CEA Producers Join To Support Data-Driven USDA Project

Four agricultural producers have joined with nonprofit Resource Innovation Institute (RII) under the banner of its USDA Conservation Innovation Grant-funded project: Data-Driven Market Transformation for Efficient, Sustainable Controlled Environment Agriculture.

AppHarvest (Ky.) and Revol Greens (Texas) are vanguards of modern greenhouse cultivation, while Elevate Farms (N.J.) and Fifth Season (Penn.) are pioneers in vertical farming. The producers will serve as initial pilot partners in support of the USDA-funded project that aims to transform the controlled environment agriculture (CEA) market sector toward more efficient production through coordinated research on energy and water practices spearheaded by RII and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).

“We are thrilled to unite with these categories in the name of innovation and agricultural resilience,” said Derek Smith, Executive Director of RII. “Working together with these initial pilot partners and others to follow, we can unlock basic knowledge about performance metrics that will serve as beacons of efficiency and productivity for CEA producers globally.” In addition to geographic diversity, the producers represent an expanding global market growing a range of crops in indoor environments, from microgreens to tomatoes to berries. 

Resource Innovation Institute’s PowerScore resource benchmarking platform enables CEA producers to confidentially validate their innovative practices. Using standardized key performance indicators, PowerScore helps producers gain powerful insights into their operational performance while protecting strategic business interests.

“RII is trusted throughout the supply chain to provide data analysis and peer-reviewed guidance to producers, vendors, governments and utilities. Our consortium of members and partners are committed to collaboratively study the most sustainable horticultural practices across climate zones, building types, technologies and techniques to guide decision-makers on how to advance agricultural resilience,” said RII’s Smith.

To ensure the highest level of PowerScore data protection, RII has engaged Management Science Associates (MSA), global companies in data security and analytics, with expertise in HIPAA compliance and benchmarking for associations across industries. Together with producers, investors, and supply chain partners, RII continues to develop protocols that clearly define access, use, and ownership of data.

“We believe that the only way to fundamentally build an industry starts with data capture and accountability,” said Travis Kanellos, Chief Strategy Officer, Elevate Farms. “Our approach from day one has been to drive yields and profitability through metrics and KPIs. We believe RII will validate our approach." 

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For more information:
Resource Innovation Center
www.resourceinnovation.org 

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23 June 2021

Certhon Wraps Up 7th Raspberry Trial Successfully

“Raspberry isn’t the first crop that comes to mind when figuring out which crops to grow indoors,” Andrea Huegler, R&D Engineer and Agronomist at Certhon said. “However, we accepted the challenge and decided to go for it as there are a lot of benefits to growing it in a controlled environment.”

After successfully growing strawberries in the Certhon Innovation Centre (CIC), the company has decided to take on another trial of growing fruits indoors. Certhon has been doing lots of research on indoor farming for a long time now. This has allowed them to investigate how to grow more complex crops in a controlled environment without daylight.

Andrea Huegler 

Trial results
The main advantage of growing this crop indoors is having higher yields and consistent quality year-round. Certhon sees great opportunities ahead for the crop, due to its premium status and short shelf life. “It makes it a perfect candidate to be grown indoors.” During this trial, common raspberry cultivars were chosen. Certhon used chilled raspberry canes from a propagator, pollination by bumblebees and top and interlighting was used to flourish the crops. The harvesting period comprises 10 weeks, out of a total cultivation cycle of 21 weeks and is expected to end in July 2021.

Cultivation risks
The research was mainly about investigating the right transition of the vegetative state of the crop to the generative state. Andrea says that balancing the climate and light with energy consumption is the trickiest part here. “Ever since the first raspberry trial we’ve been trying to balance out the reduction of energy use, having an X amount of yield at a great quality and extending the harvesting period. Throughout the trials, we have obtained nearly twice as much yield compared to the traditional Dutch polytunnel producers in the summer,” Andrea notes.

However, raspberry cultivation isn’t without challenges. “One of the risks that could come up is growing grey mold,” explains Andrea. “If nectar isn’t removed well from the flower, the fruit can grow mold or have a grey undertone. However, if you manage your humidity wisely, the incidence is severely reduced. That’s the idea behind the CIC, optimizing growing recipes and eventually expanding the product portfolio because we want to provide a wide selection of product options to our clients.”

Greenhouse application 
The knowledge that is generated in the CIC can also be applied to the cultivation of raspberries in greenhouses. Growing these crops indoors allows Certhon to generate ideal growing conditions and maximum potential for raspberry cultivation. With this knowledge, Certhon generates a blueprint that growers can follow in greenhouse cultivation as well.

Andrea explains, “For instance, the blueprint can be followed when growers want to know when to: provide extra lighting, shading, or adjust the humidity. In this way, ideal growing conditions can be mimicked to achieve the highest quality and yield possible in a greenhouse.”

Cane risk
Another, very important aspect is the quality of the raspberry canes. In order to have good production, your raspberry canes need to be of good quality and pest-free. “This cannot always be guaranteed, '' says Andrea, “since they are propagated outdoors and therefore bound to the pressures of external influences, such as climate. Although we have not tried it ourselves yet, we think the next step is to also propagate raspberry canes in a controlled environment without daylight.” 

For more information:
Andrea Huegler, R&D Engineer and Agronomist 
Certhon
andrea.huegler@certhon.com 
ABC Westland 555
P.O. Box 90
2685 ZH Poeldijk
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 174 22 50 80
www.certhon.com 

Publication date: Mon 7 Jun 2021
Author: Rebekka Boekhout
© HortiDaily.com

May 18th, 9 am EST - Webinar On How To Invest In CEA With Confidence

Agritecture is hosting a series of webinars, starting with How to invest in CEA with confidence. The CEA sector is heating up and is expected to grow 5x over the next 10 years. Investment in CEA has surpassed $2.0B across North America and Europe. Join Henry Gordon-Smith, Founder & CEO at Agritecture, for this 1-hour live webinar to learn more about how to invest confidently in the CEA industry.

How To invest In Controlled

Environment Agriculture With

Confidence

May 18 - 9 am EST

The lineup of speakers include:

Louisa Burwood Taylor, Head of Media & Research at AgFunder

Robert Glanville, Senior Advisor at REG Consulting LLC

Andrew Carter, Co-Founder & CEO at Smallhold

Darren Thompson, CFO at Bowery Farming

Djavid Amidi Abraham, Director Of Consulting at Agritecture

Click Here To Register!

For more information, you can check out our events listing here.

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Agritecture
www.agritecture.com

Indoor Agtech: An Evolving Landscape of 1,300+ Startups

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March 17, 2021

Louisa Burwood-Taylor

Editor’s note: Chris Taylor is a senior consultant on The Mixing Bowl team and has spent more than 20 years on global IT strategy and development innovation in manufacturing, design, and healthcare, focussing most recently on indoor agtech.

Michael Rose is a partner at The Mixing Bowl and Better Food Ventures where he brings more than 25 years immersed in new venture creation and innovation as an operating executive and investor across the internet, mobile, restaurant, food tech and agtech sectors.

The Mixing Bowl released its first Indoor AgTech Landscape in September 2019. This is their first update, which you can download here, and their accompanying commentary.

Since the initial release of our Indoor AgTech Landscape in 2019, the compelling benefits of growing food in a controlled indoor environment have continued to garner tremendous attention and investment. 

One of the intriguing aspects of indoor agriculture is that it is a microcosm of our food system. Whether within a greenhouse or a sunless (vertical farm) environment, this method of farming spans production to consumption, with many indoor operators marketing their produce to consumers as branded products. As we explore below, the indoor ag value chain reflects a number of the challenges and opportunities confronting our entire food system today: supply chain, safety, sustainability, and labor. Of course, the Covid-19 pandemic rippled through and impacted each aspect of that system, at times magnifying the challenges, and at others, accelerating change and growth.   

Invest with Impact. Click here.

Our Indoor AgTech Landscape 2021 provides a snapshot of the technology and innovation ecosystem of the indoor food production value chain. The landscape spans component technology companies and providers of complete growing systems to actual tech-forward indoor farm operators. As before, the landscape is not meant to be exhaustive. While we track more than 1,300 companies in the sector, this landscape represents a subset and serves to highlight innovative players utilizing digital and information technology to enhance and optimize indoor food production at scale.

Supply chain & safety: Where does my food come from?

The pandemic highlighted the shortcomings of the existing supply chain and heightened consumer desires to know where their food comes from, how safely it was processed and packaged, and how far it has travelled to reach them. A key aspect of indoor farming is its built-in potential to respond to these and other challenges of the current food system. 

Indoor farmers can locate their operations near distribution centers and consumers, reduce food miles and touch points, potentially deliver consistently fresher produce and reduce food waste, and claim the coveted “local” distinction. The decentralized system can also add resiliency to supply chains overly dependent on exclusive sources and imports. 

Growing local has many forms. Greenhouse growers tend to locate their farms outside the metropolitan area while sunless growers may operate in urban centers, such as Sustenir Agriculture in Singapore and Growing Underground in London. Growers like Square Roots co-locate their indoor farms with their partner’s regional distribution centers, and Babylon deploys its micro-farms solution on site at healthcare and senior living facilities and universities. Recently, Infarm announced it was expanding beyond its growing-in-a-grocery store model, to include decentralized deployments of high-capacity “Growing Centers” across a number of cities. Additionally, the value of “growing local” might take on a much larger meaning if your country imports most of its produce from other countries; a number of the Gulf region countries have announced major indoor growing initiatives and projects with AeroFarms, Pure Harvest, and &ever to address the region’s food dependence on other countries.  

Organic produce sales jumped to double digit growth in 2020 as consumers are increasingly mindful of the healthiness of their food. The additional safety concerns due to the pandemic only accelerated this trend. While not typically organic, crops produced in the protection of indoor farms are isolated from external sources of contamination and are often grown with few or no pesticides. Human touch points are reduced as supply chains shorten and production facilities become highly automated. Through the CEA Food Safety Coalition, the industry has recently taken steps to establish production standards with a goal to keep consumers safe from foodborne illness.

Indoor farmers market their products as local, fresh, consistent and clean. This story is resonating with consumers as the growers seem to be selling everything they can produce, with many reporting significant sales growth in 2020. The direct connection to consumer concerns is also a key part of their ability to sell their branded products at a premium, which has been critical to financial viability for some growers. This connection can also enable them to collapse the supply chain further, at least at smaller scales, through direct sales and creative business models, e.g., sunless grower Willo allows subscribers to have their own “personal vertical farm plot” and watch their plants grow online. 

Sustainability: Is my food part of the problem or part of the solution?

Farming, as with most industries, has been under increasing pressure to operate more sustainably, and indoor growers, with their efficient use of resources, have rightfully incorporated sustainability prominently into their narratives. 

