Today’s episode is the deepest dive I’ve done to date into the world of regenerative agriculture. You’ll probably be able to hear it in my voice in the interview, but this one had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. In fact I think the conversation just gets more and more interesting the deeper we get into it. If you’re new to the concept of regenerative agriculture, some previous episodes in which we discuss the concepts are episodes 44 , 64 , 109 , 135 , 182 , and 199 . My viewpoint on ...
Sep 09, 2020•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast “Quinoa is very unique. One, it is gluten free but it also contains high amounts of protein and a greater balance of essential amino acids than cereals.” - Angela Ichwan This week we are exploring the emerging market of American grown quinoa. The financial, environmental and supply chain consequences of a few farmers from the San Luis Valley in Colorado that started developing this product are shared today. Paul New is a 3rd generation farmer that was initially introduced to quinoa production by...
Sep 02, 2020•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s episode has some really important perspective, especially for those of us who do not see the effects of persistent hunger and poverty on a daily basis. I have on the show Paul Winters, who is the Associate Vice-President of the Strategy and Knowledge Department of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). IFAD is part of the United Nations and is the only UN agency or international financial institution that works exclusively in rural areas. They work in around 100 coun...
Aug 26, 2020•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast The idea for today’s show happened as I was working on another podcast I produce for NDSU Extension Soil Health called “Soil Sense”. I was interviewing a farmer named Mark Olson about strip tillage. It was a fascinating topic, but what really piqued my interest was the way he spoke about the company behind his strip tillage equipment. He kept talking about his SoilWarrior guy that had been so helpful. I believe he said something to the effect of “I just can’t say enough good things about SoilWar...
Aug 19, 2020•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Many of you know that I am endlessly interested in water and water-related topics. Today’s episode is another installment in my exploration to better understand realistic solutions to our water problems. We have on the show Dr. Wim Bastiaanssen who is the Founder of IrriWatch. The company is very new, I think less than two years old, but it’s the culmination of decades of Wim’s research and consulting on water, irrigation, and remote sensing. Now if you think irrigating a crop is just like irrig...
Aug 12, 2020•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast We are back with another Fulcrum Global Capital portfolio company this week. The company MicroGen Biotech has produced a microbe that can help encapsulate and precipitate heavy metals in the soil. This process results in a gradual cleaning of soil pollution and reduces the amount of heavy metal uptake by the plant which in turn will reduce the amount of heavy metals consumed by the public. MicroGen recently won the award for the agtech category at Samsung’s Extreme Tech Challenge. Founder Dr. Xu...
Aug 05, 2020•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast What does a more distributed regionalized or even localized food system look like at scale? How can producers capture more of the value of that type of food system? What is the right type of investor to help fuel that sort of system? Stephen Hohenrieder spent his early career in capital markets and has an agricultural background. Stephen now works for family offices. These are investment entities that invest on behalf of a single-family. In this episode, we talk about investing in regenerative a...
Jul 29, 2020•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast What are the barriers to customer acquisition for agribusiness and agri tech companies? In10nt is a company that attempts to answer that question and bridge the gap between company and farmer. They focus on being able to create trials at the farm level to introduce a product and allow farmers to find the best fit for their operations. Dan Poston is the Director of Agronomy for Pivot Bio. Sean Blomgren is a fourth-generation family farmer from Iowa and is the owner of Blomgren Seed. Both Dan and ...
Jul 22, 2020•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Danette Amstein and Michael Uetz are the Principles and Co-Founders of Midan Marketing. Their focus is on being a full-service marketing firm for the meat industry. Both Danette and Michael grew up in agriculture and worked in the National Cattlemen's Beef Association prior to founding Midan Marketing.. Michael specifically worked on identifying “what is the consumer looking for and how do we be responsive to their needs.” They joined forces to create Midan Marketing and further pursue closing t...
Jul 15, 2020•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Story of CoverCress isn’t just as straightforward as bringing a new crop to the market. Their ambitions also represent a new feed, a new cover crop, genetic engineering, a low carbon intensity feedstock and a new revenue source for farmers among others. Fulcrum Global Capital saw the potential in CoverCress and return to the show this week to share the excitement surrounding this company. If you missed episode 208 where we first introduced Fulcrum Global be sure to go listen to it. The Cover...
