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Episode Description

In this episode of AgTech Digest, Sepehr Achard sits down with Frank Glatz, an environmental entrepreneur driven by the vision of revolutionizing weed management in agriculture. Discover the intriguing story behind Contact Bio Solutions, a startup that evolved from health science innovations to pioneering one of the market’s most potent bioherbicides. Learn how a unique delivery technology, originally formulated for supplements, is now changing the way weeds are controlled—offering high efficacy with natural ingredients and minimal environmental impact.

Frank Glatz unpacks the challenges of regulatory landscapes across the globe, the role of advanced application techniques like magnetic spraying, and how these developments are making bioherbicides increasingly competitive with conventional chemical options. From global market entry strategies to eye-opening case studies in vineyards and orchards, this episode explores the intersection of sustainability, science, and entrepreneurship in agtech innovation.

Tune in for a thought-provoking look at what it takes to bring a transformative solution to market, and get a glimpse of the future of agriculture through the lens of a passionate founder on a mission to make a difference—one weed at a time.

5 Key Takeaways

Unlock the future of sustainable weed control—here’s what you need to do next:

1. Evaluate bioherbicides like Firehawk Bioherbicide Super Concentrate as alternatives to chemical herbicides for more environmentally friendly agriculture.
2. Explore advanced application technologies such as magnetic spraying to increase efficacy and lower cost per acre.
3. Consider transitioning to nature-identical active ingredients with rapid biodegradability to eliminate withholding periods and reduce crop residue risks.
4. Collaborate with companies developing innovative ag tech solutions and participate in case studies to measure ROI and long-term soil health benefits.
5. Demand greater transparency and safer food production practices by connecting with ag tech leaders and advocating for policy changes in chemical herbicide use.

Memorable Quotes

"We are environmentalists that really want to bring to agriculture a better solution, so if you look at herbicides—the way they kill or desiccate the weeds—you’re not just doing that. You really impact the environment, waterways, residues in food, and potentially your own health."

"Our belief is if you start from a nature-identical active ingredient, in our case a fatty acid we’ve eaten for thousands of years, the environment and our bodies are very familiar with these ingredients because they have been part of our ecosystem forever."

"My vision for 2035 is a billion-dollar business offering a bioherbicide—in a $40 billion market, that’s just 2%—but we have that wonderful combination of a high-performing product that truly benefits consumers, users, and the environment in a very real way."

Connect with Frank

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/frank-glatz-961b5222/

Contact Bio Solutions - https://contactbiosolutions.com/

Resources Mentioned

Nestlé - https://www.nestle.com/

Beijing 2008 Olympic Games (referenced in context of organic waste diversion) - https://olympics.com/en/olympic-games/beijing-2008

World Health Organization (WHO) - https://www.who.int/

Harvard University (grounds using bioherbicides) - https://www.harvard.edu/

Gabe Brown (Regenerative Farming Leader) - https://brownsranch.us/

Regenerative Agriculture (Regeneration Movement, referenced in context of events/partners) - https://regenerationinternational.org/

EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) - https://www.epa.gov/

California DPR (Department of Pesticide Regulation) - https://www.cdpr.ca.gov/

Glyphosate (commonly known herbicide, referenced for comparison) - https://www.bayer.com/en/agriculture/glyphosate

Paraquat (referenced as a herbicide) - https://www.epa.gov/ingredients-used-pesticide-products/paraquat-dichloride

Connect with Us!

Be sure go subscribe to our other shows:

Vertical Farming Podcast: https://verticalfarmingpodcast.com/

Greenhouse Success Stories: https://greenhousesuccess.com/

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Three weeks before we harvest, I talk about potato seed. The

moment I talk about pulse crops, I talk about weed barley

that's being desiccated at the moment with chemical herbicide

including glyphosate. Three weeks before they're being

harvested. Where does this chemical

herbicide end up in directly in our food.

All right, so to kick off this conversation, can you present

yourself, your background and how you got involved

in Contact Bio Solutions in the first place?

Yeah, absolutely. See my name is Frank Glatz,

I'm a German Australian entrepreneur.

They have worked for 20 years in, in big

companies, global kind of roles. They're Australia

based and have them focus on the

commercialization of environmental technologies

globally. This is my third environmental technology startup

business. The first two were in plastics

where I really globally launched compostable plastics

for packaging, for waste diversion, for organic waste

and took that business forward. So changed over Nestle to bio

based packaging. Beijing Olympics organic waste diversion

with factories in Brazil, we had factories in China,

supplied Nanjing, Beijing with organic waste

bags, similar thing in Brazil and really

bedded down the first two businesses and moved into this. This

is Contact Biosolutions. So I'm one of the

originally three founders but have taken the business forward

myself and I'm the founder of our bioherbicide.

