Agtech - So What?

Agtech - So What? episodes:

• 04.17.2024

  Landfill to Farm-fill: Rethinking Waste with Sam Coulton

  Sarah is joined this week by Sam Coulton, a third generation Queensland cotton grower and owner of Goondiwindi Cotton, to talk about returning waste cotton to the soil.

  
• 04.03.2024

  Biosecurity Meets AgTech: Preparing for a hotter sicker world with Sarah Britton

  Today, we’re tackling biosecurity issues Australia, and the role agtech might play in preparing for and preventing the worst, with our guest Sarah Britton, Founder at One Biosecurity Solutions.

  
• 03.20.2024

  AgTech News …So What? March 2024 with Shane Thomas

  Sarah is joined this week by Tenacious Ventures Managing Partner J. Matthew Pryor and Shane Thomas, author of Upstream Ag Insights to tackle the latest AgTech news.

  
• 03.06.2024

  Generics, Biologicals, and the Volatile Farm Inputs Market with Sam Taylor, Rabobank

  Today, Sarah Nolet sits down with Sam Taylor, Farm Inputs Analyst and Executive Director for Research at Rabobank to discuss the future of key ag inputs markets.

  
• 02.21.2024

  Getting into the Weeds: AI, Computer Vision, and the Future of Non-Chemical Weeding

  Tenacious’ Matthew Pryor joins Liam Hescock, Founder and CEO of Azaneo, an electric weeding company and Guy Coleman to discuss the future of non-chemical weeding.

  
• 02.07.2024

  How Small Growers Think about AgTech, with Sam Godwin, Washington Apple Grower

  We dive into how growers think about tech solutions with Sam Godwin, second generation tree fruit farmer.

  
• 01.24.2024

  AgTech News …So What? January 2024 with Shane Thomas

  Sarah Nolet and J. Matthew Pryor are joined by Shane Thomas to discuss the latest in agtech news.

  
• 12.06.2023

  AgTech 2023… So What? A Wrap-up

  We’re taking time to talk about what we've learned from a year of fundraising, advising, learning and podcasting with Tenacious General Partners Sarah Nolet and Matthew Pryor.

  
• 11.22.2023

  Reflecting on Nowadays, a Tenacious Portfolio Company Wind Down

  Today we're reflecting on Nowadays, a Tenacious portfolio company that recently wound down operations, with Founder and CEO Max Elder and Tenacious' Matthew Pryor.

  
• 11.08.2023

  How Can Agtech Startups and Corporates Do More Together?

  Today we’re joined by Kevin McDonald, VP of Customer and Government Relations at Guardian Ag, to hear more about Guardian’s ongoing partnership with Wilbur-Ellis.

  
• 10.25.2023

  What do LPs Look for In AgTech Funds?

  Today, Eliza Jackson from Macdoch Ventures and Sara Balawajder from Builders Initiative to discuss how their vision for building investment portfolios is evolving in the agtech sector.

  
• 10.11.2023

  How Outside Forces are Shaping the Food System with Ian Proudfoot, KPMG

  Today we’ve asked Ian Proudfoot, Global Head of Agribusiness at KPMG, to help us explore the future of the food system in New Zealand and around the world.

  
• 09.27.2023

  Methane and the Climate Commitments that Matter Most Today

  Katie Anderson, Senior Director of Business, Food and Agriculture at the Environmental Defense Fund shines a light on the kinds of current efforts that are fueling methane reduction targets in ag and food.

  
• 09.13.2023

  Bringing Systems Thinking to the Global Fertilizer Industry with Alzbeta Klein

  And today, we’re joined by Alzbeta Klein, CEO and Director General of The International Fertilizer Association (IFA), who offers a unique global perspective to offer some insight at the system level.

  
• 09.06.2023

  Marc Arnusch on how farmers are using ChatGPT

  Today we’ve asked Marc Arnusch, President of Arnusch Farms, to share his experiences using ChatGPT in farming, negotiation, and more.

  
• 08.16.2023

  Cultivating Agility at a Multi-Generational Food Company with Standard Meat

  Today, we’re talking to Ashli Blumenfeld and Ben Rosenthal of Standard Meat Company, about how protein companies are thinking about innovation.

  
• 08.02.2023

  “Who’s investing in agribusiness?” from EvokeAg 2023

  Matthew represents Tenacious on a panel at the EvokeAg Conference in Adelaide, Australia called “Going Global, Who's investing in Agribusiness."

  
• 07.19.2023

  Is Vertical Farming Dead? With Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin from Phyllome

  Today, we’re joined by Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin, Founder at Phyllome (a Tenacious Ventures portfolio company), to help us tackle the future of vertical farming.

