When you think about it, some of today’s sexiest innovations in business, culture and technology draw intrigue by “mashing up” the old and the new.

Consider “hick hop,” a fusion of old-time folk music and modern day hip-hop that has become a staple of West Virginia’s homegrown music scene over the past few years. Another mash up is the “maker faire,” an event that taps in to West Virginia’s age-old traditions of “Do-It-Yourself” craftsmanship by providing new economy “makers” – engineers, tinkerers, technology enthusiasts, hackers, and the generally curious — with a market-style forum to showcase their creativity and resourcefulness.

Here’s another crazy mash up: the Internet of Things… and farming.

Definitions may be in order. For those unfamiliar with the “Internet of Things” (we didn’t really know what it meant either until Carla Diana explained it to us at the 2014 Create West Virginia conference), the term refers to the infusion of Internet technology into everyday objects. You’re probably familiar with the “fit bit,” and you may have heard of “wearable” exercise performance equipment or in-car technology that can track your driving habits.

Whether we like it or not, Internet of Things is developing at the speed of technology (that is, faster and faster every year)! Pretty soon, your toothbrush may be able to tell you when you need to go to the dentist, or your pillow might reproach you for not getting enough sleep. A little creepy, to be sure. But there is huge potential for Internet technology to make almost all aspects of our everyday lives easier and more measurable.

Farming, obviously, needs no definition. It’s one of the world’s oldest vocations, and has been the primary driver of West Virginia’s rural economy for generations. West Virginia, in fact, ranks #1 in the nation in percentage of family-owned farms (finally! #1 in something good!).

So, what could something so ancestral have to do with technology so new that even middle schoolers may not have heard of it?

More than you might think. Last Tuesday, a diverse group of innovators, business people, farmers, and interested citizens gathered at the West Virginia University Economic Development Center (DigiSo) in Charleston for “EcoHack,” a listening session on how leading-edge technologies can support local agriculture across West Virginia.

The event was held jointly by the WVSU EDC, Robert C. Byrd Institute for Advanced Flexible Manufacturing, and Agile Ag, a business founded this year by a group of Charleston-area innovators who are interested in applying technology and creative problem-solving to issues related to agriculture and the environment.

During the listening session, participants were asked to brainstorm opportunities where technology might be able to add value to local farming, whether by improving farm processes, connecting consumers to local food options, or helping growers share knowledge and resources. Here are some of their suggestions:

• Digital technology could be used connect people with safe options for local food. Imagine an app that connected you with growers in your community who use environmentally sound practices, and then helped you arrange to have their produce delivered to your door.
• New business models could be developed to support Internet-based collaborative exchanges among local growers, including rootstock and seed exchanges, surrogate farming, and cooperative marketing.
• Sensor-driven technology could be used to optimize crops and protect produce from harmful insects.
• Sensor-driven technology could be used to measure and track water and soil quality (as we know in the Kanawha Valley, water quality is of critical importance, and not just to farmers!)
• Cloud-based technology could help local growers maintain detailed farm records.
• Cloud-based technology could be leveraged to create a database of grower-generated resources for training the next generation of family farmers.

RCBI’s Bill Woodrum acknowledged that innovation can be particularly difficult in this sector because “farmers tend to do things the way they have always done.” But Woodrum also noted that West Virginia’s current Agriculture Commissioner, Walt Helmick, has taken steps to foster a climate of openness toward new technology among the state’s farming community.

So, we may have stumbled upon the New Year’s new hottest mash up. What do you think? How might innovative technology revolutionize WV’s local agriculture scene in 2015?