Farming in the 21st Century: The Impacts of Agriculture Technology in Rural America (House Small Business subcommittee hearing, January 9, 2020)
Summary
Transcript of the House Small Business Subcommittee on Innovation and Workforce Development hearing Farming in the 21st Century: The Impacts of Agriculture Technology in Rural America, on January 9, 2020, published as Small Business Committee Document Number 116–066. Representatives Jason Crow and Troy Balderson gave opening statements. Witnesses were Kevin M. France of SWIIM System, Ltd., Dr. David Potere of Indigo Agriculture, Roberto Meza of Emerald Gardens for the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, and Dr. Douglas Jackson-Smith of The Ohio State University. The appendix adds a statement from Paul Schlagel, a sugarbeet farmer and chairman of the Biotech and Research Committee of the American Sugarbeet Growers Association.
Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used
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“Farming in the 21st Century: The Impacts of Agriculture Technology in Rural America (House Small Business subcommittee hearing, January 9, 2020).”
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FARMING IN THE 21ST CENTURY: THE IMPACTS
OF AGRICULTURE TECHNOLOGY IN RURAL
AMERICA
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON INNOVATION AND
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
UNITED STATES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
HEARING HELD
JANUARY 9, 2020
Small Business Committee Document Number 116–066
Available via the GPO Website: www.govinfo.gov
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
38–824 WASHINGTON : 2020
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HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
NYDIA VELÁZQUEZ, New York, Chairwoman
ABBY FINKENAUER, Iowa
JARED GOLDEN, Maine
ANDY KIM, New Jersey
JASON CROW, Colorado
SHARICE DAVIDS, Kansas
JUDY CHU, California
MARC VEASEY, Texas
DWIGHT EVANS, Pennsylvania
BRAD SCHNEIDER, Illinois
ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York
ANTONIO DELGADO, New York
CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania
ANGIE CRAIG, Minnesota
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio, Ranking Member
AUMUA AMATA COLEMAN RADEWAGEN, American Samoa, Vice Ranking Member
TROY BALDERSON, Ohio
KEVIN HERN, Oklahoma
JIM HAGEDORN, Minnesota
PETE STAUBER, Minnesota
TIM BURCHETT, Tennessee
ROSS SPANO, Florida
JOHN JOYCE, Pennsylvania
DAN BISHOP, North Carolina
MELISSA JUNG, Majority Staff Director
JUSTIN PELLETIER, Majority Deputy Staff Director
KEVIN FITZPATRICK, Staff Director
(II)
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CONTENTS
OPENING STATEMENTS
Page
Hon. Jason Crow ...................................................................................................... 1
Hon. Troy Balderson ................................................................................................ 3
WITNESSES
Mr. Kevin M. France, President and CEO, SWIIM System, Ltd., Denver,
CO .......................................................................................................................... 7
Dr. David Potere, Head of GeoInnovation, Indigo Agriculture, Boston, MA ...... 9
Mr. Roberto Meza, Co-Founder and Farmer, Emerald Gardens, Bennett, CO,
testifying on behalf of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union ............................ 10
Dr. Douglas Jackson-Smith, Professor and Assistant Director, School of Envi-
ronment and Natural Resources, The Ohio State University, Wooster, OH ... 12
APPENDIX
Prepared Statements:
Mr. Kevin M. France, President and CEO, SWIIM System, Ltd., Denver,
CO .................................................................................................................. 30
Dr. David Potere, Head of GeoInnovation, Indigo Agriculture, Boston,
MA .................................................................................................................. 35
Mr. Roberto Meza, Co-Founder and Farmer, Emerald Gardens, Bennett,
CO, testifying on behalf of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union ............. 40
Dr. Douglas Jackson-Smith, Professor and Assistant Director, School of
Environment and Natural Resources, The Ohio State University, Woos-
ter, OH ........................................................................................................... 45
Questions for the Record:
None.
Answers for the Record:
None.
Additional Material for the Record:
Statement of Paul Schlagel, Sugarbeet farmer, Longmont, CO, Chairman,
Biotech and Research Committee, American Sugarbeet Growers Asso-
ciation, Washington, DC ............................................................................... 129
(III)
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FARMING IN THE 21ST CENTURY: THE IM-
PACTS OF AGRICULTURE TECHNOLOGY IN
RURAL AMERICA
THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 2020
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS,
SUBCOMMITTEE ON INNOVATION AND WORKFORCE
DEVELOPMENT,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:03 a.m., in Room
2360, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Jason Crow [chairman
of the Subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Crow, Finkenauer, Kim, Davids,
Veasey, Houlahan, Balderson, Chabot, Hern, Burchett, and Joyce.
Also Present: Representative Panetta.
Chairman CROW. Good morning. The Committee will come to
order.
We thank everyone for joining us this morning to our first Small
Business Committee hearing of 2020. And I want to especially
thank the witnesses for taking the time to travel from across the
country and take time away from their businesses in some in-
stances to have this important discussion.
As is the case with these hearings, there will be members coming
and going. There are overlapping hearings on other Committees, so
you will see some folks come and go throughout and ask questions,
so we just ask for your patience in bearing with that as well.
Farming and agriculture are at the heart of strong economies
around the country. Investing in agriculture is crucial to ensure
that our communities can thrive. Coming from Colorado, I under-
stand the importance that farming and agriculture have on our
state’s way of life and economic well-being.
Nearly half of Colorado’s 66 million acres are dedicated to over
30,000 farms and ranches, many of which are small, locally owned
operations. Colorado is a leading producer of cattle, corn, wheat,
and dairy, but Colorado’s small farms are also raising everything
from bison to ostriches and growing sunflowers, grapes, and mush-
rooms to name a few.
In the 21st century, technology and innovation are changing ev-
eryday life, reshaping how consumers shop, and how business is
conducted. Modern farming is no different. Through advancements
in robotics, sensors, artificial intelligence, GPS technology, and dig-
ital platforms, agriculture is undergoing a revolution and
transitioning from the industrial age to the digital age. These inno-
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vations, commonly known as agriculture technology, or ag-tech,
provide an opportunity to help farmers increase yields and profit-
ability while reducing waste and environmental impact.
Today’s hearing will provide members with an opportunity to
hear from innovators, farmers, and researchers about how ag-tech
is helping farmers modernize their businesses and how entrepre-
neurship and innovation in ag-tech is changing our food and farm-
ing systems.
The increased use of ag-tech has the potential to address chal-
lenges our country and the world will face over the next century.
Globally, the world’s population is on track to exceed 9 billion in
the next 30 years. According to the United Nations, this means our
agricultural production will need to increase by 70 percent to meet
the growing demand for food, fiber, and biofuels.
Meeting this global demand for food will be even more chal-
lenging in the face of climate change that is already impacting our
food systems, water, and land. Changing temperatures reduce
yields and increase pest pressures. Changes in participation pat-
terns increasingly cause crop failure and production decline.
As a former Army Ranger, I have also seen how these threats,
including scarce water resources and poor food security in other
countries can have a profound impact on our own national security,
readiness, and resiliency.
But the full potential of ag-tech to meet global food demands
mitigate the negative impacts of climate change and create jobs in
our rural communities will not be fully realized unless we fully
support our farmers and innovators and the research that supports
them.
Ag-tech can spur innovation and growth in rural parts of the
country, but like many other sectors of the economy, agriculture is
struggling to find and retain a skilled and stable workforce. To ad-
dress this, I worked with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle
to pass the Farm Workforce Modernization Act which will help cre-
ate a reliable workforce for American agriculture. This legislation
will help provide certainty for guest workers and for American
farmers and ranchers, an important step in solving the labor chal-
lenge facing American farmers and ranchers.
There should also be robust funding of agriculture, research, and
development at the USDA to support farmers in rural commu-
nities. I am proud that Colorado is a hub of ag-tech and innovation.
Growing tech centers in the Denver and Boulder areas, funding op-
portunities through CoBank in my district, and a pipeline of talent
from outstanding universities like Colorado State University and
the University of Colorado systems have helped make Colorado the
second largest ag-tech ecosystem in the country. As that pipeline
develops the high-tech skills in food science, environmental engi-
neering and precision agriculture, these specialists will lead the ag-
tech industry forward.
Finally, it is crucial to mention the need for greater deployment
of high-speed Internet in our rural communities. Outside of its im-
portance in healthcare, education, and legal services, connectivity
is the backbone of ag-tech. Broadband makes it possible for farmers
to aggregate and analyze data in real-time while tracking com-
modity markets and operating digital technologies. Small busi-
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nesses and farms across Colorado suffer daily from lack of access
to high-speed broadband services due in large part to lack of in-
vestment. Reliable, affordable high-speed broadband is a necessity
and why Congress must work to coordinate Federal resources and
make investments in infrastructure projects.
Technology has become indispensable for all small businesses,
and farmers and ranchers are no different. Small businesses play
a vital role in providing products and services supporting America’s
digital farming revolution.
I look forward to hearing from our expert witnesses today on how
farming is being impacted by technology and how R&D is impact-
ing small business growth and entrepreneurship so that the U.S.
can once again be the world leader in agricultural research and in-
novation.
And I would now like to yield to the Ranking Member, Mr.
Balderson, for an opening statement.
Mr. BALDERSON. Good morning, everyone, and thank you, Mr.
Chairman, Chairman Crow. I appreciate it. Happy New Year. And
I look forward to a great 2020. I anticipate a great 2020 with an-
other year of bipartisan camaraderie and innovation on Workforce
Development Subcommittee.
Today’s hearing will explore agricultural technology innovations
that are modernizing our farms and revitalizing rural America.
Having spent time working on a family farm myself, I understand
the impact farmers have on their community and our Nation.
