Future of Agriculture

Headstorm: https://headstorm.com/

AGPILOT: https://headstorm.com/agpilot/

Software is Feeding The World: https://www.rhishipethe.com/sftw

Beck'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. 

“Ideas are cheap.  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. 

“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.” 

Brad Fruth of Beck’s Hybrids sits down with guest host Rhishi Pethe on today’s Future of Agriculture podcast. Brad is the  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. 

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-unfeasible

I considered a title for this episode that was something like “The Biological Revolution Coming to Agriculture”. 

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. 

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: 

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. 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. 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? 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. 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. 

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. 

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 the value they offer to farmers and consumers.

In today’s episode, I’ll feature two companies in ELO Life and Pairwise that are using biotechnology, specifically gene editing, to change the game on certain agricultural products and ingredients. What they can do it mind-blowing - they are like the Willy Wonka’s of agriculture. 

Then we’ll dive deeper into a New Life Symbiotics, which is more of a biological company in the classic sense of the word in that they sell microbes used as biostimulants and biopesticides. This is will give you a great look into some of the challenges and opportunities of these types of products. 

Finally we’ll take a peak into what Harpe Bio is doing with their natural chemistry made from plant extracts to provide a new suite of herbicide products. 

All of these examples are enabled by advancements in our understanding of biology combined with the data science and other tools that I think will accelerate innovation in agriculture faster than just about anything else out there today.  

But let’s not evaluate these stories on how the products were developed, but what problems they solve what value they can offer.

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. 

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.  

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. 

"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&utm_medium=member_desktop

FoA 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 

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-baron

FoA 266:Microsoft Wants to Democratize Data-Driven Agriculture https://futureofagriculture.com/episode/foa-266-microsoft-wants-to-democratize-data-driven-agriculture 

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 

“Yield Maps Killed Agtech Software, Can AI Fix It?” https://tenacious.ventures/insights/yield-maps-killed-agtech-software-can-ai-fix-it 

Bailey Stockdale LLM Benchmarking: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/gbstockdale_anthropic-claude-opus-is-the-new-leader-in-activity-7173365123196112896-SkEt?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop 

A couple weeks ago, I had the chance to attend World Agri-Tech in San Francisco. I spent the vast majority of my time there in one-on-one conversations, some recorded and some not, about the future of agriculture. It was really an embarrassment of riches to have so many interesting people in one place who work in agtech or agribusiness. ReThink Events was kind enough to provide me with a media pass for the event, and our quarterly presenting sponsor Headstorm helped to coordinate some key interviews that will be a part of today’s episode and a few other episodes that you’ll hear later this quarter. Take note that all of these recordings happened live at an event with thousands of other people, so there will be occasional background noise, but overall I was pleased with the quality of audio I was able to get considering the circumstances. 

There’s a temptation at this event in particular and others like it to ask what’s new and what’s next? That begs the question of “does there always need to be something new to talk about?” because we probably have a lot of “old” things to still be working on and working through. I actually encountered what I would consider a healthy mix of innovations that aren’t new but still requiring a lot of work to make an impact. This would include a lot of topics that won’t shock you if you’ve been listening to this show for any amount of time: data, automation, biologicals, regenerative, climate change, venture capital, etc. 

But if there was one topic that was new - or at least new-ish - it was the talk of the potential of generative AI to drive positive change in agtech. It’s clear several companies have been working on this or at least thinking a lot about it. And if you want a quick and oversimplified explanation of generative AI, think of it as a tool that can take raw data and create content in the way of text, like Chat-GPT, images like Midjourney, audio, like you heard last year in episode 361 when I used Descript to generate the intro to the episode in my voice from text generated from FBN’s Norm. 

All of those are examples of generative AI using more mainstream applications, but all they require is a prompt by me typing or speaking what I want the tool to make for me. This what makes it generative - the tool is making the content - not me.  But what does this really mean for for the future of agriculture? Are these just fun and interesting tools, or do they represent a massive step forward in technological capabilities? 

That was the tone of a lot of the GenAI conversations I was a part of. One of the more intriguing panels at World Agri-Tech, at least in my opinion, was titled “The GenAI Era: Navigating Opportunities and Challenges in Agtech”. It actually included three former guests of this podcast: Ranveer Chandra at Microsoft (266), Jeremy Williams at Bayer Crop Science (111), and Elliott Grant at Mineral (345). Also sitting on the panel was Elizabeth Fastiggi at AWS and Feroz Shiekh at Syngenta. 

If I had to summarize, every member of the panel was eager to say that generative AI represents a dramatic shift in the capabilities we have to actually make data valuable. Or to use the cliche term “to turn data to insights”. 

But what exactly is generative AI? And what is so dramatically different about it? Is this just filling the need to have another “big new thing” that will potentially not live up to the excitement like agtech has developed a reputation for? Those are the questions I wanted to ask at World Agri-Tech, and will seek to help answer for you in this episode. 

SWAT MAPS: https://swatmaps.com/

Follow Paul Sullivan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SullivanAgro

These 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, 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. 

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.php

I 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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

And the guy who started it all is today’s guest, Pablo Borquez. 

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/sftw

Work 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. 

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. 

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. 

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 Technology

This 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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

Variable Rate done RIGHT with SWAT MAPS: https://swatmaps.com/

Cquesta website: https://cquesta.com/

FOA 200: Drones for Spraying, Seeding, and Pollinating with Rantizo

Michael 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.  Michael is also the Founding CEO and Board Member at Rantizo, the nation's largest drone-spraying company. 

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.  Michael has a Master's degree in Chemistry from the University of Iowa and two decades worth of experience in finance and agriculture.  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. 

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, Spotify

FOA 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. 

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. 

“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  and operate their own greenhouse farms. 

“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.” 

This focus on quality and the latest in technology has some thought-provoking insights on the path forward. 

“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. 

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. 

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&t=273s

Scientists 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.  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 Podcast

Other Resources Mentioned:

Other Podcasts Tim is Involved With (Spotify Links):

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.farm

FOA 180: The Journey of an AgTech Entrepreneur with Colin Hurd of Smart Ag

Software is Feeding The World

Upstream Ag Insights

Marc 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&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.

 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. 

Put AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/

Texas A&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&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&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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

Other Resources:

Put AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/

Rhishi Pethe's Software Is Feeding The World Newsletter: https://www.rhishipethe.com/sftw

Verdant 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. 

“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 Garner

Automation 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. 

“If you're a grower and you're looking at  an implement that isn't software defined, you should really rethink the way that you're evaluating the long term viability of the equipment  on your farm. Because you want implements that will only increase in value to your operation the longer that you own them.” - Brent Shedd

Curtis 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&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. 

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. 

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. 

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 & Resources from Stanford University. 

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-acquisition

The 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. 

"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. 

"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. 

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. 

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. 

