In addition to farmers from around the world, CBI had a special guest in attendance at the Global Farmer-to-Farmer Roundtable- American farmer and social media “agvocate”, Darin Grimm.

Darin is on the board of the AgChat Foundation, an organization whose mission is to empower farmers and ranchers to connect communities through social media platforms. Each Tuesday night from 8-10 pm on Twitter, they host a chat about agriculture for those “involved in the business of growing food, fuel, feed and fiber.”

Darin operates a family farm in the northeast corner of Kansas.  He has been involved for a number of years in precision agriculture and using data to help understand and improve agronomic decisions on the farm.  “With such a small amount of the population directly connected to growing their food today, social media seems to be a vital component in helping people understand today’s farm business. My personal passion is applying the data skills I have learned from working with technology such as sensors and GPS systems to the world of social media.”

We asked Darin to share his thoughts on the future of agriculture.

Where do you see agriculture moving in the next ten years? Which agricultural technology innovations will most impact farmers and agriculture?

Darin Grimm: Increased product specialization, but moving slower than some wish.  In our case, it might be less acres of commodity corn/soybeans and more specialty/niche products. But this was forecast to be a big deal years ago as well and only materializes slowly.  Increased automation/robotics on the equipment side, increased use of biotechnology on the input side - IF and it’s a BIG IF, the regulatory environment allows it.