Shownotes
Episode Summary
Tristan Fischer has been involved in sustainable energy and sustainable food for over twenty years. He has been the Chairman or CEO of numerous companies, including Fischer Farms, a vertical farming/hydroponics business. Today, Tristan joins the show to discuss the benefits of vertical farm crops over field-grown crops, the looming food security crisis, and the importance of being a kind and empathetic leader
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Key Takeaways
07:13 – Tristan Fischer joins the show to share his background in finance, the evolution of renewables, and his passion for sustainability
17:15 – Vertical farming crops vs. field-grown crops
21:54 – Feeding the world: Tristan’s vertical farming origin story
31:16 – The inspiration to launch Fischer Farms and how Tristan has grown as a CEO
42:12 – The importance of being kind and empathetic
45:08 – Fischer Farms’ offerings and ideal clients
48:56 – A tough question Tristan has had to ask himself recently
51:43 – A specific ask Tristan has for his colleagues in the vertical farming industry
52:37 – Harry thanks Tristan for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can go to connect with him and learn more about Fischer Farms
Tweetable Quotes
“If you want to do good in the world, you also need to actually be profitable and develop businesses that are intrinsically capitalistic. Using capital to grow and having a business which is purely based on charitable activity isn’t good enough if you want to make a difference.” (10:52) (Tristan)
“When I was first doing solar projects, solar really wasn’t a great technology. Wind wasn’t really a great technology. It was expensive. It was intermittent. And, if you move on to twenty years after I started and you look in the UK now, the new wind energy systems that are coming onstream are the lowest cost electricity in the market, with the exception of solar.” (14:35) (Tristan)
“The quality that you get from vertical farming is just better than the quality that you get from a field-grown crop. It’s tastier, has a longer shelf life, is more nutritious, it has a lower environmental footprint. There’s just a whole long list of reasons why vertical farm products are better than field-grown crops.” (18:35) (Tristan)
“About twenty-five percent of all the world’s food production comes from land which uses aquifer water for irrigation. And, in about twenty years time, in most of the world where they have that type of system, that water will be gone or unusable.” (24:53) (Tristan)
“I think that ultimately what you’re trying to do as a CEO is get the best out of your team because, ultimately, you need them. They are the specialists. They are the ones who understand the lighting, the water systems, the technology, and the growing.” (36:10) (Tristan)
“I think that, as a CEO, creating that culture is very important. A culture of trust, of openness,and dare I say, of kindness, and love, and affection. We want people to be nice to each other, tobe good to each other, because if they are nice and good to each other, the more likely they areto cooperate and help each other out. And that’s what it’s all about really.” (41:48) (Tristan)
Resources Mentioned
Tristan’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/tristanfischer/? originalSubdomain=uk
Fischer Farms – https://www.fischerfarms.co.uk/
Fischer Farms LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/fischer-farms-ltd/
Books Mentioned:
Natural Capitalism – https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Capitalism-Creating-Industrial-Revolution/dp/0316353000
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Mentioned in this episode:
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Transcripts
$680 million poured into precision ag last year.
Speaker:Autonomous weeding robots dominated, and John Deere made 2 acquisitions in 3
Speaker:months. A food company, not an equipment maker, bought a
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Speaker:igrownews.com/precision. If you are starting a vertical
Speaker:farm and don't know where to begin or which technology would suit your needs,
Speaker:then reach out to the experts at Cultivated. As indoor farm brokers, they
Speaker:help connect you to the right technology and ensure your project is successful.
Speaker:Best of all, their service is free because they work on behalf of their partners.
Speaker:Visit cultivated.com to learn more. And that's spelled
Speaker:C-U-L-T-I-V-A-T-D.com,
Speaker:or click the link in the show notes. Now, in Egypt, they were crying
Speaker:out, we want bread, bread, bread, bread, because they just, everything
Speaker:was just too expensive. If we can use vertical farming to
Speaker:actually help alleviate those issues, yet again, it helps create
Speaker:stability in places which historically have been
Speaker:unstable.
Speaker:Welcome to the Vertical Farming Podcast. Weekly
Speaker:conversations with fascinating CEOs, founders, and
Speaker:agtech visionaries. Join us every week as we dive deep
Speaker:into the world of vertical farming with your host, Harry
Speaker:Duran. Vertical Farming Podcast, Season 7.
Speaker:Regular listeners to the show, welcome back. Welcome back. It's so fun
Speaker:to hear you again, to have you hear me again, to
Speaker:know that you're listening on the other side of this microphone. At times
Speaker:it's a little weird when I'm speaking into a quiet room and
Speaker:remembering that I'm connecting with each and every one of you as you're listening, whether
Speaker:it's on your earbuds or on your desktop
Speaker:speaker or on your desktop. So if you ever feel the urge to share
Speaker:where and when you're listening to this show, as always, send
Speaker:them my way, [email protected]. If you just happen to find this
Speaker:show for the first time because you found out about this topic or this guest,
Speaker:then you are welcome as well, new listener, and I hope you stick around. 'Cause
Speaker:it just keeps getting better. I'm Harry Duran, and since
Speaker:2020, I've been interviewing some of the most fascinating CEOs and
Speaker:founders of the leading vertical farming companies from around the world. Last
Speaker:week was no exception. We had a really lively conversation with Tim Haigh. He's the
Speaker:co-founder and CEO of Scale Microgrids. It's a company that builds
Speaker:and invests in the world's most cutting-edge microgrid solutions.
Speaker:We talked about the importance of making our energy infrastructure cleaner and more
Speaker:affordable and more resilient, and Tim is definitely the subject matter
Speaker:expert when it comes to that. We talk a little bit about decentralization and
Speaker:the actions we have to take to address the biggest problem facing humanity,
Speaker:climate change. This week, another great conversation is with
Speaker:Tristan Fisher. He's the CEO of Fisher Farms. Tristan has been involved in
Speaker:sustainable energy and sustainable food for over 20 years. In
Speaker:today's conversation, we talk about the benefits of vertical farming
Speaker:crops over field-grown, the looming food security crisis, and the
Speaker:importance of being a kind and empathetic leader. As always, if you're enjoying this
Speaker:episode or past episodes, I'd love it if you leave a rating and a review
Speaker:at ratethispodcast.com. podcast.com/vfp, as I'd love to read yours
Speaker:out next. Okay, before we jump into this uninterrupted conversation with Tristan,
Speaker:here are a few words from the folks that support this show, including one brand
Speaker:new sponsor I'm excited to talk about. This episode is brought to you by Indoor
Speaker:AgCon 2023. I'm so happy to have been working with the
Speaker:team last year. Indoor AgCon 2022 was my
Speaker:very first indoor farming conference, so it was really eye-opening for me.
