History:

Beginning with the inspiring vision of American culture by our fathers, farming had always been suspected to be a critical pillar of American life.  Thomas Jefferson had been one of the most infamous to support such a concept, carrying a strong influence into the formation of property rights, and federal and state protection of small enterprise commerce.  Fast forwarding in the era of Manifest Destiny, parcels of land were sold at cheap prices to western frontier expansion, hoping to develop the first settlements into newly acquired territories who’s populous would eventually grow to qualification for induction of states to the original 13 colonial states.  These communities were the backbone of all western expansion, being able to provide the critical resources to support the survival of additional populous travelling westward. By end of the 19th century American farming had earned a global title as “the world’s breadbasket,” being so productive that at a time control of overall economic conditions of the nation meant federal regulations were instituted to manage production quotas.  Where we are able to see the influence of American agriculture over the rapid development of the United States, we can also stipulate how well embedded American agriculture is to the legacy of American society itself. As part of the reader’s comprehension to the thesis of this business model, we hope to win confidence in a vision to continue the traditions of American society.

The Central Problem:

Two of the most detrimental events of the early 20th century are critical to understand the origins of today’s state of emergency for American agricultural trade.  The depression during the 1920’s had been a great milestone in the transformation of so many various aspects of daily life that its rippling effect expounded beyond American shores, even adding fire to the second detrimental event, World War II that was a catalyst for the birth of our modern globalized economy during the reconstruction era of post WWII.  These events are critical in comprehending the modern challenges of American agriculture, derived from the global efforts enacted to reconstruct national economies by leveraging friendly assets and government regulation.

As its’ own compromise was caused by speculative stock market predictions for American commerce, the depression of the 1920’s was well known to affect the world abroad, but its impact was so deep to American society itself that it was one of the first national attempts to implement “Keynesian Economics” which advocated for increased government expenditures and lower taxes to stimulate demand and pull the global economy out of depression.  The critical controls to the U.S. government’s use of Keynesian tactics were based on control of output and inflation. As a principal belief, it was the expectation of the government to influence aggregate demand through activist stabilization and economic intervention policies to manage the general quotas for various sectors of American industry that were responsible for large percentiles of the national GDP. As John Keynes wrote his theory of Keynesian economics from the inspiration of the Great Depression itself, the vision for its’ implementation was always in the short term.

Little did anyone expect that the revived economy after the depression of 1920 would be pressured by the support during and after WWII which continued useful tactics derived from Keynesian economics.  Without question, leveraged control of industry production and increase expenditure of governmental entities help unburden American society and other global economies post WWII, however those tools had become embedded into many sects of the American economy.

“How did the overture of the Great Depression influence American Agriculture?”

Supporting general government funded projects meant that the U.S. Treasury had determined quotas for various sectors to re-energize the economic support of such industries, and maintain certain market values for specific goods.  In the case of American Agriculture, the production ability was so high that commodity exports were already well established, otherwise saturating the general market supply for staple foods. But in the direct case of a national economic halt the grand surplus of feedstocks and perishable produce goods was not being circulated and the domino effect which occurred had put a lot of strain on farm operations and its integral networks to support the heavy financial and banking assets already involved in the industry.  As for many industries, the failing banks were calling on debts from all sectors resulting in consumer foreclosures, bankruptcy, and a spiraling depreciation of valued assets.  To kickstart the general economy it was of the utmost importance that the government re-energize the staples of the American agriculture sector. Farms were given support by a broad spectrum of special programs but the most significant aspect to consider in interest of our discussion would be how government intervention established production quotas to every commodity/general feedstock.  Farmers were given government subsidies to not farm specific portions of their land in an effort to control demand for the general economy but maintain the minimal welfare of farms despite their property decommissioned from crops. Successful to the kickstart of the general economy, food costs were stabilized and rations could be provided to Allies across the globe.

