VISION Conference: The Metaverse Offers Ag Many Possibilities
VISION Conference speaker Robin Raskin shared how the metaverse could translate to agriculture, from production planning to connecting with consumers.
Leading off the 2023 VISION Conference, Robin Raskin, author, speaker and Founder of The Virtual Events Group, showed attendees an almost unimaginable array of metaverse technologies that retail companies and entertainers are using to generate hype, engagement, and sales.
“Everyone’s hearing about it, but there’s some really strong marquee brands that are playing around the metaverse and doing some cool things. There’s Jimmy Fallon, who’s done some great stuff with Fortnite. There’s Fidelity Investments working to create an experience for their customers. And of course, you can’t forget about Nike and all their sneaker goods online. And there’s even Snoop Dogg working in The Sandbox to offer up real-time live concerts in the metaverse and NFTs (non-fungible tokens),” she said.
Raskin, known for her ability to transform complex digital subjects into easily understood concepts, showed a mock-up of potential metaverse experiences for agriculture. Within the digital space, she visited a farm and shared comments with other avatars. She shared a vision of how agribusiness can use the metaverse.
“What I love about meeting like this is that while farming is the most local of tasks, we have a lot to learn from others. Using the combination of IoT (Internet of Things) to bring data in from remote areas; AI (Artificial Intelligence) to help model and learn from that data; visualization techniques, training and sharing information are all going to help us overcome the food scarcity situations that face us around the globe,” she said within the metaverse platform.
Food scarcity, as well as the lack of good distribution of food in all parts of the world, was a central tenant of the conference. Agriculture 4.0 is harnessing technologies to increase the productivity of existing farms, as well as reducing the 30% of food wasted in industrialized countries, and to do this in a way that is productive for farmers and engaging for users.
The Metaverse Now
To illustrate how the metaverse is currently being used, Raskin used the August 2021 virtual concert of Ariana Grande, which allowed users to pay to attend the concert and participate for several days at co-events. Attendees could buy virtual clothes to wear within the event and purchase avatars to experience the event. Online influencers hyped the concert, and Ariana sold more than $20 million worth of merchandise through the metaverse concert.
“It’s a world where digital things are worth as much as anything else. This is astounding to me. There is a generation of kids and adults who believe that digital assets really are important. Whether it’s art, whether it’s a piece of corn or a piece of wheat or a parcel of land,” said Raskin.
Raskin showed several providers of metaverse experiences, such as Fortnite, The Sandbox, and others.
Successful Online Experiences
During her presentation, Raskin outlined the three phases (so far) of the internet and interaction. “Phase one was you looked something up. It was extremely passive, extremely read-only. Phase two of the internet is reading and writing. Facebook’s the best example. You give, you talk, you have a conversation, you contribute information. You own information. Phase three is where you are in the experience as an avatar and you may shop virtually, and pick up the goods physically, or you may just have digital goods.”
Raskin believes there are key components of a successful metaverse. First, persistent reality, which means if you leave it, once you come back it will be there just as you left it. Second, interoperability, which means you can take your digital assets from one platform to another, and they retain their appearance and value.
Translating to Agricultural
From the consumer entertainment and shopping side of the metaverse, Raskin switched to the business side, where she showed BMW’s virtual plant used for training and production planning. “This virtual twin allows BMW to create a run of a reconfigured production line without doing any live production, and it eliminates the possibilities for so many mistakes in the real world,” she noted.
Singapore has recently completed a similar effort to plant urban food production within the confines of the city.
For agriculture, Raskin sees the possibility to track all aspects of crops — when it’s planted, treated, harvested; how it is stored, transported, and processed. This can create consumer transparency and meet the emerging need of some consumers to know more about the origins and treatment of the food they eat. They may even have a fractional investment in your virtual farm or your real one.
“Within the metaverse, I can go check out the farm, I can go see where my investment is at. With this consumer passion for sustainability and knowing where their crops are grown and knowing how their crops or animals are taken care of, I think metaverse is a great way to educate people,” said Raskin.
At the same time, Raskin cautioned attendees about getting caught up in metaverse hype. “Don’t get sidetracked. Remember your own DNA and your own organic mission. How can you extend it into the metaverse and create engagement and value with your stakeholders?”
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