Jeremy Williams Of Bayer Crop Science On How Farmers And The Ag Industry Are Adapting To The Disruptions Caused By Climate And World Events

The war in Ukraine, the ongoing pandemic, and catastrophic climate events have contributed to a global food crisis. Farmers and ag industry workers are being challenged to respond and adapt to these disruptions. In this interview series, we’re speaking with leaders in the farming and ag industries who can shed light on how they’re navigating these challenges and adapting to the disruptions caused by climate and world events. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Jeremy Williams, head of Climate LLC and Digital Farming, Bayer Crop Science.

Jeremy Williams is the Head of Climate LLC and Digital Farming for Bayer Crop Science, where he leads a diverse team that develops digital tools to help unlock the next wave of ag innovations. Jeremy is also a member of the Crop Science Executive Leadership, and last year, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris appointed him to the National Space Council Users’ Advisory Group. With more than 20 years of experience in agricultural sciences and biotech research, Jeremy has helped companies craft the vision for agriculture’s future.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I was born and raised in Georgetown, Guyana, until I was 18 years old. For my undergraduate education, I was ready to try something new and made my way to the U.S., where I attended Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and earned my undergraduate degree in biochemistry and French. From there, I continued my higher education at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, pursuing a Ph.D. in molecular biophysics.

It was in St. Louis where I was introduced to agriculture — a life-changing series of events in which a friend of a friend told me about a new agriculture startup they were getting off the ground. It was a great opportunity to work with a small team and create something that would have a real impact. I took a chance and ended up working at that startup for 11 years.

And here I am 20 years later, and now at Bayer, where I am fortunate to continue working on new breakthroughs and innovations that help farmers. I didn’t know this is where my journey would take me, but I’m so glad that I took the risks and chances to arrive where I am now.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?

There have been so many, but this question takes me back to moments earlier in my career, working with a small team of people who were absolutely driven to do big things. One experience that stands out in particular was a project with a partner company to design a simple method to easily detect intestinal nematode infections in pets. We reasoned that certain proteins from the parasites would be somewhat resistant to digestion, and that fragments from those proteins would make their way into the feces where they could be detected. We had lots of clever computational approaches to predict which proteins might have such stable fragments. Despite its elegance, this approach was unsuccessful. What ultimately worked was an idea from a colleague to sample the feces to see what parasite proteins were present and to focus on those proteins. A commercial kit was eventually developed from this approach by the partner company. This has always served for me as a clear lesson on the importance of taking a diversity of approaches to solving problems. Also simpler is sometimes better!

You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

Soccer is the most widely played team sport in the world. It’s probably the most relatable, too, but you don’t often see it mentioned in metaphors relating to business or other aspects of life. I’m often reminded of an article that compares some of the fundamental truths and best practices that you might find in a soccer match and discussed how a leader might apply them to run a business or successful team.

Most success stories begin with the ability to communicate a vision that can be relayed and understood by the entire team. So not only having a clear vision, but also the drive to overcome complexity and adversity, are very important character traits. This is also the case in soccer. It’s a nonlinear sport and allows a very wide latitude of acceptable play. Everyone on the field must be able to see what’s happening, understand what’s happening, know where to move the ball and anticipate the role they will play, if and when they get the ball.

Leaders must be patient, but they must also be dynamic and know when to jump on opportunities. Soccer is extremely dynamic in the sense of continuous play on the field. There’s no turn-taking, and momentum shifts might not always be obvious — at least not in the same way that a 3-minute run can change a basketball game, or a three-run homer changes a baseball game. Knowing how and when to move the ball laterally (even backward) to build momentum is the mark of a successful leader on the soccer pitch, in business and other areas of life.

Finally, in soccer there seems to be less emphasis on who “has the ball.” In fact, the one with the ball is usually the slowest player on the field. Trusting your teammates, having a pass-and-go mentality, and avoiding the temptation we have sometimes to “pass and watch” are all good pieces of advice, both in soccer and in business.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

There’s a famous quote from French scientist Louis Pasteur that I love: “Chance favors the prepared mind.” As I said earlier, my life-changing chance came as a series of connections led me to a career in agriculture some 20 years ago. Looking back, I see now how this opportunity called to my entrepreneurial spirit and allowed me to further pursue my passion for driving impact through technology, without feeling like a small fish in a big pond, all while preparing me for the career I had ahead of me. And I wouldn’t change a thing about the journey I have been on that started from that chance.

