An interview with Ramez Naam

The following is an edited transcript of our interview with Ramez Naam, co-chair for energy and environment at Singularity University.

To listen to our entire conversation with Ramez, click on the player below:

I don’t want to dwell on the fact that you are a science fiction writer, but I think that’s kind of cool that science fiction predicts science sometimes, and I wonder if maybe that was an inspiration for you? If, like, some of the things you thought about as a science fiction writer, you are now working to try to make reality?

I wish I had that story. Science fiction is amazing and it’s amazingly fun. It does provoke things. My science fiction and my speaking and writing on energy and food are actually pretty distinct, to be honest. But, they both come from the same thing, which is a deep curiosity about the future.

Here we are in the coal state of Kentucky, and there are definitely still some myths here about solar energy and how expensive it is and how doable it is to replace fossil fuels. I think that is probably true throughout a lot of the U.S. still. Can you comment on what the actual state of affairs is and what the potential is for solar energy?

I can’t blame people for doubting what solar or wind can do because the world has changed so fast. When I was born, a solar panel cost $100 per watt of power. Now, it’s less than 50 cents per watt of power, so that plunge in price is really the big story.

A new coal plant costs about seven-and-a-half cents per kilo-watt hour. In Los Angeles, they now have a new solar plant at three-and-a-half cents per kilowatt hour. In Dubai, oil capital of the world, they signed a deal for solar at less than three cents per kilo-watt hour. Those are all sunny places, sunnier than Kentucky is, but the changes are coming.

The price of technology always comes down. Just like your iPhone is so much cheaper than the mainframe computer that has the same power, solar follows that same trajectory, so it’s now kind of inevitable.

Since technology has ramped up so fast and prices have come down, there still seems to be a thought by some people that we need some sort of silver bullet technology. Do you feel like we have everything we need, or we have all the tools we need now, or we just need to start implementing them faster?

That’s what Bill Gates, who I used to work for, talks about — the need for an energy miracle or energy breakthroughs — but I would say the cost of solar has come down by a factor of five in the last five years, an 80 percent price decline. That’s a miracle already, that’s a breakthrough, but it’s not any one scientific breakthrough. It’s just the continual progress of technology.

If there is one area we want more of that, it’s in energy storage. With batteries, you can use them overnight, but batteries have dropped in price by a factor of five in the last five years, too, and they are going to keep on dropping. I wouldn’t say we are going to deploy a lot of technology that we have now, or rather we are going to, and that’s going to lead to more research and further dropping of prices.

Another big area of study for you is agriculture and land use; can you tell us a little bit about what you think our goals should be there?

If you look at how we, humanity, have changed the planet, the number one way we have changed the planet is through agriculture and fishing. Half of the world’s forests are gone, and almost all of that is for agriculture. A third of the land area of the planet is used to grow food or graze animals.

We have to almost double the amount of food we produce in the next 40 years or so. It’s all about more yield. It’s about growing more food on the same land or less land. That’s the only way we can make it through the challenge of the next century of more people eating richer diets, eating more meat without chopping down all the world for us. That’s what it’s all about to me: higher intensity agriculture and more food out of that same acre.

What are some of the key technologies that you think will help us do that?

There is every sort of technology. We have better seeds, we have high-tech equipment that allows us to plant better, more precise irrigation, better applications of fertilizer and technology that scans the field and tells you where you need to apply fertilizer. Alltech has done an awful lot with animal feed that allows you to grow healthier animals that have better nutrition, so all of those play a role.

Can you tell me a little bit about Singularity University and the program there and your role in it?

I am the co-chair for energy and environment at Singularity University. Singularity University is really a think tank that does continuing education. We take executives and people in government and we give them a week of bombarding them with information about the cutting edge of technology. Artificial intelligence, biotechnology, robotics — and I talk about energy.

That sounds like a fantastic program. It’s great that you are trying to reach some of the people that need that information the most and that can put it to the best use. Are they all willing, or do you have to go out and draft them sometimes?

We are oversubscribed. There is a waiting list for every one of our programs because people see that technology is changing fast and if they want to survive and thrive in their company and in their government, they need to be abreast as to what’s going on.

Ramez Naam spoke at ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference 2016.To hear more talks from the conference, sign up for the Alltech Ideas Lab. For access, click on the button below.

An Interview with Jim Stengel

The following is an edited transcript of our interview with Jim Stengel, former CMO of Procter & Gamble and the author of “Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World’s Greatest Companies.” For Jim’s full bio, click here.

To listen to our entire conversation with Jim, click on the player.

Jim, you spoke earlier today about brands finding their north star, and you also were an author of a book called Grow. Is growth always good for a company? We have seen companies recently that have actually narrowed their focus a little bit because they felt like they were growing too much and in too many different directions.

I think a growth mindset is good, although option B is not good. Companies that are cutting costs and selling businesses may be doing that for a reason, but I don’t know how you build a culture of innovation, change and creativity if you don’t have a growth mindset. How do you attract talent if they don’t feel like they can grow their careers or opportunities?

I’m studying a lot of old and young companies now for a new book, and I look at companies like General Electric (GE), IBM and Ford. They are asking very different questions and expanding their view of their business, and I think they are creating new opportunities and attracting different kinds of talent. If you look at even GE’s corporate ads now, they are about the new kind of company they are: a digital company. They are seeking to recruit different kinds of people; they are reinforcing their culture in those ads. This is a company that has shed businesses and has restructured their business but is now thinking growth.

