At this installment of the Climate Tech Convening series, we will moderate a discussion among farmers, research institutions, start-ups, agribusiness, and venture capital firms.
The program will feature keynote speaker William Hohenstein, Director of USDA’s Office of Energy and Environmental Policy. It will consist of several panels exploring the emerging technology areas that producers, start-ups, and investors are excited about introducing and scaling in the AgTech market.
Agenda
Wednesday, May 1, 2024
12:00 pm EST
Lunch
12:30 pm EST
Introduction / Welcome
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Britt Groosman, Vice President, Climate Smart Agriculture, EDF
12:40 pm EST
Keynote Speaker
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William Hohenstein, Director of USDA’s Office of Energy and Environmental Policy
1:00 pm EST
“The Producers’ Perspective - AgTech Challenges & Opportunities”
This panel will have industry thought leaders who can talk about the needs of growers, where they see the biggest opportunities to apply technology to problems and what are the challenges tech providers must consider to successfully sell to and work with growers.
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Moderator: Daniel Kaiser, EDF
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Panelists:
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Shari Rogge-Fidler, Farm Foundation
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Heather Hampton-Knodle, Farmer
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Adele Durfey, Clear Frontier
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Jessica Wedow, AI for Future Agricultural Resilience
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1:45 pm EST
“Emerging Technologies and Innovative Solutions in Agriculture"
This panel will have entrepreneurs from AgTech starts ups and agribusiness talking about exciting technologies that are being developed and applied to addressing the issues discussed in Panel #1.
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Moderator: Audre Kapacinskas, S2G Ventures
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Panelists:
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Vikram Adve, AIFARMS
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Colin McDonough, Growers Edge
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Adam Rice, Climate AI
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Pamela Bachman, Bayer, Senior Science Fellow
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2:30 pm EST
Break
2:45 pm EST
“What’s Exciting? Investment Trends in the Ag Sector”
This panel will focus on VC voices who are looking at investments in the sector. Which areas are exciting and why? Which are overhyped or problematic? Where will the next big opportunity come from?
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Moderator: Liron Gitig, EDF
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Panelists:
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Paul Rous, Natural Ventures
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Dan Cohen, Astanor Ventures
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Jack Marck, gener8tor
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Evan Savell, Conti Ventures
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3:30 pm EST
Summary
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William Hohenstein, USDA
4:00 pm EST
Adjournment
Featured speakers
Keynote
- William Hohenstein, Director of USDA’s Office of Energy and Environmental Policy
William Hohenstein is the Director of USDA’s Office of Energy and Environmental Policy, within the Office of the Chief Economist. The Office of Energy and Environmental Policy (OEEP) coordinates policy analysis, long-range planning, research priority setting, and response strategies for addressing energy development and environmental policy. OEEP houses the Climate Change Program Office (CCPO); the Office of Energy Policy and New Uses (OEPNU), the Office of Environmental Markets (OEM). The Office manages the Department’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Assessment Program. Mr. Hohenstein co-chairs the USDA Climate Hubs Executive Committee. OEEP coordinates the Department’s efforts to address the causes and consequences of climate change and focuses on efforts to enhance USDA’s ability to evaluate renewable energy and resources, build climate resilient and sustainable farms, ranches, rural lands and rural communities, expand markets for conservation and environmental goods, and support farmer conservation decision-making.
Panelist
- Shari Rogge-Fidler, Farm Foundation
Shari Rogge-Fidler joined Farm Foundation as president and CEO in 2019. She has a unique perspective, developed through her experience as a fifth-generation farm owner and operator, entrepreneur in the organic branded food industry, and founder of an agribusiness consulting firm. Shari was also CEO of a group of companies serving 1,000 farmers. She has lived and worked abroad for many years, including London in financial services and across Europe with the Boston Consulting Group. Shari has served on several corporate boards, including Farm Credit Mid-America and Coastal Pet. She currently serves as a trustee for The Nature Conservancy, on the Soil Health Institute Board, the Illinois Agrifood Alliance Board, and advisory boards, including Lewis & Clark Agrifood Venture Fund and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Shari has a B.Sc. in Business Administration from the University of Kansas and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
- Heather Hampton-Knodle, Farmer
Heather Hampton-Knodle farms with her husband Brian and four children in south central Illinois where they have used precision agriculture technologies on their farm since 1996. She serves on the Advisory Board of AIFARMS, a national Artificial Intelligence institute for agricultural innovation, based at the University of Illinois. She served as the appointed Chairman of the Current and Future Needs for Connectivity Working Group (2021-2023) and Vice Chairman of the Accelerating Broadband Deployment Working Group (2019-2021), where she currently serves as chairman in the final round, of the Federal Communications Commission Precision Agriculture Task Force and as a Citizen Member appointee to Illinois Governor Pritzker’s Rural Affairs Council.
- Adele Durfey, Clear Frontier
As the Director of Sustainability, Adele heads up the Environmental and Social Impact Strategy at Clear Frontier Ag. Management. This role embodies pairing grower needs with innovative technologies to improve yields, increase on-farm efficiency, and monitoring targeted on-farm sustainability & GHG profiles. Her role at Clear Frontier also includes pre-investment due diligence with a heightened focused on ESG parameters within a changing climate, deal execution from contracting to close.
Originally from a farming background in the Palouse area of Washington State, she has spent most of her career working abroad in large-scale farming operations such as Brazil, Ukraine & Canada before joining Clear Frontier. Her background includes the position of Commercial Director in Agrokultura - negotiating input purchases, crop sales & logistic planning across the Ukrainian company’s 135,000 acres. She’s spent time in Russia, Hungary, Moldova, Serbia & Romania as the Eastern European Territory representative for Nelson Irrigation, as well as time working with Sustainable Idaho, a group contracted by The Nature Conservancy (“TNC”) advising growers towards more conservation management practices throughout Southern Idaho.
She holds a Bachelor of Science from Washington State University in Agricultural & Food Systems: Agricultural Technology & Production Management, and a Bachelor of Administration & in Economic Sciences.
- Jessica Wedow, AIFARMS
Jessica Wedow is the executive director for AI for Future Agricultural Resilience, Management, and Sustainability, also known as AIFARMS, a USDA funded national AI institute hosted at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She also serves as associate director of research for the Center for Digital Agriculture at UIUC. She holds a PhD in plant biology from the University of Illinois.
- Vikram Adve, AIFARMS
Vikram Adve received his B.Tech degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay and his MS and PhD degrees in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Adve is the Donald B. Gillies Professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a cofounder and Co-Director of the Center for Digital Agriculture at UIUC. He leads AIFARMS, a national AI Institute funded by USDA NIFA that is developing and using novel AI techniques to address important challenges faced by world agriculture. The primary areas of Adve’s current research are in machine learning techniques and tools for digital agriculture, compiler and system support for heterogeneous edge computing, approximate computing, and programmability for edge applications. Adve and his Ph.D. student, Chris Lattner, co-designed the LLVM Compiler Infrastructure, which is widely used in both research and industry, including Apple, Google, Qualcomm, Intel, NVIDIA, Sony, and many others. Adve, Lattner and Evan Cheng received the ACM Software System Award in 2012 for co-developing LLVM. Two of Adve’s other Ph.D. students have won the ACM SIGPLAN Outstanding Dissertation Award and Honorable Mention for the ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award. Adve is a Fellow of the ACM and was named a University Scholar at the University of Illinois in 2015.
- Colin McDonough, Growers Edge
Colin McDonough is Chief Financial Officer at Growers Edge. Based in Des Moines, IA, Growers Edge provides modern financial products and data-driven tools that help forward-thinking agriculture retailers and manufacturers reduce their growers' risks and costs when adopting newer innovative solutions and practices. The company's crop plan warranties and input financing solutions are trusted by over 50 retailers and manufacturers to assist hundreds of growers in affordably purchasing their products and guaranteed yields on over one million acres of cropland.
