How Unmanned Drones Could Affect the Food Industry

Now that the FAA has issued the first permit for an agricultural drone, here's how the entire industry could be impacted.

BY MARY CLARE JALONICK

202 SHARES

 

IMAGE: Getty Images

Herding cattle. Counting fish. Taking an animal's temperature. Applying pesticides.

When it comes to drones, "your imagination can go pretty wild in terms of what would be possible," says Roger Johnson, president of the National Farmers Union.

This month, the Federal Aviation Administration issued the first permit for agricultural use of unmanned aerial vehicles. Steven Edgar, president and CEO of ADAVSO, says his Idaho-based business will use a lightweight, fixed-wing drone to survey fields of crops.

Drone technology, already used in other countries, can make farmers more efficient by helping them locate problem spots in vast fields or ranchlands. Increased efficiency could mean lower costs for consumers and less impact on the environment if farmers used fewer chemicals because drones showed them exactly where to spray.

The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, a trade group, says agriculture could account for 80 percent of all commercial drone use, once government regulations allow it. That could be a while. The Federal Aviation Administration has been working for years on rules that would balance the desire for commercial flights of small drones with the need to prevent collisions involving manned aircraft.

Five ways drones could affect the food supply:

Scouting farms

The first agriculture drones are looking at massive fields of crops to scout out where crops are too wet, too dry, too diseased or too infested with pests. They can help farmers count plants or measure their height. Farmers can now use satellite technology, but it's slower and less detailed than images from low-flying drone.

"This is about getting the most productivity from every square inch of a farm," says ADAVSO's Edgar.

Alabama farmer Don Glenn said he would buy a drone or use a service that provides drone surveillance on his farm of corn, wheat, soybeans and canola. It's hard to survey corn fields when they are 8 feet to 10 feet tall, he says.

Drones can carry different tools, including high-resolution cameras, infrared sensors and thermal sensors. Ground-penetrating radar could even measure soil conditions.

Applying chemicals

Once the land is surveyed, farmers could use that data to narrow the areas that need treatment. If a plot of farmland is infested with weeds, for example, a farmer could spray a small amount of herbicide just in that area, instead of an entire field, to kill them. Farmers hope that they eventually could use drones to do the spraying.

Kevin Price of the Iowa-based drone company RoboFlight Systems says that kind of precision would put farmers at a huge advantage, helping them reduce the costs of chemicals and their application.

Playing cowboy

The National Farmers Union's Johnson says his father used to fly a plane over his ranch and his neighbors' to spot escaped cattle when he was growing up in North Dakota. That's something a drone could do with far less money and effort.

Lia Reich of the UAV manufacturer PrecisionHawk says the company's drones can use thermal sensors to take the temperature of cattle. The data comes back as bands of color, and "if all of the cattle look green and one looks dark purple then that one has a higher temperature," she said.

Drones could help ranchers count cattle, disturb pests that are aggravating livestock or even apply insecticide to an animal.

Finding fish

A University of Maryland project is developing drone technology to monitor fish in the Chesapeake Bay. Matt Scassero, the project director, says the idea is that a laser-based sensor mounted on a drone would allow scientists to see through the water and measure the size of a school of fish. Researchers could ascertain the conditions of the water, too.

Some drones can land on water, making it possible to measure water quality, as well.

Revealing secrets

There are downsides for farmers. Documentary filmmaker Mark Devries has used an unmanned vehicle to fly over large commercial hog operations and film them. He wants consumers to see the buildings full of animals and huge manure pits.

The drones "allow for close-ups and vantage points that satellites and airplanes cannot easily obtain," Devries says.

Still, the agriculture industry sees the advantages of drones as far outweighing the disadvantages.

"We're concerned about falling behind other countries" as the FAA delays, Karney says. "Farmers are anxious to see where this can go."

