Archives: Episode

#21 Jose Sanchez (US Army) – Ecogistix

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#21 Jose Sanchez (US Army) - Ecogistix
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I’ve been bootstrapping it so far, but it’s tough. You still have to keep the lights on at home

Our guest this week is Jose Sanchez, Founder of Ecogistix, a manufacturing execution systems platform that will allows growers to more efficiently track and manage their fresh produce as it moves from farm to market.

Jose’s familial ties to the farming community trace back to his grandfather’s ranching operations in Mexico. But it was his father’s memories of the difficulty of selling their product at the local markets that brought Jose back into ag after spending a number of years gaining an education in computer science and in supply chain management.

The intentionally and care with which Jose has approached the creation of Ecogistix is impressive. It’s taken them over three years to develop a production ready model, a process that started with the farmer’s challenges, then leveraged their team’s industry experience and partnerships to finally reach a stage where they’re ready to start on-boarding growers.

Jose is honest with this process of bootstrapping about it not being all sunshine and roses. It takes grit, struggle and financial preparation. Have a listen to hear Jose’s story and some of lessons learned from this agri-preneur.  

#20 – Rachel Petitt – Farmer Veteran Coalition

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#20 - Rachel Petitt - Farmer Veteran Coalition
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“It’s not the bird songs or the warm soil. It’s the early days, constant problem solving, grit…”

This from our guest this week, Rachel Petitt, as she describes the types of things veterans look for as they seek to ease the burden of transition by trying to match their new professional lives with their former lives.

Rachel is Farmer Veteran Coalition’s Fellowship Program Manager, which administers grants for tools, equipment, infrastructure and even livestock that support veteran farmers in their new careers. After earning a degree in Food and Ag from UC Santa Cruz, Rachel worked in small-scale farming for several years, including flower, vegetables and egg production in central California before joining FVC in 2015.

The passion for agriculture is evident as Rachel describes the formidable nature of these experiences and how they conditioned in her a sense of purpose that can be found in agriculture. Through her college network and word-of-mouth, the opportunity to work for FVC’s former founder, Michael O’Gorman, came across her radar and she jumped at it. As FVC’s longest standing employee to date, Rachel talks about FVC’s growth over the last 14 years, her experiences working with veterans for the first time, and their herculean efforts support the veteran farmer community with a wide variety of services that extends beyond simply funding opportunities.

If you’re a veteran or active-duty service member who will soon transition and are considering production agriculture, this is a must listen episode.

#19 Jed Dunham – Kansas State U.

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#19 Jed Dunham - Kansas State U.
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It’s impossible to hide poor work on a farm

Our guest this week is Jed Dunham, a consultant with Kansas State’s Office of Military and Veterans Affairs. After graduating from Kansas State in 1996, Jed spent the next several years working in a variety of industries; from building playgrounds across the Midwest, heavy construction in Montana, coaching lacrosse in Virginia, working to bring veterans into agricultural educational opportunities, and riding a bicycle 4,600+ miles across North America. Once back in Kansas, his background as a historical researcher uncovered an incredible set of stories involving WWI soldiers. This work did more than just bring their lives to light again, it showed how their individual stories told the narrative of an important developmental time in American history.

This collection of stories, which Jed has called 48 Fallen 48 Found, led to the formal dedication of a World War I Memorial Stadium on the campus of Kansas State University in 2017. Jed continues to honor the sacrifices of our past through his work with Kansas State’s State Military Affairs Innovation Center.

Have a listen and weight-in how you think these soldier’s stories can best to told.

#18 Amanda (Curtis) Burkhardt – Nutripeutics

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#18 Amanda (Curtis) Burkhardt - Nutripeutics
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“Now we’re moving to a town with 100 people and a language I don’t speak and I’m gonna have to try and make a career.”

Our guest this week is Amanda Burkardt, Founder and CEO for Nutripeutics, a science and technology consultancy currently serving several different animal and human health start-ups, investor groups, and universities. Amanda brings a unique background of science (BA in Animal Science and Masters in Molecular Biology) and business (MBA with an emphasis on Entrepreneurship and a Masters of Management Information Technology) where she works with innovations to help develop and fund new products.

