Agenda: Future-Proofing Resilience in Ag: Climate-Water-Energy-Food Nexus

Welcome breakfast courtesy of:

• What are the biggest challenges facing the food system today? With supply chain disruption, rising inflation and labor shortages, what has changed for companies in the past two years and how is this driving strategy and investment decisions around resilience and sustainability?
• How is the industry working toward influencing innovation within the agricultural industry, what collaborations are we seeing and where can technologies have the greatest impact?
• How can industry drive more investment to support climate smart agriculture and food system innovation?

Session Chair:
George Bilicic, Vice Chairman, Global Head, Power Energy, LAZARD

Speakers:
Anuj Maheshwari, Managing Director & Head, Agri-Food, TEMASEK
Chavonda Jacobs-Young, Chief Scientist, USDA
Ertharin Cousin, Member of the Supervisory Board, BAYER & CEO & Founder, FOOD SYSTEMS FOR THE FUTURE

• How is the role of agriculture evolving to address new challenges around food security and energy transition?
• What role do science and technology play in providing farmers the tools they need to be successful while meeting new societal demands?
• How can cross-industry collaboration fast track the drive toward sustainable innovation?

Speaker:
Chuck Magro, CEO, CORTEVA AGRISCIENCE

• How are farmers tackling the volatility from supply shocks and rising inflation in fertilisers, seeds and chemicals?
• What solutions are being developed to help farmers adapt and mitigate risk from climate, labor and the supply chain?

Session Chair:
Ernie Shea, President, SOLUTIONS FROM THE LAND 

Speakers:
Larkin Martin, Former Chairman, FARM FOUNDATION & Seventh Generation Farmer, MARTIN FARM
Matt Coutts, Chief Investment Officer, COUTTS AGRO
Stuart Woolf, President & Managing Partner, WOOLF FARMING AND PROCESSING

Hosted by:

• As agriculture becomes more digitalized, how can banks, insurance and reinsurance companies improve underwriting and risk management?
• How will access to more reliable, granular agronomic data collected from satellites and other remote sensing systems enhance lending and loss mitigation?
• What new financial products could emerge as a result of advanced technologies in the future?
• What will better data capture and analysis mean for land management, carbon monetization opportunities and farmland valuation?

Session Chair:
Kenneth Zuckerberg, Lead Industry Analyst, COBANK

Speakers:
Erin Fitzgerald, CEO, US FARMERS & RANCHERS IN ACTION
Jim O’Brien, CEO, AGROGRAPH
Ramsey Masri, CEO, CERES IMAGING
Mohan Tavorath, Partner, Investments & Data Sciences, INTERNATIONAL FARMING CORP

• Who is investing in and developing the infrastructure to support the digital transformation of ag?
• Where are we in the apps vs infrastructure innovation cycle – do the apps lead the infrastructure?
• How could we accelerate the velocity of innovation if we had the right infrastructure, data sharing and backbone in place?
• What part of the data stack can be standardized? Who is doing the backend of managing security and data warehousing, so that companies can more rapidly build on top of it?

Moderator:
Vasanth Ganesan, Partner, MCKINSEY & COMPANY

Speakers:
Jake Joraanstad, Co-Founder & CEO, BUSHEL
Duey Yliniemi, General Manager, GREENSTONE SYSTEMS, A CULTURA COMPANY  
Sidhartha Bhandari, Agriculture & Food Digital Transformation Practice Lead, PUBLICIS SAPIENT
Elizabeth Fastiggi, Head of Worldwide Business Development, Agriculture, AWS

• Over time, digital tools that measure and verify the impacts of new technologies and farming practices will be key to scaling carbon markets and climate smart farming practices. What are the current limits to our understanding of soil health?
• How are remote MRV capabilities being built out and integrated around a full-service stack offering and where are the opportunities to bring down the costs?
• What are the options to move away from modeling and incentivize real measurements? How do we accelerate basic academic research and provide transparent access to the methodology and results with universities and the USDA?
• Where are the opportunities to improve carbon sequestration via biological inputs? Where do we need to get to within the next five years to have impact at scale? What is currently missing?

