Young American gets a taste of Aussie Ag Tech and likes what she sees

By Isabelle Arnheim 

Since I decided to embark on an Australian adventure this June and July to intern for AgThentic, my family and friends, situated in Silicon Valley in California, have loved joking with me. “She just HAD to go learn about the startup scene across the world when we already live in the heart of it,” they say. While I appreciate their teasing, I couldn’t be more thankful that I got to experience it across the world, and through the AgTech lens no less.

I grew up in Silicon Valley: tech central of the world. In high school my dad, a corporate lawyer for emerging tech companies, used to come home from work every day and share stories of his most exciting startups over family dinner. I drove past Google, HP, and Facebook headquarters on my way to school every morning. I served coffee to Steve Wozniak at the little cafe I was working at for the summer. But emerging tech never seemed like an industry to me; it just seemed like a part of my life that older people talked about. I was way more interested in the outdoors, finding solace in the beautiful nature surrounding the Bay Area, and debating classmates and peers on the importance of environmental sciences over any other type of profession. Then I left for university and it finally clicked.

Engaging with friends, mentors, and professors from places other than Silicon Valley, I gained a totally new perspective. Not only was the stuff my dad had shared over dinners pretty cool and revolutionary, but emerging technology itself started looking like something that, to me, could open a lot of doors for the types of change I was interested in effecting.

But it wasn’t until I found AgTech that I realized that the intersection between technology, entrepreneurship, and the environment was a growing industry where I could both have a positive impact on the world and cultivate a commercially successful career. And with just a quick 15 hour flight to Sydney, I’d be changing the environmental and agricultural worlds! Of course, my parents told me I could find an agtech internship in Silicon Valley if I wanted to, but traveling to Australia sounded way more fun. Within a few days, I emailed Sarah, AgThentic CEO. We had a few phone interviews, and voila — I now write this blog post as the sixth week of my engaging, challenging, inspiring internship with AgThentic comes to a close.

So what lessons and ideas have I learned that will stick with me far beyond these six weeks? Here are a few.

While I spent the first chunk of the internship diving into the terminology and ideology that startups, investors, venture capitalists, consultants, and researchers use in the general tech setting, I soon learned that AgTech is different. While many of the same processes and jargon apply to innovation in agriculture, there are nuances that make it both challenging and exciting. Agriculture has historically been the backbone of most civilized societies, so bringing emerging technologies and new perspectives to a traditional sector can be a challenging and uncomfortable process at times. The changes happening in agriculture resemble the digitization that has occurred in other industries, but because agriculture is one of the last frontiers (it is still the least digitized industry, according to McKinsey), agtech entrepreneurs have to make a new playbook. And it’s not just software. By developing advanced technologies, from insect farming and alternative protein to synthetic biology, robots, and artificial intelligence, startups are attempting to completely revolutionize the food system.

I felt a lot of things the first few weeks of the internship. I felt angry that consolidation of farms, pesticide overuse, and industrialization of agriculture were hurting small farms. I felt torn between being excited about the future of biotechnology, and finding the process of genetic modification unnatural. I felt excited about my growing knowledge of the inner-workings of the agtech world, but overwhelmed at new terminology and concepts. I felt disgusted by the statistics of antibiotic use in livestock production (especially in America), but also humbled by the geniuses creating radical agricultural advancements to improve animal welfare. And I felt inspired by the rest of the AgThentic team who care so much about working hard to transform an entire industry. I also felt a sense of urgency when I read on several occasions that the world must double our food production by 2050 to sustain the growing population.

In many ways Sarah provided me with an excellent and typical internship experience. I collected and organized data, designed charts and graphics, wrote excerpts for websites, and performed other normal admin tasks. Since AgThentic is a pretty small firm, I immediately felt like I was making an impact. The projects Sarah gave me to work on required patience, attention to detail, creativity, and an understanding of the industry. Although the tasks were typical for a summer intern, the industry itself is not typical; it’s complex, and thus the tasks carried more significance to me than they would have in a different sector.

The differences between this internship and the other work I’ve engaged in is that with each task, I felt like I was doing something different and important. Hearing about my friends’ summer internships back in the states, I couldn’t help but contrast their daily tasks to mine; while my friend’s day at her investment banking internship in NYC revolved around the word money, I made a debrief spreadsheet from the data collected at a workshop series for Australian sheep farmers. Maybe I wasn’t climbing the ladder on Wall Street, but I was gaining insight into the experiences, problems, and expectations of people who lead vastly different lives from my own. In a similar manner to the way leaving Silicon Valley for university gave me a different perspective on technology’s power, engaging with the agriculture sector in Australia allowed me to see the issues within our food system from a global perspective.

Innovating in agriculture requires working at the intersection of the potential benefits of technological advancements, and an appreciation for the heritage and tradition of agriculture. These seemingly opposing perspectives can be hard to reconcile, just like my my passion for innovation and creativity and a love for the untouched, natural world. Seeing how innovators are navigating the former intersection has allowed me to make adjustments in my own thinking about where technology fits into the natural world. I now have a lot more hope (and inspiration) for positive interactions between the two.

For example, agtech requires extensive relationships and communication between creators and users, and translators are necessary to help innovators and farmers create together. Using this skill set, and the need to effectively communicate, I can start asking questions about what allows the ag sector to maintain balance and then translate this thinking to other jobs and sectors, too. For instance, how might I employ effective communication between policy makers, innovators, and activists to help solve critical environmental challenges?

I’m not the only one who has spent a large amount of time familiarizing myself with the agtech industry. It’s become clear to me these past six weeks just how much work it takes for tech innovators to adapt their thinking to a whole new customer and industry of agriculture. While general tech startups usually sell a product or an idea to directly change some behavior or consumption pattern of consumers like them, when working in agtech, innovators always have to think of the farmer first. The best agtech entrepreneurs ask questions about making production more efficient, eliminating annoying or dangerous tasks, and creating opportunities to meet consumer demands for healthier, sustainably-produced products. Agtech entrepreneurs have to build products that farmers, not typical consumers, can seamlessly integrate into their practices, and this requires a paradigm shift for innovators. Developing a whole new level of understanding is both challenging and incredibly important to successful ag innovation.

Now that I’ve completed the majority of my internship at AgThentic, I’m the one who gets to make jokes. I’ve called my parents often, telling them they were fools for letting me come to Sydney this summer because I just might follow in Sarah’s footsteps and move to Australia!

I’ve loved it here. Besides having a wonderful work experience, I’ve met so many interesting and influential people, indulged in the beauty of the Eastern Australian coastline, and become familiar with the customs and culture of a city that feels so familiar yet exists in the middle of an ocean across the world from home.

As I part ways with my incredible summer down under, I take home with me several things. I take home some new Australian lingo (“d’ya reckon?”) and a knack for driving on the left side of the road. I take home a newfound understanding of the startup world through a unique agricultural and global lens. I take home a different perspective on the necessity for reform in American food and governmental systems. I take home a responsibility to share what I’ve learned, so the agtech sector’s achievements and developments don’t go unnoticed in the midst of the Silicon Valley madness. And I take home so much gratitude for the people, including the AgThentic team and my parents, who were able to provide me with such a rare and meaningful opportunity. Yes Mom and Dad, I didn’t necessarily have to go to Australia to learn, but I’m so happy I did.

Picture - Isabelle Arnheim