Big Tech & Ag

[HDRider]

Big Tech's emerging digital platforms will not help farmers share their knowledge or promote their diverse seed and animal varieties. The platforms will emphasise conformity; participating farmers will have to buy the inputs that are promoted and sold on credit (at high interest rates), follow the "advice" of a chatbot to qualify for crop insurance (which they must pay for), sell their crops to the company (at a non-negotiable price), and receive payments on a digital money app (for which there is a fee). Any missteps can affect a farmer's creditworthiness and access to finance and markets. It will be contract farming on a mass scale.

These developments in digital agriculture are not divorced from Big Tech's aggressive moves into food distribution and retail. In fact, digital agriculture is building the centralised production systems upstream that will supply Big Tech's evolving operations downstream, which are rapidly displacing the small vendors, hawkers and other local actors who have long served to bring foods from small farmers to consumers. The stage is being set for today's small farmers and vendors to be tomorrow's pieceworkers for Big Tech companies.

The Big Tech takeover of agriculture is dangerous

It will endanger the livelihood of the world’s small farmers and food workers and completely transform our food systems.

grain.org

 

[sstterry]

I am afraid we have already gone down that slippery slope with GMO crops. Take a look at all the paperwork that is involved for row-croppers and then look at who actually owns the patents. I challenge anyone to find bulk grain that is not GMO and the problem is mainly Big Corp owns all the patents. Row croppers are specifically prohibited from holding any back for the next year (there is a specific color gene inserted each year) and they do audit fields. A friend of mine got audited once and they looked at all of his fields and then asked where was the extra 200lb of corn that was not planted. I was in a storage shed waiting on one field to dry up, but they knew down to the bag how much had been used by using ariel photos and computer programs.

 

[Silver]

The good news is that patents expire. I think Monsanto's RR Soybean patent expired in 2015. They probably have another newer better one now, I don't know but the last one worked well enough.

 

[Stocker Steve]

The good news is that patents expire. I think Monsanto's RR Soybean patent expired in 2015. They probably have another newer better one now, I don't know but the last one worked well enough.

They tweak the recipe or the genetics every so little and then re patent the product.

 

[sstterry]

The good news is that patents expire. I think Monsanto's RR Soybean patent expired in 2015. They probably have another newer better one now, I don't know but the last one worked well enough.

Query though, what if they don't make any of the non-patented seeds available?

 

[Stocker Steve]

There is the potential to make more profit by growing non GMO conventional crops. Seed cost is usually less and selling price is usually more. Some smaller seed companies specialize in public seed varieties.

Export soybeans is a good example. They paid $1/bu more the last time I checked.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

I am afraid we have already gone down that slippery slope with GMO crops. Take a look at all the paperwork that is involved for row-croppers and then look at who actually owns the patents. I challenge anyone to find bulk grain that is not GMO and the problem is mainly Big Corp owns all the patents. Row croppers are specifically prohibited from holding any back for the next year (there is a specific color gene inserted each year) and they do audit fields. A friend of mine got audited once and they looked at all of his fields and then asked where was the extra 200lb of corn that was not planted. I was in a storage shed waiting on one field to dry up, but they knew down to the bag how much had been used by using ariel photos and computer programs.

Did Monsanto come in with black helicopters, and take him off to a undisclosed location to be interrogated?
It's really not that big of a deal to plant whatever you want. The bigger problem is pricing, not use.



Data collection is a gold mine, it's been going on in ag for quite a while.

 

[sstterry]

Did Monsanto come in with black helicopters, and take him off to a undisclosed location to be interrogated?
It's really not that big of a deal to plant whatever you want. The bigger problem is pricing, not use.



Data collection is a gold mine, it's been going on in ag for quite a while.

They brought in some drones and used computers to calculate exactly how much seed had been planted. It actually is a big deal if you violate their contract. They have stiff penalties and they can sue your azz off. I saw one of the purchase agreements, they are pretty onerous. As I said, there is a color gene added each year (color as in only seen under a microscope) and they can tell exactly which year the seed was produced and they have the right to check you in the future. It is a lot bigger deal than you think if you try to squirrel away the seed.

