In this episode of Selling in the Paddock, Georgia heads to California (well… via Zoom) to talk tomatoes, trust and teamwork with William “Skeeter” Bethea from The Morning Star Company – the processor behind around 40% of California’s processing tomato crop.

Skeeter lifts the lid on how Morning Star runs a massive, highly technical tomato operation with no traditional bosses, and what that actually looks like day to day for the people growing, transplanting, harvesting and moving fruit through the factories.

Together, we dig into:

• 🌱 From seed to sauce – how Morning Star handles transplants, harvesting and trucking across Bakersfield, Sacramento and beyond

• 🧠 Planning backwards – why they start with factory demand and work back through the whole supply chain

• 🤝 Trust and collaboration – building relationships in a no-boss structure and why staying in your lane helps the whole team win

• 📊 Data, timing and adaptability – using growing degree hours, soil types and forecasts to hit tight processing windows

• 🍅 Yield vs flavour – stories from tomatoes, berries and onions, and what happens when “through the windscreen” meets “it has to taste good”

• 🧭 Integrity in ag – what Skeeter learned from a short detour into cannabis and why he came back to mainstream agriculture

• 🏈 Football and field teams – how American football tactics mirror high-performing teams in ag and sales

Welcome back team to another episode of Selling in the Paddock!

Today I’m joined by Ben Van Delden — founder of Delco AgriFood, co-founder of We Three AI, and a key partner in the Australian AgriFood System Alliance.

If you’re picturing a simple job title, think again. Ben’s world crosses oysters, circularity, AI, livestock, climate strategy and big-picture system change in Australian agriculture and beyond.

And yes, we recorded this rugged up on the first day of Melbourne summer. Of course we did.

• ​Ben’s childhood in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty
• ​Canoeing to school and working on his parents’ oyster farms
• ​Early lessons in labour, risk and why he chose to pair agriculture with a business degree

Ben breaks circularity down in practical language:

• ​Using resources for as long as possible within a system
• ​Moving from “waste” to “value” in horticulture, livestock and processing
• ​Real-world examples:

◦Hail-damaged crops and second/third pathways

◦Nutra V and broccoli powder

◦Dairy by-products turned into new value streams

◦Using organic waste for energy and methane reduction

We dig into how We Three AI is building a kind of “virtual vet”:

• ​Using cameras and computer vision to:

◦Count cattle more accurately

◦Flag human–animal interactions and potential safety issues

◦Detect health issues, lameness and shy feeders earlier

• ​Reducing wasted feed and unnecessary antibiotics
• ​Helping animals reach target weights faster, with better welfare and lower emissions

Ben shares insights from his time in places like Denmark:

• ​Why strong social systems can fuel innovation
• ​How Denmark’s people voted for a 70% emissions reduction target
• ​Alignment between government, research and industry
• ​Carlsberg’s water reduction goals and what that means for Australian barley growers

We explore the work of the Australian AgriFood System Alliance:

• ​Bringing commodity groups, processors, retailers, finance and others into one system view
• ​Designing structures and strategies that sit above individual sectors and states
• ​Why climate, circularity and food security can’t be solved in silos
• ​The big challenge: shifting behaviour in an industry built on fragmentation and competition

This is where it lands for leaders, sales teams, and anyone working in ag:

• ​Why behaviours are so deeply ingrained and hard to shift
• ​The role of vulnerability and mission in changing how we work
• ​The importance of picking issues big enough that no-one can solve them alone

Ben also shares a powerful piece of advice from Barry Irvin (Bega Cheese / Regional Circularity Cooperative):

Share your problems widely – even with competitors. Human nature makes it very hard for people not to help you solve them.

Gold.

• ​Coffee order: Almond flat white (long black at home)
• ​Music: Bruce Springsteen – Should I Fall Behind (his wedding song)
• ​Watching: American Primeval
• ​Reading/Gaming: More systems and strategy than Netflix, but that series has him hooked

In the show notes I’ll link to:

• ​Delco AgriFood
• ​We Three AI
• ​Australian AgriFood System Alliance
• ​Ben Van den Delden on LinkedIn

🔍 In This Episode We Cover🌊 1. Growing up on an island & canoeing to school♻️ 2. What the circular economy actually looks like in ag🤖 3. We Three AI – computer vision for cattle and welfare🇩🇰 4. Lessons from Denmark, the Nordics and global leaders🇦🇺 5. The Australian AgriFood System Alliance🧠 6. Behaviour change, trust and sharing the hard stuff☕ Rapid Fire – Get to Know Ben🔗 Connect with Ben

In this episode of Selling in the Paddock, Georgia sits down with Steve Fuller, Director of Buzz and Growth at BeeStar – and a man who’s spent more than 40 years working with bees.

Georgia admits she’s completely obsessed with bees, and Steve does not disappoint. He takes us inside the hive, explaining how colonies really work, why bees are so critical to Australian agriculture, and how technology like remote hive monitoring is changing the way beekeepers and growers work together.

From almonds and blueberries to canola, clover and seed crops, Steve breaks down how managed pollination can dramatically lift yield and tighten the agricultural footprint – and why trust and communication between beekeeper and grower is non-negotiable.

Along the way, Georgia and Steve explore what human teams can learn from bee colonies: shared purpose, calm leadership, and treating others how you’d like to be treated… just maybe without ripping anyone’s head off.

• From sawmilling to beekeeping
  How Steve went from a sawmill job to beekeeping after his brother “found a great job” – and why he still isn’t sick of bees after four decades.

• How a hive really works
  The roles of workers, drones and the queen, how queens mate and lay up to seven million bees’ worth of eggs, and why everything in the hive is done for the good of the colony.

• Pollination and yield – why bees matter
  How managed bees support crops like blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, macadamias, almonds, stone fruit, citrus, melons, pumpkins, canola seed, lucerne and clover – and why bringing in bees can boost yield by 10–48%.

• Monocropping, genetics and “missing” pollinators
  What happens when large monocrops push out natural pollinators, how modern varieties can unintentionally lose nectar or pollen, and why that changes what we see – and don’t see – in the paddock.

• Bees vs other pollinators
  Where bees fit alongside flies, moths, bats, birds and wind, and why managed hives are such a powerful, controllable tool for growers.

• B Star and remote hive monitoring
  How B Star uses in-hive sensors to track temperature and humidity, feeding data to an app that shows hive health using a simple traffic-light system – and how this helps both beekeepers and growers know if hives are truly working.

• Working with growers (and preventing bee carnage)
  Why spray timing and honest conversations matter, what happens when bees can work under a full moon, and how mis-timed spraying can undo months of work.

• Leadership and culture lessons from the hive
  What Steve’s learned about calm energy, respect and reciprocity: treat bees (and people) how you’d like to be treated, don’t barge into their “house” and take everything, and know when to walk away on a bad day.

• Rapid fire with Steve
  How he winds down (hint: 2,500+ bee books…), why he still finds bees endlessly fascinating, and the mindset he takes into every hive.