Future of Agriculture

Latest Episodes:

FoA 252: Local Meat Processing, Marketing and Logistics with Adam Parks Mar 31, 2021

Show notes

Thanks to the Field Work podcast for sponsoring this episode. Visit www.FieldWork.org to learn more.

Interest in local and regional food systems has been trending upward for a long time. The pandemic has only accelerated consumer interest in having strong relationships with where they buy their food. But what sounds easy on the outside: farmer produces food and consumer buys it - is much more complicated in practice. First of all, there aren’t enough local/regional slaughterhouses for livestock producers to scale their direct-to-consumer operations because of low margins, regulations, and labor. Today’s episode tells the story of how Adam Parks built a local meat business, and how he is part of a group that has formed a cooperative to solve this problem of local meat processing. Adam is the founder of Victorian Farmstead Meat Company located in Sebastopol, California. They have been selling local meat in the area since 2010 at farmers markets, through a CSA (community supported agriculture), and more recently through home delivery.

“I developed a network of six to eight local ranches that raised for me… And we set about taking fresh meat to the farmer's market. That was kind of what made us unique was that we were the first local people to really bring fresh meat to the farmer's market.” - Adam Parks

Adam’s collaboration with local producers allowed him to take advantage of a trend he noticed after the 2008 recession involving the consumer preference for a more controlled, less extravagant splurge with high quality food items. Adam also created a newsletter that has helped to build a relationship and trust with customers developed at farmers markets.

“Once we gain that trust, we protect it like gold. Our long-time customers will tell you that they don't worry about what they buy from us. They know that it's as good a product in terms of how it's raised and how it's processed as they can find. And so they just get what we have available.” - Adam Parks

Adam remarks that having control over the meat processing aspect of his operation became more attractive as his business continued to expand. He started a 120 square foot butcher shop and is hoping to expand to a much larger standalone facility very soon. Slaughter and USDA sanctioned facilities tend to be hours away which is another part of the business he hopes to make more efficient and sustainable. Adam is one of 16 founding members of the Bay Area Ranchers Cooperative (also known as BAR-C), which is a coop of local producers who are pooling resources to build a mobile USDA-inspected meat processing facility in the area. They hope to be in production this May.

This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:

Meet Adam Parks, the founder of Victorian Farmstead Meat Company located in Sebastopol, California
Explore how Adam grew Victorian Farmstead Meat Company through local farmers markets and collaborations with producers
Discover Bay Area Ranchers Cooperative (also known as BAR-C), which is a coop of local producers developing a semi-permanent USDA sanctioned slaughter facility

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Be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of the ag industry. I’m sending out my email newsletter on a more regular basis, focusing on what I call the front lines of agtech: where product meets producer. You can sign up for that at www.FutureOfAg.com. There’s an email icon in the center of the page, just click on that and it will take you to a signup form.

Do you have suggestions for topics to be explored? Tweet them to me @timhammerich or email them to tim@aggrad.com.

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[Bonus] Ag Labor and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act with Shay Myers and Representative Cliff Bentz Mar 29, 2021

Show notes

The reason for today’s special episode is The Farm Workforce Modernization Act that recently passed the U.S. House of Representatives and is now moving on to the Senate. This legislation is an effort to make progress on the mess that is U.S. ag labor policy. Shay Myers, a farmer who was featured on this show back in episode 178, called me to talk about the importance of this bill to U.S. farmers and their employees. In fact, over 300 agricultural organizations supported the bill. Ag labor reform like this has been attempted for decades, but has never been passed, mostly due to politics.

First, what does this bill do? Put simply, it improves the process for H-2A workers, which is the name of the visa for temporary agricultural workers. It also makes it mandatory that agricultural employers e-verify employees legal work status for employment. Finally, and perhaps most controversially, it establishes a program for agricultural workers and their families who are already in the United States to earn legal status through continued agricultural employment if they meet certain requirements.

FoA 251: Agtech Opportunities in Developing Markets with Igor Buchatskiy Mar 24, 2021

Show notes

Thanks to the FieldWork podcast for sponsoring this episode. Visit www.FieldWork.org to learn more.

