许多美国人认为，农业是低科技的最后堡垒之一。原因不言自明。当今时代，你可以用平板电脑与人视频聊天，小汽车可以自动停进泊位。
那些庄稼如何能参加这场竞争？
噢，事实上，农场上也发生着许多很酷的事。
当今技术为先的农场应用着可以和卫星“交谈”的遥感器。他们在养牛场拥有挤奶的机器人。他们甚至利用无人驾驶的飞机，飞过田野，制作3D地图，设法提高作物产量。
欢迎来到美国农业的未来世界……
在精确耕作方面，同样不乏新鲜事。
所有这些农耕活动，无不令我感到乐观，高科技能够解决我们时代最紧迫的问题之一：如何让世人吃饱饭。
不仅如此，我处在巨变时代。高科技上的突破进展接踵而至，它们的存在将在今后几年极大地改善无数人的生活水准。
我首推农业产业的原因也很简单——它明显地推翻了那些末日论者关于“食物危机”的预言，他们的口头禅就是人口增长将很快超出世界上资源的承载能力。
他们宣称，至本世纪末，世界人口将从60亿增长到100亿，直接后果就是食物短缺。
自从我上中学时就开始听到这些预言。（而那已经是很早以前的事了。）但实际上，高科技使得农民在过去几十年里，大幅度提高了畜产品和农作物的产出。
这个行业即将广泛应用的更先进的技术，并将推动农业发展再上新台阶。
值得注意的是，这次大规模的技术更新热潮适逢该行业所处的伟大时代，也就是美国农产品出口繁荣兴旺的时代。
在结束于本月的2012财年，农产品出口金额预计达1345亿美元，这个数据来自美国农业部，你大可信任。想想2007财年，美国农产品出口仅为822亿美元。两相对照，我们发现在过去5年间，美国出口增长了63%。
在用于农业的高科技方面，有大钱可赚。毫不奇怪，众多创业者跃跃欲试，要在其中分一杯羹……
一、精确虫害防治
首先，我们看看在印第安纳州新创办的两家公司。
快捷动力公司和斯宾萨技术公司已经联手推广一种先进的害虫追踪系统。它们设计的安全网站Mytraps.com帮助农民作出更好、更有条理的害虫控制决策。使用者通过计算机（或者无线上网的智能手机）输入数据。利用这个在线平台，种植者能够收集涉及多块耕地中每种作物遭受虫害的情况。
这项计划显示了视觉规划的力量。它包括根据卫星照片绘出的耕地鸟瞰影像，再将取自那些地块的害虫数据覆于影像之上。通过这种方式，种植者能够追踪害虫如何生长或减少的进程，以便评估杀虫剂在清除害虫方面的作用。
二、在线数据分析
与此同时，小市值公司中的佼佼者乌鸦工业公司则在专注于打造高科技农业产品。
在我看来，即使整体经济再次陷入危机，乌鸦公司提供了美国农业持续向好的最佳理由。这家公司在向农民提供用于提高产量的安全在线数据方面占据着领先地位。
公司的农产品业务部年销售1.43亿美元，能取得如此佳绩，一些创新产品功不可没。
以公司推出的“弹弓田野中心”为例，它帮助更具技术悟性的农民将每顷耕地联网，形成一个虚拟的技术工具箱。这套系统使得农场主可以查看并控制涉及农机、劳动者和项目的数据。它被设计为可在任何移动设备和移动载体上工作。
此外，乌鸦公司还提供一种野外电脑，具有多种令人眼花缭乱的应用功能，其中包括：设备自动转向、GPS制导的播种机控制系统、绘图、耕地监控和无线通讯等。
乌鸦公司还有个名为“助手”的产品。这是个化学品直喷装置，在喷洒杀毒剂和液态化肥时可实现更精确的剂量控制。使用这种装置的好处是，不需要预先在储罐中调配化学品。这种产品能确保农药用量更精确、安全——当然，成本也更低。
三、自动化挤奶系统
在这个方面，我们仍然处于初期应用阶段。但我相信这种系统在美国奶牛场得到推广和普及指日可待。
自动挤奶机，或称机器挤奶工已在海外遍地开花。农产品企业莱利公司最先开发了这种技术，并称在过去20年该公司已经售出了1.25万套以上这种机器。（眼下，它们正在全世界给几十万头奶牛挤奶）。这家私人公司总部设在荷兰，它希望用数年时间，大幅增加在美国的销量。
行业专家们说，3年前使用机器挤奶工的美国奶牛场寥寥无几。但随着经济复苏，更多的奶牛场开始引进这种技术（但目前缺乏准确的统计数字）。
2011年，莱利公司参加了在威斯康辛州麦迪逊举办的乳制品博览会，并展示了它的机器挤奶工这个产品。这是该公司研发的宇航员A4型挤奶系统第一次面世。据该公司称，这台机器给予奶牛更多自由（并解除了奶牛们的紧张情绪），提高了奶牛场经营者的管理能力，结果是产出更多牛奶。
很显然，美国农场的辉煌时代远未结束。
借助于这种先进的高科技，我们的农场将在未来几十年继续谱写成功的篇章。这就是我预测他们将为未来的人们提供足够多食品的理由。
Many Americans view farming as one of the last bastions of low tech.
