New Zealand is on a mission to clean up its waterways and restore its ‘clean and green’ image, after the problems of nitrate runoff from dairies made international headlines. It’s now requiring all farmers with over 20ha to report on their pollution levels and sustainability measures. In this episode, dairy farmer Mat Hocken and sustainability veteran Brdgit Hawkins discuss what these regulations mean for innovation and whether they will act as a driver for agtech adoption.
Bringing the public with you… lessons in social license and plant genetics
Vonnie Estes has been at the forefront of genetics in agriculture for 30 years. She’s witnessed the public backlash over GMO crops in the 1990s, as well as the hype over biofuels in the U.S in the 2000s. In her current role as VP of Technology at the Produce Marketing Association, Vonnie helps companies navigate the confusing agtech landscape, investigating the sorts of food innovations consumers want, as well as innovations the world will increasingly need.
What's the [soil carbon] incentive?
Agriculture experts and tech companies alike are claiming soil carbon payments hold huge potential as a new revenue stream for farmers and as a weapon against climate change. Yet, others say it’s all hype. One thing is clear though: it’s a confusing and rapidly evolving space. This episode features a panel of experts from across tech, policy, and corporate agribusiness to tackle the deeper issues in the soil carbon debate around business models, accuracy and measurement.
The Agtech Adoption Dilemma: Irrigation
We have the technology to measure and improve water efficiency on farms, yet adoption remains low- why is this?
This episode explores our hypothesis in our recent report: that the problem is not with the technology, but rather with a lack of understanding of farmer psychology. Our expert panel explores how tech developers, startups and incumbent firms, can design business models that encourage irrigation tech adoption as well as how farmers can make sure they get the irrigation information they need.
Busting food and farming myths with evidence
In a world where food and farming are highly polarized issues, Rob Paarlberg’s approach is to follow the evidence. This has earned him great respect, but also means his well-researched views tend to land him in no-man’s land between traditional industry views and the new food movement.
For instance he supports modern commercial farming and the use of fertilizers - but he’s not pro- big Ag. He’s calling for better animal welfare standards - but he’s not against eating meat. As an author and Associate in the Sustainability Science program at the Harvard Kennedy School, Rob is renowned for debunking the popular myths about food and farming.
What it's REALLY like to work in an agtech startup
If you’re looking at a career in agtech, chances are you’re going to spend time working with startups. But what’s it like to work IN an agtech startup? A fast-paced environment, no red tape, and a big vision may come to mind. But there can be downsides, too, such as long hours and setbacks. Hear about the realities of startup life and whether this is the career for you from Soroush Pour (Vow) Alissa Welker (Steward) and Kerryn Thomas (Goterra).
Breaking Into Agtech
How do you get a career in agriculture or agtech, when you’re not from a farming background? In this episode, we meet four women who’ve become agtech leaders, despite not having grown up on a farm. Hear how they have succeeded at the intersection of two largely white and male dominated industries (agriculture and tech) despite, as they say, ‘not looking the part’.
Scaling Up Soil Carbon Markets
The race is on globally to scale carbon markets, where farmers can sell the carbon they sequester in their soil to buyers who want to offset emissions. But right now, the space is often confusing for buyers, sellers, and the intermediaries working between them. And further, both public and private market schemes have been criticized for inefficiencies and high costs to participate.
Changing human behavior - Matt Crozier
How technology was introduced to a 200 year old sheep station.
Cavan Station is a 25,000 acre property, owned by the Murdoch family, which has undergone a significant transformation in the past 10 years. Matt Crozier, the Station’s General Manager, explains how they’re using genetics, genomics, data and software to improve the farm.
From defense to disruption - Mary Shelman
Mary Shelman is an internationally recognized agribusiness consultant and speaker, and the former Director of Harvard Business School’s Agribusiness program. Mary grew up in Kentucky, watching her father sell farm equipment; now, based in Boston, she helps corporations and governments tackle agriculture’s biggest problems.
“Not a cheerleader, not the enemy”, journalist Sarah Mock on making windows in the walls around agriculture
Sarah Mock is a US reporter who isn’t afraid of calling out the agriculture industry. While sometimes portrayed as being anti-farming, Sarah describes herself as “not a cheerleader; not the enemy”. She grew up on a farm in Wyoming and has also worked with agtech startups and in farm data analysis. Sarah Mock wants a more truthful agriculture industry and is on a mission to “make windows in the walls around farming”.
Regen Ag Series #5 Our Verdict
In this final wrap up episode of our regenerative agriculture series, the team from AgThentic is giving you OUR verdict. Sarah is joined by Matthew Pryor, Partner at AgThentic and co-founder of Tenacious Ventures, to discuss what it will take to move beyond the polarizing debate over whether regen ag is good or bad.
Regen Ag Series #2: Sam Trethewey on applying startup business model insights to produce carbon positive beef
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.
Ep 70: Karmen Mehmen on growing a family farm through 40 years of change
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
Ep 69: Renée Anderson "Cotton Farm Girl" on social media and social license
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.
Ep 68: David Carter on becoming the world's only carbon neutral fishing company
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
Ep 67: tips from three leading farmers using tech everyday (live from evokeAG)
Ep 66: Jim Chambers (Trimble) and Derek Norman (Bayer) on agtech acquisitions
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.
Episode 65: The Alternative Protein Debate: live from Australia's first virtual, national agtech meetup
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.
Ep 64 Pete Nelson on partnering with growers to build better agtech
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.