Châtenay-Malabry (FR - 92290), 14 December, 2020
EFITA newsletter / 963 - European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment
Do not miss the Virus Jokes in English and French
> Coronavirus 4 Coronavirus 3 Coronavirus 2 Ant joke Coronavirus 1
> Virus et autres sujets Virus 6 Virus 5 Virus 4 Virus 3 Virus 2 Virus 1
> Les dernières histoire de l'oncle Paul (Jamet) (mostly in French)
> Les dernières histoires de Georges Larroque(mostly in French)
> Les dernières histoires de Michel Gil-Antoli (mostly in French)
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I
met Roger Payne, statistician, excellent ornithologist and photograph,
at the Rothamsted station (UK) many years ago!
Roger sends me a splendid photo each year! |
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Q.: Why do I try to gather old paintings related to past rural life and agriculture?
R.: It is because I believe that a large majority of people in our rich countries suffer from social Alzheimer, disease of societies that no longer know anything about their past, creating a climate of anxiety that prevents us from evaluating the present correctly, let alone the future.
515 splendid videos of France (in French)
See French huge diversity of people, monuments, landscapes
Tevel Aerobotics Technologies wins Best Field Robot Concept Award 2020! (do not miss the video! - GW)
Tevel Aerobotics Technologies has won the Best Field Robot Concept Award 2020. The international expert jury selected their fruit picking drone from 22 applications from 11 countries. The public winner from a total of 2,359 individual votes is the Fieldwork Robotics fruit and vegetable picking robot.
This was announced during the international agricultural robot event FIRA.
See futurefarming.com
See video
Presentation at the first session of FIRA 2020 9 December 2020 (Forum International de la Robotique Agricole)
Agricultural robots in the Covid-19 crisis by Guy Waksman and Philippe Gate (Arvalis R&D director)
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IT-Supported Sustainable Ag (too late but interesting)
Thursday 10 December / 14:00 CET to 16:30 CET / (7:00 am to 9:30 am US Chicago - Central Time
You are invited to the year-end meeting (conference call) of AgGateway's European Regional Group. Our theme is IT-supported sustainable agriculture.
See aggateway.org
2020 Annual Conference AgGateway
Did you miss a session at AgGateway's Annual Conference that you'd still like to see? Great news!
For a limited time, you can watch the taped sessions at your convenience. All sessions will be available until at least December 31, so catch them now! You will need to be registered for the conference and have paid the registration fee to access the recorded sessions:
If you already registered for the conference, simply go to the conference agenda.
Didn't register but want to see the sessions? Simply register for the conference.
(You may need to wait less than a day for the conference registration to process before access is granted to the site.)
Here are some of the great sessions to access:
> State of the CIO – Roundtable discussion with Agricultural CIOs
> AgGateway in Europe: Linking External Data Repositories for Crop Protection Products; and Precision Ag Interoperability in Europe
> Iain Lennon of Proagrica: Connecting the Dots: Data and analytic solutions that combine agronomic, enterprise and supply chain systems
> Dan Kelly, The Negotiator Guru, Negotiating Software Contracts
> Andrew Kennedy, FDA: New Era of Smarter Food Safety
> Wendy Smith and Jeremy Wilson on AgGateway Strategic Plans, “Create, Engage, Grow”
> Retail and Energy Sales and Digital Connectivity Discussion
> Internet of Things – Parts 1 and 2
> Latin America Meet-Up Discussion
> Making Sense of Sensors & LoRa Implementation
> Crop Protection Unique Identification
> Agrisemantics Workshop
> Seed Messaging Working Group Session
> AgGateway Portfolio Update
> AGIIS Data Privacy Working Group
> Towards Ontology-based Data Integration for Grain Traceability
> Watch them now! www.AgGatewayAnnual2020.com
See aggateway.org
AGIIS Annual Maintenance Activities
AgGateway’s Ag Industry Identification System (AGIIS) provides a repository for industry common data elements that serve as the fundamental building blocks for efficient electronic interactions between agricultural companies. Today, AGIIS contains 5.3 Million entities and 221,000 agricultural products ranging from crop protection chemicals, seed and fertilizer.
AGIIS is a “living” directory that is constantly being updated and enhanced. It features a
Web interface that allows AGIIS subscribers to easily add and maintain products.
