Mary Fernandes, President of Solis Agrosciences, discusses Plant Pipeline as a Service (PPaaS), plant transformation, gene editing and the future (or the now?) of food on today’s episode of The Plantbased Business Hour.
Specifically, we discuss
- What is Plant Pipeline as a Service?
- What is the demand for PPaaS?
- What is Plant Transformation? Gene Editing? Why do we need these things?
- What is GMO? Is it bad for you? Can we feed the world without GMO and without tech in our food?
Below is a highlight clip and transcription from our long-form conversation.
Elysabeth: I want to bring on today’s guest, Mary Fernandes, who is the president and co-founder of Solis Agrosciences. Mary, thanks for being with me today.
What are your predictions for the sector in the next three to five years? I know you work beyond food, but the economy has been under attack. Life has been under attack. People have been under attack. I mean I don’t know which subject isn’t under attack at the moment. Impact investing is under attack. It’s been kind of wonky times there in the investment world, etc. What are your predictions for the next three years, let’s say, for the sector?
Mary Fernandes: I think data is going to become more important. Precision farming, you know, understanding the climate and all of the information that farmers need to grow their crops is already getting very automated and it’s going to get even more precise. So, for example, we know that worldwide corn crop yields are expected to drop by 24% in the next ten years, according to NASA. That is something that we all are going to have to deal with, climate change. It’s not so much a prediction because everyone knows that it’s common knowledge, but how we deal with that is going to be very important. All of these companies that are helping farmers do a better job in growing their crops are going to see a real uptick.
I think companies like Solis that democratize access and provide services and tools to allow others to unleash their creativity and deploy solutions, you know, that’s going to be game changing and we’re one of a kind right now. But maybe there will be more, and we can all help drive the sector up.
New episodes are out every week. Never miss the Plantbased Business Hour or Minute. Subscribe on iTunes and Youtube, and sign up for the newsletter. Follow Elysabeth on Linkedin. For information on Plant Powered Consulting, click here.
