AMI's Farm lab
Next generation ecosystem farms
Every day, thousands of tonnes of organic waste are produced worldwide. At the same time, agriculture is too reliant on external and finite inputs, whilst generating side effects harmful to the health of human beings and their environment.
Organic waste is much more than waste: it is energy and nutrients. That’s where the potential lies.
Ecosystems are the best way to harness this potential and turn it into something of value. They always have been. Our approach is to connect the merits of different high-tech farming systems. We call it aquaponics, mushrooms, and insects – or AMI for short, pronounced like ‘Jamie’.
AMI’s Farm Lab is a group of researchers, entrepreneurs, and farmers that understand that AMI systems are the necessary future of farming.
Connecting different systems to turn waste into food is no easy task. Sharing data, knowledge, and best practices is crucial to making AMI a reality. AMI’s Farm Lab is the team where this is happening!
A Brief History of AMI's Farm Lab
It all started during the early days of the Association for Vertical Farming (AVF). Back then, a team came together to discuss the biggest challenge vertical farming was (and still is) facing: the ridiculous amount of energy used by vertical farming. Currently, less than 5% of global energy is produced renewably. As a result, vertical farming is still far away from being able to produce food sustainably.
The team came up with a simple idea: what if, like permaculture, controlled-environment agriculture acted as an ecosystem? What if we could connect the inputs and outputs of each closed farming system in such a way that with a minimum amount of resources and energy, the ecosystem could produce much more food than any of the separate systems ever could?
This idea is based on the same principle as aquaponics – except with more guests at the party. The team called it AMI (pronounced ‘AY-mee’): aquaponics, mushrooms, and insects.
That year, AMI was released to the public through infographics displayed at the 2016 AVF Summit in Amsterdam. The idea was such a success that the AMI team carried on, with a white paper presenting the scientific background of AMI systems. This was released in September 2017 and can be found here.
The AMI team is now ready for the next step: professionalising this research and backing up the theory with experimental data. With this long-term project, we hope to help farmers all over the world improve the financial and ecological sustainability of their farms.
A win-win-win for all.
Join the ecosystem revolution
Connect with AMI’s farm lab. There are many different experts in this collective: From traditional farming to vertical farming, and from insect-farming to space farming. We will listen to your needs, and connect you with the right experts!
Connect now, send an email to grow@12stepstofarming.net