Agricultural technology, or ag-tech, is a broad term describing a
diverse range of technologies, including bioscience, big data, ana-
lytics, automation and robotics, supply chain and logistics, and al-
ternative business models such as hydroponics and meat alter-
natives. On farms, these technologies can increase productivity, re-
duce waste, and boost profits. On a larger scale, ag-tech entrepre-
neurship activities boosting rural revitalizing efforts by attracting
startups, jobs, and investment dollars to agricultural regions. With
the diversity of technologies involved, ag-tech attracts entre-
preneurs and investors from various industries and geographies.
As we observe the astounding growth and impact of ag-tech ven-
tures, we cannot lose focus on the primary stakeholders, our farm-
ers. With uncertain markets and narrowing profit margins, farmers
may be hesitant to take on additional risk that comes with new
technologies. For example, an investment in precision agricultural
systems include equipment purchases, installation charges, and
precise precious time spent learning how to use and maintain these
technologies. To be fully taken advantage of, the system must be
compatible with preexisting machinery, Internet connectivity, and
business model. To be worth farmers’ investments, technologies
must have a tangible impact on productivity and profit. As options
rapidly increase, how do farmers determine what will work best for
their specific business needs?
I would like to thank our witnesses for being here today and to
talk about these experiences from ag-technologies and what re-
sources are available to minimize the risk and maximize the bene-
fits of investment. Thank you for being here today to represent this
promising industry.
I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
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Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mr. Balderson. And I agree with
you on looking forward to 2020. We had some exciting wins and
collaborations in 2019 and I look forward to continuing that in the
next year.
The gentleman yields back.
And if Committee members have an opening statement prepared,
we would ask that they be submitted for the record.
I would like to just take a minute to explain the timing rule.
Each witness gets 5 minutes to testify and each member get 5 min-
utes for questioning. There is a lighting system in front of you to
assist you. The green light will be on when you begin, and the yel-
low light will come on when you have 1 minute remaining. The red
light will come on when you are out of time, and we ask that you
stay within that timeframe to the best of your ability.
I would now like to introduce our witnesses. But before doing so,
I am going to ask unanimous consent to allow Congressman Jimmy
Panetta, who serves on the House Agriculture Committee to join
this Subcommittee hearing.
Without objection, so ordered.
Welcome, Mr. Panetta.
Mr. PANETTA. Thank you.
Chairman CROW. Thank you for joining us today.
And I will actually yield to you to introduce our first witness.
Mr. PANETTA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate this op-
portunity to be here to speak about a very, very important issue.
And thank you, Ranking Member Balderson. I appreciate both of
your opening statements and agree with absolutely everything that
both of you had to say. So thank you.
It is an absolute honor to be here. It is actually quite far away
from where I come, not just in the Cannon Building but in Cali-
fornia. I come from the Central Coast of California. And it is other-
wise known as ‘‘the Salad Bowl of the World.’’ Trust me, my fellow
members on the Ag Committee get sick and tired of me saying that
and they have heard me say it over and over. And now you get to
hear me say it. But I say it with a lot of proud because there on
the Central Coast of California, you name it, we grow it. We have
hundreds and hundreds of specialty crops. There is a reason why
we are not only ‘‘the Salad Bowl of the World,’’ but we have ‘‘the
Garlic Capital of the World.’’ We have ‘‘the Artichoke Capital of the
World.’’ We have ‘‘the Berry Bowl of the world.’’ We have specialty
crops.
But as many of you know, specialty crops can be very difficult
to harvest, especially crops take that human discernment when it
comes to soft fruits and vegetables as to figuring out what is safe,
what is ripe, what is ready to be picked, what is aesthetically
pleasing to the consumer. Because as you know, most of the time
those products, once they are picked, they go right into the cartons.
Those cartons go right onto the shelves of the stores. And those
cartons then go home with us and then those products go right into
the mouths of our sons and daughters. And so it does take at this
point a very skilled—you have to be very skilled in order to harvest
this product.
Now, for a long time we have relied on humans to do that, espe-
cially on the Central Coast of California. That is why Jason, I com-
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pletely agree with you, the Farmworker Modernization Act was a
very, very important bill that I am proud to say has not only
passed in a bipartisan basis in the House; it must be passed in the
Senate and signed into law.
But in the meantime, the other avenue that we must go down
is ag-tech, as you mentioned. But this type of technology for these
types of crops, we are behind it. We are lagging. Now, do not get
me wrong; I have been out in our fields there in Watsonville, and
I have seen some pretty interesting things from some companies
right over the hill from Silicon Valley, where I have seen machines
take more pictures of a strawberry plant in one afternoon than all
of the previous human history of taking photos of a strawberry
plant. It is that type of technology that is needed. But more needs
to be invested in this technology to do it.
And I think is why it is so, so important that we are having this
type of conversation here in Washington, D.C., so that those types
of investments in the fields, not just on the Central Coast but
throughout this country, can benefit from the investment that is
needed when it comes to ag-tech.
And so it is an absolute honor that I am here today with you,
but also have the opportunity to introduce Mr. Kevin France. Kevin
France is the chief executive officer of SWIIM Systems, a small
business that provides on-farm agriculture water accounting.
SWIIM has a satellite office in my district there on the Central
Coast, and it partners with the Western Growers Association,
which has one of its main offices in my district as well.
Now, under Mr. France’s leadership, SWIIM has been recognized
as a Top 25 Ag-Tech Company by Forbes Magazine. Mr. France, I
thank you for being here, for your preparation, for your time, and
all of us look forward to hearing what you have to say in regard
to the investment that is needed and what has been done and what
needs to be done when it comes to ag-tech. Thank you.
Thank you, Ranking Chairman, Ranking Member, Chairman, I
yield back.
Chairman CROW. Thank you for being here, Mr. France, and
Jimmy, you might have a lot of agricultural capitals of the world
but I do not think you can claim the mushroom capital of the world
because that distinction belongs to Ms. Houlahan sitting next to
you. So I just wanted to be clear for the record.
Our second witness is Dr. David Potere. Dr. Potere is the head
of GeoInnovation at Indigo Agriculture. He is a technology leader
focused on building integrated applied science platforms using
geospatial technology to tackle complex business challenges. For
the past several years, he has focused on building a living map of
the world’s food supply. Using reliable maps, data, and metrics can
help farmers grow crops that are more profitable and sustainable.
Prior to joining Indigo, Dr. Potere was cofounder and CEO of Tellis
Labs, which provided action agricultural intelligence across the
food value chain using machine learning, remote sensing, and
geospatial analysis. Dr. Potere has a Ph.D. in geodemography from
Princeton University and served the country as a surface warfare
officer in the U.S. Navy. Thank you for your service, Dr. Potere, to
the country and for being here today.
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Our third witness is Mr. Roberto Meza, a beginner farmer and
cofounder of Emerald Gardens located in Bennett, Colorado. While
a grad student at MIT in the Art, Culture, and Technology pro-
gram, Roberto was inspired by student projects addressing food
production in urban landscapes. His career quickly transitioned
from the arts to agriculture with a focus on food access. After a hia-
tus working on farms and observing problems in our food systems,
Roberto moved to Colorado with a childhood friend and started
their own farm in 2017. Emerald Gardens grows, harvests, and dis-
tributes microgreens to restaurants, grocery stores, food pantries,
and smaller retailers in Colorado’s metro areas. They operate
sustainably using geothermal and passive solar energy. Roberto is
also the Chair of Membership and Outreach for Mile-High Farm-
ers, the local chapter of the National Young Farmers Coalition and
the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union. He is also a board member of
the High Plains Food Co-op and is developing a model for Last Mile
Distribution to help food co-ops and local producers gain access to
markets. Thank you for taking time away from your business to be
here today, Mr. Meza, and it is always good to see a fellow Colo-
radan in Washington, D.C.
I would now like to yield to our Ranking Member, Mr. Balderson,
to introduce our final witness.
Mr. BALDERSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do want to ac-
knowledge the Ranking Member of the Small Business Committee
has joined us also, Ranking Member Chabot. Mr. Chabot, thank
you for being here this morning.
I am sure a lot of you are looking and you see the witness list.
Dr. Jackson-Smith and I have made an agreement. We are not
going to do the O-h-i-o stuff. But we do want to acknowledge that
though Ohio State is not in the National Championship, Joe Bur-
row is. That is where he got all his training, so Ohio State is still
represented in the championship game coming up Monday evening.
So I just want to make sure that everybody is well aware of that,
and he lives from the southern portion of Ohio. So we are well rep-
resented.
Mr. CHABOT. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. BALDERSON. Yes.
Mr. CHABOT. You mentioned Mr. Burrow. He may soon be a
Cincinnati Bengal, too, which I happen to represent. We shall see.
Mr. BALDERSON. We shall see.
Our next witness—sorry, Doctor—Dr. Douglas Jackson-Smith,
professor and assistant director of Ohio State University School of
Environment and National Resources. He is here today as a rep-
resentative of the university’s initiative for food and agricultural
transformation. Before joining Ohio State in 2016, Dr. Jackson-
Smith served 15 years as a faculty member of the Department of
Sociology, Social Work, and Anthropology at Utah State University.
He has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in rural sociology, a mas-
ter’s degree in agricultural economics, and a Ph.D. in sociology.
Trained as a rural sociologist, his research explores the dynamics
of technology and structural change in agricultural and natural re-
source systems. He has helped lead $25 million worth of inter-
disciplinary science grant funding from USDA, NSF, and DOE. Dr.
Jackson-Smith, we thank you for your research in this field and ap-
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preciate you taking the time away from your work to be here with
us today. Thank you.
I yield back, Chairman.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mr. Balderson.
In all due respect to the Ranking Member, Mr. Balderson, Dr.
Jackson-Smith received his academic training from University of
Wisconsin. So, go Badgers. Not to be outdone. Thank you very
much.
