL.&nbsp;Helpful to know before we dive in is a little bit more about AgGateway. To try to sum it up, AgGateway is a global, non-profit organization whose members develop standards and other resources so that companies can rapidly access information. They bring the industry together to strive towards:Cost savings from more efficient business processesInventory management/traceabilityInteroperability in field operationsAbility to leverage data to increase profitability and sustainabilityThey provide a unique, global forum across industry sectors, so that companies can meet to solve digital challenges for agriculture and related industries. The 200 member companies that make up the organization include ag retailers, distributors, manufacturers (equipment, seed, crop nutrition, crop protection, etc.), grain and feed companies, precision ag providers, specialty chemical manufacturers, and software and data service providers.So this is important work that could have a real impact on the future of agriculture, and I’m excited to dive deeper into this with Jeremy.

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comSubscribe to Ag Data News: https://agdatanews.substack.com/Aaron Smith Website: https://asmith.ucdavis.edu/Ag Data: Where Do I Find It?: https://asmith.ucdavis.edu/data/ag-data-where-do-i-find-itThe Artificial Intelligence Institute for Next Generation Food Systems: https://aifs.ucdavis.edu/Alberta Veterinary Laboratories / Solvet: https://solvet.ca/today’s episode features Dr. Aaron Smith. Aaron’s newsletter, which I highly recommend, covers a wide range of food and ag topics, so fittingly, we cover several in today’s episode as well. I have learned a lot from reading Aaron’s work, and I appreciate his approach as a data-driven teacher and communicator. Certainly part of my motivation to get him on the show was selfish, because this is an area I want to improve in as well. I’m only half-joking when I say it’s selfish, because I do think this is an area all of us will benefit from improving in.&nbsp;Aaron and I discuss increasing the accessibility of ag data, some basic research skills, his approach to ag data news, and how the data has informed some of his thoughts on topics ranging from biofuels to carbon sequestration to pineapple production and beyond.&nbsp;Some more about Aaron: he is the DeLoach Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Davis, where he has been since 2001. Originally from New Zealand, he earned his PhD in Economics from the University of California, San Diego. His research addresses policy, trading and price dynamics in agricultural, energy, and financial markets. He has over 50 publications in refereed journals, and he has been recognized with a multitude of awards and achievements which I won’t list here, but trust me it is impressive.. Aaron is also the cluster lead for socioeconomics and ethics in the AI Institute for the Food System (AIFS) and a co-director of the Center for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Research (CeDAR).Make sure you stay tuned to the end of today’s episode for a spotlight of Calgary-based Alberta Veterinary Laboratories / Solvet with their CEO Lionel Gibbs.

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comSoiltech Wireless: https://www.soiltechwireless.com/Today’s episode features Soiltech Wireless founder and CEO Ehsan Soltan. To try to summarize, Soiltech Wireless builds sensors and platforms that helps farmers and downstream partners produce more with less by optimizing inputs, organizing manpower, and collecting data from the farm and beyond more seamlessly. Ok, what does that mean? Their flagship product is a small round device that appears indestructible - that’s my claim not their’s - but it’s meant to either be buried in soil or to be placed anywhere else that the data it collects can be useful such as a developing crop or a warehoused harvest. Soiltech has its own app for cell phones and tablets and its own web browser application for farmers to interact with the data, but they and have also integrated with other parties as well to make sure customers can access the data wherever makes the most sense for themI really enjoyed this interview in which Ehsan will share about the technology and the company, how they’ve relied on early farmer customers to really guide the development of the product and even become early investors, and some of his thoughts on agtech more generally. Coincidentally, I found out after reaching out to him for an interview that he and I live in the same town, so that was kind of a cool connection as well.&nbsp;Before Soiltech, Ehsan was living Taiwan and working in the telecommunications device manufacturing industry. But his wife was from Southern Idaho and her mother works for a potato packing house, so she was really the genesis for the whole venture to get started and off the ground.Special thanks to Jim Cupples for the guest recommendation.

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comTrusted Advisor Partnership: https://trustedadvisorpartnership.com/General Mills' regenerative agriculture commitment: https://www.generalmills.com/how-we-make-it/healthier-planet/environmental-impact/regenerative-agriculture"Trusted Advisor Partnership with Dr. Abbey Wick" on Soil Sense: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/soilsense/episodes/Trusted-Advisor-Partnership-with-Abbey-Wick--Ph-D-e1virlc/a-a9dbsgs"Soil to Cereal with Dr. Steve Rosenzweig of General Mills" on Soil Sense: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/soilsense/episodes/Soil-to-Cereal-with-Dr--Steve-Rosenzweig-of-General-Mills-e20191k/a-a9evon2Today’s episode features soil scientists Dr. Steve Rosenzweig of General Mills and Dr. Abbey Wick of North Dakota State University. There’s been plenty in the media and even on this show about the idea of paying farmers for carbon sequestration and other ecosystem services. But what often gets lost in the conversation is how do changes in practices like reducing tillage, planting cover crops, integrating livestock, etc. actually happen? I mean there’s a lot of risk involved. In some cases there is new equipment that needs to be purchased, new techniques to develop, new thought processes to exercise and new expertise needed. Sure, financial incentives can help with this, but what’s equally important are collaborators, supporters and trusted advisors.&nbsp;That’s what today’s show is all about. We’ll start out by talking to Dr. Steve Rosenzweig about General Mills interest in soil health. Where that’s coming from, what it means to their business and what led them to programs like the Trusted Advisor Partnership in North Dakota. Then we’ll talk to Dr. Abbey Wick who is an associate professor and soil health extension specialist at North Dakota State University about this Trusted Advisor Partnership program, how it works, and why its important. Then we’ll wrap things up with both Abbey and Steve to discuss why it’s important for food companies to collaborate in this way.&nbsp;Both of these interviews were originally conducted for the Soil Sense podcast, which I co-host with Abbey. If this stuff interests you, I highly recommend you check that show out. The full interviews for the audio you’re about to hear can be found as episodes one and two of the current Soil Sense season.&nbsp;

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comFyto: https://www.fyto.us/It’s not every day that we get to feature a promising new crop on this show. Especially one uniquely suited to convert dairy manure into a high quality protein-rich and palatable feed.&nbsp;Jason Prapas is the founder and CEO of Fyto, which is pioneering the commercial production of aquatic plants that are not only nutritious for animal feed, but also highly productive.&nbsp;But to truly make their mark on agriculture, Fyto will need to scale. Are aquatic plants the answer for converting waste into animal feed? Fyto’s Jason Prapas has the answer on today’s Future of Agriculture podcast.&nbsp;Jason and I are going to discuss the systems they are developing to commercially grow aquatic plants. Now, we are not talking about algae here. As Jason will explain, their focus right now is growing a very small plant that’s commonly referred to as duckweed. Fyto is in the process of setting up their systems on dairy farms to grow this crop in the effluent from the cows and have it immediately readily available as a high protein feed.&nbsp;He’ll explain what makes these types of plants so important and promising for the future of agriculture. I learned a ton in this episode, and I think you might learn a thing or two as well. It’s super interesting.&nbsp;Jason has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering and Prior to Fyto, he was the Director of Translational Research at the MIT Tata Center for Technology and Design. There, he led the Center’s efforts to select, shape, and position projects for large scale deployment, and helped develop 8 spinout companies in 18-months across the energy, health, agriculture, and water sectors. He was also an instructor of entrepreneurship courses at MIT Sloan School of Management.&nbsp;Prior to that role at MIT, Jason was the Co-Founder and CTO of Factor[e] Ventures, a venture development and investment firm.Years ago he also worked as Process Engineer for the world's first algae-to-biofuel company, GreenFuel Technologies.&nbsp;

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comFeedlot Health by TELUS Agriculture and Consumer Goods: https://www.feedlothealth.comTELUS Agriculture and Consumer Goods: https://www.telus.com/agcg Over the past five years or so, a Canadian telecommunications company has established themselves as a major player in agtech. Telus Agriculture has acquired a number of agricultural technology companies including Feedlot Health Management Services.&nbsp;Tye Perrett is the general manager of services and pharmaceutical supply at what is now Feedlot Health by Telus Agriculture and Consumer Goods. They are one piece of an overall strategy to optimize the food value chain through connected data from farm to fork.&nbsp;This is an ambitious vision, but Telus likely has the resources and patience to see it come to fruition.&nbsp;&nbsp;Tye and I will talk about Feedlot Health specifically, both before and after the acquisition by Telus. We’ll also learn a little bit more about Telus’ overall approach to ag data. And we’ll get some of Tye’s thoughts on data, artificial intelligence, and the future of agtech.&nbsp;This a bit of a shorter episode because it was originally intended to be a 5-7 minute spotlight. But when it came down to it, I thought it would be worthwhile to share the whole thing, so I hope you enjoy.&nbsp;Dr. Tye Perrett is a veterinarian by training who joined Feedlot Health in 2004, where he currently manages the administrative and consultant teams.

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comNorm: https://www.fbn.com/norm Farmers Business Network: https://www.fbn.com/Today's episode features Kit Barron and Charles Baron of Farmers Business Network. However, today's episode is not about Kit or Charles as much as it is about Norm, FBN's AI-powered Ag advisor tool that they launched just weeks ago, but already has me fascinated about the potential impact on the future of agriculture. Charles has been on the podcast before, but it was clear back on episode 75, which aired in October of 2017. In that episode he provided a lot of the basics of Farmers Business Network which was founded in 2014, and is best known as a farmer-to-farmer network and e-commerce platform.&nbsp;Kit Barron has worked with farm data for a very long time with familiar names such as The Climate Corporation and FarmTogether. He now serves as the Head of Data Science and Analytics for FBN.&nbsp;Charles, Kit and I talk a lot about Norm, the potential for artificial intelligence to provide useful advice for farmers, and what this means for agtech in the future. Like do we need API’s for example as data pipelines if we can train AI’s to go get the data we need. It really presents a lot of interesting questions about the future of agriculture. Questions Norm and others will someday be able to answer.&nbsp;Be sure to stick around for the end of today’s episode where you’ll hear Kit, Charles and I come up with the idea to have Norm write a script for a potential intro to this podcast episode, then I give that script to another AI tool called Descript which generates an audio of that script in my voice. I’ll be honest it’s a little spooky what’s possible, so stay tuned for that.&nbsp;To kick things off though, Charles is going to provide a little catch up since our last interview nearly six years ago. Then you’ll hear Kit’s voice describing more about Norm specifically.&nbsp;

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comBibamba: https://bibamba.com/ The Business of Food Newsletter: https://jenniferbarney.substack.com/  Mara and Patrick Tcheunou live in Denver, Colorado. In 2015, they decided to buy a farm in Cameroon where Patrick is originally from to grow cacao.Their first harvest was ready to go in 2020 - the year the pandemic started and the world changed. Circumstances pushed Mara and Patrick into creating their own unique single-source product line of premium chocolates, which they branded Bibamba. So how did they overcome all of the many challenges of creating this full value chain from scratch? And what are the pros and cons of living in the US while operating a farm in a country like Cameroon? The fascinating story of a young chocolate company on today's future of agriculture podcast.

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comTruLeaf Sustainable Agriculture: https://www.truleaf.ca/ Goodleaf Farms: https://www.goodleaffarms.com/ Today’s episode features Jeff McKinnon of TruLeaf Sustainable Agriculture. Jeff and I have a really frank conversation about the current state of controlled environment agriculture. He holds nothing back in talking about the industry’s struggles, but also about why he is still more bullish than ever about what they’re doing to provide local, fresh, indoor-grown produce. He also has some interesting ideas about other products that might be uniquely suited for these growing systems, and some great insights into the current state of fundraising and venture capital.&nbsp;Some background on Jeff: he has been working in senior financial Leadership roles over the past 18 years within a variety of sectors including financial services, real estate, retail and food &amp; beverage.Jeff has always been active in the start-up to growth phase food &amp; agtech ecosystem in Canada but more recently has developed a passion for assisting these companies capitalize and execute their growth strategies.&nbsp; He is currently the SVP of TruLeaf Sustainable Agriculture, a Canadian based agriculture-technology company that uses technology to displace field-grown produce.&nbsp; In 2018, the company partnered with McCain Food Limited to develop and execute an international expansion strategy.&nbsp; During Jeff’s tenure at TruLeaf, he has served as CFO and SVP, leading the company through a number of significant financing rounds (both debt an equity) and has led corporate development and government relations.&nbsp;&nbsp;Under Jeff’s leadership, the company has completed farm builds in Nova Scotia, Ontario and has two significant projects underway in Quebec and Alberta. Jeff is also a General Partner in a carbon-tech venture fund.

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: http://www.calgaryagbusiness.comEdgar's Feed and Seed: https://www.edgarsfeedandseed.ca/I know many of you are entrepreneurial. Maybe you’ve dreamed about starting a company. But there are many established companies that are looking for their next owner. In 2013, at the age of 23, Elliott and Rebecca Miller acquired Edgar’s Feed and Seed in Ontario, Canada. Through a good relationship with the previous owner, Elliott and Rebecca were able to utilize seller financing to buy the local ag retail company. Now after 10 years of ownership, they’ve been able to not only keep it afloat but to grow and expand.&nbsp;In 2013 at the age of 23, Elliott and Rebecca, purchased a business, got married, and bought a farm. That’s a busy year! The business they bought is Edgar’s Feed and Seed, which today offers retail products for livestock and agronomic services for a wide range of crops. They’ve also started carrying frozen meats, cheeses and other specialty pantry items from all over Ontario and Canada. They purchased the business from Niel Edgar, who was Elliott’s boss there at the time, and now works for the Millers as an employee of the company.&nbsp;Today’s episode will focus on their journey to acquiring a business at such a young age, making it work in the early years as they paid it off, and how they’ve grown it since. This is a pretty inspiring couple, and hopefully will help get your wheels turning about business opportunities in your local area.&nbsp;

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: http://www.calgaryagbusiness.comElevate Agronomics: https://www.elevateagronomics.com/Today’s episode features Trent Kubik of Elevate Agronomics. In 2020, Trent and his brother Troy purchased a long-standing seed business in Winner, SD named Winner Seed.&nbsp; From this purchase, their new company Elevate Agronomics was born.&nbsp; Along with the robust offering of seed and seed cleaning that the business already had, they added on chemicals, starter fertilizers, livestock supplements, Precision Planting planter enhancements, as well as other misc agricultural products.&nbsp; Shortly after their acquisition, they took over operations of a similar business in a neighboring town and expanded their footprint which services out of two locations.&nbsp; Currently they sell products into 10 counties in South Dakota and Nebraska.You’re going to hear about what led to finding this business opportunity for them to acquire, how they lined up their financing, how they manage the financial and operational sides of the business, coping with the stress and workload of running your own business, growth/expansion opportunities, modernization through technology and efficiencies, hiring and retaining employees, and more.&nbsp;The audio is not our best work. Trent’s bluetooth headset wasn’t working, so we had to use the old office computer mic. But if you’ll forgive me for that, I promise the content is well worth your time.

Try Acres for Free: https://www.acres.co/FoA 334: Cybersecurity in Agribusiness with Mike Moore of Ever.AgFoA 310: Investment Models with Hannah Senior of Innovating AgtechFoA 351: Agritourism and Adding Value on the Farm with Allan RobinetteFoA 355: Tule Technologies Acquired by CropX with Tom Shapland and John GatesFoA 301: Funding Innovation for Agriculture, People, and Planet with Suma Reddy of Future AcresSeven business opportunity ideas i've been thinking about lately: Security: Data security, cybersecurity, farm/ranch/rural crime securityAcquiring small/medium sized ag-related businessesPremium produceFarmer feedback and on-farm validationSoftware/outsourcing of farm regulatory/compliance Commercialization of university tech transferVenture studio in partnership with established industryBonus: independent education/analysis/insights of farmland investments: platforms, REITs, syndicates, physical deals, etc.Plus, a spotlight segment featuring David Gorder!

Try Acres for free: https://www.acres.co/Tule Technologies: https://tule.ag/CropX: Today’s episode features Tom Shapland of Tule Technologies and John Gates of CropX. We have a great episode for you talking about Tule’s technology, Tom’s entrepreneurial journey, The decision on both sides for Cropx to acquire Tule, M&amp;A in agtech and integration lesson, and the future of artificial intelligence in agtech.&nbsp;Tom is the co-founder and CEO of Tule Technologies, which is now part of CropX. As a graduate student at UC Davis, Tom developed the underlying technology that Tule commercialized which is a way to measure water use of crop plants over a broad area. Specifically they measure actual crop evapotranspiration or ET and he’ll talk a lot more about that. He founded Tule in 2013 after finishing his PhD work in this area. He went out and started talking to customers and getting sales early, which you’ll find is an important part of his entrepreneurial journey. Him and his co-founder Jeff LaBarge went the Y Combinator program, which is our second episode this month with a YC alum.&nbsp;Joining us from CropX is senior vice president and global head of product John Gates. John also has a background in academia. He was a professor of Hydrology at University of Nebraska. He evenutally joined CropMetrics as their Chief Scientist and stayed on with CropX after they acquired CropMetrics a few years ago.&nbsp;You’ll hear from Tom first about Tule’s technology and trajectory, and then we’ll invite John in to talk about the acquisition and much much more.

Try Acres for free: https://www.acres.co/AGvisorPRO: https://getagvisorpro.com/Today’s episode features AGvisorPRO CEO Robert Saik. Rob is a well-known outspoken champion of agriculture, a Distinguished Agrologist, Professional Agriculture Consultant, and a veteran entrepreneur who has been on this show twice before in episodes 095 and 166.&nbsp;He has leveraged these strengths to found over 15 companies in the areas of Farming, Agri-Retail, Distribution, Media and Ag Tech. He was the founder and CEO of The Agri-Trend/Agri-Data Group of Companies which was acquired by Trimble.&nbsp; He also served as CEO of DOT Technology Corp (Autonomous Farming) through the acquisition of DOT Robotics by Raven Industries.Robert is the founder and CEO of award-winning AGvisorPRO, a technology platform that connects those seeking agriculture advice with trusted experts who can provide answers now. Rob describes AGvisorPRO as a connectivity ecosystem that combines elements of other tools like Uber, e-harmony, Twitter and FaceTime to connect seekers of agricultural knowledge with relevant experts.&nbsp;

Try Acres for free: https://www.acres.co/IFPA's Fresh Field Catalyst Accelerator: https://www.freshproduce.com/resources/technology/fresh-field-catalyst/"Taste is King" on the Fresh Takes on Tech podcast: https://www.freshproduce.com/resources/technology/takes-on-tech-podcast/episode-56-taste-is-king/"Locally Grown Through Vertical Farming on the Fresh Takes on Tech podcast: https://www.freshproduce.com/resources/technology/takes-on-tech-podcast/episode-59-locally-grown-through-vertical-farming/ "Traceability is Crucial to the World Produce Industry" on the Fresh Takes on Tech podcast: https://www.freshproduce.com/resources/technology/takes-on-tech-podcast/episode-55-traceability-is-crucial-to-the-world-produce-industry/"New Innovations are Improving All Aspects of Our Produce Supply Chain" on the Fresh Takes on Tech podcast: https://www.freshproduce.com/resources/technology/takes-on-tech-podcast/episode-68-live-from-the-global-show-2022-part-four/"The Future of Automation is in the Fields" on the Fresh Takes on Tech podcast: https://www.freshproduce.com/resources/technology/takes-on-tech-podcast/episode-57-the-future-of-automation--is-in-the-fields/ Today’s episode features Vonnie Estes, vice president of innovation at the International Fresh Produce Association or IFPA. You probably noticed in our opening segment more than just Vonnie’s voice. That’s because we will be playing clips of some of the entrepreneurs and mentors that participated in IFPA’s Fresh Field Catalyst this past year.&nbsp;You see, Vonnie reached out about coming back onto the podcast to talk about how applications are open for their second cohort. After talking to Vonnie and hearing about how the first cohort went, I realized this would be a great chance to talk about tech and innovation in the produce industry in general. Our conversation today covers some of the challenges facing this industry, including water, labor, food safety, traceability, quality, compliance and more. And you’ll hear from entrepreneurs and industry leaders about differentiation, consumer preferences, indoor ag, traceability, and automation and robotics.&nbsp;Before we dive in, I want to make it clear that the intention of the accelerator is to attract companies that already have a product in the market somewhere. That could be a market outside of agriculture, or perhaps in row crops, or maybe in produce but in another geography. So they’re looking for companies that already have some traction, but maybe haven’t directed much focus to produce yet but think that there might be value in that market. If that sounds like you or someone you know, applications close soon: March 20 of 2023. I’ll link to the application in the show notes.&nbsp;You may remember hearing from Vonnie back in episode 270 of this podcast. To refresh your memory, she has held leadership positions at prominent companies including DuPont, Monsanto, and Syngenta along with start-ups including DNAP, Emergent Genetics, and Caribou Biosciences. She has a BS in Horticulture from New Mexico State and a Masters in Plant Pathology from UC Davis.&nbsp;In addition to Vonnie, you’re going to hear clips from some of the entrepreneurs and mentors in the program’s first cohort. These clips came from Vonnie’s podcast called Fresh Takes on Tech. You definitely want to go check that out. I’ll link to it in the show notes as well.&nbsp;

Try Acres for free: https://www.acres.co/PYKA: https://www.flypyka.com/Michael Norcia is CEO of Pyka, which as I mentioned earlier is an autonomous electric aircraft company. Michael has a deep technical background in autonomous flight, having contributed to a wide variety of manned/unmanned electric aviation projects at Joby, Cora, and Kittyhawk. In 2017, Michael co-founded Pyka with the goal of combining two of his lifelong passions: electric aviation and business.&nbsp;This is a really fascinating interview that not only features some pretty mind blowing technology, but also a great example of finding product-market fit, overcoming regulatory hurdles, and taking a futuristic idea and converting that into a real business that solves real problems in the present day. For those of you who are entrepreneurial, I think you’ll be especially inspired, and you’ll probably also enjoy the questions I ask him about his Y-Combinator experience towards the end of the episode.&nbsp;

Try Acres for FREE: https://www.acres.co/Robinette's Apple Haus &amp; Winery: https://robinettes.com/The Land Podcast - The Pursuit of Land Ownership and Investing https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-land-podcast-the-pursuit-of/id1572511098 Exodus Outdoor Gear: https://exodusoutdoorgear.com/ Hello fellow ag nerds! Thanks for joining me for another episode of the Future of Agriculture podcast. My name is Tim Hammerich and every week you and I get to hear from the farmers, founders, innovators and investors shaping the future of the ag industry.Today’s episode features Allan Robinette. Allan is a fifth generation fruit grower and orchard manager at Robinette’s Apple Haus &amp; Winery in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They grow primarily peaches, apples, and sweet cherries and sell everything retail. We get into all sorts of interesting value-added concepts here including u-pick, farm retail, operating a bakery, winery and cider mill, corn mazes, gift boxes and a lot more. This one was a blast for me who grew up in direct-to-consumer agriculture and still dreams of owning an enterprise in this part of the industry some day. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Try Acres for FREE: https://www.acres.co/Magnetic Ag Newsletter: https://magnetic-ag.com/"Farm and Other F Words" https://bookshop.org/p/books/farm-and-other-f-words-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-small-family-farm-sarah-k-mock/16922376Imagine Content and Consulting: https://newsletter.imagine-content.com/"AEI.Ag Presents" podcast: https://aei.ag/podcast/"Agtech - So What?" podcast: https://www.agtechsowhat.com/One important change to agriculture that we probably don’t talk about enough is the changing ag media landscape. Farmers and those of us who work in agriculture traditionally would read industry publications and listen to farm broadcasters on the radio to get ag information. Those programs were funded by agribusinesses who new they had a fairly captive audience. Well as you know all of that has been turned on its head in the past 20 years. Now companies can have much more direct contact with their target audience, whether that’s a potential customer, a trade association member, a potential investor, collaborator, or any number of important people you might want to interact with. That’s awesome, right? But it also means ther are no more captive audiences. You have to earn attention. And that’s becoming increasingly difficult to do.&nbsp;After years of interacting with those of you who listen to this show, I know that for the most part you have an honest intention to improve the future of agriculture. In order to do that you absolutely will need to know how to get the word out there. That’s what today’s episode is all about.&nbsp;Sarah Mock joined me back on episode 210 to talk about the future of ag media. She jokes that she is slowly working her way through every job in ag, having worked for USDA, RFD-TV, Farmers Business Network, and others. Today she’s an independent contractor who does research, content, journalism and a number of other interesting projects in agriculture including producing podcasts like AEI Presents and Agtech, So What? She is also the author of two books that I personally recommend: “Farm and Other F Words” and “Big Team Farms”.&nbsp;Travis Martin started his career in agribusiness, and ended up finding his love for marketing while working at Elanco. Since leaving the company in 2018 he has worked for a variety of agtech companies in both full time and contractor roles, including a couple companies you’ve heard on this podcast like Leaf Agriculture and Advanced Agrilytics. In 2020 he started a weekly newsletter called Magnetic Ag that really is different from just about any content you’ll see anywhere else in agriculture. Still going strong, over 12,000 people read Magnetic twice a week. That led to Travis staring his own content and consulting business for agricultural clients called Imagine Content &amp; Consulting.&nbsp;I’m very lucky to have Sarah and Travis on the show, and I really think this topic and their advice is important for all of us, no matter whether you see yourself as a creator or not. One quick clarification before we jump in. This was recorded in December of 2022, so when we say “this year” - we mean 2022.&nbsp;

Try Acres for free: https://www.acres.co/advance.farm website: https://advanced.farm/ Today’s episode features Kyle Cobb, president and co-founder of advanced.farm. They describe themselves as a 21st-century ag equipment company centered around robotics, with a current focus on automating harvest and postharvest in fresh fruit. advanced.farm is based in Davis, California and has raised over $35M of venture investment led by Kubota, Yamaha, Catapult Ventures and Impact Ventures. Before advanced.farm, Kyle was a Co-Founder of Greenbotics, a cutting-edge platform for robotic solar panel cleaning that was acquired by SunPower in 2013.Kyle and I talk about the journey that led him and his team to robotic harvesting, the challenges of bringing this type of technology to the market, why Kyle is convinced that now is the perfect time for robotics in agriculture, how they’ve approached raising money and much more.

Try Acres for free: https://www.acres.co/Agtech - So What? Podcast: https://www.agtechsowhat.com/Tenacious Ventures: https://tenacious.ventures/Today’s episode features a conversation on the future of fertilizer with Sarah Nolet. Both of us have been exploring the future of fertilizer on our respective podcasts, and we thought it would be fun to do a joint episode to talk about what we’ve learned. So you’re going to get not only Sarah and I’s thoughts, but also some highlights from episodes that provide insights into the future of fertilizer.Sarah Nolet is an internationally recognized food systems innovation expert and co-founder of Tenacious Ventures, a high-support, high conviction, sector-specific agrifood tech venture firm. Sarah has been instrumental in building the early stage agtech ecosystem - from advising dozens of startups, designing accelerator programs and consulting to established agribusinesses, to helping industry, universities and government develop and implement forward-looking initiatives in food system innovation. Sarah is also the host of the AgTech...So What? podcast, telling stories of innovators building the food system of the future.Sarah holds a Masters in System Design and Management from MIT, and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Human Factors Engineering from Tufts University.

Try Acres: https://www.acres.co/The Ugly Company: https://www.theugly.company/The Business of Food Newsletter: https://jenniferbarney.substack.com/Today's episode features Ben Moore, founder of The Ugly Company, an upcycled dried fruit snack company. Ben is a 4th generation California farmer tackling the complex problem of food waste. Through Ugly Fruit, Ben is on a mission to achieve zero waste at farms by upcycling unmarketable fruit directly from farms to consumers.&nbsp;&nbsp;Ben had an epiphany while in his tractor plowing culled fruit. Ben reasoned that much of this fruit is perfectly good to eat and a shame being dumped. So, he did some research on ways to bring stone fruit to use as a value-added product. It’s another way for consumers to minimize food waste – some of the listeners may have heard of grocery ecommerce companies like Misfit Market and Imperfect Foods where you can purchase slightly off-spec food. The two main problems with food waste is food insecurity – getting nutritious foods transported to those in need that is shelf stable and able to withstand varying storage conditions, and second, emissions problems – the EPA estimates food that is dumped contributes 170 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.In order to solve the problem the way Ben envisions he is tackling the challenge of operational scale. We learn that stickers on fruit are an operational nightmare and that current dehydrator operators don’t have the capacity or automation to make the business economically feasible. So Ben is building it himself.&nbsp;&nbsp;It’s a single ingredient snack with no added sugars or preservatives which is a huge differentiator from a lot of other dried fruit snacks and trail mixes that contain sugar and other additives.

Visit Acres: https://www.acres.co/"How to Grow and Sell Carbon Credits in US Agriculture" https://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/crops/html/a1-76.html Dr. Alejandro Plastina is an Associate Professor/Extension Economist in the Department of Economics at Iowa State University (ISU). His area of specialization is agricultural production and technology, with an emphasis on farm business and financial management. His research focuses on the socioeconomic drivers of conservation practices, voluntary pest resistance management, carbon programs, and agricultural productivity.Prior to joining ISU in 2014, Dr. Plastina was Senior Economist at the International Cotton Advisory Committee in Washington, DC. He graduated with a BA in Economics from the University of La Plata (Argentina) in 2000, and an MS in Statistics and a PhD in Agricultural Economics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2005 and 2007, respectively.I reached out to Alejandro when I was trying to make heads or tails of the various carbon programs that have been popping up in recent years. I wanted to know what the differences were for these programs and I found his report titled “How to Grow and Sell Carbon Credits in US Agriculture” to be one of the best resources out there. The first thing you ought to know is there are a lot of differences between carbon programs. Alejandro and his colleagues analyzed the terms associated with 13 of these programs, and he joins me today to share from a high level some of their big takeaways. If you want more detailed information to compare programs, I will link to his report in the show notes. Keep in mind that it is more than a year old so some things have changed. Also at the end of today’s interviews I ask directly for Alejandro’s advice for farmers comparing programs and he has some great tips for you there as well.&nbsp;

Visit our quarterly presenting sponsor, Acres: https://www.acres.co/Mineral website: https://mineral.ai/Dr. Elliott Grant is the CEO of Mineral, which is Alphabet's bet in sustainable agriculture.&nbsp; Mineral is applying the latest breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) to the existential challenge of sustainably doubling the planet’s crop productivity.&nbsp;Elliott and I really get past the buzzwords here and into the details of what exactly this technology is enabling on a practical level, and how it has the potential to impact agriculture and the way we do business. From my personal perspective, AI and ML have been talked about since way early on in this podcast, but it often felt like marketing to make their tool seem special. But it does feel like we’re hitting this tipping point now, where there are some really impactful technologies emerging, that can only exist because of the explosion in data collection and advancements in AI and ML, and I find that to be one of the most exciting aspects of agtech today.&nbsp;Elliott is a recognized business leader and innovator in food and agritech. He was the founder and CEO of HarvestMark, the world leader in fresh food traceability; the CEO of ShopWell, a pioneering personalized nutrition company; and served as the Vice Chair of the Produce Marketing Association.&nbsp; Elliott is a manufacturing engineer by training. He earned a PhD and MEng in Engineering from Cambridge University, and is a named inventor on 36 US patents covering topics ranging from cryptography and food traceability, to satellite image analysis and plant phenotyping.&nbsp;

Try Acres for free: https://www.acres.co/Today we hear from AcreTrader with data science director Dr. Aaron Shew. Aaron is unique in that he has an extensive background in agriculture, economics, remote sensing and GIS and of course, data. In his current capacity, Aaron works with a team of software engineers, data scientists, and land experts to build advanced land analytics tools. He has master’s degrees in geography and agricultural economics and a doctorate in environmental dynamics from the University of Arkansas. He has more than 15 years of experience in the agriculture industry with 10 years of research experience focused on agricultural production and geospatial technologies.Aaron and I talk about the origins of the Acres tool, how it has already been helpful to AcreTrader which has 123 farms under management and ambitious goals to grow that number, why they would want to share this with the world - there’s even a free version that I’ve used - it’s pretty cool, and how this access to better data and insights will impact the farmland market more broadly.&nbsp;

Sound Agriculture: https://www.sound.ag/CropIn: https://www.cropin.com/Software is Feeding the World Newsletter: https://www.rhishipethe.com/newsletterToday’s episode features Krishna Kumar of CropIn. Krishna shared with me CropIn’s 12 year journey in the agtech world, which I think is in some ways representative of agtech’s journey more generally. They started by building applications for farmers and companies with a vested interest in agricultural supply chains. From scaling their digital solutions to now 500 crops and 10k varieties in 92 countries, they realized they were capturing a lot of data and built what they call the Data Hub. They also started to build artificial intelligence models which now exist for 22 commodities in 13 countries. Krishna gives some examples of the wide range of use cases for those AI models.Now, CropIn is entering the next phase of the 12-year old company. A few months ago, the company announced the launch of a cloud platform with integrated apps. Founded in 2010, Cropin’s other products are live in 92 countries, it is partnered with over 250 B2B customers and it has digitized 26 million acres of farmland. It claims the world’s largest crop knowledge graph from the data I mentioned of more than 500 crops and 10,000 crop varieties.In short, CropIn wants to help make it easier for companies to build their own AI models by providing the data and infrastructure needed, which Krishna says is roughly 80% of the work.&nbsp;Like many people lately, I’ve been playing with OpenAI’s ChatGPT platform lately. It has really opened my eyes to what’s coming. The chance to really pull together data sets into optimal answers in a user friendly way. I have no doubt we will see a similar trajectory in agtech, and companies like CropIn are doing interesting work to that end.One interesting aspect to this story is CropIn’s ambition to build a knowledge graph for agriculture. This is a term that I was not familiar with a year ago, but i’ve learned about knowledge graphs this past year from reading Rishi Pethe’s tremendous newsletter Software is Feeding the World. He explains the concept in his 116th edition in September. I’ll link to that in the show notes, I highly recommend it to understand this episode even better. He revisited it again in his 2022 recap edition which is 126, and I thought I’d just read his excerpt that he included in both editions. Here are Rhishi’s words:&nbsp;“How can knowledge graphs work in agriculture?Knowledge graphs can incorporate both structured (for example, coming from a spreadsheet, or precision agriculture equipment) and unstructured data (a twitter feed, images, YouTube video, bulletin board information, books etc.) Knowledge graphs can be successful and valuable if they can uncover new insights by automatically incorporating new data sources, understanding the context, finding new connections, and continuously evolving and learning.Building a data set of crops and varieties is a necessary and an early step to building a valuable knowledge graph in agriculture. It is an extremely hard challenge to go from data, to context, to connections, to new and surprising insights using knowledge graphs. It will take some unknown (aka long) amount of time.” - Rhishi Pethe, <a...

