How do the top farms achieve and maintain exceptional performance? Valerie Duttlinger, chief analytics officer at Summit SmartFarms, explains how a positive workplace culture that focuses on the people and processes on the farm can lead to greater agricultural production.

The following is an edited transcript of the Ag Future podcast episode with Valerie Duttlinger hosted by Tom Martin. Click below to hear the full audio.

Tom:                          I'm Tom Martin with Valerie Duttlinger, chief analytics officer at Summit SmartFarms, and she joins us to talk about her session at (the Alltech ONE Virtual Experience), “Achieving top performance: What does it really take to be the best?” In this session, Valerie covered how top pig farms achieve and maintain elevated performance through focusing on people and processes. Greetings, Valerie.

Valerie:                      Hi.

Tom:                          So, first, a bit of background. Tell us about Summit SmartFarms.

Valerie:                      Well, we’re a startup company based in Remington, Indiana, and we’re focused on equipping people to optimize performance through labor and technology.

Tom:                          The title of your presentation at this year's virtual ONE (Alltech) Ideas Conference, as I said, was “Achieving top performance: What does it really take to be the best?” And I'm wondering: What criteria have to be met to be considered the best?

Valerie:                      Well, you know, it's really a combination of a number of things, but it’s ultimately driven by a company's business model. The best for a producer selling weaned pigs is different than what a producer finishing their pigs would be looking for. It's a combination of animal performance, employee engagement and, ultimately, profitability.

Tom:                          And can you give us some examples of “bests” that everybody would be familiar with?

Valerie:                      Yeah. So, for a sow farm, you know, 30 pigs weaned per mated female per year is certainly one that is thrown out there a lot. But again, that's not right for everyone. Low mortality is certainly a driver of “best,” both on the sow unit and on the finishing side. But I think having low turnover and highly engaged team members are often not considered in that definition but really should be.

Tom:                          So, Valerie, if you were called in to diagnose the health of an organization, what would you be looking for?

Valerie:                      You know, there's really four buckets that I would be looking at. One would be: Do they put people first? And second, are they coaching, or are they just bosses? Third, does the team have the tools they need to win and be successful? And fourth, have they really created an irresistible culture?

Tom:                          Okay. Let's take those four points one by one. First, people. What needs to be recognized and understood about the people of an organization?

Valerie:                      You know, everybody is different, but ultimately, people are looking for the same things. And our teams really aren’t any different than those that are working in factories or in offices. They want to be known individually and appreciated for their contributions to the team.

Tom:                          And “be a coach, not a boss” — what does this mean?

Valerie:                      You know, for me, great coaches do three things really well: they advocate for their team; they congratulate and celebrate a job well done; and they provide timely guidance when they don't do their jobs correctly.

Tom:                          “Deploy tools to win” — does this have to do with the quality and the effectiveness of the tools employees are provided to work with?

Valerie:                      Yeah. It's not just enough to provide tools; they have to have the right tools, like quality and user-friendly SOPs. Other tools could include personality assessments and tools to help team members understand each other in a much better way.

Tom:                          What are the things that make a workplace culture irresistible?

Valerie:                      An irresistible culture has a waiting line instead of a revolving door of people, and it's a place where people want to come to work instead of having to come to work. It’s a place where they’re supported and are valued and are known for the difference that they're making in the organization.

Tom:                          And within that culture, what kinds of generational differences should employees be aware of?

Valerie:                      Yeah. There are a lot of generational differences, but there certainly has been a big shift in the way that millennials and Generation-Z’s view work. They’re looking for more than just a job that provides a paycheck. They really want their job to provide a purpose that allows them to use their strengths and not focus on weaknesses.

Tom:                          Do you find that the generations offer different perspectives when they're asked to rate their job satisfaction?

Valerie:                      Yeah. In 2019, we conducted a labor intelligence study with just over 100 team members in 12 different farms, and the millennials were the least satisfied while making up 50% of the respondents in that study. And that's been a trend that is seen across many different industries, across a number of different surveys and engagement.

Tom:                          Some of us, we work too hard. We just throw ourselves into our work. And if the job becomes your life, what becomes of your life outside of the work?

Valerie:                      Well, we do spend more waking hours at work than we do at home. So, a job should really be an extension of your life. It should be working for something that you're passionate about and with people you enjoy being around so that it does add to the value of your life.

Tom:                          This pandemic that we're in is causing us to kind of step back from overworking. Are you seeing that, and do you think that's going to make a difference going forward?

Valerie:                      Yeah. It's certainly impacted the way that people are working and living.

                                    You know, in the ag industry, especially in production agriculture, we don't get to just work from home. The animals, they'll have to be cared for and fed. So, it still means going to work, for many of these people. And so, it has certainly been new concerns and new stresses for people as they're trying to educate their children from home while working full-time, having problems with childcare. It's really had a really big impact. But at the same time, in production agriculture, we’re helping to feed the world. And so, we're playing a really important role for frontline workers, and that's important for our team members to remember: the role that they're playing through this pandemic.

Tom:                          Back to your presentation at the (Alltech) ONE (Virtual Experience). Something I found really interesting (is that) you advocate hiring for fit instead of skills. What is fit, and why is fit more important than skills?

Valerie:                      You know, fit is about culture. Does this person fit in with the core values and the culture of the company? And we can teach people the skills much easier than we can help them fit into our culture.

Tom:                          What are the signs of a toxic work culture?

Valerie:                      Well, I would put at the top of that, gossip, and from — that is generally a result of poor communication. It can be strained interactions, and certainly, high turnover would be a sign of a toxic culture.

Tom:                          What if, Valerie, right this second, we're talking to somebody who is just absolutely miserable in their job. First, what are some signs of this?

Valerie:                      You know, I think one of the signs is feeling like you're replaceable, like you're a cog in a wheel and that you're not really known for who you are personally. If you don't feel a connection to the mission of the company and you don't understand if you're winning in your role, it's really hard to be engaged in your job.

Tom:                          And so, how could this unhappiness be prevented?

Valerie:                      Well, I think it's partly the responsibility of the leadership team to share the messages that come back at, you know, communicating the history of the company, helping each team member understand how they're impacting the success of the company and the impact that they have on the world by being in agriculture and food production, helping to feed those around us.

Tom:                          And what could a manager — and I guess a good manager would notice if somebody is going through this. And so, what could that manager do help to a person feel more positive about their job?

Valerie:                      Well, it may not be just their job that's causing them to be negative. It can be those things that are impacting them outside of (their professional) life. And so, for a manager, to start with having a conversation with them about what really is bothering them is the first place to start. And then, if it dovetails into it being a part of the job and (is) really focused on things that they don't like in the job, it's about how can you adjust the job to allow people to do things that they like. We can't avoid all of the jobs that we like or dislike. But if one person in the farm maybe hates paperwork, and yet they’re responsible for a lot of it, having another person help with that or adjusting those responsibilities can go a long way to helping people be more positive in their outlook on their job.

Tom:                          And what if you have no way, or at least think you have no way, to actually measure progress or success in these areas?

Valerie:                      So, I think it's about getting creative. You know, if you have no way to measure progress or success, it’s tough for people to stay engaged. And we really want to know if we're getting better at what we're doing. And so, get creative — even if it's just the scale of 1 to 10, how well do you feel like you did this week, or having your boss rate you (on) how well did you do this week. It doesn't have to be something that is a hard and fast measurement. It can be an objective measurement.

Tom:                          Okay. And now, this is a “listen up” for management. The question is: What are the key traits of an organization that people want to be a part of?

Valerie:                      Yeah. They want a place that embraces teamwork. They need to have clear goals and objectives so that they really have a clear path to what they're working towards, and they really want to work in their strength areas. You know, a football player, a quarterback, is not out there practicing kicks, because that's not his strength area. So, putting people in the places where they're working in their strength area is really important today.

Tom:                          Earlier, we touched on why it's important to be a coach and not a boss. Let's drill down into that just a bit. What distinguishes a coach from a boss?

Valerie:                      A coach would say things like “we” instead of “I”. They're going to give the credit instead of taking credit, and yet, they're always going to accept the blame instead of placing the blame on others. And I think a really great coach pushes you to do more and be more than you thought you could do or be.

Tom:                          Sometimes, there has to be a difficult, uncomfortable conversation between employee and manager, and you say that these discussions should happen sooner than later. Why is that?

Valerie:                      Well, nothing good ever happens by putting it off. And certainly, if the conversation is about somebody doing a task wrong, and they're doing that task over and over again and then you finally address it, it makes them feel foolish. It also hurts their trust in you as a leader, because if you really cared about them and the company, you would have addressed it in a much quicker manner.

Tom:                          We talked earlier about providing good tools to employees, but what are some important tools that ought to be made available to managers?

Valerie:                      You know, most managers get promoted before they've actually had any leadership training, and that's not just true in agriculture; it’s true across all industry. And so, providing training is so important to help them develop the skills to lead people, because that role of a leader is so different than being an individual contributor. And there are a lot of different tools out there. You know, one of them that we’re utilizing is a personality platform called Cloverleaf that has nine different personality assessments on it. And you can put your team on it to help you see the differences in people's personalities — how they want to be communicated with, what motivates them — so that you can really tailor your role as a manager to best motivate and influence individual team members.

Tom:                          So, these are tools that can help managers better understand their people.

Valerie:                      Yeah. Absolutely. And the Cloverleaf platform has nine different personality assessments — things like DiSC and Myers-Briggs, that are very common for most people. And it puts your team all together so that you can see how individuals fall on those different assessments.

Tom:                          How about conflict? Are there tools available to help managers deal with conflict?

Valerie:                      There are. There's more generic tools out there that help people learn how to have productive conflicts. You know, not all conflict is bad. And then there are other tools on the Cloverleaf platform as well. There's a comparison tool where you can look at two different people and identify where conflict is existing between those (people) and helping them understand each other — that it's not an intentional push of a button to get somebody upset, but just the way that people view things differently.

Tom:                          How can an organization optimize onboarding and training?

Valerie:                      Well, I think it starts with having the right person do the onboarding and training, and that should not be the last person that was hired, which is often the case. Having a teacher's heart is so important, rather than someone who may be annoyed by the same question over and over. It’s going to be really important to optimize that onboarding and training process.

Tom:                          And are there some training tools that you can recommend?

Valerie:                      Yeah. There's a number of production-related training platforms out there today that provide a really good foundation. There are also programs that are done internally within some of these organizations that have been hugely successful, but tools that really focus on improving communication and leadership are important not just for leaders but for everybody in the organization.

Tom:                          Earlier, we touched on culture. Do a company's core values translate into the nature of its culture?

Valerie:                      Not always. So, core values are words on the wall, while culture is the behavior and the actions of the people. And so, they don't necessarily equal each other, unfortunately.

Tom:                          Earlier, we talked about the signs of a toxic workplace culture. How can this be changed?

Valerie:                      It really starts with rebuilding trust, because to get to a toxic workplace, there has been trust that had been broken. And so, communicating transparently that you're making an effort to change the workplace culture, admitting the mistakes that have been made and acknowledging that you want a different outcome in the future (are important steps). It's important to recognize the changes in behaviors as you go through this transition. And one of the big things that happens in toxic workplaces, often, is treating each person — making sure that everybody follows the same rules and that nobody gets preferential treatment. Changing culture is not a fast process, but it may be the most important key to long-term success for operations.

Tom:                          So, these are some ways that an organization's leadership can go about fixing these issues that lead to toxicity in the culture.

Valerie:                      Yeah. I think you've got to start with making a commitment to change and then find somebody to help you through the process who doesn't have other responsibilities pulling them away from the mission. You know, it's great to pick a platform to get to know your people better, and that can be that single assessment, like DiSC or Myers-Briggs, or it could be the Cloverleaf platform that I talked about. And then, finally, it’s integrating those changes and inspecting them regularly to make sure that the changes are taking place and you're seeing the outcome that you desire.

Tom:                          Valerie Duttlinger, chief analytics officer at Summit Farms. We thank you for joining us, Valerie.

Valerie:                      Thank you.

Tom:                          I'm Tom Martin. Thank you for listening.

The International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) and Alltech have announced the call for nominations for the IFAJ-Alltech International Award for Leadership in Agricultural Journalism. The award will be presented during the Alltech ONE Virtual Experience in 2021. Now in its third year, this global award recognizes excellence and leadership demonstrated by young journalists within their IFAJ guilds.

The recognition honors Alltech’s late founder, Dr. Pearse Lyons, who was a passionate storyteller with a great respect for agricultural journalists. The award upholds this legacy while keeping an eye toward the future as it supports the next generation of leaders who connect agriculture to a global audience. It’s an endeavor that aligns with Alltech’s vision for a Planet of Plenty^TM, in which a world of abundance is made possible through the adoption of new technologies, better farm management practices and human ingenuity within agriculture.

“Producers throughout the food supply chain are implementing smarter, more sustainable solutions to positively impact plants, animals, people and the environment,” said Dr. Mark Lyons, president and CEO of Alltech. “However, progress does not end at implementation. We must also amplify the message that we are in the midst of a new era in agriculture led by science, data-driven decision making and a passionate dedication to farming with the future in mind.”

Journalists aged 40 years or younger by Dec. 31, 2020, can be nominated through their IFAJ guilds via the online application form. A global winner will be selected by an international committee based on their journalistic achievements and the leadership they demonstrate within their guild. The global winner receives complimentary registration to attend the Alltech ONE Virtual Experience and will be honored during a presentation.

“IFAJ shares our commitment to supporting journalists who give a voice to the farmers and producers, the innovators and change-makers, the scientists and scholars all working toward a Planet of Plenty,” continued Dr. Lyons. “We are excited to once again partner with IFAJ as we honor excellence in journalism and ensure that the stories of agriculture continue to be well-told.”

The two organizations have enjoyed a longstanding relationship, having also co-founded a young leader program in 2005 that continues today.

