Artificial Intelligence

Technion researchers have developed an innovative technology for the automated monitoring of stress in agricultural crops. Early detection of water and heat stress is crucial for agricultural growers since the reduction in moisture is reflected in limited stomatal conductance, resulting in dwindled…

Koidra and Blue Radix are two companies working with Ontario greenhouse vegetable producers to integrate AI in their production systems. This webinar will highlight each company’s involvement in this space and answer producer questions. To register, visit the website.  For more information:Ontario Ministry of…

Agromeans has recently developed proprietary lighting modules that aims to solve the three main problems faced by indoor farmers – high cost of electricity, cost of labor, and faulty predictions. Agromeans is showcasing its latest product at CES 2021 along with the 100 featured Taiwan startups selected…

The right preventive maintenance approach can improve food safety while saving money. With the right plan, food processing professionals can prevent serious machine failure, decrease maintenance costs and get a better sense of which machines may be more trouble than they’re worth.

However, not every preventive maintenance plan is guaranteed to help processors cut costs. Investing in the right strategy and tools will be necessary for a business that wants to save money with effective maintenance.

Technology is everywhere in the 21st century, and America’s food system is no exception. Scientists with the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s (ARS) Western Human Nutrition Research Center (WHNRC), at the University of California (UC) – Davis, have joined forces with over 40 researchers from six…

Automation and AI are hot in horticulture and US company iUNU is another example why that is. With their cameras, sensors and AI software, the company’s LUNA platform can be the eyes of the grower, being another tool to help growers improve their cultivation or enlarge the acreage they’re controlling.…

Technification in agriculture has resulted in the inclusion of more efficient companies that have evolved into a more complex sector focused on production and quality. Artificial intelligence, one of the relevant areas of technology, is transforming the agriculture sector by reducing the consumption and use of resources. This research uses a bibliometric methodology and a fractional counting method of clustering to analyze the scientific literature on the topic, reviewing 2629 related documents recorded on the Web of Science and Scopus databases. The study found significant results regarding the most relevant and prolific authors (Hoogenboom), supporting research organizations (National Natural Science Foundation of China) and countries (U.S., China, India, or Iran). The identification of leaders in this field gives researchers new possibilities for new lines of research based on previous studies. An in-depth examination of authors’ keywords identified different clusters and trends linking Artificial Intelligence and green economy, sustainable development, climate change, and the environment.

Alphabet’s X lab, the former Google division that launched the Waymo self-driving car unit and other ambitious projects, has officially announced its latest “moonshot”: a computational agriculture project the company is calling Mineral.

The project is focused on sustainable food production and farming at large scales, with a focus on “developing and testing a range of software and hardware prototypes based on breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, simulation, sensors, robotics and more,” according to project lead Elliott Grant.

A blog post outlining the project’s vision says Mineral, which now has an official name but may have launched in secret around 2017 according to Grant’s LinkedIn page, will try and aim technology toward...

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Peeling Back

Facebook’s automated anti-nudity filters finally stopped impressionable children from seeing unimaginable filth on their timelines: a pile of onions that was flagged for being inappropriate.

Gaze Seed Company tried to advertise on Facebook using a picture of a pile of onions in a basket to market its seeds, CBC reports, but was blocked by Facebook’s algorithm. The official reason? Facebook’s algorithms decided that the picture was “overtly sexualized.” It’s a funny error, sure, and one that raises questions about the sorts of things these algorithms are into — but at a more basic level, it also illustrates that AI content moderation still isn’t ready for prime time.

So we just got notified by Facebook that the photo used for our Walla Walla Onion seed is "Overtly Sexual" and therefore cannot be advertised to be sold on their platform… Can you see it?

Last week we were joined by experts in pest management for Episode 2 of the 2020 Food Safety Consortium Virtual Conference Series. Although pest management may not be seen as the most exciting topic, all food plants are required to have an integrated pest management program. In addition, the digital transformation fast-tracked by COVID-19 is also driving innovation in the remote monitoring of pests.

Barney Debnam, global agriculture strategy lead at Microsoft kicked off the conversation with some key themes driving change within the global food system, which have also been accelerated by COVID: Geopolitical forces, consumerization, democratized biology, sustainability, shifting economics and food security. As technology continues to evolve and is adopted at a faster pace (think artificial intelligence and how accessible it is now), businesses will be able to transform their outcomes by becoming more predictive. The key technology enablers in the process include:

Internet of Things and edge computing Advanced analytics Artificial intelligence and cognitive computing Graph technology Blockchain Digital workplace Mixed reality

The most significant benefit of implementing technology such as remote monitoring into an IPM program is its ability to provide visibility and the data to back up what is happening in a facility.

The aim of the online event: AI, Food for All. Dialogue and Experiences is to reinforce and build upon the Rome Call for AI Ethics endorsed by Pope Francis and co-signed by FAO, IBM and Microsoft at a conference hosted by the Academy in February.

500Foods shared this story from Bizjournals.com Feed (2020-09-08 17:06:11). Kroger Co. has formed a partnership with an artificial intelligence company in an effort to make the self-checkout process smoother.

What’s the first step to establishing a network of 'artificial intelligence research institutes' across America? How about sponsoring a new grant opportunity for researchers?

The USDA-NIFA, NSF, and other federal entities have joined forces on a new Limited Submission Opportunity (LSO). The UHM Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research (OVCR) will oversee an internal competition to determine which two proposals the institution will be able to endorse for submission. The internal competition will be based on pre-proposals to be submitted to the OVCR by October 5 at high noon.

“This grant opportunity builds on recent awards for the first two National AI Research Institutes: Next Generation Food Systems at UC-Davis, and Artificial Intelligence for Future Agricultural Resilience, Management, and Sustainability at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,” says Walter Bowen, Associate Dean and Associate Director for Research. “I encourage those interested in learning more to register now for a webinar that NSF will conduct on September 21.”

After only four months Autogrow’s FarmRoad platform has developed several new techniques resulting in an additional five percent improvement, with some growers hitting 95% yield accuracy. “A five percent improvement may not sound big however when you are talking about scale that equals hundreds of…

Experts from British research institute Rothamsted Research are currently testing the latest in artificial intelligence for farming. It is the world’s largest agricultural robot, the Field Scanalyzer. This international research centre focuses on strategic agricultural science, and trials on the Field…

The University of California, Davis, has been awarded $20 million as part of a multi-institutional collaboration to establish a new institute focused on enabling the next generation food system through the integration of artificial intelligence, or AI, technologies. The award is part of a larger…

The Controlled Environment Agriculture Open Data project aims to advance controlled environment research, machine learning and artificial intelligence through the collection and dissemination of crop production data. by David Kuack There is a considerable amount of data being generated by both private…

Orchard businesses are making decisions all the time. When to apply water? What pests or diseases are present and when to apply control measures? Where is labour coming from? At the same time, growers are balancing costs with returns. In another edition of APAL’s highly successful webinar series, which…