ASH CLOUD
Episodes
78 episodes
Building a company that leverages biological complexity to improve livestock productivity with a reduced climate impact - Tom Williams Number 8 Bio
“I’m yet to meet a grazier that doesn’t want a 5-15% feed conversation ratio improvement.” says Tom Williams, CEO of Number 8 Bio. Producers motivated by not losing 10% of their feed to the atmosphere.Enteric methane from liv...
Building resilient agrifood systems across conflict zones and climate stressed regions with Bram Govaerts, CIMMYT
The green revolution resulted in unprecedented improvements in the efficiency and productivity of food production. Recent decades of increasingly globalized free trade has further imporved efficiecies across the supply chain. These improvements...
Leading US beef sustainability with Steve Wooten, Beatty Canyon Ranch
The journey toward sustainable beef production in the United States began before the term "sustainability" entered common usage. Today we are joined by Steve Wooten, a rancher in southeastern Colorado's shortgrass prairie and a foun...
Data driven livestock production for feed efficiency with Andrew Freshwater Clear Creek Pastoral Co.
Feed efficiency remains one of the biggest gray areas and least understood aspects of livestock production. Yet understanding how much grass a cow consumes to produce a calf or a ewe to produce a lamb is critical not only to farmer and ranch pr...
Cow feed efficiency, the greatest area of untapped potential for beef production, with Matt Wilson West Virginia University
Feed efficiency, despite its importance from both an environmental sustainability and farm profitability perspective, remains one of the biggest gray areas and least understood aspects of livestock production.Today we are joined by Matt ...
Investing in regenerative agriculture, the food system, and metabolic health with Carter Williams - iSelect Fund
There is a huge amount we can learn from understanding the connections between soil health, food production, and human metabolic health. Over the last 50-60 years, modern agricultural systems have become increasingly reliant on synthetic inputs...
Breeding for profitable, efficient, locally adapted and sustainable cattle with Troy Rowan University of Tennessee
Currently beef cattle production faces a profitability challenge driven by rising feed costs and efficiency gaps. For cow-calf operations, particularly where producers operate on forage-based systems, the biggest variable cost is cow feed, yet ...
Low cost, locally produced zero emissions nitrogen fertilizer with Frere Byrne PlasmaLeap Technologies
Over the last century our food systems have become increasingly reliant on synthetic nitrogen. This nitrogen fertilizer is mostly made through the energy intensive haber-bosch process in centralized production plants, often located in political...
Addressing the Climate, Agriculture, Landscape and Food Security Nexus through policy with Tobias Gräs Danish Agriculture and Food Council
Denmark made headlines in 2024 as the first country to implement a carbon tax on livestock emissions. The country's ambitious 70% emissions reduction target by 2030 includes agricultural reductions of 55-65%. What makes Denmark's policy truly r...
Animal health as a climate solution with Nick Wheelhouse, Edinburgh Napier Univeristy
Animal Health as a Climate and Food Security SolutionIn this episode of the Ash Cloud podcast, we explore an often-overlooked opportunity in the fight against climate change with Dr. Nick Wheelhouse, Professor of Comparative Infec...
Global food security, innovation, and the investment gap with Maximo Torero UNFAO
The cost living is an increasing global challenge. Food inflation in 2023 was 13.6%, however food prices increased by up to 30% in many low income countries. Currently 60-80% of voters consider food price as a decisive factor in their choice of...
Creating a carbon neutral beef operation with Robert Mackenzie, Mackas Australian Black Angus Beef
"Sustainability means leaving the land in a better place, preparing the next generation for a turbulent future in agriculture... and it's probably also a license to produce." Robe...
Building a profitable animal biotech company with Mike Seely, Native Microbials
AgriFoodTech Venture Capital investment is down by roughly 90% from the high of 2021 with the lack of exits or creation of profitiable agtech companies resulting from the billions invested frequently taking the blame for investors looking for a...
Brazil's transition from a net food importer to one of the world's leading exporters over the last 50 years with Bruno Brasil, Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock
There is a huge amount we can learn from Brazil’s transition from being a net food importer to one of the world’s largest food exporters over the last 50 years. Since deforestation across the Amazon peaked in the mid 1990’s Brazil has continued...
Regenerative agriculture with Jason Rowntree, Michigan State University
Today we are joined by Jason Rowntree from Michigan State University where he is working on sys...
Epigenetics with Travis Bayer, Decibel Bio
The epigenome is essentially the control software for plants and animals that dictates when, where, and to what level different genes in the genome are expressed. Moderating the epigenome has the potential to upgrade crops in real time, during ...
Is meat a luxury that is becoming increasingly difficult to afford with Paul Behrens, Oxford University
Over human history animal protein has always been a luxury food. Meat is the first thing people generally chose to buy when they rise from lower to middle income. With the current cost of living crises across the world, further food price...
Building sustainable supply chains with Lamar Steiger and Neil Mellers, Ranch2Retail
Beef supply chains have been described as the most dysfunctional and least organised supply chains of everything available in the supermarket. Today we are joined by Lamar Steiger and
The link between obesity and poverty, rising obesity, and how GLP-1s are changing the game with Jack Bobo UCLA
In this episode I am exploring the rapidly growing rates of obesity globally, the rapid rise in the use of GLP-1s or obesity drugs, how these are impacting our food systems, and how obesity and poverty seem to be linked. In the US around ...
Sustainable Livestock Transformation Initiative with Aimable Uwizeye UNFAO
Today we are joined Aimable Uwizeye, Livestock Policy Officer for the Food and Agriculture organization of the United Nations whe...
Capitalizing on opportunity with Jason Strong, former Managing Director Meat and Livestock Australia
The Australian livestock industries now produce high quality product, that is full tracebale, quality assured, with real time market information coming from a sophisticate supply chain that sells into high quality markets with preferential acce...
Breeding for sustainable livestock, how genetic selection can provide significant and permanent reductions to livestock emissions with Matthew Cleveland
Humans have been selectively breeding animals since before Roman times. Modern technologies and tools including genomics and artifical intelligence has hugely increased the rate of progress. Increasingly, sustainability traits such as the envir...
Challenging meat politics and promoting regenerative agriculture with Sparsha Saha, Harvard University
Political scientist Sparsha Saha from Harvard University joins us to challenge the status quo in meat politics. How can a sector so vital be so overlooked? Sparsha shares groundbreaking insights, exposing the unusual political dynamics surround...
Incentivizing the least productive farmers to change with Jason Clay, World Wildlife Fund
The least productive 10-20% of producers are causing 60-80% of the environmental impacts but only produce 5% of the food. Incentivizing these farmers and ranchers to change can significantly improve the sustainability of our food systems with m...
Irrigation is colonising fresh water with Bruce Lankford, University of East Anglia
The 350 million hectares of global irrigation consume 3-4 Mississippi’s worth of fresh water every day. This volume of fresh water used for Irrigation is continuing to increase, especially across the global south, exacerbating the challenge of ...
