Author: The New Economy

The Ag Innovation Showcase has been bringing together innovators and investors from across the agricultural industries since 2009. Delegates from all over the world convene in the Donald Danforth Plant Science Centre in St Louis, Missouri, to discover the science and technologies that can solve the world’s agricultural challenges. Registration is now open for the Ag Innovation Showcase 2017: visit www.agshowcase.com.

Carlo Montemagno: I’m really excited about being here at the AgInnovation Showcase.

Hank Giclas: Well it’s been a fascinating event for me, this is my first time to attend here.

Avi Maidenberg: We’ve been coming here for a number of years; it’s just a great forum to network and connect.

Darryn Keiller: I really enjoyed the experience. Learned a lot about what was happening, and science.

The New Economy: The Ag Innovation Showcase has been bringing together innovators and investors from across the agricultural industries since 2009.

Delegates from all over the world convene in the Donald Danforth Plant Science Centre in St Louis, Missouri, to discover the science and technologies that can solve the world’s agricultural challenges.

Carlo Montemagno: It gives the opportunity for us to be able to identify where the latest breakthroughs are in science and technology; identify what the common problems that are in need of solutions.

Rachel Haurwitz: We get to surround ourselves with other early companies who are looking at brand new innovations, all the way through all the players in the food chain: mid and large sized ag companies, and farmers themselves.

Hank Giclas: I think the most rewarding thing for me is being able to see a lot of the innovators and the entrepreneurs and the technologies that are being worked on, because we’re always on the hunt for folks who have solutions for some of the issues that are pressing the ag industry.

Darryn Keiller: For me it was an opportunity to meet the other strategic players: Syngenta and Monsanto and Dow.

Alec Anderson: It’s really interesting coming here; when you look at what’s around you. It’s good because we’re talking to people who understand agriculture.

Lisa Dyson: And so it’s nice to be in a group of investors that are familiar with the challenges, and that have companies in their portfolios that they’re also bringing to market.

The New Economy: The Ag Innovation Showcase is a partnership between the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and the Larta Institute. Together they’re expanding the field of agricultural science – and helping researchers commercialise their projects.

Rohit Shukla: This is the eighth year of what we set out to make the community event for agricultural innovation from around the world.

Sam Fiorello: And our idea from the very beginning was to have a gathering that was focused exclusively on plant tech, ag tech, issues of farming, food distribution. And we’d bring together four categories of attendees: investors, innovators, thought leaders, and key strategics.

Rohit Shukla: And the objective has always been aligned with the need to present solutions to problems that have been acutely felt, and will continue to be acutely felt, across the spectrum of agriculture. Which means biology, food production, food distribution,  new sources of food, consumer trends, recycling of food back into the system, inputs, diagnostics. Everything that goes on, both behind the scenes, and in front of the camera, so to speak.

Sam Fiorello: So one of the things that we’re very proud of is that we’re building networks of investors from around the world that can form syndicates to invest in these early stage, mid stage technologies. We’re building awareness of the importance of ag as an investment class, and the solutions it can have. We’re having strategics here so they can not only acquire technology companies, but also give a sense for where they see the industry going. And then we talk to thought leaders about, what’s the five, 10, 15, 20 year look.

BreAnn Washburn: I think it’s been very effective. I’ve learned quite a lot. I feel like I’ve learned a lot more about the industry, and the depth of the industry, and the passion of the people involved in it, but also we’ve made a lot of great connections here.

Lisa Dyson: It’s been a great day. I am happy to be a part of this conference. It’s a great collection of people that they’ve brought together throughout the industry, and it’s very beneficial for all of us.

Sam Fiorello: Today we’re at capacity. Last year and this year in fact, oversubscribed. And I think that momentum will continue. We’re very proud of the work we’ve done, the affiliations we’ve helped make. Bringing folks together, building networks, reinforcing those networks, so they can go off and do great work.

The Ag Innovation Showcase in St Louis Missouri brings together scientists, investors, farmers and thought leaders to address the big challenges facing agriculture. And for this year’s delegates, there’s one very big challenge for the future of farming: the extra two billion mouths we’re going to need to feed by 2050. Registration is now open for the Ag Innovation Showcase 2017: visit www.agshowcase.com.

Gregg Steinberg: So the global issue that we have obviously is thinking about food production on a broader basis: how to get more out of each acre of land, and how to do it at high quality.

