First Midwestern Farm Hack event planned June 20-21 in Iowa

Farm Hack Iowa, a two-day gathering to address an open source future for farm technology and machinery, will be held June 21-21 at the University of Iowa and at Echollective CSA in Mechanicsville.

Farm Hack is part of a vision to resurrect the American tradition of tinkering by which farmers developed tools and solutions on their farms, and to move the tradition forward with new tools for connectivity and communication.

The event will bring together farmers, designers, engineers and others to demonstrate innovative on-farm designs, and to share and create new ideas for invention.

The event will focus on on-farm energy production, including electric tractor conversion and biodiesel production from waste oil.

Francis Thicke of Radiance Dairy will discuss on-farm solar production and Steve Fugate of I-Renew will discuss agricultural biodiesel. Grant Schultz of Schultz Heirloom Farm will discuss Electric G Tractor conversion.

Farm Hack was created by farmers and hackers to address a practical need by small-scale and diversified farmers that do not benefit from the energy- and capital-intensive strategies of mainstream agricultural technology.

In addition to face-to-face creation at Farm Hack events, participants continue the discussion through Farm Hack's Internet forums.

The June event will be Farm Hack's first in the Midwest. It is a collaborative program of the National Young Farmers' Coalition and The Greenhorns.