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Vertical Farming For The Future
Beyond providing fresh local produce, vertical agriculture could help increase food production and expand agricultural operations as the world’s population is projected to exceed 9 billion by 2050
Posted by Sarah Federman, AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow, Office of the Chief Scientist andPaul M. Zankowski, Senior Advisor for Plant Health and Production and Plant Products, Office of the Chief Scientist in Research and Science
Aug 14, 2018
Indoor And Vertical Farming
May Be Part of The Solution To Rising Demands
For Food And Limited Natural Resources
Imagine walking into your local grocery store on a frigid January day to pick up freshly harvested lettuce, fragrant basil, juicy sweet strawberries, and ripe red tomatoes – all of which were harvested at a local farm only hours before you’d arrived. You might be imagining buying that fresh produce from vertical farms where farmers can grow indoors year-round by controlling light, temperature, water, and oftentimes carbon dioxide levels as well. Generally, fresh produce grown in vertical farms travels only a few miles to reach grocery store shelves compared to conventional produce, which can travel thousands of miles by truck or plane.
Beyond providing fresh local produce, vertical agriculture could help increase food production and expand agricultural operations as the world’s population is projected to exceed 9 billion by 2050. And by that same year, two out of every three people are expected to live in urban areas. Producing fresh greens and vegetables close to these growing urban populations could help meet growing global food demands in an environmentally responsible and sustainable way by reducing distribution chains to offer lower emissions, providing higher-nutrient produce, and drastically reducing water usage and runoff.
Recently, USDA and the Department of Energy held a stakeholder workshop focused on vertical agriculture and sustainable urban ecosystems. At this workshop, field experts shared thought-provoking presentations followed by small group discussions focusing on areas such as plant breeding, pest management, and engineering. Workshop attendees from public and private sectors worked together to identify the challenges, needs, and opportunities for vertical farming. A report on this workshop will be released to help inform Departmental strategic planning efforts for internal research priorities at USDA and external funding opportunities for stakeholders and researchers.
We’re excited about the potential opportunities vertical agriculture presents to address food security. That’s why USDA already has some of these funding and research opportunities in place. The National Institute for Food and Agriculture has funding opportunities (PDF, 1.22 MB) that could support future vertical agriculture conferences and research. Similarly, the Agricultural Research Service is working on a project to increase U.S. tomato production and quality in greenhouses and other protected environments. We look forward to continuing our partnership with our customers, both internal and external.
Lead Photo: Photo credit: Oasis Biotech
Category/Topic: Research and Science
Tags: Office of the Chief Scientist National Institute of Food and Agriculture NIFA Agricultural Research Service ARS Department of Energy vertical farming
US: TEXAS - Awty Unveils Carbon-Neutral Container Farm Thanks to Sustainability Grant From Green Mountain Energy Sun Club
Incorporating a container farm into Awty’s current operations and curriculum reinforces the school’s commitment to sustainability while providing a real-life example of environmentally sound sourcing practices to their international student body
Source: GREEN MOUNTAIN ENERGY
05/03/21
Teachers and students alike at The Awty International School are excited about the possibilities a carbon-neutral container farm brings to their campus. Awty received a $135,000 sustainability grant from the Green Mountain Energy Sun Club to implement the container farm that now provides fresh produce to the school’s cafeteria and hands-on education for students through a newly formed urban farming elective class. The school installed a 20-foot hydroponics shipping container, a 20-foot aquaponics shipping container, and a 14.4-kilowatt solar system with 48 panels to power both containers to achieve the carbon-neutral status.
Incorporating a container farm into Awty’s current operations and curriculum reinforces the school’s commitment to sustainability while providing a real-life example of environmentally sound sourcing practices to their international student body. The farm serves to demonstrate how to reduce the carbon footprint of a food operation by shortening the supply chain and reducing fuel emissions. The innovative container farm and solar-powered equipment provides Awty a year-round steady supply of fresh produce, regardless of the outside climate. The closed-loop hydroponic system also uses 98 percent less water than traditional agriculture, significantly reducing the environmental impact of food production.
“While our school community has already started to reap the benefits from the farm, one of our many goals for the container project is sharing what we have achieved with others,” stated Robert Sload, STEAM coordinator at The Awty International School. “As an international school, we certainly want to help other international, national, and local schools introduce their communities to the wonderful community-wide lessons this project provides. A larger goal is to deconstruct our efforts and refashion a much simpler and cost-effective model that could be recreated anywhere with a particular eye to school communities located in food deserts.”
Green Mountain Energy, the nation’s longest-serving renewable energy retailer, founded Sun Club in 2002 to advance sustainability by partnering with nonprofit organizations engaged in meaningful work to support the communities the company serves. Awty is one of more than 130 projects to receive a sustainability grant since Sun Club’s founding. The grants are awarded to nonprofits seeking to implement projects promoting renewable energy, energy efficiency, resource conservation, and environmental stewardship.
