The COVID-19 pandemic is having a seismic effect on businesses in the produce industry, but there are lessons that can be learned. This is an opportunity to fine tune business continuity and contingency plans, and also a chance to define what is truly important and find new ways in which to grow. Join our conversation with three innovators who are responding with new solutions when challenges demand them. Discover how all along the fresh produce supply chain, technology formed in response to COVID is producing safer, more efficient tools for our industry.
Speakers
Boaz Bachar
CEO and Co-Founder
FieldIn
Carolyn Mooney
CEO and Founder
nextmv.io;
Lou Perez
Co-Founder and VP of Technology
Apeel Sciences
Listen
Vonnie Estes:
Welcome to PMA Takes on Tech, the podcast that explores the problems, solutions, people and ideas that are shaping the future of the produce industry. I'm your host, Vonnie Estes, the Vice President of Technology at the Produce Marketing Association. And I've Guests: Boaz Bachar, CEO and Co-Founder, FieldIn, Carolyn Mooney, CEO and Founder, nextmv.io; and Lou Perez, Co-Founder and VP of Technology, Apeel Sciences spent years in the ag tech sector. So I can attest it's hard to navigate this ever changing world. Thanks for joining us and allowing us to serve as your guide to the new world of produce and technology.
Vonnie Estes:
Welcome to episode six of PMA Takes on Tech. This is the final episode of season one. Today we will drop into a PMA virtual town hall recorded on August 5. PMA has hosted virtual town halls since mid-March as a way to communicate with our members about the pandemic, its effects on the produce industry and additional topics. Today's guests discuss how the pandemic has affected their companies and the use of their products. Let's jump right in.
Vonnie Estes:
So, innovators respond with solutions when changes and challenges demand them. Today we'll hear how all along the fresh produce supply chain COVID-19 driven technology is producing safer, more efficient tools for our industry. We have three different, diverse businesses involved in the produce supply chain that have been affected and have responded to COVID-19 in different ways. We'll talk to these three great panelists. The first one is Boaz Bachar, CEO and cofounder of FieldIn. FieldIn provides remote visibility into field activities to monitor mechanized cultural practices and give actionable, real time data to improve efficiencies. Second, we'll have Carolyn Mooney, CEO and founder of nextmv, a startup that provides developers with the building blocks to create and test models quickly providing logistic and operations solutions. And third, we have Lou Perez, VP of Technology and cofounder of Apeel Sciences. Apeel creates longer lasting produce that reduces waste and builds resiliency in the food system. We are excited to hear from our guests about what is happening to their companies during these times. So we'll start with Boaz and he's at the very beginning of the supply chain, working with producers. So welcome, and please talk about your product and what has changed with your customers since COVID-19.
Boaz Bachar:
FieldIn basically digitized the entire farm operation level. We developed platforms that combined in IOT devices that we put on any farm machinery that made them smart and start to send data to the cloud in real time. And we add to display of IOT data a set of dashboards that helps the grower and his team to take decisions from anywhere, any time and to see and to act after the execution of the operation in real time. And as I mentioned, our mission is to digitize the entire farm operation and to create new data. So basically, in order to digitize the entire farm, we developed three main models, one of them to cover the entire spraying and scouting operation. The second one is to cover the entire cultural practices that are happening in the farm and the last one, the deal with smart harvesting and basically FieldIn allowed the growers manage from the farm.
Vonnie Estes:
One of the things that we had talked about, too, is that people are using the app, the way you meant it to be used it or using the information and the data the way it was meant to be used before they would go out and look and see what's going on in my field, what's going on in my field. And now they really realize that by using the data that you're giving them, they don't have to go check the field all the time. And so, it actually COVID-19 is kind of, because people are stuck more inside, they're using it the way that they should be using it.
Boaz Bachar:
When we started the company, remember that some of our clients said that in the first time after this, after 20 years, they can take a vacation finally, because they control the operation from away from the farm. Obviously we see the adoption rate is just increasing because of that. So it's not for vacation, it's your day to day.
Vonnie Estes:
Yeah. Yeah. So they're really, I mean this data, I think one of the things that's going to happen coming out of COVID-19 is just people are having to rely more on data and really understand what the data is telling them and rely on it instead of thinking, "Oh, I need to see those with my eyes," but what we see with our eyes isn't the whole picture that you get from all the data. So I think this has been an interesting time where people are actually relying on data, and I think we'll hear this from Carolyn as well, people are relying on data and using data to plan and forecast their businesses better.