In this episode, Amanda details the sacrifices she made in the beginning of her career to be a supportive military spouse for the first time…in a foreign country. She articulates the realities of these situations through her own personal experiences in a way I have not heard before. How people finally reach a point in their lives where they decide enough is enough, it’s time to change has always fascinated me. Amanda still fits that mold to a tee.

We also talk about her fascinating early research into alternatives to antibiotics within animal health, how these compounds work, and what they could mean for animal health in the coming years. The concerns she articulates around drug resistant bacteria are real and something we all need to pay attention to. What Amanda has been able to accomplish and build using this type of scientific and business foundation is absolutely something you need to hear.

Be sure to listen to the end as Amanda outlines six major global trends she sees taking shape in the coming years within animal health.

#17 Art De Groat (US Army) – Kansas State Military Affairs Innovation Center

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#17 Art De Groat (US Army) - Kansas State Military Affairs Innovation Center
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My team’s confidence in my competency as a leader gave me a margin, in the human dimension, from which I could take risks that would ultimately be in their best interest

Our guest this week is Art De Groat, Founder and Director for Kansas State’s Military Affairs and Innovation Center as well as a retired US Army Armor Officer of over 20 years. In his current role at the Innovation Center, Art and his team are conducting applied research and outreach focused on adult developmental aspects of military transition and social reintegration.

Art describes how is military service was a defining pillar in his life – from experiences in the Gulf War where he had to make calculated decisions about how to deal with an out-matched enemy in order to preserve the mental health of his soldiers to dealing with a traumatic life event and having to strike a balance between service to country and family. The strength of character and resilience Art displayed and many veterans, I think, is exactly what should make military veterans attractive hirees to agribusinesses.

His post-military career has allowed him to continue to support the service member, this time during their transition into the private sector, where he’s gathered decades of experiential data and academic research that makes him uniquely qualified to discuss the issues facing veteran transition today and how ag can be a natural fit.

#16 Ben Gordon (ARNG) – Corteva

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#16 Ben Gordon (ARNG) - Corteva
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War is local and agronomy is local. It’s about human terrain.

My guest today is Ben Gordon, US Army National Guard veteran and Corteva’s Carbon and Ecosystem Services Global Portfolio Leader. This program seeks to quantify sustainability outcomes for farmers and economically reward them for stewardship outcomes, supported by Corteva’s partnerships, digital tools, and leading agronomic science.

Throughout the conversation, Ben weaves together the lessons he’s learned from military service around humility, regionality, and the dynamics of local leadership into the work he’s doing with agriculture in a way, to me at least, that is beyond his years. He describes the role of the leader, in both the military and within ag, as someone who recognizes the experience of their team, his own shortcomings, and how sometimes, your role as the leader is simply to provide them the latitude to exercise that expertise.

The platform Corteva has created within the carbon space seems to be one borne with the farmer in mind – optionality, premium payment terms, short-term contract, separation of incentives, etc.

Be sure to listen all the way through as Ben alludes to which markets Corteva may be scaling into next.

He asked that we include his email in the show notes for any veteran interested in Corveta or in need of some guidance during transition to please reach out – benjamingordon@granular.ag –

Enjoy!

#15 Ryan Delany (USMC) – Coffee Trading Academy

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#15 Ryan Delany (USMC) - Coffee Trading Academy
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You only have one reputation, what are you doing with it?

This from our guest for this episode – Ryan Delany – as he works through his relationship between his personal ethics and their fit within his professional career as a trader.

Ryan Delany is a US Marine Corps veteran and Founder of the Coffee Trading Academy, an information and training service focused on providing an independent voice in the coffee market.

Ryan spends some time in this episode unpacking the origins of his military service, from family ties to the Tuskegee Airman in WWII and slavery in the US to why he felt compelled to service in order to protect this heritage and the rights his relatives fought for. It was this military service and his subsequent education at Columbia and Harvard, as well as a career in stock and coffee trading, where he realized that his personal and professional ethics didn’t have to be separate; they could influence each other.

