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"Central And Eastern Europe Can Be The Powerhouse of Global Food Security"
"Closed-system farming helps tackle the biggest challenges in global food supply security", says Tungsram president & CEO Joerg Bauer
July 6, 2021
"Closed-system farming helps tackle the biggest challenges in global food supply security", says Tungsram president & CEO Joerg Bauer.
Climate change causing extreme weather conditions in certain areas, overpopulation, soil contamination, the depletion of areas suitable for agricultural production, urbanization, and growing demand for quality food all point toward the increasing importance of local indoor farming and urban vertical farms. The world’s population is predicted to reach 9.7 billion by 2050 (2 billion more than today), with most of the growth set to take place in Africa and developing countries where climate change hits the hardest. Moreover, in just 10 years, humanity will need 50% more food than today (calculating with a current annual growth rate of 5%).
"We are convinced that outdoor farming alone will not be able to meet these challenges. The much-needed technological advances of precision agriculture, improved seeds, and irrigation will be needed to counterbalance the adverse impact of climate change alone: innovative solutions designed to ensure food security must complement this huge undertaking. Indoor farming stands out as one of the best-suited solutions," he explains.
"Indoor farms are highly water-efficient installations that take up considerably less space, and are independent from weather conditions and the change of seasons. Paired with other technology-driven solutions, these farms can be the guarantees of basic human wellbeing for billions of people, where basic wellbeing is defined by 2,200 calories of healthy, balanced food intake and 10 liters of water (for drinking, basic hygiene and cooking) per person a day."
Joerg Bauer with Tungsram
The company supplies LED / Vertical Farming solutions
Innovation and investment
However, for this exciting disruptive technology that balances on the thin line between agriculture, industry 4.0, and digital technology to provide real global solutions and be able to produce staple food for the masses, including integrated ecosystems that can also feed animals in a sustainable way, a lot of innovation and investment is necessary. "Humanity will have to embrace sources of food that go beyond the traditional approach, such as algae, bacteria, or insects, which often have a much higher conversion rate of feed intake to edible food. By cleverly combining different elements such as vertical farms, animal husbandry, insects, and fish, we can get very close to a zero-waste cluster with optimal productivity – allowing strategic autonomy even in countries with adverse climatic conditions."
Although Central and Eastern Europe do not typically bear the brunt of the most severe consequences of climate change and food scarcity, an increasing number of European initiatives focus, for example, on the impact of the 24% decline in water sources on the continent in the last few years.
"However, the CEE region could play a much bigger role than simply making the necessary investments to solve its own looming climate problems. I have always looked at the CEE region as a historically well-established bridge connecting Europe with developing countries in need and working closely with North Africa and the Middle East. It is up to the nations of this region, to us, to understand what happens to geopolitical stability if we fail to help these developing countries to deal with all the negative, sometimes catastrophic consequences of climate change and fast population growth. In addition to being our basic social responsibility and humanitarian obligation to offset these effects, it is also in our very own interest to act. Innovation is needed to propel sustainable food production forward and end hunger in the world," Joerg adds.
"Central and Eastern Europe’s commitment therefore should be to become a global food security powerhouse that develops and starts scaling the solutions, which will allow the citizens of developing countries to live a sustainable and worthwhile life in their home regions."
What should governments and businesses in the region do to achieve this?
"They should acknowledge that the CEE region could potentially play a significant role in these solutions and provide funding for research and innovation to scale food security. By doing so, we would all be working to make the world more livable and we would physically be sowing the seeds of human happiness."
Written by Joerg Bauer President & CEO of Tungsram, originally published in Globsec Disruptive Tech Trends in CEE
For more information:
Tungsram
Keith Thomas, Commercial Leader
keith.thomas2@tungsram.com
agritech.tungsram.com
China Introduces Farm Display with Air Purifier
In a shopping mall in Urumqi City, people were attracted by an indoor growing display. While bringing fun to people who are growing, the product can also play a role in purifying the air.
In a shopping mall in Urumqi City, people were attracted by an indoor growing display. "It doesn't only allow you to eat fresh vegetables but it also purifies the air," said the representer.
