Aug 27, 2024
EmpoweringWomen in AgriFood Tech: A Conversation with Amy Wu of From Farms toIncubators - In this episode of the Leading Voices in Food podcast,host Norbert Wilson speaks with Amy Wu, the creator and contentdirector of From Farms to Incubators. Amy shares her inspiringjourney in highlighting and supporting women, particularly women ofcolor, in the agri-food tech industry. Learn about the origins ofher groundbreaking documentary and book, her vision for a vibrantcommunity of women innovators, and the crucial role of education,mentorship, and policy in advancing women's roles in thissector.
InterviewSummary
I have agreat set of questions for you. So, the first thing, could you justtell our listeners a little bit more about From Farms toIncubators?
Sure.From Farms to Incubators is a special initiative andproject that tells the stories of women in this fast-growing fieldknown as ag tech, sometimes interchangeably used as Agri food techas well. The mission of it is really to get more women involved inag tech through storytelling, through resources, and also througheducation and training. I also would describe it as a multimediacontent platform. I actually came to this as a journalist and as astoryteller that uses storytelling to amplify the voices of womenleaders and entrepreneurs in this field. It's also a documentaryand a book and also a website where we archive their stories andtheir biographies as well.
Thanks forthat overview, and you just talked about the book and thedocumentary From Farms to Incubators: women innovatorsrevolutionizing how our food is grown, which uses storytellingto highlight women innovators and how women innovators in the Agrifood tech are doing their best. But there's also a movement and thecommunity and this multimedia platform. Why did you expand from thebook and documentary into this larger network?
That's areally good question. Briefly, as some context, I kind of fell intothis project. It was a bit of serendipity. I was a reporter inSalinas, California, which is the vegetable salad bowl of theworld. Ag is a huge industry, a 10 billion industry. And I wascovering government and agriculture. And I observed that there werenot a lot of women at the helm of the table, whether it be at farmsor also in this growing field of ag tech as well. So it started offas a documentary. I got a grant from the International Center forJournalists, and then ultimately I got another grant from theInternational Media Women's Foundation to do a short documentary toprofile three women who are entrepreneurs in ag tech. It was great.It was at the time in 2016, which now was ages ago, I guess. It wasreally hard to find women in ag, in this field of ag tech, womencreating the innovations to tackle some of the biggest challengesthat farmers are facing, especially under climate change. So, itcould have ended there because the documentary turned out to bevery, very well received. It's screened at hundreds of places, andI would have panels and discussions and the women would look ateach other like, 'my gosh, I didn't know there were other womendoing this too. Can you connect us? We'd love to convene further.'And then educators, community leaders, agribusinesses, investorsjust didn't know they existed as well. So, what happened was thestories kind of multiplied and multiplied as the more that Icollected them. And then I decided to put it into a book profilingabout 30 women in this growing field.
And to answeryour question, Norbert, why is it continuing is that I saw a realneed for women to have a community, women in agriculture andinnovation and food systems to have a community to connect with oneanother, to potentially build friendship, build collaboration,build partnership, creating a collective vision sometimes and aplace for them. I didn't plan on it. So, I guess the storytellingconnects them. We've also have resources like a database thatconnects them and the goal is really so that they can have acommunity where they can build more. They can either build outtheir own startups. They can build their careers, build theirprofessions. And then it kind of grew more legs. Now we're alsoextending into the area of education and training to try to getyounger women, young people, youth. To see that agriculture, hey,may not be traditionally sexy. I mean, tractors and overalls arestill what a lot of people think about it, but there are so manyother opportunities in the food system for young people as well,especially since we all have to eat. So, how are farmers going tobe producing the food for 10 billion people in 2050, right? Who'sgoing to produce the food? How are we going to do it? Especiallyunder the auspices of climate change, the weather's getting crazierand crazier. That's sort of why it has expanded from the storiesall the way to what it is today.
This is agreat story and I would love to hear a little bit more about someof the women and their innovations. And if I may, I would like foryou to actually even explain a little bit about what you mean bythe ag food tech or Agri food tech as you're talking about thesewomen.