Mr. France, you are now recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENTS OF KEVIN M. FRANCE, PRESIDENT AND CEO,
SWIIM SYSTEM, LTD.; DR. DAVID POTERE, HEAD OF
GEOINNOVATION, INDIGO AGRICULTURE; ROBERTO MEZA,
CO-FOUNDER AND FARMER, EMERALD GARDENS; DR. DOUG-
LAS JACKSON-SMITH, PROFESSOR AND ASSISTANT DIREC-
TOR, SCHOOL OF ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RE-
SOURCES, THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
STATEMENT OF KEVIN M. FRANCE
Mr. FRANCE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Congressman, thank
you very much, and other members of this Committee. I appreciate
the opportunity to speak with you today on the impact of agricul-
tural technology in rural America. And I appreciate this oppor-
tunity to share some of my experiences.
My name is Kevin France, and I am Chief Executive Officer of
SWIIM System. My graduate and undergraduate degrees are in
business administration, and my professional experience includes
developing technologies through public partnerships that can be in-
tegrated into the private sector.
Prior to the ‘‘Internet of Things’’, also known as the IoT revolu-
tion, sensors were not generally connected to the Internet and as
a result, data was gathered manually, normally by a grower, when
time permitted in between growing. Now, sensors are being con-
nected to the Internet and data is being made available in near-
real-time. Growers need better access to this game-changing tech-
nology in order to sustain our agricultural economy in the face of
ever-increasing water shortages.
SWIIM is an on-farm agricultural water accountant, twice recog-
nized as a top 25 ag-tech company by Forbes Magazine, and we
maintain a distribution agreement with Western Growers Associa-
tion, one of the largest agricultural trade organizations in the Na-
tion. Our clients are made up of growers of all sizes and shapes.
We provide complete water use reporting, including applied and
consumed water resources on a real-time basis by field and by crop.
Similar to the way your CPA provides a detailed statement of fi-
nancial accounts—money in, money out, and from what source—we
enable growers to quantify and protect their water allocations well
into the future.
Our initial research was originally funded by private investment
and underpinned by state water conservation grants. The tech-
nology was then developed over a 5-year period through an agree-
ment with the USDA, Colorado State, and Utah State Universities.
Our first issued patent was actually co-developed with the help di-
rectly alongside the USDA.
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Depending on their location, a grower may have access to river
water, access to groundwater. Some have access to both. Unlike
other farming inputs, however, water is the only component to a
farming operation that has no alternative source, and if not avail-
able, could put the farmer completely out of business.
By way of example, take the Colorado River—a prime surface
water source for seven western states is over-appropriated by as
much as 40 percent, leaving some farmers without water to grow
the crops on which our Nation severely depends upon. Years of
drought exacerbates this situation.
As another example, take California’s recent passing of the Sus-
tainable Groundwater Management Act to manage over-pumping of
its aquifers. With these upcoming restrictions, at least 500,000
acres of farmland in the Central Valley of California will be with-
out water most likely, which means no crops will be grown on those
acres.
Our clients tell us they fear for their livelihoods and the legacy
of their operations, many of which have been in their families for
generations. Growers need access to updated technologies to fight
the consequences of drought and lack of water availability that is
widespread throughout the U.S.
The equipment we most often see in the field fails to provide the
accurate water accounting needed today. We see roughly about one
in five flow meters in the field are producing data that is off by as
much as 25 percent and old-fashioned open canal measurements
where they still use yardsticks to measure water levels being off by
as much as 40 percent.
Consider what this means. Our experience shows us that many
of the current funding sources available are geared toward re-
search. These contributions are valuable, but the net sum result of
many of these projects simply leads to more research without much
private sector engagement, unfortunately. The USDA-NRCS has
programs that are designed to help famers and irrigation districts
implement technologies. They include EQIP and RCPP funding
sources. These programs, although well-intentioned, are tough to
plan around, as funding cycles do not track with grower needs and
the application process is difficult to complete. Funds for these pro-
grams are managed and distributed generally on a regional basis
making larger, more scalable projects that can benefit multiple re-
gions more challenging to implement. We have seen this first-hand.
One promising example relates to a project that we are currently
finalizing along the Colorado River in Arizona, with support from
the Federal Government. The client is working with the Bureau of
Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Reclamation (BuRec) to co-fund
a SWIIM deployment in an area that will benefit significantly from
this type of water use data. If this funding project could be ex-
panded through a partnership with BIA and BuRec to multiple
users along the Colorado River, then more meaningful scaling could
be achieved.
To provide paradigm-shifting technologies and to facilitate the
embracing of these types of technologies on a wider scale, funding
sources must be flexible, and allow for approval on a project-wide
basis across different regions, opposed to a region-by region basis
as it is currently done.
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Thank you for the opportunity to share this story with you today,
and I look forward to answering your questions.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mr. France, for that testimony.
And I would be remiss if I did not recognize that you are bringing
your family here as well and it is my understanding it is at least
your youngest daughter’s first time in Washington. So welcome to
our Nation’s capital to the France family as well.
Mr. FRANCE. Youngest and oldest. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman CROW. Right. Thank you.
Dr. Potere, you are now recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF DAVID POTERE
Mr. POTERE. Thank you, Chairman Crow, other members of the
Subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify in today’s
hearing.
You know, fundamentally, growing food has always been a ven-
ture of small businesses, and that is true here in the United States.
Despite all that we hear about consolidation of farms, today in the
U.S., no sector has a higher percentage of small business ventures
than agriculture. And that is not only the farmers who are growing
our food but the shippers and carriers that bring our food to mar-
ket, the accountants and CPA, and agronomists and mechanics
that help bring that crop out in the world. And, of course, small
business is challenging. And no small business is more challenging
than agriculture.
I come to you today as a technologist. I build technologies. I am
not a farmer but I have been serving farmers for the last 5 years,
building out a better system of agricultural intelligence using sat-
ellite and weather technology that is the result of hundreds of mil-
lions of dollars of government investment over the last many dec-
ades. And I am now proud to be a member of Indigo Agriculture,
Inc., which is a company whose mission is to use technology to help
farmers sustainably feed the planet.
There are many challenges that the farmers face today; we have
seen 49 percent reduction in the profitability of farms since 2013.
We are looking at a 400 percent increase in input costs for farmers
over the last 40 years, most of that in the last 15. If you think
about where that increase in input cost is going, it is not going to
small businesses. Think about how challenging it is to market that
grain out in the world. As an asset class, commodities futures is
one of the most volatile asset classes on the planet, and farmers
ever year have to figure out when and how to market their crop
out into the world. It is hard to be small in the food system, and
at Indigo, we believe that technology is a part of the solution to
making farming a more valuable profession and by extension, mak-
ing small business a more viable sector.
The two aspects of our business that I want to share most with
you today are around bringing that crop out into the world via In-
digo Marketplace, and learning how to grow a new kind of crop.
Learning how to become a carbon farmer. We think this is one of
the most hopeful things that we have heard of when it comes to
the climate change story. Bringing farmers into the solution. It is
true that farming represents 25 percent of carbon emissions but at
Indigo, we believe that farming can be a definitive part of the solu-
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tion for climate change because of the potential for agricultural
soils to absorb carbon. It is really an old technology. It is called re-
generative farming, and it basically means planting cover crops
and letting what we all learned in eighth grade science take over.
When it comes to photosynthesis, plants are really good at turning
atmospheric carbon dioxide into soil carbon. We should let them do
that and let them do that year-round by helping farmers move to
a system where they plant crops during the winter, cover crops,
that actually make the soil healthier, make the food healthier for
human consumption, and actually create resilience for those farm-
ers to better resist the changes of climate change, which if unmiti-
gated look like they could create a 20 percent headwind when it
comes to agricultural production in the country.
That carbon solution, it requires a marketplace, and Indigo Mar-
ketplace technology is designed to match buyers and sellers. And
that is a real tough problem. I have sat at the farm gate with
many, many farmers in my time at Indigo around harvest time try-
ing to make that decision of where and when to sell their grain.
They are not armed with the same technologies as the Big Ag com-
panies that they are selling into. And we work to democratize the
kind of market insights and intelligence that it takes to make
smart, rational decisions at that key moment, including learning
how to sell carbon.
One of the things that we wanted to make sure to mention today
as we speak with all of you is an opportunity to support farmers
in that chance to sell carbon. The thing we would like to observe
is that for a decade now, due to changes in the Tax Code, oil and
gas companies have had the opportunity to sequester atmospheric
carbon as part of enhanced extraction. And the question we have
for the Committee is if it makes sense at $50 a ton for the govern-
ment to subsidize oil and gas to put carbon dioxide back into the
ground, would it not make sense to allow farmers to do the same
thing and to allow farmers to do that at lower cost per ton and do
that in every rural community in America and allow them to be-
come a part of the same solution that we know is so urgent for the
planet?
So I will kind of leave you with that question. I look forward to
answering your further questions.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Dr. Potere.
Mr. Meza, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF ROBERTO MEZA
Mr. MEZA. Chairman Crow, Ranking Member Balderson, and
members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to
testify today.
My name is Roberto Meza. I am a first-generation farmer and co-
founder of Emerald Gardens, a farm located 15 miles east of Den-
ver on 35 acres in Bennett, Colorado. My business partner and I
operate a controlled environment, passive-solar greenhouse in
which we cultivate herbs, edible flowers, and over 20 varieties of
microgreens. Every week, we harvest more than 300 pounds of
microgreens destined for restaurants, grocery stores, food pantries,
public schools, farmers markets, and for direct delivery to con-
sumers.
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I am a member of Rocky Mountain Farmers Union (RMFU),
which represents approximately 20,000 family farmers, ranchers
and rural members across Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming. I
am also the Chair of Membership and Outreach of Mile-High
Farmers, a co-chapter of Rocky Mountain Farmers Union and the
National Young Farmers Coalition (NYFC).