Can you share something about your work that makes you most proud? Is there a particular story or incident that you found most uplifting?

Part of my pride in the work I do day to day comes from the shared impact our industry collaboration can have on societal growth. Come back and ask me in a year or two, but one effort that I’m truly excited about are the new B2B cloud offerings — Azure Data Manager and AgPowered Services — that we’re developing and commercializing together with Microsoft. In March, we announced initial availability of the new offerings to accelerate innovation on the farm and beyond, support greater data interoperability between farms and consumer goods companies and bring greater transparency across the supply chain from grower to consumer. Partnering for innovations like these is essential to our industry and uplifts the positive impacts agriculture can have on global issues. I can’t help but get excited about the immense potential this kind of technology and digital platforms, in general, can bring to creating better food systems, sequestering carbon, addressing climate change and more.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about ‘How Farmers and the Ag Industry Are Adapting to the Disruptions Caused by Climate and World Events’. This might be intuitive to you but it will be helpful to expressly spell this out. Can you share with our readers a few examples of why and how climate change is causing disruptions to agriculture?

Certainly. Farmers have been experiencing the impacts of changing climate and extreme weather in their fields for years. Of course, this looks different depending on where you are in the world, but some common examples are increasingly long and severe droughts, floods and high winds, and pests and diseases appearing in areas where they haven’t been before. Farmers are also impacted by climate-related events that happen far from their farms. Water levels in the Mississippi River became so low last year that barges couldn’t move crops down the river, creating surplus in some areas, scarcity in others. I believe we will continue to see these major threats to the food and agriculture industries as the climate continues to change.

Ultimately, climate change is adding additional challenges and risks to what is already a complicated and risky business. Farmers are having to adapt to new challenges very quickly. Our goal is to give them the tools to do so, and to work more efficiently and more sustainably.

What about world events? Can you share with our readers a few examples of why and how world events and geopolitical choices are causing disruptions to agriculture?

Our global food system connects us and impacts how we live our lives. Anytime a disruption occurs, every corner of the world feels its reverberations. We were reminded of this from the war in Ukraine, which has had ripple effects on the rest of the world’s food supply. The Russia-Ukraine war, in addition to being a humanitarian crisis, has significantly impacted a major agricultural commodity export region.

As part of this ongoing reality, it’s imperative that our society adapt rapidly to ensure people everywhere have access to the resources they need. Agriculture and innovation meshing together is brilliant in that it maintains confidence and speeds up information-sharing during critical moments. Through tailored technologies, industry partnerships and other methods of resourcefulness, farmers can better rebound from global disruption and continue to preserve their livelihoods.

Based on your experience and research, can you please share your “5 Things Farmers and Ag Industry Workers Can Do to Adapt to the Disruptions Caused by Climate and World Events”? If you can, please share a story or example for each.

1. Support farmers in implementing new technology in their operations. It’s certainly an exciting time in the agriculture industry, as we have made tremendous strides over the past few decades, as farmers have been adopting new technologies on the farm. We must continue to do so as our industry, food value chain and world continues to evolve. Today, we can see the real impact in incorporating smart innovations in precision agriculture to help farmers be as efficient as possible with their time and resources. Through technology, we can help farmers decide not just what they’ll produce but how they’ll produce it.
2. Support farmers in adopting even more sustainable, climate-smart agricultural practices. Farmers intuitively want to take care of the land. They depend on it to raise their crops, feed their families and communities, earn a living, and many of them want to pass it along to future generations. As technologists, we have an opportunity — and a responsibility — to not just help farmers react to the changing climate and overcome the changing conditions so they can continue to grow crops, but we need to provide them with technologies that can reduce agriculture’s impact on the planet and support farms for generations to come. Adopting more sustainable agriculture practices will help ensure our industry is part of the climate solution. The ForGround By Bayer program was created with this in mind as a farmer-first platform that offers growers tools, resources and discounts from adopting regenerative agriculture practices and technology, and earn additional revenue for doing so.
3. Deliver value to farmers through data science. The impact of data on the farm and across the value chain cannot be understated. Through data, growers can better understand each acre and help optimize application usage, irrigation and everything in between as well as monitor crop health in real-time. The possibilities are truly endless and not only improve productivity on individual farms but can also help solve some of our industry’s most-pressing challenges.
4. Keep an eye on industry innovation. As I said before, our industry is continuously working to adapt to the challenges that come our way. Keeping pace with innovation is absolutely crucial for those in the industry to identify ways to improve your own operations or contribute to future breakthroughs. For example, Bayer’s Preceon Smart Corn System will be a game changer for the industry — a system of short stature corn hybrids — and tailored agronomic recommendations and Climate FieldView digital insights, that will help farmers protect and optimize yield potential. Preceon is being trialed this year by 280 participating farmers and on more than 30,000 acres, which will help improve the system for future use.
5. Embrace change and celebrate growth. The reality is there is no stopping the disruptions that face our industry and our world. But we have to acknowledge that we can’t solve new problems with the same approaches we have used historically. We must bring new people into the fold and seek diverse perspectives. Agriculture is 10,000 years old, but constantly changing and reinventing itself — let’s not forget how far we have come but embrace the new generation of individuals and ideas contributing to the future of agriculture.

