AUSTRALIA - VIDEO: Shipping Container Farm Teaching TAFE Students More Than Just Agriculture

August 16, 2021

ABC Rural

By Lucy Cooper

Nestled beside a building on a TAFE campus in Toowoomba is an ugly metal shipping container, but it's no ordinary storage shed.

Key points:

• TAFE is using a shipping container farm to teach students about alternative farming

• All features of the farm are controlled by an app

• Agriculture, hospitality, and IT students are using the "grow pod" in their studies

Step inside and it's bursting with greenery.

Packed floor to ceiling with vegetables and herbs like basil, kale, mint and mustard, this state-of-the-art modular farm is changing the future of agriculture, all with the push of a button.

TAFE Queensland school manager Elaine Wallace said the "grow pod" aimed to change students' perspectives on traditional farming.

"Often when people think about agriculture, they think, 'Oh, I don't want to go stand in the sun all day picking vegetables, that's a bit too dirty for my liking," Ms. Wallace said.

"This is just one of those technologies that really enables students to get involved in something different and something up and coming."

Student Kallia Stebbins said when she first saw the vertical farm she was amazed by the technology.

"I didn't realise that you can grow crops like this, compared to just out in the middle of a field," she said.

"Now that I've seen this, it's very cool. I'm very interested to learn more about it."

A farm controlled from the palm of a hand

The container farm is controlled remotely with an app.

To switch the lights on inside, Ms Wallace simply whips out her phone.

"If we have a look at our monitors, it tells us that our irrigation cycle has started up, so we can set the cycle to however long or short we need it," she said.

"It's drip irrigation from the top filter through to the bottom and it's caught in the gutter that is at the bottom.

"We have pumps that will feed nutrients into the water and then, of course, we've got our lights, which are LED lights, and they are also set on a timer, so they are grow lights."

'Absolutely no limits'

It's not just agricultural students reaping the benefits of the multidisciplinary project.

Information technology students studied the app controlling the farm, while electrical students looked at how the farm kept running.

Hospitality and cookery teacher Nev Siebenhausen said his students also gained valuable first-hand experience in paddock to plate catering.

"For our students, it's a great opportunity to obviously shorten up the duration and travel on the product," he said.

"It's great for our guys to see different ways it can be grown."

Mr Siebenhausen said the walk up the hill from the grow pod to the hospitality school reduced carbon miles and cut waste by 70 percent for produce like basil, which had a short lifespan.

Any leftover produce is donated to the food relief charity, Oz Harvest.

Talks are also underway to trial sensory herbs for community service students to study the calming effects on people.

"The possibilities are endless," Ms. Wallace said.

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ABC Rural: Lucy Cooper

Modular Farms Australia

Singapore To Host Major Multi Stakeholder Virtual Event On Food Security & Sustainability In Partnership With UNDP & APEC

12 August 2021, Singapore – To address the potential impact to the global food system from the twin effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change, government officials and top-level executives from the Asia Pacific region will be attending the Global Food Security & Sustainability Virtual Summit 2021 on 17 September 2021.

Singapore’s Minister for Sustainability and the Environment, Ms. Grace Fu will be delivering the opening address for the event. Providing the keynote address will be A/Prof Matthew Tan, the co-chair for Sustainable Development in Agriculture & Fishery Sectors for APEC Policy Partnership on Food Security on the topic: Global Food Security – The Next Frontier In The Agriculture And Aquaculture Industry.

Organized by The Pinnacle Group International, a leading conference organizer headquartered in Singapore, the event is formed in partnership with UNDP and APEC with the support of multi agencies and NGOs around the world. This event is positioned as the Pan Asian multi-agency and private sector event to facilitate policy, business, and technological exchanges amongst key stakeholders in the global food community.

The event is expected to feature 35 influential speakers who will cover a wide range of topics including macro and regulatory issues, food technology, food waste, financing, food security & sustainability, cold chain & logistics, and nutrition. The event agenda, set against the conference theme “Towards A Future Safe Global Food System” will be developed in consultation with members of the summit’s board of advisors.

The appointed board of advisors are:

• -  A/Prof Matthew Tan – Co-Chair for Sustainable Development in Agriculture & Fishery Sectors - APEC Policy Partnership on Food Security/CEO Asia, Assentoft Aqua Asia

• -  Professor William Chen - The Michael Fam Chair Professor and Director of NTU Food Science and Technology Co-Director, Future Ready Food Safety Hub @ NTU, Consultant, Asian Development Bank

• -  Mr. Lim Hui Jie - CEO, VisionTech Pte Ltd

• -  Mr. Eugene Wang - Co-Founder & CEO, Sophie’s BioNutrients Pte Ltd

  (Singapore)

• -  Mr. Rohit Behl - Interim CEO of EntomoVentures Pte. Ltd & Business

  Development Lead of Cellivate Technologies Pte Ltd

• -  Mr. Wee-Meng Thoo - Partner and Head Of Investments, Digital and

  Sustainability, Leonie Hill Capital

• -  Mr. Richard Hayler, CFO of Nutrition Technologies

• -  Mr. Robert (Bob) Nichol, Director Asia Pacific, Innovad Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd

• -  Mr. John Friedman, Executive Director, AgFunder Asia & GROW Accelerator

• -  Mr. Nick Hazell, CEO & Founder, v2food

• -  Ms. Mirte Gosker, Acting Managing Director, The Good Food Institute Asia

  Pacific

• -  Mr. Christoph Langwallner, Initiator of Nutritional Paradox & CEO and Co-

  Founder of WhatIF Foods

• -  Mr. John Cheng, Founder, and Managing Director Innovate 360

• -  Mr. Niels Arbjerg, Regional President of the Asia Pacific Region, Danfoss

• -  Mr. Tan Ernest, Head of Agribusiness & Animal Protein of United Overseas

  Bank Limited (UOB)’s Sector Solutions Group – Consumer Goods Group

  Wholesale Banking Division

• -  Dr. Ling Ka Yi, CTO & Co-Founder, Shiok Meats

• -  Mr. Saurabh Bajaj, CEO, Eat JUST Asia

• -  Mr. Yuki Hanyu, Founder & CEO at Integriculture Inc

• -  Ms. Elizabeth Hernandez, Head of External Affairs and Sustainability, Asia

  Pacific, Corteva Agriscience

• -  Mr. Steve Rhodes, Chairman & CEO of Trendlines Investments Group

• -  Ms. Nathalie Lung, Program Manager for the Food Technology Accelerator

  Programs, Brinc

• -  Ms. Rebecca Vaught, Founder, Van Heron Labs

• -  Mr. William Koo, Managing Director, Temasek Life Sciences Accelerator

  (‘TLA’)

• -  Dr. Andrew Powell, CEO, Asia BioBusiness

• -  Mr. Puis Chong, Managing Director, Mergers, Acquisitions & Divestitures,

  Deloitte Financial Advisory SEA

• -  Mr. Dominique Kull, Co-Founder, and CEO, SGProtein

The current confirmed prestigious panel of speakers are:

• -  Ms. Grace Fu, Minister for Sustainability and The Environment - Republic of Singapore

• -  A/Prof Matthew Tan, Co-Chair for Sustainable Development in Agriculture & Fishery Sectors - APEC Policy Partnership on Food Security/ CEO Asia, Assentoft Aqua Asia

• -  Mr. Riad Meddeb, Director ad-interim of UNDP Global Centre for Technology, Innovation and Sustainable Development(GC-TISD)

• -  Mr. Eric Paillard, Managing Director, Adisseo Asia Pacific

• -  Ms. Cecilia Ku, General Manager, Delta Electronics International Singapore

• -  Mr. Torben Funder-Kristensen, Head of Public and Industry Affairs, Danfoss

  Climate Segment, Danfoss A/S (Denmark)

• -  Dr. Sun Hui, Chief Engineer of the Academy of the National Food and Strategic

  Reserves Administration of China

• -  Ms. Mirte Gosker, Acting Managing Director, The Good Food Institute Asia

  Pacific

• -  Mr. Nick Hazell, CEO & Founder, v2food

• -  Mr. Tan Ernest, Head of Agribusiness & Animal Protein of United Overseas

  Bank Limited (UOB)’s Sector Solutions Group – Consumer Goods Group

  Wholesale Banking Division

• -  Mr. Christoph Langwallner, Initiator of Nutritional Paradox & CEO and Co-

  Founder of WhatIF Foods

• -  Dr. Viknish Krishnan-Kutty, Founder & CEO of Cellivate Technologies

• -  Mr. Eugene Wang, Co-Founder & CEO, Sophie’s BioNutrients Pte Ltd

  (Singapore)

• -  Mr. John Friedman, Executive Director, AgFunder and GROW Accelerator

• -  Mr. Robert (Bob) Nichol, Business Director - Asia Pacific, Innovad Asia Pacific

