3 Questions For Mindful Eating

By Derek Brainard

Jun 6, 2017

Someone Needs to Say It

Food is not good or evil, nor do your decisions about what to eat translate into you being a good, bad, smart, or stupid person. There is no magical transitive power that food possesses that indicates your personality or your character. Free yourself from “relating” with food — it’s not a person, and you don’t owe it anything. Instead of judging past decisions, let’s take a minute to focus on what we really have control over — our next meal.

Mindful Eating

Every day we’re inundated with a new diet — a new way of eating that will “revolutionize” our approach to nutrition, help us lose weight, and get back in shape.

The resulting process has become predictable, and almost cliche — we get motivated, decide it’s time to make a change fueled by this new information, jump in for a few weeks or months, then slowly regress back to habits that have been instilled for the first several decades of our lives, eventually wiping out any progress that was made in the first place.

In fact, researchers from UCLA have found that people on diets typically lose five to ten percent of their starting weight in the first six months, only to have at least one-third to two-thirds of people on diets regain more weight than they lost within four or five years (American Psychologist).

Not surprising, right? Our own collective experience probably supports that claim, leaving us with one big, perpetual question:

How am I supposed to eat?

It is exactly this mindfulness, this quest for finding what works for you, that will eventually lead you to a successful personal nutrition plan. Work with a licensed pro to hone your plan, and as always — consult your doctor when making a change that may impact vital health markers (we hope).

With mindfulness at the center of our conversation, here are three questions to ask yourself when it comes to what you decide to put in your mouth, regardless of what diet or lifestyle you choose.

Why Am I Eating?

Sounds simple enough, but the lack of this question may be one of the greatest causes of our current obesity epidemic in America. As of last year, 38% of adults and 17% of teenagers were considered “obese” — with the operational definition being a Body Mass Index of over 30 (Centers of Disease Control and Prevention).

Starting with why may be the single most powerful filter we as humans can place on our actions. Asking why we engage in any behavior is a step that is often taken for granted, but can yield amazing, behavior-changing results.

The top ways we omnivores tend to approach food consumption come in the following flavors:

Emotionally — This may be the primary way we make food decisions in our daily lives, whether we know it or not. Eating a cookie or having a beer because we “had a hard day” makes no earthly logical sense, but we do it anyway because of the temporary “lift” we may get from a sugar high or a buzz. In a more communal sense, food is typically at the center of celebration. For many families, it would be considered sacrilege to forgo the cake at a birthday in exchange for fruit. Most would never question the alleged benefits of this ritual. As a matter of fact, even suggesting the change might actually incite anger.

Passively — Sometimes, we simply give very little thought at all to what we are putting in our bodies. Mindless eating or snacking falls under this category, and is definitely a culprit of pounds and inches being added to our waistlines each year. Usually happens at a work-desk or during the “witching hours” (anytime after 8 pm).

Addictively — When we legitimately lose control of our ability to make food or drink decisions for ourselves, it may be time to to seek help and engage with one of the many community organizations that exist to help us get back to health.

Culturally — Many cultural traditions are passed down from generation to generation within families — some good, and some potentially damaging. It can be difficult to buck a trend, but when it comes to your health — your body is your temple, and supersedes someone else’s desire to see you eat some fried goodies.

Medicinally — Hippocrates, who many call the father of medicine, said:

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”

We may have strayed from this mentality for some time, but thankfully medical professionals are now seeing the benefits associated with a return to a “food as medicine” practice.

OK, so if it’s given that we generally eat because we’re hungry (and there can be false indicators that the body sends in this regard that are outside of the scope of this article), then take some time to ask yourself — how do I typically approach my food-decisions each day? Emotionally, passively, culturally, medicinally, or a mixture?

Simply asking “why am I eating this?” before we ingest may help us determine whether we’re eating for health or for some other reason.

Where Did This Come From?

Asking where our food comes from can also be another great filter for a mindful eater. The movement to locally-sourced, non-modified food is undeniable. A leader in the movement, author Michael Pollan captures the essence of the growing prescription best with his mantra: “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.”

A number of well-done documentaries exist on this subject, like “Food, Inc.,” “Fresh,” “What’s With Wheat?”, and “In Defense of Food.”

Common themes exist in many of these films, and have beared themselves out in my own experience as well.

Common Themes in Support of Local Food-Sourcing

• In our effort to scale food operations (on a massive level), we humans generally make a bigger mess of things, and sometimes even diminish or remove the nutritional values of the many of the foods we are attempting to nourish our society with in the first place.

• Knowing where our food comes from is valuable primarily because it allows us to know definitively where it did not come from (e.g. feed lots, chicken factories, chemical-laden crop and wheat fields, etc…).

• Look for opportunities in your community to shop at farmers markets or buy directly from the farm, bring the kids out to a sheep-shearing festival, buy from a local butcher, or participate in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. Local, organic and humane farmers need our support to give us the food our bodies need. We vote with our dollars.

How Is This Nourishing My Body?

The third question for mindful eating is another simple, yet overlooked question. Let’s frame this up in the following context:

Just like financial decisions have a positive or negative net effect on our balance sheet, food decisions can have a positive or negative net effect on our health.

Simple concept — exceedingly difficult application.

What I have found in my reading, and my experience as a coach and as an avid foodie, is that different people react differently to the same foods, and that what works for one person won’t necessarily work for another (shocking, I know).

In other words, outside of generally accepted nutrition principles (like Pollan’s mantra), what nourishes one may harm another, especially for those with allergies.

Simply asking “how is this nourishing my body” is a great way to acknowledge and celebrate the benefits of your food-choices, or to recognize that a divergence from the nutrition plan may not have a nourishing effect, but that it is temporary and done for another reason (cultural or celebratory primarily).

Take action in your own life by becoming a student of health and nutrition. This stuff matters, and your successful implementation of a personalized nutrition plan may only be a few steps away. Read books. Talk to local pros, health coaches, experts, and trainers. Listen to podcasts and stay motivated daily. Go back and read the first paragraph of this article — every day if you have to.

Continuously ask yourself the three questions for a life packed with delicious and mindful eating.

For a list of whole-food ideas for your next shopping trip, check out the Level 1 Food List.

Technology Is Shaping The Future of Food But Practices Rooted In Tradition Could Still Have A Role To Play

By Anmar Frangoul

August 6, 2021

From oranges and lemons grown in Spain to fish caught in the wilds of the Atlantic, many are spoiled for choice when it comes to picking the ingredients that go on our plate.

Yet, as concerns about the environment and sustainability mount, discussions about how — and where — we grow our food have become increasingly pressing.

Last month, the debate made headlines in the U.K. when the second part of The National Food Strategy, an independent review commissioned by the U.K. government, was released.

The wide-ranging report was headed up by restaurateur and entrepreneur Henry Dimbleby and mainly focused on England’s food system. It came to some sobering conclusions.

Its executive summary said the food we consume — and the way we produce it — was “doing terrible damage to our planet and to our health.”

The publication said the global food system was “the single biggest contributor to biodiversity loss, deforestation, drought, freshwater pollution and the collapse of aquatic wildlife.” It was also, the report claimed, “the second-biggest contributor to climate change, after the energy industry.”

Dimbleby’s report is one example of how the alarm is being sounded when it comes to food systems, a term the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN says encompasses everything from production and processing to distribution, consumption and disposal.

According to the FAO, food systems consume 30% of the planet’s available energy. It adds that “modern food systems are heavily dependent on fossil fuels.”

All the above certainly provides food for thought. Below, CNBC’s Sustainable Future takes a look at some of the ideas and concepts that could change the way we think about agriculture. 

Growing in cities

Around the world, a number of interesting ideas and techniques related to urban food production are beginning to gain traction and generate interest, albeit on a far smaller scale compared to more established methods. 

Take hydroponics, which the Royal Horticultural Society describes as “the science of growing plants without using soil, by feeding them on mineral nutrient salts dissolved in water.”

In London, firms like Growing Underground are using LED technology and hydroponic systems to produce greens 33-meters below the surface. The company says its crops are grown throughout the year in a pesticide free, controlled environment using renewable energy.

With a focus on the “hyper-local”, Growing Underground claims its leaves “can be in your kitchen within 4 hours of being picked and packed.”

Another business attempting to make its mark in the sector is Crate to Plate, whose operations are centered around growing lettuces, herbs and leafy greens vertically. The process takes place in containers that are 40 feet long, 8 feet wide and 8.5 feet tall.

Like Growing Underground, Crate to Plate’s facilities are based in London and use hydroponics. A key idea behind the business is that, by growing vertically, space can be maximized and resource use minimized.

On the tech front, everything from humidity and temperature to water delivery and air flow is monitored and regulated. Speed is also crucial to the company’s business model.

“We aim to deliver everything that we harvest in under 24 hours,” Sebastien Sainsbury, the company’s CEO, told CNBC recently.

“The restaurants tend to get it within 12, the retailers get it within 18 and the home delivery is guaranteed within 24 hours,” he said, explaining that deliveries were made using electric vehicles. “All the energy that the farms consume is renewable.”

Grow your own

While there is a sense of excitement regarding the potential of tech-driven, soilless operations such as the ones above, there’s also an argument to be had for going back to basics.

In the U.K., where a large chunk of the population have been working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic, the popularity of allotments — pockets of land that are leased out and used to grow plants, fruits and vegetables — appears to have increased.

In September 2020 the Association for Public Service Excellence carried out an online survey of local authorities in the U.K. Among other things it asked respondents if, as a result of Covid-19, they had “experienced a noticeable increase in demand” for allotment plots. Nearly 90% said they had.

“This alone shows the public value and desire to reconnect with nature through the ownership of an allotment plot,” the APSE said. “It may also reflect the renewed interest in the public being more self-sustainable, using allotments to grow their own fruit and vegetables.”

In comments sent to CNBC via email, a spokesperson for the National Allotment Society said renting an allotment offered plot holders “the opportunity to take healthy exercise, relax, have contact with nature, and grow their own seasonal food.”

The NAS was of the belief that British allotments supported “public health, enhance social cohesion and could make a significant contribution to food security,” the spokesperson said. 

A broad church

Nicole Kennard is a PhD researcher at the University of Sheffield’s Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures.

In a phone interview with CNBC, she noted how the term “urban agriculture” could refer to everything from allotments and home gardens to community gardens and urban farms.

“Obviously, not all food is going to be produced by urban agriculture, but it can play a big role in feeding local communities,” she said.

There were other positives, too, including flood and heat mitigation. “It’s … all those benefits that come with having green spaces in general but then there’s the added plus, [which] is that you’re producing food for local consumption.”

