Future Of Agriculture

Danette Amstein and Michael Uetz are the Principles and Co-Founders of Midan Marketing. Their focus is on being a full-service marketing firm for the meat industry. Both Danette and Michael grew up in agriculture and worked in the National Cattlemen's Beef Association prior to founding Midan Marketing.. Michael specifically worked on identifying “what is the consumer looking for and how do we be responsive to their needs.” They joined forces to create Midan Marketing and further pursue closing the gap between producer and consumer.  “We are working to help our clients rise above all of the clutter that’s in the marketplace, above all the noise so that they can match their products with the consumers out there that are interested in it.” - Danette Amstein Both Danette and Michael credit a lot of their success to having created and curated a good team of people. The team of Midan Marketing is made up of not only marketing specialists but also a staff that are actively farming and therefore better able to rela

The Story of http://covercress.com (CoverCress) isn’t just as straightforward as bringing a new crop to the market. Their ambitions also represent a new feed, a new cover crop, genetic engineering, a low carbon intensity feedstock and a new revenue source for farmers among others. Fulcrum Global Capital saw the potential in CoverCress and return to the show this week to share the excitement surrounding this company. If you missed episode 208 where we first introduced Fulcrum Global be sure to go listen to it. The CoverCress new crop will not compete with current midwestern crops and should provide farmers with a new marketable product.   “They’re going to create this new revenue source for the midwestern farmer. It’s going to go in on the corn soy rotation and you’re going to get the traditional cover crop benefits of which there are numerous but you’re going to get increased profitability.” - John Peryam, Venture Partner and General Counsel for Fulcrum Global   Fulcrum Managing Partner, Duane Cantrell, s

In recent months societies magnifying glass has been held over the existence of systemic racial inequality. It shouldn’t be surprising then, that that conversation can easily be carried on into the agriculture industry. Bryana Clover advocates for racial equality in the workplace as a consultant to companies. Bryana is biracial and through her experiences in agribusiness has found an “intense passion for creating brave spaces to have tough conversations around race in the workplace.”   “I truly believe that our future depends on us bringing that lens into our diversity inclusion initiatives and really better understanding what we can do as organizations to create inclusive environments for black people and people of color.” - Bryana Clover   Bryana helps identify what systemic racism may look like in both agribusiness and agriculture production. She highlights the lack of diversity at the CEO level in the vast majority of companies. She offers these tips towards addressing what an individual can do to com

We do a lot of agtech episodes on this podcast, but I don’t think we’ve had one quite like this. Today’s episode is primarily focused on the area of agtech that includes site-specific agronomic tools that you’d hear referred to as variable-rate or under the umbrella of precision agriculture.   “The agtech industry in general looks pretty glamorous, but it’s a tough, tough business.”   My guest is Cory Willness, the President of CropPro Consulting, which is an agronomy consulting services firm in Western Canada, based in Naicam, Saskatchewan. Started in 2003, the company has grown to 30 employees. Along the way, Cory and his team started to develop digital tools to help them be more successful in their agronomy work. Eventually they started a separate business to offer these tools to others. That business is called Croptomistic Technology.   “The field never changes. The field is always the same. So when we go out to soil test, there is no crop on the field. What we’re sticking the probe into is soil. So

“In a lot of ways ag’s desire to be united is the thing that divides it the most.” - Sarah Mock   Sarah Mock has built her career around having difficult discussions and chasing the realities of agriculture. She is committed to not being an enemy or a cheerleader of agriculture creating a more balanced, real reporting style. In a world of fake news, her journalistic integrity is most welcomed. In an attempt to not isolate any particular views, mainstream agriculture media has historically chosen to offer very little divisive content. Unfortunately for some, that has led to an overall apathy towards having difficult conversations and being willing to go out on a limb.   “I hear people talk about the need to walk down the middle of the road. But walking down the middle of the road means never saying anything critical about the industry. That’s like the code word in ag media a lot of the time and it's a pushback I’ve gotten from editors before.” - Sarah Mock   Rural journalists, while present, tend to be m

