I recently bought a bionutrient meter and I was trying to run some tests but I am a little bit confused. I am wondering if I am able to read all the data by myself and compare a quality of the different food or as the version is still not a “consumer-ready” do I have to submit the samples and will the Lab analyze them for me?
Am I able to create my own reports on the nutrient levels found in each sample like minerals, antioxidants and polyphenols?
How should I read all the reports?
Thank you very much for your help!
Hi there! Thank you for reaching out, and my sincere apologies for the extremely long delay on this response.
With your version of the Bionutrient Meter, you will not be able to do a direct quality comparison of samples.
Our newer version of this device will allow you to complete surveys with pre-made models for a select set of crops in order to generate an estimate for nutrient density.
I will follow up with you over direct message shortly to get a sense of your specific use case.
Hey @nat: as a total n00b that’s just received a v2 Bionutrrient Meter (thanks for the good help that got me up & running, b/t/w), this question that @monopatin has put seems most relevant to me as well. I get that v2 has some new capabilities, but still i am unclear as to whether this device can be useful in stand-alone mode, or whether data must be uploaded to the Our Sci network in order to cross-compare samples that we have collected locally. ?
I ask because: since joining BFA as its first overseas (i.e. Portugal) chapter-leader over 2 years ago, i’ve been following the Real Food Campaign with interest all along, hoping to join the farm data sharing collective as soon as this might be possible… And as of yet, i am still waiting on an answer from the French lab to see if it might be possible to work with them in this capacity.
Meanwhile: We’ve established our own little soil lab on farm, initially for purposes of studying the microbiology, but we’re very interested to expand our focus to include Soil Organic Carbon AND bionutrient density of the crops grown in these soils. Moreover: we are now managing crop information in farmOS, which i have also used to log soil sensor readings (moisture and temperature)… So now i am wondering if it will be possible to send readings from this BioNutrient Meter directly into farmOS?
So, this question for me is essentially: can i use this as a “Local-First Software” solution? Or is it rather a Cloud-First solution for all practical intents and purposes (beyond merely reading data about each individual scan as taken in the field, i mean: can we store and cross-compare a significant set of local data)?
/walt
Hi Walt (and Monopatin) -
To answer a few points:
- Can you use this to send data to farmOS? - Yes! We’re actually setting up all of our Grower Partner data to send to farmOS this year, so that the management and lab results (which can include spectral data) can go there. We’re probably a month or two away from that, but it needs to happen. I’d be happy to meet on a support call and walk through farmOS API’s with you, but if you’re familiar with it you can use the API Compose function in SurveyStack to send the data to farmOS, probably as a lab measurement log (that’s what we plan to do). All that said, since we’re planning to do it you could also just use what we end up building out the survey to do it. Actually knowing your use case could help ensure what we build it in a way that’s also useful for you - so yeah, let me know what your thoughts are on that.
- Is this “local first software”. Well… certainly the data is stored locally, but really most of the functionality is on SurveyStack, which is a central server. So honestly, no not really yet. We are currently working to enable others to create a SurveyStack server more easily by dockerizing the application and simplifying the install process (similar to how many people have different farmOS instances), but even in that case a local survey submitter won’t necessarily have tons on functionality without connecting to the server.
So, given that - are there ways we can help you get what you want, or can you explain your intended use? I’d like to help and work best with “I’d like to …” kind of clarity 
Hope that helps and hope we can help more, would love to hear more about the things you all are exploring!
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Hey @gbathree : Thanks for the quick & supportive reply. Regarding those specific points, i would say:
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Re farmOS integration: Awesome! i would love to explore this issue in-depth with you, Greg, to the end of having SOC and BND readings flowing into my farmOS instance ASAP with minimal friction -that being the first big progress milestone on this project roadmap for me. Regarding farmOS API(s), beyond knowing where are the endpoint(s: v1.x & v2 being different; am using v1.x in production now, while testing v2 for eventual data migration), i can’t say as i know how to POST sensor data there… So if you could walk me through the process, that’s be great!
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Re: Local-First Software: i get that this is not your focus right now, and i can certainly understand why. Indeed: my own long-range goal being to grow the market for my farm products by proving superior nutrient density of foods grown in Living Soil (the Regenerative Organic way), this can only be done in the context of a “Big Data” project involving many others. That is ultimately why i’m here
MEANwhile: as that goal is still a long way down the road, i am looking for low-latency feedback on samples taken from various sites and plantations around my farm (100 acres of ecological & operational diversity), so i can correlate findings and derive learnings to improve our practices. Bit of a Data Science project unto itself, that, but- having developed some rudimentary DS muscles myself, in context of another Citizen Science Project -that is a challenge i’m not afraid to embrace. As to specifics of the research program i have in mind, i can certainly elaborate, but- not to hijack this thread from the OP’s intent -just let me know what more you might be interested to hear, and how (this conversation being my 1st in this Forum, i still have to learn my way around here 
Re. farmOS --> We just discussed this yesterday with @OctavioDuarte …
I think we need a generalizable question set in SurveyStack to push lab data to farmOS - nice to know others want to do it, so when we build it for this upcoming project I’ll make sure to make it generalizable. This is important so that we’re pushing into the same data structure in farmOS - then we can compare across farms (if desired) via the aggregator or other tools. I know that on a one-off basis this doesn’t feel critical, but for benchmarking and comparison (which is what everyone wants to do… if only eventually :)… it’s critical!
Is it possible to give me like 2 - 3 weeks, and then work on this in tech support calls (or during the same time)?
I would love to work on it, just need to finish up some other items first. Maybe there’s others in the community also interested in the topic who could join.
It may also be nice to pair program (I can code it and show you how to do it) and record… I need to get this knowledge out of my brain so I’m not people’s bottleneck!
A-OK, @gbathree -including timeframe, as i expect to be busy w/ migration testing of our production data from farmOS v1.x to v2 alpha3 for a good 2-3 weeks yet.
Moreover: given that APIs of those 2 versions are different, that’s another thing to get sorted out, i.e. : Which version to develop against? depends on farmOS development timeline, which only @mstenta can advise about.
Not to set up any false expectations about my role here, just to be clear: i am no programmer (tho i did manage a good few, in a former life); these days, I Am But A Simple Farmer.
That being said: i’ve done a bit of sloppy python hacking in my time, was fairly comfortable writing SQL queries to get what i needed out of corporate DBs, and am reasonably well prepared to wrangle & analyse whatever data i’m able to store in farmOS.
So: As soon as the time is ripe Greg, you just let me know how best to engage about this project, and i’ll be there to do whatever i can.
Awesome, sounds good. This will be all built around 2.x… though because we’re pushing to 1.x we may just by accident (for development purposes) built that as well. But yeah, 2.x is the goal!
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