Category: Farming

Impact Lab > Farming
Agriculture, Farming, Farms, Robots

Cross a John Deere with a Roomba, and you get this crop-monitoring robot

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Farms are a hotbed for automation. Robots, drones, and artificial intelligence have been assisting in agriculture for years and 2017 showed they could farm an acre and a half of barley, from planting to tending and harvesting, without a human stepping foot on the field.

Now there is a small but robust robot that could take care of the more tedious agricultural tasks. It’s called TerraSentia and the four-wheeled robot developed by engineers at the University of Illinois boasts a variety of sensors that can monitor and transmit crop data in real time. It won’t take full autonomy over a farm but is designed to serve as a little cog in a bigger machine.

Continue reading… “Cross a John Deere with a Roomba, and you get this crop-monitoring robot”

Agriculture, Artificial Intelligence, Farming, Farms

The incredible ways John Deere is using artificial intelligence to transform farming

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Pesticides are currently an essential ingredient of big agriculture in order to ensure we can continue to feed the ever-growing global population of our planet.

However, pesticides also carry inherent risks, such as the damage they can do to the environment and local ecosystems, and the hazards that over-exposure can pose to human health. Their production and distribution also has environmental costs, as well as financial costs to the farmers. For this reason, when they must be used, there are a lot of good reasons that they should be used efficiently, and accurately.

Continue reading… “The incredible ways John Deere is using artificial intelligence to transform farming”

Agriculture, Big Problems, Farming, Food

Fake processed food is becoming an epidemic in African urban life

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In late February, 14-year-olds Nahima and Yayaya, died after eating tainted biscuits at a classmate’s birthday celebration in their school, located just outside Nigeria’s capital Abuja. Several other children in their class were hospitalized. Panic and threats from angry parents forced a temporary school closure, but to date, there have been no efforts to investigate the root causes nor track or shut down the responsible company.

Continue reading… “Fake processed food is becoming an epidemic in African urban life”

Agriculture, City Planning, Farming, Farms, Food

Urban farming will bring food to city-dwellers that need it most

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The planet is growing more food than ever, and yet millions of people continue to starve worldwide. People are hungry everywhere — in the country, in the suburbs. But increasingly, one of the front lines in the war against hunger is in cities. As urban populations grow, more people find themselves in food deserts, areas with “[l]imited access to supermarkets, supercenters, grocery stores, or other sources of healthy and affordable food,” according to a report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Continue reading… “Urban farming will bring food to city-dwellers that need it most”

Agriculture, Breakthrough Thinking, Farming, Food, Science & Technology News

A team of scientists just made food from electricity- and it could be the end of world hunger

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Finnish research team has taken a step towards the future of food by developing a method for producing food from electricity. If scaling it up proves to be successful, it could be a tool in the fight against world hunger and climate change.

Continue reading… “A team of scientists just made food from electricity- and it could be the end of world hunger”

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