Shely Aronov with InnerPlant
On this week's Industrial Talk we're talking to Shely Aronov, Founder and CEO of InnerPlant about “Reimagining the role of crops in agriculture.”. Get the answers to your “Seed Designing Technology” questions along with Shely's unique insight on the “How” on this Industrial Talk interview!
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SHELY ARONOV'S CONTACT INFORMATION:
Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelyaronov/
Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/innerplant/
Company Website: https://innerplant.com/
PODCAST VIDEO:
Other Podcast/Blogs and Videos of Shely:
CropTastic – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/croptastic-the-innerplant-podcast/id1568516522
“Big Seed” Is Failing, And Farmers Need a Plant B – https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/09/30/big-seed-is-failing-and-farmers-need-a-plan-b/?sh=7ba240a36f75
The Spoon – “Watch This Video of InnerPlant’s Glowing Plants in Action” – https://thespoon.tech/watch-this-video-of-innerplants-glowing-plants-in-action/
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PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
farmer, crops, Shely, technology, people, seed, create, problems, field, plants, work, shelly, fungicide, fungal disease, signal, fungal, pathogens, industrial, optimize, communicate
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Welcome to the industrial talk podcast with Scott Mackenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transfer in cutting edge industry focused innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So put on your hard hat, grab your work boots, and let's go
Hi there. Welcome to Windows real talk. Thank you very much for joining the number one industrial related podcast in the universe that celebrates industry heroes such as yourself, I'm pointing at you over the video. You are bold, you are brave, you dare greatly. Every day you're solving problems, you're changing lives and you're changing the world as we speak this very moment. That's why we celebrate you. It makes sense, right? It makes sense. All right. In the hot seat, we have Shely Aronov. Now good company is called inner planet inner planet. And this is an incredible conversation. And I'm not going to do it justice, quite frankly. And you'll realize that she's much smarter than me. Big time. Big time. All right, let's get cracking. I'm so geeked on the future, just absolutely Geek on the future because of companies like inner planet and people like Shelly blazing the trail. I'm telling you, it's exciting, no doubt about it. Big, big time. Alright, a couple of things that I want to put in on your calendar, you got to go and look at IoT solutions World Congress, that's an event and it is in Barcelona, and Europe is opening up and it's a that's, that's a great thing, right? It's a great thing. And this event, they're really focused in on creating real quality, contacts, quality leads, very eco system focused. And so it's a it's a good event, you're not going to be disappointed. So that is I want to say the mid part of May, but just go out to IoT solutions World Congress for additional information, but I'm just telling you, I've been there a number of times, and every time has been absolutely spectacular. And I know, we got to get back to normal. And whatever that is, I just want to start living live. I want to begin, you know, working with more companies face to face. Let's just get going. Let's let's not hesitate. Let's make that happen. The other thing. So I've been noodling on the the concept or the principle of getting the most out of right, dot, dot, dot, whatever that might be getting the most out of conferences, getting the most out of my social content, whatever getting the most out of and actually having that thought process of what can be done, what can be done to improve every aspect because the reality is me personally, I love the technology. I love the solutions that are being bantered back and forth out there that makes our future absolutely wonderful and exciting, and our lives better. Well, the reality is, is if we don't do a better job at selling, right, whatever that strategy might be, we in essence, fail to achieve what we need to achieve that same thing with marketing. And, of course, they're hand in hand from my perspective, they're hand in hand and one marketing supporting sales sales route supporting marketing. It's it's important. And so I've been noodling on that concept of getting the most out of like getting the most out of conferences. For me, my approach with clients have been alright,