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/advancingecoag

Regenerative Agriculture Podcast: https://regenerativeagriculturepodcast.com/

John Kempf on Twitter: https://twitter.com/realJohnKempf

Today’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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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 Nash

Farming Without The Bank Podcast

Mary 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. 

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,  “wouldn’t it be nice if we could be our own bank and keep more of that money for ourselves?” 

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. 

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. 

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 Twitter

FoA 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-farmwave

Today'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 Hager

FoA 325: Electrified and Distributed Fertilizer Production with Nico Pinkowski of Nitricity

FoA 337: Synthetic biology for nature-based and data-driven farming with Travis Bayer and Adam Litle of Sound Agriculture

FoA 348: Investing in the Future of Fertilizer with Sarah Nolet of Tenacious Ventures

FoA 370: [History of Agriculture] William J Morse, the Father of the US Soybean Industry

We 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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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-taylor

Claire 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. 

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. 

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. 

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 Hebert

FoA 303: Implementing a Farm Operating System with Kristjan Hebert

Evan 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 & 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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

If you weren’t a wannabe investment geek in college like I was, let me give you some biographical background. 

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&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. 

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. 

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.

Steven Brockshus is the CEO and Founder of TERVA, an online real estate marketplace dedicated to empowering farmland professionals with knowledge, insights, and data. They aim to build a marketplace not only to educate, but to also connect with people looking to buy and sell farmland. He aims to bring the agricultural real estate industry online to shift the industry and how people interact and think about farmland.

In this episode, Steven shares his story on how he started TERVA as well as the moments and people in his life that inspired him to do so. He talks about what it can do now and what it sets to do for farmers in the future, and why TERVA is a great resource for those planning to retire on the countryside.

  “Disruption in the ag context is different than a disruption in a Silicon Valley or social media based business.”– Steven Brockshus

  This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: 

Resources Mentioned:

Connect with Steven Brockshus:

We Are a Part of a Bigger Family! 

The Future of Agriculture Podcast is now part of the Farm and Rural Ag Network. Listen to more ag-related podcasts by subscribing on iTunes or on the Farm and Rural Ag Network Website today. 

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 iTunes and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! 

Learn more about AgGrad by visiting: 

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Dr. Peter Ballerstedt is a Doctor of Animal Nutrition and is an expert in forage and ruminant nutrition in agriculture. He stepped out of the agriculture industry for some time and ventured in the tech world for many years. He came back because he realized a fantastic source of health could be found through leveraging animal agriculture, specifically ruminants. A stern believer in grass-based animal nutrition, Peter calls this – the potential of ruminants to lead the way towards healthier diets - the Ruminant Revolution.  

In this episode, Peter discusses what his Ruminant Revolution is all about. He addresses the need for ruminants and why it’s one of the best sustainable options to support an ever-growing human population. He also dives in on some facts regarding cultivable lands and current innovations in the ruminant agriculture industry.

  “Our grassland resources are our largest and least well-utilized resource that remains.”– Dr. Peter Ballerstedt

  This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: 

Resources Mentioned:

Connect with Dr. Peter Ballerstedt:

We Are a Part of a Bigger Family! 

The Future of Agriculture Podcast is now part of the Farm and Rural Ag Network. Listen to more ag-related podcasts by subscribing on iTunes or on the Farm and Rural Ag Network Website today. 

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 iTunes and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! 

Learn more about AgGrad by visiting: 

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Charles Baron is the Co-Founder of Farmers Business Network, an idea conceived by farmers for farmers. The company aims to gather unbiased and objective information with regards to agronomics and commodities. The idea is to pool available data from individual farmers, so every farmer in their network would benefit from them. The company started three years ago with just 3-4 farms, but through word of mouth and good service, they now have close to 4,700 farms within their network. Charles and his team plan on ultimately expanding his reach outside the U.S. and continue to improve their data interpretation and gathering services.

In this episode, Charles explains the idea behind Food Business Network, what drove him to become a farmer, and the problems farmers face in the U.S. that go unnoticed. He also shares how his company managed to grow their network to what it is now, and their outlook for the future of their company.

  “Farmers Business Network exists to bring benefits back to our farmers using our technology and network.”  – Charles Baron

  This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: 

Resources Mentioned:

Connect with Charles Baron:

We Are a Part of a Bigger Family! 

The Future of Agriculture Podcast is now part of the Farm and Rural Ag Network. Listen to more ag-related podcasts by subscribing on iTunes or on the Farm and Rural Ag Network Website today. 

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 iTunes and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! 

Learn more about AgGrad by visiting: 

Future of Agriculture Website

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Mike Neal is the Co-Founder and CEO of DecisionNext, a company that utilizes and analyzes data in a way that helps companies optimize their decision making. DecisionNext’s business relies on giving clients possible market forecasts in an event of a policy change. Regarded as a serial entrepreneur, Mike is fond of starting new businesses and has focused his entire career on mathematical models and its application to critical business decisions. He has founded plenty of SaaS companies, all of which provided highly focused analytics to business users.

In this episode, Mike shares what DecisionNext is all about and how it can help the agricultural industry. He also provides insight on the importance of recognizing patterns in today’s market as well as his thoughts on the future of agriculture.

  “Having a rigorous view matters as long as it's monetized through optimizing the forward position on the buy side or the sell side.”  – Mike Neal

This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: 

Connect with Mike Neal:

We Are a Part of a Bigger Family! 

The Future of Agriculture Podcast is now part of the Farm and Rural Ag Network. Listen to more ag-related podcasts by subscribing on iTunes or on the Farm and Rural Ag Network Website today. 

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 iTunes and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! 

Learn more about AgGrad by visiting: 

Future of Agriculture Website

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David Norman is the Senior Vice President of Investments Programs at Heifer International, a company that promotes a “pay it forward” approach to sustainable agriculture. Their mission is to end world hunger and poverty while also taking care of the planet by working with communities. This approach seems to be a great answer to the issue of food security and sustainability, as Heifer is driven by the “teach a man to fish” philosophy which ensures the families they help are all able to contribute to eradicating world hunger.

In this episode, David explains what Heifer International is all about, it’s humble beginnings, and its mission. He also shares the different challenges they face with every program as well as some of the successes that made it all worthwhile.

  “You basically want markets to compete for your products.”  – David Norman

  This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: 

Connect with David Norman:

We Are a Part of a Bigger Family! 

The Future of Agriculture Podcast is now part of the Farm and Rural Ag Network. Listen to more ag-related podcasts by subscribing on iTunes or on the Farm and Rural Ag Network Website today. 

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 iTunes and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! 

Learn more about AgGrad by visiting: 

Future of Agriculture Website

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Andry Andriankaja is an agronomist that specializes in the field of plant biotechnology. Carl Andre is the research manager for the EPA-DHA Canola project at the BASF Plant Science Department who studied how plants convert simple sugars to oil as well as plant lipid metabolism.  They are working together on a big project in biotechnology that will innovate the way we eat and provide our body with nutrients: making the typical canola plant naturally produce EPA and DHA, two types of Omega 3 fatty acids.

