Voices of the Valley

Do you use computers in your office? Guess what, you're a tech company. "We're not in a paper world anymore," says Greg Gatzke, President and CEO of ZAG Technical Services, countering the common misconception that there is a dividing line between the Salinas Valley and Silicon Valley. "The more reliant you are on technology, the bigger you are, the more processing systems you have, the more vulner...

Mark DeSantis, CEO of Bloomfield Robotics, makes a return visit to the podcast to discuss how agtech can improve work conditions for those employed at a farm. It's not about making humans irrelevant to the field, he says, but instead it's about creating new job categories in the labor market. "It's not that people are replaced," he says. "The world evolves and creates new opportunities." Listen in...

Larry Taylor, Co-Founder of The Yield Lab Asia Pacific, and Mark DeSantis, CEO at Bloomfield Robotics, bust the myth that artificial intelligence isn't as adaptable as human intelligence when it comes to managing the health of specialty crops. With the right kind of technology, AI can mimic the boots-on-the-ground approach favored by humans - but it adds the capacity to learn from each individual...

Haden Coleman, who recently wrote an award-winning essay on the power of technology in advancing agriculture, speaks about the importance of using social media for consumer education. Haden is a 17-year-old cattle farmer who has witnessed first-hand how technology has caused a chain reaction in the efficiency of farming and ranching. Over the years, he has become an advocate for using TikTok and I...

Mariana Vasconcelos, an agtech prodigy who started her ag data company Agrosmart when she was 23 years old, provides a look into how the digital revolution is accelerating a cultural shift in agriculture globally. As climate change leads to increased periods of drought and farmers have lower margins for error, she shares the steps needed for adopting more tech on the farm to create a more producti...

As the labor shortage in agriculture worsens and farmers struggle to get their crops harvested, are today’s harvest robots making a dent in the ag labor gap? Listen as Walt Duflock, Western Growers VP of Innovation, discusses the progress on automation around harvest (helping out in the field) and automation to harvest (actual harvest robots). Walt, who has played a key role in building the agtech...

Barbara Cassens has been a warrior in the fight to protect the health of the American people for the past forty years. In this episode, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration veteran shares several “out of the box” methods for advancing food safety, preventing outbreaks/contaminations and minimizing the exposure of risk to consumers. This includes ways to effectively use innovation and technology…b...

How do we create a more resilient food supply for the planet and address both food and nutrition insecurity? By implementing new programs that bring urban communities closer to agriculture. In part 2 of A.G. Kawamura’s podcast interview, he speaks about the steps for creating successful farm programs where 1 + 1 = 3. These include programs where residents in urban areas work hand-in-hand with farm...

With 44 seasons of farming under his belt, A.G. Kawamura shares his unique perspective about the future of agriculture and provides an analysis of the lessons learned from agriculture’s past. Some of the topics he covers? Stepping away from “think tanks” and moving toward an era of “do tanks.” The importance of disruption in sustaining a state of abundance vs a state of survival. How to accelerate...

This episode is all about how to establish trust – and move away from a regulatory “gotcha” mentality! Bonnie Fernandez-Fenaroli, Executive Director of the Center for Produce Safety, shares the steps needed to 1) build a safe space to speak about food safety experiences; 2) be a resource for the industry when it comes to sensitive topics; and 3) battle the biggest issues in food safety using scien...

How do you bridge the gap between government, consumers and farmers? Casey Creamer, a cotton expert who has now jumped to advocate on behalf of citrus growers as the President of California Citrus Mutual, shares the tactics he has implemented to bring stakeholders together to sort through the issues facing agriculture and create a path forward. This includes everything from revolutionizing citrus...

With all the mounting issues surrounding pest management (increasing restrictions, buyer pressure to stop using products, ineffectiveness of certain chemicals), how do you protect soil and plant health? Biologicals Queen Pam Marrone reveals the answer. Marrone—who has built numerous thriving bio-ag companies from scratch and discovered countless biological solutions for agricultural pest managemen...

In a country like Brazil where extraordinarily-resistant pests run rampant on crops, how are agtech venture capitalists saving the day? By providing young economies and companies an opportunity to thrive. Francisco Jardim, founding partner at SP Ventures (Latin America’s largest agtech venture firm), explains how investment in biologicals, agriculture financing (aka AgFinTech) and e-commerce platf...

