As Syngenta’s Head of Digital and Sustainable Solutions for North America, Paul Backman brings over 30 years of expertise to his role, a position he assumed on October 1, 2024. This appointment follows his successful tenure as Global Head of Value Chain, where he served from June 2023. Throughout his career at Syngenta, Paul has excelled in various commercial roles, including leading the North American Industry Relations Team and the West Heartland Commercial Unit’s Crop Protection business in the Midwest. 

John Shegerian: Do you have a suggestion for a Rockstar Impact podcast guest? Go to impact podcast.com and just click Be a Guest to recommend someone today. This edition of The Impact Podcast is brought to you by ERI. ERI has a mission to protect people, the planet and your privacy, and is the largest fully integrated IT and electronics asset disposition provider and cybersecurity focused hardware destruction company in the United States and maybe even the world. For more information on how ERI can help your business properly dispose of outdated electronic hardware devices, please visit eridirect.com. This episode of the Impact Podcast is brought to you by Closed Loop Partners. Closed Loop Partners is a leading circular economy investor in the United States with an extensive network of Fortune 500 corporate investors, family offices, institutional investors, industry experts and impact partners. Closed loops platform spans the arc of capital, from venture capital to private equity bridging gaps and fostering synergies to scale the circular economy. To find Closed Loop Partners, please go to www.closelooppartners.com.

John: Welcome to another edition of The Impact Podcast. I’m John Shegerian, and I’m so excited to have with us today, Paul Backman. He’s the head of digital and sustainable solutions of North America for Syngenta, welcome Paul to the Impact Podcast.

Paul Backman: Hey, John, thank you. Really happy to be here with you and appreciate the opportunity.

John: Oh yeah, we’re thrilled that you’re here today and for the generosity of your time. And Paul, before we get talking about all the important work you’re doing in digital and sustainability at Syngenta in North America, can you share a little bit about your own background? Where’d you grow up and how’d you get on this very important journey that you’re on?

Paul: Yeah, that’s- I’d love to talk about that. So I grew up in Alabama, the son of two college professors at one time. Okay. My dad was in agriculture. He was in the College of Agriculture at Auburn University. And so naturally it was something that piqued my interest, but I actually have to give full credit to FFA is the one that helped me understand, hey, there could be a career here for me. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do as a kid, right? It’s[?] your typical, I want to be a firefighter, I want to be a doctor, or these types of things. But it was really FFA that had an impact on me and helped me see a vision of where I could go career-wise. And so that’s where I went. And at the time it was more leaner[?]. And at the time I was getting out of college in the early nineties, there weren’t a lot of jobs in animal[?] agriculture. And so I did an internship with a company called Rome Plunk, a French company that’s no longer around. It’s been swallowed up by other parts of our industry. But it was that internship that really showed me a little bit about, more specifically, what is the area that I could focus on and really have a passion for. And it was in the sales area of working with a crop protection company and just the idea of working with farmers on a daily basis to say, “Hey, how can we improve productivity in your overall income level as a result of using some of these innovative products in a different way?”

John: Got it. Well, how long ago did you join Syngenta US?

Paul: So I joined Syngenta US in 1999.

John: Wow.

Paul: So about 26 years. And, you know, the interesting thing is, if you come talk to people at Syngenta, which there’s quite a few of us, it’s not that unusual to have somebody with 26 years or 40 years. The individual I work for is a 40-year veteran here. But that’s the kind of, it’s a culture thing, right? It’s a fantastic culture. It’s one that I have absolutely enjoyed since I’ve been here. And it is what keeps you,

John: When a corporation has that kind of culture, I nickname that the Hotel California culture, you check in, but you never want to leave.

Paul: Right. Yeah. There are some situations that people leave, right? Just like anywhere else. But [inaudible]a little different than some other industries. And I think part of it’s a culture, part of it’s the mission that we’re on, part of it’s just the people that we’re working with, rather working with in the industry of agriculture. It may be a little different than working in pharmaceuticals, let’s say, or in some areas of high tech that you just don’t have that connection to the customer as much as what we do.

John: Well, you’re the head of digital and sustainable solutions in North America now. What was your first [crosstalk]job[?] when you entered in 1999, when you first joined?

Paul: Yeah, so actually go back a little bit. I joined another company that’s no longer around and spent four years there, but it was the same industry. And that was in 1995. And I was a crop protection sales rep. And so I moved from Alabama up to Iowa, and that’s where I cut my teeth in the industry and learned a little bit more about what we do and how we do it, and why it’s important that we have products like we have in the crop protection industry. So 1999, I was called by a headhunter from the industry and offered an opportunity to interview for a role with Novartis on the east coast of the US. And so picked up and moved in a very similar role as a sales rep on the East Coast for Novartis. Novartis, big pharmaceutical company and an agriculture company at the time, Swiss based. So then you had Zeneca, a UK based company, they split off their rag divisions, joined them together to form Syngenta. And as a matter of fact, in November, we’re going to celebrate our 25th anniversary as Syngenta. So we’re really excited about that. And that was when we formed out as an exclusive ag[?] company. And so seeds, crop protection, vegetables, we work in the same space in home and lawn, as well as golf courses, these types of things, flowers. So we are diverse, but it all centers around agriculture within Syngenta.

John: And basically the mission, if I got this right, is you aim to help farmers grow more food sustainably for the world’s growing population.

Paul: That’s absolutely correct.

