DIGI SOCIETY

My parents bought a farm when I was a young child. This happened before Finland joined the EU. I think farming was then a physical job, and many things were done manually. Tractors and various machines were used as aids and additional power. There was some primitive digitalization in milking machines and cattle feeding devices. A new loose-housing barn was built on our farm in 1992. It was the first barn in the area where a computer controlled the feeding of concentrated feed to the cows. In the 1990s, computers began to be used more widely in farm accounting as well.

Almost everything has become more digitalized and has become indispensable for people. The agricultural sector has also made a digital leap in many ways. A great relief has been the introduction of milking robots on farms to assist people. It has freed up a lot of time in the work schedule. There’s no need to wake up early for milking and go back for another round in the evening. Farmers can monitor milking remotely using digital devices. Digitalization has also significantly changed animal feeding. Feeding devices can automatically recognize cows and dispense the right amount of suitable food for them. Barn cleaning and the drying of cow beds have also been digitalized, as many barns now have automatic floor cleaning devices.

I think the digital leap made so far has mainly happened inside the barn. Animal feeding, barn cleaning, and milking have been automated. I believe that in the future, there will be more focus on developing digital assistance for fieldwork and crop cultivation. Farmers spend a lot of time on various field tasks, which produce food for both animals and humans. I think in the future, automated tractors will roam the fields, pulling various fieldwork machines behind them. Farmers could monitor the operation of the machines remotely, for example, from home.

In the future, farmers will need to know how to use and maintain various digital devices and machines in addition to animal care and farming. Or will it be that farms will no longer hire machine operators as farmhands but instead hire digital experts to code and adjust machines? Or will even this happen remotely? Digital experts will operate farm machinery from hundreds of kilometers away from the farms. Various advisory services have partly moved to remote services. Field monitoring has also partially shifted to remote monitoring, saving travel between field blocks and farms.

Risks of a digital society

I think a digital society has its vulnerabilities. The number of farms has decreased significantly, but farm sizes have increased. Large farms have many digital devices that can be managed and controlled remotely. What if an external malicious actor wants to disrupt Finland’s food production and manages to interfere with the control of automatic devices? Another major risk is expertise. A farmer couple mainly runs Finland’s farms. How can the knowledge of two people be sufficient for so many types of digital skills? Or are there enough digital experts to support farmers? The third risk is the vulnerability of digital devices. Previously, a farmer knew that when they closed the barn door after milking, the cows usually managed until the next milking session. Although many devices have made farming easier and freed up the farmer’s work, alarming devices report disruptions several times a day, prompting the farmer to check the situation. The mental load increases, and days can become long and heavy. Various alarms can also disrupt and interrupt sleep.

I have worked in education for over ten years. Data security issues have become much stricter during this time. In our organization, employees must undergo annual data protection training. With this course, the organization aims to ensure that everyone stays up-to-date on data security and GDPR issues. This course has also reminded me of these matters very well.

On the other hand, the GDPR sometimes complicates the handling of student matters. We can no longer discuss students’ problems and various diagnoses in meetings as before. Recording events and support measures is also now very strictly regulated and restricted. As a vocational subjects teacher, I cannot review support measures designed for students; instead, I have to ask the student’s own group counselor separately. This may sometimes remain undone, which can jeopardize the availability of student support and even cause dangerous situations due to lack of support measures.

I joined as a user of ChatGPT and asked the AI questions related to my own field of education. I inquired about increasing forest biodiversity and the future outlook of forest management in Finland. I received good and sensible answers to both questions, but there was nothing particularly new to me in them. I was expecting to gain some new perspectives or ideas from the responses.

Self-assessment

This course has raised many thoughts on how digitalized our society is now compared to my childhood, for example. The job description of a farmer has changed significantly on many farms with various digital devices. However, it must be remembered that not all farms have yet automated processes; things are still done on many small farms in traditional ways. I think digitalization will increase in the future, and it is good to prepare for it by getting education. It was interesting to read blogs written by others on the topic. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was already somewhat familiar to me through my work.

I commented on the blog posts of Hanna Ahtiainen and Juha Ahola