Speaker:So I'll always be grateful to the team there for rolling out the carpet for
Speaker:me, and I really had a good time meeting a a lot of past guests
Speaker:and excited to join them again this year. Entering its 10th year in a row,
Speaker:it's the largest trade show and conference for vertical farming and CEA, and it's returning
Speaker:to Caesars Forum Conference Center in Las Vegas on February
Speaker:27th and 28th of 2023. Once again, they'll be co-located with the
Speaker:National Growers Association Show as well, which is a really good fit for them.
Speaker:The conference keeps growing, and this year it's doubled in size. The expo floor
Speaker:now has more than 170 booths filled with new product
Speaker:resources and solutions to explore. You'll hear from experts including
Speaker:CEOs, growers, investors, and others in the field during this
Speaker:full-scale educational conference. As always, you'll be able to connect with
Speaker:peers, grocers, and other potential new business partners at their great networking
Speaker:events. I haven't even gotten to the best part. The team at Indoor
Speaker:AgCon has given listeners of this show 20%
Speaker:off their full-access conference pass. All you have to do is use promo
Speaker:code VFP, as in Vertical Farming Podcast, and sign up at
Speaker:indoor.ag. See you there. If you're a regular listener to the show, you'll
Speaker:know that this is the space where I get to talk about some of the
Speaker:fantastic sponsors and supporters of this show. If you are interested in
Speaker:being one of those sponsors, by all means, reach out to me directly,
Speaker:[email protected]. We've got inventory
Speaker:available for season 7, and the reach of the show just continues to
Speaker:increase year over year. And we'd love to partner with you and get the word
Speaker:out about your company or service. So Tristan Fisher, CEO of
Speaker:Fisher Farms, thank you so much for joining me on the Vertical Farming Podcast.
Speaker:Thank you very much for having me. So for the benefit of the listener, where
Speaker:are you calling in from? So I am— Fisher Farms
Speaker:is based in the UK, and we have 2
Speaker:vertical farm buildings, one which is near Lichfield,
Speaker:which is just north of Birmingham, and which is
Speaker:northwest of London. And then we have a second vertical farm,
Speaker:which is currently under construction, is actually being
Speaker:installed and fitted out at the moment. And that is just
Speaker:east of Cambridge in a place called Norwich in Norfolk. So we have 2
Speaker:vertical farms, and then we have a number
Speaker:of people, number of team members who are scattered around the
Speaker:UK for those who aren't specifically
Speaker:involved in farm operations. So we've got a bit of a
Speaker:wider footprint for the various people within the organization. So we'll
Speaker:get into the specifics of Fisher Farms. And what I'd like
Speaker:to usually do first was wind the clock back a little bit to get a
Speaker:feel for how you ended up here. But I thought I'd ask,
Speaker:since we are recording this in December of 2022, if you could
Speaker:describe in one or two words what the year has been like for you and
Speaker:what, if the holidays or this time of the year means a little bit
Speaker:of relaxing or if you have a chance to catch your breath. So
Speaker:2022 has been a big year for us. And the reason for that is
Speaker:that we've spent a big chunk of it under construction. So
Speaker:we were currently building, have been building our second vertical
Speaker:farm, which is a really big building. It's a
Speaker:4-acre footprint building, has about 25,000 square
Speaker:meters of growing space inside it, which makes it probably one of the
Speaker:biggest vertical farms in the world. And so
Speaker:there's been a lot of work on the actual construction, the external
Speaker:construction site, but there's also been a huge amount of testing which we've been doing
Speaker:at various different locations. So we've been doing testing of equipment at Farm 1, the
Speaker:original site near Litchfield, but we've also been doing a lot of testing with all
Speaker:of our different suppliers and so forth like that to really make sure that when
Speaker:the equipment is installed, it actually works first
Speaker:time round because it's a big building big farm
Speaker:and testing, testing, testing is absolutely critical. So it's been a very busy
Speaker:year and we've been hiring people to work
Speaker:in Farm 2. So the team is getting bigger. And actually
Speaker:later on this evening, I'm going to be joining Christmas party with the Farm 2
Speaker:guys. So to sort of celebrate all the hard work that everybody's been
Speaker:doing throughout the year. So it's been a busy year, very exciting year,
Speaker:a lot of growth. behind us. And then really, you know, when
Speaker:we hit the new year, all the equipment will be, you know, finally installed,
Speaker:and we'll start operating, generating food in the
Speaker:first quarter of next year out of the Farm 2 building. So that's exciting
Speaker:stuff. So, you know, it's been a busy year. Sounds like— yeah, definitely want to
Speaker:get into the details of that. I was curious in doing a little bit of
Speaker:research, obviously, in a bit of your background, you got your start in finance, and
Speaker:then your first foray into renewables was the
Speaker:time you spent at Shell. So can you— I know we're
Speaker:winding the clock a bit back here, but I just want to provide some context
Speaker:for the listener. Can you give a little bit of insight into, if you
Speaker:can remember, what things were like back then and where your interest started in
Speaker:renewables and sustainability? So I think I should probably
Speaker:start even before then at university. I was at Cambridge University and I did some
Speaker:research for Paul Hawken, who wrote a book called Natural Capitalism.
Speaker:And Natural Capitalism was a fascinating book for me because it really sort of
Speaker:highlighted how if you want to do good in the world,
Speaker:you also need to actually be profitable and develop businesses
Speaker:which are intrinsically capitalistic. So using
Speaker:capital to grow and having a business which is just
Speaker:purely a sort of charitable activity isn't good enough if you
Speaker:want to make a big difference. And so that got me thinking about, well,
Speaker:what could I do with my life, which was meaningful, and actually
Speaker:sort of develop in a way which could put my
Speaker:services to the best use for sort of humanity as a whole. So
Speaker:renewables was a big thing, you know, in the mid-1990s, when I really
Speaker:sort of started off career, and I was involved in some of the very early
Speaker:wind projects, and then solar projects, and so forth. And it was an era
Speaker:where climate change was always deemed as something which was going to happen
Speaker:in the future. It was a future problem. And we were trying to do things
Speaker:which we would help solve that issue. And
Speaker:really, over the last, you know, 20-odd years or so, climate
Speaker:change has shifted from being a future problem to a problem which we
Speaker:are actually experiencing today. And there's a lot of evidence to
Speaker:show that it is happening. And there's a lot of evidence which
Speaker:suggests that it will continue to get worse over time.
Speaker:And so as a result of that, a lot of my activities sort of
Speaker:started to shift over the last few years away from just how
Speaker:can you deal with climate change in terms of trying to prevent it
Speaker:into how do you live with climate change? So if climate change is actually happening,
Speaker:you know, what do you do in a world where it's the temperatures are
Speaker:rising, where you have very irregular weather patterns?
Speaker:So you can have a year where you'll have droughts and then you can have
Speaker:floods and then you can have cold patches and then you can have warm patches
Speaker:all within a sort of, you know, 6-month, 12-month period of
Speaker:time. And that's very difficult from an agricultural perspective. And
Speaker:so I was involved in a project a number of years ago with a
Speaker:big food group in the UK called Bernard Matthews, which was, which
Speaker:is a large turkey producer and a large chicken producer.
