Welcome to iGrow News, Your Source for the World of Indoor Vertical Farming
Is Vertical Farming The Future of Herb Cultivation?
“With vertical farming, I can plant a herb, and can be sure it'll ready to sell in five weeks,” says Berjelle. “You also have certainty about your product’s quality. That’s because the product is optimally controlled. The plant grows evenly, thanks to the LED lighting, so it tastes better too."
Berjelle van Namen, Van Namen Specialties
Berjelle van Namen’s roots lie primarily in mushroom cultivation. His father, Johan, has a farm on the banks of the Maas river in the Netherlands. Yet, a few years ago, Berjelle decided to add herb cultivation. Not in a greenhouse or in full soil; in a converted mushroom cultivation cell.
The room is illuminated with violet-colored LED bulbs, and the containers holding the herbs are stacked, one atop the other. This can clearly be considered vertical farming. This concept is gaining increasing popularity among farmers - especially those who grow herbs, leafy and micro vegetables, and edible flowers.
There have even recently been trials with soft fruit. It’s been standard practice in the mushroom world for some time now. Hence the relationship between Van Namen mushrooms and the herbs of Van Namen Specialties.
For Berjelle, it started as an experiment. He encountered this cultivation method during his internship in Finland. There, at Robbe’s Little Garden, they grow lettuce, herbs, and micro vegetables in this way. According to Berjelle, vertical farming offers numerous advantages over traditional herb cultivation.
Vertical farming’s advantages
“With vertical farming, I can plant a herb, and can be sure it'll ready to sell in five weeks,” says Berjelle. “You also have certainty about your product’s quality. That’s because the product is optimally controlled. The plant grows evenly, thanks to the LED lighting, so it tastes better too."
"It satisfies clients, who are increasingly demanding just-in-time delivery of products like herbs. Of course, we mustn’t forget the sustainable character of this cultivation method. Especially since farming like this uses very little gas and no pesticides. We’re looking for ways to be highly energy-efficient too.”
There was a demand for herbs
Berjelle now grows about 12 kinds of herbs and has added a second cell. “In this way, we can vary cultivation conditions like using different temperatures," explains van Namen. "Basil is our top seller. It’s a popular herb that sells well. It’s followed by herbs such as parsley and mint.”
Berjelles sells his herbs under the company’s own brand, Pika Surprisa, and Esperanto for ‘spicy surprises’. Still, Berjelle points out that it’s mainly enjoyable to cultivate and experiment with these herbs. “It’s not quite profitable yet. To achieve this, you’d have to seriously consider scaling up and adding rooms."
"You’d also have to see if you want to grow only one variety. We chose to grow herbs mainly because of the increasing demand for year-round delivery and consistent quality. Vertical farming guarantees this. You can also be relatively lazy with your purchases. You know what you’ll get on the day you want it."
"From the cultivation side, there aren’t as many operational issues either. Although you always have to deal with that. The only thing is, it doesn’t save labor; hands are still needed in that cell,” admits Berjelle.
Herb sales differ from those of mushrooms. “We’ve attracted many new clients who really only buy herbs, and we’ve noticed fewer clients buying both. We keep these two products separate. That’s why the herbs fall under Van Namen Specialties. For example, we export mushrooms to countries like Germany and the UK, but not yet our herbs. Perhaps we will in the future.”
For the coming months, Van Namen’s main goal is to make it through the corona crisis successfully. “The mushroom market was very volatile in these unusual times. It’s slowly recovering, but it still has a long way to go. There aren’t any major developments planned for the rest of the year, either. Now, it's mostly a matter of serving our clients well,” Berjelle concludes.
More information:
Van Namen Specialties
www.vannamenspecialties.nl
Berjelle van Namen
berjelle@vannamenspecialties.nl
Publication date: Thu 27 Aug 2020
Author: Thom Dobbelaar
© FreshPlaza.com
VIDEO: iFarm Raises $4 Million To Automate Urban Farming With AI And Drones
The Finnish startup has developed a vertical agricultural system called iFarm Growtune. By growing food closer to consumers and in spaces where conditions can be carefully controlled, iFarm promises to produce food that is fresher while reducing environmental impact
August 20, 2020
Image Credit: iFarm
iFarm has raised $4 million to expand its automated system that uses AI and drones to grow fruits and vegetables in enclosed spaces. Gagarin Capital led the round of funding, which included investment from Matrix Capital, Impulse VC, IMI.VC, and some business angels.
The Finnish startup has developed a vertical agricultural system called iFarm Growtune. By growing food closer to consumers and in spaces where conditions can be carefully controlled, iFarm promises to produce food that is fresher while reducing environmental impact.
As companies rethink logistics and the environment in the wake of the pandemic, self-contained urban farms hold growing appeal.
“The main advantage of indoor farms is that you can be growing all year round, wherever you are,” said iFarm co-founder and CEO Max Chizhov. “And you don’t need a special technologist or agronomist who knows how to use software or grow stuff.”Automation, AI, robotics, and farming are increasingly converging. Paris-based Agricool installs automated systems shipping container to grow strawberries in urban areas. Naïo Technologies builds autonomous farming robots, a Berkeley lab is developing AI systems for polyculture gardening, Burro makes an autonomous vehicle to transport grapes during the harvest, and Enko Chem uses machine learning to help farmers protect their crops without pesticides.
Meanwhile, iFarm is working with clients, typically businesses or farmers, to set up systems in warehouses, factories, basements, and other spaces.
The iFarm system places seedbeds in long racks that are stacked up to 5 meters high. An array of sensors monitors and adjusts the lighting and humidity. Drones are equipped with computer vision to track the crops’ growth and provide further data for the system’s algorithm.
The company developed the algorithm by feeding it scientific data about plant growth, along with data obtained from working farms. The company’s platform can measure the size and weight of plants to help farmers modulate growing conditions. It also uses computer vision to spot potential diseases, which helps growers avoid the use of chemical treatments. In some cases, the system adjusts the microclimate automatically, but it can also provide recommendations to staff.
iFarm currently helps customers create farms ranging from 3,000 square meters to 5,000 square meters. The company has helped develop 11 farms in Finland, Switzerland, the U.K., the Netherlands, Andorra, Russia, and Kazakhstan. Chizhov said iFarm will use the new funding to continue the development of Growtune and expand into new countries in Europe and the Middle East.
Sign up for Funding Weekly to start your week with VB's top funding stories.
Urban Crop Solutions Launches New "Modulex Plant Factory" on Sept. 9th, 2020
Launch Webinar hosted by Henry Gordon-Smith, CEO of Agritecture, on Sept 9th, 2020 (9 am EDT, 3 pm CEST, 9 pm SGT - 45 minutes)
Register And Get A Sneak Preview on The
New www.urbancropsolutions.com Website
Launch Webinar hosted by Henry Gordon-Smith, CEO of Agritecture,
on Sept 9th, 2020 (9 am EDT, 3 pm CEST, 9 pm SGT - 45 minutes)
Indoor Vertical Farming is a fast-emerging agriculture technology that provides compelling solutions to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals: waste less food and support local farmers (Goal 2), avoid wasting water (Goal 6), and provide decent work (Goal 8).
However, few early adopters are making a profit.
Urban Crop Solutions has worked tirelessly to find a sensible solution to the open issues many investors and growers still face today. The initial Capex or investment cost is high and creates the need for a scalable solution. The unique freshness, taste, and shelf life of the crops go to niche markets with ever-changing needs, which requires a Plant Factory to be extremely adaptable. Also, high labor costs push Indoor Farms to implement more automation and become more efficient.
Based on the experiences and feedback of the customers on the 1st generation products, a new generation Plant Factory was designed from the ground up. The company believes it developed a concept that ‘simply makes sense’.
The ModuleX, the “Sensible Plant Factory” is Scalable, Adaptable, and Efficient.
The ModuleX can be configured between 2 to 64 Grow Modules, which means that the Plant Factory is scalable. One Grow Module contains 86 m² (925 sq.ft) of growing surface, yielding about 6.000 kg/year (13.228 lbs/year) of fresh vegetables. Each separate module features an independent climate and nutrient system, allowing the mix of crops to be adaptable to customers’ needs.
The base price is an industry-low Capex of 1.800 EUR per m² growing surface ex-works (199 USD/sq.ft). The labor costs are reduced by the automated crop-to-person ‘BenchCarousel’. For example, the ModuleX-8 has 8 Grow Modules for a total of 688 m² (7.403 sq.ft). The base price is 1.238.400 EUR (approx. 1.47 mm USD) for an output of 44 ton/year of romaine lettuce (97.000 lbs/year). For mid-sized solutions under 5500 m² growing surface, this is probably the most efficient solution on the market today.
