Future of Agriculture

Tim Hammerich
Future of Agriculture

This show explores the people, companies, and ideas shaping the future of the agriculture industry. Every week, Tim Hammerich talks to the farmers, founders, innovators and investors to share stories of agtech, sustainability, resiliency and the future of food. We believe innovation is an important part of the future of agriculture, and real change comes from collaboration between scientists, entrepreneurs and farmers. Lead with optimism, but also bring data! For more details on the guests featured on this show, visit the blog at www.FutureOfAgriculture.com.

  1. Conservation Agriculture: What Does The Data Say?

    -3 ДН.

    Conservation Agriculture: What Does The Data Say?

    Conservation Technology Information Center: https://www.ctic.org/ Regrow Ag: https://www.regrow.ag/ The Nature Conservancy: https://www.nature.org/en-us/ FoA 248: Regrow Merges Agronomic Insights with Sustainability Metrics Today’s episode is made possible thanks to the support of the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC). Formed in 1982 to support the widespread use of economically and environmentally beneficial agricultural systems, CTIC’s mission is to champion, promote and provide information on climate-smart technologies and sustainable agricultural systems that conserve and enhance soil, water, air and wildlife resources and are productive and profitable. Members of this non-profit organization include farmers, policy makers, regulators, academic researchers, agribusiness leaders, conservation group personnel, farm media, and others. It is supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and other public entities.  Thank you very much to the Conservation Technology Information Center for supporting agricultural innovation and the Future of Agriculture podcast.  All right, now let’s dive into today’s episode. I’m excited for this, because while the content of today’s show are right in our wheelhouse at the data-driven intersection of technology and sustainability, I don’t think I’ve ever had an episode quite like this. We’re not featuring an individual or company, but a collaboration. A group of people who saw a problem in the lack of important information, and came together to make that happen.  To tell this story, I’m very pleased to have on the show three guests: Bill Salas who is the chief strategy officer at Regrow, Dave Gustafson, project director at the Conservation Technology Information Center, and Kris Johnson, director of agriculture at The Nature Conservancy.  Some brief context here:  CTIC, Regrow, and The Nature Conservancy are all partners is bringing together the Observational Tillage Information System, or OpTIS. This is an automated system to map tillage, residue cover, winter cover, and soil health practices using remote sensing data.  And before anyone Tweets me concerned about using remote sensing to track on-farm practices, you should know: while OpTIS calculations are performed at the farm-field scale using publicly available data, the privacy of individual producers is fully protected by reporting only spatially-aggregated results at regional and watershed scales. This collaboration has been happening for over 14 years, long before just about anyone was talking about carbon sequestration or climate smart agriculture, so in a lot of ways, this effort was ahead of its time. And it’s a good thing it was, because these data are needed now more than ever. So, I highly recommend you stick around through all of today’s episode, as we talk about the past, present and future of OpTIS, highlight some of the use cases it enables, and talk about the importance of efforts like this for the future of agriculture.  And this isn’t just answering the simple question of are farmers doing x practice at not. This data can inform much more nuanced questions, like:  Why do farmers employ conservation practice in certain areas vs others?  Does this correlate with investments made in those areas? What is the relationship between crop insurance and conservation...

    50 мин.
  2. Why Kubota Bought Bloomfield Robotics With Mark DeSantis

    11 ДЕК.

