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SarahTaber_bww's profile
Dr Sarah Taber
Dr Sarah Taber
Dr Sarah Taber
@SarahTaber_bww

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Dr Sarah Taber

@SarahTaber_bww

Crop scientist. Ex-farmworker. Follow for intersection of tech, bio, biz, & people stuff behind it. Host at @FarmToTaberPod.

Fayetteville, NC
Joined November 2014

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    1. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
      • Report Tweet

      Dr Sarah Taber Retweeted Dr Sarah Taber

      Ok kiddos let's do this. Time to talk about my pretty-minimal-but-still-REALLY-WEIRD brushes with the MIT Media Lab.https://twitter.com/SarahTaber_bww/status/1170733320365379584?s=20 …

      Dr Sarah Taber added,

      Dr Sarah Taber @SarahTaber_bww
      tfw there's a colleague whose work you always thought was useless & couldn't figure out how tf they were getting funded to just dick around like that and then they go & sign that MIT Joi/Epstein support letter
      85 replies 1,823 retweets 3,635 likes
      Show this thread
    2. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
      • Report Tweet

      Two things happened. One, I applied for a job there about 2 years ago. Second, around that time I went to the Atlantic Ag Tech panel, featuring some MIT Media Lab folks.

      2 replies 23 retweets 456 likes
      Show this thread
    3. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
      • Report Tweet

      Around two years ago the MIT Media Lab announced a job posting. It was a WILD AND CRAZY job posting because they're a WILD AND CRAZY lab!

      4 replies 25 retweets 467 likes
      Show this thread
    4. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
      • Report Tweet

      MITML really bills itself as a modern Bletchley Park. You know, the lab where the Allies threw cryptographers and even non-cryptographers together in a desperate bid to unlock the Enigma machine so they could read German messages.

      3 replies 24 retweets 498 likes
      Show this thread
    5. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
      • Report Tweet

      In keeping w that, the job ad was v odd for academic research. • No stated discipline • You don't even need a doctorate! • You did need an "unconventional take that doesn't respect disciplinary boundaries," • and a record of communicating science with the public.

      7 replies 36 retweets 511 likes
      Show this thread
      Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
      • Report Tweet

      Now a couple things about my career that you need to know. I graduated with a DPM*- not PhD- in 2011, during the depths of the recession & a federal hiring freeze. I was fuuuuuuucked. *DPM = Dr of Plant Medicine, it's like a veterinarian for crops.

      2:17 PM - 11 Sep 2019
      • 22 Retweets
      • 776 Likes
      • semi Liamh 🦇 сука-billed blyatypus margwarett Lee Howk Ann Hilton Fisher Geedubs 𝖆𝖒𝖞 Mare
      9 replies 22 retweets 776 likes
        1. New conversation
        2. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          That was a time when the ag industry- Bayer & Syngenta et al- were SCREAMING that they absolutely needed more STEM grads STAT. Except they weren't actually hiring, bc recession. And nobody knew what was happening w the Farm Bill & future of the ag industry bc gov't shutdown.

          3 replies 30 retweets 606 likes
          Show this thread
        3. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          So they're yelling "please send us more people" but you could barely get an interview, and once you did, you didn't hear back. So I got a postdoc by the skin of my teeth, and started building a consulting business. This is pretty common for crop scientists.

          1 reply 19 retweets 562 likes
          Show this thread
        4. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          Just due to who my first couple of clients were, I wound up specializing in food safety and general facility-having-its-shit-together-ness for greenhouses and indoor farms.

          2 replies 15 retweets 618 likes
          Show this thread
        5. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          I went from beyond-broke grad w no prospects in a shitty economy, to a national-level consultant w no debt, at the intersection of ag, tech, & manufacturing- 3 extremely male-dominated fields. There's a reason I'm really confident, y'all. I am very, very good at my job.

