Agriculture experts agree that innovations on the farm will be critical to ensuring that enough food is produced to feed the growing population. Entrepreneurs have stepped up to the challenge and agtech startups are popping up around the world offering innovating farming solutions that enable better efficiency and result in increased crop yields. Below are articles highlighting how agtech solutions can help to ensure global food security. Agtech Key to Feeding the World by 2050 by Broede Carmody on Startup Smart According to Paul Turner, founder of AgDNA, a data processing and analytics startup, agriculture technology startups are the key to feeding the world’s rapidly growing population. Companies like AgDNA, and our portfolio companies CropIn and OnFarm, help farmers make smarter decisions resulting in increased yields and minimized production costs. This increased efficiency will be critical to enabling farmers to double food output without an increase in resources. Salinas and Silicon Valley Though Leaders to Guide Next Generation Farms Discussion by Jordan Okumura on And Now U Know On May 11, Ag Tech experts and thought leaders will congregate in Monterey, CA for the Produce Marketing Association’s (PMA) Tech Knowledge Symposium. The symposium will feature a forward-thinking panel discussion to provide a glimpse into the future of production and emerging technologies in produce. Among the thought leaders that will attend is the founder and CEO of our portfolio company, OnFarm, Lance Donny. “The produce farm of the future will have greater efficiency in labor, logistics, and applied material,” says Donny. “Like we see in commodity crops today, more mechanization in everything from planting and harvesting to application of material will yield more efficiency, and that future isn’t too far off. There are companies working on these problems today.” 7 Surprising Facts on Global Agriculture, Food Security, and Farming by Alison Rice on AgWeb At the 2015 Global Food Security Symposium, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs addressed the intertwined issues surrounding food, farming, hunger and health politics. Below are seven facts that the council hoped would generate a continued conversation on the need for supporting sustainable agriculture globally:
- The amount of meat that, when fed to children daily, can double their cognitive capacity: 60 grams
- How much water costs per cubic meter in Germany versus the United States: $3 vs. 75 cents
- How much food the world wastes each year: 1.3 billion tons
- Share of children worldwide who are stunted: 1 in 4
- How much more a Brazilian earns in his or her lifetime for each additional centimeter of final adult height: 2.5 percent. Height is a marker for health that reveals who gets enough food to eat
- Maximum number of years a U.S. president can stay in office: 8. White House turnover too often affects food security policy decisions.
- The year that a severe drought began in the African nation of Mali: 1972
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