Future of Agriculture

Put AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/"10 years on from Climate Corp’s $1bn acquisition, David Friedberg reflects": https://agfundernews.com/david-friedberg-reflects-10-years-on-from-climate-corp-1bn-acquisitionThe Production Board: https://www.tpb.co/Almost exactly 10 years ago, an acquisition was announced that caused many people in the technology and investment community to pay more attention to what was happening in agriculture: Monsanto was buying The Climate Corporation, which was founded by David Friedberg. "Climate.com became the standalone software product for farmers, and that really is kind of the reason Monsanto bought the company, and really kind of set the first big precedent for digitization of agriculture."Today David reflects on the Climate Corp journey and the Monsanto acquisition with AgFunder’s Louisa Burwood-Taylor, and he shares his current thoughts on agtech now that a decade has passed. "I do think that there's going to be some big opportunities for the next transformation in agriculture in multiplex precision gene editing and in metagenomics in the soil microbiome, even in breakthroughs in biologics or other platforms that can discover the next set or the next range of biologics."David and Louisa cover everything from genomics and biologics to precision fermentation, what keeps him up at night, and where agtech is headed in the decade to come. "I think the world will be surprised by how much we see acceleration and advancement in productivity in ag and food systems in the next 10 years."AgFunder’s Louisa Burwood-Taylor sits down with David Friedberg on today’s Future of Agriculture podcast.

Put AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/Silver Spring Foods: https://www.silverspringfoods.com/ Today's episode features Eric Rygg of Silver Spring Foods. This is a fun story for me, not only because I like horseradish, which I definitely do. This is a story of what’s possible when you carve out a niche and make moves to vertically integrate. There are also some great insights here about product positioning both to consumers and to retailers, and some of the challenges and opportunities of processing a marketing farm products. I particularly enjoyed learning about how the team at Silver Spring took it upon themselves to study the chemistry of what makes horseradish hot, and from that research they developed their own heat index for horseradish, they call a zing factor. So it’s kind of like the Scoville Heat Index in hot peppers. For the zing factor, one is beginner, or the least amount of heat, and 5 is the hottest, which will definitely give you that zing that travels up into your nose. Eric and I also hit some big trends like healthy food and regenerative agriculture along the way. Eric is the great-grandson of Ellis Huntsinger who founded Huntsinger Farms and Silver Spring Foods in 1929. Silver Spring Foods is the world’s largest grower and processor of horseradish based in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Eric’s mother Nancy, who took over the family business at a young age when her parents tragically passed away while she was in business school at Stanford, remains the CEO and chairman of the board to this day. She has led the company for over 50 years now. Eric worked in all parts of the family business before becoming president of Silver Spring Foods in 2018. Make sure you stay tuned to the end of today’s episode for a spotlight segment with Indiana farmer Jake Smoker about how he’s using technology like Farmwave on his farm. 

Put AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/Advancing Eco Agriculture: https://www.advancingecoag.com/AEA's Equity Crowdfunding Campaign: https://wefunder.com/advancingecoagRegenerative Agriculture Podcast: https://regenerativeagriculturepodcast.com/John Kempf on Twitter: https://twitter.com/realJohnKempfToday’s episode will challenge several commonly held assumptions about the future of agriculture. Take regenerative agriculture, which most define by the ability to improve soil and sequester carbon. But these are outcomes, even by-products, not the complete definition of regenerative, says John Kempf. John is a leading crop health consultant and the founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture. He designs innovative soil and plant management systems to help growers realize the benefits of regenerative transition right away. We talk about what it means to be regenerative, the results they’ve seen from working with over 10,000 farmers across 4M acres, why they’ve launched an equity crowdfunding campaign and how we can all start to look at agricultural problems and solutions through a more regenerative lens.A quick bio on John: John Kempf is the founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture, a plant nutrition and biostimulants consulting company. A top expert in the field of biological and regenerative farming, John founded AEA in 2006 to help fellow farmers by providing the education, tools, and strategies that will have a global effect on the food supply and those who are growing that supply. John is the host of the Regenerative Agriculture Podcast, where he interviews top scientists and growers about the science and principles of implementing regenerative agriculture on a large scale.Through intense study and the knowledge gleaned from many industry leaders, John is building a comprehensive systems-based approach to plant nutrition - a system solidly based on the sciences of plant physiology, mineral nutrition, and soil microbiology. He has a unique ability to simplify and clearly explain very complex concepts in the areas of soil and plant health. He skillfully discusses the larger social and environmental impacts of food, agriculture, and ecology. John’s mission is to provide support to the world’s farmers and globally impact our food supply.