Jul 08, 2020•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast In recent months societies magnifying glass has been held over the existence of systemic racial inequality. It shouldn’t be surprising then, that that conversation can easily be carried on into the agriculture industry. Bryana Clover advocates for racial equality in the workplace as a consultant to companies. Bryana is biracial and through her experiences in agribusiness has found an “intense passion for creating brave spaces to have tough conversations around race in the workplace.” “I truly be...
Jul 01, 2020•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast We do a lot of agtech episodes on this podcast, but I don’t think we’ve had one quite like this. Today’s episode is primarily focused on the area of agtech that includes site-specific agronomic tools that you’d hear referred to as variable-rate or under the umbrella of precision agriculture. “The agtech industry in general looks pretty glamorous, but it’s a tough, tough business.” My guest is Cory Willness, the President of CropPro Consulting, which is an agronomy consulting services firm in Wes...
Jun 24, 2020•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast “In a lot of ways ag’s desire to be united is the thing that divides it the most.” - Sarah Mock Sarah Mock has built her career around having difficult discussions and chasing the realities of agriculture. She is committed to not being an enemy or a cheerleader of agriculture creating a more balanced, real reporting style. In a world of fake news, her journalistic integrity is most welcomed. In an attempt to not isolate any particular views, mainstream agriculture media has historically chosen t...
Jun 17, 2020•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Pristine Gourmet was formed in 2005 with the vision of supplying the food industry with quality local non-GMO artisan foods. Jason Persall owns Pristine Gourmet in Waterford, Ontario. He converted his 1000 acre strictly traditional commodity soybean farm to support the three pillars of Pristine Gourmet; heritage, passion and craftsmanship. They produce fresh and unique cooking oils for retail, restaurants and bulk ingredients. The major obstacle faced by Pristine Gourmet was finding shelf space ...
Jun 10, 2020•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Fulcrum Global Capital is a venture capital firm focused on global food production. Traditional row crop agriculture, production animal health and agriculture technology are the main interests of their investment thesis. They often find themselves investing in early stage companies that are “not only early stage in terms of a company’s life cycle, but early in terms of where the technology falls in the value chain of the food production.” When they initially heard the pitch by P&P Optica Founder...
Jun 03, 2020•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Playing with puppies and kittens most of the day and selflessly saving any and all helpless animals in between are the common perception of being a veterinarian that many people pictured as a child. James Herriot painted a beloved picture of adventure and fun that many fell in love with. I’d be remiss to admit that occasionally this does describe the job but unfortunately, the more common reality faced by veterinarians is a lot less rosy. Dr. Judson Vasconcelos is the head of the Veterinary and ...
May 27, 2020•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Blockchain. A word that has been overhyped and yet still becoming more realized every day. Bridie Ohlsson joins us and is the Founder of Geora , a protocol for blockchain applications in agriculture. Bridie’s career with blockchain began with AgriDigital when the world was discovering and getting excited about the potential applications of blockchain. Bridie shares what the goals of any blockchain company were at that time. “So you needed to be kind of an open and fairly non-competitive technolo...
May 20, 2020•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast We are going back to the farm today. Zach Johnson, the YouTuber Minnesota Millennial Farmer and Mitchell Hora, farmer and founder of Continuum Ag , join us today. These two co-host the Fieldwork Podcast , “a podcast for farmers, from farmers.” Fieldwork Podcast focuses on sustainable farming practices, their environmental impact and how to make them profitable. For Mitchell, Continuum Ag specifically supplies health data analytics and does consulting for farmers. Mitchell and Zach farm 500 miles...
May 13, 2020•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kellee James joins us today to discuss what it takes to build a platform as co-founder and CEO of Mercaris , a market information service and online trading platform for identity preserved agricultural commodities. “We’re a market data and information service. We are also an online trading platform but we have chosen to focus on a specific part of the ag supply chain, and that is identity preserved ag commodities.” - Kellee James Mercaris provides price discovery while allowing customers a procu...
May 06, 2020•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast What affect will animal genomics have on the future of agriculture? Dr Jesse Hoff from Gencove joins us today to explain the advantages assessing livestock genomics can offer. Gencove performs genetic sequencing providing half of the animal’s genome. This allows for an avenue to assess the genetic potential of any animal for a breeding program in a rapid, efficient, affordable fashion. “What we’re trying to capture is what we call the genetic value or sometimes the breeding value of that bull. A...
