Agriculture Adapts by ClimateAi
38 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 3 years ago - ★★★★★ - 14 ratingsEvery week we speak with industry leading executives, farmers, and academics to get a 360 view of how the agriculture sector is innovating to stay ahead of a changing climate. We belong to a small team of climate and ag entrepreneurs trying to make farming more resilient, profitable, and equitable as we transition to a new age of agriculture. This podcast is our journey as we explore the hurdles and opportunities that lie ahead for the industry that feeds the world. To learn more, visit us at www.Climate.Ai
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Episodes
One of the greatest humanitarian creations of all time is also one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters. Here’s how we fix that.
June 23, 2021 21:30 - 1 hour - 96.4 MBBetween 40 to 50% of our population is alive on this planet today thanks to fertilizers. However, fertilizers are also one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters and when managed poorly, can also contribute to the nutrient pollution of lakes, rivers and streams. This week, we sat down with Pablo Barrera Lopez, Executive Vice President of Strategy and Communications at Yara International, a leading Norwegian agribusiness and chemical company on the forefront of the sustainable and ethical...
Angela Santiago – CEO of The Little Potato Company: Taking the Potato Back to it’s Roots (repost)
May 27, 2021 09:00 - 38 minutes - 65.9 MBAngela Santiago is the co-founder and CEO of the Little Potato Company, an innovative and fast growing company focused on colorful, tasty, mini-potatoes that taste delicious. We talk with Angela about the mechanics of the potato world, the obstacles climate change is creating for the industry, and what it takes to build an agriculture business from the ground up, This week in Agriculture Adapts Breeding for diversity and flavor Your french fries, chips, and table potatoes all come from...
325 Million lbs of Tomato Paste in 4 Months: How this CEO's Family Farming Operation Became One of the Top Tomato Processors in the World
May 05, 2021 08:00 - 54 minutes - 87.8 MBThis week we sit down with Stuart Woolf, the President and CEO of Los Gatos Tomatoes, one of the largest tomato processors in the world. Stuart gives us an inside view into the science, technology, and logistical genius that enabled 3x higher yields in the processing tomato industry over the last 50 years, all while reducing labor requirements to a fraction of what they once were. We cover everything from decades of tomato seed breeding efforts to the 120 day, 24/7 harvesting sprint-marat...
Agriculture Banking is Broken. This Co-founder is Fixing it... and He’s Helping You Sequester Carbon While He’s at It
April 21, 2021 10:00 - 57 minutes - 92 MBOver the past 10 years, there has been a mass exodus of banks in the UK pulling out of short-term lending to farmers. This has made it harder and more expensive for farmers to get the capital they need to run their business and keep producing essential crops. We sit down with Tim Coates, Co-founder and Chief Customer Officer of Oxbury Bank, the UK’s only 100% agriculture focused bank to discuss how Oxbury is revolutionizing agriculture banking and the impact this will have on farmers + ag...
Agriculture Adapts Intermission
November 03, 2020 03:45 - 54 seconds - 1.26 MBHey listeners, hope you all enjoyed year 1 of Agriculture Adapts as much as we did! The Ag Adapts team will be taking a short break before returning for year 2. We really appreciate everyone's support and we look forward to many exciting episodes to come! If you have any thoughts or feedback please feel free to reach out to [email protected]. See you all soon!
Martin Davies - CEO of the #1 Largest farmland Asset Manager in the World: Sustainable Farmland Investing and the Implications of Foreign/Corporate Ownership of Our Food Supply
September 17, 2020 10:00 - 58 minutes - 79.7 MBSince the 2008 financial crisis, agriculture has become a hotbed for investment: food consumption withstands recessions, demand is expected to double by 2050, and agriculture has largely proven to be a low volatility investment that can serve as an inflation hedge (as inflation goes up, so do ag land values)... But not everyone supports the institutionalization of ag land ownership. We sit down with Martin Davies, President and CEO of the Westchester group, the #1 largest farmland asset ...
(Repost) Katharine Hayhoe - One of the World's Most Renowned Climate Scientists: the Science, Impacts, and Psychology of Climate Change
August 28, 2020 02:57 - 37 minutes - 51.5 MB*This is a repost of a past episode Katharine Hayhoe is one of the world's most renowned climate scientists-- she has a ted talk with over 2.5 million views, and in 2017 was named one of Fortune’s world’s greatest leaders. Katharine is a professor at Texas Tech University and has been published in over 125 peer reviewed papers, abstracts, and key reports including the National Climate Assessment. We speak with Katharine about the science, the impacts, and the psychology of climate change. ...
