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Skills Shortages In The Food Industry
Just like in other parts of society, there is rapid technological development and digitalisation in the food industry. It places demands on completely new skills and the food industry also needs to become better at attracting and taking care of young people, new arrivals and people with different backgrounds.
June 10, 2021
Bengt Fellbe, Program Leader, SSEC, Swedish Surplus Energy Collaboration, discusses the importance of training people with the right skills to work within the Swedish sustainable food industry
There is a lot of talk about circular and sustainable processes in the modern food industry. There is a lot of work and investment in innovations that revolve around digitization, AI, automation, aquaponics, vertical cultivation, circular bio-based economic models – and that’s good. BUT, without a skilled workforce, the development will not take place.
Region Skåne
Region Skåne in southern Sweden has perceived the situation and is announcing project funds to help. This is how they describe the situation.
Photographs by Erik Lundgren, Ljusgårda AB
The food industry and agriculture have always been the heart of Skåne. Skåne accounts for about a third of Sweden’s food production. Food is also part of our Scanian identity. This is how we want it to be in the future as well. But there is a concrete threat.
The Scanian food industry and agriculture have a hard time finding the right people. If we do not act now, we may soon have serious problems in this Skåne industry. We must think new.
There are several reasons for all this. Just like in other parts of society, there is rapid technological development and digitalisation in the food industry. It places demands on completely new skills and the food industry also needs to become better at attracting and taking care of young people, new arrivals and people with different backgrounds.
There are jobs. But it is the matching between those who want to hire and those who are looking for work that is lacking. In other words: we are no longer training the right people right for the food industry.
Initiatives
There are, of course, several different good initiatives throughout Sweden that SSEC has initiated.
In the municipality of Bjuv, “Recruitment training” has been carried out aimed at the food industry in collaboration between the company in question with recruitment needs and the Swedish Public Employment Service. A company-friendly tool that the employment service in Sweden has in its toolbox. The company that has skills needs and needs to recruit is involved in the entire process together with the employment service.
SSEC has been helpful in developing requirements profile and course content together with companies in the industry, which has resulted in a Higher Vocational Education (HVE) – “Sustainable food entrepreneur”.
About the Higher Vocational Education “Sustainable food entrepreneur”
By studying to be a Sustainable Food Entrepreneur, you will be involved in developing food from a sustainable, circular perspective. You will gain both theoretical and practical knowledge about the Swedish sustainability work. In addition, you get the opportunity to try out your own ideas in consultation with professional food producers.
The education gives you a basic competence in sustainability and different types of food production, as well as the opportunity to specialise through LIA internships, (Learning at Work).
You also gain knowledge about, for example, the global sustainability goals, sustainable plant breeding, entrepreneurship, sustainable animal husbandry and hygiene and safety.
Ljusgårda in Tibro municipality is an innovative company in vertical cultivation. The company is expanding enormously to meet the needs of the market and needs to recruit staff within several competence levels. These are horticulturists and agronomists with a University degree, operations managers from the Higher Vocational Education, preferably with competence and experience of the technology behind indoor cultivation-vertical cultivation, and a large number of employees in production. In this technology-intensive horticulture, there are changing requirements for competence compared with a traditional horticulture. These are completely different conditions in that the production in this case is automated, digitized, and uses the latest technology in measurement and sensor technology. Another important factor is that it is a year-round business and cannot rely on seasonal employees.
In the Skaraborg region and Tibro municipality, SSEC has therefore initiated a close collaboration between the company, the Swedish Public Employment Service, and the municipality’s labour market unit. The aim is to build structures that support and reflect the need for skills supply in the food industry in both the short and long term. In Northwestern Skåne, 11 municipalities collaborate in adult education. The municipality of Bjuv, together with the municipality of Åstorp, will this autumn, offer basic adult education aimed at the food industry. The goal is to supply a strongly growing innovative industry with competent production personnel in the long term.
As I said, the agrarian industry and the food industry’s technological development are moving at a furious pace towards being both sustainable and competitive. But, without competent employees, we will not get anywhere.
We cannot miss this golden opportunity – with the right education, we help thousands of people to work and increase their quality of life, while companies, municipalities, regions, and countries become socially, economically, and climate-sustainable.
