Archives: Episode

#34 Steve Philpott (USMC) – Illinois Minority Growers Association

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#34 Steve Philpott (USMC) - Illinois Minority Growers Association
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“Let the plant science guide policy”

This encapsulates Steve Philpott’s motivation for pursuing a career in cannabis research and opportunity creation within his community.

Steve is a former US Marine, graduate student and cannabis researcher at Chicago State University and Co-Founder for the Illinois Minority Growers Association. Here, their mission is to close the disparity gap by addressing socio-economic related barriers for minorities. They’re educating growers by providing information services and partnerships that afford them increased access to Illinois’ agricultural industry.

Steve’s story is filled with:

– His experiences growing up in Chicago in the aftermath of the war on drugs

– Stories of camaraderie and loss in uniformed service

– His own struggles with opioids and cannabis alternatives

– Intentional opportunity-creation within his community

– Technical knowledge about cannabis breeding and cultivation

– Examples of the disconnect between cannabis plant science and public policy

Find out how Steven left Chicago a scared 19-year old kid and returned with a renewed sense of purpose and drive within agriculture.

#33 John Berlejung (US Army) – New West Genetics

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#33 John Berlejung (US Army) - New West Genetics
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Not one of us were trained or prepared for this…

John Berlejung is a former US Army Tank Crewman and currently the R&D Supervisor at New West Genetics – a Colorado-based company developing industrial hemp genetics for adaption to various regions of the US. They combine traditional breeding with modern genetics to create stable, optimized traits, and varieties adapted for large-scale production.

John grew up in an austere household in the suburbs of Louisville, Kentucky in the 80s when kids could disappear for hours at a time, without a cell phone, and explore the boundaries of their environment, create adventures, and be exposed to risk without a safety net. His brother joined the Army when he was young and John lived vicariously through him, including his experiences during the first Gulf War. This and 9/11 were all the influence John needed to join the Army after high school, where he also served as a tank crew member. Like his brother, John was involved in an invasion of Iraq, this one in 2003. In this episode, he describes those experiences over a 15-month period and how there was a constant need to adapt to the changing mission, enemy, and environment. This ability to adapt is something concrete John continues to bring forward through his professional career.

Enjoy this episode as John talks about how he’s applied these skills to the private sector, from his being a Mud Logger on an oil rig, earning his Masters in Soil Science, and supporting hemp genetic development with New West Genetics.

#32 Ben Minden (US Army) – Bear Hug Cattle Company

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#32 Ben Minden (US Army) - Bear Hug Cattle Company
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I’ll support you in whatever decision you make; just know that you will get fired for it. This was one of the coolest 10 seconds…

Our guest this week is Ben Minden, former US Army Ranger and Founder of Bear Hug Cattle Company – a non-profit providing veterans with the resources, technical knowledge and network support for those interested in a career in the ranching industry. Through their 10-week immersive course, transitioning service members gain confidence in horsemanship, ranch tasks, basic ranch economics, and field training at historical operational ranches across the western US.

Despite growing up in the suburbs of New Jersey, Ben became an avid fisherman and hunter, although he admits he never ate the fish out of the New Jersey river. It’s not often a guest on this show has no connection to the military prior to joining, but in the few instances this has been the case, there is usually a common event that many cite as their catalyst for their joining the uniformed service – 9/11. At West Point, Ben fell in love with this idea of an being a part of a high-functioning team and deployed with those teams to both Iraq and Afghanistan. He shares a story from those experiences he cites as one of the coolest 10 seconds of his military career.

Have a listen to find what happened and also learn how Ben is transitioning these skills into other high-performing teams at Harvard Business School and with Bear Hug Cattle Company across much of the western US.

#31 Janet Bailey – No Chaff Group

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#31 Janet Bailey - No Chaff Group
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Throughout my career, I’ve always tried to be somebody who will lay out the facts so there aren’t any surprises

Our guest this week is Janet Bailey, Principle at No Chaff Group. No Chaff Group is focused on providing consulting services to growers and agribusinesses in the areas of rural brand management and mental health, social governance, advocacy strategy, and other ag financial services.