How has technology played a role in helping farmers and the ag industry adapt to the disruptions caused by climate and world events? Can you share a few examples?”

Let’s face it, these major disruptions in our climate and geopolitics are largely outside of farmers’ control. What they can control is how they plan for, mitigate and adapt to challenges on their farms, and this takes the form of the many dozens of important agronomic decisions they make every year.

When a farmer is faced with unprecedented challenges, technology — and specifically the data-backed insights from a platform like FieldView — helps farmers see all of their options, feel confident in their decisions and respond quickly.

For more than a year, farmers have been dealing with a fertilizer shortage and high fertilizer prices, due in part to the war in Ukraine but also impacted by supply chain issues even prior to that. Precision agriculture can help farmers identify where the fertilizer is most needed, how much to apply and when, so they can make the most of this limited resource and their budgets.

With greater attention being placed on the importance of the farming and ag industries, as well as technological advancements, what do you predict will be different about the farming and ag sectors over the next 10 years?

Big picture, I expect that we will see farming and agriculture continue the transition to being data-driven industries. With so much on the line, we have to be able to make the most informed decisions possible on the farm and in the supply chain and deliver customized solutions for every farmer and every field.

I predict we will also continue to see more regenerative agriculture practices and carbon capture on the farm. We have over a decade of data to back up the value of sustainable practices on the farm, and as our supply chains become more transparent and traceable, we’ll have the ability to reward farmers for how they’re producing their crops, keeping carbon in the ground and caring for the environment.

Finally, I hope we will also see continued investments in the infrastructure needed to bring this technology to all farmers, no matter what region of the world they live in or how remote their farm may be, so everyone can contribute to and benefit from a more sustainable food system.

The idea of farming has a very romantic and idyllic character to it, especially to some people living in a busy cosmopolitan context. Do you think now would be a good time for younger people with no farming history to get involved in the farming industry? Can you explain what you mean?

There’s something for everyone in agriculture — whether they want that romantic and idyllic lifestyle or a cosmopolitan one! Agriculture is arguably the most important industry on earth, and there is enormous need for talented young people to join the industry and help lead us through the huge challenges and opportunities on the horizon. There has never been a better time to start a career in agriculture.

Where should a young person start if they would like to “get into” farming?

The sky is the limit! We need farmers, agronomists, seedsmen and more, but there are careers in agriculture that go beyond the field as well — including (but certainly not limited to) data science, engineering, marketing and communications — that will help pave the way for the future of our industry.

For anyone at the beginning of their career path, or perhaps just about to embark on their journey, I encourage you to keep at it when the path seems unclear. Experiment, learn and persist. Take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves — I can speak from experience!

Is there a person in the world, or in the U.S. with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

Bill Gates. Someone who was — and is still — committed to the use of technology to address major societal challenges. He and his teams also built and scaled solutions that are accessible to billions around the world.

If I exercise some liberty on your question: Norman Borlaug. He passed away in 2009, but I’ve long admired his work. Borlaug pioneered the Green Revolution in agriculture by developing semi-dwarf wheat varieties that improved yields and averted global famine. Bayer has taken a page out of his book with the development of new short-stature corn hybrids, which underpin the new Preceon Smart Corn System.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

I’m on Twitter (@deryck_jeremy) and LinkedIn and always love connecting with new people across the industry or those looking to get started in agriculture. I also occasionally make an appearance on our Climate LLC Twitter (@ClimateLLC_ag) and LinkedIn accounts, which are both a great way to learn more about the amazing work we do and the people that make it all happen every day.

This was very meaningful, thank you so much, and we wish you only continued success.