ASH CLOUD
This is series of conversations discussing global food sustainability with guests who bring a deep understanding of the environmental and cultural challenges facing our society and creative ideas on how to address them.
Episodes
86 episodes
Profitable climate solutions for small holder farmers with Devdut Dalal Mitti Labs
Rice feeds more people than any other crop, and it is grown in a way that is quietly expensive. Globally, a third of all groundwater extraction goes to rice farming. And because those fields sit flooded for weeks at a time, the resulting anaero...
Government policy to address today's food system challenges with Robert Bonnie former Undersecretary of Agriculture, USDA
Managing and mitigating risk runs through my whole conversation with Robert Bonnie. Since the Dust Bowl, USDA policy, the Farm Bill and especially crop insurance have given US farmers a safety net that shares the risk of growing the nation's fo...
Beef sustainability, methane, and efficiency with Tom McDonald, US Roundtable for Sustainable Beef
Beef sustainability frequently gets framed as something imposed on the ranchers and the industry from outside—regulatory requirements, consumer pressure, climate obligations driven by environmental groups and activists, leaving the industry ind...
Feed efficiency on pasture: The next frontier with Matt Beck, Texas A&M
The beef industry has spent decades optimizing feed efficiency in one place: the feedlot. Genetics have been selected for finishing performance, cattle are placed on feed at lighter weights and fed to heavier carcasses, and the result is measur...
Why telling people to eat less meat will never work - and what we can do instead with Bruce Friedrich, The Good Food Institute
Meat consumption has risen every single year that the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has been measuring. Despite warnings about climate impacts spanning over a century, from carbon and methane's effects to James Hansen's...
Regenerative agriculture with Anastasia Volkova, Regrow Ag
Forty leading global food and agriculture companies recently declared their commitment to regenerative agriculture. This unprecedented industry alignment signals that the sector has moved beyond looking at sustainable farming an aspirational id...
Feed efficiency and methane emissions with Ermias Kebreab, UC Davis
The poultry and swine industries have transformed feed efficiency over the past two decades. Through systematic improvement in nutrition, enzyme utilization, and animal genetics, they now produce vastly more protein from fewer resources.&...
Artificial Intelligence, the need for reliable data, and where it will have the greatest impacts on agriculture with Aidan Connolly, Agritech Capital
Artificial intelligence is advancing at an astonishing pace—improvements measured in five-thousand-fold increases from week to week according to AI researchers at Singularity University. Yet in agriculture, most farmers remain largely disconnec...
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...