This episode is a good follow up to Episode 250 about one example of how agtech is helping smallholder farmers in developing countries. We are again talking about the potential for agtech in developing markets in this episode, but this time from a different perspective. My guest Igor Buchatskiy sees real opportunities in very large integrated agricultural operations. Whereas last week we focused on smallholder farmers, this episode is about the very large, sophisticated operations that are hungry for technology and innovation in the developing world.

Igor is a mechanical engineer by training, but after getting his MBA at the University of Chicago, he started a career in management consulting. That led to a job with a family office back in his home country of Ukraine. It was in that role that he discovered his love and fascination for agriculture in 2007. Since that time, he’s worked all over the world with agricultural operations and agtech startups. He’s based in Boston, but you never know where in the world he is going to be. In fact, at the time of this interview he was working on a project in Saudi Arabia.

“(Working in agriculture) was a revelation. Seriously, I thought wow, that's what I should have been doing for the last 10 years instead of mechanical engineering and management consulting because it was just an amazing experience. So I dove head in into that business and we started growing it, bringing new technology, new breed, new genetics, et cetera, et cetera.” - Igor Buchatskiy

Igor shares that he was able to be a part of the “Ukranianian Golden Rush” which involved former Soviet union republics recovering from the collective farm system that was no longer in place. The economics and margins were very favorable in the agricultural sector that had previously flown under the radar of other investors. He observed the consolidation of many small farms into large dominant players in the industry.

“What gets me excited is the fact that there are so many bright ideas, you know out of the box ideas that are happening now. And we are at the point in time where the technologies are becoming more accessible, more affordable, and we're getting to the sort of a scale at which all these technologies and all these ideas are starting to converge.” - Igor Buchatskiy

Igor shares that in Ukraine and Russia he is observing a lot of large vertically integrated operations. By virtue of the size and employment support of these companies, they are able to use, take advantage of and capitalize on new agriculture technologies where a small benefit in margin can create major revenue on that scale. This allows for large gains in agricultural technology companies by engaging with some of these major players.

This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:

Meet Igor Buchatskiy an entrepreneur, ag startup mentor, and board advisor.
Discover Igor’s journey into agriculture and the potential he saw in the industry
Learn about the agriculture industry in the Ukraine and Russia and the trend towards large vertically integrated operations

Join the FOA Community!

Do you have suggestions for topics to be explored? Tweet them to me @timhammerich or email them to tim@aggrad.com.

Find us online!

Future of Agriculture Website

AgGrad Website

FoA 250: Helping Smallholder Farmers Manage Risk with Sonu Agrawal of Weather Risk Management Services Mar 17, 2021

Show notes

Thanks to the FieldWork podcast for sponsoring this episode. Visit www.FieldWork.org to learn more.

We talk a lot about the types of technologies that are geared towards larger operations, but what’s out there that has the potential to really improve the lives of small farmers, especially of those in developing countries. We have a really interesting example of one of these innovations in this episode. Weather Risk Management Services is an India-based company that collects data to help producers manage their risks. The company started off as offering just crop insurance products, which is still a big part of their business, but they’ve also expanded into products that incentivize and reward farmers for using risk management strategies.

In other words, a farmer pays a premium and agrees to certain farming practices. In return they are provided a guaranteed yield, and paid if their yield drops below that threshold. This helps take away the risk of adopting new practices. Weather Risk Management Services has worked with over 30,000 farmers in India already, and hopes to grow to one million farmers in the next five years. Founder Sonu Agrawal joins us to share the process, goals and impacts of the company.

“So in many developing countries … not only in India, but several countries in Asia and Africa, there is very low or no access to crop insurance contracts. And since there is no crop insurance, access to finance is also a big challenge because banks do not lend money to small farmers. The banks are not covered against losses due to adverse weather events. So there is a complete lack of access to crop insurance.” Sonu Agrawal

Sonu shares that Weather Risk Management Services provides access to affordable crop insurance that also provides incentives to “the farmer to use better risk management practices.” These practices include things like using drought resistant seeds, applying additional nutrition to the crops or arranging irrigation to their fields. Satellite data helps to monitor these additional practices to make sure the crop is insured appropriately. Farmers then either benefit by way of a reduced premium or increased coverage based on a projected yield.

