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USA: VIDEO: Veteran Finds Peace, Purpose In Unique Kind of Farming
John Miller's routine may seem a bit "scaled-down" compared to his former life as a combat soldier. Miller spends much of his time in a 40-foot-long shipping container converted into a hydroponic farm field. Hydroponics involves growing plants without soil.
KENTUCKY
August 2, 2021
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — As John Miller prepared to leave the Air Force, the combat veteran admits he had no idea what he was going to do next.
What You Need To Know
John Miller served 14 years in the Air Force
The Louisville resident is the owner of Falls City Farms
Miller has found peace and purpose in hydroponic farming
In the future, Miller hopes to expand and employ fellow veterans
John Miller's routine may seem a bit "scaled-down" compared to his former life as a combat soldier. Miller spends much of his time in a 40-foot-long shipping container converted into a hydroponic farm field. Hydroponics involves growing plants without soil.
A close-up of Miller's baby kale. (Spectrum News 1/Jonathon Gregg)
“In essence, we sell a lot of things what we would consider baby," Miller explained. Little white turnips is just one crop of many growing inside Falls City Farms. “Right now I’m just pulling off the plug to turnips and then clean up any of the leaves."
The Iraq War combat veteran grows, prunes, packages, and sells a variety of greens to Louisville restaurants, online and at local markets.
“Here is our wasabi arugula, this is one of our fresh herbs, our dill, this would be our romaine trio," Miller said while touring his indoor farm.
Scaled-down? Maybe, but the hydroponic farm has helped Miller overcome what can be a sizable challenge for soldiers adapting to life after service.
“I got into this post-military, trying to find my next thing because I didn’t know what I was going to do when I got out," Miller said.
Miller served 14 years in the Air Force. His wife Amy is still active with 17 years to her credit. In his pursuit to figure out the next chapter of his life, Miller learned about hydroponic farming from a marine veteran in San Diego.
Falls City Farm grows a lot of produce in just 320 square feet. (Spectrum News 1/Jonathon Gregg)
His operation encompasses 320 square feet and boasts 6,600 individual plant spaces. Crops grow thanks to a sophisticated watering system and good-old-fashioned artificial sunlight.
“Because we are in a shipping container, the plants and the crops don’t get any of the big yellow sun outside so we have to create that inside," he said. "So we do LED lighting because it is better from an energy standpoint as well as heat."
Miller has lots of time and enough room to think about his life as a soldier and his new career as a farmer.
“If I am being frank with you, I miss being surrounded by other airmen and folks I used to lead," he said. "But it is calming to be in here with the plants and at the end of the day, that’s one of the reasons I chose this path.”
He was after peace and a purpose, and now his purpose includes bringing other veterans aboard.
“A lot of veterans, as we know, suffer from trying to find that next mission. Hopefully, one day soon be able to bring fellow veterans in here to teach them the art of farming through hydroponics to help them find peace and purpose as well," Miller said.
At first, Falls City Farms may appear to be a small operation, it’s only until you spend time on the inside do you see all the big ideas growing.
“I fell in love with the sense of a day’s accomplishment of work, a sense of comfort of being inside a greenhouse," Miller said.
Crazy Poet Discovers Solution To Vertical Farming Challenges
How on earth are we going to be able to make vertical farming a viable solution without disrupting the cities we live in
August 10, 2021
Lawrence Ip
Facilitating Workforce & Leadership Transformation Through Organisational Governance.
Keep Reading & The House Gets Bulldozed!
Dramatic I know (it's just one of those things). Nope, I won't be making myself homeless as I do actually need a roof over my head. What I also need is to get this crazy idea off my chest before I do actually lose my mind.
You see, I was watching a documentary a while back, about future cities, off the back of a few others that were about farming, global warming and the looming food crisis, and they got me thinking about vertical farming, and the issues the industry sector faces - namely scale.
That was the first thing that struck me.
How on earth are we going to be able to make vertical farming a viable solution without disrupting the cities we live in it, why heck, according to Pew Research world population is pitted to hit 10.9 Billion by 2100, with more and more folks migrating to cities. This begged a flurry of questions such as:
How are we going to feed everyone, and where on earth are we going to put the vertical farms that are supposed to feed them?
Will they really be able to provide the quantity of fruit and vegetables sustainably?
How much will they cost to build?
How much will they cost to run and maintain?
How do we store, pack and deliver the product?
What infrastructure does it require to make it work?
What about the effect on traffic?
What about the load bearing issues of weight on the structure of the farm, the actual building?
How on earth do we face the challenges facing vertical farming?
Don't get me wrong, I see incredible value in vertical farming and it could prove to be the answer to so many of the challenges we face ahead, because as we all know the way in which we produce the food we consume, and waste, is just not sustainable - not in the slightest. The globe's arable land is fast diminishing, and at the current rate the entire globe will be facing starvation soon after 2060 - it's a travesty just waiting to happen (if you haven't watched it yet I can highly recommend watching), Kiss The Ground, it's the documentary that got me started on the quest for answers.
A few weeks ago I woke up in the middle of the night, I had an epiphany.
Prior to going to sleep, I asked myself, what is the single most pressing problem you could solve that would provide the best bang for the buck?
When I woke from that sleep the answer came to me, it came down to answering the last question, which fundamentally is a design question.
Having previously watched a documentary series on super-structures, and thinking about logistics and transportation, it dawned on me that it was not a, how on earth question, but rather a let's go to sea proposition.
I jotted down these two words on the trusty notepad I keep bedside...
"... container ships."
That's right, container ships!
Don't be fooled into thinking that what you see is what you get. What you see on the top deck is just part of the picture, container ships have just as much, if not more storage in their lower decks.
It was like WOW! It makes complete and total sense, well at least to me it does. Let's outline the reasons why container ships could be the perfect vertical farm.
Container ships are designed to bare the types of load required in the design of a vertical farm.
You can move container ships around.
Container ships can have desalination plants built in.
They are freaking massive.
They can be even more massive. Fun fact: when the size of a ship is doubled, it increases the surface area by only 25%.
Transportation logistics is a non-issue.
No need to reinvent the wheel. It wouldn't take much to repurpose container ships that have been decommissioned.
Repurposed ships equals no scrap metal.
Access to the energy required to run them is at hand.
Image Credit: Bernd Dittrich - UnSplash.
That pretty much sums it up, and hey, I'm no expert, but yes, I am a poet, and it really doesn't matter whether I'm certifiable or not, I have at the very least put the idea out there. All I ask of you, is that before you send the men with the straightjacket around, that you consider the idea as a viable solution before discarding it. If anything I hope it provides some inspiration, maybe a spark of some out-of-the-box thinking of your own and I sincerely hope you found the read entertaining too. Thank you for making it this far. I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas. Do you have a crazy vertical farming solution you'd love to get off your chest? Please feel welcomed and leave your thoughts below. Peace ✌
Image Credit: Bailey Mahon - UnSplash.
#verticalfarmingchallenges #arablelandcrisis #foodcrisis #circulareconomy
Lead photo: Image Credit: Torben - UnSplash.
Published by: Lawrence Ip
Crazy Poet Discovers Solution To Vertical Farming Challenges. hashtag#verticalfarming hashtag#containerships hashtag#crazypoettimes hashtag#sustainability hashtag#agriculture hashtag#environment hashtag#innovation hashtag#climatechange hashtag#circulareconomy hashtag#design hashtag#energy hashtag#arablelandcrisis hashtag#foodcrisis hashtag#kisstheground hashtag#verticalfarmingchallenges
Projected Water Scarcity Prompts Need For Farming Ingenuity
Emerging technologies are quickly trying to find ways to get the most bang for each drop of water. Efficiencies have been identified, including vertical hydroponic farming, which drastically reduces the amount of water needed to grow crops
Posted by chrismichlewicz
July 31, 2021
The common refrain that freshwater is the next gold is ringing true as drastic changes in our climate are resulting in greater competition and a need for more efficient water uses, especially in the agricultural industry.
National Geographic points out that while the amount of fresh water on the planet has remained fairly constant over time — continually recycling through the atmosphere and back into our oceans, lakes, and rivers — the global population has exploded in the last century. This means that competition for a clean supply of water for drinking, cooking, bathing, and sustaining life intensifies every year. There is only so much water to go around.
Essentially, when taking saltwater into account, only about .007 percent of the Earth’s water supply is usable for the planet’s 6.8 billion (and counting) people, National Geographic says.
The vast majority of freshwater — about 70 percent by most estimates — is used for agriculture, and when you consider that feeding a planet of 9 billion people in 2050 will require an estimated 50 percent increase in agricultural production and a corresponding 15 percent increase in water withdrawals, the future becomes a lot clearer, according to World Bank.
Without proper governance, there is likely to be increased competition for water between sectors and an escalation of water crises of various kinds, triggering emergencies in a range of water-dependent sectors, according to a U.N. report.
