One of Harvest Returns’ key company values is a commitment to a sustainable planet through our support to agriculture, farmers, ranchers, and agribusinesses. By connecting agriculturists with passive investors, we believe we can build a more resilient food system and help farmers stay in the business of farming. Our portfolio companies are always generating exciting news and updates and we are proud to share their success stories with you.
Good Agriculture
Agriculturalists are constantly faced with challenging daily tasks. From making important decisions for their operation, bookkeeping, and selling products, to purchasing inputs and applying for funding. That’s where Good Agriculture (Good Ag) comes in.
Woman-owned and founded by Alex Edquist, Good Agriculture’s mission is to help enable farmers to keep doing what they do best while modernizing their operations by acting as a corporate back office. As the only scalable, tech-enabled platform to do back-office tasks for the farmer, Good Agriculture is revolutionizing the way producers run their operations. Their financial management product does farmers’ bookkeeping, financial analysis, tax prep, and cash flow modeling in under two hours for established customers. Farmers’ favorite features are “profitability by enterprise” (to see where they’re making and losing money), cash flow projections, and pre-filled tax forms. Good Agriculture’s funding product connects farmers to the more than $11B available annually in grants, cost-shares, carbon credits, and other programs for farmers.
Good Agriculture has gained growing support and recognition as their innovation continues with recent honors such as winning the Innovation Showcase at the 2025 Regenerative Agriculture Summit and being honored by the Technology Association of Georgia as one of the Most Innovative Companies in Georgia.
Armagh Creamery
In 2010, Ryan and Katie McDowell moved from their family farm in Petaluma, California to Dublin, Texas to start Armagh Creamery. But their story began long before when their great-great grandparents immigrated from County Armagh, Northern Ireland to the United States in search of a new life. With a dairy heritage spanning nearly a century, Ryan and Katie knew that they could carry on the family tradition while also building a legacy of their own.
Ryan and Katie McDowell proudly showcasing their yogurt on the shelves of H-E-B following their win as a top 3 finalist in the 2023 H-E-B Quest for Texas Best.
Today, Armagh Creamery is thriving with their popular product line of organic, lab-tested raw milk, uniquely crafted cream top yogurt, and farmstead brie cheese. Their yogurt and brie cheese are distributed locally through major retailers like Whole Foods and Sprouts. In 2023, Armagh’s cream-top yogurt secured a position as a top 3 finalist in the H-E-B Quest for Texas Best and is now available at select H-E-B locations.
Prior to Armagh's successful raise on our platform, our Director of Sales & Marketing and Investor Relations Manager & Financial Analyst had the opportunity to visit the Armagh farmstead where they tried the delicious products and toured the facilities seeing the production processes. There are currently 40,200 dairy farms in the United States, down from 111,800 in 1995 with 97% being family owned and operated. The dairy industry contributes 3.5% of the US GDP, with a total economic impact exceeding $753 billion. With dairy families like the McDowell’s, the dairy industry will continue to grow and innovative for decades to come. Katie and Ryan are proud to bring “A Taste of Ireland in the Heart of Texas”.
AgTech Media Group
Podcasts have been a growing form of outreach and education since their rise to mainstream popularity in 2014. This is due to their ease of access and flexibility. Listeners can gain insight, knowledge, entertainment, and more across a plethora of genres and topics within the grasp of their fingertips. Many people enjoy putting on a podcast while they drive, shop, work, exercise, etc. Podcasts have especially become popular among the ag industry with organizations like the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s podcast Cattlemen’s Call and independent creators like Damian Mason’s The Business of Agriculture podcast.
Taking advantage of this growing space, AgTech Media Group was created in December 2023 when iGrow News and the Vertical Farming Podcast came together. This merger combined their strengths in AgTech journalism and podcasting, forming a powerhouse for news and analysis that promotes forward-thinking farming practices. The goal is to be a top voice in AgTech and support innovation in agriculture worldwide. Their umbrella company is home to newsletters, podcasts, webinars, and virtual events reaching a growing global audience.
AgTech Media Group boasts 45,000 unique viewers and 51,000 monthly readers across their channels. The company also recently announced the launch of their new venture, iGrow Network. “This new global online community is designed to facilitate professional connections across the agriculture and AgTech sectors to foster collaboration among startup founders, researchers, investors, agronomists, and operators from across the value chain.”
Culinary Sciences
Culinary Sciences Inc. (CSI) targets a vast, under-served market while tackling a major bottleneck in the food and agriculture industries: slow and expensive chilling processes. Harvest Returns invested in CSI alongside the well known agrifood venture firm, Astanor.
CSI’s innovative Extreme Vacuum Cooling (EVC) technology uses a vacuum to achieve 5 times faster cooling compared to traditional methods, addressing many industry needs. The growing ready-meal market can benefit from faster chilling, leading to quicker production and fresher meals. Food service and catering businesses can achieve faster order fulfillment and reduce waste with improved chilling efficiency. In agriculture, EVC is ideal for large-scale chilling at farms, particularly for delicate produce like berries.
CSI technology is environmentally friendly, consuming 80% less energy than traditional methods. Faster chilling minimizes exposure to the temperature range where bacteria thrives, enhancing food safety and extending shelf life. EVC even facilitates faster marination and brining, unlocking new culinary possibilities for food service providers.
CSI also maintains a demo unit at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa, California and has strong partnerships with many US-based Culinary Innovators.