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Taylor Farms Acquires Earthbound Farm
Earthbound Farm will join the Taylor Farms Retail Group and help lead growth in the dynamic organic fresh produce category
APRIL 11, 2019
Taylor Farms acquired Earthbound Farm from Danone, SA.
"We are grateful for Danone’s stewardship of Earthbound Farm during the past two years and for the opportunity to return ownership of this organic fresh produce leader to local roots and family ownership," Taylor Farms said in a statement.
Earthbound Farm will join the Taylor Farms Retail Group and help lead growth in the dynamic organic fresh produce category. "We will build on Earthbound Farm’s tradition of organic authenticity, new variety development and quality focus with expanded regional organic growing and processing capability to better serve Earthbound Farm’s customers and consumers across North America," the company said.
Innovative Consortium Reduces Post-Harvest Loss and Food Waste
WASHINGTON and AMES, IOWA (April 17, 2019)
Food loss and waste is a global problem that negatively impacts the bottom line of businesses and farmers, wastes limited resources and damages the environment. The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR), The Rockefeller Foundation and Iowa State University today launched the Consortium for Innovation in Post-Harvest Loss and Food Waste Reduction at the 2019 Iowa International Outreach Symposium. Through this consortium, thought leaders and experts from across the globe will work in tandem with industry and nonprofit organizations to address social, economic and environmental impacts from food loss and waste.
“Feeding a growing global population demands innovation at all levels — from planting to processing to consumption. This consortium will help farmers across the globe use technology to continue using resources efficiently,” said Sally Rockey, FFAR’s executive director. “Optimizing food production practices is critical for ensuring that farmers are profitable, food is plentiful and accessible, and the environment is preserved.”
Due to the volume of food that is moved globally, food loss and waste affects producers, manufacturers, distributors and end-users. More than 40 percent of fruits and vegetables in developing regions spoil before they can be consumed. These goods include mangoes, avocadoes, pineapples, cocoa, and bananas, many of which are exported to the United States. This loss negatively impacts the bottom line for farmers, who are not compensated for their products. Consumers then don’t have access to these popular foods. Additionally, food waste forces farmers to use precious natural resources producing food that either never makes it to the supermarket or is otherwise thrown out by consumers due to quality issues, creating a significant drain on environmental resources.
In 2016, The Rockefeller Foundation launched the YieldWise Initiative aimed at reducing both food loss in developing nations like Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania, and food waste in developed markets like the United States. In sub-Saharan Africa, YieldWise provides farmers with access to segmented markets, technologies and solutions that curb preventable crop loss and facilitates training that helps them solidify buyer agreements with markets in African communities.
“To nourish, sustainably, nearly 10 billion people by 2050, we must implement a menu of solutions that simultaneously shift diets toward plant-based foods, close the yield gap, and reduce food loss and waste,” said Rafael Flor, Director, Food, The Rockefeller Foundation. “This is paramount to meeting both the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 12. Failing to reduce food loss and waste will make the challenge of achieving a sustainable food future significantly more difficult.”
Food loss and waste highlights the inefficiencies in our food system. According to the FAO*, nearly 1.3 billion tons of food—costing roughly $940 billion—are either lost or wasted yearly, generating about 8 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions. Food is lost more at the consumption stage in higher-income countries, while more food is lost at handling and storage stages in lower-income regions.
This consortium will work collaboratively to develop a scalable approach for adoption of the YieldWise model and provide farmers with cost-effective strategies and technologies that link their crop supply to the market demand. This will allow farmers to gain more value from their crops and become more profitable, while also stimulating local economic growth and improving the resiliency of rural communities.
“Our consortium approach will build academic and entrepreneurial capacity of the next generation by engaging researchers and students in multi-national, multi-disciplinary teams in the project identification, planning, and execution phases together with professionals from the private and public sectors,” said Dirk Maier, a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at Iowa State University and the consortium director.
FFAR is contributing $2.78 million for this three-year project, which partner organizations from around the world are matching for a $5.56 million project budget. Participating institutions include The Rockefeller Foundation, Iowa State University, USA; University of Maryland, USA; Wageningen University and Research, Netherlands; Zamorano University, Honduras; University of São Paulo, Brazil; Stellenbosch University, South Africa; University of Nairobi, Kenya; Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana; and the Volcani Center, Israel.
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Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research
The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR), a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization originally established by bipartisan Congressional support in the 2014 Farm Bill, builds unique partnerships to support innovative and actionable science addressing today's food and agriculture challenges. FFAR leverages public and private resources to increase the scientific and technological research, innovation, and partnerships critical to enhancing sustainable production of nutritious food for a growing global population. The FFAR Board of Directors is chaired by Mississippi State University President Mark Keenum, Ph.D., and includes ex officio representation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Science Foundation.
Connect: @FoundationFAR | @RockTalking
About The Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation advances new frontiers of science, data, policy and innovation to solve global challenges related to health, food, power and economic mobility. As a science-driven philanthropy focused on building collaborative relationships with partners and grantees, the Foundation seeks to inspire and foster large-scale human impact that promotes the well-being of humanity throughout the world by identifying and accelerating breakthrough solutions, ideas and conversations.
*FAO. 2015. Food wastage footprint & climate change. Rome: UN FAO.
New Hydroponic Gardens Sprouting At The University of Utah
March 31, 20196
Hydroponics gardens located at the U's Lassonde Studios (Courtesy of Dylan Wootton)
The Sustainable Campus Initiative Fund here at the U, which was set up for faculty and students alike to “propose projects that enhance the sustainability of our campus and community,” has granted thousands of dollars towards a project proposed by the U’s Hydroponics Club which plans to plant hydroponic gardens in Lassonde Studios.
SCIF was set up in 2008 by ASUU when there became “an increasing demand for sustainable infrastructure on campus.” It is also student funded, costing $2.50 in student fees. Since its inception, there have been over $900,000 allocated to SCIF projects. This particular project was granted $6,000, and plans to use it to “construct a series of gardens on the first floor of the Lassonde Institute.”
Dylan Wootton, a member of the U’s Hydroponics Club, holds lettuce grown in hydroponic incubators. (Courtesy of Dylan Wootton)
Hydroponic agriculture is an innovative way to yield more crops with less water — a win-win. The Daily Utah Chronicle spoke with Dylan Wootton, a senior at the U studying biomedical engineering, about the project. Wootton is also a resident assistant on the second floor of Lassonde. Every Lassonde floor is themed, and the second floor is the “Sustainability and Global Impact” floor. As you step off the elevators at night, you can see the bluish glow of fluorescent hydroponic grow lights on the soilless, budding plants.
“Hydroponics is a unique form of agriculture where plants are grown in a nutrient-rich solution typically placed indoors,” Wootton said. What is the benefit of this? “Hydroponics enables plants to grow significantly faster — in about half the time — and more sustainably — using only 10 percent of the water — than traditional agricultural methods.” Also, the planting substances can even be recycled.
“We’re planning on using this money to build four vertical ‘Garden Walls’ that people can see when they first enter Lassonde,” Wootton explained. Speaking on the potentiality of hydroponics, Wootton discussed just how important innovative agricultural systems are to the future of food consumption. “Agriculture is one of the leading contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and uses about 70 percent of the world’s fresh water. Developing the next generation of food production can serve to significantly reduce emissions and wasted water. If climate change or the impending water crisis are issues that you’re interested in, hydroponics is for you.”
As for the next step after the grant, Wootton said they will “use [the] system to test new technologies and build innovative solutions to scaling our operations.” Additionally, their yields will continue to serve the Feed U Pantry, the U’s on-campus food bank, and provide “fresh fruits and vegetables to the campus community, free of charge.”
Hydroponic use and awareness is growing rapidly in the United States. Elon Musk’s brother, Kimbal Musk, launched an “urban farming incubator program” called Square Roots where they give young entrepreneurs a chance to start their own vertical farm. The vertical farms can yield a lot — ”everything grows inside 320-square-foot steel shipping containers. Each container can produce about 50,000 mini-heads of lettuce per year.” The USDA even gave these young entrepreneurs loans to help with operating expenses. It seems we are at least looking up in the right direction when it comes to farming innovation.
Rooftop Farming to Help Meet Demand For Fresh Produce
The implementation of urban gardens on building rooftops could help boost the production of agricultural crops and ensure the food security of cities.
Urban agriculture on rooftops is an optimal and feasible solution to produce healthy, fresh and sustainable food in the face of increasing demand for these products in cities, according to a study by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB).
According to this research, carried out within the framework of the FertileCity project, the implementation of urban gardens on building rooftops would allow the production of agricultural foods and help guarantee the food sovereignty of cities, which are increasingly populated. ICTA researchers estimate that by 2050, 66% of the world's population will reside in cities and the demand for food will increase by 30%.
In this context, urban agriculture is not only a more sustainable food production system, but also leads to improvements in air quality and temperatures, reduces the environmental impact of freight transport and helps support local economies.
On the rooftops
The fertilecity project, which also counts with the participation of researchers from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), has analyzed the implementation of urban agriculture on the roofs of buildings with the aim of taking advantage of these empty spaces through the installation of greenhouses.
The study highlights that one of the factors that limit the development of urban agriculture is the fear that air pollution in cities could have an impact on the healthiness of cultivated agricultural foods.
The results show that the vegetables produced both in the ICTA-UAB greenhouse (located on the UAB campus next to the AP-7) and in other orchards located in areas with high traffic density in Barcelona are not contaminated with heavy metals, and that the levels of nickel, arsenic, cadmium and lead are well below the legal limits.
The study analyzed the production of soilless vegetables using perlite as a substrate and providing the plant with the necessary nutrients, together with irrigation water from the rain. The contamination with heavy metals through the substrate was also ruled out.
Source: efeagro.com
Publication date: 4/5/2019
A Middle School Farm Team Is Automating Agriculture
Take me to your seeder: Behold, the FarmBot, an agricultural automaton that can plant, till, water, take pictures, check soil conditions and more, built and programmed by the young geniuses at Melville's West Hollow Middle School.
MARCH 14, 2019
By GREGORY ZELLER //
Meanwhile, back on the farm, the future was evolving.