Put AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/Paine Schwartz Partners: https://paineschwartz.com/Today’s episode features Kevin Schwartz of Paine Schwartz Partners. This is a really interesting look at the food and ag industry from a totally different perspective. Kevin and his team are investors, but they’re not trying to invest in early stage startups like a venture capitalist would, or into farmland like other investors might. They focus on companies that already have proven their product, but for one reason or another might be looking to sell or take on an investor. Paine Schwartz Partners focuses their investing in these companies into two general categories: productivity - which includes seed and other inputs and technologies that help farmers and ranchers produce more efficiently and profitably. You’ll hear Kevin use the word “upstream” a lot, and he means upstream in the value chain, so these types of companies/products and services. Then their second area of investing is further downstream into more food companies, specifically those associated with health and wellness. I enjoyed the chance to ask Kevin about the evolution of private equity investing in food and agriculture and their approach from investment thesis development to research and due diligence to value creation strategy to portfolio construction. We also talk about the rise of environmental, social and governance ortherwise known as ESG and impact investing as well as how interest rates impact these companies and PSP’s ability to carry out their strategies. A lot of interesting stuff here that I’m learning for the first time, so I love episodes like this. If you’re an ag nerd but not a finance nerd, there might be a few terms that are foreign to you. I won’t do a full glossary here, but I encourage you to pause and look them up if needed, but stay to the end, because I think there’s some real insight in this episode.A quick bio on Kevin before we dive in: Kevin Schwartz has been an investor in the food and agribusiness industry for more than two decades. Today he leads Paine Schwartz Partners as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner. Raised in the town of Moline on the border of Illinois and Iowa, his great grandparents were subsistence farmers in Iowa and his grandfathe, uncle and father all worked at John Deere. Kevin began his career at Goldman Sachs in the late-1990s, and then moved into private equity working for two organizations, Fremont Partners and American Industrial Partners, before coming to the firm which at that time was called Fox-Paine in 2001.

Put AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/Farming Without The Bank: https://www.farmingwithoutthebank.com/"Becoming Your Own Banker" by R. Nelson NashFarming Without The Bank PodcastMary Jo Irmen is the author of the book Farming Without the Bank and a Infinite Banking Concept Practitioner who has set out to change how the farming industry is financed. She has helped farmers for 13 yrs see that there are financial solutions for them and the next generations. Mary Jo's mission is to take a 100 year old financial process and turn it around by making the bank plan B rather than plan A, give farmers back control, and allowing the next generation to take over without having to buy the farm from the bank with each generation.It’s important for me to note here, that I’m coming to this interview with a personal interest in this infinite banking concept. I’m not a farmer, but I see where it might be a good addition to my personal wealth-building strategy, and I also see where people who rely on banking even more than I do, like farmers, would benefit even more. That said, I’m not a financial or insurance expert. This is not advice. Please talk to an expert before making any financial decisions. This podcast is to try to better understand the infinite banking concept and the tools that go into building your own infinite bank. Let’s start with the 101 version. Here’s how I understand it: We all use banks - well most of us. We all have a general sense of how they make money - and we know they make that money from us. So let’s say for a minute that we see all the money that banks siphon from us through the course of our normal financial lives and we think,  “wouldn’t it be nice if we could be our own bank and keep more of that money for ourselves?” You might think “sure that’s possible if you’re sitting on a big chunk of money that you can just borrow from and lend to, but what about the rest of us?”In the process of accumulating wealth maybe you have a 401k, maybe some real estate, but those aren’t assets designed to be used as a bank to borrow cash from whenever you need it and pay that money back whenever you can. However, there’s another type of asset that is better designed to be used as both a wealth-building tool and a bank. That asset is a certain type of whole life insurance through a dividend paying mutually owned life insurance company. If you’re first hearing about this, it may sound weird. It definitely has taken me a long time to try to get my head around this. But there are aspects of these policies that give you just the flexibility you need to become your own bank: making loans to yourself, repaying yourself, and still accumulating wealth over time. Our guest here has spent 13 years not only doing this, but helping others do the same. She even wrote the book about it, called Farming Without The Bank. This may be an episode you want to listen to multiple times to try to absorb. Or maybe you’re a lot quicker than me and you’ll get it the first time. There are other resources that we mention in the show and I link to in the show notes, most notably the book “Becoming Your Own Banker” by Nelson Nash, who created this concept.

