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Between 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 production of several types of fertilizer. Lopez takes us through the history of the fertilizer industry (hint, modern fertilizers were invented at Yara), how the invention of fertilizer prevented mass hunger, and the complicated relationship of the life-saving product with climate change. Lopez also walks us through the top innovations taking place in the industry to mitigate its impact on climate including everything from renewable-energy fueled fertilizer plants and high-tech precision application tools to better farmer education. In addition, Lopez works with the World Economic Forum, where he promotes corporate sustainability and works with global youth to help them develop talents and skills to be responsible forces for good in their communities. For more information: https://www.yara.com/

Angela 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 different types of potatoes, specifically bred for their end use Increasing weather uncertainty, more frequent extreme events, and a potato production moving north to escape the heat How small changes in weather can bear significant impact on the way the crop turns out *** website: The Little Potato Company facebook: The Little Potato Company *This episode is a repost

This 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-marathon that results in 325 million lbs of tomato paste every year. If ever there was a 1 hour crash course on processing tomatoes, this may very well be it. Stuart is also the President and CEO of Woolf farming and has served as Chairman of the California League of Food Processors, the Almond Board of California, and of the UC President’s Commission of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Stuart also currently serves on the board of the California Chamber of Commerce, the Western Growers Association, and Marone Bio Innovation. https://www.woolffarming.com/ http://www.losgatostomato.com/ 

Over 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 + agriculture sustainability throughout the country and beyond: The history behind the broken agriculture banking system How technology is enabling cost and time savings for farmers using Oxbury Turning savings into sequestered carbon Driving sustainability effortlessly and automatically at the farm-level Similar banking challenges are playing out in numerous countries around the world https://www.oxbury.com/

Hey 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 media@climate.ai. See you all soon!  

Since 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 manager in the world to talk about: how institutional ag land investing really works what separates an extractive investment from a sustainable one the implications of increasing corporate/foreign ownership of domestic ag lands. how climate change plays into the investment thesis. Westchester has been a frontrunner on sustainability and continues to push the envelope on setting a positive standard for the industry. Westchester manages over 2 million acres and is a subsidiary of TIAA, a fund managing over $1 trillion in assets.

*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. This week in Agriculture Adapts: - Why the U.S. Military calls climate change a "threat multiplier" - The impact of climate change on agriculture: risk, resilience, and profitability - Faith based communication on climate change: the secret to a fruitful discussion is common ground *** Links to topics mentioned in the episode: Global Weirding Katharine's Ted Talk Iowa Interfaith power and light Katharine's Facebook Katharine's Twitter

ClimateAi - 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. Biodiversity has been on the decline due to a simplification of our diets, growing demand for animal feed and biofuels, and a climate that is changing faster than nature can keep up with. We sit down with food system and agriculture biodiversity expert Ann Tutwiler to explore the tangible steps we must take to systematically increase biodiversity and the outsized impact this will have on the health of our planet and the profitability of farming.  Ann has spent the past 35 years tackling some of the most pressing issues in food and agriculture. She co-developed the U.S. govt’s global hunger and food security initiative, Feed the Future program. Ann is also the former Deputy Director General for Knowledge at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as well as the former Director General of Bioversity International. *** References Mentioned in the episode - UN Food Systems Summit   - World Benchmarking Alliance (how are companies holding up against their promises)

Agriculture 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 optimization at the plant level has enabled 10 - 40x productivity increases with a laundry list of sustainability and resilience benefits. But these glass and steel mega-producers have yet to come to the U.S. en mass. Equilibrium Capital is fueling a movement that will enable a new era of precision agriculture with sights set on solving some of the industry's most pressing issues.  *** Equilibrium Capital

Between 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 agriculture woes but a focus on a combination of technology and ecology can make agriculture more productive, efficient and sustainable. Based in the Netherlands, Ernst Van Den Ende is a renowned plant scientist and the managing director of the Plant Sciences group at Wageningen University, one of the world’s top agriculture educational, research and technology hubs. He leads a group of nearly 1,400 agricultural scientists, various corporate partners,  and hundreds of start-ups in the agro-food domain, to tackle the most pressing challenges facing the future of food.

