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 Châtenay-Malabry (FR - 92290), July 04, 2022 EFITA newsletter / 1046 - European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment The informatique-agricole.org site 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. 
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 Before computers
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 The Veteran in a New Field, 1865, Winslow Homer, American (1836–1910), The Met, New-York
FIRA USA 2022, the Agricultural Autonomous Solutions event for the California and North America Growers 18-20 October - FRESNO, California FIRA USA is: - Business Time with expo zone and networking - Panel discussions and breakout sessions - In-field demos with bus tour - R&D Day See fira-agtech.com Agricultural Robotics Village by FIRA, at SIMA 6-10 November - PARIS, France At the heart of the SIMA Tech area, discover the autonomous solutions for farming. Meet the major manufacturers on FIRA's pavilion! Contact World FIRA 2023 7-9 February - TOULOUSE, France The world's leading event for innovations showcase in agricultural automation and robotics. NEW: Outdoor event! Contact Snap the Whip, 1872, Winslow Homer
How did we see the future yesterday?? See the incredible collection developed by Alain Fraval Bogus quotation! A bogus quotation that’s been circulating on Facebook recently with a picture of Mark Twain was a new addition to his list of fakes. It says: “If voting made any difference they wouldn’t let us do it.” This supposed quotation, though, misrepresents Twain’s actual thoughts on voting. In a 1905 interview in Boston, he told the press: “In this country we have one great privilege which they don’t have in other countries. When a thing gets to be absolutely unbearable the people can rise up and throw it off. That’s the finest asset we’ve got — the ballot box.” See factcheck.org Fisherwomen, 1882, Winslow Homer
5 Reasons to consider California agricultural market part of your development strategy, y Guillaumot Maxence During my experience in the California vegetables growing market, I had the chance to work and discuss with hundreds of farmers, experts and researchers in the sector. These encounters allowed me to discover and better understand the specificity of the Californian market. Back in France, I decided to study other California markets to have a transversal vision. This article follows several months of research, analysis and meetings with players in other farming sectors. The stakes of this market are high and the opportunities for improvement are numerous. Let’s have a look together on the 5 reasons that lead me to believe that the California market is preparing to revolutionize agriculture. FutureFarming.com > What’s new in our drone buying guide 2022? Future Farming introduces ten new application drones in its drone catalogue this year. Drones are increasingly capable of performing more and more tasks in the field. It is clear that farmers are currently presented with an impressive range. > Field Trials Podcast – Building more accurate analysis tools | Part 3 > Pyka Pelican on doorstep of getting commercial approval in US > Reasons for optimism in fast-growing drone market > Vietnamese rice farmers adopt drones to decrease inputs > Agricultural drones taking off fast in India > Taranis deploys fleet of DJI drones for AI-powered crop scouting > Agronomy to remain at the heart of Väderstad’s developments Agronomy, no autonomy (yet). That’s what Väderstad plans on doing. With shallower tillage, increased precision and sometimes even fewer seeds per hectare. While the trend on hoeing machines is also being followed, says Mattias Hovnert, responsible for sales and marketing. > Free Your Hands - SingularXYZ SAgro100 Automated Steering System Designed for precision agriculture, the SAgro100 system offers 2.5cm pass-to-pass accuracy for mainstream tractor brands & farm work types. Accurate auto-steering provides you with higher efficiency, higher land utilization, more resource savings and higher productivity. > Autonomous tractors: California won’t allow autonomous tractors yet The Occupational Safety & Health Standards Board (OSHSB) of the US state of California has rejected a petition from autonomous tractor manufacturer Monarch. The use of autonomous tractors will not be allowed in California. > Market trends… IDTechEx: Market for agricultural robots to grow quickly in coming decade High labor costs, rising fuel costs, and the demand for higher food production almost provide a perfect opportunity for people to adopt agricultural robots, according to IDTechEx. > Field Trials Podcast – Building more accurate analysis tools | Part 3 Machine learning and flying robots can combine to make some pretty effective field tools. For the people behind analysis software company DroneDeploy, accuracy and speed of analysis continue to be the frontier. > Crop protection: Light treatment protects crops from pests and pathogens American startup IntraLight has completed development of its light treatment technology that automatically protects crops from pests and pathogens with daily light treatments. Using a proprietary spectrum IntraLights severely damage pest and pathogen DNA, destroying their ability to grow and reproduce. > Storage technology: Winely improves autonomous tank monitoring technology for wine fermentation Recent updates to Winely’s cloud-based technology and IoT in-tank sensors make it possible for winemakers to continuously, reliably, and autonomously monitor and manage the fermentation status of their batches. See futurefarming.com A Fisher Girl on Beach, 1876, Winslow Homer, American
