The following is an edited transcript of Nicole Erwin's interview with David Donnan. Click below to hear the full audio: 

Nicole:            I'm talking with David Donnan, senior partner with A.T. Kearney, a global management consulting firm based in Chicago. David, welcome.

David:              Hello.

Nicole:            Your firm conducted a recent study called Consumers@250, which found that a fundamental shift in consumer behavior is underway. Can you tell me a little about some of the core findings and how Amazon, Alibaba and millennials have become the future influencers of retail?

David:              Well, Consumers@250 has a special meaning: the year 2026 is the 250th anniversary, or “birthday,” of the United States. We looked out ten years — what were going to be the demographic, technology, resource, financial and economic issues facing us in the next ten years, and how they would impact consumers. We looked at, at that point in time, the two biggest cohorts, the two biggest population groupings or generations, which will be millennials, which we're all familiar with, and Generation Z, the ones following right after millennials. In fact, baby boomers, who have been such a dynamic force in the economics of the world for so long, are actually, unfortunately, on the decline, and will be much less of an influence. Most of them will be retired [and] have less income and less spending capabilities.

                        We look at millennials and Generation Z and ask, “What are the fundamental drivers that are affecting them, that are changing how they buy things differently than what we've seen before?” Primarily, over the last 30 years, there have been three drivers of consumption that we've looked at, and those drivers are usually affluence, persuasion and scale. Affluence ― we all wanted to be better than our parents. We all wanted to earn more money. We all wanted to be richer. Persuasion was how the brands took advantage of us. They persuaded us to buy their products. “You'll be smarter, you'll be thinner, you'll be better-liked if you use our product.” And then, finally, scale. You had to have big plants, big factories, big marketing budgets, big sales forces to succeed in that. That's how our entire consumer products industry has developed: large retailers, large CPG companies. We believe this has changed. The change is that, now, there are three new drivers, which are influence, trust and personalization. That's what my whole presentation [at ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference (ONE18)] is around — how each one of those influence our consumers.

Nicole:            And how does categorizing Generation Z and millennials and these different groups help in understanding marketing?

David:              There is no such thing as [an] average millennial, just like there is no such thing as an average baby boomer or an average anyone. But we do see fundamental shifts in how they receive information ― how they process information ― and what we look at as what is driving their values in how they purchase things. Value is being driven by products that have some purpose behind them. Is it a sustainability purpose? Is it a purpose behind nutritional content? Is it a new purpose behind child welfare or about localized byproducts? Those things are becoming much, much more part of the influence we're seeing with consumer products, whereas, in the past, we used to buy based on value. We would buy eggs as cheaply as we could get them for a dozen. Now, we buy omega-3 eggs. We buy cage-free eggs. We buy eggs that are GMO-free. Those are all values-based purchases rather than value-based purchases.

Nicole:            As you said, consumers are growing more passionate about the things that they purchase, including the food that they eat. It's really interesting to see how all these reality TV shows glorifying chefs have really taken off over the years. What impact have celebrity chefs had in the local food movement ― in driving the farm-to-table fresh approach to consumption?

David:              I think the celebrity chefs have really made food entertainment. I mean, if we look back 20-30 years, food was there for nutrition. We were there to eat, to get calories. They ate food that tastes good and, occasionally, went out to a restaurant. Now, with celebrity chefs and with the whole food movement, food is celebrated in a different way, and people look to food as not only a measure of getting nutrition ― of getting calories ― but an expression of their self-worth, an expression of their own character. And I won't even challenge now, I think celebrity chefs are on their way out.

Nicole:            Really?

David:              Now, we're celebrating the local farmer. We're celebrating that local producer, the farmer, the cattlemen, the local butcher with the local produce person. They are becoming the true measure, the true icons of the food industry today, as we look beyond the glitz of celebrity chefs to the real, fundamental values and authenticity of a local farmer.

Nicole:            How is the local farmer being celebrated? Is it through digital media, social network?

David:              Probably, first and foremost, farmers’ markets. There has been a giant growth in farmers’ markets over the last several years, and every town has a farmers’ market. Every neighborhood has a farmers' market, so that's driving that.

                        Second, grocery stores now are trying to replicate farmers' markets in their produce sections. If you look at grocery stores, most people shop what's called “the perimeter” of the grocery store; that is the area outside the center. Instead of going up and down those straight isles ― those boring isles ― they go to the perimeter, which is all around the seafood, the meats, the poultry, the fresh vegetables and fruits, the deli, the bakery and the dairy. All of those are where we're going, and those are mimicking a farmers' market.

                        Then there is social media. Look at what's happening now, with the capabilities for full traceability. So, when I go to a Whole Foods, Kroger or Walmart, I can not only buy my fresh produce, but I know where it came from ― not only where it came from but how it was made. It's not just buying broccoli; it’s buying broccoli that came from this farm and it came through these processes. That's a different set of information than we've had before.

Nicole:            Would you say that millennials are more impressionable, hence the impact of these shows and being able to change the dynamic of the store? Or is it the opposite of that? And if it is, what is it that people are connecting with in the programs and at the things that you're mentioning?

David:              I don't know if it's a matter of being impressionable. I see, across the board — whether it's millennials, boomers, Generation Z or the Alpha generation that follows Generation Z — there is a shift in trust of authority figures. If you look at the Edelman Study on trust every year, which is the trust barometer, trust in the institutions has gone down dramatically. So, trust in governments has gone down, trust in big business had gone down. Part of the equation on trust is, who do you trust? What we're finding, particularly with the age of social media and digitally enabled consumers ― mostly millennials and Generation Z, which are the first digitally native generation to grow up totally digital ― is that their trust is around their friends. Their trust is around social media activities. Their trust is around influencers on social media. So, maybe Laura Vitale — who is an Italian chef who talks about great Italian cooking — she becomes the trusted person, rather than the USDA food plate or nutritional pyramid.

Nicole:            Interesting. What viewpoints in products that were once outliers with co-ops and local health food stores would you say have gone mainstream?

David:              Avocado is number one. Bone broth is now coming up into play, as we're seeing the use of collagen ― using collagen and bone broth to help your skin. So, we're using it as a cosmetic that you digest. Quinoa was obviously one that came and has kind of come and gone. We’re just getting into arugula and all the different types of vegetables and salads.

                        We're also seeing ― and it's just starting now ― a whole area of supplements and vitamins and other, what I would call “non-mainstream” types of products with no scientific evidence behind it. The whole thing, I think, about food is that we're all clustering into “food tribes.” Think about it: it used to be, if you're from Italy, you'd eat Italian. If you're from Greece, you'd eat Greek. If you're from China, you eat Chinese. Now, food tribes go around nutritional norms. I'm a vegan. I'm Paleo. I'm a person that only eats gluten-free products. So, you tend to tribe around what you're eating now rather [than] the country you came from in your daily eating as well. That has an effect on the types of products that were non-mainstream before coming into [the] mainstream.

Nicole:            How is this same demand for transparency impacting the ag industry? Is the pressure as strong? And, if so, where do you see new consumer demands really taking effect in impacting the future?

David:              If you talk to grocery stores or restaurants, they want to have that transparency back to the farm. They want to know, “Is this chicken antibiotic-free? Has it always been antibiotic-free? Is it cage-free?” I want to know about these vegetables. Have they been sprayed with fungicide, herbicide, pesticide, et cetera? That pushes its way back to the food brokers and the food wholesalers, who then push back to the farmers as well. I'm seeing that farmers are very, very responsive to this. They are trying to get sustainable agriculture ― regenerative agriculture ― trying to reduce the amount of fungicides and pesticides and herbicides they are using, trying to be much more cautious but also much more thoughtful on how they make the product as well. They realize consumers are ultimately going to buy this product, and that's what they're going to look for. It may or may not be organic. I mean, organic is one part of what consumers look at, but people may just want less processing, less artificial in the product.

