Welcome to the June 8, 2025 edition of SFTW. We will continue the series of how AI is being used in the food and agriculture supply chain this week. This week’s examples come from CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) companies. Some of the examples might not be directly relevant to you, but I hope you can see patterns, which apply to you.
Metal Dog Labs and AgTech Alchemy Happenings
- The second part of the GenAI in Agriculture white paper is available for free to all members
- I will be doing a keynote (“Is AgTech relevant in 2025?”) at the Plug n Play Center AgTech event in Sunnyvale, CA on June 11th. I hope to see some of you there and/or at the AgTech Alchemy event in Sunnyvale. I will publish the slides of my talk after the event
- AgTech Alchemy will host two events on the same day in California (wait list only, as the registration is closed) and in Fargo on June 12th
Scaling Regen Ag Starts with Better Data
Farmers Edge is building the digital backbone for regenerative agriculture—designed to simplify Scope 3 reporting and deliver credible results, fast. With Managed Technology Services built for agribusiness, Farmers Edge connects real-time field data to your sustainability goals across every acre and every grower in your network. From in-season tracking to end-of-year proof, Farmers Edge makes regen ag measurable and manageable. If you're serious about scaling impact and reporting, this is the infrastructure that makes it possible.
AI for food product design and ingredient management
Last week, I spoke about understanding the realities for GenAI at an event in St. Louis. My main takeaways for the audience (which included a bunch of seed dealers) were as follows:
- The cost of experimentation has gone down significantly and so they should be able to engage with GenAI and run some experiments.
- Depending on the use case, ROI can come in fairly quickly, and can fund future projects fairly quickly.
- Strategy and technology expertise is available and they don’t need to take on these projects on their own.
- The time to engage with GenAI is now and the biggest barrier is a necessary change in mindset.
I used Amara’s law to instill a sense of urgency with the audience. Amara’s law states the following:
We often overestimate the impact of technology in the short term, but grossly underestimate the impact of technology in the long term
It's like planting a tiny seed. You might not see a mighty oak tomorrow, but if you forget to plant it at all, you'll definitely never have shade.
Amara’s law teaches us to temper our expectations for the short term, but also exhorts us to engage with promising tools like GenAI so that the world suddenly does not change on us in the long term.
Which problems lend themselves to GenAI?
There are certain situations where GenAI could be a great tool to be used and I believe and know that the food and agriculture industry is ripe with these scenarios.