    Why Kubota Bought Bloomfield Robotics With Mark DeSantis

    Bloomfield Robotics: https://bloomfield.ai/ Kubota North America Corporation Acquires US-based AgTech Startup FOA 228: Solving the Rural Connectivity Problem with Dr. Sara Spangelo of Swarm Quick note: I am still looking for a couple of brands to partner with in 2025. If your company might be interested in positioning yourself as an innovator in the ag industry, I would love to talk with you about my quarterly presenting sponsorship package. This is an exclusive, I only work with a maximum of four companies per year, and I’m hoping to have all of them locked in by the end of the first quarter of 2025. So if your company is doing innovative work and you’d like to share that with thousands of leaders in the ag industry, please reach out to me at tim@aggrad.com or via LinkedIn or Twitter. I’m happy to share details.  Ok, now back to today’s conversation with Mark DeSantis. As I mentioned, Mark was first on the show about four years ago on episode 228 in October of 2020. Since that time, Mark and team grew Bloomfield AI, a company that helps specialty crop growers improve the health and performance of their crop on a per-plant basis using computer vision and artificial intelligence. Then this past September, it was announced that Kubota had acquired the company.  I wanted to invite Mark back on the show to talk about the experience and his views on where autonomy, robotics and digital ag go from here.    Mark led Bloomfield through the acquisition and is now a consultant to Kubota. Prior to joining Bloomfield in 2019, he was previously cofounder and CEO of RoadBotics (acquired by Michelin), a company that assessed roadway infrastructure using AI. So he’s been in this space of robotics for real world applications for a long time. He is also an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University.

    37 мин.
  3. [History of Agriculture] How Refrigeration Changed Everything

    4 ДЕК.

    [History of Agriculture] How Refrigeration Changed Everything

    Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves by Nicola Twilley Prime Future Newsletter by Janette Barnard The Great Beef Bonanza and the Fall of the Cattle Kingdom "Our ancestors learned to control fire before modern humans even evolved. But our ability to command cold at will dates back a little more than 150 years. Mechanical cooling refrigeration produced by human artifice as opposed to the natural chill offered by weather dependent snow and ice wasn't achieved until the mid 1700s and wasn't commercialized until the late 1800s, and it wasn't domesticated until the 1920s." That is a quote from the book that we're gonna be talking about here today, Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves by Nicola Twilley. I'm very excited to dive into this book. There's so much here on the history of refrigeration and we take for granted how much refrigeration has changed our food system and our world in a number of profound ways. But I'm also excited to not be tackling this massive project by myself. Coming back for another episode is my good friend, animal agtech venture capitalist, and creator of the Prime Future newsletter, Janette Barnard. Also from Twilley's book: "It's impossible to make sense of our global food system until you understand the mysterious logic of the all-but-invisible network of thermal control that underpins it. We overcame not just rot, but seasonality and geography as well." Listen as Janette and Tim unpack their takeaways from this incredible book about the history of refrigeration.

    50 мин.
  4. Climate, People and Agriculture With Sarah Nolet and Connie Bowen

    27 НОЯБ.

    Climate, People and Agriculture With Sarah Nolet and Connie Bowen

    Tenacious Ventures: https://tenacious.ventures/ Farmhand Ventures: https://www.farmhandventures.com/ “Navigating a future of cross sectional forces” (AgriFutures Australia Report): https://agrifutures.com.au/product/navigating-a-future-of-cross-sectoral-forces/ Ag’s Scifi (and Non-Fiction) Future: Horizon Scanning… so what? with Shane Thomas: https://tenacious.ventures/insights/ags-scifi-and-non-fiction-future-horizon-scanning-so-what-with-shane-thomas Citrus Moves North with Farmer and Orangepreneur Lindy Savelle: https://tenacious.ventures/insights/citrus-moves-north-with-farmer-and-orangepreneur-lindy-savelle FoA 348: Investing in the Future of Fertilizer with Sarah Nolet of Tenacious Ventures: https://futureofagriculture.com/episode/foa-348-investing-in-the-future-of-fertilizer-with-sarah-nolet-of-tenacious-ventures-agtech-so-what-crossover FoA 112: Accelerating AgTech with Sarah Nolet of AgThentic: https://futureofagriculture.com/episode/future-of-agriculture-112-accelerating-agtech-with-sarah-nolet-of-agthentic FoA 127: Expanding the Global AgTech Ecosystem with Connie Bowen of The Yield Lab: https://futureofagriculture.com/episode/future-of-agriculture-127-expanding-the-global-agtech-ecosystem-with-connie-bowen-of-the-yield-lab FOA 220: Agricultural Solutions for Hunger and Poverty with Paul Winters of IFAD: https://futureofagriculture.com/episode/foa-220-agricultural-solutions-for-hunger-and-poverty-with-paul-winters-of-ifad FoA 260: The Lentil Underground with Dave Oien of Timeless Seeds: https://futureofagriculture.com/episode/foa-260-the-lentil-underground-with-dave-oien-of-timeless-seeds There are few topics that seem to get people more riled up than climate change. Most of the episodes I’ve done that focus on climate as a theme receive comments from people that seem to think I’m being an alarmist and others thinking that I am drastically underestimating its impacts. I could take this as a sign to avoid the topic altogether, but that’s not really how I roll. I instead take it as a sign that we need to ask more questions and gather more data and context to understand what has everyone so fired up.  And the concept for this episode came to my mind while I was listening to the Agtech, So what? podcast with Sarah Nolet. Specifically, their August episodes which are titled: “Citrus Moves North with Farmer and Orangepreneur

