Farmers today are in a tough spot. With input costs climbing and crop prices falling, many farm businesses are barely breaking even, yet they still have very little insight into one of the most important parts of their operation: the soil. And it's not just growers who want this information. CPG companies, carbon accounting firms, and anyone trying to understand what's happening below the surface need it too. Measuring soil accurately and usefully has always been expensive and difficult, in part because a single field can hide completely different chemistry, structure, and microbial life from one spot to the next. But advances in sensing and AI are changing that equation. 

In this episode, EarthOptics CEO Lars Dyrud joins S2G's Chuck Templeton to discuss the company's vertically integrated approach to soil measurement and insights. They get into why we're still so in the dark about our soil and how EarthOptics helps farmers understand which inputs are worth the money so they can turn a profit while improving soil health. They also discuss how the company is integrating AI into every part of its operations and product development, and the vast potential hidden in the soil to discover solutions with transformative applications in agriculture and beyond.

If you are interested in learning more about the soil on your own property, you can try EarthOptics new consumer testing service at Living Soil Lab. 

Chapters: 

04:40 — Why Soil Measurement Hasn't Changed in 80 Years
 06:20 — The Three Dimensions of Soil Health
 07:40 — What Better Soil Data Saves Farmers
 11:35 — The Cost Curves That Made This Possible
 19:45 — Getting an Entire Company to Adopt AI
 28:05 — Turning Soil Data Into a New Revenue Line
 30:15 — The Dark Half of the Soil Genome

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