  Pte. Ltd

• -  Mr. Richard Hayler, CFO of Nutrition Technologies

• -  Mr. Rohit Behl, Interim CEO of EntomoVentures Pte. Ltd & Business

  Development Lead of Cellivate Technologies Pte Ltd

• -  Mr. Will Cowling, Marketing Manager, FMCG Gurus

• -  Mr. Wee Meng Thoo, Partner and Head Of Investments, Digital and

  Sustainability, Leonie Hill Capital

• -  Mr. Smith Taweelerdniti, CEO, Let’s Plant Meat – Managing Director, Nithi

  Foods Co. Ltd, Innovator & Entrepreneur

• -  Mr. Jean Pasternak, Strategy Director, Nasekomo

• -  Dr. Emily Chang, Professor, Department of Agriculture Economics, National

  Taiwan University

• -  Mr. Travin Singh, Founder & CEO, Crust Group

• -  Mr. Jean-Yves Chow, Agri-Food Sector Coverage Lead, Senior Vice-

  President, Asia & Oceania Corporate Banking Department, Sector Coverage

  Team, Mizuho Bank

• -  Mr. William Koo, Managing Director, Temasek Life Sciences Accelerator

  (‘TLA’)

Supporting Organisation(s):

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The organizers are expecting 700 participants to attend the online event. Global Food Security & Sustainability Virtual Summit 2021 is supported by the following sponsors:

For more information on the event, please visit:

https://pinnaclegroup.global/gfsss/ About

The Pinnacle Group International

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The Pinnacle Group International - CDMC is a leader in the conference industry in Asia, designing and launching its own brand of conferences and events. The Pinnacle Group is headquartered in Singapore with supporting regional offices in Shanghai and Philippines. The Company’s renowned brands of conferences and events cover a wide spectrum of industries including finance, energy, education, aviation, food security and sustainability and real estate.

USA: MACOMB, ILLINOIS - Macomb Hy-Vee Begins Selling WIU-Produced Hydroponic Lettuce

August 12, 2021

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MACOMB, IL – Through a second partnership with Hy-Vee Food Store in Macomb, the Western Illinois University School of Agriculture is now growing hydroponic lettuce marketed through the local grocer.

The "Rex" butterhead lettuce is grown in WIU's Knoblauch Hall through collaborative research and classroom work by two agriculture professors and their students.

"We just delivered our first load of hydroponic lettuce to the local Hy-Vee store," said School of Agriculture Director Andy Baker. "I have been working with Gary Jenkins, the Macomb Hy-Vee's produce manager, to get this accomplished. Hopefully, we can grow our relationship with Hy-Vee even further in the future. We are super excited about getting additional food products, raised in the School of Agriculture, into our local Hy-Vee store."

WIU Agriculture Assistant Professors Shelby Henning and Dan Atherton started working together a few years ago when they built a small system in the basement of Knoblauch Hall to grow the produce. The production process allows for several research opportunities for students, including the process of detecting nutrient deficiencies.

The roots of the lettuce grow in channels similar to vinyl rain gutters, which allow for the introduction of nutrients. LED lights are utilized to increase production and to ensure the lettuce has adequate hours of light during the day.

In October 2020, the School of Agriculture began selling ground sausage, as well as links and patties, in traditional and zesty flavors, produced by Leatherneck Country Meats (LCM), through Hy-Vee's East Jackson Street location. LCM is an organization that sells pork products that were raised on the University Farm.

The products are processed by Farmhouse Meats in Carthage, IL, which is partly owned by several WIU School of Agriculture alumni. Products are also sold on the LCM website at bit.ly/LCMorder.

It is also anticipated that bell peppers and tomatoes, grown through the University's agriculture program, will be sold through Hy-Vee's produce section beginning soon.

For more information about the WIU School of Agriculture, visit wiu.edu/ag

Posted By: Jodi Pospeschil (JK-Pospeschil@wiu.edu)
Office of University Relations

Where Does Our Lettuce Really Come From?

According to www.keepcaliforniafarming.com, more than 90% of the U.S. production of lettuce comes from either California or Arizona. The website also tells us: “The majority of production from April through October occurs in the Salinas Valley of California, while production from November through March occurs in California’s Imperial Valley.”

This shouldn’t really come as much of a surprise to folks who understand that the majority of leafy greens, and indeed most vegetables need a warm climate to thrive and grow. And that’s why California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, and states with similar climates are successful in agriculture.

The U.S. is the second-largest user of lettuce after only China (which makes complete sense based on population), but when we look at lettuce consumption and production as an example, we can see why vertical indoor farming can be such a great way to supplement what we eat.

The same website gives us quite a few facts about lettuce that we may never have thought of including that Americans consume on average, 30 pounds of lettuce each per year. That’s because lettuce is healthy, used in a variety of ways, and well, it just plain tastes good to a LOT of consumers both here in America and almost everywhere else. It’s nutritious, low in calories, generally healthy, and has a lot of varieties that can be consumed in a number of salads and other dishes. Americans have also become more accustomed to having choices in both restaurants and supermarkets. The days of relying just on iceberg lettuce are long gone. Today consumers are aware of less mainstream varieties or cultivars and they want to not only experience those cultivars but enjoy them on a routine basis. We have, in a word become “picky” about something as simple as a leafy green lettuce.

So let’s say that 90+% of the U.S. lettuce production is in California and Arizona, but we know that those two states only account for a small percentage of the U.S. population. How does the rest of America get their lettuce? The answer for most folks is by truck. So, the lettuce, like many vegetables in the U.S., is grown in California and shipped across the country - usually by a tractor-trailer. Of course, this has historically been the way to do things, and likely will be for the near term, but that transportation comes with its own set of challenges and increasing costs. For example, we read all the time about shortages of qualified truck drivers, the increasing cost of fuel that we can all see, the increase in salaries due to the worker shortage, and so on. What this means is that supplies to other parts of the country coming from the west coast may be inadequate to meet demand - especially if demand is increasing due to people wanting to eat healthier.

The USDA Specialty Crops Truck Rate Report published August 4, 2021, showed slight shortages of lettuce in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, New York, and Philadelphia. Keep in mind that this may only be termed as “slight shortage” but also this is a report for August and August is a month when it should be relatively easy to produce large amounts of lettuce - even outside of Arizona and California. So why the shortage? And, if a slight shortage now, what happens at other times of the year when the growing season isn’t exactly peak for other parts of the U.S. outside of California and Arizona?

Of course, the answer is that the “slight shortage” can very easily become more of a real shortage during times when other areas can’t produce lettuce to supplement that which comes out of Arizona and California. Factor in the increased cost of transportation, spoilage that is inevitable when a food source is harvested and then must be transported long distances, and other factors that can be catastrophic in nature and may include droughts, fires, floods, etc. and it becomes a compelling argument that growing indoors more closely to where a product is consumed can be very appealing.

Also, growing vertically in a controlled environment will help to lessen the chances for something to be introduced into the crop that isn’t wanted. Think about the E.coli scares that we have seen in the past several years. While diseases can be introduced into a crop at the seed level and so indoor farming is not 100% a safeguard against something like E.coli, it does help to mitigate many of the factors that might influence such a malady.

Vertical farming then can play a significant role in where our lettuce or other vegetables or plants come from both now and well into the future. By growing products close to the source of consumption, the product is fresher, should theoretically be cheaper over time, and should taste better with much less spoilage. As an added bonus, the lettuce can be grown year-round without herbicides and pesticides so it actually can be a cleaner form of plant than even something termed “organic.”

So, where does our lettuce come from today and where will it come from tomorrow? At HYVE they are helping to construct an infrastructure that hopefully answers that question in a way that will lead to great outcomes for all within the supply chain and also those ultimately eating the lettuce.

Visit www.growhyve.com to learn more about the indoor farming systems being produced. While they are not likely to supplant traditional farming in the short term, the systems are compelling for their advanced automation, accelerated ability to produce crops, and mostly for their ability to make growing local something that can happen anywhere. Again, we ask the question - Where does our lettuce really come from? We should also bookmark that question to ask a few years down the road because the answer may be very different.

2021 Global CEA Census Will Measure The Impact of Sustainability

The 2021 Global CEA Census has launched with a focus on growers’ perspectives on sustainability and how they are measuring specific ESG (environmental, social, and governance) outcomes.  

This year Agritecture Consulting will partner with AgTech leader WayBeyond who has taken over the responsibility of the Census from automation business Autogrow.   

“Our WayBeyond ethos for sustainable crop production technology fits perfectly with this year’s Census. Understanding the impact of CEA (Controlled Environment Agriculture) on the planet allows us to continue highlighting the growers doing remarkable work to reduce environmental impact while producing quality crops.

There’s clear evidence showing consumers, particularly Gen-Z, are making decisions based on the sustainability factor of not only the food they eat but also the packaging, distribution and producers themselves. This Census will give a clear view of the role CEA can play in creating a more sustainable planet.”

