After decades of special interest groups raising unwarranted fears and misrepresenting every aspect of so-called “GMOs”, opponents of innovation in plant and animal breeding are adding a new under-the-bed-monster to the mythical menagerie. This one is called “gene editing” aka “GE,” and it seems the topic is everywhere these days. But what, exactly, is this new beast?
As I sit here and ponder what are all the great things that are being created for the agriculture industry I also have to take pause to push myself down into reality so that I don’t dig myself down into a rabbit whole.
Technology which had been used to discover water on Mars, is now being applied to make agronomic maps faster, cheaper and better.
Jacob van den Borne is one of the farmers who was nominated as one of the 10 most innovative arable farmers worldwide. He and his brother started with precision farming in 2006 and they have an eye for the best technology available.
Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon Valley (YMVSV), the venture arm of Yamaha Motor Co, led the $7.5 million Series A funding round for Advanced Farm Technologies (AFT), which develops robotic farming equipment like the T-6 robotic strawberry harvester, which uses multiple robotic arms with custom end effectors (i.e. grippers) to harvest strawberries grown in soil. Other investors in the round include Kubota Corporation, Catapult Ventures, and Impact Venture Capital.
Beanless coffee is a thing now and could hit the market as early as next year, following a trend.