Speaker:And they are grown in large
Speaker:controlled environment agricultural buildings. And we installed
Speaker:biomass heating systems into about
Speaker:249 poultry sheds. And that was very interesting from a sort of
Speaker:climate change perspective, but also really got me thinking about food. And
Speaker:how do we actually feed the world in a way where we can actually control
Speaker:all the environmental parameters? And so for me, the renewable
Speaker:side has been very much a link to what I'm doing
Speaker:in vertical farming. And, and actually, all of our
Speaker:vertical farms have strong renewable emphasis as well. So
Speaker:solar attached to them, batteries attached to them, you know, getting
Speaker:wind attached to them as well. So I'm using the old
Speaker:access for the renewables sort of supply chain in the vertical
Speaker:farming sector as well. So it's a combination of food and energy
Speaker:production. Yeah, I thought it was really interesting, especially given how
Speaker:much experience you've had in renewables. You've also had some experience with
Speaker:wave energy as well in your time at Aquamine Power, if I read that correctly.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, so I've now been involved in a lot of renewable energies.
Speaker:Um, so I've been involved in Wind energy, solar energy,
Speaker:wave energy, tidal energy, smart grid,
Speaker:battery technology, energy efficiency for steel
Speaker:mills, for cement facilities, coal mine
Speaker:methane recovery. So a very, very large gamut of
Speaker:renewable energy technologies. And so I've seen cost curves
Speaker:change and seeing how you can have a technology which
Speaker:starts off being very, very expensive and a technology which people
Speaker:go, well, this is never going to amount to anything. So when I was first
Speaker:doing solar projects, solar really wasn't a great technology. Wind wasn't
Speaker:really a great technology. It was expensive, it was
Speaker:intermittent. And if you move on sort
Speaker:of 20, 25 years after from when I started, if you look at in the
Speaker:UK now, wind energy is the lowest— the new
Speaker:wind energy systems which are coming on stream are the lowest cost
Speaker:electricity in the market, with the exception of solar. And if you look
Speaker:at solar, you know, it's predicted that by
Speaker:2027, there will be more solar installed
Speaker:globally than coal. And so you've
Speaker:seen a huge transition in the energy market.
Speaker:And the reason why I mentioned this is because vertical farming today
Speaker:is a bit like solar and a bit like wind energy 20 years ago. It's
Speaker:an embryonic technology. It's really not good enough. But
Speaker:there are lots of hints about why it could be really fantastic.
Speaker:And so when I look at what I'm doing, I'm
Speaker:sort of focusing on the here and now in terms of growing short leafy
Speaker:green things like most people in the market are, so salads and
Speaker:herbs and so forth. But ultimately, where we need to be going
Speaker:as an industry, moving to crops which actually make a big
Speaker:difference. And so for us, we have a— further our phase 1
Speaker:crops, which are short leafy green things, salads and herbs. We have our phase 2
Speaker:crops, which are fruiters. So things like strawberries and tomatoes,
Speaker:which yet again, a lot of people are doing. But then finally, it's the phase
Speaker:3 crops. And phase 3 crops for us are rice
Speaker:and wheat in terms of carbohydrates, and then peas
Speaker:and soybeans in terms of protein. And so we've done
Speaker:trials with wheat, we've done trials with soya, we've done trials with
Speaker:peas. So we know we can grow it, we know we can grow it at
Speaker:good volumes. But really, the question is, how do we get the price point
Speaker:of those products so that they are also competitive with field-grown crops? And if we
Speaker:can do that, then you can feed the world. And that
Speaker:is extraordinarily exciting to be part of an industry
Speaker:which is transforming itself so rapidly. I have the
Speaker:faith that it can happen based on the practical experience that I've
Speaker:had with renewables, where I have seen renewables technology go from
Speaker:not very good, very expensive technologies to
Speaker:massive, huge industries, which are cheaper
Speaker:than natural gas, cheaper than coal, cheaper than nuclear.
Speaker:And so it can be done. Yeah, it's really interesting, all the experience you've
Speaker:had, some experience in aquaculture as well. So it seems like
Speaker:you've had your hands— smart batteries, I think was a little bit— I saw some
Speaker:time there as well. And all those pieces really are important
Speaker:in painting the picture for folks that are just getting acquainted with vertical
Speaker:farming and seeing— you know, a lot of people say it's a
Speaker:hype or it's a fad or it's something that's not sustainable. And I think a
Speaker:lot of the arguments against vertical farming are probably ones that you
Speaker:experienced in the early days when people were talking about the
Speaker:viability of wind, the viability of solar, even things like wave.
Speaker:And are you seeing like those same sort of parallels in terms of
Speaker:the adoption curve, the hype curve, businesses
Speaker:getting a lot of funding and failing, you know, which is something we've now seen
Speaker:recently in the world of vertical farming as well. And it's interesting because
Speaker:of your perspective and your background and your experience with these technologies
Speaker:that I'm wondering if you are seeing parallels in terms of people's
Speaker:response to it and also, you know, gauging where we are in that
Speaker:lifecycle compared to what you've worked on in the past. I think that
Speaker:at Fisher Farms, the real focus which we have is actually on
Speaker:producing products which are cost competitive with field grown crops. So our
Speaker:view is that if we can compete head to head at the same price point
Speaker:with field grown crops, then we should be able to sell our
Speaker:products into the market. Because as all of your listeners and all the
Speaker:various speakers that you've had on your podcast will
Speaker:be aware of, the quality that you get from vertical farming is just
Speaker:better. than the quality you get from a field-grown crop. You know, it's
Speaker:tastier, has longer shelf life, is more
Speaker:nutritious, has a lower environmental footprint. There's just a whole
Speaker:long list of reasons why vertical farm products are better than
Speaker:field-grown crops. But the problem is that if your product is more expensive than
Speaker:field-grown crops, then essentially, you go back down
Speaker:to the charitable act, which I was talking
Speaker:about very, very early on. know, with the Paul Hawken analogy, that
Speaker:you need to have product which actually is commercially viable so
Speaker:you can actually use the profit incentive to do well,
Speaker:do more of the same, reinvest the profits, do more of the
Speaker:same, reinvest those profits again and again and again. So for us,
Speaker:focusing on cost parity is really, really important.
Speaker:And, and I think that if you're a business which is focused on
Speaker:premium and focused on, you know, wow, we have the most
Speaker:amazing quality, but we're much more expensive, then your market will
Speaker:always be smaller than it would be if you have a product which
Speaker:people just buy because it's cheap. And you could do a little bit
Speaker:of a premium product, but ultimately, people are worried about their
Speaker:pocketbooks. You know, they're worried about how much money they're spending on food,
Speaker:on everything they know, on spending in general. And so if you have a product
Speaker:which is the same price point, you'll do well. And so our
Speaker:focus as a business is always about price competitiveness.