On urban farming specifically, Kennard said it provided “the opportunity to make a localized food system” that could be supported by consumers.

“You can support farms that you know, farmers that you know, that are also doing things that contribute to your community,” she said, acknowledging that these types of relationships could also be forged with other types of farms.

Looking ahead

Discussions about how and where we produce food are set to continue for a long time to come as businesses, governments and citizens try to find ways to create a sustainable system that meets the needs of everyone.

It’s perhaps no surprise then that some of the topics covered above are starting to generate interest among the investment community.

Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” in June, Morgan Stanley’s global head of sustainability research, Jessica Alsford, highlighted this shift.

“There’s certainly an argument for looking beyond the most obvious … ways to play the green theme, as you say, further down the value and the supply chain,” she said.

“I would say as well though, you need to remember that sustainability covers a number of different topics,” Alsford said. “And we’ve been getting a lot of questions from investors that want to branch out beyond the pure green theme and look at connected topics like the future of food, for example, or biodiversity.”

For Crate to Plate’s Sainsbury, knowledge sharing and collaboration will most likely have a big role to play going forward. In his interview with CNBC, he emphasized the importance of “coexisting with existing farming traditions.”

“Oddly enough, we’ve had farmers come and visit the site because farmers are quite interested in installing this kind of technology … in their farm yards … because it can supplement their income.”

“We’re not here to compete with farmers, take business away from farmers. We want to supplement what farmers grow.”

Lead Photo: Fruit and vegetable allotments on the outskirts of Henley-on-Thames, England.

Hong Kong's Urban Farms Sprout Gardens In The Sky

By Celia Cazale

July 9, 2021

With their heads in the clouds and their hands in the soil, a group of office workers are busy harvesting the fruits of their labour on the roof of a Hong Kong skyscraper.

Invisible to those below, a sprawling garden of radishes, carrots and rhubarb is flourishing at the top of the 150-metre tall Bank of America tower, a stark and colourful contrast to the monotone shades of concrete, steel and glass of the city's financial district.

The farm is among more than 60 that have sprouted across the space-starved city since 2015—on decommissioned helipads, shopping mall rooftops and public terraces—thanks to initiatives like Rooftop Republic, a local social enterprise which promotes urban farming.

Cofounder Andrew Tsui sees the rooftop farms as a way for people to reconnect with how sustainable food can be produced in what he calls the current "instant-noodle city lifestyle" that sees so much waste.

"What we are looking at is really how to identify underutilised spaces among the city and mobilise the citizens, the people, to learn about food," the 43-year-old told AFP during a blustery site inspection of the skyscraper's garden.

Tsui believes Hong Kongers need to re-establish a relationship with what they eat that has been broken "since we started outsourcing our food and relying so much on industrialised production."

Andrew Tsui of Rooftop Republic sees the farms as a way for people to reconnect with how sustainable food can be produced in what he calls the current "instant-noodle city lifestyle" that produces so much waste.

Piles of food waste

According to government statistics, Hong Kong throws out some 3,500 tonnes of food waste a day—the equivalent weight of 250 double-decker buses. Less than a quarter is recycled.

And around 90 percent of the food eaten by the city's 7.5 million inhabitants is imported, mostly from mainland China.

But while Hong Kong is one of the most densely packed places on earth, there is still considerable space to grow food locally.

Tsui said some seven million square metres of farmable area is currently cultivated. But more than six million square metres on the city's rooftops remain unused.

"So we could have the potential of doubling the supply of land for growing food," he said.

"The challenge for us is to design urban farming as a lifestyle to integrate into our daily life," he added. "And the first step for that, of course, is to be accessible."

Tsui believes Hong Kongers need to re-establish a relationship with what they eat that has been broken "since we started outsourcing our food and relying so much on industrialised production"

To incorporate urban farms into the blueprints for office buildings, Rooftop Republic closely collaborates with architects, developers and property managers.

Major companies are signing up.

As well as the Bank of America garden, financed by property consultancy giant JLL, Singaporean banking giant DBS has partnered with Rooftop Republic to set up an academy that runs workshops for beginners as well as professional courses.

"In Hong Kong, most of the people focus on the commercial value of the properties. But we want to promote the concept of sustainability," said Eric Lau, the group's senior director of property management.

New skills

Urban farmers say the projects also help build community spirit among those who cultivate the crops.

After retiring from the public service, Lai Yee-man said she turned to farming to connect with nature and her neighbours.

Around 90 percent of the food eaten by Hong Kong's 7.5 million inhabitants is imported, mostly from mainland China.

Hong Kong throws out some 3,500 tonnes of food waste a day—the equivalent weight of 250 double-decker buses.

While Hong Kong is one of the most densely packed places on earth, there is still considerable space to grow food locally.

Urban farmers say their projects help build community spirit among those who cultivate the crops.

The 60-year-old initially learned techniques and tricks from professionals to develop her farming plot in the New Territories region of Hong Kong—a rural area close to the border with mainland China.

But now she is passing on her knowledge to fellow residents working the Sky Garden, a 1,200 square-metre facility on top of a mall.

There residents cultivate edible flowers and fruit trees and can attend lifestyle classes like mindful gardening.

"People attach greater importance to their health now, they will buy organic food," said Lai.

"Here, we teach them not to waste... and to cherish their food," she explained, adding that the majority of what the mall farm grows goes to local food banks.

Tsui recognises that few young Hong Kongers currently have an interest in learning how to grow food.

But younger people are often concerned about the environment and climate change, so the opportunity to generate enthusiasm is there for the taking.

"If coding is the skill set to learn for the 21st century, growing your own food is a necessary new skill that we all need to learn to ensure a regenerative and green planet," he said.

Lead Photo: More than 60 urban farms have sprouted across space-starved Hong Kong since 2015—on decommissioned helipads, shopping mall rooftops and public terraces—thanks to initiatives like Rooftop Republic.

Food Is Poised To Get A Lot More Expensive, But It Doesn’t Have To

June 21, 2021

As we emerge from the pandemic, people everywhere are facing punishing housing costs and stagnant wages. At the grocery store, consumers are also confronting rising food prices, a sobering reminder that good food costs too much for too many.

Consumers aren’t used to expensive food. Over the past few years, most North Americans have typically spent around 10 per cent of household income on sustenance. In 1900, (when housing was much more affordable), food costs took up 42 per cent of incomes in the United States.

By 1950, new agricultural technologies had boosted production, helping slash costs to 30 per cent, but the gains were just beginning. The number fell to 18 per cent by 1960, and has mostly trended downward since.

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We’re not used to expensive food, because it’s been relatively cheap for so long. (Unsplash)

Today, with inflation on the rise, we need to consider what we can do to ensure the cost of a healthy diet stays within reach. There are two broad approaches. The first is to reduce poverty. The second is to reduce the cost of food.

Both approaches are necessary but we’re focusing on the latter: how to keep food costs down. In particular, we believe that with the right strategies, in the relatively near future, even healthy food may be cheaper than ever. The key will be technology and policy. To the doubters, and we know there are many, consider the following example.

40-year-old wager

In 1980, an economist made a bet against an ecologist.

Julian Simon, a business professor at the University of Maryland, wagered Paul Ehrlich, an ecologist at Stanford University, that the cost of raw materials would fall over the decade. Ehrlich chose a set of raw materials and the two agreed to reconvene on Sept. 29, 1990. If prices rose (a sign of scarcity), Ehrlich won. But if they fell (a sign of abundance), Simon would come out on top.

The reason for the bet related to each man’s worldview. Simon was a strong proponent that innovation and technology allow us to overcome limits to growth. Ehrlich observed the world’s environmental problems and argued the result of population growth would be famine, scarcity and ruin.

Forty years later, with the spectre of inflation twinned with climate change, a similar debate is emerging. We’d like to advance our notion, more aligned with the optimism expressed by Simon. We believe that thanks to technology, healthy food might actually become cheaper — radically cheaper — over the next 20 years as innovation provides many tools to overcome some of the problems caused by resource scarcity.

How can we do it?

Today, a wave of technological innovation is sweeping over food and farming systems. Better quality seeds are helping farmers all over the world remain productive during droughts.

Smart tractors, new “green chemistry” platforms and nanotechnology promise that in the near future farmers will reap record harvests while only applying a fraction of the fertilizers and pesticides they once did.

Greenhouses could result in fresh fruits and vegetables grown in close proximity to consumers. (Erwan Hesry/Unsplash)

Cellular agriculture, which involves producing animal proteins in bioreactors or fermentation tanks, is poised to produce an enormous amount of protein.

And extraordinary improvements in artificial lighting and automation suggest that even fruits and vegetables may soon be produced at low costs in greenhouses and vertical farms close to consumers.

‘Good cheap’ versus ‘bad cheap’

But before we get too carried away, there is an important nuance. If food is cheap because the environment is exploited, or agricultural workers and farm animals are treated badly, then having cheap food won’t solve any problems.

Similarly, if cheap food is low-quality and unhealthy, that doesn’t help either. When it comes to cheap food, we have to distinguish between “good cheap” and “bad cheap.”

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Migrant workers do maintenance at an asparagus farming facility in southwestern Ontario that experienced a COVID-19 outbreak. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Ensuring we end up on the right side of this equation is where policy comes in. Government regulations must put a price on things like greenhouse gas emissions and water pollution so that farmers who are good stewards of the environment are rewarded.

Similarly, animal welfare must be protected and labour compensated appropriately (both in agriculture and across the economy). If we calibrate the right policies, then the technologies that are giving us new ways of producing food really have the potential to lower the cost of healthy, sustainable and affordable nutrition. Good food won’t have to cost the earth.

Who won the bet?

The economist won the bet against the ecologist. All of the resources Ehrlich identified declined in price over the 1980s. Simon crowed about the role of ingenuity and innovation. Ehrlich grumbled he’d chosen badly and a recession in 1990 artificially dampened prices.

Both academics were partly right and partly wrong. Ehrlich underestimated the innovation Simon celebrated. But Simon did not appreciate the importance of a strong policy to protect labour and the environment.

As we look at the 21st century, a century that threatens both massive disruptions but also promises huge innovations, we need two things.

First, we must capitalize on the technology that can help us change the way we produce food. And we can never forget the importance of public policy to ensure there’s a fair price put on things such as biodiversity, climate change, human labour and animal welfare.

If we embrace both of these principles, there is a very real chance that we will be able to bring the price of producing healthy food down without destroying the ecosystems we all depend on for life.