Meister Media Worldwide Launches New Global Ag Tech Initiative As a leader in covering precision agriculture, MMW is broadening its scope to bring the ag tech community together to advance the understanding and adoption of ag tech. See precisionag.com SVG Ventures | THRIVE Launches Global Impact Challenge in Partnership with ICL Planet The THRIVE Global Impact Challenge seeks innovative start-ups advancing a net-zero future for agriculture. See precisionag.com The First Vertical Farm in the World Delivering Climate Neutral Certified Herbs Begins Industrial-Scale Herb Production in Sweden For Netled, the launch solidifies its position as the Nordic market leader in vertical farming technology. See precisionag.com Bluegrass Ag Tech Development Focuses on Making Kentucky Ag Tech Capital of the U.S. A new entity has been formed to cultivate an innovation ecosystem for entrepreneurs and startups in the agri-food sector. See precisionag.com John Deere CEO John May to Give Keynote at CES 2023 on Technology’s Role in Feeding the World May will share how purpose-driven sustainability and advancements in technology are addressing one of the world’s greatest challenges. See precisionag.com Perils of the Sea, Winslow Homer, American
Billionaire Olayan family backs UAE’s Pure Harvest in $181m global fundraise, AFN, by Lucy Ngige Pure Harvest Smart Farms, a UAE controlled environment ag (CEA) company, has raised $180.5 million in its latest funding round. …/… Pure Harvest had raised $64.5 million last year in a round led by IMM. Today’s capital injection brings the total amount raised by the startup to $387 million. Gulf countries are predisposed to harsh climatic conditions, limited water supply, and a lack of cultivable land. This means they must source the vast majority of fresh produce overseas. The UAE imports almost 90% of its food, costing it an estimated $14 billion in 2020. However, with the Covid-19 pandemic disrupting supply chains globally, many countries in the Gulf and farther afield have sought to build localized food production capacity. Pure Harvest is among the companies jumping on this opportunity. Its high-tech, climate-controlled greenhouses are able to grow crops like tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, and strawberries in the middle of the UAE desert. …/… See agfundernews.com People meeting serious difficulties to concentrate themselves
Ukrainian refugees in Europe
Savings and algorithms: UK supermarkets battle cost of living crisis, Reuters, by James Davey (Seen in the AFN Newsletter) .../... Supermarkets can reduce ranges more effectively than in the past by using customer data and analytics to predict whether shoppers will accept an alternative brand or not. "The role that algorithms play now in understanding the commercial model is super important," said Sainsbury's Roberts. "We've got some more innovation but also we've trimmed certain categories as well," he said. With Britain's supermarkets operating on margins of only around 3%, they also need to make savings across the business. "If we're going to invest 500 million pounds on bringing prices down, or 100 million pounds this year, 200 million pounds over two years, investing in colleagues, then we have to find efficiencies," said Roberts. Market-leader Tesco has leveraged highly publicised price matching offers and a popular "Clubcard Prices" loyalty scheme to agree good terms with suppliers, enabling it to ensure that where it has to raise prices it tries "to ensure it is a little bit less and a little bit later than the rest of the market," it says. But tensions with some suppliers are rising. On Wednesday, U.S. food giant Kraft Heinz (KHC.O) stopped supplying some products to Tesco after the grocer resisted higher prices. read more While, like Sainsbury's, Tesco has warned of a hit to profits this year, industry data shows it is consistently outperforming rivals on a sales value basis, along with discounters Aldi and Lidl. read more "Our ambition is to outperform the market, we can't control the environment, which of course remains incredibly challenged and frankly looks like it's getting more challenging," CEO Ken Murphy said. See reuters.com e-Tourism: a revival
Changing job! A reality in the USA, not in Southern Europe, including France
Britain’s birds of prey are back from the brink of extinction – and live on webcam Ospreys, kites and falcons may once again become part of our everyday lives, and live streams from nests can help protect them. Voir theguardian.com Nature Index Annual Tables 2022: China’s research spending pays off, by Gemma Conroy & Benjamin Plackett Experts say the country’s strong scientific performance is likely to be sustained in the coming years. My point of view (GW): The performance of French scientists pales in comparison to those of our major competitors. This is nothing new. We have known this for a long time. The status of lifelong researcher leads to the automatic aging of staff engaged in research, and inevitably to low productivity... How can we get out of this if not by implementing a system that facilitates the professional mobility of researchers? The Nature Index is one indicator of institutional research performance The metrics of Count and Share used to order Nature Index listings are based on an institution’s or country’s publication output in 82 natural-science journals, selected on reputation by an independent panel of leading scientists in their fields. Nature Index recognizes that many other factors must be taken into account when considering research quality and institutional performance; Nature Index metrics alone should not be used to assess institutions or individuals. Nature Index data and methods are transparent and available under a creative commons licence at natureindex.com. See nature.com We need more testing to eradicate polio worldwide The world is very close to eradicating polio. Two out of three wild strains have already been eradicated, and just one remains in circulation. The estimated number of polio cases each year has fallen dramatically over the last decades. Despite being so close to the finishing line, we are in danger of moving backward. Testing has fallen in many countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, cases have been rising in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where wild polio remains endemic, and there is a risk of spread in Africa after three decades of seeing no cases of wild polio. To get back on track to achieving global eradication, the world needs better monitoring of polio. By not screening and testing for the virus sufficiently, we risk letting more cases go undetected and potentially spread to new regions. In this article we show which countries are falling short on these goals, and what needs to be done.
