Check out the latest issue of SCBIZ Magazine

Listen to this article

In the summer, it was strawberries. In the fall, apples.

The fruit found my face much more frequently than it landed in the quart containers or bushel baskets.

As a kid visiting the farm outside Louisville in my youth, I never imagined looking up toward the sky and seeing a drone.

My how times have changed.

Technology, including drones, is having a big impact on South Carolina’s agribusiness industry. And the Palmetto State is leading the way in implementing change across the country and globe.

So it’s fitting that technology’s role in reshaping agribusiness is the theme of this issue of SCBIZ Magazine.

You can find the digital version of the magazine here.

Inside you’ll read about Clemson’s new Center for Agricultural Technology, which focuses on education, outreach and research with the goal of positively impacting global food supply, farmers’ productivity and agricultural sustainability — locally, regionally and globally, Krys Merryman reports.

Merryman also talked to Clemson professor Joe Mari J. Maja — here’s where the drones come in — who oversees the Department of Agricultural Sciences Sensor and Automation Laboratory. His work with the unmanned aerial vehicles has given farmers the tools necessary to address environmental needs based on real-time data.

Melinda Waldrop has a feature on Agribusiness Center for Research and Entrepreneurship, an initiative of the S.C. Department of Agriculture that has funded 66 entrepreneurs since its 2018 inception.

South Carolina is also busy planting the seeds of future agribusiness influencers, namely with the S.C. Governor’s School for Agriculture at John de La Howe, a residential high school focusing on agriculture that is the only one of its kind in the country, which you can learn more about with Christina Knauss’ feature story.

So, lots of information to sow with this issue of SCBIZ Magazine.

Now, if you don’t mind, I have an apple orchard to visit.

Jason Thomas is executive editor of SC Biz News. Reach him via email at [email protected]