Session Chair:
Giulia Stellari, Director, FALL LINE CAPITAL

Speakers:
Niall Mottram, Head of Industrial & Energy, CAMBRIDGE CONSULTANTS
Adrian Ferrero, Co-Founder & CEO, BIOME MAKERS
Jack Roswell, Co-Founder & CEO, PERENNIAL
Yossi Kofman, CEO, GROUNDWORK BIOAG
Patrick Sheridan, Global Head Digital Sustainability, SYNGENTA

Speakers:
Ranveer Chandra, Managing Director, Research for Industry & CTO, Agri-Food, MICROSOFT
Bob Reiter, Head of R&D, BAYER CROP SCIENCE

Lunch sponsored by:

• Next-Generation Biologicals: Building more consistent and resilient products
  Hosted by: Franco Martinez-Levis, CEO & Elisa Bertini, Co-Founder and CSO, PUNA BIO
• Supply Chain Quality: Leveraging biotechnology to deliver innovative insurance solutions
  Hosted by: Vishaal Bhuyan, CEO, AANIKA BIOSCIENCES
• Predictive Ag: How soil biology drives management decisions
  Hosted by: Rob Hranac, CEO & Danielle Watts, VP, Head Data Science, PATTERN AG
• Building Trust: The power of partnership in accelerating biological adoption
  Hosted by: Thomas Chavez, VP of Global Sales, AZOTIC
• Commercializing Robotics: What does it mean to be commercial?
  Hosted by: Alon Ascher, CBO, BLUEWHITE
• AgTech Integration: Strategic decisions on building a tech stack for growers
  Hosted by: Ehsan Soltan, Founder & CEO, SOILTECH WIRELESS
• Sustainable AgTech Platforms: Making digitization a greater reality for more farmers
  Hosted by: Matteo Vanotti, CEO, XFARM TECHNOLOGIES
• Robotics: The Future of automation on the farm
  Hosted by: Craig Rupp, CEO, SABANTO
• The Sensor in Your Pocket: Capturing low-cost, precision ag data
  Hosted by: Kevin Lang, CEO & President, AGERPOINT
• Ag Biologicals: What makes for a successful biological active ingredient discovery program?
  Hosted by: Eric Ward, CEO & Ben Holt, VP for Innovation, AGBIOME
• Carbon Awareness: Opportunities to scale carbon farming, emission-reducing inputs and climate-positive ingredients
  Hosted by: Nina Meijers, Foodbytes Platform Director, RABOBANK
• AIM for Climate: Investing in a food secure future
  Hosted by: Jaime Adams, Senior Advisor and U.S. AIM for Climate Lead, USDA
• Accelerating innovation in agriculture through a collaboration centric approach
  Hosted by: Stuart Harrison, Head of R&D Partnerships, SYNGENTA
• CRISPR: Opportunities in Gene Editing
  Hosted by: Mat Muller, Director, Biotechnology Strategy Leader, CORTEVA AGRISCIENCE
• Corporate-Start-Up Relationship: What does big ag need to get right with start-ups?
  Hosted by: Peter Eckes, President of R&D and Regulatory, BASF AGRICULTURAL SOLUTIONS

• Genome modification, gene editing and epigenetic products will all be coming to market at the same time, but each has a different regulatory pathway. What are the trade-offs between these technologies and where does each have the opportunity to solve a particular challenge in agriculture?
• How are we mining R&D data today and what are the current limitations with the analytical tools? How are companies building data-enabled platforms to optimize discovery and where are they adding value to their business?

Session Chair:
Vipula Shukla, Senior Program Officer, Agriculture R&D, THE GATES FOUNDATION

Speakers:
Bob Reiter, Head of R&D, BAYER CROP SCIENCE
Ponsi Trivisvavet, CEO, INARI
Travis Bayer, Co-Founder & CTO, SOUND AGRICULTURE
Magalie Guilhabert, Vice President, Head of AgBiologicals, GINKGO BIOWORKS
Tom Adams, CEO, PAIRWISE

• How are growers and agribusinesses starting to take a holistic and systems approach to building soil and plant health?
• How are growers switching their expenditure from synthetics to biologicals and how does the ROI play out as part of a production cycle?
• How can we improve the measurement of biologicals to accurately predict and understand their impact at real-world scale in terms of both production impact – reducing inputs or boosting yields – and sustainability, such as soil health?

