future of farming Archives - Futurist Speaker Thomas Frey Google's Top Rated Futurist Speaker Wed, 27 Jul 2022 14:06:14 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.7 https://futuristspeaker.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-thomas-frey-futurist-speaker-fav-icon-32x32.jpg future of farming Archives - Futurist Speaker 32 32 Artificial Photosynthesis – Paving the Way for Startling New Forms of Sunless Agriculture https://futuristspeaker.com/future-of-agriculture/artificial-photosynthesis-paving-the-way-for-startling-new-forms-of-sunless-agriculture/ https://futuristspeaker.com/future-of-agriculture/artificial-photosynthesis-paving-the-way-for-startling-new-forms-of-sunless-agriculture/#comments Thu, 28 Jul 2022 11:45:32 +0000 https://futuristspeaker.com/?p=38608 The post Artificial Photosynthesis – Paving the Way for Startling New Forms of Sunless Agriculture appeared first on Futurist Speaker.

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Artificial Photosynthesis – Paving the Way for Startling New Forms of Sunless Agriculture

Futurist Speaker Thomas Frey Blog: Artificial Photosyntheses - Paving the Way for Starting New Forms of Sunless Agriculture

While we won’t ever change the natural process of photosynthesis, we’re rapidly transitioning to an artificial form of photosynthesis that doesn’t require sunlight.

Photosynthesis is responsible directly and indirectly for the oxygen we breathe and the food we eat. It’s a rather inefficient process, with only about 1% of the solar energy ending up in the plant biomass. Plants convert that light energy, along with atmospheric carbon dioxide and water, into chemical energy in the form of glucose that stimulates plant growth, releasing oxygen and water along the way.

With natural photosynthesis, the biochemical reaction and the glucose delivery happen in the same location – in the plant itself.

Recently, though, a team of researchers has demonstrated the possibility of dramatically increasing plant growth efficiency with a process that allows these sequential steps to take place in two locations – so the plant can stay in the dark.

The Artificial Photosynthesis Sequence

First, they used an electrocatalytic process in a lab setting to create acetate effluent – the main component of vinegar – combining carbon dioxide (CO2), water, and solar electricity. This process, which is essentially artificial photosynthesis, takes place in an electrolyzer.

Instead of glucose, the plant nourishment produced is carbon in the form of acetate. The acetate is collected and brought to the plant, where it’s absorbed through the root system and metabolized.

The production of acetate replicates many of the benefits of natural photosynthesis. In its basic form, water and carbon dioxide are converted to oxygen and carbon (acetate), with energy (ideally solar) making it all happen.

The team tested the approach on known crops to see if they could be grown with acetate and without sunlight. Black-eyed peas, tomatoes, tobacco, rice, canola, and green peas were all able to utilize carbon from acetate when cultivated in the dark.

The benefits and future implications of breaking the photosynthesis process into these two steps are significant.

Farming Acreage and Location

This artificial photosynthesis process is estimated to be four times more efficient than sunlight-driven photosynthesis. While we wouldn’t do away with traditional farming completely, traditional farm footprints could be pared back significantly and concentrated in more fertile areas, reducing the need for extended irrigation systems to increasingly drier locations.

Researchers are already exploring how to supercharge traditional farms by adding this new artificial photosynthetic approach.

Food Factories

Well into the future, we’ll see food-growing factories similar to the indoor cannabis-growing facilities those of us in Denver are used to seeing in the city’s warehouse district. While indoor cannabis operations are incredibly energy-intensive given their need to support natural photosynthesis in an indoor environment with the use of grow lights, artificial photosynthesis-based indoor food farms would use very little energy – practically none to support the growing process.

These multi-floor indoor farms will flourish in areas with inexpensive, nonproductive land. Near the farm factories we’ll find lab factories using solar power to produce the all-important life-giving, photosynthesis-mimicking, carbon-rich acetate effluent.

Futurist Speaker Thomas Frey Blog: Food Growing Factories

Food Security on Earth …

Food from smaller farms in more preferable, secure locations, combined with indoor-grown food, will make the world’s food supply less susceptible to droughts and floods. Food factories could also be strategically located closer to cities and in other areas less suitable for farming but close to the populations that need food.