“Before we enter a village, a lot of analysis is done…..So we analyze and then identify the more important risks or the factors which have resulted in sub optimized yield. And then the whole production process, what we call the package of practices, is designed in such a way so that we can improve the yields gradually.” - Sonu Agrawal

Farmers are offered smaller contracts when they start with Weather Risk Management Services. This is done to overcome any trust concerns and allow producers to take advantage of the gradual increased yield at their desired pace. There is a lot of learning done by the farmers and the company to assess what yields can be expected and what measures can be taken for improvement in these initial smaller contracts. Sonu shares that in the first year of collaboration with a farmer they expect a 5-7% increase in yield, followed by 10-12% in the second year and up to 15-20% in the third year.

This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:

Meet Sonu Agrawal the founder of Weather Risk Management Services
Discover what their company offers small farmers in rural areas of India where crop insurance and financing access is limited
Explore the innovative methods used to incentivize increased yield production practices

Join the FOA Community!

Do you have suggestions for topics to be explored? Tweet them to me @timhammerich or email them to tim@aggrad.com.

Find us online!

Future of Agriculture Website

AgGrad Website

FoA 249: A Global Perspective on Tree Nuts with The Almond Doctor Mar 10, 2021

Show notes

Thanks to the FieldWork podcast for sponsoring this episode. Visit www.FieldWork.org to learn more.

David Doll is the General Manager of Rota Unica Agriculture based in Portugal. He grew up on a direct-to-consumer apple and peach orchard in southern Indiana, then got a master’s degree in plant pathology from UC Davis. After a decade as a farm advisor for the University of California focused on tree nuts, he took on his current role of moving to Portugal to manage a large-scale diversified tree crop operation there. On top of all of that, he writes what I think is probably the most in-depth blog dedicated to just one crop that I’ve ever seen at The Almond Doctor. I’ve really appreciated interacting with David online and in the FoA community. I think you’re going to really enjoy his perspective here today.

“I think everyone would say the same thing, but you have to be able to be willing to know what your shortfalls are, be honest with yourself and then throw in the extra effort in order to pick yourself up. I'll be honest, I never thought I would ever be negotiating a loan that's probably more money than I'll ever earn in my life.

But you know, you walk in, you do it and you learn a few things along the way and move on.” - David Doll

David shares his experience in going from managing an operation with a $250,000 annual budget to his current operation with more than a $80 million budget. His employer felt that he could be taught the finances overtime but needed to come prepared with the horticulture and orchard experience to support their endeavors. David dove in and has learned and experienced a lot since being there.

“So the investment group is not a Portuguese company. It's actually an American company. And their thesis is food is a way to move water in a commodity that people want. That's it. It’s such a simple statement but it's right on the spot.” - David Doll

“We are taking a resource from where we have it and where it may be plentiful at a given time and producing something with it and then moving that to an area that one can’t produce that crop or doesn’t have the resources to produce that crop.” David elaborates by discussing the value of water based on whether it is from a renewable or finite resource. This is definitely a different perspective than the more short-sighted opinion of not viewing water as a significant valuable commodity. David’s blog explores some of these concepts and many other management techniques with all things almonds. “It’s kind of a niche blog but I enjoy it.”

“It's kind of this technical writing with a translational twist is what I call it. So I'm always writing about a technical subject, but I'm using that and translating that to help people understand my thought process of how I approach that problem.” - David Doll

This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:

Meet David Doll the General Manager of Rota Unica Agriculture based in Portugal and author of www.TheAlmondDoctor.com.
Discover the journey David Doll has taken to become a major almond producer in Portugal
Explore an international perspective for the future of agriculture and the unique challenges faced by our counterparts in different parts of the world
Learn what inspired “The Almond Doctor” blog and the benefits it offers

Join the FOA Community!

Do you have suggestions for topics to be explored? Tweet them to me @timhammerich or email them to tim@aggrad.com.

Find us online!

Future of Agriculture Website

AgGrad Website

FoA 248: Regrow Merges Agronomic Insights with Sustainability Metrics Mar 03, 2021

Show notes

We can all agree that sustainability that comes at the expense of productivity and efficiency is not truly sustainable at all. We are going to need to meld together what’s best for the productivity and profitability of growers with the ecosystem services they can provide.

