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RMA Authorizes Emergency Procedures To Help Drought-Impacted Producers
The USDA’s Risk Management Agency is working with crop insurance companies to streamline and accelerate the adjustment of losses and issuance of indemnity payments to crop insurance policyholders in impacted areas, according to a news release
By TOM KARST
July 13, 2021
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is authorizing emergency procedures to help agricultural producers impacted by extreme drought conditions.
The USDA’s Risk Management Agency is working with crop insurance companies to streamline and accelerate the adjustment of losses and issuance of indemnity payments to crop insurance policyholders in impacted areas, according to a news release.
The agency said the new crop insurance flexibilities are part of USDA’s broader response to help producers impacted by drought, in the West, Northern Great Plains, Caribbean and other areas.
“Crop insurance helps producers weather natural disasters like drought,” RMA Acting Administrator Richard Flournoy said in the release. “We recognize the distress experienced by farmers and ranchers because of drought, and these emergency procedures will authorize insurance companies to expedite the claims process, enabling them to plant a new crop or a cover crop.”
Emergency procedures allow insurance companies to accept delayed notices of loss in certain situations, streamline paperwork, and reduce the number of required representative samples when damage is consistent, according to the release.
Producers should contact their crop insurance agent as soon as they notice damage, the agency said.
The insurance company must have an opportunity to inspect the crop before the producer puts their crop acres to another use. If the company cannot make an accurate appraisal, or the producer disagrees with the appraisal at the time the acreage is to be destroyed or no longer cared for, the insurance company and producer can determine representative sample areas to be left intact and maintained for future appraisal purposes, according to the release. Once an insured crop has been appraised and released, or representative strips have been authorized for later appraisal, the producer may cut the crop for silage, destroy it or take any other action on the land including planting a cover crop, the release said.
Additional information on these emergency procedures is available on RMA’s Crop Insurance and Drought Damaged Crop webpage.
Purpose At Work: How Square Roots Is Growing A Sustainable Food Movement
How can we reduce the climate impacts of our food system? How can we get the freshest produce to people in urban areas? How can we offer fulfilling jobs to today’s youth? These are all issues that Square Roots is working to address
May 24, 2021
Purpose At Work: How Square Roots Is Growing A Sustainable Food Movement
PHOTO PROVIDED BY SQUARE ROOTS
How can we reduce the climate impacts of our food system? How can we get the freshest produce to people in urban areas? How can we offer fulfilling jobs to today’s youth? These are all issues that Square Roots is working to address.
“The mission of the company is to bring locally grown food to people in cities, all across the world while empowering the next generation of leaders in urban agriculture,” Tobias Peggs, Co-founder, and CEO of Square Roots, tells We First.
The agriculture startup’s modular and technology-first design is transforming how food is grown and distributed in amazing ways. The scalability and data-driven approach make Square Roots an excellent example of a company demonstrating how to scale business growth and impact.
Founding story
Before Square Roots, Tobias received a Ph.D. in machine learning and had worked for a number of successful startups, one of which was acquired by Walmart. “I worked as a data scientist there for a year. One of the projects they had me do was study global grocery buying behaviors.” With around 300 million customers, Tobias had a massive amount of data to pull insights from.
“That's a lot of bananas flying all over the world,” he says. “You begin to think about the impact of transportation on the planet. “As food is traveling, nutrients are breaking down and maybe the quality of food isn't as good at the end of long supply chains as it would be for local food. Customers don't have any idea of where that food comes from. The sense of community around food was just lost.”
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Vertical Indoor Farms Make Sense
The insights Peggs was having lit a spark in his entrepreneurial engine. “People want food from all over the world. That's not going to change,” he says. “Instead of shipping food, how about we ship environmental data from one part of the world to the other?” By collecting data on the best growing conditions, Tobias could hypothetically grow anything at any time of year in a controlled indoor environment made from repurposed shipping containers and deliver that to a nearby retail store on the day it’s picked. “It looks and smells amazing, which also means all the nutrients are intact,” he says. “That was the idea behind Square Roots.”
Peggs cofounded the company with Kimbal Musk, “He would say, ‘Can it feed the world? And are we going to make a massive positive impact? If so, let's figure out how to get this done,’” Peggs recalls. The two innovators began by working together in a WeWork office. “With the experience of being involved in a number of startup companies before—some successful, some failure—I know for sure that if you don't get started, you're going to fail.”