“Green Mountain Energy’s goal with Sun Club grants is to promote sustainability in the community, and we were excited about this project from the start as it amplifies the message to future generations through education,” said Mark Parsons, vice president, and general manager of Green Mountain Energy. “Container farming will allow Awty students the opportunity to explore innovative new approaches to food production. Farming fresh produce directly on campus powered by solar energy makes it easy to captivate students and facilitate a dialogue around farming and solar energy at the same time.”
The respect of self, of individuals, and of the environment, and the importance of contributing to the community, are the fundamental principles of Awty’s sustainability program. The program’s mission is to reduce the school’s environmental impact and become more sustainable while inspiring and challenging students to come up with innovative solutions to environmental problems. Initiatives like composting, recycling, collecting water from HVAC units, and working toward becoming a zero-waste school have allowed the school to become a Bronze Award recipient of the Eco-Schools program, an international organization that accredits schools demonstrating a commitment to sustainability.
Tags: Indoor & Vertical Farming, Processing & Supply Chain | Containers
USA: Local Farm Brings Hope To Food Desert
A hydroponic produce farm in Indianapolis is filling a need in food deserts around the city. Food deserts are areas where grocery stores aren’t easily accessible. More than 200,000 people live in food deserts in Indy, according to a study published by SAVI
Q&A: Mario Vitalis
April 13, 2021
Mario Vitalis, farmer, owner, and founder of New Age Provisions, holds plants grown on his farm.
INDIANAPOLIS — A hydroponic produce farm in Indianapolis is filling a need in food deserts around the city.
Food deserts are areas where grocery stores aren’t easily accessible. More than 200,000 people live in food deserts in Indy, according to a study published by SAVI.
Mario Vitalis, farmer, owner, and founder of New Age Provisions farm, uses advanced hydroponics and vertical planting to grow year-round.
It all starts inside a shipping container on an old car lot on East 10th Street. A step inside transports visitors to a lush, green garden of produce. A variety of herbs, leafy greens, microgreens, and hemp are grown inside.
The location allows Vitalis to provide fresh produce to the community, one of the city’s many food deserts. The farm also provides produce to restaurants in Indianapolis.
“I’ve always known the city life — but there is a nagging desire to get back to my roots,” Vitalis said. “As an African American, my roots made it from slaves in the field, to sharecroppers in the South, to farming in the city.
“As a descendent of slaves, this farm enables me to get back to the type of living where our people once lived off the land. Having an urban farm allows me to connect to a long history of farming that has been forgotten.”
Vitalis shared his story with AgriNews.
Tell me a little bit about your farm.
“We are a hydroponic commercial farm. We officially started farming in August 2020.”
What was your inspiration to grow things?
“I wanted to be involved in agriculture, to be able to provide fresh food to the community independent of the supply chain, and independent of herbicides, pesticides, and contaminants.”
Indiana has several food deserts. Did that inspire you to fill a need in the community?
“Yes, it did. It provides us with the equipment to do so, as well. We’re the first company in Indiana to own this piece of equipment, the Freight Farms Greenery. We’re currently the only African American owner of the equipment. We want to be able to provide food and also provide a new way of farming. We want people to see it and have access to it.”
How does the farming system work?
“It’s called a Greenery and it’s built by Freight Farms, based in Boston. It’s essentially a hydroponic farming system in a 40-foot shipping container. If you can imagine those shipping containers that go up and down the highway, you go inside of one of these and grow vegetables. It has everything you need to do that. It has a seedling table and growth tower with different types of hydroponic methods.”
Basil grows at a hydroponic produce farm in Indianapolis.
What are some of the features of the technology?
“It has its own dosing system to control nutrients. You can control humidity, temperature and pH levels. You can check your settings and programming on a computer. There’s an app that goes with it, as well. So, you can control your farm from your phone. The technology is state of the art.”
What are some of the challenges you’ve faced as a new farmer?
“I think the biggest challenge is developing a market and getting our name out there. There’s also a learning curve to farming. I didn’t have any experience. So, I had to learn what to do and how to operate.”
What do you enjoy most about growing things?
“Seeing the plant life cycle from seed to seedling into a full plant. I also enjoy the environment. Since we’re in an enclosed environment, we can grow year-round and it’s always 65 degrees.”
Do you have any advice for minorities interested in farming?
“Right now there are so few minority farmers in general. For African American farmers, the best thing they can do is get land and find ways to cultivate the land or make use of it. Good land is becoming a scarce resource. If they’re interested in farming, there’s funding available from USDA for Black and minority farmers. There are different avenues out there. But it all starts with land and a business plan. After that you just have to have motivation and knowledge to do it.”
Anything else you’d like to share about your farm?
“Our farm is local on the east side of Indianapolis. We grow hydroponically without herbicides, pesticides or contaminants.”
How can people purchase your products?
“They can go online to our website www.newageprovisions.com. We deliver. Or, you can purchase through Market Wagon or Hoosier Harvest Market.”
ZipGrow Expands To New Facility, Inks Deal With Sodexo
ZipGrow has expanded its footprint, moving from leased premises to its own building at the corner of Cumberland and Seventh Street
April 9, 2021
By Bob Peters
Cornwall Ontario – ZipGrow has expanded its footprint, moving from leased premises to its own building at the corner of Cumberland and Seventh Street.