We are well aware of the impacts of climate change, including greater variability in weather patterns and growing seasons. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization projects that over the coming decades climate change will cause a decrease in global crop production through traditional farming practices, causing greater food insecurity. Indoor growing, which provides protection from the elements, consistent high yields per land area, and the ability to produce food year-round in diverse locations, including those unsuitable for traditional agriculture, can help mitigate this trend.

Water scarcity is projected to increase globally, presenting a national security issue and serious quality of life concerns. According to the World Bank, 70% of the global freshwater is used for agriculture. Indoor agriculture’s efficient use of water decreases use by more than 90% for the current crops under production. It is also common practice for greenhouses to capture rainwater and reuse drainage as does Agro Care, the Netherlands’ largest greenhouse tomato grower. 

On the flip side, energy use, particularly in sunless facilities, is indoor growing’s sustainability challenge. Efficiency will continue to improve, but as recent analysis on indoor soilless farming from The Markets Institute at WWF indicated, there is an industry-wide opportunity to integrate alternative energy sources. Growers recognize this opportunity to decrease impact and improve bottom-line and are already utilizing alternative approaches such as cogeneration, geothermal sources, and waste heat networks. H2Orto tomatoes are grown in greenhouses heated with biogas generated hot water. Gotham Greens’ produce is grown in 100% renewable electricity-powered greenhouses, and Denmark’s Nordic Harvest will be running Europe’s largest indoor farm solely on wind power. 

Labor: We’re still hiring!

There are labor challenges and opportunities throughout the food system value chain, and this couldn’t be more acute than on the farm. Farm operators—both in-field and indoor—find it difficult to attract labor for the physically demanding work. Even before the pandemic, the hardening of borders in Europe and the US created a shortage of farmworkers for both field and greenhouse production. In addition, grower and farm manager-level expertise is in short supply, exacerbated by an aging workforce and the rapid addition of new indoor facilities. While operators would like to see more trained candidates coming from university programs, they are also looking to technology and automation to relieve their labor challenges.

Automation of seedling production and post-harvest activities is already well established for most crops in indoor farming. In addition, the short growth cycle and contained habit of leafy greens lends them to mechanization. For example, the fully automated seed-through-harvest leafy green systems from Green Automation and Viscon have been deployed in major greenhouse operations like Pure Green Farms and Mucci. On the sunless side, Urban Crop Solutions has uniquely implemented automation in shipping containers, and Finland’s NetLed has developed a fully automated complete growing system. Note that many of the larger-scale sunless growers have developed their own technology stacks and have designed labor-saving automation into their systems. For example, Fifth Season has robotics deployed throughout the entire production process.

Despite numerous initiatives, the challenging daily crop care tasks and harvesting for certain crops (tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and berries) have not yet been automated at scale. However, planned, near-term commercial deployments of de-leafing and harvesting robots offer the promise of significantly altering labor challenges. Software technologies, like those from Nitea and Hortikey address labor management, crop registration, yield prediction, and workflow/process management for the indoor sector and strive to improve operational efficiencies for a smaller workforce.

Technologies that provide, monitor, and control climate, light, water, and nutrients are already deployed in today’s sophisticated indoor growing facilities and are fundamental to maintaining optimal conditions in these complex environments. They also form the base for the next innovation layer, i.e., crop optimization and even autonomous control of the growing environment based on imaging and sensor platforms (like from Ecoation, iUNU, and 30MHz), data analysis, machine learning, digital twins and artificial intelligence. Recent events like the Autonomous Greenhouse Challenge have successfully explored the potential of AI to “drive horticultural productivity while reducing resource use and management complexity”. Emerging commercialized autonomous growing innovations, such as the Blue Radix Crop Controller and Priva’s Plantonomy, promise to extend and enhance the reach of available grower expertise, particularly in large and multi-site operations. 

Where do we go from here?

Since we created our initial Indoor AgTech Landscape, there has been positive change and reason to be optimistic about the future. But, as with any evolving market and sector of innovation, it can be a bumpy ride. Some believe CEA is not the answer to our food problems because not everything can be economically grown indoors today. We see indoor ag as just one of the approaches that can help fix our food system and it should be applied when it makes sense. For example, tomatoes sold through retail are already more than likely grown in a greenhouse. Expect more crops to be grown indoors more economically with further advancements.

One aspect of our previous landscape was to increase awareness that, despite the fervor surrounding novel sunless farming, greenhouse growing was already well-established. Dutch greenhouse growers have demonstrated the viability of indoor growing with 50-plus years of experience and more acres “under glass than the size of Manhattan.” The recent public offering and $3 billion market cap of Kentucky-based greenhouse grower AppHarvest also clearly raised awareness! Other high-profile and expanding greenhouse growers, including BrightFarms and Gotham Greens, have also attracted large investments. 

The question is often asked, “which is the better growing approach, sunless or greenhouse?”. There is no proverbial “silver bullet” for indoor farming. The answer is dictated by location and the problem you are trying to solve. A solution for the urban centers of Singapore, Hong Kong and Mumbai might not be the same as one deployed on the outskirts of Chicago. 

Regardless of approach, starting any type of sizable tech-enabled indoor farm is capital intensive. A recent analysis from Agritecture indicates that it can range from $5 to $11 million dollars to build out a three-acre automated farm. Some of the huge, advanced greenhouse projects being built today can exceed $100 million. Given the capital requirements for these indoor farms, some question the opportunity for venture-level returns in the sector and suggest that it is better suited to investors in real assets. Still, more than $600 million was raised by the top 10 financings in 2020 as existing players vie for leadership and expand to underserved locales while a seemingly endless stream of new companies continue to enter the market.

Looking forward, indoor farming needs to address its energy and labor challenges. In particular, the sunless approach has work to do to bring its operating costs in line and achieve widespread profitability. Additionally, to further accelerate growth and the adoption of new technologies in both greenhouse and sunless environments, the sector needs to implement the sharing of data between systems. Waybeyond is one of the companies promoting open systems and APIs to achieve this goal.

As we stated in the beginning of this piece, the indoor ag value chain reflects some of the challenges and opportunities confronting our entire food system today: supply chain, safety, sustainability, and labor. Indoor agriculture has tremendous opportunity. While it is still early for this market sector overall, it can bring more precision and agility to where and how food is grown and distributed.

• asia, Europe, indoor ag, indoor farming

Local Vertical Farm Startup Joins Growing Global Market

What if there was a more sustainable way to provide fresh, truly local greens to our communities? And what if there was a way to do it while bringing diverse flavors to the table year-round?

It sounds like an ambitious goal. But it is one that Carina Biacchi and her partner, Alvaro Fernandes, are set to meet.

Ortaliza Urban Farms is a dream that has been sprouting for some time now.

Carina Biacchi is no stranger to business. With a bachelor’s and postgrads in business administration, she has worked in several different sectors, from NGOs to massive corporations. “I’ve mostly worked in sales and marketing” Carina states. “And I have entrepreneurship in my DNA. My parents were entrepreneurs long before I was born.”

And as formidable as Carina is, she is among good company. Alvaro Fernandes, her partner, is an Agronomist Engineer. “He’s a passionate specialist in controlled environment agriculture” Carina explains.

When the two met they quickly started dreaming about their own indoor farm. Years passed, and the two immigrated to Canada and started a family. But those entrepreneurial sparks continued to fly.

“It took us a while to build our lives in Canada,” Carina states. “But we continued to research the idea we had. We kept visiting other businesses in the industry and we even traveled to New York and other areas to see what they had to offer in terms of vertical farms.”

But what is vertical farming? Vertical farming is a growing worldwide phenomenon set to add significant value to the food system. Food security and sustainability continue to be some of the top concerns for city planners, and venture capital firms are investing big into vertical farm operations.

And what is an urban farm? Simply put, urban farming is growing food in urban areas. “We’re located right on Main Street,” Carina states. “In a commercial zoning area. That is pretty unique by itself, and the town of Kingsville has proven to be the perfect partner to help us launch our dream.”

A hyper-local farm-to-plate experience

And while Ortaliza is not the first micro green seller in the region, they are the first to create a storefront, creating an exciting farm-to-plate experience, loaded with flavor and freshness.

“We are truly local!” Carina stresses. “Sometimes, when you see that something is “local” on your grocery shelves, it’s actually from another part of the Province. That might be fine for large vegetables, but greens are special. Think of all the nutrients you would get from a full vegetable but concentrated to deliver all that deliciousness in every single bite. Microgreens require just-picked freshness, so we are super, hyper-local. We’re only growing and selling here in our County.”

This business model, Carina explains, also allows them to reduce food mileage and consequently, food waste. “Leafy greens in Canada can sometimes travel thousands of miles before reaching their destination” Carina reports. “And it can take up to two weeks for the produce to get there. We have a commitment to sustainability, and we will always be local, no matter where we spread our roots to in the future.”

One of Ortaliza’s business Advisors, Adam Castle of WEtech Alliance says the launch of this business in Kingsville represents a unique opportunity for the Startup. “Here we are in the very heart of greenhouse agriculture, not just for Canada but seconded only to Holland from a global perspective,” says Castle. “So you’re planting yourself in a community that lives and breathes agriculture, who knows the value of being able to see where your food comes from and how it’s grown, at a time when the average consumer is more engaged than ever in providing the freshest, most sustainably grown food they can for themselves and their family. I applaud Kingsville for making room at their table for new kinds of agriculture, and being a business-friendly partner that our clients can count on.

“…it certainly fits hand-in-hand with the innovation and the diversification that we’re trying to identify with.”

One enthusiastic supporter of this innovative new business is Nelson Santos, the Mayor of Kingsville and the Deputy Warden of Essex.

“This isn’t your typical business, but it certainly fits in with the entrepreneurial spirit that we have in our community,” Nelson explains. “And it certainly fits hand-in-hand with the innovation and the diversification that we’re trying to identify with. They are touching on all the different aspects of what the community is looking for. Their business is one that is certainly going to turn quite a few heads. It’s very exciting, both in regards to the food aspect and the extension of agriculture.”

Ortaliza is now taking pre-orders for their home delivery service at www.Ortaliza.ca, which promises to deliver a lot more than leafy goodness.

“We want to be more than a farm-to-table service,” says Carina. “We want our customers to think of us as their weekly dose of living, natural vitamins that add easy nutrition to just about every recipe they can think of!”

To learn more and become a friend of the farm, head to www.ortaliza.ca or find them on social media at @OrtalizaFarms 

"We’re Retrofitting With The Variables We Have In Place"

“The Square Room is a big block of pink lights with eight levels, where all our growing is done. Everything after germination is done in the same room, both harvesting of our baby greens and microgreens. Because we’re almost done with our PARS (Planted Automated Racking System), which is the big automation,” says Megan Burritt, Managing partner at Planted Detroit. 

