A- Agtech - So What?

Podcast

Agtech - So What?

We tell the stories of innovators at the intersection of agriculture and technology to answer the question: what really is agtech and why should you care?

Website ↗ Last published 1 November 2026 222 posts collected by Sputnik

Said on Agtech - So What?

“What struck me first was the asymmetry in the approach. There were three people who came at first. This was a team who had done this dozens of times. They'd approached multiple families over multiple years, over multiple projects. We'd never done this. That gap in knowledge and experience and even in project literacy was real and huge, and you start feeling a little bit like you're on the back foot.” — Tracey Lefroy, Agtech - So What?
Tracey Lefroy · 1 Nov 2026 Listen →
“I'm not pro-development, I'm not anti-development, but if development is coming, how do we leverage it to the best of our ability to have that legacy impact? If you can find the pieces of the puzzle that are common to everyone, you're going to have more constructive conversations than trying to say to someone you have to host renewable energy transmission lines because it's good for the environment. That's quite a hard sell.” — Tracey Lefroy, Agtech - So What?
Tracey Lefroy · 1 Nov 2026 Listen →
“When we first started talking about data centers two years ago their requirement for water was mammoth. We're now looking at closed-loop systems, so the requirement for water is lower, but the requirement for power is bigger. In WA that's actually awesome, because water is our issue and we've got plenty of wind, plenty of solar. One of the ironies of successful farming is that the farm gets bigger, so there are fewer people there. Is this the opportunity to revitalize regional communities?” — Tracey Lefroy, Agtech - So What?
Tracey Lefroy · 1 Nov 2026 Listen →
“What's Australia's sovereign capacity in terms of fertilizer production? Sixty percent of the cost of producing nitrogen is in the energy. So if we're going to be this renewable energy superpower, both in Australia and specifically in the west, how do we utilize that competitive advantage to produce our nitrogen on Australian land?” — Tracey Lefroy, Agtech - So What?
Tracey Lefroy · 1 Nov 2026 Listen →
“If a workers' camp is coming into my local town, it's about developing the design of the trunk works and the camp such that when the workers are gone, that infrastructure has use in a different way. We've looked at can that be an aged care facility down the track? We have one corporate who gets the Woolies truck to drive up from Perth to deliver their groceries. I find that really disappointing because it's a really easy win for the community.” — Tracey Lefroy, Agtech - So What?
Tracey Lefroy · 1 Nov 2026 Listen →
“If your farming land changes, and some local governments are choosing this, your farming land may get rated differently if you are a host of renewable energy. It's really important that the landowner ensures that written into their contract is that if there is a change in land rates because of hosting this, that sits with the developer, not with the landowner. For some landowners, the renewable energy income can actually change the way their business is taxed.” — Tracey Lefroy, Agtech - So What?
Tracey Lefroy · 1 Nov 2026 Listen →
“This turbine, for example, can generate seven megawatts of power. However, sometimes it may even be turned off, such that it's only generating two megawatts. That's irrelevant to the landowner. The land only gets paid on its potential, on nameplate capacity.” — Tracey Lefroy, Agtech - So What?
Tracey Lefroy · 1 Nov 2026 Listen →
“The rhetoric coming out a few years ago was that renewable companies are here to divide and conquer. People were being asked to sign NDAs, not talk to their neighbours. I might be getting $10 and you might be getting $15. So immediately you've got disparity between agreements, you've got a lack of transparency, and that undermines the trust between neighbours.” — Tracey Lefroy, Agtech - So What?
Tracey Lefroy · 1 Nov 2026 Listen →
“There was almost this wild west approach where there was land speculation. Slightly less ethical developers were trying to secure bundles of land that they would package up and potentially sell off to a developer at some point. I think there was this misconception that NDAs were necessary so that there wasn't opposition, whereas an NDA immediately for me raises a red flag, because why do I need to keep this a secret?” — Tracey Lefroy, Agtech - So What?
Tracey Lefroy · 1 Nov 2026 Listen →
“It told me about the gap between saying that engagement matters and actually building that engagement into the process. I all of a sudden was trying to manufacture representation of the entire regional Western Australia on the spot. That's not engagement. That's the appearance of engagement. It's ticking a box. We shouldn't be doing 30-year deals on the basis of happening to have someone in the group who's willing to put their hand up and do that additional research.” — Tracey Lefroy, Agtech - So What?
Tracey Lefroy · 1 Nov 2026 Listen →
“It's about the governance systems. Have we specifically designed these governance systems to allow for good? If renewable infrastructure in agricultural regions can be utilized such that it drives down input costs, supports regional processing, and enables fertilizer production locally, it's a genuine transformation. And it's something that mining didn't capture. I think mining was all about extraction. How do we change the renewable energy transition from feeling like an extractive process to a collaborative process?” — Tracey Lefroy, Agtech - So What?
Tracey Lefroy · 1 Nov 2026 Listen →

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Guests

Pip Job , Tracey Lefroy .