John: For our listeners and viewers who aren’t familiar with Syngenta, you could go to www.Syngenta-S-Y-N-G-E-N-T-A-us.com. And that’s where Paul and his colleagues can be found. But we’ll also put in the show notes their AgriEdge division and their sustainability division. You’ll have the links to those divisions as well. Their[?] annual revenues, over $29 billion, over 59,000 employees around the world and serving more than a hundred countries. Syngenta is a big company, Paul.

Paul: We are a big company, and focused on agriculture around the world. And so you focus on it in the US, it’s a little bit different than what it would be in, say, India or Bangladesh or other parts of the world. It’s different challenges, it’s different sizes of farmers. And so when we talk about our sustainability priorities, we’ll get into a little bit of the nuances around why that’s important.

John: Before we get into those nuances, I’m going to ask you another question, though. I have been doing this show 17 years, almost 2000 guests, and we’ve had all these wonderful chief impact and sustainability officers and leaders and experts, and usually the sustainability divisions, when it’s been a dual role, it’s been tied to supply chain. I’ve never seen or heard about digital and sustainability tied together. So this is fascinating. Explain the nexus of digital agenda and sustainability and how you make that work and why that nexus is so important.

Paul: You know what, that’s a really great call out and a terrific question. So I came into this role just about a year ago, and prior to me coming in, sustainability and digital were separate. They weren’t operating together. But here’s the rationale behind it. We need to get sustainability more into our commercial operations versus where it was outside of commercial. The other reality that we deal with in the sustainability world, it is really tied to digital. Digital is a mechanism that helps you measure the impact that you’re delivering. And it also is going to bring a lot of other tools into sustainability that are really quite important. And so as we go through this discussion, I hope that really comes to life for people, but it really was the right decision to bring those two together and drive it more into our commercial organization, as well as get the digital enablement part really embedded into our sustainability.

John: Let’s stop there. Let’s start there. Let’s talk a little bit about your vision, Syngenta’s vision for digital in the future of agriculture then.

Paul: Yeah. So digital is one of the big buzzwords in agriculture these days, right? And it hasn’t been that way for my whole career. It’s more of a recent phenomenon in which digital has come in. And there was a period of time where, if you look to Silicon Valley, they looked over in agriculture and said, that’s an untapped market, right? These guys are so far behind when it comes to technology. The reality was we weren’t that far behind, but there are some significant improvements we could make and insights that we could gain from what they had done in Silicon Valley and in some of the broader markets. So there was a lot of investment going on in agriculture, in the digital space, specifically if you look at Syngenta and some of our chief competition, that really started to ramp up. But it was also starting to gain steam with some startups, a lot of VC money rolling into some of these digital startups that were affecting agriculture. Here in recent days, that money has shifted. The VC money is going more to AI in general. Where are the big bets that they could really go at? And when you look at it from an agriculture standpoint, hey, we’re still investing in it. You’ve got some startups that are struggling a little bit, and we’re trying to collaborate on some of these things. We need that startup mentality, the people that are looking in a small area to really start to drive improvements. And so that collaboration with a big company like Syngenta is important for them. But it’s also important for us because we’re not going to build it all right here. We can’t do everything within the walls of Syngenta. We really do count on that innovative mindset, the speed that some of these startups have. And so that’s something that really has been important to us in ensuring that we’re tapping into because there’s some great ideas out there and things that can have some big impact. And you start layering technology upon technology, and you get it to the point that they can speak to each other. That means more insights for the grower. And that’s really where AI starts to play a part as well.

John: Say more.

Paul: Okay. So about AI, you know, Syngenta, we’ll talk a little bit[inaudible]but crop wise[inaudible] umbrella brand within Syngenta’s digital platforms, AI is going to be the component that is going to be talking agent to agent. We’re trying to arrange our data sets so they can better talk across platforms. And so a grower doesn’t have to log into this tool then that tool. They have a single login just to make life a little bit easier, because it doesn’t matter how good your tool is, if it’s really complex and complicated to work with, nobody’s going to use it, right? So we’ve got to make sure that that user experience with the tools is also really good. One thing that we’re also focused on is we’re really focused on saying, from a grower perspective, how do we invest technology wise, not just with our crop protection chemistry or our seeds or traits[?], but how do we use some of this digital technology to bring to the farmers to help drive success there? Because if they’re successful in what they’re trying to do, the industry is going to be successful. And so when you look at it, hey, there’s a lot of these tools out there that are very expensive, but ours is more of a product plus approach to where we’re providing this more as a service than as a product that they have got to pay for. And so, but we’re also making sure we work with other parts of the industry that have their own part of the value proposition. For example, there’s some fantastic retailers in the US that work directly with the growers. They’re selling our products, but they’re also able to go out there and drive and take their influence to the farm and help set these wheels in motion that will drive success as well. And so we want to make sure that we’re collaborating with them as well, because it takes a lot to start to drive change in an industry. And it’s not all about what we’re doing, it’s about doing it together and for the right reasons.

John: Is that the secret sauce of Syngenta versus your competitors? The fact that you use your digital solutions and AI as an extra add-on to the products and services you already are delivering to your farmers?

Paul: I don’t necessarily think that’s the case. There’s been some of our competitive digital products that are plus type of approaches. And the reality is we do get paid, right? In order to justify this, we’ve got to get a little bit [inaudible]. I mean, it’s not something that we can just do for free because there’s a lot of investment in it. But hey, we are an R&D[?] company that’s investing a lot in our research and development. Part of that’s digital. And it’s an entire value proposition that we want to bring forward and continuing to try and improve that value proposition for the growers and those in the ag community that are using our products. And so that’s what we’re trying to do.

John: Do the digital offerings encompass all the crops in all the geographies in the US?

