Indoor Ag Means Safer Conditions For Farm Workers

Vertical farm CEO says growing greens without pesticides, herbicides and other harmful chemicals one of many pluses of this booming industry

 One of the potential benefits of the booming indoor farming industry is safer working conditions for the people who grow and harvest our food.

“Farm workers will no longer have to work with the risk of pesticide drift,” says Sonia Lo, CEO of FreshBox Farms, the nation’s largest modular vertical farm.

California regulators continue to debate how to best protect farm workers from harmful pesticides and herbicides, but when it comes to food grown indoors, in digitally controlled locations, it’s a moot point.

FreshBox Farms, like other Digital Distributed Agriculture (DDA) operations, uses sustainable growing enclosures, no soil, very little water, a rigorously-tested nutrient mix and LED lighting to produce the freshest, cleanest, tastiest produce possible.

“No pesticides or other harmful chemicals are used, so that means a safer working environment,” says Lo. “Conventional growers try to control and contain the chemicals sprayed on fields, but the fact is, in many cases, those chemical can contaminate groundwater, and air, not to mention expose field workers to harmful substances.”

The leafy greens market in the US is $6 billion to $9 billion per year, but over the next 10 years, industry observers believe that over 50% of traditional growing operations will go indoors and into some form of DDA. As a result, industry watchers are predicting the creation of more than new 100,000 jobs.

"Unlike other high-tech industries, Digital Agriculture offers entry level jobs, with career path prospects, to unskilled labor,” says Lo. “It pays well and is in a pleasant indoor, climate-controlled environment. Anyone who is willing to work hard can get ahead in this industry."