Agricultural Innovation Trends

Brain dump of 35 trends spotted at Expo West 👀 #1 Metabolic health / blood sugar balancing as a benefit #2 Fruit + vegetables ingrained into products to give them an elevated nutritional profile #3 Mushroom protein + other novel use of mycelium (part of the mushroom you can’t see that sits in the soil) instead of fruiting bodies (part that extends outside the soil) #4 Brain boosting benefits (Specifically around mood regulation, mental health, and focus) #5 Recovery and sleep as a benefit #6 Low sugar, high protein, high fiber #7 Organic, grass-fed, regenerative, ethically sourced, small batch, local, seasonal, glyphosate residue free (Lots of messaging + marketing around this) #8 Lots of egg products as a low carb, high protein alt for wraps, snacks, and other areas where flour would otherwise be used #9 Novel use of chickpeas, legumes, lentils and other beans instead of nuts or flour #10 Complete protein and amino acid profiles as a focus (Even if that means combining ingredients like almond and lentils) #11 Products designed specifically for women (Often with messaging around hormone balance and gut health) #12 Sauce gets sexy (Lots of funky and unique sauces, marinades, and condiments) #13 Gut diversity and balance as a benefit #14 Muscle health as a benefit #15 Ingredient labels on the front of packages #16 Improved ingredient labels in general (I was pleasantly surprised when turning over many packages) #17 Focus on longevity in terms of ingredient sourcing and from a messaging perspective #18 High iron content as a benefit #19 Chef crafted formulas for everything from bars to ready to eat meals to dips/spreads #20 Allergen friendly / top 8 allergen free options (For nuts, spreads, snacks, and breakfast options especially) #21 Probiotic personal care and skincare #22 Women owned and founded (Lots of messaging around this) #23 Nut innovation (Bringing novel nuts to market + pushing them as having an elevated nutrition profile) #24 Animal protein skins as snacks (Eg, chicken skin, salmon skin) #25 Fermented bread, nuts, seeds, and other snacks to elevate nutrient density + absorption #26 No added oil (Decent amt of messaging + marketing around this) #27 Focus on food waste and water conservation #28 Lots of meat sticks, jerky and other dried meats #29 Bamboo as a paper product alt #30 Focus on oral health with the use of natural + Ayurvedic ingredients #31 Upgraded energy drinks w/ better ingredients and less sugar #32 Compostable packaging and paper/plastic replacements (utensils, straws, etc.) #33 High grade olive oil (Both on its own + ingrained into products) #34 Uniquely flavored butter to enhance flavor profiles when cooking #35 Lots of hydration and electrolyte products (With a focus on added nutrients like antioxidants and adaptogens) ——— What stood out to you?! #expowest2024 #healthandwellness #healthtrends

Drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are helping farmers perform tasks more efficiently than ever before. From spreading seeds over vast fields to applying pesticides where needed, drones are taking on roles that traditionally required a lot of time and labor. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐧: - Collect detailed data on soil health and plant conditions. - Monitor crop growth, identifying areas that may need attention. - Optimize irrigation systems by detecting moisture levels. - Conduct land surveys quickly and accurately. By providing this wealth of information, drones enable farmers to make informed decisions, leading to increased productivity and profitability. 𝐃𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐃𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐃𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐓𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐬 Not all drones are the same. There are various types designed for specific agricultural needs. For example: - Multirotor Drones: These have multiple rotating blades (like helicopter rotors) and are excellent for tasks requiring high precision, such as seeding specific areas or spot-treating crops. - Fixed-wing Drones: Resembling small airplanes, they're suitable for covering larger areas and are often used for surveying and mapping. With these technological advancements, it's natural to wonder: Will we soon see farms operating without human workers in the fields? While drones and automation can handle many tasks, the expertise and decision-making skills of farmers remain invaluable. Technology is enhancing agriculture, but it's not replacing the human touch - at least not entirely YET. What are your thoughts on the rise of drone technology in agriculture? Do you believe it will lead to more sustainable and efficient farming practices? #innovation #technology #future #management #startups

