GAIN Insight
A blog for ag innovators and investors
Agriculture and "Agripreneurship" is a worthy, and market demanded, career path.
One of GAIN’s missions is the promotion of the importance of careers in agriculture and “agripreneurship” and the need to educate those interested in these career paths. Clearly, with the un-deniable need to double the world’s food production by 2050 (or so) the world needs talent in the creation/invention of innovative ag technologies and the commercialization of the same. There is also the need for experts in traditional agricultural careers such as field inspectors, veterinarians (who I have a ton of respect for) and of course plant scientists such as those at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center (www.danforthcenter.org a GAIN Founding Sponsor) and other prestigious plant science and ag organizations. An excerpt from Western Farm Press highlights such a need for talent and effort– and lack of SUPPLY!
Insights and Inspiration on Agricultural Innovation
In this post, I want to talk about a couple of interesting letters and articles that address the need for agtech innovation.
The first, and most important, is Bill Gates’ annual letter that addresses, in a keen fashion, the importance of agtech innovation to the world’s poor. He opens with the following:
“[T]he private market does a great job of innovating in many areas, particularly for people who have money. The focus of Melinda’s and my foundation is to encourage innovation in the areas where there is less profit opportunity but where the impact for those in need is very high. That is why we have devoted almost $2 billion to helping poor farm families, most of which are led by women, boost their productivity while preserving the land for future generations. Those funds are invested in many areas of innovation, ranging from sustainable land management, to better ways to educate farmers, to connecting farmers to functioning markets.”
He goes on to discuss the rising price of food, the decline in the number of farmers around the world, especially in the developed world, and the erosion of the amount of money spent on ag aid. He makes the following comment on the post-Green Revolution period:
“But the world’s success in warding off famine led to complacency. Over time, governments in both developed and developing countries focused less on agriculture. Agricultural aid fell from 17 percent of all aid from rich countries in 1987 to just 4 percent in 2006. In the past 10 years, the demand for food has gone up because of population growth and economic development—as people get richer, they tend to eat more meat, which indirectly raises demand for grain. Supply growth has not kept up, leading to higher prices.”
This reduction in spending impacts GAIN’s members, as well. We have less nascent technology to follow for a potential commercialization opportunity. Fewer scientists are choosing plant and other agricultural sciences as a career, which lessens the number of minds working on problems (opportunities) and the number of collaborators.
Inaugural Ag Caucus
Greetings from San Francisco. Although, there is not a lot of agtech talk going on this week at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, GAIN did host its first annual GAIN Ag Caucus, conceived of by GAIN member Charles Grabenstein.
The members and guests who attended the Agtech Caucus discussed agriculture, its future and challenges facing the introduction of innovative ag technologies into the marketplace due to government regulations.
The event was held at the Flying Leatherneck Club in the Marine Memorial Club near Union Square. Those in attendance included members Charles Grabenstein, Heritage Partners; Ron Meusen, Cultivian; Peter Brenders, BioteCanada; Pat Morand, Southwest Michigan First Ventures; Joshua Hofheimer, Sidley Austin; and yours truly. Our guests included: Derek Norman and Carol Marino, Syngenta Ventures, and Cort Barnes, New Island Capital.
We spent a good part of the evening just getting to know one another, talking about the crazy environment that JPM has produced over the years and GAIN’s need to attract new members.
Then the “caucus” kicked off. We had an excellent debate over the challenges associated with introducing GMO crops into the United States, and more so the rest of the world (ROW). The group agreed that greater regulatory cooperation between the United States, Canada and perhaps Australia would make the approval process more efficient and cost effective in these countries.
We also felt that the ROW’s rule that a GMO crop must be “approved everywhere before being sold anywhere” is a major hurdle to introduce the latest in crop innovation to countries where yields of major food crops are far less that that of the United States (in some cases, 70 to 80 percent less).
Of course, some of the lower yields are due to weather (longer cold seasons, shorter growing seasons), which in part could be dealt with by introducing GMO varieties with shorter maturity times and/or cold tolerance.
With the current ROW regulations, the group opined that minor food crops, which might grow well in some ROW countries, will never be optimized due to the costs and risks of meeting regulatory requirements. For this same reason, it is likely that no GMO crop can be introduced in the ROW by any company other than the really big seed companies.
Some of the members in attendance have testified to the appropriate bodies of their governments about this very subject, clearly we have some real experts in our membership. It might make a good topic for an upcoming meeting or web-based presentation. We will also need to decide if there is a role for GAIN to play in crafting more innovation-friendly regulations.
GAIN intends for the Ag Caucus to be an annual event held on Monday evening of JPM week. We hope to see many more members and some special guests in attendance next year.
Agtech Network Plans for 2012
Welcome to the first GAIN Insight blog for 2012. We here at GAIN wish you all the best for a healthy and prosperous 2012.
GAIN had an excellent 2011. We launched numerous products for our members and those interested in agtech. These include:
• GAIN Insight™, the official blog of GAIN