AI Farming

[AI Farming]

Hello Toronto Urban Grower,

My name is Mohammad Monzur Murshed Khan, Chief Executive Officer of AI Farming Inc., a Canadian agri-technology startup dedicated to empowering urban and small-scale farmers through artificial intelligence.

AI Farming has developed an AI-powered crop management platform for urban, backyard, indoor, and small-scale farming. The platform supports growers from seed planting to harvest with real-time guidance based on local weather, location, crop requirements, and agronomic best practices.

A key feature of our platform is its integrated community marketplace, which enables growers to connect with local buyers and sellers, market and sell fresh produce, and access seeds, supplies, and other agricultural inputs through a trusted local network.

For your reference, we have attached below a PowerPoint presentation drive link outlining our platform and its key features. 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Jxd2U2PfZ-Msb98epw6AEWEZyK6uMo4V/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=109641413311159338883&rtpof=true&sd=true

AI Farming Inc. is pleased to announce that its commercial soft launch is scheduled for July 1, 2026, with the official public launch planned for September 17, 2026. The launch event, organized in collaboration with Spark Centre, is tentatively expected to be held at Durham College in Ontario’s Durham Region. Further details will be communicated as they become available. It would be a privilege to welcome you as our guest at this important occasion.

More information about our platform is available at:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cZyP_6-GJ5cz7Ij3-nf4EP-cD6VXTgRQ/view

We would be pleased to have you or a representative from your organization attend this public inauguration event. To include you in our official invitation list and prepare your invitation letter, kindly provide your contact details at your earliest convenience.

I would welcome an opportunity to discuss potential collaboration and areas of mutual interest.

Kind regards,    

Mohammad Monzur Murshed Khan
Chief Executive Officer
AI Farming Inc.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Phone: +1 437-775-7309
e-mail: in...@aifarming.ca
Website: www.aifarming.ca

[Sean Smith]

Dear all,

I really do recommend watching the video, with particular attention to 0:53-0:58 on the timeline.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cZyP_6-GJ5cz7Ij3-nf4EP-cD6VXTgRQ/view

If the AI that generated the video --- which plants about 60 of what look like cantaloupe seeds in a 3-inch hole --- represents an AI package that "empowers" urban growers to grow better, is that really the support you need?

Toronto Urban Growers is already an "artificial intelligence" for urban vegetable growers here in the city, with context-specific local knowledge.

You know who empowers garden design? BUFCO, Garden Daddy, and I could go on.

You know who empowers seed access? Urban Harvest, Toronto Seed Library, Seedy Saturdays, and I could go on.

You know who empowers problem solving? The Toronto Gardeners Facebook group, your local Nonna who's been growing tomatoes for 6 decades, and I could go on.

Johanne Daoust and Jose Dadural have forgotten more about growing in containers in the city than most of us have ever learned.

Homestead.TO, Foodshare, and Thorncliffe Park Urban Farmers will teach you everything you need to know about urban growing and then some.

Somehow, however, you are supposed to not understand what powdery mildew is, yet at the same time grow enough surplus in your backyard to sell to markets without this basic knowledge. Guess what? Withrow Park Farmers Market already allows you to do this with their urban growers program, and I could go on.

I am not as anti-AI as many are. In fact, I offer workshops specifically for small-scale farmers to use AI to *empower themselves*. This "app" is not it, though. It is a top-down solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

Toronto Urban Growers is already an artificial intelligence, though. Horizontal. See you at Toronto Urban Ag Week in September.

Rant over.
Sean

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Crooked Farmz

 Brewing fresh compost teas and extracts for microbial health
 in agriculture, horticulture and arboriculture.

 crookedfarmz.net // @crookedfarmz // 416.669.1997

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 We Must Heal The Soil. It's That Simple.

 Crooked Farmz is a Certified Compost Facility Operator

 with the Compost Council of Canada.

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[Sunday Harrison]

Thanks Sean. I was wondering what you thought - you have been a proponent of AI in terms of thinking about designing data centres to double as greenhouses using waste heat and water, and using AI to create a really cute cartoon that must have drawn its "knowledge" from human artists (who get no credit). But I appreciate your thoughtful response to the product marketed on this platform earlier.

Sunday

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I am grateful to work and live on Indigenous territory stewarded by the Mississaugas of the Credit and shared between Anishnaabek, Haudenosaunee, Wendat, and other allied nations under the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt. I wish to honour this Agreement as a newcomer/guest, that asks us to not take more than our share. I also acknowledge that these lands were taken by duplicity and force, and that reconciliation includes #landback.

[pei czech]

Thanks Sunday, thank you Sean,

I immediately got a niggle when I read Mohammad’s offering. If nothing else his ‘marketing’ is off because whatever he may have to offer immediately puts a bad taste in my mouth and feels discouraging and uncomfortable. It seems that all the joy of learning through experience, connection, hands on work is no longer the focus rather only production. 

I agree this group offers every possible need to starting a garden, improving one and expanding in every direction including what is new for so many still, the ‘health & care of the soil’ that everything is grown in!

TUG is not the right platform for his too new approach. And I am truly concerned that this might appeal to large scale farming which is the opposite of TUG and fails both us, the farmer and Mother Earth herself on so many levels!….and that I don’t need to go into here.

The question that comes up for me that I haven’t heard or read anything about because I don’t follow the Industrial farming complex is, are any of the farmers turning away from (being forced into using) industrial fertilizers that are now hard to get a hold of  and super expensive due to Hormuz closing? I think this is the perfect time for those doing large scale organic, permaculture principled fertilizer free farming to reach out and share education on alternatives so they don’t suffer and can consider the option of transitioning away from their dependence on chemical fertilization? I know easier said than done but many have done that AND WE NEED MORE! 

Is there any conversations out there from both sides-those offering to those looking?

I’d be interested if anyone has heard anything.

Petra Hanzlik / Pei (she/her) 

Contributor to local community networks ::

GNN

GreenThumbsGrowingKids

Compost Toronto

Independent urban gardener

    With focus on Foodscaping

Text or call 416.732.8965

Petra Hanzlik

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/toronto-urban-growers/CAFdk9v%2Bdk5XFYd6TK26ySTxz9b14q9UnGdjTSeQdrxe1dgLBZw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Colleen Dempster]

Hi Petra and all,

Quick response,

Biofertilizers, that is, the use of plant growth promoting bacteria and fungi, is gaining momentum in industrial farming. My concern is that Big Ag will try to take over what is a gift from mother earth and not only commercialize it, but put restrictions and misleading information on organic fertilizers and DIY biologicals.

Its true,compost tea, and compost extract are not highly regulated or even understood. Institutions arent funding this work because their industry partners arent local-based tea producers like Sean and myself. Instead we have to fight to educate, study, and sell our products against millionaires who set the industry standards to unrealistic and not necessarily beneficial standards.

But I know im preaching to the choir. Support local, organic, and keep your hands in the soil.

End rant.

Colleen

Ps. I teach workshops on how to make your own compost, tea and extracts. I have DNA tested my products and found N-fixing rhizomium and other plant growth promoting species in high levels. Custom workshops available if you can bring a group of 4-8 to Uxbridge. www.rewildsoils.com

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/toronto-urban-growers/CAFK2HQM_eEm%3D17UbNTu2JrKcUJuYy0zR1chzj0vo1kqUeEG-Rw%40mail.gmail.com.

[AI Farming]

Dear Sean,

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughtful feedback. I sincerely appreciate your honesty, perspective, and your contributions to the urban agriculture community.

Your comments are valuable as we continue developing AI Farming. The video was created as an early concept to communicate our general vision for the platform. It was not intended as a final product demonstration or as a technical or instructional guide. We recognize that some elements may not fully reflect the practical expectations of experienced growers, and we appreciate you highlighting that.

AI Farming is designed with the understanding that growers and community gardeners already bring deep knowledge and lived experience to their practice. Our intention is to support that work by offering practical tools that can help with organization, tracking, and access to useful environmental and garden-related information while keeping decision-making firmly in the hands of the grower.

We are currently preparing for a soft launch and would genuinely value feedback from experienced community members like yourself. If you are open to it, we would be pleased to offer early access and hear your input on how the platform can be improved to better reflect real-world gardening needs. 

We would also welcome your thoughts on our community marketplace concept, which is intended to support stronger local food systems by helping connect growers, buyers, and community members.

I hope we have the opportunity to continue the conversation at Urban Agriculture Week. It would be a pleasure to learn from your experience and further discuss how the platform can be shaped with community input.

Thank you again for your time and thoughtful feedback.

Warm regards,

Mohammad Monzur Murshed Khan
Chief Executive Officer
AI Farming Inc.

[Maria Nunes]

Good grief! I decided not to speak my mind when I saw the email.  I hadn't even seen the video until I read your response. Now that I have, I repeat... good grief.... And thank you for laying bare the very sad depths to which technology can bury the knowledge and wisdom of experience.

Imagine anyone actually depending on this tool alone assuming there wasn't a real person to learn from?