My business partner and I are proud to be building our small
farm with a focus on environmental stewardship, technology, inno-
vation, and community engagement.
Microgreens are the primary crop of our farm and our labor of
love. They have low input needs, have a quick turnaround time,
can be grown year-round, and have a high nutrient density. It is
through growing and incorporating microgreens into my diet that
I experienced healing and renewal when I was struggling with per-
sonal health issues. Furthermore, they exhibit beautiful colors,
have distinct flavor profiles, which make them highly sought after
by chefs in restaurants and discerning consumers.
On our farm, we use innovative technologies that help us reduce
our costs and be strong environmental stewards. Our greenhouse
uses a passive-solar design that is both energy efficient, economi-
cally sensible, and environmentally friendly. It works by using
clear polycarbonate material on the south side to let the light
through, and insulated metal panels on the sides and the north
wall to trap that heat. This allows us to charge our Ground to Air
Heat Transfer System (GAHT), a design refined by Ceres Green-
house Solutions, that is based on the principles of a climate bat-
tery. This allows us to channel that heat in the greenhouse through
a series of tubes that run below the structure’s foundation and al-
lows us to reduce our reliance on auxiliary heating and cooling im-
plements.
We grow vertically to maximize the use of our 3,000 square foot
and use supplementary LED lighting to be energy efficient and
cost-effective. Over the next few weeks, we will be installing 40
solar panels to power the lights and the fans in the greenhouse.
Also, as Coloradoans know very well, the state closely monitors
water supply and use because of the arid climate. We use an auto-
mated recirculating water system to supply the roots only what
they need while reducing evaporation.
Many people are still unfamiliar with microgreens. Social media
is a critical tool we use to raise awareness about their nutritional
benefits, as well as the important role they play in local food sys-
tems. By posting videos that show our farm practices and the tech-
nology we use in our production systems, it builds trust, trans-
parency, and a deeper connection for consumers and their food
source.
A major puzzle we have been working to solve is optimal dis-
tribution of our product. Emerald Gardens is a boot-strapped busi-
ness, so unsurprising we have relied on some relatively low tech
methods of distribution such as attending farmers markets. But we
also have an online farm stand so customers can place orders from
their smartphone.
For broader distribution, we have partnered with an innovative
local grocery delivery startup, Bondadosa. Bondadosa allows us to
deliver to all of our wholesale and retail markets through a single
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weekly pick-up. We also looked to partner with Bondadosa to share
data that helps us optimize their delivery routes. As technology ad-
vances, including agricultural technology, it is becoming increas-
ingly important for today’s farmers to have a college education. In-
deed, it has become an asset on many farms as well as our own.
A college education is out of reach financially for many and student
loans are essential.
Unfortunately, student loan debt is one of several key factors
preventing young and beginning farmers from getting or staying in-
volved in agriculture. As a first generation and beginning farmer
with my own student loan debt, I believe a Federal student loan
debt forgiveness program is essential.
Looking ahead, we are excited by the opportunity to partner next
year with a technology startup that will pilot new sensors in our
facility. These sensors will generate data that will help us under-
stand the microclimate in our greenhouse to increase the precision
of our production methods. Support for technologies such as these,
which can improve environmental and economic efficiencies are in-
creasingly important within the context of our changing climate.
I want to close by saying that innovation is borne of struggle.
While we face a myriad of challenges as small farmers and small
business owners, we remain committed to a mission of feeding our
communities, improving our farm and food systems, and remaining
careful stewards of Colorado’s natural environment. Technologies,
both high-tech and low-tech, as well as grit and determination, are
helping us get there.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify, and I look forward to
your questions.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mr. Meza. And I know tomorrow
is your distribution day. So I especially appreciate you flying out
to do this today. It is always good to see you at the Stanley Mar-
ketplace.
Mr. MEZA. Thank you.
Chairman CROW. Dr. Jackson-Smith, you are now recognized for
5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF DOUGLAS JACKSON-SMITH
Mr. JACKSON-SMITH. Thank you. And I want to begin by
thanking the Subcommittee for the opportunity to speak to this im-
portant issue. As your introduction pointed out, I am a professor
of rural sociology and water security at the Ohio State University,
and I have spent my career studying both the drivers and the im-
plications of technological change for farmers, with a particular
focus on small and mid-size farms in rural communities.
My comments today also reflect the contributions of a colleague,
Dr. Casey Hoy, who is the Kellogg Endowed Chair of Agri-Eco-
system Management and the director of the initiative for Food and
Agricultural Transformation (InFACT) that I can speak more about
later, at Ohio State.
Many of the challenges faced by small businesses stem from
structural disadvantages that they face when competing against
large-scale specialized businesses that serve global commodity mar-
kets and benefit from economies of scale. With that said, there is
reason for optimism for the future of small and medium-size farms,
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agribusinesses, and food companies. Changes in consumer pref-
erences, expanding markets for food products that offer social, eco-
nomic, environmental, and health benefits, supportive public poli-
cies, and—most importantly for today’s hearing—a whole raft of
cutting-edge technological innovations provide a foundation for re-
invigorating small businesses in rural America.
Specifically over the last 20 years, a rise in consumer interest
and awareness of how their food is produced has contributed to the
rapid growth of new markets, and in response we are witnessing
the resurgence of diversified farm and food supply chains in the
U.S. This certainly includes farmers who incorporate cover crops
and diverse crop rotations, reliance more on agro-ecosystem proc-
esses instead of synthetic inputs, and those who produce niche or
specialty products.
It also includes small food supply chain businesses that are more
nimble and better able to meet these emerging specialized needs of
different types of customers. In our written testimony my colleague
and I list many examples of innovations that could help support
these diversified farm and food businesses, and for the sake of time
I am just going to highlight a few in my oral comments.
First, there are innovations that improve the performance of di-
versified farms which we see as a foundation for this frontier. The
diversified farming systems of the 21st century are not your grand-
father’s farm but rather improvements in scientific knowledge have
opened new windows into the dynamics of agro-ecosystems and
how diversification can be leveraged to improve farming. Some
promising areas for innovation include support for farmer innova-
tion. There are literally tens of thousands of farmers currently
working to diversify their crop and livestock systems, and these
farmers represent a reservoir of practical knowledge that you
should start with and be a foundation for future discovery and in-
novation.
There are breeding and genetic engineering tools, both tradi-
tional and cutting-edge, that could be used to develop new crop and
livestock varieties optimized for small scale and diversified produc-
tion systems. And the use of sensors and precision farming data to
help farmers use inputs more efficiently and adapt to conditions in
real-time.
A second cluster of innovations might improve linkages between
diversified farms and these emerging markets, and that would in-
clude tools to track the performance of diversified farms, innova-
tions like the environmental sensors and tracking systems the pre-
vious speakers spoke to. Third, improving traceability. New data
information systems, in particular block chain technology, could be
harnessed to track products throughout a food supply chain with-
out placing burdens on producers, processors, and retailers. And in-
creased opportunities for direct marketing. In the digital age, con-
necting with consumers requires access and a reliable presence on
the Internet, and the comments made earlier about the importance
of rural broadband Internet, I think go no further mention.
Finally, there are innovations that expand opportunities for non-
farm businesses throughout this diversified system that we see.
These might include innovative farm machinery companies, food
processing technologies designed specifically to support diversified
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production and small scale producers. It also includes food safety
monitoring technology that could address potential threats to the
food supply associated with a more distributed and diversified sup-
ply chain, including new sensors and automated sampling tech-
nologies that are less labor-intensive and more accurate than many
current systems.
So big picture. While technological innovation can help small and
medium-sized businesses thrive in a more diversified farm and food
system, we are not working in a vacuum. For decades, the domi-
nant thrust of technological change in the U.S. farm and food sec-
tor has focused successfully on large-scale specialized commodity
production. I think without conscious public leadership in this
space we are concerned that the future of technology may not gen-
erate the opportunities for small businesses and rural economic de-
velopment that all of us desire. Fortunately, I think emerging mar-
kets, good public policy, and targeted investments in research and
innovation and small business development can help energize the
technologies we have talked about today and stimulate economic
opportunities in areas where Federal leadership in stimulating re-
search and innovation around diversified farm and food systems
could have a significant impact.
And I thank you for the opportunity to address the Committee,
and I look forward to your questions.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Dr. Jackson-Smith.
I have appreciated everything that all four of you have shared
with us today.
I will begin by recognizing myself for 5 minutes and start with
Mr. Meza.
Mr. Meza, you have done something that not a lot of people are
able to successfully able to do, and that is from kind of no back-
ground and experience in this area to jump in and start a small
farming operation and to be able to survive your first few years.
That is a very challenging statistically thing to do, and I would
love for you to just share with us for a minute what advice you
would share with other young folks that are looking at entering
into the profession and doing this and your lessons learned, very
briefly.
Mr. MEZA. Thank you, Mr. Crow.
My experience has definitely been challenging as you mentioned.
I think one of the reasons why we have been successful is our in-
volvement in our community, in our farmers union, working with
extension offices, and also identifying appropriate technology and
crops that are sought after in our community.
As you know, Denver is a blossoming culinary world but it also
has an underdeveloped food system. So with those two factors in
mind, we have targeted microgreens as a perfect crop to really ad-
dress a lot of those factors. For us, it has been an opportunity to
explore and research different models for how to create a niche for
ourselves and how to create a viable business. With the support of
our community and the solidarity with other farmers, it has al-
lowed us to get to where we are today. I would say the backbone
of our farm aside from technology is also the relationships and
partnerships that we have established. So I would definitely advise
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beginning farmers to collaborate, especially with their local commu-
nity.
