Welcome to iGrow News, Your Source for the World of Indoor Vertical Farming
PODCAST: This Weeks Episode - Season 3 Episode 35
Join Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes to the show, co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer at AeroFarms, Marc Oshima. AeroFarms is an award-winning indoor farming company that is on a bold mission to grow the best plants possible for the betterment of humanity
Join Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes to the show, co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer at AeroFarms, Marc Oshima. AeroFarms is an award-winning indoor farming company that is on a bold mission to grow the best plants possible for the betterment of humanity.
Today, Harry and Marc talk about Marc’s background in marketing and how it has impacted his work at AeroFarms. Marc provides his thoughts on the concept of ‘speed breeding,’ speaks to his passion for food, and expounds on the concept of utilizing business as a force for good
Listen & Subscribe
Click & Grow 25 Is An Efficient, Self-Monitoring Indoor Garden
“I started the company with a dream to make fresh food available and accessible for everyone and with the Click & Grow 25, we finally made it happen in a sustainable way,” said Mattias Lepp, founder, and CEO of Click & Grow
Written by Dawn Hammon
June 9, 2021
In a world struggling to find balance between busy lifestyles and healthy living, Click and Grow 25 aims to offer an easy-to-use way to grow organic food inside your home.
The smart indoor garden only takes up as much space as a microwave, yet with stacking trays, you can grow fresh produce for one person, two people or an entire family. With such a compact design, anyone can incorporate the Click & Grow 25 into their apartment, home or office.
The system is intuitive and does most of the work for you. Simply select your proprietary biodegradable Smart Soil plant pods, which are similar to the design used in single-serve coffee machines. Each pod is pre-loaded with seeds and soil. Once planted, the built-in technology takes over, monitoring the growth of leafy greens, fruits, and herbs.
This self-growing garden takes care of plants automatically by maintaining optimal levels of moisture, nutrients, root oxygen and pH. The device ensures perfect conditions needed to grow lush produce at a faster rate than you will find in an outdoor garden. Plus, the direct garden-to-table aspect offers a higher nutrient content than store-bought food, often pulled from the field weeks before. All plants are organic without the need for fertilizers and pesticides.
Click & Grow 25 not only provides convenience, but its energy-efficient design consumes just 200 kWh of electricity per year, which equates to about $40 in large urban areas. An associated app lets users know when it is time to add more water and offers harvesting tips as well as recipes.
“I started the company with a dream to make fresh food available and accessible for everyone and with the Click & Grow 25, we finally made it happen in a sustainable way,” said Mattias Lepp, founder and CEO of Click & Grow. “With the impact of population growth and the demand on our natural resources, it is inevitable for us to become more self-sufficient. I believe we are all going to be growing some of our food at home soon and I’m certain we’ve developed the best solution to do just that.”
Click & Grow 25 recently launched via Kickstarter, where it was fully funded in the first 20 minutes. At the time of writing, it had raised over $500,000 of the $35,000 goal.
Images via Click & Grow
HECTAR Offers Free Design Plans For Open Source Hydroponics Unit
Felix Wieberneit from the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London imagined a way for U.K. citizens with a limited amount of indoor space to build their own vertical garden and is now making the design free for anyone to download
Among all of the new hobbies picked up during the COVID-19 lockdowns, gardening has to be one of the most popular. Felix Wieberneit from the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London imagined a way for U.K. citizens with a limited amount of indoor space to build their own vertical garden and is now making the design free for anyone to download.
Described as an open-source hydroponics unit, the HECTAR vertical farm is designed especially for interiors to help more people grow healthy food from home. Sponsored by multinational technology company Huawei, the unit is inspired by open-source electronic and 3D printing companies. Open-source describes a type of computer software that’’s released under a special license made to be accessible to the public. HECTAR has since been selected as one of 25 companies in the Imperial College Venture Catalyst Accelerator, a competition for local entrepreneurs.
It looks like a simple shelf, but the innovative hydroponics unit can grow a whopping 120 plants confined to a space the size of a cupboard. Even better, the design is fully modular and can be built using standard parts found in almost any hardware store. Wieberneit hopes the free plans will educate and empower regular people to grow their own food at home, without relying on pricey smart growing systems or seed subscription services. In theory, the unit can save users money in the long run as they cultivate their own edible plants like arugula, lettuce or herbs.
Plans include an instructional video, a bill of materials, and suggestions on where to find the parts. There is also a dedicated forum where users can ask questions if they get stuck or connect with others. The plans officially launched on March 16, and the company is still looking for U.K.-based beta testers to try the designs out for themselves. Those who are interested can download the plans from the HECTAR website, linked below.
CANADA: Bringing Fresh Greens To Albertans And Making Hydroponics More Accessible
While the vertical farming industry typically prides itself on high levels of automation, Vertical Roots is taking a different approach that doesn’t rely on technology and automation
Mike and Becky Newhook first took an interest in local agriculture nearly 20 years ago, during a visit to the Philippines where most of the people they met were farmers. When they visited the region 18 years later, those same people were still farming.
One thing led to another, and the couple began working with the locals over Skype to set up two aquaponic farms and begin producing 20,000 heads of lettuce, which isn’t otherwise produced in the region. While those aquaponic farms are locally owned and operated, Mike and Becky continued in their pursuit of local food systems back home in Tofield, Alberta. That is how, at the beginning of the pandemic, Vertical Roots Canada was established.
Vertical Roots is a hydroponic farm founded in 2020 by Mike and Becky Newhook as well as their partners Brent and Evelyn Harley. While the farm began in the Newhook’s garage, it has expanded to Brent and Evelyn’s property in Beaver County, Alberta. It currently runs out of a 600 sq-ft building, although only 386 sq-ft is currently used for production. At this point, the major challenges to production are limited amperage and the limited access to potable water, requiring that water be trucked in. Vertical Roots hopes to expand to 1,500-2,000 sq-ft with all operations occurring under the same roof, from plant propagation to growing, testing, and harvesting.
While the vertical farming industry typically prides itself on high levels of automation, Vertical Roots is taking a different approach that doesn’t rely on technology and automation. The farm focuses on hands-on growing and relatively small-scale production. But according to Mike, that hasn’t hurt their business in the slightest as the company is expanding within a year of its establishment.
“We’re not about producing in warehouses and supplying major companies. People seemed to say that if you aren’t producing 20,000 heads of lettuce, then you’ll be left behind. But that hasn’t been the case at all,” says Mike. Vertical Roots sells its greens through subscriptions, to the Mayfair Royal Golf Club, and to local restaurants. The interest in local food has never been higher, according to the Newhooks, as consumers have flocked to the farm and maxed out the supply.
“When people are ordering from larger suppliers, the quality is lower. They are paying the same price or lower for a product that they can only use half of. We’ve learned that people are willing to pay more for a head of lettuce if it means that they can use all of it rather than only a portion of it,” says Becky.
Throughout the Newhooks experience, they’ve found the hydroponics community to occasionally be difficult to collaborate with, as the industry tends to keep its cards close and not share its experiences. They also struggled with having consultants make technical recommendations that didn’t ultimately make sense for their business. According to Mike, this lackluster knowledge sharing in vertical farming is part of why many vertical farms have failed.
As such, Vertical Roots is committed to being a transparent company that welcomes people and questions. The company has also developed a prototype system which it plans to commercialize by autumn 2021, which will be complemented by educational resources and consulting also provided by the farm. Vertical Roots already has 3-4 growers pursuing them to build a farm once the systems are available for sale.
“Our product is where we want it to be; we just need to keep repeating it. We want to master all four seasons before beginning to sell. While you are growing indoors, the season does impact climate control inside the farm,” explains Mike. In the future, Vertical Roots hopes to explore opportunities in northern Canada, as the rates of food insecurity and food prices are exorbitant throughout the region.
For more information:
Vertical Roots Canada
info@verticalroots.ca
www.verticalroots.ca
Publication date: Fri 19 Mar 2021
Author: Rebekka Boekhout
© VerticalFarmDaily.com
VIDEO: Common Mistakes When Setting Up Hydroponics
Even if you have a lot of guidance in setting up your grow space, you may make mistakes in the initial development stages
January 4, 2021 | By Joy King
Starting a hydroponics garden is thrilling. It's an exciting project where you can enjoy the progress your plants make over time. However, producing perfect plants requires some skill and attention to detail that take time to develop. Even if you have a lot of guidance in setting up your grow space, you may make mistakes in the initial development stages.
What is hydroponics?
Wikipedia describes hydroponics as "a type of horticulture as a method of growing plants, usually crops, without soil. It's become popular in vertical and indoor farming. Let's examine some common errors to avoid when setting up a hydroponics grow:
Ignoring plants
New growers may not devote the amount of time necessary to grow hydroponically. Some mistakenly believe that they can check in on plants on the weekend. But, a lot can go wrong if you're not regularly checking on them. Even if your system is fully automated through a grow controller, it's essential to check on your plants daily to ensure that everything is going smoothly.
Check that your automation system isn't clogged or failed in some other way. Once you are a more experienced grower, it will become easier for you to identify failures in your systems and problems with your plants since you're dedicating time to their wellbeing.
Going overboard
More is not always better, particularly in regards to plant growth. Often, problems arise in the grow room from a lack of experience in tending to plants grown hydroponically. It usually takes time to understand how to irrigate and fertilize plants properly. Overwatering is often detrimental to plants, and beginners often do not realize they are overwatering before it is too late. Excessive nutrients, or nutrient burn as it's referred to, is also a common problem for beginners.
Overcrowding plants
It is common for beginners to overestimate how many plants will fit in their grow space. When you first plant them, it may seem that your plants have a lot of room, but once they grow up, they will need that extra space to maintain growth. Be vigilant about removing excess plants and pruning if overcrowding seems like it will be a problem. When in doubt, err on the side of caution and plant fewer plants.
Sudden changes to the environment
You need to give your plants time to adjust when you make changes. One of the most common problems that beginners face is when they suddenly change the grow room's light levels or room temperature. Any sudden increase in light may cause leaf bleaching and burning. It's better that you make changes gradually, giving your plants time to adjust.
Final thoughts
There are many scholarly books on starting hydroponics grow room or space. Do your research and enjoy your hydroponic garden! It's a rewarding way to grow food, cannabis, or flowers.