Paul: Yeah. I mean, I can’t think of an exception to where a crop is not included, which[inaudible] a lot of things are satellite based or our first entrance into the digital space actually started almost right after Syngenta was formed almost 25 years ago. And that [inaudible]. It was a [inaudible] platform that we had for farmers. And it went by a lot of different names. It went by AgriEdge early on, and it’s now folded up into the crop wise family. But at one time it was called… At one time it was called Cotton Advantage because it kind of started in that cotton geography of the deep south[?]. And it’s just expanded from there. But it was about helping farmers make better decisions, understand the return on investment for each of their inputs. And if you think about that from a standpoint of Syngenta selling some branded materials out there, they tend to be a little bit more expensive than some of the generic competition out there. How does the farmer justify paying extra for that? Well, we can show you when it comes to the financials, and that was sort of the inspiration for it. But it was certainly not something that, as you look at that, we weren’t satisfied with stopping there. There’s so many other technologies that we could layer in, whether it was satellite based types of technologies that we could give today, we can give daily imagery, John, as long as you’re not looking at a cloudy day, a farmer can look through our technology and see the crop progress every day. We’re collaborating with a company that’s named Taranis, fascinating company, but they’re using AI based on drone imagery that can spot- they can detect their 0.3 millimeter resolution on a crop. So it’s not- hey, it’s not us doing it. It’s not our [inaudible] it’s none of that. But we’re layering that in saying, how can we help a farmer make better decisions? And they’re looking at every square inch of a farmer’s field and helping them realize, “Hey, do I need to plant this crop again? Because I didn’t get a good enough stand[?] Are the weeds coming in. Where are they coming in? Where do I need to focus my spray because the pest pressures are high, and where do I not need to spray?” So now you’re starting to get into some of that sustainability considerations. Utilizing the tools, where do[?]you do need to use them and starting to raise the bar as far as stewardship and as well as financial discipline as far as where you’re spending your money.

John: Tying in this whole issue that affects all of us, Paul, of climate change, does AI play a huge role in terms of predictive analytics in informing farmers on weather pattern changes in developments on a real-time basis?

Paul: Yeah. I mean, I think it does. I mean, that’s not an area where we’re focusing so much. A friend of mine is working, he’s built an AI model where they’re actually looking at different markets around the world through climate change as lens and saying, which areas growing different commodities are most at risk. So you can see a commodity player[?] saying, “Hey, this is really important,” right? And saying, “Okay, we need to buy a bit more here or a bit more there. We need to hedge what we’re doing,” right. Because our positions are too at risk. But that is exactly what they’re doing, is they’re looking at risk associated weather, but they’re also looking at political risk and trying to- but it’s all AI driven. And if we’re looking at AI, it is going to be across some of our tools, but it’s also looking outside of our tools. And I’ll give you an example. So if[?] you think about sustainability and you think about digital sort of together[?], one of the things that we are really focused on is our product stewardship, right? There’s things like bees that we want to protect. We know that important role they play as pollinators in our crops. We know that some of our products can have adverse effects from a water standpoint. We need to just keep them away from streams. Okay, well, we need to start layering these technologies and saying, okay, we’ve got- we know where the sensitive areas are, waterways, et cetera. How do we keep the sprayers away from those areas? The first thing is, if you can digitize a product label, wow. And then also layer on top of that the imagery that knows where the sensitive areas are, and then you get that to communicate with the sprayers themselves, now all of a sudden you can have an alert that goes off and says, “Hey, you need to stop spraying here. It’s in the middle of the day, and the pollinators are active. You need to stop spraying this because they’re sensitive to this product.” There’s a lot of things that we can be, we can improve to be better stewards of the environment. And it can make just significant changes in a hurry by embracing this type of technology. These are something that’s a little bit in the future, but I think it’s extremely realistic to think we can get some of these things as soon as we go forward.

John: If you just joined us, we’ve got Paul Backman with us today. He’s the head of digital and sustainable solutions of North America. For Syngenta to find Paul and his colleagues on all the important work they’re doing in digital and sustainability, please go to www.syngenta-us.com, Syngenta’s, S-Y-N-G-E-N-T-us.com. Paul, talk about, as you and I know, sustainability can be very broad, it can be very narrow. How is your reading of it with regards to your mission and the great work that you’re doing at Syngenta us?

