EOT 421 Plant Science Initiative: Seed2Grow With Adrian Percy

You are listening to Eye of the Triangle, WKNC's weekly public affairs program from the campus of North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Any views and opinions expressed during Eye of Triangle do not represent NC State or student media. Welcome to the WKNC eighty eight point one FM. I'm your host, Shradha Bhatia, And today, we'll be talking with doctor Adrian Percy, executive director of the NC State Plant Science Initiative, about Seed to Grow, NC State's new AgTech incubator program. We'll also hear from the public news service.

This September is infant mortality awareness month highlighting ongoing challenges here in North Carolina, and also it's suicide prevention month. So in North Carolina, LGBTQ plus youth are at higher risk, and local advocates are working to expand support and resources. Today, I'm excited to be speaking to doctor Adrian Percy, executive director of the NC State Plant Science Initiative, about Seed2Grow, a new ag tech incubator helping researchers bring their ideas from the lab to the marketplace. To start, could you please introduce yourself and share a bit about your journey?

Sure. So thank you, first of all, having me on on the show. It's great to be here. Yes. So as you heard, my name is Adrian Percy.

I've been at NC State for four years. I actually had a long career in industry prior to coming here and working in the agricultural sector, but then got the opportunity to come to NC State, and it has been an amazing four years. And really happy to be in the position I'm in.

That's nice. So I did kinda, like, research about you, like, and what did you do? So I heard that you worked at Bayer and UPL before this, and now you're the ends like, the lead at NC PSI. So how did those roles shape you build, like, the seed to grow program?

Yeah. So working at Bayer, I was I had the privilege of working basically all over the world and seeing different agricultural systems in places like Brazil and China and India, Australia, New Zealand, many, many different places, and and got somewhat of a feeling the fact that farmers across the world say actually face many similar challenges. And at Bayer, we had the opportunity to develop individual products to help farmers. And then at UPL, which is an Indian based company, I also had that opportunity to do a very similar type of job that was more focused on on Southeast Asia, particularly India, of course. But then coming to NC State, you know, I realized North Carolina farmers have also some very similar issues than what we're seeing in other parts of the world.

And, of course, as a land grant university, NC State has a big focus on those growers, on those stakeholders across the state. And I just saw it as an opportunity to carry on the type of work that I was doing at in these international companies, but to have really much more of a focused effort where we could actually see, you know, every day because we meet with farmers all the time, we can actually see the benefit of the research that we're doing.

Oh, that's really interesting. And I've also known that you lived across, like, Europe and US. So, like, what's the difference that you noticed? How these regions across, like, approach agriculture, like, and innovation and, like, commercialization?

Yeah. So I'm from The UK, as you might hear from my voice. I'm not from North Carolina, but did work mostly in France and in Germany. I think, you know, there are many similarities. I would say some of the differences are in Europe, there's a really heavy focus on sustainability.

And not to say that American farmers don't think about that or work on it, but it has become almost top of mind in Europe. A lot of the public policy, government policies driving farmers to use very sustainable practices, some of which are unfortunately very practical, but they're required to do that. So there is that kind of very, very strong emphasis. Would say the other thing that differs between, say, The US and Europe is the size of the farms. Not so much in North Carolina because we tend to have medium size and and even smaller farms.

But in Europe, you know, and the rural societies and urban societies are becoming very much intermeshed now. I lived in a house where behind me there was a school and in front of me there was a farmer's field. You don't see that so much in America because, you know, of of of the of the increased land mass that we have. But what it meant, of course, was that people in the town, in the village where I live, were very, very conscious of what the farmers were doing and knew when they were spraying a chemical, for example, and didn't want that happening around a school, for example. And so those kind of very interactive kind of situations that you get in those very kind of intermesh communities are perhaps a little bit different from what you see commonly in The US.

For sure. Yeah. Because, like, in The UK, like, Europe, they have a lot of land. Right? For sure.

Yeah. We have land, but it's there's also a lot of population.

Oh,

yeah. And, you know, The UK where I'm come from is roughly the size of North Carolina, but we have at least four times more people in in that in that landmass. So, you know, farming and and urban life, if you like, are are very much kind of close and and have to fit together.

Very interconnected. Yeah. Yeah. And now we would, like, switch to, like, the more focused was, like, the seed to grow program. So many researchers have, like, brilliant ideas, but, like, struggle to move from, like, the lab bench to, like, the marketplace.

