Jason Ward Of Novozymes North America: How We Are Helping To Create A Resilient Food Supply Chain

An Interview With Martita Mestey

We need policies and incentives that support industry in varying regions of our country. An example could be rewarding companies over a certain size to have at least a third of their production capacity in a separate region of the USA. This supports not only food supply but also regional economic development. Too many refining plants near the Gulf Coast increases vulnerability to hurricanes.

The cascading logistical problems caused by the pandemic and the war in Eastern Europe have made securing a reliable supply chain a national imperative. What must agriculture companies and policymakers do to ensure secure and resilient food supply chains? In this interview series, we are talking to business leaders who can share insights from their experiences about how we can address these challenges. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jason Ward, BioAg Head of Commercial Operations for Novozymes North America.

Jason Ward is the Head of Commercial Operations for North America at Novozymes. He is responsible for leading the team in the execution of commercial strategy and driving the business forward in North America. Prior to his work at Novozymes, Jason worked as the Business Manager of Crop Protection at Lonza and Marketing Lead of A.I. & 3rd Party Strategy team at BASF. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Science in Food and Resource Economics from the College of Agriculture at the University of Florida.

Jason brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to Novozymes. With his agricultural background and industry knowledge, he brings a unique perspective to his work. He is passionate about helping farmers use the latest technology to maximize their productivity and profit. With his leadership, Jason strives to ensure that Novozymes continues to develop and deliver the best products and services to the North American agricultural community.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?

I grew up on a family farm in northern Florida, about halfway between Tallahassee and Pensacola. My father, his father, my mother, her father, and many of their siblings were farmers; agriculture is what I know. Our farm was primarily a cotton, peanut, and livestock farm. When I was younger, the livestock were hogs; as I got older, it was cow-calf. I’d earn extra money growing vegetables and selling them at local farmers’ markets in the summertime. That’s how I grew up, working on the farm.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

What I’ve found most interesting in my career is traveling to different places and meeting people. I’ve had the opportunity to see most agriculture in the United States, anywhere from South Florida, where sugarcane is raised on heavy muck soils, to central Illinois, where corn is grown at the leading edge of technology. I’ve traveled to Yuma, Arizona, to work with vegetable producers and then up to Washington state for wheat production. I’ve also had the opportunity to connect with agricultural influencers in Canada, Brazil, Portugal, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Switzerland, and France. Seeing agriculture in its different forms in North America and across the globe may not be interesting to most people, but it’s fascinating to me.

You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

I’d start with preparation. You may not be the most talented person in the room or the field. There will be many people who are more talented than you. There are natural abilities you will and will not have. One aspect you can control is being prepared — do your homework, study, plan, practice, and rehearse. Always be prepared.

Next is resilience. You’re going to have wins, and you’re going to have losses. You will hear “no” more often than you will hear “yes,” and you will make mistakes. Learn from your failures and mistakes; don’t let them get you down. Look at mistakes as opportunities to learn and keep moving forward. Don’t stop.

Finally, I believe in listening and asking questions. Someone out there has a really good idea that can help you solve the challenge in front of you. If you ask enough people enough questions and listen, the solution you need will present itself.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

We are. Within the current Novozymes BioAg portfolio, our immediate focus is on convenience and efficiency. The greatest asset any of us have is our time. Rich or poor, you can’t buy any more of it. We’re focusing our immediate innovations of saving customers’ time and improving the performance of their crops.

This fall, Novozymes will introduce a liquid version of JumpStart to replace our powder version. JumpStart helps liberate phosphate already in the soil, making it available for crops to use.

The liquid is quicker to mix, saving time.

Further in the future, the Novozymes BioAg department is focusing on making fertilizer more efficient for farmers. We want to help them make the most of what’s in the soil already or what they add to it — whether it’s nitrogen, phosphorus, or potash. We are exploring our portfolio of microbes, enzymes, and plant signaling molecules to improve crop fertility.

Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. To ensure that we are all on the same page let’s begin with some simple definitions. What does the term “supply chain” encompass?

Novozymes is a manufacturer of products. Supply chain means our sourcing raw materials and our vendors’ ability to deliver materials to us, our conversion of raw materials into products, and our ability to deliver those products to our customers. Supply chain is from production to distribution and everything in between. That includes transportation by rail, truck, boat, and plane and the logistics of when and where products will arrive.

Can you help articulate the weaknesses in our current food supply chain systems?

Let’s baseline with the system that we have today. The system we have in the USA today has been relatively stable and resilient. Globalization has been the trend for the last four to five decades, but will that continue? The last few years have revealed weaknesses in our current system, with shortages in baby formula, eggs, and lumber, to name a few. These shortages illustrate the need to revisit our food system. Investment in more regionalization and diversification is needed to rebalance and de-risk our food supply system over the next four to five decades.

There are looming watch-outs.

In economics, we learn about different theories that we apply. One of those is economies of scale. If you build a larger manufacturing plant, then you can be more efficient. You can reduce your cost per unit because you are moving larger volumes. Economies of scale are fine in concept and in isolation. Many have underestimated the risk of larger and larger. Remember the saying all your eggs in one basket?