Boaz Bachar:
What we develop is three main models. One of them is scouting and spraying, to be able to manage the entire pest management cycle all in one place. So, we are talking about large scale operation, tens of thousands of acers all over California that's can start in Bakerfield, it can end in Chico. It covers, all other mechanized tests happening on the farm. And so talking about mowing, we're still keep talking about edging. And of course the last model is the smart harvesting. This is our latest addition to the platform Basically, we install IOT devices in all equipment related to harvest and being able to monitor and send alerts and get the benchmarks to people, to the grower, in real time. How can he improve its operation from day to day? Where is this weakness? And now we can become better for the day after of the operation, especially in this hectic time of harvest, which is like a whole season shoved into four to six weeks. And this is extremely important.
Vonnie Estes:
Let's move on to Lou. So Lou, your product keeps produce fresh through the supply chain. How has your product helped during COVID-19, and what are some of the stories that you're hearing from your customers?
Lou Perez:
Thanks, Vonnie. Yeah, so Apeel, I mean, the whole idea is since the beginning that we want to tackle the food waste crisis but using nature as the inspiration for the different tools and solutions that we build. So, with that, Apeel just quickly is a plant based arrive solution that can double, or sometimes even triple the shelf life of many types of fresh produce. So, the idea is that hopefully we increase resilience of the produce and reduce the need for as much refrigeration, plastic packaging and control that atmosphere and different things like that. So like I said, it's derived from nature. So our materials are found in every bite of fruits. It's a very thin edible layer on the outside of produce.
Lou Perez:
And what that does is create an optimal microclimate inside the produce itself, and basically reduces the rates of water loss and oxidation. But as far as recently, again, this is obviously a very difficult time for the food system. And our role has always been the idea is to help food businesses increase their resilience and operational flexibility. So the idea is that we give people more time with fresh produce. And when we say people, that includes suppliers, retailers and then the end consumer. So, if anything, what we've experienced so far during COVID-19 is just more, I think, amplification or more demand from retailer, suppliers and a lot also from end consumers. So as far as, yeah, the major thing for us is, again, is that we want to give more flexibility.
Lou Perez:
The idea is that now if you can make different decisions with your crops or with your inventory, because now if you have an extra several days or weeks to then decide, "Should this go here or should this go there?" Especially in times now where I think we're all really experienced in it, as you go to the retail store, you're making less trips, you're trying to get everything done in usually a single visit. As far as like customer testimonials, again, I think that demand has just been increasing more and more with the different suppliers that we do work with. I think a recent one yesterday, I believe it was in Fresh Fruit Portal where Nature's Pride is expanding their facility. And I think naturally Nature's Pride is a great partner and they're doing really well, but they also quoted as far as the demand for Apeel has also accelerated their need to expand. So that was really great to see and that was pretty recent. So I think more suppliers, retailers are recognizing the importance of adopting more innovations to the food system. And yeah, so I would say just things have just been growing or have been more amplified.
Vonnie Estes:
Yeah. I think it's amazing right now because the there's so much conversation about the supply chain and what's happening in the supply chain and how it's different than before. And I was talking to someone that buys from growers and sells to chefs and she was saying especially now in restaurants are opening and then they're closing and then they're opening again. And so you end up with product that you have to keep much longer than you expected. And so I think there's places like that, where if that avocado normally only lasts a week, but you'd like it to last much longer, then food being able to last longer in the supply chain is just really a benefit. So it's great to see you guys doing that.
Lou Perez:
Yeah. Appreciate it.
Vonnie Estes:
Yeah. Carolyn. So your product works at optimizing operations and logistics. How has the use of your product changed during COVID-19 and maybe explain a little bit about your company as well?
Carolyn Mooney:
Yeah, absolutely. So my background is actually in systems engineering. So all the things that both Boaz and Lou are talking about in terms of data becoming a bigger part of this supply chain ecosystem, especially with food supply chain specifically, I think is kind of bringing to light some technologies that have existed in other sectors for a long time. So when you look at the transportation industry and also things even in the military industry, optimization has been a big part of that for a long time, but that technology really needed some kind of updates and more flexibility to be able to use across industry. And so here at next move, we're really trying to make that technology accessible. So you can think about the issues in supply chain when you're trying to move people around, like every airline ever known is using some optimization to try to decide how to set up those planes and those schedules and everything else. That can easily be translated into how you pack different trucks for the supply chain for food or how you decide on how to truck them to different places or what goes where.