In this episode, Janet shares insights and lessons learned from her three decades in the industry, spanning a childhood growing up on a diversified cropping operation and dairy farm during the 1980s farm crisis, Marketing Development Lead for the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, and nearly 20 years at Frontier Farm Credit as their VP for Marketing and Communications. We get into her thoughts on the value of mentorship, early technology adoption on their farm, the often dangerous way we dispense advice over social media today, and her story as a breast cancer survivor.  

Her developmental initiatives around the veteran community and ag labor needs is absolutely something you should reach out to Janet about if you’re interested in learning more or partnering to support.

#30 Luke Crumley (USMC) – Ohio Corn and Wheat

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#30 Luke Crumley (USMC) - Ohio Corn and Wheat
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I think before you ever consider elective service, you should serve first.

These words from the father of this week’s guest – Luke Crumley – Director of Public Policy and Nutrient Management at Ohio Corn and Wheat – an organization working to create opportunities for long-term Ohio corn and small grain grower profitability. They do this through several checkoff groups and associations that expand markets, fund research, provide education, and advocate for supportive public policy on behalf of farmer members.

Despite being surrounded by ag growing up in Ohio, it wasn’t an intimate part of Luke’s upbringing, particularly because he grew up in the mid-80s towards the end of the farming crisis where his parents were forced to sell. Much of the culture and it’s surrounding were, however, very much imparted to Luke, particularly this sense of service. For Luke, it was first military service in the Marine Corps then public service with several Congressional offices before joining Ohio Corn and Wheat. His time as a Battalion Adjutant in the Marine Corps taught him things like the gravity of a situation, how to operate in what he calls a “pressure cooker” environment, and the need to prioritize. This ability to prioritize is something he’s brought forward to Ohio Corn and Wheat. Essentially, helping growers put resources where they need to be to affect mission critical issues.

Have a listen as Luke connects the dots between these different times in his life. We also get into his experiences with carbon markets and how these programs are, or are not, addressing the primary concerns of their growers.

#29 Kenny Johnson (US Army) – TopYield Ag

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#29 Kenny Johnson (US Army) - TopYield Ag
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We built a platform that allows people to sift through the noise and see what the signal is

Kenny Johnson is a combat veteran, certified crop advisory, and co-founder of TopYield Ag, an online community for growers and ag professionals to learn, share ag knowledge, and build an online presence. They offer agribusiness clients moderated online community panels supported by natural language processing and machine learning enabling clients to extract objective insights from anecdotal comments.

Being born at West Point then spending most of the childhood near Fort Benjamin Harrison outside Indianapolis almost guaranteed Kenny’s future in the US Army. He spent 15 months in Afghanistan in 2007 as an artillery officer at a small outpost named Camp Keating, the location for the recent documentary “The Outpost” – which detailed the battle of Kamdesh where the outpost was ultimately overrun in 2009. We talk about his experiences being wounded in Afghanistan and his perspective on recent events. One editorial note – we recorded this interview on August 20th while the Taliban were still seizing control over most of the country, but before the major evacuation efforts began and the 13 service members were killed.

These experiences ultimately led him to recognize food security as a national security issue and guided his post-military service career into agriculture and ultimately to start TopYield. The approach they’re taking on the integration of natural language processing and machine learning to extract data from simple conversations could be a disruptive force to traditional market intelligence gathering.

Have a listen to find out how all of these pieces are connected, what TopYield is all about, and why Kenny thinks we all need to “find our bassoons”.

#28 Kurt Krumm (ARNG) – John Deere

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#28 Kurt Krumm (ARNG) - John Deere
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We had to do a lot of things at the lower level, if we wanted to be fast and make a bigger impact

Kurt Krumm is an active-duty Army National Guardsman and the Aftermarket Product Manager for Precision Ag at John Deere.

Kurt’s early life led to a career like many others within ag and the military. He grew up on a farm, surrounded by heavy equipment and veteran family members, instilling in him this need to serve. In this episode, Kurt shares how his experiences as a Battalion Logistics Officer offer him a unique perspective on precision ag adoption and logistics management at John Deere. His time in Kabul, Afghanistan from 2016 to 2017 also instilled in him a sense of what can be accomplished at the lowest levels of leadership, if you empower and trust them.  It’s such a timely perspective given what’s happening there today.