Procter & Gamble Cleans House

ENLARGE

Procter & Gamble CEO A.G. Lafley has outlined a plan to focus on 70 to 80 “leadership brands” that currently generate 90% to 95% of profit. PHOTO: REUTERS

By 

SPENCER JAKAB

Updated Jan. 26, 2015 4:02 p.m. ET

1 COMMENTS

Leave it to Procter & Gamble Co. to tell us that good things also come in small packages.

The consumer-products behemoth is in the early stages of an ambitious program to shape up by shedding products and divisions. Chief Executive Officer A.G. Lafley, who returned to the plodding company for a second stint at the helm in May 2013, has outlined a plan to focus on 70 to 80 “leadership brands” that currently generate 90% to 95% of profit.

Tuesday’s fiscal second-quarter results will give management an opportunity to update investors on progress. It should make for a more pleasant topic than the numbers themselves.

Analysts polled by FactSet see the company reporting an adjusted $1.13 a share, down from $1.21 a year earlier. Forecasts are 15 cents lower than they were in July. The chief culprit is likely the strong dollar, as P&G derives roughly two-thirds of revenue outside the U.S.

Still, investors mostly gave positive reviews to recent actions such as the sale of Duracell to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in exchange for P&G stock. But questions remain about the effectiveness of divestitures as part of Mr. Lafley’s strategy.

Since the day after his return was announced, the shares have trailed the S&P 500 by about 12 percentage points in terms of total return. Going back even farther to Mr. Lafley’s transformational deal to buy Gillette (including Duracell) in 2005, the stock has barely kept pace with the market. At that time, P&G touted the benefits of size that would give it more sway with purchasers and unlock synergies.

Maybe there is no new-and-improved magic formula for reinvigorating P&G. The most meaningful improvement recently has been ruthless cost-cutting initiated under the man who succeeded and then was succeeded by Mr. Lafley: Bob McDonald.

So while sales growth has been anemic, margins have been resilient lately. Even without Berkshire’s stock redemption, P&G should be able to return an impressive $12 billion to $14 billion to shareholders via dividends and buybacks in fiscal 2015. That is equivalent to about 5.4% of its market value.

It is too early to say whether P&G will clean up as it slims down, but the past few years of good housekeeping are paying off.

Now Advertisers Can Use Beacons To Make The Shoes You Were Looking At Inside A Physical Store Follow You Around The Internet

• LARA O'REILLY
 
•  

• JAN. 26, 2015, 12:41 PM

BI IntelligenceBeacons will soon be able to help with online campaigns, not just l

s

By now you’ve probably heard of "beacons," and how they allow advertisers to send targeted messages and offers to shoppers’ smartphones as soon as they enter a physical store. Today a deal has been struck which is about to make beacons a whole lot more interesting — and useful — for advertisers for when the shopper steps out of that store.

Norway-based startup media platform and ad server Unacast and California-based Total Communicator Solutions (a company that specializes in location-based marketing and claims to have more beacon installations than any other company. It counts P&G among its clients.) have today announced a global partnership to launch what they claim is an industry first: The ability for brands to “re-target” online and mobile ads to shoppers based on the actual items they have been looking at in-store.

Here’s how it will work: A shopper with a retailer’s app installed on their phone and Bluetooth turned on walks into a shoe store. If they’ve opted in for beacon messages, they’re greeted with a personalized message on their phone’s display.

They walk over to the men’s shoe department and are then served with a new message about the new line of designer brogues that have just arrived in-store.

And here’s the new bit: A day, a week, or a month later when that same customer goes online to have a look at a YouTube video. They are served a pre-roll video ad for that very same brand of brogues they were looking at in-store. They check the headlines on a newspaper website: Again, the very same shoes he was looking at appear in an ad, which says they’re available to buy now.

That’s huge. Until now, the utility of beacons has been limited to allowing retailers and brands to communicate with shoppers whilst they are in the store. Now beacons are acting as the data collector to inform post-shopping ad campaigns.