It's not hard to see why. These days you can use your tablet computer for a video chat session while your car parks itself.
How on earth could crops ever compete with that?
Well, as it turns out, there's some pretty cool stuff going on out at the farm, too.
Today's tech-centric farms use remote sensors that "talk" to satellites. They have robots milking the dairy cows. They even rely on unmanned planes that can fly over their fields to help create 3D maps and improve crop output.
Welcome to the future of U.S. farming...
There's a lot going on in the field of precision farming.
All this activity makes me optimistic that high-tech can solve one of the most pressing concerns of our time: feeding the world.
Then again, we are living in the Era of Radical Change. An endless stream of high-tech breakthroughs will greatly improve life for millions of people over the next few years.
I put farming at the top of the list for a very good reason - it clearly defies the "food crisis" doomsayers out there who predict the world will soon outgrow its resources.
They claim that, with population slated to grow from the current six billion to 10 billion by the end of this century, we'll simply run out of food.
I've been hearing these predictions since I was in high school. (And that was a long time ago.) But in actual fact, high-tech has helped farmers greatly increase output for livestock and crops over the last few decades.
The industry is poised to adopt a wide range of cutting-edge high tech that will prove a further boon to farming.
Fact is, this spending occurs at what is already a great time for the sector. U.S. ag exports are booming.
For the fiscal year 2012 that ends this month, exports will total $134.5 billion. You can pretty much bank on that estimate - it comes from the USDA. Consider that in fiscal 2007, U.S. farm exports stood at only $82.2 billion. That means we've seen five-year export growth of 63%.
There's a lot of money to be made in high-tech ag.
Now wonder these hungry startups want in on the action...
1) Precision Pest Control
First, let's look at two startup firms in Indiana.
Allegro Dynamics and Spensa Technologies have teamed up to provide an advanced insect-tracking system.
They designed the secure website Mytraps.com to help farmers make better, more streamlined pest-management decisions. Users enter data from a computer (or they can use their smart phones to connect wirelessly). Using this online platform, a grower can collect data about how insects are affecting every single crop across multiple fields.
This program shows the power of visual planning. It includes aerial field images from satellite photos. These get placed over insect data from exact field locations. In this way, growers can track how pest populations are growing or shrinking over time, to see how well a pesticide is working to eradicate them.
2) Web-Based Data Analysis
Meanwhile, small-cap leader Raven Industries Inc. is well steeped in high-tech farm products, too.
As I see it, Raven is one of the reasons why the U.S. ag industry will continue to do well even if the economy tanks again. This company is a leader in providing secure web-based data farmers need to improve yields.
Its ag division brings in $143 million in yearly sales, thanks to some innovative products.
Take Raven's Slingshot Field Hub. It helps make farmers far more tech savvy by connecting every acre of their land to a virtual tech toolbox. The system allows farmers to view and control their data for machines, workers, and projects. It is designed to work on any mobile device and any mobile carrier.
Then there are Raven's field computers. They deliver a dizzying array of uses. These include auto steering for equipment, GPS-guided planter controls, mapping, yield monitoring, and wireless communications.
Raven also offers the Sidekick. This is a direct chemical-injection device that provides more precise control for applying insecticides and liquid fertilizer. There's no need to pre-mix chemicals in a tank. This product makes using farm chemicals more precise, safer - and cheaper, too.
3) Robotic Milking Systems
We're still in the early stages of this next field. But I believe we will soon hit the tipping point for mass adoption at U.S. dairy farms.
Robotic milkers have already become common overseas. Ag products firm Lely pioneered the technology and says it has sold more than 12,500 such machines in the past 20 years. (Even now, they're milking hundreds of thousands of cows around the world). Based in the Netherlands, this privately held firm hopes to increase sales in the United States in the next few years.
Industry experts say only a handful of our farms had adopted the robotic-milking technology just three years ago. But with the economy's rebound, more farms are using them (though solid sales data doesn't exist).
In 2011, Lely showed off its robotic milkers at a dairy expo in Madison, Wisc. It was the first public viewing of the firm's Astronaut A4 milking system. According to the company, this machine gives more freedom to the cow (and eliminates stress for the animal) and more control to the farmer, with more milk as a result.
Clearly, the glory days for U.S. farms are far from over.
With all this cutting-edge high tech, our farms will remain success stories for decades to come. And that's why I predict they will produce more than enough food to feed the future.
P.S. If you want to find a way to profit from the next generation of tech breakthroughs, Michael's Era of Radical Change newsletter is a great place to start.
