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This free Q&A platform is the game-changer that global food access needs.

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It feels like any question is answerable online. But for small-scale farmers around the world, it's not that simple.

Take the story of Kenyan chicken farmer, Kepha. "There was a disease that was ripping through his flock," says Kenny Ewan, CEO of agricultural startup WeFarm. "He had something like 52 chickens that he kept and half of them had died within the space of a few days."

Kepha's entire livelihood depended on those chickens. And if he couldn't figure out a fix quickly, they were all going to die. "That paid for his kids to go to school," adds Ewan. "To put food on his table."

Image via Pixabay.

In the past, farmers like Kepha had to rely on visits to the local market to ask fellow farmers for answers to tricky farming problems. If that didn't work, they could ask local extension officers, agricultural experts funded privately or by the government. But these officers work with up to 20,000 farmers, so farmers getting face time with them is extremely rare.

Luckily, Kepha didn't have to use any of those routes. In fact, he didn't even have to step outside his own farm.

WeFarm provides a simple question-and-answer platform for farmers in developing nations.

"What we do is crowdsourcing of vital information for small-scale farmers, primarily that don't have access to the internet," says Ewan. "They can ask a question on anything that’s happening on their farm, and we get them the right answer from somewhere else in the world without them having to leave their farm, spend any money, or have any access to the internet."

A WeFarm ambassador showing a local farmer the ropes. Image via WeFarm, used with permission.

All any farmer has to do is text their question to a local WeFarm number, which is free. From there, WeFarm's tech automatically analyzes the message based on location, keywords, and theme to find and notify the best farmers in their network that can answer the question. Once those helpful farmers reply with an answer, it goes straight back to the farmer in need.

"It's a really great service," said Kepha on the WeFarm website. "You ask a question and in less than 10 minutes you have an answer. It has also motivated me in farming knowing that other farmers are out there doing similar things."

To date, over 147,000 registered farmers have shared over 19 million messages. And the effects have been life-changing.

Just look at how WeFarm helped Kepha. "He got advice back really quickly from another farmer that had the same disease, recommending things he could do and medicine he could use," says Ewan. "He managed to save just under half of his chickens and keep his flock going."

Image via WeFarm, used with permission.

Granted, Kepha is just one farmer with a small batch of chickens. But when you focus on the grander scheme of things, what WeFarm is doing has the potential to affect agriculture worldwide.

"Statistics suggest that up to70% of all the food we eat on Earth is grown by small-scale farmers," adds Ewan. "With our hugely expanding population, that’s only going to get tougher."

Plus, with roughly 500 million small-scale farm families around the world living on less than $1 a day, providing them with meaningful solutions that cost nothing is crucial.

Image via iStock.

WeFarm's next big step? Reach a network of 1 million farmers and become the world's go-to agricultural guide.

Currently, WeFarm is only available in Kenya, Uganda, and Peru. But they have their sights set on Tanzania, India, and Brazil next. In time, WeFarm hopes to be available in every country.

But more than just a Q&A platform, WeFarm is also aiming to build stronger and more personal relationships. "If a farmer asked us about planting a specific crop," adds Ewan, "we can automatically compare their location to a weather report to tell them, 'Actually, don't do that tomorrow. Do it next week.'"

A WeFarm training session for local farmers in Uganda. Image via WeFarm, used with permission.

"That would be the ultimate vision. To be the ultimate source of agricultural information."

Unlocking this untapped wealth of grassroots knowledge could make a huge difference in improving global food access.

In fact, the world has already taken notice. WeFarm was one of the grand prize winners at the prestigious Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. They've also been tapped as one of the world's most innovative companies by Fast Company.

Image via iStock.

As amazing as these honors are, WeFarm's greatest achievement is still the work they do. "As we face new challenges like climate change and diseases and things that we've never seen before starting to affect crops all over the world," explains Ewan, "unlocking the knowledge that can deal with that on a practical grassroots level is fundamental in making sure that we can keep food sources available."

"That is going to be crucial in helping to feed the world."

Heroes

Less waste, more food. These 15 amazing images will make you rethink farming forever.

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Can you imagine trying to feed 9 billion people?

I mean, it's hard enough to feed ourselves some days.

But come 2050, Earth will be responsible for feeding an additional 2 billion people roaming the planet. The question is: how to do that?

The answer isn't all horizontal. We can't keep clearing space and sending food halfway across the world. In fact, we need to look up. As in, like, literally grow food upward.

Vertical farms could be a big part of the solution to our food conundrum. And they are the coolest looking farms we've ever seen.

Image via CoolFarm, used with permission.

These bad boys look like something straight of the year 3000, only they're happening right now.

