FUTURISTIC FARMING-ROBOTS TO REPLACE HUMANS!

Urban migration that is taking place in many countries has adverse implications on food security of the world. This is especially true in many developing countries where agricultural activities are concentrated in rural areas where a majority of the population reside. If the past trend in a country like USA is taken into consideration, a time will come when less than 10% of the country's population will have to raise foods for the rest. How can this be done? Land consolidation is bound to take place for making agricultural activity economically more viable and with fewer hands available for carrying out field operations, more and more mechanized contraptions will come into play to sustain food production. Mechanized cultivation so far involved preparing the land, sowing, de-weeding, harvesting, threshing, storage and milling. In all these operations some human involvement is absolutely necessary to operate the machinery. But according to some visionaries even humans will be eventually replaced with advanced robots with multiple functions and versatile capabilities. Here is a take on this exciting future scenario.

"David Dorhout currently works in the biotech industry, but his side project and passion for the last few years has been robotics. Built as the test platform for a larger robotic farming system, Prospero is just one of what will eventually become a swarm of planting, tending, and harvesting robots made to optimize every inch of arable space in a given field. Prospero is a prototype for robotic organism that Dorhout is currently developing. Right now, he's got a small fleet of six-legged robots capable of working together to optimize the planting of a given piece of farmland using swarm technology and software running game theory. The robots communicate with each other via infrared, marking places that have already been planted and signaling to each other when one needs help seeding a particular plot. Prospero is just the beginning, Dorhout told Popsci.com. He aims to build a robot that can plant, maintain, and harvest an entire crop all autonomously and, more importantly, in the most efficient way possible. Swarms of Robo-farmers could work around the clock to help keep a field in optimal conditions, fighting pests and other invasive plants without chemicals and increasing both crop yield and crop health. His current six-legged robo-farmer is the first step in what might radically change our approach to agriculture. See Prospero in action, as well as Dorhout's robo-centric vision of the future of farming, in the video below".

While robots are extensively used these days for operating in unbearable working conditions and in non-food manufacturing operations, they have not made any significant impact on the food processing floor. There are a few advocates of use of robots on the processing floor for better safety of products but their use in the field for agricultural operations is some what far fetched, though not impossible. This is an age where robots are replacing man in many endeavors and agriculture is bound to succumb to the versatility of robots  one day or the other. Wait and see.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

"ROBOTIC" FOOD SERVICE-A NEW APPROACH

Can a country with large population and high unemployment rate accept a technology that makes humans redundant? Obviously China seems to be taking a conscious decision that in some areas of service Robots are preferable to humans as reflected by the recent opening of a restaurant in that country where food service is managed entirely by these mechanical contraptions. What is amazing is that the customers have accepted this mode of service without any reservation, at least for the time being. According to catering experts Robots enjoy several advantages over their human counterparts like uniformity of service, tirelessness, non-moody approach, no tipping, "personal" hygiene, disease free nature etc. As a Robot hardly costs about $6000 and does not need too much of a recurring expenditure, the profitability margin can go up dramatically.

"The restaurant opened just a month ago, but is already creating a buzz across the globe as it provides droids to deliver food and service to customers without taking a tip. But the biggest advantage, Li Xiaomei, a customer at the restaurant, told the Associated Press' Ken Teh, it's the robots' attitude. "They have a better service attitude than humans," said Li. "Humans can be temperamental or impatient, but they don't feel tired, they just keep working and moving round and round the restaurant all night." The technology is relatively simple: the robots move around the tables on a rotating conveyor belt placed in the middle of the eatery, using motion-sensor technology to identify humans. The robots sit on wheels, giving the appearance of riding a bicycle around the room with a basket in front carrying the food. When a customer reaches out to grab something, the robot stops The droids also double as greeters and entertainers, giving dance routines and welcoming new customers".

What is not sure is whether these Robots can sustain the interest of the consumers, especially when they revisit the place because of the "monotony" factor. Attractive servers with amiable temperament often attract customers and if the attitude and behavior are impeccable no Robot will ever be able to compete with them. In an age when recorded voices are substituting live human voice in many parts of the world, making eating also a mechanical experience may be a little too far-fetched. But with human cost mounting astronomically during the last few years, it may be inevitable that the industry as a whole opt for Robots to cut down on cost. It is a paradox that the unemployment rate in many countries is attaining unbearable levels while development of Robotic technology in many fields will make human intervention infructuous! It is understandable that operations considered dangerous to health are best left to the Robots, but restaurants opting for Robots for food service purely from commercial considerations can have adverse social consequences.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

DIGITAL AGE-ADVANTAGE TO THE CONSUMER OR THE INDUSTRY?

Information Technology has become so omnipotent that there is practically no field of human activity which is untouched by this powerful tool. In the food area use of electronics and advanced computing systems have made it easier to increase productivity, improve quality and safety of foods and improve management efficiency. The ultimate in electronics, the robots are likely to be normal fixtures in the production floor of many food processing companies in not too distant a future. Digital technology has enabled consumers to make informed choice of the foods they can buy and derive maximum benefits. Advances in mobile telephony are slated to empower the consumers to obtain important information about the products available on the super market shelves for comparison of various products and choose the best suiting to individual requirement vis-à-vis nutrition and health.

"The back story of a particular food item is valuable to consumers, too, for reasons such as managing health to being able to make moral or ethical judgments. As the Christian Science Monitor recently noted, "every gadget, piece of food, or article of clothing comes with a back story." There is already a growing movement to quantify data about the way we live - and eat. From web apps like Health Month (which enables you to set health goals and track them over a month, including dietary goals) to the self-explanatory TweetWhatYouEat. These apps will become much more sophisticated once food businesses give consumers data from the supply chain. The web site The Quantified Self, run by Gary Wolf and Kevin Kelly, has more tips and tools for consumers who wish to track and manage the data about their lives. As a diabetic (type 1), I'm more careful than most people about what I eat. So I can't wait for the day when I'll be able to scan a food item with my smart phone and find out if it's a healthier option for me than a competing product. This is a huge opportunity for the food industry. Compete on the quality of the data you provide; and win. Let us know in the comments if you've spotted some early examples of food companies utilizing sensor or similar data".

