Storytelling is what drives Amy Wu

Amy Wu is the founder of From Farms to Incubators, a multimedia storytelling platform that showcases the stories of Women in Agtech. Prior to launching From Farms to Incubators, Wu spent decades as a professional journalist. Growing up in the suburbs of New York, Wu started her foray into journalism when she began writing letters to the editor as a young teen and was encouraged by an English teacher to pursue writing. She eventually established an award-winning career in journalism. 

The From Farms to Incubators project, which began in 2016, has morphed from a documentary film and book into a website that serves as a platform for hosting stories about women in agriculture from around the globe. As the project grew Wu brought on a group of contributing writers, editors, and web designers, all who share a mission and passion to tell the stories of women innovators and entrepreneurs in agtech, to contribute to the project. In 2021 the initiative extended to an internship and mentorship program targeted at young women interested in exploring careers in the growing field of food, farming and innovation.   

Wu always knew she wanted to be a journalist, but she never imagined it would lead to a project of this magnitude. 

In 2016, she was given the opportunity to move to California’s Salinas Valley to cover local government and agriculture for The Salinas Californian. Having never been to Salinas, she was taken by the tremendous amount of agriculture she saw.

“I saw thousands upon thousands of acres of lettuce, beautiful lettuce, that I just saw at the supermarkets all of the time,” she said, immediately associating the crop with a salad bar and the people who produce and harvest it. 

It was an “aha” moment. 

“I learned that yeah, ag is a big industry, it’s like a $10 billion industry here,” she said. 

At the time, the agtech sector was starting to grow in Salinas. A new agtech center called the Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology had just opened and agtech was a fledgling sector and was unknown to many people. 

“I had no idea what agtech was, it was a foreign word to me, but I had a hunch and this belief that it would play a critical role in food production,” Wu said. 

That said, she saw agtech as a movement worth exploring. At the same time, she was also struck by the lack of women leading agribusinesses or farms or women led companies in agriculture. By the end of 2016, she said the stars aligned for further exploration into the agtech world when the International Center for Journalists was offering a grant for stories of minority women and business owners. 

Wu submitted a proposal for a short documentary about minority women entrepreneurs in agtech and won the grant. 

It was her first grant proposal and documentary, so the news that she had won it came as a huge surprise. The grant allowed Wu to bring on a videographer, in this case Chris Schodt a freelance visual journalist who had just graduated from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. The duo sought to find and interview women who had founded or co-founded agtech companies. 

It took persistence to find women in the field including attending agtech conferences and gatherings and going up to complete strangers to seek their help in finding women in agtech. Ultimately, Pam Marrone, the founder of Marrone Bio Innovations who served as a mentor to a number of women founders of agtech startups, helped connect Wu. 

In February 2017 From Farms to Incubators, the documentary and written Portraits, was completed. The written series appeared in The Salinas Californian and the documentary was screened at the Western Center for Innovation and Technology in downtown Salinas. 

After the film’s completion, Wu knew there were more stories to tell, and turned the endeavor into a book called From Farms to Incubators “Women Innovators Revolutionizing how our Food is Grown” which was published in 2021. She took the film and book on a California tour that fall, bringing it to college campuses, bookstores and events, in an effort to amplify the stories of the women she profiled in front of as many people as possible.

The Incubators Mission 

Creating a digital community that celebrates women entrepreneurs and innovators, while giving them a platform to share their milestones and market themselves, was a key driving factor behind the From Farms to Incubators website. 

“I still believe that women in general are not given the same voice that men have for their contributions, nor do they market themselves, sometimes,” Wu said. 

She said she sees storytelling as an undervalued platform for making change but knows the power that it can have to make a difference, whether on a small scale or a large one. Keeping her journalistic roots in mind, Wu continues to put an emphasis on the power of words.  

“Journalists have so much power in a way, because we have this press badge and we can ask or have access to ask why, when, who, and how, and I thought by applying that to this area, that’s not really talked about a whole lot, then people would become more aware,” she said. 

Another vital part of the initiative is to inspire youth to see the possibilities in agriculture and explore agriculture as a career.

 “I think it’s critical to at least plant something in their minds, even if they don’t want to go into it,” Wu said. 

As the initiative enters its seventh year, Wu has a three-part vision for the future of From Farms to Incubators, which includes continuing to tell the stories of women in agtech and women of color, creating a digital community for women in the industry to connect with one another, and to educate through an internship and mentoring program. 

 “I love working with young people. I find that they have so much curiosity and energy. They may not know yet where they want to go, but I do know that they want to get somewhere and they are ambitious and idealistic,” she says. 

As she continues to build on the momentum and success of From Farms to Incubators, Wu won’t forget the initial goal of the movement—to tell the stories of intelligent, driven women, who are making their mark in the ag world. 

“Storytelling and using stories to connect women in agrifoodtech and building a community aming the women is what ultimately drives me,” Wu says. 

by Kristin Platts