Emerging technologies are quickly trying to find ways to get the most bang for each drop of water. Efficiencies have been identified, including vertical hydroponic farming, which drastically reduces the amount of water needed to grow crops. FarmBox Foods, a Colorado company that builds automated hydroponic farms inside repurposed shipping containers, has set its sights on creating a tangible shift in the approach to farming.
FarmBox Foods’ innovative, closed-watering system only uses 3-5 gallons of water per day and, almost as important, it does not contribute to groundwater contamination the way that traditional farming does. Furthermore, one farm is able to produce the same yield as 2 – 2.5 acres of farmland on an annual basis.
“Our container farms are built in such a way that it takes only a fraction of the amount of water to grow that same amount of produce,” said Rusty Walker, CEO of FarmBox Foods.
Climate change is projected to increase the number of water-stressed regions and exacerbate shortages in already water-stressed regions. It’s those regions that will realize the most benefit from vertical hydroponic farming and more efficient water usage in general.
An integrated view on water, the biosphere, and environmental flows is necessary to devise sustainable agricultural and economic systems that will allow us to decelerate climate change, protect us from extremes and adapt to the unavoidable at the same time, the U.N. says.
The automated hydroponic farms have a secondary benefit, as they can grow pine trees that contribute to the overall health of the environment by helping reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. One container farm from FarmBox Foods can grow 35,000 tree saplings per year.
For more information, go to www.UNwater.org or www.FarmBoxFoods.com.
Posted by chrismichlewicz on July 31, 2021 in Arapahoe County Business, Douglas County, Douglas County Business, Featured, Greenwood Village Business
Tagged #farmboxfoods, agriculture, cleanwater, Colorado, containerfarm, containerfarming, environment, farmboxfoods, freshwater, indoorag, indoorfarming, UN, Water, waterscarcity, watershortage, watersupply, waterusage
Dairy Container Costs "Going Crazy"
The skyrocketing cost of shipping containers is hitting the margins of Victorian pulse, grain, dairy and meat processors and exporters
30 Jul 2021
Andrew Miller
CONTAINER PAIN: Wimpak, Minyip, general manager James French says margins are being squeezed by the price of containers.
The skyrocketing cost of shipping containers is hitting the margins of Victorian pulse, grain, dairy and meat processors and exporters.
Thomas Elder Markets analyst Andrew Whitelaw said containers (boxes) were used to export pulses, grains, meat, and wool from Victoria.
"The box market has gone crazy this year," Mr. Whitelaw said.
Rates were at their highest since 2001, with the cost of hiring a 40-foot container to export products to India now sitting at $4000, (A$7700).
That compared with the first week in June 2019 when the rate was US$1300.
The top five agricultural containerized export destinations are China, Japan, the USA, Vietnam, and South Korea.
READ MORE: Rising port costs being passed back to the farmer
Port of Melbourne figures show wheat accounts for 10 percent of all agricultural exports, with hay, chaff and fodder coming in a close second.
Other cereals, barley, lentils, and chickpeas comprise nearly 20 percent of all exports.
Dried milk and processed dairy products make up more than 12pc of exports.
Huge demand
Mr. Whitelaw said part of the problem was the huge demand for containers, from Chinese manufacturers.
"Everyone seems to have much more disposable income, and most of the western world isn't able to spend that money on leisure or travel activities," Mr Whitelaw said.
"This has resulted in huge volumes and gadgets and gizmos shipped out of China."
Sea freight broker Anchor Logistics director Bob Brittles said a combination of factors had resulted in supply and demand pressures.
The blockage of the Suez Canal, when the Ever Given ran aground earlier this month, had a massive effect.
"When the Ever Given was freed, 350 ships followed her through and dumped about 350,000 containers in Europe and just after that there were unloading delays in China.
"Those delays held up 650,000 containers."
He said the Australian market was serviced by about 12 major shipping lines.
"They have been influenced by the coronavirus situation and closures of various ports, over the last year and a half."
That had resulted in congestion and delays in unloading in many south-east Asian ports, which was contributing to the container shortages.
"The containers are in the wrong place, the ships are in the wrong place," Mr Brittles said.
Rising prices
Grain cleaning and packing service Wimpak, Minyip, general manager James French said container prices to ship to most overseas ports had risen dramatically.
"The Bangladesh rates are very similar to India and the shipping lines are making a move (on prices) every four to six weeks," Mr. French said.
He said grower pricing might have to reflect the freight cost.
"Normally we are putting work on, six to eight weeks out, but we are struggling to do that, knowing what our freight rates are going to be," he said.
"It makes us more reluctant to buy more product when we don't know what the price will be at the other end."
READ MORE: Food-grade container shortages hitting Victorian exporters hard
Burra Foods exports most of its dairy products and chief executive Stewart Carson said there was a direct container cost, as well as timing and availability.
"You might have a vessel booked to leave on Friday, then you're told the vessel won't be available until Tuesday or Wednesday," Mr. Carson said.
"What do you do with that container? In some cases, you have to put it on power, which costs you money."
Mr. Carson said the company carried the cost or sought to recoup it from the market.
"Everyone is paying a competitive milk price, you can't say sorry I'll pay 10 cents less because the container price has gone up," Mr. Carson said.
Companies could not pass the cost back to the farmer, which was only right.
"I think that's great, it gives an assurance to the farmer," he said.
He said Burra was in the same position as all other processors.
Southern Grain Storage director Campbell Brumby said his company was fortunate that his company had finished its export program before the price increases hit.
"I was speaking to a colleague who was paying $1750 for a box to a particular destination, and was now looking at $4250 if they can get the container," he said.
He put the price increase down to the state government's lease of the Port of Melbourne.
"We've been doing containers for about 10 years and when we first started, charges were negligible," he said.
"Since the lease was sold to DP World, the rates have gone through the roof - we just have to pay them and the market absorbs the cost.
"As long as all our competitors and all the people we are trying to trade with are working on the same cost basis, the market tends to absorb it.
"Whether its pulses or cereals, the market will be the market."
Malaysian, Smart Farm That Grows And Delivers Organic Vegetables
“The pandemic has underscored the urgency of building better food production, including fresh vegetables. Customers are increasingly aware that food choices influence both the health and the health of the planet,” the team concluded
July 15, 2021
7 years. It’s how long the farm lasts with 5G BoomGrow it has existed, but it has not always been so efficient. Founders Jay, Murali, and Shan had initially explored different cultivation methods, from simple hydroponics to aquaponics.
Image Credit: Founders of BoomGrow
“We grew our greens in small boxes. We even tried to grow them outdoors. Nothing worked, ”Jay recalled in an interview with Vulcan Post.
This trial and error lasted for five years until the co-founders discovered AI-driven vertical agriculture. With this method, they realized that they could also grow their greens in a controlled indoor environment that would make harmful chemicals such as pesticides unnecessary.
Finally, they had found it the method that allowed them to properly achieve their goals of producing clean, tasty greens.
Using 95% less resources to get the same performance
“Our systems detect how diverse contributions like the light, the water, and the pH affect the quality and the flavor of our plants. That’s what we call our plant recipes, ”said Shan.
“We then rely on machine learning and data analysis to tailor each entry to the respective plant, producing tastier greens.”
The team says its system equipped with technology is Machine Farm. It is used in all reused BoomGrow shipping containers where crops are grown on modular plant racks.
According to the team, five piles of crops on a 360-square-foot plot can produce a yield that is the equivalent of the traditional harvests of a 1-acre outdoor farm.
With this technology and efficient use of space, they can grow 20 varieties of leafy vegetables and herbs in a residential neighborhood of Ampang.
At the same time, Jay said Machine Farm uses 95% less land, water, and fuel than traditional outdoor farms.
Its technology-based agricultural approach has seen BoomGrow achieve multiple milestones, from being the country’s first 5G showcase farm to receiving benefits from government grants from SME Corp, PlaTCOM Ventures, and MDEC.
One of his most proud moments was the validation of renowned chefs working in 5-star hotels, who placed an order for their greens and have since been loyal followers.
Dedicated to clean processes and products
Clearly, there are already several agents in the precision and vertical farming industry with more union, but few are as gung-ho about clean produce as BoomGrow is.
Cleaning doesn’t just mean pesticide-free vegetables; the team decided that value should be reflected in the overall operation of their business.
Inside a Container / Image Credit: BoomGrow
As a former national athlete, Murali wanted to start BoomGrow because he knew the difference a good diet could make.
Meanwhile, Shan is a trained architect who had developed an interest in sustainable design throughout his career. Fascinated by the way modular structures had minimal impact on their environment, he wanted to explore other avenues for incorporating sustainability into everyday life.
He is the director of innovation at BoomGrow, designing and bringing its plant systems to life. On the other hand, Jay was inspired to co-found BoomGrow after many years in sustainability consulting.
