Northeast Food Knowledge Ecosystem

Jeff Piestrak's picture
Submitted by Jeff Piestrak on Fri, 01/31/2014 - 9:28am

Initiated by the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, the Northeast Food Knowledge Ecosystem (NEFKE) is an ongoing cooperative effort supporting communication, coordination and collaboration among a broad range of agriculture and food systems stakeholders, researchers and supporters. We envision this evolving knowledge ecosystem fostering a “network of networks”, helping align and link private, public and civil society sector knowledge assets for collective impact, in support of shared goals for sustainable agriculture, healthy, equitable food systems and resilient communities in our region.

Farm Hack is a vital part of this knowledge ecosystem, providing critical R&D space supporting collaborative problem solving and open innovation. The NEFKE Open Shop has been created to share resources and ideas, and for presenting "problem statements" to the Farm Hack community.

A "Farm to Institution Open Data Standard" problem statement has been posted here.

Location: 
  --
United States
Open Shop Tools
Farmer Dashboard
Stage: Concept
Type:
"Smart Farm" tools
# of Topics: 0
Last Tool Wiki Update 01/31/2014
# of Wiki Edits: 3
Forum Topics from Organization's members
Forum Comments from Organization's members
Jeff Piestrak's picture
Submitted by Jeff Piestrak on Thu, 05/30/2013 - 4:04pm

Though by no means does this encompass all the reasons I support Farm Hack, something to help stimulate/provoke thought from this recent article from TechCrunch:

The emerging Internet of Things — essentially, the world of physical devices connected to the network/Internet... is experiencing a burst of activity and creativity...the ultimate prize for many ambitious players in the space is to become THE [emphasis added] software platform upon which all vertical applications ...will be built...Large corporations (GE, IBM, etc.) are very active in the space and are developing their own platforms. Carriers (AT&T, Verizon) have a large opportunity in the area, as well...whether the winning platforms are open or closed will play a huge role in the future of the space...The related area of connectivity (connecting objects to the network/Internet and to one another through all sorts of rules) is also a very significant opportunity.

I see Farm Hack as a potentially important OPEN space or platform that can not only serve as an engine of creativity and innovation, but play a role in helping shape this internet of things in a way that serves the best interests of farmers and people in general, not just large corporations...