To help people in the long and confusing journey into indoor vertical farming, the company also initiates an end-to-end support program, with a free feasibility calculator, technical support, biological consulting, and contract research. Urban Crop Solutions also developed a Corona-proof support system for training, set-up, startup, and first harvest support of any ModuleX Grow Module, which all can now happen remotely.
Tom Debusschere, CEO of Urban Crop Solutions: “We’ve been listening closely to the feedback of our customers and we found improvements just about everywhere. But the breakthrough invention is the automated BenchCarousel. This new crop-to-person carousel brings any bench of your choice to you within 90 seconds. It also allows us to fit a growing surface of 86m² (925sq.ft) within a 40ft insulated freight container, which we believe is an industry record.
What you really pay for is growing surface, labor, and electricity, and the ModuleX Plant Factory offers a step-change improvement in each. We invite you to take a look at our new website, with the investment cost in full transparency, so you can quickly see which solution is the best fit for you.”
Urban Crop Solutions is an agtech pioneer in the fast-emerging world of ‘Indoor Vertical Farming’. Throughout years of research, 220+ ‘plant growth recipes’ were developed for efficient indoor growing. All drivers for healthy plant growth, such as optimal LED spectrum and intensity, nutrient mix, irrigation strategy, and climate settings are tested and validated daily in the company’s own Indoor Biology Research Center.
To date, Urban Crop Solutions has manufactured container Farms and a Plant Factory for clients throughout Europe, North America, and Asia. Urban Crop Solutions’ commercial farms are being operated for vegetables, herbs, and micro-greens for food retail, foodservice, and industrial applications. Research institutions operate the growing infrastructure of Urban Crop Solutions for scientific research on banana seedlings, flowers, hemp, and many more.
Visit www.urbancropsolutions.com for a full virtual tour.
For more information: www.urbancropsolutions.com
Brecht Stubbe, Sales Director brst@urbancropsolutions.com
Maarten Vandecruys, CTO mava@urbancropsolutions.com
Tom Debusschere, CEO tode@urbancropsolutions.com
European headquarters: Regional headquarters:
Grote Heerweg 67 800 Brickell Avenue, 1100 Suite
8791 Beveren-Leie (Waregem) Miami (FL 33131)
Belgium Florida
(+32) 56 96 03 06 +1 (727) 601 7158
Facebook: www.facebook.com/urbancropsolutions
Twitter: www.twitter.com/U_C_Solutions
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/urbancropsolutions
YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/c/UrbanCropSolutions
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/urbancropsolutions/?hl=en
Indoor Growing vs. Traditional Greenhouse Growing
Indoor growing offers some sustainability benefits because considerable savings can be made on water, nutrients and use of pesticides
Today, in theory, there is enough food on the planet to feed approximately 12 billion people, but the way it is distributed around the world is inefficient and unsustainable. As food is transported across the entire globe, its shelf life or freshness tends to deteriorate considerably and a lot of food often goes to waste. Indoor growing is a step closer to a new situation – one in which it is possible to grow locally produced, fresh food all year round, regardless of the weather and external conditions. It may even enable us to change the face of the food industry.
However, this requires a different way of thinking. “Indoor growing is different from growing in a greenhouse in several ways,” says Fred Ruijgt, Market Development Indoor Growing. “In an automated, glass greenhouse you have to deal with external influences such as wind, rain, and sun. These variables need to be managed as effectively as possible, with or without additional technology. The grower is constantly working to achieve a stable climate for the crop. Indoor growing allows you to create your own optimal climate. The grower determines the growing conditions, from light level to air circulation.”
Fred Ruijgt
Comparing apples with oranges
According to Fred, many investors try to compare indoor growing with traditional horticulture. “In terms of investment and profitability, it is difficult to compare them,” he says. “It’s like comparing apples with oranges. It’s important to understand the differences between traditional horticultural practices and indoor growing. You can’t simply calculate what a greenhouse yields per square meter and compare it to an indoor farm. In a greenhouse you have to consider the crop cycle and in which months you can harvest and thus what you can supply to your customers. With indoor growing you can supply all year round, creating more opportunities to reach supply agreements with customers. But you also need to invest.
Indoor growing offers some sustainability benefits because considerable savings can be made on water, nutrients and use of pesticides. But, compared to a traditional greenhouse, much more artificial lighting is required. Also, the location and local sales potential should be included in the comparison. After all, a traditional greenhouse is not even an option in some countries, whereas in the Netherlands, for example, it probably costs two to three times more to grow fresh produce in an indoor farm than it does in a greenhouse.” Another difference is that traditional horticulture has traditional sales channels such as auctions, traders and cooperatives. That’s not the case with indoor growing – it’s more important to understand and collaborate with the entire chain.
Food security and food safety
The fact that indoor growing doesn’t have traditional sales channels is precisely what makes it special. “Indoor growing is clean and pesticide-free, resulting in high-quality and plannable production. An indoor farm can also be built in urban areas, which means that there’s always fresh, locally grown produce available for consumers. The product is often shipped directly from the indoor farm to, for example, the supermarket, so the route to the consumer is shorter. Therefore, in the case of indoor growing, it is important that the facility is an integrated part of the total chain: from suppliers to customers. That keeps the route nice and short,” continues Fred.
An indoor farm can be situated anywhere in the world and in any type of climate, whereas it is often not possible to build a greenhouse in certain areas. Fred: “In Singapore, for example, no more greenhouses can be built because there’s no agricultural or horticultural land available. An indoor farm offers a solution because it can be set up inside an existing building. This is an efficient alternative and it greatly reduces the dependence on food imports.”
Down to the consumer
The technology has already been proven in a number of large-scale indoor growing projects. So why isn’t this way of growing more common? “That’s because of several factors,” explains Fred. “Right now, indoor farms are mainly being integrated into existing retail chains. In addition, the demand largely comes from areas with a high average income. The existing retail chains have a vision and they always want to deliver good-quality products, so it makes sense for them to invest in this. But what are consumers prepared to pay for a fresh head of lettuce, for example,? If consumers start to value fresh and good-quality food more, entrepreneurs will be more willing to invest in a more sustainable way of producing food.”
For more information:
Priva
www.priva.com
contact.priva@priva.nl
Publication date: Tue 18 Aug 2020
VIDEO: Will Tech Make It Easier For Us To Grow Veg?
Vertical farming, where plants are grown in stacked layers, enables a greater number of crops to be grown in the same space
To View The Video, Please Click Here
Vertical farming, where plants are grown in stacked layers, enables a greater number of crops to be grown in the same space.
Yields can be increased further by optimizing the amount of light and nutrients each plant receives.
The technique is now moving from commercial applications to consumer products, but what are they like to use and why do people want them?
BBC Click’s Lara Lewington reports.
Temasek, Bayer Form Joint Vertical Farming Venture In California
Temasek Holdings is partnering with German multinational pharmaceutical and life sciences company Bayer AG to create a new vertical farming venture headquartered in California, as part of Singapore’s plans to boost the city-state’s supply of sustainable, locally grown produce
Jovi Ho
August 12, 2020
Temasek Holdings is partnering with German multinational pharmaceutical and life sciences company Bayer AG to create a new vertical farming venture headquartered in California, as part of Singapore’s plans to boost the city-state’s supply of sustainable, locally grown produce.
The joint venture between Temasek and Leaps by Bayer, the impact investment arm of Bayer AG, will be a US entity with commercial and research and development operations in both California and Singapore.
The new venture, Unfold, will focus on innovation in vegetable varieties with the goal of lifting the vertical farming space to the next level of quality, efficiency, and sustainability.
Instead of focusing on external infrastructure to support plant growth, Unfold will look within the plant itself.
“By utilizing seed genetics (germplasm) from vegetable crops, Unfold will focus on developing new seed varieties coupled with agronomic advice tailored for the unique indoor environment of vertical farms,” says Bayer.
Unfold has raised US $30 million (S$41.19 million) in its initial funding round and entered into an agreement for certain rights to germplasm from Bayer’s vegetable portfolio.
Global food challenges are forcing countries to rethink traditional farming practices, says John Vaske, Head of Agribusiness at Temasek.
“We need to ensure secure farm-to-fork supply chains in urban settings while we also work to reduce the overall environmental impact of farming. Reducing food waste and improving the safety, traceability and nutritional value of food are all the more important as populations grow and demand for food expands. Investments in companies such as Unfold allow us and our partners to support innovative, sustainable solutions that will benefit all of us over the long term,” says Vaske.
Back in 2018, Temasek acquired a 3.6% stake in Bayer for 3 billion euros (S$4.85 billion), bringing its total stake to about 4% with 31 million new shares. The share sale to Temasek was part of Bayer's efforts to fund its planned US$62.5 billion takeover of seed maker Monsanto.