Carolyn Mooney:
And so that's really what we do here at nextmv is we're working on optimization and simulation. So basically how do you build automated decisions? And then how do you test them really efficiently so that you can be prepared for kind of a variety of scenarios? And I think COVID-19 has kind of brought to light the fact that these systems are a little bit fragile right now. And so, as I would say, COVID-19 basically made it so that forecast fundamentally broke, right? Your forecast from May this year did not look anything like May last year. And that means that using those forecast made it very difficult in your standard decision making. Your decisions had to change and you needed to be able to adjust on the fly. And so for us, we're basically creating a method for people to represent decisions as code and so to really make it so that you can minimize costs or maximize value for your consumers kind of directly in how you make your decision. So, whether that be, like I said, packing material in a certain way, or Lou mentioned wanting to make one trip to kind of where your distribution centers are, stores, et cetera. That's all stuff that we kind of handle in our optimization technology.
Vonnie Estes:
Right. Yeah. And I think as you're talking about forecasting, you can't use last year to forecast this year, but you're not going to be able to use this year to forecast next year. So I think really, depending on, thinking about how do I use this data, I think it's really important to use these new tools.
Carolyn Mooney:
Yeah, exactly. And I was working for GrubHub for a long time and that really is a real time delivery problem. And so the kind of the state of the world is constantly changing. And so you want to try to create your decision models or automate your decisions in a way that's robust to change, right? And behaves as you would expect. And so that's kind of the methodology behind nextmv is creating these resilient decision models for things like planning or packing or shipping kind of across the supply chain for food.
Vonnie Estes:
So, this has been an interesting time for companies in all sorts of different ways. And the three of you are all startups at different stages. And there's this whole question like where's the money and are companies going to be able to continue? And so that's been another thing that's been particularly challenging for startups and Lou, you guys closed a huge round during a pandemic, which is pretty amazing. And you had some pretty unusual, amazing investors that stepped into that round as well. So can you talk to us a little bit about, I mean, obviously the whole thing started before the pandemic, but just being able to pull that off is... Congratulations.
Lou Perez:
Yeah. No, thank you. Appreciate it. Yeah. You're right. Things usually start before this point when you're considering fundraising, but yeah. Super appreciative and, just excited about it. So, I mean, when we talk to investors, I mean, we talk about reducing food waste, but really what we discussed with them, the bigger picture is an investment in building a more sustainable food system. So, and I think, especially now, I think that's been amplified a lot, just as far as the importance of that. So really we've been having a lot of demand and I think this is just only increased it. So yeah, it's been great. So we were able to raise, a big amount came from GIC and we had some other local investors, some celebrities, Oprah Winfrey, and Katy Perry, who had a small participation in the round and yeah.
Lou Perez:
They're both extremely passionate about reducing food waste and making food more sustainable. So that's always been really fun to be a part of. The great thing I think about having the capital now, it puts us in a position to really grow and expand where we have operations in the US. We're in four continents, basically now the US, Europe, Africa and South America. So yeah, the idea is that continuing to build out a global coalition of producers and suppliers and bring longer-lasting produce ultimately to the end consumer. So, working with Kroger in the United States, so the biggest retailer in United States, Edeka in Germany, and Salling Ground in Denmark and some really major suppliers like Nature's Pride, Horton Fruit, Sacara. So, the idea is we're basically just going to put this capital of the idea is just to keep growing and expanding.
Vonnie Estes:
Yeah. And you guys, I mean, I keep seeing constantly that you're hiring, which is great to see as well. So it's good to see at this time when many people are losing their jobs, it's great to see you guys hiring and some really interesting positions that you're hiring for. So did you get to meet Oprah yourself?
Lou Perez:
No, not yet. No. I haven't got to meet Oprah yet, but James, our CEO has.
Vonnie Estes:
Yeah. I assume she sat on your board either, right?
Lou Perez:
Not yet.
Vonnie Estes:
Not yet.
Lou Perez:
Not yet. Yeah. So I know we're super fortunate, appreciative, yeah, of just the overall I think, yeah. Investors are investors. And so they obviously do a lot of research into this and the fact that startups and companies that are focused on food system solutions is starting to get more attention, I think is a testament to all the work that's already been done in this field. I think, I mean, when I first started doing this, it was, when you look at it, the idea of going, I can go to ant retail store anytime of the year and get any type of produce or whatever, is I think sometimes we lose sight of how amazing that is in the first place, the access we have. And I just really look at a lot of the new things that are coming out. It's being discussed today, as, how do we not only have that, but how do we build it more sustainably and give retailers and people more opportunity, more solutions to make decisions.
