Panasonic, Toshiba, and Sharp in race to develop farm equipment
It seems like an odd fit for a consumer electronics company with deep roots in industrial automation and welding tech, but the sudden pastoral streak is part of a broader trend that's bringing the likes of Toshiba, Sharp, and Fujitsu to the family farm.
At issue is the future of food. The informed opinion is that our current food production paradigm is unsustainable. Companies that can develop a strong portfolio of technologies that make growing food more efficient are going to be well-positioned in the decades ahead.
How screwed are we? The U.N. estimates that by 2050 we (collectively, as in humans) will need to sustainably produce 70 percent more food than we do today, as measured by calories, to keep up with global population growth. With rising standards of living, demand for animal protein is going way up, and that's a problem. Animal protein is much more resource intensive to produce than vegetable protein. In some Alice in Wonderland-esque riddle, the animals we raise to eat will soon be competing with us for food.
Read the full article at ZDNet