When the US invaded Iraq under the pretext of WMD there were some early reports of WMDs being found. They turned out to be agricultural pesticides. Many pestici

When the US invaded Iraq under the pretext of WMD there were some early reports of WMDs being found. They turned out to be agricultural pesticides. Many pesticides are nerve agents, as are chemical weapons like Sarin. Growing a field of crops without growing competing weeds or having insect infestation is a difficult problem. A lot of manual labor is one solution, and chemicals are another. I have hope that robotics can solve the problem of competing weeds. I envision solar powered robots scouring the fields, using computer vision to identify weeds, and cutting/uprooting them. This would let us avoid manual labor while maintaining the great advantage of chemical herbicides. I think that robots could also be designed to kill insects, but I think that is a much harder problem.