"Alltech's respect for agricultural journalists and commitment to cultivating leadership skills among young reporters has strengthened the profession around the world," said Lena Johansson, president of the IFAJ. "The company's emphasis on the importance of accurate reporting on science and agriculture is more important than ever, and Alltech's dedication has helped many talented journalists build their careers. It is a pleasure to work with them." 

The deadline for nominations is Dec. 18, 2020. For more information about the IFAJ-Alltech International Award for Leadership in Agricultural Journalism, contact press@alltech.com.

Protix is a Dutch nutrition company working to improve future food-production systems by using insect-based foods. Founder and CEO Kees Aarts joins us to discuss what inspired him to pursue creating alternative feed for animals and his vision for a future with less food waste thanks to insect-based ingredients.

The following is an edited transcript of the Ag Future podcast episode with Kees Aarts hosted by Tom Martin. Click below to hear the full audio.

Tom:                          I’m Tom Martin, and with us is Kees Aarts, founder and CEO of Protix, an insect-based and nutrition company headquartered in the Netherlands. Kees joined us to talk about his product and about sustainable agriculture.

                                    Thanks for joining us, Kees.

Kees:                          Thanks for having me.

Tom:                          Let’s begin by having you tell us about your company, Protix, and its goals.

Kees:                          I’ll be honored to. So, Protix is a company, a market leader, in insect-based nutrition. Why that is relevant for a sustainable future is because (of) the role insects play in nature, and it’s actually so fascinating and, actually, quite curious, why we never use it in our food system. Because basically every animal, when it’s young, when it has to grow fast, and when it needs to build its defense system, it eats insects, right? Whether it’s a bird, reptile, mammal, fish — it doesn’t matter. They all eat insects when they’re young, they need to grow fast and need to build their defense system.

                                    So, insects are vastly nutritious, and even more beautiful, they can be grown and harvested from feeding them with food wastes. And that is a very exciting new arena, because we’re depleting our natural resources; whether they come from land or from the seas, they are being depleted. And we have this huge amount of food waste, which is nothing more than a whole bunch of nutrients, like protein, lipids and other nutrients, and we could feed that to insects and basically extract the nutrition from that food waste and make it ready again for anything in pet foods, fish feed, livestock feed, chicken feed and even human foods, in the new development bind that we’re having.

                                    So, that’s a bit about Protix. It started ten years ago, and (I’m) very proud about all the 130 colleagues that are basically working relentlessly every day, making this work at scale.

Tom:                          I wonder, do you think it could be psychological? I mean, this is a generalization, but it seems like a safe one that humans — for humans, there’s kind of an “eek!” factor to consuming insects, when you’re not really talking about eating a bug, you’re talking about what’s in the bug, correct?

Kees:                          Absolutely. Yes, there’s definitely an “eek!” factor, and it’s a pretty cool factor, actually. It’s a bit like — like the first fear people had when they — when they were driving a car instead of (riding) a horse. The car was much faster. That was a genuine fear. It’s a bit like this as well.

So, we have these natural barriers against something that is new or something that is small or something that is unknown. So, it is natural that there is this “eek!” factor, because we haven’t used insects in our food system.

So, it’s new, but when you think about it, what do insects really deliver? Other than, of course, beautiful products like honey, (it) is a whole bunch of nutrition. So — and of course, some insects don’t look really nice, but if you — if you process them into a protein meal or an oil or a derivative and you include that into food formulations or feed formulations, then all of a sudden, it becomes this very interesting source of nutrition. And that is something I think will overcome the “eek!” factor big-time in the coming years.

Tom:                          Well, I’m really curious about this, Kees. How did you initially arrive at this idea: building an entire business around insect-based nutrition?

Kees:                          The idea emerged from a beer on the beach after a diving trip, which is very simple, because I came from the sea again, (and) I was genuinely frustrated again by the damage we do through dynamite fishing, overfishing, etc. There was literally nothing to see. So, you could say that’s bit of an egocentric approach, to say, “Okay, I don’t have fish to see when I’m diving, which is a luxury sport. What can I do to battle overfishing? Because I would like to dive and see more tropical fish.”

So, that’s where the idea emerged, because there was some residual knowledge from the past where my family — I’ve got a lot of farmers in the family. My grandpa was feed miller. (Because of) that, I knew that a lot of fish is actually caught, ground into a protein meal, and then, as a protein meal, is fed to chicken and other fish. And that is a resource that is actually not necessary, because insect-based nutrition is far more nutritious.

So, one of my missions is to stop fisheries (from using) protein meals, because I believe that natural biodiversity in oceans is disappearing too fast, and we need to restore that. So, that’s how the idea emerged.

                                    Now, the second part of your question — whether I was actually sane enough to think about the consequences of starting the business, because it’s quite a hell of  a ride since then. We needed to develop new legislative frameworks, new technologies, new operating principles. So, there was all these — all these barriers in between the idea and the execution.

                                    So, luckily, I was young and I didn’t have children, so — but, yeah, that’s how the idea emerged and how the venture started.

Tom:                          Interesting. Let’s turn to the product line, and before we get into the specific types of products that you’re producing, tell us: What are the benefits of insect-based nutrition?

Kees:                          So, one of the key benefits is the antioxidant activity. So, what we truly see is that the immune response of the animals eating the insects is very positive. It’s far more positive than the pro-oxidant activity from, for instance, fish meal or chicken meal.

                                    So, if you have fish or chicken and you want to feed them, then you have choices. The choices, of course, (are) the cost or origins, but now, there’s this new category that originated from insects, that you have additional benefits, like antioxidants, which is genuinely important when the creature needs to grow fast.

                                    So, these are, these are only — and we’re just scratching the surface of this, because we are now a market leader in this field, but the field is very young. And so, this is only one of them. We see other benefits, like a better liver quality of the fish. We are seeing the plasma between the knee wrist and the shoulder wrist of the chicken was more smooth, and so, there was less knee sores.

                                    So, there’s all these benefits that we’re seeing in the last couple of years that makes the feed and (has) the aquaculture and the food industry looking at this with very big interest.

Tom:                          I mentioned your product line. What are the food system markets that you target?

Kees:                          Principally, our main objective is to create sustainable white meat and fish as fast as possible. So, if you look at chickens, eggs, shrimp, salmon and trout, these are five major categories of very concentrated protein growth. So, these are very efficient animals; they grow fast, and they grow very efficiently, sometimes even at a 1.1 conversion rate. This means you only need 1.1 kg of feed to grow 1 kg of target animal flesh.

                                    Now, within these sectors, the demand for sustainable nutrition is the highest. And those are the ones we target, because that’s where the consumer can directly choose what is a great product — eggs, chicken, trout, salmon and shrimp — but all of a sudden, we did (it with) a vastly lower footprint. So, a much lower environmental effect (was) measured in CO₂ (on) land and water.

                                    So, those are the targets to create a sustainable meat and fish as fast as possible.       

Tom:                          Okay. Let’s look at one of those, aquaculture. What are the benefits? How is it applied in aquaculture?

Kees:                          Aquaculture, this is very interesting market, right? So, this is one of the fastest-growing markets and one of the most efficient animals.

                                    Now, for those fish, let’s take, for instance, trout and salmon. Feeds are formulated, and the feeds are formulated basically as a composition of proteins, lipids, carbohydrates and some other additives.

                                    Now, within that, we can replace protein meals, some of the lipids, and we can increase the functionalities, especially on the antioxidant side. And these are benefits that salmon producers start to see, on top of the sustainability element, that you can actually grow this fish with a lower dependency on marine-based ingredients. Because that’s the tricky part, right? So that, on the one hand, you’re growing the fish, but on the other hand, you need these marine resources, like fish meal or fish oil and other ones. And that’s something that consumers, more and more, would like to challenge, and that’s where we come in.

On top of the sustainability of this replacement argument, we have some additional health benefits.

Tom:                          You have a product for poultry, and on your website, you say that this results in a better-tasting egg. Tell us more about that.

Kees:                          Yeah. That was really fun. And so, basically, if you look at a chicken, right? It has two eyes on the side of its head, but the brain is a lizard brain. A chicken basically reacts to something that moves, and what doesn’t move, it doesn’t see. These chickens are in this barn and basically waiting to be fed, but all these feeds are silent, right? They don’t move.

                                    What we did — we brought, through a very smart system, live larvae into the pen again. And all of a sudden, this lizard brain starts to work again, so this chicken becomes more active, and it is less inclined to start pecking each other, so that it’s more active, more healthy chicken, each side. (Thanks to) reformulated feed, these live insects and the combination of that, basically, in public panels, as a result of that, the people love the smell and the taste more (because it’s) more natural.

Tom:                          You know, the temptation is to go down the rabbit hole with each one of these products. I mean, I have to wonder: What is the story behind the discovery of that? It’s almost like the discovery of lobsters, you know — who thought of that first?

Kees:                          I agree. But this is the beauty. I mean, you have to go back a century to think about — so, when was the last time this new category of ingredient was created, right?

                                    So, it’s just truly a new platform. Once the boats got bigger to catch fish and to catch them deeper, all of a sudden, fish was more than just a direct meal; it was this new category of ingredients.

                                    Fish meal and fish oil, other than (the fact that) they’re destroying natural diversity, it’s a good platform of nutrition. If you go back and ask the question, “When was the last time this new platform of nutrition was created?” You have to go back a century. And that’s why I like your remark. It’s true; you can literally go down the rabbit hole for each one of these new applications, and we only scratch the surface of it.

                                    I bet a lot of things (are) moving in the insect industry. We will see so many exciting applications and health-promoting benefits in chicken feeds, but we will also start seeing — we’ll start seeing flavors being extracted from insects.

Tom:                          Ah!

Kees:                          We’ll start to see human applications.

So, I love this question: “How can it be that larvae, they live and grow in this very challenged environment with a lot of microbial pressure, and they remain healthy?” It’s because they have all these waxes and these skins and these compounds around them. So what if you extract those, what if you isolate those and use them in, maybe, plant protection or skin protection?

                                    And I’m not just asking them — we’re actually looking at some of these avenues, and we saw some very exciting things when we sprayed some of those compounds on leaves. So, I fully confirm that it’s so exciting to think about all these rabbit holes for each of these applications. It’s pretty cool.

Tom:                          Is there a particular insect that is your, your workhorse, key to your product line?

Kees:                          Yes. So, we work mainly with the black soldier fly. That’s our workhorse, indeed. We have knowledge of some of the others, and we have bred, for instance, also a mealworm and a cricket.

                                    But why we’ve chosen to pursue building the platform of black soldier fly is because it doesn’t eat as a fly. So, why is that interesting? It actually doesn’t have a mouth. The larvae need to store all the nutrition to transform itself to cocoon, to pupae, to hatch, to mate and to lay the eggs, because anywhere between the eggs and the transition to pupae, it doesn’t extract any new nutrition. So, the larva is especially nutritious, to do all of that after that. So, that’s why it’s a workhorse, and there are some other benefits, but it’s a bit too detailed for now. But so, our platform is the black soldier fly as a nutritional base.

Tom:                          Pet food applications also are included in your line — is that correct?

Kees:                          Yes, absolutely.

Tom:                          Are you also engaged in developing it for human consumption?

Kees:                          Yes, absolutely. So, in our office, there are two people who are constantly cooking this exciting new stuff. And then, sometimes, they’re wildly tasty and wildly interesting.

Tom:                          Well, let me just — let me stop you right there. Give us an example. What does it taste like?

Kees:                          One of the things I really loved was a butter, which was — which has to do with melting pathways. So, the melting temperature of insect oil is very long. So why is that interesting? So, when you put that on a sandwich and everything you top, (what) you put on top of it has a very strong carryover, because butters and fats are usually the taste intermittent. So, the butter was really tasty.

                                    We had a consommé, so basically a soup extract. We did a baking oil for breads and cookies. The protein fillers, so the protein itself —  so what we tested is a hybrid where we took a meat — so, ground meat, I think, is the word, and then we replaced half of it with our insect protein meal. And then, we gave it in blind testing to people, where there (was a) 100% score, that all of them chose the mix with the insect, because it delivered this additional nutty and even an umami, salty-type flavor.

                                    So, other than it is a higher concentrate of protein meal, it delivers a natural flavor. And that is why I think it has the potential, because if you look at the meat replacements development, it’s hard to do that without a whole range of additives to match the taste. So, this insect protein meal comes with its own taste, taste platform, or how do you call that? Palatability. And that is a very exciting development in food, of course.

Tom:                          The people who tried these products and approved and liked them, were they later told what they had had?

Kees:                          Yeah.

Tom:                          Were they amazed?

Kees:                          Yeah. A lot of them were amazed, especially if you — I think what you alluded to as well in the beginning, right? If it’s a hidden ingredient, the “eek!” factors come really quickly, right? And the curiosity kicks in much easier. If it’s a visible compound, then it’s harder to skip to that curiosity, but the hidden compound, it was fantastic.

Tom:                          We’re not talking about chocolate-covered grasshoppers here, are we? [Laughs]

Kees:                          Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I agree that it’s been of an adventurous, maybe a party-style thing, that you put a cricket on a stick with a chocolate dip. No, we’re, indeed — we’re really talking on (an) ingredient level and enriching a product or a food with the ingredients we supply.

Tom:                          I don’t mean to trivialize; I just think that the human mind generally kind of goes in that direction when we’re talking about insects, and perhaps we need to get past our arachnophobia here — because we’re talking about sustainability, aren’t we?

Kees:                          Yes. What I discussed as well, earlier, I even coined a term for that. I wrote a book. It’s called “The Footprintarian,” whereby, basically, you combine all the basic principles. All my products, foods, services, goods and experiences, I wish to source at the lowest possible footprint, because when you have the choice to buy different products, services, goods, foods and experiences, you are already at the top 10% in the world, right? So, and once you’re there, your footprint is simply too big.

So, every individual has a contribution to make, to make the future inspiring and motivating again. So, there’s one objective we all have, whether you’re a government and creating new legislation or at a company creating a new product or as a consumer buying something: You need to somehow source and fulfill your desires at the lowest possible footprint.

