Producers do not have to compromise performance and profitability for sustainability

Canadian agriculture leaders are facing pressure and uncertainty on all sides. Amid devastating wildfires, there’s a turbulent global economy, the impact of geopolitical tensions and mounting climate change pressure.

More than 300 representatives of the Canadian agriculture industry joined Alltech last week in Calgary, Alberta, to explore collaborative solutions to these significant challenges. Alltech ONE Calgary, the third stop of the Alltech ONE World Tour, examined strategies for remaining resilient despite uncertainty and focused on the importance of partnerships, innovation and taking a leading role in nourishing people and preserving the planet.

Canada is rapidly growing, and so is its demand for food. With fewer farmers, the country is producing more food on less land: Only 7% of Canada’s land is used for agriculture, a 37% decline over the past 60 years.

And yet, the country’s agri-food system is resilient, innovative and a major contributor to the Canadian economy. In 2022, the agri-food system employed 2.3 million people, provided one in nine jobs in Canada, and generated $143.8 billion (around 7.0%) of Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP).

“Canada will remain one of the world’s most important exporters, even as it faces the dual challenges of climate change and population and urban sprawl,” said Dr. Mark Lyons, Alltech president and CEO, who delivered the keynote address at Alltech ONE Calgary. “We’re going to have to meet demand now with less land, less labor and fewer resources. But we always know that in the face of challenges, we should never be afraid. We must push forward and think about things in a different way.”

A fresh approach — and a positive mindset — are vital to turning challenges into opportunities. Poised at the interface of nourishing the present and preserving the future, agriculture has the greatest potential to positively shape the future of the planet, he said.

“There is no other industry that plays such a fundamental role in terms of not only producing food, but also preserving our planet. That’s why we launched our vision and purpose of Working Together for a Planet of Plenty™,” Dr. Lyons said.

Working together, the agri-food community can provide nutrition for all, revitalize local economies and replenish the planet’s natural resources. We can create a healthy, sustainable food system, and we can do so in a way that is also economically sustainable — and profitable — for our agricultural producers.

Innovative, on-farm solutions can be both sustainable and profitable, said Dr. Patrick Ward.

‘You don’t have to compromise’

Governments and megabrands worldwide are making ambitious sustainability commitments, but they don’t really know how to achieve them, Dr. Lyons said.

“They need you. They need farmers and producers, and they need ranchers to actually achieve those goals,” he told attendees. “And they're really struggling to be able to connect the dots because they don't really know what their supply chain is made up of.”

Farmers, ranchers and producers need solutions that enhance the efficiency of their business and enable them to maintain sustainable margins. Innovative, on-farm solutions can be both sustainable and profitable, said Dr. Patrick Ward, Alltech applications manager for Europe and Asia-Pacific.

“You don’t have to compromise performance and profitability for sustainability,” he told ONE attendees.

Nutritional technologies can improve animal performance — and therefore profitability — while also offering sustainability benefits. Alltech’s nutritional solutions, for example, have been proven to improve production efficiency, reduce carbon footprint and help rid animal diets of toxins that can harm both the animal and the environment.

Alltech continues to invest in solutions that empower farmers and ranchers to reach their sustainability goals while supporting animal performance and profitability. Earlier this year, Alltech acquired Agolin, a company that has developed and produced plant-based nutritional solutions that improve herd performance, profitability and sustainability.

Dr. Ward explained Agolin’s research-backed sustainability benefits, including its effects on performance and methane reduction, and how the synergistic use of Alltech and Agolin technologies can improve animal welfare, increase feed efficiency and conversion, boost milk and meat production, reduce environmental footprint and increase profitability.

Sustainability can start with the cow.

“With Alltech’s natural products, you can meet your sustainability goals through reduced enteric methane emissions while, at the same time, driving performance and improving milk yield, fat- and protein-corrected milk (FPCM) and feed conversion efficiency,” he said.

Providing quality nutrition for all

Agriculture has gone from having the most important job in the world to having the two most important jobs in the world: feeding the world and reversing climate change.

“We have a moral imperative not to compromise nutrition — for the human or the animal — even as we seek environmental restoration,” said Dr. Vaughn Holder, ruminant research director at Alltech, who joined the conference virtually to discuss agriculture’s role in saving the planet.

We must meet the needs of the present without compromising the needs of the future.

The world’s population is projected to reach 10 billion by 2060. Seventy percent more food will be required by then, Dr. Holder said, but this is not our true challenge.

“One in 10 people on our planet are undernourished. World hunger is on the rise, affecting 811 million people in 2023,” he said. “One in four people are malnourished — that’s over 2 billion people worldwide.”

Poor nutrition is the single greatest threat to the world’s health, according to the World Health Organization.

“It is not enough to feed the world. We must provide nutrients,” Dr. Holder said.

To create a world of abundance for future generations, we must do more than feed the growing population. We need to nourish it with quality meat, milk, eggs and seafood that are high in protein and crops that are grown in healthy soil, all while working to revitalize local economies and replenish the planet’s natural resources.

A sustainable diet is one that provides sufficient energy and essential nutrients to maintain the good health of the population without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their nutritional needs. It must be accessible​, available, safe, nutrient-dense, culturally acceptable, fairly produced and sparing of natural resources.

This can be accomplished by improving the health of animals and the soil, maximizing the value of feedstuffs, increasing the efficiency of the farm, and reinvesting in innovation. Alltech has been striving to meet these goals for more than 40 years, and our technologies help animals optimize the nutrients in their feed, thereby supporting the health and performance of livestock while also reducing their environmental impact.

Through collaboration and innovation, the agri-food community can create a world where science-based solutions help ensure sustainable food production for the global population. We must dig deeper to find the real solutions, leveraging the science and ​implementing the technologies ​that exist today, Dr. Lyons said.

“This is a time that calls for much more of all of us. We must believe in our purpose and have the confidence to stand strong,” he said. “We have a huge responsibility, but it is also a tremendous opportunity.”

Why are we bringing ONE to the world?

The Alltech ONE World Tour was inspired by the desire to connect with our customers, partners and friends in their markets. As our industry navigates significant challenges, we are determined to be with you every step of the way, highlighting opportunities and delivering global expertise on locally relevant issues.

We’re bringing Alltech ONE World Tour to the world so we can hear your stories, better understand your needs and find opportunities to collaborate. This means more people than ever will have the opportunity to engage with leading experts on global, regional and local market trends in agriculture, business, health and nutrition.

Learn more about our future Alltech ONE World Tour stops at one.alltech.com. 

You can find highlights from Alltech ONE Calgary, including photos, speaker biographies and more at one.alltech.com/calgary

The McDonald’s journey in Ireland started 45 years ago, when it opened its first restaurant in 1977 on Grafton Street, Dublin. Today, McDonald’s spends over $2 billion on its supply chain for food and packaging across the UK and Ireland. 23,000 British and Irish farmers are supplying the brand with quality ingredients.

Where and how McDonald’s sources its ingredients is essential to how it addresses climate challenges. Back in 2021, the company launched Plan for Change, its agriculture and sustainability strategy to reach net zero by 2040.

A high-level overview of the company’s pathway to net zero was shared at Alltech ONE Dublin by Nina Prichard, head of sustainable and ethical sourcing for McDonald’s UK and Ireland. She also oversees Plan for Change.

The demand for change

Customer expectations, legislation and the cost of inaction were key drivers for McDonald’s to embark upon the net zero journey.

“As a business, in the long term, we have to be able to look ahead 10, 20 years to see what’s coming down the road to mitigate risk and to assure supply for the four million customers that we serve every day,” Prichard said. “And that’s quite a challenge to think that far ahead and be able to put action into practice today. But it’s something that we have to do, working together in collaboration.”

In the future, McDonald’s plans to continue serving its iconic Big Macs and McNuggets, as long as customers demand them. What needs to change, to address climate challenges, is how the company sources its ingredients. To achieve this, McDonald’s relies on government interventions, financial expertise and, most importantly, collaboration with farmers.

Accelerating net-zero ambitions

McDonald’s has made significant progress in achieving net-zero sustainability over the past decade without compromising customer experience. In fact, customers welcome the changes. While they still want tasty food in convenient packaging, there is an increasing demand for both food and packaging to be sustainably sourced and produced. McDonald’s carries out a lot of research to listen to their customers’ needs, then make corresponding changes in their menus and restaurants. Through this research, the company has identified three major areas of customer expectations: quality food, environmental improvement, and positive impact in communities.

Recently, McDonald’s eliminated 1,000 metric tonnes of plastic in their supply chain by substituting paper straws and paper-based cutlery for plastic. The company also now turns all of its used cooking oil into biodiesel for its delivery fleet. In addition, this year McDonald’s launched its second Net Zero Carbon location, where both building construction and restaurant operations meet the net-zero standard.

With the scale of a big brand, McDonald’s restaurants are also a place to educate people, especially the climate-conscious Gen Z, about sustainability across the supply chain and how McDonald’s is meeting that challenge.

Leveraging the power of the supply chain

When it comes to beef, McDonald’s has been scrutinized by the public, NGOs, stakeholders and media around issues of performance and sustainability.

“Beef is always a hot topic,” Prichard said. “How we source it, where we source it from, how it’s produced, the animal feed that goes into it, and also our future ambition around this particular category, given the data that’s out there from an emissions perspective.”

A turning point for McDonald’s in terms of measuring agriculture performance and sustainability came in 2017. The company started working with E-CO₂, an accredited service that helps measure and improve environmental performance, to show British and Irish farmers how they could reduce their carbon footprint. Understanding the data means farmers can manage what they measure.

