Croptastic the InnerPlant Podcast

On this very special episode, we’re joined by the dynamic duo of Shane Thomas, agronomist, industry analyst, and creator of the Upstream Ag Insights newsletter, and Matt Coutts, a farmer and agricultural investor. Shane and Matt bring their unique insights to the show to talk with Shely about how they evaluate technologies and companies and what industry trends they see building into 2023.  

Our guest this episode is Adam Wolf, founder and CEO of carbon sequestration company Eion. Prior to Eion, Adam founded and led the crop intelligence company Arable. Adam joins the show to chat with Shely about carbon sequestration, entrepreneurship, and how to build improved sustainability into the future of agriculture.  

This is a special episode as we’re joined by two guests from John Deere - Than Hartsock, Director of Corn & Soybean Production Systems, and Jorge Heraud, Vice President of Automation & Autonomy. Than and Jorge join Shely to talk about where plant-by-plant management fits in the future of agriculture.

We’re joined this episode by Jeremy Jack, a family farmer who produces cotton, corn, soybeans, rice, peanuts, and wheat on 12,000 acres in the Mississippi delta. Shely and Jeremy discuss the operations and risk management approaches that are unique to the warmer, year-round production of the southern climate.

This episode we’re joined by Daniel Northrup, a biochemist and geneticist, who is the science and technology principal at Galvanize Climate Solutions. Shely chats with Daniel about the convergence of climate and agriculture including soil health, carbon credits, and corporate ESG efforts. Those interested in the reports mentioned during the episode can find the links below: 1) The paper Dan wrote...

We’re joined this episode by Ben Alfi, a former Israeli Air Force pilot and CEO and founder of Blue White Robotics. Ben and Shely talk about rising labor scarcity on the farm and how autonomous equipment fits into the future of agriculture.

Welcome to Croptastic the InnerPlant Podcast where your host Shely Aronov explores the global future of agriculture and food. In this episode, we’re joined by Tom Adams, CEO and co-founder of Pairwise. Tom has over 25 years of biotechnology leadership experience and chats with Shely about how that experience continues to influence his work using biotech to create healthier food at Pairwise.

We’re joined this episode by Todd Martin, CEO of the Independent Professional Seed Association, who chats with Shely about seed genetics, traits, and letters to the USDA.

In this episode, we’re joined by Rachel Lee, a 15-year-old wunderkind and co-creator of the TechnoGypsie podcast. Rachel chats with Shely about her path to developing her own gene-editing project.

Welcome to Croptastic the InnerPlant Podcast where your host Shely Aronov explores the global future of agriculture and food. David Wallerstein, Chief eXploration Officer and Senior Executive Vice President of Chinese Internet titan Tencent joins the show this episode to talk about the need for big solutions to the planet’s biggest problems. His water-focused documentary, “Day Zero” is available o...

Joining the show this episode is Dr. Rattan Lal, Distinguished Professor of Soil Science and Director of the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center at The Ohio State University. Professor Lal won the Japan Prize in 2019 in recognition of his work toward sustainable soil management for global food security and mitigation of climate change. He also won the World Food Prize - the Nobel Prize of f...

This episode’s guest is Gonzalo Fuenzalida the CEO and co-founder of Andes Ag. Gonzalo joins the show to chat about agricultural biologicals and where they and other technologies fit in the future of agriculture. 

We’re joined this episode by Kater Hake, Vice President of Agricultural and Environmental Research at Cotton Incorporated. Today Kater and Shely chat about the state of cotton farming and some of the challenges that cotton and other crops face in the future.

In this episode, we’re joined by Kasey Bamberger and Mark Bryant, the father-daughter team behind Ohio’s Bryant Agricultural Enterprise. They chat with Shely about how they integrate new processes and technologies into their farming operation and what they see in store for the future of farming.

This is a special super-sized episode featuring Bart Elmore, Associate Professor of Environmental and Business History at The Ohio State University and author of a fascinating new book called, “Seed Money: Monsanto’s Past and Our Food Future.” Bart joins the show to talk about his book and to give us a peek into the impact of Monsanto’s agricultural legacy.

David Lee, the president of AppHarvest and former CFO of Impossible Foods, joins the show this week to talk about the potential benefits of moving crops closer to consumers through controlled-environment agriculture.

This episode gets into the weeds with James Westwood a professor at Virginia Tech whose research focuses on parasitic plants, plant communication, and weed evolution. He’s also the lead author of “ Weed Management in 2050: Perspectives on the Future of Weed Science .” 

This episode we’re joined by Rachel Konrad, former Chief Communications Officer at Impossible Foods, who chats with Shely about the challenges facing today’s food system and what consumers really want from their food. 

Dana Worth, senior vice president of commercial for vertical farming company Plenty and former Impossible Foods VP, joins this episode to talk about indoor farming and connecting consumers to the future of agriculture. 

In this episode, Shely talks about regenerative farming, soil health, and agtech with Mitchell Hora a 7th generation Iowa farmer and founder/CEO of soil health data company Continuum Ag.

In this episode, Shely talks about how the agribusiness landscape will shape the development of agtech with Shane Thomas, the agronomist and agribusiness analyst behind UpStream Ag Insights.

In this episode, we discuss the state of agtech and the challenges of being agtech founder with Adam Litle CEO of Sound Agriculture, an agtech company working to increase the pace of consumer and environmental change by unleashing the natural power of plants.

Matt Carstens, President and CEO of Landus Cooperative, Iowa’s largest farmer-owned cooperative focusing on soy and corn, joins the show this week to talk about innovation in agriculture and putting farmers at the center of agtech development. 

Benjamin Riensche, a sixth-generation Iowa farmer and chair of the strategic advisory board of Indigo Research Partners, joins Croptastic to talk about agtech, regenerative farming, and his recent trip to the Farm Progress Show in Decatur, IL.

This special two-episode edition takes a deep dive into the science behind InnerPlant with co-founder and chief science officer Rod Kumimoto and head of detection technologies, Ari Kornfeld. Episode 1 focuses on the plant biology behind the fluorescent signals that InnerPlant’s crops give off when they’re under stress from pathogens or a lack of water or nutrients. Episode 2 focuses on the science...