                                    And in that, I kind of appeal a little bit to everyone (that we have) a responsibility to overcome anything, right? If you’re — let’s take a sidestep. I know it’s very cool to have your hand on the steering wheel and own a car, but you have to overcome, somehow, that feeling, right? It’s about mobility. You have to ask your government and companies to fulfill your mobility at the lowest possible footprint. That’s cool.

                                    Same as with foods. It doesn’t matter — it literally doesn’t matter how it looks like or how it’s made, as long as you like it, it’s tasty, and it’s produced at the lowest possible footprint. And in trying to achieve that, you have to overcome everything, anything. You just have to ask the question to companies, the government, to help you fulfill that need.

And our contribution in that is that we have an ingredient that has the lowest footprint in terms of protein, unit of protein, in terms of energy, water and land. And we’ve proven that with the Deutsches Institut für Lebensmitteltechnik with ETH Zurich. We can produce over — and this is phenomenal — our production capacity is 6,000 tons of protein per hectare per year.

                                    And that number — I’ll put it in perspective. It’s three (tons per hectare) for soy, intensified soy. It’s 100 for the best algae farm. It’s about 400 to 500 for extremely well-developed fermentation-type approach or bacterial. And we have 6,000, and that is because our technology, the biology, the operations, everything is under control, and we manage it in a very high-tech environment. But that system — and it should then normalize that to the use (of) energy, water and land. And that protein meal just should find its way in every product imaginable, whether it’s a pet food, whether it’s a feed, whether it’s direct food — it doesn’t matter, because we need to reduce the footprint of our food system.

Tom:                          Well, this would seem to have significant implications for efforts to mitigate climate change.

Kees:                          It has. Huge.

Tom:                          Another thing that you talk about on your website (is) mycotoxins’ threat to lifestyle producers, especially in the Midwest here in the United States. What has your research revealed about how insects can play a role in reducing these molds?

Kees:                          Yeah. That’s an interesting one. What we found out is that they can break it down. I’m not sure yet, but I expect that the indications will even be stronger. But we could extract a compound from our insects and use it on the crop side. Our “flytilizer” on the soil improves the soil quality and, therefore, reduces the risk of the mycotoxins, but that is in development still.

What we have already seen is that if you take mycotoxins, then there are huge amounts of corn and other cereals that cannot be used in the food system (and are) discarded. And then (these) can actually be fed to our insects; they break down the mycotoxins, and then those products that come out of it, the protein meals and the lipids, can then be used again in the food system.

                                    So, that is quite impactful. So, it doesn’t have to go to landfilling or digestion or any other utilization outside the food system, because that is a true waste. So, mycotoxins, we already saw the ability of insects to break it down, fingers crossed. I’m not making the scientific proof yet, but there are indications we can even avoid it.

Tom:                          Kees, tell us about your contribution to discussions about supply chain collaborations from production all the way to the consumer level.

Kees:                          This is, of course, the nicest opportunity, but also, of course, one that takes the most effort. So, we have this new ingredient, and we’re about four or five stages away from the consumer. And every single supply chain has its own dynamic, right? Whether it’s purchase, risk, or whether it’s minimum size needed, or whether it’s ability to afford the increased price. So, there are always, always challenges.

                                    Now, how we try to solve it is to go all the way to the consumer with a brand we own, something like the Oer Egg or the Friendly Fish. And then, we try to bring this narrative of, “Dear Mr. and Mrs. Consumer, we can help you make a choice to buy a product where all the way to the fundamental resources, a sustainability trigger we made. Now, how does it look like?”

                                    And then, we tell that on the packaging, we tell that through in-store and communications. And then, we see (that) consumers like having this “aha moment,” right? So, “Aha! Of course sustainability is more than an LED light in a farm or a non-plastic packaging. It is where does the primary ingredient come from, how is it made in the meantime, and if this end product actually healthy.”

                                    And these three questions, we try to answer, based on proposition, of course. And in order to — and once we have the brand in place, we go back to the players in the middle, and we start helping them also, creating their contribution and increase the demand for our ingredient.

Tom:                          Well, speaking of your contribution, I’d like to ask you if you can condense this. I know it’s difficult to put this in brief form, but if you could, describe for us, Kees, the future food system that you imagine.

Kees:                          So, for me, it’s one in balance. So, if I simply look at myself, it’s becoming more and more guilt-laden, right? Everything you buy, there’s always this downside related to it. And those downsides have become more and more visible.

                                    Now, I don’t think we have it in our nature to be always in some form of restriction. So, “You can no longer do this, you can no longer do that, you can no longer do this, because it’s not good.” That’s not our nature. Our nature is motivation, inspiration, long-term, endlessness. So, that is our nature.

                                    And I think the food system is one that’s so primal, it’s so close to our skin — if we can make that in balance with nature again, then your purchase and your consumption is guilt-free. And all of a sudden, it’s no longer guilt-laden, but it is pleasure-laden. And that is the basic picture I would like to draw up for the food system — that I can’t do everything, (but) I’ll do my part — but that is the picture I would like to see for the food system.

Tom:                          Okay. I have to ask you this question. What was it like for you and for your people when the king came visiting (your company)?

Kees:                          That’s, of course, such a fantastic recognition. I mean, it’s truly fantastic. We had about ten or twelve colleagues at all different parts of the factory explaining to his majesty what — the king — what was engineered, how it would work.

                                    And the cool thing about our king is he is extremely committed to stimulating innovation, and especially at the crossroads of business, education, science. And I’m pretty proud about the amount of innovation that goes on in the Netherlands, even though we’re that small. And having him as a true advocate of that and then coming up (to) visit us at the grand opening was quite, yeah, was pretty cool.

Tom:                          Kees Aarts, founder and CEO of Protix, an insect-based nutrition company headquartered in the Netherlands. Thank you so much for joining us, Kees.

Kees:                          Thank you.

Tom:                          This has been Ag Future, presented by Alltech. Thank you for joining us. Be sure to subscribe to Ag Future wherever you listen to podcasts.

Alltech believes that inclusion cultivates creativity and drives innovation. Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but it is also essential to advancing society and the global agri-food industry. To gather real-world insights into the professional landscape for women in agriculture, Alltech has announced its support of the second annual Women in Food & Ag survey. Launching on Oct. 27, the survey aims to collect feedback that empowers the agri-food industry to create a more equitable environment.

The 2019 Women in Food & Ag survey results revealed specific barriers for women in agriculture and a gap between female and male perceptions but reflected an optimistic outlook overall. As 2020 ushered in unprecedented challenges for agriculture, new questions have been added to the survey to gauge potential inequalities exacerbated by COVID-19. To further globalize this effort and increase accessibility, the survey is available in six languages.

This initiative reflects Alltech’s commitment to the U.N. Global Compact and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) related to gender equality. The SDG recognizes gender equality as a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world.

“In order to achieve a Planet of PlentyTM, it is more important than ever for the agri-food industry to perform at its full potential,” said Dr. Mark Lyons, president and CEO of Alltech. “Human ingenuity is our Earth’s most valuable resource, and a diverse workforce is essential to building a more sustainable future.”

Women and men in all sectors of the food supply chain are encouraged to contribute to this important global conversation about gender equality in agriculture by taking the survey here.

The survey results will be published on Jan. 26 on the Alltech ONE Virtual Experience website.

While many people working in the agriculture industry were raised around animals and farms, there are others who do not have this background and, instead, learned from the ground up to start their careers. Dr. Keith Latson, a board-certified equine veterinarian and co-founder of FullBucket Health, joins us to share his experience of breaking into the agriculture industry at a young age with no prior experience. Dr. Latson discusses how those who might not have a past in agriculture can break through to build a successful career in the industry, as well as the importance of mentorship and being willing to say yes to opportunities that arise.

The following is an edited transcript of the Ag Future podcast episode with Dr. Keith Latson hosted by Brian Lawless. Click below to hear the full audio.

Brian:             Welcome to Ag Future, presented by Alltech. Join us as we explore the challenges and opportunities facing the global food supply chain and speak with experts working to support a Planet of Plenty.

                        Today, the World Bank reports that the agriculture sector represents 28% of all employment globally. In the U.S., agriculture represents only 1% of all workers. Across most of Europe, agriculture hovers around less than 5% of all jobs. Many people working in the ag industry today were raised in agriculture, whether they showed animals, had a parent in the industry or grew up working on a family farm — yet there are others who didn't, who didn't have a background in ag, had to learn it from the ground up, and who also became very successful. So, the question for today is: How can young people who are not raised in agriculture break through to begin a successful career in the agriculture industry?

                        Welcome to an exciting episode of the Ag Future podcast. I'm Brian Lawless, North American brand manager at Alltech, and today, I'm joined by Dr. Keith Latson, a board-certified equine veterinarian and co-founder of FullBucket Health. Dr. Latson serves as NBC's on-call veterinarian for the Kentucky Derby and has even worked with Triple Crown winners across his impressive career. But unlike some in his career, Dr. Latson did not grow up in the world of agriculture, equine or animal health; he grew up as a military kid living all across the U.S. So, how did Dr. Latson even get into the world of agriculture? What is he doing now? And most importantly for our listeners, what lessons can Dr. Latson's story teach to those of you who are not in the agriculture industry today but want to work in ag in the future? I'm really looking forward to this. Dr. Keith Latson, welcome to the Ag Future podcast.

Keith:              Thanks, Brian. It's such a pleasure to be here with you.

Brian:             Someone wise in my life once said, "Begin with the end in mind," so I'd like for our listeners to know a bit of where your story not necessarily ends but is today. I think I stole a bit of your thunder in the intro, but what do you do for work these days?

Keith:              Well, that's always an interesting question to answer. After having quite a career at the racetrack as a veterinarian and a surgeon for Thoroughbred racehorses in Southern California, I left the racetrack for a life of entrepreneurship. That's been an interesting lesson to learn, entrepreneurship itself, as well as keeping that end in mind every time we start something new. There are so many lessons that had to be learned in building our companies and our brands that distracted us from that end in mind. So that, in and of itself, is a really big lesson to really focus on versus just learning. We've all heard it before, but oftentimes, it takes someone to reach out and say, "Hey, keep in mind why you started this."

Brian:             Absolutely. Yeah, the "begin with the end in mind" concept runs true through all of our career, not just in the beginning, and that's where I want to start right now. You were not raised in the ag or animal health industry. Can you tell us a little bit about how you were first exposed to agriculture?

Keith:              Sure. I grew up, as you said, as the son of a military officer, and so we moved every two to three years. There wasn't really anything in my life other than youth soccer and suburbia as a kid. Occasionally, we would go on field trips or something to expose us, in our schools, to agriculture or farms, those sorts of things. The real first trigger for me was, as a Cub Scout, we took a trip to Monmouth Park while we were living at Fort Monmouth in New Jersey. Fort Monmouth is now closed for the military, but we took this trip to the barn area. As soon as I got there and saw the horses being saddled up and coming back from the tracks steaming with sweat, the first time I laid my eyes on a real, live, Thoroughbred racehorse, I thought it was the most impressive, spectacular athlete or animal I'd ever seen. That was the first time for me that I really got a taste of what else was out there besides what I was being exposed to every day as a suburban kid on a military base.

                        That really stuck with me as we watched the Kentucky Derby. That was really the only horseracing you could find on TV back then, when we had 26 channels in a wired cable box. So, the first Saturday in May every year, my family and I would watch the Kentucky Derby. There are so many of those races that I remember watching and seeing Bob Baffert cover his mouth with one finger when Real Quiet was running. There are so many of those experiences that I was watching on TV, and I wished that I could connect with that more. Ultimately, I did. I just didn't know how it would happen.

Brian:             Well, I can definitely relate to you on the fact that I grew up in suburbia and grew up playing soccer, and that the first Saturday in May was huge. I'm a Kentucky native, so I can definitely relate to those things. For you, what was the turning point where you said you took ag seriously or really jumped in in a meaningful way with the equine industry?

Keith:              Well, I think it was a stroke of luck, honestly. My dad was a Texas resident, and he told me I could go anywhere I wanted for college as long as it was in Texas. My sister had already gone to Texas A&M University for her freshman year of college while I finished high school, and I knew that I was headed west. We were in Georgia at the time. I knew that I was headed west for college, but I didn't know if that would be University of Texas or if that would be one of the smaller schools or whether it would be Texas A&M. Well, my first stop was Texas A&M in College Station. As soon as I got there, it was like being home. There were so many different, interesting people there. There were people in cowboy hats and Wranglers. There were people in flip-flops and cut-off jeans. You name it, those people were there.

                        As you wandered over from main campus to west campus, there was this whole area of animal science, veterinary school, and all of those things were there. I just looked around and it felt comfortable, and it felt like it fit. I didn't really realize that, after my first couple of years in engineering — slogging through an engineering program and not really knowing why I was doing it, other than that I wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon. I thought that that's a nice angle to take, bioengineering, as a launching pad into orthopedic surgery for humans. Along the way, I met a person named Amy Reed, whose dad happened to be one of the premier racehorse veterinarians in Louisiana. I needed a summer job and he needed someone who was willing to work hard six days a week, so Amy connected me with Dr. Reed. I got a phone call over Christmas one year and he said, "Hey, I hear you're interested in horses. I hear you love racehorses. I'd love to offer you a place to live and a job for the summer at the racetrack with me." I just said "yes". I had no idea what I was getting into. I knew I was willing to work hard and I knew it was going to be hot, but I knew nothing else. So, when I went for that first day at work, I knew that was it. I did not want to be in a human hospital. I wanted to be with the horses.

Brian:             If I'm hearing what you're saying, it seems like you said "yes" to a lot of different unique opportunities. You went to Texas A&M, the school in Texas you could go to. You said "yes" to not pursuing something that you thought you would in orthopedics, and then you said "yes" to this opportunity with Mr. Reed. At least to me, that jumps out as a really important point for those of us who are looking to get into agriculture: When you get the opportunity, even if you're working six days a week, you jump in. Maybe early on, when you're getting into agriculture, are there any other keys to success that maybe you would want to point out?

