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New Affordable Bronx Development Will Feature a Rooftop Aquaponics Greenhouse
New Affordable Bronx Development Will Feature a Rooftop Aquaponics Greenhouse
Rendering of the Bedford Green House courtesy of Edelman Sultan Knox Wood/Architects LLP and Hollister Construction Services
NOVEMBER 15, 2017 DEVIN GANNON
The construction of a 13-story supportive housing development in the Bedford Park neighborhood of the Bronx will begin Thursday when federal, state and city officials join nonprofit Project Renewal in a groundbreaking ceremony at the site. Located at 2880 Jerome Avenue, the Bedford Green House will feature 118 units of affordable housing for families, seniors, and singles. To connect its residents to nature, the building will be covered in carbon sequestering plants and have an operational rooftop greenhouse where residents will be able to raise fresh fish and produce, partake in healthy cooking demos, and enjoy a community playground.
Rendering of the Bedford Green House courtesy of Edelman Sultan Knox Wood/Architects LLP and Hollister Construction Services
Designed by Edelman Sultan Knox Wood, with Hollister managing construction, the 83,000-square-foot building will pursue LEED Gold certification. Half of the greenhouse space will utilize aquaponics, with the other half focused on growing crops like kale, spinach, and arugula. In addition to the agricultural aspect, residents will have access to a workforce development office, laundry room, community area, warming pantry, and a playground. Plus, the building will feature custom artwork from locals.
Pioneers of Organic Farming Are Threatening to Leave The Program
Pioneers of Organic Farming Are Threatening to Leave The Program
BY CAITLIN DEWEY | THE WASHINGTON POST | Nov. 3, 2017
Early leaders argued hydroponics should be banned from the label
Certified organic produce is on sale at a Kroger grocery store in Louisville, Kentucky. (Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg) 6843059
The pioneers of the sustainable farming movement are mourning what they call the downfall of the organic program, following a Wednesday night vote by a group of government farming advisers that could determine the future of the $50 billion organic industry.
At issue was whether a booming generation of hydroponic, aquaponic and aeroponic farms — which grow plants in nutrients without using soil, frequently indoors — could continue to sell their produce under the “organic” label.
In a series of narrow votes, an advisory board to the U.S. Department of Agriculture voted to allow the majority of these operators to remain a part of the organic program, dealing a blow to the movement’s early leaders.
Organic pioneers have argued that including hydroponic produce under the label has undermined the integrity of the program they fought decades to establish, and at a time when it is under intense scrutiny. Some have said they will consider leaving the USDA-regulated program entirely.
“This was the Hail Mary pass to save the National Organic Program, and they didn’t catch it,” said Dave Chapman, a longtime organic tomato farmer who lobbied to have hydroponics banned from the organics label. “They did incalculable damage to the seal tonight. It’s just going to take them a while to realize it.”
The recommendation, issued by the National Organic Standards Board, came in four parts.
The board voted to keep out aeroponic farming, which grows plants — typically herbs and leafy greens — suspended in the air with their roots exposed. But it voted to allow hydroponics, which grow plants in water-based nutrient solutions, and aquaponics, which combine hydroponic systems with farmed fish operations.
The board declined to tighten its restrictions on container growing, a variation on hydroponics that involves raising plants in containers filled with a mixture of organic matter, water and nutrients. That system has been adopted by a number of major organic berry growers, such as Driscoll’s and Wholesum Harvest.
Since 2000, the National Organic Program has strictly regulated which foods can be called organic, and how organic foods are grown and raised. Those standards are typically based on the recommendations of the NOSB, an advisory body comprised of farmers, environmentalists and representatives from the organic industry.
In a 2010 vote, the board recommended a ban on virtually all types of soilless growing. But in an unusual departure, the USDA continued to certify hydroponic and aquaponic farms, claiming that NOSB had not adequately considered the breadth of the industry.
Now that the board and the department are in agreement, the future of hydroponics in the organic program is much more certain, said Marianne Cufone, the executive director of the Recirculating Farms Coalition, which represents hydroponic and aquaponic growers.
“I think this sends a powerful message that they’re embracing change in agriculture,” Cufone said. “That the (organic program) wants to be inclusive, not exclusive.”
This approach has pained old-school organic farmers, who have spent the past seven years arguing that soilless systems undermine the main principles of that program. When that movement emerged in the first half of the twentieth century, they argue, it promised a version of agriculture that not only reduced the use of certain fertilizers and pesticides — but that contributed to the health of the soil and the rest of the environment.
During testimony on Tuesday, several organic farmers protested the certification of hydroponic farms, wearing T-shirts that said “Save the Organic Label.” At rallies this month in Hanover, New Hampshire, and Burlington, Vermont, protesters held signs with slogans such as “keep the soil in organic.”
“This notion that organic farmers are stuck in the past, or that they’re a bunch of Luddites hanging on to the way things used to be — that’s a misnomer,” said Cameron Harsh, the senior manager for organic and animal policy at the Center for Food Safety. “Soilless systems are just incompatible with the organic program and its regulations.”
“Don’t get me wrong — I love going to the farmers market,” said Matt Barnard, the chief executive of the indoor farming start-up Plenty, which grows organically certified greens and herbs.
“It’s just that the farmers’ market supplies something like half of 1 percent of the fresh fruits and vegetables in the U.S.”
“What we are doing,” Barnard added, “is just as organic as anyone else.”
How to Feed a Hungry City
How to Feed a Hungry City
How does Toronto's garden grow? With fish farms, rooftop planters and vegetable patches all in a row. The city has become a leader in urban agriculture, but there's worry public awareness is lagging as new projects struggle to take root
Steven Bourne, co-founder of Ripple Farms Inc., inspects some of the fish his team uses to create nutrient-rich water to fertilize plants in their aquaponic lab on Seneca College’s campus on Wednesday.
PHOTOS BY CHRISTOPHER KATSAROV/THE GLOBE AND MAIL
NOVEMBER 3, 2017 | CHARLIE FRIEDMANN | SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL
"Do you want to feed the fish?" Not an everyday question inside a shipping container. But here within Ripple Farms' home on the campus of Toronto's Seneca College it's routine, and without awaiting an answer, Steven Bourne – one of the co-founders of the local aquaponics start-up – swiftly hands over a carefully measured container of organic fish feed.
"Sprinkle it over the top," Mr. Bourne says and, within seconds, scores of tilapia dart to the surface seeking their lunch. "We feed them really good food, so our fish are happy and that means our plants are happy," he says, beaming with pride.
This modified shipping container is Ripple's second pilot project in the city, following its inaugural farm at Evergreen Brickworks. The ground floor is filled with a large fish tank, along with a system of pumps and filters that provide nutrient-rich water to the greenhouse set atop the shipping container, feeding plants such as arugula, Swiss chard, kale, basil and mint. The system not only produces extremely healthy crops, but creates no waste beyond rich fertilizer that is later used in traditional soil farming.
Because of this remarkable sustainability and the capacity to produce food year-round, many point to aquaponics farms such as Ripple's as the future, but aquaponics is hardly alone in the urban farming landscape. Urban agriculture as a whole is on the rise in Toronto – this year, the mayor's office recognized Toronto's first Urban Agriculture Day on Sept. 15, marking a milestone for the city's growing community of practitioners. That community includes entrepreneurial farms such as Ripple, as well as traditional backyard gardens, community gardens, school gardens, rooftop farms, backyard chickens and more. Even before this year's recognition by Mayor John Tory, Toronto had been hailed as a leader in the field thanks to the GrowTO Urban Agriculture Action Plan unanimously approved by City Council in 2012 to provide a framework for encouraging the growth of urban agriculture.
But while this is viewed as a global model for city planning, local experts caution that not all is rosy in Toronto's gardens, as a number of projects have recently stalled due to lagging approvals and other challenges.
Brandon Hebor, co-founder of Ripple Farms Inc., inspects the growing lights of an aquaponics lab. Ripple currently sells its produce to high-end chefs.
"Torontonians have long grown in their backyards and continue to do so, but it's mostly been under the radar," notes Joe Nasr of the Centre for Studies in Food Security at Ryerson University and a co-ordinator of Toronto Urban Growers (TUG). "What's new is this attention to the fact it exists and that it has a place in the city, and that the city can help it prosper."
TUG has brought together a diverse group of civilian stakeholders since 2009, with the goal of increasing the availability of healthy and sustainable food grown, processed and sold in Toronto. Through networking meetings, public forums, and lobbying, the group has done just that, and – working with the Toronto Food Policy Council (TFPC) – was largely behind efforts to bring Toronto's Urban Agriculture Day to fruition.
Experts explain that supporting urban agriculture citywide is crucial because projects such as community gardens or larger-scale operations such as Black Creek Community Farm not only provide access to healthy and affordable food but offer skills and job training.
"I'm very keen on urban agriculture," Lori Stahlbrand, chair of the TFPC, says. "There are so many ways you can address health, nutrition, social inclusion, the environment and economic development, all using food." In contrast to the civilian TUG, the food-policy council is directly embedded in city government. "We were the first food-policy council in a major city in the world," Ms. Stahlbrand says. "There are now several hundred, but the key to what makes ours different is that I'm a permanent staff of the City of Toronto."
Established in 1991 as a subcommittee of the Toronto Board of Health, the TFPC focuses on the city's food policy as a whole, a large part of which includes strategies for increasing urban agriculture.
Many point to aquaponics farms such as Ripple’s as the future.
This year's first Urban Agriculture Day was preceded by a week of tours around the city led by TUG and the TFPC, seeking to expose some of the ways urban agriculture can result in healthy, low-cost food, engagement of isolated communities such as seniors and people living with mental illness, as well as promising entrepreneurial ventures.
"We're starting to encounter the problem that because people don't know what urban agriculture is, they're more likely to say no to projects," says Rhonda Teitel-Payne, another TUG co-ordinator, on the importance of the tours. Other events included public forums, workshops and a harvest dinner at Black Creek Community Farm with some of Toronto's top chefs.