Paul: Yeah, and it can be broad and that can be a little bit daunting for people, right? [inaudible]saying that[?] I don’t know what we can really do. For Syngenta, just last year, we really[inaudible] again we’ve actually embraced sustainability and looking at what impact we could make in sustainability for quite some time. But it was time to refresh that. And so last year, we really put a stake in the ground on four priorities globally. The first would be higher yields and lower impact. And when you think about sustainability, sometimes we get into some of these discussions and people have their own missions that they want to accomplish, right? I don’t like pesticides, so we need to remove pesticides from the equation to make it more sustainable. The problem is that our crop protection product play a huge role in driving yield. So you may have some issues on your own agenda where you don’t like them, but we’ve got to protect yield. If you want to keep that rainforest from being chopped down, we’ve got to maximize the production in our current farmland. And so preserving yield is an important element of that. The second part of[?] how do we do it more responsibly? How do we use something like integrated pest management? How do we use some of the digital technology, like I described before, to say, hey, let’s use it where we need to use it, but we don’t do it prophylactically, right? Or we try and avoid that. We have to have a known pest pressure before we go out and make an application. So this is where sometimes where the food industry and the input[?] companies have to come to a bit of a compromise, because you’ve got to have reality built in there. You’ve got to continue to protect and drive guilt as part of the equation to make it realistic. And I think that’s where sometimes farmers get a little confused of- hey, the messages I’m hearing are anti pesticide, anti fertilizer. I don’t even want to hear anymore. Right. This isn’t realistic. Well, how do we make it more realistic? Syngenta, by the way, is investing a tremendous amount into our biologicals research and development. And this is something that I think is for the future, it brings a lot of really cool new technology. But what we’re finding so far is we are able to enhance the productivity of crops. We’re able to improve fertilizer utilization. And so- but as far as replacing [inaudible]products pesticide that are synthetic, there hasn’t been a lot of examples where we’ve been able to really do that yet. And so I think that is realistic into the future, but it’s not a current reality. So again, how do we do it with[?] maintaining the yields, growing the yields, but trying to lessen the overall impact and burden on the environment. The second area that we’re really looking at from a priority standpoint is in regenerating the soil as well as nature in general. Okay. If you look at the soils across the globe, there’s about 40% of the soils that would be classified as losing productivity in need of regeneration. And that represents, you could say, that’s up to 50% crop loss because of those soils that are so degraded, right. The yield potential of those is about 50% of what it could be. And we’ve got a project down in Brazil, it’s called the Reverte. In Reverte. If you go back in time quite a ways, you’ve got some soils that came out of rainforests. They were grazed from a livestock standpoint. They probably went into crop production for a while, but they’ve lost the- the degradation of those soils is so significant that they’re not productive anymore. But there are some approaches that we’re taking where we can get the pH right, and we start to invest more on certain crops and technologies to help bring those soils back to a productive state. And this is a great example of where Syngenta, the Nature Conservancy and a bank down in Brazil have worked together to regenerate a whole lot of soils. And as a matter of fact, I think their target is a million hectares[?] that they’re targeting to regenerate. And so it’s an example of what we could do more of. In the US it may not be quite as extreme as that, but there’s no doubt we have our problems. You look at the Mississippi river and you see a lot of soil erosion runoff that goes into the river, you end up with a hypoxia situation in the Gulf of Mexico. These aren’t, these are bad situations. We can do better. How do we do better? What are some of the solutions? But we’ve got some ideas, we’ve got some input. We can work together with farmers on some of these ideas. But it also comes at a risk for the farmers. And I think that’s something that we need to get our heads around, is, are we going to ask the farmers to take on all the risk of making this a reality? You go to no-till you put in cover crops. These are all big buzzwords in Ag industry to help solve this, but it does come with risk. The chain comes with investment for the farmers. So how do we do it differently? We need to be open to these discussions.

John: Well, before we go on to the other two pillars of sustainability, go back to biologics. I know when it comes to human beings, biologics in the new regenerative medicine wave that’s hit the world, actually biologics means stem cells, it means the GLP ones and other types of peptides. What does it mean when it comes to sustainability and agriculture? What do biologics mean there?

Paul: Yeah, so there’s a lot of different sources, but they tend to come from natural sources to begin with.

John: Understood.

Paul: And so it has some elements that may be similar in the biologics from the pharma world, but there may be some uniqueness to it as well. [inaudible]for example, is one that a lot of people are looking at as a source for some of these biologicals. And but there’s, the world is wide open, just like in the digital area. You’ve got a lot of small shops that are popping up and doing research in this area. And it’s fantastic to have these innovative ideas coming forward. You know, we talk about the big companies and agriculture in it being dominated by the big companies. Part of that’s driven by the regulatory requirements. In order to get a crop protection product to market, it takes hundreds of millions of dollars. A small shop can’t do that. So as we keep biologicals, if you want to keep them from moving forward, you just saddle them with all the regulations that we have in the synthetic space. But I think we’re better off having the innovation going on in the small shops and seeing what we can do to drive biological innovation into the agricultural space. So I think it’s a great thing. And so you’ll hear a lot about some of these small shops getting purchased by a larger company. And that’s a good thing too. It’s not a bad thing. They need to have the opportunity to scale through some of the infrastructure and investment some that some of the bigger companies have already put out there. So it’s not a bad thing, but we need those small shops to continue and [crosstalk].

John: On that note[?] when some of these great inventors and geniuses come up with great ideas, the world won’t benefit from them unless they put it on a huge platform like your platform.

Paul: That is the quickest route to get to scale.

John: That’s right.

Paul: Is to work with some of the bigger companies that are out there now.

John: That’s right.

Paul: A hundred percent. Okay.

John: Given that other great example you gave about Brazil, how does your company work? Are there- in terms of Paul Backman, head of North America digital sustainable solutions, do you have a peer group of other digital sustainable solution heads for Asia, Europe, south America, and then all of you are sharing best practices on a regular basis? Or is that, is that how it works? Or am I missing something here?

Paul: Yeah, I’m smiling only because I’m getting together with my peers from around the world next week.

John: Oh, great.

Paul: [crosstalk]Switzerland. So we’re going to get ’em together, talk about best practices, what’s making an impact and what’s not.

John: That’s awesome.

Paul: And see if there’s some things that we can bring back to North America that would really benefit…

John: What a great way to share best practices, though with real people in person and colleagues that are all working towards the greater good of the world, but also of the company, but of course, of the planet as well. So that’s what a nice experience that I guess gets to be as well for you.

Paul: Absolutely. A hundred percent agree.

John: Now I interrupted you. I want you to go back to the last two pillars of sustainability for Syngenta.

