Indoor Vertical Farming 2019: What I've "Really" Learned..
Published on January 3, 2019
Jim Pantaleo
Senior Advisor - Indoor VerticalFarming
This July marks five challenging years since I made the bold decision to pursue a career in indoor vertical farming; the growing of plants indoors using only LED lights and liquid nutrients – no sun, no soil. My work, focused solely on growing plants in large scale for human consumption, has somewhat morphed into pursuing the fascinating and much-needed application of PMPs or plant-made pharmaceuticals. PMPs, simply stated, are the result of isolating key proteins in plants and extracting those proteins for use in antibiotics and vaccines…again, simply stated.
Did you know a plant produces proteins which fight hemophilia and rheumatoid arthritis? It’s true and profound. Just ask Dr. Barry Holtz of iBio CDMO in Texas. I could go on and on about PMPs, but what I really want to convey are some of the lessons my indoor vertical farming ‘journey’ has imparted. The hope is my experience may in some way inspire, or provide a cautionary tale, for those who have been seeking a career change, or better, a life change.
Since the summer of 2014, the road I’ve traveled has been bumpy, sometimes smooth and always winding…barreling head first towards the unknown…and the known. What is unknown is where I will be and who I will work with in 2019. You see, I’ve recently resigned my position as Vice President at one of the nation’s largest, privately-held indoor vertical farms for food production leaving me at the moment, sans employment.
What is known is my steadfast and dogged resolve to never, ever give up on this nascent industry and the people I’ve encountered along the way…not the noble and generous horticultural professionals and not the charlatans or whack-jobs either.
It was in 2015 when I wrote “Indoor Vertical Farming 2015: What I’ve Learned.” I was amazed at how many people actually read it. I reviewed my previous ‘year of immersion’ into indoor vertical farming and the people, start-ups and organizations I came to know. People like Marc Oshima, who along with David Rosenberg, the founders of AeroFarms, or the dear and generous-of-spirit industry colleague Brian Lanes of the Dutch R&D concern, PlantLab, or a true ally in Philips (Signify) City Farming representative, Blake Lange.
It was that summer of ’15 when I secured three pro-bono gigs with indoor vertical farms located in various parts of the world. Remotely from my home in California, I wrote business plans; researched cannabis in Colorado; assisted with marketing and generally ingratiated myself to the CEOs of these upstart operations. I also began to write. Over the next year I produced a dozen articles, blogs and interviews for Urban Ag News, the online resource for all-things controlled environment agriculture (CEA). I thank Urban Ag News founder Chris Higgins for not only this opportunity but also to work like a dog for a week in his company’s (Hort Americas) Dallas warehouse and experimental greenhouse.
I wrote and blogged about indoor farms and the ecosystem that surrounded them…like Priva and others. I interviewed industry leaders like American Hydroponics’ founder, Michael Christian, who turned me on to the sandbox argument of whether produce could be considered organic if it’s not grown in soil. “Jim, a nitrogen atom is a nitrogen atom!” he emphatically explained.
I wrote about hospitals who feed their patients high fat, high sodium, nutrition-less food and I shed a light on those forward-thinking hospitals who ‘grew their own’ in an effort to heal with food. I wrote about why LED’s can emit a pink hue. “Don’t call them pink!” was the public chastisement I once received from UC Davis horticulture professor and CEA leader, Dr. Heiner Lieth.
I also organized an amazing networking event with Urban Ag News in Salinas, California where eight member companies from the Japan Plant Factory Association shared their work (bravely presenting in English!) with a gathering of American agriculture companies and professionals. Included in this event was my personal CEA hero, Dr. Toyoki Kozai, a rock star in Japan and widely known as “The Father of the Japan Plant Factory.”
It was in the fall of 2015 when I secured my first paying gig at the now-shuttered indoor vertical farm, Urban Produce, ironically located in my hometown of Irvine, California, a former bucolic agricultural strong-hold now an over-built Orange County suburb. Over the next three years I would go from assisting Urban Produce with business development and marketing to working on ‘the farm’ growing tons (literally) weekly of USDA-certified organic wheat grass and micro greens. One of the hardest (physical) jobs I’ve ever had. In fact, I lost over 50 pounds in six months! Eventually, I was asked by Urban Produce’s investors to take over the operation as General Manager in the fall of 2017.
The many leadership lessons learned since 2015 not only from my role as General Manager but eventually as a C-Level Vice President of one of our nation’s largest privately-funded indoor farms were harsh and sobering. Meaning, just because you get the title and the “corner office” (I literally had a corner office) does not mean those whom you lead will accept your leadership. In fact, subversive behavior and a constant watchful eye over my every move were omnipresent. It’s true, when you reach the top, you should expect to be knocked down.
And let me provide a dose of reality when it comes to these large and well-funded indoor farms; they are not perfect, technologically-speaking, by any stretch of the imagination. The technical and facility challenges around water and water cleanliness along with air conditioning, energy and heat were again, omnipresent. If you have ever seen a large warehouse flooded with thousands of gallons of water because a grower forgot to turn off a hose for example…or a chiller did not chill…or a dehumidifier did not dehumidify…then welcome to the world of indoor vertical farming!
The copious amounts of money spent, precious operational time lost (along with actual crop loss…defined as catastrophic crop loss) and the hard labor extended to address these facility challenges were beyond anything I could ever have imagined. Over time and as I built credibility, I had the opportunity to speak publicly about this embryonic industry thanks to the likes of Indoor Ag Con’s founder, Nicola Kerslake, or the administrators at the University of California and the University of Nevada or Andy LaVigne, President of the American Seed Trade Association. I owe them and others a great debt of gratitude for their belief that I could be some sort of industry thought leader. Gratitude also to David Proenza who tapped me as the Master of Ceremonies for the second International Congress on Controlled Environment Agriculture held in steamy Panama in May of 2017.
From these speaking experiences I learned there was a true need not only to understand indoor vertical farming but to understand how the many peripheral industries could become involved, from academia and technology to packaging, to those breeding seeds meant only for controlled environments.
Fast-forward to 2018 and the aforementioned VP gig at one of the nation’s largest, privately-funded indoor farms. It was in this role where I came to know the world of PMPs along with how our government is becoming engaged with indoor vertical farming. In June of this past year, I traveled to Washington D.C. on the invitation of Dr. Sarah Federman of the Office of the Chief Scientist for the USDA for a gathering of industry folk. All the “Bigs” where there including Plenty, AeroFarms and Dr. Dickson Despommier, who played a key role in sparking the discussion around indoor farming with his 2010 book “The Vertical Farm.” A few months later I found myself back in D.C. for a gathering put together by Dr. John Reich of the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research(FFAR). The three-day meeting was a starting-point and nexus in the public/private funding needs for credible research in indoor farming.
During this past year I have had the good fortune to meet and work with a number of universities including the team at the University of Arizona’s Controlled Environment Agriculture Center (CEAC) led by Director Dr. Murat Kacira and past Director, Dr. Gene Giacomelli. Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Science Dr. Neil Matson and the previously mentioned Dr. Lieth of UC Davis along with Dean of Horticulture at the University of Nevada’s Dr. William Payne have all enriched my experience.
One of my last efforts during 2018 was working with the seed breeding team at Bayer/Seminis. It should be no secret that the fledgling indoor farming industry requires a different kind of seed than those sown in outdoor environments – and companies like Bayer know it. I presented research and data (compiled by a diligent R&D team) which shared trials of growing seed specifically meant for indoor environments. The experience was an important and valuable one, and my appreciation goes to Team Bayer for their vision and partnership.
What I would like to convey to the reader is if you want to make a change in your career and your life, I say do it! But do it for the right reasons. I have aggressively pursued this “business” because I wanted to make my children proud of me. I wanted to help the planet and I wanted to do something that would make a difference to human kind. I did not care, nor do I care now, about making money. Do something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life as the saying goes, but be prepared for a journey and to work very, very hard. My journey continues and I welcome you to reach out to connect with me…even if you don’t know me. That’s what I did and it is one of the key reasons I have made it this far.
Very special thanks to those not mentioned above but who have been integral to my career thus far: Herbert Kliegerman Founder of iGrow News, Glenn Behrman Founder at GreenTech Agro LLC., Michael Yates, Dominic Chen and Erika Summers of Sananbio U.S., Dr. Paul Zankowski of the USDA’s Office of the Chief Scientist, Dr. Sarah Taber, Henry Aykroyd Founder of Intelligent Growth Solutions, A.G. Karamura Founding Member of Orange County Produce and Former Secretary of Agriculture for the State of California, Val Dodd Former Managing Member of Urban Produce LLC., Brad Wahlgren of Bayer, Dr. Nadia Sabeh aka “Dr. Greenhouse”, Dr. Leo Marcelis of Wageningen UR, Dr. Sheila Bhattacharya, Glen Zimmermann of Sunrise Produce, Jan Westra of Priva, Adam Porsborg, Dr. Andy Moreno, Dr. Karl Kolb, David Armstrong President/CEO of Sakata America, Victor M. Hernandez of the USDA, Robert Colangelo Founding Farmer/CEO at GreenSense Farms, Jeff Randall of Get Fresh Sales, Dr. Gary Stutte Founder of SyNRGE LLC., Robert Puro Founder of SeedStock, Will Kain CEO/Co-Founder of Pantheon Energy, Dan Albert Founder/GM at Farmbox Greens.