So what barriers do you see often, and how is, like, seed to grow designed to bridge them?

Well, NC State's, you know, part of our mission is is research, and we have some excellent researchers. Translating research into a commercial product is not an easy journey, and it takes a very unique skill set and actually a group of different skill sets where you have to understand the market that you're trying to introduce a product in. You have to understand the price point that you want to introduce this product. Will it actually add value to a farmer, for instance? Are they able to, you know, have a return on the investment that they need to make in that technology?

Then you need to produce perhaps a sensor or something at scale. Again, not something that's commonly done in a university research lab. So what we basically try to do is help researchers who normally will have a great idea. They will have a great idea for a technology, but then we'll help them understand, does that technology meet an unmet need? Does it can it be produced, for instance, at a scale, at a cost which is attractive to a customer, in this case, perhaps a farmer?

And then can they actually take this journey where they have to maybe get investment from the outside in order to ramp up their operations? Can they form a team that will actually have a commercial focus rather than just a research focus? And what we try to do through the seed to grow program is help faculty or students or postdocs in all of those different elements that you need to you need to have in order to actually build a company that will one day have a product and be profitable.

And then the NCPSI emphasizes, like, more public private partnerships. So how do those partnerships practically benefit startups and seek to grow?

Yeah. So we're very, very lucky to be on the edge of Research Triangle Park here in Raleigh. And RTP has become a world leading hub for agricultural technology production, and that's because we have a lot of the large companies. I used to work here for Bayer. They're no longer here.

They moved to St. Louis. But even outside of that, many big companies, Syngenta, BASF, they're major employers in the park. They have their North American headquarters here. They also have some of their global r and d here.

So they are the the the foundation, if you like, for this ag tech hub that we have here in the triangle. But there's a lot of smaller companies, medium sized, smaller companies, startups working in this field. We now have over 200 ag tech companies in the region. So with that comes a lot of expertise, a lot of knowledge. It gives us the opportunity to partner with those companies or with individuals in those companies who can help advise our companies or even partner with them, collaborate.

Sometimes they hire our students, of course. But there's this real interconnectedness between what goes on in RTP and what happens here on campus. And that's a really important element of of our whole program.

200. That's a lot.

A lot a lot of companies. Yeah.

And some critics say that incubators risk becoming like silos. So how does seed to grow ensure start ups stay connected to, like, real world grower needs and, like, market requirements?

That's a great question. So so I'll answer that in two ways. So first of all, if I could take an example, we had a company that recently graduated from our program. Mhmm. They're called Hoofprint Biome.

They're two former students from NC State. They just they have a technology that they believe will reduce methane emissions from livestock. Mhmm. At the same time, they'll increase the productivity of the livestock. So more meat, more milk.

Now they worked across campus. They had a cow in animal sciences that they worked with. They worked out of the PSI Building. They worked with our maker space building sensor devices that would measure the amount of methane in the cow and so on and so forth. And so they really leverage the ecosystem that we have here at NC State.

So that's kind of the first point, as you say, about not being in a silo. Actually, this university has so many resources, sometimes too many to get your head around. But if you can access those in different parts of the university, you'll find a lot of people who are willing to support those types of efforts. The other thing, and I think you bring up a really important point about staying connected to your customer base, the farmer in this case, or the livestock producer. And we do that through constant interactions with farmers.

So we have a farmer advisory council. These are farmers who sometimes have a connection to NC State, sometimes don't, but they believe in the mission that we have at the PSI, and they help advise us on the research activities that we have and the types of technologies that we are developing. We also reach out to what we call commodity associations. So in North Carolina, we have around about 90 different crops which are being grown. Most of those have a commodity association that represents them.

So there's the sweet potato commission, there's the corn growers association, there's the soybean producers association. They stay very close to individual farmers and understand the challenges that they face producing that particular crop, and they provide us with input. Again, helping inform our research activities so that we're working on the right things and developing technologies that will be really useful to the farmer and user friendly as well. So not some machine or robot that they just can't use or that breaks down in the field because you have rain or whatever it may be, it's too hot, too cold. So really practical devices that will will be useful on the farm.

And that's really how we avoid being in that kind of silo type mentality.

Cause, Yeah. Like, having those, like, individual associations, I feel like they're they're, like, helping you a lot.

They really help us. We actually bring a lot of them together. We we had a large event last year where we brought around about 30 of these associations together. And it was very interesting because when we interrogated them and kind of teased out from them what are the issues that they see the farmers producing their particular crops have, many of them were overlapping. And so we were able then to develop research programs that met the needs of multiple crops at the same time.