Source: Growlink
Tags: Hydroponics, Nutrient Dosing System, Wireless Automation, Automated Grow System, Customer Service, Automated Grow Systems, Nutrient Delivery System, nutrients, automation
Hydrobuilder Holdings Raises $70 Million And Combines West Coast Hydroponics Chain With Online Retailer
We are excited to bring together two proven leaders in hydroponics e-commerce and brick-and-mortar retail as the initial partnerships within Hydrobuilder Holdings, which we believe is poised to be a leading omni-channel seller of specialty agriculture and hydroponics equipment and supplies
January 15, 2021
Hydrobuilder Holdings Acquires Hydrobuilder.com and GreenCoast Hydroponics to Form a Leading Omni-channel Seller of Specialty Agriculture and Hydroponics Equipment and Supplies
Secures over $70 million in financing from broad base of investors
PALM BEACH, Fla.-January 15, 2021-(BUSINESS WIRE)–Hydrobuilder Holdings LLC (“Hydrobuilder Holdings”) today announced its formation through the acquisitions of Hydrobuilder.com, a leading online retailer of hydroponics and horticultural supplies, and GreenCoast Hydroponics, the second largest hydroponics retailer in the United States, to create a leading omni-channel retailer of specialty agriculture and hydroponics equipment and supplies. Hydrobuilder Holdings secured over $70 million in financing from a broad group of investors, led by Broadband Capital Investments. As part of the transaction, the sellers of both Hydrobuilder.com and GreenCoast Hydroponics retained a meaningful equity stake in Hydrobuilder Holdings.
Hydrobuilder Holdings will be led by Markus Hockenson, Chief Executive Officer, and Avi Levine, Chief Financial Officer, both of whom bring extensive digital and retail experience, and a proven track record of driving revenue, earnings growth and value creation at private-equity owned companies. Hydrobuilder.com and GreenCoast will continue to be operated by their existing management teams under the newly-formed Hydrobuilder Holdings platform and substantially all team members from Hydrobuilder.com and GreenCoast will remain with Hydrobuilder Holdings.
Mr. Hockenson previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of International Car Wash Group and Vision Group Holdings, and has served in leadership positions at Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Starbucks, Advance Auto Parts, and TBC Corporation (Tire Kingdom). Mr. Levine previously served as Chief Financial Officer of International Car Wash Group, and has additional experience at Deloitte Consulting, Versa Capital Management, Flashpoint College and Driven Brands.
“We are excited to bring together two proven leaders in hydroponics e-commerce and brick-and-mortar retail as the initial partnerships within Hydrobuilder Holdings, which we believe is poised to be a leading omni-channel seller of specialty agriculture and hydroponics equipment and supplies,” said Hockenson.
Hydrobuilder Holdings is uniquely positioned to provide commercial growers and home gardeners with the highest level of service, product selection, education and value.
Markus Hockenson, Chief Executive Officer
With strong investor support and significant follow-on interest from our investors, we have substantial growth capital to execute our organic and M&A growth strategies, and see significant opportunities to expand these businesses in the rapidly growing hydroponics, specialty gardening and controlled environment agriculture (CEA) markets.
Hydrobuilder.com Founder and President, Justin Marshall, commented, “Partnering with GreenCoast and joining Hydrobuilder Holdings is a dream come true. I am incredibly grateful and excited to be working alongside these experts and pioneers within the hydroponics industry as well as professionals from many outside business ventures. The combined knowledge and experience will allow us to take the Hydrobuilder.com platform and apply it to some of the most successful brick-and-mortar stores in our space by utilizing our custom IT infrastructure, which enhances automation while also providing an omnichannel approach to sales for our customers. With this combination, we’ll be able to scale and automate at a far greater speed than what was possible on our own. The amount of industry and historical knowledge will allow us to further position ourselves as a leading online retailer of hydroponics equipment and supplies.”
Jordan Weiss, Chief Executive Officer of GreenCoast Hydroponics, said, “We couldn’t be more excited to see our business develop and grow into an omni-channel national model. This will better integrate and support our customers’ needs across all of our three pillars: e-commerce, retail and commercial. Along with better serving our customers, we feel great about how this partnership will support our employees and the culture that we have worked 20+ years to build.”
Michael Rapp, Managing Partner of Broadband Capital Investments, added, “We are excited to be investing in the formation of Hydrobuilder Holdings. Justin, Jordan, and their respective teams have built best-in-class companies and have deep domain knowledge. Markus and Avi are world-class executives who understand how to drive efficiencies and scale enterprises, both organically and through acquisitions. We are serving a nascent but fast-growing end market and our customers are in need of a local supply chain partner who can offer a suite of products and services to solve problems and add value. We are excited by this opportunity and we look forward to building a leading company in this space.”
About Hydrobuilder.com
Founded in 2011, Hydrobuilder.com is based in Northern California and has rapidly grown to become a leading online retailer of hydroponics and horticultural supplies. The management team previously helped Build.com grow to over $1 billion in sales, and has built Hydrobuilder.com into a complete online hydroponic gardening center that is known for having the top product lines, a fast, user-friendly website and knowledgeable employees.
About GreenCoast Hydroponics
Founded in 1999, GreenCoast is a Southern California-based specialty agriculture/hydroponics products retailer and the largest independent retailer of its kind in the United States. GreenCoast operates 12 stores (10 in California, 1 in Las Vegas, and 1 in Portland, OR), that provide equipment, plant consumable products, and design services to growers ranging from the hobbyist to the largest licensed commercial operators. Senior management is known throughout the industry as experts in design of large-scale industrial growing facilities.
About Broadband Capital Investments
Broadband Capital Investment (BCI) is a boutique merchant bank that invests in high growth industries. BCI (and/or its affiliates) was the founding investor in Vroom.com (Nasdaq: VRM), a leading used car e-commerce company, co-led the management buyout of Hydrofarm Holdings (Nasdaq: HYFM), a leading hydroponics manufacturer and distributor, prior to its initial public offering, and invested in Montrose Environmental (NYSE: MEG), an environmental services provider offering measurement & analytical services as well as environmental resiliency & sustainability solutions.
Published by NCV Newswire
INDIA: Hydroponics Startups Are Slowly Growing On Indian Consumers
Chennai-based biotechnology graduate Rahul Dhoka’s rooftop looks like a maze. Only, it’s a maze of over 6,000 organically grown leafy vegetables and herbs such as carrom, kale, lettuce, and spinach
Written by Monika Ghosh
29 Dec 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically
accelerated the demand for organically grown produce
Chennai-based biotechnology graduate Rahul Dhoka’s rooftop looks like a maze. Only, it’s a maze of over 6,000 organically grown leafy vegetables and herbs such as carrom, kale, lettuce, and spinach.
These vegetables, grown in planters made of PVC pipes that have taken over his 90 square feet rooftop, are grown using hydroponics technique—a method of growing plants in nutrient-rich water instead of soil. Non-commercial hydroponics farming does not require large spaces and can be grown on rooftops like Dhoka’s or even in a smaller set up such as a doorstep. They can also be designed as vertical farms to optimize the land area.
In 2016, Dhoka got into hydroponics as a hobby, and three years later, once he mastered the technique and learned how to create different design structures, he founded Acqua Farms, a consultancy startup that helps people set up their own hydroponics farms.
Dhoka told KrASIA that the consumer interest in hydroponics has increased dramatically due to the COVID-19 pandemic as people have become more conscious of what they eat and want to know where their food comes from.
“My revenue in the first two to three months of COVID-19 was almost the same as the entire previous year’s,” said Dhoka, founder and CEO of Acqua Farms.
Eat healthy, live healthy
Acqua Farms is one of the several organic food companies that have reported a surge in sales during the pandemic while individuals are showing interest in growing their own produce. This trend of owning farms and eating healthy has boosted the demand of hydroponics farms.
The startup, in addition to selling hydroponics starter kits, also runs a subscription service for people with no knowledge of maintaining a hydroponics set up. Under the subscription service, the startup assigns an agronomist who takes care of the plants and monitors them once a week. Till date, Acqua Farms has helped set up over 500 hydroponics farms.
Rahul Dhoka, founder of Acqua Farms posing with the hydroponics set up on his rooftop. Photo credit: Ashwin Prasath
One of the primary benefits of aquaponics farming is that since plants receive nutrition directly from the treated water, they grow around 15-20% faster than traditional soil-based farming, providing higher yields, said Dhoka. This also allows more harvests of the same crop than is possible in traditional farming, giving hydroponics farmers an edge.
“With good management, you can even get 16 harvests in a year [for leafy greens], whereas in soil-based farming only three or four [harvests] are possible,” he said.
Dhoka said, in addition to higher yields, hydroponics is also a sustainable way of farming as it utilizes 90% less water than traditional farming. The benefits of hydroponics don’t stop here: since it can be set up inside buildings and roof-tops, it reduces carbon footprint and food wastage as the produce doesn’t require any storage or long-distance travel, which makes it ideal for farm-to-fork model.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 190.7 million Indians are undernourished. Amidst this dire situation, 16% of India’s agricultural produce is wasted due to the lack of proper storage and transportation.
Hydroponics startups are largely focusing on growing leafy greens due to their shorter crop cycles, easier management, and lesser space requirements. It also caters to the niche market of exotic green produce like kale, lettuce, and herbs.
Commercial-scale set ups
While Acqua Farms works mostly with individuals and families, a few hydroponics startups focus on setting up commercial-scale farms as well. Unlike non-commercial set ups, these require greenhouses or poly houses to provide complete climate control. This allows the production of crops irrespective of the weather conditions.
This is where Mumbai-based startup Barton Breeze comes into the picture. It sets up farms on the rooftops of apartments as well as inside the buildings. To ensure its clients have a steady income, Barton Breeze buys their produce at a price that gives these urban farmers a 30% profit on each harvest. The startup then sells this produce in the market.
The entire process is hassle-free for farmers as Barton Breeze manages their farm, and takes care of marketing, transportation, and sale of the produce.
Large and commercial-scale hydroponics farms require to be equipped with advanced automation systems to ensure the yield is unaffected by weather conditions.
Barton Breeze enables such farms with automation systems to track their farms remotely. The startup’s app iFarm offers a farmer remote access to the farm, “wherein a farmer can not only just monitor but also control the farm remotely which means sitting at home, you press a button and things will happen on the farm,” Shivendra Singh, CEO, Barton Breeze, told KrASIA.