So if you give a quick background on Contact

Bio Solutions. So Contact Bio Solutions,

we operate in the ag tech, in the

ag bio space. So we really, we

are effectively environmentalists that really

want to bring to agriculture to the

world a better solution. So if you look at

herbicides, which is our main market, it's a 35,

40 billion US dollar market, it's enormous, it's

growing a lot. So what you do with herbicides,

you really control weeds that compete for

nutrients and water with normal kind of crops.

However, as you kill or as you desiccate the weeds with normal

herbicides, chemical herbicides, the way they kill or

desiccate the weeds, you're not just doing that. You really impact on

the environment, you impact on waterways, you impact on

residues in food, you impact potentially on your own health.

So therefore it's really there is that concept and that's what

we're trying to solve. How can we kill or

desiccate weeds while we're not having this environmental

impacts? So that's where we started in this

bioherbicide space. But where originally we come from as a

company, we're not herbicidal chemists, we come from

health science. So our original founder myself, we

developed health supplements. So if you're a sports person

and you have knee issues, you usually take glucosamine

tablets. I can tell you they don't work. They end up in the

stomach and don't go anywhere. So what we have developed

in our original kind of technology founder, he has worked for the World

Health Organization for the last 30, 40 years developing

colloidal technologies which is really delivery

technology. So our glucosamine tablets, they're not

tablets, but they're liquids. And these liquids being absorbed

through the tongue, not through the stomach and they really end up there where they

should end up and work really well. So

we developed and really built

a lot of businesses around colloidal supplements.

So in one instance, we used a supplement or colloidal

system delivery system to get creams into skins.

And it's really like how cream to absorb through

through the skin. We combined this then delivery technology

with our bioherbicide formulation

that you could even Google like. Usually you google non

toxic, natural kind of safe kind of herbicide. You

usually find a vinegar with a bit of dishwashing liquid, bit

of soap, a bit of salt, but it works and

doesn't work. But combining that with our delivery technology,

we get this active ingredient into the

plants. As we spray them, they enter the plants,

going to the plants become bioavailable and

therefore can work within the system to the strength that they should.

So that's really our technology difference. So we're doing

herbicidal formulations, they're

based on nature. Identical or naturally occurring

ingredients have a very

clever kind of formulation technology. But the key difference is

combining them with delivery technology, making them so much

stronger. And so we ended up in version three. Now it's

called Firehawk Bioherbicide super

concentrate and that is the strongest product on the market

as a naturally active occurring ingredient

delivered through delivery technology into

plants that make the product a very strong and very

effective bioherbicide. I got two questions.

The first one is how did that jump occur

from health to herbicide? Was there a

particular moment or was it driven by you guys

internally after your conversation, or was it just an

opportunity that presented itself? And two, can

you share also some stats compared to the traditional

bioherbicides compared to yours in terms of efficacy

rates? Yeah, absolutely.

See effectively. And as I said before, and this is my third environmental

technology startup business, I'm an environmental

entrepreneur that looks for solutions that make a difference

to the world. So

therefore our health supplements was the original business

of one of our original founders who really developed

that technology to make active ingredients

bioavailable. Then at One of these

days we really looked into that whole kind of crisis as I

described beforehand. Pesticides, herbicides, impact on the

environment. You know about all these kind of litigations going on,

talking about

herbicides have an impact on the plants that you kill,

but at the same time as you spray, as it

ends up in the soils, it has impact on the soil, on the

microbiology of the soil. If you eat this kind of

product name, they're full of chemical herbicides. There's a

lot of discussion at the moment, what impact does it have on your guts?

Because the soil and the gut are very similar kind of

media. And at the same time, what impact does it have in the long

term at a low dose on our society's health?

