Agbioscience

Picture a kitchen arena where 1,500 cooks from more than 40 countries have all won their way in — no open registrations, no fast track, just Golden Tickets earned at hundreds of qualifiers across the year. They cook in rounds, plate blind, and wait on the score. That's the World Food Championships, and it lands at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis October 15–18 for year two of a three-year run. 

It's...

Rachael Spiegel, Partner at Faegre Drinker, sits at the intersection of food, agriculture and law — a place where regulatory complexity, supply chain risk and the realities of feeding people all collide. She joins Agbioscience to unpack how companies are navigating an era of rising recalls, what drives the decisions made in the first hours of a crisis and how leaders can build resilience across the value chain. 

Highlight...

September marked the end of a new era and the beginning of new chapters for Indiana's agbioscience ecosystem. Christy Wright, president and CEO of AgriNovus, joins VP Libby Fritz in studio to highlight the big news of the month: 

• Corteva launches new era of innovation as standalone company -- alongside Vylor
• IBI Ag chooses Indiana for its North American HQ
• Givaudan adds Indiana facility that will generate 250 new jobs
• Fallow A...

Welcome to Directionally Speaking, a narrative series that highlights the innovators bringing solutions to market through AgriNovus' Velocity accelerator. This week, AgriNovus Senior Director of Innovation Tim Dixon sits down with Raha Saremi, founder and CEO of Ecoatex, and gets into how her company transforms agriculture byproducts into sustainable, bio-based materials for packaging, fibers and more. She discusses the innova...

Farm management today looks very different than it did a decade ago, with rising complexity, shifting client expectations and new technology reshaping how decisions get made. In this episode, Howard Halderman, president of Halderman Farm Management, shares how his team is thinking about AI, where it is already improving operations and why human judgment still matters in managing one of agriculture's most important assets. 

Welcome to Directionally Speaking, a narrative series that highlights the innovators bringing solutions to market through AgriNovus' Velocity accelerator. This week, AgriNovus Senior Director of Innovation Tim Dixon sits down with Naveed Iqbal, CEO of Fallow Ag, to talk fintech, creating a data standard at the farm-level and what it's like to be a startup founder. 

Learn more about Naveed and Fallow Ag at agrinovusindiana.com/v...

Earlier this year, Etlas launched as a joint venture betrween Corteva and bp with the goal of helping strengthen the biofuels value chain. This week, CEO Nacho Conti shares how the company is working to connect growers, processors and biofuels producers around low-carbon feedstocks while creating new value opportunities across agbisocience and energy. Highlights include:  

• Defining Etlas' mission: Nacho explains how Etlas i...

What does the future of water and land restoration look like? Dr. Tyler Koschnick, CEO of SEPRO Scientific, joins us this week to share how the company is evolving through growth, innovation and a sharper scientific focus. The conversation highlights: 

• SEPRO's mission to create long-term solutions for environmental stewardship 
• The market needs emerging around water quality, restoration and infrastructure 
• The compa...

What does the future of seed innovation look like - and how is Indiana helping shape it? 

On this episode of the Agbioscience Podcast, host Eric Pfeiffer sits down with Craig Anderson, CEO of Ag Alumni Seed, for a conversation on seed development, Purdue-connected research, emerging technologies, and the global opportunities rooted right here in Indiana. 

Episode highlights: 

• Craig’s path to CEO an...

August was a wet one! We kick this episode off by recapping Indiana's heavy rains and its impact on the state's agbioscience ecosystem. Highlights include: 

• Velocity's 12 startups, an accelerator update and AgriNovus' Senior Director of Innovation Tim Dixon's required reading list for innovators (plus one band recommendation). Books include: 
• Watch Tim's episode of Agbioscience and his preview of Velocity here: https://...

Alayne Johnson, Director of the National Pork Board, joins us this week to explore the priorities shaping pork demand, producer insights and research across the U.S. pork industry. Alayne shares her journey through agriculture, what led her to serve another term on the National Pork Board and how the organization approaches its role in research, promotion and consumer education on behalf of pork producers. 

The conversa...

Henry Markarian, Co-Founder and CEO of Integrated Dynamics, joins us this week to explore a technology platform aimed at unlocking new value from existing ethanol infrastructure. Henry shares the founding story behind the company, the problem Integrated Dynamics set out to solve and why its approach to repurposing operating, underused and idle assets could matter in the next phase of the bioeconomy’s growth. 

High...

On this episode of Agbioscience Dr. Robert Pepper, President of Huntington University, joins us to explore how their team is building talent for the future of agriculture. Just months into his presidency, Rob shares what drew him to Huntington, how the university is positioning itself inside Indiana’s agbioscience innovation economy and why hands-on, industry-connected learning matters more than ever. 

The conversatio...

Heartland BioWorks was formed to help the Midwest advance its position of leadership in the next era of bioscience innovation. By uniting industry, academia, workforce leaders, and public partners, the organization was created to accelerate discovery, grow talent and build a stronger, more connected bioeconomy across the region. We are joined this week by Michelle Dennis, Regional Innovation Officer for Heartland BioWorks, to talk ...

We switch chairs this week and our interview host, Hoosier Ag Today's Eric Pfeiffer, joins us to talk through the state of production agriculture, its impact on innovation, surprising findings out of Purdue on farmer adoption of AI and how innovators/producers can meet in the middle to drive greater impact for both sides. 

Eric also gets into Hoosier Ag Today's new partnership with Circle City Broadcasting, bringing Indiana agr...

Last week, AgriNovus announced that 12 startups will participate in its 2026 Velocity accelerator, a five-month program that awards entrepreneurs a total of $75,000 in cash prizes for their technology solutions divided equally between the strategic categories: bioinnovation, farmer-focused innovation and food is health. 

Behind this year’s cohort magic is the organization’s Senior Director of Innovation, Tim Dixon, ...

Sustainability. It’s a big word that carries several meanings – particularly across the agbioscience value chain. From conservation practices on the farm to technologies that create a more efficient use of the land, innovators in agbioscience are always seeking to do more with less. Underpinned in that effort is economic sustainability and how different practices create fluctuations in margin for farmers and companies a...