Contributed by The Dirt Editors
SXSW Interactive, taking place March 10–19 this year, will bring together tech leaders, VCs, journalists, government, artists and musicians for compelling discussions, presentations, and panels on what’s next in innovation.
What does this have to do with ag? Well, food and ag are making a significant appearance at this year’s conference. The Dirt will be on the ground, scouting out the most interesting and impactful conversations, people, and events in food and ag.
The biggest trend we’re seeing this year is that of data: how can the industry as a whole better leverage the power of data to improve food supply chains, farming, and how consumers eat and get information about their food? How can we capture and harness all the data the food and ag industry throws off? How do we make it structured, useful, and actionable?
While there is a lot of ground covered at SXSW this year in topics of food and ag, there are some key conversations missing when it comes to the future of agriculture. Below, we’ve collected some of the most interesting panels we’ve found covering food and ag from a variety of angles. If you were in charge, what else do you want to see?
Uncharted Waters: The Looming Water Crisis
Caleb Harper of MIT’s Media Lab, Tyne Morgan at Farm Journal, and Teddy Bekele at Land O’Lakes will discuss how food producers are leveraging tech and data to create long-term solutions to the growing water scarcity crisis that impacts farmers across the country.
Why We Need a Data Standard For The Food Industry
Jason Tatge at Farmobile and Maria Fernandez-Guajardo at Clear Labs will discuss the need for a data standard in food and agriculture for greater traceability and transparency. They’ll discuss the challenges we face to get to an intelligent future in food an ag, and some of the solutions emerging today.
How AI/Machine Learning Will Change The Way We Eat
This panel looks into how advances in deep learning, AI, computer vision and natural language processing are being used to change the food industry.
Think Outside The Trash Can: Fight Food Waste Now
About 40% of all food produced gets tossed in the trash, representing $162B each year. This is a big problem for agriculture.
Infinite Food with Microbes
Microbes are a hot topic right now, and this panel will look at how synthetic biology and microbes can enhance food to increase nutrition, improve flavor, and satisfy hunger.
….The Dirt will be in Austin from March 10–12th. If you’ll be there too, drop us a line. We’d love to meet up!
What’s Going On With Ag at SXSW This Year? was originally published in The Dirt on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.