The Role of Mechatronics in Crop Product Traceability

Today crop production worldwide has to be realised on continuously decreasing agricultural used areas combined with an increasing world population. Starvation on one hand and affluence on the other hand are dominating our daily life. Engineering is delivering higher and higher performances and new technologies are changing traditional production processes. The community often meets this developments with sceptical, because agricultural production became a strange unknown thing to the people: • milk comes from the super market, if milk has a connection to the cow it is because of TV advertising for chocolate with the colourful (violet) cow. • The well protected environment is required by all people, agriculture is the primary enemy of the environment. • Crises like BSE and Foot and Mouth Disease support the consumer in his distrust against agriculture – agriculture means environmental pollution and profit. • The work in the garden, with flowers and pets, loved by almost all people, leads to a selfoverestimation – everyone becomes a specialist in agriculture. Against this background the community has given agriculture the role of the “bad boy” – agriculture has become a looser. Agriculture itself has forgotten its results and advances in production, in the protection of animals and in environmental protection. In many cases agriculture is very sceptic against technical developments and progress and is therefore missing new chances.