Future Of Agriculture

Andrew Diprose is the CEO at Rootwave, a UK tech startup that aims to provide a sustainable and efficient solution to weed problems by zapping them from the root up. The goal is to reduce weeds without using chemicals which could help solve soil contamination issues. His role is to lead the product and technology department, making sure the technology is safe and effective when it is commercially available in 2020.    Andrew joins me today to discuss Rootwave, what inspired him to start this type of technology, and how it works. He explains the need for clean methods of killing weeds relative to soil health and describes some of the ways this technology is superior to the conventional means of removing weeds in farms. He also shares his prediction of what agriculture will look like in the future.     “Electricides will be a benefit to society. It will better the environment and the health of individuals.” - Andrew Diprose       This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:   What are electricide

Tony Chen is the Co-Founder of Manolin Inc., a new startup in the aquaculture space. Manolin is a software company that aims to accelerate resource sharing between salmon farms as well as prevent and manage sea lice outbreaks through digital health management. Before co-founding Manolin, Tony was developing software for the U.S. government and was only interested in aquaculture as a hobby. His fascination grew to new heights when he discovered how oyster farming works and the plight of its farmers.   Tony joins me today to share his thoughts on aquaculture and why he thinks it’s going to radically change the way we look at agriculture in the near future. He explains what aquaculture is all about, how he believes it can contribute to solving the world food production crisis, and how their company aims to help ocean farmers. He discusses some of the issues of aquaculture and how they tie with the ocean’s current problems. He also describes why they worked with HATCH among other startup accelerators in the ind

 Jim Loar is CEO and President of Cool Planet, an innovations company that seeks to improve upon the current agricultural technologies we have today to facilitate increased profits and crop production at a low cost in a sustainable manner. Jim has over 30 years of experience in the industry and worked with big corporations like Wilbur-Ellis Company and Griffin LLC. He has a Bachelor of Nautical Science from the United States Merchant Marine Academy and obtained his Master's degree in Business administration from Ohio University.   Jim joins me today to discuss his ideas around soil health and why he says it’s the future of agricultural innovations. He explains what soil health is and what exactly makes soil healthy. He introduces a new project called Stories From The Soil and describes its purpose and what he wants it to achieve. Jim also discusses how improving soil health benefits not only the environment but also the economy around the agricultural industry.     “Soil health really is the next evoluti

  Zack James is the Founder of Rabbit Tractors, a team that designs and builds swarm-enabled, compact, and autonomous farm equipment. His company’s aim is to help farmers save time and money while increasing productivity. He has a degree in Finance from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and attended University of Michigan Law School with a focus on corporate governance and securities.   Zack joins me today to share his company’s ideas and solutions when it comes to increasing farm efficiency. He introduces the concept of Rabbit Tractors, describes how they developed the idea and explains how it can improve farm productivity. He also describes how they incorporated autonomy in their technology and how farmers can simply run their machines with smartphones.     “What autonomy will do is let us break the paradox of one farmer driving one tractor at a time.” - Zack James       This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:   What is Rabbit Tractors? How Zack got the inspiration to star

  Pete Nelson is the President and Executive Director of AgLaunch, an agriculture accelerator that supports startups that innovate food and provide sustainable solutions. He has over twenty years of experience as a farmer, writer, consultant, speaker, and entrepreneur emphasizing farm-based innovation technologies and models. He has worked with a variety of public and private sector partners building a support ecosystem for new ag companies.   Pete joins me today to discuss what AgLaunch is about and how they work with new entrepreneurs in the industry. He shares his background and what inspired him to start AgLaunch and explains the problems farmers encounter when choosing which companies to invest in. He also describes the kind of startups they prefer to partner with - especially when it comes to AgTech.     “There is a lack of calibration between what is needed on the farm and the solutions coming forward.” - Pete Nelson       This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:   An overview of wh

    Martin Gross is the Founder and President of Gross-Wen Technologies, a next generation wastewater treatment company that makes use of microalgae to provide a sustainable and efficient alternative to conventional water treatment methods. As President, he has raised over $3 million in Angel and Series A investments, applied for numerous patents, and served as Principal Investigator in non-diluting SBIR grant funding. Martin has a Ph.D. in Agriculture & Biosystems Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Food Science and Technology from Iowa State University.   Martin joins me today to discuss the potential of microalgae in innovating the world’s wastewater treatment industry. He explains how their technology works, what sets it apart from traditional methods, and why he believes their process is sustainable and efficient. He also shares how they grow microalgae and why we shouldn’t worry about the possibility of algae-produced toxicity in water as well as describes how accelerators impacted the growth of his company

  Fatma Kaplan and Cameron Schiller are the founders of Pheronym, an agricultural biotechnology company that develops safe and nontoxic solutions to protect a wide variety of plants. Their flagship product is based on pheromones which is extracted from microscopic roundworms called nematodes. Fatma is Pheronym’s CEO/CSO and is an accomplished scientist with a Ph.D. in Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology and postdoctoral training in Natural Product Chemistry. Cameron is the COO and has extensive experience in entrepreneurship with a bachelor’s degree in economics and a Master of Science degree in pharmacy healthcare management.   Fatma and Cameron join me today to discuss their pheromone-based pesticide and how it can improve the agricultural landscape in the future. They describe the primary problem regarding nematodes, what inspired them to investigate the use of pheromones as a pesticide, and what eventually lead them to make nematodes work for farmers instead of against them. They also explain the scie