From a mix-fused downtown neighborhood in Detroit, daily deliveries of ready-to-eat salads and fresh greens are transported to local retailers and restaurants. Planted Detroit makes a large contribution to the city’s share of fresh produce.

New facility
Planted Detroit has been in the middle of the construction of its new 20.000 sq. ft growing facility. The growing space has been a massive update to the company compared to its previous 6-level growing facility which was between 1500-2000 sq. ft. The same room was used for processing, packaging, harvesting, and so on. “It was rather crowded, says Megan, but the main goal was to keep everything tight for the construction to continue in the near surrounding. We’re very serious about biosecurity and we have a daily procedure for everyone who sets foot in our grow room to go through. Making sure our greens don’t come into contact with pathogens is our top priority. 

The new growing room

The Square Room, one of our growing rooms, is highly automated, including an automatic harvester to ensure work-efficiency. Once everything is big enough to be transplanted out of their plug trays, PARS (Planted Automated Racking System) will be transplanted with gutters and then go into harvesting. On the other side of PARS, the gutters are taken down and harvested through Planted’s new automatic harvester.

Delivering directly to consumers
The company wants to reach a higher volume of customers as it’s aiming to obtain a consumer brand status. Next to that, the company is always on the lookout for finding more customers through other venues. “We want to go directly to consumers via our web-store to shorten food miles as much as possible, delivering the freshest and most delicious greens,” Megan says.  In order to do that the company needed to have a bit more scale, trying to maximize the space they already had.

She adds: “Our farm maybe isn’t the square footage which we could have built from scratch, but we’re retrofitting with the variables we have in place. That is why we have done a combination of a microgreen vertical nursery and PARS for baby greens. Our direct customers wanted meal solutions and we’ve been able to deliver them that. We’ve been doing everything from seed to plate basically.” 

Megan Burritt, Managing partner 

New projects coming up
On the same campus, 10 meters away, a new farm will be constructed, under the company's office space. In this farm herbs and edible flowers will be grown in response to different customers' demands. Megan says that Planted Detroit’s wholesale customers got them to this point as they were very interested in herbs and edible flowers. “However we weren’t able to perfect these as well in the systems that our baby greens were in perfectly. That’s why we’ve been leaning into R&D lately because once finishing the construction of Farm 2 it will have excellent  growing conditions that are better than they have been for those crops.” 

Edible flowers are an interesting thing, says Megan, but the company has gotten so much interest in it. According to Megan there aren’t many farms in the US that are growing them. “They’re high priced at this point. It sort of sticks to our original innovation, namely what exists here in the food system and what does not. Where can we fill the ‘does not exist niche’ and satisfy the needs of our customers.”

The company is rolling out a subscription program sometime this year and figuring out where it fits into the fresh food subscription system and how they can partner with other parties in order to get produce closer to society. “It’s great to have this ag job, applied science to be able to do. In all the things we’ve been doing is hiring these Detroiters and showing that we can really create a really great culture of work. It’s really great to see we’re contributing to a better Detroit and a better tomorrow,” Megan states. 

Team expansion
During 2020 most of the team stayed on by moving around working hours, so the farm could come back in full force. By the time all equipment was in place, 10 to 12 people were added to the team to have them fully trained before the system would be functioning. “It has been really wonderful to expand the team to see what our capacity is,” says Megan.      

“Luckily we’ve been able to develop systems that have been resilient. We’ve seen so many different patterns in consumer behavior but they seem to have fallen in our favor. People are eating more at home, shopping for groceries more, and that triggered our pivot focusing on direct consumers. But now, it’s perfectly in line with our strategy on how we go to market. As long as we can supply our customer needs we’ll be on the right path. Nothing but bright hopes for the future right now,” Megan affirms.

For more information:
Planted Detroit
Megan Burritt, Managing partner
megan@planteddetroit.com 
www.planteddetroit.com 

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Author: Rebekka Boekhout
© VerticalFarmDaily.com

Cambridge Engineers Unveil Digital Twin To Support The ‘Future of Farming’

Hydroponic farming challenges traditional methods in favour of soil-less, water-based farming processes. To ensure the ongoing operational success of farms such as these, Cambridge engineers have developed a virtual forecasting model to provide bespoke feedback to farmers.

The researchers show how a Digital Twin can faithfully represent the reality of an environment – in this case a unique hydroponic farm in London (Growing Underground) – through real-time data analytics and modelling, including the integration of a tailored temperature forecasting model to assist farmers’ decision-making. Their findings are published in the Cambridge University Press journal Data-Centric Engineering. 

With hydroponic farming – often termed the ‘future of farming’ – on the rise across the UK and globally, the researchers believe that Digital Twins are particularly suited to bespoke environments such as these, providing an opportunity to move away from a ‘one size fits all’ approach, in favour of a virtual representation that can cater to a farm’s changing operational conditions. 

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Growing Underground is situated in repurposed WW2 air raid shelters that are 33 metres below the streets in Clapham, London. Crops are grown year-round in a pesticide-free environment controlled by LED lights, ventilation, dehumidifiers, and irrigation tanks. The farm grows 12 times more per unit area than traditional greenhouse farming in the UK but also consumes four times more energy per unit area. Therefore, finding ways to minimise the energy use while maximising crop growth and maintaining optimal growing conditions is key to the ongoing operational success of this farm and others like it. 

The researchers show how the development of a Digital Twin can be useful not only for informing farm operators in real time, but it can also help them to prepare for the future. Data creation, data analysis and data-centric modelling were all required to create the Digital Twin for Growing Underground. This involved an extensive monitoring system that combined wireless sensors with manual data records to track the observable environmental conditions in the underground farm; identifying the influencing variables on energy use and crop yield; and helping to forecast potential future operational scenarios, as well as providing feedback on the influence of recent events on the farm environment. 

The Digital Twin can also provide enhanced data to help assist farmers in the decision-making process, offering advice specific to the needs of the farm. For example, the researchers identified that the LED lights have the greatest influence on daily temperature fluctuations in the farm and so they created a bespoke temperature forecasting model that predicts extreme temperatures. This model can be integrated into the Digital Twin and it is easy to implement, making use of temperature and energy meter readings. It is also flexible to the addition of more data as it becomes available and provides feedback on operational changes that can reduce energy use and control the farm environment more effectively.

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Location of sensors in Growing Underground. A side view of a typical bench is indicated at the centre of the farm, showing how four LED lights span the length of each bench. The blue arrows indicate the air circulation throughout the farm. Credit: Melanie Jans-Singh 

Dr Ruchi Choudhary, Reader in Architectural Engineering, said: “As we move towards more innovative agricultural practices, such as hydroponic farming, there is a greater need for an intelligent Digital Twin over a simple monitoring system. The Digital Twin we have developed for the unique hydroponic farm, Growing Underground, can observe, process, and interpret farm data (i.e. energy, weather, live sensor data and manual records) that leads to tangible outcomes. This can include warnings (i.e. concerning temperature fluctuations that require changes to ventilation, heat, light); causal relationships (resource use efficiency, crop health); operational suggestions (using a forecasting model); and a prediction of future conditions." 

Melanie Jans-Singh, lead author and Ph.D. student, added: “In essence, our Digital Twin becomes the urban-integrated farm operator’s 24/7 smart ‘companion’, a living digital reference, providing bespoke feedback on the effectiveness of the measures taken in real-time. This is in addition to longer-term forecasting and informed decision-making, with control processes that are robust to human error. It is suited to mid to large scale processes, often seen in civil engineering, where sensor maintenance will also be an issue.”

Melanie Jans-Singh, Kathryn Leeming, Ruchi Choudhary, Mark Girolami. ‘Digital twin of an urban-integrated hydroponic farm.’ Data-Centric Engineering (2020). DOI: 10.1017/dce.2020.21 

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For more information:
University of Cambridge

www.eng.cam.ac.uk

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VIDEO: Take A Virtual Tour Of The New Controlled Environment Ag Center At The Ohio State University

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January 27, 2021

Urbanagnews

Dr. Chieri Kubota, the Director of the new center focusing on controlled environment agriculture and protected cultivation hosted this event to introduces the programs and membership.

What OHCEAC is unique about is that we are an integrative, interdisciplinary, and inclusive team conducting collaborative research to respond to CEA stakeholder needs. Our focus inclusively covers various production systems and crop types. We use the terminology of CEA as having a very broad meaning including soil-based or soilless systems under various types of climate control or modification structures.

Could Controlled Environment Agriculture Change The Face Of American Farming?

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Exclusives From Urban Ag News

January 25, 2021

David Kuack, UrbanAgNews

Ramel Bradley thinks so. The community director at AppHarvest is talking to students and communities across the country about the benefits of locally-grown food and the agtech used to produce it.

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[Photo above: Ramel with students and faculty from Breathitt High School in Jackson, Ky. on Jan. 15 at the opening of the school’s new container farm funded by AppHarvest and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.]

Growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y., Ramel “Smooth” Bradley aspired to become a professional basketball player like some of the kids that came before him. NBA Hall of Famers Michael Jordan and Bernhard King were two of his role models.

“These great legends inspired my love for the game of basketball,” Bradley said. “As I got older my talents began to increase and I became one of the top prospects in the city. I attended Manhattan Park West High School in New York City and then transferred to the Pendleton School at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., where I was a member of the first basketball team in school history.”

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Ramel Bradley, community director at AppHarvest, said the company has created a platform which has enabled him to become a Black farmer and community and youth leader.

At IMG Bradley was recruited by multiple college coaches including those from the University of Kentucky.

“What brought me to Kentucky was my love for the game of basketball,” he said. “While at UK, I became the starting point guard, captain, and fan favorite of the Wildcats. I earned my degree and then played professional basketball in multiple countries including Croatia, France, Turkey, and Israel.”

More important than basketball

In 2016 while visiting his family in New York, Bradley discovered his grandmother was having some health issues.

“I decided to stop playing the game I love for something that I love much more–my family and my community,” he said. “When I was 10-years old and falling in love with the game of basketball, my grandmother started a mission in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, focused solely on feeding the hungry. She started the mission in her kitchen out of the need to feed people who were hungry to provide them with some hope and encouragement.”

“I studied in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment at the University of Kentucky because of the seed that was planted in me by my family. My interest in agriculture came from the leadership that my grandmother and family displayed in serving the community. I could see the difference on people’s faces when they were fed a meal and they received encouraging words regardless of their circumstances or where they came from.”

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AppHarvest has opened a 60-acre state-of-the-art greenhouse facility in eastern Kentucky to produce tomatoes. A second tomato facility is under construction with plans to open a third greenhouse operation for producing leafy greens. Photos courtesy of AppHarvest.

Healthy food is a solution

When Bradley stopped playing basketball he became involved again with his grandmother’s mission.