Each December, we perform a series of AGIIS maintenance activities in order to maintain data integrity within the database. These activities may update entity demographics, so it is important for AGIIS subscribers to understand when each maintenance activity is being performed so that any resulting changes to entity demographics can be applied to their internal systems.
See aggateway.org
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How did we the future yesterday??
See the incredible collection developed by Alain Fraval
Efita 2021 Conference
25 -26 May 2021 - Digital Agriculture Web Conference
The European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment (EFITA) would like to invite you at the first EFITA International online Conference in 2021. As a way to keep the momentum and engagement of our society, while maintaining the plans for the 2022 physical EFITA conference, this conference and its format are planned as a response to the unpredictable situation created by the COVID-19.
This event is an opportunity to bring together engineers, scientists, technicians, aca-demics and industry people in a new way to exchange knowledge, ideas, to present innovations and to discuss the state-of-the-art and future use of ICT in the agri-food sector and bio-resources production sectors.
See efita2021.com
Contact: Dionysis BOCHTIS
E-mail: d.bochtis(a)certh.gr
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The Significance of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Stuart
Smyth December 1, 2020
The year is coming to an end, and 2020 has popped a balloon
filled with myths, untruths and lies deliberately spread by
eNGOs on gene editing. This fall the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
was awarded for the discovery of the gene editing technology
CRISPR/Cas9, popping the negative balloon full of mistrust for
such technology. This gene editing advancement, co-discovered
by Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, is a transformative
innovation that is demonstrating the staggering potential for
improving global food security and human health. Early field
trials of crop varieties developed by gene editing are reporting
significant yield increases (such as 20% in rice), and we expect
CRISPR/Cas9 to continue these advancements. In terms of improving
human health, virtually all of the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines
in development are utilizing gene editing technology.
See saifood.ca
New CRISPR-based test for COVID-19 uses a smartphone camera,
by Gladstone Institutes
.../...
"We knew the assay we were developing would be a logical
fit to help the crisis by allowing rapid testing with minimal
resources," says Fozouni, who is co-first author of the
paper, along with Sungmin Son and María Díaz de León Derby from
Fletcher's team at UC Berkeley. "Instead of the well-known
CRISPR protein called Cas9, which recognizes and cleaves DNA,
we used Cas13, which cleaves RNA."
In the new test, the Cas13 protein is combined with a reporter
molecule that becomes fluorescent when cut, and then mixed with
a patient sample from a nasal swab. The sample is placed in
a device that attaches to a smartphone. If the sample contains
RNA from SARS-CoV-2, Cas13 will be activated and will cut the
reporter molecule, causing the emission of a fluorescent signal.
Then, the smartphone camera, essentially converted into a microscope,
can detect the fluorescence and report that a swab tested positive
for the virus.
"What really makes this test unique is that it uses a one-step
reaction to directly test the viral RNA, as opposed to the two-step
process in traditional PCR tests," says Ott, who is also
a professor in the Department of Medicine at UCSF. "The
simpler chemistry, paired with the smartphone camera, cuts down
detection time and doesn't require complex lab equipment. It
also allows the test to yield quantitative measurements rather
than simply a positive or negative result."
.../...
See medicalxpress.com
Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Le dépiquage au rouleau de pierre par Edouard Debat-Ponsan (1847-1913)
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EIP-AGRI: making EU agriculture and forestry future-proof
since 2013
See
EIP-AGRI
Sustainable Agriculture - New Ag International
eBook Series
How do you define sustainable agriculture? For us
it’s about agricultural practices, products and inputs
that benefit farmers without causing a harmful impact
to the environment. At the same time, it’s also about
balancing environmental impact with economic factors.
Throughout the latest edition of the New Ag International
eBook Series we hear from agri leaders, farmers and
educators who are passionate about sustainable agriculture.
Discover why sustainable agriculture is of critical
importance to AlgaEnergy and what we can be doing
as an industry to support the development of sustainable
solutions for the next generation of farmers.
See
New Ag International
Digital fertilizer trading platform Fertilizer Exchange to launch in Q1 2021
The first blockchain-enabled, digital global platform specifically designed to trade physical fertilizer is set for commercial launch.
See newaginternational.com
SeeTree closes $30m Series B round to adapt tree monitoring tech for new crops, AFN, by Jack Ellis
.../...
