How Do We Build Sustainable Local Food Systems?

Let's Work Together to Build Sustainable,

Local Food Systems With a Global Impact

Food Tank, in partnership with the Danone Institute North America, is hosting a very special virtual event, "One Planet. One Health," to discuss solutions to build more sustainable local food systems on Thursday, May 6, 2021, at 12 p.m. ET.

We’ve curated a terrific lineup of speakers, including luminaries like N. Diane Moss (Project New Village), Dariush Mozaffarian (Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy, Tufts University), Jose Oliva (HEAL Food Alliance), A-dae Romero-Briones (Cochiti/Kiowa, First Nations Development Institute), Tambra Raye Stevenson (WANDA), and more.

I’ll be moderating. You can register here.

Also, I strongly urge eligible nonprofits to apply for the Danone Institute North America grant program to help local communities live the "One Planet. One Health" vision.

Danone Institute North America will award a total of up to $160,000 for this initiative. Individual team grants of $30,000 plus a $10,000 incremental award for the team with the strongest communications plan will be awarded for work to be conducted over a two-year period. The call for entries is open now through June 6, 2021. For information and to submit an application, visit Danone Institute North America here.

Danone Institute North America launched the "One Planet. One Health" Initiative grant program in 2019 to support local projects that strengthen food systems, reflecting Danone’s belief that the health of people and the health of the planet are interconnected.

"The pandemic has not only sparked a health crisis but also has emerged as one of the most destructive economic and societal challenges of our time," says Leslie Lytle, President of Danone Institute North America and professor at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Please let me know if you apply for the grant, and join me for free on May 6 by registering HERE.

All the very best,

Dani

Little Leaf Farms Raises $90M to Grow Its Greenhouse Network

by Jennifer Marston

Image from: Little Leaf Farms

Massachusetts-based Little Leaf Farms has raised $90 million in a debt and equity financing round to expand its network of hydroponic greenhouses on the East Coast. The round was led by Equilibrium Capital as well as founding investors Bill Helman and Pilot House Associates. Bank of America also participated.

Little Leaf Farms says the capital is “earmarked” to build new greenhouse sites along the East Coast, where its lettuce is currently available in about 2,500 stores. 

The company already operates one 10-acre greenhouse in Devins, Massachusetts. Its facility grows leafy greens using hydroponics and a mixture of sunlight supplemented by LED-powered grow lights. Rainwater captured from the facility’s roof provides most of the water used on the farm. 

According to a press release, Little Leaf Farms has doubled its retail sales to $38 million since 2019. And last year, the company bought180 acres of land in Pennsylvania on which to build an additional facility. Still another greenhouse, slated for North Carolina, will serve the Southeast region of the U.S. 

Little Leaf Farms joins the likes of Revol Greens, Gotham Greens, AppHarvest, and others in bringing local(ish) greens to a greater percentage of the population. These facilities generally pack and ship their greens on the day of or day after harvesting, and only supply retailers within a certain radius. Little Leaf Farms, for example, currently servers only parts of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. 

The list of regions the company serves will no doubt lengthen as the company builds up its greenhouse network in the coming months.

Bringing The Future To life In Abu Dhabi

Amid the deserts of Abu Dhabi, a new wave of entrepreneurs and innovators are sowing the seeds of a more sustainable future.

Image from: Wired

A cluster of shipping containers in a city centre is about the last place you’d expect to find salad growing. Yet for the past year, vertical farming startup Madar Farms has been using this site in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, to grow leafy green vegetables using 95 per cent less water than traditional agriculture. 

Madar Farms is one of a number of agtech startups benefitting from a package of incentives from the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) aimed at spurring the development of innovative solutions for sustainable desert farming. The partnership is part of ADIO’s $545 million Innovation Programme dedicated to supporting companies in high-growth areas.

“Abu Dhabi is pressing ahead with our mission to ‘turn the desert green’,” explained H.E. Dr. Tariq Bin Hendi, Director General of ADIO, in November 2020. “We have created an environment where innovative ideas can flourish and the companies we partnered with earlier this year are already propelling the growth of Abu Dhabi’s 24,000 farms.”

The pandemic has made food supply a critical concern across the entire world, combined with the effects of population growth and climate change, which are stretching the capacity of less efficient traditional farming methods. Abu Dhabi’s pioneering efforts to drive agricultural innovation have been gathering pace and look set to produce cutting-edge solutions addressing food security challenges.

Beyond work supporting the application of novel agricultural technologies, Abu Dhabi is also investing in foundational research and development to tackle this growing problem. 

