Aquaponics Startups Offer Local, Organic Produce to Urban Populations
Backyard hobbyists, university researchers, nonprofits, restaurants and even inmates at a federal prison in Indiana are growing food using aquaponics, which combines aquaculture and hydroponics (growing plants in water). Fish are raised in big tanks made of high-density polyethylene. Their wastewater flows out of the tanks, gets cleaned up a bit and is pumped to the growing beds, where it becomes food for the plants. After the plants extract nutrients from the water, it’s filtered again and returned to the fish tanks. While the process is energy-intensive – the plants need artificial light to grow indoors – food can be grown year-round in urban areas, near to markets.

Working the Land and the Data
Kip Tom, a seventh-generation family farmer, harvests the staples of modern agriculture: seed corn, feed corn, soybeans and data. The demise of the small family farm has been a long time coming. But for farmers like Mr. Tom, technology offers a lifeline, a way to navigate the boom-and-bust cycles of making a living from the land. It is also helping them grow to compete with giant agribusinesses.

A Sustainable Solution for the Corn Belt
STRIPS, meaning “science-based trials of rowcrops integrated with prairie strips,” is an effective planting tactic that could mitigate much of the issues resulting from the Midwest’s industrial agriculture. If you convert 10% of a field of row crops to prairie, soil loss can be reduced by up to 95%, nutrient loss by 80 to 90%, and water runoff by 44%. Biodiversity nearly quadruples, and the process is not expensive.

Meet a Data Scientist Who's Helped Revolutionize Agriculture
David Lobell has helped turn agriculture upside down. Before the incorporation of data, scientists looking at food production would focus solely on field experiments and on-the-ground surveys. Lobell helped usher in an era of cooperation, where experienced researchers and farmers work together with data scientists to increase the efficiency of growing staple crops. That model led him to study climate change and its effects on agriculture in parts of the world with less access to technology.