The Modern Acre

Gabe Sibley and Curtis Garner are the co-founders of Verdant Robotics. Verdant has raised $21.5 million to develop the industry's first multi-action, autonomous farm-robot capable of millimeter-accurate spraying, laser weeding, and AI-based digital crop modeling. Together with farming partners, Verdant uses these tools to deliver better outcomes: larger produce, greater yields and significant savi...

Jamie Ager is a fourth-generation farmer at Hickory Nut Gap Farm. In partnership with his wife, Amy, they built Hickory Nut Gap into a well-established regional brand and created a destination that welcomes visitors to learn about regenerative agriculture.  The farm currently raises organic cattle, pasture raised hogs and poultry, as well as a variety of fruits and vegetables. In addition to the f...

Dr. Michael Miille is the CEO of Joyn Bio, a biotech company engineering microbes to provide growers with a new class of sustainable agricultural solutions. A joint venture by Bayer and Ginkgo Bioworks, Joyn is working to reduce farmers' needs for synthetic chemicals while boosting yield and improving crop performance. Joyn's solutions leverage synthetic biology, giving the company the resources t...

Over the past 11 years, Paul Lightfoot has been known as the founder and CEO of BrightFarms, a company selling branded produce at retail with a disruptive supply chain model that is better for the environment.  His mission is to reverse climate change by changing the food system, which he's doing by mentoring food entrepreneurs and by writing and speaking about Negative Foods (food brands with sup...

Barney Debnam is the Director, Agribusiness Industry Solutions, at Microsoft. Barney joins the podcast to provide insight into Microsoft's focus and involvement in agriculture, his background and current role with Microsoft, and the state of ag technology adoption. This episode has great insight into how the tech industry is approaching ag. Tune in! Show Notes: https://themodernacre.com/211

Tom Shapland is the co-founder and CEO of Tule Technologies, an agtech company that combines agronomic expertise with cutting-edge artificial intelligence to provide growers with irrigation decision support. Tule's UC Davis research-based sensor technology measures the Actual Evapotranspiration (ETa) of a field. Tule's latest offering, Tule Vision, enables grape growers  to take midday Leaf Water...

Jordan Rubin is the co-founder and CEO of Ancient Nutrition, a supplement company with its mission to restore our health, strength and vitality by providing history's healthiest whole food nutrients to the modern world. One of America's most-recognized and respected natural health experts, Jordan is the  New York Times  bestselling author of  The Maker's Diet , and 26 additional titles, including...

Vishnu Jayaprakash is the co-founder and CEO of AgZen, a startup based in Boston, Massachusetts on a mission to help farmers save money and prevent the over-spraying of agrochemicals. Their patented sprayer retrofits and additives, developed at MIT, allow farmers to spray 50% less pesticides while maintaining crop health and yield.  Vishnu shares more about his backstory and the origin story of Ag...

Dax Hansen is the owner of Oatman Flats Ranch and founder of Oatman Farms is a world-renowned FinTech lawyer, and a visionary farmer who is leveraging his blockchain expertise to bring transparency to the food supply chain. Dax's focus in on creating sustainable and profitable business family-farm models that other farmers can replicate. Dax joins us to share his background in law and technology,...

Helena Lumme is the President and Co-Founder of Hälsa Foods, a CPG company that produces oat milk products, focusing on clean ingredients, clean processing, and clean labels. Helena joins to share more about her journey founding the company and optimizing their marketing and supply chain. Helena is joined by Eric Ziehm, who is a farmer-partner of Hälsa. He has converted his dairy operation to prod...

Listen on  Apple Podcasts  or  Everywhere Else On this installment of Acre Insights, Tim and Tyler give a sneak peak of the project they are working on for The Modern Acre based on Web3. They also share their bold predictions for this year, plus they provide an update on Nuss Farms. Connect with The Modern Acre  Website  |  Instagram  |  Twitter   Sign up for Acre Insights  HERE

Lew Moorman is the Co-Founder of Soilworks, a Public Benefit Company on a mission to accelerate the Regenerative Food Movement by helping launch scalable, repeatable businesses that fuel the Regenerative economy. Lew's background is in the tech industry and he shares his story about why he decided to jump into the ag industry and start investing there. Tune in to learn what's he's up to with Soilw...

