David Perry is the President, CEO, and Director of Indigo Ag, a company that seeks to harness the power of plant microbes to improve yield and lessen (and potentially eliminate) the use of harmful pesticides and insecticides. David is a well-known entrepreneur, having founded and built three outstanding companies within the last two decades. He has lead the last two companies through successful IPOs while providing significant returns for their investors. Prior to becoming a businessman, David attended the US Air Force Academy and was a National Merit Scholar.

 

In this episode, David explains how plant-microbe research can benefit the farmer as well as the environment. He describes the thought processes involved in founding Indigo Ag, the benefits of their research as well as its plausible risks towards the environment. He also shares their current research progress and their future projects.

 

 
“To improve economic prosperity for farmers, we should move farming from being a completely commoditized business to one where they are increasingly producing things that are value-added.” – David Perry

 

 
This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: 

 

• Why he believes microbes can help improve agriculture.
• Their solutions to identifying microbes that increase yields.
• Technologies that enabled them to expand and innovate their research.
• Can they patent the microbes they find?
• The risks of this type of research towards the environment.
• The problems they started working on.
• Can microbes eventually replace chemicals in agriculture?
• What identity preservation means from a farmer's view point.

 

David Perry’s Words of Wisdom:

• Developing microbes are much faster than developing chemicals.
• There's a future in which we use less than half of the chemical fertilizers we use today, and we may eliminate 90% of the chemical pesticides and insecticides.
• If the farmer is delivering their crop to a local elevator and it's getting piled in with their neighbors, there's no way for them to get paid for better quality or greater sustainability.

 

Resources Mentioned:

• Marrone Bio Innovations

 

Connect with David Perry:

 

• Indigo Ag

Check Out Our Sponsor for the “Sustainability at Scale” Series

 

Have you ever heard of Marrone’s BIO WITH BITE? Marrone Bio Innovation offers crop pest protection for the modern organic and conventional production systems. To make sure every grower using their products realize the best possible return on investment, Marrone invests time and resources to thoroughly test and demonstrate the efficacy of those new state of the art products. With serious trial data to back it up! You can see more and connect directly with Marrone by visiting them at www.marronebio.com

Marrone is very proud to support The Future Of Agriculture blog series on sustainability in agriculture with Tim Hammerich.

 

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The Future of Agriculture Podcast is now part of the Farm and Rural Ag Network. Listen to more ag-related podcasts by subscribing on iTunes or on the Farm and Rural Ag Network Website today. 

 
 

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