By Gwen ChamberlainIt had been a while since I’d been to a funeral. So many families who have lost loved ones are choosing to skip formal public services in favor of informal celebration events or private memorial. It’s good that people are not feeling there is a specific set of rules or practices to navigate the sorrow of losing a loved one. But this afternoon full of memories led some of us to ponder the future. As for the past, the remembrance segment of the service included a tale of the deceased farmer’s career beginning as a young boy in the early 1950s at the reins of his Danish immigrant grandfather’s team of horses. It was easy to imagine more of the days that boy spent on the family farm not far from Seneca Lake. Milking cows, harvesting corn, hay, and wheat; and trimming and picking grapes filled his days and the years as advances in agriculture began to bring changes to life on the farm. When the service was over, family and friends gathered for fellowship and a meal, where a few of us old friends enjoyed catching up with what is new in our lives. That’s when the conversation turned to some of the latest advancements taking place in agriculture, and a farmer friend who is an expert on innovation in organic agriculture planted the seed for this column. His enthusiastic and rapid-fire description of observations his family has made was captivating as he explained that by forgoing herbicides and observing how different plants interact on their Benton farm, they have discovered ways to reduce the number of weeds in specific plantings. As the discussion continued, he shared a video of a solar-powered autonomous system used to weed fields and tend to individual plants robotically. Within a matter of minutes, the discussion touched on climate change, soil conservation, irrigation, phosphorus, and more. And that’s how, within a couple of hours, talk of farming with a team of horses gave way to farming with robots. Even most of us who are no longer living the farm lifestyle, are familiar with GPS-guided tractors and harvesters, robotic milking machines, and other technological advances, such as the use of GIS mapping. And Finger Lakes natives of a certain age do remember the days before we had parades of grape harvesters. A brief Internet search about precision agriculture opens the door to what could become a new horizon for feeding the world. The increasing cost of labor, combined with outright labor shortages and changing labor regulations could make robotic farming more affordable and feasible on a broader basis. Already, a farm in California is using robots to harvest strawberries using artificial intelligence to determine texture and color with 95 percent accuracy, and another California company operates a fully robotic grow house when an autonomous robot plants, cares for, and harvests crops. How long will it be before the diesel-powered equipment is replaced by autonomous robotics powered by alternative fuel, and setting cabbage by hand becomes a lost art? According to a recent market report by IDTechEx, the global market for agricultural robots is forecast to reach $7.88 billion by 2032. The reality is, we are on the threshold of a new era for Finger Lakes agriculture. Climate change is already influencing the type of crops that can be grown here, and that is bringing investments from other areas of the U.S. and the world. The Finger Lakes, and specifi cally Yates County is blessed to have some of the most innovative and forward-thinking leaders in viticulture, crop farming, organics, and raising livestock. This growth, combined with the rapidly evolving technology, positions our local agriculture and agri-tourism economy to blossom in ways our immigrant grandparents could never have imagined. These are amazing times, and to those of us who have experience attest, robots that pick stones from a fresh field might be the most welcome. Do you have feedback on this or a suggestion for a future column? Feel free to email me at gchamberlain27@gmail. com.