Please note: This is a commercial profile
© 2019. This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.
Bengt Fellbe
Acting Program leader
SSEC, Swedish Surplus Energy Collaboration
Phone: +46 709585019
Email: bengt.fellbe@gmail.com
Website: Visit Website
Hydroponics - A Growing Trend in Architecture
Hydroponics might as well be the most sustainable way to feed the growing communities in moving forward. It is most efficient to grow leafy vegetables in vertical farms. Compared to traditional farms, vertical farms use 90% less land, gives 90% more fruit, and uses 90-98% less water with no soil.
‘In which Annie gives it those ones’, a movie that came out in the year 1989 featuring an honest life of a typical architecture college and its students. The principal figure is a titular character – Annie, or Anand Grover (played by Arjun Raina) who dreams of revolutionizing India through radical concepts. With a motive to reverse the whole process of urbanization, he suggests the growth of fruit farms alongside railway lines to make better use of excreta dumped on tracks by passing trains. This would end the migration from rural villages to urban cities. Such hare-brained schemes are “those ones” of the title – hippy-dippy fantasies of using architecture to be of some use of society. He questions in the movie, how could anyone else have not thought of the idea before he did. Well, the real scenario was even worse until hydroponics occupied its seat in the field of Architecture.
Farmlands in urban cities ©www.dezeen.com
Hydroponics Brings Farmlands To Urban Cities
With the rapid change in the world, there is a proportional decline in land availability and the quality of the soil. Resources like freshwater are left to count on throughout the world. By the year 2050, the population figure is predicted to rise to 9 billion and at the same time climate change could lower crop production by 25%.
Currently, with the expansion of cities & exhaustion of the rural lands, a vegetable growing on farmland travels about 2400 km before it reaches households. To keep it fresh and edible, it is sprayed by pesticides and chemicals. The food that one eats thus gets reduced to 50% of its nutrients, even 100% in some cases. Hence, the future of farming is being brought to cities across the world. Kimble Musk, brother of Elon Musk, and co-founder of Square Roots has a shipping container farm in Brooklyn. Under the streets of London there is a shelter being converted into an underground farm. There are tiny farms under Michelin Star Restaurants in New York City and a Tokyo office building which has its own rice paddy field in the lobby.
Vertical Farming in True Garden, Arizona ©www.usatoday.com
Hydroponics might as well be the most sustainable way to feed the growing communities in moving forward. It is most efficient to grow leafy vegetables in vertical farms. Compared to traditional farms, vertical farms use 90% less land, gives 90% more fruit, and uses 90-98% less water with no soil. The UN estimates that 20-40% of crops that are grown are destroyed by pests. So, growing in a closed environment without soil means no pests and thus, no pesticides. Tower Garden collaborated with Tower Farms to birth True Gardens in Arizona, USA. It is one of the major successful examples who have envisioned to drastically reduce the regional agricultural problems against the temperatures and lack of resources.
Hydroponics In Small-Scale Projects
Courtyards in office space ©www.archdaily.com
Backyards ©www.wallpaper.com
While people are getting under built concrete to fabricate urban farms in the cities, some architects open a new aspect of Hydroponics in the field of Architecture. C.C Arquitectos – an architectural firm in Mexico, designed a contemporary office that meets modern hydroponics. The site became a major driving force for this project. The building block is located between two production warehouses of leafy green vegetables. The project was intended to resolve the location of offices in a space that made emphasis on the constant interaction of the areas.
The context consists of agricultural fields that generate deep horizons. This became the second aspect the architect wanted to address: how to contain workspaces, bring a human scale to the whole, and provide visual breaks. He took advantage of the proximity to one of the production plant warehouses to visually involve the production process. It was intended to promote a friendly atmosphere, take distance from the corporate condition, and try to approach a community working for common purposes. This example shall inspire one, and all the designers to break the stereotypical boundary of application of hydroponics that limits to only vertical farming.