He told Vulcan Post: “Throughout my career, I have had consulting experience for various agricultural and F&B manufacturing companies. This allowed me to evaluate the data around some of the practices, as well as the disconnection that people from these organizations had about sustainability. ”
Bringing the head together led the team to arrive at the current solution that is committed to implementing the 12th Sustainable Development Goal, responsible consumption, and production.
Organic vegetable packages at competitive prices
With all the investment in technology growing their organic greens, it looks like a purchase of them should cost a bomb.
But because they are able to eliminate the need for extensive land located in remote areas and a long cold chain, they can offer their vegetables at a competitive price.
BoomGrow sells 5 to 6 varieties of vegetables depending on the package you want, priced between 45 and 65 RM per package. Free delivery is offered to subscribers of weekly or fortnightly plans. Otherwise, deliveries to the Klang Valley would cost 10 RMS for purchases over 45 RM or 15 RM for those under 45 RMS.
Young Greens Growing on Modular Racks / Image Credit: BoomGrow
Compared to another vegetable delivery service with a subscription model, Plant B, BoomGrow prices are reasonable.
Floor B offers 6 types of vegetables in a box and a two-week subscription would be RM37 / week, while a 4-week subscription would be RM34 / week. Shipping costs are offered at fixed rates of RM6-RM8 depending on where you are in the Klang Valley.
For both BoomGrow and Plant B, people may not be able to choose exactly what goes into their box, but Plant B customers will be informed of the variety they can expect depending on the season and availability. You can also contact the team for exclusions.
On the other hand, BoomGrow clearly lists each variety of vegetables in a package with the assigned weight, so you’ll know exactly what you’ll get. To add, plant B does not claim that its product is organic.
Improve your B2C services during the pandemic
When the pandemic first hit in 2020, BoomGrow saw a sharp drop in overall sales as hotels and restaurants had to cut back on their orders.
Conversely, their e-commerce orders increased as more people subscribed to their vegetable packages.
“The pandemic has underscored the urgency of building better food production, including fresh vegetables. Customers are increasingly aware that food choices influence both the health and the health of the planet,” the team concluded.
They were able to meet this demand thanks to the support of MaGIC, particularly as part of cohort 4 al Global Accelerator Program.
Through it, their technology pipelines became more focused and were able to expand their digital footprints, refine e-commerce offerings, and improve their automation. Now, BoomGrow is preparing a launch of its machine factories outside of Klang Valley to reach more customers.
Outside, they will come face to face with more players in the vegetable delivery space, but perhaps their technology and mission will differentiate them in the long run and attract a segment of customers with whom their mission resonates.
RMA Authorizes Emergency Procedures To Help Drought-Impacted Producers
The USDA’s Risk Management Agency is working with crop insurance companies to streamline and accelerate the adjustment of losses and issuance of indemnity payments to crop insurance policyholders in impacted areas, according to a news release
By TOM KARST
July 13, 2021
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is authorizing emergency procedures to help agricultural producers impacted by extreme drought conditions.
The USDA’s Risk Management Agency is working with crop insurance companies to streamline and accelerate the adjustment of losses and issuance of indemnity payments to crop insurance policyholders in impacted areas, according to a news release.
The agency said the new crop insurance flexibilities are part of USDA’s broader response to help producers impacted by drought, in the West, Northern Great Plains, Caribbean and other areas.
“Crop insurance helps producers weather natural disasters like drought,” RMA Acting Administrator Richard Flournoy said in the release. “We recognize the distress experienced by farmers and ranchers because of drought, and these emergency procedures will authorize insurance companies to expedite the claims process, enabling them to plant a new crop or a cover crop.”
Emergency procedures allow insurance companies to accept delayed notices of loss in certain situations, streamline paperwork, and reduce the number of required representative samples when damage is consistent, according to the release.
Producers should contact their crop insurance agent as soon as they notice damage, the agency said.
The insurance company must have an opportunity to inspect the crop before the producer puts their crop acres to another use. If the company cannot make an accurate appraisal, or the producer disagrees with the appraisal at the time the acreage is to be destroyed or no longer cared for, the insurance company and producer can determine representative sample areas to be left intact and maintained for future appraisal purposes, according to the release. Once an insured crop has been appraised and released, or representative strips have been authorized for later appraisal, the producer may cut the crop for silage, destroy it or take any other action on the land including planting a cover crop, the release said.
Additional information on these emergency procedures is available on RMA’s Crop Insurance and Drought Damaged Crop webpage.
USA - WISCONSIN: Kenosha Plan Commission Backs Plans For Indoor Garden Facility Near City Airport
The Plan Commission on Thursday reviewed and advanced a proposed year-round standalone indoor garden facility adjacent to the existing Gordon Food Service distribution plant at 10901 38th St. GFS plans to partner with Square Roots, an organization specializing in urban farming, in the development. A new 8,715-square-foot facility will be used to grow fresh produce, greens, and herbs
DAVE FIDLIN
Kenosha News correspondent
June 27, 2021
A food distributor’s plans for a year-round indoor garden facility on Kenosha’s northwest side moved one step closer to reality, following a city panel’s favorable recommendation.
The Plan Commission on Thursday reviewed and advanced a proposed year-round standalone indoor garden facility adjacent to the existing Gordon Food Service distribution plant at 10901 38th St.
GFS plans to partner with Square Roots, an organization specializing in urban farming, in the development. A new 8,715-square-foot facility will be used to grow fresh produce, greens, and herbs.
Gordon has forged similar partnerships with Square Roots at other distribution centers within the U.S., the first taking place two years ago near the company’s Michigan-based corporate headquarters.
At a Thursday’s meeting, GFS representatives indicated the indoor garden facility would serve a variety of purposes, with about 60 percent of it going toward direct-to-consumer retail sales and the balance toward distribution.
Down the road, company officials have indicated the new operation could have an educational component, such as workshops on how basil is grown. Partnerships with nearby colleges and universities also were discussed as a possibility.
During deliberations, several members of the panel lauded the plans for the site. Commissioner Lydia Spottswood said she viewed Square Roots’ addition as an example of forward-thinking development.
“It seems like a brilliant opportunity for more and more (of this type of development) to happen, given the proximity to Lake Michigan,” Spottswood said. “We’re trying to brand this as a city of innovation, and this is an innovative process.”
Commissioner Charles Bradley said he, too, was pleased with the proposal, though he did weigh in on the proximity of the development, which is near the Kenosha Regional Airport.
“I’m happy, but I am a little surprised by the location,” Bradley said.!
Commissioners also discussed GFS and Square Roots’ planned building materials for the new facility, which include the use of metal shipping containers on a portion of the facility.
According to information commissioners reviewed, the shipping containers will be accessible from inside the building and will include windows cut into the ends of the containers, alongside perforated architectural metal screens along the exposed sidewalls.
The companies’ tentative plans state the shipping containers will be stacked two rows high, 10 containers wide. A portion of the facility also will be constructed with more traditional building materials, including a concrete foundation and exterior walls made of insulated metal.
“This is a really interesting, adaptive reuse,” Spottswood said.
The City Council, which has final say on the proposal, will take up the Plan Commission’s recommendation and could act on it in July.
Meeting in person
Thursday’s Plan Commission meeting was the first time the appointed body gathered in-person, since COVID-19 lockdowns forced an abrupt pivot to virtual meetings in March 2020.
As is the case with all Kenosha municipal meetings, the Plan Commission is reverting back to its pre-pandemic practices.
“I’m very excited about it,” said Ald. David Bogdala, who serves on the Plan Commission. “We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, and I’m glad to see, for the most part, that we’re back to normal.”
Lead photo: A concept rendering of the southeast view of the proposed Square Roots and Gordon Food Service indoor garden facility adjacent to the existing GFS distribution plant at 10901 38th St.
Container Farming To Increase Food Security In The Caribbean
As part of our Grow Food Here series, join us for a live conversation with Freight Farmers, Lincoln Deal, and Latesha Gibson from Eeden Farms
Hear How Eeden Farms Is Bringing Fresh,
Local Produce To Their Island.
As part of our Grow Food Here series, join us for a live conversation with Freight Farmers, Lincoln Deal, and Latesha Gibson from Eeden Farms. Throughout the event, we’ll explore how they brought container farming to the Bahamas to reduce the island’s reliance on food imports and serve their local community with the freshest local food available. We’ll also discuss the challenges farmers face in the Bahamas, what they’re currently growing in their three container farms and their plans for the future.
At the end of the event, Lincoln and Latesha will answer your questions through the live q & a
Register Now
Wednesday, July 14th, 2021 12 PM EST
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Vertical Farming For The Future
Beyond providing fresh local produce, vertical agriculture could help increase food production and expand agricultural operations as the world’s population is projected to exceed 9 billion by 2050
Posted by Sarah Federman, AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow, Office of the Chief Scientist andPaul M. Zankowski, Senior Advisor for Plant Health and Production and Plant Products, Office of the Chief Scientist in Research and Science
Aug 14, 2018
Indoor And Vertical Farming
May Be Part of The Solution To Rising Demands
For Food And Limited Natural Resources
Imagine walking into your local grocery store on a frigid January day to pick up freshly harvested lettuce, fragrant basil, juicy sweet strawberries, and ripe red tomatoes – all of which were harvested at a local farm only hours before you’d arrived. You might be imagining buying that fresh produce from vertical farms where farmers can grow indoors year-round by controlling light, temperature, water, and oftentimes carbon dioxide levels as well. Generally, fresh produce grown in vertical farms travels only a few miles to reach grocery store shelves compared to conventional produce, which can travel thousands of miles by truck or plane.
Beyond providing fresh local produce, vertical agriculture could help increase food production and expand agricultural operations as the world’s population is projected to exceed 9 billion by 2050. And by that same year, two out of every three people are expected to live in urban areas. Producing fresh greens and vegetables close to these growing urban populations could help meet growing global food demands in an environmentally responsible and sustainable way by reducing distribution chains to offer lower emissions, providing higher-nutrient produce, and drastically reducing water usage and runoff.
Recently, USDA and the Department of Energy held a stakeholder workshop focused on vertical agriculture and sustainable urban ecosystems. At this workshop, field experts shared thought-provoking presentations followed by small group discussions focusing on areas such as plant breeding, pest management, and engineering. Workshop attendees from public and private sectors worked together to identify the challenges, needs, and opportunities for vertical farming. A report on this workshop will be released to help inform Departmental strategic planning efforts for internal research priorities at USDA and external funding opportunities for stakeholders and researchers.
We’re excited about the potential opportunities vertical agriculture presents to address food security. That’s why USDA already has some of these funding and research opportunities in place. The National Institute for Food and Agriculture has funding opportunities (PDF, 1.22 MB) that could support future vertical agriculture conferences and research. Similarly, the Agricultural Research Service is working on a project to increase U.S. tomato production and quality in greenhouses and other protected environments. We look forward to continuing our partnership with our customers, both internal and external.
Lead Photo: Photo credit: Oasis Biotech
Category/Topic: Research and Science
Tags: Office of the Chief Scientist National Institute of Food and Agriculture NIFA Agricultural Research Service ARS Department of Energy vertical farming
How UAE Produce Is Taking Over The Dining Table: 'We Are Growing All This On Our Doorstep'
Local farms are reporting a rise in demand, while Atlantis, The Palm resort has introduced an initiative to put UAE produce on its restaurants' tables
Local farms are reporting a rise in demand, while Atlantis, The Palm resort has introduced an initiative to put UAE produce on its restaurants' tables
Oasis Greens is a hydroponic farm located in the Jebel Ali free Zone. All photos by Antonie Robertson / The National unless otherwise mentioned
The concept of a “farm tour” is not what it once was.
Instead of the smell of open mud and fertilizer that I used to equate with a farm, I’m standing inside a pristine, temperature-controlled room that contains rows of herbs and leafy greens stretching out to the ceiling.
I am at Oasis Greens, one of many hydroponic, vertical farms to have cropped up in Dubai over the past few years. In this high-tech environment, seeds are planted into foam, which is placed in a solution that provides plants with all the nutrients they need, while LED lights overhead mimic the rays of the run.
The process involves no messy soil or pests and, by default, no need for pesticides either, while 90 percent less water is used than required by traditional farms. The result is sustainably grown, organic and local produce – from varieties of lettuce (be it butterheads and icebergs) to kale, rocket, and bok choy.
Why buy UAE-grown fruits and veggies?
Oasis Green hydroponic farm, located in Jebel Ali Free Zone. Antonie Robertson / The National
Whether it’s a hydroponic or traditional farm, there are indisputable benefits of opting for local over imported produce, which is being noticed by both consumers and big brands.
Among the latter is Atlantis, The Palm, which has launched a sustainability initiative titled the Atlantis Atlas Project.
One of the cornerstones of this campaign is a pledge to give diners access to dishes that are made with locally sourced and organic ingredients, grown and harvested in the UAE. Kelly Timmins, director of conservation, education and corporate social responsibility at the hotel, says the reason for this is two-fold.
“One of the key focuses for Atlantis is to look at increasing our use of local suppliers and vendors as part of our commitment to drive the whole local economy."
She says using local produce is better for the environment as it reduces freight and the carbon footprint involved with bringing in goods from across the world.
Plants are grown in foam rather than soil in hydroponic farms like Oasis Greens. Antonie Robertson / The National
“We are trying to see how we can source perishable products responsibly. Sustainability is a journey and to get there we need the involvement of our community,” she explains.
To procure fresh ingredients on a daily basis, Atlantis, The Palm has teamed up with Fresh on Table, which works as a facilitator between UAE farms and consumers. The company, which launched in Dubai in 2019, takes orders from hotels, stores and customers online, and co-ordinates with farms to ensure that the product is harvested, packaged and delivered the next day.
According to commercial manager Garima Gambhir, the company has grown month-on-month, and currently works with more than 1,000 farms, as well as big hotel groups.
Home-grown company Fresh on Table supplies products from farms to consumers. Supplied
“Chefs realise that local produce is just fresher and going to last longer on the shelf, as opposed to something that has, say, been imported from [the Netherlands] and passed through three days of transit before reaching the kitchen,” she says.
The pandemic has also had an invariable role to play in the rising demand for local produce.
“When borders and hotels started closing last year, the supply food chain was disrupted. With distributors unable to fulfil contracts from international suppliers, we were able to pitch in because everything was local, reliable, and could be picked up from a farm and delivered in a few hours,” says Gambhir.
Oasis Greens currently grows varieties of lettuce, leafy greens and microgreens. Antonie Robertson / The National
Local farms have also witnessed a spike in demand over the past year. Nikita Patel, founder of Oasis Greens, says despite the pandemic, business has been good, with a notable rise in online orders.
“Everyone has been at home, cooking. And even though we didn’t have a lot of tourists come in, residents weren’t leaving, either,” she says.
“I think the pandemic made people realise that food security isn’t a theoretical thing. In a lot of countries, people were having issues with grocery items running out, but the UAE did a very good job ensuring that didn’t happen. Over the past year, more companies are looking inwards and seeing how they can source local. We are just riding the wave.”
Hydroponic farms in the UAE
At UNS Hydroponic, custom LED lights mimic the rays of the sun, helping plants grow. Antonie Robertson / The National
Oasis Greens grows approximately 12 to 15 types of herbs and leafy greens, and has started cultivating microgreens. “The aim is to get into fruits and vegetables, too,” says Patel. “We want to grow cherry tomatoes, chillies and more.”
Within the industrial area of Al Quoz, meanwhile, grows one of the largest, most lush indoor vertical farms in the region. UNS Farms is home to 16 varieties of leafy greens and 16 varieties of micro greens across a space of 5,600 square metres.
During a tour, executive director Mehlam Murtaza asks us to dip our feet in a solution to ensure we don’t track any crop-destroying bacteria or germs inside, before explaining how different elements can affect the growth of plants.
“Our LED lights are a custom design with a special spectrum. Each colour actually has a different effect on the crop – they can widen the leaf size, make them longer or have another indirect effect,” he says.
The nutritional value of the plant remains unchanged, though, with a lot depending on the quality of the seeds used. The seed also plays a role in the taste – at USN Farms, I’m given two types of basil leaves, Thai and Italian. Despite the fact that both varieties are grown in the UAE, the Italian version is subtle in taste and smell, while the Thai is sharper.
UNS Farms in Al Quoz is spread over 5,600 square metres. Antonie Robertson / The National
“We have just scratched the surface about what we can do,” says Murtaza. In the future, research and development may be able to further tweak the taste of plants, he adds. "Who knows what's next? Maybe cotton-candy-flavoured herbs."
With a number of perks of buying local, it does beg the question: why haven’t hotels been doing this all along?
Murtaza says it’s only in the past couple of years that vertical farms have developed to deal with the volume they need. Even then, the maintenance and power required to run hydroponic farms means only certain crops can be grown at financially feasible rates.
Locally 'farmed' seafood in the UAE
Fish Farm in Jebel Ali grows organic and regular salmon, sea bass, sea bream, yellow tail kingfish and hammour. Antonie Robertson / The National
Supporting local goes beyond leafy greens. While the UAE is blessed with an abundance of seafood, there is still a reliance on imports.
That's something home-grown company Fish Farm is aiming to change. Launched in 2013, the company identified the most in-demand fish species being imported and sought to change this by growing them within the country. It currently produces organic and regular salmon, sea bass, sea bream, yellowtail kingfish, and hammour.
“It’s all part of building our food security,” says chief executive Bader bin Mubarak. “At the moment, less than 10 percent of the fish is locally acquired. We want to be able to cover the entire UAE market.”
The company plans on doing this with the help of three facilities: a caged farming facility in Dibba, a hatchery in Umm Al Quwain, and a land farming facility in Jebel Ali.
At the facility in Jebel Ali, Mubarak explains how juveniles and eggs were first sourced from different parts of the globe to ensure the right genetics.
“But since then, we have been hatching our own fish eggs,” he says. The Fish Farm was the first establishment in the world to grow Atlantic salmon on land, from eggs, Mubarak says.
Fish Farm has recreated ideal marine conditions for various species of fish. Antonie Robertson / The National
Business development manager Edmund Broad agrees that it is all about growing and harvesting seafood in the most sustainable manner possible.
“One of the biggest problems with the seafood industry is the pressure it puts on wild fish stocks, through commercial hunting using huge nets. We are a substitute for this. By growing fish on land in a controlled and secure environment, we are not taking anything from the sea. We’re leaving the oceans alone.”
The farm has recreated the ideal environments required by fish, many of which stem from cold-water countries, such as Scotland and Iceland. The fish swim in an area with appropriate salinity, currents, temperature, pH level, and even lighting.
“We’ve recreated the ideal marine conditions suitable to each species: the Atlantic for the salmon, the Pacific for the yellowtail kingfish, the Gulf for the hammour and the Mediterranean for the sea bass,” explains Broad.
The farm currently produces 3,000 metric tonnes of fish per year. “By 2030, we want 50 per cent of seafood consumed to be produced within the country,” says Broad.
From farm to table
UAE residents can get a taste of these sustainable and local ingredients in some of the best restaurants in the country. Thanks to its sustainability pledge, nine of Atlantis, The Palm's signature restaurants are serving dishes with ingredients grown and harvested in Dubai.
Locally hand picked mushrooms, pecorino and truffle at Bread Street Kitchen. Courtesy Atlantis, The Palm
Guests can tuck into locally produced burrata from Bread Street Kitchen or an organic salmon carpaccio from Seafire Steakhouse. Hakkasan is offering dim sum with locally handpicked chestnut mushrooms while Nobu has a crispy hand-picked shiitake mushroom truffle salad.
Ronda Locatelli, The Shore, Wavehouse, and White Restaurant are some other restaurants offering dishes with sustainable ingredients.
Seven-day dry-aged organic Atlantic salmon, grown in the UAE, is available at Seafire Steakhouse. Courtesy Atlantis, The Palm
Raymond Wong, chef de cuisine at Seafire Steakhouse, says the difference between imported and local ingredients is staggering.
“As a chef, an import order is always challenging as you need to place it three to four days in advance for your produce to come in time. But with this initiative, we can order just a day in advance from sustainable farms in Dubai and the produce is as fresh as it can be.”
He hopes this will encourage other restaurants and hotels to follow suit. “I think it will bring a lot of awareness. A lot of people don’t even know we are growing all this on our doorstep.”
June 13, 2021 07:48 AM
Squamish Nation Grows Plans For Food Security With Hydroponic Farm
While the outside of this 40-foot container is rather striking, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. 🌱
Noah Hilton
May 22, 2021
USA - KENTUCKY: Elliott County High School Receives New Container Farm Through AppHarvest
The curriculum provided by AppHarvest will cover topics such as high-tech growing and an introductory course on local food systems and food resiliency
May. 29, 2021
SANDY HOOK, Ky. (WSAZ) - Some students at Elliott County High School will soon be able to help grow food -- not only for themselves but for the entire region.
The Elliott County High School container farm is the fourth addition to AppHarvest’s program in 2021 and the sixth educational container farm to date.
The container farm program was launched in 2018 and demonstrates AppHarvest’s ongoing commitment to cultivating interest in high-tech farming as it seeks to create America’s AgTech capital from inside Appalachia. Each retrofitted shipping container acts as a hands-on agricultural classroom for students, allowing them to grow and provide fresh leafy greens to their classmates and those in need in their communities.
AppHarvest has opened container farms in Eastern Kentucky at Madison Central High School in Richmond; Breathitt High School in Jackson; Shelby Valley High School in Pikeville; and Rowan County Senior High School and AppHarvest’s flagship farm at Rockcastle County High School in Morehead.
Elliott County High School’s container farm includes space to grow up to 2,760 seedlings and 2,960 mature plants, all at once in a nutrient film technique (NFT) system. NFT is a water-saving system in which plant roots are continuously fed all necessary water and nutrients by a shallow stream, also called “film.” Excess water drains to a holding tank and is then recirculated. This system of high-tech growing sets the Elliott County container apart from AppHarvest’s other educational containers, which have operated hydroponically and vertically.
“One of our goals at AppHarvest is to build an AgTech capital right here in Appalachia,” said Jonathan Webb, AppHarvest Founder, and CEO. “We want to see communities across the region use technology to bring farms to life. And in five years from now, it’ll be leaders from these very programs coming to us with ideas on how we continue to evolve and change agriculture.”
Makayla Rose, Elliott County High School agriculture teacher, will lead the newest container program.
The curriculum provided by AppHarvest will cover topics such as high-tech growing and an introductory course on local food systems and food resiliency.
“This is exciting. Some students who might not like to get in the dirt have a different way of growing vegetables,” said Garret Barker, president of Elliot County’s FFA chapter. “It’s different than my farm at home. It doesn’t depend on outside factors like the rain. It’s all controlled by an app.”
Lead Photo: Elliott County High School receives new container farm through AppHarvest (Kimberly Keagy/ WSAZ)
USA - FLORIDA: St. Pete’s Brick Street Farms Gets Multi-Million-Dollar Investment From Lykes Bros
Lykes Bros., one of the oldest and largest agribusinesses in Florida, is putting a big bet on the future of farming as it invests in Brick Street Farms, an urban farm, and market in St. Petersburg
May 20, 2021
Photo credit: Brick Street Farms
Lykes Bros., one of the oldest and largest agribusinesses in Florida, is putting a big bet on the future of farming as it invests in Brick Street Farms, an urban farm and market in St. Petersburg.
Lykes is making a “significant” investment in Brick Street Farms, the two companies announced at a news conference Thursday. The amount of investment was not disclosed, but a news release described it as “multi-million dollar” investment. Lykes will take a 20 percent ownership stake in Brick Street Farms because of the deal, Mallory Dimmitt, vice president of strategic partnerships at Lykes, told the St. Pete Catalyst.
Brick Street Farms will use the investment to accelerate the expansion of Brick Street Farms hubs, an all-inclusive onsite farming and retail shopping experience in urban cores, said Shannon O’Malley, founder and CEO. The company has self-contained, environmentally sustainable THRIVE containers that will be placed in each hub. Each hub will grow between 16 to 20 acres of farmland on one-third acre lots.
Mallory Dimmitt, vice president at Lykes Bros., announces investment in Brick Street Farms while Nikki Fried, Florida Ag Commissioner, looks on.
The first new hub will open in St. Petersburg’s Warehouse Arts District in late 2021, with an expansion to Tampa in early 2022 followed by more hubs on the east coast, O’Malley said.
“We are the future of farming, and our new investors have the perfect expertise to help us take our successful business model in sustainable farming to feed more people healthy food,” O’Malley said.
The two companies first connected in November at the Florida-Israel Agriculture Innovation Summit, hosted by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said Nikki Fried, Florida Department of Agriculture Commissioner.
The collaboration meets several goals, including feeding people in urban locations, fighting urban food deserts and food insecurity, bringing farm-to-fork produce closer to people and bringing cutting edge agriculture technology to everyone.
From left, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman and Shannon O’Malley, founder and CEO, Brick Street Farms
Brick Street Farms is a hub of innovation and creativity and is the only female-founded and led company in the vertical farming industry, said St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman. He also highlighted the work of the company’s non-profit Desert Farms Foundation.
“Not only is Brick Street Farms working to make us healthier by providing us some of the best and freshest food around, but through its 501c3, Brick Street Farms is working to end food deserts through the Tampa Bay area,” Kriseman said.
Every urban environment struggles with food deserts, said Tampa Mayor Jane Castor.
“The problems that occur from those food deserts are often times for many communities insurmountable. This is a solution to so many problems,” Castor said.
She also praised the company’s business model. It is financially successful by providing produce to a number of restaurants, Castor said.
While an urban focus might seem like an unusual fit for company like Lykes, which owns hundreds of thousands of rural acres throughout the state, “We know from our experience that innovation is what moves the agriculture industry forward,” said Dimmitt, who will join the Brick Street Farms board of directors.
“In addition to innovations in sustainable production and the technology it uses, the job opportunities and related job training and skills are key to Florida’s future and to our health and wellness,” Dimmitt said. “What could be better medicine than high-quality nutrient-dense greens grown close to the consumer where they have direct access, all while creating community.”
Brick Street Farms, at 2233 3rd Ave. S. was founded in 2016 by O’Malley and her husband, Brad Doyle. Read more about O’Malley in St. Pete Catalyst‘s Hustle profile.
