Farm Blocks: a portable, modular raised-bed growing system - it's the 21st century victory garden. The mission of the company is to transform one million acres of underutilized urban space into farm - one block at a time. 

After twelve weeks, intensive research, and weeding out six alternate business ideas, team Breaker is preparing to launch Farm Blocks. More than a product, it's also a service designed to support the novice to the expert grower. The idea responds to the needs we heard expressed by several different user groups: restaurants looking for "farm to table" options, urban farms looking for an alternative to high-cost, labor intensive methods of avoiding contaminated soil, and the ever-growing demand from schools looking to implement gardening and nutrition programs into their curricula. Farm Blocks will launch with a business to business strategy with plans to expand into the retail market. So remember, when you see a Farm Block on the shelf at Home Depot, you can say you made that product possible; we couldn't have done it without our generous backers.

Special acknowledgement to Seth Harris and Kenyatta James who are Farm Blocks co-founders and Sarah Thatcher and David Beiner, employees number one and two. Several of the remaining Breakers have offered their services on a per diem basis. 

The work continues. Follow @projectbreaker on twitter to stay up to date with our upcoming challenge, Technology for Civic Engagement, beginning May 31st. If you're interested in supporting this challenge, you're welcome to make a donation through our site www.projectbreaker.org. Please spread the word.

Thank you!

Juliette, Bart, Sara, and Michelle

Barbara Leung reflects on the Breaker project in this blog post saying, 

"What I’ve also come to realize is that no one person needs to be an expert to jump into any project; all that is required is a willingness to learn and to embrace new experiences. I thought I would be completely out of my league, but I quickly learned that some had about similar amounts of exposure, and we all quickly caught up to speed with the more knowledgeable members through simple resource sharing and immersion. Granted, sharing experiences and being immersed have always stuck out as being keys to learning for me, but it took something so out of my field to make me really appreciate and realize such."

And here are David, Jess, and Sarah closing out a session at QLabs:

After gathering data across the spectrum of UrbanAg, from growers to shippers, sellers to consumers, the Breaker team went to IDEO's New York Studio last week to synthesize. We learned about IDEO's human-centered approach to design and had the opportunity to begin applying it to our more than 20 sites of data collection. That work continued back at our HQ, and resulted in identifying some themes: underleveraged resources, networks and communication, and education and awareness. Within each, they posited multiple insights about serving the needs of users. For example, "How might shared transportation increase efficiencies throughout the process?" With these and other insights in mind, we go next to MTV Scratch for a brainstorming session.

As a reminder to those backers who intend to join Breaker for a session, please refer to this calendar and email juliette@ted.com with your preferences. Thanks!

"Why not combine 'beginner’s mind' enthusiasm with hard-earned wisdom and apply the mixture to some of the world’s most fascinating opportunities?" 

Thus begins Michael Noer's "Imagining Skyscraper Farms," the first a series of Forbes posts covering Breaker's UrbanAg Challenge. After several weeks of research in the field, the team will regroup on Friday for a workshop at IDEO, where they will have an opportunity to share their findings as well as expand their understanding of what "Designing Within Limits" entails. 

One highlight from last week was a visit to Brightfarms, a company "designing, financing, building and operating hydroponic greenhouse farms at, or near, supermarkets, eliminating time, distance, and cost from the food supply chain." A fascinating idea with an innovative business model. Combining these and other insights, we'll soon move into the brainstorming phase of the project. 

If you're one of our backers planning to join us for a session, please drop an email to juliette@ted.com so you can receive a link to our calendar. 

And please help spread the good work of Breaker by sharing these links and/or "Breakthrough Solutions: Fellows Friday with Juliette LaMontagne" from the TED blog. Finally, hear team member Sarah Thacher describe her hopes for the Breaker experience.