When I was young, I wanted to be a jet fighter pilot, but the flying dream crashed a few years later when I was told I needed corrective lenses. The seed for Earth Platforms was planted in its place. My grandparents raised seven kids in the 1930’s and 1940’s and tended to a large garden with everything from vegetables to fruit trees and flowers, leaving room to raise pigs, chicken, and rabbits, to feed a large family. By the age of five, I was a reliable fixture in my grandfather’s garden as his little helper. Shadowing his every move, I tilled, weeded, planted, harvested, and lugged countless watering cans to thirsty potatoes, carrots, onions, and other vegetables. I carried water to my grandmother’s flower beds and newly planted cherry, apple, pear, and plum trees next to red current bushes. Behold, the birth of my first agronomic passion for growing plants.

Water, a quintessential resource, holds my tangential agronomic interest. It does not typically appear in the right place, at the right time, or in the right amount. It did not back then, and certainly does not now. At the time, wasting water for me meant extra trips to the hand pump and carrying more loads. I knew squash and cucumbers needed more water than others, and that it was best to water in the evening to reduce evaporation. I knew to avoid putting water directly on the tomatoes for fear of cracks as they matured in the sun. Unknowingly, I had already developed my own concept of precision and timely water application to keep grandpa and grandma happy.

Fast forward a few years and I had graduated from the Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon in France as an agronomist. My thesis studied the effect of light on winter wheat yields. My first job was as an R&D agronomist in Denmark for a farm machinery manufacturer where we developed ideal spraying practices and researched innovative and sustainable application techniques for crops, orchards, and vineyards around the world. Our purpose was to get the most out of the least applied amounts in conditions optimal for the user and the environment. I taught many farmers onsite in many countries, and contributed a small part to solving the equation of sustainable agriculture so growers could make a living, feed a growing population while using finite and sometimes scarce resources.