This computer will grow your food in the future
Watch the video
Show full transcript
Food crisis. It's in the news every day. Some places in the world, it's too little food, maybe too much. Other places, GMO is saving the world, or maybe GMO is the problem. Too much agricultural runoff creates toxic oceans and attenuates nutrition. The current climate of this discussion feels incredibly disempowering.
How do we bring that to something that we understand? How is this apple food crisis? You've all eaten an apple in the last week, I'm sure. How old do you think it is from when it was picked? Two weeks, two months, eleven months. That's the average age of an apple in a grocery store in the United States, and it's not very different in Europe or anywhere else in the world.
We pick them, we put them in cold storage, and we gas the cold storage. There is documented proof of workers entering these environments to retrieve an apple and dying because the atmosphere used to slow down the apple is toxic to humans. Ninety percent of the quality of that apple, all the antioxidants, are gone by the time we get it. It's basically a little ball of sugar.
What if climate were democratic? This is a map of climate in the world. The most productive areas are in green, the least productive in red. They shift and change. Californian farmers become Mexican farmers, China picks up land in Brazil to grow better food, and we are slaves to climate. What if each country had its own productive climate?
Last generation's problem was that we needed more food and we needed it cheap. We built a huge analog global farm, a miracle that feeds seven billion people with just a few of us involved in food production. What if we built a digital world farm? What if you could digitize an apple, send it as information, and reconstitute it on the other side?
In my lab we built a farm inside the Media Lab, a place historically known for digital life. Inside sixty square feet we produced enough food to feed about three hundred people once a month. The most interesting thing was beautiful white roots, deep green colors, and a monthly harvest. Is this a new cafeteria, a new retail experience, a new grocery store?
We instrumented the farm with about thirty points of sensing per plant. If you like strawberries from Mexico, you really like strawberries from the climate that produced the expression you like. By coding climate—this much CO2, this much O2—you code the expression of the plant: its nutrition, size, shape, color, and texture.
We created food computers that can be shipped anywhere and open sourced all of it. Kids log in through a game-like interface, choose climate recipes, and grow plants while watching sensor data. They experiment with humidity and CO2 and see plants live or die based on their choices, learning by doing and generating new digital recipes.
The bigger vision is a world of personal food computers, food servers, and food data centers running on an open phenome. Instead of sending food around the world, we send information about food. The future of food is not about fighting over what's wrong with the current system; we already know that. The future is about networking the next billion farmers and empowering them to ask and answer the question "What if?"
⚡ Learning goals
- Understand how controlled environments can change the way we grow food.
- Describe the idea of sending climate “recipes” instead of shipping food.
- Discuss how technology can empower future generations of farmers.
✨ Key language
- food crisis “We talk about the food crisis every day.”
- controlled environment “We grow lettuce in a fully controlled environment.”
- climate recipe “They share a climate recipe for perfect strawberries.”
⚙️ Rules & Grammar — 4 Structures
1️⃣ First conditional for future consequences
Rule: Use if + present simple with will + base verb to talk about real future results.Examples: If we change the climate, we will change the food.; If you control humidity, the plant will grow faster.; If farmers use data, they will make better decisions.
Common pitfall + fix: Learners often use will in both parts. Fix it by keeping the if-clause in the present simple.
Choose the best ending: If we share climate recipes, ______.
Tip: In first conditional sentences, the result clause normally uses will.
Fill with the best answer: If young people can hack climate, they ______.
Tip: Think of a future result of giving young people control and tools.
2️⃣ Present simple vs present continuous for facts and trends
Rule: Use the present simple for facts and routines; use the present continuous for actions happening now or changing trends.Examples: Farmers import most of their food today.; Global climate is changing quickly.; We are building food computers in many schools.
Common pitfall + fix: Learners sometimes use the continuous with general facts. Keep long-term facts in the present simple.
Choose the best option: The climate ______ and farmers must adapt.
Tip: Use the continuous to show a process of change happening now.
Fill with the best answer: Many schools now ______.
Tip: Use the present simple to describe a new but regular activity.
3️⃣ Modal verbs for possibility and obligation (can, could, must)
Rule: Use can/could to express ability or possibility, and must to express strong obligation or need.Examples: Technology can inspire the next generation of farmers.; Food computers could exist in every school.; We must rethink how we grow food in cities.
Common pitfall + fix: Learners mix have to and must. Focus on must for strong personal obligation in this lesson.
Choose the best option: With a food computer, kids ______ every day.
Tip: Use can to show a new opportunity that technology gives.
Fill with the best answer: We ______ if we want healthier cities.
Tip: Think of a strong obligation about changing how we produce food.
4️⃣ Passive voice to describe processes
Rule: Use the passive voice (be + past participle) when the action is more important than the actor.Examples: Apples are kept in cold storage for months.; Plants are grown in fully controlled environments.; Data are collected from each plant every second.
Common pitfall + fix: Learners forget the verb to be. Always use the correct form of be before the past participle.
