Future of Agriculture

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, biologicals, artificial intelligence, and more. Prior to starting at Corteva, Brian was Chief Science Officer at The Climate Corporation, and was also a member of Bayer Crop Science’s R&D Leadership Team. Brian was raised on a fourth-generation corn and soybean farm in Ohio and remains closely connected to his family’s farming operation. Make sure you stay tuned to the end of today’s episode for a spotlight of Replenish Nutrients which is based in the Calgary area with their CEO Neil Weins.

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 more about AgGateway. To try to sum it up, AgGateway is a global, non-profit organization whose members develop standards and other resources so that companies can rapidly access information. They bring the industry together to strive towards:Cost savings from more efficient business processesInventory management/traceabilityInteroperability in field operationsAbility to leverage data to increase profitability and sustainabilityThey provide a unique, global forum across industry sectors, so that companies can meet to solve digital challenges for agriculture and related industries. The 200 member companies that make up the organization include ag retailers, distributors, manufacturers (equipment, seed, crop nutrition, crop protection, etc.), grain and feed companies, precision ag providers, specialty chemical manufacturers, and software and data service providers.So this is important work that could have a real impact on the future of agriculture, and I’m excited to dive deeper into this with Jeremy.

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 increasing the accessibility of ag data, some basic research skills, his approach to ag data news, and how the data has informed some of his thoughts on topics ranging from biofuels to carbon sequestration to pineapple production and beyond. Some more about Aaron: he is the DeLoach Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Davis, where he has been since 2001. Originally from New Zealand, he earned his PhD in Economics from the University of California, San Diego. His research addresses policy, trading and price dynamics in agricultural, energy, and financial markets. He has over 50 publications in refereed journals, and he has been recognized with a multitude of awards and achievements which I won’t list here, but trust me it is impressive.. Aaron is also the cluster lead for socioeconomics and ethics in the AI Institute for the Food System (AIFS) and a co-director of the Center for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Research (CeDAR).Make sure you stay tuned to the end of today’s episode for a spotlight of Calgary-based Alberta Veterinary Laboratories / Solvet with their CEO Lionel Gibbs.

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 enjoyed this interview in which Ehsan will share about the technology and the company, how they’ve relied on early farmer customers to really guide the development of the product and even become early investors, and some of his thoughts on agtech more generally. Coincidentally, I found out after reaching out to him for an interview that he and I live in the same town, so that was kind of a cool connection as well. Before Soiltech, Ehsan was living Taiwan and working in the telecommunications device manufacturing industry. But his wife was from Southern Idaho and her mother works for a potato packing house, so she was really the genesis for the whole venture to get started and off the ground.Special thanks to Jim Cupples for the guest recommendation.

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 conversation is how do changes in practices like reducing tillage, planting cover crops, integrating livestock, etc. actually happen? I mean there’s a lot of risk involved. In some cases there is new equipment that needs to be purchased, new techniques to develop, new thought processes to exercise and new expertise needed. Sure, financial incentives can help with this, but what’s equally important are collaborators, supporters and trusted advisors. That’s what today’s show is all about. We’ll start out by talking to Dr. Steve Rosenzweig about General Mills interest in soil health. Where that’s coming from, what it means to their business and what led them to programs like the Trusted Advisor Partnership in North Dakota. Then we’ll talk to Dr. Abbey Wick who is an associate professor and soil health extension specialist at North Dakota State University about this Trusted Advisor Partnership program, how it works, and why its important. Then we’ll wrap things up with both Abbey and Steve to discuss why it’s important for food companies to collaborate in this way. Both of these interviews were originally conducted for the Soil Sense podcast, which I co-host with Abbey. If this stuff interests you, I highly recommend you check that show out. The full interviews for the audio you’re about to hear can be found as episodes one and two of the current Soil Sense season. 

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 dairy farms to grow this crop in the effluent from the cows and have it immediately readily available as a high protein feed. He’ll explain what makes these types of plants so important and promising for the future of agriculture. I learned a ton in this episode, and I think you might learn a thing or two as well. It’s super interesting. Jason has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering and Prior to Fyto, he was the Director of Translational Research at the MIT Tata Center for Technology and Design. There, he led the Center’s efforts to select, shape, and position projects for large scale deployment, and helped develop 8 spinout companies in 18-months across the energy, health, agriculture, and water sectors. He was also an instructor of entrepreneurship courses at MIT Sloan School of Management. Prior to that role at MIT, Jason was the Co-Founder and CTO of Factor[e] Ventures, a venture development and investment firm.Years ago he also worked as Process Engineer for the world's first algae-to-biofuel company, GreenFuel Technologies. 

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’ overall approach to ag data. And we’ll get some of Tye’s thoughts on data, artificial intelligence, and the future of agtech. This a bit of a shorter episode because it was originally intended to be a 5-7 minute spotlight. But when it came down to it, I thought it would be worthwhile to share the whole thing, so I hope you enjoy. Dr. Tye Perrett is a veterinarian by training who joined Feedlot Health in 2004, where he currently manages the administrative and consultant teams.

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 potential for artificial intelligence to provide useful advice for farmers, and what this means for agtech in the future. Like do we need API’s for example as data pipelines if we can train AI’s to go get the data we need. It really presents a lot of interesting questions about the future of agriculture. Questions Norm and others will someday be able to answer. Be sure to stick around for the end of today’s episode where you’ll hear Kit, Charles and I come up with the idea to have Norm write a script for a potential intro to this podcast episode, then I give that script to another AI tool called Descript which generates an audio of that script in my voice. I’ll be honest it’s a little spooky what’s possible, so stay tuned for that. To kick things off though, Charles is going to provide a little catch up since our last interview nearly six years ago. Then you’ll hear Kit’s voice describing more about Norm specifically. 

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 phase food & agtech ecosystem in Canada but more recently has developed a passion for assisting these companies capitalize and execute their growth strategies.  He is currently the SVP of TruLeaf Sustainable Agriculture, a Canadian based agriculture-technology company that uses technology to displace field-grown produce.  In 2018, the company partnered with McCain Food Limited to develop and execute an international expansion strategy.  During Jeff’s tenure at TruLeaf, he has served as CFO and SVP, leading the company through a number of significant financing rounds (both debt an equity) and has led corporate development and government relations.  Under Jeff’s leadership, the company has completed farm builds in Nova Scotia, Ontario and has two significant projects underway in Quebec and Alberta. Jeff is also a General Partner in a carbon-tech venture fund.