“We restarted the neighborhood pantry and I started to learn a lot more about the community in regards to food deserts, preventable diseases and the number of Americans dying from these diseases,” he said. “My grandmother is blind now and going to dialysis three times a week. It is one of the most devastating things for her to go through and for my family and I to have to witness. I also have friends and family who suffer from obesity. I never realized the level of access I was provided as a professional athlete to not only training and conditioning and living a healthy lifestyle, but also having access to healthy, nutritious food.

“When I came back home and got to see firsthand that family, friends and community members were suffering from preventable diseases, I made the decision to dedicate my life to feeding the people in my community. Healthy food is a solution to a lot of problems.”

While Bradley believes having access to food can have a major impact on improving the lives of Americans, it is the type of food that is even more important.

“One of the things that drives me is the health and nutritional well-being of our urban community members–the longevity of life,” he said. “A lot of the food that we are exposed to in our communities is processed and it’s just not good for us. If we can get people to eat healthier food, how many lives do we prolong and how many family members can lead happier lives?”

The CDC reported that only one in 10 Americans consumes enough fruits and vegetables. Cost has been cited as a possible barrier to higher fruit and vegetable consumption, especially for low-income households.

“There are a lot of people who are hungry in the world and need to receive food,” Bradley said. “The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the food insecurity issue. If we’re not growing our own food, who is growing our food? Much of the produce consumed in America is imported. The U.S. imported more than 60% of fresh tomatoes in 2019, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“If the borders are closed where is that food going to come from? It is crucial that we grow our own food, which will help increase food security, whether it is controlled environment agriculture or open-field agriculture. We’re going to need a lot more food production and we’re going to need a lot more local food production.

Bradley said family and friends recently celebrated his grandmother’s mission by supporting New York City’s largest assistance organizations by giving out 1 million food boxes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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From AppHarvest’s tomato greenhouse in Morehead, Ky., the company can reach about 70 percent of the U.S. population in a one-day drive.

“Every week we feed families in the community in cooperation with a number of community organizations, including Change Food, Food Bank NY, City Harvest, and the Campaign for Hunger,” he said. “All of these organizations have really stepped up in Brooklyn and N.Y. City to deliver nutritious food to community members.”

Reaching out to local communities

In 2016 after retiring from professional basketball, Bradley received a phone call from his good friend and University of Kentucky classmate Jonathan Webb.

“We had a real-life conversation about the lack of economic mobility in our communities, me in Brooklyn and Jonathan in Pikeville, Ky.,” Bradley said. “He knew that I was feeding community members trying to help them overcome preventable diseases. Jonathan told me about his vision of growing vegetables using controlled environment agriculture and being able to feed 70 percent of the Eastern seaboard through a central location in eastern Kentucky in Appalachia.

“That was the birth of our partnership and what brought me back to Kentucky, for us to start AppHarvest. We recently opened the doors to a 60-acre state-of-the-art greenhouse facility in Morehead, Ky.”

Bradley, who is community director at AppHarvest, works with both company employees as well as doing community outreach.

“Since I’ve trained extensively in controlled environment agriculture facilities, I’m able to provide a knowledge transfer to those coming into our company learning about this new industry and providing encouragement to our employees,” he said. That is what I do from an internal standpoint.

“Externally, I go out and share the AppHarvest story with students and community groups around the state and across the country to get them excited about agtech programs. When I joined Jonathan’s vision of making Appalachia an agtech hub one of the first things I did was to create an agtech program that we implemented in eastern Kentucky.”

One of the projects AppHarvest was involved with was retrofitting a 40-foot shipping container into a hydroponic production system that operates with a 5-gallon closed-loop irrigation system and LED lights for students to grow food.

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One of AppHarvest’s outreach projects was retrofitting a 40-foot shipping container into a hydroponic production system that allows students to grow food.

“I helped develop the curriculum which teaches the students about plant science, the local food system, the food supply chain, how to build their own local food system and entrepreneurship,” Bradley said. “We have engaged hundreds of students from elementary to high school showing them a new way to grow food.

“We recently partnered with the Save the Children organization where we made over 1,600 grow kits for students to take home and learn about hydroponic growing. The students grow their own lettuce and we provide them with recipes that they can use to cook with their parents while they’re home during the pandemic.”

AppHarvest is also partnering with five universities in Kentucky. The goal is to work closely with them to develop programming and research and development with their students.

“What we are doing at AppHarvest is not being taught at most universities or high schools,” Bradley said. “We have been working with the governor of Kentucky who has put together an agtech task force which I am a part of. We want to continue developing partnerships with universities as well as community organizations throughout the state.

“We have broken ground on a second tomato greenhouse facility and a third facility for the production of leafy greens. We are very adamant about redefining agriculture and making the biggest impact we can possibly make.”

Inspiring future ag leaders

Through Bradley’s role as one of the founding members of AppHarvest, he has transitioned from professional athlete to becoming a Black farmer and community and youth leader.

“It is only right that I use this platform and use this responsibility to provide more access and more opportunity to future Black ag leaders,” he said. “Less than 2 percent of American farmers are African-Americans. By doing the work I’m doing I can hopefully inspire folks that look like me to take advantage of the new opportunities in this growing community.”

Bradley has been talking with leading youth agricultural organizations, including 4-H, FFA and Jr. MANRRS, to implement multicultural programs to develop future ag industry leaders.

“I’m also looking to work closely with historically black colleges and universities (HBCU),” he said. “I’ll start in Kentucky and then hopefully be able to provide access and opportunity to students at HBCU schools throughout the nation. That is another way we can make the ag community more diverse.

“Barriers are being broken by the work that I’m doing. I’m looking to inspire the people who I would like to see get involved in this industry. I am the modern farmer and this is how their future could look.”

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Ramel Bradley, AppHarvest

For more: AppHarvest, info@appharvest.com; https://www.appharvest.com.

This article is property of Urban Ag News and was written by David Kuack, a freelance technical writer in Fort Worth, Texas.

The Business Of Vertical Farming: What It Is And What It Isn’t

“Vertical farming is a tremendous opportunity,” says Glenn Behrman, founder and President of CEA Advisors, consultants and advisors to the global vertical farming industry and a 50-year veteran of the horticulture industry. It’s definitely the future of agriculture but it’s also an opportunity for people to choose where they fit in and where they can make their most meaningful and important contribution”.

Over the years, CEA Advisors has provided services for the development of indoor farming projects locally and internationally. They’ve worked on projects for growers, investors, universities, schools, food processors, vertical farm developers, pharmaceutical manufacturers and government agencies.  

Fundraising business model
According to Glenn, many people enter the market without really doing their homework. They want to be in vertical farming, but they don’t know that there are many different industry entry points that are available that can really satisfy their interests. No questions are asked, no networking is done, and they do not drill down to a deeper level to see where their interest really is.

“Today, I see that many are only motivated with raising money but funding is not a business model. If money is your main motivation, you’re probably going to fail. There’s too much of a focus on raising money and not enough focus on making money. I believe a business should be cash flow positive, but we also need to be innovating and improving, not marketing concept systems to investors. New growers should first consider where they can make a difference in the market," says Glenn. 

‘Go out there and start networking’
This highlights another big issue with vertical farming. According to Glenn, people don’t realize the relationship between the start-up vertical farmer and end-user, which is unbelievably important but fragile at the same time. A new farm cannot expect for institutional buyers to place orders just because they exist. When wanting to sell to retailers, Glenn says that it’s very unlikely for them to switch suppliers after being in business with them for many years. “Many growers overestimate their marketing capabilities because they don’t think the whole operational process out. The same problem with receivables, make sure you put away enough money to finance your receivables."

Glenn Behrmann

Glenn advises starting growers to first get involved with vertical farming by doing a lot of research. “Meaning, not only on the internet but go out there and talk to growers, visit farms, talk to produce buyers, restaurants and other end-users and get to know the industry. Get out in the field, visit trade shows, they’re thought-provoking, get active and do some networking. I also advise people to become a part of farming, grow things at home and get a better idea of what it’s all about. Then start focusing on the systems, machinery and equipment. But remember all growers need to look at the end result: the product.

Finding a balance
Every component, says Glenn, from seeds to sales involves many different processes. Every single process, every single link in the chain has room for improvement. “There are discussions about achieving a maximum yield in a sustainable manner. What isn’t realized is that maximum yield doesn’t only mean how much basil is grown in a specific time period, but it also dictates how less input should generate more output. Costs that are not controlled can render the most innovative system completely unsustainable.  

It’s like an Excel spreadsheet, says Glenn. “Take every variable that goes into growing a crop, then continue to tweak, improve and change. At some point growers need to come up with the optimum result.” Glenn says that some might have the right component but not be in balance. Therefore, growers need to be always aware of all processes and keep them in balance. Too much light, too little light, wrong PH, bad air circulation, wrong fertilizer mix, high labor costs, wrong crop, humidity too high or too low? All need to be in balance to achieve success.  

Don’t be afraid to ask
Glenn has more than 50 years of industry experience with a broad view of the market. “I don’t let myself get stuck in a corner, because I’m not afraid to ask when I don’t know or I’m not sure. During my early career in the foliage business, I asked a million questions, I watched how things were done, I took advice, I was like a sponge soaking up knowledge from those that came before me. Although I’ve been laser-focused on Vertical Farming for the past ten years, my attitude about acquiring knowledge hasn’t changed. Be curious and ask a lot of questions!"

“Nowadays, I see a lack of curiosity and a lot of over-confidence. Vertical farming needs to be taken one step at a time, meaning you cannot graduate college on the first day of high school, it’s a journey. Going into business is a risk and then there are more risks every day. Growers need to evaluate where they want to be in this equation. Nobody today promotes their vertical farming project as an R&D opportunity, but rather as the game-changing food supply of the future. The truth is with a technology that is constantly evolving, every single vertical farm operating today is still a work in progress."

Inside the Growtainer® 

In addition to consulting and advising vertical farming CEA Advisors designs and builds custom Growtainers. “Each build is always interesting and challenging as they’re always built for a specific unique use and objective,” Glenn states. “I don’t believe that one size fits all in container farming and I don’t believe that plants were meant to grow sideways.

However, it is obvious that technology is constantly evolving and improving and each Growtainer must always provide what the end-user needs, whether it is for research or food production etc. Every unit must always be optimized. But Growtainers are technology-based and the end-user is always the most important part of the equation. And whether production takes place in a Growtainer or a Vertical Farm, it is always about balance.