Session Chair:
Diane Allemang, EVP & Chief Marketing Officer, FMC CORPORATION

Speakers:
Yvonne Pinto, Director of Bioeconomy, EAGLE GENOMICS
Brad Arnold, SVP, General Manager Precision, AGCO
Francis Leier, Chief Development Officer, HELLO NATURE
Clark T. Bell, CEO, NANO-YIELD
Debbie Watts, VP of Innovation, North America, YARA

• How do start-ups decide on the right route to market for a biological product?
• What are the pros and cons of retailer distribution channels vs direct to farmer models?
• What partnerships are proving most effective in scaling up new products and accessing new markets?

Session Chair:
Jason Garbell, Senior Director, New Business & Alliance Management, NOVOZYMES

Speakers:
Kristal Allen, Partner, MLT AIKINS
Kevin Kimm, CEO, OCP NORTH AMERICA
Lynn White, CEO, ANUVIA PLANT NUTRIENTS

Hosted by:

In the run up to this year’s summit, Growmark and CHS’s venture arm, Cooperative Ventures, set an innovation challenge for start-ups. Three finalists will present their ideas to a panel of senior executives, who will then come together for a short discussion and follow-up questions before a winner is crowned.

Judging Panel:
Heather Thompson, Director of Innovation, GROWMARK
Ben Van Straten, Director of Innovation & Sustainability, CHS

Finalists: 
Yuval Aviel, Co-Founder & CEO, AUTONOMOUS PIVOT
Dan McCann, CEO, PRECISION AI
Ketan Kaushish, Co-Founder & CEO, UKKO AGRO

• The USDA Climate-Smart Commodities Program has invested $2.8bn to reduce and measure climate impact. What consortiums are being created and what breakthroughs are they targeting? How do we ensure that positive outcomes come from these partnerships?
• How are agri-food companies and technologies developers working with growers to stimulate the adoption of new farming practices? Where are we seeing pilots move to full scale operations?
• What financial models are being used to encourage farmers to use climate-smart practices and establish markets for these commodities?
• What areas of innovation hold the greatest promise for adapting to and mitigating the effects of climate change in farming? Where do we need more research?

Session Chair:
Rod Snyder, Senior Agriculture Advisor, US EPA

Speakers:
Allison Thomson, AgMission Program Director, FFAR
Jason Clay, SVP Market Transformation, WWF
Rob Meyers, Vice President, Global Agri Operations, PEPSICO
Barbara Guerpillon, Senior Director Transformation & Sustainability, DOLE SUNSHINE COMPANY

• What investment opportunities are new climate tech funds exploring in agriculture and food? Why have agriculture and food been harder than other sectors and how do we unlock more capital in this space?
• How do we educate both investors and entrepreneurs and connect them to farmers and the industry so we can build capacity while optimizing the impact of capital?
• What does impact investing look like to investors through the lens of precision agriculture and sustainable farming? How do we measure and create a currency of impact?

Session Chair:
Sarah Nolet, General Partner, TENACIOUS VENTURES

Speakers:
Sam Kass, Partner, ACRE VENTURE PARTNERS
Clea Kolster, Partner & Head of Science, LOWERCARBON CAPITAL
Susan Mac Cormac, Partner, MOFO
Lila Preston, Head Growth Equity, GENERATION INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT 
Caitlin Walsh, Managing Director, Growth Equity, CPPIB

Hosted by:

Created exclusively for women in ag, the gathering will recognize and celebrate the success of women leaders in agriculture and seek to nurture and inspire the next generation of talent. Limited capacity – RSVP only.

Table Leaders Include:

USDA, FOOD SYSTEM FOR THE FUTURE, CHS, IFPA, AFNEWS

Hosted by:

Breakfast served courtesy of:

• If we fast-forward 30 years, what will the agricultural sector look like? What tectonic shifts are coming because of sustainability, climate, food security and consumer demands? What new horizontal opportunities will emerge as a result and what new partnerships will be needed to solve complex challenges?
• How are large companies remaining agile and nimble to new opportunities? What new R&D and collaboration models are emerging?
• The translation of technologies to the market has been slow. How do we strengthen public-private partnerships to get more solutions into the market?
• How will AI have a transformative impact on discovery and impact for agriculture and food?

Session Chair:
David Babson, Executive Director, MIT CLIMATE GRAND CHALLENGES

Speakers:
Peter Eckes, President of R&D and Regulatory , BASF AGRICULTURAL SOLUTIONS
XinYi Lim, Executive Director, Sustainability and Agricultural Impact, PINDUODUO
Ranveer Chandra, Managing Director for Research for Industry, CTO of Agri-Food, MICROSOFT
Ren Hua Ho, CEO, THAI WAH

Using satellite data for rapid agricultural assessments for food security, sustainability, climate change and the value of public private partnerships.

