Efita Newsletter / 914, dated January 27, 2020

Châtenay-Malabry (FR - 92290), January 27, 2020

EFITA newsletter / 914 - European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment

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Washing machines and tractors freed America's children to receive an education. Technological Progress Freed Kids from Hard Labor, by Chelsea Follett

It’s summertime and across the United States, children are away from school. The custom of long breaks in the school year dates to when most Americans worked in agriculture and often needed their children’s help on the farm. Of course, most children simply didn’t attend school, instead helping with housework and grueling farm labor year-round. In 1820, for example, primary school enrollment in the United States was just over 40 percent. That percentage rapidly shot upward in the coming decades, reaching 100 percent by 1870. But even then, many children didn’t make it past elementary school. In 1870, U.S. mean years of schooling stood at just 4.28. That number has risen steadily ever since. What changed? Technology, for one thing.

In his book Enlightenment Now, Harvard University professor Steven Pinker recounts how technology helped get boys off the farm and into the classroom. He quotes a tractor advertisement from 1921:

“By investing in a Case Tractor and Ground Detour Plow and Harrow outfit now, your boy can get his schooling without interruption, and the Spring work will not suffer by his absence. Keep the boy in school—and let a Case Kerosene Tractor take his place in the field. You'll never regret either investment.”

Alexandria LaunchLabs opens $100k agtech pitch competition – apply by Jan 31!

Are you an agtech entrepreneur looking for a little capital to take your idea to the next level? Alexandria LaunchLabs – AgTech is looking for early-stage startups to compete in an expenses-paid, in-person pitch competition in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park. Details are still being finalized, but the pitch competition will take place in May, Blake Stevens principal at Alexandria Venture Investments and the new head of its agtech arm, told AFN.

The winning contestant will receive a $75,000 cash price and a one-year membership to LaunchLabs’ world-class facility with state-of-the-art amenities and company-building support valued at $25,000. A panel of judges made up of investors in the agtech venture community, strategic partners from larger ag chem companies, and experienced entrepreneurs will choose the lucky winner.
See agfundernews.com

DSSAT 2020 International Training Program

The DSSAT Foundation, in collaboration with the University of Florida and the International Fertilizer Development Center, will host an international training program entitled DSSAT 2020 - "Assessing Crop Production, Nutrient Management, Climatic Risk and Environmental Sustainability with Simulation Models" from May 18 through May 23, 2020 at the University of Georgia Campus in Griffin, Georgia, USA.

The overall goal of the workshop is to familiarize the workshop participants with the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT v4.7); the Cropping System Model (CSM) for the simulation of crop growth and yield, soil and plant water, nutrient, and carbon dynamics; and the application of models to real world problems, such as crop and resource management, climate change and climate variability, carbon sequestration, food security, biofuels, and environmental sustainability.

See the DSSAT Foundation web

See ugagriffincontinuinged.com

Contact: Gerrit HOOGENBOOM
E-mail: gerrit(a)ufl.edu

Good old days (?????): Paysage avec champs de blé, attribué à Joos de Momper (1564-1635), signalé par Pierre del Porto (musée Lambinet à Versailles)
Mél : pierre.delporto(a)gmail.com

Ag robotics startup Tortuga comes out of stealth with Tesla co-founder Tarpenning on board

“One thing I learned in the car business is how tough the environment is on the road and it’s a very similar problem in farming. A lot of the technology is just too delicate and fiddly; durability is a big one in the farm environment.”
See agfundernews.com

Zap! This UK startup just raised €6.5m to commit electricide on weeds
See agfundernews.com

Good old days (?????): Moisson (?) par Remzi Taşkıran - Turkish Art

FAO Director-General QU Dongyu today urged the private sector to work with the organization in its efforts to lift the world’s most vulnerable out of hunger and poverty (23 January 2020, Davos)

Speaking to UN TV at the 2020 World Economic Forum in Davos, the Director-General said more than 800 million people in the world did not have enough to eat and called for urgent action to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

He invited private companies to work with national governments, academics and civil society in supporting FAO’s new Hand-in-Hand initiative, which is designed to match donors with recipient countries to tackle poverty and accelerate development.

“We have to do it as quickly as possible because time is running out,” Qu said. “We have to build a better future for our planet.”

Qu said the most vulnerable people were located on small islands or landlocked countries, least developed countries and in conflict areas. He said densely populated countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria accounted for 90 percent of the world’s poverty.

He said FAO wanted to work with farmers and member countries as well as the private sector to facilitate change and transform people’s livelihoods.

“We want to build a network in a collective way to help people who need it the most,” Qu said. “At the international level we have to work together.”

The Director-General said he had had fruitful talks with CEOs at Davos and stressed it was important to combine their interests with UN action that will make a difference through capacity building, technology transfers and other kinds of support.

See FAO

Court to probe Carrie Symonds’ influence on PM after cancellation of badger cull (cows or badgers... badgers! - A Johnson story - GW)

Boris Johnson’s partner and animal rights activist was briefed by Badger Trust weeks before the policy was changed.
See theguardian.com

Kenya suffers worst locust infestation in 70 years as millions of insects swarm farmland

UN urges immediate action as east African nations already experiencing devastating hunger see large areas of crops destroyed.

See theguardian.com

Hay que combatir el miedo al futuro, para Fernando VALLESPÍN (10 enero 2020)

Las historias sobre el temor al porvenir ejercen un gran poder de atracción. Pero no debemos quedarnos paralizados, sino reenfocar el mito del progreso. ¿Por qué no podemos creer en un futuro mejor?

Otra respuesta ya tiene más verosimilitud: el abandono de toda esperanza en que existan medios capaces de resolver todas estas amenazas. Lo que de verdad nos fallaría, por tanto, es la política, que habría perdido el control sobre nuestro destino. La emigración del poder hacia esferas libres de intervenciones políticas, es decir, la imposibilidad de que la globalización pueda llegar a ser domada por vías políticas, junto a la evidencia de un agotamiento sistémico del capitalismo sin que sea posible llegar a una alternativa viable es lo que nos sume en el estupor. O que toda intervención política eficaz pase por la renuncia a nuestro modo de vida o a la libertad misma. Como nos muestra el cambio climático, el gran problema es que lo que creemos necesario no sabemos cómo traducirlo después en medidas vinculantes para todos. Esto es lo que produce esta sensación de estar danzando sin red sobre el abismo.

Antes decíamos que las distopías eran algo así como la otra cara, la zona de sombra, de las utopías. Bien visto, parece más bien que son su consecuencia; por el hecho de perseguirlas acríticamente devinieron en su contrario. Esta es la idea que latía detrás de la Dialéctica de la Ilustración de Adorno y Horkheimer, escrita en medio de las convulsiones provocadas por la II Guerra Mundial y la contemplación de los totalitarismos. Por un lado, el nacional-fascista (utopía I); por otro, el bolchevique (utopía II), donde el ideal de emancipación del hombre derivó en su total sometimiento. Pero abarcaba también al capitalismo de masas estadounidense, donde la búsqueda de la supuesta autonomía y libertad individual (utopía III) originó sujetos banales sometidos a un consumo ciego y depredador de la naturaleza y manipulados por la industria mediática.

Moraleja: tomémonos en serio los mensajes distópicos, reenfoquemos el mito del progreso y no nos dejemos paralizar por el miedo. Pero, sobre todo, recuperemos la política. No esa política de salón a la que estamos acostumbrados, parroquial y de luces cortas. Lo que ahora necesitamos es una política épica de dimensión planetaria, previsora y eficaz. Recuerden, estamos a pocos minutos del apocalipsis.
Ver elpais.com/