FAQs

PLAAT > FAQs

Collect a few bolls of cotton (making note of the location), answer a few questions under the “Submit Materials” tab to receive a pre-paid label, and then send us the sample.

A group of knowledge-pursuing enthusiasts who are dedicated to moving the world to a better place.

To collect, protect, and sustain the reference sets necessary for the experiments that will identify and track agricultural products now and into the future.

Our first initiative is cotton, but we’re just getting started. Do you have a collection of well documented agricultural products that you’re looking to donate? Send us a note; we would love to be able to help preserve the knowledge you’ve worked to acquire.

Well, it’s the “fabric of our lives” and we had to start somewhere. Coffee was our first choice, but we were concerned the temptation would be too great during the long hours we would be working.

Absolutely not. Privacy is important to us, so if you wish to remain anonymous, we can work with latitude and longitude coordinates and even What3Words specifications. Smartphones are a great way to provide this information. The specific coordinates are necessary because we plan to test the materials regularly over the years in order to understand how the materials from the same location change throughout time.

You bet it is! When a platypus skeleton with its unique characteristics was originally found, the scientific world thought it was impossible for such an animal to exist. PLAAT was also initially met with criticism, as some thought it was out of the question to build a reference library through crowdsourcing. What better representative of an impossible dream is there?

Nope! We’ll be collecting, protecting, and sustaining for years to come.

The same rules apply to collection as they did in kindergarten. “If it’s not yours don’t touch it.” You must be over 18 years of age and have permission to collect and send cotton. We want to build a better world and that starts with doing the right thing.

Anyone can help by spreading the word, following us on social media, visit PLAAT’s Swag Shelf, or even donate (but remember we are NOT an IRS section 501 (c) tax-exempt/non-profit organization; that required a lot of paperwork and we wanted to start collecting cotton now).

Note, the PLAATI Swag Shelf will be up in 2022.