**New Article Alert**: Our research team implemented and explored a home-delivered produce prescription program to tackle food insecurity among families with young children. Key Highlights: 1. Impact on Food Security and Financial Relief: The PRx intervention helped families by providing fresh produce deliveries, which alleviated financial stress and allowed them to stretch their food budgets. This support enabled families to prioritize fresh produce over staples and reduced concerns about food affordability, especially during economic hardships like COVID-19. The program supplemented existing food assistance (e.g., SNAP, WIC) and improved food literacy, helping participants make informed choices and better manage their resources. 2. Promotion of Healthy Eating Behaviors and Skills Development: The program increased families' fruit and vegetable consumption and encouraged them to experiment with new produce. Virtual cooking classes and nutrition education resources led to positive shifts in food preparation skills and healthier eating habits. Participants reported trying new foods, reducing processed food intake, and incorporating more diverse, healthy options into their diets. The home-delivery model effectively enhanced nutrition security through both improved access to produce and educational support. 3. Enhanced Family Engagement: The program fostered quality family time by encouraging cooking together, leading to shared experiences and healthier eating practices. Participants enjoyed involving their children in meal preparation, which strengthened family bonds and established healthier habits.  4. Development of new framework: Research team developed new innovative framework to assess and implement PRx initiatives based on the qualitative data This research underscores the importance of Produce Prescription (PRx) programs in supporting families and influencing future work in this space. Food is a powerful tool to transform health from the inside out, lets work together to ensure families have access, availability, and interest. Read more about our findings and their implications for nutrition and food security below. Lastly, I must say that I always appreciate teaming up with my colleagues and mentees. Congratulations everyone! Graciela Caraballo Anar Parmar Hemen Muleta, MD Noah Kim Laura Fischer Qadira M. Ali, MD, MPH, FAAP, DipABLM Brent Ling Kurt Hager Senbagam Virudachalam #FoodasMedicine #FoodSecurity #NutritionSecurity #ProducePrescription #PublicHealth #Families

While industrial agriculture spent billions breeding corn varieties that require MORE fertilizer a little-known plant geneticist has done the opposite. Dr. Walter Goldstein breeds corn varieties that literally feed themselves. In studying corn genetics, Goldstein made a revelatory discovery – Modern corn had in large part lost its ability to partner with soil microbes. But through careful breeding, he could bring this ancient ability back. Goldstein developed corn varieties that could effectively form relationships with nitrogen-fixing bacteria - an extreme anomaly for non-legume plants. Some of these varieties get nearly half their nitrogen requirements this way. But nitrogen-fixing was just the beginning. Goldstein's corn varieties developed: - Deeper root systems - Better nutrient acquisition abilities - Natural pest resistance - Higher nutrient density - Yields on par with conventional varieties All without chemical inputs. Instead of lab-based breeding, Goldstein utilizes participatory breeding. He works directly with farmers to select traits that perform in real-world conditions. Target traits are: nitrogen efficiency, root architecture, nutrient density, and soil microbe partnerships. The implications of Goldstein’s work are nothing short of revolutionary. If corn can feed itself through bacterial partnerships, our entire approach to agriculture might be based on a fundamental misunderstanding of plant nutrition.

With global food demand expected to rise 50% by 2050, the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS) initiative is shifting agriculture in Africa, focusing on critical challenges of climate change, soil degradation, and food security. VACS reveals the potential of "opportunity crops"—indigenous, underutilized crops that are highly nutritious and climate-resilient. Investing in opportunity crops and healthier soils can: → Create more climate-resilient local, national, and regional agricultural systems.  → Encourage increased consumption of nutritious foods that can contribute to healthy diets. → Distribute economic resources more equitably to smallholder farmers. → Increase biodiversity and create more food-secure and resilient agricultural systems. → Create opportunities for governments and institutions to broaden their food system agendas. This initiative represents hope and resilience for everyone, especially the people in Africa. The more people, organizations, and companies participate, the more our initiatives will get better results.