    37 мин.
  5. Making Spot Spray Technology Accessible With Jaisimha Rao of Niqo Robotics

    20 НОЯБ.

    Making Spot Spray Technology Accessible With Jaisimha Rao of Niqo Robotics

    Niqo Robotics: https://niqorobotics.com/ Five Questions About The Ag Robotics Revolution (FIRA USA Takeaways) Today’s episode was recorded live at FIRA USA in Woodland, California. If you’re not familiar with FIRA it is the premier event for agricultural robotics and autonomous solutions in action. If you’d like more of my reflections and takeaways from the event go back and listen to episode 439. But I wanted to feature this interview with Jaisimha Rao as a standalone episode for a few reasons: first, I think his story is interesting as a finance guy turned farmer turned agtech founder. He also uncovers some very real insights about agtech that he’s learned over the past 10 years or so in this industry. And they are a great example of an ag robotics company that is making real impact on farms, not just doing demos and talking about what the future might hold. Because what I’ve been most excited about lately is the commercialization of ag robotics and automation.  Walking around FIRA last month, my first reaction was, this all looks really familiar. Most of the technology has either been around a while or it looks a lot like machines that have. So at first glance you might wonder, are we just stagnating? But then you talk to these companies about what they’re doing with the technology. How many farms their working with and how many hours they have under their belt. In Niqo's case it’s over 50 autonomous sprayers running in India that have operated on over 120,000 acres and worked with over 2000 farmers. That is what has me so excited about what’s happening; what’s new - or relatively new, and what’s changing.  NIQO is now not only expanding in India, but also bringing their technology to the North American specialty crop market with their Niqo Robo Thinner which they had on display at FIRA.

    28 мин.
  6. Predictive Weed Control With Greg Stewart of Geco Strategic Weed Management

    13 НОЯБ.

    Predictive Weed Control With Greg Stewart of Geco Strategic Weed Management

    Geco Strategic Weed Management: https://geco-ag.com/ Today’s episode features a new tool in the toolbox for farmers fighting weed pressure. As I’ve had conversations with farmers throughout the country, there is no doubt that the costs of weed control is a major pain point. This takes a lot of different forms, from the hand labor crews in California’s vegetable crops, to herbicide-resistant kochia in the middle of US and Canada to just the sheer cost of chemistry that’s impacting the bottom line of farmers everywhere, it’s certainly an area ripe for solutions.  For the past few years, Dr. Greg Stewart has been working on a very interesting solution to use data to predict weed pressure. This is interesting because it’s addressing a major problem in weed control, but it’s also interesting because it embodies what where we all hope this “ag data revolution” is going: towards predicting problems before we experience them. This opens the door up for more proactive weed management solutions, in some cases before the crop is even planted.  Greg is a listener to the show and he’s heard my requests over the years to not just feature founders of new technology, but also the farmers that are trying the solutions, so he offered to connect me to Rob Stone. Rob was nice enough to join me for a short interview while in the cab of a tractor, so you’ll get his perspective as well. Rob is a customer of Geco and not compensated by them in any way. He was invited on to openly share his experiences.  Let’s dive into things here starting with an introduction to Greg. I’ll introduce rob when we cut to him mid-episode.  Dr. Greg Stewart is the founder and CEO of Geco Strategic Weed Management, who use AI and agronomic modeling for targeted and predictive control of weeds in farm fields. It requires no new equipment or new practices, and the turnaround time for a new farm can happen within a day. Geco is now serving over 60 farms across Western Canada. Greg’s PhD is in the control of spatially distributed systems. He has worked with a range of industries. His data products reside on farm fields in Canada, US, and South America, in over 12 commercial greenhouses, 350 paper machines, 35,000 production diesel vehicles, and are creating more than $40M/year in value in manufacturing. He holds over 50 patents and 60 technical publications, and is a certified judge for competitive barbecue.