https://www.pristinegourmet.com (Pristine Gourmet) was formed in 2005 with the vision of supplying the food industry with quality local non-GMO artisan foods. Jason Persall owns Pristine Gourmet in Waterford, Ontario. He converted his 1000 acre strictly traditional commodity soybean farm to support the three pillars of Pristine Gourmet; heritage, passion and craftsmanship. They produce fresh and unique cooking oils for retail, restaurants and bulk ingredients. The major obstacle faced by Pristine Gourmet was finding shelf space in the supermarkets and somehow making their product stand out. Jason quickly understood that was going to be a perpetual obstacle and so chose to pursue a different strategy. Jason shares that he invested slowly and allowed his business “to grow organically.”   “That was kind of just the beginning of where we are now. Just starting out with chefs and realizing that that is really our focus of where our brand is going to be widely accepted. Chefs just love new products, something tha

Fulcrum Global Capital is a venture capital firm focused on global food production. Traditional row crop agriculture, production animal health and agriculture technology are the main interests of their investment thesis. They often find themselves investing in early stage companies that are “not only early stage in terms of a company’s life cycle, but early in terms of where the technology falls in the value chain of the food production.”   When they initially heard the pitch by P&P Optica Founder Olga Pawluczyk they were impressed. 16 months later they made their investment. P&P Optica addresses “challenges such as the $4 billion annual loss that takes place in the food processing space around foreign material detection.”   “Where we see the long term vision of this company (P&P Optica), is really becoming a data company. The more units a customer will have, call it a Tyson or a Maple Leaf (for example). The more that they have, the more DATA we are able to provide them to make decisions.” - Kevin Locket

Playing with puppies and kittens most of the day and selflessly saving any and all helpless animals in between are the common perception of being a veterinarian that many people pictured as a child. James Herriot painted a beloved picture of adventure and fun that many fell in love with. I’d be remiss to admit that occasionally this does describe the job but unfortunately, the more common reality faced by veterinarians is a lot less rosy.    Dr. Judson Vasconcelos is the head of the Veterinary and Consumer Affairs Team at Merck Animal Health. Merck has committed to performing a study in US veterinarians every few years “to monitor wellbeing and mental health of US veterinarians.” Having practiced as a veterinarian for years in Brazil, Dr. Vasconcelos can not only share the most recent study that illustrates the struggle many veterinarians are facing but also relates to them through his own experiences.   “We want to have a good idea of what’s going on with veterinarians based on the trends that we’ve see

Blockchain. A word that has been overhyped and yet still becoming more realized every day. Bridie Ohlsson joins us and is the Founder of https://www.geora.io (Geora), a protocol for blockchain applications in agriculture. Bridie’s career with blockchain began with AgriDigital when the world was discovering and getting excited about the potential applications of blockchain. Bridie shares what the goals of any blockchain company were at that time.   “So you needed to be kind of an open and fairly non-competitive technology to encourage people to come in and experiment and work together and integrate their systems and share data.” - Bridie Ohlsson   Where AgriDigital provided access to blockchain for producers, Geora was formed to build on that and provide the next step. Geora’s protocol has isolated what data needs to be retained on blockchain and what data while significant to have for logistical reasons does not need to be tied to the product on blockchain. Bridie describes Geora as an “infrastructure” wh

We are going back to the farm today. Zach Johnson, the YouTuber Minnesota Millennial Farmer and Mitchell Hora, farmer and founder of https://continuum.ag (Continuum Ag), join us today. These two co-host the Fieldwork Podcast, “a podcast for farmers, from farmers.” Fieldwork Podcast focuses on sustainable farming practices, their environmental impact and how to make them profitable. For Mitchell, Continuum Ag specifically supplies health data analytics and does consulting for farmers. Mitchell and Zach farm 500 miles apart but find common ground in adopting soil health principles and are enjoying the opportunity to share that with other farmers.   “I think everybody has the opportunity to improve. I think it’s just more so looking outside of the box and looking holistically, but there’s a lot of ways to do this.” - Mitchell Hora   Mitchell draws attention to the fact that being more sustainable can involve different applications of soil health protocols on different operations. This isn’t a call for “one s