However, according to the latest Bloomberg data, Temasek no longer appears to own a substantial stake in Bayer.
Unfold’s President and CEO Dr. John Purcell will move from his role as Head of Vegetables R&D, Crop Science at Bayer.
“As a company fully focused on the vertical farming industry, Unfold will combine leading seed genetics with the best agtech experts in order to dramatically advance productivity, flavor, and other consumer preferences,” says Purcell.
“We look forward to serving the market through partnerships with vertical farming operators, technology providers, and others across the produce supply chain.”
Prior to joining the food and agriculture industry, Purcell was a post-doctoral researcher at the United States Department of Agriculture from 1987 to 1989. He earned his Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Massachusetts. Purcell is also part owner of a family ranching operation in Montana.
Vertical farms, also known as indoor farms or plant facilities with artificial light (PFAL), help crops grow more quickly while using less space and fewer natural resources.
Investment in the vertical farming market has increased significantly in recent years mainly due to decreasing arable land, increasing market demand for local, sustainable produce, and migration towards mega-cities.
Singapore’s "30 by 30" agriculture goal aims for 30% of our nutritional needs to be produced locally by 2030, though this figure is smaller than 10% currently.
According to the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), the 77 leafy vegetable farms here accounted for 14% of total consumption in 2019.
Lead Photo: Credit: Bayer stock photo
Vertical Farms Fill a Tall Order by Emeritus Professor of Public Health and Microbiology at Columbia University, Dr Dickson Despommier
The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted agricultural production and supply chains around the world. Farmers have often struggled to get their food to distant markets, and sharp shifts in demand have repeatedly forced them to dump crops
Indoor crops grown by high-tech methods are on the rise as the Covid-19 pandemic spurs interest in food security for cities.
Stacked trays of greens growing at the Newark, N.J., facility of AeroFarms.
PHOTO: BRYAN ANSELM FOR THE WALL STREET
By Dickson Despommier
July 25, 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted agricultural production and supply chains around the world. Farmers have often struggled to get their food to distant markets, and sharp shifts in demand have repeatedly forced them to dump crops. Avoiding such logistical problems is one of the chief advantages of vertical farms, a new approach to agriculture that aims to grow food closer to population centers.
Over the past 10 years, hundreds of such indoor farms have sprouted up around the globe, mostly in the larger cities of industrialized countries. They occupy multistory buildings in which crops are grown in water or in misted air instead of soil, with LED lights in place of sunlight, in a controlled and largely automated environment.
Building more vertical farms in cities is especially timely because of the expected effects of the pandemic on urban office towers. Moody’s Analytics REIS now projects office vacancies to rise to 19.3% in the 82 largest metropolitan areas by the end of the year, up from 16.8% last year, and then to continue rising. In June, 82% of employers surveyed by market-research firm Gartner, Inc. said that they would allow employees to work from home permanently. Indoor farms can occupy some of the abandoned or underused office space created by these trends.
So far, vertical farms have mostly grown and sold leafy greens and herbs—the easiest food crops to grow indoors and to harvest year-round. They are competitive against conventional farms because their crops don’t have to travel far and are free of pesticides and other soil contaminants.
Strictly controlled conditions enable vertical farms to bypass the unpredictable variations of weather and soil.
As demand rises, however, vertical farms are poised to add a number of other crops that can be grown effectively indoors. These include root vegetables (potatoes, radishes, carrots, celery), vine vegetables (green beans, tomatoes, peppers), and bush fruits (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries). Such an expansion could eventually result in a significant shift of agriculture to cities, where 60% of the world’s population now lives.
Vertical farms are no longer some futuristic fantasy. Well-established, efficient hydroponic and aeroponic methods have been paired with newer technology such as high-performance LED grow lights. Artificial intelligence now often controls the instruments that automatically deliver nutrients and provide optimal lighting for each crop.
The strictly controlled conditions inside vertical farms enable them to bypass the unpredictable variations of weather and soil and to exclude the heavy metals and other elements so common in traditional agriculture. Such control also allows endless experimentation to develop the best-tasting produce and most efficient ways of growing. And when pollination is required, bumblebees do the job quite nicely, just as they do outdoors.
Creating and maintaining that environment takes big startup costs for technology and ongoing costs for energy. But the efficiency of such farms allows nearly 95% of indoor seedlings to be grown to maturity and harvested, according to Gene Giacomelli, professor of biosystems engineering at the University of Arizona. By contrast, the survival rate for outdoor crops, from planting to harvest, vary from 90% in good years to 70% or less in drought or flood years. The latter have been increasing because of climate change, with record-high temperatures often accompanied by extreme weather patterns.
On multiple floors of a single building, layers of vertical fields can be harvested in phases to provide year-round crops. Since the farms are close to their target consumers, spoilage and damage from shipping are greatly reduced. Eventually, such farms could provide healthier produce options in under-served neighborhoods that have been described as “food deserts.”
One of the largest and earliest commercial outfits, AeroFarms of Newark, N.J., was started by an agronomist in a defunct paintball arena in 2004. After several false starts, it flourished in 2014 with the help of $200 million in startup funding from the city and private firms. AeroFarms relocated to 70,000 square feet in Newark’s Ironbound district and won contracts with local restaurants, supermarkets and school lunch programs. It has since added larger facilities of 150,000 square feet in Danville, Va., and 90,000 in Abu Dhabi. The company supplements its 72 staff with local personnel trained to work in various phases of crop production.
Infarm, founded in Israel in 2013 and now based in Berlin, operates differently, exporting its model directly to supermarkets. (I serve, without pay, on its science advisory board and as a paid advisory board member for another firm.) It provides in-store, automated hydroponic growing systems. Each store selects its own mix of greens and herbs, and consumers are encouraged to choose, taste, and harvest from a menu growing right in front of them. The original startup employed a retrofitted 1955 Airstream trailer as its mobile crop production vehicle. Now it employs more than 400 people in 40 countries, mostly in Europe. It sells through, among others, Kroger grocery stores on the West Coast and Marks and Spencer in London.
There are many other vertical-farm startups backed by venture capital and expanding in Europe and the U.S., as well as on the Arabian peninsula, where they can provide an alternative to hot, arid conditions. But other firms have failed, or have canceled expansion plans, as they struggle to manage their costs and compete in local markets. And vertical farms aren’t likely to gain a competitive advantage over conventional farming when it comes to important commodities such as fruits grown in orchards or grains grown in vast fields. Both are possible to raise in vertical indoor settings, but so far, their yields are too low and seasonal to be economical.
Would more food crops grown indoors in cities be a helpful trend in agriculture, or not? Join the conversation below.
The pandemic has sparked new demand for the industry. San Francisco-based vertical farm Plenty says that a significant increase in shipments has sped up its effort to diversify crops. The company has already experimented with strategies to add items such as tomatoes and strawberries.
Covid-19 has been a harbinger of longer-term problems in food security for our cities. One answer may come from growing more of our food just down the street.
—Dr. Despommier is emeritus professor of public health and microbiology at Columbia University and the author of “The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century.”
UAE: Smart Acres Plans To Open R&D Lab For Local Produce Amid AgTech Growth
Abu Dhabi vertical farming start-up Smart Acres is looking to raise at least Dh20 million to fund a research and development center to produce a local variety of potato as agriculture technology gathers pace in the UAE
Vertical farming start-up aims to raise as much as Dh20m to fund the project
Abu Dhabi vertical farming start-up Smart Acres is looking to raise at least Dh20 million to fund a research and development center to produce a local variety of potato as agriculture technology gathers pace in the UAE.
“The future is green. The Hope probe has headed to Mars, why shouldn’t the UAE be the first to put a container farm on the planet?” Abdulla Al Kaabi, founder and chief executive, told The National.
The entrepreneur is part of a team of three working in partnership with a Korean AgTech platform called N.thing, to adapt the technology to the harsh arid climate of the Emirates on an Abu Dhabi farm gifted to him two years ago by his father.
Smart Acres has designed vertical farms in shipping containers using the IoT-based technology system that monitors water, carbon dioxide, and nutrient levels. The system sends a push notification to one of the team's iPhones or iPads if levels need to be adjusted, but it allows the process to happen largely unmonitored. The farm is empty most of the time, Mr. Al Kaabi said. The growing process also consumes up to 90 percent less water than traditional farming methods and grows premium and cost-competitive lettuces.
Food security and innovation in agriculture is a priority of the Abu Dhabi government, which has earmarked Dh1 billion for an agri-tech incentive program as part of the government’s Ghadan 21 accelerator initiative.
In April, Abu Dhabi Investment Office (Adio) invested $100 million (Dh367m) to bring four agriculture technology companies to the emirate as part of government efforts to attract high-skilled talent and cutting-edge research. The country’s 24,000 farms are set to benefit if new technology can be applied to drive efficiencies in crop yield and water usage.
