What a farm visit revealed about the complexity behind crop innovation

When a colleague recommended the Lighthouse Farm Academy, the Serbia Lab immediately caught her attention. Its focus on data and software connected to her current work, while the farm’s completely plant-based system linked to her longstanding interest in alternative proteins and the protein transition.

She joined the Lab to see how those ideas translate into the everyday reality of farming at scale.

The Serbian farm appealed to Stacy for two reasons. Its use of data and software connected directly to parts of the research programme she manages, while its completely plant-based farming system linked to her longstanding interest in alternative proteins and the protein transition.

She was particularly curious to see how regenerative farming could work at scale without livestock. What she found was an exceptional example of how much can be achieved through crop rotation, strong agronomic knowledge and careful decision-making.

“It was incredibly inspiring, but also clearly a farm operating at a very high level,” she says. “It showed what is possible when you have a mature team that really understands the system.”

Stacy arrived with some scepticism about the role of data, AI and software in farming. She wondered how much of it was genuinely useful and how much was simply technology for technology’s sake. That changed when the farm’s lead agronomist explained the challenge of planning crop rotations across thousands of hectares. A one-year plan was manageable, but by the second and third year, the number of variables became impossible for one person to oversee.

“That was a real eye-opener,” Stacy says. “Even the smartest agronomist cannot hold all of that in their head. At that scale, software is not just useful. You genuinely need it.” What impressed her most was that the team was selective. They had learned not to collect every possible piece of data, but to focus on the information that helped them make better decisions.

The Lab also changed the way Stacy looks at her own work. In crop breeding, much attention goes into developing varieties that can cope with drought, heat or disease. On the farm, however, that is only one part of a much larger system. A crop has to perform in different soils, after different preceding crops, alongside different neighbouring crops and under changing weather conditions. It has to fit into a rotation that works not just this year, but several years ahead.

“That gave me a much deeper understanding of how complex farming is,” she says. “It does not end when you have bred a crop. There are so many more conditions that the farmer has to work with.” For Stacy, that insight encourages a broader way of thinking about breeding programmes and a closer connection between research and farming practice.

The experience also challenged one of the simpler assumptions often made about agricultural change: that farmers can simply decide to work differently.

“We often say that farming needs to change, or that companies want to support regenerative agriculture,” Stacy says. “But the Lab shows you what that actually involves in daily practice. It takes away some of the naivety.”

That is also why she believes the Academy is relevant far beyond farmers and agronomists. Professionals working in food companies, supply chains, sustainability or strategy can gain a much clearer view of what their ambitions mean on the ground.

“You understand where we are now, where we want to go and what it really takes to get there,” she says. “You may come back with fewer simple answers, but with much better questions.”