Nicole:            Throughout some of your articles that I've seen online, you mentioned the significance of personalization. How is this created to influence consumer engagement?

David:              Well, I think we're at a level of personalization now that we've never seen before because of our connection with digital media and digital technology. We all have iPhones ― or most of us do. Many of us have Fitbits, and so we're also measuring when we're exercising. All that information is going somewhere. Google and Facebook and others know when you're awake and when you're sleeping and when you're walking and how much activity you're doing and what your heart rate is. All that data allows companies to target active people versus targeting non-active people. They can say, “I'm going to target people who are much more physically enabled in these types of sports than others.” That type of a process is going on.

                        I think one of the greatest phrases I've heard is, “If you're getting Facebook for free, you're not the customer; you're the product.” The amount of information that's being gathered on each one of us is over five gigabytes a person, and it's really just on all of our activities, and that information is being used to better personalize.

Nicole:            Does that cause some dissonance with millennials and Generation Z? Because it seems like it would.

David:              It can, because I think, right now, people are willing to give information up if they get something in return. The recent scandals at Facebook and some of the things with Cambridge Analytica and everything else, I think they're starting to put a pause on it. Although, Facebook's numbers still are increasing — they're not decreasing. So, I think people are willing to give up personal information if they get something back that they feel is of value.  

Nicole:            I think something that really made a presence with this last presidential election was the increased hype behind purchasing power. Consumers are putting their money behind products that meet their worldview, ethically and however else. Why hasn't this been tapped into before, and why is this a millennial or Generation X thing?

David:              Well, I think the whole idea of purchase decisions has become more of a thing, more of a movement in the last 10 to 15 years. I think it, again, comes back to the issue of trust. We have less trust in government institutions, less trust in big business. But we trust our own purchases and we trust what we do. I know that if, for example, I do not want eggs coming from hens that have been caged, then I have a way of expressing that view by buying cage-free eggs. Similarly, I can buy other products that have a worldview either on sustainability, environmentalism, et cetera. That is being heard by companies. In fact, what we're seeing is that a lot of the changes that are occurring ― whether they are in regulatory food safety, sustainability, environmental concern ― are being driven by companies, not necessarily being driven by more federal or state regulations. I think that's a very positive thing because it means consumers really are in charge of saying what is it we value, and how do we make sure that it is being delivered to us in the way we want.  

Nicole:            Is that really increasing the role of corporate social responsibility?

David:              I think it does. I think many corporations have realized how important it is that corporate social responsibility is a key part. It is very fickle as well; you can lose it very quickly if you do something that people deem to be unethical or against your values. I think companies now are paying very close attention to making sure that they are living what they say.

Nicole:            Did the report reveal that the top 25 U.S. food manufacturers' share of U.S. food and beverage retail sales has declined from 66 percent in 2012 to 63 percent in 2015? Or is this something that was known before Consumers@250?

David:              It was generally known, I think, in the last two years. But I think if you look at the large CPG (consumer product goods companies) and food companies, they have lost a lot of share in the last 3 or 4 years. In fact, it’s a loss of over $15 billion in market share. The reason is twofold. One is that there is much more movement towards fresh. We're shopping the perimeter rather than the center of the store. The second is that there are a lot more startups now. Look at your Chobani and what they did to the yogurt industry. Look at what RXBar is doing now with Kellogg. I mean, there are a variety of things where new startups, innovators, more authentic brands are taking share away from some of the larger companies.

Nicole:            If you think about the beer industry, though, a lot of these larger companies are buying up micro-breweries because the brands are hyperlocal. Is this a quick fix, or is it strategic overall that the local beer movement seems to really have come against these buyouts?

David:              I think if you're a startup, if you're a small entrepreneur, I mean, getting bought out is kind of a good thing in some ways because you do get to cash out all of your investment. But, yes, again, it's the authentic nature of it. Authenticity is important. If, all of a sudden, we find out these craft breweries are just being run out of some big mega-factory in the middle of the grain fields, then we're going to lose interest in it. Part of it is that we like the fact that it is local. Part of it is, like, the fact that it has some community involvement as well.

                        I think there is also a shift in technology that's occurring. Whereas scale, as I've mentioned before, was a key determinant to success, now, scale is less important because I can actually manufacture ― I can produce goods on smaller lot sizes now, using things like HPP (high-pressure pasteurization), using vertical farming or an indoor grow that can grow vegetables right inside of a warehouse or on top of a roof, or using other types of technologies around sous-vide or other types of preservation technologies, which allow me to grow things, to make things, to prepare things very locally.

                        Think about what's happening now in the home delivery business. It used to be, you're at home, you order pizza, and that was about it. Now, with Uber Eats, Grubhub, Foodora, Blue Apron and all of the other options, there are just many, many options to get fresh, good-quality, highly nutritious food delivered to your house. That's fundamentally different than even [what] occurred five years ago.

Nicole:            Seeing these stronger local movements move forward makes me think a greater distribution of market wealth could surface. Is that what you're saying? How does a shift like this influence corporate social responsibility efforts?

David:              Yes. There is an opportunity for more distribution of wealth. However, there is still a concentration with large companies because they have access to capital. Large companies also have access to large distribution formats, et cetera. But the thing that is leveling the playing field is that companies like Alibaba and Amazon ― Alibaba in China, which is much bigger than Amazon ― 30 to 40 percent of their vendors are small “mom and pops”; they're independent. They are not large companies. So, the ability for a small company to get a platform, to get distribution and to get access to a community is much easier than it ever was before.

Nicole:            So, it's more collaborative?

David:              It should be. Yeah, much more collaborative ― an ability to, again, get consumer access, distribution and engagement, because you have something to sell and you have a story to sell, rather than just [the] fact you happened to be on the shelf because you happened to pay the slotting fee to get there.

Nicole:            Is there anything else your research revealed regarding changes that could potentially shape the next decade in retail?

David:              Well, I think, in the next decade of retail, watch China, and look what's happening with Alibaba and their new retail formats. They are a combination of physical format and online format, much like the Amazon Go in Seattle. You go into the store, you are already registered on your app, you bring in your phone, you get the product, it gives you all the information, it tracks you, you pay by face scan ― your face is actually scanned, and that's what pays for the product. What they've made is what I'll call the “ultimate convenience store.” You walk in, find your product, you already know what's there, it's giving you alerts, and you walk out and that's it. There is no cash transaction. There is no standing in line. If the product is not on the shelf, it automatically recognizes that and will have it delivered to your house. I mean, it's just this combination of online and physical retail, which I think gives you high-touch but high-tech as well.

Nicole:            David Donnan is a senior partner with A.T. Kearney, a global management consulting firm based in Chicago. Thank you so much.

David:              Well, thank you.

David Donnan shared his insights at ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference (ONE18). Click here to learn more about how you can be part of the global ideas exchange.

The following is an edited transcript of Nicole Erwin's interview with Patrick Walsh, founder of Dogpatch Labs. Click below to hear the full interview:

Nicole:           From working with the top new ag-tech startups from around the world to creating internal startups to rapidly advance new ideas, Alltech has sought new ways to innovate that speaks to its entrepreneurial roots. I'm talking with Patrick Walsh, founder and managing director of Dogpatch Labs, a leading startup hub in Dublin, Ireland. Patrick, thanks for joining us.

Patrick:           It's great to be here.

Nicole:           Before we get too far along, can you describe the development of Dogpatch Labs?

Patrick:           Sure. I sort of came from a startup background and I would see these great hubs in places like Silicon Valley. It struck me that we didn't have a big central- connecting physical space in Dublin. I thought that was a good problem to go about solving. I started walking around warehouses in Dublin and thinking what the right space would be. Eventually, we found this beautiful historic building right in the center of Dublin Docklands.

                        We started small; I think we just had 30 people sitting at desks in our first month. But over the last four years, that has evolved rapidly. Now, we’ve tripled in size. We have now 450 people on three floors. But it's not just us in chairs now — we do events and programs and incubators and accelerators. It's really expanded out from there.