Visit Sound Agriculture: https://www.sound.ag/XtremeAg: https://www.xtremeag.farm/ Farmer innovators featured on this show: Kristjan Hebert Greg Bethard Mike &amp; April Clayton Paul Greive Zack Smith Peter van Wingerden Trey Hill Claire Smith Jesse Pella Patrick Smith Kelly Garrett Mike Evans

Sound Agriculture: https://www.sound.ag/California Cotton &amp; Climate Coalition: https://californiacottonandclimatecoalition.com/Bowles Farming Company: https://bfarm.com/FiberShed: https://fibershed.org/Today’s episode is about the work being done by the California Cotton and Climate Coalition or C4. This is an example of a group of people that aren’t interested in the hype and greenwashing that goes on in so many “sustainability” circles. They are doing the hard work of bringing the right people together, collaborating, and collecting the data to find ways to evolve the cotton industry in California. I think this is a model many other ag industries can learn from.&nbsp;Today you’ll hear from Cannon Michael, President and CEO of Bowles Farming Company in Los Banos, California. He is the 6th generation of his family to work in the family farming business, which has farmed in California for over 160 years. After working in commercial real estate, Cannon joined the family farm in 1998, and they have since diversified from three crops to over twenty. Cannon is an advocate for California agriculture, intelligent water policy and environmental stewardship.&nbsp;Joining Cannon and I is Rebecca Burgess. Executive Director of Fibershed, a 501(c)3 focused on regionalizing the textile system and supporting growers to be more economically viable while rebuilding carbon stocks in the soil and providing transparency into the supply chains of textile brands. Rebecca has two decades of experience working at the intersection of ecology, fiber systems, and regional economic development. Her work as a vocationally trained weaver and self-trained natural dyer initially led her into wondering how the industrially made clothes reflected her values of transparency, connection, land stewardship, etc. Started working in wool with using sheep for regenerative grazing then was encouraged to expand into cotton as well.&nbsp;

Sound Ag: https://www.sound.ag/ Ripe Robotics: https://www.riperobotics.com/ Today’s episode features Hunter Jay, CEO and cofounder of Ripe Robotics, a startup working on autonomous harvesting of fruit. The prototype is in small scale commercial trials, and will be ready to scale up in 2023 &amp; 2024. The company has 2 commercial trial partners and another 30 companies on its waitlist, who spend a combined $85m USD on picking annually.Most of you have probably heard about robotic apple picking startups in the past, some that are still going and others that have failed. But one thing I really appreciate about today’s episode is Ripe’s commitment to keeping costs low and iterating fast. I think this is what it’s going to take to find automation that works for specialty crops like stone fruit.&nbsp;Hunter is a software engineer, and has a particular focus on artificial intelligence. He previously founded a mobile game startup, and whenI asked him about that company is where i’ll drop you into today’s conversation with Hunter Jay of Ripe Robotics.

Sound Agriculture: https://www.sound.ag/Neutral Foods: https://www.eatneutral.com/Jennifer Barney's "The Business of Food" newsletter: https://jenniferbarney.substack.com/When I first read about Neutral Foods, I thought “that’s really smart branding”, but can they really back it up? And if so, how? And what’s in it for the farmer to incentivize them to make changes that benefit society, but may or may not benefit them?&nbsp;That’s really what today’s episode is all about. We’re about to bring on Jim Jarman, =vice president of product and commercialization at Neutral, and Ann Radil, head of carbon removal to answer these questions.Neutral&nbsp;Foods was founded by Matt Plitch, whose mission is to build the world’s first carbon&nbsp;neutral&nbsp;food company. He gained early investment from Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Ventures and other celebrity investors like Mark Cuban and LeBron James. Matt wanted to start with milk, which has 93% household penetration. The product,&nbsp;Neutral&nbsp;Milk is organic milk that strives to reduce carbon emissions within the whole supply chain, to become carbon&nbsp;neutral. The way they are going about their mission is by working directly with farmers. A typical dairy they work with is ~75 - 250 head, and what they do is provide financial support and subject matter expertise on things like manure management, feed, feed production, waste water management and more. They work with the farmer’s goals, and have 3rd party monitoring and measurement that quantifies the changes being made, and verifies the emissions reductions.&nbsp;Neutral&nbsp;Foods, as a consumer facing brand is already well on their way with nationwide distribution at Spouts, Whole Foods and Target. You can find their products in the organic milk section, and their retail price is in line with the set. They are very clear on their packaging that they are working towards operational carbon&nbsp;neutrality&nbsp;but that they purchase offsets today as a starting point.&nbsp;

Visit Sound Agriculture: https://www.sound.ag/Do Good Foods: https://dogoodfoods.com/Harborview Farms: https://www.harborviewfarms.net/Trey Hill Interview: https://youtu.be/FRC1Ca9klGA Future of Agriculture YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClJpE4tdH2NN6Plj1UIWNwA Justin Kamine co-founded Do Good Foods with his brother Matthew to combat climate change by fighting food waste. They’ve created a closed-loop system with state-of-the-art infrastructure designed to upcycle surplus grocery food (after community donations occur) into nutritious animal feed. Do Good Foods first product, Do Good Chicken, is raised using this healthy feed can be purchased locally, giving consumers an opportunity to make an immediate environmental impact and Do Good...for Plate &amp; Planet.™ The Kamine brothers’ company builds on the family’s 40-year heritage of over $3.5B of infrastructure of solving macro environmental problems. And stay tuned to the last half of today’s episode where you’ll hear directly from farmer and Harvorview Farms CEO, Trey Hill who has been using Sound Agriculture's SOURCE on his 10,000 acre farm in Chesapeake Bay area of Maryland.&nbsp;

Visit Sound Agriculture's website: https://www.sound.ag/ Our featured guests today are Sound Agriculture's CEO Adam Litle, as well as co-founder and CTO Travis Bayer. If you’re thinking you’ve heard all about Sound from previous episodes of this podcast, that’s great! But I will assure you there is a lot more you haven’t heard yet and this episode is well worth your time. Adam and Travis really do a great job of capturing a huge trend for the future of agriculture:&nbsp; the convergence of biology and data science and other modern technologies to create innovative products that work with nature. But, their products are commercialized with the farmer customer in mind. There are some real nuggets in here that you definitely don’t want to miss.Some quick background: As CEO, Adam Litle leads the Sound Agriculture’s strategy and overall company execution. He joined Sound to help serve both producers and consumers with more sustainable, differentiated crops. Prior to Sound, Adam was on the founding team and served as Chief Revenue Officer of Granular, the leading farm management software company acquired by Corteva in 2017.Before that he was General Manager of the cellulase enzyme business at Codexis, a publicly-traded industrial biotech company serving the healthcare and agriculture industries. He began his career as an investment banker at Barclays Capital. Adam has a JD/MBA from the University of Michigan and BA from Yale University.Travis Bayer co-founded Sound Agriculture in 2013 to identify science-based solutions to today’s complex agricultural challenges. Travis’ career has focused on understanding how to harness the diversity of the earth’s natural systems to enable a more sustainable world. His approach to discovery combines a deep knowledge of molecular biology, biochemistry, and biophysics with an innately creative spirit. He has authored and invented more than 50 research publications and patents, and spent five years at Imperial College London and University of Oxford as a lecturer and associate professor, respectively.He received a PhD in biochemistry and biophysics from Caltech, and a B.S. in molecular biology from University of Texas at Austin.We spend the first part of today’s episode talking about the SOURCE product, its significance, and where it fits into the marketplace. Then we shift gears into talking about their approach to data and technology and what this blend of biology and software means for the future of agriculture. First though, I asked Travis how all of this got started when he co-founded Sound Agriculture with Eric Davidson back in 2013.&nbsp;

Sound Agriculture: https://www.sound.ag/Farmers Risk: https://farmersrisk.ag/ Today’s episode features Dakota Hoben, co-founder and CEO of Farmers Risk. This is an interesting look at a new startup that is taking on a complicated topic: grain marketing. As many of you know, buying and selling grain is where I started my career, so I’m always curious about companies in this space, but frankly, always a little skeptical as well. Just knowing how many variables are at play in these decisions, not least of which being the farmer’s emotions. But that said, I am impressed by Dakota, and the approach they are taking, and I think he makes some really strong points in this interview.&nbsp;Dakota knew from a young age that the only industry he was truly passionate about was agriculture. Growing up on a grain and livestock farm in Southeast Iowa before heading to Iowa State to study Agricultural Business and International Agriculture, he watched family, neighbors, and other farmers ride the marketing roller coaster, but didn’t know he would become an integral part of the solution to this problem.&nbsp;Before Farmers Risk, Dakota and co-founder Eric Barnard were co-workers at Granular.

Visit Sound Agriculture: https://www.sound.ag/The Breakthrough Institute: https://thebreakthrough.org/ Alex Smith Bio &amp; Articles: https://thebreakthrough.org/people/alex-smith"To Decarbonize Food Production, Washington Must Invest" https://thebreakthrough.org/issues/food-agriculture-environment/to-decarbonize-food-production-washington-must-invest "The Problem With Alice Waters and the 'Slow Food' Movement" https://jacobin.com/2021/12/organic-local-industrial-agriculture-farm-to-table/ "Fraudulent Foods" https://thebreakthrough.org/journal/no-17-summer-2022/fraudulent-foods I’m very pleased to be joined today by Alex Smith, senior food and agriculture analyst at The Breakthrough Institute, which is a global research center that identifies and promotes technological solutions to environmental and human development challenges.Today’s episode might challenge you a little bit. Before I interview guests I ask them to fill out a brief pre-interview form to help me dig into the right areas during the conversation. One way I can tell if I’m going how much I’m going to enjoy an interview is based on how they approach one question in particular. That question is: “What are the top arguments of the critics of the work you do?”. Many times that will be left blank or answered very generically, but it’s when someone gives a thoughtful answer to this question that I really get excited to dig in. Alex gave one of the most comprehensive questions I’ve ever had to this question. And I think I’ll just read this to you, as both a trigger warning for some of you, and way to intrigue most of you. Here is Alex’s answer:&nbsp;“I think a relatively common critique that I give real weight to is that my work (and Breakthrough's more broadly) has tunnel vision for GHG/land-use and not other enviro/ecological or animal welfare/ethics issues.Another important critique is that by supporting the technologies and practices of large-scale agricultural production, I effectively justify the expropriation of land and concentration of power into the hands of the largest agricultural corporations, landowners, and interest groups.By advocating for mass-production of food (see my and Ted Nordhaus's essay in Jacobin Magazine), I miss out on the problems of nutrition and diet-related diseases.A critique from the right is that the focus on industrial policy and even public R&amp;D is significantly less important that getting the government out of the way of the ag sector and letting private entities be successful.Finally, in arguing for sustainable intensification and productivity growth, how do you limit the expansion of agricultural production due to rebound effects? Basically, given jevons paradox, do we need to have very strong conservation policy that will likely run counter to the interests of ag producers/businesses who want to expand production due to more productive practices?”Talk about doing an interviewer's work for him! What a great answer by Alex. With that, let’s dive into the conversation. Alex joined Breakthrough as a research analyst in the food and agriculture program in 2019 after completing a dual MA/MSc in International and World History from Columbia University and the London School of Economics and Political Science. In his masters, Alex studied and wrote about American foreign policy, French colonialism, and environmental history. Alex is interested in the entangled nature of politics, power, and geography and the central role that food and agriculture have played across time and space.

Visit our sponsor: https://www.sound.ag/EFC Systems by Ever.Ag: https://www.efcsystems.com/ CropLife, "Top 6 Questions (and Answers) Every Agribusiness Should Be Asking About Cyberattacks and Data Security": https://www.croplife.com/iron/software/top-6-questions-and-answers-every-agribusiness-should-be-asking-about-cyberattacks-and-data-security/ Farm Progress, "Protect your farm from cyberattack": https://www.farmprogress.com/management/protect-your-farm-cyberattack I’ve been wanting to do something on cybersecurity for a while, but just hadn’t really happened upon the right guest. Then last month I read an article on CropLife called “The Top 6 Questions Every Agribusiness Should Be Asking About Cyberattacks and Data Security”. As a read the six questions I thought “those are just about exactly the six questions I would want to ask a cybersecurity expert on my podcast. And the author was Mike Moore who you’re about to hear from.&nbsp;Mike is the Senior Vice President of the agribusiness division at Ever.Ag and has been serving as such since 1997 under the EFC Systems brand. At the start of his tenure, his initial focus was developing the technology and infrastructure services division to help guide and direct the technology needs for client partners. Although his responsibilities have broadened, he is still passionate about helping ag retailers better serve their customers in a secure and efficient way.&nbsp;Before we dive in, some context: the most common type of cyber attack is what’s called a ransomware attack. In this case the criminal inserts malware on your system, and is able to essentially lock it down until they are paid a ransom. The second common type of attack involves extracting data that can be sold. There’s been some notable examples in recent years including JBS, which reportedly paid hackers an $11 million ransom last year. Speaking at Husker Harvest Days last month, FBI agent Eugene Kowel said an attack on a farm in January 2021 contributed to the loss of nearly $9 million. This is a real issue that everyone in ag should be vigilant about, and it seems to be getting worse.&nbsp;Mike and I talk about how these attacks happen, what to watch out for, and some important tips for reducing your vulnerability.

Visit our sponsor: https://www.sound.ag/April Clayton Twitter: https://twitter.com/AppleApril111April the Apple Gal YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2DOJG_0BOYGv00KAw-CuxQ/videosApril on “Real Food, Real People”: https://realfoodrealpeople.org/april-clayton-002/April on “The Farm Traveler”: https://thefarmtraveler.com/2020/04/22/podcast-episode-53/April on “What The Farm”: https://farmercitygirl.libsyn.com/144-april-clayton-organic-orchardist&nbsp;I’ve been following April Clayton on Twitter for a while, she is @AppleApril111, and she puts out some great content about their life and work at Red Apple Orchard, where they grow organic apples and conventional cherries. She also has a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from my alma mater UC Davis, so she’s actually Dr. April Clayton farm. Her and her husband are the second generation on their Washington fruit orchard.&nbsp;A recent exchange on Twitter with April prompted me to reach out to her for this interview. She shared a video of a block of organic apples that she said they were considering not harvesting, due, in part to the labor situation. I wondered, just how expensive does labor have to be to make it not worth it to harvest certified organic fruit? Or was it that the labor was simply non-existent? Or were there other factors at play here I wasn’t aware of? I also wondered if this meant the futuristic looking robotic apple pickers that I always see demo videos of might just be close to being an option for farmers like the Claytons.&nbsp;These are the types of questions you’re going to get some answers on today. I really enjoyed this conversation with April and Mike. These are the types of conversations that really help to provide the depth and nuance and complexity of an issue like farm labor.

Visit our sponsor: https://www.sound.ag/LandScan: https://landscan.ai/Today’s episode with LandScan founder and CEO, Dan Rooney. We could spend the entire episode going through Dan’s background and expertise in this field, but I wanted to get right to the interesting work he’s doing at LandScan, a company they’ve been working on quietly since 2019. They’ve developed what they call “the most advanced and practical site characterization and analysis technology. These multiple layers are a series of digitally synchronized tools and techniques that create a unique understanding of the relationship between crop performance and the growing environment”. Dan will tell us all about this in today’s episode and makes a compelling case for why this is a critical missing piece in digital agriculture.&nbsp;Just a little bit on Dan’s impressive background: He is a scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur who has a PhD in Environmental Monitoring with an emphasis on remote sensing and spatial information analysis from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master’s in Soil Physics from Texas A&amp;M. Following his master’s Dan’s early career with with a geotechnical firm where he built sensors for deep subsurface characterization. He was drawn to apply his discoveries from that field to near-surface applications which of course led him to agriculture. After his PhD, he dove right into entrepreneurship. And that is where today's episode begins.

Visit our sponsor: https://www.sound.ag/Seal the Seasons: https://sealtheseasons.com/The Business of Food Newsletter: https://jenniferbarney.substack.com/Today’s episode features Alex Piasecki, co-founder and COO of Seal the Seasons, a retail consumer brand of packaged frozen fruit and vegetables. Seal The Seasons is aptly named as its mission is to bring locally grown produce to your grocery store 12 months a year. They do this by sourcing high quality fruit and vegetable varieties from local growers and leveraging grower hubs for processing, packaging and distribution within the local region. It’s a different model than the bigger frozen companies where some of the competition is sourcing from outside the US.The business idea started at the Farmers Market in North Carolina where as a college student Alex’s partner and Seal the Seasons founder Patrick Mateer, was working for a non-profit that donated unsold produce to the local community. When there would be excess produce either because of a rainstorm or by not selling out, the vendors would be stuck with all this produce so the idea of freezing for distribution year around came about.So, these college students got together to form a business case, and won an entrepreneurship award at UNC and then launched the business in 2016. Since then a lot has happened.Today, Seal the Seasons operates in 6 regional markets across the country and offers a way for local growers to diversify their customer base. We get into what types of produce Seal the Seasons sources, what they look for in grower-partners they work with, and the goal behind the operation which is to rebuild connections among American consumers and the growers that feed them.This story was put together by my guest co-host for today’s episode, Jennifer Barney. Jennifer is back after she first co-hosted with me for the episode we did in August where she featured Teffola. To refresh your memory, Jennifer is a consumer-packaged goods (CPG) expert. She lives in the Central Valley of California and got her start in the food industry 16 years ago when she founded the almond butter brand Barney Butter. She successfully grew the brand to nationwide retail distribution and then sold the company. After exiting Barney Butter, Jennifer has since become an advisor and consultant to startups and ag leaders who want to get closer to the consumer with their own brands and innovations. She writes an email newsletter that I recommend called The Business of Food where she shares food industry knowledge including business modeling, growth tips, and what to focus on at the early stages of business. You can subscribe to that for free at jenniferbarney.substack.com.

Visit our sponsor: http://www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comOver the past couple of weeks, two former guests of this podcast, Vence and TeleSense, have announced that they have been acquired. This prompted a random idea in my head to do an episode called 10 former guests that have been acquired. But I first wondered: have there even been ten yet? A quick scan of previous episodes and a little bit of Googling revealed that there have been at least 10 that have been acquired in some form or fashion.&nbsp; So I spent a day going back through and re-listening to each of their episodes, researching when they were acquired and by whom, and trying to pull out insights that might indicate what about these companies allowed them to get to the finish line so to speak. That’s what I have to share with you today.&nbsp;Vence, acquired by Merck Animal HealthFoA 246: Unlocking Grazing Potential with Virtual Fencing https://open.spotify.com/episode/0NT9F695WJRmUAcUCEleKT?si=dJ2uquAERvujkUWWa7qa0A&nbsp;FoA 308 (Startup Spotlight features Vence at the end of the episode) https://open.spotify.com/episode/3yHmD4onWH7DZb7wKWSi44?si=VG4HzoD1SxmYvdUrkgMYkQ&nbsp;Merck Animal Health to Acquire Vence https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220922005501/en/Merck-Animal-Health-to-Acquire-Vence&nbsp;TeleSense, acquired by UPL (Decco Post Harvest)FoA 239: Sensors for Predicting Grain Quality with Naeem Zafar of TeleSense https://open.spotify.com/episode/6JxVEuUQq9NjufgLXrOlZR?si=3K3UWVLFQvqbHzf_oH99tg&nbsp;UPL’s Post-Harvest Solutions Subsidiary, Decco Post Harvest, Acquires TeleSense to Strengthen Offering to Combat Food Waste&nbsp; https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/upls-post-harvest-solutions-subsidiary-decco-post-harvest-acquires-telesense-to-strengthen-offering-to-combat-food-waste-301626128.html&nbsp;SWARM Technologies, acquired by SpaceXFoA 228: Solving the Rural Connectivity Problem with Dr. Sara Spangelo of SWARM Technologies https://open.spotify.com/episode/4aiIkwElCMh2wyJjs46vaA?si=U14f6XkgTQqHRwmNskdehw&nbsp;SpaceX to acquire SWARM https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/09/spacex-to-acquire-satellite-connectivity-startup-swarm-technologies/&nbsp;SWARM continues to aim skyward one year after SpaceX deal https://www.fierceelectronics.com/iot-wireless/swarm-continues-aim-skyward-one-year-after-spacex-deal&nbsp;Harvest Profit, acquired by John DeereFoA 080: Bootstrapping a Farm Management Software Company with Nick Horob of Harvest Profit <a...

Visit our sponsor: http://www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comPattern Ag: https://www.pattern.ag/FoA 170: Genetic Testing for Soil with Dr. Poornima Parameswaran: https://aggrad.libsyn.com/foa-170-genetic-testing-for-soil-with-dr-poornima-parameswaran-of-trace-genomics Today’s episode features a conversation with Mike Tweedy, VP of sales for Pattern Ag. Pattern Ag is a predictive analytics company that uses DNA sequencing of the soil to see the actual biology in farmers’ fields that they claim has never been available until now.&nbsp; They take the unknown such as very specific pathogens that rob top end yield - like soybean sudden death syndrome and corn rootworm which we’ll talk a lot about today - as well as beneficial microbes and make them known. They are based in California but focused exclusively on corn and soybeans at this time.&nbsp;Mike is the vice president of sales and leads the midwest commercial team. He’s a sales guy, but he’s also an ag guy with a long pedigree in the industry. He spent his early career with large agribusinesses like American Cyanamid, BASF and Syngenta. Then pivoted his career into startups in 2010. Before Pattern Ag, he was the Vice President of Crop Protection Sales at Indigo.&nbsp;We nerd out a little bit on soil and agronomy in this episode, but I think this also sheds some light on how much room there still is for innovation in this area of soil biology. Especially when you put it in the context of the recent episode we had about plant breeding. The combination of advancements in these two fields of plant breeding and soil biology are really critical for the future of ag in my opinion.&nbsp;

Visit our presenting sponsor: http://www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comHEMPALTA: https://www.hempalta.com/Phyto Organix: https://phytoorganixfoods.com/ We often get excited about the future of agriculture being more diverse and distributed and differentiated, but this is not going to happen by just planting new crops. Entire value chains need to be created to facilitate rich and diverse crop rotations and food choices. A critical piece of this is processing. These are the entrepreneurs that tap directly into the demand, innovate on the operations side, and develop relationships with farmer suppliers. I’m excited to feature two of these entrepreneurs on today’s show.&nbsp;First you’re going to hear from Darren Bondar, president and CEO of Hempalta, which is an agricultural technology company focused on innovative hemp processing and product creation. It is one of the only commercial-scale hemp processors in North America able to manufacture high-value hemp products.After Darren, you’ll hear from Chris Theal, founder, president and CEO of Phyto Organix Foods, which is an independent Alberta-based innovator, processor, developer and distributor of conventional and organic plant-based protein for the food and beverage industry. Our project will source yellow peas to produce high purity, protein isolate from our wet fractionation facility in Strathmore Alberta.I really enjoyed both of these conversations, and here are the three reasons these stories have my attention: For all of the people talking about regenerative agriculture and sustainable practices, very few are actually creating real markets that can make those changes work for the average farmer. In my humble opinion, it’s more likely to be processors like these that facilitate change than it is the headline-grabbing carbon markets. These companies want to buy directly from growers. They are bringing real opportunities to farmers rather than just the vague promises of future benefits that a lot of new ideas to agriculture seem to have. This is not your typical silicon valley type capital I innovation. These are the real nuts and bolts advancements that I think agriculture needs. What do you think about the future of value added processing? How do you like this narrative format compared to more of an interview format?

Visit our quarterly presenting sponsor: https://www.CalgaryAgbusiness.com Bruins Seed Consultancy: https://www.bruinsseedconsultancy.com/"20 Most Famous Plant Breeders": https://european-seed.com/2022/07/20-most-famous-plant-breeders-1-5/Dr. Marcel Bruins studied Plant Breeding at Wageningen University in The Netherlands, followed by a PhD award on Fusarium resistance in wheat. He worked for 10 years with a vegetable seed company as Manager Plant Variety Protection. He then served for 7 years as Secretary-General of the International Seed Federation (ISF), lead the Secretariat of the International Grain Trade Coalition (IGTC) through a phase of transition and continued working as their Scientific Advisor. Besides being the Editorial Director of the ‘European Seed’ magazine, he also operates as an independent consultant, helping out companies and non-profit organizations with their questions on seed, grain, trade facilitation, intellectual property and international outreach.I came across his work from a series of article he recently published in European Seed called “20 Most Famous Plant Breeders”. I really enjoyed that series and we talk a little bit about it towards the end of today’s episode. I’ll of course link to those in the show notes. Beyond that, Marcel and I also talk about what has changed about plant breeders, how they balance grower demands (like pest management) with consumer demands (like flavor and nutrition), how the field of plant breeding will need to adjust to big challenges like climate change, and how new technologies will change the game.

Visit our presenting sponsor: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.com California Ag Solutions: https://www.calagsolutions.com/Livestock Water Recycling: https://www.livestockwaterrecycling.com/ Joining us on today's episode is Silas Rossow, president of California Ag Solutions, which is a crop consulting company that helps growers leverage technologies and production practices that meet the needs of the crop and the goals of the farmer. Silas says they're known for their in depth understanding of the ecological environments where their growers operate, and their ability to use biomimicry and other nature based approaches that we will talk about.&nbsp;Silas received his college education at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and grew up around agriculture his whole life. Driving tractors, irrigating fields, and figuring out how crops grow was a valuable education. He started at CA Ag Solutions in 2008 and in 2014, he began managing the day-to-day operations. He says his drive to seek out the very best practices for California farmers comes from his love of agriculture and technology.&nbsp;In today’s episode we discuss regenerative practices in specialty crops, especially tree crops, although Silas works in plenty of other crops as well, we discuss how water becomes a factor in decisions to implement these practices, and the toughest transition of all, which is the mindset shift that this approach requires.Also, stay tuned for a bonus segment at the end of today's episode featuring Livestock Water Recycling CEO Karen Schuett.

Visit our presenting sponsor: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comNitricity: https://www.nitricity.co/Today’s episode features Nico Pinkowski, co-founder and CEO of Nitricity, which is a company electrifying and distributing the production of fertilizer. As it is done today, fertilizer emits as much as&nbsp; 5-7%/yr of total global GHG emissions. The company can trace its beginnings back to Stanford University where Nico received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering. Nitricity and Nico have been awarded numerous awards and grants from Stanford, MIT, Caltech, ASU,&nbsp; Forbes 30 under 30, NSF, USDA, and ARPA-e SBIR, and a recent $20M venture finance round.&nbsp;We’ll start off with a fascinating history of fertilizer production, then talk more about Nitricity’s solution, how they’ve developed it, and how they’re bringing it to market with farmers and retailers.

Visit our presenting sponsor: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comPosterity Ciderworks: https://posterityciderworks.com/Brendan Barnard Twitter: https://twitter.com/IntractableLionPosterity Ciderworks Twitter: https://twitter.com/posteritycider Kris Barnard Twitter: https://twitter.com/KrisMBarnard FoA 318: The Budding American (Hard) Cider Industry with Greg Peck, Ph.D. https://player.captivate.fm/episode/49237ec9-117d-4d16-9569-0672b5e9aecaToday’s episode features Brendan Barnard of Posterity Ciderworks.&nbsp;To set some context here, a lot of the episodes on this show are focused on efforts to scale solutions: venture capital, commodity crops, hardware and software. And those are incredibly important to continue to find ways to improve our global food system. But I think too often there’s a tendency in agriculture to think something has to have the potential to reach some sort of global scale and FEED THE WORLD in order to matter. If you’ve listened to many of these episodes, you already know that I believe innovation and progress can many different forms. Some will look like solutions that can improve the way millions or billions of people eat. Others, which I equally enjoy, are stories of craft, of skill, of care, of community. Stories that are delightfully unscalable, but no less important. Many times, these are the stories that can teach us the most about agriculture and the most about ourselves. I think we have a story like that for you today.&nbsp;It also helps that it ties together a few passions of mine: cider, nature, and value-added agriculture. Today’s episode speaks to several of the seven consumer values we talked about in episode 300, especially the need for a connection to an authentic source.&nbsp;Brendan and his wife Kris were living in the bay area working in tech. They had some fruit trees in their backyard and seven years ago Brendan dove headfirst into cider making. Eventually they bought property in Calaveras County, about 140 miles away with a long term plan of eventually starting an orchard-based cidery. Today, that is alive and well as Posterity Ciderworks. Some changes in the timeline led them to start sourcing apples from what he calls feral orchards, which have somehow survived and even thrived for decades with no care. These feral orchards have also spawned wild trees which Brendan and Kris also forage from for their low intervention, fine ciders that really reflect the place they are grown. They make these ciders with no sulfites, no added sugars, no preservatives and no artificial flavorings or colors. All of this while raising a family and starting and expanding their own dry-farmed, non-conventional&nbsp; silvopastured orchard. We’ll talk all about that, but first just a couple of cider terms to be aware of.&nbsp;We will mention abv, which is alcohol by volume. Yes, this is hard cider, not apple juice. The ABV goes up with higher sugar content which is fermented into alcohol. Those sugars are measured in fruit via a system called brix, which is another term you will hear mentioned. Finally, Brenan will talk about racking, which is just moving the fermenting cider from one container to another, which is usually done to get it off the lees, which is the dead yeast and other particles that settle at the bottom of the container. Or to move it to a barrel, bottle, or other secondary fermentation container.&nbsp;

Visit our quarterly presenting sponsor: www.CalgaryAgBusiness.comBuilders VC: https://www.builders.vcFoA 169: Investing in Farmland with Carter Malloy of AcreTrader https://player.captivate.fm/episode/2d02dd15-9faa-469b-8b5d-5b99233a3a53FoA 188: Fintech Meets Agtech to Invest in Farmland https://player.captivate.fm/episode/44a98802-07c3-4295-87c0-e0965881e5b2Joining us on today’s episode is Mark Blackwell of Builders VC. Mark is actually based in Calgary, but Builders is a Silicon Valley - based venture fund that focuses on modernizing antiquated industries. So they focus in not only agriculture, but also healthcare, industrials, real estate and construction. They have a portfolio of over 60 companies, investing from seed to series a. The team has a long history of investing in agtech before they founded Builders when they invested as part of Kosla Ventures in companies such as Granular and the Climate Corp.&nbsp;Mark and I talk a lot about the current state of venture capital, and what areas of agtech he’s most excited to invest in companies with bold visions and strategic plans. I’ll warn you, this episode gets a little into the weeds of venture capital. I’m by no means any sort of an expert on this, but if you’re unfamiliar, here’s a quick and very basic primer:&nbsp;Venture capitalists start and manage funds to invest in startup companies. They are backed by investors, called limited partners or LPs that give them money to place these bets. When VCs have money from their investors that they have not yet deployed to startups, they call that money dry powder. VCs do take a management fee from those investments, but the real money is made when a company exits. In other words it is sold or goes public. That is why we’ll talk about M&amp;A activity which is mergers and acquisitions. When companies in their portfolio exits, that is when the VC can return the fund, or provide returns to their investors and themselves. We also reference SPACs at one point in this conversation, which could be a whole other podcast, but just know that stands for special purpose acquisition company and it is a vehicle that allows companies to go public that was super popular a year ago, but has fallen out of favor based on a number of factors I won’t get into here.&nbsp;Ok hopefully that provides good context for this insightful conversation with Mark Blackwell. Mark is a general partner and lead of the Canadian Office at Builders. Previously, he was a product manager at SolarWinds which he joined when they acquired GNS3 Technologies where Mark had been the COO. He also had a background in venture capital and investment banking before that.

Visit our quarterly presenting sponsor: www.calgaryagbusiness.com Teffola: https://www.eatteffola.com/The Business of Food Newsletter: https://jenniferbarney.substack.com/FoA 221: Bringing Commercial Quinoa Production to Colorado: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/fd94a32f-7554-46b4-9ba5-bfc50a371680Claire Smith is the founder of the ancient grain granola brand Teffola. She comes from a 7th generation farming family in Michigan where Tenera Farms has been farming wheat, corn, and soy since 1837.&nbsp; In 2015 Tenera Farms started planting teff, a tiny grain rich in protein and fiber and a key ingredient in the Ethiopian bread injera. Why the farm began growing this obscure grain, how they became processors, and how that lead Claire to start making and marketing granola is the subject of this interview.Today’s episode is all about ancient grains and building a consumer packaged goods or CPG business on top of an established farm. These are two things I know very little about, so lucky for you and for me, we have a guest co-host joining us on the show today, Jennifer Barney. Several months ago, someone shared a post on LinkedIn called “Ag Companies Launching Food Brands”. Long time listeners of this show will know that is something I’m really fascinated by, so I immediately subscribed to the newsletter that produced the post. It turns out that newsletter called “The Business of Food” was created by Jennifer Barney. After reading several of her newsletters I reached out about collaborating, and here she is co-hosting her first episode.Jennifer is a consumer-packaged goods (CPG) expert. She lives in the Central Valley of California and got her start in the food industry 16 years ago when she founded the almond butter brand Barney Butter. Jennifer successfully grew the brand to nationwide retail distribution and then sold the company. After exiting Barney Butter, Jennifer has since become an advisor and consultant to startups and ag leaders who want to get closer to the consumer with their own brands and innovations. She writes an email newsletter called The Business of Food where she shares food industry knowledge including business modeling, growth tips, and what to focus on at the early stages of business.

