WayBeyond Appoints Head of Industry Transformation to Drive Sustainability Agenda

WayBeyond’s vision is to transform the agricultural industry. This is a declaration of intent and to give this intent focus and leadership, Kylie Horomia has been appointed into a new role as Head of Industry Transformation. Ms. Horomia holds a Masters in International Communications, 20 years in communications and almost 10 years in the Horticulture industry, most notably with T&G Global and recently with Autogrow where she was Head of Brand & Communications.

 “Kylie is a passionate and respected communications specialist and industry advocate, who has provided the next level of thinking around our story and will begin working on our long-term global sustainability strategy. This includes ensuring we deliver on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and formalizing and extending the work we have been doing on industry education, connecting the eco-system and our own graduate and internship program,” says CEO & Founder Darryn Keiller.

 The key to the transformation of anything is the transformation from the inside. In the context of agtech, this means ushering in a new generation of farmers, scientists, and technologists. Addressing Zero Hunger (including reduction of waste), Clean Water & Sanitation, Sustainable Cities, and the evolution of Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure; will take creativity and collaboration.

 “With our WayBeyond team based in New Zealand, the Netherlands, and United States and employees from 15 cultures; we celebrate our diversity, which critically includes the diversity of thinking required to solve the world’s greatest food production challenges," explains Mr. Keiller.

 Ms. Horomia is also on the Executive Board of the NZ Guild of Agricultural Journalists and Communicators and worked to develop the Global CEA Census alongside New York-based industry partner Agritecture Consulting.
“I’m very excited about this new opportunity. AgTech is an amazingly fast-paced industry to be in and the work we are doing to grow food sustainably using science and technology is something of which I am incredibly proud. I will continue to promote the inclusion of STEM disciplines to reduce food waste, increase the efficiency of natural resources, and make a positive impact on growers, the environment and communities we operate within,” says Ms Horomia.

 Ms Horomia will take up the role effective immediately.

 To learn more about WayBeyond and follow Kylie’s transformation of the brand, please go to www.waybeyond.io

 For further information, interviews and images, please contact
Kathy Cunningham
(e) kathy@empirepr.co.nz
(m) +6421 743 378

About WayBeyond

The WayBeyond Vision is to transform the agricultural industry to produce food sustainably for everyone on the planet.

The Mission is to break boundaries to explore new ways of farming so our solutions benefit every farm in the world (and beyond). This includes sharing knowledge and expertise with data, artificial intelligence, and plant science to transform the way growers farm. www.waybeyond.io

MSU Awarded Grant To Expand Career Education Opportunities In Food, Agriculture, And Natural Resources Fields

Lindsay Mensch - September 1, 2020

This three-year effort will support urban Michigan students and teachers through the development of food, agriculture, and natural resources curricula and five Jr. MANRRS chapters.

View fullsize

Michigan State University was awarded $280,997 from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture at USDA to strengthen food, agriculture, and natural resources career pathways for students in urban Michigan.

The project, “Collaborative Approaches to Building Food, Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Human Sciences Content and Career Learning in Urban Michigan,” will focus on developing food, agriculture, and human sciences curricula with school science teachers in cities like Detroit, Flint, Lansing, and Saginaw.

The project team includes Dr. Buddy McKendree, Dr. Aaron McKim, Dr. Jennifer Hodbod, Dr. Quentin Tyler, and Dr. Mike Everett from MSU. Dr. Antomia Farrell from the National Society of MANRRS (Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences) and Dr. Orlenthea McGowan from Langston University are also collaborators on the project.

View fullsize

Dr. Buddy McKendree

“In Michigan, some of our most populated areas do not have any school-based agricultural education. This proposal was really a way for us to reconsider how we can get that content and career learning in areas that don’t have school-based agricultural education,” says lead investigator Buddy McKendree, Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Sustainability.

“We have to prepare our future leaders in the agriculture industry,” says Antomia Farrell, National President of MANRRS.

The curricula developed through this collaboration will be designed in accordance with Next Generation Science Standards, with the ultimate goal of increasing student, teacher, and administrator interest in establishing formal school-based agricultural education programs.

