Cultivating Biodiversity

“Climate change is the first driver, but consumer demand is also pushing companies to diversify regions, crops, and varieties,” says Martha Montoya, CEO of Agtools, a company that delivers real-time data insights for agricultural supply chains.

Yet moving from a narrow set of staples to a more diverse ingredient portfolio requires long-term coordination. “We need three- to four-year ingredient planning shared with farmers, not just one-off sourcing,” Montoya says.

Agtools’ analytics platform draws on more than 70 data variables—including climate patterns, exchange rates, regional phenological cycles, and labor disruptions—to give a fuller picture of what makes certain crops viable in specific locations. This kind of data infrastructure helps reduce risk in biodiversety-focused sourcing strategies by improving predictability and transparency across global supply networks.

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