That's really interesting. Yeah. And then I have, like, a few more questions. So mentorship is, like, central through executives and residents. So what qualities do you look for in mentors, and how do they balance encouragement with tough feedback?

Great question. I think any successful entrepreneur recognizes the need for feedback and tough feedback. You know, it's not helpful to have someone telling you all the time you're doing a great job when you're really not. It's a waste of time, and it it can lead you in the wrong direction and and lead to really bad consequences. So I think, you know, one of the things we say about successful entrepreneurs is they're coachable.

They listen. They want to understand. They want to adapt. And they will take the opinions of various different mentors and try to then path, you know, a way forward for themselves because sometimes they'll get conflicting advice. But from the mentor side, we find there's a lot of former executives in RTP, people who have worked in big companies, small companies, people who have sometimes had failures, which is one of the best ways to learn, and who are willing to give their time.

And that's the thing I find really amazing is that so many of these folks give their time. I know a lot of students that I've talked to and faculty are sometimes reluctant to ask for people's time.

Yeah.

And I don't think they already under they always understand that, actually, this is a is a very pleasurable thing, it is a very rewarding thing for these mentors to do. And they tell me all the time, I wish I could do more of this. You know, it's one of the ways I give back. It gives me most pleasure to be able to interact with a company or an entrepreneur or a student around a particular topic, gives them the benefit of my experience. And sometimes they'll take it and sometimes they won't, but but they they really love the process.

So, you know, I think if you have that opportunity, you should really take it.

Yeah. Because, like, as a student, I can, like, relate that I'm, like, very hesitant when I'm, like, asking for, like, mentorship or anything. Because and sometimes if I would get, like, conflicting feedback, so I just, like, wouldn't know what to, like, work around it. So, like, do you have, like, any thoughts about that?

So I think having an honest relationship with your mentor if someone if someone says to to you they they're they're happy to do it Mhmm. Then take them at their word. You know, there's a lots of ways they could get out of it without hurting your feelings if they wanted to. But if they seem genuinely interested, then, you know, just go for it. But I think in terms of approaching people, just ask.

I mean, you know, you can give them a little bit of an outing in case they don't want to do it, but, you know, I I will often get emails or I'll have people meet with me and just ask. And, you know, normally I will say yes. I won't say yes if I don't think I can help them Mhmm. Which sometimes may be the case. But if if if I feel I've got something, then I will I will say yes.

But I'll also advise them to get a whole range of mentors because, again, I think the collective wisdom of a lot of people is is better than having just one or two people who may lead you down the wrong path sometimes. Yeah.

Ag tech often has, like, long development timelines compared to, like, software. So what strategies does Seed2Grow use to keep entrepreneurs resilient during that long run to the market?

Well, you're absolutely right. It can take an awful long time to bring a new biotechnology trait or a new a new type of sweet potato or a new crop protection product to market. It can take decades, in fact. So you do need to be very resilient and have a lot of patience. You know, we tend to break things down into stages.

We see a lot of investors, in fact, are willing to invest at a very early stage in the development of some of these technologies, and they understand that there is a long, long lead time before they might hit the market and become profitable. So I think recognizing that ag is different from some other sectors because there's a lot of regulatory oversight of our food as there should be, which means that there's a lot of studies you have to do to show safety, and that takes a lot of money and a lot of time. So just understanding that we need to be patient is one thing. But I would say the other side is we are developing a lot of software now. I think one of the untapped areas in agriculture is the use of digital science and the use of apps and devices which are driven by the Internet of Things, which are driven by AI and by machine learning.

And that's one of the things we're really focused on at the PSI. We're trying to work with our researchers to support them to develop what we call decision support tools, are useful for farmers to help them make decisions in in their their production practices, and those can be developed really quickly. You know, it's months as opposed to decades. So Yeah. You know, we're trying to do both.

No. Like, adding software into that would really help.

Yeah. I mean, they say now, you know, one of today's modern tractors is more complex than the lunar module in 1965, know, and they are very, very complex. And, you know, farmers now are more and more using, you know, apps to collect weather data, make predictions, to understand, you know, how to treat their crops. We've got some researchers who are working on some really cool technology around early detection of diseases in the field. So, you know, today, many farmers will go around and look at their fields to see if there's some disease or some an insect they don't want in the field.