We all know what Omega 3 fatty acids are and what they can do for the body, but we’re often forced to either eat their food sources or buy fish oil supplements. What if we can consume omega 3 fatty acids in products we're already eating? Andry and Carl are now working on that answer and have been working on it for the past 10 years. 

In this episode, Andry and Carl discuss their big project, why they chose the canola plant as their host, and what it took for them to get this far. They also discuss  their vision with regards to the importance of plant biotechnology in the near future.

  “We pride ourselves to create chemistry for a sustainable future.”  – Andry Andriankaja

  This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: 

Connect with Andry and Carl:

We Are a Part of a Bigger Family! 

The Future of Agriculture Podcast is now part of the Farm and Rural Ag Network. Listen to more ag-related podcasts by subscribing on iTunes or on the Farm and Rural Ag Network Website today. 

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 iTunes and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! 

Learn more about AgGrad by visiting: 

Future of Agriculture Website

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Joe Swartz is the Vice President of Commercial Sales and Technical Support at American Hydroponic, a.k.a AmHydro. AmHydro is a small company in the United States that designs and builds innovative hydroponic systems, a soil-free way to grow plants, and have been doing so for the last 30 years. Joe Swartz himself came from a family of farmers and started researching the science of hydroponics when he saw the traditional methods of farming were no longer paying the bills during the real estate boom of the late 80s.

After purchasing the family farm from his father, Joe put his formal education and passion in agriculture to good use and invested time and money into researching and experimenting with different hydroponics system operations. Some said he was a genius, some called him otherwise. Regardless, with hydroponics AmHydro has slowly and steadily made a huge and growing impact towards preserving the environment. 

In this episode, Joe tells us all about hydroponics, its advantages and disadvantages, why hydroponics farming is still farming, and how to turn it into a profitable business.

  “The real issue is that we have a need to be able to put agricultural production in areas not necessarily suitable for agricultural production.”  – Joe Swartz

This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: 

Connect with Joe Swartz:

We Are a Part of a Bigger Family! 

The Future of Agriculture Podcast is now part of the Farm and Rural Ag Network. Listen to more ag-related podcasts by subscribing on iTunes or on the Farm and Rural Ag Network Website today. 

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 iTunes and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! 

Learn more about AgGrad by visiting: 

Future of Agriculture Website

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Jack Gilmore is the owner and head chef of the famous Jack Allen’s Kitchen in Austin, Texas. More than good food and service, Jack Allen’s Kitchen is known for being a pioneer in what we call the “Farm to Table.” According to Jack, at least 80% of every food on his menu is locally sourced. He first got into cooking when he was 15 and taught himself how to cook when he was working part time in a restaurant. By the time he was 18, he realized school wasn’t his thing so he decided to get married and start a family.

Jack knew how to cook, so he figured he could make a living out of it. He worked for other people and was able to work with incredible chefs, until he grew tired of working for someone else and decided to start his own restaurant. From cooking for a decent wage to actually owning his own restaurant chain, he has come a long way.

On today’s episode, Jack talks about how he started his restaurant business, what made him choose to buy from local farmers as much as possible, and the logistics involved in running a locally-sourced restaurant. He also his thoughts on the future generation of farmers.

  “I don't tell anybody we're a 100% local, I tell them we're as local as we can be.”  – Jack Gilmore

  This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: 

Check Out Jack Gilmore Across the Net: 

We Are a Part of a Bigger Family! 

The Future of Agriculture Podcast is now part of the Farm and Rural Ag Network. Listen to more ag-related podcasts by subscribing on iTunes or on the Farm and Rural Ag Network Website today. 

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 iTunes and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! 

Learn more about AgGrad by visiting: 

Future of Agriculture Website

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Spencer Stensrude is a business analyst for Ag Ventures Alliance, a company that invests in startups aimed to support and innovate the agricultural industry. The company itself was formed by farmers in Iowa in the late 90s. One of their latest investments is a company called SwineTech and is headed by Matthew Rooda. As the name implies, SwineTech is a company focused on innovating the swine industry, and right now its focus is on preventing sows from crushing their piglets.

On today’s episode, Spencer and Matthew talk about how they met, what their companies are all about, and how they started working together. They also share their prediction for the agricultural industry in the future and one of the biggest issues in the pork industry and how it’s affecting the economy.

  “We are happy the company making money and sending us a check vs having to sell the company to someone else to pay back the investors.”  – Spencer Stensrude

This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: 

Check Out Spencer Stensrude Across the Net: 

Check Out Matthew Rooda Across the Net: 

We Are a Part of a Bigger Family! 

The Future of Agriculture Podcast is now part of the Farm and Rural Ag Network. Listen to more ag-related podcasts by subscribing on iTunes or on the Farm and Rural Ag Network Website today. 

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 iTunes and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! 

Learn more about AgGrad by visiting: 

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Aidan Connolly has been with Alltech for 27 years and is currently its Chief Innovation Officer (CIO). Alltech is a company that helps farmers feed the world, raise healthy animals, and protect the environment. He works with the company’s research department focused on developing nutrition-based technologies that will capitalize on insights gained through Alltech’s investment in nutrigenomics. Aidan’s main tasks as CIO is to spearhead Alltech’s projects in multiple facets of the agricultural industry, make sure they’re always on the cutting edge when it comes to current technology, as well as incorporating new technologies into how food is produced in the future.

On today’s episode, Aidan shares how he became Alltech’s CIO and how the company decides which innovation to invest in. He also explains the disruptive technologies that will greatly affect the agricultural industry in the near future.

“Brain power and imagination are going to be very important in terms of the roles we play.” – Aidan Connolly

This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:

Alltech's views on disruptive technology. How they strategically decide when to invest in an innovation. What is the Pearse Lyons Accelerator? The 8 potentially disruptive technologies. Is artificial Intelligence something humans should worry about? How he prepares his children for the future. Since 2009, TOP US food and beverage companies have lost an equivalent of $18 billion of market shares. How does this affect agriculture? Can the "local food" movement scale? How should we balance thinking about innovations and our busy lives?

Mentioned in this episode:

ONE18 Conference Humans Need Not Apply Video

Check Out Aidan Connolly Across the Net:

Alltech LinkedIn Twitter

We Are a Part of a Bigger Family!

The Future of Agriculture Podcast is now part of the Farm and Rural Ag Network. Listen to more ag-related podcasts by subscribing on iTunes or on the Farm and Rural Ag Network Website today.

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 iTunes and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots!

Learn more about AgGrad by visiting:

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Do we take basic decision making for granted? Do we just assume that our practices in the past should be our practices in the future? Using data based information, there may be ways to become more efficient and productive while saving money and resources.

