publication date: Aug 26, 2010
AgSquared is a new farm planning software program that is being developed by
Jeff Froikin Gordon and Giulia Stellari. Growers who learned details about it at the NOFA Summer Conference in August praised the program on list servs and Facebook. "It's going to be hugely useful for the market farmer," one grower wrote.
The program is expected to be released in December 2010 or January 2011. At this point, the developers say it will be free to growers.
The magazine Fast Company named Gordon and Stellari on a list "Five Social Capitalists Who Will Change the World in 2010." Here's what the magazine says about them:
After getting their biology PhDs at Cornell in May, Gordon and
Stellari headed not for a research lab but a tech startup. Their
product: the first-ever enterprise software system made for farmers.
Yes, farmers, especially the small farmers who make up 90% of the
nation's 2 million farms, and who are increasingly interested in going
organic. "Record keeping has been an age old problem," says Gordon.
"With sustainable practices, there's a lot more to think about. For a
long time, if you had a problem, you could just spray better chemicals.
Now you have to think about what you can do to make the soil stronger,
or introducing beneficial insects." Beyond basic accounting of seeds in
and fruits out, the computer system integrates U.S. soil data and
weather mapping, and even makes analyses and recommendations based on
best practices and eventually the collective wisdom of the community.
Launched in beta this month (February 2010), AgSquared, which is free to
farmers (paid for by sponsorships from fertilizer companies and the
like) is getting rapturous reactions. "There's one guy out in Amherst
who has these spreadsheets that he made himself that he'll send to
other farmers for $25," says Gordon. "He told us, please make my system
obsolete!"