AgGateway Europe Mid-Year Meeting Focuses on Farm Data Control, by Conny Graumans, AgGateway Europe Director AgGateway Europe hosted its mid-year event for the region on 2 June at Syngenta’s headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. Because of the pandemic, this was the first European face-to-face meeting for AgGateway members and non-members since November 2019. Several presentations touched the challenges of managing the farmer’s digital identity, and the complexities of third-party authorization to the farmer’s data. Throughout Europe, we see several emerging platforms in agriculture that are being designed to support identity management, and to grant and manage permissions to use specific farm data sets for specific purposes. The essence of these platforms is to put the farmer in charge of their own data. The platform delivers the farmer a complete overview of all the data use permissions the farmer has granted to third parties. In this context, examples of these third parties would include the farmer’s accountant, a fertilizer or pest control advisory service, an advisory system that optimizes an animal feed recipe, a platform that keeps track of the mineral flows (N, P, K) at farm level, and others. Using these permissioning platforms, the farmer is enabled to switch data flows on and off with one simple mouse click. One important precondition for the functionality of these systems is that both third party permission requests and granted permissions are unambiguously identifiable. For the handling of these identity checks, a European standard is under development. For background, The European Strategy for data focuses on putting people first in developing technology, and defending and promoting European values and rights in the digital world. On 23 February 2022, the Commission proposed a regulation on harmonized rules on fair access to and use of data (Data Act). The Data Act is a key pillar of the European strategy for data. Its main objective is to make Europe a leader in the data economy by harnessing the potential of the ever-increasing amount of industrial data, to benefit the European economy and society. Members can review the program and view any of the presentations from the Europe Region Mid-Year Meeting by clicking here. See aggateway.org Gathering Berries, Winslow Homer, American
How many lives have been saved by covid-19 vaccines? Jun 24th, 2022 A new study estimates that the number is greater than the population of Chile. .../... The study—published on June 23rd in Lancet Infectious Diseases—found that in the first year of vaccine rollout, jabs saved the lives of 19.1m-20.4m people. Without vaccines, the study estimates, roughly three times as many people would have died from covid in 2021 alone. And 6.8m-7.7m of the prevented deaths were in countries covered by covax, an initiative created to ensure vaccines were sent to poorer countries. Still, a lack of vaccines in some parts of the world still led to avoidable deaths. Around 100 countries failed to reach the World Health Organisation’s goal of vaccinating 40% of their eligible populations by the end of 2021. The researchers estimate that this cost around 600,000 lives. .../...