Speaker:And so although, for example, we know that we can grow phase
Speaker:2 crops, you know, the strawberries and the tomatoes, et cetera, at the moment, we
Speaker:know we can't sell those products at a price point which is
Speaker:competitive with field-grown crops. And there are certain things which have to change
Speaker:in our business and externally That
Speaker:until those changes happen, we will be too expensive. Same thing for
Speaker:our Phase 3 crops. So we know we can grow rice, we know we can
Speaker:grow wheat, we know we can grow, you know, soybeans and peas.
Speaker:That's a fact. But we're too expensive. And we think that we will
Speaker:remain too expensive in those products for a good 10 to 15 years
Speaker:period of time. But 10 to 15 years sounds like a lot,
Speaker:but it's not. It really is actually a very short period of time.
Speaker:And yet again, if you've got the experience that I have in
Speaker:renewables, and I've seen the world change over the last 20, 25 years or
Speaker:so, I have real confidence that something which is too expensive
Speaker:now can be the right price point in 10 to 15 years'
Speaker:time. And we have a pretty good
Speaker:plan at Fisher Farms to actually get ourselves down that cost
Speaker:curve from where we are now, which is too expensive, to where we need to
Speaker:be. Which is it's going to take 10 to 15 years to get there. Yeah,
Speaker:it's a very helpful perspective for the listener, especially for folks that are looking for
Speaker:quick results or are trying to turn things
Speaker:around in a timeframe that's not reasonable. And obviously
Speaker:using the context of renewables and the experience you've had in the
Speaker:adoption curve for them earlier on, I think people need to have a little bit
Speaker:more patience. And I think sometimes in this environment it's hard, especially when you're
Speaker:talking about investors investing tens, if not hundreds of millions of
Speaker:dollars in some of these projects and are looking for profitability on a,
Speaker:on a timeframe that's not realistic. And I think it's helpful to have that perspective.
Speaker:I'm curious, for yourself, when you became aware
Speaker:of indoor farming, when it came on your radar, and it's something you started
Speaker:to pay attention to. So it very much came on my radar
Speaker:around 2015, 2016 or so.
Speaker:So this was the point where I sort of came to the
Speaker:conclusion that there were a lot of people doing renewables,
Speaker:and that the market shifted from being a very open market to a
Speaker:market which was getting increasingly crowded. And it was getting crowded in
Speaker:the sense that, first of all, a lot of people were doing it, but it
Speaker:was also the sense that it was never going to be
Speaker:quite enough to actually solve the sort of climate sort of crisis.
Speaker:And as I started to think about what responses you could have for that, I
Speaker:started to investigate the food sector in more detail. And
Speaker:so one of the things which always struck me was how the
Speaker:population has expanded, you know, over the last few decades. So my
Speaker:father was born in 1930. He's 92 years old now. And
Speaker:there were 2 billion people alive when he was born. And there are now 8
Speaker:billion people. So 4 times increase in the population. But if you
Speaker:look deeper, and you say, look at the year 2000,
Speaker:there were a billion middle-class people in the year 2000. And in
Speaker:2020, there were 4 billion middle-class people. Now, that's an
Speaker:amazing accomplishment. It's amazing to think that we've gone from 1
Speaker:billion in 2000 to 4 billion middle-class
Speaker:people just 20 years later. And that's something which we as a
Speaker:human species should be immensely proud of, that we've taken so many people
Speaker:out of poverty. But there is an issue associated with that as well.
Speaker:And the issue is that those 4 billion people
Speaker:want the kind of lifestyles which we take for granted in the West. So they
Speaker:want to have the salads and the herbs and the salmon and the steaks,
Speaker:and they want to go on holiday and they want to go skiing and they
Speaker:want to do all the sort of the nice things which people get to do
Speaker:in the middle class. And that imposes a huge
Speaker:burden on the planet in terms of what it can sustain.
Speaker:And in the meantime, If you look at the agricultural sector directly,
Speaker:and you look at the 2 key things which you need for farming, one is
Speaker:land, and one which is water. If you look on the land side,
Speaker:there is less good quality soil every
Speaker:single year. And that's partly because farming techniques are
Speaker:very damaging to the soil. But it's also because a lot of
Speaker:places where they have good farming, as the urban
Speaker:population increases, A lot of those locations, which were
Speaker:once farmland, have now become cities. And so, you know, if you look in
Speaker:China, and you had a village of 10,000 people, then
Speaker:20 years later, you've got 20 million people living
Speaker:in fantastic agricultural land. So that great
Speaker:farmland has been turned into shopping malls and
Speaker:roads and apartment buildings and stuff like that. So the land is
Speaker:becoming a problem. And the second issue you have is water. So
Speaker:about 25% of all the world's food production comes from
Speaker:land which uses aquifer water for irrigation.
Speaker:And in about 20 years' time, in most of the world where
Speaker:they have that type of system, that water will be gone
Speaker:or will be unusable. 25% of the world's food comes from land
Speaker:where in 20 years' time, there won't be any water. And so you've
Speaker:got, on the one hand, a massive population increase. And the second, you've
Speaker:got a decrease in the world's ability to actually
Speaker:provide food for that increasing population and that increasing
Speaker:middle class. And so there's a larger and larger gap which
Speaker:is starting to emerge. And climate change is really sort
Speaker:of putting fuel on that fire. So the fire already
Speaker:exists, but climate change just makes all of those issues worse. It makes
Speaker:it much more irregular. Terms of creating harvests and stuff like that. So
Speaker:food security becomes a real problem. And so for me, as I was sort of
Speaker:thinking about, you know, what to do, figuring out how to actually
Speaker:feed the world became increasingly a strong motivating
Speaker:factor for me. So I started looking at things like aquaculture.
Speaker:So looking at how we could grow fish onshore
Speaker:so we could reduce the impact we have on the oceans. And then also looking
Speaker:at vertical farming. And the vertical farming side, I think, was
Speaker:most exciting for me, or more exciting for me, because
Speaker:of the realization that everybody fundamentally needs to have
Speaker:carbohydrates. And so if you can grow rice, and if you can
Speaker:grow wheat, that's a major step forward. And ultimately,
Speaker:if you can grow proteins like peas and soy, that also allows
Speaker:most people to have a healthy vegetarian diet. And
Speaker:you can feed a lot of people. in those kinds of systems. And to give
Speaker:you an idea, if you were to take Fisher Farms
Speaker:building and make it 3 quarters of the size of London,
Speaker:so in London, there's the capital, there's a ring road which goes all the way
Speaker:around it, it's a motorway called the M25. And if you were to fill that
Speaker:area, about 3 quarters of that area with one just ridiculously large
Speaker:building, that building is enough space to
Speaker:feed 8 billion people. out of it. So this is why vertical farming
Speaker:is just astounding, you know, the productivity that you can get out of
Speaker:vertical farming without needing access to lots of soil.
