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How UAE Produce Is Taking Over The Dining Table: 'We Are Growing All This On Our Doorstep'
Local farms are reporting a rise in demand, while Atlantis, The Palm resort has introduced an initiative to put UAE produce on its restaurants' tables
Local farms are reporting a rise in demand, while Atlantis, The Palm resort has introduced an initiative to put UAE produce on its restaurants' tables
Oasis Greens is a hydroponic farm located in the Jebel Ali free Zone. All photos by Antonie Robertson / The National unless otherwise mentioned
The concept of a “farm tour” is not what it once was.
Instead of the smell of open mud and fertilizer that I used to equate with a farm, I’m standing inside a pristine, temperature-controlled room that contains rows of herbs and leafy greens stretching out to the ceiling.
I am at Oasis Greens, one of many hydroponic, vertical farms to have cropped up in Dubai over the past few years. In this high-tech environment, seeds are planted into foam, which is placed in a solution that provides plants with all the nutrients they need, while LED lights overhead mimic the rays of the run.
The process involves no messy soil or pests and, by default, no need for pesticides either, while 90 percent less water is used than required by traditional farms. The result is sustainably grown, organic and local produce – from varieties of lettuce (be it butterheads and icebergs) to kale, rocket, and bok choy.
Why buy UAE-grown fruits and veggies?
Oasis Green hydroponic farm, located in Jebel Ali Free Zone. Antonie Robertson / The National
Whether it’s a hydroponic or traditional farm, there are indisputable benefits of opting for local over imported produce, which is being noticed by both consumers and big brands.
Among the latter is Atlantis, The Palm, which has launched a sustainability initiative titled the Atlantis Atlas Project.
One of the cornerstones of this campaign is a pledge to give diners access to dishes that are made with locally sourced and organic ingredients, grown and harvested in the UAE. Kelly Timmins, director of conservation, education and corporate social responsibility at the hotel, says the reason for this is two-fold.
“One of the key focuses for Atlantis is to look at increasing our use of local suppliers and vendors as part of our commitment to drive the whole local economy."
She says using local produce is better for the environment as it reduces freight and the carbon footprint involved with bringing in goods from across the world.
Plants are grown in foam rather than soil in hydroponic farms like Oasis Greens. Antonie Robertson / The National
“We are trying to see how we can source perishable products responsibly. Sustainability is a journey and to get there we need the involvement of our community,” she explains.
To procure fresh ingredients on a daily basis, Atlantis, The Palm has teamed up with Fresh on Table, which works as a facilitator between UAE farms and consumers. The company, which launched in Dubai in 2019, takes orders from hotels, stores and customers online, and co-ordinates with farms to ensure that the product is harvested, packaged and delivered the next day.
According to commercial manager Garima Gambhir, the company has grown month-on-month, and currently works with more than 1,000 farms, as well as big hotel groups.
Home-grown company Fresh on Table supplies products from farms to consumers. Supplied
“Chefs realise that local produce is just fresher and going to last longer on the shelf, as opposed to something that has, say, been imported from [the Netherlands] and passed through three days of transit before reaching the kitchen,” she says.
The pandemic has also had an invariable role to play in the rising demand for local produce.
“When borders and hotels started closing last year, the supply food chain was disrupted. With distributors unable to fulfil contracts from international suppliers, we were able to pitch in because everything was local, reliable, and could be picked up from a farm and delivered in a few hours,” says Gambhir.
Oasis Greens currently grows varieties of lettuce, leafy greens and microgreens. Antonie Robertson / The National
Local farms have also witnessed a spike in demand over the past year. Nikita Patel, founder of Oasis Greens, says despite the pandemic, business has been good, with a notable rise in online orders.
“Everyone has been at home, cooking. And even though we didn’t have a lot of tourists come in, residents weren’t leaving, either,” she says.
“I think the pandemic made people realise that food security isn’t a theoretical thing. In a lot of countries, people were having issues with grocery items running out, but the UAE did a very good job ensuring that didn’t happen. Over the past year, more companies are looking inwards and seeing how they can source local. We are just riding the wave.”
Hydroponic farms in the UAE
At UNS Hydroponic, custom LED lights mimic the rays of the sun, helping plants grow. Antonie Robertson / The National
Oasis Greens grows approximately 12 to 15 types of herbs and leafy greens, and has started cultivating microgreens. “The aim is to get into fruits and vegetables, too,” says Patel. “We want to grow cherry tomatoes, chillies and more.”
Within the industrial area of Al Quoz, meanwhile, grows one of the largest, most lush indoor vertical farms in the region. UNS Farms is home to 16 varieties of leafy greens and 16 varieties of micro greens across a space of 5,600 square metres.
During a tour, executive director Mehlam Murtaza asks us to dip our feet in a solution to ensure we don’t track any crop-destroying bacteria or germs inside, before explaining how different elements can affect the growth of plants.
“Our LED lights are a custom design with a special spectrum. Each colour actually has a different effect on the crop – they can widen the leaf size, make them longer or have another indirect effect,” he says.
The nutritional value of the plant remains unchanged, though, with a lot depending on the quality of the seeds used. The seed also plays a role in the taste – at USN Farms, I’m given two types of basil leaves, Thai and Italian. Despite the fact that both varieties are grown in the UAE, the Italian version is subtle in taste and smell, while the Thai is sharper.
UNS Farms in Al Quoz is spread over 5,600 square metres. Antonie Robertson / The National
“We have just scratched the surface about what we can do,” says Murtaza. In the future, research and development may be able to further tweak the taste of plants, he adds. "Who knows what's next? Maybe cotton-candy-flavoured herbs."
With a number of perks of buying local, it does beg the question: why haven’t hotels been doing this all along?
Murtaza says it’s only in the past couple of years that vertical farms have developed to deal with the volume they need. Even then, the maintenance and power required to run hydroponic farms means only certain crops can be grown at financially feasible rates.
Locally 'farmed' seafood in the UAE
Fish Farm in Jebel Ali grows organic and regular salmon, sea bass, sea bream, yellow tail kingfish and hammour. Antonie Robertson / The National
Supporting local goes beyond leafy greens. While the UAE is blessed with an abundance of seafood, there is still a reliance on imports.
That's something home-grown company Fish Farm is aiming to change. Launched in 2013, the company identified the most in-demand fish species being imported and sought to change this by growing them within the country. It currently produces organic and regular salmon, sea bass, sea bream, yellowtail kingfish, and hammour.
“It’s all part of building our food security,” says chief executive Bader bin Mubarak. “At the moment, less than 10 percent of the fish is locally acquired. We want to be able to cover the entire UAE market.”
The company plans on doing this with the help of three facilities: a caged farming facility in Dibba, a hatchery in Umm Al Quwain, and a land farming facility in Jebel Ali.
At the facility in Jebel Ali, Mubarak explains how juveniles and eggs were first sourced from different parts of the globe to ensure the right genetics.
“But since then, we have been hatching our own fish eggs,” he says. The Fish Farm was the first establishment in the world to grow Atlantic salmon on land, from eggs, Mubarak says.
Fish Farm has recreated ideal marine conditions for various species of fish. Antonie Robertson / The National
Business development manager Edmund Broad agrees that it is all about growing and harvesting seafood in the most sustainable manner possible.
“One of the biggest problems with the seafood industry is the pressure it puts on wild fish stocks, through commercial hunting using huge nets. We are a substitute for this. By growing fish on land in a controlled and secure environment, we are not taking anything from the sea. We’re leaving the oceans alone.”
The farm has recreated the ideal environments required by fish, many of which stem from cold-water countries, such as Scotland and Iceland. The fish swim in an area with appropriate salinity, currents, temperature, pH level, and even lighting.
“We’ve recreated the ideal marine conditions suitable to each species: the Atlantic for the salmon, the Pacific for the yellowtail kingfish, the Gulf for the hammour and the Mediterranean for the sea bass,” explains Broad.
The farm currently produces 3,000 metric tonnes of fish per year. “By 2030, we want 50 per cent of seafood consumed to be produced within the country,” says Broad.
From farm to table
UAE residents can get a taste of these sustainable and local ingredients in some of the best restaurants in the country. Thanks to its sustainability pledge, nine of Atlantis, The Palm's signature restaurants are serving dishes with ingredients grown and harvested in Dubai.
Locally hand picked mushrooms, pecorino and truffle at Bread Street Kitchen. Courtesy Atlantis, The Palm
Guests can tuck into locally produced burrata from Bread Street Kitchen or an organic salmon carpaccio from Seafire Steakhouse. Hakkasan is offering dim sum with locally handpicked chestnut mushrooms while Nobu has a crispy hand-picked shiitake mushroom truffle salad.
Ronda Locatelli, The Shore, Wavehouse, and White Restaurant are some other restaurants offering dishes with sustainable ingredients.
Seven-day dry-aged organic Atlantic salmon, grown in the UAE, is available at Seafire Steakhouse. Courtesy Atlantis, The Palm
Raymond Wong, chef de cuisine at Seafire Steakhouse, says the difference between imported and local ingredients is staggering.
“As a chef, an import order is always challenging as you need to place it three to four days in advance for your produce to come in time. But with this initiative, we can order just a day in advance from sustainable farms in Dubai and the produce is as fresh as it can be.”
He hopes this will encourage other restaurants and hotels to follow suit. “I think it will bring a lot of awareness. A lot of people don’t even know we are growing all this on our doorstep.”
June 13, 2021 07:48 AM
USA - WISCONSIN: Valor Aquaponic Coming To Hartford Public Market
“They are a commercial aquaponics farm using non-GMO seeds and rainbow trout and koi to grow all natural vegetables,” according to the Hartford Public Market’s post
Daily News Staff
May 26, 2021
Patrick Hansen is bringing Pewaukee-based Valor Aquaponics to the Hartford Public Market.
Submitted photo
HARTFORD — Valor Aquaponics, out of Pewaukee, is the most recent vendor announced as coming to the new Hartford Public Market this summer.
Valor Aquaponics provides basil, microgreens, and other vegetable products grown on its urban aquaponics farm setup, according to a Facebook post from the Hartford Public Market. According to Valor’s own Facebook page, Valor is certified USDA organic.
“They are a commercial aquaponics farm using non-GMO seeds and rainbow trout and koi to grow all natural vegetables,” according to the Hartford Public Market’s post.
“From organic microgreens to organic basal, Patrick (Hansen) will be bringing in some great options into our refrigerator space. We are really looking forward to offering this product in our market!” it continued.