  Welcome back to another episode of the Future of Agriculture’s Follow Up Friday series - the segment when we follow up with listener-submitted questions and comments related to their favorite previous episodes of the show.   This week, I highlight https://vilcap.com/ (Village Capital), an accelerator that finds, trains, and invests in leaders and entrepreneurs solving real-world problems. Village Capital’s US Ventures Manager Alex Arrivillaga responds to some of my questions regarding the company’s missions and goals, including what Village Capital is and its background and history as well as what sets them apart from other accelerator programs. Alex also shares what she loves about working with food and ag companies.   Resources & Related Content:   Future of Agriculture 114: Sustainable Plastics for Agricultural Use with Tony Bova and Jeff Beegle of Mobius https://vilcap.com (Village Capital) Alex Arrivillaga LinkedIn Join the Conversation! To get your most pressing ag questions answered

    Jeff Beegle and Tony Bova are the Founders of Mobius, a biotechnology company that envisions to build a future where the world sees organic waste as a valuable resource instead of a burden on the planet. Tony is officially the Chief Executive Officer, and Jeff is the Chief Science Officer. Their current project is a form of biodegradable plastic made from a unique substance found in plants called Lignin. They seek to use their special plastic in various industries such as agriculture, horticulture, and food services.   Jeff and Tony join me today to discuss Mobius’ latest innovation. They share their thoughts on the current economic and environmental issues that surround traditional plastics. They describe their latest product, how it’s made, and why it’s environmentally friendly. They also discuss the different challenges of competing in a plastic market, the difficulty of getting investors, and how they accomplished solving those two problems.   “If someone really wants what you have and they're w

    Welcome back to another episode of the Future of Agriculture’s Follow Up Friday series - the segment when we follow up with listener-submitted questions and comments related to their favorite previous episodes of the show.   TERRA’s Regional Manager Anil Suren answers some of my questions regarding the company’s ideas and services, including what it’s like being part of the TERRA organization, the company’s partners an this week, I highlight the TERRA Accelerator, a business that seeks to bring together the ag industry’s most disruptive startups and progressive corporations to boost innovation and set new standards for food and agriculture. d achievements, and the benefits startups can expect by becoming part of their accelerator program.     Resources & Related Content:   https://www.terraaccelerator.com/ (TERRA Accelerator) Join the Conversation! To get your most pressing ag questions answered and share your perspective on various topics we’ve discussed on the Future of Agriculture podca

  Abi Ramanan is the CEO of Impact Vision, a company that seeks to build a more secure and transparent food system with the use of hyperspectral technology. The company envisions to reduce the cost of food waste and food fraud through software that provides users with information on food quality, rapidly and non-invasively. Abi is also the founder of http://papispickles.com/ (Papi’s Pickles) and Co-founder of DayOld, food enterprises that tackles food waste and unemployment in migrant communities and promotes gender equality.   Abi joins me today to discuss her company’s fantastic innovation for the food and ag industry. She describes what hyperspectral imaging technology is and how space technology can fuse with the food supply chain to solve food waste and food fraud problems. She also describes how their software works in detecting food fraud, how it provides users with information, and shares some of their current and future projects.     “We need to decrease food production and produce more food fo

Sarah Nolet is the Founder and CEO of AgThentic, a company that helps ag businesses and their entrepreneurs and innovators build the food systems of the future. She is a renowned food systems innovation expert and is the reason behind Australia’s early stage agtech ecosystem. Sarah holds a degree in System Design and Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Computer Science and Human Factors Engineering.   Sarah joins me today to share her insight regarding the future of ag businesses and how she seeks to help expand them faster. She shares the story behind AgThentic, how it started, and how it helps farmers and agbusinesses bridge the gap between agtech and traditional agriculture techniques to create innovative solutions for various problems throughout the industry. She also defines the concept of business accelerators and incubators and how they help agtech startups gain the traction they need to succeed in the agtech industry.   “If connecting to a big company is of stra

Dr. Jeremy Williams is the Vice President of Biotechnology and Agricultural Productivity Innovations at Monsanto, one of the largest modern agricultural companies in the world that develops products and tools to help farmers grow more crops and make use of resources more efficiently. His responsibilities include leading the chemistry and trait research teams that assist farmers to succeed through innovative means such as artificial intelligence. His ultimate goal is to create a discovery pipeline that streamlines projects that affect agricultural development into commercialization.   Jeremy joins me today to discuss the future of agriculture and how artificial intelligence and machine learning can impact the agriculture industry. He describes the concept of artificial intelligence, its current applications, and why he believes these technologies can create new job opportunities throughout the agriculture industry. He also explains the difference between machine learning and deep learning, how artificial int

