John Deere Exec Says Population is Growing Quickly; Supports 5G for Farming Despite Cybersecurity, Biological, and Environmental Risks

By B.N. Frank

Opposition to 5G deployment is worldwide. Cities AND entire countries have been taking action to ban, delay, halt, and limit installation AS WELL AS issue moratoriums. Since 2017, doctors and scientists have been asking for moratoriums on Earth and in space (see 1, 2). The majority of scientists oppose deployment.

Research continues to be published that there are significant and potentially catastrophic cybersecurity, biological, and environmental associated with 5G (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). In fact, experts have warned specifically about cybersecurity risks with “Smart Farms” and Internet of Things (IoT) connected agriculture. Nevertheless, proponents still laud its use. Two green thumbs down.

From Fierce Wireless:

John Deere thinks rural 5G could help feed the world

Broadband might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think about farming, but an executive from heavy equipment company John Deere argued maybe it should be.

Nancy Post, director of the Intelligent Solutions Group at John Deere, told Fierce connectivity has been an integral part of farming for a long time, noting satellite in particular has been used for at least 20 years to help steer tractors out in the fields of rural America. The industry has leveraged progressive iterations of cellular technology as well, she said, using first 2G and then 3G and 4G to transmit and process data from a growing number of sensors onboard a wide range of farm vehicles.

These days, a vehicle system comprised of a single tractor with a 60-foot row planter hitched on the back has 300 sensors and about 140 controllers onboard, Post said. And today 3G and 4G connections are being used to process between 5 million and 15 million sensor measurements from farm equipment every second, sending these up to the John Deere Operations Center farm management dashboard hosted in Amazon Web Services’ cloud.

Post explained the data gleaned from these machines is critical to reaping more from finite swaths of arable land.

“The population is growing and it’s growing quite quickly. As the population grows, we of course need more feed to feed animals and more crops to feed people. And so we are trying to make sure we stay ahead of that, that we don’t have a crop shortage,” she said. “We are focused on reducing inputs and producing more outputs with the same amount of land.”

Data generated by sensors on farm machines can help ensure seeds are planted at the right depth, receive the right amount of water, are positioned to get the right amount of light and are sprayed with the just right amount of herbicide and pesticides. The sensors can also actually help reduce the amount of pesticides used by allowing the machines to zero in on weeds in the field and target their spraying to an area the size of a postage stamp, Post said.

Studies suggest there’s room for even more innovation. In 2019, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a report which determined “many technologies within agriculture are at early stages of adoption today – suggesting greater potential economic benefits from increased access to connectivity to support these emerging applications.”

Post said the potential of farm sensors is currently hampered by coverage limitations. Today, a majority of data is collected and stored onboard the vehicle until it reaches a connectivity zone to transfer that information to the cloud. However, a broader, faster connection – say, on 5G – could enable machine-to-machine communications that would allow farmers to work even faster and smarter.

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In February 2019, telecom executives gave U.S. congressional testimony that they had NO independent scientific evidence that 5G is safe. In December 2019, then presidential candidate, Joe Biden said that 5G should be “studied thoroughly” before it was deployed. So far, the now-President Biden seems to only support the deployment of additional unsafe wireless technology.

American 5G opposition is increasing due to concerns about reduced property value (see 1, 2, 3) and increased energy consumption (see 1, 2) as well as risks to cybersecurity, privacy (see 1, 2), public safety (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8), health (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9), and the environment.

Last month, scientists submitted a letter to President Biden asking him to protect the public from 5G and other unsafe technology. Americans opposed to 5G may click here to sign a letter asking the Biden administration to stop deployment immediately.

Activist Post reports regularly about 5G and other unsafe technology. For more information visit our archives and the following websites.