Agtech Action | Week of 12.14.24 - 12.20.24
Agtech Action is a weekly newsletter highlighting and commenting on current events in the world of agtech
Grubhub to pay fine for harmful practices against diners, DeSantis protects FL farms from development, and CA declares bird flu emergency. Walmart employees now wear body cameras, animals as chemical factories, and Bayer and Trendlines dissolve agtech fund.
Knowing our limitations is a powerful personal exercise—this is also true for agtech. How can agtech move forward without understanding its limitations? We’ll give this a try in this week’s newsletter.
Food and the World:
A Larger Dairy Herd May Limit Future Price Rallies
How to Estimate Cattle Rate of Gain
Farm Groups Demand Ag Aid Despite Congressional Impasse
Raising Herefords in Hereford: Views from the Farm
Vilsack Says Rollins Has Key Asset — Trump’s Ear
Craig Wins First-Round Vote for House Democratic Ag Leader
Pipeline Opponents Receive Cease and Desist Letters from Summit
Second Recall of Raw Milk in California Because of Bird Flu
Grubhub to pay $25M in FTC settlement over harmful practices against diners, workers
DeSantis Approves Millions to Protect 62,000 Acres of Florida Farms from Development
Craig wins seat to lead Dems on House Agriculture Committee
Year-End Package Has $10B in Economic Relief for Agriculture
Agriculture Industry Reacts to Angie Craig’s Nomination as House Ag Ranking Member
In Win for Biofuels, Stopgap Spending Bill Allows Year-Round Sales of E15 Gas Nationwide
Arizona sues Saudi-owned company over groundwater use
House proposes funding measure that includes 1-year farm bill extension
Federal Funding Bill Collapses, Putting Ag Aid at Risk (let’s put a hold on all this funding for the time being!)
Trump and Vance Oppose Funding Bill That Includes Farm Aid
House Defeats Trump-Backed Government Funding Bill
Calif. declares bird flu emergency
Iowa Soybean Partners with State for Water Quality Efforts
Inflation reading slowest since May
Trump Endorses New Spending Plan in Congress That Suspends Debt Limit for Two Years
Two Thirds of Large Crop Farms Use Precision Agriculture Technology, Says Report
Agtech in the News:
New study shows incredible results of pairing solar panels with agriculture: 'We were able to get more from the land' (let’s check back in a few years and see the productivity of the land)
Syngenta Crop Protection and AI-Partner Enko Achieve Milestone Toward Sustainable Weed Control
Agtech seedlings: Plenty closes flagship indoor lettuce farm in California
Top 5 AgTech trends for 2025: What’s next for regenerative agriculture?
Can Silicon Valley Save These Chicks?
How AgTech is Integrated into College Curriculums
eFishery appoints new CEO amid embezzlement investigation
Beware shiny object syndrome… What went wrong for carbon marketplace Nori?
AI-based weather insurance stands to lower farmer premiums 37%, say scientists
Sound Agriculture gets $25M to expand its synthetic fertilizer replacements
CDC confirms first severe human case of H5N1 bird flu
Egg proteins… in potatoes? Molecular farming startup PoLoPo makes the case
Final text of defense spending bill raises alarm bells for DJI ag spray drone distributors
Boehringer Ingelheim recognizes Wisconsin dairy farmer
Inside the Good Meat Project’s mission to change meat consumption
What’s in the stocking for agriculture investors in 2025?
States Resist Agricultural Labor Protections While Relying on Temporary Workers
Walmart employees are now wearing body cameras in some stores
Deere announces new U.S. initiatives after year of significant layoffs
Skytree Acquires Direct Air Capture Startup ReCarbn To Solidify Technological Dominance
ADAMA’s Novel Active Ingredient Feralla® Receives Positive EFSA Assessment
USDA Allocates $116M to Expand Fertilizer Production in Nine States
Why misinformation about a cow fed additive prompted people to throw milk away
Cargill to cut 5% of global workforce
Ripple’s new stablecoin for payments will be available to trade Tuesday
Agtech seedlings: First US egg producer adopts technology to avoid killing male chicks
What’s holding back low-carbon rice adoption?