Nowadays, 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 thought leader, author, and speaker on global agribusiness, AgTech, and food system trends. She is the former Director of Harvard Business School’s Agribusiness Program and has worked closely with startups, Fortune 500 companies, governments, and the FAO. She is the author of 70+ case studies on the world’s top agri-food businesses.

After 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 change and sustainable agriculture. We discuss decarbonizing livestock, what regenerative agriculture looks like at industrial scale, and the financial breakdown of how we get to net negative emissions (I’ll give you a hint, its surprisingly low).  *** Resources mentioned in the episode: CalCAN website California Agriculture Climate Solutions Summary What’s happening in other states? National Healthy Soils Policy Network Renata’s email: renata@calclimateag.org

Building 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 Climate Corporation, box, robinhood, webMD, and Bloom Energy.  Kittu gives an inside view into the journey of The Climate Corporation, one of the most successful ag-tech and climate-tech startups of the 21st century. He also shares some of the key the tips, tricks, and strategies that he uses to coach his founders. *** Background Reading Walking Around in Your VC’s Shoes - Written by Kittu Neotribe Ventures

Ed 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 What it was like to build the USDA organic label and why it may be more "wishy washy" than you'd expect G.M.O.s are a spectrum, we can't bunch them all together and rule them out-- there is too much potential for good How silicon valley jumped the gun with ag-tech *** References mentioned in the episode 2007-08 world food price crisis Golden Rice - G.M.O.s and Vitamin A deficiency in developing countries

Tatiana 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 collectively responsible”  This week in Agriculture Adapts: How Climate change relates to everyday life and why feeling bad is not the answer Oceans, aquaculture, and sustainable fishing Why climate change and pollution are inextricably linked to social inequality Coal ash ponds: pollution disasters destroying the surrounding farmlands and natural environments *** References mentioned in the episode - The Omnivore’s Dilemma - The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail - Tatiana’s book: Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Know You Have - Tatiana’s website - Global Fishing Watch

Michael 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 forests might be a great way to sequester carbon  - The implications of green house gas and air pollution decline from quarantine -What do low gas prices mean for the oil and gas industry? - Quarantine may cause banks to become owners of a lot of oil and gas  *** Michael's page at Quartz: https://qz.com/author/mcorenqz/ Michael's email: mjc@qz.com Michael's twitter handle: mj_coren 

Dr. 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 folks that put their ideological differences aside to work together on solving some of the most pressing issues in food and agriculture. This week in Agriculture Adapts - Climate change’s impact on agriculture: a first person perspective from the dust bowl to now - The pros and cons of GMOs without the stigmatization - Food as medicine-- it’s about time we gave food the credit it deserves - Consumer brands are innovating to improve the profitability and financial resilience of their farmers in developing countries *** Be sure to grab a copy of Ray's book! All proceeds go to Harvard Food Citizenship: Food System Advocates in an Era of Distrust

Craig 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 creative approach to pest/weed management for organic hazelnuts - Over-pumping groundwater has lead to irreversible subsidence in California - Ways to deal with extremely difficult water access issues in California - Taking steps to avoid a loss of multi-generational farming knowledge *** Resources mentioned in the episode: - Factories in the Field: The Story of Migratory Farm Labor in CA - California's Healthy Soils Initiative - CalCAN: California Climate and Agriculture Network

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. This week in Agriculture Adapts: - Why the U.S. Military calls climate change a "threat multiplier" - The impact of climate change on agriculture: risk, resilience, and profitability - Faith based communication on climate change: the secret to a fruitful discussion is common ground *** Links to topics mentioned in the episode: Global Weirding Katharine's Ted Talk Iowa Interfaith power and light Katharine's Facebook Katharine's Twitter

Angela 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 different types of potatoes, specifically bred for their end use Increasing weather uncertainty, more frequent extreme events, and a potato production moving north to escape the heat How small changes in weather can bear significant impact on the way the crop turns out *** website: The Little Potato Company facebook: The Little Potato Company