4 Things Indoor Farms Have To Do To Survive
Future of farming? Only if you’re sustainable.
March 5, 2020
Written by Jenna A. Bell, PhD, RD VP of Nutritional Science at Crop One
The future of farming does not require tractors, rototillers, or pesticides.
“Sustainability” is a broad concept with ambiguous measures.
As a large-scale controlled ag farming company who is essentially in the business of electrifying agriculture — sustainability is a constant consideration for Crop One. We subscribe to several definitions for what it means to be sustainable:
Sustainability cares about the future. The United Nation’s World Commission on Environment and Development says, “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
Sustainability needs to make money. To economists, it is the fine balance between economic growth and environmental, social, and cultural protection. An industry cannot be sustainable if it compromises only community and the planet, nor can it thrive without financial security.
Sustainability protects our resources and the environment. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) describes sustainability like it was by environmentalist and diplomat, G.P. Marsh in 1864, “Everything that humans require for their survival and well-being depends, directly or indirectly, on the natural environment.” Furthermore, the EPA attests that our health, well-being, economy and security rely on a high-quality environment.
As difficult as it may seem, we have developed a foundation for sustainable indoor farming. Our entire organization has adopted the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) put forth by the United Nations General Assembly.
The United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals are all interconnected and address some of the most pressing global challenges of our time.
In all facets of the farm, we work to align with these goals and achieve sustainability. In the simplest terms, we have to:
Achieve carbon neutrality
Grow more with less
Deliver long-lasting, safe produce
Build communities around farming…indoors
Crop One’s technology and infrastructure is built to achieve economic growth with fewer resources, less land and the pursuit of energy neutrality. Our plant and nutritional science depend on thoughtful control of air and water and are motivated by food resilience and human health. Crop One’s executive decisions focus on innovation and training for the future to develop global employment opportunities in diverse communities.
We recognize that the following four things must be done for us (and our colleagues) to survive:
1. Achieve carbon neutrality
To start, we put our farm in a box. We grow food in modular growing units that (to make us sound cool) we refer to as “Mods”. They are the same size and shape, and are totally controllable, scalable and separate. We have our finger on the pulse for airflow, temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide. We know how it will impact plant growth across the room, and we have optimized and digitized each Mod — precisely — so that resources are not wasted. But there’s more…
In these Mods, we can leverage the plant’s natural ability to “sink” or take up carbon dioxide, which is one natural way carbon compounds are interconverted in the environment. With all the control we have, we schedule and modify the level of carbon dioxide gas that is then taken up by the plants.
For the plant scientists, read here: by studying the ratio of water content to dry biomass for each cultivar grown in the Mods, we can adjust the environmental conditions and determine the average relative amount of reduced-carbon or oxidized carbon dioxide produced by the plants in a given area of growth. Our team is delineating the calculations necessary to achieve carbon neutrality by comparing total carbon produced by the farm, the carbon dioxide supplied to the plants, and the reduced-carbon found in the plants. With this, we can adjust the environmental variables to tip the scale towards carbon negativity.
For other smart people, read here: our plants can recycle carbon and lower our carbon contribution and reduce the overall level of carbon emitted. We call this nearing-negative.
2. Grow more with less
Controlled environment agriculture (CEA) uses less water (95–99% less than traditional farming), and less land (we can grow 400X more than outdoor farms in an acre). In addition to using less, Crop One reuses and recycles. We have built a proprietary system that modulates the carbon dioxide and heat injections (such as from the HVAC exhaust) to improve efficiency for each Mod. Condensate water from the HVAC can be reused as greywater.
By the way, land use is super important — the International Panel on Climate Change’s special report, “Climate Change and Land,” characterized how vulnerable the land ecosystems and biodiversity are to ongoing climate change and extreme weather. As the arable land space has declined, the number of people living in urban areas has exceeded those in rural regions around the world. Thus, reducing the amount of land required to grow food is a global priority.
3. Long-lasting, safe produce
Globally, crop production via conventional agriculture leads to approximately 30% of all crops being lost due to waste from spoilage or uncertainties in weather. With little handling and delivering, our produce lasts longer. Our greens can be found on retailer shelves in less than 24 hours from leaving the farm. So, when you buy it, there’s still a lot of life left (3–4 weeks even).
Our fully enclosed Mods and handling processes keep our greens so clean that there is no need to triple-wash. In fact, more washing means more opportunity to introduce a contaminant and the current industry standard for ready-to-eat greens requires millions of gallons of water treated with salt and chlorine.
Triple-washing is not 100% effective against certain pathogens in certain leafy greens, such as spinach.
4. Build communities around farming… indoors
CEA will never replace outdoor farming. We’re here to complement it. And part of that means that we need to help sustain the local economy and communities. For each farm we build, we will hire locally in order to maintain the promise of truly local food production. We are able to bring in people with diverse backgrounds to learn on the job — in plant science, digital sensors, networking and monitoring, and food growing and handling. The roles at the farm require a varying level of skill and experience, but oftentimes offer opportunity to learn transferrable skills. You can’t outsource local, so the jobs are sustainable