FOA171 Synthetic Biology with Dr. John Cumbers of SynBioBeta
Dr. John Cumbers is the founder of SynBioBeta. SynBioBeta prides itself as the premier innovation network for innovators, investors, entrepreneurs, and biological engineers. Their focus is introducing synthetic biology innovations to improve the human condition and make life more sustainable. John is a recipient of multiple grants and awards from NASA and the National Academy of Sciences for his work in the industry. He received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry from Brown University, his MSc in Bioinformatics from Edinburgh University, and a degree in Computer Science with Information Engineering from the University of Hull.
John joins me today to discuss the potential of synthetic biology if applied to today’s agriculture sector. He explains what SynBioBeta stands for, what they want to accomplish, and the innovations we can look forward to as consumers. He shares his thoughts on lab-grown meat, the Anti-GMO crowds, and the future of Mars exploration. John also discusses what we can look forward to from their Beta Space Event.
“Synthetic biology is not actually what you do - it’s the way you do it.” - Dr. John Cumbers
This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:
Resources mentioned:
Connect with Dr. John Cumbers:
This episode is sponsored by Indigo Ag
What if surviving a drought began with just a microbe? What could accessing 10,000 buyers do for your agriculture business? Indigo Ag helps farmers improve profitability, environmental sustainability, and consumer health by working with growers to reimagine every aspect of the agriculture industry - from soil to sale.
To learn more about Indigo Ag and their mission to improve the environment and agriculture industry, visit IndigoAg.com/Questions
Indigo. From questions… we grow.
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The Future of Agriculture Podcast is now part of the Farm and Rural Ag Network. Listen to more ag-related podcasts by subscribing on iTunes or on the Farm and Rural Ag Network Website today.
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Alyssa Badger is one of the most impressive people you'll ever meet. Listen as she talks about building her career without a college education, and struggling to overcome an assault.
Dr. Rachel Hay is a social scientist at James Cook University who has uncovered some insights into agtech adoption through her work in behaviour change.
Rachel‘s PhD focused on agtech adoption, highlighting the importance of grazier women in the use and adoption of agtech. She found that women play a vital role in unlocking the potential of agtech adoption on-farm.
Though the research is now a bit dated (it was published in 2014), Rachel’s insights still hold true and may be helpful for agtech companies looking to understand the industry and develop marketing strategies that can cut through the noise.
Here are a few tips from Rachel’s research to help agtech vendors to reach their target audience and drive adoption:
Build trust and meaningful relationships with your producers. Though it may seem like this has to take time, Rachel highlights that content is king and relationships can be built digitally as well as in person.
Be approachable and be seen. AgTech companies need to get out to producer events and engage with their customers, not just sell.
Widen your marketing net, as decision makers are not always male! In fact, her research shows that it’s often the females who are doing the research and driving product adoption, both on-farm and for the back office.
Don’t tell farmers what they need, listen to what they want. This should go without saying, and yet it’s something that tech vendors and extension agents alike get wrong.
Do you have a story of women driving agtech adoption? Are there other tips that you’ve learned for building trust with producers? We’d love to hear them!
You can find Rachel, a boutique pig farmer when she’s not writing or researching, on social media here:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrRach4Research
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drrachelhay/
Facebook page: The Engagement of Women & Technology in Agriculture
To delve more into Rachel’s research, check out:
What every farmer needs to know
You need to understand the importance of proper valve clearance.
Dr. Poornima Parameswaran is the President and Co-Founder of Trace Genomics. Trace Genomics is a company that based its business around mapping living soil, analyzing its microbial content, and helping growers maximize yield potential without sacrificing sustainability. Poornima’s goal is to build the world’s most massive actionable body of soil intelligence, allowing even ordinary farmers to have access to expert information on what’s underground. Poornima earned her Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine, her entrepreneurial skills at Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and her Bachelor’s degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology at The University of Texas at Austin.
Poornima joins me today to discuss how Trace Genomics seeks to improve farm yield and sustainability through genetic testing for soil. She shares the benefits of knowing which microbes are dominant in a particular farmland. She also explains how their analytics engine works, their process, and what a typical scenario using their technology would be like.
“There are two sides of the coin when you’re looking at what is causing production losses above ground.” - Dr. Poornima Parameswaran
This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:
Connect with Dr. Poornima Parameswaran:
This episode is sponsored by Indigo Ag
What if surviving a drought began with just a microbe? What could accessing 10,000 buyers do for your agriculture business? Indigo Ag helps farmers improve profitability, environmental sustainability, and consumer health by working with growers to reimagine every aspect of the agriculture industry - from soil to sale.
