Is it possible for large food corporations like McDonald’s to “scale for good?” Nicole Johnson-Hoffman is in charge of supplying beef to McDonalds through the OSI Group, and doing so sustainably.
She believes it’s only the big companies that have the power to change entire supply chains. This view comes from years as an industry insider, having even defended the beef industry during the infamous feud between Oprah and the American Cattleman’s Association in the 1990s.
When a company signs on to regenerative agriculture, it can be accused of ‘greenwashing’- making people believe it’s doing more to help the environment than it really is.
General Mills, the company behind iconic brands such as Yoplait, Betty Crocker and Cheerios, made a commitment to bring regenerative agriculture practices to one million acres of farmland by 2030.
Jay Watson is responsible for this task. In this episode Jay shares his views on the criticisms against regenerative agriculture and why- and how- General Mills has decided to invest in it.
Sam Trethewey believes ‘regenerative agriculture’ is not a dirty word - but simply the future of farming. Astonishingly, he produces wagyu beef in Tasmania without actually owning any cows. He does this by combining insights about business models from startups such as Uber and Airbnb with the farming practices of regenerative agriculture.
Mark Wootton is well-known in the Australian agriculture industry as a pioneer in carbon-neutral farming. In 2011, Jigsaw Farms, his family property in south-west Victoria, achieved carbon neutrality - undergoing a process he openly admits was at the time, both “arduous and not necessarily commercially rewarding”.
But his passion for sustainable farming and lowering carbon emissions continues. His latest venture is a “Super Ewe” - where he aims to genetically create a dual purpose sheep.
Karmen Mehmen is a corn and soybean farmer in Iowa alongside her husband Stan and their son Kyle and daughter-in-law Kerri. Their farm, MBS Family Farms, has grown from 160 acres and 40 cows back in the ‘60s to an operation that today supports 20 families. In this episode, Karmen talks about
How technology has enabled them to manage through substantial growth
Learnings from transitioning the farm to the next generation
How structured coaching and support has helped them become better farmers & business owners
Renée Anderson is a farmer in Emerald, Queensland, Nuffield Scholar, agronomist, and overall champion for the cotton industry. In this episode, she shares her insights from Australia and around the world on social license, science communications, and the role that tech can play in helping farmers both improve production and change the narrative about agriculture.
David Carter is the CEO of Austral Fisheries, one of Australia’s largest integrated commercial fishing companies. Austral Fisheries has a reputation as a market leader: they are the only commercial fishing company in the world to be certified as Carbon Neutral, and have been offsetting their emissions to zero since 2016.
In this episode we talk about:
David's path from deckhand to CEO
Austral's journey from commodity to branded, premium product
The bold goals that Austral have set on issues like bycatch and carbon emissions
How technology is helping Austral respond to consumer demands and address social license issues
The 'unlikely alliances' powering Austral Fisheries’ market leading position
Today’s episode is all about corporate investments and acquisitions in agtech. Two guests, Derek Norman (VP at Leaps by Bayer) and Jim Chambers (President and General Manager of the Worldwide Agriculture Business at Trimble) cover different ways startups can engage with corporates, from early stage direct strategic investments, to channel partnerships, to acquisitions.
This episode was recorded LIVE at an event we co-hosted with Tim Hammerich, host of the Future of Agriculture podcast. If you're not yet a FoA listener, check out episode 201 featuring AgThentic Partner Matthew Pryor.
Coming to you live from Australia's first national, virtual AgTech Meetup, this panel explores what alternative proteins are, how big they'll become, and what this means for agriculture.
The panelists at the meetup were:
Catherine Tubb, Research Fellow at RethinkX
Paul Wood, Chairman at AusBiotech
George Peppou, CEO/Co-founder at VOW
The meetup was co-hosted by us (AgThentic) alongside SproutX and Platfarm.
This week Sarah is joined by a guest host, Cass Mao, Principal Advisor at AgThentic, to chat with Pete Nelson of AgLaunch about how growers and agtech companies can work together in a model that they call "farmer-centric innovation"
Pete Nelson, originally a farmer and an English major at University, has been actively involved in building the support ecosystem for new agricultural enterprises for over 15 years. He has worked with a variety of public and private sector partners and helped to launch multiple startup companies. More recently, as President of AgLaunch, Pete has been working on sector-specific initiatives to fund, incubate, and accelerate agricultural companies with high growth potential by working with farmers.
