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#132 | Community and Innovation in Global AgTech

Andrew Jason is Director of Ecosystems at Grand Farm in Fargo, North Dakota, which describes itself as “a collaborative network of growers, corporations, startups, educators, researchers, government, and investors working together to solve problems in agriculture through AgTech and innovation.” Gone are the days when farming was synonymous with the image of a forlorn couple, pitchfork in hand, à la Grant Wood's American Gothic.

In this episode, Jason explains how AI and innovation has inundated the farming industry as much as it has every other, spurring advancements in international agriculture, especially when it comes to sustainability, data collection, and the use of drones and robotics to increase efficiency and production. 

Farming is also near and dear to the host, Wendy Pease, whose father was a professor of international agriculture at Penn State in the 1970s. Then, “high tech” meant setting up a computer to monitor her father’s potato research storage facility at Black Moshannon State Park in Pennsylvania. If the temperature dropped, for example, the computer called him at home to alert him. Late one night, Wendy sleepily received a phone call from an old-fashioned computer voice saying: “There is a power outage at the Potato Storage area,” which she found amazing! 

Grand Farm sees vast potential in connecting global communities to share ideas and technologies, with the aim of advancing agriculture production. Of late, Andrew has seen a lot of development in AgTech out of Brazil, Ukraine, Europe, Australia, and Japan. In fact, Grand Farm recently announced a partnership with Fukaya City, Japan, whose Deep Valley Initiative is an AgTech thought leader (Scroll down to see pictures of Fukaya city's adorable mascot, Fukka-chan). The collaboration marks a major step toward an international approach to innovation in agriculture.  

Every partnership comes with its challenges, and Andrew shares the ones he’s discovered that are particular to international connections: 

  1. Cultural balancing act: Integrating local cultural needs with Grand Farm's global vision proved tricky. It's a common tension in multinational ventures, yet it can be managed by enabling cross-functional teams to work together. 
  2. Navigating time zones: Communication across time differences requires flexibility. Andrew often connects with Japanese partners around 10 p.m. Fargo time, after his kids are in bed. While they've explored asynchronous options like video messages and chat, sometimes a real-time conversation is necessary. 
  3. Patience in partnership building: The Japanese collaboration took years to finalize. While there's often pressure for quick results in the US, many cultures prioritize building relationships and trust over time. 
  4. Bridging language gaps: In-country contacts helped set up interpreters to facilitate communication. Andrew notes the importance of employing professional interpreters and translators, especially in Japan and other Asian countries. 
  5. Finding support: It can be hard to know where to start. The North Dakota Trade Office provided invaluable advice and international introductions. Andrew recommends tapping into your local trade experts for guidance and other free resources. 

Learn more about Grand Farm and their initiatives by listening to the full episode. To learn more about supporting or partnering, click here to donate or contact Andrew at andrewj@grandfarm.com.

Fukka-Chan 1
Fukka-Chan 2

Read the Episode Transcript.

ATTENTION:  Below is a machine-generated transcription of the podcast. Yes, here at Rapport International we talk a lot about how machine translation lacks quality. Here you see an example of what a machine can do in your own language. This transcription is provided as a gist and to give time indicators to find a topic of interest. 

 

Wendy Pease: Hi listeners of The Global Marketing Show. Thank you for tuning in again to another episode. As you know, The Global Marketing Show is brought to you by Rapport International. I have a tidbit for you today that is based on cheese and it has something to do with France because as we're recording this, the Olympics are going on right now, so it just seemed perfect since our guest is going to talk to us about ag [00:01:00] tech and who doesn't love cheese? 

 So, did you know that there are 450 types of cheeses in the world. I had no idea. I think I've sampled at least a hundred of them and that 250 of them come from France. So I'm going to do a social media post about the village eating where the Olympic athletes are. It's no longer called cafeterias. 