S Sudhanva, COO of Barton Breeze. Photo courtesy of Barton Breeze.
Through the app, the farmer can control the temperature and humidity, and even control the dosing of nutrients in the water. The app also allows users to get updates on their farm data such as energy consumption.
When anything in the farm fails or goes wrong, the farmer gets an alert via email, message, or a buzzer in the app. This not only makes it easier to manage large farms spread across acres but also reduces the need for human labor.
Additionally, Barton Breeze offers farm management software to maintain day-to-day activities. This software can help farmers identify their approximate date of harvest, and expected yield. Moreover, the company installs humidity sensors, sunlight sensors, climate control systems, and thermal sensors in the farm that send alerts when stocks are running low and highlights issues like pest attacks and any increase in the level of plant allergens.
To reduce human contact amid the pandemic, the company has automated customer onboarding through its app. But, most importantly, it has created an artificial intelligence (AI) system that provides crop management guidance to farmers. “For example, if your plant’s leaves are yellow, [the] AI can find out why they are yellow, what are the remedies, and what are the things you can do to cure it,” said Singh.
Singh claimed Barton Breeze grew at a CAGR of 500% year-on-year in 2019 and saw twice more online visitors this year compared to 2019.
Investor interest in hydroponics
According to Singh, hydroponics produce is very well accepted in urban cities like Mumbai, Delhi, and Bengaluru. Spending is not a problem for customers–it’s the unavailability of options near them that keeps people from accepting hydroponics, he said. The products are sold in supermarkets, and unlike a couple of years ago, they have a distinct label that mentions they have been grown using hydroponics.
Most hydroponics startups are still, however, struggling to match their price with the market price of traditional farm produce due to high operational as well as production costs.
However, Singh said Barton Breeze has managed to significantly bring the cost down. “We have brought down the production cost. So, if something is coming from Bengaluru to Mumbai and costs INR 200 (USD 2.70) per kilogram, we offer it at a price of INR 120 (USD 1.62) per kilogram which is lower than the market price,” he said.
With the prices of hydroponics produce being at par with or lower than traditional farm produce, Singh believes the customer base for the former is expanding which is currently limited to upper middle class families. But the demand still remains limited to metros and tier 1 cities.
Read this: Farm to fork: This millennial urban farmer grows vegetables on carpark rooftops in Singapore
Even though the hydroponics startups are experiencing increased demand, investors remain skeptical of the potential of hydroponics produce in the market. For consumers, as long as the produce is organic and the price is at par with other available options, it doesn’t matter whether it is grown in a hydroponics set up or in any other way.
“Hydroponics is more expensive [than greenhouse and net-house farming], and mostly for the production of raw greens, exotic vegetables, and super-premium berries,” said Mark Kahn, Managing Partner at Omnivore, an agritech focused venture capital firm. Earlier this year, Omnivore participated in agritech startup Clover’s USD 5.5 million Series A round. Clover sells hydroponically grown fresh produce.
“We think there is a market for hydroponics produce in India, but it will remain a niche segment within CEA [Controlled Environment Agriculture],” he added.
According to Kahn, there are two major hurdles for the hydroponics segment–lack of consumer demand and high cost of infrastructure.
“…identifying the target segment and building demand will require significant downstream investment and large marketing budgets. As for the latter [hurdle], hopefully, hydroponics startups in India can find ways to lower setup costs and make units more modular,” he said.
However, he adds that Omnivore remains “excited” about hydroponics and will continue to explore investment opportunities in the sector.
Although Omnivore has a cautiously optimistic outlook of the hydroponics market, both Barton Breeze and Acqua Farms reported increased investor interest since the start of the pandemic. “We were definitely in touch with a couple of investors [before] but after COVID, every week there’s a new investor interested in us,” Singh said.
Lead photo: Rahul Dhoka, founder of Acqua Farms posing with the hydroponics set up on his rooftop. Photo credit: Ashwin Prasath
KUWAIT: "Up To 550 kg of Lettuce Per Day Thanks To Faster Growth Cycles"
Instead of traveling 5,000 kilometers between German growing areas and consumers, lettuce from vertical farming company &ever in Kuwait travels less than 100 kilometers
Hamburg-Based Start-Up &ever Makes Big Strides In Kuwait
Instead of traveling 5,000 kilometers between German growing areas and consumers, lettuce from vertical farming company &ever in Kuwait travels less than 100 kilometers. With its first commercial farm in the middle of the Kuwaiti desert, the Hamburg-based company supplies regionally grown leaf lettuce to local restaurants and grocers. These are grown on more than 3,000 m2 of cultivation area and taste like they were picked fresh from the field. "Thanks to faster-growing cycles, we can produce up to 550 kilograms of lettuce per day," Mark Korzilius, founder of &ever, told IT Zoom.de
Hypermodern cultivation technology / Image: &ever
"In the process, our newly developed Dryponics cultivation technology reduces water consumption by 90 percent and fertilizer use by 60 percent when compared to traditional cultivation methods." The company also eliminates the use of crop protection products.
For more information: https://and-ever.com
22 Dec 2020
Nature Fresh Farms Has Expanded Operations With A New Distribution Center in Laredo, Texas
The new 61,000 square foot Distribution Center in Laredo, Texas, provides a new major hub of fresh produce
Leamington, ON (December 2, 2020) – Nature Fresh Farms has expanded operations with a new Distribution Center in Laredo, Texas, with future developments planned for next year.
The new 61,000 square foot Distribution Center in Laredo, Texas, provides a new major hub of fresh produce. Since the opening of the facility, they have employed over 30 team members with more positions available for hire. The center will help service Nature Fresh Farms Mexican winter program and allow for direct shipping of product, shortening their supply chain. With this fully operational facility, the company will be able to bring fresher produce to customers located in the Southern United States.
Laredo Division Manager, Sergio Restrepo, said the new Distribution Center is in response to Nature Fresh Farms continuous growth. “The acquirement of our new center is part of our plans to optimize our distribution network,” shared Sergio. “With this, we are able to further strengthen our logistics and operations, ensuring that we can better meet the needs and expectations of our consumers and customers.”
Nature Fresh Farms has had a streak of sustained operational growth with their newly completed Phase 7 and 8 greenhouses, and a large expansion planned for their Leamington location with more details to follow. The company also has future plans for expansion in Ohio with an extension of acreage, in addition to their current 45 acres of greenhouse, and the construction of a new Distribution Center.
“We are looking forward to further developing our Ohio location with many new initiatives planned,” said Vice President, John Ketler. “We see significant opportunities in the continued construction with these new facilities needed to support our growth.”
Nature Fresh Farms has experienced rapid growth over the last few years. Today the company has over 600 employees, 200 acres of greenhouses Tomato, Pepper, and Cucumber plants, with multiple facilities across North America.
-30-
About Nature Fresh Farms -
Continuously expanding, Nature Fresh Farms has become one of the largest independent, vertically integrated greenhouse vegetable farms in North America. As a year-round grower with farms in Leamington, ON, Delta, OH, and Mexico, Nature Fresh Farms prides itself on consistently delivering exceptional flavor and quality to key retailers throughout North America, while continuing to innovate and introduce more viable and sustainable growing and packaging solutions.
SOURCE: Nature Fresh Farms | info@naturefresh.ca T: 519 326 1111 | www.naturefresh.ca
Startup of The Month: Unfold
The future of vertical farming begins on the genetic level. That’s the philosophy of Unfold, a Sacramento-based startup focused on innovating fruit and vegetable seeds to better serve indoor growing facilities
John Purcell is the president and CEO of Unfold. (Photo courtesy of John Purcell)
Breeding Seeds For Vertical Farms
December 3, 2020
By Russell Nichols
The future of vertical farming begins on the genetic level. That’s the philosophy of Unfold, a Sacramento-based startup focused on innovating fruit and vegetable seeds to better serve indoor growing facilities.
Vertical farms use artificial light and take up less space than traditional farms. They are automated to control factors such as light, temperature, and humidity. With a biochemistry background, John Purcell, president, and CEO of Unfold recognized a gap between open fields (and greenhouses) and controlled environments. He heard from many vertical farmers that seeds intended for outdoor use didn’t work as well indoors where plants are grown on shelves.
“They’ve made so many investments on lighting and mechanics, but they were trying to get by with seed varieties that were developed for other production systems,” Purcell says.
Unfold aims to fill that gap using seed genetics (germplasm) from vegetable crops to create new varieties best suited for vertical farms. The startup’s bimodal strategy begins with a screening phase, analyzing which germplasm yields optimal results, followed by a breeding phase to develop the varieties that thrive in a controlled environment.
With urban living and organic food becoming more popular, the vertical farming industry has been booming globally. In 2019, the market reached about $4.4 billion, according to Statista. By 2025, the market value is expected to hit $15.7 billion. Using vertical spaces increases the amount of yield per square foot or per acre while being able to grow food closer to the consumer. Because these farms are automated, they require less labor to run, which is also attractive, given the labor shortages in agriculture, Purcell says.
Purcell previously worked as senior vice president at Bayer and head of vegetables research and development for its Crop Science division. He also spent nearly 30 years at Monsanto Company, acquired by Bayer in 2018. His team will be exploring questions such as: How does a plant respond to artificial light? How fast does a plant grow with no disease or insect pressures? What kinds of varieties have proved to be successful already?
Lettuce greens will be the first crop tested because they are the biggest crop grown by indoor farmers — 57 percent of indoor farms, including vertical farms, produce leafy greens, according to the Agrilyst 2017 “State of Indoor Farming” report. In the future, Unfold also plans to examine other crops such as tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers.
But vertical farms aren’t all the same. They use similar core technology (lighting, temperature, humidity), but the setups vary. The lack of standardization in the market presented a challenge, which is why Unfold is also providing a crop model (a “digital recipe”) to growers to define how to set up the various parameters for optimal results.
Unfold launched with $30 million in initial funding and an agreement for certain rights to germplasm from Bayer’s vegetable portfolio. The funding is meant to help the startup fast-track tailor-made seeds to the vertical farming industry, says Derek Norman, vice president of venture investments for Leaps by Bayer, the company’s impact investment division.
“Everybody saw the sector as high potential but relatively small today compared to traditional vegetable growing,” Norman says. “Vertical farming hasn’t commanded the same resources.”
In 2021, Unfold plans to have its facility secured and the breeding program established. For Purcell, the initial investment plus the advantage of a license agreement to tap into Bayer Crop Science allows Unfold to “hit the ground running, providing solutions,” he says.
And what better ground for an agtech startup is there than Sacramento? Purcell chose the Capital Region because he recognized it as a center for agricultural innovation and a great hub for seed companies like Unfold. “Not a whole lot of better places, especially for horticulture and produce,” he says. “There’s such a robust ecosystem.”
–
How The Pandemic Has Accelerated The Next Generation of Farming
Vertical farming, or the practice of cultivating crops in vertically stacked shelves and often in a controlled indoor environment, allows produce to be shipped to grocery stores, restaurants and other dining services in a matter of minutes
Vertical farming has provided an innovative
way to serve customers and ensure clean food
Coronavirus puts farmers in 'dire need' of help from government: Farm Bureau president
Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall discusses how coronavirus is challenging farmers, trade with China, and reopening the economy.
The foodservice industry is betting big on vertical farming as the pandemic ushers in a heightened awareness of food safety and cleanliness.
Vertical farming, or the practice of cultivating crops in vertically stacked shelves and often in a controlled indoor environment, allows produce to be shipped to grocery stores, restaurants and other dining services in a matter of minutes.
EVEN WITH A STRONG CROP THIS YEAR, US FARMERS ARE SUFFERING
A new report by Allied Market Research shows that the global market for vertical farming crops is projected to reach $1.38 billion by 2027 with a compounded annual growth rate of 26.2% from 2021 to 2027. Last year alone, the industry was estimated to be around $212.4 million.
Amid the trajectory for growth, the coronavirus outbreak has accelerated the demand for fresh and locally grown produce. And as restaurants reopen, vertical farming has provided an innovative way to serve customers and ensure clean food.
“The pandemic has certainly shed light on the fact that everybody is very aware of cleanliness and safety, and food is no exception,” CEO of Kalera Daniel Malechuk told FOX Business. “What vertical farming can offer is something that is local, something that hasn’t been in a journey to get to the end or touched by a significant number of people and something that is grown in a clean room where the product is not subject to harmful elements or exposure.”
TRUMP ANNOUNCES $13B WORTH OF NEW RELIEF FUNDING FOR US FARMERS
Kalera, an indoor vertical farming company with hydroponic technology, is on track for rapid growth, particularly in high dense urban markets. After opening the largest vertical farming facility in Texas, the ag-tech company has plans to expand to Atlanta where it will be the highest production volume vertical farm in the Southeast, as well as Denver by 2021. Aside from its typical operations providing lettuce and microgreens to theme parks and restaurants, Kalera has also entered the grocery space marked by a deal with Publix that went into effect in April.
(Credit: Kalera)
“We love supporting our local growers—whether they are growing in a field or on top of a hotel,” Business Development Director Produce and Floral of Publix Super Markets Curt Epperson told FOX Business. “Our customers really appreciate hydroponically grown leafy greens, not only because they are flavorful but because they are sustainable. We’re excited to see where vertical farming goes in the future. Wherever that is, you can be sure that we’ll be keeping in touch with our local hydroponic farmers, finding out what they’re doing, and talking about how we can work together.”
Hydroponically grown greens emerged in grocery stores prior to COVID-19, but the global health crisis has only accentuated the need to know where food comes from and how it is grown.
(Credit: Kalera)
With technology that doesn't require soil to grow plants and consumes up to 10 times less water compared to traditional soil-based growth, hydroponic systems are not only sustainable but also can be controlled to minimize pesticides and other dangerous chemicals.
Additionally, the minimal transport involved allows produce to reach store shelves without traveling thousands of miles and being exposed to more touchpoints.
Global supply chain disruption has also forced retail chains like Publix to secure produce that does not conflict with restrictions on transportation, which particularly came to light during the first phase of lockdown and with varying state travel mandates.
US FARMERS SCRAMBLE FOR HELP AS COVID-19 SCUTTLES IMMIGRANT WORKFORCE
On top of that, more customers are turning to vertical farming solutions like Kalera for lettuce due to the shortage caused by the California wildfires, where the ash in the fields have affected the growth and safety of the traditional product.
And as vertical farming becomes more attractive in light of the pandemic, more cities will tap into these alternative methods, according to Kalera’s Daniel Malechuk.
“What Kalera is able to do is to offer and shed new light on farming is the backbone of American society and one of our strengths as a nation,” Malechuk said. And leading the wave of the ag-tech revolution is what vertical farming companies like Kalera are doing.”
October Indoor Science Cafe - Recording Is Now Available!
Learning Critical Control Point For Hydroponic Food Safety "Hydroponic Crops -- How Can You Produce Safe Vegetables?"
Indoor Ag Science Cafe October Recording
Learning Critical Control Point
For Hydroponic Food Safety
"Hydroponic Crops --
How Can You Produce Safe Vegetables?"
by
Dr. Sanja Ilic (The Ohio State University)
This presentation 'Hydroponic Crops: How Can You Produce Safe Vegetables?' was given by Dr. Sanja Ilic (The Ohio State University) during our 23rd cafe forum on October 20th, 2020.
CombaGroup SA Reveals Rebrand With New Name, Logo, and Products
Last year, the company realized it was time to leverage its unique position in the field of mobile aeroponic growing solutions. This year, they've rebranded to solidify their stance, offering, and direction within the industry
Molondin, Switzerland – 21 October 2020 : CombaGroup SA announced today the company's complete rebranding and launch of its new website.
Last year, the company realized it was time to leverage its unique position in the field of mobile aeroponic growing solutions. This year, they've rebranded to solidify their stance, offering, and direction within the industry.
The new name, CleanGreens, is synonymous with powering clean, sustainable solutions in the agrotech space. It also reflects the company's mission to represent more directly what they are bringing to the table: fresh, healthy, premium quality yields of their customers’ favorite crops.
The rebranding is a response to accelerated company growth and a renewal of its corporate vision, subtly captured by its new logo with the notion of interaction and connectedness. These are core to the capabilities of scalable mobile aeroponic technology platforms that are a priority for both CleanGreens and its clients and partners.
With six years of R&D and technology breakthroughs in mobile irrigation and agronomy expertise, CleanGreens is proud to offer CleanGreens Pro, a system designed to be as simple as A-B-C, with immediate support and maintenance as well as a technical hotline available in addition to the built-in resources.
As a platform, CleanGreens is expanding to welcome new communities of users and has gone even further in solidifying its global position going forward. It has released new product packages and features that allow its clients to build, manage, and deploy custom applications quickly with its own intuitive, integrated, cloud-based operating application, GURU by CleanGreens. The platform gives clients the ability to grow exactly what they want with the support they require whenever they need it.
Based on the experiences and feedback from CleanGreens’ agronomist team and customers, this new app assists in key tasks like sowing, harvesting, and preventive maintenance and also features built-in reminders, alerts, and real-time records. It’s like having your own personal CleanGreens agro-expert assistant at your fingertips.
Currently, there are seven cultivation lines in operation in three locations: Molondin and Geneva in Switzerland, and Châteauneuf-sur-Loire in France. More are in the pipeline for the future. The new improvements have allowed CleanGreens to meet elevated customer demands for more of its innovative products and technologies.
"Our complete solution is different from any system in the market and our re-branding is largely driven by our effort to reflect this for our products, mission, vision, and of course, our customers and consumers,” says Serge Gander, CEO.
He adds: ”We've taken a clean, modern approach to the name, the website's design and the user experience in our new look and rebrand. We purposefully set out to challenge the status quo in all aspects of our business and this redesign reflects that."
Please visit the revamped website www.cleangreens.ch to explore the new website and learn more about the products and services offered.
About CleanGreens
CleanGreens is a Swiss agro-technology company that provides farmers and industrialists with innovative mobile aeroponic farming solutions for growing fresh, environmentally-friendly, nutrient-rich vegetables. A certified B Corp company CleanGreens’ patented technology significantly reduces water consumption and contamination risks while offering maximum productivity per square meter and minimizing environmental impact. Automated irrigation and mechanized spacing system produce clean, quality, pesticide-free salads, aromatic herbs, and medicinal plants all year round, thus providing consumers with healthy, responsible products.
For more information
+41 21 545 99 25
VIDEO: Vertical Farming To Prevent Food Loss In A Disaster
Matt Barnard, co-founder, and chief executive officer of Plenty, Inc. discusses the company's series D funding round on "Bloomberg Technology."
October 17th, 2020
Indoor vertical farming startup Plenty Inc. is working to deliver year-round produce from its controlled, resilient farms to avoid food loss during disastrous flooding, droughts, or fires.
Matt Barnard, co-founder, and chief executive officer of Plenty, Inc. discusses the company's series D funding round on "Bloomberg Technology." (Source: Bloomberg)
Hydroponic Nutrient Solution: A Must-Read Essential Beginner’s Guide
This article will teach you about hydroponic nutrient solutions and how to use them so you can hydroponically grow your own plants without worry
Many gardeners use hydroponics as their preferred way to grow plants because using a hydroponic nutrient solution ensures optimal plant growth. Using a hydroponic nutrient solution ensures that your plant’s roots get the nutrients they need from the water so they can grow with ease. This article will teach you about hydroponic nutrient solutions and how to use them so you can hydroponically grow your own plants without worry.
Macronutrients
Plants need macronutrients to be able to thrive and grow. The macronutrients that plants need are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
Nitrogen (N) - allows the plant to grow its leaves, its leaves’ colors, and provides amino acids, proteins, nucleic acid, and chlorophyll synthesis. When a plant is lacking in nitrogen, its leaves are typically a faded color and the plant grows at a slower rate.
Phosphorous (P) - is necessary for the synthesis of the plant’s DNA and RNA. It is also responsible for developing the plant’s stems, roots, flowers, and seeds. A deficiency in this nutrient leads to weak stems and leaves, and it causes root growth to slow.
Potassium (K) - synthesizes the proteins and carbohydrates of the plant. It helps develop the flowers, roots, and stems but not as much as compared to phosphorus.
Micronutrients
Alongside the macronutrients, plants also need micronutrients to grow. The nine micronutrients that a plant needs include:
● Boron: Works with calcium to help form cell walls by synthesizing the cell membrane’s structure and functions.