As part of the deal, Netafim — Orbia’s Israel-based precision agriculture business — will incorporate SeeTree’s solutions into its digital farming offering and support the startup’s continued development.
The Tel Aviv-based startup provides tree health insights using a combination of military-grade drones, ground sensors, artificial intelligence, multispectral imaging, and in-field data collection. Fruit growers can leverage these insights to assess and continually monitor the health and growth rate of their orchards and groves, with SeeTree producing personalized cultivation plans for each tree or cluster of trees.
This multi-channel platform enables SeeTree to offer what it describes as a “more holistic” approach compared to competing services that focus on specific aspects of tree health.
.../...
See agfundernews.com
Nothing
is more responsible for the good old days than a
bad memory: Un gué à Salies, 1899,
par Edouard Debat-Ponsan (1847-1913)
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FarmLab thinks it can get 1m farmers to sequester 1bn tonnes of CO2 by 2025. Here’s how, AFN, by Jack Ellis
Do you reckon 1 million farmers globally can sequester 1 billion tonnes of carbon — removing the rough equivalent of 217 million cars from the road — and all within the next five years?
Given the seemingly sluggish development of carbon credit markets and regulations to govern them, the persistence of climate change skepticism, and the fact that the world has its mind on other things at the moment, no-one would blame you for feeling that may be a little over-optimistic. No-one, perhaps, apart from FarmLab co-founder and CEO Sam Duncan and his team.
See agfundernews.com
The 8 F’s of Indian agritech investing, AFN, by guest contributors: A B Chakravarthy & Aditya Jahagirdar
Last year, agrifoodtech investments in India were worth $1.1 billion in total, according to research from AgFunder. Back in 2013 this figure was only $89 million. Given that agriculture contributes 15% of India’s GDP and employs close to half of its workforce, agritech came as a rather late entrant to mainstream venture funds’ portfolios.
See agfundernews.com
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Singapore offers $9m boost to blockchain projects, starting with farmer finance, AFN, by Jack Ellis
Singapore has established a S$12 million ($8.97 million) scheme to strengthen its capabilities in blockchain technology – and its first project is focused on farmer finance.
Government agencies Enterprise Singapore, the Infocomm Media Development Authority, and the National Research Foundation (NRF) are launching the Singapore Blockchain Innovation Program (SBIP) with the support of the city-state’s central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The program’s funding is coming from the NRF.
See agfundernews.com
Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Harvesting in Glaisdale by John Atkinson (1863 - 1924)
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Facial recognition for pigs: Is it helping Chinese farmers or hurting the poorest? The Guardian, by Sandy Milne (seen in the AgFunder newsletter)
Automation is revolutionising China’s pork farms but leaving independent farmers behind.
See theguardian.com
Digital platforms: John Deere launches digital farming hub
The new John Deere Digital Agriculture Hub will offer digital information, insights and learnings.
See futurefarming.com
Spreader monitors: Bogballe launches intelligent monitor for spreaders
Calibrator Totz offers automatic calibration, GPS section control and use of application maps.
See futurefarming.com
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Precision planters: Horsch offers greater choice of precision planters
Horsch launched newly designed seeding units with a choice of air vacuum or pressure operation.
See futurefarming.com
Irrigation management: Wilbur-Ellis acquires Probe Schedule irrigation management
Probe Schedule's technology calculates accurate crop water usage and soil moisture.
See futurefarming.com
Farmers are Installing Drainage Pipe and it is Simple
Farmers are installing their own drainage pipes. Soil-Max offers a variety of plow sizes to fit a variety of tractors. Using RTK GPS and Ag Leader grade control, farmers can install drainage pipes in their fields for a fraction of the cost. The GPS controlled tile plow offers freedom and flexibility to farmers.
See futurefarming.com
Driverless technology: Raven AutoCart available for pre-order
Raven accepting pre-orders for its first commercially available Driverless Ag Technology: AutoCart.
See futurefarming.com
Field robots: AgXeed robot tractor test drive: first impression
Future Farming were the first to see the new AgXeed robot tractor at work. Watch the video!
See futurefarming.com
Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: The Potato Pickers by Fredrick William Jackson (1859-1918)
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My point of view about the next link (GW)
I believe that the hereafter link / paper is deeply wrong. It is written by researchers who never practice advisory activities that have really nothing or nearly nothing to do with research activities. And the researchers are not often among the good ag advisors… Let the researchers do a good job within their areas of competence and let people, who really know the farmers, develop really relevant advisory services!
