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AI Is Learning To Understand How Vegetables Taste
With the global demand for food escalating, vertical farms are becoming a critical component of agriculture's future. They use robotics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to automate farming and perfect the growing of greens and vegetables.
By Jennifer Kite-Powell
July 20, 2021
With the global demand for food escalating, vertical farms are becoming a critical component of agriculture's future. They use robotics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to automate farming and perfect the growing of greens and vegetables. With steady growth, the vertical farming market was had an estimated value of $4.4 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach $15.7 billion by 2025.
Fifth Season is a vertical farm in Pittsburgh that uses super-stack software and robotics to run their fully automated farming systems. And, by combining big data and AI, they have created the optimal grow recipe that determines the best flavor for the plants they grow.
"The role of AI in determining flavor is to leverage big data and AI to ensure you achieve the target flavor — sweetness, spiciness, bitterness, total degree of flavor and texture," said Austin Webb, CEO of Fifth Season.
"Our plant's individualized grow recipe is the unique mix of the different LED lights," said Webb. "The plants go through the grow room with a QR code that communicates that plant's route and tells the automated system where each plant needs to be throughout the process."
Webb says their super stack system, which serves as 'the brain' of the vertical farm maps, maps out each plant's route through the grow room based on its grow recipe and then moves the plants where they need to go.
"We use AI and data to find improvements in all aspects of crop quality, even beyond what humans think they know about flavor profiles. We call this proactive, deterministic growing compared to traditional farming, including greenhouse growing, where you have to be reactive based on weather and sunlight conditions," said Webb. "We then leverage human/chef feedback on what tastes the best and what texture is best and [..] combine that qualitative data with the 26K quantitative data points for every tray of greens per lifecycle."
"From there, we tweak our grow recipes to build the best flavor. For some vegetables, like tomatoes, experts have leveraged Brix scores, but [..] we measure flavor quality based on these factors: sweetness, spiciness, bitterness, the total degree of flavor, texture and color," said Webb. "Humans don't need to guess what iron content or Brix score is best; the brain in our farms can do that. Humans tell the grain what tastes best, and the brain will compute and tweak the grow recipes from there."
Darryn Keiller, CEO and founder of WayBeyond, says that to impact flavor, you either have to change the genetics of the crop or alter the existing biochemical profile.
"For example, growers can impact flavor by adjusting light and nutrients, which can then enhance the texture (crunch, thickness) or flavor (increased sweetness or bitterness)," said Keiller. "Once you determine the key characteristics you want in a crop, you then use machine learning or AI to automate and optimize the production process for consistent growth and be responsive to changing consumer preferences."
"Currently, vertical farms utilize seed stock bred for outdoor farming. Using AI technology, they can create their breeding stock (or lines) better suited for indoor environments. It's about refining your research and development and creating genetics perfect for your environment and management practices while ensuring continuous improvement of commercial production. The potential is huge."
Webb adds that many indoor growers sought to build an outdoor farming system that can thrive indoors; however, Fifth Season chose to apply smart manufacturing principles to agriculture that would enable them to grow food in a new way.
"We grow more than 15K pounds a week of fresh food with 90% less water than what would be required to grow that amount of fresh food on a traditional outdoor farm - and that is done on a footprint of just 25,000 square feet," added Webb.
Webb believes that scaling viable vertical farming operations that can crack code on both the technology and the consumer experience to deliver consistently fresh, nutritious and clean produce changes the consumer shopping significantly.
"It changes our entire definition of what fresh can and should taste like; it changes the ease of access and availability and convenience to fresh food, which brings so much value to consumers," said Webb. "It's another avenue for shoppers to access the freshest, highest-quality food at retail with produce that has a much longer shelf life than we're accustomed.”
Lead Photo: Greens leaving the grow environment on route to harvesting and packaging in Fifth Season's vertical farm in Pittsburgh.