Speakers:
Andrew Zolli, Chief Impact Officer, PLANET 
Inbal Becker-Reshef, Program Director, NASA HARVEST

Hear from three of the hottest innovators in the agtech space, pitching their solutions to a panel of judges – followed by Q&A to delve deeper into their products, strategies, and visions for the future! Hungry for more? Join us in the start-up arena for pitching sessions and investor drop-ins.

Sharks:
Hadar Sutovsky, VP External Innovation, ICL PLANET
Trevor Sieck, Assistant Vice President, Start-up Relationship Manager, RABOBANK

Start-Up Presenters:
Cheri Ackerman, Cofounder & CEO, CONCERTO BIOSCIENCES
Adam Stager, Founder, TRIC ROBOTICS
Tim Schnabel, Founder & CEO, SWITCH BIOWORKS
Patrick Mellor, Co-Founder & CTO, LIVING CARBON

Hosted by:

• What new demands are coming to agriculture and what tools do farmers need to continue to drive productivity? From better management practices to seeds and input – what is going to drive the next yield bump in agriculture?
• How do we give farmers the flexibility to reduce the use of fertilizers and chemical inputs and manage an increased frequency of rotation and use of different crops?
• With autonomy and better autonomous functionality coming, what does the next 10 years look like? How far can this go, and could we get rid of spray altogether and go to full mechanization? What openings does this create for new distribution channels and new services?

Session Chair:
Danny Royer, Farm Coordinator & Former VP Technology, UC MERCED

Speakers:
Jorge Heraud, VP Technology, JOHN DEERE
Harikrishna Kulaveerasingam, Chief Research & Development Officer, SIME DARBY PLANTATION
Dirk Vandenhirtz, Founder & CEO, CROP.ZONE
Ryan Risdal, President, Product & Strategy, PROAGRICA
Kevin Krieg, Director of Business Development, INTELINAIR

• How are data and AI changing decision making at the farm level? How are farmers and innovators using this data to make decisions more efficiently and more quickly?
• How are companies collaborating with large organizations, research centres and leading universities to shorten innovation cycle times by leveraging data infrastructures and data sharing.

Session Chair:
Shely Aronov, Founder & CEO, INNERPLANT

Speakers:
Ron Baruchi, President & CEO, AGMATIX
Mark Dann, Agriculture Accounts Executive, Natural Resources Team, ESRI
Randy Barker, CEO, INTENT

Speaker:
David Farquhar, CEO, IGS

• Technology convergence is enabling the ag robotics industry to take shape. Where are we seeing robotics perform tasks on a par with humans in terms of both cost and performance?
• Where are we seeing the greatest traction, and what new collaborations are emerging on standards and data exchange?
• What co-developments and investments are we seeing to move beyond pilot to mainstream application?
• What knowledge is moving from indoors to outdoors? How is R&D driving advances in open field agriculture?

Session Chair:
John Hamer, Managing Partner, DCVC BIO

Speakers:
Ben Alfi, CEO & Co-Founder, BLUEWHITE
Boaz Bachar, CEO & Co-Founder, FIELDIN
Tim Bucher, CEO, AGTONOMY
Gabe Sibley, CEO & Co-Founder, VERDANT ROBOTICS
Eric Adamson, Co-Founder & CEO, TORTUGA 

Each roundtable discussion group is hosted by an industry expert on a specific theme offering you a valuable opportunity to network, brainstorm solutions, and discuss ideas. Come prepared for lively discussion and diverse debate!

