Can we create #ZeroDirt beds via a repeatable process that can be utilized in almost any urban environment — and on another planet?

This is the question that we wanted to answer when we started #ProjectMartian. Inspired by our previous SOIL Lab Project and a forced pivot in the midst of a global pandemic, we wanted to show the community of Columbus what STEM looks like when deployed to feed people and innovate an industry while simultaneously changing the face of agriculture and sustainability in urban settings. So we launched #ProjectMartian at the PAST Innovation Lab and our partner site, Mezzacello, a 21st Century Urban Farm in Columbus.

And PAST’s own Sultan of Systems, Jim Bruner, is the project director of this collaborative urban farming project. You may not guess it from his title, but Jim is a farmer at heart, and Mezzacello just so happens to be his passion project and urban farm. So, he really gets into the weeds about what's happening at the intersection between STEM, applied teaching and learning, urban sustainability, and food scarcity in the midst of a global pandemic.

To learn more, visit: pastfoundation.org

Resources:

• "Introducing Project Martian"
• "#ProjectMartian: A Non-Profit’s Mission to Innovate and Feed During COVID19"
• "#ProjectMartian: Chapter 1 - Preparing for Launch"
• "#ProjectMartian: Chapter 2 – COVID19 Course Correction!"

Learning Unboxed is produced in part by Crate Media

Recorded by Eric French at WOSU Studios in Columbus, Ohio