Hydroponics Meets Art
Before you proceed to read further, I would like you to take a pause and imagine –what if, hydroponics meets art and architecture with a pinch of technology? In advance of you declaring the amalgamation impossible, I would like to introduce a project known as Kinetic Green Canvas, built by Associative Data (BAD) along with Green Studios to create a prototype green art installation for building façades.
The Canvas consists of individual modules, each of which is a cube made from a steel framework, back paneling, L-shaped jambs, secondary structure, waterproofing board, irrigation piping, Green Studios hydroponic skin, and plants. These layered components are assembled on four sides of the cube module, with a motor and water pipe attachment that circulates water throughout. Varied shades of green grass are grown on each face and can create changeable ‘pixel’ art. All we need is art and plants to cheer up the neighborhood, so why not combine the best of both worlds?
Kinetic module ©www.materialdistrict.com
Stacking rows of pixel units’ ©www.materialdistrict.com
Kinetic green canvas creating art ©www.architectureanddesign.com
Hydroponics Builds A Tiny Ecosystem
Solar power at top level ©www.smithsonianmag.com
Fish farming at bottom level; ©www.smithsonianmag.com
Amidst the sea or river, grows a field yielding tons of vegetables, fruits, and fish each year! Barcelona-based architectural firm – Forward Thinking Architecture floats an idea of a complete ecosystem. With the ideology of no land-no problem, the firm proposes ‘Smart Floating Farms’; large triple-decker agriculture barges that feature fish farms down below, hydroponic gardens up top and, solar panels on the roof to keep things running. The designers contend that all of this could, in theory, operate pretty much automatically with minimal human intervention. A project takes the right direction when the classical elements merge together to support life and are self-sufficiently sustainable.
The extent of Hydroponics spreads exponentially more and beyond. It has been experimented in the farming sector and is successfully solving major world crises in the present and for the coming future. The growing trend in architecture shall meet advanced technology and who knows, we might even have growing buildings using hydroponics! Contradicting what we’ve always been taught – I would recommend building castles in the air. It could be one significant bridge for the human race to jump to productive architecture.
Architectural Journalist
Rethinking The Future
Tanushree Saluja is constantly inspired by connecting different forms of art and translating into architectural experiences. She strives for the eccentricity that’s interminable in the mind of the receiver. Bringing in fresh perspectives and unique outlook has been the greatest challenge and reward to her creativity.
Autogrow Cracks The Yield Prediction Code With FarmRoad
After three years of research, development, lab and farm trials; Autogrow’s FarmRoad solution has set the global benchmark for crop yield prediction with an initial 90 percent accuracy rate
After three years of research, development, lab and farm trials; Autogrow’s FarmRoad solution has set the global benchmark for crop yield prediction with an initial 90 percent accuracy rate.
“Accurately predicting harvest time and yield is the holy grail of agriculture. It allows clarity of availability to the entire food chain from the grower to the marketer and on to the consumer. Getting 90 percent accuracy rate up to six weeks out in our first three farms has been exceptional,” says CEO Darryn Keiller.
“Under-production and over-production can financially impact a farm. Under supply brings both less revenue, potential financial penalties from purchasers e.g. supermarket chains and the need to buy off a competitor to meet contractual requirements. Over production creates a surplus, which is then sold on the open market, usually at a price less than market value. It’s an unpalatable and expensive roller coaster ride.”
“When you consider the numbers, the ROI (return on investment) of increasing yield prediction of tomatoes by 10 percent - from 80 to 90 percent - based on a 30ha grower producing 60kg/sqm could be up to USD $1.3million. Savings can also be made with regards to labor by automating manual forecasting and through increased efficiency of farming practices.”
FarmRoad’s Yield Prediction model has initially been created to service large scale greenhouse tomato producers combining the biophysical understanding of crop varieties, with crop and environmental data and proprietary A.I. based models and engines. The service is built and hosted on AWS cloud, and can be delivered to any enterprise farm operator, anywhere in the world.
“Not only do we have on average 90 percent accuracy but we are achieving that working with three different growers in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, using a mix of hydroponic substrate and soil and utilizing three different tomato cultivars - Marnax by Axia Seeds, Maxeza by Enza Zaden and Merlice by De Ruiter Seeds; showing the flexibility of our AI-based prediction,” says Mr. Keiller.