To learn more about Indigo Ag and their mission to improve the environment and agriculture industry, visit IndigoAg.com/Questions
Indigo. From questions… we grow.
We Are a Part of a Bigger Family!
The Future of Agriculture Podcast is now part of the Farm and Rural Ag Network. Listen to more ag-related podcasts by subscribing on iTunes or on the Farm and Rural Ag Network Website today.
Join the Conversation!
To get your most pressing ag questions answered and share your perspective on various topics we’ve discussed on the Future of Agriculture podcast, head over to SpeakPipe.com/FutureofAg and leave a recorded message!
Share the Ag-Love!
Thanks for joining us on the Future of Agriculture Podcast – your spot for valuable information, content, and interviews with industry leaders throughout the agricultural space! If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please subscribe on iTunes and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots!
Learn more about AgGrad by visiting:
AgGrad on Twitter
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AgGrad on Instagram
One of ag YouTube's biggest stars. @BriansVideos talks about how he has never wanted to do anything else but farm.
Please visit our sponsor: https://www.degelman.com/
Millennials are a unique generation that have grown up with social media. Posting on social media has been part of their life. This has affected where they shop and what they eat. However, they are interested in facts and are willing to listen, which gives agriculture an opportunity to share information. Listen as Rob Sharkey and Lesley Kelly talk to David Coletto about this large segment of our population as they continue to drive decisions.
Always a pleasure to talk to Peter & Paula Hynes, & they're back on Rock & Roll Farming to talk about the Rearing to Go mental health workshop and charity auction that's taking place in Shrewsbury livestock market on 13th September 2019
Episode Sponsors:
Griffith Elder - Designers & Manufacturers of rugged weighing systems for heavy industrial use www.griffith-elder.com
NFU Cymru - for more information please visit www.nfu-cymru.org.uk
Podcast Partners:
Farmer's Guardian. For the biggest range of news and features from across the Ag industry, please visit www.fginsight.com
Rock & Roll Farming is proud to be a part of the Farm & Rural Ag Network. To find more great podcasts and vlogs, please visit www.farmruralag.com
Mareese Keane is Platform Director with THRIVE, an AgriFood -Tech Accelerator, located at Salinas, California. In this episode, Mareese provides some background to her exciting work with THRIVE, recently acknowledged as being the, ‘Most Valuable AgriFood Tech Accelerator Programme’ in the United States by San Francisco based AgFunder.
Tonight I headed up to the North East of Scotland to talk to farmer and butcher, Jock Gibson.
We talked about his family's farm, his early career in engineering and the year he spent working on yachts, his decision to go back to the family business, the tragic loss of his parents and the importance of succession planning for farming families, and what he's doing now with the butchery and farm.
Don't miss this one..
Episode Sponsors:
Griffith Elder - Designers & Manufacturers of rugged weighing systems for heavy industrial use www.griffith-elder.com
NFU Cymru - for more information please visit www.nfu-cymru.org.uk
Podcast Partners:
Farmer's Guardian. For the biggest range of news and features from across the Ag industry, please visit www.fginsight.com
Rock & Roll Farming is proud to be a part of the Farm & Rural Ag Network. To find more great podcasts and vlogs, please visit www.farmruralag.com
Jamie Waldron is passionate about the art of butchery, and owns a 'roaving butchery enterprise', where he teaches the art throughout the province of Ontario.
Jamie has worked at some of the top butcher shops in Canada, helped craft menus and meat programs for restaurant groups, consulted for butcher shops, and has worked with and for abattoirs in Ontario.
In 2013, he wrote the Home Butchering Handbook. It covers all aspects of traditional meat cutting, from whole carcass to usable cuts.
Carter Malloy is the Founder and CEO of AcreTrader, an online platform that seeks to provide a bridge that connects investors and farm sellers. Before starting his company, Carter was a successful Managing Director at Stephens Inc., a large private investment bank. His passion for conservation and agriculture was drawn from his experience growing up in an Arkansas farming family. This passion eventually led to founding AcreTrader.
Carter joins me to share what AcreTrader can do for farm owners and people seeking a long-term investment. He explains how the platform works, what a typical transaction would look like, and some of the fees involved. Carter discusses the total amount of investments in farmland and why it’s still insignificant from the perspective of the entire ag industry. He also describes some of the reasons why farm sellers should use their platform over traditional methods.