… And in Space

This technology will revolutionize the practice of growing plants in space – whether at the International Space Station or on future voyages well beyond that. We need to take advantage of every cubic inch of our habitable space vehicles, and if we can grow the same amount of food in one-fourth of the space required now, it will be a huge boost to our efforts to push deeper into space.

In fact, the acetate-based plant metabolization process described above recently won a top prize in NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge that promotes the development of new food technologies suitable for long-duration space missions.

Food Quality

Would food grown using this artificial photosynthesis process taste or seem different in any way? There’s no reason to think it would taste different, but it might look different. In natural photosynthesis, naturally present chlorophyll, which gives plants a green coloring, supports the conversion of light to energy.

With light-less, artificial photosynthesis, it’s not clear whether these molecules might lose their green coloring and if the relative dormancy of the chlorophyll might over time lead to a genetic mutation in some plant families so they resemble what we often see today in albino plants or “albinism.” I’m not a botanist, though, and I haven’t seen any research on that question.

Coming Soon to Your Grocer?

When will we begin to see food that’s been grown in the dark? Like many innovations, from Tang to Dustbusters, our astronaut corps will be utilizing artificial photosynthesis to grow plants before any farmers on Earth do.

At this time, researchers have only scratched the surface of this technology, and they’ve just recently proven the concept. Perfecting the artificial photosynthesis process will take several more years, and scaling it will be the next hurdle beyond that.

The first widespread use won’t be with massive corporate high-rise farms in the U.S., but in indoor micro-farms in areas of the world where food security is especially threatened, including countries in central and southern Africa.

India will also likely be an early adopter given that nation’s proclivity to capitalize quickly on scientific breakthroughs, such as thorium-based nuclear energy production, as we noted last week.

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]]> https://futuristspeaker.com/future-of-agriculture/artificial-photosynthesis-paving-the-way-for-startling-new-forms-of-sunless-agriculture/feed/ 1 Self Watering Soil – The Single Greatest Breakthrough in Agriculture in the Past Century https://futuristspeaker.com/future-of-agriculture/self-watering-soil-the-single-greatest-breakthrough-in-agriculture-in-the-past-century/ https://futuristspeaker.com/future-of-agriculture/self-watering-soil-the-single-greatest-breakthrough-in-agriculture-in-the-past-century/#comments Thu, 29 Jul 2021 05:00:00 +0000 https://futuristspeaker.flywheelsites.com/?p=36130 The post Self Watering Soil – The Single Greatest Breakthrough in Agriculture in the Past Century appeared first on Futurist Speaker.

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Self Watering Soil – The Single Greatest Breakthrough in Agriculture in the Past Century

Futurist Speaker Thomas Frey Blog: Self Watering Soil Breakthrough In Agriculture

It’s not exactly “self-watering” farming but it’s close. A research team led by Dr. Guihua Yu at the engineering school at the University of Texas in Austin have developed a hydrogel that when mixed with soil captures humidity from the air at night and releases the water during the day to irrigate the soil and promote plant growth.

Amazing Hydrogels

Hydrogels are not new. These compounds contain water and absorb water incredibly well. They’ve recently been used in things like healthcare, first aid products, and contact lenses. Over the past few years, these UT researchers have been refining many applications for this technology.

Three years ago they reported on their new zinc oxide hydrogel that could remove moisture from the air to minimize localized humidity, by coating an interior wall or window with these materials. Once saturated, hydrogels become opaque and can significantly reduce infrared light transmission when used as a window coating. The materials can even generate small amounts of electricity and serve as an emergency power source similar to the energy from a AA battery.

A year later, Dr. Yu’s engineers spent time exploring how their hydrogel could be used for water generation and filtration. They added a thermal responsive element to the material that causes it to release the absorbed water when the hydrogel is heated – for example by sunlight. At that point they could envision mobile, solar powered water generating systems that seemingly would make water out of thin, moist air.

Next Generation

Dr. Yu and his team pushed this technology even further and developed a specific hydrogel that can be mixed with soil to support a self-watering system for plants and crops. Picture a farm or garden in which hydrogel-infused soil collects humidity from the cool, moist night air and then releases that moisture into the soil in the form of liquid water when the sun rises and temperatures heat up.