Ending hunger: science must stop neglecting smallholder farmers, in Nature (seen in the AgFunder newsletter)
Policymakers urgently need ideas on ways to end hunger. But a global review of the literature finds that most researchers have had the wrong priorities.
How can research help to end hunger? One way to answer this question is to assess published research on hunger, and determine which interventions can make a difference to the lives of the 690 million people who go hungry every day.
That’s what an international research consortium called Ceres2030 has been doing1. And the results of its 3-year effort to review more than 100,000 articles are published this week across the Nature Research journals2. The consortium’s findings — coming just days after this year’s Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the World Food Programme — are both revealing and concerning.
…/…
See nature.com
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Harnessing nature for faster mRNA vaccine manufacturing (seen in the AgFunder newsletter)
Manufacturing capacity is often decried as a major bottleneck in administering COVID-19 vaccines to a global population of 7.8 billion. For mRNA vaccines, which can make 1 million doses in a 2-liter bioreactor, the bottleneck is the availability of raw materials, not bioreactors.
GreenLight Biosciences’ proprietary biological mRNA manufacturing method eliminates that constriction by using a natural, biological approach. The method isn’t being used for the vaccines being manufactured now, but it could be important in vaccine rollouts in 2021 and later.
See biospace.com
Biden agriculture pick likely to reassure farmers, disappoint activists, Reuters, by Jarrett Renshaw & Christopher Walljasper (seen in agfundernews.com)
See reuters.com
We need a Secretary of Food, The New York Times, by José Andrés (seen in agfundernews.com)
See NYT
About Pornhub (NYT)
We don’t talk much about Pornhub in polite society, but it’s one of the biggest websites in the world. Every month it attracts more visitors than Netflix, Yahoo or Amazon, and its corporate owners rake in vast sums of money. What most people don’t know about it is that it’s infested with rape videos.
Anybody can upload a video to Pornhub, making it a bit like YouTube for sex. The majority of the videos depict consenting adults, but others show sexual assaults on children or on unconscious women — and that’s the topic of a special investigative report I’ve written for the Sunday Times, released online now.
See nytimes.com
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¿Cuánto hemos crecido? La mala nutrición genera una brecha de hasta 20 centímetros de altura entre países
Un estudio analiza la talla de 65 millones de niños y jóvenes de 5 a 19 años en 193 naciones de todo el mundo desde 1985 hasta 2019.
Ver elpais.com
Lo que yo pienso (GW): El estado mental de los periodistas de El País es tanto pesimista i deprimido como mucha gente en Francia porque le título del articulo debería ser:
"La buena nutrición genera una subida de hasta 20 centímetros de altura entre países".
Sería más cerca de la verdad.
Esta subida de la talla humana en casi todo el mundo es la prueba que hay menos hambriento, que la población mundial tiene una mejor salud, y tiene una mejor alimentación.
Algunos enlaces para entender el pensamiento de Steven Pinker y su optimismo
>>>> Tenemos motivos de sobra para ser optimistas (4 FEB 2018)
Una corriente de pensamiento en alza promueve la fe en el constante avance humano. Steven Pinker ofrece sorprendentes indicadores para medir el progreso
Ver elpais.com
>>>> Steven Pinker: “Los populistas están en el lado oscuro de la historia” (17 JUN 2018)
Para vencer al populismo se debe además reconocer el valor del progreso
Ver elpais.com
>>>> Los aprendizajes extraídos de la pandemia centran la primera jornada de EnlightED (20 Oct 2020)
El profesor Steven Pinker llama a la defensa del progreso y al optimismo basado en datos
Ver elpais.com
>>>> Steven Pinker: “El Partido Demócrata debe distanciarse de la palabra socialismo” (8 NOV 2020)
El ensayista y profesor de Harvard, uno de los grandes psicólogos cognitivos del mundo, apunta que muchos norteamericanos votaron a Trump porque las políticas de identidad de la izquierda y la corrección política crean aversión.
Ver elpais.com
Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory (?????): Mujeres en la fuente para Léon Augustin Lhermitte - musée Soumaya, Mexico (Mexique)
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The only question asked was: "Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?"
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Contact: Guy WAKSMAN
E-mail: guy.waksman(a)laposte.net
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