09/12/26
USDA unleashes AI, satellite imaging and other ‘tools’ to monitor American farmers in unprecedented new surveillance program
Leo Hohmann | Announcement comes on heels of USDA deal with AI firm Palantir. ‘Satellite imaging fed into a battlefield intelligence system built by a defense vendor, sold as farmer convenience and food security.’ | The Trump administration’s U.S. Department of Agriculture announced this week it is building a government framework that will use technological “tools” including NASA satellite imagery and artificial intelligence to monitor the nation’s farms. ■ This announcement comes just a few months after another big story in the agriculture world, which I reported on back in April, that the AI data-analysis firm Palantir Technologies has been granted a $300 million contract with the USDA to collect data on American farmers. BOTTOM LINE: This is the same administration that is promoting water-hogging, energy-burning toxic data centers in place of productive farmland and is OK with the Chinese becoming the second-largest owner of American farmland. It’s also the same administration that didn’t pay attention in January and February when it was warned that if it attacked Iran, the Iranians would shut down the Strait of Hormuz and cause a global recession/depression. This same administration has now also imported 300 metric tons of low-quality Argentinian beef, undercutting American ranchers, many of whom are already struggling to stay in business.