Hank Giclas: We’re going to be a lot more precise, we’re going to be a lot more high-tech; but there is a need, you know: a need to feed nine billion people.

Sam Fiorello: Consensus is that by 2050, the world is going to have to produce between now and then as much food as we have in the last 10,000 years put together.

Claire Kinlaw: We have to produce more food, because the globe is producing more people. We have to change the nature of the food we’re producing: people are eating higher up the food chain. They want more protein.

Rohit Shukla: A lot of it is animal protein. And yet animals end up being an extraordinary problem: not just in terms of care, but in terms of emissions.

Sam Fiorello: And that protein production puts huge pressures on our planet. For food and for fresh water and for arable land.

Carlo Montemagno: Water is everything. Without water we’re done. There’s a huge tension between having water available for developing and producing the food that we need, having water to consume to sustain us, and having water to support other industrial processes. It is probably the central issue of our age: being able to produce clean water from water which is not currently usable.

Sam Fiorello: So this next green revolution that we need to be part of is about a doubling of ag productivity – not production.

Alec Anderson: We have to make better use of what we already grow, as well as just simply focusing on trying to grow more.

Sam Fiorello: That’s really hard, and the only way you get there is through places like the Danforth Centre, that create new ideas, new innovations, and the entrepreneurs that you see here moving those into companies; and the investors lifting those up and eventually providing solutions to farmers and distributors and consumers.

Carlo Montemagno: And the technologies which we’ve seen at the Ag Innovation Showcase indicates to me that industry is on board with these real challenges, and are working very diligently to find solutions for the future.

Sam Fiorello: So they look at things like efficiencies in farming. They look at new ways to help plants thrive on a planet whose climate is changing very drastically. We look at things like eliminating food waste. We’ve seen a trend in the last years from strictly just biology to biology technology and data. So big, big movements.

Gregg Steinberg: How to feed a population that’s going from seven billion to nine billion in a short period of time, doing it in a sustainable manner? So we’re also being stewards of mother earth? Is unbelievably important, and what we’re focused on.

On the third day of the Ag Innovation Showcase, Bayer and Monsanto announced their $66bn takeover deal – the latest in a series of mergers and acquisitions that has concentrated agricultural power. But there are opportunities for smaller players to inject innovation into the links in the agricultural value chain, say delegates in St Louis, by making transitions more efficient and decreasing waste. Registration is now open for the Ag Innovation Showcase 2017: visit www.agshowcase.com.

Avi Maidenberg: It’s just a really interesting time in this space. As I mentioned, a lot of consolidation has been happening over the last 12-18 months. There’s also a tremendous amount of opportunities for a lot of small and medium sized companies to really make an impact in this space, because the big ones are shrinking, and there are not many of them left!

Claire Kinlaw: So, there’s a disruption of the whole food value chain, to meet customers’ interests. Which is churning innovation at all kinds of levels, and places along the food chain.

Big areas like precision ag, data, automation; those have just gotten more sophisticated, more integrated. Trying to aim for farmer solutions, not just individual technologies. Also in inputs: reducing the impact on the environment, reducing the cost of inputs, reducing the amount of inputs you put on, so that has both a cost benefit and an environmental benefit.

Sam Fiorello: So the trend that I see, that’s really been amazing, and just in the eight years of the Ag Showcase, is the movement for big data and data analytics infused into agriculture. To making decisions, to machine learning, to vision learning, quadcopters and sensors throughout farms now. So, it used to be those engineers, those techies in Silicon Valley were here, and biologists were there. Well, there’s a confluence now.

Rohit Shukla: Another area that I think is incredibly important is new sources of food. We simply have to have them.

Sam Fiorello: Farmers are always looking for different types of food sources that they can produce, that will be mitigate the risk that have higher values, the example was in 1945 there were no soy beans raised in the US. It was a new crop brought from Asia; and now corn and soy bean are the kings. And so, that kind of search for alternative crops, for alternative uses, is going on all the time.

Rohit Shukla: The issue there has to do with really being able to understand how it is that we create new ways of growing food, and new food itself, new food sources. So crickets, for example. An incredible, incredible part of the meal that is fed to our animals, that then we eat. This is something that I think we’re only beginning to understand now, beyond the cottage industry of crickets that might be served at certain specialty restaurants.

