iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

I'll never get over the fact that the exec who led adoption of in-ovo sexing in the US was inspired to do so because of his young daughter.

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Current PLF tools for poultry have the promise to generate massive amounts of data, but yet don't know how to use that data. Individualized drug application technology is the missing piece, which could induce a rennaissance of innovation in poultry health.

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Reposted by Robert Yaman

Dov @drnelk.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

I thought this was parody...

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

At Innovate Animal Ag, we're trying to build the "DARPA for chickens." Technological progress is doesn’t happen by default, especially in a sector like animal agriculture. Progress requires a community of dedicated evangelists obsessed with pushing forward the frontier.

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

One of the ways we've mitigated higher egg prices from bird flu is by ramping up egg imports - up over 600% since last year. If the Trump admin is worried about trade deficits, this is the wrong direction to go!

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Read more about what might happen with eggs this winter, and how we can prevent future price spikes while saving countless animals here: optimistsbarn.substack.com/p/no-bird-fl...

optimistsbarn.substack.com

No, Bird Flu Isn't Over

Cases are about to spike again

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Egg prices will probably spike this winter because of bird flu. If that's giving you deja vu, there's good reason. It’s because every year we decide to do nothing about this entirely fixable problem—one that's killed tens of millions of birds and costs consumers billions.

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

In my new post, I chat with Dr. Yuval Cinnamon, who IMO is one of the foremost innovators in the poultry industry. We discuss his Layers Laying Broilers technology, a way to use layer genetics for broiler production, making breeders that are more efficient and higher welfare.

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Reducing mortality is a challenge particularly amenable to tech solutions. By giving farmers better tools to keep animals healthier, we can reduce feed waste and improve animal welfare in business friendly ways.

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Mortality is also, obviously, a negative indicator of animal welfare. Worryingly, pre-slaughter mortality has been increasing across every part of the meat sector over the last decade, for unknown reasons.

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Every time a livestock animal gets sick and dies before slaughter, all the corn and soy it consumed is wasted. Every year 4.4 million tons of feed is wasted from livestock mortality, mostly from the chicken and pork industries.

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

If you're like me and prefer to listen rather than read, you can now listen to The Optimist's Barn in podcast form! In true techno-optimist fashion, I used @elevenlabs.io to create an AI voice clone and was super impressed by how well it worked and how easy it made the process.

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

In-ovo sexing is now launched in Brazil, a first for the southern hemisphere!

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

We're climbing up on Hacker News, let's get to the front page!

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

In-ovo sexing is officially available to American consumers! This is a particularly high-leverage time for the technology since many other companies will be looking to see how these first eggs perform with consumers before deciding whether to adopt the tech themselves.

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Reposted by Robert Yaman

Michael Grunwald @mikegrunwald.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Wow, I love that @robertyaman.bsky.social’s review calls WE ARE EATING THE EARTH a “fantastic book,” but I especially love his unexpected animal-rights defense of my focus on industrial efficiency. He grappled with what I actually wrote! open.substack.com/pub/optimist...

open.substack.com

Don't Demonize Efficiency in Animal Agriculture

A review of We Are Eating the Earth, by Michael Grunwald

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

New post about how humane farming for small animals will need to rely on technology, automation, and economies of scale to succeed. We can't just apply the pastoral models used for cows.

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

New post on how to apply the principles of Progress Studies to animal welfare!

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

The Optimist's Barn 3x'ed it's subscriber growth rate last week. We're about to blow up!

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

We need more chickens to produce the same amount of meat than we did just a decade ago—why? This is one of the big unsolved mysteries in animal agriculture. I investigate a few hypotheses in my most recent post on The Optimist's Barn:

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

What would such a husbandry system even look like? Check out my most recent post for some beginning sketches: open.substack.com/pub/optimist...

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

- People may still want animal-derived products - A husbandry system where animals have net-positive lives and other externalities are significantly mitigated will be technologically easier than lab-grown meat, and may even me morally preferrable.

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

I've heard many people assume that post-AGI lab-grown meat will become inevitable. I'm not so sure, for two reasons:

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Read about what the escalating trade wars and a new Dutch vaccine trial might mean for a potential US bird flu vaccination campaign:

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

For companies, it's mostly about what you do, not what you stand for. This is why nonprofits often don't do very much, and why companies don't stand for anything.

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

One thing I've learned from running a nonprofit is that people mostly care about what you stand for, not what you do.

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

President Trump's newest executive order threatens tariffs against any country that acts in a discriminatory way towards US interests. Might this include banning poultry exports because of a future H5N1 vaccine?

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Free business idea: 1) take an industry that's unlikely to widely use AI 2) every day ask Deep Research one question relevant to things in the trade press 3) copy and paste into a newsletter 4) advertise 5) profit

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

In which I use PETA controversy as clickbait so I can talk about business theory and vertical integration in animal product supply chain.

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

Great to see @worksinprogress.bsky.social call out in-ovo sexing as one of the most important things happening in biotechnology right now!

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

When I'm writing, I know I've found the right structure for a piece when I can work in a few jokes. If things are not quite jelling I sometimes try to force things into the right form by being overly analytical.

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Robert Yaman @robertyaman.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

The costs of poultry vaccination against H5N1 largely fall on the chicken meat industry, but benefits mainly go to the egg industry. So why not vaccinate chickens in the egg industry and not the meat industry? More discussion on The Optimist's Barn:

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