In their case, maybe it’s even keeping to the north star that you talked about, the innovation, and their focus now on innovation is taking on a digital component.

Yes — now they want to make the world work better by linking machines with better information. That’s their goal; they really want to transform the industry by bringing a digital mind and digital capability to the industrial world. It’s a beautiful thing.

In this landscape, how do you feel the role of the CMO is changing?

Well, the chief marketing officer today is a more important role in more companies. You can see there are more companies with CMOs, and there has been some analysis of companies that are growing faster than others. They typically have marketing as a stronger capability, and you’re seeing longer-tenured CMOs in that position.

Leadership is still very important. The way to motivate people, attract talent, bring out the best in people and set a direction for the company is still very important.

They have to be very comfortable with data analytics as well as creativity. They have to have both sides of their brain developed, and they have to be building an organization for the future that has those capabilities.

If they are relying on what they were good at when they were younger, it’s not enough. To me, great CMOs are curious and humble, creating a culture of curiosity, collective purpose and collaboration. CMOs today have to build the right capabilities but, actually more important, the right culture.

That leads into another question: You talk about ideals-driven companies. Is that idea built around transparency, and do you feel like companies are really moving to transparency, or is it just a marketing message?

No, I think they are moving to more transparency. Look at what’s happening in the beverage and food industry. Companies are being more proactive, more transparent. They are doing things they are not forced to do, but they realize consumers care and people have 24-hour access to any information they want. It’s an important part of being a brand today, so to me transparency is part of an ideals-driven philosophy. I think great brands and great business have a great ideal and have a reason to be; they have something that everyone understands. They need the behaviors to support that. If you’re Ford and want to re-invent transportation to get people from here to there in a more efficient and environmentally safe way, then your behaviors better be a part of that and support that. I think it’s part of being an ideals-driven company.

When we talk about growth, I think something that’s important for us as an international company is the idea of balancing centralization and consistency with localization in any market. Certainly that is something that you experienced with Procter & Gamble (P&G). What advice would you have for companies that are growing and becoming more international to balance centralization and localization?

I think the best brands have one purpose or one idea. They have a framework of what it means to their customers and employees, but then they allow the employees to have some freedom in that framework.

Alltech is one brand, so you want it to share a common purpose, have common characteristics, common behaviors and want people to share the same values about the brand. It has to be centralized and have an Alltech brand manager or franchise manager. Then if you’re in Russia, Italy or China, you want to give your local team the ability to seize opportunities to delight customers. They still have to be the values of Alltech and work toward the purpose of Alltech.

It’s a very delicate thing, but companies tend to go more decentralized. I think the trend is that you need more central leadership of the brand but then a very strong relationship with your counties. That’s what great brands do.

Lastly, what companies are on Jim Stengel’s watch list as far as doing marketing right, growth right and ideals-driven organization right?

Well, the good news is that there are a lot of them and a lot of them that are trying to move in the right direction. A brand that I don’t work with now but I know some people at and I just admire greatly is LEGO. Think about them: They have a very strong ideal and creativity and play. They are making content like crazy — movies, documentaries — endlessly innovative. Engagement scores are off the chart and they are still not satisfied with it. They enable their people to be free and creative, but they operate in a framework. They have a central leadership of LEGO, but the countries are able to capitalize on opportunities. Their profitability is growing. If you look at them versus their competition, it’s kind of night and day, so that’s one brand that I just think is doing so many good things.

From a corporate perspective, I like what Unilever is doing — a competitor of P&G. They really embrace trying to make a big growth goal. The way they get there is by reducing their impact on the planet. I think that has galvanized people to attract talent. They are doing very innovative and creative things with their brands that are good for the planet. This is a very large company that is pulling this off, so I like what they are doing.

I think GE is amazing to watch because their stock prices have begun to grow. Wall Street is beginning to reward what they are doing, and their culture is changing in a very deep way. They have strong leadership at the top from Beth Comstock.

These are a few I admire, but the good news is I think we have a movement in the kinds of things we’re talking about. There are more and more companies that are raising the game. They are behaving better, setting bigger goals and trying to make a difference. No one is perfect and stumbles along the way, but I do think we’re on a good trend. I am excited to see what happens next year.

Jim Stengel spoke at ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference. Audio recordings of most talks, including Jim's, are now available on the Alltech Idea Lab. For access, click on the button below.

Did you know that 95 percent of the world's food comes from the soil? When viewed in the light of a projected 9 billion mouths to feed by 2050—and the need to produce 70 to 100 percent more food than we do today to meet that demand—preserving soils is unarguably crucial.

World Soil Day is an annual day of recognition that takes place Dec. 5th. It has positioned soils front and centre as a major resource in the quest for global sustainability. The effort in highlighting the importance of soil received an added boost when 2015 was designated the International Year of Soils.

At Alltech Crop Science we want you to join us in celebrating World Soil Day by sharing some interesting facts.

Did you know?

• Soil is the basis for food, feed, fuel and fibre production. It is the reservoir for at least a quarter of global biodiversity and therefore requires the same attention as above-ground biodiversity.
• Healthy soil is fundamental to food security and nutrition. Approximately 95 percent of our food comes from our soil.
• Soil is teeming with life – soils host a quarter of our plants' biodiversity.
• More than one third of our food goes to waste – and up to half of our households waste could be composted to help create new soil.
• 11ha of soils are sealed under expanding cities every hour in Europe.
• Healthy soils play a key role in the supply of clean water and resilience to floods and droughts.