Authors

Evan Fraser

Director of the Arrell Food Institute and Professor in the Dept. of Geography, Environment and Geomatics, University of Guelph

Lenore Newman

Canada Research Chair, Food Security and the Environment, University of The Fraser Valley

Disclosure statement

Evan Fraser is director of Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph, co-chair of the Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council, is vice-chair of the Maple Leaf Centre for Action on Food Security, and a scientific advisor to the vertical farming startup Cubic. He receives funding from the Canadian government and is affiliated with the Royal Society of Canada's College of New Scholars.

Lenore Newman is the Director of the Food and Agriculture Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley, is the chair of the science advisory for Cubic Farms, and receives funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council

Partners

University of Guelph provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation CA.

University of Guelph provides funding as a member of The Conversation CA-FR.

The Conversation UK receives funding from these organisations

View the full list

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Jo Adetunji

Managing Editor

• Agriculture Climate change Food Animal welfare Public policy Food production Grocery stores Food inflation Migrant farm workers

“Vertical Farming Gives Us The Opportunity To Create A Demand-Driven Food System”

Starting the business in 2017 with a proof of concept, Harvest London was ready to construct a more high-tech farm. “We’ll only grow the requested demand of the customers,” says Chris Davies, CEO at Harvest London. “Everything is supply-based, however, this has resulted in food waste and a fundamentally broken food supply system. Our customers sign a long-term growing contract, selling the capacity to grow produce.”

Harvest London allows its customers control in letting them decide details of the specific crop they’re interested in, not only on things like taste, color but also packaging, frequency of deliveries. In addition to being grown to order, this gives them more control over their supply chain which they previously didn’t have, as normally they would take what they’d be given.

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Matching supply to demand
Harvest London makes use of a ‘partners by design’ model, meaning everything cultivated is grown to order, matching supply to demand. Going from harvest to delivery within four hours as long as customers are London-based. Meaning they don’t grow for money's sake, as the company believes it has the most impact on cutting prices, margins and increasing food waste. Therefore, Harvest London works very closely with customers in order to truly understand their demand. This enables them knowing where the produce is going and who the produce is used by.

Variety focus
On its previous farm, the company was growing 10-15 things as they had a different business plan back then. Harvest London was growing several unique crops for Michelin restaurants. However, it was only growing 500 grams to one kilo at a time. Chris adds, “We focused on variety which was the most important thing back then. Now, we’ve learned from that and have the recipes and know-how still, but we’re growing five crops at the same time at a larger scale. Certain crops are viable at the moment, but that viability is a function of how well you can do things.” 

Quickly the company sold the business out and within three months, it was growing at 100% capacity. This resulted in turning customers away says Chris as they didn’t have more capacity. After meeting their maximum capacity the company ran some funding rounds in order to construct a bigger farm to increase production.

Emerging technologies
We’re fundamentally system integrators, using existing techniques from different industries, and have compiled all of those together. This ends up with a vertical farm.” According to Chris, many vertical farms are making the mistake by trying to be a hardware and vertical farming company at the same time. However, being a vertical farm is already hard enough on itself.

“We don’t play at the hardware space, at the base layer of hardware, however, we add value to the value-added technology space. We built a platform that essentially operates as the brains of our farm, regardless of the hardware, growing method, etc. It doesn’t matter from a hardware perspective, here’s a software platform that allows our data-driven operations. The thinking is that by taking this approach you’ll be able to break down silos of data. This is done by sharing data across different hardware providers and constantly learn, not being tied to any kind of hardware ecosystem,” Chris affirms.

The green infrastructure space
In the shortest term doing things with renewable resources, says Chris, is kind of a stop-gap measure. It’s the right thing to do in the short term, but based on the significant energy costs a vertical farm has, you have to take a more holistic approach. There’s a lot of money present in the market, the concept of green finance ‘greening the financial system’ hasn’t reached its potential yet. “The way you’re really going to transform food production is by thinking more holistically about food production within the context of a larger infrastructure. The most success we had with investors, the ones that already understand the green infrastructure space. If you already understand the economics of solar farming, wind farming or anaerobic digestion, then you understand the concept behind investing in vertical farming. Very high capital expense at the start of the process, but very productive for the lifetime of the asset”

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Co-locating vertical farms
However, when wanting to make a difference in food systems, according to Chris, is building more vertical farms, which is high capital intensity. More and more, vertical farms will be treated as green infrastructure projects. It’s almost like the multiplier effect when already owning a solar farm and anaerobic digester e.g. imagine a scenario of co-locating a vertical farm right next to these grids. You can create a very circular energy and food production system here. The hub and spoke model of vertical farming works really well. As about 85% of the produce comes out of the country, says Chris, a farm just outside London is still an exponential. We all know that in order to get the economy of scale, and efficiency, and maximizing your kilos per square meters. 

For more information:
Harvest London
Chris Davies, CEO
chris@harvestfarms.ag
www.harvest.london

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Publication date: Fri 12 Mar 2021
Author: Rebekka Boekhout
© VerticalFarmDaily.com

A Leading NYC Mayoral Candidate Thinks Roof Farms Can Save America’s Cities

by Amanda Kludt@kludt

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams distributing food

Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images

Later this year, the voters of America’s largest city will elect a new mayor. New York’s next leader will contend with budget crises, a small business sector in a free fall, a struggling mass transit system, a school system in open revolt, and a grieving populous. They also have an opportunity to help the city redefine itself and its values and priorities.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, one of the leading candidates in the race right now, believes food is a key component in any future recovery. Passionate about urban farming, he wants to set up a citywide network of vertical and rooftop farms that feed hospitals, schools, prisons, and beyond while educating schoolchildren and getting trucks off the road. He believes in the ability of healthy food to fight the chronic illnesses the plague Black and brown communities across the city, having reversed his diabetes diagnosis with his diet. And he believes in cutting through the bureaucracy of city government to make it all happen.

Last month, Borough President Adams came on the Eater’s Digest podcast to discuss why food needs to be central to any conversation around environmental, economics, and health.

Read below for the full transcript of our conversation with Adams.

Amanda Kludt: Today on the show, we have Brooklyn Borough President and New York City mayoral candidate, Eric Adams. I wanted to have him on the show because he’s very passionate about rooftop farming, getting healthy food to food deserts, and using food as a weapon against chronic diseases like diabetes, which disproportionately impacts African-American communities. Borough President Adams, welcome to the show.

Eric Adams: Thank you, Amanda and Daniel. It’s great to be here and you started out, you said what I was passionate about, and I am probably one of the few people who have reached this level of government that I’m passionate about our universe. I think far too often when you are a part of the government, you become so scripted and you do not have personal narratives that make you and it forces you to look at life in a different way. I think that the dark moments in my life, I was able to take them from being burials to plantings. It led me to a journey of realizing the universality of our coexistence, not only with our mothers but mother earth.

I view everything through that prism. So sometimes you speak with me and you’ll say, “Okay. He’s an elected official.” Then another time, you say, “Wait a minute, this guy’s a hippie.” Then another time you’ll say, “Hey, this guy is some type of Sage.” I moved through all of these universes and it’s scary at first until people finally say, “Wait a minute, there’s more to life and our purpose than what we were told.”

AK: I love that. To that end, do you want to tell our listeners a little bit about your background, just a quick bio for those who are not familiar with your work and what you do?

EA: I was born in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is the largest borough county in the city of New York out of the five, 2.6 million people, extremely diverse, moved to Queens as a child. I was arrested by police officers who assaulted my brother and I, and that’s why the movement around police reform is so important to me. But instead of saying, “Woe is me.” I say, “Why not me?” I joined the police department. I started an organization for police reform and public safety at the same time. I became a Sergeant, Lieutenant, a Captain, and retired as a Captain. I went on to become a state Senator. Then after serving four terms, I became the first person of color to be the Borough President in Brooklyn. On the way, something called chronic disease hijacked or attempted to hijack my life. I was diagnosed with type two diabetes four years ago.

I woke up one morning and I could not see my alarm clock. I lost sight in my left eye. I was losing it in my right, had constant tingling in my hands and feet. That was permanent neuropathic nerve damage that would eventually lead to amputation, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, the American package. Instead of following the American route of using a prescription, I decided to use plants. In three weeks, after going through a whole full plant-based diet, my vision came back three months later, my diabetes went into remission, the nerve damage went away, and I dropped 35 pounds. I like to tell people I don’t have a six-pack. I have a case now.

AK: That is remarkable. One of the reasons I wanted you on here is because you have ideas around rooftop farming. You’ve talked about how Queens and the Bronx were farmland originally. So can you talk about what you’d like to do there and what kinds of businesses you’d like to build for the city?

EA: I’m in this place where one solution solves a multitude of problems. So we were an agrarian economy at one time. We’re cycling out of COVID. We are going to have a real problem around food. COVID reveals that comorbidities and preexisting conditions led to a higher rate of hospitalizations and deaths. We’re dealing with food deserts throughout our entire city, particularly in economically challenging communities. So look at all of those areas and now say to ourselves, “Our environment is going through a terrible time because there are too many trucks on the road. So why not use our rooftops? Why not look at using vertical farming, using everything from hydroponics, and let’s start with our school system.” We feed 960,000 children a day.

AK: Wow.

EA: Why not say, “Let’s turn to food.” And by growing the food using rooftops, using classrooms, using empty factory spaces, the person who invents and expands this system now will have enough money to leverage long contracts. So if I go to the companies and state that, “Hey, I’m going to give you a five year guarantee contract that you’re going to grow the vegetables and some of the fruits that you’re about to provide to our school system,” you now can leverage that to go into the science and to expand. What do we do in the process? You’re going to teach my young children a nutritionally-based education so they can learn this multibillion-dollar industry of urban farming. They’re going to be skillful in it. And these are the jobs of the future, because 40 percent of the jobs we’re training our children, for now, won’t be available because of computer learning and artificial intelligence. But we’re always going to eat.

Then we take the trucks off the road that are feeding our Department of Education. Then we have the children built into this civic educational plan of identifying food desert, food apartheid, and do nutritionally-based education in their communities so that you can go into the bodegas and local stores and storefronts and start making available fresh fruits and vegetables. Then we go to the Department of Correction and start feeding them healthy meals instead of the meals we’re feeding them. Then we supply them to the hospitals. So this will continue to expand based on the buying power and the leverage we have as a city.

Daniel Geneen: So have you actually been able to incentivize or figure out ways to incentivize or mandate some farms in Brooklyn already, or is this something you’re thinking about for the future?

