CropTalk

Kyle Barnett

Welcome to CropTalk, Your favorite podcast for all things greenhouses, CEA, and AgTech! Whether you've been with us since day one or you're a brand-new listener (hi, welcome, grab a seat!), we're here to bring you insightful conversations with the people shaping the future of agriculture.​ Hosted by the endlessly curious Kyle Barnett, CropTalk dives into everything from growing tips and industry trends to personal stories and business advice. We talk with growers, greenhouse operators, AgTech innovators, and anyone with a good story to tell. It's like chatting with your smartest friends over coffee, except about crops (and usually with fewer coffee spills). Now powered by IUNU, CropTalk has had a little glow-up. We've added more resources, expanded our guest list, and doubled down on making every episode better than ever. So whether you're here for the wisdom, some entertainment, or both, you're in the right place. New listeners, longtime fans, welcome to the CropTalk family. Let's talk crops and grow together!

See All

  1. Episode 285

    285. What Actually Gets a CEA Company Funded or Sold in 2026 w/ Andrew Howell

    In this episode of CropTalk, we sit down with Andrew Howell, Partner at Ascendant Partners. Andrew last joined us 101 episodes ago at episode 174 in November 2021, and he returns to test what actually holds up about getting a CEA company funded or sold heading into 2026 and 2027. We walk through the three legs of the stool he uses to judge any operation: reliable growing technology and a cost effective build, yield that pencils, and a buyer at the end. We cover why "if you build it, they will come" broke down against retailers like Kroger and Whole Foods that were never going to carry 50 suppliers of the same 5 ounce clamshell. We get into offtake as the precondition Ascendant now requires before taking on a mandate, the shift from world domination plans to businesses targeting a 10 to 15 percent EBITDA margin, and why food and agriculture is roughly 8 percent of US GDP but attracts less than 1 percent of investment dollars. We also cover the shrinking pool of investors who have not already been burned in the space, the two plus year cycle to bring new acreage online, Taylor Farms acquiring the Equinox facility in Virginia, whether a head grower belongs in the boardroom, the 2017 white paper Andrew wrote arguing greenhouses would win out over vertical farms, and his call for small and mid-sized acquisitions to roll into larger networks through 2027. The unvarnished truth he gives clients, even when they do not want to hear it, runs through the entire conversation.

    285. What Actually Gets a CEA Company Funded or Sold in 2026 w/ Andrew Howell

  2. Episode 286

    286. Learning the Greenhouse Before Betting the Farm w/ Carl Gupton

    Carl Gupton filled his first greenhouse at half capacity on purpose, to learn how the house behaved before chasing a yield number. Now CEO of Greenswell Growers, the start-from-scratch operation outside Richmond in Goochland, Virginia, Carl returns to CropTalk to walk through what that discipline bought. Greenswell runs a single one and a half acre house, and Carl breaks down the climb to financial equilibrium after about three years, where the operation sits now, cash flow positive, self-sustaining, and selling out, and the roughly 15 percent of yield he thinks is still on the table. We cover how distribution drifted far from the plan first pitched to the bank, spreading from Virginia across the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast, and the Lowes Foods co-brand that lifted movement about 30 percent by letting a new label ride an established one. We get into the fork Carl is standing at, expanding the current site or greenfielding a new one, and why he wants to go big while staying wary of building ahead of demand in this financing climate. We also cover the Cyclospora scare rippling through field greens, and why he sees clean, ready-to-wash greenhouse lettuce as CEA's opening to take share and draw capital back.

    286. Learning the Greenhouse Before Betting the Farm w/ Carl Gupton

  3. Episode 287

    287. Starting With the Plant, Not the Machine w/ Rodrigo Pereyra

    In this episode of CropTalk, we sit down with Rodrigo Pereira, VP of Horticulture, Development, Innovation and Quality Assurance at GoodLeaf Farms. Rodrigo joined GoodLeaf in August 2025 after roughly three and a half years at Bowery Farming, where he led R&D across plant science and farm operations before the company closed in October 2024. We walk through his non-linear path into CEA, from a physics background into a decade in horticultural lighting at Osram and Fluence, and how that lighting work led him into vertical farming. We cover the plant-first system design philosophy he carried from Bowery to GoodLeaf, building the growing system around the plant's biology instead of forcing the plant to fit the engineering. We get into how GoodLeaf runs three profitable farms today, the cost discipline and demand forecasting behind that result, and how Canada's buy-local sentiment following 2025 tariff tensions has shaped retail demand. We also cover microgreens as an underdeveloped category opportunity, GoodLeaf's national Canadian retail footprint including a new Walmart launch, and Rodrigo's read on where vertical farming goes from here as the industry shifts from a technology-first mindset to an agriculture-first one. Rodrigo closes on what scares him most in this business, the risk of an unidentified pathogen taking down a farm, and what excites him, the chance to prove that a small handful of vertical farms can show the model actually works.

    287. Starting With the Plant, Not the Machine w/ Rodrigo Pereyra
See All Season 8 (3)

4.7
out of 5
38 Ratings

About

Welcome to CropTalk, Your favorite podcast for all things greenhouses, CEA, and AgTech! Whether you've been with us since day one or you're a brand-new listener (hi, welcome, grab a seat!), we're here to bring you insightful conversations with the people shaping the future of agriculture.​ Hosted by the endlessly curious Kyle Barnett, CropTalk dives into everything from growing tips and industry trends to personal stories and business advice. We talk with growers, greenhouse operators, AgTech innovators, and anyone with a good story to tell. It's like chatting with your smartest friends over coffee, except about crops (and usually with fewer coffee spills). Now powered by IUNU, CropTalk has had a little glow-up. We've added more resources, expanded our guest list, and doubled down on making every episode better than ever. So whether you're here for the wisdom, some entertainment, or both, you're in the right place. New listeners, longtime fans, welcome to the CropTalk family. Let's talk crops and grow together!

Information

  • Creator
    Kyle Barnett
  • Episodes
    286
  • Seasons
    8
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2024, CropTalk Media, a iUNU entity
  • Show Website
    CropTalk

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