{
  "id": 12370473,
  "title": "The 4 next big things in food and agriculture for 2026",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/06/the-4-next-big-things-in-food-and-agriculture-for-2026",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-10-06T11:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Fast Company",
    "slug": "fast-company",
    "url": "https://www.fastcompany.com/91612040/food-agriculture-next-big-things-in-tech-2026"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "As climate change continues to pose challenges for food production, agriculture is increasingly relying on advanced technologies to overcome labor shortages, rising costs, and the need to increase productivity. Four innovative companies are leading the charge in 2026, each tackling a different aspect of modern farming.\n\nFirst up is Beewise, a company specializing in automated beekeeping. With the help of ROBI, a solar-powered robotic beekeeper, commercial beekeepers can now efficiently monitor thousands of hives spread across vast farmland areas. By autonomously moving between hive rows and capturing images of each frame, the device's software analyzes colony health, feeds bees when needed, and treats diseases as required. Major pollination providers in the U.S. are starting to adopt this technology.\n\nNext, Farmwave is revolutionizing crop harvesting through the use of AI. Harvesting crops like corn and soybeans often leaves farmers with significant losses due to tractors' inability to adapt to varying field conditions. Farmwave's AI system tracks grain loss in real-time, enabling farmers to adjust tractor settings and reduce losses by three to eight bushels per acre. This technology operates on rugged Dell tablets, capable of processing thousands of images daily even in areas with limited or no Wi-Fi connectivity.\n\nHeritable Agriculture is focused on identifying the genes responsible for better crop performance. Conventional plant breeding can take up to ten years to determine which gene influences a specific trait. Heritable Agriculture, a startup spun out of Alphabet's \"Moonshot Factory\" in 2024, uses AI to analyze plant data, including DNA, proteins, and environmental factors such as soil and water, within 14 to 18 months. One notable project supported by the Gates Foundation aims to develop drought- and heat-tolerant crops for sub-Saharan Africa.\n\nLastly, Verdant Robotics offers a solution to reduce pesticide usage with its SharpShooter technology. Mounted on tractors, the system uses AI to target herbicides directly at weeds while leaving crops untouched, cutting herbicide use by up to 99%. By building a live digital twin of the field, Verdant Robotics ensures millimeter-level accuracy in targeting unwanted plants, saving farms hundreds of thousands of dollars on labor. With a short payback period of six to 18 months, early harvest yields have even doubled in one study.",
  "summary": "Climate change is making food harder to produce, even as agriculture remains a major source of emissions. At the same time, farmers are contending with labor shortages, rising costs, and pressure to get more out of every acre. New technologies are helping them do that, from robotic beekeeping and AI systems that reduce crop loss and pesticide use to tools that identify the genes behind more…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}