Want to know more about soil and what it comprises of? Dr. Mark Gaffney hosted a webinar titled What lies beneath – The hidden side of agriculture. You can watch it here. You can also find out more on Alltech Crop Science and its research on crop production here.

Join us in celebrating World Soil Day our social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Click here to subscribe to our Top Crop newsletter

Produced by molds, mycotoxins affect animal performance and producer profitability in many ways. Why are they such a significant risk to your herd?

What are mycotoxins?

Mycotoxins are natural substances produced by molds in the field and during the storage of grains, feeds and forages. With over 500 diverse types of mycotoxins discovered (yes, there are over 500!), it is a prevalent issue that can negatively affect your herd’s productivity, efficiency and profitability.

How do mycotoxins affect your herd?

Pigs are extremely sensitive to mycotoxins. The presence of mycotoxins, even at low levels in feed, reduces performance in growing and breeding animals, affects immune and health status, and can ultimately lead to death.

As crop harvest season approaches, mycotoxin contamination will be an even bigger issue. Weekly Monday Mycotoxin Report videos have reported on the poor quality of wheat and mycotoxin contamination.

The Alltech 37+® mycotoxin analytical services laboratory is also currently conducting a 2017 Summer Harvest Survey of wheat throughout the U.S. and Canada. Final results will be released in a couple of months, but initial samples show high levels of DON, T-2/HT-2 and zearalenone.

According to Dr. Alexandra Weaver, a mycotoxin management expert from Alltech, these are key symptoms that producers should be aware of if DON, T-2/HT-2 and zearalenone are present:

• Lower feed intake and feed refusal
• Gut health challenges: damage to intestinal tract, increase in intestinal pathogens
• Altered immune status: increased susceptibility to other diseases, poor response to vaccinations
• Reduced growth rates
• Impacts on reproductive performance: abortions, reduced conception rates, increase in mummies or stillborn, increased variation within litter

What can you do?

Programs such as the Alltech® Mycotoxin Management program provide a tailored solution to help control mycotoxins through a combination of mycotoxin management tools, mycotoxin testing and nutritional technologies.

Effective mycotoxin management is about seeing the whole challenge, from the farm to the feed mill and from risk assessment to feed management. Being proactive instead of reactive will benefit you and your herd in the long run.

I want to learn more about nutrition for my pig herd.

If, as the United Nations suggests, agribusiness is Africa’s best hope for economic growth and prosperity, what will it take to achieve broad and lasting success?

“Agribusiness plays a vital role in Africa’s economic development,” said John Young Simpson, director at the Singapore-based Duxton Asset Management, a specialist emerging market agribusiness investment company. “Based on figures from the International Finance Corporation, agribusiness accounts for 25 percent of the continent’s GDP and a significant 70 percent of employment.”

Seventy percent of the world’s uncultivated arable land is on the African continent. And, according to a Cato Institute report discussing what African nations need to do to develop and grow, “between 1990 and 2012, the proportion of the population of African countries with access to clean drinking water increased from 48 percent to 64 percent.”

Yet, despite the seemingly abundant opportunity, noted Simpson, “industrial potential has not been reached, with farm yields among the lowest in the world, and this is in turn due to numerous challenges.”

A “United States of Africa”?: Attempts to bring cohesion to the continent

“The biggest obstacles would be education and lack of infrastructure,” observed Nick Smit, Alltech vice president of Africa and the Middle East.

In fact, in the view of the Stellenbosch-based Smit, a lack of infrastructure is the single most important obstacle to African economic progress.

The continent contains dozens of countries of varying degrees of political, civil, cultural and economic strife and stability, its peoples communicating in more than 1,000 languages.

In 1999, leaders of 53 African nations began attempts to pull it all together. By 2002, they had created a new organization, the African Union (AU), to succeed a foundering Organization of African Unity (OAU). South Sudan became the 54th member state in the summer of 2011.

Conceived by then Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi as a "United States of Africa," its structure is loosely modeled on that of the European Union.

The Constitutive Act of the African Union calls for “a culture of good governance, democracy, rule of law and popular participation.” There are plans to establish an African Economic Community with a single currency.

Some critics, pointing out that many AU leaders are the same individuals who presided over the OAU, an organization that became known as the “dictators' club,” question whether the AU can ever be truly effective in bringing the various players of the African continent onto the same page.

“Africa has suffered tremendously from this in the past and continues to suffer, even in times when progress is being made,” observed Aidan Connolly, Alltech vice president and chief innovation officer.

Adapting to the 21st century

“Development of infrastructure is typically a government-level investment,” said Mary Shelman, former director of Harvard Business School's Agribusiness Program. “But it requires a long-term view, which is difficult when governments mostly have short-term orientation.”

And in agreement with Smit, she added, “It’s challenging to see market-driven, private sector solutions if governments can't be trusted to stand by contracts and policies.”

The need for costly pipelines, dams, irrigation systems, highways, bridges and other forms of public infrastructure only mounts, however, as governments become pressed to come to terms with what looms just over the horizon.

“Africa Rising”: The role of agribusiness

“The population of the world is due to increase by 50 percent in the next 30 years, from 6 billion to 9 billion people,” noted Connolly in the white paper “A GLIMPSE™ into the Future: A Lens through Which to Consider ‘Africa’s Rising.’” “Sub-Saharan Africa alone will account for one-third of that growth, as the population more than doubles from over 1 billion in 2013 to at least 1.9 billion in 2050.”