    37 мин.
  7. Five Questions About The Ag Robotics Revolution (FIRA USA Takeaways)

    7 НОЯБ.

    Five Questions About The Ag Robotics Revolution (FIRA USA Takeaways)

    FIRA USA: https://fira-usa.com/ SwarmFarm Robotics: https://www.swarmfarm.com/ Robotics Plus: https://www.roboticsplus.co.nz/ Bluewhite: https://www.bluewhite.ai/ Agtonomy: https://www.agtonomy.com/ Western Growers' Financial Case Studies: https://www.wga.com/innovation/case-studies/ A couple weeks ago I had the chance to attend FIRA USA, which is the gathering for ag robotics and autonomous equipment in agriculture. And autonomy has been on my mind a lot lately. You’ve seen an uptick in autonomy related episodes this past year or so, featuring companies like Verdant Robotics, Carbon Robotics and Sabanto all on different episodes. The reason for this is I’m definitely getting the sense that many of these solutions are starting to reach a tipping point from “wouldn’t it be cool if” to “this is actually being purchased and used on farms”.  And that’s exciting. So while I was at the event I recorded about a dozen conversations and asked some of the questions I have about what I’m choosing to call the “ag robotics revolution”. What you’ll hear today are clips from four founders who were at FIRA USA to feature their technology.  Andrew Bate of SwarmFarm Robotics Steve Saunders of Robotics Plus Ben Alfi of BlueWhite Robotics Tim Bucher of AgTonomy I should mention that Tim’s interview didn’t actually happened at FIRA, it happened earlier this year for a series of radio reports, but it really fit the episode and he was at the event I just missed him, so I wanted to include him. That said, I chose these four to feature on this episode for a number of reasons:  They all have some sort of focus on fully automating the power unit of the farm - aka the tractor - although this isn’t their exclusive focus as you’ll hear - but they all are taking different approachesThey are all originally from different countries, which I think really shows the global effort of this industry and the different perspectives that come with that. Andrew at SwarmFarm from Australia, Steve at Robotics Plus from New Zealand, Ben at BlueWhite from Israel, and Tim at Agtonomy from California. They represent the type of people leading this effort in that these are not young (no offense guys) silicon valley types. These are accomplished entrepreneurs and businessmen in their own right who don’t seem to be doing it because they need the money or they want to become billionaires. They really seem to just have a passion for the technology and the change it can bring to the future of agriculture. This to me is at the core of what made the people I interviewed at this event different from other agtech events I’ve been to. That, and the field demonstrations equipped with everything from fake orchards and vineyards to vegetable beds to a field crops area just big enough to showcase John Deere’s see&spray ultimate and its 120 ft carbon fiber boom was what separates this events from other agtech events.   I’ll tell you more about each of the guests as we go and share some of my thoughts about robotics and the event, but overall through these four interviews, we had the chance to cover seven of the big questions I have about farm robotics, and i’ll outline those questions here:  Has the ag robotics revolution *really* arrived? What’s driving the push toward

    49 мин.
  8. Chickpea As The Rotational Crop of the Future With Kathryn Cook of NuCicer

    31 ОКТ.

