As a former director of global food systems at Corteva Agriscience, Christy Wright is under no illusions about the challenges facing stakeholders across the food and agriculture supply chain.
“Ag is navigating right now a perfect storm of global, economic, environmental and tech-driven pressures,” observes Wright, who took the helm at AgriNovus Indiana, a nonprofit dedicated to growing the agbioscience economy, on August 18.
“There’s fluctuating commodity prices, extreme weather events that mean it’s getting harder and harder to grow crops, new technologies that have started to change diets such as GLP-1 drugs, more focus on the upstream determinants of health, which are directly related to food and agriculture, and the agenda of the federal government, which is also driving change.
“So disruption is coming from all sides. But that’s actually what makes this moment exciting, because disruption can be a really powerful engine for breakthrough innovation. And so right now, companies of all sizes, across the value chain, from startups to multinationals, are rethinking things.”
Echoing departing president and CEO Mitch Frazier (“pessimists sound smart, optimists make money”), it’s a cliché, but nevertheless true, says Wright, that hard times are forcing all players to find creative solutions to deal with labor shortages, trade uncertainty, extreme weather, and rising costs.
And this presents opportunities for startups in everything from AI and robotics to gene editing, says Wright. “Companies across the value chain are rethinking how they design products and ingredients, how they look at their sourcing models, how they build supply chains. And what’s really driving progress in those areas right now is science, innovation, and companies working together in new ways.
“So I think that this moment is not just about doing more with less but doing more by working together. And AgriNovus is well suited to help convene, catalyze, accelerate, and facilitate those collaborations and partnerships to help enable agbioscience driven solutions.”
Connecting the dots
Wright, who began her career in public affairs before taking a series of leadership roles at Dow AgroSciences and then Corteva Agriscience, has spent her life in Indiana and is a champion for the state, which she says is “second to none when it comes to assets in agbioscience.”
Food and ag startups in Indiana “have this built-in access to a network that is so powerful and that can bring in all kinds of different resources and thinking to the table,” she says, highlighting the convergence of top universities (Purdue, Indiana, Notre Dame, Rose–Hulman Institute), leading agtech, animal health, and pharma players (Corteva, Elanco, Eli Lilly), and leading seed companies such as Beck’s Hybrids.
“And then we have the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership [a regional collaborative bringing together execs from Central Indiana’s leading corporations, foundations, and universities], for example, an organization built for cross-sector collaboration, which is critical right now when we are seeing convergence of some industries. So [against this backdrop], the power of organizations like AgriNovus—working under the CICP umbrella with other industry initiatives—is exponential.”
While much of AgriNovus’ work such as the Velocity accelerator is about supporting startups, she says, large corporations such as Corteva—which has a collaboration and investment platform called Corteva Catalyst—also benefit from engaging with other stakeholders in the ecosystem, and organizations such as AgriNovus can play an important role.
“Corteva has a long history of championing the global scientific community and [gives startups] access to corporate R&D expertise,” notes Wright. “And as the largest US based ag input company, they’ve also got a footprint and the ability to get products to market that startups do not have. So that ability to connect those two dots is very advantageous to the corporation and also to the startup.”
She adds: “AgriNovus has been able to see things emerging and bring together partners to have discussions about new trends, new opportunities. And we [at Corteva] directly benefited from that, whether it was on topics such as One Health [an approach recognizing the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment], or emerging technology forums we were able to engage in.”
The first 100 days
Given that Wright has yet to join (her starting date is August 18), it’s a bit premature to outline her plans at AgriNovus, but in the first instance, she says, “It’s all about listening, learning and building on the momentum that AgriNovus already has. So for example the Quadrant events [quarterly networking events for the agbioscience community] have been a great success along with [the] Velocity [accelerator]. The Agbioscience podcast has also been another bright spot.”
She adds: “I am excited to dig into the Accelerate 2050 strategy, the strategic plan for AgriNovus that defines opportunities on how to differentiate Indiana in uncertain times under three main pillars: farmer focused innovation, bioinnovation, and food is health.”
Food is health
On the food is health front, “A perfect example of a great collaboration is the OneHealth Innovation District [a research and innovation-focused zone in Indianapolis anchored by a partnership between Elanco, Purdue University, and the Indiana Economic Development Corporation],” says Wright.
“There is activity already in a partnership between AgriNovus and Biocrossroads [an initiative to grow Indiana’s life sciences sector], so I see particular opportunity to catalyze collaborations here in Indiana around One Health, where we have academic institutions that are world leaders.
“We have the largest medical school in the US [Indiana University School of Medicine] and some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in human and animal health and we can bring together expertise from academia and the agrifood value chain all the way from startups to multinationals.”
Looking more broadly at tech she thinks could be transformative in the coming years, Wright says: “It’s like picking your favorite child. I love them all, from biologicals to decision science to AI to precision fermentation to gene editing and more, there’s so much to be excited about.
“I think gene editing stands out to me because it really holds a promise for a food system that is more nutritious, resilient and better for us all.”
Aside from developing higher-yielding and more climate-resilient crops, it also has exciting potential to “address consumer desires for more nutritious foods, or foods with different sensory attributes,” she observes.
“But I think that the coming together of many of these technologies is what will really unlock the potential for the future.”
>>Christy Wright is hosting the AgriNovus Indiana Quadrant event today (August 20) at VisionLoft Stutz in Indianapolis. To find out more and register, click here.