we got a list out there the list is you know, all of these wonderful speakers spot on great topics and talk about needed, right? Talk about today's focus. Those topics reflect today's challenges. No doubt about it. Don't argue with me. But the reality is, is that what I can do is, is when I broadcast from the conferences, I'll take all of that. Because my focus is being able to highlight these professionals as much as I possibly can and deliver the content that you need to be successful. So I highlight these, this is just a simple one of many approaches. So I take it, I'll say, Joe, blow, IoT, whatever. Suzie Q, cybersecurity, whatever. Anyway, they have a topic and they're speaking on a topic. And normally at these events, it's a topic, they speak about it, and then they head on out or wherever they go. And there's a there's a lack of amplification of that particular topic. So why not take the list of the speakers, take the list of all of the topics that are being communicated, be able to say, Alright, you've spoke about it, you're warm and fuzzy, you've got that presentation all down, Pat. Let's get on the podcast broadcasting from the event and create that relationship. That's a big deal. That is a conference, I call it conference two Dotto. Whatever, I have no other else topic to call it. But I truly believe that the media platform at industrial talking, get the most out of conferences, get the most out of your engagements, get the most out of your, your prospects, and their ways of being able to do that in the ways of being able to leverage that. It's all out there. And it's important. It's important for for me, and it's important for the community's people that you succeed. And this platform, once again, is dedicated solely for the fact that you need to succeed. And whatever that means, can't operate in a vacuum, you need to be a part of an ecosystem, an ecosystem that is truly focused on solving problems, problems for the manufacturers, problems for oil and gas problems, blah, blah, blah, and solving those problems. If we're really committed to that. There's no stopping. So noodle on that, are you getting the most out of dot, dot, dot have that internal conversation, either with your team or inside your heart, whatever it might be, and be real about it? There's no, there's no pointing fingers, man, no pointing fingers. Okay. Let's get cracking. Interplan is the company Shelly is the founder and CEO. And it's, it's a way of being able to the, the tools and this is this is, again, I look at things that are non negotiable. And I think education is a non negotiable, we got to do everything we can to educate the best we possibly can. Food is a non negotiable, water is a non negotiable. I think even powers are non negotiable. And we've got to satisfy that so that everybody has access. And we can do other non negotiables. But you get the picture. We've got to do everything we can through innovation, through people through education, all that stuff to be able to provide these non negotiable to as many people around the world, right? We do. So here's Shelly interplanted is a company, they're able to begin the genetic modification of these seeds of, of seeds to be able to, and it's way above my paygrade. Don't get me wrong, it but it is cool stuff. So these, these plants have the ability to communicate, communicate through a release through whatever the mechanism is that plants have to say, hey, I need water, hey, I'm being emphasized. There's an infestation going on. But anyway, it allows you through the use of satellites, looking down and say, Hey, this section of your your acreage needs this, this section needs that and be able to do that on a real time basis and be able to force for farmers for people who feed us to deploy and who do the things that they need to do to be able to increase yield. Great insights.
I'm telling you, man, it's cool stuff. All right. And I guarantee I butchered it, just please don't don't send me a text saying Scott. You butchered it because I guarantee I did Shelly won't. I'm just sort of the guy that's trying to absorb The knowledge so enjoy this conversation with Shely. Shely, welcome to industrial talk. Thank you very much for finding time in your busy schedule. And being very flexible listeners, I had to cancel on her. And I was very upset about the whole thing. But she was so gracious and kind. Thank you for being on the podcast. How are you doing today? Oh, thanks, God, this is actually better. Listeners, when are we talking something a little unique, but it's very important. I think that it is in, in part of industry. It it touches industry, it touches everybody's life. And that's really food. And Shely comes from the perspective of math skills. And instead of listening to me talking about her math skills, Shelly, tell us why you're such an incredible professional with math skills.
Well, okay. Well, Scott, so starting with history, I guess. I'm from Israel, I have to start that, even though it's usually not interesting where you're born. But I think Israel is a big part of why I am who I am. I'm studying industrial engineering, got my MBA at Stanford, moved to the US can start a couple of companies. So really always was really interested in starting something new, having control over it and being able to create something of value, but always did things that were smaller than interplant, probably just didn't have the confidence back then. And then about five years ago, my daughter was born, the first daughter, and I just woke up and said, now life is too short to this, something that doesn't matter. And that's really the factor in your bonds. So food and agriculture, our space order is a space that is currently in need of new technology, and transformational technologies, exactly what we're bringing to market. And, you know, and and if you're asking what makes for I, in my opinion, what makes for a successful startup in the space is identifying the right business opportunity, the right timing, to take advantage of the opportunity, which is what my background brings. And then I have a great co founder of the molecular biology can say, okay, we can make plans to communicate, this is how we do the biology part of it. But I bring the business aspect more.
