Farm to Fork Column

By: Victor Martino

The Promise and Opportunity of AgTech on the Farm and Beyond

In late June the information technology gurus of Silicon Valley and beyond met with farmers, food industry leaders and investors from throughout the world on the Mission Bay campus of the University of California at San Francisco, which is a place that combines buildings offering the latest in educational and research technology amidst a setting featuring verdant lawns and shade trees.

The purpose of the all-day meeting was the fifth annual FOOD IT conference, which has as its purpose connecting people who are feeding the world (farmers and the food industry) with people who are changing the world through tech innovation. To put it in local terms, we’ll call it, “Silicon Valley Meets Central Valley.”

The focus of the conference was the booming fields of agriculture technology (agtech for short) and foodtech — what’s new, what’s working, and most importantly how can we better connect those innovating in the information technology world with farmers and people and companies in agribusiness
and the food industry.

I participated in FOOD IT along with nearly 400 other people, including farmers from California and elsewhere, food industry leaders from major companies throughout the country, agtech and foodtech entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and others. Information was shared from farm-to-app and connections were made by all the participants.

The annual conference, which is organized by Menlo Park CA-based The Mixing Bowl, an information-sharing, advisory and venture capital organization focused on the food and agriculture industries, was jam-packed with panel discussions on topics ranging from crop prediction technologies and the use of drones on the farm to supply chain transparency and using robotics in farming.

There also were 18 deep-dive breakout sessions where conference attendees could explore topics such as dairy and livestock tech, innovations in specialty crop technology, broadening local food and farming with tech and numerous other meaty issues.

Rob Trice, a partner in The Mixing Bowl and its Better Food Ventures investment arm, moderated the panel discussions and other aspects of the conference.

He summed up the reason for “Silicon Valley Meets Central Valley” and the importance of connecting the people who feed the world and the people who are innovating in the field of information technology in four concise questions, which are:

1. What is it (ag-tech and food-tech), and why do we need it?
2. What has been built?
3. What needs to be built?
4. What is unique about food and ag versus other verticals?

These highlights were addressed throughout the day in the panel discussions, breakout sessions, question and answer periods, over lunch and during breaks on the patio of the conference center on the Mission Bay campus.

The specifics and details were many — far too many than I have the space to get into here.

Instead I’m going to take a deep dive of my own into what is one of the most – perhaps the most – vexing and serious issues facing farmers and agriculture in California, which is the current labor shortage.

Labor and the shortage of it on the farm is in my analysis the most important present need agtech can address.

Farmers like Joe Del Bosque, an innovative diversified farmer who grows almonds, melons, cherries, asparagus and other crops on the San Joaquin Valley’s west side, remind me often just how difficult the labor shortage is making it for the business of farming. Del Bosque and the others are right.

Rob Trice agrees with them – and with my assessment.

After the conference I asked Trice what he believed are the three most important contributions ag-tech can make to farmers and farming today? He answered without hesitation, saying, “Labor, labor and labor. The cost of labor, availability of labor and labor demands to meet California’s regulatory requirements.”

One California farming operation that agrees with the importance of using agricultural technology to address the labor shortage as well as for a myriad of other uses on the farm is Los Banos CA-based Bowles Farming Company.

Curtis Garner, who heads Bowles’ extensive agtech adoption efforts, described at the conference how important the family-owned ag operation believes ag-tech is becoming in addressing the labor issue, along with how the numerous technological applications the farming company is testing and using are adding important precision inputs to their farming operation and how they grow crops.

The labor issue has the potential to hit California agriculture hard. We’re seeing just the tip of the iceberg right now.

The current immigration politics, which as a policy is decreasing the number of immigrants available for farm labor, aren’t going to change anytime soon. And the reality is few Mexican immigrants want to do farm labor anymore – and those of us born in the U.S. certainly aren’t going to do it.

So what’s the future of farm labor? If you’re a farmer, particularly a specialty crop grower, it’s a very worrisome one. This I believe is where ag-tech can play a very important and valuable immediate role.

This is an area where conferences like FOOD IT play a valuable role. Making connections and building relationships between technologists and farmers is key.

For example, Curtis Garner of Bowles farming Company invites farmers to contact him if they want to talk and learn about the ag-tech innovations they’re using on the farm. Garner is a great connector.

The Mixing Bowl also has a partner in the Central Valley, Seana Day. She is focused on ag-tech and has a particular interest in using technology to help dairy farmers. She’s an excellent tech-to-farm connector.

I’m also just an e-mail away. I’d be happy to help connect tech and farm if I can.

Beyond the immediate labor issue I want to suggest that ag-tech as a whole will become as important to today’s generation of farmers as the tractor was in importance and significance to earlier generations when it was invented and later gained wide-spread adoption and use. I believe we are in the being of a new era of tech-enabled farming.

Agtech is still in its infancy as an industry though — but it’s advancing at warp speed. Now is the time for farmers to start learning more about it and for tech and farm to grow our connections.

I asked Rob Trice to offer some thoughts on how farmers can get started with ag-tech. Here’s a summary of his response.

“As you know, every farm’s needs vary based on size, crop, and available margin. My colleague Seana Day and I try to remind folks that you have to crawl before you walk, before you run with ag-tech, which is a basic fact lost by many.”

Trice offers three examples of how farmers can get started with ag-tech.

1. Use tools to digitize information so that the farmer weans him or herself from their notebook. Examples include a mobile phone or iPad with connectivity and maybe an application like Evernote or Google Docs.

2. Digital communication tools like Wickstrom Dairy using Slack to send and capture messages between or Ganaz to communicate to field workers.

3. Tools to manage costs and profitability on the farm.

We’re in the first quarter of a four quarter game when it comes to ag-tech, which is also referred to as precision farming. Now is the time to increase communication and connectivity between tech and farm.

The opportunity is huge. Tech is moving fast, so the earlier we all get in the game the better off we’ll all be.

By Victor Martino