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New York Farm Bureau News Bytes
#6: Interview with Maureen Ballatori on AI and Agriculture - 10/8/2025
00:13:58
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign. Welcome to News Bites. We're here today with Maureen Balatori, founder of Agency 29. And we're in this gorgeous setting in Canandaigua, New York, at New York Kitchen. Maybe you could tell us a little bit about this.
- [00:23]
B
Yeah. New York Kitchen is a non profit organization that exists to advocate for and promote food, beverage and agriculture for the entire state of New York.
- [00:34]
A
Sounds like they'd be friends with Farm Bureau.
- [00:36]
B
Yes.
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A
So how about yourself? I know you have rural roots. How did you come to where you are now?
- [00:41]
B
Yeah, I grew up on a dairy farm in central New York. So New Yorker, ride or die upstate for life. And I never thought I was going to land in the industry to stay in agriculture. But as I continued to grow in my career and in my work, I found a real passion and connection for the people of agriculture, which is what my agency focuses on.
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A
Right. So growing up on a farm, you can really relate to the people that you deal with on a daily basis, I imagine. So what about Agency 29? Like, in a nutshell, tell us what it is.
- [01:14]
B
Yeah. So we are a creative agency for food, beverage and agriculture brands specifically. So we're niched down into those industries and we do strategy, identity and marketing work for folks in those sectors.
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A
Great. And I know I looked at your website a little bit. I know you said that farmer values are the core of your organization. What do you mean by that exactly?
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B
Yeah. So there is something special about people of Agriculture, I think. And it really comes down to there's a collaborative nature that farmers have and people who are connected to ag that I just really love. And it is the values that come through in how people of agriculture conduct themselves that is really special. And we really try to carry that through to how we work, who we hire, who we engage as clients on that side of the house as well. So it's just a really important through line for us.
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A
And I imagine this involves all kinds of commodities, correct?
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B
Large and small. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And various aspects of agribusiness as well. So Cornell University is a client, for example. We work with them on methane projects and, you know, other things that advocate for the industry at large, not just individual components of agriculture.
- [02:33]
A
Great. So I know you came to our state convention last year and this year we are thrilled that you're going to be leading one of our keynote speech. So first of all, congratulations on landing that spot. We're all very excited about it.
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B
I'm excited, too.
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A
Tell us about your experience last year at stake on.
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B
Yeah, I attend a ton of conferences like all over the United States. And they're to varying degrees. Right. So World agritech is a favorite in California, it's in San Francisco every year. But the farmer is not there. Right. Conferences like that, they have the people that are once removed, twice removed and beyond at conferences like that. So what I love about the New York Farm Bureau State annual convention is that the farmer is not only in the room, but they are the ones at the table. And so it's just great to go to an event like that where, you know, you can rub elbows with the farmers of the world and hear more about what is plaguing them so that the work that we do, we can incorporate that, you know, from the grassroots issues to know what's going on so that when we're working with folks in other areas of agribusiness, that we can be relevant.
- [03:51]
A
Right. And that's nice to hear because we do call ourselves the voice of Agriculture. And it's our members who create our policies 100% so important that we network in places like this like staycon, to get together. So, and speaking of staycon, we're going to have, I believe it's a dozen workshops this year. It's really been growing every year. We're adding new things, like we have pesticide training this year. We have a mini grid grant challenge. We do this based on what our members tell us, what they want. We get a lot of submissions for these workshops and we choose. You know, it's a very difficult process choosing them, but in the end we end up with great workshops. How do you keep track of agricultural trends or challenges in the industry?
- [04:29]
B
It's a true hobby. Like, it really is just a cornerstone of my life, you know, it's not just in our work. And we're learning from our clients all the time and attending conferences, like, you know, the state annual convention to, like I mentioned, you know, be able to talk to farmers and understand what's going on. But. So that's one way, right? Is. Is talking to the actual farmers, both here in New York State and beyond across the US we really pride ourselves on being in the room where those discussions are happening. And I, I have the pleasure in many cases of being able to contribute to those conversations. And so I'm delighted to be doing the keynote on Wednesday morning, but I just try to keep my ear to the ground, you know, and because it's a true passion for me, it's a real joy to know, you know, the latest of what's happening.
- [05:24]
A
Well, you must know the latest Because I hear you're talking about a hot topic, which is AI.
- [05:28]
B
Yes.
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A
And how farmers can use that as a practical tool on the farm. So maybe, first of all, tell us why this is such an important topic for you. And secondly, why, you know, maybe go into a little more detail of what you're talking.
- [05:39]
B
Sure. Well, so first of all, it's not that AI, Right. Which I love to make that joke. But so artificial intelligence, you know, being something new and coming down the pike, I think that, you know, we were talking prior to this episode just chatting about that at a very high level. There is in some cases, fear around it. Right. And what's it gonna do? How is it gonna change the way that we live and work? And is it gonna steal our jobs? And, you know, so in some cases for farmers, there's probably a lot of security in the thought that they're doing something that can't be done by a robot. Wholly right. Robots can augment, you know, and so artificial intelligence is a tool that can be used to help anybody, including farmers, do more, do better, you know, improve various workflows and things that are important to them, if you understand how to use those tools in the right way.
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A
And that gets back to what you were just talking about, the fear.
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B
Yeah.
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A
So aside from the fears of maybe losing your job or I guess the other fear that we see a lot is the fear of the technology itself. It's something you don't know. And people are always hesitant to change. So how do you put a friendly, more approachable face on AI?