See, this is interesting, from my perspective, I have the Scots hierarchy of industrial needs. I just threw that out. Yes, you can run with it. However, it starts at the bottom and at the bottom are things that are from my perspective, are non negotiable. And how does technology how does innovation impact those non negotiable ones? And one is, of course, water, education, medicine, food, and how does technology help us globally? benefit? And I think that that's why this particular conversation is so interesting, because you're really talking about in foods big, don't get me wrong, foods huge. We're talking about what you what you're doing. From your perspective, can you sort of from a listeners perspective? What is interplant? The company? What are you doing? What problems are you solving?
So interplant, at the core of what we do is we create we are redesigning crops and the new concept. And that concept is enabling crops to talk in simplest form, enabling them to tell us what they need when they need it. And the key ingredient for that to be important is because we just don't know what crops need today. So in our farm system that's been around for a very long time. We have a lot of tools, pesticides, fertilizers, machinery, but we just work around the crops. And the way that we end up doing it is instead of understanding what they need, and giving them what they need, we over apply, and risk mitigate and do a lot of insurance and all that is costing farmers money. It's ruining the soils, it's ruining our natural resources. So the idea is in the future, we'll have crops that can communicate and we can optimize really at the individual plant level what it is we're doing in farming.
So correct me if I'm wrong if I'm a crop. Yeah, good looking crop that is
just like a crop by the way. It's true. We can do. But no,
but you're right. And I like to thinking because now you're saying okay, if we can get crops to communicate what they need, that means real optimization just like me, I need to eat or I need and then you're able to optimize your spend optimize what you apply everything and and would imagine optimize yield as well.
Yeah, you know, here I'll give you like a total out of left field. But if you have children, a toddler cannot tell you when they're hungry, right and they cannot tell you if they're gonna eat while you're here. them. So you just throw through that a lot of it goes to waste. Once you're an adult, you know, when you're hungry, they do you just see when you need to eat crops or like the tacos, we don't know what they want. So we just throw food at them, I only throw pesticides at them and stuff. And most of it goes to waste. And some of it actually does the job of protecting them, nurturing them, and so on. So this is kind of the similar.
So really, you're talking about, you're talking about taking the seed, you have to start there, the seeds today don't communicate, right? They just did. So you need to, to work at that level. Is that correct? Yeah. So what does that mean? I mean, I'm really for the listeners. And for me, because I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed or in the drawer. How does one begin to do that? And why is that? Important? Why do we need to go there? I understand. But why? How do we do this?
So I'm gonna start with the why, by the way, and then go into the how the how is going to be technical, but I'm promising you everyone's gonna get it. The why is just so we know what it looks like today. And I think this is part of what's important is people need to understand how farming works today, because who knows how farming works. What we do is we either over apply, or we supply inputs.
Say that again, it sort of broke up say that, again, we what
we miss apply, or we over apply trends, fertilizers we over apply. Why? Because it's safer to just have too much rather than have a deficiency. So we over apply, because we just don't know what the plans means. And with pesticides, we miss apply, meaning we just don't know if there's a pathogen, we don't know if there's a fungal disease or something like that in the field. So we spray fungicides anyways, everywhere, with the hope that we caught something, and that there's going to be less yield loss at the end of the season. But what's really interesting is that we use more and more pesticides, and we've specifically over the last five years have been using more in we still lose the same yields to pathogen every year, around 20%, on average. So we use more of the tools that we have, we don't get better results. And the key to changing that equation is you need to know where to apply what to apply, leave the timing in the crops to tell you. So that's really the the wine.
See, if we don't know that the masses don't know that. And why has why is that the case? That we're we're sort of misapplying overplaying whatever the from a pesticides perspective, we're still seeing the same whatever. What's happening with that technology with that pesticide what's happening? I don't understand
why the we may supply. Yeah, to see this.
But it's still but you're saying that there's still 20%. Right, right. And nothing's changed. So I still just throw a bunch of pesticide but nothing changes as a result of that.
