20 min listen
Highlights - Colin Steen - CEO of Legacy Agripartners - Pushing Farming Forward
Highlights - Colin Steen - CEO of Legacy Agripartners - Pushing Farming Forward
ratings:
Length:
10 minutes
Released:
Nov 22, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
"I think one of the things that we're trying to do is just, again, I think some firms come out and they go to the farmers and say, "You have to change all these things right now. If you're going to cut out your fertilizers, cut out your pesticides. Stop tilling your land." And the farmer's head explodes, right? They're like, "I can't change all that. I still have to feed my family, right? I still have to make a living on this thing." So, we kind of focus on the smaller incremental changes. You know, planting a crop like alfalfa that's in the soil for four or five years and brings some stability to the ground and fixes nitrogen back into the soil is really important, right? So that's a huge benefit for the farm. You know, farming with cover crops, again, a living root in the soil year-round is really important to keep the soil structure together and stop that erosion. And then it works better in no-till situations. So I think we're going to get there. Just, right now I think sometimes you like swing that pendulum in too far to one direction and then you lose all the people you hope to bring along the way. And that's where, when I was at Syngenta in the venture capital group, I always felt like I could help be that voice of the farmer. Now the group I'm with, we're all farm kids. We're all people that know what it's like and know how to talk to these important people in our ecosystem here. And so you know, I think we've got a chance to really make it work because we understand the language they're speaking and have solutions that are important for them. And at the end of the day, they have to make money, right? I think we sometimes forget that - no different than all of us - we have to feed our families. We have to do work that is important, but also if we're busking on the side of the road to feed our family, then we're probably...it's going to be tough, right?"Colin Steen is CEO of Legacy Agripartners. He has had a lifelong career in agriculture, spending over 25 years with Syngenta in a variety of commercial leadership and Venture Capital roles before joining Legacy Seed Companies (now Legacy Agripartners) in July 2020. His prior experience in running Golden Harvest Seeds has given him a deep understanding of the needs of the U.S. farmer. Colin grew up on a grain and cattle farm in Weldon, Saskatchewan, and holds a B.S. in Agriculture from the University of Saskatchewan and an MBA from the University of Guelph.https://legacyagripartners.comwww.oneplanetpodcast.orgwww.creativeprocess.info
Released:
Nov 22, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
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