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SANANBIO ARK, The Mobile Farm For All Climates That Supplies Communities With Fresh Local Food

3,300-4,400 lbs of cucumbers, 7,700 lbs of arugula, or 8,000 lbs of lettuce. These are the proven annual yields that we're confident to announce, said Zhan Zhuo, co-founder, and CEO of SANANBIO, We 'produce' turnkey farms and this one is mobile

November 21, 2020

PRN

XIAMEN: SANANBIO, a leading vertical farming solution provider announces the availability of its climate-controlled mobile farm for growers globally.

3,300-4,400 lbs of cucumbers, 7,700 lbs of arugula, or 8,000 lbs of lettuce. These are the proven annual yields that we're confident to announce, said Zhan Zhuo, co-founder, and CEO of SANANBIO, We 'produce' turnkey farms and this one is mobile. It adapts to any climate thanks to its thermal insulation system with a thermal conductivity below 0.024w/(m·K). One of the mobile farms operated as usual in the coldness of -40 degrees Fahrenheit in northern China, sustaining local communities with local produces at a reduced carbon footprint.

SANANBIO - ARK - TRASPORT.jpeg

It is shocking to find that our food travels 1,500 miles on average before reaching our plate. The CO2 generated, and the nutrients lost during transportation, can't be good for the planet or human beings. That's why local food is advocated. The ready-to-use farm is the solution we offer to regions where the environment is too harsh to support stable agricultural production, said Zhan.

To streamline the farming experience, the designer simplifies the start-up procedures to a single plug-in motion power it up through a connector on the exterior and then even hydroponic beginners are set to grow. Moreover, growers can monitor and control farm metrics simply by moving fingertips on their phone.

By simplifying modern agriculture, we offer more farming opportunities for kids and urban dwellers. We have a mobile farm deployed in a Malaysian suburb where kids from the neighborhood frequent the farm for the hands-on hydroponic experience. It's a perfect bonding time when families go there to pick their own salad ingredients. As a Photobiotech company, we're nurturing a new generation of growers, said Zhan.

For more info about the mobile farm, please visit www.sananbio.com/ark.

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S. Korea’s Indoor Farming Technology Helps Crop Production In The Middle East

This may look like a regular shipping container, but in fact, it’s an indoor vertical farm exported to the United Arab Emirates by a South Korean company. The 12-meter long container is filled with vertical racks of crops, including Romaine lettuce. Named ‘Planty Cube’, the farm replaces conventional farming methods with digital technology

2020-11-12

This may look like a regular shipping container, but in fact it’s an indoor vertical farm exported to the United Arab Emirates by a South Korean company. The 12-meter long container is filled with vertical racks of crops, including Romaine lettuce.

To View The Video, Please Click Here

Named ‘Planty Cube’, the farm replaces conventional farming methods with digital technology.
Natural sunlight is replaced with artificial lighting and water levels, air temperatures, and humidity can be adjusted with just a few clicks.

"It also operates under a hydroponic system, where nutrients are mixed into water so that crops can grow without soil."

Farms can also be monitored remotely from South Korea, even from a smartphone, and conditions can be adjusted to optimize plant growth.
This way of farming can produce quality food all year round, without being affected by the weather, natural disasters, or disease.


There has been high demand for South Korean indoor vertical farms in the Middle East.
Two indoor vertical farms were first set up in July 2019 as part of a pilot project.
Now a total of 10 are stationed in Abu Dhabi with more planned to be shipped next year.

"We are actually planning to export our farm in the next first quarter about 50 cultivation modules… Also, we're getting a lot of requests from other GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) areas, such as Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Kuwait. "

South Korea launched a set of programs last year to export its smart farm technologies.
It aims to become a key player in the industry, along with the U.S. and the Netherlands.
Min Suk-hyen, Arirang News.Reporter : shmin@arirang.com

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A Couple of Showrooms In Europe Need To Get The Ball Rolling For Verde Compacto - Shipping Container Farm

"People Are Immediately Enthusiastic When They See It"

"People Are Immediately Enthusiastic When They See It"

He, partly joking, calls himself ‘a born and raised’ city dweller from the heart of Amsterdam: Olivier Kappetein. As a representative of Mexican vertical farming company Verde Compacto in Europe, this is not ideal; will people be willing to listen to him given his background and his not yet widely undisputed product?

