UCDAVIS

Emerging Issues & Technologies Trevor Suslow & Irwin R. Donis-González

Emerging issues

Labor

High cost

World population

Food waste and loss

Nutrients loss

Energy

How the customer described it How Project Leader recalled it

How the Analyst designed it How the Programmer wrote it How the Consultant described it

How the project was documented

How crew installed it What customer was billed for

How the city permitted it What the customer actually needed

Trends and driving force to find alternative harvesting methods

13.513

12.5

11

10

7

5

2.6

1.1 1.1

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

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1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

Year

Mill

ions

U.S. Farm Workforce, 1910-2000

Source: USDA-NASS, November 2001

Source: http://faostat3.fao.org/

“One tenth of energy, half of land, and four-fifths of water in the

United States is used for getting food to consumers, but

nearly half of food is lost or wasted”

7

Refocusing Opportunities for Solutions-based Research in Postharvest Biology and Technology

• http://www.drawdown.org/solutions-summary-by-rank

http://www.drawdown.org/solutions-summary-by-rank

Source: Wheeler and von Braun Science 2013, 341:508-513

2012 Worldwide Hunger Map• As a society, we face multiple challenges to our

goal of providing food security to all people

• Population: 30% increase (to 9 billion) by 2050• 28% (2 billion people) are currently food

insecure.

Source: Hunger Fact Sheet | California Association of Food Banks

California Hunger Facts

Food BankHollister California

“Food insecurity” occasional or constant lack of food needed for a healthy, active life.• California Food Insecurity Rate:

13.5%• Californians facing food

insecurity: 5.2 million• Child food insecurity rate:

25.1%• Summer Hunger: 17 of 20

low-income students are hungry in summer

Climate Change Simulations of Crop Productivity

T Wheeler, and J von Braun Science 2013;341:508-513

Source: World Bank: 2010 Development and Climate Change Report

Inclement weather is projected to decrease the yields of our cropping systems in California by ~15% over the next 35 year period with prolonged drought depressing yields even further.

President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology

• Top scientific challenges facing agriculture: – We need to manage new pests, pathogens, and

invasive plants; – Increase the efficiency of water use; – Reduce the environmental footprint of

agriculture; – Adapt to a changing climate; and – Accommodate demands for bioenergy

• all while continuing to produce safe and nutritious food.

New insights into the heterogeneous ripening in Hass avocado via LC–MS/MS proteomics

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.postharvbio.2017.06.001

• Describe the biochemical and physiological basis

• Develop a non-destructive sorting system

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.postharvbio.2017.06.001

RECENT TRENDS IN ACTIVE PACKAGING IN FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

Eco-Friendly Technology for Postharvest Produce Quality. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-804313-4.00003-7

New technology advances

“Big Data”Analytics

Local & Remote Sensors

Computational power

“Cloud” software/storage

Smartphones

Robots & Drones

The picture can't be displayed.

Postharvest

Agriculture

Science & engineering

Technology

“Integrate innovative technologies with engineering principles in the field of postharvest systems”

18 UCDAVIS

Cyberphysical Farming

Real-Time Monitoring and

Control

The Future of Agriculture

Have you ever wondered what it takes to eat a banana?

Farm

Processing facility

Storage facility Departure port

Arrival port

Deconsolidation facility

Distribution center

Retail store

YOU!

“Each location link is usually controlled by

a different entity”

Innovation potential

20 UCDAVIS

applied plant-by-plant

at the optimum time

above 100

below 50

above 100

below 50

Yield data for 16,000 trees

New Crop Management Tools

Source: https://www.planet.com/

https://www.planet.com/

Biological and Agricultural Engineering

Automated Crop Status Sensing

Water Use Efficiency

Irrigation Node in Vineyards

Allows Individual microsprinkler control

Wireless Mesh Network

- Delwiche & Coates

Biological and Agricultural Engineering

Plant Water Status Network in Grapes

Individual Plant SensorsFieldDeployed

CloudConnected

Autonomous Navigation in Orchards

Model-predictive navigation.