Chairman CROW. And I know the last time we had a roundtable
together at the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union there was some
discussion about what you mentioned on the burgeoning restaurant
market. You know, we have added almost 50 percent population,
almost 2 million more Coloradoans than the last 2 decades, which
has led to a boom in the restaurant industry. But one of the biggest
challenges is getting fresh produce to those restaurants in a timely
way without them sitting on the shelf and having the spoilage. And
I know some folks in the union are experimenting with online plat-
forms to do that where a restaurant can order something up in
real-time and get it within hours. Have you had experience with
that, and are those platforms you think valuable?
Mr. MEZA. Definitely. These platforms allow us to have a really
strong relationship and communication avenues with our markets
and our buyers. Growing microgreens allow us to generate enough
product every week to cover the immediate needs of chefs in res-
taurants. So we have been able to capitalize on the benefits of
microgreens in order to satisfy the needs of our blossoming culinary
enterprises.
Chairman CROW. And is there a role in your view for this Com-
mittee in helping young folks with the startup costs or the barriers
on those platforms? Because, I mean, one of the things I love about
this is you cannot outsource fresh produce; right? I mean, it has to
be grown locally and produced locally and sent to local restaurants.
So I think it is at great opportunity for us. But what are those bar-
riers that you think folks like us sitting up here could help reduce?
Mr. MEZA. Absolutely. I think, you know, one of the challenges
was accessing capital. When my business partner and I decided to
start a farm in Colorado, we did not exactly know how to approach
it. We did not know what products to grow, and we also wanted
to be mindful of food waste. So for us it was an opportunity to re-
search what the local menu is in our context. Microgreens became
that crop that we focused on. And because of their ease of produc-
tion and low input needs, we were able to bootstrap our operation
in a very small, 150 square foot greenhouse that was adjacent to
my initial property that I was renting in Colorado. And through
that it allowed us to really connect with the markets that were
emerging, especially through farmers markets.
Now that we have scaled to our commercial phase, we have real-
ized that much more infrastructure and input needs have been re-
quired by our business model to be viable. So access to capital has
been quite a challenge but we are bootstrapping it as we go along.
This allows us to really understand the scale that is needed to ad-
dress a lot of these factors and make our business viable.
Like I had mentioned before, student loans have been a factor in
our ability to address the infrastructure needs of our business but
we are optimistic and we are determined to innovate new models
for helping younger farmers, especially since a lot of our aging
farming population is experiencing this moment of transition. So
we are trying to engage, inspire, and motivate the next generation
of agriculturalists.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mr. Meza.
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And I do have some questions for the other witnesses but I do
want to spread it around a little bit before I loop back to all of you
for a second round.
So my time has expired, and Mr. Balderson is now recognized for
5 minutes.
Mr. BALDERSON. Thank you, Chairman Crow.
I will start off with Dr. Jackson-Smith.
Doctor, according to a recent article in the Minnesota Times—ex-
cuse me, Minnesota Star Tribune—tractors built in 1980 or earlier
are in high demand because the price to buy and maintain them
is significantly lower than new high-tech tractors. Can you give us
a brief interpretation of this trend?
Mr. JACKSON-SMITH. Certainly. And I can say I just retired
my 1985 Toyota Corolla, which rusted out before the engine ever
went, so I bond with those farmers. I farmed for 25 years, and
when I farmed I understood the value of this kind of tier of tech-
nology.
My explanation for that ties into the fact that farmers at this
small and mid-size tier have limited resources and a lot of cutting
edge technology, especially when it first rolls out is beyond their
reach or designed for scales that initially might exceed their capac-
ity to take advantage of it, whereas technology from the ‘70s and
‘80s, certainly tractor technology, can do the job without having to
be very expensive and difficult to acquire and maintain.
Farmers also farm for more than economic reasons. The quality
of the labor experience, their ability to achieve independence is
critical to farmers that I work with. And being able to work on
your own tractor was why I kept that Toyota Corolla. I could fix
a car that had a carburetor. I cannot fix my Toyota Prius. In fact,
I am scared to touch the Toyota Prius engine.
So it is a very interesting observation but it does reflect, I think,
both the lack of development of appropriate technology perhaps in
the mainstream machinery industry historically and therefore, old
tractors having a niche, but also an opportunity for manufacturers
to get into that space and find ways to produce technology that is
really targeted and suited to that kind of clientele. And there are
manufacturers I think who are wising up to that.
Mr. BALDERSON. Yes, I agree. Thank you very much.
This next question I have is for the whole panel and you all can
jump in however you may.
According to the Innovate Ohio statewide broadband strategy,
300,000 households in Ohio, representing approximately 1 million
Ohioans lack broadband Internet access. As a member of the Small
Business and Transportation Infrastructure Committees, I advo-
cate for rural communities, including those in my district that suf-
fer from crumbling infrastructure and inadequate Internet access.
How does broadband access impact technology adoption for rural
farmers?
Mr. POTERE. Ranking Member Balderson, I can make a com-
ment from the prospective of Indigo Ag. We have had to build mo-
bile technologies for farmers to validate the work they are doing on
farm in order for buyers to pay a premium. We are trying to
decommoditize grain agriculture. And that means we have to send
agronomists and farmers themselves into the field to take notes on
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what is happening. The lack of broadband access has required us
as a technology company to build all of our apps resilient to a lack
of Internet connectivity. The development costs of that and the
missed opportunity around a two-way street of data flows for the
farmer are just really mindboggling.
It is really interesting from a software developer perspective, we
bring developers from all over the world to Indigo. They were
shocked to deal with that engineering challenge because they are
so trained on solving urban problems, it was a real moment to real-
ize that the lack of bandwidth was going to mean developing
against total blackout from a bandwidth perspective.
Mr. BALDERSON. Thank you. That is a good answer.
Sir?
Mr. FRANCE. If I may, I would like to second that. Our entire
network has been developed based upon a cellular and satellite
uplink because of the fact that in many of the regions we are in,
there is not sustainable broadband. So we do use broadband where
we can because there is a cost benefit to doing so. But it is a sec-
ondary backup. I mean, some of these areas, they are in the middle
of the desert. You know, we are in areas where it gets to 130 de-
grees as a high, and then, of course, in areas of Colorado it is below
zero. So that shift in climate over the year puts you in a position
where not only do you have to have solid equipment that can sus-
tain itself but also the connectivity to get to the web is still not
there.
Mr. BALDERSON. Okay.
Mr. Meza?
Mr. MEZA. We have been lucky in our context in rural Bennett
that we have incredible fiber-optic connections. It is an essential
part of our business model because we are able to create a niche
for ourselves and a market for ourselves through the use of commu-
nication of platforms by educating consumers about our product
and connecting them with their food source. That is pretty much
how we have been able to create this business for ourselves. And
we also need this technology to utilize the sensor technology that
we are using to mitigate any energy waste that we may encounter
in our production methods.
Mr. BALDERSON. Thank you very much.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mr. Balderson. The gentleman
yields back.
The gentlelady from Kansas is now recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. DAVIDS. Thank you, Chairman. And thank you for holding
this hearing. Thank you to all the folks who came out here to tes-
tify on what I think is a really amazing opportunity for us on the
Small Business Committee to be talking about issues that really
touch on rural, urban, and suburban points of contact here.
I represent the 3rd District in Kanas, which is home to Garmin.
So we have got a lot of the precision agriculture technology. You
know, it is very important to the district I represent, but also, in
my state there is really, I would consider there to be a big push
toward the sustainable agriculture that you all have been talking
about today. Johns County Community College has a sustainable
agriculture program that I had the opportunity to go and visit. And
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one of the things they brought up is how hard it can be for people
to get into some of the types of farming that you have been talking
about, the smaller farms, getting into some of the crops that people
are less familiar with.
So I guess the question for anyone on the panel who wants to
help enlighten us is how can we as the Small Business Committee
or Congress help support that pipeline? And also, the technologies
that I think—I am particularly excited about the carbon sequestra-
tion piece, but I would love to hear from you about how we can
really impellent or make the programs that we have existing better
for you all.
Mr. POTERE. Congresswoman Davids, I appreciate the question,
and I will maybe address in particular the carbon opportunity.
Something we wrestle with is if this is such a win-win, you know,
coming to a regenerative system means you can use less inputs,
farm more profitably, make more healthy food and be paid for it,
why have we not seen the transition; right? I mean, farmers are
entrepreneurs. If it was that compelling, why are we seeing only
2 and 3 and 4 percent of all American farmers doing those things?
And we think the barrier in large part is risk and know-how. So
it is risky to change the model. And the model of conventional
farming is well understood. And so anything that stretches conven-
tional farming introduces risk. And so I would suggest that any-
thing that Congress can do to create incentives around overcoming
that first barrier is a game changer; once folks have been doing
this for 2 and 3 years, it is actually a more profitable farm. But
it is overcoming that initiation obstacle that seems to be a big part
of the blocker.
Mr. FRANCE. If I may add to that. So SWIIM, we are in three
states, and we have a staff of 30-something. So we are a small
business as well. We have applied for state and Federal funding.
Been successful in some cases. Failed in others. We find ourselves
helping our growers may be 30 percent of the time use some fund-
ing mechanism to help integrate this type of technology, whether
it is SWIIM-based technology or otherwise, some level of tech-
nology.
The other thing that we find as a barrier is the fact that these
growers tell us over and over that they just want to grow. They are
not in a position where they want to fill out paperwork. They are
not in a position where they want to wait for funding. Many of the
programs, at least the ones that we are involved in that are avail-
able create a disincentive to pre-deploy these types of technologies.
