Headstorm: https://headstorm.com/
AGPILOT: https://headstorm.com/agpilot/
ELO Life: https://elolife.com/
Pairwise: https://www.pairwise.com/home
New Leaf Symbiotics: https://www.newleafsym.com/
Harpe Bio: https://harpebio.com/
"Biologicals are ‘economically unfeasible’ According to Report: The Shortcomings and Opportunities" by Upstream Ag Insights: https://www.upstream.ag/p/biologicals-are-economically-unfeasible
I considered a title for this episode that was something like “The Biological Revolution Coming to Agriculture”.
I decided against it, and not just because it’s over-dramatic and the word ‘revolution’ is tossed around way too much, but because it would give many listeners the wrong idea of what this episode is about.
This is not an episode about biologicals, which has become a catch-all term for things like biostimulants, biopesticides, biofungicides, and bioherbicides. I’m not a fan of trying to categorize things as “biologicals” for the following reasons:
With all of that said I do believe that advancements in biotechnology will have the single biggest impact of any technology on the future of agriculture. And that’s what I want to talk about here in this episode and highlight four companies that are doing some fascinating work driven by biology, that I had the chance to sit down with at World Agri-Tech this year.
So that intro might sound like I’m both criticizing biologicals and calling them the future of agriculture. Let me clarify: my point is that we need to stop lumping everything into this biologicals category and making judgments about a vague category and instead look at how companies and products can stand on their own merits and the value they offer to farmers and consumers.
In today’s episode, I’ll feature two companies in ELO Life and Pairwise that are using biotechnology, specifically gene editing, to change the game on certain agricultural products and ingredients. What they can do it mind-blowing - they are like the Willy Wonka’s of agriculture.
Then we’ll dive deeper into a New Life Symbiotics, which is more of a biological company in the classic sense of the word in that they sell microbes used as biostimulants and biopesticides. This is will give you a great look into some of the challenges and opportunities of these types of products.
Finally we’ll take a peak into what Harpe Bio is doing with their natural chemistry made from plant extracts to provide a new suite of herbicide products.
All of these examples are enabled by advancements in our understanding of biology combined with the data science and other tools that I think will accelerate innovation in agriculture faster than just about anything else out there today.
But let’s not evaluate these stories on how the products were developed, but what problems they solve what value they can offer.
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
FoA 323: The Changing Venture Capital Landscape with Mark Blackwell of Builders VC
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