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Company News

The Seam Expands Peanut Platform with Coastal Growers, Tifton Peanut Company

The Seam

The Seam announced today that Coastal Growers and Tifton Peanut Company have entered into multi-year agreements for its cloud-based, peanut management platform.

Owned by a cooperative of farmers, Coastal Growers is building a new 400,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art peanut shelling operation in Atmore, Alabama, slated for completion in 2022. State officials said the $87 million project will create more than 150 local jobs. Six buying point affiliate organizations will begin utilizing the platform beginning with the approaching harvest.

Tifton Peanut Company, which maintains five shelling, warehousing, buying point and seed treatment locations across Tifton, Georgia, has also signed on with The Seam for operations specific to plant number 4.

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Company News

U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol Announces Collaboration with TextileGenesis and The Seam

The U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol has reached agreements with both TextileGenesis and The Seam for the development and integration necessary to create the framework for the Protocol Credit Management System (PCMS).

The combination of these two platforms will position the Trust Protocol and its PCMS to meet the demands for both supply chain transparency and increased access to sustainable fibers and aggregated data from participating farms.

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Sustainability

Agtech Raises the Bar for Sustainability Standards

Agtech | The Seam

Increased sustainability will drive commodity production in the coming decades, spurred by increasing environmental consciousness among consumers.

From crops to clothes, agricultural products are not exempt from increasing preferences for sustainable brands, starting with a desire by the public to know where products are sourced. Purchasing habits are likely to continue to shift in favor of retailers and suppliers who give a greater account of the contributions they are making toward a cleaner and safer planet.

There are clear moral and economic interests for these stories of sustainability to be told. But like every compelling story, the ag industry must not only tell, but also show by accelerating its shift toward data-driven practices and decisions. Harnessing data requires it to be more readily available, accessible and easy-to-use for producers, distributors and the public alike.

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Company News

The Seam Joins AgLaunch for Its 2020 Virtual Field Day

AgLaunch Virtual Field Day

The uncertainty and volatility of a global health crisis has further heightened the hardships of the agriculture world, the ramifications of which are being felt at the farm gate and in under-resourced communities.

That said, struggle often leads to innovation, and there is a unique chance for farmers to pursue new opportunities.

The 2020 AgLaunch VIRTUAL Field Day highlighted the farmers, entrepreneurs and communities that are working together to make the agricultural value chain more sustainable and resilient, while also demonstrating that a strong network of farmers is positively impacting rural and urban communities from health care to education.

The Seam was honored to take part in this event, and our CEO Mark Pryor spoke on agtech, focusing on traceability, transparency and sustainability throughout the industry.

Watch the video below. Mark’s segment begins at 34:25.

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Company News

A Tribute to Joe Tubb of PCCA

Among Joe Tubb’s many professional accomplishments is his contribution to The Seam. We are incredibly grateful for his collaboration, mentorship and support in helping to shape our company into what it is today.

Take a look at this excerpt from PCCA. We wish you all the best in retirement, Joe!

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Peanuts

APSA 2020 Pre-Harvest Meeting Recap

American Peanut Shellers Association | The Seam

The 2020 Pre-Harvest Meeting, conducted by the American Peanut Shellers Association and the National Peanut Buying Points Association, was held Wednesday, August 12. While the format was forced to go virtual this year, attendees were still presented with great information on a wide range of industry topics.

Congressmen Austin Scott (R-GA) and Drew Ferguson (R-GA) shared a few insights from the Hill, including an update on future relief packages and upcoming hearings on support programs for growers, as well as an update on trade.

Karl Zimmer (CEO, Premium Peanut) spoke about the impact of aflatoxins on peanuts and the effects on international trade. Aflatoxins are causing increased issues with trade into the EU, with a higher percentage being tested now due to not meeting the EU aflatoxin specs. Japan also reported issues with not meeting specs. This is causing a $120 million impact to the peanut industry, or an impact of $84/acre, as exports account for 25% of the peanut sales. Zimmer also spoke on the efforts of the Aflatoxin Task Force to counter the effects on trade and further aflatoxin research.

Attendees also heard from brands, including Jif and Hershey’s. New information and insights were provided on sustainability and the impact of aflatoxin from the brands (see below).

The annual meeting was rounded out with a crop update from each producing state and an update from The Peanut Institute.

The Seam is proud to be a longstanding member of the American Peanut Shellers Association, the National Peanut Buying Points Association and many other organizations that are working tirelessly to move the industry forward.

