Researchers at MIT have changed the way that we traditionally see farming by creating Food Computers. Food computers are indoor, isolated containers that use blue LED lighting to grow crops and use sensors to monitor the plants. These sensors can detect and change a multitude of growing variables such as the light exposure, temperature, humidity, carbon-dioxide level, water cycle, and nutrient exposure.
The plants these food computers grow do not need soil either, they simply have the nutrients needed injected into the water that surrounds the roots or misted into the air. The algorithms used to grow the crops along with the software and data needed to run is freely shared so that users can improve on the Food Computer.
This type of technology leads to the question of what does this mean for the future of farming. In the future it might be possible for massive systems of food computers to grow our food and every plant come out similar if not the same because of the same procedure used for every crop. While the number of foods computers around the world is still few there are certainly plans to increase the numbers and size.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/embedded-systems/mits-food-computer-the-future-of-urban-agriculture
I think that in the future, farming will have improved so much that the efficiency will lead to surplus of food. I think it's really cool that people have programmed computers to do the farming for them, but at the same time this takes away some people's jobs. Then again, the future will lead to a lot of people losing their jobs because the advance in technology, so people should try and find jobs in different areas such as technology. Although this won't be easy, there should be ways to make it easy for farmers. The idea that a computer can do everything a human can just shows how much our world is advancing.
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