Gearing up for the concentration draft deadline, I have been thinking a lot about scale. A concentration is supposed to be larger than a situated project, but smaller than a broad environmental theme. Finding the perfect balance and focus has been difficult. I have narrowed down to the broad theme of agtech, but just agtech is definitely on the broad side including everything from farming infrastructure, GMO crops, tech startups and more.
One way to narrow down my concentration would pick one specific field to talk about. This could include irrigation techniques, harvesting techniques, urban farming, genetic modification, food distribution, nanotechnology, chemical additives, and more. However, nothing really stands out to me as the most important/interesting for me. I think what really attracts me to agtech is the rapid creativity and innovation in a field that has seen so little since its inception hundreds of years ago.
Something that plays into this and has been super interesting to read about so far is entrepreneurial innovation in the field of agtech. This is possibly because I am currently taking an entrepreneurship class, but nevertheless there are so many interesting developments in the booming agtech market. I am afraid, however, that this takes to much of a left turn from my original passion, and minor, in chemistry. I have always seen myself as more of a science guy, very far away from business, but now I’m not so sure. Hopefully there will be a way to combine these interests in my concentration, but for now I’ll keep researching.