Dr. Curt Livesay from Dynamite Ag is one of those people who questions basic assumptions. He focuses on agronomy or soil management and crop production. He has been a guest on a past episode, but we mostly discussed the cannabis industry.

Today, Dr. Curt Livesay shares his data based process especially around the subject of nitrogen use. We look at nitrogen efficiency and getting the desired amount of nutrients without creating waste. We also talk with Scott Wettstein, a farmer from Lidgerwood, North Dakota. If you like thinking for yourself, this is a great episode for you. 

"When we test and find products that actually work, we take those on and promote them to our growers." – Dr. Curt Livesay

This Week on the Future of Agriculture Podcast:

Check Out Dynamite Ag & Dr. Curt Livesay & Scott Wettstein Across the Net:

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 iTunes and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! 

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There was a time when people found a job and stayed there for most of their working lives. Those times are in the past with modern statistics saying that 67% of employees leave a first job within the first 2 years. Having a job that is a good fit is not only important for employer cost savings, but it also makes a difference in the employee’s happiness.

Bob Broeckelman was interested in agribusiness right out of high school. He has been an FAA officer and advisor, an ag teacher, and is recently retired after 33 years working in the Farm Credit system.  He understands the importance of human capital and why it's important for people to understand and find what is the right fit for themselves.

Today, we talk about tools used to create profiles and questions to create good matches for people and jobs. We also talk about how this method helps the employer and employee.

"We were trying to do the students a favor by putting them in the right jobs." - Bob Broeckelman

This Week on the Future of Agriculture Podcast:

Check Out Bob Broeckelman Across the Net:

Share the Ag-Love! 

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Tim@AgGrad.com

Grasslands and grazing cattle go hand in hand. Yet, grazing cattle can be a complex process with things like dynamic business practices, the ecology of the grasses, and the biology of the animal all needing to be considered. Grass-fed beef and other grass-fed agricultural products are also fueling the modern-day demand for pastures and grazing opportunities.

I recently came across a business that is trying to solve issues associated with pasture management and cattle grazing. Christine Su is the co-founder and CEO of PastureMap, a platform that collects data on different areas that are being used for grazing. It helps build on that data to help with making informed decisions on the entire process.

Byron Palmer is a livestock rancher who grazes cattle in Sonoma County. He is one of the people doing the work and putting future agricultural ideas into practice. He is the owner of Grounded Grasslands. Byron grazes cattle for farmers and manages pastures. Today, I talk with Christine about PastureMap, and with Byron about how he uses the software.

“We have a lot of respect for the tradition of planned grazing and the emotional component, so we follow adaptive planned grazing methodology very closely.” - Christine Su

This Week on the Future of Agriculture Podcast:

Check Out PastureMap & Christine Su & Byron Palmer Across the Net:

Share the Ag-Love! 

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What do you think about an all-expenses-paid trip around the world for six months to learn about agriculture? Does it sound too good to be true? It is too good, but it is also true. This adventure is made possible through Nuffield scholarship. Today’s guest, Mat Hocken, is a husband, father, dairy farmer from New Zealand, and a Nuffield Scholar who has travelled globally to research on his chosen topic of specialization - agricultural innovation.

Mat joins me today to share the details of this amazing scholarship program that’s been created for the advancement of agriculture in a global aspect. He gives an overview of the life of a Nuffield scholar and its new international scholarship program. He also shares how this can influence your view of the world and the agricultural industry.

“I think I’ve learned a lot from just observing what you do [in the US]. [Innovation] is also a cultural context.”  – Mat Hocken

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Today’s guests allow us to look at agricultural technology and entrepreneurship from two different perspectives. Kevin Heikes is part of the IN10T, a digital agricultural company that created Farmer Trials. Farmer Trials is a platform that connects people who have new ideas and want to test them on real farms. These people get to work with real farmers who have the skill and resources to assess whether these ideas solve real problems that farmers face.

Also with me is Kyle Morrow, a farmer in Indiana who is currently a customer of Farmer Trials. Kyle shares his experience working with the company and allows us to look at matters from a practical approach since one of the goals of the program is to see things from different lenses.

Today, we see that all new and innovative agricultural technology is nothing until tested and proven effective on the farm. Kevin shares how art and science are combined as a growth strategy used by Farmer Trials; the communication process among the farmer, the ag entrepreneur, and Farmer Trials; and when entrepreneurs can approach Farmers Trials if they have new insights and project proposals.

“Having something like Farmer Trials where they can try multiple things within a given year accelerate the learning curve to utilizing the data.” - Kyle Morrow

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While having guests and learning from people with different perspectives are the typical setup of this show, stopping to reflect on the things that have been discussed and talked about is an excellent way of seeing the learning, growth, and future direction of the program. With this said, today, I’m going to deviate from my normal program flow to look back and see where the journey has taken us.

Today, I’m going to talk about the five big takeaways I have learned from the first 60 episodes of the Future of Agriculture podcast. I also explain how these five big things determine the direction and content of the program.

Agriculture should be looked at from as many different lenses as possible. That’s where we’re going to get the ideas.

This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:

Mentioned in This Episode:

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Peter Schott grew up in a family with technologically inclined parents who used computers on their farm even from way back in 1984. Because of this, Peter's curiosity on the possibilities that technology can bring in solving agricultural problems grew. As a result, Peter and another guy from his college dorm decided to work together on offering solutions through mobile apps by establishing their own company called Myriad Mobile.

Today, Peter talks about the significant role that mobile apps play in the future of agriculture and the solution of current agricultural problems. He shares some excellent insights from two different perspectives - one from that of a farmer’s and the other of an entrepreneur. He also explains the significance of knowing your audience, your vision, and the problem you want to solve when thinking of a good app to pursue.

“I think the industry is best served if people spend more time listening to their customers and working alongside them rather than telling them what they need.”  – Peter Schott

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Today’s episode is a continuation of a two-part series on why you should teach agriculture. In the previous episode, Dr. Daniel Foster, an educator at Pennsylvania State University, shared his insights about agriculture and agricultural education on a national scale. Dr. Foster not only makes a difference in the lives of young people, but also trains teachers who want to make a difference in the agricultural education outside the country.

Dr. Foster joins me today as he talks about agriculture and agricultural education on an international scale. He shares how he tried to help establish agricultural education in Guatemala and the inspiring story when Dr. Foster and his team of agricultural instructors had an intercultural agriculture trip to Korea.

“It’s okay to be scared but saddle up anyway because there’s a young person in this world, there’s a young person in America that needs you.”  – Dr. Daniel Foster

This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:

Questions Ag Businesses Should Ask Ag Programs:

Where are the ag programs around me? What do you have going on? Where do you need assistance and help? How can we help?

Check Out Dr. Daniel Foster Across the Net:

Join our National Teach Agriculture Campaign!