 

[simme]

The people who own the patents are the ones who invested the time and money in the development of the product. I don't see how that can work any other way. If they can't financially benefit from their development, I don't think they would develop anything. Generally, only the people with deep pockets can take the risk of spending the money on the development. So I think it will always be the case that the little guy will need to comply with the "terms and conditions" to use the technology/product. Sixty to eight years ago, hybrid seed became the new thing. But, it was more expensive than saving seed from the previous crop. But it yielded so much more. Then GMO. Comes at a cost, but many benefits. If there were no demand, there would soon be no supply.
In regards to non-gmo grain availability, there is a relatively small chicken company here that grows some of their chickens as Non-GMO. Just a marketing thing due to the fear some people have about GMO. If there is a demand for a non-gmo fed chicken, they will build the supply. They use non-gmo corn, milo, some varieties of peas and of course soybean meal. Apparently, they are still able to source enough grain to make their non-gmo feed. A single chicken house with 30,000 chickens requires about 175 tons of feed per growout period.
The further we get from the Laura Ingalls pioneer days of the small family farm, the more dependent the farmer becomes on others.

 

[Silver]

If a utility patent on seed lasts 15-20 years there is plenty of incentive to spend the money to produce the product. Even better in Monsanto's case is the fact that it really doesn't matter if the patent is off, as long as people are planting RR seeds they are buying Roundup.

 

[sstterry]

The people who own the patents are the ones who invested the time and money in the development of the product. I don't see how that can work any other way. If they can't financially benefit from their development, I don't think they would develop anything. Generally, only the people with deep pockets can take the risk of spending the money on the development. So I think it will always be the case that the little guy will need to comply with the "terms and conditions" to use the technology/product. Sixty to eight years ago, hybrid seed became the new thing. But, it was more expensive than saving seed from the previous crop. But it yielded so much more. Then GMO. Comes at a cost, but many benefits. If there were no demand, there would soon be no supply.
In regards to non-gmo grain availability, there is a relatively small chicken company here that grows some of their chickens as Non-GMO. Just a marketing thing due to the fear some people have about GMO. If there is a demand for a non-gmo fed chicken, they will build the supply. They use non-gmo corn, milo, some varieties of peas and of course soybean meal. Apparently, they are still able to source enough grain to make their non-gmo feed. A single chicken house with 30,000 chickens requires about 175 tons of feed per growout period.
The further we get from the Laura Ingalls pioneer days of the small family farm, the more dependent the farmer becomes on others.

I agree with everything you say, but my concern is as much one of National Security as anything else. Monsanto owns most of the patents on GMO grains and Monsanto is owned by Bayer, a German Company. What happens if they suddenly say no grain sales to the US. We are SOL because there is very little other seed for planting.

 

[Silver]

Query though, what if they don't make any of the non-patented seeds available?

As I understand it there are plenty of outfits selling generic seed.

 

[sstterry]

If a utility patent on seed lasts 15-20 years there is plenty of incentive to spend the money to produce the product. Even better in Monsanto's case is the fact that it really doesn't matter if the patent is off, as long as people are planting RR seeds they are buying Roundup.

But Roundup has been out of patent for years. It is really just Glyphosate-resistant. I had a case against a seed seller some years ago over some Liberty Link seed. The problem was it was not true Liberty Link and his (different guy from above) entire crop did not come in.

 

[sstterry]

As I understand it there are plenty of outfits selling generic seed.

I hope you are right. A friend of mine said it is very hard to find non-GMO seed. But, I am relying just on what he told me.

 

[Silver]

I hope you are right. A friend of mine said it is very hard to find non-GMO seed. But, I am relying just on what he told me.

Well what I meant was that there are outfits selling generic GMO seed, not sure about corn but soybeans anyway.
And as far as I know there are no GMO barley, oats, etc.

 

[simme]

I have seen two instances locally where a farmer "forgot" or got confused as to whether his crop was Roundup Ready or Liberty and used the wrong herbicide. In one case it was neither. Of course the herbicide did its job. Might have been using saved seeds. IDK. but a big mistake.

 

[sstterry]

I have seen two instances locally where a farmer "forgot" or got confused as to whether his crop was Roundup Ready or Liberty and used the wrong herbicide. In one case it was neither. Of course the herbicide did its job. Might have been using saved seeds. IDK. but a big mistake.

In the case of my friend, there was no question. We also had proof that they were getting seed from South America when they represented that it came from the mid-west. We had definitive proof that the seed came from South America. and it was a different seed rather than LL seed.

Maybe that answers my concerns, if generic seed is available from 3rd world countries, then maybe it is not as much of a problem as I assume.

 

[Stocker Steve]

John Deere is becoming a data company.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Even better in Monsanto's case is the fact that it really doesn't matter if the patent is off, as long as people are planting RR seeds they are buying Roundup.

Most here are using generic spray from China.

 

[Stocker Steve]

The stage is being set for today's small farmers and vendors to be tomorrow's pieceworkers for Big Tech companies.

ROI from production is too low to interest big companies, other than Bill Gates.

So follow the leader farmers buy a seed and chemical recipe that Big Tech marketing has priced to allow the producer to cash flow land that Grandpa previously paid for.