Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 6842 WHAT does the seed industry have in common with Uber, Amazon and the Huffington Post? They all exist at a unique time in history, when the biggest and most successful companies are focused not on making products or building infrastructure, but on mastering data. And the seed industry must be prepared to function in this new environment to ensure food security for the future. That means that those in agriculture might just have to think more like Uber, Amazon and the Huffington Post. “The world’s biggest taxi company doesn’t own taxis,” says Jörg Wallner. “The world’s biggest retailer has no inventory. The most prominent media outlet doesn’t produce any content. “What does that mean for agriculture? These business models are not based only on infrastructure; they’re capitalizing on this additional layer — the data layer.” In the business world, the concept of what it means to pro- vide products and services is not the same as it has been in the past, and the ag industry is ripe for similar change. The industry is now able to predict the future, quite literally, Wallner notes. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has already predicted that the world popula- tion will be 9 billion by 2050. More people to feed, but no extra farmland. The question is how to tackle it. The key is big data. According to Wallner, director of inno- vation management and consulting at 2b AHEAD, farmers need tools to make good use of the massive amounts of data. Mastering the Data Layer “How can big data be converted into actionable solutions? We must analyze data to predict the future,” he says. “Making predictions for the next 20 years is like going back 20 years. Think how much change has occurred.” Wallner foresees 50 billion connected devices on this planet by 2050. “Everything around us will be connected and used to control things in every aspect of our lives,” he says. Furthermore, smart phones are on their way out. “The way we interact with the machine is changing,” he says. That means the consumer’s relationship with their food is chang- ing, too. There will be no more keyboards — face, emotion and thought recognition will be paramount, he says. Devices will be hands-free. Information on our food and how it’s produced will be more readily accessible. “We have stronger links between health and food. People care how food is produced and served, support for local food is big, traceability, and the minimization of food waste are all important,” Wallner adds. He argues food plays a big role in our identity, and the ag industry must manage that process to influence consumers. “If you manage to convince your customer that you care how foods are produced, you have a fairly good chance to enter that segment and use food products for identity man- agement.” That will involve companies involving themselves in the data layer. “A lot of new business models focus on exactly this layer,” he says. “If you’re not, you will run into problems reaching the customer.” Marc Zienkiewicz The modern tractor is more technologically sophisticated than the first space shuttle that went to the moon. The implications for the ag sector are staggering, says this German-based futurist. Jörg Wallner is a German-based futurist.