"Unfortunately not always, but that is why I’m looking for partners to start showrooms within Europe where we can display our cultivation systems. If people could actually see what we do, they would also see the potential in it. Of this, I’m sure. And yes, I know very well that vertical farming is not the solution to the global food problem, but I do believe there are many situations in which our systems would come in handy.”


The team of Verde Compacto that develops the container farm Huvster and the smaller Veggiebox cultivation variety 

Advancing a Mexican family-run company
Before going further into the systems (such as the cultivation containers), we need to go back to where it all began. How does a young man from Amsterdam end up at a Mexican company active in vertical farming? “I was introduced to a Mexican through my dad a few years ago. It turns out he worked at Verde Compacto where he developed fertilizers. Through those fertilizers, they came into contact with vertical farming and decided to continue in that field.

I went to Mexico myself and got to know the family-run business better. They are ambitious and want to expand their brand in Europe and were looking for someone who could help them with that. With my degree in Business Administration, I can take on that role, and after doing my research to understand the relatively young market better, I now want to take some real steps forward.”

Opportunities, among others for apocalyptic bunkers
In the beginning, Olivier planned to aim all of his efforts in the Netherlands at first, but due to, among other things, the coronavirus, getting to know the market better, and the reservations against vertical farming in the Netherlands, he had to look in other places as well. “I want to build a couple of showrooms where people can see our products both in the Netherlands and in other European countries. We make cultivation systems in various sizes, from container to fridge-sized systems, always according to the vertical farming principle with a high productivity per square meter of 253 kilograms. I see a potential for these systems in, for example, Scandinavia, Germany, and the United Kingdom, countries with large urban areas or difficult growing climates. The younger generations in those places have a demand for sustainable, local products.”

But Olivier also has his eyes set outside of Europe, like in the Middle East. He is also looking into bunkers. Actual bunkers. “It is currently trendy for rich people worldwide to build apocalypse bunkers out of fear for the end of the world. Those people want to be self-sufficient in those bunkers, which is where our systems come into play. A great niche market with requests from the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, to name a few.”

Realistic due to size
In any case, Olivier is a realist: replacing large, traditional cultivation companies with vertical farms in whatever way can not be justified anywhere. “To give you an indication of our system size: recently, we started working together with The Goat Project, an Italian vertical farming project. Up to an investment amount of 30 million euros, we will be delivering together, but after that, they take on everything up to an investment amount of 3 billion euros.”

That is why Olivier aims first and foremost on restaurants and supermarkets, where the consumer can choose how the product they will eat is grown. But, the systems can just as well be used for ornamental cultivation or cannabis cultivation, both medical and recreational. “For that latter type of cultivation, we developed a specialized system which could also be used to cultivate tomatoes, though on such a small scale that would not be very profitable.”

Strawberry yogurt
However, it would be profitable for an Icelandic producer of strawberry yogurt. Importing fresh strawberries to the island is more expensive than growing them yourself in a vertical farm. “The energy comes from the earth in Iceland due to the geysers, but there are many more situations in which, with a bit of thinking and using the local circumstances, a generally more expensive system works. The ROI of our systems is about one to three years, with a very high productivity per square meter (5700 plants in a 12-meter container named Huvster), the second-highest for container cultivation on the market.”

Rotating LED lighting increases energy efficiency
Critics often point out the high energy input of vertical farming. Olivier recognizes that, but refers to the clever use of local circumstances, and the technological innovations developed by Verde Compacto meant to increase efficiency. Rotating lights, for instance, a unique system compared to many other vertical farming systems. “Instead of cultivating in layers, we work with cultivating in standing tubes with LED strips rotating around them so that every plant gets the light it needs, but the energy input in kilowatt-hours is 50% lower per square meter and the production per square meter higher.”

