We Are Cortex | Cathy Espinoza

When Americans think about farming today, we often default to images of sprawling commercial farms, crops rippling in all directions toward the horizon, cultivated by fleets of rumbling farm equipment.

Cathy Espinoza has a different image in mind. As technical program lead for Cortex-based Gates Ag One, she’s thinking much smaller.

Espinoza’s focus is on smallholding farms (think of them as subsistence farms) of less than 2 hectares in land area — roughly the size of four American football fields. Contrast that with a typical commercial farm, blanketing nearly 200 hectares of land. Some studies say 80% of the world’s farms are smallholdings, producing a third of global food output. 

“I'm originally from Peru. I grew up in a developing country where I saw smallholdings all around. This is not new for me,” Espinoza said. With that background, she earned her Ph.D. in plant genetics from the University of Missouri, launched her career with two St. Louis-based agtech companies and now works for a subsidiary of The Gates Foundation.

“Now I get to be part of something I always wanted to do,” she said. “To really help the smallholding farmers get their production up, to feed themselves and to bring their economies up. That's the goal.”

As she describes it, her role — and that of Gates Ag One — is to improve the crop yields for six crops in southern Africa and south Asia: maize, rice, sorghum, soy beans, cowpea and cassava. Specifically, Espinoza’s job involves providing grants to scientists that can accelerate innovations in agriculture, support field testing and get those innovations into the hands of subsistence farmers faster.

“We are choosing to work on very risky technologies. Something nobody really wants to do because it's too much risk, it is too much investment,” Espinoza said. “But we have the potential to really change the way we are doing agriculture. We're talking about innovations that are going to build resilience in the crops.”

Espinoza said having its headquarters in Cortex, where Gates Ag One set up shop in April 2024, is a huge advantage for the organization and for herself personally.

“Cortex has a little piece of my heart,” she said. “When we started here, we really didn't have an office. I think the spirit of collaboration, you can feel it here.”

It didn’t hurt, of course, that she could easily commute by MetroLink from her home near the University of Missouri-St. Louis directly to the Cortex station. She also came to adore the Wednesday morning ritual of meeting others for doughnuts or pancakes that CIC team members whipped up for the community.

“There were always people from Cortex there with a smile, helping to engage with everybody,” Espinoza said. “Those were opportunities to learn what other businesses were doing, and for them to know that Gates Ag One is here — building relationships between us. I love that.”

We Are Cortex celebrates the individuals who power our vibrant district.