S6 Ep12: Revolutionizing the Food System Helps Build an Inclusive World with Rick Vanzura
“In the long run, we need all forms of ag(riculture)— they all play their particular role. The more forms of ag we have, the greater the food supply; the greater the diversity of the food supply; and the greater the options we’re providing. So at the end of the day, that allows the consumers to make the choice and not have the choice forced on them based on the limitations of the agricultural system.” — Rick Vanzura
Food security is a pressing global issue that requires concerted action from multiple sectors to solve. In many cases, communities are far away from reliable sources of fresh, healthy, and affordable food. This distance can lead to a number of long-standing barriers that prevent these communities from accessing the food they need. Fortunately, modernized food systems have the potential to help in achieving sustainability in food production and consumption on a global scale.
Freight Farms is on a mission to create a global infrastructure of products and services so that people around the world can enjoy fresh and accessible food. Their use of Agriculture Technology yields plenty of benefits, especially in urban vertical farms. By utilizing this process, their network of farmers can produce larger yields with smaller energy inputs, while maintaining a scalable and easy-to-replicate design that is also ideal for both small and large businesses.
This week, Justine and Freight Farms CEO, Rick Vanzura discuss how this modernized farming method impacts the farmers, entrepreneurs, consumers, and ultimately the planet. They also talk about how much space, resources, and technological know-how is needed to start your own farm; how to customize your own crops; common mistakes in ag-tech farming, and much more!
Connect with Rick:
Rick is the CEO of Freight Farms, a sustainable, hyper-local, fully traceable growing solution that uses no soil and minimal water. He has spent the last 25 years in President/C-level roles at major consumer and tech brands, including Fortune 5 companies and start-ups. He has also been an active board participant in every company he has served since 1994 and his current role reflects his interest in sustainability and environmental causes. Rick has received numerous awards and recognitions for his achievements and has been featured in major publications and spoken at various universities, including Harvard and Santa Clara.
Episode Highlights:
00:53 Growing Hyperlocal Fresh Food with Freight Farms
06:17 Finding the Right Mission
11:15 Customize Your Crops
14:54 Soil Ag vs Agtech
19:25 Connecting Communities With Agtech
22:30 Start Your Own Farm
26:44 Common Mistakes About Agtech Farming
Tweets:
Creating a sustainable global infrastructure to revolutionize local access to food is essential for our future. Learn how technology is helping create a more equitable system that will benefit everyone with @jreichman and @FreightFarms CEO, Rick Vanzura. #podcast #entrepreneurship #socialgood #inspiration #impactmatters #NextGenChef #EssentialIngredients #FreightFarms #Agtech #verticalfarming #farmers #entrepreneurs #customersuccess
Inspirational Quotes:
00:36 “The best things are the ones we've waited for— they come with the greatest reward.” —Justine Reichman
09:08 “You don't have to have a farming background because the software does so much of it for you.” —Rick Vanzura
15:10 “Different people want to accomplish different things with what they're eating. And that's an aesthetic choice— it's not a choice tied to nutritional value.” —Rick Vanzura
16:32 “In the long run, we need all forms of ag(riculture)— they all play their particular role. The more forms of ag we have, the greater the food supply; the greater the diversity of the food supply; and the greater the options we're providing. So at the end of the day, that allows the consumers to make the choice and not have the choice forced on them based on the limitations of the agricultural system.” —Rick Vanzura
18:19 “Greater access changes the whole platform for people.” —Justine Reichman
20:07 “Farmers around the world and their collective experience add a ton of value beyond what we can do on our own.” —Rick Vanzura
20:50 “Our ability to succeed is a hundred percent tied to our customer's ability to succeed.” —Rick Vanzura
29:09 “Sampling is one of the most powerful sales tools you have.” —Rick Vanzura
Transcriptions:
Justine Reichman Welcome to Essential Ingredients. I'm your host Justine Reichman, with me today is Rick Vanzura. He is the CEO of Freight Farms. Welcome, Rick.
Rick Vanzura Thanks, Justine. It's great to be here.
Justine Reichman It's great to have you here. It took us a while, but we're happy to have you here now.
Rick Vanzura Yes.
Justine Reichman So the best things are the ones we've waited for. Right? They come with the greatest reward. So
Rick Vanzura We'll try and make it that way.