— WAYBEYOND CEO & FOUNDER DARRYN KEILLER

This is the third year the Census has run with increasing participation each year from greenhouse, indoor vertical, and tunnel house growers. Past Census reports have brought forward key information on the state of the industry, tactics being used, and the people behind its many operations. For example, the 2020 report showed that there was plenty of optimism despite the pandemic, with 95% of respondents having an “excellent” or “good” outlook for the 12 months ahead, and only 5% indicating that the business’ future was uncertain.

“We work hard to encourage as many growers to participate as possible and, with a focus on sustainability, we hope to gain an even better uptake this year, especially from large-scale operations.

This is the most comprehensive global survey of CEA operations running, and the published findings will provide valuable insights that may affect policy, financing options, operational practices, and new technology. That is a benefit for all of us in the industry.”

— AGRITECTURE CONSULTING FOUNDER AND CEO HENRY GORDON-SMITH

The 2021 Global Census will run from 7 July 2021 until 20 August 2021.

Take the survey: Global CEA Census

Survey Terms and Conditions can be found here.

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA - CityFarms Is Hiring!

We are in need of another Operations Associate! The job mostly entails running the ongoing operations of the farm.

Things like harvesting, packaging, planting, delivering to stores, and managing the crops.

We are always trying to continuously improve what we do and are hoping to find great people with that same drive.

Our goal is to become the largest food producer in Alaska and we have a long way to go!

We are currently a team of six and are excited to find people who are passionate about the same things we are.

If you are interested, click the button below and message us! We look forward to hearing from you.

Contact Us!

Pinduoduo Launches 2021 Smart Agriculture Competition To Spearhead Agriculture Modernization And Sustainability

August 09, 2021 

Source: Pinduoduo Inc.

SHANGHAI, China, Aug. 09, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pinduoduo (NASDAQ:PDD), China Agricultural University, and Zhejiang University jointly announced the launch of the 2021 Smart Agriculture Competition, an agricultural technology competition with the aim of fostering innovation and promoting agricultural modernization.

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Contestants will take a multidisciplinary approach, applying nutrition science, precision farming, and other relevant technology to cultivate tomatoes. The winners will be judged on yield, nutritional value, environmental sustainability, and commercial viability. The competition is open to young agronomists and computer scientists from around the world and offers a total prize pool of more than 1 million yuan ($154,000).

Registration for the competition will end on Sept. 9, 2021. Teams can register through the competition website (https://smartagricompetition.com/register). A total of 15 teams will be shortlisted by the judging panel to present their plans. The four teams with the highest scores will proceed to the final round of the competition.

Now in its second year, the Smart Agriculture Competition is led by Pinduoduo, China Agricultural University and Zhejiang University, with technical guidance from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Wageningen University & Research. The Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences and representative agencies from the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Denmark have also provided strong support. Leading agritech companies including Bayer Crop Science, Ridder Group, and Omron have lent their industry expertise and advanced solutions to the competition.

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Pinduoduo is organizing the annual competition as part of its support for global efforts to improve and modernize the agri-food system through technology. As China’s largest agriculture platform serving 824 million consumers, the company has made agriculture a central part of its mission to improve the way food is grown, transported, and sold.

“The driving force for the improvement of the agricultural industry comes from the development and application of cutting-edge technologies,” said Andre Zhu, Senior Vice President at Pinduoduo. “As China’s largest platform for agriculture, we want to play our part to improve food security and quality in a sustainable way.”

For the 2021 Smart Agriculture Competition, the judging panel is composed of leading experts and growers with diverse backgrounds including horticulture, crop modeling, algorithm design and policymaking. Tomato experts from China, the Netherlands, and Denmark will provide guidance to the participating teams.

The competing teams will be judged not just on yield but also on the nutritional value and environmental impact of their farming methods. This is in line with Pinduoduo's strong commitment to environmental sustainability, food quality and food safety.

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“The Smart Agriculture Competition plays a unique role in that it aims to foster innovation that is usable by smallholder farmers, who produce around 80% of the food in China,” said Tian Jianhui, Vice President of China Agricultural University. “It is an important platform for the different stakeholders in the agri-food ecosystem to come together to develop practical, cost-effective, and environmentally sustainable solutions for working farms.”

In last year’s inaugural competition, the four technology teams employed data analysis, intelligent sensors and greenhouse automation to grow strawberries, producing 196% more fruit by weight on average compared with experienced farmers. Two of the technology teams have started to commercialize their technology after the competition, resulting in real-life gains in productivity for local farmers.

"China’s farming sector will undergo tremendous change, making the leap from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture,” said He Yong, Dean of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science College of Zhejiang University. “The Smart Agriculture Competition has encouraged more forces to push the industry forward together.”

Pinduoduo has gone from zero to over 800 million customers in just six years, making it the world's largest agri-focused tech platform. It is unique among other large internet companies to make digitizing the agriculture industry a core and strategic priority. Pinduoduo is also actively evaluating global opportunities to solve food safety and food security issues.

"Technology is transforming agriculture and food production. It is extremely important to implement the digital transformation of agriculture and improve food safety," said Carlos Watson, the FAO Representative to China. “FAO provided technical support to the Smart Agriculture Competition last year. We are looking forward to another successful collaboration to bring farmers real benefits through digitalization."

About Pinduoduo Inc.

Pinduoduo is a mobile-only marketplace that connects millions of agricultural producers with consumers across China. Pinduoduo aims to bring more businesses and people into the digital economy so that local communities can benefit from the increased productivity and convenience through new market opportunities.

For more information on Pinduoduo news and industry trends, please visit the content hub at https://stories.pinduoduo-global.com.

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For media inquiries, please contact internationalmedia@pinduoduo.com

Tags agriculturefarmingtechnologycompetition

USA - FLORIDA: Brick Street Farms Was On A Podcast!

Farm in a Box with Shannon and Maddy of Brick Street Farms

What an exciting opportunity we had this week to sit down with Feeding Tampa Bay to record a podcast episode about how we grow our produce and our dedication to sustainability.

We also got a chance to discuss how our non-profit organization, Desert Farms, is partnering with them to work towards a hunger-free Tampa Bay. Click below to listen to the full podcast.

Listen

2021 Virtual Plant Lighting Short Course

Now Open For Registration! 

Working in partnership, GLASE, OptimIA, and LAMP are excited to announce the first annual Plant Lighting Short Course! This 6-week modular short course is designed to provide participants the opportunity to learn about all aspects related to the selection, implementation, and benefits of plant lighting systems.

In each sequential module, attendees will use interactive tools to define their specific lighting requirements, hear from industry experts about available horticultural lighting systems, and learn how to compare different lighting strategies. By the end of the course, participants will be equipped to make informed decisions about the best options to meet their lighting needs.

More Info & Registration

Media Partners

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Recordings Now Available

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Optimizing Resource Use Efficiency in CEA Systems - July Webinar

New CEA Research Programs in the U.S. - June Webinar

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A Manufacturer And A Food Caterer Among New Players Feeding Singapore’s Urban Farming Boom

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Tang See Kit

@SeeKitCNA

11 Aug 2021

SINGAPORE: In a small room tucked away on the second floor of a precision engineering factory in Tuas, pots of kale and lettuce stacked in vertical racks grow under the glow of pink-purple lights.

These light-emitting diode (LED) lights have been designed to shine at a customized spectrum that will help crops grow better. Smart sensors also keep tabs on temperature and humidity in the room, while a special water treatment system reduces bacteria growth.

In here, the goal is to find the best way to farm vegetables indoors, all with the use of technology.

“You can control everything, even how much nutrients or water is being used for each plant,” said Mr. Nelson Lim, co-founder of I.F.F.I, which stands for Indoor Farm Factory Innovation.

“We want to bring indoor farming into something more precise, where you calculate the least input for the best output. That is precision farming,” he told CNA.

Mr. Lim is also the chief executive of precision engineering firm TranZplus Engineering, which is the parent company of I.F.F.I. TranZplus’ two-story office in Tuas now houses both a manufacturing facility for semiconductor components and a farming showroom.

“A lot of people ask me: ‘Nelson, are you crazy? You’re in engineering, why suddenly do farming?’ Actually, the two are not unrelated. We can put our engineering skills to good use in indoor farming,” Mr. Lim said while demonstrating the farming racks that can be adjusted according to height and size.

Robotics is another expertise that the company has incorporated into its farming solutions to not just improve the yield and quality of crops, but also workflow efficiencies.

For instance, automated machines that can perform seeding, transplanting, potting and harvesting tasks will be put to work at I.F.F.I’s mega indoor farm when ready at the end of this year.

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(Left to right) I.F.F.I's general manager Veronica Lee, chief operating officer Kelvin Ng, and co-founder Nelson Lim. (Photo: Tang See Kit)

SEEDING A DIVERSIFICATION

TranZplus’ venture into agriculture was first seeded in 2016 when it became one of the vendors for Panasonic’s indoor farm in Singapore.

