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PODCAST: Controlled Environmental Agriculture
Controlled Environmental Agriculture promises to be cleaner and greener. It’s focussed on technology and it’s essentially about bringing food production closer to the point of consumption. We examine the potential and the pitfalls
Future Tense
with Antony Funnell
Vertical farming is a bit of a buzz term. Despite the hype, it’s an important part of a growing approach to food production known as Controlled Environmental Agriculture.
Controlled Environmental Agriculture promises to be cleaner and greener. It’s focussed on technology and it’s essentially about bringing food production closer to the point of consumption.
We examine the potential and the pitfalls.
Original broadcast on November 3, 2019
Duration: 29min 38sec
Broadcast: Sun 13 Sep 2020, 10:30am
Guests
Dr. Asaf Tzachor – Lead Researcher for Food Security, Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, Cambridge University
Viraj Puri – CEO and co-founder, Gotham Greens
Jeffrey Landau – Director of Business Development, Agritecture
Dr. Paul Gauthier – Senior Agricultural Scientist, Bowery Farming
Dr. Pasi Vainikka – CEO, Solar Foods
Credits
Presenter Antony Funnell
Producer Karin Zsivanovits
Further Information
Is Hydroponic Farming Actually Sustainable?
If you've ever wondered how sustainable hydroponic farming really is—or what exactly is involved in vertical farming—this article is for you.
September 4, 2020
According to the UN, the world is on the brink of its worst food crisis in 50 years.
The global food industry is searching for a more sustainable and accessible system for producing healthy food, particularly fresh fruit and vegetables. Techniques such as hydroponics and vertical farming may provide the solution by maximizing overall output and minimizing the use of space, soil, and other resources.
But what exactly is hydroponic farming? And is it actually sustainable?
Gotham Greens grows fresh produce such as leafy greens in urban greenhouses. | Image/Gotham Greens
What Is Hydroponic Farming?
There are a variety of different approaches to Hydroponic Farming. But they all involve growing plants and fresh produce minus the soil.
There are several main styles of hydroponic systems. One uses an absorbent wick to transfer nutrients from a water reservoir up to the roots of the crop. While others leave an air-gap, allowing part of the root system to absorb nutrients directly while the remainder is exposed to oxygen in the air.
Plants may also be positioned on a floating raft, or grown through a medium, into which water is regularly pumped. Top feeding also requires regular water circulation, while aeroponics involves leaving the roots completely exposed but frequently filling or misting the space with nutrient-enriched water.
Whatever the precise method used, hydroponics involves regular exposure to both air and nutrient-rich water. According to Vertical Roots, a South Carolina-based Indoor Hydroponic Container Farm, there are five core elements to hydroponic farming. These are freshwater, oxygen, root support, nutrients, and light.
By growing crops in water, vertically, and in climate-controlled greenhouses, Vertical Roots and other similar farms are able to produce nutrient-dense food anywhere in the world, at any time of year, and using fewer resources than traditional methods.
Hydroponic farming is more resource-efficient than traditional methods. | Image/Shawn Ang via Unsplash
Is Hydroponic Farming Sustainable?
Soil-less farming techniques, in general, are typically more resource-efficient long term than traditional methods. According to the National Parks Service (NPS), hydroponics can use up to 10 percent less water than field crop watering.
By operating a closed-loop system and recycling rainwater, high-tech greenhouse developer AppHarvest uses up to 90 percent less water than traditional methods.
Most hydroponic farms utilize closed-loop systems, like AppHarvest, that contain and preserve water. This control over the water system also allows for delicate adjustments to the environment. PH levels, amount and type of light, and quantity of nutrients can all be modified to enhance the growth of crops.
Emphasizing perennial agriculture—particularly in combination with vertical farming and hydroponics—can further maximize both production and nutritional content per-plant. Many perennials, which can be maintained all year round with no replanting, are extremely nutrient-dense.
Start-up costs for hydroponic systems are typically greater than for traditional farming. But overall, it produces far greater output with fewer resources. It also allows growers to produce food anywhere in the world. Thereby reducing the carbon emissions generated through transportation, and allowing for year-round production in even inhospitable environments or weather conditions.
In general, hydroponic systems can produce a greater yield of fruits and vegetables. This is in part due to the controlled environment, but also because plants can be housed much more densely than possible using traditional methods. This both increases the overall output and reduces the quantity of land required.
Vertical farming can decrease the amount of land used for fresh produce even further. | Image/Markus Spiske via Unsplash
What Is Vertical Farming?
Vertical farming involves the growing of vegetables in stacked layers, frequently in a controlled environment.
Vertical farming also requires much less land than traditional methods. Typically, it incorporates controlled-environment systems such as hydroponics to maximize output. The primary goal of vertical farming is to increase the crop yield while reducing the space required, much like hydroponics itself.
Vertical farming firm Infarm recently partnered with supermarket chain Marks & Spencer to grow fresh herbs in select stores. The company is also working with several retailers and chefs across Europe who aim to add small vertical farms to their restaurants and stores.
“Our vertical farms can be installed directly in any urban space,” said Emmanuel Evita, global communications director at Infarm. “Which is where the majority of the global population will live in the next few decades.”
It is particularly useful for growing produce in areas where there is a lack of arable land. In Abu Dhabi, where there are extremely high temperatures and increasing water scarcity, the government is investing $100 million in indoor farming.
Inner-city gardening, in general, also lends itself to vertical farming. While harder to create a controlled environment, guerilla gardening and other community-based projects have also made use of the vertical system. This enables greater access to fresh produce and reduced mileage overall, even with rudimentary systems in place.
Emphasizing perennial vegetables could also maximize nutrients, increase production, and reduce the consumption of resources.
Why Do We Need Alternative Farming Methods?
Studies indicate that the suburbanization of major supermarkets has led to food deserts within cities. This disproportionately impacts low-income people and those who live in urban areas. Traditional malnutrition affects around two billion people worldwide. But the Standard American Diet (SAD) and lack of access to fresh food is also responsible for chronic deficiencies.
Access to fresh fruit and vegetables is likely to become even more restrictive in the recession following the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. And even in countries with plenty of food, there will likely be further disruptions in the food supply chain.
In order to provide enough vegetables for the global population to maintain a healthy diet, food production would need to triple. Alternative methods such as vertical farming and hydroponics could provide a resource-efficient and accessible way of revolutionizing the global food industry.