Keith:              Well, I think saying "yes" is the first step for a lot of people. It's really easy for all of us to sink back into our comfort zones and not really push ourselves into unique experiences or the unknown. For me, that certainly was the unknown, other than (the fact that) there was a person on the other end of that phone who made me feel very comfortable saying "yes".

I think the other thing, too, is just being willing to be a beginner. In these days, with so much information out there, it's really easy to get analysis paralysis, and we start looking for that perfect thing. I think if we keep looking for that perfect thing, we'll never uncover the other opportunities that are out there that may come to us from that unperfect thing that we've said "yes" to.

Certainly, for me, working six days a week, 13 hours a day in the Louisiana sun was not necessarily perfect by a lot of people's standards. There were certain things that I didn't like about the job, but it opened up this world to me (that) combined my passion for orthopedics and for building things. I grew up rebuilding motorcycles and riding dirt bikes, so it uncovered that opportunity to be able to put fractures back together in high-level racehorses. It uncovered the world of science behind the racehorse and the mechanics behind the racehorse to me. All of those things were topics that I was exposed to as an engineering student or rebuilding those motorcycles that I had no idea existed and I wouldn't have (known had) I not said “yes” to Dr. Reed. Certainly, I wouldn't have met the person who became such a great professional mentor for me through the years, not just through school and vet school but as a young professional veterinarian as well.

Brian:             Absolutely. You've touched on saying "yes" to these opportunities, but someone like a mentor has to provide those opportunities, and it seems like Dr. Reed was that for you. It seemed like there were a couple of different paths you were considering. I think a lot of our listeners would be at a point in their life where they'll be choosing, like you did with Dr. Reed. What made his mentorship or his impact on your life so attractive?

Keith:              There are a few things. One is he allowed himself to be a little bit vulnerable with me in that he was happy to talk about the things that worked for him and the failures that he'd had as he encountered his success, as he built his business, as he was trying to balance his family life with his work life, as he worked with difficult clients, as he celebrated successes with some of those clients. (It was about) really watching and learning and being open to me peppering him with questions about all of those things and about the horses just as I was learning about what are the common injuries of racehorses, what are our options for treating those injuries. And then, discovering what's beyond what we have today and what's possible, what's coming down the pipeline in terms of science, medicine and treatment that we may be able to use five, 10 or 20 years from now.

                        Now, I'm standing in a position where many of those things that were just conceptual 20 years ago, we're actually using every day. I think that's one of the really exciting opportunities that a lot of us as seasoned professionals within the agricultural industry, that's one of the opportunities that we have, is to help young people who are trying to break into this really niche world of agriculture and all of the different channels within agriculture. It's really an opportunity for us to reach out to them and help them imagine what the opportunities can be for themselves.

Brian:             Yeah. I like that point of being okay with being vulnerable. You've touched on this: Within two seconds in a Google search, you can be an expert on a given topic. I think having someone who's okay with saying, "I don't know how to solve this problem. I looked at all the answers, but maybe I still don't have them. They don't exist on Google" — and I think particularly for younger folks who are trying to get into an industry like agriculture. If you look in the U.S., we have 99% of the folks who would not be in agriculture and only 1% who would be in it. We make, I think, a lot of 99% and 1% comparisons, but I do think it takes someone getting involved in someone else's life to make that happen. Maybe now, as you're looking at the next generation, how do you think the industry should approach getting the next generation involved in agriculture? But maybe (also) talk about getting the next generation involved in the equine industry.

Keith:  Oh, there are so many opportunities for all of us who are involved at all levels of our industry, whether it's as a veterinary technician who is encouraging young people to come and shadow and say, "Hey, look at what I do for these animals that are sick. We're helping them get better. This is what I do every day.” It could be the scientist who is studying some of the new technologies in microbiome science. There are so many things out there. Even for me to just try and think about these things as you and I are talking, there are so many channels that it can be overwhelming to pick the few that we talk about, which makes me realize that young people who are exposed to all of these things, plus more, it can be so difficult for them, too.

I think the opportunities for us are to be open. Listen. If somebody reaches out to me on LinkedIn and says, "Hey, I'm really interested in knowing more about something. Can you help point me in the right direction?" This is somebody who has had the courage to reach out, has shown some real interest, and I'm going to respond to that because that's how I broke in.

I think it can be on an individual basis like that. I also think that some of the larger corporations and industry organizations — like the American Association of Equine Practitioners, with which I've been associated for many years — have created real opportunities to help people connect within their industries. I think it takes a young person being resourceful in looking for those opportunities or for those people who might be willing to connect on social platforms like LinkedIn. Many of us are not on Snapchat, Instagram and those places. I think that there's a little bit of a divide between how young people commonly communicate and connect and some of the more seasoned people in agriculture. So I think there has to be that open communication both ways and the willingness to take on a little bit of a mentorship role and take a chance on people, because when we say "yes" and they say "yes," the opportunities are endless.

Brian:             Yeah. I think you touched on something, (and) I just want to drive it a little bit deeper in, because I think you've touched a lot on what it takes to be a good mentor, but you just began to start on what you would look for in a potential mentee, someone who would be bold enough to reach out directly on LinkedIn. When you're looking at the next generation, what are you looking (for) in a potential mentee, someone that you would mentor?

Keith:              When I was young and trying to break into the Thoroughbred industry, I used to put my hands in my pockets. It was a habit that I had, and I didn't realize I had it. I didn't realize that I was communicating that. Maybe I wasn't sure of myself. Maybe I wasn't interested. Whatever that message was, it wasn't the message of, "Hey, I'm enthusiastic. I'm ready to do whatever it takes."

                        I think moving beyond constantly looking at that phone — move beyond that. Show that enthusiasm, that courage to reach out. Show that you don't have your hands in your pockets or that you're constantly on your social media. Look, let's work. Let's discover. Let's talk. Let's interact, because those human relationships are the things that I think we all really revel in. That's what drives us forward in our profession. That's what I'm looking for in a young mentee. I'm not looking for somebody who has already had a few experiences, has already taken a few chances. Maybe I'm the first chance that they've taken to reach out to, but certainly, if they're showing that enthusiasm and that they had researched multiple things around what I do, I'm willing to answer questions. I'm willing to point them in the right directions that they think they want to go.

                        Man, that's an exciting person, when they come to me. There are three or four who come to mind throughout my career that it's been really fun to watch develop from young college students who were doing something in a horse-racing club or Darley Flying Starts, some of these development programs. Young people who have reached out from those programs and said, "Hey, I've seen what you do. I'm really interested in it. Could I spend a day with you in your truck at the racetrack?" "Absolutely. Come on. Let me introduce you to some other people." And that really becomes their first working interview with me. Those are the types of things that I'm looking for.

                        As a mentee, I want to give them everything I can that is actionable and thought-provoking. If we both have done that for each other as mentor and mentee, I think we've really accomplished something together.

Brian:             Yeah. Seeing someone succeed who was a mentee of yours, I can only imagine it's just got to be so encouraging and must give you a ton of energy to keep reaching out to others, because it's not just being a mentor yourself. It's being a mentor to someone else.

It's interesting. You've touched on “no hands in the pockets.” Our (Alltech) owner and founder, the late Dr. Pearse Lyons, had a big thing of “no hands in the pockets.” That was just a bad expression of body language that didn't show enthusiasm, just like you touched on. So, I think there are some cool correlations there.

                        Moving us into maybe the last segment, the question, always, is: What's next? To you, what are some of the positive opportunities you see in equine moving forward?

Keith:              I've touched on it a little bit earlier. I think one of the most exciting things that we're seeing coming out in equine health — and this expands beyond just equine health and into total animal health — is the concept and the science behind the microbiome and the metabolome, the microbiome being the living organisms in the DNA that's within the GI tract and then the metabolome being everything else that's in there. Are there inflammatory mediators? Are there other things that can tell us what's going on with the overall health of an animal? And what the risk or health profile is of an animal.

                        I think there's so much on the frontier to be discovered there and to really discern how it relates, how each of those findings relates with not just equine health, but how those findings drive certain discoveries in human health, in pharmaceuticals, in supplements, in feeding, in wellness, in food as medicine, not just as a function of nutrition. I think that is such an exciting frontier where what we do in animal health and what we do in agriculture contributes so much to the overall health of the populace of our world. There's opportunity, on an individual scale, to greatly contribute to society and to our world in that way from agriculture.

Brian:             As a global animal health and nutrition company at Alltech, I could not endorse that statement any more. We have our researchers working on things from the microbiome, but we have people all throughout the process bringing that to fruition. We even take it into the human health side. I think that connection between the science that we do, connecting between animals and people, really just starting with the microbiome, is so exciting. I think the future is really bright for that.

                        What I'd love to do is just leave us with a specific takeaway for our listeners. Say someone has heard this (podcast). What's the first step someone who's interested in agriculture should take if they're not currently involved but want to get involved?

Keith:              Pick up the phone and connect with people. That is number one, even beyond a connection on LinkedIn, even beyond a colleague calling me and saying, "Hey, I have a niece or a nephew who is really interested in what you do." When I receive a phone call from a person or an email asking for a phone call from a person who is interested in what I do, who has researched what I do, I'm going to take that call. I think there are so many people within our industry, within agriculture, who would be so excited to have somebody connect on that human level to say, "I'm interested. I'm excited about what you're doing. I would love to know more about how you did it, how you got there and what's next for you, where do you go (next) from where you are." That is somebody that has a bright future, and they're showing it to me with their first action.

                        That's a difficult thing to do. I know a lot of people have trouble picking up the phone and making that cold call. It's not my favorite thing to do either, but it has created massive results in my life. I know other people whose lives have been changed by a single phone call. Pick up the phone and make a call.

Brian:             Keith, I think there could not be any better message and more clear message. If you're interested in getting into agriculture, pick up the phone. Call someone. Make a contact and go meet with them.

There's so much to unpack here. I think this has been extremely helpful for our listeners. Just maybe to sum up a couple of things that I heard (that) you said that were really interesting, point one just being to say "yes" to things. If you have an opportunity to meet and be mentored by someone, take them up on it. The second point being not only have a mentor in your life but be a mentor to someone else and be willing to receive that phone call that you just talked about. Beyond that, be willing to be a beginner. I really liked that comment because I think, in this Google age, we can all be “experts” within five minutes, but not really. So, with the point that Dr. Reed made of being okay with being vulnerable, I think that's a really important step for long-term success. Bringing it all together, show enthusiasm. Don't put your hands in your pockets. Be willing to take chances. Last but not least, pick up the phone and call someone. You'll be well on your way to a successful career in agriculture.

This is Dr. Keith Latson of FullBucket Health. Thank you for joining us on the Ag Future podcast.

Keith:              I sure have enjoyed it. Thank you.

Brian: This has been Ag Future, presented by Alltech. Thank you for joining us. Be sure to subscribe to Ag Future wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a review if you enjoyed this episode.

In a recent study, the American Institute of Stress reported that 75% of today's employees believe that they have more on-the-job stress than a generation ago. This stress has been amplified within the past year, especially for those in agriculture, as they have worked hard to maintain the global food supply chain. Padraic Gilligan of Gilligan’s Farm in Roscommon County, Ireland, joins us on the podcast to discuss some specific solutions he has implemented on his farm to de-stress his operation.

The following is an edited transcript of the Ag Future podcast episode with Padraic Gilligan hosted by Brian Lawless. Click below to hear the full audio.

Brian:           Welcome to AgFuture, presented by Alltech. Join us as we explore the challenges and opportunities facing the global food supply chain and speak with experts working to support a Planet of Plenty.

                     Do you feel stress? Are there certain activities, either at work or at home, that bring up specific fears or concerns? In a recent study, the American Institute of Stress reported that 75% of today's employees believe that they have more on-the-job stress than a generation ago. This may be from a multitude of sources, but it begs the question: How do we reduce stress at work, especially as work continues from one generation to the next?

                     Well, today, we have an extremely helpful episode of the Ag Future podcast. I'm Brian Lawless, North American brand manager at Alltech, and I'm joined by Padraic Gilligan of Gilligan's Farm. Gilligan's Farm is an award-winning lamb and beef operation in Ireland with its own farm store and many customers throughout Dublin and the world. But like many of us, they feel stress both personally and in their business — yet within their family business, they’ve found multiple ways to reduce stress, and it's making a big difference. The question is: How, specifically, can Padraic and Gilligan's Farm work to de-stress their operation? What has this meant for their business? How can we take these lessons and apply them to de-stress our own lives and work? Padraic, welcome to the AgFuture Podcast.

Padraic:        Thanks for having me. It's a great opportunity. Thanks very much.

Brian:           I'm excited to have you. Before we dive into the topic of stress, which we'll get to, you've built a really fascinating business. Can you tell us a bit of the history of Gilligan's Farm and your role within the business?

Padraic:        Yeah, I suppose. Gilligan's (has been) in operation for over a hundred years. My father started it back in 1911, and (it) has proceeded on over the years with stops and starts, good and bad. I reared animals on the farm. We have a great love for animals. When I sold animals, whether it be in a mart or factory, I always felt like — I like to sell myself to the public, to have a product that you could feel proud of. That's how I started the farm.

                     The stress part of it, it's been very stressful for the last six or seven months, especially with the COVID. It's very depressing for our farmers, especially here in Ireland — people who have been living on their own. The pubs are closed. We can't go for pints, and that has a big bearing on how people live and how they live their lives. People need to have fun along with work.

Brian:           Yeah. Obviously, not being able to have a bite with some friends is no fun. Talking about your farm, what changes has Gilligan's Farm implemented to manage some of these new stresses with COVID-19? What's changed for you guys?

