Futurist: Technology to Transform the Future of Ag
Published: Friday, January 3, 2025
Farms of the future will have autonomous tractors, a fleet of drones, drought-resistant crops and even smart soils.
That's according to Jack Uldrich, an author and futurist from Minneapolis, Minn. A keynote speaker at last month's Indiana Farm Bureau Convention in French Lick, Uldrich said new technology will transform agriculture and rural communities.
Uldrich said more satellites are now being launched that will improve internet service for rural communities. Satellite-based internet service will make it possible for farmers to be more productive and for rural residents to work remotely, do online education and offer telemedicine, among other things.
"It's these satellites that are finally going to enable us to harness the potential of precision ag," said Uldrich, who used to work in the U.S. Navy. "We've been talking about precision ag for a decade, but we haven't had all of the tools in place, but I think that they are coming. But more importantly, these satellites, I think they are going to transform rural America."
Satellites will transform not only rural communities in the U.S. but also people across the globe.
"Here's the big game changer: Today, only 4 billion people have access to the internet," he said. "In the next couple of years, an additional 4 billion people will come online."
Many of those people will come from Asia, Africa and South America. As these people buy smart phones, they will have access to a wealth of information. Uldrich said this will cause their incomes to rise. When people have more money, one of the first things they do is buy more protein.
"As global demand increases, your future could be very, very bright," he told the Farm Bureau audience.
Uldrich said change will occur rapidly, and farmers need to be ready to adapt.
"In the next decade, we are going to experience more change than our grandparents and our great-grandparents experienced with the introduction of electricity and the car," he said. "That's how profound some of the changes are."
Some of those changes include self-driving cars and autonomous tractors. Robots that can harvest fruit crops and zap weeds are also coming.
In a legal setting, artificial intelligence (AI) will reduce the amount of time needed to put together a farm succession plan. Farmers can also turn to AI to get an assessed valuation for their farms.
With any new technology, there will be vulnerabilities. Therefore, he recommends that older farmers pass along their institutional knowledge to the next generation.
"One of the future trends is strategic inefficiency," he said. "You're going to have to train your younger farmers on how to use some of this older equipment."
Another trend, plant-based protein, will continue to grow, but Uldrich said it won't replace real meat. He added that the environmental footprint of animal-based protein is between four and 25 times higher than animal-based protein.
Looking ahead to five to 10 years, Uldrich said change will occur quickly.
"You might think you have a lot of time to prepare for this different future; you don't," he said.
Drones will detect pests, stress levels and nutrients in the ground. They can carry up to 55 pounds of chemical fertilizer. In five or 10 years, farmers will have a fleet of drones to service their farms.
At least one company already has developed an AI-powered robot that can harvest fruit crops and destroy weeds, reducing the need for chemical control. He said a single robot can zap 200,000 weeds in one hour.
"This is a wickedly expensive piece of equipment, over a million dollars," he said.
Most farmers can't afford that, but he added that prices will come down.
"As that technology gets better and more affordable, if you're not using it, you know who is going to be using it?" Uldrich asked. "Your competitors, and your competitors are from Brazil and many other areas."
For farmers, new technology holds the promise of lowering costs, increasing yields and raising productivity.
"Our tools are getting exponentially more powerful," he said. "If you're wondering what's coming after artificial intelligence, the next technology you're going to start hearing more and more about is quantum computing."
Through quantum computing, machines will be able to accomplish tasks much faster. Things that took days, weeks or even months will be accomplished in minutes.
As an example, quantum computing can be used to increase the protein level of soybeans by 42%, he said.
"I'm here to tell you, (change) is not going to slow down."
The futurist also expects to see more gene editing to speed up the plant breeding process. This will result in the development of drought- and pest-resistant crops. Most important is the timeline; quantum computing will enable companies to produce gene-edited crops in two years. Uldrich said it currently is 10 years.
There will also be an environmental benefit that comes with the implementation of new technologies.
"If we can grow more food and we can use less water and it's better for the environment, there are going to be some really powerful reasons to say, yeah, we should move to some of these gene-edited crops," Uldrich said.
In the future, farmers will access AI-powered forecasts to boost crop yields. Livestock farms will use facial recognition technology to optimize the feed, nutrition and health of animals and detect diseases.
One startup company is using AI to help farmers gain better information about their crops, thereby saving water. They have developed hydrogels that absorb moisture from the morning dew and store it for release at night. The so-called "smart soils" grow bigger, more productive crops.
"These technologies are going to get better, and they're going to get more affordable," Uldrich said.
He added that not one single piece of technology will bring about the transformation of rural America and agriculture. Rather, it will be a convergence of multiple technologies.
While robots, drones and AI will handle more of the responsibilities on farms, Uldrich cautioned they don't relieve the humans of the responsibility to think, plan and adapt.
"I advocate that each and every one of you take 15 minutes every week to think," he said. "Take 15 minutes to think deeply about the future. Thinking is one of your most important responsibilities, and you have to give yourself time and permission to do that."
Uldrich urged farmers to overcome the mindset that they have to do things the conventional way. To illustrate his point, he shared a quote from author John Maynard Keynes, a 19th century economist and philosopher. Keynes once wrote, "Worldly wisdom teaches that it is better for reputation to fail conventionally than to succeed unconventionally."
Referencing that quote, Uldrich said if farmers want to "win the future," they will need to embrace the new technologies coming their way.
Return to Top of Page