In one experiment, radishes planted in the hydrogel soil survived and grew over a 14-day period without any ongoing irrigation. However, radishes grown in a side-by-side experiment with untreated soil, didn’t survive more than two days after their irrigation stopped.

Yu’s engineering researchers found that hydrogel soil farming can be very efficient – one gram of the soil mixture can absorb three to four grams of moisture. For some crops, a kilogram or less of the material can irrigate roughly 1 square mile of farmland.

Futurist Speaker Thomas Frey Blog: The Future of Self Watering System, Hydrogel and Water Scarcity

The Future of Self-Watering

Hydrogels are just the latest example of how we are capturing and using some of nature’s abundant, renewable resources. Wind, solar, and hydropower are now mainstream. Hydrogel-infused soil that captures and uses natural humidity will be mentioned in similar breakthrough lists in less than a decade.

And it’s just in time. We’re losing farmland. Lack of soil is not the only issue; desertification and lack of water is becoming a huge factor. Water scarcity is forcing farmers to compete with cities, water recreation, and even wildlife for these resources.

Extreme weather has been altering rainfall patterns, and one of the effects is increased drought. Hotter weather and the resulting faster evaporation are limiting the amount of water for irrigation – just at a time we need more rain for farming to feed a growing world population.

But water is all around us in the form of vapor and humidity – 50,000 cubic kilometers in fact. If a significant portion of farming can rely on hydrogel soil technology, we won’t have to choose between fish and farms.

And it appears that hydrogels can also be infused with fertilizer and pesticides for slow, controlled release of these substances to further promote healthy, substantial crop yields.

Coming to Fields and Gardens Near You

Now that the concept of hydrogel soil has been proven, commercializing and scaling it will likely take 3-5 years. Once it’s mass produced, except in the most arid environments, we’ll see subsistence and commercial farms spring up around the world without the need for irrigation systems, pumping, and other water supply challenges. We’ll have more farmable land that requires less surface water.

Farmers around the world will rototill hydrogels into the soil in their fields. Small bags will be available at home gardening stores to mix with potting or gardening soil. We’ll apply it to our yards so we can throttle back watering frequency for our lawns.

Predictions for the future will certainly always be filled with headline-grabbing topics like space colonization, self-driving cars, and robotics. But the quality of our future may rely just as much or more on basic scientific breakthroughs like hydrogel soil that efficiently tap into nature and our existing natural resources.

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]]> https://futuristspeaker.com/future-of-agriculture/self-watering-soil-the-single-greatest-breakthrough-in-agriculture-in-the-past-century/feed/ 1 88 Mind-Bending Examples of How 5G will affect our Daily Lives https://futuristspeaker.com/technology-trends/88-mind-bending-examples-of-how-5g-will-affect-our-daily-lives/ https://futuristspeaker.com/technology-trends/88-mind-bending-examples-of-how-5g-will-affect-our-daily-lives/#comments Wed, 10 Apr 2019 17:58:43 +0000 https://futuristspeaker.flywheelsites.com/?p=22130 The post 88 Mind-Bending Examples of How 5G will affect our Daily Lives appeared first on Futurist Speaker.

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88 Mind-Bending Examples of How 5G will affect our Daily Lives

As the digitalization increases, every morning we will wake up to a slightly more digital world.

The race to 5G is heating up. Telecom companies are racing against other telecom companies, cities competing with other cities, and even countries are battling against other countries in a rush to be the best.

5G is the next-generation communication network that has been christened by the media hype machine with phrases like “world-changing,” “quantum leap,” and “this will change everything” to describe what lies ahead.

When it comes to speed, 5G will offer speeds that far exceed those of 4G. Currently, 4G currently offers download speeds of 100Mbps, about five times the speed of 3G. But 5G will offer speeds up to 100Gbps or faster.

However, 5G isn’t just about speed. It’s about pervasiveness, capacity, durability, dimensionality, intelligent machines, privacy, security, trust, ethics, tons of new standards, and finding new ways to transform our own human experience.