Justine Reichman Exactly. So for those that are not familiar with Freight Farms, can you give us just a little quick overview before we dig deeper and get into our conversation?
“The best things are the ones we've waited for— they come with the greatest reward.” —Justine Reichman
Rick Vanzura Sure. We've been around about 10 years. And we build farms, provide software, and consumables that allow you to grow about two and a half acres worth of food in an 8 by 40 foot customized shipping container, anywhere in the world from temperatures ranging from minus 40 to plus 120 degrees. And we are now in 49 US states, 40 countries, we have the world's largest network of IoT connected commercial farms. And we're operated by both for profit and not for profit organizations for a whole host of reasons. But it really comes down to growing hyperlocal sustainable fresh produce anywhere anytime and democratizing access to food.
Justine Reichman Okay. So we packed a lot in there and I really appreciate that. But now, I want to break it down a little bit so that everyone understands what we're talking about. So you mentioned IoT. And for those listening, I would like to just ask you, what is IoT?
Rick Vanzura Yep. So IoT stands for Internet of Things. And that's really connecting the Internet to devices that allows you to make the most of them. So our software is connected to our hardware or farmhand software, and it's internet enabled. So the benefit of that is, you can take advantage of the software and operate the farm from literally anywhere in the world, mobiley and take advantage of all the capability that the internet provides.
Justine Reichman Okay. So give me an example if you wouldn't mind of, or give me a couple of examples of where are some of the places people have these farms?
Rick Vanzura Yep. So we're in the Middle East, we're in Northern Europe, we're in Tasmania, we're in Egypt, we're in Mauritius, we're in the Yukon and Canada, again, we're in 49 US states. So we're all around the world. We're in every continent except for Antarctica and unfortunately, South America, hopefully we'll get there this year. But again, that's one of the great advantages is anywhere you are in the world you can have the exact same climate as any other farmer growing your particular crop because the farm will control the environment for you.
Justine Reichman Interesting. So is there a certain amount of space you need for this farm?
Rick Vanzura Yep. So the containers are 8 by 40 feet. So we recommend that people have two foot perimeter around the farm so they can operate. So you need a 10 by 50 foot flat piece of land that's capable of supporting eight tons and hookups to power and water and the internet, and then you're off and running.
Justine Reichman And then are they managing this on the internet or are you managing this on the internet?
Rick Vanzura Yep. So it's really a combination. So one of the values of having this farmer network is we've been able to take that collective experience to create recipes for specific crops. And if you just want to grow a crop according to that recipe, romaine lettuce, you click romaine lettuce, and the software will manage it for you; light cycling, nutrient delivery, interior environmental control, temperature, humidity, etc. Or if you're an expert farmer or trying something where we don't have a recipe and you want to do your own thing, the software allows you to do that as well. Through the software, not only the farmer has access to it, but we have access remotely to all farms. So we're able to do diagnostics and have our customer success team help out if any of our farmers in the field want to check in and ask a question about something.
Justine Reichman So I'm super curious. What's your background?
Rick Vanzura Definitely not ag tech. So I started my career in consulting in banking and I won't take you through blow by blow but most of it has been in consumer multi unit, either restaurant or retail. I was Co-COO of Panera Bread, founding CEO of Wahlburgers, the celebrity burger chain, which could be its own podcast, chief strategy and business development officer for GameStop. And no, I don't own a boat code stock [inaudible] off a game stockp. And then I used to run International and Walden books for Borders Group, the book chain back in the
Justine Reichman I remember Walden books.
Rick Vanzura So do I. I loved them.
Justine Reichman I remember going to bookstores.
Rick Vanzura Yep. We're at Barnes and Noble last night. So it was great to see even if it's not borders that in the day of online there's still a home for physical books, which I love.
Justine Reichman I like strand books. But
Rick Vanzura Yeah. [inaudible] as they would say.
Justine Reichman That was my favorite bookstore. So with all that, what was the inspiration for this? I mean, your background is clearly, I mean, it's vary, right? Robust, impressive, all of those things. And so what was the inspiration for this and how did you get from there to here?
