Headstorm: https://headstorm.com/
AGPILOT: https://headstorm.com/agpilot/
Hemprino: https://www.hemprino.co.nz/
Prime Future Newsletter: https://primefuture.substack.com/
We’ve all heard the stats about how little of what consumers pay makes it back to the farmer or rancher. Some producers, like New Zealand sheep farmer Paul Ensor, are seizing the opportunity to capture more of that value.
"A lot of farmers don't know where their produce goes once it leaves the farm gate, but we're very well connected and we know what standards they require for us to grow the wool under. And so it's all about adding value and the best way to do that is be better connected to our end customer, farm to fashion."
Paul is capitalizing on this farm to fashion opportunity in a number of ways, including his own natural fiber brand called Hemprino, which is a blend of 80% fine merino wool and 20% hemp.
"There's a lot of wool blended with synthetic fibers to give it various attributes, whether to make the yarn stronger or more durable or give it some stretch. So we thought, well, why can't we do that with another natural fiber?"
Hemprino has been successful and Paul says he’s having a lot of fun, but running a consumer focused business on top of a farming operation, is not an easy challenge to take on.
"The supply chain is very challenging. So like when the wool leaves the farm, it's almost at times up to 18 months before we can have a garment to sell. So just all that managing that time from leaving the farm gate to hitting the store, if you like, has been quite challenging."
Paul Ensor of Hemprino talks to guest host Janette Barnard on today’s Future of Agriculture podcast.
FoA 343: Artficial Intelligence, Knowledge Graphs, and a Cloud for Agriculture with Krishna Kumar of CropIn
FoA 342: Leading from the farm: insights from farmer innovators
FoA 341: California Cotton and Climate Coalition with Cannon Michael and Rebecca Burgess
FoA 340: Building farm-ready robots with Hunter Jay of Ripe Robotics
FoA 339: Carbon neutral foods with Ann Radil and Jim Jarman of Neutral
FoA 338: Animal Feed as a Food Waste Solution with Justin Kamine of Do Good Foods
FoA 337: Synthetic biology for nature-based and data-driven farming with Travis Bayer and Adam Litle of Sound Agriculture
FoA 336: Agtech for grain marketing and risk management with Dakota Hoben of Farmers Risk
FoA 335: Farming isn't natural, but it can be more sustainable with Alex Smith of the Breakthrough Institute
FoA 334: Cybersecurity in Agribusiness with Mike Moore of Ever.Ag
FoA 333: Farm Labor Challenges in Specialty Crops with Mike and April Clayton of Red Apple Orchards
FoA 332: Field Information Infrastructure with Dan Rooney, Ph.D. of LandScan
FoA 331: Building Local Frozen Fruit Supply Chains with Alex Piasecki of Seal the Seasons
FoA 330: 10 Former Guests That Have Been Acquired...and what we can learn from them
FoA 329: Predictive Analytics for Soil Biology with Mike Tweedy of Pattern Ag
FoA 328: Value Added Processing with Darren Bondar of Hempalta and Chris Theal of Phyto Organix
FoA 327: Plant Breeding's Past, Present and Future with Marcel Bruins, Ph.D.
FoA 326: Regenerative Agriculture in Specialty Crops with Silas Rossow of California Ag Solutions
FoA 325: Electrified and Distributed Fertilizer Production with Nico Pinkowski of Nitricity
FoA 324: Dry Farmed Orchards, Wild and Heritage Apples and Natural Cidermaking with Brendan Barnard of Posterity Ciderworks
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