5 ms·

I really like Hacker News, and I usually read my tech-related news here first. Farming is kind of the family business, and I love it. I am also a physicist by

by chicob 8y ago

I really like Hacker News, and I usually read my tech-related news here first. Farming is kind of the family business, and I love it. I am also a physicist by training, and thus my interest in technology in general. Agriculture is becoming increasingly technological, and everything from farming gadgets to John Deere tractors hacking has come up many times. There are even some Plasma Physics applications to agriculture, so the interdisciplinarity never ends! The "because it's interesting" is also an accurate answer!

dmix 8y ago
I'm a programmer and I ended up following a farmer on Youtube [1] originally because he walked through all the tech he used on his tractor (ie, Fieldview) and elsewhere on the farm in a couple videos. I watch his videos whenever they come up now. I love the level of organization and precision that industry is gaining. It's a good inspiration for software in other traditional areas (combined with practical AI applications and DIY hardware as well). [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwz2NribLYo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwz2NribLYo
- monodeldiablo 8y ago
  To tie this all together, I'm a programmer and (small time) olive farmer who worked on FieldView, among other products. Small world.
- ghostbrainalpha 8y ago
  I come to Hacker News for these kind of random recommendations. A couple times a year it really pays off with random Gold you wouldn't get from any other forum.
vanderZwan 8y ago
> There are even some Plasma Physics applications to agriculture, so the interdisciplinarity never ends! You can't just casually mention this without further explanation! :D
- rocketred 8y ago
  fun little presentation about it: https://suli.pppl.gov/2018/thursdays/The%20Emerging%20Field%20of%20Plasma%20Agriculture%20(J.%20Lopez)%20.pdf https://suli.pppl.gov/2018/thursdays/The%20Emerging%20Field%...
  - vanderZwan 8y ago
    Ah, I feel a bit dumb for not realizing what kind of applications these would be, because I really should know better: back in 2002, when I still tried studying physics, I was part of a committee that organized a student symposium on biomedical technology. One of the speakers was Eva Stoffels, who had recently invented a low-energy plasma needle. Believe it or not, she claimed her motivation was ridding the world of the dental drill. It's actually really interesting what you can do with plasma's in a biomedical context: bacteria are killed off really quickly by them because they lack a cell wall, without destroying human cells. At higher intensities, the plasma first breaks down the proteins connecting cells without killing them. At even higher intensities, they trigger apoptosis: programmed cell death without inflammations. Oh, and cancer cells are less resilient against them. In the case of Stoffels' plasma needle, the idea was that it would destroy the infection while leaving healthy tissue intact. Not only that, her team found that the plasma's ionized the teeth in such a way that enamel production was increased. It sounded amazing at the time, but I guess it's hard to get this stuff out of the lab into the medical market though, since it has been over fifteen years now.
    - vanderZwan 8y ago
      > bacteria are killed off really quickly by them because they lack a cell wall, without destroying human cells. CORRECTION: I mixed up my terminology here. Bacteria have a cell wall (as do plants), human cells have a cell membrane[0][1]. But our cell membrane, as well as the cell wall of plant cells, are better at keeping the plasma ions out than the bacterial cell wall. In fact, the reason high plasma doses trigger apoptosis is because we actually use plasma ions as a cellular communication channel, IIRC. Would be hard to do that if our cells weren't protected against free plasma ions, right? So the point still stands that bacteria die from plasma ion bombardment at doses that are harmless to human and plant cells. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_wall#Bacterial_cell_walls https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_wall#Bacterial_cell_walls [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_membrane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_membrane
