by Peter Wren-Hilton | Mar 14, 2023 | 2023 Salinas Biological Summit
It’s been a fascinating 48 hours in San Francisco!
The focus of our 10-day visit to the Bay area had been to exclusively prep the 2023 Salinas Biological Summit. Silicon Valley Bank had other ideas.
Having worked and lived in Silicon Valley several years ago, I know just how important SVB was in terms of the broader startup / innovation ecosystem. Whilst the intervention of government regulators will ensure that depositors are repaid their funds (that’s good), the long-term consequences of SVB’s demise are not. It was the one bank that understood risk and was prepared to support startup companies with some novel products. It’s highly unlikely that early-stage companies will see that level of support coming from the more risk-averse banking entities that will now enter this market. The impact for a number of Silicon Valley-based companies sadly is not looking that flash in the short-to-medium term.
Last night, Jacqui and I had the opportunity to re-focus on the main purpose for being here. We caught up with the SVG/Thrive APAC cohort of companies (pictured above), led by Managing Director, Michael Macolino. The cohort are visiting the Bay area for a week’s programme of in-market immersion. They were joined by our good friends from AgriFutures Australia, Ang and Michael. Whilst SVG Venture’s intent is to bring New Zealand agritech startups into the Thrive APAC mix, this first cohort of companies is 100% Australian. The hope is to change this for Cohort #2. I’m looking forward to seeing how the conversation with NZ Inc. progresses on this. Building that trans-Tasman collaborative framework is key to raising our regional profile in the global market.
I learnt last night that we’ll all be meeting again later this week in Salinas. The group are visiting the Western Growers Innovation & Technology Center and other key players in the Salinas Valley region as part of their in-market immersion programme. The only potential obstacle facing their (and our) planned itineraries is an incoming atmospheric river that is threatening to blanket the Monterey / Salinas region with heavy rain. Following last week’s intensive flooding in the region, this was definitely not something we had put into our meeting agendas. The deluge hits tonight and tomorrow morning.
So it’s been an interesting start to our time in California. Later today, we will be catching up with Dennis Donohue from Western Growers and tomorrow with Undersecretary of the California Department of Food & Agriculture (CDFA), Christine Birdsong. That’s when the prepping for the 2023 Salinas Biological Summit will seriously begin.
by Peter Wren-Hilton | Mar 3, 2023 | 2023 Salinas Biological Summit
We are delighted to be joined by the Undersecretary of the California Department of Food & Agriculture (CDFA), Christine Birdsong, as we formally launch the 2023 Salinas Biological Summit in San Francisco on 14 March.
Undersecretary Birdsong was appointed by Governor Newsom as Undersecretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture in 2021. Previously, she was Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Director of People and Culture for the Sun Valley Rice Company. She has also served as General Counsel for the National Cotton Council of America, Counsel for the Committee on Agriculture for the United States House of Representatives and Federal Government Affairs Leader for CropLife America. Undersecretary Birdsong earned a Juris Doctor degree from the UC College of the Law, San Francisco, and is a UC Berkeley alumni.
Undersecretary Birdsong’s presence reinforces the CDFA support for June’s Summit. This was further highlighted in this Western Growers press release issued on 2 March.
Jacqui and I will be spending 10 days in California as we build on the Summit program. We have already lined up 22 amazing speakers from government, research, industry and investment. You can view them here. Over the coming weeks, we will be announcing more local and international experts who will add their voice to this essential conversation.
Regulators and consumers are driving the move towards increased use of biological solutions to improve soil and plant health. Next week’s launch will provide the platform to share the significant opportunity that June’s Summit will bring.
We hope you can join us. For more details, email Peter Wren-Hilton at peter@wharf42.co.nz
by Peter Wren-Hilton | Feb 28, 2023 | 2023 Salinas Biological Summit
Over the past 10 days, we have announced more global experts and key influencers to June’s Summit programme. They include;
- Carl Casale – From Congress to key industry events, Carl is a sought-after commentator on the future of farming and global ag infrastructure
- David Gill – David’s two ‘farms’ rank among the top 10 growers in the Western United States
- Cristina Rohr – Christina is Managing Director, Food & Agriculture, with S2G Ventures
- Eugenia Saini – Eugenia is Executive Director of FONTAGRO, a unique sustainable co-financing mechanism for growers in Latin America & the Caribbean
- Larry Taylor – Co-founder & Managing Director, The Yield Lab, Asia Pacific
- Stuart Woolf – President & CEO of Woolf Farming & Processing. Incoming Chair, Western Growers
We very much hope you can join us in June.
by Peter Wren-Hilton | Feb 25, 2023 | Climate Change
On Saturday, Jacqui and I spent the morning with Oli Madgett at Willunga Farmers Market in McLaren Vale. Hundreds of locals kept the 60+ stallholders busy as they displayed the local delicacies well known in this part of South Australia. Amongst the many displays, one particularly stood out. We were stoked to see a ‘Farmers for Climate Change’ stall in the middle of the market.