In December, the emirate’s recently created Advanced Technology Research Council [ATRC], responsible for defining Abu Dhabi’s R&D strategy and establishing the emirate and the wider UAE as a desired home for advanced technology talent, announced a four-year competition with a $15 million prize for food security research. Launched through ATRC’s project management arm, ASPIRE, in partnership with the XPRIZE Foundation, the award will support the development of environmentally-friendly protein alternatives with the aim to "feed the next billion".

Image from: Madar Farms

Global Challenges, Local Solutions

Food security is far from the only global challenge on the emirate’s R&D menu. In November 2020, the ATRC announced the launch of the Technology Innovation Institute (TII), created to support applied research on the key priorities of quantum research, autonomous robotics, cryptography, advanced materials, digital security, directed energy and secure systems.

“The technologies under development at TII are not randomly selected,” explains the centre’s secretary general Faisal Al Bannai. “This research will complement fields that are of national importance. Quantum technologies and cryptography are crucial for protecting critical infrastructure, for example, while directed energy research has use-cases in healthcare. But beyond this, the technologies and research of TII will have global impact.”

Future research directions will be developed by the ATRC’s ASPIRE pillar, in collaboration with stakeholders from across a diverse range of industry sectors.

“ASPIRE defines the problem, sets milestones, and monitors the progress of the projects,” Al Bannai says. “It will also make impactful decisions related to the selection of research partners and the allocation of funding, to ensure that their R&D priorities align with Abu Dhabi and the UAE's broader development goals.”

Image from: Agritecture

Nurturing Next-Generation Talent

To address these challenges, ATRC’s first initiative is a talent development programme, NexTech, which has begun the recruitment of 125 local researchers, who will work across 31 projects in collaboration with 23 world-leading research centres.

Alongside universities and research institutes from across the US, the UK, Europe and South America, these partners include Abu Dhabi’s own Khalifa University, and Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, the world’s first graduate-level institute focused on artificial intelligence. 

“Our aim is to up skill the researchers by allowing them to work across various disciplines in collaboration with world-renowned experts,” Al Bannai says. 

Beyond academic collaborators, TII is also working with a number of industry partners, such as hyperloop technology company, Virgin Hyperloop. Such industry collaborations, Al Bannai points out, are essential to ensuring that TII research directly tackles relevant problems and has a smooth path to commercial impact in order to fuel job creation across the UAE.

“By engaging with top global talent, universities and research institutions and industry players, TII connects an intellectual community,” he says. “This reinforces Abu Dhabi and the UAE’s status as a global hub for innovation and contributes to the broader development of the knowledge-based economy.”

Fifth Season Takes Vertical Farming to a Whole New Level

Image from: Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette

Fifth Season’s verdant baby spinach screams farm fresh even though it’s grown nowhere near traditional farmland. The sweet and slightly crunchy greens are grown in a Braddock warehouse on racks stacked 30 feet high. Located just a stone’s throw from U.S. Steel’s Mon Valley Works Edgar Thomson Plant, it is urban farming at its core.

What makes the vertical farming operation especially unique is that it is automated and robots call the shots. About 40 to 60 machines are involved in every step of the life of the spinach and other leafy greens, from planting the seed to providing nutrients to the final packing.

Fifth Season does employ local “farm workers” to assist the robots in seeding, harvesting, packaging, quality assurance and control using computer software, but there is no human touch involved through it all.

“The first time someone ever touches the spinach leaf with a finger is when the package is opened,” says Grant Vandenbussche, chief category officer.

Co-founded by brothers Austin and Brac Webb and Austin Lawrence, Fifth Season started a year ago. Within months it was rolling out its baby spinach, leafy greens and salad kits.

“We wanted a name that represents what we are doing,” says Austin Webb, 32, who also is the CEO. “It is a call to the fact we have created an entirely new season. It is 24/7, 365 with the technology we have built.”

None of them planned to become modern farmers, says the Carnegie Mellon University grad, but they turned to vertical farming because it was an efficient, economically sustainable way to solve land and water woes.

Image from: thespoon.tech

‘Fields’ of Greens

Fifth Season grows an equivalent production of 200 acres in 25,000 square feet of grow space. Its “fields” are stacked on top of one another in vertical shelves. When you add up all that surface area of grow space, it is more like 126,000 square feet.

“We also quickly turn crops at the farm,” Mr. Vandenbussche says.

