WARNING: These are not your typical community college folks — they are early-career young adults, in their mid- to late twenties, eagerly and aggressively pursuing the next level of professional attainment ... and ag tech is a necessity.
Farm of the Future at West Hills Community College (WHCC) in Coalinga, Calif., definitely isn’t a waystation for overgrown teenagers who are searching for a major. Two-thirds of them are disadvantaged, and all are deeply concerned about the future of agribusiness in the nation’s most fertile farm country.
(See my previous blog for rumination on regulation that could be ruination for people who make their livings being good stewards to the land.)
How eager are they for your ag tech innovations? Be inspired by the words of two recent WHCC Farm of the Future grads, now launching careers:
“Ag tech is survival,” said Brent McKinsey, Mission Ranch manager, “we live it every day.”
“Listen. Look. Find new ideas,” Andrew Finster added for the standing-room-only crowd at the WHCC Essential Elements 5ive Conference at Harris Ranch. (Thanks again, John Harris, for your help.)
Alex Avalos is a WHCC student who did find a new idea — at (commercial break here) AgTech Roundtable’s (the pro bono outfit I helped start) Apps for Ag Hackathon.
He and his associates created AgForHire, an app and supporting website that connects farmworkers with the right skills with a farmer who needs a hand.
Avalos next took his idea to a competition in Switzerland and won. In fact, he had a couple of “mezzanine” investors approach him during Essential Elements 5ive.
Be patient with growers and food processors. Be targeted with your ag tech, as Alex is. And, as Andrew said, listen.
Don Cameron, Terra Nova Ranch proprietor, notorious innovator and state Board of Food and Agriculture member, delivers blunt words for you: “Someone visits us nearly every day with a product to sell — most often developed for Midwest farmers. Don’t deluge me with data. Tell me where and when the problem is, and the options.
“Help me make the best decision.”
The long view helps when dealing with a generational sector, said Tom Tomich, executive director of the UC Ag Sustainability Institute and internationally recognized ag tech exponent.
“Farming is a language that you must understand,” Tomich told entrepreneurs like you. “It takes time.”
Another UC person — Gabe Youtsey, the CIO for the Agriculture and Natural Resources Division — was emphatic when he said, “Agricultural technology must be designed by users, not developers.”
If you are reading in search of the Next Big Thing — it’s not in these words. But if you seeking understanding of a key industry (we all eat) in urgent, significant need, you have insights from experts.
Listen. Learn to speak the language, really. Let the users do the design. Know that demonstrating a thousand points of data doesn’t help. It’s the applied analytics, stupid.
OK, OK. Here is an ag tech product nugget from someone who knows, Mark Linder, ag consultant for the other CIA … Culinary Institute of America:
“Most chefs do not understand ag.”