Thank you to our quarterly presenting sponsor: www.CalgaryAgBusiness.comAgriPlay: https://www.agriplay.com/A4 Systems: https://a4.systems/Joining us for today's episode is Dan Houston, president of AgriPlay. Dan has over 17 years of experience in commercial real estate. He is a partner in a company called A4 Systems, which looks for industry issues that can use their expertise in data and technology. They have started two companies in agriculture: the first being HerdWhistle, a feedlot management system. And the second being AgriPlay which is building vertical farms in commercial real estate space.&nbsp;AgriPlay’s first big project, after their distressed environment lab where they have been testing all of this, is the Calgary Tower. Phase one is 65,000 square feed of vertical farms starting operations this coming September. But as you’re about to hear, their vision stretches far beyond this starting point. Dan claims they already have agreements with wholesale buyers of the produce and plans to expand production over the next year.&nbsp;Most of you have already heard the case for indoor farming. If not you can check out previous episodes like 71, 146, 185, 193, and 307.

Thank you to our quarterly presenting sponsor: www.CalgaryAgBusiness.comRoot Agricultural Advisory: RootAgAdvisory.com Skye Root on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skye-root-cfa-5064463/ Skye Root is the founder of Root Agricultural Advisory where he manages and grows farmland portfolios throughout the Western USA. Prior to starting his company he worked as a senior vice president for Westchester Group Investment Management, a global farmland asset manager. And before that he was a water rights consultant for WestWater Research, a leading advisory firm in the water rights industry.&nbsp;In today’s episode we talk farmland and water, and the perception of more outside institutional money being deployed in rural areas. And when we say institutional money, we are talking about large organizations such as banks, pension funds, or insurance companies who are usually investing on behalf of their stakeholders.&nbsp;Skye is unique in that he grew up in a very rural part of eastern Oregon on a farm and ranch so he really understands the perspectives of both the producers and the investors looking to get into this industry.

Thank you to our quarterly presenting sponsor: www.CalgaryAgBusiness.comTurtleTree: https://turtletree.com/"From Farms to Incubators" https://bookshop.org/books/from-farms-to-incubators-women-innovators-revolutionizing-how-our-food-is-grown/9781610355759 Joining us on today’s episode is Fengru Lin, co-founder of TurtleTree, which is based in both Singapore and California. The company describes itself as “a biotech company dedicated to producing a new generation of nutrition—one that’s better for the planet, better for the animals, and better for people everywhere. Utilizing its proprietary, cell-based technology, the company is creating better-for-you milk ingredients sustainably and affordably, with benefits that extend beyond the dining table and into the heart of humanity.”When I first heard this description I was highly skeptical about their ability to compete with what I know is a very efficient dairy industry. But what I learned from Fengru shed a lot of light on where companies like TurtleTree still have a place in the future of agriculture. In my opinion, that includes cultivating high value proteins for things like ingredients and supplements and pharmaceuticals. Another aspect I find very valuable about what TurtleTree is doing is trying to close the gap between infant formula and real human breast milk. We’ve seen issues with formula supply chains recently, and TurtleTree’s approach can apply to all forms of milk, including human milk.&nbsp;This is the fifth and final episode in the series I’ve been doing over the past year with Amy Wu who is the author of the book “From Farms to Incubators: Women Innovators Revolutionizing How Our Food is Grown”. Amy is passionate about featuring women leaders in agtech and I have been glad to share that passion with her and all of you by featuring Joanne Zhang in episode 263, Ponsi Trivisvavet in episode 273, Shely Aronov in episode 290, Ros Harvey in episode 304, and of course Fengru today. I highly encourage you to purchase a copy of Amy’s book, as it not only includes these guests but also several other former guests of this podcast: like Pam Marrone, Fatma Kaplan, Sarah Nolet, Mariana Vasconcelos, Christine Su, and others.&nbsp;Alright, let’s get to our featured conversation with Fengru Lin, co-founder and CEO of TurtleTree - and yes, we are going to ask her where the company name came from. Since founding the company in 2019, TurtleTree has become a top player in the alternative protein industry with $40 million in startup funding. Fengru is an alumna of Singapore Management University where she studied Information Systems Management and Marketing. Before starting TurtleTree, she held positions with Google and Salesforce.&nbsp;

Thank you to our quarterly presenting sponsor: Calgary, Alberta! www.CalgaryAgBusiness.com&nbsp;Greg Peck research: https://hardcider.cals.cornell.edu/Cider Chat Podcast: https://ciderchat.com/&nbsp;Today is an episode I’ve been very excited about for a long time because it combines three of my biggest passions: cider, farming, and this podcast. It’s part history of apples and cider, part analysis of the growing cider industry, and part personal indulgence of asking an expert if I’m crazy to dream of one-day owning an orchard-based cider company.&nbsp;Dr. Greg Peck is a pomologist, cider expert, and an associate professor in the School of Integrative Plant Sciences at Cornell University. His research addresses the challenges of sustainably and profitably producing tree fruits, and has conducted research in fruit-crop production systems in California, Washington, New York, and Virginia. He really has become a leader and expert in cider in the U.S., and received the American Cider Association’s 2018 Grower Advocate of the Year Award.&nbsp;As you can already tell, this episode was selfish for me in a lot of ways as a hobbyist cidermaker myself who has planted a dozen or so apple trees. But there’s some really great stuff in here that touches on history of agriculture, local agritourism, wine, climate change, and farm economics. Enjoy this episode with Dr. Greg Peck.

Thank you to our quarterly presenting sponsor, Merck Animal Health Ventures: https://www.merck-animal-health.com/animal-health-ventures/ Prime Future Weekly Newsletter: https://primefuture.substack.com/  Video of High Plains Ponderosa Dairy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s91pH9wNKOw  Today’s episode covers some really progressive concepts in modern agriculture, and specifically modern dairy. Greg Bethard is the CEO of High Plains Ponderosa Dairy in Kansas. You’re going to hear from the lens of a producer how they are finding ways to lower their carbon footprint, produce both dairy and beef using the same resources, drive costs lower, and partner with companies like Shell to take their operation to the next level. 

Thank you to our quarterly presenting sponsor, Merck Animal Health Verntures: https://www.merck-animal-health.com/animal-health-ventures/ Poultry Sense: https://www.poultrysenseltd.com/  Ancera: https://www.ancera.com/  For the first half of today's episode you’ll hear an interview with Alan Beynon, founder of Poultry Sense. Then in the second half you’ll hear from Ancera founder & CEO Arjun Ganesan, who I’ll formally introduce a bit late in the episode.  Alan Beynon is a veterinarian in the UK who started Prognostix, which used to be called Poultry Sense, in 2016. As Alan will describe, he saw a lot of opportunity in the use of sensors and data to improve animal welfare and efficiency. Merck Animal Health Ventures invested in the company in 2019 and then ended up acquiring them in 2021. We talk a little bit about that part of Alan’s story as well. Connecticut-based Ancera is a pioneer in microbial-based risk assessment and monitoring solutions. So what does that mean? They have a proprietary technology that enables near real-time, rapid detection and quantification of microbial threats across all points in the food production process, from farm-to-consumer. If that’s still sounding vague, the way I sort of understood it in my mind was that biological interactions are more complex than chemical interactions. So for any type of biological intervention it’s important to know more than just did it work or did it not work. We need more data about the dynamics at play, and that’s what Ancera does for their customers. Founder and CEO Arjun Ganesan shares details as well as some specific use cases.

 Philip Giampietro is the CEO and president of Walden Local Meat Company. Founded in 2014, Walden is New England and New York's leading brand of locally raised, sustainable meat. They are part of the first cohort of companies to legally reincorporate as a public benefit corporation or B-Corp. Philip says their purpose is to “make local work," with a more specific mandate to: 1) Connect adjacent rural and urban communities, 2) Produce the healthiest products possible with leading standards of animal welfare and environmental sustainability, and 3) Create incentives for farmers to move to more regenerative practices — those that are not simply "do less harm" but those that provide a net positive benefit to the environment and surrounding communities. Before Walden, Philip was a Director at Bain Capital and held various positions in private equity and consulting.    Thank you to our quarterly presenting sponsor, Merck Animal Health Ventures: https://www.merck-animal-health.com/animal-health-ventures/ Walden Local Meat Co: https://waldenlocalmeat.com/ *SUBSCRIBE TO JANETTE BARNARD'S PRIME FUTURE NEWSLETTER: https://primefuture.substack.com/  Join the FoA Community: www.Patreon.com/agriculture  We have a great show for you today about what it takes to build a regional food system that can scale in today’s market that has very high expectations when it comes to taste, flavor, convenience, health, social and environmental impact, and beyond. Walden Local Meat has been building their company serving the Northeast U.S. since 2014. They have a great story about what it takes to make this approach work, and where they see the future of local and regional food systems headed. Some of you may know that I grew up in a direct-to-consumer specialty livestock business, so this concept is definitely of interest to me and near and dear to my heart.

Thank you to our quarterly presenting sponsor, Merck Animal Health Ventures: https://www.merck-animal-health.com/animal-health-ventures/ AGI: https://www.aggrowth.com/ Farmobile: https://www.farmobile.com/  Today’s episode is a fascinating look at the value of farm data. Jason Tatge has been thinking about farm data for decades now, and you’re going to hear about the early days of trading data over the phone, to how that concept is basically what we know today as carbon credits and NFTs. He’ll also talk about how Ag Growth International or AGI is using Farmobile’s platform to connect data from all sorts of equipment including things like grain bins and dryers to reach unprecedented levels of interoperable farm data. Some really interesting topics to cover on today’s show, make sure you stay to the end to hear his vision for where all this stuff is going. Jason is currently serving as a Senior Vice President for AGI Digital.  AGI Digital is the collection of technology assets that have been acquired by AGI. These include the companies of Intellifarms, Farmobile and CMC Hazard Monitoring. AGI, for those that don’t know, provides global equipment solutions for seed, fertilizer, grain, feed and food processing systems.They are a global equipment leader with several brands across five main areas: Grain, Fertilizer, Food, Feed and Seed. Jason came to AGI by way of acquisition of his company Farmobile last year. He started his career though, in the same way I did: as a commodities trader. After seven years of that work, he was a co-founding employee of Farms.com, and then started his own company called Farms Technology, which was an electronic marketplace with automated hedging capabilities. He sold that company to DuPont Pioneer in 2012.  JOIN THE FOA COMMUNITY: www.Patreon.com/agriculture 

Thank you to our quarterly presenting sponsor, Merck Animal Health Ventures: https://www.merck-animal-health.com/animal-health-ventures/  Blue Ocean Barns: https://blueoceanbarns.com/ Today’s episode features Joan Salwen, co-founder and CEO of Blue Ocean Barns. Joan grew up in the long shadow of her family’s Iowa farm where she harvested cherries and cared for the sheep. During 20 years as a Managing Director at Accenture, Joan managed $50M+ client relationships and led the firm's Atlanta practice for organization and change strategy. In 2015, Joan transitioned to Stanford, where she built a team that energized university, market and government interest in seaweed as a solution to climate change. She founded Elm Innovations, a non-profit platform for exploring the potential of the seaweed-livestock connection and ultimately co-founded the commercial engine for it, Blue Ocean Barns in 2019.  I’m very excited to share today’s episode with you. There is so much here. Not only does this project have incredible incredible potential to reduce methane emissions. But also this is an incredible entrepreneurial journey Joan went through to resurrect old research in this area, support further research, commercialize the venture, then figure out how to grow, process and distribute the product at a scale that could be meaningful for the future of agriculture.

Thank you to our quarterly presenting sponsor, Merck Animal Health Ventures: https://www.merck-animal-health.com/animal-health-ventures/ EverAg: https://www.ever.ag/ Dairy.com: https://www.dairy.com/ Prime Future: https://primefuture.substack.com/  Today’s episode is really a unique opportunity to hear from someone who has been working on what it means to digitize agriculture supply chains for over two decades. I can’t think of anyone who better understands the potential here for our industry, but also the reality of the challenges that lie ahead than Scott Sexton of EverAg and Dairy.com. Dairy.com is a leading provider of software, risk management, and market intelligence solutions for the dairy industry. The company was formed in 2000 by investors that included eight of the largest dairy cooperatives, and since that time continued to grow based off just that initial investment and their own earnings until they brought in an outside investor just a few years ago in 2019 and started expanding into some new areas that Scott will talk about with this new umbrella company called EverAg.  I’m very pleased to bring back everyone’s favorite co-host, creator of the Prime Future Weekly newsletter, ruminants lead at Merck Animal Health Ventures, and my good friend Janette Barnard. Join the FoA Community: www.Patreon.com/agriculture

Thank you to our quarterly presenting sponsor, Merck Animal Health Ventures: https://www.merck-animal-health.com/animal-health-ventures/ Jan Willem van Groenigan https://www.wur.nl/en/Persons/Jan-Willem-prof.dr.ir.-JW-Jan-Willem-van-Groenigen.htm Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JWvanGroenigen YouTube videos:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJz4ijSeqjg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt77IvHaZuY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6em_8iFfKIk  Jan Willem van Groenigan is a professor of Soil Biochemistry at Wageningen University in The Netherlands. He is a trained soil fertility specialist, and him and I originally connected about some soil carbon sequestration work that he was a part of. You’ll hear from one of his co-authors about that on a future episode. But when he told me that he was spending a lot of his time these days focused on the role of earthworms in agricultural soils, I knew I had to get him on the show to talk about that topic. He has been a part of several studies on earthworms such as their effect on crop yields, soil fertility, and greenhouse gas emissions, all of which we will talk about in today’s episode. I found his comments on phosphorous to be particularly interesting and important. First though, I’m going to drop you into the conversation where he gives you some more background in his own words, and we’ll take it from there. Enjoy this conversation about earthworms with Jan Willem van Groenigan.    Join the FoA Community: www.Patreon.com/agriculture 

Thank you to our quarterly presenting sponsor, Merck Animal Health Ventures: https://www.merck-animal-health.com/animal-health-ventures/ Innovating Agtech: https://soundcloud.com/user-73017811 SomaDetect: https://somadetect.com/ Books: Adventure Finance, Farm and Other F Words, The Third Plate Today’s featured guest is Hannah Senior. Hannah grew up in a farming community but followed a career into corporate life working with multinational companies, including 5 years with the retailer Tesco.  She completed an MBA at Stanford University before returning to the UK and agriculture, when she acquired PBS International, a company which makes products for plant breeders and seed producers around the world.   She describes her professional expertise as a stool with three legs, spanning agricultural technology, entrepreneurship & plant breeding.  Hannah holds Board and advisory positions with several AgriTech companies including Crop Health and Protection, the UK’s government-backed Agritech centre for Crops, and is Vice President of the National Association of Plant Breeders (although if this goes out in late August I’ll be President by then!). She is the host of two podcasts: Plant Breeding Stories, which interviews a diverse range of people in and around plant breeding, and Innovating AgTech is an audio documentary about how to better align interests in AgTech entrepreneurship between the environment, farmers, entrepreneurs and investors.   I first connected with Hannah as she was putting together this Innovating Agtech documentary-style podcast, and was very eager to both listen to the six-part series, and share some of her takeaways and perspectives with you here today. Join the FoA Community: www.Patreon.com/agriculture

Thank you to our presenting sponsor Merck Animal Health Ventures! https://www.merck-animal-health.com/animal-health-ventures/ Loftus Labs: https://www.loftuslabs.com/ FoA Community: www.Patreon.com/agriculture.  Today’s episode is all about farm business data and analytics. The story is different from others you’ve probably heard about though, in that Loftus Labs is not selling a product. They offer a service to help farmers to build customized processes to gain deeper insights into their unique business. Long time listeners might recall my interest in there being a “Geek Squad for agriculture”, this is like what I had in mind, but actually a lot better.  Patrick Smith and Dan Maycock are two of the co-founders of Loftus Labs. Pat is a fourth generation farmer and the CEO of Loftus Ranches in the Yakima Valley in Washington state. They grow primarily hops and apples, and they are vertically integrated: selling hops to breweries around the world, and packing and marketing apples both in partnership with other growers in the area. You probably know that Washington and apples go hand in hand, but you may not know that the Yakima Valley is the most important hops growing region in the world. The 50-mile stretch of the valley where Loftus is located grows 75% of the nation’s hops and about 25-30% of the world’s production annually depending on the year.  Our conversation today is about the data and business analytics journey that Pat has gone down and what led him to form Loftus Labs with a cofounding team that includes our other guest today, Dan Maycock. Dan’s background is in data engineering with companies you will have heard of like Boeing and Amazon. Their business is really interesting, and I think directly addresses the some aspects of agtech that often get overlooked. Such as the fact that every farm is different and needs customized solutions, and that the many of the tools already exist and what are lacking are implementation partners and support.

Thank you to our presenting sponsor Merck Animal Health Ventures! https://www.merck-animal-health.com/animal-health-ventures/ Floating Farm: https://floatingfarm.nl/ Vence: https://vence.io/  We have a fascinating story today about the world’s first floating farm. To some of you that may sound far fetched or maybe even like a gimmick, but I assure you it’s anything but. And it can open our minds to new possibilities for what and where a farm can be. Even a livestock farm.  Today's episode features both Peter and Vincent van Wingerden. Peter has a background in engineering and started his company to build large buildings on the water. His experience in New York City in 2013 prompted him to focus full time on the concept of a floating farm. He’ll talk more about that in the moment. Joining Peter is his son Vincent, who also happens to work in agtech with Microsoft. Vincent is a Technical Architect for data and AI and ag is one of the sectors he is working in. It was so great to have both Peter and Vincent on the interview to talk about the floating farm, and about agricultural technology and sustainability more broadly.  Stay tuned to the end of the episode for a short profile on Vence, a company we featured by in 246 and has since become a portfolio company of Merck Animal Health Ventures.  Support the Future of Agriculture podcast by joining the FoA community! www.Patreon.com/agriculture 

Thank you to our presenting sponsor Merck Animal Health Ventures! https://www.merck-animal-health.com/animal-health-ventures/ Unfold website: https://unfold.ag/ John Purcell LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jppurcell/ Unfold Twitter: https://twitter.com/Unfold_Ag  John Purcell, Ph.D. has worked in agriculture for over 30 years, including  long career at Monsanto and then Bayer. For the past dozen or so years before leading Unfold he worked in their vegetable seed division. His earlier work led to innovations for crops such as corn, cotton, and wheat. John earned his Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the USDA before going into industry. He is also part owner of a family ranching operation in Montana.  John started thinking about genetics for vertical farming while still at Bayer, but they decided that the vertical farming industry was so different, it not only needed it’s own products, but it’s own company focused on it. It was at that time that Bayer and investment company Temasek formed Unfold as it’s own independent startup focused exclusively on vertical farming. John was tasked with building this company from scratch.  **JOIN THE FOA COMMUNITY: www.patreon.com/agriculture

Thank you to our presenting sponsor Merck Animal Health Ventures! https://www.merck-animal-health.com/animal-health-ventures/ StockCropper website: https://thestockcropper.com/ StockCropper YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheStockCropper Zack Smith Twitter: https://twitter.com/zebulousprime Today’s episode really speaks to the core of what this podcast is all about. We look at the current trajectory of where agriculture is headed, identify some of the negative outcomes associated with that trajectory, and explore how people and technology can play a role in creating a better future. I’m excited to share with you today’s conversation with farmer and Stockcropper co-founder Zack Smith. If you’ve listened to the episode with Joe Bassett, or the recent episode with Paul Greive of Pasturebird, or if you spend any time on ag twitter or ag youtube, you probably have an idea of what the StockCropper is all about. But today’s episode goes deeper into why these types of innovations are important. We talk about consolidation in ag and its impact on rural communities. Zack shares about his journey into soil health and how that’s changed his operation and led him to the point that he felt it was critical that he find a way to incorporate animals onto his crop land. And we talk about these two diverging paths of being the low cost producer vs being a value added producer. A lot of great stuff in today’s episode.  It used to be common practice for farmers to raise a diverse mix of animals and crops in a somewhat integrated system. Over the years through technological and policy changes, most farmers became more specialized, and today the majority of our crops and livestock are produced separate from each other. However, this creates other challenges that Zack will talk more about, and there is a growing push to try to integrate crops and livestock more for the sake of soil, the environment, and rural economies. StockCropper is creating a system to help with this. Their first product is the world’s first multi-species, solar-powered, electrically-driven, autonomous mobile grazing system, called the ClusterCluck. Zack’s going to talk a lot more about the system and what it represents for the future of agriculture.    

Thank you to our quarterly presenting sponsor Merck Animal Health Ventures: https://www.merck-animal-health.com/animal-health-ventures/ I’m very pleased to welcome the leader of the Merck Animal Health Ventures Team, Stephen Murray, joining me on today’s episode. Originally brought up on a sheep and beef farm in New Zealand, Stephen spent the first part of his career as a dairy veterinarian in that country. He decided to leave private practice for industry, which led him through a series of roles and acquisitions to working for Merck Animal Health in 2011. Stephen built the animal health ventures group from its foundation in 2016 - developing the team, ways of thinking and processes that are needed to invest, partner and work with young technology businesses that are of strategic interest to Merck Animal Health.  Today’s episode covers how an established industry leader embraces technology as a core competency, what the acquisition of Antelliq meant to that end, the role of strategic investors in the early stage startup ecosystem, and his thoughts for where the future of animal agtech is headed.

Today's episode is brought to you by Sound Agriculture: https://www.sound.ag/ The Yield: https://www.theyield.com/ "From Farms to Incubators" book: https://bookshop.org/books/from-farms-to-incubators-women-innovators-revolutionizing-how-our-food-is-grown/9781610355759  Joining us on today’s show is Ros Harvey, founder and CEO of The Yield, which is an Australian agtech company that focuses on leveraging data science to provide large specialty crop producers with digital playbooks to improve farming operations and supply chains. The Yield is planning an expansion into the U.S. market this year after establishing themselves in Australia over the past seven years. We have an interesting conversation about their approach to farm data, why their playbook is a different approach from other digital ag companies, her thoughts on data ownership, and the need for more holistic approaches to agtech. 

Kristjan Hebert Twitter: https://twitter.com/KristjanHebert Kristjan Hebert website: https://kristjanhebert.com/ Hebert Grain Ventures: https://hebertgrainventures.com/ "Traction" by Gino Wickman "Get a Grip" by Gino Wickman "Rocket Fuel" by Gino Wickman Joining me again on today’s show is Kristjan Hebert. Kristjan is the managing partner of Hebert Grain Ventures (HGV), a 30,000 acre grain and oilseed operation in southeast Saskatchewan. If you listened to the last episode, you already know that this is part two of the interview, and I highly encourage you to go back and listen to part one if you haven’t done so yet. Kristjan talked in that episode about his transition from working in accounting to coming back to his family’s farm, the business principles and processes he has put in place to grow his operation, and a lot of just great business advice relevant to not just farmers, but anyone who is trying to run their business better.    We continue that theme today as we dive into the operating system that Kristjan uses to run his company. When I say operating system, some of you might think I mean software, and that’s not what I mean at all. This is adapted from a program called the Entrepreneurial Operating System or EOS. We talk about the principles involved which include vision, people, data, issues, process, and traction.    Kristjan describes his scorecard of 15 key metrics that he tracks to make sure his business is performing well and headed in the right direction. In the last episode he talked about some of the financial metrics that are included in the 15, but today he’ll go into some of the other important metrics he tracks.

Today's episode is brought to you by Sound Agriculture: https://www.sound.ag/ Kirstjan Hebert: http://www.kristjanhebert.com/ HGV: https://hebertgrainventures.com/ Maverick Ag: https://maverickag.com/ Kristjan Twitter: https://twitter.com/KristjanHebert Joining me on today’s show is Kristjan Hebert. Kristjan is the managing partner of Hebert Grain Ventures (HGV), a 30,000 acre grain and oilseed operation in southeast Saskatchewan. After a brief stint at accounting firm Meyers Norris Penny, he came back to farming with a focus on profitability. He is a graduate of Texas A&M’s The Executive Program for Agricultural Producers (TEPAP), which you will hear reference a couple of times today.  Danny Klinefelter of TEPAP, whose name will also come up in the interview, refers to Kristjan as “one of the most progressive young farmers he knows”. On top of all of that, Kristjan is also the co-founder of online farm labor platform WorkHorse Hub as well as Maverick Ag - providing custom designed lending, accounting, and insurance solutions to producers.   For this interview, I’m doing something I almost never do: I’m splitting it into two episodes because I thought there was so much here worth your time. In part one today, we talk about the financial lessons he learned from being a CPA that he now applies to his farm, the importance of building a team, dealing with landlords, how is thinking about policy and sustainability, and more. Next week we will go over the operating system he uses to do all of this as well as some of his views on agtech - so that’s just a teaser to listen in again next week.  Know some other strategic, forward-thinking, unconventional producers that should be featured on this show? Email me: [email protected]

Today’s episode is brought to you by Sound Agriculture: https://www.sound.ag/ Suma Reddy LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suma-reddy-0285386/ Future Acres: https://www.futureacres.co/ Wavemaker Labs: https://www.wavemakerlabs.com/  JOIN THE FOA COMMUNITY: www.patreon.com/agriculture Joining me on today’s show is Suma Reddy, the co-founder and CEO of Future Acres. Suma’s company builds advanced mobility and AI solutions for farms, starting with a robot called Carry, an autonomous harvest companion that increases production efficiency, improves farmworker safety, and provides real time data and analytics. So think like a fully autonomous cart or wheelbarrow that transports table grapes from where they are picked to where they are loaded out of the vineyard.  We definitely talk more about Future Acres in this episode and Suma’s vision for the intersection of people and technology in agriculture. We also talk about the labor problems that technologies like this help solve. But mostly, we talk about ideas for funding companies like this. Especially, the venture studio that Future Acres was born out of, what they’ve learned from equity crowdfunding, and a tiny little bit on leveraging communities of people to form special purpose vehicles or SPVs which are ad hock groups of investors that participate alongside VCs or angel investors. So much fascinating stuff covered in this episode.  Suma’s career got started as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali working with smallholder farmers. From there, she joined a high growth microfinance startup in India which IPO’d and eventually sold for a couple billion dollars. Then she returned home to the U.S., and after business school jumped into climate and agriculture with renewable energy projects followed by cofounding an indoor ag startup called FarmShelf. But she felt pulled back to outdoor agriculture and she found this opportunity to start Future Acres at a venture studio, and that is where we dive into today’s episode with Future Acres CEO Suma Reddy. 

Previous guests featured:  Richard Waite Dan Kittredge Jason Persall Paul Winters Xin Yi Lim Mark Remmert Sarah Mock Join the FoA Community: www.Patreon.com/agriculture For most of the history of industrial agriculture, consumers demanded of the food system four foundational criteria: price, safety, taste and convenience. This has not changed, nor do I have reason to believe it will in the future. What has changed is that we have realized that if we make those our only criteria, we fall victim to a host of other problems: health problems, climate change, environmental degradation, inequities, and unfortunately the list goes on.    New values have emerged from consumers that want more out of our food system beyond just the price, safety, taste and convenience which of course remain vital.  After spending some time reflecting on the past 300 episodes of this show, I’ve compiled a list of seven consumer values that I think will continue to shape the future of the ag industry, and I’ve drawn from former guests to share them with you today.  Now I realize fads come and go. But I don’t think we’re talking about fads here. I think we are talking about underlying values that will continue to inform the way consumers eat, buy, and vote in the future. And we as an ag industry ought to be aware of them and factor them into our strategies for the future of agriculture. Climate Impact Nutrition/Health Connection to an Authentic Source Fun & Social Experiences Hunger and Poverty Alleviation Waste Reduction Social Impact

Pasturebird: www.Pasturebird.com Prime Future newsletter: https://primefuture.substack.com/  Join the FoA Community: www.patreon.com/agriculture  Paul Greive and his in-laws decided to raise 50 chickens in their ¼ acre backyard, when those sold quickly he bought more, eventually becoming the largest pastured poultry producer in the country.  To scale Pasturebird, they built their own automated range coop to autonomously move 6,000 birds to new pasture every day using solar energy. This growth and innovation caught the attention of one of the largest animal protein companies in the country, Perdue Farms, who acquired Pasturebird in 2019. Janette Barnard returns to co-host today’s episode which is an incredible story of entrepreneurship, technology, regenerative farming, and a glimpse into the future of agriculture.  

Farmland LP: https://www.farmlandlp.com/ Join the FoA Community: www.Patreon.com/agriculture  Today’s episode is a unique approach to farmland investing. Farmland LP buys farmland and adds value by doing things like planting higher value crops, converting to certified organic, and implementing regenerative farming practices. The company then leases the land back out to farmers who agree to maintain these practices. Joining us on the show today is Farmland LP founder and managing partner Craig Wichner. Craig founded Farmland LP in 2009 and is responsible for day-to-day management, business strategy and all investment activity. He is a seasoned executive with nearly 30 years of experience building companies and investing.  Craig has also helped to manage his family’s real estate portfolio of apartment buildings for over 25 years. He also serves on the board of BN Ranch, Bill Niman’s successor company to Niman Ranch.  Craig and I have a fascinating and wide ranging conversation about investing in farmland, their strategies for acquiring property and adding value, and how he is thinking about the future of agriculture and this asset class of farmland. As you’re about to hear, Craig’s not afraid to call it like he sees it, especially when it comes to sustainability related topics. He sees a lot of greenwashing going on in agriculture and wants to see more data-backed metrics of improving the lands in which we farm.

Leaf Agriculture: https://withleaf.io/ GROWMARK: https://www.growmark.com/ FoA 238: 5 Barriers Limiting Agtech: https://aggrad.libsyn.com/foa-238-5-barriers-limiting-agtech-and-the-companies-breaking-through-them FoA 275: Digital Infrastructure for Ag Supply Chains: https://aggrad.libsyn.com/foa-275-digital-infrastructure-for-ag-supply-chains-with-jake-joraanstad-and-jesse-vollmar-of-bushel  Bailey Stockdale is the CEO of Leaf Agriculture which builds developer tools for agriculture. What that means exactly is what we’re going to spend most of today’s episode talking about, but in the meantime, you can think of them as the company that enables integrations between technology providers so that the user experience is seamless. In other words, technology users will never know they exist. Their customers are technology providers in the industry.  People like Brendan Bachman, who joins Bailey and I on today’s show. Brendan is the Senior Agronomy Technology Manager at GROWMARK/FS, which is one of the largest producer owned coops in the U.S. Brendan has worked there for about 16 years in various agronomy and technology capacities. For the past five years he’s been in thor sole working in strategy and implementation of different ag technologies with their various member companies and working with agtech companies to help them find market fit with growers. After Bailey’s first appearance on this podcast in episode 238 we also featured Bushel in episode 275 diving deeper into the concept of digital infrastructure. Both of those would be great to re-listen to with this one. Today you’re going to get something though that you didn’t get in those past two episodes: a tangible example of why digital infrastructure is needed, how companies like leaf work with technology providers, and we’ll end with a deeper exploration into how an infrastructure provider makes money, differentiates themselves, and deals with competition. This is a different episode, but one I found really fascinating. One technical note: Bailey’s air pods failed us towards the end of the interview, so you’ll notice his audio quality change pretty drastically. But stick with it: he has some really interesting comments towards the end about how all of this plays out for the future of agriculture.    **JOIN THE FOA COMMUNITY: www.Patreon.com/agriculture

FarmRaise: www.FarmRaise.com  Building a startup in ag? Email me: [email protected]  Support this show and join the FoA community: www.Patreon.com/agriculture    A point we try to drive home as often as possible here is that innovation on its own doesn’t really get anywhere until it can be implemented. For agriculture, that often means that the ideas we talk about here on this show need to actually work for farmers. So for the future of agriculture to be more data-driven or more technological or more regenerative, the tools and practices will have to be executable. And for farmers to find this out, they will need to experiment with them. Which is very risky. Luckily there are programs to help absorb some of that risk. A lot of them involve free money in the way of grants, or very cheap loans. But to access these programs requires an often tedious process of seeing if you are eligible then applying then waiting to hear back then keeping up with the ongoing reporting.  Lowering these barriers is exactly where FarmRaise comes in. Jayce Hafner is the co-founder and CEO of FarmRaise. What’s interesting about this episode is not only the impact they are having for farmers, nearly 10,000 so far and $9M in funding applications, but also where they hope to take the company. Today, they offer a freemium model where a farmer can check their eligibility on 15 programs for free or pay $25/month to check eligibility on hundreds of programs, apply to them in less than 15 minutes, and get ongoing support.  Jayce sees this as just the beginning. This valuable service can grow into many more financial services including lending, ecosystem services, and even tax support. In the interview I compare it to H&R Block for farmers, but she quickly corrects me that it’s more like TurboTax. Which is fair. FarmRaise just announced they closed a $7.2M seed round led by Susa Ventures as well as angel investments from some notable names including former podcast guest Zach Johnson (The Millennial Farmer). They also have some really interesting distribution partnerships with Corteva and Cargill with others scheduled to be announced this year. We talk about that as well. There’s so much here to dive into and I think you’ll find this full interview to be well worth your time.   Jayce grew up on a livestock farm in Virginia, where she saw first hand how these financial incentives can improve a farming operation. Before FarmRaise, she invested in agriculture with SLM Partners, completed a Fulbright Fellowship in Trinidad and Tobago, and worked on environmental sustainability at Apple. Jayce has led policy coalitions at several United Nations COP climate negotiations and founded a record-breaking conservation coalition that mobilized 100,000 citizens to advocate for the Arctic Refuge. She has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, an MS in Agriculture from the Stanford School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences. 