EA: It’s here. We put a substantial amount of money into our schools, the Department of Education, one of the largest school systems in the country, and we put a substantial amount of money into schools with children, learning how to deal with growing food in the classroom. We partnered with an amazing organization called Farmshelf, and look at what happened with this group that we partnered with. They have this sort of unit that’s the size of a refrigerator with a growth of vegetables inside of the refrigerators in the classroom. The children are connecting with local public housing to give the freshly grown food to. But the children in this school, Democracy Academy, it was an alternative high school where the children were not coming to class. When we bought a couple of units and allowed them to be engaged with this farming inside the classroom, urban farming, the teacher said, “We can’t get them out of the school.”

“When we bought a couple of units and allowed them to be engaged with this farming inside the classroom, urban farming, the teacher said, ‘We can’t get them out of the school.’”

They found a purpose. Education is not feeding the creative energy of children. They’re not into this rote learning. They’re not into not being able to really look at their creative energies and find purpose. So some of the programs we have in the Department of Education, they have been extremely successful. We are trying to turn a public housing development called Marlboro Projects, we want to spend close to $13 million to build a two-story greenhouse that’s going to teach farming, education around farming, and how to deal with food deserts. The bureaucracy that’s in the way is unbelievable. We have been working on this project for about three years and that’s one of the problems we’re having. Too many people in government just don’t get it.

DG: Is it about getting the money together or is it about building it? What signatures do you need that you’re having trouble getting?

EA: Great question. It’s not about the money. I am allocating the money. We already have the money. The money is sitting there waiting to be spent. We have dueling rules and codes in our city and we don’t have a universal plan on, “Okay. We want to do urban farming. We want to do rooftop farms. We want to do vertical farming.” So our city and the city’s zoning and policies are stuck in the 20th century when the entire planet is evolving, technology is evolving. So when you go to people in these various agencies, they are professional naysayers, they say, “Well, we can’t do that.” And you say, “Why?” “Because we’ve never done that.”

DG: Right.

AK: Do you think there are opportunities for private/public partnerships here too, working with a lot of the landlords who might be looking for new opportunities to use their real estate right now?

EA: Yes. I think that is something that we are exploring because when you think about everyone is going to take a financial hit or through COVID, when I save, I diversify my savings. So if one part of my savings, a stock or my CDs go down, at least I’ve diversified it enough, but now landlords must start thinking outside the box. How do you diversify your plan? How do you diversify your buildings? We see that in some of the towers that are placed on buildings for cell phone usage, we can actually diversify the rooftops like some of the establishments in Industry City, The Navy Yard, they have different greenery grown on their rooftop. Our factories have an amazing amount of rooftop space. We’re not going to grow more land, but we have millions of feet of rooftop space that is underutilized and we believe we could use it a better way to grow food in a more healthier way.

DG: Because I assume education is a key component of this, but I imagine in a dream world for you, all of the rooftops would just be growing the food for New York to eat, right? It’s not just government-controlled farms. You’d want a lot of people growing their own stuff as well, right?

EA: Without a doubt. I believe that we... I think that we should return to an agrarian economy. I remember saying this to my team two years ago and they all walked out of the room and said, “He must be smoking that weed that’s illegal.” Now, they started talking to finance experts.

DG: And they’re like, “What if we grow that weed on the rooftops?”

AK: That’s how you make the money.

EA: But we partnered with NYU’s finance team there. They’re looking at it. They’re crunching the numbers and they said, “Wait a minute, this guy is onto something.” We partnered with Cornell University. People are seeing the do-ability of actually doing this, and I feel that all about rooftops can play a role. We can repurpose these rooftops to ensure that we can grow our food. We’re going to take trucks off the road ... There’s a great opportunity to redefine ourselves as a city.

“We can repurpose these rooftops to ensure that we can grow our food. We’re going to take trucks off the road”

DG: What is the red tape like for a private institution to grow on their rooftop? We’re very familiar with trendy restaurants having a farm on their roof and they’re like, “After your aperitif, come check out our farm,” or whatever. But if I have a big apartment complex and I’m like, “I want to turn my roof into a farm,” what kind of legal hurdles are there? Or can I just start doing it?

EA: Two pieces, Daniel. And that’s very important what you just stated and I hope listeners heard you. Racism is built into the structure of our society. We’re comfortable with a trendy restaurant in an affluent community, saying, “When you finish your tea and you finish your Merlot, now, go on up to the rooftop and we’re going to handpick some of your microgreens,” and it’s acceptable. But now, you go out to Brownsville and you have a group of residents that have stated, “We have all of this footage, all of the square feet of rooftop. We want to grow and have our gardens here.” Now, all of a sudden, the rules come out. All of a sudden, it becomes impossible to do.

It’s as though in our mind, people in economically challenged communities are not deserving of some of the finer things that we placed in other communities. So what the Department of Buildings, the Fire Department, the Department of Health, all of these different entities have not come together and started to say, “How do we make this happen?” That’s what we have to go do. I partnered with the former Councilman in Brooklyn, and we came together and said it’s time to get all of our agencies together that are in this space and come up with ways of making this happen. That is one of the goals that we have because they’re all over the place, they’re disjointed and that prevents us from moving forward. So you’ll get an approval in one agency just for another agency to be a complete contradiction of another agency.

DG: Yeah. No, it’s a great point. It’s also the perception of what they’re growing too. The trendy, New York restaurant, the perception of what’s being grown, people would be excited about it like, “Oh, that’s so cool. It’s grown right here,” but if it’s more industrial and it’s grown in a lower income neighborhood, the perception would be that it’s more like crops for feeding and not anything that people should be excited about.

EA: So true. I think that people miss the connection that we long for and we need with nature, not only with the growing of food locally, the plants are not only going to feed your body, but it feeds the anatomy of your spirit. Living in a concrete environment, not seeing the health of the food that you’re growing, not being a part of, not being connected to nature, we don’t realize it, but it plays on us and it takes away from who we are as human beings. That’s why when you go around public housing, you see a high level of violence, high level of chronic diseases, a high level of stress, mental health illnesses. It’s because of the environment people are in. I truly believe that if you turn it into a more green environment, more inclusiveness with nature, you’ll get a different outcome.

AK: I think that’s a great segue back into your personal journey. You actually just wrote a book about this, “Healthy At Last,” where you talk about how you change your diet to fight chronic disease and how in so many communities, there needs to be a push for this. There needs to be a push for eating healthier. Can you talk a little bit about your goals there and how you want to change the way that people eat in certain communities?

EA: Think about this for a moment. Three months of going to a whole food plant based diet, and I went from losing my vision, permanent nerve damage that was reversed, diabetes was also reversed, my ulcers went away, my blood pressure normalized, my cholesterol normalized in three months. Think about that for a moment. The people and I spent the entire ... Has it been nine months now with COVID? Every day of those nine months, I have been in the streets and I’m sure I’ve been around people who have had COVID. I’m pretty sure I was in their presence. I would deliver in masks. I moved into Borough Hall and put a mattress on the floor and I slept here and I used it as mobilization from my office in Borough Hall.

Now, if we would have spent the last three months — we were feeding people in this city for three months — if we would have said, “On our dime, we’re giving you healthy foods. We’re not giving you nacho chips. We’re not giving you processed food. We’re going to give you healthy food like quinoa, which is one of the most nutritional meals people can have. We’re going to introduce you to new food.” We would have number one, we would have fed people, which was important. Number two, we would have started the process of building their immune system so they can have a stronger immune system to fight off COVID-19. Three, we would have started changing the habits that people are so wedded to that believe they could only eat fast food, junk food. So we were missing a golden opportunity.

My goal is, as my program is at Bellevue Hospital, was first of its kind in New York, if not America, where we’re doing lifestyle medicine. 750 people on a waiting list, 230 people are in the program and we are helping people to cycle off their disease and medicine and using this new term called, “reversing chronic diseases.” That is what I believe our hospitals should do and what I want to continue to do to show people how you use food as medicine. That is what’s important. That’s what my book wanted to point out. Many people believe that their culture is tied to the food that’s poisoning them. I wanted to give a very real, honest story of exposing my weakness. “Hey, I’m the Borough President. Yes, I’m a former state Senator, but I’m just an everyday person that I was digging my grave with my knife and fork,” and I want to show people how they can live a healthy life. That’s why my 80-year-old mother was able to reverse her diabetes, also, get off insulin after only two months of going whole food plant-based.

AK: About restaurants in general, do you have a position speaking to your constituents about how they can get out of this crisis? Like many small business owners, they have been so impacted by COVID and I’m wondering if you see a path forward for them.

EA: Yeah, especially with my small restaurants. I hear some people say restaurants are for rich people. They should try the days when I was a kid and I was a dishwasher helping my mother pay the mortgage by washing dishes in a restaurant. Restaurants are for everyday people. Inside a restaurant is a cook, is a dishwasher, waiter, waitress, busboy/girl, low skill, low salary, they’re eking out a living and we have to get our restaurants back open. I believe that a bellwether of a city if you don’t get them up and operating, it’s an indicator of how bad your city’s doing.

I think the city can do a better job. Stop purchasing our food from outside the city and outside the state. Let’s localize the production of food. Let’s allow our local restaurants to use their kitchens to supply the food. We are providing millions of meals. Let’s allow our local restaurants to handle this distribution of food to communities and really engage them to keep them afloat, to keep people hired right here in our city. We spend too much money out of our city and I’m pretty sure other big cities are spending too much money outside of their city limits going to places that it may be cheaper in the short term, but in the long term, keeping your people employed, engaged and your small businesses open is extremely important.

AK: Awesome. I love that. Yeah.

DG: So as you look to a mayoral run, how much of this are you incorporating into your platform? Are these the kinds of things that you will be talking about constantly, or is it just a portion of your plan?

“What good is it to have a fancy hospital when you go in there to have your legs cut off because of diabetes neuropathic nerve damage?”

EA: A substantial portion. Our crisis, our health system, Daniel, is not sustainable. We have 30 million Americans diabetic, 84 million are pre-diabetic. We spend 80 cents on the dollar on chronic diseases. Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness, leading cause of non-trauma limb amputation, leading cause of kidney failure. We can’t continue to go down this road. I am really disappointed. Which presidential candidate talked about food and healthy food? What are candidates running for statewide, citywide offices all across this country, who are engaged in preventive medicine about healthy food? Everyone is talking about access to healthcare. What good is it to have a fancy hospital when you go in there to have your legs cut off because of diabetes neuropathic nerve damage? We have to become proactive and that’s my message. I’m going to use health in hospitals to ensure we have a proactive approach and give people choices, so they don’t have a lifetime of being on prescriptions, but they could have a lifetime that’s healthy on being on plants.

