<\/p>\n
That was the name of the conference and represents a growing effort to
\nscale up sustainable agriculture from a hodge-podge of hippies and
\nback-to-the-land types into a viable big business by bringing together venture
\ncapitalists and startups doing everything from rooftop farming to high-tech
\nsoil mapping to identifying the best areas for growing crops.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The big idea is that venture capitalists can help disrupt
\nindustrial agriculture much as they have the computer, entertainment and energy
\nindustries by investing in sustainable ag and using information technology to
\nconnect producers and consumers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“We want to create an opportunity for a market, not a
\nmovement,” said Roxanne Christensen of SPIN Farming, which promotes the
\ncreation of urban microfarms.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Palo Alto conference was organized by NewSeed Advisors<\/a>, a New York firm <\/p>\n Janine Yorio, a young former Wall Street investment banker, <\/p>\n So how to crack a century-old food production system that <\/p>\n It won’t be easy, says Melanie Cheng, founder of FarmsReach, <\/p>\n Regional markets are the most sustainable, according to <\/p>\n But the current disconnect between local farmers and <\/p>\n “We have no data,” says Cheng. “And that means there’s a <\/p>\n You could almost see the ears of the venture capitalists in <\/p>\n Many conference goers compared the potential and challenges <\/p>\n “Agriculture is still largely an old boys network and deals <\/p>\n As is the case with many green tech investments, the <\/p>\n Amol Deshpande, a partner at Kleiner Perkins, thinks Silicon <\/p>\n “Most venture firms have green tech investments,” he says. <\/p>\n Deshpande himself could be Exhibit A in the bets venture <\/p>\n If there was a common thread running through the conference <\/p>\n Of course, the killer app would be to power urban microfarms <\/p>\n For Silicon Valley, sustainable ag offers a way for the tech <\/p>\n Who knows, in the coming years you might start to see a few Related Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n How export-focused agriculture has failed everyone it was meant to help<\/a><\/p>\n Watching the green screens at the Environmental Film Festival in D.C.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nthat acts as a matchmaker between investors and sustainable ag startups.<\/p>\n
\nfounded NewSeed and persuaded such high-profile venture firms as Kleiner
\nPerkins Caufield & Byers, Foundation Capital and Mohr Davidow Partners to spend Wednesday hearing pitches from a roster of sustainable ag entrepreneurs, who
\nranged from twenty-something Los Angeles farmers to silver-haired engineers
\ndeveloping environmentally friendly fertilizers.<\/p>\n
\nhas become both increasingly centralized and globalized?<\/p>\n
\na San Francisco startup developing an online market to connect farmers to local
\nbuyers like restaurants.<\/p>\n
\nCheng, allowing fresh food to be distributed to inner city “food deserts” while
\nreducing transportation costs and thus agriculture’s environmental impact.
\nPeople who actually live where food is grown also tend to use far less
\npesticides and toxins, she noted.<\/p>\n
\nconsumers means that those growing food often remain in the dark about what the
\nmarket is demanding.<\/p>\n
\ngreat opportunity for information technology solutions.”<\/p>\n
\nthe audience perk up at that remark. Think of the companies that have remade commerce—and
\nmade many billions of dollars—over the past 15 years: Amazon, eBay, Google. They all exploited networks and data mining to upend conventional
\ncompetitors.<\/p>\n
\nof sustainable ag to investing in renewable energy and other green technologies
\nthat are trying to disrupt another entrenched industry.<\/p>\n
\nget done on a handshake,” says Stu Rudick, whose Marin County private equity
\nfirm, Mindful Investors, takes stakes in sustainable, natural consumer products
\nstartups.<\/p>\n
\nquestion is whether venture capitalists have the patience for the years it may
\ntake sustainable ag startups to turn a profit, go public or get acquired.
\nBioengineering a new environmentally benign pest control organism, after all,
\ntakes a little longer than writing code for the latest iPhone app or social networking
\nsite.<\/p>\n
\nValley is more open to taking the long view these days.<\/p>\n
\n“I think the nature of venture capital is changing.”<\/p>\n
\nfirms are preparing to make on sustainable ag. He joined Kleiner Perkins, one
\nof the Valley’s premier VC firms, in 2008 after working at industrial ag giants such
\nas Cargill, as well as starting his own agricultural biotechnology company.<\/p>\n
\nit was that Agriculture 2.0 is essentially about distributed food production,
\nmuch like many promising renewable energy technologies are about distributed
\npower generation—putting solar panels where electricity is consumed, for
\ninstance.<\/p>\n
\nwith renewable energy, noted Mike Yohay, founder of Cityscape Farms, a San
\nFrancisco startup developing rooftop greenhouses that use hydroponics and
\naquaponics technology to grow food without soil and fertilize it with fish waste.<\/p>\n
\nindustry to literally get back to its roots. Before the Santa Clara Valley was
\nrebranded Silicon Valley in the 1970s with the rise of the semiconductor
\nindustry, it was long known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight for the lush
\nexpanses of orchards that stretched between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the
\nDiablo Range.<\/p>\n
\ndusty pickup trucks parked next to those Tesla Roadsters on Sand Hill Road.<\/p>\n