Globally, traditional methods of farming are becoming increasingly expensive and are facing adversities such as soil degradation, insect swarms, diseases, and freak weather caused by climate change. Daniel Nelson and his company Grow Computer are finding solutions to this through digitised indoor agriculture. With this, farmers are able to monitor their crop growth remotely, collect and analyse their growth data and coordinate their farms with energy utilities.
Such solutions are important in disproving doomy narratives that due to overpopulation we need 75% more space on Earth to be able to feed everyone sufficiently. Instead, technology can make the land that we do have more efficient to accommodate the demand for a growing population. For example, a new technology called CRISPR is able to change phenotypes in plants and reduce their biomass, meaning they can be grown faster, take less resources, and can be planted in smaller areas. Indoor vertical farms are also on the rise, as they don’t require pesticides and can grow produce year-round.
The event veered between focusing on accessible and solution-based agriculture, to becoming gimmicky and superficial, as summed up by Nelson advocating for Kimball Musk’s quote “Food is the new internet”. While there is clearly room for technology to improve agricultural practices, it shouldn’t be something for ‘tech bros’ to irresponsibly play around with. When the basic human right of food becomes a capitalistic gimmick, real people go hungry, and this is precisely what technology should prevent in the right hands.
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