While spinach takes about 40 days to grow outdoors and can be harvested only twice during its peak season, it takes the crop only three or four weeks to grow in the controlled environment and is harvested 19 times. Once the plants are harvested, a new cycle of reseeding begins with fresh media, seeds and nutrients.

“That’s why we get so much more productivity,” he says. “We are immediately reseeding our ‘land.’”

This controlled environment yields quality produce because it is always peak season at Fifth Season, says Chris Cerveny, who heads the Grow R&D division. Greens are grown in the same conditions year-round, getting the exact amount of nutrients and water they need. Because pests and airborne toxins also are kept at bay, crops can be produced without pesticides.

All that TLC comes through in the slightly curled baby spinach, which is sweet and not grassy. The leaf doesn’t wilt or get slimy or lose its slight crunch even after two weeks of refrigeration.

A lot of thought was given even for the curl, which gives the spinach a stronger volume, making it look full and bountiful. The curl also makes the spinach more forkable unlike its flat-leaf counterpart that is hard to stab on a plate.

Other leafy greens such as kale, mustard, Chinese cabbage, green tatsoi and purple pac choi are featured in two blends — Bridge City and Three Rivers. Fifth Season plans to roll out its Romaine lettuce in spring.

The greens also are found in four types of salad kits — Sweet Grains (blended greens, quinoa, chickpeas, corn, feta and poppy seed dressing), Crunchy Sesame (blended greens, farro, sesame sticks, dried cranberries and ginger-mandarin dressing), Toasted Tuscan (spinach, lentils, sun-dried tomatoes, bagel chips and vinaigrette), and Spiced Southwest (blended greens, black beans, pepitas, cotija cheese, corn-salsa sticks and chipotle ranch dressing) — which are available online and in Giant Eagle stores. A fifth salad kit is in the works and is being called “a shakeup of one of the most classic salads.”

While machines are a big part of what Fifth Season does, it seeks to keep human connection alive. It recently launched a recipe blog for those who have an appetite for cooking and writing, The Green Room is devoted to cataloging personal memories, dream meals and recipes via short stories.

Fifth Season also has partnered with the Penguins and is providing greens for the team’s pregame meals for the 2020-21 season.

“We want people in Pittsburgh to be able to eat the exact same delicious blend of greens that Sidney Crosby and company are eating,” Mr. Webb says. “We want people to know that there’s a new way to grow food and to eat and experience it.”

Image from: Next Pittsburgh

It’s All Under Control

Everything from seeding to packaging is done in four rooms. The process starts in the seeding and processing room, where seeds and growing media are placed inside black planter-like boxes called inserts. Each has a unique code that’s traced by a software system. The inserts go on white trays that pass through a photo station, feeding information to the computer system, and then glide into the bio dome.

There are two rooms in the bio dome, each with a grow space of 12,500 square feet. They’re lit up with a pinkish-purplish glow from high-efficiency LED light bulbs that mimic the different seasons of the year.

“They are positioned over the plants at different heights depending on stage of growth,” Mr. Cerveny says. “This is partly how we can provide consistently ideal growing conditions.”

As the plants grow, they are moved by a robot to optimize their growth cycle. Full-grown crops are transferred to the harvesting room by another robot.

“Harvesting is where it becomes like a Willy Wonka factory,” Mr. Vandenbussche says.

Long rows of trays filled with tiny plants are sent on a conveyor system to a station where workers inspect them for quality with surgical tools. After inspection, the plants are harvested by a robot and then immediately ride up a tall conveyor to be packaged and sealed in a 34- to 36-degree room so they remain fresh.

“Every crop we grow gets evaluated for maximum flavor, volume, crunch and color,” he says.

The plants’ intense, dark color is controlled by LED light bulbs, which are dialed up or down to get the correct hue. Although they never see the sun, the greens don’t get into a funk as humans might.

“What humans see in terms of light and how chlorophyll responds during photosynthesis are two different things,” Mr. Cerveny says. “Plants really only need red and blue light to grow effectively. We include some additional colors to help bring out other quality aspects of our crops, but providing the full sunlight spectrum is effectively a waste of energy, especially indoors.

“To the human eye, it looks like the plants live in a land of purple and pink lights, but they are perfectly happy there.”

Even though the environment is controlled and the software system is constantly updated, no two plants are exactly the same. Some fight for light more than others. Some might fail the quality control test and end up in a compost waste facility if their flavor is off or their color is not right.

“That is what is so amazing. We have more control than any other farmer, and yet we have limitations. Every seed is different,” Mr. Vandenbussche says. “They are plants. They are real living organisms.”

Is AppHarvest the Future of Farming?

