The Modern Acre

Praveen Penmetsa is the co-founder and CEO of Monarch Tractor, an agtech company developing an electric, driver-optional compact tractor. Praveen has nearly two decades of hands-on experience in translating creative visions into products for startups to Fortune 50 companies alike. He co-currently serves as founder and CEO of Motivo Engineering, a product-engineering firm with clients in the Mobili...

John Mey is the Director of Product at Carbon Robotics, an agtech startup pioneering the next revolution in agriculture through the deployment of innovative technology and hardware. Carbon Robotics' first product, the Autonomous Weeder, is purpose built to tackle one of the industry's biggest problems: weed control. John joins us to share more about the company, his role as head of product, and ho...

Zach Sheely joins us to talk about how his interest in technology started on his family farm and evolved to his current position as President of Agworld. Agworld is one of the leading farm management companies, recently acquired by Semios, helping farmers take control of their business and operate more efficiently. Zach walks us through how he joined Agworld and helped them grow over time. This is...

Rob Hranac is the CEO of Pattern Ag, an agtech startup developing a recommendation and product discovery platform centered around a deep understanding of soil. They are leveraging advances in genomics, robotics, and high-resolution agronomic data to build this knowledge, in service of improving farm profitability. Rob joins the podcast to talk about his path to Pattern, their investors and long te...

Listen on  Apple Podcasts  or  Everywhere Else Kim Bui is the Global Head of FreshCloud Infrastructure and Analytics at AgroFresh, an agtech innovator and global leader with a mission to prevent food loss/waste and conserve the planet's resources by providing a range of science-based solutions, data-driven digital technologies and high-touch customer services. AgroFresh supports growers, packers a...

Matt Crisp is the CEO and Co-Founder of Benson Hill, a food technology company founded in 2012 with a mission to deliver food made better from the beginning. Through our CropOS ®  technology platform, which combines data science, plant science and food science, we are leveraging the natural genetic diversity of plants to deliver seed innovation that enables healthier, better tasting, more sustaina...

This week we talk to two agtech founders - Jake Joraanstad , the CEO and co-founder of Bushel, and Jesse Vollmar , the CEO and co-founder of FarmLogs - about the recent news of Bushel acquiring Farmlogs. Bushel is an independently owned software company and leading provider of software technology solutions for growers, grain buyers, ag retailers, protein producers and food companies. FarmLogs is a...

John Kempf is an entrepreneur, speaker, podcast host and teacher. He is passionate about the potential of well managed agriculture ecosystems to reverse ecological degradation. In addition to being a grower, John is the founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture, Crop Health Labs, Ozadia, and the Regenerative Agriculture Academy. He hosts the  Regenerative Agriculture Podcast , where he interviews top g...

Julie Kunen is the Director of Sustainability at Oatly, the world's original and largest oat drink company. Julie's background is in creating and delivering sustainability programs and motivating stakeholders to deliver results. She joins us to dig deep on what sustainability means at Oatly and how they are driving towards continued improvement. Show Notes: https://themodernacre.com/182

Another edition of Acre Insights! This week we are talking about the drought crisis on the West Coast and the impact on farmers there, the shutting down of Abundant Robotics and what that means for agtech startups, and finally we discuss some challenges we are seeing in the co-packing space, specifically for farmers trying to develop a brand. Tune in! Show Notes: https://themodernacre.com/181

Bob Powell is the founder and CEO of Brightmark, a global leader in waste solutions that takes a holistic approach to tackling the planet's most pressing environmental challenges with imagination and optimism for the future. Brightmark enables programs specifically tailored to environmental needs in order to build scalable project solutions that have a positive impact on the world and communities...

Adam Litle is the CEO of Sound Agriculture, a plant development company that helps producers grow more efficiently and enhance food taste, nutrition and sustainability. Adam was formerly part of the founding management team at Granular , a farm management software platform startup that was acquired by Dupont for $300M in 2017. Adam joins us to share lessons from his time at Granular, where he supp...

Paul Gambill is the CEO and Co-Founder of Nori, a carbon removal marketplace on a mission to reverse climate change by removing enough carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to lower the overall concentration of CO2 below 300 parts per million. Paul joins us to talk about how they are leveraging blockchain technology to build the business and develop their own cryptocurrency. We also get in to how the...