Orlenthea McGowan, Professor at Langston University, will support teachers to integrate these curricula in their classrooms through a one-week immersive teacher training.

The Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources Education program in MSU’s Department of Community Sustainability has always focused on K-12 education and career development. Expanding existing agriculture, food, and natural resources career pipelines through the lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion is a critical next step for the work.

View fullsize

Dr. Quentin Tyler

“This is a culmination of multiple things we’ve been working on,” says Quentin Tyler, Associate Dean and Director for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR). “This effort not only focuses on recruitment but also retention.”

In Tyler’s role in CANR, he is responsible for increasing student diversity and recruiting and retaining students. This project will support that effort as more pre-college students in Michigan will access career learning opportunities in the food, agriculture, and natural resources fields.

Working with the National Society of MANRRS is integral to diversifying and strengthening this career pipeline. There is a strong MANRRS chapter at MSU, but there are currently no registered Jr. MANRRS chapters in the state of Michigan. One outcome of this project is to develop five Jr. MANRRS chapters in urban Michigan schools over the next three years.

Farrell says, “I think representation is very important: to see that there are BIPOC communities who have been through these particular careers, and from an educational standpoint, to know that they can do the same thing that we’re doing today.”

View fullsize

Dr. Antomia Farrell

“Within MANRRS what we’re really looking at is developing a cohesive structure for our Jr. MANRRS program” shares Farrell. “We focus on developing a pipeline approach as early as 7th grade to bring awareness of the agriculture, natural resources, and related sciences industry.”

This new initiative is building on past and current efforts in coordinating a Jr. MANRRS presence in the state of Michigan by the MSU MANRRS chapter and advisors Stephanie Chau, Dr. Eunice Foster, and Phillip Seaborn.

The national and statewide perspectives involved in this work make this project particularly exciting. The team hopes that this collaborative approach can be replicated in future efforts.

Tyler notes, “This effort is a collaboration between an 1862 institution, an 1890 institution, and a nonprofit, so to me, it’s a model showing different ways we can work together across organizations and across universities.”

Ultimately, this project will help meet the growing demand to fill jobs in the agriculture, food, and human sciences fields. Educating young adults about where food comes from and how to sustainably manage natural resources is a critical entry point for these careers.

McKendree sums up the significance of the project well.

“Agriculture, food, and natural resources are intertwined in our lives,” he says. “Everybody eats, everybody interacts with the environment. It’s relevant for everyone.”

This project is one of six recently awarded Secondary Education, Two-Year Postsecondary Education, and Agriculture in the K-12 Classroom Challenge (SPECA) grants. The SPECA program seeks to promote, strengthen, and foster linkages between secondary, two-year postsecondary, and higher education programs to encourage more young Americans to pursue and complete a baccalaureate or higher degree in food, agriculture, natural resources, and human science disciplines. 

Learn more about the project in NIFA’s Current Research Information System.

How VeggiTech Contributes To UAE's Agenda To build Food And Water Security

View fullsize

VeggiTech farm - Image Credit: Supplied

VeggiTech's Produce Utilizes Less Than 10 Percent

of The Water Used In Traditional Farms

View fullsize

August 31, 2020

VeggiTech is an agrotech company with the sole aim of disrupting the agriculture industry. VeggiTech focuses on addressing the key challenges of traditional farming – soil, temperature, and water through its design of protected hydroponics and grow lights-assisted hydroponics. We have chosen the challenging conditions of the UAE to demonstrate the positive use of agro-technology to create sustainable farms aligned to the UAE’s vision of food security.

In the last 18 months, VeggiTech has built and is operating over 30 hectares of farms with protected hydroponics. It is in the process of going live with 4,500 sq meters of indoor vertical farms that employ grow light-assisted hydroponics. We produced over 1.6million kilograms of produce last year and this year (including the summer months), we are delighted to produce over 1.9million kilograms with over 500+ tones of organic produce from our farms between August 2020 and July 2021.

