By the FL Innovation News editorial team · Entrepreneurship
Garyn Angel is on a mission to revolutionize education starting with the soil. As the founder and CEO of Farm-Ed, Angel is bringing controlled environment agriculture, AI, and financial literacy into classrooms through hands-on, project-based learning. With partnerships at major universities and a focus on Title 1 schools, his goal is to cultivate the next generation of STEM leaders by combining food science with real-world skills. In this Q&A, Angel shares how his entrepreneurial journey led to Farm-Ed, the impact it’s making across Florida, and why the future of education might just be growing in a chamber.
1. What inspired you to create Farm-Ed, and how does your background as an entrepreneur shape the way you approach education reform?
I started Farm-Ed because I saw a gap, kids weren’t being prepared for the world I’ve navigated as an entrepreneur. My inspiration came from years of building businesses. I believe you learn by doing, and I wanted to bring that to education. Growing up, I sold my first company at 18, worked with lawmakers on global reforms, and managed money at the top level. Those experiences taught me that real change comes from hands-on problem solving. So with Farm-Ed, I’m approaching education like a startup—test, iterate, scale. It’s about giving students the tools to solve tomorrow’s problems by prioritizing how they learn over what they learn.
2. Farm-Ed blends controlled environment agriculture with AI and financial literacy. Why was it important for you to bring those worlds together for students, and how does that help prepare them for the future of work?
For me, blending agriculture, AI, and financial literacy is the trifecta. I want students to grow plants in a high-tech environment, use AI to analyze what’s happening, and then figure out the economics of it all. Why? Because ag is the original STEM and STEM careers are where the world’s heading. I see how fast industries are evolving, and I want kids ready for jobs that don’t even exist yet. With Farm-Ed, learners are optimizing systems, making data-driven decisions, and calculating profitability. These skill sets thrive in a tech-driven economy.
3. You’ve partnered with major universities like University of South Florida, West Virginia University, and Ohio State, and now you’re focusing on underserved schools across the nation. What impact are you seeing so far, and what’s next in terms of expansion?
Partnering refines the tech and curriculum with some of the best minds out there. In underserved schools, I’m seeing kids light up. They learn through controlled environment agriculture grow chambers, tweak settings, and watch how plants respond.Teachers tell me students are asking bigger questions—about science, about careers—and that learner outcomes are improving. The impact in Florida is early, but test scores are spiking, and STEM is accessible. We’re expanding to seven states for the 2025-26 school year—Georgia, Ohio, North Carolina, West Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana, and more Florida schools. My goal? All 50 states in the next few years. We bootstrap the business and have a single family office supporting us, but we are gearing up for a strategic investor capital raise to make it all happen.
4. How do Farm-Ed’s growth chambers work, and what makes them different from traditional classroom tools or even school gardens?
Our growth chambers are high-tech farms. They’ve got one-way glass to keep light consistent, independent HVAC for perfect climate control, and pixel cluster cameras tracking every leaf shift. Our devices collect 216,000 data points daily—including temperature, humidity, nutrients, and more. Kids adjust the settings, watch the results, and dig into the data with AI. What sets these exercises apart? They’re not static like a textbook or unpredictable like a garden. They’re precise, interactive, and built to teach systems thinking far beyond planting seeds in dirt. We designed the devices to look like a giant iPhone- intuitive, engaging, and packed with lessons you can’t get from chalkboards or outdoor plots.
5. What’s your vision for the future of education—not just in Florida, but nationally? And where do you see Farm-Ed fitting into that movement long-term?
My vision for education is simple: stop lecturing, start experimenting. Across the country, I see classrooms transforming into labs where kids tackle real-world problems—like food security and climate change—with technology in their hands. It’s more than test scores, it’s about skills that matter. I want every student, no matter where they’re from, to have access to tools that spark their minds. Farm-Ed’s leading that charge. Long-term, I see us in every school—training millions in controlled environment agriculture and technology—preparing them for a future shaped by AI, robotics, and solar innovation. We’re growing minds. My dream is that Farm-Ed becomes the backbone of a movement where education and private industry sync up, creating a generation ready to innovate.