Make them enthusiastic
Back to the restaurants, which is what Olivier focuses on in Europe first. He imagines one of the cultivation containers walls being see-through so that the consumers can take a peek at the cultivation facility. “Especially large groups of young consumers who want to, for instance, eat vegetarian or vegan, I expect will be very enthusiastic, and so will the investors. It is also easier to talk about something if it is physically there and allows fresh and healthy foods to be sourced closer to home.”

However, Olivier is aware of the disadvantage that European supermarkets are not yet able to sell products grown in vertical farms under an organic quality mark. According to him, that hampers the growth of vertical farming. “At the moment, they lose their organic quality mark as soon as they cultivate on water because the standards are pretty outdated when compared to the technological cultivation developments.”

Win-win situation
But it is not an insurmountable problem, especially given the worldwide increase in demand for local products during the pandemic. But is this true given the fact that Verde Compacto is Mexican, and in the Netherlands, many well-known players are active in offering cultivation solutions? “I don’t think that matters all too much these days. Price-wise we don’t differ much from European or North American systems. Every system has its pros and cons. I am very open about that. A well-thought-out calculation is always required, but both parties can create a win-win situation when it happens. Of this, I, and hopefully my future partners as well, am sure. I'm looking forward to discussing it with them.”

For more information:
Verde Compacto 
www.verdecompacto.com 

Olivier Kappetein
olivier.kappetein@verdecompacto.com 
+316 14 62 13 10

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SANANBIO ARK, The Mobile Farm For All Climates That Supplies Communities With Fresh Local Food

SANANBIO, a leading vertical farming solution provider announces the availability of its climate-controlled mobile farm for growers globally

November 4th, 2020—SANANBIO, a leading vertical farming solution provider announces the availability of its climate controlled mobile farm for growers globally.

“3,300-4,400 lbs of cucumbers, 7,700 lbs of arugula, and 8,000 lbs of lettuce. These are the proven annual yields that we’re confident to announce,” said Zhan Zhuo, co-founder and CEO of SANANBIO, “We ‘produce’ turnkey farms and this one is mobile.” It adapts to any climate thanks to its thermal insulation systems with a thermal conductivity below 0.024w/(m·K). One of the mobile farms operated as usual in a coldness of -40℉ in northern China, sustaining local communities with local produces at a reduced carbon footprint. It is shocking to find that our food travel 1,500 miles on average before reaching our plate.

unnamed.jpg

The CO2  generated, and the nutrients lost during the transportation, can’t be good for the planet or human beings. That’s why local food is advocated. “The ready-to-use farm is the solution we offer to regions where the environment is too harsh to support stable agricultural production,” said Zhan.

To streamline the farming experience, the designer simplifies the start-up procedures to a single plug-in motion: power it up through a connector on the exterior and then even hydroponic beginners are set to grow. Moreover, growers can monitor and control farm metrics simply by moving fingertips on their phone.

“By simplifying modern agriculture, we offer more farming opportunities for kids and urban dwellers. We have a mobile farm deployed in a Malaysian suburb where kids from the neighborhood frequent the farm for hands-on hydroponic experience. It’s a perfect bonding time when families go there to pick their own salad ingredients. As a Photobiotech company, we’re nurturing a new generation of growers,” said Zhan.

For more info about the mobile farm, please visit www.sananbio.com/ark.

 About SANANBIO

SANANBIO is a joint-venture by Sanan Optoelectronics, one of the world’s largest LED manufacturers, and the Institute of Botany of Chinese Academy of Sciences, a leading institute in plant science. Comprised of LED experts and plant scientists, SANANBIO is able to provide simple CEA solutions for growers globally. The RADIX, a Reddot award winner, has been widely endorsed by growers in more than twenty countries.

