Farmer 2.0: HarvestGeek

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Mike Alt, creator of Harvest Geek, has an idea to revolutionize food production through the use of what he calls "brains for your garden." It's a small bit of robotics, hardware and software that could bring about a whole new era to agriculture by providing insight into what's growing as well as connecting the growers through data.

"Imagine if we could choose to share this data with other farmers growing identical crops. What patterns will we start to see emerge and how can we use this information to grow the highest quality and most productive plants?" says his website.

This project is absolutely lovely for a few reasons:
1) Mike is a local! YAY, CHARLOTTE! This guy is making the Q.C. look good!
2) Everything is open source, meaning it's open to the world to change, build upon, and adapt to an unending set of variable needs.
3) He's running a Kickstarter. This isn't special, a lot of people do them, but this really shows his ethos and dedication to this being for, and by, the people who need this most. Instead of going to a large company like, say, Monsanto, with his brilliant idea, he's come to the people who will benefit most: the rest of us. The world needs more of this.

Can Harvest Geek end world hunger? No. Is it a building block in the foundation towards that? Absolutely.

More info: http://www.harvestgeek.com