Agtech - So What?

How do you know when a new agtech product is actually ready for the farm? 

Growing up on a family farm in Colorado over the declining Ogallala Aquifer, Chad Godsey has spent his career searching for ways to improve water and nutrient efficiency.  These days he’s the Chief Agronomist for Green Evolution Technologies, which has a hydrogel technology that’s engineered to store water and nutrients in the soil.

This episode explores why adoption looks different on every farm, how growers are increasingly using their own data to assess new products, and why farmer confidence, not just evidence, is often the biggest barrier to change.

Hosted by Tenacious’ Dr. Maddie Mitchell, they discuss why Green Evolution Technologies has deliberately taken a slower path to market, the role of farmer investors, and how building a product around real farming systems (versus chasing rapid growth) can create stronger businesses in the long term.

Maddie and Chad discuss:

Why farmers trust their own on-farm trials more than research papers

The realities of the technology adoption curve in agtech

Why startup timelines don't always match farming timelines

The commercialization strategy behind Green Evolution Technologies

Why efficiency is becoming more valuable than simply increasing yield

The role of hydrogels in improving water and nutrient use efficiency

Useful Links:

Is Agtech Broken for Venture Capital—or Are We Asking the Wrong Question?

When Kansas dries up…in 2050, with Dan Northrup

Pivot Bio

Godsey Precision Ag

GreenSeeker tool might help reduce your nitrogen costs - Corn

Accelerating the development of agtech worth adopting

For more information and resources, visit our website. 

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe the information is correct, we provide no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

What if the future of food isn't about convincing people to care more about sustainability, but rather focusing on what can improve taste?

In this episode, Tenacious’ Dr. Maddie Mitchell speaks with food futurist and innovation strategist Mike Lee about the forces shaping the future of food, agriculture, and consumer behavior. 

Mike has spent his career helping some of the world's largest food companies think differently about innovation. He's also the author of Mise: On the Future of Food, a speculative magazine from the future that explores what food systems could look like over the coming decades.

Together, Maddie and Mike unpack why consumers consistently say they care about sustainability but continue to buy based on taste, convenience, and price. They explore the growing interest in soil health and why one of the biggest opportunities for agtech may be proving the connection between healthy soils, flavor, and nutrient density.

They discuss:

Why taste still beats sustainability at the checkout

The emerging connection between soil health, flavor, and nutrition.

What agtech startups can learn from systems thinking

The links between personalized nutrition and crop diversity

Who’s driving more change: big food companies or startups

Useful Links:

Will consumers and companies ever pay for nutrition and soil health?

A New Blueprint for Big Food - by Mike Lee

Eating to Extinction 

GLP-1s are reshaping the food system — are midstream companies ready?

Companies mentioned: Chobani, Alpha Food Labs, Bionutrient Food Association, Edacious

For more information and resources, visit our website. 

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe the information is correct, we provide no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

With the surname “Kentish,” Nic carries his family’s potato growing legacy. While it's one of pride, the journey has certainly not been easy.  After returning to the family farm in South Australia, he found himself confronting one of the biggest challenges many farming families face: how to build a profitable, sustainable business in an increasingly volatile industry.

In this episode, Nic Kentish unpacks his lessons learned from decades in farming, including a difficult transition into organic potato production that ultimately left the business carrying significant debt. Nic speaks candidly about the financial and emotional pressure that comes with succession, the realities of running high-risk agricultural enterprises, and why understanding your gross margins matters just as much as understanding your soils.

Now an educator with RCS’s Grazing for Profit program, Nic explains why he believes agriculture must be viewed as a connected system: where soil health, profitability, relationships, livestock management, and technology are all intertwined. The conversation explores regenerative agriculture, biological farming, and why Nic prefers to focus less on labels and more on outcomes.

Sarah and Nic discuss:

Why “great technology” still has to solve real on-farm problems

The lessons Nic learned from transitioning to organic farming

Gross margins, debt, and the hidden pressures of succession

Why soil health and profitability are deeply connected

The role of observation and intuition alongside agtech

Why family relationships are often the biggest risk, or strength, in farming businesses

How farmers can build resilience in increasingly variable conditions    

Useful Links:

The Warble Podcast | RCS

Change Agent: The maverick agronomist who changed grazing methods - ABC News

Optiweigh

Low Stress Stock Handling - Farmsafe

Arden Andersen - Soil Learning Center

Halter’s $2 billion question, with founder Craig Piggott

Regen Ag Series

Australian Rural Leadership Foundation

For more information and resources, visit our website. 