Rick Vanzura Yep. Well, we have three children. Two, I would describe, for lack of a better term is, pretty woked, one would be particularly woked including a now a vegetarian had been vegan. But she came to me one day and essentially said, Hey, Dad, way to live the capitalist dream, but when are you going to do something for the planet and the greater good. And, you know, during my time at Wahlburgers, frankly, I was troubled by the thought of sort of promoting methane production via cattle, and we are one of the early adopters of Impossible Foods. So when the two co founders of Freight Farms approached me about joining, and describe this mission, these dual missions of democratizing access to food and providing this hyperlocal sustainable resource, I was like, Wow, sounds like the right mission at this point. But I also liked the business model, and thought that it could scale because I like running larger businesses. So three years later, still around.
Justine Reichman Wow. Okay. I mean, it's always amazing that, you know, these kids are so forward thinking. I think back to when I was young, I thought I was so much more mature. I wasn't forward thinking. I wasn't that smart. These kids today are so forward thinking. They're so smart and they're so inspirational.
Rick Vanzura Yeah. So much more access to global information and global points of view than certainly I know, I had growing up in New Mexico. So yes, and our kids are examples of that every day.
Justine Reichman Yeah. I mean, I think culturally I was exposed to when I went to United Nations school, but that was more about culture. It wasn't really about the impact, you know, on the world and global and our planets. So I'm always super impressed and wow, so okay, so where are you guys in the US?
Rick Vanzura We are in every US state except for South Dakota.
Justine Reichman So why not South Dakota out of curiosity?
Rick Vanzura That's good question. I think just South Dakota is obviously not one of the bigger states. So there's just less of a pool of available farmers. Hhaving said that, extreme climates is where we really shine. So we should be in South Dakota, and we're making it a mission to get there.
Justine Reichman And what's the response been from the farmers on this?
“You don't have to have a farming background because the software does so much of it for you.” —Rick Vanzura
Rick Vanzura You know, it's my favorite part of the job is really getting to interact with the farmers because they are by and large, mission driven, as well. And they all have really varied backgrounds. One of our, you know, value propositions is you don't have to have a farming background, because the software does so much of it for you. But that means we have people sort of come from every walk of life, profession. It's a pretty broad age group from folks who right out of college want to do this as an entrepreneurial, mission driven venture to folks and retirement too, aren't really ready to retire on their own business to everything in between. So I would say, you know, the reaction always starts is kind of a wow, when you just look at the technology and you hear about it, it's a wow. And then it go through, I'd say a little bit of a shock and awe phase because at the end of the day you're still farming. They're still tasks, you still need to have attention to detail, and it's still a job. And then after kind of get through that, it's really, I would say this shared sense of community and mission and pride in what they're doing. And we hear that a lot that people feel good about the mission, and also just being in such close proximity to food. And, you know, for folks who are used to commercial produce that's been shipped 1000s of miles, and it's already several days old, when they consume it, getting hyper fresh. It's just a revelation, like, what flavor and texture, color, everything can be settled that part of the, like, wow, factor stays.
Justine Reichman I mean, the accessibility to have all the different kinds of produce is, I mean, here in California, we get amazing produce, right? And I remember, when I first moved here, I got different produce than I did in New York, at different times of year. And I had to learn what to cook because it was very different. And it was interesting. So I'm curious, because now with what you're saying, you're gonna have a completely different experience, right? Because you're regulating, and you're choosing what you want, if I'm understanding correctly.
Rick Vanzura Yep. That's right. That's right. And part of the choosing it, you know, if you're in an extreme climate or a resource deprived place, whatever you grow is going to be dramatically different, because it's the only way to get it locally. I would say we still have plenty of farmers in California. And as you said, obviously, produce is plentiful but one of the advantages of the farm is because it's highly controlled. You can create custom characteristics like a spicy or spicy arugula, or grow hard to grow specialty crops, like a wasabi arugula. So even in California, you can offer somebody something that they don't normally have. And so I would say to that extent, in some ways, we can be even more surprising in California because folks ago, I live in California, I've had, you know, romaine lettuce or arugula or french radishes, we're like, well, try this one grown this particular way under this recipe and see what you think.
Justine Reichman Oh, that sounds fun. I want to do that in my garden. I'm sure you
Rick Vanzura Control it tightly though.
Justine Reichman And I'm sure this is something that's really appealing to chefs.