Unacast is looking to sign up more beacon companies (known as proximity solution providers/PSPs) to create a global network to anonymously group and standardize beacon data to allow advertisers and retailers to retarget consumers online, based on their offline interactions.

Norway, where Unacast is based, has some of the strictest privacy laws in the world, so it’s quite the feat to be able to pull off a network like this. It manages it because all the data collected via beacons requires consent from the consumer within a retailer or brand’s app, and the company never shares a users’ location data with third parties, beyond their client (or third parties their client approves of.)

Unacast was found in Oslo last year by Thomas Walle Jensen and Kjartan Slette, who were previously part of the Spotify competitor WiMP Music’s management team. 

The beacons market is set to be massive. BI Intelligence forecasts there will be 4.5 million beacons active in the US by 2018, with the majority of those (3.5 million) installed by retailers.

Crossing into China: Is Cross-Border
E-Commerce a Worthwhile Strategy?

We hear of amazing growth in China domestic e-commerce, yet cross-border e-commerce has experienced even greater growth due to new platforms and payment methods.  What is the big attraction, both for Chinese consumers and for brands?

Chinese consumers are willing to go out of their way to get certain products from overseas.  In spite of the fact that domestic e-retailers can deliver in hours, versus days or weeks from overseas, cross-border deliveries still have their place.  Here are some motivations for China to shop internationally:

• Confidence that the products are authentic and safe.  This is the reason for the strong sales of infant formula.  This motivation affects the entire mother and baby category, as well as cosmetics and food.  It also affects apparel and luxury where people want to be sure that they are getting the real item.
• Lower prices on luxury goods.  Luxury goods are typically 30% to 50% more expensive in China due to taxes, duties, and different pricing strategies.  That difference easily pays for shipping costs.
• Avoidance of sales tax and VAT.  Domestic taxes include consumption tax which can add 10%, and VAT can add 17%.  Imported goods might still face duties of 10%-50%, though orders of less than RMB1000 are not subject to import duty.  Many shoppers arrange for items to be hand-carried in country to avoid these duties.
• Exchange rate advantages.  This is more of an issue for B2B sales since companies are known to arbitrage exchange rates.  However, consumers are not unaware of when the Japanese yen, for example, weakens and creates an opportunity to buy cheaper cosmetics from Rakuten.  They only need to wait for their item to be shipped from Tokyo.  The gradual strengthening of the Chinese Yuan over the past decade has contributed to the affordability of cross-border purchases.

Whether you should be selling cross-border to China depends on how your products fit into these consumer motivations.  While cross-border e-commerce will never suffice as a long-term China strategy, it does provide a low-risk way to have a presence in the market.  It is also a way to make slow-moving SKUs available without holding inventory in China. 

Costco launched cross-border sales in China through TMall Global.  While this sounds like a major undertaking, for them it was relatively straightforward given that they already have 10 stores (“warehouses” as they call them) in Taiwan.  This allows Costco to use existing inventory points to sell their own Kirkland brand, among other things, on the mainland.

Smaller brands can dip their toes into China with just payment and logistics solutions. Even without a Chinese language site, it is possible to reach a smaller group of highly motivated shoppers.  These “highly motivated” consumers are typically English-speaking young urban professionals who are trying to build their own style and status.  But even the highly motivated Chinese shoppers are going to need a different payment option.  They are not likely to have international credit cards, so offering Alipay as an option is a must.

The major cross-border platforms are as follows:

Alipay ePass is a solution that Alibaba offers foreign brands including payment, logistics, and marketing in China. This is a very scalable option that caters to brands in the early stages of selling to China.

Shoprunner was invested in by Alibaba in October 2013, a move which gives Alibaba the ability to introduce all 100+ Shoprunner brands to China.  It essentially provides all the Alipay ePass services to Shoprunner partner retailers.  The brands can offer payment through Alipay, and goods are delivered through Alibaba’s China Smart Logistics Network.

