For as long as I can remember, the food industry is dealing with food waste reduction. In today’s world, where everything has to be more efficient and sustainable, the food industry is still not where it is supposed to be. However, with the rise of new technologies like AI, Machine Learning, and Robotics, the food industry has a somewhat brighter future. From the beginning of the supply chain their predictive powers, advanced data analytics, and automatization capabilities could have a meaningful impact.
Consider the current nitrogen crisis in the Netherlands, where the Dutch Government are in a fierce debate with farmers because they want to shut down big animal farms to reduce nitrogen emissions (Stokstad E, 2019). Although the problem in the Netherlands seems very country specific, there is a more fundamental problem going on behind it. Everywhere in the world, from agricultural labor shortages and immense amounts of food waste to actual farm shutdowns, the industry is in desperate need for new technologies.
SomaDetect is a great example of a company that uses new technologies to transform the food industry. It uses optical sensors and deep learning algorithms to provide dairy farmers with real-time information about herd health and milk quality (SomaDetect, 2022). Better management as a result would lead to less need of cows and thus lower greenhouse gas emissions. Next to this, the aforementioned labor shortages can be partially offset by introducing farm robotics and automation. For example, Abundant Robotics is a company that developed a robot that can scan apples and use deep learning to determine when they’re ripe for picking (Abundant Robots, 2022). Also, established companies like John Deer have significantly enhanced their technologies by providing farmers with automated tractors implemented with AI technologies that drastically enhances efficiency and provides invaluable data.
All in all, the food industry faces major challenges, but there is no loss in hope. A bright front of innovate companies are ready to face these challenges, but will they succeed?
Do you think the food industry will be largely taken over by technology and automation for example?
Abundant robots – a new era of automation for fruit harvesting. WAX. (2022). Retrieved October 12, 2022, from https://waxinvest.com/projects/abundant-robots/
Stokstad, E. (2019, December 6). Nitrogen crisis threatens Dutch environment—and economy. Science . Retrieved October 10, 2022, from https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.366.6470.1180
SomaDetect. SomaDetect. (2022). Retrieved October 12, 2022, from https://somadetect.com/
Interesting read! Using technology in agriculture makes it extremely efficient and less prone to lower yields and harvest. Agritech is an upcoming domain. Automation in agriculture, I believe, is extremely beneficial especially given the reducing number of people involved in agricultural practices both in developed and developing countries.
Hey Jelmer, I really like your article as it is a very recent topic. The news currently is mostly about the dissatisfaction and the problems in the sector, but your article provides us with a different view and a (likely) solution for quite a view problems in the sector. I think technology in agriculture can really make a differences, as it is very efficient and can help the farmers regarding the shortage of staff. But as you mentioned, the collection of data by smart technologies can also really improve the operations. I believe data is definitely used already, but mainly in larger businesses. I think the smaller businesses will also benefit from it when the technologies become more available.