From transgene-free gene editing to skyscraper tomatoes 🧬🍅 As someone who works closely with innovators at the intersection of science, business, and intellectual property, I love to track the breakthroughs shaping the next generation of agriculture. Here are five bold developments from the last five(ish) months: 1. Virus-delivered gene editing UCLA + UC Berkeley engineered a CRISPR-like tool (ISYmu1) that edits plant genomes without leaving foreign DNA - using a virus as the delivery vehicle. No tissue culture, no transgene, just precision. 📍 Nature Plants https://lnkd.in/eW8xmpJJ 2. Climate-smart breeding meets genebanks By combining environmental data with global seed bank genomics, researchers are predicting which sorghum varieties will thrive in future climates - no multi-year field trials required. 📍 Nature Climate Change https://lnkd.in/eSyDUEpa 3. Nitrogen-fixing microbes for corn Pivot Bio + Univ. of Illinois used CRISPR to enhance soil bacteria that convert atmospheric nitrogen into usable nutrients - cutting the need for synthetic fertilizer while maintaining yield. 📍 Agronomy Journal https://lnkd.in/ezj4y3ZP 4. Bioreactors for whole-cut cultivated meat University of Tokyo’s perfused hollow-fiber system enables centimeter-thick cuts of lab-grown chicken muscle - bringing us closer to steak-scale cellular agriculture. 📍 Trends in Biotechnology https://lnkd.in/ekTzn2au 5. Gene-edited micro tomatoes for vertical farms Phytoform Labs reimagined tomato plants with AI and gene editing to produce full-size fruit on 1/6-scale vines - perfect for dense, resource-efficient vertical farming. 📍 Greentown Labs https://lnkd.in/ezB2mnvS Each of these breakthroughs reflects what excites me most about this field: the ingenuity, the grit, and the long-view thinking it takes to bring transformative science to life. Throwing it back this Thursday with a photo of me in the growth chamber ~2017 🌱

The future of our food system sustainability is being developed at the convergence of biology, human innovation, artificial intelligence - and hundreds of millions of bugs! Nature's most efficient protein factories have been hiding in plain sight. While we've been debating sustainable food futures, black soldier flies have been quietly demonstrating how to create abundance from what we've overlooked. I visited the Innovafeed facility in Nesle, France with Mathilde Barge to explore how AI is helping reshape our core food systems. Innovafeed has built something remarkable: a system where these flies - with metabolism 25x more efficient than cattle - transform agricultural by-products into high-quality protein and oils. These ingredients replace resource-intensive fishmeal and fish oil in aquaculture and animal feed, addressing our protein challenge without requiring additional farmland, driving deforestation, or depleting oceans. AI systems continuously analyze millions of data points across their facility, predicting growth patterns and optimizing conditions in real-time. It's running today and producing nutrition with 80% less carbon impact than conventional methods. When we talk about sustainability, we often frame it as a sacrifice. This approach reveals the opposite: abundance through smarter systems. Using technology not to extract more from our world, but to create regenerative loops where outputs become inputs. And it's proof that transformative AI doesn't only emerge from Silicon Valley, but often in unexpected sectors like agriculture where practical problems demand inventive solutions. The technologies pioneered in these unlikely places - where insects meet algorithms - will ultimately reshape how we feed our planet. The future belongs to those who see possibility in what others have overlooked. My gratitude to CEO Clément Ray for the warm welcome at the factory and to Nadège AUDIFFREN and Enzo Ballestra, for making this insightful visit possible! #CircularEconomy #FoodSystems #SustainableInnovation #AI #FutureFarming The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation

𝗖𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗱𝗮’𝘀 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗙𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴: 𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟭𝟭 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝗲𝗿𝗿𝘆 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻! 🍓🫐 The Homegrown Innovation Challenge by THE WESTON FAMILY FOUNDATION is redefining how Canada grows fresh berries year-round—and these 11 innovative teams are leading the way! 🌍💡 Using AI-driven automation, agrivoltaics, controlled environment agriculture (CEA), and space-inspired farming, these pioneers are scaling up their game-changing solutions. With support from industry leaders like Mucci Farms, Argus Control Systems, Sollum Technologies, Fieldless, Vertiberry and many more, these teams are driving Canada’s sustainable food future. 🇨🇦 🚀𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝗮 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗿𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗖𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗱𝗮: 🌱 True North Berries (University of Ottawa) – CO₂ capture, microbiome optimization & aeroponics for high-efficiency strawberry production. 🤖 Kwantlen Polytechnic University – AI-powered greenhouses + robotic pest control for pesticide-free strawberries & blackberries. 🫐 Simon Fraser University – High-intensity indoor blueberry farming + gene editing to create compact, high-yield plants. ⚡ Western University – Agrivoltaics combining solar power & berry production to boost sustainability & efficiency. 🌿 Université Laval – Energy-efficient controlled environment agriculture facilities (EE-CEAF) for year-round strawberry farming in cold climates. 🏗️ Ontario Tech University – Autonomous greenhouse systems using AI, real-time monitoring & automation to optimize berry yields. 🍓 University of Guelph (Dixon Team) – Space-agriculture inspired hybrid greenhouse farming for high-density, resource-efficient strawberries. 🔬 Collège Boréal – Small-scale, cost-effective greenhouse solutions tailored for rural and remote communities. 🚜 Toronto Metropolitan University – Multilayer iGrow vertical farming systems + AI monitoring for raspberries & blackberries. 🌾 University of Guelph (Zheng Team) – Seasonal strawberry optimization using CEA + field farming to extend the growing season. 🏡 Bishop’s University – Sustainable, climate-resilient greenhouse production for year-round Canadian berries. With these teams and partners leading the charge, Canada is on the path to a more resilient, sustainable, and high-tech agricultural future! 🌎🚜 Which innovation excites you the most? Let’s discuss! ⬇️ #Agriculture #Sustainability #FoodSecurity #BerryFarming #ControlledEnvironmentAg #GreenTech #AgInnovation