Nicole:           Does “Dogpatch” mean something?

Patrick:           Well, it's a long story. It's an area in San Francisco where the idea was originally conceived. I guess the spirit — the entrepreneurial spirit of that area — was something that captured our imagination.

Nicole:           Dogpatch Labs is working to deliver The Pearse Lyons Accelerator. Can you share how you and [Alltech founder] Dr. [Pearse] Lyons decided to create this incredible opportunity here?

Patrick:           Dr. Lyons was such an incredible entrepreneur; he was one of the great Irish entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurs globally. For someone such as myself that runs an entrepreneurial hub, it was incredible opportunity to potentially work with Alltech when the opportunity first presented itself. I think he was an individual that was always interested in the next way of innovation for the industry. What you've seen over recent years is ag-tech is really starting to take shape. Agriculture is the least digitized sector in the world.

Nicole:           Really?

Patrick:           It's an incredible statistic. Last year, ag-tech was the second-fastest-growing sub-sector in all of technology; the venture capital dollars are just flowing in. Increasingly, farmers are starting to adopt technology. I think this is something they — Dr. Lyons, along with [chief innovation officer at Alltech] Aidan Connolly — were starting to see and made the decision that they wanted to really be at the forefront of that, to get some insight into that, and to start to partner and work with some of the most interesting startups from around the world. That was where the idea for the accelerator originated.

Nicole:           How do Dogpatch Labs and The Pearse Lyons Accelerator create realities for those who want to take advantage of the opportunity that an accelerator can provide?

Patrick:           Agriculture is a tough industry to break into if you're a small startup company. You’ve got to partner with big companies or find farms. It can be a highly fragmented industry to access. Finding a route to market is a huge challenge. I think that's one of the central reasons why we decided to position this accelerator as a business development-focused accelerator — especially for slightly later-stage companies that had proven something, maybe, in their home market and that were looking to scale internationally.

                        One of the things is that Alltech is a very international company now — it has quite a decent presence in, I think, well over 150 countries across the world. There are many different accelerators out there for ag-tech entrepreneurs to choose from. Some of them are great if you just have an idea and you're trying to get to the first version of your product. This one is for a later-stage company who's really interested in scaling up.

                        I think that's where we position the accelerator; that's where the value has been extracted from the companies that went through the first year. We saw some incredible results from that. Collectively, I think we saw startups get $50 million in qualified new sales leads across 28 new markets in that first year. That really speaks to the value that some of these companies got out of it.

Nicole:           I lived in Australia for a few years, and Americans were often perceived as a bit of aggressive, very forward and to-the-point, where many of us would point out individual strengths. They would kind of view it as this “tall poppy syndrome,” which meant that you would be cut down. How do entrepreneurial personalities differ in Ireland, in the U.S. and other groups that come to you?

Patrick:           Well, someone said earlier today, “When you've met one entrepreneur, you've met just one entrepreneur, because every entrepreneur is different, and those personalities take very different forms.” The thing is, through this accelerator now, we've worked with entrepreneurs from, I think, over ten different countries — which is obviously a huge ag-tech hub — to China to Canada to Ireland and London. It's interesting, because people do have very different personality types.

                        But, at the same time, I think what we found in the groups of entrepreneurs is a lot of common ground. I think it's been great to see how those different personalities have come together to support each other and to help each other understand — how does someone from China sell to Americans, for example? I think that's one of the big value-adds of having a global accelerator with a global group of people: they help each other understand those different cultural norms as they sell into very different industry types across the world.

Nicole:           What were some of the challenges of building a startup ecosystem? What elements need to be in place? Does it take a visionary to lead it? What else?

Patrick:           I think there are several different elements that need to come together. I think one of the key things that we've started to understand in Ireland is you really need to have a coordinated and connected effort; you can't just have a lot of different elements operating by themselves if you really want to create a synergistic ecosystem. We were talking about this earlier today with some of the folks from Kentucky [who are interested in creating a startup environment].

                        What I said was that what I would much rather see Kentucky do is, rather than a hundred small things, do three initiatives that are real lightning rods to kick-start an ecosystem. One initiative is a conference that pulls together the industry and pulls together investors in ag-tech companies. Obviously, you've seen examples of that in Ireland with the Web Summit, which has moved beyond Ireland and now has European cities bidding to come to it. But you have a great conference here in ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference that could be built and evolved upon. It's already a coming-together of industry.

                        I think you also need to have a global accelerator. I think we’ve started that and we continue to evolve it and, maybe, bringing other people in. I think another important part of an ecosystem — and why I was very passionate about starting Dogpatch — is I think you need a physical hub as well. A lot of the time, you just need that mental anchor point — that epicenter of an ecosystem — so that, if people get off a plane and think, "Well, where would I start?" or they get out of college and they say, "Well, where would I go?” you have this physical space, as well. Those can be real catalysts.

                        Then, you need all the other elements to come in to play as well: strong connections at the universities — and investors need sort of a coordinated story to think about if they're going to come to an ecosystem. You're talking about a lot of different elements coming together. Certainly, what we do in Ireland is we sit around the table with various members of the ecosystem, whether they are the big multinationals like Google — who's a big partner of us and who really supports the ecosystem — but also with government as well.

Nicole:           The Pearse Lyons Incubator was also launched to focus on entrepreneurship with the hope to enable Alltech staff to rapidly advanced new ideas. How is this different than, say, going up to your boss and just pitching an idea?

Patrick:           Well, that's a good question. I think this was something that Dr. Lyons was very passionate about. He said he was delighted to be supporting entrepreneurs all around the world, and that was an important part of external innovation for Alltech and bringing about innovation with our partners as well. But he also wanted to give his staff the opportunity to adopt a startup mindset — to have the opportunity to play by different rules, have some training and mentorship around advancing an idea forward in the same way that we've been doing in the accelerator. That's something that I think the people at Alltech have responded well to.

                        To answer your question specifically, the difference is that, often, when you pitch your boss, first of all, you might not be sure about how to best craft that proposition to create something that is an investor-ready deck. Also, your boss might not be empowered to fund that development or to enable you to go ahead and work on it. What you end up needing is some sort of a defined entrepreneurial function within a large organization — especially as it gets bigger and bigger. I think this is something that Dr. Lyons was talking about a lot in the last few years.

                        I know [Alltech president and CEO] Mark Lyons is very passionate about it. If you're a small company, you're entrepreneurial by your very nature. You don't need to do anything, and things just start to happen. But, as you start to get bigger, like Alltech has done in the last few years, you need a bit more of a purposeful effort — a defined function to advance new ideas. I think that was a lot of the thinking behind the incubator. We wanted to empower our staff so they can advance new ideas, because they're the people that are talking to our customers. We want to do it in a different way and we want to have a defined way of doing it.

Nicole:           Can you tell me about some of the successful presentations that have been pitched?

Patrick:           Well, I don't like to have favorites, because we work so closely with them all. I think what you saw this year is a great range, from beef to dairy to human nutrition to insect proteins, et cetera. I think the whole area of CRISPR is particularly interesting. I'm very struck by it. I think that is an area that will continue to have a massive impact. I think we're just at the start of that. The FDA has just said that they're not going to regulate gene-edited crops. It'll move to animals next.

                        You saw an example of the potential of that to save the industry, not only to save a lot of money, but also to have a massive sustainable impact. With the eggXYt presentation — the Israeli company — and then, for CRISPR, after animals, there are human implications. I'm just fascinated personally on that particular technology and how that's going to play out and disrupt the agriculture industry over the next few years.

Nicole:           Dr. Lyons recently passed away, but he was incredibly progressive and constantly pushing limits. Do you feel like these accelerator projects embody the spirit of Dr. Lyons in some way?

