What COVID-19 Is Teaching Us

In my last post, I talked about AgriFORCE’s expanded focus on addressing the gaps in the food supply chain – gaps that we saw laid bare during the novel coronavirus global pandemic. For as challenging as the epidemic has been worldwide (and we know that it has been challenging!), the silver lining may be that we have identified a significant threat to the world in food security – and there is something that we can do about it. In fact, AgriFORCE is working on it right now.

I have spent more than two decades in the financial sector. This isn’t my first go-around with a global health issue. SARS, H1N1 and Ebola gave me an understanding of what needs to happen in times like these. The global spread of COVID-19 and the response, which shut down communities around the world, raised concerns about the food supply chain.

Systemic change to how our food is grown needs to happen immediately. At AgriFORCE, we have done a deep dive into how to help plants thrive. We have spent more than three years undertaking extensive research and development around what has to change to address the problems with the legacy systems in agriculture – and how to do it. During the pandemic, we realized that not only does this apply to the medical-grade pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and hydroponics agtech that we are currently working on, but it also translates to how we can improve urban farming solutions.

Food is at the heart of life. And what happened to the global supply chain resulted in serious issues in food security at a community level. We must focus on what needs to be done and to make big change in this area – now. We are excited to take what we have learned over close to four years of being focused on medical-grade plants and use our intellectual property to address these very real issues in AgTech and with the food supply chain.

As we continue to move forward with AgriFORCE, making positive (and much-needed) change in this sector – which is crucial in providing food to people – we will keep on talking about what this industry needs. We know that this kind of change requires collaboration and vision, and we will open discussions and identify leaders, influencers and experts to engage with as key strategic partners. We will work to create a road map forward that can address this issue which, let’s face it, is an existential threat to humankind. The time for change is now.

We’re set to make some significant inroads in addressing the flaws in the food supply chain. Stay tuned. You’ll be hearing a lot from me on this. If you have an idea or think you or your company should be a part of our journey to success, contact me. I would like to hear from you.


Ingo Mueller, CEO of AgriFORCE Growing Systems, is currently working from his home office in West Vancouver, British Columbia. He continues to connect with the AgriFORCE team, strategic partners and others around the world – whether that is California, New York or several other states where AgriFORCE has business interests. He is also in constant contact with our partners in Europe, as we raise the flag there for AgriFORCE and the company’s unique (and proprietary) facility design and automated growing system.

The Notes from the CEO happen when Ingo gets a bit of time to share his perspective on the world of AgTech, the AgriFORCE team, work/life balance, and his vision for creating positive change in the world.