For more information:
CEA Advisors LLC
Glenn Behrman, Founder and President 
gb@cea-advisors.com
www.cea-advisors.com 

Author: Rebekka Boekhout
© VerticalFarmDaily.com

“The Shift From The Old Way of Farming Is Going To Be A Big Feature in 2021”

Darryn Keiller & Henry Gordon Smith:

In a normal year Henry Gordon Smith, CEO of consultancy firm Agritecture, and Darryn Keiller, CEO of technology company Autogrow would have met up quite a few times and would have discussed the challenges and developments of the industry regularly. This year though everything has been different – like it has been for everybody – but despite all of that they are positive for 2021. “The energy and the enthusiasm for CEA has not slowed down whatsoever – on the contrary. It feels like 2021 is going to be huge. We’re on track for the big boom of CEA.”

Transparent challenges
“2020 has had its own challenges for everyone. What’s interesting is how the industry has responded. At first, the greenhouse industry, and mainly the US and Canada, had to deal with social distancing, getting their staff together and, particularly in the US and Canada, COVID outbreaks amongst labor force,” Darry Keiller, CEO with Autogrow, says when asked about 2020 in the horticultural industry. “At the same time and due to the COVID outbreak, 2020 is also the year the challenges we’ve all been talking about in the food industry became transparent to everyone in the world: the reliance on immigrant labor, the importance of food safety, the vulnerability of transportation and logistics,” he sums up.

“COVID has further demonstrated the benefits of CEA by exposing the fragility of the food system,” Henry Gordon-Smith, CEO with Agritecture, adds. “In India for example there have been experiments with high-tech CEA – now the full force of the government is getting behind it. For the Middle East it’s the same: the second wave of funding and the support for innovation in farming is up and running.” Being located in Dubai, he’s seen the demand for consultancy grow in countries like Oman. “There’s new programs and tenders. In Saudi there’s a big push for greenhouses and vertical farms, Qatar has recently published tenders for vertical farms and the UAE as a whole is continuing to push money and policy in this space. Before not many stakeholders might have been convinced, but now they see that its the right time for vertical farming especially.”

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Darryn Keiler, CEO with Autogrow

Massive explosion
“If it’s indoor farms, tunnels, high tech greenhouses – it doesn’t matter,” Darryn adds. “We’re expecting a massive explosion in CEA for the upcoming years. 2020 has already seen memorable events – if we only look at the reversed IPO of AppHarvest, the first time that a high-tech greenhouse company has gone public this way. But it’s not just the big guys and the megacompanies - there’s more going on: from Florida to the North East there’s a higher demand for lettuce greenhouses and even though people might feel as if this is old news, it’s still the idea of localized food production that is the driving force behind these initiatives.”

Henry adds how COVID again has played an important role in this. “Before many CEA farms were seen as expensive and suitable only for supplying restaurants. Then COVID happened and even though the restaurants shut down, these farms were quicker to adapt, to change their distribution models and to focus on shipping directly to consumers. By focusing on local customers, the CEA farms suddenly had an advantage in being local and in being able to adapt more easily than the large growers. For the vertical farming industry that’s an interesting thought – the adaptability of the food value chain will be a strong part of the road to food security when other shocks occur in the years to come.”

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Henry Gordon Smith, CEO with Agritecture

Remarkable is also how the people behind these projects have nothing to do with traditional growers and farmers. “There’s many young people – millennials, GenZ – you name it. After seeing the need for local food supply, they’re the driving force behind this second wave of interest around indoor farming,” Darryn says and points at Henry, who started as a blogger for the vertical farming industry ten years ago and added consultancy to the business in 2014, to guide these ‘newbies’ in the industry. “Based on the 2020 Census 49% of the respondents in our industry have zero experience in growing,” he laughs. “But it’s different than before and they’re challenging us as consultants as well. The general knowledge on CEA increased and so have higher expectations. Even though they have no experience, still they are more educated than many of the people entering the industry before. They understand what vertical farming is, that leafy greens are the most important crops and why some crops can’t grow inside. And they want more: more than traditional growers, they’re eager to learn. The archetype of many traditional growers is still that the way they work is how it should be done and often they’re not open to change. These newbies are open to new things, yet they don’t need to know all parts of growing, they prefer to make use of the techniques relevant to them,” he explains.

Baseline understanding to accelerate growth
As an answer to these people, Agritecture this year released software “Agritecture Designer” allowing growers and investors to check what they’re getting from their business plan and their investments. “Technology companies use it to check their own products, growers to check their farm yields. Our goal with it is to create a baseline understanding of growers to further accelerate growth,” he says. “These new entrepreneurs don’t want to be a grower, they want to be the Elon Musk of their food adventure – build a successful, profitable business. With this eagerness, they’re pushing the industry to move forward: they want high-tech, they want an investible project, they want to differentiate in strawberries or mushrooms and they want the data. Actually, they want all of it because they know it is possible. And that’s pushing us as consultants as well to develop continuously.”

It’s not only new growers and investors entering the industry. “We’re still seeing ourselves as a young company,” Darryn adds – the original Autogrow business began 27 years ago but in 2014 began to expand into software platforms and cloud-based technology including the launch of FarmRoad and Folium Network Sensors “Now all of a sudden there’s a raft of other guys springing up all over the place I don’t think that’s an accident: those founders must have seen what we saw: a transformation in the industry and an opportunity to contribute to that.” He explains how that’s indeed how they look at these developments – not as a threat but as help to lift the digital tide. “If more players talk about using data and platforms to help growing, it can help the industry move away from the old, mechanized way of farming.”

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Wireless smart sensor Folium

Data-driven growing
The shift to data-driven growing is not only happening in new markets or new companies. Also, existing associations are looking for ways to catch up. “Egypt and Morocco for example,” Henry gives as an example. “We’re seeing both governmental initiatives as companies trying to catch up. What they’re looking for is not only the technology we have, but the knowledge that can be offered. They’re understanding that’s valuable and that moving farming forward is also something what they are paying for.” Darryn adds how also new generations are following up their parents in existing companies – with often no intention to follow the same strategy as their parents did. “They’ve studied and have grown with new techniques including AI and data. They want to know how these new forms of technology will help the industry and their company move forward.”

“The long-awaited shift from the old way of farming is going to be a big feature in 2021,” Henry concludes. Does this mean both Agritecture can sit down and relax with customers showing up, and Autogrow can wait for their products to sell themselves? Unfortunately not. Back in spring Agritecture lost about sixty percent of their consulting business and significant challenges lasted until November before the company had a positive revenue again. “Still we see the momentum and believe in building the marketplace. We’ve launched a digital product in April and have our first 2000 users and are getting amazing testimonials, we’re about to begin fundraising for the next stage of our software.”

“With the borders closed, the Netherlands in a new lockdown, all the trade events shut down, the situation remains challenging,” Darryn confirms. “Connecting with customers has become harder in 2020, we have to hustle more now.” Being based in New Zealand and having customers all over the world means the usual challenges with different time zones but it’s what everyone needs to do in this new normal. Convinced the situation will not change any time soon, the company has rapidly expanded their presence all over the world. “It’s a high-risk play, but we hired 15 people in the last 12 months. By being present in Europe, in Asia, in America, we are in a better position to support our customers and  also learn from their challenges."

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Digital twin
And there’s more to come in 2021. “Of course there will be super-advanced stuff coming out,” Darryn laughs and although not all of it can be revealed yet, he explains how the creation of a digital twin for greenhouse crops will be a new tool in the road to the autonomous greenhouse. “But that’s for the long term – for now, it’s technique and software helping the industry to grow. Together with the industry, we’re on track for the big boom of CEA,” he says and Henry adds how it’s one they didn’t expect to happen this way per se. “We always knew CEA was getting bigger but thought on droughts, climate change, and food safety to steer this. We didn’t expect the pandemic to be the next big driver, but it feels like next year is going to be huge.”

Annually Autogrow and Agritecture release a Global CEA Census report, an in-depth global survey of indoor & controlled environment agriculture. The insights discussed in this article can be read in the greater perspective in the second edition of the Global CEA Census Report, that was launched early December. Click here for more information on it and a free download of the report.

For more information:

Autogrow

sales@autogrow.com

www.autogrow.com

Agritecture
henry@agritecture.com
www.agritecture.com

Publication date: Thu 24 Dec 2020
Author: Arlette Sijmonsma
© HortiDaily.com

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The Next (Vertical) Level of Farming

Victoria Dmitruczyk

04-23-20

If you’ve ever seen a farm, you know it looks something like this:

So cute. So inefficient, but cute.

These are normal farms. There’s nothing special about them. This is what we’re used to.

That’s not necessarily a good thing.

These farms typically use pesticides (which means the crops we get aren’t as nutrient-rich as they should be), are at risk from all weather conditions, take up SO much land, and uses 70% of the world’s water supply.

Not so ideal now. What if there was a way we could change that?

Meet your new best friend: Vertical Farming

In a nutshell:

Vertical farming is the practice of growing crops in vertically stacked layers. It takes in controlled environment agriculture, and soilless farming techniques like hydroponics, aeroponics, and aquaponics to produce nutritious yields of food.

Plenty’s Vertical Farm

Physical Layout

The main goal of vertical farming is to produce more food per square metre, hence, why everything grows upwards ⬆️.

Vertical Farm Structures

Now, one of the great things about vertical farming is that it’s pretty dang versatile. There are two main kinds of farms:

Above Ground Vertical Farms

The majority of vertical farms right now take place above ground. They’re generally more convenient to build. This could mean taking place in warehouses, greenhouses, the list continues. That doesn’t mean they’re boring though:

• Abandoned buildings are becoming increasingly popular as a spot to host vertical farms. ‘The Plant’ is a farm in Chicago that was transformed from an old meatpacking facility.

• ‘Vertical Harvest’ built a three-story hydroponic greenhouse next to a parking lot, which aims to grow 100,000 lbs of produce annually.

• ‘Lokal’, by IKEA’s Space10 innovation lab, is making miniature vertical farms where you can grow crops out of your own kitchen!! The greens grow three times faster in Lokal than in traditional gardens.

Recycled shipping containers are also becoming a popular option for hosting vertical farms (See Square Roots down below 😉) .

These containers combine smart climate control and LED lighting, monitoring systems, and vertical hydroponics to get an efficient farm that is able to produce a high yield of produce per square food.

Freight Farms is also a company changing the vertical farming shipping container game

But wait… It gets better 🤩.

By stacking the shipping containers, we can save EVEN MORE space and achieve an EVEN HIGHER yield per square foot.

Underground Vertical Farms (Deep Farms)

As the name suggests, underground and deep farms are vertical farms, simply built underground, taking place in refurbished underground tunnels or even abandoned mine shafts (Say what?!! 🤯)

Growing Underground is said to be the world’s first underground farm. The produce is grown in a World War II bomb shelter 33 meters under Clapham, London.

Temperature and humidity underground are usually consistent and mild, and so, deep farms require less energy for heating. They can also use groundwater (which is nearby) to further reduce the cost of water supply.

When you combine all of these qualities together with automated harvesting programs, you get a fully self-sufficient farm that’s able to produce 7–9x more food than conventional farms above ground with the same amount of area used!!! 🤯

Lighting

🔑 Having good lighting is key to having a good vertical farm.

In order to get this to be perfect, combinations of natural and artificial lights are used to maintain optimal light levels while technologies such as rotating beds improve lighting efficiency.

Most vertical farms use blue and red LED lights. But, it’s not just for the sake of looking futuristic.

Crop One Holdings — A Vertical Farm start-up out of San Francisco uses smart LED lighting to grow nutritious plants for Dubai’s United Airlines ✈️

The white light of sunlight that plants receive in conventional farms emits wavelengths of the visible light spectrum. However, plants don’t need all. of these wavelengths.

Studies have shown that plants respond best to the blue and red wavelengths. The evolutionary reason behind this is that millions of years ago, plants only grew in the ocean. These wavelengths were able to penetrate the water most efficiently, and plants have grown to like this 🌊.

This means that traditional lights give plants unnecessary light spectra, and waste energy in turn. LED lighting isn’t like that. It gives the option of targeted wavelengths, meaning they’re able to emit solely the red and blue spectra. This is where we see that pink hue come from.

Process

Instead of soil, hydroponic, aeroponic, aquaponic, or growing mediums are used. Peat moss or coconut husks and similar non-soil mediums are very common in vertical farming.

Point being, vertical farming using membranes over the soil to grow plants. This helps eliminate the work that goes into maintaining good soil and ensures quality.

Notice how there’s no soil here 🧐

Controlled-Environment Agriculture (CEA) is what allows vertical farming to be used year round. It controls factors like air, temperature, light, water, humidity, carbon dioxide, and plant nutrition to extend the growing season and crop yield.

Current Vertical Farms Changing the Game

Square Roots

Apparently, Elon Musk’s brother, Kimbal Musk, is revolutionizing vertical farming 🤩 (Oh… and he’s also a cowboy 🤠)

His company, Square Roots is a vertical farming facility that is hosted in shipping containers.

Inside one of the containers

This not only makes the possibility of urban farming more feasible (and less transportation means we maintain the maximum amount of nutrients & have everything remain fresh!!), but it also makes it super versatile.

After all, it’s not that difficult to move a shipping container, while moving a whole traditional farm is well, more difficult…

Plenty

Plenty is a vertical farming startup that aims to make plants that taste so good, you’ll want to eat them over everything else.

Their facilities are HUGE, producing, well, plenty of food.

20 foot tall walls of Arugula. Need I say more?

Its farm in San Francisco can produce 1 million pounds of produce per year, while the farm being built in Compton will be a 95,000 square foot facility, also producing millions of pounds of food.

Even though it seems like this would leave a massive environmental footprint, it not only uses 1% to 5% of the water used to grow comparable crops on a traditional farm but also uses a fraction of the land. Not to mention, it’s all being run in a 100% renewable facility powered by a combination of wind and solar energy.

Farm.One

Rare Produce + Convenience = Farm.One

Farm.One is a New York underground vertical farm that grows rare produce for Michelin star restaurants, while being directly underneath them.

Farm.One’s main facility TriBeCa, under Atera, a two Michelin star restaurant.

They produce 500 different microgreens, edible flowers, and rare herbs year-round. This helps bring otherwise pretty inaccessible ingredients closer to home, all while maintaining freshness (#quality).

Why Vertical Farming?

Vertical Farming sounds scary to invest in. After all, why leap from the conventional system that you know has worked for years, to this, a whole new approach? But, there are many advantages:

• By 2050, 80% of the world’s population is expected to live in urban areas, while food isn’t as accessible as we’ve grown used to it being. With this increased demand for food, not only from the actual growing population but from the population condensation means that vertical farming could make food easier-to-access.

• Vertical farming allows us to produce more crops from the same square footage of growing area. In fact, 1 acre of an indoor area offers equivalent production to at least 4–6 acres of outdoor capacity, and this can still get monumentally higher. A facility in Japan is able to grow 100x more crops than the traditional farm.

• We have a limited amount of fresh water on Earth, and conventional farming uses 70% of it. Vertical farming allows us to produce crops with 70–95 percent less water than traditional systems.

• Crops in fields are vulnerable to storms, bugs, and other disasters, all things which are increasing as a result of climate change. Vertical Farms are protected from all of these things.

• Since there are no bugs, vertical farming doesn’t require pesticides either. Special lighting provides the growth of nutritious, organic, pesticide-free crops.

• Big equipment is controlled by robotics, and farmers don’t have to worry about receiving sicknesses or getting injured from machinery like on conventional farms.

Okay… that sounds great, but what are the downsides?

Now, vertical farming isn’t perfect, and there are definitely some downsides, the majority of them economical.

• Vertical farming requires SUPER high amounts of energy. A hydroponic farm growing lettuce in Arizona would require 15,000 kJ of energy per kilogram of lettuce produced while a traditional outdoor lettuce farm in Arizona only requires 1100 kJ of energy per kilogram of lettuce grown.

• Vertical farms have yet to overcome high upfront start-up costs. The initial building costs can exceed $100 million, for a 60-hectare vertical farm. This means it could take around approx. 6–7 years to pay back the start-up cost.

• Vertical farming takes place in a controlled environment without the presence of insects, which means they don’t need pesticides. However, because of this, the pollination process needs to be done manually, which will be labor-intensive and costly.

Vertical farms have their weak spots, but, they also have so much potential. This is the future of farming.

With a growing population, and challenges like space flight on the rise, we’re going to need to invest in farming systems that are efficient and versatile, and this is precisely what vertical farming is.

It’s already making an impact, and it’s not long before it completely revolutionizes the way we approach our food.

🔑 Key Takeaways

• Vertical farming is the process of growing food in vertically stacked layers. This allows more food per square meter to be grown.

• Key components like Controlled Environment Agriculture and LED lighting make farms yield nutritious crops year round, regardless of outdoor weather conditions.

• There are many vertical farming initiatives out there right now, which firms such as Square Roots, Farm.One, and Plenty changing the game.

• Vertical farming has many advantages, such as being adaptive to a growing population, eliminating pesticides, and being available whenever, locally.

• The biggest barriers to vertical farming right now are associated with large, upfront, energy costs.

👋 Hey! If you liked my article and would like to read more of my work, feel free to follow me on Medium! I’m also always thankful to hear feedback so, if you would like to get in contact with me (I don’t bite, shoot me a message!), connect with me on LinkedIn!

WRITTEN BY: Victoria Dmitruczyk

Tags: Vertical Farming Agtech Farming Agriculture Innovation

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"CEA Can Increase Its U.S. Market Share By 5x Over The Next 10 Years"

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.

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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 

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3 Dec 2020

RII And ACEEE Awarded USDA Grant To Transform Controlled Environment Agriculture Toward Resource Conservation And Efficiency

Washington, D.C. (November 9, 2020) – Resource Innovation Institute (RII) and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) will receive nearly $600,000 over three years from the Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) program at the United States Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. The project was one of 24 projects selected for the 2020 program. RII and ACEEE will jointly implement the project through 2023.

Authorized by the 2002 Farm Bill, the CIG program helps develop the tools, technologies, and strategies to support next-generation conservation efforts on working lands and develop market-based solutions to resource challenges. 

The awarded proposal, titled Data-Driven Market Transformation for Controlled Environment Agriculture, will characterize key performance indicators, baseline data, and facility-level benchmarking for controlled environmental agriculture facilities. The project will develop a comprehensive suite of data tools, coupled with a market intervention strategy to address barriers to energy conservation, adoption of energy-efficient technologies, access to energy use data, and best practices.

“We’ve been assessing energy and water use in the energy-intensive cannabis cultivation sector for years and have built a set of vetted tools and resources that will now be extended to the broader controlled environment agriculture marketplace,” said Derek Smith, Executive Director of Resource Innovation Institute. “We appreciate the support of the USDA as well as leading producers, supply chain actors, universities, utilities, governments, standards organizations, and other project partners.”

“Market transformation is a proven strategy for creating and sustaining energy efficiency improvements in energy-intensive market sectors,” said Jennifer Amann, ACEEE’s Buildings Program Director. “With USDA’s support, we’ll engage leading CEA market actors, utilities, and policymakers to demonstrate market transformation’s potential to drive resource efficiency in the fast-growing and innovative CEA market.”

“Agricultural innovation has long played a key role in Oregon’s rural economy, and has made countless contributions to our state for generations,” said Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, who serves as the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that funds the USDA. “I’m pleased that this funding will help Oregonians keep us at the cutting edge of the newest technology in sustainable agriculture, and I will continue to partner with our state’s researchers and farmers to make sure Oregon agriculture continues to thrive.” 

“The world’s population is increasing, but available agricultural land is decreasing. Through science and innovation, we can help farmers improve the health of their operations and productivity on their lands while protecting the natural resources we all depend on,” said Natural Resources Conservation Service Acting Chief Kevin Norton. “The new systems, tools, and technologies being developed through CIG are helping us ensure the longevity of American agriculture.” 

Additional support includes:

Fifth Season
“As an industry-leading indoor vertical farming company with two farms and over 126,000 sq. ft. of growing space which can produce over 500,000 lbs. of fresh food each year, Fifth Season is committed to this exciting project,” said Grant Vandenbussche, Chief Category Officer, Fifth Season. “We will benchmark the resource efficiency performance of our facilities, evaluate potential efficiency upgrades, and be featured in case studies demonstrating the financial and environmental results of our projects.”

Fluence by OSRAM
Fluence is a leading global provider of energy-efficient LED lighting solutions for commercial agriculture production. Fluence regularly contributes to RII’s cultivation guidance and serves as an industry-leading voice for RII on efficient energy consumption for LED lighting in CEA facilities. “We are increasingly observing global growers commit to more energy-efficient cultivation solutions at their facilities,” said Corinne Wilder, Vice President of Global Business Operations for Fluence. “This grant underscores the important work RII has already done for growers and we will enthusiastically recruit cultivators to engage with this project to not only help improve the efficiency of their own operations but those of the entire CEA industry.”

Grodan
“For more than 50 years, Grodan has developed Precision Growing methods proven to reduce water and nutrient use while maximizing crop quality and yield. Vertical farms and greenhouses are critical to the future of global food and medicine production as well as minimizing resource usage with technologies such as recirculation,” said Gonneke Gerkema, North American Business Director, Grodan. “This project collaboration brings together several key companies who share the same vision of industry benchmarking combined with Data-Driven decision making to generate water-use efficiencies that will benefit the cultivators, the industry, and indeed the environment.”

Northwest Power & Conservation Council
“Indoor agriculture is a significant part of the driving force behind forecast growing electric loads in agriculture,'' said Ben Kujala, Director of Power Planning, Northwest Power & Conservation Council. “The Council supports looking for opportunities for cost-effective energy efficiency and demand management within the growing indoor agriculture sector as part of its power planning and conservation responsibilities. As project advisor, Council staff commit to engage and educate stakeholders.”