With 16 years of experience spanning both start-ups and established corporations, Colin is a skilled professional with notable experience as CFO for multiple growth-stage companies along with a substantial background as an investment manager and with investment banks. He has held tenure with Merrill Lynch, UBS, News Corp and multiple growth-stage companies and investment managers. He holds an MBA from Columbia University and a BA from Princeton University. Colin’s experience includes building out financial and business operations for technology companies and overseeing investments in the industrial, agriculture and energy sectors. His career is decidedly focused on growth and innovation with a passion for helping create successful organizations.
- Adam Rice, Climate AI<
Adam Rice is the Vice President of Sales at ClimateAi, leading revenue execution, partner engagement, and go to market strategy for the organization. Adam has spent the last 10+ years of his career in Silicon Valley building start-ups and enabling enterprises to take advantage of frontier technology like robotics, big data, and AI.
- Pamela Bachman, Ph.D. Director, Sustainability & Outreach. Climate LLC, Digital Farming Solutions. Bayer Senior Science Fellow
Dr. Bachman has had a varied and intentional career that has led her from non-profits to academia and the private sector. Trained as an ecotoxicologist and ecologist, Dr. Bachman’s belief has been that partnerships across sectors are necessary to achieve outcomes related to ecological conservation, restoration, and sustainability. At Climate LLC, part of Bayer Crop Science, Dr. Bachman leveraging data science and digital tools to aid the agricultural community in adopting regenerative agriculture practices while promoting the productivity and resilience of farms.
- Paul Rous, Natural Ventures
Paul Rous is a Partner at Natural Ventures, a venture capital fund that is backed by global strategic investors. The fund focuses on enhancing global food and water security. With over a decade of experience in venture capital, innovation, and agriculture, Paul is a highly respected figure in the agtech and sustainability sectors.
Previously, Paul launched and led Regenerate Ventures as Managing Director, the UK's most active early-stage agtech fund. He has also founded two venture capital funds, Fuel Ventures and Blackfinch Ventures, managing over £250m in assets. Additionally, he played a leading role in launching the UK's first agtech accelerator and has held positions at Yara International, Cognizant UK, and Goldman Sachs.
Paul holds an MBA from Imperial College London, where he received the Dean's Award for sustainable business. He is also a member of the Institute of Agricultural Management and is currently working on his PhD, focusing on researching agricultural innovation.
- Dan Cohen, Astanor Ventures
Dan Cohen is a Strategy, M&A and investment advisor to companies around the world with extensive Board and Executive experience in multiple sectors including tech, automotive and energy.
Key roles held by Dan in the past decade, include Chairman of the Board of Koenigsegg Automotive AB in Sweden, Vice Chairman of Qoros Automotive in China, Chairman of Kiwi Power in the U.K., Board member of Healthy.io in Israel, President and CEO of Quantum Pacific Ventures inc. in the U.S.
Dan also served as Managing Director with John L. Thornton & Company, a private equity firm, where he focused on investments and strategic advisory projects throughout Asia. Prior to that, Dan was a consultant with McKinsey & Company, where he led client engagements in the consumer goods sector. His prior experience also includes several years working as a civil servant for the Israeli government.
Dan is certified to work in the U.S., Europe and Israel, with his primary residence in New Jersey,U.S.
- Jack Marck, gener8tor
Jack Marck is a Managing Director with gener8tor Sustainability accelerators and has devoted a career to finding and exploiting opportunities for improvement and optimization by overlapping rich data insights and analytics with expert intuition in industries ranging from recreational consumer brands to B2B industrial solutions. In his current role, Jack works closely with venture-backed companies on their journey to commercializing transformative technologies in Ag, Food, and Biotech industries. In his spare time, Jack experiments with IoT and cross-platform projects and serves as the Chair of the IEEE Central Illinois section.
- Evan Savell, Conti Ventures