Through the program, McDonald’s saw a 23% reduction in its carbon footprint and £23,000 worth of savings, on average, for supplier farms.

“That was just a metric we captured to demonstrate that sustainability, moving in the right direction, doesn’t necessarily mean that it has to add cost to the system,” Prichard said.

McDonald’s has also invested in research on regenerative farming with farmers near Oxford, who have been transitioning entirely to regenerative farming practices over the past four years. Through this research, McDonald’s assessed farm profitability when farmers have to potentially destock to transition into other types of grassland management. The company could then start to educate and share practical knowledge with farmers to help them move toward sustainability without sacrificing profitability. This involves not just beef production but also land use and carbon sequestration.

This process is one of McDonald’s focus areas as the company continues to support farmers by demystifying environmental initiatives and mitigating some of the negative narrative around agriculture’s impact on the planet.

Change a little, change a lot

There are complexities in the way people look at sustainability. Prichard is confident that McDonald’s, through its strong brand and marketing prowess, can continue to simplify the subject for consumers and farmers alike.

“It’s so important to us that we work together to showcase what we can do and to collaborate,” Prichard said.

Through its continuing focus on improving sustainability across the supply chain, combined with its dedication, global reach and influence, McDonald’s is creating real change and inspiring other companies to do the same.

Related ONE content

Alltech ONE Dublin focused on collaborative solutions to the challenges facing the agri-food industry as it confronts the “4 Cs” — the major forces of climate, conflict, consumer trends and rising costs.

Explore our other content, including photos and videos, from Alltech ONE Dublin at one.alltech.com/Dublin.

Agriculture is at the heart of many important conversations in 2023. And whether the issue at hand is environmental concerns, the production of enough nutritious food for the global population or one of many other contentious topics, agricultural producers are often seen as anti-heroes — when, in reality, the agriculture industry has the greatest potential to make a positive impact on the world.

Proof of this positive impact was on display during the opening keynote addresses at Alltech ONE Dublin, the second stop on the Alltech ONE World Tour. Dr. Mark Lyons, president and CEO of Alltech, opened the conference with an assertion that the widespread image of agriculture as a villain makes it more important than ever to tell the story of how animal and food production benefits our planet.

“Bad news is out there, and it does get the eyeballs,” he said. “That’s why I think it's critical for every business to be dedicating resources to communicating. And to me, that's the headline: ‘We need our animals. We capture more carbon with them than we would without them.’”

Lyons was joined onstage by Dr. Vaughn Holder, ruminant research director at Alltech, and Nikki Putnam Badding, director of human nutrition initiatives at Alltech and managing director of Acutia, who both illustrated how agriculture plays a vital role in both protecting the environment and ensuring the health of all people.

“We have two of the most important jobs in the world: We have to nourish our population and we have to preserve our planet for future generations,” Lyons said. “The challenge to all of us is to come up with the solutions that are going to help us."

“This is about ideas,” he continued. “It's about inspiration — and, I think, taking some risks, because we all know what the challenges are. And we need to think about them in a different way.”

Cattle: The secret weapon to sequestering carbon

Climate change is widespread and will only continue to intensify, placing a great strain on the world’s resources. Agricultural production is often cited as a significant factor in climate change — but in reality, as Holder outlined in his address at Alltech ONE Dublin, agriculture is one of the only industries with the ability to not only reduce its own greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions but to capture and sequester emissions released by other industries.

“We exist at the interface between the world's biggest carbon-capture and machinery industry, and that's agriculture,” he said.

Alltech has been studying the agriculture industry’s ability to sequester carbon through a research alliance based on the 10,000-acre Buck Island Ranch in Lake Placid, Florida. During their research at Buck Island, the Alltech team has seen first-hand that cattle can help sequester carbon through grazing — which counters the popular argument that eliminating cattle production will also reduce emissions.

“We have more than enough capacity to put this carbon away,” Holder said. “So, this is what we're focusing on as a research group, is trying to understand this entire carbon cycle so that we can design interventions and identify levers that can allow us to use this cycle to ameliorate not only the methane side of carbon cycle but the big elephant in the room, which is CO2.”

As Holder referenced, much of the general conversation about agricultural — and, specifically, livestock — production focuses on the issue of methane, but the data has borne out that carbon dioxide is a much more dangerous foe.

“Carbon dioxide is the problem,” Holder said. “And if we don't figure out a way to suck carbon dioxide out of the environment, no matter what we do to methane, it's not going to make a difference."

“I think methane is important; don't get me wrong,” he added. “But we have to look at it in a little bit of a different framing. Fossil fuels are one-way highway.”

To explain this concept further, Holder argued that the methane produced by cows is fundamentally different from carbon dioxide, which accumulates in the atmosphere. “It stays where it was; it goes nowhere,” he said. Methane, on the other hand, can be mitigated and cycled out much more quickly.

“Methane has some pretty cool characteristics that allows it to be somewhat of an opportunity for us, rather than a threat to the industry,” he said.

To start with, contrary to popular belief, methane isn’t just produced by cows; it’s produced by “things that ferment,” Holder explained, including the feeds eaten by cattle herds. “And whether that's in a cow’s rumen or whether that's in the field, you're still going to be getting methane out of that.”

So, what would happen to these feeds and their byproducts if cattle production was eliminated? The consequences would be dire, Holder warned.

“Eighty-six percent of global livestock feed currently goes through livestock,” he said. “And that does two things for us: It allows us to actually get some of that food back to our food systems, but it also prevents that feed from fermenting out in the field and causing their own source of greenhouse gases. And if you put it into compost, which is what a lot of people would have you do, five times the amount of greenhouse gases will come off of those byproducts.”

This is the kind of fact that Holder wishes made headlines, as it is somewhat counterintuitive to what the average person might believe.

“When we are making recommendations on changing our food systems to save the environment, we've got to be thinking about these types of things,” he said. “The systemic effects of what we are doing are probably much more important than the direct interventions that we are trying to make in the first place.”

Holder has seen first-hand the positive impact of agriculture on the planet — and he hopes the rest of the world can see it, too, so that ag producers can get back to their original mission.

“We have a massive role play in climate change, and I don't think there's another industry that has a similar position,” Holder said. “But we can't lose sight of what our primary purpose is, and that's feeding people, sustaining the world. That's the most important component, in my opinion, of sustainability. We have to keep food production primary when we are thinking about changing these systems.”

Producing nutritious food for all

In her opening remarks, Putnam Badding directly echoed Holder’s comments about the broader definition of sustainability — but also took them a step further by expanding on the notion of what it really means to maintain a healthy populace.

“Sustainability doesn't begin and end with environmental impact,” she argued. “We must look after the long-term health of the planet and the people who share it. But providing enough food is not enough. We must change the dialogue from providing enough food to providing enough nutrition.”

One in ten people in the world are undernourished, and one in four are considered malnourished — equaling over 2 billion people worldwide. As Putnam Badding explained, malnutrition comes in many forms, including “undernutrition,” or a lack of calories, protein and micronutrients. As a result, the ag industry must start focusing on more than simply producing enough food for the world; we must also ensure that we are providing the most nutrient-dense food possible. And, as Putnam Badding explained, the journey to producing truly nutritious food begins right under our feet.

“Nutrition, for humans, starts in the soil,” she said. “More nutrient-dense soil produces higher yields of more nutrient-dense crops. The more nutrient-dense the soil is — through use of regenerative agricultural practices or micronutrient-enriched fertilizers — we can actually produce more nutrient-dense and greater yields of crops.”

Putnam Badding was quick to assure the attendees at Alltech ONE Dublin that she was not downplaying the role of animals in nourishing the planet, as animals provide humans with nutrition that we would not be able to access otherwise.

“Animals are the original up-cyclers,” she said. “They take that biomass that Dr. Holder mentioned is unsuitable for human consumption — we can't eat that; we can't pull nutrients from it — and they create packages of highly bioavailable protein and micronutrient-dense pieces of delicious food for us to consume. And often, they're using land that is not suitable for intensive food production.”

Although animal-derived products and plant-based foods are sometimes pitted against each other, Putnam Badding sees both as critical in the effort to nourish the world.

“This is not a ‘plants versus animals’ discussion. The end goal is nutrition for all, and to truly achieve that, we will rely on both plants and animals,” she said. “Animals provide us with essential nutrients that plants do not, and vice versa. Nutrition security requires all food sources. As we work together to nourish 10 billion people and beyond, we must remember that soil, plants, and animal, environmental and human health are all deeply interrelated.”

Considering the vital role of animal and crop production in helping the global population thrive, Putnam Badding posited that it’s time to give agriculture its due — and for the rest of the world to see it in a new light.

“Our purpose is more than farming. It's more than food production. It's more than environmental sustainability,” she explained. “It's sustaining healthy people and a healthy planet for generations to come. By placing nutritional quality at the heart of agricultural practices, we can truly achieve zero hunger and good health and well-being for all.”

As Putnam Badding, Holder and Lyons all made clear, agriculture does not deserve the bad rap it sometimes receives.

“We see this industry as having the greatest potential to positively shape the future of our planet,” Lyons said.

But it won’t be easy, as all three speakers acknowledged. There are many hurdles ahead — but then again, there always have been for farmers and the agriculture industry. We will be able to cross them together if we see them as a chance to change the world for the better.

