What is a 3D printing farm? For now, nobody is completely sure. It does involve growing plants, but it is yet unclear how. It also involves a lot of 3D printers. So far, the farm has a FlashForge and Type A Machines printers, with an Ultimaker 2 and Lulzbot Mini (just released) to follow soon. Farm owner Mike Adams, who calls himself the Health Ranger, plans to choose which of these printers works best and then invest in more of those to complete his farm. He fully expects that he will not be able to generate enough of the parts he's developing at his Austin, Texas farm to meet demands, and will make the object files available via free download on the website, FoodRising.org.
What the Farm Promises
The 3D printing farm promises that people can grow their own plant-based medicines.
The best guess is that "farm" refers to both the fact that it is set up to manufacture food (or at least parts to help people grow their own food), as well as the fact that it's stocked with a farm of 3D printers. The actual methods are still a mystery. The website's creator promises that with this new method, using mostly parts that are 3D printable, people can grow their own food, plant-based medicines and mineral supplements. The parts not 3D printable will be inexpensive and readily available, such as paper clips and pencil erasers.
The promises include that the method will allow people all over the world to grow food without soil, electricity, or other technologies, using one-twentieth the amount of water normally required to grow foods. Adams claims that 200 percent more food can be grown in a given space, making it cheap and easy to produce food in inner city apartments, third world countries where no power or clean water is available, and other places that typically can't produce adequate amounts of food. Shockingly, Adams states that this food will feature 500 percent of the nutritional value of traditionally grown foods.
The Health Ranger has publicized his mission statement: "empower consumers with factual information about the synthetic chemicals, heavy metals, hormone disruptors and other chemicals found in foods, medicines, personal care products, children's toys and other items."
What's in It for You
FoodRising.org claims that food grown by this method can be produced for pennies on the dollar compared to normal grocery prices.
If Adams' promises prove true, he is working out all of the kinks in his process so that those who choose to take advantage of his methods won't take long to begin producing their own foods and medicines. He is honing details like what filaments work best, which bed adhesion materials are most effective, the right print speeds and temperatures, etc.
Adams plans to share all of this information, along with the object files, online. For those who do not own their own 3D printers, Adams will be selling the parts needed to produce foods with his method on the website. However, since the point of the endeavor is to empower others to do it themselves, he encourages more people to download and print their own parts.
How and When to Get More Information
Initially, FoodRising.org was scheduled to be up and running by mid-February. Now the rollout has been delayed until the end of the month. For those involved in digital manufacturing, 3D printing, and CAD systems, it will be interesting to see what develops on this farm. Ingenious new development? Another probable marketing disaster? At this point, it's anyone's guess.
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