Farming Meets Technology: Seeds of Tomorrow, with Andrew Nelson

American agriculture is experiencing a technological transformation that will fundamentally change how we cultivate, monitor, and optimize our food production. In this episode of Working Intelligence: Making Americans Irreplaceable, Andrew Nelson—a software engineer and fifth-generation farmer overseeing 7,500 acres in Eastern Washington—breaks down how AI and precision technology are driving one of the most significant shifts in modern farming.

Join Sophie Singletary and Andrew Nelson as they discuss how AI is cutting costs and boosting efficiency through drone surveillance and satellite analysis, delivering targeted crop interventions customized to specific parcels, enhancing environmental stewardship, and deepening our knowledge of complex agricultural ecosystems. Nelson discusses how these technological tools are minimizing chemical inputs, bringing sophisticated farming methods within reach of diverse operations, and opening doors to possibilities that seemed impossible generations ago on his Eastern Washington family farm. This is a conversation about the remarkable potential of technology-powered agriculture, the indispensable contribution of farmers in implementing these innovations, and why this moment marks an exciting new chapter for American farms. At the intersection of two of humanity's oldest and most essential pursuits—growing food and building tools—this era for agriculture is an exciting one.