Patrick:           I think that's something that Mark said. The accelerator bears his name. I think it really was something that he was quite passionate about. There are so many stories of Dr. Lyons helping other people in a charitable way — helping other people in terms of supporting them as entrepreneurs all throughout the years. It’s great that we had the opportunity to start this when he was here. He was such an incredible inspiration to so many different people, and he is an incredible inspiration for the next generation of entrepreneurs. It’s great that we've managed to do these programs. I do think it embodies his entrepreneurial spirit.

Nicole:           Patrick Walsh is the founder and managing director of Dogpatch Labs, Ireland's leading startup hub. Thank you so much.

Patrick:           Thanks.

Do you have the next big idea in ag-tech? The Pearse Lyons Accelerator is taking applications for the next cohort of innovators.

Learn more here.

A picture is worth a thousand words — to tell a story, share a moment or bring back a memory. As the urban population increases, it has become even more important to “agvocate,” sharing stories and pictures of the agricultural life. Alltech wants to help share these agvocacy photos, stories and moments and celebrate those whose daily dedication feeds a growing world.

With the launch of the #iamAG online agvocacy photo contest, Alltech invites American farmers, ranchers, producers and all agricultural workers to submit and share photos of their farms and ag lifestyle for the opportunity to win a trip to ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference (ONE19) held in Lexington, Kentucky, May 19–21, 2019. 

Photos must be submitted online by Nov. 30, 2018, at 9:00 a.m. EST. They will be judged by a panel, who will select the top photos as finalists, and those photos will be published on Alltech’s Facebook page (Facebook.com/AlltechNaturally).

Voting will open to the public on Dec. 3 at 3:00 p.m. EST and will close on Dec. 17 at 12:00 p.m. EST. Use the hashtag #iamAG to find the photos or visit the Facebook album to vote.

Winners and their guest will receive free registration to ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference (valued at $995) and $2,000 for travel expenses. To enter a photo and read the full contest details, including the rules and regulations, visit https://go.alltech.com/i-am-ag.

Registration is now open for ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference, held in Lexington, Kentucky, USA, from May 19–21, 2019. The annual international conference draws 4,000 attendees from nearly 80 countries to network and discuss world-changing ideas. For more information or to register, visit one.alltech.com. Join the conversation online with #ONE19.

[LEXINGTON, Ky.] – Big ideas, powerful messages and heartfelt memories were shared this year at ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference (ONE18) as more than 3,500 people from 76 countries came together on May 20–22 in Lexington, Kentucky, USA. The 34^th annual symposium included 100 speakers and 153 presentations, which are now available on the Alltech Idea Lab.  

For those who missed the discussions or want to replay their favorite presentations, the Alltech Idea Lab offers the chance to hear talks from the inspiring leaders and future thinkers featured at ONE18. Access is free upon signup.

Available presentations from the 34^th international conference include:

• Dr. Rodolphe Barrangou, CRISPR Technology on the Rise

• Dr. Majid Fotuhi, The Memory Cure

• Pitches from The Pearse Lyons Accelerator program for agri-tech and food startups

• Special breakout sessions on beef, dairy, poultry, pig, aquaculture, crop and equine topics of interest, in addition to business and finance, health and nutrition, and food and beverage

ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference (ONE19) will return to Lexington, Kentucky, USA, from May 19–21, 2019. Visit one.alltech.com for more information and to lock in our lowest ONE19 rate of $550 by registering before July 7 for the 35^th international conference.

The following is an edited transcript of Tom Martin's interview with Dr. Gregory Jicha, chief clinician and professor at the University of Kentucky Alzheimer's Disease Center. Click below to hear the full interview:

Tom:              According to the Alzheimer's Association, an estimated 47 million people are living with dementia worldwide, and this number will triple by 2050. With a new case diagnosed every three seconds, can we stop the clock on dementia? It’s one of many questions we have for Dr. Gregory Jicha, chief clinician and professor at the University of Kentucky Alzheimer's Disease Center. Thank you for joining us, Dr. Jicha.

Gregory:         Thank you for having me.

Tom:              Given what you know from your research, are you optimistic that we can indeed stop the clock on dementia?

Gregory:         I am an incredibly optimistic person, but my thoughts are based in reality, and, yes, indeed, they are optimistic. We have discovered what causes Alzheimer's disease at almost every level. We have almost every piece solved, and we know how to go about attacking each of those targets with a set national plan in the U.S. of having a cure or medicine for the prevention of Alzheimer's by 2025. That means the medicines we hold in our hands today are the cures of tomorrow.

Tom:              You and your team are actively engaged in several state-of-the-art clinical trials in an effort to find better treatments and investigate potential cures for Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. Can you tell us what you're looking into?

Gregory:         We're looking into a variety of different mechanisms, and what we know about Alzheimer's is it is a long process that begins about 20 years before the first complaints of memory loss. There is a slow buildup of amyloid in the brain, inflammation and oxidative damage, eventually leading to neurofibrillary tangles, cell death and dementia. So, we are looking at a variety of agents that may prevent the disease initially, and that once it's begun, may abort it at many of the different time points along that pathologic spectrum. The excitement is quite high. We do think that our best opportunities, the most promising medications that we're using currently, are in early prevention or in aborting the process very early on.

Tom:              Some time ago, Alltech and the University of Kentucky Sanders-Brown Center on Aging began partnering on research into the properties of the selenium-based Alltech product AT-001. A 2009 study using a mouse model found that the supplement significantly reduced the levels of amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer's. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the Phase I trial. That study confirmed that the AT-001 seemed to be preventing these plaques from migrating from the spinal fluid to the brain. You now have a Phase II trial underway focusing on volunteers who are at risk for Alzheimer's. Can you bring us up to date on the study?

Gregory:         That's correct. We've had a long-standing relationship with Alltech in moving AT-001 forward from the early animal preclinical studies, which not only have shown an impact on reducing amyloid plaques, suggesting a role in the early prevention and/or treatment of Alzheimer's, but even later stage changes like neurofibrillary tangles.

The Phase I study that we performed was really looking primarily at safety: How high could we push the dose of AT-001 safely in humans? We found no ceiling on that. We went up to 800 milligrams a day — that's 400 micrograms of selenium — and that is much higher than the U.S. RDA (recommended dietary allowance) for selenium. But in this particular form — the form produced by Alltech in the compound AT-001 — safety was not an issue at any dose. We were able to show in that study that we could use the high dose successfully over 12 weeks, and in that 12-week period, we saw tremendous changes in the research participants.

We saw an overall reduction in systemic inflammation — that's inflammation throughout the body — and we also saw very positive trends for reduction of Alzheimer's proteins in the spinal fluid. We've carried that forward now in conjunction with Alltech in a Phase II study. We have a large number of subjects receiving the supplement. Many folks have finished a one-year duration of high-dose treatment with AT-001.

Again, we're not seeing any signals suggestive of any safety concerns whatsoever. I am “blinded,” of course, during the course of the study, so I can't comment on outcome measures as of yet, but I will tell you the last subject out of that study will be December 2018. We hope to have data available by late winter or early spring 2019, which will hopefully confirm everything that we saw in the Phase I study and pave the way not only for AT-001 to make its mark as a supplement for brain health and the potential prevention of Alzheimer-like changes in the brain, but also as the scientists at Alltech move forward, trying to identify the active compounds to purify, to improve the efficacy, the ability of this supplement to promote brain health. I think we have a long road ahead of us with lots of discovery, and it's a very exciting time for us at the University in this partnership with Alltech.

Tom:              We would very much like to follow you on that. When the second phase is over, perhaps we can revisit and see where you are at that point.

Gregory:         Absolutely.

Tom:              Alltech founder Dr. Pearse Lyons was a major proponent of these studies. What do you recall about Dr. Lyons' enthusiasm and support?