The indoor farm cabinet is as big as a refrigerator, divided into four layers with LED lights installed on every level. Regardless of the vegetable planting machine occupies less than one square meter, it can grow seven or eight kinds of vegetables at the same time. There's a seedling area for the young plants to grow up, whereas the plants later can be transplanted for the final growing stage. When moved, they can be picked and eaten after 10 days.
The product allows to grow cherry tomatoes, coriander, Chinese cabbage, spinach, and strawberries. While bringing fun to people who are growing, it can also play a role in purifying the air. Especially for families with children, kids can observe the process of seed germination and vegetable growth, and follow the complete growing cycle.
The farm has already formed large-scale planting in the mainlands because of its multi-product growth and quick-growing cycles.
Source: k.sina.com.cn (In Chinese)
Publication date: Wed 9 Jun 2021
Eastern Kentucky Company Growing Local Economy By Growing Vegetables Year-Round
AppHarvest has created 300 jobs in Appalachia, an area not really known for growing tomatoes.
by GIL MCCLANAHAN
MOREHEAD, Ky. (WCHS) — Imagine growing fresh local tomatoes in the dead of winter. A company in Eastern Kentucky is using high-tech agriculture to grow vegetables indoors.
To View The Video, Please Click Here.
AppHarvest checks tomatoes growing inside the company's 60-acre indoor greenhouse.
(AppHarvest ) Courtesy Photo
AppHarvest opened in Rowan County, Ky. last October. They are growing more than just vegetables. They are growing the economy in an area that sorely needs it.
What's growing inside AppHarvest's 2.8-million square foot facility is capable of producing more food with less resources.
"For our first harvest to be on a day where there was a snowy mountainside could not have been any more timely. The fact that we are able to grow a great juicy flavorful tomato in the middle of January and February is what we have been working to accomplish," AppHarvest Founder and CEO Jonathan Webb said.
Webb said five months after opening its Morehead indoor farm facility, the company shipped more than a million beefsteak tomatoes to several major supermarket chains, including Kroger, Walmart and Publix. Those large bushels and bushels of tomatoes are grown using using the latest technology, no pesticides and with recycled water in a controlled environment using 90% less water than water used in open-field agriculture.
"We're just trying to get that plant a consistent environment year round with the right amount of light and the right amount of humidity and the right temperature just to grow, and the vines of our crops the tomato plant end up being 45 feet and we grow them vertically so that is how we can get so much more production," Webb said.
One of the company's more well-known investors is Martha Stewart.
"I said Martha, can I get five minutes and I told her what we are doing. She was like, look we need good healthy fruits and vegetables available at an affordable price. I love the region you are working in," Webb said.
A couple of weeks later, Webb met with Stewart at her New York office, and she decided to become an investor in the company. Some local restaurants are looking forward to the day when they can buy their vegetables locally from AppHarvest. Tim Kochendoerfer, Operating Partner with Reno's Roadhouse in Morehead, buys his vegetables from a company in Louisville.
"It will be another selling point to show that we are a local restaurant," Kochendoerfer said.
Webb points out AppHarvest is not trying to replace traditional family farming. "Absolutely not. We want to work hard with local farmers," he said.
Webb said by partnering with local farmers, more local produce can get on grocery store shelves, because last year 4 billion pounds of tomatoes were imported from Mexico.
"What we are working to replace is the imports from Mexico where you got children working for $5 a day using illegal chemical pesticides in the produce is sitting on a truck for 2-3000 miles," Webb said.
AppHarvest has already started influencing the next generation of farmers by donating high tech container farms to local schools. Students learn to grow crops, not in the traditional way, but inside recycled shipping containers. The containers can produce what is typically grown on 4 acres of land. Rowan County Senior High School was the second school to receive one. It arrived last fall.
"We sell that lettuce to our food service department and it's served in all of our cafeterias in the district," said Brandy Carver, Principal at Rowan County Senior High School.
"When we talk about food insecurity and young people going home hungry, what better way can we solve these problems by putting technology in the classroom. let kids learn, then let the kids take the food home with them and get healthy food in the cafeterias," Webb said.
AppHarvest has created 300 jobs in Appalachia, an area not really known for growing tomatoes. Local leaders believe the company will attract more business to the area.
"I fully expect in time we'll see more and more activity along that line like we do in all sectors," said Jason Slone, Executive Director of the Morehead-Rowan County Chamber of Commerce.
