I understood that I needed to create a company that is dealing with how to be part of the revolution of unmanned systems in the ag industry.

Ben Alfi is a veteran of the Israel Air Force and Managing Founder for Blue White Robotics -an Israeli-based agtech company providing what they call Robots-as-a-Service. Blue White’s software platform plans and operates multiple tasks for autonomous air and ground fleets, integrating aftermarket autonomous capabilities into a variety of OEM ag equipment.

Over the course of his military career, Ben spent 25 years in the Israeli Air Force, flying a variety of F16s and unmanned systems. The last 10 years of his service were spent developing and managing the Israel Air Force’s unmanned systems, anything from two pounds to six tons. You’ll hear throughout this episode how influential this time was to the founding of Blue White Robotics and their decision to tackle the agricultural space first. This conversation comes at a great time as much of the talk today in autonomous vehicle operations is around John Deere’s recent acquisition of Bear Flag Robotics and what it means for the industry. We get into Ben thoughts on this as well and how they’re differentiated.

We begin our conversation with Ben at a diner in California as Blue White is currently seeking to build out a footprint in the US. We’ll go anywhere to get our listeners a great story, including a restaurant with some background noise. Our apologies for that, but I think you’ll find this conversation so fascinating that it won’t be an issue.

Farmer Veteran Coalition is at an intersection – farmers and veterans – where mental health is extremely important.

Willie Hines is a US Navy veteran and Director of Operations for Farmer Veteran Coalition (FVC), a nationally recognized non-profit focused on mobilizing veterans to feed America and transition support for military service members to a career in agriculture. This is our third interview with FVC’s leadership as we seek the highlight their work with vets in ag.

Willie’s early life growing up in a small town in the Midwest resolved him to want to get out and experience the world, so he joined the Navy and become a SEAL, specializing in communications. To hear his description of how far radio communications have come since the early 80s and what we’re able to do both in the military and ag today was fascinating, especially how they used to transmit voice message from places like Kenya back to Virginia.

This episode is filled with stories about submarine lock-outs, public sentiment for service members from Vietnam and today, challenges surrounding the future of plant genetics, and so much more; all from a man who has truly experienced a life’s worth of events in a short period of time.  

The work Willie continues to do with the veteran and ag communities at FVC is truly admirable. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did.

I spent 23 years [as an Army aviator] doing remote sensing where my role was to figure out how to convey information in the best way possible for the decision maker.

Scott Jackman is a US Army veteran and President for the US Division of Deveron, a Toronto-based agtech company using proprietary algorithms, third-party data collection platforms, and teams of agronomists and data scientists to help growers understand and monetize their field variability. We had one of their US sales reps on the show a few weeks ago, Andrew Patrick, another military veteran.

Scott had a unique opportunity with the National Guard at the beginning of his career to experience real-world military service through supporting relief efforts around the ‘93 flood of the Mississippi River. This isn’t something many service members get to do before their formal career begins and it really solidified for Scott a true calling towards service. This then become the next 23 years of his life.

The perspectives he gained over the course of that career as an Army helicopter pilot, his entrepreneurial endeavors following military service, which ultimately led to his current role at Deveron, equipped him with a unique set of skills and appreciation for servant leadership.

Have a listen to find out how all these pieces fit together and to get a better idea of the services offered by Deveron and their goal of turning the physical world into digits.

One of my farmers, a very large dairy in California, committed suicide. And it was at that moment that my life completely changed.

This week, we’re continuing our interview series with the leadership team from Farmer Veteran Coalition. Our guest today is FVC’s Executive Director, Jeanette Lombardo. Jeanette was raised on a dairy farm amongst a military family and spent more than a decade as a military spouse, including supporting her former husband through Operation Desert Storm. Her professional career began in commercial ag lending where an experience with a client dairy farmer caused her to completely rethink the way she approached supporting the farmer community.

Even with an intimate knowledge of the complexities of the ag environment gathered through many decades in the industry, including advisory assignments at Federal level with the USDA and EPA, Jeanette never lost sight of her true purpose – supporting the farmer.

She continues to serve this community, though more specifically today the veteran farmer, as FVC’s Executive Director. Have to listen to find out how Jeanette ultimately got connected with FVC and some of fantastic programs they’re working on today.

The core of my ethos became the need to have a constitution to take anything as far as necessary

Our guest this week is Richard Brion, US Navy veteran and CEO for Revolution Agriculture – an ag start-up seeking to reduce the logistics chain of fresh crops through shipping container-sized installations directly on land owners’ farms. Their unique business model aims to capitalize on the growing and decentralized population of small holder farmers and delivery services without adding cost, time, or labor requirements to the land owner.

The ethos Richard developed from his time in the service and defense contracting were originally shaped by some of his military leaders. This ability of these senior leaders to take trying circumstances and use them as opportunities to educate is a unique skill they develop over the years. It certainly stuck with Richard and has become a driving factor in the creation of Revolution Agriculture.

At the very least, you’ll enjoy these wild stories Richard shares from his overseas experiences. As the head of Revolution Agriculture, the technology they’re creating around the re-introduction of soil and pollinators into controlled environments is fascinating and something we’ll for sure continue to follow.