Amazon launched US direct delivery to China in August of 2014.  Fast-moving items can be stored in one of six bonded warehouses in China for fast, low-cost delivery.  Long-tail SKUs would then be shipped from the US, though not all Amazon SKUs are available to Chinese customers.

Borderfree is an e-commerce company which specializes in providing cross-border delivery tracking for major department stores in the US, such as Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale's, and Saks Fifth Avenue. Borderfree is a global service reaching over 100 countries.  Though it does not focus solely on China, it does offer Alipay and Chinese website translation.

These are not the only options, but you can see that there are ample platforms to choose from.  Cross-border e-commerce is not a gold mine, especially in China where shoppers view online shopping as a fiercely cost-competitive market, and where significant marketing investments are needed.  But crossing borders may be the best way for your brand to test the waters.

The Dire State Of Our Nation (What You Won’t Hear From The Politicians)

Submitted by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

“As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air – however slight – lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.” ? Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas

No matter what the politicians say about how great America is and how we, as a people, will always triumph, the fact is that the nation seems to be imploding.

Despite the dire state of our nation, however, you can rest assured that none of the problems that continue to plague our lives and undermine our freedoms will be addressed by our so-called elected representatives in any credible, helpful way, and certainly not during a State of the Union address.

Consider the following facts:

Our government is massively in debt. Currently, the national debt is somewhere in the vicinity of $18 trillion. More than a third of our debt is owned by foreign countries, namely China and Japan.

Our education system is abysmal. Despite the fact that we spend more than most of the world on education ($115,000 per student), we rank 36^th in the world when it comes to math, reading and science, far below most of our Asian counterparts. Even so, we continue to insist on standardized programs such as Common Core, which teach students to be test-takers rather than thinkers.

Our homes provide little protection against government intrusions. Police agencies, already empowered to crash through your door if they suspect you’re up to no good, now haveradars that allow them to “see” through the walls of your home.

Our prisons, housing the largest number of inmates in the world and still growing, have become money-making enterprises for private corporations that rely on the inmates for cheap labor.

We are no longer a representative republic. The U.S. has become a corporate oligarchy. As a recent survey indicates, our elected officials, especially those in the nation’s capital, represent the interests of the rich and powerful rather than the average citizen.

We’ve got the most expensive, least effective health care system in the world compared to other western, industrialized nations.

The air pollution levels are dangerously high for almost half of the U.S. population,putting Americans at greater risk of premature death, aggravated asthma, difficulty breathing and future cardiovascular problems.

Despite outlandish amounts of money being spent on the nation’s “infrastructure,” there are more than 63,000 bridges—one out of every 10 bridges in the country—in urgent need of repair. Some of these bridges are used 250 million times a day by trucks, school buses, passenger cars and other vehicles.

Americans know little to nothing about their rights or how the government is supposed to operate. This includes educators and politicians. For example, 27 percent of elected officials cannot name even one right or freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment, while 54 percent do not know the Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war.

Nearly one out of every three American children live in poverty, ranking us among the worst in the developed world.

Patrolled by police, our schools have become little more than quasi-prisons in whichkids as young as age 4 are being handcuffed for “acting up,” subjected to body searches and lockdowns, and suspended for childish behavior.

We’re no longer innocent until proven guilty. In our present surveillance state, that burden of proof has now been shifted so that we are all suspects to be spied on, searched, scanned, frisked, monitored, tracked and treated as if we’re potentially guilty of some wrongdoing or other.

Parents, no longer viewed as having an inherent right to raise their children as they see fit, are increasingly being arrested for letting their kids walk to the playground alone, or play outside alone. Similarly, parents who challenge a doctor’s finding or request a second opinion regarding their children’s health care needs are being charged with medical child abuseand, in a growing number of cases, losing custody of their children to the government.

Private property means little at a time when SWAT teams and other government agents can invade your home, break down your doors, kill your dog, wound or kill you, damage your furnishings and terrorize your family. Likewise, if government officials can fine and arrest you for growing vegetables in your front yard, praying with friends in your living room, installing solar panels on your roof, and raising chickens in your backyard, you’re no longer the owner of your property.