“We've got to make sure we embrace the opportunities that are in front of us. Because it is a huge responsibility, but it also is a tremendous, tremendous opportunity,” Lyons said. “This is a time that calls on us to do much more. But isn't that an exciting thing to be a part of?

“Agriculture can really transform things in ways that other industries cannot,” he continued. “Ag truly is at this interface of nourishing the present and preserving the future. And that's tremendously inspiring.”

Alltech ONE World Tour kicks off in Budapest with a focus on resilience and sustainability

Nourishing the world and preserving the planet is a huge responsibility — and opportunity — for agriculture.

As the agri-food community endeavors to create a healthy and sustainable food system, it is challenged by geopolitical tensions, economic uncertainties, changing consumer trends and, of course, climate change. But these obstacles also represent a global opportunity for agriculture to tap into its history of innovation and science to find collaborative solutions that will keep the industry at the forefront of change.

This exciting potential ­to shape the future was explored in-depth this week when hundreds of European agri-food leaders helped kick off the first-ever Alltech ONE World Tour in Budapest, Hungary. The event offered opportunities to engage with leading experts on global, regional and local market trends in agriculture, business, health and nutrition.

Alltech ONE Budapest emphasized the vital role of Central European agriculture producers in addressing climate and food-supply challenges around the world and highlighted the importance of collaboration and innovation in the pursuit of sustainable solutions.

Geopolitical conflict in the region has caused supply-chain disruptions and rising energy and food costs. Amid these uncertainties, the region’s abundant land and strong agricultural heritage are sparks of hope that can ignite and transform the agri-food community, said Dr. Mark Lyons, president and CEO of Alltech, in his opening keynote address.

“This is a time of not just peril, but of potential. Central Europe is going to play an outsized role in the future of this challenge — of making sure that we can provide enough food for our growing populations." —Dr. Mark Lyons, Alltech President and CEO

Because of its agricultural connectivity, Central Europe has the potential to chart its own course to a sustainable and profitable agricultural system. There is also a great capacity for agricultural integration, as well as export opportunities that do not exist in many other geographies.

The region’s agri-food industry could also leverage regulatory pressure to develop innovative solutions for carbon capture crediting and other sustainability measures, Lyons said.

“These opportunities are exciting, and that’s one of the reasons we wanted to kick off our Alltech ONE World Tour here,” he continued.

The annual Alltech ONE Conference has been held in Lexington, Ky., home of Alltech’s global headquarters, for nearly 40 years. In 2023, however, Alltech is bringing the ideas and inspiration of the conference to its customers and partners around the world.

A holistic approach

Alltech believes agriculture has the greatest potential to positively shape the future of our planet. In 2019, it announced its purpose of Working Together for a Planet of Plenty™ and its vision of creating a world of abundance where people, animals and plants can flourish.

Alltech’s Planet of Plenty purpose has fueled its growth, Lyons said. Since the beginning of 2023, it has announced three new acquisitions that are strategically focused on developing and enhancing microbiological capabilities, strengthening Alltech’s sustainability promises and further developing the aquaculture industry.

In the past decade, Alltech has acquired 25 companies. This acquisition strategy has transformed Alltech’s business and allowed it to connect on more and deeper levels with its customers, Lyons said. Alltech produces specialty ingredients, premix supplements, feed and biologicals and offers a platform of services that includes on-farm support, mycotoxin mitigation, ingredient certifications, environmental analyses, feed-ration analyses, consultations and more.

Alltech is the only global partner with expertise from the ground up. From soil to crops and from animal nutrition to analytics and services, the company shares a holistic view of entire ecosystems. Its acquisition of Ideagro, a leader in agri-food research and development, added 20 microbiologists to its team and expanded its understanding of soil health and the impact of the microbiome on soils and in animals.

“We’re leveraging the capabilities that Alltech has as we serve 120 different countries, and we’re doubling down on how to connect what we’re doing in the soil to the crop to the animal and using analytics to bring things full-cycle,” Lyons said. “This is the future of agriculture. It’s a holistic view of the challenges we face.”

This holistic view is crucial to creating sustainability solutions, he continued.

“This is an interconnected system, and when we think about greenhouse gas emissions, we must also think about carbon capture, which is a tremendous opportunity for our industry to play a huge role in reducing climate change. And it's this type of science that is going to be the key to overcoming that challenge,” Lyons said.

Nutrition also plays a vital role in sustainability. Food is the single-strongest lever to optimize human health and environmental sustainability on Earth, the EAT-Lancet Commission said in 2019. In fact, if the agriculture industry focused on feed and growth efficiency strategies and carbon sequestration management strategies on grazed lands, it could reduce greenhouse gases by over 50%.

“We can reverse the negative impacts of agriculture and generate planet-positive benefits for people, animals, crops, and land, air and water,” Lyons said.

Alltech has always been committed to seeking the safety and well-being of the animal, consumer and environment — as outlined in the company’s ACE principle, the precursor to its Planet of Plenty purpose. In our pursuit of restoring the environment, we cannot lose sight of the importance of protecting human and animal nutrition, Lyons explained.

While sustainability challenges can vary slightly from region to region, the goal of improving plant and animal performance while reducing the environmental impact is a central theme.

Alltech has pioneered many technologies that improve performance, productivity and profitability and promote sustainability. Its recent majority interest acquisition of Agolin, for example, presents exciting sustainability benefits for producers, as well as improvements in milk production and feed efficiency. Technologies that boost performance and sustainability outcomes will be most successful in the industry, Lyons said.

The science of sustainability

Alltech’s researchers are creating leading-edge solutions that harness the power of science to nourish people and the planet. From reducing antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistance to lowering greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improving soil health and more, its scientists are seeking answers to some of the biggest questions facing the agriculture industry and the world.

Alltech is making advancements in the global fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR), one of the largest and most urgent threats to global health, food security and socioeconomic development today. Alltech’s scientists have been able to create microbes that are more sensitive to antibiotics — an exciting development in the quest to reverse antimicrobial resistance and its effects.

“This can help reduce resistance but also enhance food safety,” Lyons said.

Alltech researchers are also creating solutions to remediate water and soil pollution caused by nutrient excretion.

“We want to be thinking of this as one system,” Lyons explained. “We want to be thinking about how, ultimately, the future of farming won't just be the production of meat, milk and eggs. It will also be energy production. It will also be carbon capture. And this is already happening here in Central Europe.”

Alltech has also gained a new understanding of the carbon cycle of grazing cattle, thanks to the company’s research at Buck Island Ranch in Florida. The work being done there has shown that, contrary to the popular narrative, we can capture more carbon with cows grazing the land than we can without them.

“Our animals will help us overcome the sustainability challenge. We can capture the carbon that we want to,” Lyons said. “This will allow us to produce more efficiently, improve profitability and help us answer the sustainability challenge to deliver on our promise and commitment to our Planet of Plenty purpose.”

The next stop on the Alltech ONE World Tour is in Ireland. Alltech ONE Dublin, set for June 19–20 at Croke Park Stadium, will focus on the “4 Cs” impacting global agriculture: climate, conflict, consumer and cost. Additional stops are planned in Calgary, Canada, as well as the United States, Asia, South America and the Middle East. Learn more at one.alltech.com.

[BUDAPEST, Hungary] – Central Europe's agriculture producers will play a major role in addressing climate and food-supply challenges around the world. The region's agri-food leaders discussed collaborative solutions and strategies for success today in Budapest, Hungary, at the first stop of the Alltech ONE World Tour (ONE), launching a series of international events that bring the ideas and inspiration of the annual Alltech ONE Conference to the world. Discussions explored collaborative solutions to the greatest challenges facing the agri-food industry as it confronts the “4 Cs” — the major forces of climate, conflict, consumer trends and rising costs.

The ONE Budapest keynote presentation from Dr. Mark Lyons, president and CEO of Alltech, welcomed delegates to Budapest and challenged them to think about what comes next for the agri-food industry. 

“In times of uncertainty, it is crucial for businesses like ours to adapt and innovate,” Lyons said. “The Alltech ONE Conference is no exception. While our annual symposium has had its roots in Kentucky, USA, for four decades, we felt it was important to adapt and engage with our customers on their home ground. Thus, it is only fitting that we launch the Alltech ONE World Tour in Budapest, Hungary, which is at the center of both change and opportunity.”

ONE Budapest attendees heard from industry experts on various topics, including insights from the dairy industry, data for profitable and sustainable agriculture, and mycotoxin management, and they were also able to attend focus track sessions on dairy, pigs and poultry. Robert Walker, European growth officer at Alltech, moderated a panel discussion featuring the species focus track speakers, who discussed how to remain profitable amid uncertainty and how the learnings from the day’s sessions can be applied to individual operations.

“By sharing data and insights, we empower advisors to solve agri-food-system challenges and drive the transfer of value, from the consumer to the processor to the farmer,” said Walker.

The final session of the day featured a discussion between Tara McCarthy, global vice president for ESG at Alltech, and Lyons on the path forward toward a sustainable future.

“As an industry, we have the responsibility to frame the role of agri-food in the context of the four Cs of climate, conflict, cost and consumer,” McCarthy said. “We will need to use our insights (from data), our skills and our scale to achieve impact, but most importantly, we will need to adapt and partner across the value chain.”

“The theme of our ONE Budapest stop — ‘Thriving Through Turbulence: Rising to the Challenges of Climate, Conflict, Consumers and Costs in Agriculture’ — perfectly encapsulates the unique hurdles we encounter in this region,” Lyons said. “With increasing geopolitical tensions and rising input costs, producers will need to make well-informed decisions to enhance their efficiency and adapt to the modern challenges faced by many in this area.”