Explore the intersection of space tech and agtech as Neill Callis—an aerospace engineer turned farmer—delves deep into the issues farmers are grappling with most (think, intense regulations and lack of water and labor) and what tech is on the horizon to solve those problems. Neill, who currently serves as general manager at Turlock Fruit Company, covers everything from solar-powered reverse osmosi...

Karen Ross (California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary) delves into the opportunities 2022 offers for the California farming industry – including meaningful ways to the change narrative of agriculture. She discusses how to create a renewable cycle of economic development, collaboration, new technology invention, and environmental stewardship. Podcast hosts Dennis and Candace also dive...

Agtech investor and strategist Seana Day provides a deep analysis into what we can expect to see from the agtech ecosystem in 2022. Tracking 1,500+ agtech companies, Seana reveals what she sees as the top trends for the future year – such as a fintech/agtech crossover, more mergers/acquisitions, expansion of asset utilization and more. Tune in to journey with Seana as she explores the opportunitie...

What can you do when laws and regulations don’t reflect the current water situation? Groundwater Expert Elisa Blanco shares how communities and private businesses in Chile encouraged the government to invest in groundwater recharge and surface water storage. Her tips include steps on how to build groundwater communities, coordinate capital and human resources, trigger investment in technology and...

As Israel has long been known as an innovator in water usage, the country’s technologists have helped farmers achieve 30% more yield while using 60% less water. How? Ethy Levy, fund manager at Kinneret Impact Ventures, reveals that collaboration is the key. Listen as she shares tips on adopting innovation, creating the right infrastructure for innovation inside an organization and successfully con...

Speaking from the unique perspective of both a farmer and technologist, Domonic Rossini discusses the key elements for creating a formula that results in a more automated, efficient and sustainable farm. Domonic, Netafim’s team leader of agronomy in the west, outlines how to take proven technology from Israel and tailor it to meet the needs of each farm – with a focus on altering the tech to meet...

Are you wondering what the next hot opportunity in agtech is? Ponder no further. It’s microbes (aka probiotics for plants). Bruce Caldwell, chemical engineer extraordinaire and founder/CEO of 3Bar Biologics, has spent the last 15 years working on technology that delivers live, viable microbes to farmers. These supercharged microbes have the ability to continuously activate based on plant needs and...

Why use multiple machines to achieve farm tasks like seeding, crop protection application and spot-spraying imaging when you can just use one? Drones offer a one-stop shop where farmers can achieve many tasks by using only one piece of technology. Rantizo CEO Michael Ott and Ag-Bee President Briana Layfield break down, step-by-step, how drones are currently being used to improve the farmer’s botto...

Organic agriculture is more than just about eating healthy; it’s a lifestyle. Tonya Antle, Co-founder and EVP of the Organic Produce Network, was among the industry pioneers who helped build the organic industry from scratch. In this episode, she shares how to create consumer confidence with burgeoning and unknown industries…because she did it with organic agriculture. She also reveals how to iden...

As a the first female aviator ever selected to serve with the Blue Angels, Amy Tomlinson is a pro at going 0 to 150 miles per hour in under 3 seconds – both literally and figuratively. After serving in the navy for 20 years as a weapons systems officer, she traded in her F-14 Tomcat and F/A-18 Super Hornet for microgrids. Yes, you heard right – microgirds. Amy is now a self-proclaimed “energy nerd...

Voice-to-data is coming to agriculture…and it’s an absolute game-changer. Imagine being able to verbally cite your activities/data and receive a highly-accurate transcription while keeping your phone in your pocket throughout the day and having both hands free to hold tools, work on equipment or drive a vehicle. Then later have the ability to translate that information into patterns or trends that...

From a robot obsession while attending Harvard Business School to traveling 2,700 miles and sleeping in his car just to meet with farmers, Charlie Andersen has achieved his dream: to build a robot company that solves agriculture’s labor woes. Charlie’s company, Burro, recently raised a $ 10.9 million Series A funding and plans to release 500 self-driving wheelbarrows into ag within the next year....