Padraic:        What has changed? Lots of things have changed. With stress, animals are no different than humans. They get stressed. Our philosophy in that is to play music to the animals and to see them as well. With people, people have to have an outlet, have a bit of fun, try to lessen the stress factor of everyday living and just get them down. You have to open the drawer and deal with it and just close it and move on to the next drawer. That's how we are dealing with it — or my way of dealing with it.

Brian:           Yeah. I do want to touch on the music for animals here in a bit. I guess you started talking about the business that you had. Your father started the farm. You've taken it over, and we're now moving on to the third generation, which would be your son, Alan. It seems like the first way you've looked to de-stress your business is just to have a proper succession plan. I guess, maybe, give us a little insight (into) how you've been preparing or maybe removing the stress for your son, Alan, to take over the business, or as he's been taking over the business.

Padraic:        Well, I suppose it's funny. Look, if you're in business, it's stress-related. In the succession plan that I have to hand it all over to my son, which is — he's running the business and he has full control of it now. I'm taking a backseat. It's stressful for him because I have been in the business over the years, and of course, business has moved on. You have to be on top of it at all times to deal with it. He's probably saying sometimes, "Why would you let yourself in for all this huge workload?" In running a business — we have 22 people employed, and it takes management to do that. It is stressful, but you have to deal with it and not bring it home with you. Customers can be demanding. Ninety percent of them are very easy to deal with, and you've got the 10% that would be very finicky, and you have to deal with them as well. Do you know what I mean?

Brian:           Yeah. I feel like you've touched on two really important things. It seems like you've actively taken a transition in your own job responsibilities, where you're now saying, "Hey, I was the one managing the farm. Now, I'm actively the one taking the backseat." I would assume, for Alan, that's made a world of difference, that it's not now having two people in charge. There's been a transition of responsibilities within the business. Then the second thing that I think you touched on was, in some ways, not taking what you do in your family life during the day, during business hours, and taking it home with you. I feel that that can just add to stress, when you have the same people that you could be dealing with at work that you're then at home with, and you're taking that stress from one place to the next.

Padraic:        Absolutely. When you go home in the evening, you need to be chilled out. There's nothing better than listening to music or having a chat with the wife. All that is very important.

Brian:           Yeah, sometimes it is. It's just those simple things. Maybe moving on, to the second way of de-stressing a business, really focusing on this concept of educating your customers in a very clear way. Some consumers are conscious about where their food comes from, but many aren't. I think that even applies to cuts of meat and to the opportunities that could be available to chefs. Gilligan's Farm prides itself on top-quality meat. If I understand correctly, you are a supplier to celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, and I read that you literally brought a lamb to him and showed him and his team the cuts. Now, I envision you walking into the restaurant with this entire lamb strapped to your back, but I'm guessing that's not the case. How did that relationship begin, and how did you educate Jamie and his team?

Padraic:        He's one of the guys that we deal with that's running a restaurant in Dublin. He's one of those people that is a perfectionist and really loves the products that we give him, and it's direct off the farm. He has a big thing about that. He said to me one day, "Would it be possible to take a lamb in here just to show the staff where all the cuts come from? We'd cook it and test it and we'll invite people in." I was meant to do it. Yeah, I thought it was a great idea. I brought the lamb and the saw and the knife and went to the restaurant. We had good fun. They found it very interesting. The staff then could relate to the customer of the lamb, where it came from, all the different cuts of the lamb, from the best to the worst. It's good education for people — especially people (who) live in the cities, (who) don’t understand animals.

Brian:           It seems like, within your business, there's this element of trust with the consumer. How important is consumer trust? How do you build that reputation and relationship with customers?

Padraic:        Well, it's funny you should say that. I find that fascinating, because when I deal with someone in a restaurant that's a Michelin-star restaurant, the first thing I'd say to them (is), "This is a marriage. This is going to be a marriage. You have trust in me, and I have trust in you." We take it from there, but I suppose you can bring in ten pieces of meat (that are) absolutely mouthwatering, and if you bring in the eleventh bit that's not as good, you're breaking the trust.

                     It's a matter of consistency in your product. You're not 100%, or there's nobody that's 100%, but you definitely have to be over 95% consistent with the product. That builds the trust. As the customer, when you have a meal or have a steak and you say, "Yeah, that was a lovely steak. Where did that come from?" All of that builds a relationship, and that's what you should be looking for.

                     To produce such a high-quality product is vital. I suppose Pearse Lyons was very fond of — when he'd come to Ireland, he'd always buy our meat for his conferences. That's how I got to know Alltech. Alltech has done huge work for us here on the farm. They are always at the end of the phone and would advise on different ways to treat animals, the feed for animals and all that. All that's important. All that is the link in the chain to the end customer. Does that make sense?

Brian:           Yeah. Speaking about links in the chain, I know Dr. Lyons was famous for wanting to (be able to) cut steaks with a spoon. Were you the man behind wanting to cut steaks with a spoon?

Padraic:        Yes, I am. To be truthful about it, there was a video here on the farm going back a number of years ago. They wanted me to cook a steak at seven o'clock in the morning. I said, “Yeah, we better cook it in the house.” I got my wife up anyway. My wife said she's not taking any part in cooking the steak, but I proceeded to cook it anyway. I was thinking to myself, “Well, how can I make this different?” I just got the brainwave: “Would it be possible to cut a steak with a spoon?” I tried it and it worked. I said, “Yeah, let's go for it.” It's on the video, cutting a steak with a spoon. That is, I suppose, a reflection on the product that we have. Tender and tasty, I suppose, is the slogan that we always used.

Brian:           Yeah, and Dr. Lyons was famous — he took that back to the U.S., and the late Dr. Pearse Lyons would show the quality of the steak by cutting it with a spoon. That's amazing.

                     Let's move into the third way to de-stress your business. You kind of touched on this a little bit when you talked about the animals and the music and just this theme of keeping your business fun and productive at the same time. I guess maybe my first question is — so, it's true that you constantly play music around the farm, and it's for the animals?

Padraic:        Yeah. We have a system in the farm to play the music. I suppose it goes back to animals being stressed. Animals can get spooked or stressed very easily. It's all about not stressing animals, and this is why I started playing music to them. My mother, when she'd be milking the cows years ago, when I was a kid, she'd milk the cows by hand, and she'd always sing to the cows, and they'd always give more milk, so I said, “Why not play music to the animals?” We started playing music to animals, I suppose, maybe 15 years ago.

                     There are particular songs that we play to them. Percy French was the greatest Roscommon man, a great Irishman, and he wrote lots of songs. Some of them would be "The Mountains of Mourne" and "McBreen's Heifer," all those. The lyrics in all those songs are absolutely class and really becoming of playing music to the animals. If you Google "Percy French," Brendan O'Dowda sang his songs. He has a lovely, soft voice, and animals really love it. It's amazing. We use it here in the abattoir when the animals are being slaughtered. We play the same music to them in the abattoir here, which is adjacent to the farm. The abattoir is on the farm. We have full facilities on the farm to do from slaughter to dispatch in whatever form the customer wants it. It really adds to, I suppose, the stress levels in the meat.

Brian:           Yeah. I peeked on the music charts in Ireland and there was one artist, Dermot Kennedy, that was very popular. There are also a bunch of global stars, like Justin Bieber, that are on the Irish charts right now. Have you found any music that the cows and the lambs do not like?

Padraic:        I suppose we just have this Brendan O'Dowda, Percy French's songs with Brendan O'Dowda, and it just continuously plays. There are about maybe 20 songs in the list, and they just keep playing. I suppose the animals get familiar with the sounds and the different — the voice is the same with Brendan O'Dowda. I wouldn't like to be changing to different artists because their voices can be sharp or different. I feel that the animals wouldn't get as attached to it, if you know what I mean. It's a particular type of music.

                     Now, young people might say, "You're silly. This is not for real," but it is actually. It is. We had RT on the farm here and we were slaughtering the animals, and they couldn't get over the animals, how relaxed they were in the abattoir just before they were killed. There was no stress. It's completely different. It's amazing. Over a period of months, they're familiar with it and it's not spooking them.

Brian:           Yeah, and it seems like this is something that has bled all the way into your relationships with the consumers and your customers, that there needs to be consistency of the final quality of the product and there needs to be consistency in the music or the rhythms for the animals themselves, to keep that going from beginning to end.

Padraic:        Absolutely. If I brought in different music, like rock music or whatever, it would spook the animals. It wouldn't be common for them.

Brian:           Yeah. Moving on to the fourth way to de-stress your business, it really revolves around taking care of your environment and, really, the whole supply chain. We know customers would like to be conscious of where their food comes from and not only how the animals are treated but the environment and how it can impact them. That's going to be a big challenge, and it's going to continue to be a big challenge, but I understand that Gilligan's Farm aims to be carbon neutral within ten years. Can you tell us a little bit about the plan? And probably just more importantly, why does this matter to you?

Padraic:        Well, it matters. I have grandchildren, and I'd love to see them in (the) environments where I grew up, going back 70 years ago, where things on farms were very simple. For instance, if you go out and plough the land, you can see the worms. They're there visually. You can see them in the ground. I feel, over the years, that was lost with different ways of getting rid of slurry and all that, spreading those in the wrong times of the year, when the worms are, I suppose, coming up in the springtime of the year now.

                     I remember, going back years and years ago, when slurry was a new thing, and when you spread it, you'd see seagulls in the field the following morning. My God, it's an awful sight to see, because you have worms killed by the thousands, which is frightening, really. I suppose, over the years, we always used straw bedding for animals. We're bringing that back out on the land, and it's actually good for the nutrients and it's good for the clay and to bring the worms back. If we plough a field now, we see hundreds of worms in a small area. It's very rewarding when you see that.

                     I suppose, going back to your point, the environment has to be minded, especially now, because with the climate, it has really changed in Ireland. We're getting periods of really dry weather and periods of really wet weather, and that is very stressful — especially on farmers with crops, saving crops and all that. So, we have to respect the environment. We have a program now where we grow trees, hectares and hectares of trees, to enhance the carbon.

Brian:           Yeah, so looking at the concept of how do we make sure we have nutrients in the soil, how do we make sure that we have even the basics, like worms in the soil, but then how do we look at things like planting trees and revitalizing or keeping carbon at the forefront of what's going on.

I really like what you said previously, though, because I think it wraps into this concept of succession that you're thinking of — "Hey, when I have my grandkids and my great-grandkids, I want to make sure the land works well for them." That's almost the first step in a succession plan where you're helping out your son, Alan, in his taking over of the business.

Padraic:        The land will always be there to feed the people, and to have it in good shape, I think, is very important.

Brian:           Yup. Finally, bringing this all to a close, I've been on your website. It's a beautiful website, by the way. The meat looks delicious. I saw just some of the cuts on there. It looks amazing. What website do people need to get to to buy the meat? How do they get access to this?

Padraic:        We have a click-and-collect. We also do a door-to-door delivery in Dublin. We started this about six months ago, when the lockdown came. People in Dublin would be ringing and wondering could they get meat, so we started this online shop. It's actually very successful. Our biggest problem is deliveries. I'd be a stickler on doing the job ourselves, so we deliver ourselves. I know it's time-consuming, but when people order meat and they pay for it online, we deliver to them, and we make sure that they get it when they're supposed to get it.

Brian:           Yeah. That's fantastic. Well, the website, I see here, is gilligansfarm.ie. You guys do deliver. You accept payment online. You do have an in-person store, but yeah, the challenge of delivery. COVID, in some ways, has really challenged us to be innovative, and it sounds like you guys are quickly adapting to the times and finding it challenging.

Padraic:        You just have to change with the times. People like Jamie Oliver in Dublin — we supply Chapter One, all those places where people would be going there to eat, (and) all those restaurants were closed. Suddenly, those people that love our meat were ringing, wondering: where could they get it? This is how that started.

Brian:           If there's an additional point of ways to de-stress, it certainly would be (to) change with the times. Be flexible. To sum up some of the things I've heard, I've heard, really, four specific ways to de-stress your business. The first would be have a succession plan, eliminating the fears of, "Does this all depend on me? What happens after I leave the business?" And you've put in that place with Alan, currently. The second thing seems to be (to) educate your customers clearly. If that means bringing the product to them, making sure they understand the value of it and how to handle it — particularly chefs and cooks — that's very important.

                     From the music end of things, the third way I heard to de-stress the business was keep your business fun and productive. It eliminates the concern of burnout. It keeps the animals consistent every day and keeps that consistent all the way from the farm to the fork, at the forefront of what's being done. Last but not least, de-stressing the business by taking care of your environment in the supply chain. You're just addressing concerns of, "Will there be enough resources? Can I look for my grandkids and great-grandkids to still have a good environment?" And just being part of the solution and not the problem.

Padraic:        Yeah, that's it. Just play your part as you go along. That's it.

Brian:           Padraic, you've given us a ton to think through. Really, I've been fascinated to talk to you and hear more about your business. Padraic, thank you for being on the AgFuture podcast.

Padraic:        Thank you very much, and thank you for having us. It's a pleasure.

Brian:           This has been Ag Future, presented by Alltech. Thank you for joining us. Be sure to subscribe to Ag Future wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a review if you enjoyed this episode.

Nori is a Seattle-based startup that aims to reverse climate change through their marketplace for carbon removal. Aldyen Donnelly, director of carbon economics with Nori, discusses how the company is helping farmers get paid to fight climate change, how these carbon removal practices can benefit farmers' productivity and what she believes are the keys for encouraging the corporate world to commit to reducing their production emissions.

The following is an edited transcript of the Ag Future podcast episode with Aldyen Donnelly hosted by Tom Martin. Click below to hear the full audio.

Tom:                          Welcome to Ag Future, presented by Alltech. Join us as we explore the challenges and opportunities facing the global food supply chain and speak with experts working to support a Planet of Plenty™.

