How Robotics and AI are Revolutionizing Agriculture

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What if you could oversee and make adjustments — brushing every bug away or providing nutrients at the exact moment they are needed — at every stage of growth for a single fruit or vegetable?

It may sound like a pipe dream — but robotics and ai are making it a reality.

Gabe Sibley, Lawrence Ibarria, and Curtis Garner, the founders of Verdant Robotics, join the show to share how robotics as a platform is revolutionizing agriculture.

Listen as we discuss:

• Why solving agricultural challenges appeals to technologists
• The unprecedented control robotics and automation give agronomists
• Why robotics is the best tool for sustainable, organic agriculture

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Vonnie Estes, IFPA
Hello and welcome to fresh takes on tech. Today we are talking to a very exciting company, verdant robotics. Verdant has a platform that combines data analytics and crop applications like spraying and weeding into a single farming implement for specialty crop farmers. We're going to hear from all three co founders, Gabe Sibley, who's the CEO, Laurence Ibarria, who's the CTO and Curtis Garner, who's the COO. So happy to have all you guys together on this. So you each have unique backgrounds in robotics, please tell us about yourself. And how Verdant robotics was formed. And Gabe, why don't we start with you.

Gabe Sibley, Verdant Robotics
So Vern robotics got started, really, when Curtis and I were introduced to each other for by some old colleagues of mine that had also been working with Curtis. And they recognized I guess, like souls, and they put us together literally in a bar, he sat there across the table, and after we realized, sort of the combination of technology and agriculture, that we should probably get together, and they should probably foot the bill. And they did do you know, to their credit, so they helped us get started. And Curtis did a really good job, helping me understand that the needs in agriculture and the challenges that we face, and I found it utterly compelling, you know, and from that the rest was history. The same time I was working with Laurence, Laurence got wind of it, and like, Hey, I think I want to come along to at that point, I was just absolutely excited because I knew we had real trifecta.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA
Laurence, how about you a little bit about yourself.

Laurence Ibarria, Verdant Robotics
I have been working for 10 years in the Silicon Valley, on Nvidia crews, working on GPUs in graphics, artificial intelligence, autonomous driving, it's an exciting place to be. But I always wanted to do something more I wanted to build a product that will solve a meaningful problem. I wanted to build a product that I will be proud of that will we go there will help people. I was working with the game. And then there was this opportunity, we can go over to AG tech to agriculture. And that time point in time, all the technology that have been brewing up in robotics, it was perfect to go into prominent European culture is a lot simpler themselves driving is that I mean, we can do meaningful changes. And it coincided with a coming crisis of labor, less and less people want to do this job, it becomes harder, and we need to produce more and more food. So there was no reason why not to jump in. And Curtis,

Curtis Garner, Verdant Robotics
For me, it's been kind of a long road. I've always love computers and technology. In through my career, I kind of ended up in ag and started on a packaging tomato packaging facility, running the Ag operations over there and had a lot of fun, did a lot of automation projects. But then went to bowls farm in which was a 12,000-acre diversified row crop farm. And a couple of law changes were starting to happen, which was SB three and AB 1066. So minimum wage going to $15 an hour ag exemptions of overtime, going away, was going to roughly double the cost of labor on the farm. And as your listenership probably knows better than most farmers are price takers, not price makers. And so he's kind of looking at some of the labor costs on the farm and wondering how are we going to make up this difference. And it was through my passion for computers and starting to speak these ag tech events and had this chance meeting with the company that games talking about and getting into a room and really saw an opportunity to marry my passion for computers with the newfound love for ag and all of X challenges.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA
So I was just thinking about Curtis, like when we first met and to remember who introduced us.