Located in one of Toronto's poorest neighbourhoods, Black Creek Community Farm has quickly become a model for other cities. "The vision was to look at how this farm can play a role in food security in the Jane and Finch community – doing this from a community-development perspective, ensuring community members are part of the decision making," Leticia Boahen, Black Creek's director, says.
The farm addresses food security by providing access to farmland and discounted fresh produce to low-income families in the area, but a major part of its program is about education and engagement.
Brandon Hebor, left, and Steven Bourne. This modified shipping container is Ripple’s second pilot project in the city, following its inaugural farm at Evergreen Brickworks.
The benefits of education and food literacy continually come up when speaking with urban-agriculture experts. Local organizations such as FoodShare have long tried to address this issue, with programs of school nutrition and the goal of a food-growing garden in every school.
"It's a terrific idea," Ms. Stahlbrand says. "Programs where students are engaged and learning food-growing skills train them in real skills, make them employable in the food system – and they also learn so much about good eating."
Postsecondary schools are becoming more involved, with entire programs now dedicated to food studies. And local universities and colleges are beginning to implement gardens on empty spaces or campus rooftops. Seneca's partnership with Ripple Farms is just one such example. The farm will be operated by students and the school will partner on related educational programs with Ripple's founders, Mr.Bourne and Brandon Hebor – themselves recent graduates of Seneca's Green Business Management program.
Ripple Farms is a for-profit business but it's run as a social enterprise. "There's a big shift happening with our generation," Mr. Bourne explains. "My metrics aren't how much money is going into my pocket at the end of the day, it's how many people do I feed? I will make money, but it's not my main impact measure."
The company currently sells mainly to high-end chefs because of limited production, but that will soon change. Ripple recently received government loans that will be used to build a 10,000-square-foot farm in Toronto that can produce 250,000 pounds of fresh produce a year – the equivalent of feeding approximately 55,000 people three meals a day.
Steven Bourne inspects some of the herbs that Ripple Farms has been growing.
Ripple has been using tilapia in its system, as almost all aquaponics farmers do, but more local species such as trout and catfish are being considered. This would then provide a sustainable source of high-quality local fish in addition to the fresh produce. Among those interested are local restaurants such as Montgomery's, which has purchased some of Ripple's herbs and vegetables.
Focusing on seasonal, local ingredients was always essential for Kim Montgomery-Rawlings and her husband, chef Guy Rawlings, but the pair wanted to think locally beyond the menu when they opened their first restaurant last summer. "Guy and I always said we wanted to make a restaurant that wasn't just a restaurant," Ms.Montgomery-Rawlings says. "It's an opportunity to get involved with the community, meet new people, branch out and share ideas."
While researching local food issues, Ms. Montgomery-Rawlings was introduced to TUG and the TFPC and immediately began attending meetings – eventually becoming an elected member of the TFPC. Montgomery's is also a local leader in featuring seasonal and local products; in addition to local produce purchased from others, it maintains a rooftop garden of its own, built in self-watering containers.
In fact, the idea of adding container gardens to empty lots around the city is one theTFPC's Ms. Stahlbrand is especially fond of. In Vancouver, Sole Food Street Farms has been successful at growing 25 tonnes of food a year while transforming empty lots and employing dozens of members of the city's poorest neighbourhoods.
Having Ms. Stahlbrand as a permanent city employee through the food policy council is undoubtedly beneficial, but if Toronto hopes to follow the lead of other cities and adopt projects such as these, many suggest another city staff member dedicated to urban agriculture is needed.
The ground floor of Ripple Farms is filled with a large fish tank, along with a system of pumps and filters that provide nutrient-rich water to the greenhouse set atop the shipping container.
One promising large-scale project that has run up against challenges involves building community farms within underused hydro corridors. Such farms would be a new hybrid model meshing community gardens with farmers' markets, creating economic development to support low-income communities. With soil and electromagnetic tests completed by Toronto Public Health nearly four years ago, city staff got on board and have backed the program. Unfortunately, gaining final approval from Hydro One has been more onerous and expensive than expected, as more than $100,000 raised from Toronto Public Health and private grants has been put into Hydro's site-assessment processes. Supporters believe they're close to clearing the final hurdle. "If we finally do get these farms in the ground, it's going to be amazing," Ms. Teitel-Payne says. "The space is there, the communities desperately need the farms and it will be a chance to test out new urban-farming models."
New entrepreneurs are also cropping up, large developers such as the Daniels Corporation have shown interest in building rooftop farms and members of city government and community organizers are increasingly advocating for the benefits urban-agriculture projects. "The solutions are out there, we just need to work on convincing people that this can be done here," Ms. Stahlbrand says. "It's definitely time for the next big step in Toronto and because of the structure we have, I don't see a reason why it won't happen."
Made-in-Toronto Devices Aim to Make Indoor Gardening Simple
Aamar Khwaja is the founder of Modgarden, a modular indoor farming system, and his mission is to enable people to produce enough food to yield a salad a day.
Modgarden founder Aamar Khwaja | Samuel Engelking
One of the joys of summer is stepping out into the backyard or balcony and snipping a few leaves of fresh herbs or greens and adding them to dinner. Then winter comes and destroys all of the plant-growing fun.
But if one local entrepreneur has his way, city-dwellers will be growing healthy food year-round in their homes.
Aamar Khwaja is the founder of Modgarden, a modular indoor farming system, and his mission is to enable people to produce enough food to yield a salad a day.
The Modgarden was born out of Khwaja’s own personal need. After decades on Wall Street, he was chronically sick. When changing his diet resulted in improved health, he decided to grow his own food, which seemed impossible in his Toronto home.
“The food system is broken,” says Khwaja. “Any food can be labelled natural but still be sprayed with pesticides. I wanted to change that. After staring at a wall in my kitchen I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to grow something there?’”
He began researching urban farming and vertical gardening and struck upon the idea of creating his own system, which uses mineral-rich living soil and is app-enabled.
Khwaja enlisted Toronto-based sustainable architect Heather Dubbeldam, whose firm is designing a rooftop farm for a client that includes an orchard.
The Modgarden is smooth and sleek, more like a fetching piece of furniture than a productive garden. With three sizes, ranging from desktop to floor model, all of which are stackable, it has flexibility to fit small spaces. He already has a great deal of interest and expects the units to be on the market in mid-2018. Prices range from $799 to $1,199 (though pre-launch online discounts are $450-$750).
The Modgarden is part of a growing movement catering to indoor food production, one driven by health consciousness and sustainability.
Food-oriented products already on the market are typically hydroponic and range from small objects to large, custom builds. For smaller spaces, there are systems like Click & Grow, which comes in three tabletop sizes with stylish light arms, as well as two wall farm units. Miracle-Gro offers a system called Aerogarden.
The Urban Cultivator is akin to a wine fridge and installed under a counter in place of cabinets. Even IKEA has an indoor gardening system, Krydda/Växer, though it’s not yet available in Canada.
Then there are aquaponics systems, like HiGarden or Grove, which incorporate fish and wetlands to make self-sustaining, closed ecosystems. Water from the fish tank is fed up to the plants and then filters from the plants through a wetland layer for purification before returning to the tank.
At a glance, these devices appear complicated. But as Leon Wasser, VP of business development for Toronto-based HiGarden, says, “All you need to add is air and fish food.”
HiGarden’s VIGA systems range from a mini tabletop and 12- and 24-inch desktop models, to those designed for building lobbies and indoor community farms. (Prices for consumer models run from $499 to $1,119.)
HiGarden founder, Phil Fung, is a leading LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) advisor, so his approach includes improving the sustainability of buildings.
HiGarden founder Phil Fung | Courtesy of HiGarden
While HiGarden’s ambitions include working with schools, long-term-care facilities and northern Canadian food deserts, the company is also conscious of growing consumer demand.
“Younger people in condos don’t have easy access to green space,” says Wasser. “This is something that could be transformative – bringing a [garden] oasis into your home can be really beneficial, health-wise.”
So far, most home-sized systems are best suited for microgreens, leafy greens, small vegetables, peas, beans and herbs.
Of course, when people think of growing herbs indoors, a different variety comes to mind.
With federal legislation legalizing marijuana, including growing at home, coming in July 2018, that other herb is on the radars of Modgarden and HiGarden.
HiGarden has already designed a four-pot prototype of the VIGA in anticipation of the four-plant growing limit the law will allow, but beyond that, no modifications have been made, largely because weed is still illegal.
The challenge with retrofitting existing units is that while you don’t need to lock up basil, you’ll want to keep cannabis away from kids. Security and sufficient airflow – not to mention the fact that marijuana is notoriously finicky to keep alive – are chief concerns.
Khwaja is researching modifications for Modgarden but says that, for the moment anyway, his focus is on “feeding people.”
To date, only a few growing units are purpose-built for pot and are still in prototype or early-market stages – or sold out.
Grobo, developed in Waterloo, is a tall, discreet growing box that would look lovely in a living room and boasts security features like a locking door, fluid glass to mask contents, and air filtration. And WeeGro, used by licensed medical marijuana growers, is also customizable to allow users to disguise or display as desired.
Whether growing herbs or herb, the demand is strong and consumers primarily want simplicity.
“If it’s easy, they’ll do it,” says Heather Dubbeldam. “If it’s complicated, they won’t.”
If Randy Rowe’s experience is any indication, consumer demand for cannabis-centric systems is high.
He’s the president of Grow Up Cannabis Conference & Expo, which had its inaugural show in October in Niagara Falls. It drew around 4,000 people, many of whom were interested in growing their own.
Rowe says anyone who comes out with a consumer product that can grow everything in one box will hit the mark.
“That said, growing marijuana is an art. To be able to grow your own is hard,” he says. “It’s why you don’t see people growing their own tobacco.”
Back at Modgarden, Khwaja is finalizing the product for a spring 2018 launch.