● Calcium: Works with boron to form cell walls
● Copper: activates enzymes and helps with respiration and photosynthesis.
● Iron: Forms chlorophyll, used in photosynthesis, and helps provide energy provision.
● Magnesium: catalyzes the growth process and helps makes oxygen during photosynthesis
● Sulfur: A component of two of the 21 amino acids that synthesize protein.
● Zinc: Helps form chlorophyll and assists with plant respiration and nitrogen metabolism
How to Form a Hydroponic Nutrient Solution
You can find a quality hydroponic nutrient solution at your local store, or you can create your own solution. It’s recommended for beginners to use store-bought solutions first, and once they get a hang of the hydroponic growing process then learning how to create your own hydroponic nutrient solution can be the next step.
Hydroponic nutrient solutions come in powder and liquid forms, which liquid forms being more popular to use. Since these liquid solutions are more concentrated, do not spill any on yourself or your plant. These typically come with pH buffers so you can test the water. You can mix the solution in the water, and it’s ready to go!
Make sure to choose a solution that is specifically made for hydroponic growing and not the all-purpose packages. Soil-grown plants have different needs than hydroponically grown plants. Try to purchase a 2 or 3 part hydroponic nutrient solution as well. This way you can mix in the solution depending on the needs of the plant at its specific life cycle. The 2 to 3-part solutions will contain separate packaging for macronutrients, a growing solution, and micronutrient solution depending on which one you get.
Want to Know More?
Now that you understand the basics of hydroponic nutrient solutions, you may want to learn more about hydroponic growing or growing plants at home! We at the Nick Greens Grow Team work diligently to provide the necessary research and information that covers everything from microgreen growing to hydroponics to way more!
Sign up for our new weekly microgreens class, which is held every Friday at 4:30 pm CST. Can’t make the class? Subscribe to our blog and YouTube channel for weekly updates about farming methods.
#hydroponicnutrientsolution #hydroponicsnutrientsolution #hydroponic #hydroponics #nutrient #solution #hydrponicgrowing #hydroponicsgrowing #hydroponicsfarm #hydroponicfarm #hydroponicfarming #hydroponicsfarming #hydroponicsgrower #hydroponicgrower
I Grew Tomatoes With The Heat From My Crypto-Mining PC
Just before Covid-19 struck, I started a project to build the world’s most overengineered, high-tech garden.
Anything Worth Engineering Is Worth Overengineering
10-08-20
Images courtesy of the author.
If you spend time on Instagram in our post-pandemic world, you’re probably experiencing some gardening FOMO. Maybe your biggest lockdown goal was “pwn Candy Crush” or, if you’re like me, “limit your toddler’s screen time to a scant five hours per day.” Now that we’re months into the pandemic, though, your friends who channeled their early quarantine angst into planting seeds are likely starting to reap the benefits in terms of fresh herbs and handfuls of juicy, Insta-friendly heirloom tomatoes.
If you’re more comfortable with wires and while loops than bugs and compost, don’t despair. Gardening has become increasingly tech-enabled. There are now tons of ways that you can apply emerging technologies to the challenge of growing your own food.
Just before Covid-19 struck, I started a project to build the world’s most overengineered, high-tech garden. It ended up incorporating hydroponics, solar power, cryptocurrency mining, recycled water, sensors, the Internet of Things, infrared imaging, and much else. Here’s how I did it — and how you can build your own tech-enabled pandemic garden, too.
I should say this clearly from the get-go: I kill plants. Even succulents, which can go weeks with no care at all, are too much for me. People often give these to me as gifts, and I’ve managed to keep exactly three of them alive. This is surprising, as I come from a long line of gardeners — my father is an avid gardener, as was my maternal grandmother. But apparently this inclination — and the corresponding skill — skipped at least a few generations.
It was a dilemma, then, when I discovered that my three-year-old has a passion for gardening. We got him some plants last summer, and he diligently watered them every day, growing a handful of tomatoes and a lovely calla lily on our back patio. Mornings began with at least five minutes of “plant time,” spent checking his plants, fertilizing, pollinating flowers with a toothbrush, and performing other gardening functions that are alien to me. Obviously, we wanted to encourage that interest. But again, none of that is in my wheelhouse.
As the founder of an A.I. company and the owner of a DIY-tech YouTube channel, though, gadgets, green tech, sensing, and the like most definitely are. In late 2019, I hatched an idea of creating an indoor sustainable garden by applying as many technologies and gadgets as I could think of. I wrote up my musings about the idea in January of this year. Then I figured what the hell, dove in, and actually built it.
Right from the start, I knew I didn’t want to mess around with soil. For one thing, it’s yucky. It’s also mysterious. As The Atlantic shares in a detailed article about soil, the stuff is teeming with bacteria, archaea, microbes, and fungi — as well as bugs, earthworms, and other beneficial creatures — that work together in a complex synergy to keep plants healthy. As The Atlantic reports, a single teaspoon of good soil can contain 10,000 to 50,000 different species of “protozoa, nematodes, mites, and microarthropods” and “more microbes than there are people on the earth.”
That felt way too complex to me. Wanting to abstract much of that away, I turned to a technology that has existed for thousands of years and is enjoying a tech-enabled resurgence: hydroponics. Hydroponics is the science of growing plants in water. Instead of placing them in soil, you bathe your plants’ roots in flowing water. You then add the basic nutrients they need to that water, instead of providing them via soil.
The benefits are numerous. Compared to traditional gardening, hydroponics can allow for up to a 90% reduction in water use, much higher yields, and up to two times faster growth rates. Because the water in a hydroponic system continually recirculates, there’s also no need to worry about watering plants consistently, you can control and eliminate fertilizer runoff, and you can grow plants indoors, in a tiny space.
This last part was important to me, as I wanted to set up my high-tech garden in my garage. The San Francisco Bay Area, where I live, enjoys long outdoor growing seasons and little danger of frost, but I wanted to demonstrate that one can create a viable high-tech garden in any space: a basement, an unfinished room or shed, the balcony of a rented apartment, etc. Hydroponics allows you to grow meaningful amounts of produce in small spaces — including indoor spaces with little to no natural light — so it felt like a fit for that reason, too.
When I first started my project, I expected to have to build a small hydroponics system from scratch. But I quickly discovered that someone had done that for me. AeroGarden — a division of the well-known garden supply company Miracle-Gro — sells a variety of premade hydroponic gardens. These range in size from the diminutive Sprout (which retails for $76.99 and grows a handful of herbs table-side) to the $895 Farm 24XL, which grows 24 plants and includes advanced features like a programmable day/night cycle and Alexa voice control.
Choosing a new type of plant to grow feels a bit like importing a Python module or installing a new graphics card.
All AeroGarden models (and, fundamentally, all hydroponic systems) include a few basic components. There’s a water-filled tray to hold your plants, a small pump to circulate water over their roots, and a set of LED grow lights that provide the illumination your plants need to thrive, even in an otherwise dark room.
AeroGarden sells its plants as “pods,” which include seeds and a porous support material inside a plastic tube that you snap into your garden. Larger garden models accommodate more pods. You can mix and match many pods within a single garden, allowing you to grow several kinds of plants at once. AeroGarden offers a dizzying array of premade pods, from spring flowers to ghost peppers. It also offers a grow-anything kit, which allows you to create your own pods and grow nearly anything in your AeroGarden. (To preempt an obvious question, yes, you can grow pot in it.)
I love the modular aspect of AeroGarden’s pods. For someone used to the conventions of the tech world, it’s very familiar. Choosing a new type of plant to grow feels a bit like importing a Python module or installing a new graphics card. You browse through a list of options, make a choice based on a set of capabilities or features that you want to access, and then plug the new module into your project.
I bought two AeroGarden Harvests — a midrange model that costs around $110 and accommodates six pods each. I also picked up a set of heirloom cherry tomato pods and a set of pods for assorted herbs. My son and I set up the AeroGardens in the garage and installed the pods. By the time we got them up and running, it was mid-February.
AeroGardens are primarily designed for indoor use in a climate-controlled room. My garage isn’t climate controlled. California has mild weather, but it still gets chilly at night. In February, daytime temperatures are usually around 60 degrees Fahrenheit and dip into the 40s after sundown. Tomatoes grow best with a daytime temperature of 70 to 85 and a nighttime temperature above 60, so this didn’t seem optimal. I knew we would need some kind of heat.
We started by getting an Educational Insights tabletop greenhouse ($43 on Amazon) to hold the AeroGardens. This helped a bit with temperature—and kept the tomatoes nice and humid—but it still wasn’t ideal. To bump up the temperature and our tomato yield, I had an idea: Why not heat the greenhouse with the waste heat from a cryptocurrency-mining computer?
Cryptocurrency has exploded in prominence and impact over the past several years. According to industry publication Coin Telegraph, the market for mining hardware (used to create new cryptocurrency coins) is set to grow by $2.8 billion between 2020 and 2024. All this growth comes at a very real cost. The mining of bitcoin alone is estimated to consume up to half of all the electricity used by all data centers worldwide. The bitcoin network currently uses as much electricity as the country of Colombia.
All this electricity ultimately turns into heat. Most of the time, that heat is wasted. But some cryptocurrency miners, seeing an opportunity, are putting waste heat to productive use. Ukrainian company Hotmine is developing crypto-powered hot-water heaters and furnaces for home use. Heatmine, a Canadian company, has experimented with using crypto waste heat in homes in Quebec, which has frigid winters. And as of 2018, a Czech company was experimenting with “cryptomatoes” using heat from bitcoin mining to heat tomato greenhouses.
I’ve experimented with heating my home using cryptocurrency-mining waste heat on a small scale, with a good deal of success. For that project (and a photo series on the cryptocurrency industry), I built my own mining rig. It uses a custom PC, a super-high-efficiency EVGA power supply, and an NVIDIA GeForce 1070 graphics card — a staple of cryptocurrency miners — to mine a variety of crypto coins using the automated software NiceHash.
Running at full blast, the PC also gets quite toasty. For my heating experiment, I calculated that my rig draws about 220 watts of electricity, putting out 716 BTUs of heat per hour. That’s about the output of a small space heater or one of those overhead heaters you see on restaurant patios. The rig, which cost around $600 to build, generates up to $0.76 in mining revenue per day — not remarkable, but enough to offset some of my heating costs when I used it indoors in the winter.