Gregory:         Well, Dr. Lyons had inexhaustible energy, in my opinion. I never saw him moving at less than 180 miles an hour — that’s in brain thought processes, not in the rate at which he operated his car. Dr. Lyons was incredibly excited about the potential of AT-001 to impact humans. It's a supplement that's been used in the animal husbandry business for many, many years, and Alltech scientists have noted profound benefits on brain health in those animals. As the first endeavor to move Alltech discoveries directly into human care and disease prevention, this was something that Dr. Lyons really championed and maintained his enthusiasm for throughout the entire project.

Tom:              On another subject, you've noted that what we eat today can affect our cognition in the future. There is recent research that demonstrates that people who follow a Mediterranean-style diet enjoy a high level of protection against age-related cognitive decline. What components of this diet contribute to these benefits?

Gregory:         That is the million-dollar question when it comes to diet in humans. We know that composite diets like the Mediterranean diet, and the modified version that's become quite popular — the MIND diet — are certainly associated with better brain health outcomes. Unfortunately, we're currently lacking data on which of the components are most beneficial in that regard. Is it a potential combination of components where we need certain ingredients or certain food types to promote brain health, and the others are simply things that are carried along? I think that looking at the individual nutrients — much the way that we're doing with studies of AT-001, studies of omega-3 fatty acids and of other nutritional compounds —is someday going to unlock that mystery. We may find the ideal diet, where each of the components is based on science rather than our current coarse understanding of dietary needs for brain health.

Tom:              What additional lifestyle changes, cognitive exercises or dietary supplements might be of further use in preserving brain health and cognitive ability as we age?

Gregory:         I think that there are several areas of our lifestyles that do need to be modified for brain health, the first of which is cognitive exercise. I hear frequently from folks as they age that they can't wait to retire and do absolutely nothing. That may be great for relaxation, but that is the worst thing in the world for your brain. We know that if you don't use it, you will lose it.

                        Recently, the National Academy of Sciences had an advisory panel looking at brain health and prevention, and their number one recommendation was cognitive activity. That was followed by management of medical issues such as blood pressure control throughout middle age and later years.

                       We know that negative impacts on the body are also reflected through negative impacts on the brain. If you're not seeing a doctor and have those medical problems, get out there and get those problems addressed.

                      The third is physical activity. We're not talking about devoting your entire life to becoming a gymnast or a heavyweight champion; what we're really talking about here is a simple 30 minutes, three days a week, of high-intensity exercise. It reduces your risk for a disease like Alzheimer's to almost one-third. That's a 300 percent improvement in your brain health through that single activity.

                      What we don’t yet understand is the impact of combining all those things. Perhaps if each one lowers it by a third, and we're looking at a third of a third of a third, we may be to a point where there is a 90 percent plus chance of eliminating the future threat of Alzheimer's for an individual person who's maintaining that healthy lifestyle.

Tom:              Are there any emerging technologies or innovations that excite you that you're keeping your eye on?

Gregory:         There are a number of exciting technological innovations. Many of these are in the area of genetics. Genetics have helped us unlock the mysteries of Alzheimer's disease, and more importantly, they're helping us unlock the secrets to brain health and the individual cellular pathways that are important for us to target through interventions, nutritional supplements and medications.

                      One always thinks about genetic discoveries as being something that we're simply left with — that you're “stuck” with genes and if you have that risk, there is nothing you can do about it. But I think what we've learned from precision medicine in cancer is that understanding your genetic risks can help us to develop a personalized prevention program for Alzheimer's disease — a personalized program for your individual brain health.

Tom:              Dr. Jicha, what would you say you enjoy the most about the work that you do?

Gregory:         That is an incredibly difficult question. I am a physician, and I directly care for patients one-on-one throughout most of my day, whether that's in the context of research or in straightforward clinical care, and that's incredibly rewarding. But on the other hand, the ability to help move innovative ideas forward, to be at the forefront of our search for cures for a disease as devastating as Alzheimer's disease, is incredibly intellectually rewarding. That combination is something I simply wouldn’t trade in for anything.

Tom:              Dr. Gregory Jicha, chief clinician and professor at the University of Kentucky Alzheimer's Disease Center. Thank you so much for your time.

Gregory:         Thank you for having me.

Dr. Gregory Jicha spoke at ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference(ONE18). Click the button below to see presentations from ONE18: 

First time a Kentucky brewery takes home the overall grand prize for its beer Dark Charge Barrel Aged Molé

[LEXINGTON, Ky.] — Over 5,000 craft beer aficionados attended the fifth annual Alltech Craft Brews & Food Fest on May 19, 2018, at the Lexington Convention Center. The festival featured over 60 breweries from across the country as well as food from local vendors and some of the best chefs in the state of Kentucky.

More than 50 breweries from four countries submitted 325 unique beers, which were judged by an expert panel of judges based on Beer Judge Certification Program guidelines. At the end of the day, and the bottom of the glass, the Commonwealth Cup was awarded to Barrel Aged Molé brewed by Braxton Brewing Company from Covington, Kentucky.

The Alltech Craft Brews & Food Fest was started five years ago by the late founder of Alltech, Dr. Pearse Lyons, to celebrate craft beer, something about which he was particularly passionate. In fact, Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale® from Alltech Lexington Brewing & Distilling Co., which Dr. Lyons founded in 1999, is regarded as one of the forerunners of the bourbon-barrel aging trend in craft beer.

“Dr. Lyons was always a champion of craft brewing, long before it came into the mainstream,” said Dr. Mark Lyons, president of Alltech, toasting the memory of his father.“

He was passionate about developing the craft brewing and distilling market in Kentucky, training a generation of brewers and distillers and investing in events like today’s festival that give us a little taste of what he loved.”

The Alltech Craft Brews & Food Fest marked the beginning of ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference (ONE18), held May 20–22 in Lexington, Kentucky. The event includes a breakout session on brewing and distilling. For more information, visit one.alltech.com.

Follow Kentucky Ale® on Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter (@KentuckyAle) for updates as well as information on the Alltech Craft Brews & Food Fest. For more information about Alltech Lexington Brewing & Distilling Co., visit www.kentuckyale.com.

Discussion topics to include lessons on meat quality, new technologies to battle disease and discussions on new zinc oxide regulations

Register before March 31 at  one.alltech.com for savings of $400

[LEXINGTON, Ky.] – ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference (ONE18), held May 20–22 in Lexington, Kentucky, will provide those in the pig industry with a unique opportunity to participate in a global conversation about the innovations, challenges and solutions facing their industry. Focus sessions designed to educate and inspire will allow attendees to gather insights from leading pig experts and exchange ideas with peers from around the globe.

ONE18 pig topics:

• Pig Powerhouse: What's Next?

Pork is the most widely consumed animal protein in the world. Who are the new players in the market, and what opportunities do producers have to fulfill the growing demand?

• Pleasing Today's Diner: Premium Palatability and Quality

Consumers are increasingly concerned with the quality of their meat and how it's produced. What do consumers perceive as quality meat? What are the key factors that affect pork quality? Learn what steps you can take to help your product get to consumers' dinner tables.

• Life Beyond Vaccines 

How can we move beyond vaccines to involve new technologies in the battle against diseases such as PRRS? Can we reach a point in which all viruses are a thing of the past? What genetic potential is unlocked when we live life without viruses?

• ZnO Ban: An Alternative Plan?

New zinc oxide regulations are expected to shake up the global pig industry. What are the current inclusion levels? Will this lead to more regulations in the future? Is there an alternative? Here's what you should know about your options.

• Pig Dilemma: Larger Litter, Lower Piglet Quality? 

Are more piglets sustainable? Where is the balance between quantity and quality? With demands on litter rates increasing, it's even more important for the sow and piglets to receive the nutrition necessary for optimum productivity and quality. Hear from industry experts who will provide solutions to this conundrum.

*Topics subject to change as the schedule evolves.

ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference is the place to learn from and network with some of the brightest stars in business leadership. This year's power-packed mainstage will welcome Jack Welch, legendary former chairman and CEO of General Electric, who was named as one of the “100 Greatest Living Business Minds” by Forbes magazine in 2017; Dr. Rodolphe Barrangou, a professor at North Carolina State University whose research focuses on applications of the revolutionary CRISPR-Cas system and its use in food manufacturing; and professor Robert Wolcott of Northwestern University, a contributing writer to Forbes and the author of “Grow from Within: Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation.”

The Pearse Lyons Accelerator program returns to the conference this year and continues to be a launch pad for startup innovators. Entrepreneurs from around the world will present their revolutionary ideas in food and ag-tech. How will the next generation of technology influence your business? Find out at ONE18.

Now in its 34^th year, Alltech’s conference is attended annually by nearly 4,000 people from over 70 countries. Whether producers and business leaders are navigating a fundamental change within their industry or just need a little inspiration, they’ll learn about real-world opportunities and solutions at ONE18.

Register to attend ONE18 before March 31 at one.alltech.com for savings of $400. Join the conversation with #ONE18 on Twitter, and follow the  ONE18 Facebook event page for updates.     

Tom:                            Kentucky native — Lexington native, in fact — Brian Lawless is the business development manager for Alltech in North America. His passion is discovering and delivering solutions for the sustainable nutrition of plants, animals and people. His topic at this year’s ONE17 conference has to do with people in general and what’s been happening to the way we dine in particular. We thank you for joining us, Brian.

Brian:                          Glad to be here.

Tom:                            Let’s begin with a broad question: What’s the role of food in culture?

Brian:                          We ask the question, “How should we think about food? What should we look at in regards to food?” Alltech is an animal health and nutrition company. So, the basic answer is to say, “Oh, it’s nutrition. That’s where it is.” But if you look at the Latin word for “nutrition,” it also means “to nurture.” The question I ask is, “Is the way we produce food actually nurturing society, nurturing culture in such a way that we can grow?” That’s been fun for me to look at.

Tom:                            The shared family meal used to be a given. It was an ideal. Breakfast and lunch have always been a little “iffy” because of daily schedules, but suppertime has, for generations, been a family’s chance to sit down and break bread together while catching up on the day. What happened to that tradition?

Brian:                          It’s not going so well. For the last 20 years, we’ve seen a 33 percent decline in family meals. I have often heard people say, “I have sports to get to,” if they have kids, or, “I have a job.” You may have both parents working. You have all these situations where food then becomes an afterthought. Then we go back to the question of if we’re nurturing. If we’re eating, we may be eating in the car, and that’s probably the culture we see right now. We’ve gone from being a very communal food culture to very much an individual food culture. I think that’s a challenge because that isolates and separates the way we eat. I don’t think that’s the intent — it’s not the way we were supposed to eat.

Tom:                            As we move away from nightly gatherings around the table, what’s been the social impact on kids?

Brian:                          For kids, it’s big. From a timing standpoint, if we dial back 60 years, a meal took 90 minutes. You’d get there. You’d set the table. You’d sit down with your family. Today, the average time spent on meals is about seven to 11 minutes. I think the biggest thing we’re missing is the ability to connect. There are obvious effects, for example — and data supports this — that kids who get a meal with their parents three or more times a week are 40 percent more likely to do well in school. They’re likely to eat more vegetables, drink less soda, have a more balanced diet in terms of sodium and fat, and are less likely to engage in high-risk behaviors like drugs or tobacco. So, all this science is saying that, while eating with your family is not a direct connection to these factors, it has a significant impact overall.

Tom:                            Even when we’re together these days, smart devices have a way of interfering.

Brian:                          They do. I would say you need to be conscious of what’s going on. I’m a millennial. I use technology. I engage with it, but I think we need to make that choice to say, “Hey, not during a meal.” When you’re with a friend getting a meal — whether at home or out at a restaurant — either leave the phone in the car, set the phone face down or do something so technology is not in the way. I really think there’s a power in actually connecting, telling stories and actually engaging with what’s going on. You can’t get that with social media. You can’t get that with a phone or a TV.

Tom:                            I think you just touched on this a couple of minutes ago, but let’s drill down into it. Are we eating alone more frequently, and what are the consequences of that?

Brian:                          We absolutely are. Forty-six percent of all adult meals are eaten alone. I think we’re a part of what I would call a “metanarrative” in our food industry. The food industry is telling us that food needs to be convenient — it needs to be available anywhere, anytime. The way we think about food is in terms of efficiency: How quickly can I go from a state of being hungry to a state of being full? Then, during that time, how can I be entertained? Can I watch TV? Can I look at my phone?

                                    All that because we live “busy lives.” And, frankly, I don’t like that. I think that’s where the narrative is trying to drive us. The thoughts I’ve had lately are about how we engage with that narrative and engage with it in a different way — rewrite that narrative because I believe we have a choice.

                                    This convenience has actually left us with more options. When food is convenient, it means other things are convenient. When things are efficient, it means you can then choose to engage with other things in a different way. I’ve really been trying to process this: Okay, what does that look like? I think there are both unintended consequences and unexpected opportunities that come when you actually engage with food in a way that is nurturing as opposed to just nutritious.

Tom:                            How about the meal-bundling concept? I’m thinking of Blue Apron or HelloFresh, which have brought back the possibility of being able to work a full day and come home tired but make a meal conducive to bringing everybody around the table. Have those options made a big difference?

Brian:                          They have. I think it’s a great step. It’s probably not the ideal compared to the pinnacle of going to the store, picking something and taking it home. But if that’s not a reality, I think something like Blue Apron is a great alternative because it allows you to get home. It uses technology. It uses convenience, now in a way that’s advantageous and allows you to connect with someone.

                                    I think that goes back to that communal language of saying, “Look, I’ve cooked this. I’ve prepared it.” There’s another unexpected opportunity that comes with services like Blue Apron: Say you get this great marinated chicken and you completely burn it. That’s not good. All of a sudden, as you serve it, you have a story to tell. You say, “Hey, sorry, I’m going to learn how to cook this better next time.” I think those are those are human moments. That sometimes gets lost when we isolate ourselves and just get fast food.  

Tom:                            As you also mentioned earlier, we know that the fundamental purpose of food is sustenance, but we have made much more of it. Haven’t we? In light of that, does it appear that we’ve lost the point of food altogether?

Brian:                          How we’re structuring our food culture and the way we’re producing food essentially takes people out of the equation. And what I mean by that is, the way that we’re feeding our animals, we’re applying those same principles to people. I think we spend so much time and care in producing animals. I met a beef producer just over the weekend — Tim White. He’s a producer here in Central Kentucky with his own cow/calf operation. He says, “For a year, I look after these animals and I give them my best care and I ship them off, they go to their feed yards, then get processed and end up in hamburgers.” To me, I was hearing that he takes so much care of the animals and the food that is processed — let’s not just stumble right before the finish line when we eat it. In other words: It gets processed, then packed, then shipped to the grocery store. What do we do from there? There’s a moment in that final phase before eating when I think we need to focus on how we get that right.

Tom:                            That brings to mind a pretty prevalent Native American tradition of honoring the meal that you’re about to consume for that reason.

Brian:                          Yes. That was always a big deal for me because of my family. I’m from Central Kentucky, but my mom’s side of the family is from Rhode Island. When we would visit them — they’re French Canadian — we would eat meat pies. For me, that wasn’t part of my particular food culture in Kentucky. It was my mom’s. It was my family’s. It was our family’s culture and tradition. I learned something: It wasn’t about the food itself, but it was about our culture, our family. It’s what brought us around the table. To me, more than anything, it signified that we’re family when we ate that. Again, when we go from this communal to individual culture, that’s lost.

Tom:                            What would you say is the upside to being honest with ourselves and recognizing current trends, which have taken us away from the family dinner table? Being honest about recognizing it, what shall we do about it?