“This is the appliance of the future,” he says, before comparing it to a fool-proof (if less sustainable) kitchen gadget. “I see this as the Keurig of fresh salads.”
Winter Doesn't Faze 87,000-Square-Foot Aquaponics Farm in St. Paul
Winter Doesn't Faze 87,000-Square-Foot Aquaponics Farm in St. Paul
Three-plus months after debuting in its new, vastly larger location, Urban Organics continues to expand.
By Amelia Rayno Star Tribune | NOVEMBER 22, 2017
ELIZABETH FLORES • LIZ.FLORES@STARTRIBUNE.COM
Pentair and Urban Organics are partners in this 87,000-square-foot indoor fish and produce farm in the old Schmidt brewery that provides greens and seafood for grocery stores, co-ops and restaurants.
“There’s no seasonal affective disorder in here,” said Dave Haider, who founded Urban Organics along with his wife, Kristen Koontz Haider, and with Chris Ames and Fred Haberman. “It just makes sense — not just from an environmental standpoint but also from a food safety standpoint. It’s sustainable, it’s consistent and it’s a local option.”
Three-plus months after debuting in its new, vastly larger location, Urban Organics continues to expand its operation — with the capacity to churn out 7,000 pounds of fish a week (up from a mere 100 pounds per week at its first location) along with about 10,000 pounds of produce (up from 250 pounds).
And with a warehouse full of 25,000-gallon tanks and skyward-reaching trays of lettuce, kale, Swiss chard, arugula, basil and parsley, Urban Organics — which the WateReuse Association just named 2017 agricultural project of the year, a national award — is doing so in a very green way.
Here’s how it works: The fish provide the nutrients necessary to grow the plants. The plants, in turn, act as a filter to improve the water quality for the fish. Reusing the water over and over again allows Urban Organics to use just a fraction of what conventional farming would require.
As for the finished products? The fish is mostly nabbed by restaurateurs — Fish Guys handles the distribution, to places like Birchwood Cafe and Spoon and Stable. And the greens are boxed up into nine different salad blends and sold to various grocery stores and co-ops. Even with the great increase in production, Haider said, they’re struggling to fill the overwhelming number of requests.
“We’re cautiously optimistic,” he said. “But we’ve had so much support from the local community. Right now we can’t even come close to keeping up with the demand.”
NOSB Votes Not To Ban Hydroponics From Organic Certification
A longtime organic tomato farmer believes this could effectively be the beginning of “divorce proceedings” between the organic movement and the USDA’s National Organic Program.
The U.S. National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) has controversially voted against banning hydroponic and aquaponic crops being eligible for organic certification, in a move that has provoked strong opinions from the sector’s stakeholders.
The vote took place last week as part of the advisory board’s fall meeting in Jacksonville, Florida, which was open to the public and involved a range of testimonies given to the 15-member board.
The board voted to prohibit aeroponic agriculture – which grows plants suspended in the air with their roots exposed – but did not pass motions to ban hydroponics, a method that cultivates plants in water-based nutrient solutions, or aquaponics which combines hydroponic systems with farmed fish operations.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) spokesperson told Fresh Fruit Portal the NOSB had heard two days of testimony that were mostly focused on the three production systems.
“The Board did not come to an agreement on any recommendations about the certification of hydroponic or aquaponic production systems. Both systems remain eligible for Organic Certification,” she said.
“The Board passed a proposal to recommend prohibition of aeroponics systems in organic production. Certification of aeroponic operations also remains allowed while USDA considers the Board’s work on this topic.”
Organic pioneers have typically argued that including hydroponic crops in the National Organic Program (NOP) undermines the integrity of the label and that nurturing the fertility of the soil is a fundamental aspect of the farming method.
Meanwhile, those on the other side of the debate have held that there should be no issue including hydroponics as long as farming inputs are organic.
Maintaining the status quo
Organic Trade Association (OTA) farm policy director Nate Lewis said that this vote essentially maintained the status quo for the vast majority of the industry.
“All these systems have been allowed in organic since 2002, so I think the outcome – with the exception of aeroponics – shouldn’t really change the reality for many producers,” he said, explaining that organic aeroponics represented a tiny proportion of the sector.
He said the OTA would have supported the motion to ban hydroponics – as it did in 2010 when the NOSB recommended prohibiting the production method – if the definition of the production system had remained unchanged.
However, he said that as the Crops Subcommittee had revised the definition and coupled it with proposed standards for organic container production – which involves raising plants in containers filled with a mixture of organic matter, water and nutrients – the association, therefore, did not support it this time around.
It should be noted that despite the NOSB previously voting to recommend hydroponics be banned from organic certification – albeit at a time when the hydroponic industry was far less developed than today – the advice was not upheld by regulator the NOP.
Lewis also commented that among the OTA’s members were those who strongly supported organic certifications for hydroponics and those who strongly opposed them, but said there was a “significant segment” of membership in the middle who thought entirely water-based systems shouldn’t be allowed but container production should be, with appropriate guidelines and standards.
Banning would have been “irresponsible”
United Natural Foods vice president of policy and industry relations Melody Meyer said it was positive to see so many members of the organic community come out to participate in last week’s event, but believed the decision left the sector “deeply divided”.
“I was present in Jacksonville to witness one of the most divided NOSB meetings to date.I believe they made the right decision not to prohibit these out-of-soil production methods,” she said.
“It would have put hundreds of growers out of business, taken valuable supply away from organic consumers and squelched innovation in our movement.”
Meanwhile, the head of the Recirculating Farms Commission, which represents hydroponic and aquaponic growers, also believed the NOSB had made the right decision in not prohibiting the two production methods.
The entity’s executive director Marianne Cufone said that as many products from these farms already carried a USDA Organic label, it would have been “irresponsible and confusing” for consumers and farmers to withdraw it now.
“By siding with current science and recognizing that existing law purposely leaves the door open for various farming methods, the NOSB is sending a critical message that sustainability and innovation are valuable in U.S. agriculture,” she said in a statement.
“These goals are at the center of the nationwide local food movement and spur growth of urban and rural farms alike, by a wide range of people. Inclusiveness is important in our food system.
“The Board did vote to prohibit use of aeroponics in USDA Organic production and indicated they would discuss what type of label hydroponic and aquaponic USDA Organic certified products would display.”
The financial factor?
In support of the motions to ban the three production methods, Mark Kastel of farm policy watchdog group the Cornucopia Institute said the industry had effectively created “two organic labels”.
“One label is all about integrity and production and that impacts the nutritional flavor and quality of the food (found at farmers’ markets, CSAs, co-ops and other local retailers). The other is all about profit,” he said.
“What has made the organic industry financially attractive is the fact that consumers are willing to pay a premium for food produced to a different environmental and animal husbandry model.”
He also believed that part of the “organic story” had been about economic justice for family farmers, and that industrial-scale hydroponic production is a stark disconnect from that.
“The industry, in throwing their weight around the regulatory arena at the USDA, in appealing to Congress when that doesn’t work, is poised to kill the golden goose. A loss of consumer goodwill will impact all players, large and small – growers, distributors and retailers.”
The Cornucopia Institute is now engaging with its outside legal counsel to investigate filing a federal lawsuit, he said.
Dave Chapman, a longtime organic tomato grower with a farm in Vermont, said he was “dismayed” by the result of the vote and that it was a “great disappointment”.
“The fact that it was a close vote is a sign of how much the whole process of the National Organic Program has been compromised. It should have been consensus that hydroponics should not be certified as organic,” he said.
“That was the last vote of the same body seven years earlier when there was just one descending vote. What happened in seven years that suddenly reversed the definition of organic? I would say what happened was a lot of money.
“There was no new scientific evidence. I think the market was invaded by some large companies that were making hundreds of millions of dollars and that is what changed the conversation.”
Chapman also emphasized that the organic movement and the NOP were two different things, and believed last week’s vote may result in some profound changes in the future.
“I think that this vote was basically the beginning of divorce proceedings. The NOP is of course going to continue, and the organic movement is going to continue, but I think they’re not going to continue together.
“If consumers become aware that most of the tomatoes – and soon I suspect most of the berries, cucumbers, pepper, lettuce and basil – they’re buying in the store that’s certified organic is in fact hydroponic, they’re going to become further disheartened and stop using organic certification for the basis of how they find good food to buy.
“I think that most likely we will see the creation of one or many alternative labels to the USDA, because the USDA is failing. Of course, this is going to be a lot of work and very confusing, but I really don’t know what other choice there is.”
Three Startups That Wowed Jack Ma And Won Alibaba's Backing
Three Startups That Wowed Jack Ma And Won Alibaba's Backing
November 22, 2017
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
[HONG KONG] After hearing 600 pitches spanning fintech and robotics to healthy ageing, three startups will share US$3 million in backing from an entrepreneurs fund set up by billionaire Jack Ma.
Jumpstarter, a competition for new ideas and products similar to TechCrunch Disrupt, has the backing of Mr Ma's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, which unveiled its HK$1 billion (S$173.4 million) fund in 2015 to support startups.
A shortlist of six candidates made the final pitches on Tuesday, getting eight minutes to talk about their products and then four minutes of questioning by the judging panel. Among the criteria used to decide winners were innovation, community impact and market potential.
The winners:
Cuttingedge Medtech Ltd: Robot doctors may not be science fiction anymore. A team of robotic and medical imaging graduates is building specialised surgical robots for orthopedics, neural surgery and oral implants. The vision is personalised care with minimal invasive surgery.
Farm66 Investment Ltd: The company is joining the increasingly hot field of hydroponics and vertical farming as companies try to alleviate a global food crisis with sustainable agriculture. Combining indoor farming with fish ponds, this startup has already won a couple of awards from local industry associations.
En-Trak Hong Kong Ltd:This four-year-old startup targets commercial buildings with a connected device platform to help manage power use. En-Trak says it can pull in data from existing meters to manage consumption and lower costs while also lowering carbon emissions, with customers already including Hong Kong Stock Exchange and Fuji Xerox.
