UNFI Picks Up Living Greens Farm Products in Midwest Expansion

I|mage from: Living Green Farms

Living Greens Farm (LGF), the largest vertical, indoor aeroponic farm in the US that provides year-round fresh salads, salad kits, microgreens and herbs, announced the addition of significant new retail distribution of its products in the upper Midwest to independent, specialty, and co-op retailers.

Starting February 2021, LGF’s full line of products featuring ready-to-eat bagged salad products (Caesar Salad Kit, Southwest Salad Kit, Harvest Salad Kit, Chopped Romaine, and Chopped Butter Lettuce) will be carried by UNFI Produce Prescott (formerly Alberts Fresh Produce). UNFI Produce Prescott is a division of UNFI, which distributes food products to thousands of stores nationwide. Their focus is on independent, specialty and co-op retailers.

UNFI has eight warehouses nationwide. LGF’s products will be carried by their upper Midwest location, located just across the river from the Twin Cities in Prescott, WI. This distribution center services hundreds of retailers throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska. UNFI is the first national Certified Organic distributor, something they take a lot of pride in. Their produce and floral businesses are rooted in local farms and seasonal import growers.

LGF’s proprietary vertical indoor farming method yields the highest quality and freshest produce available. This is because there are no pesticides or chemicals used in the growing process. And because LGF’s growing, cleaning and bagging process significantly reduces handling and time to the retail shelf, consumers enjoy the freshest product on the market. These benefits continue to attract new users and new retail distribution as UNFI Produce Prescott is the second UNFI location to carry LGF. In December, UNFI’s Hopkins, MN location began offering LGF products.

For more information on why Living Greens Farm products are the cleanest, freshest and healthiest farm salads and greens available, go to www.livinggreensfarm.com.

Warehouse Becoming Vertical Farms — And They’re Feeding New Jersey

Image from: New Jersey 101.5

New Jersey's vertical farms are transforming agriculture by helping farmers meet growing food demand.

New Jersey Agriculture Secretary Doug Fisher said that while conventional farming in outdoor fields remains critical, vertical farming has its advantages because of its efficiency and resistance to pests and thus less need for chemicals.

Vertical farming is the process of growing food vertically in stacked layers indoors under artificial light and temperature, mainly in buildings. These plants receive the same nutrients and all the elements needed to grow plants for food.

Vertical farms are also versatile. Plants may be growing in containers, in old warehouses, in shipping containers, in abandoned buildings.

"That's one of the great advantages — that we can put agriculture in the midst of many landscapes that have lost their vitality," said Fisher.

ResearchandMarkets.com says the U.S. vertical farming market is projected to reach values of around $3 billion by the year 2024.

The one drawback is that its operational and labor costs make it expensive to get up and running.

Image from: AeroFarms

In the past decade, however, vertical farming has become more popular, creating significant crop yields all over the state.

AeroFarms in Newark is the world's largest indoor vertical farm. The farm converted a 75-year-old 70,000-square-foot steel mill into a vertical farming operation. AeroFarms' key products include Dream Greens, its retail brand of baby and micro-greens, available year-round in several ShopRite supermarkets.

Kula Urban Farm in Asbury Park opened in 2014. Vacant lots are transformed into urban farms and there's a hydroponic greenhouse on site. That produce is sold to local restaurants.

Beyond Organic Growers in Freehold uses no pesticides and all seeds and nutrients are organic. There's a minimum of 12,000 plants growing on 144 vertical towers. On its website, it says the greenhouse utilizes a new growing technique called aeroponics, which involves vertical towers where the plant roots hang in the air while a nutrient solution is delivered with a fine mist. It also boasts that by using this method, plants can grow with less land and water while yielding up to 30% more three times faster than traditional soil farming.

Vertical farms in New Jersey help feed local communities. Many are in urban areas and are a form of urban farming.

Fisher predicts that vertical farms will be operational in stores and supermarkets around the state.

"It's continued to expand. There's going to be many, many ways and almost any area in the state has the opportunity to have a vertical farm," Fisher said.

Plants Have A Body Clock As Well Research Shows

This research highlights a single letter change in their DNA code can potentially decide whether a plant is a lark or a night owl. The findings may help farmers and crop breeders to select plants with clocks that are best suited to their location, helping to boost yield and even the ability to withstand climate change.