    Chickpea As The Rotational Crop of the Future With Kathryn Cook of NuCicer

    NuCicer: https://www.nucicer.com/ Growing Pulse Crops Podcast: https://growingpulsecrops.com/ If we were to re-think the food system and start with human nutrition as the goal, we would likely want food ingredients that are affordable, delicious, high in protein and high in fiber. Chickpeas fit the bill.  Kathryn Cook and the team at NuCicer are developing genetics for chickpeas with more protein to make them more functional and appealing to food companies. But can they pass enough of that value back to the growers to scale? There’s a lot to this story and NuCicer is taking a really interesting approach to creating the rotational crop of the future that is nutritious, delicious, affordable and profitable for farmers. Today’s episode has a lot of fascinating aspects to it, all of which I think give us some interesting threads to pull on when thinking about where agriculture is headed.  On the surface, NuCicer is crop genetics company working with chickpea, or what some of you might know as garbanzo bean, or others might know just as humus, arguably it’s most popular processed form. The company has been able to take the protein content from 20-22% up to 30-35%, which has major ramifications for its use as a food ingredient. One of those ramifications is the obvious - more protein - but it’s also a tastier source of protein and one that is rich in fiber and has fewer low value co-products, which is an interesting part of the story that we will get into.  If you think this is just another meat alternative story - guess again! This is really about adding protein and fiber to foods that are currently composed of other grains or oilseeds or peas. You’ll hear us use the word “fortify” which is referring to the ability to make a processed food healthier without sacrificing the eating experience.  But while a big part of the story here is using science to make better foods for people, we can’t lose site of the need for this to also work for farmers. Kathryn has a really interesting take on this that you’ll definitely want to hear because it’s a bit of a different approach from a lot of other genetics companies.  Speaking of Kathryn Cook, she is a materials scientist and engineer by training, spending the first part of her career with Boeing and Meta. But she is also the daughter of Dr. Douglas Cook, a professor of plant pathology at UC Davis.  Doug Cook had been working a lot with chickpeas in his research at Davis. The way Kathryn explained it to me is that when the chickpea was domesticated thousands of years ago, only a small number of seeds were brought forward in that process, so today 95% of the genetic diversity remains in the wild species. Doug Cook has been working to identify those species that are compatible with modern chickpea varieties and systematically cross pollinating to bring back some of that genetic diversity. The result is a novel library from which they can now launch new traits in the market. Part of that work started to include protein when they found dramatic difference in protein content in some of these wild species.  This work caught Kathryn’s attention at a time when she was considering leaving her job in materials science to pursue a startup in food and ag. The two ultimately co-founded NuCicer together to commercialize some of this research Doug was doing through a tech transfer agreement with the university. And they soon were awarded a $1M non-dilutive grant from the  Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research to get started.

    45 мин.
См. все (419)

4,9
из 5
Оценок: 247

Об этом подкасте

This show explores the people, companies, and ideas shaping the future of the agriculture industry. Every week, Tim Hammerich talks to the farmers, founders, innovators and investors to share stories of agtech, sustainability, resiliency and the future of food. We believe innovation is an important part of the future of agriculture, and real change comes from collaboration between scientists, entrepreneurs and farmers. Lead with optimism, but also bring data! For more details on the guests featured on this show, visit the blog at www.FutureOfAgriculture.com.

Информация

  • Автор
    Tim Hammerich
  • Годы выхода
    2016 - 2024
  • Выпуски
    419
  • Ограничения
    Без ненормативной лексики
  • Авторские права
    © Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved Future of Agriculture
  • Сайт подкаста
    Future of Agriculture

Вам может также понравиться

Чтобы прослушивать выпуски с ненормативным контентом, войдите в систему.

Следите за новостями подкаста

Войдите в систему или зарегистрируйтесь, чтобы следить за подкастами, сохранять выпуски и получать последние обновления.
Выберите страну или регион

Африка, Ближний Восток и Индия

Азиатско-Тихоокеанский регион

Европа

Латинская Америка и страны Карибского бассейна

США и Канада