Startup Profile: Field Management Software Empowers Sustainable Farmers

August 8, 2011 | Kevin Coss

Kareem Shaya’s interest in local and sustainable agriculture took flight after he joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) run by Full Belly Farm in Northern California. “I started reading about how local agriculture works and the logistics of getting it from seeds to people’s houses,” he says.

To further indulge his newfound interest in local agriculture, Shaya decided to visit numerous local farms and interview farmers to learn more about their operations. What he found was that many farms were run in an ad-hoc manner that lacked a streamlined, organized approach. Read More

Startup Profile: Pest Busting Ag Entrepreneur Offers Farmers a Natural Solution

July 25, 2011 | Kevin Coss

Agriculture entrepreneur Pam Marrone, the CEO and Founder of Marrone Bio Innovations, says that biopesticides are the best-kept secret in agriculture. And she believes her company, which develops environmentally responsible natural products for plant, weed and pest disease management will play a large role in sustainably supporting the earth’s growing population.

“You can’t continue to feed people and trash the earth at the same time,” she says.

Marrone, who won the Natural Resources Defense Council’s “Growing Green” Business Leader award earlier this year, also likes to remind skeptics of biopesticides that they have a 63-year history of safe use as an organic and biodegradable form of treatment. Read More