And looking into that one is really, we really wondered

how can we really help with that kind of issue? Is there a

solution? Our belief system is if you start

from a nature identical kind of active ingredient, and in our

case was originally a kind of vinegar, or now it's called,

it's non anoic acid, which is a fatty acid. We

eat these products over the last

thousands of years and therefore

our bodies and the environment are very familiar with

such kind of ingredients because they have been there for thousand and thousands

and thousands of years. Therefore the bacteria, they digest

in our body or they biodegrade

them in a natural kind of environment are used to this kind

of system. However, if you look at chemical herbicides

are usually new ingredients

that break cells, they shut down enzyme

reactions, they do whatever. So therefore

for me as an environmentalist, I always wondered what do they

actually do? So therefore the motivation was not

just asking the question, but saying, can we provide a solution

there that starts with the bioherbicide? And I

come about efficacy in the moment. Some of them they work, some

of them they don't work. But if you combine them with

this delivery technology that made such a difference for health supplements,

can we really create a bioherbicide that has an efficacy that is

really not seen beforehand? That was our journey.

That's the problem that we want to solve and therefore offer

effectively solution where you use a nitro identical product

as an active that works. And that was our

journey. Talking about that journey, I've never

been in my first three businesses now in biobic,

I've never been in a bad first meeting. Everyone loves that concept.

So which is really like can you really

control weeds with a nature identical product that is fully

biodegradable, that has no withholding periods,

that biodegrades quickly, and the way it desiccates

really helps in the soil too. So it's

can that really work? And everyone loves that

concept. But when you

want to move forward, then everyone talks

about price and performance. So the environmental

conversation gets you into conversation. That is all about performance and

price. And that's what we've been working. That's really my

expertise over the last three businesses. How can you

optimize performance? How can you get the price down? So

therefore we, as I mentioned before, and we're not an overnight success.

That is a seven to eight year journey. And mainly because

of regulatory. But we can talk about that later. But talk about in

these seven ideas, we improved our product, improved the performance,

improved the performance. And we really looked conceptually on a bioherbicide,

which is a so called contact herbicide. We're not systemic.

Systemic effectively is you shut down enzyme

systems in plants. Effectively you

have a poison, I would describe it through the toxicity, you

kill. Ours is not, ours is a contact

herbicide. We break the cells off

a plant, then later on water

evaporates in the plant. We dry it out, we desiccate like a hot

summer day. And so therefore that's a natural kind of process

of drying out and desiccation. However,

you need a certain strength potency of the

spray. So therefore most bioherbicide cannot be

diluted so much. So we worked on dilution, dilution.

Dilution. Then the next step, so sorry, our journey

has been. We started with our original version. We started

then continue to concentrate, continue to super concentrate.

So we started from call it 8% active to

20% to 49%. We are now at

87% active ingredient and no one is in the market

at that level. Therefore an 87% active

ingredient we can dilute more. So

therefore comparing us with

other bioherbicide or chemical herbicides, if you look

glyphosate or glufosinate, the most widely known chemical

herbicide, you dilute by 50 to 100 times.

If you look at a bioherbicide, most bioherbicide you can dilute

only by 5 to 10 times, 15 times preference.

Our super concentrate, we can dilute by 40 to 50 times.

So therefore, because of the strength, the potency, through the delivery

technology, the high concentration level, we are reaching pretty

much chemical herbicide dilution levels where no one is.

And that's the first kind of cost driver, the second cost driver.

And then again talking about that normal giving

idea, a glyphosate. Usually you

have a cost structure of $10 per acre.

That's what you Usually can run down to if you look at a

bioherbicide or if you look at a glufosinate, call it $40 an

acre. If you use a bioherbicide, call it first

generation products. You talk about $300 to

$400 an acre, which is 30 to 40

times more than a glyphosate would be. Our original

counterfolation, we were coming in around, they call it the

$200 an acre with a super concentrate.

We're coming down, I call it around

$180 per acre just because we

can dilute it more. But then of course the game becomes, it's not just

dilution level, it's how much you have to apply to be

effective. You as a contact herbicide or we as a contact

herbicide we have to cover the green parts. We inherently

spray more. Hence our cost structure by itself is higher.

But we work together then on the technology,

it's applications, not just the product, how you

apply it. And if you look at contact herbicide where you

spray 100 gallons an acre, you lose a lot of product. It's called

spray drift. Most of the product ends up on the soil,

therefore it's wasted. So we have been working, working, working on that.

And we have partners and they call magrotech magnetic spraying. We

looked at electrostatic spraying too. But magnetic spraying for our polar has

been most efficient. And that's where we really reduce spray

rate by 50% to 70%.