The Alltech ONE World Tour will continue with stops in Dublin, Ireland, on June 19–20 and Calgary, Canada, on July 3–4, then on to the U.S., Asia, South America and the Middle East. For more information and to register for an Alltech ONE World Tour stop, visit one.alltech.com.

-Ends-

Download photos from Alltech ONE Budapest: https://creative.alltech.com/share/928F2EF2-13C5-4658-9FE6874BE0837D80/

Does diversity foster innovation? Tanya Torp, executive director of Step by Step, a nonprofit organization based in Lexington, Kentucky, joined Ag Future to discuss the benefits of diverse teams, the empowerment individuals gain from inclusion, the positive impact of inclusive policies on the bottom line, and the necessity for sustained commitment and clear plans to create lasting change in organizations.

The following is an edited transcript of the Ag Future podcast episode with Tanya Torp hosted by Tom Martin. Click below to hear the full audio or listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts.

Tom:              Welcome to Ag Future, presented by Alltech. Join us from the 2022 Alltech ONE Conference as we explore our opportunities within agri-food, business and beyond.

                        Tanya Torp is the executive director of Step by Step, a nonprofit based in Lexington, Kentucky, that equips, encourages and empowers young single mothers. Torp is an agent for social change and has spent her career engaging in community-based initiatives as a convener, speaker, trainer, facilitator, writer and consultant.

                        I’m Tom Martin for the Alltech Ag Future podcast series, and Tanya is here to talk with us about the qualities of diversity, equity and inclusion as drivers of business innovation. Welcome, Tanya.

Tanya:            Thank you. Glad to be here.

Tom:              First of all, just beginning with a little bit about you, how would you describe your consulting style?

Tanya:            I really enjoy working with organizations that are in it for the long haul. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility as well are not anything that you can do a session like a one-day session and then your organization’s got it all together. There’s got to be a lot of strategy on how we’re going to get there, what you’re looking for, what your culture is. I love working with people who we can just take their idea or take them from this inception and to moving into a space of We’ve got this – we have a direction in which we’re going and we know a plan for sustainability.

Tom:              And they’re committed to it.

Tanya:            They’re committed to it. I don’t actually want to work with anyone who’s not committed.

Tom:              There you go. What are the benefits to a team that’s open to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility?

Tanya:            Well, you get this diversity of thought that is really important in not only the business world but in the nonprofit world where I work. Whenever I am able to encounter people who don’t think just like me, it is such a richer experience. The clients get more out of it because of that. Also, there is a lot of data that shows that the business need for diversity actually leads to you making more money. So your business or organization can actually excel because you have that diversity of thought and because people will stay. It creates a space of longevity when people feel like they belong where they’re working.

Tom:              How does being included on such a team give an individual a sense of empowerment and of place?

Tanya:            Well, one of the biggest issues, especially right now during the Great Resignation, is that people are wanting to stay at home because they have experienced microaggressions in the office. You hear from a lot of people of color, the Black indigenous people of color, saying, “I love my job. I love the job that I do. I don’t love the environment in which I work, and so I’m very happy to be staying at home.” You also hear from people from the disability community who have said, “We’ve been asking for these accommodations for years, and here we are.” Because of the global pandemic, we’re able to do this work from home, which means we’re not having to spend all the money and extra time just to be able to make it in to work.

                        So being parts of those teams that actually care about the inclusivity of your organization, actually care about those employees, not having to have those extra barriers just to be able to do their job well means that you are making your organization or company sustainable.

Tom:              It’s really interesting, isn’t it? This seems to be a silver lining of this awful pandemic, what you’re talking about now, this choice that’s been made for us – and for employers, more to the point.

Tanya:            Yes. I think for some, it’s actually reducing overhead. Now, there is still the issue of when you’re in person, when you’re face to face, there are natural things that happen when you’re at the water cooler or when you’re in the kitchen together or when you’re sitting down together breaking bread and having your lunch break. Some of that is missing, and I think that that is important in a lot of cases. But what we’re gaining is the ability to have deeper conversations longer. We’re gaining the ability to be able to just do our work. Right now, there’s a big push in businesses for belonging. There’s a big push with lots of trainings about being welcoming, but also about sharing your personal life and being more empathetic and being more emotionally intelligent.

                        Those are all really important things, especially working with your clients, but it is toxic for some people because they’re being told, Your work family is your family. What it’s leading to is, it’s not diversity. You’re feeling like, Okay, here I am in this work family, but people are not even noticing who I am in my humanity. What it does is actually pull people even more apart. I can see the need for having those water cooler discussions, but I think having these deeper discussions over Zoom or whatever people are using are going a little bit deeper, and they’re able to be sustainable. Everyone can be a part of this.

Tom:              Have you worked with an employer who has recognized that they have a toxic work environment? They have at least a problem work environment and they want to change. They want to make that commitment we were talking about, and they want to know how to do it. Have you worked with somebody like that? What would you tell them?

Tanya:            Yes. One of the things I shared in my Alltech talk was, there is this theory – and, in fact, practice – about curb cuts. In the ’40s, curb cuts started in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where someone said, “Listen, I can’t get my wheelchair to go on the street, so what I want to do is create this curb cut,” and that happened. Well, fast forward to a few years later at Berkeley, where there were students that were living in the hospital there because they’re students at the university but they can’t make it to their classes without incredible difficulty. Their dorm is a hospital because it’s the only accessible place. So, in the middle of the night, these folks went and poured some concrete and made their own cuts so that they can get onto the sidewalks.

                        This created a revolution all around the country of people noticing that it’s not just the disability community that can use these. It’s people with strollers. It’s people with skateboards. It’s people using their bags, their luggage to get where they’re going, that are using these. Some studies have shown that nine out of ten people are going out of their way to use these cuts in order to get where they’re going. So here’s this incredible theory about this was made for one group of people, but it impacted everyone else. It impacted tons of other people.

                        This is what I share with companies, is we have to get to a point where you are using that theory. What is it that you can do that is going to impact everyone but is specifically geared towards including diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility? Where are those places in your company or your business where you can make some changes that will actually be good for everyone?

Tom:              In business, the bottom line is everything. How does that translate to the bottom line?

Tanya:            The bottom line is about creating policies so that it’s no longer about managers having to pick and choose how they’re going to react to a situation and whether or not it is equitable. It is, Here’s what the policy says. This policy is for everyone, and this is how we’ll move forward. It is managers changing their style and becoming more about one-on-ones where they’re actually listening to what people are sharing. I share a lot with my companies an example of whenever there is a major tragedy – and I’m an African American woman doing this work. Whenever there is a major tragedy, another shooting or something that involves my community, when I go to work, I’m carrying that with me. Same for our Asian American friends, same for our Jewish friends. When you’re coming into that space at work, you’re literally carrying that with you.

                        Having policies that say you can stay home during the day when that kind of thing happens, when you just need to have time to mourn with your community or to grieve or to do what you need to do, that actually affects everyone. That gives everyone the opportunity that when something strikes, that they’re able to work on their mental health or do what they need to do. I think having those opportunities, to have that be a part of or other things be a part of your policy, moves people into that space of real inclusion.

                        Just several years ago, when people, organizations, and companies started offering health benefits to partners, you didn’t have to be married to have those health benefits. That allowed for a whole group of people who’d been ignored to have health benefits. That affected our country. You see that people that were uninsured before, now they’ve got insurance through their partner’s company. That is a real change, and that makes your employee feel seen, but it also affects all of us.

Tom:              These are thoughtful gestures that we don’t often think of when we’re thinking of business policy or company policy. They’re really soft policy, but not really, are they? Especially in today’s world, if that company wants to succeed and sustain that success, it’s going to need to be open to diversity, inclusion, equity and accessibility.

Tanya:            Absolutely. I just was speaking, directly after my talk, to someone who’s in HR, and they said, “We get these phone calls every day about what is it like.” If I’m coming to your company as a person who is traditionally excluded or marginalized, my group of people that I come from, and I’m coming into your company, how am I going to be received? So it’s not just about whether we have increased representation. Once I get there, am I going to be received by everyone? Is there a code of ethics that makes sure that I’m not going to experience a lot of microaggressions in order to just do my job? Am I going to be believed when I say, “Hey, this is a problem,” and not have someone say, “Well, Bob really didn’t mean that” or “Erica didn’t really mean that. Let’s just smooth that over”? Am I going to be able to have a space where there are not going to be excuses made when things like that happen? So that becomes safer for everyone.

Tom:              How do you sustain that, making sure that as people come and go, as people do these days, that the same balance of these principles is maintained beyond?

Tanya:            It takes a clear plan, and it takes incredible dedication. I often tell people that bias trainings and workshops alone will never work. They will literally never work. Oftentimes people say, well, my company did that bias training, so we should be good to go. But the data actually shows that if you’re forcing people to go to those classes, they end up resenting it. It also shows that the ones who show up at the class most eager to learn are people who are already on that journey anyway.

                        Who are those people in your company already on that journey who you can build some longevity and sustainability with, who will be great assets in helping the company move along? In some ways, what people do is, they create these equity groups in their company. It’s employees that are on these equity teams and they’re bringing in speakers, and anybody who wants to join joins. Nobody’s forced to join. What happens is, it actually creates an incredible atmosphere.

