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Châtenay-Malabry (FR - 92290), December 20, 2021 EFITA newsletter / 1018 - European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment Do not miss the Virus Jokes in English and French The informatique-agricole.org site now offers you the possibility of subscribing the RSS feeds of its two newsletters See RSS feeds to implement to ensure that you continue to receive this newsletter To unsubscribe this newsletter, please contact me directely: guy.waksman(a)laposte.net if this link Unsubscribe does not work. Please note that I changed the presentation of the links that are embedded in the name of the web service. To correspond with me (GW), please use this address: guy.waksman(a)laposte.net To subscribe the efita newsletter (please ask your friends and colleagues to test this link) Efita Newsletters subscription FAO / AIMS Newsletter, December 2021 / Issue No. 101 - First AGROVOC use case now available online - Meet the AGROVOC Editorial community - AGRIS last 12 months' statistics - IGAD Coffee Break webinar series reaches nearly 1,000 professionals worldwide - Research4Life launches new librarian toolkit to increase visibility of AGORA resources See newsletters.fao.org Avant l’informatique Weekly newsletters about ICT in Agriculture in English and French Both newsletters have around 14000 subscribers. >>> Last weekly EFITA Newsletters in English (created in 1999) Efita Newsletters >>> Last weekly AFIA Newsletters in French (created more than 20 years ago in 1997) Afia Newsletters >>> Statistics for the last efita newsletter >>> Last issue of the afia newsletter >>> Last available satistics for the afia newsletter Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: The Harvesters by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Futurefarming.com > Let’s start with robots for smallholder farms With expected growth of the global population, we will need to robotise 2 billion workers to feed our urban societies in the coming 20 years. How do we innovate a way out of this? Start with robots for smallholder farms, says Erik Pekkeriet > Hybrid tractors: Steyr develops hybrid tractor Tractor manufacturer Steyr is working on a hybrid powertrain for the Terrus series. The first prototypes will be ready within the next two years. > Solar energy: Using solar energy to save on diesel costs Karin Stark and Jon Elder installed Australia’s biggest solar-diesel hybrid pumping system on their farm and reduced their diesel costs by 45%. > Sugarcane: Tereos to double sugarcane seedlings with automation Tereos aims to double pre-sprouted sugarcane seedlings production in its automated biofactory in. The goal is to produce 50 thousand seedlings daily. > Carbon markets: BASF launches carbon farming program in 2022 BASF will establish a program that allows farmers to track and profit from practices reducing CO2 emissions. > Field robots: These are the Best Field Robot Concepts of 2021 Vermeer, Horsch and Ripe Robotics won the Best Field Robot Concept Awards 2021. An expert jury selected their robot concepts from 14 candidates. > Why taking a modular approach to smart farming can reap rewards The advantages of adopting technology are far reaching. However, particularly on smaller holdings, not all of these features will be needed from the outset, which is what makes modular technology such an appealing solution, states Antonio Marzia, VP General Manager EMEA & APAC at Topcon Agriculture. >Flapper drones: Tiny Flapper Drone takes flight in greenhouse Dutch researchers are investigating the merits of using a tiny, bio-inspired autonomous flapping drone for horticultural and agricultural operations. > Crop protection: Battling invasive weeds with herbicide capsules Scientists at The University of Queensland in Australia developed herbicide-filled capsules as an alternative to herbicide sprays. Carbon markets: EU gives carbon farmer crucial role The European Commission will present plans this week in which, among other things, carbon farming) plays a central role. > Vertical farming: Report: Vertical farming market worth $ 9.7 billion by 2026 While the vertical farming market witnessed a decline in 2020 owing to the spread of COVID-19, it is expected to grow to USD 9.7 billion by 2026. > Soil Compaction: Optimising field traffic to reduce soil compaction Researchers at Aarhus University in Denmark use technology to optimise field traffic in order to reduce soil compaction. > Most popular articles of 2021 #1 - Japanese Kubota on takeover path Japanese company Kubota is on the warpath to become a major supplier of agricultural machinery worldwide. #2 - John Deere: ‘We believe in electric tractors...' If it was up to the engineers at John Deere, electricity will become the power source of the future. For more efficiency, better traction, lower costs and lower ground pressure. An interview with three experts. #3 - Technology that could stop use of plastic mulch Australian Research Organisation CSIRO has developed a sprayable biodegradable polymer membrane that