In an e-mail exchange, Babylon Micro-Farms CEO Alexander Oleson tells me “we’ll have them in every school and apartment one day.” It’s a cool vision and really the level of belief/commitment required to run a startup — especially in a field so often filled with vertical farming. Priced at $6,500, however, the STEM Garden isn’t likely to find its way into too many homes in the near future.
As cool as it would be to create my own vertical farm in my Queens apartment, that dream will probably have to wait a decade or so (or at least until I parlay my work as a tech reporter into inevitable fame and fortune). It is, however, a step in the right direction. Babylon’s latest product is a fraction of the price of its $15,000 predecessor.
As the name suggests, the new model is firmly aimed at education. It’s the same market targeted by many cutting-edge consumer tech companies that aren’t quite ready for the home market, from Makerbot to Sphero. Virginia-based Babylon Micro-Farms has long distinguished itself from much of the vertical farming world with its focus on smaller spaces, and the new system further shrinks that footprint.
Image Credits: Babylon Micro-Farms
While Bowery companies likely renovate warehouses into indoor green spaces, Babylon’s client base includes hotel/hospitality, healthcare and corporate spaces, including brands like Ikea. Anyone who has ever worked in a lifeless office can certainly appreciate the value of adding some greenery to the landscape. As a bonus, you can harvest it and have a salad for lunch — although given the nature of the machines, we’re not talking about yields that will keep staff fed all year round. If large vertical farms decentralize and localize agriculture, the idea of micro-farming does so on an even more intimate scale.
Education was also a key market for the company. It hasn’t disclosed specific numbers on that front, saying only that it has sent units to “hundreds” of locations. When he asked educators what they were looking for in the next-generation device, of course they pointed to a lower price. Where previous models focused on higher ed, STEM Garden specifically addresses K-12, which tends not to have such deep pockets.
The price dropped, in part, by shrinking the product’s footprint from a shelf to a cabinet — frankly, space is often at a premium in these newer grades. Tiers (racks) have been reduced from five to three, and plant “locations” from 290 to 90. Plants must be watered by hand, and aspects such as cameras for remote monitoring and live support have been discontinued.
The system does, however, include curriculum integration for learning (surely the pun “strain” has not escaped us). And honestly, it’s probably less of an inconvenience to not have cameras on a device that will probably be around younger kids.
The STEM garden is available for pre-order starting today and will begin shipping to classrooms in Q2. I guess I’ll have to keep waiting for my own micro-farm.
