Agbioscience: Cultivating the Future of Sustainable Agriculture

Mitch Frazier, President & CEO, AgriNovus IndianaPhoto byAgriNovus

By Mitch Frazier, President and CEO, AgriNovus Indiana

Agbioscience is the only economy in the world that touches every person on the planet. It’s the very economy where food – the most basic of needs - originates. It’s the economy where the latest technologies like AI and machine learning unite, and it’s where the latest in scientific advancements in gene editing and biologicals come together to feed the people, plants, and animals that call this planet home.

In Indiana, this economy delivers a direct economic output of more than $58 billion – up more than $6 billion in the last three-year measured period! Agbioscience companies directly employ more than 155,000 Hoosiers, jobs that are connected to nearly 10% of the state’s workforce. On average, those jobs pay more than the average wage in Indiana and create opportunities across a diverse portfolio of companies leading innovation in:

· Value-added food and nutrition – Everything from the farm gate to the dinner plate where food is manufactured and ingredients are developed.

· Animal health and nutrition – Companies here develop innovations spanning from vaccines to animal feed.

· Plant science and crop protection – Where innovation in genetics and biologics happen to advance crop performance and improve sustainability – economically and ecologically.

· Agtech – Innovators in hardware and software focus on improving efficiency and profitability using artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced manufacturing.

· Production agriculture – This is the cornerstone of the agbioscience economy where farmers grow crops and raise animals that feed, fuel and clothe the world.

One reality remains universally true across agbioscience: The innovations created are inextricably linked to meeting the most fundamental need of people worldwide—food. Advances in plant science are making it possible to produce more food on less land with less environmental impact. New innovations across animal health are making it possible for producers to meet the rising demand for protein worldwide while improving profitability and sustainability. Innovation in food is creating new choices for consumers through the power of fermentation, and applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence are accelerating the creation of agtech solutions to enable every step of the food production system to gain efficiency, improve traceability, and achieve new levels of predictability.

A closer look at Indiana’s impact on these fundamental needs shows the second-largest independent animal health company in the world, Elanco, partnering with Purdue University to create a OneHealth Innovation District on the campus of its new downtown Indianapolis global headquarters. The vision cast for the district is to become globally recognized for research and innovation that advances the science and sparks the creation of solutions to tackle the world’s toughest challenges of this new frontier of innovation.

The world’s largest pure-play agriculture company, Indianapolis-based Corteva Agriscience, earlier this year launched Corteva Catalyst, an investment and partnership platform that partners with entrepreneurs and innovators to accelerate early-stage, disruptive technologies that enable farmers to sustainably produce more food.

In an era where the impact of disruptions to the global food system are vivid memories and, in some cases, current realities—from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to famine-fueled geopolitical instability in Africa to empty grocery store shelves amid the pandemic—the criticality of agbioscience innovation to improve food security is acute. Feeding people, protecting the environment and creating the conditions for a reliable, resilient and secure food system have never been more important and needed.

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