Future Of Agriculture

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 be

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

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

Soy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/Dr. Paige Stanley's website: https://paige-stanley.com/FoA 222: Digging Deeper Into Regenerative Agriculture with Paige Stanley: https://future-of-agriculture.captivate.fm/episode/foa-222-digging-deeper-into-regenerative-agriculture-with-paige-stanleyMetrics, Management, and Monitoring (3M) Project: https://www.noble.org/3m/Dr. Paige Stanely is an interdisciplinary scientist working to understand how grazing management can sequester carbon in soils to help mitigate climate change and build more resilient rangeland ecosystems. She draws on a wide range of disciplines including soil biogeochemistry, grazing and rangeland ecology, agroecology, rancher sociology, and political ecology to approach research questions holistically. Paige is particularly interested in the use of “regenerative grazing” (or adaptive multi-paddock grazing) by ranchers on rangelands -- a form of high-intensity, short duration grazing with potential for increasing soil C sequestration.We really

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 so

Soy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/Perry Agricultural Laboratory: http://www.perryaglab.com/FoA 370: [History of Agriculture] William J Morse, the Father of the US Soybean IndustryJoining me today is the Chair of the United Soybean Board, Meagan Kaiser. Meagan has an impressive background growing up in agriculture and pursuing a degree in Soil Science from the University of Missouri. This set her up to join her family’s soil laboratory business, Perry Agricultural Laboratory which has been around for forty years based in Northeast Missouri. She is now a soil scientist and the chief operating officer for that business, and at the same time she farms with her husband, Mark, on the other side of the state in northwest Missouri. We will certainly talk about soil and about farming in today’s episode, but she’s here in another capacity, as the chair of the United Soybean Board, where she leads a group of 77 farmers who share one goal: to increase return on investment for US soybean farmers. It was a t

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 o

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 founde

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

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comINTENT: https://intent.ag/Randy Barker is the CEO of INTENT, an Agricultural Company focused on the use of technology to accelerate new innovations in agriculture. Randy is the co-founder of the business which draws on his vast global experience in launching agricultural technologies in over 30 countries over the past 25 years. INTENT serves a wide range of customers from startups to multinationals in their quest to improve adoption using data science & 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 sol

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comCorteva Agriscience: https://www.corteva.com/Replenish Nutrients: https://replenishnutrients.com/Today’s episode features Brian Lutz. Brian leads the Farming Solutions & 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, biolog

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comAgGateway: https://aggateway.org/Today’s episode features Jeremy Wilson of AgGateway. Jeremy has been a passionate advocate and catalyst for digital connectivity throughout his professional agriculture career, working within organizations serving farmers including crop insurance, data collection and analysis, systems development, and field agronomy as a consultant for three decades. Leading up to his current role at AgGateway, Wilson was a highly active participant for more than a decade on some of the organization’s most important connectivity projects and volunteer leadership roles, including chairman of the Precision Ag Council and the SPADE project. He also served as chairman of AgGateway’s Board of Directors. Jeremy says his other real passion outside of ag data is farming, and he continues to operate the 800-acre family grain farm he was raised on near Olney, IL. Helpful to know before we dive in is a little bit m

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comSubscribe to Ag Data News: https://agdatanews.substack.com/Aaron Smith Website: https://asmith.ucdavis.edu/Ag Data: Where Do I Find It?: https://asmith.ucdavis.edu/data/ag-data-where-do-i-find-itThe Artificial Intelligence Institute for Next Generation Food Systems: https://aifs.ucdavis.edu/Alberta Veterinary Laboratories / Solvet: https://solvet.ca/today’s episode features Dr. Aaron Smith. Aaron’s newsletter, which I highly recommend, covers a wide range of food and ag topics, so fittingly, we cover several in today’s episode as well. I have learned a lot from reading Aaron’s work, and I appreciate his approach as a data-driven teacher and communicator. Certainly part of my motivation to get him on the show was selfish, because this is an area I want to improve in as well. I’m only half-joking when I say it’s selfish, because I do think this is an area all of us will benefit from improving in. Aaron and I discuss incre