Rick Vanzura Absolutely. In fact, one of our favorite success stories is MGM greens in Montgomery, Alabama. They use their farms to supply their restaurants under vintage hospitality is a key part of differentiating the experience for them. And last year, they won Alabama restaurant of the year, and this year, or I should say, in 2021, they won restaurant of the year. In 2022, their executive chef, Eric Rivera, won chef of the year, so we took some vicarious pride from participated in that.
Justine Reichman I mean, I know that when they do a lot of the building now, I remember this from when I was lived in New York, on top of the buildings, a lot of the chefs and the restaurants were building their own gardens to use for cooking, right? So if they have the space, whether it's New York, Nashville, wherever, Florida, wherever they could, if they have the space, Napa, put your garden and then really go to town on what they're providing. Because a lot of them are already doing their own gardens, but why not make it more unique and diverse. Is there any downside? Is there any-- are you getting any pushback for any reason? Is there any thing negative?
Rick Vanzura Well, I would say per individual for an individual restaurant, you may not need two and a half acres worth of crops.
Justine Reichman Okay, fair enough.
Rick Vanzura Yeah. So a lot of our a lot of our growers focus on restaurants as clients. And then I would say, from our restaurant standpoint, you know, there's really no downside because you're getting something that's unique and different, and that is why it's one of the primary markets for our growers, because chefs really appreciate getting something that will set their menu apart, and being able to have a source where you can get that consistently because you can control that climate year round.
Justine Reichman Right. I mean, to me, I love to cook and I love to be different and unique. So that sounds fun. I'm curious, I know that many times they say you should eat locally and you should eat what's growing in that season. Have you thought about that?
“Different people want to accomplish different things with what they're eating. And that's an aesthetic choice— it's not a choice tied to nutritional value.” —Rick Vanzura
Rick Vanzura Yeah. So totally get that sort of the Alice waters, aesthetic and I am all for creating seasonal menus that celebrate the seasons. Having said that different people want to accomplish different things with what they're eating. And that's, I would say, that's a aesthetic choice. It's not a choice tied to nutrition or any sort of fundamental, you know, lower tier of Maslow's hierarchy of value. So, if you're a chef that just wants to use local farms and purely track the season, more power to you. If you are a chef that says I want to do mostly that but I also want to have an occasional surprise and delight for somebody who say, Wow, I actually get to go counter seasonal with this thing, then we provide you that opportunity. And then for other chefs, who say, I really either don't want to be bound by the seasons, and what I can offer, or what's important for a lot of chefs, for whatever reason, I'm just not in the mode, where I can constantly be rotating my menu, I want consistency, but I would like consistency around a temperamental crop, then we can provide you consistency as well. So, you know, on a broader point, I get asked a fair amount about well, you know, indoor ag versus soil ag, what do you think wins or is more important. I say, you're creating a false question. In the long run, we need all forms of ag, they all play their particular role. And the more forms of ag we have, the greater the food supply, the greater the diversity of the food supply, the greater the options we're providing. So at the end of the day, that allows the consumers to make the choice and not have the choice forced on them based on limitations of the agricultural system.
Justine Reichman I think it also gives greater access. Because it goes back to our original-- my original comment was that, in some places, we just don't have the same access. And you're also providing access to those that don't have the same access you might have in one place versus another. So outside, you know, for chefs, it provides one solution, for others it may provide another solution. So, you know, I asked that question, because I know that some of our listeners are interested in that. But I also think we have listeners that are around the world and around the country that may not have the same access. And for them, this could be a very good solution. And I think, you know, that's not to be glossed over, right? I think that that's really important to hear that in some of those places, you don't have the same access to those vegetables. And, you know, it's also about variety, too. Sometimes you just want a little bit of variety. And then you have people that, you know, just they need to be able to have access where there isn't any and it's not affordable, and to be able to access it, it's just very expensive. So if by doing this, you can then have greater access. It changes the whole, you know, the whole platform for people.
“In the long run, we need all forms of ag(riculture)— they all play their particular role. The more forms of ag we have, the greater the food supply; the greater the diversity of the food supply; and the greater the options we're providing. So at the end of the day, that allows the consumers to make the choice and not have the choice forced on them based on the limitations of the agricultural system.” —Rick Vanzura
Rick Vanzura Absolutely. And I think I mentioned earlier that that really was the founding mission of the company was democratize access to food. Our orfganization requires making it accessible anywhere, making it affordable, and making it easy for anyone to farm. So yes, accessibility is at the core of what we're about.