 

 

Claire Kinlaw: If we could create what we need and simply recycle what we produce out the other end, and not have waste, all the better.

So we’ve taken a look at some innovation at various points in the value chain. And there are many opportunities to innovate there, so…

Sam Fiorello: …there’s waste that happens in the farm fields. Then moving it, storing it, sorting it. And all those points along the value chain, including going to the supermarkets, and the supermarkets throwing out large amounts of produce.

There are opportunities in all of those points to reduce waste through infusion of technology and new practices.

Claire Kinlaw: Starting from the field. Get more food out of the field, all the way to the other end. Don’t send it from a grocery store to a landfill; take food and then produce, say, fertiliser, using an anaerobic digestion system. Or feed it to crickets and make protein. Or connect with the food donation system.

Sam Fiorello: Those challenges mean opportunities for startups, and we’ll see a lot of presenting companies here looking at ways to infuse technology into one of those kinks in that chain to make it more efficient.

Claire Kinlaw: And so, all along the chain. Just don’t waste it.

The latest applications for Crispr gene editing took centre stage at the latest Ag Innovation Showcase; but what is Crispr? How does it work, and what does it enable? Speakers from across the industry come together in this video to explain the potential of the technology. Registration is now open for the Ag Innovation Showcase 2017: visit www.agshowcase.com.

Avi Maidenberg: So I think some of the work being done around gene editing, which has kind of been a buzzword in our sector for a little while now, has gotten kind of a centre stage.

Sam Fiorello: I remember three years ago asking a panel of experts: what will change the paradigm of agriculture? And Crispr came up from all of them, saying: it’s a technology that will change everything.

Carlo Montemagno: I think the most exciting thing I heard about today was the gene editing strategies going forward, and the idea of being able to use Crispr to improve the quality and productivity of our food, while at the same time eliminating many of the issues and challenges normally associated with GMO products.

Sam Fiorello: It allows for very precise, very inexpensive marker assisted breeding and gene editing. I’m confident that we’ll see Crispr embedded in products around the world that will help us achieve mission impact.

The New Economy: The latest applications for Crispr gene editing did take centre stage at the latest Ag Innovation Showcase; but what does it enable?

Rachel Haurwitz: It’s the ability to go inside of cells and precisely change DNA sequences. These changes could be very small – maybe just one base of DNA, or could be large – insertion of a whole new gene at a particular site.

It’s based on a little protein called Cas9, which is basically a pair of molecular scissors. By designing a new RNA partner for it, you can target it to a particular site in the genome, and actually break the DNA at that site, cut the DNA.

Turns out cells don’t like to have their DNA broken, and so they quickly go about fixing it. And how it’s fixed is actually what causes the DNA to be edited.

The New Economy: The ability to specifically change DNA is transforming product development. It’s touching everything from basic research to new therapeutics. In agriculture, Crispr is being called precision breeding, or advanced breeding – in part, to try to distance the technology from GMOs.

Rachel Haurwitz: Typically when people talk about GMOs, they’re talking about taking a piece of DNA or a gene from one species, and moving it into an entirely different species.

In the case of Crispr gene editing, we’re typically talking about making small changes inside the organism’s own genome. And in fact, these are often changes that are already found in the wild. And this is simply an approach to bring those specific traits into products faster than a traditional breeding cycle, which would take many, many years. It could be for example drought tolerance, or perhaps something that touches the consumer a little bit closer: today I met someone who’s involved with a company who’d like to make allergen free peanuts using gene editing.

Sam Fiorello: One of the things we need to be sure of right now is getting in front of both the regulatory framework for use of Crispr, and help the general public understand the importance of that tool. Because frankly with some of our work in sub-Saharan Africa for example, we’ve had scientific solutions for some of the targets that we’re going after, that keep poor farmers from having the quality of life that we hope for – we need to get ahead of that with Crispr, so that all the tools can get into farmers’ fields and on the plates of consumers as soon as possible.

Rachel Haurwitz: I think having consumer trust and consumer acceptance is the number one challenge to ultimately seeing these products in the market. Consumers are quickly getting more educated about their food, and unfortunately there’s a lot of misinformation about where our food comes from. And so I think we have an obligation to really explain to consumers what this technology is, what it isn’t, what it enables, and how we measure whether it’s safe or not.