As a primary supporter of the agricultural network, BASF proudly sponsors the National Teach Agriculture Campaign, a movement with a mission to raise awareness about the need to recruit and retain qualified and diverse agricultural teachers.

If you are interested in making a lasting impact in developing the future leaders of agriculture, visit NAAE.org for more details.

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Daniel Foster is a proponent of agricultural literacy and is currently an Agricultural Teacher Educator at The Pennsylvania State University. He credits his mother for his love for the industry which all started when his mom decided to move out of Texas to Arizona to further her career in agriculture. He was just 15 going 16 at the time and was a starter on his school’s football team, so he considers this part of his life as a fun transition.

In Arizona, he decided to pursue a degree in agriculture and continue his studies until he eventually got his doctorate at Ohio State. To this day, he recalls never really wanting to teach agriculture. That is until February of his senior year as a student teacher. It was then he realized he wanted to keep doing this, teaching young minds about the importance and future of agriculture, for the rest of his life.

On today’s episode, Daniel talks about how his mom inspired him to pursue agricultural studies, why he decided to become a student teacher, the importance of Ag literacy, and his thoughts on Ag Educators. 

  “It's a lot more fun helping a kid discover what they have inside through agriculture than it is trying to twist the arm of an elected official to recognize the importance of our industry.”  – Dr. Daniel Foster 

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We Are a Part of a Bigger Family! 

The Future of Agriculture Podcast is now part of the Farm and Rural Ag Network. Listen to more ag-related podcasts by subscribing on iTunes or on the Farm and Rural Ag Network Website today. 

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Today’s guest grew up in Mariposa, California and has viewed the world from different lenses as a youth through the 4-H Youth Program. Marcus Hollan attributes his distinctiveness and success to his involvement in such programs when he was younger which allowed him to embrace the diversity of others and understand the importance of inclusion in a community. Marcus is one of the founders of the Cultivating Change Foundation, an organization that elevates and values the LGBTQ community within the agriculture industry.

In today’s episode, Marcus talks about the roles that diversity, inclusion, equality, and equity play in the workplace - especially in agriculture. As the chief learning officer of Studio 5, Marcus also shares the organization’s goals, the business case for promoting agriculture, and how the corporate equality index has become a significant tool to know more about how open a company is to embracing racial, cultural, religious, and gender orientation differences.

“There is also power in recognizing our differences; in celebrating and honoring who we are.”  – Marcus Hollan

This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:

Join us at the 2017 Cultivating Change Summit!

On June 21 to 23, the third annual Cultivating Change Summit will take place in Sacramento, California. Learn from the excellent speakers, fantastic workshop presenters, and the 8-people panel that will tackle the future of agriculture through the lens of diversity and inclusion as they come up with plans of actions as to how we can better serve the agriculture industry.

Be a part of history-in-the-making by checking out Cultivating Change Website today!

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Coley Jones Drinkwater belongs to a third-generation family of farmers who tend to and sustain the Richlands Dairy Farm in Blackstone, Virginia. Richlands Farm has been a dairy farm since the 1950s. Coley’s story makes you see life in agriculture from different perspectives - a multigenerational angle, a sustainability angle, and an entrepreneurship angle.

On today’s episode, Coley talks about the inspiring story of how her grandparents started and pursued the farm as they relied on agriculture in raising and sending their five children to college. She also explains how she and her family decided not to sell the farm during one of its trying times with the challenges, pressures, and sacrifices she and her family made to keep the farm and pursue their own creamery in spite of the denial of her initial proposal.

“I hope in building the creamery that maybe that is something that I can do for someone else’s family as well where you can just come, get some ice cream. Sit on the porch. Just breathe and take a moment to be together as a family because that to me is really what makes farming worth all the sacrifice.”  – Coley Jones Drinkwater

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We Are a Part of a Bigger Family!

The Future of Agriculture Podcast is now part of the Farm and Rural Ag Network. Listen to more ag-related podcasts by subscribing on iTunes or on the Farm and Rural Ag Network Website today.

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Today’s guest is an independent movie producer from New York City. Sam Goldberg grew up in Manhattan without any background in agriculture. He was introduced to agriculture when a filmmaker approached him for a concept about grain entrapment, a real and grave danger that farmers and other members of the community are exposed to. Seeing the significance of the issue socially, Sam currently is raising funds for the operation and completion of the movie titled Silo The Film.

On today’s episode, Sam talks about the progress he and his team have made in the production of Silo. He also shares why he thinks this movie is socially relevant and his stand on why he wanted to pursue this film in spite of the timespan they need to devote to complete it. He also mentions some of the things that Sam and his team are currently working on like fund-raising, casting, and searching for the right location to shoot the movie.

“This, to me, represents a potential bridge for conversation where a segment of the population can be humanized in such a way that is relatable to anybody.”  – Sam Goldberg

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We Are a Part of a Bigger Family!

The Future of Agriculture Podcast is a part of a network called Farm and Rural Ag Network. Listen to more ag-related podcasts by subscribing on iTunes or on the Farm and Rural Ag Network Website today.

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Joining us on today’s episode of Future of Agriculture Podcast are two educators who are making an impact in the agricultural industry by engaging the youth and influencing the future workforce of agriculture. Our first guest, Seth Heinert, is an Agricultural High School teacher in Ogallala, Nebraska who started a rural program two years ago. Beverly Flatt is a program manager who works with city schools called Academies of Nashville in Tennessee helps students discover the passion they would like to pursue after high school.

Seth and Beverly share two different programs and approaches as they cater to students from diverse backgrounds and regions. Seth shares some fascinating stories about his classroom experiences in western Nebraska and the reasons why he’s so passionate about pursuing rural education and instilling in his students a love for agriculture. Beverly identifies the agriculture programs they offer in urban education. She also mentions that for the urban students, their exposure to the amount of technology used in the agricultural sector play a significant role in generating interest in the students.

“I think agricultural education plays a huge role in getting kids engaged in their rural communities.”  – Seth Heinert

“Just giving students an experience and an opportunity to get involved in agriculture is often the only thing we need to do to sell them on making this an industry and a passion for life.” – Beverly Flatt

This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:

We are a Part of a Bigger Family!

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Millennials are making waves in many of today’s business and career industries – and the agriculture industry is no exception. This week, I’m speaking with Mikayla Sullivan, co-founder and “Ringleader of Regal Operations” at Kinosol. Her team of millennials – many of which are fresh out of college – are on a mission to solve one of the world’s biggest problems – world hunger – through agriculture technology.

Kinosol uses dehydration techniques that can be used anywhere in the world – due to its solar-power technology – to make food products last longer, to effectively reduce food waste around the world. Currently, Mikayla and her team are focusing on helping people in developing countries reduce food waste and improve their food storage ability in an effort to help end world hunger on a global scale.