  
• 07.05.2023

  Electrifying the Farm with David Meyers of GridTractor

  Today we’re sitting down with David Meyers, CEO and Founder at GridTractor, to help us explore the future of on-farm electrification.

  
• 06.21.2023

  Transforming the Future of Australian Ag Retail with Rob Dawes

  We're returning this week to the ag retail space with another perspective, from Rob Dawes of Rob Dawes Consulting, who’s career has given him unique insight to both the farmer and the retailer perspective.

  
• 06.07.2023

  Race to Define the Future of Ag Retail with Shane Thomas of Upstream Ag Insights

  This week, we're diving deep into how ag retail is changing, and what it might look like in the future. You’ll hear from Shane Thomas, Author of Upstream Ag Insights.

  
• 05.24.2023

  On-Farm Food Loss and Beyond with Sarah Hulick and Olympia Yarger

  For the final installment in our three-part food waste series, we’re climbing all the way up to the top of the supply chain to gain a deeper understanding of on-farm food loss and waste.

  
• 05.10.2023

  How to Create Incentives for Circularity in Food System Waste

  Australia is a country that has set specific targets on waste reduction, but so far, is largely on track to miss them, and companies in the food system are contributing.

  
• 04.26.2023

  Challenges with Investing in Food Waste Tech with Closed Loop Partners and Olympia Yarger of Goterra

  Waste in the food system is an incredibly big challenge. Whether the aim is to reduce food loss, to curb packaging that ends up in landfills, or even to ensure food that’s grown makes it out of the field, there...

  
• 04.12.2023

  Collaborating at the Intersection of Dairy and Alt-Dairy, with Michael Hampson from Norco Cooperative

  There’s a common misconception in the alternative protein space that continues to hold back innovation: the idea that conventional and alternative products are direct competitors. In general, the idea that consumers are dropping conventional milk for soy milk, or eschewing...

  
• 03.29.2023

  How to Invest in Deep Tech in Agri-food, Tenaciously

  Deep tech– or the world of technology companies beyond those that make software– is often seen as a bridge too far for the world of venture capital investing. A key challenge; the tried and true strategies around growing high-value companies...

  
• 03.15.2023

  Unlocking Phosphorus for the Future of Fertility with Hunter Swisher of Phospholutions

  When it comes to phosphorus-- the second most prominent fertilizer component– a big problem today is that it is simultaneously too rare on earth overall and too abundant in the landscapes where it's used. The vast majority of the world’s...

  
• 03.01.2023

  Can Molecular Farming Replace Cows with Crops? with Amos Palfreyman of Miruku

  The question of how to make commodity crops more valuable is a perennial one in agriculture, and over the years there have been a lot of good-- and bad-- answers. Recently, one strategy has emerged that we find particularly intriguing,...

  
• 02.15.2023

  Transforming Animal Waste into Renewable Fertilizer with Jordan Phasey from Phinite

  When people in ag think about fertilizer, nitrogen -- or N -- is usually the first thing that comes to mind, whether thinking about yields, costs, or environmental impacts. But phosphorus is another concerning element of the crop nutrient mix,...

  
• 02.01.2023

  Future of Fertilizer... So What? with Tim Hammerich from Future of Agrculture

  Global geopolitical disruptions first put fertilizer center stage as farmers around the world struggled with price and supply swings. But that was just the beginning of the conversation– as fertilizer tech begins to step into the spotlight, offering alternatives not...

  
• 01.25.2023

  AgTech Headlines… So What? - Mineral Launch, Planet Labs Insurance, Deere Right-to-Repair

  Breaking news in the agtech world abounds here at the beginning of 2023, and as we've tracked the latest announcements, we've been thinking a lot about a few tech updates, especially from major brands, and what they might mean for...

  
• 01.18.2023

  Building a Food Business Ecosystem from the Farm Up, with Michael Bosworth of Next Generation Foods

  Agtech has long had an interest in shortening the supply chain between farms and consumers. And yet after years of effort, relatively little progress has been made beyond a proliferation of farmers markets and some new “local” tags at supermarkets....

  
• 12.22.2022

  2022: The Year of Risk at AgTech… So What?

  2022 was a wild year– both in the world of agtech broadly, and for us here at Tenacious Ventures. We’ve covered a lot of ground, spanning everything from scaling soil tech, to the future of ag marketing, to alternative protein,...

  
• 12.14.2022

  Shifting from Climate Measurement to Risk Mitigation, with Cullen Gunn from Kilter Rural

  There is a lot of momentum in agtech right now around investing at the intersection of ag and climate– and inevitably, many conversations start with a focus on how to measure impact. The problem we’ve been thinking about lately-- this...

