Efita Newsletter 1013, dated November 15, 2021

To correspond with me (GW), please use this address: guy.waksman(a)laposte.net


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11 November, end of the first WW - "Remembrance day" - Tribute to the rural world and farmer's wives in particular, for the centenary of the Battle of Verdun 1916 - 2016 (The horrors of the two world wars should be remembered more often to appreciate even more the happiness of living in peace in the European Union)

HONNEUR ET AGRICULTURE 1914-1918 1939-1945

Three female representations on this war memorial located in front of the chapel of Notre-Dame de la Sort in Saint-Laurent-de-Cerdans (PO), a chapel which served as an infirmary when many Spaniards fled in 1939 to the end of the Spanish Civil War (Retirada). A little later, and in the opposite direction, resistance fighters and Jews fleeing persecution by the Nazis tried here to cross the Spanish border to reach UK.

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Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Lavandières, 1888, de Paul Gauguin

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Neayi: Collective intelligence at the service of innovation of farming practices

We design a web platform that brings together farmers and experts, to enable them to evaluate the relevance of a practice before implementing it.
See Neayi


Going beyond pure data on the way to sustainable and efficient farming.

At SmartFarm, we know that there are many factors making farming difficult. Because of that, we created an all-in-one solution to support you when facing these daily challenges.
We go beyond the pure gathering of data and provide you with the information you need to make the right decisions. To become more sustainable, manage your time better and save hard cash.

SmartFarm is brand of AppsforAgri B.V.
See smartfarm.nl


Robotic Pruner Ready to Cut Down Production Problems in Apple Orchards, By Growing Produce

While the whole of agriculture trends toward automation technologies, the production operations of tree fruit crops still requires a fair amount of manual labor, writes Thomas Skernivitz at Growing Produce.

The pruning of apple trees, for instance, comprises about 20% of total preharvest production costs. Between 30 and 35 working hours of skilled labor are required per acre for manual pruning of apple trees. The dilemma increases ever more as the labor force diminishes and labor costs rise.

“There is a need to find a potential solution to this problem,” Azlan Zahid, a graduate student at Penn State University, says.
.../...
See precisionag.com

Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Les Lavandières à Arles, 1888, de Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), The Museum of Modern Art, New-York

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The Future of American Farming Demands High Speed Internet Solutions

New report from Benton Institute for Broadband & Society recommends steps for connecting the farm office, field, and community.
See precisionag.com


Agrology Introduces Predictive Agriculture System for the Wine Industry and Specialty Crops

Based on machine learning and AI, the Agrology system mitigates, predicts, and addresses issues with smoke taint, irrigation and climate change.
See precisionag.com


Growers Counter the Impacts of Drought and Water Scarcity with New Irrigation Optimization Suite

Ceres Imaging introduces precision irrigation tools that integrate soil moisture sensors with aerial imagery.
See precisionag.com


Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Breton, 1910, par Charles Rivière (1848-1920)

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A farmers' assistant

Helps to run the most efficient dairy farm by working with farmers to identify issues, recommend solutions and streamline operations.
See connecterra.io


More government investment in innovation needed for food resilience, says USDA's Vilsack COP26! AFN, by Jennifer Marston
“We have to grow more food in the next 30 years than in the previous 10,000, and we need new answers.” That was the summary from David Farquhar, CEO of indoor agtech startup Intelligent Growth Systems (IGS), speaking at an event on climate-smart innovation on the sidelines of the COP26 summit this week [disclosure: AgFunder, AFN‘s parent company, is an investor in IGS.]

The event featured a discussion — between US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Debbie Stabenow, chairwoman of the US Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, and S2G Ventures managing director Sanjeev Krishnan — on how innovation could provide those “new answers,” and what role governments can play.

Vilsack kicked off by announcing that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing $25 million across 18 climate-smart innovation projects for food and agriculture. While he didn’t give further details during the talk, he said the $25 million is “one small part of a larger focus of the government’s on ag innovation.”

The main mission of innovation, he added, should be about reducing the financial risk that farmers face when they consider new tools and practices that can build up climate change resilience.
.../...
See agfundernews.com


In Glasgow, I saw three big shifts in the climate conversation, by Bill Gates, November 08, 2021
.../...
So it was great to hear President Biden and other leaders repeatedly raising the importance of adaptation. I got to join the president, along with officials from the United Arab Emirates, to launch a program called Agricultural Innovation Mission for Climate. It’s designed to focus some of the world’s innovative IQ on ways to help the poorest people adapt, such as new varieties of crops that can withstand more droughts and floods. More than 30 other countries, as well as dozens of companies and nonprofits (including the Gates Foundation), are already supporting it.

