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Ask HN: What's happening in agricultural technology?

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Re: Ask HN: What's happening in agricultural technology?

#71

Post by lukasm »

randomdata wrote: post #13
rmason wrote: post #11

The fully automated farm is a few years off. Here in Michigan large families with one or two employees farm 5-10,000 acres. With good Iowa or Illinois farmland you can expect 200 bushels of corn per acre or 60 bushels of soybeans. This land by the way will cost you approximately $7,183 per acre. If you're interested in this topic you might consider attending the precision ag conference, the next one will be in 2018 h…

> This land by the way will cost you approximately $7,183 per acre. That's surprisingly cheap. A farm near me, with similar production capabilities, recently sold for $25,000/acre. Around here, you won't find anything really worth farming for much under $15,000/acre on the low end these days.

Do I have to be a US citizen to buy land in US?

Re: Ask HN: What's happening in agricultural technology?

#72

Post by roryisok »

lawless123 wrote: post #60
Loic wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reality is that you are not going to feed a town with a tractor or a robot acting as a tractor. This is because with your robot, you are producing cereals. If you want to feed the town, you need fruits and vegetables. Now, if you want high density, sustainable fruits and vegetables production, you need to pay extremely attention to your soil. Practically it means, try to never walk on it and produce multiple spec…

People can survive on cereals.

not cereals alone, and not if they destroy the soil in a few generations

Re: Ask HN: What's happening in agricultural technology?

#73

Post by MistahKoala »

subtenante wrote: post #36

Agriculture in our age must shift from productivity first to sustainability first, because we are running out of fossil energy allowing to produce most of the fertilizers, and we have already killed our soil with it. A farm involving a lot of machines (i.e. a lot of need for energy) might not be the way to go in order to keep the agricultural system stable. The most you ask from the soil, the poorer it gets, and then…

> Agriculture in our age must shift from productivity first to sustainability first

But the two are not mutually exclusive; productivity has a role to play in reducing the footprint of agricultural activity. I don't see it as a dichotomy of 'different OR less', but 'different AND less'. I don't think we should make the mistake of inferring that productivity necessarily means greater and unsustainable use of energy and natural resources.

Re: Ask HN: What's happening in agricultural technology?

#74

Post by roryisok »

agentultra wrote: post #62

Vertical farms are going to be huge. They're almost fully isolated from the outside environment save for taking in local air and removing carbon from it. They require magnitudes less water than traditional agriculture and no fertilizers. You can build them in the middle of a downtown core if you need to. And you could optimize power consumption so that the majority of your energy comes from renewable sources. See Aer…

I see lots of interesting articles on vertical farms, but they always seem to produce only lettuce, which has zero nutritional value. it worries me that they don't seem to produce anything more substantial

Re: Ask HN: What's happening in agricultural technology?

#75

Post by return0 »

subtenante wrote: post #36

Agriculture in our age must shift from productivity first to sustainability first, because we are running out of fossil energy allowing to produce most of the fertilizers, and we have already killed our soil with it. A farm involving a lot of machines (i.e. a lot of need for energy) might not be the way to go in order to keep the agricultural system stable. The most you ask from the soil, the poorer it gets, and then…

> Instead of less farmers, we need more

That's bad for the economy and productivity, and for the environment in the end because more farmers with smaller land are squeezing for gains. It's especially a problem in in the EU where agriculture is heavily regulated and EU-subsidized. Take a look at the countries with the largest agricultural population: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_countries_by_employme...

And all this while keeping in mind that the common agricultural policy in the EU keeps the prices high for european producers.

Re: Ask HN: What's happening in agricultural technology?

#76

Post by digitalzombie »

lukasm wrote: post #71
randomdata wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This land by the way will cost you approximately $7,183 per acre. That's surprisingly cheap. A farm near me, with similar production capabilities, recently sold for $25,000/acre. Around here, you won't find anything really worth farming for much under $15,000/acre on the low end these days.

Do I have to be a US citizen to buy land in US?

I don't think so. There are rich Chinese people just buying housing property in Arcadia, California and Vancover Canada... I would like to think housing property and land are the same thing.

Re: Ask HN: What's happening in agricultural technology?

#79

Post by wikibob »

sampl wrote: post #77

If you want to learn more, come work with us at FarmLogs (YC12). We've got about a third of the US farmland in our system, and we use satellite imagery, agronomy, machine telematics, and more remote sensing to help farmers precisely manage every acre.

Is there is a SF office in your future? If not, is the entire team in Des Moines and Ann Arbor, or do you have folks working remote as well?
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