can help farmers produce more, while using less water, nutrients and agrochemicals. See futurefarming.com Corteva leverages mobile robots to walk row crops, Future Farming, by Hugo Claver Corteva Agriscience uses a Spot robot from Boston Dynamics to ‘walk’ between rows of corn, sunflowers and more. The robot has potential applications in field testing of both new seed and crop protection solutions. See futurefarming.com Annie the Corteva Agriscience Robot See amazing robot Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Vaches le long de la rivière Mandel, par Modest Huys (1874 - 1932) Funding to India's farm tech startups increased 22% to $527m in FY2021, AFN, by Jennifer Marston Investment in farm tech startups in India rose to $527 million across 119 deals during the financial year 2020-2021 (FY21), according to AgFunder’s ‘India Agrifood Startup Investment‘ report, which was produced in partnership with Omnivore. Funding for on-farm technologies has risen steadily in India over the last few years – both in terms of the amounts raised, and the number of deals closed. In recent years, this is partly due to the Covid-19 pandemic causing problems for the country’s agrifood value chain that startups and investors alike rushed in to solve. .../... Agrofy adds $30m in Yara-led Series C round to grow ‘agfintech’ services, AFN, by Jack Ellis Argentine farmer marketplace Agrofy has raised $30 million in Series C funding. The deal takes its total funding to date to $66 million across four rounds. Yara Growth Ventures, the VC arm of Norwegian agrochemicals giant Yara International, led the Series C financing. Several of Agrofy’s existing investors, as well as unnamed private backers, participated in the round. Agrofy’s other shareholders include Bunge Ventures, Cresud, Syngenta Ventures, SP Ventures, Fall Line Capital, Acre Venture Partners, and Brasil Agro. The Rosario-based startup claims to be “the leading agribusiness online market in Latin America,” operating in nine countries across the region including its native Argentina. Starting out as an online marketplace, it lists around 150,000 products for farmers to purchase; it has since expanded into financial services. .../... See agfundernews.com Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Titre ? de Modest Huys
Will Digital Ag, Agtech and a Soil Health Focus Spark a New Farming Era? We are at the cusp of a tech-enabled, soil-focused, crop diversity reset of America's agricultural heartland -- an emerging topic to be discussed in-depth at the upcoming VISION Conference. See precisionag.com 'Future of Food' Panel Will Deliver Compelling Close to 2022 VISION Conference in January The closing panel discussion will highlight two companies that are underpinning the connection between the farmer and the consumer. See precisionag.com Agenda - 2022 New - PrecisionAg Vision Conference Finally, you’re in the room with leaders focused on advancing the agri-food industry—all the voices across the food value chain. We’re kicking of VISION 2022 with a comprehensive outlook of what you’ll learn during this in-depth forum with unmatched networking opportunities. See thevisionconference.com 2022 PrecisionAg Awards Of Excellence: Nominations Are Now Open Nominate an outstanding individual for one of four PrecisionAg Awards of Excellence. See precisionag.com Bayer to Launch Project Carbonview for Agriculture Project Carbonview will enable farmers to report, analyze and better assess their end-to-end supply chain carbon footprint. See precisionag.com Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Mietitura, dettaglio, 1886, par Francesco Gioli (IT, 1846-1922) - EOS Data Analytics Partners With Epik Systems Epik is the developer of SocratesAg, a mobile-centric Farm and Carbon Management Platform that enables efficient operation and sustainability of small-scale farms. See precisionag.com 10 food and nutrition misconceptions to leave behind this new year In the spirit of helping to stop the spread of misinformation, here are 10 food and nutrition misconceptions to leave behind this new year. 1. ‘Avoid food products that contain more than five ingredients’ 2. ‘If You Can’t Say It, Don’t Eat It’ 3. ‘It’s Banned in Europe!’ 4. Detox Diets 5. Wellness Culture and Celebrity Advice 6. Clean Eating 7. GMO Fearmongering 8. ‘Real’ Food Gets Moldy 9. Demonizing Safe and Accessible Foods 10. The Dirty Dozen See agdaily.com Supply chain crunches are affecting every corner of agriculture, Modern Farmer, by Emily Baron Cadloff Producers are over-ordering supplies for 2022, farmers are considering new cash crops, while others are getting out of the business. .../... See modernfarmer.com Ending malnutrition by 2030 is possible with an Olympian effort, AFN, by guest contributor: Kundhavi Kadiresan While enough food is produced to feed everyone 1.5 times over, poor diets continue to hold the world back from reaching its full potential. The Covid-19 pandemic has set back the fight yet further. This year’s Nutrition for Growth Summit, held in Tokyo this week, provided a