Vonnie Estes:
Great. So Carolyn, what does funding look like for you? I mean, you're in an earlier stage and we don't want to compare you to Oprah knocking at your door, but...
Carolyn Mooney:
I wish. I wish. Oprah can come anytime. I'm cool with that. But yeah, no, we raised a seed round actually in April. So we were part of the recent Y Combinator batch over the winter and we raised our seed in April and actually closed that right around the time the pandemic was really, I feel like taking hold here in the States. So similar to Lou, probably getting a lot of questions about what does your business look like in the face of COVID-19. And I'm sure we had to answer some of those questions as well. Fortunately, kind of for all three of us here on the call, we're in, I would say, necessary industries, right? And so they aren't going anywhere. Supply chain problems are always going to be supply chain problems and necessary to solve. And things in the food system obviously are necessities for us all to live. So I think that that kind of begets a little bit more attention in this time for investors that are looking really hard at what they're investing in. And so that played well for us, I think.
Vonnie Estes:
And you're working across different industries, too. What other industries do you think you'll end up being involved in or do you think food is one of the ones that you'll spend a lot of time in, or are there other kind of equally important industries, right?
Carolyn Mooney:
Yeah. Food is actually the one I would say we're spending the most time in today. We're a little bit more on the prepared food side as of right now, or at least our initial clients are kind of in that sector. But I have a lot of interest actually going further up the food supply chain. I used to work for the EPA a long time ago. I have a lot of interest in just sustainability in general and figuring out, how do you make food both accessible to people in a variety of ways, but then also from an environmental aspect, how do you make it a more sustainable long term? I know that's actually something you touched on in one of your prior podcasts was just like the food system in general and like, how do you drive those changes?
Carolyn Mooney:
Maybe it'd be more local stuff like that. So I think there's a lot that goes into that. And for us, I look at optimization as an opportunity break that system down into kind of its component parts and make sure that you're making solid decisions at each of those stages. And so that's kind of how I see us kind of playing in this larger ecosystem, but longer term, our optimization technology is very general. It's basically mass technology, right? So it can apply to across many industries. And we're looking at both applicability I would say, across the logistics space, across the food space and even in things like financing and e-commerce so they're very generic. Yeah.
Vonnie Estes:
Great. So Boaz, what is funding looking like for you guys?
Boaz Bachar:
So, thank God we were able to close a significant round just before the pandemic started. And it was coupled with Q1 which was our best course ever. But having said that, once there we saw the company is coming to California, to the US, I got a phone call from my board members that they told me you should get ready. We don't know what we live in. We don't know, there's a lot of uncertainty. I'm talking about the end of March, there was a lot of uncertainty out there, and we don't know what will happen and get ready. So, we basically redid our budget. And so we lost our calling budget, we lost for at least 24 months. And because we, again, I'm talking about the end of March, we didn't know what we left them.
Boaz Bachar:
Now, a few months after when we have budget until 2022, and we're starting to see the investments, the companies, or the divisions are opening the gates again and they're looking actively to make deals. I think that the main challenge, so there is out there people that are looking to inject money into the markets. I think the challenge would be going forward will be to gain and to action and from startups, for startups to gain traction just because there are no conferences, you can't meet your business. And if you have a young startup in earlier stages to create a momentum before your next round, it might be challenging in the next year, because there is just not a lot of places you can interact with other of people. So, to summarize, we saw that the money didn't disappear and this year still looking to invest in good companies from data. And I'm telling you it's harder to create momentum now those days, just because you can't meet people. So it's going to be challenging I think in 2021 when we will see startups are starting to look for funding.
Vonnie Estes:
Yeah. I think for just getting out in the field and trying to do trials and that sort of thing. So, companies that are at that stage, it is quite challenging.
Carolyn Mooney:
Yeah. I think what we've seen, too, and this is my first time founding a company. So I don't know how this has been in the past, but we've relied I think really heavily on warm introductions at this stage. And I think that's particularly relevant in the virtual environment that we're in right now, getting those introductions to companies and getting in front of the right peoples is very relevant.
Vonnie Estes:
Yeah. So, Carolyn, having been at GrubHub and now the founder of nextmv, how do you see the food delivery and logistics are going to change kind of through COVID-19 and on the other side? And that last mile of any food is such a huge problem. And so how do you see that's going to go?