3 missing ingredients for scaling regenerative agriculture, GreenBiz, by Theresa Lieb It’s already been a month since I returned from my visit to Minnesota, where I took a closer look at the state of regenerative agriculture in the bread basket. Since then, I’ve been trying to understand the transition to practices such as cover cropping, reduced tilling and planting perennial crops and how we could speed it up to advance soil carbon sequestration and other environmental benefits. Impactful work is already happening regarding carbon market programs and other financial conservation incentives. But low adoption rates demonstrate that these efforts aren’t enough for a large-scale transition to regenerative practices to succeed. From my conversations with farmers in Minnesota and many other practitioners over the past months, three pockets of work ask for more attention: independent and data-driven technical assistance, program alignment and standardization and supply chain infrastructure for crop diversification. Why are these issues critical? .../... See greenbiz.com MIT Technology Review's top innovators under 35, MIT Tech Review In the next 10 years, the world will need dozens of breakthrough climate technologies to reduce emissions at the gigaton scale. See technologyreview.com The Last Days of Harvest, Winslow Homer, American
Refugee situations: operational data portal The Operational Data Portal (ODP) was created in 2011 to enable UNHCR’s institutional responsibility to provide an information and data sharing platform to facilitate coordination of refugee emergencies. This was achieved using independent ‘situation views’ covering major emergencies such as the Syria situation or the Central African Republic emergency, among others. The ODP’s initial scope of coordination of refugee emergencies has evolved since its inception. Other types of situation views are now available, such as those on refugee returnees (e.g., in Ivory Coast), on mixed movements (e.g., asylum and migration in West and Central Africa), on statelessness (e.g., in the Great Lakes region), or on Camp Coordination and Camp Management (e.g., CCM Somalia Overview). Country views were introduced in 2017 as a complement to situation views. In recognition that refugee emergencies cannot be considered in isolation from the wider situation, the ODP now provides data and information on all persons of concern to UNHCR (refugees and asylum seekers, IDPs, stateless persons, etc.) See unhcr.org Ukraine Refugee Situation See unhcr.org Signalé par Paul JAMET Mél : paul.jamet(a)free.fr Partnership on track to give Bangladeshi and Indonesian farmers disease-resistant GMO potatoes, by John Agaba, June 21, 2022 Researchers will be testing genetically modified potatoes in Bangladesh and Indonesia this year in hopes of providing farmers with an alternative to spraying fungicides. Multiple confined field trials of GM late blight-resistant (LBR) potatoes will be conducted in both countries under a Feed the Future Global Biotech Potato Partnership. .../... See allianceforscience.cornell.edu Climate impact of food miles three times greater than previously believed, study finds, Guardian, by Graham Readfearn (Seen in the AFN Newsletter) Researchers estimate that carbon emissions from transporting food are about 6% of the global total, with fruit and vegetables the largest contributor. .../... He said a next step was to use the study findings to build a more detailed picture of the impacts of different diets – on a societal and individual level – on food mile emissions. But he said a good rule was that if all the food you bought was produced locally, then less meat and more fruit and vegetables would be linked to less emissions. But if a plant-based diet included lots of imported and out-of-season produce, this would push emissions higher. “Eating local seasonal alternatives, as we have throughout most of the history of our species, will help provide a healthy planet for future generations,” he said. Options for richer countries to reduce emissions included cleaner energy sources for vehicles and providing incentives to use production and distribution methods that cut emissions. See theguardian.com Hybrid jobs wanted!
Saudi oil production at its maximum
Ghanaian scientist: ‘Africa needs GMOs more than the rest of the world’, by Joseph Opoku Gakpo, May 16, 2022 See allianceforscience.cornell.edu Science communication with a French twist When English-speaking computational geneticist Sarah Gagliano Taliun moved to a French-speaking part of Canada, she experienced something many researchers have to do every day: speak about science in a different language. Her perspective on the experience offers lessons for anyone facing a linguistic challenge in their scientific career. “Learning how to communicate science effectively in a language other than English has helped me to become a better science communicator in general,” she says. See nature.com US Covid czar: “you don’t write people off” Physician and health-policy researcher Ashish Jha went from being a “reluctant academic” to US President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 czar. He’s also a prolific science communicator, known for appearing in surprising media outlets to right misinformation wrongs. He says that the current situation in the United States should not be considered the ‘new normal’. “We have hundreds of thousands of Americans getting infected every day. We still have a few hundred people dying of COVID every day,” he says. “I don’t think any of this is an acceptable normal for the long run.” See newyorker.com US current-account balance with a large deficit
Huge Chinese Investment in Education
Explore our daily-updated data on hospitalizations and intensive care (ICU) admissions due to COVID-19 On our page we provide daily-updated data on hospitalizations and ICU admissions due to COVID-19. Our hospital & ICU data is collected from official sources and collated by Our World in Data.
A Winter Morning – Shoveling Out, 1871, Winslow Homer
Celebration of former President Richard M. Nixon’s 100th birthday (hereafter making promises about the Vietnam War)
Food prices are increasing, threatening the fragile caloric surplus in many developing countries. However, this hunger crisis is not due to a lack of production. As Ronald Bailey writes in Reason, "in a world with more than enough food to feed everybody, despotic governmental brutality and stupidity are once again causing famines."
Do you talk about recession?