Yeah, it's all about risk mitigation. So the cost of doing nothing is very, very high. The cost of doing something is, I don't know, $7 an acre. And the reality is that there's a lot of fear, you don't want to miss that disease, that's going to get you an entire field lost. So you do this to prevent that from happening. It's just it's hard to farm because the scale of farming is really large. And it's impossible to see what's going out there. Right? I like to joke with people, and they try to like, explain how it's going to be in the future. Why is it so much better than today? And then they tell them you're in? Right? You're in? Where are you?
Well, I'm in Louisiana. Sugar cane baby.
No, no, not Louisiana. You're in New Orleans. I was just in New Orleans are there right? So New Orleans is a city. And that city is probably the size of an average farm. And imagine if I were to tell, you gotta tell me where in the city there's currently a leak or a problem. That's basically what's farming like,
wow, that's yeah. So
without the right technology, there's no way you can find something on time. So what we do is we think back to the scale of what they need to do, which is to supply everywhere, apply in advance, mitigate risk, that's the key to everything, mitigate risk. But technology can help solve that. It's just the next iteration of what we need to do.
That's a sobering statement. Because we, again, I go to the store, I grab my fruits and vegetables that I want and then I'm be on my way and I don't even give it a second thought. And then the reality when you bring it down to the fact that hey, a farm is like that could be considered a small farm. And and, and you're right it I can't visually see what's happening in the city, the same thing exists out there in the farm. Yeah. So let's Let's venture into that. So, clearly we need to be we need a solution, we need insights into the health of that crop. And we and your, your approach of having two crops communicate their need. sounds. Sounds cool. Now, what or something like that take?
All right, yeah. So now let's get to the technicalities. All right, what we need is four things, we need a scalable, affordable way to find the right problems at the right time, specific problems at the right time, and the right time, it's time to prevent damage. What we do is, we do that at the plant level that gives you that gives you the scalable, affordable way to find problems early. So I'll explain what it is that we do exactly. The plants have plants, all plants have an immune system reaction that they activate when they're under stress. And that's
all want to make sure this is clear. Plants have that already.
Yeah, they've had that always. And, you know, the reason that they have a very developed system to protect themselves is because they're immobile. So they find a way to shut things out or to produce hormones to do things that are going to protect them from the things that are trying to kill them, or drowning them or all the problems. So what actually happens on the biological level as they're reacting is that there is a change in the biological level, not something that we can see, but something that's experienced by the plant. This up until now is well known. So people have been studying this for a very long time. And we understand what those signals that sequences that are activated are, what we do is we recode the crops DNA. So this is something a line of code in the scene. So that as it's reacting to that stress, let's say it's fungal pressure, it's also going to start generating a protein in its leaves, that creates the fluorescent signal. So let me break it down. Okay. Let's say there's a fungal infestation in the field, the plant starts to feel attack, it's going to start reacting to that attack. And in addition to that, it's going to start creating that protein in slaves, that it doesn't know how to do otherwise. And that protein creates an optical signal that we can then see from as far as solid imagery. So we're basically creating a new signal as a reaction to that stress that we coded so we know exactly what it means. And then we collect that signal from solid imagery to make it affordable. That's the last part until the farmers Okay, there is an infestation of fungus over there. And the reason we know is because now we can see some optical signal that doesn't otherwise exist. And we know what it means because we created that.
Are you modifying the crop the seed in such a way that somebody will have a conniption fit? genetically modify it, you know, whatever. Are you? Are you doing that? Is that?
Yeah, for genetic engineering the crops? That's exactly what we're doing. Okay, now, that's in your line of crop of code. Yeah.
Okay. So now I have a crop that sends out a signal. What technology are you using to capture that that stress signal?
From the plant? How can we see?