Through the magic of our continually improving networks, we will be adding formidable computing muscle at technology’s edge, turbo-boosting the capability of every IoT sensor, blockchain transaction, payment device, and interactive dashboard.

With this brief introduction, I will take you on a journey through an industry-by-industry brainstorming session to better illustrate how this seemingly minor advancement will likely blindside everyone in business, and more specifically, those in key leadership roles.

To be sure, some of the things on the following list are already being experimented with or happening on a limited scale, but the coming decade will see 5G unfold in ways hard to imagine. Here are 88 examples designed to tease your imagination:

Future of the Banking Industry

How will our use of currency change in 10, 20, or 30 years? Will we be using cryptocurrencies, national currencies, or a combination of both? What other ways can today’s existing branch banks be leveraged into profitable enterprises? Will our existing banking industry discover those new uses before it starts closing their doors? Here are a few of the potential 5G changes coming down the pike:

  1. Passwords will disappear
  2. ATMs will be replaced by smartphones
  3. Identity management will become a core discipline taught in every school
  4. Cash will dwindle to a fraction of its use today
  5. Driverless mobile banks will replace most existing branch banksv
  6. Virtual tellers will replace most human tellers
  7. Car loans will all but disappearv
  8. Automated micro-loans will become banking’s new profit center

Our entire food supply chain is about to go digital.

Future of Agriculture

The agriculture industry is teetering on the edge of a data-revolution. Both food and ag-grown products will have rapidly shifting supply chains with real-time data streams highlighting every swing in consumer preference.

    1. Real-time monitoring of crops with a continuous feed of plant, soil, and yield analytics
    2. Macro warning systems cautioning farmers about encroaching diseases, insects, weather fronts, etc.
    3. AR visual scanning of crops to detect problems
    4. Individual plant-health monitoring systems will enable a more granular look into problem areas
    5. Lab-grown (clean) meats will emerge as a sophisticated hi-tech approach to food production
    6. Livestock tags will allow for visual AR screening and analysis of animals
    7. Pest deterrent devices will incorporate an AI system to experiment with offensive frequencies and preventative approaches until the correct one is found to effectively create a protective dome over a field
    8. Most farm-grown produce, grains, nuts, and other crops will be date-tagged, geo-tagged, and chemical-tagged in a blockchain database to give consumers a more informed choice

5G will improve healthcare more in the next 10 years than all the advances in the past 100 years.

Future of Healthcare

For sick people in rural areas, with doctors located many miles away, traveling long distances to find a doctor can be rough. This will change as virtual healthcare becomes more common. With remote in-home examining systems, doctors are only are only a Skype or Zoom call away. They will even be able to monitor analytics, write prescriptions, and manage patient responses when needed.

  1. Virtual doctors will become far more affordable and engage-able around the world
  2. Blockchain patient records with necessary privacy encryption will enable transmission of huge data files in seconds
  3. Emergency surgeries, overseen by doctors but performed by non-doctors, will become common around the world
  4. Interactive virtual training for doctors and nurses will be conducted around the world
  5. Full-body health scans will give rise to real-time holographic monitoring of surgeries, heart-scans, liver-scans, digestive system-scans, and more
  6. Nano-scanning to the molecular level will soon be possible
  7. Language translation services will enable doctors and nurses to work with patients who don’t speak the same language
  8. Wearable AI-based health monitors will become common, and far more sophisticated over time

Future of Dating

Forming new human relationships has always been challenging, especially when people find themselves surrounded by unfamiliar people in unfamiliar surroundings.

