The MIT Media Lab’s Open Agriculture Initiative began in 2015 with the goal of building a healthier and more sustainable food system across the world through the creation of an open-source ecosystem of data and “food computers” that use artificial intelligence to record, process, and share extensive data about the best growing techniques and conditions for plants. This allows people to experiment, educate, and produce food hyper-locally in a transparent and well-connected network across the globe.

OpenAg brings together partners from industry, government, and academia to collaboratively research and develop open technology platforms, which add to the mission of the project and allow the broad, grassroots exploration of future food systems.

The entire OpenAg initiative includes several sub-projects which are:

• The OpenAg Personal Food Computer, which is a tabletop-sized, controlled environment agriculture technology platform that uses robotic systems to control and monitor climate, energy, and plant growth inside of a specialized growing chamber. The personal “food computer” is designed to be simple to build with easily accessible materials. As people use the personal food computer, it records data about the experiments they are conducting and allows them to share that data with other users accessing the open database and network. 

OpenAg can meet several of the SDGs. By putting personal food computers and knowledge about the best growing methods in homes across the world, the project can promote Good Health and Well Being; help move toward Zero Hunger; create more Sustainable Communities and Cities by reducing the number of food deserts; and promote more Responsible Consumption and Production and Life on Land by making agriculture more efficient while using less resources and space. The OpenAg Food Server and OpenAg EDU can also help promote Decent Work and Economic Growth by producing high-tech farmers and promoting the pop up of experimental restaurants in several different places around the globe.