VeggiTech's produce utilizes less than 10 percent of the water used in traditional farms and is pesticide-free. In addition, we have deployed technology for complete food transparency through QR codes that give complete visibility of the growing process of the vegetable produced in our farms.

VeggiTech's current operations  and plans in H1 2021

VeggiTech is in the business of offering farming as a service, where it builds and operates digital smart farms that are sustainable and environmentally-friendly for our customers. With a team of over 160+ professionals; and one of the strongest agronomy and engineering teams in the region, we are poised for growth over the next 3 – 5 years.

In the first half of 2020, despite the COVID–19 circumstances we have signed contracts for 13,000 sq.ft. grow area of indoor vertical farms, and are building protected hydroponic farms of 80,000 sqft. You will experience buying live produce from our indoor vertical farm installations in all Sharjah Co-operative Society stores soon with the first one going live in Al Rahmaniya Mall, Sharjah, next month.

We opened our Helsinki, Finland, offices in March 2020; joined the Association of Vertical Farming (AVF) headquartered in Munich, Germany, where we have been invited to play a lead role in creating industry standards for Indoor Vertical farms world-wide.

VeggiTech was invited by the Ministry of Education and Food and Water Security Office to host a webinar series “Grow Your Food” for students in the Youth Summer Camps across July and August 2020. We live-streamed the informative sessions from our farms providing insights on achieving food security through technology. The audience was segregated into three batches of 6 – 10-year-olds; 10 – 14-year-olds and 14 – 18-year-olds.

We are currently in advanced discussions with private investors and government organizations in Sharjah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi on large scale projects to make UAE food secure with good quality local food.

Sustainable Communities

VeggiTech has recently signed up for designing and developing sustainable grow areas with major players that specialize in developing sustainable communities in UAE. This exciting development underlines our vision of bringing “grow” spaces close to our “living” spaces.

Sustainable agro - Economic model

Dubai SME, the agency of Dubai Economy, mandated to develop the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector, collaborated with VeggiTech through their Innovation Accelerator program and commissioned it to install an Indoor Vertical farm in their Business Village campus in Deira Dubai (scheduled to go live in Q4 2020). This set-up would showcase the circular farm-to-fork economic model with the Indoor Vertical farm (IVF), growing green leafy, herbs, and microgreens, and these are converted into end consumer produce in the form of farm-fresh salads / curated recipe packages.

Food security

We are upbeat on the current pipeline of projects (10M+ sqft of farms - protected hydroponics; 200,000+ sqft of Indoor vertical farms) to be signed in Q3 / Q4 2020 and these would start producing over 25million kgs of produce every year from 2021 - 2022. The optimal use of land assets combined with the reduction in water resources and pesticide-free crops are an ideal example of using technology to align with UAE’s food security goals.

Social impact

While the COVID – 19 circumstances are charting unprecedented scenarios across our lives; we, as the local farmers, were privileged to work with Sharjah Charity Association, Shurooq, The Noodle House, and Dubai Police to support our heroes, our frontline healthcare workers, and families, with over 20 tons of our farm fresh vegetables delivered contactless. 

VeggiTech is privileged to play its role in this journey.

Source Courtesy of Gulf News

View fullsize

VIDEO: 8 Startups That Are Revolutionizing AgTech

Agriculture is changing rapidly in the modern age. The global population is rising at an alarming rate and consumer preferences are shifting towards organic and sustainably produced goods. To keep up with these demands, the traditional agriculture industry must adopt new technologies to make farms more efficient and automate production.

The growing interest in AgTech is reflected in venture capital investments for AgTech startups. According to Pitchbook, $6.7 billion was invested in AgTech startups in the last five years and $1.9 billion in the last year alone. These 8 AgTech startups are paving the way to revolutionize the future of the agriculture industry.

1. Big Wheelbarrow

Big Wheelbarrow connects wholesale food buyers with local farmers. Big Wheelbarrow makes it faster and easier for buyers to work with small independent growers, regardless of size. Their technology empowers their customers to offer local products to their clients without the time and effort it used to require.

