In November, Trendi attended the 8th Annual Precision Agriculture Conference and had a week full of learning, networking and a reaffirmed appreciation for all that farmers do!
What is Precision Agriculture?
If you don’t know, precision agriculture is a type of 
farming that uses advanced technologies, such as sensors, GPS, and drones, to gather data about crops and soil conditions in order to optimize farming practices. The goal of precision agriculture is to improve the efficiency and sustainability of farming operations by using data and technology to make informed decisions about things like irrigation, fertilization, and pest control. Precision agriculture has the potential to revolutionize the way we grow food, helping to increase yields, reduce costs, and improve the sustainability of farming operations – similar to what Trendi is going to accomplish with our BioTrim facilities.
The conference, put on by farms.com, is designed with workshops for those just entering precision agriculture as well as for those who have a solid understanding on the basics of precision agriculture but want to take it to the next level. While Trendi is a technology company, our technology compares a little bit differently to traditional agritech products. Our technology doesn’t focus on the yield and harvesting process, but rather improves the marketability of the food that is produced – increasing the value farmers can obtain from their yield. This community is the backbone of our food system and has themselves throughout wars, climate change and market volatility. As the new kids on the block, we knew we needed to go straight to the source. Our products are meant to promote convenience and ease, so we needed firsthand knowledge.
Community is Everything
Curtis Wong, our Director of Partnerships, delivered a presentation discussing “Stopping Food Waste on Farms”. This opened the floodgates of conversation and these interactions led us to gaining experiences and expertise from a totally different perspective. Naturally, a few seasoned farmers were skeptical of such an innovative idea – it is not something that they have seen before but everyone was open to the idea and if they weren’t, they connected us with someone who would be.
Going into this conference, we knew that the Canadian farming community was big, but we were thrilled to see how deep the connections went. Everyone involved at the conference knew someone there, either directly or indirectly, and everyone was willing to learn, understand and to help. We explored innovations in fertilizers, drones, robotic cattle monitors and joined an online platform called AGvisorPRO that connects you to the best experts in agriculture. We even ran into our friend Dan Aberhart, of Aberhart AG Solutions, who had Craig and Carissa, our founders, on his podcast Growing the Future (Season 3, episode 12 if you want to listen!).
This interconnection made it clear that many of the agricultural systems that appear to be linear, are actually circular. There are so many different points within these systems, but each is connected to another through some type of intersection.
As people came up to our booth to talk to us about BioTrim, we heard a quote that stuck with us, “We’re at two opposite ends but we can meet in the middle”. He explained it like this: as a produce farmer, his work began the process of creating food. He grew it, harvested it and sold it. Usually, harvesting and selling it was the end of his season but Trendi could extend the end of his season by “meeting him in the middle with BioTrim”. This would allow him to profit from produce he would have wasted because of aesthetic reasons and provide an extended source of income. He paused and thought for a moment before asking “What if we used the BioTrim’s wastewater as a fertilizer?”. While we haven’t produced a fertilizer yet, this is the type of ingenuity and perspective that inspires us.
With this newfound knowledge and positioning, we were ready to come home and integrate the comments, questions, feedback and solutions into our products. These new perspectives opened up a whole new stream of ideas, ones that are helping farmers, food, and our planet. Stay tuned!
Article written by:
Chloe Almeida, Marketing Coordinator
Chloe has always been interested in the “how” and “why” that create our social, cultural, and physical environment. With a background in health sciences, she is committed to spreading awareness and solving issues that affect public health and wellness.
