{"href":"http://player.captivate.fm/services/oembed?url=http%3A%2F%2Fplayer.captivate.fm%2Fepisode%2F2eb386b0-1318-4442-9523-d0cc6640c7dc","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Captivate.FM","provider_url":"https://www.captivate.fm","width":600,"height":200,"type":"rich","html":"","title":"S1E12: David Farquhar - Leveraging Science and Scale","description":"Join Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes back to the show CEO of Intelligent Growth Solutions, David Farquhar. In this episode, Harry and David talk all about the resounding economic and societal impact that Covid-19 has had on the AgTech industry and our daily lives. David shares the amount of science and scale that goes into every aspect of what IGS does as well as some of the latest projects they\u2019re working on, including developing technologies to replicate the weather.\r\n\r\nSpecial thanks to our Season 1 Sponsor\r\n\r\nIGS \u2013 https://intelligentgrowthsolutions.com/\r\n\r\n\r\nVertical Farming Congress\r\n\r\nKey Takeaways\r\n\r\n02:50 \u2013 Harry welcomes David Farquhar back to the show to discuss how Covid-19 has altered the AgTech industry and his business strategy specifically\r\n\r\n10:26 \u2013 David speaks to the initiatives and innovations that his organization, Intelligent Growth Solutions, has been working on lately\r\n\r\n15:42 \u2013 David breaks down the amount of science, development, processing power and scale that goes into AgTech\r\n\r\n20:42 \u2013 What Intelligent Growth Solutions is doing to give back to the community amidst Covid-19\r\n\r\n24:54 \u2013 David talks about promoting awareness among the next generation about the opportunities that vertical farming provides\r\n\r\n32:53 \u2013 New models in AgTech that are likely to manifest over the next few years\r\n\r\n38:46 \u2013 David speculates on the future of technology development at IGS and shares the work IGS is doing with weather and climate technologies\r\n\r\n47:56 \u2013 A tough question David has had to ask himself lately\r\n\r\nTweetables:\r\n\r\n\u201cI am not a fan of the phrase, \u2018a new normal.\u2019 I do think that we need to be flexible though. And I think that we\u2019ve probably learned to do several things in a different way, and that\u2019s good. But I am keen to see people actually socially get back together as soon as it\u2019s safe.\u201d (08:16)\r\n\r\n\u201cI think if people put their hand on their hearts and were honest with you in this sector, they would probably admit that once you\u2019ve cracked the lighting, the power, the automation and handling, and the irrigation, the thing that is left on the table that is the toughest nut to crack is around the area of ventilation.\u201d(11:14)\r\n\r\n\u201cAnd I have to say we also borrowed a couple of people\u2019s garages. A couple of guys did some amazing work from home. I\u2019d love to think of this as the AgriTech Garage Band.\u201d (13:47)\r\n\r\n\u201cYou know from our last conversation that we\u2019ve made this promise to the market that we will never grow crops for commercial sale. Our covenant is that we\u2019re a tech vendor, you guys are the farmers, you\u2019re the growers, you know how to do this stuff. We\u2019ll just give you a better set of tools.\u201d(19:52)\r\n\r\n\u201cI think that governments have to make a choice between a societal focus or an economic focus and one or the other is going to suffer\u2026I just hope that humanity comes to the fore because, at the end of the day, it\u2019s people that make things happen. We need to look after people.\u201d(24:17)\r\n\r\n\u201cEverybody loves everything as a service, whether it\u2019s software, or razor blades or ink cartridges. How about farming as a service?\u201d (34:57\r\n\r\n\u201cIf there\u2019s something that just works, then why not use it?\u201d (40:06)\r\n\r\n\u201cThe ability to manage that \u2013 the ability to replicate a certain type of weather because that\u2019s the weather that this crop needs \u2013 that is the thing that we\u2019ve been working incredibly hard on.\u201d(43:23)\r\n\r\nLinks Mentioned:\r\n\r\nDavid\u2019s Website\r\n\r\nDavid\u2019s LinkedIn\r\n\r\nIntelligent Growth Solutions\r\n\r\nWebsite | Twitter | YouTube\r\n\r\nSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/e8cb5563-66ee-457d-afe5-07c68bb3b18e/image.jpg"}