Speaker:And because vertical farming uses a fraction of the
Speaker:water of conventional farming, you can actually grow
Speaker:a lot of food in areas where they've got lousy soil, where they don't
Speaker:have a lot of water, and actually have a very productive system. So
Speaker:we think that ultimately, No, we would want to be able to
Speaker:grow and develop vertical farms in places like North
Speaker:Africa, where you could have bad soil but have very, very
Speaker:good access to solar energy. So you build ridiculously large
Speaker:solar farms with ridiculously large vertical farms. And
Speaker:instead of having those countries import food from the Ukraine
Speaker:and from Russia, you could actually have them produce their
Speaker:own food. And eventually start to be able to export their food to
Speaker:other parts of the world as well. And so that's enormously exciting.
Speaker:And if you look at a world where, you know, the alternative, a lot of
Speaker:people with not enough land and not enough water,
Speaker:that is a world of conflict. That's a world where people
Speaker:need to migrate on epic scales, because if they
Speaker:don't, they will die because there's just not enough food available for them
Speaker:in their local areas. And so vertical farming has a very
Speaker:active role to play in this and a very hopeful
Speaker:and exciting role to play in solving this problem. It's really
Speaker:fascinating when you paint that picture and you talk about the historical
Speaker:context and the impact of events that have affected us
Speaker:worldwide, like COVID, like the war in the Ukraine. And
Speaker:I think it's things that people take for granted that we were going to be
Speaker:able to continue our current trajectory without any impacts.
Speaker:And I think we're— a large portion of the world is having that realization.
Speaker:I was recently in Dubai, and I think it's— the number is 85 to
Speaker:90% of the food gets imported there. And, and it's just different parts of
Speaker:the world have different challenges. We obviously saw an impact in
Speaker:terms of wheat production because of what's happening in the Ukraine, supply chain issues
Speaker:with what's happening. It's almost been like it's a big wake-up call
Speaker:for folks in terms of really thinking through like where
Speaker:we source our food from and why it's important to have that as
Speaker:close to where we consume it as possible to avoid
Speaker:some of these issues. Because I think some people don't put the pieces together. I
Speaker:think when they think about food consumption, access to food, the need
Speaker:for food, and when that's taken away, you do see things
Speaker:escalate to the point where, you know, countries go to war and there's
Speaker:conflicts arising. And when you look at the core issues related to that,
Speaker:you know, which you've just highlighted, a lot of it is related to, you know,
Speaker:just maintaining day-to-day life. And that's when people— when that need,
Speaker:when that is threatened at a country level, it's a direct
Speaker:correlation to some of the conflicts arising. So it's interesting that you point that out.
Speaker:It's absolutely true. And if you look back at the 2010
Speaker:sort of Arab Spring in North Africa and, you know, going all the
Speaker:way around into from West North Africa, heading east to
Speaker:Egypt, heading northeast again into Syria, those were
Speaker:fundamentally caused by food issues, where people were
Speaker:running out of food. Now, in Egypt, they were crying out, we want
Speaker:bread, bread, bread, bread, because they're just— everything was just too expensive.
Speaker:And, you know, if you look at what's going on now, and, you know, as
Speaker:a result of the Ukraine crisis and the Russian crisis, a
Speaker:very large percentage of North African food comes from
Speaker:Russia and Ukraine. And there's a shortage of
Speaker:food, but the food that they do get is very, very expensive
Speaker:in a world which is also extraordinarily expensive in terms of getting
Speaker:access to fossil fuels and stuff like that as well. And
Speaker:so people are seeing a significant drop in income and a
Speaker:massive increase in their cost of living, and that
Speaker:creates strife. And so If we can use vertical farming
Speaker:to actually help alleviate those issues, yet again, it helps create
Speaker:stability in places which historically have been
Speaker:unstable. Yeah, so true. So for the benefit of the listener who may not know
Speaker:the origin story of Fisher Farms, can you give a brief
Speaker:recap of how it started? So I set up the
Speaker:business in late 2016, early
Speaker:2017. And I basically just wanted to
Speaker:see what I could do. So I made myself a hydroponics
Speaker:kit and put it at home. And actually,
Speaker:I tied the lights underneath my wife's vanity
Speaker:table in our bedroom and had a sort of a card, you
Speaker:know, a plastic box with some grow plugs and some
Speaker:nets and a sort of little aqua sort of fish tank
Speaker:system. And just to see what could grow. And I
Speaker:was amazed that I actually was able to grow anything. And so I thought,
Speaker:well, this is kind of interesting. It's actually possible to do this. And
Speaker:then I sort of reached out to some people I knew
Speaker:to see whether they could help me actually turn that into reality. And
Speaker:so started off with a shipping container and filled the
Speaker:shipping container, you know, designed a racking system
Speaker:with yet again, the sort of vertigation system to actually produce, you know, all the
Speaker:hydroponic system you needed for a vertical farm. It was a reefer, so we
Speaker:could have fantastic control of the air in terms of
Speaker:humidity and in terms of temperature. And then I just grew
Speaker:a whole range of different crops, mainly short leafy green things,
Speaker:you know, your salads and herbs, but also, you know, grew things like
Speaker:stevia to see whether we could do something like that as well.
Speaker:And yet again, got really good results. And so
Speaker:I then reached out to some friends and some former colleagues
Speaker:of mine and sort of said, no, sort of do a friends and family round
Speaker:in terms of investment. And they could see that it was an exciting
Speaker:venture. And they worked with me in the past. And so they thought, okay,
Speaker:we'll put a little bit extra money in, help Tristan out. We got some
Speaker:great results. And then we got the attention of a
Speaker:fantastic investment house in the UK called Gresham
Speaker:House, who focused on ESG-related
Speaker:investments. And they, you know, they've done a lot of, you know, stuff in the
Speaker:renewable space, social housing, forestry, and things
Speaker:like that. And so they could see the potential of vertical farming. And then they
Speaker:provided us the funding to build our first vertical farm, which was
Speaker:completed in 2019. And then also the funding
Speaker:to build our second vertical farm, which is
Speaker:currently, you know, it's built. And we're just fitting in all
Speaker:the final bits of equipment at the moment before we start seeding in
Speaker:February next year. Is this the first time you have the CEO role?
Speaker:No, I, my first CEO role was a long
Speaker:time ago. It was something like 2000. I think 2000
Speaker:was probably my first CEO role. I had an internet startup then. I
Speaker:also was a CEO of a company called
Speaker:Camco, which was developing projects in China and Russia
Speaker:and using the Clean Development Mechanism, the CDM, as part of the Kyoto Protocol.
