Agtech Action | Week of 09.28.24 - 10.04.24
Agtech Action is a weekly newsletter highlighting and commenting on current events in the world of agtech
Agriculture losses from Helene, CA AI safety bill vetoed, and Deere issues the largest tractor recall for brakes. Port strike hits and then is postponed, corn and soy harvest progress sails past averages, and the world’s oldest cheese.
It is one thing to disrupt, it is another to complement. Complementarity is the way for agtech. The issue of adoption and investment gets brought up a lot in agtech and complementarity offers a path to solve it. We’ll discuss that in this week’s newsletter.
Food and the World:
Five Missouri healthcare workers with respiratory symptoms to be tested for bird flu
U.S.-Mexico rail delays hit farm sector ahead of possible ports strike
Corn ‘virtually died’ at the end of August in Indiana as 100% of the state faces drought stress
North Dakota a ‘mixed bag’ this harvest
Stabenow: Farmers need hurricane aid
USDA says corn and soy stocks up 29% year-over-year
Corn and soybean harvest progress sails past five-year averages
Grain Prices Searching for a Major Low
Check out the national corn and soybean harvest progress summed up in colorful, interactive maps
Fears of falling income drive farmer confidence to lowest level in eight years
Hurricane Helene causes billions in ag damage
Moving Iron: What does the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cuts mean for ag equipment?
2018 Farm bill extension expires — what does that mean?
Agriculture losses from Helene are significant, says Vilsack (not to mention the loss of lives, please pray for NC, TN and those affected)
Agtech in the News:
AI Could Help Small Organic Farmers, someday
John Deere issues largest tractor recall in 20 years over failing brakes
Meet the biggest agri-food and forestry fund managers
IBM and NASA Release Open-Source AI Model on Hugging Face for Weather and Climate Applications
Military’s weather satellite program in flux as Space Force evaluates options
Pollination eyes Africa for regenerative ag strategy
What should follow California’s vetoed AI safety bill?
Partnership to advance substrate-free berry and leafy greens cultivation
Q&A: FarmWise Thrusts AI Into Spotlight with Mechanical Weed Management
After the Storm: America’s Farmers Look to ‘Replant and Rise Again’ in Wake of Hurricane
Cauldron Receives Queensland Government Support to Develop First-of-a-Kind Biomanufacturing Facility
Future-Focused Food Production: Integrating High-Tech Agriculture into Cities
Food tech investment slump seeing slow u-turn
Drone technology transforming Australian agriculture
Farmer sentiment reaches lowest levels since 2016
US lawmakers seek to pay livestock farmers to use climate-friendlier practices
Fun:
AI can generate recipes that can be deadly. Food bloggers are not happy (turns out AI can’t get recipes right)
World’s Oldest Cheese Reveals Origins of Kefir
80 Acres in northeast Iowa sell for $1.26 million
Helpful Resources:
Online therapy could be a tool to prevent farmer suicide, experts say
Brothers-in-law band together after tragedy strikes twice
Q4 2024 PitchBook Analyst Note: US Presidential Election Guide
Q3 2024 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor First Look
2024 Emerging Space Brief: AGI Research
Interesting Reads:
VC Investing in BRICS Countries: Brazil
Leveling up: a wearable sensor experiment
Altman’s corporate overhaul could boost OpenAI’s growth—at a cost (this is so disingenuous, claimed to be doing it for the ‘love’ now for the profit)
A Safety Net for Farmworkers During Climate Disasters
For Farmers, Are AI Chatbots Worth the Risk?
When College Kids Can’t Afford Food
Why America hates to love chicken nuggets
How ancient Amazonians transformed a toxic crop into a diet staple
A Venture Capital Firm Does Something Rare: Give Money Back (this is not a good sign of things to come for VC)
AFIA provides insights into port strike
We need more Native American restaurants
The Toxic Legacy of the French Banana
The Poachers Who Could Save Mexico’s Vaquita
A Food Critic walks into a Fasting Spa (more fads that won’t do anything)
Finance:
Pollination puts a value on voluntary biodiversity markets
Micropep Closes Series B Round at $40M After Supplemental Funding Raised from Corteva, and Sparkfood
3 charts: Startup founders and VCs find more equal footing
Private wealth and family offices see lower ESG uptake
Morgan Stanley IM closes $750M climate fund
CRS issues RFP for timber and farmland funds
Acre Impact Capital gets $25M commitment from US DFC
Theme of the Agtech Week: Complementarity
The most common first slide that I see on an agtech pitch deck is ‘We are building X technology that will disrupt food and agriculture’ because we need to ‘feed the world’. Does this grab the audience and investors’ attention? Yes it does. But does it ultimately serve its purpose of encouraging the investor and partners to support and invest? I argue it does not. There is too much focus on disruption of ag rather than complementing ag with technology. Complementarity is the key. Why is that?
First, let’s start with disruption. Why does that hinder agtech? It does so because it is:
Viewed as a threat to incumbents, whether true or not.
Makes a claim that it better back up, and frankly has not done so.
Discredits and categorizes agtech as trying to disrupt the sector.
Subtractive, not additive.
Let’s be honest, true disruption is rare and the market decides that. You do not get to boldly claim that you are disrupting things.
Second, when agtech leads with complementarity, it does the following:
Invites, and in fact incentivizes, collaboration from incumbents. The threat of ‘disruption’ is neutralized.
Adoption of technology accelerates. You are merely trying to add another tool in the toolbox, not replace the toolbox.
Attract what you need. Do you need talent? You’ll find that executive, who’s looking for a new career opportunity, to build with you.
Takes care of the business model. You are not creating a business model from scratch; you are plugging into an existing one that your technology complements.
It is additive, not duplicative. Finding new value, not re-creating and extracting it.
How can agtech truly complement food and agriculture? I address this is in several past newsletters, but some good starting points are this and this newsletter. I’ll dive deeper into this topic in a future newsletter.
Do not threat, complement. Thanks for reading.
BD
Brandon Day is the Chief Operating Officer of The Yield Lab Institute, the global agtech think-tank, ecosystem builder, non-profit arm of The Yield Lab global network of venture capital funds. The views, opinions and commentary expressed are solely those of Brandon Day.