Carolyn Mooney:
Yeah, I think one thing that we see, and one thing that we're starting to see even at GrubHub is people are trying to change the game on how you get food. And I think that was already starting to happen and then has been accelerated due to COVID-19. And I think some of the considerations there are reducing the number of contacts that you have with different people with the food that eventually goes to the consumer. And I think the other thing is just different business models. You see people kind of working out of the concept of like dark kitchens. We saw a lot here in Philadelphia of people actually having direct to consumer from farms and from meat suppliers and just all sorts of things across the food chain as COVID-19 really kicked up.
Carolyn Mooney:
And that is staying the same, even restaurants are now selling food as grocers sometimes, right? The extra food that they have that they're not using. And so I think with all of those changes, what we're seeing is that business rules are fundamentally changing and they're changing rapidly. And we had one company that added alcohol sales to their business, because the rules changed in PA and they were allowed to do so. And making that change, they were using our software and they were able to make that change really relatively quickly from an operational perspective on handling. And they only had certain people that were qualified to handle it and et cetera. And so I think what you're seeing is that people need to be able to have a very tight coupling between operations and the technology that's driving it and have that quick feedback loop. And I think that's going to be something that's consistent going forward as people kind of challenge the operational environment in new and different ways.
Vonnie Estes:
That's interesting. So, Lou, you've got COVID-19 going on and you've got this infusion of cash. So both of those things. I mean, how are your collaborations and your partnerships, how important are they now and how are they changing, both with the cash that you have and being in the middle of a pandemic?
Lou Perez:
Yeah. I think the current ones we have, I mean, the demand is growing. So, I think to what Boaz was saying, you can't just send a bunch of people everywhere now. You really have to get creative within how you make changes or grow things. So I would say if anything, things have been amplified as far as, yeah, the operations go with our current partners and the new ones we're trying to bring on as well. That's where maybe there's a little bit more where the code that has a little bit more affect, because then you're working with other suppliers and vendors who have their own supply chain issues. And so, but yeah, beyond that, yeah. Obviously we had a lot of plans going into the year and we're been doing pretty good job sticking with them and, and growing and integrating with new suppliers and working with new retailers. So, yeah, just been really fortunate. If anything, I think it's helped accelerate a lot of the other similar to what the group's talking about, data and IOT stuff that we've been building, like how do we communicate with our systems or people without needing to be there? How do we make the units themselves more autonomous?
Vonnie Estes:
So experience teaches us that these types of crisis typically trigger new avenues of growth, and startups like yours, you're constantly looking for new avenues of growth in every avenue, but with what's going on, what moves can you make now to serve your customers, your employees and your stakeholders that kind of puts you in a better position for the long term? So Carolyn, why don't we start with you? Carolyn Mooney Yeah. I think the moves that we can make right now, so one, I kind of talked about how optimization is a general technology. And I think one of the dangers of a general technology is that people don't really know how to apply it directly. And so something that we've been doing and will continue to do is to create kind of example models, and also just basically pre-formulate certain models that are just common across an industry. So whether, Boaz mentioned, kind of the crop planning and being able to service, particular fields like that could be a model, like how do you route somebody efficiently around a set of fields, something like that. And so we've been really focused on creating kind of a specific samples of models so that it's more accessible for whatever industry we kind of tackle and go into. And that's been one of I think the critical ways that we are trying to be helpful to both stakeholders to kind of prove our cross industry applicability to our investors as well.
Vonnie Estes:
Great. Lou, how about you?
Lou Perez:
Yeah, a little bit, when I was mentioning before about creating systems that make it easier to communicate back and forth, and you mentioned the hiring as well. We're investing a lot into growing within those regions themselves, and to meet the demand. In addition, we're pretty fortunate that this technology is pretty robust and it can work in a number of different categories. So, by us expanding into different regions, being at source for different produce categories, it's helping to really accelerate some of our product development efforts as well. So, we're working on new categories, such as cucumber and apples and more citrus categories. So I think as far as with our customers, what happens is you usually work with a supplier or you work with the retailer, and they're pretty open with what they struggle with the most and having our systems there, our people there has really, I think helped increase the velocity at which we can meet their demands or inquiries on different categories.
Vonnie Estes:
That's great. Boaz, how about you?