They're called restaurants because it is in France and cheese comes from France. So, speaking of agriculture, today we're welcoming Andrew Jason, and he's a dynamic leader with a passion for bringing people together, which is perfect for his role. He's fostering innovation through collaboration. His career has been marked by a commitment to creating impactful connections and building ecosystems. 

So if you're in farming and you're in tech and you're interested in those areas, stay tuned because he is the Grand Farm Ecosystem Director, [00:02:00] and he has developed a global network of corporations, startups, growers, educational institutions, researchers, and government entities, which is amazing to make all those connections. 

I'm a connector and I'm impressed. His innovative approach has led to the successful execution of large scale conferences, growth of Grand Farm, and expansion into new regions. Andrew, welcome.  

Andrew Jason: Thank you so much, Wendy, for having me and let's do that trip and sample those 250 cheeses sometime. 

Wendy Pease: For that. Très bien. So tell me about Grand Farm in this community that you're building and why it got started.  

Andrew Jason: Yeah, happy to. So maybe I'll take you through a little bit about the history of Grand Farm, kind of where we were born out of, and ultimately some of the challenges that we set out to solve. So Grand Farm was kind of the birth child of an organization called Emerging Prairie, which has existed for about 12 years. 

 We're based here in Fargo, North [00:03:00] Dakota, and ultimately what we were focused on was supporting out and connecting this entrepreneurial ecosystem with the thesis that entrepreneurs need access to capital, customers and other entrepreneurs. And so we hosted a number of different events, programs, things like that. 

And at one of them, a long time kind of intrepid entrepreneur by the name of Barry Batchelor gave a talk and he basically challenged us to think about what's our major. All around the thesis that every community needs to put a flag in the ground and say, this is what we are going to be world class leaders at. 

And if you look at kind of the Silicon Valley story on how success was began upon success, he basically went back and described how those that don't know about Fargo would be surprised by kind of the entrepreneurial spirit here. So if you go back to the late 1800s, this was the region where the Bonanza farms were created, which were these farms that were about 100, 000 [00:04:00] acres in the late 1800s and used really innovative technology for the time. 

 This is where Bobcat was founded by a turkey farmer that got tired of shoveling out manure from his barn, so he put together the first skid steer. This is where one of the first computer chips was put on the first tractor. So there's a really long standing history of ag innovation, and that's kind of ultimately where Grand Farm got started was we can be world class leaders in agriculture and then ultimately, so we're about 5 years old, we are set up as a 501 C3 non profit and ultimately our goal is to create a global ecosystem around innovation in agriculture. 

And ultimately what we want to do is we want to develop these kind of regional ecosystems where we can identify challenges that the local growers, ag industry, educational groups that they're facing. And then we have this global ecosystem of technology that we can pull in solutions from anywhere in the world. 

So ultimately, if a [00:05:00] farmer down in Georgia is facing challenges around herbicide resistant weeds. We can identify, hey, there's this startup out of Japan that is tackling this, and then ultimately drive towards collaboration to solve those challenges.  

Wendy Pease: Yeah, so it's very interesting. 

You said what we want to do, but you've already made major strides. Can you talk to me about what you already have open and running and the global partnerships that you have?  

Andrew Jason: Yeah, absolutely. Our most robust regional ecosystem, I guess you could say, is here in North Dakota. 

 We call this our Upper Midwest Ecosystem and kind of what we have here is we have a 600 acre farm that we call our Innovation Campus. So on 300 acres, Precision Planting runs Precision Technical Institute, North Dakota, where they're using it to kind of farm and look at different practices to share with growers. 

On our 300 acres, we basically do test plots with our partners, startups, and researchers from kind of around the world. Um, so [00:06:00] this year out at our farm, we have 31 test plots from 18 different organizations. We have a startup from Canada. We have a startup from Costa Rica. So there is kind of international reach. 

And then here we also just opened up our 25, 000 square foot innovation shop to bring that ecosystem together. We've expanded now into new markets. So we are launching a southeast regional ecosystem in partnership with the University of Georgia. So we have 250 acres in Perry, Georgia, that we're establishing kind of this innovation campus, that's going to be the University of Georgia Grand Farm. 