Purpose At Work: How Square Roots Is Growing A Sustainable Food Movement
How can we reduce the climate impacts of our food system? How can we get the freshest produce to people in urban areas? How can we offer fulfilling jobs to today’s youth? These are all issues that Square Roots is working to address
May 24, 2021
Purpose At Work: How Square Roots Is Growing A Sustainable Food Movement
PHOTO PROVIDED BY SQUARE ROOTS
How can we reduce the climate impacts of our food system? How can we get the freshest produce to people in urban areas? How can we offer fulfilling jobs to today’s youth? These are all issues that Square Roots is working to address.
“The mission of the company is to bring locally grown food to people in cities, all across the world while empowering the next generation of leaders in urban agriculture,” Tobias Peggs, Co-founder, and CEO of Square Roots, tells We First.
The agriculture startup’s modular and technology-first design is transforming how food is grown and distributed in amazing ways. The scalability and data-driven approach make Square Roots an excellent example of a company demonstrating how to scale business growth and impact.
Founding story
Before Square Roots, Tobias received a Ph.D. in machine learning and had worked for a number of successful startups, one of which was acquired by Walmart. “I worked as a data scientist there for a year. One of the projects they had me do was study global grocery buying behaviors.” With around 300 million customers, Tobias had a massive amount of data to pull insights from.
“That's a lot of bananas flying all over the world,” he says. “You begin to think about the impact of transportation on the planet. “As food is traveling, nutrients are breaking down and maybe the quality of food isn't as good at the end of long supply chains as it would be for local food. Customers don't have any idea of where that food comes from. The sense of community around food was just lost.”
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Vertical Indoor Farms Make Sense
The insights Peggs was having lit a spark in his entrepreneurial engine. “People want food from all over the world. That's not going to change,” he says. “Instead of shipping food, how about we ship environmental data from one part of the world to the other?” By collecting data on the best growing conditions, Tobias could hypothetically grow anything at any time of year in a controlled indoor environment made from repurposed shipping containers and deliver that to a nearby retail store on the day it’s picked. “It looks and smells amazing, which also means all the nutrients are intact,” he says. “That was the idea behind Square Roots.”
Peggs cofounded the company with Kimbal Musk, “He would say, ‘Can it feed the world? And are we going to make a massive positive impact? If so, let's figure out how to get this done,’” Peggs recalls. The two innovators began by working together in a WeWork office. “With the experience of being involved in a number of startup companies before—some successful, some failure—I know for sure that if you don't get started, you're going to fail.”
In the two-man brainstorming sessions, Peggs and Musk would visualize the business at scale. “We saw these modular farms in every city across the world. That is the way that we're able to think about feeding every consumer on the planet with locally-grown food,” Peggs says. “There was a missing piece of the puzzle. There wouldn't be enough farmers to hire to staff all of those farms.” That realization was the foundation of the second pillar of Square Roots’ purpose, “To provide pathways for young people to come into the farming industry and become the future leaders,” he shares.
Leading with purpose
Purpose At Work: How Square Roots Is Growing A Sustainable Food Movement
PHOTO PROVIDED BY SQUARE ROOTS
Square Roots’ core business was structured to address some of the world’s biggest challenges. Food is interconnected with climate, which also poses risks on outdoor crops. It is also fundamental to public health and prosperity. As the global population rises, our planet’s carrying capacity will be tested. We need to innovate to meet that rising global demand for food.
The model relies on able-bodied young people to tend to the crops. The talent pool of skilled farmers in the U.S. is aging. The average farmer is 58 years old. “Who the hell is going to grow all the food when our current farmers retire in five or 10 years’ time? ” Tobias proposes. “We had to figure out a way to bring young people into the industry and train them quickly so they could be not just productive farmers, but feel infused about a career in a completely new industry.”
To overcome the hurdle, the founders developed hardware, software and teaching methods. “We had an investment banker who was bored sitting behind a spreadsheet all day. He quit his job to join Square Roots because he wanted to make an impact on the world. He was growing the most delicious kale, you've ever tasted in your life,” Peggs says. “That was six months after making the transition, it was magic to see that.” Within a year they trained 10 people, many with no previous farming experience.
In addition to creating purpose-driven employment opportunities, Square Roots is addressing climate through transportation and waste. “Forty percent of food from industrial systems is wasted. We waste around 3%,” Tobias says. A significant portion of wasted food is discarded before it even hits the shelf, due to damages during shipping or spoiling quickly. “Because we're indoor, there's a lot of precision, a lot of control. We can grow food for demand.”
Modular design
Square Roots’ structure allows it to be replicated and optimized from a systems approach. It's a distributed model. “We deploy clusters of these modular farms together so there's some operational scale and the business economics work,” Peggs explains. “Each farm serves its local market and runs its own independent business entity, set on top of a standard technology platform.” Every compound grows, harvests packages and delivers produce to local retailers. “We look after everything from seed to shelf.”
The growing startup has set up operations in Brooklyn, New York, and Grand Rapids, Michigan with plans for expansion across the Midwest, the North East in cities around the world where demand is large enough. People can see inside the shipping containers and when Covid-19 is under control, you can schedule a farm tour. “While its a very scalable platform, the consumer experience is a hyper-local one.”
Leveraging data & technology
When it comes to deciding what to grow, Square Roots focuses on crops that require the least amount of energy. “Walk into a supermarket. Lineup every single fruit and vegetable from the lightest to the heaviest. And that's essentially our product roadmap for the next 20 years,” Peggs says.
They also choose crops based on economic yields based on competitive market prices. “This is where data science and technology marry,” Tobias says. “Outdoor farmers can’t suddenly look at the sun, make it twice as efficient and reduce costs or double their yield. Indoor farmers can.”
Integration of AI machine learning empowers Square Roots to optimize at scale. “We're building a network of cloud-connected modular farms,” Tobias says. The company monitors and collects data from each of those farms every second. “We’re looking at temperature, humidity, nutrients, yield, taste and texture,” Peggs says. “ If in one particular box, a farmer did something or we changed an environmental parameter that increased yield or improves efficiency, we can spot that information from the data and push that new instruction out across the whole network. The whole network is learning how to farm better as we go about building the business.”
Building community
Food has the potential to unite people. While Square Roots farms are indoors, they connect and share knowledge with outdoor farmers. “ I'll give you an example,” Tobias says. “A good technique in organic farming is known as integrated pest management, where a farmer might release beneficial insects onto the crop, essentially ridding the nasty insects that we don't want. We use that technique inside the farm.”
“The farmers that we work with are very much on the same mission, which is how do we get people more connected with where their food comes from? How do we build that sense of community around food? And I think the common enemy is the industrial food system,” Peggs says. That common enemy also resonates with employees, consumers and other key stakeholders who join together around a set of core values.
“I know pretty much every founder or CEO of every indoor farming company. There's remarkable alignment around that mission,” Tobias says. “Everybody understands that we've got to change the food system and if we're helping each other out, it's better for all of us,” Tobias mentions companies like Gotham Greens and Oishii that are also innovating in the indoor farming space.
Purpose also informs Square Roots’ investor strategy. “We’re a venture-backed company. When we're talking with investors, we want to make sure that they're mission aligned. I can’t tell you how many investors have talked to me about considering cannabis. It’s not aligned with our mission.” A lot of people don't realize that the power of purpose is just as compelling in terms of what you don't do, as opposed to what you do.
The takeaway here is that building your community around shared purpose fosters goodwill amongst team members and customers. It also presents collaborative opportunities with other brands and organizations working towards the same goal.
Challenges and opportunities
With the opaque information in the industrial food system and increased health consciousness, consumers are looking for transparency. In addition to its open invitation to check out the farms, the company includes a QR code on each product. You can scan the code and learn all about where it's made and the value chain.
Purpose At Work: How Square Roots Is Growing A Sustainable Food Movement
PHOTO PROVIDED BY SQUARE ROOTS
Covid-19 has also presented challenges for businesses across sectors and Square Roots is no exception. Before the pandemic, they trained new hires to be farmers in classrooms. “If we didn't have our mission, it would have been easy to say, ‘We got to keep growing, forget this farmer training stuff. We're just going to go hire experienced people.’ Or we could have developed a robot to do part of the job of a farmer,” Tobias says.
“The mission allowed us to focus on solving issues with our current business model,” he continues. “It was already misaligned. Everyone was able to get behind it very quickly. And we were actually able to solve problems and put in place new programs and new policies ridiculously quickly. Never waste a good crisis.”
Despite adversity, the startup has started true to its mission and transitioned to digital and socially distanced training, and built a more robust system than before.
The future of food
Technology and data are a critical aspect of emerging agriculture trends. “Food is a $12 trillion industry,” Peggs states. “There's about 20 companies that have raised a bunch of money and are doing this stuff in America.”
“Indoor farming actually reminds me of the internet in the early '90s,” he says. “We know this thing is inevitable, but no one can quite yet tell you what shape it's going to take in the future. Indoor farming is like that. We're all helping each other figure out how this eventually feeds every consumer in the world.”
