Our Mission
At Ruby Barns, we believe that AI should be for everyone. Unfortunately, the Family Farms, Urban Gardens, and Home Growers who need it most don’t have the corporate world’s R&D budget. That’s where we come in. Specifically, we provide the tools and AI training datasets so every day people can access the world of possibilities provided by AI.
Why “Ruby Barns”?
Everyone knows the old red barn. Their image spans morning cartoons, to advertising, to our morning commute. They are the classic symbol of the mix of hard work and good food, fresh from the farm.
But would you make them out of Ruby? The idea may sound silly, but it’s a re-thinking of the composition of things we all take for granted. What if, while no one was looking, rubies became cheaper than wood?
In a way, it did.
We think of “technology” as the rows of automated machines welding cars, or super computers crunching away at the masteries of the universe. Historically, these possibilities have belonged only to those with million-dollar R&D budgets and armies of Engineers.
But not any more.
Technology Today
The recent explosion of the hobby computing market has spawned countless micro computers. Every day we add to the ever-expanding list of features and an every shrinking price tag.
Consider a computer that was only $40? What if the code you needed to track the water needs of the back 20 acres could be programmed in 20 minutes? Imagine an app that could tell them which strawberry was the ripest, or which tomato plant was sick (and how to fix it)?
Ruby Barns was founded to work in this area, a world of “small questions”, each with exponential use. After all, computers don’t rest, and they don’t go on vacation. They don’t move to warmer climates to help with their arthritis. For the price of “one mistake” and a little forethought, the information that farmers needed to make the right choice could forever be at their fingertips.
Creating something Old from something New
We are Ruby Barns, the foundation and icon of those who toil to put good food on our tables, rebuilt out of materials once through so precious as to be impossible.
It is the same farm. You are growing the same crop from the same seed. It’s the same hands dug deep into the same dirt. Nothing is going to change that, and nothing should. Your work is important, and we promise to do all we can to help clear away the clutter and confusion, offer the data needed to make each day’s decisions with confidence.
Knowledge Made Immortal
The time to act is now.
According to the USDA, an estimated that 70% of farmland is going to change hands in the next 20y. Coupled with the average age of the US farmer approaching 60, we are on the verge of losing half a century worth of farming know-how.
Furthermore, census data indicates the majority of farmer’s children are choosing to follow paths other than their parents. We will need the next generation to step up into the well worn, mud covered boots, and they have! In fact, the 2022 Ag Census has the number of “New and Beginning Producers” growing by 10% since 2017.
We at Ruby Barns believe working together with the farmers of today and doing our part to capture some piece of their wisdom is a way to make that knowledge immortal. As a Machine Learning system, we can start it from this fertile soil of experience and help it grow into a bounty of guidance for future generations.