Ann Tutwiler - Biodiversity Determines Human and Environmental Health, Farmer Profitability, and Food System Resilience; Here's How We Deploy it at Scale
August 13, 2020 10:00 - 51 minutes - 70.2 MBClimateAi - Accelerating Resilience in Agriculture The coronavirus has highlighted the importance of resilience, not just efficiency, in the long term success of agriculture supply chains. One of the most powerful tools we have to drive resilience is agricultural biodiversity... and yes, it can be done at scale. Biodiversity is a critical sign of ecosystem health--in the rainforest or on the farm-- and has proven to be crucial for agricultural productivity, profitability, and resilience...
David Chen - The Technology that Reduces Water and Pesticides by +90% While Producing Affordable, Climate Change-Proof, High-Quality Fruits & Veggies
July 30, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 83.6 MBAgriculture is faced with the critical challenge of reducing pesticide use, improving water efficiency, and building a food system that is resilient to climate change all while delivering nutritious affordable food for the masses. In this episode we dig in with Dave Chen to talk about how Equilibrium Capital is putting their $1B+ fund behind a tried and true technology to deliver on all fronts-- high-tech greenhouses. High-tech greenhouses are extremely common across Europe. Meticulous opt...
Ernst Van Den Ende – Technology, Ecology, and Science Based Thinking can Solve the World’s Agriculture Conundrum
July 08, 2020 09:00 - 58 minutes - 80.2 MBBetween 1982-2015, the world’s population grew from 4.5 billion to about 7.5 billion while land under agriculture remained the same. More food was produced on the same amount of land but climate change and the resultant rise in the extreme weather events pose a serious challenge to the world’s food production. Is the time now ripe for a second green revolution? Ernst Van Den Ende, a leader in dutch agriculture innovation, explains that there is no 'silver bullet' to solve the world’s agric...
Mary Shelman - Value Added Food Labels: Marketing Hoax or a Path to a Better Food System?
June 25, 2020 05:07 - 49 minutes - 67.5 MBNowadays, grocery store items are stocked full of labels: pasture raised, cage free, non-gmo, sustainable, the list goes on. But if the health and environmental problems these labels seek to address were legitimate, why wouldn't they be made mandatory? Are they just a marketing hoax or a path to a safer, healthier, more environmentally friendly food system? We sit down with agri-business expert Mary Shelman to deconstruct these questions and more. Mary is an internationally recognized tho...
Renata Brillinger - Getting California Agriculture to Net-Negative Green House Gas Emissions
June 11, 2020 10:00 - 56 minutes - 78.1 MBAfter interviewing many guests, I was still left with the following questions: what are we doing to systematically mitigate our agriculture emissions, is it actually working, and how far do we have left to go? In this episode we dive in with the group that has been tackling these questions in California for the past 10 years. Renata Brillinger is the executive director at CalCAN, a California based nonprofit driving forward critical policies and programs at the intersection of climate chan...
Kittu Kolluri - How to Turn an Idea into a Billion Dollar Agriculture Climate Technology Company
May 28, 2020 08:30 - 47 minutes - 65.4 MBBuilding a startup from scratch is an art. In this episode, we sit down with Swaroop Kittu Kolluri, one of the best early stage venture capital investors, to dive into what it takes to go from an idea to a billion dollar business, with a focus on the ag-tech and climate-tech. Kittu is the founder & managing director at Neotribe Ventures. He is a serial entrepreneur turned venture capitalist and has both run and invested in several successful startups including well known names like Climat...
Ed Schafer- Former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture: The 2008 World Food Crisis, Building the Organic Label, and GMOs' Potential Power for Good
May 14, 2020 09:00 - 59 minutes - 82 MBEd brings one of the most diverse agriculture perspectives to the podcast to date. He is the former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, 2 time governor of North Dakota, and he has led a multi-national consumer products business as well as many entrepreneurial start-ups. Ed played a pivotal role in many of the biggest agriculture events and movements of the 21st century. This week in Agriculture Adapts: Tackling the 2008 world food crisis; learnings for a safe & resilient global food system W...
Tatiana Schlossberg: Climate Change in the Everyday, Sustainable Fishing, and Impacts of Coal Ash Ponds on our Farmlands
May 07, 2020 10:00 - 34 minutes - 40.4 MBTatiana Schlossberg is the author of Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have and a former New York Times Science and climate reporter whose award-winning work has also appeared in The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, Bloomberg and other publications. We chat with Tatiana about a variety of topics relating to climate change, pollution control, social inequality, agriculture, and aquaculture. “Its not about feeling individually guilty, its about feeling collect...