Again, whether it is SWIIM or any other technology where one
could apply for funding, the grower wants to get in on it now. If
they do pre-fund, the available funding packages will not allow
them to be reimbursed. So they cannot. And I am speaking specifi-
cally to EQIP. I am sure there are others. We have had growers
just say flat out, I am tired of waiting. I want to get this water con-
servation technology in place. To heck with it, I am just going to
deploy it myself. Over and over. We have actually helped our cli-
ents apply multiple times. And almost every single one of them
have just moved forward and done it themselves. So a revamp of
the process, maybe thinking outside of the box. You know, we have
had growers say if we could just do one master application for all
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of our fields in this one region we would do it in about 5 seconds.
But one form for every single field? It is the same reason they do
not want to monitor their water. They want to leave that to a pro-
fessional. The same reason that we found pushback on these types
of programs.
Thank you.
Ms. DAVIDS. Thank you. And my time is coming to an end here.
I appreciate the tangible suggestions that you have. And I will
reach out to the folks who did not get to answer this question to
see what you have to say about it.
Thank you so much, and I yield back.
Chairman CROW. Thank you. The gentlelady yields back.
The gentleman from Tennessee, Mr. Burchett is recognized for 5
minutes.
Mr. BURCHETT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the op-
portunity to be here, and I appreciate you all being here.
I have been involved in I guess an organic business. I have had
a little composting, mulching business for a long time and I know,
I guess, the learning curve I had to experience but also with regu-
lations, they just make them up as they go. And so I am excited
to see you all doing what you are doing.
I have a couple of questions. This is for the full panel.
How do American consumers affect ag-tech industry dynamics?
And are they driving the expansion of this industry or are they
continuing to learn how it works?
Mr. MEZA. Thank you, Mr. Burchett.
Mr. BURCHETT. You can call me Tim. We are good. I would ap-
preciate it.
Mr. MEZA. In Colorado there is a really strong local food move-
ment, and consumers are increasingly demanding products that are
available locally, not only to receive the freshest and most high-
quality ingredients, but also to limit the food miles that food has
to travel to get to their plates. So we have been able to address
that by the kind of crop that we grow. And not only that, but I
think there is also this greater awareness of the participation we
all have in establishing a sustainable local food system. It is really
the ecosystem that we all partake in. Farmers, consumers, every-
body that is involved in food. So it really is a driving force because
we grow for the consumer. That is our primary goal. And for me
it is really important to not only think of it in terms of a trans-
action but a reciprocal relationship; right? We see it as we take
care of the plants so that they can take care of us, and then we
can take care of the community. And that relationship has been
the, I would say, intangible infrastructure that supports our entire
business.
Mr. BURCHETT. I was glad to hear you say that. I am an or-
ganic gardener and I grow tomatoes and squash and green beans.
And we have got blueberries and blackberries and raspberries. And
it is all sort of conglomerated. And I remember when I started in
my backyard it was covered in all kinds of stuff. And my neighbor,
oddly enough, who was not in my political party, but told me I
needed to spray it down with some chemicals. You know? And I
hesitated. I was mayor of the county but I lived in the city, kind
of confusing, but I adopted two goats and they were wonderful.
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Even the neighbors ended up liking them, so I always thought I
was going to get in trouble with the goat police if there were any
but they were awesome. A lot of fond memories. They were Ray
and Lucy. I named them after some friends of mine. I appreciate
that. It is true. You can look it up. You can look it up. Neighbor-
hood kids would come by. They would say, ‘‘Mayor, can we get a
picture made with your goats?’’ And I would say, ‘‘Sure. Come on
back.’’
They are great, man. They were just like a member of the family.
I remember one time we were eating breakfast, my little girl Isa-
belle, I heard this chomping in the background. And I looked over
and me and her mama saw that daggone goat had eaten the
screen. And they do eat anything. I mean, anything. That is no lie.
Had eaten that screen and she was feeding it Cinnamon Life
through the kitchen window. But, you know, I love my girl so it
could have come right in the kitchen for all I care. Mama would
not have liked that but it was all right with me.
But anyway, back to my questions. That is good for ratings on
C-SPAN by the way. They love that stuff.
What motivates or discourages small family farmers when they
are considering new technologies? You know, when I was in my
deal, I mean, I was strict on the environmental issues and it
seemed like our universities, they did not like the organic aspect.
And I found out later that a lot of the funding comes from some
of the big boys who I taunt regularly on my Twitter page about,
you kwon, my organic berries and stuff. And which I am sure it
brings them to their knees. But the truth is that they get a lot of
funding, these universities do from that, and so they sort of dis-
courage the environmental thing. I know one of you all said you
grew microgreens and other things, so I was kind of curious how
that all played in.
You all just kind of jump in wherever you want to. Or just shake
your head in disbelief.
Mr. JACKSON-SMITH. Since you pointed out universities, let
me just jump in on this one. And I think the world has changed.
Compared to 30 years ago, unversities are now very much focused,
as is agriculture, on this sort of emerging, consumer-driven market.
There was skepticism when I started my career about whether
organics was the real deal and whether there is real science behind
organic farming. It is now a $50-60 billion industry. And so that
has woken up a lot of researchers to the possibilities of being in
that space and helping to optimize those systems in the same way
we have optimized conventional agricultural systems.
And I think for farmers, the area of diversification and regenera-
tive agriculture is going to be the next frontier. It is complex. It
is going to require a lot of support and targeted work but I think
if I were to be self-serving, universities are going to play a role in
helping solve and figure out some of those fundamental science dy-
namics of those systems that entrepreneurs and innovators will be
able to develop into new technologies that can help farmers adopt.
Mr. BURCHETT. All right. I see I have run over my time once
again but I really appreciate you all being here. Thank you in all
sincerity. I dig entrepreneurs and we have got to encourage that.
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We have got to encourage the university and through all these
emerging new markets it is very encouraging.
Sorry, Mr. Chairman, I yield back none of my time.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mr. Burchett. I think everyone is
disappointed that your time is expired, including me. Always one
of my favorite——
Mr. BURCHETT. I know the viewers are.
Chairman CROW.—some of my favorite 5 minutes of all the
Committee hearings. So I appreciate it very much. But I am sure
you will go viral so, you know, we can watch it later.
The gentleman’s time has expired.
The gentleman from Oklahoma, Mr. Hern, is recognized for 5
minutes.
Mr. HERN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have no goat stories,
but I did grow up on farms.
I thank the Ranking Member as well, and thank you all for being
here today.
As a small business owner for almost 35 years now and job cre-
ator and all kinds of farming and ranching over the years, but I
am also an engineer so I really appreciate technology and what it
does to make our lives better, or confuse us, one or the other a lot
of times. It has allowed for a lot of increased deficiencies and you
have related to that in your testimony. And it is also, I am very
familiar with IOT and what it has done for changing America, the
legacy equipment we have out there.
You know, because small businesses start as numerous innova-
tions and agricultural technologies to help aid American farmers,
specifically these innovations have helped farmers to identify prob-
lematic factors impacting their crop productions, how to become
more efficient, and you know, there has been a lot of conversation
about more sustainable food production, the creation of a stronger
resistance to environmental factors which is huge, to create more
yield. To continue this success it is essential that we as elected offi-
cials are fostering growth for startups and small businesses rather
than creating more barriers. One of the things, if you know the his-
tory of this Committee, it is a really bipartisan Committee that
really works on trying to cut through all the politics of what is out
there to really get things into the hands, ideas, and remove bar-
riers for our entrepreneurs to go out and create a lot of jobs.
Unfortunately, a lot of times when we try, the government tries
to get in the way, and I know a lot of times when you come here
you are asking for the government to get involved, and we can also
be the worst nightmare because everybody has a wonderful idea
that tends to stifle growth and innovation. And one of these exam-
ples of the barriers stems from a 2011 study you may be familiar
with which found that due to regulations, bringing a new plant
biotech variety to market costs an average of $136 million and
more than 13 years to complete. In an effort to reduce these bur-
dens, both Obama and Trump administrations have called for re-
forming our agricultural biotech rules to reduce cost, improve effi-
ciency, and reflect decades of safe use. That said, there is more
that we can do to improve our regulatory environment. This is
something I would like to ask each of you about.
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So the question is in our 2-1/2 minutes, and we will just start
right here and just kind of move down if you do not mind, do you
all have thoughts and recommendations, specific or general, on
ways we can improve the regulatory climate, remove unnecessary
market barriers, or allow for better small business participation in
this critical sector?
Mr. FRANCE. Sir, I would write a book on that if I could figure
that out. It would probably be a best seller would be my guess.
But in all seriousness, as far as regulation goes, we have spent
a lot of time in our particular area looking for ways to take already
established programs and make them work for our clientele. So we
are talking EQIP, RCPP funding through a third-party source, di-
rectly going to BuRec or BIA. I struggle with asking the govern-
ment to come up with another program. I would suggest looking at
the programs we have and giving more leeway to those that al-
ready have the ability to kind of look outside the box. For example,
a lot of the USDA funding that is issued on a regional basis, you
know, it is issued to regional offices if you will and they place it.
If, for example, you found a project that spanned regions giving one
person authority to fund all of those under the same terms and
conditions, maybe flexing within the system that is in place would
be my advice because I am not sure you would necessarily want to
go in and try to create a brand new program. That is just my view.
Mr. HERN. Dr. Potere?
Mr. POTERE. We certainly feel the effects that you are describ-
ing. It is one of the reasons why we have pursued microbial tech-
nology, naturally occurring microbes that are in nature, amplifying
those is one way. One of the reasons that is an attractive avenue
for yield improvements is because of the barriers that you were
talking about. So this is an example of the private sector reacting
to those barriers.
And I would say also that the system of conventional farming is
something that needs to change. And that is also not a regulatory-
constrained avenue. So in our case, I think while we do face some
of the constraints of regulatory approval for those microbes that we
are developing, we found two promising ways kind of around that.
So certainly verifying what you are saying around the challenges
that it creates.
