GPS - The Future of Agricultur

“Your name are you all right?” You pause and wonder… Where is the voice coming from? “Your name, this is Angie with On-Star. Our system indicates that your airbag have been deployed. Are you in need of assistance?” You try to answer, but no words will come out. “your name, this is Angie with On-Star. We have identified the position of your vehicle, and since you are unable to respond at this time, we have contacted the local police department and help is on the way.”

Now I bet you are wondering what any of this has to do with agriculture. Well sit back, relax, and let me tell you a story of how the same technology used by On-Star has changed the face of farming.

In the 1980s, everyone wanted to talk about sustainable agriculture. In the 1990s, it was precision agriculture (Thompson). Now, GPS and remote sensing have moved precision agriculture to the forefront.

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/gps-00c.html, viewed December 22, 2003

Shivers, Lucas. Farm Technology Changing Agriculture. Available at http://agriculture.about.com/library/weekly/aa081702a.htm, viewed December 22, 2003

According to Kirk Thompson, in traditional farming, the farmer treated each field as a single unit and managed the field to optimize the average production of the field as a whole. Precision farming brings to light the idea that by breaking the field into several units and treating each unit as an independent, the production of each unit can be optimized. GPS makes it possible to properly locate and map variations across a field to set up these units.

Positioning System, or GPS, was once thought to be a mega system used by the government and military and not something that the average Joe would ever see up close. Well, things have changed! Many people today are familiar with GPS systems, such as On Star, that they can install in their vehicles or GPS programs available for your cell phone and your Palm Pilot as well. Yet, the average citizen may not think of GPS as something that has helped the agricultural industry.

Some topics in this essay:
Kirk Thompson, Ag Innovator, Modern Agriculture, Angie On-Star, Taylor GPS, , AgGPS Autopilot, Farm Equipment, System GPS, Palm Pilot, precision agriculture, viewed december, “your name, december 22, 22 2003, positioning system, viewed december 22, global positioning system, global positioning, december 22 2003, technology changing agriculture, according kirk, according kirk thompson, 23 2003, technology changing,