Vertical And Urban Farming With Henry Gordon-Smith, Founder & Managing Director of Agritecture
February 20, 2019
In this interview we talk all about urban and vertical farming: What it is, what the challenges are, and why you should use these farming technologies to grow food in your city. If you’re curious about urban and vertical farming, then don't miss this article!
Henry could you please introduce yourself and you company?
Hi Marek! I’d be happy to, thanks for talking with me today. My name is Henry Gordon Smith, and I am the founder and managing director at Agritecture.
Agritecture is a global urban agriculture consulting firm. So what this means is we assist entrepreneurs and organizations around the world who are looking to start farms of their own or get into the vertical farming space. A lot of entrepreneurs don’t know what they should grow, they don’t know whether they should do a greenhouse or vertical farm. They don’t know what policies or what technologies they should be aware of to be successful. We help them answer those questions through data and our interdisciplinary approach.
A little bit of background about me. I started actually as a blogger, so about 9 years ago I got really interested in urban agriculture and I was dissatisfied with the amount of information available online. The information available wasn’t clear, it wasn’t honest, it wasn’t connected to the way that cities develop and so I created agritecture.com as a blog all about the future of agriculture in cities. Over the years that blog has grown up into a global consulting business which has been very exciting.
Henry how would you define Urban and Vertical farming?
That’s a great question because depending on how you look at them the two things are quite different, but also very similar in a number of important ways.
Urban farming means growing food in the city, and there are many different ways that you can do that. It’s also important to note that urban and local aren’t the same: you can have local farms that are in peri-urban and nearby rural areas, but when we talk about urban farming we’re really talking about growing food right in the city. You can have urban farming on rooftops, you can have it in vacant public spaces, and you can have it in and around private buildings as well. Most people think only about soil-based farming when they think about urban agriculture, but within that definition there should also be greenhouses, hydroponic farms, aquaponic farms and vertical farms.
Vertical farming is one specific type of urban farming, and the specific definition has been evolving I would say. The first definition that was put out there was really by doctor Dickson Despommier, author of The Vertical Farm, who was a mentor of mine as well, and his definition was basically indoor farms are like stacked greenhouses that are two stories high or more. I think that definition is OK but I think it excludes the reality of vertical farming that sometimes happens in basements and sometimes is only one level high, and frequently happens without natural light of any kind. So there's many different kinds of vertical farming today and the definition has really evolved since doctor Dickson Despommier publish his book about 10 years ago. So you know I think it's important to recognize that there are some varieties within vertical farming, and it’s not all the same thing anymore.
I think vertical farming is really about 3D farming. It's about designing with a 3 dimensional space in mind and trying to maximize the layers as much as possible. So vertical farm is typically stacked layers of cultivation and typically this is done hydroponically—although sometimes it can be done with soil—and is typically done indoors with no natural light although sometimes you can have them within some greenhouse models.
What is the relationship between these two farming methods?
I think that vertical farming is typically done in and near cities. When you think of vertical farming one of the main benefits is that you can produce high volumes of local food or food closer to the customer. But vertical farming doesn't have to be urban. You can think about a large scale vertical farm near a food distribution center somewhere far away. You can think about a vertical farm that's growing for scientific purposes and some research center far away from the city. You can think about vertical farms that are on the edges of cities away from the center. But I think most commonly you're trying to reduce the distance between the farm and the customer and so vertical farms tend to be in or very close to urban areas. So I see vertical farming as a subset of urban agriculture.
Why to use vertical and urban farming instead of traditional farming?
There are a couple different reasons and it really depends on where you are. The first thing is that every city is different and the drivers that are going to make urban or vertical farming successful are different in each city.
For example, if I look in New York City the driver for going indoors and growing in a vertical farm (which is very expensive and requires a lot of equipment) is the cold winter. In the winter time you can't get local food and all of our fresh produce comes from places like California, Arizona, Florida and Mexico. Now we have an economic reason to disrupt that situation and grow local food.
If you look at a place like Dubai, the reasons for doing indoor farming are very different than NYC. For example, the heat in Dubai is so significant that most of the greenhouses need to shut down in the summertime. They also import about 90% of their total food supply from abroad. So there are different drivers for vertical farming there than in NYC but the important point is that vertical farming makes sense in both contexts, they just might have slightly different systems that are tailored to the specific local needs and context.
Looking around the globe, there are also a lot of issues with people cutting down forests to build farmland, and also farmland being paved over to make room for growing cities. Urban agriculture and these new methods of growing local produce can be a way to save that land and make sure that you have enough trees to absorb carbon and make sure the ecosystem is performing properly. It's not a solution that’s meant to totally replace traditional agriculture but it should be a significant part of the entire system and I think a lot of people are surprised to learn that actually 15 to 20% of our global food supply comes from urban agriculture according to the FAO.
Henry, could you please talk about the main market issues that these farming methods solve?
Sure, the main system that urban agriculture actually disrupts is distribution. I think a lot of people think about the production and sure there's benefits from clean and pesticide free food, but distribution is the main disruption. Distribution in its most general sense is the major source of the carbon impact coming from traditional agriculture that urban agriculture helps to reduce. The reason you have distribution is actually why sometimes you have to have a lot of chemicals used for packaging. Food waste is a big part of that system as well. The economic opportunity around urban agriculture and vertical farming really comes from providing the product faster and fresher and cleaner and I think distribution is the main disruption point with urban agriculture.
World Vegetable Map 2018, Source: Rabobank, 2019
Vertical and Urban farming is rising right now based on market research, is that true?
Yeah I think it's a hot trend. I think the media is talking about it, and we're seeing some cities get involved in it from a governmental perspective as well. A lot more funding is going to the space so there's lots to talk about I think there's a bit of hype. I think that people are also too excited about it in some ways. I mean look, I'm very excited about it I talked about all the time and my blog writes about it every single day, but at the same time I think the hype isn't that helpful when you see articles like “Vertical farming will save the world” or “Vertical farming will feed the future”. I always try to explain: vertical farming it's a part of the solution, it is not the solution alone.
I think it's really important to understand that you can't grow everything at the vertical farm today. There are very difficult models that you have to operate very carefully and I think also you need to raise a lot of money. It's not an easy business and I think looking at the big picture hydroponic greenhouses are actually a bigger part of the future farming. I think hydroponic greenhouses provide more variety and they are more economically viable today, but it really depends on where you are located. Vertical farming is getting a lot of attention right now but I hope that attention turns into action and science-based knowledge.
What key challenges are these technologies now facing?
I don't think there's anything wrong with the technology. I think the technology works. If you would have asked me a couple of years ago there would have been a lot of challenges with the lighting, a lot of challenges with heating and ventilation, a lot of challenges with automation but now we're seeing that all those technologies of advancing quite rapidly and they are improving every year really.
We are on really good track to have economically viable vertical farming, but the problems that still exist that haven't been solved are the operational problems such as: managing waste, managing food safety, managing labor, hiring the right staff. All these things are still the challenge.
I think there are 2 major problems right now for vertical farming: one is sales and marketing, and the other is operations. I don't think it's the technology. When we see farms fail it's mostly because they struggled with one of those two core challenges.
What do you think will be the next big thing in this field?
I think whatever the next big thing is will have to solve a specific problem. The major problem for urban and vertical farms right now is labor. Labor costs are rising. The labor can be up to 35-40% of your operations costs. That's usually the biggest single chunk of your cost as a vertical farmer. Those costs need to be reduced and I think automation technology is probably the most exciting.
I don't mean necessarily high tech robots that perform every farm task, I’m really talking about specific farm tasks that right now take up a lot of labor time: packaging tasks, washing tasks or harvesting tasks. If we can build farms where the staff are paid more and they only focus on monitoring and maintenance and dealing with problems that arise, this would be the ideal. This would mean you get the talent to create the jobs, those jobs are paid better they are focused on complex challenges not on repetitive activities.
I think automation technology and robotics have a lot of promise for vertical farming. We're making progress there. I think other technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) or computer vision have a lot of potential as well.
Could you please describe today’s typical urban farmer?
The typical vertical farming entrepreneur today is a man, age 35 to 60, who has made money off some kind of business beforehand and is looking to invest it in this new emerging field. They usually feel a strong need to change the world and they know that agriculture is one of these major problems. They see this technology as really exciting because it's going to allow them to do more than they could do on their own. It's going to allow them to solve the problem in a really interesting way. But it’s really important to note that although this is the norm, there are people of all backgrounds who decide to become vertical farming entrepreneurs, and I sincerely hope that the diversity in our industry will only increase as the industry continues to grow.
How do you recognize produce that comes from a vertical farm?
The short answer: The day and the place would be the right way to do it. Otherwise you can't really tell, other than the fact that there’s no soil or dirt on any of the produce, but this is tough because most produce is washed clean regardless. Usually the marketing on the package will give you some indication: it will tell you that “we are vertical farm, we are local, we are fresh, we are pesticides free.”
Do you thinks it's better to say it's from Vertical farm?
No, I don’t think that is what the consumers need to see. I think the consumers wants to see local or they want to see clean.
Henry, why did you choose these farming methods? What drives you?
I was studying political science in Canada and Vancouver wanted to be the greenest city by 2020, and I was looking at these policies and I noticed that food wasn't really part of it. They had plans to managing food waste but they didn’t have a plan for growing enough food. I thought that this was very disappointing, why isn’t food security part of the green planning process? And the truth is that if you look globally it’s really not. Cities don’t consider agriculture as part of their plan which I think is really problematic, and I also was disappointed because I saw hydroponic websites talking about hydroponics technologies but it was disconnected from how the business models work in the city. How the technology would work with the people, with the customers.
I wanted to create a space to explore and share these ideas publicly, which led to the creation of the original agritecture.com blog. And as I started getting more interest in the topic I learned more about the gaps in the market and when I see gaps in the market I see an opportunity to create change. The major gap that existed as that there was no technology agnostic advice that’s available online that's consistent and quality and honest and transparent and so I wanted to solve that problem and fill that gap. That’s when I launched Agritecture Consulting as a technology agnostic consulting service to help entrepreneurs and companies grow local food successfully and sustainably.
My last question: what was the most challenging thing for you and Agritecture?
For me the most challenging thing has been my openness. I think I really want to answer everyone’s questions and I want to solve everyone's problems and I think as a new entrepreneur I didn’t learn quickly enough that you have to focus in and filter out some of the noise and distraction.
My advice to new entrepreneurs would be finding that one thing that you're really good at and focus on that, because there's always new opportunities, there are always going to be new ideas and new ways of doing things and new business potential, but if you don't focus on the core thing you're great at, you’re not going to have a consistent story and you're not going to have a profitable business.
So I think at the beginning the challenge was that I wanted to solve everyone problems, for every single audience, and answer everybody's questions. But the fact is that when you have a team like I do now (we've got 8 full-time employees) you have to be responsible as a leader and you have to be very focused, and that was a real challenge for me.
What is the thing that you would say you’re best at?
I'm good at understanding people’s core needs. I grew up around the world. I grew up in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Germany, Czech Republic, Russia and Canada and so I've lived in all those countries. I’ve been living in New York now for 6 years—the longest I've lived anywhere! I am always moving around and all of that variety allowed me to be very adaptable and very good at understanding people. I can read people very easily and I can understand their needs and motivations and I know how to adapt to meet them and communicate with them in a way that makes the most sense to them. As a consultant, this is a very important skill to make the most of your own time, as well as that of your client’s.
Henry, thanks for calling today. You are doing a great job and I wish you best of luck. Marek Hrstka