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AgTech

Beyond TP and Sanitizers: Why a Virtual Exchange Platform Serves the Food Industry Year Round

Just because it felt like 40 days of blizzard shopping during the pandemic stock-up this spring doesn’t mean that blizzards won’t send shoppers scrambling again to empty store shelves. And don’t forget hurricane season is here, along with back-to-school season and autumn rife with concerns about ongoing spread of COVID-19. In short, the food industry needs to prepare for any eventuality.

The new Food Industry Exchange, an electronic, subscription-based sustainable marketplace developed for FMI-The Food Industry Association powered by The Seam is a valuable tool in shoring-up supply chains in anticipation of disruption. The Food Industry Exchange launched during the early weeks of the pandemic, when demand at retail was swelling and foodservice vendors were faced with high levels of supplies. Since then, the platform has addressed the urgent needs of retailers, wholesalers, suppliers and, ultimately, consumers.

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Company News

Commodity Futures Trading Commission Technology Advisory Committee Holds 2020 Meeting

Agtech | The Seam

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is hosting its Technology Advisory Committee (TAC) public meeting via phone conference July 16, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. At this meeting, the TAC will hear presentations from the TAC subcommittees on automated and modern trading markets, distributed ledger technology and market infrastructure, virtual currencies and cybersecurity. The TAC meeting agenda includes key issues that will be discussed and the speakers for each panel.

The Seam CEO Mark Pryor will be presenting Thursday at the Technology Advisory Committee (TAC) public meeting of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). As a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) sub-committee member, Mark will join Shawnna Hoffman, Global Cognitive Legal Leader, IBM, and Yesha Yadav, Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University Law School as lead participants.

Viewing/Listening Instructions: Watch the live webcast (including audio) at www.cftc.gov. To listen to the live audio feed (no video), call the toll or toll-free numbers below. Call-in participants should be prepared to provide their first name, last name, and affiliation.

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Company News

The Seam Announced as Field to Market’s Newest Technology Partner

Field to Market

Field to Market’s Sustainability Metrics and Algorithms Now Integrated into The Seam’s Software Solutions

Field to Market

MEMPHIS, Tenn., June 18, 2020 – The Seam, a leading provider of food and agriculture software solutions, today announced its approval as a Qualified Data Management Partner with Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, completing an integration of sustainability metrics powered by Field to Market’s Fieldprint® Platform into The Seam’s latest technology suite. As the Alliance’s newest technology partner, The Seam now offers farmers a unified solution for measuring their sustainability performance and operational efficiency.

This integration is made possible through Field to Market’s Fieldprint Application Programming Interface, which connects sustainability metrics and algorithms from the Fieldprint Platform directly into The Seam’s software solutions, allowing farmers to assess the environmental performance of their management practices against regional, state and national benchmarks for key sustainability indicators.

“We are proud to be recognized as a Qualified Data Management Partner by Field to Market,” said Mark Pryor, Chief Executive Officer at The Seam. “Through this integration, we can provide producers with enhanced, science-based tools that are simple and streamlined for continuous, overall improvement in sustainable farming.”

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Company News

MBJ Straight Talk: The Food Supply Chain

MBJ Straight Talk Food Supply Chain

The food supply chain was the topic of the latest edition of the Memphis Business Journal‘s weekly Straight Talk webinar series.

Panelists included Rick James, owner of the local Cash Saver grocery stores; Dr. Ernest Nichols, associate professor in the Department of Marketing & Supply Chain Management at the University of Memphis; and Mark Pryor, CEO of The Seam, a leading provider of commodities trading and agriculture software solutions. The series is moderated Meagan Nichols, MBJ’s managing editor.

The following is an excerpt from the MBJ:

Nichols said that even slight bumps to the chain can affect the whole industry.

Pryor’s company, The Seam, along with The Food Industry Association (FMI), established the Food Industry Exchange, launched in early May, to address such issues.

“The problem that was needing to be solved is the supply chain disruption,” Pryor said. “We had suppliers with excess capacity because the schools are closed. Restaurants are closed. There [are] no sporting events. There are no events in general, and you’d had perishable products and things like that, and no home for it.

“And then on the flip side, you had retailers like Rick [James] saying that the shelves were getting bare in certain cases because of the run on the stores for various things, and people were stockpiling,” Pryor continued. “So, what was needed was a platform to digitally introduce suppliers — the sellers — with buyers — the wholesalers and retailers that have certain needs. So, it’s actually a two-way marketplace.”

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