Citing forecasts by the International Monetary Fund, he noted that Africa has averaged GDP growth of 5 percent annually throughout the past decade, “and that pace is expected to continue, with GDP projected to triple by 2030, achieving a sevenfold increase by 2050.”

According to a 2010 report from McKinsey & Co., this recent growth is the result of inflation reduction (dropping from 22 percent in the 1990s to 8 percent in the 2000s), a two-thirds decrease in budget deficits and general institution quality improvements.

Taken in combination, these factors have inspired The Economist magazine to coin the phrase “Africa Rising” to describe Africa’s burgeoning population and economic growth and the implications for agribusiness.

Much of this activity is concentrated in the southern two-thirds of the continent.

“Sub-Saharan Africa has a current food deficit in many countries and the promise of even larger future demand due to population and income increases,” said Shelman.

Anticipating and positioning now to efficiently and profitably meet that near-future explosion in demand may present an opening for smart, sustainable agribusiness.

“I believe very strongly that the number one way to feed people is to have affordable food, and the number one way to produce food affordably is to allow intensive agriculture the opportunity to produce efficiently,” said Connolly.

Africa restructures for more abundant food production

The good news is that these dynamics are increasingly being taken into account as African agriculture is restructured to accommodate rapid growth.

“We have seen the acceptance of the private sector and multi-stakeholder partnerships really take root, as well as the development of lobby and organization bodies such as the Rice Council of Tanzania,” said Simpson. “This is largely attributed to the government-led economic and political reforms thus far, with a recent initiative being the establishment of Africa’s biggest economic bloc that allows for free trade over 26 countries across the continent.”

Shelman adds that there’s been a positive shift from focusing only on improving farming to the development of value chains.

“Focusing solely on increasing supply leads to surplus production, which, in the absence of markets, causes farm-gate prices to fall,” she explained. “We now understand the need to develop markets at the same time as supply so product can be 'pulled' through, enabling prices to hold steady and farmer income to improve.”

Additionally, Connolly noted that “there are some challenges for which agribusiness is actually the best hope for progress, most notably in supply chain management, markets and innovation.”

China as Africa’s deus ex machina?

Simpson, stating that Africa has a potential to meet more than the needs of its own population, cited research at University in Munich supporting a commercially oriented approach to land use, with sub-Saharan regions projected to reap the greatest benefit.

“Crops cultivated on current cropland at locations where they yield the highest profits could boost yields by 30 percent on top of an increase by almost 39 percent from multiple harvests,” he said. “Optimal agricultural practices can lead to a further increase of 80 percent.”

This potential is not lost on China, which is scrambling to manage its own exploding population of middle class consumers.

The result is that even while Europeans and Americans remain cautious, viewing Africa as a troubling source of instability, migration and terrorism, China has started to establish its influence on the continent.

“Dance of the Lions and Dragons,” a study McKinsey & Co. conducted to improve understanding of “the rhythm of Chinese business in Africa,” states that, “In a mere two decades, China has become Africa’s biggest economic partner. Across trade, investment, infrastructure financing, and aid, there is no other country with such depth and breadth of engagement in Africa.”

Since the turn of the 21st century, Africa-China trade has been growing at an annual rate of approximately 20 percent. Foreign direct investment has been even more aggressive, growing at the rate of 40 percent annually, the study observed.

It became even more noteworthy in the first quarter of 2017, when China’s direct investment in Africa soared by 64 percent, according to the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China.

China’s foreign direct investment in Africa, according to Simpson, has rapidly diversified to include central government-led, state-owned and private investments. It is both a donor and investor in Africa, he said.

“China has in recent years encouraged public-private partnerships and provided incentives for its agribusiness corporations to invest in African agriculture to develop sustainability, develop markets and expand trade,” said Simpson.

Speaking at a summit in Johannesburg in 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Beijing would plough $60 billion into African development projects.

According to the Graduate School of Business at the University of Cape Town, Xi’s pledge has been materializing. Trade and investment deals between Chinese firms and African countries include:

• A $300 million highway renovation project in Nigeria.

• A $230 million ferrochrome mine and smelter project in South Africa.

• A $200 million copper project in Zambia.

• A $60 million textile factory in Sudan.

• A $55 million cement factory in Cape Verde.

• A $30 million contract to build a telephone network in Ghana.

• A $5 billion China-Africa Development Fund administered by the China Development Bank.

• $2 billion in export credits and $3 billion in preferential buyers’ credits.

What drives China’s interest in Africa?

There are competing views about what motivates the aggressive scale and pace of China’s heightened presence on the African continent.

While China has supported many of Africa’s most ambitious infrastructure developments in recent years, Shelman is wary.

“Chinese business interests, which could potentially be proxies for Chinese government interests, could have enough investing power and political will to help address the infrastructure problems,” she said. “But I would not necessarily view Chinese interests as truly market-driven.”

Shelman’s perception is that “China needs the entire world, including Africa, to produce more so they can buy what they need, when they need it. My view is that their land ownership is an attempt to jump-start African production, and ultimately they may not want to keep these holdings. Others interpret this differently.”

The People's Republic has snapped up about 12 million acres of land to grow grains that get shipped back to China, according to Sara Menker, founder of the agriculture data company Gro Intelligence.

“The world doesn’t know about it because these are really quiet deals,” she told an audience at a Forbes Reinventing America AgTech Summit. “These are large-scale farming operations in sesame, wheat, corn for export to China. It doesn’t really interact with the African farmer. It doesn’t get traded locally. It is purely for Chinese export.”