“There's a lot of ways we can work with people who want to sell farmland. For us, it's exciting to bring new solutions to the market.” - Carter Malloy
This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:
Resources Mentioned:
Connect with Carter Malloy:
We Are a Part of a Bigger Family!
The Future of Agriculture Podcast is now part of the Farm and Rural Ag Network. Listen to more ag-related podcasts by subscribing on iTunes or on the Farm and Rural Ag Network Website today.
Join the Conversation!
To get your most pressing ag questions answered and share your perspective on various topics we’ve discussed on the Future of Agriculture podcast, head over to SpeakPipe.com/FutureofAg and leave a recorded message!
Share the Ag-Love!
Thanks for joining us on the Future of Agriculture Podcast – your spot for valuable information, content, and interviews with industry leaders throughout the agricultural space! If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please subscribe on iTunes and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots!
Learn more about AgGrad by visiting:
AgGrad on Twitter
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AgGrad on Instagram
How does a guy from New York end up making a movie about grain bin entrapment? Listen as I talk to Sam Goldberg about the movie Silo
SiloTheFilm.com
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Learn how to make your hydraulic motors last a lifetime!
Peter Thompson and his wife Nicki run EchoCattle, a roughly 18,000 acre property located 80km northeast of Roma, in southern central Queensland, Australia. They run a grass-fed beef operation and crop around 3,000 acres, depending on the season, with an additional 6,00 acres of wilderness country.
As of this year, their house block (~10,000 acres) will have been in the Thompson family for 70 years. They’ll also celebrate their 42nd anniversary together.
The Thompson’s have been farming regeneratively long before it was a ‘thing’. In this episode, Peter shares his hard-earned insights about:
Finding compromises that are truly win-win;
Avoiding the temptation of silver bullet solutions;
The long list of technologies they’ve adopted; and
The importance of balance.
“I see the technology being able to give us the ability to help people understand and connect people so that they realize that it’s not me as the farmer doing whatever might be perceived as bad for the environment. It’s you and me and everyone else that eats and drinks and lives. We’re all complicit in it, so if we can virtually connect everyone and connect people back… I still believe we’ve got significant time to turn things around, if we start now”
The Thompson’s property is home to forty coal seam gas wells, which are some of the first drilled in Australia. Knowing that the world needs energy, and because they loved where they lived, Peter and Nicki made the conscious decision to find a way to have the wells and still look after the land.
They started by putting some principles in place. First, protect the land. Second, ensure the property continued to be livable for the family. And finally, make sure their operation wasn’t at risk. They also did their homework to ensure that they understood the impact these wells would have on the environment.
Once Peter decided to have the wells, he needed to figure out a new model for compensation. The original approach from the gas company was to pay producers with “a few cartons of beer and tickets to the rugby.” That didn’t fly with the Thompsons. Instead, they worked with the gas company to develop a compensation package that took the well from being worth a few thousand dollars per year, to “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
The financial benefits of the gas wells have been a significant support, especially during dry times. Further, Peter is proud of the compromise that they reached, and that they were able to reach it without compromising the wellbeing of the land or the water. Peter’s approach was pragmatic, but grounded in a commitment to sustainability and vision that the environment and enterprise can work hand in hand.
“We must consider humanity and the environment in everything we do”
Back in the 90’s, hormone growth promotants (HGP’s) were all the rage, enabling producers to get top dollar for glossy, muscled cattle. For Peter and Nicki, this just didn’t seem right, so they turned to grass fed production instead. Some called him mad, but he stuck to his guns.
It turned out to be a great decision that has paid off. Just two years later, the big supermarkets were refusing to sell any beef with traces of growth promotants. And now, Peter’s grass fed beef commands a premium.
As much as we all wish there was a silver bullet, farming- like life- just doesn’t work that way. Farming practices and technologies that take time and consideration are more often than not where producers strike gold.
Conversations about connectivity in agriculture often focus on the potential productivity benefits from the technologies that an internet connection can enable. Peter has certainly explored these new and emerging tools, from walk over weighing to pasture mapping to water monitoring, Echo Cattle is a progressive operation in terms of technologies as well as practices. They also recently hosted a field day where, despite being “80kms from anywhere,” guests had “city style” wifi access.
With the significant investment Peter has made into connectivity comes another benefit: Netflix. Farmers and their staff don’t farm 24/7, and so, like the rest of us, they love a chance to rewind with a movie at the end of the day. A fast internet connection also helps staff keep in touch with family and friends. Peter has seen the benefits in terms of quality of life as well as retention.