Pushing away from the historic result of such methods during and post WWII, the heart of American Agriculture and its’ interface changed, and has carried a resignating impact to the modern era.  Terms for earning potentials of farms do not reside solely on the entrepreneurial efforts of the operator. Their pricing and ability to deliver to market, and sometimes licenses to produce are negotiated by an integral network of co-ops and government backed regulation and quotas.  We argue as great of an influence the initial government involvement to the general economy may have been during crisis of the early 20th century, its presiding condition is also a negative long term effect of the regulatory phenomena.

A Case Study: The American Dairy Industry

The expansion and influence of the United States during Manifest Destiny of the 19th century had instilled the belief that America was destined to expand across North America and make the west an image of agrarian America.  In that vision the settlements which spread across the North American geography brought a foundation to the rapid immigration across the country, calling for the investment of some of America’s infrastructure that was responsible for the country’s successful development of large urban communities with an industrial focus.  Farming was not ignored as a principle aspect of infrastructure needed to support growing populations. Where farms spread across the landscape, their initial focus was intended naturally to support individual families and or small, yet growing settlements. Credited to the growing urban centers, farming was expanding to a size much larger than necessary to support small families, requiring marketing and logistical support in some way to deliver excess produce to the urban markets that had high demand for such goods.  The basis of agrarian communities was family life itself, and often carried a family tradition of inheriting the family business, building well controlled support for the family of the next generation, however managerial capacity and capital were also limited in the same manner. The disconnect between the agrarian ability and growing urban markets warranted the introduction of a 3rd party in the functional trade of agricultural products.

Financiers and industrial types of the growing urban sects were well equipped to develop a mass infrastructure to manage agricultural trade by their already developed expertise of capital and managerial assets required.  The product was a phenomenal infrastructure to support the logistical requirements of agricultural products to urban market as well as the commitment to buy and distribute individual produce quotas for privately owned farming operations.  Farms maintained respectable earnings, urban markets grew in surplus of agricultural related products and the principles of agrarian infrastructure made high profits growing in wealth and influence to the ongoing development of the industry as a whole.  

Our world today commonly refers to these organizations as Co-ops, who are responsible for the integral network required for today’s well supplied urban markets.  Dairy products can credit their popularity entirely on the development of these networks which controlled the distribution and marketing related. Guarantees were given to small scale farms that production quotas would be handled, however growing surplus of milk caused by stable development of farms and financial projections/estimates used to justify capital investment meant continuing ability to sell the milk quotas was entirely contingent on the creative marketing and development of dairy products to disperse a growing surplus.  Modern concepts of the American diet have been heavily influenced by efforts of co-ops, making milk, cheese, whey, and beef essential consumer products. The timeline associated with major historic events is important when assessing what may be wrong with modern day agriculture and where the major challenges are derived from.

The nature of the major events during the early 20th century gave the opportunity for market controls and co-op interface to be the status quo.  Now overlooking agriculture development since WWII, farms have been no longer responsible for any aspect of general sales for their product, being isolated and heavily reliant on what the co-ops have to offer as a service to do so.  What also has arisen post WWII has been the establishment of a globalized market putting greater pressures on the native farming community. Co-ops and government authorities control the market and give American farms an opportunity to sell milk to the co-ops at rates pre-determined by the co-ops themselves.  Perishable items do not provide dairy farmers the ability to transform their way of sales in any reasonable amount of time. The overarching control of co-ops and their investment into the infrastructure of large scale milk processing and packaging make the system of today well oiled and fortified against newcomers to the markets and independent farm operations going solo.  It is very rare to see such breakaway, and in one case the Hein Hettinga Corp. was taken to federal court by the lobbyists of the greater American agriculture community for being a monopolist and taking unfair advantages to compete in California markets by operations primarily located in Arizona. Thus a developed viewpoint of American dairy farms has been concerned with the industry standards formed, now arguably a well organized system that has entrapped the traditional concept of an agrarian society dating all the way back to the founding fathers of the United States.  In its current state the past several decades have seen a globalized market force price influxes with such large variance that small time operations have not had the cash flow to survive the “famines” and maintain cost of their overhead.  As a result, large commercialized farming has been the central transition making large agribusiness the only platform capable of surviving today’s market.  No matter, co-ops make their profits and the overall US agriculture production has been minimizing every decade. Once the world’s “Bread Basket,” America’s agricultural dominance has eroded, while the rising BRICK economies are making rapid development of their own agricultural infrastructure playing a major role in the shifting market dynamics.  Here is where we breach the climax of the problem facing American agriculture and its future. A principle pillar to American society and its development now eroding, we call for the introduction of modern technologies into the system of American Agriculture, meaning to be a segue to the industrial future of Agriculture as well as restoration to American dominance as an agricultural community.