Tom:                          I'm Tom Martin, and I'm joined by Aldyen Donnelly, a small-business developer and consultant who, in the 1990s, began working on market-driven strategies to reduce the atmospheric carbon concentrations now known to contribute to climate change. She coauthored Nova Scotia’s 2009 greenhouse gas emissions regulations, a first in North America. Nori, the Seattle-based startup Aldyen cofounded, aims to reverse climate change by incentivizing the removal of excess carbon from our atmosphere. It's a significant undertaking in an economic system that makes it easier and more profitable to emit carbon than to avoid doing so. Appropriately, Alden is the company's director of carbon economics, and she's joining us from Vancouver. Greetings, Aldyen.

Aldyen:                      Nice to meet you.

Tom:                          So, tell us first, briefly, about Nori. How did a company form around the goal of reversing climate change?

Aldyen:                      Nori’s original three founders are a couple of individuals who were doing well and in the high-tech space, Silicon Valley kind of world, and one who was part of the Climate Change Advisory Institute at Berkeley. And they met and realized that, personally, they wanted to focus their time and energy on something that would deliver a great social good. So, they came up with this idea, as well as the name, started saving their money and coming up with ideas about what they'd like to do in this regard. And I met them later, when a friend of one of the three original founders’ dad suggested they meet me, and it’s been fine ever since. We are actually a total of seven founding partners, and there are 10 of us in the company in total at the moment.

Tom:                          And what motivates this focus on the connection between carbon emissions and climate change?

Aldyen:                      For me, to be perfectly honest, it's not carbon emissions and climate change, per se. I have spent a lot of my life on sailboats, likely using sailboats, and I'm an old lady now, but about 30 years ago, I started seeing very dramatic changes in the ocean life and the way sea life movement patterns were changing while I was on the water so much of the time, and I started asking what was this all about, if it's good or bad. And that's when I first — and this is in the mid-’80s — started reading about the science that related the increasing concentrations of heat-trapping gases, mostly CO₂, in the atmosphere and the impact it could have on ocean and sea life.

                                    So, what drove me was what was happening in the ocean. It’s more than climate change. I must admit, that’s still my primary driver. I think the disruption to ocean life has such large potential that that's enough reason to take this very, very seriously. So, yes, there's a broader story about climate change and extreme weather events, which even makes the situation more dramatic, but I think the original events that drew me in were dramatic enough. Thank you very much.

Tom:                          And just briefly, Aldyen, just curious, what's the story behind the name of the company, Nori?

Aldyen:                      The original founders picked Nori before I became involved, which is quite a coincidence. Nori is Japanese for seaweed. And in the Japanese history, people have been growing and eating seaweeds since the 700s. Many algae-based seaweed species are potentially an ideal example of a sustainable food source. But also, in the history of seaweed, which is obviously now a long history, there was a point in time where seaweed production almost died out and was rebuilt. And also, it's now an industry that has to be paying attention to the difference between the sustainable and extractive industrial practices. So, that whole history of nori, the seaweed and the future potential role of seaweed as a long-term, sustainable nutrient source is really important. So, it was a great four-letter word through the history, which was exactly what we are thinking about and working on every day.

Tom:                          Our focus is going to be on regenerative agriculture. Can you give us just a brief definition of that term?

Aldyen:                      Regenerative agriculture is the new term that was probably mostly thought of as conservation cropping practices when the idea first started to get legs, 30 and 40 years ago. It's also been called “sustainable” agriculture in the past, but that fell out of fashion, and so, that new word is “regenerative” agriculture. And I hope, as many hope, that we will come up with a better, easier-to-say term option sooner rather than later.

                                    But historically, when all nations, not just North America, shifted to highly productive food and fiber production practices, we introduced a bunch of ways of doing things that have the positive effect of producing way more food per acre but (also have) a number of negative effects. To keep the soil in production, we started adding synthetic chemicals, because we were depleting the capacity of the soil to naturally support the food production. In that process, we've done many things. One of the most important things that we have done (is) it’s estimated that, over the last 300 years, we've permanently removed 50% of the carbon that our soils used to support and retain and sustain (themselves) year to year. And we use synthetic chemicals and other processes to make up for that loss.

                                    Over the last 30 or 40 years, a lot of great research has proved that there are ways of changing how we manage the soil and how we manage cropping practices, too, (while working) at the same time, to maintain very high levels of crop production per acre. We turn the soil to its healthiest state and rebuild that present stock, and that's a very, very large opportunity to do two things at the same time. First, (get) extra CO₂ out of the atmosphere and store the recovered carbon in soils, which has that huge capacity to retain more carbon than they are right now — and also, in so doing, building a much healthier topsoil. The top 30 centimeters of the soil is what most people are talking about, which is exactly what we need to ensure that our growing territories are resilient in the event of global warming. So, it's one of the only investments you can make that, coincidentally, reduces the risk of climate change while preparing the soil to be more resilient and stay productive in the event of climate change. Best investment anybody could ever make.

Tom:                          What does it mean that 1.5 to 2 degrees of global warming by 2100 is almost inevitable? It that's a given, what are the likely consequences?

Aldyen:                      First of all, they say “inevitable” because when we release a ton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, its life in the atmosphere is at least 100 years. So, the warming impact of adding that heat-trapping gas to the atmosphere lasts for 100 years after we release it. So, even though it's only 2020, we already know how much CO₂ is up there and how much we're likely to release over the next 10 years or so. And that adds up, if you look at the modeling, to that very high risk. By the end of this century, we will have that amount of warming.

                                    Two degrees doesn't sound like much, but it has a lot of potential to make land we think of as productive now (become) unproductive. You know, verification goes with that scenario — massively shifting where food can be produced and how much it can be produced. The model suggests it’s likely due to change weather patterns and result in many more extreme weather events: hurricanes, tornados, rainstorms, thunderstorms, floods and droughts. It's not just drought; it’s floods and droughts. One of the pictures of global warming that is always in my head is just gray, total gray, in that future. Where (there) is snow during the winter now, that’s more likely to be rain and freezing rain (in the future). Freezing after rain is much more destructive than a normal snow event. And it's not a nice picture.

Tom:                          You know, 2100 may seem distant, it may seem like a long way off, but a person born today likely is going to live to experience this.

Aldyen:                      They’re going to live to experience it, and everything they do in their lifetime will determine whether or not it happens.

Tom:                          Your projects have included using emission reduction credits to finance carbon sequestration in agricultural soils. What are emission reduction credits, and how can they be used to finance carbon sequestration in farmland?

Aldyen:                      Now, I'm going to go all Nori promotional on you because I use the term “emission reduction credits” in my general language, and you're right about that. In Nori, we’re calling them Nori carbon removal times (NRTs). And so, I’m gonna pitch NRTs for the rest of the —

Tom:                          That’s quite all right.

Aldyen:                      What we are saying is, (in the) U.S. or anywhere in the world, a farmer can elect to reduce their pillage activity, the amount of plowing of their fields and (subsequently) releasing soil carbon to the atmosphere and exposing it to the atmosphere. That is common practice: to change their crop rotations, to change how they do irrigation, to add cover crops and do other things that essentially accelerate microbial activity in that biogeochemical process that includes photosynthesis, the work that plants do.

                                    So, plants draw CO₂ out of the atmosphere and microbes down by the roots of the plant, and soil breaks down that CO₂, and some of the carbon goes into plant growth. Some of it goes back up to the atmosphere, and some of it stays in the soil. And the more we retain in the soil, the more productive our plants are and the greater the service they provide in pulling CO₂ out of the atmosphere. So, we are saying to farmers, “Find the best combination of changing how you grow food so that you’re maximizing the amount of CO₂ you’re drawing out of the atmosphere and, of that CO₂, you're maximizing the amount of incremental carbon you store in the soil. And when you do that and we can demonstrate that you have drawn an incremental ton of heat-trapping gas out of the atmosphere, we issue an NRT, and then corporations and individuals who want to offset their own carbon footprint can buy those NRTs (with the) confidence that they know they have bought real interest in 1 ton of heat-trapping gas pulled out of the atmosphere.” And even more attractive (is) that they’ve invested in a healthier, more productive food system at the same time.

Tom:                          Am I correct that you have created a marketplace for carbon removal? And this sets up ways for farmers to actually be paid to store carbon in their soil? That's the sequestration. How does that work?

Aldyen:                      Yes. We invite farmers to provide us a bunch of operating data — that’s information we need to know, both historical and going forward, to be confident that they are building up their soil carbon stocks. And when they provide us the data and then an independent third-party verifier provides us assurance that the data is reasonable and replicable — that’s the term we use, “reasonably accurate” — then we issue NRTs to the farmer in our marketplace. And the NRTs are offered for sale. And we only started offering NRTs for sale for our suppliers last September. And to date, when NRTs are listed for sale, they've been selling out within 24 hours.

                                    We often have a backlog of demand for NRTs, and farmers have been earning $15 a ton for those NRTs on average so far. To put that in context, the typical farmer who decides they want to pursue this objective is generating, on average, revenues in the order of $27–40 per acre per year before government subsidies. Now, that represents a wide range of earnings in U.S. farmland, ranging from, say, a loss of $9 per acre to earnings of $80 per acre. The typical farmer can adopt practices that will draw down roughly 1 ton per acre per year. So, adding $15 per acre per year to the earning potential of farmers for whom $27–40 is the normal range is very significant financially. So, again, you're able to deliver new revenues to farmers who really need it. At the same time, you're delivering this very significant environmental service to society.

Tom:                          In your (Alltech ONE Virtual Experience) presentation, you begin by sharing quite a lot of data to allow your audience to form their own opinions about what it says and how they should react to the information. And in your first slide, you note that even if all nations complied with the aims of the Paris Accord, the world would still need to cut or offset about 15 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas discharges annually by 2030. Of course, we know that all nations are not complying —  most conspicuously, the United States, which has pulled out of the agreement. As long as the U.S. refrains from meeting this goal, is it futile for the others to even try?

Aldyen:                      No. It means a couple of things. It means we've got to do our best, and then we have to figure out how to mitigate the impacts of warming given that, as you said earlier in the interview, it's probably inevitable, for the reasons you just outlined. So, the first part is (that) U.S. crop producers, on their own, have the capacity to draw down — while they're becoming more profitable — up to 1.5 billion tons a year. And all crop producers worldwide do have the capacity to draw down by docking regenerative ag practices anywhere. We're not sure, but (that would equal something) between 10 billion and 25 billion tons per year. Now, we’re not going to mobilize 100% of that capacity tomorrow afternoon, but that is the way to take a significant bite in that 15-billion-ton-per-year deficit that we’ve got to address by 2030. I just don’t see any argument why not (to do this) because, again, when we invest in regenerative ag, we are doing two things: We are taking a bite (out of) that 15-billion-ton-per-year deficit, and we're doing it in such a way that we're making the soils more resilient if the warming that we're worried about actually occurs. So, we should be optimistic that we can do a lot and start doing it.

Tom:                          How about the corporate world? How’s the corporate world responding to calls to reduce their contributions to climate change?

Aldyen:                      I perceive — I’m an eternal optimist — that things are changing for the better here. There is a history that’s evidenced in some of the slide that you just referred to, that I present often. There is a history of corporate talking the talk (but) not walking the walk.

                                    Fifty corporations worldwide account for 57% of all of the manmade greenhouse gas emissions, when we account for their production emissions and also the emissions that you and I discharge when we use their product, like the emissions that go out of the tailpipe of our gasoline-powered car. That's only 50 companies. And to be frank, while everybody is saying the right things, none of those companies have yet made a commitment or produced a plan to reorient their core business description to move away from fossil fuels as their revenue source. Again, many are talking the talk. But if you actually look at their financial statements, if you're looking at all of the big oil companies, they are saying the right things, but it's still the case that, year after year, more than 50% of their capital spending plan is dedicated to finding and extracting more fossil fuels.

                                    It really feels like we're on the brink. It really feels like at least some of the big leaders are considering change seriously for the first time. It's really going to be important for the companies we think of as big oil to change their image of themselves and think of themselves as “big energy.” And in that future, they're going to be way, way more focused on supplying electricity and storage capacity, battery storage capacity, than oil and gas. We're not there yet, but it’s starting to feel like we’re on the brink.

Tom:                          So, you just began to sketch out what, I take, an aggressive climate change action plan would look like, correct? And could you expand on that?

Aldyen:                      Well, an aggressive climate change action would, again, involve —  and it’s big, big companies, but we only need to get to 50 of them — it’s not thousands and thousands — to really change their idea of what their core business is and to think of themselves as in the core business of supplying energy broadly, not just oil and gas. And the really exciting thing about that is, you know what? That's not doing something they've never done before. That's very much like returning their business model back toward something much like what it was in the ’40s and ’50s.

                                    You know, when I was growing up in the ’60s, the first credit card my father had was from a company called Home Oil. And the same company that delivers oil to the tank in our house that we used to heat our home also ran the gas station we took our car to. So, going forward, that energy company is going to want to be both delivering electricity and heat to our home as well as electricity that we need for mobile transport. So, it’s just about them returning to a business model that they executed very, very successfully 50 years ago with different energy sources behind that business model. It's hard to make change, but they can. And that’s one of the key parts of what we need to see happen. I think we need to do a better job of inventing shifts in that direction both in terms of how we design policy and regulations as a society and how we communicate their options to consumers.

Tom:                          If “the big 50” got on board and everybody involved engaged in a very aggressive action plan, is it impossible to say how long it would take to draw down emissions to acceptable levels?

Aldyen:                      History tells us — it's not possible to say how long, but history tells us two things. So, we have some amazing pollution reduction success stories in our history — the whole industrialized world, not just North America. We got the lead out of gasoline and paint. We lowered sulfur levels in diesel and in the electricity supply chain. We got the ozone-depleting substances out of refrigerant chemicals and saw that hole in the ozone layer shrink. And in all three of those precedents, once we got rolling, we achieved the environmental goal way faster than we had thought we were going to before we got started.

