The pace of advancement in farming technology is ever swift, but the focus is really on the industrial scale, especially when it comes to automation. Machines that can be programmed to do 95% of the hard labor have been the sole province of farms with thousands of acres under management. The hobbyist and the die-hard traditionalists trading their labor-of-love for small bills at your local farmer’s market can take advantage of all kinds of scientific know-how, but the essence of the work has endured for thousands of years… lots of physical labor and almost daily contact with each and every green thing with roots. What could be more noble than this? It is as noble as our reluctance to do it.
The longing to change all that may be at the heart of the global popularity of virtual farming games like “FarmVille,” “Happy Farm,” “Farmerama,” and “Hay Day.” Why do people love to tend virtual farms so much? It may be programmed into our DNA. Human beings started farming more than 10,000 years ago. All this digital stuff could be the natural result of our longing to return to a very fundamental human activity. Alas, nobody’s going to work that hard if they don’t have to.
But what if the digital could be coupled with something real? That’s the revolutionary accomplishment of FarmBot.
FarmBot affordably plants, fertilizes, weeds, and waters crops for even the smallest back-yard patch. It comes with a smartphone app that is as fun as any popular virtual farming game, providing and tracking all the essential details of your farm’s progress, with the huge additional bonus of the farm being real rather than digital, and the produce being something you can eat, share with your neighbors, or even sell at the farmer’s market.
FarmBot offers anyone with a plot of land an opportunity to get in touch with their inner farmer in a much more fulfilling way than any digital game could possibly offer. If FarmBot doesn’t change the world, it may only be because it only makes the world more like it always was and always should be.
