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A New White House Signals New Opportunities For AgTech Startups. Are We Up For The Challenge?
A radical new approach is needed, and startups have the agility to bring new technology to market at the pace which is required. So, are we up to the challenge?
February 9, 2021
Editor’s note: Ponsi Trivisvavet is CEO at Inari, a seed genetics startup based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The views expressed in this guest article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of AFN.
Much has been analyzed and debated as the new administration enters the White House, but President Joe Biden has made a number of appointments that clearly illustrate his commitment to addressing climate change and the critical role science will play.
He has elevated the role of Science Advisor to a cabinet-level position. It will be filled by mathematician, geneticist, MIT professor, and founding director of the Broad Institute, Eric Lander.
Biden has also created a new White House Office of Climate Policy. And one of his very first acts as president was signing executive orders to enable the US to rejoin the international Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation.
It’s also clear that agriculture will play a major role, with Biden saying, “we see farmers making American agriculture first in the world to achieve net-zero emissions and gaining new sources of income in the process.”
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Secretary of Agriculture nominee Tom Vilsack, who looks set to return to the post he held during the Obama administration, has indicated that he will quickly ramp up programs to combat climate change.
Simply put, “expect administrative actions aplenty from a variety of USDA [US Department of Agriculture] agencies to combat climate change,” he said.
The time is right
The need couldn’t be more pressing, or more clear. 2020 was one of the hottest years on record, tied with 2016 .Carlo Buontempo, director of the EU’s Copernicus service, noted it is “no surprise that the last decade was the warmest on record, and is yet another reminder of the urgency of ambitious emissions reductions to prevent adverse climate impacts in the future.”
Research reported by ScienceNews projects global farmland will need to grow 3.4 million square kilometers – approximately the size of India – by 2050 to meet the needs of a growing population. But, as the article notes, an overhaul of the global food system could drastically reduce the need for land while still feeding the world’s ever-expanding population.
The need to address climate change is nothing new, but the new White House is signaling new opportunities for agriculture to lead the way with science and technology.
Agriculture has an impressive history: the technology of recent times has allowed food producers to keep pace with the spectacular growth in the population, with approximately 6 billion more mouths to feed in the last 60 years alone. But agriculture currently requires more resources than can be replaced. This is clearly not sustainable.
A radical new approach is needed, and startups have the agility to bring new technology to market at the pace which is required. So, are we up to the challenge?
Leading with technology
The problem to date isn’t a lack of desire to address these pressing environmental issues. Simply put, existing practices and technology cannot sustainably feed a world of 8 billion people.
There is a great deal of focus being put on soil, which is critical; but let’s not forget the seed. Everything we grow begins with a seed – it holds all of the potential and determines the resources needed to grow.
The seed technology on the market today is primarily focused on pest and weed management. This was critical in meeting the demands of the recent past and will certainly continue to be relevant as we move forward.
However, in our efforts to address these issues, we inadvertently reduced the diversity in major crops – one of nature’s best survival tools – by selecting for traits that best met the needs of the day.
So, how can we bring back biodiversity without sacrificing productivity or growing crops that require more resources?
By designing better seeds.
At Inari, our SEEDesign platform aims to take on this challenge with the ambitious goal of satisfying demand while enriching the environment. Through predictive design and advanced multiplex gene editing, we are developing seeds that generate a positive impact on the planet. This technology is capable of addressing any crop in any geography.
Advanced multiplex gene editing opens the door to new possibilities with seed because it can address very complex genetic challenges.
President Biden and the future of regenerative agriculture in the US – read more here
To make a significant impact on yield or dramatically improve a plant’s use of water, you have to make multiple changes within a single plant. Basic gene knockout is often too blunt of an editing tool to properly address all of the changes required. While you might need to knock out a gene in one part of the code, another might require only a slight adjustment; whereas another might need to be replaced altogether, all within the same seed.
These types of edits aren’t simple, but are possible with the right technology. By understanding the full potential of seed, we can unlock new possibilities and better address the specific needs of growers based on their land, creating more diversity in the seeds being planted.
It’s not that others have decided not to tackle these complex issues within a seed – it’s simply that the technology didn’t exist. As startups, this is where our agility comes into play. When you are small, it’s easier to be nimble and quickly pivot.
Value creation across the system
Despite historical advances, the people who grow our food have not always received their fair share of the value created by new technology. While Vilsack recently spoke of creating a “whole new suite of revenue streams” for farm income, it’s equally important to ensure value creation with new technology being brought to market.
