Urban Farmer Turns to Crowdfunding to Support Growing Business

By Sean Evans | January 10, 2019 at 5:04 PM EST - Updated January 10 at 6:50 PM

SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) - Just blocks from busy Pennsylvania Avenue and not far from the heart of downtown Savannah, there’s a business venture you might not know about, or think could be that close to downtown. In fact, it’s growing so much that its loyal customers and folks who support them are chipping in to help them grow.

“I am the owner and sole employee of Vertu Farm," said Chris Molander.

Molander started Vertu Farm on Savannah’s east side about three years ago after cultivating a passion for farming in high school and college.

“When an opportunity opened up out here at the old dairy farm, I just jumped on it," Molander said, as he picked some of his crops from the ground.

On two acres of leased land, Molander’s farm has grown to provide Savannah’s residents with local greens, on sale at the Forsyth Park Farmer’s Market, as well as at some area restaurants.

“I can’t say enough about our Farmer’s Market. There’s a lot of really dedicated people that come out every single week to support the farmers," Molander said.

About a month ago, Molander realized he had an immediate need for greenhouse space. A loan would take too long to help, and when someone suggested crowdfunding, the urban farmer saw how much further that small business support could go.

“It’s literally past everything that I could have thought would even possibly happen, and all the responses, individual responses, people coming out here to talk to me, they’re just interested in the farm. They want to see it, they want to know more about it, and it’s just awesome," Molander admitted.

With four days left, the Indiegogo campaign goal is more than 90-percent complete.

Funds raised will help this local business owner complete his own greenhouse space, and keep Vertu Farms producing homegrown greens for Savannahians to enjoy.

Local Grown Salads Launches Indoor Vertical Farms In Opportunity Zones

BALTIMORE, MD, UNITED STATES, January 10, 2019 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Local Grown Salads is opening Indoor Vertical Farms in Opportunity Zones located in Baltimore, Washington DC, and Nashville.

Local Grown Salads will be providing Ready-To-Eat salads, Ready-To-Use Herbs and vegetables that are GMO Free, Organic, Herbicide & Insecticide free, and certified insect free.

Wonderfully Fresh - Harvested and delivered on the same day.
Massive Selection - 25 different salads.
No prep needed - these are ready-to-eat.
No Food Safety concerns - FSMA & SFQ Quality Code level.
Good For The Environment - Reduced Carbon Footprint, No nasty runoff. No killing the bees.

Local Grown Salads is looking to provide LGS First Account status to a small set of restaurants, caterers, or food delivery companies prior to the official launch.

The LGS First Accounts will have special pricing, guaranteed availability, first access to product, and other advantages.

LGS First Accounts are select food service companies that will use Local Grown Salads' Ready-To-Eat Salads to provide extra-ordinary products to consumers.

LGS First Accounts will be located within 2 hours of one our locations and sell at least 5,000 high quality meals a week.

Local Grown Salads has limited the volume available and will be selective about who will receive this market advantage.

About Local Grown Salads Patent Pending Indoor Vertical Farming technology:
• Grows fresh produce year-round in a controlled environment with the highest standards of food quality and food safety
• Creates product that is organic, pesticide free, herbicide free, and GMO free
• Decreases transportation costs, thereby reducing the carbon footprint
• Helps to address the problem of food deserts
• Allows indoor farming that helps save the planet’s arable land

About Local Grown Salads and Opportunity Zones:
Opportunity Zones are a tax incentive established by Congress in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. 8,700 Opportunity Zones have been designated. The Opportunity Zones are low-income and food desserts. Local Grown Salads is expecting to create 20 jobs in its farms and provide fresh healthy food at wholesale prices to the community.
The Local Grown Salads farms can re-purpose older (heritage) buildings which are not challenged for other uses.

Zale Tabakman
Local Grown Salads
+1 416-738-2090
email us here
Visit us on social media:
LinkedIn

Distribution channels: Food & Beverage Industry

Bulgaria is the Largest Producer of Herbs in the European Union

Nieuwsbericht | 08-01-2019 | 14:59

Bulgaria is the largest producer of herbs and spices in the European Union. According to Eurostat, in the year 2017, a total of 81,000 tons of aromatic and medicinal plants and spices were grown in the country. The quantity of Bulgarian herbs is almost double to the second largest producer of herbs in the EU - Poland, where 44,000 tons were harvested. Spain ranks third with 32,000 tons.

Bulgaria is one of the largest producers of sunflower seeds. The country ranks second with close to 2.1 million tonnes and is ahead of Hungary. The first is Romania with 2.9 million tons.

The harvest of 7.5 thousand tons of raspberries in 2017 places Bulgaria fourth in the EU. The largest raspberry production in Poland is 104 thousand tons. Spain and the UK occupy second and third positions respectively by 43.5 thousand tons and 15.5 thousand tons respectively.

Bulgaria ranks fourth in growing sweet cherries. The fruit harvest is 48,000 tons, with Italy, Spain and Greece ahead of the country.

Bulgaria is the fifth largest tobacco producer in 2017. A total of 13,000 tonnes have been grown in the country. Italy and Poland are leaders with 48,000 and 32,000 tons.

In the production of rice, lucerne, watermelons, peaches and apricots, Bulgaria is sixth in the EU, according to the Eurostat study.

Source: Novinite.com

Republic Polytechnic Launches Course to Groom High-Tech Farmers

PUBLISHED

JAN 11, 2019, 5:00 AM SGT

Cheryl Teh

A new course here aims to train the next generation of high-tech farmers so that Singapore can produce more of its own food.

The Diploma in Applied Science in Urban Agricultural Technology, launched by Republic Polytechnic (RP) on Wednesday, is the first full-qualification diploma course in agricultural technology in Singapore.

The course was developed by RP, in consultation with the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore, to develop a local core agriculture workforce with modern agricultural knowledge and techniques to drive the sector's growth and transformation.

Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Koh Poh Koon spoke at the launch of the diploma, which was held together with the opening of the polytechnic's Agriculture Technology Laboratory.

Dr Koh highlighted the need for a new generation of talent in agricultural technologies, to turn Singapore into a leading Asia hub for urban agriculture and aquaculture technologies.

The growth of the Republic's urban agriculture and aquaculture sector is also an essential pillar in upholding Singapore's food supply resilience, he added.

"As a small country where land is a scarce resource, Singapore has always had limited land space for domestic food production," said Dr Koh, adding that Singapore might be affected by global food supply developments and disruptions.

He added that Singapore's local farms produce just 10 per cent of food fish, 13 per cent of vegetables and 27 per cent of eggs consumed here. But he is confident that these percentages will continue to grow, with technological developments and more young farmers joining the industry through avenues such as RP's urban agriculture diploma.

The first batch of 25 students will start the part-time diploma course in June. These students will be taught five modules, with a focus on agricultural technologies for food production, farming process and management, urban farming technology and systems, agribusiness, and sustainable farming.

The programme's first run also involves eight local farms: Citizen Farm, ComCrop, Farm 85 Trading, Koh Fah Technology Farm, Liteleaf, Nippon Koi Farm, Sustenir Agriculture, and Vegeponics.

The farms will give students in the course on-the-job training opportunities and internships.

The course comes in two formats - one for fresh Institute of Technical Education graduates to build on what they have learnt in school, and the other for adult learners who want to switch to, or further their careers in, the agro-technology and agri-business sector.

RP's new Agriculture Technology Laboratory will give students in the diploma course in-house, hands-on training. The laboratory will also be used as a platform for workshops, industry-relevant projects and research in agriculture technology to incubate solutions to enhance productivity in farms.

It features technologies used in the farming industry today, including vertical farming towers irrigated by a nutrient tank and a horizontal hydroponic system irrigated by shallow tubes.

The laboratory also displays the hydroponic deep water culture system, where the roots of plants are submerged in a nutrient solution, and an energy-efficient substrate growing system.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on January 11, 2019, with the headline 'Republic Poly launches course to groom high-tech farmers'. Print Edition | Subscribe

Hacking Photosynthesis

13 January, 2019

We will all be dead without the Sun. That we all know. But even if the sun shone 24 hours a day, we will all be dead without plants. Really. Plants keep the world going. We eat a lot of plants – and the animals from which we obtain meat for consumption also consume plants. Furthermore, plants inhale Carbon Dioxide and produce healthier air. The process through which plants get the energy for sustenance (and all other stuff) is called Photosynthesis which means something like ‘producing with light’.

This is fundamental to the life cycle on Earth. But how does photosynthesis work? There’s a big molecule, a protein, inside the leaves of most plants. It is called Rubisco. It is probably the most abundant protein in the world. Rubisco has one job.

It picks up carbon dioxide from the air, and it uses the carbon to make sugar molecules. It gets the energy to do this from the Sun. This is photosynthesis, the process by which plants use sunlight to make food, the foundation of life on Earth.

But Rubisco is not perfect. It has one almost fatal flaw. Unfortunately, Rubisco does not know how to grab only Carbon Dioxide from the air. It also picks up oxygen. But this poses a huge problem for the plant as this leads to the formation of a toxic compound in the plant. It has to do extra work and spend extra energy for detoxification, a process called Photorespiration. This has in fact been called ‘one of the biggest mistakes’ of evolution.

Ripe

Plants have a complicated ‘chemical assembly line’ in their cells to carry out this detoxification, but the process uses up a lot of energy. This means the plant has less energy for actually making food. However, some crops including corn and sugar cane have developed a workaround for Rubisco, making them much more productive. Photorespiration is anti-photosynthesis in the sense that it costs the plant precious energy and resources that it could have invested in photosynthesis to produce more growth and yield.

Many scientists around the world have been trying to ‘hack’ photosynthesis for years, but a team from the University of Illinois has emerged first. There, a research program called Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE), has run for the last five years trying to fix Rubisco’s problem.

They first experimented with tobacco plants, because tobacco is easy to work with. The researchers inserted some new genes into these plants, which shut down the existing detoxification assembly line and set up a new one that is much more efficient.

Photorespiration normally takes a complicated route through three compartments in the plant cell. Scientists engineered alternate pathways to reroute the process, drastically shortening the trip and saving enough resources to boost plant growth.

This resulted in super tobacco plants that grow faster and up to 40 percent bigger than normal tobacco plants. And yes, this was not confined to the laboratory.

These measurements were done both in greenhouses and open-air farm plots. Their research has been published in the prestigious Science magazine.

These scientists now are trying to repeat the process with plants that people rely on for food, such as, tomatoes and soybeans.

They will also be working with cowpea, or black-eyed pea, which is a staple food crop for a lot of farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. One can indeed imagine the effects of more efficient photosynthesis in the poorest regions of the world. The funders of this project include the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

It will be many years, though, before any farmer anywhere in the world plant crops with this new version of photosynthesis. Researchers will have to find out whether it means that a food crop actually produces a bigger harvest, while convincing Government regulators and consumers that the crops are safe to grow and eat.

There is an irrational fear regarding Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) food, even though there is no conclusive evidence that they cause disease or deformities. The public however should be assured that the plants with the photosynthesis hack pose no danger to people and animals.

Precision Agriculture

In any case, photosynthesis is just one component of a plant’s needs. Plant growth, in man-made fields or in the wild, depends on the availability of water, nitrogen and phosphorus, not on photosynthetic capacity alone. Farmers generally add water and NPK fertiliser to their crops, though wild plants have to find these on their own. And lest someone think that the sun is essential for photosynthesis for all plants, plenty of plants grow well under artificial light. In fact, indoor agriculture has been proposed as one solution to the impending food crisis in some parts of the world. Moreover, soil-less and artificial light plant growth will be essential for future manned space missions being planned for Mars.

Agriculture is ripe for modernisation in many developing parts of the world where crop yields are still low compared to those of the developed world. Boosting crop yields is essential with the world predicted to have 10 billion people by 2050.

That is three billion extra mouths to feed and a possible 70 percent extra demand for food, but arable land is not getting any bigger. The solution is to improve crop yields and also adopt innovative methods of agriculture such as vertical farming, soil-less farming and indoor farming.

And there is a whole new revolution coming to traditional agriculture too – including self-driving tractors and harvesters, crop-spraying drones, robots, Artificial Intelligence and satellite sensing. There is even a name for agriculture that combines the best elements of technology - precision agriculture.

Internet of Things

The goal is to use automated driving technology, computer vision, telematics, and cloud-based mobile applications to help farmers double or triple their yields—a feat that will be key to keeping up with global food demands as the Earth’s population grows over the next 30 years.

The Internet of Things (IOT) will also help agriculture. Some machines are stuffed with sensors and software that gather data, process it with machine learning, and beam it into mobile apps. The sensors are the eyes of the machine. The software and mobile apps bring the data to life.

The other major challenge is Climate Change, which has the potential to cause a severe disruption to our crop cycles. A Recent analysis that looked into the climate impact on crop yields produced sobering results.

The study’s authors said that for each 1° Celsius rise in global mean temperature there would be a 7.4% decrease in yields of corn, a 6% decrease in yields of wheat, and a 3% yield decrease in rice. It is thus vital to keep Climate Change in check as other advances could be nullified if it reaches unmanageable levels.

Use of Coco Coir To Grow Substantially Over The Next Decades

With a history of only 25 years, coco is a relatively new product in the horticultural industry. Its popularity has been on a continuous rise and is expected to keep on growing over the next couple of years. “The European growing industry was very peat minded, but this has changed. Nowadays peat and coco are fully compliant raw materials being used in the production of potting soil”, Geerten van Eldik with Fibredust tells us. That’s why the company recently joined Growing Media Europe – the first coco producer to do so.

The global substrate market is always on the move. Since its introduction, over 20 years ago, coir has gained ground rapidly in North, Central and South America, as well as Asia. Making it possible for growers to start hydroponic cultivation in an affordable way, and therefore offering higher yield levels and the possibility to avoid diseases while still mono cropping, the use of coco grew alongside the use of hydroponics. In Europe, the rise of coir hasn’t been as mad, as many growers were already familiar with substrate growing when coco entered the industry.

“Currently about 12.5% of global growing media being used is coir, as researched by Wageningen UR and RHP”, Geerten continues. This percentage is expected to grow further. Wageningen UR researcher Chris Blok estimates the amount of coco being used, currently 5 million m3, might even multiply by seven over the next couple of years. With both the production and the use of peat being limited more and more, an alternative is needed. And coco could be it.” Nowadays soft fruit is changing the industry. “In America, the market for coco slabs is growing thanks to the popularity of the product in crops such as soft fruit and cannabis. In Europe, bulk is key and since peat is a complete raw material, it's of good use in this industry. The use of slabs could grow in the next couple of years, but nowadays we see coir is being used as an alternative to peat in the mix of potting soils”, Geerten explains."

FibreDust India production location Anar Coir. About 40 hectare drying and processing facilities.

Team Fibre Dust India - Anar Coir - visited by Geerten

The USA sales team

Challenges
Being a reusable product, a product of nature and an easy to use substrate, coco is favored by more and more growers. However, coco is facing challenges as well. As a product of nature, the residual product from the coconut growing industry, coir had to deal with supplying issues due to climate circumstances in production regions in India and Sri Lanka. 

By spreading their production over various Indian and Sri Lankan facilities and investing in the production chain, Fibredust has been able to solve the issues and secure their supply for the future. “Drying the raw material is an important topic. We’re testing this thoroughly and are nearly there, but it’s a complicated matter: you do not want to adjust the internal quality of the material. We’re looking for the perfect way to ensure our buffering quality whilst maximizing the output and keeping an eye out on the energy costs.” In the production chain, water and transport are also of concern. “With a special system we collect a lot of rainwater, which can be used in the process. By using a reverse osmosis system, we are able to re-use the water and since the buffering process is optimised, we can buffer large amounts of peat in a short time. With investments like these we want to keep investing in the sustainability of the industry. We expect this will result in an RHP certificate in 2019 as well.”

The USA sales team

Geerten with Satheesh Rao

Coco is bought based on trust
“Coco is bought based on trust”, Geerten continues. “On the outside, you cannot see if a product is good or bad, and since the delivery time is four weeks, the problems are big when there’s something wrong with the product. That’s why to us, trust in the company is valued highly.” Certificates like SA8000 and ISO14000, ISO9001 and OMRO are examples of this – but there’s more. This year Fibredust joined Growing Media Europe, the body representing the growing media industry and known for being a rockwool-peat organization.

“The European growing industry was very peat-minded, and peat and coco were even competing, but this has changed. Peat and coco are fully compliant as raw materials being used in the production of potting soil, and the choice is for the grower to make.” With the importance of coco growing, the interests of the coco industry have grown as well. “The industry needs to be represented”, says Geerten.

For example, the import of coco material into Europe has attracted interest from the European Commission. “With coco being officially a plant waste, it was said every consignment had to be tested separately before it could be imported. With thousands of containers being imported, that would be an immense setback. Thanks to the effort made by the coco industry and the network and support of Growing Media Europe, this plan was torpedoed. We’re proud to be a part of this. Of course we’re Fibredust and are a commercial company, but the major issues of the industry concern us as well. If the industry flourishes, we flourish as well.”

For more information

FibreDust LLC

T: 860-613-0077 

customer.support@fiberdust.com 

www.fibredust.com

"Labor Is The Number One Topic In All The Conversations We Are Currently Having"

As we begin 2019, the moment is here to take a general look at the industry, and who better to discuss today’s topics with than Chris Higgins? With Hort Americas continually competing to be one of the leading wholesalers in North America, and Chris being a complete horti-geek, he’s on top of the industry’s topics of today and tomorrow. And there’s much to cover at the moment. “For us, Hort Americas, the only constant thing we see is change. Being a wholesaler and being constantly aware of the need to add value to our customers’ businesses, we are focused on finding the winning innovation of tomorrow”, he explains.

Drew Demler (State Fair of Texas), Chris Higgins and Stephen Ritz (Green Bronx Machine) (photo Hort Americas)

Anniversary 
It's been almost a decade since Hort Americas was founded. In April 2009, a group of young American entrepreneurs united with the Dutch suppliers of Horticoop and started bringing horticultural products to the quickly growing horticultural industry of the USA and Canada. Operating as a wholesaler, the company made many products accessible to bigger and smaller companies.

Within their client base you can find vegetable growers, ornamental growers as well as a wide variety of growers implementing a wide variety of innovative techniques used to produce an even wider variety of crops. However, there are various topics that unite them. “Labor is the number one topic in all the conversations we are currently having. It does not seem to matter if we are talking about commercial horticulture, field agriculture or vertical farming. This trend seems constant. In vegetable production as well as in ornamental horticultural production – the quality, availability and cost of labor is the number one topic in North America”, Chris explains. To the company, being on top of these trends and offering solutions to them is key.

“We have a fairly narrow focus on a niche market and we are in contact with our client base daily. This allows us to understand their needs intimately and find and deliver solutions that make our customers more profitable and more successful.” He continues, “This includes new emerging markets as well as established industries that are evolving to meet demand and stay relevant, like indoor farming of medicinal crops and the hydroponic production of soft fruits.”

On a side note he offers, “I do believe that out of these new or evolving grower populations, we are going to see some all stars: people that do things differently - apply new technology, or operate their business in a different way - and become the leaders. But, as common throughout history, it will only be a small percentage of the companies that change the industry. And it is not our desire nor our goal to pick winners. To us, the focus is the complete industry: seeing the similarities between the companies and the way trends and novelties impact their operation. Within these topics, we select products that are winners to us: that can add value to most growers' businesses. That’s how we’re serving the industry and how we are on the look-out for our own product range.”

Role as a wholesaler
The company's vision sounds clear - but there’s challenges in the market. In 2018 Horticoop, the Dutch partner of Hort Americas, announced it would resign their wholesale activities and focus on production only. Whilst this does not affect the Hort Americas business, it did urge the company to rethink their role as a wholesaler. Adding value is key, Chris explains. “Being a distributor is more than just selling or providing products. To us it is offering growers solutions to better their business in both the short and the long term.” To do so, HortAmericas puts a lot of effort in helping growers with their specific challenges and, if needed, educate them about the solutions. “Before, being a supplier meant supplying products. Now it’s about understanding what our growers need and value, then finding ways to fulfill those needs as a service: educating, improving the crop(s) quality, creating a better more efficient work environment, and eventually helping growers find ways to become more profitable.”

Demo Greenhouse 
It’s not just a vision to Hort Americas. Besides being active continuously in educating growers and researching a lot, the company (which two years ago started their own demo greenhouse) is focused on creating positive change within their community while at the same time improving the knowledge of the Hort Americas team and their ability to communicate that knowledge with both their vendors and their grower partners.

“Thanks to our relationship with the State Fair of Texas (better known as Big Tex Urban Farms), who’ve continuously supported our business, we’ve been able to combine our efforts, energies and resources to create a demo greenhouse at the fairgrounds based in Dallas, Texas. As long as you have scheduled an appointment, it is open for both the community and growers year round. It is in production year round. It is in a constant state of learning and development. But most importantly it is contributing free, safe and healthy food to members of the south Dallas community in need.”

Night time before the start of the Texas State Fair, where more than 200 thousand people are estimated to visit the greenhouse each year. This pond uses Current, Powered by GE LED Top Lights and the Moleaer Nanobubble Generator. (photo Hort Americas)

Hot summer 
When asked why Dallas, Texas, Higgins responds, “We are testing products and trying to prove their value. The hot Texas summers offer a tough and difficult environment to grow in. If we can make it work in Dallas, we are confident in the quality of these products and their abilities to perform in some of the most harsh circumstances.” From their commitment to have a positive social impact to their commitment to playing an important role in both the success of their vendors and their grower partners, Higgins is excited and enthusiastic about the future.Then there’s the social aspect: adding value to the local community.

Chilling the rootzone
In the demo greenhouse the Moleaer system is shown - one of Hort Americas' most talked about products at the moment. “We’ve focused on the limiting factors in producing the best possible crops 12 months of the year. One of the biggest issues in Dallas turned out to be controlling temperature of the root-zone. Chilling the rootzone is not cost-effective in most scenarios. Adding dissolved oxygen to it, turned out to do the trick.”

To Chris, the Moleaer product range offered a typical Hort Americas solution. “It can benefit many growers in an affordable, easy way and it is applicable in a wide area of the countries we service”, he explains. “With Hort Americas, we want to be there for a large group of growers. Products that are only accessible to a small part of the market are not a good fit to us. We are looking for the products that help the average grower in their business.”

Add value by specializing
He explains how the North American industry on one hand consists of big companies, in need of tailor-made solutions. “Then there is a large amount of smaller scale customers. These farming operations do not follow the same pattern of upscaling or monocropping. Instead they add value by specializing in specific groups of products, serving local communities with locally grown product or whatever business model proves them to be right. Whilst we are capable of supplying the large customers, we also want to bring suitable products and services to the farms and greenhouses of all shapes and sizes.”

The Sudlac product portfolio is another example of a product line that is effective for large and small greenhouse ranges as well as hydroponic vegetable production and ornamental horticulture. The demand for the various shading solutions has been on the rise. “Creating a better production climate is of course important to growers everywhere in the world. The added value at the moment is in innovative second generation shading products that not only reduce the amount of light in the greenhouse, but can manipulate and improve light in ways that can enhance crop quality.”

USDA Fresh Herbs Grant Planning Meeting held during the 2018 Texas State Fair. (photo Hort Americas)

Relationships with suppliers
The importance of a good and stable relationship isn’t a one way road. Relationships with suppliers are of high importance to Hort Americas. “Obviously the product itself is important in our selection, but it’s not just that... it cannot be just that. Trust between us and our valued suppliers has continued to evolve into a vital part of our business model. We look for specific relationships with suppliers. We look for companies that we can count on and trust, and vice versa. We ask ourselves, ‘Can the manufacturer add value to the chain? Can we help them market their products in the better ways? Do the manufacturers understand the needs of the market?’ Again we want to create partnerships. Partnerships lead to better business for everyone involved.”

A perfect example of this is Hort Americas' relationship with Current by GE (LED grow light solutions). Adding lighting to the crop is an important topic for many growers wanting to lengthen their season and increase their production. “This goes for vegetables, but for sure is not exclusive to vegetable crops. Managing light intensity, light quality and photoperiod is important in all crop production. LED lighting has helped everyone from tree nurseries (for example) becoming more efficient in growing maple trees to tissue culture facilities producing ornamental and medicinal crops.

"Investing in LED is all about effectiveness and efficiency - making it a perfect Hort Americas product catalog. And the engineering team at Current has helped us to develop a variety of fixtures perfect for many (not all) applications. We are working towards that.” Higgins’ excitement about the GE partnership carries over to other partners that are helping them produce innovative fertilizers and have provided them with opportunities to explore new technologies like 30MHZ (sensor products offering growers a better control and more insights on their crop).

Leafy Greens being grown under Current, Powered by GE LED Grow Lights (Arize Lynk LED Grow Lights) (photo Hort Americas)

Keeping up is a challenge
With the Hort Americas client base being super diverse, staying on top of the various needs in the industry is of vital importance. “Keeping up with all the issues along with the wide range of crops and topics indeed is a challenge”, Chris confirms. “On the other hand, trends are similar across the categories. Labor (again) is something affecting the complete industry: the quality, availability and cost of it is the number one topic in North America at the moment. The biggest difference between the various sub-segments within industries are access finance and the pace of developments and investments - depending on both the maturity of the sectors and what their opportunity for profits look like. But in the end the demand of growers is the same in all crops. It all comes down to the smart use of technology and how that technology lets the grower achieve a sound ROI. That’s the main question we are all trying to answer. This will always be the question we are trying to answer.”

For more information:
Hort Americas
Chris Higgins
chiggins@hortamericas.com
www.hortamericas.com

Publication date : 1/15/2019 
Author: Arlette Sijmonsma 
© HortiDaily.com

Republic Polytechnic Invests in Urban Farming With New Diploma, Lab

Angelii Trissha Mohan

Jan 11, 2019

On Wednesday (Jan 9), the poly launched the specialised diploma in urban agricultural technology - the first full-qualification diploma in the field.

At the launch, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Dr Koh Poh Koon, emphasised the importance of increasing the margin of safety for Singapore's food supply through agricultural technology.

Dr. Koh explained that since Singapore imports more than 90 per cent of its food supply, it is crucial to leverage on technology to minimise challenges like disruptive weather conditions and optimise crops' growth cycles.

To overcome the challenges of unpredictable weather and land scarcity, the agricultural industry has turned to urban agriculture.

Commencing in June with an inaugural batch of 25 students, the part-time diploma in applied science gives students the option of signing up for the associated SkillsFuture Earn and Learn Programme

The 900-hour course is ideal for students interested in a career in the industry and adult learners looking to upgrade their skills.

OPENING

Dr. Koh also witnessed the opening of RP's Agriculture Technology Laboratory and memorandum of understanding signing with Singapore Agro-Food Enterprises Federation.

The Agriculture Technology Laboratory is a new facility to support students in deepening their skills through hands-on training.

The lab will be equipped with indoor farming systems like vertical plane cultivation,conduit-based horizontal hydroponic nutrient film technique, tray-based horizontal hydroponic growing and substrate growing systems.

According to Mr Yeo Li Pheow, the principal of RP, the motivation behind the new course and lab stemmed from the pressing issue of food security due to Singapore's limited land area.

"In order for Singapore to be more self-sufficient and resilient, we need to increase the amount of food we produce locally and reduce our dependence on food imports," said Mr. Yeo.

Technology Will Make The UAE One of The World's Most Food-Secure Countries By 2021

Food security is without doubt one of humankind’s most pressing concerns and the issue is one that is felt particularly keenly in the UAE. Although considered food secure – primarily because it enjoys a high degree of economic and political stability – the UAE still faces significant challenges. These stem from its arid climate, its shrinking groundwater levels and the volatility of the wider region. Added to these geographic and geopolitical stressors is the country’s spectacular growth. As its population has expanded exponentially, increasing from about 300,000 in 1971 – the year the UAE was founded – to more than nine-and-a-half million today, the need to provide for its residents has increased correspondingly.

My responsibility as UAE Minister of State for Food Security is to ensure that the nation continues to enjoy an adequate food supply for its citizens as it develops and to elevate its current position of 31st on the global ranking for food security to the top 10 by 2021. In order to achieve this, we are championing trade facilitation and enabling technology-based production and supply of food. The initiatives to support strategic goals are anchored in diversification of supply, alternative supply sources, technology-enabled enhancement of local production and international trade links, among others. Thus, a major part of my mandate is involved in incorporating agricultural technology – also known as “AgTech” – into the country’s food security agenda. This agenda is enshrined in the UAE’s recent launch of its National Food Security Strategy.

Variously defined as “transforming the global food system through digital technology” and “smart farmers getting smarter using digital technology”, AgTech encompasses advanced agricultural methods that differ distinctly from the traditional ways of farming practised for millennia. Increasingly seen as a solution to the UAE’s food security issues, my office is now placing a strong focus on adopting AgTech in the country’s agricultural sector, as part of a concerted effort to considerably reduce the 90 per cent of food that the country currently imports.

The AgTech government accelerator project, with its two components, is one such initiative. The first component is the promotion of the use of “controlled-environment agriculture” (CEA), which is a technology-based approach toward food production that utilises highly efficient technologies to properly manage agriculture inputs and maximise output. It involves agricultural industry entrepreneurs working alongside government bodies to provide tangible solutions to promote CEA, primarily through implementing an enabling business environment that is conducive to innovation.

The second component of the project is aquaculture, which is farming in controlled conditions of fish, crustaceans, molluscs, aquatic plants, algae and other organisms in freshwater and saltwater. With agriculture in general being the world’s thirstiest industry, accounting for approximately 72 per cent of total freshwater consumption, aquaculture represents one of the best uses of what is the region’s most precious resource. To this end, the UAE has established a vibrant aquaculture sector with an investment of more than Dh100 million to develop hatcheries and fish farms.

Vertical farming is another AgTech component that my department is promoting and one that has been identified as offering a solution to the UAE’s food security issues. The concept involves plants being grown in vertically stacked layers in an indoor environment where environmental factors can be controlled. Vertical farms typically use artificial light, humidity regulation, temperature control and minimum use of pesticides, enabling the production of vegetables in large quantities all year round without the need for soil, sunlight and chemicals. The commercial applications of vertical farming are already being realised in the UAE, with the opening of the Gulf region’s first-of-its-kind facility in December 2017. Located in the Al Quoz industrial area of Dubai, the 8,500sq ft farm produces 18 varieties of micro-greens, including rocket, kale, radishes, red cabbage, basil and mustard.

Remote-controlled drones have become an accepted presence in the skies above the UAE, with the ubiquitous flying machines used by the authorities to – among other things – monitor traffic and deliver post. Now they are providing benefits for the country’s agricultural sector, with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) being used to map farming areas across the country. Announced in June 2017, the pilot project sees UAVs being used to create a highly accurate agricultural database that supports decision-making and forward planning by enabling the best use of resources and determining the optimum areas for crop growth.

Perhaps the most prevalent form of AgTech being incorporated in the UAE’s agricultural sector is the use of sensors, with their adoption resulting in increased yields in both large-scale agricultural projects and smaller organic farms. Sensor-equipped gyroscopes, accelerators and GPS monitors are being employed to enhance crop production by making the most of land and water use – precision irrigation that is highly effective in reducing water waste. A good example is an organic farm in Sharjah that relies heavily on sensors to determine the salinity and mineral content of the soil to ensure optimum crop growth with minimal use of water. Another prime example is a household name Japanese electronics manufacturer that is creating a farm in Dubai to grow strawberries, with the facility incorporating light-emitting diodes for controlled lighting, air distillation technology and other appliances to check room temperature and humidity.

Aquaculture, vertical farming, drone use and sensors are just four of the technologies that are being utilised in the UAE to maximise crop production while ensuring good husbandry of resources. This is only the start of what will be an expanding role for AgTech in the country’s agricultural sector. The office of food security is currently evaluating how emerging areas of technology, such as robotics, can play a part. Automation combined with artificial intelligence is an exciting field that we are currently assessing. One company in the US has produced a robot that mimics what a fruit picker in the field does. It uses AI to determine which fruit is ripe and ready to be picked, leaving unripe fruit in place on the vine. We are closely following such developments as part of the National Food Security Strategy and will be assessing how rapid technological changes that form part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution can be best incorporated to ensure food security for all.

Mariam Al Mheiri is the UAE's Minister of State for Food Security

Updated: January 16, 2019 04:25 PM

Can We Grow More Food on Less Land? We’ll Have To, A New Study Finds

By Brad Plumer

Dec. 5, 2018

WASHINGTON — If the world hopes to make meaningful progress on climate change, it won’t be enough for cars and factories to get cleaner. Our cows and wheat fields will have to become radically more efficient, too.

That’s the basic conclusion of a sweeping new study issued Wednesday by the World Resources Institute, an environmental group. The report warns that the world’s agricultural system will need drastic changes in the next few decades in order to feed billions more people without triggering a climate catastrophe.

The challenge is daunting: Agriculture already occupies roughly 40 percent of the world’s land and is responsible for about a quarter of humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions. But with the global population expected to grow from 7.2 billion people today to nearly 10 billion by 2050, and with many millions of people eating more meat as incomes rise, that environmental impact is on pace to expand dramatically.

Based on current trends, the authors calculated, the world would need to produce 56 percent more calories in 2050 than it did in 2010. If farmers and ranchers met that demand by clearing away more forests and other ecosystems for cropland and pasture, as they have often done in the past, they would end up transforming an area twice the size of India.

That, in turn, could make it nearly impossible to stay below 2 degrees Celsius of global warming, the agreed-upon international goal, even if the world’s fossil-fuel emissions were rapidly phased down. When forests are converted into farmland, the large stores of carbon locked away in those trees is released into the atmosphere.

“Food is the mother of all sustainability challenges,” said Janet Ranganathan, vice president for science and research at the World Resources Institute. “We can’t get below 2 degrees without major changes to this system.”

Less meat, but also better farming

The new study, the result of six years’ worth of modeling work conducted in partnership with French agricultural researchers, is hardly the first to warn that feeding the world sustainably will be a formidable task. But the authors take a different view of the most plausible solutions.

In the past, researchers who have looked at the food problem have suggested that the key to a sustainable agriculture system is to persuade consumers to eat far less meat and waste far less of the food that’s already grown.

The new report, however, cautions that there may be limits to how much those strategies can achieve on their own. The authors do recommend that the biggest consumers of beef and lamb, such as those in Europe and the United States, could cut back their consumption by about 40 percent by 2050, or down to about 1.5 servings a week on average. Those two types of meat have especially large environmental footprints.

But the authors are not counting on a major worldwide shift to vegetarianism.

“We wanted to avoid relying on magic asterisks,” said Timothy D. Searchinger, a researcher at Princeton University and the World Resources Institute and lead author of the report. “We could imagine a significant shift from beef to chicken, and that by itself goes a long way.” (Poultry production has about one-eighth the climate impact of beef production.)

So, in addition to actions on diet and food waste, the researchers also focused on dozens of broad strategies that could allow farmers and ranchers to grow far more food on existing agricultural lands while cutting emissions, a feat that would require a major shift in farming practices worldwide and rapid advances in technology.

What on Earth Is Going On?

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get our latest stories and insights about climate change — along with answers to your questions and tips on how to help.

A farm in the Pays de la Loire region of France. Cows have an especially large environmental footprint.CreditLoic Venance/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

For example, they note, in parts of Brazil, the best-managed grazing lands can produce four times as much beef per acre as poorly managed lands — in part owing to differences in cattle health and how well the grass is fertilized. Improving productivity across the board could help satisfy rising meat demand while lessening the need to clear broad swaths of rain forest.

The authors also pointed to possible techniques to reduce the climate impact of existing farms. For instance, new chemical compounds could help prevent nitrogen fertilizers from producing nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas. And scientists are exploring feed additives that get cows to burp up less methane, another big contributor to global warming.

The report notes that producing 56 percent more calories without expanding agricultural land could prove even more difficult if, as expected, rising temperatures reduce crop yields. But, Mr. Searchinger said, many of the recommendations in the report, such as breeding new, higher-yielding crop varieties or preventing soil erosion, could also help farmers adapt to climate change.

Conserving the world’s remaining forests

The researchers emphasize that strategies to improve the productivity of existing croplands and pastures will have to be paired with more rigorous conservation policies to protect existing forests in places like Brazil or sub-Saharan Africa. Otherwise, farmers will just find it more profitable to clear more forests for agriculture — with dire climate consequences.

“In the past, we’ve often seen agricultural policies and conservation policies moving in parallel without a lot of interaction,” said Linus Blomqvist, director of conservation at the Breakthrough Institute, who was not involved in the study. “The big challenge is to link the two, so that we get more intensive farming without using more land.”

In another contentious recommendation, the report’s authors call for a limit on the use of bioenergy crops, such as corn grown for ethanol in cars, that compete with food crops for land.

Money is also a hurdle. The report’s authors call for large increases in research funding to look at ideas like fertilizers that can be made without the use of fossil fuels, organic sprays that can reduce waste by preserving fresh food for longer, and genetic editing techniques that might produce higher-yielding crops. They also urge new regulations that would encourage private industry to develop sustainable agricultural technologies.

Over the past three years, 51 countries have spent roughly $570 billion a year to support food production, said Tobias Baedeker, an agricultural economist at the World Bank, which contributed to the new study.

If those subsidies were overhauled so that they helped support more sustainable practices, Mr. Baedeker said, “we could have a real game-changer on our hands.”

Westland Promofilm 2019

Westland is a dynamic municipality. In this relatively small area of just 9 000 hectares, we come up with pioneering solutions to global challenges. We produce high quality food products, flowers and plants, sustainably and innovatively, to improve the well-being and welfare of people all over the world.

The Westland area is the world’s main greenhouse horticulture cluster. Over the last 120 years, Westland has become the international hotspot when it comes to growing indoor crops. As early as 1918, Westland growers started planting indoors to extend the growing season of their tomato crop. The development and exchange of knowledge make innovation possible.

An unparalleled cluster of greenhouse horticulture companies and related industries. Importers, exporters, packaging and repackaging companies, growers, breeders, R&D, suppliers, transporters and warehouses, and many more. A cluster like this concentrated in such a small area is found nowhere else in the world. With the opening of the World Horti Center, the region now has a campus where the business community, education and government can come together.

The international innovation hub is also the main innovation centre of the international greenhouse horticulture sector, where business, research, demonstration, teaching and education converge. It is also where local and international greenhouse companies innovate and do business. Westland’s geographical location is unique. Situated close to Schiphol and the Port of Rotterdam, our logistics hub can reach 500 million European customers within 24 hours.

Our mentality is our defining feature: we work hard and efficiently, while always looking for ways to create synergy through partnerships. Many companies have chosen to establish their business in Westland. www.westlandhortibusiness.com

Newbean Capital Announces Agreement to Sell Indoor Ag-Con to Event Industry Veterans, Expands to New Locations & Topics

ATLANTA, GA, USA, December 10, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Atlanta, GA (December 9, 2018) – Newbean Capital, a US registered investment adviser, today announced an agreement to sell Indoor Ag-Con LLC to three event industry veterans; Nancy Hallberg, Kris Sieradzki and Brian Sullivan.

Founded by Newbean Capital in 2013, Indoor Ag-Con was one of the first events to recognize the potential in the nascent indoor agriculture industry, the practice of growing crops in containers, greenhouses and warehouses using hydroponic, aeroponic and aquaponic techniques. The tech-focused events have grown rapidly and are now hosted in Las Vegas, the US East coast and Singapore each year. In 2015, the events became crop agnostic, expanding to cover legal cannabis and alternate proteins as well as leafy greens and non-food crops.

The acquisition sets the stage for a significant expansion of Indoor Ag-Con globally, bringing exceptional talent and experience to the events. Nancy and Kris founded leading event housing group Connections Housing over thirty years’ ago; the Company manages over 250 events annually, some with over 100,000 participants. Brian brings a wealth of experience in event planning and trade show management, with more than 20 years’ experience in managing large scale shows for companies such as Reed Exhibition and Clarion Events. Nicola Kerslake, founder of Newbean Capital, will remain involved in Indoor Ag-Con as Chief Curator, creating agendas and curating speakers for each event. She remains deeply involved in the indoor agriculture industry, thanks to her rapidly growing alternate finance business, Contain Inc, which will provide white papers for Indoor Ag-Con events going forward.

“We see great potential for growth in indoor agriculture, and are excited to bring greater resources to Indoor Ag-Con” commented Nancy Hallberg. “We’ll be rolling out new initiatives, partnerships and event locations in short order” says Brian Sullivan, adding “we’ll again be returning to Las Vegas for our flagship event in spring 2019 and will announce the details of our plans before the end of the month.”

Our next event is the 4th Annual Indoor Ag-Con Asia, a two-day event that will be hosted at the Marina Bay Sands, Singapore on January 15-16, 2019. It will include exhibition tables and an exciting lineup of industry-leading speakers, and will be opened by SMS Koh of the Republic of Singapore. We will be covering a broad range of crop types – such as, leafy greens, mushrooms, insects, aquaculture and medicinal crops – as well as technologies ranging from artificial intelligence to LED lighting to control systems. New features for 2019 include a startup alley in the exhibition hall, allowing entrepreneurs to easily showcase their startups, unconferencing sessions, and onsite mini workshops from Singaporean vertical farming equipment company Upgrown Farming.

The event is accompanied by a pitch competition, Indoor Ag-Ignite, whose goal is to find the most innovative new ideas globally in indoor agriculture, and the competition is open to any team or company of under 40 employees developing or deploying technologies for the indoor agriculture industry. Three winning teams will receive prize packages including Startup SG grants of S$50,000 per team thanks to the sponsorship of Enterprise Singapore, as well as substrates and technical advice from Smithers Oasis.

4th Annual Indoor Ag-Con Asia
Date – January 15-16, 2019
Place – Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
Registration – currently open to the general public from US$399
Features – Two-day seminar, with keynote speakers, exhibition hall, after-party, and pitch competition
More Info - please visit www.indoor.ag/asia and www.indoor.ag/pitch, email hello@indoor.ag or call +1.775.623.7116

About Indoor Ag-Con LLC
Indoor Ag-Con was founded by Newbean Capital in 2013, and has since grown to the premier event in indoor agriculture, the practice of growing crops, raising fish and insects in indoor systems, using hydroponic, aquaponic and aeroponic techniques. Its events are tech-focused and crop-agnostic, covering produce, legal cannabis, alternate protein and non-food crops. It hosts events in Las Vegas, Singapore and the US East coast. In December 2018, three event industry professionals – Nancy Hallberg, Kris Sieradzki and Brian Sullivan – purchased Indoor Ag-Con LLC from Newbean Capital, so setting the stage for further expansion of the events globally.
More information: https://indoor.ag

About Newbean Capital
Newbean Capital is a US-based registered investment adviser that manages an early stage venture capital mandate for the US Treasury and has a consulting practice in indoor agriculture that works primarily with multinationals and large institutional investors. Its founder – Nicola Kerslake – has a longstanding interest in agriculture investment, having previously covered agriculture stocks as a highly-rated equity analyst and managed investment portfolios that covered the sector for large institutional investors. In late 2016, she founded an alternate finance business – Contain Inc – that works with indoor farmers and with lenders to provide lease finance and – through a relationship with an independent broker – insurance.
More information: https://newbeancapital.com, https://contain.ag

Nancy Hallberg
Indoor Ag-Con LLC
+1 404-358-7100

UAE Leads In Vertical Agriculture In Region

 Sumaira FH  1 month ago  Mon 10th December 2018 | 07:00 PM

ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 10th Dec, 2018) The National Food Security Strategy in the UAE aims to develop a comprehensive system, which aims to achieve sustainable food production.

The system will involve 38 short and long-term initiatives, as per the "2051 Vision" and "2021 Work Agenda."

Many specialist newspapers highlighted the UAE’s plans and projects that aim to attract major investment in vertical or horizontal agriculture, in line with related growth forecasts for the Gulf region, which amounts to US$1.21 billion by 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 26.4 percent.

The Business Standard stated that the UAE leads in this type of investment, and has launched many recent leading projects.

Mariam Hareb Almheiri, Minister of State for Food Security, announced, during the UAE government’s annual meetings in November, the "National Food Security Strategy," which includes many related objectives, such as achieving sustainable local production through the use of technology and smart applications.

The Ministry of Climate Change and Environment approved the launch of 12 vertical farms while Emirates Airline is planning to launch the largest vertical agriculture farm in the world, in partnership with Crop One Holdings.

Food import rates amounting to 90 percent and the issues associated with the scarcity of water and arable land in the region strongly support this trend.

In August, Xinhua signed an agreement with China's Chongqing University related to the use of modern technology, to utilise sand as arable soil, and relevant field tests will be conducted in cooperation with Mawared.

Almheiri raised the idea of establishing a "Food Valley" or a technology centre dedicated to developing food products and automated agriculture, to attract a new generation of farmers who can help achieve future sustainability.

The UAE hosts many specialist forums and exhibitions, which aim to promote the latest technologies and showcase them in the region’s agricultural and business markets.

Henry Gordon Smith, Founder and Managing Director of AgriDetriti, said that the middle East has the ability to reshape its vital infrastructure, which will support modern life.

It also has the potential to transform a relatively small and conventional agricultural industry into the world's most technologically advanced agriculture industry, he added.

Bob Honch, Sales Manager in Van Der Hoven Company, said that the UAE has already started this industry, revealing the completion of the largest glass houses project in the UAE (11 hectares), using advanced technologies allowing climate control and stressed that the project could produce around 3000 tonnes of tomatoes throughout the year.

$1.2bn GCC Vertical Farming Boom Seen by 2021

The UAE is leading the vertical farming change and has upcoming projects facilitated by the government as well as private players to help increase food security in the region.

Image by: Crop One Holdings

A growing importance is being given to vertical farming across the GCC and is generating interest and increased investments from regional and overseas players, according to a new report.

Orbis Research said the region's vertical farming market is expected to reach $1.21 billion by 2021 at a compound average growth rate (CAGR) of 26.4 percent from only $380 million in 2016.

It said the UAE is leading this change and has upcoming projects facilitated by the government as well as private players to help increase food security in the region.

These include the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment allotting space for 12 vertical farms to be built by Shalimar Biotech Industries, and the world’s largest vertical farm for Emirates Airlines by Crop One Holdings Inc.

View fullsize

Image by: Crop One Holdings

With around 90 percent of food being imported in the UAE, territorial problems of water scarcity and small percentages of arable land, vertical farming is becoming increasingly vital to ensure food security within the region, the report added.

Mariam Al Mehiri, Minister of Future Food Security, also plans to create a "Food Valley" or a technology hub, dedicated to the development of food and farming automation.

The report comes ahead of AgraME 2019, a platform for the latest technology to be showcased to the regional agribusiness market.

Henry Gordon-Smith, founder and managing director of Agritecture who will be speaking at AgraME 2019, said: “The potential is certainly there to transform what has historically been a relatively small traditional farming industry into perhaps the most technologically advanced agriculture industry in the world.

"This means economic development, increased production of nutritious local produce, and lowered food costs, all with minimal water consumption and increased resilience to climate change and foreign markets.”

Samantha Bleasby, exhibition director of AgraME added that the show, which takes place in Dubai from March 5-7, is attracting key players in the industry such as Certhon, Agrotonomy, Veggitech, Wuxi, iGrowths Technology Co Ltd, Ozorganic Urban Farming and Van der Hoeven.

Uber CEO, Temasek Invest in Urban Farming Startup

THU, DEC 13, 2018 - 7:28 AM

The New York-based company plans to announce on Wednesday that it raised US$90 million from investors including Alphabet Inc's GV and Uber Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi, said Bowery's co-founder and CEO, Irving Fain. The company declined to provide its valuation.

PHOTO: REUTERS

[SAN FRANCISCO] Bowery Farming Inc, a two-year-old startup that uses robotics to cultivate crops indoors, is on track for more growth. The New York-based company plans to announce on Wednesday that it raised US$90 million from investors including Alphabet Inc's GV and Uber Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi, said Bowery's co-founder and CEO, Irving Fain. The company declined to provide its valuation.

Bowery is part of a new crop of agriculture technology startups growing leafy greens in controlled environments near cities. Last year, Plenty, a San Francisco-based vertical farming company, raised US$200 million from the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp's Vision Fund.

Bowery grows its veggies in layers of sensor-rich trays that move and react to humidity, carbon dioxide and light. One square foot of Bowery's indoor farm is 100 times more productive than an equivalent plot of arable land, Bowery says. Plenty makes similar claims.

Part of the urgency of Bowery's business plan is the prospect of looming global food shortages. The United Nations says food production will need to double in the next three decades to feed the planet's swelling population. Bowery and its ilk see a business opportunity in building massive indoor farms in and on the outskirts of cities - a costly proposition, but one that could cut down on waste and ensure fresher produce.

"This round is solid validation for the scope of the problem and the opportunity," said Mr Fain. To date, Bowery has raised US$118 million from investors including First Round Capital and General Catalyst.

GV, formerly Google Ventures, led the most recent investment, which includes funding from Singapore's state investment firm, Temasek Holdings Pte.

Mr Fain said Uber's Khosrowshahi became an investor because of his interest in futuristic cities. "Uber is a big believer in cities and the importance of sustainable cities," said Mr Fain.

Bowery currently operates two indoor farms in Kearny, New Jersey. The facilities send greens like kale, bok choy and butterhead lettuce to Whole Foods and salad chain Sweetgreen. Mr Fain said the fresh funding will be used to open new farms in the US and internationally.

Bowery declined to disclose how many new farms are in the works or where they would be located. "There is no question that we intend to have our farms in cities across the world," Mr Fain said.

Andy Wheeler, a Bowery board member and partner at GV, echoed Mr Fain's global expansion ambitions. "The company is poised to have a significant impact on the global produce market," he said.

Bowery is planning to expand its headcount too, Mr Fain said. The company employs 65 people. Some of these employees could come from Amazon, Mr Fain suggested. Though competition for talent will likely be tough as the e-commerce giant ramps up hiring for its new office in New York.

This year, Bowery hired Brian Donato, a former senior operator of Amazon Fresh and Pantry food delivery services; Scott Horoho, a former senior Amazon engineering manager; and Jeff Raines, a former director of data center engineering for Amazon Web Services.

Young, Hip Farmers: Coming To A City Near You

Date:December 3, 2018

Source:Purdue University

Summary:The population of American farmers is aging, but a study shows a new generation of farmers is flocking to cities with large populations, farmers markets and the purchasing power to support a market for niche goods.Share:     

FULL STORY

Farmers markets in larger cities are supporting a new, younger faction of American farmers.

Credit: Purdue University/Mark Simons

If you've been to your neighborhood farmers market or seen a small "local" section pop up in your grocery store, you may have noticed a trend: People want to know where their food is coming from, and the agricultural industry is responding. The number of farmers markets in the U.S. has skyrocketed in recent years, but with an aging population of farmers, who's supporting this growth?

Enter the new American farmer. It's a term used by Andrew Flachs, an environmental anthropologist at Purdue University, to describe a movement of younger people new to agricultural work who do it for different reasons than the conventional farmer. They may be motivated through higher education, personal politics, disenchantment with urban life or in search of an authentic rural identity, he says.

In a new paper in the journal Rural Sociology, Flachs identifies several hot spots where this movement is really taking shape: the West Coast, central Texas and Oklahoma, central Florida and the Great Lakes region.

"We're seeing these hot spots pop up in the peripheries of hip cities," Flachs said. "Some of these places might seem obvious, like the West Coast and the northern Midwest around Madison, the Twin Cities and Chicago. But we also see some things that aren't totally expected."

Among the unexpected trends he found, east Texas and the southern Midwest are becoming increasingly important for this kind of agriculture. Appalachia, which has historically been a hub, essentially disappeared from the map.

In collaboration with Matthew Abel, an anthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis, Flachs built a model that counts how many traits associated with new American agrarianism appear in each county. With data from the USDA agricultural censuses from 1997 to 2012, they considered factors such as average sales per farm, number of certified organic farms, owners under age 34, number of farms selling directly to individuals, proximity to farmers markets and more.

The findings show that newer farmers appear to thrive on the outskirts of cities that provide high demand and purchasing power, a large population and healthy number of farmers markets.

The price of real estate is another important factor in determining where these markets can flourish. Rural developers have steadily increased farm real estate over the last few decades, which could deter newer farmers from settling down there. Concentrations of urban wealth drive up real estate costs in the city while simultaneously creating new niche markets, making space for younger farmers to exist between urban and rural landscapes.

Identifying where new and small farmers live and work will pave the way for further research on what's motivating this budding sector of the agricultural economy. New American farmers occupy an important intersection of niche marketing strategies, environmental politics and rural demographic change that could have a significant impact on food production and social life in agrarian landscapes, according to the paper.

Flachs points out that many new American farmers approach agriculture with hopes to embody a nostalgic past where food and environments were healthier, but others may be simply trying to make a living as farmers amid dissatisfaction with conventional agribusiness. Although it's easy to stereotype, it's unlikely that all new American farmers fit this description.

"Sometimes when we think about these farmers, we picture young people with liberal arts degrees looking for some kind of connection to the earth or wanting to work with their hands," Flachs said. "What we found is that that's probably not the most representative view of who these people actually are. I'm glad to have my stereotype broken up by the data."

Story Source:

Materials provided by Purdue University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:

1. Andrew Flachs, Matthew Abel. An Emerging Geography of the Agrarian Question: Spatial Analysis as a Tool for Identifying the New American Agrarianism. Rural Sociology, 2018; DOI: 10.1111/ruso.12250

This Entrepreneur Left Wall Street to Count the World's Calories. Now She's Warning of a Global Food Disaster Equal to the Financial Crisis.

ARIA BENDIXDEC 8, 2018, 09.45 PM

Michael Cohen/Getty Images for The New York TimesSara Menker at the 2018 New York Times Dealbook in November.

• Entrepreneur Sara Menker traded in her Wall Street gig to help solve the world's mounting food crisis.

• In the next decade, she warned, the world's food shortage could rival the financial crisis or dot-com crash in terms of its threat to government stability and economic safety.

• Menker's company, Gro Intelligence, aims to create a universal language that helps companies, countries, and industries earn money and eliminate food shortages.

When it comes to feeding every person on the planet, the world could fall short of demand by 214 trillion calories per year in less than a decade. That's more Big Macs than McDonald's has ever sold, said Sara Menker, the founder and CEO of the software company Gro Intelligence.

Menker often uses this reference to help people understand the extent of the global food crisis - a disaster she believes is imminent.

At Gro, she collects all sorts of data about the world's agricultural system, from what types of coffee beans are most lucrative to the rise of avocado exports in Mexico. Her company then uses that data to uncover major patterns, like the fact that grain prices tend to follow trends in the oil market.

The global food shortage is often defined by the weight of crops needed to feed all citizens. But the words "kilogram" or "ton" haven't done much to convey the threat of food scarcity around the world.

What matters more, according to Menker, is calories - the actual thing that keeps people from going hungry. But even this metric can be confusing.

"It becomes this massive problem that is physically not possible for a human being to process," said Menker.

Menker said her team floated countless comparisons, including the weight of elephants, before landing on the Big Mac. The anecdote made its way into her 2017 TED Talk, which has been viewed nearly 1.5 million times.

From Wall Street to counting calories

Menker's path to counting the world's calories is a bit unorthodox. Before Gro, she was a vice president at Morgan Stanley, where she worked in commodities trading. While there, she went from trading sacks of potatoes for gold to investing in farmland.

Like any good Wall Street exec, she started off looking for the best deal.

She soon realized that the best purchase wasn't a $1 per acre plot in a developing country, but a $15,000 to $20,000 per acre plot in the Midwest. That's because investing in the cheaper farmland required borrowing money, obtaining crop insurance, paying for her own trucking service, building her own roads, and leveling her own land.

Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesA worker dries green coffee beans at a farm in Costa Rica.

The process was inefficient. Governments and investors hadn't taken the time, or devoted the resources, to figure out how to grow smarter in these areas. With Menker's help, they can learn how how to fix the system, and begin investing in it.

At Gro, Menker said, "our greatest challenge is actually getting clients to look at all the data."

Climate data, she said, has been particularly difficult for people to understand, since it "has always sat in the hands of the scientific community."

By presenting information in a way that clients can digest, Gro has created something of a universal language in agriculture.

Food security involves everyone

Gro not only makes it easy for people like Wall Street traders to understand weather patterns and temperature trends, but it also demonstrates why these trends matter, according to Menker.

"You can't really tackle trade without understanding climate risk," she said.

AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, FileA man works at an avocado orchard owned by the Cevallos family in Michoacan, Mexico.

Gro has an altruistic component as well. Consider a grain like quinoa, which has become increasingly popular in Europe and the US. As the global demand for quinoa rises, farmers who grow the crop can no longer afford to purchase it.

Gro allows companies to find areas that yield similar grains, which helps to feed communities. West Africa, for instance, produces a grain called fonio that Menker described as a "quinoa equivalent."

In this way, her company makes the case for emerging markets - and new companies to go along with them.

Traditional agriculture isn't going away

The practice of vertical farming has risen in popularity as Menker's company has grown. Since founding Gro in 2014, Menker has started to anticipate the question: Why care about climate when some farms make it possible to grow massive amounts of crops indoors?

The answer, she said, is that vertical farming is limited to certain crops - mainly leafy greens, which, despite their health benefits, aren't very caloric.

"The economics work to move leafy greens from outdoor to indoor," she said. "But you're not going to solve your rice problem through vertical farming."

PlentyInside Plenty, a Silicon Valley-based urban farming startup that scored the largest ag-tech investment in history.

Menker said the process is also geared toward solving food problems in wealthy communities.

"We're talking about feeding the world the basics, let alone the fanciest lettuce or basil," she said. "Getting a leafy green that's as close to your home as possible is a privileged economic decision."

"There are lots of great impacts," said Menker. "But it won't solve our looming global food crisis."

The most viable solution, she said, isn't to overhaul the world's agricultural system. It's to make it more efficient.

Adelaide Puts Food, Not Developments at the Top of the City-Fringe Menu

By national rural and regional correspondent Dominique Schwartz

Updated Sun at 4:37am

PHOTO: Scott Samwell's family farm is one of Australia's biggest brussels sprouts producers. (ABC News: David Sciasci)

Scott Samwell lives on brussels sprouts.

His Adelaide Hills family is one of Australia's biggest growers of the vegetable and the only producer of the kale-brussels sprout hybrid, the kalette.

Restaurant dishes such as twice-cooked brussels sprouts sautéed with bacon and sprinkled with parmesan have made the once-maligned vegetable hugely popular.

But the family is not able to expand its Mt Barker farm to keep up with demand because they would literally run into a brick wall.

"When we first came out to Bald Hills Road we were the only property out here, the only house out here," Scott's uncle Leigh Samwell said.

Thirty years on, "there are houses everywhere".

PHOTO: Housing encroaches on farming property at Mount Barker in South Australia. (ABC News: David Sciasci)

Mount Barker is one of Australia's fastest-growing urban centres.

Just half an hour's drive from Adelaide by freeway, the once rural hamlet is now a satellite town of more than 35,000 people and is projected to grow 60 per cent within the next two decades.

Developers have offered the Samwells eye-watering sums of money for their land, but they have resisted selling.

And even if they wanted to cash in, from April next year they will not be allowed to sell to make way for housing.

South Australia appreciates the value of good food and wine

So much so, its city fringe farm land is being legally protected.

PHOTO: A bird's-eye view of a lettuce crop on the fringes of Adelaide. (ABC News: David Sciasci)

Agriculture is the state's economic driver and a lot of it happens around the fertile fringe of Adelaide.

Two years ago, the then-state Labor government introduced Environment and Food Production Areas (EFPA) to restrict urban sprawl across a massive 8,000 square kilometres of land.

It's illegal to subdivide rural land for residential housing within these protected areas.

The ban takes full effect in April 2019, and has the backing of the current Liberal government.

The Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale already have tough development restrictions in place.

PHOTO: The shaded areas show the Environment and Food Production Areas which restrict the development of new housing.(ABC News )

"It's about protecting some of our best lands for food production," South Australian Primary Industries Minister Tim Whetstone said.

"Horticulture is worth $22.5 billion and growing [and] peri-urban farms are critically important."

What's the main benefit of farming on the fringe?

In a word, water.

In Mount Barker, the Samwells might not be able to expand, but they do have ready access to three key ingredients often not available to farmers further afield.

• Labour

• Markets

• Recycled household waste water

That last one is especially important in Australia's driest state.

During a drought, the rain may stop and rivers may dry, but people still wash, clean and flush.

Maybe not as much, but enough to guarantee an abundance of irrigation water for the Samwells, who are tapped into Mt Barker's waste water treatment plant.

"We don't want to have to grow in poor soil away from infrastructure, transport and water because it would increase the cost of what is already an expensive operation," Scott Samwell said.

"So preserving what we have got close to cities and regional areas is important."

Fringe farms serve up 80pc of Melbourne's food

Dr Rachel Carey is a research fellow on sustainable food systems at Melbourne University and says we have "overlooked how important cities are for food production".

She said Melbourne's food bowl served up 80 per cent of the vegetables eaten by the city's nearly 5 million residents.

In South Australia, the market gardens and orchards north of Adelaide alone account for one-fifth of the state's horticulture.

PHOTO: The Adelaide Central Market sells fresh fruit and vegetables from the surrounding region. (ABC News: David Sciasci)

"It's really important that all of Australia's states now introduce much stronger protection for farmland on the city fringe," she said.

Dr Carey said city fringe farms would become increasingly important as food supply was affected by climate change.

"We should see them as an insurance policy if you like, as a buffer against the future pressures and also potential shocks that we are likely to face to our food supply," she said.

"We should be planning for at least 50 years and beyond in terms of saying there are areas that will not be touched for the long term, then the other crucial thing, of course, is to hold the line."

Growers divided on food protection zones

"You can almost split my growers into two," Jordan Brooke-Barnett, head of the SA branch of the grower association AusVeg, said.

Mr Brooke-Barnett said some AusVeg members were opposed to the development restrictions imposed by the EFPA.

"[They would] like the opportunity to subdivide land potentially one day to houses and the economic benefits that could potentially bring," he said.

Others who deal with urban encroachment and "fight for the right to have their business exist" supported stronger protection of city fringe farms, according to Mr Brooke-Barnett.

In Queensland, fourth generation vegetable farmer Ray Taylor did move to a regional area, but he was happy to.

His family started farming just 11 kilometres from Brisbane's CBD in 1914, but every generation was pushed further out as the city expanded.

Now, the Taylor's main operation is near Stanthorpe, 225 km south-west of the capital.

"That enables us as a family to go and find a larger parcel of land in another area, so … obviously we can grow the business," he said.

The Taylors grow 25 million vegetables per year, and while they can benefit from the economies of scale space brings, water security is a "massive issue".

PHOTO: Ray Taylor at his farm near Stanthorpe in Queensland, where he has room to expand operations. (ABC News: David Sciasci)

Without rain, the farm's 27 dams were only 20-60 per cent full and the main creeks had not run for 20 months, Mr Taylor said.

"We're down about 30 per cent on [vegetable] production this year due to water scarceness."

The family is planning to sell its last foothold on Brisbane's urban fringe — a 40-acre waterfront property at Redland Bay.

"It's too small … and you can't expand it," Mr Taylor said.

"We're the last ones left there, so all the services have shut up and moved on and we get a lot of pressure from urban sprawl — spray drift, dust, noise — so it's very difficult to operate in that environment."

It is that situation South Australia is trying to avoid, according to the state's Primary Industries Minister who makes no apologies for restricting urban sprawl.

"The government has to draw a line, [it has to] give a secure future to farmers and food production in South Australia, but also certainty to those developers looking to move into peri-urban areas of Adelaide and South Australia," Mr Whetstone said.

SA plans $1 billion horticultural export hub on city fringe

The state is aiming is to ensure it has enough fresh produce not just to survive, but thrive.

Protecting farm land along the city edge is part of a greater plan to turn the Northern Adelaide Plains into an export hub and a global leader in intensive food production.

Work is underway to more than double the amount of treated waste water being piped to growers from Adelaide's Bolivar waste water plant, and to open up new areas within the protected EFPA for irrigation.

The goal is to treble the value of northern Adelaide's annual horticulture production to $1 billion within two decades and the plan has the backing of industry and all levels of government.

Providing certainty around land and water helped boost business confidence and available capital, Mr Whetstone said.

Meet investor Henry Liu

Henry Liu is one person investing heavily in South Australia's food future.

PHOTO: Hydroponic vegetables growing in state-of-the-art, climate-controlled glasshouses. (ABC News: David Scaisci)

Mr Liu had one of the first greenhouses in Virginia north of Adelaide 18 years ago.

Now he has eight hectares of hydroponic vegetables growing in state-of-the-art, climate-controlled glasshouses.

PHOTO: One of Henry Liu's workers picks hydroponically grown tomatoes in a glasshouse at Virginia in South Australia. (ABC News: David Sciasci)

That number will rise to 12 hectares when his new glasshouse starts production early next year.

"The future is great, very bright," Mr Liu said.

Glasshouse crops use 95 per cent less water than those grown in the field and carbon dioxide can be captured and used to boost plant growth, he said.

"The advantage of glasshouses over field production is that you can control the growing conditions," Mr Liu said.

But they are energy-hungry and solar power is not yet enough to run them.

PHOTO: Henry Liu said when it came to urban farming, the future was "very bright". (ABC News: David Sciasci)

Mr Liu believes hydroponic cropping will increase, but there will always be a place for soil-based growing and that however food is produced, being close to water, markets and labour is reason enough to protect city food bowls.

Indoor Ag Sci Cafe Discusses How Industry and Academia Can Work Together

By

urbanagnews -

October 19, 201801337

This month’s ‘Indoor Ag Science Café’ featured Robert Colangelo, Founder of Green Sense Farms, as a speaker. In his presentation ‘Growing the Vertical Farming Industry – How Industry and Academia can Work Together’, Colangelo discussed the current status of indoor farming industries, gaps and cultural differences between businesses and academia, as well as possible strategies to work together on R&D for common critical technologies. Indoor Ag Science Café is a monthly online forum organized by three scientists (Chieri Kubota, Ohio State U; Erik Runkle, Michigan State U; and Cary Mitchell, Purdue U).

Please contact kubota.10@osu.edu to join the café.

Bowery Farming Adding Microgrid With Solar, Natural Gas And Storage

Posted by

Betsy Lillian -

November 15, 2018

Schneider Electric and Scale Microgrid Solutions have announced an agreement to design, engineer and build a new microgrid for modern-farming company Bowery Farming.

Under the terms of the agreement, Scale Microgrid Solutions will build, own and operate a proprietary hybrid microgrid system that leverages Schneider Electric EcoStruxure technology for Bowery’s newly commissioned facility in New Jersey.

The system will use distributed energy resources, including a rooftop solar array, a natural gas generator equipped with advanced emissions-control technologies and Schneider Electric’s lithium-ion battery energy storage system interconnected in a behind-the-meter configuration.

“Bowery has created a facility wherein crop production is already 100 times more efficient than traditional farmland, creating a greater need for reliable, efficient power,” says Ryan Goodman, CEO of Scale Microgrid Solutions. “Microgrids offer a compelling value proposition, but they’re inherently complex machines, and not many companies have the in-house expertise needed to make the investment. We’re excited to deploy an affordable microgrid solution in conjunction with Schneider Electric that will further reduce Bowery’s carbon footprint and provide critical resilience.”

Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Microgrid Advisor (EMA), a cloud-connected, demand-side energy management software platform, will be integrated to optimize the system’s performance. By leveraging predictive and learning algorithms, EMA will empower Scale Microgrid Solutions to better manage the production and consumption of its renewable energy and control energy spend. The system will also be equipped to operate in parallel with traditional utility electric services during normal operating conditions and in “island mode” to ensure that the farm remains powered during unexpected outages.

“Bowery is committed to growing food for a better future, and we are excited to have found partners in Schneider Electric and Scale Microgrid Solutions, who will help us achieve our mission,” says Brian Donato, senior vice president of operations at Bowery Farming. “We’re looking forward to continuing to provide consumers with access to local, high-quality produce and drive a more sustainable future.”

Commissioning of the Bowery microgrid project is scheduled for the first quarter of 2019.