Caleb Harper, director off the OpenAg group and the principal research scientist in MIT's Media Lab, stated that the success of their study on the tasty basil plant is just the start of a new field of study called "cyber agriculture." As the said study concludes, the group had already started a new study in the new field. They are now using the methods they have developed to pick out the disease-fighting properties of different herbs, which the group is looking to enhance.
Some methods of cyber agriculture already employed by top private agricultural companies include controlled environmental agriculture, vertical farming, and urban farming.
One of the current projects that OpenAg is working on is on hazelnut trees for Ferrero, a candy manufacturer and the consumer of 25% of the world's supply of hazelnuts.
The group had also developed boxes that can be used to grow plants in a controlled environment, which they called "personal food computers." The boxes are being used in a number of high schools and middle schools across America. Data collected from these boxes are being sent to the MIT team as additional reference and information for other studies.