Navigation in orchards is challenging: Semi-structured environment; Need for maximum efficiency; Proximity to workers – safety.

Worker localization via radio beacons.• 99.3% availability• 63.4 cm RMS error.

Optimal mission planning.

Digitized trees and fruit positions

26

Biological and Agricultural Engineering

A History of Mechanization Success 100YEARS1915-2015Olive

Olive Harvester

John MilesLouise Ferguson

A History of New Crop Development

28 UCDAVIS

Californian Rice Breeding Trial

Phenotype

Plant Genotype

Environment

Management

Phenotype: observable traits (timing offlowering, or bird nest building behavior)

Biological and Agricultural Engineering

“On this basis, attention could be given toindividual plants - applied plant-by-plant, each one at the optimum time …”

Biological and Agricultural Engineering

• Non-destructive plant measurements:

• Height• Leaf Size and Number• Light Interception• Biomass• Internode distance• Stem diameter

Biological and Agricultural Engineering

A History of Mechanization Success 100YEARS1915-2015

TomatoCoby Lorenzen,StevenSluka,Jack Hanna

HistoricLandmark

32

• iGreenhouse – online robotic greenhouse for research and education on vertical farming.

• UAV Drone port for autonomous vehicles in agriculture.

• On-farm Fiber Optic Network Access to cloud computing and a Big Data consortium.

Critical Needs:

• Infrastructure Modernization in Controlled Irrigation Smart Equipment and On-farm Networking

UCDAVISResources Needed

Lytic phage Optimal point of treatment? Commercial products on the market Require inundative titer applications Consumer acceptance on fresh products? Labeling issues?

Culturable bacteria represent only about 1% of the total bacterial population

Nonculturable microbes form the vast majority of life-forms on earth

Bw

1a

G11b

M5a

K9a

1

2

3

10

11

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5

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Winter region samples

Summer region samplesLeveau et al. 2013

Breeding and crop management to select a specific microbial community

http://www.research.ibm.com/client-programs/foodsafety/index.shtml

Consortium for Sequencing the Food Supply ChainIBM Research and Mars tackle global health with food safety partnership

“Rather than merely testing for bacteria, we can now view the entire food supply as a whole by analyzing billions, even trillions of life forms, which can move us from pathogen prevention to something that's closer to actual prediction.”

Former IBM chairman Thomas Watson, Jr.

Intelligent Sensing Robotics and Tailored Crops Artist created an unknown GMO crop?

Folksy but unacceptable

Anti-Science Sentiment is Growing

Slide Number 1Emerging issuesSlide Number 3Trends and driving force to find alternative harvesting methodsSlide Number 5Slide Number 6Slide Number 7Refocusing Opportunities for Solutions-based Research in Postharvest Biology and Technology2012 Worldwide Hunger MapCalifornia Hunger FactsSlide Number 11Slide Number 12President's Council of Advisors on Science and TechnologyWhat’s Trending in Postharvest?What’s Trending in Postharvest?New technology advancesSlide Number 17The Future of AgricultureHave you ever wondered what it takes to eat a banana?New Crop Management ToolsSlide Number 21Automated Crop Status SensingWater Use EfficiencyPlant Water Status Network in Grapes Autonomous Navigation in OrchardsDigitized trees and fruit positionsA History of Mechanization SuccessA History of New Crop DevelopmentSlide Number 29Slide Number 30A History of Mechanization SuccessSlide Number 32Food Recalls and Outbreaks have become a too common eventResurgence of interest in phage-based controls for bacterial pathogensMetagenomics reveals much of the hidden microbial worldMetagenomicsPhytobiomes Initiative Quality and Safety Slide Number 39Understanding Microbiomes amd Metagenomics of Crop PlantsBranding, Geospatial Tagging & Tracing Systems are being piloted for �vision-assisted harvest Are field crawlers ready for ‘prime-time’ to scout fecal contamination risk? This is the future Anti-Science Sentiment is Growing