Part of the struggle in the past is that regulatory hurdles associated with genetic modification of seeds added significant time and cost. This made it nearly impossible for anyone but the large industry players to compete. The added time and costs also played a role in driving competitive intellectual property and exclusivity strategies, which only contributed to further to cost.
Conversely, the regulatory environment for gene-editing technology in the US will enable a clear and efficient path to get the technologies in the hands of growers. This will also help to democratize the technology and let players of all sizes compete in the development of new solutions.
In order to ensure value creation across the food system, we’re going to have to work with the new White House to ensure clear paths to market. This will encourage competition at every level and bring more viable solutions to growers.
In sharing value creation with farmers, we not only protect their income, but allow their communities to benefit as well.
Making agriculture the climate hero
With clear signals from the Biden administration, now is the time for startups to show our leadership with truly innovative solutions.
Many of us have dedicated our work to finding more sustainable solutions for agriculture. We have been asking for the opportunity to show how agriculture can mitigate climate change and we’ve seen a number of organizations roll-out ‘net zero’ commitments. This is a great start.
I challenge my fellow agtech leaders – especially those in the startup space – to work towards a shared goal of positively impacting the environment with the technology we bring forward. We know our organizations are best suited to move at the speed which is required to meet the challenges ahead. Let’s work in cooperation to address the needs of our industry and the planet.
So, are we up for the challenge?
I believe we are.
New York Governor Commits To Cannabis Legalization
The move is expected to generate some $1.7 billion in annual sales.
12/18/2018
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters in a widely anticipated speech on Monday that he would push to legalize adult-use cannabis within a matter of months, The New York Times reports.
The move is expected to generate some $1.7 billion in annual sales and, according to Cuomo, is representative of his administration’s efforts to “advance our justice agenda and particularly address the forms of injustice that for too long have unfairly targeted the African-American and minority communities.”
“The fact is we have had two criminal justice systems: one for the wealthy and the well off, and one for everyone else,” he said.
Shortly after Cuomo’s speech, the Drug Policy Alliance announced via press release:
“Governor Cuomo and the new Democratic majority have a golden opportunity to get legalization done the right way, right away,” said Kassandra Frederique, the DPA’s executive director for the state of New York.
The New York Health Department issued a report earlier this year that suggested the pros of cannabis legalization would outweigh the cons of ongoing prohibition. Since then, officials have further informed their decision via dozens of public listening sessions on the issue.
Gov. Cuomo only recently came around to the idea of legalizing. He openly opposed the state’s hyper-restrictive medical cannabis program when it was established in 2014 and he relied on the tired trope of demonizing cannabis as a “gateway drug” as recently as last year.
Some believe that Cuomo’s shift on the legalization issue was spurred by former opponent in the Democratic gubernatorial primaries and celebrated “Sex and the City” star Cynthia Nixon, who announced her brief candidacyon a platform of ending cannabis prohibition and fixing the New York City subway system.
There are currently 10 states — plus Washington D.C. — that have opted for ending cannabis prohibition and many of them are neighboring New England states.
A Year After Passing “Green Roof” Law, Denver Suddenly the Focus of 20-Year “Cool Roof” Debate
New law would force affected property owners to choose between creating green space, installing solar panels and saving energy.
By ANDREW KENNEY | akenney@denverpost.com | The Denver Post
October 27, 2018
RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post
The Flight office building, at 3575 Ringsby Court in Denver, has a green roof in its design on May 9, 2018 in Denver. If a cool roof ordinance was passed for the city, it would replace the green roof law that voters approved last year.
The days of sprawling black roofs in Denver may be ending — but they won’t go quietly.
The Denver City Council will decide Monday whether to create a “cool roof” law for the city. The big hope is that requiring reflective, light-colored roofs on large buildings would lower ambient temperatures, fighting back against the city’s heat-island effect.
“It’s not groundbreaking in Denver, but it’s one of the biggest” of the new cool roof laws, said Kurt Shickman, executive director of the Global Cool Cities Alliance. “They’ll join a small number of big cities.”
The change would affect new construction and reroofing projects for buildings over 25,000 square feet — not your typical home renovations. The new law also would force affected property owners to choose between creating green space, installing solar panels and saving energy.
And, for once, many developers are looking forward to a new rule: It would replace the “green roof” law that voters approved last year, which would have required more costly rooftop gardens. The proposal has the support of green-roof organizer Brandon Rietheimer.