2. Vestaron

Vestaron Corporation develops and produces insecticides by employing peptides sourced from spiders in the United States. Its products are used in agricultural, animal health, and specialty non-crop applications, as well as in-household insects and commercial pest control applications.

3. Cainthus

Cainthus is developing the world’s most advanced technology for dairy farms today; technology that’s transformational for animals, farmers, and the production of food. Using computer vision and artificial intelligence to identify health, reproduction, and environmental changes early on, Cainthus translates visual information into actionable data.

4. Rex Animal Health

Rex Animal Health is on a mission to help livestock producers and farmers feed the world by increasing productivity and predicting, preventing, and precisely managing disease in the herd. They have a built up the largest database of clinical, health, performance, and genetic data on these livestock. Also, agribusinesses can use this data in order to understand their supply chain to identify the source of potential food borne illness, find the most efficient producers, set prices in commodities trading, and to understand and assess risk to increase transparency in the food supply chain.

5. Smallhold

Smallhold provides retailers and restaurants with contained-­environment vertical farm units that produce large amounts of mushrooms, herbs, and leafy greens with minimal labor. Their current product offering is with on-site mushroom production and can produce up to 120 lbs/week in the space of a bookcase. The mushrooms are certified organic and are competitive with conventional ways of growing.

6. Babylon Micro-farms

Babylon Micro-farms provides an on-demand indoor farming service to make sustainable indoor farming more accessible than ever before. Their farms grow fresh produce 2x faster using 90% less water than conventional agriculture, without the use of pesticides or harmful chemicals. Their business model drastically reduces the upfront costs and expertise associated with indoor agriculture, powered by a patented IoT platform that remotely operates the ecosystem of farms.

7. Kiverdi

Kiverdi technology uses all-natural microbes to transform CO2 and other gases into high-valued nutrients, oils, and bio-based products. Kiverdi’s proprietary platform, which extends early NASA research, converts carbon dioxide from diverse industrial and agricultural sources into new materials using proprietary gas fermenting microbes.

8. Cambridge Crops

Cambridge Crops develops natural and edible coatings to extend the shelf life of a wide variety of perishable foods. Their coatings regulate the exchange of gases and slow down bacterial growth. These unique attributes allow for drastic improvements in shelf life for everything from avocados and spinach to meat and seafood. Cambridge Crops’ technology is easily integrated into existing packing and processing lines, minimizing the need for supply chain changes or expensive on-boarding. By increasing the window of peak freshness, Cambridge Crops allows food producers, food processors, and retailers to extend shelf lives, reach new markets, and reduce waste.

California Fires: “I’m Not Sure Growers Can Prepare For Something Like This”

Falling Ash Has Blanketed Most of The Salinas Valley

California’s wildfires continue to press on as growers in the region watch and try to assess potential damage.

As of Sunday evening, the state has seen more than 560 fires, two of which are being called the largest in the state’s history according to California Governor Gavin Newsom. The fires have burned more than 1,205 square miles across California.

“The immediate effects have been poor air quality due to smoke and falling ash that has blanketed most of the Salinas Valley and all the crops that grow here,” says John Galvez of Salinas, CA-based Markon. “The smoke makes an already challenging job more difficult for farmworkers, and although grower/shippers are adjusting production hours to minimize exposure, they may be forced to curtail production if conditions become too hazardous.”

Ash covers a farm worker's gloves. Photo: Markon Cooperative

“Ash is everywhere”
He adds that the ash is everywhere and impossible to remove completely. “Leaf lettuce crops that grow open have more substantial amounts that get trapped in between the leaves. It is expected that most field-packed crops will have some ash on them and require thorough rinsing,” says Galvez.

As Galvez says, while wildfires have impacted the Salinas Valley before, this River fire is the closest they’ve seen in proximity to farmland and may end up having the most impact compared to events of the past. “I’m not sure there’s anything growers can do to prepare for something like this,” he says. “But as these events unfold, communication to customers is critical to understand the challenges and how the supply and quality of fresh produce may be affected.”

Over at G.W. Palmer & Co. Inc. in Salinas, CA, Steve Johnston says he hasn’t yet heard of any crops that have been damaged and nor have there been any customer complaints over product that has gone out in the last week. (The situation has been building up following the first lightning strikes that began a week ago Sunday.) “I just don’t know how the poor workers were able to handle it. They had the masks on to help them so that’s a good thing. But the heat and the ash and the air quality have been unbelievable,” says Johnston.

View fullsize

Ash lands on field-packed lettuce. Photo: Markon Cooperative

Smoke and heat
He adds that while the heat is an issue, the smoke has actually helped somewhat. “The smoke has kept down the temperatures. It could have been a lot warmer had it not been for all the smoke in the sky,” says Johnston.

So for now, growers will continue to watch and wait. As Jeannie Smith of E Foods notes, fire firefighters in the region are acutely aware of stopping the fires prior to hitting the fields. “They know the financial damage a fire-ravaged field would cost. Not only the loss of product but the loss of jobs,” says Smith, noting that this is another challenge on top of COVID-19 related circumstances. “The fire crews are literally moving mountains to protect life and property,” adds Galvez.

That said, the impact could be wide. “Many people who work in the agriculture community live in the neighborhoods with evacuation orders or warnings so there probably isn’t a produce company in the area that hasn’t had at least a couple of people directly impacted,” says Galvez. “It’s made for an extremely stressful and disruptive week.”

For more information:
John Galvez
Markon
Tel: +1 (831) 757-9737
johng@markon.com
www.markon.com

Steve Johnston
G.W. Palmer & Co., Inc.
Tel: +1 (831) 753-6578
sjohnston@gwpalmer.net 
http://www.gwpalmer.net/

Jeannie Smith
E Foods
Tel : +1 (407) 830-9498
jsmith@efoodsinc.com
http://efoodsinc.com/

View fullsize

Publication date: Mon 24 Aug 2020
Author: Astrid Van Den Broek
© FreshPlaza.com

These 4 Reasons Tell Us Why It’s Time To Shift To Indoor Farming

By Ecochirp Foundation in Environment

6th August 2020

Traditionally, agriculture was done on large open farms, having a large dependence on external environmental factors. In recent times, there is a new vertical emerging in agriculture, giving promising results i.e., Indoor farming or vertical farming. Particular challenges that were faced in conventional cultivation techniques have been resolved with indoor agriculture. Though growing indoors can never be a replacement for outdoor agriculture, it can certainly help in growing certain vegetables, herbs, microgreens, and more. 

Let’s have a comparative study of indoor growing vs. outdoor growing.

Weather Dependence

View fullsize

Traditional outdoor growing is largely dependent on weather conditions. Only seasonal crops can be grown. Weather conditions can be the biggest nightmares for farmers as things like thunderstorms, floods, droughts can damage crops overnight. By growing indoors, we eliminate our dependence on the weather. Instead, growers can control the climate inside the indoor growing system creating the ideal environment for maximum outputs. Using a wide range of sensors, indoor growers can check their plants at all times. 

Pesticides And Herbicides Requirement

View fullsize

Do you also wear a mask while consuming those??

The crops are more prone to pests and other animal damage as they are exposed to the outer environment. We recently saw the locust attack that happened; it devastated large areas of crops. We saw how fast they traveled and farmers couldn’t take measures in time. They had to spray large amounts of pesticides to protect the remaining crops that eventually went into our systems. The pesticides and chemical fertilizers used are a root cause of major ailments like cancers, immune disorders, infertility, and cardiovascular diseases. 

Indoor grown edibles need fewer chemical additives to grow well. Being indoors, they are not prone to pests. Also, the environment is controlled; therefore, there is no need for pesticides or herbicides. Therefore, the vegetables are pure. 

View fullsize

About 70% of the world’s freshwater goes to agriculture. And with increasing populations, this water requirement is expected to go up by 15% by 2050. This is a thing we should be afraid of, as the freshwater resources are declining. If things keep going in the same way, there is a possibility that we might not be able to keep up with the requirements. Taking the case of indoor growing, techniques such as hydroponics take up to 90-95% less water. They use a closed-loop system, where there is no wastage, and resources are optimally utilized. 

 The Nutritional Content Of Edibles

View fullsize

The current agriculture system is centralized. Therefore, fruits and vegetables have to travel thousands of miles before they reach us. In the meanwhile, they lose a considerable amount of nutritional content. For example, spinach loses about 50-90% of its vitamin C within 24 hours of being harvested, which means the vegetables and fruits we eat at our homes in cities is not as nutritional as it should be.

In the case of indoor growing, which is generally done in cities near our homes, transportation time is less than 5-6 hours. Therefore, they are fresh and highly nutritious. 

Pre And Post-Harvest Losses

View fullsize

About 40% of the world’s food is wasted due to the pre and post-harvest losses. Pre-harvest losses occur before harvesting begins, and may be due to insects, weeds, and rusts. Post-harvest losses occur between harvest and the moment of human consumption. Fruits and vegetables are perishable products and tend to get spoiled or degraded with time and unfavorable factors. Indoor growing has very low wastage as they rarely get diseases; they are near to cities and therefore, have lower transportation times. The edibles are consumed soon after they are harvested. 

This comparison is just a brief glimpse of how growing indoors is more beneficial as compared to conventional growing. However, this article does not mean that indoor growing can replace proper farming. Outdoor farming can not be eliminated but can be decentralized, and with the help of indoor growing techniques, we can revolutionize the current agriculture system for the better. 

About the author: Palak Kumar is an insatiably curious Mechanical Engineering student, passionate about flying, clouds, literature, and plants, working towards revolutionizing Indoor Vertical Growing.

View fullsize

Publix Grows Hydroponic Produce At Greenwise Store

View fullsize

Krishna Thakker@krishna_thakker

Aug. 3, 2020

Dive Brief:

• Publix has partnered with local hydroponics firm Brick Street Farms to grow, pack and harvest hydroponic lettuce in a container farm located outside its Lakeland, Florida Greenwise Market store. 

• The 40-foot container farm will grow an equivalent of 2.5 to 3 acres of lettuce and can operate 365 days a year in any weather conditions, Brick Street Farms told Grocery Dive in an emailed announcement. It substitutes soil for mineral-rich water, which means no pesticides are needed. The container farm uses 90% less water than a traditional farm and produces 720 heads of lettuce each week. 

• Customers can watch the produce grow through a window on the side of the container and purchase heads of lettuce inside the store.

Explore how the current landscape is impacting coffee manufacturers and how organic and fair trade can help ensure long-term success of the industry.

Dive Insight:

Publix has recently stepped up its partnerships in alternative agriculture. Earlier this year, the company began hosting Vertical Roots' interactive mobile hydroponic farm in the parking lots of its grocery stores and Greenwise locations. In March, Publix began selling microgreens from Kalera, a hydroponic farm on top of a Marriott hotel that lost all its business due to coronavirus, at 165 stores.

Hydroponic farming has been plagued by inefficiencies and high costs in the past, but improvements in technology are helping suppliers better meet retailers' demands for pricing and scale. On-site farms also add a bit of theater that can draw curious shoppers to stores. 

Publix isn’t the only food retailer exploring this field. Kroger last year installed mini hydroponic farms in a handful of Seattle stores in partnership with Infarm, a start-up based in Germany. Around the same time, Gordon Food Service and indoor farming startup Square Roots opened their first co-located hydroponics farm on Gordon’s headquarters in Wyoming, Michigan. H-E-B and Whole Foods have also experimented with hydroponics in and around their stores.

Having a hydroponic farm at the store removes the need for transportation and storage of lettuce before it hits shelves, according to Brick Street Farms. It also allows Publix to sell the produce in-season all year round, providing some supply stability.

Although omnichannel business is booming for grocers like Publix right now, many are looking for ways to drive traffic to their stores, where they can make the most money per order. Grow farms and other safe, eye-catching attractions could be one way to accomplish this.