Consumer of to day is much more worried about the safety of foods they buy and eat and digital technology is providing the required tools to monitor the history of supply chain of any product to get a feeling of confidence before buying them. It is a paradox that in spite of such powerful tools at the disposal of the industry and the consumer, there is a perceptible trend of the consumer shifting his loyalty to locally grown produce and locally made foods. While green house gas emission is certainly a factor, it may be more due to the inability of the organized commercial food producers to gain the confidence of the people because of the perception that industry does not care for consumer health, their focus being profitability "at any cost". Unless this issue is addressed no technology can come to the rescue of the industry.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

MAKING CONSUMER A "ROBOT"!-GRAVE CHARGES AGAINST INDUSTRY

Food industry in many affluent countries is blamed, probably with some justification for its relentless pursuit of profit, ignoring the harm caused to the consumer health by developing and promoting unbalanced and unhealthy food products. If the CEO of a multinational company is to be believed, it is not the industry which is responsible for to day's sad situation but the consumer who is behaving like a robot without thinking about the consequences of over eating and under exercising! It may be true that every consumer must have adequate physical activity to "burn" the calories ingested and lesser the activity lower should be the food intake. But tempting the consumers through mega sized serving portions with appetizing taste and flavor, that too at low prices, also plays a role in over eating and over weight amongst the population. Here is a critique on this issue, well received by many discerning observers.

"I have a friend who refers to the Standard American Diet by the acronym SAD. This is an apt description indeed. Think about it. We have more colorfully packaged choices on the shelves of our supermarkets, more new flavors of cereal, crackers, and chips than we know what to do with, more fortified, functional foods than ever. Yet, as a nation, we get sicker every year. Diet related diseases are epidemic, especially among young people. In fact, children today are the first generation expected to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents. And it's all related to our SAD. With all of our medical knowledge and wealth, how did this come to pass? According to Marion Nestle, Professor and Chair of the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at NYU and author of the classic book, Food Politics, the problem is that our heavily subsidized, highly efficient food industry produces too many calories – twice as many as we need. Because of this surplus, food companies must work hard to get us to EAT MORE. Hence the millions of dollars in advertising spent every year to get us to Supersize It. Though Food Politics was published back in 2002, it's just as relevant today. Besides advertising, the Food Industry influences our diets in many ways that most of us are not even aware of.

True America is a bundle of contradictions and incongruities, difficult to understand and the above narration explains to some extent as to why this country with all the wealth it has, cannot manage the health condition of its population. It is the grotesque policy distortions that seems to have contributed to the present sorry state of affairs vis-à-vis the quality of life there. It is easy to criticize the consumers for not exercising moderation in eating but over eating and putting on weight is a long term phenomenon, not experienced, immediately after eating. Though drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes are known to be injurious, why is that these evil practices are still continuing? Unless governments world over invest substantially on education at young age, inculcating right values and principles and discriminating between what is bad and good, it is unlikely that the food related crisis being faced to day will dissolve itself!

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

"INVASION" OF ROBOTS-FOOD INDUSTRY TO REDUCE HUMAN COST

Cost reduction and reducing human intervention are the two top most priorities for the food industry though ensuring safety of products is an unavoidable prerequisite for survival. Food industries in most developed countries depend on scale of economy for maintaining their margins and this is possible because of efficient and high productivity machinery. In contrast such machines requiring large investments to acquire and operate are just not affordable to small scale processors who dominate the food industry landscape in countries like India. This is compounded by under developed capacity of machine building industry which finds it impossible to invest in new designs and fabrication due to uncertain market demand for large scale handling and processing machinery. Imports may be possible but most of the processing industry players just cannot afford to buy them due to exorbitant cost of such imported machinery. While such situation is prevalent in many developing countries, rich nations are focusing on reducing production cost further through deployment of Robots, replacing the human element as far as possible.

"Wilson said there are specific and historical reasons why robotic technology has been slow to gain significant penetration in the food industry. Robotic and automation systems were not initially developed with food production in mind. Equipment did not routinely include features that are essential in food processing plants – such as washdown capability and clean design to eliminate dirt traps, he added. The nature of the systems is that they work best where there is uniformity of size and shape in the products. Food does not generally have this characteristic which means that more expensive vision and handling need to be included – which has cost implications". "In food this issue has been more of a challenge and this difficulty makes the machines more expensive," he added. "It is no coincidence that palletizing of finished packaged is where take up of robotics has been greatest in the food sector. But the robotics sector is now adapting to the general needs of the food and beverage industries and is developing high speed picking and packing systems for processing lines." "There is universal agreement in the robotics sector that the food and drinks industry is a fertile growth market for their products. The BARA chief believes the potential is so great that take up from food processors may approach that of the automotive sector with a decade. "Change is coming as the technology becomes cheaper," he said. "The food sector has the biggest potential for growth and within ten years it could be reaching levels approaching those of the automotive industry."

Even if affordable, whether automation through Robotics can ever be acceptable to the third world countries remains to be seen because of high rate of unemployment prevalent there. As it is rightly said in order to establish automation the materials to be handled need to be uniform in size and shape which is not possible in these countries because of low scale farm operations in relatively small holdings. Countries like India with large rural population see food processing industry as a Savior to generate vast employment opportunities and talking about Robotics here can be heresy!

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com