Dear Permies,
As a long-time
permie myself, I am writing to invite the community to participate in GOAT, the Gathering for Open Ag Tech.
Information about our food system
should be public or easy-to-share. Unfortunately, that is often not the case. Food is currently produced by a mix of private and public entities, and information about our food system can be opaque, hard-to-find, or proprietary and farmers may have limited control of the on-farm data they generate or ability to improve the tools they use.
Agricultural startups are often venture-funded, with interest veering toward capitalizing on farm data. Controlling such data, not just machines or sensors, is considered the most valuable game in town (at least in the short term). Closed data ecosystems hinder our ability to produce food equitably and sustainably and support farm level decision support.
Fortunately, there is also significant interest in creating open source hardware and software to increase transparency in the food chain, allow for data sharing among groups, and engage the public and make the benefits of shared data available to all. Though the number of projects is growing, they historically have been small, isolated within universities or small companies, and disconnected from one another. The result is duplication of efforts, hard to find projects, and disconnected parts producing incompatible data. The lack of coordination means that as technology rapidly changes, closed-source companies are locking up the machinery, sensors, data, and varieties of the future.
The GOAT community has been working since 2018 to address these issues. Today, we are inviting the larger
Permaculture Community to
apply to the 2022 Gathering for Open Ag Technology (GOAT), from October 2 - 7 at the
Omega Institute in Rhinebeck NY.
Participants will be diverse, community-oriented, skilled and focused on progressing the open ag tech movement. Farmers, farm advisors, and food system enthusiasts are especially welcome! We especially want this group at the conference to help inform the GOAT community of the lived experiences and needs of the
Permaculture Community with regards to ag and food system technology. The goals of this year’s conference are to address:
Maintenance - We need to be thinking about how to turn one-off tech building efforts (including low and slow tech) into maintainable longer term projects.
Usability - If we don’t include diverse peoples in our community, including PERMIES, our tools will always suffer from usability, and we will continue to build tools that only work for big (Ag) hands.
Governance - Attention and intention are required to transition GOAT from a point-in-time event to an evolving community that supports GOAT’s goals and to sustain the momentum. We need to work toward a community-agreed upon governance structure that meets the needs and reflects the values of the community.
GOAT is following the example of the
Gathering for Open Science Hardware (GOSH) movement, coordinating the efforts of participants to create a clear mission and roadmap to pursue common goals.
If you also believe the technologies that produce our food (including low-tech!) and the data about our food system should be public and open source,
please apply now. More details about GOAT 2022 can be found on our
website. Travel and registration awards available for in-need applicants.
Sincerely,
🐐 The GOAT organizing team (Ankita, Greg, Jamie, Juliet, Laurie, and Sebastian)
PS - If you can’t go, please pass this invite along through your networks!
SOCIAL MEDIA:
#goatech2022 Open Source + Ag + Tech
Does that sound like you?
Apply to the Gathering for Open Ag Tech (GOAT!), Oct 2 - 7, in Rhinebeck NY -
https://forms.gle/Gndni6Za2Mx6eHnc8.
Open Source + Ag + Tech - there's a (un)conference for that
- goatech.org
Apply to the Gathering for Open Ag Tech (GOAT!), Oct 2 - 7, in Rhinebeck NY -
https://forms.gle/Gndni6Za2Mx6eHnc8.
Applications are open for GOAT 2022 (Oct 2-7). Developers, designers, researchers, farmers, and enthusiasts - apply now and find your herd:
https://forms.gle/54BSwacLt3EQmyat6
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