- [06:55]
B
I think of it as riding a bike. Right. That when, before you start doing that, it's scary, you're afraid you're going to fall over, you're going to skin your knee, you're going to get hurt, it is going to be a detrimental experience. And then you get on the bike and you learn and you're like, oh, okay, this isn't so bad. This is actually really helpful in a lot of ways. That's how I think about AI. Is that the way through that fear is just getting started? And so my hope in and my goal for this keynote is to help alleviate some of that fear, help people understand how they can start to leverage these tools that are specific to farming in particular. So I've given this AI talk to a number of agritourism audiences and so cater that a bit more to make some adjustments that are more specific to broad strokes agriculture. Because New York Farm Bureau will have many different people of agriculture in the room, and we want to make sure it's specific to that, but really it is about just understanding how to get started and use it in a way that is non threatening so that they can get on the bike.
- [08:03]
A
Right, right. And if you're getting on the bike, so I'm thinking in the future it's very hard to predict where AI is going to be in five or 10 years. So if you're getting on the bike now, is this going to be the 100 mile racing bike in, in 10 years, how are you going to keep up with that?
- [08:17]
B
Yeah, I think that there's two approaches to that. One is I don't know where it's going and it terrifies me so I'm just not going to touch it and I'm gonna, I'm gonna stay far away and wherever it goes is outside of me. And I think the other is I'm going to start dipping my toe in the water so that as this grows and develops, I have some initial experience and understanding of how it works. And so I think the people who, you know, there's, there's no right or wrong answer. There's something that's right for everybody. Right. So my hope is to help the people who want to start dipping their toe in understand the ways to do that so that as it changes and evolves and grows over time and who knows what that's going to look like. You know, I read a lot of sci fi books and so I've got some strong ideas in my head about where it could all go. But ultimately it's, you don't want to be left behind. And I think if we also think about it going back to, you know, the introduction of the Internet, is it similar? Right. It was something that was really scary. What is this World Wide Web? And then all of a sudden, years later, we're now at a place where it permeates our lives and we use it all the time. You know, we're looking up information and we find it to be a useful tool. Whereas previously, you know, it was the fear of the unknown.
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A
Right. That is a very good analogy. I also kind of see this as a potential for a teach the teacher type of thing. So if you have a room full of people.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And you're talking about the basics of AI, maybe it makes it a little less scary if people are talking to each other about it and sharing tips as they go.
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B
Yeah.
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A
So, right.
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B
That's very useful, I think also helping people understand how they're already using it when they might not be aware.
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A
Oh, give us an example.
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B
Right. So predictive text is leveraging AI to understand what you're typically talking about in text conversations, to make recommendations about what the next word might be. Or if you like. I'm a big reader, so I read Goodreads. You know, is I track all my books in Goodreads and then that's making. Using AI to make recommendations about something else that I might enjoy reading. Amazon, you know, if that's not referencing the devil, many other people who are listening, I know support local. I'm a big fan. But you know, many people are familiar with that at a high level too. Amazon is another one that's leveraging AI to make recommendations about something else that you might enjoy based on prior purchase experiences. So those are some examples of how AI is already permeating our lives.
- [10:46]
A
So it's not necessarily the big scary monster we think.
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B
No, not the big scary monster. Yeah. Yeah. I want to help people think of like, if you, if you think of Monsters, Inc. You know, those big scary monsters are actually really soft at heart. And so I hope we can send people away from that keynote with that kind of feeling.
- [11:03]
A
Excellent. So I guess I'd love to ask you if there's just one takeaway from AI in general. I know it's a little more complex than that, but if there's one takeaway, what would that be?
- [11:14]
B
So one of the concern might, so to, at a very high level, answer that question. It is that AI is a tool. It is not the end all, be all solution to every problem. It is an excellent tool in the toolbox and people should think of it that way. I think one of the early misconceptions that we've seen, AI can in some cases take a little nugget of information and grow it into something that isn't true. Right. It can make things up. And so as long as we're aware of the current shortcomings of, of those tools and humans are still using their brains in conjunction with these tools to help them get to the end result that they're looking for, then it can be really useful. Where there's some, I would say proceed with caution is if people are trying to use AI to write an entire blog post for their website or write all of their social media content, there are some pitfalls to be aware of that we'll talk about in the keynote. That if you can just keep that mindset of AI is a tool in the toolbox, then you'll be just fine.
- [12:21]
A
Right. I'm glad to hear that human interaction is not out of the picture with AI.
- [12:26]
B
Yeah. And I actually think my broad strokes opinion on that is that human connection is going to continue to become that much more important as AI continues to permeate our lives because people are human. We want that piece of human connection. So I think that that's going to continue to be that much more important for people to find time to come together. And another reason why I love agriculture, that concept of, you know, borrowing from your neighbor is so rich in the agricultural community and that's going to continue to grow alongside AI.
- [13:01]
A
Great. Well, we're going to see a lot of that at the convention. Don't miss Maureen's keynote speech. It's on December 3rd at Turning Stone. Registeryfb.org It was a pleasure talking today.
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B
Thank you so much. Thanks so much. I appreciate your time.
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C
For generations, New York's farms have been the backbone of our state, feeding our families and fueling our economy. And for over 100 years, New York Farm Bureau has been the voice of agriculture, advocating for the hard working men and women who cultivate our land. You can be part of a powerful movement protecting our farms, supporting rural communities, communities and growing a stronger New York. There's no better time to be a member. Join today@nyfb.org or call 1-800-342-4143 and press 0.