In this episode, Pete explains what “farmer-centric innovation” means, how AgLaunch is driving it, and how having growers at the table fundamentally changes outcomes for startups and regional communities.
Evan Fraser is a food systems innovation expert. His passion for agriculture comes from his love of good food and summers spent spent working on his grandfather’s farm (more on that in the episode). He brings a multi-disciplinary and systems approach to his work, with degrees and work experience in various fields from anthropology to atmospheric chemistry to agriculture.
In this episode, Evan and I cover two main topics:
Three big barriers to agtech adoption, and what’s being done to overcome them; and
The impact of COVID-19 on agricultural supply chains.
Check out the episode blog for more on Evan and links to additional resources.
We hear all the time that we need to "feed the world" and that "agtech can help" But what role will indoor farming play? How do these systems work, what can they grow, and how do they make money?
We believe there will be many viable, profitable farming systems in the future. And that though there is a lot of hype around indoor agriculture, there’s a place for these systems, too.
Today’s guest, Allison Kopf, is an agtech entrepreneur and indoor ag expert. Her company, Artemis, builds software for indoor farms and specialty crops. In this episode, rebroadcast (with updates and edits) from a couple years ago, Allison shares an indoor ag 101. We also cover the challenges for women in agtech, and how we can increase gender diversity at conferences and in the market.
evokeAG, Asia Pacific's largest agrifood tech event, brought together 1300 innovators earlier in February this year in Melbourne, Australia. The jam-packed event featured international experts, innovative farmers, dozens of startups, and much more, showcasing what the region has to offer in agrifood tech innovation.
This bonus episode gives a taste of evokeAG and a live recording of the first panel on the main stage: The Asia-Pacific region and how we are rising. Panelists included:
Andrew Coppin - Farmbot
David Downs - NZTE
John Hartnett - SVG Ventures/THRIVE
Liza Noonan - CSIRO
Sarah Nolet - Tenacious Ventures and your host here at AgTech...So What?
Today’s guest is Alisdair Tulloch, a fourth generation grape grower, who has been on a journey to make his family business, Keith Tulloch Wine, carbon neutral.
In this episode, Alisdair shares:
Why they decided to go carbon neutral;
What practices and technologies they’re using, and what is and isn’t working; and
The financials - what the expensive parts are, and where the returns are coming from.
Mic Fels and his wife Marnie crop about 11,000 hectares in Esperance, Western Australia. But Mic is not your average farmer. He's an early adopter of technologies and farming systems (e.g., Controlled Traffic), and an innovator, building and commercializing a range of software products and machinery through his company, iPaddock.
On this episode, Mic shares where he is- and isn't- getting value in agtech, and what he's learned about both startups and farming from his journey as an entrepreneur.
Agtech is about more than the technologies. It's about new business models in agriculture, and of course the innovators driving changes along the value chain. Today’s guest, Fiona Aveyard, a 5th generation mixed farmer, is definitely an innovator and an entrepreneur.
We talk about how she’s working on a new supply chain and new value add products that can bring more profits to the farm and create jobs in her local community. And she’s doing all of this while facing dust storms and the worst drought in history.
This episode is again part of our series in partnership with Farmers2Founders.
Fee Turner (Bitwise Agronomy) and Lee Coleman (FarmSimple) are both farmers as well as founders of agtech startups. They, along with six other farmer-led businesses, have been selected into the Farmers2Founders Bootcamp program, an intensive 3 month accelerator that is helping them take their business to the next level.
In this episode, Fee and Lee tell us about their farms, startups, and the challenges they're facing being farmers and founders.
This episode is produced in partnership with Farmers2Founders. To learn more, check out https://www.farmers2founders.com/ or follow @farmers2founder on Twitter.
Stuart Austin is a regenerative farmer and self-proclaimed early adopter of technology.
In this episode we cover everything from how Stuart got involved in regenerative ag, to the tools he's using (and helping build) to make 6 and 7 figure decisions at Wilmot Cattle Company.
Stuart also shares his views on alternative proteins, transparency in agriculture, and the books and movies that he's found inspirational.
Ash Miles and David Ricardo are Australian farmers and founders of agtech startups Training Paddock and Farm Service Manager. They, along with six other farmer-led businesses, have been selected into the Farmers2Founders Bootcamp program, an intensive 3 month accelerator that helping them take their business to the next level.