The Vision:

The vision is to redevelop the entire concept of dairy farming in the United States by technological breakthroughs to mitigate the extensive cost of farms through three segmented technological focuses.  All of which have the ultimate goal of creating autonomous agriculture in American society that no longer is reliant on derivative keynesian tactics.

The Three Technological Focus’:

1. Industrial Automation

2. Integral Systematic AI Management System

3. Biochemical manufacturing of traditional feedstock nutrition

Together, these 3 technological focuses provide a scalable vision to create autonomous cost effective farms that unhinge the reliance of so much government and co-op intervention by aims to redevelop the self reliant agricultural model, emphasizing naturalized free market laws.

The Mission:

In pursuit of our visionary goals the intentions are not to destroy the classic concept of agrarian community but to rehabilitate its critical infrastructure and enable farm operators to have the ample knowledge base to be technically proficient in a business template that encourages profitable success without any implication of Keynesian based tools now actively part of the agricultural community.

Chapter 2

The collaborative effort to create a result originating from my abstract thought requires a culture and community based on trust and a confidence in the vision.  In my statement, I reflect on each of the people on this list with essential value, and declared by particular details listed thereof.  In Tenax, the initial document that has been shared with these individuals is about the story to American agriculture.  I have left out the detail for how technical issues will be resolved because I think that this team will create those solutions together, and as this is an introduction, such information is not necessary.  In the broad based experience I have had to American agriculture and manufacturing, I have attempted to paint a story in my excerpt, that I hope will develop a natural interest on topics I have assumed to be the most interesting for each individual.  Collectively, I believe these individuals and their talents can assemble together with a unified vision to the grand scale of how we might want to change American agriculture.  

Technical solutions in my vision all assemble to create a platform for autonomous farming.  Each system created through a timeline of company history can hopefully be integrated into an AI platform for autonomous farming.  Successful completion of undergraduate studies while being financially self reliant has taught me that performance based value is the only way to maximize one's own well being and society.  Through the vigor of full time work and study the cumulative experience has qualified me with substantial insight to globalized agriculture and future technology applications of wastewater, the automation in an industry that is in critical condition for disruptive change and innovation.  Having the chance to exercise leadership and creative thinking in a multitude of business environments, I acquired a strong practicality for implementing process and managerial guidance which would benefit a vision of industrial agriculture and its future.  The investment toward Tenax is also a humanitarian project that provide sustainable, measurable, and community driven value.  I believe supporting my vision will build a capacity to solve a world relevant issue of resource management for agriculture.  Under the core values of supporting self-determined individualization, sustainability, and application oriented education, I would be afforded advantage of assembling a team dedicated with an environment to understand economic and sustainable conditions for entrepreneurial thinking and action towards globalized agriculture that my work experience and education have afforded potential insight in creating long term improvement. 

Water and Sanitation/Economic and Community Development

Having a career interest related to agriculture, there is vision to redevelop the entire concept of dairy farming in the United States and BRICK economies by technological breakthroughs to mitigate the extensive cost of farms through three segmented technological focuses all requiring sustainability science and data science to balance their applications.  All of which have the ultimate goal of creating autonomous agriculture in American society that no longer is reliant on derivative Keynesian tactics.  In pursuit of my goal, the intentions are not to destroy the classic concept of agrarian community but to rehabilitate its critical infrastructure and enable farm operators to have the ample knowledge base to be technically proficient in a business template that encourages profitable success without any implication of Keynesian based tools now actively present.  As a mission for free market based principles being restored, I believe this focused economic outlook will create measurable, sustainable, and long term economic improvement which this business model stands to represent. 