How can you see it? I mean, if if I'm, if I shut this down, and I start screaming your name, you won't be able to hear me, but I'm screaming your name, but you won't be able? Because I want to know how you can say that. Yeah, now you want now, you know, okay,
so the, we can choose from anything from an iPhone, with a filter to sensor on a tractor to a drone. And obviously, the exciting part is to satellite because we talked about the scalability of farming, some farms are 100,000 acres. So you need solid imagery to be able to cover everything at a low cost. And we use, we can use anything as basic as the spectrometer, which I'm assuming most people don't know, but it's kind of it's a very basic optical equipment that doesn't even have imagery. But if you want to know how we can see the signals, because that's really the cool physics straight. We make very small signals, but the signals are tiny, tiny amounts of protein, which is key because you don't want to, you don't want the plants to be doing anything except for what they need to do. Right. So small proteins are good. The reason we can say them is because the new light that we're creating, and it's not something you can see by is a new light. It's just very different than the sunlight. So spectrally it just looks different. And that's the reason we can then identify that out of the rest of the light because the rest of the light looks exactly like sunlight, which is very spectrally resolved, and then the new light looks
different. Okay, I'm gonna try to summarize what you just said, which is pretty doggone cool. So there's technology that is able, from a spectral light, right perspective, and you can have a device, because somebody is going to always go down to this, this iPhone, this device, and all the other devices to be able to see that right and they get device can be on an iPhone, to be on a tractor, maybe on whatever, whatever it is all the way up to a satellite, right? And to be able to look down and see that that spectral image that says, hey, I'm okay, I'm okay, i Nothing's going, Oh, I'm not feeling well. And then, and then that information that data goes where
what data will go into the existing platforms in the field, we made the decision that the best way to deliver the data to farmers is through everything they already have in the field, because there's so many platforms. In every tractors, there's usually six monitors, we want to be all monitors. And then there's a 515 platforms that have coverage of a lot of vapors. So for example, if you think about a tractor company, they're already in the business of having a really sophisticated data platform that helps the farmers do everything they need to do, we want to then ingest the new data sets and help them look at all of the different possibilities that this opens up. So better fungal detection, and that are applications of fungicides, insects, nutrient, and so on.
So, which is interesting, I'm following you. Now the data that is collected on a specific portion of the field, whatever it might be, is enough to say, hey, I don't have a fungus problem. I just have a nutrient problem. I don't have a nutrient. I might have a bug problem, whatever it might be, it gives you that specific detail, doesn't it? And then, and then it says, Hey, give me some fungicide over here. It's in this area. Use X amount.
Yep, exactly. Then it's actionable recommendations, right? Yeah. See, that's why it's gonna rain. Tomorrow, maybe don't go out. Right? So you incorporate that
you're gonna incorporate that anyway, you're gonna say no, it is some weather coming in. We I don't think we're fine. Let's just do it. And then we can take, we can still because you're, you're constantly looking at it, because you've got the communications happening. So you can always see what's happening.
Yeah, and now let me really blow your mind. I'm blown already. Try to Yeah. So cool. Um, so let's say something changes, and for some reason, we see fungal pressure, and then it goes away, the signals will also go away. So you can think about in two ways, one is just maybe the weather conditions changed and then dried up and the fungal infestation just vanished. And then you don't have to do anything. So that's one, one way to look at it. The other one is, let's say you did put a fungus died out there, and it did not work, you're going to know that as well. Because the signal was so come up instead of going away. So this is a really cool thing, because we never had that way to verify if anything works, you know, you put it out there. And then you just don't know if there was any value. And yeah, it's really long. And then eventually, the combined goes for the field they harvest. And if the harvest numbers are high, then they're hoping that all the things that do throw this isn't worked. But that's how it works.
So you see, that's pretty cool. So you get get real time, to a certain extent real time feedback on whether your application has been effective than not. And if it hasn't, then you're you've got to think on now what do I do? How do I, my, my plants are still stressed, right? What do I do? Then what do I is that didn't work, we need to do something else, then you compress that time as opposed to not knowing over applying. You don't have any clue and you just hope by the end of the season when you start to harvest that you can eat. Okay.
And then when you harvest great, maybe lucky results, but wasn't because of the fungicides Was it because of the insecticides or herbicides, the nutrients the weather? God knows right. It's many, many things.
Does does the technology the communication capability give you a broad spectrum, right, just sort of a broad spec. Yeah, like reds bed. Well, here's yellow. Here's, you know, whatever you get the point is, it doesn't have that or is it just like on or off? Like bad? Something's happened.