Broadlydefined, is any kind of innovation that makes it easier, frankly,for farmers to do their work, to grow more efficiently, and to alsoincrease [00:06:00] their yield.I can give some examples of what innovation is. Blockchainaddresses food safety, really. It traces everything from the seedto all the way on the shelf, right? So if there's any safetyissues, it's used to trace back, where did that seed come from?Where was it grown? What field was it in? And that really helpseverybody in the food systems a lot more, right? We have sensorsconnected with drones. I forgot to mention robotics as well, whichis a fast-growing area of ag tech. Everything from self-drivingtractors to laser scarecrows to another level of robots that arepicking specific kinds of fruits and vegetables that's tacklinglabor challenges. I don't foresee that ag tech necessarily is areplacement by the way of people. It's actually offering moreopportunities because we need people who are very knowledgeablethat kind of innovation.
And then youalso asked a bit about the stories of the women in ag tech, forexample, in the film and in the book and so forth. Soil sampling isa fast-growing area of ag tech. There's the story that I have inthe book and also in the movie of two young women who are StanfordPhD graduates. Who created a soil testing kit that makes it easyfor farmers to just test their soil for diseases, for pests, andsoil testing is traditionally, you know, very, very expensive formost farmers actually. Not easy for farmers to get access to it andto get the data, but the soil testing kit that they created makesit a lot easier for farmers, small farmers even, to access it. Andwhy is that important is because the more knowledge, the more datathat, and analytics that farmers can get, the more that they canmake smart decisions about how much to fertilize, how much toirrigate.
And thatconnects with the yield and their success. You know, anothercompany that I can think about, another amazing woman. I just likeher story, the story of AgTools and the story of Martha Montoya,who was actually an award-winning cartoonist. And she doesn't comefrom agriculture at all, and that's actually something that I wantto highlight is a lot of these women are not farmers and don't comefrom agriculture. But she was a award winning cartoonist. I believeshe was also a librarian and she fell into the food industry, andsaw a need for having more data, offering more data and analyticsto farmers. She created a system a little bit like a Bloomberg forfarmers, where they can get real time data immediately on theirphones, on their watches, so that they can get second by seconddata to make decisions on specific crops.
Those are acouple of the stories that are in the book, but really what I wantto highlight is that all of the innovation that they are creatingaddresses some of the biggest challenges that farmers are facing,whether it be labor issues,lack of water, some areas of our countryare becoming more wet, others are becoming more dry, drones thatare actually doing the irrigation now or drones taking photos togive more data to farmers as well on what is their land look like.You know, it could also be human resources related as well tomanage staff. So mobile apps to manage staff on cattle farms. Imean, how big are the cattle farms sometimes, you know, 50,000acres. So, it's really to save money and to create efficiency forfarmers.
If farmersare able to do their work more efficiently, they're able togenerate greater profits, but it also allows for food prices not torise. This has really big implications. Thank you for sharing thosestories. And I love hearing about some of the individuals, buthere's the question. I mean, why focus on women? What's importantabout what women contribute to this? And also, why are you alsoconsidering race as an important lens in thissector?
Well, I wouldsay, why not women? Because women have already been contributing tothe global food system, whether in the production end or thedecision makers at the head of the dinner table for thousands ofthousands of years, arguably. So what I discovered is that theirstories, their contributions, existing contributions were not beingcelebrated and were not being amplified. And I actually discoveredthat a lot of the women that I connected with were a bit shy abouteven telling their story and sharing it like kind of like, 'what ismy contribution?' And I'm like, 'well, why aren't you sharing yourstory more?' So the goal of it really is to document and celebratetheir contributions, but also to inspire. As I said, young women,next generation, all of us have daughters, nieces, granddaughters,you know, and then future generations to consider opportunities ina field where we need people. We need people who are smart and youdon't have to be from a generation of farmers. You could be inscience, engineering, technology, and math. You could just bepassionate about it and you could be in the field. So that's thefirst aspect of it.