Paul: Yeah. So when I talked earlier a little bit about sustainability, I talked about the fact that it could look different in different parts of the world. And I think number three is improve rural prosperity. It’s going to mean something a little bit different if you’re talking about India versus in the US. In India you have so many small holder farms, right? And one of our targets there is to improve profitability on those small holder farms by 10%, right. That’s a measurable outcome. It’s a challenge. It is certainly something that’s aspirational to try and achieve. But that is something that we are set out to do is how do we work with some of these small holders? And we’re trying to be innovative in how we do it. When you have so many farmers, you have to figure out how you scale your messaging and how you work with others that can help make that impact. The channel, for example, would be an important element of that. And so we are doing some things differently in markets like India than what we’re doing in the US where you have a very established Ag space with retailers, distributors, and everything that goes into it here in the US is a little different. But our mission is no different. We are still trying to drive profitability to the farmers. When the farmers win, we all win. That’s just the way it works, right? And if farmers are struggling, we’re all struggling. So ultimately in service of the farmer is something that is really important. So in the US we don’t have a lot of small holders, but we are focused on rural prosperity and them making good financial gains. And there’s some of those things we have direct impact on and some things that we don’t. But that is something that’s woven into our DNA and what we’re trying to do. The fourth area is sustainable operations. And I think that one sort of speaks to itself. If you[?] start looking at scope one and two in particular, how do we start to really clean up and drive down our impact from the manufacturing of our products or our seed production or whatever it may be? How do we start to clean up our shop here first and foremost, before we ask somebody else to do the same in their operations? And so those are the four priorities. And just recap, it’s higher yield, lower impact, regenerate soil in nature, improve rural prosperity. And the last one is sustainable operations. And…

John: On the digital side, I’m fascinated…

Paul: …for supply chains.

John: You bifurcate the digital side in your mind and in your practice, are you constantly searching the globe for great little startups that have these diamond opportunities for you to roll up into your larger brand and platform to give them the air and the sunshine and the water that they deserve? Is that part of it? And similarly, you have a group of software engineers that are building tools for you under the direction, but[?] whether you see your existing client base wants and needs, or how does that work in terms of the high-wire act of managing the digital division?

Paul: Yeah, and I can’t say that we’ve got this long line that’s saying, “Hey, Syngenta, we want to work with you.” Ultimately that would be great, and it would be work nice to work with some of these smaller startups. But we do have some that we’re talking to right now. And yeah, we go to some of these technology shows and we see what’s complimentary to what we’re already doing. We don’t want it to go on these huge tangents that are going to pivot us in some crazy direction. But there are some things that really lend themselves to what we’re already doing and what we have built in house. And those are some of the things that we want to focus on.

John: Besides those kind of trade shows and stuff, how many… Because I take it’s almost like recruiting for a blue chip out of high school before others recognize him or her. Do people give you tip off like, Hey, you better go talk to this group. I saw them and they got something really cool, I think is that would interest you?

Paul: Yeah. You know what, yeah. And we also have a Syngenta Ventures group that invests in some of these startups.

John: Oh, that’s good.

Paul: So sometimes the tips come from them, “Hey, take a look at this[inaudible]see[?].” They look at things a little bit differently and they’re saying, hey… they’re not looking necessarily and saying, how complimentary is it to what Paul and his team are doing now? They’re saying, “Hey, how important is this technology going to be for the future?” And it may be complimentary, it may not be. But

John: So you’re incubating some of these, these, these stars as well.

Paul: We are.

John: That’s great.

Paul: Absolutely. That’s, and along with some of, hey, some of our competitors, some of our customers are equally invested in some of these things. And I think it’s great. They’re going to need the capital to justify going forward with some of these things. And that’s where we can come in and play a part.

John: Paul, you mentioned AgriEdge earlier, and you know, when I’ve done my reading about AgriEdge, you have about- it’s about 25 years older or so. Can you explain what AgriEdge is and the importance to what you do at that AgriEdge is involved with?

Paul: Yeah, so AgriEdge, I said our roots go back to this financial software for farmers, for management software. And that’s really the start of AgriEdge. But really what you can think about is where we’re working directly with farmers on some of this, it would be in area of a few elements. So financials would be one, crop wise financials. You’ve got crop wise protector, crop wise protector is pretty neat because what it is, is it’s almost… It’s got several elements, but one of the newest elements is a using satellite imagery to predict where we’re going to see impact from nematodes. And for your audience. They may not know what nematodes are, but they’re microscopic worms that feed on the roots of plants. And in a lot of sandier soils, they can have a really big impact, but it’s underground. Your plant may just look terrible, but you don’t know what’s causing it. Well, we’re actually able to use algorithms and satellite imagery to help predict where those nematodes are. We’ve got a new crop protection product that’s awaiting registration that could play a big part in helping to control these nematodes as well as there’s some other technologies that are out there, though that will actually help. But trying to understand where that pressure is, is difficult. So if you can be more precise in your application, it’s good for the environment, it’s good for the bank account of the farmers and having to write a check for it, and it’s also going to be more effective. So that’s part of protector. Protector also is a tool that allows- it’s almost like crowdsourcing. So if you think about all these agronomists that are in the US if they’re using their phone on their camera or their camera on their phone rather and going out and taking pictures of pests in the field, and you start to create an understanding of where the pressures are hitting. And some of the diseases, some of the insects move in the US, right. So they may start in the south where it warms up faster, and you might see them progressing north and understanding where they are and what you need to be ready for. And let’s say it’s army worms, right. They move in hoards. And if you see army worms starting to pop up, cause this crowdsourcing type of approach through protector, it does help you start to get your market prepared for that. But then you’ve got things like crop wise imagery as part of that. And again, that’s the satellite imagery.

John: That’s amazing.

