by Peter Wren-Hilton | Feb 2, 2024 | Platform10
I’m delighted that myself, representing Wharf42, and Dennis Donohue, Director, Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology have recorded our first 5 episodes of ‘The Grower Talks’ podcast series.
The podcast series is an important element of the Platform10 initiative. It has been designed to provide insights into the ‘less chemistry. more biologicals’ discussion which is currently taking place amongst growers everywhere. As regulators and consumers globally are driving this change, it’s important that the grower stays at the centre of the conversation. That’s the aim of ‘The Grower Talks’ podcast.
To-date, we have interviewed five awesome guests;
- CDFA Secretary Karen Ross
- Pam Marrone
- Carl Casale
- Don Cameron
- Josette Lewis
Recorded live in the Salinas studio, you can view them via YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcast. And you can view them all here, right now! Platform 10 | The Global Specialty Crop Biological Platform
We are adding new podcasts every 10-14 days to this asset library. If you are looking to learn more about the conversation and the key role that growers will have to adopt these new inputs, it’s one page you should bookmark.
by Peter Wren-Hilton | Dec 12, 2023 | Platform10, Uncategorized
I was delighted to join Dennis Donohue and Jeana Calby of Western Growers for the formal launch of Platform10 at the Organic Growers Summit in Monterey, California, last week.
Platform10 is an international, multi-year collaboration that will accelerate promising biopesticide companies, rigorously assess products, enhance grower confidence, and facilitate market development and adoption.
Growers are up against mounting pest and disease challenges due to climate change, reduced efficacy, and diminishing availability of traditional pest control tools. The specialty crop industry in particular requires new crop input technologies due to governmental regulations and consumer demands. Bio-based and novel pest control options to address existing and anticipated gaps in pest management are sorely needed to ensure that our growers are properly equipped with the tools to address these challenges.
In Monterey, we had the opportunity to meet and speak to a number of growers. The response we got to the purpose of Platform10 was overwhelmingly positive. It clearly meets a very defined need. Wharf42 looks forward to helping develop this program through 2024 as we take the lead in building Platform10’s Global Partner Network to be launched at the 2024 Salinas Biological Summit in June.
It’s an awesome initiative and an awesome opportunity!
by Peter Wren-Hilton | Nov 22, 2023 | International
Yesterday, Jacqui and I had a great meeting (& thanks for the lunch!) with the visiting Innovate UK Global Business Innovation Programme (Agri-Tech) team in Hamilton yesterday. It was good to learn about each of the delegates’ businesses and key focus areas. There’s undoubtedly a real opportunity for some partnerships and deal-making to be done in New Zealand.
In-market visits such as this offer huge value to the participants. The follow-up however is the critical piece. It was one of my own focus areas of conversation with some of the team. Two weeks provides you with a taster. To properly evaluate any real export market potential however requires a different and more nuanced approach.
We discussed the Australia – UK agritech accelerator programmes which provide a more in-depth understanding of the market opportunity. I also talked a bit about Platform10 which Wharf42 and Western Growers will be launching in California next week. Building Global Partner Networks can provide both startup and scaleup companies with the opportunity to accelerate their knowledge and understanding of offshore market potential.
The current UK delegation tour in NZ looks like a great introduction to our agrifood and agrifoodtech ecosystem. I hope the discussions help develop a more collaborative framework which both countries can build on.
by Peter Wren-Hilton | Oct 27, 2023 | Platform10
It gives me a great pleasure to formally introduce you to Platform10, the most significant outcome generated by the 2023 Salinas Biological Summit.
Platform10 is an international, multi-year collaboration that will accelerate promising biopesticide companies, rigorously assess products, enhance grower confidence, and facilitate market development and adoption. Platform10 is being developed by Western Growers and ourselves at Wharf42.
Growers are up against mounting pest and disease challenges due to climate change, reduced efficacy, and diminishing availability of traditional pest control tools. The specialty crop industry in particular requires new crop input technologies due to governmental regulations and consumer demands. Bio-based and novel pest control options to address existing and anticipated gaps in pest management are sorely needed to ensure that our growers are properly equipped with the tools to address these challenges.
This new model to assess and accelerate biopesticide and bio-based pest control tools is intended to improve grower confidence and understanding for how to use biological products. Rigorous standards of efficacy including knockdown, crop damage, and increased yield/quality potential will be assessed. Additionally, effects on non-target organisms and soil health, replacement potential for traditional chemical pesticides, and appropriate application rate/use pattern will be considered. This program will work with product companies to design protocols, developed to assess how the product works when incorporated into a more integrated, ecologically based farming system.
Demonstrating successful product / solution outcomes through extensive field trials on grower properties is a key metric for Platform10. Over the next six months, Platform10 will be engaging with international partners to build out a multi-year program of activity. This will be formally launched at the 2024 Salinas Biological Summit next June.
Today, working with dedicated, targeted growers within the Western Grower network, the initial field trial program will be managed out of the Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology in Salinas, California. This initial program, open to product companies anywhere, will be formally launched at the Organic Growers Summit in Monterey on 29-30 November.
Platform10 has targeted 5 key initial specialty crops with high priority diseases. They are;
Leafy Greens: INSV, Pythium, Thrips
Tomato: Beet leafhopper, Thrips and / or Tomato spotted wilt virus
Grape: Mealy bug, Powdery mildew, Botrytis
Strawberry / Other berries: Lygus bug, Macrophomina, Phytophthora
Citrus: Citrus thrips, Red scale
Product companies (of any size and from anywhere) who are;
- addressing the control of pests and diseases in the above crops where current traditional chemical solutions are at risk or have been removed;
- replacements for fumigants, where pest resistance is a serious problem;
- there are residue/MRL issues;
- the food channel buyers or export markets are asking to reduce or replace a particular chemical pesticide;
are asked to download the Platform10 RFP and apply to join the Program.
You can download the RFP here
by Peter Wren-Hilton | Oct 27, 2023 | Agritech New Zealand
Jacqui and I were delighted to receive the first Agritech NZ Lifetime Achievement Award in Auckland last week.
The Award had actually been announced at a Ministerial Dinner hosted at NZ Parliament back in August. Unfortunately, Jacqui and I were on a 2-month tour of Europe meeting different agrifoodtech players in the region. It’s a huge honour and we are both deeply grateful for it.
When we first launched Agritech NZ back in 2018, I don’t think either of us imagined just how big and influential a voice it would become for the sector. Securing the Agritech Industry Transformation Plan support from government back in 2020 was a key milestone for us. We believe it’s a key foundation piece as to where the sector is today.
In 2019, we co-founded the Australia New Zealand Agritech Council. I remain a founding member of AgriFuture’s Australia evokeAG steering committee and am deeply honoured by that role. It began our global path. In June this year, we co-hosted the 2023 Salinas Biological Summit with our US partners, Western Growers. We are already planning the 2024 Summit, slated for 25-26 June 2024.
We continue to apply a global lens to everything we do. We believe that continues to support our original decision to help grow New Zealand’s agritech sector. If we attempt to do that in isolation, we will fail. We strongly believe that it is only through collaborating with international partners that New Zealand’s agritech sector will reach its true potential.