Michael J. Coren - What COVID-19 Means for the Health our Planet
April 30, 2020 10:00 - 29 minutes - 40.3 MBMichael J. Coren is a reporter at Quartz where he works on climate change, and the people, technology, and policies addressing it. Recently, Michael has been focusing his attention on uncovering the relationship between COVID-19 and climate change/pollution. This week we finally dive in to what the pandemic means for our planet. We also tap into Michael's experience with carbon markets and forrest carbon sequestration. This week in Agriculture Adapts: - Paying people to not cut down fore...
Dr. Ray Goldberg - The Father of Agribusiness: 60+ Years of Catalyzing Progress in Global Food Systems
April 23, 2020 05:55 - 40 minutes - 56.1 MBDr. Ray Goldberg has served a critical role over the past half century in improving the global food system. He is considered by many to be the father of agribusiness and is actually credited with coining the term “agri-business” in 1957. Dr. Goldberg has been a professor of agriculture and business at Harvard since 1955. He recently published a book called Food Citizenship: Food System Advocates in an Era of Distrust. This book sums up some of the most insightful interviews he held with ...
Craig McNamara - "Food Apartheid" in the U.S., Dealing with California's Top Climate Concerns, and Using Sheep as Lawn Mowers
April 15, 2020 20:00 - 47 minutes - 65.3 MBCraig is the owner/president of Sierra Orchards and the former president of California State Board of Food and Agriculture, advising multiple generations of state governors on farm related policies for the state that holds the title for 5th largest agriculture producer in the world. Craig is also the founder of the Center for Land Based Learning. This week on Agriculture Adapts: - Getting food to the people who need it: food waste, food scarcity, and "food apartheid" in the U.S. - A cr...
Katherine Hayhoe - One of the World's Most Renowned Climate Scientists: the Science, Impacts, and Psychology of Climate Change
April 09, 2020 09:00 - 37 minutes - 64 MBKatharine Hayhoe is one of the world's most renowned climate scientists-- she has a ted talk with over 2.5M views, and in 2017 was named one of Fortune’s world’s greatest leaders. Katherine is a professor at Texas Tech University and has been published in over 125 peer reviewed papers, abstracts, and key reports including the National Climate Assessment. We speak with Katherine about the science, the impacts, and the psychology of climate change. This week in Agriculture Adapts: - Why t...
Katharine Hayhoe - One of the World's Most Renowned Climate Scientists: the Science, Impacts, and Psychology of Climate Change
April 09, 2020 09:00 - 37 minutes - 64 MBKatharine Hayhoe is one of the world's most renowned climate scientists-- she has a ted talk with over 2.5 million views, and in 2017 was named one of Fortune’s world’s greatest leaders. Katharine is a professor at Texas Tech University and has been published in over 125 peer reviewed papers, abstracts, and key reports including the National Climate Assessment. We speak with Katharine about the science, the impacts, and the psychology of climate change. This week in Agriculture Adapts: ...
Angela Santiago - CEO of The Little Potato Company: Taking the Potato Back to it's Roots
April 02, 2020 10:00 - 38 minutes - 53.4 MBAngela Santiago is the co-founder and CEO of the Little Potato Company, an innovative and fast growing company focused on colorful, tasty, mini-potatoes that taste delicious. We talk with Angela about the mechanics of the potato world, the obstacles climate change is creating for the industry, and what it takes to build an agriculture business from the ground up, This week in Agriculture Adapts Breeding for diversity and flavor Your french fries, chips, and table potatoes all come from...
Will Rosenzweig - Mission Driven Innovation, Food System Revolution, and Gardening (Part 2 of 2)
March 24, 2020 10:00 - 36 minutes - 50.8 MBWill is a food entrepreneurship and sustainability guru. He is the Faculty Director of the Sustainable Food Initiative at the Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley, a recently retired managing partner at Physic Ventures, the founding CEO of Republic of Tea, recipient of the Oslo peace award, and has been involved in leading and growing more than 30 entrepreneurial ventures over the past 30 years. This is part 2 of a 2 part series with Will. This week in Agriculture Adapts - Driving ch...
