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They Left The City To Start A Farm, And This New Wave of Farmers Is Urban-Raised, University-Educated And Committed To Environmental Practices
Many have chosen to leave the city to improve work-life balance, have more space or find more affordable housing. Choosing to leave the city to switch careers and become farmers? Yes, this is also happening.
By Cristina Petrucci
July 20, 2021
Many have chosen to leave the city to improve work-life balance, have more space or find more affordable housing. Choosing to leave the city to switch careers and become farmers? Yes, this is also happening.
Going from urbanite to full-fledged farmer is one giant leap of faith. A 2018 Statistics Canada report said that the proportion of younger people and women taking up farming has increased.
The profile of the typical Canadian farmer is changing. These new farmers are typically urban-raised, university-educated, and have a strong commitment to environmental and sustainable practices. And many do not have a family history or background in farming.
“I never had a green thumb,” said Aminah Haghighi. “I could barely keep houseplants alive.” Haghighi is the founder and head lettuce of Raining Gold Family Growers, established in January 2021 and based in Hillier, Prince Edward County. She is currently farming a quarter of an acre and has a direct-to-consumer sales approach. Starting in January, Haghighi had to be quick on her feet to determine what she could sell at that time.
“I came up with the idea of selling microgreens as that is something you can grow indoors under lights on shelves,” she said. Her efforts paid off. She had a total of 80 CSA (community-supported agriculture) subscribers and raised just under $10,000 in revenue. “That was the first time I felt connected with the community, because they wanted to see me succeed,” she says.
Ultimately, what led her to become a farmer is her keen ability to solve problems and to do it as quickly as possible.
Oh, and the pandemic also played a major role.
“A few weeks before the first lockdown in Ontario, my second daughter was born,” she explained. “Everything was slowly coming to a halt all over the world, and I didn’t really know what grocery stores would look like and we all thought the world was basically ending.” That’s when Haghighi decided to rip up the grass in her Toronto home and start growing in her small backyard garden.
Providing food security for her family during the whirlwind that was the first few months of the pandemic, and having something of her own, was why she started gardening. “As a mom who had no control over my body or control over my time, this was sort of a way to regain control in my life.”
Questions of food security and sustainability also crossed Judy Ning’s mind during the initial months of the pandemic. Along with her husband Hans and their two children, they left Montreal to pursue their dream of having a homestead.
“Our hospitality business took a major hit, and we made the decision to give that up, sell our house, and chase our dream 10 years ahead of time,” Ning writes.
Paper Kite Farm was born in February 2021 with their first seedlings and, in June, they started selling their garden veggies and ready-made meals and beverages at the Picton Farmers’ Market every Sunday.
Their farm is situated in North Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, and the Ning family are currently farming a quarter of an acre while also raising laying hens.
Ning had a rural upbringing and is ethnically Hmong, a hill tribe people. “We are found all over Southeast Asia and my parents were born in Laos,” said Ning. “Farming was and still is a huge part of the Hmong culture. While I didn’t always appreciate the garden in my youth, I’m now doing my best to tap back into my heritage.”
Her husband, Hans, is of Tawainese heritage and, as such, the Ning family are growing several Asian varietals in their row beds, such as bok choy, mizuna, napa cabbages and yard long beans. They are also growing berries and fruits in their food forest and permaculture beds.
The path to farming is not easy. The uncertainties and lack of control when dealing with crops have created pangs of self-doubt. “I want to quit everyday,” said Haghighi. “Ten times a day I’m like ‘Oh my God, what am I doing?’ but then 25 times a day I think this is totally what I’m supposed to be doing.”
On the operational front, issues like tackling insects without the use of pesticides, choosing the right soil for seedlings and managing the upfront costs of equipment are hard to ignore.
“In the early days getting financing was one of the biggest hurdles that we faced,” said Stephanie Laing. Laing and her partner, Heather Coffey, founded Fiddlehead Farm in 2012 and grow more than 50 types of vegetables year-round in their market garden of 10 acres in Demorestville, Prince Edward County.
Laing found that most lending institutions were used to farms that were “hundreds to thousands of acres” in size, not the smaller operations such as Fiddlehead.
Fortunately, Laing and Coffey could rely on the assistance of their families to co-sign the mortgage on their farm. They also relied on grants, which they’ve taken advantage of for some early infrastructure, such as their wash station, irrigation pond and some equipment.
It had always been a goal for Laing and Coffey to start a farm. With their respective environmental studies and landscape ecology background, as well as “WWOOF-ing” (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) for two years, they felt ready. They decided to settle in Prince Edward County to be midway between their families in Newmarket and Montreal.
“I think for our first six to eight years we didn’t take a single vacation; we just worked non-stop,” said Laing. She recalled how “overeager” they were initially, adding a flock of laying hens and a handful of pigs along with turkeys and ducks. Financially that was not viable, so they focused solely on their market garden and increasing their CSA membership.
Despite the hurdles in their early years, Laing is satisfied with where they are now. “I am happy with what I do for a living,” she said, “I would love it if it paid a bit better, but I really enjoy the work.”
With almost 10 years running their farm, Laing’s advice for new farmers, or those looking to become farmers, is to treat it as a business. “One of the reasons we have been successful is because we have always paid really close attention to our finances.” They’ve always “planned down to the penny,” ensuring that their farm is both survivable and sustainable.
They are now able to enjoy the fruits of their labour and set money aside to invest for things down the road, like getting the farm to be as off grid as possible.
She encourages new farmers to ask themselves what they want from the farm: to either work full- or part-time for it. “It’s a business and it’s also really involved with your life, and you need to think of those two things together,” she adds.
“I have a crazy amount of people that message me all the time saying that I’m living the dream and they wish they could do what I’m doing,” said Haghighi.
MALAYSIA: Turn Empty Spaces Into Urban Farms To Grow Food
WITH the Covid-19 pandemic highlighting the importance of food self-sufficiency, it is probably time for Malaysians to turn empty urban spaces into farms. Urban farming is the practice of cultivating, processing and distributing food in or around urban areas
17 Apr 2021
WITH the Covid-19 pandemic highlighting the importance of food self-sufficiency, it is probably time for Malaysians to turn empty urban spaces into farms. Urban farming is the practice of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in or around urban areas.
Although our country is rich in natural resources, we are still highly dependent on high-value imported foods. Currently, our self-sufficiency level (SSL) for fruits, vegetables, and meat products is 78.4%, 44.6%, and 22.9% respectively.
With a lower occupancy rate in both retail and office space after businesses folded due to the pandemic, property owners could perhaps be induced into redeveloping their buildings for urban or vertical farming. This is being done in Singapore with tremendous success.
According to the National Property Information Centre (Napic), the occupancy rate for shopping malls in Malaysia has dropped steadily for five consecutive years, declining from 79.2% in 2019 to 77.5% in 2020, the lowest level since 2003.
And, according to the Valuation and Property Services Department (JPPH), the occupancy rate for privately-owned office buildings is lower now compared to the pre-pandemic era.
Aquaponics, a pesticide-free farming method that combines aquaculture (raising fish) and hydroponics (growing plants without soil), would be one of the ways forward in food production. In aquaponics, the nutrient rich aquaculture water is fed to the hydroponic-grown plant.
This method of farming could be the economic livelihood for many, particularly the underprivileged and disabled communities as well as fresh graduates who are still struggling to secure a decent job.
Sunway FutureX Farm, Kebun-Kebun Bangsar (KKB) and Urban Hijau are examples of good urban farming initiatives in the Kuala Lumpur city centre.
Perhaps Malaysians could adopt Singapore’s approach by setting up aquaponics farming systems on roofs of car parks and opening urban farms in unused buildings.
The vertical rooftop system is another way of increasing our food production capacity. This system requires only a quarter of the size of a traditional farm to produce the same quantity of vegetables. At the same time, it also reduces the need to clear land for agricultural use.
The government should provide incentives for farmers and the relevant stakeholders who are interested in venturing into urban farming. This would enhance the supply and affordability of a wide range of minimally processed plant-based foods, as suggested under the latest Malaysia Economic Monitor “Sowing the Seeds” report by the World Bank.
With the current administration’s laudable commitment to tackling food security issues, this would provide the opportunity for Malaysia to review the current national food security policy by addressing productivity, optimization of resources, sustainable consumption, climate change, and water and land scarcity. By putting greater emphasis on urban farming, the government could encourage farmers to plant more nutritious and higher-value crops.
Given that the involvement of youths in the agriculture sector is only 240,000 or just 15% of the total number of farmers in Malaysia, as noted by Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food Industries I Datuk Seri Ahmad Hamzah, the Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Ministry and Youth and Sports Ministry would need to come up with training programmes and develop grant initiatives to attract the younger generation to farming, in this case urban farming.
These ministries can also work with the Agriculture Department, Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi), and Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (Fama) to develop more comprehensive urban farming initiatives.
The upcoming 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) would also provide opportunities for the government to turn empty spaces into urban farming. In a nutshell, every Malaysian can do their part to help the country become more food resilient by converting empty spaces into farms.
Lead photo: Vertical farming systems can maximize use of space in an urban context.
AMANDA YEO
EMIR Research
Kuala Lumpur
TAGS / KEYWORDS: Letters & Opinion,
SINGAPORE: New Guidelines For Local Farms To Ensure Produce Is Safe, Sustainable
The guidelines are meant to assure consumers that produce from local vegetable farms is fresh, free from synthetic pesticides, and grown sustainably
The guidelines are meant to assure consumers that produce
from local vegetable farms are fresh, free from synthetic
pesticides, and grown sustainably
March 25, 2021
SINGAPORE - New guidelines to help local farms ensure the production of clean and green local produce were launched on Thursday (March 25).
They are meant to assure consumers that produce from local vegetable farms is fresh, free from synthetic pesticides, and grown sustainably - with efficient use of resources and without compromising the environment.
