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Startup Puts Everything You Need for a Two-Acre Farm in a Shipping Container

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Re: Startup Puts Everything You Need for a Two-Acre Farm in a Shipping Container

#201

Post by semi-extrinsic »

Twirrim wrote: post #107
jaclaz wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Don't forget the refrigeration system ... WHICH refrigeration system? I cannot find any mention of it: "Every unit comes equipped with a renewable power system, internet connectivity, basic farm tools, micro-drip irrigation system and water pump that can be adapted to fit either a groundwell or municipal water supply. Every Farm from a Box unit can be customized with optional components including sensors, water puri…

"A new thing that we’re deploying now is an internal cold storage system to make sure that we’re able to keep the crops fresher, longer, post harvest, before the crops actually get to market."

Aka. an $800 fridge that they'll add in for another $5k.

Re: Startup Puts Everything You Need for a Two-Acre Farm in a Shipping Container

#202

Post by imagist »

rokhayakebe wrote: post #190
roymurdock wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked on a project to create affordable, electric vegetable graters for rural farmers in Ghana [1]. For comparison, the price point of our grater was $150USD and was still seen as too expensive by a substantial portion of our customers, some of whom opted to purchase the graters on an installment basis (3 x $50 every 6 months as our group traveled to Ghana bi-annually). The main problems our rural customers faced…

Have you guys tried indoor farming?

Indoor farming requires does to be in.

Re: Startup Puts Everything You Need for a Two-Acre Farm in a Shipping Container

#203

Post by irrational »

lukewrites wrote: post #117
CodeSheikh wrote: post #92

$60,000 seems like a lot of amount for starving and underdeveloped areas. I went to their funding page and read more about what's inside the "box" https://republic.co/farm-from-a-box 1: micro-drip irrigation system 2: 3kW solar power 3: Pumping System 4: IOT setup 5: Energy management 6: Basic farm tools As of 2016, average cost of solar power is approximately $3.00 per watt so ~ $9K. I have installed a decent sized…

A little OT, but I'm wanting to put together a drip system in our yard. Any resources you'd recommend/found very helpful? I live in the Pacific Northwest, so am thinking about installing a cistern/rain water collection center, then putting together a drip system for planter beds that we'll be installing. Thank you!

I drip irrigated my entire yard (only about a quarter of an acre, so, quite small). I just used the drip irrigation stuff at home depot. Its fairly inexpensive and once you start working with it you figure out pretty quickly how it all the parts work together. I just looked at the companies website to figure out what I needed to get started.

Re: Startup Puts Everything You Need for a Two-Acre Farm in a Shipping Container

#204

Post by semi-extrinsic »

chrissnell wrote: post #50
ComputerGuru wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say corn, then potato. But you're right, the startup isn't being all that forthcoming with details and it's likely their claims are (greatly) exaggerated, or perhaps, from a purely "well, technically..." point-of-view. There's an excellent article that champions the calories-per-acre metric by WP: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/in-defense-of-... In the calorie department, corn is king [..] corn…

If I was designing a two-acre farm to feed my family, I wouldn't devote much space to corn. Corn is a very useful crop but mostly once it's processed and you need a lot of it. Here's what I think I'd grow: Potatoes - Incredibly easy to grow. Produces a ton of food. Can be grown in trash cans on otherwise unusable land. Very versatile and useful in so many cuisines. If I had to place my bets on one staple crop, it's p…

Most important thing I would add to that is cabbage, which I believe you can grow together with the potatoes. Entire countries survived WW2 on cabbage and potato soup, it's very nutritious.

If you're after some flavour, I'd also add onions and celery, which I guess go in normal soil with the cabbage and potatoes, and also carrots, which will want sandy soil. There's a good reason these three veggies together form the basis of lots of French and Italian cooking.

Re: Startup Puts Everything You Need for a Two-Acre Farm in a Shipping Container

#205

Post by darpa_escapee »

rokhayakebe wrote: post #190
roymurdock wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked on a project to create affordable, electric vegetable graters for rural farmers in Ghana [1]. For comparison, the price point of our grater was $150USD and was still seen as too expensive by a substantial portion of our customers, some of whom opted to purchase the graters on an installment basis (3 x $50 every 6 months as our group traveled to Ghana bi-annually). The main problems our rural customers faced…

Have you guys tried indoor farming?

They are building a house a few bricks at a time using discretionary income after necessities to buy those bricks. Indoor farming would be far too expensive.

Re: Startup Puts Everything You Need for a Two-Acre Farm in a Shipping Container

#206

Post by jasonwatkinspdx »

new_hackers wrote: post #135
Animats wrote: post #133

It comes with WiFi, but not a tractor. Or even some small powered push-type tiller. Do they assume the farmer has an ox or a pair of mules? For $50K, they should at least throw in a decent garden tractor with a 3-point hitch and some basic attachments. Priorities. For comparison, see this article in Modern Farmer.[1] This guy has revenue of about $100K per acre and has books and tools on how to replicate his farming…

I assumed for the price that would be the first thing in the box. Seriously, a man can do quite a lot with a PTO and some hydraulics. Add to that the ability to move this power around the field and you can really get some work done.

