Welcome to iGrow News, Your Source for the World of Indoor Vertical Farming
While Everything Is Falling Apart, It Could Be Easy To Miss The Incredible Opportunities That Are Coming Together Right Now
Check out the awesome opportunities growing on with access to the CEA census provided by Agritecture Autogrow and global market reports by Forward Fooding and United Nations
Take a look at the state of agriculture renaissance, with thousands of companies, and millions of people working toward food system transformation designed to sustainably feed 10B people, with 70% living in cities, using less energy, water, and waste, and reversing climate change.
Check out the awesome opportunities growing on with access to the CEA census provided by Agritecture Autogrow and global market reports by Forward Fooding and the United Nations
Some of the Numbers:
5.3k+ companies
$65B invested since 2010
$17B 2020 (up from $15B 2019) 42% CAGR
21% of funding went into AgTech and CEAs
5% went to digital services
48% to food delivery
Impact is being divided into five sustainable food action tracks - 10% Access, 35% Consumption, 40% Production, 5% Equity, and 15% Resilience aimed at innovative disruption.
Out of 300+ CEAs
40% were founded in the last two years
36% got funding from family and friends
35% from angel investors
80% were operating in indoor vertical farming
49% had no agriculture experience
46% were between ages 21-30
28% prefer using Coco Coir as a soilless growing medium
Largest crops microgreens, salad greens, leafy greens and herbs.
"CEA Can Increase Its U.S. Market Share By 5x Over The Next 10 Years"
Investment in CEA has surpassed $2.0B across North America and Europe spurring new start-ups, innovation and corporate engagement across the supply chain
S2G Ventures rResearches
Controlled Environment Agriculture Market:
Investment in CEA has surpassed $2.0B across North America and Europe spurring new start-ups, innovation and corporate engagement across the supply chain. With increased demonstration of the viability of controlled growing, a newly launched report predicts that CEA will support more than 10% of US vegetable and herb production by 2025 leading to significant opportunities for growers over the next decade.
The new report, Growing Beyond the Hype: Controlled Environment Agriculture, launched by S2G Ventures reveals how innovation in the field of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA), including greenhouse and indoor farming, will lead to ripple effects across the food system and more sustainable methods of production. S2G Ventures is a multi-stage investment firm committed to advancing sustainable solutions in food and ag – its portfolio companies include Beyond Meat, sweetgreen, Lavva, Apeel Sciences and more. The report predicts the maturation of CEA will lead to differentiated, quality products, cost-competitive pricing and a more resilient, traceable and trustworthy supply chain. These new supply chains may represent a transition for the changing urban real estate landscape post-covid.
"Controlled farming has the potential to offer consumers and supply chain stakeholders resilient, sustainable, local, high-quality products," said Walter Robb, Executive-in Residence at S2G Ventures and former co-CEO of Whole Foods. "It is a growing part of our evolving food system and can work alongside outdoor production to mitigate climate risk and help solve systemic nutrition and food access challenges."
S2G Ventures expects that CEA will have far-reaching implications for the future of our food system in three key areas.
Local production and controlled environments will lead to a more resilient, traceable and trustworthy supply chain
Despite being a $1.2 trillion global industry, fresh produce faces significant supply and demand challenges resulting in a systemic lack of high-quality, affordable products reaching consumers. According to the Lancet, only 36% of the global population in 2015 had adequate availability of fruits and vegetables to meet the WHO age-specific minimum nutrition targets.
In the United States, for example, the fresh produce market is challenged by the limitations of outdoor production, including climate, field loss exposure, resource intensiveness, and limited ability to iterate or diversify, as well as geographic constraints resulting in products traveling 7-10 days on average from farm to consumer. As a result, the U.S. is reliant on other countries to meet demand with 53% of fresh fruit and 32% of fresh vegetables imported annually according to the FDA.
If just 13% of vegetables and herbs shift to local CEA production by 2025, the United States can add $2.3bn additional production capacity and reduce our need for fresh vegetable imports by 15%. Local production can save up to 9 Trillion food miles through shorter transportation routes minimizing shelf life time spent in transit and reducing the amount of food waste by retailers and consumers. Additionally, controlled environments improve food safety, traceability and consistency of production.
Technology and operations advancements drive improvements to CEA unit economics that can compete with or beat outdoor production.
In order to gain market share, CEA production must become cost competitive with outdoor production. High upfront capex costs of facilities and equipment as well as energy costs, labor and product inputs, have historically made costs of CEA growing prohibitive. But innovation of grow inputs, improved grow systems, and optimization of facility productivity are driving more cost-effective production. Those innovations combined with CEA's higher number of grow cycles, 10+ for Greenhouse and 20+ for Indoor, will enable CEA to achieve unit economics that are at cost parity with outdoor.
CEA will usher in the next wave of biodiversity, nutrient density, and flavor innovation providing retailers with differentiated, quality products.