Curtis Garner, Verdant Robotics
I don't remember who introduced us, but I believe I remember our first conversation.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA
Yeah, so it was Tim Nuss of Modern Acre, I had to look it up because I'd forgotten. But I was asked to do a talk at CES on 5g. And I didn't know anything about 5g. So I got in touch with Tim and I said Who do you know that can help me and He gave me your name. And that was like it was in 2019. Pre COVID Obviously, and Curtis was so amazingly with his time and kind of explaining what 5g was and what it could do and how I should talk about it at CES. And that's how I got to know Verdant robotics. And then I was so excited about the company. And I kept wanting to talk about it. You know, every place I went when people were saying, what's new technology. And so I kept saying to Curtis, you know, can I talk about it? Can I talk about it? And they kept say no, no, we're stealth and you know, I was just calling like every six months. Okay, I want to talk about this. So, so finally, I was really happy when you guys came out of stealth and start talking about the great stuff that you were doing and that's been a fun road Watching you guys grow. One of the things that I'm working on right now that I want to talk to you about is I'm doing this accelerator where we're trying to bring new technology into the produce industry. And so this technology, a lot of it is, you know, not mature technology, but developed technology in different kinds of industries and in different parts of the world. And so I'm putting an accelerator together, where we're going to have 10 to 12 companies that will go through a program and really learn about the produce industry and what the opportunities are. And so the applications are due April 4. So depending on when you're listening to this, you know, may have already passed, but we'll do it every year. Anyway, I wanted to hear from Laurence and Gabe, and just your thoughts on bringing new technology since you come from outside the industry and just how you thought about jumping into ag and what we might do to bring more technology to agriculture.

Curtis Garner, Verdant Robotics
A two-point game. That's a wonderful story that he tells that it is really the one of the founding stories of Verdant in all prompt gaming, and he'll definitely tell it but it's about Verdant robotics being verdant being green robots and the label or the caliber of talent we've been able to attract to Verdant in wine. Yeah,

Gabe Sibley, Verdant Robotics
I guess one way to talk about why we've been able to attract such talent advertent. And, and why it firstly, it's compelling. For me, it's a holistic endeavor, right? A lot of the folks that work here are outdoors men and women, you've got hunters and fishermen, and rock climbers and bikers and skiers and surfers, so people that genuinely love the outdoors. But a lot of the folks are used to working in a basement where the only light comes from the glow of a screen. And there's these deeply cerebral, you know, intellectual folks that have this whole other aspect of their being that has been separate from their professional lives. And at Verdant, we get to do a bit of both, you know, we get to work outdoors, we get to work with our hands. But we also do something that's intellectually really challenging. And at the same time, you know, when you're using 95%, less chemicals, and helping farmers farm way more profitably, you're helping people but you're also really helping the environment growing healthier food. And so for folks that appreciate the outdoors, and that hands on, you know, way of being that can marry that with their intellectual passion as well, it becomes this much bigger, more holistic endeavor. And that has attracted absolute top talent. And that's, you know, how we get guys that, you know, wrote the code for the Mars Rovers and the self driving cars and design all the lasers and the computer vision systems are Boston Dynamics, like really talented people, because it's a much more motivating, holistic endeavor.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA
So do you think you know, as we're thinking about bringing in new technology, part of that is then finding this really great talent and attracting them and then they bring the technology with them is that sounds like that's a way you think it's a good thing way to bring technology in.

Curtis Garner, Verdant Robotics
The way that I think about it is, it's a, an awareness problem on the side of the technologist, they don't know the needs that the produce industry has that that farming has. And so it's making them aware of it, everybody that we've hired, and a lot of the folks that I've talked to, and we've interviewed, they don't want to make the next Facebook, they don't want to make the next Instagram app or Tinder app, those aren't intellectually stimulating to them. Those aren't endeavors that are going to progress humanity. And it's really something meaningful in the work in helping humanity to move forward as a species.

Laurence Ibarria, Verdant Robotics
I have a greater story when we started Verdant, Curtis took us on a tour of several months to see many different crops, how are they growing on what the challenges they had before then? I didn't know what problems were that when I see those problems as an engineer, I want to go and build a solution immediately. Sometimes what we need is more awareness of what are we doing today? And people will just jump into fixing it.