So therefore we're not spraying at 100 gallons an acre,

not down at 50 gallons an acre. We can spray down to 20 gallons

an acre and therefore comes the cost structures. So therefore

we now deliver in in our applications

and we in horticulture applications we're doing

regenerative application cover crop desiccations. We

can go down to 20 gallons an acre. And therefore we reaching cost

structures around $50 an acre

where no other bioherbicide is. But we are really

approaching chemical herbicide cost structures like as I said,

glucosinate, they usually call it 30, $40.

We approaching closer and closer. But of course we're

not just going that it works. We're not just going that is

a good cost. But we have a lot of benefits. And that's really

like inherently bioherbicide biodegrades very

quickly. We can biodegrade within days, so we have

no withholding periods. Chemical herbicides like glyphosate or

glufosinate, you have to wait for two or three weeks before you

can plant. So you have a Cover crop you

plant, then you desiccate. When the COVID crop is at the point

before you want to plant your cash crop, you want to desiccate it. But if

you desiccate that with glyphosate, you have to wait for two or three weeks

because otherwise you can't plant into this kind of system that you

sprayed with. Our being a contact herbicide

that directly biodegrades or becomes

inactive as they hit the soil.

You can spray and plant in the same mode and that's

called green planting. So what we do, we have a

tractor where we have quite often a roller crimp at the beginning

when we want to go over cover crops. We can then spray that cover

crop to fully desiccate it and we plant directly into it. So we have no

withholding periods. And two, we have no kind

of maximum residue limits. And the way our product

desiccates and therefore brings the goodies back into the soil, we

actually feed the bacteria in the soil and the fungi

and therefore we benefit the soils. And that is of course

great interest. So therefore we offer a system in summary

of a bioherbicide that works, that

effectively is extremely suitable for applications

like cover crop desiccation, horticultural

applications, where people are really worried what ends up in

the soil or what ends up in the food. And

that's our kind of niche market in agriculture. But at the same

time we're selling our product to the home and garden user,

to municipality and landscaping golf

courses. The Harvard University is using it already for years.

We are really going to market large scale in that kind of space. But into

specialty agriculture, we're not going into broad acre kind of

farming. We're not there. But in horticulture,

which means vineyards, orchards,

nut orchards, cherry orchards,

blueberry farms, people where they really produce

food or as I said to regenerative where they're really

worried about how do I desiccate cover crops.

That's where really good and talking about the future we're

really interested is really it's pre harvest

desiccation. That kind of space where we really

where herbicides being used to desiccate

and that goes directly into food production. That's really where

we want to go. Because a bioherbicide that is already in food, we eat

it every day for the last many, many, many years.

That's really where we want to go and that's where we do development work.

So quick summary of a lot of information

where we go, but that's where we coming from. That's where we at.

That's where we're going. And it will be big because that's where the

whole industry should go, I believe. Okay,

perfect. So in recent years, in recent years,

you just cleared California's DPR which is

considered by many as one of the toughest regulatory

gates in US Agriculture, at least. Totally

agree. What did that process look like and how

long did it take? So we have been, as I said, we're not

an overnight success. Can't claim that, won't claim that.

We always had a new approach to the herbicide, as

you heard. So this is not just formulation chemistry

as most of us do do. Another chemistry, another

chemistry. No, this is about how to deliver products

of nature, identical nature into plants

that they can work the way they should work.

So based on that, a lot of governments trying to promote this

kind of so called bioherbicides, Nature identical bioherbicides.

When I met the first time EPA in Washington, that was seven,

eight years ago, I described to them our product.

They have a bioherbicide group which is great. And they said, hey,

we really like what you have. We believe it's tough.

But if you have all the data, if you submit, have all the data, it

should take two to three years to get your approval based on what we hear.

So that's where we started with that expectation. But then the

summary is, then all these glyphosate litigation started

and the response to EPA was not

that therefore they made situations for

bioherbicides easier to get approved. No, the

journey became much more difficult. So we had to

approve not just our product formulation, they

asked us to do first our active ingredients. So it took us

two years to get the active ingredient, which is non anoic acid.

It's a super clean product. It's pretty much approved in

US and Europe, in Australia as a preferred kind of biological

kind of product. But they pushed us back to had to go

through the approval process which took us two years. Then afterwards

we had to do our formulation which took another

kind of two years. Then what we learned,

you have to go in years through all states. Some of

the states then pretty much approve what EPA

approved. But as you said, and

I would say 46 states are pretty much falling that apart.