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comSoiltech Wireless: https://www.soiltechwireless.com/Today’s episode features Soiltech Wireless founder and CEO Ehsan Soltan. To try to summarize, Soiltech Wireless builds sensors and platforms that helps farmers and downstream partners produce more with less by optimizing inputs, organizing manpower, and collecting data from the farm and beyond more seamlessly. Ok, what does that mean? Their flagship product is a small round device that appears indestructible - that’s my claim not their’s - but it’s meant to either be buried in soil or to be placed anywhere else that the data it collects can be useful such as a developing crop or a warehoused harvest. Soiltech has its own app for cell phones and tablets and its own web browser application for farmers to interact with the data, but they and have also integrated with other parties as well to make sure customers can access the data wherever makes the most sense for themI really

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comTrusted Advisor Partnership: https://trustedadvisorpartnership.com/General Mills' regenerative agriculture commitment: https://www.generalmills.com/how-we-make-it/healthier-planet/environmental-impact/regenerative-agriculture"Trusted Advisor Partnership with Dr. Abbey Wick" on Soil Sense: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/soilsense/episodes/Trusted-Advisor-Partnership-with-Abbey-Wick--Ph-D-e1virlc/a-a9dbsgs"Soil to Cereal with Dr. Steve Rosenzweig of General Mills" on Soil Sense: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/soilsense/episodes/Soil-to-Cereal-with-Dr--Steve-Rosenzweig-of-General-Mills-e20191k/a-a9evon2Today’s episode features soil scientists Dr. Steve Rosenzweig of General Mills and Dr. Abbey Wick of North Dakota State University. There’s been plenty in the media and even on this show about the idea of paying farmers for carbon sequestration and other ecosystem services. But what often gets lost in the conver

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comFyto: https://www.fyto.us/It’s not every day that we get to feature a promising new crop on this show. Especially one uniquely suited to convert dairy manure into a high quality protein-rich and palatable feed. 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

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comFeedlot Health by TELUS Agriculture and Consumer Goods: https://www.feedlothealth.comTELUS Agriculture and Consumer Goods: https://www.telus.com/agcg Over the past five years or so, a Canadian telecommunications company has established themselves as a major player in agtech. Telus Agriculture has acquired a number of agricultural technology companies including Feedlot Health Management Services. Tye Perrett is the general manager of services and pharmaceutical supply at what is now Feedlot Health by Telus Agriculture and Consumer Goods. They are one piece of an overall strategy to optimize the food value chain through connected data from farm to fork. This is an ambitious vision, but Telus likely has the resources and patience to see it come to fruition.  Tye and I will talk about Feedlot Health specifically, both before and after the acquisition by Telus. We’ll also learn a little bit more about Telus’ o

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comNorm: https://www.fbn.com/norm Farmers Business Network: https://www.fbn.com/Today's episode features Kit Barron and Charles Baron of Farmers Business Network. However, today's episode is not about Kit or Charles as much as it is about Norm, FBN's AI-powered Ag advisor tool that they launched just weeks ago, but already has me fascinated about the potential impact on the future of agriculture. Charles has been on the podcast before, but it was clear back on episode 75, which aired in October of 2017. In that episode he provided a lot of the basics of Farmers Business Network which was founded in 2014, and is best known as a farmer-to-farmer network and e-commerce platform. Kit Barron has worked with farm data for a very long time with familiar names such as The Climate Corporation and FarmTogether. He now serves as the Head of Data Science and Analytics for FBN. Charles, Kit and I talk a lot about Norm, the potenti

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

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: www.CalgaryAgbusiness.comTruLeaf Sustainable Agriculture: https://www.truleaf.ca/ Goodleaf Farms: https://www.goodleaffarms.com/ Today’s episode features Jeff McKinnon of TruLeaf Sustainable Agriculture. Jeff and I have a really frank conversation about the current state of controlled environment agriculture. He holds nothing back in talking about the industry’s struggles, but also about why he is still more bullish than ever about what they’re doing to provide local, fresh, indoor-grown produce. He also has some interesting ideas about other products that might be uniquely suited for these growing systems, and some great insights into the current state of fundraising and venture capital. Some background on Jeff: he has been working in senior financial Leadership roles over the past 18 years within a variety of sectors including financial services, real estate, retail and food & beverage.Jeff has always been active in the start-up to growth