Let’s say that you’re near the ocean, and a hurricane hits the critical infrastructure you depend on. Say it’s a major commodity or product; that economy of scale has driven you to a single spot or source. Now that single spot is wiped out or significantly delayed in its production capabilities. That stresses the rest of the system. We need to be more cognizant of overbuilding, overdoing economies of scale, and over-relying on one plant, one source, one place.

Natural disasters, geopolitical issues, disease, and electrical grid failures can happen in the wrong place at the wrong time. There are vulnerabilities, and we need to diversify our risk. We are beginning to realize the risks over the last several years. The trend toward regionalization will continue until we establish more balance between economies of scale and diversifying risk.

Can you help define what a nationally secure and resilient food supply chain would look like?

A nationally secure and resilient food supply chain would involve measures to ensure the availability, accessibility, and affordability of food for all, even during crises or disruptions. This might include diverse sources of food production, effective distribution systems, and strong partnerships between government, industry, and communities.

Can you share with our readers a few of the things that your organization is doing to help create a more secure food supply chain?

At Novozymes, we are focused on doing our part to feed the world while improving the health of our planet, citizens, and economies. Biotechnology enables innovation and transformation from field to fork. Feeding the planet more sustainably requires investment and openness to try new ways, resulting in new and novel solutions.

In Novozymes, we have a broad range of biosolutions that come together to help rethink critical challenges along the food value chain: our biotech helps farmers to produce more crops per acre, overcome tough conditions and increase yields for food, fuel, and livestock — while simultaneously leading to less waste and better human and animal health. Biotech helps food producers get more out of raw materials, supermarkets reduce food waste, and consumers fill their shopping baskets with more nutritious, healthier, and tastier foods and beverages.

What are a few threats over the horizon that might disrupt our food supply chain that we should take action now to correct? Can you please explain?

The most significant threats to our food supply are atypical, non-cyclical, or non-standard threats.

Examples include hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, disease, epidemics, pandemics, political, and geo-political occurrences. The best way to mitigate these types of threats is to build a system with redundancies, diversification, an acceptable level of over-supply, reserves, and partnerships.

Ok, thank you. Here is the main question of our interview. What are the “5 Things We Must Do to Create Nationally Secure and Resilient Food Supply Chains” and why?

1 . What must we do? Diversify our risk.

Story or example: We need policies and incentives that support industry in varying regions of our country. An example could be rewarding companies over a certain size to have at least a third of their production capacity in a separate region of the USA. This supports not only food supply but also regional economic development. Too many refining plants near the Gulf Coast increases vulnerability to hurricanes.

2 . What must we do? Support innovation and competition which will continue to lead to doing more with less, making our farming processes more efficient.

Story or example: Encourage competition by supporting the growth of small and mid-sized farms and processors by providing greater access to financing and resources. Support rural digitalization to drive the adoption of precision agriculture utilizing data analytics and machine learning. Reward equipment manufacturers for offering smaller and correspondingly more affordable implements that can be used by moderate-sized farming and processing operations. Having only a few large processing facilities in the central USA puts them at risk of tornados and contagions.

3 . What must we do? Build strategic reserves and partnerships.

Story or example: As we have for oil and grain, we need to expand domestic strategic reserves to other essential food supplies, e.g., dry and canned goods. We should consider establishing a Western Hemisphere Food Crisis Alliance with key Southern hemisphere food producing countries like Brazil, Argentina, and Chile, whose growing season is the opposite of ours, should a Northern or Southern hemisphere food crisis occur.

4 . What must we do? Ensure a stable producer base.

Story or example: We need to reward a diverse producer base in terms of producer size, geography, and crop.

We need to limit exposure to global volatility by developing traditional and alternative sources, both domestically and near-shore, for needed inputs, including fuel, fertilizer, parts, and ingredients.

5 . What must we do? Improve infrastructure.

Story or example: Recent railway incidents highlight our need to improve and update our infrastructure.

This investment applies to rail, roads, bridges, seaports, riverways, and airports. It includes other areas, such as refrigeration and freezing capacity, to support more perishable items. Further, continued investment in information technology, including sensor technology, is necessary to better track, trace, and monitor the movement, condition, and demand of our food supply.

Are there other ideas or considerations that should encourage us to reimagine our food supply chain?

Protein is an essential macro-nutrient for human health. Novozymes is working in partnership with a key food supplier on an industrial scale, alternative protein at our new facility in Blair, NE. Imagine a healthy, high volume, low carbon footprint protein that is scalable at an industrial level. Imagine.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Food is a gift, protect it, cherish it, respect it, invest in it, savor it, save it, and never take it for granted.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Visit our website https://biosolutions.novozymes.com/en/bioag. For more information, please reach out to our public relations team, janelle@rinckadvertising.com.

Novozymes is the world leader in biological solutions. Together with customers, partners, and the global community, we improve industrial performance while preserving the planet’s resources and helping build better lives. As the world’s largest provider of enzyme and microbial technologies, our bioinnovation enables higher agricultural yields, low-temperature washing, energy-efficient production, renewable fuel, and many other benefits that we rely on today and in the future. We call it Rethink Tomorrow. www.novozymes.com

This was very inspiring and informative. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this interview!