Paul: Daily satellites, and it’s working with some of the existing satellite companies out there. But trying to bring this type of technology and utilizing some of our computational agronomy department to build these algorithms and help us do things like understand where nematodes are making an impact and other ways they can also start to help farmers make sense of the data, of the images, things that can help them make better decisions.

John: Paul, so if I’m one of your farmers, explain this to me. So AgriEdge really is shorthand for you’re giving me as a farmer, client of yours, an edge on my competitors because you’re giving me all this usable, actionable data. So is it- when I pull it up in the morning as a farmer client of yours, is it an AgriEdge dashboard that I’m getting on my property?

Paul: We’re getting there, John. We’re not quite that level[?][inaudible]our interface, but that should be there [inaudible] time for next year.

John: That’s good. That means[?] sustainability.

Paul: How to improve that user experience, make it easy, right?

John: Yeah.

Paul: So yeah. So the idea’s[?]… And also to not just give them data. Nobody needs more data. They need insightful information.

John: Actionable.

Paul: And I think that’s where AI plays a part as well. And if you think about it in terms of what does AI do for jobs, what does any of this technology mean as far as, okay, now you’ve got a drone out scouting. That’s what a person was doing. The reality is that agronomist that’s using the drone imagery from Taranis, for example, knows exactly where to go in that field now to start looking. So they start their day behind the computer, they look at the insights that came from that technology, they can go right there and verify and write a prescription basically for what’s going to solve that problem. And they can call attention to something that may have been missed.

John: Wow. So you’re[crosstalk]

Paul: So it is only going to make these agronomists better. Is it going to, is it going to limit opportunities in the future? It probably will in some spaces, but the human element is just going to make them better at what they do in the area of agronomy and working with ai.

John: So you’re saying in the future, which is always fun, because as you and I know, digital never- there’s no finish line in digital. It’s always evolving forward. And the same thing in sustainability. There’s no finish line. It’s an iterative evolution that when you unveil your digital D dashboard for AgriEdge, not only am I going to have information on my farms as one of your client farmers, but then it’s going to give AI enabled, suggestive, actionable steps to take based upon the information it’s serving up to me that morning.

Paul: That’s absolutely right. I mean, think of this, right? You get your phone and you look on here and you see, okay, everything’s green in these fields. This one might be yellow. It might be an issue. I need to dig in there, red[?], ooh, I’ve got a big problem. And so very intuitive and you can instantly start to take action, but you’re more directed. The old way of doing it, John, is hey, I need to send somebody out to that field on a regular basis- daily would be great to look and scout and see what’s happening. Because you never know what happened overnight or since the last time you were in there.

John: Yeah. Well that’s really great. Talk a little bit about, you’ve been with Syngenta now, 26 or so years.

Paul: Yeah.

John: You have a project or two that really you’re so proud of, you want to share with our listeners and our audience.

Paul: A project that I’m most proud of. Oh, John, you know…

John: It’s hard. It’s Sophie’s[?] choice. I know I’m giving you Sophie’s choice here.

Paul: You know, I’m not going to give you a specific name here. Okay?

John: Okay.

Paul: Okay. But one of the things I am most proud of has to do with collaborating outside of Syngenta to make impact in the area of sustainability.

John: Okay.

Paul: And one particular customer that we have some ongoing work with, as a result of this, is changing their investment in what they’re doing as a result of working together with us. And ultimately, that feels really good to know that you’re both working together to make an impact. Cause you can go further faster together than you can alone.

John: So, gosh, darn true. So true.

Paul: And it’s- I can tell you this, that in my experience in the world of sustainability and in digital, the same thing goes true, is the collaborators are going to win. They’re going to win out. It is going to be a key critical success factors. If you’re so proud of what you got that you’re not going to collaborate with others, you’re probably not going to be real happy with where you end up.

John: So true.

Paul: So one of the things we talk about in digital today too is how do you get data sets to talk to each other? And this is one of those things that we’re going to be talking about interoperability quite a bit, I think. And it’s one thing just to get my tools to talk to each other. Now we’re talking about getting my tools back to other tools correctly and effectively. And so I think AI’s going to offer a lot to that solution, but we got to get our data sorted correctly as well. But companies talking to each other on behalf of a farmer and the farmer benefiting from that is really what’s so important here. And protection of data is absolutely critical to what we do. And we don’t share that information with anybody without the owner of that data, in most cases, the farmer signing off on it. But we got to define what’s the value proposition if we’re going to share that and be completely transparent about who’s going to get it, what are they going to do with it, and how does that benefit the farmer? And I think that’s scary to a lot of people, and it should be. But at the same time, we’ve got to very much- we’ve got to articulate what that outcome looks like and why it’s going to be so beneficial. So otherwise, this collaboration could be really difficult to really have anything meaningful to work together to say[?], if it’s not benefiting the farmer, if it’s just benefiting your company, sorry, we can’t do it. How’s it going to benefit the farmer, the customer ultimately? And that should open up some really exciting avenues.

John: You know, Paul, we’ve had almost an hour discussion today, and as you and I know, the world of sustainability is ever changing and ever evolving, and it seems to have now moved beyond the alphabet soup of acronyms that became highly polarized and politicized, unfortunately. And now the talk more is of materiality tied to the fact that sustainability is here to stay in North America and around the world, and also the shift from the linear to circular economies here to stay. But materiality is tying- as you’ve already well done throughout this episode- tying the core business of the business of Syngenta to all the sustainable projects that you have ongoing, which only materially positively affect Syngenta’s core business, but also the clients and communities that you serve. Talk a little bit about materiality and how you view it, even though you’ve articulated it so brilliantly today. But how, in terms of your internal discussions, materiality and sustainability, and why that’s important. So we move beyond all the political and noise out there that makes no sense for any of us to be throwing rocks at each other. It’s just more important about really creating change that makes a difference.

