Transforming us into a society of food producers | Dr. Chandra Krintz | TEDxFargo

Dr. Chandra Krintz discusses how we might use advances in technology that have transformed us into a society of consumers, to transform us into a society of food producers. In particular, she suggests using the same techniques that Amazon, Google, and Facebook use to target advertising, marketing, and sales of products to us (i.e. data aggregation, analysis, and prediction), to make farmers and ranchers more productive in order to feed the planet as our population grows.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Technology today pervades our lives;

It gives us instant access to information,

it provides us with
very personalized recommendations

on what to buy, what movies to watch,

and for good and for bad,

connects us with people
all over the planet.

People that we would
never have otherwise met.

The companies behind these technologies

make them super easy to use,
accessible to everyone

so that everyone can participate,

everyone can be part
of these technological advances.

They also make them
accessible from everywhere;

from your cell phone,

from your laptop, your machine at work.

And these companies
make them free for us to use.

Or do they?

It turns out that we're actually paying
these companies to use their services;

the Facebooks, the Amazons,
the Googles of the world.

We're not paying in dollars, however,

we're paying in data.

Every time you use your apps
on your phone, or on your computer,

every time you access the Internet,

these companies are collecting
personal information about you.

You buy diapers?

They know you have kids.

You search for directions?

They know not only where you're going,
but where you've been.

These companies collect information
like where you live, where you work,

what you like and what you don't like,

where your kids go to school.

And they don't just collect a little data.

They collect lots and lots of data.

This is what you are paying
for Amazon's free shipping.

Do you know what they do with this?

They take all this data
and they put it on a bunch of computers.

They take some really sophisicated
mathematics and statistics,

and they apply it to the data.

They don't apply it manually,
they rely on computers to do it for them,

so they have to turn the map
and the stats into code.

You hear the president talk about code,
and everyone should be doing it;

this is what he is talking about.

You apply code to data
and what you get out is insights:

inferences about your life,

about what you like and don't like,

and even better, what you're going to buy,

and what you are going
to want in the future.

It is predictive.

These insights allow these companies

to give us the apps and websites
that we know and love,

but they also provide these companies
with other types of value.

Because they are predictive,

they can tell what you will buy,

who will you vote for,
and where you will travel,

and that, they can monetize.

And they do.

Have you ever wondered

whether we could use
this exact same technology

to do something for the world?

To solve a really hard problem,
say, like feeding the planet?

There are seven billion people
on the Earth today,

and we can barely feed them.

Our arable lands
and our resources like water

are shrinking, not growing.

And by 2050, there are going to be
nine billion people on the planet.

So, what we need to do,
what we need to ask is:

can we use these technologies

to make farmers more efficient,

to provide them with decision support?

Think of it!

It's like Amazon for Ag,
Google for growers.

Not sure what I'm going to do
about milk producers out there,

but maybe we'll call it "Moogle".

(Laughter)

The problem is similar.

You take data,

- farmers have lots of it -

historical records,

all farm implements today
come instrumented with sensors.

But you can buy sensors on devices now,

and collect lots and lots of information
about the property, the processes,

that the farmers undertaking.

You can then apply the same code,

very similar code, to this data,
and extract insights.

Only these insights can be
targeted for the problems,

- and there are many - that farmers have.

Things like when to water,
how much to water, and where to water;

things like, "How are we going
to optimize the yields

to get the most out of the little bit
of land that we have?"

And just like Amazon knows
what shoes you're going to buy next week,

we can make predictions
about diseases and pests

before they become a problem,
so that we can address them.

It turns out that some of this technology
already exists today.

Some really innovative, pioneering
companies have developed some of this,

and the model they use is this:

the farmers buy a product, or a service

from a company, or a farm implement,

and in return, they ship all of their data

over the Internet,
to a company, constantly.

The company takes that data,
applies the code, and gets the insights.

Some insights they share
with the farmers, some they don't,

just like Amazon, Google,
and Facebook, it's all monetizable.

And they can make good money from this.

But if we're going to take this model

and use it to solve a really hard problem,

like feeding the planet,

we can't just have the code,
- what's most valuable here -

owned and controlled by a few.

We need to make the code,
the ability to extract insights

and make predictions
of the future that are accurate,

available to everyone.

Like the services of Facebook
and Amazon.com.

And that is what I work on.

I work on the problem of taking the code
and making it available for everyone,

and in making it possible
to execute it everywhere.

Because some farmers
don't even have the Internet.

So instead of moving all that data
to a company over the intermet,

how about we move the code,
- which is tiny - once,

and move that to the data,
move it to the farm?

Execute the code
on a computer at the farm,

and the farmer can extract
his or her own insights from it,

and profit from it, and become
more productive because of it.

They can even give or sell their data
and their insights to industry.

These companies can still make
a profit with their own insights,

or the insights that farmers
have extracted with the code.

They can still make money from this,
just perhaps a little less.

The problem with this model is that,
first of all, this code is complex.

It is mathematics and statistics
that are well understood however.

And technology has a precedent
for taking complex things

and making them ubiquitous.

Think about the Internet.

The Internet at one time
was thought of as rocket science.

A bunch of researchers
got together, developed it,

put it out there;
everyone was afraid of it.

A few companies could take
advantage of it, and did.

And today, it's everywhere.

And for most of us, it's free.

We have commoditized the internet.

The time is now to commoditize
this type of code.

It is possible, and we can do it.

The second big problem
is industry is not going to do it for us.

What company
would develop intellectual property

and then give it away
to their competitors?

Not many.

So the second problem
that we have to deal with

is how are we are going to get this done?

How are we going to make
this accessible to all farmers,

so that all people can prosper from it?

Technology has a precedent
for that as well.

It's called "open source."

It's where a bunch
of researches get together,

in computer science or technology,

and they build the building blocks,

and they give them away for free,

so that everyone has access,
so that everyone can use them.

You work hard at making them
as easy to use as possible.

And then we build a community;

a community of innovators, and developers,

and researchers, and students;
of all ages, of all backgrounds,

and in our case, farmers and growers.

And this community
is what creates the innovation

that really can be brought
to bear on hard problems

that individual companies
just aren't going to.

They're going to participate,
but they can't do it alone.

None of us can do it alone, it turns out.

So I encourage you to think about this,

and to come join us
in making farms smarter.

Come join the "Smart Farm" community

because only together
are we going to able to feed the planet.

Thank you for listening.

(Applause)