'Shit in, shit out', AI is coming for agriculture, but farmers aren’t convinced

Re:'Shit in, shit out', AI is coming for agriculture, but fa... by owie829 on Sunday July 06, 2025 @05:43PM (#44484350)

that is incorrect. 2023 US Payments to agriculture [1] were $10.972 billion. That is 0.04% of GDP or ~0.697% of the federal budget[2] for 2023. It spiked slightly in 2020, but has been a small portion of the budget for a long time.

[1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/L312041A027NBEA

[2] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M318191Q027NBEA

[3] https://imgur.com/a/dwgS0m6

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Re:'Shit in, shit out', AI is coming for agriculture, but fa... by ericyd on Sunday July 06, 2025 @09:32PM (#44485839)

I guess it's a matter of perspective, I know 0.7% isn't the biggest item in the budget but it's a fairly large line item to my mind. Either way I still wonder what the "does not scale" comment meant.

Edit: re-reading my comment, I regret my word choice, "a huge chunk" is obviously incorrect.

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Re:'Shit in, shit out', AI is coming for agriculture, but fa... by vkou on Monday July 07, 2025 @02:03AM (#44487208)

First of all, 11 billion is 0.17% of the federal budget. (Which is ~6 trillion). You were looking at a quarterly budget, not the annual one.

Secondly, that 0.17% that is spent on food security has dramatically better ROI than the 1.7% of it that is spent on, to pick a random line item... maintaining 5 (of 11) carrier strike groups[1].

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[1] For contrast, the entire rest of the world put together has exactly 2 carrier strike groups. Somehow, I'd have to prioritize people getting three meals a day over nearly anything else the government could be doing.

[ Parent | on HN ]