Yeah, um, I don't know yet. There's likely going to be more generation of protein as the problems get worse. But I think the way we are referring to think about it is not in the individual firms level. But more. I mean, at the scale that we farm, and especially focusing on pathogens, which is what we focus on. So fungal pressure, insect pressure, what you want to do is look at, how is the area evolving? Because you're not looking for patient zero, but you want to understand, tell me, Chris worth or 100 acres worth, and then see is there? Is it expanding? Is it expanding fast? This is really what's going to give you an indication of is it really going to be a problem? Or is it maybe a fungal disease that's kind of thing localized, and you don't need to do anything about it, it's just going to stay there, right? So you get all the information. And we think about more about the density of the spread than the individual.
Yeah, and over time, let's say over time, you, you begin to develop that insight into the dynamics of your, your acreage is like this is always sort of prone to this sort of prone to that. And on it. And you could just sort of play that game, too. And validate and eventually, I mean, I can even see if I see that this portion of my field has is struggling in some way, shape or form. I can create a strategy around that to help mitigate it for next year, or the year after that. I say, Oh, look at that.
Or you can just not plan that area, which are not planned out area, there's some areas that it's just not worth funding. Right. So that's a choice. You're gonna struggle there. and still not get a good deal.
Yeah. So it's all great. It's all good. You had me at hello, interplanting. You got me
for level though, before? Okay, here we go. Okay. So the other thing is that we know very little about how diseases spread. Because we it's impossible to track fungal disease, for example, the mean miniatures. That's true. So if you think about having a technology that can do all the things we talked about, right, like identifying early, identifying the spread, identify the, the remedy, if it goes away, and then you do that over hundreds of acres, you can start to develop prediction models for pathogens, right in times of COVID, it's nice to think about how that plays out. Because once it's out there, it's really hard to feel it back. You want to have predictive models.
I can see if I was a data analytic guy. Yeah. And I love data, you can start pulling in different pieces of data. And not just at that level, you could say, what's the temperature, how much rainfall, but you could just start pulling all of these other factors, these variables, and create a predictive type of model that says, Hey, man, it's gonna, this is sort of where we're at right? Now be careful, it's gonna, you know, and be able to predict that. See, that's exactly. So I'm a farmer. It gives me greater insights, does it save me money.
So our approach is actually replacing p&l costs for the farmer. And that's the reason we went after the seed. Because farmers only to spend more money right now, there, it's hard to make good margins as a farmer every SEC is telling you, yeah, and this year is gonna be interesting, we really bad because there's no fertilizers, there's no herbicides that the prices are going up. So there's gonna be a really? That's true. Yeah, this year is gonna be interesting. But fully, there's already quite a lot of cost structures and what farmers send the question, and this is my approach to anyone building a business. In general, I think it's a good approach. But in I specifically, figure out what costs you can replace instead of trying to add another cost, because obviously, that reduces the barriers to entry. So that's our approach, were redoing the entire seat technology in the ceiling, so that we can replace that cost, which is actually a really high cost breaker, and then offer farmers what we like to refer to as intelligent or smart seed that have all the functionality of their seats plus for the additional value that they get, they get to keep, but every year, it's gonna be different. So that's why we don't want to get into the business of promising any specific value, in general have less risk, they'll have better visibility into their field, they can optimize their input use, and they can increase their yield because they can resolve pathogens earlier. And all those benefits thinking, see,
I like that. I like that. Now. I've got to be the that that naysayer out there. Who? What's the roadblocks? Why wouldn't people want to embrace this? What what what push backs are you receiving? Farmers? Anybody? I mean, what why? Because it makes sense. Are you Are you getting feedback? That's like, No, I don't want to do that. No, I don't think that that's right. Or is it just 100% homerun,
there's a lot of excitement. I think one of the things that makes it easier, like the challenges if you're asking is it takes time. But I take trades take time to develop takes time to take to market, you need to work within the partnership structure. So those are the challenges. But you know, once you get through it, so we now know how to make the trades, we have our roadmap, we have the partnerships we need to get started. And with the regulatory process, it's getting much easier. So that was really helpful for us. All right. Once you get through those, the excitement is really high. And one of the things that keeps me very motivated is that everyone seems to really like the concept talk to a farmer, they're gonna like the concept Talk soon independencies company, they want to see a success, talk to attraction manufacture seeds retailer in Raleigh,
who's not happy, I'm telling you who's not happy as those of those fertilizer people because you're going to be optimizing the the application of fertilizers and you're going to be happy, and the fungicide and the pesticide, folks, they're not going to like
Um, well, that's a tough statement.
