MIcro-farming is the future of feeding ourselves. What is micro-farming? I define micro-farming as any farm production facility that is less than 2 acres. More on that later, as we are focusing on production systems that can fit in an apartment to a typical residential backyard lot without disruption to the community at large.

As resources become scarce and profit margins squeezed we have to find healthy and productive ways to continue to feed ourselves. Many people have worked on individual systems and some have ventured into production scale but little has been done on large scale community data analysis. Big Ag has been collecting data for decades but it is used against the consumer instead of for them. It is used against the farmers and producers instead of increasing their profit margins.

UFARM returns the power of data back to the farmer, back to the livestock producer, and back to the retail consumer as well. As soil is depleted and climates become less predictable we are going to have to find a more stable form of food production. This will also be relevant as we seek to expand human exploration of space. Food will have to be produced on a large scale in limited controlled space as we seek to send expeditions to the moon for long term residency as well as future expeditions to Mars and beyond.

UFARM seeks to differentiate itself from other attempts at gardening and farming automation, by relying on data and an open community to maintain innovation. We will also differentiate ourselves in having the ability to produce $1000000 worth of produce in 500 square feet of production and processing space. Please stay tuned to our project as we compete in the 2016 Hackaday Prize!!!