  Aldyen Donnelly is the Director of Carbon Economic at Nori, a startup company dedicated to creating trust and transparency while lowering transaction costs throughout the carbon trading industry. Her mission is to reward carbon sequestering farmers with blockchain-backed carbon credit certificates. Nori is a blockchain-enabled platform allowing users to trace where carbon dioxide is sequestered and is currently the world’s only carbon dioxide sequestration marketplace.   Aldyen joins me to share the mission behind Nori and how it can help both the environment and farmers. She shares how she became inspired to help the world reduce its carbon emissions, where carbon emissions are primarily derived, and the company’s business strategy to help reverse this problem. She also explains the role of blockchain with regards to transparency in their platform and how farmers can benefit from regenerative and carbon sequestering practices.   “When we create a market that is transparent, a whole bunch of ideas abou

Del Ficke and Graham Christensen own farms that advocate a practice called Regenerative Agriculture. This practice sequesters a massive portion of CO2 in the soil and even in forests. Del is the owner of http://www.fickecattle.com (Ficke Cattle Company), a family run farm and livestock operation with a history dating back to 1860. Graham is the Founder of GC Resolve, an environmental consulting company based in Nebraska that specializes in grassroots community development, education, and mobilization.   Del and Graham join me today to discuss the practice of Regenerative Agriculture and what they have done to implement it in their farms. They share how they learned about regenerative practices and their success stories and explain why this type of practice is based on what’s already been done before, but long forgotten due to mass production. They also share examples of how regenerative ag can benefit farmers financially.   “We don't need to get bigger; we just need to get smarter on this and work with na

Michael Gilbert is the Founder and CEO of Semios, a Canadian company that helps farmers manage their pest problems using onsite sensing, big data, and predictive analytics solutions. He has over twenty years of experience in the field of biotech research and development. Before founding Semios, Michael held positions with federal research institutions, large multinationals, medium-sized public companies, and startups.   Today, Michael joins me to share the goal of Semios and how they plan to contribute to sustainability. He explains the driving idea behind Semios, the technologies they apply in their business, and the many problems they help farmers solve. He also explains why pesticides can eventually stop working and the different applications farmers can use based on the data gathered from sensors.   “You need to have more data to understand why things are occurring and how to best manage it.” - Michael Gilbert       This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:    How Semios helps farmers find

John McKeon is the Senior Manager of Organic Compliance, Commission, and Consolidation at Tanimura and Antle. Founded in 1982, Tanimura and Antle is a farm company that grows and sells both conventional and organic produce. John has almost two decades of experience working in the agricultural industry with skills in operations, management, quality assurance, and compliance.   Today, John joins me to share how he and his company are working to fulfill the world’s surging preference for organic produce. He shares the difference between managing a conventional farm and an organic farm, as well as what it’s like to have both. He also describes the business benefits of growing organic produce as well as the challenges many farmers face when transitioning to organic farming.     “There's a lot more going into organic farming than just the health claim.” - John McKeon       This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:    What is Tanimura and Antle and how it started? How many acres are organic and how

Rachel Laudan is a food historian and award-winning author of Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in World History, a book about the rise and fall of various culinary traditions and philosophies. She has over twenty years of dedicated research to the evolution of our food systems. She’s also an engaging speaker who helps industry professionals, students and professors, and public groups see food from a long-term and global perspective. Today, Rachel joins me to share a brief overview of what food history is all about. She shares her thoughts on various food movements and diets, how traditional foods came to be considered traditional, and why people today have better food than most kings and queens in the past. She also explains the importance of separating processed food from what is “bad food” and what she believes we should consider to be “good food.”   “One should tell food history as a series of expansions, migrations, cuisines, or systems of eating.” - Rachel Laudan       This Week on The Future of Agricu

Olympia Yarger is the Founder and CEO of GOTERRA, an Australian-based waste management company that redefines the idea of food waste through decentralized waste management. Their company’s primary goal is to manage food and animal waste using insects of which the byproduct could be used as a feed additive. This approach is an alternative and sustainable way of feeding livestock that also reduces global waste.   Today, Olympia shares how maggots can help solve global food waste. She describes what it was like to start a maggot farm, how to manage one, and what makes it unique compared to typical farms. She also explains how maggots convert food waste to animal feed and how this could be the future of sustainable agriculture.   “It's one thing to get the flies to do the act and get viable eggs, but it's another to manage consistency of production at any scale.” - Olympia Yarger       This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:    The problems they initially encountered with their maggots when they

Dr. Pamela Marrone is the founder and CEO of Marrone Bio Innovations, a company dedicated to finding practical, sustainable pest management solutions that are safe for people as well as the environment. She is also the founding Chair and former board member of the Biopesticides Industry Alliance, a cluster of over a hundred biopesticide and related companies. She currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research as well as a member of the Board of Trustees for Cornell University.   Today, Dr. Pamela shares the mission behind Marrone Bio Innovations and how their products help farmers through environmentally-safe pest management solutions. She describes what drew her to founding the company and explains why biopesticides are critical for tomorrow’s world. She also enlighten us on the technical aspect of their products and provides examples of how their products can help farmers.   “There's a lot more science and technology behind today's biological p