Paul: Yeah. You know, the thing that gets me the most excited is to know that what I’m doing has impact.

John: Right.

Paul: That’s ultimately what gets me up in the morning and gets me excited about doing what I do. And if you- and I’ll get back to your question, but I’m going to go on a little bit of a tangent.

John: Yeah, sure.

Paul: For your younger listeners that are thinking about what am I going to do in my career and is agriculture something that I should be thinking about? The answer is yes. Right. You might think of agriculture and think, oh, it’s just farmers and tractors and all that. Well, number one, those tractors are really exciting these days. And number two, there’s a lot of roles in agriculture that surround the farmers, not just on the farm. And digital is playing a huge part. So it’s gotten really exciting. And so I would encourage young people to think about agriculture as a possibility for your career, even if you’ve never been on a farm. Check it out, see what you think. But back to your question around sustainability, materiality. Look, it is one of those things when I got the sustainability bug[?], it’s been probably a dozen years ago when I was doing a role in industry relations for Syngenta. And there was one farmer I talked to, and he was a really big farmer, farming around 150,000 acres or so at the time. And he said, “I’m doing no-till. I’m doing cover crops on every acre I can in my production.” I said, “Why are you doing that?” Just out of curiosity, not questioning his intelligence, but just curious. He said, “You know what? Because number one, it’s the right thing to do.” I said, “Tell me more.” He said, “Let me tell you.” He said, “We’re dealing with a lot of issues today that the previous generation didn’t deal with. And you can call it climate change, you can call it whatever you want, but when we get rain, it tends to come down really hard, really fast. And when we get drought, it tends to be hotter, drier for a longer period of time.” So, okay, so what does that really mean to the fact that you’re doing no-till and[?] cover crops? He said, “Because when you look at these heavy rains where I’m no tilling, that water infiltrates the soil so much more effectively. And so that keeps it from running off into the streams. Okay. And when I’m doing cover crops and keep that ground covered is preventing this erosion. And so when you get into a drought situation, if you’re not disturbing that soil, it’s going to hold the moisture more effectively.” And he said, “So that’s first and foremost, that’s why I’m doing those practices on these farms. Secondly, I think it’s going to become more of a requirement as we go forward to do things more sustainably.” That was a huge aha moment for me. [inaudible]oh, sustainability. They, he just described what it looks like in his type of operation, and he also described why I should start paying attention because he had a great point. Yeah. It is raining a lot harder when it rains. It is. Droughts are more extensive and hey, you can do something about it. You can change some of these practices and make your operation a bit more sustainable. It doesn’t have to be politicized. We are all seeing these things. And so if we can start to really just pay attention and say, “What can we do a little bit differently based on these facts,” then start making a difference in a contribution. You know, look, hey, we’re going to have administration changes for the rest of my life. They’re going to have different philosophies about some of these things. That’s okay. But as farmers and others, people in the Ag industry, there are some things that, hey, we’ve got to adapt to. And these are some of the things that we can help with as Syngenta. Whether it’s looking at how we start to help a farmer deal with some of those changes and some of the risks that comes with it as from an advice standpoint. Or you might have to change some product choices around crop protection as a result of some of these changes. Or maybe digitally we can help determine where water stands on a field, and you should consider some of these changes. These are all possibilities that we could do right now. And so we can be a part of making some of these changes real, but also having positive impact on that farm financially. And so ultimately that’s what we want to help drive. And so I think it is real as far as what can be done today. And we’re investing for the future to help continue to drive change and help farmers adapt and take the noise out of it. The noise just gets in the way. And so how do we cut through that clutter and focus on facts, focus on science, and start to bring these possibilities to the growers[?] that we work with? What are

John: You looking forward to the most in ’26?

Paul: In ’26? Oh, for me, the biggest thing I’m excited about is starting to see some of the AI realities come into work and these insights just pop out off[?] the page. So that’s probably the biggest thing, and that’s probably an answer you get a lot these days, is AI. But hey, I’m looking forward to it in my own shop.

John: With regards to our next generation poll, I know you’ve spoken about your own career. And there’s a lot of people, a lot of young people around the world that watch this show actually listen to this show that are very interested in being like you, the next Paul Backman, who gets to not only make a paycheck, which we all have to make to pay the bills and keep the lights on and feed our families, but also gets to make an impact. And that’s what everyone is, that’s what this next generation, Gen Z and the millennials are looking for that magic convergence of making a living and making an impact. But many of them now are inundated. They all are inundated actually by traditional media, legacy media, and also social media with the message that AI’s coming for you and it’s coming for your career and your job. What advice can you give the next generation to AI proof themselves and drop the over catastrophization worrying of AI coming for them where they could then make themselves AI proof and irreplaceable?