• Ag Biologicals: Farm to fork or fork to farm?
  Hosted by: Russ Putland, EVP & General Manager, LAVIE BIO
• Advancing Crop Protection: Next-gen crop protection platforms
  Hosted by: John Dombrosky, CEO, OERTH BIO
• Water and Climate: What high impact solutions can mitigate crop water stress in ag?
  Hosted by: Jean-Francois Déchant, CEO & Co-founder, ELICIT PLANT
• Biologicals: Overcoming challenges for broader adoption
  Hosted by: Wieland Reichelt, CEO, EVOLOGIC
• Creative Collaboration Models: Building effective partnerships to achieve breakthroughs in ag
  Hosted by: Natanja Slager, AgTech Front End Innovation Leader, ICL PLANET
• Ag Productivity Growth: The role of start-ups and corporates in reversing negative productivity trends
  Hosted by: Jessica Agnew, Associate Director & Tom Thompson, Director, CALS GLOBAL , VIRGINIA TECH 
• Scaling Robotics: Finding the right partnerships to maximize customer value and to achieve scale
  Hosted by: Charles Andersen, CEO, BURRO
• Digital Ag: Creating tech solutions to accelerate and measure impact
  Hosted by: Varina Baldi, CEO & Founder, MAGOYA SOFTWARE
• Future of Smart Spraying:  Empowering growers with data and autonomy
  Hosted by: Nadav Bocher, CEO & Co-Founder, GREENEYE TECHNOLOGIES
• Diversity and Inclusion in Ag: What can we do to change the landscape?
  Hosted by: Neal Gutterson, Partner & CTO, RADICLE GROWTH
• Satellite Data: Exploring the role of data and AI in food security
  Hosted by: Archie Menezes, President, North America, SATSURE & Ravi Gupta, Managing Director, ERNST & YOUNG
• University-Industry Partnerships: Accelerating agtech innovation at scale
  Hosted by: Josh Viers, Associate Dean for Research and Director, Citris & Banatao Institute, UC MERCED and Daniel Sabzehar, Managing Partner, TESSERAKT VENTURES

• Growers are seeing pests and diseases developing resistance to conventional chemistries. As reality starts to bite, what new approaches are farmers trialling?
• What new technologies and innovations are accelerating product discovery to enable greater efficacy, resistance management and shelf life?
• How are new approaches to formulation being integrated with advances in seed breeding to give farmers greater flexibility to tackle emerging problems, whilst preserving the runway for valuable chemistries over the longer term?
• Consumer and regulatory pressures such as the European Green deal are pushing for a dramatic and rapid transformation of the crop protection industry – how realistic are the targets that are being set and where is investment urgently needed?

Session Chair:
Mark Brooks, Managing Director, FMC VENTURES

Speakers:
Darren Anderson, CEO, VIVE CROP PROTECTION
Rebecca White, CEO, PEBBLE LABS
Thomas Laurent, Founder, MICROPEP
Patrice Sellès, CEO, BIOTALYS
Sebastian Calvo, CEO, SURCOS

• How do we build a food system that meets the needs of all stakeholders in the value chain from the farmer to the consumer?
• Where are the opportunities to bring both ends of the value chain together from seed through to processing to drive greater efficiencies through the whole system?
• How are large corporate farming operations trying to dial water into their operations to get a more consistent quality product – either through genetics, growing practices or management? Where do they see the opportunities for competitive advantages?
• What crops are coming that will enable long term resilience/nutrition?

Session Chair:
Howard Yana Shapiro, Senior Advisor, WORLD AGROFORESTRY

Speakers:
Kathryn Cook, Co-Founder & CEO, NUCICER
Matt Crisp, CEO, BENSON HILL

• Who are the major consolidators that are coming into agtech? How are they building out their capabilities and getting bigger?
• What is the long-term vision and who has the golden strategy? What challenges are they experiencing?

Session Chair:
Seana Day, Partner, BETTER FOOD VENTURES

Speakers:
Sanjeev Krishnan, CIO & MD, S2G VENTURES
David Friedberg, Founder & CEO, THE PRODUCTION BOARD
Nolan Paul, Partner, YAMAHA MOTOR VENTURES
Kim Nicholson, VP Ag Technology & Innovation, MOSAIC
Stephen Davis, Managing Partner, BANNEKER PARTNERS

• What does the next 12 months look like for investing in agtech? What opportunities are venture funds targeting and what new categories are emerging and starting to gain traction?
• How are late-stage venture capital and growth equity funds diversifying their portfolios towards agri-food and looking to secure exposure in disruptive technologies? What targets are being set and what is driving these strategies?
• What types of investments are being made and what is the route to exit to for companies that have proven out the trajectory around revenue growth?

Session Chair:
Scott Porter, Managing Director, CASCADIA CAPITAL

Speakers:
Phil Erlanger, Managing Director, ALIMENT CAPITAL
Chris Abbott, Co-Head, CONTI VENTURES
Adam Anders, Managing Partner, ANTERRA CAPITAL
Taryn Goodman, Partner, SANDBOX SUSTAINABILITY VENTURES
Katrin Burt, Managing Partner, GROSVENOR FOOD & AGTECH