VIDEO: Utah Company To Launch All-In-One Universal Climate Control Utility System To Agribusiness

BY JENNIFER WEAVER, KUTV SATURDAY

MARCH 20TH 2021

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Water scarcity and land degradation is a global problem with additional difficulties in utility costs and climate control for growing food and sustaining strong and sufficient agricultural commerce. However, a new company, Selu.earth, is providing a universal solution.

View fullsize

According to a press release, Selu is an innovative company that created patent-pending technologies to reclaim atmospheric humidity, produce renewable energy, and use CO2 to fertilize agriculture environments to regulate temperature and humidity. The result is an all-in-one climate-control utility system to enhance plant growing conditions.

“Selu Oasis” provides agribusiness customers with the ability to grow and harvest food in many more areas than previously available or viable. By vastly increasing the locations and amount of land available for growers, the Selu Oasis system allows agribusiness providers to reduce overhead costs while achieving maximum potential growth yields.

To that end, the company is seeking and intends to launch five pilot programs to support greenhouses, agriculture infrastructure suppliers, and vertical farms in the United States.

Jake Hammock, Cofounder and CEO (Photo: Selu)

Jake Hammock, Selu’s founder and CEO, said in a prepared statement:

By providing universal climate control conditions from one solution, our customers will be able to better realize lower utility costs and higher crop yields. Now is the time for producers to have a lower universal utility access solution to grow closer to consumers without the hassle of multiple climate controlling devices saturating energy costs.

By adapting and using the Selu Oasis technology, our customers will not only receive substantial utility savings but will also replenish the environment through our carbon-neutral solution.

Utah company to launch all-in-one universal climate control utility system to agribusiness (Photo: Selu){p}{/p}

Selu’s technology addresses seven of the United Nations’ Sustainability Development Goals:

• Zero hunger,

• Clean water and sanitation,

• Affordable and clean energy,

• Decent work and economic growth,

• Industry innovation and infrastructure,

• Sustainable cities, and

• Life on land.

In all, Selu’s goal is to strengthen and enhance nature to liberate all life, while empowering agribusiness with immense commercial value, a press release stated.

Lead photo: Utah company develops technology that provides water & renewable energy for agribusinesses (Photo: Selu)

Fruitbox 56 - Daniel Kats, InFarm

MIKE KNOWLES

@mikefruitnet

5th March 2021

The Urban Farming Startup's Head of Sales

Tells Fruitnet About The Next Stage of its Impressive Expansion

Despite its name, InFarm’s roots are very much in the market. In February 2021, the Berlin-based urban farming startup announced the creation of new growing centres to supply fresh produce to the likes of Edeka, Lidl, and Kaufland.

Starting in Germany and extending very soon to the UK, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, US, and Canada, the move represents a step-change in its operations, scaling up a business model that until now has focused on smaller, plug-and-grow units within retail stores themselves.

Now, as demand for locally grown produce continues to rise, the company is preparing go beyond the 1,500 in-store farms already installed and ramp up production wherever the market demands it.

And with total venture capital funding of more than US$400m to date, it’s certainly shaping up to be one of the world’s most hotly tipped vertical growing startups.

“We are not building farms,” explains InFarm’s vice-president of corporate sales Daniel Kats, speaking on the latest episode of Fruitbox. “We’re taking facilities and deploying models inside. Those automated towers can then grow by demand. If the retailer has more demand, we just add one or two or ten more towers.”

Why now? “The population is growing, the demand keeps growing, and a lot of food production is needed in many large cities,” says Kats. “Therefore we are pushing the button now and starting to grow.”

Now operating in ten countries, and set to launch in Japan this year, the company is also venturing into new products. As a result, it’s ready to become a major supplier in its own right, rather than simply enabling retailers to grow a limited number of items in stores.

“We are growing much more variety and assortment,” Kats adds. “We started with a lot of leafy greens, herbs, lettuces, mixed salads, microgreens, and now we’re doing the first steps into tomatoes, mushrooms, chillies, strawberries in the future, which require naturally much bigger spaces to grow centrally and distribute to the supermarkets.”

Hosted by Chris White in London, Fruitbox now attracts a big audience across the global fruit and vegetable business that tunes in every week to hear exclusive interviews and expert analysis. Produced by Fruitnet Media International, the show is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce industry.

All previous episodes of Fruitbox can be found on any of the following podcast services:

Apple · Spotify · Anchor · Google · Overcast · Soundcloud · Stitcher · Pocket Casts

Produced by Fruitnet Media International, the show is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce industry.

To find out how you can tell your story on Fruitbox, email: chris@fruitnet.com

To learn about sponsorship and advertising opportunities, email: advertising@fruitnet.com

Enjoyed this free article from Eurofruit Magazine and its team of editors? Don't miss out on even more in-depth analysis, plus all the latest news from the fresh produce business. Subscribe now to Eurofruit Magazine.