Gotham Greens, a fresh food farming company, specifically choose to build sustainable greenhouses within cities. Local cultivation helps the company deliver products quickly and with minimal energy expenditure. This also allows those who live within urban areas access to fresh, nutrient-dense food, and to agricultural jobs.
AppHarvest is also creating jobs, minimizing its carbon footprint, and increasing its output with its choice of location. By opening a new facility in Morehead, Kentucky, the company is both tackling high local unemployment rates while placing itself less than one day’s drive from 70 percent of the U.S. population. This reduction in travel for delivery has dropped its overall diesel costs by 80 percent.
“It’s time for agriculture in America to change,” said Johnathan Webb, the founder, and CEO of AppHarvest. “The pandemic has demonstrated the need to establish more resilient food systems, and our work is on the forefront of that effort.”
STAFF WRITER | BRISTOL, UNITED KINGDOM | CONTACTABLE VIA: LIAM@LIVEKINDLY.COM
Liam writes about environmental and social sustainability, and the protection of animals. He has a BA Hons in English Literature and Film and also writes for Sustainable Business Magazine. Liam is interested in intersectional politics and DIY music.
Lead photo: How sustainable is hydroponic farming? | Image/Gotham Greens
World's Biggest Rooftop Greenhouse Opens In Montreal
Lufa Farms on Wednesday inaugurates the facility that spans 15,000 square metres, or about the size of three football fields. "The company's mission is to grow food where people live and in a sustainable way,"
Lufa Farms just opened what it says is the world’s largest commercial rooftop greenhouse, seen in this aerial photo in Montreal
26 Aug 2020
MONTREAL: Building on a new hanging garden trend, a greenhouse atop a Montreal warehouse growing eggplants and tomatoes to meet demand for locally sourced foods has set a record as the largest in the world.
It's not an obvious choice of location to cultivate organic vegetables -- in the heart of Canada's second-largest city -- but Lufa Farms on Wednesday inaugurates the facility that spans 15,000 square metres, or about the size of three football fields.
"The company's mission is to grow food where people live and in a sustainable way," spokesman Thibault Sorret told AFP, as he showed off its first harvest of giant eggplants.
It is the fourth rooftop greenhouse the company has erected in the city. The first, built in 2011 at a cost of more than C$2 million (US$1.5 million), broke new ground.
Since then, competitors picked up and ran with the novel idea, including American Gotham Greens, which constructed eight greenhouses on roofs in New York, Chicago and Denver, and French Urban Nature, which is planning one in Paris in 2022.
A local Montreal supermarket has also offered since 2017 an assortment of vegetables grown on its roof, which was "greened" in order to cut greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change.
'Reinventing the food system'
Lebanese-born Mohamed Hage and his wife Lauren Rathmell, an American from neighboring Vermont, founded Lufa Farms in 2009 with the ambition of "reinventing the food system."
At Lufa, about 100 varieties of vegetables and herbs are grown year-round in hydroponic containers lined with coconut coir and fed liquid nutrients, including lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini, bok choy, celery and sprouts.
Bumblebees pollinate the plants, while wasps and ladybugs keep aphids in check, without the need for pesticides.
Enough vegetables are harvested each week to feed 20,000 families, with baskets tailored for each at a base price of C$30.
The company's "online market" also sells goods produced by local partner farms including "bread, pasta, rice, etcetera," Sorret said.
On the ground floor of the new greenhouse, a huge distribution center brings together nearly 2,000 grocery products for offer to "Lufavores," including restaurants.
Shopper Catherine Bonin tells AFP she loves the freshness of the produce but laments that some items are always out of stock. "I can never get peppers," she says.
Sales doubled during pandemic
"We are now able to feed almost two percent of Montreal with our greenhouses and our partner farms," said Sorret.
"The advantage of being on a roof is that you recover a lot of energy from the bottom of the building," allowing considerable savings in heating, an asset during the harsh Quebec winter, he explains.
"We also put to use spaces that were until now completely unused," he said.
Fully automated, the new greenhouse also has a water system that collects and reuses rainwater, resulting in savings of "up to 90 percent" compared to a traditional farm.
Lufa "more than doubled" its sales during the new coronavirus pandemic, a jump attributable "to contactless delivery from our online site," says Sorret.
Profitable since 2016, the private company now employs 500 people, around 200 more than before the pandemic, according to him.
It is currently working on the electrification of its fleet of delivery trucks and is in the process of exporting its model "to different cities around the world," starting with Canada and the United States, Sorret said.
"What's a little crazy," he recalls, is that none of the founders "had grown a tomato in their life" before opening the business.
Gotham Greens Produces Sustainably Farmed Lettuce In Stapleton
What was once the Stapleton Airport runway is now sprouting sustainably grown greens. Brooklyn, New York-based Gotham Greens has opened its high-tech urban greenhouse
Look for the urban greenhouse’s lettuces, basil, salad dressings, and pesto at Alfalfa’s, Safeway, and Whole Foods locations in the Denver metro area.
By Allyson Reedy • 5280 | July 20, 2020
What was once the Stapleton Airport runway is now sprouting sustainably grown greens. Brooklyn, New York-based Gotham Greens has opened its high-tech urban greenhouse next to Aurora’s Stanley Marketplace, and is out to woo Front Rangers with local basil, greens, salad dressings, and pesto.
Gotham Greens’ aim is to provide high-quality local product on a national scale, bolstering the food supply chain by stocking cities with fresh greens grown right there in the area. The company started in Brooklyn in 2011 and has slowly expanded, with the Aurora greenhouse marking its eighth—and furthest west—location. The 30,000-square-foot facility will provide two million heads of lettuce to the Rocky Mountain region each year, as well as serve as the company’s flagship site on this side of the country. Because the greens are grown and sold locally, the products are fresher when they get to your kitchen, and because the plants are grown hydroponically, Gotham Greens’ produce uses 95 percent less water and 97 percent less land than traditional soil-based produce.
“The technology enables us to have perfect conditions for our plants,” says director of community and partnership marketing Nicole Baum. “Our plants are very spoiled. They’re very coddled.”
That technology includes curtains to create a natural SPF for the plants, as well as to shade them from the sun or lock in heat in the winter. The temperature-controlled space, which is typically set at 75 degrees with 70 percent humidity, can even create different climates depending on where you are in the greenhouse. Basil, for example, likes it a couple degrees warmer than the lettuces. The misting system works overtime in Colorado’s dry climate to inject moisture into the air.
