Possible Amazon Agriculture Vertical Makes for Blazing #HotTake

This summer will likely go down in ag history as “The Summer of Dicamba.”

But as far as mainstream media is concerned, 2017 is turning out to be the Summer of the #HotTake.

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Will we EVER have a passable health care bill? Where is LeBron headed after his inevitable Swan Song with the Cavaliers? And what’s the REAL story behind all of this Don Jr.-Russia nonsense?

Those are just a few of the most interesting #HotTakes currently being debated across the country, but surely more will emerge over the coming months.

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Which brings me to, ah yes, the very point of this editorial!

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You see, recently there’s been some movement on my personal favorite ag-related #HotTake. A few months ago I predicted that retail giant Amazon would one day possess an unrivaled vertical integration in agriculture, and that Bezos and Co. will accomplish the feat of disrupting modern farming through mergers and acquisitions. First came news of organic retail giant Whole Foods, scooped up for a mere $13.7 billion (!!!), and then, more recently, Bezos announced plans to disrupt the pre-packaged meal delivery game.

Do I expect Amazon to stop there? Not a chance.

Once the retail giant gets a taste of success in food retail, I’d expect the future king of all retail to look around at other aspects of the industry like precision ag, or perhaps even ag retail, as logical next steps, or purchases. Could that see a company like Farmers Business Network, with its crop inputs farm delivery service, gobbled up? What about a more established player such as Helena or the struggling former Jimmy Sanders network known as Pinnacle?

I’d guess all of the above are plausible, plus things none of us have ever even dreamed about could be in play. Could I also be dead wrong?

Of course, but that’s pretty much what #HotTakes are for.

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