DG: Final thing, you said in the beginning that some people call you a hippie or sometimes you’re a hippie. All right. What does it mean to be a hippie? And are you a hippie?

EA: I think I am. I should’ve been born in the sixties. I just really... Let me tell you. I think that we had a very unique cosmic shift in a universe where people are really looking for their purpose and they’re no longer looking to just go through the motion of being on Valiums and statins and going home every day being unhappy. In Bhutan when I was there, they judged their country not by the gross national product, they judge it by the happiness of their people. We may be financially sound, but we’re emotionally bankrupt and it’s time to really start investing in what’s important and that’s family, friends and happiness.

DG: All right. Let’s grow happiness.

AK: Thank you for your work and thank you. Your book is, “Healthy At Last.” It just came out in October. Everyone should check it out. Thanks so much.

Vera Vertical Farming Technology Introduced in Finland’s Largest Retail Group

Netled And Pirkanmaan Osuuskauppa Sign A New Long-Term Cooperation Agreement

In the photo: Ville Jylhä, COO of Pirkanmaan Osuuskauppa

Netled has entered into a significant long-term cooperation agreement with Pirkanmaan Osuuskauppa, a regional operator of S-Group, the largest retail chain in Finland.

Netled’s Vera Instore Premium Growing Cabinets, offering a range of herbs and salads, will now be a regular feature in Prisma retail stores in the Pirkanmaa area. Herbs and some of the leafy greens are grown in-store in the cabinets, and are harvested directly off the shelf. The growing conditions are fully automated and controlled remotely.

The newly opened Prisma Pirkkala is Finland’s first hypermarket to launch the new Vera Instore Cabinets. In addition, Netled will deliver to the hypermarket salads and herbs grown on its own vertical farm nearby, thereby allowing customers to get same-day harvested herbs and salads all year round.

”With this newly formed collaboration we can offer consumers fresh, ultra-locally produced products and at the same time introduce them to vertical farming as a method of ecological, urban farming”, says Ville Jylhä, COO of Pirkanmaan Osuuskauppa.

S-Group is a customer-owned Finnish network of companies in the retail and service sectors, with more than 1 800 outlets in Finland. The group offers services in areas such as, supermarket trade, department store, and speciality store trade. As the largest retail group in Finland, S-Group’s main focus is also on sustainable food and innovative ways it can offer healthy and responsibly produced food to its customers.

Netled Ltd. is Finland’s leading provider of turn-key vertical farming systems and innovative greenhouse lighting solutions.

”As the leading vertical farming technology provider in Finland, we have developed an extensive range of products for all segments of vertical farming. Instore growing systems are a rapid-growth segment, and our cutting-edge Vera technology puts us at the forefront of the instore space”, says Niko Kivioja, CEO of Netled Ltd.

“The agreement with Pirkanmaan Osuuskauppa is just the latest proof of concept, and is also a clear signal to potential customers, investors and other global partners that Vera technology is a game changer.”

  18th December 2020 by johannak

More information:

Niko Kivioja

CEO, Netled Ltd

+358 50 360 8121

niko.kivioja@netled.fi

Robert Brooks, Investor Relations and Communications Manager

+358 50 484 0003

robert.brooks@netled.fi

Des Moines, Iowa: Food Inflation Is Real And Growing

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Dec 04, 2020

by Dan Hueber

While it should come as no surprise to any of us involved in the commodity trade, but global food inflation is back.  According to the Food and Agricultural Organization, FAO, of the United Nations, during the month of November, its Food Price Index marked its largest month over month increase since 2012; it rose to the overall highest level since December of 2014.  The index itself came in at 105, which was 4 points higher than October and was 6.4 points higher than the same month last year.  For the month, the Cereal Price Index was up 2.7 points, Dairy was up .9 and the Meat Index up .9, the Sugar Index up 2.8 points, but the real gain was recorded in the Vegetable Oil Index, which gained a whopping 15.4 points.  Rising palm oil values were the main driver in this rise, but soy, rapeseed, sunflower, and other veg. oils all contributed.  I guess it only stands to reason that oil has lost the least of all grain/soy markets this week.

Needless to say, none of this has gone overlooked in China, and yesterday, the government drafted a new law concerning the oversight of grain reserves.  Previously, the central government only tracked the central state stockpiles, but obviously, that will now be expanded to oversee local and regional inventories as well.  The rationale for the change in policy given was “new situations and questions have arisen regarding grains reserves security administration, posing severe challenges to China’s grain stockpile security.”  I guess this is saying; you local authorities have not been doing a good job, so it must be your fault that we have food price and availability concerns.  It is tough to find good help these days.

We do have a little more corn business to report as we wrap up the week. The USDA reports that Mexico has purchased another 182k MT.  There have been rumors circulating for the past few days that China has been purchasing more corn, but nothing has been confirmed.  Regardless, it does not appear to be providing much support for now as we are staring at a lower close on the combination chart for the first time in the past five weeks.

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The same cannot be said for the trade in the equity world.  The S&P 500, the Dow Industrials, and Nasdaq are all on track to finish with record-high weekly closes, so optimism reigns supreme over there.  The same cannot be said for the dollar though, as if we closed right now, it would be at the lowest point since April of 2018. 

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KEYWORDS: analysismarkets (general)news and analysisfutures prices

Urban Foods Systems Symposium In October Will Focus on Climate, Community, Security, Production And Distribution

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By urbanagnews

September 15, 2020

All things food in and for urban areas will be in focus during the 3rd Urban Food Systems Symposium scheduled for virtual delivery on Wednesdays in October and hosted this year by Kansas State University and K-State Research and Extension. 2020 Urban Food Systems Symposium online sessions will be offered from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. CDT every Wednesday in October. If you’ve got an interest in any aspect of urban food systems there’s a session for you and you are encouraged to attend.

The format for each Wednesday session includes one or more live keynote speakers supplemented by breakout discussions, poster sessions, and live breaks with sponsors.

Before September 18, registration is only $100 ($50 if you are a student). After September 18, registration goes up to $125 and $75 for students. Here’s the really good part about registration – all registered attendees get access to the breakout session presentations starting in September. They also get access to all live and breakout discussions as they occur each Wednesday in October, and they will have 24/7 access to all recordings of presentations through April 2021.

The organizers have lined up a diverse group of breakout session presenters and topics. Check out the UFSS website for all the details on breakouts. Keynote topics, speakers, and dates are:

• Oct. 7 – Urban Agriculture and Food Systems – Building Climate-Resilient Urban and Regional Food Systems, Jess Halliday, associate of RUAF Global Partnership on Sustainable.

• Oct. 14 – Urban Agriculture, Climate Change and Food Security: Potential Solutions and Synergies, Chuck Rice, Kansas State University Distinguished Professor of Soil Microbiology.

• Oct. 21 – The Role of Urban Farming in Nutrition Security, Elizabeth Mitcham, director of the Horticulture Innovation Lab, University of California-Davis.

• Oct. 21 – Food Justice is More than Growing Food and Feeding People, Karen Washington, farmer and activist with Rise & Root Farm and Black Urban Growers.

• Oct. 28 – Fixes That Fail: Using Community-Based Systems Modeling to Diagnose Injustice in the Food System, Jill Clark, associate professor, John Glenn College of Public Affairs, The Ohio State University and Jennifer King, assistant director of training and community education, Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, Mary Ann Swetland Center for Environmental Health, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University.

• Oct. 28 – The Hydra-Headed Food System: Imagining the Whole and Connecting the Dots, Mark Winne, food policy expert, former executive of the Hartford Food System.

Register online today at the Urban Food Systems Symposium website. Got questions? Send those to the organizing committee at ufss@ksu.edu.

• TAGS Conference Food Deserts Food Production Kansas State University Urban Farming

The New Wave Of Urban Farms Sprouting Strong Community Connections

By Greg Callaghan | The Sydney Morning Herald | June 5, 2020

If there’s one thing the global pandemic has taught us, it’s the importance of being as self-sufficient as possible, especially when it comes to putting food on the table.

While community gardens and urban farms have been sprouting up across our cities in recent years, driven by an increasing demand for fresh, locally sourced vegetables and fruits, the coronavirus lockdown really struck a nerve about grow-your-own, according to operators of nurseries, community gardens and commercial urban farms in Sydney and Melbourne.

Tending the veggie garden at Camperdowns Commons, Sydney. Louise Kennerley

Emma Bowen, co-founder of Pocket City Farms in inner Sydney, which is part of Camperdown Commons, a former lawn bowls club turned urban farm and restaurant, says growing food forges a stronger sense of community.

“We’ve seen a really huge shift in mindset towards urban farms in the eight years we’ve been working here,” she notes. “We have many more developers and local councils reaching out about incorporating both urban farms and community gardens into new developments.”

While Camperdown Commons’ on-site restaurant and workshops have been put on hold since the lockdown, produce from the farm has been selling out every week, says Bowen. “Growing food where we live and building resilient communities are more important than ever.”

Before the pandemic, Farmwall, an agrifood-tech start-up in Melbourne, was predominantly selling its vertical aquaponic farming kits to businesses in office buildings. Now the company’s market has shifted to apartment blocks, enabling those without backyards or even balconies to grow microgreens, herbs and leafy greens.

“We show people how to grow food indoors, in limited spaces, in a naturally contained eco-system,” says Geert Hendrix, founder of Farmwall.

Adds Serena Lee, the firm’s non-executive director, “We may never go back to the corporate environment.”

But the urban farming phenomenon isn’t restricted to inner-city hipsters. Five percent of Australia’s biggest urban park, the Western Sydney Parklands, which covers more than 50 square kilometres, has been set aside for urban farming. In the heart of Parklands, 16 existing urban farms supply fresh fruit, vegetables and flowers to surrounding areas.

“Our urban farmers have experienced an upswing in customers at their roadside stalls, with the community choosing to shop locally and away from the traditional supermarkets,” says Parklands executive director Suellen Fitzgerald. “It reduces transport costs and allows children to see where their food comes from.”

To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times.

USA: Indoor Growers Wanted For CEA Survey

A Cornell team is leading a new project to investigate how Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) compares to conventional field agriculture in terms of energy, carbon and water footprints, profitability, workforce development and scalability. Strategic FEW (food, energy, water) and Workforce Investments to Enhance Viability of Controlled Environment Agriculture in Metropolitan Areas is funded by a three-year, $2.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation, through its new funding initiative called Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems.

