What are the issues and controversies surrounding big data and
the agri-food industry? They’re many and contentious. That’s the short answer
but there is more to this discussion than a one-liner. But you knew that,
right?
Data, Data Everywhere….
When we look at all of the data that is generated on the farm
it is, as most growers will tell you, overwhelming, to say the least. Data from
sensors, controllers, devices, software applications, satellites, drones,
tractors and implements are being collected in the cloud or on computers
somewhere in the producers’ world.
Weather, soil moisture measurements, GPS tracking, seeding
rates, nutrient applications, accounting, pesticide records and on and on are
all part of the ag big data equation.
So What’s the Big (Data) Deal?
Companies like Google, IBM (Watson), Dun & Bradstreet, WalMart,
VISA and others have made decent profits analyzing what some might consider to
be relatively innocuous electronic activities and/or transactions. This data “mining”
has resulted in the identification of very valuable trends, facts and insights that
can only be possible when there is a lot of it (data) – and they have the right to access
it.
This is why Monsanto, Deere, Syngenta, Trimble, SST and just
about everyone in the agri-food technology “space” so covets a growers’ data. Answers
to all of the questions regarding
yield, and more importantly, profit maximization on the farm can be found in
all those bits and bytes.
The Cure for Cancer and 300 Bushel Corn
About 7 or 8 years ago the health care industry was charged
with overhauling their information systems from paper files to electronic
records. Some hospitals and doctors office had been undergoing the change prior
to this mandate but for the most part one could walk into many offices and gaze
at row after row of old manila folders containing all of your, and everyone
else’s, medical history. Needless to say analytics of this data was
nonexistent.
The opportunity for improved patient care is huge today
because of this medical digitization. We have an opportunity to determine the
effectiveness of procedures, practices, and pharmaceuticals that had never been
possible before.
GEM (GeneticsXEnvironmentXManagement) analytics of our
medical records can tell us so much about those causes of our ailments and success
of the prescribed practices. Researchers say that in the future every
individual with any given diagnosis will have a unique treatment plan based on historical
successes or failures of millions of patients and their prescribed solutions before
us.
Distrust Fuels Fear
What does this mean for growers who have a lot to gain and possibly
something to lose from the extensive analytics of BIG DATA? Suffice to say the upside for growers,
processors, packers, retailers, food service providers and the consumer is
unlimited. What is keeping us from realizing these gains in efficiencies may be
as simple as what is between our ears and a gripping distrust of those who
might control the data and therefor the outcomes.