platform from which to accelerate global progress towards ending malnutrition. The Summit was arguably one of the most important legacies of the London 2012 Olympics, and it has remained tied to the games — being held every four years in the Olympiad host country — ever since. Malnutrition, exacerbated by climate change and pandemic-related restrictions, causes 11 million premature deaths a year with 3 billion people — particularly women and children — lacking access to safe, nutritious foods like fruit, vegetables, and animal-source protein. At the same time, malnutrition has increased the global population’s vulnerability to health threats like Covid-19, with those who have diet-related conditions like heart disease or obesity at greater risk of succumbing to the virus. …/… See agfundernews.com Applegate debuts hot dog made with beef grown through regenerative farming, Food Dive, by Chris Case …/… As the meat industry grapples with reports detailing its harm to the environment, brands like Applegate are attempting to improve its image and impact by introducing more sustainably sourced products that had been exclusive to organic stores and farmers’ markets, using methods such as regenerative farming. …/… See fooddive.com Vertical farming is headed for the ‘trough of disillusionment.’ Here’s why that’s a good thin, AFN, by guest contributor: Henry Gordon-Smith It’s October 15th, 2021 and my phone starts blowing up: “Did you see this!?” asks one vertical farming executive in a text. “AeroFarms’ SPAC fell through!” another journalist slides into my DMs, referencing the plan for the New Jersey-based vertical farming business to list on the Nasdaq stock exchange via a Special Purpose Acquisition Company. An hour later, I get an email from an investor reviewing a strategy proposal we’d sent them about making large investments into the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) sector. “Based on the underperformance of AppHarvest [a SPAC-listed CEA company whose stock has dropped significantly after poor Q1 results] and AeroFarms, we will not be investing into the sector as planned,” it read. “This industry is not ready for public markets.” It was like time stopped and suddenly everyone was questioning the economics of novel farming systems, including high-tech greenhouses and vertical farms. Is this the end? Where do we go from here? .../... Extreme poverty: how far have we come, how far do we still have to go? Two centuries ago the majority of the world population was extremely poor — even those living in today’s richest countries. Back then it was widely believed that widespread poverty was inevitable. But this turned out to be wrong. Economic growth is possible and poverty can decline. The world has made immense progress against extreme poverty. Yet even after two centuries of progress, extreme poverty is still the reality for every tenth person in the world. This means nearly 800 million people. In this article we explain that the poorest people today live in countries which have achieved no economic growth. This stagnation of the world’s poorest economies is one of the largest problems of our time. Unless this changes millions of people will continue to live in extreme poverty. Impact of plant-based meat alternatives on cattle inventories and greenhouse gas emissions, by Ayson Lusk, November 15, 2021 See jaysonlusk.com/ According to Taiwan News, and since picked up by Western media, a (recent) SARS-Cov-2 lab leak has been confirmed in (the Republic of) China. SARS-Cov-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19. See rationaloptimist.com Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Sämann und Teufel, Detail des Sämanns, von Egger-Lienz
"New genomic techniques" policy paper, by Renew Europe See reneweuropegroup.eu The world largest economies 2017 / 2030 The place of our European countries in the world (it would be useful to now consider the European Union as a whole, and not to take into account the members of the EU separately ... a goal of the EU being to be able to exist in the world tomorrow as European) 2000 years of economic history in one chart Visual Capitalist’s Top 20 Visualizations of 2020 What can be said about 2020 that hasn’t already been said? Simply put, it was a wild ride. Not only did these past few months provide a multitude of topics for us to dig into, our growing team produced far more original work than ever before. This is now the seventh edition of our yearly round-up. One noteworthy change is in the name. It’s no longer the “Top Infographics”, which reflects a broader shift to different styles of visual communication. We live in a complex, volatile, multi-screen world, and our visualizations are becoming more nimble to keep up this fast pace. Below is a selection of our most noteworthy work. Some pieces have been selected because of their wide reach, while others broke new ground in design and data-driven reporting. For the top picks, members of our team will provide some commentary on the concept and context. …/… >>>> The Soaring Value of