The Coolest Profession on Earth – Next Generation Agriculture

Personally, I think that Thomas Frey, arguably, the best futurist alive today. Please read his refreshing and insightful post on 'Next Generation Farming.'

'When people think of farming, they typically conjure up images of a tractor cresting a hill billowing large plumes of exhaust into the air. However, recent news of a system for channeling tractor exhaust into the dirt, so carbon fumes are plowed into the soil eliminating the need for fertilizer, has been gaining significant attention. The win-win arrangement of turning a known pollutant into a soil enriching additive, combined with the prospects for significantly lower operating costs from the elimination of fertilizer has many farmers buzzing. The technique, developed by Canadian, Gary Lewis of Bio Agtive, is currently in trials at 100 farms around the world.

Stories such as this are happening with ever greater frequency as the slow process of farming adapts to the fast world of communications, and ideas that used to take years to ferment, now begin to snowball within days, even hours. The stage is being set for an unprecedented new generation of farming driven by ever greater levels of precision, relevancy, and control, the likes of which will transition the once primitive profession, typified by long grueling hours in the sun, into a hotbed for techno-geek agrarians packing handhelds and data readers trained to monitor far more than markets, yields, costs, and moisture content.

As with all industries, there are many micro-forces driving the changes ahead. But viewing them through the lens of these three progressing trend lines helps us grasp the interwoven nature of these sometimes competing drivers.'

Click Trend Line #1 – Precision to read on!