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“Ag tech” startups are looking to transform humans’ role in one of the oldest occupations on the planet. After at least 15 years of promises, these startups may finally be onto something. This is a thread about the technologies that can change the way our produce is grown.
As a machine operator for the robotics startup @FarmWiseLabs, Diego Alcántar spends each day walking behind a hulking robot that resembles a driverless Zamboni, helping it learn to do the work of a 30-person weeding crew.
Alcántar’s family moved from Mexico to the US when he was only five years old. His parents began setting up the ingredients for a new life as farmworkers in Salinas–the same city where ag tech would originate years later.
In high school, Alcántar worked on the farm where his father had become a foreman. He cut and weeded lettuce, stacked strawberry boxes after the harvest, drove a forklift in the warehouse.
Eventually, he developed a plan to move on from manual labor, and secured a job at a robotics startup.
Now, Alcántar doesn’t do the weeding. Instead, he operates a machine using an iPad, teaching it how to complete the task.
At first, relatives sometimes chided him for helping to accelerate a machine takeover in the fields, where stooped, sweaty work had cleared a path for his family’s upward mobility.
“You’re taking our jobs away!” they’d say.
Five years later, Alcántar says, the conversation has shifted completely. Even FarmWise has struggled to find people willing to “walk behind the machine,” he says.
“People would rather work at a fast food restaurant. In-N-Out is paying $17.50 an hour.”
Even up close, all kinds of things can foul the “vision” of the computers that power automated systems like the ones FarmWise uses.
For instance, agricultural fields are bright, hot, and dusty: hardly ideal conditions for keeping computers running smoothly.
However, startups like FarmWise want to develop tech solutions with farmers in mind. The team is working on something akin to hand-eye coordination, chasing the goal of automating labor-intensive stages of farming—weeding and, above all, harvesting—against farm labor shortages.
But many others are focused exclusively on giving farmers better information.
Foresight is key. The government has sheltered growers of corn, wheat, soybeans, and other commodities from the financial impact of pests and bad weather by offering subsidies to offset the cost of crop insurance; fruits and vegetables do not enjoy the same protection.
As a result, the vegetable market is subject to variations based on weather and other only vaguely predictable factors. The focus for ag tech boosters has now shifted towards yield predictions to prevent farmers from suffering major losses.
“Everyone thinks farmers know how they grow, but the reality is they’re pulling it out of the air. They don’t track that down to the lot level."
This story was written by @rowanmg. It was repurposed for Twitter by @madisonumina.
READ it here: https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/12/18/1013239/precision-agriculture-farmwise-remote-sensing-salinas/?utm_medium=tr_social&utm_campaign=site_visitor.unpaid.engagement&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1612212114
This story was written by @rowanmg. It was repurposed for Twitter by @madisonumina.
READ it here: https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/12/18/1013239/precision-agriculture-farmwise-remote-sensing-salinas/?utm_medium=tr_social&utm_campaign=site_visitor.unpaid.engagement&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1612212114
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