Kurt also shares his perspective on just how far precision ag has come in the last 20 years since he joined the industry, Deere’s acquisition of Bear Flag Robotics, and stepping stones necessary as we move to fully autonomous and AI-enabled equipment operation.

#27 Ben Alfi (Israeli Air Force) – Blue White Robotics

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#27 Ben Alfi (Israeli Air Force) - Blue White Robotics
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I understood that I needed to create a company that is dealing with how to be part of the revolution of unmanned systems in the ag industry.

Ben Alfi is a veteran of the Israel Air Force and Managing Founder for Blue White Robotics -an Israeli-based agtech company providing what they call Robots-as-a-Service. Blue White’s software platform plans and operates multiple tasks for autonomous air and ground fleets, integrating aftermarket autonomous capabilities into a variety of OEM ag equipment.

Over the course of his military career, Ben spent 25 years in the Israeli Air Force, flying a variety of F16s and unmanned systems. The last 10 years of his service were spent developing and managing the Israel Air Force’s unmanned systems, anything from two pounds to six tons. You’ll hear throughout this episode how influential this time was to the founding of Blue White Robotics and their decision to tackle the agricultural space first. This conversation comes at a great time as much of the talk today in autonomous vehicle operations is around John Deere’s recent acquisition of Bear Flag Robotics and what it means for the industry. We get into Ben thoughts on this as well and how they’re differentiated.

We begin our conversation with Ben at a diner in California as Blue White is currently seeking to build out a footprint in the US. We’ll go anywhere to get our listeners a great story, including a restaurant with some background noise. Our apologies for that, but I think you’ll find this conversation so fascinating that it won’t be an issue.

#26 Willie Hines (USN) – Farmer Veteran Coalition

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#26 Willie Hines (USN) - Farmer Veteran Coalition
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Farmer Veteran Coalition is at an intersection – farmers and veterans – where mental health is extremely important.

Willie Hines is a US Navy veteran and Director of Operations for Farmer Veteran Coalition (FVC), a nationally recognized non-profit focused on mobilizing veterans to feed America and transition support for military service members to a career in agriculture. This is our third interview with FVC’s leadership as we seek the highlight their work with vets in ag.

Willie’s early life growing up in a small town in the Midwest resolved him to want to get out and experience the world, so he joined the Navy and become a SEAL, specializing in communications. To hear his description of how far radio communications have come since the early 80s and what we’re able to do both in the military and ag today was fascinating, especially how they used to transmit voice message from places like Kenya back to Virginia.

This episode is filled with stories about submarine lock-outs, public sentiment for service members from Vietnam and today, challenges surrounding the future of plant genetics, and so much more; all from a man who has truly experienced a life’s worth of events in a short period of time.  

The work Willie continues to do with the veteran and ag communities at FVC is truly admirable. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did.

#25 Scott Jackman (US Army) – Deveron

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#25 Scott Jackman (US Army) - Deveron
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I spent 23 years [as an Army aviator] doing remote sensing where my role was to figure out how to convey information in the best way possible for the decision maker.

Scott Jackman is a US Army veteran and President for the US Division of Deveron, a Toronto-based agtech company using proprietary algorithms, third-party data collection platforms, and teams of agronomists and data scientists to help growers understand and monetize their field variability. We had one of their US sales reps on the show a few weeks ago, Andrew Patrick, another military veteran.

Scott had a unique opportunity with the National Guard at the beginning of his career to experience real-world military service through supporting relief efforts around the ‘93 flood of the Mississippi River. This isn’t something many service members get to do before their formal career begins and it really solidified for Scott a true calling towards service. This then become the next 23 years of his life.

The perspectives he gained over the course of that career as an Army helicopter pilot, his entrepreneurial endeavors following military service, which ultimately led to his current role at Deveron, equipped him with a unique set of skills and appreciation for servant leadership.

Have a listen to find out how all these pieces fit together and to get a better idea of the services offered by Deveron and their goal of turning the physical world into digits.