As part of that effort, I joined a coalition of donors that pledged more than half a billion dollars to support the CGIAR’s work to advance climate-smart innovations for smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Some people look at the problems that still need to be solved and see the glass as half-empty. I don’t share that view, but this is what I would tell anyone who does: The glass is being filled up faster than ever. If we keep this up—if the world puts even more effort into innovations that reduce the cost of getting to zero and help the poorest people adapt to climate change—then we’ll be able to look back on this summit as an important milestone in avoiding a climate disaster.
See gatesnotes.com


Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Veille Bretonne (1910), par Henri Guinier (1867-1927)

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Future Farming

> Machine Vision for Agriculture
Today's agriculture is facing an increasing number of challenges – high production and labor cost despite the lack of skilled workers is only one out of many. To face these challenges, machine vision has become an integral part of many automation and robotics applications used in agriculture.

> Video: Machine Vision & Agriculture 4.0

> Video: Plant Protection with MVTec

> Weed seed bites the dust

> Preventing grain spoilage and fire

> Can it be done? Farming without glyphosate
Right now, those in arable farming are watching closely what will happen with banning glyphosate – and wondering how they will manage without it.

> Discover new Ag Tech auto steer system
The availability of economical, high-precision automated steering boosts the adoption of precision farming technology across all size farms.

> Variable planting: Planting potatoes using precision technique
Arable farmers are very interested in variable planting of ware potatoes.

> Spot spraying: Spot spraying on target to cut inputs
A new 3S Spot Spray Sensor scans crops and analyses the images to identify diseases, pests and nutrient requirements.

> Greenhouse robots: Iron Ox launches autonomous greenhouse robot
According to Iron Ox, Grover can lift more than 1,000 pounds and assists in the monitoring, watering and harvesting of a wide variety of crops.

> Tech adoption: Study: Don’t exclude small farmer from agtech innovations
A recent study by the UN shows why the (in)ability to adopt digital innovations can increase inequality and poverty in Brazilian agriculture.

> Electrification: CNHi to use Monarch Tractor electrification technology
CNH Industrial has entered into an exclusive, multi-year licensing agreement for electrification technologies with Monarch Tractor.

> Soil monitoring: NASA Harvest explores new methods for monitoring soil moisture
New methods for monitoring soil moisture use a combination of machine learning models and satellite-based radar waves.

Fonterra signs distribution deal with Dutch artificial intelligence company Stuff, by Bonnie Flaws (feat. Connecterra)
.../...
Fonterra has signed a deal with Dutch company Connecterra to provide dairy farmers with insights using artificial intelligence.

The agreement will give farmers access to Connecterra’s intelligent dairy assistant platform (Ida), which collects behavioural data from cows using collar-mounted sensors and combines it with data from internet-connected systems and equipment on-farm.
.../...
See stuff.co.nz


The world benefits when farmers are supported as entrepreneurs, by Stuart Taylor

Farmers are natural entrepreneurs.

Here in New Zealand, as we work to produce the food that our country and the world needs, we take risks, see solutions to challenges when they arrive, and solve problems. We’re constantly questioning and changing what we do. Many of our efforts these days are devoted to the economic and environmental sustainability of our operations.

And we approach it all with a spirit of entrepreneurship.
.../...
See globalfarmernetwork.org


Ascribe Bioscience gets $2.5m to fight crop loss with soil ‘signaling molecules’ Exclusive! AFN, by Jennifer Marston

.../...
The seed capital will go towards the commercial development of Ascribe’s main product Phytalix, which is a biopesticide that ‘tells’ a plant when there is a pathogenic threat nearby. Plants respond to this warning by priming their immune systems in defense.

Phytalix can be applied as a seed treatment, foliar spray, or soil amendment, and has shown the ability to combat a wide range of pathogens including fungi, bacteria, nematodes, and viruses in a variety of crops.

Founded in 2017 by professors Dan Klessig and Frank Schroeder, Ascribe was spun out of the Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell University.