Today, she shares the Kinosol mission and how the business idea got started, the interesting way the team generated the initial business capital to continue to grow and scale, and some of the food safety concerns surrounding dehydration – particularly with meat.

“People don’t care what it looks like. It really just matters if it works and if it’s going to improve what they are already doing and save them time down the road.” – Mikayla Sullivan

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Today’s guest is from the Bronx in New York. His journey to agriculture started accidentally while he was dealing with student conflict in his class. From zero agricultural background, Stephen Ritz created a system – a whole school program that changed how the students, the parents, and the community view agriculture. This program, called Green Bronx Machine, is more than about educating his students about farming. Stephen sees it as a way to solve real problems in the community like lack of student engagement in school, poor education, and poor health including unequal opportunities for the disadvantaged.

On today’s episode, Stephen talks about the effects and benefits of Green Bronx Machine to the students and the community as a whole. He shares how he integrates growing food with academics. Stephen also elaborates on one of the goals of the program’s model, which is not about a “me” mentality, but a “we” mentality. This outlook is about people everywhere working together in achieving the goal of making wise choices, living healthy, and personal and community development. He is encouraged to see the outcome as his students are empowered to make healthy choices as a result of instilling child wellness and mindfulness in them.

“When we teach our children about nature, we teach them to nurture. And when we teach children to nurture, we as a society collectively embrace our better nature. And that’s what this work is about.” – Stephen Ritz

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Today’s guest is my close friend, James Garner. He is a partner in a company called Cogent Communications that does public affairs work in agriculture and agricultural businesses in Sacramento, California. For ten years, he has been a part of a band called Johnny Cash Tribute Band, where he is the group’s manager and front man. On top of these varied roles, James has also been doing drag racing with his dad. James’ father has been a part of a drag racing team as a racer for years.

On today’s episode, James talks about the significant changes that occurred in his life when he started Cogent Communications with his colleague, together with the ideal clients they work with. He also points out the strong suits that have kept them on top of their game, which are understanding the issues on the farm and coherently communicating these matters to the board (local, supervisory, or regulatory). James also elaborates on what currently seems to be a mild concern, but can be a hot one in the future because of its impact at the farming level – the Food Safety Modernization Act.

“We try to be cogent in all our communications – clear, logical, convincing.” – James Garner

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Women have been part of agriculture since the beginning of time. Today’s guest is passionate about showing how the roles of women have progressed and increased in this field. Born and raised in Iowa, Marji Guyler-Alaniz studied Graphic Journalism and Photography in college. Recently, she had a lot of surprises and transitions in her life in a span of only four years – from insurance to photography to owning a company and being a TV hostess. Today, Marji is the president of Farmher, a company that came about as a result of her passion in shining the light on women in agriculture.

On today’s episode, Marji recounts the Super Bowl advertisement that inspired her to start capturing images of women in agriculture. She shares the exciting story of how she built her brand from scratch and how Farmher has progressed from a hobby to a brand with a regular TV show. She also narrates the quick progression of her journey with Farmher, talks about her mission and vision, and points out her considerations when making decisions.

“I started it with a premise of shine me a light on the role that women play in agriculture through photographs and help to update the image of agriculture with those photographs.” – Marji Guyler-Alaniz

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Today’s guest grew up in Grass Valley, California. Sara Hollenbeck lives with her husband on a ranch in Molt, Montana called the Hollenbeck Ranch. Together with her husband and in-laws, Sara manages a sheep operation in Molt on top of many other diverse things they do on the farm.

On today’s episode, Sara talks about an unfamiliar topic to many – sheep operation. She discusses the necessary tasks and human resources it takes to keep the operation running smoothly. She also shares who Totes MaGoats is, how her lamb company was born, and how she was able to open the community to eating lamb.

“The people I’m focused on are the ones that are interested, or curious even, about where their food is coming from or how their food is being raised.” – Sara Hollenbeck

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Today’s guest is a scientist, researcher, and the founder of Dynamite Ag – a sales and consulting company founded in 2012. Growing up in a Christian household, Dr. Curtis Livesay was told not to do drugs, to research about it. This pursuit of knowledge led him to acquire a Ph.D. in interpersonal communication and research methods. It is also the heart of his company – to do great research and disseminate good and useful information.

On today’s episode, Dr. Curtis shares his knowledge, experience, and viewpoints about a variety of topics such as critical agronomic problems, lies fed to farmers, and specific ways to deal with particular agronomic concerns.

“Don’t just try something different, but pay attention to where you put it.” – Dr. Curtis Livesay

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On today’s episode of Future of Agriculture Podcast, my guest is an engineer by who was born in Nebraska and grew up as a city kid in Omaha. Russ Conser eventually fell in-love with energy which started his decades-long career in Shell Oil where he learned more about oil, gas, and carbon. You may be surprised to hear that the knowledge and experience Russ gained in this industry eventually led him to his present venture in the field of agriculture.

Russ Conser is the CEO of Standard Soil, a company that uses adaptive multi-paddock grazing to grow grass-fed beef at scale. He spent the last 15 years in innovation and investing in pioneering startups that produce revolutionary and edgy outputs and results. A writer, speaker, investor, and game-changer, Russ talks about Standard Soil’s business model, its difference from other tech startups, the positive environmental impact it brings, and a lot more.

“I tend to think of agriculture really as the biological solar energy business in the world of farmers and ranchers.” – Russ Conser

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Additional Resources Mentioned in Today’s Episode

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AgTech has experienced quite a boom over the years. There is no question that innovation can boost tremendous improvements in the Agriculture industry. And like me, many Agriculture professionals and business owners are curious and eagerly awaiting the next big thing from AgTech.

Louisa Burwood-Taylor is currently at the heart of the AgTech industry as the Chief Editor of AgFunderNews.com. She was originally a financial journalist and was privileged to shift to AgTech just when the industry started gaining significant progress.

In today’s show, Louisa shares her experience in AgTech, along with invaluable entrepreneurial advice, insight and a glimpse of what is to come in the industry.

“Agriculture is the least digitized industry in the world, which is pretty concerning because it is one of the most essential industries in our daily lives.”

This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:

Resources Mentioned

Reach out with Damian Mason:

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Subscribe now to join the community and gain access to our robust content library and grow your network by connecting to other industry players.

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Food waste is a major issue in the United States, as well as the world. Research shows that about 97% of food wasted in the United States ends up in landfills and the less than 3% of waste that doesn’t see a landfill is being utilized in other commodities such as compost, black soldier fly larvae, and other methods. That means that approximately 30-40% of the calories available to the human population finds their way into the landfill.

Although the global economy and environment are slowly becoming more aware of the massive issue regarding food waste, it’s still one of the biggest issues plaguing, not only the agriculture industry, but also the global economic, ethical, and environment. Public speaker and author of the book, America’s Waste Land, and founder of Wasted Food joins me today to shed some light on this significant issue, share his thoughts on what the ag industry – as well as consumers in general – can do to increase awareness and make a difference in the world by finding different ways to reduce the amount of food wasted throughout the country.