Unique to this Centennial State location are two new-to-Gotham varieties of lettuce: the crispy green leaf, a hardier and more nutrient-dense alternative to romaine, and Rocky Mountain Crunch, a toothsome green whose leaves grow in a rose-like pattern.
You can buy both of those lettuces, along with eight other types of lettuce, basil, salad dressings (don’t miss the Vegan Goddess), and pesto, at Alfalfa’s, Safeway, and Whole Foods locations in the Denver metro area, but you’ll also find Gotham Greens products at an increasing number of local restaurants. At neighboring Stanley Marketplace, Annette and Comida use the greens, and owner Tommy Lee nabbed the crispy green leaf lettuce for his menus at Uncle and Hop Alley.
“We like working with chefs who care about where the food comes from, and luckily in Colorado there’s a lot of them,” Baum says.
Thanks to the greenhouse’s ideal year-round growing conditions, it takes only about a month for seeds to metamorpihize into those verdant, leafy greens. Which means you’ll probably be seeing a lot more of Gotham Greens’ locally-grown produce in grocers and restaurants around town—even through winter.
Lead Photo: by Allyson Reedy
Whole Foods Embarks on Expansion in Multiple Markets
Along with this multi-tiered launch comes several initiatives targeting the fresh produce department
Thursday, Aug. 13th, 2020
by Chandler James
UNITED STATES - Some major R-E-S-P-E-C-T is in order as organic and natural retail behemoth Whole Foods Market is rolling out multiple new stores in competitive markets across the country. This news comes to light following the grocer’s dark store concept implemented in strategic locations, leaving us to wonder what else Whole Foods has up its sleeve. Along with this multi-tiered launch comes several initiatives targeting the fresh produce department.
On Friday, July 17, Whole Foods opened its 14th location in New York City, according to a press release. The 60,245 square-foot store in Manhattan is part of a 5.4 million-square-foot Hudson Yards development. This location brings added value to the market, namely because of an expanded produce department with selections from more than 15 local growers, including mint and chives from Square Roots, salad kits from Gotham Greens, and grown-in-store mushrooms from Smallhold.
Whole Foods Market is rolling out multiple new stores in competitive markets across the country
A new location also opened up in Castle Rock, Colorado, on Monday, June 29, in a 43,000 square-foot facility. This store also places an emphasis on fresh produce, offering fruits and vegetables including selections from 10 local growers. Entering the same market as one of Whole Foods’ recent dark store openings, we at ANUK are curious to see how the expansion plays out.
As if these influential openings aren’t enough, the retailer also unveiled a new 47,000 square-foot store in Harbor East, Maryland; a 46,000 square-foot store in Washington, DC, partnering with greenhouse growers like Gotham Greens and Bowery Farms; a 35,000 square-foot store in East Austin, Texas, offering fresh produce selections from 75 local growers; and a 44,000 square-foot store in Huntington Beach, California, with fresh produce selections from 50 local growers.
With Whole Foods Market on such an aggressive growth trajectory, keep checking in with us at AndNowUKnow.
Tags: Retail Whole Foods Retailer Grocer Organic Natural Fresh New Store New Stores Facilities Expansion Expands Growth Markets Footprint Dark Store Dark Stores
Seeding The Supply Chain
Grocery stores on the cutting edge of providing local produce are nurturing on-site growing spaces to answer consumer demand for locally grown produce. Retailers involved in growing their own hyperlocal produce see benefits
By : Retail Environments Staff
On-site growth of produce benefits enterprising grocers
By Annemarie Mannion
For this Avril store in Laval, Quebec, Canada, on-site growth of produce grew out of a government project that, among other things, sought to find a way to get food to people in northern areas besides having it all shipped by plane. The store’s automated vertical agriculture platform, known as CultiGo, grows organic greens year-round.
Grocery stores on the cutting edge of providing local produce are nurturing on-site growing spaces to answer consumer demand for locally grown produce. Retailers involved in growing their own hyperlocal produce see benefits. They believe that converting cross-country or cross-region shipping miles to mere footsteps makes financial sense because it provides a better-tasting product and reduces shrinkage.
Stores featuring hyperlocal produce are rare, but they reflect a societal trend. According to research firm Packaged Facts, local food sales in the U.S. increased from $5 billion to $12 billion between 2008 and 2014. The study predicted that local food sales would rise to $20 billion in 2019.
Given the demand, Viraj Puri believes more grocery stores will take this approach to provide locally grown produce. Puri is CEO of urban agriculture company Gotham Greens, which operates a 20,000-sq.-ft. greenhouse on the roof of Whole Foods Market’s Gowanus location in Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S. Constructed in 2014, the greenhouse yields produce that is sold and distributed to the market downstairs and to other Whole Foods locations and local restaurants.
“Growing fresh produce in close proximity to city centers means that we can make it available to urban customers within hours of harvest instead of days,” Puri says. He believes grocery stores also benefit when they can provide produce that has superior taste, better shelf life, and fully traceable products.
The superior quality of the hyperlocal produce appeals to both the store and shoppers, agrees Glenn Behrman, founder of CEA Advisors. His company worked with the H-E-B-owned Central Market in Dallas to grow produce on-site in a converted 53-ft.-long shipping container. “It’s in the produce department and on sale 10 minutes after it’s been harvested,” Behrman notes, adding that customers appreciate that it wasn’t trucked over hundreds of miles to get to the store shelves.
The container at Central Market — dubbed a Growtainer — protects the crops from snow, rain, and excessive heat. A 13-ft.-long utility area protects the production area from outside contamination. The 40-ft.-long production area provides environmentally controlled vertical production space, designed for efficiency and food safety compliance, Behrman says. The technology features an ebb-and-flow irrigation system, a water monitoring and dosing system, and “Growracks” equipped with LED systems.
For grocers, on-site growth of produce can reduce shrinkage. “If it takes four days to sell a case of lettuce [produced outside of the store], that last head or two is going to get thrown in the garbage,” says Behrman. Another benefit is the ability to produce small quantities of unique gourmet items. “They can use seeds from France or grow basil with seeds from Italy,” Behrman says.
Behrman believes the most suitable retail stores for on-site produce growth are those in high-income markets where consumers are willing to spend more for fresh, hyperlocal produce.
Is The Future of Farming Indoors?
The global population is predicted to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, and to feed everyone, it’s estimated that global food production will need to increase by up to 70% in the next 30 years
July 14, 2020
Brian Kateman Contributor
I write about sustainable and ethical technology and consumer trends.
The global population is predicted to reach 9.7 billion by 2050 and to feed everyone, it’s estimated that global food production will need to increase by up to 70% in the next 30 years.
There are many challenges to overcome before fears of a worldwide food shortage can be allayed, including rising temperatures and more frequent droughts caused by global warming. These obstacles are making traditional farming methods increasingly inefficient and unpredictable.
Traditional farming has also been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the FAO, border closures, quarantines and disruptions to supply chains are limiting some people's access to food, especially in countries hit hard by the virus or already affected by high levels of food insecurity.
There’s an emerging consensus that the agriculture industry needs to adapt to use less water and chemicals, make crops less vulnerable to changes in the climate, and produce more reliable yields. Part of the answer may lie in the emerging start-ups growing produce in indoor environments, where growing conditions can be better managed.
The indoor farming technology market was valued at $23.75 billion in 2016, and is projected to reach $40.25 billion by 2022. Yields are typically much higher than traditional farming methods. Crops from indoor farming are grown in three dimensions, rather than two – and can be grown all year round, independent of external weather conditions.
Square Roots next-generation farmers growing basil. CRAIG VANDER LENDE
One of Square Roots’ indoor farms, for example, produces the same amount of food as a two- or three-acre farm annually, just from 340 square feet. This yield is achieved by growing plants at 90 degrees, and by using artificial intelligence (AI) to ensure the environment is optimal for each specific plant, including the day and night temperatures and amount of CO2 needed.
“Our indoor farms are living biosystems, constantly adapting to maintain optimal climates for growing specific crops. We’re then able to understand how changes in the climate can impact yield taste and texture,” says Tobias Peggs, Square Roots’ chief executive.
Not only could indoor farming help adapt to a warming planet, but it has the potential to help slow down climate change by being more sustainable – using less water and producing fewer emissions. While estimates vary widely, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, agriculture accounted for 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions in 2018; it is also highly dependent on, and a pollutant of, water.
Square Roots’ pop-up farms are built in shipping containers in cities, often in parking lots. They serve local communities, which means reduced emissions compared to traditional agriculture, which often involves transporting food much further. For example, it has 10 farms in Brooklyn that serve 100 retail stores all within five miles of the farm.
At the Plenty headquarters in South San Francisco, leafy greens use up one percent of the land and five percent of the water compared to traditional outdoor farms, says Matt Barnard, the start-up’s Chief Executive Officer, and Co-Founder.
AeroFarms’ indoor farm in New Jersey grows greens including baby kale, baby arugula, and baby watercress using 95% less water than conventional agriculture on just one percent of the land required. The crops grow under LED light with no pesticides and a fraction of the fertilizer used on traditional farms.
AeroFarms environmentally-controlled indoor farms can grow all year round independent of climate and ... [+] AEROFARMS
Marketing director Alina Zolotareva says being able to produce have ready-to-eat produce that doesn’t require rinsing helps to reduce water usage.
“This is a transformational innovation for agriculture at large,” she says, “as access to fresh water for growing food is one of the most pressing challenges of our time.”
As well as fewer miles and less water, indoor farming doesn’t require pesticides. This is better for the environment and human health as it eliminates the risk of water contamination due to run-off, and is in line with increasing consumer demand for non-GMO produce.
Plenty eliminates the need for pesticides with LED lights, which are synced with the crop’s growth, Barnard says, to provide the ideal spectrums and exposure and minimize energy usage.
“Our sensor system ensures each plant gets exactly the amount of purified water it needs, and any excess water is recycled through a closed-loop irrigation system resulting in greatly reduced water consumption and zero waste,” he says.
Nanobubbles super-saturates the water with oxygen, making the plant roots healthier. This promotes ... [+]
MOLEAER
Other farms are using nanobubble technology, such as Moleaer, which has allowed more than 100 indoor farms to connect their irrigation systems to generators that provide oxygen via sub-micron gas-containing cavities to the plant’s roots to provide chemical-free water. These nanobubbles result in healthier roots, more resilient plants, and increasing crop yields, says Nick Dyner, CEO of Moleaer.
“Our oxygen transfer efficiency provides the most cost-effective solution to elevate oxygen levels in the water, which in turn promotes beneficial bacteria and root development,” he says.
The company is also working on a new NASA-approved space farming research project, exploring how astronauts on the International Space Station can grow their own food in microgravity using nanobubble technology.
There are concerns that it’s an expensive investment, but Dyner says Moleaer has various systems so it’s accessible to all sizes of indoor farms, high- and low-tech. Some products do, however, require growers to connect an external source of oxygen, which must come from a gas supply company or an onsite oxygen generator, which Moleaer provides.
“In many cases, traditional farmers may have more to gain by using our technology, since the capital investment is significantly less than the most advanced growing technologies available today, which are often out of a typical farmer’s budget,” Dyner says.
“Nanobubble technology is a cost-effective, chemical-free, and scalable solution that allows growers to increase crop yields and shorten cultivation time - which will be much needed to feed our growing population in the future.”
Peggs says Square Roots is also focused on ensuring its technology makes farming an accessible career path for young people who live in urban areas.
“If you’re a new young farmer at Square Roots, our app will guide you through what to do; what’s growing, what state is in it, what do we need to do today based on where things are in the growth cycle. Through our app and our training program we’re able to bring new people into our team, even folks with zero horticulture experience, and get them ready to go in about six weeks.”
Indoor farming is putting the youth back in agriculture. PLENTY
But despite being an emerging option for youth in the city, Barnard predicts most will remain traditional farmers.
“The world still needs the field and will need the field forever. We support the field by growing in addition to the field. Over time, [indoor] farming systems will become more accessible and affordable. Both field and indoor farming will be necessary to support global food demand.”
Viraj Puri, Co-Founder, and CEO of Gotham Greens, a pioneer in urban indoor agriculture that operates over 500,000 square feet greenhouses in 5 U.S. states, echoes this sentiment: “Growing produce indoors certainly has an increasing role to play in the future of sustainable food production. While indoor farming may not represent the future of all fresh produce production, for certain types of crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers, leafy greens, and herbs, it will become more prevalent. Customers are increasingly recognizing the reliability, consistency, and high quality of greenhouse-grown produce that’s grown in close proximity to large population centers using fewer natural resources. Other agricultural commodities like grains or fruits or root vegetables, however, can’t yet be produced.”