Justine Reichman You know, I tried to ask all the questions so that we can really talk to everybody that's listening and watching because there's so many different types of people here. We have founders and researchers and people that are building better for your businesses and good for you businesses, which is what I like to call these, because they're not just better for you. They're good for you. So how long have you been doing this now?
Rick Vanzura So I personally had been at it for three years, the company's been around about 10.
Justine Reichman And so what are your what's your plan in the next let's just say three to five years for Freight Farms?
“Greater access changes the whole platform for people.” —Justine Reichman
Rick Vanzura Yep. So job one for sure is customer success both on the for profit not for profit side. So a huge part of what we invest in is fundamental research on improving crop yields, improving crop diversity, developing new crop characteristics, developing better business tools for our for profit farmers to help them be successful. Develop programming like stem for our not for profit customers who would like some programming to go with it.
Justine Reichman It is a great idea. I love that.
Rick Vanzura And then a big part of it is connecting the community because at this point, we have over 1000 farmers around the world and their collective experience just adds a ton of value beyond what we can do on our own. And then for us, you know, our core solutions, our farms, our software and our nutrients so we will continue to develop different variations on the farm, different modular variations will continue to enhance our software to make it more productive, make it easier and less time consuming to operate the farm. And then we put a lot of work into the nutrients to make sure they're optimized for specific characteristics. But, you know, it all comes back to that customer success side, because we know in the long run our ability to succeed is 100% tied to our customers ability to succeed, keep getting better results from the farm.
“Farmers around the world and their collective experience add a ton of value beyond what we can do on our own.” —Rick Vanzura
Justine Reichman Yeah. I think customer success is so important and integrating with them and talking to them and hearing what's working and what's not. And to that end, I'm wondering, is there any conversation around, including their experience and their recipes and what's working for them into your recipes that you have for success around the crops?
Rick Vanzura Absolutely. In fact, monthly, we have a farmer roundtable. We just had one, I think it was Tuesday night with about 40 farmers who attended, and people are very good about sort of sharing what they've learned and best practices. So we're constantly taking their feedback to improve the solution. And we're also constantly connecting farmers, where if it's something that really isn't an issue that applies to the whole community, but it's some particular issue that a direct conversation will sort out will will play that connector role. But yes, that's part of the value of that community, as we all are kind of continuously working to make each other better. And at Freight Farms, we sort of play the role of documentarian and institutionalizing whatever makes sense for the broader community.
“Our ability to succeed is a hundred percent tied to our customer's ability to succeed.” —Rick Vanzura
Justine Reichman So if whether it's a chef or an individual that wanted to have a Freight Farm, because they had the land, and they had the inclination, how would they go about getting that for themselves?
Rick Vanzura Yeah. Well, I think for anybody the starting point-- a good starting point is freightfarms.com. our website. It provides a bunch of information on, you know, product specs for the farm, what we've grown, specific farmer examples, both for profit, not for profit. And if after people go through the journey through the website and say, Wow, this looks like it might be for me, there's a Contact Us button where they can fill out a form, and then we'll follow up with them. However, you know, makes sense based on the feedback we get. But again, we've invested a lot in that resource. So hopefully, when people go on it, that will give them plenty of information to decide whether they want to engage a little deeper.
Justine Reichman Just to give people an idea, what is the commitment in the beginning to learning and sort of the timeframe from start to getting it going?
Rick Vanzura Yep, yep. So I'll answer that in two ways. So that the time and the money part. So our farms sell for 149,000, the software's 200 a month, consumables the nutrients about 350 a month, and then you have to pay for delivery. So call it all in $160,000 to get to your first harvest. So the typical journey is after somebody decides they want to engage with Freight Farms and fills out that form, they'll be put in touch with somebody from the sales team. A big part of that sales journey is to actually make sure that the prospective customer understands kind of what they're getting into, thinks about what their business model would look like. We have a business planning tool, where we encourage a prospective farmer to complete that where sort of create their own p&l and business plan and think about how they would market. So somebody goes through that process and says yes, I want to buy then from there the main steps are to come in for training, takes about a day and a half. You could do it remotely, but we encourage people to do it in person. It's just a richer experience plus--
Justine Reichman Where is it in person?
