Inspired by Caleb Harper's TED Talk, "This computer will grow your food in the future," I initiated interest in food computers at Bainbridge High School that formed a team of students, BHS staff, MIT employees, and other colleagues. I then helped lead this team in building three food computers for our high school and community. We built these food computers as part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Open Agriculture Initiative (OpenAg) which is hoping to create healthier and more sustainable food systems. In order to learn more about the world's current food and agricultural standing, I researched the food and agriculture crisis for my Global Citizenship course, culminating in a dossier and a final research paper. This made me realize that there is a pressing issue of access to food and distribution which food computers can help improve.

The food computers are essentially a box where we can control the climate inside. Plants are grown hydroponically with the food computer pumping in needed nutrients into the water solvent by testing the oxygen, carbon dioxide, and PH levels. Each plant has a unique IP address that can be accessed online. This address allows the user to monitor the intake and nutrition levels of the plant. This can help us tinker with how we want our plants to grow. For example, if we stress out our lettuce by making it uncomfortable in it's environment, the lettuce will release more hormones making it taste bitter. We can also make the lettuce sweeter by adjusting the plant's environment.

(Photo: Larry Steagall / Kitsap Sun)