Mr. HERN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Chairman CROW. I will extend 2 minutes. I would actually like
to hear the other two witnesses answer your question.
Mr. HERN. Thank you.
Chairman CROW. Yep.
Mr. HERN. Mr. Meza?
Mr. MEZA. Yeah, I think, you know, the first thing we need to
do is go to farming communities and ask them what ideas they
have. I think too often we as experts think that we have a program
that is complete and that will remove and allow further develop-
ment. But, you know, contexts are different everywhere. And so the
only one that can really speak to those contexts are the farmers
themselves. I think it is really important to take into account the
specificities of each farmer and what they need and how they see
the whole matrix of things working.
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Another thing that I think would help is, you know, we all know
that Big Ag has been subsidized. So we should be able to channel
some of the funding into regenerative agriculture, new innovative
models for producing food. And hopefully, we can come up with a
nice brainstorming session that will yield some innovative models.
Mr. HERN. Thank you.
Mr. JACKSON-SMITH. It is a fantastic question. You stumbled
into an area about which I know too much so I will be talking for
the next 45 minutes, like any good professor.
No, actually, I have worked for quite a while on ag-technology.
I started out when Bovine somatatropin (or bovine growth hor-
mone) was a cutting-edge technology in the dairy industry in Wis-
consin. And it was and still is a controversial and contested tech-
nology. And it was the opening salvo in an ongoing saga of genetic
engineering being a political football or at least a very contested
issue. And I think our regulatory system reflects that. I do not
know anyone who thinks our current regulatory system on genetic
engineering makes any sense. It is kind of like no one really likes
our immigration system. But to find our way forward with genetic
engineering regulation requires finding some middle ground, find-
ing some balance, and coming up with a system that incentivizes
careful scrutiny in places where it is necessary and recognizes that
many of the barriers that have been put in place right now are pre-
venting us from deploying technology for purposes that I think all
of us would celebrate.
There are plenty of examples. We talk some about it in our
longer written testimony, for example, innovations in cover crops
that allow cover crops to succeed. They are a great idea but I know
most farmers try them and find that it is more complicated than
they were told. And that is because we have not had the ability to
engineer and develop and breed cover crops that suite the diversity
of climates and production systems farmers use. Biotechnology and
genetic engineering could be a tool if we were able to confidently
deploy that as part of our portfolio.
But I recognize, and I am sympathetic that the ways in which
it has been deployed to date have not always percolated down into
benefits for consumers or small businesses. And so the skepticism
and concerns about biotechnology are real. But I think you are
touching on an area where there is a bottleneck and a bottleneck
that somehow we are going to have to see our way through in the
future.
Mr. HERN. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, thank you.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mr. Hern. The gentleman yields
back.
The gentleman from Pennsylvania, Dr. Joyce, is recognized for 5
minutes.
Mr. JOYCE. I thank the Chairman for yielding and for the op-
portunity to discuss the opportunities that ag technology can bring
to rural America.
First, I would like to take a moment to highlight a farm in my
congressional district which has been incredibly successful in uti-
lizing technology to improve their operations. Jan and Dan Turner
own and operate Ewe Lamb Right Farm, an 80-acre farm in
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Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, where they primarily raise hair sheep
and lambs. Several years ago, Dan and Jan entirely relied on a sys-
tem of spreadsheets and post-it notes to record the growth and any
medication, vaccination, trimmings, other details relevant to man-
aging their flock. The process to collect this data was tedious and
it required them to access the sheep one by one, flip through pages
of spreadsheets to find the corresponding records, and then input
the updated relevant information into the spreadsheets.
To improve this process, the very innovative Turners joined the
National Sheep Improvement Program and purchased a system
which consisted of ear tags with an RFID chip and a handheld chip
reader, as well as a Bluetooth enabled scale that works with the
chip reader. This technology has allowed them to collect more data
and do it in a fraction of the time. They have seen a remarkable
4-to-1 time reduction in the barn and a stunning 12-to-1 reduction
in labor on data entry. More importantly, the Turners not only
save time but the additional data enables them to improve quality
of care to the flock and decreases the stress on the animals and the
shepherds. In the words of the Turners, and I quote, ‘‘It is like hav-
ing a farmhand who has X-ray vision and almost perfect memory.’’
We can all agree that technology of this magnitude can be revolu-
tionary for small and medium operations.
However, as noted by your testimony here today, major hurdles
continue to develop and impede the deploying of those technologies.
And this technology relies in a large part to broadband access. One
of my top priorities since coming to Congress has been to increase
and expand rural broadband deployment.
Dr. Jackson-Smith, you certainly have a broad expertise in this.
Can you further elaborate on how a lack of reliable broadband lim-
its opportunities available to small and medium farms that are
looking to diversify, to modernize, and to improve their operations?
Mr. JACKSON-SMITH. I can. And I can speak about the goats
that I used to raise. Not really. But the fact is that I used to live
on a farm where we did raise goats and sheep, and we had dial-
up Internet. And it sensitized me to the realities of what life in
rural American is like for farming and being able to access cutting-
edge technology.
For most developers of technology these days, they have very lit-
tle exposure to agriculture, very little personal experience with the
realities of what the working environment is like, the complexities
of juggling all the demands of that task. Many come from urban
areas. And so some of the comments made earlier about how sur-
prised people are who have been working in tech development for
20 years, when they take on a rural project or an ag project, the
realities of what Internet access is like. It is a huge issue. It is a
tremendous barrier to being able to deploy things.
One of the strategies I think that we should explore more is to
be able to get more entrepreneurs and innovators, and this speaks
to workforce development, out on farms, out in rural communities
before technology is hardened and developed to get an appreciation
for what the clientele are like and where they have needs and
where there are opportunities. I think it is a vastly under
resourced place for us to spend resources and effort that would lead
to things we could not imagine. We need a designed system. I raise
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sheep. A designed system for a small scale sheep producer that fits
with my budget, makes my life easier, and allows me to be more
successful is exactly where we ought to be at.
Mr. JOYCE. Thank you, sir.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I yield back.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Dr. Joyce. The gentleman yields
back.
The gentleman from Texas, Mr. Veasey is recognized for 5 min-
utes.
Mr. VEASEY. Thank you very much.
I wanted to ask some questions for Mr. Jackson-Smith. I know
that information that can help farmers make these decisions sur-
rounding input and best management practices are very critical,
obviously, to be able to maximize yields. As the digital technology
and tools become more available, how do you think this is going to
change farmers’ behaviors as it relates to conservation?
Mr. JACKSON-SMITH. I think conservation is where we are
going to see some of the major opportunities in terms of technology-
driven, data-driven, information-driven decision-making. It re-
quires the emergence of markets and incentives for conservation
that allow farmers to get returns for those kinds of investments
which often benefit society a lot more than they will benefit the in-
dividual operator. I think my comment earlier speaks to the fact
that if not appropriately tailored to the needs of rural and small
and medium-size operations, a lot of technology might not give us
the benefits that we would like to think they can achieve. And so
I think that is where there is a role for all innovation is going to
come from the private sector. There is a critical role for small, and
all businesses to innovate. But for the Federal Government or gov-
ernments in general to build the infrastructure that creates the
template in the 21st century for success, and rural broadband
Internet is one of those key infrastructure investments that will
never make sense to a Verizon Wireless company because there are
not enough customers per mile but make tremendous sense in
terms of us being prepared to be a key player and small and rural
communities being a key player in the future.
But also, trying to train and develop a workforce that is capable
of being sensitive to the needs of agriculture. I spoke in my oral
comments about getting farmers more involved in research. And I
went by it quickly, but I have come to the opinion that conserva-
tion innovation is going to go a whole lot faster if farmers are there
at the very beginning of the process to help design solutions than
if we work from the outside and innovate and then try to sell
things to farmers. And so I think supporting programs that embed
farmers with universities, I do that every day in my work, but also
embed entrepreneurs in businesses to a greater extent in farming
and rural communities will be some of the hidden ways we can
really accelerate innovation in that space.
Mr. JOYCE. Do you think that innovation of the space is em-
braced by people in agriculture, or is it something that has to be
sort of gradually, you know, sold to them? Or is it something that
people are very open to? Or is it more of a hard sale?
Mr. JACKSON-SMITH. So I am a social scientist. I get the
phone call from my technology-oriented colleagues who say we have
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invented something. Farmers do not use it. You come along, wave
your magic sociology wand, and tell us how we can better get peo-
ple to do that.
I have learned to turn that question back and say, well, I have
always found that things that work are pretty easy to convince peo-
ple to use. If you have designed something that really solves a
farmer’s problems or fits with the kind of context they are making
decisions, it is a whole lot easier to get to that adoption.
It is simple think that farmers do or do not want to do conserva-
tion but it is actually a lot more complicated. I have rarely met
farmers who do not want to do conservation. Ubiquitously, people
are very sensitive about their environmental footprint. They want
to be good stewards. They want to leave the land in better shape
than they found it. That is what agriculturalists are like.
When farmers are not doing conservation, it is usually for rea-
sons that make sense. There are costs that exceed anything they
can afford without returns that compensate for that. Or tech-
nologies that sound better than they might actually operate, like in
the cover crop arena. We need to do a lot more to make cover crops
be something. And when we design solutions I think in partnership
with farmers, we are going to find that the end of convincing peo-
ple, of telling people and educating them is no longer going to be
the barrier. It is really something that tends to unfold on its own.
Mr. JOYCE. Thank you.
I yield back.
Chairman CROW. Thank you. The gentleman yields back.
The gentlelady from Iowa, Ms. Finkenauer, is recognized for 5
minutes.
