Paul Noglows, Forbes Media | Food IT 2017
Channel: SiliconANGLE theCUBE
Date: 28/06/2017

Paul Noglows, Forbes AgTech Summit, sits down with Jeff Frick at Food IT: Fork to Farm in Mountain View, CA

#FoodIT #theCUBE

https://siliconangle.com/2017/07/24/agtech-summit-aims-unite-agriculture-industry-around-technology-foodit/

Observations on uniting agriculture around newest tech

The digital transformation is disrupting much more than the technology landscape. Historically low-tech industries like agriculture and farming are also seeing a surge in innovation. At this year’s FOOD IT: Fork to Farm event in Mountain View, California, Paul Noglows (pictured), executive producer of the Forbes AgTech Summit, explained how the Forbes event in the “Salad Bowl of the World” is bringing farmers and technology together.

“We’re looking at near-term solutions to current problems. So what we’re really interested in what is the farm of 2020, not the farm of 2050,” Noglows said about the types of applications addressed at the AgTech event, held this year from June 28-29 in Salinas Valley, California.

Noglows spoke with Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick) and Lisa Martin (@Luccazara), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio. (* Disclosure below.)

Common problems uniting agriculturalists
When problems arise that are common among a large number of individual producers, technology has the opportunity to make a big impact across an entire industry rather than specialized solutions, Noglows pointed out.

“There are a lot of commonalities … the water problems are not over. I’d say this year the major topic is labor having a tremendous impact. Across the country you have issues of immigration and minimum wage. Certain farms are saying, ‘We don’t know how we’re going to do this,” he said. 

In more technology-focused industries, open sourcing and standardization are common practice for implementing technology in a systematic way. The agriculture industry is starting to leverage this approach as well in order for technology to have a greater impact, according to Noglows.

“We need the agriculture industry itself to get really get together. I think sometimes there … this is looked at as competitive advantage. … We are going to move beyond competitive advantage to what’s good for your plant or your farm and really start applying this across the agricultural system,” he said.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the FOOD IT: Fork to Farm event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for FOOD IT: Fork to Farm. Neither Western Digital Corp., the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial influence on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)