It usually takes, call it three to six months depending on how

fast they act. But then comes CDPR and

CDPR took more than one quarter of a year

despite having full approvals beforehand. And there

again see we have a super concentrate at the moment.

So we have a concentrate that's fully approved. The super concentrate goes through this

approval process, but there's a long waiting period

until you finally enter that process. So it's not just

a pretty kind of tough approval process, but a lengthy

period that you just sit around and wait to get into the systems.

So therefore our journey has taken us six to seven years

get approved. As you said, we're fully approved with our

concentrate in all states including California. Our

spray mixture that people use in all states including

California, the super concentrate is approved in

47 states already. We're waiting for

Washington, New Hampshire and California. We're in that

approval process. We have put forward so 30

petitions have gone through from cities in

California to big users in California, big railway

system producers, individuals to make sure that we

fast tracked. But current expectation that that

super concentrate will be approved by September, October

if there's no further delays. But if our fast track petition

works, last time it worked, we should be in by September. And

people really lining up in specialty in

municipality, in in golf

courses, in parks and gardens, specialty crop, especially

agriculture for that super concentrate in California. So

yeah, we're very excited about getting it across all the country,

the states in the US but particularly California because

there's a big demand for that kind of product based on the performance we've been

demonstrated independently because for really

for quite a while going forward. Yes.

Okay. And since you already from my

understanding also had like some of the approvals in Japan and

Australia, how does that regulatory process in

the US compare to the other markets you're present in?

There is no market that has easy regulatory approval

processes that does not exist. They're

all different. So therefore if you look

where the difference sits in Australia we

nonenoic acid as I said is a fully well

understood active ingredient. Therefore Australia

accepts it without going through a separate approval process

as long as you have an approved kind of ingredient that's in the system.

So therefore it has taken us still formulation.

EPA has approved our formulation faster than

Australia. But we didn't need in Australia that non anoic

assets technical approval. So therefore it still has taken us

50 months. We in wind market as of

two months ago in Australia we even approved

organic certified for our products. That's not the case in

US So every country has a different kind of system.

But Australia we approved and we

accelerating to market. And we are, we're, we have a

market launch just within the next two weeks. But really

we're waiting for September August, which is the main

spring market launch where we go large

scale in the Australian markets that will be again

home and garden municipality in

universities and public parks. And gardens and

especially agriculture where we have a lot of interest

in organic certified products in Australia. But at the same

time specialty horticulture, specialty agriculture,

which will really accelerate a lot In Japan it's different again

in our type of product being a bioherbicide and so is the

case in New Zealand, they're relatively easy to approve in

non agricultural applications which we have approved.

So the agricultural processes, they still take one

to two years which we're submitting at the moment. So we're doing the same in

Canada, we're doing the same in Mexico. At the moment agriculture

is a bit more demanding but not as lengthy as it

is in the US including California. Europe is

as I mentioned here, I'm at the moment in Europe to set up

and start the European regulatory processes.

They're as demanding as us. They're different.

Again it won't be as

difficult to get our product formulation approved but it's a lengthy process

in efficacies. So in California we're doing efficacies

too, but they don't take so long. In Europe they take longer because

we have to go to two to three growing seasons

in three kind of climate conditions.

It's a two to three year process based on the

efficacy and that's what we process. So the summary, there's

nowhere an easy process, but they're all similar but

different. But the wonderful thing, and as you said

you're interested in looking financial kind of backgrounds and so on.

The challenge of course is not just having a great product, getting through the

regulatory, getting the funding of course, but the wonderful

thing is we're fully funded, hence we're doing Europe now

we're growing by 10 times, particularly in US because there's a strong

demand, we have a great product, works really well in the application

we're choosing. We're not doing everything in the market. We are very, very

focused on what we do. We know where we're good, we

know where there's a demand, we know where people

get a positive return on investment to

use our kind of product. And that's really what we're going focus

and going global and that's what we're doing one after the other. So at

the moment in the super concentrated in the US in agriculture,

we're having five large case studies at the moment, they're all for one

year plus where we're really looking at

really return of investment for our customers, for

our farming users where they really tell

us what they want, what they want to achieve. But we're

going in a One year kind of process because we can demonstrate the

benefits for their system, how they

work, because it's our product. And

you know that the more glyphosate you use, the more you

undermine the soil microbiology, the more kind of

fungi create issues. Therefore,

as you spray more glyphosate, you have to spray more fungicides.