In the two-man brainstorming sessions, Peggs and Musk would visualize the business at scale. “We saw these modular farms in every city across the world. That is the way that we're able to think about feeding every consumer on the planet with locally-grown food,” Peggs says. “There was a missing piece of the puzzle. There wouldn't be enough farmers to hire to staff all of those farms.” That realization was the foundation of the second pillar of Square Roots’ purpose, “To provide pathways for young people to come into the farming industry and become the future leaders,” he shares.
Leading with purpose
Purpose At Work: How Square Roots Is Growing A Sustainable Food Movement
PHOTO PROVIDED BY SQUARE ROOTS
Square Roots’ core business was structured to address some of the world’s biggest challenges. Food is interconnected with climate, which also poses risks on outdoor crops. It is also fundamental to public health and prosperity. As the global population rises, our planet’s carrying capacity will be tested. We need to innovate to meet that rising global demand for food.
The model relies on able-bodied young people to tend to the crops. The talent pool of skilled farmers in the U.S. is aging. The average farmer is 58 years old. “Who the hell is going to grow all the food when our current farmers retire in five or 10 years’ time? ” Tobias proposes. “We had to figure out a way to bring young people into the industry and train them quickly so they could be not just productive farmers, but feel infused about a career in a completely new industry.”
To overcome the hurdle, the founders developed hardware, software and teaching methods. “We had an investment banker who was bored sitting behind a spreadsheet all day. He quit his job to join Square Roots because he wanted to make an impact on the world. He was growing the most delicious kale, you've ever tasted in your life,” Peggs says. “That was six months after making the transition, it was magic to see that.” Within a year they trained 10 people, many with no previous farming experience.
In addition to creating purpose-driven employment opportunities, Square Roots is addressing climate through transportation and waste. “Forty percent of food from industrial systems is wasted. We waste around 3%,” Tobias says. A significant portion of wasted food is discarded before it even hits the shelf, due to damages during shipping or spoiling quickly. “Because we're indoor, there's a lot of precision, a lot of control. We can grow food for demand.”
Modular design
Square Roots’ structure allows it to be replicated and optimized from a systems approach. It's a distributed model. “We deploy clusters of these modular farms together so there's some operational scale and the business economics work,” Peggs explains. “Each farm serves its local market and runs its own independent business entity, set on top of a standard technology platform.” Every compound grows, harvests packages and delivers produce to local retailers. “We look after everything from seed to shelf.”
The growing startup has set up operations in Brooklyn, New York, and Grand Rapids, Michigan with plans for expansion across the Midwest, the North East in cities around the world where demand is large enough. People can see inside the shipping containers and when Covid-19 is under control, you can schedule a farm tour. “While its a very scalable platform, the consumer experience is a hyper-local one.”
Leveraging data & technology
When it comes to deciding what to grow, Square Roots focuses on crops that require the least amount of energy. “Walk into a supermarket. Lineup every single fruit and vegetable from the lightest to the heaviest. And that's essentially our product roadmap for the next 20 years,” Peggs says.
They also choose crops based on economic yields based on competitive market prices. “This is where data science and technology marry,” Tobias says. “Outdoor farmers can’t suddenly look at the sun, make it twice as efficient and reduce costs or double their yield. Indoor farmers can.”
Integration of AI machine learning empowers Square Roots to optimize at scale. “We're building a network of cloud-connected modular farms,” Tobias says. The company monitors and collects data from each of those farms every second. “We’re looking at temperature, humidity, nutrients, yield, taste and texture,” Peggs says. “ If in one particular box, a farmer did something or we changed an environmental parameter that increased yield or improves efficiency, we can spot that information from the data and push that new instruction out across the whole network. The whole network is learning how to farm better as we go about building the business.”
Building community
Food has the potential to unite people. While Square Roots farms are indoors, they connect and share knowledge with outdoor farmers. “ I'll give you an example,” Tobias says. “A good technique in organic farming is known as integrated pest management, where a farmer might release beneficial insects onto the crop, essentially ridding the nasty insects that we don't want. We use that technique inside the farm.”
“The farmers that we work with are very much on the same mission, which is how do we get people more connected with where their food comes from? How do we build that sense of community around food? And I think the common enemy is the industrial food system,” Peggs says. That common enemy also resonates with employees, consumers and other key stakeholders who join together around a set of core values.
“I know pretty much every founder or CEO of every indoor farming company. There's remarkable alignment around that mission,” Tobias says. “Everybody understands that we've got to change the food system and if we're helping each other out, it's better for all of us,” Tobias mentions companies like Gotham Greens and Oishii that are also innovating in the indoor farming space.
Purpose also informs Square Roots’ investor strategy. “We’re a venture-backed company. When we're talking with investors, we want to make sure that they're mission aligned. I can’t tell you how many investors have talked to me about considering cannabis. It’s not aligned with our mission.” A lot of people don't realize that the power of purpose is just as compelling in terms of what you don't do, as opposed to what you do.
The takeaway here is that building your community around shared purpose fosters goodwill amongst team members and customers. It also presents collaborative opportunities with other brands and organizations working towards the same goal.
Challenges and opportunities
With the opaque information in the industrial food system and increased health consciousness, consumers are looking for transparency. In addition to its open invitation to check out the farms, the company includes a QR code on each product. You can scan the code and learn all about where it's made and the value chain.
Purpose At Work: How Square Roots Is Growing A Sustainable Food Movement
PHOTO PROVIDED BY SQUARE ROOTS
Covid-19 has also presented challenges for businesses across sectors and Square Roots is no exception. Before the pandemic, they trained new hires to be farmers in classrooms. “If we didn't have our mission, it would have been easy to say, ‘We got to keep growing, forget this farmer training stuff. We're just going to go hire experienced people.’ Or we could have developed a robot to do part of the job of a farmer,” Tobias says.
“The mission allowed us to focus on solving issues with our current business model,” he continues. “It was already misaligned. Everyone was able to get behind it very quickly. And we were actually able to solve problems and put in place new programs and new policies ridiculously quickly. Never waste a good crisis.”
Despite adversity, the startup has started true to its mission and transitioned to digital and socially distanced training, and built a more robust system than before.
The future of food
Technology and data are a critical aspect of emerging agriculture trends. “Food is a $12 trillion industry,” Peggs states. “There's about 20 companies that have raised a bunch of money and are doing this stuff in America.”
“Indoor farming actually reminds me of the internet in the early '90s,” he says. “We know this thing is inevitable, but no one can quite yet tell you what shape it's going to take in the future. Indoor farming is like that. We're all helping each other figure out how this eventually feeds every consumer in the world.”
While innovation is budding, “The food system has to become a lot more responsible and sustainable,” Peggs says. “The current food system cannot feed the new future world, which has 10 billion people, 70% living in urban areas that are not near these industrial farms.”
We’ve seen changes over the last two decades with the organic food movement, which now grosses $25 to $30 billion annually, Tobias says. He thinks that Covid-19 will accelerate the shift towards healthy and sustainable food. “People were forced to stay at home and cook. You get more curious about the food that you're buying, and you observe how long it lasts in your refrigerator. You get more educated,” Tobias says. “We are in the first inning of indoor farming. We're just getting started.”
Lessons for entrepreneurs
With his experience from Square Roots and beyond, Tobias Peggs’ insights offer valuable lessons for entrepreneurs looking to Lead With We. Here are three teachings from Peggs on how to build a successful startup.
“Be prepared to be told, "No, we're not interested."
“You have to be a bit of a missionary and sign up for having a lot of stamina. Just be consistent with the drumbeat that this idea—no matter how crazy it might seem—you can do it.”
“There are going to be bumps in the road, there are going to be things that don't go quite right. If there's a shared purpose articulation of what the mission is, you move through those things and you make it happen. Purpose is a very powerful multiplier.”
Simon Mainwaring is the founder and CEO of We First, a strategic consultancy that accelerates growth and impact for purpose-driven brands by putting 'We' first. I specialize in brand strategy, culture building and impact storytelling for startups, high-growth companies, and Fortune 500 corporations. My national podcast is LeadWithWe.com on Spotify, Google and Apple. My book, We First: How brands and consumers use social media to build a better world is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon bestseller, and strategy+business named it the Best Business Marketing Book of the Year. I deliver keynotes, training, and workshops that help brands define, integrate and activate their purpose to drive growth and scale impact.
Visit SimonMainwaring.com for speaking and WeFirstBranding.com for consulting
Securing Food Supply For The Long Term
While officially classified by the United Nations as ‘food secure’, its arid climate and widespread desert conditions, mean that the GCC is heavily dependent on food imports to meet local demand. In the UAE for instance, nearly 90 percent of demand is met through imports.
The region’s dependence on imports is a significant food security risk to the region. The Covid-19 pandemic has further exposed the vulnerabilities of the global food supply chain, making it clear that any long-term disruptions to global food networks could have catastrophic consequences.
Investing in food security
Even before Covid-19, the region’s food industry was undergoing radical transformation as governments implemented new strategies in response to population growth and climate change, while producers were reacting to rapidly changing consumer behavior, and the need for greater efficiency and sustainability.
To counter the effects of the region’s arid climate, the UAE, along with other governments in the region, has invested in cutting-edge food production and distribution techniques such as hydroponics and vertical farming, smart irrigation, and aquaponics. And it is clear that advanced technologies such as robotics and AI offer exciting new opportunities for the food F&B sector.
Building food security
Countries that have steadily worked towards strengthening their internal production capabilities and logistics networks over recent years find themselves much better placed to ride out the crisis. This is evidenced by the relative ease with which GCC governments were able to manage food demand during the pandemic.
Securing Supply, the latest briefing paper produced by MEED in partnership with Dubai-based Mashreq Bank, discusses the food security strategies underway in the GCC and Egypt, including the shifting focus on self-sufficiency in sectors such as fisheries, dairy, and poultry; enhancing in-country reserves; and growing investments in agricultural technology.
Download the paper here.
29 Mar 2021
Sustainable Agriculture Technology Can Help Egypt’s Water Crisis
Suweilem said hydroponics is an ideal way to deal with water scarcity and climate change, stressing the need for Arab countries that suffer from a shortage of agricultural lands due to their desert nature, including Egypt, to rely on this type of agriculture
The project of an Egyptian student consisting of using the Sinai environment for sustainable agriculture with the use of less water may be a solution to Egypt’s water scarcity problem.
A picture shows the UAE's al-Badia Farms in Dubai, an indoor vertical farm using innovative hydroponic technology to grow fruits and vegetables all year round, on August 4, 2020. - Badia Farms is the Middle East's Based in downtown Dubai, the farms ground-breaking methods sustainably grow crops without sunlight, soil or pesticides. The farm uses 90% less water compared to open field farming. The companys vision is to revolutionise the agricultural industry in Middle East to provide a solution for the regions food security. Photo by KARIM SAHIB/AFP via Getty Images.
March 6, 2021
Egyptian student Nada Ayman's project dubbed the Cultural Desert Gravity Center uses the Sinai environment as its main agricultural tool. It also won the 36th Cycle at the 2020 World Architecture Festival.
The project — designed to be built as a cultural center in Wadi el-Weshwash in the town of Nuweiba in south Sinai — uses the surrounding environment, including the mountains, to build an integrated center providing organic nutritional products and natural herbs used in manufacturing medicines and fragrance products. A tourist and entertainment complex offering various educational and entertainment activities is also on the horizon, said Ayman.
Ayman, a student at the Faculty of Applied Arts at Zagazig University, told Al-Monitor via phone she chose the project based on the spiritual meaning of mountains.
She noted, “I was nominated by my professors to participate in the architecture competition. The World Architecture Festival has been in place since 2006, and it has a section dedicated to interior design.”
Ayman said the project consists of a hydroponic farm, which is a system to grow crops without soil. The roots of the plants grow in a liquid nutrient solution that is recycled and reused repeatedly through plants. The hydroponic farm produces medicinal plants, used in the manufacture of medicine, and crops that bear fruit to be served with meals in the farm’s restaurant.
Ayman added, “This type of agriculture uses 70% less water than regular agriculture to produce 100% organic products without using soil or fertilizers. Edible products are served at the restaurant of the farm, while herbal and fragrance products are used to manufacture therapeutic oil for the therapeutic center.”
She chose Wadi el-Weshwash because it is located next to a region of rich valleys whose water and minerals can be utilized in organic agriculture.
The design of the complex features a library, a restaurant and an art studio, Ayman said, noting that the design reached the final stage of the competition and was chosen among five others.
Atef Suweilem, a professor of agricultural engineering at Zagazig University, said the hydroponic agricultural method consists of either growing the seeds of plants or herbs in a nutritive water solution containing the main 12 to 16 nutrients plants need — or growing the plants in an inert solid material so they do not interact with the nutritive solution. Using this method does not require the use of chemical fertilizers, the surplus of which usually seeps into the soil in traditional agriculture, according to Suweilem.
Hydroponic agriculture also protects the plants from pests that live in the soil, as is the case in traditional agriculture, he said, adding that ancient Egyptians were the first to know hydroponics, and perhaps the papyrus plant is the most prominent example of this type of agriculture.
Suweilem said hydroponics is an ideal way to deal with water scarcity and climate change, stressing the need for Arab countries that suffer from a shortage of agricultural lands due to their desert nature, including Egypt, to rely on this type of agriculture.
Yasser Ahmed, an expert in agriculture and a former professor at the Egyptian Agricultural Research Center, stressed the need for Egypt to turn to hydroponics in the near future, as it helps save water and energy and increases productivity. Ahmed said hydroponic agriculture uses 95% less water compared to traditional agriculture. Leaf crops consume about 30% less water than traditional agriculture, and if the cultivation of these crops is expanded on the hydroponic farm, that method can be used widely, he said.
“This is the future of agriculture. We do not want to depend on imports. We hope we will have local production throughout the year, regardless of climate change, weather, rain or drought,” Ahmed said.
Of all sectors in Egypt, the agricultural sector consumes the largest share of water — meaning it consumes roughly more than 85% of the country’s share of irrigation water. Although Egypt has lost some of its fertile lands due to urban sprawl, there is an attempt to balance this through the expansion of agricultural areas in the desert. The total cultivated land was estimated at 9.3 million acres — 3.2 million acres of which are in lands recently reclaimed by the state and 6.9 million acres in other lands, according to the latest 2019 statistics of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics.
Agriculture is essential to the Egyptian economy, as its added-value represents about 14.5% of the gross domestic product. In 2016, agricultural income reached 256.9 billion Egyptian pounds ($16.3 billion). The sector also employs 29.6% of the working population and represents 11% of all exports. Because of the water shortage, the government issued measures in January 2018 to limit the cultivation of water-intensive crops such as rice.
Rasha Mahmoud
@R_ma7moud200
TOPICS COVERED Agriculture and farming Water Issues Sinai
Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2021/03/egypt-project-agriculture-sinai-water-scarcity-crisis.html#ixzz6oQLQrjPl
AUSTRALIA: Food In The Capital
Canberra’s first ever sustainable food event is here. Starting on 17 November 2020, Canberra will play host to Food in the Capital, a first of its kind, sustainable food conference program
Shayna Siakimotu 17 November 2020
Where:
Online and Kambri ANU
When:
17 November 2020, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
18 May 2021, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
16 November 2021, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Canberra’s First Ever Sustainable Food Event Is Here
Starting on 17 November 2020, Canberra will play host to Food in the Capital, a first-of-its kind, sustainable food conference program.
The 3-event series, scheduled across 12 months, set out to connect people from across the industry including farmers, food businesses and manufacturers, community groups, thought leaders and policy makers.The focus will be on food production, consumption and technology and is the first of its kind in the region.
Tickets starting $297 and are for all 3 events.
17 Nov '20 | 18 May '21 | 16-17 Nov '21
The three events set out to connect people from across the industry including farmers, food businesses and manufacturers, community groups, thought leaders and policy makers.
Improvements to our Food System envisaged at FIC could conservatively:
Generate up to 3,000 jobs for the local economy.
Reduce Canberran’s grocery costs by $200 million.
View the program and speakers online and get your tickets today!
Join Canberra’s first ever sustainable food event, starting 17 November 2020. Photo: Supplied.
The Details
What: Food in the Capital – Sustainable food event
When: 17 November 2020, 18 May 2021, 16 November 2021
Where: Online and Kambri Centre ANU, Acton ACT 2601
Cost: Tickets start from $297 (+ booking fee) and covers entry to all 3 events. Single event tickets are not available
For more information, visit Food in the Capital.
It's Hard To Grow Vegetables In This Mountain Town. Then This Farmer Had An Idea
Operating an indoor farm in the snowy northwest corner of Wyoming wasn't exactly the job Yehia had envisioned for herself years ago. In 2008, after the New York City-based architect moved to Jackson to start a new firm, Yehia wanted to try something innovative in her new community
By Jeremy Harlan, CNN
September 14, 2020
Jackson, Wyoming (CNN) It was a no-brainer when it came to finding the best job for Ty Warner.
"Ty is our tomato guy," said Nona Yehia, co-founder and CEO of Vertical Harvest, an innovative three-story greenhouse in downtown Jackson, Wyoming.
Nona Yehia, the founder of Vertical Harvest in Jackson, Wyoming.
As she watched the slender 6'5" Warner carefully weave his way through a towering canopy of plants, pulling ripe tomatoes hanging above, Yehia smiled with pride. "Ty is good at every part of growing tomato plants. It is really impressive."
Operating an indoor farm in the snowy northwest corner of Wyoming wasn't exactly the job Yehia had envisioned for herself years ago. In 2008, after the New York City-based architect moved to Jackson to start a new firm, Yehia wanted to try something innovative in her new community.
"We really wanted to address the local sustainable source of food," she said.
The idea To Go Up
Jackson sits at an elevation just over 6,000 feet, nestled between Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and the Teton National Forest, and its location means there is very little space and conducive weather for farmers to grow fresh produce for the bustling tourist town.
"We came together to look for an out-of-the-box solution and that's where the idea to go up came from," Yehia said.
"Up" was on a 1/10 of an acre lot abutting an existing parking garage.
In July, Nona Yehia, CEO and co-founder of Vertical Harvest, announced a second vertical farm in Westbrook, Maine. The second Vertical Harvest will be five times larger than the original Wyoming farm and will open in 2022.
In the spring of 2016, Vertical Harvest began growing its first lettuce, microgreens, and tomato plants. The farm's current staff of 40 now grows year-round and cultivates the amount of produce equivalent to ten acres of traditional outdoor farming.
Yehia says all of the produce grown is distributed to 40 local restaurants and four grocery stores.
"Nona has approached it as bringing something unique to chefs that they then can use and feature all year round," said Ben Westenburg, the executive chef and partner of Persephone West Bank in nearby Wilson, Wyoming. "It's just so easy to call up Vertical Harvest and be like, 'I need some salad greens and tomatoes and some really beautiful microgreens.' And they're like, 'Okay, we'll be there tomorrow.'"
'We're pairing innovation with an underserved population'
Ty Warner, a Vertical Harvest employee, is tasked with picking and pruning hundreds of the indoor farm's tomato plants.
While planning for a new greenhouse, Yehia and her design team realized they had to do more with the project than just grow fresh greens for locals.
"There was a bigger problem," Yehia said. "People with physical and intellectual disabilities in our town who wanted to work, who wanted to find consistent and meaningful work, were not able to do so. We're pairing innovation with an under-served population and really creating a sea change of perception of what this population is able to do."
Half of Vertical Harvest's workers have physical or intellectual disabilities. Yehia, whose older brother is disabled, says every single employee, including Warner -- who is autistic -- is critical to keeping Vertical Harvest functioning.
"We can empower the most under-served in our communities just by giving them a chance and giving them something to be able to give back to," Yehia explained.
"It's hard for people with disabilities to find a job," says Sean Stone, who used to wash dishes at several restaurants in town before joining Vertical Harvest as a farmer. "I'm glad to help the community and grown them fresh produce to have."
Growing beyond Wyoming
In July, Yehia announced Vertical Harvest would be expanding to serve a second community. The new farm located in Westbrook, Maine, will open in 2022 and will be five times larger than the original Wyoming greenhouse.
The goal is to grow a million pounds of produce each year for local restaurants, grocery stores, hospitals, and schools.
Mycah Miller, a Vertical Harvest employee, packages lettuce greens to be delivered to one of four grocery stores the vertical farm services in Jackson, Wyoming.
"In moving to Maine and having a much larger space, we're excited to play out the model of providing local produce at an urban scale," she says.
Yehia believes the global pandemic this year has forced consumers and communities around the country to explore new ways to get fresher produce from closer sources.
"COVID has shined a spotlight on what we knew ten years ago when we were looking at this vertical model: We have a centralized food system and it's kept us from getting fresh, local, good-tasting food," Yehia said. "I think Covid-19 has forced people to ask why that is and how they now can get locally-grown food they like in the summertime and get it year-round. It's exactly what Vertical Harvest is about."
Latest ZipGrow Inc. Product Introduces Vertical Indoor Farming To New Growers
Controlled Environmental Agriculture (CEA) is currently undergoing an upturn in public interest as the general population begins to appreciate the importance of locally produced food from sustainable sources
September 9, 2020
ONTARIO, CA - Controlled Environmental Agriculture (CEA) is currently undergoing an upturn in public interest as the general population begins to appreciate the importance of locally produced food from sustainable sources. ZipGrow Inc.’s new product offering, the Introduction to Commercial Growing package, is designed to make commercial growing more accessible to farmers and businesses wanting to get into the CEA industry.
“As interest grows in improving food security, we wanted to make commercial growing more accessible to newcomers to the hydroponics world”, explains Eric Lang, President of ZipGrow Inc. “This new package is an accessible, and affordable entry-level product for anyone interested in testing out if controlled environmental agriculture is right for them.”
The new product package includes a discounted set of everything you need to get started, including 90 patented 8’ ZipGrow™ Towers, steel ZipRacks, LED growing lights, a seedling area, a comprehensive plumbing system, and an automatic doser from Atom Controllers. This package is not only all-inclusive, but also modular to be able to expand as the operation grows.
“This package can set someone up to produce up to 100 pounds of leafy greens or herbs such as lettuce or basil each week, and is a great way to test a pilot system in your local community”, adds Lang. “Since the start of COVID-19 we have seen interest in sustainable food sources skyrocket, and this is one way we are trying to encourage more people to see if hydroponic farming is right for them.”
The Introduction to Commercial Growing package has a flat rate shipping option for all locations within Canada and the continental United States, with shipping to other locations available at custom rates. The package will be fully installed on-site, with costs varying dependent on location. ZipGrow team members will work with customers to ensure the product is the right fit for them and ensure all training and ongoing education needs are fulfilled.
ZipGrow Inc. is an international leader in indoor, vertical farming technology. Our flagship product, the ZipGrow™ Tower, is a core component of many of the world’s most innovative farms; from indoor hydroponic warehouses to vertical aquaponic greenhouses and high-density container farms.
For more information contact Gina Scandrett at hello@zipgrow.com or at 1-855-ZIPGROW.
Scottish Agritech Firm Has The World In Its Sights With Appointment of Global Projects Director
Kathleen Honeyman joins IGS to drive vertical farm implementation worldwide
Kathleen Honeyman joins IGS to drive vertical farm implementation worldwide
Edinburgh, Scotland – 01 September 2020 – Edinburgh-based agritech and smart spaces business, IGS, has welcomed Kathleen Honeyman to its management team as Global Projects Director. Her appointment marks a significant step-change in the company’s development as it moves to deliver vertical farms to customers around the world.
The new role will see Kathleen take overall leadership of the successful delivery of each IGS-built vertical farm worldwide, engaging closely with our deployment and supply chain partners. Kathleen will build an international team of project managers to ensure the resource and skills within IGS to deliver extremely precise systems to a very high-quality threshold.
South African-born Kathleen has lived in Scotland for more than 18 years. She joins IGS from Edinburgh Airport where she was Senior Project Manager, taking overall responsibility for the end-to-end management of all IT Projects including a variety of strategic operational, financial, and compliance-specific assignments. Prior to that, she held project management roles at Royal Bank of Scotland and Scottish Water.
Reflecting on her decision to join IGS, Kathleen commented: “The chance to be part of this exciting sector, in a company as innovative and forward thinking as IGS, is an opportunity that I am delighted to accept. The team is ambitious and excited about its future ambitions, not just in the deployment of our solutions, but also the wider impact of supporting globally sustainable food supply chains. My role will be heavily focused on meeting those ambitions – something I am really proud to be able to support.”
IGS CEO, David Farquhar, continued: “Kathleen is a strategic hire for IGS and we’re delighted to have her join the team. We are currently facing what is simultaneously the most exciting and challenging phase of IGS’ history to date: rolling out our vertical farms to customers across the globe. Having a person of Kathleen’s calibre and experience to help drive our deployments forward, utilising globally recognised best practice, will provide confidence to our customers in committing to buying IGS farms. In turn, this will help support the supplier commitments to their off-takers.
“As an organisation, we’ve always prided ourselves on going above and beyond, continuously innovating and never resting on our laurels, and we want our customers to know that the same applies to the way in which we deliver farms in the field. Kathleen is ideally qualified to help us continue to deliver outstanding service on a global scale.”
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 and people alike.
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.
The Science of Sananbio - Research and Development
Led by a team of 38 scientists and another 100 R&D professionals, Sananbio is investing heavily in the science that is sustainable, local, and fresh indoor food and crop production. With deep expertise in photobiology, plant nutrition, and plant cultivation techniques, we are at the forefront of sustainable indoor agriculture.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Led by a team of 38 scientists and another 100 R&D professionals, Sananbio is investing heavily in the science that is sustainable, local, and fresh indoor food and crop production. With deep expertise in photobiology, plant nutrition, and plant cultivation techniques, we are at the forefront of sustainable indoor agriculture.
PHOTOBIOLOGY/SPECTRAL RESEARCH
Photobiology is an evolving area of science that studies the interactions of light on living organisms. One of Sananbio’s core focuses is the optimization of lighting spectrum’s that allow plants to thrive at all stages of growth. Through the latest’s developments in LED lighting technology in conjunction with years of scientific research, Sananbio is working to understand the synergy that exists between artificial light and plants. Our unique spectra has been trialed on a multitude of cultivars and our results have shown that by optimizing the spectrum based off of the cultivar we are able to increase nutritional value, drive unique genetic expression, increase active naturally occurring chemical compounds, and shorten flowering times.
PLANT NUTRITION
Sananbio’s team of elite plant scientist’s have worked tirelessly to develop proprietary nutrient blends that support a wide array of cultivars at different life stages of growth while growing in a controlled environment setting. With so much of our food today lacking proper nutritional value, our team is working to understand the most effective way grow nutritionally dense food sustainably in a indoor vertical farm. This cutting-edge science will lead to breakthroughs in the way we grow our food, how and when it is consumed, how it is transported to ensure maximum nutritional value.
VERTICAL FARM DESIGN and SUPPORT EQUIPMENT RESEARCH
With a team of scientists, senior designers, engineers, and product developers solely dedicated to understanding building the eco-systems that support thriving vertical farms, Sananbio is positioned at the fore-front of the science of vertical farming design and plant factory operations. We are focused on providing a holistic solution that allows us to partner with our clients from the ideation phase to the execution of their indoor vertical farm. Our research has given way to various patents in areas of plant growth illumination, hydroponic cultivation equipment, and accessories/equipment for industrial plant production. Great grow technology and equipment is just one aspect that must be taken in to account when venturing in to indoor vertical farming. Know before you grow.
THE TECHNOLOGY BEHIND SANANBIO
INNOVATION AT OUR CORE
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT THAT IS DRIVING INNOVATION IN LED LIGHTING
Manufacturing Capacity
Sanan Opto-electronics, a sister company of Sananbio, is the world’s largest LED chip manufacturer accounting for 20% of the global chip production capacity. Sanan Group, our parent company, has built the infrastructure that allows Sananbio to capitalize upon cutting-edge technology development while providing the production capacity to support global market adoption of our technologies in the Ag-Tech space.
Vertical Integration
The vertical integration of the Sanan Group gives Sananbio a massive competitive advantage by allowing us to control our supply chain. This insight and perspective gives us unmatched flexibility in to our production capacity, global reach, and technological know-how. The diversity of industries we support gives us the versatility to respond to rapidly evolving markets as consumer demands shift.
Research and Development
A subset of the semiconductor industry, LED technology is incredibly research and development intensive sector and Sanan Opto is a global leader in this space. With 470 PhD’s and 502 engineers from all over the world, Sanan Opto possess the largest talent pool in the world dedicated to active research into LED technology.