Brian:                          Someone once told me that when you talk to people, you also learn how to talk to yourself. I think there’s a weird process that happens. When you go to the kitchen table, you can’t hide anymore. You’re sitting down. There’s no leaving. And I think that allows us to learn how to engage with tension, even within the current political structure and current social structure. I think sometimes we pin ourselves in these sides on social media. We hide behind the “walls” of our screens. But when we bring it to a table, all of a sudden, the tension and the ability to connect — all these things that are both difficult and good become opportunities. I think that’s what sometimes gets lost, and I think that’s the opportunity that we can recapture with food and we can bring it together.

Tom:                            If you had to pin it down, what would you say about this work you most enjoy?

Brian:                          When I think about food, I think about kitchen tables. When I think about kitchen tables, I think about the people around kitchen tables. And for me, I’m passionate about people. My grandfather raised beef cattle just outside of Danville and Hustonville, Kentucky. Working with Alltech, being able to say, “Hey, it’s funny — my life took me in a different direction.” I studied business and economics. But I’m still engaging in the world of agriculture. I feel like in some ways I’m back in the family business, and I’m really proud of that.

                                    I love my family and I get to engage in something that my family has done forever. It makes me passionate. It makes me excited about it. It makes me want to do a better job. When I see these technologies and opportunities, I know that we can make changes for the better. I love seeing the ability to use technology in a way that allows better food to be put on the table, that allows people to connect around that table. And for me, that’s amazing.

Tom:                            Brian Lawless is business development manager for Alltech North America. Thank you so much.

Brian:                          Awesome. Thank you.

[GUELPH, Ontario] – From green pastures and blue skies to rolling hills and vast prairies, from newborn calves to hardworking farm dogs, life in agriculture can be a thing of breathtaking beauty, rich in picturesque moments rarely experienced by an increasingly urban population. Alltech wants to celebrate these moments in farm life and is calling all Canadian farmers, ranchers and producers to submit and share their farm photos for the opportunity to win a trip to ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference (ONE18) held in Lexington, Kentucky, May 20–23, 2018. 

Photos must be submitted online by Dec. 15, 2017, at 9:00 a.m. EST. Alltech Canada will select ten photos as finalists, and those photos will be published on Alltech’s Facebook page (Facebook.com/AlltechNaturally) for public voting.  

Voting will open to the public on Dec. 15 at 3:00 p.m. ET and will close on Dec. 29 at 9:00 a.m. EST. Use the hashtag #CDNPicMeONE18Contest to find the photos, or visit the Facebook album to vote. The entrant with the photo that receives the highest number of Facebook likes and correctly answers a mathematical skill-testing question, will be declared the winner.

The winner and a guest will receive free registration to ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference, flights to and from Lexington, Kentucky, and four nights’ accommodation. To enter a photo and read the full contest details, including the rules and regulations, visit https://go.alltech.com/picmeone18contest/canada.

Registration is now open for ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference, held in Lexington, Kentucky, USA, from May 20–23, 2018. The annual international conference draws 4,000 attendees from nearly 80 countries to network and discuss world-changing ideas. For more information or to register, visit one.alltech.com. Join the conversation online with #ONE18.

Luther:                        Robert Walker is CEO of Ireland-based KEENAN, an Alltech agri-brand and a pioneer in the internet of things for the farm. A KEENAN specialty is finding ways to pair its range of machinery with innovative digital technologies. Thank you for joining us.

Robert:                        Hi. Thanks.

Luther:                        Let’s start with defining “the internet of things.” What is it?

Robert:                        So, the internet of things is literally the future, where we have all the things that surround us connected via devices or connected to the internet. So, you have a connection between people and things, things and things, and people and people.

Luther:                        What would you say is the future of the internet of things?

Robert:                        There is a predicted spend on the internet of things of somewhere around $7 trillion to set up the infrastructure. So, it’s certainly a “big dollar” future, but it means that our houses, our cars, our cities, our environment are all going to become smarter.

                                    As Google chairman Eric Schmidt said, the internet is literally going to vanish all around us as the internet becomes integrated with our day-to-day lives. So, the world as we know it will become the internet, and we won’t be interacting with the internet in the same way as we have up until now.

Luther:                        In what ways is the internet of things reaching the farm?

Robert:                        Up until now, the internet of things has mostly been focused on houses — smart homes, smart cities and wearables — we all know the wearable technology we can have in our exercise watches. But there’s been very little focus on the farming side of smart tech. However, smart farming is really the area that is probably the most exciting for most tech companies. There are companies like Intel, Vodaphone and IBM clamoring to try and get into the ag-tech space because there are literally so many things in agriculture that can be connected. The gains that you can have from agriculture are just massive.

Luther:                        KEENAN has been a leader in this space and ahead of its time. Tell us how KEENAN can capitalize on the internet of things.

Robert:                        We’re used as a bit of a poster child for the internet of things now, I think, because we were one of the first to innovate in that space. But what we’ve done practically — let’s just get down to practicalities here — we have a device in the side of our mixer wagon — our mixer wagon mixes a total mixed ration (TMR) diet — that device weighs or collects the data from the weigh cells of the wagon and the number of revolutions that that mixer wagon goes through. In other words, it knows how much feed has been put in the wagon and how processed the TMR is in that wagon. It then transmits that data via the cloud to a hub in Ireland — we also have other hubs being set up currently — and algorithms in that hub determine if we’ve overfed or over-processed that TMR. There’s a tolerance set in those algorithms that notifies a team of nutritionists if the machine has deviated from what it was supposed to have done.

                                    We can then immediately contact the farmer and tell the farmer what happened, or go directly to the machine and make adjustments in real time. The most exciting part is that we have the data from what was supposed to have been fed and the actual performance results. We can then provide real insights to that farm to help them improve productivity. At the end of the day, productivity is what it’s all about.

                                    The KEENAN system is designed to improve efficiency. By efficiency, I mean that we can get the same amount of milk or beef from less feed, or more milk and beef from the same amount of feed. So, it’s about having efficient farms, which obviously drives the profitability of farmers.

Luther:                        When Alltech acquired KEENAN in 2016, you became the CEO. What have you learned in the last year with KEENAN?

Robert:                        First, that ag-tech is going to profoundly change your business model. You see some of the business models — for example, John Deere — where what they sell today is vastly different from what they were selling maybe five or 10 years ago. They are now selling bundled packages of technology and machine. They are selling performance. They’re not just selling steel anymore. We are doing the same. We have started selling a machine paired with technology and a consumable. That consumable is high-value nutrition. By pairing machine, technology and nutrition, we’re basically able to perform better on the farm.

                                    The second thing I’ve noticed in my year at KEENAN is that ag-tech is growing a lot faster than people think. We assume a lot of what we see at conferences are for the future. But those technologies are actually here today. Today, there are big changes. Google had their conference in San Francisco this week. Some of the things they launched were just mind-blowing. Those technologies are already here and can be used today on the farm. That’s very exciting.  

Luther:                        Expanding upon that: What is your realistic view for the future of the farm?

Robert:                        The farmer of the future is going to be connected via smart devices that are capable of gathering data, which can be analyzed and provide unique insights. There are two scenarios: The first is that these devices get so smart that we no longer need a nutritionist and agronomist to help us interpret it. I’m of a different opinion: I think that the more data we have — the more information and insights we have — the more we need people to help us interpret those results — or at least people to interpret how to put those algorithms in place.

                                    The smartphone of the future is a connection between animal, farmer, crop and experts. All are connected via the web and all are able to provide unique insights from analyzing huge amounts of data to improve profitability. At the end of the day, why would we do it if it wasn’t about profitability and productivity?

Luther:                        You state that we are in the midst of an agricultural revolution. What do you mean by that?

Robert:                        What I mean by that is that there have been three agricultural revolutions: The first was domestication of animals and crops. The second was the industrial era, when we went into mechanization, plant protection, products, fertilizers and agrichemicals as we know them today. This third era is one in which we’re using multiple devices — technologies — to leverage the data generated on the farm. That allows us to produce more from every acre of farmland and produce more from every animal.

