Agtech - So What?

For the final installment in our three-part food waste series, we’re climbing all the way up to the top of the supply chain to gain a deeper understanding of on-farm food loss and waste. The challenges that farmers face getting food to the farm gate have ramifications that are felt all throughout the food system, so by understanding this vital link in the chain, we’ll gain insight into how we migh...

We’re digging back into waste in the food system this week, but to narrow the focus, we’re zooming in on Australia. Australia is a country that has set specific targets on waste reduction, but so far, is largely on track to miss them, and companies all along the value chain are contributing.  Alongside our broader discussion of overall waste targets in the country, we take a more focused look at a...

Waste in the food system is an incredibly big challenge. Whether the aim is to reduce food loss, to curb packaging that ends up in landfills, or even to ensure food that’s grown makes it out of the field, there is waste at every link in the chain that continues to contribute to food and ag’s outsized climate impact. The good news is, there are plenty of startups, and many investors, that are tackl...

There’s a common misconception in the alternative protein space that continues to hold back innovation: the idea that conventional and alternative products are direct competitors. In general, the idea that consumers are dropping conventional milk for soy milk, or eschewing chicken in favor of plant-based nuggets just isn’t reflected in the data. More often then not, consumers buy both conventional...

Deep tech– or the world of technology companies beyond those that make software– is often seen as a bridge too far for the world of venture capital investing. A key challenge; the tried and true strategies around growing high-value companies quickly that were the hallmark of the 2000s and 2010s don’t often translate when a company is moving atoms and molecules instead of bits and bytes. But from o...

When it comes to phosphorus-- the second most prominent fertilizer component– a big problem today is that it is simultaneously too rare on earth overall and too abundant in the landscapes where it's used. The vast majority of the world’s phosphorus reserves are found in just two countries, Morocco and China. And phosphorus runoff, largely originating from agricultural uses, leads to toxic algal bl...

The question of how to make commodity crops more valuable is a perennial one in agriculture, and over the years there have been a lot of good-- and bad-- answers. Recently, one strategy has emerged that we find particularly intriguing, though it's safe to say it comes with plenty of challenges. Today, we’re exploring molecular farming– which, in this case, involves the production of dairy proteins...

When people in ag think about fertilizer, nitrogen -- or N -- is usually the first thing that comes to mind, whether thinking about yields, costs, or environmental impacts. But phosphorus is another concerning element of the crop nutrient mix, due to the declining mineable supplies, and the fact that those supplies are almost exclusively located in Morocco and China. But natural deposits aren’t th...

Global geopolitical disruptions first put fertilizer center stage as farmers around the world struggled with price and supply swings. But that was just the beginning of the conversation– as fertilizer tech begins to step into the spotlight, offering alternatives not only to traditional products, but to our whole way of thinking about the crop nutrients sector. Today, Tim Hammerich of the Future of...

Breaking news in the agtech world abounds here at the beginning of 2023, and as we've tracked the latest announcements, we've been thinking a lot about a few tech updates, especially from major brands, and what they might mean for the agtech landscape in the near future. Today, teammates Komal Patel and Matthew Pryor join Sarah to discuss a few pieces of news from the past few weeks that stood out...

Agtech has long had an interest in shortening the supply chain between farms and consumers. And yet after years of effort, relatively little progress has been made beyond a proliferation of farmers markets and some new “local” tags at supermarkets. There are a lot of challenges in this space that go beyond a simple technical fix, and overcoming them often requires rethinking the entire business mo...

2022 was a wild year– both in the world of agtech broadly, and for us here at Tenacious Ventures. We’ve covered a lot of ground, spanning everything from scaling soil tech, to the future of ag marketing, to alternative protein, novel investing tactics, and most recently, the next generation of farm inputs. Today, we’re taking some time to reflect on the most important lessons we’ve learned on the...

