Method and system automatically to certify an agricultural product

• US 8,489,437 B1
• Filed: 11/02/2000
• Issued: 07/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SureHarvest Services LLC (Where Food Comes From, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: SureHarvest, Inc. (Where Food Comes From, Inc.)
• Inventors: Dlott, Jeffrey W., Rosenberg, Harry W., Ohmart, Clifford P., Connolly, Rebecca
• Primary Examiner(s): Allen, Akiba
• Application Number:
  US09/705,373
• Time in Patent Office: 4,639 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7, 705/1, 705/7.11, 705/1.1
• US Class Current: 705/7.11
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/018 Certifying business or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/02 Agriculture; Fishing; Forestry; Mining

Abstract

A method automatically to certify an agricultural product includes receiving agricultural product data, writing to an agricultural product, at a management information system. The agricultural product data may reflect any one of multiple conditions (e.g., production conditions, processing conditions, packaging conditions and transport conditions) relating to the agricultural product. The agricultural product data is automatically contained against compliance requirements stored by the management information system. A compliance result is then automatically generated based on the comparison of the agricultural product data against the compliance requirements.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a processor, first data associated with an impact on groundwater pollution and surface water pollution, the impact on the groundwater pollution and the surface water pollution resulting from a production of an agricultural product within a predetermined time period, the first data being received from a single agricultural production system;

receiving, by the processor, second data associated with the impact on the groundwater pollution and surface water pollution, the impact on the groundwater pollution and surface water pollution resulting from the production of the agricultural product within the predetermined time period, the second data being received from a plurality of agricultural production systems;

calculating, by the processor, descriptive and inferential statistic on the second data;

generating, by the processor, a benchmark result based on the second data and for comparing the first data against the second data benchmark; and

displaying, by the processor, in real-time the benchmark result and the descriptive and inferential statistic˜

and wherein the single agricultural production system includes one or more of a production unit, a production practice or a biological process.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the single agricultural production system is a field of land.

3. A method comprising:

receiving, by a processor, first data associated with an impact on groundwater pollution and surface water pollution, the impact on the groundwater pollution and the surface water pollution resulting from a production of an agricultural product within a predetermined time period, the groundwater pollution and the surface water pollution comprising a contaminant of at least one of an inorganic or organic pollutant, the first data being received from a single agricultural production system;

receiving, by the processor, second data associated with the impact on the groundwater pollution and the surface water pollution, the impact on the groundwater pollution and the surface water pollution resulting from the production of the agricultural product within the predetermined time period, the second data being received from a plurality of agricultural production systems of a single watershed;

calculating, by the processor, descriptive and inferential statistic on the second data, the descriptive and inferential statistic comprising a statistically derived confidence interval;

generating, by the processor, a benchmark result based on the second data and for comparing of the first data associated with the impact on the groundwater pollution and the surface water pollution against the second data benchmark associated with the impact on the groundwater pollution and the surface water pollution; and

displaying, by the processor, in real-time the benchmark result and the descriptive and inferential statistic in a graphical user interface, and wherein the single agricultural production system includes one or more of a production unit, a production practice or a biological process.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the contaminant of the at least one of the inorganic or the organic pollutant comprises a nitrogen-based fertilizer.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the nitrogen-based fertilizer is associated with the groundwater pollution.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the contaminant of the at least one of the inorganic or the organic pollutant comprises a phosphorous-based fertilizer.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the phosphorous-based fertilizer is associated with the surface water pollution.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein the contaminant of the at least one of the inorganic or the organic pollutant comprises a sediment.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein the first and second data are environmental data.

10. The method of claim 3, wherein the impact is a physical impact.

11. The method of claim 3, wherein the impact is a chemical impact.