Put AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/Follow Farmwave and Craig on TwitterFoA 237: Use Cases for Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture with Craig Ganssle of Farmwave: https://futureofagriculture.com/episode/foa-237-use-cases-for-artificial-intelligence-in-agriculture-with-craig-ganssle-of-farmwaveToday's episode features Farmwave's harvest loss system, some broader perspective on artificial intelligence in agriculture, and how to build an agtech company that adds real value to farmer customers. Farmwave founder and CEO Craig Ganssle is my guest today. Craig first appeared on the show back in episode 237 in late 2020, where we talked a lot about Craig’s military and technology background and how he has applied it in agriculture. Today, we focus on creating real value for farmer customers, the role of artificial intelligence, and the journey of a successful agtech entrepreneur. If you’re still a little fuzzy on what Farmwave does, the most succinct way to sum it up is to say that they’ve built an autonomous harvest loss system that uses cameras and vision based AI to detect harvest loss in real time and deliver those results in the cab in real time without ever having to stop. Craig first discovered artificial intelligence while serving in the United States Marine Corps as an intelligence communications operator with the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). He was later honorably discharged in 2001 for medical reasons. Craig then spent 15 years as a senior engineer with Verizon Wireless prior to founding Farmwave.Craig is so open about his journey and the lessons he has learned along the way, so all of you who are trying to build or operate a business in agriculture will be able to pull something valuable from this episode.

Soy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/"The Alchemy of Air" by Thomas HagerFoA 325: Electrified and Distributed Fertilizer Production with Nico Pinkowski of NitricityFoA 337: Synthetic biology for nature-based and data-driven farming with Travis Bayer and Adam Litle of Sound AgricultureFoA 348: Investing in the Future of Fertilizer with Sarah Nolet of Tenacious VenturesFoA 370: [History of Agriculture] William J Morse, the Father of the US Soybean IndustryWe learned in elementary school that soil, water and sunlight were what plants needed to survive. But for us to produce not just plants, but also food; food for billions of people, many of which live far away from the farm….we need fertilizer. Especially nitrogen. Lots and lots of nitrogen. Crops need other nutrients as well, but none are more essential than nitrogen. Before the 1900s, that nitrogen mostly came from manure or compost, or the very slow process of microbes that are able to fix small quantities of nitrogen from the air. And that last point, the fact that nitrogen is all around us in the air, was the basis for what is likely the greatest agricultural technology in history: the Haber-Bosch process, which involved the discovery and commercialization of how to convert atmospheric nitrogen in the air into the building block of modern agriculture: fixed nitrogen. The Haber-Bosch process, commercialized in the early 1900s is still where we get our nitrogen fertilizer today, for the most part. It’s estimated that without this process, 2-3 billion of the world’s population, about 40% would starve to death. If that doesn’t hit home hard enough, it’s also estimated that about half of the nitrogen in your body derived from a Haber-Bosch facility. Listen to this short excerpt from Alchemy of Air by Thomas Hager, which is the book that much of today’s episode is based on. Hager says: “While the population nearly quadrupled during the 20th century, food production, thanks first to HB, second to improved genetic strains of rice and wheat, increased nearly seven fold. That is the simple math behind today’s era of plenty”