The other finalists:
BeeInventor: Trying to bring a technology solution to an old-fashioned industry, BeeInventor has built a cloud-based platform for communication among construction workers. Its Dasloop product fits over the helmets worn on building sites and monitors body temperatures, warns of potential collisions and provides video feeds. It can also connect to gas detectors or a flashlight.
Viewider: This startup aims to help merchants on e-commerce sites pick the best site to sell on. Viewider builds search and market research tools that help online merchants suss out global e-commerce services such as eBay or Amazon, register products for sale and price their wares accordingly.
Human Washer Ltd: Like a car wash for people. This startup offers the Sit & Shower, a device that enables the elderly and mobility impaired to bathe with automated soaping, temperature control, 13 surrounding water jets and air drying. The company says the device also cleans itself.
BLOOMBERG
Pioneers of Organic Farming Are Threatening to Leave The Program They Helped Create
Pioneers of Organic Farming Are Threatening to Leave The Program They Helped Create
By Caitlin Dewey November 2 at 11:48 AM
(iStockPhoto)
The pioneers of the sustainable farming movement are mourning what they call the downfall of the organic program, following a Wednesday night vote by a group of government farming advisers that could determine the future of the $50 billion organic industry.
At issue was whether a booming generation of hydroponic, aquaponic and aeroponic farms — which grow plants in nutrients without using soil, frequently indoors — could continue to sell their produce under the “organic” label.
In a series of narrow votes, an advisory board to the U.S. Department of Agriculture voted to allow the majority of these operators to remain a part of the organic program, dealing a blow to the movement's early leaders.
[‘Uncertainty and dysfunction’ have overtaken USDA program for organic foods, key lawmaker says]
Organic pioneers have argued that including hydroponic produce under the label has undermined the integrity of the program they fought decades to establish, and at a time when it is already under intense scrutiny. Some have said they will consider leaving the USDA-regulated program entirely.
“This was the Hail Mary pass to save the National Organic Program, and they didn't catch it,” said Dave Chapman, a longtime organic tomato farmer who lobbied to have hydroponics banned from the organics label. “They did incalculable damage to the seal tonight. It's just going to take them a while to realize it.”
Wednesday's recommendation, issued by the National Organic Standards Board, came in four parts.
The board voted to keep out aeroponic farming, which grows plants — typically herbs and leafy greens — suspended in the air with their roots exposed. But it voted to allow hydroponics, which grow plants in water-based nutrient solutions, and aquaponics, which combine hydroponic systems with farmed fish operations.
The board also declined to tighten its restrictions on container growing, a variation on hydroponics that involves raising plants in containers filled with a mixture of organic matter, water and nutrients. That system has been adopted by a number of major organic berry growers, such as Driscoll’s and Wholesum Harvest.
Since 2000, the National Organic Program has strictly regulated which foods can be called organic, and how organic foods are grown and raised. Those standards are typically based on the recommendations of the NOSB, an advisory body composed of farmers, environmentalists and representatives from the organic industry.
In a 2010 vote, NOSB recommended a ban on virtually all types of soilless growing. But in an unusual departure, the USDA continued to certify hydroponic and aquaponic farms, claiming that NOSB had not adequately considered the breadth of the industry.
Now that the board and the department are in agreement, the future of hydroponics in the organic program is much more certain, said Marianne Cufone, the executive director of the Recirculating Farms Coalition, which represents hydroponic and aquaponic growers.
“I think this sends a powerful message that they're embracing change in agriculture,” Cufone said. “That the [organic program] wants to be inclusive, not exclusive.”
This approach has pained old-school organic farmers, who have spent the past seven years arguing that soilless systems undermine the main principles of that program. When that movement emerged in the first half of the 20th century, they argue, it promised a version of agriculture that not only reduced the use of certain fertilizers and pesticides, but that contributed to the health of the soil and the rest of the environment.
During NOSB testimony Tuesday, several organic farmers protested the certification of hydroponic farms, wearing T-shirts that said “Save the Organic Label.” At recent rallies in Hanover, N.H., and Burlington, Vt., protesters held signs with slogans such as “keep the soil in organic.”
“This notion that organic farmers are stuck in the past, or that they’re a bunch of Luddites hanging on to the way things used to be — that’s a misnomer,” said Cameron Harsh, the senior manager for organic and animal policy at the Center for Food Safety. “Soilless systems are just incompatible with the organic program and its regulations.”
But in a series of close 8-7 votes Wednesday, the NOSB appeared to disagree. Instead, it sided with hydroponic growers, many of whom have spent several years and several thousand dollars acquiring their organic certification.
Their advocates have argued that soilless farming is consistent with the goals of the organic program: It utilizes organic fertilizers and cuts down on pesticide and water use — often to levels much lower than those on land-based organic operations. Because hydroponic farms are frequently built indoors, they are said to provide opportunity to urban growers who could not otherwise access agricultural land.
“Don’t get me wrong — I love going to the farmers market,” said Matt Barnard, the chief executive of the indoor farming start-up. Plenty, which grows organically certified greens and herbs. “It’s just that the farmers market supplies something like half of one percent of the fresh fruits and vegetables in the U.S.”
“What we are doing,” Barnard added, “is just as organic as anyone else.”
The early leaders of the organic movement say they aren't sure what “organic” means anymore, however.
The hydroponics debate comes at a moment when the organics program has been rocked by high-profile scandals, from fraudulent imports to suspect dairy feedlots, and after a period of sustained growth.
Organic sales topped $47 billion in 2016, according to the Organic Trade Association, representing 5 percent of all U.S. food sales. That growth has not been driven by idyllic family farms, either. Increasingly, the organic market is dominated by industrial brands that look little different from their conventional counterparts.
Chapman likens his struggle now to that of a parent confronting a rowdy teenager. He spent years growing the movement, he said, and loves it despite its flaws. On Wednesday night, he left the NOSB meeting with a group of other old-school organic farmers, determined to discuss how, and if, they could still support their problem child.
“The question is, do we abandon the National Organic Program and find a new way to identify ourselves?” Chapman asked. “It’s a genuine question. I don’t know. We feel powerless.”
Read more:
How millions of cartons of 'organic' milk contain an oil brewed in industrial vats of algae
The labels said ‘organic.’ But these massive imports of corn and soybeans weren’t.
NOSB Votes to Keep Organic Certification For hydroponic And Aquaponic Product
NOSB Votes to Keep Organic Certification For hydroponic And Aquaponic Product
NOVEMBER 02, 2017
The National Organic Standards Board rejected a series of proposals that would have revoked the organic certifications of growers who incorporate container, hydroponic and aquaponic production tools in their farms and production locations.
Lee Frankel, executive director of the Coalition of Sustainable Organics, applauded the ruling, saying, “The ultimate impact of the proposals would have removed significant supplies of currently certified organic fresh vegetables and fruits from the market. We need more product that meets the high standards of the USDA Organic Program, not less. The most viable option to achieve this goal is to use all certified systems and scales of production, not to kick certain growing practices out of the industry. The organic industry should embrace and promote diversity rather than stifle it.”
The members of the NOSB voted Nov. 1 by a margin of 8 to 7 to reject the proposals to make hydroponic and aquaponic production methods prohibited practices under the USDA organic standards. In addition, the NOSB rejected the proposal by a vote of 8 to 7 to create prescriptive nitrogen ratios in other container production systems.
The proposed definition of hydroponics was any system in a container (roots of a plant not in the outer crust of the Earth) that does not have at least 50 percent of the nitrogen needs of the plant in the container before planting and that no more than 20 percent of nitrogen needs are delivered through the irrigation system, watering cans or in a liquid form.
The NOSB did vote to make aeroponics a prohibited practice by a vote of 14 in favor of the ban with one member abstaining from the vote. This recommendation will now go to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Given that the NOSB is technically a Federal Advisory Committee, the staff of the National Organic Program and other USDA officials will determine if the USDA will begin formal rulemaking to modify the existing USDA organic standards. The USDA typically will move forward with rule making or return the proposal for additional clarification. Only after a public comment period and regulatory review would the proposal convert into a regulation.
“I am happy that enough members of the NOSB saw the wisdom of ensuring that organic rules do not arbitrarily discriminate against production in urban, desert, or tropical areas, nor should they exclude other systems that use containers and greenhouses,” said Frankel. “We should trust growers to make their own determination to know when growing in the soil or in containers make the most sense for the protection of the consumer and the ecology we all share.”
FreshBox Farms’ CEO Welcomes Organic Ruling, but...
FreshBox Farms’ CEO Welcomes Organic Ruling, but...
Vertical farm innovator says that more consumers are looking “beyond organic” and choosing crops grown without soil
This week, the National Organic Standards Board finally made a decision on one of the most divisive issues in the organic world: should crops grown in water, containers, or otherwise not in the ground be allowed to call themselves organic?
The decision: hydroponic and container gardens will remain eligible for organic certification.
Sonia Lo, CEO of FreshBox Farms, the nation’s largest modular vertical farm, welcomes the new ruling, but notes that consumers already are moving “beyond organic.”
FreshBox Farms uses sustainable growing enclosures that use no soil, very little water, a rigorously-tested nutrient mix and LED lighting to produce the freshest, cleanest, tastiest produce possible. FreshBox Farms’ non-GMO certified products go from harvest to the grocer’s produce section in hours, rather than days.
Lo notes that FreshBox Farms yields are better without organic nutrient use, so the Millis-based farm is not impacted by the ruling. “As organic nutrients for hydroponics become more developed, we will, of course, consider using them.”
She points out, however, that consumers are quickly learning a distinction between organic field-grown greens and non-organic indoor-grown greens, what the industry calls Beyond Organic. “And we see that consumers ARE making the Beyond Organic choice.”
“We predict three categories will move forward - field grown organic, Beyond Organic hydroponic, and organic hydroponic."