Just recently agtech company FluroSat announced that they acquired another agtech company, Dagan, and the combined company was re-branded to a new name: Regrow. You might remember FluroSat founder Anastasia Volkova from her first appearance on this podcast back in episode 175. She joins us again today, now as CEO of Regrow, along with Dagan co-founder and now Regrow Chief Strategy Officer Bill Salas. Both of them are accomplished scientists as well as entrepreneurs. We have a great conversation here about why this merger made sense, what differentiates their carbon model, called DNDC, from other ways to model carbon sequestration, and how their newly combined and rebranded company will help growers maximize productivity, profitability, and sustainability.

“DNDC’s approach is much more first principles on how management influences soil environment, which in turn influences which microbes are more active and drives the outcomes in terms of soil carbon turnover and greenhouse gas emissions.” -Bill Salas

“Dagan was interested in how to create the value proposition for soil health at scale.” They went about this by achieving satellite monitoring to monitor large acreages. The network that Dagan had developed between researchers, NGO’s such as the Nature Conservancy, consumer packaged food companies and carbon markets was extensive but lacked a direct connection to producers themselves. Bill shares that they had focused on creating data for multiple partners and by merging with FluroSat they were able to pair that mission with an easy-to-use platform.

“We saw that by adding sustainability monitoring to agronomy and marrying our crop model with the DNDC soil model, we would ... understand where it would be profitable to start adopting these practices and it could form the decision support tool that our customers are seeking as well as connect players across the supply chain.” -Anastasia Volkova

Anastasia highlights that one of her goals has always been to facilitate the decision making of producers to incorporate sustainability into their operations. Making the data acquisition process easy and accessible allows producers to capitalize on any sustainable efforts they are making. While carbon sequestration is a great benefit of sustainable practices, nitrogen management, greenhouse gas emissions and better biodiversity are also common sequelae and part of the Regrow mindset.

“We want to make sure that agriculture gets a chance to get it right, scientifically, transparently, and bring this sustainability excitement into an operationalizable business model that scales without taking too many shortcuts on the quality and transparency.” -Anastasia Volkova

Checkout the FieldWork Podcast as well on any podcast platform or at www.FieldWork.org.

Join the FOA Community!

Do you have suggestions for topics to be explored? Tweet them to me @timhammerich or email them to tim@aggrad.com.

Find us online!

Future of Agriculture Website

AgGrad Website

FoA 247: How to Stop Herbicide-Resistant Weeds Feb 24, 2021

Show notes

The question of “what are the real problems in agriculture that need to be solved?” is one we ask often here on this show. If you ask that to a dozen people, you’ll probably get about 20 different answers. But herbicide resistance is one that hits home for many. As you’re about to hear, the tools we’ve been using for decades are becoming less and less effective, and the pipeline for new active ingredients has been empty for a long time. Every year more and more weeds show signs of resistance - which is not a trend that can continue.

Today’s guests are the co-founders and co-CEOs of Israel-based WeedOut, a biological herbicide company which uses proprietary pollen to sterilize weeds like Palmer Amaranth, otherwise known as pigweed. Dr. Efrat Lidor Nili and Dr. Orly Noivirt-Brik are both accomplished scientists who have already been a part of one successful exit: they worked at Rosetta Green which was purchased by Monsanto in 2013. WeedOUT is a portfolio company of Fulcrum Global Capital, who partnered with me on this episode.

“As we continued to focus on (weed resistance) we understood that this a very significant problem not only in the US but also in Europe, also in China, Australia, South American and all over the world. Out of the 26 modes of action of herbicides 23 have already reported resistance.” -Dr. Orly Noivirt-Brik

“In order to slow down this process of resistant development, it’s very important to combine new tactics.” WeedOut has produced a biological pollen that works with the weeds biology to obstruct their reproductive cycle. This is a new mechanism of action that the weeds will not have developed any resistance to. It will also be difficult for weeds to create resistance because they will not be capable of producing more generations that could evolve and adapt. “We are actually reducing significantly the seed bank year after year.” Their main focus so far has been to target Palmer Amaranth as it is a weed of significant resistance and wide dissemination. They do not plan to replace chemical herbicide but rather increase its efficacy by not solely relying on it.