“Initially, they just wanted to have a rack. Then we thought why not have racks that can be customized, why not put in an irrigation system and other types of automation?” Mr Lim recalled. “We worked out a prototype and they were impressed.”

The company kept on with research and development after that, while being involved in setting up three other small-scale farms. In 2019, it decided it had gained enough experience to give it a shot.

Mr. Lim said the decision to venture into indoor farming was driven by “strong business potential”, partly on the back of Singapore’s “30 by 30” goal to produce 30 percent of the country's nutritional needs locally by 2030.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accentuated the potential, with global disruptions to the harvesting, shipping, and sale of food making it even more important for the country to have its own resources. Indoor farms can be the solution, he added.

Last September, I.F.F.I. became one of the nine urban farms to secure grants totaling S$39.4 million from the Singapore Food Agency.

Its 38,000 sq ft indoor farm, which remains under development at the JTC Space @ Tuas, will be using a soil-based cultivation method that allows more vegetable varieties to be planted.

When operational, the mega farm will be able to produce 800 to 1,000kg of vegetables, like nai bai and spinach, per day, said Mr Lim.

Another new player on the field is food caterer Kitchen Haus, which co-founded “farm-to-table” concept brand Frux Earth a few months ago.

With its core business facing a slow recovery amid the pandemic, the company has been diversifying actively in search of new opportunities over the past year.

Agriculture is “not unrelated territory”, chief executive Patrick Chan said. “It’s still part of the food ecosystem so when the opportunity came, I agreed instantly.”

It teamed up with home-grown urban farming company Metro Farm for the new venture. With the latter’s expertise, the farms under Frux Earth – three sites spanning 60,000 sq ft – are powered by an aquaponics system that converts fish waste into nutrients for the vegetables.

For instance, its 12,000 sq ft rooftop farm atop an industrial building in Bendemeer has eight fish tanks with red tilapia and jade perch. These fishes were chosen for their hardiness and ability “to produce more waste”, said Metro Farm’s director Chris Toh.

“We have a filter to separate the fish waste, which is then broken down by bacteria. Our system will then keep the nutrients flowing to the vegetables 24/7,” said the farm’s other director Brandon Toh, who added that the system is “self-sustainable” and keeps costs low.

The Bendemeer farm, with its 720 vertical plant towers, can harvest more than 30,000 stalks of vegetables, including purple lettuce and kale, a month. The fish will also be sold once they reach table size.

Mr. Chan said: “This is a breath of fresh air for us and we pivoted because we want to jump on the trend of food sustainability.

“I think Metro Farm sees the value in us having the know-how of food preparing, catering, and retail. And we partner them because it’s not easy to set up a farm and they are the experts.”

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Metro Farm’s director Chris Toh (left) and Kitchen Haus' chief executive officer Patrick Chan (right) joined hands to form a new urban farming company Frux Earth. (Photo: Tang See Kit)

OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

Metro Farm, which started its first farm in Kranji almost nine years ago, noted that the local agriculture sector has become “much more vibrant”.

While the presence of new and bigger players means greater competition, the increased attention has also made it easier for businesses to secure farming sites in land-scarce Singapore, including vacant rooftops on both public and private buildings.

“In the past, we have to explain what is a rooftop farm and what we are doing but now, more landlords are opening up to the idea,” said Mr. Brandon Toh, although he noted that not all rooftops are suitable given the need to take into consideration the additional loads of farming.

Frux Earth has plans to open three more urban farms over the next few months.

Its “farm-to-table” menu is in the works as it ramps up its crop production, while it is also gauging the interest for a weekly vegetable subscription service, said Mr. Chan.

These “culture boxes”, as they are called, will be filled with 1 to 2kg worth of freshly harvested organic vegetables and delivered to the doorsteps of customers every week. For now, it has started supplying a few restaurants located near its farm at the Marina Country Club.

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Frux Earth is planning to launch a weekly vegetable box subscription service. (Photo: Frux Earth)

Over at I.F.F.I, the protracted pandemic and its impact on labour and supplies of raw materials have caused some delays at its mega indoor farm which was initially scheduled to open in the middle of this year.

“We are catching up and hopefully we can have everything ready soon,” said Mr. Lim. “Certainly, costs have also gone up with the increase in raw material prices, but we are managing that."

Meanwhile, the company is working on opening an “indoor farm pro-shop”.

“There will be a mini-farm set up for visitors to understand and raise awareness about indoor farming,” said I.F.F.I chief operating officer Kelvin Ng.

“If they like what they see and want to start their home cultivation system, they will also be able to purchase everything they need at the shop. We will even have consultants ready to guide you. It will be a one-stop shop about indoor farming.”

I.F.F.I. also sees opportunities beyond Singapore where they can serve as consultants or designers to those looking to set up indoor farms. For instance, in Russia where crop production is a challenge due to the cold climate.

Its technologies can also be deployed in “bite sizes” even in traditional food-producing countries as solutions to specific problems, such as water pollution.

Mr. Ng said: “There are many opportunities emerging in the space of indoor farming, and we want to be bold and seize them.”

Source: CNA/sk(cy)

Lead Photo: I.F.F.I, an affiliate of precision engineering firm TranZplus Engineering, is looking to open its mega indoor farm in Tuas by the end of this year. (Photo: Tang See Kit)

SCOTLAND: World’s Most Powerful Tidal Turbine Starts To Export Power To The Grid

29 July 2021

Orbital Marine Power’s O2, the world’s most powerful tidal turbine, has commenced grid-connected power generation at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney. The innovative, floating turbine is anchored in the Fall of Warness where a subsea cable connects the 2MW offshore unit to the local onshore electricity network, so the company in a press release yesterday.

Manufactured and launched in Dundee earlier in the year before being towed up to Orkney, the O2 is Orbital’s first commercial turbine and represents the culmination of more than 15 years of world-leading product development in the UK. The 74m long turbine is expected to operate in the waters off Orkney for the next 15 years with the capacity to meet the annual electricity demand of around 2,000 UK homes with clean, predictable power from the fast-flowing waters. In a further ground-breaking element of the project, the O2 is to provide power to EMEC’s onshore electrolyzer to generate green hydrogen that will be used to demonstrate decarbonization of wider energy requirements.

‘Creating a new, low-carbon industrial sector.’

Orbital CEO, Andrew Scott, said: “Delivering this pioneering renewable energy project safely and successfully is a major milestone for the O2. This project is the trigger to the harnessing of tidal stream resources around the world to play a role in tackling climate change whilst creating a new, low-carbon industrial sector.”

The construction of the O2 turbine was enabled by public lenders through the ethical investment platform, Abundance Investment, as well as being supported by the Scottish Government by the Saltire Tidal Energy Challenge Fund. The O2 project has been supported through funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the FloTEC project and the European Regional Development Fund through the Interreg northwest Europe Programme under the ITEG project.

Read the complete press release here.

Read also: Ocean waves and giant magnifying glasses should facilitate energy transition

Spain is going for floating wind turbines and tidal energy on a grand scale

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GLASE Webinar Series

The photosynthetic activity of far-red photons was discovered 70 years ago, but has largely been ignored since then. Recent research has drawn new attention to the importance of far-red photons.

This short presentation will cover the history of research on photosynthetic responses to light spectrum, recent work on the importance of far-red photons, and a discussion of the implication of (not) extending the definition of PAR. There will be ample time for discussion following the presentation.

Register Here - August 26 • 2-3 p.m. EST

USA: VIDEO: Veteran Finds Peace, Purpose In Unique Kind of Farming

BY JONATHON GREGG

KENTUCKY

August 2, 2021

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — As John Miller prepared to leave the Air Force, the combat veteran admits he had no idea what he was going to do next.

To View The Video, Please Click Here

What You Need To Know

• John Miller served 14 years in the Air Force

• The Louisville resident is the owner of Falls City Farms

• Miller has found peace and purpose in hydroponic farming

• In the future, Miller hopes to expand and employ fellow veterans

John Miller's routine may seem a bit "scaled-down" compared to his former life as a combat soldier. Miller spends much of his time in a 40-foot-long shipping container converted into a hydroponic farm field. Hydroponics involves growing plants without soil.

A close-up of Miller's baby kale. (Spectrum News 1/Jonathon Gregg)

“In essence, we sell a lot of things what we would consider baby," Miller explained. Little white turnips is just one crop of many growing inside Falls City Farms. “Right now I’m just pulling off the plug to turnips and then clean up any of the leaves."

The Iraq War combat veteran grows, prunes, packages, and sells a variety of greens to Louisville restaurants, online and at local markets.

“Here is our wasabi arugula, this is one of our fresh herbs, our dill, this would be our romaine trio," Miller said while touring his indoor farm.

Scaled-down? Maybe, but the hydroponic farm has helped Miller overcome what can be a sizable challenge for soldiers adapting to life after service.

“I got into this post-military, trying to find my next thing because I didn’t know what I was going to do when I got out," Miller said.