Speaker:So a lot of energy efficiency projects there. And then I had another
Speaker:company called Lumicity, which I also set up, which was
Speaker:focused on solar projects and biomass projects in
Speaker:the UK market. So I've been a CEO, been entrepreneur for
Speaker:quite some time, but I also like working for big companies. You know, there's, I
Speaker:worked for Citigroup, I worked, which was a great company. I worked
Speaker:for Shell and Shell Renewables and Shell was also a fantastic company to
Speaker:work for, you know, great people, very well run, sort of a lot of
Speaker:excitement, a lot of potential while I was there. So no, I've worked
Speaker:in various different guises over the years, but I've been a
Speaker:CEO for quite some time now. I can definitely relate to the benefits of working
Speaker:for a big company. I was in corporate for over 20 years. I worked at
Speaker:JPMorgan Chase and then E-Trade as well. So it's nice to have the backing
Speaker:of a big company like that. And in 2015, I ventured off into
Speaker:becoming an entrepreneur. And once you start down the entrepreneur path, it feels like
Speaker:you can never go back. to working the regimented time. And
Speaker:once you have that bug bites, it seems like it's something that's going to be
Speaker:forever part of your DNA. How have you grown
Speaker:as a CEO, you know, with the previous experience you have and now in the
Speaker:time you've spent at Fisher Farms? It's a great question. I think that
Speaker:clearly I've got more experience in terms of what to do,
Speaker:and I feel more comfortable and confident about how to run a business, how
Speaker:to manage people. People is sort of such an important
Speaker:component of running any kind of business and sort of how do you manage that
Speaker:effectively. I've clearly got a lot more experience in terms of working
Speaker:with investors and understanding why they want things.
Speaker:And I think having my own personal investment experience
Speaker:many, many years ago, it also helps me to understand what it's like to be
Speaker:on the other side of the table in terms of those kinds of
Speaker:relationships. But I think that ultimately, What you're trying to do as a CEO
Speaker:is get the best out of your team because ultimately you
Speaker:need them because, you know, they are the guys who are the specialists. They are
Speaker:the ones who understand lighting. They understand water systems. They are the
Speaker:ones who stand the technology. They are the ones who stand the growing. So those
Speaker:are the guys who, the sort of the sector experts. And I think
Speaker:that as a CEO, you're trying to make sure that people
Speaker:know where you're going, why you're going in a particular direction. Now,
Speaker:the why is a super important component of people's motivating
Speaker:factors. Why are we doing something? What's the point? So showing
Speaker:to people why we're doing something, showing where we're going, I think
Speaker:is important. Trying to get people to cooperate and
Speaker:actually just get stuff done. Trying not to have silos in
Speaker:organizations. It's quite easy to develop a silo and have your
Speaker:own team. But you've got to get people
Speaker:continuously communicating with each other across the various different
Speaker:parts of the businesses so they feel that they're part of one company.
Speaker:rather than one subset of, uh, of the company. So
Speaker:yeah, lots of lessons learned along the way. I think what's interesting is
Speaker:when you start a company and you're, you're the CEO, you know, you have
Speaker:direct contact with the team that you're building, with the folks that you've
Speaker:hired. Naturally, I imagine you, you work with people that you know, that
Speaker:you've worked with in the past, that you trust and whose work you know. But
Speaker:as you start to grow, you start to have a need to develop more more
Speaker:trust and faith in your team and your ability and your managers to
Speaker:manage that growing staff to the point where, you know, you can't— there comes a
Speaker:moment, I imagine, every CEO's life when you start to not know who's being
Speaker:hired and have trust that the team is being
Speaker:developed in a way that, you know, fits what your vision of what you
Speaker:would like it to be. I think that's so very, very true.
Speaker:And when you start off in a business, when you speak to somebody,
Speaker:that person has the single brain and
Speaker:has the single body to actually make that whatever happen. So you speak to one
Speaker:person, they say, yes, I'll go off and do it. But as an
Speaker:organization gets bigger, there is what I refer to as a distributed
Speaker:brain. So there's lots of people who are involved in
Speaker:that decision. And so each part of that brain needs to be able to
Speaker:communicate with each other effectively. But it's not just a distributed
Speaker:brain. You also have a distributed body. Because there won't be
Speaker:just one person who's doing that action. There will be multiple people
Speaker:who are involved in actually making that happen. And all of those people
Speaker:also need to coordinate with each other and understand why they're
Speaker:doing something and how they actually need to cooperate with
Speaker:each other. And so I think early-stage businesses
Speaker:can get away with very, very few processes and you
Speaker:can just get stuff done. But as an organization gets larger, you
Speaker:actually need to bring in process. And the
Speaker:trick is to ensure that you have the right amount of process
Speaker:and not too little and not too much. And so the
Speaker:sort of looking for the Goldilocks level of process with an
Speaker:organization, I think, is very difficult. And it's a challenge which I think all
Speaker:companies go through as they scale. And you also have situations
Speaker:where you know, people who, you know, started the organization
Speaker:develop and have different roles to what they originally had
Speaker:at the beginning. And so ensuring that they develop in the
Speaker:right way for themselves as individuals, but also
Speaker:for the company, is always a challenge as well. I think that
Speaker:ultimately one of the things that you're looking for in a business like ours
Speaker:is ideas and the creation of ideas.
Speaker:And I mentioned this because there is no real manual that you
Speaker:can just pick off the shelf which says, this is how to be a vertical
Speaker:farmer. There's no— this doesn't exist. There are very few people who actually
Speaker:have vertical farming experience. So when we're hiring people,
Speaker:you know, we're generally hiring people who have very good sector
Speaker:experience in terms of what— I should say domain experience in terms of
Speaker:they're very good engineer or they're very good water specialists,
Speaker:but very few of them have actually worked in a vertical farm. And
Speaker:so you're— so as an organization, um, you
Speaker:need to ensure that people always putting ideas on
Speaker:the table and how to have and to learn and to
Speaker:cooperate and not to be frightened of putting
Speaker:their ideas on the table. So I, I always talk about bad ideas.
Speaker:So I say to people, look, my terrible idea, you know,
Speaker:plus, you know, Harry, your really awful
Speaker:idea, plus Eric's appalling
Speaker:idea and Christian's dreadful idea, and they're generally bad
Speaker:ideas. They're not like we're pretending that they're actually good ideas, but they're just really
Speaker:bad ideas. But if you put all those terrible ideas together, they
Speaker:can create a genius idea at
Speaker:the end of that process, something which nobody was expecting to happen.
Speaker:And if people are frightened about putting ideas on the
Speaker:table, then they won't. So if there's any sense
Speaker:in an organization that people get slapped down for putting their
Speaker:terrible idea, they go, ooh, I'm not really sure I want to put this idea
Speaker:because it's an embarrassing idea, or what will people think of me? Then those
Speaker:ideas don't happen. And that idea, that bad idea
Speaker:doesn't combine with the other bad idea to create that beautiful,
Speaker:brilliant, genius breakthrough idea at the end of that process.