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe the information is correct, we provide no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

[12:00:00] Sustainable farming has to be profitable.

[00:23:00] Regen ag is about outcomes not labels.

[00:37:00] Good tech supports farmer intuition

What if one of agriculture’s most controversial “waste problems” is actually its most overlooked opportunity?

Daniel Carson is an entrepreneur based in New Zealand, who wants to transform the beef industry from the ground up by directly addressing the challenge of what happens to non-replacement dairy calves.

Through his startup, Miti, Daniel is building a new model that grows these calves into “young beef” and turns them into value-added protein products. But the product itself is only part of the story. It’s also a demonstration of a new production and supply chain system that’s designed to better align with global demand for lean protein and lower emissions.

Daniel explains how this system leverages existing biological advantages from fast-growing dairy animals, built-in traceability, and shorter production cycles, to create a lower-emissions protein source. But despite strong fundamentals at the farm level, scaling the model runs into a familiar agtech barrier: the cost of infrastructure.

Processing systems, supply chains, and industry incentives are all designed around large, premium carcasses. Therefore, to truly unlock the value potential Daniel believes in, some well-established systems would need to be challenged. 

Daniel and Sarah discuss:

Why “waste streams” like bobby calves represent a major untapped protein opportunity

How the cost of infrastructure, like processing systems, constrains innovation in agriculture

Why lean protein, not premium cuts, is the most constrained global beef category

How emissions, traceability, and data could reshape value in red meat supply chains

The challenge of driving system change when incumbents are incentivized to maintain the status quo

Useful Links:

Mīti Turns Dairy Challenge into Award Winning Innovation - Gardiner Foundation

Miti founder 'blown away' by winning innovation award

Supplying sustainable beef to McDonalds - Tenacious Ventures

Tackling enteric emissions series - Tenacious Ventures

💡3 reasons why dairy is the new beef - by Janette Barnard

For more information and resources, visit our website. 

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe the information is correct, we provide no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

Monsanto is one of the most influential and controversial companies in the history of global agriculture. But beyond the headlines, what can its evolution teach us about how value is created and captured in ag?

As agriculture enters a new era shaped by technological advances, climate pressures, and macroeconomic uncertainty, understanding where power sits in the system and how it shifts has never been more important. Monsanto’s story offers insight into how control points are built, defended, and transformed over time.

In this episode, Sarah Nolet is joined by Tenacious Ventures co-founder Matthew Pryor and the creator of Upstream Ag Insights, Shane Thomas, to break down the business model evolution of Monsanto.

Together, they trace Monsanto’s journey from a chemical manufacturing company built on waste stream transformation, through the rise of glyphosate and innovation in crop protection, to its defining move into seeds and traits.

They dig into how Monsanto layered in strategies around licensing, branding, regulation, and distribution to build one of the most powerful positions in modern agriculture.

This episode is our second Business Model Breakdown, where we explore how agricultural systems, companies, and structures actually work and what that means for the future of agtech. This format is an experiment and we’d love your feedback!

Sarah, Matthew, and Shane discuss:

How Monsanto evolved from industrial chemicals to seeds and traits

Why control points like germplasm and genetic IP became central to value capture 

How regulatory strategy and “knowledge environments” shaped Monsanto’s success.

The role of patents, licensing, and branding in scaling adoption

What Monsanto’s story suggests about future control points in agtech, including data and AI.

Got a business model you’d like for us to break down in a future episode? Let us know!

Useful Links:

Breaking Barriers in Crop Innovation

Bayer Rounds Up Monsanto

Monsanto wins Pioneer appeal of patent dispute | Reuters

Mapping Power in the Seed Value Chain: Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why

Corteva at Wolfe Research Conference: Strategic Growth and Challenges

Silent Spring

Lords of the Harvest: Biotech, Big Money, and the Future of Food

For more information and resources, visit our website. 

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe the information is correct, we provide no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.