The circadian clock is the molecular metronome that guides organisms through day and night -- cockadoodledooing the arrival of morning and drawing the curtains closed at night. In plants, it regulates a wide range of processes, from priming photosynthesis at dawn through to regulating flowering time.

These rhythmic patterns can vary depending on geography, latitude, climate, and seasons -- with plant clocks having to adapt to cope best with the local conditions.

Researchers at the Earlham Institute and John Innes Centre in Norwich wanted to better understand how much circadian variation exists naturally, with the ultimate goal of breeding crops that are more resilient to local changes in the environment -- a pressing threat with climate change.

To investigate the genetic basis of these local differences, the team examined varying circadian rhythms in Swedish Arabidopsis plants to identify and validate genes linked to the changing tick of the clock. 

Click here to access the complete research. 

21 Dec 2020

Published by Dani Kliegerman for iGrow.News

Virginia Researchers Are Studying ‘The Sound of Plants Dancing’ To Better The Future of Agriculture

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By Katherine Hafner

The Virginian-Pilot  9/7/2020

What Do Dancing Plants Sound Like?

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© Virginia Tech/The Virginian-Pilot/TNS Some of the pepper plants being studied by researchers at Virginia Tech. The researchers record the plants' long-term movements — sped up into \"dances\" — then convert those patterns into sound as a way to evaluate plant health based on responses to environmental conditions.

It seems like the start of a philosophical essay question. But researchers at Virginia Tech think the answer could be one tool wielded in the future of agriculture in the commonwealth and beyond.

Using experimental technology, the scientists are trying to figure out how the sonification of plant movements could be used to assess plant health and aid farmers who need to monitor their greens at an industrial scale.

They are focused on indoor or so-called controlled-environment agriculture. Think greenhouses with LED lights and plants in hydroponic systems, using liquid nutrient solutions instead of soil.

“When you grow a plant inside a building, you really control ... introducing any insects or pathogens, minimizing the use of pesticides” and the like, said Bingyu Zhao, the lead researcher and associate professor in the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences. “But you can still have disease problems or sometimes they could have environmental stress.”

Maybe the temperature’s too high, he said, or the nitrogen levels are off. “It’s all not good for the plant growth.”

Imagine a grower using an indoor facility with dozens of rows of plants. Unlike in a small backyard garden, they can’t continuously check on every individual plant to monitor the effects of all those variables.

So Zhao got the idea to set up cameras to do it instead, using a small number of pepper plants for observation.

The high-resolution cameras capture the continuous movements of the plants. Over times, patterns develop.

These “micro movements” are mostly naked to the human eye, Zhao said. But they become apparent when sped up in time-lapse videos.

The even more unconventional part comes next.

The researchers take the data they’ve collected on plant movements and convert it into sound in a process called sonification.

In that way, a human could hear patterns present among the plants. The idea is to eventually be able to link certain sounds to indicators that a plant needs better light, for example.

Computers, analyzing the data at a large scale, could learn “what is a good sound and what is a bad sound,” Zhao said.

He works with professors across other disciplines in engineering and in the School of Performing Arts to bring together the different elements.

The plant movement project is just one part of the university’s new statewide SmartFarm Innovation Network, said Susan Duncan, associate director of the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station.

Two years ago, the school brought together stakeholders in the agriculture and food processing fields from around Virginia to hear their concerns and interests, she said.

One big takeaway: technological innovation was on everyone’s mind. In order to maintain a future workforce and catch up with evolving needs, they needed to think outside traditional agricultural techniques, she said.

So the decentralized network was born, consisting of 11 off-campus research centers including the Hampton Roads Agricultural Research And Extension Center in Virginia Beach. Though the center in our region isn’t involved in the “dancing plants” project, it has plenty of its own areas of study, including water quality and boxwood blight disease.

There are more than 100 research projects connected to the network delving into the future of agriculture.

With growing plants indoors, for example, “you can’t just say, ’I’m going to put this LED light over my plant and see how it goes,’” Duncan said. “There’s a science behind it.”

In the operating room, surgeons often use sound to be able to keep track of routine measurements such as blood pressure while performing surgery, Duncan said.

Applying that to plants, she said, is “how they can help guide us to make decisions for them.”

“It’s kind of a cool concept. If they start ’screaming,’ whatever that sounds like, we can pay attention.”

©2020 The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.)