Intangible Assets in the S&P 500 The ascent of tech firms since the 1990s has brought about a massive change in the asset mix of publicly-traded companies, with the share of intangibles currently at unprecedented levels. This infographic charts the growth of intangible assets in the S&P 500 over time, providing a glimpse at how prevalent technology has become in our lives. Agriculture provides 10.3 percent of U.S. employment The agriculture industry provides us much more than three meals a day — it is an economic driver in addition to giving us the fuel and fiber to power our day. We know the statistic that farm and ranch families comprise less than 2 percent of the U.S. population. However, the agriculture industry encompasses more than the farmers and ranchers who grow our food. According to USDA’s Economic Research Service, agriculture, food, and related industries provide jobs for 10.3 percent of the American population. .../... Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: The Return Of The Herd [detail] by Pieter Bruegel The Elder
The comparison of the second and the third waves of Covid-19 in the United Kingdom shows the effectiveness of the vaccines (Astra-Zeneca in this case), source: Our World in Date / Bloomberg Human rights The Human Rights Score measures the level of physical integrity abuses (including political imprisonment, beatings, torture, and extrajudicial executions) in a country or region. Worldwide, respect for basic human rights is increasing, albeit slowly and unevenly. Some countries, like Taiwan, have made tremendous progress, while others, like Brazil, have regressed. A COVID vaccine grown in plants measures up, by Joel Palca A Canadian biotech firm is reporting positive results from a large study of its COVID-19 vaccine. What makes it unusual is that the key ingredient of the vaccine is grown in plants. Medicago has already developed an experimental flu vaccine in Nicotiana benthamian, a plant related to tobacco. When the pandemic struck, the company decided to try to make a COVID-19 vaccine. Now it appears those efforts have succeeded. .../... See npr.org The Gift of Flying Home for Christmas, by Gale Pooley We're approaching one of the busiest travel seasons of the year. Fortunately, we continue to enjoy the gift of cheaper airfares. It took 12.47 hours to earn enough money to buy the average airplane ticket in 2016. Today, it takes just 7.72 hours. That’s a decline of 38.1 percent. See humanprogress.org
Data Review: How many people die from air pollution? The two most widely-cited estimates say that air pollution causes around 7 million deaths every year. But the published estimates span a wide range. More recent studies tend to find a higher death toll than earlier studies. This is not because air pollution — at a global level — is worsening, but because the more recent scientific evidence suggests that the health impacts of exposure to pollution are larger than previously thought. In this Data Review we present the estimates of the global death toll from air pollution published in major recent studies, and provide the context and explanation that makes these estimates understandable. 10 datos clave sobre el arroz dorado, un transgénico que puede salvar la vida y la vista de millones de niños (Genetic Literacy Project / 17 de agosto, 2021) Recientemente Filipinas se convirtió en el primer país del mundo en aprobar comercialmente la siembra del arroz dorado, un cultivo con fines humanitarios que ha sido víctima de mucha desinformación y regulación excesiva. Aquí los principales puntos clave sobre su importancia en el combate a la desnutrición, cómo y quienes lo desarrollaron, y lo que se viene a futuro. See chilebio.cl Los insectos como fuente de proteínas del futuro La empresa Tebrio es pionera en la cría y en la transformación industrial del gusano de la harina, aprobado hace unos meses por la UE para usos de alimentación humana. Ver elpais.com
Two cows are standing in a field. One says to the other "Are you worried about Mad Cow Disease?" The other one says "No, It doesn't worry me, I'm a horse!" "I" Teacher: Tell me a sentence that starts with an "I". Student: I is the.... Teacher: Stop! Never put 'is' after an "I". Always put 'am' after an "I". Student: OK. I am the ninth letter of the alphabet. The distribution of this efita newsletter is sponsored by vitisphere.com Please, contribute to the content of your efita newsletter, and advertise your events, new publications, new products and new project in this newsletter. Without your support, it will not survive! Contact: Guy WAKSMAN E-mail: guy.waksman(a)laposte.net To read this newsletter on our web site See Efita The archives of this newsletter See Efita About the EFITA mailing list You can use the efita moderated list (> 15000 subscribers) to announce any event / product / web site / joke (!) related to IT in agriculture, environment, food industry and rural areas. If you want to subscribe a friend, please fill in his form. If you do not wish to receive our messages, please fill in the following form... |