  1. Single people will have the opportunity to monitor a compatibility app to discover those nearby who share similar interests
  2. Jewelry such as rings and bracelets will use glowing colors to signal types and ranges of compatibility
  3. AR glasses will offer the wearer a visual preview and detailed background to set the stage for any future encounter
  4. Since language has been a huge barrier, sophisticated new translation systems will enable people to cross cultural and language barriers with ease
  5. Point and call smartphones will enable people to place a call to anyone currently visible to them
  6. Automated appearance evaluation systems will allow you to scan yourself before you go out on the town, rate your overall appearance, and make recommendations to increase your score
  7. Companies will offer driverless speed-dating cars for quick 5-minute get-to-know-you rides across town
  8. New forms of virtual dating that employ a variety of teledildonic devices will take tech romances to a whole new level

Future of Insurance

Insurance is the fine art of mitigating damage to a perceived risk. While emerging technology will reduce risk in certain areas, it will also increase risk in others. At the heart of every insurance policy is a customer making a calculated decision to hedge his or her bets against the probability of disaster. 5G will offer companies the ability to automate probability curves in real time, significantly reducing transaction costs, and opening the door for micro policies that have never been profitable in the past.

  1. Automation will enable the creation and monitoring of micro warranties and micro policies in thousands of niche areas previously deemed unprofitable
  2. Situational risk assessment systems will be monitored in real-time
  3. Automated holographic full-body scan security systems will replace “showing an ID”
  4. Rapid-response drone scanning of households, vehicles, and businesses will take place following every claim
  5. Specially designed drones will conduct client interviews, analyze damage, and issue payment within minutes of someone filing a claim
  6. Increased use of blockchain will enable companies to better assess personal ownership networks and changing valuations in real time
  7. A number of new robot insurance policies will be designed to cover the multi-dimensionality of robot uses
  8. Life-mapping as a process will be used for uncovering a person’s risk patterns

In the future, the speed of transportation will be closely tied to the speed of data.

Future of the Transportation

As I’ve said many times, driverless technology will be the most disruptive technology in all history. Virtually every job related to the automotive industry will be affected in some way. Parking lots, garages, traffic cops, traffic courts, gas stations, tire shops, emissions testing, drivers licenses, traffic cones, weigh stations, guardrails, stoplights, and DUIs will all begin to disappear. At the same time, we will be creating new businesses and new jobs at an unprecedented rate.

  1. Super Contextualizer – Expanded awareness of the environments surrounding every vehicle
  2. Car-to-car communications (ground-based mesh networks)
  3. Drone-to-drone communications (flying mesh networks)
  4. Car to drone communications
  5. Driverless mobile businesses
  6. Driverless mobile classrooms
  7. Driverless mobile daycare
  8. Driverless mobile medical diagnostics

A well-crafted visualization is worth a thousand images, which itself is worth a thousand words.

Future of Education

Education continues to be the largest opportunity in the online world where no one has quite cracked the code. By 2030, the largest company on the Internet will be an education-based company that we haven’t heard of yet.

  1. Virtual apprenticeships for job positions that employ the use of rare or expensive equipment
  2. Situational testing where candidates are examined during their normal daily routine as they face real life challenges
  3. Virtual sensory reducers will help students manage their distractions
  4. Brain stimulators will become commonplace to momentarily amp up a person’s cranial inputs
  5. Virtual involvement training apps will offer a new kind of learning experience
  6. Gamified micro-credit systems will give people additional credits for the way they handle specific situations
  7. New micro-learning processes will be gamified with rewards to help those in need of job-ready skills
  8. Sensory enhancement helmets will make you the protagonist of your own hero’s journey

Future of Retail

Most of our current retail is in the process of transitioning to experience-based engagements. Naturally, consumers are in control. They decide what to buy, where to buy, when to buy, and how much they’re willing to pay. In a super connected world, where information is fluid and transparent, retailers will become actively engaged in the global conversation. If not, their customers will begin the conversations without them. Physical stores are not going away any time soon, but the value they add to their communities and the variety of products they offer will remain in transition for the foreseeable future.

  1. Click-and-buy selling on-the-street will employ the use of live models to draw attention to products, encouraging consumers to simply scan-click-and-buy
  2. Drone docking – drones delivery to driverless cars while still in transit
  3. Drone docking – drone package delivery for homes
  4. AR visual purchase history of every customer as they walk in
  5. Physical signage will be replaced with holographic projected signage
  6. Growing market for digital objects that customers will use for display purposes such as virtual statues, room decorations, and table ornaments
  7. Growing market for legacy portfolios comprised of videos, holograms, images, podcasts, and more
  8. Well-choreographed holographic buying events such as auctions, countdown sales, flash sales, and more

Entertainment is about to become even nerdier.

