Some thought starters on data and AgTech

Something high on my interest / passion radar of late has been the tremendous social and environmental opportunity of agricultural technology and data. Farmers are at that early stage of technology adoption where they are beginning to create useful data, but need better guidance and governance to harness it sustainably and with confidence. Among many challenges, of particular personal interest is how this data is used and protected to benefit not only their own farms and privacy, but to improve food production on a planet that desperately needs them to win by improving productivity while reducing/limiting environmental footprint.

Examining meat production helps to illustrate the practical need for improved productivity and support of global agriculture.

If you look at the OECD projections of global meat demand per capita here: http://bit.ly/2ZsYQ3U and take into account the additional 600 million humans that will populate the planet by 2027: http://bit.ly/2UX5j8Z, a quick calculation works out at potentially a 10% increase in total demand for meat during an era where it is becoming increasingly harder for farmers to maintain livestock due to inclement weather, increasing urbanisation, and the simple fact that there isn’t really any more land on the planet on which to expand farming operations.

I found a couple of great articles from The Guardian aiming to provide a balanced view on the impact of agriculture on the environment which I thought were worth sharing here for posterity and understanding the broader complexity of inputs (click image to view each article):

And finally here's a great summary published by Smart Company of some of the recent data/privacy issues being dealt with in Australia, highlighting the positive fact that farmers are beginning to embrace technology as a pathway to growth, but need better governance along the way to ensure sustainability: http://bit.ly/2LcUyef