Special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, are red-hot right now, with investors clamoring to get into promising young companies.

In this video from Motley Fool Live, recorded on Jan. 28, Industry Focus host Nick Sciple and Motley Fool contributor Lou Whiteman discuss AppHarvest, one such SPAC that is looking to disrupt the agriculture industry. Here are the details on what AppHarvest wants to do, and a look at whether the company represents the future of farming.

Nick Sciple: One last company I wanted to talk about, Lou, and this is one I think it's -- you pay attention to, but not one I'm super excited to run in and buy. It was a company called AppHarvest. It's coming public via a [SPAC] this year. This vertical farming space. We talked about Gladstone Land buying traditional farmland. AppHarvest is taking a very different approach, trying to lean into some of the ESG-type movements.

Lou Whiteman: Yeah. Let's look at this. It probably wouldn't surprise you that the U.S. is the biggest global farm exporter as we said, but it might surprise you that the Netherlands, the tiny little country, is No. 2. The way they do that is tech: Greenhouse farm structure. AppHarvest has taken that model and brought it to the U.S. They have, I believe, three farms in Appalachia. The pitches can produce 30x the yields using 90% less water. Right now, it's mostly tomatoes and it is early-stage. I don't own this stock either. I love this idea. There's some reasons that I'm not buying in right now that we can get into. But this is fascinating to me. We talked about making the world a better place. This is the company that we need to be successful to make the world a better place. The warning on it is that it is a SPAC. So it's not public yet. Right now, I believe N-O-V-S. That deal should close soon. [Editor's note: The deal has since closed.] I'm not the only one excited about it. I tend not to like to buy IPOs and new companies anyway. I think the caution around buying into the excitement applies here. There is a Martha Stewart video on their website talking up the company, which I love Martha Stewart, but that's a hype level that makes me want to just watch and see what they produce. This is just three little farms in Appalachia right now and a great idea. This was all over my watchlist. I would imagine I would love to hold it at some point, but just be careful because this is, as we saw SPACs last year in other areas, people are very excited about this.

Sciple: Yeah. I think, like we've said, for a lot of these companies, the prospects are great. I think when you look at the reduced water usage, better, environmentally friendly, all those sorts of things. I like that they are in Appalachia. As someone who is from the South, I like it when more rural areas get some people actually investing money there. But again, there's a lot of execution between now and really getting to a place where this is the future of farming and they're going to reach scale and all those sorts of things. But this is a company I'm definitely going to have my radar on and pay attention to as they continue to report earnings. Because you can tell yourself a story about how this type of vertical farming, indoor farming disrupts this traditional model, can be more efficient, cleaner, etc. Something to continue paying attention to as we have more information, because this company, like you said, Lou, isn't all the way public yet. We still got to have this SPAC deal finalized and then we get all our fun SEC filings and quarterly calls and all those sorts of things. Once we have that, I will be very much looking forward to seeing what the company has to say.

Whiteman: Right. Just to finish up along too, the interesting thing here is that it is a proven concept because it has worked elsewhere. The downside of that is that it needed to work there. Netherlands just doesn't have -- and this is an expensive proposition to get started, to get going. There's potential there, but in a country blessed with almost seemingly unlimited farmland for now, for long term it makes sense. But in the short term, it could be a hard thing to really get up and running. I think you're right, just one to watch.

BrightFarms Promotes Jackie Hawkins To Director Of Food Safety & Quality

BrightFarms, a leading supplier of locally grown packaged salads, recently announced that Jackie Hawkins has been promoted to director of food safety & quality. She will report directly to Josh Norbury, BrightFarms’ senior vice president of operations.

Jackie Hawkins

Hawkins will oversee all aspects of food safety and quality assurance as the company continues its rapid growth into new markets. Her responsibilities will include the development and execution of BrightFarms’ food-safety protocols across five facilities, as well as the coordination of customer, regulatory and third-party audits.

“Under Jackie’s leadership, BrightFarms is delivering the safest and freshest leafy greens to the nation’s largest retailers,” said Josh Norbury, senior vice president of operations. “She has built an industry-leading food safety program for the indoor production of leafy greens, and our rigorous protocols have set the standard for other companies in our space. We are fortunate to have her leadership and expertise as we continue to grow.”

Since joining BrightFarms in 2016, Hawkins contributions have been critical to the success of the company’s world-class operations team. She has designed and implemented the most comprehensive food-safety program in the indoor farming industry and maintains close working relationships with leading food-safety experts in the produce industry.