But now with these detection devices, you can get, you know, an alert on your on your phone in the morning to say, okay. You need to go treat your field because it needs more water or has a bug or or or a disease that's gonna cause you problems. So go go do something. So that's kind of one of the breakthroughs that we're seeing now is, you know, digitalization takes over agriculture just like it's taken over the rest of our lives. You know?

And North Carolina has a rich agricultural landscape as like you said. So how do you see seed to grow contributing not only, like, globally, but also, like, local growers and, like, rural communities here in the state?

Yeah. So North Carolina has an amazing agricultural heritage and and current activities. It is the economic driver of our state, over a $110,000,000,000 in returns coming out of agriculture, so it's incredibly important. But farmers do face a lot of challenges. And, you know, I mentioned about urbanization, you know, this kind of conflict sometimes between the urban community and the rural community.

They need different types of technologies to overcome that. There's a lot of issues around labor, the cost of labor, the availability of labor. And so farmers are looking for automation in a lot of their activities. There's also a lot of effects of extreme climate. Climate change is real, and it is occurring here in our fields.

And farmers have to deal with long periods of drought followed by perhaps excessive quantities of of rain or hurricanes, whatever it may be. And so finding crops which are more resilient to those extremes of temperature is really important. Mhmm. You know, we had counties last year that had both state of emergencies for drought and then shortly afterwards for flooding. I mean, that is crazy to be, you know, hit from both sides, if you like, in the same place in one year.

And, you know, a lot of those are rural counties that are growing these crops, and so we need to help farmers be more resilient in terms of those practices. And that's why I think we can add a lot of value.

Like, hitting with the both drought and flood at the same time?

Yeah. It's

It is what? So and with the climate change, like, and growing population, there oh, wait. You just answered that. You just answered

my ask it again, maybe I'll ask I'll I'll answer it better in a better way. So,

like, how with climate change and growing population pressures, there's urgency for, like, innovation. Mhmm. So how do you balance, like, encouraging bold ideas with, like, ensuring they're realistic and, like, scalable?

Yeah. So, I mean, the global population is increasing, and, of course, that means we need more food. And, also, at the same time, we've got many countries around the world that are moving to a diet dietary system where they want more protein, they want more meat, which means more crops being produced to feed those animals. So there's a real strain on the on the demand side

Mhmm.

But also on the supply side because of, you know, extreme climate conditions which can really have an impact on crop productivity. So, you know, meeting those both at the same time is incredibly important. And, you know, that's where we can make a difference. And, you know, with the technologies that we're trying to develop can help make farmers more more productive, but at the same time more resilient in the sense that their crops are protected in a in a better way. I'm not sure I answered your question there.

Hopefully, that was useful.

And finally, what's, like, one piece of advice you would give to, like, young researchers or, like, a student with an idea but who isn't sure how to, like, take the first step?

So I would say two things. So first of all, and I know there's a lot of students across NC State studying a lot of different things, one of the things we try to do is get students excited about the opportunities of agriculture. Mhmm. We have a lot of students from engineering in particular that are looking at how they can apply some of the technologies and the techniques and the engineering learnings that they have, and agriculture is a great, great environment to do that because there's a huge need, as we've already talked about. But also imagine that you're, you know, deploying some of these, let's say, robot, a new robot system in a field that's bumpy, that has flooding capabilities, that's dry sometimes, that is incredibly hot sometimes.

I mean, it really adds a whole new element to, you know, to the to the stress that we're putting putting on these devices. So so that so that's one thing. Agriculture is a very cool place to be right now. I think the other thing in terms of taking a first step, if you're talking about entrepreneurship, I mean, really getting informed programs like the seed to grow program are designed specifically to put students and faculty in front of experienced entrepreneurs in a very informal setting where you can ask stupid questions if know, not that any question is stupid, but you can ask those really basic questions that you may be hesitant to ask in other environments and sit down and have a quality conversation and explore these areas with with these entrepreneurs who have seen it and done it a 100 times in some cases. So I think, you know, enrolling in one of these programs is is really valuable, and and hopefully people will get a lot out of it.

And,

like, do you have, like, any examples of, like, students who've, like, grown through the seed to grow program or, like, any, like, final things that you'd like to mention?

Yeah. So in the seed to grow program right now, we we have currently seven companies. We had eight, but Mhmm. We had Hoofprint Biome who graduated. We had a graduation party for them two weeks ago.