Sound Agriculture: https://www.sound.ag/ Support this show: www.Patreon.com/agriculture  Today, I’m excited to bring you an interview with a very interesting company in agtech, and a unique one in many ways. Adam Litle is the CEO of Sound Agriculture. Which is in the “sound science” sense of the word not the audio sense of the word. They have some really interesting scientific approaches to, on one hand, activating beneficial microbes to provide more nutrition to crops. And on the other hand to perform what they call on-demand breeding, which doesn’t actually change the genetics of the crop but blocks expression of certain genes by soaking the seed in a specific protein. Each of these individually is a pretty exciting innovation in agriculture, but I wanted to know where do they intersect? In other words, why is this one business instead of two? We get into that as well as some of the challenges of bringing innovations like this to the market, and much more on today’s episode.  As CEO, Adam leads the company’s strategy and overall company execution. He joined Sound to help serve both producers and consumers with more sustainable, differentiated crops. Prior to Sound, Adam was on the founding team and served as Chief Revenue Officer of Granular, the leading farm management software company acquired by Corteva in 2017.

Grounded Capital Partners: https://www.groundedcapitalpartners.com/ How would you rate the Future of Agriculture podcast using a scale of conventional (1) to aspirational (10)? Where along that spectrum do you think it should be? Email me at [email protected] to let me know or send me a DM on Twitter or LinkedIn.  Our guest today, Stephen Hohenrieder was first on the show back in episode 216 to talk about building a more distributed system. It remains one of my most popular episodes, and I still highly recommend it even after you listen to this one. In that interview in 2020, Stephen mentions that he is working on developing a more permanent investment vehicle to carry out some of his investment theses about the future of food. What he was describing is now Grounded Capital Partners, and I wanted to invite him back to talk about his work.  Stephen has over a decade of focus on regenerative food systems, having invested, studied and collaborated across diverse categories of food and agriculture — proteins, fruits and vegetables, nuts and consumer packaged goods. His perspectives were shaped by a systems approach, the teachings of others, observations in exploring a thesis for how our food system is evolving, and a belief that all stakeholders are interdependent. Since 2017, Stephen has served as the CEO & CIO of Meyer Family Enterprises, an entrepreneurial impact-focused single-family office in the Napa Valley, where he oversees entities that include direct investments, real estate and farming. Join the FoA community at patreon.com/agriculture. 

Granular: www.granular.ag Platinum Ag Services: https://platinum.ag/  We have on the show Cassie Misch who is an independent crop consultant and the owner of Platinum Ag Services located in Northwest Indiana. As part of her offerings to farmer customers, Cassie is a Certified Services Agent for the Granular Agronomy suite of services. One of those farmer customers is Jake Smoker, who also joins us on today’s show. Jake farms with his father, Greg, in LaPorte County, Indiana where they grow corn, beans, wheat, non-GMO corn, non-GMO beans, cattle, and seed corn for Corteva/Pioneer. Jake and his wife Jill were also just recognized this week with the American Farm Bureau Achievement Award, so congratulations to them. Cassie and Jake will talk about how they have worked together to leverage technology to improve yield and efficiency on the Smoker Farm. There’s some real insights here on what’s possible when the right ag technology is fully supported by the right people. As you may recall with this tech-enabled advisor series, I wanted to hear from different types of guests who each are using different types of technologies. In order to do that, I have sought out companies to partner with on each individual episode of this series. Today’s show was produced in partnership with Granular. Many of you listening are familiar with Granular, and you may even remember the episodes I did with them back in 2019, which were episodes 135, 136, 137, 138, and 153. They’ve been some of our most popular episodes ever, so I highly recommend re-listening to those. Granular is more than just a Farm Management tool. They deliver science and service for successful nitrogen management, especially in a year where prices have gone up so dramatically. Granular’s Certified Services Agents, people like Cassie, are an incredible resource to help farmers explore and push the needle as they try new software. Learn more about them at Granular.ag and thank you Granular for partnering with me on today’s episode.

Dawn Equipment: http://www.dawnequipment.com/ Underground Agriculture: https://www.undergroundagriculture.com/  Joe Bassett on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoeatDawn Soil Sense Podcast: www.NDSoilSense.com  Joe Bassett is the president and CEO of Dawn Equipment Company. Dawn makes smart soil-engaging products enabling farmers to plant seeds more precisely and prepare the soil with greater efficiency while using less fertilizer. They specifically focus on row crops like corn and soybeans. You’ll also hear us mention their sub-brand Underground Agriculture which focuses on cost effective products for Regenerative Agriculture, making several novel mechanical devices that empower farmers to maximize profit through healthy soil and cover crops. Joe strikes a balance between the hope and optimism of regenerative agriculture and the realities that adoption of these practices are slow and not a fit for many farm businesses in their current form. We touch on how well-intentioned programs can try to push practices on farms without empowering them to integrate into their businesses. I really think this is a conversation worth your time, especially as so many people out there want to choose sides on these issues without considering the realities.  Dawn Equipment was started by Joe’s father, Jim, and two partners in 1992. Joe studied Physics at the University of Iowa and joined the company in 2003, eventually taking over in 2015. He founded Underground Agriculture in 2019.   Support the Future of Agriculture podcast: www.patreon.com/agriculture

Semios (108): https://aggrad.libsyn.com/future-of-agriculture-108-data-driven-sustainable-agriculture-through-iot-and-machine-learning-with-michael-gilbert-of-semios Manolin (120): https://aggrad.libsyn.com/future-of-agriculture-121-electricides-with-andrew-diprose-of-rootwave  Harvest Returns (093): https://aggrad.libsyn.com/future-of-agriculture-093-crowdfarming-with-chris-rawley-of-harvest-returns  We are revisiting three different former guests from 2018 to ask the question “Where are they now?”. This is something you all have requested over the years, but I’ve never done until now. It was a lot of fun and really insightful to catch up with the three former podcast guests that you’re about to hear from. They are: Michael Gilbert of Semios, Tony Chen from Manolin, and Chris Rawley of Harvest Returns.  So you’re getting sort of three episodes in one today. I think there are a ton of great nuggets in each of these segments, so I highly encourage you to stick around to listen to each of them.   

InnerPlant: https://innerplant.com/ "From Farms to Incubators" https://www.farmstoincubators.com/  This week we are exploring the concept of engineering a plant to provide signals of stress like pest pressure or disease pressure or nutrient deficiency. InnerPlant is developing traits that serve as biosensors for when each of these unique types of stressors occur. This can be monitored via satellite for early detection and hopefully swift and precise action by the farmer. InnerPlant founder and CEO Shely Aronov is joining us on today’s show.  And when I say us, I not only mean you I, dear listener, but also my co-host for today’s episode Amy Wu. Amy is the author of the book “From Farms to Incubators: Women Innovators Revolutionizing How Our Food is Grown”. Amy and I teamed up earlier this year to produce some episodes together featuring women in agtech. This is the third of those episodes following Joanne Zhang in episode 263, and Ponsi Trivisvavet in episode 273. I highly encourage you to purchase a copy of Amy’s book, as it not only includes Joanne and Ponsi, but also several other former guests of this podcast: like Pam Marrone, Fatma Kaplan, Sarah Nolet, Mariana Vasconcelos, Christine Su, and others.  So, joining Amy and I is Shely Aronov. Shely grew up in Israel and came to the United States to get her MBA at Stanford, where she chose entrepreneurship as her focus. After some entrepreneurial ventures including a hummus company, she was inspired by some work her father in law was doing in biosensors which eventually led to founding InnerPlant in 2018.  I usually don’t feature companies on this show that are so early that they don’t yet have a commercial offering. But when Amy brought up the idea, the concept of communicating with plants was just too enticing for me to pass up. You’re going to hear a lot about how this works, why it could lead to significant improvements in management of these stressors, what it’s like to be a female agtech founder not from an ag background, and why farmers are paying to be part of this several months before there’s even a product available. 

Omnivore: https://www.omnivore.vc/  Tenacious Ventures: https://tenacious.ventures/ SP Ventures: https://www.spventures.com.br/  Merck Animal Health Ventures: https://www.merck-animal-health.com/animal-health-ventures/  Last month I gathered four agtech venture capitalists who all happen to be very popular previous guests of this show to talk about what they’re seeing in agtech investment, and to speculate about where things might go from here. What resulted was a great conversation talking about how areas of technology are making their way into agriculture, and how that’s made them feel suddenly like part of the “popular kids” of the venture community.  The four voices you’re going to hear from today are Mark Kahn from Omnivore in India, Sarah Nolet from Tenacious Ventures in Australia, Janette Barnard with Merck Animal Health Ventures here in the U.S., and Francisco Jardim of SP Ventures in Brazil. I’ll link to each of their websites and the previous episodes where you can hear them in the show notes. Francisco Jardim LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/franciscojardim/  Sarah Nolet LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/svnolet/  Janette Barnard LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janettebarnard/  Mark Kahn LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-kahn-20490a/  Sarah Nolet Twitter: https://twitter.com/svnoles Janette Barnard Twitter: https://twitter.com/JanetteJoyB  Mark Kahn Twitter: https://twitter.com/agri_technology   

Hello Tractor: https://hellotractor.com/ Jehiel Oliver on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jehiel/ Software is Feeding the World Email Newsletter: https://rpethe.substack.com/  Today’s episode is about how Hello Tractor is bringing tractors to farmers in developing countries. This is a tremendous story of figuring out the logistics of how to maximize the use of farm machinery where it’s needed most, and deploying the technology and processes to make this happen at scale. At a real basic level, Hello Tractor is an agricultural technology company that connects smallholder farmers across the emerging markets with farm equipment owners that have excess capacity through technology.  Jehiel started the company six years ago in Nigeria, and has since moved to Kenya. Hello Tractor is now operating in 13 countries in Africa as well as a few countries in Asia as well as Guatemala and Jamaica.  Today’s episode is worth listening to all the way through, whether or not you think the problems of the developing work apply to you. It’s not only a great story, but there are some fascinating insights here about the power of fleet management technology, and how innovations in this industry can be applied to farms of all sizes.  Jehiel grew up in Cleveland and started his career in investment banking. He started to become really interested in ways to use finance to work with more marginalized communities, and started volunteering his time and expertise in deal structuring to microfinance organizations. After the financial crisis he committed full time to this work, first in Afghanistan. He realized that the global poor work in agriculture, and mechanization is a key missing piece to helping to alleviate poverty. So he’s applying his finance background to pull commercial levers to address this really entrenched problem.

The Nature Conservancy: https://www.nature.org/en-us/  "Building Soil Health Through Innovation" https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-priorities/provide-food-and-water-sustainably/food-and-water-stories/building-soil-health-innovation/  Renée Vassilos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rvassilos/  Today’s guest is Renée Vassilos. Renée manages The Nature Conservancy’s investments in innovative companies that will help scale regenerative agriculture production practices. Prior to joining TNC, she spent nearly a decade at John Deere, followed by leading her consulting firm, Banyan Innovation Group, advising growth-stage agriculture technology startups and investors. That’s where she was when we heard from her in episode 157 in 2019.  If you’ve never heard of The Nature Conservancy before, they are a global environmental nonprofit working to create a world where people and nature can thrive. They have a strong reputation for working with private and public partners, including farmers and agribusinesses, to find practical and sustainable solutions to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends.  Since joining TNC a couple of years ago, Renée has led investments in seven different early stage agricultural companies. Four of which, you’ve actually heard about if you’ve been listening to this show for very long. Those four are: Grower’s Edge (ep 156 & 238), SwarmFarm Robotics (ep 271), Sentera (ep 255 & 264), and Vence (ep 246).   The other three companies will be new to this show, so I’ve asked Renee to tell us a little bit about each of them during today’s show. They are: Kula Bio, Pattern Ag, and Stony Creek Colors.  Renee and I also talk about how they’re measuring and evaluating the impact of their investments related to their ability to get closer to their soil health goals, and the chicken or the egg problem of whether the tools can change a farmers practices or if a mindset has to change first with the farmer to seek out the right tools for those practices. That’s toward the end and Renee and I disagree slightly on which has to come first.  **Join the FoA Community: www.patreon.com/agriculture

Bionutrient Food Association: https://bionutrient.org/ Bionutrient Institute: https://www.bionutrientinstitute.org/  Bionutrient meter: https://bionutrient.org/bionutrientmeter  Over the past few years, the term “nutrient density” has been popping up more and more. There are a lot of claims being made about farming practices like regenerative agriculture producing more nutritious food or more nutrient dense food. But is this true? I mean, if you increase the amount of one nutrient are you really making it more nutrient dense or are you maybe just doing so at the expense of other nutrients? And if there are more of any given nutrient in a product, does that make it necessarily healthier?  The truth is we don’t really know. There is no agreed upon standard for nutrient density. And many people and companies are not letting that stop them latching onto the term and running with it for their own marketing purposes. You’ve heard evidence of that right here on previous episodes of this show. Also, without collecting a large amount of data on the various compounds in agricultural products, we can’t really even say if it matters.   Our guest today is making progress in defining nutrient density with data and has created an open-source consumer-priced handheld bionutrient meter that can provide a real time percentile of nutrient compound levels in eight different crops so far. He has a vision of someday using nutrient density as an important data point to optimize our food system in a variety of ways. But first we need the data to define what the nutrient profile should look like in each crop and the instrumentation to test this in every level of the food system, which he’ll be the first to admit that we still have a long way to go toward that end.  We have on the show Dan Kittredge. Dan is the Founder and Executive Director of the Bionutrient Food Association. Dan was an organic farmer for more than 30 years and founded the Bionutrient Food Association or BFA with the mission of increasing quality in the food supply. Dan’s perspective is healthier food comes from healthier plants which come from healthier environments. So, if we can develop a reliable and accessible measurement of healthy food, we can use that as a critical metric for a better food system.  Dan’s vision is really interesting: once we have clear definitions and the instrumentation to give everyone access to the data, it creates a feedback loop that can optimize our food system for true quality. Dan believes this can nullify the need for a lot of labels about how a food is grown because what will matter is the data - both on quality and environmental impact. He’s going to share the effects this could have on farming practices, genetics, health and consumer choice. Some of this may stretch your thinking here a little bit and you may find yourself wanting to see the evidence. That’s ok - and the story here is what Dan and the BFA are doing to search for the data to inform this very interesting thesis. In order to make sure this was a pre-competitive effort, Dan and the team have made their device open source. Dan says it’s a very early version of what we will need in the future, but it has allowed them to initially start collecting data with consumers at grocery stores and farmers markets and grow into working with 150 farmers as they did last year. Dan starts our conversation off with an overview of the Bionutrient Food Association. 

AgWorld: www.AgWorld.com  John Silvera on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-silvera-02b838175/  Today’s episode is another installment in that series, and it’s a really cool story of how John Silvera, an Independent Crop Consultant in the central valley of California, is using one tool in particular, AgWorld, to offer much more to growers than just agronomic recommendations.  In this episode we’ll talk about the return on investment of farmers hiring independent crop consultants, why John decided to start using AgWorld, and how he estimates he can save an average sized grower around $100,000 per year through his integrated budgeting, agronomic advising, and input purchasing service. We’ll also get into how he’s thinking about the future of agriculture and his crop consulting business.  Today’s show was produced in partnership with AgWorld.    Founded in 2009 with an Australian headquarters in Perth, AgWorld is a global leader in collaborative farm management, enabling farmers, advisors and third parties to work together as one on a single platform. AgWorld’s standardized database makes it quick and easy to create accurate, reportable farm data and serves over 100 million acres across five counties. AgWorld also made headlines recently by announcing it was getting acquired by Semios, and John and I talk about that a little bit in this episode. Learn more about AgWorld at www.AgWorld.com.  The son of a long time farm manager, John Silvera has a degree in Ag Business from Fresno State University. From there he spent about four years working for a large inputs provider before starting his own company in 2016. What I find most striking about John’s story is how he’s leveraging technology to become much more of a trusted business advisor who integrate agronomic decisions with business decisions for his clients.   **JOIN THE FoA COMMUNITY: www.Patreon.com/agriculture.   

See GUSS in action: https://gussag.com/ Almond Journey Podcast: https://www.almonds.com/almond-industry/industry-news  We have on the show today another great example of this in GUSS Automation. GUSS stands for Global Unmanned Spray System, and joining me for today’s episode is COO Gary Thompson. As the name implies, GUSS sells a fully autonomous sprayer for use in orchards and vineyards. Which is really interesting, because there is no piece of equipment that goes through these operations more than a sprayer does, so the savings and efficiencies here are compelling.  Gary is going to share their interesting story of how this technology was developed out of their traditional custom spraying business, how they’ve grown without outside capital to start selling these machines, the value and benefits of these machines for farmers and other custom sprayers, and what these capabilities means for the future of agriculture.  GUSS came up on another podcast that I host called the Almond Journey podcast. For any of you who are interested in almonds as a crop, I highly recommend subscribing to that one as well. It’s a little shorter than this one with a different feel and it’s of course focused specifically on almonds. I was talking to a grower on the podcast about his low dust harvest equipment, but he made the point of talking about how happy he was with his purchase of some GUSS sprayers.  Gary Thompson from GUSS grew up on a dairy farm in Arizona and went to Cal Poly where he met a lot of people in the central valley. It was there that he got connected with GUSS, where he now oversees all daily operations including manufacturing, sales, marketing, finances, dealers, and customer relations. 

Calgren Renewable Fuels https://www.calgren.com/  Maas Energy Works: https://www.maasenergy.com/ California Milk Advisory Board: https://www.realcaliforniamilk.com/  Dairy Sustainability Award: https://www.usdairy.com/media/press-releases/2021-dairy-sustainability-awards-winners-10-year-anniversary  Today’s episode is a great story of collaboration, public-private partnership, innovation, and sustainability. Before I introduce the guests on today’s show, let me set the scene for you a little bit: a group of 15 dairies in the central valley of California are getting paid to turn their cow manure into renewable fuel. Twelve of these dairies are connected via underground pipeline that transports biogas from on-farm digesters to a centralized conditioning facility which processes and markets the fuel. So the dairies not only receive a milk check, they also receive a manure check. All the while they are drastically reducing their own emissions and replacing 3 million gallons of fossil-fuel diesel with near-zero emissions from dairy-sourced renewable compressed natural gas, or CNG.  This project is a collaboration between a lot of people, including the local dairy farmers, Calgren Dairy Fuels which is the renewable energy company, and Maas Energy Works which makes the digesters. Joining me to talk about this innovative project is Lyle Schlyer, president of Calgren Renewable Fuels, and Daryl Maas, CEO of Maas Energy Works. I want to recognize that this project was nominated by the California Milk Advisory Board for a U.S. Dairy Sustainability Award. They won the award for their socially responsible, economically viable, and environmentally sound impacts on their community. The California Milk Advisory Board brought this incredible story to my attention and was willing to partner with me on this episode to share it with you. If you’re not familiar, they are an instrumentality of the California Department of Food and Agriculture with a vision of nourishing the world with the wholesome goodness of Real California Milk. They are very proud of the fact that dairy farm families in the state have made tremendous progress in reducing their environmental footprint while producing nutritious, planet-smart dairy products, an d becoming world leaders in sustainable farming. Thank you very much to the California Milk Advisory Board for bringing this story to my attention and for partnering with me on today’s episode.

OWL GitHub https://github.com/geezacoleman/OpenWeedLocator Weed AI https://weed-ai.sydney.edu.au/about  Guy Coleman Twitter: https://twitter.com/GeezaColeman William Salter Twitter: https://twitter.com/williamtsalter  Video: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/guy-coleman_the-openweedlocator-owl-is-now-live-its-ugcPost-6835703385925283840-LdvF  On the show today we have Guy Coleman, and William Salter. Guy is PhD Student at the University of Sydney and Fulbright Future Scholar currently based at Texas A&M University. His research focuses on the interaction between artificial intelligence for weed recognition and plant morphology in large-scale production systems. Guy also has experience in alternative weed control technologies like lasers and targeted tillage. Willam Salter, who you will also hear called by his nickname in this episode, Tam, is a postdoctoral agricultural scientist at the University of Sydney. His research focuses on several important aspects of plant and weed science, ranging from improving crop productivity to killing weeds more effectively. William has a keen interest in developing new low cost tools for use in scientific research and the agricultural industry. The project is called the Open Weed Locator or OWL for short. My two guests today are leading the efforts to develop an open source, low cost weed detection and control device. Essentially, it’s a site-specific spot spraying system that you can make yourself for around $400. Right now, it’s only designed for fallow type weed control scenarios because it sees green and sprays it, so you obviously wouldn’t want it running through a growing crop. However, I think with the open source community that they’re developing, I think it’s only a matter of time before they add the artificial intelligence to identify and spray specific weeds or perhaps even some sort of non-chemical control like electricity or lasers. As you heard Brian talk about last week, the opportunities with low cost hardware in the hands of an innovative community are really incredible.  As if that’s not a cool enough story on its own, we also highlight another project in this episode: Weed AI. It’s a repository of weed imagery in crops. This gets back to something we’ve talked about numerous times on this show: the need for quality data sets for companies to develop artificial intelligence. Weed AI is doing this in a sort of open source way.  These two guys will take us through the evolution of the Open Weed Locator, or OWL, project, the importance of open source technology, the role Weed AI can play in the future of agriculture, and much more.  **Join our upcoming Agtech Investor Roundtable by joining the FoA Community at Patreon.com/agriculture.  

AgOpenGPS: https://github.com/farmerbriantee/AgOpenGPS Autonomous Tractor Skiing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-T-rrny1Vk Brian's Twitter: https://twitter.com/efarmerdot  Brian Tischler is a farmer in Alberta, Canada. He farms with his neighbor who he shares equipment with to cover a combined 2,500 acres of wheat, barley, oats, canola, flax, and peas. He started his career in the medical technology industry, which you’re about to hear more about, but then he bought his family’s farm when his dad was ready to retire in the mid 90s.  Brian is going to share how he started learning how to build software to solve a basic problem, and how that lead to a community of thousands of people around the world who are a part of what is now an open source project called AgOpenGPS. We’ve done a few episodes on open source before, and its really inspiring to see farmers, who have always found ways to hack together solutions to their own problems, do the same with digital technologies as well. Today’s episode will focus on GPS-based technologies including mapping, section control, auto steer and making a tractor autonomous. These technologies exist in the marketplace, but you’re going to hear how our guest and his open source community are finding ways to make them for themselves much cheaper and more tailored to their individual needs.

OGRAIN: https://ograin.cals.wisc.edu/ YouTube videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/uwipm/search?query=erin%20silva Today’s episode is all about organic farming. Now, organic may be a concept that you have strong opinions about one way or another, but no matter what your perspective, I really encourage you to listen to what our guest has to say.  I originally invited today’s guest, Dr. Erin Silva onto the show to clear up one specific question I had: are organic standards so restrictive that it makes it difficult to grow organically and build soil health through practices like no-till. But once we started the interview I started thinking of all sorts of perceptions of organic that Erin was able to clear up for me. If you’re open to really examining the myths and realities of organic agriculture, we’ve got a great show for you.  Dr. Erin Silva is an associate professor and state extension specialist in organic and sustainable cropping systems at University of Wisconsin - Madison, a position she’s held for about 15 years. She works in partnership with farmers to conduct research related to organic grain production, with a focus on reducing tillage and incorporating soil health practices.  Erin and I will try to pick apart myth from reality on several assumptions that exist out there about organic agriculture, such as:  Organic is just about marketing Organic is not conducive with building soil health Organic is winding back the clock and moving backwards instead of forwards Organic is only the super small and super big farmers  Organic systems can’t ever be as productive as conventional systems Organic doesn’t embrace technology Of course there is no one perfect system for the future of agriculture, but in my opinion, organic does have an important role to play, and there’s even practices that other growing approaches, even conventional, can learn from the organic principles.  Have a listen and see if you agree. Erin first dove deep into learning about organic agriculture in the early 2000s, but says her real education came when she started working directly with farmers in 2006.

Precision AI: https://www.precision.ai/ Fulcrum Global Capital: https://www.fgcvc.com/ Protein Industries Canada: https://www.proteinindustriescanada.ca/  Today’s episode is another great example of how artificial intelligence and computer vision are impacting the ag industry. Today’s episode will focus on a row crop application. Specifically, we’re talking about new drone spraying technology from Canadian startup Precision AI.  Long time listeners will recall that we’ve talked about drone spraying on the show before, but today’s episode goes even deeper into both the technology and the opportunities that can come from the per plant precision that it offers. Also cool about this episode is our guest, Precision AI founder and CEO Daniel McCann. A three-time startup founder with over 25 years in technology in diverse industries such as artificial intelligence, fintech, security, fast food, and agriculture, Daniel provides a unique perspective on how technology impacts our world.  Daniel was a finalist in the 2013 ABEX Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, personally holds six patents, and his previous company NetSecure was mentioned in Peter Thiel’s book Zero to One. Precision AI is a portfolio company of Fulcrum Global Capital, who I’m very happy to be partnering with again on this episode.

SomaDetect: https://somadetect.com/ Prime Future Newsletter: https://primefuture.substack.com/ Our guest on today’s show Jordan Lambert actually mentioned back on episode 261. She has a technology that is easily installed in a milking parlor that collects milk data at the individual cow level. Not just on milk quality - which is one big factor, but also on cow health. It turns out, the milk can tell us a lot about how that cow is doing. This way, a dairy producer can see trends in not just their herd as a whole, but also in individual cows.  Bethany Deshpande is on the show. She is the CEO of SomaDetect, which is the company doing all that stuff I just mentioned. Bethany completed her PhD in Biology, and isn’t from a dairy background originally, but started SomaDetect when she saw an opportunity in the industry to apply some technology originally developed by her father. We’ll get more into that background later in the episode.  But she’s certainly dove headfirst into the dairy industry these past five years since starting the company. This is a great profile of what’s possible as we continue to find new ways to both collect data, but really to put it into management practices. I think there’s a lot of lessons to be learned here about the future of agriculture, whether dairy is of interest to you or not.  Here is my conversation with SomaDetect CEO Bethany Deshpande. 

Benson Hill: https://bensonhill.com/  Today’s episode features Matt Crisp, CEO and co-founder of Benson Hill. Benson Hill describes themselves as a food tech company unlocking the natural genetic diversity of plants with its cutting-edge food innovation engine. Basically, they are trying to improve plant-based ingredients by attacking every aspect of the value chain from seed to processing to sales.  The “plant-based” movement so far, has been trying to mimic the flavors and nutrition of the products they are trying to replace. Matt Crisp’s vision at Benson Hill that you’ll hear today on this show, is that they have the chance to surpass those products, but they will have to do so with better ingredients - which can only come as a result of better genetics and processing.  Matt’s road into health, nutrition, and agriculture actually came from his early career in venture capital. Hearing about how those things tie together is how we’ll start today’s episode with Benson Hill CEO and co-founder, Matt Crisp.    Matt has also appeared on a couple of other agtech podcasts recently:  Agtech, So What? https://www.agtechsowhat.com/agtechsowhatepisodes/2021/8/24/designing-crops-to-change-the-plant-based-food-system The Modern Acre https://themodernacre.com/2021/08/185-plant-based-meat-ingredient-breeding-with-matt-crisp-ceo-and-co-founder-of-benson-hill/   

AGCO Corp: https://www.agcocorp.com/  Louisa Parker-Smith: https://news.agcocorp.com/news/agco-names-louisa-parker-smith-director-of-global-sustainability Email Newsletters: Upstream Ag Insights: https://upstreamaginsights.substack.com/ Software is Feeding the World: https://rpethe.substack.com/    Today’s guest is Louisa Parker-Smith, who is the Global Head of Sustainability for AGCO Corporation. Most of you listening know all about AGCO - they are a major farm machinery designer, manufacturer, and distributor, including tractors, combine harvesters, hay & forage machinery. This includes brands like Fendt, Massey Furgeson, Challenger, Valtra, Gleaner, and many others. They also have a growing grain and protein division which offers grain storage, seed processing, and protein production equipment. In Louisa’s role as head of sustainability, she sets strategy for AGCO’s sustainability programs and ESG which stands for environmental, social, and governance. It’s a very hot topic especially among publicly traded companies, which AGCO is. Sustainability roles like Louisa’s are unique, in that she is constantly engaging with all of the key stakeholders surrounding the business: customers, dealers, AGCO colleagues, and investors. It’s also a role that requires her to be thinking much further out than most others. She says she’s regularly thinking 10 years out or longer, which brings a very interesting perspective on the future of agriculture.  In today’s episode, we talk about ESG and the interest of investors to know what AGCO is doing in terms of sustainability, where AGCO is focusing their efforts particularly on reducing emissions including scope 3 emissions which includes the footprint of their customers who use their products, future innovations in farm machinery, and her time in Africa where she held multiple roles with the company including Director of Distribution Development on the continent. 

Visit Bushel online: https://bushelpowered.com/ Today’s episode takes a peak inside one of the hottest agtech companies to come along in recent years: Bushel. I’ve known about Bushel for a couple of years now, and originally just understood them to be a company that was digitizing scale tickets, which is actually how they started. Scale tickets, for those of you who don’t know, are the paper receipt that accompanies a load of an agricultural commodity that usually includes how much was delivered to where, what the grade factors were, etc. It’s really important because historically this is what is used to get paid properly, to keep effective records, and to have a paper trail for bankers, etc. Then this year they raised a $47M series B round and acquired long time farm management software company FarmLogs, and it became clear that I needed to get them on the show to explain all of these pieces and how they fit together.  Joining me is Bushel co-founder and CEO Jake Joraanstad as well as Jesse Vollmar, who was the cofounder and CEO of FarmLogs and now is the VP of Farm Strategy at Bushel after the acquisition. We discuss why a company that is focused on supply chain would get into the farm management software business, what is digital infrastructure and how it makes money, why they don’t see blockchain as the answer for this digital infrastructure, and how they might use the data they’re collecting to provide unprecedented insights back to their customers.  Bushel has some pretty impressive feathers in their cap: they’ve raised a total of around $75M now, much of it from corporate venture capital arms of large grain companies such as Cargill, Scoular, The Andersons, and Continental Grain (which I actually think is more of an investor and holding company than a grain company nowadays, but we’ll count them anyway). Even more impressive is that Bushel boasts 60,000 active users on its platform, which is used at 2,000 grain buying locations throughout the US and Canada. They reach 40% of grain origination in the US  and handle $22 billion of grain contracts each year.

Learn more about SWAT Maps: https://www.swatmaps.com/ Fieldwalker Agronomy: https://fieldwalker.ca/  Jonathan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZRAgri  Today’s episode is all about precision agriculture, so if you’re into agronomy and variable rate technology, or what our guest would prefer to call optimal rate technology, you’re in for a real treat. If these terms are new to you, at a basic level we are talking about technology that is being used to understand the variability of a field so that the precise (hence the name precision) amounts of a given seed, fertilizer, or other input can be applied in a way that maximizes the crop response, and of course, overall profitability. Plants don’t grow by the acre, they grow on an individual basis and may respond differently based on site-specific factors. For more on precision ag, find these previous FoA episodes: 256, 244, 243, 218, 211, 200, 196, 179, 175, 108, 25.  Today’s episode is part of a series I’m doing called the Tech-Enabled Advisor. These are episodes I’m releasing once per month with the intention of better understanding agtech through the lense of the buyers and users rather than just the entrepreneurs or investors. We’ve done four of these so far: 255, 259, 264, and 269, and from what I’ve been hearing the reception has been excellent.  Joining me on today’s episode to talk about precision ag is Jonathan Zettler, who is an agronomist and the founder of Fieldwalker Agronomy Limited, a private crop consultancy in Minto, Ontario. After 17 seasons in ag retail, Jonathan launched the company to provide “profitable, actionable advice” to farmer customers.  To make sure we hear from different types of guests on this Tech-Enabled Advisor series, I’ve asked various agtech companies to partner with me on these episodes. For today’s episode, I’m fortunate to be partnering with Croptmistic Technology, the creators of SWAT Maps. Some of you may remember Croptimistic from my interview with company president Cory Willness last year in episode 211, or the separate podcast I do in partnership with them called SWAT Agronomy. Jonathan at FieldWalker was the first provider to test and start offering SWAT Maps in Eastern Canada.   For a brief refresher on SWAT Maps, SWAT stands for soil, water, and topography. These maps are high resolution soil foundation maps used to execute variable rate fertilizer, seed, soil amendment, herbicide, and precision water management. Instead of just using imagery of vegetation, also known as NDVI imagery, SWAT Maps takes an integrated soil-based approach that starts with RTK or LIDAR elevation, soil color sensors, and electrical conductivity. Then they use that data to build more useful layers: topography models, water flow paths, normalized EC layers, and soil organic matter. With a patented process and proprietary software tools, layers are modeled into a single encompassing map that depicts soil properties, water influences, and topography of the field. Croptimistic Technology is the company that created SWAT Maps and they partner with companies like Jonathan’s to implement the technology and combine it with local agronomic advice. Learn more about them at SWATMaps.com.  In today’s episode, Jonathan and I discuss the evolution of precision agriculture adoption in his area of Ontario. How he is building his agronomy business using SWAT Maps as part of his foundation. His agronomy tech stack, what tool he still would like to see created, and why tech will never fully replace the agronomist. Oh, and why he prefers the term “optimal rate” over the term “variable rate”. 

