Smart Yields March Update
We’re thrilled to be at more than double our initial goal of $25,000 and are working to reach $107,000 this spring. Thank you for your support so far. Here’s what we’ve been up to lately:
In the News
Our CEO Vincent Kimura wrote a featured guest column to the Honolulu Star Advertiser newspaper regarding Hawaii farming and establishing the state as a template for national progress and innovation. Check it out here.
“We are at a pivotal point where the disrepair of our food systems will forever shape entire regions of our world,” he wrote. “To understand why, we must examine the struggles facing our farmers.”
Smart Yields Named a “Titan of Technology” Startup by Pacific Business News
The awards, announced in February, honor Hawaii’s most outstanding technology professionals and businesses. CEO Vincent Kimura accepted the award at a special event in Honolulu. Picture from event. Read more here.
Safer, Faster, Smarter: $42,000 Award Enhances Food Safety in Hawaii
The Hawaii Farm Bureau has awarded Smart Yields more than $42,000 to help small farms obtain food safety certification and reach much larger markets. We proposed a water quality and cold storage monitoring system that would help farms meet the requirements of the federal Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA), which was designed to shift the focus from responding to foodborne illnesses to preventing them.
Smart Yields plans to guide farmers through the process beginning with assessing their current practices and facilities, then design both training programs and technological solutions to help them not only comply with FSMA, but also optimize their operations through data-driven decisions and increase their productivity and profits. One of the first goals of the project is to help farmers move from manual, paper-based recordkeeping to a digital platform.
Moving Ahead: Application Submitted for USDA SBIR Phase II
Last year, Smart Yields was awarded a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) designation. We have now completed our Phase II application. The system will support the nonprofit North Shore Economic Vitality Partnership’s GroupGAP designation, the first of its kind in Hawaii and the 15th to be approved by the USDA nationwide. GroupGAP is a USDA farm food safety program that certifies crops as being produced using Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). Smart Yields will provide technology allowing farmers to seamlessly document food safety data, such as hand-washing, using their mobile devices in a multi-lingual app-based platform.
No Sour Grapes: Smart Yields Expands Soil Monitoring
Smart Yields has expanded its soil monitoring technologies to include vineyards in Colorado. We’ve been working with farmers there for several years, primarily with frost alerts and data analytics on crops such as apples and peaches. Now we’ll be deploying soil monitoring on this high-value crop, which includes tracking moisture and soil health elements. Stay tuned for more.