Based on some experiences in rural Mexico, I think folks in the rich world underestimate how daunting power tools are to many people in the poor world. The majority of craftspeople I met and worked a touch with were extremely reluctant to try to use a circular saw, etc. These are folks that can use a machete with the precision of a surgeon. If you didn't grow up around powered equipment, it's a significant hurdle to get over, even when there are tremendous benefits.

Re: Startup Puts Everything You Need for a Two-Acre Farm in a Shipping Container

#207

Post by jdowner »

Johnny555 wrote: post #179
jdowner wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One reason why you may want a container is because it is a movable structure. That means that you do not need a building permit. Acquiring a building permit requires at least a class 5 road. This is the case for New Hampshire. I don't know how representative it is though. Also this not uncommon when for larger lots, but I'm not really sure if there are differences from lots as small as 2 acres.

If that were indeed a hard requirement, it seems like it would prevent a farmer building any structure within his property that's not adjoining a public (i.e. Class V) road. And indeed the planning board can make an exception: A private road, but as with Class VI roads, only if the governing body, after consulting with the planning board has adopted a policy allowing building on that particular private road, or porti…

Right, the governing body can make an exception for a particular private road. And in that case, you would be able to apply for a building permit. There are also provisions for exceptions in RSA 674:41 that would cause excessive hardship or practical difficulties. So it seems that the law has been made so that a local governing body has the discretion to made a pragmatic decision. However, this all assumes that the local governing body would indeed grant such an exception and that the land owner believes it is worth to effort. In the case of your hypothetical farmer, it is probably worth the effort. However, if you have a 2 acre lot and want to put a farm in a box on it, you might be happy to simply avoid dealing with the governing body and just plant your farm in a box on your lot and get to work.

Re: Startup Puts Everything You Need for a Two-Acre Farm in a Shipping Container

#208

Post by gregimba »

amorphid wrote: post #98
CodeSheikh wrote: post #92

$60,000 seems like a lot of amount for starving and underdeveloped areas. I went to their funding page and read more about what's inside the "box" https://republic.co/farm-from-a-box 1: micro-drip irrigation system 2: 3kW solar power 3: Pumping System 4: IOT setup 5: Energy management 6: Basic farm tools As of 2016, average cost of solar power is approximately $3.00 per watt so ~ $9K. I have installed a decent sized…

For fun, I was looking at cheap (compared to San Francisco) land with no infrastructure in Wyoming. 1 acre of land, $10K USD. Drilling a water well that might work, $5K to $30K.

You can go way cheaper than 10k per acre

Re: Startup Puts Everything You Need for a Two-Acre Farm in a Shipping Container

#209

Post by DiabloD3 »

peteforde wrote: post #175
narrator wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, Raspberry Pis are nice hobbyist toys but tend to corrupt data on their SD cards at random and generally are unreliable. For 50k you could at least send them a somewhat rugged fanless PC with a SSD raid for added reliability.

Off-topic, but I've become something of an unintentional expert on making Pis reliable. First, consider using f2fs instead of ext4 with a nice big card (and get a good one). Next, attempt to disable all of the unnecessary logging and writes to the SD. Either send them to a server, write them to a ramdisk or even consider mounting the partition in read-only mode. This will drastically increase your duty cycle. Finally…

I will also comment on the SD card quality issue: STOP BUYING SHITTY LOW GRADE SD CARDS AND EXPECT TO BE ABLE TO WRITE TO THEM FREQUENTLY.

Just stop. There is a reason why companies like GoPro (which abusively write cards to death) bless only certain products (the top of their list being modern generations of Sandisk Extreme and Extreme Plus, Samsung Pro and Pro Plus, and Lexar Pro).

In this case, they also make industrial SDs that survive unusually high and low temperatures, which given the nature of this specific context, is worth looking into (although expensive and of low capacity).

Re: Startup Puts Everything You Need for a Two-Acre Farm in a Shipping Container

#210

Post by [deleted] »

peteforde wrote: post #175
narrator wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, Raspberry Pis are nice hobbyist toys but tend to corrupt data on their SD cards at random and generally are unreliable. For 50k you could at least send them a somewhat rugged fanless PC with a SSD raid for added reliability.

Off-topic, but I've become something of an unintentional expert on making Pis reliable. First, consider using f2fs instead of ext4 with a nice big card (and get a good one). Next, attempt to disable all of the unnecessary logging and writes to the SD. Either send them to a server, write them to a ramdisk or even consider mounting the partition in read-only mode. This will drastically increase your duty cycle. Finally…

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