Aquaponics is a system in which fish and produce are farmed together. The water and waste from the fish is processed to be used as fertilizer for the plants, and the plants in turn filter and oxygenate the water for the fish.
Information on Valor Aquaponics’ website stated that aquaponics systems use 95 percent less water than conventional farming, one-third the energy of other farming systems and because of aquaponics using controlled systems indoors, it does not require pesticides or other harmful chemicals to maintain.
Valor began in 2019 when Patrick Hansen built his first home aquaponics system from seeds and blue tilapia. The business’s indoor farm in Waukesha opened in August of last year.
Ally and Steve Kenitz, husband and wife, are currently working on the space for their new business, the Hartford Public Market at 102 N. Main St. Ally Kenitz said they do not have a hard timeline yet, but they are hoping to have the space completed and open by this August.
Once open, Ally said, the Hartford Public Market will host items from dozens of vendors — they have more than 20 lined up already, and are hoping to have 100 by the time opening day comes.
Upward Farms Opens New Aquaponic Operation In Brooklyn, New York
The new facility is located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York, and utilizes Upward’s next-generation technology to advance the company’s growth
May 19th, 2021
BROOKLYN, NY - Innovation and sustainability are two facets of the fresh produce industry that are growing like wildflowers, and one company seeing the effects of this expansion is Upward Farms, the aquaponics vertical farming company. The New York-based grower has announced the opening of a cutting-edge new headquarters that will continue to support Upward’s commercial production, research, and development.
Jason Green, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-Founder, Upward Farms“Upward Farms’ new facility successfully scales our vertical farming model. Controlled environments and ecological farming are not at odds but are powerful compliments for the next generation of farming. We’re delivering higher yields, disease resistance, safety, and sustainability in a platform that can be deployed anywhere in the world, regardless of climate,” said Jason Green, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-Founder. “The pandemic underscores the importance of shoring up supply chains to be more local for transparency, safety, and efficiency. Localized produce is especially important from a food safety standpoint. As vertical farms scale, we can create a supply chain that’s fundamentally more resilient than shipping produce around the country, if not around the world.”
The new facility is located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York, and utilizes Upward’s next-generation technology to advance the company’s growth. According to a press release, the operation is powered by end-to-end automation and is USDA Certified Organic, making it one of the first Certified Organic vertical farms in the Northeast region of the U.S.
Upward Farms has announced the opening of a cutting-edge new headquarters that will continue to support the company's commercial production, research, and development
In addition to its state-of-the-art technology, the new headquarters includes a fishery that is Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch “Best Choice” rated, and sustainably farms mercury-free, antibiotic-free, and hormone-free striped bass.
Upward Farms’ ready-to-eat microgreen mixes are currently available in all Brooklyn Whole Foods locations and are anticipated to be available in all New York City Whole Foods stores within the next few months.
The new operation is powered by end-to-end automation and is USDA Certified Organic, making it one of the first Certified Organic vertical farms in the Northeast region of the U.S.
As consumer trends continue to shift toward fresh, organic produce and online purchase of groceries, Upward Farms is offering consistent product availability, quality, and scalability for locally grown greens. The grower is expecting further expand as demand increases and has already raised approximately $150 million to date from investors to spark growth.
For more news regarding vertical farming and other growing practices gaining traction across the industry, stick with AndNowUKnow.
Meet The Extra-Terrestrial Aquaponics Pioneer
Former salmon farmer Dr. Carl Mazur aims to design an aquaponics system that could one day be used on Mars. In the meantime, he aims to use it to produce high-value fish and flowers on Earth
Rob Fletcher
May 8, 2021
Former salmon farmer Dr. Carl Mazur aims to design an aquaponics system that could one day be used on Mars. In the meantime, he aims to use it to produce high-value fish and flowers on Earth.
Can you tell us a bit about your aquaculture experience?
Dr. Carl Mazur, founder of Terra-Mars
My aquaculture experience is primarily with saltwater salmon production on the east and west coast of Vancouver Island, in Canada. I gained hands-on experience immediately after graduation from McGill University with a degree in marine biology. This was in the mid-1980s and the issues we had with fish loss due to bacterial kidney disease at the time lead me to pursue a master’s and then a Ph.D. at UBC, focused on the effects of rearing and environmental fish stressors on their immune systems and disease susceptibility.
The Terra-Mars project may be ambitious in the long run but it aims to start with more modest goals
Why did you decide to return to the sector and what inspired you to look into aquaponics specifically?
I returned to the sector after owning and operating a national licensing, sales, and distribution in Canada focused on providing human tissue regeneration products to dental and medical specialists across Canada for 15 years. I returned as I had always intended to do so and had gone to the biotech sector to support my family and to learn business lessons that I could then bring back to the aquaculture/aquaponics sector. My first love is “all things marine” and it’s great to be back in a sector where I feel at home.
The reason for migrating a short step from aquaculture to aquaponics is that I feel aquaponics is more holistic in that a well-conceived aquaponic system can essentially be near-closed and self-sustaining. Aquaponics systems today do need external input in the form of fish feed which then provides carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorous (and other trace elements) for plant growth. The next step in closing the loop will be to produce fish feed from the carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorous delivered from the system in the form of human food, fish offal, and the inedible stem and root plant products.
From aquaponics to aquaponics on Mars, that sounds like quite a leap. What's the logic?
The simple premise behind developing an aquaponic system for use on Mars [as part of the Terra-Mars project] is that a system advanced enough to be on Mars will be able to grow food anywhere on Earth, with modifications. The ultimate goal is to have a system that can provide food security for any environment on Earth and thereby end the suffering that still occurs in some developing countries. Having the ambitious goal of developing a food production system for Mars should provide ample PR exposure which can then be leveraged to promote the project and help to carry it forward.
It must be noted that the initial systems will be produced on a small scale and will be developed to produce high-value fish for the ornamental aquarium fish sector and high-value plants for the fine dining and floral industries. The technologies developed for these high-valued products will later be used for larger projects which will produce higher volume, lower value products for middle class consumers. Eventually, we will transition to industrial-scale operations for low price, mass consumption products. This model is borrowed from the automotive industry, as demonstrated and proven by Tesla motors.
What species of fish are you thinking of growing in your system on Mars?
The three species of fish we’ve shortlisted to date for Mars are tilapia, barramundi and Arctic char. We’ll need to test many species under the simulated Earth environment that we’ll attempt to create in our simulated Martian environment.
Are you able to apply the skills that you gained in the conventional aquaculture sector for the project?
Yes, many of the skills gained in the conventional aquaculture sector (especially related to fish health and nutrition) can certainly be used with this project.
Who are your key collaborators and what do they bring to the project?
The key collaborator for this project is Dr. James Rakocy, known worldwide as the “father of aquaponics”. Dr. Rakocy has had a distinguished 30-year career at the University of the Virgin Islands and his UVI aquaponic system is known worldwide as the best researched and established system for growing tilapia and a variety of greens including lettuces and herbs. Dr. Rakocy is the author of the seminal book Aquaponic Q&A. His educational aquaponic systems are used in over 1,100 high schools across America for foundational teaching in the STEM areas of biology, chemistry, math, and food systems.
Other key collaborators are Garth Wardell, CEO / owner of Allsite IT, a digital intelligence firm currently dedicated to the advancement of intense data solutions for the hospitality and healthcare sectors. Garth is very keen about this project and has been a trusted advisor since 2018. Several other advisors in the areas of law, engineering, computer science, multimedia technologies, education, urban farming, and accounting are also on standby and eager to begin work on this project.
The other noteworthy collaborator is Dr. Christopher McKay, an astrobiologist at the NASA Ames research centre in California, who has offered assistance at the academic level and must sit as an unpaid advisor, as is mandated for all full-time NASA employees.
How have your plans been received to date?
The plans have been very well received to date, most notably by Elon Musk who was informed of the intentions several years ago and stated that “this will be very important down the road”. Mr Musk was presented the concept for informational uses only and was not approached for funding or resources, as he had intense funding and resource requirements at Tesla and SpaceX at the time.
How the system might one day appear
How much money are you hoping to raise for the project and what will you use this for?
The initial round of financing for this project will be for $2.6 million and will be used to:
Develop a first aquaponic system prototype.
Secure an IP patent portfolio of aquaponic patents.
Build a physical model of the Space Exploration Theme park
Develop a mixed reality (VR&AR) tour of the park
Perform an extensive feasibility study for the project.
What are the key milestones for your project?
Obtain the initial round of seed funding.
Become cash-flow positive with the acquisition of existing ancillary businesses in the fish, vegetable and floral, growth, packaging, distribution, retail, media and entertainment sectors.
Building global brand recognition for Terra-mars products and entertainment facilities.
Acquisition of real estate (primarily distressed suburban shopping malls) where the aquaponic facilities will be installed to grow the fish and plants for local distribution to populations in North America and Europe.
Series A financing round to raise $100 million in 2023 or 2024 at the latest.
What is the end goal for your project and do you think that this is feasible to achieve in your own lifetime?
The end goal for phase one of the project is to have four Space / Mars exploration theme parks – one in North America, one in Europe, one in MENA, and one in China. These will have the dual purpose of entertainment and providing research facilities for Mars colonization technologies, featuring the aquaponic food production system. Other technologies for Mars colonization will be in the fields of transportation, communications, housing, healthcare, and recreation.
If you don’t make it to Mars, where will you target using your aquaponics systems on the Earth?
If we don’t make it to Mars, the aquaponic system will first be used to produce high value fish and plants for Western markets and eventually be developed in for larger commercial operations to be used anywhere on earth.
What are the major challenges that you still need to overcome?
The major challenges which we need to overcome are to raise the initial round of financing and to become cashflow positive in the shortest time possible.
Rob Fletcher
Senior editor at The Fish Site
Rob Fletcher has been writing about aquaculture since 2007, as editor of Fish Farmer, Fish Farming Expert and The Fish Site. He has an MA in history from the University of Edinburgh and an MSc in sustainable aquaculture from the University of St Andrews. He currently lives and works in Scotland.
Plans For Aquaponics Project In Belgian Port of Ostend
Columbi Salmon aims to harvest 12,000 tonnes of salmon and 4,000 tonnes of salad leaves a year by 2025
Columbi Salmon aims to harvest 12,000 tonnes of salmon and 4,000 tonnes of salad leaves a year by 2025, at a site in the Belgian port of Ostend. Kolbjørn Giskeødegård, CFO of the startup, explains their unique production system, why he thinks the time is right for growing salmon in RAS, and what persuaded him to swap finance for farming.
