FA RM

URBAN

Farm Urban

INTERVIEW

54

HackSpace magazine meets...

Dr Paul Myers and Dr Jens Thomas

FARM URBAN

e’re ruining the

planet, but the

system we’re locked

into means that as

long as someone is

making plenty of

money, there’s no economic incentive to

changing the status quo.

Rather than running around preaching,

Dr Jens Thomas and Dr Paul Myers

of Farm Urban are doing something

about this sorry state of affairs. They’re

developing systems to grow food where

it’s needed — where people are — to

minimise food wasted in the distribution

chain. They’re involving schools, taking

real food out to children so that they can

learn for themselves about healthy eating.

They’re also thinking about how

the science is going to fit in with our

current agricultural practices, so rather

than advocating a utopian dream of

everyone living off lentils, they’re running

competitions to inspire kids to come up

with business ideas around food.

We went to their secret underground

lair to find more about open source food

production, how Arduino and Raspberry

Pi are powering the next wave of research,

and why Ikea is more than just a cheap

furniture store...

W