There is a lot of momentum in agtech right now around investing at the intersection of ag and climate– and inevitably, many conversations start with a focus on how to measure impact. The problem we’ve been thinking about lately-- this conversation often gets stuck on the measurement challenge. In our perspective, the real opportunities go beyond just measuring the impact of decisions like practice...

We’ve talked and thought a lot about autonomy this year, and despite what we think are some promising developments, overall, we continue to be struck by just how hard it is to bring solutions to market. From the technology to the use case, from the regulations to data, there are barriers and problems to solve in every direction. So today we’re covering a ton of ground to understand why bringing au...

We’ve been thinking a lot recently about how much the world of agtech has changed over the last two decades, and how companies, and more importantly, their customers, are adapting to an increasingly digitally native world. For years, the focus was on educating farmer-customers and post-sales training. But today, sophisticated growers tell their tech partners, and their peer networks, what they wan...

Today we're tackling part two of our future of Nitrogen fertilizer discussion, focusing on the realm of business models and strategies. We chat with two companies exploring how we might reimagine the way farmers around the world buy and sell this critical input, including through distributed, rather than centralized, supply chains. We’ll continue our conversation with Bill Brady , CEO and Director...

This is the first episode in our series on the future of fertilizer, starting with Nitrogen - the N in NPK. Russia’s war in Ukraine has collided with natural gas supply chain disruptions and sent the price of fertilizer skyrocketing. But, this isn’t the least of the crop nutrient industry’s problems. It’s a space renowned for being complex and confusing. It also relies on an emissions-intensive va...

For a year that has already seen so much downside for US farmers in the form of extreme weather - from droughts to soaring temperatures - there’s another risk looming: rising interest rates. Adapting to an increasingly unpredictable and extreme climate is not cheap or easy. For farmers planning for the resilience and longevity of their business, the intersection of climate and fiscal risk has us w...

While early-stage agtech tends to play in the venture world, it pays to check in with how folks sitting in banking think about their role as partners to startups. Traditional lenders can draw on the best part of a century of connection to agriculture, and potentially offer significant options for financing the growth of later-stage companies. This week we heard from Romie Basra, Senior VP, Nationa...

The decisions by major food companies impact consumers, farmers, and the environment at every stage of the agrifood value chain. But the status quo strategies of ‘Big Food’ don’t always acknowledge the complex, interconnected systems at play around the world. Our guest this week is Dr. Nigel Hughes, Senior Vice President of Global R&D at Kellogg. After spending a career in what he would unwillingl...

We recently launched a three-episode deep dive into the future of risk and insurance in agriculture. Over the course of the series, we heard from one listener who offered to share his experience using novel insurance products to manage the risks of both too little and too much rainfall in his own farming operation. This from-the-field perspective was packed with insights, and was such a powerful c...

While the term “organic” tends to be associated with small-scale production and a preference for manual tools over the latest technology, organic farming advocates claim their methods can reduce the need for expensive inputs like fertilizers and herbicides, improve soil health, and allow farmers to differentiate their product in otherwise global commodity markets. So, what can commodity agricultur...

Agriculture is exposed to a complex tangle of laws, trade agreements, and competing visions of the future. For farmers, adjustments by legislators at any level of government can have an impact. So while policy is often an afterthought for operators in tech, the pressure for farmers to be engaged and represented in the formulation of new policy is real. It’s for this reason that ag has always inves...

Back in May, we published an experimental bonus episode called “The Three Fears of Farm Data”. The conversation centered around the legitimacy of fears held by farmers about sharing their farm data, and kicked off with a particularly hot take: “We in agtech have completely f*****d farmers by making them afraid of sharing their data.” The episode got a huge reaction from around the industry - both...

Autonomous farming equipment and robotics in ag is more crowded than ever. Every new acquisition from an incumbent or deployment of venture capital into the space creates more buzz to sort through in the inboxes of analysts, entrepreneurs, and farmers. With the industry growing so quickly, it’s helpful to have a bird’s-eye view of what’s happening, and what it means for the future of agriculture....