b'Communication is paramount. Enogen growers are all trying to produce a good crop. We want to make sure they communicate with their neighbors as much as white corn growers or seed growers communicate with their neighbors.Chris Cook Enogen is not for everybody. Some growers want to producethe grain or the animal processed? Since water is an increasingly at the highest volume to get the lowest per-unit production cost.precious resource in many regions, would it be possible to indi-Just like retail stores, some growers drive the lowest cost whilecate the amount of water used to raise or process the animal? others drive the best value.How important would this information be to consumers?"We believe Enogen brings value to the supply chain," Cook"Suddenly, a grand picture begins to emerge where I can says. "Part of the beauty of the Enogen IP program is that thereenvision a soccer mom in San Francisco going into her grocery is an end destination waiting for every acre grown. To thatstore where she takes out her phone and scans the product\'s extent, Enogen makes a grower a better marketer. They areQR code to get the story of how that steak was produced, for thinking that when they put a value-driven crop on their betterexample. That information could then begin to take on some acres. They want to make sure they maximize the value of thatsemblance of a sustainability score. A really useful idea would crop. They are watching the month they will market that grainbe to involve more people throughout the integrated supply and figuring how they will manage that crop before it gets tochain. Let the farmer that grew the grain explain how or where market. That naturally leads to doing a better job of getting theit was grown. That vision is something that I believe we could best price for their crop. It is more than getting the best price; itpull together better than anybody in the industry because of includes managing the grain to have the best quality to take towhat we are already doing to connect the dots for people," Cook market.explains. "Communication is paramount. Enogen growers are all trying to produce a good crop. We want to make sure they communi- Enabling a Premium Marketcate with their neighbors as much as white corn growers or seedWhen you start with consumers, a significant portion are willing growers communicate with their neighbors. Just to let peopleto pay a little more for a steak when they can feel good about know that if you are doing something where you are trying tohow it was produced. That added-value must move down grow a premium crop that people know that you are doing, notthrough the value chain. Instead of starting on the producer\'s to brag, but to make sure that everybody understands that youend where we create a market after we have grown the grain, are working to maximize value. We have seen that the advent ofwhat if we start at the very end of the chain with someone who new technologies in the pesticide world come forward to makewants to buy that steak or gallon of milk or butter or cheese? sure your neighbors know what is being sprayed is important. ItCook asks. is well beyond Enogen; it is the industry at large that we all need"We can start down there and ask consumers if they are will-to do a better job of communicating whether we want to or not." ing to buy something that is a little better," he says. We have already seen that with the organic industry and foods that are Future Identity Preserved Applications labeled Organic. Think about the purchase of Whole Foods by What can be done to showcase the story that both the ag pro- Amazonthose are not stores selling foods as cheaply as pos-duction biofuels industries have to tell about how agribusinesssible. They are selling premium-priced products.produces biofuels and food protein? How can those processesAccording to Cook, this shows there is a market for premium be presented to consumers, beginning at the very front end ofproducts. the narrative with a description of soil type and the per-acreIf you can take the pull from that end and work it backward resources used? The tools to measure and gather this informa- through our chain, it creates more value for every producer tion are already in place. Is it possible to apply the grain identityfrom the processor to the livestock producer to the grower who preservation system being used with Syngenta\'s Enogen plat- produced the grain or silage that went into the animal, he says. form and link it to the vast amount input of production informa- I start to link it all together. That is where Enogen has value for tion being captured by various means? Other tools could alsoSyngenta with its 5% increased efficiency for a niche market. come into play: where was the feed produced, where is theThose are pull-through sales. That is when you can link together animal being taken, what feed went into that animal, where wasall the pieces of the pie.SW16/ SEEDWORLD.COMDECEMBER 2020'