Kellee James joins us today to discuss what it takes to build a platform as co-founder and CEO of Mercaris, a market information service and online trading platform for identity preserved agricultural commodities.   “We’re a market data and information service. We are also an online trading platform but we have chosen to focus on a specific part of the ag supply chain, and that is identity preserved ag commodities.” - Kellee James   https://mercaris.com (Mercaris) provides price discovery while allowing customers a procurement tool within a very specific field in agriculture through trades and auctions. Only 15% of their revenue is derived from trading fees. Most of their revenue comes from the sale of data. There is very limited tracking in imports and exports with these specific commodities so creating a data marketplace creates real advantage for their customers as well as a way to connect with vendors who may be interested in their products.   “You’ve got to establish yourself as the marketplace. So

What affect will animal genomics have on the future of agriculture? Dr Jesse Hoff from Gencove joins us today to explain the advantages assessing livestock genomics can offer. Gencove performs genetic sequencing providing half of the animal’s genome. This allows for an avenue to assess the genetic potential of any animal for a breeding program in a rapid, efficient, affordable fashion.   “What we’re trying to capture is what we call the genetic value or sometimes the breeding value of that bull. And that really describes very purely, the genetic component of who they are.” - Dr. Jesse Hoff   Dr. Hoff explains that the genetic value encompasses their “genetic contributions on average to their offspring.” In the dairy industry you might focus on milk production or in beef cattle, the marbling, but neither of those things can be assessed in a bull without evaluating the production or carcass of their offspring.   “Using that genetic data really takes quite a bit of risk out of the process of buying a bull

What does food security mean? We hear about it frequently but this complex category involves much more than just assessing our agricultural capabilities. The main pillars of food security involve food affordability, food availability, food quality, food safety, and natural resource and resilience. One tool for evaluating where companies and governments land is provided in the Food Security Index Report performed by the Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by Corteva. Dana Bolden joins us today from Corteva where he acts as the Global Corporate Communications Leader. He shares the motivation behind creating the Food Security Index Report and the impact it could have.   “We really wanted to put into the mainstream discussions about food security.” - Dana Bolden   Over the years there has been a shift of interest in these annual reports. You now find local governments taking positions on the data and working to increase their rating. Dana shares his optimism about how the data will influence global food

Make sure you listen to FOA 201 with Matthew Pryor. This is some bonus content from that episode where Tim asks Matthew about water issues, policy, and innovation.    Connect with Matthew Pryor https://agthentic.com (AgThentic Website) https://tenacious.ventures (Tenacious Ventures Website) Share the Ag-Love! Thanks for joining us on the Future of Agriculture Podcast – your spot for valuable information, content, and interviews with industry leaders throughout the agricultural space! If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! And be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of ag. Learn more about AgGrad by visiting: https://futureofag.com/ (Future of Agriculture Website) http://aggrad.com/ (AgGrad Website) https://twitter.com/aggradjobs (AgGrad on Twitter) AgGrad on Facebook AgGrad on LinkedIn

Matthew Pryor joins us today as not only a partner in AgThentic, an Australian based food, and ag sustainability and innovation consulting firm, but also as a co-founder of Tenacious Ventures, a food and ag venture capital firm that just closed their first fund of nearly $30 million. As though that wasn’t enough, Matthew has already successfully exited two different startups. To say he has his finger on the pulse of ag innovation, sustainability and company start-ups is putting it mildly.  In this episode, we discuss Matthew’s rise to success from an entrepreneurial point of view beginning with his first company, Observant. Observant is a company that was born from an issue of water management for cattle in remote areas of Australia. Matthew was solving this water management problem with “bespoke micro-electronics” that they were building themselves.   “We were pretty mindful about looking at other industries. And the filter that we wanted everything to pass was why should this be different in ag?” - Matthe

