Locally Sourced, Locally Coded
- contemporary ag/bio-tech practices* -
[Research Center]
“Future tools for food security”
I/O recognizes the need for science and technology to lead agricultural innovation, providing food security in a changing climate. As climate change effects agricultural production across North America – through increased flood events, drought, and disease – I/O embraces the opportunities that genetically-edited plant varieties present for adapting to this increasingly harsh environment. Since oats are typically grown in cooler climates, the cultivation of a genetically-edited variety for the Missouri climate would allow us effectively to start the R+D process for a warm-weather oat variety ten years in advance. When the latitudes in which oat are typically grown warm due to climate change, an implementable suite of seeds will thus be available, ensuring food security.
[Local Farmers]
“from smallholder to shareholder”
Since local farmers are the back-bone of I/O’s organization, the project is actively recruiting farmers who have Land Trusts to join our co-creative and distributed research park. Interested local farmers who don’t have a Land Trust are also encouraged to join. Our methodology is simple. In partnership with I/O, local farmers lend their field to us for a period of two triennial growing seasons and three consecutive winter seasons. We provide the seed, and local farmers grow the oats. The oats are winter-killed with a cover crop of red clover in the first winter season, then grown to harvest the following spring. A second planting can occur in the fall, field permitting. I/O provides the market for the oats through our own branding via FarmLead. Local farmers are compensated for any lost or unsaleable crop. The current corn/soy rotation is still permissible in the following two seasons. Farmers are asked to record and submit data on these growing seasons as well. During the oat growing seasons, I/O monitors the field conditions remotely in order effectively to retrieve data about in situ climatic variations and growing irregularities. Local farmers, if they desire, contribute to the I/O’s work throughout the enterprise: at local ag. research facilities in genetic sequencing workshops and job training, through product development, and in the development of management strategies. We want the farmers of today, and future farmers, equipped to handle the crops and climate of tomorrow.
[Incubators + Investors]
“a think tank for trans-disciplinary
innovation and entrepreneurialism”
We need healthy financial backing. In order to realize its mission at the scale of industrial agriculture, I/O is actively searching for seed funding. Financing will be directed toward R+D at I/O’s Danforth Plant Science Center, building out the I/O’s production centers including milling, filling, and packaging facilities and/or paying for access rights to Quaker’s operation in Cedar Rapids Iowa, strengthening the digital infrastructure of our market development partner, FarmLead, and funding the ongoing work of the I/O development team. Funders will be given a percentage of stock in the company equivalent to the donation. Stock shares will be capped at 33%. The remaining shares are split between farmers and I/O executive members, evenly.
“We see food and food security at the heart
of our culture”
I/O is a think tank for trans-disciplinary innovation and entrepreneurialism. Therefore we are also actively recruiting young agribusiness and systems managers, sustainable agriculturists, landscape architects, architects, engineers, industrial/product designers, ux/ui designers, marketing strategists, and political scientists. We put food and food security at the heart of our culture, especially in our generation. We are not afraid of science, but rather embrace it as part of our toolkit. Nothing is a panacea for the problems of late capitalist condition, but we want to accelerate our position in an increasingly automated economy. Associates will be working within all the arms of the I/O enterprise: R+D at local research centers, with local farmers in the field testing, monitoring, and implementing best management practices, creating the production ecosystems for I/O to grow to scale, working with the FarmLead team to increase app robustness and adoption, and leading PR campaigns to increase farmer adoption and visibility within local communities, as well as managing the I/O corporation. We believe that our knowledge base is broader than a single discipline, so all I/O associates will work between sectors lending expertise and growing knowledge production.
*No Copyright Infringement Intended