Offering a competing alternative perspective, the McKinsey & Co. report stated, “around 90 percent of the 10,000 Chinese firms operating in Africa today are privately owned — calling into question the notion of a monolithic, state-coordinated investment drive by ‘China, Inc.’ Although state-owned enterprises tend to be bigger, particularly in specific sectors such as energy and infrastructure, the sheer multitude of private Chinese firms working toward their own profit motives make Chinese investment in Africa a more market-driven phenomenon than is commonly understood.”

African agriculture could be abundant, IF…

According to the 2017 Alltech Global Feed Survey, the last five years have seen growth in the African region outpace the world.

“This year’s growth was over 13 percent,” said the survey of Africa’s 2016 feed production. “Half of the countries grew strongly. Shining stars include Nigeria, Algeria, Tunisia, Kenya and Zambia, all of which saw growth of at least 30 percent.”

The World Bank estimates that African farmers could grow enough food to feed the continent — and generate an estimated $20 billion in earnings for their countries — if policy makers can agree to lift cross-border restrictions and simplify the rules and fees involved in food trade, according to Connolly’s white paper.

It’s a big “if.” The Cato Institute report finds many African countries plagued with regulatory hurdles. For example:

• A study by the Rwanda Ministry of Trade and Industry found that a truck driver traveling the 1,000-mile distance from Kigali to Mombasa, Kenya, must stop at 26 roadblocks and pay bribes (an average of $846) along the way. The study also found that it took 121 hours for drivers to make the trip.

• According to a World Bank economist, southern African truck drivers for supermarkets that cross a border can be required to carry a staggering 1,600 documents with them in order to comply with permitting requirements.

Connolly noted, however, that progress in reducing red tape is being made.

“Rwanda, South Africa and Botswana are now rated as in or near the top 50 (of 189) easiest countries in which to do business, according to the International Finance Corporation,” he said. “However, there is considerable scope for improvement: virtually all of the bottom 20 countries are in sub-Saharan Africa.”

The rapid pace of technological innovation also presents a major challenge to African governments, he said.

“Whether it is approval of a new type of crop protection chemical or regulation of the ownership of data collected in a field, agriculture requires dealing with complex scientific and legal matters,” said Connolly.

This is one area where agribusiness can assist. Agri-scientists are well-positioned to help reduce the scientific gap among industry, academia and government.

Additional applications of agribusiness expertise could address environmental sustainability as well as losses attributed to harvesting techniques, mold, insect and animal infestations in storage facilities, packaging and marketing.

The roadblocks

While Africa’s progress is evident, Connolly cited a formidable litany of continuing obstacles, captured in his GLIMPSE acronym: “government, losses, infrastructure, markets, people, science and the environment.”

What is clear, he noted, is “the central role of government, and indeed, not just mandating things, but also freeing businesses up in order to produce food more economically.”

In Shelman’s view, the opportunities for agribusiness in Africa are many.

“Fresh fruits and vegetables, and products like citrus and avocados that can be exported to Europe and other countries, can command strong prices if the transportation is available,” she said.

“The next opportunity,” in her view, “is to develop products for local markets, such as processing tomatoes in Nigeria and rice that can be substituted for imports.”

Meats and dairy, she said, “are more challenging due to the need for cold chain and processing capacity, but those are coming as the infrastructure develops.”

Back to the days of Alkebulan: Africa as our new “Garden of Eden”

Africa was known in ancient days as Alkebulan, meaning “mother of mankind” or “Garden of Eden.” Could its former name designate its destiny?

Time will tell.

The potential of the African continent is quite clear, yet the challenging impediments to its realization are many. But, keep watching. There is no doubt today that continent-wide change is not only coming — it’s already underway.

The pre-weaning growth of a dairy calf is a powerful predictor of long-term productivity and profitability. However, diarrhea is one of the most common antagonists resulting in poor digestion and less than optimal weight gain in calves.

A unique product derived from a selected strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been shown to enhance performance, including intake, growth and overall health, by improving gut health and digestive function.

A recent meta-analysis conducted by Dr. Anna Catharina Berge of Berge Veterinary Consulting BVBA has put Alltech’s product, Bio-Mos®, to the test.

Berge’s trials revealed that pre-weaned dairy calves fed Bio-Mos in milk or milk replacer had significantly improved average daily gain by an estimated 0.14 pounds per head per day, which corresponds to an 8.37-pound higher weight on average for calves weaned at two months of age. The long-term improved performance in heifers with enhanced pre-weaning growth would be equivalent to 220 pounds more milk in the first lactation!

“The results are a significant improvement in average daily weight gain,” said Aidan Connolly, chief innovation officer and vice president of corporate accounts at Alltech. “This improvement leads to greater returns for the producer through enhanced milk production, health and development, and long-term productivity.”

The meta-analysis included 23 cohort studies performed in the U.S.A., the United Kingdom, Brazil, Chile, the Czech Republic, India, Japan, Peru, Poland, Spain and Turkey between 1993 and 2012. Bio-Mos was supplemented from 2–10 grams per day, with an average inclusion of 3.8 grams per day. Twenty-one of the studies reported an increase in daily weight gain for calves fed Bio-Mos in milk or milk replacer compared to control calves.

As new restrictions come into play on antibiotic use, producers across the globe are beginning to take a closer look at natural approaches to improve animal health and performance. Choosing an alternative that is backed by substantial research is a sure bet for a smart start on any dairy operation.

For more information on Bio-Mos, visit http://alltech.com/bio-mos.

