Why This Robot Kills Weeds With Lasers

Growing food doesn’t look like I thought…
Thanks Dropbox for sponsoring this video!

Right now, we’re living through one of the most pivotal moments in food history… and most people have no idea it’s happening.

Experts are calling the “Fourth Agricultural Revolution” and it’s here because we’re facing a big problem: The world’s population is rising, so experts say we’ll need to increase food output to catch up with our current population and feed those new people. But we’ve got to do it in ways that actually protect the Earth long term.

Right now, farmers are in a fight to feed the world. So let me show you some of the coolest machines they’re using to do it…

Chapters:
0:00 What’s the fourth agricultural revolution?
01:15 Why do we need more food?
1:54 Where does farming tech get tested?
3:00 What were the first 3 agricultural revolutions?
3:58 How do we feed billions more people… better?
4:31 How do farmers grow more food?
5:48 Can a tractor drive itself?
7:49 What is precision agriculture?
8:50 How do these machines plant seeds?
10:25 How can new tech help reduce herbicides?
12:43 Why new farm tech is huge if true
14:34 :)

Bio:
Cleo Abram is a video journalist who produces Huge If True, an optimistic show about science and technology. Huge If True is an antidote to the doom and gloom, helping a wide audience see better futures they can help build. In each episode, Cleo dives deep into one innovation that could shape the future. She has explored humanoid robots at Boston Dynamics, supersonic planes at NASA, quantum computers at IBM, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and more. Every episode mixes high quality animations and detailed scripts with relatable vlog-style journeys, taking the audience along for an adventure to answer the question: If this works, what could go right? Previously, Cleo was a video producer at Vox and directed for Explained on Netflix. She was the host of Vox’s first ever daily show, Answered, as well as co-host of Vox’s YouTube Originals show, Glad You Asked.

Additional reading and watching:

Gear I use:
Camera: Sony A7SIII
Lens: Sony 16–35 mm F2.8 GM
Audio: Sennheiser SK AVX and Zoom H4N Pro

Music: Musicbed, Tom Fox

—
Welcome to the joke down low:

Why shouldn’t you tell a secret on a farm? Because the corn has ears.

Find a way to use “secret” in a comment to let me know you’re a real one who made it to the end of the description :)

[CleoAbram]

Thank you for watching our video! I really appreciate the conversation around distribution, and the balance between fixing where our current crop calories go (biofuels, meat, waste, and more) and growing more (given the way our current food distribution system works). This is what makes this community special.

The topic of farming and feeding more people is incredibly nuanced. It’s not just an issue of growing more and different food, but more efficient distribution, less waste, and more accessible tech.

If you’re interested in learning more about this topic, including the nuances in how governments and organizations are proposing we solve food insecurity, check out our sources in the video description.

[RyanMercer]

Remember folks, John Deere had to be taken to court for farmers to have the right to repair and are still fighting it.

[andyspoo]

There isn't a lack of food, there is too much food waste. SuperMarkets/Stores dump millions of tonnes of food each year, most of it perfectly fine. And there is also the millions of tonnes of food farmers are forced to throw away because they are miss-shaped, have slight imperfections or just don't meet the ridiculous specifications of Super Markets.

[Ethan_Biji]

THIS. is true journalism.
The moment I heard John Deere, i fully was conditioned to expect that there would be no mention of the Right to Repair controversy but the fact that it gets talked about instantly speaks volumwa to the journalistic integrity and the ethics of Cleo and her team. Massive props!

[michaeljamieson]

I love the positivity on this channel, it’s so refreshing.

[edschultheis]

I grew up on a farm. One of my brothers and his son manage the farm now which consists of about 3300 acres of crops in SE Washington state. Our crops include wheat, barley, malt barley, garbanzo beans (chickpeas), lentils, canola, dry peas, bluegrass seed, and Timothy seed.