"SS 661: Specification for Clean and Green Urban Farms - Agriculture", the standard including the guidelines, was launched by the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) together with Enterprise Singapore, the Singapore Manufacturing Federation - Standards Development Organisation, and Republic Polytechnic (RP).
It contains criteria that urban vegetable farms have to meet in terms of farm management, techniques, and practices to achieve a clean and green production system.
A clean farm production system refers to one that does not use pollutive farm inputs, such as synthetic pesticides, and does not leave behind undesirable residue for consumers and the environment.
A green farm production system ensures the efficient use of farm inputs and natural resources, the recycling of farm waste to minimize the impact on the environment and ecosystem, as well as the optimization of farm production.
The criteria include minimum competency requirements for farm employees, plans for the responsible management of resources, green procurement practices and farm operations, as well as procedures for handling customer complaints, farm product recalls and conducting internal audits.
The standard will also help vegetable farms adopt smart farming techniques and practices to reduce wastage of resources, incorporate circularity in their resource management, and optimize operational efficiency.
Dr. Tan Lee Kim, SFA director-general of food administration and deputy chief executive, said these guidelines are timely, given the increasing challenges from climate change.
"(Climate change) can put a strain on food supply chains, including our local food production... The standard will be critical in ensuring our local farms employ farming practices that make efficient use of our resources to grow more in land-scarce Singapore and are sustainable in the long run," Dr. Tan said.
"As a result, local urban farms will be recognized for producing safe, quality food, using resource-efficient practices in a clean and sustainable environment. This will allow us to differentiate and brand local produce, further strengthening Singapore's reputation for quality produce as we work towards achieving our '30 by 30' goal."
The "30 by 30" goal is for Singapore to produce 30 percent of its nutritional needs locally by 2030.
The SFA will work with local farmers and industry players to promote and raise awareness of the standard.
RP will also launch a three-day training course from April to assist farms in adopting the standard.
Lead photo: by LIANHE ZAOBAO: The guidelines are meant to assure consumers that produce from local vegetable farms is fresh, free from synthetic pesticides, and grown sustainably.
Expansion Update: Introducing Vertical Harvest Philadelphia
Along with the farm already under development in Westbrook Maine, this Philadelphia greenhouse is part of our initiative to co-locate vertical farms with affordable housing in underserved communities across the nation
We Are Thrilled To Announce The Third Farm
Location For Vertical Harvest — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania!
The farm, scheduled to break ground later this year, will be part of the new Tioga District™ development — a federally qualified opportunity zone located in a food, health, and wellness desert in the upper north area of the city.
Stationed adjacent to the Temple University Health Sciences Campus and Temple University Hospital, the 70,000 square foot Vertical Harvest greenhouse will be part of the development’s Preventative Health Hub™ a 168,000-sq-foot, state-of-the-art national model for healthcare, health, and wellness with social impact.
Along with the farm already under development in Westbrook Maine, this Philadelphia greenhouse is part of our initiative to co-locate vertical farms with affordable housing in underserved communities across the nation. Specifically, this Philadelphia project will include an accompanying 50 affordable housing units for farmworkers.
Exciting New Development Partners
Our partners in the project are Greg Day, principal and manager of TDB, LLC based in Westbrook, Maine. and TPP Capital Holdings (TPP), a Philadelphia-based, Black-led social impact private equity fund manager and healthcare real estate development firm. TPP is on a mission to change the face of Black health by investing in and transforming blighted and underserved black neighborhoods into integrated and scalable wellness-centric districts over the next 10 years. TPP’s principals Anthony B. Miles and Clinton Bush are co-architects of the Tioga District Preventative Health Hub™.
Within a five-city square block area, the full Tioga District™ development will create 1,407 residential units for rent or sale, the preventative health hub, 172,870 square feet of commercial/office space, 107,000 square feet of retail space, and 92,392 square feet of pedestrian, streetscape and stormwater improvements.
The goal is to uplift Philadelphia’s distressed neighborhood of Tioga with an 85.5% black population, 45% high blood pressure rate, 43.3% obesity rate, 19.3% diabetes rate, 42% of people in poverty, $17,052 median household income, and an unemployment rate of 18%.
We are very proud that Vertical Harvest will be part of this incredible and forward-thinking development, says Nona Yehia, Vertical Harvest CEO. “Partnering with the visionaries at TPP, we hope to help address systemic inequities and facilitate change in underserved neighborhoods. Vertical Harvest’s reimagined food systems and the jobs they create can help these communities be more nourishing, resilient, and sustainable.”
FEBRUARY 15, 2021/BY DAWN HAGIN
Four Innovative Design Responses To The Climate Emergency
Design Emergency began as an Instagram Live series during the Covid-19 pandemic and is now becoming a wake-up call to the world, and compelling evidence of the power of design to effect radical and far-reaching change
October 4, 2020
Design Emergency began as an Instagram Live series during the Covid-19 pandemic and is now becoming a wake-up call to the world, and compelling evidence of the power of design to effect radical and far-reaching change. Co-founders Paola Antonelli and Alice Rawsthorn took over the October 2020 issue of Wallpaper* – available to download free here – to present stories of design’s new purpose and promise.
The redesigned System 001/B, The Ocean CleanupTragic, and destructive though the Covid-19 crisis has been, it is one of a tsunami of threats to assail us at the same time. A concise list of current calamities includes the global refugee crisis; spiraling inequality, injustice and poverty; terrifying terrorist attacks and killing sprees; seemingly unstoppable conflicts; and, of course, the climate emergency. Since the start of the pandemic, global outrage against systemic racism following the tragic killing of George Floyd, and the destruction of much of Beirut have joined the list. Design is not a panacea to any of these problems, but it is a powerful tool to help us to tackle them, which is why Paola Antonelli and Alice Rawsthorn are focusing Design Emergency on the most promising global efforts to redesign and reconstruct our lives for the future.
Thankfully, there are plenty of resourceful, ingenious, inspiring, and empathetic design projects to give grounds for optimism. Take the climate emergency, where design innovations on all fronts: from the generation of clean, renewable energy, to new forms of sustainable food growing, and rewilding programs are already making a significant difference to the quality of the environment.
Here Are Four of Paola Antonelli And Alice Rawsthorn’s
Favorite Design Responses To The Ecological Crisis
Urban farm
Photography: © Nature Urbaine
Looming beside the Porte de Versailles subway station in south-west Paris is the colossal exhibition venue Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. By the time it hosts the handball and table tennis events in the Paris 2024 Olympics, Paris Expo will also be the home of Agripolis, the largest urban farm in Europe. Agripolis already operates other urban farms in Paris and occupies 4,000 sq m of Paris Expo’s roof. Over the next two years, it plans to expand across another 10,000 sq m, to produce up to 1,000kg of fresh fruit and vegetables each day using organic methods and a team of 20 farmers. The produce will be sold to shops, cafés, and hotels in the local area, while local residents will also be able to rent wooden crates on the roof to grow their own fruit and vegetables. Once it is completed, Agripolis’ gigantic rooftop farm at Paris Expo should place the Ville de Paris’ program of encouraging urban agriculture at the forefront of global developments in greening our cities.
The Ocean Cleanup
The redesigned System 001/B, The Ocean Cleanup
Scientists claimed that it wouldn’t work. Environmentalists warned that it risked damaging marine life. Few design projects of recent years have been as fiercely criticized as the Ocean Cleanup, the Dutch social enterprise founded in 2013 by Boyan Slat, who quit his degree in design engineering to try to tackle one of the biggest pollution problems of our time by clearing the plastic trash that is poisoning our oceans. Despite its critics and a series of setbacks, notably, when the original rig had to be towed back to San Francisco to resolve technical problems, the Ocean Cleanup has persevered. The redesigned System 001/B (pictured top) successfully completed its trials in the Pacific last year, and System 002 is scheduled for launch next year. The Ocean Cleanup has also developed a parallel project, The Interceptor, a solar-powered catamaran with a trash-collecting system designed specifically for rivers, and which can extract 50,000kg of plastic per day.
The Great Green Wall
Photography: The Great Green Wall of the Sahara and Sahel © UNCCD
Few regions are hotter, drier, and poorer than the Sahel, on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. The brutal climate has wrought devastating damage in recent decades by causing droughts, famine, conflicts, poverty, and mass migration. The Great Green Wall is an epically ambitious project launched in 2007 by the 21 countries in the Sahel to restore the land by planting an 8,000km strip of trees and plants from the Atlantic coast of Senegal to Djibouti on the Red Sea. The practical work on the Great Green Wall, which is run as an African-led collective supported by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, is executed by each of the 21 countries. So far, more than 1,200km of greenery has been planted, although the focus of the project is less on the progress of the wall itself than on its impact in persuading each country in the Sahel region to transform what has become arid desert back into fertile farmland.
Zero-waste village
Photography: © Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty Images
This was to have been the year when the people of Kamikatsu, a village on the Japanese island of Shikoku, would achieve their goal of becoming a zero-waste community. The 1,500 villagers may struggle to produce no waste at all in 2020 but will come impressively close to doing so in a 20-year experiment that demonstrates the contribution a resourceful group of individuals can make to curb the climate emergency. The initiative began in 2000 when the local government ordered the closure of Kamikatsu’s incinerator. Rather than ship their waste elsewhere, the villagers took a collective decision to reduce and, eventually, eliminate it. They opened a Zero Waste Academy, where waste is sorted into 45 categories for reuse or recycling. Anything sellable is dispatched to a recycling store; fabric is upcycled at the craft center. The villagers have now eliminated over 80 percent of their waste, but are still struggling to recycle leather shoes, nappies, and a few other tricky exceptions.
US (MI): Detroit Indoor Farm Will Deliver 1000 Ready-To-Eat Salads A Day
Planted Detroit is a controlled environment vertical farm, run by five enthusiastic entrepreneurial growers. “As a team, we’re trying to make the best decisions for the plants, the company, and our community,” Meg Burritt, managing partner of business development, says
Planted Detroit is a controlled environment vertical farm, run by five enthusiastic entrepreneurial growers. “As a team, we’re trying to make the best decisions for the plants, the company, and our community,” Meg Burritt, managing partner of business development, says.
“Planted Detroit’s salads are a unique product, including our own baby greens, microgreens, and herbs. It basically takes salads to another level”, Simon Yevzelman, managing partner of biosecurity, says. The indoor farm produces all kinds of baby greens. “We’re not doing head lettuces just yet. We are in R&D with edible flowers, so hopefully, in a few months we’ll be growing those, too,” said Burritt. The company is aiming to differentiate baby greens from fully grown produce of the same species, through an analysis of the nutritional makeup of the greens Planted Detroit has grown. “We want to differentiate ourselves from the competition, large scale soil growers.”
Planted Detroit’s ‘power lunch salad’
Scaling up
“Our CEO, Tom, started this farm for a number of reasons, one being he saw the lack of variety in fresh produce available in grocery stores and the poor quality of what was available. [Tom] knew that he would be able to deliver better greens, grown in a way that is additive to the food system – not extractive. Soon, we will figure out to scale that effectively,” Burritt says. Planted Detroit is currently constructing new grow rooms in their facility, in part utilizing technology from a long-term partner, AmHydro. “Joe Schwartz, CEO of AmHydro, has been a great help to us.” The company is getting a new automated cultivation system that will be fully automating the production area. “Now is the time to invest in our systems and infrastructure. The new construction will deliver 1000 ready-to-eat salads a day. We’ve taken a pro-active approach since the beginning of the pandemic,” Yevzelman notes.
A full view of the farm
“We are excited about the upcoming months because construction will come to a close. We built a firm consumer base over the past few years, so when launching direct-to-consumer salads we had a good starting market share. The farm is small-scale right now and we sell out everything we grow. Ultimately, there will be more greens to sell and we can satisfy more customers. However, we know the current risks and we’re fully anticipating a second wave [of Covid-19]. Now, we are definitely strategizing, trying to stay sustainable through this time, through direct customer engagement and social media sharing,” Burritt states.
Increase of local demand
There is noticeably more demand for fresh produce in South East Michigan and throughout the state. “The pandemic shut everything down and showed how we are really interdependent on others. Local produce supply keeps us safer and is a more secure food supply. We hope to see more of this demand as our produce is way fresher and more delicious. The great thing is that individual consumers are becoming more aware of that,” Burritt notes. Yevzelman shares, ”we maintained our production capacity throughout the pandemic, so we could continue to sell direct to local Detroit consumers without pause.”
Racks stacked with microgreens
Ups and downs
The past few months have been a rollercoaster for Planted Detroit. Before COVID-19 the company sold its produce to restaurant partners, but when restaurants were shut down they had to make some changes. “All the [Covid-19 cases] going on the East Coast back then, made us pivot the business the model. Thankfully, we had a backup plan in our back pocket as we anticipated on all changes happening,” Burritt says. The company already had strict food safety measures in place, which also work against the virus. “We built the company around food safety and our employees have always been more conscious of hygiene,” Yevzelman says. Production was not scaled back as a result of the pandemic and safety procedures were followed up tightly. The company obtained certifications to sell their fresh produce directly to consumers. A well-known partner of the company, Skidmore Studio, launched a fresh food e-commerce website, MichiganFields.com, during the peak of COVID-19 shutdowns in March. Planted Detroit has been selling the platform ever since.
Back on track
“The sales had been relatively steady, but they really popped up during the pandemic”, Burritt adds. So far, Planted Detroit still sells through MichiganFields.com and directly to consumers, including home delivery. Next to that, their greens are sold at Detroit’s Eastern Market at the Tuesday market and through fresh produce boxes, in combination with other fresh produce, for people who don’t want to be exposed to the virus while grocery shopping. This month, the company is back to normal production. “It’s business as usual for us again. Just this week restaurants started calling us for produce again. [Adding in restaurants again] will be a perfect customer mix for us, especially after the construction,” Burritt notes.
For more information:
Planted Detroit
Megan Burritt, Managing Partner of Business Development
Simon Yevzelman, Managing Partner of Biosecurity
admin@planteddetroit.com
www.planteddetroit.com
Publication date: Wed 22 Jul 2020
Author: Rebekka Boekhout
© HortiDaily.com
The Largest Urban Rooftop Farm In The World is Now Bearing Fruit (and More) in Paris
The largest urban rooftop farm in the world uses vertical growing techniques to create fruits and vegetables right in the center of Paris without the use of pesticides, refrigerated trucks, chemical fertilizer, or even soil
By Good News Network -Jul 17, 2020
Getting fresh produce into the heart of a major city used to be done by a fleet of rumbling, polluting trucks—now it’s a matter of bringing it down from the roof.
The largest urban rooftop farm in the world uses vertical growing techniques to create fruits and vegetables right in the center of Paris without the use of pesticides, refrigerated trucks, chemical fertilizer, or even soil.
Nature Urbaine uses aeroponic techniques that are now supplying produce to local residents, including nearby hotels, catering halls, and more. For a price of 15 euro, residents can order a basket of produce online containing a large bouquet of mint or sage, a head of lettuce, various young sprouts, two bunches of radishes and one of chard, as well as a jar of jam or puree.“
The composition may change slightly depending on the harvest,” Sophie Hardy, director of Nature Urbaine, tells French publication Agri City. Growing on 3.4 acres, about the size of two soccer pitches, atop the Paris Exhibition Center, they are also producing about 150 baskets of strawberries, as well as aubergines, tomatoes, and more.
Speaking to the Guardian, Pascal Hardy, a sustainable development consultant and member of Agripolis, an urban farming firm, called the Nature Urbaine project in Paris “a clean, productive and sustainable model of agriculture that can in time make a real contribution to the resilience—social, economic and also environmental—of the kind of big cities where most of humanity now lives.”
Farming Currently only a third of the total space on hall 6 of the expo center is utilized for Pascal’s alien-looking garden, and when the project is finished, 20 staff will be able to harvest up to 2,200 lbs (1,000 kg) of perhaps 35 different kinds of fruits and vegetables every day.
Photos by Agripolis
In plastic towers honeycombed with little holes, small amounts of water carrying nutrients, bacteria, and minerals, aerate roots which hang in midair.
As strange as the pipes and towers out of which grow everything other than root vegetables might seem, Hardy, says the science-fiction farming has major benefits over traditional agriculture.“
I don’t know about you,” he begins, “but I don’t much like the fact that most of the fruit and vegetables we eat have been treated with something like 17 different pesticides, or that the intensive farming techniques that produced them are such huge generators of greenhouse gases.”
It uses less space. An ordinary intensive farm can grow nine salads per square meter of soil; I can grow 50 in a single tower. You can select crop varieties for their flavor, not their resistance to the transport and storage chain, and you can pick them when they’re really at their best, and not before.”
Agripolis
Breaking the chain
Agripolis is currently discussing projects in the U.S., the UK, and Germany, and they have finished several other rooftop farms in France including one on the roof of the Mercure hotel in 2016, which cultivates eggplant, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, and cherry tomatoes, salads, watercress, strawberries, nasturtiums, and aromatics all directly serving the hotel restaurant.
Growing on the roof and selling on the floor can play a big part in the production of carbon-neutral food because, according to Agripolis, fruit and veg on average travel by refrigerated air and land transport between 2,400 and 4,800 kilometers from farm to market.
The global transportation force is the largest of humanity’s carbon-emitting activities, and reducing the number of flights and truckloads of produce is a great place to start cutting the amount of CO2 entering the atmosphere.
For a culinary city like Paris, the Parisian mayor’s proposal to install an additional 320 acres (130 ha) of rooftop and wall-mounted urban farming space could significantly reduce the number of trucks entering the city, easing traffic and reducing pollution.
With rooftop farming being embraced from Detroit to Shanghai, the future is looking up.
They’re Still Growing: Downtown Vertical Farming Company Set To Increase Production After Moving To Former Market Fresh Site
A few years ago, Ernessi Farms was just an up-and-coming hydroponic grower of herbs that utilized the (at least then) little known method of vertical farming — right from a downtown basement. Since then? Well, business has blossomed.
By Ian Stepleton | Ripon Commonwealth Press | July 9, 2020
A few years ago, Ernessi Farms was just an up-and-coming hydroponic grower of herbs that utilized the (at least then) little known method of vertical farming — right from a downtown basement.
Since then?
Well, business has blossomed.
“It’s been pretty intense. From where we started, just messing around with stuff in my basement ... to moving [the business] here, it’s been something else,” said Bryan Ernst, owner of Ernessi Farms in Ripon. “It’s been very humbling, to learn all the things you don’t know as a new business owner, but it’s been great.”
With such growth, Ernessi needed a new home.
Later this year, it will have one.
Ernessi Farms has finalized the purchase of the former Market Fresh property at 111 E. Fond du Lac St.
“That building will give us the ability to more than quadruple our production,” Ernst said, adding that it’s going to enable the business to grow into some cutting-edge farming technologies such as machine learning and robotics.
It’s a project that’s been in the works for some time, with word of the possibility first coming to light before Thanksgiving 2019.
“We’ve been working on this ever since even before we talked at the City Council meeting [in November],” Ernst said, explaining that the current location simply had been maxed out in terms of production space and electrical capacity. “That was part of the reason we [started offering] mushrooms — we couldn’t build any more of our growing racks ... It’s been like this for us for over a year while we planned this expansion.”
Read the full story in the July 9, 2020 edition of the Ripon Commonwealth Press.
Ian Stepleton is the editor of the Ripon Commonwealth Press, and been with the paper since September 2000. Starting with fall 2016, he also is an adjunct professor of journalism at Ripon College, and advisor to the college's newspaper, the College Days.
The Future Of Food, What Role Will You Play?
Urban agriculture is the process in which food production takes place within the city itself. Instead of relying on rural farmers to grow, harvest and transport food to city centers, all of this is done close to the consumer
July 20, 2020
COVID19 has highlighted the vulnerabilities of our food system, ones that will continue to evolve as climate change progresses. As we look for solutions, several factors should shape our decision making.
Global food systems are responsible for one-third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Cities consume 78 percent of the world’s energy and produce more than 60 percent of greenhouse gas emissions (UN)
By 2050, it is estimated that nearly 70% of the world’s population will live in urban areas (UN).
Today, the average age of North American farmers is around 60 years old, with many nearing retirement.
What would you say if there was a solution that would address these challenges while also supporting the economy, helping us reach climate goals, and improving community health and well-being?
Urban agriculture is the process in which food production takes place within the city itself. Instead of relying on rural farmers to grow, harvest, and transport food to city centers, all of this is done close to the consumer. Urban agriculture can take various forms including backyard, balcony, and community gardens, rooftop farms and greenhouses, and more recently, the growing trend of indoor vertical agriculture using hydroponics.
During World War I and II, the “Victory Garden” campaign encouraged citizens to grow food in open urban spaces to support the country’s war efforts. By 1945, 20 million victory gardens produced 40% of America’s fresh vegetables. Once the wars finished, we saw the move away from growing food locally and towards a more industrialized food system where a few large farms produce most of our food at economies of scale. This way of producing food is largely responsible for disconnecting humans from their food and for environmental degradation.
Today, during COVID19, we are seeing a resurgence of “victory gardens” as a response to the unpredictability of the pandemic on our food supply. Communities are also starting to understand the importance of being more self-sufficient and supporting the local economy.
So how do we take this renewed interest in local food to the next level and encourage more urban farms and gardens in urban areas? In addition to policy support, we need the tools to equip the next generation of farmers. An organization that is supporting the transition is Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC), the industry association for professionals in the green infrastructure industry. Green infrastructure refers to using nature and natural systems to tackle urban challenges such as stormwater, the urban heat island effect, and air quality.
GRHC is creating the tools to help professionals maximize the return on investment for green infrastructure projects while demonstrating how to design for optimal ecosystem services and community benefits. Green infrastructure needs to be part of the green recovery as it is uniquely positioned to help city regions adapt to climate change and create jobs. Urban agriculture is a more productive form of green infrastructure that can take any project to the next level and support local food production, reduce food insecurity and reduce a city’s carbon footprint.
The Introduction to Rooftop Urban Agriculture training course is a first for the green building industry as it integrates green infrastructure and urban agriculture concepts. The course examines the history and benefits of urban agriculture and highlights various types of rooftop farms, design requirements, and business models. The course features rooftop farm case studies on Brooklyn Grange, Lufa Farms, Ryerson Urban Farm and more.
With the success of the online course, GRHC is now hosting an Urban and Rooftop Agriculture Virtual Symposium on Thursday, July 23. The event brings together professionals from diverse backgrounds involved in mainstreaming urban agriculture.
Top Leaf Farms is a regenerative farmer-led design team creating built environment food system solutions that are productive, beautiful and resilient in the face of climate change. Benjamin Fahrer the Principle will share project case studies and farm design tips!
Universities are the ideal space for urban agriculture research and education. Ryerson Urban Farm Operations Coordinator, Jayne Miles, will dive into the logistics of running the quarter-acre rooftop farm and what is coming next!
Alex Speigel is a Partner at Windmill Development Group who is sharing two case studies on integrating a meaningful strategy of urban agriculture in mixed-use developments
Have you heard of Agritecture? They are a global consulting company that specializes in building integrated agriculture projects. Yara Nagi, Agritecture’s Operations Director, has been involved in more than 60 urban farm projects where she develops the feasibility studies for economic models.
To learn more and to register for the Urban and Rooftop Agriculture Symposium visit https://greenroofs.org/virtualevents/agriculture
The potential of urban agriculture to transform our cities has yet to be fully recognized by decision-makers. Food can be used as a lever to solve numerous urban challenges and we need to rapidly start implementing these strategies. The green recovery from COVID19 will not happen without drastic changes to our food system, what role will you play?
Tagged: urban agriculture, virtual events, green infrastructure, food production, food systems, rooftop farm, rooftop garden, urban farm, Top Leaf Farms, Agritecture, Agritecture Consulting, Windmill Developments, Ryerson Urban Farm, Ryerson Urban Farm Living Lab, Jayne Miles, Alex Speigel, Benjamin Fahrer, green recovery, ecosystem services, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities
How Singapore Plans to Survive The World’s Impending Food Crisis
One of the most densely populated countries on the planet, its 5.7 million people rely on other nations for almost everything they eat
Singapore’s obsession with food goes far deeper than its world-famous chili crab and laksa. One of the most densely populated countries on the planet, its 5.7 million people rely on other nations for almost everything they eat. Just 0.9 percent of its land area of about 700 square kilometers was classified as agricultural in 2016, only marginally more than icebound Greenland.
Despite producing little of its own, Singaporeans arguably have better access than anyone else to affordable, abundant, and high quality produce. The country has ranked first in an index of food security for two years running and is now deepening its focus as the COVID-19 crisis exposes the fragility of global food supply chains. To this end, the country is developing expertise in technologies such as vertical farming, nutrient recovery from food waste, and the use of insects, microalgae and cultivated meat as alternative protein sources, according to William Chen, the director of Food Science and Technology Programme at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.
Already, work is underway to free up more spaces for urban food production, for example on the rooftops of multistory car parks, according to the SFA. The government is financing research into sustainable urban farming as well as future foods such as alternative proteins and seeking to expand fish farming off the south coast of the country. It’s also funding technology to help raise output from its existing farms, which totaled about 200 licensed operations as of 2018, producing mainly vegetables, fish, and eggs.
Read more at Japan Times
Publication date: Wed 27 May 2020
Pros and Cons of Vertical Farming Systems: What You Need to Know
When you live in the city, there isn’t room for fields and fields of farmland. So, vertical farming systems allow for urban areas to organically grow their own food without taking up too much space
As urban areas become more populated, cities need to turn to vertical farming methods as the primary way of growing food. Vertical farming systems allow cities to grow microgreens, vegetables, and fruits in small contained spaces.
When you live in the city, there isn’t room for fields and fields of farmland. So, vertical farming systems allow for urban areas to organically grow their own food without taking up too much space.
But, what are the pros and cons of vertical farming? We’ll cover everything you need to know in this article.
What are the advantages of vertical farming systems?
There are plenty of advantages to vertical farming. Some of the main advantages include:
Year-Round Yields: When you grow crops with vertical farming methods, you will have year-round grows. Since the crops are grown in a controlled environment, they are able to keep growing throughout every season.
Weather Resistant: Crops grown indoors aren’t susceptible to damage by flooding, droughts, or pests! One of the main reasons as to why vertical farming works is that farmers can have full control of the environment.
Produces Organic Foods: Vertical farming systems promote the growth of organic, healthy foods. You don’t have to use pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers to grow plants.
Leaves a Smaller Footprint: Vertical farming uses upward growth methods to harvest crops in small settings. These methods use less land to grow foods, which allows farmlands to their natural habitat.
What are the disadvantages of vertical farming?
While there are many advantages to vertical farming, we still have to understand the disadvantages. There are a few cons that come with these intricate systems.
They're Pricey: To start, vertical farming can be expensive in urban areas because of the construction and technology costs. This is why developers are reluctant to invest in vertical farming.
Requires Large Amounts of Electricity: In order to grow foods like grains, vegetables, or fruits, a lot of electricity is needed. We’ll have to rely on artificial lights to encourage growth, which can be expensive.
Can Lead to Potential Job Loss: As a new agricultural industry, vertical farming could replace a lot of traditional farming jobs. Food demands will be met by urban vertical farming, and the demand for traditional farmers could go down. This can result in a loss of jobs. But, it will also create new jobs within the city.
The Importance of Vertical Farming Systems
Vertical farming is a sustainable solution to growing foods within urban areas. As populations increase, food demands will rise. To meet these needs, we have to start implementing vertical farming systems to meet demands.
We at the Nick Greens Grow Team understand the importance of vertical farming, which is why we teach our followers how to successfully grow microgreens at home.
To stay on top of advancements in sustainable food growing, you should read our new blog posts every Thursday. Wanna learn how to grow your own microgreens at home?
Watch our new YouTube videos every Friday on our personal channel!
#verticalgrowing #verticalfarming #verticalfarmingsystems #urbanfarming #urbanfarm #indoorgrowing #indoorgrow #growfoodindoors
UAE Farm Tech To The Fore
New technologies are helping the country make more of its own produce
New technologies are helping the country make more of its own produce
Over a span of just six months, Covid-19 has not only changed the way we work, celebrate occasions and stay healthy but also forced countries to take a hard look at how they feed their residents. “I believe the current pandemic has provided us the opportunity to completely reimagine the global food system,” says Tony Hunter, a global food futurist.
Going urban
One of the factors pushing the global agri-tech agenda is the growth and increasing density of cities. “By 2050, more than two thirds of the world’s population is forecasted to live in cities,” explains Smitha Paresh, Executive Director of Greenoponics, a UAE-based retailer of commercial and consumer hydroponics systems, adding that urban agriculture will be crucial for feeding burgeoning urban populations.
“On a macro level, we will see a rise in urban farming, mostly using high-tech farming methods such as hydroponics, aeroponics or aquaponics.” Paresh cites Singapore’s conversion of car parks into urban farm centres as an example. “In the UAE, as per the national food security strategy for 2017-2021, we have already witnessed a huge increase in climate-controlled greenhouses all over the country.”
Arable environments
For Hunter, who spoke about potential silver linings of Covid-19 at a recent Gulfood webinar, new technologies present the best means of achieving domestic self-sufficiency. “They can release countries from the tyrannies of arable land and water stress.” He singles out algal products that rely on low rainfall and can use seawater; cultivated meat and biomass products; cell-based products such as milk proteins; and synthetic biology that can manufacture a range of food products.
Over the long term, Ravindra Shirotriya, CEO, VeggiTech, believes there are three critical areas for sustainable farming in the UAE. The first is precision agriculture, which focuses on growing conditions for plants using hyperbaric chambers and nanotechnology-based organic nutrition. Photo bio-reactors, meanwhile, can cultivate food-grade algae such as spirulina. Finally, Shirotriya cites smart farms, which work with smart cities to create harvest plans based on real-time data on food demand and consumption within communities. “This will address our current broken food ecosystem, where we waste 35 percent of food while 15 percent of the world population goes to sleep hungry.”
VeggiTech’s primary focus is on setting up LED-assisted hydroponics for indoor vertical farms and protected hydroponics for sustainable farming in the UAE.
In terms of crop production, Avinash Vora, Co-founder of Aranya Farms, says new technologies aim to boost yields, reduce waste and grow produce entirely. “Technology is being applied at every stage, whether for plant seeding, monitoring growth, managing water, energy conservation, harvesting and packaging. “We are making huge strides adapting all of them here in the UAE; the interest and investments in agriculture prove that.”
For Philippe Peguilhan, Country Manager of Carrefour UAE at Majid Al Futtaim Retail, the UAE had already been seeking self-reliance in food production, but coronavirus amped up its importance. “The disruption that Covid-19 caused to the supply chain highlighted the importance of local produce and presented an excellent opportunity for local farmers to grab a greater share of the market.” Majid Al Futtaim recently made headlines for opening the UAE’s third, and Dubai’s first, in-store hydroponics farm.
Hydroponic hope
Hydroponics is one agri-tech that’s attracting keen investor interest. “As an indicator, Madar Farms’ 7,000-sq-m factory will produce 365 tons of tomatoes a year, and about 14,000 tons of cherry vine tomatoes were consumed in the UAE in 2019,” says Hunter. “There’s therefore the market opportunity for 38 Madar farms in the UAE for tomatoes alone. Add in other nutrient-dense crops such as cucumbers, peppers and leafy greens. Depending upon their size, we could be looking at several hundred businesses.”
On an individual level, more people are leaning towards home farming, especially towards soil-less cultivation since it is simple and easy, according to Paresh. “It guarantees a certain amount of yield. Home farming will be on the rise, considering the disruption we may face in trying times like this.”
As with most technologies, Hunter says the biggest challenge of hydroponics is profitability. “Fortunately, the costs of technology inputs required to optimise hydroponic production efficiencies are falling rapidly. This drop, together with simultaneous increases in performance, is driving down the costs of hydroponics, making acceptable ROIs much easier to achieve.” He adds that economies of scale can help achieve good ROIs. “Currently most farms are in the 1-2 ton per day range but farms of 50 tons per day are being projected by as early as 2025.”
Sustainability challenges
“Challenges in building our own farm were access to sufficient and cost-effective electricity; renewable sources of water; and the availability of locally made raw materials, specifically growing media, nutrients and seeds. With seeds we are adapting — we have been growing our own seeds but having a library of seeds to choose from that are suitable for our climate and environment would be a huge boon to all farmers.”
— Avinash Vora, Co-founder of Aranya Farms
By Riaz Naqvi, Staff Writer | Gulf News | May 28, 2020
10 Questions to Ask Before Starting a Container Farm
If you’ve been looking into indoor farming from home, you’ve probably come across a container farm as a sustainable option. A container farm is an indoor vertical farm, that operates inside of a repurposed shipping container
If you’ve been looking into indoor farming from home, you’ve probably come across a container farm as a sustainable option.
A container farm is an indoor vertical farm, that operates inside of a repurposed shipping container.
These farms grow crops using hydroponic systems, artificial lighting, and controlled environment agriculture (CEA) technology.
Container farms are popular for their ability to yield a lot of produce in a compact space.
But before you get started, there’s some vital information you should learn.
In this article, you’ll learn what you should find out before starting a container farm.
1. What type of hydroponic system does it use?
There are many different types of hydroponic systems.
The type of hydroponic system a container farm uses will influence compatible crops, maintenance, and its advantages and disadvantages.
For example, recirculating systems like nutrient film technique (NFT), allow the farm to reuse water, cutting back on water use, and work best with quick-growing leafy greens.
2. How is the hydroponic system controlled?
How the hydroponic system is controlled, will determine how much additional labor you need in order to operate it.
If it’s an automated system, like our Pure Greens Container Farms, you’ll save time and energy.
If it’s a more basic system, you’ll have to put in more work to get the results you desire.
3. How is the environment controlled?
How the inside environment of the container farm is controlled, depends on the level of CEA technology that’s been installed.
A basic refrigerated container, with no modifications, will regulate indoor temperature to some degree, but it won’t be easily adjustable or precise.
On the other hand, more controls like temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide will result in perfect growing conditions for your crops, improving quality and yields.
4. Where can you put it?
One of the benefits of container farming is the ability to grow food in any climate and in densely populated urban areas.
But before starting your container farm, you’ll need to know if you have the proper space for it.
You need to make sure you have enough room on all sides of the farm, level ground, a proper connection to water, and an electrical source.
5. What preparation do I need to do before starting?
The preparation you put into starting a container farm will depend on your personal situation, such as whether you already have the proper space, tools, and materials for it.
Additionally, you’ll want to consider preplanning your budget and what crops you’d like to grow so that you can adjust your expectations accordingly.
6. What do I need to buy separately?
Whether you’re renting or purchasing your container farm, you’ll need to know what materials and equipment it comes with, so you can plan to purchase anything else separately.
These things will need to be accounted for in your budget, and it’s best to know before starting in order to minimize financial surprises.
7. How much work does operating one unit require?
If you already have plenty of time on your hands, this might be less of a concern.
But if you’re only going to be able to put in a few hours of work each week, you might want to look into getting some help.
In general, you should budget for at least 20 hours of work time for your container farm each week.
8. Who will do the labor?
As mentioned in the previous section, if you can’t fully commit your time to maintaining your container farm, you should look into hiring someone.
If you plan to hire someone, you’ll have to make sure to include that in your budgeting as well.
And if you’re going to take on the work all on your own, you should ensure that you’ll have enough time to do so before you start.
9. What plants can I grow in it?
Before starting a container farm, you should know what crops you’re most interested in growing.
Container farms grow a lot of different types of crops, but the most ideal ones will depend on what type of hydroponic system it uses.
You’ll want to make sure your desired crops align with what you’ll actually be able to grow.
10. What are the expected yields?
Whether you’re using the container farm to feed people or to sell your produce, knowing what to expect is important.
You should make sure the farm has the ability to yield enough to match your needs, both in terms of mouths to feed and profit.
Now that you know what questions to ask, you can start finding the answers!
Check out our container farming guides on our website puregreensaz.com or call 602–753–3469 for more information.
WRITTEN BY
Pure Greens Arizona LLC
Pure Greens’ container-based grow systems offer a variety of interior layouts, sizes, and options so customers can create a farm that meets their needs.
Growing Upwards: Q & A on Vertical Farming
Over time, farming practices have evolved to use less energy, pesticides, water and other needed inputs to grow the foods we depend on. A type of farming that recently has grown in popularity is vertical farming
By Food Insight
OCTOBER 22, 2019
Over time, farming practices have evolved to use less energy, pesticides, water and other needed inputs to grow the foods we depend on.
A type of farming that recently has grown in popularity is vertical farming. Building off the base concept of how greenhouses operate, this agricultural system allows for large-scale farming to occur on vertically inclined surfaces. Fruits and vegetables can be grown without the use of soil or natural sunlight, and the produce is often able to grow faster than it does in a traditional farm setting. A key advantage of vertical farms is that they can operate in urban areas and don’t require wide-open land; their vertical surfaces can be easily incorporated into a city’s existing structures and buildings.
Vertical farming has now been used in locations where large-scale farming previously has not been possible, such as in urban spaces throughout Brooklyn, New York, and Chicago, Illinois. Vertical farming’s small land usage and positive environmental benefits have the potential to increase sustainability, lower food costs, and increase accessibility and food security across the country.
We’ve touched on vertical farming in previous posts, but to take a closer look, we caught up with expert Ricky Stephens, who works with Agritecture, a vertical farming, and controlled environment agriculture (CEA) strategist group.
Q: What is vertical farming?
Vertical farming is the growing of crops in an indoor/controlled environment setting, in vertical stacks. Typically, vertical farming is done without using soil as the main practice. Instead, vertical farming uses practices like: hydroponics (growing plants in sand, gravel or liquid, with added nutrients but without soil), aeroponics (growing plants with roots suspended in air and nutrients delivered in a fine mist), or aquaponics (using the waste produced by farmed fish as nutrients for hydroponically grown plants).
Q: Why do you think vertical farming is being used as an alternative to traditional farming?
The top reasons for using vertical farming that come to mind for me include:
Vertical farming uses significantly less water than traditional farming. Currently, global agriculture accounts for 70 percent of freshwater withdrawals (use of freshwater). Instead of using up so much water directly, vertical farming often utilizes indoor hydroponics to grow crops. Using a recirculating system to recycle water, indoor hydroponics uses up to 70 to 95 percent less water than would be used in a traditional outdoor in-soil setting.
Vertical farming also eliminates the need for pesticides while reducing hazards. By balancing the use of beneficial insects, having heightened biosecurity protocols, and being in a well-controlled indoor environment, vertical farms can operate pesticide-free.
Vertical farming reduces pressures on our overall land use and addresses our concerns surrounding land scarcity. Due to population growth and land degradation, we’re running out of arable land. Furthermore, with the over-development of certain urban areas into industrial-style buildings (factories, warehouses), there is a plethora of vacant and utilizable spaces in cities that are very close to consumers. These areas are suitable for creating controlled, crop-friendly environments that can further “eating local” efforts.
Q: Where do you see vertical farming being able to help our food supply chain from a supply and sustainability standpoint?
Vertical farming moves production closer to the point of consumption—this means potentially less food miles and increased vegetable access. Let’s take one example of a very commonly consumed and desired food item: leafy greens. Currently, 98 percent of the current U.S. leafy greens production occurs traditionally (as outdoor crops) in California and Arizona. Not only are these water-dense produce items grown in severely water-scarce regions, they are then shipped thousands of miles across the country (and sometimes around the world).
As an alternative, vertical farming can be very useful for the leafy greens industry. In fact, because vertical farming is indoors and unaffected by weather conditions, you can grow greater quantities of different types of leafy greens all year round. In turn, this food can be immediately injected into the local food supply, thereby increasing availability and decreasing food loss and food waste during transportation.
In the long term, vertical farms will increase the diversity of crop choices and become more focused on producing different varieties of highly nutritious and frequently consumed products like mushrooms and strawberries. Vertical farms will also play an integral role in our larger movement toward sustainability and supporting local and regional food systems.
Q: What advances do you think will occur/are needed for vertical farming in the next 5–10 years?
We need technology advances that allow normal people—not just tech entrepreneurs or those with monetary funds—to access fair financing for vertical farms. As it currently stands, vertical farming can be cost-prohibitive to launch and start. For vertical farming to become more widely implemented there is a need for innovations and advances that bring down the high initial investment costs. The good news is this has started happening in the greenhouse space already.
Q: What ag (agricultural) technology excites you the most and why?
Soon we will need to feed upwards of 9 billion people in this world. On one hand, ag technology must be better utilized by farmers. On a more global and sustainable level, any technology that will push us all towards a more circular economy is exciting.
Agricultural technology supported by circular economy principles will begin exploring new business models, processes, and bio-stimulants that will play a major role in transforming our food system to be less wasteful and more regenerative.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
My team travels the world educating the broader public on the importance and potential of urban agriculture every chance we get. We have organized several of our own conferences in New York and Atlanta. It’s energizing to be working in a field with so many people who are fueled by honest passion and the pursuit of positive change.
We thank Ricky for his urban ag insights and look forward to seeing how more farming advances like vertical farming can positively impact our food system. To learn more about Agritecture and vertical farming, check out the company’s website here at www.agritecture.com.
Article was written by Lily Yang, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Research Associate at Virginia Tech in the Department of Food Science and Technology
Gotham Greens Doubles Their Acreage Within Six Months
Newest in their 'collection' is the one in Denver. For decades the area next to an abandoned runway at the former Denver Stapleton Airport site had been sitting vacant
Viraj Puri: "Patient approach has allowed us to scale rapidly and sustainably"
In the last six months, US greenhouse company Gotham Greens has more than doubled their footprint by opening four new greenhouses. Newest in their 'collection' is the one in Denver. For decades the area next to an abandoned runway at the former Denver Stapleton Airport site had been sitting vacant. Only 3 years ago it was reopened as an urban marketplace and now the area is revived with the 30,000 square foot greenhouse. "We enjoy pursuing innovative adaptive reuse projects that can transform otherwise underutilized real estate into productive agriculture, whether on rooftops or at grade", says Viraj Puri, co-founder and CEO of Gotham Greens.
Lettuce on NFT
It's a remarkable sight in Denver, Colorado. Next to the 140,000 square foot building in what formerly aircrafts were manufactured, a 30,000 square foot greenhouse has appeared. The glass & steel venture is equipped with an NFT-system from which annually 2 million heads of lettuce will be harvested, including two new lettuce varieties: Crispy Green Leaf and Rocky Mountain Crunch. These products will all find their way to grocery retailers across seven states, including Whole Foods Market, Choice Markets, Alfalfa’s and more.
Restaurant and foodservice customers
“We will also partner with restaurant and foodservice customers in the area and supply our products to restaurant and retail customers located at Stanley Marketplace as businesses begin to reopen”, says Viraj, something that has been impossible of course due to the COVID-outbreak. He adds how he never envisioned to open their Denver greenhouse during a global pandemic. “Our entire team worked extremely hard to commission this new greenhouse during the pandemic and we’re proud to be providing people across the country with healthy, fresh food options they can get excited about. Given the current pressures on our country’s food system, one thing is clear: the importance of strengthening our national food supply through decentralized, regional supply chains.”
That has been the vision of Gotham Greens from the start: ever since 2010, when they opened their first greenhouse in Brooklyn, New York, they’ve focused on delivering fresh, locally and sustainably grown produce to customers and our communities. Over the last couple of months they intensified their expansion, resulting in doubling their total growing acreage. “We built four greenhouses between 2011 and 2015. Rather than focusing on rapid expansion at that point in time, we took a more thoughtful approach to ensure our business model could scale profitably and sustainably in multiple environments and geographies. That patient approach has now positioned and allowed us to scale rapidly sustainably”, says Viraj. “In the past 6 months, we have more than doubled our footprint by opening four new greenhouses in a strategic and measured way. These include greenhouses in Providence, Rhode Island, Baltimore, Maryland, Chicago, Illinois, and now Denver, Colorado.” In total their annual production now grows to nearly 35 million heads of lettuce and distribution to more than 30 states nationwide.
According to Viraj, the end of there expansion is nowhere in sight. “Looking ahead, our goal is to bring our brand of high-quality, sustainably grown local produce and innovative greenhouses to more cities across the country.” In the past they selected quite some remarkable locations for this: on top of a grocery store, on a manufacturing plant, or on the former site of a steel manufacturing plant for example. Viraj explains how a combination of factors drive their decisions for selecting these new locations. “Customer market size opportunities, zoning, land conditions, and logistics and distribution access, just to name a few. Whether building in a rural area provides a bigger challenge? All greenhouse developments are challenging, and we are becoming more experienced with every subsequent project”, he says. “We enjoy pursuing innovative adaptive reuse projects that can transform otherwise underutilized real estate into productive agriculture, whether on rooftops or at grade.”
He adds how their business model has enabled them to remain nimble during these unprecedented times “Now more than ever, we are committed to delivering high-quality, long-lasting and nourishing produce to people when it’s needed most.”
For more information:
Gotham Greens
Publication date: Wed 20 May 2020
Author: Arlette Sijmonsma
© HortiDaily.com
Why The World Wildlife Fund Is Trying To Spark An Indoor Farming Revolution
A network of caves in St. Louis, Missouri, was once used for brewing beer before the advent of refrigeration. Now, the conservation organization World Wildlife Fund is interested in helping the city repurpose some of that unused space for indoor farming—in a new pilot that can demonstrate how the indoor agriculture industry can become more sustainable and a viable way to make the food system more resilient
05-18-20
The conservation organization is known for work protecting endangered animals, but now it’s starting to help push for broad solutions—such as a major plan to expand vertical farms in St. Louis in an attempt to prove that local farming can cut emissions.
A network of caves in St. Louis, Missouri, was once used for brewing beer before the advent of refrigeration. Now, the conservation organization World Wildlife Fund is interested in helping the city repurpose some of that unused space for indoor farming—in a new pilot that can demonstrate how the indoor agriculture industry can become more sustainable and a viable way to make the food system more resilient.
The organization is best known for its work to save iconic species, such as protecting tiger habitat or reducing demand for elephant ivory. But within a section of the nonprofit called the Markets Institute, it also studies trends in agriculture and ways to help lower the massive environmental footprint of growing food, from the energy and water used on farms to the impact of clearing forests to make room for farmland.
The institute, launched in 2016, works with partners across the food industry on challenges such as how to prevent food waste or how to deal with impacts from climate change in the cocoa industry supply chain. The organization recognizes that the entire food system needs to change to protect nature, and it can play a role in catalyzing that change in the business world.
“We’re looking for new business models, new strategies and partnerships, and different ways of approaching things that are financially profitable as well as environmentally sustainable,” says Julia Kurnik, director of innovation startups at World Wildlife Fund. “Our goal as an institute is to find things that can happen quickly and at scale, so that’s why we’re interested in making sure they can really take off and live beyond our investment.”
Image: World Wildlife Fund]
It saw promise in the nascent indoor farming industry. Companies that grow produce in greenhouses, or stacked in vertical units inside warehouses, can grow more food on far less land than traditional farming, leaving room for forests to stay in place or be replanted. The methods they use to grow food without soil also use far less water. If indoor farms are distributed in cities, they can also help avoid the carbon footprint of trucking produce thousands of miles across the country. Because the spaces are sealed and insects can’t get in, they can also avoid pesticide use; the produce is also more uniformly perfect and gets to customers more quickly, so there’s less food waste; the farms also aren’t affected by extreme weather outside, so crops won’t be lost in storms or impacts from a changing climate.
Image: World Wildlife Fund
Still, indoor farms aren’t environmentally perfect. In a new report, World Wildlife Fund examined the total environmental footprint of growing lettuce on fields in California versus a hypothetical indoor farm in St. Louis. The organization chose St. Louis for its study and pilot after searching for cities that met a certain list of criteria—a climate that doesn’t allow for year-round growing, a large population, and stranded assets that could be used as infrastructure for growing food. Because of St. Louis’s unique industrial infrastructure, including the abandoned caves, it was chosen from a shortlist of 10 cities. (WWF is not investing in the projects itself, just helping set up the infrastructure for governments and companies to work together on the effort.)
In its study of the potential of indoor farming in St. Louis, the organization confirmed that soilless indoor growing can save land and water, but the researchers also identified challenges. The lights used to grow crops indoors use large amounts of energy, though the technology has become more efficient, and generate so much heat that greenhouses often have to use air-conditioning to maintain a steady temperature, even in the winter. If you grow lettuce in Monterey, California—in a region where much of the country’s lettuce is grown—and ship it to St. Louis, the carbon footprint is lower than growing in a standard indoor farm in St. Louis now. That’s because St. Louis still gets most of its energy from coal, and that outweighs the footprint of driving lettuce long distances in a refrigerated truck or the benefits from avoiding pesticides or food waste.
The report also examines ways that the industry could shrink that footprint, from fiber-optic tech that can bring sunlight into a room to options for renewable energy. If the farms can use less energy, there’s also an economic benefit—and that will begin to make it possible for companies in the industry to expand beyond growing leafy greens. Greens such as lettuce and spinach are common now in indoor farms because they grow more quickly than, say, strawberries or tomatoes, and they fit within the economics of current growing systems.
In St. Louis, the nonprofit is bringing together a group of stakeholders, including existing indoor farming companies, local plant science experts, community groups, the local power company, potential funders, and potential customers such as grocery stores, to test new alternatives. Several types of unused or underused infrastructure may work as farming space, such as cold storage in postal hubs, or space next to power plants that can take the excess heat from an indoor farm and convert that into energy.
The city’s caves are of interest because they’re naturally cool, helping offset the need for air-conditioning. By the end of the year, the aim is to have an agreement for a pilot design, either a single farm or a network of farms, that can be built in the city in 2021. “We won’t build the farm or own the farm,” says Kurnik. “Our model here is to bring all the players together.”
Once the pilot proves how well the new approaches work, that can be shared more broadly with the industry. The project may also be able to share some knowledge about technology such as automation, which can help bring down the cost of growing. (Labor is a major expense at indoor farms, and robots can help address that, while also spurring the creation of some more highly paid jobs in the industry than farm labor.) Right now, existing farms “are each investing in their own technology and R&D,” she says. “If there were standardizations across some of that, it might be able to boost the entire industry.”
Communities outside St. Louis will also be able to learn from the pilot, both as a way to reduce the environmental footprint of their local food supply and a way to make the supply chain more likely to survive disruption from climate change. While interest in indoor agriculture is already growing in some areas—for instance, water-starved Abu Dhabi, which wants to create a more resilient food system that doesn’t rely as much on imports—it could eventually be much more widely used elsewhere if the energy and economic issues can be addressed. In California, increasing drought may eventually make traditional farming less and less feasible. Other impacts from climate change, including extreme heat and increasing storms and floods, are also beginning to make traditional farming more difficult. Indoor farming “has potential to be one tool in the toolbox for tackling those things,” says Kurnik.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adele Peters is a staff writer at Fast Company who focuses on solutions to some of the world's largest problems, from climate change to homelessness. Previously, she worked with GOOD, BioLite, and the Sustainable Products and Solutions program at UC Berkeley, and contributed to the second edition of the bestselling book "Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century."
USDA Announces $3 Million in Urban Agriculture Grants
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the availability of $3 million for grants through its new Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the availability of $3 million for grants through its new Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production. The competitive grants will support the development of urban agriculture and innovative production projects through two categories, Planning Projects and Implementation Projects. USDA will accept applications on Grants.gov until midnight July 6, 2020.
“These grant opportunities underscore USDA’s commitment to all segments of agriculture, including swiftly expanding areas of urban agriculture,” Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation Bill Northey said. “Such projects have the potential to address important issues such as food access and education and to support innovative ways to increase local food production in urban environments.”
“We are proud to be able to offer support through this cross-agency effort,” said Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Greg Ibach. “In creating this grant opportunity, USDA will build upon its years of experience providing technical support, grant funding and research to help farmers and local and urban food businesses grow.”
Planning ProjectsUSDA is making available $1 million for Planning Projects that initiate or expand efforts of farmers, gardeners, citizens, government officials, schools and other stakeholders in urban areas and suburbs. Projects may target areas of food access, education, business and start-up costs for new farmers and development of policies related to zoning and other needs of urban production.
Implementation ProjectsUSDA is making available $2 million for Implementation Projects that accelerate existing and emerging models of urban, indoor and other agricultural practices that serve multiple farmers. Projects will improve local food access and collaborate with partner organizations and may support infrastructure needs, emerging technologies, educational endeavors and urban farming policy implementation.
Webinar A webinar, which will be held on June 3, 2020, from 2 to 4 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, will provide an overview of the grants’ purpose, project types, eligibility and basic requirements for submitting an application. Information on how to register for and participate in the webinar, or listen to the recording, will be posted at farmers.gov/urban.
More information The Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production was established through the 2018 Farm Bill. It includes representatives from many USDA agencies, including Farm Service Agency and Agricultural Marketing Service, and is led by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. More information is available at farmers.gov/urban.
Additional resources that may be of interest to urban agriculture entities include AMS grants to improve domestic and international opportunities for U.S. growers and producers and FSA loans.
Horti Daily | Monday, May 11, 2020
SINGAPORE: Interest In Urban Farming Sprouts Amid COVID-19 Outbreak
Farm 85 Trading, a vegetable farm which also sells seedlings and farm supplies, said thatits’s sales went up by five times right after the circuit breaker was announced, with customers buying a range of items from soil and seedlings to compost
10 May 2020
SINGAPORE: After Madam Tan Swee Jee’s husband failed to find okra on a recent trip to the market, she revived her interest in farming and began planting again.
The retiree in her 60s had started organic farming a few years ago but grandchildren and other activities left her little time to tend to her garden. As Singapore hunkered down for the “circuit breaker” period, she found time and reason to grow not just okra, but tapioca, papaya, herbs, and other vegetables.
“We rely on other (countries) for our food, if they don’t sell to us we have nothing to eat,” she said in Mandarin. “This way, at least I can still have a lady’s fingers.”
Madam Tan Swee Jee and her husband planting peanuts and sweet potatoes in their garden. (Photo courtesy of Tan Swee Jee)
Farm supply shops and companies that run urban farming workshops told CNA that there has been more interest in home farming since around February or March.
Singapore raised its Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) level to Orange on Feb 7 after some locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 were detected, sparking a brief spate of panic buying.
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In mid-March, Malaysia imposed a movement control order which raised concerns that food supplies from the country, including vegetables, eggs, and fruit, might be affected. Authorities came out swiftly to say that food and essentials from Malaysia will continue to flow during the lockdown.
But Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing have warned that Singapore would have to be ready for disruptions to its supply of food and other essentials as lockdowns in various countries have diminished global production capacities and disrupted global supply chains. About 90 percent of Singapore’s food currently comes from overseas.
As the pandemic spread around the world and worsened here, Singapore announced on Apr 3 that most workplaces and schools would close in a circuit breaker period that started from Apr 7, and that people were to leave their homes only for essential activities such as buying food and groceries.
GROWTH IN INTEREST, SALES
Vegetable plots at Farm 85 in Lim Chu Kang. (Photo: Zach Tan)
Farm 85 Trading, a vegetable farm which also sells seedlings and farm supplies, said that its sales went up by five times right after the circuit breaker was announced, with customers buying a range of items from soil and seedlings to compost.
“Most of the customers we have seen are people who were new to farming or gardening ... Almost all customers were determined to try and grow edibles in their own homes,” said Mr. Zach Tan, the farm’s manager.
Demand for farming supplies has gone up at Farm 85 Trading amid the COVID-19 outbreak. (Photo: Zach Tan)
Mr. Kevin Tan, director of Ban Lee Huat Seed said they saw a 50 percent increase in sales of seeds since the start of the outbreak, along with more interest in Asian leafy greens like bak choy and kang kong.
Urban farming social enterprise Edible Garden City has seen an uptick of interest in home gardening, a spokesperson said. Enquiries for their edible landscaping service increased by 40 percent, but they could not follow up with these requests after circuit breaker measures kicked in.
“Many of those who enquired about garden builds cited COVID-19 as just one amongst a host of reasons why they wanted to have a home garden … Many also added that they now see that food security is an important issue in Singapore,” said the spokesperson.
Two centres that run organic farming courses, Gardens with Purpose and The Living Centre, also said that demand for their courses are at a high.
Ms. Joanne Ng, founder of Gardens with Purpose, said that she was slated to have a large class just before the circuit breaker but she had to suspend it as measures restricting gatherings were tightened.
She is now considering selling the vegetables she grows on her 2,000 sq ft farm as she has been getting more queries from consumers.
Microgreens can be grown at home. (Photo: National Parks Board)
The National Parks Board (NParks) said that as the interest in gardening increases, more people are growing their own microgreens, herbs, and other edibles at home.
“Given the amount of time we are spending at home, it is a good opportunity for more people to learn to garden at home,” said Mr. Ng Cheow Kheng, group director for Horticulture & Community Gardening at the agency.
GREENHORNS & BEAN SPROUTS
Mr. Jack Yam holding a pot of kailan at his corridor farm. (Photo: Jayna Yam)
Rock climbing instructor and gardening enthusiast Jack Yam told CNA that substantially more people have been asking to join the Facebook interest group he runs – Urban Farmers (Singapore).
Some have also been posting questions on how to start their own home gardens or farms, which prompted him to post tutorials on the Facebook page for their reference.
“There were quite a number of posts in the group, new members actually saying that hey, I'm totally new. I have no idea how to start. What are the things that are needed?” he said.
One of them was engineer Ong Chee Lam, who said that he has an interest in growing edibles but has yet to start a proper farm at home. He has begun experimenting with bean sprouts and some herbs.
“The reason why I wanted to start was because of how the COVID-19 situation unfolds, it made us realise that the food security is a real issue so went to read up and see how we can do something in urban Singapore,” he said.
Bean sprouts grown by Mr. Ong Chee Lam. (Photo: Ong Chee Lam)
His first haul was 400g of bean sprouts which added some crunch to his mee rebus, and he will continue, he said.
“I suspect the new normal will not be the same ... (I) will definitely continue to research and take action to keep this as a sustainable hobby,” he added.
FLOURISHING FARMS
Meanwhile, some experienced growers CNA spoke to are growing more edibles rather than ornamental plants.
Ms Mandisa Jacquelin Toh said that her family was working towards self-sufficiency when it comes to vegetables and fruit.
“It's truly a right direction when we are hit by COVID-19 and the circuit breaker period … we don't have to risk ourselves going to wet market and supermarket unnecessarily,” she said.
The IT professional, who is in her 40s, said she has set up a rotating system that allows her to harvest some produce every day from her rooftop garden, which she said is a third the size of a football field.
A basket of vegetables harvested from Ms Mandisa Jacquelin Toh's rooftop farm. (Photo: Facebook/Mandisa Jacquelin Toh)
The list of edible plants she grows rivals a supermarket’s selection, including long beans, figs, mulberries, herbs, corn, tomatoes, chili, lime, okra, and bittergourd. She even has muskmelons, watermelons, guava, custard apples, starfruit, kedongdong, mangoes, and cempedek.
“We regretted not starting even earlier when COVID-19 started,” said the long-time gardener, who started seriously growing edibles about 10 months ago.
Mr. Yam, who grows his plants along the corridor and common spaces outside his Housing Board flat, also made the switch months earlier and said he was glad he did. Now, vegetables including xiao bai cai, kalian, and kale make up 80 percent of his urban garden.
“Because of my space constraints, it’s not fully sustainable, but at least it supplements the food that we are eating,” he said. “Seeing the sudden surge in interest, I'm actually quite excited and happy about it.”
But he found that many people who wanted to start their home gardens or farms were “caught off-guard” and once the circuit breaker started, it was hard for them to get supplies. This was why he also put up a tutorial on growing bean sprouts, and he has seen quite a few people posting their attempts online.
“Green beans are easy to get hold off, and then within three to four days, you can get the harvest. As a parent, you could occupy your kids with this particular activity, yet at the same time grow something that your family can eat,” he said.
NParks has also put up a series of tutorials on home gardening on social media, including DIY gardening videos, information on plants that can be easily grown at home and simple recipes for produce from home gardens.
Some simple plants to start with are microgreens, Brazilian spinach, Indian borage, and herbs like mints and basils, Mr Ng suggested.
GREEN THERAPY
Beyond sustenance, the home farmers said that caring for their plants has been a good exercise and a source of joy in an anxious time for many.
Halfway house The Helping Hand happened to start their urban farm this month, and tending to the vegetables has replaced some of the carpentry and furniture delivery activities residents did before the circuit breaker period.
An underused grass patch at the home now has 20 raised vegetable beds that is providing both food and therapy of sorts.
“It teaches our residents some very important skills and values, which helps us in some ways as an emotional regulator. It teaches them patience, and also introduces the green concept,” CEO Mervyn Lim told CNA.
For now, the vegetables will be cooked and consumed by the residents but they will look into turning the farm into a social enterprise, and may even open a café, he added.
Resident Toh Chiang Hee, who is in his early 60s, told CNA that seeing the plants grow has given him a lot of joy.
“I talk to the seedlings and tell them to grow bigger and taller,” he said in Mandarin.
Vegetable beds at halfway house The Helping Hand's urban farm. (Photo: The Helping Hand)
FOOD SECURITY
These shoots of growing interest come as Singapore aims to produce 30 percent of its food supply locally by 2030. A new S$30 million grant was announced in April for the agri-food industry to help commercial farms speed up the production of commonly consumed food like eggs, vegetables, and fish.
And the spurt of enthusiasm for home farming springs from a gradual burgeoning of interest in recent years said both Ms. Ng of Gardens with Purpose and Ms. Faith Foo from The Living Centre.
“We have been advocating for urban farming through a wide range of urban farming courses since the establishment of our center the last five years, and thus have also seen a progressive trend of people interested in urban farming,” said Ms. Foo, who has moved all their courses online for the circuit breaker period.
Ms. Ng said that she has noticed more young people and families sign up for her organic farming courses before the COVID-19 outbreak and hopes that schools can be next. Before this, many Singaporeans still felt that it was easier to import vegetables from other countries, and the toil for “a few vegetables” was not worth it, she added.
“Toxic chemicals are everywhere, be it food or the environment, so I started to prepare this 10 years ago … now the time is right, Singaporeans didn’t expect the food supply chain can be disrupted,” she said. “I didn’t see COVID-19 coming but I knew there would be a demand for clean food.”
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Lead Photo: Madam Tan Swee Jee tends to a vegetable patch in her garden. (Courtesy of Tan Swee Jee)
Source: CNA/hm
Tagged Topics food agriculture COVID-19 coronavirus
Swedish Startup Receives Funding For AI-Run 'NeighbourFood' project
A newly established innovation cluster will develop the groundbreaking service-model for urban farming, AgTech startup SweGreen’s ‘Farming as a Service’, to contribute to a sustainable food supply chain
A newly established innovation cluster will develop the groundbreaking service-model for urban farming, AgTech startup SweGreen’s ‘Farming as a Service’, to contribute to a sustainable food supply chain. The 2MSEK-project called ‘NeighbourFood’ is granted by Vinnova as an initiative to support innovations in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. The project NeighbourFood aims to upgrade a modern Urban Farming solution to an optimized smart and digital model for system monitoring and remote-control process steering.
Farming as a Service (FAAS)
"We have developed cutting-edge technology with high technical readiness level for food production indoors. With this project we address the last limitation factor towards a remote farming management model: A cloud-based service that enables a physical food production unit to become available as a service to our customers – as we refer to as ‘Farming-as-a-Service’," Swegreen Chief Innovation Officer Sepehr Mousavi highlights. The vision is to create a realistic alternative to the highly global, and to a certain degree fragile and resource inefficient, food production chains that currently dominate the marketplace. The innovation cluster behind the project, besides AgTech company Swegreen, includes also Research Institute of Sweden (RISE), Mälardalen University and high-profile Swedish chefs Paul Svensson and Tareq Taylor’s newly established restaurant Paul Taylor Lanthandel.
Local food
The demand for year-round urban food production has never been more relevant than now, under the crisis of Covid-19. Production of food is down at 50% in Sweden, which shows our society's exposure, Paul Svensson, top-notch chef and founder of Paul Taylor Lanthandel says. Our aim is to contribute to and increase the trust in and desire for locally produced food near our customers, Paul Svensson continues. We see us as a perfect channel for locally produced food at Paul Taylor Lanthandel we provide both a small general store and a restaurant, and thereby nurse a close relationship to producers and our local neighborhood community. The core of the innovation will take place in Swegreen’s production facility, called CifyFarm, which is an indoor vertical farm for production of nutritious leafy greens, salad and herbs, with a yield of approximately 200 times yield/area compared to traditional farming. The CityFarm uses minimal resources all year round and is isolated from the outside environment and is located on floor -3 of Dagens Nyheter tower in central Stockholm.
Digitally monitored farming units
The Farming as a Service concept of Swegreen’s enables Urban Farming technology to integrate with e.g. supermarkets or restaurants by digitally monitored farming units at the customer’s facility, which will produce food with minimal logistics and almost zero human intervention in a plug-and-play format. This farm management system empowers any entrepreneur with little or zero farming knowledge to grow high-quality food in an optimal environment while reducing risks and elevating the decision-making process, using dedicated decision-support systems and process optimization through the use of artificial intelligence, adds SweGreen’s CEO Andreas Dahlin. The NeighbourFood was one of the few selected projects by Swedish Innovation Agency Vinnova, out of 287 applications filed in response to the call ‘Innovation in the track of crisis’.
Innovative business model
The project will also make use of the sharing economy, innovative business models, and digital twins to speed up a coping strategy towards the Covid-19 crisis and addresses the need for climate transition and secure circular and resilient food supply chains. The project is intended to be integrated into a national Shared Economy platform, Sharing Cities Sweden, financed by the Swedish Innovation Agency and the Swedish Strategic Innovation Program for smart and sustainable cities, Viable Cities. Neighbourfood is an example of the green deal and how the sharing economy in cities can trigger innovative business models for resilient food supply chains – a sharing platform for neighbours, by neighbours! mentions Dr. Charlie Gullström, a senior researcher at RISE and head of Sharing Cities Sweden, Stockholm Testbed.
Collaborations
Swegreens Sepehr Mousavi who will be the project’s coordinator and lead also adds: "We are proud of our collaboration with RISE through one of the most prominent researchers in Sweden when it comes to digitalization and use of sharing economy solutions", Dr. Charlie Gullström and the platform of Sharing Cities Sweden alongside Dr. Alex Jonsson from RISE Prototyping Societies. This service introduces FaaS to our national platform for sharing economy as a new vital function. Sepehr Mousavi continues: "Also having Dr. Baran Çürüklü from Mälardalen University, a vibrant academic center for development of AI-related technologies’ and his team of PhD students onboard adds the competence needed for us to be able to hack the query and guarantee the success of the NeighbourFood project." Dr. Baran Çürüklü adds: "Food production can suddenly be a mission-critical factor as we can see now. Orchestration of production facilities through artificial intelligence may be decisive in managing such a crisis."
For more information:
SweGreen
Andreas Dahlin
andreas.dahlin@swegreen.se
www.swegreen.se
Publication date: Mon 11 May 2020