"We will eventually be at the top 25 grocers. Name a grocer. We've been getting phone calls from all of them," Webb said.
AppHarvest has two more indoor farming facilities under construction in Madison County, Ky., with a goal of building 10 more facilities like the one in Rowan County by the year 2025.
To find out more about AppHarvest click here.
Fresh Impact Farms Awarded Arlington's First Agriculture Grant
Arlington County received its first-ever agriculture fund grant from the state, money that will go to county-based Fresh Impact Farms.
Operating since 2018, Fresh Impact Farms uses hydroponic technology to grow a variety of speciality herbs, leafy greens, and edible flowers indoors. (Mark Hand/Patch)
ARLINGTON, VA — Arlington County received its first-ever agriculture fund grant from the state, money that will go to Fresh Impact Farms, an Arlington-based company that plans to double production at its indoor growing facility.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced Monday that he had awarded an Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development, or AFID, Fund grant to Arlington totalling $15,000 to be given to Fresh Impact Farms. The company will receive a total of $30,000 from the government, with Arlington County matching the state grant with local funds.
"Agriculture continues to be a key driver of our economic recovery in both rural and urban areas of our commonwealth," Northam said Monday in a statement. "Innovative, dynamic businesses like Fresh Impact Farms are demonstrating how exciting new opportunities can grow out of pandemic-related challenges."
"I congratulate the company on their success and am thrilled to award the first-ever AFID grant to Arlington County to support this expansion," the governor said.
In recent decades, Arlington County has grown into one of the most densely populated counties in the nation. Up until World War II, Arlington still had plenty of farmland. But over the past 60-plus years, the only farming in the county has been of the backyard and patio variety or in the community gardens in the Four Mile Run area.
Operating since 2018, Fresh Impact Farms uses proprietary hydroponic technology to grow a variety of specialty herbs, leafy greens, and edible flowers indoors.
"Governor Northam's award to Fresh Impact Farms, Arlington's only commercial farm, is an innovative way to celebrate unique uses of technology to help a small business pivot during the pandemic," Arlington County Board of Supervisors Chairman Matt de Ferranti said. "I am thrilled that Fresh Impact Farms is growing and looking to the future of a sustainable food supply."
The company will invest a total of $137,500 as part of the expansion, which will include a second grow room, a larger production facility, and an educational hub where customers, after the pandemic, will be able to see how their food is harvested.
Fresh Impact Farms' community-supported agriculture or CSA, program focuses on leafy greens and home kitchen-friendly herbs and has grown them steadily since the program's creation last April. Along with residential customers, the company now has smaller wholesale clients in the Washington, D.C., area.
The future is bright for urban agriculture, said Ryan Pierce, founder of Fresh Impact Farms, located in the back of a Lee Highway strip mall. (Mark Hand/Patch)
After the start of the pandemic, Fresh Impact Farms decided to shift its business model to a CSA delivery service in order to continue generating revenue.
"Seizing the opportunity created by more people cooking at home, the company initiated a Community Supported Agriculture program targeting area residents," the governor's office said.
"Now, with vaccinations underway and the restaurant industry poised to rebound, Fresh Impact Farms is expanding, which will allow the company to resume supplying their restaurant customers, while also meeting new demand through their CSA program," the governor's office said.
Over the next three years, the company expects to grow an additional 10,500 pounds of Virginia-grown leafy greens, herbs, and edible flowers for restaurant and CSA customers.
The future is bright for urban agriculture, said Ryan Pierce, founder of Fresh Impact Farms, located in the back of a Lee Highway strip mall.
"The support and generosity from the Commonwealth and Arlington County will be valuable as we expand our production and move towards a hybrid model of serving both the needs of restaurants and consumers," Pierce said in a statement. "As the owner of a local food business, nothing gets me more excited than seeing the community come together in support of local food."
The funds from the Arlington County Industrial Development Authority, together with the state grant, represent "an important investment in urban agriculture, sustainability, and technology," Arlington County IDA Chair Edwin Fountain said in a statement. "This project will advance the County's innovative and forward-thinking approach to developing new sectors of economic activity in Arlington."
