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Tech Topics In This Article: Tampa startups, EdTech
Forget textbooks and rote memorization, says Tampa entrepreneur Garyn Angel. If you really want to improve education, bring data-driven mini-farms into the classroom.
Angel and the team behind Farm-Ed have built an interactive growth chamber device that brings closed environment agriculture right to students’ finger tips. While project-based learning around growing crops like tomatoes and herbs is at the core of what Farm-Ed does, Angel sees Farm-Ed as an essential tool in preparing students for industries and jobs of the future.
How Farm-Ed Works
Farm-Ed devices are designed to resemble a sleek, user-friendly iPhone. Each Farm-Ed device introduces students to the entire engineering ecosystem needed for plants to grow in a controlled environment. It features one-way glass (to minimize light disruption on plants), independent HVAC, heating, lighting, and humidifier systems, along with sophisticated pixel cluster cameras that track changes to individual plants.
“Everything about the device was designed to break down the components of controlled environment agriculture and make it accessible from an engineering perspective for that learner,” Angel says.
Throughout the academic year, students nurture a variety of crops, from tomatoes and lettuces to a variety of herbs, culminating in a celebratory “Salad Party” that fosters a sense of pride and ownership over having grown an entire meal.
Growing Holistic Learners
Farm-Ed isn’t designed just to teach kids how to grow vegetables. It is an outlet for experiential learning and gives “learners a chance to be curious” about the world around them, Angel added.
By managing a Farm-Ed growth chamber, students learn agricultural literacy and financial literacy (by answering questions about costs and profits of various items). It also teaches engineering principles and the basics of AI and data science.
Each device collects approximately 216 daily data points, including temperature, humidity, leaf changes, nutrient density, and crop yield. Students can explore these data points to determine cause and effect relationships around what helps grow the best, most nutrient-dense crops.
“A lot of it really is getting a plant to its full genetic potential by updating the controlled environment of agriculture based on what the plants are expressing,” Angel added.
Opportunity Within A Changing Education Ecosystem
In 2025, it is impossible to talk about EdTech without talking about national changes to the US Department of Education. The Trump Administration has largely dismantled the organization during their first few weeks in office. Much of the changes surrounding educational funding, which is moving towards the use of block grants.
For Angel, these federal changes are an opportunity.
“Leadership understands the value of project based learning,” he added.
Currently active in Florida schools, Farm-Ed plans to expand to eight states by next school year. The startup is targeting Georgia, Ohio, North Carolina, West Virginia, Kentucky, Texas, and Louisiana for the 25-26 school year. Angel also sees an opportunity to bring Farm-Ed to all 50 states over the next several years.
Farm-Ed mainly bootstrapped its operations, and one family office backs them. It plans to bring on more investors this summer to bring “better, more immersive education” to students across the country.
Sowing Future Seeds
Farm-Ed is positioning itself as a ‘Future Of Work’ company.
“Closed environment agriculture is the future,” Angel added. “We’re seeing the cost of compute come down to nearly zero. We’re also starting to witness the cost of power come down through solar. And when robots enter into the workforce…controlled environment agriculture is actually much more profitable to grow than row crops.”
Angel envisions closed environment agriculture, though small today, as a future powerhouse of job creation as the country looks for more sustainable, less resource-intensive ways to feed people. Additionally, Farm-Ed sees its project-based lessons as part of teaching crucial data, AI, and engineering skills that are essentials for the future workforce.
