Future of Agriculture

    Bruce Friedrich is Co-Founder and Executive Director at The Good Food Institute (GFI) , a company that promotes plant-based and cultivated meat food products by making them just as good, just as convenient, and just as affordable as real meat. Their company has several branches in over six countries, all working towards the goal of making the alternative meat industry more attractive to consum...

    Russ Conser is the CEO of Blue Nest Beef , a regenerative agriculture and food startup. What makes Blue Nest Beef special is how they raise cattle from bird-friendly land, citing that the presence of birds indicates a healthy agricultural ecosystem. Russ specializes in soil health and regenerative agriculture, business strategy development, and managing highly creative people. He was also feat...

    Dr. Ray Goldberg holds the title of George M. Moffett Professor of Agriculture and Business, Emeritus at Harvard Business School. He’s among the pioneers of modern agribusiness, coining the term himself. He is the author of Food Citizenship , a book that talks about the global food system and the many faces that are leading the charge in changing the way we look at food and agriculture forever...

Colin Hurd is an entrepreneur and the Business Development Manager at Raven Industries , a highly diversified technology company that provides innovative products and solutions to help feed, connect, and protect the world. Raven Industries recently acquired Smart Ag , a company founded by Colin. Smart Ag is a tech company that develops autonomous farming solutions, selling products that allow farm...

Mariana Vasconcelos is the Founder of Agrosmart , a platform that brings digital agriculture to countries with low internet infrastructures under tropical agronomic conditions. The MIT Technology Review selected her as one of the Most Brilliant Innovators Under 35 and a Global Ambassador for Thought of Food. Being a farmer’s daughter, Mariana was aware of the problems that plague small farmers, es...

Shay Myers is an onion expert and the owner of Owyhee Produce . Owyhee Produce is a 3rd generation family farm and one of the biggest vertically-integrated onion farms in the United States. Their farm grows enough onions to provide adequate supplies that reach about 6 million Americans annually. Other than managing an onion farm, Shay is also a produce industry influence and agriculture keynote sp...

Dr. Fatma Kaplan and Cameron Schiller founded Pheronym , an agricultural biotech company that provides safe, non-toxic, and innovative solutions to solve numerous agricultural problems. They also recently become involved in the development of space nematodes under the company AstroNematode . AstroNematode seeks to establish interstellar agriculture for Earth. The first launching experiment will ha...

Bill York is the Founding Partner, CEO, and Chief Credit Officer at FarmOp Capital , a lending company that provides funding primarily to farm operators. Their independent business model allows farmers to decide which suppliers to buy from. Bill has over 40 years of experience in the ag lending space and has held senior positions in various major ag lending companies. He specializes in business de...

Anastasia Volkova is the CEO and Founder of FluroSat , a company that provides scientifically-proven solutions to common agricultural problems through advanced remote sensing technologies and data from both airborne and satellite platforms. She is also an aeronautical engineer and obtained her Ph. D. in Aerospace, Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from the University of Sydney. Anastasia...

FOA174 Bringing People to the Table to Innovate in Animal Agriculture with Kerryann Kocher   Kerryann Cocher is a Principal at Rock Road Consulting , a practice that focuses on improving the translation of science and technology into something that will give value to farmers, ranchers, and other producers. Kerryann specializes in helping struggling ag businesses to be competitive again by providin...

Mike Selden is the Co-Founder and CEO of Finless Foods , a startup that aims for a more sustainable future through advanced cellular agriculture technologies. Their projects revolve around growing fish meat and other seafood products from cells. Mike is a trained biochemist and has experience working as a researcher and educator. He also has researched numerous ways to solve food crises in Africa...

  Shonda Warner is the Owner of Chess Ag Full Harvest Partners , an asset management business that specializes in investing in the agricultural industry. She has over 25 years of experience in financial asset management and once held the position of Executive Director at Goldman Sachs. Shonda gained experience in trading grains from her career at Cargill in Kansas City and Minneapolis.   Shonda jo...