“For many years working for Nordea was the best job in the world – I had a great degree of freedom in my role and it was very exciting. I could probably have worked there until retirement, but had got to the point where I had seen most of the issues – the sector reports and updates started to feel like they were going in a circle,” explains Giskeødegård, who was the Norwegian bank’s chief seafood analyst for 25 years.
However, amidst the increasingly familiar cyclical trends of the conventional salmon farming sector there was one part of the industry which began to catch his attention.
“In the last two of three years, land-based salmon farming was emerging as the most exciting and disruptive part of the sector. I’d talked to many of the players about their plans and roles and licences,” he reflects.
The combination of the entrepreneurial spirit of the RAS pioneers and the development of disruptive new technologies that were needed to enable these systems to produce market-sized salmon appealed to Giskeødegård – and there was one company that stood out.
“It was a group of people I really believed in, including former colleagues – four from finance and four with a deep knowledge of fish farming,” he explains.
Read the complete article at www.thefishsite.com.
Publication date: Fri 30 Apr 2021
US: June 27, 9:30 AM - 3:00 PM - Symbiotic Aquaponic: Modoc Nation To Host Virtual Aquaponics Course
The workshop will teach the science and business basics of aquaponics. This class is offered in partnership with the Modoc Nation and the Native American Agriculture Fund (NAAF). Twenty-three scholarships will be available to members of any Native American tribes
Symbiotic Aquaponic and the Modoc Nation will host a one-day, online Introduction to Aquaponics course on June 27. The course is open to the public.
The workshop will teach the science and business basics of aquaponics. During the class practitioners and experts will discuss topics such as the different types of aquaponics systems, fish and plant species selection, water testing, system maintenance, and more.
This class is offered in partnership with the Modoc Nation and the Native American Agriculture Fund (NAAF). Twenty-three scholarships will be available to members of any Native American tribe.
“We’re offering this class with the Modoc Nation for the first time,” Symbiotic CEO and co-owner Kaben Smallwood said, “We’re hoping this will benefit Native American entrepreneurs as well as the Miami community.”
The Modoc Nation installed its first aquaponics system this year. Called the Maklaks Farm, or “the people’s farm” in Modoc, this system will grow produce and fish for tribal members as well as the tribe’s restaurant, The Stables.
“We are thrilled to be able to be able to expand our agricultural services program and teach a new set of skills to our younger generation of Native farmers,” said Modoc Nation Council Member Tyler Scifers. “The Maklaks Farm, not only enables us to continue our well-established ranching tradition, it also empowers our members to grow in the area of climate-controlled agriculture, an opportunity we have not had previously.”
Registration includes course materials. The early-bird price for general members of the community is $35 per seat with special group rates for groups of four or more. Due to digital capacity and to ensure high-quality interaction the workshop is limited to the first 50 participants.
The class will be conducted online via video conference from 9:30 a.m.- 3:00 p.m. Registration for the event is open to the public and available online at www.symbioticaquaponic.com. For more information please contact aquaponics@modocnation.com or call 913-735-6618.
30 Apr 2021
USA: Delaware Entrepreneurs Start Growing Crops In Water. Will Hydroponic Farms Catch On?
Bill Jordan of Millsboro is an accidental farmer who's growing crops without soil. “I was going to make alcohol from corn or peaches to supplement fuel when fuel prices got stupid,” Jordan recalled, but he quickly realized that was not profitable
Delaware News Journal
Bill Jordan of Millsboro is an accidental farmer who's growing crops without soil.
“I was going to make alcohol from corn or peaches to supplement fuel when fuel prices got stupid,” Jordan recalled, but he quickly realized that was not profitable.
As part of his research, though, he saw that some hydroponic farms use what’s left of the corn or peaches from the alcohol-making process as a fertilizer.
“That’s what led me to it,” he said.
About 15 years ago when he lived in Maryland, he started taking courses on hydroponics and visiting hydroponic farms. He built his own greenhouse and supplemented his income by building greenhouses for others.
After moving to Delaware, he started Fresh Harvest Hydroponics in Millsboro, specializing in a variety of hydroponically-grown lettuces and herbs that are pesticide-free and herbicide-free.
The plants are raised in three climate-controlled greenhouses. The largest has the capacity to grow 50,000 heads of lettuce at one time.
Before the pandemic, he was selling to wholesalers like Sysco and Teddy Bear Fresh, along with Hocker’s grocery stores in Sussex County and restaurants like Fager’s Island in Ocean City, Maryland.
“COVID really hurt us,” Jordan said. “A lot of restaurants just are not buying. Right now, we’re just doing farmers markets and onsite sales, trying to keep our head above water.”
He and one employee are able to maintain the operation, but before the pandemic, the business had several other employees.
However, Jordan said hydroponics has been a profitable business.
“It’s done well for me. It cost me a certain amount to start, but I had it paid off in about a year,” he said. “If COVID ever lifts enough, if people aren’t scared to go back to restaurants, I’ll do pretty well.”
He’s convinced that the indoor crop is superior to field grown.
“Hydroponics can grow bigger, faster, and healthier plants,” he said. “The taste is better. My basil is much stronger than field-grown because it has the right nutrients every day. We test our water on a daily basis.”
Christel Folke is an applied agriculture instructor at the Owens Campus of Delaware Technical and Community College in Georgetown. She said while hydroponic start-up and maintenance costs are the main hurdles, the process has a long list of advantages.
“It’s a controlled environment. The grower has complete control of the lighting, heat, humidity, water, and nutrients. A lot of diseases usually come from the soil, but with hydroponics, you eliminate most of that risk. You still have some pests and disease, but it is easier to control, and we use natural methods,” Folke said, speaking about the college’s hydroponic system.
Saving water is another plus because the water is targeted at the roots, with much less evaporation compared to overhead irrigation outdoors.
The plants have a longer shelf life, Jordan said. Some hydroponic growers like him sell plants with the roots.
“With the root system attached, lettuce can last two weeks or more,” he said. “The shelf life on hydroponics crushes anything else.”
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Like with other greenhouse operations, farmers can grow year-round if they have heating and cooling systems.
Hydroponics is starting to attract more attention in Delaware.
‘Life-changing experience’ turns hobby into a business
In Dover, Doug Wood was a special education teacher in the Capital School District who started aquaponics as a hobby, raising fish to supply nutrient-rich water which is filtered and used to grow crops like lettuce.
“I was selling mainly to my fellow teachers. They really liked it and they said, ‘You should do this for real.’ Then I went through a life-changing event when I lost my mother to cancer, and I started thinking, ‘You only go around once,’ and decided to pursue it as a career,” Wood said.
He also wanted to help people eat a healthier diet in an effort to prevent cancer.
“I’ve always known we consume more chemicals, more man-made stuff, than we ever have," Wood said. "What really sparked me was trying to grow with no chemicals, no pesticides."
After attending a seminar at an aquaponics company, he decided to jump in, starting 302 Aquaponics with his wife, Katie.
With the help of another former teacher, Jomelle Bowen, who majored in plant science in college, they set up the two-part operation. One section is for fish tanks and water filtration systems, and the other is for dozens of shallow “table tanks” in which the lettuce floats in containers with the roots dangling in the water below.
No soil is used. A man-made, rock-like granular material is used to help anchor the roots.
After a little over a year in business, they now have almost 20,000 square feet in greenhouses. Together with 10 other employees, they harvest about 600 heads of lettuce a day, close to 220,000 per year, with the capacity to raise 350,000 heads per year, all in under a quarter acre.
“We are basically turning over nine crops per year,” Wood said.
They raise fish to supply the nutrients for the lettuce. The water the fish are in goes through several filtration steps and then is used to grow the plants. After the solids are filtered out, “good bacteria” are added to break down the fish waste that has dissolved in the water, creating a natural fertilizer in the water.
They raise tilapia, a tropical fish that grows well in the warmer temperatures inside the greenhouse.
Lettuce is a profitable crop. But those profits came after more of a challenge than he expected.
“When we first started production, it was three weeks before COVID struck. After that, our sales were a fourth of what they should’ve been,” he said. “We were giving a lot of [lettuce] away, to the Food Bank and shelters.”
So he went to farmers’ markets, locally-owned grocery stores and offered sales directly to customers for pickup at his farm or at a variety of locations throughout the state.
“I have a refrigerated delivery van. If I didn’t have that, I don’t know what I would have done,” he said. “A lot of people didn’t want to go in stores, but they would preorder and I’d deliver to them in my van.”
Business at restaurants started picking up as capacity restrictions eased, and schools reopened.
“Sales have done really well in the last four months,” Wood said.
He sells lettuce to restaurants, three school districts – Smyrna, Caesar Rodney, and Colonial – and grocery stores like Janssen’s Market in Greenville and Hocker’s Supermarkets in Bethany Beach and Clarksville.
“My big market is at the beach with restaurants and independently-owned grocery stores,” he said.
So far, he hasn’t sold to wholesalers because the profits would be too small. But he thinks he’s on the ground floor of what could be a big business.
“Consumers are becoming much more aware of the product they’re buying, where it’s coming from, and they’re willing to pay a little more for a cleaner, more sustainable product,” he said.
Why isn’t it more widespread?
While the hydroponics business is starting to sprout in Delaware, there are some big operations in other states.
AppHarvest in Morehead, Kentucky began trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange Feb. 1. Already operating a 60-acre high-tech indoor facility, the company plans to use funds from the stock offering to build 12 more large-scale indoor farms. In February, the company broke its record by harvesting more than 120,000 pounds of tomatoes in a single day.
Another major operation is AeroFarms in Newark, New Jersey, with a 70,000 square-foot greenhouse in a former steel mill, a 30,000 square-foot growing space in a former paintball and laser tag arena and a 5,500 square-foot research and development farm in a former nightclub. The company reports it can grow more than 2 million pounds of produce a year.
AppHarvest and AeroFarms confirm the advantages of hydroponics: saving land, saving water, a year-round growing season and eliminating man-made pesticides and herbicides, opting for natural solutions.
However, the high start-up costs can be demonstrated in AppHarvest’s financial forecasts. It estimates 2021 net revenue of $21 million, but a loss of $41 million because of expenses which include building more indoor farming systems.
Another reason hydroponics hasn’t taken off: “Not every crop can be grown that way,” said Kellie Michaud, agriscience teacher at Smyrna High School. “It’s a niche.”
Some plants grow well when they’re constantly in water, but others don’t. Some are just too large to be practical in a greenhouse. Indoor farmers need crops that take up little space and reach maturity quickly.
Michaud said some of the best performers are lettuce, greens, herbs, tomatoes, peppers, celery, and strawberries.