And then we are going to be launching a mountain region in Bozeman, Montana in partner with the Headwaters tech hub there that'll be going online in the next year or so. And then, you know, we are also really excited about the international market and, or opportunities. 

So we just announced a partnership with Deep Valley. out of Fukaya city, Japan. They're developing a kind of a robust ag [00:07:00] ecosystem for Japan. So we're kind of creating links and nodes where we can engage with their startups, where they can engage with our startups to drive collaboration. 

And we just got an email this morning that we sent them a US startup that now just visited the city is doing testing and trials with some different startups and farmers there. So that's what this is all about.  

Wendy Pease: This is so fascinating. Next, I want to ask you about tech and agriculture and the marrying of those together. 

So it's because it's such a fascinating area, but I have to tell you a little story. When I was in high school, my dad was a professor at the Penn State University. And he had a storage facility in a place called Black Moshannon, and he had figured out how to use technology, and this is back in the late 70s, early 80s, that if there was any problem with the storage facility, it would call our home number. 

So, I was middle school, you know, early [00:08:00] teenager, high school or something like that. And I had just gotten a phone in my room. I was so excited. And so anytime of day or night, if the phone answered, I'd ring it. One night at two o'clock in the morning, the phone rings. 

I answered it. And there's this mechanical voice. There is a power outage at Black Machanin, where he stored the potatoes. He's since passed, it's been over 20 years now, but, I just think about how excited he would be about the technology in agriculture. So I would love to hear from you as where you're seeing that going and how your innovation center is putting that together. 

Andrew Jason: Yeah, well, I think first off kind of your point, to your story is one of the things in the general public that I think needs to change is I was kind of talking about there needs to be like a rebrand of agriculture to the general public, right? You know, a lot of people still think of, uh, man, now I'm blanking on the name of the painting, but, the old man and his wife standing in the field with a pitchfork looking very stoic and that is not at [00:09:00] all the state of agriculture anymore. These farms, many of them are multi million dollar businesses and operations. And, some of the most innovative people I know are farmers. So, there is a lot of technology that's being adopted and created in agriculture. 

I think, ultimately, kind of high level, some of the ones that we see a lot and work with a lot is, you know, sustainability's, a buzzword in agriculture, but there's a lot of truth to that with climate change, there's a lot of environmental challenges that we're facing, whether that's drought, excess water, flooding, runoff of chemicals, pesticides, things like that, so you're seeing a lot more of a focus on sustainability. 

And so a lot of those revolve around like input. So what are different use cases for fertilizer, or how do you decrease your fertilizer usage, or how do you look at biological solutions rather than chemical fertilizers? That's a big one. The other one is data collection in agriculture is a really important [00:10:00] one. 

So, if you think about the amount of data that could be collected, in agriculture, it's pretty overwhelming. If you look at a field or a farmer that has a thousand acres, you know, a lot of those farms or their individual fields could be 100 acre size plots. You put 1 sensor in there, you're collecting data for 100 acres, which is really broad. 

You put 10 sensors in there and then ultimately kind of where it's going to be going with more and more advanced technology, artificial intelligence, increased connectivity, is you're going to be seeing per plant analysis, where a farmer can go in, do a drone flight over it, identify, all right, there's weeds here, here, and here, and they can go out and do basically spot applications to tackle those individual weeds. The one that's kind of always, I call it the sexy one is robotics. 

 Everybody's got the vision of the autonomous robots going out and doing spraying or weeding. Drones are obviously a really [00:11:00] large case in agriculture. So those would be some of the high level kind of technology use cases that we see.  

Wendy Pease: So you've got the farmers and the ag and the research going on. And I think you had mentioned that a lot of the tech that's going on could be in other countries. And so in those three areas, where are you seeing the hot spots for the tech developing and how do you find them and bring them together? 

