Mitchell Eviston.

Mitchell Eviston founded Meristem Crop Performance Group, an Iowa-based agricultural inputs and crop performance company serving farmers across the U.S.

Corn Belt with proprietary seed treatments, biologicals, and crop protection products. Under his leadership, Meristem has grown into one of the fastest-expanding independent agricultural inputs companies in the United States, building direct-to-farmer distribution channels that compete with the large multinational agribusiness distributors historically dominating the category. Eviston was named the 2025 EY Entrepreneur of the Year National Industrials and Energy Award winner. His company sits at an unusually interesting moment in American agriculture: the emergence of new independent distributors and product developers building direct relationships with row-crop farmers in a category where large multinational agribusinesses have accumulated significant market share. Meristem's rapid growth reflects real farmer demand for alternative distribution channels and products that have not been available through traditional agribusiness retail. Agricultural inputs is a category that most urban business media underestimates, but farmer-facing business relationships are some of the most durable commercial relationships in the U.S. economy, and Meristem is building them one grower at a time.