“Given the global scope of our work at Cargill, we can impact the way entire supply chains function around the world,” shared Kershaw. “It’s an opportunity that our team and partners take on every day understanding that what we develop has implications on the quality of life and the environment on a very macro, global level.” The key to Cargill’s technology transformation is approaching the work from an entrepreneur’s mindset with agile methodologies that propel the tech startups of Silicon Valley. About five years ago, Cargill set out to become a leader in digital technology – an area where the food and agriculture sector had historically lagged – because the company recognized that technology would play an outsized role in advancing the industry both in food production and in sustainability. Cargill made a bold move in establishing Digital Labs, a place where Cargill’s teams could go for inspiration, engineering, and digital experimenting. The Digital Labs team helped businesses explore the art of the possible. Cargill engaged with Techstars, an accelerator program for startups in Minneapolis, and partnered with agricultural programs at universities from the Midwest to the East Coast, Europe, South America, and Asia. Digital Labs recently established an internal incubator program called EDGE, where in-house teams can test digital business ideas and win internal funding to scale their startups. “Coming off of our Techstars accelerator programs and participation in the Twin Cities Startup Weeks, we set up EDGE inside Cargill to spark new solutions for unique customer needs,” added Kershaw. “Our work spans the full value chain from inputs, growing, processing, trading, and consuming to tackle next-generation business challenges and opportunities. Sustainability and climate is a focus.”
THE CUTTING EDGE Although relatively new, the in-house EDGE program is already bringing new applications online to solve challenges customers have faced for generations. One EDGE-backed idea that’s gaining traction is the Digital Saathi app for farmers in India. This application improves the livelihoods of small landholder farms by providing access to information and advisory services on weather, crop practices, pest and disease control, and market price data. It connects farmers to third-party service providers in the ag value chain process. In the food service industry, another internal startup called Hot Take provides a new mobile platform for restaurants to gain real-time feedback from their customers. Lastly, GrainBridge, LLC is a joint venture with Archer Daniels Midland Company. Through this partnership, Cargill developed a suite of digital solutions, including tools that provide grain marketing decision support, e-commerce, and account management. Ultimately, the technology makes the farmer’s life easier by eliminating stress and emotion from the grain marketing process. It enables farmers to make more informed, efficient decisions, providing access to real-time data and insights through a straightforward platform. “Collaborations with other ag companies are the way forward for all of us to prosper,” explained Kershaw. “By creating a more transparent system where we all bring our best ideas and resources to the table, we’re better able to identify the best solutions to solve our collective challenges and bring tools to the market faster that can improve the whole market.” To that end, Cargill is busy creating privacy-focused solutions for distributed applications that provide a blockchain-inspired networking space for communication and transactions between organizations. Splinter is the first-of-its-kind open- source solution that allows participating members to combine blockchain-related technology, such as smart contracts and consensus engines, to build a wide variety of organized data systems. The results deliver more real-time inventory data and supply chain visibility to reduce food waste at the origination point and across supply chains. The transparency and live interaction with multiple partners bring quick solutions to participants’ entire value chain network.
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