Jay Farmer, Ascribe’s CEO, tells AFN that the company is “the marriage of two academic fields” – metabolomics and plant defense signaling. “What we’re doing at that intersection is really looking for natural small molecules, that already exist in the environment, that plants have evolved to pay attention to,” he says.

The Ithaca, New York-based startup identifies such molecules and harnesses them into biopesticide products like Phytalix, or biostimulants which offer a more nature-based approach to crop protection than toxic chemical fungicides.

Farmer likens Ascribe’s products to a vaccine. “You expose a human body to a pathogen, or a signal of a pathogen, and then the immune system recognizes it and reacts more quickly. Mechanically, it works a little bit differently in plants, but it’s a similar idea,” he explains.

“When a pathogen does arrive, the plant can respond much more quickly. And so essentially, this product is using the plant’s natural defenses to make them more tolerant against a wide array of pathogens.”
.../...
See agfundernews.com


Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: La Petite Bergère de Gustave Courbet

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Why it is important to evolve from precision farming to Agriculture 4.0, AFN, by guest contributors: Filippo Renga, Andrea Bacchetti, Chiara Corbo & Dana Bonaldi
.../...
This analysis highlighted that one crucial aspect of Agriculture 4.0, together with the above-mentioned digitalization process, is the opportunity for farmers to connect with the different players in the food chain to exchange useful data and services. This generates new business opportunities and efficiency for both farmers and input, service, and technical providers.

For instance, while harvesting, farmers can better coordinate with transportation and food processing companies; an original equipment manufacturer can offer monitoring and maintenance services based on machine-generated data; or agronomists can offer treatment insights remotely.

Additionally, data collected along the entire supply chain can enhance transparency, improve food traceability, and generate new market opportunities by enabling the sharing information with consumers. In Italy, for example, several agrifood companies are now basing their value proposition on transparency, traceability, and guarantee of origin.

Finally, agricultural data can be directly monetized: even if still not very common, we have studied interesting cases of farmers sharing their data for a fee on platforms that analyze them in order to produce accurate insights and forecasts – for example, on climatic events, market trends, or commodities prices. In the future, agricultural companies could have the profitable opportunity to also become service providers, diversifying their core business − primary production − into new areas by offering services and data.
.../...
See agfundernews.com

Regenerative Agriculture: The Next Trend In Food Retailing, by Jack Uldrich, Forbes Councils Member
.../...
At its most basic level, regenerative agriculture is a more nature-friendly way of farming. It can be thought of as the next step beyond organic and sustainability. Although there is not yet an officially agreed-upon definition, regenerative agriculture employs farming and grazing practices that restore degraded soil, improve biodiversity among pollinators (especially bees and butterflies) and increase carbon capture in the soil to create long-lasting environmental benefits.
See forbes.com


Replay - Online workshop ‘Strength in numbers - network to innovate’

You can rewatch the workshop organised by the Estonian Rural Network on networking and innovation. It was about knowledge exchange between projects from different countries, focussing on how innovation can be brought about in the agricultural sector. There were 3 thematic sessions on Soil and plant production, Food production and processing and Livestock.
See video


Research and innovation at the Farm to Fork conference

At the Farm to Fork Conference 2021, session #5 was on research and innovation. 7 Horizon 2020 projects presented inspiring solutions to food system challenges. Speakers from the EU Commission presented Horizon Europe and its funding opportunities. Finally, a discussion was held between representatives of farmers, food businesses, consumers and researchers on critical needs in terms of research and innovation within the food system.
See video


Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory (?????): Heissische Landschaft, von Andreas Achenbach (German, 1815-1910)

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Supply chain overtaking ag & land use as main source of food emissions: FAO New data! AFN, by Jack Ellis

A new study from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) indicates that the supply chain is the fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from global food systems, outpacing agricultural activity and land use changes.

Released in pre-print yesterday at the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, UK, the paper analyzes measurements of GHG emissions — including carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide — from 236 countries between 1990 and 2019. The data was drawn from the FAO’s own FAOStat database.

The world’s agrifood systems were responsible for 31% — 16.5 billion metric tons — of total “anthropogenic” GHG emissions by carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2eq) in 2019, according to the study. That represents a 17% increase from 1990 (the global population has grown by around 45% over the same timeframe, according to World Bank figures.)
.../...
See agfundernews.com

Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory (?????): Aujourd'hui ! Estampe / caricature de Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, 1894. BNF

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See ourworldindata.org/

Conservation Commons

>> Our Mission
The Conservation Commons unites the Smithsonian’s cultural and scientific expertise to advance research and share knowledge to sustain Earth’s biodiverse ecosystems.