Rick Vanzura Boston.
Justine Reichman Not a bad place to go for a training.
Rick Vanzura Not a bad place. You could have a weekend. And you get to meet a lot of the folks that hopefully will be, you know, your community members and friends down the road. So a day and a half, we'll get you to where you can start to farm. Our typical lead time for a farm, it's about three months from placing the order till you receive the farm. During that time, you can work out things like do you need to worry about zoning, where you're going to put your farm, managing the hookups, etc. The farm comes fully assembled and ready to go. It typically takes seven to eight weeks to go from installing the farm to getting your first harvest. And we provide a lot of support during that first time.
Justine Reichman That's what I'm going to ask you. I'm just curious as, you know, as a business, because these people are coming and as you said, some of them have little information. They've never been a farmer before. But, you know, it's kind of-- it is an entrepreneurial endeavor. So this is for the entrepreneur, and as an entrepreneur, these people need to be forward thinking and need to think like entrepreneurs and have a business sense, right? But how much support are you guys providing or are you looking for to make sure that it's kind of a match, right? Because you want them to be successful, right? You want it to be a success both ways. So can you talk to me about your process and what you're looking for there, and then sort of the kind of what you guys created to make sure. Because I think we also have a lot of founders here that listen to these podcasts. And I think it'd be really interesting to understand the process that you guys create for yourself that, you know, ensures or tries to ensure success.
“Sampling is one of the most powerful sales tools you have.” —Rick Vanzura
Rick Vanzura Yep. So earlier in our history, we found that we did have folks who bought farms and weren't successful. And we generally found two driving characteristics for that. One is it's somebody who had an idealized image that it's sort of the Jetsons push a button and lettuce comes out the back end. And really hadn't thought through that the software takes a lot of the thinking, you know, the complex pieces out of issue through the recipes. But there's still the manual process of planning seedlings, transplanting into the cultivation area, harvesting, maintaining the farm. And you need to be diligent about following through on the steps. It's not particularly complex but you've got to be willing to put in the work. And there are some people who just, I would say, frankly, used to a desk job, and really weren't prepared for what it meant to be a farmer. So we now as part of the sales journey, really test that on, you know, and we built up in our sort of farm training curriculum, here's the life of a farm, and make sure you connect with that. Because some people love it, and really connect with it, some people don't. The second thing is that people really connect with the farming piece, but not so much with the marketing, and you got to sell it. And so that's why the business planning tool in during the sales process and really working through them with them on how do you set a market? How do you determine market pricing? How do you create your business plan? How do you think about distribution and looking at the person's background and how they go through that journey to say, are you really prepared to be a farmer. Once they've gone through that and they've committed to making the purchase then we reinforce that with a lot of training, which is not just around operating the farm, but it's on the business aspects of it. And our customer success team, again, we'll be really involved in that first harvest to make sure people get through that first harvest successfully. But also think about how do I use that first harvest to set my market because sampling, for instance, is one of the most powerful sales tools you have. So I would say from the first time a salesperson encounters somebody's interested through that first harvest, we have put in a lot of checkpoints and a lot of curriculum to try and make sure we've done as much as we can to set somebody up for success. Recognizing like any entrepreneurial venture, people can still encounter issues.
Justine Reichman Now I appreciate you sharing that because I think that's really pivotal for any entrepreneur on any journey. These stories when we share them, it really inspires them and helps them to decipher some of their next steps on their journey. So I really appreciate you joining me today and I will make sure that we share your website and for one last time if you would just share it with that everybody, so if they want to investigate further they can.
Rick Vanzura It is freightfarms.com. So I look forward to meeting you all, hopefully somewhere down the road or many of you as you do your exploration and enjoy the website. There's a lot there to sift through.
Justine Reichman Thanks so much for joining me today. I really enjoyed our conversation, learned all about your background, and what you guys are doing and I look forward to seeing how you guys continue to grow in the next few years here in Northern California soon too, or at least in Marin somewhere.
Rick Vanzura I appreciate you having me on the show. And right now looking at minus six degrees tonight Northern California sounds great.
Justine Reichman So I won't complain about the 50 something that we have here and I have my heat on 72. Anyway, thanks so much.
