Nerdy Urban Farming

We Make Money Not Art hjavascript:void(0)as a great look at re:farm an urban farming initiative with a technology twist. The premise is that everyday people (city dwellers especially) have lost a lot of farming knowledge over the last century and we need some help if we are to grow sustainable, bountiful gardens in urban settings.

To fix that these guys create open source hardware and software to help manage an urban garden. That way, anyone can do it well. Right now the hardware is a watering system built from an old water pump and some tubing. The software is supposed to tell you what fruits are in season, what local varieties are available, what dishes it's used in, etc.

A more high tech version of this was started in Japan when they converted a basement vault in a bank building into a farm where everything from temperature to artificial light was controlled by a computer.

But the advantage of re:farm's work is that it's much, much cheaper to implement. It's also interesting to think that in the past we've used technology to beat or outwit nature into higher yields. Now we're using technology to be much more complimentary with nature.