“By blocking resistance using our own methods, then you can extend the lifetime of the chemicals that are currently used instead of switching to more toxic chemicals...So actually by blocking resistance, we are preserving the entire set of products that are available today making them efficient for many more years.” -Dr. Efrat Lidor Nili

“Our strategy is first to fit our technology to the standard tools that all farmers have. And with the second layer we will continue and explore this opportunity to spray it using drones.” As well as developing different methods of delivery they hope to expand to different weeds. Weeds most susceptible to this technology would reproduce via cross or wind pollination. WeedOut has found success in finding investors that will allow continued expansion and development with a hopeful launch in 2023.

This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:

Meet Dr. Efrat Lidor Nili and Dr. Orly Noivirt-Brik, co-CEOs of WeedOut
Explore the concern regarding herbicide resistance and the lack of progress being made in that space
Learn about the biological solution WeedOut has proven and will be providing to producers globally to combat herbicide resistance of Palmer Amaranth

Join the FOA Community!

Do you have suggestions for topics to be explored? Tweet them to me @timhammerich or email them to tim@aggrad.com.

Find us online!

Future of Agriculture Website

AgGrad Website

FoA 246: Unlocking Grazing Potential with Virtual Fencing Feb 17, 2021

Show notes

Today Janette Barnard co-hosts to bring us an innovative virtual fencing product for cattle ranchers. Frank Wooten joins us as the founder of Vence. Vence offers producers optionality in their grazing operations whether large or small. This technology provides for rotational grazing opportunities while bridging obstacles such as large uneven terrain, poor connectivity and weather dynamics. The ramifications of this opportunity may allow US producers to better compete in the grass fed and grass finished product market.

“At a high level we are solving the problem of increasing yield and land management for cow-calf and cattle operators around the world…..we are enabling the ability to set up animal control at a very granular level without the need for physical fences or manual labor.” - Frank Wooten

“It’s not that physical fences are an insufficient solution. It's that they are a static solution to a dynamic problem.” To be able to adapt your ranching practices to changes in your land and terrain allows for more flexibility and improved land stewardship. “There are more livestock on the planet than there are cars on the road” leading to their management and land use being of the utmost significance. Producers would be able to access the location of their animals and schedule their proposed movement to best suit their needs.

The cattle become trained to the sound emitted by individual collars to be able to know where they can move without stimulating an electric shock. GPS chip technology and a tower built at a high location makes cell coverage not an issue for producers to connect with their animals. Only the tower itself needs cell coverage. Each collar then communicates with their assigned tower like a walkie-talkie. “We have yet to find a farm that in the right position we can’t get some sort of cell coverage on.”

“A cattleman’s job is to translate grass into a saleable final product….the increase in grass productivity is driven via managing the grass in a particular way and it is also driven via the soil….that allows customers to increase the productivity of the land. ” - Frank Wooten

“We spend a lot of time making sure that we understand exactly what the cost structure looks like for our customers and making sure that we are giving them something that is materially better than what they have currently and that it is cost justified.” One expected financial benefit is that producers are seeing a decrease in needing external sources of feed for their animals. However, Frank does explain that there “is a process there” and that the land will take some time to recover as weather, water and grass species allow. The flexibility Vence allows for will allow for optimization of land management practices from a convenient platform the producer can access from their mobile devices.

“We're in this for the long run with (producers) as well. We're not making money off those collars on day one, or even year one or year two, for that matter. It's a long-term business relationship that we're looking to have and establish with customers.” - Frank Wooten

This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:

Meet Frank Wooten, co-founder of Vence
Explore the different obstacles this technology has overcome and the opportunities in virtual fencing available to cattle producers
Learn about available techniques to better contribute to land stewardship in the cattle production industry

Subscribe to Janette’s newsletter: PRIME FUTURE.

Join the FOA Community!

Do you have suggestions for topics to be explored? Tweet them to me @timhammerich or email them to tim@aggrad.com.

Find us online!

