Food and Agriculture Institute

What Food and Agriculture Institute does

Food and Agriculture Institute (FAI) is a privately held, California-domiciled research organization that develops and deploys AI tools for the food and agriculture value chain. Its stated offerings span deep-learning analysis of agronomic and sensor imagery, quantitative pattern recognition applied to satellite and drone remote-sensing data (the "Quants" product), spatial/GIS applications for commodity traders, and blockchain-based systems — most notably BlockChain Cattle, a proposed public ledger of cash cattle transactions intended to anchor live cattle futures settlement, and BlockChain Agribusiness Apps covering land-title and supply-chain use cases. Underlying capabilities include natural language processing over large language models, deep learning, blockchain, and Python/R interfaces to the GDELT database for fundamental price direction analysis.

The institute is led by four publicly named principals: Max Crandall (formerly of Esri, where he led the ag market), Dewain Davis (co-founder of SST Software), Dr. Dan Sherrill (PhD Geography, spatial data science), and Dr. Fran Pierce (PhD Soil Science, past president of the American Society of Agronomy). Its customers are described in horizontal terms across three segments: agricultural producers, cattle-market participants (feedlots, packers, futures traders), and commodity/petroleum derivatives traders, with engagement currently focused on the United States. Distribution is direct-to-enterprise via research partnerships and industry-association engagement, supported by a MindMeld blog for thought leadership.

FAI describes its revenue model as research and deployment services for agricultural stakeholders, but discloses no pricing, no headcount, no funding history, no customer logos, and no revenue figures. The organization reads structurally as a small founder-led R&D and consulting entity whose commercial traction — particularly around the BlockChain Cattle consortium — cannot be verified from the available evidence.

Name

Food and Agriculture Institute

Legal name

Food and Agriculture Institute

Website

https://food-and-ag.com

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Food and Agriculture Institute (FAI) is a privately held, California-based research organization that develops AI, deep-learning, and blockchain tools for agricultural producers, cattle-market participants, and commodity traders in the US.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Agricultural AI Software

SIC

Agricultural Services (700)

akta.pro primary industry

Farm Management Information Systems (FMIS) & Digital Recordkeeping (AFABAMAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Farm Data Platforms, Integration & APIs (Interoperability/Middleware) (AFAAAFAG), Herd Management Software & Identification (RFID, EID, Data Platforms) (AFAAAIAH), Farm Finance, Input Procurement & Risk Tools (Budgeting, Inventory, Insurance Links) (AFAAAFAO)

Keywords

• Agricultural artificial intelligence
• Agronomic deep learning
• Cattle blockchain systems
• Agricultural remote sensing
• Commodity trading analytics

Headquarters

HQ city

Redlands

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations

Revenue model

1. Research and Deployment Services: The institute researches and deploys AI tools to enable agricultural stakeholders. Revenue appears to come from research services, consulting, and technology deployment for agriculture producers and food value chain participants.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

The Food and Agriculture Institute researches and deploys AI-driven software tools for the food and agriculture value chain. Its core offerings combine natural language processing, large language models, deep learning, and blockchain technology to deliver decision support, pattern recognition in remote sensed imagery, and transparent transaction ledgers for agricultural producers, commodity traders, and cattle market participants.

Product overview

Food and Agriculture Institute offers a portfolio of AI-powered tools for agriculture and commodity markets, centered on deep learning and quantitative analysis capabilities. The core offerings include: Deep Learning tools for agronomic data analysis; Quants for pattern recognition in remote sensing data; Spatial Apps for geographic trading analytics; BlockChain Cattle for livestock market transparency; and BlockChain Agribusiness Apps for agricultural supply chain tracking. These products leverage NLP, deep learning, and blockchain technology to support decision-making in agriculture, trading, and related value chains.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Deep Learning

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability6 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• American Society of Agronomynotable connectionOthersDr. Fran Pierce, team member, served as Past President of the American Society of Agronomy, indicating professional affiliation and industry leadership connection rather than formal partnership.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Farmers Edge: Public precision-agriculture platform combining satellite imagery, agronomic data, and AI decision support. Highly comparable to FAI's remote-sensing and deep-learning stack.
• Granular (Corteva): Farm management information system (FMIS) acquired by DuPont/Corteva. Directly competes with FAI's digital recordkeeping and farm data platform capabilities.
• Taranis: Aerial imagery and AI-driven crop intelligence platform for ag retailers and growers. Comparable to FAI's Quants and Deep Learning products for imagery-driven agronomic insights.
• aWhere: Agricultural data and predictive analytics platform using weather, satellite, and field data. Comparable to FAI's spatial and agronomic analytics stack.
• Conservis: Farm management software platform focused on digital recordkeeping, input tracking, and operational analytics. Comparable to FAI's FMIS-style data and digital recordkeeping offering.
• Gro Intelligence: AI-driven agricultural data and analytics platform used by commodity traders and enterprises. Closely overlaps FAI's NLP/decision-support positioning for food and commodity markets.
• Iteris (ClearAg): Digital agriculture platform offering weather, soil, and crop analytics for agribusiness decisions. Direct comparability to FAI's decision-support analytics products.
• Climate FieldView (Climate Corporation, Bayer): The dominant precision-agriculture data and decision-support platform, now owned by Bayer. Closely comparable to FAI's Deep Learning and Quants offerings for agronomic analytics on imagery, sensor, and field data.

Emerging players

• Descartes Labs: AI platform applying deep learning to satellite and geospatial imagery, with major ag and commodity-market use cases. Overlaps FAI's imagery-based pattern detection work.

Broad incumbents

• Indigo Ag: Large, well-capitalized agtech platform spanning microbial, digital, and marketplace offerings. A broader incumbent operating in adjacent precision-ag and supply-chain territory.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/Food_Ag

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Food and Agriculture Institute