339. Mitch Frazier recaps 2024 + looks ahead to three big forces of change in agbioscience

Agbioscience

It’s the end of 2024 and it was a giant year across food, animal health, plant science, agtech and agriculture. This week, we recap big stories of the year based on Accelerate 2050 – AgriNovus’ study that showed that Indiana’s agbioscience economy grew by $6 billion in 36 months. The study also launched three forces of change and opportunities for industry growth. We are laying out the top stories of 2024 based on these forces of change starting with:

Farmer Focused Innovation

1. AGCO and Trimble come together via a joint venture acquisition – listen to Andrew Sunderman from AGCO here;
2. Corteva Catalyst launches as a new investment and partnership platform designed to accelerate the development of early-stage, disruptive technologies for farmers – listen to Corteva’s Tom Green here;
3. Gripp wins the Producer-Led Innovation Challenge to reduce administrative burden faced by farmers – listen to Tracey Wiedmeyer from Gripp here.

BioInnovation

1. Primient and Sustainea announce $125 million investment to establish Lafayette, Indiana as the world’s largest Bio-MEG facility for bio-based plastics;
2. AgroRenew breaks ground on an $83 million Indiana-based production facility to leverage the power of the region’s melon crop to produce bio-based plastics – listen to Brian and Katie Southern from AgroRenew here;
3. BioMADE announces Indiana as one of six finalists to compete for the next chapter of bioinnovation infrastructure – listen to BioMADE’s Melanie Tomczak here.

Food is Health

1. Anu wins the HungerTech Innovation to better connect food supply with food demand using technology – listen to Anu’s Scott Massey here;
2. Purdue and Elanco announce the OneHealth Innovation District to establish a globally recognized research innovation district dedicated to optimizing the health of people, animals, plants and the planet – listen to Jeff Simmons from Elanco here;
3. Corteva’s $25 million equity stake in Pairwise to accelerate gene editing solutions, providing growers with another critical tool to keep pace with challenges facing food production.