However, Dyner predicts that, eventually, the majority of agriculture will move to indoors, in vertical farms— the practice of growing crops in vertically stacked layers—in urban areas.
“These settings enable traditional farming to shift to controlled growing conditions, using new technology and automation, and reducing the risk of exposure to harsh climate conditions,” he says.
Plenty's goal is to build vertical farms in urban hubs and distribute each farm’s harvest locally ... [+]
PLENTY
Start-ups like Square Roots, Plenty, and AeroFarms currently practice vertical farming, which is a form of indoor farming that relies on artificial lighting such as LEDs instead of drawing on natural sunlight.
Other indoor farming companies like Gotham Greens grow produce in high-tech glass-clad greenhouses that primarily rely on natural sunlight for plant photosynthesis. According to Puri: “vertical farming is a more nascent technology within the indoor farming sector and the costs of running a vertical farm with artificial lighting and air conditioning is currently not as cost-effective as relying on natural sunlight in greenhouses.”
Gotham Greens takes a different approach, relying on natural sunlight rather than the artificial ... [+]
GOTHAM GREENS AND JULIE MCMAHON
“Greenhouse indoor farming technology has been in operation globally for 20 to 30 years and is proven to be commercially viable. That being said, the costs around artificial lighting and other vertical farming technologies have been coming down significantly in the past few years,” he adds.
Nonetheless, indoor farm technology start-ups, broadly speaking, don’t see themselves as disruptive, but as being on the same side of traditional farms, for the wider cause.
“The common enemy is the industrial food system, shipping food from one part of the world to the other, rather than locally produced food,” Peggs says.
Indoor farms don’t work in competition with each other, either; they work collaboratively by forming a network that shares data. For example, AeroFarms is collecting data on a research project with the non-profit Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research to understand the sensory and nutritional characteristics of leafy greens for the benefit of the entire agriculture industry.
However traditional and AI-based indoor farming work together in the future, there’s little doubt that indoor farming is helping to meet the needs of a growing global population and support traditional farming, which is both at the mercy of and exacerbating a warming planet. Only one method will find itself in space – but there’s space for them both.
I am co-founder and president of the Reducetarian Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing consumption of animal products.
Lead Photo: The world’s current agricultural practices are unsustainable, and indoor farming may offer solutions ... [+] PLENTY
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Finding Growth in Crisis: Responding to a Rapidly Changing Food Landscape
Scaling Up: Co-locating Food Production and Distribution Centers
Enhancing Nutritional Value: Towards a Perfect Plant Recipe
Optimizing Seeds for Indoor Agriculture: Breeding a Competitive Advantage
Analytics and the Cloud: Digital Integration to Optimize Indoor Agriculture
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US: Vacant For Five Years, A Former Target in Calumet City Gets New Life As An Indoor Vertical Farm Growing Greens For The Chicago Area
The 135,000-square-foot building in the River Oaks shopping center will house stacks of trays growing kale, arugula and other leafy greens under artificial lights. A retail shop on-site will sell the produce to the community and invite people in to learn about how indoor farming works
CHICAGO TRIBUNE | JUL 15, 2020
Jake Counne, founder of Wilder Fields, is seen July 14, 2020, inside an empty Target he plans to convert to an indoor farm, in Calumet City. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
A former Target that’s been sitting vacant in Calumet City for five years will be reborn as an indoor vertical farm producing locally grown greens for the Chicago area.
The 135,000-square-foot building in the River Oaks shopping center will house stacks of trays growing kale, arugula and other leafy greens under artificial lights. A retail shop on-site will sell the produce to the community and invite people in to learn about how indoor farming works.
Once at full capacity, Wilder Fields will employ 80 people and produce 25 million heads of lettuce a year that will be available in grocery stores across the region, said founder Jake Counne. Wilder Fields is the new name of the company, which previously was called Backyard Fresh Farms.
The property was exactly what Counne envisioned when he set out to repurpose existing buildings as indoor farms to supply fresh produce to cities far from the growing fields of California and Arizona.
An empty Target that Jake Counne, founder of Wilder Fields, plans to convert to an indoor farm in Calumet City. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
As retail giants close stores, a trend that’s been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Counne hopes to put the buildings they leave behind to sustainable use.
“We think this is very repeatable,” said Counne, who was a real estate investor before he became an agricultural entrepreneur. “There is a huge amount of vacant anchor retail space.”
Calumet City, which borders Chicago’s southern edge, acquired the building from Target and will lease it to Wilder Fields for 12 months, Counne said. After that, he plans to purchase the property from the city.
Counne expects to break ground by the end of this year and have the first phase of the redevelopment completed by early next year. After operating at a smaller scale to work out the kinks, Counne plans to finish developing the site by 2023. A group of investors is funding the first phase of the project. He declined to say how much funding he has received.
Produce grown locally indoors has gained popularity with consumers in recent years for environmental and quality reasons. It uses less land and water than traditional agriculture and travels far shorter distances, so the product is fresher and lasts longer when it gets into consumers’ hands. Growing year-round in controlled environments also cuts down on waste and contamination and avoids the challenges of unpredictable weather.
The Chicago area is home to several greenhouses that sell greens commercially, including Gotham Greens in Chicago’s Pullman neighborhood and BrightFarms in Rochelle, both of which have recently expanded. But vertical farms, which use artificial light rather than sunlight, have struggled to succeed at a large scale.
Counne believes he can make it profitable with lower-cost automation, which he has been testing at a small pilot facility at The Plant, a food business incubator in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood.
He’s developed robotics to reduce the amount of time workers spend climbing ladders to tend to plants. For example, an automated lift collects trays of ready plants and brings them to an assembly line of workers for harvest. He’s also developed a system of cameras and artificial intelligence software that prompts the environment to automatically adjust to optimize growing conditions.
Jake Counne, founder of Wilder Fields, on July 14, 2020. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
Wilder Fields’ pricing will be in line with greenhouse-grown lettuces, which typically retail at $2.99 to $3.99 for a clamshell.
Though its first products will be standards like spring mix, spinach and basil, the plan is to also sell more unique varieties that people may not have tasted before. Among those Counne tested during his pilot were spicy wasabi arugula, tart red sorrel and horseradish-tinged red mizuna.
