Primary Focuses
Evolving how people around the world live safe, healthy lives in their communities while having access to nutritious and sustainable agriculture products throughout the value chain
Public Health / Vector Control
The female mosquito is responsible for millions of deaths each year causing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to call mosquitoes the “world's deadliest animal." Vector-borne diseases like Malaria, Dengue Fever, Zika and more are a leading barrier to development of many nations. Protecting public health and supporting quality of life in communities around the globe will become higher priority. Effective and sustainable solutions for mosquito management will be required driven by global challenges like climate change, resistance management, and continued urban sprawl.
Robotics / Drones / Automation
Less than 2% of the population produces most of the food in the United States according to U.S. Census statistics. Labor shortages, immigration policy, trade requirements, and more will shape how agriculture fills on-farm labor gaps comprising a wide range of essential roles in crop production and livestock management at every successful farming operation.
Vertical Farming / CEA
Global populations continue to rise while consumers' demands for fresher, more locally grown food explodes. Vertical Farming, or Closed Environment Agriculture (CEA), offers many high density, urban environments an alternative going forward. CEA will be in the forefront of urban growth addressing social issues like food deserts, logistics challenges for island nations, and scarce resource management. Consumers value the reduced carbon footprints compared to conventional agriculture while high operations and energy costs limit scalability. One day, development of this segment could lead to food production in capsules orbiting the earth in space or even below the surface along the ocean floor in shallow bays.
Data Science / SaaS / Cloud
The digital evolution of the agriculture industry is here.
Digital enablement across the value chain is driving dramatic change as data management best practices from other industries fuse with data science, machine learning, AI, AR/VR/XR, and Internet of Things (IoT). Farm owner/operators want to leverage insights of their own unique conditions based on satellite imagery, agronomics, seed variety/hybrid performance, soil health, and more at their fingertips. This rapid transformation offers farmers pinpoint, on-farm decision making power. This applies to broad acre and specialty crop production, livestock, and general daily farm operations. As a result, farmers can manage weather, agronomic risks, market volatility, and their balance sheet more efficiently than ever before.
Sustainable / Regenerative Ag
Farmers around the globe have always embraced their roles as stewards of their land by integrating sustainable practices on farm. Carbon footprints, credit markets, and sequestration will continue to stabilize as consumers demand their food be produced with minimum impact to the environment; especially, younger demographics with future buying power. Soil Health, Bio-Dynamic products and practices, food safety and traceability will all play a role ensuring that producers are rewarded in the value chain. Consumers' willingness to pay and expanding global perspective combined with corporate ESG strategies will drive near term changes while longer, more dramatic innovation is brought to market adding to the wave of disruption across the industry.