Andrew Jason: I definitely think that there are different regions of the world that have a lot of kind of ag innovation, and then there are a lot of regions of the world where there's a lot of opportunities to bring ag innovation, right? Where it's more subsistence farming. Some of the kind of the spots that we're seeing a lot of technology from is Brazil is quickly becoming a powerhouse in the ag industry. 

I think they overtook the US in soybean production this year. I want to double check that before you state that as God's truth, but they're [00:12:00] seeing a lot of innovation that's coming from there. Ukraine is the breadbasket of the world that we've heard. They're a large fertilizer market, so that has created a lot of global disruptions. 

 Europe, there is a lot of innovation that's happening there, and then a lot of the regulatory pressures that you're seeing through the EU. So they have a lot stricter environmental standards that are being passed down through the EU, and I think you probably heard about some of the uprisings in France from the local farmers. 

Australia has a pretty robust ecosystem. Japan is growing one like I mentioned. Canada is obviously a very strong one.  

Wendy Pease: Okay. And so your vision is to pull the hot technology or the into whatever crops at the centers you're working on.  

Andrew Jason: Yeah, exactly. And so ultimately you can kind of think of us as we want to do two things. 

We want to develop these regional ecosystems. So [00:13:00] let's say, imagine this farm that we're launching down in Georgia. So we're thinking about that as kind of the Southeast part of the United States. And ultimately what we want to do. Is we want to develop these relationships with growers, ag industry, researchers, school groups, things like that to create engagement and facilitate connections around what's happening in agriculture and ag tech, identify the pain points that they're facing so we could produce a grower pain point report that you can find on our website. 

And then from the actual physical farm, that is going to be where we can deploy test plots, we can do events and programs, bring people actually out in a physical environment. And then, so we have a regional ecosystem, and then this global app innovation ecosystem, that is where we can pull in technology from anywhere in the world. 

So that's like the startup from Japan, it's relevant for peaches, so we bring them in to [00:14:00] Georgia.  

Wendy Pease: And which is absolutely fascinating to bring. I mean, I lived on an international ag research center funded by the Rockefeller Foundation in Mexico, and I lived in two others. And I lived in one in the Philippines and then in Taiwan. 

And so the research centers, I have seen those going on, but I don't know what they're doing now with the technology. So that's another area that I can connect you, if you're interested. Because they're thriving all over the United States and they specialize on different crops. 

So what you're talking about is you're bringing all sorts of different cultures together. I mean, if you just focused in the US you talk about growers versus industry versus researchers versus education. They all have their own culture and way of looking at things. And then you're going to overlap the international. 

What are your biggest challenges so far at Grand Farm for growing? 

Andrew Jason: Yeah, [00:15:00] that's a great question. You know, one, It's appropriate growth, right? So we don't want to grow too quick. We just launched a farm in Georgia. We're launching one now in Montana. There was like three of us on the team. 

Now we have kind of 42 across the supporting organizations and things like that. So there's been a lot of growth over five years. So the appropriate amount of growth, we don't want to grow too quick and, you know, go internationally. And then the other one that I'm kind of realizing as we're expanding into new markets is kind of my original thinking was like, Right. 

We've established this really robust programming ecosystem here in North Dakota. You know, we need to find people that know us that we can now bring down and launch into those areas. And so like, for instance, like as we're launching Georgia now, find somebody that's been here involved with us, bring them down to launch it down in Georgia. 

And I'm realizing that's not the right mentality, [00:16:00] right? Each region, each country has its own culture, philosophy, values, things like that. And so you really need to engage that local ecosystem to build this out with you. It's not like we can come in from the outside and say, here's what we're going to be doing from the top down. 

We need to build it up from the bottom up. And then the other one that I see is, that I'm sure is very relevant for your work is just culturally how some of these things tie in and the speed, you know, Japan has been a really interesting environment for me, that I've been having some of these conversations with companies for multiple years and now we're just starting to get to tangible things and it's so relationship focused and just the speed is so different than the US.  

