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An Airbnb for farmland hits a snag, as farmers raise data privacy concerns

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Re: An Airbnb for farmland hits a snag, as farmers raise data privacy concerns

#31

Post by dehrmann »

ISL wrote: post #3

This is the first I've heard of Tillable. As described, it's not really AirBnB for farmland, it's a growing-rights exchange. The counterparty risk for landowners is substantial if it isn't mitigated somehow. A long-term relationship with the land is essential to keeping it healthy. The relationships between farmers and landowners often span generations -- that makes them ripe for disruption, but the many practices th…

My family has leased land to the same family farmers for 30+ years. I went to school with the kids the are likely to to inherit the business. If I inherit some of my family's land, I have no interest in messing with the deal--they've been great long-term tenants.

These are also the sorts of people and deals where it's you get x% of the crop, a handshake, and a check once per year.

Re: An Airbnb for farmland hits a snag, as farmers raise data privacy concerns

#32

Post by TheMightyLlama »

jelliclesfarm wrote: post #16

There is actually more to this than is visible on the surface. And I can’t talk about some of it. But here it is: 1. Climate Corp was part of Monsanto before it became Bayer. It was acquired by Monsanto. 2. John Deere wanted to buy Climate as well as Monsanto but that was struck down by US courts and Bayer bought Monsanto. 3. What was Climate Corp doing before? They had something called Field View where they charged…

Data privacy is something that I think isn’t really covered here.

Do the farming equipment companies share data? To be precise do the have the level of fidelity required to know information regarding the size of land when the equipment is in use as well as the toolset in the equipment?

This might conceivably allow equipment companies to sell data to stock market companies who speculate on futures.

Re: An Airbnb for farmland hits a snag, as farmers raise data privacy concerns

#33

Post by EdwardDiego »

haram_masala wrote: post #27
sk5t wrote: post #4

Is is too uncharitable of me to think of Tillable as a VC-funded vehicle to make sharecropping even worse than it already was?

Agreed, it seems like yet another iteration of a company that starts off by disrupting a market to make it more liquid, but whose endgame is becoming the dominant or sole rentier in that space.

Exactly, they sound like an unnecessary middle man that disrupts established relationships with promises of higher rents, which will end up killing the smaller farmers in favour of the large corporate farmers.

Re: An Airbnb for farmland hits a snag, as farmers raise data privacy concerns

#34

Post by EdwardDiego »

luckylion wrote: post #26
_2d30 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, why would the farmer use it then?

Because he needs land to farm on, or he stops being a farmer and has to shut down his business. He will now pay e.g. $1000. Tillable will offer $1100 upfront to the land owner and then "offer" it to the farmer for the low price of $1200. Since he can't just farm on some piece of land 500 miles away, he can either pay the new price, or stop farming. Tillable offers no significant service here. It's not that there's a…

Bingo. It's literal rent seeking.

Re: An Airbnb for farmland hits a snag, as farmers raise data privacy concerns

#35

Post by SequoiaHope »

jelliclesfarm wrote: post #16

There is actually more to this than is visible on the surface. And I can’t talk about some of it. But here it is: 1. Climate Corp was part of Monsanto before it became Bayer. It was acquired by Monsanto. 2. John Deere wanted to buy Climate as well as Monsanto but that was struck down by US courts and Bayer bought Monsanto. 3. What was Climate Corp doing before? They had something called Field View where they charged…

Wow thanks for this info. What a shitty situation. Venture capitalists buying land to rent it back to farmers seems like the exact opposite of the kind of innovation we need.

I work for a small farming automation company. I’m designing a solar powered weeding robot. when you say “small scale” farming what do you mean? Its still early for us but it feels like we need to target farms that are hundreds or thousands of acres to justify the engineering investment. That may still count as “small” compared to the real big stuff, but it leaves out the really passionate five and ten acre organic farms I’ve come across.

