US ag automation startup FarmWise Labs, which builds weeding robot Titan, has raised $45 million in Series B funding, it announced today.

- Fall Line Capital and Middleland Capital co-led the round.
- Taylor Farms, one of the top producers of leafy greens and other vegetables for the US retail market, and GV — the VC arm of Google parent Alphabet — came on board as new investors.
- Existing investors Calibrate Ventures, Playground Global, SVG Ventures, and Cavallo Ventures — the VC arm of Wilbur-Ellis — also participated in the round.
- The Series B raise takes the San Francisco-based startup’s total equity funding to date to $65 million.
…/…
See agfundernews.com


Overtime in the agriculture industry: One size can’t fit all, by Tim Durham, June 09, 2022

Overtime in the agriculture sector is a colossal misfire, and a glaring incompatibility if there ever was one for an industry that is anything by 9-to-5.
See agdaily.com


The Bridge, by John Alfred Arnesby Brown (1866–1955), Walker Art Gallery

07 - 09/06/2022

Does the growing of Bt maize change abundance or ecological function of non-target animals compared to the growing of non-GM maize? A systematic review, by Michael Meissle, Steven E. Naranjo & Jörg Romeis
.../...
>> Implications for policy
Our review provides evidence that Bt maize represents a highly selective pest control technology with relatively few negative consequences on a wide array of taxa associated with maize production, especially when compared with the alternative use of broad-spectrum insecticides for managing Bt-targeted pests.

The Bt maize transformation events that have been cultivated commercially worldwide have all gone through regulatory environmental risk assessments that concluded that no unacceptable risks for non-target organisms and biodiversity exist [2, 73, 74]. Our systematic review generally supports these conclusions.

>> Implications for research
Our results largely agreed with prior meta-analyses focused on or including Bt maize. The robust approach ameliorates many of the shortcomings of prior analyses, such as level of analysis, data-dependence issues, and consideration of internal and external validity.

One shortcoming of this current review and all prior ones, however, is the limited availability of appropriate data (in particular raw data) with the consequence that some data had to be estimated (rather than calculated) for the quantitative analyses, while other datasets could not be analyzed at all. Future articles should make full datasets publicly available to foster future meta-analyses and focus on taxonomic groups and geographies that are under-represented in the current database.

More research is recommended on experimental plot sizes necessary for a better representation of farm scale conditions for animals with mobile life stages and multiple generations per season. Furthermore, research on the biological relevance of differences in field populations is needed. For example, some evidence suggests small changes in abundance do not impact biological control function in Bt cotton [75].

That is, even if statistical differences in experimental studies and meta-analyses are observed, how are such differences linked to ecosystem functions and can they lead to harm?
See environmentalevidencejournal.biomedcentral.com


Does the Covid-19 crisis pave the way for less unbridled globalization?
Voir cepii.fr (in French)

05 - 09/06/2022

Personal food decisions are made when prices increase, by John Rigolizzo, Jr. May 12, 2022

I’m more than doubling the size of my garden this year.

We’re going to grow more of our own food in our backyard because I’m concerned about the cost and availability of fresh fruits and vegetables. As inflation soars, they’re going to become more expensive and harder to find.

That’s what my instincts as a lifelong farmer in New Jersey are telling me.

So I’m taking matters into my own hands. For years, I’ve grown tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and other vegetables in four garden beds behind my house. We eat them all summer and can them for the winter, making everything from tomato sauce to pickled peppers.

selective focus photo of shovel on sandNow I’m building an additional six garden beds. This will allow me to increase my tomato plants from 18 to 50 and my pepper plants from 24 to 60. I’ll also grow lettuce and eggplants.
../...
See globalfarmernetwork.org


Nobel Endeavours

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman once said ‘If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics.’ As people who’ve never professed to understand quantum mechanics, The Fence find this statement quite presumptuous, but decided we’d ask some of the world’s biggest boffins how much they do or don’t know about their jobs, life and everything else besides.
See the-fence.com/


“Carbon Bombs” - Mapping key fossil fuel projects, by Kjell Kühne, Nils Bartsch, Ryan DriskellTate, Julia Higson, André Habet

Global map of carbon bombs with combined potential emissions given for each country

See sciencedirect.com/

06 - 09/06/2022

After millennia of agricultural expansion, the world has passed ‘peak agricultural land’

For millennia humans have been clearing forests and wild grasslands to grow crops and raise livestock. This has come at a huge cost to the planet’s biodiversity.

But this expansion of agricultural land has now come to an end — we have passed the peak and global agricultural land use has declined.

Despite using less land for agriculture, the world has continued to produce more food than ever. This shows that feeding more people does not have to mean taking habitat away from other wildlife. We can produce more while giving land back to nature at the same time.

While this global picture is promising, there are several reasons why we should not be complacent about this development, such as the fact that agricultural land use is still increasing in many individual countries — often at the expense of carbon-rich habitats.

In this article, we make the case that the continued decline of agricultural land is not guaranteed. The future of land use rests on the decisions we make today.





Sketch for 'The Estuary, Gathering Clouds', by John Alfred Arnesby Brown (1866–1955), Norfolk Museums Service

08 - 09/06/2022

The argument for a carbon price

It’s a mistake to believe that we are not already paying for emitting greenhouse gasses. Even if we do not pay a monetary price for carbon emissions, we do pay a very large price: the consequences of climate change.

Without a monetary carbon price it is those who have the smallest emissions that suffer the largest costs from climate change. A carbon price, in contrast, means that those who cause the emissions also pay for them.

A key reason why voters are not in favor of carbon pricing is that many believe it won’t actually reduce emissions, but empirical research and theory show that this is wrong. Pricing carbon emissions — either via a carbon tax or a “cap and trade” system — is effective.

Many are deeply concerned about climate change yet feel hopeless that anything can be done to meet this challenge.

With this article from June 2021, we aim to increase the understanding that carbon pricing works, correct common misconceptions, and show that we have ways to successfully fight climate change.