In the future? Maybe he’ll be live streaming from his drone, too.
Want to learn more about Peter and some of the technologies he’s using? Check these out:
EchoCattle: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Agricultural-Cooperative/Echo-Cattle-228388813850666/
PeterPointT, his invention that’s now sold globally: https://www.facebook.com/433620400044090/videos/1219724138184212/
Soil2Soul: www.soil2soul.com.au- Collaborative model that Peter is involved in, to support regenerative practices and bring in capital from aligned investors.
Walk over weighing project: https://futurebeef.com.au/projects/walk-over-weighing/
Tru Test - https://livestock.tru-test.com/en-au Provided weighing scales for the WOW system
Advanced Communications - https://advancedcomms.com.au/ Assisted Peter’s field day by supplying the property with cell-fi go repeaters and mobile satellite to create a mobile Wifi hotspot for over 100 attendees of his field day.
Observant - https://observant.net/ Remote sensors for water tanks and bores have helped identify leaks and water consumption habits of cattle. [Co-founded by our very own Matthew Pryor!]
Cibo Labs - https://www.cibolabs.com.au/blog Satellite imagery for pasture crop monitoring
This episode is the fourth in the theme, responding to climate risk, brought to you in partnership with Australian Farm Institute, an independent organisation conducting research into the strategic issues facing Australian farmers and the agriculture sector. Find them on social media @AustFarmInstitu an online
Tara Beaver Coronado has had some major curve balls in her life. However, this grape farmer won't let that stop her from trying to destroy agriculture stigmas.
check out this thing: Ag Now Magazine http://fliphtml5.com/homepage/mwnc
Trevor McBane is a goat farmer from Oklahoma but what sets him apart is how he relentlessly pursued his dreams and auditioned for American Idol. Although he didn't win he finished in the top 25. He talks about all the unexpected doors it has opened and what he's doing now!
What you need to know before you pull up to the pump.
Cashel Blue is a 100% family farmhouse, blue cheese production, located near the historic town of Cashel in Co. Tipperary. The focus is very much on quality cheese production, linked with a desire to keep the family living and working on the family farm. In this episode, Co-owner, Sarah Furno provides some background to this innovative Tipperary farming enterprise, making a range of cheese for the home and export markets.
Tackling Rural Crime
The NFU Mutual Rural Crime Report 2019 is out, and Will is in the Scottish Borders to talk through the findings and what’s changed in the last year. He’s joined by a number of different people on the front line of tackling rural crime and offering practical help and advice to combat the problem.
Dr. Ray Wheeler is NASA’s Plant Physiologist and the lead for Advanced Life Support Research activities in the Exploration Research and Technology Program at Kennedy Space Center. He began his career at NASA in 1988 and the bulk of his research revolved around the use of hydroponic techniques for space farming experiments. One of Ray’s goals is to allow humanity to grow safe and nutritious crops off the Earth.
Ray joins me today to discuss some of NASA’s recent developments regarding planting crops in space. He shares some of the systems and tech that have been made commercial in the ag industry and explains why it’s difficult to experiment with plants in space. Ray also describes some of the benefits of being able to grow plants on other planets.
“We've been trying to manipulate the environment to accommodate plants. Now we have the tools to manipulate plants to fit into the environment.” - Dr. Ray Wheeler
This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:
Resources Mentioned:
Connect with Dr. Ray Wheeler:
We Are a Part of a Bigger Family!
The Future of Agriculture Podcast is now part of the Farm and Rural Ag Network. Listen to more ag-related podcasts by subscribing on iTunes or on the Farm and Rural Ag Network Website today.
Join the Conversation!
To get your most pressing ag questions answered and share your perspective on various topics we’ve discussed on the Future of Agriculture podcast, head over to SpeakPipe.com/FutureofAg and leave a recorded message!
Share the Ag-Love!
Thanks for joining us on the Future of Agriculture Podcast – your spot for valuable information, content, and interviews with industry leaders throughout the agricultural space! If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please subscribe on iTunes and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots!
Learn more about AgGrad by visiting:
AgGrad on Twitter
AgGrad on Facebook
AgGrad on LinkedIn
AgGrad on Instagram
Ryan Valk came back to his California ranch and turned it into an almond farm. Listen to how this young farmer's ambition is changing the way you'll think about your nuts.
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