Creating open-source urban-focused agriculture solutions that support the environment while feeding our communities.

​​Rooted LABs is dedicated to tackling the urgent issues of food insecurity and climate change, advocating for innovative and inclusive solutions that unite technology and communities, break down resource barriers, and promote open-source principles to enhance global agriculture.

The problem:

The world’s population has more than doubled over the past 50 years. This alone has caused immense stress on the natural environment and as a result, we are experiencing soil degradation, depletions of groundwater, pollution, ocean acidification, accelerated rates of extinction, global warming, droughts, diseases, high concentrations of CO 2 and mass deforestation. In a time of increasing population growth, climate change and environmental degradation, we need agricultural systems that come with a more balanced portfolio of sustainability benefits.

A path forward :

Urban agriculture has been defined as “reconnecting with the community through food, jobs and economic development” and is a sustainable solution.

We’re testing technology, creating and maintaining urban farms starting in Ottawa, Canada's capital city, donating fresh produce to community centers, and reshaping the way we approach environmentally friendly food production while also mentoring the next generation of leaders.

The project would be entirely open-sourced, and start a workforce who could move on and create their own advanced agricultural businesses in other cities globally.

What does this look like? Our Vision and Objectives:

Develop a Sustainable and Technologically Advanced Urban Farm:

• Action: Acquire a disused shipping container in downtown Ottawa and partner with The Growcer (https://www.thegrowcer.ca) to repurpose it as a smart urban farm.

• Action: Collaborate with technology and agriculture companies specializing in urban farming, automation, and renewable energy solutions to equip the shipping container with the latest sustainable farming technologies, such as hydroponics, LED lighting, and efficient climate control systems.

• Action: Create a rooftop garden in the downtown core. This not only produces fresh food but can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support our city in hitting its climate action goals.

• Outcome: The repurposed shipping container in downtown Ottawa becomes a state-of-the-art urban farm, producing a variety of fresh produce year-round and serving as a model for sustainable urban agriculture.

Who we are:

This started out as a project idea within the Ottawa GreenPill chapter (we met at a web3 education workshop hosted by GPN Ottawa).

This project falls under the umbrella of Ottawa GreenPill, however, we've chosen the name Rooted LABs to help us work closer with our local municipality and provincial government, as well as Tech companies in our community.

In the last few months, we at Rooted LABs have...

• Created a partnership with AreaX0 to coordinate in building out our smart farm at their Ottawa Smart Farm https://areaxo.com/smart-agriculture/

• Created partnerships with the University of Ottawa, Queens University, and Algonquin College to bring in students and host workshops on learning about Regeneration x Agriculture x Blockchain while completing internships at the RootedLABs Ottawa Hub (Urban Farm).

• donated to Ecology Ottawa, a local tree-planting organization.

• partnered with Silvi Protocol on their Urban Reforestation project

• presented a Regeneration x Agriculture x Blockchain workshop to the Nimiq community

• provided fresh produce, and made food donations x2 to our local food banks (using donations received from our last gitcoin grant)

• Hosted 2 climate-focused regenerative workshops.

• Engineering specs for our first urban farm (shipping container) - https://docs.google.com/document/d/17s8V-LHel-iX-lLQ7Ve252gomxcKSzXoM-wscAELBEk/edit?usp=sharing

• Future Global Food Demand and Population at Risk of Hunger - Paper written by Amanda Gloor - RootedLABs x GreenPill Ottawa - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CD3ZA_n4GIwgxGvuJTQ5dh76HWK8Uf8fZXrnHxW5BLg/edit?usp=sharing

• We have set up meetings with local tech and AI businesses, including Growcer(www.thegrowcer.ca) to explore collaborating on this project.

• Built out a small core team of volunteers to help grow this project, including recently bringing on a robotics engineer.

We are seeking funding support to help take our project from a small start-up idea, into a fast-moving open-source agricultural project.