Ms. FINKENAUER. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you guys
all so much for being here today. I know some of you have traveled
pretty far to be here and it means a lot. And as the Chair said,
I am a congresswoman from Iowa. I represent Iowa’s 1st Congres-
sional District. It is 20 counties in northeast Iowa. We touch Illi-
nois, Wisconsin, up to Minnesota, and innovation and agriculture
is huge for us. And doing it right and making sure that our folks
in Iowa and to have access to the innovation is one of our top prior-
ities, but also something that we struggle with because of our lack
of access to broadband, which I know you guys have touched on
quite a bit today. But I think it is just important to keep ham-
mering this home why this is so important.
You see, in my district, it was about 3 months or so ago, I had
FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, or Rosenworcel up to Iowa
One. We went to a farm in Dyersville, showed her some of the new
equipment that was out there in regard to precision ag. But then
also as we were sitting there and, you know, she was talking to
some of the young farmers in the area as well. One of the guys
came with his dad who I think he just got out of ISU and he is
trying to show her on his iPad the operation they have. They are
pork producers. For their feeding operation. And as he is pulling
out the iPad to show her, the thing will not load. And it was just
a perfect example about why we have an issue when it comes to
folks having access to the innovation that is already here. But also
what that means in the long run as well about what we are going
to be missing out on if we do not get this right sooner than later
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when it comes to broadband and making sure that our farmers
have reliable connectivity and fast connectivity.
And I know, Mr. Potere, I know you spoke about this, you know,
doing some innovative work on trying to create apps or different
things that would make it so that if you had low connectivity it
would still work. And I think that is great. But what I would like
to know is what are we missing out on right now because we do
not have the high-speed connectivity reliably throughout the coun-
try? And what would that actually mean for innovation if we had
that so you could focus your work on apps and other things that
could do even more versus on trying to bring them down to where
they work on low connectivity?
Mr. POTERE. Congressman Finkenauer, I think I am going to
highlight three examples of the things we are missing out on.
What we have today is essentially a one-way street where we
build apps that are resilient so we can log a bunch of data, and
then once you get to a broadband area, dump it back out into In-
digo servers. And so that means it is a one-way street. And so we
are not able to provide agronomic decision support to the farmer
the way we could so that they are getting drone imagery in near-
real time of critical moments in that crop’s lifecycle. So there is a
disadvantage around the farmer decision-making. They are missing
out on intelligence they should have.
There are also consumers who are missing out. Consumer pref-
erences are such that, as Dr. Jackson was saying, they are chang-
ing. And consumers are increasingly ready to pay for
decommoditized agriculture. At Indigo, we have done deals with
companies like Anheuser-Busch, sourcing sustainably grown, low
water, rice, but you have to verify that the farmers are doing what
they are saying. And if there is no connectivity, if you are in a
black zone, you cannot do that.
And I would say the last example is those experiments that Dr.
Jackson-Smith was talking about involving farmers. Every day,
there are millions of experiments as farmers decide what to plant
and when to plant it. If we are not watching, we cannot allow them
to participate in this experiment. In Indigo, we fight that by trying
to instrument as many of those fields as possible and watching
them from space. But that is a half measure. You know, the reality
of prevalent broadband would be that all three of those things I
think get a lot better and just accelerate us.
Ms. FINKENAUER. Well, thank you so much. And again, I ap-
preciate you all taking the time to be here today. This is such an
important topic.
And thank you, Mr. Chair, for holding this hearing.
And with that I yield back.
Chairman CROW. Thank you. The gentlelady yields back.
I would now like to recognize the gentleman from New Jersey,
Mr. Kim, who is also the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Eco-
nomic Growth, Tax, and Capital Access, a relevant Subcommittee
for this discussion as well, for 5 minutes.
Mr. KIM. Thanks, Chairman.
I just wanted to dive into a few things. You know, this is criti-
cally important to my district. We have nearly 1,000 farms in the
New Jersey 3rd Congressional District. You know, making farming
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more efficient and profitable in industries, something I care deeply
about, the technological advances that you join us to speak about
certainly sound really promising here. And I am trying to think
about how best this can be implemented.
I guess my question is, you know, Dr. Potere, I would like to
start with you. I guess my initial questions are, what can be done
to help farmers successfully transition into more technologically
driven farming practices? And as we know that with the advent of
technology into different industries that we have seen in other sec-
tors, you know, sometimes that transition is difficult both in terms
of taking on the resources, being trained up, things of that nature.
So what can we do to decrease the burden upon farmers to inte-
grate this type of technology into their lives and their work?
Mr. POTERE. Congressman Kim, I appreciate the question.
You know, we should realize that we are incenting farmer behav-
ior with billions of dollars of tax and other kinds of subsidy. And
the question is how could we direct some of what is already out in
play towards more of these sustainable beneficial ag practices?
I mentioned just one example I will spend a moment with you
on which is this carbon tax concept. For us, the question is we have
decided a decade ago that it makes sense to incent oil and gas com-
panies to sequester carbon dioxide as part of enhanced extraction
techniques. It costs of $50 a ton to do that. We think that for a
fraction of that cost, farmers can put the same amount of carbon
dioxide into the living, agricultural soil.
So the question is, would it not make sense, should we really
care where those carbon that is being pulled out of the atmosphere
is going? We have done some math and it is why we have created
what is called the Terraton Initiative. It is a challenge to sequester
a trillion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent into agricultural soils all
over the world. That is all of the carbon dioxide that has been emit-
ted net since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. So lit-
erally, farming has the potential to be a solution to the climate
problem.
We have farmers on all of that land and, you know, Dr. Jackson-
Smith is right. Cover crops and regenerative agriculture, it is not
easy. It is going to take technology to help those farmers under-
stand a new sort of a digital playbook of how to do this well. But
the reward, if the government can help incentivize that kind of be-
havior, is really hopeful. It is putting the farmer as the hero in the
climate challenge. And we think it is time to start to put incentives
in place to make that happen.
Mr. KIM. I appreciate your answer there.
Dr. Jackson-Smith, I just have a question for you.
I really enjoyed in your presentation just kind of the breakdown
of how to look at this in terms of what technology can do on this
front. And I would like to just delve in a little deeper. In my dis-
trict, you know, our district got crushed by Superstorm Sand. In
New Jersey we have a lot of temperature flux as we see the chal-
lenges that are arising with climate change and extreme weather.
This is a real problem for farming in our district. We know cran-
berries and blueberries are particularly sensitive to that kind of
change in temperatures, and flooding is something that is just get-
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ting worse and worse. It is not just about when storms come. It is
really a daily occurrence in many places.
So I guess my question to you is, how can technology help lessen
some of these harmful effects, the impacts of such events, as well
as increase the resiliency of when we were looking at farming?
Mr. JACKSON-SMITH. So I think one, easy, big picture answer
lies in the concept of diversifying our production systems. So to the
extent that we look more towards agroecosystem based solutions,
we are going to need farmers and farming systems that produce a
wider range of crops, that have soil building practices that give
them resilience in the face of extreme weather events that we know
is possible. And we are going to have to develop the technologies
in the markets that allow that to be a viable and expanding and
exciting opportunity. And so I think it is that combination of put-
ting the package together to take us to that next generation of agri-
culture that is going to show up as a more robust and resilient ag-
ricultural community in your district. To the extent that we can
help those farmers make that transition in ways that make sense
to them we will succeed.
Mr. KIM. Yeah, well, look, these are all things that we will have
to work together to do.
Chairman, I yield back.
Chairman CROW. The gentleman yields back. Thank you very
much.
We want to thank all the witnesses for taking time out of their
schedules to be with us today on this really important topic, and
there was really fantastic testimony on the issues that we all look
forward to working on and trying to find ways to help the industry.
As we have heard today, small businesses are at the forefront of
the ag-tech revolution as both producers of exciting new technology
and as farmer and rancher users become more efficient and sus-
tainable over time helping that transition to occur.
In the 20th century, the United States public investment in agri-
culture, research, and development was a driving force behind in-
novation and increased efficiency. Yet, U.S. public investment in
agriculture, research, and development has decreased steadily since
2002, being surpassed by China actually in 2008.
So I am going to thank our witnesses for being here today to
share the challenges and opportunities to help reverse that trend
and make really smart and wise investments. I think we all view
our role here and there is great collaboration. And this Committee
is trying to find ways to reduce barriers and to help spur innova-
tion in the private sector, the public sector, and at research institu-
tions and universities as well. There is tremendous work going on.
I think we all recognize that and we want to be helpful in reducing
the hurdles and barriers so that that can continue.
So I would like to ask unanimous consent that members have 5
legislative days to submit statements and supporting materials for
the record.
Without objection, so ordered.
And if there is no further business to come before the Committee,
we are adjourned. Thank you.
[Whereupon, at 11:36 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
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APPENDIX
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SBD026 with DISTILLER
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124
Insert offset folio 124 here 38824.095
SBD026 with DISTILLER
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125
Insert offset folio 125 here 38824.096
SBD026 with DISTILLER
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126
Insert offset folio 126 here 38824.097
SBD026 with DISTILLER
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127
Insert offset folio 127 here 38824.098
SBD026 with DISTILLER
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128
Insert offset folio 128 here 38824.099
SBD026 with DISTILLER
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129
Insert offset folio 129 here 38824.100
SBD026 with DISTILLER
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130
Insert offset folio 130 here 38824.101
SBD026 with DISTILLER
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131
Insert offset folio 131 here 38824.102
SBD026 with DISTILLER
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132
Insert offset folio 132 here 38824.103
SBD026 with DISTILLER
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133
Æ
Insert offset folio 133 here 38824.104
SBD026 with DISTILLER
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File and source
- File
- CHRG-116hhrg38824.pdf
- Size
- 15,822,264 bytes
- SHA-256
- 9f290f22fd52e701dd42e1eec0e559abe4ee36088b84d4c855bf7379f25b78d1
- Our copy
- CHRG-116hhrg38824.pdf
- Original
- www.govinfo.gov