What could turn the tide?
Smyrna High agriscience teacher Keith Shane said scarcity of land could spur more hydroponic operations.
“If the state of Delaware continues at the rate of development we have seen, I could see hydroponics becoming a little bit more mainstream,” Shane said. “I don’t know if that future will be in our lifetime, but I honestly think it will be a niche – a pretty sustainable niche. I don’t see it going away.”
At Delaware Technical Community College in Georgetown, Dr. Daniele Kidd agrees.
“We’ve got to figure out how to feed the growing population,” said Kidd, the chair of the college’s applied agriculture department. “Other countries where land is scarce like Japan, they have skyscrapers that are basically indoor greenhouses.”
In Delaware, even with farm preservation programs, many farms have been sold to developers.
“It would be very difficult to start a farm in our area, to buy 50 acres,” Kidd said. “It would be expensive and might not make financial sense, but with hydroponics, you can make a living on three to four acres.”
Jordan, at Fresh Harvest Hydroponics, believes this system of farming will become much more widespread.
“There are tons of advantages to hydroponics, and they’re not making any more land,” he said.
Ben Mace covers real estate and business news. He can be reached at rmace@gannett.com.
Our Monthly Webinar For April Is “Training The Next Generation of Aquaponic Farmers” From Researcher Sarah Milliken At The University of Greenwich, U.K.
Ms. Milliken will introduce an open access aquaponics curriculum, Aqu@teach, specifically developed for college students with a focus on entrepreneurial and transferable skills
The Webinar Will Take Place Live, Saturday,
April 17 From 11 am To 12 pm EST And Feature A Live Q&A.
Click Below To Register:
REGISTER: Training the Next Generation of Aquaponic Farmers
Ms. Milliken will introduce an open access aquaponics curriculum, Aqu@teach, specifically developed for college students with a focus on entrepreneurial and transferable skills. As soilless food production technologies become increasingly important in light of climate change and the threat of food insecurity, there is an urgent need to provide an appropriately trained workforce.
The Webinar is free to the public during the live broadcast. The Webinar will remain available for free, in perpetuity, to all Aquaponics Association Members in the Member’s Area of our Community Site.
Special thanks to Ed "Aqua-Eddie" Tivnan, Association Director of STEM Aquaponics, for organizing the webinar.
Hope to see you there!
Brian Filipowich, Chairman
Aquaponics Association
The Aquaponics Association
1240 Evarts Street, NE
Washington, DC 20018
Aquaponics AI Releases New Video Series ‘People of Aquaponics’ Connecting With The Movers and Shakers of The Aquaponic and Aquaculture Industry.
The People of Aquaponics series is highlighting the movers and shakers in the industry
Aquaponics AI is a social-impact aquaponic technology company powering the heroes of next-gen aquaponic food production. Their recently released video series, People of Aquaponics, aims to validate the rapidly growing aquaponic community by connecting with awesome people, doing amazing things globally with aquaponics and aquaculture.
“I’m personally inspired by the aquaponic community. You are a unique group of people with an underlying vibe for social impact and caring for people and the planet. Of course, aquaponics is an impactful avenue, but the people behind all of this, that’s who I’m excited to connect with and share with the community through this series “said Daniel Robards, co-founder, and CBDO.
The People of Aquaponics series is highlighting such movers and shakers in the industry. Some interviews so far include a professor who was trialing aquaponics 40 years ago, a researcher discussing her work with microorganisms and bacterial communities, as well as a business training persons with disabilities within their, grow space; that happens to be hosted in a brewery.
Jump in and watch the series on Aquaponics AI’s Youtube page!
About Aquaponics AI
Aquaponics AI is the leading provider of cloud-based aquaponics software. A data and intelligence-driven approach to growing with Aquaponics enable small and large farms to simplify data, understand their system and become better growers. With Aquaponics AI, growers can leverage key data insights to increase overall success and impact. For more information visit aquaponics.ai or email connect@aquaponics.ai.
Vertical Farming ‘At a Crossroads’
Although growing crops all year round with Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) has been proposed as a method to localize food production and increase resilience against extreme climate events, the efficiency and limitations of this strategy need to be evaluated for each location
Building the right business model to balance resource usage with socio-economic conditions is crucial to capturing new markets, say speakers ahead of Agri-TechE event
Image from: Fruitnet
Although growing crops all year round with Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) has been proposed as a method to localize food production and increase resilience against extreme climate events, the efficiency and limitations of this strategy need to be evaluated for each location.
That is the conclusion of research by Luuk Graamans of Wageningen University & Research, a speaker at the upcoming Agri-TechE event on CEA, which takes place on 25 February.
His research shows that integration with urban energy infrastructure can make vertical farms more viable. Graamans’ research around the modelling of vertical farms shows that these systems are able to achieve higher resource use efficiencies, compared to more traditional food production, except when it comes to electricity.
Vertical farms, therefore, need to offer additional benefits to offset this increased energy use, Graamans said. One example his team has investigated is whether vertical farms could also provide heat.
“We investigated if vertical farms could provide not just food for people living in densely populated areas and also heat their homes using waste heat. We found that CEA can contribute to stabilizing the increasingly complex energy grid.”
Diversification
This balance between complex factors both within the growing environment and wider socio-economic conditions means that the rapidly growing CEA industry is beginning to diversify with different business models emerging.
Jack Farmer is CSO at vertical producer LettUs Grow, which recently launched its Drop & Grow growing units, offering a complete farming solution in a shipping container.
He believes everyone in the vertical farming space is going to hit a crossroads. “Vertical farming, with its focus on higher value and higher density crops, is effectively a subset of the broader horticultural sector,” he said.
"All the players in the vertical farming space are facing a choice – to scale vertically and try to capture as much value in that specific space, or to diversify and take their technology expertise broader.”
LettUs Grow is focussed on being the leading technology provider in containerised farming, and its smaller ‘Drop & Grow: 24’ container is mainly focussed on people entering the horticultural space.
Opportunities in retail
“This year is looking really exciting,” he said. “Supermarkets are investing to ensure a sustainable source of food production in the UK, which is what CEA provides. We’re also seeing a growth in ‘experiential’ food and retail and that’s also where we see our Drop & Grow container farm fitting in.”
Kate Hofman, CEO, GrowUp agrees. The company launched the UK’s first commercial-scale vertical farm in 2014.
“It will be really interesting to see how the foodservice world recovers after lockdown – the rough numbers are that supermarket trade was up at least 11 per cent in the last year – so retail still looks like a really good direction to go in.
“If we want to have an impact on the food system in the UK and change it for the better, we’re committed to partnering with those big retailers to help them deliver on their sustainability and values-driven goals.
“Our focus is very much as a salad grower that grows a fantastic product that everyone will want to buy. And we’re focussed on bringing down the cost of sustainable food, which means doing it at a big enough scale to gain the economies of production that are needed to be able to sell at everyday prices.”
Making the Numbers Add Up
The economics are an important part of the discussion. Recent investment in the sector has come from the Middle East, and other locations, where abundant solar power and scarce resources are driving interest in CEA. Graamans’ research has revealed a number of scenarios where CEA has a strong business case.
For the UK, CEA should be seen as a continuum from glasshouses to vertical farming, he believes. “Greenhouses can incorporate the technologies from vertical farms to increase climate control and to enhance their performance under specific climates."
It is this aspect that is grabbing the attention of conventional fresh produce growers in open field and covered crop production.
A Blended Approach
James Green, director of agriculture at G’s, thinks combining different growing methods is the way forward. “There’s a balance in all of these systems between energy costs for lighting, energy costs for cooling, costs of nutrient supply, and then transportation and the supply and demand. At the end of the day, sunshine is pretty cheap and it comes up every day.
“I think a blended approach, where you’re getting as much benefit as you can from nature but you’re supplementing it and controlling the growth conditions, is what we are aiming for, rather than the fully artificially lit ‘vertical farming’.”
Graamans, Farmer and Hofman will join a discussion with conventional vegetable producers, vertical farmers and technology providers at the Agri-TechE event ‘Controlled Environment Agriculture is growing up’ on 25 February 2021.
US - OHIO: Thinking And Growing Inside The Box
A brother-sister team has taken the mechanics of farming out of the field and into a freight container. “We are growing beautiful plants without the sun; there’s no soil, and so it’s all a closed-loop water system,” Britt Decker, co-owner of Fifth Season FARM, said
A brother-sister team has taken the mechanics of farming out of the field and into a freight container.
“We are growing beautiful plants without the sun; there’s no soil, and so it’s all a closed-loop water system,” Britt Decker, co-owner of Fifth Season FARM, said. “We use non-GMO seeds, completely free of herbicides and pesticides, so the product is really, really clean. In fact, we recommend people don’t even wash it, because there’s no reason to.”
Fifth Season FARM is unique in many ways; the 3-acre hydroponic farm is contained in a 320-square-foot freight container that sits along 120 S. Main St. in Piqua, with everything from varying varities of lettuce, to radishes, to kale and even flowers in a climate-controlled smart farm that allows Decker and his sister, Laura Jackson, to turn crops in a six- to eight-week cycle. The crops spend 18 hours in “daytime” every day, and the farm uses 90% less water than traditional farming.
“It’s tricky because we’re completely controlling the environment in here. It’s kind of a laboratory more than a farm,” Decker said. “I think there’s about 50 of them around the world right now. These are really international, and they’re perfect for places that are food deserts where they can’t grow food because of climate or other reasons. It gives them a way to grow food in the middle of nowhere.”
Image from: Sidney Daily News
Decker and Jackson, along with their brother Bill Decker, also do traditional farming and grow corn, wheat and soybeans, but Decker said they were looking for a new venture that would help lead them to a healthier lifestyle and learn something new.
“Just with the whole local food movement becoming more and more important and food traceability, we just thought it would be a great thing to bring to our community to help everyone have a healthier lifestyle,” Decker said. “People love food that’s grown right in their hometown and the shelf-life on it, when you get it home, is remarkable. It’ll keep for two weeks.”
Image from: AgFunder News
Currently, Decker and Jackson are growing a half-dozen variety of specialty lettuces that include arugula, butterhead and romaine, as well as specialty greens like kale and Swiss chard, and even radishes and flowers. They received their freight container at the end of July and set up their indoor farm over two weeks; while the farm has been in operation for less than six months, Decker says that they’re growing beautiful product.
They have also started growing micro-greens, said Decker. Micro-greens are immature plants which are 1 to 3 inches tall and are in a 5-inch by 5-inch container.
