MIT raised millions of dollars, and even appears to have nabbed a federal grant, for what it touted as a cutting-edge agricultural startup before that program was shut down in 2020 following allegations of research misconduct, according to documents obtained by the Boston Business Journal.
The Open Agriculture Initiative, or OpenAg, was a high-profile project launched in 2015 inside MIT’s Media Lab that developed so-called “food computers” — software-controlled devices capable of growing a variety of plants in a wide range of climates. But in the fall of 2019, reports in several publications, including the New York Times, suggested that the food computers never worked as described. In some cases, according to former staffers, plants were purchased at nearby garden centers to put in the devices for presentations, implying they were grown there.
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