Gabe Sibley, Verdant Robotics
Yeah, I think that's a really good point. It's the urgency and the need, and the fact that there's a real challenge and then gluing that together with just how important it is. And also, quite frankly, the technology's ready, right? There's capability now that we should deploy. I mean, I've been doing this for decades, and forever, it was like space and military, right. And, you know, about 10 years ago, the self-driving car world started to heat up and we're still waiting for that. So trying to find really valuable applications for this technology has not been obvious or easy. And everybody kind of imagines that we're going to have robots that do stuff for us and someday that will be true, but it's not a super obvious straight path. But in ag, it's like, we can do this, we can bring value, and we can do it now. And so it's super exciting time.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA
Yeah. And there's such an obvious need. And you know, but we're demanding more of robots to work in, you know, uneven ground and mud and rain and heat and cold. And so it's challenging for people like you one more question on this, and then I'll get off it. But obviously, you're entrepreneurs, but I look at you know, is it is? The bet is, is there a path for entrepreneurs to bring and develop technology like, like you all have done, which is very successful? And we need that? Is there also a path for some of the companies that own this more mature technology? Would they be interested in getting an ag and some of these companies that just are deploying these technologies in space and some other things? And is that a place we should look for technology? Or is that just too complicated?

Gabe Sibley, Verdant Robotics
If the answer is complicated, you know, why is it that successful, large incumbents have difficulty innovating into new spaces it you know, not to pick on Google. But you know, they have some of the smartest people in the world and some of the most advanced technology in the world, but they're not viewed as, you know, a fountain of novel successful companies. A lot of brilliant companies seem to languish. And really, people seem to languish. That's actually one of the reasons why we're able to hire because people ship something, and they don't want it to just sit there in the lab forever, and then get canned eventually, they want their lives to be dedicated to something meaningful. And there's something about the sort of raw existential nature of a startup where you know, all of the marbles are being played for. And I think it brings out the best in people. And that's kind of why startups can disrupt bigger companies. So I think we can view those bigger companies as training grounds for the people we're gonna hire.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA
Yeah, great answer. Thanks. Alright, let's move on to Verdant that you recently announced your robot as a service model. How is this unique? And how is this gonna specifically benefit growers?

Gabe Sibley, Verdant Robotics
Yeah, the robot as a service model does a couple of things, you know, first, and allows us to give farmers ROI from day one, you know, we're gonna have to talk about in years to pay back, it happens immediately. The technology itself unlocks so much additional value that, you know, some of the farmers we're working with are seeing like 50% reduction in costs. And we still have healthy margins, because fundamentally, the technology is unlocking a lot of value. There's also the fact that the technology is changing very rapidly. And if you adopt a model of like, you know, here's the keys and you walk away and drop off some hardware is going to be obsolete near. And, you know, that's a real burden for the owner is trying to operate that hardware, the value for what we're doing, we're at the stage where it's tip of the iceberg discovery of the value. And we have found that it's in conversations with growers and agronomists that we really find the transformative new value that simply didn't exist before. And that you won't get to those conversations if you don't have boots on the ground if you're not deeply engaged with skin in the game, partnering with growers. And so, we don't believe that the just drop off the keys and walk away model is going to uncover the real value, especially as the technology is changing so quickly. And so that led us to this Ross model where we partner with people.

Curtis Garner, Verdant Robotics
Again, maybe you can tell the story about Jeff Cohn beanie and Lodi farming in how we came to.

