News » 29.08.2025 - “It's not just about growing food anymore; it's about growing connection”
"Every time we install a farm, a good number of staff at the location seem a little skeptical at first," says Tyler Blair, CEO and Co-Founder of Bit-Farms in Michigan, USA. "But three weeks later, they're thanking us for what we do. I'm not exactly sure what changes during that time, but they definitely become connected to the farm."
At Pinewood Middle School, a compact hydroponic unit sits between the cafeteria registers. Students watch greens develop under lights, taste what they helped grow, and staff plan around harvests in real time. Bit-Farms' bet is simple: Put small, service-managed farms inside everyday spaces so people can see, taste, and talk about their food. "It's not just about growing food anymore, it's about growing connection, right where people live, eat, and learn."
From cultivation to cafeterias
Before founding Bit-Farms, Blair spent more than a decade cultivating medical cannabis in Detroit. He rarely emphasizes that chapter today, especially in youth-facing contexts, but he notes that it laid the foundation for his technical expertise in indoor farming, hydroponics, lighting, HVAC, and plumbing.
"That's where I cut my chops. I learned how to grow, manage genetics, and control an indoor environment. But once I became a father, I knew something had to change." He returned to West Michigan, joined Revolution Farms, and discovered aquaponic lettuce. "I was eating lettuce every day and lost 40 pounds. But more importantly, I felt reconnected to something real." At Square Roots, where he later served as Program Manager, a new thought emerged. "We asked ourselves, what if we didn't just show people the farm but placed it at the center of their lives?"
A plug-and-play farming platform
To make that cafeteria moment repeatable, the hardware has to fade into the background. "Our units are designed to be placed almost anywhere," he says. "They only require a standard electric outlet and Wi-Fi. We don't connect to the water line generally, so they're really just plugged in. You can put them in and take them out in a matter of a couple of hours."
"Once installed, we manage the system remotely and through our local service teams. Clients can harvest as they please, or rely on scheduled harvests handled by our team. The whole thing is designed to be fun and easy." Bit-Farms provides a recommended crop list and adapts to partner requests for culturally relevant or chef-driven varieties.
Where education meets nutrition
"Impact is the point," says Blair. "In schools, something remarkable happens: kids get excited about healthy food when they can see it growing." AP Biology students run a variety of trials on desktop systems and scale their selections into cafeteria farms. Culinary programs create house salad blends for their peers.
"It's more than just fresh greens; it's a hands-on lesson in sustainability, science, and nutrition. It creates an unignorable contrast to the plastic-wrapped ultra-processed snacks. Even the janitors offer suggestions. Staff experiment with recipes. The farm becomes everyone's pride."
What customers are really buying
Blair stresses that the appeal is not purely about food. "It's not just equipment, it's a community magnet. Food is inherently social. When people gather around a Bit-Farm, it becomes more than just a source of fresh greens. These everyday interactions, simple, spontaneous, and grounded in something real, create bridges."
He adds that clients value the signal the farms send. "They're paying to suggest to their customers that they care about ingredients, sustainability, food quality, and the dining experience," he says. "The food that comes out of it is a bonus." The team prices subscriptions so that the monthly yield is roughly equivalent to distributor spend. "You're not paying extra, you're just redirecting," Blair says. "You're redirecting your budget to something better: fresh, hyper-local produce plus a dining experience that signals care for ingredients and community."
Food as medicine
Bit-Farms will launch its first hospital installation in Grand Rapids in August 2025, building on its work with community wellness programs. "We've been working with a wellness hub called Streams of Hope, supplying greens for their Veggie RX program. Now we're bringing that experience to a major healthcare provider."
Blair says the healthcare sector could be transformative. "We believe that the connection between food and healing is becoming more recognized. We see a future where one healthcare system can have multiple on-site farms growing a field's worth of greens inside the hospital itself." The brief even includes therapeutic aesthetics. "They're talking about putting a unit full of flowers in the cancer ward," he says. "That just lit me up."
Staying local on purpose
"We don't do outreach. Clients come to us. And we turn people down regularly because we know what works and what doesn't," says Blair. For now, the focus is on West Michigan.
"We're trying to get this model right. If we can generate a million in revenue without leaving two or three counties, we'll know we've built something that can be replicated, without losing the soul."
Source: www.floradlaily.com
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