The life geo-space-all - cheap bread, a space story
Hope you can forgive the pun – with a career directly in and tangential to the space sector it was bound to happen.
There are so many ways to look at how it is that so many of our daily essentials cost so little. Take bread – in 1970, 9p for a sliced loaf. The Bank of England reckons it should be around £1.60 today but you can buy a loaf for pretty much half that. How is that possible? Industrial farming, agrichemicals, subsidies, super seeds you answer? Sure, but you could also answer, space! Let’s see how that plays…..
from https://www.gov.uk/guidance/space-based-pnt-programme
Farming is or can be an unforgiving task master, as the relative lack of young farmers in the UK attests. All those variables – the weather, the soil, the landscape, the seeds and other inputs, the machinery, the staff, the buyers, the supply chain, global commodity prices…..and everywhere space. How so? A non-comprehensive thought experiment:
Satellite data gives us 3D models of the landscape (agronomists, surveyors, hydrologists, planners, extension workers, foresters etc)
GPS signals ensure farmers know when to drill, sow, treat and harvest and so when to schedule plant hire, seasonal worker booking (plant manufacturers, systems integrators, agricultural engineers, farm managers, plant scientists, big data modellers)
Time series satellite and weather data provide predictive models of yields and hence prices long before the crop is out of the field (commodity traders, buyers, shippers, supply chain managers, fund managers)
Satellite data provides validation of subsidy claims (public sector/civil service)
AIS allows grain importers and wholesalers to track the global supply chain for weaknesses and likely changes to spot market pricing arising from storms, ships running aground, piracy etc (buyers, investors/speculators, supply chain, warehousing)
Individual product packaging demands accurate data in contents listing including authenticity and compliance (for example with green schemes or forest stewardship) across the supply chain – location enabled IoT and other location tagging technologies provide this (packaging, design, branding, compliance, ISO9001/quality control, testing/validation/import regimes)
Agri-processing plants are significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions – satellites can and do identify poor performers, contributing to ESG reporting and share price (shareholders, plant managers, auditors)
Just in time delivery to ensure fresh produce on shelf and in your shopping basket is dependent on long and complex supply chains, held together by geolocation provided by space
So, space may be a long way from your immediate consciousness, but without it everything would be more inefficient, more costly and worse for the planet. Look again at the waxed paper loaf in your basket and then look up to the skies.
The irregular life geospatial series will riff (more regularly) on space and when and how to use and add space-based and/or space-enabled capabilities to help you solve problems, improve performance and develop new products and services.