                                    Whenever we look back, we see two things. If, in policy and regulation, governments decide that it's the role of government to set price or pick the solution and, then, put incentives in place to make the market adopt that solution, we fail. Every time we take that approach, we give up, and it takes a long, long time to achieve our environmental goal — if we even stick to our commitment to achieve it. Alternatively, if you look at all of our historical success stories, whenever a government said, “Okay, you guys, this thing that you’ve embedded in the products and services you sell is creating pollution that's damaging; reduce that input in your supply chain (to) this mandatory rate,” you figure out how to do it. So, you leave it to industry and the private sector to figure out how to price and what solutions to choose. Every time we’ve said to industry, “Take it out over time; you've got this much time; clear it out yourself,” we have actually achieved our pollution-reduction goals ahead of schedule and at way lower cost than anybody imagined when we started.

                                    So, the greenhouse gas version of that would be a simple regulation that says, “If you supply energy in the United States, you report your global supply chain fossil carbon content in that energy supply chain, and you cut it by …” And then we have a big fight over whether that “by,” what comes after “by,” is 3% or 5% per annum — but you don't tell them what to put in, and you don't tell them how to price things and, you know, allocate rights to do things. You just say, you know, “Get the fossil carbon out of your products and services you’re suppling us. Here’s how much time you have, and figure it out.” And I’m sure that if we just moved to that way of thinking, markets like the one we're building in Nori will become commonplace, where participants in the market will, on their own, trade credits to comply with the rule — and we will be surprised. We will be very pleasantly surprised.

Tom:                          You've noted that 100% of corporate investments in new energy solutions rely on continuing revenues from sales of fossil fuels. Isn't that a pretty serious contradiction, and is it possible to break out of that cycle?

Aldyen:                      When I say (that) the big companies have talked the talk and not walked (the walk) so far, it’s because, yes, what you just attributed to me is true. And more than that, when you look at the investments they’ve made in new energy solutions, yes, their commitments have always been conditional. And they maintain some revenues from fossil fuels and have margins that they then dedicate (to) new energy solutions. But in fact, most of the time, too, the private-sector investment is conditional on also getting a government subsidy. And as I said, when we get into that trap where reducing pollution requires government to say, “Oh, gee, yes, I approve the solution, and I'm gonna give it this subsidy,” it’s never worked. It's never worked in the past.

                                    It's not just about climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. It's about every pollutant we've tried to move out of our supply chain. We get into this very, very difficult, slow process where market signals are perverted and the ability of the market to do what it does, which is innovate and compete on price, is impaired. So, yeah, I know (that) when we move off that way of thinking and say, “Okay, like I said, if you deliver energy, report your global fossil carbon content per million BTU of energy delivered, I don't care if the energy, you know, what the makeup of the energy product portfolio is you deliver, and leave it to the marketplace to find solutions,” the market will just bloom, and they’ll come up with ideas that you and I have never thought of to date.

Tom:                          Well, Aldyen, can most of us just go on with business as usual and rely on science and technology to save us from climate change?

Aldyen:                      No. As I think you’ve heard in my comments so far, I think we need to, as citizens, ask our government to seriously consider moving forward with the kind of command regulation that I just mentioned — again, the key being (that) it’s a command to reduce the fossil carbon content in the product supply chain and not to dictate what they sell and how they price it. We do need that regulation. I would argue we all know that, for example — and I know this is a source of debate in the U.S. at this time — but I think most experts, certainly, agree that the energy efficiency accomplishments we’ve seen realized in the traditional car fleet wouldn't have happened unless our government had said to the manufacturers, “You have to increase the efficiency of the fleet of cars you produce every year on this schedule over time.” That's called the cafe standard.

                                    One of the reasons you need regulations is because even when everyone who’s a leader in the industry thinks they know how to achieve a higher efficiency or deliver a better product, they still have to make a very risky up-front in investment. And often, when you’re in a competitive marketplace, you can’t afford to take the risk of doing that on your own and being the only one. So, sometimes, a simple, straightforward regulation levels the playing field, and then you’re motivating all of those very, very capable companies to compete for market share in the new context, where the requirement to lower the pollution — it’s called the pollution precursor — content in the supply chain exists. When you take that approach of basic regulation to level the playing field and leave it for the private sector to go for it in that context, we have lots of history that tells us (that) we surprise ourselves every time.

Tom:                          Aldyen Donnelly is a cofounder and director of carbon economics at Nori, a carbon-removal marketplace based in Seattle. She joins us from Vancouver. Thanks, Aldyen.

Aldyen:                      Thanks for having me.

Tom:                          This has been Ag Future, presented by Alltech. Thank you for joining us. Be sure to subscribe to Ag Future wherever you listen to podcasts.

Believe it or not, service dogs have been learning new tricks for centuries. Although the exact chronology of when canines began to aid people with disabilities remains a mystery, there is early evidence of such partnerships, dating as far back as the first century A.D. So, it should come as no surprise that assistance canines are only continuing to hone their modern-day skillsets.

For the past several years, a team of researchers at Georgia Tech University has been working on wearable technology that will allow working dogs to communicate crucial information to their handlers and others, if necessary — such as in emergency situations when their handlers require aid.

The team is using this tool to explore the emerging area of animal-computer interaction (ACI), which focuses on interfaces for inter-species communication. The project is known as FIDO (Facilitating Interactions for Dogs with Occupations) and has applications for both service and detection dogs.

“Currently, dogs can only communicate with people by barking or through body language. Sometimes that isn’t good enough,” said FIDO Project Director Dr. Melody Jackson. “Sensors can give them a ‘voice’ they’ve never had.”

Specialized FIDO vests can dial 911, text a family member or play an audio recording requesting assistance, among other tasks.

How does this technology work?

The FIDO team has been working on prototype vests outfitted with sensors that will stand up to dog mouths and a variety of environments, including water. These include:

• A touch sensor with a screen similar to that of a smartphone, which a dog taps with its nose.
• A rope sensor, which the dog tugs at with its mouth.
• A proximity sensor (like a touchless bathroom faucet) that is activated with the movement of a dog’s snout.
• A bite sensor that — you guessed it — is activated when a dog bites it.

In a 2014 formal study, eight dogs wearing FIDO vests with multiple sensors were tested. The longest it took a dog to learn the system was 30 minutes. The fastest was an astounding 27 seconds.

Real-world possibilities

Vests can potentially be customized depending on the dog’s job, and messages could be tailored to apply to a handler’s disability. For example, diabetic-alert dogs might have an easier job of communicating if they can “tell” their person whether their blood sugar is at risk of becoming either too high or too low.

FIDO technology may also help to expedite critical situations, such as search-and-rescue missions. At present, once a dog locates a missing person, they must leave them and return to their handler in order to lead the search party back to the found individual. With a FIDO vest, the dog could activate a sensor, thereby sending a text message to the handler’s phone with GPS coordinates. The dog could then stay with the person or, if necessary, continue searching for others.

This technology could also apply to military and police dogs, such as those trained to detect bombs.  After alerting handlers to an explosive, the dog could then interpret the bomb's odor signature. Using a multi-sensor vest, the dog can indicate which chemicals are present, helping the handler understand what type of bomb they are dealing with.

While FIDO’s technology has only been lab-tested at this time, the development team is in talks with several companies that are interested in manufacturing this innovation. Dr. Jackson hopes that, soon, service dogs will wear these high-tech, potentially life-saving vests on the job.

I want to receive more pet-related information.

On the one-year anniversary of committing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the United Nations Global Compact and the Science Based Targets initiative, Alltech has released its 2020 Sustainability Report.

In addition to reflecting Alltech’s vision for a Planet of Plenty^TM, the submission reaffirms the company’s alignment with a growing global network of organizations around the world that are united by their mission to build a more sustainable future.

“As a global company spanning the entire food supply chain, we are uniquely positioned to have a positive impact on a diverse range of sectors,” said Dr. Mark Lyons, president and CEO of Alltech. “The Global Compact has helped give direction, value, and alignment to existing projects and inspiration for new ones.  The pages of this report reflect our call to customers and partners to join us in a collaborative effort to adopt new technologies, improve business practices and embrace innovation in order to create a world of abundance.”

As part of its pledge to the U.N., signed on July 12, 2019, Alltech announced its focus specifically on nine of the 17 U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on which the company felt it could have the greatest impact due to their alignment with its core business. Selected SDGs include zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, decent work and economic growth, climate action, life below the water, life on land and partnership for the goals.

Alltech’s 2020 Sustainability Report outlines the key efforts that impact these chosen SDGs, including product validation by the Carbon Trust, education initiatives, support for women in agriculture, and applying 40 years of research in animal nutrition to advance human health.

The report also reaffirms Alltech’s commitment to the U.N. Global Compact (UNGC). The UNGC provides organizations with a value system and principle-based approach to conducting business. Alltech strives to operate in a way that meets fundamental responsibilities in the areas of human rights, labor, the environment and anti-corruption. The company continues to incorporate the Ten Principles of the U.N. Global Compact into its strategies, policies and procedures.

In conjunction with signing the U.N. Global Compact, Alltech also committed to the Science Based Targets initiative, which is designed to help companies reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and share their progress through transparent documentation and reporting. Alltech has initiated data collection for the first year, then goals will be set to benchmark its work to lower greenhouse gas emissions and reduce energy and water consumption.

In December 2019, Alltech had the extraordinary honor of welcoming the United Nations Security Council to its headquarters in Nicholasville, Kentucky. U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft, originally from Kentucky, selected Alltech to host their meeting, in part because of the company’s commitment to the U.N. Global Compact and focus on nine Sustainable Development Goals. The 13 members in attendance represented the U.S., China, Poland, Peru, Russia, the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Vietnam, Belgium, Kuwait, Equatorial Guinea, Tunisia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

The U.N. Security Council’s enthusiastic interest in the company’s Planet of Plenty vision and SDG commitments represent a significant opportunity for Alltech to lead positive change within the agri-food industry.

“We are excited to reach this milestone in a journey that began in 1980,” said Deirdre Lyons, co-founder and director of corporate image and design at Alltech. “Our purpose-driven mission to benefit animals, consumers and the environment — and to make a difference in the world around us — has a new framework for success that will help guide us into the future.”

Click here to read the Alltech 2020 Sustainability Report in full.

Cady Coleman has spent more than 170 days in outer space on various missions and truly knows what it means to be isolated. Despite our differences, she says we are all on a mission together during these times of change and uncertainty. In this episode, Cady explains the importance of diversity within teams and how seeing other people’s perspectives can help us work better together and get through difficult times.

The following is an edited transcript of the Ag Future podcast episode with Cady Coleman, hosted by Tom Martin. Click below to hear the full audio.

Tom:                          This is Tom Martin. Welcome to Ag Future, presented by Alltech. Join us as we explore the challenges and opportunities facing the global food supply chain and speak with experts working to support a Planet of Plenty.

Mark:                          Hello and welcome to the Alltech ONE Virtual Experience. My name is Dr. Mark Lyons and I’m the president and CEO of Alltech. It's my great pleasure to welcome you to the first session of this event. For 35 years, ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference has been encouraging our attendees to think differently, to innovate in the face of disruption, and that's what we've done with our program this year: creating, for the first time, a virtual offering — something that we've been hoping to do for a number of years. At this time more than any other, these world-changing ideas, big-picture thinking and, more importantly, inspiration are perhaps what we all need a little bit of. So, we hope that these sessions are very useful for you, and we look forward to the interaction that we're going to have in our Q&A sessions. Fitting that this is our launch day, it seems most appropriate that our first keynote (speaker) has been to space and back.

Tom:                          Cady Coleman, chemist, two-time space shuttle astronaut and a pretty good flute player — we'll have more on that later — was aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule as part of a crew of three headed for the orbiting International Space Station on December 15, 2010.

Cady:                          It's an amazing ride. It's 8 and a half minutes to get to space. To me, as a person that just believes there's always more to define and explore in terms of ideas, in terms of horizons, in some ways, you know, even though I loved this ride, it's actually like the taxi to the place that we're really exploring, which was space.

Tom:                          In a virtual conversation with Alltech president and CEO Mark Lyons, Cady Coleman lifts us, in a time of so much turmoil, illness and uncertainty on our planet, to the unique and profound perspective of a perch looking down on Earth from 220 miles above.

Cady:                          To me, I used to think that space was someplace different — like, “I'm on Earth. I'm gonna go to space.” But actually arriving up there, it just made me realize that Earth and the place that we live is just bigger than we thought, and yet, it's home.

Tom:                          This is Cady’s story about experiencing half a year of living in weightlessness with five other people from very different countries and cultures.

Cady:                          People always feel kind of bad for us that it's small and terrible up in space. And I think they have this kind of image in mind. This is what the taxi ride looks like on the way up to space in the Russian Soyuz. So, I launched in and actually came back home to Russia for my stint up on the Space Station. And it is actually quite, quite tight. And even though it's only physically 8 and a half minutes to get there, to get to orbit, we actually spent, you know, hours and hours and hours practicing and getting ready and making sure we understand how to operate all the equipment in the Soyuz. So, it is small, but the Space Station itself is giant and huge.

Tom:                          How huge?

Cady:                          It's like 10 train cars all put together, but not just in a row; some are up, and then some are down, and some are sideways. And so, we have, really, these 10 train cars without the seats in them to be living in in that Space Station. We have really just a lot of room up there — privacy. And actually, we need all that room to keep all the equipment, to keep the experiments. I mean, storage is actually the biggest problem up there.

Tom:                          Okay. Let's back up just a bit. Cady mentioned practice. You don't just one day drop what you're doing and you board a rocket ship and escape Earth's gravity for almost a half-year aboard the Space Station.

Cady:                          So, I had some pretty exciting practice missions, so to speak. I got to live for 11 days underwater off the coast of Florida in the Aquarius Habitat. It's usually used for research, and it's also lent out to NASA for us to practice. Well, the other place that I got to do that is Antarctica, where I had a last-minute opportunity. I was the backup for this mission, and I had a last-minute opportunity to spend two and a half months in Antarctica. Six weeks of that was in a tent. There were four of us, two in each tent. And we were 200 miles from the South Pole. And I am not a camping girl. But where I wasn't camping girl, I sure am now. And that's the nice thing about these kind of jobs is they actually teach you all these things and how to stay safe — although I'm actually reminded of some of my lessons from Antarctica in terms of, you know, equipment and safety and, you know, for us to take your gloves off when you're outside as much as you want to.

