TL;DR

We harvested eggplant, radishes, adn the last of the winter squash before discing in some rye. We also set up an enclosed yard for the meat birds.

I also thought a lot about the hype and reality of precision agriculture in small organic farms versus flattened mono-crop macro-farms. To fast-forward a bit, my position is that ‘precise agriculture’ requires people, not simply technology, to truly produce food efficiently and sustainably.

Is ‘Precision Agriculture’ Really the Future of Farming?

Precision agriculture is a buzzword that has been around for a while, but it’s not always clear what it means. It’s often used to describe the use of technology to improve the efficiency and sustainability of farming. But what does that mean for small organic farms versus large mono-crop farms?

As far as I can tell, the term ‘precision agriculture’ first began getting traction in the 1990s and 2000s because of early incubations of GPS guidance in European farms. By 1992, there was a conference in Missouri that hosted workshops on precision fertilizer application. Human beings have been farming for over 10,000 years…only in the last few decades have we had the technology to scale profiteering on it. Profit is not a bad thing so long as it comes from models where people welcome their spend and does not exploit the labor of others.

I think that dedication and hard work are the true keys to success in farming, whether it’s precision agriculture or not. It also takes lots of people willing to work those hard jobs, and ethical business practices that don’t undermine the importance of everyone of all ages and backgrounds being part of that work. However, to be precise you need to be ‘in the weeds’ with your ‘hands in the dirt’ doing the work, both at a physical level and at a mental level.

Like cover cropping…there are things you know you can do to encourage the along likely future outcomes otherwise they won’t happen:

That’s why I’d like to introduce a different term here: ‘precise farming’ to narrow this in to the realm of small organic farms and how they’re actually leading the way forward, despite many family owned farms are getting gobbled up by corporations and lack of government support.

Precise Farming

(Def: Precise Farming) - acting in an informed and responsible manner to ensure sustainable outcomes for your farm and community

• acting: effort of work to do or change an outcome
• informed: having context, experience, and awareness of dynamics
• responsible: taking accountability and ownership of your decisions and outcomes
• sustainable: making long-term beneficial decisions
• ‘…for your farm and community’: local in nutritional and economic impact
• (precise): detail-oriented, informed, and intentional to achieve an outcome

There are many factors and dynamics that are continuously at play on a farm, small or large. The idea is to partner with nature to make things that you can sell and do that in a way you can do that again next year, and so on, maybe making a fair wage and future for yourself…and positive impact on your community. Your actions, whether proactive or reactive, are decisions you make. Even if you can’t control all the contributing factors or subsequent impacts.

Each cycle you should get better at it and not defer risks until they are too big to be resolved without offloading them onto someone else (a sort of categorical imperative between farmers). This requires many proactive steps and assumptions, but also the ability to adapt and pivot when necessary. Therefore, this requires you to be continuously involved and aware of where and when to adjust (and often not) in order to be precise about decisions taken.

Radishes for Instance

Radishes are a great example of a crop that can be grown in a small organic farm, but take intentional time-spend to produce. Given the right season and conditions, they are easy to grow and can be harvested readily.

But radishes don’t last long, especially with their greens on them, so they have to be harvested and stored just prior to sale, which is a problem for big farms and non-local distribution. Yes, cold storage chain logistics (not local distribution) can get your average supermarket some decent looking radishes, but then again they’re doused with antimicrobial washes and misted constantly to keep the illusion of freshness, say nothing of the pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides likely used on them during their growth. These kinds of treatments extend shelf life, but prolonged storage (even with chemicals) reduces vitamins like C and folate, meaning “fresh-looking” doesn’t always equal nutrient-rich.

Precision Humanity

Still there are many people (globally and domestically) who don’t have the money or otherwise access to something as privileged as fresh radishes, let alone the time and effort to grow them. ‘Precise farming’ would step back and consider that the outcome of ‘getting all people access to fresh, local radishes’ makes less sense than contributing to localized changes that get them ‘nutritious regional foods they have some control over’, in other words, growing or buying from local farmers.

Precision agriculture isn’t just about straight rows and robotic repeatability…it’s about targeting nutrition and health outcomes of growing food, not simply its resale value. For growers, it’s about timing both in the field and when to seed, plant, harvest and sell them. For luxury consumers, it’s about realizing that other people are nutritionally starved and that your privilege costs lives. For everyone else, it’s about doing what it takes to connect these two worlds, not just making ends meet.

‘Precise farming’ (as opposed to ‘precision agriculture’) isn’t really about technology…it’s fundamentally about human-to-human empathy. Amoral, corporate precision leads to consolidation of wealth and subjugation of peoples. ‘Precise farming’ is a diametric opposite, a underwrite of ethical humanity.

AI Summary from Field Notes

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