There’s nothing like bumping into an Acumen fellow before 6 in the morning and getting an impromptu briefing on the amazing things he’s doing. I loved spending time with Michael Ogundare, Nigerian Foundry member (’21) and co-founder of Crop2Cash, a company that connects smallholder farmers to financial institutions to access credit — and now, skills and advice. Already, the company has 500,000 farmers on its platform. What stunned me most was hearing how Michael is integrating AI into the services provided to farmers. “The farmers are weary of accessing traditional extension services,” he said, “because much of the knowledge hasn’t changed since the ’80s and ’90s. Now, we have 20,000 farmers using our AI service." Essentially, the farmers can call a phone number (they don’t need smartphones) and ask the AI about any problem they’re experiencing or any question they might have. The AI responds in their local language (one of seven) and will call them back when a follow-up is needed — for instance, to fertilize or apply a different input. And here’s the part that took my breath away: the 20,000 farmers spend, on average, 20 minutes daily talking with the AI. They typically call between 7 and 8 p.m., set the phone on a table, put it on speaker and share questions and experiences. They might ask about tomorrow’s weather or share worries or concerns. The results are showing up in the farmers’ productivity. This video shows how Crop2Cash is helping farmers become climate-smart: https://lnkd.in/e5higg2i Of course, these are early days, but the changes to agriculture are suddenly dramatic — and the farmers, at least in this case, are quickly adapting. We have so much to learn. #AgTech #AIforGood #FinancialInclusion #SmallholderFarmers #ImpactInvesting

GENETIC IMPROVEMENT IN CROP YIELDS A fundamental component of agricultural productivity is genetic gain in crop yields. Improving the genetic potential of crop yields has been central to most of the world escaping the recurring cycle of famine and starvation. But how exactly can we measure the contribution of genetic improvement to crop yields over time? It is straightforward to estimate statistical trends in crop yields, but the resulting trends confound genetic gain, management improvements like increasing rates of fertilization, and climatic change. Crop scientists have developed a clever approach to disentangling these different factors in "heritage" or "era" studies. In simplest terms, seed is collected from crop varieties developed over many decades (one of the global storage facilities is located here at the University of Illinois), all the varieties are planted under the same experimental conditions, and yields are collected. One can then plot yield versus year of release as a measure of genetic gain. Heritage studies are the gold standard for measuring the contribution of genetic improvement in crop yields, and dozens have been published. However, these studies are expensive to conduct and are limited to the most popular varieties that have been saved in germplasm banks. An alternative approach is the use of "check" varieties in ongoing crop yield trials, which is precisely the subject of a study conducted by Jared Hutchins and myself that was recently published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics (https://lnkd.in/gG8BDMjJ). Specifically, we estimate yield growth due to genetic change in soybeans using Illinois variety trial data and public check varieties that are planted consistently from 1997 to 2020. The public varieties serve as a control variable to identify the gain in yield across years using only yield variation within the plot and year. We calculate the linear rate of annual genetic improvement to be 25–26 kg/ha (0.34–0.4 bushels per acre) or roughly 0.7% per year, an estimate that is a little lower than previous estimates of soybean yield growth from genetic improvement. Without controlling for weather, the soybean yield trend in Illinois yield trials over the same period was 47–54 kg/ha or 1.2%–1.4% per year. This suggests that genetic improvement explains roughly half of the yield improvements in these trials, independent of management. We produce the first estimates of genetic gain in private soybean varieties post-2010 and find that yield gain from genetics grew at a roughly linear rate from 1997 to 2020. To the degree that the results can be generalized to other important soybean growing areas in the U.S., our findings suggest there has been no slowing in the rate of genetic improvement in U.S. soybean yields. #soybeans #yield #cropproduction #genetics #productivity #experiments #yieldtrials