At the birth of the 20th century, farmers made up about 38% of the U.S. labor force. Now, less than 3% of Americans work in agriculture [1], in part due to global urbanization trends, and in part because of farming’s increased efficiency and specialization.
Technology has allowed labor and resource intensive practices to become more streamlined and productive. For example, robots are being implemented in field environments because of their ability to measure soil and plant health (reducing waste and better diagnosing issues) and harvest crops (reducing labor costs and human error). Scientists are even exploring ways to grow food and animal products in the laboratory setting (reducing transportation and environmental impact). [2]
Progress and entrepreneurship in farming continue to advance. Venture capitalists invested a record $2.36 billion in agtech last year, and 2015 is set to beat that record once again. The York Times blogger Steve Lohr predicts that agriculture may meet the demands of the growing world population by leveraging the popular “Internet of Things” vision. Using sensors, data, satellite images and more, the agriculture of the future will have more accurate and synchronized information about plant and soil health, weather patterns, and input volumes. This has tremendous potential not just to make agriculture more productive, but also more environmentally sustainable through efficient use of land, water and fertilizer. [3]
Meanwhile, like many other tech tools (such as computers and medical devices), the existing farming technology has not reached regions or growers who need it most, leaving some to continue with costly, inefficient and outdated methods. The large, complex farms will benefit most from the Internet of Things promise, while smallholder farms in Africa, southeast Asia and Latin America run the risk of falling more behind. [4]
But given the growing interest consumers are taking in the origin and methodology of their food production and in more traditional, local, and/or organic farming methods, there is no way to tell if the technological advances Lohr predicted will be shunned in a way similar to the anti-GMO movement.
Enter Sanjaya Rajaram, winner of the 2014 World Food Prize for his work in global wheat productivity. Rajaram, apprentice and successor of the “father of the Green Revolution” Norman Borlaug, has a simple plea: remove the divide between large and small farmers and make agricultural technology equally accessible for all. Rajaram believes “we don’t need two types of technology, one for the large farmer and one for the small farmer,” and the two systems should not be pitted against each other. [5]
For example, the use of genetically modified crops in hunger-stricken and developing regions – such as the Rockefeller Foundation’s development of Golden rice, a grain rich in Vitamin A, with the goal to improve the health of nutrient-deficient poor in Africa and Asia – could dramatically improve farming success in those areas. [6] While the use of GMOs in developing nations has been viewed with mixed opinions, the fact remains that many farmers do not even have the option to use them due to cost, access, or cultural barriers. Rajaram wants to share the wealth of decades of genetic research, even though it may not be popular to some U.S. consumers: “The problem is that the way it is being promoted now, genetic modification can’t be used by small farmers.” [5]
The goal of every farmer and agricultural researcher is the same: to find better ways to feed the world. By heeding Sanjaya Rajaram’s advice, we can achieve this by sharing and borrowing from others’ successful methods and acknowledging that it takes many different growers to produce enough food for the world’s growing population.
[1] Dimitri, Carolyn, Anne Effland, and Neilson Conklin. “The 20th Century Transformation of U.S. Agriculture and Farm Policy.” USDA. Accessed November 18, 2015. http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/259572/eib3_1_.pdf
[2] Berman, Dror. “The Next Food Frontier: How AgTech Can Save The World.” TechCrunch. Accessed November 15, 2015. http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/07/the-next-food-frontier-how-agtech-can-save-the-world/
[3] Lohr, Steve. “The Internet of Things and the Future of Farming.” The New York Times. Accessed November 15, 2015. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/08/03/the-internet-of-things-and-the-future-of-farming/?ref=technology&_r=1
[4] Grady, Barbara. “Big Data is on call to deliver more food for a growing population.” GreenBiz. Accessed November 18, 2015. http://www.greenbiz.com/article/big-data-may-help-deliver-more-food-growing-population
[5] Simon, Molly. “World Food Prize Laureate supports balance between technology for small and large-scale farms.” The Red & Black. Accessed November 15, 2015. http://www.redandblack.com/uganews/world-food-prize-laureate-supports-balance-between-technology-for-small/article_a50c917c-8817-11e5-9b89-e7f7bdb0359f.html
[6] Charles, Dan. “A Grain of Golden Rice, A World of Controversy Over GMO Foods.” NPR. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/03/07/173611461/in-a-grain-of-golden-rice-a-world-of-controversy-over-gmo-foods