Future of Agriculture Website

AgGrad Website

FoA 245: Agtech Product Strategy with Climate Corp Chief Product Officer Ranjeeta Singh Feb 10, 2021

Show notes

Today’s show connects back to episode 241 with Craig Rupp of Sabanto, where we talked about, among many other things, how the Climate Corp has been able to become a central data collection platform on so many large scale farms. Ranjeeta Singh, the Chief Product Officer of The Climate Corp joins us to further explore data ownership, product strategy and design thinking. Ranjeeta was hired last year to drive the product strategy and roadmap for Climate’s digital farming solutions. She has more than two decades of background in hardware and software at the intersection of IoT, AI and data science with companies like Intel and Teradata. She holds five patents at Intel, and multiple publications. She is also the recipient of the “Top 50 under 50 most powerful women in technology”. Her perspective as someone coming from a career in tech to now a career in agtech is something I found interesting and insightful.

“People only think of Climate as a Fieldview platform...I have talked about the three lines of business. We talk about software as a service which is a Fieldview platform, data as a service which is the actual platform and how you organize and store data...and then we have professional services where you’re more focused on tailored solutions.” - Ranjeeta Singh

Ranjeeta highlights design thinking principles in developing new products whereby you focus on customer pain points and design solutions with a go-to market approach.

“Product really helps you define the business case and the requirements so it helps define why you’re doing something before you get into the what and the how.” Data as a service is a hot topic now among producers including what happens after the data is collected and analyzed. “The concern has always been about what constitutes proper notice to the consumers that the data is being collected and the privacy of that data….the producers are understandably worried about the information getting in the hands of the wrong people.”

“Our view has always been that the data collected to the digital farming tools belongs to the farmers....You can anonymize the data and you can leverage the insights based on it but do not share the data without the consent of the farmers.” - Ranjeeta Singh

Insights from this data analysis can for example establish calculated recommendations as to what inputs, at what rate and in which location can be most beneficial to their operations. “We are giving value to them through professional services.” The current focus of her team is evolving the software to best address the needs of producers and creating pilot programs to optimize the benefit to individual operations and their exposure to these new technologies.

“I think we need to build out this ecosystem of players and ecosystem of products and technology, but people should be able to choose what they want to.” - Ranjeeta Singh

Ranjeeta believes that by making a compelling product producers will be able to accomplish multiple goals within one system. If a company is unable to fill a specific void and provide that type of service then producers should have the choice to use and combine different technologies together. While they may be deemed competitors, Ranjeeta supports not locking producers into any one system but rather focusing on making the best product for her customers and allowing them to choose the system that best fits their needs.

This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:

Meet Ranjeeta Singh, the Chief Product Officer of The Climate Corp
Explore the intricacies and considerations regarding collecting, analyzing and disseminating producer generated data.
Learn about the core belief systems and three lines of business Climate Corp is engaged in
Learn more about Climate Corp at www.climate.com

Join the FOA Community!

Do you have suggestions for topics to be explored? Tweet them to me @timhammerich or email them to tim@aggrad.com.

Find us online!

Future of Agriculture Website

AgGrad Website

FoA 244: Farm Data Analytics with Aaron Gault of Advanced Agrilytics Feb 03, 2021

Show notes

This is one of two short episodes I’m releasing for you today, both exploring some aspect of farm data. You may have already listened to the first part with Dr. Terry Griffin at Kansas State University.

Now we turn our attention to another Purdue graduate, Aaron Gault, cofounder and agronomy manager of Advanced Agrilytics. Advanced Agrilytics offers agronomy services equipped with their analytics platform, which helps farmer customers get a better picture of what’s working and not working in their agronomic practices.

Aaron focuses on in-season crop management and the understanding of real-time crop performance influenced by the environmental conditions of any given growing season. Aaron’s ability to integrate yield response probability with in-field stimuli is a key component of Advanced Agrilytics sub-acre approach to understanding yield. Before joining Advanced Agrilyitcs, Aaron worked as a professional agronomist for leading agriculture companies.

Aaron and I discuss what makes Advanced Agrilytics approach different from others, how this aspect of the precision agriculture industry has evolved, and how the farmer can best utilize their own data to improve their operation.

JOIN THE FOA COMMUNITY: www.Patreon.com/agriculture

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