Agriculture & Food News

Agriculture & Food

Precision Farming's AI Gains Are Real. The Environmental Claims Aren't.

AI precision agriculture delivers genuine per-acre efficiency, but an investigative report finds those gains are being captured as yield increases and intensification — not environmental recovery — as the Farm Bill directs billions toward AI subsidies without outcome requirements.

Hector Herrera · May 12, 2026 · 4 min read

Agriculture & Food

Farm AI Has Moved From Expensive Experiment to Measurable Returns in 2026

After years of pilot programs, AI in agriculture is delivering measurable commercial returns in 2026 — with John Deere's See & Spray reducing herbicide use by up to 90% in the field.

Hector Herrera · May 11, 2026 · 5 min read

Agriculture & Food

Precision Agriculture Is Booming — But Critics Question Whether AI Actually Helps the Climate

The 2026 Farm Bill proposes 90% federal reimbursement for AI farm tools, but environmental researchers say the climate benefits of precision agriculture are largely unmeasured and unverified.

Hector Herrera · May 7, 2026 · 4 min read

Agriculture & Food

Only 14% of Farmers Use AI. And It's Mostly the Big Ones Watching Their Books.

The 2026 State of the Farm Report finds just 14% of farmers use AI tools, concentrated in large operations deploying AI for financial analysis — not field management. The precision agriculture promise and the practice are still far apart.

Hector Herrera · May 5, 2026 · 5 min read

Agriculture & Food

The 2026 Farm Bill Has a Hidden AI Subsidy — and It Could Hand Big Tech a Foothold on American Farmland

A provision in the 2026 Farm Bill reimburses farmers up to 90% of the cost of AI tools through EQIP — but critics warn it subsidizes Big Tech data collection from American farmland without requiring farmers to own their own data.

Hector Herrera · May 2, 2026 · 4 min read

Agriculture & Food

2026 State of Farm Report: Only 14% of Farmers Use AI Despite Sharp Generational Shift

Just 14% of U.S. farmers use AI in 2026—but farmers under 50 jumped from 28.8% to 38.4% of the farming population in one year, signaling a structural shift in who is making agriculture decisions.

Hector Herrera · Apr 29, 2026 · 4 min read

Agriculture & Food

AI-Driven Autonomous Drones Eliminate Pre-Mapping in Precision Agriculture

GEODASH Aerosystems' AI drone platform removes the pre-mapping step that has blocked smallholder adoption of drone-based precision agriculture — arriving as only 14% of North American farmers use AI at all.

Hector Herrera · Apr 20, 2026 · 3 min read

Agriculture & Food

Polybee Scales Physical AI Drone Agents for Specialty Crop Monitoring and Harvest Forecasting

Polybee is scaling a fleet of self-recharging AI drones to continuously monitor specialty crops and generate harvest timing forecasts — one of the rare AgTech deployments that has achieved immediately measurable financial returns.

Hector Herrera · Apr 19, 2026 · 3 min read

Agriculture & Food

USDA Launches National Network to Stress-Test AI Farm Tech Before It Reaches Fields

The USDA's new National Proving Grounds Network for AgTech will independently evaluate AI-powered farm tools — precision drones, autonomous equipment, yield models — under real farming conditions before commercial release.

Hector Herrera · Apr 18, 2026 · 3 min read