Headed Out to Pasture
I’ve been slightly obsessed with farming for some time, and in all aspects – the biology, the economics, the ecosystem, and the way of life. I also think the people in farming and food production here on LinkedIn are having some of the most interesting conversations and sharing some of the most innovative ideas and inventions of anyone out there. With that in mind, in this Exploring LinkedIn we're taking a whirlwind tour through people and companies I've found to be doing really interesting things and having interesting conversations.
One of the big themes I see in a lot of those conversations is the bringing together of ancient agricultural wisdom and methods with new technology that respects and enhances that wisdom. Kind of a return to sustainable roots but with a technological twist that’s put to use in a way that focuses on the future health of our land.
San Francisco, Bay Area and Israel
To start, I want to focus on my favorite insect of all time: the ??! Bees are absolutely critical to the health of our ecosystems and our farms. So many of our crops depend on the work that bees do for their reproductive success. Worldwide, the bee population is under incredible stress due to climate change, habitat destruction and encroachment, and loss or colony collapse due to parasites and pesticides. Without healthy bee populations, our ability to farm sustainably moving forward and meet food needs for humans is directly threatened.
Pollination services from honey bees and other insects provide the backbone to ensuring our diets are diverse and plentiful with fruits, nuts, and vegetables. In all, there are over 100 crops grown in the United States that depend on pollination.
-USDA
Photo by Dmitry Grigoriev on Unsplash
Two companies are on my list when it comes to bees and beekeeping: Beewise and BeeHero. Both are headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area (Palo Alto and Oakland) as well as having a location in Israel. They are building amazing technology to support and sustain bee populations and to deploy bees as an essential and focused part of improved crop yields through pollination.
Beewise has developed a robotic beehive that allows for remote beekeeping, and BeeHero technology allows keepers to monitor pollination and colony health, which in turn can help optimize pollination and increase crop yields. Aren't bees amazing?!!
Both companies have great pages, and regularly share updates about their work. They also both, at time of writing, have some really cool job openings posted!
Kansas
Next, we're headed to Lawrence, Kansas to visit a company I followed a while back: PrairieFood. Prairie Food produces a "a micro-carbon rich soil amendment produced from readily available biomass waste sources." You can get a quick rundown of what they do from this recent post featuring their Co-founder and CEO Robert K Herrington.
From what I understand, the potential of their product is huge – a soil amendment that can help create healthier soil, replace mined and synthetic fertilizers, and sequester large amounts of carbon. I've really enjoyed following their work and am absolutely rooting (pardon the pun) for them!
The challenge of regenerative agriculture is it is difficult to scale... New tools are needed for farmers to be able to scale the approach, with the flexibility needed, and eliminate ALL herbicides, ALL fertilizers and graze ALL acres with cattle, sheep or goats.
-Greenfield Robotics
From Lawrence, we're driving over to Cheney to say hello to Greenfield Robotics, a company that creates weeding robots that potentially allow regenerative agriculture to scale massively, seeking to dramatically reduce or eliminate the need for herbicides. They have a great definition of regenerative agriculture, from their website:
“Regenerative agriculture works with nature, not against it. Specifically, regenerative agriculture for broadacre farming contains these elements:
The results of regenerative farming are remarkable.
The end result is healthy soil and the elimination of chemicals from farming.”
This recent post from CEO Clint Brauer does a really great job highlighting what they’re doing with their technology and what their vision is.
Brussels and Washington, D.C.
Next, I thought it might be great to take a tour of some of what's happening at the government level with regards to agricultural and food policy, hopefully providing a place to start for you to learn more if you're interested. Note: I am far from an expert, so it's likely I'm excluding some important agencies and initiatives that promise to impact agriculture on a global scale in the years to come. First, I think it's worth stopping at the European Commission to get an overview of their ambitious Farm to Fork Strategy.
If I understand correctly, the strategy (part of the European Green Deal) aims to hasten the transition to a sustainable food system that should, in their words:
How that strategy ultimately ends up influencing or impacting agriculture and food policy globally is yet to be determined, with signs appearing perhaps as part of #farmbill2023 on the horizon here in the United States. Of course, if you're interesting in all things agriculture and food lawmaking and policy, LinkedIn has you covered, as the USDA has a great company page that regularly promotes job opportunities and celebrates the work of employees across the agency.
USDA is committed to providing safe and nutritious food, conservation, sustainable food production and revitalizing rural America.
You can find great pages for all aspects of the department's work, from a focus on rural communities with USDA Rural Development to broadening scientific understanding with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) (great post on what they do here). There are pages for the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) and for USDA-FSIS. Through them, you could discover amazing careers in foreign service!
I'm sure this just barely scratches the surface, but I hope it at least gives a good starting point to start learning more by following these organizations and joining the conversation. And just like that, we've concluded our very brief tour of farming here on LinkedIn. If you know of some amazing people and organizations doing great things, add your suggestions in the comments so we can all be better informed!
Thanks for joining me, and see you next week, explorers!