We engage a spectrum of audiences across disciplines to integrate science and practice into conservation actions – convening, amplifying, and catalyzing ideas to improve conservation outcomes.

>> What is the Smithsonian Conservation Commons?

The Smithsonian Conservation Commons is an action network within the Smithsonian Institution (SI), harnessing innovative approaches across science and culture to impact conservation practices worldwide.

As part of the Smithsonian’s broader Strategic Plan, the Commons is mobilizing internal capacity and major partner institutions to build a global community of practice that breaks down barriers to:

Forming a holistic understanding of the value of science and conservation of nature.
Engaging communities with science to manage sustainable land and seascapes.
Tracking the movement of species to inform conservation planning.
Training the next generation of conservation scientists, communicators, and other change leaders.
The Commons scales up the reach and impact of the wealth of conservation science produced and managed by its 9 research centers, 19 museums, and the National Zoo. By taking advantage of SI’s ability to transform complex scientific research into powerful communication tools, the Commons is rapidly becoming a unique platform for public education and awareness.

>> The Conservation Commons is led by:
- National Zoological Park (NZP) and Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI)
- Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC)
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI)
- National Museum of Natural History (NMNH)
- Smithsonian Marine Station (NMNH-SMS)
- Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (CFCH)
- Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC)
- Office of International Relations (OIR)
- National Air and Space Museum (NASM)
- Smithsonian Facilities (SF)
- Smithsonian Enterprises (SE)

>> How we are changing the narrative:
Globally, billions of dollars are aimed at adapting, mitigating, offsetting, and recovering from environmental damage caused by human impacts. However, too often these approaches are undertaken without robust backing from evidence-based science. Similarly, scientists are perennially challenged by the lack of opportunity to translate their work into conservation action and conservationists are increasingly frustrated by the lack of accessible scientific information to inform decisions and interventions.

While science is critical to informing lasting solutions, solving major conservation problems requires moving beyond the status quo by bridging efforts across the sciences, arts and humanities, and engaging communities in the process to ensure equitable and ethical conservation.

The Smithsonian, with its diverse, deeply-rooted expertise and unparalleled outreach impact, is uniquely positioned to transform human attitudes and forge lasting solutions that address global conservation targets for the benefit of people and nature.
See conservationcommons.si.edu/earth-optimism


Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: La moisson par Victor Gabriel Gilbert (1847 - 1933)

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See The Economist

The Efita newsletter is sponsored by:

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Want to change the world? Then you’d better give up on self-defeating pessimism, by Kenan Malik

He quickly apologised for his crassness but the archbishop of Canterbury’s comparison of politicians who fail to tackle climate change with those in the 1930s who appeased the Nazis was not simply crass. It illustrated how many imagine that the best means of arousing political concern is by painting as dark a picture as possible of social problems. And few things today speak more of evil than the Holocaust.

The kind of facile optimism that a figure such as Boris Johnson exudes is deeply obnoxious. It’s a way of avoiding the issues, of pretending that we can resolve our problems by not thinking deeply about them, but by simply asserting “we can do it”.

There is something equally objectionable about unthinking pessimism. About the insistence that a social problem is so beyond control that we cannot avoid catastrophe or so deeply rooted that it cannot be dug out. Yet this often seems to be the default setting for so many political discussions, from racism to the refugee crisis. And on no issue more so than climate change.
…/…
See theguardian.com


It's taken as an article of faith that governments should fund research and development. But is that really true? (interesting but within a really extremist approach – GW)

According to British biochemist Terence Kealey, "the empirical evidence is very clear that government funding of R&D not only doesn’t stimulate economic growth, but might even damage it."
.../...
Joel Mokyr, an American economic historian, wrote somewhere that innovation is an act of rebellion and that the problem with governments is that they don’t like rebels.
.../...
See humanprogress.org


Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Lavandières sur la berge de la rivière (Oise), by Charles-Francois Daubigny (FR, 1817-1878)

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Covid: Pfizer says antiviral pill 89% effective in high-risk cases, By Jim Reed and Philippa Roxby, BBC News

A pill to treat Covid developed by the US company Pfizer cuts the risk of hospitalization or death by 89% in vulnerable adults, clinical trial results suggest.
See bbc.com