Abortion right ban in US: an avoidable drama
Like its maternal equivalent, Father's Day has a tragic origin, By Chelsea Follett High mortality rates killed many fathers and left others to raise their children alone. The first Father's Day in 1908 honored the victims of the deadliest mining disaster in U.S. history — a grim reminder of our progress in workplace safety. However, the annual tradition we celebrate today is based on a more inspiring story. See humanprogress.org When women enjoy the same economic freedoms as men, everyone benefits. A clear picture of the state of economic freedom must account for laws limiting women's ability to work and engage in mutually beneficial exchange. Rosemarie Fike's research measures just that, and the recent trends may surprise you. See humanprogress.org Fresh eggs, 1874, Winslow Homer, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Frozen baby mammoth discovered in Yukon excites Canada A whole baby woolly mammoth has been found frozen in the permafrost of north-western Canada - the first such discovery in North America. The mummified ice age mammoth is thought to be more than 30,000 years old. It was found by gold miners in Yukon's Klondike region on Tuesday. The area of the find belongs to the Tr'ondek Hwech'in First Nation. The Yukon government compared it to Russia's discovery of a baby mammoth in the permafrost of Siberia in 2007. .../... See bbc.com Gene editing key to sustainable agriculture in Africa, scientists say, by Joan Conrow, May 13, 2022 .../... “Many countries are still in the process of developing regulatory guidelines for genome-edited products. There is a need for the coordination of regulatory approaches globally,” the authors note. “Genome editing has a prominent role to play in improving agriculture in Africa,” the authors conclude. “Many researchers are exploring the potential of genome editing in developing crop varieties for a better and more sustainable African agriculture. However, it requires adequate funding and enabling policies to release genome editing products.” See allianceforscience.cornell.edu The milk maid, 1878, Winslow Homer, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Meister Media Worldwide announces the launch of the Global Ag Tech InitiativeSM to lead a new generation of worldwide agriculture forward to sustainably produce safe and abundant food to feed the world Our CropLife Media Group® and its PrecisionAg® brands have had a leadership position in the precision market for decades. As the industry has grown and evolved with now broader diversified ag tech innovations across agribusiness globally, the new Global Ag Tech Initiative will lead the way in advancing the industry to capitalize on the enormous new potential. In recognition that the phrase “precision agriculture” does not address the broader scope of practices and technologies being used in the market, we are excited to announce this new launch and rebranding to a more inclusive descriptor. We are committed to evolving with this industry to bring you the best, most relevant info every day. A sampling of the current Global Ag Tech Initiative portfolio includes: > GlobalAgTechInitiative.com— A global digital source of expert commentary, longer-range trends and insights, headlines from key precision regions, and curated precision tech content from Meister Media Worldiwde’s family of brands across production agriculture. > The Signal™ e-newsletter — The weekly newsletter with insights for agricultural technology leaders around the world who are charged with making crucial decisions and strategizing for the future. Trends, development, and other significant information and community discussion is shared for a greater understanding and advancement of the adoption of ag tech. > The VISION ConferenceSM — The definitive digital farming conference for North America, providing market-tested insights set to transform agribusiness with a focus on a 3-to 5 -year view. An event for decision-makers and those interested in seeing what the future holds for ag tech. > The Global Ag Tech AllianceSM – North America — A partnership with industry-leading technology and crop input organizations supporting the activities, research, and outreach that facilitate the adoption of precision and digital agriculture products and practices. > The Global Ag Tech Awards of ExcellenceSM – North America – An award program shedding light on some of the most important people and programs that have helped agriculture realize the full benefits of technology to improve agronomy, efficiency, and stewardship in crop production. > Tech Hub LIVESM – The leading new event for data-driven digital agriculture practitioners in the U.S. showcasing new technologies and solutions to deploy today. > PrecisionTech Ag Professional – A CropLife Media Group® brand with dedicated print and digital coverage, is designed to help agricultural retailers, consultants and equipment dealers understand and incorporate precision technologies and techniques and install best business practices that help these service providers deliver high-quality, high-profit precision services to farmer-customers. Come join the community in feeding the world. For more information on the Global Ag Tech Initiative, contact Eric Davis at edavis(a)meistermedia.com See meistermedia.com The Dinner Horn, 1870, Winslow Homer, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Three types of people A Doberman, a Golden Retriever and a cat died and met God. God said to them, “Tell me why I should let you into heaven.” The Doberman said, “I’ll protect you with my life.” God said, “You can sit at my right side.” The Golden Retriever said, “I will fetch your slippers and anything else you ask me to.” God said, “Then you can sit at my left side.” Finally, God looked at the cat and said, “And what will you do?” The cat said, “Excuse me. I think you’re sitting in my seat.”
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