My personal interest is in lowering the cost of healthy food production. Maybe we could talk more via email?

taylor {at} twistedfields.com

Re: An Airbnb for farmland hits a snag, as farmers raise data privacy concerns

#36

Post by swiley »

jelliclesfarm wrote: post #16

There is actually more to this than is visible on the surface. And I can’t talk about some of it. But here it is: 1. Climate Corp was part of Monsanto before it became Bayer. It was acquired by Monsanto. 2. John Deere wanted to buy Climate as well as Monsanto but that was struck down by US courts and Bayer bought Monsanto. 3. What was Climate Corp doing before? They had something called Field View where they charged…

I feel like a lot of “technology” companies are like this: consolidation of production and locking people out rather than actually making things more efficient.

Re: An Airbnb for farmland hits a snag, as farmers raise data privacy concerns

#37

Post by MattGaiser »

swiley wrote: post #36
jelliclesfarm wrote: post #16

There is actually more to this than is visible on the surface. And I can’t talk about some of it. But here it is: 1. Climate Corp was part of Monsanto before it became Bayer. It was acquired by Monsanto. 2. John Deere wanted to buy Climate as well as Monsanto but that was struck down by US courts and Bayer bought Monsanto. 3. What was Climate Corp doing before? They had something called Field View where they charged…

I feel like a lot of “technology” companies are like this: consolidation of production and locking people out rather than actually making things more efficient.

Generally, those are the same. Manual labour does not scale well and is prone to error.

Re: An Airbnb for farmland hits a snag, as farmers raise data privacy concerns

#38

Post by MattGaiser »

jelliclesfarm wrote: post #16

There is actually more to this than is visible on the surface. And I can’t talk about some of it. But here it is: 1. Climate Corp was part of Monsanto before it became Bayer. It was acquired by Monsanto. 2. John Deere wanted to buy Climate as well as Monsanto but that was struck down by US courts and Bayer bought Monsanto. 3. What was Climate Corp doing before? They had something called Field View where they charged…

> diff between food farming and commodity crop farming.

What is the difference between these? Aren't crops generally commodities? I’m familiar with the subsistence farmer term of the crops they eat verses the crops they sell, but the farmers sell both here.

Re: An Airbnb for farmland hits a snag, as farmers raise data privacy concerns

#39

Post by 9HZZRfNlpR »

CloudHelix wrote: post #10
est31 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I hope this doesn’t discourage farmers from using technology to improve efficiency, yields, profits, etc. Throughout history of settled humans, Farmers have always been at the brink of technological progress. The wheel, the plow, and all sorts of machines. It's a common theme to depict them as technologically backwards, but nothing could be further from the truth. Another common but misguided theme is to depict the…

> Farmers have always been at the brink of technological progress. You would think we would see more automation and fewer cows being milked by hand were this true.

The amount of hand milked product in the western world is miniscule. Probably there is a niche market but eco yuppies for hand milked pasture etc.

Re: An Airbnb for farmland hits a snag, as farmers raise data privacy concerns

#40

Post by rmason »

Long term the Tillable idea won't fly. I worked with farmers as a fertilizer company agronomist for twenty years. If I understand it correctly Tillable is trying to insert themselves in the middle, acquire the right to sublease large amounts of land and mark it up.

Say you own a farm and lease it out. The family you lease your land to might be a neighbor. In the winter they might plow your driveway gratis. They add fertilizer and lime as needed. I've known farmers to even add small amounts of drainage tile at the beginning of a lease.

Now consider I'm a super large farmer who has rented your land through Tillable. Farming is a super thin margin business. I live two counties over so I am not going to plow out your driveway or look after your farm for you. I will pay top dollar, I will in effect mine your land to make a profit.

I won't put on fertilizer if levels are high and skip the lime. I will make a nice profit for a few years and then when yields drop I will drop the lease. Over time the price of the lease will drop sharply. So in effect the landlord will gain a few bucks short term but lose big time over the long term.

On a small scale I've seen this happen. When the landlord offers it back to the original renter he will be shocked and angry when he either refuses or offers a pittance.

The landlord either has to invest his own money on lime and fertilizer building the farm back up or have a series of short time renters from outside the county who take a chance on the land.

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