Three Technological Interests: 

1. Industrial Automation (Requires analyzation of complex data found in work experience to create solutions following sustainability and data science) 

2. Integral Systematic AI Management System (requires statistical modeling and machine learning technology which would benefit insights to sustainability and data science) 

3. Biochemical manufacturing of traditional feedstock nutrition using grey water found in municipal wastewater. (Algorithmic processing of protein synthesis requiring pragmatic evaluation through data science.) 

Together, these 3 technological focuses provide a scalable vision to create autonomous cost effective farms that unhinge the reliance of so much government and co-op intervention by aims to redevelop the self reliant agricultural model, emphasizing naturalized free market laws. 

Corporate structure is focused on innovation rather than traditional business structures and formality.  Aimed to promote a holistic approach to an academic focus driven by what is socially relevant rather than standardized subject learning and coordinate practical application supportive of academic social philosophy. Having been provided the opportunity to engage in a broad range of entrepreneurial activity related to agriculture and manufacturing while being an undergraduate student studying chemical engineering, I believe the time abroad would provide an opportunity to work with scalability of globalized markets and appreciate non-university practical experience from the outset to inspire successful innovation towards our three scientific initiatives.  Being provided a clear focus to explore the sustainability science and data required, I hope Tenax would cultivate an effective solution to the problems American Agriculture faces in a globalized economy. 

I) Building capacity of entrepreneurs, community leaders, local organizations, community network to support economic development in impoverished communities

American agriculture for the past several decades has been slow to adapt to an ever growing globalized platform.  Once a family tradition to inherit the farm and carry the responsibilities of traditional farming practices, now is a decaying model.  Big business and globalized trade have changed the interface of American farming.  Supportive networks of co-ops and brokers now control the critical variable to deliver to consumers and place demand pressure to family farm operations. With that said, there is a struggle for agriculture communities to adjust pricing and compete against the rising economies of scale.  Navigating the network of commodity trades between farms, co-ops, and brokers is complex, and unlikely to be an infrastructure that is easily transformed at this time.  Rather, accessory technologies and stronger aptitude to operational efficiencies is the critical focus to relieve American agriculture from market pressures which sustainability science is a critical asset.  Not only does the standard market conditions support such technological pursuits, but growing issues of labor costs, liabilities, and provisions of raw resources (feedstocks, energy, and water).  It is my interest to pursue the sustainability driven interest of quantifying market parameters by tolerance of social and environmental issues and promote a pragmatic and well organized strategy to leverage wastewater, feedstocks, and biochemical potentials of modern agriculture toward accomplishing a goal of autonomous farming and sustainability.  Framing a new knowledge base for industrial application can benefit the development of entrepreneurial activity. 

II) Developing Productive Work Opportunities to Underserved Communities of Agricultural Origins