Counne is proud that his first farm is bringing fresh vegetables and jobs to an area that needs both. Parts of Calumet City are in a food desert.
Counne will be hiring for a variety of positions, from harvesters to software engineers to executives. He plans to implement a training program that will allow people to move from entry-level roles to positions managing the computer algorithms.
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz covers the food industry for the Chicago Tribune's business section. Prior beats include workplace issues, the retail sector and lifestyle features, plus stints at RedEye, the Daily Herald and the City News Service. Alexia grew up in Washington, D.C., and has her degree in international relations from Brown University.
Florida Indoor Farming Firm Turns Pandemic Disruption Into Opportunity
Orlando, Fla.-based Kalera had to give away an entire harvest in March when the company's commercial customers closed amid stay-at-home orders. But, like some other greenhouse operations around the country, Kalera found other customers and avoided layoffs or going out of business
JULY 9, 2020
A large greenhouse operated by Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Gotham Greens helped produce food as the coronavirus pandemic cut supply chains in March.
Photo courtesy of Gotham Greens
ORLANDO, Fla., July 9 (UPI) -- A Florida company that grows lettuce in greenhouses turned a desperate situation during the coronavirus pandemic into new opportunities, thanks to a nationwide upswing in produce purchases from indoor farms.
Orlando, Fla.-based Kalera had to give away an entire harvest in March when the company's commercial customers closed amid stay-at-home orders. But, like some other greenhouse operations around the country, Kalera found other customers and avoided layoffs or going out of business. Indoor farms like Kalera produce food close to their customers, in clean, hygienic facilities. The process also is called vertical farming because produce is grown on racks, using hydroponics -- raising crops with water and nutrients, but without soil.
Good hygiene and a local supply are more important than ever during supply chain disruptions and waves of panic buying during the pandemic, said Daniel Malechuk, Kalera's chief executive officer.
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It was literally the day of our first harvest at a new facility when the state announced stay-at-home orders and many of our food-service customers closed overnight," Malechuk said about what the company faced in March."
My reaction at first was massive disappointment. That would be an understatement. But we rolled up our sleeves and were determined to make the best of it," he said.
Kalera has developed its farm technology over the past 10 years and had built a demonstration farm and production facility in Orlando. To the CEO's dismay, the crops in the new greenhouse became ready for harvest just as Gov. Ron Desantis ordered all restaurants closed to indoor dining.
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That meant Kalera -- and other farmers who faced similar closures around the nation -- had nowhere to sell their crops. Some growers buried their produce rather than shoulder the expense of harvesting crops without having buyers waiting.
Among the customers Kalera lost were Marriott Orlando World Center, the Orlando Magic basketball team, and area theme parks, Malechuk said.
Kalera had built a large grow house on the grounds of the Marriott resort to supply fresh lettuce and micro-greens to the kitchens there. But the resort has been closed for months and does not plan to reopen until Aug. 1.
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Instead of destroying the food, Malechuk donated his crop directly to local residents and food banks. That's also when he reached out to Florida-based Publix, one of the nation's largest grocery chains with more than 1,200 stores in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.
At first, Publix paid Kalera for some crops and donated the produce to food banks.
Worried about possibly laying off his workforce of about 100, Malechuk wrote a heartfelt email to a Publix executive with whom he previously corresponded. His subject line was "Humble Plea."
The email asked Publix to make Kalera a permanent supplier. It worked, and Kalera produce now is sold in hundreds of Publix stores."
I knew Publix wasn't accepting new suppliers at that point, and I didn't think it would work," Malechuk said. "But I had to try, and I told Publix that.
"Unexpectedly, Publix expedited its process for accepting new products because of Kalera's crisis, said Curt Epperson, the company's business development manager for produce and floral.
“We were not only able to help their business -- and all the people who depend on them -- but our customers and our community," Epperson said in an email to UPI.
Kalera was not alone in turning a dismal outlook to a brighter future. Other indoor farm companies overcame difficulties during the pandemic and saw new opportunities.
Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Gotham Greens opened new greenhouses in several states as the pandemic spread around the world, CEO and co-founder Viraj Puri said.
His employees already had been wearing masks in growing areas before the pandemic struck. As coronavirus advanced, management added more levels of safety. "We started detailed health screening calls, temperature checks, increased distancing. It was a hard time for everyone. We all knew people who tested positive, and we saw people lose their jobs," Puri said.
Gotham Greens soon saw increased demand from retail merchants for its greenhouse produce as other farmers around the country struggled to find labor for harvests and had difficulties shipping food across the country during the pandemic, the CEO said."
The pandemic altered life around us, unfortunately, but it also showed that we can help ensure food security with indoor farming in controlled environments," Puri said. "These local supplies for growing produce are going to be important."
A number of other indoor farming operations found new customers -- and appreciation for their products -- during the pandemic, said Joel Cuello, a professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering at the University of Arizona and vice-chair of the Association for Vertical Farming, based in Munich, Germany.
“In the future, customers want to make sure they have reliable access to food nearby. Vertical farming can be hyper-local, with a facility next to your restaurant or inside your grocery market if wanted," Cuello said.
As people value their health more during a global pandemic, nutrient-packed leafy greens are the most likely food that will be produced indoors, especially in remote areas with harsh environments, said Krishna Nemali, assistant professor of controlled environment agriculture at Purdue University in Indiana. "In northern places, like Iceland or Alaska, or in desert regions, like the Middle East, they struggle to grow food outdoors, so they are turning more to hydroponics," Nemali said. "That's where we will see more demand."
Another vertical farm company, Indiana-based Green Sense Farms, also reported an increase in calls and inquiries to its sales staff from potential customers about its technology, said Robert Colangelo, a founder, and CEO.
Colangelo's company provides contract research, design, and construction of indoor, controlled-environment agriculture facilities. Green Sense charges a little under $1 million to provide a system that includes an automated germination room, grow room, equipment room, and cooled packinghouse room."
What we found is the COVID virus caused people to look at the length of their supply chains. Long complex supply chains can really be disrupted," Colangelo said.
He said he has spoken to officials in various cities who want to learn more about setting up vertical farms."
If you have a food desert [an area with few grocery stores] or a school or hospital in a remote area, you could produce greens right on your property or right next door for that," he said.
Pricey Greens From Indoor Farms Are Thriving In The Covid Era
By Saturday, March 14, even before Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the shutdown of all in-restaurant dining in New York City the next night, Viraj Puri, chief executive officer of the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based indoor urban farming company Gotham Greens
Deena Shanker Bookmark
Published: June 19, 2020, 4:30 PM
Updated: June 20, 2020, 6:35 PM
(Bloomberg Businessweek)
By Saturday, March 14, even before Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the shutdown of all in-restaurant dining in New York City the next night, Viraj Puri, chief executive officer of the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based indoor urban farming company Gotham Greens
Read more at https://www.bloombergquint.com/businessweek/novel-farming-sees-massive-jump-in-demand-amid-coronavirus
Copyright © BloombergQuint
Expert Insights: Advancing Indoor and Vertical Farming Opportunities during COVID-19
The indoor and vertical farming industry has fast-tracked many opportunities to help feed consumers during a global pandemic. The virtual Indoor AgTech Innovation Summit will identify how the world’s leading farm operators found a gap in the market to meet consumer demand and deliver fresh and healthy produce with discussions led by Lipman Farms, Gotham Greens and Smallhold.
The indoor and vertical farming industry has fast-tracked many opportunities to help feed consumers during a global pandemic. The virtual Indoor AgTech Innovation Summit will identify how the world’s leading farm operators found a gap in the market to meet consumer demand and deliver fresh and healthy produce with discussions led by Lipman Farms, Gotham Greens and Smallhold.
Here’s what our experts have to say about the current crisis:
Elyse Lipman, Director of Strategy, Lipman Farms, USA
Will the legacy of COVID 19 be further automation in the food production sector? Will we ever reach a contactless food system? COVID-19 has raised awareness about prospects of automation, but it’s also reinforced the importance of people in this business. At Lipman, each and every stage of the value chain requires coordination and care by our team members. The human element of what we do is important for providing food for people to eat – and we know that the quality of our products and sustainability of our company depends on the people behind the scenes. That said, where there are opportunities for automation that make sense such as machines in packing houses and indoor environments. I think it’s fair to say that humans can be relieved of those tasks and refocused on others. To help us stay ahead of the curve on food safety, for example, we use a web-based training platform that helps customize training, track completions, and easily identify opportunities for improvement. COVID-19 has only reinforced how technology can serve as valuable tools, while also creating new roles for people that are still safe and distanced across the food system.
At Lipman, we’ve diversified our farming techniques over the decades with indoor, outdoor, and hybrid growing environments. We know that growing produce in any capacity requires ingenuity, a learning mindset, and constant adaptation. Two years ago we acquired Huron Produce and while our Suntastic hot house brand continues to deliver high-quality products on the retail shelf, some of the most exciting learnings for us have come from the collaborations between teams. We see indoor ag as both distinct and complementary to our conventional farming practices. I think COVID-19 also revealed to our customers the vulnerabilities of relying on any one supply source, and the value in being able to source from multiple channels.
Viraj Puri, CEO and Co-Founder, Gotham Greens, USA
Demand for local and resilient supply chains is growing, how can indoor agriculture capitalize on this opportunity? Given current pressures on the U.S. food system, one thing is clear: the importance of strengthening our country’s food supply chain through decentralized, regional supply chains. Our business model has enabled us to remain nimble during these unprecedented times and continue to deliver fresh, locally grown produce to customers and our communities. Growing produce indoors certainly has an increasing role to play in the future of sustainable food production. While indoor farming may not represent the future of all fresh produce production, for certain types of crops like leafy greens, herbs, tomatoes and cucumbers, it will become more prevalent.
Gotham Greens has been rapidly expanding our footprint across the US, including opening four new greenhouses in the past 6 months. Today Gotham Greens operates 500,000 square feet of greenhouse across five U.S. states with more than 350 employees. Just last month we opened our newest greenhouse in the Denver Metro area. Although we never envisioned our Denver greenhouse opening during a global pandemic, we’re proud to be providing people in the Mountain Region and across the country with healthy, safe and fresh food options they can get excited about.
Andrew Carter, CEO, SMALLHOLD, USA
Although somewhat harder to find, consumers are still out there. How have Smallhold gone about finding them?
Strangely, consumers have found us. People who try our mushrooms love them and tell their friends. While we scrambled a bit in the beginning, we kept moving full steam. Instead of shutting down, we implemented South Korean-style measures for our warehouse, farm, and office. Then, we launched a new nationally distributed product that allows folks to grow mushrooms at home rather than travel to the grocery store. Now Smallhold is in homes in every state as we gear up for a national expansion of our retail presence in 2020. The product was featured in Bon Appetit, Vice’s Garage, and HypeBeast and is still going strong, although it is not a core business line for us, we continue to see it grow.
How can a grower best manage the expectations of their investors in times as uncertain as these?
Fortunately, as we mentioned above, things are weirdly going well for us. There was a brief period during which we were uncertain, but once our DTC campaign results came in, we became our investors’ case study for what to do in situations like these. As with many things in life, communication is key. At Smallhold, we’ve always had an open dialogue with our investors, and the pandemic hasn’t changed that. Even as the global outlook changes week by week, we’ve worked to provide our investors with a regular cadence of communication and data alongside a clear narrative and plan of action that makes them feel comfortable with the quick decisions we have to make every day. When the world shifts, success can take many forms, and our stakeholders are happy with how we’ve managed it.
A Guide To Vertical Farming Techniques
If you don’t already, chances are you’ll be eating more produce from indoor farms in the near future. Learn what that means
If you don’t already, chances are you’ll be eating more produce from indoor farms in the near future. Learn what that means.
Our ancestors first learned to farm nearly 12,000 years ago. By cultivating and domesticating seeds, these once hunter-gatherers broke away from their nomadic lifestyles, settled down to produce controlled and reliable food sources (weather permitting, of course) and, little did they know, change the course of the planet’s future.
Fast forward to the 20th century when a group of architects started planning to alter food production in their own way. They aimed to decreased dependency on traditional land-based farms and harness spatial efficiency in our dense built environment; think less wide-open spaces with tractors and more structures growing stacked layers of crops. This practice—widely referred to as “indoor” or “vertical farming” (taken from Gilbert Ellis Bailey’s 1915 book of the same name)—is alive and booming today, and especially in the New York metro area.