Crispr gene editing is being called precision breeding, in part to distance the technology from the GMO label. So what went wrong with the GMO debate, and what lessons have ag innovators learned? The promise of innovation is exciting the scientific community, but the public remains unconvinced – in large part, because industry stakeholders aren’t connecting on a personal level. Registration is now open for the Ag Innovation Showcase 2017: visit www.agshowcase.com.

Rachel Haurwitz: I think there are probably a number of things that went wrong, but I think one of the key problems was the balance of power. There were a small number of very large companies who themselves did not have a lot of consumer trust, who were telling consumers they were going to have these products. And I think consumers did not react particularly positively to that.

Roxi Beck: There is a real challenge with getting the general public to understand not only what it is that we’re doing, but why.

When you are a consumer on the other side of that technology, and all of a sudden you’re trying to assess the  benefits, it’s hard to do so when all of the traits have been designed for a farmer.

It can allow crops to grow in drought conditions that it couldn’t previously, that can resist pests that would wipe out an entire crop. We need to be thinking more about those crops that have a direct benefit to consumers, but also serve to meet the needs of today’s farmers.

Engaging with consumers is quite the science. The biggest takeaway is first, find a value space connection. People are highly interested in doing the right thing: for the environment, for animals, for the people who are eating the food. And I think we need to start talking about that more. Talk about our families, talk about why we’re so passionate about the work. And then, when the conversation gets further, we have the opportunity to talk about what it is that we’re doing, that reinforces why it’s so important that we do it.

Sam Fiorello: What we need to do is bring consumers and lay people together with scientists, to better articulate this efficacy and safety and the importance of a tool to help meet our challenges.

Rohit Shukla: It’s easy to have a conversation entre nous; to convince ourselves of the greatness of our achievements. It is far more difficult to be able to then get our stakeholders to understand that this is relevant to the way they are going to live. The way they’re going to eat. The way they’re going to have their clothes made, etc. And I think the notion of having that kind of coalition between consumers, producers, innovators, governments, is an incredibly important one.

We cannot ignore the opportunity and the imperative to become engaged with our stakeholders.

Rachel Haurwitz: I think no one company – especially no little company – can reach all of the necessary stakeholders ourselves. And so we’re instead looking at a way to partner with a much larger number of companies, who themselves directly interact with their consumers, and their customers, and their customers’ customers, to really have a broad network of entities who are speaking to various stakeholders about the technology.

Roxi Beck: This is everyone’s responsibility. We have got to take the opportunity, when we’re asked a question, or even when scepticism comes our way and that concern comes to us, to get into a conversation. Not to reshape their opinion, but first to understand where they’re coming from.

If we first get on the same page as them, and can start understanding the world as they see it, we’re going to be much more likely to understand why it is what we’re doing really matters to them at the end of the day.

 

For the first time in its eight year history, the Ag Innovation Showcase featured a series highlighting the voice of the farmer: giving a critical platform to the people on the front line of feeding the world, and the challenges they need innovative help to overcome. We hear from Blake Hurst about the challenges he’s faced this year, and why he chooses to farm the way he does. Registration is now open for the Ag Innovation Showcase 2017: visit www.agshowcase.com.

Sam Fiorello: So, rather than a typical keynote where you have an expert luminary giving a talk, we have a panel of farmers saying, here’s my life, here’s my reality, here’s some pain points, here are things that I’d like to see, so that we can pass this farm on to my children and grandchildren, and continue this legacy and be good stewards of the farm.

Blake Hurst: So, we have a farm in northwest Missouri, and grow corn and soybeans with an extended family. My dad at 81 is still active in the business. Two brothers, three nephews and two son-in-laws all involved. And then my wife and our immediate family have a greenhouse business. About 100,000 sq ft of greenhouse space where we grow bedding plants. So that’s our business.

Our challenge this year has been excess moisture. We lost a little bit of crop to flooding. And we’ve had so much rain, weed control hasn’t been as good as we would have liked. But overall I think we’ll have a good crop. Prices here in the US are lower than we’d like, but we’ll live to fight and farm another day.

Sam Fiorello: Some folks who are not in the ag business have these assumptions that farmers are out there, and they’re uninformed, and they’re… but in fact, farmers are brilliant businesspeople, they understand their land, there’s a sense of stewardship of the farm.