Gabe Sibley, Verdant Robotics
Yeah, this is a great story. So trying to figure out really how we could be helpful, you know, curse took us on the six month listening tour. So we made sure that we're not, you know, a solution in search of a problem, but we're really understanding the problems to get started because in the beginning, you know, honestly, the technologists don't at the same time, we want to pique the imagination of growers and agronomists so they can imagine what the technology could do. And so we're walking the farm out there. And Lodi, I was trying to figure this out. I said, Hey, Jeff, imagine if you had your best agronomist, standing here watching this apple cluster 24 hours a day throughout the whole season. And if anything happened, you didn't like you could reach out and adjust it. You know, if a fly lands on the wrong side of the leaf, you could reach out and brush it away. You could deliver exactly the right input at exactly the right time. What could you do? And Jeff was like, Wow, if I could do that I could grow at eight every time. I didn't know it at eight we're at Apple's prevent is better than 100 Apples prevent. So it's a bigger apple. And so I said well, you know, what's that worth? And it turns out is worth a lot. And you just can't do that when your broadcast spraying to do crop lead management. You can't control outcomes when you only do actions you know at one time per season, or a small number of times, but with computers And with robots, we can do it specifically per apple, you know, we can trap and track an apple from, but all the way through to harvest and give you a time lapse video of any apple in the orchard you choose. And so, you know, computers have that capability, people can't do that. And that then unlocks new value.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA
So what I've seen great videos of this working in the field and the information that it gives, what value does I give being able to track an Apple Blossom all the way through? How does that give value to apple production?

Gabe Sibley, Verdant Robotics
Well, so specifically for crop load management, you want to remove sort of four fifths of the apples on the tree, if you don't do that, you know, you end up with golf ball sized apples that aren't worth anything. And you want to remove them early, so that the carbohydrate energy in the tree is, you know, guided into growing fewer but much larger, or profitable apples, that's why you do Problem Management by doing it. When each blossom is ideally situated to be thinned, instead of doing it only a few set times, you're optimizing the outcome. So that allows us to shift the pack out and grow bigger apples. So the system is detecting and tracking and recognizing in real time, like, oh, I need to deliver pollen to that blossom. Now oh, I need to shoot fertilizer on that other blossom now to stop it from becoming an apple, thereby, you know, achieving crop load management. So that that type of value for a farmer is it's like two to 3x increase in net profit, depending on the variety that you're talking about Napoles

Curtis Garner, Verdant Robotics
Vonnie, I'm so excited about the program that you're going to put together because part of our challenge at Verdant is we have great relationships kind of on one side of the supply chain, and that's to the grower, but you represent your listener ship represent a whole other side of the supply chain, in one of the ideas for the future that we have, which already exists out there in some other companies. But you know, provenance tracking and knowing exactly where each apple or each head of lettuce comes from, we could system systematize that and having unique barcode for every single piece of produce.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA
Everybody's looking at that whole traceability for all sorts of reasons right now and trying to figure out how do you how do you pull that through, you know, all the way to consumers knowing and retailers knowing and that can have such value and in decreasing food waste throughout the chain and just more information. So this, the podcast series that this podcast is in right now is about sustainability. I've talked to a number of people about sustainability and some of the issues and we're seeing organizations adopt very different sustainability practices in their organizations. Your robots are collecting data along with doing spraying and weeding and how are your customers you in using the data now that you collect to enable greater levels of environmental stewardship and sustainability on the farm?

Gabe Sibley, Verdant Robotics
Yeah, so we've got great partners, like the folks we work with over it Bolthouse that are incredibly progressive. So they're really looking to, you know, they are forward leaning, when it comes to, you know, looking for making ESG real, how is it that they can get the metrics and track all the way through the system? So that those decisions are actually driven by real data on the ground? The problem with ESG? Forever has been that how do you actually know the metrics are real? How do you know the data represents what's actually happening, because we can give them those metrics, we can arm them with the data of here's what took place where here is actually an example of using 95% less chemical inputs, they then can glue that through and have really data driven discussions around how it is more sustainable, how it is actually hitting those ESG metrics, and make it a data driven quantitative discussion, instead of a more of a soft discussion.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA
And I think collaborations like that, like you're one with Bolthouse. And they're really taking the lead around regenerative and some of these sustainability conversations. And it's so valuable to have you working, you know, with the technology that you have, and enabling all of those decisions and discussions and Bolthouse working all the way down, you know, to retail with some of their products. And so those, as Curtis was just talking about when we really start looking at how do we get better and better information going through the chain. That's a great example of having these collaborations because you have to know what they want and what they can use. And they have to know what you can do.