Apr 29, 2020•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast What does food security mean? We hear about it frequently but this complex category involves much more than just assessing our agricultural capabilities. The main pillars of food security involve food affordability, food availability, food quality, food safety, and natural resource and resilience. One tool for evaluating where companies and governments land is provided in the Food Security Index Report performed by the Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by Corteva. Dana Bolden joins us to...
Apr 22, 2020•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Make sure you listen to FOA 201 with Matthew Pryor. This is some bonus content from that episode where Tim asks Matthew about water issues, policy, and innovation. Connect with Matthew Pryor AgThentic Website Tenacious Ventures Website Share the Ag-Love! Thanks for joining us on the Future of Agriculture Podcast – your spot for valuable information, content, and interviews with industry leaders throughout the agricultural space! If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please subscribe on Apple Podca...
Apr 20, 2020•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Matthew Pryor joins us today as not only a partner in AgThentic, an Australian based food, and ag sustainability and innovation consulting firm, but also as a co-founder of Tenacious Ventures, a food and ag venture capital firm that just closed their first fund of nearly $30 million. As though that wasn’t enough, Matthew has already successfully exited two different startups. To say he has his finger on the pulse of ag innovation, sustainability and company start-ups is putting it mildly. In thi...
Apr 15, 2020•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast We made it to episode 200! Drones have become a sort of symbol for modern ag technology whether over-hyped or legitimate. Michael Ott, CEO of Rantizo, proves that there is little room to be a drone skeptic anymore. Rantizo uses drones with a ten foot boom sprayer to spray, seed and sometimes even pollinate crops. Their main customers are retailers interested in expanding their territory by virtue of ease of application and mobility of equipment. “We can get into fields where nobody else can….We’...
Apr 08, 2020•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is it possible to become a rancher when you aren’t born into a land inheritance? Aimee Danch and Jeremiah Stent from Square Mile Ranch join us today to talk about their recent purchase of a 370-acre ranch in Wallowa, Oregon. Like people buy a fixer-upper home for their first one. We’re buying a fixer-upper ranch for our first one and we feel really excited about (it). -Jeremiah Stent Both Jeremiah and Aimee have experience managing ranches across and even outside the country. Originally their go...
Apr 01, 2020•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Chris Peacock is the CEO and Founder of AQUAOSO, a company that aims to build a water-resilient future through software and technologies that identify, analyze, and monitor water risk in the economy. Chris is a three-time water tech entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in the water industry. He works with agricultural lenders and helps reduce their financial risk by providing analytics and insights on water risk management. Chris joins me today to share AQUAOSO’s main goal and how it ca...
Mar 25, 2020•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mark Kahn is the Managing Partner of Omnivore , an India-based venture capital firm specifically focusing on funding entrepreneurs who are working to advance agriculture and food systems. Before this role, Mark served as the Executive Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at Godrej Agrovet and Strategy Manager of Syngenta. Mark earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and has extensive experience in rural marketing, corporate strategy, product development, research and developme...
Mar 18, 2020•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Watson Jones is a fourth-generation farmer and the co-founder of Small Robot Company, an agri-tech startup firm that specializes in advancing agriculture through artificial intelligence and robotics. Specifically, Small Robot Company uses precision agriculture to promote efficiency over speed. Sam is also a director of his family’s farming, house building, and manufacturing business, Howle Manor Group. Sam joins me today to discuss a different way of looking at precision agriculture and how ...
Mar 11, 2020•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Michael Stenta is the software developer and owner of farmOS , a web-based app used for planning, record keeping, and general farm management. What sets farmOS apart from other apps is its open-source nature. This means the app can be tweaked or fixed by virtually any contributor. To take advantage of its open-source nature, Michael also created Farmier , a platform that makes it easy for farmers to update or host their farmOS systems. Michael joins me today to discuss what farmOS is, its purpos...
Mar 04, 2020•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast In10t CEO Randy Barker joins me to share some high-level thoughts on customer adoption. He told me it all starts with the farmer, and the recognition that all farmers are different. In10t collaborator Chad Rubbelke is a farmer in Central North Dakota who is a great example of someone who is the right type of collaborative, intelligent, and curious farmer collaborator any company would want to work with. Along with Chad, we talk with John Grandin, who is the National Agronomy Coordinator for Comp...
Feb 26, 2020•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