Follow Krishna Thakker on Twitter

Lead Photo: Permission granted by Publix

Filed Under: Fresh food Natural/organic

CubicFarms Announces Sale of 16-Machine Commercial-Scale System in Armstrong, BC

View fullsize

VANCOUVER, BC, July 10, 2020,/CNW/  

CubicFarm® Systems Corp. (CUB.V) ("CubicFarms" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that its automated, controlled-environment system has been selected by a new customer to grow commercial quantities of leafy greens for retail markets in the Okanagan region in British Columbia, Canada .

The Company has finalized an agreement for the sale of 16 CubicFarms machines, and received a deposit from a British Columbia -based agriculture industry expert specialized in equipment sales in Western Canada.

CubicFarms CEO Dave Dinesen commented: "We are excited to be working with our new customer who plans to supply commercial-scale greens in the Okanagan region. While the Okanagan Valley is a great location for growing fresh produce, the weather can affect growing seasons. CubicFarms allows our customers to eliminate the weather variable and grow locally, all year round.

"We invite growers to contact us for a visit to our facility in Pitt Meadows, BC to get a first-hand view of our technology and learn how we can help them scale up their business. Interested parties can also opt for tours via live video calls, or receive the same in-person tour experience through our virtual tour available on our website. We look forward to continue serving our customers and sales leads to help them supply their markets with fresh produce and nutritious livestock feed."

The system includes 14 growing machines, two propagation machines, and an irrigation system, representing a total of US$2,145,000 (excluding installation and shipping) in anticipated sales revenues to the Company. The system is expected to be installed by the end of the year in Armstrong, BC.

The Company has a current backlog of approximately US$20 million representing 161 machines under deposit and awaiting installation – demonstrating continued sales momentum due in part to the growing demand for its systems. The current backlog is anticipated to be recognized in revenue in late-2020 to mid-2022.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor it’s Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

About CubicFarm® Systems Corp.

CubicFarm Systems Corp. ("CubicFarms") is a technology company that is developing and deploying technology to feed a changing world. Its proprietary technologies enable growers around the world to produce high-quality, predictable crop yields. CubicFarms has two distinct technologies that address two distinct markets. The first technology is its patented CubicFarm™ System, which contains patented technology for growing leafy greens and other crops. Using its unique, undulating-path growing system, the Company addresses the main challenges within the indoor farming industry by significantly reducing the need for physical labour and energy, and maximizing yield per cubic foot. CubicFarms leverages its patented technology by operating its own R&D facility in Pitt Meadows, British Columbia, selling the System to growers, licensing its technology, and providing vertical farming expertise to its customers.

The second technology is CubicFarms' HydroGreen System for growing nutritious livestock feed. This system utilizes a unique process to sprout grains, such as barley and wheat, in a controlled environment with minimal use of land, labour and water. The HydroGreen System is fully automated and performs all growing functions including seeding, watering, lighting, harvesting, and re-seeding – all with the push of a button – to deliver nutritious livestock feed without the typical investment in fertilizer, chemicals, fuel, field equipment, and transportation. The HydroGreen System not only provides superior nutritious feed to benefit the animal but also enables significant environmental benefits to the farm. 

Cautionary statement on forward-looking information

Certain statements in this release constitute "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including, without limitation, statements with respect to the customer's ability to supply leafy greens to the Okanagan region, CubicFarms' expected revenue recognition, and installation of the system by the end of the year. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors including evolving market conditions, which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of CubicFarm Systems Corp., or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information including the Company obtaining the approval of the Offering from the TSX Venture Exchange. Such statements can be identified by the use of words such as "may", "would", "could", "will", "intend", "expect", "believe", "plan", "anticipate", "estimate", "scheduled", "forecast", "predict", and other similar terminology, or state that certain actions, events, or results "may", "could", "would", "might", or "will" be taken, occur, or be achieved.

These statements reflect the Company's current expectations regarding future events, performance, and results and speak only as of the date of this news release. Consequently, there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Except as required by securities disclosure laws and regulations applicable to the Company, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if the Company's expectations regarding future events, performance, or results change. 

SOURCE CubicFarm Systems Corp.

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2020/10/c9695.html