Babylon Micro-Farms Establishes New Corporate Headquarters In Richmond, Virginia
The company has developed disruptive technology - a cloud-based platform that operates vertical farms through a mobile phone app that controls all aspects of farming at the touch of a button
Richmond, VA (February 2021) Babylon Micro-Farms has chosen Richmond, Virginia as the site for their corporate headquarters, opening a new office and R & D space in historic Scott’s Addition. The move from Charlottesville was driven by the company’s growth and need for a larger talent pool - they had been courted by California and Arizona as an up-and-coming tech company in the indoor ag-tech space.
The company has developed disruptive technology - a cloud-based platform that operates vertical farms through a mobile phone app that controls all aspects of farming at the touch of a button. The indoor ag-tech industry is projected to grow globally from USD $121.26 billion in 2019 to USD $167.42 billion by 2025, a compound annual growth rate of 5.4% according to the latest report released by Market Data Forecast last week.
Babylon’s CEO and Co-Founder, Alexander Olesen, commented on the move. “Richmond is the perfect launchpad for our next phase of growth. It has a dynamic business eco-system and gives Babylon the chance to build an even stronger foundation for the future with everything it has to offer.”
Babylon began hiring locally in Richmond prior to the move, scaling up their operations in preparation for the anticipated increase in sales in 2021. Graham Smith, CTO and Co-Founder of Babylon, said “Our growth has been based on significant R & D we were able to accomplish because of support from The Center for Innovative Technology, the National Science Foundation and investors that understood early on the potential for this technology. Richmond offers a hub where innovation and industry intersect and having our headquarters here will fuel our expansion.”
The company expects to triple its workforce in the next three years, adding jobs in every department, from assembly to engineering. For more information visit www.babylonmicrofarms.com or contact janet@babymicrofarms.com for interview requests.
Babylon Micro-Farms team, from left to right: Alexander Olesen, CEO and co-founder; Marc Oosterhuis, COO; and Graham Smith, CTO, and co-founder. Courtesy of Babylon Micro Farms
ABOUT BABYLON MICRO-FARMS
At the touch of a button, Babylon Micro-Farms delivers a simple, yet engaging indoor growing experience. Babylon helps senior living communities, hospitals, schools, and hospitality companies showcase their commitment to providing fresh, nutritious produce and sustainability to their residents, employees, and customers.
They have designed a complete on-site farming service that makes growing simple for anyone, thanks to their plug-and-play Micro-Farms and Guided Growing App. Babylon offers the most affordable, efficient, and advanced vertical farming platform available, remotely managed through the cloud with unparalleled customer service. Since their humble beginnings as a social entrepreneur student project, Babylon have attracted investors from Silicon Valley, been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation to support their research, patented a groundbreaking technology, and received recognition by Virginia's Governor Northam for their contribution as a technology innovator following their successful application for funding from the Center for Innovative Technology.
Babylon has designed a software platform to reclaim the decentralized food system of the 21st Century - using modular vertical farms that enables anyone to grow local produce on-site, all year round, indoors. They launched their first products focusing on the health care and senior living markets where our vertical farms provide access to food-as-medicine quality food and a variety of therapeutic activities.
Website:
https://www.babylonmicrofarms.com/
Press Contact:
Sharon Rettinger
Meet The Advisory Board - Indoor AgTech Innovation Summit, June 24-25
The virtual Indoor AgTech Innovation Summit on June 24-25 will explore how controlled environment agriculture and vertical farming can reach greater profitability and scale, both in the US and globally
The virtual Indoor AgTech Innovation Summit on June 24-25 will explore how controlled environment agriculture and vertical farming can reach greater profitability and scale, both in the US and globally.
Demand for fresh, local, nutritious and pesticide-free production has never been higher. But how can growers drive down energy consumption as they scale up to meet this demand? Which new crops can be optimized for an indoor environment? And how do we bridge the gap between producer and consumer?
We're putting together a powerful two days of interactive sessions and breakout discussion groups, steered by our valued Advisory Board of internationally recognized farm operators, food retailers, investors, seed companies, and technology providers.
MEET THE ADVISORY BOARD
More than 30 of the biggest names in the indoor agriculture and CEA community are helping to shape this June’s program:
SEE OUR ADVISORY BOARD
OUR EXPERTS SAY
"Indoor agriculture is booming as consumers continually demand the quality, variety and flavor that indoor-grown produce can bring. I look forward to the summit bringing together thoughtful content and expertise in the world of Indoor AgTech."
Liliana Esposito
Chief Communications Officer
WENDY'S, USA
"It's time for growers and the sales community to support the data and technology requirements throughout the supply chain that will enable complete product transparency and timely traceability. Data aggregation as in GS1 and technology such as QR codes on packaging have proven to be value-added for growers, distributors, and consumers."
Sean Walsh
North America Director of Fruits, Vegetables, and Dairy
GORDON FOOD SERVICE, USA
"Our capabilities are increasingly driven by AI, machine learning, internet of things, and blockchain, which all enable greater visibility and clarity on how to improve our products and services. We look to intentionally combine human and technological capabilities, so that our tech investments empower our employees and all our partners and customers along the supply chain."
Elyse Lipman
Chief Strategy Officer
LIPMAN FAMILY FARMS, USA
"I'm interested to see a significant dispersion of the food systems so quality produce becomes more affordable by removing all the friction between the producers and actual consumers. This will resolve a significant level of problems and issues we face such as food wastage, supply chain issues, food safety, and costs."
Jessica Naomi Fong
General Manager & Co-Founder
COMMON FARMS, HONG KONG
The program is coming together quickly, so if you’d like to be involved by showcasing your technology or sharing your experiences in a panel discussion, please get in touch with me now!
We look forward to hosting the indoor agtech community again in June.
Best wishes,
Oscar Brennecke
Conference Producer
Indoor AgTech Innovation Summit
oscar.brennecke@rethinkevents.com
+44 (0)1273 789989
SUMMIT PARTNERS
Platinum Partner:
HOSTED ALONGSIDE
Gold Partners:
CGTN Conversations: Chinese Firms Add Strength To Dubai's Future Tech Ecosystem
CGTN Digital's International Editor Abhishek G. Bhaya spoke with Faisal Al Hawi, the head of Accelerator and Incubators at the Dubai Future Foundation, and Stuart Oda, the founder and CEO of Alesca Life.
Over the decades, the Gulf city of Dubai has emerged as a land of innovation and a place where the future could be felt right now in the present. The city is actively encouraging global collaborations to drive innovation and future technology in the United Arab Emirates and internationally through its Dubai Future Accelerators (DFA) initiative that was launched in 2016 under the aegis of Dubai Future Foundation.
In recent years, many Chinese tech firms and start-ups – which are known for their technological prowess – have partnered with DFA to contribute to their mission of imagining, designing and co-creating solutions for future challenges.
One such successful initiative has come from Beijing-headquartered Alesca Life, an agro-tech company that is creating next-generation urban farming solutions that consume five per cent water and 30 per cent energy vis-à-vis conventional farming.
To get an overview of DFA's future innovation agenda and how Chinese firms are contributing in making that vision a reality, CGTN Digital's International Editor Abhishek G. Bhaya spoke with Faisal Al Hawi, the head of Accelerator and Incubators at the Dubai Future Foundation, and Stuart Oda, the founder and CEO of Alesca Life.
Al Hawi is responsible for creating a myriad of programs that connect different stakeholders, government and private, with innovative startups and companies from around the world to experiment with and making Dubai the testbed for future ideas.
Oda is an investment banker-turned- urban farmer with a passion for innovation and sustainability. He founded Alesca Life in 2013 with an aim to make food production more localized and data-driven.
Edited excerpts:
Bhaya: Faisal, please tell us a bit about the vision of the DFA initiative and what it aims to achieve and also some of the main areas and technologies it has tasted success in the past four years?
Al Hawi: Dubai Future Accelerators is an initiative that was born four years ago under the Dubai Future Foundation. The vision was pretty much straightforward – to put Dubai as a leading city of the world when it comes to technology innovation. Our mission is to turn Dubai into a global testbed for innovations and technologies. The DFA looks around for all the start-ups in the global scene, trying to understand the technology needs, the partner needs, the local ecosystem needs, and trying to bridge the gap between these two players of the market.
We do this in what we call the Area 2071, which is like the heart of our ecosystem in Dubai and we've had tremendous success. Throughout the four years, we've run eight cohorts, the eighth cohort is ongoing as we speak. We've engaged with more than 300 start-ups and over 60 pilot projects were produced out of DFA and more than 150 memoranda of understanding or commercial agreements were signed with different government entities and private sector partners.
Dubai Future Accelerators is positioned in a way that basically bridges the gap between the big players, be it government or private sector, and the start-up innovators from around the world.
Bhaya: How many Chinese firms and start-ups have availed the DFA program so far? Please name some of the major projects the Chinese entities have undertaken in the UAE as part of the DFA initiative.
Al Hawi: We've worked with Chinese companies ever since Cohort 1 back in 2016. So, Alesca Life is one of them. Shellpay, which was a fintech company working with the General Directorate of Immigration in Dubai, was another company. There was another company called Future Trends, working with Dubai Health Authority on medical imaging, and utilizing the technologies of AI and machine learning to optimize the diagnosis of late-stage cancers.
Yitu Technology is another Chinese AI-based company which worked very closely with [UAE's largest telecom service provider] Etisalat on solving some of their telecom related issues. So these are just to name a few companies that worked with us.
We really understand the strength Chinese ecosystem brings to our ecosystem. And I think we complement each other in a lot of areas.
Another example, broader than just Dubai Future Accelerators, is within Area 2071, where SenseTime actually has an office here, and they work very closely with the AI office, in a couple of strategic projects.
So, the partnership is growing stronger and stronger, year after year. And we definitely believe that there are areas specifically in the fourth industrial revolution technologies, blockchain, AI and IoT and the likes that we will definitely materialize more and more outcomes and success moving forward.
Bhaya: Stuart, what is the story behind Alesca Life?
Oda: Seven years ago, I started Alesca Life here in Beijing. The vision of the company is to democratize access to fresh and nutritious food by democratizing the means and the knowledge of production.
And the more research that I was doing, it became very clear that one of the most pressing challenges over the next decades wasn't so much actually related to connectivity, as these things were becoming easier with the proliferation of smartphones and computers, but access to fresh and nutritious food. And so, my team and I wanted to find a way in which we can make this access a lot easier. And wherever it made sense to localize that fresh food production, and wherever food production currently existed to make it more data driven.
So we set on this journey seven years ago, and we currently have our teams and offices across Japan, China, and the United Arab Emirates and we have partnerships across many more countries. We're developing precision farming tools to accomplish, to increase the productivity, the profitability, and the predictability of food production by up to 10 times.
Bhaya: The urban farming technologies including vertical farms and data-driven food production are certainly relevant for an arid region like the Arabian Peninsula. How did your partnership with DFA come about and what has been the journey like in the UAE for Alesca Life?
Oda: In 2016, our team was selected into the DFA program as part of Cohort 1. It was actually our first entry into the Gulf region. We knew that the technology had huge promise and potential in the region, and we wanted to make a serious commitment to the region. The DFA program was kind enough to offer us a spot in Cohort 1.
It has been hugely transformational in two ways. You know, the way in which business is done in the Middle East is very different. And to be able to have an organization like DFA, both providing the meaningful introductions, reducing some of the barriers related to the company's formation, and then also just the credibility that is bestowed on some of the companies that get to go through the program. All three of these things contributed enormously to our success in the region.
Through this program we've also been able to find meaningful strategic partnerships to mitigate some of the challenges related to concentration of supply chain, for example, even being in a place like China, to have manufacturing bases and other places in other countries, is beneficial for us.
So, right after the DFA program, we had an opportunity to localize the manufacturing of our container farm in the Emirates of Ajman in the UAE, so that we can serve our customers and our base in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) and also to showcase our commitment to the region that we're not just there to sell our systems, but that we are there for the long term.
Bhaya: The year 2020 has been a watershed in many ways for the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reinforcing our increasing reliance on digital and AI technologies without which we can't imagine a future. How did the global crisis impact the long-term vision of DFA?
Al Hawi: The pandemic has definitely affected everyone. At DFA, we realized that innovation is the way to be resilient for the future, prepared for the future and understanding exactly the problems of today that potentially, and unfortunately, led us into the pandemic. We had just a very short drop-in time in which everybody had to just realign ourselves, and that was around March. But we immediately resumed back in October.
Not just the DFA, I think all the government entities, as well as start-ups, realized how important a role they play in this ecosystem. And Cohort 8, that is currently ongoing and will last until the end of March, is specifically looking at challenges that will basically be more specific around life after COVID.
I'll share a couple of examples. The Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) is looking into new solutions of shared mobility. We are very much accustomed to the ride-hailing apps and public transport systems. But that has changed forever. So they (RTA) are really being proactive in trying to foresight what new models of public transport and shared mobility will be out there. And we're really excited to see what comes out as solutions in a couple of weeks' time.
Another entity which is really looking at how things might evolve in the health care sector is the Dubai Health Authority. They are focusing on preventive health care measures, solutions and products, but not only from a sense of being preventive or proactive but in a sense of also democratizing access to that device.
Bhaya: Food security is already a global concern and going to be a top challenge in the future. It did aggravate last year due to the supply-chain disruption caused by the pandemic. What are some of the innovative solutions that Alesca Life offers to meet this challenge and has COVID-19 triggered a sense of greater urgency?
Oda: This is a great point. Pre-pandemic, in 2018-19, a lot of the interest and investment from governments, companies and investors was in food tech, which was related to food delivery and meal kits at home. And it was really focused on one thing, which was consumer convenience. What has happened in 2020, with the pandemic and now that we're in 2021, is that the focus has shifted materially from food tech to agtech - agricultural technology, which is focused on resilience. It's about community resilience, as opposed to consumer convenience.
So, one of the solutions, the benefits or the outcomes of the pandemic, was a renewed interest in agtech. And by that, I mean, local food production is in control of your own supply chain for fresh and nutritious food. So, since the pandemic has happened, since the lockdowns have begun, I've probably spoken to individuals and government entities from over 30 countries that are interested in finding ways in which they can secure a minimum supply of local fresh food production in their own countries, in their own communities.
The shift has accelerated towards this localization, towards this decentralized form of food production that can happen almost anywhere. And one of the solutions that we're providing for this is to bundle all of our precision farming tools – our monitoring equipment, our automation systems, our farm management and software tools, and even our latest computer vision AI cameras – and bundle all these products together to create an incredibly capital efficient indoor farm. And this allows both governments, at large scale, and even community, at a smaller scale, to be able to be in control of their local food production needs.
Interviewer and script: Abhishek G Bhaya
Video editors: Meiyi Yan & Wu Chutian
Cover image: Du Chenxin
Infographics: Jia Jieqiong
Director: Mei Yan
Plants Talk: Creating The Perfect Environment For Growth
There’s more to growing the greatest greens on the planet than just using less water.
Nate Klingler
It is well known that plants grow best when the weather is just right. Traditional farming methods have developed ways to combat mother nature by using an abundance of water, pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers. Crops are also transported, typically from California to Arizona, in the Fall and Winter months due to the changes in climate at that time of year. While these methods can help us adapt and grow crops in less than ideal conditions, they present potential problems, from resource consumption to introducing bacteria and disease into the crop. At Living Greens Farm, we have developed the perfect environment for our plants.
Hi, I’m Michelle Keller, Head Grower at Living Greens Farm. If you’ve been following along, you’ve seen how our non-GMO seeds grow into seedlings and eventually move from the nursery into our grow rooms. We recently showed you how we use 95% less water with our trolly mist system. But there’s more to growing the greatest greens on the planet than just using less water. Things like temperature, light, and air affect the plant’s growth.
Temperature is an easy element to control when you grow indoors. As the world’s largest indoor aeroponic farm, we have the responsibility to ensure that our grow rooms are highly regulated. That is why we continually monitor the temperature, not just for the health of our plants, but to make sure our energy consumption is at a responsible level.
Creating the Perfect Taste
We grow indoors to regulate the perfect amount of light given to the plants at just the right time. Our technology utilizes low energy LED lights that simulate sunlight and allow the plants to perform photosynthesis without being overwhelmed. This is one of the reasons our plants are known for their color and flavor. We’ve harnessed the energy of the sun and we give it to our plants right when they need the energy.
And we wouldn’t be an aeroponic farm without harnessing the power of the air. Our plants are grown in vertical grow racks and are challenged with the force of air which makes them stronger. When people eat Living Greens Farm salads for the first time, we are often asked how our greens are so crisp. Well, it’s because we grow our plants to be the strongest they can be.
Bringing Mother Nature Indoors
Controlling mother nature will always be a losing battle for traditional farmers. As the next generation of farming, we’ve brought mother nature indoors and can control the elements to grow the tastiest, healthiest greens on the planet.