The Covid-19 pandemic has only underscored the need to achieve greater food security in the UAE. Between 80 and 90 percent of the food in the GCC is imported, according to Chatham House.
While the figure is high, UAE residents are starting to see signs of progress: locally-harvested tomatoes and greens at the market or on dining menus are now a common sight. All of this has sprung up in the last several years as vertical and hydroponic farming ventures and research, as well as cloud-seeding, bear fruit.
Mr Al Kaabi wants the Smart Acres Institute of Food Security & Agriculture “to have Emirati hands” build the project. He is looking to attract recent graduates in environmental sciences and technology to the R&D lab to customize seeds to grow in this region in a controlled environment.
Potatoes, one of the most common crops in the world with consistent growing demand year-on-year, will be his first target. The team also wants to develop robots to help with harvesting and packing.
In addition to the R&D lab, Mr. Al Kaabi is aiming to increase the annual yield capacity at the farm more than tenfold, from the 40 tonnes of lettuces that it currently produces.
Mr. Al Kaabi was well-versed with the food industry even before he struck out on his own. His family owns the exclusive distribution license for a popular Korean ramen brand called Samyang Noodles as well as Tom’s Farm almonds.
While he learned a lot from the family trading business, his father encouraged him to build something on his own. After seeing how difficult the last several months have been on the imported food business, he is glad he did so.
With Smart Acres, Mr. Al Kaabi said, "I'm finally doing something right. Now my father asks me every two weeks what is going on at the farm”.
Updated: July 21, 2020 06:52 PM
Lead Photo: Farming via smartphone in Abu Dhabi. Courtesy Smart Acres
Last Chance For Tickets! - Pioneering Forum For Sustainability In Agriculture
SDLN: The Leading AgTech Networking Forum | Connecting Global High-Level Value-Chain Leaders In Miami, Oct 22 - 24
International scientists, investors, directors, and advisors come together to share global initiatives and spur innovation.
(Miami, Fl., October) - This month’s Sustainability & Digitalization Leaders forum is the exclusive, comprehensive conversation every thought leader in agtech should be a part of. The SDL agenda demonstrates critical awareness of the most relevant sustainability issues across the agtech landscape, from regenerative agriculture to carbon sequestration and soil health; responsibly investing in the latest innovations to ensuring a traceable, transparent food system for consumers.
The Miami forum, 22-24 October, also sees the introduction of breakout workshops tackling issues in a collaborative, discussion-based format led by industry seniors. Delegates will be invited to drop in on the 30-minute sessions and engage with topics such as global warming in relation to food systems, and corporate strategy for urban agriculture.
Alongside SDL speakers including Wells Fargo, Rabobank, AeroFarms and Microsoft, the next round of international thought leaders have been confirmed:
Claire Kinlaw - Director Innovation & Commercialization, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
Andy Knepp - VP, Environmental Strategy & Industry Activation, Bayer Crop Science Cristina Rohr - Vice President, S 2G Ventures
Kenneth Zuckerberg - Senior Partner, Carlan Advisors
Wayne Honeycutt - President & CEO, Soil Health Institute
Pipa Elias - Director of Agriculture North America, The Nature Conservancy Erica Riel-Carden - Principal, Global Capital Markets
Paco Vélez - President & CEO, Feeding South Florida
Kasper Vesth - General Manager USA, The Meatless Farm Co.
Chiara Cecchini - Executive Director, Future Food Americas
For a full list of speakers visit: https://www.sdleaders.com/speakers
Occupancy for the forum is near capacity and organizers urge attendees to secure their ticket before registration closes.
For more information on SDL and to purchase tickets visit: https://www.sdleaders.com/
About Sustainability & Digitalization Leaders
SDL is a series of events that address our planet’s most pressing issues, bringing together the decision-makers who directly impact global change and can implement the necessary strategies to move the conversation forward.
A core advisory board oversees and advises on partnerships. For enquiries please email lyndsey@sdleaders.com.
About Keynote
Hosting international events since 2012 across Europe, North America and the Middle East, Keynote has curated forums for emerging technology industries, launching high profile fintech projects and acting as a platform to raise significant funds, connecting and enabling companies to reach their potential.
For more information about Keynote’s upcoming conferences visit
www.keynote.ae
For media partnership enquiries: moe@sdleaders.com
For partner and sponsorship enquiries: amy@sdleaders.com
SDLN: The Leading AgTech Networking Forum | Connecting Global High-Level Value-Chain Leaders In Miami, Oct 22 - 24
MIAMI, FL – Keynote, a global leading event company for emerging technology, announced today the Company’s next strategic decision to expand into the AgriTech industry through a new event: Sustainability and Digitalization Leadership Network (SDLN) - Miami Forum.
SDL Miami Speakers
The 2019 SDLN Miami Forum connects AgriTech’s investors with innovators and their ideas, moving the most critical conversations forward to improve the planet’s future in sustainable agriculture and emerging tech. SDLN is dedicated to addressing today’s food supply challenges by creating a platform for collaborative, open dialogue and high- level networking between industry experts from across the globe.
The three-day event at the James L Knight Center in downtown Miami will cater to AgTech seniors with an international attendance of company executives, investors and market consultants. Alongside presentations covering current world projects and tech advances, the forum will feature panels focusing on innovation vs implementation, long term sustainability and investment in the food ecosystem. This carefully curated agenda will feature entrepreneurs and established investors alongside agriculture’s international leaders, intended to provide strategic, tactical skills and knowledge for those attending.
SEE FULL SCHEDULE
As a hub connecting agriculture across the Americas and beyond, Miami sets the stage for the rapidly expanding industry. Attendees will meet with innovators throughout the supply chain at the SDLN Official Launch, Wednesday 22nd October, as well as a second evening of networking on Thursday 23rd. Further opportunities for breakout sessions led by industry heads, facilitated networking and 1:1 business meetings will follow.
The first round of presenters announced last week includes Howard Yana Shapiro, Chief Agricultural Officer at Mars; Claudia Rössler, Agriculture Strategic Partnerships at Microsoft; David Friedman, CEO at VividGro.
A core advisory board will oversee and advise on partnerships to ensure quality of connections and sustainable business strategy. For enquiries please email lyndsey@sdlnetwork.com
About Keynote:
Hosting international events since 2012 across Europe, North America and the Middle East, Keynote has curated forums for emerging technology industries, launching high profile fintech projects and acting as a platform to raise significant funds, connecting and enabling companies to reach their potential.
Event Website: https://sdlnetwork.com/
For media partnership enquiries: amandah@sdlnetwork.com
For partner and sponsorship enquiries: amy@sdlnetwork.com
Sustainability In Agriculture’s Pioneering Forum
International Professionals Leading The Agtech Supply Chain Come
Together To Share Initiatives And Spur Innovation
September 3, 2019
(Miami, Fl., October) - The 2019 Sustainability & Digitalization Leaders forum is fast becoming the exclusive conversation series every thought leader in agtech should be a part of. Announcing the next cohort of speakers to present this October 22-24, the agenda demonstrates an awareness of the most relevant sustainability issues across the current landscape, from land degradation to carbon sequestering; cell cultured meats to regenerative urban food systems.
Featured presentations from global innovators include: impact and long term predictability of extreme weather patterns; regenerative practice of soil and land masses; the role and security of ground level farmers in a fast moving agricultural landscape. As companies continue to develop at the intersection of agriculture and emerging innovation, harnessing and deploying new technologies sustainably remains a roadblock.
Alongside SDL speakers including Mars, Rabobank, AeroFarms and Microsoft, the next round of international thought leaders have been confirmed:
Adam Bergman - SVP, Head of AgTech Practice, Wells Fargo Jasmine Crowe - CEO, G oodr
Ed Smith - Head of Indigo Carbon, Indigo
Lloyd Day - Deputy Director General, IICA
Kraig Westerbeek - Senior Director, S mithfield Renewables
Ingrid Fung - Investment Associate, Finistere Ventures
Kevin Krueger - Procurement & Sustainability, St Jude Children’s Research Hospital Michelle Adelman - CEO, Infinite Foods
For a full list of speakers visit: https://www.sdleaders.com/speakers
Occupancy for the event is limited and organizers urge attendees to secure their registration.
For more information on SDL or to purchase tickets visit: https://www.sdleaders.com/
About Sustainability & Digitalization Leaders
SDL is a program of events that address our planet’s most pressing issues, bringing together the decision makers who directly impact global change and can implement the necessary strategies to move the conversation forward.
A core advisory board oversees and advises on partnerships. For enquiries please email lyndsey@sdleaders.com.
About Keynote
Hosting international events since 2012 across Europe, North America and the Middle East, Keynote has curated forums for emerging technology industries, launching high profile fintech projects and acting as a platform to raise significant funds, connecting and enabling companies to reach their potential.
For more information about Keynote’s upcoming conferences visit
www.keynote.ae
For media partnership enquiries: moe@sdleaders.com
For partner and sponsorship enquiries: amy@sdleaders.com
Growing Up: Inside Infarm’s Plans To Feed The World
It is projected that by 2050 two-thirds of humanity – or 6.5 billion people – will be living in urban spaces. The challenge will be building and managing urban spaces to sustain such a massive population. In theory, industrial agricultural produces enough food to feed the world as a whole, but the current model is unsustainable
September 3, 2019
Infarm founders Osnat Michaelli and Erez and Guy Galonska
Editor’s note: This is the first installment of a series focusing on social impact startups. Stay tuned for more.
It is projected that by 2050 two-thirds of humanity – or 6.5 billion people – will be living in urban spaces. The challenge will be building and managing urban spaces to sustain such a massive population. In theory, industrial agricultural produces enough food to feed the world as a whole, but the current model is unsustainable.
Large-scale agriculture has led to deforestation on a mass scale – as we are currently seeing in the Amazon – along with soil degradation, water waste, and plant diseases that require the use of pesticides (and are constantly mutating). Moreover, due to energy use and lengthy transportation routes, the CO2 footprint of food currently represents 17% of total global emissions. Climate change will, in turn, have an increasing impact on agriculture – with changes in rainfall, rising temperatures, an increase in pests, and extreme events such as heatwaves, droughts, storms, and floods affecting our ability to provide food for a growing global population.
These challenges have been the driving force behind the global agtech movement. For two straight years, agtech startups have received $2 billion in funding and 2019 is set to be another banner year for agtech.
Leading the pack in Europe is Berlin-based agtech startup Infarm, which recently closed an €88 million Series B investment led by Atomico.
From concept to reality
Founded in 2013 by Osnat Michaelli and brothers Erez and Guy Galonska, Infarm pioneered putting ‘indoor vertical farms’ in city locations such as supermarkets, shopping malls, restaurants, schools, hospitals and similar spaces where the produce can directly reach the end customer.
“My two co-founders and I came together around the idea that being close to the land and particularly its produce is vital to our health and creativity as a society. And from the beginning we began to explore – through travel, growing and experimentation – ways to bring natural vitality of the local farm into the city and the freshness and flavour back into our lives,” explained Infarm CEO and co-founder Erez Galonska.
“We also realised that our current food system’s biggest deficiency is that it is too far removed from the people it is trying to feed. At infarm, rather than asking ourselves how to fix these deficiencies in the current supply chain, we looked to redefining the entire chain from start to finish; Instead of building large-scale farms outside of the city, optimising on a specific yield, and then distributing the produce, we decided it would be more effective to distribute the farms themselves throughout the city.
“In 2013 we converted a 1955 Airstream trailer into our first vertical farm in one of Berlin’s most well-known urban farm spaces, ‘Prinzessinengarten’. This trailer became a hub for our early experimentation, where visitors could harvest herbs and microgreens and we could welcome a vibrant community of urban planners, designers, food activists, bio-dynamic farmers, architects, chefs, biologists, and hackers to explore the diverse challenges behind making urban farming a reality. This research station and lab would form the beginnings of what we today call Infarm.”
Today, ‘infarms’ can be stacked to fit any space and size, and are designed to easily plug into the city’s existing infrastructure. Infarm controls the farms remotely using sensors and a centralised, cloud-based platform that adjusts and improves itself continuously, so each plant grows better than the one before – providing plant seedlings with an ideal combination of light spectrums, temperature, pH, and nutrients for optimal growth.
The concept was further refined with inputs from biologists and cooks. The startup’s farms use no pesticides, 95% less water than traditional farms, and reduce transportation by 90%. Infarm’s largest module can grow up to 680,000 plants each year on only 25 square metres, making it 420x more efficient than soil-based agriculture.
In 2016, Infarm received a grant of €2 million from Horizon 2020, Europe’s biggest research and innovation programme. The grant was awarded on the basis of Infarm providing sustainable agriculture using hydroponics, proprietary lighting algorithms combined with indoor vertical farming, along with its patented modular ‘growth trays’ to create an incredibly efficient growing environment. The same year Infarm partnered with Metro Group, one of Europe’s biggest wholesalers, and in 2017, the startup received an early VC investment of €4 million.
2018 was a banner year for Infarm – both in terms of increased presence and funding. It secured a partnership with supermarket chains EDEKA and REWE in addition to partnering with several restaurants including Tim Raue and Good Bank. It also raised a Series A funding round of €20 million led by Balderton Capital. By mid-2018, Infarm was present in more than 50 customer-facing locations and launched its first Infarm in France via Metro Nanterre in November 2018.
Infarm has been rapidly growing and scaling since, and with its impressive €88 million round. Today, Infarm has over 200 in-store farms, over 150 farms in distribution centres and harvests more than 150,000 plants every month. In addition to its early partners Metro and Edeka, Infarm has partnered with major food retailers including Migros, Casino, Intermarche, Auchan, Selgros, and Amazon Fresh in Germany, Switzerland, and France.
Infarm’s team has grown from 40 people in 2016, to 150 in 2018, and the startup now employs over 250 people in several locations across Germany, as well as in Denmark, France, Switzerland, UK, and the US.
Today the total market for fruit and vegetables is €2.2 trillion worldwide, with an average of 10 kilos of salad per year, per person. This market is expected to grow to €5 trillion by 2030 as people’s diets are shifting to healthier and fresher food.
With this growing market size, Infarm sees a great opportunity for expansion while filling a societal need. The startup is planning to land in the UK this month, and is setting its sights on foreign markets; the startup is already in advanced discussions with retailers in the US and Japan. Its ultimate vision is to feed the 10 billion people living in urban centers by 2050.
Agriculture-as-a-Service
What makes Infarm attractive to supermarkets and other similar establishments is its ‘Agriculture-as-a-Service’ business model. The modular ‘farms’ themselves remain the property of Infarm, which receives income per harvested plant. Infarm coordinates with retailers and takes care of the farm including installation, cultivation, harvesting, and maintenance. Its farm unit becomes part of the retailer’s vegetable department. Aside from the regular visits by a service personnel to plant new plants, the farms are controlled remotely. This modular, data-driven and distributed approach — a combination of big data, IoT, and cloud analytics — sets Infarm apart from competitors.
From a price point, Infarm is attractive for supermarkets, which get a better product at the same price. In addition, the plants, especially herbs, are harvested fresh; preserving color, smell, flavour, and nutrients.
Sustainable cities with responsible production
Before there was agtech and its cousin foodtech, it was all under one banner: agrifood tech. This vertical is now split in two: upstream or agtech is closer to the farmer, while downstream is foodtech, closer to the consumer. Infarm sits perfectly at the intersection, innovating in farming while at the same time drastically reducing or even eliminating the farm to market supply chain and bringing its produce directly to consumers. In effect, Infarm addresses two United Nations sustainable development goals: impacting both building sustainable cities (SDG #11) and communities and responsible production (SDG #12).
Infarm is redesigning the entire food supply chain from start to finish by distributing the ‘farms’; farming directly where people live and eat. It claims to be 400x more efficient than traditional agriculture.
The impact of its instore farms is best illustrated by the following numbers:
2 square metres of instore farms is equivalent to 400 square metres of traditional farmland
Only 0.5% space usage for each instore farm
95% less water than traditional agriculture
90% less transportation
75% less fertilizers, 0 pesticides
150,000+ plants per month harvested
The future of farming
Infarm’s goal for the future is to gain an even deeper understanding of the optimal conditions for plants, and for supermarkets to source all their needs for herbs from Infarm alone. With its data collected from sensors that measure and control plant growth, Infarm possess a unique plant database and may well be on track to achieving this goal.
Although experts agree that feeding a rapidly burgeoning urban population cannot be solved by vertical urban farming alone, Infarm and similar agtech startups are hailed as trailblazers. They form part of the solution, while appealing to people who care about what they eat and where it comes from.
The signs are clear that in the near future, Infarm and similar companies will become the norm and not a novelty.
Maricel Sanchez has over 10 years of experience in various fields including trading, supply chain management, logistics and manufacturing. As well as helping startups to raise funds, she is an award-winning public speaker and the current President of Toastmasters Nice, a bilingual club that promotes public speaking and leadership.
SDLN: The Leading AgTech Networking Forum | Connecting Global High-Level Value-Chain Leaders in Miami, Oct 22 - 24
7/9/2019
Press Release – Keynote, a global leading event company for emerging technology, announced today the Company’s next strategic decision to expand into the AgriTech industry through a new event: Sustainability and Digitalization Leadership Network (SDLN) - Miami Forum.