Wendy Pease: Yes. That's an excellent point. One thing that I see with companies that have success in international growth, they'll rally around something like 3M is innovation. And I think I've talked about another podcast is, Disney is the kid within us. So it's something that [00:17:00] resonates across all international cultures that you can rally around. Does Grand Farm have something like that when you're talking about retaining the culture of the organization, but also building it from the local ground up.  

Andrew Jason: Yeah, that's a good philosophy that I hadn't really thought of. So I don't think we have a formal one. 

 But what we are going to launch now that you're making me think about this is ultimately, it's about identifying the challenges for that regional ecosystem and then pulling in solutions. So every region has its unique problem sets that they're facing, right? Some of the most expensive farmland in the world is in Japan because these farms are five to ten acres, since land is such a precious commodity there. 

The fact that the challenges they're facing is so different than the challenges our farmers in North Dakota that have 10, 000 acres are facing.  

Wendy Pease: So something like [00:18:00] solving local farming challenges with technology? Yeah, that makes sense to me. Um, yeah, and now languages. 

 You're working with Japan. How are you handling the cross cultural and cross lingual communications?  

Andrew Jason: We've really established some strong relationships with different consulates around the world. So, like, the Canadian consulate, we're like two hours from Canada, so that's a really easy one, obviously. 

But like Japan, it's been JETRO, which is the Japanese External Trade Office, has been really instrumental to us as we started this engagement with them. They've provided the initial translation services to kind of get this partnership off the ground.  

Wendy Pease: Mm-Hmm. .  

Andrew Jason: And so really it's kind of the local partners.  

Wendy Pease: It's like local government resources. 

Yeah. Yeah. That have been able to [00:19:00] come in. Yeah. They're tremendous. You know, just in here in the United States, you've got the federal and the state resources that have connections all over the world to help companies get in. And I try to repeat this frequently because there's so many companies that don't realize that there are a lot of free resources out there to make introductions and help you launch. 

That's good that you tapped into that. Have you had any funny challenges or difficult challenges across the languages so far? I mean, you've got people coming in that speak Spanish. You might have French speakers from Canada. You've got Japanese. Are you working through interpreters, or are you finding that the people in the farming space speak English, which I wouldn't guess, or how, how, how are the conversations held? 

Andrew Jason: Yeah, um, I mean there's definitely been some translation issues, I guess you could say, you know, Japan is a big one. We just hosted a big delegation last month. One of the things that we are seeing value in is [00:20:00] that like these companies from around the world just want to access into the US and to learn about US farming operations. 

So we kind of call ourselves a soft landing spot and like do test plots, get market traction, things like that, and learn about the local farming system. So there has been like, just, communication issues. Not issues, but like, oh, probably issues, I guess you could say. Yeah, yeah. 

You know, time zone is a big one. The biggest thing with, uh, Japan, especially as a parent of young kids, when it is convenient to meet with the Japanese is bedtime and family time. So, usually a meeting at like 10 pm after the kids go to bed.  

Wendy Pease: Yeah, yeah, that's difficult, that is one of the huge challenges. 

 We've talked to people about if you do synchronous versus asynchronous communication like how can you set it up? Like record a video of what you want to say to somebody and then when it's convenient they can [00:21:00] respond to you in video. So you can use the demonstration, but there are times you just you have to talk. With video and email and WhatsApp and, you know, all the forms that we have, sometimes it takes a visit over or it takes a phone call. 

Andrew Jason: Yeah, exactly.  

Wendy Pease: Yeah. Yeah. And so when you said you had translators, you know, people outside the industry don't know this, translators is usually written and interpreting is spoken. So when you were talking about the translation, I was getting the feeling that you were talking about having somebody there to facilitate the conversation. 

So was it interpreters that they were pulling in? Yeah, it was interpreters.  