Inari: https://inari.com/ "From Farms to Incubators" book: https://bookshop.org/books/from-farms-to-incubators-women-innovators-revolutionizing-how-our-food-is-grown/9781610355759  We have on the show Ponsi Trivisvavet, who is the CEO of Inari, the SEEDesign company that uses predictive design and advanced multiplex gene editing to unlock the full potential of seed to build a more sustainable future for the food system.  Ponsi joined Inari in 2018 when they were just over a year old. Since that time they have grown from a 35-person company to a 190-person company. Before Inari, she held a number of leadership roles at Syngenta, most recently as president of Syngenta Seeds North America.  Today’s episode talks about some of the potential for gene editing for the future of our most widely grown crops, the approach Inari is taking to commercialize this technology, whether or not consumers are accepting this more than they did with GMO’s, and what impact this could have on farmer profitability and overall sustainability.  This interview with Ponsi was coordinated by today's co-host, Amy Wu, who is the author of the new book “From Farms to Incubators: Women Innovators Revolutionizing How Our Food is Grown”. Ponsi is one of several women innovators featured in the book and I highly recommend you pick it up. You’ll recognize other former guests of this podcast like Pam Marrone, Fatma Kaplan, Sarah Nolet, Mariana Vasconcelos, Christine Su, and others. 

www.futurityfood.com www.linkedin.com/in/jackbobo www.twitter.com/Jack_a_Bobo TED Talk: Why we fear the food we eat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thiOicCQRWY White paper: The role of innovation in transforming the food system: https://animalagalliance.org/resource/white-paper-the-role-of-innovation-in-transforming-the-global-food-system/ I have on the show a guest whose work I’ve followed for a long time, and someone who I’ve connected with a handful of times over the years, and am really glad to finally get him on the show, Mr. Jack Bobo. Jack is a food futurist and the author of ‘Why smart people make bad food choices.’ He is also the CEO of Futurity, a food foresight company that advises companies, foundations and governments on emerging food trends and consumer attitudes and behaviors related to the future of food. Recognized by Scientific American in 2015 as one of the 100 most influential people in biotechnology, Jack is a global thought leader who has delivered more than 500 speeches in 50 countries. He previously served as the Chief Communications Officer and Senior Vice President for Global Policy and Government Affairs at Intrexon Corporation. Prior to joining Intrexon Jack worked at the U.S. Department of State for thirteen years as a senior advisor for global food policy.    The first part of our conversation today will be about Jack’s new book “Why Smart People Make Bad Food Choices”, then we’ll pivot into what these dynamics mean for agriculture, which opens up what I think is a fascinating conversation about the future of food and ag after that which weaves in points about sustainability, differentiation, and food policy. So you’ll definitely want to make sure you stick around for that. 

SWARMFarm Robotics https://www.swarmfarm.com/ Burro https://burro.ai/  Farmwise https://farmwise.io/  ZTractor https://ztractor.com/  Carbon Robotics https://carbonrobotics.com/  TerraClear https://www.terraclear.com/ Today’s episode is going to be a highlight reel from a virtual event I hosted for the FoA community. That event was an ag robotics roundtable, which featured six robotics companies to have a discussion about the challenges and opportunities of bringing more automation to agriculture. The event lasted every bit of the 90 minutes we had scheduled, and it was even more enlightening than I had anticipated.    So today, I’m going to bring you some of the highlights from that event in a condensed format, and make sure that You’re going to get a chance to hear more about:      What’s driving the robotics revolution?  Labor costs Non-chemical options Precision agriculture Tech advancements and cheaper materials (generally) How they’re setting up their business models to both lower the upfront costs, but also improve the ROI over time.  How they are handling the upfront costs to customers of autonomous equipment How these robots can become more than just replacements for machinery or labor, and truly realize their potential as the central “brains” of the farming operation.  How they’re setting up distribution, support, and supply chains to manufacture these machines A brief conversation about raising capital and how they’re thinking about exits in this robotics space.      We’re not going to get too far into the weeds about the technical aspects of each of the robots represented here, but I’ll do my best to introduce you to these six ag robotics leaders and their companies along the way. Just as a preview, you’re going to hear from (in order of appearance):    Andrew Bate, founder of SwarmFarm Robotics Charlie Andersen, CEO of Burro or you might know them as Augean Robotics Thomas Palomares, co-founder and CTO of Farmwise Bakur Kvezereli, CEO of ZTractor Paul Mikesell, CEO and co-founder of Carbon Robotics Trevor Thompson, president of TerraClear    

PMA Takes on Tech: https://www.pma.com/content/podcast/takes-on-tech Aromyx: https://www.aromyx.com/ Today's two part episode starts off with a higher-level picture of the innovations in produce with Vonnie Estes, vice president of technology for the Produce Marketing Association. Then we’ll drill deeper into one aspect of food quality, arguably the most important aspect of food quality: flavor. For that we’ll talk to Josh Silverman, CEO of Aromyx, a company that is digitizing taste and smell. I was able to sit down with Vonnie Estes and capture some valuable insights about the challenges and opportunities of bringing technology to the produce industry, the role of indoor agriculture in fresh produce, alternative funding models for companies that want to serve some of these niches, and the digitization of quality and of supply chains, which will of course lead us into part two with Josh.  Vonnie Estes is the VP of Technology at the Produce Marketing Association.  She has held leadership positions at prominent companies including DuPont, Monsanto, and Syngenta along with start-ups including DNAP, Emergent Genetics, and Caribou Biosciences. Vonnie has a BS in Horticulture from New Mexico State and a Masters in Plant Pathology from UC Davis.  Also joining me is Aromyx CEO Josh Silverman. Josh has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry, and is a serial entrepreneur. He has been the founder of 5 different biotech companies, including some in the new protein ingredient space. It was through these experiences of trying to bring sustainable foods and ingredients to the market that he realized flavor is most important, but was also really subjective and nearly impossible to predict. So he joined Aromyx, and the company just recently a $10 million series A round with investors that included the Rabobank Food & Agri Innovation Fund.   

This episode is brought to you by AgVend (www.AgVend.com)  Today’s installment of our Tech-Enabled Advisor series is really an insightful look at how a farmer-owned cooperative is leaning into the digital changes that are happening in our industry to remain relevant and provide value to their farmer shareholders.  KC Graner is the senior vice president of agronomy at Central Farm Service, a co-op in southern Minnesota. As an advocate of the cooperative system, KC has spent his career embedded in member-owned organizations. Prior to taking on his role at Central Farm Service, KC worked at WinField United, serving over two dozen different retail cooperatives across Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa.   For today’s episode, we are partnering with AgVend. You may remember AgVend from  Episode 125 back in 2018 with CEO Alexander Reichert. AgVend is the leading provider of digital tools to serve the producer of tomorrow. Their suite of products is designed to strengthen the relationship between manufacturers, retailers, and growers by providing the agricultural distribution channel with white-labeled information, engagement, and commerce portals. They make it easier to do business with ag retailers, help them unlock profitability for their growers, and make more time for high-value touchpoints.  “What we've seen is the outperformance of growers who do leverage data and do look to it first in making their decisions. Those are the ones that are outperforming the rest…. Those are the growers that are picking up acres more rapidly.” - KC Graner KC shares what offering an AgVend portal has done for Central Farm Service’s business. Central Farm Service has grown their locally-powered precision agriculture platform, which is called Central Advantage, to a 300,000 acre footprint that cooperates with two neighboring retailers. He sees their operation as a “B.S. meter” for the farmer and a way to trial and troubleshoot new technology to present the best options to producers. “When I look at the adoption rate for use in our portal, there's a high correlation to those that are selling the most revenue and the most margin for the cooperative and using the portal. It's because they already naturally are the types of people that find ways to save time so they can do more.” - KC Graner This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet KC Graner, the vice president of agronomy at Central Farm Service, a coop in southern Minnesota Explore the use of data by the coop and how it has impacted their business Discover the advantages and benefits of the AgVend platform he uses to support his producers Thanks to AgVend for sponsoring this episode. Make sure you go learn more about them at www.AgVend.com    Join the FOA Community! Be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of the ag industry. I’m sending out my email newsletter on a more regular basis, focusing on what I call the front lines of agtech: where product meets producer. You can sign up for that at www.FutureOfAg.com. There’s an email icon in the center of the page, just click on that and it will take you to a signup form. Do you have...

Today’s episode is broken down into three parts: first, a brief primer on some of the issues contributing to the issues in California. Second, one potential hydrological solution going forward: groundwater recharge. And finally, we’ll talk about water markets by highlighting the new Nasdaq Veles California Water Index. To help me tell each of these three stories I have for you three different guests that you’ll hear from today: Dr. Safeeq Khan, Dr. Helen Dahlke, and Lance Coogan.   You can also listen to previous episodes 159 with Dr. David Zetland, 161 with Adam Borchard, or 198 with Chris Peacock to get more information about these topics. 

Resilient Biotics: https://resilientbiotics.com/ Fulcrum Global Capital: https://www.fgcvc.com/  My guest on today’s show is Chris Belnap, the CEO of Resilient Biotics, which is an early-stage animal health company that develops microbiome-derived, live therapeutics for livestock. In other words, they analyze the microbes that naturally live inside of cattle, then they administer those that are most beneficial to make the cattle more resilient to certain diseases. Specifically they are focused on a biological solution to bovine respiratory disease, which is currently very reliant on antibiotics.  Resilient Biotics is a portfolio company of Fulcrum Global Capital, which long time listeners will remember have partnered with me on several episodes in the past. What stands out about Fulcrum, and you can probably pick up on this if you’ve listened to all of these episodes with portfolio companies from their first fund, is that their LPs, their investors, are from production agriculture. They care about solving real problems in the food system.  One of the perks of these Fulcrum episodes for you and I is that we get to hear briefly from the investors first about what attracted them to this company, then we dive into the entrepreneur’s story. So joining me today is Fulcrum venture partner John Peryam, who along with his venture partners Duane Cantrell and Kevin Lockett, had been looking at potential companies who could help reduce reliance on antibiotics. 

Ranveer Chandra: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/ranveer/ Overview of Azure FarmBeats: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/industry/agriculture/overview-azure-farmbeats  FarmBeats: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/bill-gates-features-farmbeats-on-gatesnotes/ Microsoft has been making waves in the agtech industry with its FarmBeats project and Azure cloud computing service. That effort can be traced back to 2015 when today’s guest, Ranveer Chandra, wrote a memo which led to him starting and running the FarmBeats project. FarmBeats for those who do not know, provides a way to collect on-farm data and track that data using cloud computing models. It’s not a product that farmers buy, but it’s a platform that agtech companies build upon. In fact, previous guests of this show are customers of Microsoft to power their technology.    Ranveer is the Chief Scientist of Microsoft Azure Global, and Partner Researcher at Microsoft Research. He started the FarmBeats project at Microsoft in 2015, and has been leading it since then. He is also leading the battery research project, and the white space networking project at Microsoft Research. That is a project where he provided rural connectivity using unused TV channels. He was invited to the USDA to present his work on FarmBeats, and this work was featured by Bill Gates in GatesNotes, and was selected by Satya Nadella as one of 10 projects that inspired him in 2017.  Ranveer has published more than 80 papers, and filed over 100 patents, more than 85 of which have been granted by the USPTO.  Both FarmBeats and the TV white spaces projects started with memos, and as you’ll hear, Ranveer wrote his 2020 memo on sustainability. So we also get into the discussion about sustainability metrics and Microsoft’s big open source carbon purchase from a few months ago. 

World Resources Institute: https://www.wri.org/ Follow Rich on Twitter: https://twitter.com/waiterich Recent blog post: https://www.wri.org/blog/2020/08/us-agriculture-emissions-food  More from Rich: https://www.wri.org/profile/richard-waite  Our guest today has spent years diving into this question of the environmental impacts of the food system, and what can be done to optimize the amount of food that gets produced and distributed, while minimizing the negative externalities of that system.  Rich Waite is a Senior Research Associate in World Resources Institute’s Food Program. He is an author of the World Resources Report: Creating a Sustainable Food Future, which focuses on solutions to feed 10 billion people by 2050, including boosting agricultural productivity, reducing food loss and waste, shifting toward plant-rich diets, and protecting and restoring forests and other natural ecosystems. Rich is also the Data Lead for Cool Food, an initiative that helps major food providers reduce food-related greenhouse gas emissions in line with climate science. Prior to joining WRI in 2007, Rich lived in Cameroon for four years, where he served as an agroforestry extension agent with the U.S. Peace Corps and helped coordinate the U.S. Embassy’s international development programs. Rich and I discuss that, for all the talk about climate change, there has been very little progress to reducing the carbon footprint of the food system. We discuss why actions must be taken, and what the data tells us about what levers can be pulled to realistically make that happen while producing and distributing adequate amounts of nutritious food to people around the world. 

Thanks to FieldAgent by Sentera for sponsoring. Visit https://sentera.com/.  On today’s episode I’m joined by Todd Vagts who is a technical agronomist for the Channel Seed brand which is part of Bayer Crop Science. Based in southeast Minnesota, Todd works with Channel salespeople and seed dealers (who they called “Seedsmen”), to make sure they are up to date with technologies and to problem-solve in the field. Todd is a farmer as well - lives 30 minutes from the farm where he grew up. Todd has a master’s in Agronomy from Texas A&M, and stayed down in Texas to focus on cotton for a while before coming back to the midwest where he is focused now.  Todd has been interested in drones for over a decade, but as you'll hear it took a while for them to really find a place in his day-to-day work.

Today’s episode highlights two interesting consumer trends in food and agriculture. And on the surface, these two trends seem to be going in totally opposite directions, but not necessarily as you’ll hear from our guest today.  The first trend is the increasing desire for healthier, simpler, more nutritious food. The second is that demand for processed food is strong and getting stronger. You might be thinking, wait aren’t those two things complete opposites?  Well, not necessarily. Our guest today, Joanne Zhang is the founder of Phytoption, a food ingredient company that uses proprietary technology that allows them to replace certain ingredients in processed food that are synthetic or modified - like certain emulsifiers and texturing agents, with essentially simple flour like rice flour or chickpea flour. This allows more processed foods to be made with more naturally occurring ingredients.  As you’ll hear Joanne describe, these ingredients are used because they make food functional. For example, they help give a plant-based beverage the same texture as cow milk. Joanne’s technology allows these basic flours to serve the same functions without having to be chemically treated or altered in any way.  Important to note before we dive into today’s interview is that Joanne’s company Phytoption, will be separating this food division into a new company Flouring, LLC and Phytoption will continue to focus on pharmaceuticals. So you’ll hear us mention both Phytoption and Flouring, LLC in the episode because they are currently the same company.  Joanne started the company using technology developed by Purdue University after a career as a food scientist. I was connected to Joanne by Amy Wu, who is the author of the new book “From Farms to Incubators: Women Innovators Revolutionizing How Our Food is Grown”. Joanne is one of several women innovators featured in the book and I highly recommend you pick it up.  I told Amy how much I enjoyed the book and that I would like to interview some of the women she featured, and she said she had considered doing a podcast as well, so we decided it would be fun to interview Joanne together, and a couple of other women trailblazers in agtech that you’ll meet in future episodes later this year.    Join the FOA Community! Be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of the ag industry. I’m sending out my email newsletter on a more regular basis, focusing on what I call the front lines of agtech: where product meets producer. You can sign up for that at www.FutureOfAg.com. There’s an email icon in the center of the page, just click on that and it will take you to a signup form. Do you have suggestions for topics to be explored? Tweet them to me @timhammerich or email them to [email protected].  Find us online! Future of Agriculture Website AgGrad Website

My guest today, Allan Fetters, is a third generation agriculturalist who has worked in agribusiness for over 30 years. I say agriculturalist, because he was not born into a farm family, but a family that has been working selling products to farmers. However, he recently also started doing some farming himself in addition to his consulting.  In today’s episode, I try to glean as many insights as I can from Allan’s vast experience in agriculture technology. We touch many of the important aspects of specialty crop agtech such as water, labor, pest management, and the need for yield data. Allan explains why he believes that we are still in the very early days of digital agriculture.  I could spend several minutes describing Allan’s successful career, but I’ll sum it up by telling you that he has spent most of his career in field research, sales, marketing, business management, and technology development and implementation. Until 2019 Allan worked as the director of technology at Simplot, the global agribusiness based right here in my area of Boise, Idaho.  Currently, as principal of AGceleration Advisory Service, Allan works with companies to introduce new innovations to agriculture, including testing, evaluating, and analysis.  Join the FOA Community! Be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of the ag industry. I’m sending out my email newsletter on a more regular basis, focusing on what I call the front lines of agtech: where product meets producer. You can sign up for that at www.FutureOfAg.com. There’s an email icon in the center of the page, just click on that and it will take you to a signup form. Do you have suggestions for topics to be explored? Tweet them to me @timhammerich or email them to [email protected].  Find us online! Future of Agriculture Website AgGrad Website

Today’s episode is all about data and technology for the modern dairy. But even if you’re not specifically interested in the dairy industry, you’re going to want to stick around. And here’s why: one of the big challenges to agtech is the long feedback loop. You try a technology out for an entire year and you get one shot - harvest to see how it performed. Dairy is way different. That scorecard happens three times per day when the cows are milked. This rapid feedback loop has allowed dairies to embrace data analytics arguably faster than other areas of agriculture. And I would argue all of ag could learn a thing or two from this episode.  We have on the show Jordan Lambert. Jordan is the VP of Business Development for VAS, a software and data analytics company that provides sustainability and profitability insights to dairy producers. Jordan grew up on a dairy farm in rural Colorado, and graduated from my alma mater, UC Davis with a bachelor’s in Biotechnology.  She spent her early career as a genetic engineer before pursuing an MBA at Harvard. From there her career took her into consulting and back into agriculture with a role at Indigo. But she returned to Colorado and to the dairy industry to take this position with VAS.  There’s some great stuff here on data including collection, standardization, and privacy. As well as some interesting discussion towards the end about what it’s like to have private and cooperative ownership in the company, and how sustainability metrics are increasing the need for farm-level data.   Join the FOA Community! Be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of the ag industry. I’m sending out my email newsletter on a more regular basis, focusing on what I call the front lines of agtech: where product meets producer. You can sign up for that at www.FutureOfAg.com. There’s an email icon in the center of the page, just click on that and it will take you to a signup form. Do you have suggestions for topics to be explored? Tweet them to me @timhammerich or email them to [email protected].  Find us online! Future of Agriculture Website AgGrad Website

PLEASE COMPLETE OUR LISTENER SURVEY: https://airtable.com/shrCB33GWIUCIxVRU Today you’re going to get to hear the story of Dave Oien of Timeless Seeds and Timeless Food. He shares how he figured out how to convert to organic when very few thought it was possible, then how we built a seed business that ultimately became a food business. And make sure you stay to the end for some really interesting comments about resiliency.  Dave returned to the farm in Montana and convinced his dad in the 1970s to let him convert the farm to organic. Then, over the next four decades he built a seed business and a food business selling organic lentils and chickpeas as well as ancient grains and some other farm products.  His story is so remarkable, it was made into a book called “Lentil Underground.” This episode was created and originally was published as a part of another podcast I host called Growing Pulse Crops. Audrey Kalil who produces that show has graciously allowed me to re-air the episode on my show because I think it’s so good. So if you’re at all interested in pulse crop production - that’s peas, chickpeas, and lentils, go check out that show: Growing Pulse Crops on any podcast platform.    Join the FOA Community! Be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of the ag industry. I’m sending out my email newsletter on a more regular basis, focusing on what I call the front lines of agtech: where product meets producer. You can sign up for that at www.FutureOfAg.com. There’s an email icon in the center of the page, just click on that and it will take you to a signup form. Do you have suggestions for topics to be explored? Tweet them to me @timhammerich or email them to [email protected].  Find us online! Future of Agriculture Website AgGrad Website

Today’s episode is brought to you by FarmQA (www.FarmQA.com)  Today’s guest is Shannon Winny with GroWest Ag Ventures in Central Saskatchewan. She is a Professional Agronomist and a Certified Crop Advisor. About 18 months ago she decided to start her own company to meet the need for independent agronomy services in Saskatchewan. Farming is a team sport. Certainly nobody shares the same risk profile as a farmer, but every successful farmer that I can think of has strong relationships with people like consultants, agronomists, farm marketers, other farmers, extension agents, researchers, and more. These trusted advisors often serve as the extension of that farm business and play critical roles in the decision-making.  These individuals are all too often overlooked by agtech companies and agribusinesses. So this summer I’m hosting a tech-enabled advisor series. One episode per month will be dedicated to featuring one of these trusted advisors to learn about their business, their tech stack, and how they view the future of agriculture as it pertains to the farmer customers in their area. “I saw the fit that farms need a hundred percent unbiased, independent agronomy recommendations. It's really hard as the retail agronomist to maintain a hundred percent and be a hundred percent impartial when you know what's in the chem shed, how much margin you're making off specific products, stuff like that. So I decided to go the completely independent route.” - Shannon Winny   Shannon’s services are charged by the acre, sample or hour but because of her business model she is not beholden to quotas or specific products. This allows her to maintain an unbiased approach for producers that will provide them the best advice and benefits. She has circumvented the obstacle of producer adoption of different software by using the all inclusive, customizable, intuitive software from FarmQA. Farmers are able to see real time data and reports to monitor, save and analyze the data their operation provides.   “Agriculture is just changing so rapidly and we need to start really targeting specific zones and how to effectively manage those zones because land is expensive. We should manage the land that we have as efficiently and effectively as possible to be profitable.” - Shannon Winny   This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Shannon Winny, an independent agronomy consultant with GroWest Ag Ventures in Central Saskatchewan Discover the advantages and benefits of the FarmQA technology she uses as an independent consultant   Thanks to FarmQA for sponsoring this episode. Make sure you go learn more about them at www.FarmQA.com and tell them thank you on Twitter @farm_qa.   Join the FOA Community! Be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of the ag industry. I’m sending out my email newsletter on a more regular basis, focusing on what I call the front lines of agtech: where product meets producer. You can sign up for that at www.FutureOfAg.com. There’s an email icon in the center of the page, just click on that and it will take you to a signup form. Do you have suggestions for topics to be explored?...

Check out the SWAT Agronomy Podcast on any podcast platform!  Please participate in our listener survey to help us focus the direction of the show:  https://airtable.com/shrCB33GWIUCIxVRU If you’ve ever tried to grow any food crop - shoot, even a garden - you know that insect pests are unavoidable. Over the past 100 years, chemical pesticides have been developed as efficient and cost effective ways for farmers to manage these pests. But as I’m sure you know, they are not without their downsides: pests are building resistance, they are constantly under environmental scrutiny, and frankly, there hasn’t been much innovation in this space.  Our guests today, Anna Rath and Ben Cicora of the company Vestaron say: we’ve seen this before. They’ll lay out a case for you that what’s happening right now in ag chem has already played out in human chemistry. The clear winner has been biotechnology: namely using peptides, which are essentially just proteins except smaller, instead of chemistry. In human pharmaceuticals, this gave rise to companies like Genentech and Amgen. In agriculture, Vestaron is pioneering their peptide-based products that have the same effectiveness as the chemical alternatives, but with a new mode of action, and without some of those negative externalities of chemicals.  Now I want to be clear here, because it can get confusing: peptides are different from other biologicals that you hear about in agriculture, and may have even heard about on this show. Those are generally microbes, these are short chain amino acids. Again, they’re basically proteins, only smaller. So they’re not ag chemicals, but they’re also not biologicals in the classic agricultural definition of the term. Making this clear is actually part of their challenge in commercialization, which we get into in this episode.  I know some of this gets a little technical, but I highly recommend you stick around and have a listen to this episode. If this is the first time you’re hearing about peptides, I guarantee you it won’t be the last.   

Please participate in our listener survey to help us focus the direction of the show:  https://airtable.com/shrCB33GWIUCIxVRU  While we here in the U.S. have an agricultural system built upon exports, while our guest today lives in Abu Dhabi, part of the United Arab Emirates which currently imports 80% of their food. What we view here as needed viable technology to create a more sustainable agriculture is likely to be different there.  We have on the show His Excellency Dr. Tariq Bin Hendi. Dr. Tariq is the Director General of the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO). He leads the organisation’s efforts to grow and diversify Abu Dhabi’s economy through private sector investment. He also oversees strategic initiatives that support the emirate’s economic growth and reputation on the world stage. One of those initiatives was to entice leading agtech companies from around the world to establish new R&D and production facilities in the emirate. In 2020, ADIO announced partnerships with AeroFarms, Madar Farms, RNZ and Responsive Drip Irrigation to bring innovation to the area to turn sand into farmland, solve complex global agriculture challenges and expand the profile of local food producers. ADIO is investing $100 million in those four companies to build facilities in Abu Dhabi, each tasked with solving regional and global challenges. They are also partnering with three AgTech companies, US-based Nanoracks, India’s FreshToHome and Pure Harvest to develop ‘land, sea & space’ AgTech projects in Abu Dhabi, offering $41.3m in incentives to the innovative companies to develop next generation agriculture solutions to support food production in arid and desert climates. In this episode, we talk about these initiatives from a high level, and how Dr. Tariq is looking at bringing ag innovation into the region to create a more food secure environment. His Excellency holds a PhD in Economics from the Imperial College London, and graduate degrees from Columbia University and London Business School.   Join the FOA Community! Be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of the ag industry. I’m sending out my email newsletter on a more regular basis, focusing on what I call the front lines of agtech: where product meets producer. You can sign up for that at www.FutureOfAg.com. There’s an email icon in the center of the page, just click on that and it will take you to a signup form. Do you have suggestions for topics to be explored? Tweet them to me @timhammerich or email them to [email protected].  Find us online! Future of Agriculture Website AgGrad Website

Check out the SWAT Agronomy Podcast on any podcast platform!  Please participate in our listener survey to help us focus the direction of the show:  https://airtable.com/shrCB33GWIUCIxVRU  Over the past decade, one of the areas agriculture has changed significantly is in the number of available digital tools that can be used on the farm. On the surface this is a great thing, but if - and only if - these tools are easy to use and produce actionable results. And even then, a farmer is only going to use so many tools even if they are all great.  Jim Ethington has been thinking about these issues for over a decade. He started at The Climate Corp in 2008, when it was still known as WeatherBill and was not yet exclusively an ag-focused company. He stayed with the company for a decade, through many milestones including the acquisition by Monsanto and the integration of the 640 drive that we featured in episode 241 with Craig Rupp. He left the company in 2018 as VP of Product to take a job as the CEO of Arable, which is where he still works today.  Arable offers systems that are easy to install on any farm to enable data-driven decisions using Measurements that Matter. With real-time, continuous visibility and predictive analytics of over 40 metrics, their flagship product, the Arable Mark is a straightforward and versatile tool that can be adapted to any field's demands, and can satisfy any producer's need to know even the most granular tidbit of information about their harvest.    Join the FOA Community! Be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of the ag industry. I’m sending out my email newsletter on a more regular basis, focusing on what I call the front lines of agtech: where product meets producer. You can sign up for that at www.FutureOfAg.com. There’s an email icon in the center of the page, just click on that and it will take you to a signup form. Do you have suggestions for topics to be explored? Tweet them to me @timhammerich or email them to [email protected].  Find us online! Future of Agriculture Website AgGrad Website

Today’s episode is brought to you by FieldAgent by Sentera. One key piece of the agtech conversation that often gets overlooked is the most likely customer for a lot of digital tools may not actually be a farmer. For many of them, an advisor to that farmer may be the one actually performing that task, and may have the biggest vested interest in adopting cutting-edge technologies.  We’re calling this little mini-series “The Tech-Enabled Advisor.” We will profile some of the farmers’ advisers: agronomists, ag retailers, consultants, and other local professionals that farmers rely on for guidance, advice, and implementation. To help me identify the right tech-savvy advisors for these episodes, and to make sure we hear from different types of guests, I’ve asked various agtech companies to partner with me on these episodes.  The first one to say yes, was the sponsor of today’s episode: FieldAgent by Sentera. FieldAgent enables agronomic advisors to make more timely decisions by taking data they’re already using on a daily basis – such as satellite, weather, equipment, soil, and field operations and integrate it with drone data and their machine learning capabilities. In this episode, we are joined by Matt Larson, Agronomy Sales Manager for CHS in Holdredge, Nebraska. CHS is a leading global agribusiness owned by farmers, ranchers and cooperatives across the United States. Matt and his team of 6 utilize technology like FieldAgent alongside Climate FieldView and CHS’s Agellum platform to service their farmer customers.   “The biggest thing we need to do to separate ourselves is bring new ideas. Everybody has a fertilizer price. Everybody sells a seed of some kind or a chemical of some kind. The big thing that we need to do is separate ourselves with technology, being a big one, service, information to growers, and just being able to offer those different ideas that maybe somebody else hasn't quite caught on to yet.” - Matt Larson   Matt has seen the business model of agronomists and agronomy sales evolve over the last 12 years whether it's via communication methods, producer expectations or relationships with the farmers. He has found that farmers want to see more verified data before adopting new technology and a lot of that can now be shared via the new digital platforms.     “Growers have all this data. They have the planting data, they have the seeding data, harvest data, their spraying, all that stuff. What do they do with it? And that's where I think it's our job to dig through the weeds and find out what's the real, what's the fake for them, what makes a difference and then bring that to them.” - Matt Larson    Please participate in our listener survey to help us focus the direction of the show:  https://airtable.com/shrCB33GWIUCIxVRU    This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Matt Larson, Agronomy Sales Manager for CHS in Holdredge, Nebraska Discover how Matt incorporates new technologies like <a href=...

Please participate in our listener survey to help us focus the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/shrCB33GWIUCIxVRU Today we get a unique global view into agtech and agribusiness. We are joined by Greg Meyers, who is the Chief Information Officer and Chief Digital Officer of Syngenta based at their world headquarters in Switzerland. Most of you are familiar with Syngenta but you may or may not know they are the largest crop protection company in the world and the third largest seed company in the world. They also provide digital ag platforms to 125 million acres of global crop production.  Greg offers his perspective as someone with a front row seat to the global digitization of agriculture. We talk about the agtech customer in various countries, Syngenta’s acquisition strategy, their role in both digital ag and soil health, and some interesting ideas worth pondering about the future of agriculture.  “The reality of it is that a lot of the growers really have a very specific set of things they're trying to accomplish. And obviously the nature of the work is there's a really compressed window in which those activities have to happen. So if you're trying to create these solutions and they don't fit within that window of work, they really have a hard time finding a fit.” - Greg Meyers Greg comments that he sees a lot of agtech startups with a really innovative piece of technology that doesn’t answer a direct problem the farmer needs solved. “It’s almost like a solution looking for a problem...So what we’re trying to do is to take our innovation experience in chemistry and biology and marry it to agronomy and computer science,” explains Greg. Finding market fit without incorporating these many different aspects of farming within a specific problem and pain point can lead to a lack of interest by the producer. For example, predictive models in Brazil help solve scouting issues for Asian Soybean Rust while in the “mega farms” of Eastern Europe maximizing fuel efficiency and coordinating the use of different farm equipment is a significant advantage. Syngenta has strategically chosen partners and acquisitions to support specific pain points identified by producers in their specific region.  “We focused on companies that have already had traction. They had a great market fit. They already had customers and we acquired them not because of the revenue they were getting, but because they really understood the local market well and they had good customer relationships. They were adding value to the grower. They're adding value to the growers advisor….and so we've really built our software platform around trying to be able to help the whole ecosystem that helps farmers.” - Greg Meyers This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Greg Meyers, who is the Chief Information Officer and Chief Digital Officer of Syngenta Explore the agtech industry from a high level perspective and why Greg thinks some technologies are more successful than others in getting adopted Discover the goals of Syngenta’s acquisitions and how they choose partners going forward Learn about the future of Syngenta and where their focus is for the future Join the FOA Community! Be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of the ag industry. I’m sending out my email newsletter on a more regular...

Please participate in our listener survey to help us focus the direction of the show: https://airtable.com/shrCB33GWIUCIxVRU  E-commerce is nothing new. I think all of us have probably bought more online than ever this past year. But the company we’re featuring today, Pinduoduo, has taken this to a whole other level by gamifying e-commerce and making it a social experience. A big part of their strategy is selling agricultural products online. One of the biggest drivers changing the future of agriculture is consumer preferences, what they buy and how they buy it. Today we explore some pretty incredible insights into how this is changing in China.  We have on the show Xin Yi Lim, who is the executive director of Sustainability and Agricultural Impact at Pinduoduo. The platform, which has been described as “where Costco meets Disney”, started in 2015 and has grown to over 700 million active users in China. Before joining Pinduoduo in 2018, Xin Yi worked for SIngapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC, both in its Singapore and New York offices as a technology and media analyst.  “Really what we are trying to provide is a way for producers or merchants to sell a larger volume of products in a shorter period of time. And in so doing, they can reap the benefits of economies of scale and how we do that is through this notion of a team purchase. So it starts off by the realization that for a lot of people, what you actually want to buy for things like say food or fresh produce can be influenced by those around you.” - Xin Yi Lim   She highlights that this opportunity gives producers “a lot more visibility” to their consumers by allowing customers to share their interests and purchases. Pinduoduo introduced team purchase to consumers with discounted products and has expanded to including a gaming component. Participants can play a game that results in free or discounted produce. This allows Pinduoduo to not only get more engagement from their users but also to see which participants are most influential to other users. In fact 90% of their revenue comes from merchant advertising targeting likely consumers.    “As we continue to grow, I think it's really also gone beyond just a team purchase. It's also encouraging more and more interactions by the users with the platform. So like what I mentioned earlier, that social graph of how you interact with your friends, how you influence them and they influence you. That helps us to refine our idea of what it is that you're interested in and give you the right recommendations.” - Xin Yi Lim   Pinduoduo has expanded beyond grocery items and also supplies agricultural inputs among other products. Xin Yi Lim comments that she has seen value and influence for agricultural producers from live streaming efforts by scientists, agronomists and other fellow producers suggesting the ongoing expansion of the scope of potential influence.    This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Xin Yi Lim, who is the executive director of Sustainability and Agricultural Impact at Pinduoduo Explore this e-commerce platform that is influencing consumer trends and allowing producers to...

