OpenAG: A Globally Distributed Network of Food Computing

Abstract

With natural resource scarcity, flattening yields, loss of biodiversity, changing climates, environmental degradation, and booming urban populations, the current food system is rapidly approaching its natural limit. What will define the next agricultural revolution, and how will it impact and shape global societies? This is the central research question of the Open Agriculture (OpenAG) Initiative at the MIT Media Lab. The goal is an alternative distributed farming system based on new methods of communication, sensing, data collection, and automation that will enable network effect advantages in the next generation of food production. This department is part of a special issue on pervasive food.