buboard 8y ago
> agriculture is becoming increasingly technological depends, the european CAP has subsidized old-style agriculture which has left many regions way behind, and the regulatory frameworkd is so tight that, despite the fact that many countries are producing a lot of research (on GMOs for example), it's not likely to ever be used. I wonder how big is technology adoption in Portugal
- Angostura 8y ago
  So far behind that there is still a local economy based around farm work and hedgerows for wildlife.
  - Jedd 8y ago
    Both those things may be regarded by many people as putting them out in front.
- chicob 8y ago
  Subsidizing old-style agriculture has two major benefits in my opinion: i) it allows for a smoother transition towards more advanced practices without crushing regular farmers and ii) it helps containing production surpluses, which has been, historically, a major concern in the European Union. Regulations also help with avoiding surpluses, raising the bar for food safety, and have the added benefit of (arguably) fostering adaptability while giving the Union a relative protection from external markets. Regarding the technological adoption in Portugal, I guess it depends on the sector you're considering. I really can't speak for other areas, but in the case of agriculture there have been some major investments in the past that allow for more productive practices even if not supported by major breakthroughs. It's mostly automation of harvesting, adoption of new practices and new pesticides, quality control and more training.
kinow 8y ago
Wasn't expecting such an interesting comment here! So many links to read later! Just came here because I like olive oil
agumonkey 8y ago
Do you use electronics to monitor / help farming ?
- chicob 8y ago
  Yes: not considering everything that comes with a tractor these days, it's basically irrigation programmers, pH meters, humidity probes, sonars and speed-adjustment controllers for sprayers. I hope someday I will be able to show HN some simple electronics of my own.
  - agumonkey 8y ago
    Interesting, do you think they improve yield and/or decrease workload ?
    - chicob 8y ago
      The irrigation controls have a direct and significant impact in yield. Other tools raise profitability by contributing to greater efficacy and less waste. The pH meter, for example, pretty much payed itself the first time it was used.
      - agumonkey 8y ago
        I'm asking because I was interested in reviving (at my scale) farming on my mother's caribbean island. Lots of space, sun and rain, but farming is still seen as a burden (remains of colonialism organization). I think there's a lot of things to be improved to make it both simpler, greener (ketone was used for decades there). Ultimately to give people back the amazing vegetables that grow there naturally and avoid importing low quality ones (also social benefits of people being in nature more). Do you have advices or references to read about this ?
        chicob 8y ago
        I know nothing about agriculture in the Caribbean, but I would suggest taking advantage of the local produce and starting there. Do you have any ideas on what you want to grow? I checked the Caribbean Agriculture Agricultural Research and Development's website (www.cardi.org) for some information. They have annual reports, that stop at 2011 for some reason. I would read some of them to get an idea of what are the current trends. One idea that comes to mind after reading the 2011 report is producing high quality seeds. Grain prices for direct consumption are not as interesting. I would also search for local farming associations to get to know what people are doing. I suspect that the Caribbean will be more susceptible to climate change than other regions, so food security might become very important in a near future. Good luck!
trainingaccount 8y ago
Can you invert a binary tree?
- chicob 8y ago
  No. But I did some research on tree-like hierarchical associative memories. They have branches and all!
PanosJee 8y ago
Wow! You need to check out Augmenta.ag