The farm, in this case, is inside West Hollow Middle School, a forward-looking jewel of the Half Hollow Hills Central School District. And the future comes in the form of FarmBot, a kid-crafted, kid-coded automaton that could help feed future generations on this increasingly crowded planet – and even astronauts exploring distant worlds.
The robot, of course, tills its land on a relatively small scale: FarmBot measures 9 feet by 14 feet, an impressive achievement for middle-schoolers, if not quite ready to solve a global food crisis.
But as a blueprint for creative and sustainable agricultural innovations – a veritable must, with 7.5 billion hungry humans already seated and 3 billion additional dinner guests expected by the end of the century – FarmBot truly shines.
Described as “an open-source farming robot,” the mechanism slides on vertical and horizontal axes, carrying a camera, a small rake, a grasping tool and even soil-quality sensors that know when it’s time to make it rain, all designed and installed by ambitious sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders (school maintenance professionals plugged in the electricity and water lines).
FarmBot knows what to do, and when, because of coding. “Kids who are interested in engineering” volunteered their time to build it, according to Half Hollow Hills CSD Public Relations Director Charles Parker, and now “different kids with interests in coding” are working on the programming side.
“Students came during their lunch periods and after school to build it,” Parker told Innovate LI. “And now students who are interested in coding are spending their time off in the school day to come work on it.
“These students are really doing phenomenal stuff.”
Part child, part machine, all farmer: West Hollow Middle School students help FarmBot work the land.
While the obvious goal is to automate the indoor growing process – interesting to overstuffed urban centers, future populations crowded into arctic regions and possibly space colonies – there are bigger themes at play.
Not only do students strengthen those increasingly important STEAM skills (for science, technology, engineering, art and math), they gain a wider understanding of alternative agricultural practices – also a priority, as farming environments shift, in many cases for the worse.
The effort even has a heart of gold: Hauppauge-based hunger-relief organization Island Harvest has donated seeds to the FarmBot project and will gather the fruits of the robo-labor for distribution to regional food-insecure families (other FarmBot produce will be used by the middle school’s Family and Consumer Science teaching staffs).
It’s a healthy crop of cross-disciplinary goodness, packed into a truly innovative 21st century educational effort, according to West Hollow Middle School science teacher Christopher Regini.
Life on MarsFarm: The crispy green fruits of hydroponic labor.
“The goal is to combine computational thinking, data collection and analysis, electronics and prototyping, and general good science practices to better understand plants, food production and the resources needed to reduce food insecurity,” Regini noted.
FarmBot, which was constructed and programmed this school year, follows in the virtual footsteps of another West Hollow Middle School future-farming foray: the MarsFarm, an indoor hydroponics farm already in its second year of operation.
Incorporating cutting-edge sensor technology into its soil-less system, MarsFarm allows students to remotely control systems and analyze data; via the education-focused Flipgrid videoconferencing network, they share their agricultural experiences with students in Acapulco and China, among other places.
Together, the STEAM-powered middle school farms are already producing healthy crops of cabbage, bok choy, bell peppers, basil and other herbs and vegetables, and there’s more on the way. Expect the tech to grow, too – according to the school, students are eager to begin 3D printing new tools for their prototype FarmBot system.
Regini – who noted the MarsFarm data is shared with Princeton University researchers and Growing Beyond Earth, a partnership between NASA and Florida’s Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden – said the forward-thinking farming efforts are a critical tool for familiarizing young learners with science, art and engineering.
“The goal is to apply STEAM education in a way that is meaningful, allowing us to focus on topics already within the science curriculum,” the science teacher added, “while engaging students in a practice that equips them with the 21st century skills that make them future-ready.”
TOPICS: Charles Parker Christopher Regini Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden FarmBot Flipgrid Half Hollow Hills Central School District Island Harvet LeadMarsFarm NASAPrinceton UniversityWest Hollow Middle School
The Crazy Food Fight Over The Future of Vegetables
What’s at stake is billions of dollars and the future of food on the planet. Over the past 50 years, large farms growing massive amounts of one crop (known as monoculture) have gobbled up land. While industrial farming has increased crop yields, it’s done so at the expense of consumer choice
Who Knew Farming Could Get So Dirty?
BY RICHARD MARTIN
March 28, 2019
CHRISTOPHER TESTANI
On a cold, rainy night in Brooklyn, a crowd gathers inside the building that houses Square Roots, a company co-founded by CEO Tobias Peggs, a tech entrepreneur, and Kimbal Musk, who sits on the boards of Tesla and SpaceX (both started by his older brother, Elon) as well as Chipotle. Located on a dreary street in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the building is, technically, a farm. Its parking lot holds ten enclosed shipping containers.
With a bit of showmanship, Peggs throws open the door to one of the containers and a violet glow envelops the crowd. Inside, tightly packed vertical rows of red leaf lettuce, basil, and mint grow hydroponically through a combination of artificial light and a nutrient-rich solution. Musk and Peggs say they can cultivate three acres of plants in one container using a technique that could be adopted by any city in the world.
CHRISTOPHER TESTANI
At the heart of the vertical-farming trend championed by Musk and Peggs is the idea that although you can find lettuce at your grocery store in Boston in January, thanks to a system that allows farms in states like California and Arizona to ship fresh greens across the country at a reasonable cost, there are better alternatives.
Growing lettuce outdoors on a large-scale farm uses a lot of water. Plus, it’s estimated that during the up-to-five-day domestic trip from these farms to the grocer, the greens lose much of their nutritional value.
About 35 miles north of Brooklyn, a back-to-the-future approach to farming is growing. A few days later, I join Jack Algiere, the farm director of Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills, New York, and we walk along a hillside path with cows and lambs grazing on one side, goats frolicking on the other.
CHRISTOPHER TESTANI
Dressed in a flannel shirt and a sturdy coat, Algiere enters a half-acre greenhouse. Lettuce leaves the size of a baby elephant’s ears luxuriate in the warm air. Purple and yellow stalks of chard erupt from the earth, which is dark brown and lush.
Algiere treats this food with the same care and attention as Dan Barber, a top chef. Barber runs Blue Hill at Stone Barns, a farm-driven restaurant that consistently ranks as one of the best restaurants in the world.
You would think the viewpoints of Musk and Barber, two of the most influential voices in farming, would be closely aligned, but their debate about how to grow lettuce is getting heated and dirty.
CHRISTOPHER TESTANI
Barber: “[Kimbal’s] really smart, but the only reason he wants everyone to eat salad in the winter is because it’s the only thing he can grow in a vertical farm. He’d be telling you he’d want everyone to eat rutabaga if he could grow rutabaga. I love the guy, but let’s be honest: You can’t grow anything.”
Musk: “I don’t think [Dan] has a fundamental disagreement with what I’m doing. He sees the momentum moving towards indoor farming, and he doesn’t like that future.”
What’s at stake is billions of dollars and the future of food on the planet. Over the past 50 years, large farms growing massive amounts of one crop (known as monoculture) have gobbled up land. While industrial farming has increased crop yields, it’s done so at the expense of consumer choice.
In a span of 80 years, the variety of the world’s seeds dwindled by 93 percent, according to the Rural Advancement Foundation International: In 1903, 497 types of lettuce existed, but by 1983, there were just 36.
Industrial farming is so chemically reliant and ultimately bad for the soil (not to mention bad for the diets of those who live on its produce) that the United Nations’ 2013 trade and development conference urged a global return to sustainable farming practices.
Nowhere are the consequences of industrial farming more evident than at your supermarket, where identical-looking potatoes, carrots, and greens line the produce shelves. The presentation looks attractive, but that sameness is a result of destructive land-management practices—practices that lead to less-nutritious produce.
And then there’s foodborne illness. Remember the Great 2018 Romaine Lettuce Scare? Investigators traced that outbreak back to a large-scale farm in Santa Maria, California.
“It’s not like this is the question we should be thinking about five generations from now,” Barber says. “This stuff takes a long time, but time is running out.”
The Musks Shall Inherit the Earth
Square Roots may be the least splashy of all of Kimbal Musk’s endeavors. The South African native became involved in the food world after making millions building and selling start-ups, both on his own and with his brother. He did a stint in culinary school in New York City, then settled in Boulder, Colorado.
Lost in the shadows of the Musk sibling mythology is that Kimbal is actually a legitimate farm-to-table pioneer. He opened his first restaurant, the Kitchen, in 2004, sourcing ingredients from Colorado’s rich agriculture and livestock communities.
Musk launched Square Roots with Peggs in 2016 with one concept: “Can we take a young person with no experience and bring them in and teach them how to farm in a box in double-quick time and get them to grow food that is tasty, that people want to eat?”
Kimbal Musk (left) and Tobias Peggs | CHRISTOPHER TESTANI
The initial results were encouraging, although Square Roots cycled through distribution concepts before arriving at its current direct-to-retail model. You can now find Square Roots’ greens and herbs at specialty grocers around New York City.
Later this year, the company plans to operate in other U. S. cities and then scale from there. In each market, the produce will travel from the shipping containers to nearby store shelves, a solution that is hyperlocal and, now, highly traceable.
During the romaine-lettuce scare of late 2018, when an E. coli outbreak in California led to a coast-to-coast recall, Peggs and Musk realized that the data they compile for Square Roots would allow them to trace everything they grow back to the very shipping container that produced it. Now there’s a “Transparency” section on the company’s website where consumers can enter the lot number from their package of Square Roots herbs.
There are energy concerns with this type of farming, as well as a sense that it isn’t natural, but Musk is leaning into those issues. This is lab-grown food, and his team is sciencing the shit out of it. Strawberries, eggplants, beets, radishes, carrots, and more will come to market in five years.
“Right now we’re super-premium and people love it,” Musk says. “But over time we really want it to be about real food for everyone. We can get the price down and deliver delicious product 365 days a year.”
The Real Dirt on Heritage Farming
Stone Barns Center runs apprenticeship and education programs aimed at training and supporting small farmers. Small-scale farming is knowledge-intensive and complicated, Algiere acknowledges, but it’s the right thing to do for ourselves and the planet.
