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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

#101

Post by IG_Semmelweiss »

SequoiaHope wrote: post #35
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 a…

The rental of farming fields goes back to time inmemorial.

In fact it is only a modern progress that has resulted in ownership actually working the fields they own.

This is where the feudal lords came in and what peasants actually were.

It is still pretty rare to find small farmland ownership in all of south america and asia. USA is the exception, not the rule.

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

#102

Post by randomdata »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #98
randomdata wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That only brings us back to the question of why landowners wouldn't go directly to the farmer and ask for the hypothetical $1,200 that Tillable would also ask of them? It is not exactly difficult to figure out who the farmers are in your local area, and it is especially not very difficult to figure out which ones are the hungry ones willing to pay top dollar, if that is your goal. Chances are they have already been h…

And that brings us back to my original answer: why would they? Trying to extract maximum profit from the counterparty is adversarial, whereas a relationship between a land owner and a neighbourhood farmer most likely is cooperative. EDIT: for the same reason, I don't think Tillable has a chance of working, and to the extent it does, it's actively destructive.

And now we're just talking in circles. Before your original 'answer', the scenarios presented were that farmers who:

1. Want to extract as much money as possible will turn directly to the farmers willing to pay top dollar to maximize the take.

2. Want to build solid relationships with farmers will turn directly to farmers to find a suitable fit.

The question presented before your original reply was in trying to understand where Tillable fits. Your answer did not provide that information, and your follow up still does not attempt to answer the question.

Your edit seems to suggest that they don't fit, as was already established, which leaves us wondering what your original response was for?

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

#103

Post by saalweachter »

MattGaiser wrote: post #97
saalweachter wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Commodity agriculture is any agriculture where the products are sold into the commodity markets, basically -- corn, wheat, soybeans, rice, pork, beef, etc. Commodity agriculture is all about scale and price; there are certain quality standards that must be met (your corn must have a specific moisture content; your pigs must weigh in a certain range and be free of disease) but there is no real competition on the quali…

> Commodity agriculture is all about scale and price; there are certain quality standards that must be met (your corn must have a specific moisture content; your pigs must weigh in a certain range and be free of disease) but there is no real competition on the quality of the good produced. You assume all hard red wheat is fungible, and buy and sell it by the ton. Between regulations and grocery store standards, is th…

By calories, certainly.

But fresh produce frequently exists outside the commodity market -- the individual grocery stores or chains have relationships with individual producers (or consortiums) to distribute their products.

Basically if your food is labeled with the name of the producer it isn't commodity agriculture -- for instance, bags of apples are frequently branded by the orchard which produces them, because the orchard is selling directly to the grocery store (maybe with a middle man or two doing the actual sales and distribution), and not selling into a generic "apple" market the way eg wheat producers do.

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

#104

Post by jessaustin »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #99
jessaustin wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How could a robot keep more than a couple of acres weeded? Small amounts of acreage in real food would be more valuable to humans than vast tracts of frankenfood like Monsanto soybeans. There are already "at-scale" solutions for that crap: just spray it (and everything downwind!) with tons of noxious chemicals.

The other commenter is correct - swarms. Also our robot is capable of spraying but will primarily use mechanical means to destroy weeds so there is no chemical use.

Above you said "it feels like we need to target farms that are hundreds or thousands of acres to justify the engineering investment." That seems like a reason not to fund your startup, because farms like that already have chemical weed control and giant corporations that already zealously own their souls. I was trying to encourage you to think smaller. By acre, vegetables are much more valuable than wheat and corn and beans, and there are human labor inputs that robots could replace.

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

#106

Post by luckylion »

randomdata wrote: post #89
luckylion wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently nobody turns to Tillable. It's Tillable that's turning to land owners and tries to convince them to not renew their contracts with farmers so Tillable can negotiate new contracts with higher prices, likely with the same farmers (as farming is very much a local thing, you can't farm a piece of land from a thousand miles away).

