DON'T bother holding onto the reality of the horticulture industry as you know it - that's all about to change if the American military has its way.
Construction materials that re-grow themselves, pills that allow a person to speak multiple languages and gait sensing technology that can predict food consumption are just some of the looming technologies on their way.
The details of the projects were presented by author and futurist, Rose Herceg, at the 12th Australian Banana Industry Congress in Sydney last week.
Ms Herceg outlined some of the America-based, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) developments she has been following.
Her insights delivered audible reactions from the congress delegates who were given a glimpse through a window to see science fiction colliding with reality.
"Insane, quite scary but quite real," Ms Herceg said.
"I'm a big believer that what is crazy and fantastical on the fringes is the most likely course of action."
She spoke on six different technologies which she believed could have impacts for the banana industry.
Gait Technology
WORK is being conducted on systems which analyse a person's gait (their stride and way they walk) in order to assess their mood and consumption trends.
"When you can predict how people eat; how much they eat; the shape and size and everything else of what they eat, you can target," she said.
"This technology is coming to a theatre near you, probably in the next decade or so."
She said the behavioural prediction technology could go so far as to predict how people eat.
"Think about what this could do for the banana industry. You could target only the people who like your product, who eat your product, who love your product, who eat 10 bananas a week and don't waste a single dollar on targeting people who you can never win over."
Kevlar Climbers
ACCORDING to Ms Herceg, "kevlar climbers" are ladder-like devices which can hold significant weight but are very light.
She said this could have implications for the harvesting of tree crops when it came to taking infrastructure into a paddock or orchard.
Broad Operational Language Translation (BOLT)
IN October 2011, DARPA launched the Broad Operational Language Translation (BOLT) program to attempt to create new techniques for automated translation and linguistic analysis that can be applied to the informal genres of text and speech common in online and in-person communication.
"For international people in the community, business people who are trying to sell their bananas overseas and export, this will absolutely blow your mind," she said.
"You take an injection, which they are trying to turn into a pill, and you can speak another language."
"It will give you enough conversational Spanish, or Mandarin, or English, to speak. These pills will be coming out in 28 days, 21 days, 14 days, seven day versions.
"So if you want to go to China to cut a deal with the market over there to sell your bananas, and you don't trust the translator and you can't speak Cantonese or Mandarin, pop a pill and off you go.
"Language barrier is the single biggest barrier to business around the world."
Modified Insects
TAKING the concept of beneficial insects to another level is the idea of modified insects.
Ms Herceg said insects are being "built" to specifically kill other insects and protect certain crops.
"I saw insects that are simply there to protect crops. Good insects that will simply be the guardian protectors of bananas, of apples, of grapes, of everything.
"Uber insects, specifically built to take out other insects. DARPA are working phenomenally on this technology," she said.
Engineering Living Material (ELM)
DESCRIBED as porous concrete structures that re-grow tentacles when hit, Engineering Living Material (ELM) could change the structures in the horticulture industry.
"If anybody has seen the movie Terminator 2 where the object gets hit and re-grows itself, this is pretty much what this is," Ms Herceg said.
She said ELM was about a decade away.
"This will change the insurance industry as we know it, forever, once they apply it to homes and cars and structures," she said.
Food Crime Unit
ONE concept of particular interest to the broader agriculture network could be a food crime unit.
"This is a crime food unit which is about penalising people who lie about the provenance of their food," Ms Herceg said.
"This is an incredible first step to criminalising negligent food behaviour, which has to be music to the ears of primary industry, for anybody who is in fresh food, for anyone who is competing against what I like to call, fake food."