The 2019 SDLN Miami Forum connects AgriTech’s investors with innovators and their ideas, moving the most critical conversations forward to improve the planet’s future in sustainable agriculture and emerging tech. SDLN is dedicated to addressing today’s food supply challenges by creating a platform for collaborative, open dialogue and high- level networking between industry experts from across the globe.
The three-day event at the James L Knight Center in downtown Miami will cater to AgTech seniors with an international attendance of company executives, investors and market consultants. Alongside presentations covering current world projects and tech advances, the forum will feature panels focusing on innovation vs implementation, long term sustainability and investment in the food ecosystem. This carefully curated agenda will feature entrepreneurs and established investors alongside agriculture’s international leaders, intended to provide strategic, tactical skills and knowledge for those attending.
As a hub connecting agriculture across the Americas and beyond, Miami sets the stage for the rapidly expanding industry. Attendees will meet with innovators throughout the supply chain at the SDLN Official Launch, Wednesday 22nd October, as well as a second evening of networking on Thursday 23rd. Further opportunities for breakout sessions led by industry heads, facilitated networking and 1:1 business meetings will follow.
The first round of presenters announced last week includes Howard Yana Shapiro, Chief Agricultural Officer at Mars; Claudia Rössler, Agriculture Strategic Partnerships at Microsoft; David Friedman, CEO at VividGro.
A core advisory board will oversee and advise on partnerships to ensure quality of connections and sustainable business strategy. For enquiries please email lyndsey@sdlnetwork.com
About Keynote:
Hosting international events since 2012 across Europe, North America and the Middle East, Keynote has curated forums for emerging technology industries, launching high profile fintech projects and acting as a platform to raise significant funds, connecting and enabling companies to reach their potential.
Event Website: https://sdlnetwork.com/
Early bird tickets available until 1st August at sdlnetwork.com
For media partnership enquiries: amandah@sdlnetwork.com
For partner and sponsorship enquiries: amy@sdlnetwork.com
Vertical Farming Systems Raises $1M For Automated Agtech
April 30, 2019
Image via VFS
Australian agtech company Vertical Farming Systems (VFS) has raised $1 million for its automated indoor farming technology. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although company co-owner Ashley Thompson told StartupSmart the investment comes from someone with “significant experience in the agriculture industry.”
Based in Queensland, Australia, VFS says its system can take plants from seedling stage to fully grown in just 28 days. Thompson, along with co-owner John Leslie, run the farm out of a warehouse facility divided into three climate cells, or insulated environments where computers control the lighting, water, and humidity levels, to give plants optimal growing conditions. The system automatically plants the seeds in trays of clay pods, then loads those trays onto stackable racks equipped with LEDs, where the plants will grow. Currently, the facility houses about eight acres’ worth of crops.
You can watch a video of the system in action here.
VFS isn’t just growing greens, however. Running with the idea that vertical farming needs to be fully automated to offset labor costs, Thompson and Leslie spent nine years developing their patented XA Series warehouse system to sell to customers around the world. The system comes in 28 different configurations, which can be matched to a customer’s business needs and expanded if need be in the future.
They’re not alone in bringing indoor farming into the spotlight of the agtech space in Australia. A company called Modular Farms sells a variety of expandable container farms, though these require a little more hands-on work from humans than VFS’ system (think Freight Farms in the U.S.) Invertigro, meanwhile, sells a modular system the company says can grow everything from leafy greens to berries.
In addition to further developing the XA system, VFS is also using the new funds to develop other technologies, including an automated fodder machine, which can feed livestock for 14 days without human intervention, and a mealworm farm system.
Earth Notes: Urban Agriculture
Vertically stacked growing shelves, closely spaced plantings, and covered beds are helping farms fit in where space is often restricted.
By DIANE HOPE • FEB 13, 2019
In backyards and vacant lots, urban farming is on the rise in towns and cities across the Colorado Plateau. Vertically stacked growing shelves, closely spaced plantings, and covered beds are helping farms fit in where space is often restricted.
Roots Micro Farm
CREDIT MADELYN CHANCE
Listen
Listening...
2:00
Warehouse farming operations grow crops in sterile atmospheres that need costly nutrient inputs and energy for lighting. But small-scale urban farms offer lots of sustainable advantages.
These farms use natural sunlight and moisture, and make great use of local food waste, says Josh Chance. He and his wife Maddy established Roots Micro Farm on a neighborhood lot in downtown Flagstaff two and half years ago.
They mix organic waste from Northern Arizona University and local breweries with horse manure from nearby barns, creating deep fertile growing beds. Hoop houses let them extend the growing season from late April through December. They raise everything from kale to kohlrabi and tomatoes to edible flowers.
Such small urban farms can’t achieve the economies of scale that massive modern farming can – so their produce may cost a bit more than at large grocery chains. But, since they’re often located just a mile or two from consumers, local growers deliver fresh, healthy produce requiring little or no energy for transportation.
There are some extra benefits too--these farms provide pleasant green spaces within a city. And they can give young people the chance to see where food comes from, and how it’s grown. Some even provide training workshops for locals to learn - and trade - skills.
All in all, urban agriculture appears to be an idea ripe for the picking.
Agriculture Is Broken; AgTech Can Fix It
Nov 28, 2018
Erik Kobayashi-Solomon Contributor
Chimneys are seen releasing vapour at the ammonia processing area at the OAO Phosagro plant in Cherepovets, Russia, on Friday, Feb. 21, 2014. OAO Phosagro, Europe's largest phosphate-fertilizer maker, is posting back-to-back weekly gains, pushing the stock above levels it traded at before the collapse of the world's biggest potash venture roiled the industry. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/BloombergBLOOMBERG NEWS
Imagine that you need to break a $10 bill. You hand the cashier the $10 note and, rather than a $5 bill and five $1 bills, he hands back a single $1 bill.
Certainly, you would be upset. And if you couldn’t extract another $9 from the cashier on that occasion, chances are next to nil that you would ever try to get that shop to make change for you again.
Believe it or not, this transaction – where a consumer offers 10 units and receives only one unit in return – happens literally every second of the day in developed countries. It is not dollars we are exchanging, though, it is calories.
According to a research paper published in 2009, it takes 10 calories of petroleum-based energy to create a single consumable food calorie. The reason for the imbalance is twofold: production methods and distribution networks.
Regarding production methods, the synthetic fertilizers used in crop production are manufactured through the Haber-Bosch process, which relies upon a petroleum resource – natural gas – as a primary input. Natural gas is needed to manufacture the ammonia that forms a crucial building block for synthetic fertilizers.
Grains are used to feed meat animals, so in a real sense, we are feeding natural gas to our chickens, hogs, and cattle as well. Energy is also used in the irrigation, sowing, and reaping processes. Altogether, scientists estimate that it takes a little over eight calories of petroleum-based energy to “manufacture” one food calorie.
The remaining two or so energy calories necessary for us to consume a single food calorie come in the transportation process. I live in Chicago and can drive to my local supermarket to buy a tomato any time of the year – even during the dead of winter. Those winter tomatoes must be shipped in from somewhere!
This photo was taken by author during a blizzard in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago, IL. Watsonville, CA, where these tomatoes were farmed, is over 2,200 miles from the author's grocery store.ERIK KOBAYASHI-SOLOMON
As an investor, if you showed me a company whose revenue increases were tied to gradual population rise but which was paying $10 in costs to produce a profit of $1, I would show you the best short idea in the world!
Believe it or not, this is the equation on which our modern system of agriculture is based.
AgTech – an industry about which I have written before – is focused on changing this upside-down energy cost equation and rationalizing the process of producing food. It is hard for me to imagine a better area in which to invest.
While my previous AgTech article highlighted mainly American firms, the best example of the advances in this industry is not to be found in the US – the leading agricultural exporter globally – but in the Netherlands – the second largest.
According to this article in National Geographic (which contains some striking photographs and videos of Dutch farms), the Netherlands boasts only 1/270th the land mass of the U.S. located at roughly the same latitude as Saskatchewan, Canada, but exports a comparable amount of food.
Commercial glass greenhouses in Westland. Westland is a region in of the Netherlands. It lies in the western part of the country. High tech industrial production of vegetables and flowers. GETTY
One potato farmer highlighted in the Nat Geo article has reduced his water use by 90% but generates crop yields more than twice as high as the global average; his results are not atypical of the Dutch industry at large. Chemical pesticide use has dropped to nearly nothing and livestock antibiotic use has dropped by around 60%.
Fertilizer use is higher than that in the US per hectare of cultivated crop, but because Dutch farms produce so much more per hectare than American ones, the fertilizer use per food item is much lower. In addition, fertilizer use in the Netherlands has been falling since 2002, rather than rising, as in the US.
Figure 1. Source: World Bank (data), Framework Investing Analysis FRAMEWORKINVESTING.COM
These incredible efficiency improvements have come about because the Dutch government set clear policy objectives, supported by tax and development incentives, then let the free market do what it does best – develop innovative solutions. These policies have allowed the Netherlands to move beyond the technology paradigms of the last two centuries and create intellectual property and jobs suited for the present one.
While Dutch farms have already embraced a new paradigm and are moving forward to take the innovations even further, opportunities exist now in the United States as well. Over the past several weeks, I have been talking to the founders of several innovative AgTech start-ups focused on the local production and packaging of greens and vegetables.
Smart money is pouring into these types of businesses – in 2017, Plenty, a high-efficiency, IoT-enabled vertical farming start-up received a $200 million round B investment from the Softbank Vision Fund and an investment vehicle for Jeff Bezos’s billions.
Matt Barnard, co-founder and chief executive officer of Plenty Inc., speaks at the SoftBank World 2018 event in Tokyo, Japan, on Friday, July 20, 2018. SoftBank World, the company’s annual two-day event for customers and suppliers, ends Friday. Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg© 2018 BLOOMBERG FINANCE LP
If you think back to Whole Foods Markets in the early 1980s, it qualified as a niche business. Thanks to the vision of its founders and its niche status, it sported nearly a 40-year run with huge revenue growth rates and profit margins 10 times higher than that of other grocery chains. I believe vertical farming firms will experience a trajectory similar to the organic food market, though probably the uptake will be much more rapid.
Elimination of pesticide use, reduction of water wastage, greater efficiency of fertilizer use, much greater food safety and traceability, and hugely decreased petroleum product usage in transportation are all features of vertical farming that will be good for the environment and the society.
The fact that vertical farms’ cost structures mean that, for at least a few years, they will be wildly more profitable than conventional farms will be good for intelligent investors. No wonder the smart money is pouring in.
I am the Director of Training and Research at Framework Investing, a company that teaches institutional and individual investors to close the gap between their investing skills and their investing responsibilities. My expertise in valuing private and publicly-traded companies...
Cover Crop Powers First Transatlantic Flight Using Sustainable Biojet
A United Airlines plane powered by biojet fuel made a landmark non-stop voyage from San Francisco to Zurich.
SEPTEMBER 24, 2018 LAUREN MANNING
On Monday, a United Airlines plane powered by biojet fuel made a landmark non-stop voyage from San Francisco to Zurich. Agrisoma Biosciences, a Canadian agtech company that develops Carinata seeds to produce aviation biojet fuel, partnered with United Airlines and French oil and proteins sector company Avril Group to accomplish the second international commercial flight using the company’s seed oil.
As with any startup, proof of concept is a key milestone.
“We are creating a new industry,” Hank Krakowski, Agrisoma’s Director of Sustainable Aviation, told AgFunderNews. “The question was whether the fuel is ready, and it is. Until we got through the approval process, we couldn’t talk to people about investing in contracts with us to create the feedstock for the biojet fuel.” Krakowski has deep ties to the aviation industry after working as a commercial pilot for United Airlines for 30 years. After hanging up his wings, he served as chief operating officer of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Air Traffic Organization for a few years before transitioning into aerospace investment banking. It was through this endeavor that biojet fuel and a sustainable future for aviation captured his focus.
Earlier this year, Agrisoma and Australia’s Qantas Airways partnered on a transpacific flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne that used biojet fuel produced from Carinata, which is a member of the mustard seed family.
“Qantas came to us over a year ago curious about whether we could be the source for their biofuel needs in Australia,” Krakowski explains. “Something happened that surprised us in a wonderful way: when the flight ended, over the next few months Australian farmers called us and Qantas to see how they could work with us.”
Since launching in 2001, Agrisoma has captured over $27 million in venture capital from Canadian investors, with its most recent Series C in March 2018 raising roughly $12 million. Its four investors – fund manager DesJardins Capital, impact investors Cycle Capital, Quebec-focused funders LuneRouge, and multi-stage investor BDC – all hail from Canada and seek out sustainable technologies. Krakowski hints at more financing activity for Agrisoma in the near future, but could not share more details at this time.
A Seed Company at Heart
While many might assume that Agrisoma brands itself as a biofuel company, it’s better categorized as a seed company. Agrisoma’s proprietary Carinata seed, currently being cultivated by growers in both the Americas and Australia, is a non-food, mustard-like oilseed that produces a grain that is roughly 50% oil and 50% protein. Carinata biojet fuel is made by harvesting tons of Carinata crop, crushing the grain to recover the oil, and refining that oil into jet fuel by the same process used for petroleum-derived jet fuel.
Agrisoma sells its Carinata seeds to farmers or agricultural cooperatives who then grow the seed as a cover crop and sell it back to Agrisoma. It has developed 20,000 lines of germplasm so that it can select the precise variation for different geographical locations and holds numerous patents for the germplasms.
“We have to go into different locations, do trials, sort out the right seed varieties and germplasms for that area, and then we put a two-to-five-year scale-up plan in place where we increase the acreage every year. We have to get farmers to plant and grow the seed and to harvest it correctly,” he explains. The company currently reports 50,000 acres of commercial crop growing across the Americas and Europe with the hope of doubling this acreage every year. It’s started the trial process for Carinata cultivation in Australia, New Zealand, and France.
While biojet fuel is a relatively new product in the jet fuel market, Agrisoma has found a way to slip into the existing supply chain: the company sells directly to existing refineries with biofuel production capabilities, aiming to avoid adding additional layers of complexity to the process and the existing supply chain, says Krakowski.
The biojet fuel typically replaces 10% to 30% of the petroleum jet fuel needed for a flight, making for a cleaner fuel blend that reduces greenhouse gas emissions, according to Agrisoma. Carinata is the first oilseed to be certified as sustainable by the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials, an independent global standard, and certification program for sustainable biomaterials.
Competing with Conventional Jet Fuel
When it comes to industry acceptance, Agrisoma is banking on recent agreements from United Nations International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) encouraging airlines to achieve carbon neutral status by 2021 with the goal of claiming a 50% reduction of CO2 emissions by 2050. Carinata and the way in which the company goes about cultivating the crop offers certain environmental benefits that play directly into the ICAO’s aims.
“When you grow it, it sequesters carbon out of the atmosphere like any plant and puts it into the ground. Then, you harvest the plant, and you have a biomass that you leave behind on the ground that does a number of things: it prevents carbon from escaping and provides nutrients for the next crop growing.”
Farmers have been largely receptive to cultivating Carinata, which is used as a cover crop. This means that it doesn’t compete with traditional food growing cycles. And while other cover crops commonly don’t have a dollar value, Carinata cultivation offers farmers an additional stream of income during the off-season.
As an added bonus, Agrisoma sells the spent meal that’s leftover after the seed-crushing process for livestock feed. Because Carinata is a non-GMO seed, the meal sells at a premium to dairies producing organic products.
With some estimates suggesting that airline travel will double from current demand levels by 2040, Krakowski thinks that airlines will have no choice but to seek out sustainable fuel sources that allow them to keep pace with demand while satisfying the ICAO agreement. In fact, Agrisoma is in active discussions with a handful of oil companies about using its oil as a feedstock for biofuel production, says Krakowski.
The Sky’s the Limit
With a few successful flights under its belt, the company is focusing on increasing its acres of production and scaling up in the Americas and France, as well as Australia, New Zealand and perhaps Asia. Most startups keep a close eye on the competition, but for Agrisoma and Krakowski there is plenty of room in the biojet fuel space for additional players.
“If you look at the numbers the industry needs to meet a doubling of air commerce against biofuel availability, they will need every drop they can get from anybody who can produce biofuel regardless of where it comes from.”
Avoiding GMO Food Might Be Tougher Than You Think
Labels are about to become mandatory, but what does that really mean?
Photo: Scott Warman
By Sara Chodosh
While there’s currently no evidence that genetically modified organisms harm human health, that isn’t to say there aren’t legitimate reasons to avoid them.
Perhaps the most common is a simple preference for that which is natural and a general aversion to that which technology — especially technology developed by Big Ag — has meddled in. Others worry about long-term effects that haven’t appeared in scientific studies yet or ecosystem-level impacts that we haven’t picked up on. A comprehensive 2016 report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine found no evidence that would support those concerns, but it also noted that caution is generally a good idea.
GM experts and proponents also have legitimate concerns that adding a label identifying GMOs gives the impression that there are scientifically proven risks to worry about. Studies on the perception of GM food suggests that the public has a baseline aversion, and a label may increase wariness. Labeling advocates, of course, argue that if Americans want to avoid GMOs, they have a right to do so.