The new building more than doubles the amount of space available to the manufacturer of the world’s most installed vertical hydroponic equipment.
“Demand for our products continues to soar,” says Eric Lang, President of ZipGrow. “The new building allows us to be more efficient while at the same time giving us room to grow in the future.”
Growth is on the menu at ZipGrow, with the company launching an innovative partnership with Sodexo to introduce sustainable growing systems to facilities throughout Canada and the United States.
“Having been installed throughout the world over the past decade, our system enables growers, both big and small, to access fresh produce no matter where they are located”, explains Mr. Lang. “We are excited to move ahead with this new partnership with Sodexo. Together we will be able to introduce sustainable food to Sodexo locations throughout North America.”
ZipGrow technology is a patented system that utilizes both hydroponic growing systems and vertical planes to maximize production volume within a small footprint. Primarily growing leafy greens such as lettuce and kale, along with herbs and small fruiting crops such as strawberries, ZipGrow systems will be installed in Sodexo locations including educational institutions, conference facilities, and corporate food service centers.
“This new partnership with ZipGrow not only enables us to reduce our carbon emissions of distance traveled for food source, onsite food waste, and packaging requirements, but also to introduce innovative technology to our facilities and team members”, said Normand St-Gelais, Director of Corporate Responsibility, Sodexo Canada.
About ZipGrow
ZipGrow is an international leader in indoor, vertical farming technology. The company’s flagship product, the ZipGrow Tower, is a core component of many of the world’s most innovative farms; from indoor hydroponic warehouses to vertical aquaponic greenhouses and high-density container farms.
Categorized in: Business, Community, Environment, General, News
AUSTRALIA: VIDEO - Shipping Container Farms: Check Out This Craze In Modified Containers
Greenhouses, hydroponics, and mushroom farms – converted shipping containers can produce protein and vegetables for all your needs
Greenhouses, hydroponics, and mushroom farms – converted shipping containers can produce protein and vegetables for all your needs. Even if you’re not an environmentalist, there are business opportunities to be had in delivering extremely fresh food to people in urban environments like Brisbane. Given the changing climate and topsoil loss we are facing, shipping container farms could well be an answer to these issues.
Over the years in the Gateway Gazette, we have published a number of stories that look at producing food in converted shipping containers. Reflecting on what we have published and looking at the detail of what can be done, let’s consider the possibilities that come with shipping container farms.
Open Top Container Greenhouse
One of the most cost-effective ways of using a shipping container as a food-producing unit is by attaching a glass top to an open-top shipping container.
In this video, Urban Farm Units looked at the concept of a greenhouse-container. An open-top 20-foot container would have a greenhouse attached to the top with shelving units directly under the glass. This allows photosynthesis to take place in the normal way.
Seedlings can be started in the lower part of the unit, which is warmed by the light and heat from the outside.
One step down from slapping a greenhouse on top of an open-top container would be to use a flat rack container and to have the greenhouse on the base (Gateway Containers can supply both open-top and flat rack containers).
The concept is an improvement on the one in the video, as long as you keep the greenhouse within the dimensions of a 20ft standard or high-cube container, it would be possible to lift and move the container farm from place to place.
This might be useful where you have an agreement with property developers or a council to use vacant plots of land in a city for agriculture. When the site is ready to be developed you can stick it all on a truck and move it to the next plot.
The concept of a shipping container greenhouse is:
Cheap to buy
Mobile
And often won’t need planning permission for a permanent site
Could this be something you’d consider? Contact us at Gateway Containers to discuss your needs!
Mushie Container Farm!
Image source: King Oyster Mushrooms Facebook
In 2019 we reported how Belgrave, Vic-based John Ford has developed a shipping container mushroom farm. This could produce protein for people as an alternative to meat or for anyone who loves the taste of freshly cut shrooms.
Mushrooms of any kind don’t store well and are best eaten as soon as possible after cutting. This is why having a mushroom farm close to restaurants could be a money-spinner.
This requires no modification from a basic shipping container, you could even install the racking inside the container yourself.
In their lifecycle, mushroom mycelium live out of sight of the world until they are stressed and get the impression that they are facing death. When stressed they flower to produce spores – those flowers are the mushrooms that many of us love to eat.
A shipping container is perfect to take advantage of such a lifecycle. Logs or other media are infected with the mycelium and left to rot for a certain time. By altering the environmental conditions, so you deliberately stress the fungi and they flower.
In our article, we reported how John Ford is producing mushroom species that are famed for their delicate taste but don’t travel well at all – shiitake and oyster mushrooms. As a sideline to his main income as a marine biologist restoring seagrass habitats near Belgrave, he produces freshly cut shrooms for local people and restaurants.
For you as an entrepreneur, mushroom growing would require buying a used shipping container and setting it up as a mushroom farm. If you are planning an urban mushroom container farm, you can take advantage of the fact that you can treat the container as a mobile unit and not as a permanent base. Shipping containers are also pretty inexpensive to buy and convert.
