Automated agriculture—just add Wi-Fi.
Photo by Jack Looney
Farming doesn’t get more local than growing produce in your own kitchen. Charlottesville-based Babylon Micro-Farms is helping restaurants and even the University of Virginia dining hall do just that. “Lots of commonly used foods can’t be sourced locally year-round. We’re enabling the local food scene to be even more local,” says Will Graham, director of marketing.
Micro farming isn’t just for restaurants, though. Invented by Alexander Olesen and Graham Smith, two recent UVA graduates, for a class project to help refugees, these hydroponic “farm in a box” units can be used at any point in the food supply chain, says Smith. Growing food on-site is more efficient and generates less waste than trucking it in, so stores and commercial produce distributors are possible clients. So, too, are farmers who want to diversify their crops or grow independent of the weather. And, true to their roots, the company will soon test rapid-deployment solar units that provide food for refugee families after about a month of growing time. Home units are also in the works.
Hydroponic systems use less water than traditional farming because none is lost to runoff or evaporation; instead, it is recaptured and reused. Babylon Micro-Farms takes the idea one step further by determining the unique needs of each crop they sell and programming the unit to optimize growing conditions. Owners use an app and QR codes to associate seed trays with specific locations in the four-level unit, and then each tier becomes its own micro climate, providing the appropriate nutrients and light. BabylonMicroFarms.com
This article originally appeared in our Best of Virginia 2019 issue.