In 2018, Hawkins led the development of the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) Food Safety Coalition, an independent and member-governed organization whose membership is comprised of controlled environment leafy greens growers who subject their production processes to external audit. She also led BrightFarms’ early adoption of IBM’s Food Trust platform to enhance traceability with blockchain technology.

“Food safety is a personal passion that I’ve dedicated my career to, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to step into my expanded role,” said Hawkins. “I’m thrilled that I have the opportunity to work for a company that places food safety at the centre of everything we do. I look forward to continuing to advance our leading protocols and providing our consumers with the safest, freshest and most nutritious greens on the market.”

Hawkins graduated from Oregon State University in 2016 with a B.S. in Environmental Science.

For more information about BrightFarms, visit www.brightfarms.com.

4 Young Visionaries Built A Thriving Business

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17-12-2020

Agritech Tomorrow

It all began in 2017 when three friends, Magnus Crommert, Cristoffer Barath and Erik Lundgren decided to try modern indoor farming. Our own Plant & Light Expert, Ida Fällström, remembers when Magnus visited our Göteborg office, introduced us to his team’s vision of modern farming, and left with an ELIXIA LED grow light under his arm. With that LED grow light, he started to conduct tests in his garage while the rest of the business took form, including bringing on a young business visionary, Andreas Wihelmsson, as partner and CEO. Fast forward to today, and their operation has grown to become Ljusgårda AB, a successful and sustainable climate certified farm in Tibro, Sweden.

Recently, in one of our most popular webinars of all time, Wihelmsson fired us up with Ljusgårda’s amazing story – building a thriving modern farm in what was once a factory, by “replacing the tractor with lights and the shovel with an iPad.” An enthusiastic evangelist for modern vertical farming, Wihelmsson explained, “We took the concept of farming outdoors and brought it indoors, creating a controlled ecosystem where we can grow under optimal conditions year-round. We have a facility here of 7,000 square meters. A year from now, we will have outgrown this facility and we will begin building the next one.” He continued, “If someone would have told me years ago that I would be growing salad for a living, I would have thought they were joking. Yet today thousands of families are eating our salad every week.” 

What are the secrets to Ljusgårda’s overwhelming success? Here are 5 key things we learned in our webinar about starting a successful vertical farm:

5 Habits of a Highly Successful Vertical Farm

1. Quality Comes First

Wihelmsson commented that “More than 70% of all the fruits and vegetables Sweden eats are imported from other countries.” This leads not only to higher emissions but it also negatively affects plant quality and nutrients due to the transportation time. Because indoor vertical farming enables Ljusgårda to grow locally, they always get their products to store within 24 hours of harvest to retain quality and nutrition. 

2. Give Your Customers What They Really Want (Not What You Think They Want)

Ljusgårda produces salad greens, including lettuce and arugula, for Swedish tables year-round. Wihelmsson noted, “When it comes to making a produce buying decision in Sweden, 7 out of 10 people say that one of the most important factors is that it's Swedish. Sustainability and price are also very important. We provide a great tasting Swedish product that is sustainable, and we sell it at roughly the same price as imported products.” 

When it comes to giving customers what they want on an individual crop level, Ljusgårda is able to use LED grow lighting and intelligent controls to influence every phase of plant growth, from biomass development to finish and flavour. Wihelmsson commented, “One very interesting experience we had was with our rocket salad, the first product we launched. I remember our initial tryouts and it tasted terrible.” He laughed, “We were by far growing the worst tasting rocket salad in the world, but we became better. We developed a good product with a robust peppery flavour, and we went to grocery stores for people to try it. Their polite reactions were that it was okay, so we knew that we had it dead wrong. We progressed by altering our rocket salad’s flavour through lighting control and conducting countless in-house and in-store taste tests.” 

Wihelmsson continued, “We realized that Swedes didn’t want a traditional strong rocket salad. They wanted a mild one. We have a term in Sweden, Lagom, which relates to balance – not too little, not too much. We ended up producing a milder rocket and outsold all other products in that store.” He concluded, “You don't always know what the customer actually wants until you test in person and can see their reaction. If in the future customers demand a spicier rocket salad, we can achieve that with our flexible LED lighting. We have the ability to control taste, nutrition, quality, colour, biomass, almost everything – because light has a huge effect on the plants. You just first need to figure out what your customer wants in their food.”

3. Control Your Light to Optimize Your Production

An intelligent LED lighting strategy can help you achieve your crop goals. We have worked with Ljusgårda to accelerate their production of arugula and reduce their production time by 19%, by making adjustments to their lighting strategies. Wihelmsson commented, “For us, light control is very important to our production. If we look at our collaboration with Heliospectra, we chose to go with ELIXIA LEDs because we needed maximum flexibility. The other reason was their positive effect on reducing power consumption.” 

Ljusgårda has also found that flexible LEDs can help them control risk and even save crops. Wihelmsson noted, “Now that we have been running this farm for a few years, we’ve come to see that our flexible lights can actually be used to compensate for human errors, or things like the water tank failing or other issues. In such cases we have been able to change the spectrum to recovery lighting. Our LED lighting has meant a lot to us and the flexibility has been extremely important.” 

4. Automate Step by Step (and Plan Several Steps Ahead)

Wihelmsson talked about the company’s approach to automation, “We had to redesign the system to be able to get it automated step by step and growing-wise it's been working. For us most steps in production will be semi-automated, leveraging a machine but with human beings still involved, while other steps will be fully automated.” 

He cautioned, “You need to do the math and see where automation makes economic sense for you. Our approach is to look at what takes up the most labour, what is most costly in the whole economic calculation, and address it. We also run the numbers to plan ahead. For example, we are preparing some processes for automation, but we won't automate them until production volumes hit certain critical numbers. Overall, it’s best to take it one step at a time, starting with a semi-automated approach.”

5. Keep it Simple and Learn from Others

Rather than focusing on the high-tech aspects of their operation, Ljusgårda found that their consumers responded better to a simpler, more straightforward message. Wihelmsson commented, “We know that our consumers want local produce, and so it says three times on the bag that our salad is from Sweden. We keep our messaging and packaging simple, ensuring people know that we are passionate about growing great tasting, nutritious, and sustainable food that they can eat in good conscience year-round. This simple, positive message has helped put our bag salad in the top three in each and every store, and it’s even number one in several of them.” 

If you are interested in starting your own vertical farming operation or taking your farm to the next level, Wihelmsson suggested that you try to learn from others who have succeeded. He commented, “We have something we like to call common farmer sense. It's a direct translation from Swedish, and it basically consists of us questioning all the solutions that are out there and always telling ourselves not to reinvent the wheel. See if any industry or any other grower has already taken an approach you want to try. Take a look at it, learn from it, and then start growing from there.”

Watch the entire webinar here.

Source and Photo Courtesy of Agritech Tomorrow

VIDEO: Featured Project: Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm #2 at Brooklyn Navy Yard, Building No. 3

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Linda Velazquez 

September 28, 2020

65,000 sf. Greenroof

Greenroofs.com Featured Project September 28, 2020

We’re replaying Brooklyn Grange’s second rooftop farm at Brooklyn Navy Yard to recognize their hard work and commitment to sustainable urban agriculture through these trying times of the COVID-19 pandemic. It would be great for Aramis and me to visit again soon!

They’re currently booking small groups for private tours, and offering workshops along with other events. With information that is up to date as of September 2020, Brooklyn Grange states there “is no need to register in advance to visit our weekend open houses and markets; just follow the directions we link to below and come on by during the hours listed!” Brooklyn Grange’s sister organization is City Growers, a 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit organization founded in 2011 by Brooklyn Grange. You can also book a variety of workshops and youth educational visit through City Growers. Continued success!

Image: rooflite

Excerpt from Greenroofs.com Project Profile:

Brooklyn Grange is a privately owned and sustainably operated enterprise, and the U.S.’s leading soil-based rooftop farming and intensive greenroofing business. Community-oriented, they host weekly open houses in season and feel the green space contributes to the overall health and quality of life, bringing people together through green business and around good food with their wholesale, retail, and CSA members.

Their goal is to put more farms on roofs throughout New York and beyond, and grow more food, train and employ more farmers.

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Image: © Anastasia Cole Plakias/Brooklyn Grange

Brooklyn Grange’s second farm, located atop Building No. 3 at the historic Brooklyn Navy Yard, is a massive 65,000 square foot roof towering twelve stories over the East River.

Most of the financing was granted by the Department of Environmental Protection’s Green Infrastructure Stormwater Management Initiative, and Farm #2 manages over one million gallons of stormwater each year. Installed in 2012, the farm is covered in 10-12″ of rooflite Intensive Ag blend, rooflite drain granular drainage layer, and the Carlisle Roof Garden system by Carlisle SynTec Systems.

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Image: rooflite

Image: rooflite

Brooklyn Grange’s second farm increased the business’ annual yield to 50,000 pounds of fresh produce between their two locations and created many new green jobs. (Update: as of 2019 the yield has increased to 80,000+ of pounds of fresh produce between three locations.) The farm cultivates row crops such as leafy greens, aromatic herbs, heirloom tomatoes and peppers April through November.

Brooklyn Grange sows cover crops, such as clover and oats in winter months to prevent soil erosion and replenish vital nutrients. The Brooklyn Navy Yard farm is also home to many of the 30+ hives comprising Brooklyn Grange’s Apiary.

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Image: © Anastasia Cole Plakias/Brooklyn Grange courtesy Brooklyn Grange

More

They also host a robust events program here, with guests participating in yoga sessions or just enjoying a cocktail and some canapés overlooking the skyline at sunset. Brooklyn Grange partners with numerous non-profit and community organizations to extend the positive impact of the farm, including City Growers, a non-profit education program based on their rooftop farms.

Brooklyn Grange’s Rooftop Farm #2 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard is a win-win-win, reducing stormwater runoff, creating local jobs, and providing access to fresh produce for the community.

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Image: Laura Messersmith of Goldfinch and Scout

Year: 2012
Owner: Lessor – Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation
Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA
Building Type: Commercial
Type: Intensive
System: Single Source Provider
Size: 65,000 sq.ft.
Slope: 1%
Access: Accessible, By Appointment

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Image: Kerry Ross, GRP

Credits:

CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER:
BEN FLANNER, BROOKLYN GRANGE

GREENROOF SYSTEM:
CARLISLE SYNTEC SYSTEMS

GROWING MEDIA:
ROOFLITE®

DRAINAGE:
ROOFLITE®

GREEN ROOF OVERBURDEN DESIGN:
ELIZABETH KENNEDY LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS (EKLA)

GREEN ROOF OVERBURDEN DESIGN:
DILIP KHALE, ARCHITECT, PC

ROOFING CONTRACTOR:
MARFI CONTRACTING CORP

ROOFLITE BLENDER:
LAUREL VALLEY SOILS

GROWING MEDIA PNEUMATIC PLACEMENT / INSTALLATION:
DOWNES FOREST PRODUCTS

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Image: Kerry Ross, GRP

See the Project Profile

See the Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm #2 at Brooklyn Navy Yard project profile to view ALL of the Photos and Additional Information about this particular project in the Greenroofs.com Projects Database.

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The Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm #2 at Brooklyn Navy Yard, Building No. 3. Photo © Courtesy of Brooklyn Grange.

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Farm to Fork: This Millennial Urban Farmer Grows Vegetables On Carpark Rooftops in Singapore

Singapore Announced New Measures in April Aimed At Speeding Up Local Food Production Over The Next Six Months To Two Years.

By Vulcan Post

June 25, 2020

The ongoing battle against the COVID-19 outbreak and the resultant lockdowns imposed in many countries worldwide have put the spotlight on Singapore’s dependence on food imports and its vulnerability to global supply shocks.

The government has repeatedly assured its citizens that Singapore has sufficient food supplies, amid bouts of panic buying that gripped the country when Singapore raised the DORSCON level to Orange.

Although the panic buying has now eased, another cause for concern is that Singapore has a population of about 5.7 million people but it only produces about 10% of its food needs.

To tackle this food crisis, Singapore announced new measures in April aimed at speeding up local food production over the next six months to two years.

This includes providing a SGD 30 million grant to support production of eggs, leafy vegetables, and fish in the shortest time possible, and identifying alternative farming spaces, such as industrial areas and vacant sites.

As part of that project, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) and the Housing Development Board (HDB) have launched a tender in May for rooftop farms on public housing car parks.

This means that the rooftops of a handful of multi-story carparks in Singapore will be converted for use to farm vegetables and other food crops from the later part of this year.

Farming hits the roof

The move to find alternative farming space in land-constrained Singapore is part of their strategy to meet the country’s 30 by 30 goal, which is to produce 30% of its nutritional needs locally by 2030.

Local agritech startup Citiponics did not take part in the tender this time round, though it piloted SFA’s multi-story carpark rooftop farm project in Ang Mo Kio last year.

According to Danielle Chan, co-founder of Citiponics, its 1,800 square metres farm atop the carpark at Block 700 in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6 can grow between three and four tonnes of vegetables a month.

They grow up to 25 different types of vegetables naturally without the use of pesticides.

“We currently specialize in growing our own crossbreed of lettuces—Georgina Lettuces—and have also been growing other varieties such as nai bai, Italian basil, and Thai basil based on customers’ requests,” said Danielle.