Hydroponics – The Rolls Royce of Shipping Container Farms
Image source: ABC
The hydroponics concept is highly developed for the use of fresh food and can be set up for high density vegetable farming in shipping containers. This requires a fair bit more modification than the two systems we describe above.
Unlike the Urban Farm Units company, several companies have managed to survive over the years selling their hydroponic container farm businesses to entrepreneurs and restaurants around the world.
Modular Farms is a company we featured in our blog originally based in Canada, but who recently set up shop over here in Australia. According to their website, they “design and manufacture container farm systems that can be used to grow food in most locations on earth.”
These systems strive to get around some of the issues we face here. Cities like Brisbane get far too much water sometimes and then face droughts for years on end. The Australian Food Services News reported, “With a focus on sustainability, Modular Farms’s hydroponic, closed-loop system uses 95% less water than a typical outdoor farm.”
Topsoil erosion is a problem, especially in prolonged droughts when it gets blown away as dust. Hydroponics use media like rock wool and even used mattresses to house the plants’ root systems and feed them nutrients via a watering system.
With our ever more extreme climate, food often has to be imported into cities from hundreds or thousands of miles away. A hydroponic container farm can enable you to grow many vegs very close to markets and restaurants.
This has been observed by global homewares retail giant IKEA, which in 2019 announced it was piloting growing vegetables in its stores for use at its restaurants. We reported, “While selling hydroponic indoor growing equipment to customers, IKEA is feeding its staff with lettuce and other vegetables grown in a container outside its Malmö and Helsingborg stores.”
Image source: ABC
There are a few downsides to hydroponics. Firstly, while some types of plants are happy enough growing in hydroponics – the simpler ones producing leaves and flowers (like broccoli!) – others aren’t so happy, such as cassava, wheat, and potatoes.
The next big issue is that for a high-intensity farm, not unlike factory farming chickens, you need to be ultra-clean in your production as the arrival of a destructive disease or fungus could wipe you out very quickly.
Container Fish Farm Too?
In theory, it is possible to run a fish farm connected to the hydroponics container farm, with you largely feeding the fish and collecting their feces and other waste to feed the plants. The plants would clean the fishes’ water and make it habitable for them as reed beds do in nature. This a concept that is in development but hasn’t caught on commercially yet.
How Can Gateway Containers Help?
We can provide and convert an insulated container for you to get started with and advise you how to best make further additions without compromising the overall structure.
If any or all of these ideas have caught your interest – or you just know about these concepts and need a shipping container to make it possible – then get in touch with us today to discuss your needs!
Posted on February 22, 2021
By Mark FinneganOtherShipping ContainerModified Shipping ContainersLeave a comment
The Rise of Vertical Farming: A Solution to Key Agricultural Challenges
Right now, vertical farming is transforming the industry and could be the future of food production with the world’s population expected to grow to a staggering 9.7 billion by 2050. So, what exactly is vertical farming and how could it change farming as we know it?
By Essex Mag
March 13, 2021
As such a critical industry, it is always interesting to read about the latest developments in farming and agriculture. Right now, vertical farming is transforming the industry and could be the future of food production with the world’s population expected to grow to a staggering 9.7 billion by 2050. So, what exactly is vertical farming and how could it change farming as we know it?
What is Vertical Farming?
The topic of vertical farming was recently explored by Marsh Commercial, providers of farming insurance, who outlined vertical farming as an indoor farming process with plants growing on vertically stacked surfaces under controlled conditions. This would allow farmers complete control over light, climate, irrigation etc which would enable them to grow seasonal crops throughout the year. This means that as opposed to farming on a single level, such as on a field, food could be produced in stacked layers integrated into structures such as a skyscraper.
Vertical Farming Benefits
Vertical farming is taking off in the UK and provides many solutions to a few of the biggest challenges facing agriculture today, including climate change and the growing and aging population. Essentially, this is because vertical farming allows food products to maximize space and optimize the environment for food production allowing for greater yield per square mater, low water consumption, and a lack of soil or pesticide.
Vertical Farming in the UK
Additionally, vertical farming is well-suited to island economies and those that import a lot of produce. Security of supply is incredibly important when it comes to the food chain in these places and vertical farming can strengthen this greatly, which in the UK is a huge plus when you consider the pandemic and Brexit. As explained by The Grocer, food supply chains are under more scrutiny than ever right now and vertical farming could be the solution.
Projects
FWI revealed that there are a number of big vertical farming projects announced in the UK lately, including Ocado sinking in £17 million in the sector in 2019 and an Edinburgh-based company with ambitions to develop 40 vertical farming sites (which 5 already in place).
Just Food also recently revealed that popular UK sausage and vegan food manufacturer Heck has also partnered with a vertical farming specialist Vertical Future to install a vertical farm in its headquarters. The farm will focus on micro-crops, which they believe could allow them to create new “unique and interesting flavors” too.
It is fantastic to see innovative and sustainable developments like vertical farming growing in the UK, especially in troubling times like this where there is so much uncertainty particularly when it comes to food supply and there being many challenges in the agricultural industry. Vertical farming is certainly the future and it is quickly becoming the norm in the UK with many big names realizing the potential for this innovative form of food production.
Advanced Container Technologies, Inc. Joins Clean Food Initiative
Through the use of the company’s GrowPods, ACTX can provide farmers, community groups, investors, and non-profit agencies with a turnkey system to grow ultra-clean and nutritious food that can not only benefit the ecology of the planet and bolster community food security but can also provide new jobs and economic opportunities
March 03, 2021 | Source: Advanced Container Technologies Inc.
Company joins movement toward sustainable alternatives to traditional food production.
CORONA, Calif., March 03, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Advanced Container Technologies, Inc. (Ticker: OTC:ACTX) stated it is joining the Clean Food Initiative and intends to become a leading force in the drive toward sustainable agriculture.
The Clean Food Initiative is focused on bringing clean, fresh, healthy food to children throughout the world, that is free from pesticides, herbicides, or harmful chemicals. Along with the practice of implementing Sustainable Agriculture Systems (SAS), the aim is to develop a global food system that uses half the water and half the soil as it does today – yet produces twice as much food.
Through the use of the company’s GrowPods, ACTX can provide farmers, community groups, investors, and non-profit agencies with a turnkey system to grow ultra-clean and nutritious food that can not only benefit the ecology of the planet and bolster community food security but can also provide new jobs and economic opportunities.
GrowPods are automated indoor micro-farms that can provide a sustainable supply of affordable safe, clean, nutritious food, while also providing jobs at a local level by promoting the growth of a skilled agricultural workforce in non-traditional settings.
Doug Heldoorn, CEO of Advanced Container Technologies, Inc., said the company’s objectives are to make agriculture sustainable, investable, manageable, scalable, and transparent.
“There is a substantial difference between meeting basic food requirements and meeting optimum nutrition requirements,” he said. “People need access to high quality foods that are rich in nutritional value. Future generations deserve access to a healthy and sustainable food supply, not a diet filled with preservatives, pesticides or chemicals.”
SAS and the Clean Food Initiative represents one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century, as well as a tangible investment opportunity with sound business growth prospects and consistent annual income generation.
“There are few problems facing mankind that are as massive as our need to change our methods of food production and distribution,” Mr. Heldoorn stated. “Fortunately, there are innovative solutions to these challenges, and we are extremely proud to be a vital participant in this agricultural and social evolution.”
For more information, call (951) 381-2555 or visit: www.advancedcontainertechnologies.com.
About Advanced Container Technologies, Inc.
Advanced Container Technologies, Inc. is in the businesses of selling and distributing hydroponic containers called GrowPods; and designing, branding, and selling proprietary medical-grade containers that can store pharmaceuticals, herbs, teas, and other solids or liquids, and can grind and shred herbs; as well as selling other products and accessories, such as humidity control inserts, odor-proof bags, lighters, and plastic lighter holders; and provides private labeling and branding for purchasers of the Company’s containers and the other products. For more information visit: www.advancedcontainertechnologies.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release includes predictions or information considered "forward-looking" within securities laws. These statements represent Company's current judgments but are subject to uncertainties that could cause results to differ. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on these statements, which reflect management's opinions only as of the date of this release. The Company is not obligated to revise any statements in light of new information or events.
Company Contact:
(951) 381-2555
info@advancedcontainertechnologies.com
Investor Relations:
Stuart Smith
SmallCapVoice.Com, Inc.
512-267-2430
ssmith@smallcapvoice.com
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These 2 Companies Are Putting Big Money Into Hawaii’s Agricultural Future. Will Their Bets Pay Off?
A pair of companies backed by a billionaire and a pension fund are trying to revitalize fallow farmland in the state
A pair of companies backed by a billionaire and a pension fund are trying to revitalize fallow farmland in the state.
02-15-21
On Lanai, where shreds of black plastic in the soil are the last vestiges of the island’s defunct pineapple fields, a sliver of long-abandoned farmland is getting an encore — and a reinvention.
In six high-tech greenhouses, a futuristic vision of food-growing is underway — one in which nutrient density and flavor are automated.
It doesn’t matter that the red dirt below the greenhouse is eroded or peppered with plastic that once served as Dole pineapple plantation’s weed control. In fact, the hydroponic tomatoes and leafy greens grown here by Sensei Ag don’t depend on soil at all.
The ag-tech company founded by Larry Ellison, the Oracle founder who owns nearly all of Lanai’s acreage, and Dr. David Agus, a physician, and medical researcher, is pioneering tools to produce affordable food in places like Lanai that — despite its history as an agricultural plantation — lack traditional farming essentials like water and fertile soil.
Sensei Farms Lanai, a two-acre indoor farming pilot project by Larry Ellison’s Sensei Ag, produced 35,000 pounds of produce in less than three months last year. Sensei Ag
In doing so, the company is redeploying a scrap of neglected farmland into active agriculture in an attempt to buck an unsettling trend: Hawaii imports more than 85% of its food.
Hawaii has tens of thousands of acres of fallow former sugar and pineapple plantation lands. There are many reasons why this land isn’t being used for farming — inadequate infrastructure, soil erosion, the sky-high price of agricultural real estate. All of these challenges and more make growing food on old plantation acreage unaffordable for most farming operations.
Putting more of this stagnant acreage into food production, however, is a worthwhile goal, experts say, because it could help the state wean itself off of a reliance on the cargo ships and planes that deliver food supplies to the islands.
“When you bring up Hawaii to anyone anywhere on earth, what they think of is paradise on earth,” said Vincent Mina, president of the Maui Farmers Union United. “But what paradise do you know of that brings in 85% of its food?”
State Efforts Have Fallen Short
Re-fashioning former sugar and pineapple plantations into viable food farms is what the Hawaii Agribusiness Development Corp. was designed to do.
However, a scathing state audit in January said that the 25-year-old state agency has so far failed its mission because “the economic void created when plantations ceased production remains mostly unfilled.”
Larry Jefts, one of the state’s largest produce producers, recently expanded his farm footprint with access to ADC lands in Central Oahu that had lain fallow since Del Monte stopped pineapple production nearly two decades ago.
The problem, according to Jefts, is not that the ADC is inert. It’s the state’s poor land use policy that has allowed some farmland to be developed, as well as society’s lack of commitment to local agriculture.
The Agribusiness Development Corp. has failed in its mission to reinvent Hawaii’s agricultural sector, two recent reports say. Office of the Auditor
“The problem is there’s no will here,” Jefts said. “Good farm ground is coming out to go into solar energy farms because the people who own it can make more money in solar. If they charged that much money to the farmers, the farmers would fail and imported foods would take over.”
Yet while Jefts is farming on a portion of the 1,200-acre Whitmore Project — land left vacant by Del Monte in 2004 and then acquired by the ADC for local agriculture in 2012 — hundreds of acres attached to the project remain fallow almost 10 years later.
That’s in part due to the time-intensive, bureaucratic process of securing money, permits, and contracts to build and repair the infrastructure required to make more of the acreage farmable, said Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, a champion of the project.
It’s one thing to acquire the land, he said. But it’s another challenge entirely to ready it for farmers who need water, roads, electricity for refrigeration, and food safety-compliant facilities in order to make their businesses financially viable.
“With our state, there’s so many good intentions but just no money to put through to implementation,” said Kirsten Oleson, associate professor of ecological economics at the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.
“If we’re serious about doubling production of food that is grown and eaten here, it would take some time to rethink policy and some pretty large and potentially risky investment that the state’s coffers don’t have.”
While state efforts flounder, a pair of new agriculture companies backed by a billionaire and a pension fund are stepping in with lofty goals to revitalize fallow farmland with diversified agriculture operations that aim to help Hawaii wean itself off of imported foods.
A Billionaire’s Bid To Boost Food Security
On Lanai, Sensei Ag is sidestepping many of the traditional high-yield farming requirements: lots of land, lots of water, lots of hard manual labor.
Founded by Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, left, and medical researcher David Agus, Sensei Ag’s goal is to grow food that is more sustainable and nourishing than if it were farmed traditionally.
Sensei Ag
Although the company’s two-acre greenhouse farm is just a scrap of the 20,000 farmed acres that earned Lanai the moniker of the world’s largest pineapple plantation, yields from hydroponics can be far greater than those from conventional soil farming.
Sensei Ag CEO Sonia Lo projects the company will harvest 500,000 pounds of food for statewide consumption in 2021, including Swiss chard, basil, tomatoes, cucumber and eggplant.
“What we’re doing is we’re competing against the likes of Organic Girl that’s coming in from California or Earthbound Farms,” Lo said. “It’s pretty straightforward given that our stuff is a day old or two days old by the time it gets on a shelf as opposed to two weeks or three weeks old.”
Hydroponic growing is capital-intensive, however. Sensei Ag’s approach benefits from the fact that it’s bankrolled by Ellison, one of the richest people in the world.
Lo declined to reveal the amount of financial investment it took for the Lanai pilot project to achieve its inaugural harvest last October, but she acknowledged the role of Ellison’s wealth.
Yet while the cost to build a state-of-the-art greenhouse is out-of-reach for most farmers, indoor farming offers growers a chance to capture significant long-term financial savings since producing food this way requires significantly less land and water than traditional outdoor farming.
According to Lo, Sensei Farms Lanai requires about 10% of the amount of water it would take to produce a similar harvest in the dirt.
With this in mind, Sensei Ag’s mission includes efforts to make greenhouse farming more accessible. The company is aggregating risk assessment data in hopes that it will encourage banks to finance indoor growing mechanisms such as greenhouses and vertical farms. The company is also writing a playbook for people who want to build a successful indoor farm business, Lo said.
The rise of this kind of high-tech, high-yield farming could be a key to making Hawaii-farmed foods more competitive, according to Jesse Cooke, vice president of investments and analytics at the Ulupono Initiative.
“Using a hydroponic system, you could guarantee that every week you would have the same amount of quantity and the same quality (of produce) — and that’s what you need to sell to a large grocer,” Cooke said. “A lot of outdoor operations can’t guarantee that because they’re at the whim of nature itself.”
Brian Miyamoto, executive director of the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation, agrees that indoor farming could be a game-changer — if Hawaii farmers can figure out how to raise enough capital to build the infrastructure without sabotaging future profits.
“We can grow a lot of things here in Hawaii as far as food products,” Miyamoto said. “What we struggle with is doing it competitively — that’s why we import so much.”
Hawaii can’t rely on billionaires to make the upfront investment in high-tech indoor farming, Oleson said. Rather, the state needs to follow in the footsteps of other countries that enacted public policies to encourage this kind of agriculture.
In places like Israel and the Netherlands, high-tech greenhouses are important food production tools, Oleson said.
Beyond policy and economics, Oleson said there are aesthetic and cultural considerations associated with scaling up indoor farming in the islands.
“You’re not looking across rolling green landscapes, you’re looking at lands with big infrastructure on it so there’s sometimes social pushback,” Oleson said. “I’m not a Native Hawaiian, but I would be very curious to know the response of the local community to that kind of agriculture because it’s very divorced from the earth.”
Will Mahi Pono’s ‘Serious Amount Of Money’ Pay Off?
On Maui, a partnership between a California farm management company and a Canadian pension fund is producing food on fallow land resulting from the 2016 closure of the state’s last sugar grower.
Since Mahi Pono bought 41,000 acres of Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co.’s former sugar cane fields in 2019, the company has begun growing some of Hawaii’s top food imports — potatoes and onions — in hopes of winning over some of that market share.
Mahi Pono’s mission to produce foods that Hawaii imports heavily and that are agriculturally possible to grow here is a smart one, according to Oleson. But she said it could be difficult for the company to compete with the price point for potatoes and onions imported from the mainland.
In 2016, Hawaii’s last remaining sugar grower shut down an operation that had run for 146 years. Now the 40,000 acres are owned by Mahi Pono, the marriage of a California farm management company and a Canadian pension fund. The company is growing produce with plans to reduce the state’s reliance on imports. Courtesy: Mahi Pono
It might also prove hard to convince consumers to pay more for locally grown potatoes and onions as opposed to more perishable produce.
“Potatoes and onions can sit on a boat and the quality doesn’t decline quite as fast, but all of us know what happens when you buy a box of spinach from Costco and if you don’t eat it that night it turns to slime,” Oleson said. “So the concern is growing foods locally where the freshness really matters.”
But Mahi Pono is growing more than just root vegetables. The company planted over a half million avocado and breadfruit trees, as well as rows of trees to shelter crops from the wind. The company plans to plant its 1 millionth tree by the end of June, according to community relations director Tiare Lawrence.
The company is also growing produce ranging from tangelos and finger limes to broccoli and eggplants, and it’s leasing affordable land and water to small farmers for an annual fee of $150 per acre.
Ultimately, Mahi Pono’s staple crops will be citrus, papaya, macadamia nuts, and coffee, Lawrence said.
And while the company is exporting papayas to Canada, and eventually plans to export coffee, macadamia nuts, and citrus to markets outside the state, the majority of the food produced by Mahi Pono will feed Hawaii’s people, Lawrence said.
“I personally think these lands can be brought into production,” Lawrence said. “We’ve seen it across Hawaii where farmers have been able to take former sugar and pineapple lands and turn it into a thriving farm and I refuse to entertain doomsday scenarios.”
Mahi Pono is growing red, yellow, and white potatoes with the goal of stealing away some of the Hawaii market share from mainland-grown potatoes. Courtesy: Mahi Pono
But the farm enterprise faces many challenges.
With an average wind speed of 30 miles per hour in the Central Maui plains, there are erosion issues, as well as crop damage from pests, deer, and pigs.
“We really can’t plant a field unless we fence it in, so that adds to our costs,” Lawrence said.
There’s also the problem of the former plantation’s aging, outdated infrastructure.
“Mahi Pono has spent a serious amount of money in updating the irrigation systems and making repairs to wells,” Lawrence said.
If Mahi Pono can surmount these challenges and find success, Cooke of Ulupono said the operation will be an example to follow.
“If they can get it up and running, that could be one of the hugest transformations that Hawaii has seen, especially going towards local food for local consumption,” Cooke said. “The worry is that it doesn’t work and somehow the land gets zoned residential and a housing development goes up.”
“Hawaii Grown” is funded in part by grants from the Ulupono Fund at the Hawaii Community Foundation, the Marisla Fund at the Hawaii Community Foundation, and the Frost Family Foundation.
Brittany Lyte is a reporter for Civil Beat. You can reach her by email at blyte@civilbeat.org or follow on Twitter at @blyte
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Bringing The Future To life In Abu Dhabi
A cluster of shipping containers in a city centre is about the last place you’d expect to find salad growing. Yet for the past year, vertical farming startup Madar Farms has been using this site in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, to grow leafy green vegetables using 95 per cent less water than traditional agriculture
Amid the deserts of Abu Dhabi, a new wave of entrepreneurs and innovators are sowing the seeds of a more sustainable future.