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The workforce development research, led by Professor Anu Rangarajan (Director, Small Farms Program), consisted in 2018 and early 2019 of interviews and an intensive two-day workshop with industry experts. During that workshop, a focus group of indoor farm operations managers produced this chart detailing the duties (responsibilities) and tasks (activities, skills) that describe their work.

Survey
"The current step in our research plan is to verify the details of this chart with peer growers worldwide via a survey", explains research associate Wythe Marschall. "It invites indoor farm managers to tell us how important each skill is, and how frequently it is conducted. The survey can be completed anonymously, or growers can provide us with their names and emails to receive a $25 Amazon gift card as a token of our appreciation."

To take this survey, register here. The Cornell team will send a survey link directly from Qualtrics. Respondents may provide their names and emails to receive a $25 Amazon gift card as a token of appreciation.

Online workshops
"We are also interested to ask growers if they would be interested in a series of upcoming online workshops to help us detail what specific, teachable steps (activities) are contained within each important skill needed by indoor farm operations managers", Wythe adds. "For example, we'll ask growers to dive into the specific skill, 'Manage crop fertigation (e.g., mixing nutrients, monitoring pH, monitoring water temp),' breaking this down into teachable, specific components.

"This series of workshops will be compensated, and we are beginning to schedule it now. Any CEA farm manager is invited to participate, regardless of location or modality."

For more information about this study regarding the future of the CEA workforce, please contact project lead Anu Rangarajan (ar47@cornell.edu) or research associate Wythe Marschall (wmarschall@fas.harvard.edu).

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Publication date: Tue 9 Jun 2020

VIDEO: Can Vertical Farms Fix The Future of Food?

May 25, 2020

jamiemoses288

Singapore has only 1% of its land available for agriculture, so it imports 90% of its food requirements. The government is looking to curb this dependence on outside food sources under a program titled ‘30 by 30,’ which aims to allow Singapore to grow 30% of its produce by the year 2030. Local vertical farms like Sustenir are at the forefront of bringing about this change. VICE visits the sustainable start-up to understand the future of food.

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Farming Fuels A Holistic Approach to End Homelessness at Lotus House

Growing fresh food helps Lotus House residents find their fresh start

At Freight Farms we believe that everyone should be able to participate in the joy of eating fresh, healthy foods regardless of location, climate, or socioeconomic background. Our global Freight Farmer network makes this mission a reality–and none more so than the non-profit organizations that use hydroponic container farms to create meaningful and long-lasting change in their communities.  

Today we’re highlighting just one organization: Lotus House in Miami, Florida. Lotus House is what many of us would call a “homeless shelter”, but the term fails to capture the sheer extent of their services. Lotus House refers to itself as a “holistic residential facility and resource center for women and children experiencing homelessness”. The difference is significant. Instead of focusing on providing bare minimum resources–a hot meal, a bed, a shower–Lotus House tries to address the initial cause of homelessness, with the intent of getting women and their families back on their feet. Their services provide up to 500 women and children residents with daycare, employment education, and arts programs, beauty salon, yoga and meditation, and much more.

Meet Farmer Jackie

To learn more about the incredible things happening at Lotus House, we connected with Jackie Roth. Jackie is the ideal person to talk to about the role of farming within the center’s greater holistic model:

“As Project Coordinator, I manage all aspects of the Farm in addition to other specialty health/research projects at the shelter. I lead sessions inside the Farm every day, as well as the cooking demonstrations and outdoor garden work, and oversee all Farm maintenance and volunteers. So I’m basically the resident farmer, and guests know me as such.”

Hear from Jackie and Constance (Lotus House Founder and Director) when you download webinar, recorded on April 30th 2020. Download here.

Good nutrition as a pathway to wellness

For Jackie, Lotus House’s farm is part of a much larger conversation about the essential role health and wellness play in building resiliency and ending the cycle of poverty:

 “Our mission is to transform the trauma of homelessness into a window of opportunity, where guests can heal old wounds and build resilience for a brighter future. Rather than provide the temporary support of a bed and hot meal, we work to holistically end the cycle of poverty and abuse that too often leads women and families to our shelter. Health and wellness are essential to this healing, and food and nutrition are essential to that health and wellness. It truly takes a village and lots of moving parts to achieve this multidisciplinary vision, and the food and nutrition education component is no exception.”

The Lotus House farm works in tandem with the Culinary Center, where over 500 residents and staff members are served three free meals a day. The farm is mostly used to grow a variety of lettuces that go into the Center’s salad bar, along with other specialty greens, root vegetables, and edible flowers. For Lotus House, the Greenery is the perfect intersection of food, nutrition, and education, and it has been deployed accordingly. 

“We aim to serve largely plant-based foods and healthful meals that nourish the healing and developing minds and bodies of those who live here. The Culinary Center is home to one of our paid internship programs for guests where they earn their Food Handler’s certification, participate in the inner workings of a commercial kitchen, and hopefully create new career opportunities for themselves in a city with such a prominent hospitality and entertainment industry.”

Furthermore, the farm and the center have a symbiotic relationship. Jackie explains the benefit of the farm for Lotus House, and the greater community: 

“Our Farm saves us thousands of dollars a year on produce costs; in addition, we work closely with local nonprofits and businesses who donate reclaimed food that would otherwise be thrown away. And when we have more food than we need for ourselves, we give it back as groceries for people in the neighborhood - because the community’s health is so tightly linked to our own. So there’s lots of internal and external coordination involved in sustaining our own food source, reducing food waste, and bringing real nutrition to the people who need it most.”

Achieving good nutrition through education

Beyond the dining program, the farm serves an important role in educating and engaging many of the organization’s youngest residents (ages 3-12) on weekdays after school. Jackie, who oversees all the in-farm programming overviews the day-to-day:

“The Farm is the home for an innovative after-school program where children witness the seed-to-harvest life cycle and farm-to-table growing. We also do cooking demonstrations where kids can see different hands-on ways to use their vegetables and learn basic kitchen skills like chopping, mixing, blending, etc.”

Lotus House’s education farming program doubles as a mini-workforce. During their afternoon sessions, younger kids help Jackie plant seeds and harvest mature plants for delivery to the Culinary Center, where they will be served the very next day. Beyond that, older kids interested in the farm help Jackie with the more detail-oriented tasks, like transplanting and maintenance. 

But the farming program doesn’t end there! As with everything Lotus House does, the farming program has a holistic and multidisciplinary approach. In addition to the Greenery, the center has built out a general nutrition and gardening presence at the shelter. The building features an outdoor rooftop garden where the children grow basil, cilantro, beets, mint, broccoli and strawberry sprouts–started in the Greenery–in the soil and learn how to compost waste from the Greenery operations (grow plus, leaves, etc.).

The center runs also smaller events and initiatives about nutrition, such as the ‘Farm Stand’ where the Lotus House staff highlight a Farmer of the Week, share what’s growing, provide samples, and give out nutrition-themed activity sheets. 

Changing habits to change lives

Ultimately, the goal of the Lotus House Farm program is to encourage residents to eat more fruits and vegetables by connecting them to their food source. 

“With the Farm, we have a really unique opportunity to give guests a transparent lens into how food grows, from seed to plate, and get them excited about eating something cultivated in this high-tech environment. The approach is not to lecture people on what’s good for you or what’s bad for you, but to show them how cool plants are and all the different ways you can enjoy them.”

The opportunity to work with kids from a young age is particularly important in this goal. “It’s best to intervene young so they can build healthy habits early on, and hopefully share what they learned with mom to influence her attitudes and habits...If we can play even a small part in ...getting children excited about eating fruits and vegetables, exposing them to something they’ve never eaten before, or bringing moms and kids together to watch their plants grow and prepare a healthy snack, then it’s a worthy battle.” 

Inspiring future farmers

With robust educational programs established and successful, Jackie turned her focus for 2020 on two new initiatives: creating a wider volunteer program and rolling out a hydroponic farming job training program for teens and adults. 

The volunteer program sought to engage people all over Miami with the center and the farm, based on their availability: “The volunteers are integral to maintaining a beneficial student-teacher ratio, implementing therapeutic teaching techniques, and ensuring all necessary maintenance work is completed and our Farm stays hyper-clean.”

The job training program would teach residents basic farming skills before they started paid jobs with local container farming community partners, like fellow Freight Farmers at Hammock Greens: “We want every abled person in our shelter to come out with a good paying job, and even with the kids and volunteers there was often lingering Farm work, and we had lots of adults who expressed interest in learning more about gardening.” 

Unfortunately, COVID-19 brought both programs to a screeching halt just as they were gaining momentum: volunteers stopped coming in and partnering businesses closed their doors. Jackie remains hopeful, however, making sure that post-COVID, the programs are still viable.

These new programs are not the only ones that had to be re-thought in today’s coronavirus reality. As Lotus House works to protect its residents, Jackie is aware of how the farm is at the center of two competing forces:

“On the one hand, we want to exercise the utmost caution in every regard due to the compact interior of the Farm and the nature of growing fresh, uncooked food for hundreds of people when there are still so many unknowns about this virus and its transmission. But on the other hand, supply chains are so uncertain right now and we are acutely reminded of the value of being able to produce our own food. And, all the kids are off school with extra time on their hands and a deep desire for some semblance of fun and normalcy.” 

Luckily, Jackie and her helpers were well-prepared to address public health and safety in the farm. Well before the coronavirus reared its ugly head, Jackie implemented rigorous cleanliness practices to avoid contamination like wearing gloves, sanitizing multiple times daily, “dabbing” when sneezing or coughing, and routine deep cleaning of the farm. Since the pandemic reached Miami, they’ve expanded the precautions: 

“Most drastically we’re restricting our attendance to no more than two kids at a time in accordance with social distancing. And because of limited attendance, we have fewer hands to help and are therefore at a reduced capacity. Despite all of this, we’re still going. There’s still interest and definitely still a need. Even if we get to a complete quarantine, our guests still have to eat and we will still strive to serve them nutritious options.”

In spite of the increased work and stress of running a farm in the center’s close quarters, Jackie feels that the pandemic situation has reinforced the importance of her work: “The good fight to end homelessness never stops–shelters keep running through even the most unprecedented emergencies, and we are charged with protecting some of society’s most vulnerable people. It’s actually been quite a blessing to grow closer as a team, adapt together, and try to preserve this homey space of healing and sanctuary despite all the madness outside.” 

Supporting Lotus House during COVID-19 and beyond 

In light of the unprecedented circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, we asked Jackie how the greater Freight Farms community can help Lotus House. 