For more information, go to ResourceInnovation.org/CEA. To schedule an interview with an RII representative, please contact Ellie Malone at ellie@themaverickpr.com or 262-337-3312.

About Resource Innovation Institute: Advancing Resource Efficiency to Cultivate a Better Agricultural Future

Resource Innovation Institute (RII) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to advance resource efficiency to cultivate a better agricultural future. Founded in 2016 to address the resource impacts of cannabis cultivation, RII is extending its services to other energy-intensive horticultural sectors. Its PowerScore benchmarking platform represents the world’s largest dataset on indoor agriculture energy use. RII’s Technical Advisory Council, which includes a Policy Working Group and a Utility Working Group, is the leading multi-disciplinary body assessing the environmental impacts and best practices associated with cultivation resource issues. RII’s Board of Directors includes the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) and a former board member of the US Green Building Council. RII is funded by utilities, foundations, governments and industry leaders. Visit our website at ResourceInnovation.org. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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CEA Startup AppHarvest To Go Public, Expects $475m Funding At $1bn Valuation

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October 1, 2020

Lauren Stine

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US controlled environment agriculture (CEA) startup AppHarvest has announced a merger with NASDAQ-listed special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Novus Capital, enabling it to go public.

The deal is slated to bring in $475 million in gross proceeds for Kentucky-based AppHarvest, including a private investment in public equity (PIPE) transaction worth $375 million from existing and new investors including Fidelity Management & Research Company, Inclusive Capital, and Novus. This commitment, at $10 per share, values the company at $1 billion.

“I can’t say this was the exact plan but what accelerated all of this was Covid-19,” AppHarvest CEO Jonathan Webb told AFN. “Typically, you would do 40 to 60 meetings to get a couple of investors. We had 22 meetings and had almost 20 ‘yeses.’ Very few passed on this deal and we eventually had to cancel meetings.”

Webb describes the SPAC transaction and PIPE financing experience as “absolutely phenomenal.”

A SPAC is formed with the sole purpose of raising capital through an IPO in order to acquire an existing privately-held company and take it public. Also referred to as ‘blank check companies,’ the mechanism has existed for several years but has received increased attention of late. This year alone, more than 50 SPACs have been formed in the US, collectively raising around $36.2 billion as of last month.

Invest with Impact. Click here.

PIPE deals effectively allow institutional investors to buy larger quantities of public company stock, typically at a discount to public market prices.

“AppHarvest is a unique and compelling investment opportunity that is redefining American agriculture by improving access for all to fresh non-GMO produce, growing more with fewer resources, and creating an agtech hub from within Appalachia,” Novus chairman Bob Laikin said in a statement. 

“With significant tailwinds from heightened investor focus on ESG initiatives and the secular shift to plant-based foods, we believe AppHarvest is well-positioned to execute on its strategy for rapid growth and value creation,” he continued.

AppHarvest — which raised $28 million in its Series C round in August — is launching what it describes as the world’s largest greenhouse later this year, consisting of a 2.76 million square foot facility in Morehead, Kentucky. The system it uses reportedly reduces water usage by 90% compared to traditional open-field agriculture, while also eliminating runoff. 

Its first crop will be non-GMO tomatoes, which will be provided to a number of US grocers. 

Other AppHarvest investors include TV cook Martha Stewart, VC veteran Peter Thiel, ValueAct Capital’s Spring Fund, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Equilibrium Capital, and Narya – the new VC firm co-founded by JD Vance, author of best-selling Appalachian memoir Hillbilly Elegy.

“We are about to plant our first crop in a 60-acre, controlled environment, chemical-free farm. No one else in America is doing something at that scale. Investors look at that,” Peter Spac, AppHarvest’s newly appointed chief financial officer, told AFN.

“We have a phenomenal growing team. We have a phenomenal team of sustainability experts. They’re looking at a company and even though its pre-revenue it has all the necessary ingredients to succeed.”

AppHarvest knows it’s far from being the only player in the CEA game. But it’s confident in its approach. 

“We aren’t burning through cash with pointless R&D when we can buy incredible technologies over in the Netherlands,” Webb says.

“The other thing is scale. Part of it is that building big stuff fast in the US is very hard. You have to get permitting, communities’ [buy-in], state and federal support, infrastructure, inspections. What we’ve proven through a global pandemic is that we can build one of the largest facilities in the world on time, on budget, at a record pace.”

Moving forward, AppHarvest is focused on bringing its beefsteak and on-the-vine tomatoes to market. The first harvest at its Morehead facility is slated for early 2021. It hopes to expand into leafy greens, berries, cucumbers, and bell peppers in the future.

Berlin-Based Infarm Raises €144 Million During Pandemic To Grow Largest Urban Vertical Farming Network In The World

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By Charlotte Tucker

September 17, 2020

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Today German startup Infarm, one of the world’s fastest-growing urban farming networks, has announced an approx. €144 million investment raised in the first close of a Series C funding round expected to reach around €169 million. Led by LGT Lightstone, the first round included participation by investors Hanaco, Bonnier, Haniel, and Latitude and was supported by existing Infarm investors Atomico, TriplePoint Capital, Mons Capital, and Astanor Ventures.

Founded in Berlin in 2013 by Osnat Michaeli and the brothers Erez and Guy Galonska, Infarm is dedicated to creating a future where local super fresh produce is available for everyone. The farms are placed in various locations in the city, like supermarkets, restaurants, and distribution centers, so that vegetables grow and are harvested close to the moment of purchase or consumption.

These controlled, growing environments are connected to a central cloud-based farm-brain which gathers more than 50,000 data points through a plant’s lifetime, allowing the platform to learn, adapt and improve itself constantly so that every plant grows better than the one before. This modular, data-driven, and distributed approach — a combination of big data, IoT, and cloud analytics, in addition to rapid growth at a global scale — sets Infarm apart from any other urban farming solution.

With a mix of equity and debt financing, the scaleup’s fresh capital infusion brings Infarm’s total funding to date to more than €254 million, underscoring consumer and retailer appetite for Infarm’s innovative approach to fresh, sustainable and local food production in the wake of this year’s pandemic. By 2025, Infarm’s farming network is expected to reach more than 5,000,000 square feet to become the largest distributed farming network in the world as it builds towards helping cities become self-sufficient in their food production.

The investment will be used to deepen the regional and local reach of Infarm’s global farming network and complete the development of Infarm’s new generation of vertical cloud-connected farms, capable of generating the crop-equivalent of acres of farmland and amplifying the diversity of produce currently available through vertical farming. An integration of advanced engineering, software and farming technology, these farms will save labor, land, water, energy, and food-miles while contributing to a more sustainable food system.

Erez Galonska, Co-founder and CEO of Infarm said: “The coronavirus pandemic has put a global spotlight on the urgent agricultural and ecological challenges of our time. At Infarm, we believe there’s a better, healthier way to feed our cities: increasing access to fresh, pure, sustainable produce, grown as close as possible to people. As we scale to 5,000,000 sq ft in farming facilities across Europe, North American and Asia by 2025, this investment will help us make a truly global impact through our network, preserving the thousands of acres of land, millions of liters of water, and ultimately change the way people grow, eat and think about food.”

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In the past 12 months alone, Infarm has formed new partnerships with the world’s largest retailers, including Albert Heijn (Netherlands), Aldi Süd (Germany), COOP/Irma (Denmark), Empire Company Ltd (Sobeys, Safeway, Thrifty Foods – Canada), Kinokuniya (Japan), Kroger (United States), Marks & Spencer (United Kingdom) and Selfridges (United Kingdom), driving market expansion beyond Germany, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland to the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Japan.

With operations across 10 countries and 30 cities worldwide, Infarm harvests 500,000+ plants monthly and growing while using 99.5% less space than soil-based agriculture, 95% less water, 90% less transport and zero chemical pesticides. Today, 90% of electricity use throughout the Infarm network is from renewable energy and the company has set a target to reach zero emission food production next year.

Dharmash Mistry, Partner of LGT Lightstone said: “We are excited to partner with the Infarm team to accelerate their urban vertical farm vision, ultimately creating a more sustainable food system for a growing population. Fresher, tastier & healthier food using 95% less land & water, no pesticides and 90% less transport. With over $1 billion of customer demand, partnerships with 17 of the top 50 global grocers, Infarm is set to revolutionize the market behind a unique ‘demand led’ modular business model. We look forward to working with Erez, Guy & Osnat to create a better, healthier & tastier future.”

Pasha Romanovski, Co-founding Partner of Hanaco Ventures said: “We are big believers in vertical farming as we see the traditional industry going through (much needed) rapid disruption these days. We were deeply impressed by Infarm’s founders and management, with their ability to move fast and execute. What is extremely appealing about Infarm is their innovative and modular approach, using cutting edge technology that unlocks added value throughout the supply chain, benefiting both the retailers and end-customers. We see a massive demand in the market for sustainable, environment-friendly, and healthy food – and Infarm has just the right team in place to make this happen.”

First Indoor Basil Harvested In Delphy Improvement Center

The first batch of indoor-grown basil was harvested at the Delphy Improvement Centre. Since May, Lisanne Meulendijks has been working on the development of practical cultivation knowledge for Vertical Farms. Growth factors such as climate, light and irrigation can easily be varied in the test chambers.

Because of this flexibility, experiments can be conducted to see how cultivation in a Vertical Farm can be optimized. The focus is on analyzing the plant’s growth process. In a Vertical Farm, the plant influences its own growing environment relatively strongly which creates a microclimate around the crop that deviates from the controlled climate in the chamber.

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Lisanne in the climate chamber

Cultivation factors

The degree of exchange between these climates depends on the design of the Vertical Farm. In order to fully utilize the potential of a Vertical Farm, optimization of the growth recipes should be based on this principle, because it is ultimately the microclimate that controls the growth of the plant.

By approaching the research from this angle and looking at the effect of the different cultivation factors on the plant, it is possible to formulate growing advice that is specific for different Vertical Farming facilities.

Light intensity

The first experiment looked at the effect of increasing light intensity on the growth of basil, in combination with testing different types of substrate. By using sensors on and around the plant, the growth was closely monitored and could be linked to the microclimate between the crop and the macro climate in the cell. This led to interesting and tasty first results, says Lisanne.

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Investigating business questions

The graph shows the relation between increasing light intensity and annual production: the more light, the steeper the curve, the faster the plants growth. The fact that the plant grows faster with more light is of course nothing new.

What makes these results interesting is that each growth curve can be expressed in a formula and the error margin around the curves is small, Lisanne explains. This is because the growing conditions within a Vertical Farm are completely under control. Cultivation practices can then be optimized using the formulas behind these kind of curves.