Soy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/Claire Taylor: https://www.nuffieldscholar.org/scholars/2023/claire-taylorClaire Taylor grew up on a small beef farm on the west coast of Scotland and went on to study Politics and International Relations at Edinburgh University. She is a passionate storyteller and writer, with almost a decade of experience working with the BBC and the Scottish Farmer – first as a reporter and later as political editor.Claire and I discuss her current pursuit: to travel the world in order to understand what she calls the anti-farming agenda, and learn what it means to have productive and honest conversations about the future of farming. Be sure to stick around to the end of today’s episode for a spotlight segment with Ohio farmer and United Soybean Board vice chair Steve Reinhard. What do you think? Do you think there really is an anti-farming agenda out there? And if so, what needs to be done to turn the tide on that? I’m always glad to hear from you either on Twitter or the contact form on the website.

Soy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/Fractal Agriculture: https://fractal.ag/Ben Gordon is the founder and CEO of Fractal Agriculture, a passive farmland investment partner that invests alongside farmers rather than competing against them for land. After serving as an Infantry Officer in the U.S. Army, Ben worked in ag tech, management consulting, and private equity due diligence before his most recent role leading Corteva Agriscience’s carbon program. Kyle Mehmen is a partner at MBS Family Farms, a successful family-owned, family-operated corn and soybean operation in Plainfield, Iowa. Kyle and his family are ardent stewards of their land, leaning into sustainability balanced with profitability.I’ve had the opportunity to interact with both Ben and Kyle in different capacities throughout the years. I worked with Ben’s team at Corteva to host some webinars last year on soil health, and Kyle was featured on this show as part of our Farm Data series with INTENT back on episode 226. So it was fun to reconnect with both of them. This is a fascinating concept though, so whether you’re a farmer, investor, or someone just generally curious about the future of agriculture, I think you’re really going to find this one interesting. We’ll kick things off by getting right the point about what Fractal is doing, having Ben explain the thought process behind the business, then having Kyle share why he’s excited about the potential here for his farming operation. 

Soy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/Soy Innovation Challenge: https://www.thesoychallengelive.com/Farmer Coach: https://farmercoach.ca/Maverick Ag: https://maverickag.com/Hebert Grain Ventures: https://hebertgrainventures.com/FoA 302: Farm Business Strategy with Kristjan HebertFoA 303: Implementing a Farm Operating System with Kristjan HebertEvan Shout is the president and co-founder of Maverick Ag, a business consulting and risk management firm in Western Canada. He also sits as president, co-founder, and lead coach at Farmer Coach, an education and coaching program for primary producers in both Canada and the US. These organizations fall under the Hebert Group of Companies, which also includes Hebert Grain Ventures, a 30,000-acre grain and oilseed operation in southeast Saskatchewan, where Evan sits as Chief Financial Officer.I had the privilege of hosting Evan’s business partner, Kristjan Hebert on the show last year back in episodes 302 & 303. Those were very popular episodes about farm strategy and farm operating systems. We follow that up with today’s episode with Evan Shout about the entrepreneurial mindset and how apply that mindset to running a modern farm business. Spotlight Segment: Mac Marshall is the vice president of market intelligence for the United Soybean Board, where his job as part of the strategy team is to best position farmer leaders and directors to have the best information for making strategic decisions that are going to determine the fate of the soybean industry for years to come. He studied economics as an undergrad, and started his career with the US Bureau of Labor Statistics where he covered livestock, meat, cotton and consumer packaged goods. This background in economics and commodities analysis led to a job with Monsanto in corporate strategy then government relations before he joined the soybean board in 2020. He says strategic decisions from the farmer-led board have had major impacts on soybean farmers for decades, and shares some of the actions they are taking today to make sure the commodity continues to enjoy its demand and distribution for years to come. One example, he says, is the use of soy in renewable diesel.