The balance of power in the food industry is shifting to tech-driven consumers, a major theme that was on full display during the opening day of this year’s FOOD IT: Fork to Farm event in Mountain View, California.

“It’s really now the tech-enabled consumer and what they want to eat, like everything else that’s being so consumer-driven, that’s driving now what the food producers have to create,” said Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick)(pictured, left), co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s mobile livestreaming studio. (* Disclosure below.)

Connecting the various producers through technology was another key theme at the event, which attracted a mix of investors, academics, corporate executives, and experts in food and agriculture.

“One of the things that they’re focused on is connecting people who are feeding the world, billions and billions of people, with people who are changing the world through technologies,” said Lisa Martin (@Luccazara) (pictured, right), co-host of theCUBE.

Google and Yamaha among major attendees

Both of the analysts were struck by the major companies in attendance, including Google Inc. and Yamaha Corp. “We just had one of the main keynotes here from Google and heard how they’ve taken just the task of feeding their employees to a much greater level of responsibility,” Frick said.

The conference offered an opportunity for the analysts to see how major technology areas covered throughout the year by theCUBE, such as edge computing, cloud and big data management, were being applied to specific applications involving food production and global sustainability.

“There’s tremendous potential for big data, Internet of Things and analytics to improve farming efficiencies,” said Martin, who also predicted continued use of GPS sensors on tractors and combines, along with robotics and automation.

The analysts took note of a sense of urgency surrounding the conference, in light of a pressing need to feed the world’s population. “We have to feed 10 billion people in just a couple of years, and we’re not growing any more land,” Frick stated. “There’s no perfect solution.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the FOOD IT: Fork to Farm event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for FOOD IT: Fork to Farm. Neither Western Digital Corp., the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial influence on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE