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August 20th - 2nd Annual OptimIA Research Collaborative Update
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2021 OptimIA Research Collaborative Update
August 20th, 2021
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OptimIA (Optimizing Indoor Agriculture) is a USDA-funded Specialty Crop Research Initiative project to support indoor farming industry through critical research and extension activities.
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AeroFarms Commences Construction On AgX Research Center
AgX will bring innovative research and development to the UAE and the Middle East to advance sustainable controlled environment agriculture (CEA) and vertical farming and help address broader global agriculture supply chain issues
AeroFarms Wholly-Owned Subsidiary AeroFarms AgX LTD Has Started
Construction Focused On Some Recent Developments
03 Jul 2021
AeroFarms, a certified B Corporation, and specialist in indoor vertical farming announced that AeroFarms AgX LTD, its wholly-owned subsidiary in the UAE, has started construction in Abu Dhabi on the company’s Research Center focused on the latest developments for indoor vertical farming, innovation, and AgTech.
AgX will bring innovative research and development to the UAE and the Middle East to advance sustainable controlled environment agriculture (CEA) and vertical farming and help address broader global agriculture supply chain issues.
Last year, ADIO announced that it is providing $150m in incentives to bring global AgTech pioneers to Abu Dhabi, including its partnership with AeroFarms to build a vertical farming facility dedicated to developing next-generation agriculture in arid and desert climates.
The transformational R&D conducted at AeroFarms AgX is expected to enable new business lines, technologies, and growth of the AeroFarms platform while serving as a hub for regional expansion. AeroFarms AgX is expected to be completed and operational in the first quarter of 2022.
HE Dr Tariq Bin Hendi, Director General of ADIO, said: “This important milestone for AeroFarms AgX is another step in the realization of Abu Dhabi’s mission to ‘turn the desert green’. In line with this goal, ADIO is supporting innovative technology that has the potential to impact farming practices across the globe and improve the food production value chain worldwide. AeroFarms AgX will add to the growing capabilities of Abu Dhabi’s agriculture ecosystem while benefiting from the emirate’s plentiful land, natural heat, competitive energy prices, access to research universities, and skilled talent.”
AeroFarms AgX will be the largest indoor vertical farm of its kind for research and development in the world, leading the way in breakthrough innovation to solve some of the world’s most pressing agriculture challenges.
AeroFarms AgX will employ a projected 60 highly skilled engineers, horticulturists, and scientists and will have high-tech laboratories conducting organoleptic research and precision phenotyping, phytochemical analysis, advanced speed breeding, as well as next-generation machine vision, machine learning, robotics, and automation. AeroFarms AgX will also play a key role in Abu Dhabi’s AgTech ecosystem by working with local universities on research projects to tackle problems of agriculture within desert and arid climates.
David Rosenberg, Co-Founder, and CEO of AeroFarms commented: “This is an important development for AeroFarms as we expand globally and leverage our R&D and growing expertise. AeroFarms has been the global leader for controlled environment agriculture since 2004, and we will utilize this cutting-edge R&D Center to conduct the latest research in plant science, vertical farming, and automation, accelerating innovation cycles and commercializing products.
Our vision has always been to leverage our expertise in plant biology and build on our successful history of collaborating with government, universities, industry and major international companies. We are pleased to take this step forward and proud to be a catalyst for helping to establish the Emirate of Abu Dhabi as a global hub for AgTech innovation.”
Lead photo: AeroFarms to build world's largest indoor vertical farm in Abu Dhabi. AeroFarms
BrightFarms Forms Research And Development Innovation Hub BrightLabs; Steve Platt And Matt Lingard Comment
BrightLabs places a key focus on developing proprietary and patented ecosystems for plants to thrive, increasing their flavor, yields, and texture in the process
June 24th, 2021
by Jenna Plasterer
IRVINGTON, NY - A new launch and a new leader? Tell me more! These are just a couple of the titillating details included in BrightFarms’ most recent announcement. The indoor greens grower has formed a new research and development (R&D) hub called BrightLabs at its Ohio growing facility. Matt Lingard, PhD, a former Bayer plant scientist with over 15 years of experience in biotechnology and greenhouse science, will be leading the BrightLabs team as Vice President of Agriculture and Science.
Steve Platt, Chief Executive Officer, BrightFarms“
The indoor farming industry is at an inflection point as local, indoor-farmed produce becomes a priority for retailers and consumers. Among competitors, we’ve developed the most profitable model for the production of indoor leafy greens, but it’s essential that we maintain our market advantage to stay ahead of the curve,” said Steve Platt, Chief Executive Officer. “We’ve built up a team of the best minds in indoor agriculture to officially launch BrightLabs, where we’ll develop the next phase of game-changing products and technology solutions for our operations.”
BrightLabs places a key focus on developing proprietary and patented ecosystems for plants to thrive, increasing their flavor, yields, and texture in the process. The team will bring together experts in technology, microbiology, and plant science to deliver breakthrough innovations in the salad category and beyond.
BrightFarms has formed a new research and development (R&D) hub called BrightLabs at its Ohio growing facility
This multi-million dollar R&D investment is launching as part of the company’s $100 million Series E Fundraise led by Cox Enterprises and represents a significant increase in the company’s research capabilities. Ten percent of the company is now dedicated to developing complex, patented growing solutions to be applied to BrightFarms’ burgeoning network of greenhouses.
Matt Lingard, PhD, Vice President of Agriculture and Science, BrightFarms“
No other indoor farming company is studying a plant’s microbiome, the naturally occurring bacteria that help determine its health, to the same degree that we are,” said Lingard. “Instead of pouring dollars into artificial lighting research, we’re developing cutting-edge biotechnology solutions to out-maneuver our competition with the most productive indoor farms in the industry. There’s no question that high-tech greenhouses that leverage natural sunshine have emerged as the most promising new generation of agriculture technologies, and optimizing the microbiome will allow us to unlock even more of a plant’s natural potential in our indoor farms.”
BrightLabs aims to double its production of its hydroponically grown spinach, and will build on the success of its best-selling Sunny Crunch variety with a new, antioxidant-rich lettuce, NutriGreens, set for release this June.
BrightLabs places a key focus on developing proprietary and patented ecosystems for plants to thrive, increasing their flavor, yields, and texture in the process
BrightOS, the company’s award-winning proprietary data system, will help the BrightLabs team accelerate their research with machine learning and advanced data analysis.
Stay tuned as we wait to see the incredible innovations to come.
Indoor Farming Indoor Ag BrightFarms Research Development Research and Development R&D Innovation Innovates Innovation Hub BrightLabs Launch New Launch BrightOS Steve Platt Matt Lingard
COMPANIES IN THIS STORY
BrightFarms
BrightFarms finances, designs, builds and operates greenhouse farms at or near supermarkets, cutting time, distance, and...
Singapore: Mega-Farm, Research Center To Open By December 2021
&ever is currently building a mega-farm in Singapore with support from the Singapore Food Agency, SFA, and the Economic Development Board, EDB, and will be launched by the end of 2021. The mega-farm will be 15m high and have an annual production capacity of up to 500,000 kg of leafy greens.
&ever
“We’re really happy to have launched in Munich and consumers really like our harvest-on-demand concept,” says Franz Drack, Chief Marketing Officer at &ever. "We just need to see how to increase the accessibility of our solutions. I’d love to see 200 vertical farms in Europe with this technology in the next five years."
Although it all started in Hamburg, &ever is currently headquartered in Munich which is also where the grow tower showroom is located. In 2020, &ever opened its first commercial farm in Kuwait, spanning 3,400 m2 and with a daily output capacity of 550 kg. The farm provides its leafy greens to Kuwaiti restaurants and retailers. The company also recently launched a grow tower in an EDEKA Stadler+Honner “Die Frisch-Nachbarn” supermarket in Unterfôhring near Munich.
Mega-farm and research center
&ever is currently building a mega-farm in Singapore with support from the Singapore Food Agency, SFA, and the Economic Development Board, EDB, and will be launched by the end of 2021. The mega-farm will be 15m high and have an annual production capacity of up to 500,000 kg of leafy greens.
In addition to the mega-farm, &ever will be establishing Singapore as its global R&D center to accelerate knowledge development and transfer to the mega-farm. The R&D center will focus on improving energy use efficiency through optimized lighting strategies and improving crop quality by evaluating different seed and substrate combinations. Moreover, &ever will be working to develop non-invasive crop monitoring processes through vision systems.
“We’re getting tremendous support from our local partners EDB, SFA and A*Star; everyone is keen to get this farm online. This farm is what we are most excited about this year,” Franz notes. To better address consumer demand, &ever conducted market research in Singapore by speaking with potential consumers and foodservice providers. This research has allowed &ever to explore the balance between western and eastern leafy green species to be grown in the mega-farm.
“Our team under the lead of our country manager, Kerstin Köhler, have worked with food service providers who are very good at telling us what products are needed and wanted. Some products are very interesting for certain segments of the value chain, so we try to talk to a lot of different people,” says Franz.
&ever is continuing to focus on leafy greens, microgreens and herbs for the time being. While there is a lot of interest in fruits (like strawberries), Franz explains that the company is focused on keeping its product range simple to perfect the growing process.
&ever's growing tower
Rebranding efforts
In recent months, the vertical farming industry has seen major players taking a new approach to product branding by using brightly colored packaging. &ever is also focused on bright, enticing packaging designed to represent the company’s values and production process.
“We will start using colors that represent what we’re actually doing. Yellow for the light, blue for the water and green for our greens. It allows the brand to stand out and visually signals to consumers that things are changing. This shows that we are a new type of agricultural company. Stay tuned for that in the second half of 2021.” explains Franz.
Franz also notes that &ever’s products are also sold living, whereas many indoor farms sell cut greens, packaged in clamshells or other packaging materials. Moreover, &ever is also looking into direct-to-consumer sales of leafy greens.
In building its mega-farm, putting its products on European shelves and rebranding, &ever is eager to continue growing by getting consumers excited and developing more farm projects across the world.
&ever is a German agtech company offering three growing solutions, each addressing a different level of production. The &ever grow box is a small-scale system that allows growers to produce 15-30 kg of leafy greens per day in a small footprint. The company’s medium-sized solution is the &ever grow tower which is a small room containing a circular cultivation module.
Young plants are first transplanted in the inner circle and are gradually pushed further to the outer circles as new plants are introduced to the system. In pushing the plants further, the older plants receive more available space to continue growing without crowding neighboring plants. The grow towers provide a customizable output of 20-50 kg of leafy greens per day. Finally, &ever also develops large-scaled production system which it calls mega-farms.
For more information:
Franz Drack, CMO
&ever
local@andever.de
www.and-ever.com
Publication date: Tue 8 Jun 2021
Author: Rebekka Boekhout
© VerticalFarmDaily.com
Certhon Wraps Up 7th Raspberry Trial Successfully
After successfully growing strawberries in the Certhon Innovation Centre (CIC), the company has decided to take on another trial of growing fruits indoors.
“Raspberry isn’t the first crop that comes to mind when figuring out which crops to grow indoors,” Andrea Huegler, R&D Engineer and Agronomist at Certhon said. “However, we accepted the challenge and decided to go for it as there are a lot of benefits to growing it in a controlled environment.”
After successfully growing strawberries in the Certhon Innovation Centre (CIC), the company has decided to take on another trial of growing fruits indoors. Certhon has been doing lots of research on indoor farming for a long time now. This has allowed them to investigate how to grow more complex crops in a controlled environment without daylight.
Andrea Huegler
Trial results
The main advantage of growing this crop indoors is having higher yields and consistent quality year-round. Certhon sees great opportunities ahead for the crop, due to its premium status and short shelf life. “It makes it a perfect candidate to be grown indoors.” During this trial, common raspberry cultivars were chosen. Certhon used chilled raspberry canes from a propagator, pollination by bumblebees and top and interlighting was used to flourish the crops. The harvesting period comprises 10 weeks, out of a total cultivation cycle of 21 weeks and is expected to end in July 2021.
Cultivation risks
The research was mainly about investigating the right transition of the vegetative state of the crop to the generative state. Andrea says that balancing the climate and light with energy consumption is the trickiest part here. “Ever since the first raspberry trial we’ve been trying to balance out the reduction of energy use, having an X amount of yield at a great quality and extending the harvesting period. Throughout the trials, we have obtained nearly twice as much yield compared to the traditional Dutch polytunnel producers in the summer,” Andrea notes.
However, raspberry cultivation isn’t without challenges. “One of the risks that could come up is growing grey mold,” explains Andrea. “If nectar isn’t removed well from the flower, the fruit can grow mold or have a grey undertone. However, if you manage your humidity wisely, the incidence is severely reduced. That’s the idea behind the CIC, optimizing growing recipes and eventually expanding the product portfolio because we want to provide a wide selection of product options to our clients.”
Greenhouse application
The knowledge that is generated in the CIC can also be applied to the cultivation of raspberries in greenhouses. Growing these crops indoors allows Certhon to generate ideal growing conditions and maximum potential for raspberry cultivation. With this knowledge, Certhon generates a blueprint that growers can follow in greenhouse cultivation as well.
Andrea explains, “For instance, the blueprint can be followed when growers want to know when to: provide extra lighting, shading, or adjust the humidity. In this way, ideal growing conditions can be mimicked to achieve the highest quality and yield possible in a greenhouse.”
Cane risk
Another, very important aspect is the quality of the raspberry canes. In order to have good production, your raspberry canes need to be of good quality and pest-free. “This cannot always be guaranteed, '' says Andrea, “since they are propagated outdoors and therefore bound to the pressures of external influences, such as climate. Although we have not tried it ourselves yet, we think the next step is to also propagate raspberry canes in a controlled environment without daylight.”
For more information:
Andrea Huegler, R&D Engineer and Agronomist
Certhon
andrea.huegler@certhon.com
ABC Westland 555
P.O. Box 90
2685 ZH Poeldijk
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 174 22 50 80
www.certhon.com
Publication date: Mon 7 Jun 2021
Author: Rebekka Boekhout
© HortiDaily.com
Bowery Farming Unveils Research And Breeding Hub, Farm X
Farm X is one of the largest and most sophisticated vertical farming R&D facilities in the world, and will further accelerate the commercialization of products specifically designed for Bowery’s indoor system
May 18, 2021
NEW YORK, May 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Bowery Farming, the largest vertical farming company in the United States, today announced the opening of Farm X, its newest state-of-the-art innovation hub for plant science in Kearny, N.J., adjacent to Bowery’s original R&D Center of Excellence and first commercial farm.
Farm X is one of the largest and most sophisticated vertical farming R&D facilities in the world, and will further accelerate the commercialization of products specifically designed for Bowery’s indoor system.
From the cultivation of strawberries, root vegetables, tomatoes, peppers and beyond, to the discovery of the next generation of wildly flavorful leafy greens, Farm X expands Bowery’s R&D capacity by nearly 300%.
“We’re proud to be the largest vertical farming company in the United States that is consistently and reliably delivering our customers a wide variety of high quality, flavorful produce that’s local, safe and sustainable,” said Irving Fain, founder, and CEO of Bowery Farming.
“From day one, our R&D team has been working tirelessly to unlock the next frontier in agriculture, and Farm X enables us to expedite the discovery of new vibrant crops and pioneering technological advancements that will further accelerate our momentum as the category leader.”
Bowery’s world-class team of plant breeders, plant physiologists, biochemists, and more, are constantly innovating from seed-to-shelf. At Farm X, they will be able to test more, faster—ultimately accelerating the discovery of new crops, growing recipes, and efficiency improvements that can be replicated at scale across the company’s network of commercial farms.
Featuring proprietary, highly customizable, modular growing environments managed and monitored by new technology developed in-house, Farm X will further unlock the next phase of Bowery’s growth.
Farm X also features a sensory lab where Bowery will continue its quest for the perfect cultivars for indoor growing, as well as launch the first-ever on-site breeding program at a vertical farming company.
Under the new breeding program, Bowery’s team will be able to develop varieties that thrive in its unique growing conditions and evaluate each one for optimal taste, quality and yield, rather than to survive outdoors, pest-resistance, and long-haul transportation. While a traditional breeding program takes up to ten years, Bowery’s controlled indoor environment and 24/7 monitoring of crops will enable the company to bring new groundbreaking products to market at scale in a fraction of the time.
Bowery’s R&D team works year-round to uncover flavor-packed produce and bring new and exciting culinary experiences to consumers. Beyond the cultivation of new fruits and vegetables at Farm X, they are also developing the next generation of greens.
The Farmer’s Selection category, which launched in January 2021, emerged as a way to let consumers in on the process, bringing the thrill of discovering a new ingredient at your local farm stand to the grocery store. Bowery is launching a new small-batch green every four months under this new category.
The first greens released, Bowery Mustard Frills — hearty mustard greens with a tingly start and a fiery, wasabi-style finish — were available through April 2021. Green Sorrel, bright, tart baby greens with a zing and the next release in the series, is now available from May through August 2021.
Farm X also serves as an experimental space for innovation in farm design, data science, computer vision, autonomous robotics, hardware, and software that can be deployed in Bowery’s growing network of commercial farms.
As Bowery continues to advance the integration of proprietary smart farming technology, it recently announced Injong Rhee (formerly VP at Google and CTO of Samsung Mobile) as its Chief Technology Officer. Rhee will ensure that every farm continues to benefit from the collective intelligence of the BoweryOS, the company’s proprietary operating system which integrates software, hardware, sensors, computer vision systems, machine learning models and robotics to orchestrate and automate the entirety of operations.
Rhee’s team is ensuring the advanced technological learnings discovered at Farm X will be seamlessly integrated and applied at scale across Bowery’s network.
Bowery has experienced more than 750% brick-and-mortar sales growth, and more than quadrupled sales with e-commerce partners, including Amazon, since early 2020. Bowery’s newest commercial farm in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, will bring local, pesticide-free produce, harvested year-round at peak freshness, to a surrounding population of 50 million people within a 200-mile radius, and will be its largest and most technologically-advanced commercial farm yet, further automating the growing process from seed to store.
About Bowery Farming
Bowery Farming, the Modern Farming Company, was founded in 2015 with the belief that technology and human ingenuity can grow better food for a better future. Propelled by its proprietary software system, the BoweryOS, Bowery builds smart indoor vertical farms that deliver a wide variety of Protected Produce — in little time, near cities they serve, for a truly local approach.
Bowery’s farms are growing the next generation of vibrant and flavorful produce. With BoweryOS, farms are 100 times more productive on the same footprint of land than traditional agriculture and grow traceable pesticide-free produce with a fraction of the water and land.
The largest vertical farming company in the U.S., Bowery’s produce is available in more than 850 grocery stores and via e-commerce platforms serving the Tri-state and Mid-Atlantic region, including Amazon Fresh, Giant Food, Walmart, Weis, Whole Foods Market, Albertsons Companies and specialty grocers.
Based in New York City, Bowery has raised more than $172.5 million from leading investors, including Temasek and GV (formerly Google Ventures), General Catalyst, GGV Capital, First Round Capital, Henry Kravis, Jeff Wilke, and Dara Khosrowshahi, as well as some of the foremost thought leaders in food, including Tom Colicchio, José Andres, and David Barber of Blue Hill.
Tagged greenhouse, research, technology, vertical farming
Vertical Farming On The Rise: Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station And 80 Acres Farms Enter Research Agreement
Utilizing world-class technology and analytics to offer customers a wide variety of pesticide-free food with a longer shelf-life that exceeds the highest food safety standards
80 Acres Farms enters into a master research agreement with the Experiment Station at The University of Arkansas with scientists to propose collaborative vertical farming research projects aimed to advance the science of vertical farming
NEWS PROVIDED BY 80 Acres Farms
HAMILTON, Ohio, April 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Vertical farming business 80 Acres Farms has entered into a collaborative research agreement with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station to advance the science of vertical farming.
Scientists with the experiment station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, will coordinate with 80 Acres Farms researchers to pursue a variety of vertical farming research topics, said Bryan Renk, director of commercialization for the division's Technology Commercialization Office.
Utilizing world-class technology and analytics to offer customers a wide variety of pesticide-free food with a longer shelf-life that exceeds the highest food safety standards.
"Vertical farming is growing and trending," Renk said. "There are multiple companies forming across the U.S. that are trying to take advantage of that trend."
Jean-François Meullenet, senior associate vice president for agriculture research and director of the experiment station, said the agreement provides a unique opportunity for research.
"We are very excited about this new research partnership with 80 Acres Farms," Meullenet said. "Protected farming is a strategic research direction for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, and 80 Acres Farm is a leader in this area."
Renk said that the initial round of proposed and current research includes a project analyzing the chemical components of 80 Acres produce, an exploration into new protocols for vertical farming, and evaluation of novel blackberry variety selections that are suited for the vertical farming environment.
"We have a great multidisciplinary team of faculty that can make great contributions to the development of vertical farming technology," Meullenet said. "I look forward to seeing the impact we can have through this research."
"80 Acres is expanding its vertical farming R&D facility in Springdale, Arkansas to develop the growing recipes for multiple leafy and fruiting produce crops," said Victor Verlage, senior vice president for operations, agronomy, and research and development at 80 Acres Farms. "We are calibrating and aligning all the growing conditions, incorporating several proprietary AgTech capabilities that were not available until recently, to bring hyper-fresh fruits and vegetables loaded with taste and nutrition so our consumers can indulge in healthy diets," he said.
Margaret Worthington, assistant professor of fruit breeding and genetics in the horticulture department for the experiment station and Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas, is evaluating blackberry varieties that may perform well in these novel growing conditions.
"We hope to identify blackberry breeding selections that perform well in fully-controlled indoor environments and vertical farms," Worthington said.
"Fruit breeding is a long-term effort," she said. "We need to be forward-thinking and consider how the potential varieties moving through our breeding pipeline are going to fit into new markets and productions systems that are just beginning to develop.
"The Arkansas Fruit Breeding Program has a history of mutually beneficial public-private research collaborations and I am looking forward to working with this new partner," she said.
In addition to collaborating on research, 80 Acres Farms also plans to create internship opportunities for Bumpers college students.
"80 Acres Farms is eager to provide opportunities for the next generation of farmers where they will have access to best-in-class vertical farming technology," said Verlage. "The students will have immersive training right here in Northwest Arkansas, minutes from the university campus."
To learn more about the Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uark.edu. Follow us on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch and Instagram at ArkAgResearch.
About the Division of Agriculture
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture's mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation's historic land grant education system.
The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on five system campuses.
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs and services without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected status, and is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.
About 80 Acres Farms
80 Acres Farms is a vertical farming leader providing customers with the freshest and most nutritious fruits and vegetables at affordable prices. Utilizing world-class technology and analytics, the Company offers customers a wide variety of pesticide-free food with a longer shelf-life that exceeds the highest food safety standards.
For further information, please contact us at:
Rebecca Haders / rebecca.haders@eafarms.com / +1 513-910-9089
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80 Acres Farms' Vertical Farming Technology
Utilizing world-class technology and analytics to offer customers a wide variety of pesticide-free food with a longer shelf-life that exceeds the highest food safety standards.
SOURCE 80 Acres Farms
“I’m Opting For Localized Franchised Farming”
Natalie, an 18-year-old engineering student, is determined to run her own farm in the future. It all started with finding a research project . . .
Engineering student wants to start her own farm in New Jersey
“In the States, the food system is so inefficient both in the way it’s produced, at a massive scale and in terms of quality,” says Natalie Radu. "The problem is that consumers are left in the dark. They don’t know what pesticide is used on the food they’re eating. GM foods are not labeled. Let aside the waste this industry has.” Natalie says that many don’t have access to healthy food. When walking around in the Bronx for instance, on the lookout for a grocery store, it’s so much easier to buy a pack of soda for half the price of fresh produce.
‘Localized franchised farming’
“McDonald's is known for real estate. If only we could do a Wholefoods / McDonalds franchise where customers could walk in and snip off lettuce, directly available to consumers. I’m opting for localized franchised farming. I have been trying to figure out a location in terms of real estate, but, from the perspective of a small business, New Jersey and New York prices are very high. I would have to start out in a place that’s cheaper on average. However, I would definitely apply for grants to fund the initial infrastructure for the farms."
Natalie Radu in action on her channel
Natalie has her passion for writing and her engineering study to her advantage when starting a farm. “I think because of this intersection I will be able to work with the science and also have the ability to convey that science. I can make the lettuce we’ll be growing feel personal for someone that’s in their own house, miles away or even across the world. That’s the biggest thing, you have to get people excited about vertical farming, at least as excited as you are. However, when it comes down to engineering I’m going to need some help.”
“My family immigrated from Moldova to the US around the collapse of the Soviet Union,” says Natalie. “My grandparents used to grow several fruits in the backyards and my affection for farming started right about there, it’s in my blood.” Natalie, an 18-year-old engineering student has been determined to run her own farm in the future. It all started with finding a proper research topic, which turned into her biggest passion nowadays.
As Natalie’s based in New Jersey, she is surrounded by several vertical farms. She wanted to pass by some farms near her to visit and stumbled upon Good Feeling Farms. Eventually, Natalie was able to do an internship at Good Feeling Farms to get a better understanding of every aspect of a vertical farm, from seeding to growing to harvesting. Good Feeling Farms is a New Jersey-based wholesale micro greenery that specializes in microgreens and hydro lettuce. The farm is run by a team of three, taking care of the cultivation and harvesting process.
Inside Good Feeling Farms' growing facility
Ever since her internship, Natalie is determined to run her own farm in the future. She currently runs a YouTube channel, where she experiments with indoor hydroponics. She recently spoke at a local TEDx event about the inefficacies in traditional food production and distribution systems.
Natalie says: “I’ve tried many growing conditions for plants and I think you can grow them under many different conditions. You have to work with your circumstances. Ideally, your indoor garden would be sustainable. The growth mediums could be sanitized and reused to lessen waste. Besides being water-efficient, vertical farming really shines in the areas of automation and data science. The ability to collect and analyze plant data constantly and instantly modify environmental factors has massive potential for produce cultivation as we know it.”
For more information:
Natalie Radu
natlydrad@gmail.com
Publication date: Fri 15 Jan 2021
Author: Rebekka Boekhout
© VerticalFarmDaily.com
How Vertical Farms Could Be Ready To Take-Off
Carried out by the John Innes Centre, the University of Bristol, and the aeroponic technology provider LettUs Grow, the study identifies future research areas needed to accelerate the sustainable growth of vertical farming using aeroponic systems
12-01-2021 | LettUsGROW
Vertical farms with their soil-free, computer-controlled environments may sound like sci-fi, but there is a growing environmental and economic case for them, according to new research laying out radical ways of putting food on our plates.
The interdisciplinary study combining biology and engineering sets down steps towards accelerating the growth of this branch of precision agriculture, including the use of aeroponics which uses nutrient-enriched aerosols in place of soil.
Carried out by the John Innes Centre, the University of Bristol, and the aeroponic technology provider LettUs Grow, the study identifies future research areas needed to accelerate the sustainable growth of vertical farming using aeroponic systems.
Dr. Antony Dodd, a Group Leader at the John Innes Centre and senior author of the study, says: “By bringing fundamental biological insights into the context of the physics of growing plants in an aerosol, we can help the vertical farming business become more productive more quickly while producing healthier food with less environmental impact.”
Jack Farmer, Chief Scientific Officer at LettUs Grow and one of the authors of the study, adds: “Climate change is only going to increase the demand for this technology. Projected changes in regional weather patterns and water availability are likely to impact agricultural productivity soon. Vertical farming offers the ability to grow high-value nutritious crops in a climate-resilient manner all year round, proving a reliable income stream for growers.”
Vertical farming is a type of indoor agriculture where crops are cultivated in stacked systems with water, lighting and nutrient sources carefully controlled.
It is part of a rapidly growing sector supported by artificial intelligence in which machines are taught to manage day to day horticultural tasks. The industry is set to grow annually by 21% by 2025 according to one commercial forecast (Grand View Research, 2019).
Green benefits include better use of space because vertical farms can be sited in urban locations, fewer food miles, isolation from pathogens, reduction in soil degradation and nutrient and water recapturing and recycling.
Vertical farms also allow product consistency, price stabilization, and cultivation at latitudes incompatible with certain crops such as the desert or arctic.
“Vertical systems allow us to extend the latitude range on which crops can be grown on the planet, from the deserts of Dubai to the 4-hour winter days of Iceland. In fact, if you were growing crops on Mars you would need to use this kind of technology because there is no soil,” says Dr Dodd.
The study, which appears in the journal New Phytologist, lays out seven steps – strategic areas of future research needed to underpin increased productivity and sustainability of aeroponic vertical farms.
These seek to understand:
Why aeroponic cultivation can be more productive than hydroponic or soil cultivation
The relationship between aeroponic cultivation and 24-hour circadian rhythms of plants
Root development of a range of crops in aeroponic conditions
The relationship between aerosol droplet size and deposition and plant performance
How we can establish frameworks for comparing vertical farming technologies for a range of crops
How aeroponic methods affect microbial interactions with plant roots
The nature of recycling of root exudates (fluids secreted by the roots of plants) within the nutrient solutions of closed aeroponic systems
The report argues that a driver of technological innovation in vertical farms is minimising operation costs whilst maximising productivity – and that investment in fundamental biological research has a significant role.
Dr. Dodd’s research area covers circadian rhythms – biological clocks that align plant physiology and molecular processes to the day to day cycle of light and dark. He recently completed a year-long Royal Society Industry Fellowship with LettUs Grow.
This involved combining Dr Dodd’s expertise in circadian rhythms and plant physiology with the work of LettUs Grow’s team of biologists and engineers to design optimal aeroponic cultivation regimens. This is a key area of investigation as these molecular internal timers will perform differently in vertical farms.
Aeroponic platforms are often used to grow high-value crops such as salads, pak choi, herbs, small brassica crops, pea shoots, and bean shoots. LettUs Grow are also working on growth regimens for fruiting and rooting crops such as strawberries and carrots, as well as aeroponic propagation of trees for both fruit and forestry.
John Innes Centre researchers have bred a line of broccoli adapted to grow indoors for a major supermarket and one of the aims of research will be to test how we can genetically tune more crops to grow in the controlled space of vertical farms.
Bethany Eldridge, a researcher at the University of Bristol studying root-environment interactions and first author of the study adds: “Given that 80% of agricultural land worldwide is reported to have moderate or severe erosion, the ability to grow crops in a soilless system with minimal fertilizers and pesticides is advantageous because it provides an opportunity to grow crops in areas facing soil erosion or other environmental issues such as algal blooms in local water bodies that may have been driven by traditional, soil-based, agriculture.”
Lilly Manzoni, Head of Research and Development at LettUs Grow and one of the authors of the study says, “This paper is unique because it is broader than a typical plant research paper, it combines the expertise of engineers, aerosol scientists, plant biologists, and horticulturalists. The wonderful thing about controlled environment agriculture and aeroponics is that it is truly interdisciplinary”
The study ‘Getting to the Roots of Aeroponic Indoor Farming‘ appears in the New Phytologist journal.
Source and Photo Courtesy of LettUsGROW
"Spend Less Time On Your Controls, But More Quality Time With Your Plants"
Practical insights from the Autonomous Greenhouse Challenge
When your team wins the Autonomous Greenhouse Challenge, you may safely call yourself an expert on autonomous cultivation. René Beerkens, who's been with Hoogendoorn Growth Management for twenty years, and Evripidis Papadopoulos, who worked as a Data & Algorithm specialist for Hoogendoorn during the challenge and is now back to LetsGrow.com as a Researcher & Data Analyst, were both involved with winning team AuTomatoes, and from the Hoogendoorn headquarters, they shared some of their insights with growers.
Plant Empowerment
At the heart of Hoogendoorn's holistic approach, René explains, is the concept of Plant Empowerment, which evolved from Next Generation Growing. "We're not only a technical supplier, but also spend an awful lot of time on research and development", René introduces his company.
"The Dutch have a vast history of experience growing plants, mostly by trial and error", he continues. Having learned the laws of physics and completed a lot of research on plant development, growers have moved on from trial and error to a data-driven approach.
Data-driven
This begs the question: why data-driven growing? "We lack experts in the field", René says, "investors want a quick return on investment (they want to invest in something that works from the start), but the main thing is, we want to leave planet Earth in a better way than we found it, using less resources."
The Autonomous Greenhouse Challenge was a perfect opportunity to put this data-driven approach to the test. Using a variety of sensors that measured things like air temperature, humidity, CO2, EC and root temperature, plant temperature, and light levels, a range of data was collected, which was all gathered in one central place so the team could access it wherever they were.
This team featured members from various disciplines, who met once a week. The dashboard, built on the LetsGrow.com platform and customized for Hoogendoorn, helped them analyze data and make the appropriate decisions. As Evripidis puts it, this allows you to "save time for yourself, and due to the holistic approach you find space for further optimization."
Results
The main attraction of the webinar was, of course, the results that participation in the challenge yielded. Using a data-driven strategic approach, the team built their strategies based on historical data from outside conditions. During the challenge, the AI system made adjustments to accommodate the changing circumstances, as can be seen in the below graph showing the ratio temperature radiation (RTR).
"You can't be at your computer daily," Evripidis explains, "so the algorithm made changes automatically, based on feedback from the crop."
It may sound scary to give your precious crops into the hands of an autonomous computer, but the holistic approach taken by team AuTomatoes at least provides the grower with the peace of mind that they can actually see the crop, even when they're not in the greenhouse. The slide below shows how that looks in the dashboard.
René explains that you can also make time-lapses with the dashboard and compare day by day development with the pictures, which is arguably better comparing than just looking at the plants in the greenhouse, because changes in the crop become more noticeable.
Data Driven Operational approach
The next graph shows two identical days with the outside temperature and wind speed the same. In the first day (on the left), the temperature fluctuates a lot, as Evripidis points out. On the second day, the temperature doesn't fluctuate so much, thanks to an intervention in ventilation from the autonomous system, which is of course more favorable to the crop.
While growers are fully focused on ventilation or temperature, Evripidis explains how they came up with VO control. "We keep the windows as closed as possible to trap humidity, so that the temperature is not too high, stomata will remain open, and photosynthesis is maximized. If you trap humidity, you also trap CO2, so it's a win-win situation." With VO control it's not necessary to work with P-band anymore. Growers can set five setpoints, the rest will be done automatically.
René and Evripidis also discussed how the autonomous cultivation system dealt with irrigation and assimilates during the challenge. More about the former can be found in this article from Godfrey Dol on HortiDaily, and Hoogendoorn shared some information on realizing an optimized assimilates balance in this article.
Quality time
In conclusion, it can be said that a grower can do much more based on data. "We had a grower who had never grown tomatoes in the Netherlands, and he did quite well using just data", René shares, telling growers that they can "spend less time on your controls, but more quality time with your plants."
As Evripidis puts it: "We're trying to assist, not take over - we make the car, you drive the car." Or to use another metaphor, as René did: "A plane can fly itself, but the pilot still has to know what happens in the background. We can do a lot with data, but we're still dealing with organisms that are much cleverer than us - they've evolved for millions of years, we are just catching up in the last few years."
For more information:
Hoogendoorn Growth Management
info@hoogendoorn.nl
www.hoogendoorn.nl
Publication date: Mon 7 Sep 2020
Author: Jan Jacob Mekes
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