Image from: Wired
A cluster of shipping containers in a city centre is about the last place you’d expect to find salad growing. Yet for the past year, vertical farming startup Madar Farms has been using this site in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, to grow leafy green vegetables using 95 per cent less water than traditional agriculture.
Madar Farms is one of a number of agtech startups benefitting from a package of incentives from the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) aimed at spurring the development of innovative solutions for sustainable desert farming. The partnership is part of ADIO’s $545 million Innovation Programme dedicated to supporting companies in high-growth areas.
“Abu Dhabi is pressing ahead with our mission to ‘turn the desert green’,” explained H.E. Dr. Tariq Bin Hendi, Director General of ADIO, in November 2020. “We have created an environment where innovative ideas can flourish and the companies we partnered with earlier this year are already propelling the growth of Abu Dhabi’s 24,000 farms.”
The pandemic has made food supply a critical concern across the entire world, combined with the effects of population growth and climate change, which are stretching the capacity of less efficient traditional farming methods. Abu Dhabi’s pioneering efforts to drive agricultural innovation have been gathering pace and look set to produce cutting-edge solutions addressing food security challenges.
Beyond work supporting the application of novel agricultural technologies, Abu Dhabi is also investing in foundational research and development to tackle this growing problem.
In December, the emirate’s recently created Advanced Technology Research Council [ATRC], responsible for defining Abu Dhabi’s R&D strategy and establishing the emirate and the wider UAE as a desired home for advanced technology talent, announced a four-year competition with a $15 million prize for food security research. Launched through ATRC’s project management arm, ASPIRE, in partnership with the XPRIZE Foundation, the award will support the development of environmentally-friendly protein alternatives with the aim to "feed the next billion".
Image from: Madar Farms
Global Challenges, Local Solutions
Food security is far from the only global challenge on the emirate’s R&D menu. In November 2020, the ATRC announced the launch of the Technology Innovation Institute (TII), created to support applied research on the key priorities of quantum research, autonomous robotics, cryptography, advanced materials, digital security, directed energy and secure systems.
“The technologies under development at TII are not randomly selected,” explains the centre’s secretary general Faisal Al Bannai. “This research will complement fields that are of national importance. Quantum technologies and cryptography are crucial for protecting critical infrastructure, for example, while directed energy research has use-cases in healthcare. But beyond this, the technologies and research of TII will have global impact.”
Future research directions will be developed by the ATRC’s ASPIRE pillar, in collaboration with stakeholders from across a diverse range of industry sectors.
“ASPIRE defines the problem, sets milestones, and monitors the progress of the projects,” Al Bannai says. “It will also make impactful decisions related to the selection of research partners and the allocation of funding, to ensure that their R&D priorities align with Abu Dhabi and the UAE's broader development goals.”
Image from: Agritecture
Nurturing Next-Generation Talent
To address these challenges, ATRC’s first initiative is a talent development programme, NexTech, which has begun the recruitment of 125 local researchers, who will work across 31 projects in collaboration with 23 world-leading research centres.
Alongside universities and research institutes from across the US, the UK, Europe and South America, these partners include Abu Dhabi’s own Khalifa University, and Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, the world’s first graduate-level institute focused on artificial intelligence.
“Our aim is to up skill the researchers by allowing them to work across various disciplines in collaboration with world-renowned experts,” Al Bannai says.
Beyond academic collaborators, TII is also working with a number of industry partners, such as hyperloop technology company, Virgin Hyperloop. Such industry collaborations, Al Bannai points out, are essential to ensuring that TII research directly tackles relevant problems and has a smooth path to commercial impact in order to fuel job creation across the UAE.
“By engaging with top global talent, universities and research institutions and industry players, TII connects an intellectual community,” he says. “This reinforces Abu Dhabi and the UAE’s status as a global hub for innovation and contributes to the broader development of the knowledge-based economy.”
FOR SALE - Custom Built 20' Container Greenhouse - St. Petersburg, Florida
Description of Container Greenhouse
This greenhouse is constructed of a converted 20’ solid steel shipping container.
The roof has been vaulted to provide for rain/snow runoff.
The side panels and roof are covered in Solexx 3MM greenhouse panel material that diffuses light.
Material details can be found at solexx.com
One standard greenhouse door
2 Gable vents for airflow
1 Vortex Greentek fan
2 Cyclone fans
Garden hose water hook up
Extra 10’ of spare solexx included
Greenhouse will be cleaned and power washed prior to pick up
$8,500 *
Purchaser responsible for shipping
TERMS & CONDITIONS
All information is from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, prior sale or withdrawal without notice.
No representation is made as to the accuracy of any description.
All measurements, yields and square footages are approximate and all information should be confirmed by the customer.
Disclaimer of Warranty - The custom built 20’ hydroponic farming container is being sold “as is” and the Seller disclaims all warranties of quality, whether express or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.