Piping 716 BTUs per hour directly into my tiny greenhouse, I calculated, would be way too much heat. My greenhouse is 24 cubic feet, so putting in all the heat from the cryptocurrency-mining computer would increase its temperature by around 40 degrees. Even in the dead of winter — with a nighttime temperature of 45 degrees — that would still push my tomatoes to their 85-degree limit. On warmer nights, it would risk roasting them on the vine.
Instead, I opened the side panel on the computer and connected it to the side of the greenhouse. Using a FLIR One infrared thermal camera, I determined that the NVIDIA 1070 heats up to around 110 degrees when mining. This radiates a nice amount of heat into the greenhouse, moderating its internal temperature without overdoing it.
The glowing green logo of the NVIDIA GeForce is visible inside my greenhouse.
I also found that just running the computer near the greenhouse kept my garage a bit warmer than normal. It’s like a high-tech version of the tried-and-true gardening practice of placing water bottles near your plants. The bottles heat up in the sun during the day and then radiate heat at night, protecting your plants from frost and helping them grow just a bit better.
With all the supplemental heat from my mining computer, I felt like I needed some kind of monitoring system for my garden. At first, I thought about building a DIY temperature monitor with a RaspberryPi. But in keeping with the modular concept of the project, I decided to use another solution: an industrial sensing system from Monnit.
Monnit sells a variety of sensor gateways, which you install in your facility and connect to the internet. Once you have a gateway installed, you can buy up to several hundred tiny sensors, which allow you to monitor everything from temperature to vibrations to whether someone is sitting in a chair.
Each sensor uses a coin cell battery that lasts about six months and transmits over a short-range wireless radio to the gateway. That means you can place the sensors anywhere you want in the space you’re trying to monitor. The gateway forwards the sensors’ data along to Monnit’s cloud, where you can log into a web interface and get a real-time read on conditions in your facility.
This is a system intended for commercial or industrial applications, so it’s not cheap. Monnit’s ethernet gateways run about $220, and each sensor costs around $50 to $80. But the system has rock-solid reliability and accuracy, and Monnit’s data storage and charting functions are top-notch. I also liked how the system could potentially scale to a commercial-size greenhouse. I don’t plan to scale up my tomato project to a commercial facility, but it’s good to know that the technologies I’m demonstrating in my tiny greenhouse could potentially be used in a real, full-sized indoor farm.
I’ve experimented with heating my home using cryptocurrency-mining waste heat on a small scale, with a good deal of success.
The final step for my garden was to add water. Hydroponic systems use dramatically less water than traditional planting methods; according to the National Park Service, they can use up to 1,000% less. But because the plants are immersed 24/7, water is a crucial part of the process of growing plants hydroponically.
AeroGarden recommends using distilled water with its gardens. This felt like a big hassle — and a potential generator of a ton of plastic waste. So I looked for another solution. Ideally, I wanted to use recycled water. On a trip to Israel in 2012, I saw tomatoes grown using recycled water in the Negev Desert. And closer to home, I did a photo series at CoCo San Sustainable Farm in the Bay Area, which uses recycled water from sanitation provider Central San to grow food for local schools. So I knew it could be done.
But I didn’t want to have to drive to a recycled-water pickup point every time I wanted to water my tomatoes, and the water provided there wouldn’t be distilled. Doing some research, I came up with a solution: I could use the condensation generated by my home air-conditioning system to irrigate my garden.
If you have central air and you’ve walked around outside your home in the summer, you may have seen a little tube or hose dribbling out a stream of water. You probably thought, “I hope that isn’t a problem,” and then went about your day. It’s not a problem — air-conditioning systems work in part by removing water vapor from the air in your home. All the water has to go somewhere. Most air-conditioning systems jettison it through a little tube into the ground in your backyard or, in some cases, directly into the sewer.
That’s a major wasted opportunity. While the water from an AC condensate drain isn’t safe to drink untreated, it tends — like distilled water — to be very low in mineral content. It’s also free, readily available, and otherwise wasted. Many big institutions take advantage of this source of eco-friendly water on a grand scale — Rice University, for example, captures 14 million gallons of water per year from its AC systems. I decided to try doing so at home.
In a series of experiments, I determined that my home AC system dumps about one gallon of condensate water per hour. That’s a lot of water. At first, I thought about building a complex device to catch water from my AC unit using a marine bilge pump, external power supply, and tubing to pipe the water into my AeroGardens.
Instead, I settled for a clear plastic bucket, which I placed under the condensate drain in my backyard. AC condensate can contain Legionella bacteria, so ideally you should boil it or treat it with UV light, chlorine tablets, or ozone before using it and avoid using it in applications that create aerosols, like a sprinkler system. I settled for letting my buckets fill up, then placing them in the sun for several days before pouring the water into my AeroGardens. I can’t vouch for the safety of that technique, but I’ve been okay so far.
With all the pieces put together, I now had a system that used hydroponics and LED grow lights to nurture modular plant pods. The whole thing was contained in a tabletop greenhouse, kept at optimal growing temperatures 24/7 by cryptocurrency waste heat, monitored by industrial IoT sensors, and irrigated with recycled water. It was an ideal way to experiment with some of today’s most compelling green technologies.
Oh, and it produces tons of tasty tomatoes. With AeroGardens, your only real responsibility as a gardener is to keep each garden filled with water and add some liquid fertilizer every two weeks when a light on the garden turns red. You can also do some light pruning to increase the yield on your plants — if you don’t, they’ll grow so large that they overshoot the AeroGarden’s grow lights, and your tomato production will drop. My son and I watched as our tomatoes germinated and began to sprout right on schedule, about five days after we “planted” the tomato pods.
Our herbs started to shoot up even faster, with little sprouts emerging about two days after planting. Over the next several months, our plants grew aggressively. We got to experience the excitement of seeing our tiny tomato seedlings grow into a giant, leggy plants with little yellow flowers, and ultimately green tomatoes, which rapidly turned red — and were perfect for plucking by tiny hands.
The tech aspects of the project have worked out surprisingly well. The Monnit sensor system beams in temperature readings every two hours, which I can access as a series of charts in a web interface. The cryptocurrency computer has done an admirable job of keeping things balmy. On a recent chilly night in September, when nighttime temperatures dropped into the 50s, our garden stayed at a comfortable 74 degrees. In the heat of the day, it got a few degrees above the ideal maximum temperature of 85 degrees, but the tomatoes seem fine.
Chart of temperatures in the greenhouse during a day and night in mid-September.
From our limited experiment, I’ve seen that hydroponics really do appear to deliver on its promise of faster-growing times and bigger yields. Last summer, we labored for months to grow about 10 tomatoes and a handful of herbs in the backyard. With our high-tech garden, we got to watch as our herbs—the basil especially—started out by producing enough leaves to flavor a tomato sauce, then enough for pesto, and finally so many that I had to cut them back almost daily, drying them or using them in infused olive oils to stop them from going to waste.
AeroGarden plants last about six months; during that time, you can harvest from them continually. Our herbs died back after their six-month growth window was over, but the tomatoes are still going strong. At times, we’ve been able to harvest tomatoes by the handful and have used them in everything from sandwiches to Caprese salads to soups.
At the beginning of the project, I struggled with deciding what to grow. It takes about an acre of land to grow enough food to feed one person, so feeding our whole family with a hydroponic garden wasn’t realistic. What, I wondered, would have the most impact? Should I grow plants that perform other functions, like filtering the air? Should I look toward something like blue spirulina, which several readers of my first Medium piece on the project emailed me to suggest as a space-efficient superfood?
As you do a bit more gardening, you might also be surprised how similar gardeners are to coders and other technologists.
When the pandemic hit, that question rapidly answered itself. The absolute best use for a Covid-19 garden, I found, is to grow ingredients that enliven and add interest to other foods.
I can’t even begin to describe the mental health benefits — at the height of the pandemic lockdowns, when going to the grocery store literally felt like a life-and-death endeavor — of taking some boring, pandemic-friendly canned food or store-brand boiled pasta and topping it with fresh basil, crushed sprigs of thyme, and sliced cherry tomatoes, picked a few minutes earlier in our garage.
One of the hardest parts of weathering a lockdown is fatigue. Sticking with the same routine day in and day out for months — with limited trips outside your home — is mentally and emotionally draining. So is eating the same foods for months on end. In the early days, we ate whatever shelf-stable staples weren’t sold out at Target or bought strange brands of pasta or canned goods by the box for absurd prices on Amazon.
Gardening itself has been shown to reduce stress. But the little handfuls of fresh ingredients that we harvested each week from our AeroGardens served their own, extremely important function: They allowed us to add color, freshness, and variety to the bland, generic things we were otherwise eating. That, in turn, lent a bit of variety, excitement, and connection with the natural world to the drab, monotonous process of quarantine.
Having that little bit of freshness in our diet made the lockdowns a tiny bit easier to tolerate — and gave us one fewer reason to go to the store. When the world is falling apart outside your door, don’t underestimate the power of a handful of Thai basil or a drink topped with mint you grew yourself to make things just a bit better. It’s an effect that’s been around since the victory gardens of World War 1, and it’s something that thousands of us are rediscovering today.
Even if you’re more familiar with the silicon variety of random trees than the ones found in a real forest — or if your historical track record with plants isn’t stellar — now might be the perfect time to try out gardening. Gadgets like the AeroGarden make the process simple—and especially with more complex models that allow you to track and tweak light levels and feeding schedules, downright geeky.
As you do a bit more gardening, you might also be surprised how similar gardeners are to coders and other technologists. Take one look at an experienced gardener’s charts of hardiness zones and little grid-based garden maps drawn on graphing paper or mapped in Excel, and you might feel a sense of familiarity. If you want to take a stab at growing your own plants, you could do what I’ve done and make your garden extremely automated and tech-intensive. I’m still planning to work solar power from my private microgrid and a self-watering system into mine. My garden is, of course, more a platform for experimentation than an economical way to grow produce — accounting for the mining PC and Monnit sensor system, I estimate that it cost about $1,200 to build. But even if you just buy an AeroGarden and put in on your kitchen counter — or borrow a few of the ideas I’ve demonstrated and create your own DIY versions — that’s a great start.