They managed to raise $15,000,000. Oh. So a lot of money to help them in the next evolution of their company, which they will move off campus, and they'll move to Durham and set up their downtown Durham. So that's one example. But then we have seven other companies at various stages of development.

Some of them are very, very early, and some of them are not quite companies yet, but will be. But then we have student competitions, and so that's one way that we've managed to kind of unlock some of the ideas and enthusiasm that we have amongst our student population, where we have a student competition where you can present an entrepreneurial idea in the agricultural environment with just a two minute video. And we had a couple of students. We had Harry Irvin from plant and microbial biology. We had Mabel Barrero from chemistry, both of which had great ideas.

Both of them are well working on commercialization of those ideas. Mhmm. And and hopefully, they'll be successful, but we have a lot of other examples as well. So, yes, there are there are definitely students who are moving forward in that area.

That's that's really good. Yes. Thank those were, like, all my questions that I had for you. So thank you for, like, joining us today and telling us about the Seed to Grow program. Thank you.

September is national suicide prevention month, and LGBTQ youth in North Carolina and around the country are finding it harder to receive support because of a move by the Trump administration. In July, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration removed the press 3 option from the 988 lifeline, which sent people to a hotline that specializes in supporting LGBTQ youth. Sarah McHale is CEO of Time Out Youth, the only LGBTQ community space in Charlotte. The organization provides support for therapy and housing. She says there's already anxiety among young people about the Trump administration, and cutting the press 3 option will only make matters worse.

They hear the person who leads this country cutting funding for something that is directly connected to saving their lives. So it continued to send the message of we don't actually care if you exist or not.

The Trump administration says funding ran out for the specialized hotline. LGBTQ youth are twice as likely to experience a mental health condition compared to their peers, and the numbers are even higher for transgender youth. The Trevor Project had been contracting with the government on the 988 line for LGBTQ. They still operate a hotline at (866) 488-7386. The trans lifeline also offers mental health support at (877) 565-8860.

McKill says she still refers people to 988, but cautions that the person on the other end of the line might not be affirming of their identity. She also notes that there's a misconception that LGBTQ people call lifelines to talk specifically about their identity, but that's not usually the case.

Far more often, what our young people tell us is it's just the implicit understanding of your lived experience. You don't have to explain why school feels difficult or you're struggling with your parent because that person understands that your identity creates barriers for other people to try to relate to you.

Mikhael says time out youth continues to center joy in the LGBTQ experience. She says young people's resilience gives her hope for the future.

That I can see young people being themselves even more in the face of this makes me feel really hopeful that young people are gonna save us if our elders would just step back and let them.

For North Carolina News Service, I'm Eric Taghidov. Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org. September is National Infant Mortality Awareness Month, shining a light on a difficult and persistent issue. The infant mortality rate in North Carolina was six point nine deaths per thousand births in 2023, which was the tenth highest rate in the nation. There are also large disparities along racial lines, with black infants dying at three times the rate of white infants.

Caitlin Richards with the organization NC Child says the top two causes of infant mortality in North Carolina are low birth weight and birth defects.

That can be tied directly back to access to early prenatal care within the first trimester of a pregnancy, which black mothers typically have less access to that prenatal care in their first trimester compared to white mothers and those of other race and ethnicities.

State policymakers are looking into ways to reduce the infant mortality rate. Each year, the North Carolina child fatality task force sends a report to the governor and general assembly, which includes recommendations for reducing child deaths. Richard says one vital resource is home visiting programs, in which doulas or community health workers go to new parents' homes during pregnancy and postpartum to educate them about things such as safe sleep practices. She says another important resource is access to prenatal care.

We cannot overstate how important Medicaid access is in particular for infants and children in North Carolina. Medicaid covers about fifty percent of all births in North Carolina, so it plays a pivotal role when we're looking at these outcomes.

However, the future of Medicaid funds is in doubt after the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is estimated to cut a trillion dollars from the program over the next decade. In response, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services recently announced it was cutting Medicaid spending by nearly $320,000,000 starting in October. Richard says it's still unclear what these cuts will mean, but that they will likely have impacts on North Carolina children's well-being for years and decades to come. For North Carolina news service, I'm Eric Tigadov. Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.

This has been eye on the triangle from WKNC eighty eight point one FM HD one rally. Our theme song is Krakatoa by Noah Stark. Licensed under creative comedy. To relisten to this or any other episode, visit wpnc.org/podcast or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you for listening.