          10 replies 43 retweets 2,094 likes
          Show this thread
        6. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          Pretty soon I was one of the people with the most real-life logistics & systems analytics experience in the entire indoor ag industry. I worked with my clients on HR, cold chain logistics, hygiene, water chemistry, bugs, site security, equipment & facility design, worker safety.

          5 replies 18 retweets 703 likes
          Show this thread
        7. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          If it was in that weird part of indoor ag that nobody understands where you actually make food- I did it. Companies technically hired me for food safety but soon realized there were all these *things* in their facilities that weren't being taken care of. So I filled the gaps.

          1 reply 19 retweets 695 likes
          Show this thread
        8. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          So. When the MIT Media Lab said "We don't even care what you do! We just want you to be interdisciplinary & good at words!" I thought, huh. I do hella interdisciplinary real-world stuff every day, & it's mostly about talking w people to bring their different skill sets together.

          3 replies 27 retweets 669 likes
          Show this thread
        9. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          So I leaned tf in and got to know the Media Lab's work. They already had a lab that did indoor ag. I figured hey, let's see if I've got anything to add to this lab? Hoo boy.

          3 replies 24 retweets 585 likes
          Show this thread
        10. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          The Media Lab's indoor farm lab was basically centered around this fancy 2-cubic-foot lucite box called a "food computer." The idea was you can program temperature, water/fertilizer routine, lighting, etc into it, plant seeds, & make EXACTLY the plants you wanted.

          6 replies 74 retweets 634 likes
          Show this thread
        11. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          There's only one problem. I used to work with room-sized versions of these. Back in 2001. They're called growth chambers, they'd been standard plant physiology research tools for decades, & they ain't new at all.

          18 replies 111 retweets 1,404 likes
          Show this thread
        12. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          But that's pretty standard-level bullshit for the tech space. I mean, Lyft "invented" the motherfuckin bus. That's just what happens when rich people think "dropped out of engineering school" means "expert on all the things."

          10 replies 200 retweets 2,077 likes
          Show this thread
        13. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          So in the application, I focused on what I could do for them. I said "Listen. This food computer thing is super cute. But if you want to make something commercializable [which is ostensibly the entire point of the MITML], hire me. I got you."

          1 reply 18 retweets 668 likes
          Show this thread
        14. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          I didn't get the post, which isn't too surprising. They probably got hundreds of applications for it. Who's to say they even wanted another indoor ag person- it's a really tiny subniche, and maybe they really just wanted to make more robots.

          1 reply 16 retweets 534 likes
          Show this thread
        15. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          I was in fact pretty ok with not getting the job because the more I looked into the lab the more ... weird it was. Working in an office with all-glass walls sounds hellacious for one thing. Of course they have bad architecture, they're rich 😂

          7 replies 43 retweets 1,113 likes
          Show this thread
        16. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          Then I went to the Atlantic Ag Tech summit & readers, it was not good. It's one of the first things I ever really tweeted about, had maybe 20 followers at the time, & I was already SO SALTY. I could not believe the stupid shit that was getting preached off this stage.

          2 replies 36 retweets 794 likes
          Show this thread
        17. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          The moment when I kinda gave up on hoping for anything was when a panelist brought up land-grant schools. You know, the one that's done ag R&D for 150 years in the US? The largest university system in the world? That one.

          4 replies 34 retweets 786 likes
          Show this thread
        18. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          Someone asked "where are we going to find scientists who can innovate ag?" & this panelist brings up the land-grant system like it's a hole-in-the-wall restaurant that she just found, nobody knows about it yet, but it's SUPER AUTHENTIC and ALL THE LOCALS GO THERE.

          10 replies 61 retweets 1,014 likes
          Show this thread
        19. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          Dr Sarah Taber Retweeted Dr Sarah Taber

          My fool ass even still tried to be polite about it. https://twitter.com/SarahTaber_bww/status/928827014785781762?s=20 … To be continued.

          Dr Sarah Taber added,

          Dr Sarah Taber @SarahTaber_bww
          Yup! These are the states that fund ag research, so.... https://twitter.com/AtlanticLIVE/status/928735442811392000 …
          6 replies 15 retweets 560 likes
          Show this thread
        20. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          I spent the next 2 years sporadically annoyed that someone got an MIT program director gig, seats on big fancy boards, & a TED talk when their big initiative was a toy version of tech that was already antiquated when I'd worked with nearly 20 years ago.

          3 replies 106 retweets 1,116 likes
          Show this thread
        21. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          Every so often I'd run across an article about the Food Computer & there's usually a line in there about how "We can even program the plants to taste stronger or milder by changing environmental conditions!"

          3 replies 30 retweets 625 likes
          Show this thread
        22. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          Yeah no shit. Higher temperatures, less watering, and/or higher salt content in the nutrient water makes plants make more flavor compounds. We've known that since the 19-mothafuckin-80s! It's hydroponics 101.

          8 replies 71 retweets 1,513 likes
          Show this thread
        23. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          And then the other day, this news came out.https://gizmodo.com/mit-built-a-theranos-for-plants-1837968240 …

          18 replies 165 retweets 960 likes
          Show this thread
        24. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          Y'all might have missed it because it broke at the same time as the Epstein/Joi Ito news but it turns out this toy version of a growth chamber DOESN'T EVEN WORK.

          7 replies 95 retweets 1,187 likes
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        25. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          It couldn't grow plants. When donors & investors came by they had to go to Home Depot, buy 4-packs of basil plants, flick off the dirt, and pop them in the Food Computer to make it look like they grew there. FOR REALS

          27 replies 141 retweets 1,598 likes
          Show this thread
        26. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          Now. I don't know this dude from Adam and I'm not saying he personally took Epstein money, bc who knows. But I *am* saying that a Media Lab complex that feeds off a sugar daddy might not be terribly motivated to. like. make tech that actually works.

          13 replies 157 retweets 1,666 likes
          Show this thread
        27. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          Most labs make their $ commercializing technology. Now there are plenty of problems with that business model, like "who's going to do R&D for rare diseases that only 3 people have?" But the food computer didn't even meet THAT low bar.

          1 reply 44 retweets 824 likes
          Show this thread
        28. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          The reporting on Media Lab's relationship with Epstein frames it as reputation laundering. Epstein gives money, gets respectability, MIT-ML gets money. And that's absolutely what appears to have been going on. But I think there's more to it, that nobody's talking about.

          7 replies 151 retweets 907 likes
          Show this thread
        29. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          Dr Sarah Taber Retweeted Heidi N. Moore

          There's a really fine line between science philanthropy & straight-up Sugar Daddy Science*, and MIT-ML and Epstein sure found it. *h/t @moorehnhttps://twitter.com/moorehn/status/1170373968202780672?s=20 …

          Dr Sarah Taber added,

          Heidi N. MooreVerified account @moorehn
          Perhaps hardest of all is breaking down the "sugar daddy" model of journalism funding, in which major journalism organisms agree to let dishonest or corrupt men use their money to fund journalism, as a kind of reputation-laundering service.
          Show this thread
          4 replies 220 retweets 1,121 likes
          Show this thread
        30. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          "Sugar daddy science" is not a metaphor here. I mean an actual sugar daddy & sugar baby situation. Epstein wasn't just buying respectability with his science funding. He was literally acting out eugenic sex fantasies. That's why he funded science & not, say, the humanities.

          8 replies 245 retweets 1,201 likes
          Show this thread
        31. Dr Sarah Taber‏ @SarahTaber_bww Sep 11
          • Report Tweet

          When normal folks got the labcoat kink, they just roleplay it out at the local bordello or w/e. The difference is Epstein could actually afford entire labs, in addition to whatever power trip got him onto sex with young girls & "seeding the human race with his DNA."

          4 replies 82 retweets 708 likes
          Show this thread
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