Accurate yield prediction is dependent on available data and variables include weather, pest and pathogen events and management practices. The industry baseline for large scale greenhouse production ranges from no prediction to 80 percent certainty up to two weeks in advance for the more experienced growers. FarmRoad is 90 percent accurate from one to six weeks in advance and anticipates achieving 95 percent accuracy within six months.
“Tomatoes are one of the most complex plants to apply yield prediction, but there is also a substantial amount of data available due to the crop registration techniques growers utilize. The key to prediction is the availability of data and we have been incredibly lucky to work with some fantastic growers with over 40+ years of experience who have shared their knowledge and data,” says Chief Technology Officer Jonathan Morgan.
“The first step is getting the data, but the biggest challenge has been turning the data into a form that works. When you look at environmental data, it is great for controlling systems but it’s not easy to go from the real-time data to a prediction of how plants are going to grow. When you also add in unexpected variables like a grower changing from loose pick to truss tomatoes half-way through the growing cycle, then your accuracy rate can decrease.”
With yield prediction achieved, Autogrow is currently developing crop registration and crop planning services.
“Yield Prediction by FarmRoad, is one of our many industry-leading services designed to enhance crop productivity and make farm operators more profitable. With their personalized yield model, growers can utilize their prediction and trends to materially improve farm profitability. The future is A.I. and digital farming, and we look forward to working with large scale growers who are looking to utilize their own data and gain a competitive and financial edge,” says Mr. Keiller.
For more information www.farmroad.io or email info@farmroad.io
MEDIA QUERIES
Kylie Horomia, Head of Communications
(e) Kylie.horomia@autogrow.com
(m) +6421 733 025
(w) www.autogrow.com www.farmroad.io www.cropsonmars.com
Sales queries – info@farmroad.io
About Autogrow
Autogrow leverages the power of technology, data science, and plant biology to provide indoor growers affordable, accessible, and easy-to-use innovation – 24/7, anywhere in the world.
Our hardware, software, and data solutions support growers and resellers in over 40 countries producing over 100 different crop types.
We are the experts in Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) and continue to stay ahead of a rapidly evolving landscape.
Autogrow, Level 1, Building 3, 61 Constellation Drive, Mairangi Bay, Auckland 0632, New Zealand
Variety of Healthy Foods From Vertical Farming Platform
When talking about technology, it's easy to focus on things like computers, smartphones, apps and the growing number of smart gadgets around the house. But technology is far-reaching and can influence and change traditional sectors quickly, one of them being the agricultural sector.
When talking about technology, it's easy to focus on things like computers, smartphones, apps and the growing number of smart gadgets around the house. But technology is far-reaching and can influence and change traditional sectors quickly, one of them being the agricultural sector.
One company that is looking to take on the commercial agricultural industry is Eden Green Technology, just out of Texas. This company focuses on sustainability in the food industry. Eddy Badrina, CEO of the company tells about what they do, how they use technology, and how they envision the future of the agricultural industry.
Efficient use of space
"Eden Green Technology is a vertical farming platform that grows large quantities of local produce safely, sustainably, and efficiently. We use less land, energy, and water than both traditional farming and other indoor solutions. Our greenhouses are constructed on small footprints, in urban or suburban areas, to provide stable jobs and produce non-GMO, pesticide-free produce, which goes from farm to table in as little as 48 hours, compared to the 14 days it usually takes under the traditional model," Eddy says.
The founders of Eden Green are brothers Jacques and Eugene van Buuren. They came to the US to secure investment, source talent, and experiment with their technological solutions in diverse climates. They started in Texas, with its own extreme range of environmental considerations, agricultural know-how, and business opportunities, and built from there.
Technology company
"Our technical secret sauce consists of a few ingredients, including our patented vertical “vines,” where our produce grows, and the way we create microclimates for each individual plant with temperature-controlled air and nutrient-enriched water. We also designed and built a proprietary mechanical, electrical, and plumbing solution specifically to automate and remotely monitor all our greenhouses. Because of that hardware and software combination, we like to think of ourselves as a technology company that happens to grow produce."
Read more at Vator.
By Horti Daily | May 4, 2020