Conference News
Sustainable Agriculture is the New Cleantech
Top-Tier VC Firms Assemble at ‘Agriculture 2.0’ in Silicon Valley
New York, NY, March 3, 2010 – A flurry of activity among Bay Area investors points to surging interest in sustainable agriculture investment.
On March 24, hundreds of entrepreneurs, investors, and industry experts will convene at the Four Seasons Hotel in Palo Alto, California for Agriculture 2.0, the first event of its kind on the west coast.
Firms sending delegates include Kleiner Perkins, Khosla, Black River, Foundation Capital, Venrock, Mohr Davidow, RockPort, Redpoint, Flagship, Slow Money Alliance, among others.
As co-host of the event, US Venture Partners is securing its place as a thought-leader in sustainable agriculture, “Because feeding nearly 10 billion people by 2050—without destroying the planet—poses both a daunting problem and an enormous investment opportunity,” remarked Paul Matteucci.
Matteucci elaborated by saying that , “In the late-1990s, cleantech investing blossomed, resulting in the creation of new companies which are just now becoming large enough to make a significant impact. Now, a decade later, the planet is beginning to come to grips with an equally threatening and related challenge, the global food system crisis. Like the earlier challenge, the complex set of problems is daunting and will require new ideas and new ventures to address it.”
NewSeed Advisors and SPIN Farming are co-hosting the event and also launched the first Agriculture 2.0, which was held in September 2009 in New York City. The overwhelming response indicated a need to expand the event to the West coast.
“Rebuilding a more sustainable food system will take as much innovation and investment as the digital revolution,” says Roxanne Christensen, co-founder of SPIN-Farming.
A jury has selected 26 entrepreneurs to present their investor-ready ag-business opportunities to the audience. “Creating a sustainable food system will happen one company at a time. It’s encouraging to see that investors are taking notice of the talented entrepreneurs in this space.” says Janine Yorio, Managing Director of NewSeed Advisors.
Due to the overwhelming number of applicants, a separate aquaculture track, sponsored by
Aquacopia, will specifically highlight investment opportunities in fish farming.
In addition to investors, industry professionals from organizations such as the USDA, Food Alliance, Toro, Bolthouse Farms, and Dow Chemical.
The keynote speaker is Tom Tomich, founding director of the Agricultural Sustainability Institute at the University of California – Davis, and W. K. Kellogg Endowed Chair in Sustainable Food Systems. Other speakers include Amol Deshpande of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Michael Dimock; of Roots of Change; Scott Exo of Food Alliance; Jeana Hultquist of US AgBank; Patrick Pohlen; of Latham & Watkins; and Derek Yurosek of Bolthouse Farms.
Event information including registration details and the agenda are available at www.agriculture20.com. A sellout crowd is expected, and all registrations must be processed online, in advance.
Sustainable Agriculture Investment Conference Comes to California
Agriculture 2.0 TM will take place at the Four Seasons Hotel in Palo Alto, California on March 24, 2010.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEW YORK – November 12, 2009 – Co-hosts NewSeed Advisors, US Venture Partners and SPIN Farming will assemble hundreds of entrepreneurs, investors and industry experts who are catalyzing and capitalizing the transition to a more sustainable agricultural system for the second Agriculture 2.0 conference.
US Venture Partners, one of Silicon Valley’s most established venture capital firms, is co-hosting the conference, citing a desire to get in on the ground floor of this unmistakable groundswell of investor interest in sustainable agriculture. “The way new technologies are addressing the global food system is reminiscent of the early days of cleantech investing,” said Paul Matteucci, General Partner at US Venture Partners. “Feeding nearly 10 billion people by 2050, without destroying the planet is both a daunting problem and an enormous opportunity for innovative entrepreneurs.”
“The caliber of the attendees at the first ever Agriculture 2.0 conference in New York City proved both that sustainable agriculture is interesting to mainstream investors and that entrepreneurs actually have compelling ideas in this field” says Janine Yorio, Managing Director of NewSeed Advisors.
“The Agriculture 2.0 conference in New York City was standing-room-only until the last speakers took the stage at 5:30 pm. At every break, entrepreneurs engaged in animated conversations with truly interested investors,” says Roxanne Christensen, co-founder of SPIN-Farming. “Agriculture 2.0 is a results-oriented conference where the knowledge, talent and money gather to re-engineer the food system.”
Once again, Agriculture 2.0 will feature a competitive application process for entrepreneurs to present their business plans to the audience. Sixteen such entrepreneurs will be selected by jury. Applicants will be selected on a rolling basis with a final deadline of January 15, 2010.
Detailed information about the conference, including registration details, the agenda, speaker biographies and sponsorship opportunities are available at www.agriculture20.com. Registration opens on November 12th.
ABOUT AGRICULTURE 2.0
Agriculture 2.0 is the pre-eminent gathering for the entrepreneurs, investors, food producers, and experts working to catalyze—and capitalize on—the transition to a more sustainable agricultural and food system. It is where the sustainable agriculture industry is being defined, built and funded, and is creating a path to profitability fostering collaboration and accelerating growth. For more information visit www.agriculture20.com.
ABOUT NEWSEED ADVISORS
NewSeed Advisors identifies, nurtures and invests in companies that make agriculture more sustainable. NewSeed Advisors advocates on behalf of the sustainable agriculture industry to improve access to the capital needed to accelerate changes. New Seed Advisors is dedicated to growing companies that improve food quality and take better care of the earth. For more information, visit www.newseedadvisors.com.
