The goal of a Hack@Organic (Organic hackaton) is to bring together a multidisciplinary cohort of researchers, designers, developers, and agricultural practitioners to develop equitable, open source technical infrastructure that enables research, adoption, and evaluation of organic agricultural practices.
Organic farmers are banned from using common conventional materials such as most synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, therefore, the tools available to tackle common agricultural challenges are limited.
Agricultural technology (AgTech) could provide sustainable, organic-compliant methods to overcome organic obstacles, but there need to be more organic-AgTech collaborations.
In addition to this need, the diversity of organic farming operations presents the need for AgTech discussions to include issues such as:
- accessibility of technology for small and/or low-income farms,
- equity around tech use and adoption,
- and inclusion of marginalized farming communities in the development of AgTech.
Organisera are the Organic Center and GOAT (Gathering for Open Agricultural Technology).