Curtis Garner, Verdant Robotics
What are the unique values that Vernon can bring to the table and Lars can speak to it a little bit better than I can't because he's actually developing it in real time is we do three things. So we index act and then the Discover part. And so this discover part with ESG has to do with ABX testing and the ability to try different chemicals at different rates at different times across time zones and continents because we could replicate because it's machine to machine and give it a carrot field or an apple orchard, we can randomize the trial not just within a block, not just in a row trees or row carrots, but inside a tree individually and systematically track that through the computer. And so it'd be large can speak to a little bit better.

Laurence Ibarria, Verdant Robotics
The data we collect is actually very comprehensive. This decision of the farm, we know how the farm has been growing. We know the weather patterns, we know the speed at which the plants grow. We know also, what kind of chemicals have we delivered, and then scrub this was saying we can be drying, what would work best on the situation. And try is a way to have a systematic approach to how can we grow bigger, better crops, we're trying to apply this on an apples karats. And in other crops that we go, it's a long period of time. All of these wasn't possible before. Because you could do a test in very few fields with very few chemicals, but you will not be able to really control your variables. To really understand how things apply. You either need to have a very tight control, which means that your results don't apply to many places, or you are constantly testing everything everywhere.

Curtis Garner, Verdant Robotics
In what are the ideas that came to me by two different companies in two different commodities, they gave us the idea of actually applying organic methods on their conventional acres just because the customers like save marks, and Nestle's and McCormick’s of the world are driving that through to them. And so they would absolutely love to, to use organic methods in their conventional acres, which to me was just kind of a mind blowing idea that I didn't even think about that I didn't even relate. But it's been driven by the consumer through the value chain. And now we have a tool that can do that and track that over time, which is quite amazing.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA
Yeah, I was actually on a organics panel yesterday. And and one of the questions that I was with two other people who were very deep in the organics industry. But one of the questions that I was asked was about new technology use in organics. And so many of the technologies don't fit into the standards, the organic standards governed by the USDA. And but I think what some of the stuff that you're doing does fit and actually use you as an example of technology that that they can use. So talk a little bit about the weed killing capacity, and just some of the things that you can do that would fit into an organic operation.

Curtis Garner, Verdant Robotics
Yeah, that's exactly where the conversation came from. So it was very large garlic company would like to not use Cloud phosphate within their conventional acres. And the same went for a very large Winegrape producer. And so they both have the same idea that's both driven by their customers. But it was around the glass phosphate issue from the consumers. And then being able to apply organic herbicides, which are contact materials that don't have herbicide carryover, or any residue issues, there's no real risk to human health with the materials that we use. So it's, it's much better for the environment and much better for humans. And so they really wanted to do that, which was just kind of a very exciting conversation for me to have, because I didn't think of it myself, it came from the customers.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA
You can catch it earlier, right? Because you can actually get the weeds before the eye can see it because the computer can see it. And you have to use so much smaller amount of whatever material you are using. So it is it's a great opportunity. Yeah,

Curtis Garner, Verdant Robotics
Absolutely. Our technique is to go early and go often. And we can use less efficacious materials and go more often, at some point in time, we'll turn on the autonomy. There's a lot of folks here that have done self-driving cars and self-driving vehicles on other planetary bodies. And so it's a technology that we have in our back pocket. And once that technology is unleashed, labor is almost free, you can start to think of it. And that's how we've really been able to pique the imagination of the customer. And it's like, if you imagine Labor's free, what would you do if you could pay for an agronomist to sit there and babysit Every Apple, every carrot? What would you do? And it's through those conversations and piquing their interest that we come up with these transformative aspects.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA
Yeah, I bet because that's like no one. No one would even think about that. Because, like, how would you even start thinking about that? Because it's not possible. But I imagine you start having these conversations of you know, if this were possible, how would you farm and that really changes how people look at things.