Thanks to the Field Work podcast for sponsoring this episode. Visit www.FieldWork.org to learn more.  Interest in local and regional food systems has been trending upward for a long time. The pandemic has only accelerated consumer interest in having strong relationships with where they buy their food. But what sounds easy on the outside: farmer produces food and consumer buys it - is much more complicated in practice. First of all, there aren’t enough local/regional slaughterhouses for livestock producers to scale their direct-to-consumer operations because of low margins, regulations, and labor. Today’s episode tells the story of how Adam Parks built a local meat business, and how he is part of a group that has formed a cooperative to solve this problem of local meat processing. Adam is the founder of Victorian Farmstead Meat Company located in Sebastopol, California. They have been selling local meat in the area since 2010 at farmers markets, through a CSA (community supported agriculture), and more recently through home delivery.    “I developed a network of six to eight local ranches that raised for me… And we set about taking fresh meat to the farmer's market. That was kind of what made us unique was that we were the first local people to really bring fresh meat to the farmer's market.” - Adam Parks   Adam’s collaboration with local producers allowed him to take advantage of a trend he noticed after the 2008 recession involving the consumer preference for a more controlled, less extravagant splurge with high quality food items. Adam also created a newsletter that has helped to build a relationship and trust with customers developed at farmers markets.    “Once we gain that trust, we protect it like gold. Our long-time customers will tell you that they don't worry about what they buy from us. They know that it's as good a product in terms of how it's raised and how it's processed as they can find. And so they just get what we have available.” - Adam Parks   Adam remarks that having control over the meat processing aspect of his operation became more attractive as his business continued to expand. He started a 120 square foot butcher shop and is hoping to expand to a much larger standalone facility very soon. Slaughter and USDA sanctioned facilities tend to be hours away which is another part of the business he hopes to make more efficient and sustainable. Adam is one of 16 founding members of the Bay Area Ranchers Cooperative (also known as BAR-C), which is a coop of local producers who are pooling resources to build a mobile USDA-inspected meat processing facility in the area. They hope to be in production this May.    This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Adam Parks, the founder of Victorian Farmstead Meat Company located in Sebastopol, California Explore how Adam grew Victorian Farmstead Meat Company through local farmers markets and collaborations with producers Discover Bay Area Ranchers Cooperative (also known as BAR-C), which is a coop of local producers developing a semi-permanent USDA sanctioned slaughter facility   Join the FOA Community! Be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of the ag industry. I’m sending out my email newsletter on a more...

The reason for today’s special episode is The Farm Workforce Modernization Act that recently passed the U.S. House of Representatives and is now moving on to the Senate. This legislation is an effort to make progress on the mess that is U.S. ag labor policy. Shay Myers, a farmer who was featured on this show back in episode 178, called me to talk about the importance of this bill to U.S. farmers and their employees. In fact, over 300 agricultural organizations supported the bill. Ag labor reform like this has been attempted for decades, but has never been passed, mostly due to politics.  First, what does this bill do? Put simply, it improves the process for H-2A workers, which is the name of the visa for temporary agricultural workers. It also makes it mandatory that agricultural employers e-verify employees legal work status for employment. Finally, and perhaps most controversially, it establishes a program for agricultural workers and their families who are already in the United States to earn legal status through continued agricultural employment if they meet certain requirements. 

Thanks to the FieldWork podcast for sponsoring this episode. Visit www.FieldWork.org to learn more.    This episode is a good follow up to Episode 250 about one example of how agtech is helping smallholder farmers in developing countries. We are again talking about the potential for agtech in developing markets in this episode, but this time from a different perspective. My guest Igor Buchatskiy sees real opportunities in very large integrated agricultural operations. Whereas last week we focused on smallholder farmers, this episode is about the very large, sophisticated operations that are hungry for technology and innovation in the developing world.  Igor is a mechanical engineer by training, but after getting his MBA at the University of Chicago, he started a career in management consulting. That led to a job with a family office back in his home country of Ukraine. It was in that role that he discovered his love and fascination for agriculture in 2007. Since that time, he’s worked all over the world with agricultural operations and agtech startups. He’s based in Boston, but you never know where in the world he is going to be. In fact, at the time of this interview he was working on a project in Saudi Arabia.    “(Working in agriculture) was a revelation. Seriously, I thought wow, that's what I should have been doing for the last 10 years instead of mechanical engineering and management consulting because it was just an amazing experience. So I dove head in into that business and we started growing it, bringing new technology, new breed, new genetics, et cetera, et cetera.” - Igor Buchatskiy   Igor shares that he was able to be a part of the “Ukranianian Golden Rush” which involved former Soviet union republics recovering from the collective farm system that was no longer in place. The economics and margins were very favorable in the agricultural sector that had previously flown under the radar of other investors. He observed the consolidation of many small farms into large dominant players in the industry.    “What gets me excited is the fact that there are so many bright ideas, you know out of the box ideas that are happening now. And we are at the point in time where the technologies are becoming more accessible, more affordable, and we're getting to the sort of a scale at which all these technologies and all these ideas are starting to converge.” - Igor Buchatskiy   Igor shares that in Ukraine and Russia he is observing a lot of large vertically integrated operations. By virtue of the size and employment support of these companies, they are able to use, take advantage of and capitalize on new agriculture technologies where a small benefit in margin can create major revenue on that scale. This allows for large gains in agricultural technology companies by engaging with some of these major players.    This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Igor Buchatskiy an entrepreneur, ag startup mentor, and board advisor. Discover Igor’s journey into agriculture and the potential he saw in the industry Learn about the agriculture industry in the Ukraine and Russia and the trend towards large vertically integrated operations   Join the FOA Community! Be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of the ag industry. I’m sending out my email newsletter on a more regular basis, focusing on what I call the front lines of agtech: where product meets producer....

Thanks to the FieldWork podcast for sponsoring this episode. Visit www.FieldWork.org to learn more.  We talk a lot about the types of technologies that are geared towards larger operations, but what’s out there that has the potential to really improve the lives of small farmers, especially of those in developing countries. We have a really interesting example of one of these innovations in this episode. Weather Risk Management Services is an India-based company that collects data to help producers manage their risks. The company started off as offering just crop insurance products, which is still a big part of their business, but they’ve also expanded into products that incentivize and reward farmers for using risk management strategies.  In other words, a farmer pays a premium and agrees to certain farming practices. In return they are provided a guaranteed yield, and paid if their yield drops below that threshold. This helps take away the risk of adopting new practices. Weather Risk Management Services has worked with over 30,000 farmers in India already, and hopes to grow to one million farmers in the next five years. Founder Sonu Agrawal joins us to share the process, goals and impacts of the company. “So in many developing countries … not only in India, but several countries in Asia and Africa, there is very low or no access to crop insurance contracts. And since there is no crop insurance, access to finance is also a big challenge because banks do not lend money to small farmers. The banks are not covered against losses due to adverse weather events. So there is a complete lack of access to crop insurance.” Sonu Agrawal Sonu shares that Weather Risk Management Services provides access to affordable crop insurance that also provides incentives to “the farmer to use better risk management practices.” These practices include things like using drought resistant seeds, applying additional nutrition to the crops or arranging irrigation to their fields. Satellite data helps to monitor these additional practices to make sure the crop is insured appropriately. Farmers then either benefit by way of a reduced premium or increased coverage based on a projected yield. “Before we enter a village, a lot of analysis is done…..So we analyze and then identify the more important risks or the factors which have resulted in sub optimized yield. And then the whole production process, what we call the package of practices, is designed in such a way so that we can improve the yields gradually.” - Sonu Agrawal Farmers are offered smaller contracts when they start with Weather Risk Management Services. This is done to overcome any trust concerns and allow producers to take advantage of the gradual increased yield at their desired pace. There is a lot of learning done by the farmers and the company to assess what yields can be expected and what measures can be taken for improvement in these initial smaller contracts. Sonu shares that in the first year of collaboration with a farmer they expect a 5-7% increase in yield, followed by 10-12% in the second year and up to 15-20% in the third year.  This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Sonu Agrawal the founder of Weather Risk Management Services Discover what their company offers small farmers in rural areas of India where crop insurance and financing access is limited Explore the innovative methods used to incentivize increased yield production practices Join the FOA...

Thanks to the FieldWork podcast for sponsoring this episode. Visit www.FieldWork.org to learn more.  David Doll is the General Manager of Rota Unica Agriculture based in Portugal. He grew up on a direct-to-consumer apple and peach orchard in southern Indiana, then got a master’s degree in plant pathology from UC Davis. After a decade as a farm advisor for the University of California focused on tree nuts, he took on his current role of moving to Portugal to manage a large-scale diversified tree crop operation there. On top of all of that, he writes what I think is probably the most in-depth blog dedicated to just one crop that I’ve ever seen at The Almond Doctor. I’ve really appreciated interacting with David online and in the FoA community. I think you’re going to really enjoy his perspective here today.    “I think everyone would say the same thing, but you have to be able to be willing to know what your shortfalls are, be honest with yourself and then throw in the extra effort in order to pick yourself up. I'll be honest, I never thought I would ever be negotiating a loan that's probably more money than I'll ever earn in my life. But you know, you walk in, you do it and you learn a few things along the way and move on.” - David Doll   David shares his experience in going from managing an operation with a $250,000 annual budget to his current operation with more than a $80 million budget. His employer felt that he could be taught the finances overtime but needed to come prepared with the horticulture and orchard experience to support their endeavors. David dove in and has learned and experienced a lot since being there.    “So the investment group is not a Portuguese company. It's actually an American company. And their thesis is food is a way to move water in a commodity that people want. That's it. It’s such a simple statement but it's right on the spot.” - David Doll   “We are taking a resource from where we have it and where it may be plentiful at a given time and producing something with it and then moving that to an area that one can’t produce that crop or doesn’t have the resources to produce that crop.” David elaborates by discussing the value of water based on whether it is from a renewable or finite resource. This is definitely a different perspective than the more short-sighted opinion of not viewing water as a significant valuable commodity. David’s blog explores some of these concepts and many other management techniques with all things almonds. “It’s kind of a niche blog but I enjoy it.”   “It's kind of this technical writing with a translational twist is what I call it. So I'm always writing about a technical subject, but I'm using that and translating that to help people understand my thought process of how I approach that problem.” - David Doll   This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet David Doll the General Manager of Rota Unica Agriculture based in Portugal and author of www.TheAlmondDoctor.com.  Discover the journey David Doll has taken to become a major almond producer in Portugal Explore an international perspective for the future of agriculture and the unique challenges faced by our counterparts in different parts of the world Learn what inspired “The Almond Doctor” blog and the benefits it offers Join the FOA Community! Be sure to join the new <a href=...

We can all agree that sustainability that comes at the expense of productivity and efficiency is not truly sustainable at all. We are going to need to meld together what’s best for the productivity and profitability of growers with the ecosystem services they can provide.  Just recently agtech company FluroSat announced that they acquired another agtech company, Dagan, and the combined company was re-branded to a new name: Regrow. You might remember FluroSat founder Anastasia Volkova from her first appearance on this podcast back in episode 175. She joins us again today, now as CEO of Regrow, along with Dagan co-founder and now Regrow Chief Strategy Officer Bill Salas. Both of them are accomplished scientists as well as entrepreneurs. We have a great conversation here about why this merger made sense, what differentiates their carbon model, called DNDC, from other ways to model carbon sequestration, and how their newly combined and rebranded company will help growers maximize productivity, profitability, and sustainability.    “DNDC’s approach is much more first principles on how management influences soil environment, which in turn influences which microbes are more active and drives the outcomes in terms of soil carbon turnover and greenhouse gas emissions.” -Bill Salas   “Dagan was interested in how to create the value proposition for soil health at scale.” They went about this by achieving satellite monitoring to monitor large acreages. The network that Dagan had developed between researchers, NGO’s such as the Nature Conservancy, consumer packaged food companies and carbon markets was extensive but lacked a direct connection to producers themselves. Bill shares that they had focused on creating data for multiple partners and by merging with FluroSat they were able to pair that mission with an easy-to-use platform.    “We saw that by adding sustainability monitoring to agronomy and marrying our crop model with the DNDC soil model, we would ... understand where it would be profitable to start adopting these practices and it could form the decision support tool that our customers are seeking as well as connect players across the supply chain.” -Anastasia Volkova   Anastasia highlights that one of her goals has always been to facilitate the decision making of producers to incorporate sustainability into their operations. Making the data acquisition process easy and accessible allows producers to capitalize on any sustainable efforts they are making. While carbon sequestration is a great benefit of sustainable practices, nitrogen management, greenhouse gas emissions and better biodiversity are also common sequelae and part of the Regrow mindset.    “We want to make sure that agriculture gets a chance to get it right, scientifically, transparently, and bring this sustainability excitement into an operationalizable business model that scales without taking too many shortcuts on the quality and transparency.” -Anastasia Volkova Checkout the FieldWork Podcast as well on any podcast platform or at www.FieldWork.org.   Join the FOA Community! Be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of the ag industry. I’m sending out my email newsletter on a more regular basis, focusing on what I call the front lines of agtech: where product meets producer. You can sign up for that at www.FutureOfAg.com. There’s an email icon in the center

The question of “what are the real problems in agriculture that need to be solved?” is one we ask often here on this show. If you ask that to a dozen people, you’ll probably get about 20 different answers. But herbicide resistance is one that hits home for many. As you’re about to hear, the tools we’ve been using for decades are becoming less and less effective, and the pipeline for new active ingredients has been empty for a long time. Every year more and more weeds show signs of resistance - which is not a trend that can continue.  Today’s guests are the co-founders and co-CEOs of Israel-based WeedOut, a biological herbicide company which uses proprietary pollen to sterilize weeds like Palmer Amaranth, otherwise known as pigweed. Dr. Efrat Lidor Nili and Dr. Orly Noivirt-Brik are both accomplished scientists who have already been a part of one successful exit: they worked at Rosetta Green which was purchased by Monsanto in 2013. WeedOUT is a portfolio company of Fulcrum Global Capital, who partnered with me on this episode.   “As we continued to focus on (weed resistance) we understood that this a very significant problem not only in the US but also in Europe, also in China, Australia, South American and all over the world. Out of the 26 modes of action of herbicides 23 have already reported resistance.” -Dr. Orly Noivirt-Brik   “In order to slow down this process of resistant development, it’s very important to combine new tactics.” WeedOut has produced a biological pollen that works with the weeds biology to obstruct their reproductive cycle. This is a new mechanism of action that the weeds will not have developed any resistance to. It will also be difficult for weeds to create resistance because they will not be capable of producing more generations that could evolve and adapt. “We are actually reducing significantly the seed bank year after year.” Their main focus so far has been to target Palmer Amaranth as it is a weed of significant resistance and wide dissemination. They do not plan to replace chemical herbicide but rather increase its efficacy by not solely relying on it.    “By blocking resistance using our own methods, then you can extend the lifetime of the chemicals that are currently used instead of switching to more toxic chemicals...So actually by blocking resistance, we are preserving the entire set of products that are available today making them efficient for many more years.” -Dr. Efrat Lidor Nili   “Our strategy is first to fit our technology to the standard tools that all farmers have. And with the second layer we will continue and explore this opportunity to spray it using drones.” As well as developing different methods of delivery they hope to expand to different weeds. Weeds most susceptible to this technology would reproduce via cross or wind pollination. WeedOut has found success in finding investors that will allow continued expansion and development with a hopeful launch in 2023.   This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Dr. Efrat Lidor Nili and Dr. Orly Noivirt-Brik, co-CEOs of WeedOut Explore the concern regarding herbicide resistance and the lack of progress being made in that space Learn about the biological solution WeedOut has proven and will be providing to producers globally to combat herbicide resistance of Palmer Amaranth Join the FOA Community! Be sure to join the...

Today Janette Barnard co-hosts to bring us an innovative virtual fencing product for cattle ranchers. Frank Wooten joins us as the founder of Vence. Vence offers producers optionality in their grazing operations whether large or small. This technology provides for rotational grazing opportunities while bridging obstacles such as large uneven terrain, poor connectivity and weather dynamics. The ramifications of this opportunity may allow US producers to better compete in the grass fed and grass finished product market.    “At a high level we are solving the problem of increasing yield and land management for cow-calf and cattle operators around the world…..we are enabling the ability to set up animal control at a very granular level without the need for physical fences or manual labor.” - Frank Wooten   “It’s not that physical fences are an insufficient solution. It's that they are a static solution to a dynamic problem.” To be able to adapt your ranching practices to changes in your land and terrain allows for more flexibility and improved land stewardship. “There are more livestock on the planet than there are cars on the road” leading to their management and land use being of the utmost significance. Producers would be able to access the location of their animals and schedule their proposed movement to best suit their needs.    The cattle become trained to the sound emitted by individual collars to be able to know where they can move without stimulating an electric shock. GPS chip technology and a tower built at a high location makes cell coverage not an issue for producers to connect with their animals.  Only the tower itself needs cell coverage. Each collar then communicates with their assigned tower like a walkie-talkie. “We have yet to find a farm that in the right position we can’t get some sort of cell coverage on.”    “A cattleman’s job is to translate grass into a saleable final product….the increase in grass productivity is driven via managing the grass in a particular way and it is also driven via the soil….that allows customers to increase the productivity of the land. ” - Frank Wooten   “We spend a lot of time making sure that we understand exactly what the cost structure looks like for our customers and making sure that we are giving them something that is materially better than what they have currently and that it is cost justified.” One expected financial benefit is that producers are seeing a decrease in needing external sources of feed for their animals. However, Frank does explain that there “is a process there” and that the land will take some time to recover as weather, water and grass species allow. The flexibility Vence allows for will allow for optimization of land management practices from a convenient platform the producer can access from their mobile devices.     “We're in this for the long run with (producers) as well. We're not making money off those collars on day one, or even year one or year two, for that matter. It's a long-term business relationship that we're looking to have and establish with customers.” - Frank Wooten This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Frank Wooten, co-founder of Vence  Explore the different obstacles this technology has overcome and the opportunities in virtual fencing available to cattle producers Learn about available techniques to better contribute to land stewardship in the cattle production industry   Subscribe to Janette’s newsletter: PRIME FUTURE. Join the FOA Community! Be

Today’s show connects back to episode 241 with Craig Rupp of Sabanto, where we talked about, among many other things, how the Climate Corp has been able to become a central data collection platform on so many large scale farms.  Ranjeeta Singh, the Chief Product Officer of The Climate Corp joins us to further explore data ownership, product strategy and design thinking. Ranjeeta was hired last year to drive the product strategy and roadmap for Climate’s digital farming solutions. She has more than two decades of background in hardware and software at the intersection of IoT, AI and data science with companies like Intel and Teradata. She holds five patents at Intel, and multiple publications. She is also the recipient of the “Top 50 under 50 most powerful women in technology”. Her perspective as someone coming from a career in tech to now a career in agtech is something I found interesting and insightful.    “People only think of Climate as a Fieldview platform...I have talked about the three lines of business. We talk about software as a service which is a Fieldview platform, data as a service which is the actual platform and how you organize and store data...and then we have professional services where you’re more focused on tailored solutions.” - Ranjeeta Singh   Ranjeeta highlights design thinking principles in developing new products whereby you focus on customer pain points and design solutions with a go-to market approach. “Product really helps you define the business case and the requirements so it helps define why you’re doing something before you get into the what and the how.” Data as a service is a hot topic now among producers including what happens after the data is collected and analyzed. “The concern has always been about what constitutes proper notice to the consumers that the data is being collected and the privacy of that data….the producers are understandably worried about the information getting in the hands of the wrong people.”   “Our view has always been that the data collected to the digital farming tools belongs to the farmers....You can anonymize the data and you can leverage the insights based on it but do not share the data without the consent of the farmers.” - Ranjeeta Singh   Insights from this data analysis can for example establish calculated recommendations as to what inputs, at what rate and in which location can be most beneficial to their operations. “We are giving value to them through professional services.” The current focus of her team is evolving the software to best address the needs of producers and creating pilot programs to optimize the benefit to individual operations and their exposure to these new technologies.   “I think we need to build out this ecosystem of players and ecosystem of products and technology, but people should be able to choose what they want to.” - Ranjeeta Singh   Ranjeeta believes that by making a compelling product producers will be able to accomplish multiple goals within one system. If a company is unable to fill a specific void and provide that type of service then producers should have the choice to use and combine different technologies together. While they may be deemed competitors, Ranjeeta supports not locking producers into any one system but rather focusing on making the best product for her customers and allowing them to choose the system that best fits their needs.  This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Ranjeeta Singh, the Chief Product Officer of The Climate Corp Explore the intricacies and considerations regarding collecting, analyzing and disseminating producer generated data. Learn about the core belief systems and three lines of

This is one of two short episodes I’m releasing for you today, both exploring some aspect of farm data. You may have already listened to the first part with Dr. Terry Griffin at Kansas State University. Now we turn our attention to another Purdue graduate, Aaron Gault, cofounder and agronomy manager of Advanced Agrilytics. Advanced Agrilytics offers agronomy services equipped with their analytics platform, which helps farmer customers get a better picture of what’s working and not working in their agronomic practices.  Aaron focuses on in-season crop management and the understanding of real-time crop performance influenced by the environmental conditions of any given growing season. Aaron’s ability to integrate yield response probability with in-field stimuli is a key component of Advanced Agrilytics sub-acre approach to understanding yield. Before joining Advanced Agrilyitcs, Aaron worked as a professional agronomist for leading agriculture companies. Aaron and I discuss what makes Advanced Agrilytics approach different from others, how this aspect of the precision agriculture industry has evolved, and how the farmer can best utilize their own data to improve their operation.   JOIN THE FOA COMMUNITY: www.Patreon.com/agriculture

For the first time, I’m releasing two episodes on the same day. I’ve trimmed each of the two episodes down to about half of my normal length so the total time commitment on your part is still about the same as a regular week, but if you’re a subscriber, you probably already noticed, there are two today.  There’s a few reasons for this, but mostly it’s to try something new. This isn’t something I’m planning to keep doing on a regular basis, but maybe occasionally, if you like it, so let me know what you think.  Both of today’s episodes are about farm data. This one you’re about to hear is on the economics of farm data with Dr. Terry Griffin, and the next one is on the analytics of farm data with Aaron Gault, which I encourage you to listen to after this one.   I’ve been meaning to bring Dr. Terry Griffin on the show for a long time, because he is not only well-researched and data-driven, but as you’ll hear he’s not afraid to explore ideas that may be somewhat unconventional or even unpopular. Terry is associate professor and cropping systems economist at Kansas State University specializing in farm management and agricultural technology. For his achievements in advancing digital agriculture, Griffin has received the 2014 Pierre C. Robert International Precision Agriculture Young Scientist Award, the 2012 Conservation Systems Precision Ag Researcher of the Year, and the 2010 PrecisionAg Award of Excellence for Researchers. Terry and I discussed how farm data should be valued, some of the nuances of adoption of variable rate technology, and why he doesn’t advise farmers to jump headfirst into joining a data service.    JOIN THE FOA MEMBERSHIP COMMUNITY: www.Patreon.com/agriculture

Big shoutout to two new members of the FoA community this week, Italo Guedes and Sara Faivre, thank you both for your involvement and support. If you’d like to support this show and join a community of some really smart people passionate about ag, you can do so at www.patreon.com/agriculture.  For years, I have been on a somewhat public quest to understand regenerative agriculture. Where is the line between regenerative and not regenerative? Are these claims I’m hearing of more profit with very few inputs credible? Where is the science that backs all this up? Where does ag innovation and technology fit into this model? These are just a few of the many questions I have asked. This goes back to episode 44 in 2017, and shows up again and again in episodes 64, 109, 135, 182, 199, 216, 222, and 232...just to name a few. Frankly, I’m often left with more questions than answers. Not because my guests haven’t been forthcoming - they have. I think it’s more due to the fact that it’s more complicated. As my guest on today’s show will say, it’s not about practices, it’s about principles.  As it has caught on in popularity, there are a lot of people who have wanted to come on the podcast and talk about regenerative agriculture. But the people that I have gravitated to most on the subject are the practitioners themselves, the farmers making this work. And the scientists trying to provide the data to separate fact from fiction. We have on today’s show, someone who is both a farmer and a scientist, Dr. Jonathan Lundgren.  Dr. Lundgren is the director ECDYSIS Foundation, and CEO for Blue Dasher Farm in South Dakota. He received his PhD in Entomology from the University of Illinois in 2004, and was a top scientist with USDA-ARS for 11 years. His research and education programs focus on assessing the ecological risk of pest management strategies and developing long-term solutions for regenerative food systems.

Craig Rupp is the CEO and founder of Sabanto. Prior to founding Sabanto he was a cofounder of 640 Labs where FieldView Drive was originally created. The first part of today’s episode will be about Craig’s journey at 640 Labs and its eventual acquisition by Climate Corp. Despite all of these impressive innovations and industry game-changers, that’s not the only thing he joins us to share about today. His current project, Sabanto, is gaining momentum and continuing to develop its autonomous tractors.    “In the last month, I was just amazed as to how mature our software is and how hands-off we have become. The little tractor that we use is very dependable and our software is very mature.” - Craig Rupp   The Sabanto tractors can participate in tillage, cultivation and tine weed and are one of the “hardest working tractors in the US” according to Craig. While initially they required intensive monitoring they have continued to develop and allow for more autonomy. By continuing to develop the technology and allowing Sabanto to take care of some procedures, farmers will be able to repurpose labor needs, expenses and focus on their own efficiency.     “I think everyone’s waiting around to see what the industry brings them…..I wanted to bring autonomy into agriculture and I wanted to completely change the landscape of agriculture.” - Craig Rupp    In conventional farming with large manual equipment, Craig feels that we have “peaked in horsepower” as an industry. While the previous objective for agricultural equipment was to cover as many acres as possible leading to larger equipment, now we see Sabanto prioritizing efficiency, ease of use, connectivity and decreased soil compaction. Craig looks forward to continuing to spread the use of autonomous tractors in more locations and on more operations.   This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Craig Rupp, founder and CEO of Sabanto Learn about the journey and major successes Craig has experienced in his career with agriculture technology Explore the many uses and value Sabanto can bring to a farming operation Follow Sabanto at @sabantoag on Twitter Join the FOA Community! Be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of the ag industry. I’m sending out my email newsletter on a more regular basis, focusing on what I call the front lines of agtech: where product meets producer. You can sign up for that at www.FutureOfAg.com. There’s an email icon in the center of the page, just click on that and it will take you to a signup form. Do you have suggestions for topics to be explored? Tweet them to me @timhammerich or email them to [email protected].  Find us online! Future of Agriculture Website AgGrad Website

In recent years, the idea of farmers getting paid based on stewardship has really taken off. Whether that’s the discussion of companies paying for carbon sequestration, soil conservation, water quality or any other number of “ecosystem services”, it seems to be a trend that is not going away any time soon. But how much real demand is there for this vs. just marketing and PR? Obviously, we all want cleaner air and water, but who is lining up to pay for it to create the right incentives to make it happen? And, does this even scale? Jason Weller is the Vice President of Truterra, LLC, the sustainability solutions business of Land O’Lakes Inc.. Many do not know that Land O’Lakes Inc. is one of the nation’s largest farmer-owned cooperatives. Before joining Truterra, Jason served as Chief of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, the nation’s largest working lands conservation organization. That makes him uniquely suited to talk about the role of both public and private sectors in this sustainability conversation.   “I was interested in coming to work for a company that was dreaming and thinking big. So Land O’Lakes was building a sustainability team….It felt like a once in a lifetime career opportunity to come work in agriculture for one of the largest farmer co-ops in the country who was thinking big and not just talking, but actually investing in building out the team to help farmers on a scale that's unprecedented. - Jason Weller   Truterra is the name of the business that represents the sustainability arm of Land O’Lakes. Jason highlights that this is a business division and not simply philanthropic. “I think what also frankly is energizing is trying to find that balance between ROI and good natural resource conservation.” So beyond promoting soil health and water conservation, they focus on making it profitable for producers and therefore enticing sustainability on a large scale.    “Our job is to then not just dream big, but to then get tactical and think about how we weave sustainability into that huge enterprise? How do we bring solutions to those local regional retailer owners and individual farming operations that compliment their businesses but also start to address broader issues around soil health, around water quality, water availability and biodiversity?” - Jason Weller    Truterra is blazing new trails in creating incentives, insights and expertise for producers with a goal of financial viability and improved sustainability practices. Jason admits that mandates are not easily accepted or embraced and so his goal is not to force farmers but help them in these efforts with “shared risk and shared opportunity.” The Truterra Insights Engine “connects public information and then private information that the farmer shares.” This information is then amalgamated with management information. This combination then gives farmers a platform to see what adjustments can be made on their operations and what the outcomes could be both financially and environmentally. It also allows them to monitor their progress in these efforts and share them with retailers to improve their value.   “We do view farmers as our customer, but we don't charge the farmer for access to the tool because it's really a decision support tool for the farmer. And we don't want cost to be a barrier to access to the information.” - Jason Weller   This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Jason Weller the Vice President of Truterra, LLC, the sustainability solutions business of Land O’Lakes Inc. Explore the initiatives the Land O’Lakes Inc. cooperative are taking to promote sustainability and help producers Learn about the new platform they are developing to support farmers and provide information to...