With traditional farming methods depleting the planet's resources, now is the time to look to alternatives that can help reduce that burden. To date, we've cleared space the size of South America for growing crops. And to make matters worse, 33% of the world's land surface is already degraded and can't be used.

Image via CoolFarm, used with permission.

Another problem is transporting food from point A to point B. For example, back in 2005, importing produce by plane into California alone released more than 70,000 tons of carbon dioxide — the same as over 12,000 cars on the road. Granted, this is a small sample size, but with an estimated 70% of the world's population expected to be living in cities by 2050, how are we going to ship food to them without destroying our air and water?

Vertical farms can grow produce with fewer natural resources and less waste. They can also optimize growing conditions so that the plants get the perfect amount of nutrients and light. (Hence the really cool lighting.) Plus, they're all across the world now, reducing the whole point A to point B problem.

Image via Green Sense Farms, used with permission.

They still have some pretty significant kinks to work out, though. For one thing, building and maintaining them is very expensive, so significant investment will be needed, and costs will need to come down to make them viable around the world. They also can't grow staple crops like grains and rice. They're not going to replace traditional farming anytime soon, but they could be a key piece of our food future — and researchers are hard at work to make sure vertical farm technology is constantly being innovated and improved so that this method is in peak form when it matters the most.

So, without further ado, here are 15 of the most awesome vertical farms sprouting up around the world:

1. AeroFarms in Newark, New Jersey

Image via AeroFarms, used with permission.

AeroFarms is believed to be the largest vertical farm in the world. Through their patented technology and controlled environment, they're able to give their crops the perfect amount of moisture and nutrients necessary to take their taste, texture, and color to a whole other level.

2. Square Roots Urban Growers in Brooklyn

Image via Square Roots, used with permission.

Square Roots co-founders Tobias Peggs and Kimbal Musk (brother of Tesla-founder Elon Musk) are paving their own green innovation using something with a distinct Brooklyn style — shipping containers. Even better, they're paying it forward and using their unique platform to inspire the next generation of real food entrepreneurs.

3. Plantagon's World Food Building in Sweden

Image via Plantagon, used with permission.

Still under construction, Plantagon's World Food Building aims to take the concept of vertical farming to heights it has never seen before. Once completed, the building's efficiency managing waste, water, and energy will be second to none.

4. Urban Crops' Plant Factory in Belgium

Image via Urban Crops, used with permission.

On top of conducting testing at their HQ in Belgium, Urban Crops also supplies their equipment to the world, so that anyone anywhere can create a vertical farm of their own.

5. Growing Underground in London

Image via Growing Underground.

Just because you say vertical doesn't mean you can't look downward too. In fact, Growing Underground in London is the first vertical farm to do so. It's literally 100 feet below street level inside an abandoned WWII bunker. How cool is that?

6. Edenworks in Brooklyn

Image via Edenworks, used with permission.

On top of growing some of the freshest greens you can find in Brooklyn, Edenworks also raises fish in its indoor aquaponic farms. You can find their delicious, pesticide-free microgreens on the shelves of Whole Foods Market in Williamsburg, less than 24 hours from when it's picked.

7. Spread Co.'s Kameoka Plant in Japan

Image via SPREAD Co., used with permission.

Spread Co.'s Kameoka Plant is the largest-scale plant factory in the world to produce a single kind of lettuce. Their next step? Creating a technologically advanced automated facility.

8. PlantLab in the Netherlands

Image via PlantLab, used with permission.

The mission of PlantLab is straightforward — change the way we feed the world. To do that, they're using their revolutionary technology to not just grow produce efficiently, but also develop growing recipes based on their thorough customer and crop research. (That's right! Their ingredients have growing recipes!)

9. CityCrop in Greece

Image via CityCrop, used with permission.

Who said vertical farms had to be taller than you? This little guy from CityCrop is just one level, but it packs a big punch — it's perfect for home, allowing you to grow your own produce without ever having to go to the market. Or anywhere really.

10. Agrilution's plantCube in Germany

Image via Agrilution, used with permission.

Let's hear it for another little (but powerful) vertical farm! Agrilution's plantCube provides the complete experience and ecosystem for your home in a smart plug-and-play appliance. Oh, it also comes with an app so you can grow conveniently from your phone. (Wut?!)

11. Urban Farmer in the Philippines

Image via Urban Farmer, used with permission.

Mixing new technology with classic design sensibilities, Urban Farmer is distinctly Filipino, but international at the same time. And just like their fellow home models around the world, they're shortening the distance between farm to table to just a few simple steps.

12. Green Sense Farms in Indiana

Image via Green Sense Farms, used with permission.