Pearse and Deirdre Lyons could not have known when they met decades ago as teens at a Dublin rugby club dance that they would one day find themselves driving around the streets of a section of the Irish capital known as the Liberties in search of just the right place to house their legacy.

This quest was not about Alltech, the global animal health and nutrition company they had founded and nurtured to remarkable success. This was personal.

The story, one animated by shared imagination and powerful determination to overcome all manner of obstacles, is expressed in the location, history and reincarnation of a deconsecrated church that had known better days.

And who better to relate the story of Pearse Lyons Distillery at St. James than the Lyonses themselves?

Photo Credit: Conor McCabe Photography Ltd

Locating their legacy

Pearse recalled the day he and his wife Deirdre explored the Liberties district, one of Dublin’s most historic neighborhoods that had once hosted dozens of breweries and distilleries.

“I wanted something in Dublin, and I wanted something that would be close to Guinness for the simple reason that 1.6 million people visit Guinness every year,” he explained. “I’m a businessman, and I thought, ‘Okay, I need someplace close to the 1.6 million people.’ So I was looking in that vicinity.”

“It just so happened that we were driving down James’s Street,” said Deirdre. “This is the area where Pearse’s father and grandfather and his grandfather before him all grew up. Pearse's very first job was at Irish Distillers, which was, at that time Paddy, Powers and Jameson whiskey.”

They came upon St. James, a church that had been built before the signing of the Magna Carta. In the last century, it had been repurposed as a warehouse and a store, but it was sitting abandoned.

Pearse saw past its state of disrepair and envisioned the opportunity as real estate just steps away from Guinness.

He bought it.

Was there hope in this forsaken place?

“My first thought was, ‘Oh, no!’” said Deirdre. “When we walked in, I couldn’t believe it.”

It was bad. Very bad.

“The roof was leaking in many places,” she said. “We had all kinds of water damage, plaster damage and neglect. The beautiful stone columns that had come from Caen in Normandy were painted magenta. Where the beautiful ceiling is now, previous owners had hacked out the stone on each side and put in steel beams and a staircase for a mezzanine and above that, another mezzanine. All the windows were blocked up with cement blocks, both inside and outside.”

Additionally, they soon discovered that a buddleia, or butterfly bush, had started to grow from the top of the church. It was so powerful that the roots had come down and broken through a wall 9 feet thick.

At this point, many would likely begin having serious second thoughts. The Lyonses instead prepared themselves to move forward with the project.

A new classification creates complications

A major twist in the plot occurred when, only two weeks after the purchase, they were informed that the old church was to become a national monument.

This new designation began a multi-year, multi-million euro excursion through a sea of time-consuming, costly renovation and restoration work.

“We had to remove all of the plaster,” said Deirdre. “We had to then build it back with new plaster, but the new plaster had to be of the 18th century-style. So that meant it had to be a lime plaster with a rough finish.”

Since it can take up to six years for lime plaster to completely dry, a special and very rare silicate paint would be required — and there are only three on the planet.

“One of them happened to be in Ireland!” said Deirdre. “I wanted this warm, buttery yellow, like a glowing ‘wrap itself around you’ feel. The Irish firm had five or six shades of white. So we said no. The next one was in Slovenia. They sent samples that were very yellow. Unfortunately, 48 hours after their paint was tested, it changed color. So we did more research and found a German company called Keim. They do a lot of restoration of historical buildings, particularly with the paints that were used in medieval times, which were very muted colors. That worked perfectly.”

But no sooner had the paint issue been solved then another challenge arose. The old church had long ago lost its spire. So Deirdre turned her attention to its replacement.

“There had been no spire on the church since 1954,” she explained. “It had been struck by lightning, and it became dangerous, so it was taken down.”

Deirdre presented ideas for a new slate, copper or stone spire, but every idea was rejected by city officials.

But, said Pearse, “Deirdre doesn’t compromise. She was going to do something spectacular. She knew what she was doing, and she would not take any shortcuts. It took them a while to realize that this was a woman for whom it wasn’t money; this was a passion.”

Deirdre has a fondness for glass and came up with a concept for a glass spire that could be lighted at night. That idea was rejected.

“I was so frustrated at this point with everything that was rejected that I sought out a meeting with the city officials,” she said. “We shared our drawings, and they found them to be unique and exciting. Since we didn’t hear anything negative, we went ahead and created the spire.”

Deirdre’s vision for the interior called for custom-made stained glass windows decorated with depictions of the brewing, distilling and coopering that had been so characteristic of the Liberties.

“We presented the renders for the stained glass windows, but they were rejected on the premise that it had been a Protestant church, which would not have had stained glass,” she said.

To move forward with the stained glass windows, the Lyonses were invited to prove that they couldn’t be read from the outside of the church. Deirdre took this as a go-ahead to produce one of the windows and install it, since it would be the only way to test it.

“We created the south window first, which explains the brewing process,” said Deirdre. “It took a long time to sketch it and go to the glass company, a little two-person company way up in the north, pick out all the glass and lay the glass the way we wanted — because we wanted to use all of the colors that would be associated with the industry, like gold, amber, copper, some black and some warm browns and yet put them in a way that was very easy to read.”

Photo Credit: Donal Murphy

Once they installed the window, they invited the planners and zoners to come see it.

After opportunity for review, Deirdre decided to proceed to the next window. However, when the concrete blocks were removed, a couple small lattice pieces were discovered. Because the lattice pieces were original, the window could no longer be removed.

“We had to create our window and put it on what I call a ‘goal post frame’ and float it off the window,” said Deirdre.