But really, a lot of the research on public opinion of GM food suggests that Americans don’t so much think negatively of it as that they don’t think much about it at all. Yes, there’s a baseline aversion, but the opinion of study subjects seems to vary wildly depending on the information provided. One study following up on that 2016 report found that the entire American public shifted their opinion measurably in the positive, likely because the report was well-publicized in its findings that GMOs are, as far as we can tell, perfectly safe for the human body.
So, it’s unclear how many Americans will actually be looking to avoid GM food in the future. But even if you want to keep your pantry GMO-free, doing so could prove challenging.
“Can people avoid them? The answer is certainly yes. Especially in the last few years, there have been more products on the market that are non-GMO or organic,” says Jayson Lusk, an economist at Purdue University who studies the consumer side of GMOs. “Now, those products are more expensive — no one ever said you can avoid them for free. But they can if they’re willing and able to pay, and one way they’ll pay is in the time to find the products.”
Though very few fruits and vegetables are genetically engineered, he points out that almost anything with corn or soybeans will be difficult to get without a GM component. More than 90 percent of both crops are bioengineered in the U.S., and corn and soy derivatives go into many processed foods. Much of the sugar produced derives from sugar beets, nearly all of which are genetically engineered. Somewhere between 60 and 70 percent of processed foods on the market today have a GM ingredient, but many of those foods may not require a label according to the proposed rules.
Highly processed ingredients like high fructose corn syrup have little to no traceable DNA in them, and so the U.S. Department of Agriculture (which regulates food labels) doesn’t require manufacturers to add a label to indicate those bioengineered foods.
And then there’s that word — ”bioengineered.” The USDA only just announced how they would require manufacturers to disclose GM ingredients, though the law was enacted back in 2016, and the new rules don’t use the term “GMO” or even “GM.” Instead, they opt for “BE” or “bioengineered,” perhaps to avoid using loaded terminology. “I’m not sure how much people will know that term,” says Dominique Brossard, a communications professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison specializing in life science issues like GMOs. “I don’t think it’s going to be very easy for people to find out [which foods are genetically modified].”
“I think this was actually the intent of the 2016 law,” says Glenn Stone, an environmental anthropologist who studies the GMO debate. “[It] was passed just in time to overrule a state-level law was taking effect requiring that GMO foods have clear labels.” Vermont had previously passed legislation that would have fined companies for failing to label food containing GM ingredients, including highly processed ones like corn syrup (though it excluded cheese, which often relies on a genetically engineered enzyme called chymosin). It also specified that the labels would include the phrase “genetic engineering,” not “bioengineered.”
In contrast, the USDA regulations allow companies to choose between three options: write out the warning (as in “contains a bioengineered food ingredient”), include a BE label, or use a QR code that would link the consumer to a page disclosing all the information.
Stone, along with other labeling proponents, argue that these options will make it harder for people to actually get the information the legislation is supposed to mandate. “This rule claims to label GMO foods, but it exempts the most common GMO food ingredients like soy oil and corn syrup while allowing the use of QR codes,” he says, “knowing perfectly well that few shoppers have the time or inclination to get out their phone, scan a code, and read a website over and over while shopping.”
Unless those regulations change, though, it could be quite hard to figure out exactly which foods contain GM ingredients and which do not. Many of the top GM crops grown for human consumption — maize, soybeans, canola, sugar beet, papaya, squash, eggplant, potato, and apples — get processed first, and wouldn’t require a label. The rest, if sold whole or as part of another food, would necessitate one. A recent overview of attitudes towards GM foods, published in the journal Annual Reviews, commented that “Since soybeans and corn (the most widely planted GE crops) are common ingredients in many food products (corn starch, corn syrup, corn oil, and soybean oil), it is likely that foods in the United States listing soybeans and corn as ingredients contain some GE ingredients unless it is specifically stated that they do not.”
Avoiding GM foods entirely could mean quite a drastic shift away from any processed food at all. Corn syrup and soybean oil are in a surprising number of foods, and they won’t carry a BE label. It’ll be up to you as the consumer to navigate those grocery store aisles on your own.
NL: Innovations Theatre Showcases Smart Food Production - June 20-21, Utrecht
The Innovations Theatre, an initiative by GFIA, Europe’s largest showcase of sustainable agtech, will introduce over 40 technologies through talks and demonstrations from companies leading the way with new techniques and trends in sustainable agriculture and food production
June 20-21, Utrecht
NL: Innovations Theatre Showcases Smart Food Production
Technology innovations and solutions from start-ups and entrepreneurs from across the world that will drive the future of sustainable agriculture and smart food production will be showcased in Europe next month during the Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture (GFIA) at Jaarbeurs Expo Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands from 20th to 21st June 2018.
The Innovations Theatre, an initiative by GFIA, Europe’s largest showcase of sustainable agtech, will introduce over 40 technologies through talks and demonstrations from companies leading the way with new techniques and trends in sustainable agriculture and food production.
Innovations confirmed will include: Vito Remote Sensing that use state of the art drones for developments in phenotyping for plant breeding; Trapview’s pest monitoring solution that utilizes AI for enhancement in pest control; Bo Mill that uses infra-red analysis for grain sorting and advanced digital technology revolutionizing precision irrigation; Cerescon’s selective asparagus harvester only previously achievable manually; Netafim NetBeat’s revolutionary irrigation system that combines real-time data for crop, soil, weather and irrigation to build a personalised irrigation strategy; Agricultural Natural Biostimulants that boost yields and profits whilst sustaining the fragile soil ecosystem; smatrix a voice-based software for mobile data collection designed for use in demanding conditions such as test fields, greenhouses and climatic chambers; and many more.
GFIA Europe, takes place during the International Week for Smart Food Production (IWSFP) alongside other major B2B agriculture expos such as VIV Europe and the European Halal Expo. European leaders and thousands of agribusinesses, innovators, food industry professionals, farmers, NGOs and development experts from around the world will share ideas, actions and debate in responding to the most significant challenges needed to drive sustainable agriculture for increased productivity and food security.
Nicola Davison, GFIA Show Director, said: “GFIA was born on the belief that continuous innovation in agriculture is the only way to support a food secure future. GFIA Europe as partners of International Week for Smart Food Production will continue this momentum with the vast number of new innovations being showcased for the first time in Utrecht. For businesses looking to remain competitive and profitable, GFIA Europe provides hundreds of products and solutions to improve yields, combat pests, save water, improve animal health or decrease inefficiencies.”
This year’s exhibition will focus on key sectors including indoor farming and hydroponics; aquatech; and crop production. Entry into the exhibition and Innovations Theatre is free and tickets for the main conference start at €399 +VAT and include entry into the International Exhibition, Opening Ceremony, Main Conference, Innovations Theatre, Proagrica Future Farming Theatre, partner workshops, daily delegate lunch, refreshments during networking breaks, plus access to an online meeting system and app to facilitate networking with exhibitors and other attendees. For further information on GFIA Europe and to register visit www.gfiaeurope.com
Publication date: 6/4/2018
"50% Higher Clone Production With New AEtrium-2.1 SmartFarm-72"
"50% Higher Clone Production With New AEtrium-2.1 SmartFarm-72"
In advance of next week's MJBizConNEXT conference, AEssenseGrows introduced last Monday the AEtrium-2.1 SmartFarm-72, enabling 50 percent higher clone production than prior versions of the aeroponics system. The new 72-tray configuration increases yield to 13,500 per month from the prior version's 9,000 per month.
AEssenseGrows is an ag-tech company specializing in automated aeroponic platforms for high-yield plant production. The company has developed advanced grow systems featuring sensor-driven software that monitors and automatically adjusts the ingredients for specific grow recipes. The four-layer high-density AEtrium-2.1 SmartFarms are designed for high-volume cultivators and come in 24-, 48-, and now 72-tray configurations.
"The pressure on growers in the burgeoning cannabis industry is intense and will only increase as laws evolve and the market grows," said Phil Gibson, vice president of Marketing at AEssenseGrows. "AEssenseGrows' latest version of its SmartFarm cloning product helps give growers greater control over their fates by delivering fast, safe and reliable clones in volume."
AEssenseGrows will showcase its grow systems at MJBizConNEXT, May 9-11, at the New Orleans Morial Convention Center. The company will also participate in the National Cannabis Industry Association annual Lobby Days, May 21 to 23 in Washington, D.C.
And in mid-June, AEssenseGrows will co-sponsor the 2018 International Indoor Plant Factory Symposium with the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences (SAAS). The symposium, running June 12-15 at the Blue Palace Hotel in Jiading, Shanghai, brings together some of the world's leading experts in commercial indoor cultivation for an exchange of ideas and information about the latest innovations, technologies and research in the field.
More information:
www.aessensegrows.com
Publication date: 5/2/2018