Dirt Lab
How three ambitious innovators are building businesses and opportunities that contribute to improving soil, landscapes and communities.
Words by Alice Armitage Photographs by Chaseley Barber
“It all makes perfect sense to me. What we do might seem complex but our circular approach sees everything converge without effort.” says Ben Johnston as he shifts in his rickety old chair that sits on the patio overlooking Falls Farm – a biodynamic vegetable farm in the hinterland of the Sunshine coast where Ben resides. Ben is at once at ease and filled with sparks of excitement as he shares with me his vision for the newly launched enterprise, Dirt Lab, in the stifling humidity of the Queensland summer by the sea.
Accompanied by business partners Jess Pattison and Jessie Roberts, I spent the day immersing myself in the ethos of Dirt Lab and the future Jess, Jessie and Ben are determined to create. Where traditional agricultural principles can be paired with best practice from cutting edge tech to produce new business ventures designed for profit and positive impact. “We call ourselves a business foundry where our objective really is to create new businesses that do good. Especially when it comes to businesses and opportunities that work towards improving soil, productive landscapes and rural and regional communities. We are looking at Dirt Lab as an alternative way to drive innovation. We want to create impact businesses that support themselves and drive measurable impact.” Jess says of the drivers that lead Dirt Lab to be formed early in 2022.
How does this concept, so grand in its aspirations, come together in reality? Like any start-up, there will be plenty of building as they go but Dirt Lab is working with a progressive framework in mind. “Business foundries are a concept many of us are not yet familiar with. We’re taking a new approach to origination, innovation and capital raising. Dirt Lab is not an accelerator, nor an incubator. We are creating our own businesses, identifying our own problems and building them from there.” shares Jessie. From redesigning farm financing, scaling drones as a service , developing soil carbon products or apps for agritourism, Dirt Lab intends to collaborate with those capable of bringing positive solutions to the market. Sitting under the umbrella of the Josephmark Group, Dirt Lab has the ability to lean on the other enterprises that form the overarching Josephmark ecosystem as well. Encompassing an industry leading creative agency, business consultancy, investment pathways and business foundries in other emerging sectors. Seeing a cross pollination of ideas, resources and exposure intended to ensure the success of any new venture.
Stepping into the agrarian arena may not seem like an obvious choice for the skills and ambitions of the Dirt Lab team but with an emphasis on environmental, social and economic impact it’s hard to overlook agriculture’s unique opportunity to play a fundamental role in solving for our changing climate. With the coaxing of carbon into plants and in creating healthier soil, land resilience grows and the dial can be turned back on climate change. While many natural cycles have been disrupted in recent decades, agriculture still relies on stewardship of the land, revealing the potential to lay foundations for positive generational progress and lasting impact.
A small team of young, sun kissed farm workers are packing vegetables around us as we chat. We’re frequently distracted, taking a moment to observe or to be given emphatic instructions from Ben’s mum Christine [who has left her corporate career to run the operations of the farm] on why the asparagus needs to be packed so meticulously when its journey will only be to the kitchen of the Michelin starred restaurant one town over. For the team, this connection to the inner workings of a farming operation has become a fundamental element of what Dirt Lab is. “I grew up here in Mapleton but spent twenty years in big cities. With lots of travel, boardrooms and building a cutting edge creative agency. I needed that time to build a deep understanding of how traditional business works and how it doesn’t. There came a time when I knew being in the city wasn’t what I wanted anymore. We bought this block nine years ago and I never thought learning to farm would alter the way I approached business. Even though farming is quite a simple business model, the complexities I’ve come to understand have infused into how we think about business and how we are choosing to navigate new frontiers.” Which has led Ben to develop an approach to business based a little more on instinct and a desire to contribute to the planet we all call home, without shying away from yielding a little profit as they go.
For Jessie, a love for the land is more innate. Born in the Territory and raised on a cattle farm in Kyogle, Jessie has a heritage that explains a lot about her reacquaintance with an industry she feels naturally compelled to contribute to after a career in biotechnology and research. “When I was a kid I just didn’t see a lively or connected place to build a life in a lot of regional areas. It’s an exciting time to see the regions becoming more vibrant. There are more opportunities, there are more people going back to the farm and there is more employment overall. People are becoming aware of how sustainable your life can be outside the city and it’s just becoming a nicer place to be.” Insights such as these have organically contributed to Jessie’s understanding of the connection regional people and places have to agriculture, soil health and landscapes. Drawing a clear conclusion for Dirt Lab that investing in the continued revitalisation of communities will play a key role in the successful implementation of soil and landscape based innovation.
As our day together wore on, we moved to the balcony of the local pub, which is supplied with produce from the Falls Farm, I dive deeper into the hearts and minds of the Dirt Lab crew. Where it becomes obvious that these three individuals are destined to see the convergence of industry, ethos and commercial sustainability to bring to life ventures with true impact and adaptability. And what might appear to be a somewhat vague attitude to specifics – a quintessentially entrepreneurial trait perhaps – in fact hides a lucid, controlled approach that identifies Dirt Lab as a true vehicle for change.
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