Watch the news and it’s depressing for farmers, but there was a glimmer of good news in the USDA’s 2017 Agriculture Census. At the same time that the overall number of farms in the United States decreased by 5 percent to only 2 million, farms with annual revenues between $100,000 and $250,000 saw the largest increase in sales between 2016 and 2017.
“This is so important,” says Algiere, launching into a soliloquy about the rising interest of young, first-time farmers and the surprising upswing in the number of small U. S. farms. He grabs a rake and continues his lecture on how small farms on the perimeter of major urban centers can not only thrive but can also conserve the land.
Algiere walks out into a plot of carrots and runs the rake over the greens protruding from the soil, explaining that most of the equipment available to farmers is of the giant John Deere tractor variety, because industrial farming has dominated society since the mid- to late 20th century.
“The problem is that there hasn’t been a set of tools for small-scale, diversified farms since 1940,” he says. That’s why among the many educational endeavors that Stone Barns Center supports is Slow Tools, a collective of farmers, designers, and engineers (with an annual conference held on the property) aimed at manufacturing equipment that can help small farmers grow vegetables and work their five-ish acres more efficiently.
Attendees include retired engineers who’ve developed a desire to farm, prototypical millennials seeking a return to the land, and even city dwellers who got their first taste of farming by working at one of the vertical hydroponic farms.
Barber so believes in Algiere’s work, as well as the entire regenerative-farming and land-management movement, that he cofounded Row 7 Seeds last year. Barber asserts that most of the seed business is now owned by chemical companies that have little interest in small, regenerative farms.
Jack Algiere (left) and Dan Barber | CHRISTOPHER TESTANI
“They don’t make money on the seeds; they make money on the intervention of chemicals,” he says. “That’s why the seed company became so important to me. It really does lay the foundation for everything that follows, including flavor, up to when it hits your mouth. That can be determined on a genetic level.”
Back in the greenhouse, Algiere puts down the rake, heads outside, and walks to a barn filled with hundreds of chickens. They swarm toward him and produce a cacophony of clucks that make it impossible to hold a conversation.
He moves toward the pigs and extends his hand toward a comically large sow that comes to greet him. “My animal operations feed the compost and pasture operation here,” he says. “My compost system feeds the crops and orchards, and any leftover feeds the pigs.” As hogs wrestle playfully, he whispers about how amazing the bacon coming from these animals will taste.
Eat the pork from Stone Barns Center and you will immediately understand what Algiere means. Try its carrots and you’ll come to believe what Barber does. The flavor of these foods—started from diverse seeds (both heirloom and experimental hybrids), coddled by premium soil, cultivated with gentler farming methods—rewards the eater in a way that your typical supermarket versions cannot.
Is it hard work? Algiere’s calloused hands prove that, yes, it is. But it’s not anything we haven’t done before.
The Fight for Farming’s Futures
Chris Newman, who cofounded Sylvanaqua Farms in rural Virginia with his wife in 2013, calls himself a “permaculturist” and proclaims his reverence for the land—but also for technology. “There is no single ‘right’ way to produce food,” he says in an email interview.
His own farming practices aim to be regenerative, like Algiere’s, and he’s adamant that these types of farms can produce food while helping to restore the environment. Yet ultimately they won’t be able to keep up with demand.
“Sooner or later, people on both sides of the debate will have to understand that sustainable food production lies in the intersection of nature and technology, not in their mutual exclusion.”
Call them rigid in their convictions, but Musk, Peggs, Barber, and Algiere are at least stoking the debate about how to feed the planet healthy food. And they’re drawing prominent investors into the search for a resolution.
Investors like Tom Colicchio, a cohost of Top Chef and an early backer of Bowery Farming, a company with two hydroponic farms. “I like what [Barber] has to say, and I also believe that through the right kind of farming and regenerative practices, we can build soil, we can grow,” he says. “That doesn’t help if there’s flooding or drought with climate change. I’m looking at 20 or 30 years down the road, and we’re going to have to rely on indoor farming.”
But then there’s the issue of energy use. Henry Gordon-Smith, a leading consultant on urban agriculture, advises multinational corporations and individuals wanting to start their own vertical, rooftop, or greenhouse farms.
Seated in his Brooklyn office, he recounts a study he conducted for an international beverage company to determine the carbon footprint of five crops grown in three settings: a vertical farm and a greenhouse, both in New Jersey, and a soil-based farm in California.
The results were mixed, depending on the crop, but a key takeaway was that the vertical farm’s carbon footprint was “extraordinarily higher,” due to the energy used. He adds that when you account for food waste, water use, and social impact, the playing field levels a bit, but the bottom line, he says, is “there’s no silver bullet. That’s not the catchy sound bite that people are looking for, but that’s the fact.”
Yet the cash continues to pour into vertical farming. Venture capitalists have pledged about $1 billion over the past two years to fund start-ups like Plenty, AeroFarms, and Bowery Farming. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are in the game.
Market research projects the global vertical-farming market will hit $10 billion by 2025. Operations like AeroFarms’ 70,000-square-foot facility in Newark, New Jersey, and the 100,000-square-foot farm that Plenty built outside Seattle will soon become commonplace, proponents suggest.
Matt Barnard—the CEO of Plenty, which has amassed more than $200 million from investors like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and SoftBank, the majority shareholder in Uber—explains that he’s going big because of the scale of the problem.
“I was brought in by one thing and now I’m here for many—for health, nutrition, stresses on the land system,” Barnard says. That mission, however, may depend on trusting in not one solution but a combination of many.
For the moment, the vegetables available at your local farmers market or upscale grocery store reflect this dichotomy. You can easily find a plastic tub of lettuce from a hydroponic farm and, depending on the season, you may also find a sweeter, smaller, more efficient variety of honeynut squash developed in part by Barber and Row 7 Seeds.
Hydroponically grown greens and soil-grown, small-farm-produced squash living side by side in harmony: It’s a utopian vision already playing out in front of your shopping cart. The true question is, will you buy either? The answer, if you’re really concerned about your health and the health of the planet, is that you’ll buy both.
The 2nd Annual Investment Forum & Exhibition “Orchards of Russia 2019” (22-23 May 2019, Moscow)
Moscow - May 22-23
Country's flagship investment projects in the field of gardening, viticulture, and wine-making will be presented at the 2nd International Orchards of Russia Forum and Exhibition.
The 2nd Annual Investment Forum & Exhibition “Orchards of Russia 2019” (22-23 May 2019, Moscow) is a high-end international platform for attracting investment to Russian commercial horticulture, discussing industry development strategy, sharing best practices among key market players, and securing new win-win contracts.
Gold sponsor: Fitomag, Silver sponsor: Sumiagro, Bronze sponsors: Advice&Consulting SRL, Irrikom, Plattenhardt + Wirth, Sponsor of Session: Stoller
Programme Highlights:
Plenary session and discussion: federal and regional government, regulators, investors, project initiators will discuss the national support policy, project financial terms, legislative landscape for starting nurseries, for planting stock coming from abroad, and many other crucial issues for the prosperous development of commercial fruit and grape growing industry within 2020-2021
Presentation of 60+ flagship investment projects in the field of commercial fruit and grape growing to be executed within 2020-2025 from all over Russia
Planting stock and nurseries – what is needed to accelerate the development?
Special economic keynote: success of the industry and growth points. Assortment policy and what to grow?
Processing – wonderful opportunity to generate extra revenue? How to build and optimize processing capacities?
Inspirational case studies from the most successful companies from Russia and the CIS; showcase of innovative technologies and equipment useful for your business upswing!
Specialized and technology-focused discussions: fruit growing, viticulture, berry production. Learn from your peers what experience to adopt and what mistakes to avoid!
Selling at home and abroad – how to get things going and generate more revenue?
To go organic. Legislation and workable strategies to grow ecologically clean food
Dedicated exhibition of technologies and equipment from the global leaders from Holland, Israel, South Korea, Spain, Poland, France, and other countries
FOCUS DAY: APPLE FROM RUSSIA:
• Specialised workshops on apple orchard establishment and treatment. Modern work strategies and novel developments
• Cultivation technologies and nutrition systems to improve fertility of apple orchard: modern innovative means, methods, techniques, technologies, and machinery
Among the speakers and VIP-guests:
Olga Lesnykh, Acting Chairman, National Committee of the Russian Federation on Testing Varieties (Gossortkomissia)
Zamir Balkizov, General Director, Sad-Gigant Ingushetia
Aidyn Shirinov, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Sady Stavropolia
Yury Belov, General Director, AFG National
Sergey Lebedev, General Director, Alma Valley
Sergey Tarakhno, Executive Director, Yuzhnaya Agrofirma
Oleg Rianov, General Director, Yuzhnye Zemli
Alexander Akimov, General Director, Yuzhnoye AAA
Alexey Zatoplyaev, General Director, AgroGroup Solnechny
Yulia Portnova, General Director, Frukti Starogo Krima
Lechi Khunarikov, General Director, Rodina
Viktor Gorodov, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Korochansky Fruit Nursery
Ilia Shatilov, General Director, Batyrevsky Fruit Nursery
Igor Alimenko, General Director, Logus-Agro
Alexander Kesoyan, General Director, Chihachi
Alexander Prodan, Chairman, Malinovy Don, and a lot more.
To register, please contact me using details below or follow the link: https://www.gardensforum.ru/en/registration/
Organised by: Vostock Capital
Contact person: Project Producer Olga Zhogal
E-mail: OZhogal@vostockcapital.com Tel: +44 207 394 3 090 (London)
Official website: https://www.gardensforum.ru/en
Perspectives on Business Strategy and Economics of Vertical Agriculture
Indoor Ag Science Café is a monthly based open forum for indoor growers and scientists. Anyone is welcome to participate to better understand and support this emerging industry
By urbanagnews
March 26, 2019
Two economists at MSU Product Center Food-Ag-Bio, Michigan State University, Chris Peterson and Simone Valle de Souza were presenting “Perspectives on the business strategy and economics of vertical agriculture”.
Chris started out this month’s Café presentation by giving a strategic overview of indoor agriculture industry, followed by Simone’s proposed model-based optimization approach including crop yield model, market demand and costs.
Simone emphasized the need of data usable for analyses. Increasing profitability by minimizing the costs alone does not seem to help establish profitable indoor ag industry, and so value proposition seems to be critical to feed into this optimization model.