It becomes possible to formulate answers to questions such as: “How does an investment in extra light affect my yield? How many days after germination is best to harvest to maximize my yield?”

These are important business aspects for production. "Through our application-oriented research, we develop knowledge that responds to these kinds of practical questions."

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Fresh weight of the basil plotted as a function of light intensity and days after germination.

This experiment is part of the Fieldlab Vertical Farming South Holland project. This project has in part been made possible by the European Fund for Regional Development of the European Union and a contribution from the Province of South Holland.

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For more information:  
Delphy
www.delphy.nl

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Publication date: Wed 15 Jul 2020

Farm Tech Society, Indoor Ag-Con Partner to Present "Future of Farming | Educating The Next Generation to Make CEA Scalable" | August 19, 2020 - 2 PM EST

New Session Joins Indoor Ag-Conversations Webinar Series,
August 19, 2020, From 2:00 - 3:00 pm EST

(AUGUST 10, 2020) -- As the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) industry grows, companies are facing greater shortages in qualified talent. How can innovation in training and education accelerate the industry to the benefit of all? Hosted by the Farm Tech Society and Indoor Ag-Con, LLC,  "The Future of Farming: Educating the Next Generation To Make CEA Scalable," will bring together a panel of top educators to explore viable answers to this pressing challenge.

The latest topic to join the Indoor Ag-Conversations free webinar series, the program will be held on Wednesday, August 19, 2020, from 2:00 - 3:00 pm EST.

Moderated by Farm Tech Society Chairman Ian Kanski, Director, Center for Advanced Agriculture & Sustainability, Harrisburg University of Science & Technology, the panel will include Dr. Laura Vickers, Senior Lecturer in Plant Biology, Harpers Adams University; Sonny Ramaswamy, president, Northwest Commission on Colleges & Universities; and Dr. Marito Garcia, Fellow, Darden School of Business, Center for Global Initiatives (DCGI), University of Virginia.

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"We're excited to partner with the Farm Tech Society to foster discussion around this vitally important topic," says Brian Sullivan, co-owner, Indoor Ag-Con, LLC. "The COVID crisis has certainly brought attention and increased awareness to the myriad benefits CEA can offer -- from local food/supply chain solutions to year-round production. Attracting and educating a younger generation are critical to helping CEA reach its full potential."

"Strengthening and securing the future of the CEA industry are key to the Farm Tech Society mission. The new Indoor Ag-Conversations webinar series offers a wonderful platform to exchange ideas and spark new ones. We're looking forward to a great discussion," adds Farm Tech Society Board Chairman and program moderator Ian Kanski. "

During the 60-minute program, the panel will discuss a range of topics, including:

• Upskilling and retraining from challenged industry sectors

• Skills gaps, labor challenges, and automation

• Micro-credentialing and industry certifications

• Portability of skills learned in CEA operations

• Public-private partnerships for training and education

The program is free and attendees can register at www.indoor.ag/webinar

The Indoor Ag-Conversations panelists will bring a wealth of educational industry experiences and insights to the discussion.

 Ian Kanski  is a social entrepreneur with a career dedicated to human development and sustainable technology. He is the Director of the Center for Advanced Agriculture and Sustainability at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, Board Chair for FarmTech Society in Brussels, Belgium and co-founder of INTAG. Ian is also Co-Founder of the STEM Education consultancy B Theory Inc and is the former Chief Product Officer of Zoetic Global.

Dr. Laura Vickers gained her Ph.D. in 2012 from the University of Birmingham before working as a postdoc at Harper Adams University (HAU). She took up her role as Lecturer at HAU in 2014 and was also awarded a NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellowship in Horticulture, where she worked with the Horticulture Innovation Partnership in producing an R&D strategy for the Ornamental industry. She is now a Senior Lecturer at HAU and a leading member of the Urban Farming Group.

Sonny Ramaswamy assumed the presidency of the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities in 2018 after six years of service as President Obama's appointee as the Director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) in Washington, DC. Prior to this position in the federal government, he worked for 30 years at several Land-Grant Universities, rising through the ranks from assistant professor to dean.

Dr. Marito Garcia is a Fellow at the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA. He is a Board Director at Learning Equality, a non-profit education technology company based in San Diego, CA. He is co-founder of Italpinas Development Corporation, a green-building development company in Asia, based in Manila, Philippines; and Orenko Ltd (Cambridge, UK), an energy development company. He also served as senior staff at the World Bank, Washington, DC in various capacities.

Indoor Ag-Con LLC created the new Indoor Ag-Conversations series to share content originally planned for its May 2020 in-person annual conference that was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.   To learn more about this session, as well as other upcoming programs on the schedule, visit www.indoor.ag/webinar

ABOUT INDOOR AG-CON LLC
Founded in 2013, Indoor Ag-Con, LLC produces the premier event for the indoor | vertical farming industry touching all sectors of the business —  produce, legal cannabis, hemp, alternate protein and non-food crops. In December 2018, three event industry professionals – Nancy Hallberg, Kris Sieradzki and Brian Sullivan – purchased Indoor Ag-Con LLC, setting the stage for further expansion of the events globally. For more information, visit: https://indoor.ag

ABOUT FARM TECH SOCIETY
The Farm Tech Society (FTS) is an international non-profit industry association that unites and supports the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) industry, seeking to strengthen the sector through the development and implementation of resilient and future proof methods and technologies for indoor growing For more information, visit https://www.farmtechsociety.org

Indoor Ag-Con, 950 Scales Road, Building #200, Suwanee, GA 30024, United States

Join Farm Expert Derek As He Live Streams From Inside The Freight Farms Greenery - August 19, 2020 - 12 Noon EST

Come Check Out The Greenery™

Take a deep dive into the basics of controlled environment agriculture, hydroponics, and vertical farming...all from the comfort of your own home! 

Joining is simple – register for free below. 

RSVP

When

Wednesday, August 19th, 2020

12:00 - 12:45 PM EST

Where

Zoom Video 

Click here to reserve your spot!

Farming In The Desert: Are Vertical Farms The Solution To Saving Water?

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Deutsche Welle

Jul. 23, 2020

By Isabelle Gerretsen"

When I told people I was going to grow tomatoes in the desert, they thought I was crazy," Sky Kurtz, founder of Pure Harvest Smart Farms, told DW.

With just an average 12 days of rain a year, less than 1% arable land, a desert location, and an 80% import rate for food, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) seems an unfavorable place to set up a farm.

Kurtz is one of several entrepreneurs using high-tech farming techniques to boost crop production in the Emirates. Pure Harvest built the first climate-controlled greenhouse in Abu Dhabi in 2017.

Prompted by arid conditions and a desire for greater food security, the country is investing millions in technologies — such as vertical farming — that could make it an unlikely agricultural pioneer.

Vertical farms can grow a rich variety of different crops by stacking them in layers under LED lighting in climate-controlled greenhouses and watering them with mist or drip systems. The process is tailored to each crop's specific needs, resulting in high-yield, year-round harvests."

It takes 30 to 40 days to grow leafy greens out in the field. We can grow that same crop in 10 to 12 days," says Marc Oshima, co-founder of Aerofarms. The company received funding from the Abu Dhabi Investment Office to build the capital's largest indoor vertical farm, with 800 different crops, by 2021.

Water Scarcity and Fossil-Fuel Reliance

The technology uses minimal land and up to 95% less water than conventional agriculture.

The hydroponics system places the plants' roots directly into a water-based and nutrient-rich solution instead of soil. This "closed-loop" system captures and recirculates all the water, rather than allowing it to drain away — useful for a country like the UAE suffering from extremely high water stress.

Globally, agriculture accounts for 70% of freshwater withdrawals, and UAE is extracting groundwater faster than it can be replenished, according to the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA)."

Water is very expensive over in the UAE, but energy is cheap as it is subsidized," says Jan Westra, a strategic business developer at Priva, a company providing technology to vertical farms.

The artificially controlled environment is energy-intensive because the air conditioning and LED lights need a constant source of electricity.

This bringing forth of life in the desert could come at a high environmental cost. Most of that energy comes from carbon-emitting fossil fuels, even as the Middle Eastern country feel the effects of climate change.

By 2050 Abu Dhabi's average temperature is predicted to increase by around 2.5°C (36.5 F) in a business-as-usual scenario. Over the next 70 years, patterns of rainfall are also expected to change.

Integrating Renewable Energy 

Although Pure Harvest is building a solar-powered farm in neighboring Saudi Arabia, its UAE operations get electricity from the carbon-intensive national grid.

Investing more in renewables "is a goal of ours," Kurtz told DW. He said the company has not set a clean energy target but is working on various green power projects, including a plan to integrate solar power generated in UAE into its operations.

However, Willem van der Schans, a researcher specializing in short supply chains at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, says sustainability and clean energy should be "inherent in the technology and included in plans when starting a vertical farm."

He argues that many vertical farming companies are not sustainable in terms of energy as they still view clean power as an optional "add-on."

Ismahane Elouafi, director-general of the government-funded ICBA in Abu Dhabi, acknowledges that vertical farming has some way to go before achieving "real sustainability," but she believes the innovations are "promising."

Improved battery storage, increasingly efficient LED lights, and cheaper solar panels will help, she adds.

Local Solutions

 By 2050, the UAE government wants to generate almost half its energy from renewable sources.

Fred Ruijgt, a vertical farming specialist at Priva, argues that it's important to factor transport and refrigeration into the energy equation. Vertical farming uses more energy to grow crops than traditional agriculture, but because crops are grown locally, they do not have to be transported by air, sea, or truck over long distances."

The energy-saving is difficult to calculate exactly, but the advantages of locally grown crops are huge," he says, adding that those grown in vertical farms not only use less water and pesticides but that they also have a longer shelf life due to minimal transportation time.

Food Security and Coronavirus

 In 2018, the UAE set out its vision to become a hub for high-tech local food production.

Companies and investors have flocked to the region, attracted by the 0% corporate tax rate, low labor costs, and cheap energy. With their help, the UAE aims to reduce its reliance on imports and make its food system more resilient to shocks like climate change and pandemics.

Oshima from Aerofarms says the coronavirus pandemic has brought "greater appreciation of how fragile the supply chain is and raised questions about food safety and security."

When the UAE went into lockdown in April, imported supplies of perishable goods like vegetables fell and business boomed for local suppliers.

ICBA's Elouafi said they have helped keep the UAE well-stocked during the pandemic."With the help of local food production and adequate imports, there has been absolutely no shortage of food in the UAE," Elouafi told DW.

Climate change, however, poses an altogether more complex threat to the country in the long-term. Given climate change's likely impact on food production, she says vertical farming has shown it is "an economically viable proposition even with harsh climatic conditions."

Reposted with permission from Deutsche Welle.

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