Photo Credit: Donal Murphy

Classic copper pot stills, custom-made for the distillery by the Vendome Copper & Brass Works in Louisville, Kentucky, were transferred from their County Carlow location to the site. With the attempted move, an entirely new round of frustration gripped the project.

“We were a quarter of an inch shy of getting them through the biggest door,” said Deirdre. “We could take the door off, but we couldn’t remove the arch because we were afraid that the stone would not be able to support itself.”

But, where there’s a will, there’s a way. Workers were in the process of reinforcing and replacing the building’s roof.

“We got everything structurally right and then we left one section of the roof open,” said Deirdre. “We had a crane lift them in.”

Photo Credit: Donal Murphy

A legacy project becomes an ancestral tribute

Excavation to make room for the building’s new mechanical systems yielded yet another surprise. This one, at least, brought with it a most amazing serendipity.

“We soon unearthed bodies that we hadn’t expected at all,” said Deirdre. “In those days, graves were dug very deeply, and bodies were placed on top of bodies.”

An on-site archeologist oversaw a careful process each time a body was discovered. Each one was carefully taken to the National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology, where it was examined, dated and photographed. The bones would then be returned to rest at St. James.

“To accommodate all those bones, we actually had to create crypts under the floor of the church,” said Deirdre. “There were two crypts already in the church, but we had to put in five more.”

Then, there was a startling discovery.

Among those buried in the centuries-old church graveyard was none other than John Hubert Lyons, grandfather of Pearse.

The revelation unlocked something long hidden in the recesses of his memory.

“At age 4, my earliest recollection is of going to a funeral, an Irish wake,” he explained. “I saw this person, and I remember them saying it was my grandfather.”

The year was 1948.

“His parents were on holiday in France and had distributed all of the little ones to various aunts and uncles in the area,” related Deirdre. “So, Pearse and his older brother were taken in a horse-drawn carriage with the hearse. But he never knew that it was a funeral until he grew up. He was too young. It was hushed up. It all flooded back when we realized this. That then made it very important to Pearse.”

This personal commitment would prove critical as myriad obstacles continued to mount. For example, the Lyonses would present 17 renderings of a proposed visitors center before a plan would finally be approved.

Breathing life into the Liberties

Pearse hopes the beautifully restored distillery’s presence and energy breathes new life into the neighborhood.

“When you put a beautiful place up, people tend to step up,” said Pearse. “There are going to be a lot of refurbishments. I hope we’re alive to see it.”

“I have to say that, even though it was probably the most challenging job I’ve ever done, it’s also been the most rewarding,” said Deirdre as she reflected.

“The builders said that they loved working with Deirdre because she never changed her mind. Never,” said Pearse. “She has the vision of what she wants to do. I think this is what makes us a formidable team. It’s telling our story. It’s history.”

Former Iowa Governor and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack recently led a discussion amongst four other past U.S. Secretaries of Ag — Dan Glickman, Ann Veneman, Mike Johanns and Ed Schafer — at the 2017 Iowa Hunger Summit. Their primary objective was to address a less commonly realized but ever-prevalent issue affecting U.S. citizens: food insecurity.

Some may be asking themselves what exactly the term “food insecurity” means. It is defined as being without consistent access to an adequate supply of reasonably priced, healthy food. And, while it may seem almost inconceivable for such a highly developed country to be dealing with an issue like hunger, according to the United States Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, it’s an unfortunate reality for some 41.2 million Americans living in food-insecure households.

Fortunately, the U.S. has one of the most comprehensive feeding programs in the world, offering the Woman, Infants and Children (WIC) program, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and National School Lunch Program (NSLP).

Yet, programs like SNAP have no restrictions. People may buy whatever unhealthy options they wish to, and often do. So, the question arises: Should we limit participant options? And, while we’ve come a long way from the days of food stamps and the associated stigmas, many feel that restricting offerings would only serve to further reinforce shame felt by program participants.

Domino effect

According to estimates from the 2015 U.S. Census Bureau, the official poverty rate is roughly 13.5 percent, meaning over 43 million Americans are living on an insufficient income. The nation also sits at a record high obesity rate; according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 36.5 percent of U.S. adults are considered grossly overweight. It would seem these two issues go hand in hand with the issue of food insecurity.

People are not only undereducated on nutrition but are often unsure how to prepare food. To put it simply, many people don’t know how to cook anymore. Without this knowledge, most seek quick, convenient and often calorie-dense options.

And we are paying a high price for these correlations:

• Globally, more people are dying of non-communicable diseases (e.g., heart disease and diabetes) than communicable diseases. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), unhealthy diets and lack of physical activity are some of the top reasons for premature death.
• Obesity is one of the biggest drivers of healthcare costs. In fact, the fastest growing part of the U.S. budget is healthcare. The United States spends an estimated $147 to $210 billion annually on costs associated with preventable chronic diseases.

Focus on nutrition, not just hunger

The panel did seem to collectively agree that nutrition education should continue to be a top priority. The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) was established nearly 50 years ago to help with nutrition and exercise-related behaviors for low-income families, particularly those with small children. SNAP to Health is another example of an effective program aimed at reducing food insecurity and promoting better nutrition for Americans. Additionally, many grocery store chains are now employing dietitians to help consumers make better choices, often at little to no cost.

How agriculture can help

We must continue to be proactive in our efforts to end hunger in this country. Not surprisingly, agriculture will continue to play a critical role. We are making headway with efforts such as the expansion of farmers markets and local food options, more widely available crop insurance and risk management tools, and the establishment of farm-to-school program grants for sourcing local foods. But the hard work can’t stop there. As our population continues to grow and weather patterns shift, we will need to continue to examine new resources, fresh ideas and innovative technologies, all aimed at making food insecurity a thing of the past.

