I totally agree with your final point for sure- American Ag suffers from a lack of diversity on a number of levels, and part of the problem is just that there aren’t enough farmers. Period. But I think Tech is a powerful inducement back to the farm. Convincing a younger generation that they’re not going backwards in time in their Ag career, that they can be operators, entrepreneurs, and on the cutting-edge of tech makes it a more attractive and a more secure option.

I might disagree with you around scaling up organic. It might be a semantic disagreement, but I think scaling organic is a non-issue, it’s mostly already happening. The problem is you can have enormous organic operations that are just as unsustainable if not more unsustainable than “conventional” Ag. The most sustainable operations will be smaller, more labor and management intensive, and they’ll almost certainly make food more expensive. That’s where agtech comes in. If tech can take the edge off the cost so that we can afford sustainability and nutrition, that would be a game changer. Otherwise, something’s gotta give, and it’s rarely consumer pocket books or grocery margins- it’s almost always farmer income, farm work wages, the environment, and human health.

I really appreciate your perspective! Thanks for reading.