Sonia can explain why consumers are choosing greens grown indoors, why this field is growing (*no pun intended) and how FreshBox Farms' template farm is among the nation's most efficient.
Organic Hydroponics At The Grocery Store. What Are Those, Anyway?
While proponents of vertical farming rejoice, organic farmers who pioneered the movement are crestfallen (just see this eulogy from Radiance Dairy founder Francis Thicke). People are split on whether or not the decision a good idea, but pretty much everyone who cares agrees it’s a big deal.
Organic Hydroponics At The Grocery Store. What Are Those, Anyway?
November 8th, 2017
by New Food Economy
Last week, we published what felt like a 2,700-word magnum opus on the contentious vote that capped decades of debate: the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) decision to continue granting organic certification to hydroponic and aquaponic farms. It’s a story some have followed with intense interest, judging from the comments we received and the ongoing conversations we’ve seen on various ag-interested message boards.
While proponents of vertical farming rejoice, organic farmers who pioneered the movement are crestfallen (just see this eulogy from Radiance Dairy founder Francis Thicke). People are split on whether or note the decision a good idea, but pretty much everyone who cares agrees it’s a big deal.
If you didn’t read the piece, we get it. Not everyone’s down for a #longread on the finer points of ag policy, especially one with a decades-long backstory and lots of technical lingo. But make no mistake, the vote is going to shape the perception of that famous, green organic seal, and that has implications for consumer choice, the environment, and the prices we pay at the supermarket.
So, to shorthand what exactly went down at the National Organic Standards Board last week, and what it means for the future of organic certification, we’ve created this handy, pocket-sized primer.
FARM
Making The Case for Hydroponics and Aquaponics as USDA Organic Certified
Making The Case for Hydroponics and Aquaponics as USDA Organic Certified
A look back at how the Coalition for Sustainable Organics has worked to keep hydroponics and aquaponics as USDA organic-certified production methods.
Originally published in Issue 14, July 2016
Organic hydroponic and aquaponic growers are waiting for the results of a National Organic Program task force report which is scheduled for release this month. Members of the NOP Organic Hydroponic and Aquaponic Task Force were appointed last fall to examine hydroponic and aquaponic production practices and their alignment with USDA organic regulations. The task force includes members who are USDA organically-certified hydroponic growers.
Hydroponic and aquaponic growers are concerned that the report may contribute to the overturning of the long-standing USDA policy to certify their operations. The reason for this concern is that there is an effort by some field growers to stop the organic certification of hydroponic and aquaponic growers by USDA.
Photos courtesy of Coalition for Sustainable Organics
Lee Frankel, executive director of Coalition for Sustainable Organics, said the organization was formed in March 2016 to give growers a platform to preserve their ability to choose the most appropriate growing method, including those where the plant is not grown in the outer crust of the Earth, to meet their site-specific conditions when producing organically.
“The coalition members believe that sustainability and using natural inputs are the pillars of the organic philosophy and movement,” he said. “For instance, some of the initial members are from Arizona and southern California, where water availability is a major issue. Being able to grow hydroponically helps these growers use up to 10 times less water to be more sustainable.”
The coalition currently has 35 members and includes growers from the United States, Mexico and Canada. Some of these organic growers produce in the field as well as hydroponically.
Frankel said the supply of organic products is becoming more international.
“Nearly one-third of all USDA-certified operations are now outside the United States,” he said. “USDA sets the standards and determines what inputs can and cannot be used, regardless of country or method of production. USDA then accredits certifiers to inspect operations around the world.
“Opponents have cited the fact that there are a number of other countries that have a ban on hydroponic organic products. But if you examine the matter more closely, the issue is often a question of semantics. For example, growers in Canada and even in some of the Nordic countries in the European Union can grow organically in containers despite a ban on hydroponics in their regulations.”
Opposition to hydroponic, aquaponic production
Frankel said one of the main opposition groups pushing for the changes in USDA organic rules is Keep the Soil in Organic. The spokesperson for the group is David Chapman, who operates Long Wind Farmin Vermont. Chapman is a member of the NOP Organic Hydroponic and Aquaponic Task Force.
“Other groups that have spoken out against hydroponic organic production include many of the organic trade associations and organic certifiers in the northeastern part of the United States,” said Frankel. “Some of the certifiers have been working with field growers for a long time so they feel it is in their best interest to support their current customers.”
Using hydroponic production methods has allowed some organic growers to use up to 10 times less water and to be more sustainable.
While there is a philosophical debate as to what organic growing does or does not mean, Frankel said there is also an economic component.
“Retailers and consumers are voting with their pocketbooks,” he said. “They appreciate a variety of flavorful and available hydroponic and aquaponic organic products on a consistent basis that meet their expectations for produce grown without synthetic pesticides.
“Sustainability and economics go hand in hand. As inputs are reduced, seasons are extended and yields are increased, enabling growers to reduce their costs.”
Frankel said another benefit to growing in containers is that it is really scale neutral.
“It allows for people who are just getting started, who were not fortunate enough to inherit a family farm or are in urban areas with high land costs, to be able to grow organically,” he said.
Changes to current standards
Frankel said USDA selected members for the NOP task force from a cross-section of people in the organic industry. They represent a broad range of technical expertise, knowledge and philosophies to examine the current regulations.
“These people were tasked with helping clarify the regulatory issues and to describe the current technologies in use,” he said. “I expect that the task force will describe how container, hydroponic and aquaponic production systems operate, how they meet the current standards and identify different interpretations of the regulations.
“The task force is not technically supposed to make recommendations. The task force is analyzing whether the production technologies used today meet current USDA regulations, standards and laws. The task force will also determine whether any areas within those regulations may need to be updated, revised or defined based on their findings.”
The Coalition for Sustainable Organics includes growers from the United States, Mexico and Canada. Some of these organic growers produce in the field as well as hydroponically in greenhouses.
Frankel said once the report is released, the National Organics Standards Board will study the document and determine if it would like to recommend changes to the current regulations. NOSB has traditionally sought input and testimony from the organic industry prior to making recommendations on any proposed changes or modifications.
“If NOSB votes to forward recommendations to USDA, USDA would then translate those recommendations into formal proposed regulations and open them up to public comment,” he said. “USDA would then respond and would incorporate meaningful comments into the final rule.”
Time for growers to respond
Frankel said release of the task force report will be another opportunity for hydroponic growers to tell their story to prevent NOSB from starting the process to push the growers out of the organic market.
“Organic-certified hydroponic and aquaponic growers need to make a case about the validity of what they are doing,” he said. “In addition to their production methods being thousands of years old, USDA has long recognized the legitimacy of these systems. The systems have helped to grow demand for organics while reducing inputs and opening the market for new growers.
“Most critically from a philosophical perspective, these production systems use the same biological processes as those of organic field growers.”
Frankel said growers have a number of ways of bringing attention to their rightful place in the organic industry.
“Growers need to participate in the all-important public comment periods in the rulemaking process,” he said. “Growers can have their retail customers share their stories through company newsletters. Highlighting growing operations with CSAs (community supported agriculture) or reaching out to the local press can help spread a common message while building a grower’s own business. Hosting farm visits is often the easiest way to directly show how a grower’s operation is following the organic principles of cycling nutrients, eliminating synthetic pesticides and conserving resources such as land and water.”
Frankel said these farm visits for fellow growers, certifiers, elected officials, trade association staff, USDA officials and even NOSB members have proven to be an effective method to dispel any misconceptions spread by opponents of these organic production systems.
“From the coalition’s point of view, everyone deserves organics,” he said. “Containers are an integral part of a more resilient production system that allows for growers of all sizes and economic backgrounds to produce organic products that an increasing number of consumers are demanding.”
For more: Coalition for Sustainable Organics,
(619) 587 45341
info@coalitionforsustainableorganics.org; http://coalitionforsustainableorganics.org.
David Kuack is a freelance technical writer in Fort Worth, Texas; dkuack@gmail.com.
Why Eating Local Produce Just Got More Innovative
Why Eating Local Produce Just Got More Innovative
November 10, 2017 | HOUSTON, TX
When Dish Society restaurant owner Aaron Lyons prepares his food for patrons, he knows that 75 percent of what's on the plate is from the Houston area.
"Locally sourced ingredients taste better, they're more nutritious, and we like to support the local economy," said Lyons.
His lettuce vendor is Sustainable Harvesters in Hockley.
"I love the fact that it's - the whole procedure is better for the environment," Lyons explained.
Sustainable Harvesters grow their produce in a greenhouse without the use of chemicals or pesticides.
"We're in about 12,000 square feet of space, that's a quarter of one acre of land. In that quarter acre, we can produce up to 7,000 heads of lettuce a week. That's a tenth of the land required for a traditional farm outdoors, but not only a tenth of the land. We use a tenth of the water," explained Sustainable Harvesters Co-Founder Matthew Braud.
They also save on labor.
"This entire system is run by a greenhouse manager and greenhouse technician," said Braud.
So, how is it possible to run an entire farm with only two people? It's because of the aquaponics technique they use.
"Aquaponics is the combination of aquaculture, or raising fish in a controlled environment, and hydroponics, which is growing plants in a soil-less environment," Braud said.
The process starts with over 2,000 tilapia in each tank fed a high-protein diet.
"That food ultimately gets consumed by the fish and converted into a waste product that we can use through filtration as a concentrated form of nitrate for them to take up," explained Braud.
The water then flows into two filters.
"From these filters, the water flows below these plants and gets consumed by the roots and then ultimately cleaned before that water flows back into the fish tank as a clean source of water," he explained.
Then, the lettuce is delivered to vendors with the root still intact. Even when Hurricane Harvey hit the Houston area, the torrential rain and floods didn't affect their farm.
"This structure keeps us safe from not only floods, but also rain, bad weather including wind, and especially pests," said Braud.
So, for them, even after Harvey, it was business as usual, producing the freshest of lettuce so restaurateurs like Lyons could dish out the best-tasting entrees.
"It's a better product. It's a better quality product," said Lyons.
Green in the Desert: Local Farmer Captures Carbon to Grow Food, Feed Community
Green in the Desert: Local Farmer Captures Carbon to Grow Food, Feed Community
Shahid Mustafa, Taylor Hood Farms founder, picks lemon cucumbers at his farm near Old Mesilla.
Guest Columnist October 7, 2017
Shahid Mustafa is the first to admit his farm might not look as orderly as those you see while driving down the highway.
At Taylor Hood Farms, you won’t find manicured rows or flood-irrigated fields. Nor will you notice bed after bed of a single crop like alfalfa, commodity cotton or chile peppers.
To hear Mustafa say it, there’s a little bit of chaos in nature. Some of that chaos reflects in the appearance of his farm, where red amaranth grows tall and sweet carrots fill beds near lemon cucumbers and artichokes. But embracing nature’s way, according to Mustafa, could offer key solutions to some of the region’s most urgent environmental and health difficulties—even if some chaos is part of the package.
“The regenerative way is to work with nature, instead of against it,” he said. “Our philosophy is that the best food comes from the best soil, so most of our focus and attention is on enriching or enhancing the soil that we have.”
In the Paso del Norte region, Mustafa is pioneering an innovative approach to farming called regenerative agriculture. The practice could help restore topsoils degraded by conventional farming techniques, to say nothing of its implications for ensuring residents have consistent access to healthy foods.
The Regenerative Way
A tractor sits before a container with a mural on it at Taylor Hood Farms.
Mustafa runs two farms in the area—one in La Mesa, near Old Mesilla, and the other in Socorro. His mission is twofold: to make fresh produce available to all families in the region and to demonstrate the power and promise of regenerative farming.
In most respects, Mustafa said, the two are mutually inclusive: it’s hard to care for the community if one deprives the land on which it relies.
Regenerative agriculture refers to farming and grazing techniques that rebuild organic materials in soil, a ground-up approach that pays dividends in terms of clean, nutrient-dense produce, water-retention rate, native-species habitat, ecosystem health, soil fertility, biodiversity and even climate change.
The practice walks hand-in-hand with carbon farming, which harnesses the power of photosynthesizing plants to actually capture carbon dioxide and sink it into the nutrient-rich soil.
Stored safely in the earth, Mustafa said, the carbon becomes a proactive part of the crops’ life-cycle, rather than trapping heat in the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas—the primary driver of global warming.
When Mustafa goes about farming, his mind is on setting the stage for nature to take its course, then gently aiding the production along the way.
“We do that through composting, crop rotation and reduced tillage,” he said. “That means we’re not cultivating every year; every year, we’re not creating new beds. In fact, we like to keep the same beds and keep building on those beds, because that lets the soil generate natural beneficials.”
Those beneficials, as he describes them, are microbiotic life forms that feed on the decomposition of organic material, passing nutrients into the growing food. In this way, even the nutrients in the food itself are reliant on soils.
“In terms of the value of the food,” Mustafa said, “that, to me, is the most logical answer. If the food is not feeding from a source [the soil] that’s rich in nutrients, then where else is it going to get the nutrients?”
Childhood Food Insecurity
Local farms such as Mustafa’s play a pivotal role in providing nutritious foods to the community, and their importance—given the demographical statistics—can hardly be overstated.
In El Paso County, nearly one in four children is listed as food-insecure, meaning they lack reliable access to nutritious foods.
Shahid Mustafa, Taylor Hood Farms founder, cleans produce at his farm near Old Mesilla.
Surrounding counties—many of which are mostly rural—rank even worse in child-food-insecurity ratings.
For example, Hudspeth County’s child-food-insecurity rate is about 32 percent. Luna County’s is 33.6 percent. Poverty and unemployment frequently precipitate food insecurity in the U.S., according to Feeding America, a hunger-relief organization.
Additionally, food insecurity is associated with chronic health problems like diabetes, heart disease, obesity and depression. But local farms can help assuage these problems simply by providing healthy, inexpensive produce, said Leah Whigham, executive director of the Institute for Healthy Living, an organization dedicated to fostering healthier communities in the Paso del Norte region.
While some nutrients remain in certain foods for long after they’re picked, other crucial nutrients found in fruits and vegetables tend to reduce as they move through the long industrial-shipping process.
“Really what you want to emphasize is, as often as you can, buy the local produce,” Whigham said, “because some of the kinds of nutrients that you can only get from the fresh fruits and vegetables do dissipate if they’re shipped on a truck.”
Additionally, buying local can help take the guesswork out of whether the food is healthy, organic and ethically sourced.
Most of Mustafa’s food, for example, is available in El Paso True Foods boxes, a community-supported agriculture (CSA) venture. The True Foods program aggregates food from numerous different farmers in the region and packs it into boxes.
Each week, customers who sign up for the program can pick up their boxes at various locations throughout the city.
Farmer Shahid Mustafa delivers El Paso True Foods boxes to city offices in downtown El Paso. The boxes contain food grown from various farmers in the region.
True Foods Co-founder Adriana Clowe said the program supports both local farmers and community health. On the one hand, local farmers get a consistent market from residents who buy the weekly boxes. On the other, customers get healthy food right from the region—food that hasn’t degraded during the course of long-haul shipping.
“As consumers, we vote with our dollars,” Clowe said. “Wherever we decide to put our money—that’s what we’re supporting. With True Foods, we hope that the social interaction with farms and farmers…can open people up to that larger world of making mindful choices.” Giving the people the tools Mustafa has hopes for his efforts as well.
By farming here in the Chihuahuan Desert, he thinks he can help address issues of food insecurity and land deprivation, not only by offering nutritional produce straight from the farm, but by re-connecting people to the inherent value in the land and the food it produces.
“One of the answers to food deserts and food inequality is really to show people how to do it themselves, to become self-reliant,” he said. “If I had my way, I’d set this [farm] up as a perfect demonstration site and always be out showing somebody else how to replicate what we do.”
“Empowerment comes from the community,” he added. “Once they know how and are given the tools, they can do it themselves.”
***
Editor’s Note: Green in the Desert is a new column exploring sustainability and conservation efforts in the El Paso/Juarez area. Previous Columns can be read HERE.
Writer Chilton Tippin is project manager and communications coordinator for Wondor Eco:Nomics. He likes to write, bike, ski, climb and explore. In 2015, he walked across America.
NOSB Votes To Continue to Allow Hydroponics Under US National Organic Program
NOSB VOTES TO CONTINUE TO ALLOW HYDROPONICS UNDER US NATIONAL ORGANIC PROGRAM
November 4, 2017 JIM MANSON
The National Organic Standards Board, the industry body that advises the US Secretary of Agriculture on organic standards, has voted to allow some crops grown hydroponically to continue to be labeled organic under the National Organic Program (NOP).
The controversial decision follows two lengthy consultations on the subject and is set against a backdrop of nationwide protests against the inclusion of hydroponics and other non-soil growing techniques in organic standards.
Many organic farmers in America argue that managing soil biology and protecting soil health are founding principles of organic systems, and that hydroponics – which uses mineral nutrient solutions in place of soil – should be entirely excluded from organic systems.
But supporters of hydroponics say that soil-less systems allow for the production of ‘clean foods’ – they exclude the use of pesticides and herbicides – in environmentally sustainable ways. And they say that by embracing innovative technologies hydroponics makes organic food available to more people.
At this week’s highly anticipated NOSB meeting, the board voted to prohibit aeroponic farming – where plants are suspended in the air with their roots exposed – but allow hydroponic and aquaponic systems to continue to labeled organic under the NOP.
There were passionate submissions from both sides of the argument during the 13 hour session, and angry reactions from some farmers – the group Keep The Soil Organic, which recently held a series of nationwide rallies ahead of the meeting, had a strong presence in the room.
One stakeholder said: “We are tricking and deceiving consumers with organic hydroponics, and large corporations are just chasing and riding the coattails of the organic label. Hydroponic is a shortcut, and these methods have been wrongly certified. Container and hydroponics don’t have to wait three years to be certified.” Another noted dryly that “conventional farmers are beginning to talk about soil health and now organic is talking about growing without the soil.”
A report by US industry website newhope360.com recorded that a representative of IFOAM EU had “traveled 20 hours to submit evidence give a three-minute comment to rally against soilless organic production” and “suggested their inclusion could encourage IFOAM to urge renegotiation of the equivalency agreement between the EU and US.”
FEATURED, HYDROPONICS, NOSB, ORGANIC, US
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jim Manson
Writer & Editor
Jim Manson is editor-in-chief of Diversified Communications UK‘s natural and organic publishing portfolio. He’s written widely on environment and development issues for specialist magazines and national media, including the Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times, and World Bank Urban Age
No Changes to Organic Standards For Containers, Hydroponics and Aquaponics
No Changes to Organic Standards For Containers, Hydroponics and Aquaponics
NOVEMBER 2, 2017 URBAN AG NEWS
National Organic Standards Board Rejects Recommendation to Remove Container, Hydroponic and Aquaponic Production Methods from Eligibility for USDA Organic Certification.
The members of the NOSB voted on Wednesday by a margin of 8 to 7 to reject the proposals to make Hydroponic and Aquaponic production methods prohibited practices under the USDA organic standards. In addition, the NOSB rejected the proposal by a vote of 8 to 7 to create prescriptive nitrogen ratio requirements and to limit delivery of nutrients through irrigation systems in other container production systems. The proposed definition of hydroponics was any system in a container (roots of a plant not in the outer crust of the Earth) that does not have at least 50 percent of the nitrogen needs of the plant in the container before planting and that no more than 20 percent of nitrogen needs are delivered through the irrigation system, watering cans or in a liquid form.
The NOSB did vote to make aeroponics a prohibited practice by a vote of 14 in favor of the ban with 1 member abstaining from the vote. This recommendation will now go to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Given that the NOSB is technically a Federal Advisory Committee, the staff of the National Organic Program and other USDA officials will determine if the USDA will begin formal rulemaking to modify the existing USDA organic standards. The USDA typically will move forward with rule making or return the proposal for additional clarification. Only after a public comment period and regulatory review would the proposal convert into a regulation.
Greenhouse production practices to be discussed on Thursday by NOSB
The NOSB will begin discussions on the need to create modifications to the standards regarding the use of artificial light, the composting and disposal of green waste and substrate after a production cycle, requirements to recycle containers, and the use of plastic mulches and weed cloth in greenhouse and container operations. No votes are scheduled for these topics.
CSO thanks all growers who contributed their views through written or oral testimony
The CSO wishes to express its gratitude to the roughly 70 producers from all sides of the issue who delivered oral comments and the hundreds of individuals that submitted written comments. The Coalition especially appreciates the time of the many growers who volunteered their time to help educate members of the NOSB and the organic community. Ultimately, both the quantity and quality of the voices explaining the importance of preserving the rights of growers to determine the most appropriate growing method for their site-specific conditions led to this mostly positive outcome.
What happens next?
The vote did not resolve the long-standing issue of the lack of consistency in how accredited auditors review the farms and production facilities of growers that incorporate containers in their systems. The members of the NOSB and the USDA NOP staff will determine in the coming hours, days and weeks if there is value in continuing work on proposed regulations that would impact other aspects of greenhouse and container production systems. The CSO will be there to protect your interests.
Everyone deserves organics
The most viable option to achieve this goal is to use all certified systems and scales of production, not to kick certain growing practices out of the industry. The organic industry should embrace and promote diversity rather than stifle it. Organic production should not be limited to annual crops grown in temperate climates with high rainfall and killing freezes in the winter. The NOSB should be ensuring that organic rules do not arbitrarily discriminate against production in urban, desert, or tropical areas, nor should they exclude other systems that use containers and greenhouses. We should trust growers to make their own determination to know when growing in the soil or in containers make the most sense for the protection of the consumer and the ecology we all share.
USDA Advisory Board Blocks Ban Against Using Hydroponics In Organic Farming
USDA Advisory Board Blocks Ban Against Using Hydroponics In Organic Farming
Constantine Spyrou
November 7, 2017
Hydroponics is one of the fastest-growing fields in agriculture today. By growing plants in water and "feeding" them solutions of nutrients they need, crops can grow at higher yields over a faster period of time while drastically reducing water consumption and land space. While it's an amazing tool for the future of food, one question has been in the minds of several industry members: Can food grown via hydroponics be classified as USDA Organic?
In a recent 8-7 ruling, the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) ruled against a ban on hydroponics in organic farming. In doing so, the board, which makes recommendations to the USDA on rules for the organic industry, clears the way for organic, hydroponically grown produce to proliferate in supermarkets. The USDA does still have to receive an official recommendation and choose to act on it or not, however.
If they do so, it could be huge for hydroponics, but would harm organic soil farmers. Hydroponics, with its faster growth rate and decreased water and land use, is already taking a significant market share away from the soil farmers. Nowadays, most organic tomatoes are grown through hydroponics and similar methods, and organic farmer Dave Chapman voiced fears to NPR that even more space in supermarkets will be given to hydroponically-grown produce.
"What will happen, very quickly, is that virtually all of the certified organic tomatoes in supermarkets will be hydroponic. Virtually all of the peppers and cucumbers [will be hydroponically grown]. A great deal of the lettuce. And most of the berries."
On the other hand, the innovative technology can be used to keep up with growing organic demand. It also is more sustainable than traditional farming since it doesn't utilize as many natural resources, making it the ideal choice for environmentalists and scientists focused on preserving the planet.
At the center of the debate, though, is the true definition of what it means to be "organic." Hydroponic farms claim that they are organic because they don't use synthetic pesticides and can grow year-round at a cheaper price. Traditional farmers, however, argue that the true core of organic farming is nurturing and taking care of the soil itself, something that hydroponics doesn't even involve.
When it comes to what it really means to be "organic," for now, it seems that the NOSB is willing to include hydroponics within that definition based on their recent decision.
A Growing Battle in The $47 Billion Organic Food Industry Could Fundamentally Change The Program — And Some Farmers Are Worried
A Growing Battle in The $47 Billion Organic Food Industry Could Fundamentally Change The Program — And Some Farmers Are Worried
A display of WindowFarms hydroponic growing system. AMNH\R. Mickens
The National Organic Standards Board, an advisory committee to the US Department of Agriculture, voted to allow some crops grown hydroponically and aquaponically to have organic labels.
- Organic food sales totaled $47 billion in the US in 2016.
- Some traditional organic farmers are threatening to leave the NOSB, the program they helped create, over the controversial vote.
The United States organic industry — whose 2016 sales totaled around $47 billion — is facing a battle between traditional farmers and high-tech producers.
In recent years, hydroponic, aquaponic, and aeroponic farms — which grow produce in nutrient-rich solution without soil, often indoors — have boomed. Some of these businesses have been granted the organic label for their products.
But that trend has dismayed some traditional farmers, who argue that allowing non-soil producers to label their food organic weakens the integrity of the program. True organic farming, they say, requires nurturing, natural soil.
But in a series of close votes on Wednesday night, the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), an advisory committee to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), voted to allow the majority of these high-tech operators to stay in the National Organic Program. The decision creates an organics standard for non-soil farming, which did not exist previously.
Dave Chapman, a longtime organic tomato farmer in Vermont, is not happy with the decision, which he calls a "tragic failure."
"The National Organic Program has failed at the very thing it was created to do: creating trust and transparency between organic farmers and eaters," he told Business Insider in a statement. "After a publicized series of failures in defending organic integrity, the Organic Program's Advisory Board decision to embrace hydroponic production as the 'new organic' is the final straw."
Chapman said he is considering leaving the program. He and other critics of the board's decision say that hydroponic farming does not meet the USDA's definition of organic due to its lack of soil.
Organic traditionalists point to the ideas of Albert Howard, an English botanist who inspired the organic farming movement. In 1940, Howard wrote that "the health of soil, plant, animal and man is one and indivisible."
Inside Plenty, a Silicon Valley-based urban farming startup that scored the largest ag-tech investment in history. Plenty
Lisa Stokke, cofounder of farmer advocacy group Food Democracy Now said in a statement that the USDA's definition "reflects the beliefs of the international organic movement."
"To suggest calling hydroponic 'organic' is to completely misunderstand the meaning of organic," she addd.
But hydroponig growers argue that they're growing what consumers expect from the organic label: crops produced without synthetic pesticides.
Plenty, a California-based hydroponic farming company, gained organic certification earlier this year. Matt Barnard, the company's CEO, told Business Insider that he was pleased with the NOSB's vote.
"We are growing fresh fruits and vegetables that are as organic as any other method," he said. "People have spent 35 years understanding what 'organic' is, which is a long time. We, as a business, did not feel it would've been fair or equitable to cause a just-as-organic farming operation to have to explain to people something as convoluted as 'Oh, it's just as organic as ... but not organic.' That would've cost us an amount of money and years that we don't have the budget for."
Organic farmers who grow their crops in soil participate in a protest in Stowe, Vermont, in 2015. AP Images
The NOSB issued its recommendation in four parts. It voted to allow hydroponic systems, which grow plants in water-based nutrients, as well as aquaponics, which combine hydroponic systems with fish farms, to remain in the Organics Program.
The committee chose not to tighten its rules on container growing, a type of hydroponic agriculture that grows crops in a solution made of water, nutrients, and organic matter. Several large organic berry growers, including Driscoll’s and Wholesum Harvest, have implemented container growing.
But aeroponic farming — which grows plants suspended in the air with exposed roots — will be kicked out.
Overall, the decision may signal a new direction for the organic industry, since it will include farmers who don't produce crops in fields.
But some pioneers of the sustainable farming movement believe the vote could splinter the organics industry.
"At the very time that we most need the leadership of the organic community, the corporations have completed a hostile takeover of the National Organic Program," Chapman said. "We will have to start again."
NOW WATCH: A nutritionist explains which foods you should buy organically
Co-Founder of The East London Start-up, Tom Webster, Explains how He is Spearheading Aquaponic Farming in The UK
NOV 2, 2017
Co-Founder of The East London Start-up, Tom Webster, Explains how He is Spearheading Aquaponic Farming in The UK
I co-founded GrowUp Urban Farms with my business partner Kate Hofman in May 2012. Our vision is to contribute to a more sustainable food system using aquaponics – a combination of aquaculture (fish farming) and hydroponics (growing plants in a nutrient rich solution other than soil). The farming methods we have developed enable us to produce a year-round harvest of fresh fish, leafy salad crops and herbs, in an energy-efficient controlled environment.
We started out by creating the GrowUp box, a demonstration system that we built in a shipping container at London Bridge, then, in 2015, we moved to Unit 84, at London Industrial Park in Beckton, and built our first farm.
The farm is essentially comprised of two separate systems. The first is a recirculating aquaculture system where water passes through a series of fish tanks, into a filtration system, and then back to the tanks. That water continually moves round and round between the tanks and the filters. At Unit 84 we have 12 tanks in the system, each containing roughly 400 Tilapia fish. It takes around six months to grow them from the fingerlings that we buy in. All our adult fish go to the Thai restaurant chain Rosa's. We've worked with them for years and it's a great restaurant run by great people. Tilapia is a very mild-flavoured fish, similar to cod. It takes on flavours really well, so it's well suited to Asian cuisine. It's also a very good source of protein and makes a great replacement for chicken.
The other system we use is essentially a normal hydroponics system, with three fundamental differences. Firstly, there is no natural light– we use LED lighting instead. Secondly, instead of it being on a horizontal plane, we have lots of hydroponic benches stacked on top of each other, which we call vertical farming. This allows us to maximise the growing potential of urban spaces. Thirdly, instead of feeding freshwater into the system (that we would need to add all the necessary nutrients to), we bring in water from the fish farm, which already contains 80 per cent of the nutrients the plants need, which come from the fish waste. That's the only water that goes into the hydroponics system, and we just top it up with the other 20 per cent of nutrients that are necessary, particularly things that aren't in the fish's diet, like iron.
We've grown all sorts of microgreens – coriander, micro basil, fennel and rocket – tiny, beautiful leaves that are used to decorate plates and add a lot of flavour. We've also had a range of salad crops like pea shoots, sunflower shoots, watercress and baby kale, but our main focus is the more traditional baby leaf salad crops that you see in the supermarket, such as full-sized rocket and watercress, spinach, lettuces and pak choi. The UK currently imports a lot of these crops. They are widely consumed, widely imported and very perishable.
At the moment leafy salad is predominantly grown in Spain, Italy and Africa, so it travels a long way to reach us, which is not very environmentally friendly. These open-field crops are also at the mercy of the weather and climate change. As we saw in early 2017, the supply chains for salads got completely cut off when there was an unexpected frost in Italy and a snowfall in Spain, which meant that salad crops were decimated. The supermarkets were importing lettuce from the USA, at a loss, just to keep it on the shelves. In a world with an increasingly unstable climate, we need to look at producing more of our food in controlled-environment growing systems to safeguard against these kinds of devastating events.
The farm at Unit 84 is a commercial test bed we created to research, develop and prove our ideas and methods. We've worked with leading horticultural engineers and fish scientists in the UK to figure out the best way to make the system work at scale and we are now looking at sites for the next farm, which we plan to start building before the end of 2018. It will be much bigger and designed to be a profitable farm, feeding into the larger supply chains. Our focus is really on those baby leaf salads that everyone is already eating. We've learned to grow these properly, in an environment that's perfect for them – the right lighting, the right temperature, the right humidity – so once the next farm is built we're ready to go.
Agriculture happens on such a humongous scale that if we're going to have an impact we need to do something that fits into supply chains that already exist. For this reason we are looking to develop and operate farms near big food hubs, such as supermarket distribution centres and wholesalers, so we can get the produce to them as quickly as possible after it's been harvested, minimising the time, cost and environmental impact of transporting these perishable goods.
Our vision is not to create premium bagged-salads and niche products. We want to be the basic salad and fish fingers on the supermarket shelf. Protein and salad that people consume on a daily basis. It might sound like a strange thing to say, but that is when we will really be making an impact, so that's the gold standard for us and where we want to be – producing at scale, supplying to existing supply chains.
It will still be a drop in the ocean, but it will be a drop in the ocean closer to where we want to be.
Images © Miles Willis; growup.org.uk
Can Food Still Be Organic If It's Grown Without Soil?
Can Food Still Be Organic If It's Grown Without Soil?
'Dirt first' traditionalists are fighting with supporters of soil-less agriculture over the ‘organics’ label. Climate and sustainability are central to the debate.
NOV 1, 2017
Both sides of the debate argue that their methods of organic farming have an increasingly important role to play in protecting the climate and building sustainability. Credit: Valcenteau/CC-BY-SA-2.0
A crucial battle in a long-brewing conflict over organic farming could come Wednesday as an influential government panel meets to discuss whether soil is an essential element of organic farming.
On one side: "Dirt first" traditionalists who say that fruits and vegetables must, by definition, be grown in soil to qualify as organic.
On the other: Agri-technophiles who say "controlled environment" methods like hydroponics and aeroponics are just as deserving, dirt or no dirt.
The debate over who deserves the U.S. Department of Agriculture's lucrative organic label comes amid broader challenges over the best way to feed a growing population on a warming, resource-challenged planet where most of the arable land is already used for agriculture.
Both sides are making forceful arguments that organic farming, with its focus on using natural substances and eschewing synthetics, has an increasingly important role to play in protecting the climate. Though vegetables grown in soil may look and taste like those grown in controlled environments—with their roots bathed in liquid solutions or stacked in towers—they may have very different carbon footprints.
"You're farming in a smaller space and with less resources and reduced shipping and refrigeration," said Marianne Cufone, executive director of the Recirculating Farms Coalition, which represents hydroponic and aquaponic farmers. "It seems to me it's one of the best ways to improve our situation when it comes to climate change and agriculture. To consolidate and grow up is smart."
But for traditional organic farmers, shifting resources and research dollars to soil-less forms of agriculture ignores the carbon-storing potential of soil-based agriculture and the energy footprint of growing crops indoors.
"By changing the way we farm the soil, we can improve the sequestration potential of the soil," said Jeff Moyer, executive director of the Rodale Institute, which has long advocated organic farming methods. "We know, globally, as we look at climate change solutions, the soil plays a huge role. Going indoors is not the solution."
Since the launch of the National Organic Program in 2000, the Agriculture Department has allowed hydroponics and other forms of soil-less or container-based agriculture under the organic label. But in recent years, organic farmers have pushed the National Organic Standards Board—the body that decides what practices are permitted under the organic label—to make an official decision on whether these agri-tech approaches count as organic.
The board's crops subcommittee is scheduled to meet Wednesday afternoon to discuss it, and the full board could vote soon after.
Investment Pours in for Novel Techniques
The debate, which has festered for years, has become increasingly bitter over the last 12 months as more investment and interest has centered on these novel farming techniques, including a $200 million investment in the San Francisco-based start-up Plenty by tech-investment firm SoftBank Vision Fund. Plenty plans to build indoor vertical farms, where produce is grown in stacks under artificial light, outside 500 cities around the world, using technologies including remote sensing to gage growing conditions and artificial intelligence experts to translate data from the plants.
"We've seen a lot of new money coming into this," said Katelyn McCullock, an economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation, American agriculture's largest trade group. "There's a lot of interest in this area and not from the sources we're used to seeing it from."
According to AgFunder, a start-up funder that also tracks investments in agriculture, investors have committed $285 million so far this year—including the Plenty investment—dwarfing investment last year, which saw $70 million, and 2015, which saw $53 million.
Meanwhile, sales of organics are booming, reaching a record $47 billion in the U.S. last year, and demand for organics is outstripping supply.
"Organic is obviously super popular, but there's gaining traction in other clean methods of farming," said Louisa-Burwood Taylor, a spokesperson for AgFunder. "When these companies can price their produce cheaper than organic and offer pesticide-free and clean, then I think you've got an interesting dynamic and competition to organic."
Who's More Climate-Friendly?
Traditional, soil-based organic farmers say that the competition shouldn't be allowed in the first place, noting that soil-less agriculture isn't permitted under the organic label in other countries, including Mexico, one of the U.S.'s biggest agricultural trading partners.
At rallies across the county, pro-soil advocates have demonstrated, with farmers holding homemade signs reading "Don't Water Down Organics with Hydroponics" and "Real Farmers Do it in the Dirt."
"There will be no sign warning the customers that this fauxganic food was grown without soil," the Keep the Soil in Organics coalition said in an appeal to supporters on its website. "And so we are in a final battle for the soul of the organic label."
Critics of controlled agriculture systems point out that, in order to simulate the sun, indoor farms consume huge amounts of electricity, negating possible climate benefits.
Even supporters acknowledge the high electricity demand is a downside. "It is an issue," conceded Sally Rockey, executive director of the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, which recently gave a $2 million grant to New Jersey-based AeroFarms, the country's largest vertical farm operator. "When you use electricity the way you have to in controlled environments, you want to take a look at what that means as far as your carbon footprint."
But, Rockey said, there are some appealing trade-offs. "Oftentimes we don't use pesticides because plants aren't exposed to air," she said, "and generally we use a lot less water."
Controlled environment farms can also be constructed near cities, potentially cutting down on emissions connected to transportation.
The pro-soil growers say, however, that the climate benefits, to the extent that there are any currently, are being overplayed by tech interests with deep pockets.
"We can mitigate emissions. We know that," said Moyer, who is a former head of the standards board. "They're using the story of climate change, but that's not the reason for their existence."
The other side, meanwhile, accuses the pro-soil camp of slinging mud to protect their lucrative market.
"If you have a method of growing that reduces stress on resources—like water, like space, like energy—that can produce healthy, good-quality food, maybe in more abundance and with more efficiency, why wouldn't you support that?" Cufone said. "The only reason I can think of is money."
What Does the Research Say?
So far, studies suggest that indoor agriculture consumes more energy than traditional soil-based farms. Researchers at Cornell University have examined the carbon footprint of an indoor hydroponics farm, operated in New York state, and compared its energy use to an outdoor farm in California. Factoring in the energy used to transport the produce from California to the East Coast, they found that the hydroponics operation used twice the energy.
"At least from an energy or carbon footprint standpoint, growing these produce items in our northerly climate, where we use a lot of light and fossil fuel for heating, you use twice the energy inputs versus field-grown. But that was the status quo technology for 2008," said Neil Mattson of Cornell's School of Integrative Plant Science. "We feel there's the ability to improve that by producers adopting more energy-efficient lighting and using renewable energy systems."
Beyond Cornell's research, studies comparing the climate benefits of traditional farming systems and controlled environments remain pretty thin. But the climate impacts of various farming methods are a growing conversation within the organics industry, and more research is underway.
"We're starting to get concerned that an assumption's being made that if you're not growing in the outer crust of the earth, there's no way you can sequester carbon or mitigate climate change," said Nate Lewis, a farm policy director for the Organic Trade Association, the organic industry's largest trade group. "Those are assumptions. I haven't seen anyone compare the full life cycle of a tomato grown in one [system] versus the other. There are so many factors."
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Georgina Gustin
Georgina Gustin is a Washington-based reporter who has covered food policy, farming and the environment for more than a decade. She started her journalism career at The Day in New London, Conn., then moved to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where she launched the "food beat," covering agriculture, biotech giant Monsanto and the growing "good food" movement. At CQ Roll Call, she covered food, farm and drug policy and the intersections between federal regulatory agencies and Congress. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post and National Geographic's The Plate, among others.