When Bill Gates tweeted about the importance of the pink lights in vertical farming, he directed people to an article featuring Green Sense Farms. They're a full service one-stop shop that designs, builds, owns, and operates their vertical farms. That way, each little seedling can make its way to the supermarket with the utmost care.

13. Bright Agrotech in Wyoming

Image via Bright Agrotech, used with permission.

Like many other vertical farms, Bright Agrotech also supplies their technology to other aspiring farmers. And they're now the proud owners of the most installed vertical farm technology in the world. They're all about helping out local farmers, and they believe their work will be the future of food. We can't wait to see how that tastes.

14. GoodLeaf Farms in Canada

Image via TruLeaf, used with permission.

TruLeaf is the proud parent company of GoodLeaf Farms. TruLeaf takes care of all the technology and then supplies it to businesses and remote communities. GoodLeaf Farms, on the other hand, showcases all the leafy goodness that TruLeaf generates and supplies the largest food retailer in all of Canada.

15. CoolFarm in London

Image via CoolFarm, used with permission.

At their state-of-the-art test site in the U.K., CoolFarm highlights their incredibly advanced farming system that they're able to supply to more aspiring vertical farmers. They have iPad command centers, customizable parts, and a monitoring camera called "The Eye!" (Their name makes so much sense now.)

Today, there are still almost 800 million people who are chronically hungry. And by 2080, that number is expected to grow by 600 million more.

With continued innovation, vertical farms have the potential to be a key component of food access across the globe. They reduce carbon emissions, preserve land, and most importantly, expand everyone's tummies nice and horizontally. Solving the world's hunger and food access problems is going to take a lot of creativity, ingenuity, and solutions — both big and small.

And horizontal and vertical.

The clever way Indiana is resurrecting its old, rusting railroads.

When I was a kid, I went on a lot of nature walks with my mom.

We lived in the country in Central Texas and had a little plot of woods all to ourselves. We walked around big, ancient oaks and twisted, gnarly mesquite trees. Sometimes, we'd find a tree covered in big, ropey mustang grapevines and I'd climb up into the trees, pretending I was in the Swiss Family Robinson.

Other times, we went looking for animals. My favorites were the green anole lizards that lived on trees and flashed their red neck flaps at you.

Technically, it's called a dewlap, thank you very much. Photo from R. Colin Blenis/Wikimedia Commons.

There were also tiny black-and-white beetles with rock-hard shells that lived on fallen logs. If you touched them, they played dead until they thought you were gone. And sometimes we even saw deer.

Nature walks are a good way for families to bond. And they're pretty healthy too.

Science shows that spending just a little time outside (walking, looking at the trees, or even catching Pokemon!) can be good for you — it reduces blood pressure and improves mental health. There are even studies that suggest spending time in nature together can help families get along.

But here's the problem: Not everyone has access to nature, even (and especially) in rural areas.

Does this count as nature? Not really. Scott Olsen/Getty Images.

It's easy to imagine how someone living in downtown Chicago might struggle to find nature. But living outside a city doesn't guarantee access to trails and forests, either.

For example, imagine living in farm country. Though you're definitely not in the city, miles and miles of corn fields are just as much an artificial creation as any apartment building (plus the farmers probably wouldn't be happy with you trying to picnic in the middle of their fields).

This is actually a significant problem, so two researchers (University of Illinois professor Ramona Oswald and doctoral student Dina Izenstark) recently examined the lack of nature access in rural America. They found that although a lot of parents may know how great a nature walk can be for both your mood and your body, long distances or costs keep them from getting their families into nature.

“The moms in this study know about health and what to do to be healthy,” Oswald said in a press release. “It’s not a lack of education. It has to do with barriers and access to resources."

But what if we could erase these barriers? Enter the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, a nonprofit that's giving people access to nature in a cool way: by reviving old railway lines.

Photo via Rails-to-Trails Conservancy/Eric Oberg, used with permission.

You see, the United States is criss-crossed with old railway lines.

Photo via iStock.

Many of them are still in use, but many have been abandoned.

Photo via iStock.

But just because they're abandoned doesn't mean they can't still be useful.

These abandoned lines can have new life breathed into them. Take the Cardinal Greenway in central and eastern Indiana.

Way back in 1993, the nonprofit Cardinal Greenways bought 60 miles of abandoned railroad in eastern Indiana and, after teaming up with the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy for logistical help, began the hard work of turning it into a nature trail. (Rails-to-Trails support projects all across the United States.)

Photo from Cardinal Greenways, used with permission.

Tearing up a big metal railroad to make a nature trail might seem like a lot of work. But the railroad is already set up for nature walking success.