Choose the best option: In the lab, vegetables ______ with sensors.
Tip: Use passive voice to focus on the process, not on the farmer.
Fill with the best answer: The plants ______ by many different sensors.
Tip: Remember to add a form of be before the past participle.
✍️ Vocabulary
food crisis
Meaning: a serious situation where many people do not have enough safe, healthy food.Synonyms: food shortage, hunger emergency, nutritional catastrophe.
Chunk/Idiom: “talk about the global food crisis”.
Example: Experts warn that the food crisis is getting worse in many regions.
Morphology: noun phrase; singular; often used with global or worldwide.
Self-practice: Write two sentences about how a food crisis could affect your city.
cold storage
Meaning: a very cold room where food is kept fresh for a long time.Synonyms: refrigerated warehouse, chilled room, temperature-controlled store.
Chunk/Idiom: “keep apples in cold storage”.
Example: Many apples stay in cold storage for months before we eat them.
Morphology: noun phrase; uncountable in this technical context.
Self-practice: Describe which foods in your country are usually kept in cold storage.
digital farm
Meaning: a farm that uses sensors, data, and computers to control how plants grow.Synonyms: data-driven farm, high-tech agriculture, smart farming system.
Chunk/Idiom: “build a global digital farm”.
Example: The speaker imagines a digital farm that connects growers around the world.
Morphology: noun phrase; digital modifies the concrete noun farm.
Self-practice: Explain how a digital farm could change jobs for young farmers.
food computer
Meaning: a small, box-like device that controls climate to grow plants indoors.Synonyms: climate box, smart growing unit, controlled-growth computer.
Chunk/Idiom: “build your own food computer at school”.
Example: Students use a food computer to test different climate recipes for lettuce.
Morphology: compound noun; countable; plural form is food computers.
Self-practice: Describe what you would like to grow in a personal food computer.
controlled environment
Meaning: a space where light, temperature, and humidity are carefully managed.Synonyms: managed climate, closed growing system, regulated conditions.
Chunk/Idiom: “grow plants in a controlled environment”.
Example: In a controlled environment, plants can grow four times faster than outside.
Morphology: noun phrase; past participle controlled acts as an adjective here.
Self-practice: Compare a controlled environment with the natural climate in your area.
open-source platform
Meaning: a system where designs and code are shared freely so anyone can use them.Synonyms: shared codebase, collaborative system, public software project.
Chunk/Idiom: “share recipes on an open-source platform”.
Example: The team publishes all their climate recipes on an open-source platform.
Morphology: noun phrase; open-source acts as an adjective before platform.
Self-practice: Write one benefit and one risk of using an open-source platform.
☁️ Examples (+ audio)
We grow lettuce in a computer that controls climate.
Farmers can share climate recipes instead of shipping food.
Sensors collect data from every plant in the box.
The next billion farmers will learn by hacking climate.
✏️ Exercises
Grammar
If food computers spread, farming ______ more digital.
Tip: Look for the correct first conditional pattern.
In many countries, apples ______ in cold storage for months.
Tip: Use passive voice to describe this process.
Fill with the best answer:
With the right recipe, we ______.Tip: Think about the main promise of climate recipes.
Fill with the best answer:
New tools ______ in cities.Tip: Use present continuous to show an ongoing change.
Vocabulary & Comprehension
According to the speaker, what should we send instead of food?
Tip: Think of the “climate recipes” he wants to share.
Who does the speaker want to inspire with the new platform?
Tip: Remember his story about students using food computers.
Fill with the best answer:
Apples are kept in ______ for many months.Tip: Use the exact two-word phrase from the talk.
Fill with the best answer:
The future of food is to ______.Tip: Remember the final idea about connecting future farmers.
✅ Guided practice
Mini-dialogue:
A: I heard about a computer that grows lettuce. Is that real?B: Yes, it controls the whole climate inside the box.
A: So if we change the recipe, the taste will change too?
B: Exactly. We can learn which climate gives the best flavour.
Why this matters:
Growing food in controlled environments can reduce waste and transport. It helps cities produce fresh, healthy vegetables close to people. It also gives young people a new way to see farming as creative, high-tech work.Verb & Adjective Pack:
hack climate — Students hack climate settings to help plants grow.monitor data — Sensors monitor data from every single plant.
optimise growth — They optimise growth by changing light and humidity.
sustainable — The goal is to build a more sustainable food system.
empowered — Young farmers feel empowered when they control the recipe.
Try & compare:
Fill with the best answer: If you change the climate recipe, you ______.
Tip: Think about what happens to flavour in the story.
Self-correction: Fix the sentence: Apples keep in cold store for eleven month
Tip: Use passive voice, correct plural, and a natural time expression.
Practice aloud: Listen, repeat, then type the sentence.
We can grow food in computers instead of huge fields
Tip: Focus on the rhythm of “grow food in computers instead of huge fields”.