Being forward focused I hope to inspire a vision in establishing productive work to benefit a traditional base of American life that is underserved in the growing emergence of large agribusiness.  In essence a goal is to win confidence in continued traditions of American agrarian society armed with proper tooling for modern technology and global awareness.  Through historical review of American Agriculture and its current condition, the overture of the Great Depression provided an interface change of the market through Keynesian based economic control tactics that still have impact in the modern era.  We argue as great of an influence the initial government involvement to the general economy may have been during the crises of the early 20th century, its' presiding condition has placed a long term negative consequence on American Agriculture through regulatory phenomena which has eroded America's competitive position on a global front.  Earning potential does not reside solely on entrepreneurial efforts of a farm, as an integral network of co-ops and government backed subsidies regulate the economic conditions. As a result, a developed viewpoint of American farming has been concerned with the industry standards formed, now arguably a well organized system that has entrapped the traditional concept of an agrarian society dating all the way back to the founding fathers of the United States.  In its current state the past several decades have seen a globalized market force price influx with such large variance that small time operations have not had the cash flow to survive the "famines" and maintain cost of their overhead. As a result, large commercialized farming has been the central transition making large agribusiness the only platform capable of surviving today's market by economies of scale.  No matter, the integral network of co-ops and distribution always make a profit while US Agriculture has been declining every decade.  Once the world's "Bread Basket," America's agricultural dominance has eroded, as "BRICK" economies are making rapid development of their own agricultural infrastructure playing a major role in the shifting market dynamics.  Here is where we branch the climax of the problem facing American agriculture and its future.  As a principle pillar to American society and its development now eroding, I have an interest in the development and restoration of American dominance as an agricultural community through the introduction of modern technologies related to sustainability science.  Herein is a mission statement to uplift the economic condition of an underserved community. As a systematic approach, successful change requires a political, and financial justification to overturn culture and current market standards.  One may conclude that in the disruptive change Tenax intends, political and special interest groups would be heavily resistant.  Tenax has a business model that not only integrates modern trends of automation and AI, but also the merger and acquisition process of failing farms to centralize privatized control of farming.  A curiosity to Tenax is how far can the expansion of financial forcast and capital management influence dairy farming directly? Can Tenax grow as a corporation with private equity stakes in farming directly? Can agricultural property be used for other technical innovation like solar energy, or geofarming? Political and network based influence is critical for protection mechanisms in the Tenax venture. Continental 21 is an example of critical tools to subvert network based co-ops and take personalized control for environmental conditions in surveillance and recruiting tactics.  

III) Strengthening the Ability of Communities to Develop, Fund and Maintain Sustainable Water and Sanitation Systems

Water is the crux for any viable agriculture pursuit. In consideration of man's progress to refine natural processes and standardize through industrialized efforts, agriculture has been left as one of the most difficult natural processes to develop synthetic alternatives being in critical need of sunlight and water.  In a rising era of renewable energy and resource efficiency and data science, water is a constituent that effectively defines sustainable operations for agriculture and the key for future biotech ops.  As a biochemical engineer, the progressive future in bacterial engineering warrants a future in alternative foods being produced through algae farming, and or chemical processes that can manage without the traditional expense profile soil based nutrition typically requires. As a personal research focus, the advantage in sustainability science and data science can benefit in creating statistical models for bacterial design and engineering.  Municipal wastewater and livestock waste can provide a commercialized nutrition base for bacterial farming applications we may reference as "grey water." Through the use of sustainability and data science, I hope to explore an innovative solution in using wastewater for the benefit of bacterial based farming.  Biochemical manufacturing of traditional feedstock nutrition derivatives was a project that I initiated while conducting undergraduate studies to develop a nutritionally complete food for Holstein cows, designed to fulfill all nutritional needs known as "Project Somnio" (see attached link).  One product, one compound, nutritionally complete per serving.  With inside access to the financial outlook of alfalfa and dairy farming, the expenditures required to produce and deliver feedstock nutritions, warranted a future in synthetic alternatives.  I believe that biochemical processes have a future in resolving this issue, however water stands as a critical need for both traditional and synthetic nutrition growth.  I hope to use mass data analytics to recognize the effective potential in biochemical nutrition harvesting by comparison to the expenditure in natural processes.  In the case that biochemical nutrition harvesting is a potential alternative, water usage in commercial agriculture applications all around the world will be significantly reduced, therefore benefiting the ability to develop, fund and maintain sustainable water for agriculture. If synthetic alternatives is successful production concept, international market segments will be heavily interested.  Example: Saudi Arabia with water conservation issues, and China who's climatic change causes heavy reliance on importing American corn silage and hay which is costly by volume metrics.  Synthetic alternatives are compact and nutritionally viable 80-90%.