And in termsof the lens of gender and race, there are not enough women in termsof just the startups in ag tech right now, only 2 percent of thebillions of dollars being invested in ag tech startups. Only 2percent are going into women led companies. It is very, verylittle. It is a problem that is deep rooted. And it starts with[00:12:00] funding. One problemis where is the funding coming from. Venture capitalists,traditional avenues of funding, where it is traditionally maledominated. So, there are many studies that show that investors willinvest in companies where they connect with those who are leadingthe companies, right? So similar gender, similar backgrounds,similar stories. So, we're really looking to have a paradigm shiftand move the needle of sorts and say that if there are moreinvestors, there are more board members who are from a diversitybackgrounds, then there will be more funding for women and thosewho are traditionally not leading agriculture, not in theleadership positions, not in the decision-making roles, right?There is a problem. There is a, what is a grass ceiling, not justglass ceiling, but grass ceiling.
I hear you. Ihear you. Now this is really fascinating. I know from colleagueswho are in agriculture that there is this demand for moreagricultural workers throughout the Agri food system. And if thereis a demand, we're saying that our colleges that produce thepotential workers aren't meeting those demands. One of the ways wecan see that change is by having more women and more people ofcolor join in. And so, this is a critical thing. And I wouldimagine also the experiences that people bring may be a criticalpart of coming up with new innovations. Diversity can do that. Thisis exciting that you're exploring this.
I love whatyou're saying Norbert. I know I wanted to touch upon that aboutwhat you just noted is that it's also to create a pipeline, right?Education training is just so critical. And it makes me so happy tosee that there are more and more programs at universities andcolleges that are addressing programs in food systems, inagriculture, and increasingly in ag tech. So, whether it be coursesor programs or certificates or eventually minors and majors,developing the pipeline of talent is really important and havingmentors and mentees, which is something that now we're working on.This fall we'll have launched a menteeship program for women andfor young people interested in ag tech and the first collaboratoris the UC Merced in California. So, thanks for bringing that up. Wehave a couple of young people ready at the starting gates. Reallyexcited.
I will sayjust on a personal note, I was active in 4 H for most of my youthand that's the way I got involved in agriculture. So, touching orreaching out to folks in their youth is critical to get themexcited and help them to make the connection so that they can dothat work further. I'm glad to hear this work. In your view, whatare some of the ongoing challenges and opportunities that womenface in the ag tech sector or the Agri food sector? What are someof the things you're observing?
Well, acontinued challenge is having a place at the table, meaning at theleadership and decision-making level. And actually, as I notedearlier, the access to funding and not just the money, but theaccess to resources, meaning could be legal operational. Just howto get their startups or get their ideas out there. One examplethat I'm seeing that's again positive is that there's a growingnumber of incubators and accelerators specifically in food tech orag tech that are is actually looking for candidates who are womenor who are from underrepresented communities. The first thing isthat they have a great innovation, of course, but the next thingthat the incubators and accelerators are looking for is to have adiversity of perspectives. And to have representation, so seeing alot more of that, whether it be. Individual accelerators, or evenonce at the university, right? Universities and colleges and thegovernmental level.
The otherchallenge is access to farmers and connecting them with the farmersthemselves. Cause farmers are very, very busy and that'shighlighted and bolded. Increasingly just dealing with this chessgame that's very hard to play with the weather, but also with theirown resources. It's expensive being a farmer, equipment, labor.They don't often have the time, frankly, to beta test some of theinnovations coming out. So how best to connect innovators with thefarmers and to have them communicate with each other: like this isthe innovation. This is how it's going to help your problem.Educating the farmers and allowing them to see that this is howit's going to address the problem that I have. So, the two arestill kind of separate and access to each other is still, I wouldsay, a major challenge. But right now, some of the solutions are,as I've noted, networking at conferences and convenings. Also,under the grant programs sometimes under the National ScienceFoundation or USDA, they are allowing more collaborativeinitiatives where you have educators, where you have policy, whereyou have the innovators, where you have the young people.Increasingly, seeing more and more of those kinds of projects andinitiatives happen. So hopefully everybody will have a seat at thetable and that would help women out a lot in the field aswell.
Awesome.Thank you for sharing those. And I love the fact that you'relooking at not just identifying issues, but also trying to findways of connecting folks to help overcome those challenges thatwomen and women of color are facing in the marketplace. And it'sthe connections that are really critical. I appreciate youhighlighting that. So, what is your idealvision?