But I caution people as well: Those people are already doing their whole entire day job, then they’re also on this team. They need to be compensated for their time. That is a policy that the company can make. If you’re joining this equity team, you will be compensated for your work outside of the work that you already do. You’re already doing your day job, but we’re asking you to do this, which is actually emotional labor as well. That’s a policy that would affect everyone. That could make sure that there’s some longevity so that as people are leaving, there’s already that policy in place. There’s already a group of people that are trained and ready to go, and they’re going to train the next group of people, and so it continues to be sustainable in that way.

Tom:              It’s actually an investment, isn’t it?

Tanya:            It is a huge investment.

Tom:              Over the past decade, Tanya, you’ve served as a consultant for companies and organizations that want to make deep-game, life-changing shifts in their cultures and their policies. Change is challenging for a lot of people. Have you encountered cultures that were not quite there yet, not fully on board with opening up to diversity, inclusion, equity, accessibility?

Tanya:            Absolutely. There have been organizations, in fact, that have said, We really want to move in this way of equity. We really want to make sure people feel as if they belong here, yet their policies and procedures, they’re unwilling to make changes. When I come in, they’ll say, We really want to make changes, but we don’t. So it is really difficult to work with people like that who really see the need – I call it optics, that looks really great on paper. You’ve got maybe a diversity statement on your website, but I go to look at who’s on your board. I look at who is a C-suite person in your company. I look at your employees and I don’t see that diversity that you’re saying that you’re striving for or that your statement claims that you’re striving for. We have a holiday coming up like Juneteenth or Pride or that kind of thing, and I see you suddenly posting all kinds of things on social media about caring about these groups of people, yet your policies are not reflecting that. So what I tell people is, if you’re in that space, nothing will change. It’s all optics. We need to get past optics and get to a place where we’re actually making sustainable change.

Tom:              Do you, as a person of color offering consulting services in diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, encounter the very issues and the challenges that you’re trying to combat in the world?

Tanya:            Absolutely, and especially in that world of consulting, but also in the world as an executive director. There are rooms that I can’t get into. Sometimes I will send one of my board members to talk to, say, a donor who I know does not want to talk to me because I’m a Black woman. That’s happened in my life before. So when I’m in these rooms as well, I have to have my own boldness, know who I am, and know my stuff when I’m coming into the room, to be able to show data and what works and to be able to challenge, Do you really want your organization to change, or is this just lip service? Because at that point then we can part ways because I will not waste my time.

Tom:              Again, commitment, right?

Tanya:            Commitment, absolutely.

Tom:              You founded Step by Step in 1995, I believe.

Tanya:            We had three founders that founded it in 1995. I’ve been there for nine years.

Tom:              And you founded it as an organization that is mom-led and empowerment-focused. In describing the mission on your website, you say that is a trauma-informed organization. Tell us about that.

Tanya:            Absolutely. Trauma-informed is a category that was created, and it is measurable. You can look at the government websites and find that it’s a measurable thing. In order to be trauma-informed, your organization or company needs to acknowledge the trauma of the past. Being able to acknowledge that there are systemic issues at work that are really harming people, that have lasted many – you and I might not have been a part of them, but there are sometimes governmental policies that have affected people, and so we acknowledge that.

                        But we also acknowledge that there are ACEs – as we call them, particularly in the therapy world – adverse childhood experiences that affect many of us. Many of us have had divorced parents, or we’ve had to move, or we’ve seen violence, but the more of those ACEs that start to add up, that means more trauma that you’ve experienced in your life. We are trauma-informed by saying we know that those things affect people’s lives. There’s data to show that they [people who have had ACEs] don’t live as long, that there’s more risky behavior, that they might drop out of high school more frequently, because they have experienced those adverse childhood experiences.

                        For us, to be able to put that in the forefront as we are working with these young women, they are leading us. They are literally putting their lives in our hands when they don’t have to. They’re making a choice to say, I want you to be invited into my life as I try to become a great mom and a great citizen in this world. And we’re able to walk alongside them, knowing that they might take ten steps forward and ten steps back, but we’re still committed to them as long as they’re committed to us. We don’t chase them down, but if they’re committed to working to improve their lives, we’re committed to walking alongside them.

Tom:              Do you find that, when you’re working with somebody who’s working their way through that, that once they do and once they recognize traumas that maybe they had shoved down into their subconsciousness and really not confronted, that there is kind of a sense of liberation?

Tanya:            Absolutely. There’s liberation and freedom. There’s change and there’s a recognition in how I contribute or can contribute to my health and the health of my child, how society has contributed to ills and also helps in my life, and how I can navigate both of those areas. It really is about wholeness and holistic, being complete, that these young women begin to shine. They go after their goals. They’re able to set and reach those goals because there’s a recognition: I experienced this thing, and it is monumental in my life, but it doesn’t define who I am.

Tom:              Have you seen it instill maybe a new level of confidence?

Tanya:            Absolutely. Just a couple of weeks ago, we had one of the moms that I met nine years ago come back and share her story with not only our board and donors but some of our moms as well. She was somebody who was living in a domestic violence situation when I met her, was living in poverty, and just had so much going on in her life that was heavy. She was able to share, “Just having people that believed in me and stuck with me even when I didn’t stick with myself really made a difference for me to know that I am worthy of this.” Then, from there, she was able to do her own work.

                        It’s not about Step by Step coming alongside and telling someone what they should do. It’s about us saying, What is it that you want, and how can we remove barriers? Watching these young women reach those goals, watching this young woman who now owns a home, is a boss at her job and has a healthy child who’s doing really well, that’s all we want for them, to be able to have that kind of life that they envision for themselves.

Tom:              A few years ago, Tanya, you opened something called Mama’s Hideout. Tell us about that.

Tanya:            Yeah, our office is Mama’s Hideout. Thanks to the Murry Foundation and others who really care about having space for these young women to come into our office, they can use computers. We have childcare if they are coming to our office and they’ve got their children with them. They might just need a break to look for a job online. They might need to take their GED test or what have you. They can do that in our office. It’s also a place for them just to come and hang out. Maybe their child’s in childcare for the day. They’re still looking for a job or they’re working the late shift, but they just feel like, I just want to be around positive people. They can just come to our office and literally hang out in Mama’s Hideout. We love that too.

Tom:              Now you’re offering a financial literacy course, and I understand that it’s described as trauma-informed. Can you elaborate on that?

Tanya:            Yes. It is one of my favorite programs that we have ever done at Step by Step. What we have found is that there are all kinds of financial literacy courses out there that offer a lot of different things. You can throw a stick and you’ll hit a financial literacy course. But we have not found financial literacy courses that really speak to trauma. For instance, we have a mom who moved 13 times before she was in third grade. What do you think that does to a person to not have that permanency, to not have a place to call their own? But also to see why we’re moving. We might be leaving because the landlord’s increased the rent or because of the affordable housing crisis that we have. That affects you psychologically as well as physically.

                        We talk about those things in our program. In fact, the first two weeks of our ten-week program is to talk about what is our relationship with finances. Sometimes, we maybe get money and just spend it right away. Why do we do that? That’s not something that we automatically want to do, but why does it seem like a knee-jerk reaction to spend that money right away? That comes from a trauma response of not having what you need and trying to make sure that your child has what they need. We talk about that. The moms share with one another about how they deal with money. Before we get to this, is how you join a bank, or this is what savings looks like, or this is how you budget. We have to talk about our relationship with money. So that’s been incredible.

                        The best part of this program is that we match their dollars that they save. These young women will get a bank account. They’re required to put at least $25 a month in that account, and Step by Step will match it three to one. She comes to our program, and she raises $2,000. She will leave that program with $6,000 to buy a car, to go back to school, to put a down payment on a house, to reduce her own debt. There are several reasons why they could do that, why they become a part of this program. They pick their goal and then we help them reach that goal and remove barriers.

Tom:              Is that in partnership with somebody? How is that done?

Tanya:            That’s a lot of me doing what I’m doing right now, talking to donors. I just share the stories of these young women overcoming. For some, that makes a huge difference. If you can imagine needing transportation to get to all the places that you go and having to take our bus system – We love Lextran. They’re so supportive. But our moms have to go to the hub and then they have to go somewhere else. It takes sometimes a really long time just to get to one place. What if you’ve got more than one child and you’ve got to go to several appointments? Your whole day is then lost, and you’re having to take off work. What if she was able to save up $6,000 for a down payment for a car? It would change her life. These things seem simple, but they really are life changing.

Tom:              If you had a list of concerns for young single moms who hope to balance being moms with professional growth, what concerns do you consider when you’re working with them that they need to deal with?

Tanya:            A lot of [the concerns] are beyond their control. I mentioned already our affordable housing crisis here in Lexington. We have moms that are literally moving out of the county because they cannot find a place to live even with all our partners. The Office of Homelessness [Prevention and Intervention] does an amazing job. Polly Ruddick and her crew are just wonderful, but the housing stock isn’t there, and so that is a huge barrier. If [the young mom] is going to stay couch-hopping or she’s staying with an abuser because she can’t even find a place to live, that affects everything in her life. There’s a systemic issue there.

                        About 25% of our moms come from DCBS [Department for Community Based Services]. We’ll get a call from the state that says, “I think this young woman would be great for your program.” Working on getting her child back or working on keeping custody of her child or working on, I am a mom in foster care with my baby, that is a big deal. So those instances of child welfare are huge for us, where we want to make sure that the children are safe but our moms are safe as well.

Tom:              Is there a particular success story that stands out in your memory?