What you're saying is that, hey, hey, here's a seed that's going to be able to communicate its problems, and then you're going to be able to apply the right amount of pesticide, the right amount of fungicide the right amount of fertilizer at the right place at the right time. And for the farmer, it's like, Great, thank you. I don't have to just sort of, you know, do this whole, yeah. Okay. But that's okay. I don't care what they think I don't Well,
I think they're also trying to move away from their model. So I think they're moving to something that is more an integrative acre, where they kind of give a farmer, this is the yields you're going to get, and we're going to give you all the products that you need to get there. And it's one price point for the farmer. So whether it's good or bad for the farmer, this is the world that the agro chemicals are going to work within our world actually optimizing the inputs is beneficial for them. Right? Because they can make more money if they sell less product versus more. So maybe this is not going to be an issue for them.
Okay, well, just sort of, well shelve that. But I gotta tell you, man, it's pretty. It's pretty cool. Now I understand. Had, Okay, one last question. Because I can continue on and on and on. How does somebody begin to mass produce a seed that you have modified to be able to communicate, I just, my brain hasn't put my I just at? That's a tough one, I can't see it, how do you do that?
That's actually not something that we will do. There's just a whole infrastructure that knows how to do that. I can tell you the natural, it's not super fascinating. To be honest, it's just probably getting seen. So the way that you get technology to say this that you've read it in, that's the trade taking once you do the technology once that's just good seeds, and crossing them. And you do that several times. And then you get the good genetics and the traits are in there. And then you have your master seed, if you will, and then you start propagating that. And you do that in a very structured environment. So you can do it in a greenhouse and get a lot of seeds. And then that's how you propagate more and more. And it's an exponential thing. Once you have, yeah, but there's a whole world that does that as a service.
Thank God.
Thank God. Yeah, otherwise we won't have enough space. Yeah,
no, no. All right. This was a great conversation. I enjoyed one heck of a lot Shelly, how does people get a hold of you?
So let's see our interplant websites or LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram I think wherever at this point, but just reach out or you can email us at Hello at interplant calm and
hello one I have just info I should change it to Hello now.
I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, but we have a few other ones or you can just Sansara available to people.
Alright listeners that Shelly interplant is the company I n n e r p LA and T which is pretty doggone cool name. I like it. And you need to get a hold of her. If you're a farmer. If you're in that business appeared in the ag world, you need to have a conversation with Shely. Hey, Shelly, you were great. Thank you. Yeah, it clearly you're smarter than I am. Which I'd like to say that that's a that's a big accomplishment. Sorry about that, man. That's what you're talking about is pretty cool. I really appreciate what your your your passion because I think food, water, education all those things are just those non negotiable and you're you're in the fight and I appreciate that. Thank you very much. All right, listeners. We're gonna wrap it up on the other side. You're gonna have all the contact information for Shely and Ben som so stay tuned.
You're listening to the industrial talk Podcast Network
All right, a big hearty thank you to Shely. You know, that was a, I want to say 10 out of 10 Hardhead. extravaganza, she nailed it. And that's why the future's bright. People like Shely and others. Were really making a difference. Non negotiables. These are these are non negotiable things. We need food gas. We need power. Yes, we need water. Definitely. We need education, non negotiable. Shely's part of the solution absolutely wonderful and absolutely honored to be on the industrial talk. You're gonna have all the contact information you want to add. Alright. Are you getting the most out of Doc? Challenge yourself this week? Ask that question. And really have a heart to heart about whether you are if not, just ask me. I'll help you out. A big deal. Industry talk. Reach out to me. All right. Be bold, be brave, daring greatly. Every day hang out with people like Sheldon you're gonna change the world. We're gonna have another great conversation right around the corner. So stay tuned.
About the author, Scott
I am Scott MacKenzie, husband, father, and passionate industry educator. From humble beginnings as a lathing contractor and certified journeyman/lineman to an Undergraduate and Master’s Degree in Business Administration, I have applied every aspect of my education and training to lead and influence. I believe in serving and adding value wherever I am called.