Court rulings undermining the Fourth Amendment and justifying invasive strip searches have left us powerless against police empowered to forcefully draw our blood, forcibly take our DNA, strip search us, and probe us intimately. Accounts are on the rise of individuals—men and women alike—being subjected to what is essentially government-sanctioned rape by police in the course of “routine” traffic stops.

Americans can no longer rely on the courts to mete out justice. The courts were established to intervene and protect the people against the government and its agents when they overstep their bounds. Yet the courts increasingly march in lockstep with the police state, while concerned themselves primarily with advancing the government’s agenda, no matter how unjust or illegal.

Americans have no protection against police abuse. It is no longer unusual to hear about incidents in which police shoot unarmed individuals first and ask questions later. What is increasingly common, however, is the news that the officers involved in these incidents get off with little more than a slap on the hands.

If there is any absolute maxim by which the federal government seems to operate, it is that the American taxpayer always gets ripped off. This is true, whether you’re talking about taxpayers being forced to fund high-priced weaponry that will be used against us,endless wars that do little for our safety or our freedoms, or bloated government agencies such as the National Security Agency with its secret budgets, covert agendas and clandestine activities. Rubbing salt in the wound, even monetary awards in lawsuits against government officials who are found guilty of wrongdoing are paid by the taxpayer.

Americans are powerless in the face of militarized police. In early America, government agents were not permitted to enter one’s home without permission or in a deceitful manner. And citizens could resist arrest when a police officer tried to restrain them without proper justification or a warrant. Daring to dispute a warrant with a police official today who is armed with high-tech military weapons would be nothing short of suicidal. Moreover, as police forces across the country continue to be transformed into extensions of the military, Americans are finding their once-peaceful communities transformed into military outposts, complete with tanks, weaponry, and other equipment designed for the battlefield.

Now these are not problems that you can just throw money at, as most politicians are inclined to do. As I point out in my book A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, these are problems that will continue to plague our nation unless and until Americans wake up to the fact that we’re the only ones who can change things.

For starters, we’ll need to actually pay attention to what’s going on around us, and I don’t mean by turning on the TV news, which is little more than government propaganda. Pay attention to what your local city councils are enacting. Pay attention to what your school officials are teaching and not teaching. Pay attention to whom your elected officials are allowing to wine and dine them.

Most of all, stop acting like it really matters whether you vote for a Republican or Democrat, because it doesn’t, and start acting like citizens who expect the government to work for them, rather than the other way around.

While that bloated beast called the federal government may not listen to you, you can have a great impact on your local governing bodies. This will mean gathering together with your friends and neighbors and, for example, forcing your local city council to start opposing state and federal programs that are ripping you off. And if need be, your local city council can refuse to abide by the dictates that continue to flow from Washington, DC.

All of the signs point to something nasty up ahead. The time to act is now.

Starbucks Baristas Will Soon Deliver Coffee To Your Door

• HAYLEY PETERSON
 
•  

• JAN. 23, 2015, 11:51 AM

Reuters

Starbucks is getting closer to launching its delivery service later this year.

The company is "finalizing plans for two distinct delivery models — one of which utilizes our own people, green-apron baristas, and the other, which leverages the capabilities of the third-party service, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said in a call with analysts Thursday.

Members of Starbucks' loyalty program will be able to request delivery through Starbucks' new mobile order and pay app, which will be rolled out nationwide this year.

More details on the delivery service will be announced in the coming months, Schultz said.

Schultz first revealed plans for delivery late last year.

"Imagine the ability to create a standing order that Starbucks delivered hot or iced to your desk daily — that’s our version of ecommerce on steroids," he said on an earnings call with analysts in October.

Schultz said the company is launching the new app and delivery service because customers are demanding more convenience.