Tanya:            Absolutely. She wouldn’t mind me telling you at all. She loves to come and speak this a lot. We have a leadership development program where our moms become leaders. It’s a pretty intense two-year program, and Brittany is one of our leaders. Brittany came to us a few years ago. She said, “Miss Tanya, I’m dropping out of high school. I have a great job. I’m making great money. I don’t really need high school.” Of course, I talked to her about why she would need a diploma, why it would be great, and how, later on in life, she might regret not having one. She just said, “I’m just going to make this decision.” Well, it’s her life. It’s not mine. I gave her great advice, but she decided not to take it, and that’s okay. We just continued to love on her.

                        A few months later, she said, “Actually, I think I need that diploma. I think I need to go back to school.” We cheered for her like we were at the winning UK game. We just praised her and cheered for her, and we got to watch her walk across that stage. She graduated, and now she’s in college, and she is one of our most outspoken cheerleaders for our program. She is speaking into the lives of other moms, telling them, “You can do it. I dropped out of high school. I went back. If you need the support, we’re here for you. But also, you’re not stupid. You can do this.” And just speaking into her life and sharing, like, “This is what happened with me. If I can do it, you can do it.” So Brittany is just absolutely amazing, and we love her.

Tom:              What a wonderful story.

Tanya Torp is the executive director of Step by Step, a nonprofit based in Lexington that equips, encourages and empowers young single mothers. Thank you very much, Tanya.

Tanya:            Thank you for having me.

Tom:              I’m Tom Martin with the Alltech Ag Future podcast series. Thank you for joining us. Be sure to subscribe to Ag Future wherever you listen to podcasts.

Dates and locations have been announced for the spring European leg of the Alltech ONE World Tour, a series of exciting international events that bring the ideas and inspiration of Alltech’s annual ONE Conference to the world. The first stops are in Budapest, Hungary, on May 22-23 and Dublin, Ireland, on June 19-20.

The Alltech ONE Conference has been held in Lexington, Kentucky, home of Alltech’s global headquarters, for the past 38 years. In 2023, the global leader in agriculture is bringing the conference to its partners, customers, suppliers and friends across the globe, providing the opportunity for more people than ever to experience the power of ONE.

The Alltech ONE World Tour will explore collaborative solutions to the greatest challenges facing the agri-food industry, uniting changemakers and thought leaders to examine regional and local market trends in agriculture, business, health and nutrition.

“As our customers and partners continue to face many challenges and uncertainties, we determined that 2023 would be dedicated to meeting them in their market,” said Dr. Mark Lyons, president and CEO. “This special edition of the ONE will endeavor to deliver global expertise to locally relevant issues. In the midst of economic and political uncertainties that fuel regionalization, this ONE reflects the responsibility we have as a global company to be a connector of people and ideas, ever advancing our purpose of Working Together for a Planet of Plenty.”

The Alltech ONE World Tour will continue with stops in Canada, the U.S., Asia, South America and the Middle East.

For more information and to register for an Alltech ONE World Tour stop, visit one.alltech.com.

In this episode of the Ag Future podcast, we're joined by Dr. Yael Joffe, founder and chief science officer at 3X4 Genetics, to discuss the emerging field of nutrigenetics. Dr. Joffe explains how understanding the relationship between food, genetics and health can be used to personalize diets and lifestyles for optimal health. They also discuss the importance of personalized nutrition and the challenges of building trust in the field of genetics.

The following is an edited transcript of the Ag Future podcast episode with Dr. Yael Joffe hosted by Tom Martin. Click below to hear the full audio or listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts.

Tom:            Welcome to Ag Future, presented by Alltech. Join us from the 2022 Alltech ONE Conference as we explore our opportunities within agri-food, business and beyond.

                     We think we know ourselves pretty well, but do we really? So much more information about who we are and how we respond to the world around us has been locked up in our genetic codes. But now, it's possible to understand that code and use that information to actually switch genes on and switch them off.

                     I'm Tom Martin for the Alltech Ag Future podcast series, and I'm joined by Dr. Yael Joffe, founder and chief science officer at 3X4 Genetics in Seattle, where she has mastered the emerging field of nutrigenetics to build products that are shaping the future of healthcare. Thank you for joining us, Dr. Joffe.

Yael:             Thanks, Tom. I'm very happy to be here today.

Tom:            First is this term, this science: nutrigenetics. How do you define that?

Yael:             It's pretty much exactly as it sounds — the idea of nutrition and genetics. It's a little bit bigger than that. Sometimes I use the word “lifestyle genetics”. But in essence, we can think of it as: What is the relationship between the food we eat, the food we expose ourselves to, the world we expose ourselves to and our genes? And what is — the relationship between those two elements really defines our health.

Tom:            Your company name, 3X4 Genetics — why 3X4?

Yael:             It's a little bit of a story, and it goes back about four or five years. One of the challenges that I've had in my career is: How do you get genetics to become something that every one of us can use in our daily life? I'm sure everyone listening has been to a practitioner, be it a dietitian or a doctor, and you've come away going, “That was all very well, but that really wasn't about me.” We know that one of the greatest trends in the field of medicine, nutrition, health and wellness is personalized nutrition, personalized medicine. So, I was trying to figure out: How do we really make genetics so consumable that, in one page, I can understand how my genes are going to personalize every single thing that I do every single day?

                     The reason we came up with (the name) 3X4 is — I actually started an education company called Manuka Science to teach practitioners how to bring genetics into their practice. We built this kind of methodology called 3X4, and the idea is (that), by using genetics, you should be able to understand, for an individual, the three most important places to focus on when you're starting to work with that client — the three most important dietary changes that you need to make. Not 300, not 10, not 20, because we know that overwhelms (people) completely. The three most important lifestyle changes, and the three most important supplements. So, when you put three, three, three (and) three together, it comes up to 3X4 — essentially, one page of a real summary that shows why you're different and how your genes would really personalize your intervention.

Tom:            Your approach is based on a set of principles. Can you tell us about those?

Yael:             My approach is based on, I'd say, two major principles. Let's go with that. The most important thing in genetics is to have science you can really trust and understand and that is proven, because we know that the genetic-testing industry has actually, largely, failed the consumer and actually failed the practitioner as well. We've been around now for 20 years. The human genome was mapped in 2003, but genetics hasn't really delivered the promise and the dream that, 20 years ago, we thought it was going to change our lives (and) prevent disease.

                     The first principle that I built 3X4 in is: How do we build a company that the consumer and practitioners can really trust? That meant going back to (the) basic principles of science and going, like, “How do we build something with a science we can trust, that is transparent, that is robust and resilient?” That was the first thing, and there's quite a long story to that.

                     The second thing is, if you just have great science but you have no way of translating it into a person's life, then all you're selling is data. One of the things that I've spent most of my career on is trying to figure out: What is that clinical translation? What is that translational value? Tom, you wake up in the morning and you have a whole lot of decisions to make. You can grab your phone and check your emails. You can immediately put on the coffee machine and have a double espresso. You can meditate for 20 minutes. You can go for a walk. You can have a look at the weather. You can have a cold shower. We make all these decisions, and every single decision is going to impact the way our genes express themselves, the way our genes behave.

                     If we can understand our genetics, we can make these decisions so much better. For me, one of the foundational principles of 3X4, really, is this idea of translation. How does it actually change my decision-making? How does it actually change my life? So, I really wanted to build a company that gave all of us — whether you're a practitioner or a consumer or a client — better decision-making. We needed to, really, not just build another genetic-testing company or build another genetic test; there are 300 to 400 (of those) in the U.S. alone. How do you fix the whole industry so that we can really raise (its) value? I'm not sure that was the question, but I hope I gave you a good enough answer.

Tom:            No, it certainly did. I'm wondering, (and) tell me if I'm right about this — am I understanding that we can actually have more control over our bodies or our health than we may have realized? How's it possible to manipulate our own genetic codes and overcome issues that might have been hereditary or unavoidable?

Yael:             That's an excellent question. In fact, I think one of my talks (at the Alltech ONE Conference) is going to be exactly on that, is that, for the last couple of decades, we've had this sense that our genes are our destiny. I think that this is very much part of the media conversation, is that our genes are set in stone and there's not much we can do (about them), so we might as well just get on with it and hope for the best — hope we don't get cancer or hope we don't get Alzheimer's. This was genuinely believed to be the truth, but actually, it couldn't be further from the truth.

                     We need to understand, in genetics, that there are two different parts to the conversation. I call it insight and action. The first part is we all have this genetic code, which you refer to. It's a language like English or Spanish. It's got an alphabet. It's got words. It's got sentences. It's got chapters, and it tells a story. Our DNA sequence code is exactly that. We have a code that tells a story of who we are and how we live in this world and how we respond to the world around us. But at 0.1% in our code, we differ from each other.

                     You and I have 0.1% of our code, which means — at three to four million places in our code, in our spelling, we differ from each other. We look different. We sound different. I don’t have and wish I had such a beautiful voice like you do. You're taller than I. We're different from each other, and that's at 0.1%. But it's also: How do I respond to the coffee that I had this morning. How do I respond when I eat gluten? How do I respond when I go and do a five-kilometer run?