Rhonda Bassett-Spiers  is the President and CEO of iTradeNetwork, the leader in perishables supply chain management for 20 years with a powerful network of over 8,000 food and beverage trading partners. Its end-to-end supply chain software suite simplifies the complexities that occur at all waypoints of the food and perishables supply chain. Rhonda has 25+ years of Silicon Valley technology compan...

Alexander Reichert is the co-founder and CEO of AgVend, a digital commerce platform in the agriculture industry. AgVend's tools constructively power the omnichannel experiences for ag retailers, distributors, and manufacturers. Alexander joins us the podcast to talk about founding AgVend, evolving the business model, disruption vs. innovation, and much more. Tune in! Show Notes: https://themoderna...

Jason Kosareff is a Farmland Asset Manager at FarmTogether and joins us this week to dive deep on farmland operations. Jason has an extensive background in farming and agriculture, including in retail, working as a PCA, farm management, and asset manager for investment groups. We discuss more about management, evolving ag trends, row crops vs. permanent crops, and much more. Tune in! Show Notes: h...

We are finally back with another edition of Acre Insights. This episode we discuss if regenerative agriculture is losing it's buzz as well as some of the negative press it has received. Plus, we cover cryptocurrency in ag, Bowery's latest funding round (and some concerns with indoor farming), and the latest happenings with Nuss Farms. Tune in! Show Notes: https://themodernacre.com/174

Jeff Dunn is the Chairman and CEO of Bolthouse Farms, a farm and consumer brand focused on carrot production and healthy beverages. Jeff was the CEO of Bolthouse for 6 years before helping sell the business to Campbell's Soup Company in 2012. In a twist of events, Campbell's sold the company back to Jeff last year. Jeff joins us to dive deep into that journey and to share more about what makes Bol...

Michael Bosworth is the CEO of Next Generation Foods which was established in 2006 to market and distribute locally grown foods in Northern California. Next Generation Foods' seeks to shorten the supply chain, increase traceability and transparency of the local food system and promote foods grown by local family farms. Michael joins us to share more about his story as a farmer turned founder, incl...

Michael Guirguis is the co-founder and CEO of Seso Labor, a labor marketplace for agriculture that addresses the labor problem by connecting U.S farms with qualified seasonal workers via America's agricultural guest worker program (H-2A). Michael joins us to dive into his background in labor policy, founded and scaling the company, and some meaningful insights into the complex nature of agricultur...

Stacy Kimmel, PhD , is the Vice President of R&D at AeroFarms, an indoor farming company and Certified B Corporation that uses the latest breakthroughs in vertical farming, artificial intelligence and plant biology to grow and distribute fresh produce locally and globally. Stacy joins us to give an update on AeroFarms, including their recent announcement of going public via SPAC, company and produ...

Israel Talpaz is the co-founder and CEO of See Tree, an agtech startup that uses the power of machine-learning algorithms to get smarter, and offer farmers the most precise window into the strength of their tree crops. Israel joins the podcast to talk about how he founded the company and how they are scaling both geographically and in crop type. Tune in to learn more about their approach, technolo...

Vonnie Estes is the Vice President of Technology of the Produce Marketing Association. Vonnie joins us for the second time to give some updates and insights into some hot topics within agriculture. We talk through the recent merger of PMA and United Fresh, the latest in carbon markets, agtech exits including SPAC's, indoor farming, and seeing a Rivian in the wild! This episode has it all. Show Not...

Jayce Hafner (CEO) and Sami Tellatin (COO) are the co-founders of FarmRaise, a digital platform that equips producers with financial resources to build vital farming communities that are profitable, equitable, and ecologically resilient. Their simplified farm funding app applies farmers for major USDA cost-share programs in less than 20 minutes. They also track local and state funding programs as...

Josiah Terrell-Perica is the Director of Farmland Investing at FarmTogether, a technology-enabled farmland investment platform that provides accredited investors with direct access to farmland as an asset class. Josiah joins us for the second time on the podcast to dive deep on some of FarmTogether's recent deals, what Josiah looks for in farmland, and sustainable water management and principles....