“Because of the pandemic, we truly need help now more than ever. If you head to our website, you’ll see a donation link on the homepage. Anything helps. Your support is critical and immensely appreciated! We are taking so many extra measures and expenditures to supply PPE to our staff and guests, to hire additional persons for added sanitation, to ensure our supply stocks are sufficient, to do whatever we can to protect everyone living and working with us. And to prepare for the inevitable spike in homelessness that will result from this economic collapse.” 

Looking beyond COVID-19, Jackie also outlined how community support will help support the Lotus House farm in the future: “Our Farm was purchased and funded the first year through some local community grants, but those grant periods ended last month. We are now exploring new funding streams to advance the program. We accept donations, specifically made out to “The Farm” if possible. We also designed our own educational curriculum for the program, and are happy to share this along with technical training if you would like to replicate what we’re doing. And anyone interested in volunteering can reach out to me at jackie1@lotushouse.org!”

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.

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.

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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

Interview With Eddy Badrina, CEO of Eden Green Technology

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Josiah Motley · April 27, 2020 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/5018

A look at the vertical farming platform that uses tech to grow a variety of healthy foods

When we talk about technology, it's easy to focus on things like computers, smartphones, apps, and the growing number of smart gadgets found in our homes.

But technology is far-reaching and can influence and change traditional sectors quickly. One sector that may seem immune to the growing use of technology is the farming industry, but a quick look at what farm equipment is becoming can prove that wrong quickly (even if the transition is proving difficult for some).

One company that is looking to take on the commercial agricultural industry is Eden Green Technology, a company based out of Texas that focuses on sustainability in the food industry.

I had the chance to interview Eddy Badrina, CEO of the company, to learn a bit more about what they are doing, how they use technology, and how they envision the future of the agricultural industry. 

Check it out below.

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Care to introduce yourself and your role with Eden Green?

Sure. I'm Eddy Badrina, and I’m the CEO of Eden Green Technology. 

In just a few sentences, what is Eden Green?

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. 

What inspired the creation of the company?

The founders of Eden Green are brothers Jacques and Eugene van Buuren. They witnessed firsthand the effects of hunger in their native South Africa and thereafter dedicated themselves to helping feed the world.

They came to the US to secure investment, source talent, and experiment with their technological solutions in our diverse climates. They started in Texas, with its own extreme range of environmental considerations, agricultural know-how, and business opportunities, and built from there. 

What types of produce can your vertical farms grow?

Our greenhouses can grow 50+ varieties of produce, including herbs, leafy greens like spinach, kale, and arugula, and a sizable array of vegetables, plus other non-produce plants like hemp and research crops. 

You call yourself a tech company, can you go into more detail on that?

Absolutely. So, 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.

Eden Green seems extremely relevant right now with coronavirus, are you doing anything to help people and businesses affected by the virus?

We directed our R&D facility to start a unique partnership with a local business that had to pivot from supplying high-end restaurants to starting home deliveries of high-quality poultry, eggs, beef, and produce.

For every pound of our produce they deliver, we are giving one pound away to local food banks, homeless shelters, and other nonprofits. The creative problem-solving of combining how to sell our produce, help another small business grow, and feed the local underserved population all at the same time, was a really valuable experience. 

More generally, the coronavirus crisis brings into focus the kinds of problems with traditional farming methods that we help directly address - easy access to local food sources, sustainability, and resiliency.

A more-widespread application of greenhouses like ours would also help defray the market effects of workforce shortages due to sickness, the personal effects of crowded, unsanitary, and otherwise-unsafe work environments, and the problems that come with relying on low-paid seasonal work. 

What locations are you currently available in and do you plan on expanding?

We currently have our R&D facility in Texas and are prepping for facilities to be built in two other countries and a number of states.

Through our Texas facility alone, we’ve partnered with local food banks and nonprofit organizations, run pilot tests with two grocery companies, and a research university, with a lot more expansion planned in the coming years. 

Do you believe this is the future of farming?

We absolutely believe that this is the future of farming. Not only does our solution make market sense - because global demand for year-round access to a variety of produce is growing, and costs to meet that demand are rising, having a locally-sourced, year-round solution solves for that - it’s also a sort of good on its own. 

To be clear, we believe we are reshaping farming, not replacing farmers. We have always believed this will innovate the entire industry and will support farmers in the field to improve their processes and best practices.

The way we grow is more sustainable, environmentally friendly, and efficient (in terms of land, water, energy costs, and chemicals) than traditional farming. It saves time, money, and waste in the transportation of the produce, and it reduces food waste and the decrease in nutritional value incurred by transit as well.

If we can offer an opportunity to develop farms into a more efficient operation that improves not just food security in underserved areas, but also food safety, then we grow our business and help farmers as well.

Anything you'd like to close with?

Without getting too much on my soapbox, I’d just like to say that we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reassess what’s really important in each of our local communities, to refocus our efforts to care for those around us, and to rethink how businesses can thrive while doing that.

I’m excited to be part of Eden Green at a moment when we can be an example of the potential of the technology itself, and the philosophy underlying it: that we can treat our food, our people, and our environment - locally and globally -with the respect they deserve, and that we can all succeed together. 

I'd like to thank Eddy for taking the time to answer some of my questions.

How Stockholm Wants To Be 'The Green Food Tech Hub of The Future'

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news@thelocal.se

10 January 2020

Tim Marringa

foodfoodtechtechnew

Lead Photo: Photo: Stina Stjernkvist / TT

In 2017, the Swedish food retail sector was worth 272 billion kronor. But how can the Nordic nation embrace innovation to make the food chain more sustainable? Several startups and business accelerators are investing heavily in sustainable development in the form of foodtech.

At Grönska, 1.3 million plants are grown each year in long rows of racks filled with stacked drawers. This hall in Huddinge in Stockholm county is not just a business premise, but a high-tech vertical farm. Food is grown locally in a controlled and space-efficient environment.

"Sweden imports 60 percent of its food and a third to a quarter of the emissions in Sweden comes from transporting food," Natalie de Brun, one of the co-founders of the startup, tells The Local.

"Sweden has a short season of three to four months where food can be produced. By producing food in a vertical farm, we do not depend on the climate. We are replicating nature inside and stacking the crops, which is very space-efficient. Each shelf has its own LED lighting and circulating water system. Here we can grow strawberries all year round."

Foodtech is a movement of companies that are trying to change the way we grow, transport and consume food. By combining traditional and innovative technologies, the idea is that food can become more efficient, sustainable and healthier.

Bright LED lights light up the business space in Huddinge. The plants follow an artificial daylight rhythm to grow as efficiently as possible. Delicate plants such as different kinds of herbs and lettuce are growing in stacks of about 20 metres wide and six metres high. Grönska employees are walking around and taking care of the plants.

"Food is something everyone consumes every day, and you can have a direct effect on it yourself," explains de Brun. "We are selling our products to local restaurants, supermarkets and even an airline. Growing the amount of arugula or lettuce we grow in one year would require at least 15 times more space if grown on an open field, and 100 times more carbon emissions from transportation."

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The vertical farm located in southern Stockholm is one of Europe's largest. Photo: Lars Pehrson / SvD / TT

In an office in the Söderhallarna building on Stockholm's Södermalm, Sweden Foodtech brings companies together by organizing events and focuses on major themes around the future of food. One of the key questions is simply: How do we manage to feed future generations?

Together with supermarket Coop and impact hub Norrsken, Sweden Foodtech offers support to companies that want to 'reshape the food system'.

"Food is a huge market, from production and transportation to supermarkets and restaurants. But innovation in the sector is very minimal. That's something we would like to change," says Federico Ronca, Innovation Consultant at Sweden Foodtech.

"One-third of all the food in the world is wasted," he adds. "A few big producers are managing the whole food market. We are trying to work with them and convince them to open up to new initiatives and technologies. We're connecting the dots, and creating an 'orchestra of the players'."

The initiative started as a food festival, SMAKA -- Good Food Festival, which grew into one of the biggest food festivals on the planet and developed into Sweden Foodtech. Ronca sees Sweden and Stockholm as perfect places for foodtech projects. 

"There is a large tech sector and a great digital infrastructure. Sweden and the Nordics are the best in sustainable development, they are leading in the world. Sweden also doesn't have a strong food tradition, as France and Italy have. That makes that people are very open-minded about food," he explains.

Stockholm as a hotspot for innovative businesses

The same goals are shared by Stockholm Business Region, the Swedish capital's official promotion agency, which is dedicated to creating a good ecosystem for innovative businesses and hopes to turn the Stockholm into a "leading foodtech hub".

"Stockholm truly is an innovation-driven place. It's full of early adopters", says Irena Lundberg, a business manager at Stockholm Business Region.

"These consumers are aware of their responsibility and like to buy eco-friendly products. There is natural support from the city for all kinds of sustainable projects, and Sweden itself is a very steady environment for starting a business."

The public interest, environmental awareness, Nordic culinary traditions and active tech community in the city make Stockholm the place to be for foodtech initiatives, she believes.

But despite strong ambitions, there are not yet any figures or statistics available to fulfill the hopeful expectations. Stockholm Business Region is currently monitoring 300 businesses in the foodtech industry, and according to Lundberg, expects to see results "in about one year".

At Grönska, we walk along the rows of racks where all kinds of herbs and lettuce varieties are grown. The founders of this vertical farm have experienced the opportunities available to startups in Sweden firsthand.  

"Stockholm is a great place to start an innovative business. There is a great startup culture, we really feel empowered and encouraged here. There are a lot of facilitators and enablers that help us grow our business," says de Brun.

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In the vertical farm in Huddinge, various herbs and lettuce varieties are grown locally and used in supermarkets and restaurants. Photo: Stina Stjernkvist/TT.

Until now, traditional greenhouse production is the norm. This type of production is less energy effective and has higher transportation emissions. But Grönska sees a big technology shift coming up. 

"In the near future we can inexpensively build high tech vertical farms and grow food on a large scale," says de Brun. "This way we can grow our food local and more energy-efficient and people can eat better and healthier. There will be more space for other players in the food market."

But she admits that it will take time to change the food industry.

"We are working with a fresh, organic and alive product," explains de Brun. "It's a complex and established industry. Everyone needs food every day, you can't change that system overnight. There's a lot going on, and it's cool to be part of that wave. Food is key."

US: Lynchburg, Virginia - Lynchburg Hospital Offers Unique Experience With Home-Grown Lettuce

Lettuce takes two to four weeks to grow before served to patients, families

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To View The Video, Please Click Here

LYNCHBURG, Va. – Feedback has been good for one hospital that’s taking dining to another level.