Sharing more about the Ang Mo Kio site, she said they have been steadily producing pesticide-free vegetables on a monthly basis, supplying to nearby residents and consumers islandwide.

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Rooftop farm in Ang Mo Kio. Photo courtesy of Citiponics via Vulcan Post.

Beyond contributing to local food production, this pilot project has also generated “positivity,” which stems from community involvement when visitors get to know and see their food source.

“It brings us great joy to see the senior citizens enjoying their time as they work on farming activities as well as the support we have received from visitors who come to our community markets to self-harvest their produce,” said Danielle.

She added that they hire senior citizens from AWWA Community Home as well as part-time workers to help with farm maintenance.

“We believe that even if one does not have the technical agriculture know-how, they should be able to contribute to food production as well.”

Citiponics is a Singapore-grown urban farming company that started in 2016, which aims to grow safe produce through its zero-waste farming process.

It is co-founded by Danielle and her family friend Teo Hwa Kok, who has a “rich experience in agriculture.”

When agriculture meets tech

The 26-year-old is a National University of Singapore (NUS) graduate, who has worked in technology startups across Singapore and New York, as well as technology consulting companies such as IBM.

But with her tech background, why did she choose to be a ‘farmer’?

“I grew up in an agricultural environment and as such, the farm was always my playground. Growing up, I never had to worry about buying vegetables from the supermarket or doubting my food source. I had the blessing of getting all my vegetables supplies directly from the farm,” explained Danielle.

“Having personally witnessed the wastage as well as the inefficiencies in the traditional farming industry, I knew I wanted to go back to the farming industry to change the way farming is done traditionally as well as to share the blessing of the farm-to-table experience with others.”

Her tech background didn’t go to waste though. She made it a point to integrate technology into Citiponic’s farming processes.

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Citiponics at NTUC FairPrice. Photo courtesy of Ministry of Trade and Industry via Vulcan Post.

They have a proprietary vertical farming technology called Aqua-Organic System (AOS). It falls under a solid-based soilless culture, which is different from the likes of traditional farming and hydroponic farming system.

As every drop of water is kept in a close loop within the growing system, it helps to minimize water consumption, using one-tenth of hydroponics water consumption and one-hundredth of traditional farming water consumption.

Due to its vertical nature, it is also able to be seven times more productive than traditional farming.

As it is specially designed to provide a natural farming environment in order to preserve the nutrients value and natural taste of the vegetables, the technology is also pollutant-free and pesticide-free. It’s also anti-mosquito breeding, which makes it very suitable for farming within community and neighborhood areas.

“The AOS farming technology removes the complex technicalities of farming and we wanted to keep it that way to allow people of all ages and backgrounds to have a great experience when they get to farm with our systems,” said Danielle.

COVID-19 does not pose a huge business challenge

All of Citiponic’s farmed produce are segmented to home deliveries, nearby residents, and selected NTUC FairPrice outlets.

Despite their limited farming space, Danielle said that they see a constant stream of supply and sales.

It’s not so much a business challenge, she added, but the need to adapt to the new normal, hence the introduction of home deliveries and engaged logistics channel.

Although COVID-19 does not greatly impact its business, it serves as a timely reminder on the importance of accelerating our local food production.

This pandemic serves a time for us to reflect on how we can enhance our food resilience strategies.

Singapore steps up to be more food resilient

As Singapore is still largely dependent on food imports, the rooftop farming tender and local food production grants are definitely the right steps forward.

According to SFA, Singapore currently secures food supply from about 170 countries.

For instance, Singapore now imports oranges from Egypt, milk powder from Uruguay, eggs from Poland and shrimps from Saudi Arabia as part of its efforts to broaden food supplies.

Danielle is well-aware that food security, food sustainability and food safety are global issues, so she hopes to bring Citiponics’ farming solution to more countries.

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Citiponics’ Georgina lettuce sold at NTUC FairPrice. Photo courtesy of Citiponics via Vulcan Post.

“We are not only focused on food production, but also becoming an agritech solution provider. We have developed agriculture technology and designed farming solutions that are suitable for tropical countries, and hope to extend the applicability of our expertise and farming technology to temperate countries as well,” she added.

Citiponics is also looking at scaling its operations to enhance its contribution to local food resilience and grow more communities through the introduction of hyperlocal Citiponics urban vertical farms in various neighborhoods of Singapore.

“We envision Citiponics as a supportive environment that is able to cultivate the next generation of urban farmers and agritech innovators.”

This article was first published by Vulcan Post.

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