William Rosenzweig - Mission Driven Innovation, Food System Revolution, and Gardening (Part 1 of 2)
March 18, 2020 10:00 - 45 minutes - 74.6 MBWill is a food entrepreneurship and sustainability guru. He is the Faculty Director of the Sustainable Food Initiative at the Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley, a recently retired managing partner at Physic Ventures, the founding CEO of Republic of Tea, recipient of the Oslo peace award, and has been involved in leading and growing more than 30 entrepreneurial ventures over the past 30 years. This is part 1 of a 2 part series with Will. "Food has been optimized around convenience, c...
Jason Samenow - Decoding the Science: Weather, Climate, and Natural Disasters
March 05, 2020 11:00 - 34 minutes - 47 MBJason Samenow is the Washington Post's weather editor, founder of capital weather gang, and a wealth of knowledge for all things weather and climate. We chat with Jason about the inner-workings of weather forecasts, the latest in climate science, and how to accurately communicate on climate change-- what we can and can't say with certainty about the changing world around us. This week in Agriculture Adapts: - Scientists have officially discovered the footprint of climate change on our ev...
Julia Jackson - Creating a New Kind of Climate Solutions Movement
February 26, 2020 02:45 - 45 minutes - 61.8 MBJulia Jackson is from a family of vintners, well known for their Jackson Family Wines. In 2017, Julia turned her full attention towards climate change and founded Grounded, a nonprofit committed to accelerating scalable solutions to climate change. Grounded hosts its annual summit each year, catalyzing climate conversations lead by cutting edge innovators, world leaders, climate-progressive corporations and more. The event will be on March 19th & 20th this year-- you can access the details...
Tim Hammerich - The Future of Agriculture: Ag-tech, Farmer Profitability, and Sustainability
February 07, 2020 07:26 - 32 minutes - 57.7 MBTim Hammerich is a former ag commodity trader turned entrepreneur. He is now the host of one of Agriculture's most popular podcasts, The Future of Agriculture, as well as the founder of AgGrad, an agriculture centric recruiting company. We chat with Tim about the trends, innovations, and challenges facing the agriculture sector. "You can't have sustainability without profitability" This week in Agriculture Adapts: - The process for change in a field with razer thin margins - Tim's t...
Dr. Lewis Ziska - Rising CO2 Levels Makes our Food Less Nutritious: A Growing Public Health Emergency
February 05, 2020 05:14 - 44 minutes - 60.7 MBLewis Ziska, PhD is a plant physiologist and an associate professor at Columbia University. Dr. Ziska studies the nexus of climate change, carbon dioxide, plant biology and public health and has published over 100 peer-reviewed research articles. He was formerly with the USDA until summer 2019 when he resigned after having critical work with implications for millions around the world, blocked by the Trump administration in an unprecedented effort to silence academia and the search for trut...
Ali Amin - Pistachios: the Climate Resilience Wonder Crop
January 29, 2020 04:02 - 36 minutes - 62.9 MBAli Amin is the founder and CEO of Primex, a fourth generation grower, processor and international trader/exporter of nuts and dried fruits. Ali has served as chairman of the California Pistachio Commission and through Primex, he owns over 5,000 acres of Pistachio orchards. Ali explains why Pistachios are a climate change crop of choice "You plant Almonds for yourself. You plant Pistachios for your grandkids." This week in Agriculture Adapts: - Why Pistachios are a near-mystical crop w...
Cannon Michael - Organic & Regenerative Agriculture: Separating the Truth from the Fluff
January 23, 2020 08:09 - 41 minutes - 70 MBCannon Michael is a 6th Generation farmer, touting a farming lineage of over 160 years in California. He is the current president of Bowles Farming Company and has become something of a voice for farmers in our consumer driven world, explaining to end-customers what their preferences truly mean at the farm level: sustainability, regenerative agriculture, and organic. "Sustainability is ingrained in the DNA of every successful farmer. If it wasn't, they'd go out of business" In this ep...
Jeff Creque - Turning Farms into Carbon Storing Machines
January 15, 2020 05:42 - 43 minutes - 71.9 MBJeff Creque is the co-founder of the Marin Carbon Project and the director of agro-ecosystem management at the Carbon Cycle Institute. He is an expert in biodynamic farming and a pioneer of the carbon farming movement. We chat with Jeff about the science, economics, feasability, and scalability of carbon farming as a climate change solution and a engine for healthier soils. This week on Agriculture Adapts: - The wide range of benefits of carbon farming: climate, soils, resilience, and ...