Visit The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.) at pilotonline.com

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BioLumic Appoints Steve Sibulkin as CEO

Proven Ag and Tech Leader to Drive Photogenics Company’s Continued Product Development Efforts and Global Growth

New York, NY and Palmerston North, New Zealand — June 8, 2020 —BioLumic Ltd. (“BioLumic”), the leader in using plant photogenics to unlock the genetic potential of seeds and seedlings, today announced the appointment of Steve Sibulkin as Chief Executive Officer. Based on decades of experience in the agriculture and technology industries, Sibulkin will lead the company’s global expansion and accelerate its UV light treatment innovation based on the groundbreaking BioLumic photogenics platform. 

“An exceptionally sustainable agriculture innovator tackling complex farming challenges, BioLumic is at a critical juncture as it prepares for the immense opportunities ahead and the rigors of global commercialization,” noted Dr. Adrian Percy, BioLumic Chairman of the Board and CTO of UPLLtd. “With a proven track record building industry-leading ag and tech companies, Steve will help BioLumic move faster and deepen relationships with key partners while accelerating the company’s ability to bring its innovations to the market.”

Sibulkin joins BioLumic from Yara International, where he led enterprise sustainability, partnership, and digital initiatives after the company acquired the precision agriculture company he co-founded, Agronomic Technology Corp (ATC), in 2017.  As the CEO of ATC, Sibulkin commercialized and grew the Adapt-N nitrogen recommendation solution, which was originally developed by a team at Cornell University. Under his leadership, ATC conducted over one billion simulations, expanded its product portfolio, signed enterprise partners, and became an industry-standard with growers, agriculture industry leaders, and sustainably focused organizations. Before joining Yara, Sibulkin was a multi-time CEO, entrepreneur, and strategic advisor, and held leadership positions at Sapient, Ogilvy & Mather, and Mainspring.

“BioLumic’s discoveries around plant signaling responses harness the natural genetic potential of seeds and seedlings for yield improvement, disease resistance, and the ability to withstand environmental stress — all without requiring additional inputs or genetic modification. This is a huge win for farmer profitability, the food, and agriculture supply chain and the environment,” said Sibulkin. “BioLumic perfectly aligns with the movement toward more resilient and productive agriculture, and the opportunity to accelerate the growth of this transformative technology is one I couldn’t resist.”

Rooted in more than a decade of research into UV light treatments in plants and spun out from Massey University in New Zealand, BioLumic’s proven technology offers seed producers and growers new opportunities to grow more valuable and sustainable crops. Its scientifically validated photogenics platform uses a combination of artificial intelligence and precise light treatments to activate the natural plant signaling response to UV light, triggering plant growth that enhances crop yield, crop quality, drought tolerance, and natural disease and pest resistance. 

“Our proprietary technology cultivates stronger, healthier plants to meet rising food demands, and we are ready to focus on commercialization and building a global footprint,” added Dr. Jason Wargent, founder and chief science officer. ”A respected leader in sustainable agriculture, Steve’s wealth of experience leading cross-disciplinary teams around new categories of product innovation will help drive the adoption of our novel light treatments in the global ag marketplace.” 

Positive outcomes from produce such as broccoli, lettuce, strawberries, and tomatoes have accelerated the development of BioLumic’s high-quality seed and plant treatment innovations for indoor farming, row crops like soybeans, and high-value crops like cannabis.  BioLumic is actively growing its team to support the acceleration and expansion of its UV light treatment initiatives.   

“With recent trials showing the extensibility of this novel technology across crops, we know growers around the globe will see improved profit from their seed and seedling investments,” added Sibulkin.  “Our next step involves deepening our partnerships with seed companies, seed dealers, sustainability-focused organizations, and enterprises that have aligned interest in utilizing and expanding this technology.”

Sibulkin earned a B.A. in political science from UCLA and an MBA from Kellogg Graduate School of Management, where he graduated with Beta Gamma Sigma distinction and co-founded the Net Impact Chapter. He currently resides in New York City.  

About BioLumic

BioLumic harnesses the power of ultraviolet (UV) light to empower growers and seed producers around the globe. BioLumic’s pioneering technology activates natural mechanisms in seeds and seedlings that increase plant growth, vigor, and natural defense mechanisms — resulting in increased yields at harvest without the use of chemical input or genetic modification. Backed by top Ag investors, BioLumic is headquartered in New Zealand and is actively growing its presence in North America.

To learn more, visit www.biolumic.com.