Today we are joined by Naeem Zafar. Naeem is a 7x serial entrepreneur and 5x CEO, with multiple successful exits. He is currently the co-founder and CEO of TeleSense, an IoT company creating real-time wireless sensing and predictive analytics for the stored grain industry. TeleSense is a portfolio company of Fulcrum Global Capital and adds to their story that we have had the privilege to share with you so far. A lot of the attention has been paid to sensors in agronomy with soil, water, etc. But think about this with stored grain: every year we produce billions of bushels of corn, soybeans, and wheat, just in the U.S. alone. A lot of that is stored and handled multiple times: maybe in farm bins, in a local grain elevator, on a barge or rail car, at a processing facility, or export house where it goes on to further handling. So there are several opportunities for the grain quality to be affected, and a lot of current solutions of checking quality are still mostly manual: meaning sending someone up to look at and even smell the commodity.  “Knowledge is king. When you know what's going on, you can make a sensible choice. That's what it all is about. Avoid the surprise.” - Naeem Zafar  TeleSense has developed technology to monitor grain storage conditions and upload those findings to the cloud. This gives farmers the opportunity to adjust as needed for the conditions of the grain during storage reducing loss of product or quality. Naeem understands that “margins are thin” in the grain industry so his goal is to make it not just affordable but ultimately profitable for the producer. Their target is that the price should reflect approximately 2 cents per bushel which is recognized as a reasonable discount for a loss of quality making this technology more than feasible. “The data science and the alerts level will change based on the type (of grain), but the hardware is the same and the basic software is the same.” Alerts will be sent to the producers mobile device if a finding is a concern. You can access your data over time and at any instant on your desktop or mobile device.  Phase 2 of their technology will be a device that creates a “smart bin” to collect the data, analyze conditions and make its own adjustments to rectify an issue if found. Beyond that, Naeem is looking forward to creating a reward for higher quality grains in general. “So we are coming up with an index, a fine grain index, which will tell you what's the quality of the grain…..If you can do that, that opens up all kinds of interesting ideas.” Naeem Zafar This value can expand into knowing which bin is best to sell and when. This also adds value to the extra effort you have put into the timing and storage of your grains. “It’s going to take a couple of years but that's the direction” TeleSense is headed towards.    This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Naeem Zafar the co-founder and CEO of TeleSense Explore the problem TeleSense solves for those in the grain industry Learn about the technology they have developed and the advantages this can give producers Hear about the entrepreneurial journey Naeem took to get where he is now as a CEO, co-founder and professor. If you enjoyed that conversation with Naeem Zafar of TeleSense, check out their website at Telesense.com. Thanks as well to Fulcrum Global Capital who partnered with me on this episode. Learn more about Fulcrum at www.FGCVC.com.    Join the FOA Community! Be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of the ag industry. I’m sending

Around the new year I like to reflect on previous episodes and pull out insights that I think are important for the future of agriculture.  As I reflected on the content from this past year, an insight became immediately clear: agtech has a long way to go. As much as we talk about the money that has poured into the industry and how much potential there is for the future of agriculture, progress has been, by most measures, slow. And change - in a lot of cases - has been minimal. This isn’t an indictment on anyone in the industry, instead it’s a statement that we all probably don’t say often enough: innovation is hard.  There are some real forces working against the advancement of agricultural innovation. Today’s episode explores these barriers that are holding back the entire sector and profiles companies that are directly addressing and trying to eliminate those barriers. Loyal listeners know that I love this idea of enabling technologies. Which is to say, breakthroughs that open the floodgates for numerous future breakthroughs. The stories you’ll hear today are examples of companies trying to create something that enables future innovation. In some cases, with their technology, in others: with their business model.  Here are the five barriers holding agtech back:  Too much risk being put on the buyer (in most cases, the producer) Limited rural Connectivity Lack of integrations between ag technologies Scarcity of precision-first implementation equipment Inability to find product-market fit *LISTEN TO THE EPISODE FOR TWO ADDITIONAL BARRIERS* Companies featured:  Growers Edge www.growersedge.com SWARM https://swarm.space/ Leaf https://withleaf.io/ Rantizo https://rantizo.com/ In10t https://in10t.ag/ 

Check out another great ag podcast: www.OffIncome.com. Today’s episode is really one of those that I think embodies my vision for this show. It’s the vision you just heard me reference: where we take innovative ideas, in this case artificial intelligence, and we look at the point in which the meet practical realities.  The reason this is so important to me, is: first, it’s so much easier to learn and understand new technologies by observing their use cases. And secondly, I am convinced this intersection is really the best hope we have for getting a glimpse into the future of agriculture.  We have on the show Craig Ganssle, the founder and CEO of Farmwave:  an agriculture technology company that is transforming the world’s agricultural information into AI data models that power decision-making and preserve the future of farming. In this episode you’ll hear how Google Glass originally led Craig to agriculture, how artificial intelligence works and how it’s applied to a variety of use cases, from predicting the weight of livestock to identifying crop diseases to minimizing yield loss off a combine.   Learn more about Farmwave: www.Farmwave.io.  Follow Farmwave on Twitter: https://twitter.com/farmwave   Join the FoA Community: www.patreon.com/agriculture 

One of the biggest criticisms of ag tech and really many ag innovations in general is they often seem to be a solution that is looking for a problem rather than the alternative. This mismatch is often doomed to fail leaving many ag entrepreneurs frustrated. The Beef Alliance is trying to change that in the cattle feeding industry through their program called Feeding Innovation, a Beef Alliance Startup Challenge. The Beef Alliance wants smart entrepreneurial, problem solvers to see real potential opportunity and apply their talents to the cattle feeding industry. They're putting up $50,000 in the form of a cash prize and the chance at a pilot project to the winning startup of the competition. So even for startups that don't win that top prize and chance to pilot, it's still an opportunity to engage with leaders throughout the cattle feeding industry who could end up potentially becoming customers and investors. **Learn more about the startup challenge: https://beefalliance.com/startupchallenge/ The Beef Alliance is an organization of innovative, progressive, and relevant cattle feeding companies through collaborative innovation, scientific exploration, and value chain engagement. They are committed to being a leader and catalyst for positive change in the beef supply chain. Today we are joined by Dr. Abram Babcock, who is the CEO of Adams Land and Cattle in Broken Bow, Nebraska and John Wilson, a fifth generation Oregon cattleman and managing partner of several cattle related businesses. Both men clearly have extensive experience in the cattle feeding industry and share their perspectives of new innovations.   “If I look at it back in the early nineties and I look at it today, I would say that our industry has definitely adapted to listening to the consumer, as opposed to telling the consumer what we wanted them to hear or what we wanted them to eat. That would probably be at the top of my list.” - John Wilson   Dr. Babcock goes on to reference different management techniques, pharmaceutical protocols, and feeding practices all as a response to consumer demands.  John highlights advances in sensors and therefore different use and evaluation of individual metrics to better support sustainability practices like water usage and electricity usage.    “I think there is going to be an ability for our industry to really start to tell our story with data in a very cost-effective efficient manner where, you know, 10 years ago, some of these metrics would be very hard or very expensive to collect on a daily basis.” - Dr. Abram Babcock   Both John and Dr. Babcock ask innovators to keep in mind that cattle are living beings that are affected by health, weather and production system techniques. Their production is not as simple as creating a formula and producing a consistent product. While that seems obvious it is often overlooked by those not familiar with the industry. Labor efficiency, automation and improvement of feed conversion are all sectors that they highlight are in need of innovation in the industry.  This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet John Wilson and Dr. Abram Babcock, both experienced cattlemen that join us today to share what innovation has done and hopefully will do in the cattle feeding industry Learn about the technology that most interests these two experts Explore what innovators can focus on to support the cattle feeding industry’s efforts  Join the FOA Community! Be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of the ag industry. We’re nearing the end of 2020 and I’m planning my 2021 content. Do you have suggestions for topics to be...

Victory Farms is a Tilapia farming operation on Lake Victoria in Kenya. Since it was founded in 2015 it has become the largest fish farm in East Africa and is now the fastest growing Tilapia Farm in all of Africa. Joseph Rehmann is the CEO and founder of Victoria Farms and joins us today to share his journey towards becoming an innovative entrepreneur in Kenya with an environmentally sustainable aquaculture operation.    “It really felt like an opportunity to be where I wanted to be, in a field that I’m passionate about which is growing things and being able to have a meaningful impact from the work I do.” - Joseph Rehmann   Joseph observed that while Africa’s population is booming the development of local food sources was decreasing resulting in an increased dependence on imported food. He discusses the supply and demand mismatch that he was able to find a market in to not only build his business but help local populations.   “You've got 200 or 300 million people in the East African block and you've got this substantial decline in wild stocks of fish, a relative decline in per capita consumption of white proteins…..This region is sitting on what some folks call the African great lakes....So Lake Victoria is the largest warm freshwater body in the world. And it's not farmed.” - Joseph Rehmann   With access to one of the best natural resources for farming Tilapia, Victory Farms is now producing 300 tons of fish per year. Joseph highlights that Tilapia are native to the area and local cultures. Victory Farms utilizes local customs to then get the fish to their customers. Once the fish are prepared, they are then transported to 40 different locations and sold to about 10,000 market ladies per month. The market ladies then make the sale to the end customer in the community. By supporting the market ladies and promoting their business models, they have found great success and community compatibility. Beyond financial and cultural success, Joseph has also focused on supporting and promoting the local environment.    “I think the next generation of businesses needs to stop talking about doing less harm to the environment or mitigation or conservation. And we need to flip it to restoration. Businesses need to actually promote environmental benefits.” - Joseph Rehmann This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Joseph Rehmann, CEO and founder of Victory Farms Explore the emerging Tilapia market in East Africa Discover the obstacles and challenges he has faced and the factors he attributes his success to Learn about the mission of Victory Farms, their management practices and sustainability focus Join the FOA Community! Be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of the ag industry. We’re nearing the end of 2020 and I’m planning my 2021 content. Do you have suggestions for topics to be explored? Tweet them to me @timhammerich or email them to [email protected].  Find us online! Future of Agriculture Website AgGrad Website

This is the series finale of exploring agtech adoption with In10t. Co-founder and COO Kevin Heikes joins as co-host to setup this episode which features Josh Miller and Elizabeth Blessum from BASF.  Make sure you listen to the other three episodes in the series:  FoA 226: The Problem with Farm Data FoA 215: Bridging the Gap Between Farmers and Agtech FoA 194: Accelerating Agtech Kevin reflects on the journey of founding In10t and what we’ve covered in these episodes as well as in his first two Future of Agriculture appearances on FoA 028 and 062. “When technology gets in the way of innovation, no one is happy.” - Kevin Heikes Josh Miller is a technical market manager for plant health at BASF. He describes the thousands of farmer trials that have been a part of bringing their Revysol brand fungicides to the market. He emphasizes the importance of trust and transparency when performing on-farm trials.  “I think (on-farm trials) is becoming part of our DNA. It’s not just about the data. It’s about the experience, and it’s about where the data comes from. That’s really the critical part.” - Josh Miller Elizabeth Blessum worked with Josh on the Revex platform (short for “Revysol experience”) as part of her professional development program at BASF. She is now an Agronomic Solutions Advisor with the company.  “I think it comes down to believability. I’m a visual learner - I like to see things myself. So I have better luck selling a product that I believe in, and that I’ve been able to see in the field...being able to see things first hand has helped myself believe, and then ultimately help other believe in the product as well.” - Elizabeth Blessum Josh also emphasized the importance of not only data transparency, but also data privacy. Knowing how to handle this with integrity is of the utmost importance in the trialing process.  “Farmers have their factories out in the public domain. Everything they do is proprietary to some degree: what products they choose, what seed varieties they choose, how they do things. And it’s all out there. And I think that it can’t be taken for granted if a farmer shares that data with you. That’s a huge amount of IP that they’ve shared with us, and we need to treat it with the respect that it deserves.” - Josh Miller Be sure to visit In10t at www.In10t.ag and www.FarmerTrials.com.  Please also thank them on social media for their efforts to make this important series happen. I would have never had access to people like Josh, Elizabeth, or any of the other guests on previous episodes without In10t’s support! 

Back by popular demand is guest co-host Janette Barnard. She co-hosted on episode 225 about direct-to-consumer meat, and is back today with Lamar Steiger, a consultant who is helping Walmart rethink their beef supply chain. They’re doing some really innovative stuff trying to improve quality and create shared value. Janette is the author of Prime Future, a weekly newsletter about trends in the animal protein value chain, and she’s the managing principal of Rock Road Consulting helping companies launch, source, and fund innovation. She’s also just a great friend and my go-to source on all things animal agriculture.  Also on this episode is a startup spotlight featuring Ceres Tag.  Join the FoA Community: www.Patreon.com/agriculture

Visit another great podcast: www.OffIncome.com.  Are agtech and regenerative agriculture at odds? Regenerative is committed to working WITH nature, and agtech is often trying to manipulate nature in some way. Agtech is often automating and trying to displace human capital, when regenerative is often trying to bring people back to the land. Agtech often includes buying new hardware or paying a monthly as a service fee, when regenerative is trying to rely as much as possible on what can be generated and then regenerated from the land itself. Those are the ideas that were floating around in my head when I decided to put together this episode. Probably the best part of doing this podcast is getting to hear from those of you listening. A few months ago I got an email from a listener politely asking that I feature more European stories on the show, particularly something from Switzerland or Germany. I wrote back and asked what topics he thought listeners would find most interesting in that area, and he responded maybe something in either agtech or regenerative agriculture.  That listener’s name is Max Weitz, and he recommended a friend of his to be on the show, Benedikt Bosel. After hearing more about both of their backgrounds, I invited both of them to be on the show. I’ll tell you why and what this has to do with my thoughts on agtech and regenerative in just a moment.  Join the FoA Community: www.Patreon.com/agriculture

Visit our sponsor: www.OffIncome.com.  Today’s episode is a great example of true agricultural innovation. Most of you know our food system is heavily dependent on chemical fertilizers to efficiently get nutrients, especially nitrogen to most of our crops. However, some of those crops, think legumes like soybeans, pulses, and peanuts, have a symbiotic relationship with fungi that enable nitrogen fixation from the air and make it available for the plant.  Today’s guest asked the question, what if we could make this happen on all crops? Especially on corn, wheat, and rice, which together make up a significant chunk of the chemical nitrogen consumption. We have on the show Karsten Temme, CEO and co-founder of Pivot Bio. Pivot’s first product, Proven, is a microbe that when applied to corn can allow the plant to have a similar symbiotic relationship to, in a way, fix it’s own nitrogen from the air. If this is sounding familiar, it’s probably because we had Pivot Bio’s Director of Agronomy on episode 215, talking about the gap between farmers and agtech. Almost a decade ago, he started Pivot Bio with co-founder Alvin Tamsir. In this conversation we dig into how their technology works, why it’s significant, and how synthetic biology in general could impact the future of agriculture. I’ll drop you into the conversation where Karsten is describing the why behind Pivot Bio.    **JOIN THE FoA COMMUNITY: www.Patreon.com/agriculture

“We’re going to bring a lot of new, interesting, innovations leapfrogging across the world.” - Francisco Jardim   Today we explore an international agtech powerhouse, Brazil. And we have the perfect guest to talk about the developing agtech ecosystem in the country, Francisco Jardim. Francisco is the Founding Partner at SP Ventures which invests across multiple industries, but as you’ll hear, he has particular expertise in agtech. Francisco has been investing with SP Ventures for over 13 years, and focuses on Brazilian startups.   “We’re leveraging technology, new digital technology, to be able to make less friction, less costs for farmers to be able to empower themselves through the use of their data and access more sophisticated financial services products.” - Francisco Jardim   Historically, mainstream multinational ag companies have used fairs and large sales teams to expose farmers to new technologies. Francisco shares that by virtue of the spread of connectivity and digital technologies, farmers are more open to new technologies without following the formerly used labor intensive method of selling. Start up companies are poised to employ strategies that don’t involve a lot of people or a large marketing budget and that lend themselves to be more covid friendly. Preconceptions of farming operations being innately archaic and resistant to digital technology are quickly being proven wrong with ever-expanding digital connectivity.   “We’re seeing the grandfather become a heavy smartphone user. We’re seeing the father become a very hardcore ambassador of new digital technologies and the son of course. What’s beautiful is these new technologies, they’re bridging the gap between the grandfather, the father and the son in the family business....it’s becoming transgenerational and even generational integrative as a function.” - Francisco Jardim   For new startups, Francisco recommends prioritizing extensive testing and identifying that you have “positive unit economics.” By focusing on these two priorities you avoid wasting a lot of money and generating “negative repercussions from your customers” while you troubleshoot your product. He also recommends paying attention to specific buying windows (planting, seeding, harvesting, etc.) to know when is the best time to reach out to the producers and what timing will provide them with the most benefit.    This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Francisco Jardim, the Founding Partner at SP Ventures based in Brazil Explore the journey agtech startups are taking in South America and how they have found their niche during these Covid times Learn Francisco’s recommendations to becoming a successful startup Join the FOA Community! Be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of the ag industry. We’re nearing the end of 2020 and I’m planning my 2021 content. Do you have suggestions for topics to be explored? Tweet them to me @timhammerich or email them to [email protected].  Find us online! Future of Agriculture Website AgGrad Website

Typically when we think of food waste we imagine processed food ending up in the landfill. In this episode we explore a solution to reduce crop waste caused by microbes, mycotoxins or viral particles. Nanoguard Technologies has developed a device to reduce the microbial load without any residue or additional chemical input. Larry Clarke is the CEO of Nanoguard Technologies and joins us today to share the advances the company is making.   “Being able to reduce these mycotoxins saves the farmer from getting the discounts, allows him a non-complex supply chain by being able to get rid of his grain, peanuts and rice, but it also allows the animal industry to have better efficiencies.” - Larry Clarke   With limited treatment options, many producers have to resort to devaluing their crop in order to find a market. As well as helping row crop producers, this new technology also contributes to longer shelf lives of fresh produce and even meat products due to reduced microbial activities.    “We’re seeing shelf life extensions, 3 - 5 days on fruits and vegetables, a week or more on meats. We’ve seen tomatoes last upwards of 28 days longer. So the longer we have within our supply chain to keep these products fresh, the more likely they are not going to be wasted.” - Larry Clarke   The device uses a high voltage cold plasma technology that activates the air causing reactive gases that are then capable of killing microbes, detoxifying mycotoxins and deactivating viruses. There is no assumed residue and very low variable costs. The upfront investment is in the device itself which is then incorporated into machinery likely to be at grain and processing facilities already. Currently they are still in the testing phase but the potential ramifications are endless and can really make a difference in the global food supply chain.    This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Larry Clarke, CEO of Nanoguard Technologies Discover what this company is offering producers to mitigate crop and food loss Explore the potential global impact this device can make Join the FOA Community! Be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of the ag industry. Find us online! Future of Agriculture Website AgGrad Website

Rural locations often have limited connectivity to cellular data. Dr. Sara Spangelo is the CEO and co-founder of Swarm Technologies. Their company launches constellations of small, sandwich-sized, low cost, two-way satellites into lower orbit space to provide affordable global connectivity.  Different space programs offer them access to launching their devices including Space-X and Vega among others.  “That will provide us with a network of 150 satellites for global continuous coverage - covering every point on earth at all times and essentially providing a lower cost version of existing networks.” - Dr. Sara Spangelo Swarm technologies is finding a home in agriculture technology as a solution to poor cellular connection. Sensor type devices will be able to send data continuously to producers at a reasonable cost. The business itself involves the acquisition of a modem that would then get embedded into a third party device. Users are then charged based on their data volume. The target customer is agriculture technology companies to have their technology incorporated into their devices with the end consumer being the producers. “90% of our world has no connectivity except for these very prohibitively expensive solutions. And that’s really what Swarm is trying to solve for, that 90%, at an affordable point.” - Dr. Sara Spangelo Dr. Spangelo recommends any interested companies contact them soon. Their connectivity capacity is limited so getting in line early may prove significant. Swarm Technologies is already working on the next iteration of their technology to provide more to their customers. The satellites function for 4 years before experiencing complete destruction upon entering earth's atmosphere giving them the opportunity to continually replace their equipment without any additional pollution in space.  Stay tuned to the end of the episode for a startup spotlight featuring Bloomfield Robotics CEO Mark DeSantis. Bloomfield uses artificial intelligence to help producers learn more about their crop conditions.  “We’re creating a massive digital database of plant phenotypes.” - Mark DeSantis This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Dr. Sara Spangelo, CEO and co-founder of Swarm Technologies Explore the connectivity their technology in space satellites can offer remote areas Learn about the process of launching satellites and find out what makes Swarm Technology unique in the connectivity space “Startup Spotlight” featuring Mark DeSantis of Bloomfield Robotics Join the FOA Community! Be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of the ag industry. Future of Agriculture Website AgGrad Website

Great show for you today, especially for the entrepreneurs in the audience. We have on the show Joe Dales, who in his current capacity is the CoFounder and President of Agri & Food Innovation at RH Accelerator in London, Ontario, Canada.  In this episode, we talk about the importance and the elusiveness of product-market fit - meaning creating not just a great product or service, but one that the market is eager to pay for. We also talk a lot about attracting and retaining talent to the ag industry, and the future of work.  Joe’s extensive experience in bringing innovations to the market really shines through in this episode. He has been involved in successfully launching over 40 agtech innovations ranging from crop protection products, to seed varieties, to biologicals, to software companies. In 1998, he co-founded Farms.com Ltd. and AgCareers.com which have grown to become a leading supplier of innovative solutions to farmers, agriculture and food companies around the global, he remains a major shareholder and director. Be sure to stay tuned to the end of this episode for great stuff from Joe, but also a startup spotlight. This one is another Canadian company, from a few provinces over in Alberta. Rob Saik makes his third appearance on this show to talk about his newest venture AgVisorPro, so make sure to stick around for that at the end of today’s show.    Joe Dales Quotes:  “I’ve always looked at where innovation in agriculture come together, and think about how they can help farmers.” “You'll know when you get product-market fit, you definitely know when you don't have it, because there's crickets. I'll take it to (farmers like) my brother or my best friend, and say, ‘Hey, what do you think of this?’ And they'll go, ‘that's nice’, but they aren't gonna use it.” “Building (software) is sometimes the easiest part. It’s the education, it’s the branding, it’s getting people using it.” “Our sector isn't a true consumer sector. It's more B2B than B2C because every decision can be hugely costly. If they make a bad decision, you know, on selecting a crop or where they spend their time. And they've got it to do list usually a mile long, especially in season. So giving them a new scouting app or giving them a new tool. You better show them how it'll save them time and money, and that it's proven.” “Just about every company I'm dealing with, talent is the number one issue. They could scale; they could do things a lot more quickly. But there's a farmer or there's a CEO and he needs four more highly motivated, highly skilled, highly networked individuals to help them grow the business.” “We look at the product and the concept: where is it? Do we like it? And then quickly we move right to the founders: what do we think of them? Do they know the sector? You know, if they want to do something on dairy farms: are they from a dairy family? Unless you're from it and really intimately knowledgeable about the sector, or willing to pay the price and go out and visit, you’re higher risk.” “So all these technologies are swirling around in our sector and this just, how do we, how do we onboard them? How do we get them up and running? And how do we help farmers get the value out of them? Because once they do that, then there's real companies there.” “I wake up everyday trying to help farmers save money (and/or) make money through innovation. And I've had success, but still I love doing it every day. It gets me moving early in the morning and I’m very passionate about it. And I feel good in some small way, we're helping feed the world. So it's pretty easy to remain motivated.”   Rob Saik Quotes:  “The number of times through the course of the year, when a farmer could reach out to really talk to people with deep domain expertise that could help the farming operation are numerous” “If farmers or anybody out there has deep...

We talk a lot about data in agriculture. Yield data, aerial data, weather data, soil data, data interoperability, data ownership, and on and on and on. What we’re not talking about enough, however, is data quality. More and more and more data is not helpful unless it is QUALITY data. We have the quantity, there’s no shortage of farm data out there, but how do we improve the QUALITY?  We often fall into the trap of assuming more data is better data, when in reality, better data is better data. We’ll explain why in this episode. You’ve probably heard of data being “cleaned” or being “scrubbed”. But what does that mean? Why is this so hard to do with farm data? Why is this a problem and what can be done about it?  “Right now the industry is really really excited about all of the data that we can produce...but I really feel like the second generation of the data wave here in agriculture is going to be quality, and comparability, and what metrics do we measure excellence by. Those are going to be the things that make the difference.” - Kyle Mehmen, General Manager, MBS Family Farms All of these are questions and more are addressed in today’s episode as we bring on farmer Kyle Mehmen and New Leaf Symbiotics Technical Sales Lead Brad Walkup to talk about their experiences in focusing on getting higher quality data from their trials.  “Agriculture for years has been a race to see who can grow the most commodity. I feel like in the next 5-8 years, I’m hoping we can get to the point that we can differentiate crops by quality. Therefore a grower will have a unique value position in the market, rather than just #2 yellow corn.” - Brad Walkup, Technical Sales Lead, New Leaf Symbiotics   This episode is another one that I’ve partnered with my friends at In10t to bring to you. This year I’ve really wanted to explore where innovative ideas meet practical realities in agtech, and there is no company doing more in this area than In10t, so they’re the perfect partner, not only for this episode, but also for episode 194 called “Accelerating AgTech Adoption” where we talked about the importance of on-farm trials, and episode 215 entitled “Bridging the Gap Between Farmers and AgTech” where we talked about the real challenges in getting trials right.    From those episodes, you may assume In10t is a consulting company that helps arrange farmer trials. That’s how they got their start, but as VP of Technology Mike Hartquist will tell you, they have evolved into a technology platform as well.   “We look at technology as almost the third piece of the pie. We do (technology) well, and we want that to be the core of how it fits together, but our people and process is really how we got here...We don’t want to create this cool tool, but it’s not useful. Let’s get out in the field, and go walk fields and use a spreadsheet, and go figure out how it works and what works and what doesn’t, and then let’s let technology make it better for us.” - Mike Hartquist, VP of Technology at In10t   Share the Ag-Love! Thanks for joining us on the Future of Agriculture Podcast – your spot for valuable information, content, and interviews with industry leaders throughout the agricultural space! If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! And be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of ag. Learn more about AgGrad by visiting:  <p...

Can a farmer transition from the commodity market into a full-scale direct-to-consumer brand?  The answer is “yes”, and David Newman is proof.  But this isn’t a story of an overnight success. The transition for Newman Farm has been in the works since the 1990s. Over the past 20 years he has learned many lessons, and he was kind enough to share some of them on this episode.  This is a special episode of the “Future of Agriculture” Podcast because for the first time, the interview did not include our usual host, Tim Hammerich. Guest co-host Janette Barnard sourced the story and interviewed David.  *Be sure to subscribe to Janette’s weekly newsletter about innovation in the animal agriculture value chain: primefuture.substack.com.    David and Janette discuss:  Transitioning from a commodity focus to building a brand Finding the right strategy for growth How COVID-19 has impacted their business The need for reinvention no matter how traditional your industry The challenges of a branded product with direct customer access The importance of relationships and growing with partners Advice to others interested in making a similar transition   *As a bonus, this episode includes a “Startup Spotlight” segment at the end, which features Janelle Maiocco, Founder and CEO of Barn2Door, which is a software that David Newman has used to grow his business. 

We've seen the rise of alternative energy and alternative protein, could alternative plastic be next?  Mark Remmert is the CEO of Green Dot Bioplastics. This fascinating company manufactures low-cost, biodegradable materials for a variety of uses.  There is an obvious sustainability story here, but it's also a peek into what can be a rapidly growing company and industry segment in the coming decades.  Green Dot is a portfolio company of Fulcrum Global Capital, who partnered with us on this episode. Duane Cantrell, Kevin Lockett, and John Peryam join Tim to introduce the episode and provide their perspective on why they invested in Green Dot.  What are your thoughts on the future of bioplastics?  

Daren Williams joins the show to help us better understand the role of producer-led commodity groups. Daren is the Senior Director of Global Communications at the Almond Board of California. He has worked in agricultural communications for over 30 years, much of that with producer-led commodity groups like almonds, beef, apple, dairy and pork.    The Almond Board of California supports all 7,600 almond growers, as well as many others in the almond growing community from suppliers and beekeepers to farmers and buyers. Almonds are one of the fastest growing crops in California, and the Almond Board has cast a vision for the industry that includes goals to improve by 2025 in water use efficiency, dust reduction, zero waste, and pest management.    “We fund research and production techniques. We validate techniques at work and if it's beneficial and cost effective and can help improve the return on investment for the grower, we roll it out to the industry and make sure everybody knows about it.” Daren Williams   While the Almond Board of California is a federal marketing order program, we also discuss checkoff programs in this episode. Operating under a slightly different framework, the purpose of these groups also relates to the research and promotion of the commodity. In Daren’s previous position, he worked with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, which is a contractor to the beef checkoff.    “If (consumers) see us working together and trying to solve the issues and things that they’re concerned about, they develop trust in them, the industries, and I think trust is a critical issue for farmers and ranchers. In many cases, we’ve lost it and we need to regain it with consumers and let them know we really do have their best interests at heart when we make decisions about how we’re going to grow their food because we’re also going to be putting it on our dinner tables.” - Daren Williams This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Daren Williams, Senior Director of Global Communications at the Almond Board of California Better understand marketing orders, check off programs and lobbying organizations Explore how these programs respond to consumer demands, support producers and are funded Founder Spotlight: Peter Schott of Genesis Feed Technologies Genesis Feed Technologies aims to change the conversation and consumption of feed ingredients for producers The software the developed puts nutritional information in the hands of the purchasing person to make the best decisions for the feed program they are building “We make soybeans look really good. On the more technical side, we bring nutritional value out for feed ingredients and show the economics of that so people can make better buying decisions.”   Share the Ag-Love! Thanks for joining us on the Future of Agriculture Podcast – your spot for valuable information, content, and interviews with industry leaders throughout the agricultural space! If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! And be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of ag. Learn more about AgGrad by visiting:  <a href=...

Today’s episode is the deepest dive I’ve done to date into the world of regenerative agriculture. You’ll probably be able to hear it in my voice in the interview, but this one had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. In fact I think the conversation just gets more and more interesting the deeper we get into it.  If you’re new to the concept of regenerative agriculture, some previous episodes in which we discuss the concepts are episodes 44, 64, 109, 135, 182, and 199.  My viewpoint on regenerative agriculture since I first was introduced to the concept a few years ago is somewhere in between “cautious optimism” and maybe skepticism. I’m certainly not skeptical about the importance of soil health. I think you’ve heard that from me a lot on this show, and certainly you have if you listen to Soil Sense, one of the other podcasts that I host.  But some of the - what I’ll call hype associated with regenerative ag have left me asking a lot of questions. Many of those, we get into on today’s episode. Questions like:  Where is the line between what is regenerative and what is not?  What is really motivating regenerative farmers and ranchers to pursue these ideals? Because it’s not really what you might see in the media or from many advocates.  Also we get into some scientific questions like what is technically happening when carbon is sequestered?  And, once it is sequestered, how do we know it’s staying there and for how long?  I couldn’t be more impressed with our guest we have on the show today to talk about these issues. Paige Stanley is a finishing PhD candidate at UC Berkeley, who works at the intersection of rangeland ecology and soil science.  Born in Detroit, she grew up in rural Georgia. While as an undergraduate at a liberal arts college, she took a course on the ethics of food production, which drove her to want to talk to more farmers and ranchers and ultimately pursue a master’s in animal science. She did so at Michigan State University studying under Jason Roundtree.  This master’s program furthered her interest in soil carbon sequestration in grazing lands; how it might reduce greenhouse gas emissions, provide ecosystem services, improving animal welfare, and improving rural livelihoods. That led her to her work today at UC Berkeley. I’m going to let her describe it to you, but first a quick definition: you’ll hear regenerative grazing called AMP grazing in this episode. That stands for adaptive multi-paddock grazing, you may have heard of it as mob grazing. Essentially this is controlled and intensive grazing that is rotated across sections or paddocks of a field. For more on that  go way back to episodes 44 or <a href=...

“Quinoa is very unique. One, it is gluten free but it also contains high amounts of protein and a greater balance of essential amino acids than cereals.” - Angela Ichwan   This week we are exploring the emerging market of American grown quinoa. The financial, environmental and supply chain consequences of a few farmers from the San Luis Valley in Colorado that started developing this product are shared today. Paul New is a 3rd generation farmer that was initially introduced to quinoa production by a graduate student that rented some ground from his operation. Sheldon Rockey farms in Center, Colorado and joined Paul in the quinoa venture. The two have expanded from an initial 500 acres of quinoa production to 3000. And finally, Angela Ichwan, who leads the technical team of the specialty crop business unit of Ardent Mills joins us to explain the quinoa market and how Ardent Mills has contributed to its success.   “We were watching him grow the quinoa and it was kind of an exciting plant because it didn’t seem to use very much water, grew pretty well here in the San Luis Valley and as we learned more about the nutritional value and the versatility of it, we got pretty excited about it.... We thought it was going to be a crop of the future.” - Paul New   That excitement led to adding quinoa to their potato rotation. The product was “fairly easy to market” and initially the main obstacle was ironing out the production. They have now developed a new seed and adjusted their crop management system to overcome some of these challenges. The quinoa reduced the amount of inputs needed for their potato crop as there is less overlap between disease and pests. They also saw a significant reduction in water consumption needed for the quinoa crop in comparison to the common barley and alfalfa crops.    “We were still working on the production and Ardent (Mills) was positioned to really be able to step in and help us with the marketing and giving us the volume so that we could go out and really work with the neighbors and the other producers in the valley.” - Paul New   Ardent Mills also brings expertise and support in progressive genetics and to further develop EPA labels for inputs. Quinoa saw a surge in global acceptance when it was named the grain of the year in 2013 and also with increased consumer demands due to widespread gluten-free trends. Ardent Mills had an interest in producing ancient grains and was attracted by the nutritional profile and water conservation opportunities for quinoa. This led to an exclusive relationship and successful collaboration with quinoa producers in the San Luis Valley.    This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Paul New and Sheldon Rockey, Colorado quinoa farmers Discover their introduction to the “psuedograin” quinoa Learn the benefits this crop has added to their operations Explore the collaboration these producers have created with Ardent Mills and the advantages this has provided Meet Angela Ichwan who explains how Ardent Mills is using this relationship to grow a market for American grown quinoa  

Today’s episode has some really important perspective, especially for those of us who do not see the effects of persistent hunger and poverty on a daily basis. I have on the show Paul Winters, who is the Associate Vice-President of the Strategy and Knowledge Department of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).  IFAD is part of the United Nations and is the only UN agency or international financial institution that works exclusively in rural areas. They work in around 100 countries with the aim to eradicate rural poverty and hunger through agricultural development.  Paul is an Agricultural Economist by training and holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.  The first half of our conversation focuses on what agricultural development looks like in practice, and Paul shares examples from several different countries.  The second half of our conversation focuses on some of the major challenges to global food security, including the fact that global poverty was improving until about 2015. Since that time it’s actually been getting worse. We also talk about the catastrophic effects the Coronavirus pandemic and climate change can have on global food security in the future.  For starters though, I’ll drop you into the conversation where Paul is talking about some of the challenges of trying to solve these complex problems.

The idea for today’s show happened as I was working on another podcast I produce for NDSU Extension Soil Health called “Soil Sense”. I was interviewing a farmer named Mark Olson about strip tillage. It was a fascinating topic, but what really piqued my interest was the way he spoke about the company behind his strip tillage equipment. He kept talking about his SoilWarrior guy that had been so helpful. I believe he said something to the effect of “I just can’t say enough good things about SoilWarrior.”  So naturally, I wanted to learn more about this SoilWarrior company. It turns out that SoilWarrior is the product and the company is called Environmental Tillage Systems based in Minnesota. Today’s episode is about this SoilWarrior equipment, but also about strip tillage in general, and what it takes to become a farmer’s favorite company.  Brian Ryberg, who is a farmer in Minnesota and a SoilWarrior Evangelist - one of over 500, I have since found out. And Brent Brueland, VP of Sales & Marketing at Environmental Tillage Systems - which again, is the company that makes SoilWarrior.  If you’re new to the idea of strip-tillage, I’ll start with an oversimplified explanation: it’s a process where instead of a farmer tilling an entire field, he/she only tills a strip wide enough to plant into. That way, most of the ground is undisturbed which has benefits for erosion, compaction, trafficability, and overall soil health. However, the tilled strips provide benefits such as warming up faster in the spring and placing nutrients right in the root zone. There are many other benefits that Brian and Brent will discuss.  Even if soil conservation doesn’t interest you - which it should - I still think this is a worthwhile episode for you to learn more about a farmer’s throught process and what it takes to be the type of company that creates evangelists. 

