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Land O’Lakes and Microsoft strengthen partnership

Members of one of the nation’s largest farmer-owned cooperatives stand to benefit from a new multi-year strategic alliance with Microsoft.

Land O’Lakes chief technology officer Teddy Bekele says the two companies have been partners for several years.

“We want to take that partnership to a new level to promote new innovations in agriculture, expand sustainability practices, and then close the broadband gap.”

He tells Brownfield Land O’Lakes and Microsoft will work together to address unreliable and nonexistent high-speed internet infrastructure in rural communities.

We’ve seen where it could be anywhere between 18 million to 40 million Americans, so we want to make sure that we break this barrier down because it also has an impact on education, healthcare, and even just local economic resilience.”

Bekele says the partnership will also yield better agronomic tools and pave the way for a carbon market.

“Kind of going from a carbon emitter to being a carbon sequester. That’s going to be a big piece for farmers, and now there’s a market where others will value that as well. Including companies like Microsoft.”

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella calls Land O’Lakes one of the most important food suppliers in the U.S. and says farmers and consumers rely on the agribusiness and food company’s ability to rapidly adapt to changing market forces through innovation.