While innovation is budding, “The food system has to become a lot more responsible and sustainable,” Peggs says. “The current food system cannot feed the new future world, which has 10 billion people, 70% living in urban areas that are not near these industrial farms.”
We’ve seen changes over the last two decades with the organic food movement, which now grosses $25 to $30 billion annually, Tobias says. He thinks that Covid-19 will accelerate the shift towards healthy and sustainable food. “People were forced to stay at home and cook. You get more curious about the food that you're buying, and you observe how long it lasts in your refrigerator. You get more educated,” Tobias says. “We are in the first inning of indoor farming. We're just getting started.”
Lessons for entrepreneurs
With his experience from Square Roots and beyond, Tobias Peggs’ insights offer valuable lessons for entrepreneurs looking to Lead With We. Here are three teachings from Peggs on how to build a successful startup.
“Be prepared to be told, "No, we're not interested."
“You have to be a bit of a missionary and sign up for having a lot of stamina. Just be consistent with the drumbeat that this idea—no matter how crazy it might seem—you can do it.”
“There are going to be bumps in the road, there are going to be things that don't go quite right. If there's a shared purpose articulation of what the mission is, you move through those things and you make it happen. Purpose is a very powerful multiplier.”
Simon Mainwaring is the founder and CEO of We First, a strategic consultancy that accelerates growth and impact for purpose-driven brands by putting 'We' first. I specialize in brand strategy, culture building and impact storytelling for startups, high-growth companies, and Fortune 500 corporations. My national podcast is LeadWithWe.com on Spotify, Google and Apple. My book, We First: How brands and consumers use social media to build a better world is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon bestseller, and strategy+business named it the Best Business Marketing Book of the Year. I deliver keynotes, training, and workshops that help brands define, integrate and activate their purpose to drive growth and scale impact.
Visit SimonMainwaring.com for speaking and WeFirstBranding.com for consulting
USA-VIRGINIA: New Moneta Farm Redefines Method of Growing Fresh Produce
A new veteran-owned farm in Moneta is revamping traditional farming with advanced technology to serve up the freshest greens all year long
Its Growing 6,000 Greens A Month In A 40-Foot Box
MONETA, Va. – A new veteran-owned farm in Moneta is revamping traditional farming with advanced technology to serve up the freshest greens all year long.
Ditching the soil and bringing in a laptop, there’s a new hydroponic farm in Moneta.
Using selective lighting, balancing pH and nutrient levels, and releasing water through a bar of foam, Vittone Farms is growing 6,000 greens a month in a 40-foot box.
“365 days a year is what we can do,” Jeff Vittone, owner of Vittone Farms, said. “Which is also busting some paradigms. Like, ‘how do you do this and why is it ready and why is it so green?’ And it’s like well, it’s all grown here.”
The farm also uses green power by using a solar panel to produce a variety of foods stemming from lettuce to radishes to even carrots.
A lover of salads, Vittone said he got into hydroponics after noticing major food waste after E. coli scares.
After serving eight years active duty in the Air Force and a total of 12 years in the Virginia Air National Guard, Vittone turned his hobby into a business to put more fresh food on local tables.
“I believe if you ask any veteran they will say that after my duty to my country was served,” he said. “It’s like going without water. You still want to serve to some capacity.”
Now, he is calling on other veterans to get into the business.
By using only about five gallons of water a day, he encourages people to try container farming if they don’t have much land.
“If you have two, three acres of land that is just not enough to produce to make money but that’s enough for this to be there…small local communities and food deserts need this kind of technology.”
Hosting the Smith Mountain Lake Farmer’s Market, Vittone plans to highlight other local businesses from now till the week before Thanksgiving.
The farmer’s market is open on Fridays from 2 p.m to 6 p.m and Saturdays from 10 a.m to 2 p.m.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Alexus Davila
Alexus joined 10 News in October 2020.
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Czech Startup Introduces New Container Farm To The Market
A container farm supplied by GreeenTech will soon be parked in Prague's Smíchov district. The hydroponic container farm will grow herbs, vegetables, and small fruits. The other two containers will go to Dubai and Shanghai
Delivering To Prague, Dubai, And Shanghai
A container farm supplied by GreeenTech will soon be parked in Prague's Smíchov district. The hydroponic container farm will grow herbs, vegetables, and small fruits. The other two containers will go to Dubai and Shanghai.
"We bring a unique and modern approach to agriculture. With vertical hydroponics we will start food self-sufficiency not only in the Czech Republic," promises co-founder of GreeenTech Karolína Pumprová, who three years ago was at the birth of the Prague urban hydroponic farm HerbaFabrica, which supplies herbs to Prague restaurants.
The co-founders of Greeentech
She was later joined by entrepreneur Dmitrij Lipovský, who, after a year-long working stay in China, where he focused on ecology and sustainability issues, saw a TV report about the HerbaFabrica farm, and was so intrigued by it that together with Karolína Pumprová and technology director Milan Souček, they created the concept of GreeenTech, a technology, and cultivation company that was officially established last July. Dmitry Lipovsky invested six million crowns of his own money in the start-up and became CEO of the company.
Modular solution
GreeenTech currently has three divisions, each with its own unique product and business and marketing direction. Urbanio is a modular system whereby the company builds an urban hydroponic farm according to the customer's requirements. The price in this case starts at one and a half million crowns and depends on the number of modules purchased and the environment where it will be built. The technology was to be officially launched at Expo 2020 in Dubai.
GreeenBoxes are containers coming with GreeenTech's technology. The price for the smallest size supplied, 13 x 3 x 3 meters, is in the lower units of millions of crowns. The third division is HerbaFabrica, which sells crops to distributors and end customers. The company intends to offer its franchise in the future.
These containers make it possible to grow crops practically anywhere and anytime, even in the desert. According to Lipovský, the company will produce three containers this year, the first of which will be located in Prague's Smíchov, while the others will also be presented at the EXPO in Dubai. It is to Dubai and also Shanghai that the company wants to expand in the medium term.
"The goal is to build full container farms and to continuously improve our technology. But we are a startup, so we are constantly in a turbulent process," smiles the CEO of the company over the next plans and reveals that the final investment round with external investors is also now underway.
Everything from the container design to the software solution is being developed in-house. Some of the technical equipment is supplied by Siemens CR, which is also a long-term technology partner.
GreeenTech wants its technology to contribute to a sustainable solution to a potential future crisis around food shortages. The founders of GreeenTech promise a recurring harvest of local vegetables full of vitamins and intense flavor. Since the crops do not undergo protective spraying, they are suitable for children and allergy sufferers.
The business model for GreeenBox and Urbanio technologies work on both a sales and rental basis. "For both options, there is an 'after-sales service, where we supply seeds, substrates, fertilizers, as well as spare components for the technology and remote farm management," Lipovský explains.
He adds that GreeenTech also started offering the HerbaShare service to businesses, shops and restaurants a month ago. This is a structure with a cold box for preserving produce, where the company regularly delivers microgreens and vegetables. "Now we want to focus more on businesses as people come back to the office. We believe this is a really interesting employee benefit and a way to have a vitamin bomb right in the workplace," he concludes.
Source: StartupJobs
For more information:
Greeentech
info@greeen.tech
www.greeen.tech
18 May 2021
Florida Native Brick Street Farms Takes On Global Agriculture With Multi-Million Dollar Investment
The Ag Tech Innovator Scales its Local Approach to More Sustainably Feed Urban Communities
The Ag Tech Innovator Scales its Local Approach to More Sustainably Feed Urban Communities
St Petersburg, FL (May 19th, 2020)- Brick Street Farms announces their new investors, Lykes Bros., a milestone championed by Florida Department of Agriculture Commissioner Nicole “Nikki” Fried, Mayor Rick Kriseman, St. Petersburg, FL, and Mayor Jane Castor, Tampa, FL. With Lykes Bros financial commitment to Brick Street Farms, the AgTech leader will scale its mission to lead the way in disrupting agriculture and reinventing possibilities to sustainably feed more people from urban locations, offer Brick Street Farm’s expertise so we can bring farm to fork in cities and contribute to healthier lives.
COVID-19 and climate change have accelerated existing strains in global food accessibility and supply chains, highlighting the need to rethink the world’s agriculture systems, particularly in dense city areas. In response to this crisis, Crunchbase News has cited that agriculture technology investments have grown 250% in the past 5 years alone. Brick Street Farms has been at the forefront of this industry because of their unique experience in both design and manufacturing of their THRIVE Containers as well as the operation of those farms for financial sustainability.
The AgTech’s ground-breaking approach is to bring to life cultivation centers, also known as Brick Street Farms hubs, which will serve as an all-inclusive onsite farming and retail shopping experience in urban cores. Brick Street Farms is reinventing urban farming with our self-contained, environmentally sustainable THRIVE Containers placed in Hubs. These hubs will grow between 16-20 acres of farmland on 1/3 acre lots. This Climate-Controlled Agriculture (CEA) maximizes output and minimizes water resources.
Brick Street Farms Founder and CEO, Shannon O’Malley observed “We could not be more honored to have Lykes Bros. as our newest investor. Brick Street Farms hubs will be the first of its kind and we can’t wait to share this innovation with the world. Our farming expertise combined with Lykes 121 years of experience in agriculture brings unparalleled leadership to feed more people ‘farm to fork’.”
“Lykes Bros. is excited to be advancing and investing in the future of agriculture. We see Brick Street Farms’ leadership and innovation in the controlled environment sector as the perfect fit for our company. They share our commitment to pioneering the future, and their hub innovation is a bold blueprint for producing healthy food locally and sustainably,” says Mallory Dimmitt, VP of Strategic Partnerships, Lykes Bros.
For more information about Brick Street Farms visit www.brickstreetfarms.com.
About Brick Street Farms
Brick Street Farms produce is grown and sold out of its St. Petersburg, Florida headquarters with a mission to ignite a sustainable farm revolution by dramatically reshaping the global population’s ability to access to clean, healthy food. Built for farming in all environments, Brick Street Farms provides healthy, fresh greens, year-round.
About Lykes Bros.:
Founded by Dr. Howell Tyson Lykes and his seven sons in 1900, Lykes Bros. Inc. is a leading Florida-based agribusiness with cattle, citrus, farming, forestry, hunting, and land and water resources operations as well as major landholdings in Florida and Texas. www.lykes.com.
Square Roots Expands Premium Herbs Range With Fresh And Aromatic Cilantro, Dill, And Parsley Grown In Climate Controlled Local Farms Across The Country
Indoor farming company takes the next step in bringing local, real food to cities using modular farm technology that empowers both farmers and consumers
Indoor farming company takes the next step in bringing local, real food to cities using modular farm technology that empowers both farmers and consumers
May 17, 2021 (New York, NY) — Square Roots, the technology leader in urban indoor farming, is expanding its herb range by introducing three premium fresh offerings - Cilantro, Dill, and Parsley - to complement its widely successful signature Basil. Co-founded by Kimbal Musk, Square Roots’ herbs are grown across the company’s network of cloud-connected and climate-controlled indoor farms in New York and Michigan and are now available in more than 200 retail stores - including Whole Foods Market, Fresh Thyme Market, SpartanNash, and FreshDirect.
“COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of locally grown indoor produce”, said Raji Margolin, EVP of Sales and Marketing at Square Roots. “The habits of at-home cooking and using fresh, local produce are here to stay. Now more than ever, people care about the food they eat, and where it's grown - and our goal is to make sure that fresh and local food is available to consumers year-round. These herbs are just the beginning of our product offerings and we can’t wait to expand into additional categories.”
Square Roots has a strategic partnership with Gordon Food Service (GFS), one of the country’s leading food service providers, to deploy farms across the country together and provide fresh, high-quality, local food to consumers across cities, year-round. Square Roots broke ground on its latest indoor farm in Grand Rapids, Michigan in December 2020 and began planting seeds just three months later, in March 2021. This rapid deployment capability is enabled by the company’s modular farm-tech platform.
“We’re using technology a little differently at Square Roots farms”, said Tobias https://www.igrow.news/igrownews/indoor-ag-science-cafe-may-18th, Co-Founder, and CEO at Square Roots. “Food, farmers, and consumers are all connected at the center of our system. We surround our farmers with data, tools, and insights to help them grow more, better-tasting food with fewer resources. At the same time, with features like our unique Transparency Timeline, we help our consumers understand exactly where their food comes from and who grew it.”
The expanded herb range is available in both the New York City area and the Great Lakes Region.
About Square Roots
Square Roots is the technology leader in urban indoor farming. Its mission is to bring local, fresh, real food to people in cities around the world - setting new standards for transparency and responsibility while empowering the next generation of leaders in agriculture. Founded by serial entrepreneurs, Kimbal Musk and Tobias Peggs, its range of fresh produce is available in more than 200 retail locations around the country including Whole Foods Market, Fresh Thyme Market, SpartanNash, and FreshDirect. Square Roots’ strategic partnership with Gordon Food Service reinforces a larger shared ambition to build commercial scale, climate-controlled indoor farms together across the continent - enabling local food at a global scale, year-round.
For more information, please visit www.squarerootsgrow.com.
Raleigh Shipping Container Farm Using Hydroponic Technology
The technology that Nanue’s Farm uses was created by Boston-based company, Freight Farms. Each container has thousands of LED grow lights, temperature controls and uses between five and ten gallons of water each day
BY KYLEIGH PANETTA RALEIGH
MAY 10, 2021
RALEIGH, N.C. — Summer is one of the busiest and most profitable times for farmers across the state but what if they could grow produce year-round?
Nanue’s Farm in Raleigh is using some advanced technology to do just that.
What You Need To Know
Nanue's Farm is located in downtown Raleigh and uses hydroponic technology
The "container farm" is about 320-square feet and can hold 5,000 heads of lettuce
The technology is being used in dozens of countries and may help eliminate "food deserts"
Nanue’s Farm is on S. West Street, what some may say is a pretty strange place for a farm.
“This is in downtown Raleigh. You can see the great skyline we have here,” said Trevor Spear, the owner of Nanue’s Farm. “I walk to work when I can. I don’t have to drive.”
Spear admits that a seemingly empty parking lot with a shipping container is not what most people expect to see when they arrive at a farm.
“It’s funny because people don’t understand what it is. They think it’s just a shipping container and people are storing stuff inside it,” said Spear.
Nanue’s probably looks more like a science experiment than a farm.
“It’s 65 degrees, 60% humidity. Co2 runs at night, so we’re like 2,000 parts of Co2 in there. It’s optimal growing conditions for lettuce and that’s how we do it in seven weeks’ time,” said Spear.
Spear specializes in leafy, crunchy greens. Something else you can hear inside the farm, from time to time, is classical music.
“We play classical music at night and I think it makes a difference. They like it. Sometimes we play a little Van Halen but usually Bach or Beethoven,” said Spear who knows that a little TLC goes a long way and said every lettuce has a name.
It’s not your typical lettuce but Spear is also not your typical farmer. He named the farm after his grandmother, Lydie Cox.
"When I was a kid I would go have summers at Nanue’s house and she had a huge garden, an acre size garden. I would go up and down the rows with her as a kid. That’s where I probably got the bug because once it bites you, you live with the sting," said Spear.
Nanue’s Farm is getting a second container in June and hopefully a third by the end of the year. They currently offer home delivery to a few areas and are looking into creating a farm stand. The majority of the produce is sold to local restaurants in the area.
"When chefs come and tour the farm, they open the door and they’re like, 'Wow.' We can hold 5,000 heads of lettuce. We harvest 60 cases a week, so when they walk in and see that much lettuce growing and looking as good as it does, it’s a take-back," said Spear.
If you’re interested in trying some of their lettuce, you can also find a Nanue’s salad at Hummingbird, a restaurant in Raleigh.
The technology that Nanue’s Farm uses was created by Boston-based company, Freight Farms. Each container has thousands of LED grow lights, temperature controls and uses between five and ten gallons of water each day.
The containers also have cameras and connect to Wi-Fi so it can be monitored from an app or website. Freight Farms said the goal is to replicate an ideal farming environment so that more people have access to fresh produce.
“In the U.S., food moves 500 to 1,000 miles, predominantly from California. If you can move the farm then you can put a farm in a food desert and then you can grow the food and the hyperlocal food and the high nutritional values of that food. Either food deserts or even urban areas,” said James Woolard, the chief marketing officer for Freight Farms. “You might not think it’s a food desert but it is from a socio-economic point of view and an access point of view.”
It Is Time To Grow!
In an Urban farming pilot project, we grow leafy greens in a nutritious fluid, in a container powered with 100% renewable energy outside the IKEA Malmö store in Sweden
2ndProject portfolio Leader på IKEA, Ingka, Group Sustainability
The majority of IKEA visitors enjoy the IKEA food offer and today we enable millions of people to eat healthier and more sustainably by choosing our plant-based options. We are continuously exploring how we can contribute to a better, greener, and tastier future making healthier and more sustainable food accessible and affordable for many people.
In an Urban farming pilot project, we grow leafy greens in a nutritious fluid, in a container powered with 100% renewable energy outside the IKEA Malmö store in Sweden. This will not only result in delicious, fresh, locally grown greens that IKEA visitors can enjoy but what is more important this contributes to our ambition to become people and planet positive by 2030 by using fewer natural resources compared to conventional growing methods:
90% less water
No pesticides
No farmland
Less food waste
Together with Urban Crop Solutions we have installed a controlled-environment vertical farm where plants are grown in a closed system. Water and nutrients are used instead of soil and LED-light is used instead of sunlight.
We believe that every action that enables and inspires people to live more sustainably matters and perhaps we can change the world together, one plant at the time.
Urban Crop Solutions