‘Farmers for Climate Change’ has a vision for farmers and its representatives to be climate leaders. In Australia, it has 7,000+ farmer members supporting the vision. Its mission is ‘to influence Australia to adopt strong economy-wide climate policies and realise a prosperous and sustainable future, full of opportunity for farmers and farming communities’. You can learn more about their vision & mission at www.farmersforclimateaction.org.au/what-we-do
What struck Jacqui and me as being particularly inspiring about the stall was its visibility and how it shared the farmers message around the impact of climate with an audience of end-customers. Real farmers. Real people. It’s not something we have seen before in New Zealand.
At last week’s evokeAG conference, the challenges facing AgriFoodTech & ClimateTech were closely aligned. Given the extreme weather events that have recently occurred in both Australia and New Zealand, this comes as no surprise. One unexpected surprise for me was the opportunity to catch up with Mick Liubinskas, founder of Climate Salad at the Investor Pitch Dinner last Monday evening. Mick spoke at both the Adelaide and Sydney pre-2035 Oceania Summit workshops back in May last year. As of today, Wharf42 is one of the very few kiwi members of Climate Salad.
No trip to McLaren Vale is complete without a visit to a few of its famous wineries. Oli did not let us down. Saturday afternoon was spent tasting a number of the region’s best-known wines. We learnt about some of the sustainability methods being used by local growers and the impact this was having. The good news from a New Zealand perspective, is that most of these were not new to us. Kiwi winemakers lead the world in some significant areas of sustainable production.
Following last week’s evokeAG conference and the 30 external events that supported it, we’ve had an awesome 10 days in South Australia. There are just so many similarities with New Zealand, the opportunity to collaborate is clear. Building on the successes of last week is key.
Thanks to Oli, Michael, Brad, Penny and a host of others in South Australia’s emerging AgriFoodTech ecosystem for helping make it happen. We look forward to building on that opportunity in the weeks and months ahead.
by Peter Wren-Hilton | Feb 23, 2023 | evokeAG
Jacqui and I have just completed an absolutely awesome few days at the evokeAG 2023 conference in Adelaide. Hat doffed once again to the amazing team at AgriFutures Australia for delivering an epic feast of great content, great speakers and fantastic networking!
Nothing however in today’s ‘new normal’ operates in complete isolation. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to moderate the ‘Biologicals’ workshop with three great panelists; Ben Barlow, Ethy Levy & Kioumars Ghamkhar. Several thousand miles to the east, the 2023 Salinas Biological Summit was confirming its latest speakers at exactly the same time. Like the representatives attending evokeAG from 18 different countries, the issue of biologicals and soil / plant health cuts across borders. So just who has joined our speaker list in June over the last few days?
- Cristina Rohr; Cristina is Managing Director, Food & Agriculture, S2G Ventures
- Eugenia Saini; Eugenia is FONTAGRO’s Executive Secretary, a unique sustainable co-financing mechanism for the development of agricultural technology in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Spain
- Larry Taylor; Larry is the Co-founder & Managing Partner of The Yield Lab, Asia Pacific
- Stuart Woolf; Stuart is President and CEO of Woolf Farming & Processing, and in-coming Chair, Western Growers
They join a growing cohort of great presenters who will highlight the importance of smart sustainable agriculture at a time of our changing climate and emerging global regulation around the application of chemicals to our soils and plants.
You can learn more about the 2023 Salinas Biological Summit, the draft program, more speakers, ticket sales, accommodation discounts etc. at www.salinas-summit.com. With a 2-day optional field trip to meet growers in North America’s ‘fruit bowl’ – Central Valley, it’s going to be another few days of ‘awesome’.
Final word however to evokeAG 2023. The conference provided the opportunity to once again meet in person, network and identify opportunities to collaborate. If you are looking to meet key players in California’s agrifood ecosystem and delegates from around the world, we are looking to repeat the same recipe in June. It’s a recipe that the team at Agricultures delivered this week and one we are keen to replicate again.