Most railroad tracks are already built up off the ground (so they don't flood), and they can support a lot of weight. Even better, trees don't grow on railroad tracks, so there's less vegetation to cut back to make a trail.

Cardinal Greenways' first 10-mile stretch opened in 1998.

They also added updated features like new bridges, benches, and informational signs.

Photo from Cardinal Greenways, used with permission.

There is also a playground and exercise equipment. You can even borrow a bike. It's free, too. Cardinal Greenways relies on volunteers and donations to maintain and expand the trail.

Today, the Cardinal Greenway runs for 62 miles, winding through more than 10 small towns as well as nature preserves and parks.

Photo from Cardinal Greenways, used with permission.

Families can walk or bicycle it, giving them easy access to nature and a safe place to exercise, no matter whether they're urban or rural.

A lot of different places have hit on replacing old railway lines with nature trails. Chicagoans might recognize the Bloomingdale Trail, for instance.

Photo from Victor Grigas/Wikimedia Commons.

The Bloomingdale Trail is a greenway that runs for about three miles in Northwest Chicago. You might never guess it used to be an old elevated train line.

In fact, your favorite running trail may have started its life as a railroad track. The Gloucester Township Trail in New Jersey, the Shelby Farms Greenline in Tennessee, and Mississippi's Tanglefoot Trail all started as old train lines, too.

Projects like this give both urban and rural families access to nature — using resources we already have.

Nature walks with my mom are some of my fondest childhood memories, and I'm sure those walks are part of the reason I'm still in love with nature today.

It's awesome to see projects like this making sure everyone has access to those memories like I did.

For the children at one refugee camp, the ZubaBox will be a game-changer.

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We hear a lot about the ways in which technology has changed lives, but it's easy to forget just how technologically privileged some parts of the world are while others are not.

While many of us can easily hop on our computers, phones, and tablets to devour everything from the latest celebrity news to innovative medical advances, there are children in many parts of the world without access to the internet to complete their homework; teachers with outdated materials who can't search for a new study to share with their students; medical professionals who are unable to read about breakthroughs in their field in a daily email digest.

Image by Computer Aid, used with permission.

While the internet is an integral part of our lives, it's a critical missing component for so many — something that could vastly improve their experiences if they could only access it.

That's where the ZubaBox comes in.

Image by Computer Aid, used with permission.

A ZubaBox provides rural areas with solar internet centers, offering those who need it most a technology many of us take for granted.

So, what does that mean?

Solar panels are placed onto a container that's converted into a tech hub for people who do not have 24/7 access to the internet.

Image by SixZeroMedia/Computer Aid, used with permission.

The implications are life-changing.

David Barker, former chief executive of Computer Aid — the organization powering this technology — spoke to BusinessGreen about the impact:

"This allows the doctor to contact specialists in the city hospital, school children to access educational material, and local people to expand their businesses, David Barker [explained]. 'Now even the local bank comes round via Macha and it plugs into the internet link, sets up its little booth, and gives you your cash,' Barker said. 'Suddenly you’ve got teachers who want to work there because they can get paid.'”

Image by SixZeroMedia/Computer Aid, used with permission.

And this is just the beginning.

There are currently 10 ZubaBoxes located in neighborhoods throughout Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Nigeria. And on May 26, 2016, South America received its first ZubaBox in Cazuca, Bogota. William Jimenez, regional coordinator at Tiempo de Juego, said this to Computer Aid:

"Since the Lab arrived, the younger generation has naturally been curious and excited but the emotion that this event has stirred in the elders has been really moving. The fact that someone has finally considered Cazucá a priority is not only important [because of the] technology and training provided, but also because of the optimism it inspires in the entire community."

The ZubaBoxes provide a necessary technology, but just as importantly, they provide hope and the promise of a path forward to communities that have long felt neglected.

Image by Computer Aid, used with permission.

Next stop? The Kakuma refugee camp.

Kakuma, located in Kenya, is one of the world's largest refugee camps.

Teachers at the Kakuma refugee camp are currently teaching 150 to 200 students at a time, with one textbook for every 10 students and no computers. Think about what a difference a ZubaBox will make for those kids. And think about what a difference it would make for those teachers.

Image by SixZeroMedia/Computer Aid, used with permission.

SAVIC, an organization run by Kakuma refugees, is working hard to raise awareness and funding for the ZubaBox. They aim to provide up to 1,800 young refugees an outlet through which they can expand their horizons, connect with the modern world, and share their stories.

If their efforts are rewarded, they'll be able to provide their community with access to what is quickly becoming a basic necessity, one that can show them options for how to begin to rebuild.

Watch this video to see how the ZubaBoxes are built.