Farmhand Ventures Community News #12
What I'm reading and why it matters
Happy 'Liberation Day Eve'! (I wish I could say "April Fools"...but Trump's 'Liberation Day' is for real coming tomorrow, so here's hoping that ag gets some exemptions….)
In more uplifting news, last week I attended probably the most informative and important convening I'll go to this year when it comes to successfully developing solutions for agriculture. Equitable Food Initiative hosted an intimate gathering to bring together a diversity of stakeholders to discuss Ag Credentialing in California. I'll share more about it in coming weeks when the notes and next steps get shared back out, but right now, I'm feeling simultaneously hopeless and hopeful. Hopeless because I don't see any real way to ensure that the farmworkers in and beyond that room will reliably see just wages or pathways to visas or citizenship in the near term, and they deserve both. Hopeful, because it is oh so rare to be in a room with folks with highly varied opinions and politics who actually listen to one another. The will is there to value farmworkers as the skilled workers that they are, and today at least, I think we can do it.
This week, I'm in Mississippi for the AI in Ag Conference - also an important event, but, unsurprisingly, one that's missing farmworkers. I've had some good conversations with well-intended researchers, and appreciate that there's a socioeconomic track. I know that the folks at MSU's Ag Autonomy Institute care and are trying very hard to ensure that they include stakeholders in their research and work, and I'm glad to be helping them to move in that direction.
Despite all the travel, I've been reading (and podcasting) plenty:
Ag cooperatives enable farmers to pool resources to process and market their crops, thus improving margin. Data co-ops can enable farmers to pool their data and create a similarly value-added effect, and Christophe argues that this is needed now more than ever.
Why it matters: Christophe and I have been talking about data cooperatives since ~2019/20 when I was working with AgLaunch to develop their Data Commons, a data lake controlled by the AgLaunch farmer network members. I often describe AgLaunch as an agtech co-op - their field trial based services are offered in exchange for pooled equity, creating a diversified portfolio of equity stakes earned by, and allocated to a diversity of farmers.
We took that to another level with the AgLaunch Data Commons, trying to integrate data captured by AgLaunch portfolio companies and other tech solutions used by farmer network members into a larger, anonymized pool of data that could then be used for a number of things, including selling ecosystem credits and more efficiently validating new algorithms/tech companies. To the best of my knowledge, that was the first farmer data cooperative ever built.
Two major barriers that we encountered in the early days of this project were data interoperability and data usage agreements ("data ownership"). Neither of these problems have really been "solved." There have been lots of initiatives and progress has been made on both sides, but there’s work left to do here. Another challenge that merits more pre-competitive energy and resourcing is cybersecurity - a data lake is all well and good and can be designed with privacy in mind, but, better make sure that data lake and all the APIs piping in and out are secure!
TL;DR: It's 2025 - why is it easier for farmers to drive to their local USDA service center than navigate government websites?
Why it matters: I see you trying to leverage DOGE for good, FarmRaise squad! Elon, here's a legitimate make-it-efficient opportunity. Make the logins.gov processes better! This has got to get fixed because American farmers are really hurting right now, and this is the front door to government support. Moreover, digital interfaces are the easiest way to reduce bias in government funding allocation, which has been proven to be a massive problem for Black and female farmers.
It's a relatively easy fix - get a W, federal government! (But let's be clear - even this is not as important or as impactful as honoring contracts that have been cut at the 11th hour, rehiring folks doing critical long-term research, protecting civil liberties, and creating legal pathways to citizenship for the immigrants who make our food system function.)
TL;DR: Helena Bottemiller Evich (from FoodFix) has a new podcast collab with FERN, and this is a rapid-fire, drink-from-the-firehose analysis of the stuff that's happened in US food policy in the past week or so. There's so much happening that I'm not gonna attempt to summarize - listen and for goodness sake, subscribe to FoodFix.
Why it matters: Food and ag and policy are inextricably linked. I know that I'm not the only one who feels like I'm holding on to the edge of being informed by my fingertips as an ever-increasing deluge of US policy-related decisions, reversals, threats, and ramifications flood past. Who the heck knows what will happen tomorrow in tariff-land. Keep paying attention, because ignoring it doesn't make it better.
TL;DR: Thought-provoking piece from Mikayla Mooney at Ag Startup Engine on the limits of VC for agtech.
Why it matters: Startup founders often ask me who else is investing via redeemable equity in ag, and who else "gets it" - Mikayla and Ag Startup Engine get it, and they're putting their money where their mouths are.
I don't fully agree with how Mikayla breaks down the types of agtech startups. I think that RoundUp ready genetics (by Monsanto) are an example of a category-defining technology that fits both the convenience and the change in practice categories. RoundUp made changing practices convenient, thus transforming broad acre production. RoundUp ready genetics had a faster adoption curve than iPhones.
That said, her framework did make me think, and I like the logical, producer-first way that she's breaking down agtech solutions. I do fully agree with the way she breaks down "why it matters" and "what we should do."
TL;DR: Farmhand Ventures Venture Partner Eva Goulbourne has a new pod in which she interviews folks in the intersection of food and climate, focusing specifically on opportunities for philanthropy to participate and create novel, blended financial products to resource the system.
Why it matters: Eva and Renée (guest) are two of my favorite people, so I'm biased, but I think they're pretty damn smart. Renée’s "fund" model at TNC incorporates recoverable grants (from “LPs,” or fund investors), and then blends equity investments and grants on the agtech startup financing side. It’s different, and it’s a great example of what we as impact investors need to be trying to resource solutions in ag.
Thanks for reading,
Connie