Andrew Jason: Well, I guess we can rely on both, but, you know, when I was in Japan last year there was an interpreter that would travel with me to meet with these different groups.  

Wendy Pease: Yeah, that's helpful. And I'm sure they gave you cultural hints and appropriate ways to do things and explaining things. 

Yeah. Do you have any funny stories about that? Can you think of one?  

Andrew Jason: Ooh, that's a [00:22:00] good question.  

Wendy Pease: Or fun experience from Japan. It's always fun to hear.  

Andrew Jason: Yeah. Well, I mean, the two things. One, business card etiquette in Japan is a real thing. Yes. I'm sure, you know, you know. 

Wendy Pease: I do, but tell me what happened. 

Andrew Jason: Well, this is something I was coached on beforehand, but like, I hate business cards. I always lose them. I'm like, just send me an email. And, so the coaching was really when you give a business card, take two hands, bow, present it to them, hand it. And then they will do the same thing. And when you take the business card, you actually have to read it. 

Versus like what I do is I just like throw it in my pocket and then I eventually lose it.  

Wendy Pease: Yes. Yes. And so you found that you were doing that again and again?  

Andrew Jason: Yes. And then through JETRO, I had, uh, translated business cards, in Japanese, which everybody was very impressed. 

And then also, like, the importance of bringing trinkets and local snacks and things like [00:23:00] that as kind of, like, a gift. And, like, actually this is a good story. So, Pukaya City, I guess most communities there have an anime character. And, so theirs is Fukka-Chan, which is like a green onion kind of anime character. 

And so when I was there, I got like this little plush doll and I brought it back and my three year old just fell in love with him. And then, last month when we had the delegation here and announced the partnership with them, they brought two more Fukka-Chans that were much bigger, so like almost the size of my three year old. 

And the idea is that they're going to be moving out to our farm here, and we'll have kind of like a little Fukka-Chan chair, I guess you could say. But I will have to fight my three year old to get it out of her bed, because she sleeps with it every night.  

Wendy Pease: Oh, that's so cute! That's really a lovely story, to have the three year old really, you know, because you never know what toys or stuffed animals they're going to like. 

So, uh, [00:24:00] that's really heartwarming.  

Andrew Jason: Yeah, exactly. This is an audio, but, uh, there is a Japanese garden in Fargo here. So, my three year old, Fukka-Chan and I all made the trip down there to the Japanese garden, and it's just fun to, like, send these, uh, these photos back to Deep Valley in Japan and say, and here's all these things that Fukka-Chan is doing, and, that to me, like, what I get most excited about is these relationships. 

 I'm much more interested in the relationship side of it than like the, just business side of it, as you can say.  

Wendy Pease: Right. And that's something that's certainly true for most countries outside of the US is you're building relationships and building trust rather than going in and just, can we do business together? 

And then forming it and hoping that it works. Yeah. It's building that trust. Yeah. Can you email me the picture and I'll put it in the show notes, so if anybody wants to see it? Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Okay. That would be great. And so you've had a lot of successes in the short [00:25:00] time. What do you wish you would have known a few years back when you came into this role and you were starting the international relations and working with people?  

Andrew Jason: That's a good question. So my background is media. I ran a publishing company here. So I was a journalism and a Spanish major actually in college. So I was going to be kind of a globe trotting journalist was kind of like the vision. So I've always been interested in kind of international, different cultures, traveling, things like that. So I think this just really excites me in this opportunity. And the biggest thing to me is, I came from a very, what's the word I'm looking for? Everything needed to be focused on a ROI. Business opportunities, sales, development, things like that. 

Right? And moving now into this kind of nonprofit ecosystem building role, it's much more focused on provide the value the finances [00:26:00] will come to support that. Right. So just give value and then the community will ultimately support you. And that's really how we've gotten all to where we're at now. 

Right. We didn't start with some big check to launch. Grand Farm and build it out. We started building out Grand Farm and then the checks started to come to support our work. And, you know, that is one of the theories, it's gonna be interesting to test how that model scales, right? 