by chicob 8y ago

dmix 8y ago

I'm a programmer and I ended up following a farmer on Youtube [1] originally because he walked through all the tech he used on his tractor (ie, Fieldview) and elsewhere on the farm in a couple videos. I watch his videos whenever they come up now. I love the level of organization and precision that industry is gaining. It's a good inspiration for software in other traditional areas (combined with practical AI applications and DIY hardware as well). [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwz2NribLYo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwz2NribLYo

monodeldiablo 8y ago
To tie this all together, I'm a programmer and (small time) olive farmer who worked on FieldView, among other products. Small world.
ghostbrainalpha 8y ago
I come to Hacker News for these kind of random recommendations. A couple times a year it really pays off with random Gold you wouldn't get from any other forum.

vanderZwan 8y ago

> There are even some Plasma Physics applications to agriculture, so the interdisciplinarity never ends! You can't just casually mention this without further explanation! :D

rocketred 8y ago
fun little presentation about it: https://suli.pppl.gov/2018/thursdays/The%20Emerging%20Field%20of%20Plasma%20Agriculture%20(J.%20Lopez)%20.pdf https://suli.pppl.gov/2018/thursdays/The%20Emerging%20Field%...
- vanderZwan 8y ago
  Ah, I feel a bit dumb for not realizing what kind of applications these would be, because I really should know better: back in 2002, when I still tried studying physics, I was part of a committee that organized a student symposium on biomedical technology. One of the speakers was Eva Stoffels, who had recently invented a low-energy plasma needle. Believe it or not, she claimed her motivation was ridding the world of the dental drill. It's actually really interesting what you can do with plasma's in a biomedical context: bacteria are killed off really quickly by them because they lack a cell wall, without destroying human cells. At higher intensities, the plasma first breaks down the proteins connecting cells without killing them. At even higher intensities, they trigger apoptosis: programmed cell death without inflammations. Oh, and cancer cells are less resilient against them. In the case of Stoffels' plasma needle, the idea was that it would destroy the infection while leaving healthy tissue intact. Not only that, her team found that the plasma's ionized the teeth in such a way that enamel production was increased. It sounded amazing at the time, but I guess it's hard to get this stuff out of the lab into the medical market though, since it has been over fifteen years now.
  - vanderZwan 8y ago
    > bacteria are killed off really quickly by them because they lack a cell wall, without destroying human cells. CORRECTION: I mixed up my terminology here. Bacteria have a cell wall (as do plants), human cells have a cell membrane[0][1]. But our cell membrane, as well as the cell wall of plant cells, are better at keeping the plasma ions out than the bacterial cell wall. In fact, the reason high plasma doses trigger apoptosis is because we actually use plasma ions as a cellular communication channel, IIRC. Would be hard to do that if our cells weren't protected against free plasma ions, right? So the point still stands that bacteria die from plasma ion bombardment at doses that are harmless to human and plant cells. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_wall#Bacterial_cell_walls https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_wall#Bacterial_cell_walls [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_membrane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_membrane

buboard 8y ago

> agriculture is becoming increasingly technological depends, the european CAP has subsidized old-style agriculture which has left many regions way behind, and the regulatory frameworkd is so tight that, despite the fact that many countries are producing a lot of research (on GMOs for example), it's not likely to ever be used. I wonder how big is technology adoption in Portugal

Angostura 8y ago
So far behind that there is still a local economy based around farm work and hedgerows for wildlife.
- Jedd 8y ago
  Both those things may be regarded by many people as putting them out in front.
chicob 8y ago
Subsidizing old-style agriculture has two major benefits in my opinion: i) it allows for a smoother transition towards more advanced practices without crushing regular farmers and ii) it helps containing production surpluses, which has been, historically, a major concern in the European Union. Regulations also help with avoiding surpluses, raising the bar for food safety, and have the added benefit of (arguably) fostering adaptability while giving the Union a relative protection from external markets. Regarding the technological adoption in Portugal, I guess it depends on the sector you're considering. I really can't speak for other areas, but in the case of agriculture there have been some major investments in the past that allow for more productive practices even if not supported by major breakthroughs. It's mostly automation of harvesting, adoption of new practices and new pesticides, quality control and more training.

kinow 8y ago

Wasn't expecting such an interesting comment here! So many links to read later! Just came here because I like olive oil

agumonkey 8y ago

Do you use electronics to monitor / help farming ?

chicob 8y ago
Yes: not considering everything that comes with a tractor these days, it's basically irrigation programmers, pH meters, humidity probes, sonars and speed-adjustment controllers for sprayers. I hope someday I will be able to show HN some simple electronics of my own.
- agumonkey 8y ago
  Interesting, do you think they improve yield and/or decrease workload ?
  - chicob 8y ago
    The irrigation controls have a direct and significant impact in yield. Other tools raise profitability by contributing to greater efficacy and less waste. The pH meter, for example, pretty much payed itself the first time it was used.
    - agumonkey 8y ago
      I'm asking because I was interested in reviving (at my scale) farming on my mother's caribbean island. Lots of space, sun and rain, but farming is still seen as a burden (remains of colonialism organization). I think there's a lot of things to be improved to make it both simpler, greener (ketone was used for decades there). Ultimately to give people back the amazing vegetables that grow there naturally and avoid importing low quality ones (also social benefits of people being in nature more). Do you have advices or references to read about this ?
      - chicob 8y ago
        I know nothing about agriculture in the Caribbean, but I would suggest taking advantage of the local produce and starting there. Do you have any ideas on what you want to grow? I checked the Caribbean Agriculture Agricultural Research and Development's website (www.cardi.org) for some information. They have annual reports, that stop at 2011 for some reason. I would read some of them to get an idea of what are the current trends. One idea that comes to mind after reading the 2011 report is producing high quality seeds. Grain prices for direct consumption are not as interesting. I would also search for local farming associations to get to know what people are doing. I suspect that the Caribbean will be more susceptible to climate change than other regions, so food security might become very important in a near future. Good luck!

trainingaccount 8y ago

Can you invert a binary tree?

chicob 8y ago
No. But I did some research on tree-like hierarchical associative memories. They have branches and all!

PanosJee 8y ago

Wow! You need to check out Augmenta.ag