Back to Nature With Fenceless Farms—Technology Opportunities to Reconnect People and Food

Abstract

The development and application of the fence was one of the earliest forms of agricultural technology in action. Managing the supply of animal protein required hunter gatherer communities to be able to domesticate and contain wild animals. Over the ages the fence has become ingrained in the very fabric of society and created a culture of control and ownership. Garett Hardin's article titled “The Tragedy of the Commons” suggested that shared land, typified by access to a fenceless common resource, was doomed to failure due to a human instinct for mistrust and exploitation. Perhaps the fence has created an ingrained societal cultural response. While natural ecosystems do have physical boundaries, these are based on natural environmental zones. Landscapes are more porous and resilience is built up through animal's being able to respond to dynamic changes. This paper explores the opportunity for remote monitoring technologies to create open fenceless landscapes and how this might be integrated into the growing need for humans to access animal protein.

Using Hyperspectral Imagery to Characterize Rangeland Vegetation Composition at Process-Relevant Scales

“…Studies at smaller, pasture-scales, conducted over the past four decades examining how plant community composition affects cattle grazing distribution relied on detailed, ground-based maps [51,52], but with the use of remotely sensed data, mean that investigations can now be extended to a far wider range of conditions and spatial scales. In particular, combining high-resolution, landscape-scale vegetation maps with newly emerging technologies to control livestock movement, such as virtual fencing, will create a new era of opportunity to manage livestock across a far wider range of spatial scales than the pasture sizes currently imposed by existing fencing infrastructure [53].The wall-to-wall coverage offered by remotely sensed data not only allows for more accurate pasture-scale integration, but also allows for the identification of rare but potentially important features or trends within a given area of interest.…”