"What’s actually occurring is the cultural shift in time allocation away from retail experiences people have felt forced to undertake and towards retail experiences that people want to enjoy with convenience as the key enabler," Schultz said. "Now what you’re going to see in the years ahead will be a rapid acceleration in mobile device purchases and a continued significant migration away from bricks-and-mortar commerce. There is obviously a huge prize there and that’s why we’re seeing so much activity around the payment space from all kinds of companies."

4 Omnichannel Tips to Improve Customer Experience and Increase Sales

Jan 23, 2015 10:21 AM By Sridhar Nagarajan

When it comes to retail selling, gone are the days of “if you build it, they will come.” Customers today spend a significant amount of time researching products they want to buy and are much savvier about where, when and how they make their purchases.

The concept of omnichannel selling — providing a seamless shopping experience across online, mobile and in-person retail channels — has risen out of the change in consumer buying behavior. Now, retailers are compelled to offer their products anywhere their customers wish to shop – online and offline – or risk losing out on customers and revenue.

Top global brands have been investing in omnichannel retail in recent years. While small businesses do not have the extensive resources of larger retailers, there remain a few key omnichannel strategies that can help them grow rapidly and stay competitive

If you run a small business and are looking to extend your reach, expand into new channels, and engage more effectively with customers, consider the following:

Go Where Your Customers Go

In today’s connected world, small businesses can capitalize on the opportunity to reach an unprecedented number of people, especially with the variety of low-cost, mass-market solutions available at their disposal. This enables multichannel commerce for small merchants and effectively reaches your customers wherever they shop. For example, if your products cater to teens, think about using social media as an effective sales channel, particularly Facebook, given that 77% of online teens have a Facebook profile according to Pew Research.  Similarly, consumers who are constantly on-the-go have turned to shopping via their mobile devices, with a 45% year-over-year increase in mobile purchases from 2013 to 2014.

Be sure that your business is discoverable across all channels – whether that’s on your website, social media page, mobile site, marketplaces or even face-to-face – to get the biggest bang for your buck.

Find Creative Ways to Sell In-Person

While small businesses might not have the infrastructure or financial means to setup and operate a brick-and-mortar storefront, it remains important to be accessible in-person to consumers.

To do this, consider alternative, face-to-face options that will allow you to connect with your prospective customers and increase engagement. For example, you can set up shop at a local trade show or farmers market, accept payments via your mobile phone or sell through other local retailers.

Personalize the Customer Experience

The benefits of selling online versus in stores differ in a few important ways. With online sales, purchasing is only a click away, and customers can buy when and where they want. In-person, consumers receive specialized attention from employees who not only help with the sale, but also leave a lasting impression on the customer.

If your business is primarily online, personalize your store’s checkout experience and provide product recommendations to increase average basket size and improve customer engagement. Investing in 24×7 phone support and live chat services also add a human touch to an otherwise impersonal shopping experience.

Optimize Your Online Store for Mobile Shopping

Mobile commerce is on the rise. Last year alone, mobile traffic accounted for 45% of all online traffic for the holiday season, with sales via mobile device accounting for 27% of all retail sales on Black Friday(up from 24% in 2013). This large, rapidly expanding piece of the e-commerce pie makes it vital for small businesses to cater to mobile shoppers. The key is to make it easy for consumers to navigate through your mobile site, find the right products, and complete their purchase.

When optimizing your website for mobile devices, look for options that offer a responsive design – a website layout that automatically adjusts to the size of your customer’s screen – so that your site converts prospects to buyers irrespective of screen size. Test your site using a tool likeresponsivedesignchecker.com, to experience how consumers navigate through your store and view your products on different devices.

With ever-increasing customer expectations omnichannel selling is now an important part of the small business tool kit. Although large retailers have dedicated resources for multichannel selling, new and innovative mass-market solutions now enable smaller businesses compete more effectively with larger retailers. By carefully considering and implementing some of the tactics shared, you too can access a wider range of consumers and become an omnichannel selling expert.