Spread Robots to Farming

Agriculture has been the backbone of human civilization. When man moved from being a food gatherer to a food grower, it changed the very fabric of society. The focus was no longer on managing to find food to stay alive. There were suddenly a lot more opportunities available as pure survival was taken of the to-do list for humanity. Subsequent improvements in agriculture have allowed human beings to stay at the top of the food chain for centuries now.

Spread is a Japanese company which has been cultivating clean and energy efficient robots for revolutionizing modern farming. The company is bringing the production of food indoors, making it possible to grow plants in areas where it may be difficult otherwise. The lettuce being grown by Spread thrives without any soil, or the use of pesticides. The climatic conditions are also controlled closely in the indoor environment.

The company is currently able to produce 30,000 heads of lettuce per day. That is about ten million head annually. The crops are predictable and spoilage is at a minimal. The harvesting is mostly automatic with robots, however the initial gathering is followed by human sorting as the robots are unable to distinguish between good and bad lettuce. Still this science project has shown that the technology to end world hunger is available, all you need is the will to apply it.