Roofers vs. reformers
But even this smaller change has put the city in the middle of an ongoing debate between roofers and reformers. The council on Monday is likely to hear from industry representatives who say that the cool-roof mandate is an oversimplified approach for a complicated problem.
“Mandating a single component of a roofing assembly is just not what is good design practice,” said Ellen Thorp, associate executive director of the EPDM Roofing Association, which represents manufacturers of EPDM, a rubber membrane for roofs.
The trade association argued in a letter that cool roofs can cause two major problems in colder climates like Denver’s. First, they can purportedly accumulate moisture. Second, they are meant to retain less heat, which means heating bills can be higher.
“Some of the best roofs on the market really were not going to be allowed, period,” said Jeff Johnston, president of the Colorado Roofing Association, who says that much of his Steamboat Springs business is still focused on dark roofs. “Why eliminate it?”
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Attempting to adapt
The reason is simple, according to Katrina Managan, the city staffer who coordinated the roof revision.
“The reason to do them is to adapt to climate change,” she said. Denver could see a full month of 100-degree days in typical years at the end of the century, according to projections from the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization for a “high” warming scenario.
And the impact will be worse in urban areas, where dry, unshaded rooftops and pavement are baked by the sun and heat the air around them. Urban environments can average up to 5 degrees hotter than the surrounding rural areas, and the difference can be much greater at times, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Cool roofs address part of that problem: They reflect the sun’s energy away and stay up to 60 degrees cooler than traditional roofs, the EPA reported.
“It will save Denver a tremendous amount of money. It will create a huge amount of benefit through cooling. And it will set the example,” Shickman said. “It really does add to the argument that says we really should be considering this for almost all of our big American cities.”
City research found that the cool roof mandate would be more effective than the green roof initiative in combating heat, since the green roof requirement only covered parts of rooftops.
RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post
Nikki Smith, of Zeppelin Places, shows off the green roof at the Flight office building, at 3575 Ringsby Court, on May 9, 2018 in Denver.
The bottom line?
Major cities began adopting cool-roof requirements nearly 20 years ago, with northerly Chicago among the first. It’s been joined by Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York City and Los Angeles, among others, according to GCCA. Much of the southern United States is now covered by the requirements, and San Francisco in 2017 adopted the first “green roofs” requirement.
“We’ve been in an epic fight between the industry and those of us on my side who are trying to push this forward,” Shickman said.
Thorp, the EPDM Roofing Association representative, pointed to research to argue that Denver should proceed cautiously. Because cool roofs don’t get as hot, they can accumulate more condensation, which requires specialized designs to combat. And she said that a cooler roof could mean higher heating costs and thus more carbon emissions in colder Denver.
She acknowledged that the law would hurt sales of EPDM: Competing materials are cheaper and more popular for cool roofs. But she said that her clients also make those other materials.
“They’re going to make the sale one way or another,” she said.
Shickman countered that the companies are more heavily invested in EPDM, and therefore have a financial motivation to lobby against cool roofs. Other materials “have been eating the lunch of EPDM,” he said. Thorp declined to disclose sales figures for the companies, but said the organization’s “primary driver” was to give roofers options.
Cool roofs are already popular
A city poll of roofers found that about 70 percent of new roofs in Denver are “cool.”
“What we’re tending to find is most companies now are wanting to go to a light roof,” said Scott Nakayama, director of operations for Denver-based North-West Roofing. “The amount that they’re going to save, as far as heating and cooling bills, tends to stand out.”
His company has been installing about 20 light-colored roofs per year, and hasn’t encountered any of the issues raised by the EPDM Roofing Association, he said. Shickman points to this apparent lack of complaints as evidence that a well-designed cool roof can avoid moisture and other issues.
They do come at a cost premium: Cool roofs can cost about 1.5 percent more than a traditional roof, according to city-commissioned research by Stantec, the engineering company. Thorp said that estimate is too low.
If the law is approved, it could take several years before it starts to have a regional effect, since roofs generally only need replacement every 20 years.
The rest of the details
Under the change, developers of new builders can choose among the following options.
Install green space on the building or on the ground.
Pay for green space somewhere else.
Install renewable energy or a mix of renewable energy and green space.
Design the building for 12 percent energy savings compared to city standards, or achieve 5 percent savings plus green space.
Achieve either LEED Gold or Enterprise Green Communities certification for green design.
Existing buildings will have similar types of options, with different details.