I wouldn’t say it’s a distrust, but rather potential customers not understanding who we are and what we do

Our guest this week is Andrew Patrick, Marine Corps veteran and Sales Development Representative at Deveron, a Toronto-based agtech company using proprietary algorithms, third-party data collection platforms, and teams of agronomists and data scientists to provide insights to growers and ag enterprises.

Throughout this interview, you’ll hear Andrew describe the intention with which he made some early decisions in his life – from joining the Marine Corps, to forgoing deployments to continue to pursue his education, to finding a passion early in agriculture through FFA. The thought with which he made some of these difficult decisions early in life has to have some relation to his time in the Marine Corps.

His understanding of the current challenges agtech companies face around trust and education within the farmer community is an important one to recognize and appreciate for client-facing representative like Andrew. While he is new to his career in ag, I hope the freshness of his transition from military service and the decisions he’s made around his chosen career path can be an inspiration to other vets who might currently find themselves in the same place.

I've been bootstrapping it so far, but it's tough. You still have to keep the lights on at home

Our guest this week is Jose Sanchez, Founder of Ecogistix, a manufacturing execution systems platform that will allows growers to more efficiently track and manage their fresh produce as it moves from farm to market.

Jose’s familial ties to the farming community trace back to his grandfather’s ranching operations in Mexico. But it was his father’s memories of the difficulty of selling their product at the local markets that brought Jose back into ag after spending a number of years gaining an education in computer science and in supply chain management.

The intentionally and care with which Jose has approached the creation of Ecogistix is impressive. It’s taken them over three years to develop a production ready model, a process that started with the farmer’s challenges, then leveraged their team’s industry experience and partnerships to finally reach a stage where they’re ready to start on-boarding growers.

Jose is honest with this process of bootstrapping about it not being all sunshine and roses. It takes grit, struggle and financial preparation. Have a listen to hear Jose’s story and some of lessons learned from this agri-preneur.  

"It's not the bird songs or the warm soil. It's the early days, constant problem solving, grit..."

This from our guest this week, Rachel Petitt, as she describes the types of things veterans look for as they seek to ease the burden of transition by trying to match their new professional lives with their former lives.

Rachel is Farmer Veteran Coalition’s Fellowship Program Manager, which administers grants for tools, equipment, infrastructure and even livestock that support veteran farmers in their new careers. After earning a degree in Food and Ag from UC Santa Cruz, Rachel worked in small-scale farming for several years, including flower, vegetables and egg production in central California before joining FVC in 2015.

The passion for agriculture is evident as Rachel describes the formidable nature of these experiences and how they conditioned in her a sense of purpose that can be found in agriculture. Through her college network and word-of-mouth, the opportunity to work for FVC’s former founder, Michael O’Gorman, came across her radar and she jumped at it. As FVC’s longest standing employee to date, Rachel talks about FVC's growth over the last 14 years, her experiences working with veterans for the first time, and their herculean efforts support the veteran farmer community with a wide variety of services that extends beyond simply funding opportunities.

If you’re a veteran or active-duty service member who will soon transition and are considering production agriculture, this is a must listen episode.

It’s impossible to hide poor work on a farm

Our guest this week is Jed Dunham, a consultant with Kansas State’s Office of Military and Veterans Affairs. After graduating from Kansas State in 1996, Jed spent the next several years working in a variety of industries; from building playgrounds across the Midwest, heavy construction in Montana, coaching lacrosse in Virginia, working to bring veterans into agricultural educational opportunities, and riding a bicycle 4,600+ miles across North America. Once back in Kansas, his background as a historical researcher uncovered an incredible set of stories involving WWI soldiers. This work did more than just bring their lives to light again, it showed how their individual stories told the narrative of an important developmental time in American history.

This collection of stories, which Jed has called 48 Fallen 48 Found, led to the formal dedication of a World War I Memorial Stadium on the campus of Kansas State University in 2017. Jed continues to honor the sacrifices of our past through his work with Kansas State’s State Military Affairs Innovation Center.

Have a listen and weight-in how you think these soldier’s stories can best to told.

"Now we're moving to a town with 100 people and a language I don't speak and I'm gonna have to try and make a career."

Our guest this week is Amanda Burkardt, Founder and CEO for Nutripeutics, a science and technology consultancy currently serving several different animal and human health start-ups, investor groups, and universities. Amanda brings a unique background of science (BA in Animal Science and Masters in Molecular Biology) and business (MBA with an emphasis on Entrepreneurship and a Masters of Management Information Technology) where she works with innovations to help develop and fund new products.

In this episode, Amanda details the sacrifices she made in the beginning of her career to be a supportive military spouse for the first time…in a foreign country. She articulates the realities of these situations through her own personal experiences in a way I have not heard before. How people finally reach a point in their lives where they decide enough is enough, it’s time to change has always fascinated me. Amanda still fits that mold to a tee.

We also talk about her fascinating early research into alternatives to antibiotics within animal health, how these compounds work, and what they could mean for animal health in the coming years. The concerns she articulates around drug resistant bacteria are real and something we all need to pay attention to. What Amanda has been able to accomplish and build using this type of scientific and business foundation is absolutely something you need to hear.

Be sure to listen to the end as Amanda outlines six major global trends she sees taking shape in the coming years within animal health.