According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, about 75 percent of the world's food comes from just 5 animal species and 12 plants. Almost half of our plant-derived calories come from just three foods: wheat, corn and rice. Germplasm for these plants are bred for long storage time and disease resistance, at the expense of flavor, color, and nutritional value. The lack of biodiversity and nutritional value in our global diet restricts the value that plant molecules can play in human health.
Indoor Agriculture offers new grow formats, methods and technologies that promise to increase the quality, consistency and diversity of produce. Advancements in CEA-tailored seeds bred for traits such as flavor, color, nutrient density and ripening will expose consumers to new flavors and more varied products. Ultimately, indoor agriculture will support customized grow recipes as IP, branded produce, local production of hard to access specialty ingredients, spices and superfoods and eventually inputs for food as medicine.
"Controlled growing is a critical solution to address both the current supply challenges brought to light by COVID and the pressures on outdoor growing exacerbated by climate change," said Sanjeev Krishnan, S2G Ventures Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer. "We believe CEA can grow its US market share by five times over the next 10 years in response to these pressures and continued consumer demand for fresh produce."
The report
Growing Beyond the Hype: Controlled Environment Agriculture is based on S2G Ventures desktop research and interviews with over 20 industry experts including CEA growers, systems providers, policymakers, academic institutions, outdoor growers, ag input suppliers, philanthropists, and other investors. The report outlines the opportunity for CEA to resolve the current lack of high-quality, affordable produce driven by limitations in outdoor production and customer geography and outlines three areas indoor production must overcome to take significant market share including cost, product selection and productivity.
To read the full report, download at https://www.s2gventures.com/reports
3 Dec 2020
Aeroponics: ‘Getting To The Roots’ of a Soil-Free Vertical Farming System
A UK study detailing the environmental benefits of vertical farming – and in particular, aeroponics – has listed ‘strategic areas of future research’ to underpin the system’s productivity and sustainability.
Pic: GettyImages/shansekalaIn hydroponics farming, plant roots are either partially or completely immersed in a nutrient solution.
A UK study detailing the environmental benefits of vertical farming – and in particular, aeroponics – has listed ‘strategic areas of future research’ to underpin the system’s productivity and sustainability.
According to new research out of the John Innes Centre, the University of Bristol, and technology provider LettUs Grow, there is a growing environmental and economic case for vertical farms.
Yet key knowledge gaps remain. In a recently published study, six authors layout future research areas they say could accelerate the ‘sustainable intensification’ of vertical farming, using aeroponic systems.
Allocating resources to these research areas could help transform food production on a larger scale, suggested Dr. Antony Dodd, a group leader at the John Innes Centre and senior author of the study.
“By bringing fundamental biological insights into the context of the physics of growing plants in an aerosol, we can help the vertical farming business become more productive more quickly while producing healthier food with less environmental impact.”
Source: New Phytologist
‘Getting to the roots of aeroponic indoor farming’
Published: 24 June 2020
RELATED TOPICS: Market Trends, Food Tech, Sustainability, Start-ups and disruptors, Digitalisation, Fruit, vegetable, nut ingredients
OptimIA Free Indoor Ag Webinar - July 29, 2020 - 1 PM EST
OptimIA offers free indoor ag webinar on July 29, 2020. The OptimIA (Optimizing Indoor Agriculture) project team invites indoor farmers, allied trades, and professionals to their first annual meeting to share recent research results with leafy greens and discuss future activities
By urbanagnews
July 6, 2020
OptimIA offers free indoor ag webinar on July 29, 2020
The OptimIA (Optimizing Indoor Agriculture) project team invites indoor farmers, allied trades, and professionals to their first annual meeting to share recent research results with leafy greens and discuss future activities. OptimIA is a USDA-supported Specialty Crop Research Initiative project to advance the emerging indoor farming industry to become more profitable and sustainable through critical research and extension activities.
TENTATIVE AGENDA / TOPICS
Promotion of lettuce growth under an increasing daily light integral depends on the light intensity and photoperiod
Influence of light intensity and CO2 concentration on dill, parsley, and sage growth and development at harvest
Major energy savings during production of baby greens
Managing nutrient disorders of hydroponic leafy greens
Improving air distribution and humidity management in vertical farming systems
Critical elements of CEA economics
View the agenda and register at http://scri-optimia.org/stakeholder2020.php. The webinar is free, but space is limited and is on a first-come, first-served basis.
OptimIA Director and PIs
Erik Runkle, Michigan State University (Project Director)
Murat Kacira, University of Arizona
Chieri Kubota, The Ohio State University
Roberto Lopez, Michigan State University
Cary Mitchell, Purdue University
Simone Valle de Souza, Michigan State University
OptimIA Collaborators
Jennifer Boldt, USDA ARS
David Hamby, OSRAM
H. Christopher Peterson, Michigan State University
Nadia Sabeh, Dr. Greenhouse Inc.