                     A lot of the work in genetics has been in understanding why we're different from each other, and I call that insight. But one of the most exciting transitions in the world of genetics deals with the question you asked, which is: If I know who I am and I know how I'm different or how I respond to the world around us, what can I do about it? What we've discovered, really, (is that) genes are just a series of switches. Imagine you walk into your house and you switch on a light switch and something happens. It's exactly the same as genetics. As I described, I had some lovely lunch before I came here. I chose to have, for lunch, some salmon and some salad. Excellent choice. I probably wouldn't have told you if I'd had the pulled-pork sandwich, so I had the salmon.

                     When I had the salmon, there were nutrients in that salmon that had an impact on my genes. What they do is they actually send a signal to the gene to switch on, to make an enzyme or a hormone or a brain message. It's these switches, this signaling, that switch on hormones and enzymes in our body, which is actually what runs our body, which actually allows our body to heal (and) to optimize our health.

                     So, in one sense, we use genetics to understand what we are. On the other hand, we use the choices we make — whether it's nutrition, supplements, exercise, meditation, stress management — to switch on these genes, which is ultimately what's going to determine whether we choose health and heal ourselves or whether we choose behaviors that actually lead us to ill health. This idea that genetics is set in stone or is our destiny is simply untrue. We actually, every minute of every day, have the choice to change the way genes behave.

Tom:            This is fascinating. To me, a layperson, it borders on profound. It sounds as though, if we can determine our genetic code and it's time for lunch, we can determine what we should have to manipulate something that's going wrong with us, perhaps, or that we want to enhance.

Yael:             Spot on. That's actually my work, and that's what I've been doing for 20 years. I can do a test on you. Remember, I spoke about these differences, these spelling changes in your DNA. I can understand — let's call it metabolic dysfunction, things in your body that are not working as optimally, whether it’s enzymes or hormones. It’s around areas like: How do you detox toxins that you respond to? How do you manage your glucose and insulin, especially around hormones? It could be around cholesterol. It could be around how you consume calories, how hungry you feel, how you store energy. I could go on for hours.

                     If I understand that about you, I can now help you make a much better choice at your lunch, for two reasons. One is (that) I want to make sure that, knowing those spelling changes, those differences, I'm optimizing your choices. But to take it a step further, I'm going to help you choose foods that actually go further than that and switch on genes or switch off genes — because my salmon that I had for lunch was doing a couple of things. One is it was switching on genes that decreased inflammation in my body. We all know about these amazing omega-3 fatty acids that we get in oily fish that actually switch off inflammatory genes, but it also can switch on what we call anti-inflammatory genes, and there's a whole lot of other stuff it does.

                     So, knowing this knowledge — and I talk about “know thyself,” the self-knowledge, and working with someone who really understands how nutrition can change gene expression and not just nutrition. Let's talk about profound. You go and you hug someone. (You make a) connection. We know that, (because of) COVID, the last couple of years have been really hard, because we've all been at home. We haven't had connection. Suddenly, we come to an amazing conference, and we see someone that we've only seen onscreen, and we give them a big, solid hug. That connection, in itself, can switch on genes.

                     So, when I say (that) every single thing that we do in our life changes the way our genes switch on and off, I literally mean every single thing. One of my favorite topics is cold-water immersion — to have a cold shower versus a hot shower. We go and dip in a cold tub or in an ocean or in a lake when we go hike a mountain (or), obviously, when we exercise. Every single thing we do is now in our control. To be able to change the way our genes are behaving — that is how we step forward to health and wellness.

Tom:            Can a consumer obtain a customized set of data that helps guide them in their diet and lifestyle?

Yael:             Yeah, absolutely. There are many, many companies in the marketplace that are doing this. I've tried, at 3X4, really, to try build the best company, and one of the fundamental things that we do differently, perhaps, is we insist that you have a professional work with you. Genetics is only data if you don't have someone to translate it for you, (someone who) knows who you are, what's important to you, what your goals are, what you want to achieve, what your concerns are, what your medical history is.

                     You're able to get a test. We look at everything that I've described — how you consume energy, your exercise activity, your nutrition, stress, mood, anxiety, depression, detox, you name it. And then we have these amazing (people), whether they're dieticians or medical doctors or chiropractors, who have been trained, mentored and educated to sit with you and say, “Well, this is what I'm understanding about you. Let's plan ahead and see what we can do better.” So, that's exactly what we do.

Tom:            Can you give me an example of a case study, let's say, of someone who has done this, who has realized that they had something to overcome, and they've managed to do that through genetic manipulation?

Yael:             Yeah, I have many cases. Let me think. One of the interesting areas — I'll give you just one off the top of my head. I'm actually presenting a whole lot of case studies (at the Alltech ONE Conference). I won't use one of those, but we actually had a staff member at 3X4 who suffered from recurrent migraines. Migraines are so debilitating. They really are extraordinary, and we are seeing them more and more often. Even in our company, which is a health and wellness company, we probably have 20% of our staff members who are suffering from migraines. One of them in particular was suffering it recurrently, (which has a huge impact) — never mind the loss of productivity and days of work, but in terms of family and quality of life.

                     So, we ran our genetic test on them, and this is interesting. One set of genes that we look at in our test is around something called histamine. I'm sure anyone who's at this conference knows about histamine, especially in agriculture. It's a molecule that is found in a lot of foods, but for some people, they're not able to break down histamine, so it stays in the body, and it does kind of weird things. It's very pro-inflammatory. A lot of people who suffer from a lot of allergies, seasonal allergies, have a lot of histamine in their system.

                     Histamine can manifest in different ways, one of which — of the ways it does — is migraines. Often, when you get a migraine, you'll often go to a doctor and they'll give you a whole lot of drugs, a whole lot of medicine that you'll take, and you'll end up getting into bed and be wiped out for the whole day to manage your migraines. We discovered that this person had an inability. Genetically, it was missing the kind of amino acids that help break down histamine.

                     So, what we did — it's amazingly simple, actually — is we removed all the foods in their diet that are high in histamine. Now, the interesting thing about histamine is that some of the foods that we think are the healthiest — like avocado is actually a high-histamine food. So, we put them on what we call a low-histamine diet, and it's just extraordinary. Just from that, we were able to resolve all the migraines. We talk about genetics as this idea of “You don't know what you don't know.” We think we know ourselves, but we don't necessarily.

Tom:            Well, if we are able to take this level of control over our personal health, doesn't that have enormous implications for healthcare in general?

Yael:             Absolutely. This is the journey we've been on for 20 years, is trying to move away from what I call those “USA dietary guidelines” concept, that every single person gets the same diet, or it's the ketogenic diet, or it's the intermittent-fasting diet, or it's the Paleo diet. This idea that every single person will respond to the same diet is completely flawed.

                     I've been working with health professionals for 20 years now, and we have had incredible traction in certain groups of practitioners. We call it integrative medicine, lifestyle medicine, functional medicine. But in terms of mainstream Western healthcare, the big healthcare systems, we haven't (been completely accepted). It's starting. It's taking our time. But if you think about it, why wouldn't you want to understand?

We call it trying to get rid of trial and error because, at the moment, what happens with the practitioner is you'll have migraines and they'll say, “Well, let's try this drug. Oh, that didn't work. Let's try this. Oh, that didn't work. Oh, let's try this.” We’re trying to get away from that, because if we can know what we don't know, we can save not only financially, for a patient, but we can actually save (them from) psychological and emotional (damage), because every time we fail — don't even get me started on weight management. Every time we fail, we set someone back emotionally, psychologically and financially.

So, we're starting to see some traction. There's an inevitability to it that, ultimately, we'll all know our genetics, and every single piece of advice we get will be through the lens of genetics, and that's where we're headed. We've certainly grown exponentially in the last 10 to 20 years, but we've got a long way to go.

Tom:            Your company maintains a global network of accredited practitioners. Is this service widely available? Is it expensive? Is it covered by health insurance?

Yael:             It is not covered by health insurance. Everything is cash pay. Unfortunately, some of the best medical care outside, at the moment, is cash pay. At the moment, it's only available in the USA and in South Africa. We're starting to look at other countries as well and how to expand globally. But right now, we're still quite a young company. It's only launched four years ago in South Africa — I'm from South Africa — and launched in the USA two and a half years ago.

                     The way it works is the test is $349, but you only do it once in your lifetime. Your genes don't change. Your code does not change. You do it once and you're done. But then you need to have a consult with a practitioner who's been trained by us, educated and mentored, to make sure that you get the value out of it that you really need. I always say, “If you don't know what to eat for breakfast the next morning, you've bought data, and then it doesn't matter whether it's $349 or $1,999. It's just not valuable.”

                     We've got 2,000 practitioners in the USA at the moment that are trained and up and running. We do also a lot of telehealth, of course, but at the moment, we haven't quite got to global domination. We're working on it.

Tom:            It sounds like you're on your way. Well, I was perusing your website, the company website, and it says on your website that you are obsessed with your customers. What does that mean?

Yael:             Yes. Well, we are obsessed with our customers — be it the practitioner or the consumer — because, ultimately, we have this dream. When people (ask me), why did I start 3X4? Well, I wanted to build a genetic testing company that did everything right, and so many companies (are) just not. To do everything right, I needed to create an experience and engagement for the consumer that had great value to them, that really changed their life.

                     We have this idea of ten million lives. We believe we will impact ten million lives, and that means something different to everyone. It might be having enough energy to get out of bed in the morning. It might be managing that migraine. It might be managing anxiety. It might be preventing Alzheimer's or cancer. We wanted to take genetics, which has traditionally been quite a dead science — almost like computer science has zeros and ones; genetics is just kind of data letters — and bring it alive and make it meaningful.