Centra in Lynchburg is offering fresh lettuce that’s grown in the building at its salad bar.

Centra partnered with a Charlottesville company to grow four different kinds of lettuce, including romaine.

Nutrition service officials said they can control the plant’s environment and receive alerts on their phone if something is wrong.

“We have chefs who serve things. We want the food to be nutritious. We want the food to be good tasting. So, things like this are innovative. We are the first ones to have this in the U.S. This does not exist in any other hospital,” Timothy Schoonmaker, executive chef of Centra Nutrition Services, said.

Schoonmaker said it takes about two to four weeks for the lettuce to be ready and served to patients and families.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Magdala Louissaint

Magdala Louissaint is an award-winning journalist who joined WSLS 10 in July 2017 as the Lynchburg bureau reporter.

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Purdue University Mechanical Engineering Technology Grad Developing Food Technology For NASA’s Mars Missions

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Written by John O'Malley |

August 19, 2019

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NASA Technical and Horticultural Scientist Jacob Torres works in the water for microgravity test bed at the Kennedy Space Center’s Space Station Processing Facility in Merritt Island, Fla. Thanks to Torres’ suggestion, the Española chile pepper will be the first fruiting plant to be grown in space this November on the International Space Station. (Photo courtesy Jacob Torres)

A graduate student who gained experience growing plants for a Purdue Polytechnic research project is now helping NASA develop microgravity food production technology to sustain astronauts during long missions to Mars.

Jacob Torres graduated from Purdue in May 2018 with a master’s degree in mechanical engineering technology. During his studies, he worked on the Biowall, an eco-friendly air filtration system that can be used in residential buildings to improve air quality. That experience proved beneficial when he applied for an internship at Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida.

“I did the application and never thought I’d hear anything back from them, straight up,” said Torres. “On the application, there just happened to be one line that said, ‘plant growth for food production in microgravity.’ I thought that was pretty cool and in my research at Purdue, I made a biowall, and it uses plants to filter indoor air.”

After that 10-week internship, NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) invited Torres to continue his work for an additional four months. In December 2018, his position as a technical and horticultural scientist became permanent.

Torres’ path to becoming a research scientist at NASA has been anything but traditional. He moved from New Mexico to Las Vegas immediately after graduating from high school, found a job at a restaurant and worked his way into a management position. A chance encounter with actors Bill Murray and Billy Crystal led to several years as manager of three of Murray’s restaurants in South Carolina and Florida.

“It was such a rough ride,” said Torres. “I told myself I couldn’t run restaurants for the rest of my life. I was like, ‘Is this all I have to do, is this as far as I could go?’ No way.”

Read the full Rio Grande Sun article.

We Mapped How Food Gets From Farms To Your Home

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2019

My team at the University of Illinois just developed the first high-resolution map of the U.S. food supply chain.

Our map is a comprehensive snapshot of all food flows between counties in the U.S. – grains, fruits and vegetables, animal feed, and processed food items.

To build the map, we brought together information from eight databases, including the Freight Analysis Framework from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which tracks where items are shipped around the country, and Port Trade data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which shows the international ports through which goods are traded.

We also released this information in a publicly available database.

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This map shows how food flows between counties in the U.S. Each line represents the transportation of all food commodities, along transit routes, like roads or railways. Environmental Research Letters (2019), CC BY-SA

What does this map reveal?

1. Where your food comes from

Now, residents in each county can see how they are connected to all other counties in the country via food transfers. Overall, there are 9.5 million links between counties on our map.

All Americans, from urban to rural are connected through the food system. Consumers all rely on distant producers; agricultural processing plants; food storage like grain silos and grocery stores; and food transportation systems.

For example, the map shows how a shipment of corn starts at a farm in Illinois, travels to a grain elevator in Iowa before heading to a feedlot in Kansas, and then travels in animal products being sent to grocery stores in Chicago.

2. Where the food hubs are

At over 17 million tons of food, Los Angeles County received more food than any other county in 2012, our study year. It shipped out even more: 22 million tons.

California’s Fresno County and Stanislaus County are the next largest, respectively. In fact, many of the counties that shipped and received the most food were located in California. This is due to the several large urban centers, such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as the productive Central Valley in California.

Who ships and receives the most food, kilograms per year

In 2012, Los Angeles County both shipped (outflows) and received (inflows) more kilograms of food than any other U.S. county. Other California counties ranked highly in both categories.

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We also looked for the core counties – the places that are most central to the overall structure of the food supply network. A disruption to any of these counties may have ripple effects for the food supply chain of the entire country.

We did this by looking for counties with the largest number of connections to others, as well as those that score highly in a factor called “betweenness centrality,” a measurement of the places with the largest fraction of the shortest paths.

San Bernardino County led the list, followed again by a number of other California transit hubs. Also on the list are Maricopa County, Arizona; Shelby County, Tennessee; and Harris County, Texas.

Core counties for the US food supply

A study showed that these nine counties -- mostly in California -- are most central to the overall structure of the food supply network. A disruption to any of these counties may have ripple effects for the food supply chain of the entire country.

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However, our estimates are for 2012, an extreme drought year in the Cornbelt. So, in another year, the network may look different. It’s possible that counties within the Cornbelt would show up as more critical in non-drought years. This is something that we hope to dig into in future work.

3. How food travels from place to place

We also looked at how much food is transported between one county and another.

Many of the largest food transport links were within California. This indicates that there is a lot of internal food movement within the state.

One of the largest links is from Niagara County to Erie County in New York. That’s due to the flow of food through an important international overland port with Canada.

Some of the other largest links were inside the counties themselves. This is because of moving food items around for manufacturing within a county – for example, milk gets off a truck at a large depot and is then shipped to a yogurt facility, then the yogurt is moved to a grocery distribution warehouse, all within the same county.

The food supply chain relies on a complex web of interconnected infrastructure. For example, a lot of grain produced throughout the Midwest is transported to the Port of New Orleans for export. This primarily occurs via the waterways of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

The infrastructure along these waterways – such as locks 52 and 53 – are critical, but have not been overhauled since their construction in 1929. They represent a serious bottleneck, slowing down innumerable supply chains nationwide, including that of grain. If they were to fail entirely, then commodity transport and supply chains would be completely disrupted.

Railroads are also important for moving grain. Fresh produce, on the other hand, is often moved around the country by refrigerated truck. This is due to the need to keep fresh fruits and vegetables – relatively high-value agricultural products – cool until they reach the consumer.

In future work, we hope to evaluate the specific infrastructure that is critical to the U.S. food supply chain.

[ You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors. You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter. ]

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Beth Daley

Editor and General Manager

Dean Foods Files For Bankruptcy And Is In 'Advanced Discussions' For Sale

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AUTHOR Lillianna Byington@lil_byington

November 12, 2019

Dive Brief:

• Dean Foods, the largest dairy producer in the U.S., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday. The company also said it is in "advanced discussions" with Dairy Farmers of America, Inc. for a potential sale.

• The dairy producer said in a release it intends to use this process to support its ongoing business operations and address debt while it works toward selling the company. Dean Foods has secured commitments for $850 million in debtor-in-possession financing, which is funding for companies in financial distress.

• "Despite our best efforts to make our business more agile and cost-efficient, we continue to be impacted by a challenging operating environment marked by continuing declines in consumer milk consumption," Dean Foods' CEO Eric Beringause said in a release.

Dive Insight:

Just two months after Dean Foods completed a strategic review and decided against a sale, the company is reversing course.

After a seven-month review, the dairy producer's Board of Directors decided in September to trust in its new CEO to turn the company around, saying Beringause would "provide the best opportunity to enhance long-term shareholder value." This was a lot of pressure for Beringause, who became CEO in July and inherited a troubled company.

Despite Beringause's extensive experience in the food and dairy industry, it seems he decided the problems facing Dean Foods were too large to tackle. 

"Since joining the company just over three months ago, I've taken a hard look at our challenges, as well as our opportunities, and truly believe we are taking the best path forward," Beringause said in the release. 

This filing for bankruptcy doesn't come as a shock, considering the years of struggle the dairy giant has had amid competition from milk alternatives and deeply discounted private label dairy.

Dean has tried many methods to improve its position, to no avail.  Dean Foods has reported net losses in seven of its last eight quarters. In an attempt to overcome these hurdles, the company cut costs, increased its borrowing base and replaced its CEO. Last year, Dean Foods laid off 207 workers with the closure of two milk processing factories, ended more than 100 dairy contracts with the company to curtail how much milk it was buying and closed three other facilities. 

Although food and beverage companies face financial turmoil, few file for bankruptcy. With this filing Dean joins companies including Hostess, which, under previous configurations, has filed for two Chapter 11 bankruptcies and a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Atkins Nutritionals, Pure Foods and Groeb Farms have also filed for bankruptcy. Analysts have said the diversified portfolio of brands at most food companies can help a company in financial trouble avoid bankruptcy because there are opportunities to raise cash through asset sales.

That strategy didn't work for Dean, which has tried to diversify its portfolio during the last several years. As dairy, in general, continued to decline, Dean diversified its investments. The company purchased a majority stake in Good Karma Foods, which sells flaxseed-based milk and yogurt. It bought Uncle Matt's Organic, a maker of probiotic-infused juices and fruit-infused waters. It also acquired the retail ice cream business of Friendly's Ice Cream. But those moves have not been enough since the company is now working toward a sale of "substantially all assets."

One of the reasons Dean decided to stay independent after its recent strategic review could have to do with its lack of interest from potential buyers. Rumors that Saputo was looking at buying the company were squashed when the CEO told Bloomberg months later he wasn't interested. But now the company says it is in advanced talks with Dairy Farmers of America, which means that a deal could be close. 

The dairy co-op could be buying Dean at a good price. Dairy Farmers of America, a co-op with 14,000 dairy farmer members with 47 plants nationwide, is accustomed to the troubles of the dairy industry today. The co-op was formed 21 years ago, and last year's net sales were down $1 billion from 2017. 

If Dairy Farmers of America does buy Dean Foods, it will likely face similar struggles. Plant-based dairy alternatives have jumped in popularity across the country, hurting farms and milk producers. U.S. non-dairy milk sales were up 61% over the past five years, while dairy milk sales plunged 15% from 2012 to 2017, according to Mintel. Just last month, Dean Foods gave up its membership in the International Dairy Foods Association because it said the trade group doesn't share its key priority of opposing the labeling of plant-based products with dairy terms. 

Looking to the future, it seems like the dairy industry's problems are on track to continue. Dean's move for bankruptcy — and potential sale — is its way out.

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Photo - Credit: Dean Foods