“Food waste is simply a poor use of resources. To me, it’s being a poor steward of the Earth.” – Johnathan Bloom

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Practical Things Consumers Can Do to Reduce Food Waste:

Connect with Johnathan Bloom:

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On today’s episode of the Future of Agriculture Podcast, my guest is a Purdue graduate who was brave enough to make a career change from being a Turkey breeder in Perdue Farms to sales. Dave Myers shares his journey in farming and how a man changed his perspective when he was taught about the soil and how it can maximize the growth in farming.

As Dave saw the struggles of many growers, he appreciated that with his new career path, he can help growers become more efficient with how they grew their crop. Not only that, he created an online app, Bird Dog, that helps growers market themselves while protecting their reputations at the same time.

“Longevity and being able to put together a long term plan is a huge value for many growers.” – Dave Myers

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On today’s episode of Future of Agriculture Podcast, I have the privilege of talking with the Casey Neistat of Agriculture – Matthew Sligar.  He documents his life in relation to rice farming through video blogging.  He creates artistic videos that are made in engaging and amusing ways.

Matthew is a rice farmer from Gridley, California.  He shared with us today where he got his inspiration and confidence to launch his website Rice Farming TV.  We also talked about some of the episodes on his website that have greatly impacted him, his family, and the community that encourage him to continue and push on.  He looked back and shared with us parts of his life that contributed to the overall productiveness of the videos.

“In 2015, medium grain rice from California won the world’s Best Tasting Rice Award.  So, not only do we grow rice in California, but it’s premium, award-winning quality rice.”  – Matthew Sligar

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I recently had the opportunity to attend a media event held by Monsanto announcing the new project initiatives that the company will be unveiling in 2017. The information, research, and development that this company has invested to bring better technology and products to the agriculture industry is simply amazing.

On this week’s episode, I’m talking with Dr. Shannon Hauf of Monsanto. Dr. Hauf graduated with a background in plant breeding and weed science, then later, she began working at Monsanto where she became experienced in many fields and departments, including pricing, sales, product strategies, and currently leading her own team within the company.

She shares her insight into some of the new products the company will be launching this year, how they hope this new technology will help farmers and others within the agriculture industry, explains what “biologicals” and “digital agriculture” are and why they are important aspects farmers should consider on their farms. She also offers her advice to agriculture graduates on how the market is changing and how they should embrace these changes.

“There’s room for all types of food on the dinner plate.” – Dr. Shannon Hauf

This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:

Connect with Dr. Shannon Hauf:

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 iTunes and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! 

Learn more about AgGrad by visiting: 

AgGrad Website 

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Utilizing Food Waste for Urban Agriculture with Tinia Pina of Re-Nuble

The United States has a shortage of people who want to work in agriculture. We’ve gone from most of the population to only one percent of people working in this industry. There are fewer people with farms and a lack of individuals who want to make long lasting and meaningful careers in agriculture.

There is something we can do about attracting interest in farming, though, such as enticing professionals from other industries to pivot into urban agriculture, like our guest Tinia Pina did. Tinia worked in the financial sector until she learned about the problems that existed related to entrepreneurial opportunities in agriculture. Today she is the founder and CEO of Re-Nuble, a New York City company that converts food waste into organic fertilizer.

 On today’s show, Tinia shares the story of how she established Re-Nuble, and shares her insights about food waste and what it’s like to be a minority entrepreneur in the agriculture industry.

 “The lack of proper nutrition and fresh available food options impacts our future generations.” Tinia Pina

This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:

Mentioned in the Show:

Contact Tinia Pina:

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 iTunes and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots!

Learn more about AgGrad by visiting:

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On today’s episode of the Future of Agriculture Podcast, my guest, Jared Flinn, is the founder and operating partner of Bulk Loads. His site provides an online platform that connects shippers with the transportation companies.

Jared graduated with a minor in agricultural economy, but wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his credentials. He started working as a truck driver and grew to love all the aspects of the industry and eventually moved into shipping logistics in the agriculture sector. His passion for the trade inspired his vision of connecting companies and shippers, and so Bulk Loads was born.

Jared started his venture without knowing whether it would be successful, but he persevered and created a sustainable and profitable business which addressed and solved clients’ pain points. On today’s show, you’ll hear his thoughts, wisdom, and advice about taking ideas and building a business in agricultural and transportation space.

 “You have to have the commodities to trade, but behind that you have to have the efficient supply chain to get it through.” – Jared Flinn

This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:

Mentioned in the Show:

Connect With Jared Flinn:

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 iTunes and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots!

Learn more about AgGrad by visiting:

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This is a good time for reflection on this past year and anticipation of what is to come in 2017, and I’m energized about the potential we have in some of the strategic objectives that we’ll be rolling out here in the coming year. I’m also excited to interview our guest today who came from humble farming beginnings and is now a leader in agri-business and a force in politics.

On today’s episode of the Future of Agriculture Podcast, we have who could very well be our next United States Secretary of Agriculture, Kip Tom.  Whether Kip is nominated or not, he will play an integral role in the leadership of our industry from his home in Indiana, from Washington D.C., or across the water in South America where he has a farming operation. He is passionate about encouraging and motivating our youth to step into the agri-business sector to continue family farming operations.

Kip shares his wisdom, insights, and advice, about this business and you’ll hear how a young man who grew up on his family’s homestead became a passionate advocate of continuing the American dream of keeping family-run farming businesses alive.

 “If there’s one thing you do, work towards succession planning to prepare the next generation to grow your business and sustain it. “  Kip Tom

This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:

Check Out Kip Tom Across the Net:

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 iTunes and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots!

Learn more about AgGrad by visiting:

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On today’s episode of the Future of Agriculture Podcast, I am extremely excited to chat with a guest with whom I have the utmost respect for and who I am in awe of. Dr. Temple Grandin is an author and a professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University who is passionate about agriculture and the people involved in it. Temple has revolutionized the industry with practices she devised and is a highly-regarded internationally known speaker on the subjects of autism and cattle handling.

Temple’s incredible story of overcoming personal and professional challenges to revolutionize the agriculture industry, a sector which is set in its ways, will blow your mind. She is an inspiration to everyone in general and to people who want to break into an industry where they don’t necessarily fit the mold.

Temple brings value, wisdom, and inspiration to today’s show and I’m honored and humbled to interview her. She is passionate about keeping the agriculture industry alive and shares her invaluable advice for those seeking a life in the agricultural sector.

“Students get interested in things they get exposed to.” – Dr. Temple Grandin

This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:

Temple discloses her experiences in the agriculture industry in the 20th century.

She expounds on the ethics of eating animals.

Temple speaks about encouraging all types of careers in the agriculture industry and keep it in the forefront.

She talks about how to best serve people in the industry who are visual learners or thinkers.

She gives you information and advice on autism.

She tells us what she likes most about teaching students.

Temple recounts about her life since the movie about her aired.

She talks about improvements in the agriculture and food processing industry.

Temple tells us about what’s changed in animal handling.

Mentioned in the Show:

National FFA Organization

4-H

Check Out Temple Grandin Across the Net:

Temple Grandin on HBO

Video Tour of Beef Plant Featuring Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin on Ted Talk

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 iTunes and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots!

Learn more about AgGrad by visiting:

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Kevin Heikes is the Founder of In10t.io, an advisory firm dedicated to helping clients solve problems in Agriculture related to technology strategy, product commercialization and digital system design.

Kevin has worked with several start-ups, including FarmLink, where he served as Vice President of Product and Farms Technology where, post acquisition, by DuPont Pioneer he led the integration and product migration to DTN. 

This episode is filled with new ideas, tactics, and anecdotes that will both entertain and inspire anyone interested in the future of agriculture.

Kevin mentions a couple of tools including Full Contact and Product Hunt.

Check out Kevin’s personal website: http://www.kevinheikes.com/ or his company: http://www.in10t.io/.

Thanks for listening!

We really appreciate you taking the time to listen to the Future of Agriculture Podcast. The response has been outstanding. Please feel free to leave a note in the comment section below.

The best way to spread the word about our Podcast is to share your favorite episode using the social media share buttons in the podcast player you are using.

You can also leave a review on iTunes. This helps us spread the word about the people, perspectives, and innovations that provide our future food, clothing, fuel, shelter, and natural resources. We also encourage you to tell any of your friends that are interested in farming, livestock, agribusiness, or AgTech to check out our show!

AgriCorps sends American college graduates and professionals into developing nations to teach agriculture and to build local agricultural communities. The volunteers, known as AgriCorps Fellows, work for one year in countries such as Ghana and Liberia.

Trent shares his perspective on the future of agriculture in Africa, challenges and rewards of agricultural development, and the differences between U.S. and African food production. I agree with his perspective that Africa will grow into a major player in global agribusiness. So do many major corporations, who are rapidly expanding into the region.  

Enjoy Trent’s firsthand experiences and I look forward to hearing your feedback about your perspective on international development and the future of agriculture in Africa. 

Learn more about AgriCorps: https://agricorps.org/join/im-interested-in-more/

Like AgriCorps on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/agricorps/

I encourage you to consider becoming an AgriCorps Fellow or contributing to their crowdfunding campaign!

Thanks for listening!

We really appreciate you taking the time to listen to the Future of Agriculture Podcast. The response has been outstanding. Please feel free to leave a note in the comment section below.

The best way to spread the word about our Podcast is to share your favorite episode using the social media share buttons in the podcast player you are using.

You can also leave a review on iTunes. This helps us spread the word about the people, perspectives, and innovations that provide our future food, clothing, fuel, shelter, and natural resources. We also encourage you to tell any of your friends that are interested in farming, livestock, agribusiness, or AgTech to check out our show!

Dr. Nate Storey holds a PhD in Agronomy and Crop Science from the University of Wyoming. He started his company, Bright Agrotech while completing his graduate studies.

Six years later, Bright Agrotech are leaders in the high density indoor and greenhouse farming industry. They partner with farmers of all sizes to build a fresher, more distributed food system.

Many of you, especially the more entrepreneurial-minded, will really enjoy this episode. Vertical farming holds promises of entry-level farming with low startup costs, good margins, and excellent production per square foot. We often talk about the future of agriculture battling the challenge of producing more food with less land, water, fertilizer, chemicals, and environmental impact. Many of those elements are addressed with vertical farming and mentioned in this episode.

If you’ve often dreamed of being in production agriculture but don’t have land in your family, give this one a listen!

Check out Bright Agrotech’s Website and YouTube Channel.

Thanks for listening! 

We really appreciate you taking the time to listen to the Future of Agriculture Podcast. The response has been outstanding. Please feel free to leave a note in the comment section below.

The best way to spread the word about our Podcast is to share your favorite episode using the social media share buttons in the podcast player you are using.

You can also leave a review on iTunes. This helps us spread the word about the people, perspectives, and innovations that provide our future food, clothing, fuel, shelter, and natural resources. We also encourage you to tell any of your friends that are interested in farming, livestock, agribusiness, or AgTech to check out our show!

According to AgFunder, over $4 billion poured into AgTech investments in 2015. Many times when people think of the recent AgTech craze, their mind immediately goes to drones.

I have been curious about drones for quite some time, both from a "coolness factor" perspective and from the perspective of "what's really that great about them in agriculture?".

I had been looking to bring on a drone expert to the podcast for quite some time, but didn't want someone who would be too technical or would look at it from an impractical angle. One day on Linkedin I came across the article "Applications of UAVs in Agriculture" by Michael Dunn, CCA. I knew I had found my next podcast guest.

Michael is able to talk about drones from the perspective of the farmer and from someone who is trying to help the farmer utilize technology to improve their operation. He is both technically knowledgeable as well as practically sensible about the uses of drones in agriculture, their limitations, and their potential.

I hope you enjoy this interview with Michael Dunn of Anez Consulting.

Connect with Michael on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-dunn-cca-75a64028

Check out Anez Consulting: http://anezconsulting.com/

Thanks for listening!

We really appreciate you taking the time to listen to the Future of Agriculture Podcast. The response has been outstanding. Please feel free to leave a note in the comment section below.

The best way to spread the word about our Podcast is to share your favorite episode using the social media share buttons in the podcast player you are using. 

You can also leave a review on iTunes. This helps us spread the word about the people, perspectives, and innovations that provide our future food, clothing, fuel, shelter, and natural resources. We also encourage you to tell any of your friends that are interested in farming, livestock, agribusiness, or AgTech to check out our show!

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-stanley

Metrics, 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”. 

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®. 

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. 

Peter Miller, CEO & 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 & 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. 

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 Industry

Joining 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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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 tim@aggrad.com is probably the easiest to remember. 

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? 

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.com

INTENT: 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 & 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. 

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. 

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.com

Corteva Agriscience: https://www.corteva.com/

Replenish Nutrients: https://replenishnutrients.com/

Today’s episode features Brian Lutz. Brian leads the Farming Solutions & Digital sub-function within the Research & Development organization for Corteva Agriscience.  In his role, Brian is responsible for the development of digital solutions that support the R&D pipeline and enable Corteva’s business.  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. 

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&D Leadership Team. 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.com

AgGateway: 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. 

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:

They 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.com

Subscribe 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-it

The 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. 

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. 

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.com

Soiltech 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 them

I 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. 

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.com

Trusted 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-a9evon2

Today’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. 

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. 

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. 

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.com

Fyto: 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. 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. 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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.