Miller served 14 years in the Air Force. His wife Amy is still active with 17 years to her credit. In his pursuit to figure out the next chapter of his life, Miller learned about hydroponic farming from a marine veteran in San Diego.

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Falls City Farm grows a lot of produce in just 320 square feet. (Spectrum News 1/Jonathon Gregg)

His operation encompasses 320 square feet and boasts 6,600 individual plant spaces. Crops grow thanks to a sophisticated watering system and good-old-fashioned artificial sunlight.

“Because we are in a shipping container, the plants and the crops don’t get any of the big yellow sun outside so we have to create that inside," he said. "So we do LED lighting because it is better from an energy standpoint as well as heat."

Miller has lots of time and enough room to think about his life as a soldier and his new career as a farmer.

“If I am being frank with you, I miss being surrounded by other airmen and folks I used to lead," he said. "But it is calming to be in here with the plants and at the end of the day, that’s one of the reasons I chose this path.”

He was after peace and a purpose, and now his purpose includes bringing other veterans aboard.

“A lot of veterans, as we know, suffer from trying to find that next mission. Hopefully, one day soon be able to bring fellow veterans in here to teach them the art of farming through hydroponics to help them find peace and purpose as well," Miller said.

At first, Falls City Farms may appear to be a small operation, it’s only until you spend time on the inside do you see all the big ideas growing.

“I fell in love with the sense of a day’s accomplishment of work, a sense of comfort of being inside a greenhouse," Miller said.

Roto-Gro Set To Blast Into Space With Food Production System

Advanced Agritech Company Roto-Gro International (ASX: RGI) Is Aiming To Feed The World’s Astronauts.

August 9, 2021

Roto-Gro is capitalizing on the space exploration boom, as it applies to a NASA challenge developing novel food production technologies to feed astronauts on long-term missions.

Advanced agritech company Roto-Gro International (ASX:RGI) is aiming to feed the world’s astronauts as it capitalizes on innovations in food production systems and a boom in space exploration.

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Roto-Gro World Wide (Canada), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Roto-Gro International, has applied to the Deep Space Food Challenge as part of its first step into the space agriculture sector.

Administered under an international collaboration between National Aeronautics and the Space Administration (NASA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the international competition aims to incentivize the development of novel food production technologies needed for long-development space missions and terrestrial applications.

Roto-Gro’s application highlight’s the technological diversification and adaptability of its patented proprietary indoor vertical farming technology.

Astronauts’ food needs changing as missions evolve

Astronauts currently receive food from spacecrafts regularly launching from Earth, for example to the International Space Station.

However, NASA and the CSA recognize that as the distance and duration of space exploration missions increase, the current method of feeding astronauts will no longer be sustainable.

Future astronauts will be required to use food production systems on their voyages and be self-sustaining. The challenge aims to inspire the agricultural industry to help bring innovative food production technologies to space, reducing the need for resupply from earth and ensuring astronauts have continuous safe and nutritious food supplies.

The ability to develop sustainable food production is considered the crucial next step for longer-term human presence on the lunar surface and the future missions to Mars.

The challenge is not only about space exploration but also missions in extreme arid and resource-scarce environments on Earth. Like space, input efficiency will be key, including the efficient use of water and electricity to reduce resources needed for food production here on Earth.

Adapting Roto-Gro’s existing models key to space success

A new Roto-Gro rotational garden system — branded Roto-Gro Beyond Earth — will be designed with engineering adapted-off components from its existing Model 420 and Model 710 rotational garden systems.

Roto-Gro Beyond Earth will be a smaller, more portable version of the Model 420 but feature the injection feed system from the Model 710, significantly reducing the required resource inputs while maximizing nutritional outputs when compared to other indoor farming technologies.

Roto-Gro CEO Michael Di Tommaso said Roto-Gro Beyond Earth will enhance the already existing, unique benefits of its rotational garden systems, optimizing both the operational efficiencies and yield per m2, which is crucial to the development and prospective use of food production systems in space.

“The technology developed to form the application to the challenge is astoundingly demonstrating the vast applicability and sheer innovation of the company’s technology,” Di Tommaso said.

He said the company had developed several key relationships with organizations currently providing food system solutions for long-duration space voyages, along with others focused on using space to solve problems we are experiencing on earth.

“We look to develop and foster these relationships moving forward, further strengthening our position in the sector,” Di Tommaso said.

He said entering the space agricultural sector was a natural progression for Roto-Gro, supporting its vision to provide sustainable technological solutions for agricultural cultivation, critical to ensuring global food security.

“Food system innovation is crucial to our progression in space, and we are excited with the prospect of moving to the next phase of the Deep Space Food Challenge, while also generating other opportunities to develop and implement Roto-Gro’s technology in the industry,” Di Tommaso said.

 Roto-Gro global forecasts international growth

Established in 2015, Roto-Gro is continuing to attract interest on a global scale.

The company recently partnered with agriculture company Verity Greens Inc. who has signed a binding $10M Technology License to purchase 624 RotoGro Model 710 rotational garden systems, with the first, flagship indoor vertical farming facility to be built in Canada.

The deal is expected to generate long-term, sustained recurring revenue with Di Tommaso hailing it as not only a “win-win” for both companies but a venture that works on a socially responsible level by helping tackle global food shortages.

“RotoGro will introduce our revolutionary technology into the booming indoor vertical farming space, while Verity Greens, utilizing the RotoGro Garden Systems and supporting technology, will operate with a viable and cost-effective competitive advantage,” he said.

“Verity Green’s first facility also serves to further its objectives – to roll out indoor vertical farming facilities globally utilizing RotoGro’s technology, not only to generate substantial revenue for both companies but also to provide a truly sustainable solution to address the issues caused by food insecurity.”

Lead photo: Pic: Giphy

This article was developed in collaboration with Roto-Gro International, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

 This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

Crazy Poet Discovers Solution To Vertical Farming Challenges

August 10, 2021

Lawrence Ip

Facilitating Workforce & Leadership Transformation Through Organisational Governance.

Keep Reading & The House Gets Bulldozed!

Dramatic I know (it's just one of those things). Nope, I won't be making myself homeless as I do actually need a roof over my head. What I also need is to get this crazy idea off my chest before I do actually lose my mind.

You see, I was watching a documentary a while back, about future cities, off the back of a few others that were about farming, global warming and the looming food crisis, and they got me thinking about vertical farming, and the issues the industry sector faces - namely scale.

That was the first thing that struck me.

How on earth are we going to be able to make vertical farming a viable solution without disrupting the cities we live in it, why heck, according to Pew Research world population is pitted to hit 10.9 Billion by 2100, with more and more folks migrating to cities. This begged a flurry of questions such as:

• How are we going to feed everyone, and where on earth are we going to put the vertical farms that are supposed to feed them?

• Will they really be able to provide the quantity of fruit and vegetables sustainably?

• How much will they cost to build?

• How much will they cost to run and maintain?

• How do we store, pack and deliver the product?

• What infrastructure does it require to make it work?

• What about the effect on traffic?

• What about the load bearing issues of weight on the structure of the farm, the actual building?

How on earth do we face the challenges facing vertical farming?

Don't get me wrong, I see incredible value in vertical farming and it could prove to be the answer to so many of the challenges we face ahead, because as we all know the way in which we produce the food we consume, and waste, is just not sustainable - not in the slightest. The globe's arable land is fast diminishing, and at the current rate the entire globe will be facing starvation soon after 2060 - it's a travesty just waiting to happen (if you haven't watched it yet I can highly recommend watching), Kiss The Ground, it's the documentary that got me started on the quest for answers.

A few weeks ago I woke up in the middle of the night, I had an epiphany.

Prior to going to sleep, I asked myself, what is the single most pressing problem you could solve that would provide the best bang for the buck?

When I woke from that sleep the answer came to me, it came down to answering the last question, which fundamentally is a design question.

Having previously watched a documentary series on super-structures, and thinking about logistics and transportation, it dawned on me that it was not a, how on earth question, but rather a let's go to sea proposition.

I jotted down these two words on the trusty notepad I keep bedside...

"... container ships."

That's right, container ships!

Don't be fooled into thinking that what you see is what you get. What you see on the top deck is just part of the picture, container ships have just as much, if not more storage in their lower decks.

It was like WOW! It makes complete and total sense, well at least to me it does. Let's outline the reasons why container ships could be the perfect vertical farm.

• Container ships are designed to bare the types of load required in the design of a vertical farm.

• You can move container ships around.

• Container ships can have desalination plants built in.

• They are freaking massive.

• They can be even more massive. Fun fact: when the size of a ship is doubled, it increases the surface area by only 25%.

• Transportation logistics is a non-issue.

• No need to reinvent the wheel. It wouldn't take much to repurpose container ships that have been decommissioned.

• Repurposed ships equals no scrap metal.

• Access to the energy required to run them is at hand.

Image Credit: Bernd Dittrich - UnSplash.

