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Jack Marck is managing director of the Illinois Agtech Accelerator.  Located at the University of Illinois Research Park, this program provides mentoring, funding, and office space for Agtech startups.  In today's conversation, we discuss the opportunities for new technologies to improve farmers' operations and strengthen the food supply chain.  You can contact Jack through email at jack@gener8tor.com.

Read about the innovative companies in the gBeta AgTech Spring 2021 Cohort at: https://researchpark.illinois.edu/article/illinois-agtech-accelerator-spring-2021-companies/.

Otrafy applies key disruptive technologies like Natural Language Processing and OCR to food safety processes and information to help quality assurance professionals manage the collection, storage, reviewing and renewal of supplier quality data.

AgVoice, a mobile voice-to-data system, allows agri-food workers to capture and analyze field-level data more efficiently and accurately, hands-free.

ClearLeaf designs and commercializes innovative pre- and post-harvest fungicides and bactericides to create sustainable crop protection strategies mitigating the negative impacts of harmful pests while maintaining balance on the farm, protecting farmers and consumers.

TellTail, Inc develops digital tools to improve the management of pig production systems by bringing together people, pigs and facilities under a single platform. Based at EnterpriseWorks and founded at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Spira uses CRISPR-edited carbon-negative algae to create replacements for artificial colors and animal proteins in the supply chain for food, cosmetic and textile companies.