FoA 389: Modern Tree Crop Farming With Sawyer Clark of Gold Leaf Farming

Future of Agriculture

Put AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/

Gold Leaf Farming: https://www.goldleaf.ag/

Today’s episode features the Director of Asset Management at Gold Leaf Farming, Sawyer Clark. Gold Leaf was founded in 2017 by Brandon Rebiero and Jack McCarthy. Sawyer met Jack while they were both in business school at Stanford, and soon became a part of the team.

In today’s episode, Sawyer and I talk about Gold Leaf’s model for investing in farming, specializing in just a few permanent crops, how they add value after acquisition including transitioning to organic, hiring top talent, and embracing technology. We also have a lengthy discussion about the types of technology that has worked - and not worked - for their operation.

Sawyer describes himself as a farm kid from Oregon's Willamette Valley, where his family continues to grow hazelnuts to this day. He spends his time at Gold Leaf Farming split between acquiring new properties and leading operational initiatives with the farm team - especially those regarding the company's sustainability practices.

Before joining Gold Leaf, Sawyer served as an Intelligence Officer in the U.S. Army, bootstrapped and joined a couple startups, and completed a short stint in a family investment office. Sawyer received an MBA and MS in Environment & Resources from Stanford University.