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Small farms use absurd amounts of labor, the cost of which in the developed countries would go far beyond "economically infeasible" to "actually impossible". T

Small farms use absurd amounts of labor, the cost of which in the developed countries would go far beyond "economically infeasible" to "actually impossible". The modern world is not going to go back to subsistence farming, nor should it. Agriculture does need a revolution, but not in the direction that this article wants it. As far as what direction to take Ag, my company is working on technology that reduces herbicide usage by 70+% in the largest sector: row crops, and it's going to hit the fields in a big way very soon. Leveraging the advances in robotics and AI to treat each plant individually and efficiently as possible will revolutionize Ag. Crop inputs can be reduced, new chemistries even organic ones may be unlocked for large scale use, the changes that will be wrought when this technology reaches maturity and large-scale market penetration will change Ag fundamentally, for the better.

colechristensen 5y ago
It is doubtful that crop input costs will be reduced as companies like yours will seek to capture the savings in chemical costs by charging for the usage of the machinery. I’m not saying that’s necessarily bad.
- deeviant 5y ago
  Since the more advanced machinery costs more, a customer would not buy it unless it saves them money, thus a significant enough amount of the savings must be realized by the customer after the increased cost to have any reasonable chance of market success: the farmer must win as well or the product is doomed. In this way, the market does keep a company honest. Farmers are absolutely incredible businessman, they will have nothing to do with technology that only makes money for somebody else. Also, we generally sell our equipment and the vast majority is customer or Ag service provider owned.
hinkley 5y ago
Many of these people are trying to get the farm animals to do the labor, rather than humans. These conveniences and petrochemicals and predicated in an infinite supply of fossil fuels. Something has to change, and if we don’t change it then Time will do it for us.

colechristensen 5y ago

It is doubtful that crop input costs will be reduced as companies like yours will seek to capture the savings in chemical costs by charging for the usage of the machinery. I’m not saying that’s necessarily bad.

deeviant 5y ago
Since the more advanced machinery costs more, a customer would not buy it unless it saves them money, thus a significant enough amount of the savings must be realized by the customer after the increased cost to have any reasonable chance of market success: the farmer must win as well or the product is doomed. In this way, the market does keep a company honest. Farmers are absolutely incredible businessman, they will have nothing to do with technology that only makes money for somebody else. Also, we generally sell our equipment and the vast majority is customer or Ag service provider owned.

hinkley 5y ago

Many of these people are trying to get the farm animals to do the labor, rather than humans. These conveniences and petrochemicals and predicated in an infinite supply of fossil fuels. Something has to change, and if we don’t change it then Time will do it for us.