                     We've done this in multiple ways, (including) engagements, using color, infographics, pictures and storytelling, because we want to make sure to bring value to your life. I think this is something that has been missing from the genetic testing industry. So, we're quite obsessed with (learning): What is your experience of genetics? How does it feel to you? Is it meaningful? Because remember, these are your genes, not mine. I might be able to drink coffee all day, but you may not be able to drink coffee all day. What does it really mean to you, and how does it really change your life?

We spend a lot of work working on (understanding), how do we have, (as) we call them, visual conversations with you — not just the way medicine is normally done, which is, “Here's a lab report, and good luck, and off you go.”

Tom:            If you are able to wave a magic wand and you have a vision of a world that understands and makes use of nutrigenetics, what would it look like? What would life be like in that world?

Yael:             Interestingly, in 2005, I wrote a book called "It's Not Just Your Genes!" and that was quite optimistic of me in 2005. There was this chapter at the end of the book. It was kind of (asking): What does the future look like? As I said, this was almost 20 years ago. I had this idea that every single person had, like, a DNA passport. Imagine a credit card with a little chip, and everywhere you went, you had your DNA passport. Now it’ll probably be like a smartphone or a chip under your skin or something. Anyway, you would go to Whole Foods or the shops and everything, and you would scan your DNA passport. It would make recommendations on the best foods for you to buy. “You better buy organic. Here's some broccoli for you.”

Ultimately, I guess what I'm trying to say is that, in the future — and I think it's a magic wand in terms of timing, but I do think there's an inevitability to it. Every single decision we make will have a lens, whether it's shopping on Amazon, whether it's sports training. It's how we prevent injuries. (It will help determine) the foods we eat, the supplements we take — we'll never take a supplement ever again without knowing our DNA — the drugs you take, the pharmaceutical drugs you take. We already know the field of pharmacogenomics is huge. Only 50% of drugs work, and that's (due to) genetics, because genes determine how a drug is metabolized. So, imagine that this big lens that covers every single decision that we make and that we do — that is the future of health, of wellness, of medicine, of sport, of fitness.

I think the ultimate part of that wand is integration. One of the amazing areas we're working on now is (asking): How do we take genetic information and integrate it with other data about us? I've got a Garmin watch on my hand. I've got an Oura ring. These two devices give me information about my heart rate, my heart rate variability, and whether I slept well. The way we see the future, the next five to ten years, is that there will be genetic integration into all our data. So, we're not just measuring my heart rate and my heart rate variability and my sleep, but we’re layering it with some amazing lens of genetics and finding out, “How does this look at a personal level?” I think that's the future we're looking at.

Tom:            That magic wand has already been waved, actually. It's hard at work.

Yael:             We're waving. We're waving.

Tom:            Dr. Yael Joffe, founder and chief science officer at 3X4 Genetics, based in Seattle. Thank you so much.

Yael:             Thanks, Tom. Thank you so much for having me.

Tom:            For the Alltech Ag Future podcast, I'm Tom Martin. Thank you for joining us. Be sure to subscribe to Ag Future wherever you listen to podcasts.

[LEXINGTON, Ky.] – The Singletary Center for the Arts was alive with music and hope Sunday as 15 talented vocalists competed in the finals of the 18th annual Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition. The event awarded more than $700,000 in scholarships and prizes and the opportunity to attend the University of Kentucky as part of the UK Opera Theatre program.

Judges selected multiple winners in undergraduate and graduate categories. In addition to cash prizes, winners received scholarships to attend UK, including some full-tuition awards.

The winners of the 2023 Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition are:

Undergraduate student winners

• Pearse and Deirdre Lyons First-Place Undergraduate Award and Scholarship – Max Taylor*
• Alltech Second-Place Undergraduate Award and Scholarship – William Cordier*
• Alltech Feed Division Third-Place Undergraduate Award and Scholarship – Keen Williams
• Alltech Crop Science Encouragement Award – Will Jones
• Barbara Rouse Kentucky Prize – Calia Burdette
• Alltech and Bryant’s Rent-All Encouragement Award – Emily Hayes

Graduate student winners

• Pearse and Deirdre Lyons First-Place Graduate Award and Graduate Assistantship – Sierra Kidd*
• Alltech Second-Place Graduate Award and Graduate Assistantship – Audrianna Hughes*
• Pearse Lyons ACE Foundation Third-Place Graduate Award and Half Assistantship – Kayla J. Wilson
• Stand Energy Graduate Award – Eleanor Wilmes*
• Gail Robinson Performance Award – Katherine Anne Ledbetter
• Reginald Smith Jr. Diversity Scholarship in Opera Graduate Award – Audrianna Hughes

*These winners also received a tuition stipend to study at the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria. AIMS is the leading summer music program in Europe. 

Finalists were scored based on their voice, technical skill, interpretation and accuracy by five judges:

• Evans Mirageas, who is in his 18th season as the Harry T. Wilks Artistic Director of Cincinnati Opera and is widely considered one of the most talented and respected artistic leaders in the classical music industry today.
• Julia Noulin-Merat, general director and CEO of Opera Columbus.
• Barbara Lynne Jamison, general director of Kentucky Opera.
• Dr. Thomas King, who taught the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, for 25 years.
• Karen Slack, celebrated American soprano and artistic advisor for Portland Opera and the co-chair of the Women’s Opera Network with Opera America.

The Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition is one of the largest competitions of its kind in the world. Its winners have traveled the world performing, teaching and providing inspiration to others.

“This program originated out of a friendship between my father, Dr. Pearse Lyons, and Dr. Everett McCorvey of UK Opera Theatre. They wanted to give talented students a chance to pursue their dreams and help UK to build its opera program,” said Dr. Mark Lyons, president and CEO of Alltech. “Since it began, this program has allowed nearly 190 students to overcome the financial barriers to pursuing their dreams.”

In addition to performing at UK, the Alltech Vocal Scholars infuse art into our community throughout the year with performances such as “A Grand Night for Singing” and the annual Alltech Celebration of Song, a free holiday concert at Alltech Arena at the Kentucky Horse Park.

Learn more about the Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition and watch the livestream of this year’s competition at alltech.com/vocal.

Max Taylor of Louisville, Kentucky, won the Pearse and Deirdre Lyons First-Place Undergraduate Award and Scholarship on Sunday, March 5 at 18th annual Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition. Shown with him are Dr. Everett McCorvey, executive director of UK Opera Theatre, and Mrs. Deirdre Lyons, cofounder of Alltech.

Previous winner giving back this year with scholarship in his name

[LEXINGTON, Ky.] – The community is invited to enjoy an afternoon of beautiful music on Sunday, March 5, as talented vocalists from across the U.S. and beyond compete in the 18th annual Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition. This one-of-a-kind event awards more than $700,000 in scholarships and prizes and provides an opportunity to attend the University of Kentucky as part of the UK Opera Theatre program. The competition begins at 2 p.m. at the UK Singletary Center for the Arts. Admission in complimentary.

Since it began, the Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition has enabled more than 190 students to pursue their operatic ambitions and receive an education in the arts. Winners have traveled the world — performing, teaching and providing inspiration to others.

The competition was initiated in 2006 by the late Dr. Pearse Lyons, who was an avid supporter of the arts. His friendship with Dr. Everett McCorvey of the UK Opera Theatre inspired what is now one of the largest vocal scholarship competitions in the world.

The competition attracts some of the top vocal performers from around the world, helping them overcome financial barriers and paving their way to a successful career. The Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition has been credited as a contributor to the major growth of UK’s opera program, which is now widely considered to be one of the best in the United States.

“There is no other opportunity like this in the world,” Dr. McCorvey said.

This year, one of the early winners of the competition is giving back to UK Opera Theatre by sponsoring an additional scholarship. In 2007, the second year of the competition, Reggie Smith traveled nine hours from Atlanta to Lexington on a Greyhound bus and arrived just in time to take the stage.

“He walked right out onto the stage and the minute he opened his mouth, you had goosebumps. It was amazing,” recalled Mrs. Deirdre Lyons, cofounder of Alltech. “It was a life-changing moment for him. Now, he is well-known around the globe and wants to give a scholarship to another deserving student.”

The Reginald Smith Jr. Prize will be presented at this year’s competition. It will support students whose lives will be as dramatically changed by this opportunity as his was.

Since his time at UK, Smith has enjoyed a successful singing career. Among his many accomplishments, he participated in the young artist program at Houston Grand Opera, won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2015 and sang on the Grammy Award-winning recording of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2019-20 production of “Porgy and Bess.” He has been lauded by Opera News as having “one of the most exciting baritone sounds to come along in years.”

“Reggie is a wonderful example of what the Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition is all about,” said Dr. Mark Lyons, Alltech president and CEO. “It is heartwarming to see my father’s legacy living on through the students whose lives have been transformed by the opportunity to study with Dr. McCorvey and sing with UK Opera Theatre. Thank you to everyone who has supported the Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition. Because of your generosity, nearly 200 talented singers have been empowered to pursue their dreams.”

Judges for the Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition will select multiple winners in several categories, including undergraduate, graduate and transfer students. In addition to cash prizes, winners will receive scholarships at attend UK, including full-tuition awards.

In addition to performing at UK, the Alltech Vocal Scholars infuse art into our community throughout the year with performances such as “A Grand Night for Singing” and the annual Alltech Celebration of Song, a free holiday concert at Alltech Arena at the Kentucky Horse Park.

Learn more about the Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition and watch last year’s competition at alltech.com/vocal.

Reginald Smith Jr.