Redeploying Agricultural Intellectual Capital

The challenges facing the food industry provide an important chapter in the story about the end of the industrial era.

In past posts, I have talked about how the large industrial model has lead to dangerous monocultures in bananas and unsustainable concentration of salad green production in the Salinas Valley. There is a growing realization that we need to think about sustainability in agriculture. This is a significant challenge–but also an enormous opportunity.

In a profile in the June issue of Fast Company, Will Allen is featured as one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business for his work in the creation of Growing Power, which is:

…a nonprofit complex of teaching farms that raise vegetables, fish, livestock, and honeybees year-round using cheap, replicable, innovative techniques that staffers develop themselves

The organization is doing very good work in creating practical and sustainable practices. But the really interesting thing is that they are doing it in urban settings.  Their is to create ways for low-income families to get safe, affordable meals. And in the process, they eliminate the challenge of  “food miles” mentioned in my Sysco post.

Will Allen grew up on a farm. After a stint in the NBA and in corporate America, he has returned to his roots and is applying what he knows in new ways. His life mirrors what is going on in agriculture today. The shift from the industrial era to the knowledge era will also cause a shift from industrial food production to smarter, more sustainable agriculture.

The industrial era  began when we learned how to produce enough food for everyone in society using only a small portion of the population–freeing everyone else to engage in other kinds of work. Now the industrial era is ending. We still produce food. We still manufacture goods. And the shift to the knowledge era is disrupting these tasks as well as creating new ones. As with all businesses today, the answers for the food industry and manufacturing lie in leveraging intellectual capital in new ways.

Chances are that your industry is changing too. Success in the future will require innovation. If you have an open mind, you should be able to lead that innovation.

The first step is understanding your business as a knowledge business. Break down the three components of intellectual capital: human, relationship and structural capital.  Re-think how to use these assets to meet your customers’ needs in a way that is more efficient and more sustainable. Join the knowledge revolution!