I’m still reluctant to call myself a full gardener. That title goes to the people who effortlessly call up plants from the soil or, like my son, have a passion for the watering and pruning that managing a full garden often requires. But I’m comfortable calling myself a technologist who dabbles — or perhaps as Wired suggests, a “domestic terraformer.” And I’m proud to say that I now have the tomatoes to back up that title.
WRITTEN BY
Thomas Smith
Co-Founder & CEO of Gado Images.
I write, speak and consult about tech, privacy, AI, and photography.
Subscribe: https://bit.ly/33xx752 Email: tom@gadoimages.com
Autogrow Expands Into Europe With New Role And New Farm Solutions
CEO Darryn Keiller says, “this expansion into Europe is counter-intuitive during a pandemic however innovation and crop production doesn’t slow down, and the challenges growers face haven’t disappeared because of COVID-19
29 September 2020: Autogrow has ramped up their activity in the Northern Hemisphere by establishing a new Sales Director Europe and U.K. role based in the Netherlands supporting their expanding customer base for new digital farming solutions FarmRoad® and Folium®.
CEO Darryn Keiller says, “this expansion into Europe is counter-intuitive during a pandemic however innovation and crop production doesn’t slow down, and the challenges growers face haven’t disappeared because of COVID-19. In fact, they have been exacerbated by the pandemic. We think now is the perfect time to introduce solutions that will help growers with productivity, gain greater economic benefits, and transform the market. Added to which, with cross-border restrictions and travel limitations likely to remain in place in the foreseeable future, establishing a local presence is the right move.”
“The Netherlands has been recognized by the World Economic Forum as a leader in efficient and sustainable agriculture and, after the United States, is the second-largest exporter of agriculture in the world. By establishing a role in the region, we create strong ties with growers and, like our partnerships in the United States, introduce our new digital farming solutions FarmRoad and Folium.”
Autogrow has been working closely over the past few months with customers and distributors in the region including some of the largest tomato producers. They are delighted to be working alongside Van der Voort, a member of the Prominent farming cooperative, who share Autogrow's focus on sustainable farming practices.
“We have been growing tomatoes for over 50 years and technology has always played a pivotal role in our success. With multiple farms and increasing production, we look for solutions that are leading the AgTech market. The work the Autogrow team are doing with sensor technology and farm management solutions is cutting edge and we are excited to be working together,” says Van der Voort Co-Owner, Joost Van der Voort.
Although Autogrow’s headquarters is based in New Zealand, large geographical distances have never hindered the organization from successfully operating on the global stage. Their endeavors also have the support of the New Zealand Government.
“It’s exciting to see AgTech innovation developed in New Zealand supporting growers here,” says Ariane Gonzalez, New Zealand Trade Commissioner to the Netherlands.
“New Zealand is recognized on the global stage for producing efficient and effective agricultural solutions that work in a range of climates, and this is another great example of that in action,” says Ms Gonzalez.
In addition, Autogrow has assistance from InnovationQuarter, the regional economic development agency for the Province of Zuid-Holland.
"The Netherlands, and Rotterdam - The Hague area specifically, is the worldwide center of horticulture. We are eager to attract and facilitate innovators with exciting solutions as Autogrow. They are a great addition to our region and the sector and support our regional economy. Next to that they benefit and contribute to strengthening our ecosystem of innovative companies in horticulture, impacting the societal challenge for feeding and greening the mega-cities of the future,” explains Chris van Voorden, Head of Internationalization at InnovationQuarter.
Autogrow is currently recruiting for the new role with the expectation to have someone in place over the next few months.
To see the advertised role - https://www.ceresrecruitment.nl/en/vacancy/sales-director-uk-europe/CEBI03123-en
For more information on Folium Network Sensor - https://autogrow.com/products/folium
For more information on Yield Prediction by FarmRoad - https://www.farmroad.io/
MEDIA QUERIES
Kylie Horomia, Head of Brand & Communications
(e) Kylie.horomia@autogrow.com
(m) +6421 733 025
(w) www.autogrow.com www.farmroad.io
Sales queries – sales@autogrow.com
About Autogrow
Autogrow leverages the power of technology, data science, and plant biology to provide indoor growers affordable, accessible, and easy-to-use innovation – 24/7, anywhere in the world.
Our hardware, software, and data solutions support growers and resellers in over 40 countries producing over 100 different crop types.
We are the experts in Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) and continue to stay ahead of a rapidly evolving landscape.
How We Can Rethink Agriculture So It’s More Local
While we can still produce enough food to feed the world today, we are running out of time
SEP 21, 2020
Climate Week is a reminder of how susceptible global agriculture systems are to climate change risks. More than 800 million people went to bed hungry every night even before COVID-19 disrupted the global food supply chain, which put an additional 130 million at risk of food insecurity.
This unprecedented crisis comes as industrial agriculture already struggles to feed a growing global population under threats of declining resources and an increasingly inhospitable environment.
While we can still produce enough food to feed the world today, we are running out of time. Many experts believe that conventional farming techniques are becoming unsustainable because of the vast amounts of land, water, and energy required, as well as additional crop failures that will occur with the warming climate. To achieve sustainable food security, we must fundamentally disrupt the traditional forms of agriculture. We must pivot towards more cost-effective food production that is closer to home, more sustainable than factory farming, and less land-intensive.
Building more local capacity for agriculture
With a global population projected to exceed eight billion in 2023 and 10 billion by 2056, we can ill afford the inefficiencies and incremental gains of today’s industrial agriculture. Feeding 10 billion people will require an additional 109 million arable hectares, a landmass larger than Brazil. Given that 80 percent of arable land is already in use, the world faces even more acute food shortages if we can’t figure out how to grow more with less and get it where’s it’s most acutely needed.
The first step is to decentralize food production and distribute it more locally. When the 2017 famine in South Sudan took hold, it wasn’t because there wasn’t enough food to feed the five million people; it was because disruptions to the food supply prevented its distribution. Similarly, when food supply disruptions caused harrowing shortages on American supermarket shelves in the early months of the pandemic, we all witnessed how quickly panic and hoarding set in.
Urban agriculture is one way to build more local capacity. Building in cities, even on rooftops, can improve local food security and nutrition in food deserts where underserved communities suffer from access to fresh produce. Studies show that urban agriculture can meet 15 to 20 percent of global food demand today.
The next step is to bring food production indoors, when and where it makes sense. Technological innovation has helped bring food closer to local communities, enabling food to be grown more in places once thought impossible. However, we need to rethink our approach to indoor growing systems.
Today’s most advanced greenhouses and indoor vertical farms have significant shortcomings. Vertical farms, for instance, require massive amounts of energy due to the need for climate control systems and artificial lighting. Some argue that energy and environmental costs of vertical farms are offset by the reduced “food miles” of transporting food from afar. But as climate and environmental scientist, Dr. Jonathan Fole points out this argument turns out to be a red herring. Local food typically uses about the same energy per pound to transport as food grown away due to volume and method of transport.
And both indoor vertical farms and greenhouses suffer from a lack of the sun’s full light spectrum, compromising the robustness of indoor plant growth as well as the quality of the food.
The need for precise controls
Instead, a new model of agriculture is emerging that is nimbler than large scale commercial farming, safer than outdoor farms, greener than greenhouses, more natural than vertical farms, and more efficient than almost any other growing technique in terms of water consumption, power usage, and CO2 production. It’s essentially a hybrid approach of all three growing modalities – outdoors, greenhouses, and indoor farms. This “fourth way” of agriculture integrates and continually refines entirely new approaches to crops, operations, facilities, systems, and the growing environment (COFSE). The model was developed to produce far higher yields per acre than outdoor farms, superior yields to greenhouses, and up to 20 percent better yields than comparably sized indoor farming systems.
The new model has two key principles: first, bring the full sun indoors and, secondly, create and control an indoor ecosystem precisely tuned for each kind of crop.
Plants grow most robustly and flavorfully in full natural sunlight. While it may seem counter-intuitive to some, even the clearest of glass greenhouses inhibit the full light spectrum of the sun. But new cladding materials have emerged recently that enable the near-full-transmission of the sun’s RV and light spectrum.
Unlike plastic or glass, these new transparent membranes can help crops achieve their full genetic (and flavor) potential. Natural light also warms the microclimate when necessary, dramatically reducing heating energy requirements. And at times when the sun isn’t cooperating, advances in supplemental grow lighting can extend the plants’ photoperiod – even beyond natural daylight hours – to maximize crop growth and quality, and reduce time to harvest by up to 50 percent or better.
Greenhouses and vertical farms are also compromised by outdoor and human-introduced contamination. The new model relies on creating a tightly-sealed, cleanroom-like microclimate that keeps pests, pesticides, and other pollutants outside.
Thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things, and similar advances, growers can create highly automated growing systems that reduce human intervention and its associated costs. Finely-tuned convective air circulation systems enable the microclimate to remain sealed and protective. Natural temperature regulation using sunlight and organic foam-based clouds can significantly reduce air-conditioning electricity requirements. And highly automated hydration, fertilization, and lighting are all continuously optimized by machine learning.
This new model, which has been designed over more than three years of research and development, is set to be put into large scale practice when the first of three new grow facilities completes construction on a 41-acre site in Coachella, Calif. Construction is set to commence within the next year. This unique approach, which included contributions from lighting experts who had previously worked at NASA sending plants into space, was developed to significantly affect local food security in an environmentally friendly way.
It applies the best aspects of current growing methods – outdoors, greenhouse, and indoors – and, where possible, replaces their shortcomings with superior technology and processes, creating an overall improved approach. Yet as a result of the facility design and automated growing system, it is designed to and expected to consume up to 90 percent less energy than traditional indoor grow operations while producing up to 10 to 20 percent better yields than other comparably sized farming systems.
The world we live in now gives us the intelligence and technologies we need to change the outdated legacy of how farming is done today into tomorrow’s way of producing food, creating a robust, delicious, and nutritious food chain on a global level. Using these technologies, we can decentralize production, reducing our reliance on global supply chains, and move high-density growing systems closer to communities to ensure food security for all.
Image credit: Devi Puspita Amartha Yahya/Unsplash
INGO MUELLER is the CEO of AgriFORCE Growing Systems Inc.
Future Looks Bright For Indian Hydroponics Market
Hydroponics is a method of growing plants in a water-based, nutrient-rich solution without soil, where the root system is supported using an inert medium such as perlite, rock wool, clay pellets, peat moss or vermiculite
10 September 2020
Darsh Lathia and Yamini Vivek
Hydroponics is a method of growing plants in a water-based, nutrient-rich solution without soil, where the root system is supported using an inert medium such as perlite, rock wool, clay pellets, peat moss or vermiculite.
The roots are suspended in a purified water system enriched with nutrients, thereby reducing the chances of pest and insect attack. This technique caters to a host of challenges, such as water and arable land shortage, global warming, and overuse of harmful pesticides and fertilizers.
Although hydroponic systems depend on water and water-based solutions, they use only about 1/20th of the amount of water used in traditional farming. Based on Frost & Sullivan’s analysis, productivity was found to increase by 3-10 times the conventional output in the same amount of space as conventional farming. The technology allows the decrease in time between harvest and consumption, leading to higher retention of nutritional value for the end-product. Many crops can be produced twice as fast in a well-managed hydroponics system.
Hydroponics on the Rise in India
Hydroponics is at a nascent stage in India, with the majority of farms being operated as startups. However, large corporates are entering this business, which will increase their acceptance at the commercial level. Based on our research, there are over 40 commercially active hydroponic farms in India and a couple of new farms are underway. With produce being perishable, the majority of farms cater to the nearby metro cities and companies try to set up farms close to demand centres for ease of logistics.
The large farms are concentrated in southern and western India. According to our analysis, Southern India accounts for the highest share, with cities like Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Chennai having a large number of farms and many new small and medium farms being established.
Farms are forming near the Mumbai-Pune belt and other western regions of Maharashtra, such as Nasik and Kolhapur. Competition is currently not intense as the technology is in a very nascent stage and the awareness level is low, even amongst chefs and food enthusiasts. However, it is expected that the popularity of hydroponics will increase, and the competition will intensify correspondingly.
Our research revealed that Hydroponic farms in India are largely used to grow leafy greens like lettuces and herbs like Italian basils and vegetables like cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and red and yellow bell peppers. In terms of volume and value, large greens like cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, and cucumbers, account for the major share of the hydroponic output, which is followed by leafy greens like various lettuces, arugula, and pakchoi.
The Green Conundrum Facing Farmers
Our research reveals that hydroponic farming is largely a B2B business model with HoReCa (Hotel, Restaurant, Cafe) and organised retail accounting for a 90%-95% share, and remaining by the unorganised sector. Organised retail is the primary mode of selling supply products in the retail market. The unorganised sector is almost negligible and the penetration of e-commerce is minimal. The organised retail outlet offers decent volume off-take and better margins compared to HoReCa.
With the unorganised retail market being price-sensitive, conventional farm output has a stranglehold due to its pricing. Transportation is done primarily through transport vans delivering the produce to adjoining city centres, typically about 100-200 km from the farm. Only farms supplying long distances (over 500 km) use reefer trucks.
Commercial hydroponic farms typically have a land area of 10,000 sq. ft. to 50,000 sq. ft. Usage of the grow bag technique accounts for 70%, whereas NFT (Nutrient Film Technique) and others account for the rest. As per Frost & Sullivan’s analysis, the cost of setting up a grow bag/trough system for growing large greens is almost half compared to setting up an NFT system for growing leafy greens and, hence, large greens are the preferred product category. Although leafy greens go through six to seven crop cycles and large greens take one to two crop cycles in a year, the output per plant for large greens in terms of volume is up to 20 times that of leafy greens. Also, in terms of value, large greens fetch about 25%-30% more value per kg compared to leafy greens.
Farm utilities include equipment for setting up the farm, plant seeds, minerals/nutrients and water, organic pest control solutions, packaging, and so on. Greenhouses, NFT channels, grow bags, net pots, fogger and auto dossers are some of the major farm equipment used. Plant seeds and nutrients account for the largest component of the operational expenses, some of which are imported from Europe and America.
HoReCa and Healthy Lifestyles Set to Boost Hydroponics
HoReCa is considered to be the largest customer segment for hydroponics as it has a bulk requirement, and farm owners trying to offload their volume prefer to cater to the HoReCa segment.
Hydroponics also ensure a smooth supply, despite weather conditions and monsoon seasons, when supply is usually interrupted for traditional vegetable suppliers. Within HoReCa, high-end cafes and restaurants not only have a decent off-take but also offer better margins as this sub-segment prefers high-quality vegetables and is open to paying a premium. With health-conscious customers requesting vegan, Keto diet, and so on, the menu is revised constantly to cater to the demand of the customers, and there will be increased growth of detox juices and salads. The entry of more salad outlets is leading to the growth of exotic vegetables, thereby creating opportunities for hydroponically grown vegetables. Since 2017, salad consumption has increased by 25%-30% and this trend is expected to continue in the coming five years.
With an improved lifestyle, high disposable income, and growing awareness, there is an increasing demand for healthy menus like low-carb and organic, where customers are requesting more leafy vegetables that are organically grown. Not only Tier 1 cities, but Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities also are expected to follow a similar disrupting trend in the coming years.
Over the past few years, the share of expenditure on health and wellness has increased among the young working class. According to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry, the foodservice industry is expected to reach ?5,52,000 crore by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 10%. Of this, the health-conscious segment is expected to cater to over 1 crore people in the top six Indian cities by 2022, registering a growth rate of 12%.
Organised retailers and specialty grocery stores, especially in major cities, have higher-volume off-takes and also offer comparatively better margins for hydroponic growers. This is because the consumers visiting these stores are willing to pay a premium for high-quality produce. However, prices offered at unorganised retailers are too low for the hydroponic farmers to break even. Direct-to-customer offers a higher margin compared to HoReCa or retail; however, it also requires additional effort in acquiring customers, creating awareness, offering innovative packaging, and so on.
Hydroponics Headed in the Right Direction
Hydroponics holds advantages over traditional farming. However, organically grown products have already become popular among young consumers. HoReCa and organised retail still prefer organically certified products over hydroponics.
Conventionally grown products are available at a much cheaper rate compared to hydroponically grown produce as well. The presence of hydroponic players in India was limited until 2015; however, with the growing popularity of the technology and year-round supply, which conventional farms cannot offer, it has gained attention in recent years. New players are expected to enter the market in the coming years and revolutionise urban farming in the country.
The authors are consultant and consulting analyst, chemicals, materials & nutrition practice, Frost & Sullivan. They can be reached at Srihari.Daivanayagam@frost.com)
Lettuce Linked To 40 E. Coli Outbreaks In A Decade – Most Related To Romaine
Of outbreaks linked to a specific leafy green — rather than a mix — 54% were linked to romaine. Spinach and iceberg lettuce were each linked to 17% of the outbreaks, and cabbage, green leaf, and kale were each linked to 4%
Romaine Lettuce's Growing Popularity,
However, Doesn't Explain Its Link To Numerous Outbreaks.
Sept. 16, 2020, / Source: NBC News
By Sara G. Miller
Leafy greens are a common culprit of foodborne illnesses, with the produce linked to 40 outbreaks of a serious strain of E. coli from 2009 to 2018, a report published Wednesday in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases finds.
Among those outbreaks, one lettuce, in particular, bore the brunt of the blame: romaine. (Recall 2018, a year rocked by two massive romaine-linked E. coli outbreaks?)
Of outbreaks linked to a specific leafy green — rather than a mix — 54% were linked to romaine. Spinach and iceberg lettuce were each linked to 17% of the outbreaks, and cabbage, green leaf and kale were each linked to 4%.
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It's not entirely clear why romaine was the most common culprit in the outbreaks. The researchers noted, for example, that more iceberg lettuce was harvested and sold each year from 2009 to 2017 than romaine.
Romaine did grow in popularity during the decade analyzed, the researchers wrote: By the end of the study period, more money was spent on romaine lettuce than on iceberg. But this alone doesn't explain why romaine was responsible for so many outbreaks.
Another possible explanation, the researchers posited, is the lettuce's shape, which could provide an entry point for pathogens: "Romaine is tall with loosely clumped leaves, open at the top; iceberg is smaller with compact leaves."
Other outbreaks were linked to mixed greens, including three romaine and iceberg mixes, a butter lettuce and radicchio mix, and a spinach and spring mix.
The report focused on outbreaks of a type of E. coli called Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, or STEC. The name refers to a toxin produced by the bacteria that makes people sick. Symptoms can include diarrhea and vomiting, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most people recover on their own within 5 to 7 days, though some may need medical care.
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Food-poisoning outbreak that is in 6 states is likely from ground beef
The decade of outbreaks, which occurred in the United States, Canada or both countries, accounted for 1,212 illnesses, 420 hospitalizations and eight deaths, according to the report. A total of 77 cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome, a kidney problem that requires hospitalization, were also attributed to the outbreaks.
Shiga toxin-producing E. coli are linked to about 265,000 illnesses each year in the U.S., according to the report. One type of STEC in particular, STEC O157, tends to cause more severe illness. The most common source of this infection is ground beef, followed by leafy greens. Indeed, STEC O157 was responsible for 32 of the outbreaks described in the report.
Though leafy greens are grown year-round in the U.S., more outbreaks began in October and April than any other month of the year. It's unclear why this seasonality in outbreaks occurred, the study authors wrote.
There are several reasons why leafy greens are particularly susceptible to E. coli contamination, starting with how the crops are cultivated, Benjamin Chapman, a professor and food safety specialist at North Carolina State University, said.
"The vast majority of lettuce production is outside and requires a lot of water," Chapman, who wasn't involved with the report, said in an email. And in the U.S., it's mostly grown in areas where animals — a source of E. coli — are also raised. E. coli contamination can come from sources such as irrigation water, animals, and handling.
"We know from earlier outbreaks that a little bit of contamination in the field can lead to cross-contamination," he said.
Once that contamination has made it onto the plant, it's "very difficult to remove," Chapman said. Produce is triple-washed in processing plants, and in the home, a person may be able to rinse off "90 to 99% of what's there, but that may not be enough depending on how much" contamination there is, he added.
And because lettuce is almost always eaten raw or undercooked, "any contamination that makes it to the plate ends up in the gut," he said.
Avoiding outbreaks entirely is, unfortunately, a supply chain issue, he said.
This story was originally published on NBC News.