We made it to episode 200! Drones have become a sort of symbol for modern ag technology whether over-hyped or legitimate. Michael Ott, CEO of Rantizo, proves that there is little room to be a drone skeptic anymore. Rantizo uses drones with a ten foot boom sprayer to spray, seed and sometimes even pollinate crops. Their main customers are retailers interested in expanding their territory by virtue of ease of application and mobility of equipment.   “We can get into fields where nobody else can….We’re doing a demo tomorrow, it’s going to be super sloppy and muddy. That’s totally fine. We can get out and apply in those situations.” - Michael Ott   The inputs carried by the drone are tailored to keep its weight below 55 pounds. At this weight, Michael says he “can train pretty much anyone to be an operator” through a 2-3 day course. The drone flies itself requiring the operator to only hold the controller rather than actively maneuver the drone. The light weight does result in multiple trips to refill tanks t

Is it possible to become a rancher when you aren’t born into a land inheritance? Aimee Danch and Jeremiah Stent from Square Mile Ranch join us today to talk about their recent purchase of a 370-acre ranch in Wallowa, Oregon.   Like people buy a fixer-upper home for their first one. We’re buying a fixer-upper ranch for our first one and we feel really excited about (it). -Jeremiah Stent   Both Jeremiah and Aimee have experience managing ranches across and even outside the country. Originally their goal was to manage livestock and land rather than own their own. They planned on being able to “sell semi truckloads of finished animals and get a paycheck.” But the allure of ownership, autonomy, personally contributing to a local community and being able to manage at their own discretion led them to start looking at land for sale. By pursuing services from the Farm Service Agency Joint Financing Program they were able to gain access to operating loans. Pairing that with an individual investor allowed them to ta

    Chris Peacock is the CEO and Founder of AQUAOSO, a company that aims to build a water-resilient future through software and technologies that identify, analyze, and monitor water risk in the economy. Chris is a three-time water tech entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in the water industry. He works with agricultural lenders and helps reduce their financial risk by providing analytics and insights on water risk management.   Chris joins me today to share AQUAOSO’s main goal and how it can help interpret water data that can benefit both banks and farmers. He discusses the importance of knowing where farm water is sourced and how much water they use. He explains why there is an imperative need to address water needs from both an economic and humanitarian perspective. Chris also describes what happens if AQUAOSO becomes a successful company in the future.       “The reality is, extreme water events, degrading water quality, these are all happening. We need to find ways to manage around them

    Mark Kahn is the Managing Partner of Omnivore, an India-based venture capital firm specifically focusing on funding entrepreneurs who are working to advance agriculture and food systems. Before this role, Mark served as the Executive Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at Godrej Agrovet and Strategy Manager of Syngenta. Mark earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and has extensive experience in rural marketing, corporate strategy, product development, research and development, mergers and acquisitions, and new business incubation.   Mark joins me today to discuss his business, Omnivore, and share his insights on the agritech landscape in India. He shares differences between the makeup of the agricultural sectors in India versus the United States, including how the family dynamic plays a role in certain Indian aspects of agriculture such as dairy farming. Mark also explains impact investing, and what Omnivore looks for when it comes to choosing which start-ups to invest in.    

    Sam Watson Jones is a fourth-generation farmer and the co-founder of Small Robot Company, an agri-tech startup firm that specializes in advancing agriculture through artificial intelligence and robotics. Specifically, Small Robot Company uses precision agriculture to promote efficiency over speed. Sam is also a director of his family’s farming, house building, and manufacturing business, Howle Manor Group. Sam joins me today to discuss a different way of looking at precision agriculture and how his brand, Small Robot Company, is making waves in the agricultural industry. He shares some insights on agricultural technology entrepreneurship as well as current trends in agriculture. Sam also highlights how his brand’s technology enables per plant precision agriculture as well as his vision for the future of farming.       “We are not looking to replace the farmer. We are looking for this technology to empower the farmer.” - Sam Watson Jones       This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: