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New Office Aims to Help Grow Food in Small Spaces
The new office is aimed at helping improve access to healthy foods in urban areas
NAFB | 09-19-20
(Washington, D.C.) -- As part of the 2018 Farm Bill, the Natural Resources Conservation Service has led interagency collaboration to establish the Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production.
Louis Aspey is the interim director of the office and talks about why it was formed.
“Because food insecurity is an everyday reality across the United States, unfortunately. USDA’s Economic Research Service estimates that over 23 million people live in communities lacking food access, with about 16 million of those being children that are food insecure, so it’s a significant problem. It’s especially true when you focus on the urban areas and typically caused by economic challenges that limit attracting retail grocery stores, which reduces or eliminates food shopping options, which results in a term you may be familiar with, which is food desert.”
The new office is aimed at helping improve access to healthy foods in urban areas.
“The Office of Urban Ag supports innovative production methods that respond to these needs and the interest to grow food in small spaces, efforts that seek to help communities increase the production of healthy foods that can have a range of dietary diversity, and urban farms will help contribute to the local food supply chain by connecting growers, schools, and communities to help address food insecurity and overall help meet the increasing demand for locally grown food.”
Aspey is also the Deputy Chief for Management and Strategy for the NRCS, and he talks about how the Office of Urban Agriculture will work to meet its goals in the future.
“Our work involves a public process, and I want to highlight the word public, and we really seek to increase support from stakeholders and focus on a locally-led process. Those of you that are familiar with NRCS recognize that’s one of our foundational principles of the agency; locally-led. We think that is especially true in the option to move forward under the urban agriculture banner.”
The Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production recently gave out $4.1 million in grants and cooperative agreements to help support projects being done by people ranging from urban farmers to community gardeners. USDA Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation Bill Northey adds,” I look forward to seeing the innovations in urban, indoor, and other emerging agricultural practices that result from these grants, including community composting and food waste reduction.”
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Farm Tech Society, Indoor Ag-Con Partner to Present "Future of Farming | Educating The Next Generation to Make CEA Scalable" | August 19, 2020 - 2 PM EST
New Session Joins Indoor Ag-Conversations Webinar Series, August 19, 2020, From 2:00-3:00 pm EST
New Session Joins Indoor Ag-Conversations Webinar Series,
August 19, 2020, From 2:00 - 3:00 pm EST
(AUGUST 10, 2020) -- As the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) industry grows, companies are facing greater shortages in qualified talent. How can innovation in training and education accelerate the industry to the benefit of all? Hosted by the Farm Tech Society and Indoor Ag-Con, LLC, "The Future of Farming: Educating the Next Generation To Make CEA Scalable," will bring together a panel of top educators to explore viable answers to this pressing challenge.
The latest topic to join the Indoor Ag-Conversations free webinar series, the program will be held on Wednesday, August 19, 2020, from 2:00 - 3:00 pm EST.
Moderated by Farm Tech Society Chairman Ian Kanski, Director, Center for Advanced Agriculture & Sustainability, Harrisburg University of Science & Technology, the panel will include Dr. Laura Vickers, Senior Lecturer in Plant Biology, Harpers Adams University; Sonny Ramaswamy, president, Northwest Commission on Colleges & Universities; and Dr. Marito Garcia, Fellow, Darden School of Business, Center for Global Initiatives (DCGI), University of Virginia.
"We're excited to partner with the Farm Tech Society to foster discussion around this vitally important topic," says Brian Sullivan, co-owner, Indoor Ag-Con, LLC. "The COVID crisis has certainly brought attention and increased awareness to the myriad benefits CEA can offer -- from local food/supply chain solutions to year-round production. Attracting and educating a younger generation are critical to helping CEA reach its full potential."
"Strengthening and securing the future of the CEA industry are key to the Farm Tech Society mission. The new Indoor Ag-Conversations webinar series offers a wonderful platform to exchange ideas and spark new ones. We're looking forward to a great discussion," adds Farm Tech Society Board Chairman and program moderator Ian Kanski. "
During the 60-minute program, the panel will discuss a range of topics, including:
Upskilling and retraining from challenged industry sectors
Skills gaps, labor challenges, and automation
Micro-credentialing and industry certifications
Portability of skills learned in CEA operations
Public-private partnerships for training and education
The program is free and attendees can register at www.indoor.ag/webinar
The Indoor Ag-Conversations panelists will bring a wealth of educational industry experiences and insights to the discussion.
Ian Kanski is a social entrepreneur with a career dedicated to human development and sustainable technology. He is the Director of the Center for Advanced Agriculture and Sustainability at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, Board Chair for FarmTech Society in Brussels, Belgium and co-founder of INTAG. Ian is also Co-Founder of the STEM Education consultancy B Theory Inc and is the former Chief Product Officer of Zoetic Global.
Dr. Laura Vickers gained her Ph.D. in 2012 from the University of Birmingham before working as a postdoc at Harper Adams University (HAU). She took up her role as Lecturer at HAU in 2014 and was also awarded a NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellowship in Horticulture, where she worked with the Horticulture Innovation Partnership in producing an R&D strategy for the Ornamental industry. She is now a Senior Lecturer at HAU and a leading member of the Urban Farming Group.
Sonny Ramaswamy assumed the presidency of the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities in 2018 after six years of service as President Obama's appointee as the Director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) in Washington, DC. Prior to this position in the federal government, he worked for 30 years at several Land-Grant Universities, rising through the ranks from assistant professor to dean.
Dr. Marito Garcia is a Fellow at the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA. He is a Board Director at Learning Equality, a non-profit education technology company based in San Diego, CA. He is co-founder of Italpinas Development Corporation, a green-building development company in Asia, based in Manila, Philippines; and Orenko Ltd (Cambridge, UK), an energy development company. He also served as senior staff at the World Bank, Washington, DC in various capacities.
Indoor Ag-Con LLC created the new Indoor Ag-Conversations series to share content originally planned for its May 2020 in-person annual conference that was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. To learn more about this session, as well as other upcoming programs on the schedule, visit www.indoor.ag/webinar
ABOUT INDOOR AG-CON LLC
Founded in 2013, Indoor Ag-Con, LLC produces the premier event for the indoor | vertical farming industry touching all sectors of the business — produce, legal cannabis, hemp, alternate protein and non-food crops. In December 2018, three event industry professionals – Nancy Hallberg, Kris Sieradzki and Brian Sullivan – purchased Indoor Ag-Con LLC, setting the stage for further expansion of the events globally. For more information, visit: https://indoor.ag
ABOUT FARM TECH SOCIETY
The Farm Tech Society (FTS) is an international non-profit industry association that unites and supports the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) industry, seeking to strengthen the sector through the development and implementation of resilient and future proof methods and technologies for indoor growing For more information, visit https://www.farmtechsociety.org
Indoor Ag-Con, 950 Scales Road, Building #200, Suwanee, GA 30024, United States
US - CHICAGO - VIDEO: Vertical Farm Wilder Fields Opening Calumet City Location
The anchor of a Calumet City strip mall at 1717 East-West Road left five years ago. Now a local small business plans to turn this red store -- Green
Wilder Fields Plans To Fully Open In 2023
By Leah Hope
CALUMET CITY, Ill. (WLS) -- A vertical farm is coming to the south suburbs.
The anchor of a Calumet City strip mall at 1717 East-West Road left five years ago. Now a local small business plans to turn this red store -- green.
"We'll be growing a whole range of leafy green, many of which may be familiar to the consumer, many of which the consumer has never tasted," Wilder Fields Founder Jake Counne said. "We're really excited to blow people's minds with varieties they've never had."
Wilder Fields operates a vertical farm in Chicago and will open a larger location in the south suburbs, selling produce locally to residents, restaurants, and markets by making use of all the space, floor to ceiling.
"To be able to take big-box space like this and reintroduce jobs that might have been lost, boosting the foot traffic that might have been lost ... to come in and revitalize that corridor is really exciting for us," Counne said.
The red paint was from the previous tenant. Target had been there for 20 years but closed in 2015.
For those in the area, a small business growing produce and adding jobs is welcomed news.
"Twenty four acres of farmland in the 135,000-square-foot building is pretty exciting when you think about it," Mayor Michelle Markiewicz Qualkinbush said.
Calumet City 7th Ward Alderman Anthony Smith agrees.
"We've been a food desert for a number of years so this actually fills that void," Smith said. "(It) allows us to get fresh produce and at an affordable price and bring jobs."
Residents think it's a great idea, too.
"To have an indoor farm that we can come to year-round will be phenomenal," Vicki Brown said
Wilder Fields plans to start production next year and be fully operational in 2023, with not only retail space but an Education Center to show how their organic greens are grown year-round indoors vertically.
RELATED TOPICS:
business calumet city food grocery
IGS Completes Deal With Vertegrow to Build Scotland’s First Commercial Vertical Farm
A 245 m2 insulated superstructure will accommodate four nine-metre-high towers alongside a 1,600 m2 service area on Vertegrow’s site at Waterside Farm in Aberdeenshire. This will provide approximately 1,343 m2 of growing space, producing up to 70 tonnes of produce per annum when fully operational
New Vertical Farming Operator to Adopt IGS Agritech
Platform in Scotland
Edinburgh, Scotland – 08 July 2020 - Indoor agritech specialist IGS has today announced the completion of a deal with new vertical farming operator Vertegrow. The four-tower system will be built in Aberdeenshire in Scotland in late 2020.
A 245 m2 insulated superstructure will accommodate four nine-metre-high towers alongside a 1,600 m2 service area on Vertegrow’s site at Waterside Farm in Aberdeenshire. This will provide approximately 1,343 m2 of growing space, producing up to 70 tonnes of produce per annum when fully operational.
This is the first move into vertical farming for Vertegrow, diversifying alongside existing agricultural operations, currently growing crops including barley and rye in open fields.
Vertegrow was established through Steadman Partners, the UK-based private investment office set up by BrewDog co-founder Martin Dickie. Located in Scotland, Steadman Partners has a wide range of interests and investments throughout the UK and beyond.
The IGS platform was selected after a rigorous analysis of the market and considered to be the most advanced, efficient, and scalable to meet Vertegrow’s requirements. The plug-and-play vertical farming product developed by IGS offers them a highly controllable platform, designed specifically to maximize productivity whilst minimizing energy consumption and allowing the production of consistently high-quality produce at scale.
The towers, which are expected to be operational in early 2021, will grow a variety of crops that are intended to service the local food supply chain. Vertegrow will work with a range of local customers including retailers, caterers, restaurateurs, and other local services, to deliver fresh, nutritious, high-quality produce all year round.
IGS CEO David Farquhar commented: “This is an exciting step for IGS and for Vertegrow as we set out to deploy a new vertical farm for a new operator in this space. With proven experience in traditional farming and extensive involvement, through its owners, in the food and drink sector, we are confident that this will bring a new and top-quality offering to the local market. Such re-localization of the food supply chain is a feature of post-coronavirus planning we are seeing all over the world.”
“We were delighted that the IGS platform was selected for this project. It is proof that our rigorous commitment to engineering design excellence and our unique patented systems deliver what customers want – a system that is highly pragmatic, flexible, modular, and scalable. We look forward to getting underway with the deployment of our Growth Towers with the Vertegrow team.”
Graeme Warren, of Vertegrow commented: “Vertegrow is delighted to be working with IGS on this innovative project as we position our farm business to address the challenges of the modern food supply chain. We have spent considerable time identifying the right partners and systems, and the IGS platform stood out as a quality solution that could be configured for our needs. Growing quality, nutritious food in North East Scotland will allow us to reduce food miles for our customers. Combined with our renewable energy sources and rainwater harvesting, the efficiency of the IGS system is a key part of our ambition to grow crops in a carbon-neutral way. We look forward to continuing to work with IGS as we construct the facility later this year.”
The team at IGS will continue to work closely with its new customer in the construction and deployment phases over the coming months.
Ends
Notes to editors:
For more information: please contact Kate Forster, IGS on kate@intelligentgrowthsolutions.com or call +44 7787 534999.
About IGS:
Founded in 2013, IGS brought together decades of farming and engineering experience to create an agritech business with a vision to revolutionize the indoor growing market. Its commitment to innovation has continued apace and it has evolved the applications of its technology beyond agriculture to create solutions for a wide variety of indoor environments that enhance life for plants.
IGS launched its first vertical farming demonstration facility in August 2018.
For more information visit www.intelligentgrowthsolutions.com or connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
About Vertegrow
Vertegrow represents the indoor growing arm of an existing productive arable farm in North East Scotland. It is committed to producing high-quality food sustainably, responsibly, and ultimately in a carbon-neutral way. Vertegrow expects to sell its first crops in early 2021 and then to expand and improve its crop range through research and development.
More information will be available from www.vertegrow.com as the facility approaches completion. Connect with us on Twitter, Instagram or contact hello@vertegrow.com