Boaz Bachar:
So we believe that the demand for reliable data and it comes directly from the field, the value of it will continue to increase and the demand will continue to increase both from growers, but also for partners and the rest of the supply chain, because this is the operation. This is where everything is happening, and then you will sending it to the next area, to the packing house. And it's very important to understand what is happening in the field. And so, we believe that we can add more layers of working with the field and basically add more layers of data working with growers.
Vonnie Estes:
Where do you have people right now? Mostly in California, or do you have them at other places as well?
Boaz Bachar:
So, in total, FieldIn is almost 100 employees. In general, 50% of them are in the site in Israel, and the other 50 located in California. They are spread all over the country and sales, marketing and operations are sitting here in Central Valley, California.
Vonnie Estes:
I think I heard, I don't know if it was on a podcast or something, that your partner was stranded in Israel for a while just because of COVID-19 and couldn't get back. Is he back or is he still over there?
Boaz Bachar:
No. No. So he got back a month ago and actually it's funny that you're asking because me and my partner are in this journey for the last seven years. And I was laughing that I started the company a bachelor and now I'm married with two kids in a different country. And suddenly he was stuck in Israel for almost four months. And the distance was very challenging for us after so many years. So my wife was saying, laughing about me, that I'm missing him more than I miss my family. But yes, it was challenging time, but I thank God he's here and he's full power and working with our clients here.
Vonnie Estes:
Great. Thank you. So what can we a forecast about May of next year, based on what happened this May? That's not possible necessarily to be that specific, but what do you hope is going to stick around? What's going to stay with us?
Carolyn Mooney:
Yeah, I do think some of the changes that we're seeing kind of across the food industry are going to stick around. The reality is that like they say it takes four to eight weeks to build a habit. And right now we've been in lockdown for four months. So I think fundamentally we're changing consumer behavior in a really big way to rely more heavily on things like delivery and just local sourcing and stuff like that. So I think that some of those things are going to stay, and I think the really big thing is looking at the data to understand kind of correlation of different signals to the actual forecast itself is something that we'll have to look at, because I think the seasonality things that normally you could rely on are going to be a little bit flawed, looking at May to May, or May to next May. Does that makes sense?
Vonnie Estes:
Yes, yes. Anybody else have thoughts on that one?
Boaz Bachar:
I think that the growers will adapt to the new demand. They will understand what the new demand is, people, to talk about what you just said, because less flights, less hotels, less demand, and they will understand how to fit there. Also the supply chain will fit in self to the new demand. Regarding the startups and other companies, I think that we will develop new ways to communicate with partners and growers and will adopt and hopefully it will stay with us and we will not have to fly and to drive to face to face and meeting, to do only the last meeting or the first meeting, but for sure not the entire process.
Carolyn Mooney:
Oh, I had one more thing actually to add as well. So in addition to kind of these habits, I think fundamentally shifting, one thing I hope stays is that I think this has made every company, regardless of your industry, look at the state of your operations and make your system more resilient to change. And I hope that that stays because I think making something more resilient to change is ultimately how we make our more sustainable.
Carolyn Mooney:
And you don't have kind of these peaks and valleys of labor support and peaks and valleys of supply and stuff like that. You can kind of just get to a more even playing field on operations. So I'm really hoping that that trend stays. I think it's kind of just shed light on some of the issues across the supply chain in that regard.
Vonnie Estes:
Yeah. I think that's a great point, Carolyn. I think looking at across the whole supply chain and just how fragile things are that we didn't even think about how fragile they were and that we've had to build in resilience and do things differently. So, I think in the food industry, it's really shone a light on some of that fragility. And I think we're starting to figure out ways to fix it. So I totally agree with you.
Vonnie Estes:
All right. I think we're probably done here and I really want to thank our panelists for being willing to be on this and have this discussion. It's an important discussion. And I think as we continue to reflect on where we were before COVID-19 and then what we're doing now and then what the future is going to look like, these are really important learnings on how we build the food industry at a system that is resilient. So thank you very much for the conversation.
Vonnie Estes:
This concludes season one of PMA Takes on Tech. Thank you to my listeners who have hung in with me as I learned how to do podcasts and to share insights of what I see in our food supply during this time. Please stay tuned for season two and send me any ideas of what you would like me to take on. Thank you.
Vonnie Estes:
That's it for this episode of PMA Takes on Tech. Thanks for allowing us to serve as your guide to the new world of produce and technology. Be sure to check out all of our episodes pma.com and wherever you get your podcasts. Please subscribe and I would love to get any comments or suggestions on what you might want me to take on. For now, stay safe and eat your fruits and vegetables, and we'll see you next time.