Oh, one morething I forgot to note is that in terms of connecting, there's alsoa database - a women in Agri food tech database, and I, and atleast four or five other women in the field have been working onfor at least four or five years now. We now have more than athousand members. It's an open-source database where you can clickon a form, put your name there and information takes a few minutesand then you're added to this database where the women can beconnected to each other as well. So that's anotherresource.
Yeah. And Imean, even just having peer mentors, not just mentors who are aboveyou and they've like solved all the problems, but having people togo along with you as you're developing and as they are developingcan be a critical part. I know as an academic, that's important forme and has been important for me. And I can imagine the same istrue in this space as well. So, I'm so grateful to hear about thiswork. Yeah. What is your ideal vision for women in Agri food techin the next, say, five years? And how will the digital network forfrom farms to incubators play a role in achieving that goal orthose goals?
So, my dream- it always starts, I think, in the dreaming phase and thenconnecting that with also resources along the way. But if I couldwave my magic wand, I would say that. We would have a lot morewomen in leadership and thought decision making positions in agtech to the point where maybe we won't even need something likeFrom Farms to Incubators anymore because they'll bealready equal. The stories will be out there. So, it might bequestionable as to why we have a special subgroup or network forthis now. How to get to that vision, I think is the threecomponents of increasingly having more stories, and the women telltheir stories at public outreach. You know, it could be atconferences, it could be in their own communities, sharing theirstory out to the community of farmers, of local government, ofschools, local schools and colleges and universities, gardeningclubs.
The secondcomponent is education and training, building a pipeline. A visionthat I have is actually having a campus. A virtual, and alsoin-person campus where women, especially from women inunderprivileged communities will have the opportunity to havetraining and to be connected with mentors and the rock stars in theag tech and Agri food tech field. Where they will also be able tohave a project and initiative and test it out and have something toadd to their portfolio. To have classes and people who are teachingthose courses as well, ultimately. And then also to just build up ahub of resources. Like I mentioned the database. I mentioned thatwe'd like to extend it to having resources where folks can easilyaccess internships, fellowships, granteeships, where they can beconnected to funding. If they need help with legal, HR, just allcomponents of everything that's needed to have a successfulorganization.
And itdoesn't have to just be their own startup. It could be a jobdatabase of where we have larger organizations and companies thatare building up their own ag innovation or food innovation centeras well. So that is the vision. It's a big vision. It's a bigdream. So we're going to have to kind of break it down intocomponents. But I think taking it step by step is the way to gokind of like climbing Everest or doing a long distanceswim.
Yes, I cansee where you're trying to go in this vision and I'm interested toknow what, if any role policy could play and help advance thatvision.
Yeah, so whatrole could policy play in advancing this vision? Currently, when itcomes to diversity inclusion in the ag tech field or even inagriculture, there is somewhat a lack of policy in a way. But thenalso with individual organizations and corporations, obviously,there is the movement of diversity inclusion. But also, I thinkit's very much with the hiring practices with HR. I think it's upto individual organizations, whether they be small, larger ones,governmental, to look at their own hiring practices. To look at whothey are, how are they crafting the language when they look for ajob, when they look at their leadership team, are there ways tofurther diversify it and when it comes to, gender, ethnicities,people who come from a rural area, urban. I mean, we all come with,from a diversity of perspectives and stories. I think a lot of itwill come down to hiring practices and advancing this vision andwith the individuals who are already working at those organizationsto be more thoughtful and conscious about giving those who don'thave a place at the table, a place and a voice at the table, givingeverybody a chance. Because we have some amazingly talented andknowledgeable people who just traditionally in agriculture don'thave families and generations who come from an ag background. Butthey do come with so much that they could offer. I would say thatthose are a couple of examples of that as well. And maybe, morediscussion about policy is really needed on a larger level when itcomes to farmers, when it comes to government leaders, when itcomes to innovation leaders as well. And when it comes to educatorsand schools. I think the more the merrier when it comes to bringingfolks at the table to open it up for discussion onsolutions.
I appreciatethis. And, this idea of not just welcoming people so that they getin the door, but also creating change. Environments and spaceswhere people are actually welcomed once they're there. That itbecomes a place where folks can be themselves and bring all of whothey are to the work that they're doing. This iscritical.
Yes,absolutely. I want to touch upon that. My own story is I don't havean agricultural background myself. But when I first , landed in aplace like Salinas, very much sort of an outsider because I'm notfrom there anyway, but also not in agriculture and then being awoman and being, you know, a Chinese American woman too, you know,I, I did feel that there was a challenge to kind of break intocertain circles and to be welcome. Even despite my passion andenthusiasm, there was a little bit like, 'what is she? Why? Why?What? She, she doesn't know anything.' But I felt like it was thepeople who in the beginning, it was just a couple of people whowere like, 'Hey, this is somebody who really wants to tell thestory of what we're doing. Give her a chance.' You know, havingadvocates, frontline advocates made a huge difference. So that'swhat I'm hoping for, more frontline advocates.
Amy, I wantto pick up on a personal story out of this. I did my graduatetraining out at UC Davis, at University of California, Davis. And Iworked on dairy policy, which I do not have a dairy background. Andit was great to have a mentor who actually helped me. Whointroduced me to a number of folks and working through extensionand the California Department of Food and Ag. Folks made space forme, and they understood that I was interested in this particularpolicy and trying to understand what it meant. And I actually gotto learn so much. It was because people just said, okay, we'll giveyou a try. And I did the best I could. I'm grateful for that.Creating these spaces is not hard. It's not impossible. It can bedone. I'm really appreciative of your efforts to keep furtheringthat story.
I love thatstory. And indeed Norbert it's like what you said, creating thespace and even, even in the beginning and just having a couple offolks just to make space. And then I think the space is going togrow from there.
I fullyagree. I've got one last question for you. And it's, sort ofrelated to the vision, but just also thinking long term. Whatimpact do you hope your work will ultimately have onsociety.
I hope thatmy work will create a bit of a shift ultimately. I mean, that's arather large goal, but it's not just myself. As this project hasgrown and extended and expanded. It's really a joint team effort. Imean, along this journey, I've met folks who are mission aligned.And they also see the value in this, and they believe in somethingsimilar. Whether it be that they contribute their story, whether itbe that they help write the stories, whether it be that they comebe a guest speaker, and they share their career, and then they endup connecting with the younger person, every person counts in this.In making a shift. And it might take generations to completely havea paradigm shift, but I think that just moving the needle a bit isultimately the goal, certainly. And in terms of the bigger pictureof things, I'm hoping that it will continue to spark a discussionand ongoing conversation about the importance and the value ofbringing different voices and people who traditionally were notgiven a space at the table when it comes to the food systems andagriculture. But who brings so much talent, so much to the tablealready. How we can make greater space for them as well, and how wecan incorporate their talent and create a better food system foreverybody. We all eat and we're looking at 10 billion people in2050. So, looking at the people who are making those contributionsand telling their stories and especially for those whotraditionally have not had their voices told, I think is really,really important. I just keep the fire going, I guess.
BIO
AmyWuis an award-winning writer for the women’s Ag andAgtech movement. She is thecreator and chiefcontent director ofFrom Farms to Incubators, amultimedia platform that uses documentary, video, photography, andthe written word to tell the stories of women leaders andinnovators in Agtech.It has a mission ofhighlighting women in food, farming, and farmtech, especially womenof color.From Farms to Incubatorsincludes adocumentary and a book that spotlights women leaders in Ag andAgtech. The documentary and stories have been screened andpresented at SXSW and Techonomy. The initiative was awarded grantsfrom the International Center for Journalists and InternationalWomen's Media Foundation'sHowardG.BuffettFund.Amywas named onWorthmagazine’s“Groundbreakers 2020 list of 50 Women Changingthe World” list. Since 2018 she has served as the communicationsmanager at the Hudson Valley Farm Hub in Hurley NY where she runsthe website, digital newsletter, and social media. Prior tostartingFrom Farms toIncubators,Amyspent over two decades as aninvestigative reporter at media outlets including the USA TodayNetwork where she reported on agriculture and AgtechforThe Salinas Californian. She’s also workedatTimemagazine,TheDealand contributed toThe New YorkTimes,The Huffington PostandTheWall Street Journal. She earned her bachelor’s degree inhistory from New York University, and master’s degree in journalismfrom Columbia University.