Paul: Yeah. I tell you what, I don’t know that I’ve got any kind of perfect solution to that concern, but I do know that when we’re looking at adding people in that are fresh, coming out of college, for example. One of the things we’re looking for is your work ethic. Your ability to think, right? And make critical decisions. How do you make decisions? Does somebody make them for you? Or how do you think through a concern and then come to a conclusion? The ability to think on your feet as well as to just work hard are just a couple of those attributes that are going to be really, really important to you as you go forward. And those are things that we’re going to continue to need. I talk to people all the time that are just concerned about finding people that will work hard, and that’s one of their biggest concerns. So if you’re out there and you’ve got a good work ethic, keep it up. Right. You’ll stand out. But the other thing is control what you can control. And I don’t know what areas AI might start replacing, but there’s a lot of news out there that would suggest that it’s going to take some of these jobs and those jobs and hey, that may be the case, but there’s still going to be some areas in agriculture that are where you get dirt on your boots, we’re going to need people in those fields. We’re going to need people taking these insights and driving them towards action and interacting with the farmers. And so it may be a long time before AI starts to take some of the jobs in agriculture, but it may be a short time when we start finding some efficiencies. But the key is how do you get, how do you improve what you’re doing as a result of the AI? How do you make yourself and evolve with the fact that you now have better insights? You’re not going to do your job exactly the same way you did it before. You shouldn’t. How do you do it more productively, efficiently? It should change. And my job has changed a lot just over the course of my 30 years in agriculture, and I hope it just continues to do that.

John: So how[?]about social fluency and people fluency. You know, I’m an all, I’m in a couple months, Paul, I’m going to be 63 years old. And you know, when I was growing up, all business and I grew up in Manhattan and all the business I did with my dad’s company was all in person. So in person was ubiquitous. There was no cell phones, obviously. There was no digital back then. And now I find with the Gen Z generation, there’s an avert[?]they’ve become so isolated and dependent on technology that they haven’t learned the skills, the interpersonal skills to connect enough in person. Like you said, you’re getting on a plane, you are going to Switzerland, the headquarters of Syngenta, and you’re going to be having a round table with all of your colleagues and peers who are in digital and sustainability and in person sharing best practices. How can we encourage the next generation to work on those skills? They’re already digital experts because they’re digital natives, but how can we get them more into the in-person world? Because I take it from meeting you the last hour and a half and sharing this great interview with you, that you are very comfortable going- walking through the fields of a farm as you are sitting in beautiful offices in Switzerland, meeting with your peers and colleagues. You have that ability, you have great interpersonal skills. How can we encourage the next generation to also have that? Because AI is not going to have that. Your AI is not going to get on a plane and go sit with your colleagues in Switzerland and share best practices and ideas and brainstorm with them.

Paul: Yeah. And look, hey, these tools, like working on your phone, texting your friends, social media, they’re great tools, but they can really limit your abilities. And putting that phone down, taking a break from social media is good for mental health as well. So I would encourage you to take a break from it sometimes. But to your point, John, I would encourage each of you to keep working at your interpersonal skills. When you look at Syngenta, one of the things I love about the company, and one thing I would encourage all young people to think about is when you’re looking for a role, think about the culture of the company. Because it’s a tough economy out here right now. And for Syngenta to invest money, for me to go over to Switzerland and do this face-to-face when we could have easily done a Zoom meeting, is something that’s important to me. And it’s not lost on me. The fact that they are investing money for us to come together, because there is something about sitting across the table, breaking bread with other people. You do not get that through digital forms. No[?]. Hey, sitting here on here on Zoom with you today, John is certainly better than a phone call. But there’s no replacement for being face-to-face with somebody in person. And look, you know, we came out of COVID. We all got used to digital technologies, probably sometimes too comfortable. And you know, I would challenge you to challenge yourself to get out there and communicate with people face to face and building that comfort level in doing it. Hey, I’ll tell you, I’m technically an introvert. And that doesn’t mean I can’t communicate with people. I’ve learned to do it quite well, but I do get a bit drained at the end of the day, and I need a little bit of me time, okay? But you can overcome some of these tendencies. Don’t make excuses for yourself. Learn to interact with people, because ultimately when you’re talking to farmers or any of our other customers, they’re still buying from people. Right[?] You can have the best technology, but if they don’t like working with you, they’re not going to buy from you.

John: So true.

Paul: And so get in front of people, get comfortable being in front of people and practice. I started off our talk today talking about FFA. That was one of the things[?] FFA really brought out in people is you had to learn how to talk to other people.

John: It’s true.

Paul: And public speaking. These are life skills that I learned. And FFA sort of challenged me to do some of these things. Come out of your shell, get in front of people, and it[?]just carried through my career.

John: Hey, Paul, as you and I know digital and sustainability have no finish line. So there’s going to be an ongoing story and journey at Syngenta. I want you to come back on the show when that dashboard is ready. I want you to bring that dashboard on this show and show us how that thing works, because that sounds so darn exciting. I’m excited to see it. I know there’s a bunch of farmers around the world that we’re excited to see it as well. So I want you to come and show us here on the Impact Podcast for our listeners and viewers to find Paul and all his wonderful colleagues at Syngenta and all the important work they’re doing in digital and sustainability to make the world a better place, please go to www.syngenta, S-Y-N-G-E-N-T-A- us.com, syngenta-us.com. Paul, thanks for the generosity of your time today, but more important, thank you for all the impact you’re making and for making the world a better place.

Paul: Thank you, John. And thank you for the opportunity. And thank you to the listeners that are out there taking up their time, listening to some of the stories and ideas that we have here at Syngenta for improving the planet.

John: This edition of the Impact Podcast is brought to you by Engage. Engage is a digital booking platform, revolutionizing the talent booking industry with thousands of athletes, celebrities, entrepreneurs, and business leaders. Engage is the go-to spot for booking talent, for speeches, custom experiences, live streams, and much more. For more information on Engage or to book talent today, visit let’s engage.com. This edition of The Impact Podcast is brought to you by ERI. ERI has a mission to protect people, the planet and your privacy, and is the largest fully integrated IT and electronics asset disposition provider and cybersecurity focused hardware destruction company in the United States and maybe even the world. For more information on how ERI can help your business properly dispose of outdated electronic hardware devices, please visit eridirect.com.