Luther:                        You described data as the new electricity. What do you mean by that analogy?

Robert:                        When electricity was discovered, it was absolutely revolutionary; it changed everything. Electricity changed the way in which we live. It brought about heating, cooling, lights and so on. It was truly a transformative technology. The same thing is happening with data and ag technology. It is going to completely revolutionize how we operate on the farm, how we tend our crops and how we tend our animals. That is going to have a transformative effect on how we profit off those animals. It will be transformative to the way in which we operate and, of course, how we feed the world and nourish the population.

Luther:                        What are the benefits to a farmer of tapping into cloud-based tools?

Robert:                        The fundamental benefits are productivity, profitability, convenience and speed. For me, it’s got to be about the productivity and profitability piece because if it’s not going to be beneficial to a farmer’s bottom line, he’s not going to want to do it. There are a lot of technologies out there that possibly need to be improved upon to show benefit, but there are also a lot of technologies out there that are already showing massive improvements in productivity and profitability.

                                    Those technologies really need to be looked at quickly by farmers. They need to be adopted quickly. Farmers really need to be embracing this new era. It is sometimes difficult because there is so much coming at them — so many apps, so much data, so many people trying to sell them things. But, wading through all of that, there are real jewels within ag- tech that can transform a farmer’s bottom line within days.

Luther:                        Given recent cyber events, are there any concerns regarding security of cloud-based tools or the internet of things?

Robert:                        There absolutely are major concerns about security, and that’s an area that I believe needs to be worked on at great length. It’s something that concerns us, and we take it very seriously. We invest in the best technologies for our system, and we’d expect the same from other reputable vendors. There’s a lot of work that needs to be happening and is happening from the big companies out there like the Googles and the IBMs.

                                    Even from our perspective, we’re very vigilant and believe that it is vital that we protect our farmers’ data and our own data, because it impacts food security around the world. I also think that governments are going to get more involved with this because food is, in the end, a major security risk. It’s something that can be leveraged. So, the U.S., as a nation, needs to protect its food source. As food gets more connected via technology, it’s somewhat the responsibility of the government as well.

Luther:                        How are agriculture and food control changing in a world of big data?

Robert:                        Big data and technology allow us to link all the players — the key stakeholders — in the industry. Up until now, it’s been segmented: farmers have looked after their farm; milk processors have looked after their milk; supermarkets looked after selling their product. Big data and technology allow us to link all of that so the entire food chain becomes one continuum. That means that your supermarket can very easily know the traceability — the source — and the way in which food has been produced all the way up the chain. That provides the consumer with many more guarantees. The consumer has a much bigger voice and knows where his food was produced, how it was produced and whether the companies and people that produce it are reputable and can be trusted. It is already transformative.

                                    KEENAN, for example, is working with supermarket chains in Ireland and in the U.K. to ensure that the beef is produced sustainably; that the beef is produced in a way that is humane, friendly to the environment and friendly to the animal. And we’re also able to look after the farmers so that his interests are then conveyed to the supermarket. So, the continuum is vital.

Luther:                        With the rising billions in China, India, Africa and other parts of Asia that are moving into a middle class with more requirements and demands, would you say that the internet of things is the key, or one of the keys, to meeting that demand?

Robert:                        It absolutely is. The internet of things shrinks the world so we can communicate directly with that end customer, whether the end customer is in China, India or right here in the U.S. So, the food chain between consumer, supermarket, processor, farmer, supplier to the farm, all that shrinks. We can better understand what that consumer wants, what that consumer needs, and innovate around that. It gives a lot more power to the farmer and the ag sector to be able to deliver what is required down the line. It more evenly spreads the responsibility and the balance of power across the entire chain, whereas right now, some would argue that responsibility is slightly more eschewed in terms of some of the players in that food chain. I think a lot of farmers would believe that they’re the small players in that chain, but I think in the future they’re going to have a bigger voice.  

Luther:                        How will the future of farming affect the average consumer’s kitchen table?

Robert:                        The average consumer is going to be able to understand much better where the food comes from. They’re going to understand the environmental impact of the food and the way in which it was produced. They’re going to have more choices. They’ll be able to have food that’s healthier and that’s more in tune with their ethics and their preferences.

Luther:                        What’s the most fascinating trend you’re keeping an eye on these days?

Robert:                        There are so many fascinating trends out there, but one that is really changing the way we think of things is the trend of visual technologies. Up until now, we’ve always measured things on farms and in laboratories in terms of their chemical makeup. Now, with digital recognition technology, we’re able to look at feeds and understand what could be in that feed. We know if it’s more homogenous. We might be able to predict what its nutritional value is. We can look at animals through facial recognition technology and understand what their behavior patterns are.

                                    Who knows where that technology can go? We all know that the human eye can detect things almost intuitively. So, if we can do that through a machine, imagine what can be achieved. Farmers seem to have a second sense when it comes to understanding things like the health of animals or whether a feed is good. A lot of that comes from their visual sense. If we can replicate that through technology, I think it’s very, very exciting. So, visual technology for me is probably the most exciting part.

Luther:                        What would you say to a farmer who is apprehensive about technology or about these trends — or change, perhaps — in this vision that you have? What are the benefits for them? And then maybe address some of their concerns as well.

Robert:                        Firstly, I think we — meaning the ag industry — have been responsible for using jargon and launching products that are really complicated to use. So now we’ve really been trying very hard to make that a much simpler exercise. If you think about consumers around the world with general household products, when they buy that product, it’s in part because it’s easy to use. Why shouldn’t it be the same for agriculture? So, we’re to blame for not making technology easy to use and easy to understand.

                                    From a farmer’s perspective, they really should be adopting these technologies and they should be trying them out as quickly as possible. They need to be educating themselves. They need to be ahead of the game. Most farmers I know are pretty tech savvy. They have very technically enabled tractors. They use smartphones. They use computers. They know what’s going on. So, it’s not that there’s a lack of education, but maybe there’s a lack of exposure to some of these technologies. My advice is that they just jump in there, try them out, assess them for themselves. Also, hold the salesman accountable for the results that they have on the farm. If they don’t see results, that’s fine. Move on. It’s not a lifetime commitment.

Luther:                        As with many technologies, there is often a false start where a technology promises to transform an industry, but sometimes it takes a while for it to get to that point. So, it sounds like you’re saying that we are now at a point where these technologies are ready to have an impact not only today, but going on into the near future.

Robert:                        Absolutely. It is happening today, and the technology is ready. There are wonderful apps and technologies out there that are transforming agriculture right now. There have been some false starts. There will still be some false starts. I think that what we’re going to see is a consolidation of the industry. There are so many little players out there that have small ideas that are great, but when paired with bigger ideas can make a better end product.

                                    So, lots of little pieces together make a much better package for that farmer to use and to invest in. Consolidation is already happening with some of the bigger companies buying some of the smaller technologies. It’s in the newspapers every day. And, as that consolidation happens, the technologies are going to become more robust. They’re going to be more intuitive. They’re going to rely on other ancillary technologies to make sure that they work.

                                    The overall user experience is just going to get better and better.

Luther:                        What do you enjoy most about your work?

Robert:                        I enjoy the fact that we have, at the moment, a machine — which is a very tangible item a farmer uses on an everyday basis and that he has been using for the last 40 years — that is suddenly given a new “lease on life” through technology and can greatly improve performance from where it was.

                                    I like the fact that we can bring these new solutions to farmers and help them be more profitable. At the end of the day, we’re only here because of the farmer — because of the demand for food. So, we are, in many ways, a service provider to that farmer and to the feed industry. I like that idea of being a service provider for the betterment of farming, consumers and the world population.

Luther:                        Robert Walker, CEO of the Alltech agri-brand KEENAN. Thank you for your time.

Robert:                        Thanks very much. I had fun.

Robert Walker spoke at ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference (ONE17). To hear more talks from the conference, sign up for the Alltech Idea Lab.