Speaker:So encouraging people to work together and
Speaker:actually put all their ideas together, I think, is a really important part of, yet
Speaker:again, creating a culture within an organization. And I think that
Speaker:as a CEO, creating that culture is very, very important. Culture of
Speaker:trust, of openness, and dare I say it, of
Speaker:kindness and of love and affection. We want
Speaker:people to be nice to each other, to be good to each other, because
Speaker:if they are nice to each other and they are good to each other, the
Speaker:more likely to be able to cooperate and help each other out. And
Speaker:that's what it's all about, really. I love the fact that you brought that all
Speaker:together, and then just this idea of being kindness— of being
Speaker:kind, which I think is something that not a lot of leaders talk about.
Speaker:Is this something that you just learned over the years, Tristan, or is this
Speaker:something that you've seen in other leaders that have inspired you? That's a good
Speaker:question. You know, how different am I now from 20
Speaker:years ago. I mean, I think I've clearly grown, I've clearly developed. I
Speaker:have kids of my own, so I have 4 kids.
Speaker:So I think you sort of become more aware of
Speaker:others and you become more aware of sharing
Speaker:and not being quite as selfish as, you know, you're kind of
Speaker:forced not to be selfish when you've got lots of other people to look
Speaker:after and stuff like that. So I think that being a parent probably really helps.
Speaker:But I think that ultimately, nobody really wants to work in a company
Speaker:where they've got horrible people. No, like, why would you choose?
Speaker:So the way I think about it is that anybody who comes to work for
Speaker:me has to be good, otherwise they shouldn't be working for me. But
Speaker:if they're good, it essentially means that they can go and work anywhere else.
Speaker:And so effectively, they are volunteering
Speaker:their time to work for me. and to work with me. And I
Speaker:don't mean volunteering their time as in they're not getting paid, because they're all getting
Speaker:paid well. It's not a money thing. It's
Speaker:they're choosing to spend the most valuable resource that they
Speaker:have in their lives, which is their time, involved in a
Speaker:project with me and with all the other people who are
Speaker:working alongside them. And so you want people to be happy
Speaker:doing that. And I think that if you're happy,
Speaker:you're probably going to be doing a better job. And if you're doing a better
Speaker:job, you're probably going to be happy, and therefore you're going to do a better
Speaker:job. And so it's a virtuous circle where the happier
Speaker:you are, the better you are, and therefore the happier you are.
Speaker:So that's the kind of culture which I think is really, really important to try
Speaker:and encourage within an organization. So, you know, some businesses are just
Speaker:horrible places to work, and they're backstabbing, they're
Speaker:mean to each other, And life is too short.
Speaker:Why would you want to— why would you choose to work in that kind of
Speaker:place if you're really good? If you're not really good, then you may have no
Speaker:choice, and that's unfortunate. But if you are good, you should be
Speaker:choosing to work with good people. Very, very important. And it's something I
Speaker:think a lot of leaders don't talk about. But I think in this environment, especially
Speaker:with what's happened with COVID and people's realization, workers'
Speaker:realization that they have opportunities, now to work anywhere they want
Speaker:and sometimes anywhere in the world. And, you know, remote work is not
Speaker:going away anytime soon. So now it seems like some of the power
Speaker:dynamic has shifted. And I think people are aligning more with
Speaker:companies that fit their values and where they feel like they can
Speaker:contribute, but also that their time and their effort is respected and
Speaker:appreciated. And I think that's something you're alluding to, which I think is great.
Speaker:So I wanted to give you the opportunity to talk a little bit about the
Speaker:current product offering for Fisher Farms. How that's changed from when you started to
Speaker:present day, who you currently serve, what the current offerings are, and
Speaker:who the ideal clients are now. So in the UK market,
Speaker:there's a heavy focus on own brands. So I think that's
Speaker:something which is quite different from the US market, where I think, you know, brands
Speaker:are very, very powerful. Whereas in the UK, you have a lot of
Speaker:supermarkets who have got very strong brands of their own, sort of the
Speaker:Sainsbury's and Marks Spencers and Waitrose and people like that of the
Speaker:world who will have their own branded products. And so for us,
Speaker:it's really trying to make sure that we have, you know, we give our customers,
Speaker:you know, access to products which, you know, work for them
Speaker:and having some kind of branding side on top of that. So,
Speaker:you know, Fisher Farms at the moment has spent, you know, most of its
Speaker:activity, I mean, Farm One is now on research and development.
Speaker:So We've been retrofitting a lot of the equipment that
Speaker:we have in Farm 2 into Farm 1 to actually
Speaker:allow us to develop that technology to make sure that it
Speaker:works. And the reason for that is that Farm 1
Speaker:has about 3,200 square meters of growing space and
Speaker:Farm 2 has 25,000 square meters of growing space. So it's
Speaker:a significant increase in terms of the size of
Speaker:the, what we're doing. In order to keep our costs down, we spend a lot
Speaker:of time on automation. So, you know, I think
Speaker:there's a big difference potentially in the American market where
Speaker:labor is, I think, cheaper than it is in the
Speaker:UK market. So for us, you know, it's all about the
Speaker:robots who are able to take products off the shelves,
Speaker:down off the racks, harvest it, do cleaning on an
Speaker:automated basis. Putting in the new growing material
Speaker:and then seeding it and putting it all back into the overall system and stuff
Speaker:like that. So for us, if I look at, you know, what we've been
Speaker:doing over the last 12, 24 months or so, it's a
Speaker:lot of ensuring that Farm 2 goes
Speaker:live with the best possible technology behind it, which has
Speaker:been tested and tested and tested and tested and tested, because it's
Speaker:very hard to scale. You know, when we— when I originally started the business, I
Speaker:thought I was just going to be able to buy things off the shelf. I
Speaker:thought I was going to just go and buy some lights and buy some racking
Speaker:systems and buy some shelves. And that really didn't happen.
Speaker:And that's part of where we are in sort of the growth
Speaker:cycle of vertical farming. And I think that's why you see a lot of different
Speaker:business models, but you also see quite radically different
Speaker:ways of doing vertical farming. So fundamentally, Vertical farming is
Speaker:a variation on hydroponics on some kind of shelf
Speaker:with lights. That's what it is at the basic level. But the
Speaker:detail is actually really varied in terms
Speaker:of how people have chosen to do their irrigation, how they've
Speaker:chosen to do their lights, how they've chosen to do their seeding or do their
Speaker:harvesting and stuff like that as well. So I think it's a bit like
Speaker:looking at early 1900s and the development of the
Speaker:automobile. There were a whole range of different types of car shapes,
Speaker:sizes, how, where the wheels, where the steering wheel was,
Speaker:if you even had a steering wheel. You had electric cars, you had
Speaker:hydrogen vehicles, you had a whole range of
Speaker:technologies until they eventually coalesced sort of
Speaker:a Henry Ford Model T sort of variation or
Speaker:so. And then you had the sort of scale which resulted and came out
Speaker:of that. So I think that As a business, a lot of focus is on
Speaker:getting our technology right and sort of basically prepping ourselves for
Speaker:going to market in sort of February, March next year. What's a
Speaker:tough question you've had to ask yourself recently? I look at every single
Speaker:day, we have issues and problems pop up. And
Speaker:it's always a question of, is this problem a
Speaker:today-only problem? Is it a week-only problem? Is it a
Speaker:month-only problem? Or is this an existential problem?