Future of Entertainment

Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forward. Somewhere in that phrase is the human need for entertainment. Every thought we think is creating our future, but we won’t be able to understand it until it’s over. So go out and do something impressive today that your future self will thank you for later.

  1. Improved visitor tracking with super granular real-time analytics
  2. Stadium size holographic displays will give rise to entire new genres of art
  3. Virtual vacations will become far more relaxing and engaging than real vacations
  4. Huge markets will develop for “life art” with live video feeds of things happening in real time or delayed time in cities around the world
  5. Macro projection systems will turn increasingly large venues, such as stadiums, neighborhoods, and entire cities, into live performance art locations
  6. Super choreographed drone dropping of fireworks events
  7. E-sports will become the world’s largest sports-related industry
  8. Gamified citizenship will be both entertaining and super invasive

Your next job will very likely require some type of 5G skills.

Future of Work, Jobs, Employment

Will we run out of work for the world? Of course not! Nothing is more preposterous than to somehow proclaim the human race no longer has any work to do. But having paid jobs to coincide with the work that needs to be done, and developing the skills necessary for workers to perform this future work is another matter. That said, 5G will be a significant driver in the area of new job creation.

  1. Drone command centers to manage fleets of drones
  2. Search engines for the physical world will expand our abilities far beyond that of searching our existing information world
  3. Introduction of mini-airports to support a growing air taxi industry
  4. Drone fleets to create near-real-time digital models of a city will improve over time, and cities will leverage this in a variety of ways
  5. Drone surveillance as a service
  6. Home-based fulfillment operations with driverless delivery of goods that need to be processed, repackaged, and reshipped
  7. Holographic advertising – designers, installers, and experience creators
  8. Personal heat signatures – analyzers, researchers, and monitors
  9. Global system architects will be the people that develop entirely new systems for the world
  10. Privacy managers and consultants will be those who assess, strategize, and manage a person’s privacy
  11. Shareability Auditors – People who analyze homes and businesses for shareable assets
  12. Automation Auditors – Assessing what parts, processes, and systems can be automated
  13. 3Dimensionalists – Those with an innate ability to problem-solve three dimensionally
  14. Digital Personality Designers – Talking back and forth to a computer that has a machine-like voice is boring, but being able to download specific “personality packages” into your devices will add an entirely new level of engagement
  15. Smart Contact Lens App Developers – Smart contact lens superimpose information on the wearer’s field of view, and wearers will want to incorporate a wide range of capabilities
  16. Octogenarian Service Providers – As the population continues to age we will have record numbers of people living into their 80s, 90s, and 100s. This mushrooming group of active oldsters will provide a demand for goods and services currently not being addressed in today’s marketplace

5G has a way of making the invisible visible.

Final Thoughts

In much the same way that the 1985 Apple LaserWriter gave birth to desktop publishing, and the 2010 MakerBot’s Thing-O-Matic 3D printer gave birth to desktop manufacturing, a world filled with 5G will give birth to hundreds of thousands of new products, systems, and desktop industries.

Next-gen precision farm equipment, coupled with crop sensors, will mean farmers getting instant updates on how their fields are doing, allowing them or even their autonomous equipment to respond when problems first appear, and faster than ever before.

When they add drones to their toolbox, any situation suddenly has its own rapid response team and crops can be watered when needed and animals fed on time, while the farmer works more like a conductor conducting an orchestra than a grease money buried up to his or her elbows trying to fix a problem.

But farmers are not alone. 5G will add new tools to the toolbox for every doctor, lawyer, teacher, nurse, designer, engineer, dentist, CEO, and business owner. Every combination of sensors, robots, automated equipment, and unique devices will unleash a new wave of opportunity that we will soon need to manage.

But your future is all about you, and I’m sure I’ve missed many of the future technologies that you’ll be interested in. I’ve only scratched the surface of this continually evolving idea-scape. If you have additional ideas, please feel free to add to the conversation as every new pixel on the masterpiece of life will help us build a better future together.

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By Futurist Thomas Frey, author of 'Epiphany Z – 8 Radical Visions Transforming Your Future'

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