Former Software Engineer Aims To Change The Future Of Farming

A former IBM engineer is building open-source tractors for the masses in hopes of changing how food is grown and who grows it.

The founder of Ronnie Baugh Tractors in Paint Rock, Alabama learned an invaluable lesson as a marine in the Vietnam War: If you believe something’s impossible, you’re dead.

Horace Clemmons, now 79, says that advice not only kept him alive in the war; it’s also the driving force behind his current effort to reinvent an industry now dominated by corporate giants like John Deere and AGCO.

"The goal is to try to convince everybody else they can make these things," Clemmons said. "All you need is two jack stands and somebody that can turn a wrench and somebody that can weld, and you're in business making your own tractor."