Superior Fresh – Largest Aquaponics Facility In The World
Superior Fresh – Largest Aquaponics Facility In The World
Linked by Michael Levenston
Uses LumiGrow LED Grow Lights
LumiGrow Lighting | May 21, 2018
Superior Fresh is the largest aquaponics facility in the world. Their state-of-the-art fish facility is coupled with a 3-acre glass greenhouse where they grow various leafy greens and herbs. They grow everything from seed in their greenhouse under LumiGrow grow lights and produce 1.8 million pounds of leafy greens each year. The leafy vegetables make their journey from the greenhouse to supermarket shelves within 48 hours.
Superior Fresh’s fish house and greenhouse have been meticulously designed and built using state-of-the-art technology to maximize profits with a superbly modern facility. For their greenhouse lighting, Superior Fresh is using LumiGrow LED grow lights paired with LumiGrow Light Sensor technology to ensure yield and quality goals are met consistently while reducing energy costs by 50% compared to traditional HPS lighting.
The light sensor technology allows Superior Fresh to monitor the exact light levels in the greenhouse and create programs that automatically adjust the fixtures to efficiently meet production goals year-round.
“Our biggest leap forward has been the [LumiGrow] smartPAR software,” says Adam Shinner, Head Grower at Superior Fresh. “…When we have enough sun, the lights turn off. When we don’t have enough sun, they turn back on. It allows for full integration of our lighting system [with the greenhouse zoning], which has truly not been possible up until this point.”
“Understanding that we are going to have 9 billion people on this planet in the next 30 years or so, we have to start thinking about how we’re going to efficiently grow food close to the marketplace,” says Brendan Gottsacker, CEO at Superior Fresh. “LumiGrow has allowed us to grow food right here in Wisconsin in the middle of the winter.”