Then that's just inherently so it's if you

spray more and more glue phosphate, that has an impact on

particular, on example cherry trees, you have certain kind

of impact on the overall system. So

our product being fully biodegradable, then as

we biodegrade, you can see better. With so many case

studies, if you spray in vineyards and see we're used in

approximately 50 vineyards in Australia at the moment, which is our home market,

we have been spraying our product for the last three, four years, what people

see. And we have done it in

500 acre, thousand acre operation over years

we competed. Usually they do two sprays. A double knock they

call it. First a glyphosate spray, then a paraquat spray.

It's shocking what they're doing. It's not allowed anymore in Europe, but that's what

they do in Australia to really deal with broadleaf weeds

and then deal with grass weeds. So we sprayed over

years and they usually spray six to seven times. They spray first

in spring, a herbicide spray, then a sucker

spray, a second sucker spray, then a herbicide spray, then the harvest

and the post harvest spray, pre winter spray, sometimes in between.

Depends on weather. They're spraying all the time. They're

chemical operations really. Then they have fungicide sprays, they have

other sprays, they're spraying all the time. So we sprayed in the same

regime with our product, only we didn't need more

sprays. But our first spray is a weaker spray. The second

one spray is getting under control. And

then we have a sucker spray. Our product works really well in suckers, then another

kind of sucker spray. So over a whole year we didn't need more

sprays. Our product got better and better. And then what they

saw the next year, in next spring, they were

confused. They had more green there, they had more weeds.

And then we were talking with why did they have more weeds? Because the

soil got better, because you have more

bioactivity in the soil. We found more worms in the

soil. So therefore the second year our

soil got much better as we progressed. And they

loved it. But they then said, frank, unfortunately, too expensive.

But we're coming back now in that combination. A super

concentrate that's organic Certified combined with a magnetic

sprayer. We're hitting the targets and they're very keen to

work with us because it's not the question whether product work.

It's different way of working. It's a contact herbicide. You have to understand,

you have to learn about it. But as we combine it with improving

soil improving kind of less fungicides, we can

combine our product with the feed nutrients,

we can do it with our product. Usually they can't feed

calcium combined with glyphosate because glyphosate

takes it out, it doesn't work together and glyphosate takes more and more

nutrients out. They bonded our product. Not

so it's really, that's what we're doing in big case studies

in vineyards, in

pistachio farms, in almond farms, in apple

oats, in grape growing, big scale over one

year where we really showed people how it works, where

the benefits are, what's the return on investment is.

And that's with our spring next year big market

launch in specialty crop in US we will have the

numbers to really demonstrate how that works, how a

biological system works at what's the cost, what's the

benefit, how you do it. And we're fully funded, we have the

resources to support, we have the sprayers available

to teach them and yeah, that will be fun.

So there will be a lot of growth and looking forward to that.

Nice. And before we started recording this

call, you mentioned that you've relocated your headquarters to

Pasadena. Yes, that's right. See, we're in Australian business.

If you look, we are three cornerstone funders.

It's a large Taiwanese company, it's an Australian rich

person and myself. So we're the three main funders. We kept it in house,

we looked at venture capital, but that was all. Not yet, not yet.

So we did it ourselves. And again, the advantage of that is

our main fund of the Taiwanese business is a billion dollar business. They have

the funds, they love what we do, they know that the journey takes a

while, but they see the big, big opportunity and we are in a

very lucky position to have such a partner that carries that

through. So therefore based on that, we're still Australian based, but

80% of our business at the moment is in the U.S. therefore

most of our people work in the U.S. we moved our

U.S. headquarters from the Midwest, Iowa to

Pasadena, California because California

produces most of food products for the US

and that's pretty much our sweet spot. So our chief operating officer

is based in Central valley. We have 10

people pretty much West Coast U.S. several people on the east coast too.

But the hub is really us. The same what we're

doing. See, currently we manufacture product in

Asia, in Thailand, but we have already

approval for US manufacturing. So we're fully EPA approved

for us. And as we ramp up sales and get full

Californian approval for spring next year, we will

manufacture the products in the US where we're fully EPA approved.

We have warehousing already east coast, west coast, strong

warehousing logistics and have a top team in sales

and business development and logistics. And usually when I'm not in

Australia, not globally traveling, I'm a lot in the in the

US because it's a very, very major market. We're very

close. If you look at our advisory boards, we have key players in

regenerative farming. We're embedded in regenerative farming.

Originally Gabe Brown, he's very famous in regenerative

farming, was our founding advisory board member, Ray

Artseller. Still we have Martin Crompton.