They are recruiting potential partners of indoor farms in this project.
Indoor Ag Science Café is a monthly based open forum for indoor growers and scientists. Anyone is welcome to participate to better understand and support this emerging industry.
TAGS Business Chieri Kubota Indoor Ag Sci Cafe Michigan State University
Soilless Agriculture: An In-Depth Overview
Everything you need to know about soilless agriculture. Agriculture without soil? It sounds like another hipster trend that pops up in places like Berkeley and San Francisco. In reality, soilless agriculture is an agricultural method that enables a stable and sustainable food supply
February 11, 2019
Everything you need to know about soilless agriculture
Agriculture without soil? It sounds like another hipster trend that pops up in places like Berkeley and San Francisco. In reality, soilless agriculture is an agricultural method that enables a stable and sustainable food supply. It allows us to run high-yield grow operations in completely controlled indoor environments. So, why does that matter? Well, there are a few very important reasons that may enlighten you to the real potential in soilless agriculture.
No need to use pesticides (less poison sprinkled on plants means healthier food and less cost).
Extreme decrease in water use (you need 90% less than soil-based methods).
Flexibility in use (use it indoors or outdoors, and if indoors you can grow whatever you want, wherever you want, whenever).
Now, I want to focus on the flexibility of soilless agriculture and why this is so important in today’s world. As you know, people around the world are getting used to buying whatever kinds of produce they want — even if it’s not in season. This means importing a lot of produce from other countries. That’s a decent solution, but it has many side effects. First, it costs more money to buy food and have it shipped to your country than just growing it locally (you’re outsourcing taxable labor and covering transportation costs). Second, the emissions from whatever vehicles that are shipping the produce pollute the earth and bring us closer to climate catastrophe. Third, if a natural disaster occurs in the other country, you can’t import food from there for a while. If your country heavily depends on the damaged country for food, you may have a nationwide food shortage. Just think about what would happen to the world’s wheat supply if a disaster occured in North America. In summary, the extreme interconnectedness of the global food system creates an unsustainable and potentially unstable situation. Soilless agriculture helps to address this issue because it’s a perfect method for localizing agriculture and bringing food production closer to the consumer. This localization of food production stabilizes the food system and improves the freshness of the food.
Since we know the benefits of soilless agriculture, how did it come about? I thought it was invented by a Silicon Valley genius in midst of the current technological explosion, but it’s roots go much deeper than that. Primitive examples of soilless techniques were discovered at the Floating Gardens in China and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon! Ancient wisdom at work. <Image of either Chinese or hanging gardens>
Although soilless agriculture has been utilized throughout human history, the modern introduction to the technology was lead by William Frederick Gericke when he grew 25 foot high tomato vines without soil, using a nutrient rich water solution. This grand achievement drove more and more research to the technology, and its advantages were discovered on a mainstream level.
So, how do you actually implement hydroponics? Let’s start with the definition. According to Google, hydroponics is “the process of growing plants in sand, gravel, or liquid, with added nutrients but without soil.”. So basically hydroponics is the sciency way of saying soilless agriculture. Simple, right? Well… not so much when you get into the implementation details.
There are quite a few ways to implement hydroponics. The simplest way is to put a plant in a pot with a growing medium — a substance that doesn’t supply nutrients to the plants but supports the roots — and hand water it with a solution infused with the needed nutrients. This is the essence of soilless agriculture. All the plant needs is oxygen, a variety of nutrients, light, and it will grow. No need for soil or the constraints that come with it. While this may seem simple, getting an optimal yield requires knowing the intricacies of plant growth and applying this knowledge to each aspect of the hydroponic environment. For clarity, I’ll break down the different complexities associated with each part of hydroponic growth: The Solution, The Growing Medium, The Lighting, and The System.
The Solution
The solution is the lifeblood of your hydroponic system. The yield, health, and resilience of the crops you grow depends on a well-crafted solution. Sometimes it’s difficult to create a perfect solution, however, because the exact amount of specific nutrients in the solution depends on the plant you’re growing.
What are the steps to creating a balanced and fruitful solution for your system? It all starts with the water. Whether you’re using tap, filtered, or water from rain buckets (not recommended — I would filter it first) you should get a laboratory analysis of your water. In this analysis, pay close attention to the alkalinity of your base water — it will give you a good indication of how to devise your fertilizer strategy. If you have high alkalinity, the pH of your end solution will tend to be higher. The pH of your solution is one of the key factors in determining the health of your plants, and you want to keep it in the range of 5.5 to 6.5 for most plants.
After you have your water source figured out, you need to gather all the needed nutrients. The types of nutrients in your solution are primary and secondary nutrients (nutrients that plants need a lot of) and micronutrients (trace amounts of specific materials).
The primary nutrients are Potassium, Nitrogen, and Phosphorus. Without the a healthy dosage of these, your plants won’t grow correctly and will be more susceptible to disease. The role of each nutrient is as follows:
Nitrogen (N): Assists in protein manufacture, promotes plant strength, and makes use of the plant’s carbohydrates.
Phosphorus(P): Facilitates photosynthesis, controls cell division, and regulates use of sugars within the plant.
Potassium(K): Enforces disease resistance, helps metabolize nutrients, and regulates water usage.
Each primary nutrient plays an essential role in the health and yield of the plants, so make sure there is a balance of each one in your solution.
Secondary nutrients include Calcium, Magnesium, and Sulfur. These nutrients are needed in only moderate volume by plants, but are also essential for healthy growth. They play the following roles:
Calcium(Ca): Regulates internal pH, facilitates disease resistance, fuels cell division and cell wall formation.
Magnesium(Mg): Assists internal oil, sugar, and fat formation, boosts photosynthesis.
Sulfur(S): Assists seed production, adds flavor, is building block for proteins and amino acids.
Micronutrients are a bit different from primary and secondary nutrients in that they’re optional and applied in trace amounts. Usually you would only add extra micronutrients if your plants were showing signs of deficiency (discoloration, hollow fruits, limited growth, etc). There are quite a few micronutrients but the main players you’ll want to know about are zinc, copper, iron, manganese, chlorine, molybdenum, and boron. The cool thing with micronutrients is that they can boost absorption of other nutrients.
For the ongoing maintenance and fine-tuning of your solution, the two measurements to pay attention to are pH and electrical conductivity (EC). The pH should fall into the range of 5.5–6.5, and the electrical conductivity should be between 1.5 and 2.5. A high EC rating means your solution is too nutrient dense, so in this case add water until it comes under 2.5. Here’s a great article that gives a step-by-step breakdown on how to make your own solution.
The Growing Medium
Since hydroponics are systems without soil, you may need a static substance to support the roots of the plants. The vast variety of growing mediums and different mixes can overwhelm and confuse so i’ll just talk about the characteristics of different types of mediums and the circumstances in which you want them.
The key characteristics in your growing medium are water retention, aeration, and pH neutrality.
Water retention describes how slowly it takes for solution to filter through the medium, and how long it stays available to the plant. Use mediums with high water retention in drip systems, and lower water retention mediums in flood-and-drain type systems.
Aeration is an indicator of how much oxygen is getting to the roots of the plant. Roots need oxygen to convert their stored energy into growth, so it’s a super important characteristic. You can increase aeration by making the medium more porous, with cracks and slivers for oxygen to seep through. Aeration to the roots also makes them more effective at uptaking water, so if they don’t have space to breathe, the plant may show signs of water shortage.
pH neutrality tells you how the growing medium may affect the pH of a plant’s growing environment. Grow mediums should normally be neutral so they don’t have side effects on the solution or the environment
Common Growing Mediums
Coco Coir (The discarded husks of coconut) protects seedlings from harmful fungi and salt damage, has high water retention, and is biodegradable and cheap. These advantages make it perfect to use in drip or wick hydroponic systems, where water comes little by little. You won’t want to use it in flood systems though — it can have poor aeration if irrigated poorly. It also can draw down some of the calcium in the nutrient solution. To mitigate it’s high water retention, you can mix the fibers with a chunkier medium to create some drainage.
Best Use Case: When you want a cheap and sustainable medium with good water retention.
Expanded Clay Pellets are a great medium to use if you want fast drainage and an infinitely reusable medium. They also don’t affect the solution’s nutrient balance. They also have great aeration, although this can mean a plant’s roots dry out quickly. Another issue with clay pellets is that they’re sourced from strip mines, so the environment may have been harmed in their creation.
Best Use Case: When you’re worried about overwatering or nutrient disruption.
I decided to pair Perlite and Vermeculite together because they’re almost always mixed in use. Perlite is superheated volcanic rock. It’s a lightweight, neutral medium that will sometimes float on water when flooded. A downside of perlite is that it leaches nutrients easily, disrupting the delicate balance of solution. Vermiculite is very similar to perlite, a lightweight mineral that draws nutrients upwards and retains water at a high rate. When combined, these make a soil — like mixture with great oxygen and water retention. One thing you must be careful of is the particles of this mixture that can infiltrate your solution without a great filtration system.
Best Use Case: Same as Coco Coir, but will be a little bit more expensive.
Wood Chips are a simple, cheap (probably free), and organic growing medium. Wood chips are a great way to grow hydroponics, and will leave your environmental conscience clean too! There are a few downsides, as wood chips can degrade over time and aren’t the most reusable medium. It also might not be sterile, and attract pests.
Best Use Case: When you want to save money, and are running an indoor grow operation where pests and diseases won’t be as much of an issue.
Those are some tried-and-true growing mediums that you can use in your systems. When selecting growing mediums, keep in mind the requirements and orientation of your system(see: The System). You need to customize a combination of mediums based on the irrigation methods, types of plants, and environment (inside or outside).
If you want to go into more depth on growing mediums read this article, this article, and this article.
The Lighting
There are a few different types of lighting for your hydroponic system with their own advantages and disadvantages. In lighting, you want to find the right balance of intensity, spectrum, and cost. The most useful types of lighting for hydroponics are Fluorescents, High intensity Discharge Lamps (HID lamps) and Light Emitting Diodes.
Fluorescents are great for the growers that are just starting out. They’re efficient, widely available, and produce a spectrum of light that is conducive to plant growth. But, they emit weaker intensity light — which makes them sub-optimal for larger plants and grow operations.
One type of fluorescent lamp is the Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL). This type of lamp is cheap, easy to install (just screw it in), and efficient. One downside of CFL’s is that they emit light in all directions, so you’ll have to use a reflector to make sure you’re not wasting light and energy.
Another type of fluorescent light is the regular Fluorescent lamp. These are a larger version of the CFL’s and they emit more focused but weaker intensity light — which makes it sub-optimal for larger plants. The advantages are the same as CFL’s, but they might require a little more set-up to get working properly. A disadvantage with these and the CFL’s is the life span. To keep the system working optimally, these lamps should be changed out every year. This increases costs overtime and brings upon the question of disposal, as fluorescent lights contain mercury and other harmful chemicals.
The final type of fluorescent is an induction fluorescent. These have the same advantages (efficiency, spectrum) and disadvantages (intensity) as the other fluorescents with one catch: the lifespan is 10X longer than the previous two lights!
High Intensity Discharge Lights are great for experienced growers with large operations. The frequency of their light closest matches sunlight compared to the other types. The high intensity characteristic makes them the go-to choice for growing large plants indoors. This high intensity also leads to higher heat production, which can be mitigated by putting them in an open space where the heat can dissipate
Metal halide (MH) HID’s emit a bluish light that benefits leafy and vegetative plants while high pressure sodium (HPS) lights emit an orange light that work best for flowering plants and fruits.
Light Emitting Diodes are the newest option out of the three. They are also the most expensive. However, this upfront cost will be paid off in the long run because of their industry leading efficiency (they use around ⅓ the energy of fluorescents) and lifespan. If you don’t have tight upfront budget constraints, I recommend these because of the long-term savings (around $5,000 a year in recouped energy spending). The spectrum is a bit less optimal than fluorescents, but the difference isn’t very significant.
As you can see, the correct lighting setup will be determined by your budget, the plants you’re growing, and the size of your operation. As we look to the future, LED costs will go down and this will drive adoption of them over fluorescents.
The System
Whew, I just went through A LOT of stuff (don’t worry, we’re almost done :) ). Now, let’s put it all together! All the different types of growing mediums, solutions, and lighting setups can be put together in different ways. It all depends on your circumstances, budget, and expertise. Here are all the different types of systems, what they look like, and which situations they work for.
Hand Watering
Use this system if: You are a beginner in hydroponics or growing in general who doesn’t have extra time or money to spend on setting up a complicated hydroponics system with a lot of equipment.
Setup: Mix together your growing medium and nutrient solution, then put the plants/seeds in the medium and start watering!
Best medium: A mix of vermeculite/perlite and coco coir.
Best Practices: Make sure your nutrient solution is stored in a stable place where levels of nutrients wont fluctuate and other living things can’t get into it. Also, remember to water the plants!
Deep Water Culture
Use This system If: You want a relatively simple hydroponic system that is more intricate than hand watering — and you have a small budget to get started.
Setup: As It would be incredibly tedious for me to write words about how to setup this system, a video would do a much better job. So watch this for setup instructions!
Best Medium: Expanded clay pellets, or a similar medium with ph neutrality
Best Practices: Make sure the nutrients in your solution are very accurately measured, as a little mistake can go a long way in this system. Check the ph and electrical conductivity of the solution thoroughly before setup.
Ebb and Flow
Use This system If: You want a lower cost, flexible homemade hydroponics system and want to put the time in to a more complex setup.
Setup: Epic Gardening on youtube does a great job making these hydroponic system setup tutorials. So watch this for setup instructions!
Best Medium: The exact medium depends on how often you want to flood your plants, but a heavier medium like coco coir or expanded clay pellets is highly recommended.
Best Practices: This method requires more attention after setup than the previous two. Make sure you’re flooding the plants at different intervals throughout the year to match the change in light exposure and temperature, as the water will evaporate at different rates. Also, make sure the grow tray (see diagram/setup video) is level so all the plants get the same level of nutrients.
Drip System
Image From: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/54887689187136114/
Use This system If: You want to grow larger, greedier plants with a simple setup but don’t want to use a lot of water doing it.
Setup: Epic Gardening on youtube does a great job making these hydroponic system setup tutorials. So watch this for setup instructions!
Best Medium: The exact medium depends on how often you want to flood your plants, but a heavier medium like coco coir or expanded clay pellets is highly recommended.
Best Practices: This method requires more attention after setup than the previous two. Make sure you’re flooding the plants at different intervals throughout the year to match the change in light exposure and temperature, as the water will evaporate at different rates. Also, make sure the grow tray (see diagram/setup video) is level so all the plants get the same level of nutrients.
Wick System
Use This system If: You are going to grow a relatively low-water plant (like rosemary or a fast-growing lettuce), and want to build the system quickly and simply.
Setup: Here’s a nice tutorial on wikibooks that explains what materials you need and how to put it all together!
Best Medium: With a wicking system, choose a medium that absorbs and retains water well, like coco coir, perlite, or vermeculite.
Best Practices: Make sure there are multiple wicks when you set this system up so you’re sure the plants get enough water and nutrients. Keep the water levels in the reservoir high and wash growing mediums frequently to prevent nutrient buildup.
Aeroponics
Note: Aeroponics is not hydroponics. It differs because it uses a spray to diffuse the mineral-rich water onto exposed roots instead of a model where the roots are submerged in water or a growing medium.
Use This system If: You’re an experienced with hydroponic or diy projects with hands-on and technical knowledge that’s ready to build a more complex system with some automated parts. Another good reason to use this system is if you need to grow stuff quickly, for commercial sale or to feed your family.
Setup: Check out this video series by Peter Stanley for a step-by-step instruction on how to set up a cheap aeroponics system.
Best Medium: No medium needed!
Best Practices: Since the roots are exposed, aeroponic growing presents a large opportunity for disease and nutrients clogging the root system. Make sure the roots stay clean on a daily basis. Also, the misters tend to clog as well, so keeping them clear of debris with frequent maintenance can mitigate that risk. Just be sure to keep close tabs on the most vulnerable parts of the system.
There you have it! Hopefully all of this knowledge on hydroponics helps you get started with your own growing operation or helps you transition to a new growing method that fits. I enjoyed learning about all the complexity and the advantages of unique technology, and I’m excited to see what advancements may be made in the future! Thanks for reading :)
Adam French
I love learning and writing about programming, agricultural innovation, and design.
Singapore’s Getting a New Govt Body – And Its Priority Is To Make Sure The Country Has Enough Food
The Singapore Food Agency will be responsible for developing Singapore’s food supply, improving food safety regulations, and handling food-borne disease outbreaks.
February 13, 2019
Come April 1, Singapore’s new food-related statutory board, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), will come into existence – and its most important job is to ensure the country has enough food supplies.
The new stat board was created to consolidate and handle food-related matters currently scattered under divisions in the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA), Health Sciences Authority and National Environment Agency.
SFA’s priority is to develop national strategies to obtain food, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli said in Parliament on Tuesday (Feb 12).
According to Masagos, imports account for most of Singapore’s food supply, and the republic currently imports items from 180 countries – up from 140 countries in 2004.
The minister said the SFA would continue to look for more import sources to ensure Singapore is not overreliant on any country for food items. This would also reduce the republic’s “vulnerability to external volatility and price hikes,” he added.
In addition, it will also help local food companies based overseas to expand, thus reducing the price of imports.
Another way the stat board plans to develop food security is by increasing the supply from local farms. It is looking at educating farmers at institutes of higher learning (such as universities and polytechnics), so as to incorporate more technology and R&D in the farming sector, Masagos said.
Examples of these technologies include indoor vertical farms and deep sea fish farming.
On top of food security, the SFA will also be responsible for improving food safety regulations and handling food-borne disease outbreaks, such as tracing and recalling food products, and testing food samples.
Its “regulatory oversight over all food-related matters from farm to fork” would allow the government to “address lapses (in food safety) more quickly and more holistically,” the AVA said in a statement.
In addition, a food laboratory, the National Centre for Food Science, will be set up under the SFA to research food safety.
How Urban Agriculture Can Improve Food Security in US Cities
…researchers have calculated that Cleveland, with a population of 400,000, has the potential to meet 100 percent of its urban dwellers’ fresh vegetable needs, 50 percent of their poultry and egg requirements and 100 percent of their demand for honey.
February 13, 2019 10.49pm AEDT
City Farm is a working sustainable farm that has operated in Chicago for over 30 years. Linda from Chicago/Wikimedia, CC BY
Author Miguel Altieri
Professor of Agroecology, University of California, Berkeley
Disclosure statement
Miguel Altieri does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Partners University of California provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation US.
During the partial federal shutdown in December 2018 and January 2019, news reports showed furloughed government workers standing in line for donated meals. These images were reminders that for an estimated one out of eight Americans, food insecurity is a near-term risk.
In California, where I teach, 80 percent of the population lives in cities. Feeding the cities of the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area, with a total population of some 7 million involves importing 2.5 to 3 million tons of food per day over an average distance of 500 to 1,000 miles.
This system requires enormous amounts of energy and generates significant greenhouse gas emissions. It also is extremely vulnerable to large-scale disruptions, such as major earthquakes.
And the food it delivers fails to reach 1 of every 8 people in the region who live under the poverty line – mostly senior citizens, children and minorities. Access to quality food is limited both by poverty and the fact that on average, California’s low-income communities have 32.7 percent fewer supermarkets than high-income areas within the same cities.
Many organizations see urban agriculture as a way to enhance food security. It also offers environmental, health and social benefits. Although the full potential of urban agriculture is still to be determined, based on my own research I believe that raising fresh fruits, vegetables and some animal products near consumers in urban areas can improve local food security and nutrition, especially for underserved communities.
The growth of urban agriculture
Urban farming has grown by more than 30 percent in the United States in the past 30 years. Although it has been estimated that urban agriculture can meet 15 to 20 percent of global food demand, it remains to be seen what level of food self-sufficiency it can realistically ensure for cities.
One recent survey found that 51 countries do not have enough urban area to meet a recommended nutritional target of 300 grams per person per day of fresh vegetables. Moreover, it estimated, urban agriculture would require 30 percent of the total urban area of those countries to meet global demand for vegetables. Land tenure issues and urban sprawl could make it hard to free up this much land for food production.
Other studies suggest that urban agriculture could help cities achieve self-sufficiency. For example, researchers have calculated that Cleveland, with a population of 400,000, has the potential to meet 100 percent of its urban dwellers’ fresh vegetable needs, 50 percent of their poultry and egg requirements and 100 percent of their demand for honey.
Can Oakland’s urban farmers learn from Cuba?
Although urban agriculture has promise, a small proportion of the food produced in cities is consumed by food-insecure, low-income communities. Many of the most vulnerable people have little access to land and lack the skills needed to design and tend productive gardens.
Cities such as Oakland, with neighborhoods that have been identified as “food deserts,” can lie within a half-hour drive of vast stretches of productive agricultural land. But very little of the twenty million tons of food produced annually within 100 miles of Oakland reaches poor people.
Paradoxically, Oakland has 1,200 acres of undeveloped open space – mostly public parcels of arable land – which, if used for urban agriculture, could produce 5 to 10 percent of the city’s vegetable needs. This potential yield could be dramatically enhanced if, for example, local urban farmers were trained to use well-tested agroecological methods that are widely applied in Cuba to cultivate diverse vegetables, roots, tubers and herbs in relatively small spaces.
In Cuba, over 300,000 urban farms and gardens produce about 50 percent of the island’s fresh produce supply, along with 39,000 tons of meat and 216 million eggs. Most Cuban urban farmers reach yields of 44 pounds (20 kilograms) per square meter per year.
An organic farm in Havana, Cuba, that produces outputs averaging 20 kilograms (44 pounds) per square meter per year without agrochemical inputs.Miguel Altieri, CC BY-ND
If trained Oakland farmers could achieve just half of Cuban yields, 1,200 acres of land would produce 40 million kilograms of vegetables – enough to provide 100 kilograms per year per person to more than 90 percent of Oakland residents.
To see whether this was possible, my research team at the University of California at Berkeley established a diversified garden slightly larger than 1,000 square feet. It contained a total of 492 plants belonging to 10 crop species, grown in a mixed polycultural design.
In a three-month period, we were able to produce yields that were close to our desired annual level by using practices that improved soil health and biological pest control. They included rotations with green manures that are plowed under to benefit the soil; heavy applications of compost; and synergistic combinations of crop plants in various intercropping arrangements known to reduce insect pests.
Research plots in Berkeley, Calif., testing agroecological management practices such as intercropping, mulching and green composting. Miguel Altieri, CC BY-ND
Overcoming barriers to urban agriculture
Achieving such yields in a test garden does not mean they are feasible for urban farmers in the Bay Area. Most urban farmers in California lack ecological horticultural skills. They do not always optimize crop density or diversity, and the University of California’s extension program lacks the capacity to provide agroecological training.
The biggest challenge is access to land. University of California researchers estimate that over 79 percent of the state’s urban farmers do not own the property that they farm. Another issue is that water is frequently unaffordable. Cities could address this by providing water at discount rates for urban farmers, with a requirement that they use efficient irrigation practices.
In the Bay Area and elsewhere, most obstacles to scaling up urban agriculture are political, not technical. In 2014 California enacted AB511, which set out mechanisms for cities to establish urban agriculture incentive zones, but did not address land access.
One solution would be for cities to make vacant and unused public land available for urban farming under low-fee multiyear leases. Or they could follow the example of Rosario, Argentina, where 1,800 residents practice horticulture on about 175 acres of land. Some of this land is private, but property owners receive tax breaks for making it available for agriculture.
In my view, the ideal strategy would be to pursue land reform similar to that practiced in Cuba, where the government provides 32 acres to each farmer, within a few miles around major cities to anyone interested in producing food. Between 10 and 20 percent of their harvest is donated to social service organizations such as schools, hospitals and senior centers.
Similarly, Bay Area urban farmers might be required to provide donate a share of their output to the region’s growing homeless population, and allowed to sell the rest. The government could help to establish a system that would enable gardeners to directly market their produce to the public.
Cities have limited ability to deal with food issues within their boundaries, and many problems associated with food systems require action at the national and international level. However, city governments, local universities and nongovernment organizations can do a lot to strengthen food systems, including creating agroecological training programs and policies for land and water access. The first step is increasing public awareness of how urban farming can benefit modern cities.
Firm Takes Leap Into Future With Robot Strawberry Picker
PUBLISHED: February 2019
Dr Vishuu Mohan at the University of Essex Picture: VICKY PASSINGHAM
A prototype fruit-picking robot being developed on an Essex jam maker’s farm has featured in a report on farming of the future.
Wilkin and Sons’ Farms manager Andrey Ivanov has been working with Dr. Vishuu Mohan, a computer science and engineering lecturer at the University of Essex, to develop the robotic strawberry picker.
“The researchers at the university, like many across the world, are trying to develop a robotic piece of equipment that will be capable of identifying when a strawberry is ready to be picked then make a decision and pick the fruit by snapping the stem without damaging or touching the actual berry to avoid bruising,” said Mr Ivanov.
The challenge for the researchers is developing a robot capable of picking strawberries of all sizes in all weathers and conditions. “Dextrous manipulation in unstructured environments is a big challenge for robotics today,” admitted Dr Mohan.
The study is featured in a new report from the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), which looks at what the food and farming industry might look like in 20 years, with robots, vertical farms and virtual fencing.
The Future of Food 2040 report highlights the importance of establishing a future domestic agricultural policy which enables the industry to increase its productivity, profitability and resilience.
Looking beyond Brexit to how the country will evolve socially, technologically and environmentally, it delves into how changing trends will affect food production
The Tiptree plant’s collaboration is one of three case studies featured.
NFU East Anglia Regional Director Rachel Carrington said: “Agriculture is a progressive and forward looking industry and farmers in East Anglia have always been quick to adopt new technology.
“Our farmers already utilise satellite-guided tractors, drones to survey crops and soil structures, probes to monitor moisture in fields and robots in glasshouses. However, there are still many jobs that have to be done by hand and cannot be replaced by technology, at least in the short-term.
“This report provides an exciting glimpse of the future, but, to get there, it is crucial that farm businesses are not only given the support they need to survive and thrive now, but they start to plan and prepare for the challenges and opportunities ahead.”
Agri-Tech East director Dr Belinda Clarke said: “This NFU report rightly positions agri-food production as an industry with enormous potential. Measures to improve the use of finite resources such as soil and land and to increase productivity are to be encouraged and Agri-Tech East welcomes this report.
“However, to encourage the wider adoption of new technology it is vital to establish the business case for farmers and growers. We would like to see a process for independent evaluation of the return on investment.
“We agree, as stated in the report, that innovation needs to meet regulatory approval, but also understand that this can be problematic if the science is progressing ahead of the regulators. We would recommend creating advisory panels that include scientists and technologists as this would be beneficial to all.”
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Greenhouse Co2 Measurements For Higher Productivity And Higher Quality
We have collected the essential facts for you to take into account when selecting an instrument or searching for the optimal instrument location.
Greenhouses are demanding environments for measurement devices. We have collected the essential facts for you to take into account when selecting an instrument or searching for the optimal instrument location.
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The importance of CO2 measurement control in a greenhouse
CO2 for plant growth
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Tips for transmitter placement in the greenhouse
Fill in the form given in the link below to download the PDF document and learn about greenhouse CO2 measurements to optimize plant growth.
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Earth Notes: Urban Agriculture
Vertically stacked growing shelves, closely spaced plantings, and covered beds are helping farms fit in where space is often restricted.
By DIANE HOPE • FEB 13, 2019
In backyards and vacant lots, urban farming is on the rise in towns and cities across the Colorado Plateau. Vertically stacked growing shelves, closely spaced plantings, and covered beds are helping farms fit in where space is often restricted.
Roots Micro Farm
CREDIT MADELYN CHANCE
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Warehouse farming operations grow crops in sterile atmospheres that need costly nutrient inputs and energy for lighting. But small-scale urban farms offer lots of sustainable advantages.
These farms use natural sunlight and moisture, and make great use of local food waste, says Josh Chance. He and his wife Maddy established Roots Micro Farm on a neighborhood lot in downtown Flagstaff two and half years ago.
They mix organic waste from Northern Arizona University and local breweries with horse manure from nearby barns, creating deep fertile growing beds. Hoop houses let them extend the growing season from late April through December. They raise everything from kale to kohlrabi and tomatoes to edible flowers.
Such small urban farms can’t achieve the economies of scale that massive modern farming can – so their produce may cost a bit more than at large grocery chains. But, since they’re often located just a mile or two from consumers, local growers deliver fresh, healthy produce requiring little or no energy for transportation.
There are some extra benefits too--these farms provide pleasant green spaces within a city. And they can give young people the chance to see where food comes from, and how it’s grown. Some even provide training workshops for locals to learn - and trade - skills.
All in all, urban agriculture appears to be an idea ripe for the picking.
German Tunnel Cultivation Is Developing At a Rapid Pace
Domestic strawberries from mid-April and into October; this can only be thanks to modern cultivation methods in film tunnels
About 20% of German strawberries already from protected cultivation
Domestic strawberries from mid-April and into October; this can only be thanks to modern cultivation methods in film tunnels. Until about 15 years ago, the season for strawberries was relatively short. The weather had to cooperate, so that the fruits in the fields would be ripe in the spring. Foil covers helped to speed up the process a bit. If it was too warm and sunny, the harvest was over. Therefore, at the beginning of the 1990s, German farmers began to build dams where they planted the plants and subsequently roofed them with traveling tunnels. But still the planted areas had to be changed regularly. This is because strawberries thrive best on fresh soil. For example, soil where potatoes or vegetables were grown the year before.
Not in the soil anymore
Such fields are not available to every strawberry grower. Therefore, more and more of them rely on vertical cultivation. The strawberries no longer grow in the soil, but above the floor in substrate-filled boxes, which are attached to metal structures. Fertilization takes place through automatic irrigation. This has a number of advantages: picking becomes more comfortable, easier on the back and more effective. A surface can be used for years with consistently high berry quality. And fertilizing and watering is only as environmentally friendly as the plants need. In addition, the ripeness of the fruits can be better controlled. Less and less is left to chance or the whims of Mother Nature.
Protection against the vagaries of nature
About 20% of German strawberries are already grown through protected cultivation. Experts estimate that this proportion will be 50% within ten years. The permanently installed tunnels are becoming increasingly similar to the greenhouses in their technical equipment and can be equipped, for example, with automatic ventilation.
There is another big bonus of this modern strawberry culture: It reduces leaf and fruit diseases. Furthermore, pests can be controlled more easily with biological opponents, so-called 'beneficials'. This can greatly reduce the use of pesticides. Plant protection measures are only carried out if there is a clear diagnosis. Plant protection consultants act like doctors - and only prescribe 'medicine' when it is needed.
Supporting regional cultivation
However, investing in the scaffolds and film tunnels also means that fruit growers have to be able to sell their fruits at stable prices for years, until they have recovered the production costs. Buying from a local strawberry producer not only guarantees fresh, ripe fruits with an excellent taste, but also helps support regional cultivation under sustainable conditions.
Even berry bushes thrive better in the film tunnel
In Germany, not only strawberries, but berry bushes as well are grown increasingly in tunnels. Blueberries can be harvested about three weeks earlier and the end of the season is pushed back. With raspberries, the protection of the fruit and thus their durability are in the foreground, as well as more reliable harvest timing. According to official figures, there are already 250 hectares of covered raspberry cultivation in Germany, and around 50 hectares of blackberries - and the trend is rising. The first German blackcurrants, cultivated under film, are already on the market.
Source: Gabot.de
Publication date : 2/22/2019
Race On To Make Urban Agriculture Viable, Durable
March 3, 2019
Countries and cities are coming up with ever more imaginative forms of urban agriculture. (AFP Relaxnews pic)
A key ingredient is the trend in ever more imaginative forms towards urban agriculture, a multi-faceted recipe already being poured over by some 800 million people globally, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.
The trend takes many forms – from collective market gardens in even the most run-down of urban districts to connected vertical farms using indoor farming techniques to meet spiralling food demand in areas largely bereft of arable land.
The FAO wants to see the trend prosper and become durable and sustainably embedded within public policy.
Yves Christol, of French cooperative In Vivo, has identified six models of the genre.
They include a key European variant, electronically managed without recourse to pesticide — or even soil or sunshine.
Green beans mean… Iceland
“That has allowed Iceland to become a major producer of green beans,” says Christol, thanks to geothermal heating.
Asian countries are also in on the act, not least Singapore, with the high density population city state bent on ensuring high-tech food autonomy.
Japan and China have sought to give new life to sites which once hosted electronics factories even if the strategy appears costly.
China has launched some urban farms even in areas where the soil has been polluted by heavy metals and would be too costly to clean up.
The US model, as cities including New York and Chicago seek to become sustainably hunger-proof, includes hydroponic gardens – effectively eschewing soil and using mineral nutrients in a water solvent, although profitability can prove elusive.
But scale is an issue and the concept will not be viable “so long as the price of the vegetables is not increased fourfold,” to cover energy costs, says Christol.
Strawberry containers forever
The cost of transporting food is something which particularly exercises entrepreneurs such as Guillaume Fourdinier, a founder of French start-up Agricool in Paris and Dubai.
His firm produces strawberries year round in shipping containers fitted out with LED lighting. Urban agriculture’s raison d’etre, he says, comprises fighting against “the ecological disaster of transport”.
“Today, with our containers, we are 120 times more productive per square metre than on open ground,” says Fourdinier.
“We produce in decentralised fashion and closer to customers,” he adds of strawberries sold marginally cheaper than their organic equivalent.
Paris has meanwhile come up with its own urban agriculture model, dubbed “Pariculteur,” a series of town hall-mandated projects designed to cover as much of the capital as possible with greenery via a rise in urban farming.
An initial 10 hectares (25 acres) for the project is set to grow to 30 hectares by next year.
Urban ecologist Swen Deral, who oversaw a pan-European urban agriculture project last year, says if the concept is to be financially viable in cities it has to go “beyond production”.
“Either they recycle, or else they create services linked to urban agriculture, educational activities, restaurants and the like,” he explains.
Researchers point to urban agriculture’s additional benefit of fighting against the effects of climate change as its proponents seek to reinvent urban existence.
Francois Mancebo, researcher at France’s Reims University, summed up the challenge in an article published by peer-review open access publisher MDPI and entitled “city gardening: managing durability and adapting to climate change thanks to urban agriculture.”
Mancebo says the concept must become an integral part of urban planning with local politicians underlining the need for active participation of city dwellers.
Dean Foods Explores 'Strategic Alternatives,' Including Sale
Amid the increase in options and consumer interest in plant-based milks and other dairy alternatives, Dean Foods has struggled
Feb. 27, 2019
Dive Brief:
Dean Foods is exploring "strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value," according to a release. The options include an outright sale, pursuing a joint venture or merger, shedding assets or continuing on the company's current business plan by focusing on strategic initiatives.
The company has not yet set a timeline for the review of these options, but Evercore Group LLC will serve as financial advisor to Dean. CEO Ralph Scozzafava said in a statement that Dean is "taking vital, transformative actions to maximize the benefits of our scale and position the company for the long term."
Dean — which owns more than 50 dairy brands, private labels and legacy products including Oak Farms and Lehigh Valley Dairy Farm — reported a net income loss of $260.1 million in fourth quarter earnings Wednesday.
Dive Insight:
The announcement of this potential sale came the evening before Dean Foods reported its quarterly earnings. The country's largest milk producer posted losses for the fourth consecutive quarter and suspended dividends. For the full year, Dean reported a net loss of $3.63 per share. Announcing a review of its options before the release of this poor earnings report makes sense. And given the company's recent issues in the category, it shouldn't come as surprising news.
Amid the increase in options and consumer interest in plant-based milks and other dairy alternatives, Dean Foods has struggled. Plant-based and even lab-created milk has been sweeping the industry, hurting farms and milk producers. U.S. non-dairy milk sales were up 61% over the past five years, while dairy milk sales plunged 15% from 2012 to 2017, according to Mintel.
Adjusting to the change in demand, Dean has been working to diversify its investments in waters, juices and plant-based products. Dean bought a minority stake in Good Karma Foods, which sells non-dairy milk and yogurt, and later announced it was taking majority stake in the company. The dairy manufacturer also purchased Uncle Matt's Organic, a maker of probiotic-infused juices and fruit-infused waters. In 2016, it expanded its reach into other dairy segments, buying the manufacturing and retail ice cream business of Friendly's Ice Cream, a Northeast-U.S. restaurant.
In previous years, the company divested some of its plant-based and organic lines, including WhiteWave Foods and Morningstar.
The moves to diversify Dean's portfolio haven't been enough to avoid plant closures and layoffs. Late last year, Dean Foods closed two milk processing facilities and laid off 207 workers. Earlier in the year, the company shuttered three facilities. Dean also terminated more than 100 dairy contracts with the company to curtail how much milk it was purchasing.
Despite these measures, Dean Foods' earnings have continued to disappoint. Last quarter, profits dropped 12% from the same time a year ago. But that decline hasn't just been a result of plant-based competition. The company has battled with an oversupply of milk and tariffs. Since 2014, dairy prices have been falling consistently. Private label brands have also hurt Dean's business, as stores like Walmart and Amazon have launched store-branded milk that bring even more competition to the crowded space.
It seems that the company's cost-cutting measures haven't been enough and an outright sale could be likely. However, it's unclear who will want to buy Dean Foods. JPMorgan analyst Ken Goldman predicted that there won't be many interested buyers, according to Seeking Alpha.
"If Dean Foods does happen to find a buyer (unlikely, in our view), the stock will probably be purchased at a discount to the current price," Goldman said. "Dean is a levered company with a fast-deteriorating business and numerous out-of-date production facilities."
Edeka and Metro are Joining the Growers
In the farm, seedlings of various plants are being used. They are not growing in soil, but have been dipped in a thin layer of liquid that provides the necessary nutrients.
Vertical farming is a way to put an end to the climate-compromising import of vegetables from all parts of the world. Fruits and vegetables can also be grown in the supermarket, some manufacturers promise. But we are not there yet.
There is a large black box with Plexiglas windows, standing in the middle of the vegetable department of the Edeka market in Oberhausen. This is the "greenhouse of the future," explains Pascal Gerdes. In fact, it is a digitally networked herbal farm in which plants are to grow under optimal conditions.
After a critical appraisal of the plants and a smell test, a customer decides to buy some of the coriander, which she places in her almost empty shopping basket. Price: 1,29 Euro. The Gerdes family is not pleased with the customer's choice. This lady is the first buyer of the plants that are grown in the supermarket.
Only a few weeks ago, the futuristic-looking farm was set up in the store of the Gerdes family. It came from Berlin start-up Infarm, which is one of the major suppliers in the field of vertical farming. Infarm also cooperates with other retailers. The 'farm' is to be tested in the Edeka market for a whole year. If the mint, Greek basil, mountain coriander and the like prove to be worthwhile, the farm may remain there. It is, however, still too early to do away with the entire vegetable counter - that would be relying too much on this nascent technology.
Digital farms in Oberhausen, London and Paris
In the farm, seedlings of various plants are being used. They are not growing in soil, but have been dipped in a thin layer of liquid that provides the necessary nutrients. From above, LED lamps provide continuous lighting. Everything can be individually adjusted so that the optimal climate conditions can be created for every plant. Vertical farming promises efficient and, above all, rapid growth.
"Temperature and light intensity are adjusted completely autonomously," explains Martin Weber from Infarm. "We control the state and the growth of the plants via infrared cameras." An employee from Infarm will go to the Edeka stores to harvest. He or she will set the plants that are ready for sale apart, immediately inserting new ones in their place. Supermarket operators like the Gerdes family do not have to worry about anything. But that should change over time. With more experience, sowing and harvesting can be taken over by the supermarket operators.
Until now, Vertical Farming is limited to herbs, as in the Edeka store in Oberhausen. But one can grow any kind of fruit and vegetables, promises Infarms CFO Weber: "We would like to offer everything, without exception."
This optimism has apparently convinced some retailers: The incubators of Infarm are there at numerous German Edeka markets, including stores in the Swiss supermarket chain Migros and in metro markets - including a metro market in the suburb of Nanterre, Paris. And the internationalization is to go on: "In Paris and Zurich, we have already inaugurated the first farms outside Germany. And in early 2019, London will follow," said Weber. In the USA there is potential for the Berlin start-up as well.
Source: Wiwo.de
Publication date : 1/4/2019
Urban Farms Could be Incredibly Efficient—But Aren’t Yet
Casual farmers overwork, buy fertilizer, and use municipal water.
JOHN TIMMER - 12/28/2018, 3:45 AM
The green revolution that transformed modern agriculture has generally increased its scale. There's tremendous potential for efficiencies in the large-scale application of mechanization, fertilization, and pesticide use. But operating at that level requires large tracts of land, which means sources of food have grown increasingly distant from the people in urban centers who will ultimately eat most of it.
In some ways, hyper-local food is a counterculture movement, focused on growing herbs and vegetables in the same dense urban environments where they will be eaten. It trades the huge efficiencies of modern agriculture for large savings in transportation and storage costs. But is urban farming environmentally friendly?
According to researchers at Australia's University of New England, the answer is pretty complex. Within their somewhat limited group of gardeners, urban agriculture is far more productive for the amount of land used but isn't especially efficient with labor and materials use. But the materials issue could be solved, and the labor inefficiency may be a product of the fact that most urban farmers are hobbyists and are doing it for fun.
Urban ag
The researchers—Robert McDougalla, Paul Kristiansena, and Romina Rader—defined urban agriculture as taking place within a kilometer of a densely built environment. Working in the Sydney area, they were able to find 13 urban farmers who were willing to keep detailed logs of their activity for an entire year. Labor and materials costs were tracked, as was the value of the produce it helped create. The energetic costs of the materials and labor were also calculated in order to assess the sustainability of urban farming.
The plots cultivated by these farmers were quite small, with the median only a bit over 10 square meters. Yet they were extremely productive, with a mean of just under six kilograms of produce for each of those square meters. That's about twice as productive as a typical Australian vegetable farm, although the output range of the urban farms was huge—everything from slightly below large farm productivity to five times as productive.
For the vast majority of crops, however, the urban farms weren't especially effective. They required far more labor than traditional farms, and, as a result, the total value of the inputs into the crop exceeded the income from selling it. In other words, the urban farmers were losing money, at least by traditional accounting measures. And the farms weren't especially sustainable, with only about 10 percent of all the inputs coming from renewable resources. Again, labor was a major culprit, as it's not considered very renewable, and urban farming is very labor-intensive.
So that all sounds like a bit of a disaster, really. But as mentioned above, things quickly get complex. The urban farmers, as it turned out, bought compost and fertilizer and used the municipal water supply. Cities, as the authors note, produce large quantities of organic waste that could be used to make compost. While it would require additional labor and land space, it would be easy to make the care of the crops far more sustainable. Combined with the use of collected rainwater, these could get the percentage of renewable contributions up to roughly 40 percent.
Laborious
Then there's the issue of the time spent on labor. The urban farmers don't seem to be especially efficient compared to regular farm laborers, and by all indications they don't necessarily want to be. For many of them, it's more a hobby than career; they put in more labor because they enjoy it or find it relaxing. If you start reducing the labor costs to reflect this, things start changing dramatically. If only the material costs of urban farming are considered (meaning labor was set to $0), then the apparent efficiency improves dramatically.
Not surprisingly, ignoring labor costs also makes a big difference financially, with the profit-to-cost ratio going from a mean of 0.62 up to 2.8, indicating that these urban farms would generally be quite profitable.
Labor also makes a big difference in terms of energy use. As they're now operating, these urban farms aren't very different from rural farms, which means they're not sustainable. Shifting to local sources of materials, like rainwater and compost, would drop the energy use dramatically, shifting the farms into territory that's typically considered sustainable. Eliminating labor considerations on top of that would make urban agriculture among the most efficient means of growing vegetables presently studied.
There are two obvious caveats to this work: the small number of farms sampled and the fact that they were all in a single urban area. This sort of study will obviously need to be replicated in other locations before we can start generalizing about hyper-local produce. But the role of labor in this sort of analysis makes conclusions difficult to generalize. Is it reasonable to discount some fraction of the labor costs when people are doing the farming for pleasure? Do we start considering a tomato plant on a balcony part of an urban farm?
While many of the details are unclear, the overall conclusion seems solid: while urban farms aren't yet there in terms of sustainability and energy use, the potential for them to outpace their larger rural cousins is definitely there. But it will take an entire sustainable support infrastructure for them to truly arrive.
French Insect Farming Startup Ynsect Raises $125m Series C Breaking European Agtech Record
Ÿnsect, the French insect farming startup, has raised $125 million in Series C funding in the largest early-stage agtech funding deal on record in Europe. This takes the company’s total fundraising to over $160 million since it was founded in 2011.
Ÿnsect farms mealworms to produce ingredients for fish feed, pet food, and crop fertilizers in an effort to capture some of the $500 billion animal feed market. The startup is one of 50 insect farming groups that have collectively raised $480 million to-date, according to the International Platform of Insects for Food and Feed (IPIFF), an EU-based association for the industry. In 2018, members of the association produced 6,000 tonnes of insects in 20 countries.
Insect farming, long an industry in developing nations for human consumption, has picked up pace in developed nations in recent years as a sustainable source of protein, particularly for the livestock industries.
Aquaculture, for example, still relies mostly on fishmeal, which is made up of wild-caught fish representing over 25% of global fishing and contributing to declining wild fish stock globally.
Ÿnsect is also offering a premium product to its customers, providing health benefits that translate into improved animal growth performance and boosted immune systems, according to Antoine Hubert, co-founder and CEO of Ÿnsect.
“Farmers can essentially produce more with less with our premium feed ingredients,” he told AgFunderNews adding that the company’s organic fertilizer product is also yielding great results for plant growth across types from grains to vine crops.
While Ÿnsect’s products will represent a core component animal feed, they are one ingredient and not a complete solution at this point, meaning that existing feed sources will still be used, Hubert added. However, he imagines a future where Ÿnsect’s mealworm products could be combined with other types of insects with other beneficial nutritional profiles and sustainable sourcing methods.
The investment round was led by Astanor Ventures, a new food and agriculture impact investment fund based in London. The majority of Ÿnsect’s existing investors including Bpifrance Ecotechnologies, managed on behalf of the French Strategic Investment Plan, Demeter, Quadia, and Singapore’s Vis Vires New Protein Ventures are participating in this latest round, alongside Bpifrance Large Venture, Talis Capital (UK), Idinvest Partners, Crédit Agricole Brie Picardie, Caisse d’Epargne Hauts-de-France and Picardie Investissement (France), Finasucre and Compagnie du Bois Sauvage (Belgium), Happiness Capital (Hong Kong) and a Singaporean family office as new investors.
World’s Largest Insect Farm
Ÿnsect will use the funding to construct what it says will be the largest insect farm in the world, based in Amiens in northern France with the first phase able to produce 20,000 tonnes of insect protein a year.
The company already has a demo facility producing its three main products — ŸnMeal andŸnOil, feed ingredients for pet food as well as several seafood species including shrimp, salmon, trout, and sea-bass, and ŸnFrass, a premium fertilizer for a variety of crop types.
And the company says it has $70 million of aggregated orders to fulfill, which it will start to fulfill at the pilot facility that has the capacity to produce hundreds of tonnes.
The Amiens factory is expandable beyond the initial 20,000 tonnes, according to Hubert as it is situated on a large reserve area in an industrial park with all the necessary supplies and facilities including energy and wastewater treatment. And Ÿnsect is also surveying options to expand to North America, particularly the Midwest of the US, after partnering with a real estate group JLL that’s currently scouting locations.
What’s the Technology?
After two years of operating the pilot facility, and over five years researching the business before that, Ÿnsect has refined its farming and extraction processes using state of the art technology and resulting in 25 patents. The factory uses a combination of sensor technology, automation, data analysis and predictive modeling to measure and respond to temperature, insects’ growth curve, and weight, and Co2 emissions.
“We are very much like a vertical farming business in how we operate, and we have the same issues around the HVAC systems we use to control the environment,” said Hubert. “We’ve developed a deep knowledge and process in this area that could be useful for other sectors at a high level. We have very complex systems for temperature, moisture control; conveyor systems to feed and harvest the insects as well as collect the frass and mature for our fertilizer product and remove the dead with various separation technologies.”
The extraction technologies are very similar to those used in oilseed crushing with some innovation in how to handle the products and separate out the protein.
Unlike many of the large groups in the vertical produce farming industry, Ÿnsect has partnered with existing tech companies to build its systems, and it has long term contracts with groups such as Total, which is big in HVAC systems.
Why the Tenebrio Molitor Beetle?
Ÿnsect decided to rear the Tenebrio Molitor beetle not only for its premium nutritional value in animal feed compared to other insects but for its potential to achieve industrial-scaled production. As non-flying insects, they are easier to contain, and they consume natural crop-based by-products, free of unpleasant odors or contaminants. It’s also “a gregarious, non-flying, communal insect that prefers to stay close to its colony for added warmth,” and it’s nocturnal, saving on lighting costs, according to Ynsect.
Nutrition-wise, Ÿnsect undertook several research projects to determine the efficacy of its products and discovered increases to the overall body weight of shrimp while being fed Ynsect products and a reduced amount of fishmeal. ŸnMeal also improved the feed efficiency and weight gain in seabass.
Other well-funded insect farming startups are rearing other types of insects such as AgriProtein, the UK-South African venture that’s farming black soldier fly and has raised over $130 million to-date. AgriProtein focuses on using food waste to feed its insects. Canada’s Enterra Feed is also growing black soldier fly for animal feed and says it is building the world’s largest insect farm, while EnviroFlight, the Midwestern company that was acquired by Intrexon, says it has the biggest black soldier fly factory in the US. The race is on!