The Philippines: Simple Is The best
Our investment is returned to us TEN TIMES PLUS in increased local participation in our FREE training programs and peaceful sleep knowing people are NOT going to bed hungry
I was motivated to develop our farm, Kitakitz Natural Farm, when I saw local children were suffering development issues. Kids of the same age in my hometown of Bloomsburg Pennsylvania are Significantly healthier. When we first retired to the Philippines in 2010 I was shocked when I discovered kids that were of similar ages to our 9-year-old were actually several years OLDER! They were short, lightweight, boney, and had numerous development issues including poor skin, hair, and dental health.
So I decided growing food for my own use was NOT ENOUGH!
Everything we do is 100% Organic and we do NOT use Chemical pesticides or fertilizers. Our Vegetables, Fruit, Flowers, Various Plants, Bamboo, trees & scrubs, cuttings & Seeds are grown in compost and vermiculture created soil.
We are also developing HYDROPONIC SYSTEMS USING HANGING VERTICLE BAMBOO POLES.
Throughout the farm, we apply NO TILL agriculture and permaculture food forest techniques similar to the Cuban Urban ORGANOPONICO & CONSULTORIO. We also provide FREE training to those who want to duplicate our programs and provide fresh produce, seeds, & Tools in ADDITION to wages for those who work on the farm. We also SELL fruits and Vegetables through our vendors at BELOW market prices. Our goal is NOT to make $$ but to help people to become 100% food Self Sufficient.
We have friends in the USA who help us sponsor families here. Our programs create Long term solutions for food Security. We are totally Unlike Government Give-away programs. State-sponsored programs are weak at best and only provide short-term solutions with minimal disbursement amounts of rice and processed food sufficient for only a few meals.
In nearly 100% of our cases, our PLAN is providing long-term solutions. For less than $100 per family, we set them up with over 150 lbs of food like Rice, Oats, Flour, Fruit juices, peanut butter, canned meat & fish, and of course SEEDS. Plus we provide EDUCATION on Nutrition & Meal planning, how to save seed, and growing sprouts and vegetables in limited space and sunlight. When they follow the PLAN within a few days our recipients are growing and eating their own FRESH food. Additionally, within a few weeks they can also be harvesting fast-growing crops like 50 DAY Radish, & 30 to 40 DAY Pakchoi, Spinach & lettuce. (See photos below of our standard Seed, Food & Sprouts Family plan)
Our investment is returned to us TEN TIMES PLUS in increased local participation in our FREE training programs and peaceful sleep knowing people are NOT going to bed hungry.
Modern Farming: Coronavirus Outbreak Spurs High-Tech Greenhouse Boom in China
The facility is one of the dozens sprouting up on the outskirts of China's megacities that utilise high-end technology to manage irrigation, temperature and lighting systems to grow vegetables within easy reach of a large and affluent consumer base
June 4, 2021
Emily Chow
SHANGHAI, June 4 (Reuters) - At Chongming Island just outside Shanghai, China’s most populous city, workers collect and pack tomatoes and cucumbers at a glass greenhouse operated by Dutch company FoodVentures, which harvested their first batch of produce at the site in May.
The facility is one of the dozens sprouting up on the outskirts of China's megacities that utilize high-end technology to manage irrigation, temperature, and lighting systems to grow vegetables within easy reach of a large and affluent consumer base.
"There is a trend towards more sustainable and professional supply," said FoodVentures director Dirk Aleven.
"We've seen a huge acceleration since (the) coronavirus, it is even more important now that fresh produce is produced at the spot where it's consumed. Before that, they were transported for thousands of kilometers, even within the borders of China."
By far the world's largest vegetable producer, China has used greenhouses for decades, but food supply disruptions sparked by coronavirus lockdowns in 2020 have accelerated the development of high-tech glass greenhouse facilities.
To avoid future disruptions, municipal governments have said they aim to build up reserves of critical staples, and develop distribution and logistics facilities.
A growing affluent middle class, willing to pay more for higher quality food produced with less pesticides, is also fueling the trend, said greenhouse developers.
The area used for glass greenhouses grew 28% in 2020, well above the 5.9% rise seen in 2019, and faster than the 6% growth seen last year in areas housing cheaper plastic greenhouses, according to consultancy Richland Sources.
Plastic greenhouses help shield crops, but are considered less efficient than glass greenhouses. The latter can churn out high quality produce that is sold directly to retailers, reducing reliance on traditional supply chains.
"We see an irreversible trend since the pandemic in consumers buying more of their groceries online, and spending more on healthier choices and agricultural brands they trust," said Lim Xin Yi, executive director of sustainability at Pinduoduo, China's largest e-commerce platform by users.
BYPASSING THE MIDDLE MAN
Historically, China's vegetable production was concentrated in certain areas and required complex cold chain logistics networks for food to reach major cities' wholesale markets.
The vulnerability of that hub-centric system became apparent in 2020. COVID-19 outbreaks at a seafood market in Wuhan - ground zero for China's coronavirus pandemic - and at a major fresh market in Beijing caused a breakdown in the flow of goods to consumers, leading to food shortage and crop spoilage.
"The pandemic has pushed the fresh food industry to reduce the number of intermediaries in its supply chain network," said Gayathree Ganesan, an analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit.
A farmer gathers cucumbers at Hengda greenhouse in Shanghai, China May 25, 2021. REUTERS/Aly Song
Built within city limits to reduce distance to buyers, the greenhouses are usually collaborative ventures between Chinese property firms and greenhouse companies from the Netherlands, a key player in agriculture technology.
FoodVentures' greenhouse outside Shanghai is a typical example.
Over three football fields long and two storeys high, one of the facility's units nurtures uniform rows of cherry tomato plants that snake up towards the ceiling. It is capable of producing up to 120 tonnes a month of cherry tomatoes.
"Being healthy is already a first protection against any virus, so people care even more about what they eat," said Aleven. "Secondly, ... we want to get rid of the long logistics because we are not sure if it always works and that's what we've seen during this pandemic."
"Localising it as much as possible is the only answer," he added.
Greenshouse-grown produce is usually sold directly to e-commerce platforms and supermarkets, bypassing the many middlemen and wholesale markets that are a traditional feature of China's vegetable supply chain.
Carrefour China, which is 80% owned by Chinese retail giant Suning, said its cooperation with greenhouses around cities has grown steadily in the past two years to meet consumer demand.
SUSTAINED EXPANSION
Further growth in key cities is likely, with a recent government document showing Beijing aims to more than double its "high-efficiency facility agriculture land" to over 300 hectares by 2025.
That growth could further cement China’s status as top vegetable producer. The country already accounts for 75% or more of global output of cucumbers, green beans, spinach and asparagus.
Xu Dan, CEO of greenhouse operator Beijing HortiPolaris, said his business benefited last year when a second coronavirus wave hit Beijing in June, shutting down a major wholesale market and driving his daily orders up 300%.
"(At that time) supermarkets were looking for growers with the ability to deliver within 24 hours and they had no time to search for new suppliers," he said.
But Xu said China could face some obstacles as it leaps into modern farming.
"The biggest challenges are people, people who have the knowledge to manage greenhouses to produce quality vegetables," he said.
“Most farmers are getting old and their way of production also out of date, replacing such (a) big amount of farmers is really a big challenge.”
Reporting by Emily Chow in Shanghai, additional reporting by Sophie Yu and Dominique Patton in Beijing and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa
PHOENIX, ARIZONA: GCU’s Farm Fills Neighbors’ Plates, Students’ Souls
Twenty-six vegetables of numerous varieties grow here in the shadow of the six-story Agave Apartments
March 03, 2021
by Mike Kilen
GCU Outdoor Recreation Club members plant greens in the Canyon Urban Farms raised beds.
Story by Mike Kilen -Photos by Ralph Freso - GCU News Bureau
Nathan Cooper looked across the farm in the middle of the Grand Canyon University campus, where spinach and tomatoes, melons, and broccoli were growing amid students tending them. It’s always easier for farmers to tell stories standing shoulder to shoulder, looking out.
“There was this old woman in my hometown in Minnesota …” the Manager of GCU’s Canyon Urban Farms began.
A smile appeared. Every year, the woman had grown a bountiful patch of tomatoes and gave them all away. Everyone in town knew it. There was a waiting list to get her tomatoes that came from a seed variety dating back decades in her family.
“She died a couple years ago,” Cooper said. “I want to get one of her seeds and dedicate a spot to her here.”
Students Savannah Miles and Gracie Grettenberger (from left) listen as Canyon Urban Farms Manager Nathan Cooper gives them planting tips.
Canyon Urban Farms has that woman’s sentiment at its heart — growing as an act of giving. Cooper had just delivered a batch of produce to Lutheran Social Services for the neighborhood refugee population.
A year into the project, he has the quarter-acre plot to the north of Agave teeming with life – and not just with plants: Students have found it a place of contemplation, a reminder of grandma and renewed growth during a rough pandemic year.
“This was rocky soil,” Cooper told group a half-dozen students from the GCU Outdoor Recreation Club, which arrives weekly to tend the garden and learn from it. “It is turning into the best soil you will ever find.”
The 35 raised beds are filled with it, and now several in-ground raised beds are teeming with organic matter, supplied by compost bins of rotting vegetables and other waste.
He urged the students to contribute to the garden by taking a small container, toss in it waste from their rooms – banana peels, coffee grounds, egg shells – and bring it to the compost bins, where it will be heated by bacteria’s hard work, turned and broken down into the magic of beautiful natural fertilizer.
“As you work, just pick up a handful of the dirt,” he told them. “You will see how much more living it is. You can feel it.”
Students found there is nothing like the taste of a carrot fresh from the ground.
It reminded senior Payton Oxner of his grandmother’s garden in South Dakota.
“During the pandemic, that’s where they got a lot of their food,” he said.
During the pandemic, this is where the Outdoor Rec Club got a lot of its nature. With off-campus outings restricted, it was a welcome addition to step outside into new possibilities.
“COVID took so much from us, so we wanted to create community right here on campus,” said senior trip guide Gracie Grettenberger. “When you say, ‘We have a garden on campus.’ What? They want to be a part of developing it.
“Living in a dorm, we don’t have the opportunity to garden on our own. They miss this, and being able to do this on a campus is a mindful experience.”
It’s part of what brought freshman Savannah Miles to the garden, where she held a package of three different varieties of peppers to plant in an in-ground bed that Cooper called the “salsa garden,” where in weeks peppers and tomatoes can make a delicious addition to any meal.
Gracie Grettenberger of the Outdoor Recreation Club plants seeds in the in-ground beds.
“It’s a meditative activity that wipes away the stress,” she said. “It’s beautiful to make your own produce. Plus, I like dirt. I like playing in dirt.”
Twenty-six vegetables of numerous varieties grow here in the shadow of the six-story Agave Apartments, and Cooper has had to learn which areas get just the right amount of sun for each type of produce.
Some of the broccoli has bolted, but he tells a student that even the leaves can be used to juice.
Kaleb Morrow said that’s also why he and other students are interested in a garden – to go back to the ways of healthy eating, fresh from the dirt outside your room.
“It takes some time to know the intricacies, but you can grow anything,” he said.
While a student’s mobile phone sat in the dirt, leaned against a Bluetooth speaker playing singer/songwriter tunes you’d hear in a coffee shop, Cooper talked of the appeal of this garden — not only as a place to reap the fruit of your labor but as a tool of education. He urged each student to take a package of herb seeds to put in a pot in their rooms.
“You throw a seed in the ground and it comes back a living thing,” he said.
Savannah Miles prepares the ground for planting.
His goal is also to be a good steward of the earth with a self-sustaining garden, using the seeds to plant next year’s crop and using food waste to regenerate the soil.
Plans are growing as fast as the vegetables beyond its primary goal of helping feed the neighborhood.
New wheeled planters for maximizing growing location are planned for the University’s 27th Avenue office complex. A farmers’ market for community members is on his wish list, as are more gatherings on the east end of the acreage, saved as a place for teaching locations or for students to quietly gather among new life.
This virus, he said, created a lot of longing for a place like this.
“There is a lot of good that can be done from this garden.”
Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at mike.kilen@gcu.edu or at 602-639-6764.
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Related content:
GCU Today: GCU’s urban farms plant seeds to nourish neighbors
Superior Fresh Expanding Their Aquaponics Operation
Superior Fresh utilizes aquaponics to raise seafood and leafy greens for retailers across the Midwest.They are now expanding their greenhouse footprint from six acres to 13 acres and their aquaculture center from 40,000 square feet to 100,000 square feet
Mike Beiermeister
Hixton, Wis. (WXOW) — Superior Fresh utilizes aquaponics to raise seafood and leafy greens for retailers across the Midwest.
To View The Video, Please Click Here
They are now expanding their greenhouse footprint from six acres to 13 acres and their aquaculture center from 40,000 square feet to 100,000 square feet.
“Most people wouldn’t think that you could grow organic vegetables in the middle of Wisconsin in the middle of the winter,” said Brandon Gottsacker, president of Superior Green.
The company was founded back in 2011. Since the creation, Superior Fresh has become the first indoor Atlantic Salmon farm in the United States. They are also able to grow leafy greens year-round thanks to their aquaponics system and sustainable practices.
“You know you’re doing something for not just us, for the rest of the world and leading the harvest of the first Atlantic Salmon in the United States, right here,” said Kyle Woolever, aquaculture manager for Superior Fresh.
Aquaponics integrates fish and plant growth to create a symbiotic environment. Superior Fresh utilizes these practices to produce around 4,000 pounds of leafy greens per day and around 4,000 pounds of Atlantic Salmon each week. By this time next year, they plan to produce 25,000 pounds of Atlantic Salmon each week. Right now, they have 200,000 Atlantic Salmon swimming in their tank.
“We’re probably the most sustainable farm on the planet when you talk about how many pounds of fish and produce were producing on the volume of water,” said Gottsacker.
The company uses the bulk of summer sun to shed light on their produce with the help of diffused glass. They use LED lighting for winter months. Their produce is pesticide-free, non-GMO, and constantly controlled for perfect growing.
“Our goal is to locate these farms all over the world, so in theory, you could build a facility like this in the desert, you could build it right outside of a city where food is scarce, or it has travel really far to get there,” said Gottsacker. “Our goal is to provide really good, high quality, safe, healthy food for everyone.”
Mike Beiermeister
WXOW Weekend Anchor and Reporter
Greenhouse Vegetables Available On Remote Islands
The greenhouse kit from Teshuva Agricultural Projects (T.A.P.). is the first one across the Indian Ocean. According to Eric Le Vieux of Esprit Vert Ltd, the local representative of TAPKIT in this region, it should be the first of many
Visitors to the LUX Hotel can from now on enjoy their greens super-fresh. That might not seem very strange - but please keep in mind that the company is located in Belle Mare Plage. Indeed, one of the most beautiful beaches on the world, but also located very remotely: on Mauritius.
That the guests can eat their fresh greens is because the hotel has recently purchased a TAPKIT. The greenhouse kit from Teshuva Agricultural Projects (T.A.P.). is the first one across the Indian Ocean. According to Eric Le Vieux of Esprit Vert Ltd, the local representative of TAPKIT in this region, it should be the first of many.
Open field cultivation
“In Mauritius, as with Seychelles and Maldives, a big percentage of the island’s fruits and vegetables are still imported. Although the greenhouse sector is long-established and continues to develop, the majority of the vegetables we grow are from open field cultivation. The amount of chemical crop protection being used has been creating serious problems not only for the human food chain but also in the ecosystem. There is now a strong movement towards cleaner, more safe production, and the TAPKIT is a perfect opportunity to reduce and even eliminate pesticide use altogether.”
In the beginning of August, the TAPKIT was ready. “We installed an in-line water chiller to lower the irrigation water down to the optimum temperature for the roots to take up the nutrients. Now the unit is getting up to full production. The produce will be enough to meet the requirements of the hotel and may be available to the staff and employees.
