The Modern Acre

Tune in this week to hear Tim and Tyler's takeaways from attending the 2023 World AgriTech Innovation Summit in SF. They hit on the state of farmers, biological innovation, the retail/advisor ecosystem, M&A and consolidation, and more!

Michael Macolino is the Managing Director for the APAC region at SVG Ventures THRIVE, as well as a serial entrepreneur and business advisor. He launched his first company at 21, which started a 15 year journey to launch four other businesses across a range of industries. His long term support of entrepreneurship and mentoring was recognised in 2020, as a winner in the InDaily 40 under 40 awards. Michael’s curiosity for solving problems using technology led him to Agriculture and the food system, where he now leverages his skills, experience and network to help AgriFood Tech startups commercialise and scale their innovations to redesign the food system. Prior to joining SVG Ventures Thrive Michael led AgriFood Tech at BDO Australia for 4 years, where he was an advisor to several Investors, Start-ups, Agribusinesses and Government Departments. Michael is deeply engaged in the development of the AgriFood tech eco-system, working with various startup events and programs, as well as being the co-organiser of the South Australian AgriTech Meetup Group. Michael’s thinking on redesigning the food system was featured in his TEDx talk, in which he detailed the potential of emerging technologies in agriculture to build a more sustainable and resilient food system. Connect with Michael Website | LinkedIn | SVG Ventures Thrive

Stuart Woolf is President and CEO of Woolf Farming & Processing. Woolf Farming & Processing is a family owned operation whose primary business is the production and processing of agricultural commodities. He was involved with the establishment of two related entities: Harris Woolf California Almonds and Los Gatos Tomato Products. Harris Woolf is a processor and handler of raw almonds. Los Gatos manufactures bulk tomato paste for industrial users. Connect with Woolf Farming & Processing Website

World AgriTech Discount Code (10% off): ACREFRIEND Elizabeth Fastiggi is the Head of Worldwide Agriculture at AWS. She partners with customers on transformative initiatives that align digital innovation with their business vision and is motivated by the opportunity to create solutions that create a healthier, transparent, and more inclusive food system. Prior to AWS, Elizabeth led Market Development at Indigo Agriculture and Business Development at Farmers Business Network. Previously, Elizabeth was a private equity investor with GE Capital and Ziff Brothers Investments, structuring investments in the energy and agriculture sectors. Elizabeth began her career at the Environmental Defense Fund, developing partnerships with market leading corporations to improve environmental and financial performance. Connect with Elizabeth AWS Agriculture Solutions | LinkedIn

In this new monthly series, Tim and Tyler talk with Ariel about her latest Topsoil edition - "Turns out, Seasons are a Thing in Agriculture: a framework for understanding seasonal activities in agriculture." Ariel Patton is the creator of Topsoil, a newsletter bringing you monthly frameworks to help make sense of agriculture, at just the right depth. Ariel has focused her career on driving digital transformation of agriculture to help farmers manage their businesses more profitably and sustainably at Monsanto, Granular, Corteva and currently, Mineral. Connect with Ariel Topsoil Newsletter | LinkedIn

Aaron Hutchinson is the President and Co-Founder of CropTrak. CropTrak brings decades of experience as the leading cloud technology solution to document, share, and analyze an entire supply chain in real-time from source through production. By digitally enabling and connecting their entire supply chain management process, customers can more seamlessly weave together the story of their product, contract, and certification – resulting in significant efficiency gains internally and improved supplier relationships. Started more than a decade ago by a team of entrepreneurial farm kids and data security experts with a background in 3D military GIS software, they set forth to help create the most efficient, effective and transparent supply chain. Connect with CropTrak Website | LinkedIn

Tim's LinkedIn post on our experience with organic farming went viral. We dig into our experience and thoughts on organic before providing some updates on The Modern Acre Co-op membership community! Links Co-op | Apply for a Pass | TopSoil Newsletter

Cole Jones is the CEO and Founder of Local Line. Local Line helps farmers, food hubs, and farmers' markets access new customers and digitize their businesses. Their e-commerce, CRM, inventory and logistics modules enable food producers of all kinds to control their own brand and grow their business on their terms. Connect with Local Line Website | LinkedIn

Ian Harley is CEO and co-founder of Traction Ag, Inc, a cloud-based farm accounting and management software company focused on helping farmers become more profitable and efficient. Ian has more than 25 years of experience in sales and management of AgTech companies, delivering accounting, operations and agronomy software. Prior to Traction Ag, Ian held roles at Granular, Trimble and Farm Works Software. Traction Ag is the only farm management solution uniquely built for the cloud, integrating actual accounting numbers with field operations, resulting in real-time financial analysis for timely, informed decision-making. Traction Ag delivers the most extensive suite of farm-specific accounting capabilities in a cloud application and allows users to automatically and easily maintain inventory balances for crops and supplies, tracks costs of production and field-level profitability; providing crucial insights and saving valuable time. The company is majority employee and farmer-owned business and leverages integrations with Climate FieldView and John Deere Operations Center to automate and ease the collection of field activities.

Guillermo Valenzuela is the VP of Sales and Marketing at WiseConn, an agtech company that has developed a technology to measure and control water and other fluids in such diverse areas such as agriculture, mining and hydrology. The WiseConn platform consists of a wireless hardware installed on the field and software that is accessible through the Internet, allowing users to view their process and make informed decisions. Connect with WiseConn Website | LinkedIn