Mike Woelk is the CEO and founder of Corigin, a startup that aims to help farmers improve yields and margins with organic solutions produced from farm waste. Mike joins the podcast to tell us more about the company and technology, along with his perspective on scaling regenerative agriculture. Show Notes: https://themodernacre.com/203

Ashwin Madgavkar is the CEO and founder of Ceres Imaging, an agtech startup that is creating irrigation management solutions that help farmers improve profitability. Their high-resolution aerial imagery and expert support help their customers detect issues quickly, measure potential ROI, and take action with confidence. Ashwin joins the podcast to share his journey in founding and scaling Ceres. W...

Charlie Anderson is the CEO and Founder of Burro, a robotics startup looking to solve the labor problem facing farmers by making robots like Wall-E a reality. To do this, they are starting first with a collaborative robotic platform called Burro, that helps people work more productively today, while building the base for more expansive autonomy where it is needed most. Charlie joins us to talk abo...

Episode 200! For this milestone, we had to do something special. This week we sit down with our dad, Dave Nuss , to learn more about the history and evolution of Nuss Farms. We dive into his journey as well as his perspective on the changes within California ag over the years and our interest in and transition to regenerative agriculture. Thanks for your support to get us to this point! We hope yo...

Sarah Sha is the Director of Strategy and Isha Joshi is the Director of Product Development for KitchenTown, a scale-up facility in San Mateo, CA that gives food startups access to a commercial kitchen, product innovation lab, direct to consumer warehouse, brand partnerships program, and thriving community of makers. Sara and Isha join the podcast to share more about their backgrounds and the evol...

Greg Shewmaker is the co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of TeakOrigin, a food data company that collects actionable data to help consumers make better food decisions. Greg joins us to talk about his background in ecommerce, founding and developing the business at TeakOrigin, and the role nutrient density will play in the food system. Tune in! Show Notes: https://themodernacre.com/198

On this installment of Acre Insights, Tim interviews Tyler on a variety of topics, including his thoughts on Web3 and NFT's, college entrepreneurial pursuits, his career from Apple to Rivian, and finally more on Nuss Farms. Tune in! Show Notes: https://themodernacre.com/198

Craig Hurlbert is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Local Bounty, a premier controlled environment agriculture company redefining conversion efficiency and ESG standards for indoor ag. Craig joins the podcast to share more about his background in the energy sector and private equity and what ultimately led him to found Local Bounti. We discuss the challenges of CEA and how he and the team are taking a...

Interested in direct-to-consumer business? We are re-airing one of our most popular episodes to-date featuring the Farmer's Dog. Brett Podolsky  joins The Modern Acre podcast to talk about how he helped create The Farmer's Dog, a dog food company focused on using real, fresh food and delivering customized servings to their customers. Brett shares the vision behind the company and why using real fo...

Scott Uknes and Eric Ward are the co-founders and co-CEO's of AgBiome, a biotechnology company that is focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing innovative biological and trait products for crop protection. Scott and Eric join the podcast to talk about their journey starting the company together and how they have successfully scaled and launched their first product, Howler. They also...

Another edition of Acre Insights! Tyler provides a quick update on Rivian, then Tim and Tyler discuss the latest at Nuss Farms and their journey developing a product to go direct-to-consumer. Plus, they discuss a recent article and study about the US importing tomatoes from Mexico. Tune in for some insights! Show Notes: https://themodernacre.com/193

Jennifer Barney is the founder of Barney Butter Almond Butter and previously led Innovation for a $700mm CPG category leader. She is an advisor and mentor to startup CPG brands and ag leaders entering the value added space. Jennifer joins us to share more about her journey founding, scaling, and exiting a CPG brand. She also dives into the current landscape of ag and CPG and her current work at 3r...

Sign up for our produce box: https://fruitstand.com Kristy Lewis is the founder and CEO of Quinn Snacks, a CPG company reimagining classic snacks by bringing real ingredients and transparency back to the snacks you love. Kristy joins the podcast to tell us about the founding story, Quinn's focus on their farmer-partners, their approach to regenerative ag, how they have scaled, and much, much more....