That pretty much sums it up, and hey, I'm no expert, but yes, I am a poet, and it really doesn't matter whether I'm certifiable or not, I have at the very least put the idea out there. All I ask of you, is that before you send the men with the straightjacket around, that you consider the idea as a viable solution before discarding it. If anything I hope it provides some inspiration, maybe a spark of some out-of-the-box thinking of your own and I sincerely hope you found the read entertaining too. Thank you for making it this far. I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas. Do you have a crazy vertical farming solution you'd love to get off your chest? Please feel welcomed and leave your thoughts below. Peace ✌

Image Credit: Bailey Mahon - UnSplash.

#verticalfarmingchallenges #arablelandcrisis #foodcrisis #circulareconomy

Lead photo: Image Credit: Torben - UnSplash.

Published by: Lawrence Ip

Crazy Poet Discovers Solution To Vertical Farming Challenges. hashtag#verticalfarming hashtag#containerships hashtag#crazypoettimes hashtag#sustainability hashtag#agriculture hashtag#environment hashtag#innovation hashtag#climatechange hashtag#circulareconomy hashtag#design hashtag#energy hashtag#arablelandcrisis hashtag#foodcrisis hashtag#kisstheground hashtag#verticalfarmingchallenges

The Farmory: Is Indoor Fish Farming A Viable Way of Tackling Declining Fish Populations?

By John McCracken

August 6, 2021

For decades, Green Bay Wisconsin National Guardsmen stored munitions and trained new recruits in a stucco-clad, Chicago Street building built in 1918.

Now, the building is home to hundreds of fish babies.

The Farmory, an urban farming nonprofit, is the only indoor fish hatchery in Wisconsin. The nonprofit focuses on sustainable growing practices for both greens and gills. When it was founded in 2016, the focus was on growing produce indoors using aquaponic systems to both teach and provide a new source of food in the state’s harsh winters. As the program grew, they introduced percids such as yellow perch, walleye and sauger into their arsenal.

Executive director Claire Thompson said most aquaponic operations use tilapia because of its cheap price point due to massive global exports.

“There’s also some perceptions about (tilapia) here, especially in the Midwest, that it’s not as good of a fish,” said Thompson.

The Farmory settled on growing yellow perch to complement their vegetable production because of its beloved place on Wisconsin plates and its volatile population over the years.

They soon discovered a problem. No one was growing perch indoors yet.

“That led us down the road toward ‘more research needs to be done,’” said Thompson. “We need to be able to set up our own hatchery to produce a steady and consistent supply of year-round, feed-trained fingerlings that are grown from the egg in an indoor environment.”

In the bottom level of The Farmory, budding fish are separated by a bio-secure room and health protocols. Volunteers and entrepreneurial and technician students take turns monitoring temperatures in the complex hatchery. Each separate tank mirrors life cycles and seasons of growing yellow perch and their walleye cousins. During a late June visit, an insulated tank is sealed shut and a quick peak inside shows adolescent perch huddled together for warmth. The fish don’t know about the humid Midwest summer outside because their faux-winter hovers around a chilly 30 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Farmory (Photo Credit: John McCracken for Great Lakes Now)

Schools in session

Being a nonprofit allows The Farmory to not have to worry about mass production or profit margins as much as for-profit hatcheries that already exist on slim margins. Instead, they worry about being a stepping-stone for future fish farmers.

The Farmory offers 12-week technical programs that provide hands-on trainings and lectures from researchers and ichthyologists. Since The Farmory launched both pathway programs in 2020, they have had 34 graduating students.

Thompson said that for students interested in aquaculture there are only two options in the state. Students can go to a four-year program at either University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point or UW-Milwaukee.

For the students coming through The Farmory’s doors—who range from recent high school graduates to retirees—fish-wrangling fares better than test-taking in the growing industry.

“There’s a lot of jobs in the aquaculture industry that don’t require a four-year degree,” Thompson said. “You have to have people with basic technical skills.”

The Farmory’s students are much like their customers. Their interest and aspiration range from basement or backyard hobby farming to scalable commercial production. The Farmory grows fingerling perch until they are between 2 to 4 inches and then customers take them to grow them to adult size for spawning or frying.

In 2020, they had 60 customers and sold fish across state lines to Michigan, Ohio and Minnesota. Thompson said most customers bought between 100 and 500 fish, but a handful purchased thousands of perch pounds to fuel their own commercial fishery endeavors.

“We want to be able to secure a local food supply. We also want to teach people about aquaculture as a viable business opportunity,” said Thompson.

The Farmory (Photo Credit: John McCracken for Great Lakes Now)

Problems come with being new

Being the only indoor perch hatchery comes with its challenges though.

The COVID-19 pandemic hindered The Farmory’s first hatching year. They weren’t able to get brood stock up to full capacity due to supply-chain complications. The urban farm is working on getting their population to a sustainable level.

Additionally, Thompson said that there is a lack of research and applied standards when it comes to growing perch indoors.

“It’s not like any other agricultural commodity product like dairy or chickens,” said Thompson.

Thompson said yellow perch have an innate biology barrier, where survival is harder to come by—something that is important for an organization focused on producing and spreading young perch. Perch also don’t have a set diet. As of now, The Farmory feeds their perch a trout diet, which Thompson said is slightly fattier.

“We have to find a way to get enough people into the business of (indoor fisheries) to we can work with feed companies to be able to develop affordable feed,” said Thompson.

On the other end of the process chain, Thompson said a decline in the perch population since the booming years of yore has led to a lack of skilled fish processers and sustainable operations.

“Because of the decline of Great Lakes commercial fishing, we’ve also seen a decline in processors to clean and process fish,” said Thompson.

Smaller, sustainable scale

Sharon Moen echoed a lot of Thompson’s observations of the industry at large.

Moen is an outreach specialist with Wisconsin Sea Grant— a statewide research and stewardship program dedicated to the resources of Great Lakes—in charge of the Eat Wisconsin Fish Initiative. Eat Wisconsin Fish was established in 2013 to become a hub for information and resources for the state’s fish producers and consumers.

Moen said the many people in the industry believe the future of fish farming is heading indoors because of the effects of climate change on the industry, its habitats and the fish themselves.

“Algae blooms and invasive species can’t get into the water,” Moen said of indoor, contained aquaculture systems.

Moen also said that the way consumers and producers import and export massive numbers of commodities has a continued effect on the planet due to gas emission.

“We have to stop carting things around the globe in order to really truly cut down on carbon emissions,” said Moen. “We need to learn to eat and grow our food more locally.”

In the past year, Moen observed how breaks in the supply chain—caused by global catastrophe such as the COVID-19 pandemic—make everyone and every supplier vulnerable. Just as the majority of The Farmory’s students are scaling down, many suppliers are focused on local, small-scale consumption.

“I think most (fisheries) are very modest people raising for their local community consumption,” said Moen.

Moen said to alleviate stress on perch’s floundering population and high price point – which she observed at upwards of $20 a pound last year – consumers could switch to a more abundant species like whitefish.

Both Moen and Thompson pointed out that adjusting to problems in the industry, whether you’re growing fish in a bedroom tank or in cavernous outdoor ponds, takes agility and a love for fish.

“It’s like gardening,” Moen said. “You have to have a knack for it and take care of what you’re growing.”

iUNU Announces Acquisition of CropWalk, Significantly Expanding The Consulting Capacity For Both

iUNU (“you knew”) is an agricultural machine vision company headquartered in Seattle, with satellite offices in California, Florida, and Toronto as well. Founded in 2013 and currently with over 40 employees across the world, the company leverages computer vision and machine learning to allow farms to better manage crop issues and optimize growth cycles. The LUNA system focuses on identifying growing maladies before the crop is affected and promotes better accountability of growing practices through the workflow management application.

In making the announcement, Adam Greenberg, CEO of iUNU, said: “Rising consumer demand is accelerating the growth of the greenhouse industry, but the massive shortage of both growers and manual labor requires a scalable machine vision solution to further produce supply. Having a renowned agronomy team to assist in deploying state-of-the-art technology like LUNA will have a profound impact on our constantly improving capacity to help growers increase quality, yields, and profits. 65% of growers are above the age of 55, and the shortage of qualified people is hitting the fast growing industry hard. Something has to give, thus the future is the centralized management of distributed facilities.”

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CropWalk is an integrated pest management (IPM) company that was founded in 2019 and has an expanding team with employees located in key regions across North America, including their Founder and Director of Partnerships, Charlie McKenzie, in the US Southeast, and the CropWalk Director of Operations, Robert Shearer, and Director of Science, Education, and Strategic Development, Ayana Stock, along the US West Coast. 

They are a widely recognized name in the horticultural industry for their unbiased approach to empowering growers of high-value crops with the knowledge and resources to prevent and manage pests and plant pathogens. With plans underway to expand their crop care services, CropWalk is well-known for how they customize a unique suite of services for operations of various kinds, offering risk assessments, IPM program development, training sessions, the online CropWalk Academy, and more, including remote monitoring services, the capacity of which are now dramatically enhanced by iUNU’s LUNA system.

Charlie McKenzie, CEO of CropWalk, said: “We’ve always used remote monitoring technology to identify and mitigate conditions that foster plant pathogens. The mantra we live by at CropWalk is ‘Start Clean, Stay Clean.’ Working with the iUNU team and using LUNA, we can digitally walk a crop from anywhere at any time allowing our team to effectively prevent problems before they result in economic injury. Our clients want us around more often, with LUNA, we can be there all the time. It’s a win for growers, a win for CropWalk, and a win for iUNU.”

LUNA, iUNU’s chief product, is an AI tasked with connecting plants, facilities, and people through a single interface. LUNA runs on computers or mobile devices and turns commercial greenhouses into precise, predictable, demand-based manufacturers. LUNA was born in the heart of Seattle, trained in Silicon Valley and the greenhouses of Washington, and is accessible from everywhere.

The future of crop care in modern greenhouses that will feed families for generations involves both people’s human expertise and the best available technologies. The union of iUNU and CropWalk is great news for CEA crop producers seeking the advantage of cutting-edge artificial intelligence, computer vision, and machine learning coupled with industry-leading IPM & biological services. Two companies that were excelling independently have joined forces to set a new standard for the remote monitoring of crops. Services of both companies will still be available for clients independent of one another but will have expanded resources at their disposal.

iUNU’s acquisition of CropWalk helps both companies become more effective in their work towards an important common goal: reducing the cost of nutrient-rich food reaching urban centers while helping growers thrive.

5 Ways Vertical Farming Is Improving Nutrition

August 3, 2021

Vertical farming has taken cities by storm, enabling urbanites to grow produce within their own homes and entrepreneurs to meet the growing demand for fresher and higher quantities of locally-grown produce.

We often hear about vertical farms using water sustainably, 95% less than traditional open field harvesting, to provide superior tasting crops.

But, how is this soilless farming technique impacting human health?

#1: Harvesting On Demand At Peak Freshness 

&ever’s Grow Tower; image sourced from &ever

With the power to farm vertically within one’s own home, consumers can now harvest their crops only moments before consumption, resulting in a higher nutritional value, better-tasting greens, and significantly less food waste.

&ever’s Grow Box is a one-stop-shop system for leafy greens and can even be operated by untrained staff, according to &ever. The proprietary technology of the climate cell creates a steady microenvironment to allow plants to grow independently of weather, seasons, and pests, plus the use of “dryponics” helps keep the plants alive until the consumer is ready to harvest.

The key here is the freshness of the crops. Produce no longer has to travel miles and miles through countries or states to get to your kitchen table. This time saved in travel is also nutritional value preserved in the crops. Another benefit is that no artificial preservatives, like wax coatings, are needed to keep the produce consumer-ready.

#2: Growing Under Perfect Conditions 

Vertical farms generally use hydroponics or aeroponics to grow their plants in nutrient-enriched water that can be carefully monitored through digital sensors. This degree of control over plant nutrient supply means that the fertilization strategies are designed to match the plant needs for all 14 essential plant nutrients throughout the growth period.

Control mechanisms are also utilized to balance temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide levels in the grow facility and deliver the optimal combination of these factors for the specific crop or crops being grown. With climatic conditions playing no part in the crop’s success, growers have reliable year-round production of greater quantity and the highest quality.

In this sense, vertical farms are able to spend more time enhancing nutritional value and less time worrying about the success of their harvest. The SKY HIGH program led by Dr. Leo Marcelis of Wageningen University in the Netherlands, is one such program exploring factors that increase crop nutrients.

#3: Tailoring The Development Of Genetic Varieties

Vindara argues that the difference is in the seeds.

By designing seeds specifically for indoor vertical farms - “entirely through analytics, not gene-editing or GMOs” - this company claims to amplify crop yield, appearance, nutrition, and flavor.

Their seed-design system takes a data-driven approach to deliver any kind of genetic variety, tailored to each customer’s needs. According to Vindara, each property is individually editable.

Today’s seeds are still being bred for resistance to disease and pests, designed for long storage and transportation that isn’t as relevant for indoor vertical farming operations. This results in genetic tradeoffs that reduce nutritional value. Vindara removes these limitations that traditional seeds impose by delivering nutrient-dense seeds to growers.

#4: Growing Foods Adapted To Dietary Needs

Alongside fresh and flavorful food, there has been a growing demand and need for foods adapted to specific dietary needs.

Prime Delica, for example, has conducted research with Tamagawa University, CCS, and Signify to determine the optimal light recipe to increase the vitamin levels and nutritional value of lettuce. Dr. Céline Nicole from the Philips Lighting Research team has similarly studied the effects of the daily light integral (DLI) and light quality on the nitrate levels of arugula and spinach, alongside the vitamin C levels of arugula and tomatoes.

Through vertical farming, the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) has also successfully produced low potassium kale with increased glucosinolate content as a novel dietary option for renal dysfunction patients.

Growing foods with adapted dietary needs could thus make a world of difference in ensuring that we receive greater control over our diets, and allow us to design food-as-medicine alternatives to conventional produce.

#5: Food Safety

In using controlled growing environments, vertical farms are intrinsically free of harmful pesticides. Because of implementing biological controls, there is no need to contaminate crops with potentially toxic chemicals.  

According to the CEA Food Safety Coalition, “traditional food safety risk profiles associated with conventional farming include examining the physical hazards and microbial hazards from water use, herbicide, and pesticide use, and impact from animals and animal byproducts. These do not impact CEA growers in the same way, if at all.” Even though the risk of contamination isn’t zero within CEA facilities (as seen in this recent news), CEA-grown produce has a reduced risk of such occurrences.

Compared to traditional field-grown crops, we find that the EPA regulates pesticides individually and not collectively, meaning that the pesticides can have a cumulative toxic loading effect on human health.

Studies have shown that pesticides most impact farmworkers and pesticide applicators with symptoms like nausea, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, dizziness, anxiety, and confusion. This long list of side effects tells us that pesticides are not to be taken lightly. As a result, it’s best to avoid them at all costs. Fortunately, vertical farms help us do precisely this.

Click here for more information. 

Source and Photo Courtesy of Agritecture

European Pension Managers Go Big For Indoor Ag as Equilibrium Closes $1.1bn CEA Fund

By Louisa Burwood-Taylor

July 8, 2021

Equilibrium Capital, a US-based private sustainable finance and ESG funds manager, has closed its second indoor ag fund on just over $1 billion – well beyond its $500 million target.

Controlled Environment Foods Fund II (CEFF II) raised $1.02 billion from a group of institutional investors, mostly pension funds, with a strong showing from Europe, according to Equilibrium CEO Dave Chen. Sweden’s AP4 was one of five anchor investors that took over half of the total fund alongside two large UK pension managers, he added.

CEFF II will invest in high-tech greenhouses, indoor, vertical farms, and other sectors that need controlled environment agriculture (CEA) facilities such as alternative proteins and aquaculture.

“The strong investor demand reflects a drive to real assets” and sustainability by large institutional investors, combined with an “interest in agriculture and food systems,” Chen told AFN.

“There is a sense that ag is going through several simultaneous disruptions and that creates an opportunity.”

A press release announcing the fund closing states that investors and retailers “are increasingly looking for more sustainable, and less volatile, ways to invest in and scale agriculture.

“CEA shifts agriculture from a land-centered industry where the land, geography, and weather determines what can grow, into a climate-resilient industry that can now focus on the consumer’s demand for the fresh, safe, and regional fruits and vegetables they want to eat,” it continues.

For Portland, Oregon-based Equilibrium — which has funds across environmental and sustainability verticals including ‘green’ real estate, water, wastewater, and outdoor agricultural production — CEA is a compelling investment opportunity for its ability to dramatically increase the productivity of food production “per unit of resource input [and] land use,” said Chen.

“The ability to ride a tech innovation curve, locate farms regionally for quality and resilience, adapt to climate change, and capture demand from retailers and food service” also make it attractive, he added.

Asked where he expects the market share for CEA-produced food to be in five years, he estimated upwards of 30-50%. “Tomatoes are already there,” he said.

Equilibrium is predominantly a real assets investor, owning or investing in indoor farming facilities and greenhouses, but it also buys equity stakes in operating companies. CEFF II will invest between $10 million and $125 million per deal, primarily across North America. It has made three investments to date — two in the US and one in Mexico — mostly in mature high-wire crops like tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers, as well as the emerging categories of leafy greens and berries.

Equilibrium’s $336 million Fund I portfolio includes indoor ag companies such as AppHarvest — which went public earlier this year via a SPAC merger — Revol Greens, and Little Leaf Farms.