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/586d532ae58c6232db243a65/t/586dcc0f20099e929f572eec/1483590711840/Somnio+Kickstart+Presentation1222.pdf

Sustainability Science is a new academic discipline that is driven by the problems it addresses rather than the discipline it employs, drawing an interdisciplinary need for natural, social, medical and engineering sciences to develop critical framework for sustainability.  Having played a critical role in agriculture and manufacturing environments, there is a lot that can be said for my awareness of sustainability projects to take better advantage of resource management for agriculture.  Requiring study of a holistic knowledge about human interrelationships from social sciences and humanities, two years of economic study to mitigate, and minimize the consequences of human impact on planetary systems and societies is an opportunity that almost guarantees a sound platform towards a goal of pursuing entrepreneurial activity and or leadership roles while a technical R&D project is being conducted in parallel.

Emphasizing the need to analyze the root causes of fundamental unsustainability in current economic systems, the goal is to develop practical solutions. Sustainability starts with providing knowledge on how to properly structure the issue by academia, industry and governmental attributes to perceive a comprehensive view of what might be "sustainability."  Next, the coordination of data from many disciplines is aimed to construct framework of empirical evidence that supports the knowledge structure.  In a final step, the data and interdisciplinary study attempts to integrate a holistic view of both the planetary and social environment that are involved. Having built a strong competency for the different vertices of American agriculture and manufacturing, I believe that there is a competitive advantage in orchestrating an empowered solution to impact American agriculture in its' current struggle of a globalized environment and government intervention.   

Being unconventional, I believe that the orchestrated assembly of academic and work based experience makes me an ideal candidate as having sincere interest in fulfilling the goal in development of systems for sustainability and provision for underserved communities relating to water and economic development in agriculture as a whole. I have listed the title and functional detail for each experience as to why they promote such goals.

Undergraduate Studies - Chemical Engineering, Biochemical emphasis (B.S.)

Chemical engineering with a biochemical emphasis focuses on biotech related to enzymes, water treatment, pharmaceutical, and bacterial sciences that is renewable energy focused.

The aptitude acquired through engineering has provided practical outlook for sustainability in water sanitation. Interest in agriculture and its resource base, water is a critical problem for sustainable farming which my academic experience benefits toward goals of entrepreneurial interest.

Dairy Industry - Management, Analytical Surveillance

Initially an account manager for a brokerage firm, I focused on supply chain management and relationship development with alfalfa and silage farms of Brawley and Blythe, CA. This organization owned several dairies and offered opportunity to manage a new department in fertilizer processing for organic markets. A personal side venture for antioxidant extraction from grape seed, provided an introduction to Specialized Dairy Service who contracted to build my separation process, later offering employment. As part of SDS, I engaged a national farming community, eventually taking responsibility of SDS-Texas division.

Commodity trade, dairy, and construction of farms provided insight to the vertices of agriculture. The provision of experience, market data, and contacts has inspired a competitive advantage toward entrepreneurial exploits to induce economic development.

Manufacturing - Webber Automation and AGT Water Systems

Focused on water in OEM capacities provided education in procurement, design for manufacturing, and ERP systems. Webber Automation derived from Fanuc robotics, as a custom automation shop for water processing. I was office manager and assisted in developing DFM measures. AGT Water Systems built a modular water treatment system design for a oil fracking market. Webber and AGT were managed by the same investment group which arranged my transfer as the ERP system manager for AGT.

The manufacturing environment provided insight to automation and water. However, greater experience related management of capital, procurement, and production floor process. A beneficial management insight toward effective implementation of sustainable systems.

Inside Sales/Applications Engineer - Motion Control and Systems

Currently working as an inside sales/applications engineer for a manufacturing rep firm “Industrial Drives Design,” (IDD) our focus is motion control and systems for engineering projects and OEM’s. As a manufacturing rep firm we represent Yaskawa, Copley Controls, Celera Motion, Neugart, and Cone Drive for California. Applications for motion control, provides engagement with a multitude of industries. In my final year of study, the same investment board of Webber and AGT has provided the opportunity with IDD.