ABOUT U.S. VENTURE PARTNERS
U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) is a leading Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, dedicated to helping entrepreneurs build world-class companies that are leaders in their industry. USVP focuses on early stage opportunities in sectors where the Partners have the domain expertise, operating experience and network of relationships to provide meaningful contribution to the success of the enterprise. These sectors include business and consumer software and services, digital communications and networking systems, semiconductors and components, clean technologies, and medical devices and biopharmaceuticals. For more information, visit www.usvp.com.
ABOUT SPIN-FARMING
SPIN Farming LLC is a multi-national cottage industry which publishes the SPIN-Farming® and SPIN-Gardening™ online learning series and conducts workshops in partnership with farming, gardening and environmental organizations. The company is dedicated to providing farming and gardening how-to that can be learned and practiced across all economic classes and geographic boundaries. For more information, visit www.spinfarming.com.
Bloggers Write about Agriculture 2.0™
Agriculture is the new cleantech. Read more here.
The Friend of the Farmer by David Becker:
Welcome to the world of Agriculture 2.0, where nearly overwhelming challenges—doomsday scenarios some might say—actually represent an important investment opportunity.
Forget about the next version of the iPod Nano or whether Twitter will ever make money—the solutions the entrepreneurs at Agriculture 2.0 envision could determine the long-term viability of our species.
I would like to think back to the early dot-com days where a strong brew of idealism, enthusiasm and a new generation of dreamers, most working on tiny budgets, created thousands of innovations and new communities. Some toiled in hopes of a big payday. But many were inspired by the thrill of building something new. I was there and it was an electrifying moment.
I hope that the same time, attention and, yes, enthusiasm gets piled on top of farming. Like a farmer trying out new seeds, some ideas would flourish. Some would fail. But the spirit of innovation and recommitment to farming would be amazing turning point in our country.
In the next post on Agriculture 2.0, I’ll pick a handful of companies that I would put my money into. Read the entire article here.
While no one advocates that we should stop producing food, when the finger-pointing over climate change begins, the ag industry often gets an unfair shake. If agriculture is so disproportionally bad for the planet, shouldn’t sustainable agriculture receive a disproportionate amount of the innovation? Bringing together capital sources, business leaders, and tech innovators, Agriculture 2.0 hopes to ignite the next phase of growth in sustainable agriculture. Fixing the flaws in the current food production model may just stave off a crisis that will make the current energy, climate, and economic crises look mild, and incidentally exacerbate them all. Linking farmers and scientists with the cash they need to create a new paradigm is the first step toward doing just that. Read more here.
Governing Magazine’s Zach Patton says:
I trekked to New York yesterday to sit in on a conference aimed at fostering growth in sustainable farmers. At the first-ever Agriculture 2.0 conference, sustainable-ag entrepreneurs gathered to pitch their ideas to investors. (If you’re interested, check out tweets from the conference.)
The attendees came from all parts of the ag industry, from Kansas farm co-ops to soil chemists to off-shore aquaculture firms. Read the entire post here.
Urban agriculture itself wasn’t a big topic, but there were some rumblings. For starters, the conference had been co-organized by Roxanne Christensen of SPIN Farming, a group that’s pushing for small-plot city farming. (“SPIN” stands for “Small-plot intensive” farming.)
Christensen extolled the virtues of subacre farming to the conference attendees. She noted that, because it’s so much easier to devote attention to, say, a half-acre of land than a thousand-acre commercial farm, small-plot farming can be much more productive than large-scale agriculture. In fact, she said, urban farms could be 100 times more productive per square foot.
The United States Agricultural & Food Law and Policy Blog:
Yesterday, September17, 2009 150 investors and industry leaders attended a seminar and conference on the “best practices” for “eco-friendly farming.” The fact that so many venture capitalists, private equity investors, entrepreneurs, government officials, and academics attended the conference indicates that more private and public investments in sustainable agriculture practices may be on the horizon. The conference was co-hosted by NewSeed Advisors and SPIN Farming and was called “Agriculture 2.0.”
The conference featured climate change research analyst at Deutche Bank, Bruce Kahn as the keynote speaker. Additionally, a presentation was given by Grayson Hoberg, CEO of organic flour processor Dakota Prairie. U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Carol Kramer-LeBlanc led a discussion on the administration’s efforts with regards to sustainable agriculture.
At the conference NewSeed Advisors founder Janine Yorio announced the company is in the process of raising capital “for the first venture capital fund exclusively focused on environmentally-friendly agriculture.” More here.
Groundswell: Field Reports from the Food Revolution:
Last week, in one of the most densely populated places on Earth, 150 people addressed a topic usually left to pasture: The future of agriculture.
At one point, Melina Shannon-DiPietro, Director of the Yale Sustainable Food Project, asked the audience, “How many of you have worked in a garden in the past month?” Over three-quarters of the room raised our hands.
Shannon-DiPietro also said that Yale University currently offers 30 classes related to food and agriculture. As recently as 2003, that number was zero.
What is happening here and why now?
The group in the room was attending Agriculture 2.0: The Conference for Innovators & Investors, hosted by NewSeed Advisors and SPIN-Farming. There is much to explore. Read the entire article here.
Farm co-op aims to raise money, capacity
Regional group founder will pitch to investors
September 4, 2009 — “Good Natured Family Farms was asked to present at Agriculture 2.0, a sustainable ag investment conference, because of its success in distribution, said Janine Yorio, managing director of investment firm NewSeed Advisors, the conference co-host. See full story in Kansas City Business Journal.” See profile of Good Natured Family Farms.