  Dr. John Cumbers is the founder of SynBioBeta . SynBioBeta prides itself as the premier innovation network for innovators, investors, entrepreneurs, and biological engineers. Their focus is introducing synthetic biology innovations to improve the human condition and make life more sustainable. John is a recipient of multiple grants and awards from NASA and the National Academy of Sciences for hi...

  Dr. Poornima Parameswaran is the President and Co-Founder of Trace Genomics . Trace Genomics is a company that based its business around mapping living soil, analyzing its microbial content, and helping growers maximize yield potential without sacrificing sustainability. Poornima’s goal is to build the world’s most massive actionable body of soil intelligence, allowing even ordinary farmers to h...

  Carter Malloy is the Founder and CEO of AcreTrader , an online platform that seeks to provide a bridge that connects investors and farm sellers. Before starting his company, Carter was a successful Managing Director at Stephens Inc., a large private investment bank. His passion for conservation and agriculture was drawn from his experience growing up in an Arkansas farming family. This passion e...

A brief summary of this episode

  Dr. Ray Wheeler is NASA ’s Plant Physiologist and the lead for Advanced Life Support Research activities in the Exploration Research and Technology Program at Kennedy Space Center. He began his career at NASA in 1988 and the bulk of his research revolved around the use of hydroponic techniques for space farming experiments. One of Ray’s goals is to allow humanity to grow safe and nutritious crop...

  Robert Saik is a professional agriculture consultant, author, distinguished agrologist, and thought leader. He is a serial entrepreneur who has founded over 15 companies in the agriculture sector. His latest project, AGvisorPRO , is an app that seeks to instantly connect farmers with experts to help them with their queries and problems. Robert is also the CEO of DOT Farm Solutions, a company tha...

  Lee Addams is the CEO of CropMetrics , a company that pursues innovation in US irrigation services and provide smart irrigation solutions to growers. Lee has experience in business model innovation, business unit growth strategizing, enterprise-level sustainability strategizing, and public sector water resources. He obtained his Ph. D. in Geological and Environmental Sciences at Stanford Univers...

  Chris Damico is the CEO and Founder at Farm’d . Farm’d is described as an online platform that enables farmers to connect to local buyers directly. The idea was born from annual price hikes, long transits, and expensive middlemen. Chris’ company benefit farmers through their transparency in market prices and profitability, as well as offer convenient ways to confirm and adjust orders in real tim...

  Leif Chastaine is the Co-founder and COO of WaterBit . WaterBit is a precision ag irrigation company that wants to solve farming problems through its Automated Irrigation Solution technology. Before Leif cofounded WaterBit, he founded and helped grow other companies in the IoT and photography industry. He obtained his BBA in Production and Operations Management from Boise State University.   Lei...

  Dr. Colin Bell is the Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer at Growcentia, a company that specializes in microbial plant bio-stimulants and the developers of Mammoth Microbes . Mammoth Microbes is a product designed to help cultivators find solutions for problems ranging from soil health to crop profitability. He left his position as Research Scientist I at Colorado State University to run a start...

  Adam Borchard is a Regulatory Advocate for the Association of California Water Agencies or ACWA. ACWA is an organization that seeks to inform Californians regarding their water supply and its policies. He has been actively representing California’s best interests in water policies for over five years and experienced drafting memoranda on various water-related acts in their state. Adam obtained h...

  Dr. Michael Miille is the CEO of Joyn Bio . Joyn Bio is a startup joint venture of Bayer and Ginkgo Bioworks. The goal of Joyn Bio is to answer the challenges of agricultural sustainability with synthetic biology. Michael has extensive experience when it comes to leading companies, having served at top level positions ranging from COO and CFO to Director and General Manager since 1995. He obtain...

Dr. David Zetland is a university lecturer, blogger, and economy researcher. He currently teaches at Leiden University College - The Hague as a lecturer in political-economy. He is the creator of the Aguanomics blog, a site that focuses on topics on the different ways people manage, use, and abuse water. David obtained his Ph. D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from UC Davis and has earned...