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Markus's avatar

Agriculture is a laboratory for tech innovation and automation too! Tractors were self driving in 1996 way before waymo. Harvesters have been using computer vision to sort produce since the 80’s. Barcodes were first used at grocery stores. Internet markets, desalination, and satellite imagery all were huge improvements from agriculture as well. Keep making our food easier and we’ll keep making the rest of our lives better too!

Pablo Alvestegui's avatar

Excellent article. This essential information needs to be shared all over, Grant. Would you allow me to translate it into Spanish on my Translations Substack?

Grant Mulligan's avatar

Thanks, Pablo! Send me a direct message; I'm curious to learn more about your translations blog.

Jeremy Côté's avatar

This is a great start to a series Grant! I look forward to reading the next essays.

Grant Mulligan's avatar

Thank you, Jeremy!

Michael Magoon's avatar

Excellent essay.

I think the contributions of agriculture to human material progress are greatly underestimated. Highly-productive agriculture is a key foundation without which modern progress is impossible.

You and your readers might be interested in reading a series that I wrote about the topic:

https://frompovertytoprogress.substack.com/p/agricultural-innovation-is-vital

Grant Mulligan's avatar

Thank you, Michael! I hadn't come across your series on the topic; I can't wait to dig in!