Agribusiness Blueprint
Agribusiness Blueprint is a limited-series podcast about how the modern agribusiness system was built and why the business of agriculture is fundamentally different from every other industry. Hosted by Purdue University’s Center for Food and Agricultural Business, this series tells the stories of the people, ideas and decisions that shaped the modern food and agricultural system, from early entrepreneurs like Johnny Appleseed to the economists, researchers and business leaders who helped define agribusiness as a discipline. Agriculture operates under a unique set of pressures – biological production, weather, global markets, government policy and decentralized decision-making – which forced the industry to develop its own management tools and strategy. This podcast is the story of how that happened and why it matters today.
Agribusiness Blueprint
Agribusiness Blueprint | The Trailer
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Agriculture is unlike any other industry.
No other sector is so vital to human life, and so dependent on countless small businesses who contend daily with weather and natural variability, dozens of global markets, evolving technologies, and wild geopolitical uncertainty.
The businesses that operate in this unique and complex world are also unlike any other, and they didn’t get that way by accident.
Agribusiness leaders have solved some of the hardest managerial problems on Earth. To operate in this unconventional world, these leaders built one-of-a-kind tools that were influenced not just by economics and finance, but by industrial engineering, psychology, experimental economics, entrepreneurship, policy, and agricultural extension. Understanding how these tools were made, and how they shape the agribusiness world, is critical for those looking to stay relevant in the industry’s future.
That’s what we’re doing here. Each episode, we’ll tackle a conceptual breakthrough and the people who made it possible, and share stories about how these breakthroughs are still working, and evolving, today.
You’ll hear familiar stories through new lenses, and emerging stories that will challenge what you think you know about the people and businesses that make food and agriculture work. Plus, you’ll meet entrepreneurs and thinkers who discovered and transformed agribusiness over the last 50 years, getting a crash course in how agribusiness works, what to do when it doesn’t, and where it's going from here.
This is Agribusiness Blueprint. Season premiere coming Wednesday, April 8th, wherever you listen to podcasts.
When we talk about agriculture, we spend all of our time on farmers, and the farmers are important, but they're not alone.
SPEAKER_01Around America's farmers is a whole community of people and organizations helping them get the resources they need when they need them. From seeds and fertilizer to loans and good prices. This is the world of agribusiness. And this world is in crisis.
SPEAKER_00Agribusiness is facing the most complex, globally uncertain policy environment that we've ever seen. So this landscape that we are making decisions in is unlike anything that we've ever seen before.
SPEAKER_01And we are on the precipice with AI, with autonomy, with the level of instability in the world.
SPEAKER_00Market volatility, energy prices, corn and soybean prices are all over the board right now. What about changing customer expectations? We literally are sitting here looking around thinking, wow, I can take a pill and lose weight.
SPEAKER_01Everything is changing in modern agribusiness. So what do key decision makers like you need to navigate this impossible landscape? How about an agribusiness blueprint? Join me, independent ag journalist Sarah Mock. We're gonna tell stories, truths, we're gonna talk about the actual tools that were created, and my co-host, Purdue ag economist Trey Malone.
SPEAKER_00It's really important to go back and revisit the basics.
SPEAKER_01As we discuss some of the hardest managerial problems the ag industry has ever faced, and the people who solve them. Because of how unique agricultural businesses are, the managerial science that emerged around it is not necessarily what you'd learn in your standard vanilla MBA program. Each episode will tackle a conceptual breakthrough with the people who made it possible and share stories about how these breakthroughs continue to make food and ag businesses successful, even today. So whether you're someone who works around agriculture or just someone who wants to know how agriculture works, buckle up for a crash course, featuring tough discussions on what works and what hasn't, and fresh ideas about where the industry is going from here. You'll walk away with a new understanding of agriculture's unique decision-making tools and a deeper awareness of the threats and opportunities that lay on the horizon. This is Agribusiness Blueprint, a Purdue University Center for Food and Agricultural Business Production, available wherever you listen to podcasts.