  
• 11.30.2022

  Why is autonomy in ag so hard? With Ray Russell and Connie Bowen

  We’ve talked and thought a lot about autonomy this year, and despite what we think are some promising developments, overall, we continue to be struck by just how hard it is to bring solutions to market. From the technology to...

  
• 11.16.2022

  From Buyer Beware to Seller Beware in Agtech

  We’ve been thinking a lot recently about how much the world of agtech has changed over the last two decades, and how companies, and more importantly, their customers, are adapting to an increasingly digitally native world. For years, the focus...

  
• 11.02.2022

  The Future of Fertilizer - Nitrogen: Part 2, with Jupiter Ionics and Kula Bio

  Today we're tackling part two of our future of Nitrogen fertilizer discussion, focusing on the realm of business models and strategies. We chat with two companies exploring how we might reimagine the way farmers around the world buy and sell...

  
• 10.19.2022

  The Future of Fertilizer - Nitrogen, with Jupiter Ionics and Kula Bio

  This is the first episode in our series on the future of fertilizer, starting with Nitrogen - the N in NPK.Russia’s war in Ukraine has collided with natural gas supply chain disruptions and sent the price of fertilizer skyrocketing. But,...

  
• 10.12.2022

  On-Farm Climate Risks and the Future of Ag Finance with Clay Govier

  For a year that has already seen so much downside for US farmers in the form of extreme weather - from droughts to soaring temperatures - there’s another risk looming: rising interest rates. Adapting to an increasingly unpredictable and extreme...

  
• 10.05.2022

  Legacy Finance Eyes Agtech, with Wells Fargo

  While early-stage agtech tends to play in the venture world, it pays to check in with how folks sitting in banking think about their role as partners to startups. Traditional lenders can draw on the best part of a century...

  
• 09.21.2022

  Systems Thinking and the Legacy of Big Food, with Dr Nigel Hughes, Kellogg

  The decisions by major food companies impact consumers, farmers, and the environment at every stage of the agrifood value chain. But the status quo strategies of ‘Big Food’ don’t always acknowledge the complex, interconnected systems at play around the world.Our...

  
• 09.07.2022

  Changing the Risk Profile of Agriculture: a farmer's perspective on parametric insurance

  We recently launched a three-episode deep dive into the future of risk and insurance in agriculture. Over the course of the series, we heard from one listener who offered to share his experience using novel insurance products to manage the...

  
• 08.24.2022

  What Commodity Agriculture Can Learn from Organic Farming, with Amy Bruch, Cyclone Farms

  While the term “organic” tends to be associated with small-scale production and a preference for manual tools over the latest technology, organic farming advocates claim their methods can reduce the need for expensive inputs like fertilizers and herbicides,...

  
• 08.10.2022

  Defining the Future of Ag Advocacy, with Emma Germano, Victorian Farmers Federation

  Agriculture is exposed to a complex tangle of laws, trade agreements, and competing visions of the future. For farmers, adjustments by legislators at any level of government can have an impact. So while policy is often an afterthought for operators...

  
• 08.03.2022

  Bonus Ep: Audience Responses to "The Three Fears of Farm Data"

  Back in May, we published an experimental bonus episode called “The Three Fears of Farm Data”. The conversation centered around the legitimacy of fears held by farmers about sharing their farm data, and kicked off with a particularly hot take:“We...

  
• 07.27.2022

  The Three Categories of Autonomy in Agriculture, with Andrew Bate, SwarmFarm Robotics

  Autonomous farming equipment and robotics in ag is more crowded than ever. Every new acquisition from an incumbent or deployment of venture capital into the space creates more buzz to sort through in the inboxes of analysts, entrepreneurs, and farmers.With...

  
• 07.13.2022

  The Incentives, Barriers, and Willingness to Pay for Carbon Programs in Agriculture, with Emma Fuller, Corteva Agriscience

  When it comes to designing carbon programs in agriculture, there is a very real tension between the science and the commercial realities of drawing down carbon at scale. Particularly, the question of how to incentivize on-farm practice changes is one...

  
• 06.29.2022

  Ag Insurance...So What?

  This week we're bringing you the final episode in our three-part series on the future of ag insurance.Our journey started with learning the ins and outs of how the sector currently operates (check out the ag insurance 101 episode here)...

  
• 06.15.2022

  The Future of Insurance in Agriculture, with Damon Johnson, Global Ag Risk Solutions

  For a traditionally low innovation industry, things are starting to heat up in agricultural insurance.While it remains something of a black box for many people in agriculture, the forces of climate change and technological innovation are creating the right mix...

  
• 06.14.2022

  Bonus Ep: Ag Insurance 101

  Climate change will mean more frequent, extreme weather and more risk exposure for farmers around the world. This increased risk should be a driver for the business of agricultural insurers. But, it’s not easy to predict how climate change and...