How do you think the future of farming will impact issues like food insecurity? A panel of agribusiness experts recently discussed “Farming the Future” and what it may hold for not only agriculture, but the entire food supply chain.

Watch Farming the Future

Are you looking to rebuild or remodel your swine production facility? The prospect of taking on the rigorous endeavor can be daunting. Russell Gilliam, Alltech's U.S. swine business manager, has a list of areas that he feels are most important for rebuilding a facility to lower costs and increase comfort for workers and pigs. He asks questions that are important to consider and includes helpful tips from his 20 years of experience in the swine industry.

The following is a checklist with Gilliam’s suggestions, consolidated from his talk at ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference 2017.

What are your goals?

What would you like to accomplish? What type of market are you going to sell to? What do you already have in your barns that will work?

Picture your ideal operation. What does it look like? What does it not look like? If you have an ideal operation in mind, you can proceed to making the more technical decisions that are going to produce the facility that will help you reach your goals.

Master checklist for remodeling/rebuilding swine production facilities

Pens

• Crates or pens

This may differ based on your farm location due to laws and regulations.

Questions to consider: How big are your pens? How many pigs per pen? How big are the pigs?

• Penning equipment

“Oftentimes, we select our penning equipment based on the animals in the barn, and we may forget about the opportunity to increase worker safety and comfort while replacing gates,” said Gilliam.

Questions to consider: Does this work for the animal and employees?

TIP: A walk-through gate might be easier for employees to use. Easier access means better animal care and improvements in animal performance.

Facility

• Monitoring equipment

Will the facility be strictly for production, or will there be research done as well?

• Fans

There are different demands based on location and climate. Match your selection to the air quality expectations in your area.

• Heaters

What kind of heater do you really need? Will it be used for small or young pigs, or is one required to heat the barn throughout the life cycle?

• Concrete slats

Check the width of the opening. Is it too wide? Sometimes hooves can get stuck in slats that are too wide, causing injury.

Check the thickness of the slats. Are they strong enough to hold the pigs?

Research the supplier. Do they have a good track record in the industry?

LED or inexpensive lighting

Inexpensive lighting can reduce costs upfront.

LED lighting can extend the day length for pigs, stimulate feed intake and put workers in a better mood.

Although it costs more, LED lights may help you save money in the long run. You will need fewer lights, and they tend to last longer than inexpensive lights. There are also energy grants available in the U.S. for reduced electricity costs.

TIP: “Pigs don’t see very well, so we need to make sure we have the lights placed where they eat and drink,” said Gilliam.

Feed

• Electronic or manual feeding

Electronic feeding allows producers to track the animals’ eating habits in real time: if they are eating, when they are eating and how much they consume. This information can be seen by the producer on his/her phone anywhere.

Manual feeding (hand-feeding or drop boxes) allows for changes or alterations to be made while walking through the barn. Additionally, it eliminates the worry of technology breakdowns.

• Bins

How many bins are needed? Will they run in tandem? How many phases will you feed?

TIP: If feeding in multiple phases, consider adding bins.

Feeding system

There are numerous feeding systems on the market. Match your choice to your expectations and to the volume of feed that will be going through your barn.

TIP: “Keep in mind how many times (the feeding system) will have to turn corners in your barns because some technology can turn around corners easier than others,” said Gilliam.

• Feeders

What type of genetics are you feeding? How do they eat? All day? Three times per day?

TIP: For pigs that eat a certain number of times per day, make sure that the feeder is larger and has more space to help reduce aggression.

Water

• Water meters

“I’m a big fan of water meters,” said Gilliam. “I really feel like they help us to make early production decisions based on the health of our pigs, and it tells us when they’re stressed.”

• Water medicators

Water medicators make it easier to have water interventions. Interventions can be done more quickly and can be monitored to ensure the desired response. There are different styles and types of medicators, and they should be matched to their usage purpose and rate.

• Drinkers

Who is drinking: sows, nursery or grow-finish pigs? Will the drinkers be hanging, swinging or mounted to the wall? Will you use pans, cups or nibble bars?

Consider looking at different types of nipple technology.

TIP: Avoid spraying. In addition to water waste, spraying can scare young pigs. “If we splash them in the face, they have a little bit of reluctance to go drink,” said Gilliam.

Final thoughts

Gilliam said the following three items are his non-negotiables: water medicators, water meters and LED lighting. The extra benefits, especially for the health and welfare of the pig, far outweigh the extra costs.

New technology, such as sensors, can also be beneficial to your operation. Sensors on sows allow convenience and efficiency in multiple areas. They can send a message to your phone when the sow is ready to farrow, prompting a heat lamp to automatically turn on just for that sow and not the entire barn. This greatly reduces energy cost and is better for the overall care of the pigs.

One of the most exciting innovations, however, is electronic barn monitoring. Gilliam calls it “the future of (the pig business).” It allows you to monitor the barn remotely, see problems in specific pens and then communicate it to all your farm workers.

“I can connect every single piece of my farm to my phone and then send it right out to the internet so that my farm managers can see it,” said Gilliam.

Rebuilding or remodeling can be nerve-wracking. However, knowing where to be frugal and where to invest your money will help you make decisions that work best for your operation and, as Gilliam said, “give your animals the opportunity to reach optimum performance.”