AeroFarms and Nokia Unveil Partnership for Next Generation AI-Enabled Plant Vision Technology

August 5, 2021

NEWARK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AeroFarms and Nokia Bell Labs today unveiled a groundbreaking multi-year partnership to combine their expertise and expand their joint capabilities in cutting-edge networking, autonomous systems, and integrated machine vision and machine learning technologies to identify and track plant interactions at the most advanced levels.

As part of this partnership, AeroFarms, a Certified B Corporation and global leader in indoor vertical farming, contributes its commercial growing expertise, comprehensive environmental controls, an agriculture-focused data platform, and machine vision core foundation. Nokia Bell Labs, the world-renowned industrial research arm of Nokia, contributes its groundbreaking autonomous drone control and orchestration systems, private wireless networks, robust image and sensor data pipelines, and innovative artificial intelligence (AI) enabled mobile sensor technologies. This combination of innovative technologies allows AeroFarms to reach the next level of imaging insights that further enhance its capabilities as an industry leading operator of world-class, fully-connected smart vertical farms that grow the highest quality plants all year round.

AeroFarms and Nokia Bell Labs have been working together since 2020 and have reached an important milestone of achieving a proof of concept for this state-of-the-art integrated system and testing the technologies with AeroFarms’ current commercial crop varieties. Together, they are now ready to scale this system to all of AeroFarms’ crops and future indoor vertical farms, including the next ones in Danville, Virginia and Abu Dhabi, UAE.

The integration of Nokia Bell Labs’ AI-enabled drone-based sensors and advanced machine learning, computer vision and data analytics technologies with AeroFarms’ existing machine vision tools enhances and elevates AeroFarms’ position as an agriculture platform and capabilities organization dedicated to solving food and agriculture supply chain challenges.

David Rosenberg, CEO at AeroFarms, said: “With Nokia Bell Labs, we have developed the next-generation system that can image every plant every day in a cost-effective way at scale. This level of detailed imaging and insights helps us be better farmers by monitoring our plant biology dynamically and allowing us to course correct as needed to ensure the highest level of quality all year round. When I watch the drones autonomously imaging our plants, I am blown away by how this truly represents the power of harnessing leading-edge technologies and bringing brilliant problem solvers together from diverse groups to grow the best plants possible.”

Roger Buelow, CTO at AeroFarms, said: “AeroFarms’ expert team of plant scientists and engineers have been working together for two years with Nokia Bell Labs’ top researchers and engineers to train these complex learning systems with a nuanced understanding of plant biology. We have created a cross-disciplinary understanding at an industrial scale to develop the latest imaging technology to help accelerate our ability to introduce new crops and ensure the highest quality for our commercial operations.”

Nokia Bell Labs’ machine vision technology has enabled the most precise data capture yet, down to the level of individual plants, using leaf size segmentation, quantification, and pixel-based scanning to identify consistency and variation. Going beyond what even the human eye can perceive, this state-of-the art imaging technology enables the gathering of immense insights about a plant including its leaf size, stem length, coloration, curvature, spotting, and tearing. The end-to-end system is flexible and robust, built to take advantage of Nokia’s industry-leading 5G private wireless network with cloud processing technology, designed for low latency and high privacy in an on-premises network. It also provides intelligent industrial analytics capabilities as an integrated service that can be deployed quickly and efficiently anywhere.

Thierry Klein, VP, Integrated Solutions and Experiences Research Lab at Nokia, said: “Nokia Bell Labs is driven to solve hard and impactful problems, and together with AeroFarms, we are building the ability to see and identify plant interactions at unprecedented levels. The fundamental technologies of this partnership are our strength, and vertical farming is just the beginning. With the AeroFarms platform, we are exploring the power of network driven intelligence for industrial outcomes. These capabilities can expand into a multitude of indoor industrial operations, including logistics, warehousing, distribution hubs, and manufacturing.”

The multi-year partnership between AeroFarms and Nokia is anchored on shared values as mission-driven companies with the vision to scale technologies for the greater good. AeroFarms’ vertical farming platform is more sustainable than traditional farming with up to 390 times greater productivity per square foot annually, while using up to 95% less water and zero pesticides. In addition, vertical farming provides local food options for communities, reducing the environmental impact of trucking and shipping produce long distances and helping combat food waste.

Additional resources
AeroFarms website
Nokia Bell Labs website

About Nokia

At Nokia, we create technology that helps the world act together. As a trusted partner for critical networks, we are committed to innovation and technology leadership across mobile, fixed and cloud networks. We create value with intellectual property and long-term research, led by the award-winning Nokia Bell Labs. Adhering to the highest standards of integrity and security, we help build the capabilities needed for a more productive, sustainable and inclusive world.

About AeroFarms

Since 2004, AeroFarms has been leading the way for indoor vertical farming and championing transformational innovation for agriculture. On a mission to grow the best plants possible for the betterment of humanity, AeroFarms is a Certified B Corporation with global headquarters in Newark, New Jersey. Named one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company two years in a row and one of TIME’s Best Inventions in Food, AeroFarms patented, award-winning indoor vertical farming technology provides the perfect conditions for healthy plants to thrive, taking agriculture to a new level of precision, food safety, and productivity while using up to 95% less water and no pesticides ever versus traditional field farming. AeroFarms enables local production to safely grow all year round, using vertical farming for elevated flavor. In addition, through its proprietary growing technology platform, AeroFarms has grown over 550 varieties and has developed multi-year strategic partnerships ranging from government to major Fortune 500 companies to help uniquely solve agriculture supply chain needs. For additional information, visit: https://aerofarms.com/.

On March 26, 2021, AeroFarms announced a definitive business combination agreement with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: SV). Upon the closing of the business combination, AeroFarms will become publicly traded on Nasdaq under the new ticker symbol "ARFM". Additional information about the transaction can be viewed here: https://aerofarms.com/investors/.

No Offer or Solicitation

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, or the solicitation of any vote or approval in any jurisdiction in connection with a proposed potential business combination among Spring Valley and AeroFarms or any related transactions, nor shall there be any sale, issuance or transfer of securities in any jurisdiction where, or to any person to whom, such offer, solicitation or sale may be unlawful. Any offering of securities or solicitation of votes regarding the proposed transaction will be made only by means of a proxy statement/prospectus that complies with applicable rules and regulations promulgated under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or pursuant to an exemption from the Securities Act or in a transaction not subject to the registration requirements of the Securities Act.

Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements included in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as “believe,” “may,” “might,” “will,” “estimate,” “continue,” “contemplate,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “expect,” “should,” “would,” “could,” “plan,” “predict,” “project,” “potential,” “seem,” “seek,” “future,” “outlook,” and similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. All statements, other than statements of present or historical fact included in this press release, including those regarding the expected benefits of the partnership, improvement of plant yields and quality and Spring Valley’s proposed acquisition of AeroFarms are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on various assumptions, whether or not identified in this press release, and on the current expectations of the respective management of AeroFarms and Spring Valley and are not predictions of actual performance. These forward-looking statements are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to serve as, and must not be relied on as, a guarantee, an assurance, a prediction, or a definitive statement of fact or probability. Actual events and circumstances are difficult or impossible to predict and will differ from assumptions. Many actual events and circumstances are beyond the control of AeroFarms and Spring Valley. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including changes in domestic and foreign business, market, financial, political, and legal conditions; the inability of the parties to successfully or timely consummate the proposed transaction, including the risk that any regulatory approvals are not obtained, are delayed or are subject to unanticipated conditions that could adversely affect the combined company or the expected benefits of the proposed transaction or that the approval of the stockholders of Spring Valley or AeroFarms is not obtained; failure to realize the anticipated benefits of the proposed transaction; risks related to the expansion of AeroFarms’ business and the timing of expected business milestones; the effects of competition on AeroFarms’ business; the ability of Spring Valley or AeroFarms to issue equity or equity-linked securities or obtain debt financing in connection with the proposed transaction or in the future, and those factors discussed in Spring Valley’s Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, final prospectus dated November 25, 2020 and definitive proxy statement/prospectus dated July 26, 2021 under the heading “Risk Factors,” and other documents Spring Valley has filed, or will file, with the SEC. If any of these risks materialize or our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. There may be additional risks that neither Spring Valley nor AeroFarms presently know, or that Spring Valley nor AeroFarms currently believe are immaterial, that could also cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements reflect Spring Valley’s and AeroFarms’ expectations, plans, or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this press release. Spring Valley and AeroFarms anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause Spring Valley’s and AeroFarms’ assessments to change. However, while Spring Valley and AeroFarms may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Spring Valley and AeroFarms specifically disclaim any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Spring Valley’s and AeroFarms’ assessments of any date subsequent to the date of this press release. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed upon the forward-looking statements.

Contacts

AeroFarms Contacts
Investor Relations:
Jeff Sonnek
ICR
Jeff.Sonnek@icrinc.com
1-646-277-1263

Media Relations:
Marc Oshima
AeroFarms
MarcOshima@AeroFarms.com
1-917-673-4602