Clean Ag Podcast

About Clean Ag Podcast

On this podcast, we discuss how to reduce the environmental imapct of food production, through technology, science and policy, in interviews with thinkers, decision makers, entrepreneurs and farmers. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/new-food-finance-podcast--5682894/support (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/new-food-finance-podcast--5682894/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss).

Publisher

Gerard Wynn

Category

arts · business · news

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

7 Oct 2022

Latest episode

8 Apr 2025

Latest episodes

21 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   8 Apr 2025

   Decibel Bio: Disrupting a $100 billion industry

   It was a great privilege to connect with  Travis Bayer, founder of the recently launched biotech crop development company, Decibel Bio, and previously, founder of the hugely successful microbial biostimulants company, Sound Agriculture. Some highlights Biggest driver for startup success: identify the unique business approach, the value proposition, including how to reach consumers, and then fit the science around that. Sound Agriculture: Core focus is using small molecule chemistry and natural products to signal to microbes for a more efficient and productive crop. How Decibel Bio is different: This is a nucleic acid, biotech platform, aiming to disrupt the $100 billion seed industry using plant epigenetics to control the crop genome, turning genes on and off, during the growing season. Targeted crop traits: For example, drought tolerance, by turning on aquaporins, the proteins needed to transport water across cell membranes and cell tissues. End product: Traits would be delivered via a crop spray, instead of a seed. The spray could be marketed alongside the seed, as a package, or as an alternative vehicle for trait investment. Success evidence: Decibel is gearing up for field trials in North America, at dozens of different sites, to develop a product pipeline. The main focus is corn and soy. Tariffs: “Trade protectionism is not good for ag. In U.S. agriculture, especially in corn and soy, we rely on export markets. If you want to spook a room of farmers, you walk in and start talking about tariffs.” Microbials impacts on yields: Gains from microbials are real but small – say 2 bushels of corn per acre. “The benefit is marginal. It’s a nice to have. In a tough farm economy, the nice to haves are the first to go.” Next 10 years of crop production: We’ll see an automation of the whole agronomic process. Today – you walk a field, spot disease, and recommend a spray. In future – big soil, weather, crop, imagery data will be collected from the field, processed by predictive AI-based models into interventions in an automated loop. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/new-food-finance-podcast--5682894/support (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/new-food-finance-podcast--5682894/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss).

2. 

   12 Nov 2024

   Bringing food and farming to the forefront of UN climate talks

   Ministers and leaders from around 200 countries gather at global climate talks, this week and next, in Baku, Azerbaijan. These UN-sponsored talks have been going for 29 years. As emissions continue to rise, and CO2 continues to accumulate in the atmosphere, heating the planet, you may rightly wonder about their role or usefulness. But there is no other event on Earth yet to replace them with. And at least they spark debate! Which is what we do, in our 18th episode of the New Food Finance. This week, I spoke with Serhat Cicekoglu, founder of the venture capital firm Sente Ventures, who is travelling to Baku. We discussed, how can a UN process led by ministers and bureaucrats spur innovation at the sharp of end of business, to help us feed a growing population in a world facing climate change, and other serious food system challenges. Serhat had a very clear idea of what is needed - short-term measureable targets, that these annual talks can report back on, every 12 months, to see what works and what doesn't. He feels 30 or 40-year targets are all very well, but what we actually need is to innovate, experiment and deploy - all as fast as possible! Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/new-food-finance-podcast--5682894/support (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/new-food-finance-podcast--5682894/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss).

3. 

   30 Apr 2024

   Jerry Nelson - Can AI help write the next IPCC climate report?

   I interviewed Jerry Nelson, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois. His research career has spanned climate change and food security, as well as agriculture policy, trade and development. He is one of the world’s greatest experts on the economics of food security in an era of climate change. What he has to say on this really matters. My three top takeaways from this week’s podcast were: A very interesting idea by Jerry for uniting two very topical issues – AI and climate change. Regarding the next IPCC report, due out by 2029, Jerry made an interesting connection between the recent news that the world’s biggest AI developers have run out of internet, to train their models, with the great difficulty that IPCC authors are having, to read and curate all the world’s thousands of journal articles on climate change. He suggested the world’s academic journals throw open their doors – at present many are behind paywalls – to give AI access to these articles. In other words, to allow the AI models to get back on track with their training, in return for helping draft the next IPCC report! AI doing good!? Second, regarding another of his expert areas, on the climate resilience of the food system, I asked Jerry whether he was hopeful for new, more resilient crop varieties. He said there were advances in developing more drought-tolerant crops. But the problem is heat. Cereals that evolved in the Mediterranean just don’t perform well, once temperatures exceed around 31C. And many regions where these crops are grown today will exceed 31C. We also chatted about the possible role of biochar to sequester carbon in the soil, something Jerry is researching just now. And finally, when I asked Jerry about his reaction to a recent, stunning streak of global warming, with 10-straight, monthly records, through March, he said he was “scared”, partly because the relevant experts say they don’t know where the warming is coming from, implying climate change could be worse than expected, and partly because of the potential, direct consequences, for example for sea level rise. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/new-food-finance-podcast--5682894/support (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/new-food-finance-podcast--5682894/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss).

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Spotify

5.0 / 5

7 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 44 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

60

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

68

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.