Chefs of the hotel visiting the site
Hotel and resorts
“The TAPKIT is an attractive option for large hotels and resorts”, says Eric, "because it provides uniform production all year round, for a wide variety of greens and culinary herbs - all of which are essential daily ingredients for resorts accommodating many guests. Also, many of the world’s leading hotels can be found in remote areas, like small islands or even sandbanks (atolls), where imported produce is hard to acquire still fresh, and likewise, local agriculture is hard to achieve. The TAPKIT raises the quality and the freshness in a big way and it's very exciting to tell customers (hotel guests) that their salads and herbs have travelled zero miles - farm to fork!"
"In addition to being a great financial investment, hotel groups are very committed to improving their sustainability programs, and the TAPKIT is an important enabler for this to happen. We hope to build our next one for a hotel located in Maldives. My team and I are excited about the roll-out of TAPKITs across the Indian Ocean. And most of all, we appreciate the support of our partners in Israel, at Teshuva, who provide vital agronomic support for our growers to make sure they get the most of the greenhouse.”
For more information:
Teshuva Agricultural Projects
60 Nof Harim St., Olesh, 42855 Israel
+972-9-8940507
+972-50-7922579
+1-201-5803003
office@taprojects.com
www.taprojects.com
Publication date: Thu, 26 Sep 2019
Author: Arlette Sijmonsma
© HortiDaily.com
New York's Rooftop Farms Provide Fresh Local Produce - And Help Stop A Sewage Problem
High above the streets of New York, more than 36 tonnes of organic vegetables are grown every year. And the farms that produce them aren’t just feeding residents – they’re helping to stop sewage polluting the city’s rivers too
21 Aug 2019
Douglas Broom Senior Writer, Formative Content
High above the streets of New York, more than 36 tonnes of organic vegetables are grown every year. And the farms that produce them aren’t just feeding residents – they’re helping to stop sewage polluting the city’s rivers too.
Covering a total of 2.3 hectares (5.6 acres), the farms sit on top of three historic industrial buildings. Their soil is just 25 cm (10 inches) deep, but it absorbs millions of litres of rainfall each year – water that would otherwise flush straight into the city’s drains.
New York has long had a problem with what is known as Combined Sewer Overflow, where rainwater inundates water treatment plants causing the sewers to overflow directly into the Hudson and East River.
Sewer systems around New York can become overwhelmed during heavy rainfall.
Image: Open Sewer Atlas NYC
Growing business
The city has made progress in recent decades, spending $45 billion since the 1980s on wastewater treatment to reduce discharges into waterways. But with more than 70% of its area paved and upwards of 8 million residents, the problem still occurs when it rains heavily.
Brooklyn Grange, which operates the three rooftop sites, built its first farm in 2010. It broke even in its first year, moved into profit two years later and now employs 20 full-time and 60 seasonal staff.
Its founders believe commercial urban agriculture can help cities become cleaner and greener. And they measure their success against a “triple bottom line” – profit, the environment and impact on people.
Image: Brooklyn Grange
A buzzing project
Green roofs help urban areas reduce the heat that otherwise radiates on summer nights from conventional rooftops. That not only helps to make the city cooler in summer but also reduces the amount of energy needed to keep the buildings cool.
The rooftop farms use waste food to produce compost. Half their produce is sold to restaurants and they run two weekly markets and deliver locally through a community-supported agriculture scheme, which connects farmers directly to consumers. They are home to 40 beehives, too.
The farms have so far hosted 50,000 young people on educational visits to learn about sustainable city farming. They run public courses on everything from sustainable dye-making to making hot chilli sauces. They host yoga classes and even weddings.
The company has now expanded into designing and building mini farms and wild flower gardens for private clients across the city.
Show
Almost 70% of the global population is predicted to live in cities by 2050. And while cities drive the global economy, they are also responsible for three-quarters of global CO2 emissions.
So projects like these will become ever more important, according to the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Cities and Urbanization, if urban areas are to meet targets such as those set out in the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Lead Photo: New York has spent $45 billion on wastewater treatment since the 1980s. Image: REUTERS/Seth Wenig