Overheard at World Agri-Tech Dubai – talking points for the sector to ponder
Israeli agricultural companies present tech at Michigan farm expo
Regen ag: Data puts the economic benefit at $250bn over a decade (but there’s a catch)
Fun:
From Cars and Coca-Cola to Antique Tractors: The Trotter Family’s Winding Road
Invasive ‘murder hornets’ eradicated in the U.S., officials say
A Year in the Life of a Christmas Tree Farmer
The Most Interesting Iron of 2024
Bedtime Reading with Christmas Trees
Bringing Oyster Farming Into the 21st Century
Why Pet Owners Abandon Raw Meat-Based Diets and The Role of Expert Formulators
Colorado ranchers suspect theft as nearly 200 calves disappear
Helpful Resources:
2025 EMEA Private Capital Outlook
Private capital predictions report: 2025 edition
2025 Allocator Solutions: Private Market Opportunities
2025 US Venture Capital Outlook
Stocks of recent tech IPOs surge at pace not seen since 2021
2025 US Private Equity Outlook
Interesting Reads:
Democrats offer $10B in ag market relief as parties spar over farm bill extension
Wrapping up before the holiday
From 2% GDP Savings to 40% Water Reduction: Estonia's Agri-Tech Impact on the GCC
Chinese tech transforming Thai agriculture
Danforth Center partners to improve production of beneficial fungi for agriculture
California declares state of emergency due to H5N1 in dairy cattle
How AgTech is Integrated into College Curriculums (we need more of this)
The strange future of lab-grown meat (there is no future for mutant meat)
What Ohio's data-center boom means for the state's farming communities
Beer rules pro sports. Liquor brands like Grey Goose and Diageo want in
USDA mandates testing of the nation’s milk supply for bird flu
How saliva changes the flavor of food
From field to farm: the US pro athletes trying their hand at agriculture
A 12-Year-Old’s Journey into the World of Ozempic
Illinois reports first HPAI case of 2024
Drinkable Mayonnaise Is Now a Thing
Perspective: Rejecting GE technology is detrimental to the world’s hungry
Kamata: A Place for Dumplings in a Laundromat
New obesity shot drags Novo shares
Farmers Urge Congress to Provide Certainty to Rural America
Livestock producers urged to prepare for disease outbreak
How can trade war with Mexico, Canada hurt US protein sectors?
Rounds Urges Ag Secretary to Avoid Reopening U.S.-Mexico Cattle Trade Due to Detected Disease
Paying Pennies to Disabled Farmworkers May Be on Its Way Out
Bamboo has acquired a U.S. broker-dealer license
Ceva officially launches its latest innovation for poultry broiler production - Ceva Genesys
NY’s first dairy farm biochar kiln advances green agriculture
APHIS adds 7 new states to milk testing strategy
Finance:
Big Names in Climate, Tech, and Investing Back Terradot’s Global Plan to Scale CO2 Removal
Investment is second only to politics for climate impact – Morrison’s James Shaw
Mondelēz International’s VC Arm Joins in Fundraising Round for Israeli Cocoa Tech Startup
Trendlines Group and Bayer to Dissolve Agtech Fund
AMERRA’s founders take ownership of firm
Swiss Agtech Startup Cerve Secures £3.5M to Digitize the Global Food Supply Chain
Lessons Learned from 10 Years of Investing in Food & Agriculture, Oceans, and Energy
Four Growers Secures $9M in Series A Round for AI-Powered Crop Harvesting Robots
Agtech’s long M&A drought may be lifting — Dealspeak North America
Investment is second only to politics for climate impact – Morrison’s James Shaw
Lithuanian agtech startup Freya Cultivation Systems raises funding for aeroframe system development
Artesian and Hort Innovation launch A$60M horticulture fund
Theme of the Agtech Week: Limitations
We all have limitations. I know what I can do, and I know what I cannot. I know what I will do, and I know what I will not do. Should we do this for agtech? Yes we should and there are reasons, including:
Sets the parameters. This is important for technology-market-customer fit. We cannot be everything to everyone, nor do you want to be.
Points us in a direction. We know where we are going if we define what we can and cannot do. We know where to sell if we establish what we are selling.
Gives us focus. The agtech world is littered with distractions, and startups that chased those distractions. Time is not a luxury agtech has so we must value it.
There are a few caveats about limitations:
They are dynamic not static. What you cannot do now does not mean you cannot do it in the future.
If you don’t set them, they will be set for you. Can’t define what your agtech does? Somebody will do that for you. Who are you selling it to? That will be dictated to you if you don’t dictate it for yourself.
Gives us a goal. Not only do limitations give us a direction, but they also give us a goal to strive for. Does your agtech not fit the farm gate yet? But does it serve ag retail? Solve the ag retail riddle and then you solve the farmer riddle.
‘Agtech is not scaling!’ ‘Farmers do not want to buy agtech!’ ‘When are we going to see a notable agtech success?’ I hear and read comments like this lately about agtech. These are limiting beliefs and the thing with limitations is that they set agtech back. Entrepreneurs have a unique opportunity to turn that around. And I will be here to support it.
‘All limitations are self-imposed.’ - Oliver Wendell Holmes
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.