Curtis Garner, Verdant Robotics
It's a real conversation. It takes time it took us several meetings with Jeff to for him to understand exactly what we were trying to say in the messenger trying to convey. So it takes a minute to lambda that it took us a minute to really understand what he was trying to say to us and what the real value that he saw that we could bring to the table. So it's a conversation that evolves over time. And the only way it happens is if we get our boots dirty, and we rub shoulders together often.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA
So switching gears a bit, we're all worried about the geopolitical humanitarian an economic crisis caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which can quickly turn into a global food security crisis. So how does startups like Verdant play a role today, or perhaps in the future and these types of issues?

Curtis Garner, Verdant Robotics
Vonnie you're absolutely nailing it, it's a really hot button issue for us. So Russia and China are the world's manufacturers of fertilizer, our customers have seen a 300% increase in their price of fertilizers, you know, 25% of the wheat for Africa comes out of the Ukraine. So we just see this energy crisis, a humanitarian crisis in this food security, that's a national security issue for all nations, and we're so happy to be in a place to deliver the technology that is a solution to that need to that problem, we can grow the same amount of food if not more, with 60 to 90% 95% less inputs. And so we could take the amount of fertilizer we have and we could stretch it much farther, and we could still grow the world's calories.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA
So final question to each of you what makes you most excited about the work you're doing at Verdant now? Laurence, why don't we start with you,

Laurence Ibarria, Verdant Robotics
For me excited is building. It starts by helping farmers and growers solve the problems that we have today. And we will issue but as I look forward, Verdant’s mission is robotics at large, we are looking, we know what ideal world we would have many other companies join. That's actually what really emotionally

Curtis Garner, Verdant Robotics
Yeah, for me, Vonnie took me 30 some odd years to kind of dig in internally and figure out what my values and my system was. But I really learned that I drive a lot of value in life from significance and impact. And I'm just so grateful to be here with these three gentlemen is opening Pandora's box to have technology to the agriculture, the Pandora's Box, probably a bad analogy. But a computer vision is going to fundamentally transform agriculture. And we're just at the beginning of that, and for us to be at the forefront in delivering this technology. I'm so excited, so thankful to be here, we've changed the world. Nobody knows about it. Thanks to you, more people will know when this podcast comes out some I'm so grateful for that. And I'm just really excited. It's really the tip of the iceberg is scape Center.

Gabe Sibley, Verdant Robotics
For me, working with farmers has been eye opening, growing food that's healthy and good for people is just a fundamentally good thing to do. So it's fantastic to be involved in an industry that's in my experience so far just chock full of good people doing hard work that's really meaningful. The fact that's married with the bigger robotics technology mission, you know, what does it mean to automate work in a successful way, you know, the day that humanity works wakes up and our chores are done. That's a success for humanity. And we're at the very beginning of that sort of automation transformation. And I think some of the most meaningful work that's going to happen in that is really in ag. So it's a great comment, the fact that it is sort of this holistic endeavor is really fantastic. It's totally motivating. It's good work to do. It's fun work to do is challenging. So it's totally engrossing.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA
I think Verdant is such a great example of bringing really smart people smart minds with new technologies into the industry and starting to transform the industry. And so I really hope that other people hear this podcast and are inspired by what you all do and think about what big problems that they could solve. And nothing's more important than food. You know, we all need it every day. And so I'm so excited that you guys are finally out of stealth mode and really making an impact. So before we wrap up, where can people get in touch with you and learn more about Verdant?

Gabe Sibley, Verdant Robotics
I think the easiest thing if you want to learn more about Verdant robotics is just to head over to Verdant robotics comm there you can find information about how to get in touch with us. And you know, if you're a farmer, if you're a grower, please reach out. We're busy scaling onto new farms every day. And it's great time to get in touch.

Curtis Garner, Verdant Robotics
Great. And I'd say if you're a retailer or distributor or on the other side of that supply chain, we'd love to talk to you as well. We'd love to learn more about the industry as a whole.

Vonnie Estes, IFPA
Fabulous. All right, thank you very much. It's great talking to you. Thanks so much, honey.
Thank you. Bye.

Thank you