That only brings us back to the question of why landowners wouldn't go directly to the farmer and ask for the hypothetical $1,200 that Tillable would also ask of them? It is not exactly difficult to figure out who the farmers are in your local area, and it is especially not very difficult to figure out which ones are the hungry ones willing to pay top dollar, if that is your goal. Chances are they have already been h…

I believe it's similar to smart phones being produced by humans at the other end of the world who live in bunk beds, have 10-12 hour shifts and barred windows + nets below so they don't jump out trying to kill themselves. Most people at this end of the world are not okay with those conditions and do not tolerate them if they know about them. But put a suit at Apple and another suit at Foxconn between the consumer and the producer and they don't know about it. When it comes out, people are appalled and Apple & Foxconn have to shift strategies or face consumers shunning them. Tillable are those suits.

Land owners are not in the business of maximizing profits at any cost, but if you approach them with a much better offer for their land, they don't see the ways how you're able to afford that offer, much like the smart phone buyer does not know why it doesn't cost $100 more. When people profit from something, they are usually not too concerned with the details and accept that things happen that they wouldn't allow if they knew about it, by turning a blind eye (blinded by the profit, you might say).

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

#107

Post by TaylorAlexander »

jessaustin wrote: post #104
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other commenter is correct - swarms. Also our robot is capable of spraying but will primarily use mechanical means to destroy weeds so there is no chemical use.

Above you said "it feels like we need to target farms that are hundreds or thousands of acres to justify the engineering investment." That seems like a reason not to fund your startup, because farms like that already have chemical weed control and giant corporations that already zealously own their souls. I was trying to encourage you to think smaller. By acre, vegetables are much more valuable than wheat and corn an…

The farms we’re looking to target are vegetable farms. They use human labor to weed their crops. The few I’ve spoken to have hundreds or thousands of acres total. They seem eager to get a robot like ours.

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

#108

Post by TeMPOraL »

luckylion wrote: post #106
randomdata wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That only brings us back to the question of why landowners wouldn't go directly to the farmer and ask for the hypothetical $1,200 that Tillable would also ask of them? It is not exactly difficult to figure out who the farmers are in your local area, and it is especially not very difficult to figure out which ones are the hungry ones willing to pay top dollar, if that is your goal. Chances are they have already been h…

I believe it's similar to smart phones being produced by humans at the other end of the world who live in bunk beds, have 10-12 hour shifts and barred windows + nets below so they don't jump out trying to kill themselves. Most people at this end of the world are not okay with those conditions and do not tolerate them if they know about them. But put a suit at Apple and another suit at Foxconn between the consumer and…

Exactly that. And while I hope this won't work because it's mostly trying to insert itself between a landowner and their neighbourhood farmer, there's probably enough less personal relationships in this space for Tillable to find a foothold, from which they'll continue "disrupting" the space.

(Worth remembering that disrupting evokes, particualrly in this context, the picture of a disruptor - a weapon used by evil Klingons and sneaky Romulans.)

Your explanation makes me think of a paraphrase I like to post: the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is to separate good men from it with enoungh layers of indirection.

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

#109

Post by jessaustin »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #107
jessaustin wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Above you said "it feels like we need to target farms that are hundreds or thousands of acres to justify the engineering investment." That seems like a reason not to fund your startup, because farms like that already have chemical weed control and giant corporations that already zealously own their souls. I was trying to encourage you to think smaller. By acre, vegetables are much more valuable than wheat and corn an…

The farms we’re looking to target are vegetable farms. They use human labor to weed their crops. The few I’ve spoken to have hundreds or thousands of acres total. They seem eager to get a robot like ours.

Haha I might have misread an "or" as an "of". Your robots sound great, a real benefit to humanity.

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

#110

Post by TaylorAlexander »

jessaustin wrote: post #109
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The farms we’re looking to target are vegetable farms. They use human labor to weed their crops. The few I’ve spoken to have hundreds or thousands of acres total. They seem eager to get a robot like ours.

Haha I might have misread an "or" as an "of". Your robots sound great, a real benefit to humanity.

Ahh yes hundreds “of” thousands would be huge!

Long term, I’d love to automate the entire process. We just have to start somewhere. Weeding seems like a safe place to start, and there’s plenty more work to be found once we get our foot in the door.

I’ll tell ya one thing - I love working with robots outside. I mostly work in the office but I love getting out to test the machine. :)

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