Columbia University professor emeritus and ecologist Dickson Despommier helped to envision the modern vertical farm and indoor agriculture while teaching a graduate-level course in 1999. His students realized that simply using rooftop gardens would been grossly insufficient to feeding the population of Manhattan so inline with urban agriculture predecessors, he began researching different techniques and structures. Despommier is among several academics and vertical farming thought leaders who see vertical farming today as part of the answer to a range of global problems (many partly caused by agriculture) including climate change and water scarcity.
There are a lot of ways to farm indoors and below are three different soilless processes recommended by Despommier. Done properly at various scales, they’re as effective as at growing crops in skyscrapers as they are in 500 square foot studio apartments:
HYDROPONICS
One of the oldest and most common methods of vertical farming, hydroponics includes growing plants without soil and in a water solvent containing mineral nutrients. The simplest hydroponic method (called the floating raft system) suspends the plants in soilless raft like a polystyrene sheet and lets the roots hang to absorb the oxygen-aerated solution. Another common method is the nutrient film technique, which is popular for growing lettuce. Here, a stream of the nutrient-dissolved solution is pumped into an angled channel, typically a plastic pipe, containing the plants. This runs past the plants’ root mat and can then be recirculated for continuous use. New York’s Gotham Greens and Square Roots use hydroponics.
AEROPONICS
It’s no surprise that NASA has been backing research on aeroponic growth for the past two decades as it’s free-floating-roots aesthetic is typically used in futuristic sci-fi movies. With aeroponics, the dangling roots absorb a fine mist comprised of an atomized version of the nutrient solution sprayed directly onto the roots by a pump. Although aeroponics enables plants to grow much more quickly than hydroponics, it requires more solution and therefore is more costly. Newark’s Aerofarms uses aeroponics.
AQUAPONICS
Like hydroponic systems, an aquaponic system contains a soil-free plant bed suspended over a body of water containing nutrients necessary for plant growth. But within the body of water is a population of fish (typically herbivores) that produce waste that function as fertilizer for the plants. In turn, the plants help purify the water to make the water suitable for the fish.
Given that a balance must be achieved to ensure the system of both life forms, aquaponics requires greater attention than hydroponics or aeroponics although filtration and aeration systems can help manage these complications. Furthermore, the types of plants one can grow are much more limited as the necessary plant nutrients must be compatible with those necessary for the fish. Brooklyn’s Edenworks and Oko Farms use aquaponics.
By Matthew Sedacca | Edible Manhattan | May 3, 2017
Lead Illustration by Chamisa Kellogg
Gotham Greens Doubles Their Acreage Within Six Months
Newest in their 'collection' is the one in Denver. For decades the area next to an abandoned runway at the former Denver Stapleton Airport site had been sitting vacant
Viraj Puri: "Patient approach has allowed us to scale rapidly and sustainably"
In the last six months, US greenhouse company Gotham Greens has more than doubled their footprint by opening four new greenhouses. Newest in their 'collection' is the one in Denver. For decades the area next to an abandoned runway at the former Denver Stapleton Airport site had been sitting vacant. Only 3 years ago it was reopened as an urban marketplace and now the area is revived with the 30,000 square foot greenhouse. "We enjoy pursuing innovative adaptive reuse projects that can transform otherwise underutilized real estate into productive agriculture, whether on rooftops or at grade", says Viraj Puri, co-founder and CEO of Gotham Greens.
Lettuce on NFT
It's a remarkable sight in Denver, Colorado. Next to the 140,000 square foot building in what formerly aircrafts were manufactured, a 30,000 square foot greenhouse has appeared. The glass & steel venture is equipped with an NFT-system from which annually 2 million heads of lettuce will be harvested, including two new lettuce varieties: Crispy Green Leaf and Rocky Mountain Crunch. These products will all find their way to grocery retailers across seven states, including Whole Foods Market, Choice Markets, Alfalfa’s and more.
Restaurant and foodservice customers
“We will also partner with restaurant and foodservice customers in the area and supply our products to restaurant and retail customers located at Stanley Marketplace as businesses begin to reopen”, says Viraj, something that has been impossible of course due to the COVID-outbreak. He adds how he never envisioned to open their Denver greenhouse during a global pandemic. “Our entire team worked extremely hard to commission this new greenhouse during the pandemic and we’re proud to be providing people across the country with healthy, fresh food options they can get excited about. Given the current pressures on our country’s food system, one thing is clear: the importance of strengthening our national food supply through decentralized, regional supply chains.”
That has been the vision of Gotham Greens from the start: ever since 2010, when they opened their first greenhouse in Brooklyn, New York, they’ve focused on delivering fresh, locally and sustainably grown produce to customers and our communities. Over the last couple of months they intensified their expansion, resulting in doubling their total growing acreage. “We built four greenhouses between 2011 and 2015. Rather than focusing on rapid expansion at that point in time, we took a more thoughtful approach to ensure our business model could scale profitably and sustainably in multiple environments and geographies. That patient approach has now positioned and allowed us to scale rapidly sustainably”, says Viraj. “In the past 6 months, we have more than doubled our footprint by opening four new greenhouses in a strategic and measured way. These include greenhouses in Providence, Rhode Island, Baltimore, Maryland, Chicago, Illinois, and now Denver, Colorado.” In total their annual production now grows to nearly 35 million heads of lettuce and distribution to more than 30 states nationwide.
According to Viraj, the end of there expansion is nowhere in sight. “Looking ahead, our goal is to bring our brand of high-quality, sustainably grown local produce and innovative greenhouses to more cities across the country.” In the past they selected quite some remarkable locations for this: on top of a grocery store, on a manufacturing plant, or on the former site of a steel manufacturing plant for example. Viraj explains how a combination of factors drive their decisions for selecting these new locations. “Customer market size opportunities, zoning, land conditions, and logistics and distribution access, just to name a few. Whether building in a rural area provides a bigger challenge? All greenhouse developments are challenging, and we are becoming more experienced with every subsequent project”, he says. “We enjoy pursuing innovative adaptive reuse projects that can transform otherwise underutilized real estate into productive agriculture, whether on rooftops or at grade.”
He adds how their business model has enabled them to remain nimble during these unprecedented times “Now more than ever, we are committed to delivering high-quality, long-lasting and nourishing produce to people when it’s needed most.”
For more information:
Gotham Greens
Publication date: Wed 20 May 2020
Author: Arlette Sijmonsma
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