We have a lot of people really supporting us on the journey because regen

farming, improving the soil, being a bioherbicide

is a very important part. So we just talked at the

Regeneration, American Regeneration. We were on the

roundtable with RFK Jr.

Again, a lot of interest on looking on

food. Of course, as you know with the Maha movement, very much

kind of clean food regenerative farming with nutrient

developing again, nutrient and nutrient dense foods

very much fits what they do. We very much provide an angle to that.

And hence, yeah, US business is very important to us and

that's where we put a lot of resources in there. And very part of

that movement that wants to provide better food to

the world, in particular to American consumers. Yeah. And that's what we do.

Nice. Well, now we're moving on to the last part of

our conversation and I have a question and that question

is kind of a crystal ball question I ask everyone,

let's say the year is 2035. Where is your

company at? See, that

is in nine years. We are

very focused what we do. And as I mentioned to you, this is my

third environmental technology startup business. I

have learned the hard way that as a startup business,

environmental technologies, you have very committed people,

great opportunities, but the very risk is you

do another new thing, another new thing, another new thing and you don't get there

where you want to be. So the way I set

up this business, we're highly motivated, very

professional, we're scaling at the moment.

Scaling needs focus. We

have every day a new idea, but we only

focus where the product fits. Where there's a

return on investment for our customers and

where the product performs. Because we're operating at a $40 billion

market, it's not an issue on market, but

it's where does it work. So we're very focused on

what are the applications we're doing. As I said, we're in the home and garden

market, which is really driven. People don't want to

spray chemical herbicide around their

homes, gardens, pets, children, whatever.

Then we're very focused on municipality, public

spaces, you, universities, where they again saying

we don't want to use these kind of toxins anymore. Where we

operate, we can really offer a good kind of product. Then the other one is

we in agriculture. I would call it more specialty agriculture. We're

not in broad acre where it's only about price, low cost,

lowest fry rates. No, we're looking where is the value return

on investment where people go directly into food

or linked to food route. That's what we do. And we're going

global. So it will take us three to four years

to get Europe approved. So in 2035

we're really ramping up in Europe big scale. We're really

large in us but see where we

really want to be. And as I mentioned to you before, and if you look

about the Maha movement that I mentioned before, and it's about clean food,

I believe chemical herbicides being used for

desiccating fruit crop

three weeks before we harvest. I talk about potatoes here at

the moment. I talk about pulse crops, I talk about weed barley

that's being desiccated at the moment with chemical herbicide,

including glyphosate, three weeks before

they're being harvested. Where does this chemical

herbicide end up in Directly in our food.

If you look potatoes you desiccate with

chemical herbicide, the plants

shrivel up. Where does the shrivel up juices go

to? In the spots. What are we eating? The

spots. That's what I want to offer our

bioherbicide. It's in food. It's a natural

fatty acid. We eat every day. We just

optimize them for desiccation

and therefore using our product that has no withholding

periods, that have no maximum residue

limits and it's a great desiccant

as a super concentrate combined with a magnetic

sprayer. I believe we have a real, real offering there

for that kind of market. Yes, we need

a bit more help. Probably some government support

would be absolutely wonderful to sign because product

works. But we need scale, more scale and

therefore cost structures. But we have everything ticked off

ready to go. But that's the journey will not happen in two

or three or four years. That will take eight to nine

years. Talk 2035 my vision of a

billion dollar business that offers a

bioherbicide and see in a

40 billion that's just 2% of the market

but that just makes sense. And you have that

wonderful combination of a real high

performing product that works for the application but really benefiting

consumers, users, the environment

in a very nice way. And of course giving our investors

a very nice payback for that long term journey they have been

on us. And that's my vision for the next nine years. And again we do

other products too but stay focused in the $40 billion

market. And we want to really make a difference

to the world because this will make a big

difference. That's what we are. That's what we're

teaching. All right, perfect. Well Frank, thank

you very much for your time and for this insightful conversation. If

people want to connect with you or contact you, how can they do

so see it's send me an email.

It's

f.gladsontactbiosolutions.com

Happy to send it. We should send it out as part of a podcast

because we want to hear from people we're working

closely with consumers we startup is we have to be careful that we're not

getting totally diverted. But again people giving

them a chance to be listened to provide their kind of

inputs, they should directly send the note to me and

we will respond and we're happy to engage. We want to engage because

we want to offer something that makes a difference.