Because we've built here with our local relationships or local partners. And, you know, the Midwest is a very kind and friendly place. And so how is that going to scale? That's what we're going to be testing.  

Wendy Pease: Oh, good. Good. And so you are a non profit. So if there's anybody that's listening and they want to donate, then they can go straight to Grand Farm in Fargo, North Dakota and donate for all the initiatives you're doing. 

We would never turn that down. Pardon? All right. If you send me the link, I'll put that in the show [00:27:00] notes too. So we can make sure that you keep the funding for doing these great initiatives. You know, when growing up international and I have research and my father was in it, and then my son, who really didn't get to know my father, unfortunately, but he did ag research, and I'm thinking about all the sensors you were talking about. He was out in research plots as an undergrad at University of New Hampshire, like counting the plants and the stuff to do his research. So thinking about having acres and acres and trying to manage it and bring it down to a plant level, it's just amazing to me. So maybe we will still be eating real food, not bioengineered food. 

Andrew Jason: Agriculture is not going anywhere.  

Wendy Pease: Yeah. Thank goodness. So you know this question is coming. What's your favorite foreign word?  

Andrew Jason: Yeah, that's a great question. I have been thinking about that, and I was a Spanish major, so I was thinking about going with one of those Spanish words originally. But then I started to just kind of think more about Japan we're developing these really strong relationships [00:28:00] there. 

And a word that I recently learned about that I kind of fell in love with is, wabi-sabi. And basically it's a focus on the beauty of imperfection and one of my great philosophies as a definitely not a perfectionist is don't let perfect be the enemy of good. 

And so I would rather create activity, momentum, and energy than perfection.  

Wendy Pease: That is wonderful. That is wonderful and considering that you're building relationships and going out. Yes, I think that's absolutely fantastic. So, thank you so much. Any final recommendations for anybody doing global business?  

Andrew Jason: I gotta give a big, big shout out to our state trade office, the North Dakota Trade Office. 

They've been tremendous partners, helping us think about this, educating, providing guidance as we're approaching this. So talk to your local trade office. Ours has been really tremendous. I want to give them a big shout out.  

Wendy Pease: I [00:29:00] love the folks over there. I had the honor to come out in May and go to your World Trade Day and do a presentation out there. 

Got to know the people, and just was so impressed with Fargo, North Dakota. And so if you're listening to this and you have any interest in living in a cute town in a very agricultural area with great people, outside activities, and people who look very fit and healthy, definitely look at moving into Fargo, North Dakota, because that is one thing they were talking about, is they needed people to move out there to work, and all the great things they have going on out there. 

So, if I wasn't tied in here with my kids and my business and everything, I'd certainly consider it. So, Fargo's great.  

Andrew Jason: Well, that's great. I'm a big fan of it, too. And then maybe I will do just kind of a little plug for we do have a number of events and programs and conferences. So we have an autonomous nation conference. 

That's all around autonomy and agriculture. That's September 12th here in Fargo. And we do a space agriculture conference with NASA. I think about the far future of agriculture. That's October [00:30:00] 24th, so I can send you all those if you'll be willing to put those in your show notes too.  

Wendy Pease: Absolutely. 

Absolutely. Yeah. And any link that would show us all the upcoming. So if people are listening to it, you know, past August 1st, 2024, when we're recording this, they can always go access to what events are going on. So thank you so much for taking the time today, Andrew, for telling us all about Grand Farm. 

I'm really impressed with what you're doing.  

Andrew Jason: All right. Well, thank you so much, Wendy. It was fun.  

Wendy Pease: And listeners, I really appreciate you tuning into this and I am sure that you know somebody that's in ag or ag tech or somebody who likes to eat that might be interested in the future of farming. So pass this episode along and definitely give it a five and we'll catch on the next show. 

Bye bye. [00:31:00] 

 

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