One of the world’s oldest, largest, and certainly most vital industries must turn to the newest mega trend — the Internet of Things — in order to survive the future. I’m talking about agriculture, or, more simply: field-to-fork food production.
The agriculture industry faces serious threats today. The $6 trillion, life essential industry reached this precarious state as numerous factors have converged at once. On the supply side, due to soil erosion and other factors, the planet has suffered a loss of arable land by 33 percent, global droughts and major water shortages are becoming more and more common; and the farm labor workforce is shrinking in the U.S. and is especially felt here in California (the region produces 60 percent of the nation’s fresh produce just on its own). Climate change is only exacerbating these issues.
The demand side puts additional pressure on the capabilities of the world’s food producers to sustain adequate production. Global population is projected to increase from 6 billion people today to more than 10 billion by 2050. The middle class, with its bigger appetites, will grow even faster – from 1.5 billion today to 4.5 billion over the same period. Booming populations in major developing countries such as China, India, and Brazil will create even greater imbalances that strain global supply chains. Add to this the increasingly precise demands of environmentally-aware millennials who prefer fresher, organic food that’s authenticated for safety and delivered to their doorsteps on time.
To put it in perspective, Norman Borlaug, the Nobel laureate lauded as “the father of the Green Revolution,” and “agriculture’s greatest spokesperson”, says, “In the next 40 years, farmers will have to grow as much food as they have in the last 10,000 years – combined.” Despite the enormity of these challenges, with the help of technology like IoT, the world’s farmers have a fighting chance to feed the world at a time when supply capacity continues to shrink and demand continues to expand.
The agriculture industry is increasingly embracing IoT innovations to help remedy many of its challenges, whether it’s creating more efficient ways to manage crops, faster ways to harvest them, or smarter ways to transport perishable goods from field to fork. For example, just an hour’s drive south of the Silicon Valley is the ‘Lettuce Valley’ (the Salinas/Monterey region-home to agricultural giants such as Dole Foods, Chiquita, Driscoll Berries, Taylor Farms, Ocean Mist Farms, JV Smith and Tanimura & Antle), where farmers and technologists are collaborating to configure fertile ground with emerging technology.
Across these agriculture companies, a number of experiments, proofs of concept, and real-world operations are deploying sensors, big data, mobility, the cloud, drones, robotics, AI and machine learning in connection with IoT to improve planting, production, and delivery processes. For example, Driscoll Berries and Taylor Farms are both looking to automation and robots to address their sector’s increasing labor shortages to pick and pack more quickly and cost-effectively, working with startups such as Soft Robotics, Harvest Automation, and Spain-based Agrobot. “When the robot can see it, we are ready,” said Soft Robotics CEO Carl Vause at our recent Thrive Forum, and who also noted that further work around computer vision systems will allow for wider adoption of automation in agriculture.
Driscoll’s Berries is also utilizing substrate farming where crops are raised to waist-high levels to facilitate automation and more ergonomic berry picking. Hahn Wines together with Verizon Wireless reduced water use by 20% through its deployment of sensors in its vineyards that fed data to a wireless network for analysis.
These efforts on the field are the result of a major initiative off the field, the THRIVE Venture & Innovation Platform— conceived by SVG Partners and developed together with partners such as the City of Salinas, Taylor Farms, Forbes and Western Growers Association. Since our launch in 2014, we have created and annually help host the Forbes AgTech Summit and run the THRIVE Seed Accelerator, which every year brings startups from all regions of the globe to prove their products with the help of our growers and partners and receive investment from our fund. Our Corporate Open Innovation program, which enables corporations to have a front row seat to these startups and their innovations, has brought Driscoll’s Berries, Trimble, Land O’Lakes, Wells Fargo, Coca Cola, Wilbur Ellis, Verizon, Yamaha, Corteva, and other key leaders to the conversation and the continued development of the ecosystem. Our Grower’s Technology Roundtable, which took place at Cisco’s headquarters this year is another example of how we bring key stakeholders to the table to define the industry’s most pressing challenges and generate field deployment opportunities in order to get new technologies to market faster. And just recently, we published our 2018 Thrive Top 50 report of growth stage agtech companies, many of which are developing IoT related solutions.
The market exists for these technologies. Brian W. Kocher, Chiquita’s Chief Operating Officer said, “the intersection of agricultural and technical science is rapidly improving yields and efficiencies, and we believe the initiatives to link agricultural innovators with technology innovators will yield substantial benefits for both the population and the planet”. From field to fork and everywhere in between, the agricultural industry is plowing new ground to leverage IoT technologies and ensure the world does not go hungry. The challenges are formidable, but so are the opportunities.
John Hartnett is the Founder and CEO of SVG Partners, a Silicon Valley investment, technology and advisory firm that works with Fortune 500 Corporations, investors and global startups. John is also Founder of the THRIVE Venture & Innovation Plaform, a program which brings together startups, growers and corporations from around the world to advance the future of food & agriculture through the implementation of new technology.
He has served on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Northern Ireland Economic Working Committee and is currently Chairman of the Technology Advisory Council appointed by the Northern Ireland Prime Minister and deputy Prime Minster.