Arkansas Agri Technology Company Grainster Answering Another Call To Action

Editor’s note: Robin Smith, author of this article, is a freelance writer whose creative and editorial pieces have appeared in local print and online venues. She is the Founder & Chief Consultant of Summum Bonum, Utd., a consultancy firm out of Conway.

In two industries largely characterized by underrepresentation of women in positions of influence, one start-up global Agricultural Technology company based in Arkansas is sending a message loud and clear: inclusive development is key to long term success.

Grainster and its patented Grainster Ecosphere – a suite of six independently functioning but interconnected businesses designed to more efficiently and effectively feed the world – are leading yet another charge in directly addressing the needs of the future.

At the center of this rapidly growing Agricultural Technology start-up sits Grainster.com, an online trading platform designed as a direct market for farmers and buyers from around the globe to connect, deal and transact on their own terms. Eight years in development and launched just nine months ago, Grainster.com is gaining rapid momentum and a remarkably respected group of well-placed endorsements thanks to a brilliant and inspired core team.

Phase Two – setting down roots – is well underway: technology and agricultural alliances with numerous state university departments have been established with more in the works and Grainster’s home base offices have been chosen and will be located in the center of the city of Conway’s developing Data District.

Grainster’s newly-appointed COO, Crissy Fortenberry, seems to have kept a relatively low profile to this point, but that’s only by appearance.

She’s stepping back into her role – and into the public eye – to tell us a bit more about herself and about how she and husband, Grainster CEO Layne Fortenberry, believe a balanced leadership will best serve Grainster as Grainster serves the world.

Sitting at the helm of operations of a start-up with global focus and highly altruistic goals, Crissy Fortenberry has her work cut out for her, but she’s taking it all in stride.

“There are days I have to tell myself many times, ‘pressure makes diamonds, pressure diamonds; coal to diamonds,’” she laughs.

Her recent official appointment as COO may seem like clever political strategy in light of recent statistics and legal outcomes in what many see as a ‘Fraternity of Tech’, but she’s been in the thick of things from the very beginning.

Fortenberry stepped away for six months to give birth to a baby girl – their third daughter – who’s just now eight weeks old. So her reappearance is far less strategy than simply stepping back into a role that’s been hers for years.

“The guys who’ve come on in recent months kept saying what a great thing it would be to have a woman in charge – especially since this is ag and tech: two industries which need women stepping out the most. Then, I started cutting out those 3 a.m. texts of articles that just had to be read right then, or ideas that couldn’t wait until 8 a.m. and I think their feelings may have started to change a little bit,” she says, “It was like, ‘okay guys, you thought this would be fun and games!’”

It’s clear she and husband Layne make an exceptional team.

“Layne and I have always been dreamers. Layne always has ideas. He brings them to me, and I’m honest with him,” Crissy Fortenberry says, “we haven’t had that, ‘I did this and you thought of that,’ at all – Layne’s the creative and I bring the structure.”

Crissy Fortenberry has a background in plant-based nutrition, but like her husband, she grew up in farming.

The first female Ambassador for Riceland Rice’s InDepth, a program “designed to promote member involvement through instruction and experience about the cooperative’s strategic direction and operations,” she knows her agriculture and her marketing and the position was offered to her just after she started college. A Mass Communications major out of University of Central Arkansas, she worked her way through college in part as a regional sales associate for Frit Industries, Inc., a direct-to-grower micronutrient fertilizer vendor based in Ozark, Alabama.

The 2012 USDA Census of Agriculture puts the number of U.S. farms with women listed as primary operators at 32.9% of the total recorded 914,527,657 farmed U.S. acres.

Globally, the numbers increase. According to United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization report, “The State of Food and Agriculture in 2011,” “women comprise an average of 43% of the agricultural labor force in developing countries, ranging from 20% or less in Latin America to 50% or more in parts of Asia and Africa.”

Their voices have a resonant impact on how we feed the future. Grainster’s choice of Crissy Fortenberry as COO, whether strategic or organic in evolution, is a reflection of privately-held organizations in positions of growing global influence listening, and devising clear plans of action.

When asked about long term goals for Grainster, Fortenberry is just as clear in their vision.

“Layne and I don’t want to run this forever. Right now, yes – it’s like our baby. But our goal is to build it and work on what we can, now – like building alliances with local groups like Aaron Reddin’s The Van – until someone qualified to further develop it as it grows comes along. We want to let them do what they do and run the business so that we can help more people. Because the better Grainster does in the long run, the more people we can all help,” she says.

In a world full of social enterprises working to make a difference, Grainster is making a conscious effort to lead the charge on many different fronts.

With an Executive Leadership team actively committed to intelligent and inclusive cross-functional team development from the top, down and a cohesive strategy connecting numerous industries, they’re sure to continue charting new courses toward how we see agriculture and technology, and how we use it to feed the world.