Britain authorizes Merck’s molnupiravir, the world’s first approval of oral covid-19 treatment pill
See washingtonpost.com


For most of history, people discovered new medicines through trial and error – an inefficient process

Then, in the 1940s, George Hitchings and Gertrude Elion developed a rational method of drug design, leading to countless new and effective treatments.
See two pioneers of rational drug design


Meet a CRISPR crop scientist on World CRISPR Day, by AFS staff

I think CRISPR/Cas technology gives us [researchers] a huge asset in being able to explore genes in an accurate and efficient way. Being able to use CRISPR/Cas9 as a research tool has facilitated a rapid expansion of our fundamental understanding of plant biology and will continue to do so.

I think CRISPR is also a second chance in plant biotechnology. Potent technologies that preceded gene editing have been poorly regarded by the public. The verdict is not fully out on whether the world is ready for CRISPR crops, but largely it seems that we are trending in a direction that is favorable. I can imagine many CRISPR crops arriving on the world’s dinner plate someday. Crops that are climate-smart, more nutritious, more delicious…
See allianceforscience.cornell.edu


Covid – 19 / In Steiners Sekte, Ein autobiografischer Essay von Tobias Rapp

Nirgendwo in Westeuropa ist die Impfquote so niedrig wie im deutschsprachigen Raum. Das liegt auch an einer einflussreichen Gruppe: den Anthroposophen. Als Waldorfschüler habe ich sie kennengelernt.
.../...
Der deutschsprachige Raum, das ergibt eine Statistik, die vor einigen Tagen veröffentlicht worden ist, hat die schlechteste Impfquote in Westeuropa. Dafür gibt es eine Menge Gründe. Wenn man die Karte der Bundesrepublik anschaut, sind Thüringen, Sachsen und Bayern entlang ihrer Außengrenzen von Covid-19 besonders stark betroffen, es liegt nahe, dass die geografische Lage einer der treibenden Faktoren ist. In Polen und Tschechien sind die Zahlen noch schlechter als bei uns.

Es gibt aber noch einen anderen Grund: die Impfskepsis eines speziellen bürgerlichen Milieus, das seine Zentren vor allem in Süddeutschland und in der Schweiz hat. Und viele dieser Leute sind Anthroposophen. Worum geht es ihnen?

Sehr viele Deutsche haben tagtäglich mit der Anthroposophie zu tun, ohne es zu wissen.

Der Kosmetikkonzern Weleda etwa ist eine Firma, die 1921 von Rudof Steiner mitbegründet wurde, dem Erfinder der Anthroposophie. Alle Cremes, Seifen und Arzneimittel, die Weleda verkauft, werden nach anthroposophischen Richtlinien hergestellt, wozu ziemlich eigenartige Rituale gehören. Das Wasser, in dem Substanzen aufgelöst werden, muss etwa auf eine bestimmte Art geruckelt werden, damit sie ihre Kraft entfalten können.

Die biologisch-dynamische Landwirtschaft ist ebenfalls eine anthroposophische Veranstaltung. Ein biologisch-dynamisch hergestellter Apfel ist nicht einfach nur öko – wer das Label »biologisch-dynamisch« möchte, muss seinen Hof entlang der Esoterik Rudolf Steiners ausrichten – wozu auch gehört, im Herbst mit Mineralien gefüllte Kuhhörner auf den Feldern zu vergraben. Steiner glaubte, sie würden so über den Winter ihre »ungeheure« Kraft »an Astralischem und an Ätherischem« übertragen. Schadet natürlich nicht. Bizarr ist es trotzdem.

Die GLS-Bank wurde von Anthroposophen gegründet (sie grenzt sich allerdings seit Längerem von Teilen der anthroposophischen Lehre ab). Und dann gibt es noch die Waldorfschulen, die von vielen Deutschen für eine Alternative zum staatlichen Bildungssystem gehalten werden.
.../...
Sehen spiegel.de


Umfrage zur Bundestagswahl: Zwei von drei Ungeimpften wählen AfD oder “Die Basis“, Von Claus Hecking und Peter Maxwill

Rund 15 Millionen Erwachsene in Deutschland sind nicht gegen Covid-19 immunisiert. Die meisten von ihnen neigen laut einer Forsa-Erhebung offenbar dem politisch rechten Spektrum zu.

Sehen spiegel.de