Agriculture Needs a 'Voice' as Broadband Monies Awarded, FCC Ag Task Force Told
Experts told the FCC’s Precision Ag Connectivity Task Force Thursday the agriculture industry has lots to gain from the $48 billion in connectivity money that will be awarded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), but rural interests must ensure rural areas get their share of the funding. The working groups are still working on various papers, to be finalized at a December meeting.
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“We’re going to have new technology and better technology,” said Benjamin Smith, Kubota Tractor principal adviser: “As we think about the bipartisan bill, this is an opportunity to put actions into words or actions behind words.” More 5G in rural America means “access to everything all the time” and “honestly, that is what will be needed,” he said.
“Agriculture needs a voice,” Smith said. “That voice really needs to be heard as we are trying to address the opportunity of feeding the world's growing population … and the opportunity to look beyond where we have some lower population densities,” he said. Smith said the IoT will become critical to modern farms, but also means more cybersecurity risks. “We really need the ability to capitalize on the internet of things to be able to accomplish our mission,” he said.
The task force also heard an update on cyberthreats. Rick Monaghan, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s National Risk Management Center program analyst, warned cyberattacks are inevitable and a growing problem for farmers.
“The threat to the food and ag sector is growing as the sector becomes more connected,” Monaghan said. “As the use of digital tools, software and internet increases, so does the risk,” he said: “The same threats facing other connected industries are impacting food and ag, whether that is financial losses due to someone draining an account or ransomware, the loss of nonpublic information which could impact market prices and even government policy.” Farmers also face the theft of intellectual capital, and the potential “for loss and damage of product, equipment and damage to your reputation,” he said.
“It is probably not a case of if you are going to get attacked, it’s a case of when you’ll be attacked,” Monaghan said. “Treat your network like a piece of equipment, like your livestock,” he said: “Take care of it. Plan for the worst. Plan on how you’re going to get up and operating again.” Make backup copies of your system, he said.
“War brings focus,” said Curt Blades, Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) senior vice president-industry sectors and product leadership: “The conflict in Ukraine brought forward the very real issue of cybersecurity.” Farmers are also facing supply chain issues due to the Ukraine conflict, he said. The COVID-19 pandemic “brought just a level of scrutiny to food production and food security that we hadn't seen before,” he said.
The FCC posted a new paper by AEM Thursday on “The Future of Food Production.” In the future “farmers and the shrinking skilled workforce will be asked to do even more,” the paper said: “Meeting tomorrow’s challenges will require a new way of thinking and, in some instances, a new way of doing business. Innovation will be the key to success in meeting the food supply chain demands.”
The task force also got updates from its working groups. “We are still in the learning phase, still getting more information from subject-matter experts,” said Task Force Chair Teddy Bekele, Land O'Lakes chief technology officer. The task force plans to meet again Oct. 5 for updates, with a longer meeting Dec. 2 to consider recommendations from the working groups. The December meeting may be in person, Bekele said.