Jared Moelaart & Marc Meltzer
Article: https://thefern.org/2019/09/down-on-the-smart-farm/)
In a recent article (linked above), titled “Down on the Smart Farm,” the author discusses an important role that modern technology is playing in toward the operational viability of farms across the United States. In particular, precision agriculture is a method of agronomic production that often includes the use of sensors, satellite imagery, and local weather software to help farmers identify, monitor, and address major issues on farms - which thus results in healthier food for us consumers. For instance, digital sensors now provide quick feedback on soil and weather conditions. Global Positioning System (GPS) has also led to the innovation of self-navigating tractors and other improvements to mechanization, and recreational satellites-drones are providing farmers with a unique aerial perspective and visual cue tending to their land - measuring chlorophyll concentrations, ground temperatures, as well as atmospheric conditions. One recent USDA report claims that precision agriculture can potentially “reduce the application of pesticides by up to 80 %, shrink water usage by between 20 percent and 50 percent, and burn 50 percent less fuel (with the same yield) (Behar, 2019).
There is evidence to suggest that precision agriculture can be mutually beneficial to large-, medium-, and small-acreage farmers, because many of these innovative agricultural technologies are enabling farmers to simultaneously regenerate soil health while developing profitable and sustainable business models. There are many 501(c)-3 and similar organizations, environmental consultancies, and small businesses already implementing these technologies for application within the professional domain. For example, Plant is a San Francisco based company with software engineers and researchers that have created the world’s largest constellation of Earth-imaging satellites (called CubeSats) which use GPS to convey the health status of various crops to farmers from all across the world. Additional technological companies including Climate Corporation, aWhere, and Aeris each provide farmers with hyper-localized forecast systems mentioned above, which relay live imminent weather information pertinent to the monitoring of both planting and harvesting conditions. It is likely that farmers in the United States and other regions of the world will continue to invest in precision technologies, due to the positive economic results in production capacity and lower cost of manual labor.
Precision-agricultural technologies must be designed with the intention to serve the most obvious needs of farmers while upholding the value of traditional and indigenous knowledge in regards to labor practices in order to be highly effective. High investment costs and initial expenditures often make precision technologies more accessible to larger industrial farms, and a critic may debate that the influence of precision technology on some farming operations has replaced much of the work that was once occupied by the farmer (particularly including robotic harvesting mechanisms and vehicles), which raises a fair point… However, the innovations of precision agriculture offer all farmers with an opportunity to become more economically productive when the technology is applied aptly, also exuding a sustainable environmental footprint to nature’s benefit. Tools and technologies have been equipping farmers with valuable resources and the intention of optimizing major biological principles of agricultural productivity for some time, which acts as a positive foresight toward newly sustainable agriculture.
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