“People will use them as garnishments and in smoothies,” said Decker. “Since they are immature plants, they have an intense flavor.”
Decker said they are growing wheat germ, broccoli and spicy salad mixes.
They’ve also started moving forward with sales and marketing. Fifth Season FARM has partnered with the Miami County Locally Grown Virtual Market to sell their products to the community. They also take orders through their website, customers can opt to pick up their orders between 4 and 6 p.m. on Wednesdays, or Decker and Jackson will deliver products up to five miles from the farm. Decker said that Fifth Season FARM is also in discussions with three restaurants in the area about including their specialty greens on their menus.
Decker said they also plan to attend the Sidney Farmers Market when it opens for the spring/summer season.
“We’re really just getting going,” Decker said. “While we were learning to grow products, we didn’t want to overcommit to a restaurant or grocery store before we knew we could really grow beautiful product, so we’ve been donating product every week to the food pantry at the Presbyterian Church. It feels good to plant the seeds and watch them grow, and it feels good to make sure that people who aren’t getting the proper nutrition are getting some.”
In Malahide, Two Friends Raise A Vertical Farm
When salesman Jack Hussey finishes his work day, he closes the laptop, leaves his home in Malahide and walks 10 minutes down the road. At the bottom of his friend’s farm sits an outhouse with a coldroom which now hosts his side business, Upfarm. A farm that goes upwards
Image from: Dublin Inquirer
When salesman Jack Hussey finishes his work day, he closes the laptop, leaves his home in Malahide and walks 10 minutes down the road. At the bottom of his friend’s farm sits an outhouse with a coldroom which now hosts his side business, Upfarm. A farm that goes upwards.
Imagine a shelf rack, says Hussey. “We’ve kitted the roofs of each shelf with an LED grow light. It’s to replicate the sunlight basically.”
A photo of the farm shows purple light beaming down on thick heads of lemongrass and basil, stacked on shelves. Yields from vertical farming are far more efficient than in-the-ground farming, Hussey said, on the phone last Friday.
He likens it to real estate. “You can have houses that are populated side by side or you can start going upwards with apartments.”
From Podcast to Table
Hussey always had an interest in food, he says. Last year he and a school friend, Bill Abbott, began to look into urban farming.
“But we were saying, is farming in the ground actually the best route to go?” Hussey says.
It’s labour intensive, which didn’t suit the two guys, who work other full-time jobs. Then, in March 2020, Hussey heard a podcast with American urban farmer Curtis Stone. He had an urban farm where he was using a spin-farming method, says Hussey. “It’s what they call it. You rotate crops out of the ground in a much more efficient way.”
“Essentially he was able to capitalise on a third acre of land. He was able to take in 80k a year,” he says.
Hussey was inspired by that, by somebody making the most of a small bit of land. So in June last year, in the middle of a pandemic and juggling working from home, Hussey and Abbot set about doing the same, albeit with a different model, and launched their vertical farm.
Image from: Farmony
How It Works
Farmony, which specialises in tech for vertical farming, sold Upfarm with the tools to get up and running – shelves, special LED lighting, a watering system and humidifiers. It is the ideal conditions for growing produce, says Framony co-founder John Paul Prior. Nutrients, hours of light, humidity and temperature are controlled in vertical farming, Prior says.
But Farmony is also a data company, Prior says. “So we capture data at all stages of the growing cycle. And we feed that back to the grower.”
This helps the grower to establish the optimum conditions, he says. “That’s not just in terms of plant growth, that’s in terms of workflow management.”
The size of an operation can be the small coldroom in Malahide that uses one Farmony module, and produces microgreens and wheatgrass for sale. Or it can be like a farm in Tipperary with 60 modules, he says. A module is 1 metre wide, 1.3 metres long and 2.5 metres tall, Prior says. Hussey says it is labour-intensive looking after a vertical farm module.
After work last Thursday, he and his dad replanted his microgreen crops into 30 different trays. “It took about two hours,” he says.
What Is the Benefit?
“So as long as you can control your temperature, your humidity, and your nutrient levels in the water, you can basically grow all year round,” says Prior. Vertical farming also means better conditions for workers, Prior says.
“If you’re working in a controlled environment, like a vertical farm, you’re working in a clean environment,” Prior says.
“You work between 18 to 22 degrees. There’s no harsh frost. There’s no extreme cold winters, equally there’s no burning-hot summers.,” says Prior.
The crop is consistent too, says Prior, thanks to the controlled environment.
“Let’s say I’m someone who loves basil and who makes a lot of pesto at home,” he says.
Getting basil of consistent quality from the supermarket can be difficult when it comes from different countries, or may have been sitting on a shelf for days after travelling thousands of miles, he says.
Image from: Farmony
Why Is this Important?
Soil quality is dropping, Hussey says. “What does that mean for outdoor growing?”
The answer, Hussey says, is vertical farming. It uses mineral-rich water so it doesn’t rely on nutrients from the ground, Hussey says.
Says Prior: “Vertical farming uses about 10 percent of the water of traditional farming.”
Prior says it takes less energy to get food from a nearby vertical farm than to ship it from afar. It was not always the case until a breakthrough in another industry, he says.
“Billions of dollars have been invested in the cannabis industry globally. It’s meant that the investment in grow-lighting technology has been huge,” he says.
“As a result, the price, the efficiency and most importantly, the energy efficiency of the lighting is really amazing” he says.
Says Hussey: “It’s not easy work but it is nice work. It’s good work.”
Pontus Submits Building Permit Application for Surrey Aquaponics Facility
The Company has submitted a construction application to the City of Surrey for its 20,570 square foot aquaponics facility. The approval process is estimated to be completed within 6 weeks and is expected to be followed by the immediate commencement of construction of the Facility's leasehold improvements. Accordingly, the leasehold improvements are to consist of a complete retrofit of the Facility to establish Pontus' solar-powered, water recycling CEVASTM aquaponic system
VANCOUVER, BC, Feb. 3, 2021 /CNW/ - Pontus Protein Ltd. ("Pontus" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce it has made significant progress towards the development of its state of the art, integrated aquaponics facility located in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada (the "Facility").
Image from: CNW Group/Pontus Protein Ltd
The Company has submitted a construction application to the City of Surrey for its 20,570 square foot aquaponics facility. The approval process is estimated to be completed within 6 weeks and is expected to be followed by the immediate commencement of construction of the Facility's leasehold improvements. Accordingly, the leasehold improvements are to consist of a complete retrofit of the Facility to establish Pontus' solar-powered, water recycling CEVASTM aquaponic system.
The installation of all required equipment for the growth and production is forecasted to take between four and six months to complete. Upon completion, the Facility will be approximately 20 times the size of Pontus' prior prototype facility. The prototype facility has been used to test and develop the technology for the Company's proprietary growing process.
The Facility, as seen in the image above and video below, will utilize an array of additional technologies to create a clean and sustainable aquaponics ecosystem. Solar energy panels will be installed to capture renewable energy and power the closed-loop water system, which recycles up to 95% of all water inputs. The implementation of the Facility's unique, sustainable technology in conjunction with Pontus' proprietary CEVAS™ automated growth technology will allow the Company to emphasize biosecurity in its agricultural production processes, removing the need for additional chemicals, pesticides, and other non-native components.
Pontus CEO, Conner Yuen states: "Entering the construction application process is a major milestone for the Company as we move toward the commissioning of the Facility. Our aim is to create a state of the art process that will incorporate the latest in sustainable agriculture technology. The ability to implement this highly efficient technology solves many issues we see with current methods of food production such as land scarcity and low yields and contamination.
Pontus' biosecurity and renewable food sources are intended to create a proactive solution to these issues by reducing the potential for contamination and the need for pesticides. Pontus hopes the Facility will revolutionize how traditional agriculture is conducted and show the power of technological food advancements."
Plant-based Protein Powder Market
The Company's plant-based protein powder is a premium entry into the global protein and supplements market, which is currently valued at USD$15 Billion and is expected to grow to USD$20 Billion by 2025 according to Grand View Research. This growth is expected to be fuelled by many North Americans reducing or eliminating the regular consumption of animal products. The North American plant-based protein market is also anticipated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 14% from 2019 through 2025.
About Pontus Protein Ltd
Pontus Protein Ltd. makes pure plant-based protein powder sourced from nutritious water lentils, farm-grown in Vancouver, BC, with development plans to expand to Surrey, B.C.. Not only does Pontus Protein Powder exceed certified organic standards, but it's also gluten-free, pure and allergen safe. It's jam-packed full of antioxidants, minerals, vitamins and ALL the essential amino acids.
This is not your average lentil, these are water lentils; a crop that can be harvested every 24 hours in an indoor aquaponic farm that uses 95% less water than traditional agriculture, using Pontus' proprietary Closed Environment Vertical Aquaponics System (or CEVAS™) aquaponic agritech technology. This is wonderful news for a planet populated with us hungry and health-conscious humans.
Nanobubble Tech Could Revolutionize Aquaculture & Aquaponics
“There is a pressing need to develop an alternative to the current highly energy-intensive conventional aeration,” said Khanal. “Nanobubble technology has a potential to revolutionize aquaculture and aquaponic systems, with higher productivity and resource recovery.” Khanal was initially awarded CTAHR’s Team Science grant, which was critically important to obtaining preliminary data for his grant proposal to NIFA
Image from: University of Hawai’i News
The burgeoning fields of aquaculture and aquaponics hold vast potential for growing food. Yet, the efficacy of these microbial-mediated processes is governed by the availability of dissolved oxygen in water. Generally, oxygen has poor solubility in water, which has a negative effect on fish growth and plant yields.
Almost $200,000 in new funding from the USDA-National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) Water Quantity and Quality Program may expand researchers’ understanding of how nanobubbles could improve aeration and oxygen supplies.
Under the grant, Samir Khanal of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR ) Department of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering, will apply the technology to these aqueous systems. His goal is to uncover new opportunities for improving fish and plant yields—with concomitant improvements in water quality.
Image from: University of Hawai’i News
“There is a pressing need to develop an alternative to the current highly energy-intensive conventional aeration,” said Khanal. “Nanobubble technology has a potential to revolutionize aquaculture and aquaponic systems, with higher productivity and resource recovery.”
Khanal was initially awarded CTAHR’s Team Science grant, which was critically important to obtaining preliminary data for his grant proposal to NIFA.
“Thanks to the CTAHR and NIFA grants, we hope our findings will benefit existing Hawaiʻi businesses, as well as a new generation of growers, across the state and beyond,” Khanal added.
Ensuring Singapore's Food Security Despite the Odds
As with most issues that impact national security in Singapore, it often seems that the odds are stacked against us. Food security — access to safe and nutritious food — is a challenge on several fronts. Singapore is a small city-state with limited resources, with only 1 per cent of land available for food production, and over 90 per cent of food is imported from an increasingly disrupted world. The Covid-19 pandemic has further amplified the gravity of safeguarding food security
Image from: Reuters
As with most issues that impact national security in Singapore, it often seems that the odds are stacked against us. Food security — access to safe and nutritious food — is a challenge on several fronts.
Singapore is a small city-state with limited resources, with only 1 per cent of land available for food production, and over 90 per cent of food is imported from an increasingly disrupted world. The Covid-19 pandemic has further amplified the gravity of safeguarding food security. The city-state has been proactively planning for long-term food security through the Singapore Food Agency’s (SFA) strategy of “three food baskets” — diversifying food sources, growing locally and growing overseas. This approach has served the Republic well in securing a supply of safe food.
DIVERSIFIED SOURCING IS KEY
Singapore’s food importers leverage the nation’s connectivity and the global free trade environment to import from multiple sources in about 170 countries and regions worldwide. Should there be a disruption to any one source, importers are able to tap alternative food sources and ensure supply remains stable. Lockdown measures brought about by Covid-19 underscored Singapore’s vulnerabilities to supply disruptions in food.
It was not by luck that the Republic’s food supply remained stable and market shelves continued to be promptly restocked — it was the result of a deliberate whole-of-government strategy to diversify food sources. To keep the nation’’s diversified food supply lines intact amid the Covid-19 global pandemic, SFA worked closely with the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Enterprise Singapore (ESG) to monitor Singapore’s food supply situation. Together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, these economic agencies worked with like-minded countries to maintain open trade links.
LOCAL PRODUCTION AN IMPORTANT BUFFER
SFA drives innovation in local farms with the ambitious goal of producing 30 per cent of Singapore’s nutritional needs by 2030 as part of our “30 by 30” plan. To meet this goal, we need a holistic and long-term approach to space-planning, boosting agri-food technology and developing local agri-specialists. To facilitate and support the establishment of high-technology and productive farms in Singapore, SFA tenders out land based on qualitative criteria such as production capability, production track record, relevant experience and qualifications, innovation and sustainability.
In addition, a masterplan for the greater Lim Chu Kang (LCK) region, spanning about 390ha of land, will be undertaken in consultation with stakeholders over the next two to three years. The redeveloped LCK agri-food cluster will produce more than three times its current food production.
Building on the above efforts to grow Singapore’s high-tech agri-tech sector, SFA will continue to partner with the Economic Development Board and ESG to attract best-in-class global agri-tech companies, as well as to nurture promising homegrown agri-tech companies into local champions and help them to expand overseas.
EXPLORING ALTERNATIVE, UNDERUTILISED SPACES
Urban food solutions are expected to play a key role in global food security. While there are progressive enterprises operating out of farmlands and industrial estates, some agricultural game-changers are also taking root in unconventional areas — indoors, on rooftops and in underutilised spaces.
SFA worked with the Singapore Land Authority to introduce an urban farm at the former Henderson Secondary School site, which was transformed into Singapore’s first integrated space comprising an urban farm, childcare centre and nursing home within a state property. The farm space within the site was awarded in May 2019 to social enterprise City Sprouts, and it has become a vibrant destination for the young and old to learn about urban farming and enjoy a relaxing day out.
Citiponics, the first commercial farm located on a multi-storey car park in a residential neighbourhood, harvested its first yield of vegetables in April 2019. In September 2020, another nine sites atop multi-storey car parks were awarded for urban farming.
The successful bidders included proposals for hydroponic and vertical farming systems with a variety of innovative features, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain technology and automated climate control. These sites have the potential to collectively produce around 1,600 tonnes of vegetables annually.
Image from: Ciitiponics
TAPPING TECH
The Agriculture Productivity Fund (APF) supports local farms in their capability development and drive towards higher productivity. Through APF, SFA co-funds the adoption of farming systems to better control environmental variables, test-bed technologies and boost production capabilities. Between October 2014 and September 2020, a total of almost S$42 million has been committed to 115 farms.
The Covid-19 pandemic presented greater impetus to speed up local food production capacities. In September 2020, SFA awarded S$39.4 million to nine companies under the 30x30 Express Grant to quickly ramp up food-farm outputs over the next six months to two years. With advanced robotic and digital systems increasingly being used in farming, Singapore’s vegetables farmers have also become innovative agri-engineers and specialists in their own right.
With support from the 30x30 Express Grant, urban farming engineering solutions firm Indoor Farm Factory Innovation will set up an indoor vegetable farm with a vertical integration growth system up to 8m in height in a fully controlled and pesticide-free environment. The farm will leverage artificial intelligence farming systems integrated with IoT monitoring, dosing irrigation and an advanced environmental control system to achieve optimum growing conditions all year round.
Seng Choon, a chicken egg farm that has been in business for more than 30 years, has also proved itself a modernist in its operations. The company uses a computer that scans eggs to ascertain if they are clean; while feeding systems, temperature controls and waste cleaning systems have been automated with SFA’s support. Singapore’s efforts at ensuring food security would not be complete without support from consumers. To boost recognition of local produce among consumers, SFA brought the industry and public together to create a new “SG Fresh Produce” logo.
Farmers have been using this emblem on their packaging since August 2020. A website was also launched to provide a trove of information on locally farmed food. While the Covid-19 pandemic has led to import restrictions, it also helped to accelerate support for local produce. With public support for local farmers and other key measures, Singapore can beat the odds in ensuring food security in this ever-evolving, ever-disrupted world.
Farming Fish in the Sky
Sometime soon, Apollo Aquaculture Group will have one of the world’s largest vertical fish farms up and running in Singapore. Though construction has been delayed by COVID-19, the farm, once complete, will scale eight stories. Crucially, says the company, it won’t only be the farm’s height that sets it apart from the competition
Image from: Hakai Magazine
Sometime soon, Apollo Aquaculture Group will have one of the world’s largest vertical fish farms up and running in Singapore. Though construction has been delayed by COVID-19, the farm, once complete, will scale eight stories. Crucially, says the company, it won’t only be the farm’s height that sets it apart from the competition.
The high-tech facility will produce up to 3,000 tonnes of hybridized grouper, coral trout, and shrimp each year—with an efficiency, measured in fish per tonne of water, that is six times higher than established aquaculture operations in the Southeast Asian city-state, says spokesperson Crono Lee.
In doing so, the company hopes to become a major contributor to an ambitious plan to boost the food security of the small island city-state, which currently imports 90 percent of its food.
According to Ethan Chong Yih Tng, an engineer at the Singapore Institute of Technology who is not involved with the company, this stacking of fish farms is one of the key initiatives that geographically small Singapore is looking at to achieve its ambitious “30 by 30” target for food security—to produce 30 percent of its nutritional needs locally by 2030.
Founded in 1969, Apollo isn’t a new arrival to aquaculture in Singapore. Since the 1970s, it has been breeding ornamental fish across its 300-odd farms in the region. But when Eric Ng took over the family business in 2009, he was quick to diversify into producing marine fish as food, borrowing methods from operations in Germany, Japan, and Israel, says Lee. The outcome was a three-story farm in Lim Chu Kang, a rare green spot on the outskirts of Singapore. That aquaculture facility has been in operation for nearly a decade.
Each level of the Lim Chu Kang operation has two 135-square-meter tanks supplied with seawater by a system that filters, purifies, monitors, and recirculates water through the farm. As a result, only around five percent of the water needs to be replaced when contaminated by effluent from the fish—though Lee says the goal at both the new and existing facilities is to reduce that to zero using aquatic plants that clean and treat water naturally. That’s in contrast to significant levels of waste at Singapore’s traditional onshore pond farms, where farmers routinely clean out and replace entire tanks.
Image from: Apollo Aquaculture Group
In nearly 10 years of operating the Lim Chu Kang farm, which produces up to 200 tonnes of fish per year, the company has built up meticulous data sets on how to increase yields, says Lee—data they will apply to the new, larger facility.
“We understand the amount of water required, the condition of the water, and the amount of feed—measured down to a single gram per cubic meter of water. As a result, we’re able to produce fish in a much shorter time frame, at the right size for the market,” says Lee.
The decision to build this system up, rather than out, is a response to the lack of space in the Asian city-state. “We’re a very small country, and it’s very difficult to secure land,” says Lee. “So rather than building sideways, and expanding horizontally, why not expand vertically?”
Ever larger onshore fish farms is not the only approach the city-state is using to reach its 30 by 30 goal, however. In late 2019, for example, an offshore fish farm opened about five kilometers off Singapore’s Changi Point Ferry Terminal. Using a closed-containment system, it produces around 166 tonnes of barramundi, red snapper, and grouper each year across four tanks. The system “effectively isolates the fishes from the seawater when the quality of the surrounding water turns poor,” says Yih Tng. The self-contained system offers the control of Apollo’s vertical farm without the initial outlay on expensive land, or the high power costs.
Though Lee insists Apollo’s new eight-story farm will be economically competitive with traditional fish farms, high operating costs remain one of the primary reasons that commercial vertical closed loop fish farms remain limited globally.
In the United States, the majority of farms represented by the Recirculating Farms Coalition are outdoors, and much smaller than the Singapore operation, says founder and executive director Marianne Cufone. “That means we’re not as dependent on artificial inputs, such as temperature controls,” she explains.
“A lot of the larger systems sacrifice some of the natural benefits of [recirculating] systems in that they use a lot of energy for cooling, for heating, and for the circulating pumps. That’s not to say these outweigh the benefits, but a smaller, well-designed system can be extremely eco-efficient versus some of the larger-scale ones.”
The increased operational costs of a large facility translate to the price of the product: a 150-gram pack of Apollo’s ready-to-cook hybridised grouper fillet will set a customer back around US $12—roughly double the price of a frozen red grouper on sale at Singapore’s biggest grocer, Fair Price.
However, Cufone adds, large enclosed fish farms are becoming more prevalent in North America and the rest of the world. Few places is that growth more urgent than in Singapore—a fact only exacerbated by the spread of COVID-19.
“COVID-19 has exploded the awareness of [food insecurity] exponentially to local Singaporeans, and right now there’s a big shift in thinking toward local production,” says Lee. A shift that Apollo plans to take full advantage of.
Organic: The Battle for a Single Word
Throughout history, when we see great leaps forward in technology, there are always pushbacks from the old world who want to maintain the status-quo. This can be for a variety of reasons and come from a variety of people. Sometimes, the resistance comes from workers, an example of this would be the fierce opposition from workers who protested the mechanisation of their jobs brought about by the industrial revolution. They were often referred to as luddites because of the propensity to destroy the new machines that were taking their jobs
Throughout history, when we see great leaps forward in technology, there are always pushbacks from the old world who want to maintain the status-quo. This can be for a variety of reasons and come from a variety of people. Sometimes, the resistance comes from workers, an example of this would be the fierce opposition from workers who protested the mechanisation of their jobs brought about by the industrial revolution. They were often referred to as luddites because of the propensity to destroy the new machines that were taking their jobs.
On the other hand, there can be examples of when the resistance to innovations come from industry competitors who don’t want to lose the dominance they once had. An example of this can be seen through the fossil fuel industries continuous attempts to limit the growth of renewables by lobbying governments to pursue policies more favourable to them.
Today we are seeing resistance to a new green revolution through innovation in the vertical farming sector primarily from industry competitors or even protective policy makers. Politico recently reported on a story regarding a fight between a Danish vertical farming company, called Nordic Harvest, and the EU whereby the former was prohibited from labelling their crops as organically produced. The reason given for this was that EU regulation demanded that anything being described as organic had to be produced in soil. This seems to be the antithesis to their Farm to Fork strategy as it heavily handicaps innovative indoor vertical farming companies.
Image from: Nord Harvest
Now this may not seem much like a significant infringement on the indoor vertical farming sector, but what this does is make it more difficult for companies, such as Nordic Harvest, to indicate to consumers their green credentials. Moreover, under the EU’s Green Public Procurement rules, indoor vertical farming companies gain a smaller share in food market than it normally would have due to the ruling on the definition of organics. The unfortunate aspect of this is that words only mean what we define them as, so the personal opinions of the individuals who made this decision are going down this direction for reasons not non-partisan.
Now there may so semi-legitimate reasons to resist the rise of indoor vertical farming, but it is clear that this will be the future of farming and it must not be kneecapped by ill-intentioned actors. The limitations of the sector, such as intense energy use or limited crop varieties, can only be solved if there is financial and legislative support from the powers that be.
This is clear with the recent certification of Sky Greens in Singapore as organic whereby the central government has been forward thinking. Speaking of their decision, the chair of the Food Standards Committee stated:
“The certification may allow local urban farms to expand into markets outside of Singapore. Having a national organic certification will help local urban farms to be on equal footing with the US…”
The Food Standards Committee in Singapore defined organic differently from the EU affirming that as long as they avoid mineral fertilisers or other pesticides and herbicides, which indoor vertical farms operating on controlled environment agriculture adheres to. At full capacity, Sky Greens can produce up to half a tonne of salads daily without LEDs and using gravity to collect rainwater to avoid pests. An important point to note however is that the vast majority of Singapore is urbanised with no domestic traditional rural farming industry.
Image from: Sky Greens
Another problematic component of this EU ruling is that may prove controversial is its impact on trade. Any vertical farming company from a country not with the restrictive rules and the EU that wanted to export their food produced in a vertical farm, they would as need to abide by these rules. For example, with basil being one of the major herbs produced in vertical farms, we often see it being used in Pesto. Unfortunately, this would not be able to be marketed as organic. With the EU being the largest trading bloc in the entire world, this will affect the global fortunes of the sector. We are also seeing this happen in the US but due to many legal appeals and challenges, they have not currently implemented the same rules as the EU.
So, with all this in mind, it is important to be aware of the pushback that will inevitably happen due to a green revolution brought about by innovation in the indoor vertical farming sector. The debate surrounding the definition of the word organic is only the start. We already see concerted efforts to ban synthetic meat companies from using words such as hamburger, hot dog or steak. However, even with this uneven playing field, indoor vertical farming is on track to increase its market share significantly over the next decade and beyond while traditional farming methods are on the decline.
INDIA: This Goa Couple Grow Their Veggies & Fish Without Using Soil or Chemicals!
On 185 square meters of greenhouse and rooftop garden, in their house at Dona Paula, Panaji, they produce 120 kilograms of fish a year and grow 3,000 plants consisting of vegetables and fruits
AUTHOR: GUEST CONTRIBUTOR
December 1, 2020
Goa-based Peter Singh is 74-years-old, and his wife Neeno Kaur is 65. They are a power couple, setting an example of how to be self-reliant with food, and at the same time, converting biodegradable waste into something useful.
On 185 square meters of greenhouse and rooftop garden, in their house at Dona Paula, Panaji, they produce 120 kilograms of fish a year and grow 3,000 plants consisting of vegetables and fruits.
For the last four years, they have been practicing aquaponics at home, a combination of aquaculture (raising fish in tanks), with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water).
However, they do with a twist. “We do aquaponics with permaculture,” says Peter Singh, explaining his system to a bunch of enthusiasts earlier this year.
(L) Peter Singh in his air-conditioned greenhouse that has plants which require a cooler climate. (R) Ornamental fish are grown in a fish tank
He adds, “We compost our kitchen and garden waste and use it in our aquaponics. Plants are potted in a layer of gravel, 1/3rd of coco peat, and 2/3rd of compost. So, our plants get compost plus fish waste, which results in a higher yield. I don’t use any chemicals for this, and I am taking care of my waste and my food.”
One may wonder why they are doing it. For them, the answer is simple–they want to eat organic and be sure of how their food is grown.
Moreover, both have a background in agriculture.
“I was studying Mathematics at the Delhi University; the idea was to stay in Delhi, but then we thought of moving back to our farms in Jalandhar, Punjab. We worked on different forms of agriculture, in which different fruit and timber trees were planted, we did intercropping in the orchard of oilseeds and pulses, produced seeds for the national seed corporation, had a dairy farm, did beekeeping and even exported the honey,” explains Singh.
They moved to Goa seven years ago and found it difficult to source organic vegetables. The majority of the vegetables in the state come from the neighboring city of Belgaum in Karnataka. So, they decided to grow their food in this unique way.
“As we have limited space in Goa, we experimented and discovered aquaponics. We downloaded papers from universities, and read about it. And came up with this model,” says Singh.
They opine that they are still experimenting and bring in changes accordingly. As they have the technical know-how and a background in farming, they are quite confident of their system.
How this system works
Peter Singh explaining the model
This system of aquaponics which involves the fish tank, NFT pipes, (Nutrient Film Technique) which are used to grow vegetables, water-pumps, and artificial grow lights, may look complicated. But Singh makes it easier to understand. He has also made a model of this system that can fit in any balcony or even in any corner of the living room.
“This unit of 2 ft by 6 ft and 6 ft high, with artificial lighting of 200 watts uses 250 litres of water and can grow 180 plants. One can grow lettuce, kale, bok choy or any other vegetable. One fish tank can sustain five kilograms of fish mass so that you can have ten fresh-water fish of ½ kg each,” elaborates Singh.
The system works mainly on electricity, water, and fish waste.
Singh explains, “In a fish tank, the fish waste is mainly ammonia. In this system, aerators circulate the water and create a current. The fish waste settles at the bottom, and the pipes take this waste into the bio-filter, which breaks the ammonia into nitrates and nitrites for plants to use.”
The water gets further filtered and goes back to the fish. It also has aeroponic towers which work as the nursery of plants. It is also a space-saving system as it is vertical.
“Because of heavy nitrogen, green vegetables grow very well. We have lettuce, bok choy, and celery. Also, this system uses 10 percent of the water used in traditional soil-based farming, as water is constantly getting re-used. The only loss is in the evaporation. There’s no need of watering, no weeding, one only has to feed the fish twice a day,” says Neeno Kaur.
The entire system has three fish tanks on the ground floor. One is of 3,000 litres of water; second is 1,500 litres, and the third is 4,000 litres. They raise three types of fresh-water fish—rohu, catla, and chonak or sea bass. If one does not eat fish, Singh suggests using ornamental fish.
The rooftop garden
On their roof, they have a greenhouse of 12ft by 24ft, which has 2,000 plants. The greenhouse in the back garden is 6 ft by 16 ft and has 500 plants. A roof-top garden has 25 fruit trees, 300 onions, and an assortment of chillies, lemons, tomatoes, aloe, chives, creepers like ivy gourd, bottle gourd, cucumber, bitter gourd, ladyfinger, brinjal.
Along a boundary on the ground floor, they have mango, banana, and papaya. They also have an air-conditioned tunnel of 8 ft by 12 ft in their greenhouse, with 1,000 plants of lettuce, kale, bok choy, basil, parsley, cabbage, and broccoli. For the whole system, they spend around Rs 14,000 per month.
The aquaponics system doesn’t require cleaning of water as the water gets filtered in the process. And all the fittings are made by Singh himself. He has also part-time workers for about six hours a day. He adds, “We spend Rs 6,000 on electricity, Rs 4,000 on feeding the fish, and another Rs 4,000 on labour.”
They won the first prize for Most Innovative Stall at the Aqua Goa Mega Fish Festival 2020 held in February.
Agriculture expert from Goa, Miguel Braganza opines, “Peter Singh’s aquaponics is good for those who can afford it as the basic cost of the unit is Rs 30,000. Also, it is ideal for those who eat salads and continental cuisine.”
Regarding the cost, Singh states that it is high “because we pump water from the ground floor to the greenhouse on the roof. If it is on the same floor, this is much lower.”
They also have plans for solar panels and making fish feed at home to be self-sustainable. He adds, “If we automate the system, and put in solar power, then costing will go down substantially. We are also working on growing feed for fish. So our whole system becomes self-dependent.”
However, they are also trying to monetise from this system, by conducting two-day training programmes priced at Rs 5,000. Singh adds, “We also custom design and help set up aquaponics systems, of any scale, from small home systems to commercial systems, charging 10 per cent of the capital cost for the design.”
(L) Bok Choi grown in aeroponic towers. (R) Gourds grown on the roof.
Recently, they started selling these vegetables from their home. A basket contains two bunches of lettuce, a baby bok choy, three sticks of celery, sprigs of parsley, basil, and a small bunch of mint, priced at Rs 100. They will also add kale and Swiss chard to it. From next month, their air-conditioned model will produce about 300 packs of greens a month at Rs 120 each.
Singh and Kaur are hopeful that more people will learn from this system and eat healthy food as it is the need of the hour.
He concludes, “This method is independent of the weather, rain, hail, and sun; it is protected from predators and is the future of agriculture. It doesn’t need land, soil, or chemicals, and produces vegetables and fish wherever you are.”
Also Read: Experts Answer: Can a Hydroponics Farm Be a Good Business? Here’s How!
This shows that aquaponics could be next best thing in agriculture due to urbanisation and loss of agricultural land. It is estimated that the market of aquaponics will grow with the awareness to eat healthy food.
According to a report by Assocham and Ernst & Young, organic products market in India have been growing at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 25 percent, expected to touch ₹10,000-₹12,000 crore by 2020 from the current market size of ₹ 4,000 crore. As aquaponics is a part of the organic market, the future looks bright for this new-age form of agriculture.
During the current nationwide lockdown to tackle COVID-19, Peter Singh is selling their produce once a week from their home by maintaining social distancing. He says, “We slowed down the sale of our produce in the first week, and worked out a weekly production schedule, which includes a weekly harvest and transplantation. This means we will be able to supply every week all year round.”
Lead photo: Peter Singh is 74, and his wife Neeno Kaur is 65. Together, they grow 3,000 plants on just 185 sqm by a method that’s independent of the rain, hail, and sun!
(Written by Arti Das and Edited by Shruti Singhal)
SINGAPORE: High-Five: Developing “The World’s First Vertical Aquaculture Farm”
Singapore-based entrepreneur John Diener is committed to developing a series of urban aquaculture facilities that are able to produce shrimp, whitefish and seaweeds in high tech five-story farming systems
by Rob Fletcher
24 November 2020
Singapore-based entrepreneur John Diener is committed to developing a series of urban aquaculture facilities that are able to produce shrimp, whitefish, and seaweeds in high tech five-story farming systems.
John Diener aims to produce shrimp, tilapia, and seaweeds in five-tier facilities that can be fitted into the footprint of a standard warehouse. © Akualogix
The last decade of Diener’s career has seen him involved in a number of aquaculture-related ventures, as well as agritech startups, and the concept of a completely novel farming system came to him in 2016 when he was researching how machine learning could benefit aquaculture during a part-time MSc in aquaculture at St Andrews University.
“I have a lot of experience in data science and I wanted to find out what would happen if you reassessed the whole concept of aquaculture,” he explains.
Diener’s research led him to believe that vertical farms using cutting-edge technologies had the capacity to produce – for their footprint – an impressive amount of seafood, making them suitable for urban settings.
Three pillars
Diener describes the development of the system as resting on three pillars – biological, mechanical and digital. The biological side relates to investigating the most productive integrated-multitrophic (IMTA) system, with vannamei shrimp as the primary species.
“The business plan has been developed around shrimp – they’re a unique product in terms of their flavour profile, much like salmon are, which makes it very hard to produce substitutes. And they can also be raised at high densities,” Diener notes.
“We’ve also incorporated a filter-feeding fish – we’re currently using tilapia because they’re very robust, but will probably trial milkfish too,” he adds.
The bottom of the IMTA pyramid is taken up by sea grapes – called umibudo in Japan, where they are considered something of a delicacy.
“These are known as ‘the green caviar’ in parts of Asia, so have the potential to be sold as food. They can also be used as an ingredient in shrimp feeds, as we’re aiming to produce our own, sustainable feeds, while they also help to remove nitrates and phosphates from the water,” says Diener.
Technology
The second pillar consists of the engineering, and Diener intends to develop raceway systems four or five levels high, which are equipped with modular autonomous devices to optimise factors such as measuring water quality. The third pillar relates to the digital side of operations.
“We’re investing time and effort to develop advanced technology to manage feeding – both in terms of studying shrimp behaviour so we know when to feed and in terms of measuring the biomass in the systems, so we know how much to feed. We will also be looking to manage the water quality by feeding information into a deep learning algorithm that can control factors like pump speeds and the addition of minerals to the water,” he says.
The digital side also covers the farm’s “Aqua OS” [operational systems], ensuring all the technology works together, to simplify the management of all the tanks, Diener explains.
Launch
John Diener, founder of Akualogix
Four years after coming up with the concept Diener launched his own company, called Akualogix, in August, after finding a suitable site for a pilot-scale facility, in a building owned by the Marine Aquaculture Centre, on St John’s island in Singapore. This will, he notes, be perfect for securing proof-of-concept, before he looks to expand into a commercial-scale facility.
Initially self-funded, by Diener and the company’s co-founder, they are now looking into securing pre-series A funding in order to build a larger scale production unit.
Funding opportunities have remained robust in the agri-food sector, despite the outbreak of Covid. And as our systems are designed for an urban environment, and food security is increasingly important in Singapore and other cities around the world, we see strong investor interest
“Funding opportunities have remained robust in the agri-food sector, despite the outbreak of Covid. And as our systems are designed for an urban environment, and food security is increasingly important in Singapore and other cities around the world, we see strong investor interest,” Diener reflects.
The current farm has – he predicts – the capacity to produce 500-600 kg of shrimp per cycle, but he’s not yet sure what the yields of the tilapia or sea grapes will be – pointing out that no one has undertaken a mass balance study in such a system.
A juvenile shrimp at the pilot facility in Singapore. © Akualogix
“Our business economics is based on shrimp – making any money from the tilapia would be the icing on the cake – but the main reason we have the fish is part of the multi-trophic system and benefit the overall environment, they’re part of the filtration system,” he explains.
We will be looking at establishing commercial farms that can produce in the region of 1,000 to 1,500 tonnes of shrimp a year. It might not sound like much compared to some of the commercial salmon RAS that are now being established, but if we’re operating 20 or 30 farms that would make us one of the biggest shrimp producers in the world
Next steps
Once the pilot facility has fulfilled its potential Diener aims to establish a farm – and ultimately a network of farms – that use Akualogix’s design and equipment, establishing partnerships in a range of countries, primarily in Asia, as the concept takes off.
“We will be looking at establishing commercial farms that can produce in the region of 1,000 to 1,500 tonnes of shrimp a year. It might not sound like much compared to some of the commercial salmon RAS that are now being established, but if we’re operating 20 or 30 farms that would make us one of the biggest shrimp producers in the world,” he points out.
Diener is also looking to develop a unique, sustainable feed that’s designed specifically for producing shrimp in RAS facilities.
“The current range of commercial shrimp feeds are not great for use in RAS, and we’re looking to produce a next generation shrimp feed using sustainable ingredients. And we’re looking for a flavour enhancing additive as a finishing diet – potentially one that comes from algae,” he says.
Given the technology involved and the emphasis on sustainable feed ingredients Diener is aware that production costs are going to be considerably higher than conventional shrimp farms.
“We estimate that our cost of production will be 40-50 percent higher than shrimp produced in a pond in, say, India. But we’re close to market and can charge a premium for a fresh product that’s so sustainably produced,” he says.
Operational experience
The pilot facility holds 30,000 shrimp per cohort and 1,000 tilapia. The former are housed in a two-stage grow-out system and he aims to take them from the end of the nursery stage to harvest in 60 days, while achieving survival rates of roughly 90 percent.
However, as Diener admits, the design concepts of the system are still evolving, and there are other issues that have caused setbacks.
“It turned out that our first batch of PL [post-larvae] had pathogenic vibrio and we started seeing mortalities related to vibriosis,” he explains.
It was an unfortunate start, but a useful reminder of the importance of biosecurity.
“We decided to implement a full biosecurity package [once operating commercially], which will include our own hatcheries to prevent the introduction of pathogens,” he says.
Should the pilot facility prove productive, and investment forthcoming, Diener then aims to roll out the concept across some of Asia’s most populous coastal cities.
“There’s currently a lot of investment in salmon RAS and I think shrimp are the next species to go in that direction. If we can be a pioneer of shrimp RAS it will be a game-changer,” he concludes.
Purdue Study Addresses Environmental, Economic Impacts of Hydroponic, Aquaponics Systems
Hydroponics and aquaponics offer promise for growing produce and raising fish. But some may be wary of entering the industries because of perceptions about high capital and operational costs and environmental impacts
October 22, 2020
Story by Brian Wallheimer
Hydroponics and aquaponics offer promise for growing produce and raising fish. But some may be wary of entering the industries because of perceptions about high capital and operational costs and environmental impacts.
Purdue University scientists compared the environmental performances of both systems and calculated their economic efficiencies in Indiana. Their findings, published in the Journal of Cleaner Production, inform those interested in entering hydroponic or aquaponic industries on how to get the most for their investment with the least environmental footprint.
Hydroponics and aquaponics are soilless systems. Hydroponic plants are grown in water containing chemical fertilizers as nutrients. Aquaponics adds the raising of fish and uses fish waste to replace chemical fertilizers. These indoor operations come with upfront capital costs and require use of significant amounts of energy for lighting, heating and water pumping, as well as fish feed and fertilizers.
For one month, graduate students Peng Chen and Gaotian Zhu raised six vegetables in a hydroponic system and those same vegetables with tilapia in an aquaponic system. Experiments were conducted in the lab of Hye-Ji Kim, a Purdue assistant professor of horticulture and landscape architecture, and in collaboration with Paul Brown, a Purdue professor of forestry and natural resources. Jen-Yi Huang, a Purdue assistant professor of food science and the leader of the project, worked with the students to conduct a life cycle assessment using the data they collected.
Purdue University researchers conducted a life cycle assessment of hydroponic and aquaponic growing systems in Indiana to measure their environmental and economic impacts. (Photo provided by Peng Chen)
The researchers found that the aquaponic system led to 45 percent less environmental impact when considering fossil fuel use, global warming, water acidification and eutrophication created by resources used as well as waste and emissions released. Twice as much food is grown in the aquaponic systems with little added environmental cost.
“The aquaponic system is more environmentally friendly when you look at the total environmental footprint per US dollar of economic value of the products,” Huang said. “But that is based on using Indiana’s current energy mix. If we consider using more renewable energy sources, things start to change.”
Indiana currently gets almost 60 percent of its energy from coal-fired power plants, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, with about one-third coming from natural gas. The less electricity hydroponic and aquaponic growers source from fossil fuels, the more environmentally friendly their operations become.
Chen said that changing the mix and getting one-third of power from coal, natural gas and wind would reduce the environmental impacts of hydroponics by up to 48 percent. If an operation sourced its electricity solely from wind energy, hydroponic operations would be considered slightly more environmentally friendly than aquaponics.
“By using wind energy, which is largely produced in Indiana, farmers can reduce their environmental footprint enough to make these two systems essentially equal in terms of the economic output gained for the environmental cost,” Chen said. “By choosing more plant-based fish feed, the environmental impacts can be further reduced in aquaponic systems.”