Randi Johnson - Director of the Climate Change Division of the USDA NIFA and former leader of the USDA Climate Hubs
January 07, 2020 06:43 - 22 minutes - 43.4 MBRandi is a 24 year USDA veteran with experience ranging from research genetics to managing director in the domains of forestry and climate change. Randi chats with us about the most pressing challenges at the intersection of climate and agriculture. This week in Agriculture Adapts: The practical barriers that complicate climate solutions in agriculture What are the big climate-ag questions the USDA has set out to tackle Why climate change is more widely accepted in the agriculture com...
A.J. Ferrari - Wine Expert, Culinary Manager at Salesforce, and Wine Instructor at Stanford University
December 17, 2019 05:10 - 26 minutes - 36.6 MBA.J. Ferrari is a wine expert with decades of experience across the wine industry ranging from working for wine spectator magazine and working on a vineyard in New Zealand, to becoming a wine sommelier and teaching a wine class at Stanford University. This episode builds off of a previous conversation about wines and climate change with Peter Mondavi (episode 2). This week in agriculture adapts: - Shifting climate zones are leaving many age-old wineries in the dust and opening up the do...
Scott Exo - Head of Field Performance & Large Farm Countries at Better Cotton Initiative (BCI)
December 10, 2019 06:14 - 56 minutes - 79.9 MBBetter Cotton Initiative (bettercotton.org) is the largest cotton sustainability program in the world: 2 million farmers across 21 countries accounting for 20% of the world's cotton. Scott sits down with us to explain how BCI is revolutionizing the global cotton supply chain. This week in Agriculture Adapts: The importance of profitability; $1 could determine a child's future How BCI makes cotton farming safer, more sustainable, and more profitable Data is the key to climate resilienc...
Ashby Monk - Executive Director and Research Director at Stanford Global Projects Center
December 04, 2019 04:35 - 46 minutes - 76.1 MBAshby Monk is an institutional investment Guru, helping the likes of multi-billion/trillion dollar pension funds and sovereign wealth funds rethink the way they view risk. In this episode we dive deep into the wonky side of finance and climate risk. This week in Agriculture Adapts: Climate change is a non-diversifiable risk The engines of capitalism must evolve if they are to thrive in a changing world How and why we need to translate long term risk into a current concern
Gary Wishnatzki - CEO of Wish Farms (Strawberries) and Co-founder of Harvest Croo Robotics
November 23, 2019 21:18 - 41 minutes - 50.7 MBGary is a 3rd generation CEO of one of the largest strawberry operations in the south east U.S. He walks us through how the strawberry world in the south east has changed over the past century and how Wish Farms continues to evolve to keep up with a changing world. This week on Agriculture Adapts: - International strawberry market dynamics - How climate has changed strawberry management strategies - Are hurricanes a major concern for the Florida strawberry world? - Solving the labo...
Peter Mondavi - Co-Proprietor of Charles Krug Winery
November 14, 2019 04:45 - 32 minutes - 32.8 MBPeter Mondavi is a 3rd generation wine maker and the co-proprietor of the Charles Krug Winery, the oldest commercial winery in Napa Valley. Napa Valley has seen decades of amazing wine production but a changing climate has created new hurdles for the industry. We sit down with Peter to understand what issues sit top of mind for the industry and how vintners (wine makers) are managing these new risks. This week on Agriculture Adapts: Will Napa be able to grow its favorite wine...
Teddy Bekele - CTO of Land O'Lakes
November 01, 2019 02:38 - 50 minutes - 52.3 MBTeddy Bekele is the CTO of Land O'Lakes, one of the largest agriculture co-operatives in the U.S. Teddy has lead the co-op's shift to a tech-oriented company, first joining as a senior IT director and quickly climbing the ranks to CTO where he now leads the company-wide data and sustainability initiatives. In this episode, we learn about Land O'lakes view on ag-tech and innovation, the role data will play in the future of sustainability, and how climate resilient farmers deserve better fin...
Agriculture Adapts by ClimateAi - Teddy Bekele (CTO of Land O'Lakes)
November 01, 2019 02:38 - 50 minutes - 46.8 MBTeddy Bekele is the CTO of Land O'Lakes, one of the largest agriculture co-operatives in the U.S. Teddy has lead the co-op's shift to a tech-oriented company, first joining as a senior IT director and quickly climbing the ranks to CTO where he now leads the company-wide data and sustainability initiatives. In this episode, we learn about Land O'lakes view on ag-tech and innovation, the role data will play in the future of sustainability, and how climate resilient farmers deserve better fin...