While Silicon Valley has transformed every industry from health care to banking, agriculture has remained largely untouched -- until now. Ever since OpenAI's breakthrough with ChatGPT, the term AI has been thrown around so many times it's starting to lose its meaning. Nevertheless, artificial intelligence has seeped into every industry from enterprise software to autonomous vehicles, taking around 10% of global venture dollars in 2022. Grow your revenue with all-in-one prospecting solutions powered by the leader in private-company data. Agriculture has not been immune to the AI revolution that has gripped the tech world.

Food technology or food tech for short has been growing since the revolution of technology. In 2021, food technology changed the design (recipes), production, and delivery of food products. The food industry continues to work towards the integration of advanced technology such as big data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning into its business models. The increase in sustainability and efficiency of this sector is closely related to food tech and the most impactful integrations of food with technology has led to the rise of food delivery applications. Before I proceed any further, it's noteworthy to mention the thin line existing between the two industries "food technology" and "agricultural technology" or Agtech.

A decade ago, a veggie burger would not have dominated the news cycle. But when the Beyond Meat Burger launched in 2016, it made some serious waves. This year, the company became the first vegan meat producer to launch an initial public offering (IPO), with trading opening at US$46 a share, 84 percent above its initial stock price. And with a slew of competitors nipping at its heels, Beyond Meat is leading a trend. In some ways, this new generation of meat alternatives is hyper-natural, made from all-plant proteins.

Last week we took a look at computer vision; what it is, how it works, and some of the applications for computer vision in agtech. In case you missed last week's article, computer vision or machine vision typically refers to the use of machine learning or deep learning algorithms in image processing to allow a machine to "see" and identify objects around it. Different computer vision technologies may use a variety of camera types to act as the machine's "eyes" depending on the imaging requirements. In the case of fully autonomous vehicles, an accurate computer vision system is essential. In typical vehicles, hazard detection, navigation, and object avoidance all depend on a human operator.

Environmental author Wendell Berry might shudder at this comparison, but farmers are like data scientists. To make decisions, they ferret out meaning from a sea of data. That data just happens to be related to environmental conditions like temperature, rainfall, salinity, nitrogen, pests, commodity prices, and other variables. What that data often shows is trouble: increasingly costly or scarce water supplies, new and more voracious pests, herbicide-resistant weeds, and extreme weather. All of this can result in lower farm yields and higher costs.

With 88% of primary farm operators men, agriculture tech has a long way to go to diversity. If you've never been to an agriculture-related conference, you're probably wondering what a pink ticket is. It's pretty common for guests to bring their spouse to agriculture shows and conferences have started selling programs specifically designed for those attendees. The spouse gets a pink ticket, and while conference attendees have the option to go golfing, spouses have a pedicure and Tiffany & Co. tour (this was a real option at a conference Allison attended.) Agriculture, and agriculture technology (agtech), in particular, is operating in a unique space.

As both a way of life and a vital industry, agriculture has faced unprecedented disruption over thousands of years. We've definitely come a long way from manually tilling the land, but in many ways agriculture hasn't received the technological attention that it deserves. Farming has long been described as'ripe for disruption', particularly in light of humbling statistics about population growth. By 2024, it's estimated that there will be eight billion people living on Earth. Feeding this many is a daunting challenge for legacy agriculture.

The news feed below is from my #4IR page. As always, my focus is on investing. The Fourth Industrial Revolution represents change, with tech innovation leading to industrial and economic disruption. The three pillars of THIS Industrial Revolution are Agtech, Fintech, and Artificial Intelligence (in all it's shapes in sizes, from Big Data IOT to Deep Learning). Which companies can we invest in TODAY to take advantage of the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

I had a background in financial sales and portfolio strategy, but Fintech was on the rise, the RoboAdvisor was gaining momentum, and Bogleheads were taking over. They were consolidating to the point of monopoly and had determined that fee income and cross-sell ratio were more important than service and fiduciary responsibility to client wealth. "Too big to fail" became the justification for mass abuse in the financial system. We only have to look to Wells Fargo's recent crisis to see the results. The problem is systemic, encouraged, and will get worse before it gets better.