Many of you know that I am endlessly interested in water and water-related topics. Today’s episode is another installment in my exploration to better understand realistic solutions to our water problems.    We have on the show Dr. Wim Bastiaanssen who is the Founder of IrriWatch. The company is very new, I think less than two years old, but it’s the culmination of decades of Wim’s research and consulting on water, irrigation, and remote sensing.   Now if you think irrigating a crop is just like irrigating your lawn - sort of set it and forget it - you are WAY oversimplifying. There are a lot of variables at play, such as: changing moisture availability in the root zone, changing evapotranspiration rates, changing crop needs with the type of crop and its stage of development, then taking into consideration the forecast, and how likely all of the above factors will be different in the coming days best on weather. And these are just a FEW factors.    There are many companies trying to help with this complexity. Wim’s approach with IrriWatch is to use satellite remote sensing to basically let each plant signal its water availability. If that sounds far-fetched, hear him out. He’s got the data to back up his claims.    Wim Bastiaanssen grew up on a farm in The Netherlands, which is the country he still calls home. Growing up 5M below sea level (the land was reclaimed by the sea), he was always around ditches, canals, and levees - which developed an interest in water and irrigation from an early age.    https://www.irriwatch.com/en/  

We are back with another Fulcrum Global Capital portfolio company this week. The company MicroGen Biotech has produced a microbe that can help encapsulate and precipitate heavy metals in the soil. This process results in a gradual cleaning of soil pollution and reduces the amount of heavy metal uptake by the plant which in turn will reduce the amount of heavy metals consumed by the public. MicroGen recently won the award for the agtech category at Samsung’s Extreme Tech Challenge. Founder Dr. Xuemei Germaine was also recognized as the top female founder of the year.    Heavy metal toxicity in the food chain is a concern being recognized around the world. Forbes published a report from the USDA that described “95% of all baby foods consumed in the United States have heavy metal content levels that are harmful to the development of organs and brains in infants and children, et cetera.”    “We are probably just a couple of years away from not potentially being able to export some of our food ag products to Europe because of that. I think the United States frankly is lagging a bit in this….Food companies are going to have to begin to demand and expect solutions to the products that are going into the foods that they are selling to the consumer.” - Dwayne Cantrell, Fulcrum Global Capital Venture Partner   Dr. Germaine explains how naturally occurring minerals and chronic use of fertilizers and pesticides all contribute to increased levels of heavy metals such as cadmium, arsenic and lead in soils. The crops that are grown in these areas will have increased levels of these metals which are then introduced into the food chain. This is especially a problem for individuals eating a plant based diet and children that are more susceptible to heavy metal toxicities.    “It’s all about how do you block (heavy metals) to make the food safer and also at the same time improve the soil health and that will be environmentally sustainable, economically sustainable, is good for farmers, good for the government and is good for every consumer. It will impact every one of us.” - Dr. Xuemei Germaine   As an added benefit, reducing the heavy metal absorption by the plant will not only benefit the consumer of the plant but also the plant itself. The microbe has been shown to increase the crop yield and has been specifically selected to also serve as a natural bio-fertilizer to the crop. Increased yield and being able to charge a premium will entice farmers to use this product with little risk to their profitability.  This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Dr. Xuemei Germaine the founder of MicroGen Biotech Explore the risks posed by elevated heavy metal content in our food chain Learn about the effects these values can have on its consumers Discover what the microbe produced by MicroGen Biotech can offer to farmers by way of cleaning the soil and creating a crop with reduced levels of the harmful minerals Share the Ag-Love!  Thanks for joining us on the Future of Agriculture Podcast – your spot for valuable information, content, and interviews with industry leaders throughout the agricultural space! If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! And be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of ag. Learn more about AgGrad by visiting:  <a href=...

What does a more distributed regionalized or even localized food system look like at scale? How can producers capture more of the value of that type of food system? What is the right type of investor to help fuel that sort of system? Stephen Hohenrieder spent his early career in capital markets and has an agricultural background. Stephen now works for family offices. These are investment entities that invest on behalf of a single-family. In this episode, we talk about investing in regenerative agriculture, what a distributed food system looks like and how the family office investor can be a great fit for making these ambitions a reality. Stephen began by combining different food source experiences in Hawaii to support his regenerative agriculture goals through investment.   “The goal was to develop a perspective on each of these different areas of food and then use my background in investing to deploy capital in ways that would support a regenerative food system that I hope to be a part of.” - Stephen Hohenrieder   The investment profile of a family office and the amount of risk they are willing to undertake varies between each family office. His mission is to “figure out how we could steward the vision of that operation into the future and bring in aligned capital that had a very long term perspective.”   “As I explored this thesis for how I believe our food system is evolving and really increasingly being redefined by fragmentation after a period of consolidation and centralization, I have focused on four pillars that are really authenticity, connection, traceability and transparency.” - Stephen Hohenrieder   In many of Stephen’s investments he looks to not only add value to the food chain process but also the farm itself. Stephen believes people are “reconnecting with the source of their food” leading to a consumer driven cultural shift for producers. Consumers are now more interested in connecting with a set of values than a third party certification and producers are needing to communicate these inherent values to gain consumer loyalty.   This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Stephen Hohenrieder, an investor supporting regenerative agriculture Explore how he views the cultural shifts in the supply chain Learn about where he sees the future of the agriculture industry heading Share the Ag-Love! Thanks for joining us on the Future of Agriculture Podcast – your spot for valuable information, content, and interviews with industry leaders throughout the agricultural space! If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! And be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of ag. Learn more about AgGrad by visiting: Future of Agriculture Website AgGrad Website AgGrad on Twitter AgGrad on Facebook AgGrad on LinkedIn AgGrad on Instagram    

What are the barriers to customer acquisition for agribusiness and agri tech companies? In10nt is a company that attempts to answer that question and bridge the gap between company and farmer. They focus on being able to create trials at the farm level to introduce a product and allow farmers to find the best fit for their operations. Dan Poston is the Director of Agronomy for Pivot Bio. Sean Blomgren is a fourth-generation family farmer from Iowa and is the owner of Blomgren Seed. Both Dan and Sean join us to discuss the complicated process of developing, establishing, and managing an on-farm trial that will demonstrate the potential of a certain product's performance.   “We’re constantly thinking about how you test those products, where you test those products, and how close to the customer you get from a testing perspective…..We really want to have that footprint and that experience on a farmer field before we feel comfortable delivering to the customer.” - Dan Poston   Statistical analysis results in a specific number of trials in a specific size that will be needed to create confident data in regards to the product. Developing the plan is only step one. The logistics of shipping can be a very complicated process. The product needs to arrive at farmers in prime condition and be able to be maintained by them in order to develop the most valuable results. Farmers are then responsible for using the new product in an appropriate manner. A lot of thought is put into a protocol that is most “meaningful” in order to optimize for the most success. Sampling can also create variation in results and is therefore orchestrated. All of these facets have to come together to give the trial the best chance at being successful.   “I promise you there’ve been some great products that have gone through our farm that hasn't tested well because we didn’t build a proper test…. That should be products we’re using today but because we didn’t test them in the right way, we didn’t have the ability to understand what we should or shouldn’t do with them.” - Sean Blomgren   “It’s amazing how when it’s done right, the information is so valuable and how hard it is to get to that” shares Sean. “I think that is the great gap you have to get across with biological products, is just seeing them vetted out over a large enough area” shares Dan. A third party like In10nt allows companies to work with farmers to create the best planned and managed trial to find the best success. In10nts execution gives you the best opportunity for customer acquisition.   This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Dan Poston a Director of Agronomy for Pivot Bio that understands the value of a farm-based trial Also meet Sean Blomgren, a producer who has benefited from well-executed trials Explore the difficulty in introducing these products to new producers Discover how In10nt manages that process to better serve their clients Share the Ag-Love! Thanks for joining us on the Future of Agriculture Podcast – your spot for valuable information, content, and interviews with industry leaders throughout the agricultural space! If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! And be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of ag. Learn more about AgGrad by visiting: Future of Agriculture Website AgGrad

Danette Amstein and Michael Uetz are the Principles and Co-Founders of Midan Marketing. Their focus is on being a full-service marketing firm for the meat industry. Both Danette and Michael grew up in agriculture and worked in the National Cattlemen's Beef Association prior to founding Midan Marketing.. Michael specifically worked on identifying “what is the consumer looking for and how do we be responsive to their needs.” They joined forces to create Midan Marketing and further pursue closing the gap between producer and consumer.  “We are working to help our clients rise above all of the clutter that’s in the marketplace, above all the noise so that they can match their products with the consumers out there that are interested in it.” - Danette Amstein Both Danette and Michael credit a lot of their success to having created and curated a good team of people. The team of Midan Marketing is made up of not only marketing specialists but also a staff that are actively farming and therefore better able to relate to their clients.The indicators they focus on is to “hire humble, hungry and smart.” This has developed into the best system they have found to support the culture they want to foster within the company.  “Our hiring process is long. It isn’t a one and done interview. It’s multiple interviews with multiple people…..so we’re investing heavily in a team member before they’re able to be productive.” - Danette Amstein They encourage their clients to find their niche and specialization in order to target a specific segment of consumers to grow trust and lead to loyalty. Midan Marketing acknowledges the dynamic evolution of the consumers and their buying habits. They have performed and evaluated studies to go beyond basic metrics for a consumer in order to better identify the best way to communicate and connect with them.  “We not only look at them from a demographics perspective, but we ask them about their attitudes, their perceptions, their behaviors and ultimately what drives them to purchase.” - Michael Uetz In the time of Covid-19, their models and strategies have had to be adjusted to better facilitate communication with consumers in an uncertain environment.They have observed “almost chaos with (the) consumer base” leading to changes in behavior and buying habits. They encourage producers at any point in the food supply chain to pay attention to consumer research. “We all have to pay attention to the consumer and their crazy whims as they have them because that’s ultimately where the paycheck comes from.” Danette Amstein This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Midan Marketing Co-Founders Danette Amstein and Michael Uetz Explore the value of understanding consumer buying products at every level of meat production Learn about the impact Covid-19 has had on the agriculture marketing industry Founder Spotlight: Jordan Phasey of Phinite Phinite prevents water pollution and provides another revenue source for farmers in the place of persistent expense regarding manure management Currently, most farmers spend money to manage their manure disposal, especially on hog farms due to long drying processes and an ever increasing supply Through a natural process generated by the creation of a controlled wetland, the manure is dried and converted into a marketable concentrated fertilizer “We’ve been able to reduce the cost of drying pig manure by more than 90%. Operation of the system is simple. The farmer pumps waste out of the lagoon and into the wetland. The wetland itself has no moving parts and...

The Story of CoverCress isn’t just as straightforward as bringing a new crop to the market. Their ambitions also represent a new feed, a new cover crop, genetic engineering, a low carbon intensity feedstock and a new revenue source for farmers among others. Fulcrum Global Capital saw the potential in CoverCress and return to the show this week to share the excitement surrounding this company. If you missed episode 208 where we first introduced Fulcrum Global be sure to go listen to it. The CoverCress new crop will not compete with current midwestern crops and should provide farmers with a new marketable product.   “They’re going to create this new revenue source for the midwestern farmer. It’s going to go in on the corn soy rotation and you’re going to get the traditional cover crop benefits of which there are numerous but you’re going to get increased profitability.” - John Peryam, Venture Partner and General Counsel for Fulcrum Global   Fulcrum Managing Partner, Duane Cantrell, shares that this new product will “change the economic dynamic” for the farmer. “There are multiple pathways of product lines there” including oil for cooking and bio-based fuels and a seed crop that can be used as a high protein meal for feed additives.   “We have built this business off of I’ll call it the chassis of the native plant, pennycress. But because we have used genome editing to improve the quality, both with oil and the meal, it's a little different crop when we’re done. That's what we call CoverCress. - Jerry Steiner, CEO of CoverCress   CoverCress has the advantage of having a better grain than the agronomy and quality of its pennycress counterpart. The CoverCress “business plan is based on having really a partnership on both ends. One end with the farmer and another end with the end user” according to Jerry Steiner. CoverCress will provide the seed to the farmer creating a low barrier to entry in planting the crop. The company will then gain its revenue when the final grain product is delivered and also when it is processed into oil.   Jerry Steiner highlights the fact that CoverCress is taking a plant that is currently considered a weed and is converting it into a profitable crop with added cover crop benefits. CoverCress is considered a product of gene editing using natural occurring genes which in the United States differentiates this crop from GMOs. CoverCress is still in the research phase. The company is really “focused on getting a product that is well-tested before” it is released. This includes a well-tested process for the farmer and process for creating the end product.They expect to have their first commercial planting in the fall of 2021.   “We’re trying to use land the farmer already owns or operates, just use it at the time of year when they’re not trying to use it. And we want to have the farmer use equipment, whether its planting or harvesting, that they already have. We want to partner with people who already have existing grain handling and crushing assets for other oils seeds…..so it's kind of taking existing assets and just getting more out of them.” - Jerry Steiner, CEO of CoverCress This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Learn about CoverCress, a new crop being developed to create a new revenue source for midwestern farmers Discover the research and benefit to using CoverCress without it competing with any existing crops Meet Jerry Steiner, CEO of CoverCress, and hear about the unique opportunity CoverCress can offer farmers using existing equipment and available planting times Share the Ag-Love! Thanks for joining us on the Future of Agriculture Podcast – your spot for valuable...

In recent months societies magnifying glass has been held over the existence of systemic racial inequality. It shouldn’t be surprising then, that that conversation can easily be carried on into the agriculture industry. Bryana Clover advocates for racial equality in the workplace as a consultant to companies. Bryana is biracial and through her experiences in agribusiness has found an “intense passion for creating brave spaces to have tough conversations around race in the workplace.”   “I truly believe that our future depends on us bringing that lens into our diversity inclusion initiatives and really better understanding what we can do as organizations to create inclusive environments for black people and people of color.” - Bryana Clover   Bryana helps identify what systemic racism may look like in both agribusiness and agriculture production. She highlights the lack of diversity at the CEO level in the vast majority of companies. She offers these tips towards addressing what an individual can do to combat racism and microaggressions in their workplace:   Education Education involves understanding and identifying the dynamics of racial inequality in current events. “There is a structural dynamic that’s going on that impacts every aspect of our life. And I think that understanding that is the first step.”   Introspection Reflecting on “racial identity and how that impacts you personally and then how that impacts the spaces that you're in” allows you to identify how you fit in the corporate culture and how that environment may be contributing to a lack of equality.   Action Call attention to your discoveries and observations. Be an advocate for someone who might be disenfranchised. Training at a corporate level can “facilitate conversations around this.” Bryana also suggests contributing to organizations that are supporting and promoting racial equality.   On a more corporate level, Bryana calls companies to put real effort and work behind the many statements that have been issued supporting racial equality. Financially supporting organizations that have the expertise and focus in creating racial equality is a great first step. Committing time and money to making sure the workplace is a safe and supported environment for all employees is needed. “This is a journey, not a destination.” Bryana has created six modules for executives and a tool kit for employees for more internal change within a business culture. Bryana’s consultancy provides assessments, plans, tools and follow up to allow companies to follow through with their commitments and initiatives.   “We cannot afford as individuals or as a society to do nothing anymore.…..Activism looks different for all of us. Just do the next right thing.” - Bryana Clover This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Bryana Clover, a consultant with ties to agribusiness who now addresses racial inequality in the workplace Discover tips to identify how we are all apart of a cultural climate that is calling for change Learn about different resources available to help your efforts. Contact Bryana Clover on LinkedIn and visit her website to learn more about racial equality progress in agribusiness. Share the Ag-Love! Thanks for joining us on the Future of Agriculture Podcast – your spot for valuable information, content, and interviews with industry leaders throughout the agricultural...

We do a lot of agtech episodes on this podcast, but I don’t think we’ve had one quite like this. Today’s episode is primarily focused on the area of agtech that includes site-specific agronomic tools that you’d hear referred to as variable-rate or under the umbrella of precision agriculture.   “The agtech industry in general looks pretty glamorous, but it’s a tough, tough business.”   My guest is Cory Willness, the President of CropPro Consulting, which is an agronomy consulting services firm in Western Canada, based in Naicam, Saskatchewan. Started in 2003, the company has grown to 30 employees. Along the way, Cory and his team started to develop digital tools to help them be more successful in their agronomy work. Eventually they started a separate business to offer these tools to others. That business is called Croptomistic Technology.   “The field never changes. The field is always the same. So when we go out to soil test, there is no crop on the field. What we’re sticking the probe into is soil. So where is the map of soil? A satellite image or yield map does not give you a map of soil. It just gives you a map of variability and you don’t know what that’s due to.”   Cory and I talk about the rise of the tech-enabled independent agronomist, how he decided to develop these tools and ultimately market them as a separate business, and some of his frustrations with agtech, which I think many of you will find both unconventional and enlightening.     Before we dive in though, it might help to define a couple of these technologies for context: SWAT stands for Soil, Water, and Topography, and a SWAT map combines multiple layers of field data into a single map for zone management and variable-rate fertilizer and seed applications. Cory created a SWAT Box, which is a box that is mounted to an ATV, truck, or piece of ag equipment and driven over the field to collect electrical conductivity and elevation data, which are necessary layers for SWAT Maps. Lastly Cory is one of the founding partners of CropRecords, which is a crop consulting system for crop scouting, record keeping, making recommendations and jobs, and synchronizing all of the information between agronomy staff and farm staff. It is an essential part of implementing the SWAT Maps system.   “Farmers are smart people. They know their fields. They know what their problems are in any given season. They see them all the time because they’re out there all the time. If you go out there to the farm and say ‘I’ve got a specific solution that’s going to solve this problem on your farm’. They’ll try it.”   Cory represents to me, someone who has spent his career working directly with agronomists and farmers, who knows their needs and pain points, and who has strong opinions rooted in firsthand experience. You’ll hear some opinions and perspectives on this episode that may challenge your own when it comes to agtech, especially as it relates to precision agronomy.   You can find out more about CropPro and his various offerings at www.CropPro.ca. Also, he’s a great follow on Twitter @CropProCory.   Share the Ag-Love! Thanks for joining us on the Future of Agriculture Podcast – your spot for valuable information, content, and interviews with industry leaders throughout the agricultural space! If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! And be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information...

“In a lot of ways ag’s desire to be united is the thing that divides it the most.” - Sarah Mock   Sarah Mock has built her career around having difficult discussions and chasing the realities of agriculture. She is committed to not being an enemy or a cheerleader of agriculture creating a more balanced, real reporting style. In a world of fake news, her journalistic integrity is most welcomed. In an attempt to not isolate any particular views, mainstream agriculture media has historically chosen to offer very little divisive content. Unfortunately for some, that has led to an overall apathy towards having difficult conversations and being willing to go out on a limb.   “I hear people talk about the need to walk down the middle of the road. But walking down the middle of the road means never saying anything critical about the industry. That’s like the code word in ag media a lot of the time and it's a pushback I’ve gotten from editors before.” - Sarah Mock   Rural journalists, while present, tend to be more rare and deal with agriculture on a national basis. As a freelance journalist, Sarah has been able to explore stories that interest her and that she feels needs to be told including more philosophical based questions to more localized topics. With no interest in avoiding difficult conversations, she strives to open up a platform for honest discussion. She remarks that there seems to be a focus on “positivity” in traditional agriculture narratives that can be detrimental to the wellbeing of those in the industry.   “You’re creating a misconception for people that it’s normal to be happy and positive all the time and that’s how you should want to feel. And it isn’t always the case.” - Sarah Mock   Sarah has given herself a personal pursuit of exploring the possibility of agriculture without exploitation. The use of “exploitation” encompasses time, money, consumers. resources, the environment and the farmers themselves. She doesn’t have an answer to that question but is determined to discover as much as possible towards formulating one. Sarah shares that “we should know the answer to that question” regardless of its outcome in order to better inform our choices. She reflects on what she has observed in agriculture media and the future it might hold.   “Ag got this idea in our collective brain 10 years ago that our real problem is that consumers don’t understand about agriculture and….if we could just explain to people what was happening then we wouldn’t have any problems anymore which seems like a fundamental misread of the whole situation at this point.” - Sarah Mock   The agriculture industry has attempted to bridge the gap between the producer and consumer by providing explanations for practices rather than addressing the specific concerns the public might have. She promotes engaging people by being open to questions and criticism alike. Sarah predicts that the future of agriculture media will be “individuals that have interesting compelling personalities and perspectives that can go straight to their audience themselves.”   This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Sarah Mock, a rural journalist not afraid to take on difficult topics Sarah reflects on her experiences within ag media and the shortfalls she sees occurring Explore the future of ag media and marketing Founder Spotlight: Tyler McGee of Shepherd Farming “Shepherd is a digital labor platform designed specifically for farms and agriculture operations. It allows growers to quickly see what work needs to be done on their farms for that day and to send and receive tasks from other...

Pristine Gourmet was formed in 2005 with the vision of supplying the food industry with quality local non-GMO artisan foods. Jason Persall owns Pristine Gourmet in Waterford, Ontario. He converted his 1000 acre strictly traditional commodity soybean farm to support the three pillars of Pristine Gourmet; heritage, passion and craftsmanship. They produce fresh and unique cooking oils for retail, restaurants and bulk ingredients. The major obstacle faced by Pristine Gourmet was finding shelf space in the supermarkets and somehow making their product stand out. Jason quickly understood that was going to be a perpetual obstacle and so chose to pursue a different strategy. Jason shares that he invested slowly and allowed his business “to grow organically.”   “That was kind of just the beginning of where we are now. Just starting out with chefs and realizing that that is really our focus of where our brand is going to be widely accepted. Chefs just love new products, something that’s local to them, something that has a story, that’s direct from the farm.” - Jason Persall   Chefs and their teams take tours of his farm and engage in the process of developing their products. The bulk ingredient supply side of their business has helped support them during the Covid Pandemic while restaurant need is reduced. They also sell their cooking oils online through their website. Their retail products include cold pressed sunflower and canola oils similar to extra virgin olive oils. The process they use allows for better taste, higher antioxidant levels and an all round better quality product. For food service clients they can also prepare hybrid fryer oils. Each oil has a different purpose in mind. The canola oil is touted as the “queen of oils” with a “very impactful” nice flavor. The soybean oil has a more mild flavor when compared to the canola oil but with additional nutty flavors. It also has the added benefit of an impressive viscosity at room temperature which lends itself to being an excellent garnish. The final oil is a sunflower oil with a light, fresh sunflower taste and has the widest range of use in the kitchen. They also produce a pumpkin seed oil typically used to enhance different flavors.   “That’s kind of the reason why we do the oils that we do is because they’re drastically different from each other and their applications are different….It’s really geared towards the chef.” - Jason Persall This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Jason Perall, owner of Pristine Gourmet Learn about how Jason moved his commodity based farm towards artisan cooking oil production Explore what makes Pristine Gourmet unique and loved by local chefs Visit PristineGourmet.com to order your cooking oil direct from the farm!   Share the Ag-Love! Thanks for joining us on the Future of Agriculture Podcast – your spot for valuable information, content, and interviews with industry leaders throughout the agricultural space! If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! And be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of ag. Learn more about AgGrad by visiting: Future of Agriculture Website <a...

Fulcrum Global Capital is a venture capital firm focused on global food production. Traditional row crop agriculture, production animal health and agriculture technology are the main interests of their investment thesis. They often find themselves investing in early stage companies that are “not only early stage in terms of a company’s life cycle, but early in terms of where the technology falls in the value chain of the food production.”   When they initially heard the pitch by P&P Optica Founder Olga Pawluczyk they were impressed. 16 months later they made their investment. P&P Optica addresses “challenges such as the $4 billion annual loss that takes place in the food processing space around foreign material detection.”   “Where we see the long term vision of this company (P&P Optica), is really becoming a data company. The more units a customer will have, call it a Tyson or a Maple Leaf (for example). The more that they have, the more DATA we are able to provide them to make decisions.” - Kevin Lockett, Fulcrum Global Capital   This results in catching foreign material at a “much higher rate and at a much smaller size.” The origin of P&P Optica was not in food processing but rather in lens development for detection of different particles in the oil industry. When the oil industry suffered, an opportunity presented to identify fat content in meat. This opened the door to using their detection technology in food production.   “If you look at what are the important aspects of food production; you want safety, you want quality and you want to produce exactly what you need to produce.” - Olga Pawluczyk, P&P Optica “The estimated costs of a single recall is about $10 million on average” in product loss and is commonly compounded by brand damage. Plants will process “hundreds of thousands of pounds” of meat per day so inspecting each piece of meat for safety and quality can be difficult to do thoroughly at that pace. “So if we can take a step back and look at it with technology that sees chemical composition and can see the gradation of the cells, how all the cells are, how much water there is, what type of protein, and what type of fat; that information can translate into the quality and therefore can sort every single piece on the line.” - Olga Pawluczyk, P&P Optica This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Fulcrum Global Capital as they share their philosophy and some of the companies they have been able to invest in Meet Olga Pawluczyk of https://ppo.ca/about-ppo/P&P Optica and learn about the innovations her company is creating and the impact it will have on food production Share the Ag-Love! Thanks for joining us on the Future of Agriculture Podcast – your spot for valuable information, content, and interviews with industry leaders throughout the agricultural space! If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! And be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of ag. Learn more about AgGrad by visiting: Future of Agriculture Website AgGrad Website AgGrad on Twitter AgGrad on Facebook <a href=...

Playing with puppies and kittens most of the day and selflessly saving any and all helpless animals in between are the common perception of being a veterinarian that many people pictured as a child. James Herriot painted a beloved picture of adventure and fun that many fell in love with. I’d be remiss to admit that occasionally this does describe the job but unfortunately, the more common reality faced by veterinarians is a lot less rosy.    Dr. Judson Vasconcelos is the head of the Veterinary and Consumer Affairs Team at Merck Animal Health. Merck has committed to performing a study in US veterinarians every few years “to monitor wellbeing and mental health of US veterinarians.” Having practiced as a veterinarian for years in Brazil, Dr. Vasconcelos can not only share the most recent study that illustrates the struggle many veterinarians are facing but also relates to them through his own experiences.   “We want to have a good idea of what’s going on with veterinarians based on the trends that we’ve seen in the past. We want to have a good understanding of wellbeing and where they are from a mental health standpoint. We want to benchmark some of (that) data with some of the findings from other scientists...” - Dr. Judson Vasconcelos   Through a partnership with the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), they were able to analyze 3000 answers from a survey sent out to practicing veterinarians in the United States. This comprehensive survey illustrated many different concerns, however, the team was able to identify three main concerns affecting the veterinary profession today and have labeled them the “Three S’s.”     Stress Student Debt Suicide Rate     These three main issues all contribute to a multifactorial result of reduced quality of life and low job satisfaction for veterinary professionals. Factors like a poor work-life balance and high expectations of customers magnify the gravity and significance of the Three S’s. Surprisingly to most, “52% of the veterinarians do not recommend the profession.” Reasons such as debt, low salary, stress, and difficult clients are all cited as causes for this finding. Veterinarians are 2.7 times more likely to attempt suicide, a number which is significantly higher than their human medicine counterparts. However, identifying these concerns is only useful if something is done to ease the burden they present.

Blockchain. A word that has been overhyped and yet still becoming more realized every day. Bridie Ohlsson joins us and is the Founder of Geora, a protocol for blockchain applications in agriculture. Bridie’s career with blockchain began with AgriDigital when the world was discovering and getting excited about the potential applications of blockchain. Bridie shares what the goals of any blockchain company were at that time.   “So you needed to be kind of an open and fairly non-competitive technology to encourage people to come in and experiment and work together and integrate their systems and share data.” - Bridie Ohlsson   Where AgriDigital provided access to blockchain for producers, Geora was formed to build on that and provide the next step. Geora’s protocol has isolated what data needs to be retained on blockchain and what data while significant to have for logistical reasons does not need to be tied to the product on blockchain. Bridie describes Geora as an “infrastructure” where they “work out where there’s a valuable data point.”   “We’re really trying to build tools, digital tools, that are really useful for ag so there is adoption...” - Bridie Ohlsson   Bridie expects that these “data rich assets” will lead to financial gain for producers. At the moment her company is trying “to get a really solid base of digital record keeping systems.” She admits that blockchain is not necessary to acquire that data but if the goal is to monetize that data then blockchain will be needed, so the technology is being employed now. This will ultimately provide another avenue for people or companies to invest in agriculture with real time access to the farmer’s data and all to the farmer’s benefit. The farmer will have absolute control over their data and how and when it is shared. This focus on agriculture amplifies the impact the protocol can have for its participants.   “If we can get participants who work in similar spaces, they’re going to generate value for each other quicker, which is a good test of the network effect and the network value.” Bridie Ohlsson. This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Bridie Ohlsson, founder of Geora, a blockchain protocol company Explore the next steps being taken in blockchain and what they may mean for the industry Learn about some of the financial implications of blockchain     Share the Ag-Love! Thanks for joining us on the Future of Agriculture Podcast – your spot for valuable information, content, and interviews with industry leaders throughout the agricultural space! If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! And be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of ag. Learn more about AgGrad by visiting: Future of Agriculture Website AgGrad Website AgGrad on Twitter AgGrad on Facebook AgGrad on LinkedIn AgGrad on Instagram      

We are going back to the farm today. Zach Johnson, the YouTuber Minnesota Millennial Farmer and Mitchell Hora, farmer and founder of Continuum Ag, join us today. These two co-host the Fieldwork Podcast, “a podcast for farmers, from farmers.” Fieldwork Podcast focuses on sustainable farming practices, their environmental impact and how to make them profitable. For Mitchell, Continuum Ag specifically supplies health data analytics and does consulting for farmers. Mitchell and Zach farm 500 miles apart but find common ground in adopting soil health principles and are enjoying the opportunity to share that with other farmers.   “I think everybody has the opportunity to improve. I think it’s just more so looking outside of the box and looking holistically, but there’s a lot of ways to do this.” - Mitchell Hora   Mitchell draws attention to the fact that being more sustainable can involve different applications of soil health protocols on different operations. This isn’t a call for “one size fits all” in farming. He highlights impacting the carbon footprint in agriculture, water quality, water use, and nutrient density to name a few options to focus on.The Fieldwork Podcast’s goal is to “utilize some of these other agronomic sustainable type principles to be more profitable.” Mitchell is very clear that any changes need to “drive profitability” and be a sound “business decision.” Zach discusses that one barrier to fully adopting all of these soil health practices rapidly on his farm has been the amount of moisture and weather conditions in Minnesota. His dad attempted some no-till in the 1980’s but didn’t find success at that time.   “I think now we understand more about the soil. We have better technology, maybe better machinery to try to understand really what it is we’re doing and try to achieve those results.” - Zach Johnson   Zach is excited to start trying some new soil health practices including cover crops but admittedly hasn’t found the opportunity yet. Both Zach and Mitchell discuss how difficult it can be to initiate new practices and wait for the results to become evident. This is why ultimately every decision they make is backed by increasing profitability and making their farm as successful as it can be both for the environment and for themselves.   “(Fieldwork Podcast) is a great educational tool for farmers and for non-farmers to learn and to support each other and to realize and understand that it isn’t so easy and we’re all trying to figure this out to make sure that we move forward progressively.” - Zach Johnson     This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Mitchell Hora, farmer and co-founder of https://continuum.ag Continuum Ag Meet Zach Johnson, the Minnesota Millennial Farmer Learn about their podcast Fieldwork Podcast in which they explore improving soil health practices with the bottom line in mind Hear about Zach’s experiences with Youtube notoriety and the impact it is having on his audience Founder Spotlight: Luke Silinski Founder of Agtech Steam Luke’s mission is to help other rural kids get interested in coding and provide them with resources so that they can develop their skills in a practical way Specific content is sent that would appeal to young learners and their interests Luke encourages anyone who wants to learn to code to take it slow, find a game or program you are interested in and...

Kellee James joins us today to discuss what it takes to build a platform as co-founder and CEO of Mercaris, a market information service and online trading platform for identity preserved agricultural commodities.   “We’re a market data and information service. We are also an online trading platform but we have chosen to focus on a specific part of the ag supply chain, and that is identity preserved ag commodities.” - Kellee James   Mercaris provides price discovery while allowing customers a procurement tool within a very specific field in agriculture through trades and auctions. Only 15% of their revenue is derived from trading fees. Most of their revenue comes from the sale of data. There is very limited tracking in imports and exports with these specific commodities so creating a data marketplace creates real advantage for their customers as well as a way to connect with vendors who may be interested in their products.   “You’ve got to establish yourself as the marketplace. So getting out ahead of others that are trying to do the same thing, I think is important.” - Kellee James   Kellee didn’t grow up on a farm. Her family is originally from New York but she fell in love with agriculture and pursued that industry in college. She found an opportunity when she learned that farmers could sell credits based on environmentally friendly practices.   “I was hooked. It was a way to provide real dollars in the pockets of producers who were undertaking something that had an environmental benefit. I liked the appeal of using a market mechanism to put a price and a value on something that we all need in society.” - Kellee James   Kellee highlights that the goal in these marketplaces is not to spend the most money to reduce emissions. The measure of success is to create an environment of supply and demand so that the “market finds the lowest cost reductions.” But how do we get so many different sectors on board and what incentivizes them to carry through with their promises?   “It’s a tough problem for humanity because it does require collective action and last time I looked, collective action is still best accomplished by the federal government.” - Kellee James   This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Kellee James, CEO and co-founder of Mercaris Explore what the Mercaris platform looks like and what it means for its customers Learn about the structure behind commodity markets and what it takes to create one Share the Ag-Love! Thanks for joining us on the Future of Agriculture Podcast – your spot for valuable information, content, and interviews with industry leaders throughout the agricultural space! If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! And be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of ag. Learn more about AgGrad by visiting: Future of Agriculture Website AgGrad Website AgGrad on Twitter AgGrad on Facebook AgGrad on LinkedIn <a href=...