Almost 90% of households in St. James Town in Toronto have faced food insecurity. The St. James Town Community Cooperative tackles the longstanding issue of food accessibility in this diverse community, with its OASIS Community Food Hub that provides healthy, culturally appropriate food to those in need.

The OASIS Community Food Hub is developing Microfarms for use by St. James Town Community Coop members to grow their own food in their own homes and for the core microfarm team to productively grow food in a greenhouse.

OASIS is experimenting with a variety of growing units to understand what growing systems are most productive, produce  food of the highest nutritional quality and are most reliable and easy to use to grow healthy affordable food.

This requires OASIS team capability to remotely sense microfarm and greenhouse conditions in order to optimize growing conditions and respond to unexpected events and optimize the growing cycle.

Project Objective:

Using commercially available components, design, implement and test and demonstrate ongoing use of a microfarm monitoring system for three different small-scale microfarms in a common location.

Parameters to be monitored include on/off for lights and pumps, electroconductivity, ambient light, temperature, pH...

Key metric:

Ongoing automated measurements of 3 -5 parameters per farm that are being used by the growing team  to monitor each microfarm and optimize growing conditions 

The learner will be provided with a monitoring system with commercially available components

• Install one industrial controller that can control multiple sensors and actuators
• Install and calibrate sensors within each setup. 
• Install commercial growing data management system
• introduce a single sensor and demonstrate ability to track its data
• In a series of sprints, introduce more sensors and controllers and demonstrate ability to track data and use actuators. 
• Work with growing team to monitor microfarms
•  Work with growing team to use data to optimize growing 
• Document insights and team satisfaction with system
• Document system designs, protocols, findings, and insights 
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Key outcome:  Remote monitoring system in use by the growing team  to monitor each microfarm and optimize growing conditions 

Key outputs: 

• Ongoing automated measurements of 3 -5 parameters per farm 
• Documented insights about team use of automated measurements to make growing or maintenance decisions.
• Analysis Report: In-depth report summarizing key findings, comparative insights, system-specific optimization potential, 
• Presentation: Compelling presentation showcasing project outcomes and highlighting a comparison between three innovative systems, their unique benefits, trade-offs, and the exciting future of remote-driven home food production.
• Recommendations for next phase of project tailored for micro-farm operators.

Deliverable:

System for ongoing automated measurements of 3 -5 parameters per farm that are being used by the growing team  to monitor each microfarm and optimize growing conditions     

Learners will receive an orientation, ongoing sprint management, access to growing staff and access to a living laboratory in Toronto with monitoring systems and growing units for the project