Global trends are driving food innovation.
Michael Rogers, Practical Futurist told those attending the 10th annual Bayer CropScience Issues forum that for agriculture, there are some big challenges on the horizon. The developed world, he says, is insisting more and more on wellness, nutrition and sustainability, while the developing world is increasing its appetite for beef and other proteins.
Rogers says there are lot of mouths to feed and a lot of different constituencies. The greatest efficiencies will come from information technology.
“I think there’s a lot of data that still can be harvested from farm to fork; simply data about weather conditions, what has been planted previously, the commodity market itself. New kinds of artificial intelligence programs are going to be able to take all of those pieces of data and in a sense be a consultant for the farmer.”
The great debate about owns the data and how should it be used is not limited to the agriculture industry. Rogers tells Brownfield the medical industry has been working to develop a uniform digital language for more than 20 years
Farmers and ranchers are fiercely independent and private, yet quick to embrace innovation. Rogers tells Brownfield that agriculture was the original technology.
Unlike other industries, Rogers said agriculture’s cooperative tradition could serve as a model for agricultural data.
Rogers says by 2020 wireless broadband will be in every rural area. It will be low cost and you’ll expect it the same way you expect electricity.
Source: www.brownfieldagnews.com