The Big Data of Food

T H E B I G D ATA O F F O O D
( O R , L E T ’ S N O T L E AV E I T T O M A LT H U S )
TA L A L G . S H A M O O N
I N T E R T R U S T
O C T O B E R 2 2 , 2 0 1 5

© 2015, Intertrust Technologies Corporation
H O W W E L A N D E D O N Y O U R P L A N E T ?
Intertrust is a 25 year old tech company based in Silicon Valley. 
We invented trusted computing over open networks like the Internet
Our products and inventions allow people 
to manage rights and policies across physical and virtual boundaries
We are now applying these technologies to 
the Internet of Things and Big Data (where trust is an issue)
Our partner company Planet OS is dedicated to 
mining and organizing enormous data sets generated by planetary sensors

T H E T H I R D H O R S E M A N
Famine, the Third Horseman - “Dieu en Majeste” from the Angers tapestry - photo by Kimon Berlin obtained under
Creative Commons License CC-BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

T H E T H I R D H O R S E M A N
The human population expected to soar to 9.6+ Billion by 2050
Most of these people will live in the “wrong place”
Food and people may not be close to each other
Our current means of agriculture and food distribution will not scale
Famine, the Third Horseman - from the Angers tapestry

M A LT H U S 1 0 1
“That the increase of population is
necessarily limited by the means of
subsistence
That population does invariably increase
when the means of subsistence increase
That the superior power of population is
repressed, and the actual population
kept equal to the means of subsistence,
by misery and vice“
Photo Credit: Wikipedia/Wellcome Images obtained for use under Creative Commons License CC-
BY-4.0: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

S I M P L E P R E D I C A M E N T
We will either destroy 
our way out of the problem
or we can invent our way out of it

A R E V O L U T I O N I S N O T A D I N N E R PA R T Y

The Green Revolution brought dramatic changes in agriculture,
pesticides, fertilizers and farming practices that broke through the
population wall of the 1960s.
Came at a time of cheap energy, and mild climate and allowed growth

– PA U L R . E H R L I C H , T H E P O P U L AT I O N B O M B - 1 9 6 8
“I don't see how India could possibly feed two hundred million more
people by 1980”
– M A R K T WA I N
“the report of my death was an exaggeration.”

Today, we are crushing biodiversity
Today, we are farming the wrong things in the wrong places
Today, we almost need a counterrevolution — no free lunch

Technology can again help us punch through the population wall
Internet technologies are disrupting agriculture, transport and retail
- we can analyze the food cycle from seed-to-stomach and back
Connected sensors at every point, and computers to crunch the
enormous amounts of data to look for patterns that we can act on
The answers are in the data - But vast amounts of data can hide the
real answers; Big Data Lenses will help
T H E i G R E E N R E V O L U T I O N

“ I P O N E V E RY T H I N G ”
V I N T C E R F, “ I N T E R N E T P I O N E E R A N D D E V E L O P E R O F I N T E R N E T P R O T O C O L ( I P ) ”

“ I P O N E V E RY T H I N G ”
V I N T C E R F, “ I N T E R N E T P I O N E E R A N D D E V E L O P E R O F I N T E R N E T P R O T O C O L ( I P ) ”
Mobile data services enable Internet connections virtually anywhere on
Earth
Devices in fields, oceans, satellites and mobile devices in people’s hands
collect data and transmit guidance and control
Wearables and personal medical devices can monitor usage at the
consumer end

T H E W O R L D I S S W I M M I N G I N S E N S O R S A N D
D R O W N I N G I N D ATA

The data will 
not be where you may want it
There’s going to be so much data that we’ll
be looking for microscopic needles in the
astronomical haystack
Sensors and data sets will be targets for
cyber war. If you think burning
someone’s ﬁelds is nasty, wait for
what’s coming
B U T I T A I N ’ T A L L R O S Y
Better Fleas
(analyzer)
Bigger Dog
(data set)

Security for sensors and the data chain, and
rights management and sharing between
distributed data sets
Appropriately priced devices that are easy to
set up and use
A “digital Hubble Telescope” to see patterns
across enormous distributed data sets
The ability to combine data sets from all
sources on demand
C H A L L E N G E S A N D R E S P O N S E S

F I N D I N G T H E S I G N A L I N N O I S E
Analyze data without moving it
Merge public and private data -
keep results to yourself or share them
Bring the right data in at the right
time
Pull data from diverse sources into one view -
see trends, ﬁnd tipping points, etc.
E X P E R I M E N T
R E S U LT S

C O N S U M E R I Z AT I O N O F F O O D T E C H
Consumer technologies are disruptive - big industry, agriculture,
personal health, food, etc.
Mobile, Internet, etc. can drive ubiquitous sensors in devices,
many open problems exist, especially around privacy, security and digital
commerce
Social networks and sharing economy technologies are empowering
farmers, consumers, etc. (Airbnb for farms, Uber for food transport, etc.)
The ability to control things at a small scale means we can have
the advantages of conglomeration in a distributed way

W W W. P L A N E T O S . C O M
Some Analyses Generated by Planet OS

C O U N T Y W I T H B I G G E S T FA R M A R E A
D I S TA N C E B E T W E E N
C O U N T Y W I T H B I G G E S T P O P U L AT I O N
0 8 MA C R E S
FA R M T O TA B L E
1 8 5 01 9 0 02 0 0 0

Urban Agriculture Sites in Designated and Non-Designated
Agricultural Zones Within Los Angeles
Original Source:
“Cultivate LA: An Assessment of
Urban Agriculture in Los Angeles
County”

A N E W H O P E

A N E W H O P E
Back to the Future: In the 60s, we integrated Ag and food to exploit
advances in fertilizers, pesticides, cheap energy, etc. Today, we can do
more locally with the same effect
Big Data systems and ubiquitous sensors can provide huge efficiencies
for food growing, monitoring and delivery
Advances in science and technology can only support and enable -
need to change policy and behavior and education

The Big Data of Food

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