Speaker:And you don't necessarily know at the beginning of the day
Speaker:what type of problem it's going to be. And so there's a level
Speaker:of— there's a huge amount of planning which we do in the business.
Speaker:So we're sort of predicting, figuring out what we're going to do, how we're going
Speaker:to get there. But there's also a lot of unknowns. And
Speaker:fortunately, the more we do, the fewer unknowns there
Speaker:are, and the sort of the more repeat businesses, sort of types of
Speaker:questions there are. So yeah, for me, it's really just doing
Speaker:triage of what kind of issues we have during the course of the day.
Speaker:I think the good news is that I've been an entrepreneur for
Speaker:long enough and have encountered enough really
Speaker:bad issues to realize that actually nearly all bad issues can be fixed.
Speaker:There's very few things that can't be fixed. And
Speaker:I think my sort of recommendation and sort of advice for sort of other entrepreneurs
Speaker:and other people out there is that you just got to break your problems
Speaker:down into little tiny component parts and solve each one of
Speaker:those tiny little component parts. And before you realize it,
Speaker:you actually would have solved the really big problem by just dealing with all the
Speaker:little piece— little problems bit by bit. And I think just have
Speaker:confidence in yourself that you actually can solve problems. And it
Speaker:goes back to the idea generation. You know, sometimes when we're faced with
Speaker:our hardest problems, we end up with answers
Speaker:which are significantly better than what would've happened
Speaker:had we not had those bad problems in the first place.
Speaker:And that's quite a great feeling that you actually end up with
Speaker:a better place as a result of having a problem than had you not had
Speaker:the problem in the first place. Yeah, there's something about, I think it's called eustress,
Speaker:positive stress, and then that it has this effect of forcing
Speaker:us into a mindset where we have to think more
Speaker:deeply about the problem and, to your point, come up with a solution that at
Speaker:the end of the day is something we would— we wouldn't have even thought of
Speaker:had we not been, you know, applied that pressure to ourselves. And I think
Speaker:sometimes we surprise ourselves with what's possible. It is.
Speaker:It's very surprising what we can come up with. And, uh, but that's yet
Speaker:again back down to having a good team and having a good team
Speaker:who are happy to share and put their terrible ideas out there, and
Speaker:to recombine those terrible ideas into really good ideas.
Speaker:So, and that's culture, really, as much as anything. Now, how do you create that
Speaker:positive culture within a business? Coming up at the top of the hour, and I
Speaker:wanted to leave a couple of minutes, as I've been doing now for these past
Speaker:conversations, given this audience, given that there's a lot of your peers that
Speaker:listen to this podcast, is there a message that you have for
Speaker:the vertical farming industry, for your colleagues? I
Speaker:think that some of the vertical farming businesses have
Speaker:gone into trouble recently. And I think that my sort of
Speaker:just recommendation is that just keep going
Speaker:and work your way out through these issues.
Speaker:And ultimately, I think you're going to get through it.
Speaker:Certainly the whole sector is going to get through this. Vertical farming
Speaker:is here to stay. It just makes so much sense. Yeah, I think that's a
Speaker:really good point. And any kind of short-term issues that people may
Speaker:have, I think, are ultimately going to be temporary. So I think just
Speaker:have faith in yourselves and in the knowledge
Speaker:that this is a great sector to be in, and you
Speaker:will figure out a way. We always figure out a way. Well, I want to
Speaker:thank you for making the time to come on this podcast and for
Speaker:sharing your story. I think the breadth and width of
Speaker:experience that bring is really fascinating because you have
Speaker:had experience in so many areas around sustainability, around
Speaker:renewable energy, around, you know, creating and
Speaker:tackling these issues of food shortages that we're having.
Speaker:And it feels like you're well poised to be in the position you are now.
Speaker:It's almost like all roads in your career led to this moment. And I
Speaker:think what you're doing at Fisher Farms is really inspiring. And I
Speaker:think it's helpful to hear those words from someone who's been doing this for a
Speaker:while, for others in the space. So I just want to really applaud all the
Speaker:progress you've made so far and, you know, wish you the best on this journey.
Speaker:Well, Harry, that's very kind of you. I greatly appreciate it. And, you know,
Speaker:keep up the great work which you're doing in Vertical Farming Podcast,
Speaker:and I'm sure you're going to continue to get great guests on
Speaker:board. So well done. And it's, you know, it's very interesting to hear other
Speaker:people's stories as well. So thank you. All right. Thanks again to Tristan for coming
Speaker:on the show. Always appreciate it when these busy
Speaker:folks take the time out of their day, that 1 hour plus,
Speaker:to have a conversation with me and to share their story with you. I always
Speaker:appreciate it and I'm thankful and I'm glad that they did. Anything
Speaker:we spoke about and covered can be reviewed on our website,
Speaker:verticalfarmingpodcast.com. We always make it a point to write a
Speaker:summary, key takeaways, quotes from the episode, and any resources
Speaker:mentioned so you can get in contact with them. If you're finding their subject matter
Speaker:interesting. And we always take time out to celebrate our Season
Speaker:7 title sponsor, Cultivated. If you're looking into a vertical farm and don't know where
Speaker:to start or which technology would suit your needs, reach out to them today.
Speaker:Best of all, their service is free because they work on behalf of their partners.
Speaker:Learn more at cultivated.com, and that's spelled C-U-L-T-I-V-A-T-E-D.com.
Speaker:Leave out that last E. If you're a regular listener to the show, you'll know
Speaker:that this is the space where I get to talk about some of the fantastic
Speaker:sponsors and supporters of this show. If you are interested in being one of those
Speaker:sponsors, by all means, reach out to me directly,
Speaker:[email protected]. We've got inventory
Speaker:available for season 7, and the reach of the show just continues
Speaker:to increase year over year. And we'd love to partner with you and get the
Speaker:word out about your company or service. Podcast production and marketing provided by
Speaker:Fullcast. Learn more at fullcast.co. As a reminder,
Speaker:if you're enjoying this show, please leave us a rating and a review at
Speaker:ratethispodcast.com/vfp, and we'll be sure to read those out
Speaker:on future episodes. Tune in next week for my conversation with another
Speaker:fascinating leader from the world of vertical farming. It's the guest I teased out if
Speaker:you were paying close attention at the end of last episode. We had a little
Speaker:schedule reorg, and that's why Tristan was this week. But
Speaker:next week, without further ado, it'll be Henry Erst from Controlled Union.
Speaker:Until we meet again, here's to your health. Thanks for listening. To read the full
Speaker:show notes for this episode, which includes any links mentioned in the
Speaker:episode, as well as a full show transcription, visit
Speaker:verticalfarmingpodcast.com. There, you can sign
Speaker:up for our email list to be notified when new episodes are published.
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