Future of Agriculture

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.

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: http://www.calgaryagbusiness.comEdgar's Feed and Seed: https://www.edgarsfeedandseed.ca/I know many of you are entrepreneurial. Maybe you’ve dreamed about starting a company. But there are many established companies that are looking for their next owner. In 2013, at the age of 23, Elliott and Rebecca Miller acquired Edgar’s Feed and Seed in Ontario, Canada. Through a good relationship with the previous owner, Elliott and Rebecca were able to utilize seller financing to buy the local ag retail company. Now after 10 years of ownership, they’ve been able to not only keep it afloat but to grow and expand. In 2013 at the age of 23, Elliott and Rebecca, purchased a business, got married, and bought a farm. That’s a busy year! The business they bought is Edgar’s Feed and Seed, which today offers retail products for livestock and agronomic services for a wide range of crops. They’ve also started carrying frozen meats, cheeses and other specialty pantry items from all over Ontario and Canada. They purchased the business from Niel Edgar, who was Elliott’s boss there at the time, and now works for the Millers as an employee of the company. Today’s episode will focus on their journey to acquiring a business at such a young age, making it work in the early years as they paid it off, and how they’ve grown it since. This is a pretty inspiring couple, and hopefully will help get your wheels turning about business opportunities in your local area. 

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: http://www.calgaryagbusiness.comElevate Agronomics: https://www.elevateagronomics.com/Today’s episode features Trent Kubik of Elevate Agronomics. In 2020, Trent and his brother Troy purchased a long-standing seed business in Winner, SD named Winner Seed.  From this purchase, their new company Elevate Agronomics was born.  Along with the robust offering of seed and seed cleaning that the business already had, they added on chemicals, starter fertilizers, livestock supplements, Precision Planting planter enhancements, as well as other misc agricultural products.  Shortly after their acquisition, they took over operations of a similar business in a neighboring town and expanded their footprint which services out of two locations.  Currently they sell products into 10 counties in South Dakota and Nebraska.You’re going to hear about what led to finding this business opportunity for them to acquire, how they lined up their financing, how they manage the financial and operational sides of the business, coping with the stress and workload of running your own business, growth/expansion opportunities, modernization through technology and efficiencies, hiring and retaining employees, and more. The audio is not our best work. Trent’s bluetooth headset wasn’t working, so we had to use the old office computer mic. But if you’ll forgive me for that, I promise the content is well worth your time.

Try Acres for Free: https://www.acres.co/FoA 334: Cybersecurity in Agribusiness with Mike Moore of Ever.AgFoA 310: Investment Models with Hannah Senior of Innovating AgtechFoA 351: Agritourism and Adding Value on the Farm with Allan RobinetteFoA 355: Tule Technologies Acquired by CropX with Tom Shapland and John GatesFoA 301: Funding Innovation for Agriculture, People, and Planet with Suma Reddy of Future AcresSeven business opportunity ideas i've been thinking about lately: Security: Data security, cybersecurity, farm/ranch/rural crime securityAcquiring small/medium sized ag-related businessesPremium produceFarmer feedback and on-farm validationSoftware/outsourcing of farm regulatory/compliance Commercialization of university tech transferVenture studio in partnership with established industryBonus: independent education/analysis/insights of farmland investments: platforms, REITs, syndicates, physical deals, etc.Plus, a spotlight segment featuring David Gorder!

Try Acres for free: https://www.acres.co/Tule Technologies: https://tule.ag/CropX: Today’s episode features Tom Shapland of Tule Technologies and John Gates of CropX. We have a great episode for you talking about Tule’s technology, Tom’s entrepreneurial journey, The decision on both sides for Cropx to acquire Tule, M&A in agtech and integration lesson, and the future of artificial intelligence in agtech. Tom is the co-founder and CEO of Tule Technologies, which is now part of CropX. As a graduate student at UC Davis, Tom developed the underlying technology that Tule commercialized which is a way to measure water use of crop plants over a broad area. Specifically they measure actual crop evapotranspiration or ET and he’ll talk a lot more about that. He founded Tule in 2013 after finishing his PhD work in this area. He went out and started talking to customers and getting sales early, which you’ll find is an important part of his entrepreneurial journey. Him and his co-founder Jeff LaBarge went the Y Combinator program, which is our second episode this month with a YC alum. Joining us from CropX is senior vice president and global head of product John Gates. John also has a background in academia. He was a professor of Hydrology at University of Nebraska. He evenutally joined CropMetrics as their Chief Scientist and stayed on with CropX after they acquired CropMetrics a few years ago. You’ll hear from Tom first about Tule’s technology and trajectory, and then we’ll invite John in to talk about the acquisition and much much more.

Try Acres for free: https://www.acres.co/AGvisorPRO: https://getagvisorpro.com/Today’s episode features AGvisorPRO CEO Robert Saik. Rob is a well-known outspoken champion of agriculture, a Distinguished Agrologist, Professional Agriculture Consultant, and a veteran entrepreneur who has been on this show twice before in episodes 095 and 166. He has leveraged these strengths to found over 15 companies in the areas of Farming, Agri-Retail, Distribution, Media and Ag Tech. He was the founder and CEO of The Agri-Trend/Agri-Data Group of Companies which was acquired by Trimble.  He also served as CEO of DOT Technology Corp (Autonomous Farming) through the acquisition of DOT Robotics by Raven Industries.Robert is the founder and CEO of award-winning AGvisorPRO, a technology platform that connects those seeking agriculture advice with trusted experts who can provide answers now. Rob describes AGvisorPRO as a connectivity ecosystem that combines elements of other tools like Uber, e-harmony, Twitter and FaceTime to connect seekers of agricultural knowledge with relevant experts.