“…According to industry publication the Fence Post, Bayer is supplementing human security patrols around its 8,000 acre Hawaiian corn farm with robotic security dogs, supplied by the tech firm Asylon.
The Asylon dogs are meant to guard the company’s precious maize from vandals, wildfires, wild fauna, and other hazards around the clock. They do so with a payload of thermal cameras and electro-optical sensors, the kind used in unmanned military drones. Each robodog connects both to Bayer’s Hawaii Security Operations Centre and Alyson’s Robotic Security Operations Centre, meaning anyone trying to pull off a daring corn heist is going to have a hard time.
While that may seem like overkill, FenPo reports Bayer’s Hawaiian corn holdings represent 90 percent of the company’s international feed corn exports. At an average cost of $113.50 per acre, that represents over $900,000 worth of corn investment alone, and likely millions on the international market (to say nothing of the industrial corn system, a major economic powerhouse in the US which generated $123 billion in revenue in 2024 alone).
While references to the Netflix sci-fi anthology “Black Mirror” are old hat at this point, we couldn’t help but notice the new crop guardians are emerging at a time when a global food crisis looms over the world…”