Celebrating and Elevating Ag Entrepreneurs with Emma Larson
AgTech, Startups, Sustainable Agriculture Jason Mann AgTech, Startups, Sustainable Agriculture Jason Mann

Celebrating and Elevating Ag Entrepreneurs with Emma Larson

On this episode of Farm Credit MidAtlantic, Katie Ward interviews Emma Larson, Assistant Director of Industry Relations at American Farm Bureau. Emma grew up on her family's farm in California and made her way to Washington, D.C. to begin her career advocating for America’s farmers and ranchers.

Emma leads the Ag Innovation Challenge, a national business competition that showcases American startups developing innovative solutions that address challenges facing farmers and rural communities. Listen to this episode as we get to know the top 10 Ag Innovation Challenge semi-finalists and talk about how these entrepreneurs are changing the agricultural industry for the better.

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CHONEX on StartupBREW Fargo Podcast: Creating a Sustainable Future in Farming

CHONEX on StartupBREW Fargo Podcast: Creating a Sustainable Future in Farming

Michael Lynch, CEO and founder of CHONEX, and John Mascoe of Leaftech Ag led the Ag Tech Talk on StartupBREW Fargo, a weekly event on Wednesday mornings from 8:30am - 9:30am to learn, support, and inspire. This morning meetup is for entrepreneurs, innovators, creatives, and community members alike to come together and explore the entrepreneurial journey.

This event is built on the notion that entrepreneurs do better when they have access to each other and the greater community that supports them. Entrepreneurship is energized over brews - coffee, tea, beer, or others. Connection over coffee has been at the center of energizing our community, which is where the name StartupBREW came from.

Click on the link and search for CHONEX to listen to the full show.

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2022 Farm Bureau Ag Innovation Challenge Final Pitches
AgTech, Sustainable Agriculture Jason Mann AgTech, Sustainable Agriculture Jason Mann

2022 Farm Bureau Ag Innovation Challenge Final Pitches

The Ag Innovation Challenge is a national business competition that showcases U.S. startups developing innovative solutions that address challenges facing America’s farmers, ranchers and rural communities. The 10 semi-finalists will compete live in front of Farm Bureau members, investors and industry representatives at AFBF Convention for the grand prize of $50,000 in start-up funds and title of Ag Innovation Challenge Winner.

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Here’s a Company Figuring Out How a Storable Product Can Deliver Diverse, Nutrient-Cycling Microbes

Here’s a Company Figuring Out How a Storable Product Can Deliver Diverse, Nutrient-Cycling Microbes

We recently became acquainted with some folks in Alabama who are showing it’s possible to deliver impressive soil microbes through a dried, storable product.

CHONEX Inc. has been working with the larvae of black soldier flies, a popular resource for making highly-quality compost and protein-rich animal food. The folks at CHONEX combine the larvae with chicken manure to produce livestock feed, while also making an organic soil conditioner and fertilizer. Because the larvae eat all kinds of things, CHONEX is helping to answer the growing need in agriculture (not to mention lots of other industries) for a sustainable means of waste disposal.

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Meet the Latest Plug and Play Startups

Meet the Latest Plug and Play Startups

Being part of Plug and Play will give CHONEX the opportunity to demonstrate StrongSoil’s viability to farmers who really need it and link us to a network of startups with whom we can partner to further validate its benefits. Plug and Play’s North Dakota AgTech Program focuses on multiple areas directly related to achieving the optimal growing conditions: Soil Sensing and Analysis, Field Monitoring, Precision Farming, Analytics and Sustainability. StrongSoil is a product designed to create optimal growing conditions. Farmers who are adopting technology to improve their productivity and performance are the same farmers who will be interested in our product and who will immediately benefit from it.

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Manure Innovation Challenge Final Pitches at the Animal AgTech Innovation Summit in San Francisco

Manure Innovation Challenge Final Pitches at the Animal AgTech Innovation Summit in San Francisco

The Animal AgTech Innovation Summit will host the final of the Manure Innovation Challenge, organized by The Yield Lab Institute for early-stage companies to advance innovative manure-management technologies.

Eight start-ups from around the world have been announced as the finalists to compete in the Manure Innovation Challenge at a special pre-summit Breakfast Pitching session in San Francisco on 16 March. All summit delegates will be welcome to join.

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Scientists, Farmers, and Entrepreneurs Come Together to Help Farmers Build Sustainable Food Supply

Scientists, Farmers, and Entrepreneurs Come Together to Help Farmers Build Sustainable Food Supply

A small group of scientists from diverse backgrounds has gathered together in the tiny rural community of Elsanor to work on a common goal.

“We’re taking something that God has given us and are using it to create better soil,” said Frankie Darsey, facilities development manager for Chonex.

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Ag Innovation Showcase 2019

Ag Innovation Showcase 2019

Ag Innovation Showcase is an intimate venue  for industry leaders, investors, and entrepreneurs to form relationships and engage in substantive  discussions that will  enable  innovative solutions to come to market for consumer, social, commercial, and environmental benefit.  Speakers, sponsors,  early-stage companies, and other stakeholders in food and agriculture innovation network with each other  to  address today’s questions  and  develop tomorrow’s solutions for feeding the planet. 

The common theme across the 10-year span of AIS since 2008 has been to explore global and national issues related to soil health, food production, food sustainability, food waste, and food security. AIS has been at the forefront of bringing thought leaders and influencers in the field of agriculture and related industries to initiate dialogue and drive collaborations domestically and internationally.

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Startup CHONEX aims to turn chicken poop into profit, with help from Prosperity Fund

Startup CHONEX aims to turn chicken poop into profit, with help from Prosperity Fund

Using a proprietary process, CHONEX applies black soldier fly larvae to poultry manure. The voracious larvae convert the waste into three products: a certified organic protein feed, a fatty acid used in cosmetics, and a high-value organic fertilizer and soil enhancer.

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With Prosperity Fund Help, Startup CHONEX Aims to Turn Waste Into Profit

With Prosperity Fund Help, Startup CHONEX Aims to Turn Waste Into Profit

Corey Tyree, Ph.D., Southern Research’s director of strategic growth initiatives and a co-founder of The Prosperity Fund, said CHONEX’s technology not only has commercial potential but also addresses several problems facing the agriculture industry today.

For one thing, the industry needs sustainable and more efficient methods to produce protein since most soybeans, one-third of all grains, and a large portion of caught wild seafood go to make animal feed. At the same time, egg producers need new sources of organic protein.

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