                                    I mean, you’re wearing, you know, three layers of everything, and let’s say you have to go to the bathroom during the day, which is going to happen. You know, you’re just so tempted to take those gloves off, because it’d be so much easier — your zipper is Velcro, all those things — and (it was all about) learning that patience of just, “Slow is fast and I have more time than I think.”

Tom:                          Learning to survive in such unusual and uncomfortable conditions may have been the immediate goal, but for Cady, there was another benefit that would serve her well aboard the Space Station.

Cady:                          I’d say most of the lessons I learned were about people, about being a crew.

Tom:                          And that perspective about people learning to get along and cooperate, collaborate.

Cady:                          Forty different nations (are) working all together every day — it's an International Space Station — on work that can't be done anywhere else.

Tom:                          So, what's it like, day to day, living and working in zero gravity, where just the touch of a finger can send you literally flying across the entire Space Station?

Cady:                          It's like living the life of Peter Pan, and everything is different, and everything is a discovery, but we're still human. You know, we bring our own, you know, things that we love to do. We each have our own way of bringing that experience back home. And we each, as humans, look out at the Earth and get to think about what it means that we're in space and people are down on the Earth.

Tom:                          And Cady, displaying a photo of herself with her Space Station crewmates, tells us that this situation — six people from the U.S., Russia and Italy together in this fragile habitat, circling Earth — offers a lesson that can be lost in the demands, the routines and the realities of life.

Cady:                          Every single person in this picture, I guarantee you, feels like there's something about them that is theirs that they bring that other people either don't know, don't understand or aren't open to. And so, I think it's really important to think about that — especially now that we don't get to connect with each other as much as we used to, now that we're isolated to phone calls and Zoom meetings and things like that.

Tom:                          And here's where Cady’s story gets really interesting, bringing together the experience of a long-duration space mission with present-day conditions down below — a pandemic, racial injustice and the challenges of overcoming differences to work in collaboration.

Cady:                          (Here’s) a little bit about getting along as a crew, and I say this because I think all of us are, you know, in unusual circumstances right now in terms of isolation and it being, you know, smart to stay separated from friends and family sometimes, but also at work, at school. I mean, I think that all of us work in groups where we don't get to pick who we are working with.

Tom:                          During her presentation, Cady mentions a recent hit movie.

[Movie clip]

Tom:                          An important eye-opener for many, an affirmation of injustice for many others.

Cady:                          I show you this picture from the movie “Hidden Figures” because I think, first of all, if I was talking to you in person, I would ask who's seen this movie, and then I would implore those of you that didn't raise your hands to go and see it. I mean, first of all, it's a fabulous movie. It's fun; it's interesting. I think it's just really charming. And at the same time, it makes this really big point. I mean, this is Katherine Johnson. She has a doctorate in mathematics, and she did the calculations that figured out how we get people from the Earth to space and safely back home again to their families, and (she) did this for Gemini, for Mercury, for Apollo and for the space shuttle, and yet her work was not celebrated until very late in her life. I mean, look at this picture. Our movie is called “Hidden Figures”. And in every picture that I've seen of her in in real life, Katherine is wearing — she’s a woman of color wearing a dress of color and (is) typically in a work picture in a sea of white guys in skinny black ties. And so, there's — I mean, you can't miss her. Right? But we didn't see her. And it comes back to my point that all of us bring something that needs to come out on the table if we're going to solve the problems that are in front of us today as a nation, as a world, as a planet.

Tom:                          Cady herself has encountered discrimination as an obstacle to realizing her dream of space walking. The women of “Hidden Figures” encountered (this) and persevered despite the dual blows of racism and misogyny. Cady, who is white, never experienced the pain of being underestimated because of the color of her skin. For her, it had to do with stature and gender.

Cady:                          Myself, I was the smallest person to be part of the space-walking team up on the Space Station. And it was kind of a big thing because, for the space shuttle, we had small space suits and mediums and larges and extra larges. But for the Space Station, they couldn't afford to have all those sizes, for various reasons. And what that meant was the smaller people, like me — actually, all of them women — then did not fit into the suits that we had on the Space Station. And I was on that edge. I mean, I looked at the space suit and I knew that I had a job that I could do in that space suit. I knew that I brought things to that team that others didn't. And I cheerfully showed up to meetings that I wasn't invited to, not because people said, “Oh, I don't think we're going to ask Cady, we don’t like her,” or anything else. It was just that they looked at me and they just couldn't imagine that I should be part of that team — but I knew. And when it’s something as important as exploring space, it gives you that extra, like, you know, that extra courage to just say, “I know. I am showing up.”

Tom:                          Cady, now herself a role model for many young women, had one of her own: the first American woman to fly in space, astronaut Sally Ride.

Cady:                          She actually made all the difference in the world in that — my dad was an explorer. He lived under the ocean. He was in charge of the building one of those capsules where men lived under the ocean. He was a deep-sea diver, and exploration was really real to me growing up. I was born in 1960, and yet the fact that I could be one of those explorers never occurred to me until Sally Ride came to my college and gave a talk. And I just thought — you know, you see somebody that you can relate to — and I just thought, “Wow. Maybe I could try to do that.”

Tom:                          And try, she did. More than try. Cady Coleman has logged more than 4,300 hours in space. The mission to the International Space Station, where she supervised more than 100 experiments, was her last before retiring from the Astronaut Corps in 2016. She has since been an advocate of expanding the role of private companies within NASA. And the recent SpaceX Dragon launch, carrying a crew of two to the Space Station, is the most dramatic example yet of the success of those efforts.

[SpaceX launch]

Tom:                          After her own 159 days in Earth orbit, Cady Coleman returned from the Space Station with fresh perspectives on the human condition, gained from weeks on end cooped up with five other human beings. The only thing between them and the deadly vacuum of space? A one-tenth of 1-inch aluminum pressure hull of the orbiting Space Station. Under these conditions, you really gain a more complex understanding of your crewmates.

Cady:                          And so, realizing that everyone has those different perspectives, it’s another way to think about, you know, how we relate to each other. The fact that when we look down at the Earth — I mean, our Space Station is pretty close there. Because we’re upside down and right side up, we learned to think about things and see things differently.

Tom:                          Cady Coleman’s advice has particular resonance in these times of division and increasing difficulty to communicate with people who view life differently.

Cady:                          Try to bring that to the conversations that you have at work, at home. When you're trying to convince someone of something new that is unfamiliar to them, try to look at them from a different direction, and find out something for yourself about them that allows you to work more closely together.

Tom:                          Recently, as the spread of the coronavirus mushroomed into a pandemic, Cady reached back to her experiences as a member of a team on a mission to suggest that we're now all on a mission.

Cady:                          We have this advantage as space explorers that, you know, we're part of a mission. I mean, we have jackets, you know; we’re wearing space suits. And it's really clear to you that, you know, you've got a job to do, and a lot of people are helping you do it. And so, it's easy to think, “It's important for me to be ready, and all these actions, they're important.” But I think with COVID-19, the mission can be less tangible. And just the fact that you can stay in your house with your family and stay safe and not do some of the things you'd like to do, it doesn't feel like this like step forward, mastering the engine systems — and yet it is. It's a step toward the mission. I think what can help people is just identifying. Give it a name. You know, this is the mission: staying safe. And these are the things we're doing today. And by focusing on that mission — I mean, to me, it’s interesting that I think the whole world understands this word “mission” in a different way because of this pandemic.

Tom:                          There was a Q&A portion during Cady’s virtual presentation, and COVID-19 was on the mind of Alltech’s Mark Lyons.

Mark:                          I think, through COVID-19, we're all hoping that there's some positive, there's some kind of silver lining, something that we're going to gain in terms of perspective. But I think there's also a sense that maybe we picked things up, we learned something, but then we maybe lose it. So, I wonder, you know, through your experiences, you know, having that new perspective, how do you make sure that what you learn, you can retain, and what do you think you did learn from that time in space?

Cady:                          Wow. You know, I was going to say that, you know, I see a lot positive happening. You know, there's sort of this, I call it, “activation energy” or some barrier to change, to doing something differently, and yet, you know, something helps you over that barrier, and in this case, the need during COVID-19 for people to solve all sorts of problems together, it's just there — and I see this. I see it on the internet. I see it in the news. Different people coming together, seeing something that they can do together and doing it. You know, asking each other, helping each other. Competitors making things together. I mean, it's so hopeful. You know, in the case of Alltech, I know you think so much about the planet and how your work is, you know, good for sustainability, for the planet, and people realize that's even more imperative now that, suddenly, the food chain is more real to all of us.

Tom:                          Now, about that flute…

[Music playing]

Tom:                          Cady is a member of the astronaut group, Bandella, performing here at the Folk Alliance Conference in 2015. At one event, the band had been invited onstage with Ireland's legendary Chieftains.

Cady:                          When I was at NASA, Paddy Moloney, who's the leader of the Chieftains, his son was an intern at NASA. And he actually stayed with a family that was kind of just a — they were just the people that were so good at gathering. I mean, (they) gathered people like me: all these people that love to play (music) but don't really play together. And it was a group of like 18 of us that would play some form of Celtic music, and then we ended up in small groups. And so, I knew Padraig, Paddy’s son, from my days there playing music. And when it came to going to the Space Station, one of the things I thought about was, you know, how do I bring people with me, and what's important to me, if I get to bring a few things, what's important to bring? And I really loved the spirit of Irish music. And I actually had decided I would learn how to play the Irish flute. Now, this doesn't mean that I knew how to play the Irish flute or that I, even though I carried it around with me on the road, that I learned enough. But I was inspired to go through Padraig to Paddy and to ask if I could bring some flutes with me to space. And by that time, actually, I knew the whole band. When they would come to town, we would go. And our astronaut band would get to be their guests, coming out on stage at the end, or they would kindly play along quite a bit.

                                    Anyway. So, I knew them, and Matt Malloy sent this flute that is like, I think, a treasure of Ireland. It’s an E flat Irish flute and just this beautiful instrument. A little bit smaller, for somebody like me, with small hands. And Paddy sent a tin whistle, and I brought them up to space. I brought a couple flutes. Every flute has its own little T-shirt that it was wrapped in so the pieces wouldn’t float away. And it just gave me really great pleasure to be up in that cupula looking out over the world and playing music. It kind of brings me into a little place that’s just mine. And it’s the same place where I come when I’m down here on the Earth, but then I got to go that place in space and look out at the world and just kind of, I don’t know, just feel a little more settled.

Tom:                          It would not be Cady’s only orbit-to-Earth performance with a legendary artist; there was another duet with the flute of the legendary Jethro Tull.

Cady:                          Tonight, Ian Anderson and I would like to honor Yuri Gagarin for his brave journey 50 years ago, and we would like to celebrate the role that humans play in the exploration of our universe, past, present and future, by sharing some music between Earth and space.

[Music playing]

Tom:                          Again, Mark Lyons.

Mark:                          You know, one of the questions we keep getting, obviously, given your background and our present time of social distancing and isolation is: Given the experience you had, of course, in the tent in Antarctica, under the ocean and in the Space Station, how do people respond? You know, what ways should we think about this isolation? You had, you know, professional, obviously, the best training in the world preparing for that. For a lot of us, we've been shutting doors all of a sudden. So, are there any tips that you might share with the audience?

Cady:                          You know, some of them are, you know, kind of like family tips where, you know, I look at — and you say, “Well, you got professional help.” It's surprisingly not as much as you might think, you know. We kind of have to put those things together for ourselves. But you know, when there's some behavior that is causing strife or some situation, (the best thing to do) is to think, sort of, further than the situation. It's almost like — I think back to when our kid was little and there'd be some, you know, bad behavior after picking up from school in the first few weeks of school. And you know, what I learned about — and I actually had somebody, you know, to help me talk through some of these things, because we commuted, but anyways. But you know, picking him up from school — I mean, this is a kid that’s, like, worked really hard all day long to hold it together, and then there he is with the people that he loves and you just lose it, right? And don't behave as well. And so, do you deal with the behavior, or do you think about what the reason is? And I think it has some applications to our time now.

                                    You know, I found, in our family, we're all kind of a little grumpy when it got to, like, dinner. First of all, we're hungry. And second, you know, we have three adults who are all working full-time from the same house, and suddenly it’s 6 o’clock, and who was in charge of figuring out what to eat? And so, you know, we ended up, you know, coming up with a little bit more of a system and actually acknowledging like, “Hey, everybody, you know, I thought I —” You just feel like you're the only one working, when actually, all of us are working really hard. So, recognizing the behaviors and then realizing that there's probably some, you know, there's some things behind them.

                                    And the hardest thing that we don't actually have to wrestle with much in space, I don't think, is that we know (that), eventually, we're coming home. I mean, it's pretty finite. I mean, I was up there for 6 months, and you know, the mission was extended by 2 weeks, which I was incredibly thrilled about, but I mean, it's still finite. Whereas with COVID-19, there's a lot of uncertainties — and uncertainties about finances, about dreams, about what you're going to be able to do next. And I guess really just owning that uncertainty, I think, is really helpful — realizing that it's hard, and don't expect it to be easy, and just acknowledge you're working through hard things.

[Music playing]

Tom:                          Astronaut Cady Coleman with Alltech president and CEO Mark Lyons, launching the 2020 Alltech ONE Virtual Experience. If you're interested in seeing Cady’s view from space, and to watch more video content from other thought leaders from around the world, register at one.alltech.com. I'm Tom Martin, and this has been Ag Future, presented by Alltech. Thank you for joining us, and be sure to subscribe to Ag Future wherever you listen to podcasts — and leave a review if you’ve enjoyed this episode.

Click here to register for the Alltech ONE Virtual Experience