He makes a strong case for the value of a trader in the coffee supply chain and why he ultimately decided to start a training academy to help others understand this industry the way he does. His program intentionally points out the importance of mindset and ethics in this field, something he feels is lacking in other industry publications.

Have a listen as Ryan describes this unique heritage and his arguments for the profession of traders

#14 Jon Jackson (USA) – STAG Vets Inc

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#14 Jon Jackson (USA) - STAG Vets Inc
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We only grow in our discomfort

This from our guest this week – Jon Jackson – US Army veteran and Executive Director at STAG Vets Inc – as he described one of their central and differentiated themes. STAG Vets is non-profit organization focusing on acute veterans crisis care using sustainable food production and agriculture as the methodology by which to support veterans struggling with PTSD and other issues. Comfort Farms, named in honor of US Army Ranger Captain Kyle Comfort (KIA May 8th, 2020), is located in central Georgia.

This conversation with Jon solidified for me the manner in which many veterans tell you about their experiences – through story. In the first 15 minutes, we’d been through several stories from his time as a necropsy technician to how seeing research animals dissected on an autopsy table opened his eyes to sacrifice as a sense of service, which is what originally drew him to the military.

What Jon is doing at Comfort Farms is different in the sense that it forces the veteran to look for meaning in their surrounding – in this case agriculture – and to be personally ready to work for themselves through their issues.

Have a listen to find out what Jon is doing and his unique take on behavioral therapy within agriculture

#13 Dawn Breitkreutz (USAF) – Stoney Creek Farms

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#13 Dawn Breitkreutz (USAF) - Stoney Creek Farms
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We don’t need to learn new things, we need to learn old things.

This from our guest for this episode – Dawn Breitkreutz with Stoney Creek Farms – as she describes how we should approach the adoption of regenerative practices. These are essential old practices, she describes, that were used by our parents and grandparents to farm. We don’t need to necessarily learn new methodologies or technologies, but rather we need to become familiar again with the practices of our past.

Dawn is a US Air Force Veteran and Co-Founder of Stoney Creek Farms along with her husband Grant. Along Minnesota River near Redwood Falls, Minnesota, Dawn and Grant have converted a conventional crop and cow/calf operation into a multi-enterprise regenerative family business over the last 20 years.
As an analytical person by nature, Dawn began questioning modern-day practices on their own row crops acres – why are we doing things this how, why do we have to add this chemical product, etc. It was this inquiring nature and a degradation in their farm and livestock operations that caused both her and Grant to stop and think about how they were farming.


Dawn’s gradual and self-motivated approach to change sets a path, I think, that can be followed in a very practical way. It doesn’t have to happen over night nor does it need to be a full reversal right away – change begets change and in this case, small victories gave them the confidence to continue and even start to being veterans into their operation.


I’ll bring you into the conversation as Dawn and I discuss a documentary titled Farmer’s Footprint which centered around Dawn and Grant’s farm as an example of how regenerative practices highlight farming as a complete system and how the student, Dawn, eventually became the teacher.

#12 – Steven Valencsin (USN) – Growers

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#12 - Steven Valencsin (USN) - Growers
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You don’t make an excuse, you make a way.

This from today’s guest – Steven Valencsin – as he talks about the last 10+ years starting and scaling a new business in a competitive environment today like agtech. Steven is the CEO for Growers – a software data analytics company designed for the farmers trusted advisors – agronomist, ag retailers, and crop consultants. Growers offers an all-in-one dashboard that allows users to organize all their data into one place, quickly adjust variables, and facilitate recommendations directly to their customer’s farms.

Steven shares one of the most articulated and executable examples of how veterans can translate a certain soft skill into an industry where they have no precedent experiences. It doesn’t take any special equipment, circumstance, or software; merely a strong initiative and a drive to improve. 

I want you to listen in this episode to the approach Steven has taken with Growers in partnering with the farmer’s trusted advisor rather than creating a tool that attempts to disintermediate them. There are a lot of companies out there today that have chosen this business model, but Steven has made the intentional decision to chose a model of collaboration instead.

Have a listen to his rational and see if you agree with his arguments. Also, be listening for the skill Steven says all veterans have and how it can be practically translated to any industry, including ag.