You really did an excellent job on this video. You covered a lot of new technology in a clear and understandable manner and with lots of enthusiasm (as usual). It was also good that you touched on the right to repair the complex equipment as it is a big issue in farming. What some people may not realize is that this challenge with legislation concerning right to repair touches numerous industries, not just agriculture (or it will in the future), so it is important to get it right for both consumers and manufacturers to do well. If you want the right to repair your car, computer, smartphone, refrigerator, etc. in the future, then the right to repair legislation should be important to you.

You're creating a lot of must-see content on every subject that you tackle. Very interesting.

[spacekeesiee]

As a Dutch farmer i think there is enough soil if we are more productive! The netherlands is the second biggest exporter of agriculture goods( after America what is 228 times bigger) While living on one of the most densely populated country’s in the world! Because our fields are limited and expansive, we are forced to take good care of our soil and use every inch of our fields! Price of hectare is around 200.000 euros now a day! If in America they will work like we do here for decades, every thing will be okay! Good video!

[bbqRADKLL]

John Deere has been a bit of a villain in the right to repair battle, but this is some really cool tech. If society & lawmakers can curb the greed of some of the money men involved, hopefully the engineers can just get to keep working on this amazing stuff.

[Habu]

Meanwhile, one single groundhog keeps wiping out my homemade garden of 1 squash plant and 1 cucumber plant. LOL

[jerrik-]

I'm so glad you didn't shy away from the problems.
It really helps highlight why the new technology (and hopefully legislation) are so important and so impressive, and so necessary. Less chemicals, more food, doesn't just mean better profits, it means a more reusable planet. Ecology and economics on the same side.

[nazart]

As a farmer from a third world country, we are not even remotely close to using or affording any of this tech

[oscaralexflores]

I know this is asking a lot and the HiT is already super busy. But I feel like the show is taking on more topics that deserve longer videos. 40-60min. I love learning about all this stuff. Thank you Cleo.

[TimCortesi]

Great video as always. Glad you covered the right to repair stuff as well. This channel is killing it.

[andymitchell]

This is great stuff, but as somebody who's worked in veg manufacturing for nearly 20 years, the supermarkets (at least in the UK) have a big part to play in ensuring future food security. So much emphasis is put on uniform crops as a proxy for "premium brand" veg. This leads to a tighter band on usable crops, with manufacturers then having to hunt for an outlet for the rest of the crop, with much going back to cattle feed, leading to lower return costs for the farmers. Yes we've had advances in optical quality sorting and have so many pieces of equipment to dice, slice, grate, julienne etc product (each process with their own yield loss), but fundamentally the drive to ensure food security needs to come from the large companies that pass the product on to the end consumer, as it's them that are by far the biggest influencers in the field (no pun intended).

[torisandifer]

Agricultural Lending is one of the most predatory areas of finance, and tech getting involved doesn't mean anything good for small farms. It's not just problems for farm labor that face problems, accessing these machines will also bankrupt small farmers. John Deere's captive lending practices are particularly predatory in this regard. This technology is absolutely huge if true, I just hope we can implement with empathy.

[thinkcuriolearning]

Homeschool mom of 4 here. Cleo, you are one of my go tos (along with Johnny and Mark) for sharing important questions with my kids, and giving them examples of critical thinking and creative problem solving. ❤From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU!

[onnaquest]

Waiting to hear whether or not they can repair their own equipment

[radicalrick]

*John Deere care more about money than they do the farmers. Farmers have been fixing their own equipment since the beginning of time!! John Deere is seeing to it that they can't do that anymore. Force the farmer to have John Deere fix their equipment's for big bucks, $$$$.*

[Raddlesnakes]

I'm really glad you talked about John Deere right from the start, right to repair is so important for primary producers

[king_crispyy]

Recently discovered your channel thru my shorts feed and i couldnt be more happy with the algorithm. The topics, knowledge, demonstrations and investigations just give a perfect viewing experience for me, great job and thank you!