Blake Hurst: One of the things that happens when people criticise agriculture is, they often think of farmers not having agency, of being forced into the way we farm by large companies, or government programmes, or the market. But each day we face a series of decisions on how we’re going to spend the day, how we’re going to tend our crops that day. And farmers are well educated, we’re experienced. We have the ability to make moral judgements.

Sam Fiorello: They’re going to make decisions that help them to maximise their businesses. But those maximisations also mean using less fresh water, because that’s expensive. Using less fertiliser, because fertiliser’s very expensive. Getting more yield.

Blake Hurst: We of course use genetically modified seed, both in our corn and soybeans. Where we farm in northwest Missouri, we have steep slopes, it’s rolling hills and so we’re using totally no-till farming. That’s only possible with the genetically modified seeds, because of the weed control system we’re able to use.

We use herbicides, and they selectively kill undesirable plants, weeds, and they leave the crop unharmed. People need to understand that there is no way to farm without controlling weeds. Any way we control weeds uses resources, and so what we try to do is to control them in the most efficient means possible.

Sam Fiorello: You know, farming is a difficult business, and it’s a changing environment. You have now temperature swings and either go through periods of drought or severe flooding. You’re exposed to the elements. Farmers look to mitigate risk at all costs. That’s their number one thing, it’s shedding risk. And the way you can shed risk is through technology coming through the pipeline, to create sensors, or more efficient ways to sow your seeds and care for those seeds. Seeds that can withstand these dramatic changes in temperature, and other climatic conditions. Plants that can stay ahead of pathogens that are changing all the time. So, it’s a very difficult business. It takes a select few to do it. But those who do it are passionate. It’s more than just work. It’s a livelihood, it’s a way of life for their families.

Giving a platform to farmers’ voices was an important new part of this year’s Ag Innovation Showcase, because without it, research might go… wrong. Delegates in St Louis, Missouri, discuss the challenges on the farm that actually need to be addressed. Registration is now open for the Ag Innovation Showcase 2017: visit www.agshowcase.com.

Hank Giclas: A lot of times we have somebody from Silicon Valley or some place else like that coming to us with a solution for a problem that we didn’t know we had. It’s important to be in contact with growers early to be able to make sure that you are addressing a real issue on the farm, and perfecting your technology in a way that has utility on the farm as well.

Darryn Keiller: Technologists love developing technology, not always necessarily with the customer in mind. And we need more collaboration between the customers, the universities, the research labs, and the innovators, to bring that ecosystem a little bit more closely together.

Claire Kinlaw: It’s not unique, it’s just you have to understand your end user, and your customer, and your customer’s problems. Taking that perspective – not why is my technology cool, but, whose problem is it that I’m solving, and who’s going to pay to have that solution adopted?

Hank Giclas: I think the biggest challenges being faced by our members are the shortage of agricultural labour. There’s a lot of competition for the available workers that there are.

We’re looking at technologies that will allow us to mechanise some of the labour: places where we can mechanise the harvest, sorting, grading operations.

People are working on automatic lettuce harvesting equipment, strawberry harvests we’re very interested in. That’s a labour intensive crop. And I think that ultimately we’re optimistic about that, because it translates into higher paying jobs in agriculture as well.

Darryn Keiller: And I think one other big factor is that the ag sector as a whole is very slow to change. It is a very slow turning wheel, compared to say, what we see in consumer experiences with adoption of new technology, which are now very rapid. So, there’s a level of education that needs to happen with the ag community, with the farmers, with the growers, to get them on board with the benefits of employing new technology.

Rohit Shukla: So for example, in precision ag, a collection of items that could be broadly classified as the internet of things. Such things as sensors and so on, that have been around for quite some time and are obviously being recalibrated and reworked. But their use really is not that significant when you consider that they need to be really integrated into biology.

Carlo Montemagno: That means we have to develop new sensor technologies, to sense the things that we know are important, and be able to network them all together so that you can generate a complete picture of the activity that’s going on, so you can establish optimum solutions for maximising the productivity, minimising the environmental impacts on producing food.

Hank Giclas: There’s a lot of technology being brought to bear on the water issue. There’s everything from remote visioning, remote sensing, using satellites and drones and aeroplanes and things like that. There’s infield sensors providing information about when to irrigate, where the water is in the soil profile. And all those things are helping us be a lot more precise.

The goal is to put on precisely what the plant needs at the precise time that it needs it. And through that precision, leave a smaller footprint on the planet.