5.05.2008

My Garden Just Texted Me

ScienceDaily (May 5, 2008) — Beginning this crop season, farmers will be able to receive text messages on their cell phones from their plants saying whether they are thirsty or not. . .

Battery-operated infrared thermometers placed in irrigated fields monitor leaf temperatures and relay that information to a computerized base station. A cell phone modem can be hooked up to the base station to download data to a personal computer. This modem can also send text messages to a farmer's cell phone. . .

Farmers can choose the time-temperature threshold at which they would like to receive an alert, and adjust it at any time. (Full Story at sd)

I know that times have changed and that we aren't plowing fields behind fields anymore, but I just don't picture farmers text messaging. To be fair, I do know someone who farms and the technology he uses is NASA level advanced.