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/toronto-urban-growers/1478743840.566915.1781097620234%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Rhonda Teitel-Payne]

Thanks Sean and others for your thoughts - and Sean for the shout out to some of the pillars of our community! The fact that you folks took the time to review the video and share your thoughts at a busy time of year is one reason this network works. 

I'm sure the feedback is valuable for Mohammad and his team, but it's also important for Joe, James and I to know where our community stands on these issues.

Just a reminder, the hand of the moderators on this list is quite light. We do our best to limit spam and abusive posts, but we don't review or endorse every project that is posted.

Although I must say that our "intelligence" is anything but artificial - it's as organic as it gets!

And yes, I'm reclaiming the m-dash from AI 

Thanks,

Rhonda

Rhonda Teitel-Payne (she/her)

Co-coordinator

Toronto Urban Growers

www.torontourbangrowers.org

@TOurbangrowers #iGrowTO

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/toronto-urban-growers/CAHJEKakw1nVsOh0DPjf-bynBjHndj24LMR8hk0Zu6xwPQROOtw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Nat Karpovskaia]

Enthusiastic users of the em dash prior to AI, unite!!

 

Nat Karpovskaia (they/them pronouns)

Program Manager

Call or text: (416) 658-0724

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[Karen May]

Artificial intelligence as it currently exists is the aggregation of human knowledge and writing taken without permission and monetized. Toronto urban growers and the networks Sean mentioned are community intelligence -- that is more alive and empowering than any large language model or image generation platform being sold to us. 

I love this network precisely because it represents the antithesis of big tech and ai — community!

(Em-dashers unite!)

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/toronto-urban-growers/CAP-bRb6D7jciQXstVZsC2aMGnQT9gBxOVKJfYexFFvLAY%3DnTRw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Leah Bobet]

So I'm afraid this is raising an uncomfortable practical question: Are messages from this list currently being harvested for "feedback" on someone's monetized, privately-owned product?

Yes, the Internet is inevitably public in the end, but if we're in a situation where community expertise and assistance is being fed into someone's pre-launch IP without consent, that does change what I'm able to discuss here. 

I've got pre-print research to think about, but also the commitments I made to people who were good enough to discuss their practices with me (confidentiality, public good, building community capacity). If I share aspects of practice here, in a community-building setting and within my ethics guidelines, am I going to be breaking my word to my participants because someone's sitting in the back feeding it into their AI product?

Thanks,

Leah Bobet

[Rhonda Teitel-Payne]

Good question, Leah. I suggest taking a closer look at Google's privacy policy about how they use data. Perhaps someone on the list has an answer for this. 

Personally, I try to be careful about putting anything into an email that I wouldn't want the world to see and use. You never know when your messages might be forwarded or scooped by malware. 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/toronto-urban-growers/5d7a79d4-e314-42d3-8177-15b96fb5edd6n%40googlegroups.com.

[Leah Bobet]

Hi, Rhonda—

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

Unfortunately, looks like there’s a misunderstanding here: I’m not asking an information question about how to do basic media literacy, but raising a rather specific question about how this list is moderated—one which arose from the conversation in this thread. So the solution I’m looking for isn’t shaped like advice from a teacher to a student on what corporations do, it’s shaped like a moderator team clarifying their policies on potential knowledge extraction within the list membership and perhaps taking associated actions.

 

If it’s truly unclear what I’m asking above, please let me know where it’s going off the rails for you and I’ll happily clarify.

 

Thanks,

 

Leah Bobet

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From: Rhonda Teitel-Payne <rho...@torontourbangrowers.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2026 7:01 PM
To: leah <le...@leahbobet.com>
Cc: Toronto Urban Growers <toronto-ur...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [Toronto Urban Growers] AI Farming

 

Good question, Leah. I suggest taking a closer look at Google's privacy policy about how they use data. Perhaps someone on the list has an answer for this. 

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On Thu, Jun 11, 2026 at 10:45 AM Rhonda Teitel-Payne <rho...@torontourbangrowers.org> wrote:

Thanks Sean and others for your thoughts - and Sean for the shout out to some of the pillars of our community! The fact that you folks took the time to review the video and share your thoughts at a busy time of year is one reason this network works. 

 

I'm sure the feedback is valuable for Mohammad and his team, but it's also important for Joe, James and I to know where our community stands on these issues.

 

Just a reminder, the hand of the moderators on this list is quite light. We do our best to limit spam and abusive posts, but we don't review or endorse every project that is posted.

 

Although I must say that our "intelligence" is anything but artificial - it's as organic as it gets!

 

And yes, I'm reclaiming the m-dash from AI 

 

Thanks,

 

 

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