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Thrive Containers Launched Operations With Its New Intelligent Container Technology - Shipping Container Farm

Our vision is to not only bring accessibility to farming but to offer a great return on investment for the AgTech industry.”

Thrive Containers launched operations today with its new intelligent container technology, aiming to disrupt the commercial farming industry. COVID-19 and climate change have accelerated existing strains in global food accessibility and supply chains, highlighting the need to rethink the world’s agriculture systems.

Our founder and CEO Shannon O'Malley has been at the forefront of this change through six years of container farm innovation here at Brick Street! O’Malley observed “Thrive Containers is redefining shipping container farming technology.

Our vision is to not only bring accessibility to farming but to offer a great return on investment for the AgTech industry.” Thrive Container's farm system uniquely excels in software automation, customer experience ease of use, and adaptability engineered by industry-leading experts. The result is maximized, year-round crop growth, reducing up to 90% of freshwater resources used in traditional agriculture practices. Shannon Quotes

Thrive Launch

“Thrive Containers is redefining shipping container farming technology. Our vision is to not only bring more accessibility to farming but to offer a great return on investment for the AgTech industry.”

“We want to bring this cutting-edge technology to the masses, to build a farm whose technology is firmly centered on the grower experience.”

Ohio Container

“The Ohio Container is the first breakthrough container model that focusses on leafy greens and herbs providing industry leading yields to the shipping container farms market.”

“Rivers are the inspiration for our model naming convention. Since Thrive container technology supports cleaner, healthier waterways, we want to celebrate, acknowledge, and highlight our commitment to our planet.”

Industry Evolution

“The Agtech industry is currently situated where the .com legacy once was. We are in an industry that is in a race to define who the main players are.”

Investment opportunity

“In the Agtech industry, shipping container farming is wide open, with key competitors that are raising and looking for market share. Each competitor has its own unique business model and approach, focused on different paths to success. Our focus is decentralizing the commercial food system at the point of consumption while utilizing large scale grocers in minimal spaces.”

Supply chain

“By growing the highest producing yield containers, we are bringing production to the point of consumption to provide access to the masses.  We are mobile and focused on the urban core. Vs competitors buying large acreage and trucking produce out.”

THE LINE-UP

Thrive Containers provide a multitude of container farm systems for all types of growing solutions. Our in house manufacturing continues to explore the endless possibilities of technology + agriculture.

The most efficient leafy green hydroponic container on the planet. Built for ROI, Ohio’s production efficiencies and low reliability on resources yield higher, while maximizing profit and planet.

LEARN MORE

COMING SOON: The most efficient micro green hydroponic container on the planet. Built for ROI, Yukon’s production efficiencies and low reliability on resources yield higher, while maximizing profit and planet.

JOIN THE WAITLIST

COMING SOON: The most efficient cannabis/hemp hydroponic container on the planet. Built for ROI, Colorado’s production efficiencies and low reliability on resources yield higher, while maximizing profit and planet.

JOIN THE WAITLIST

Thrive Container Website!

Follow us on Instagram @thrivecontainers
Click the link below to check out the Thrive website!
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Andaz Dubai The Palm Launches Hydroponic Container Farm

Andaz Dubai The Palm has partnered with Green Container Advanced Farming to grow its own fresh produce on site

It will grow produce including lettuce, herbs, and microgreens

by CatererME Staff

November 04, 2020

Andaz Dubai The Palm has partnered with Green Container Advanced Farming to grow its own fresh produce on site.

The boutique lifestyle hotel will host a 400 sq ft hydroponic organic container farm on its Palm Jumeirah terrace, allowing them to harvest fresh produce such as lettuce, herbs, and microgreens.

Kifah Bin Hussein, general manager of Andaz Dubai The Palm, said: “At Andaz we strive to be more sustainable in everything that we do, using resources responsibly to help address today’s most pressing environmental issues.

With this partnership our goal is to bring the freshest and finest ingredients from their natural environment straight to our guests’ tables. We have a dedicated grower who visits the farm daily.

They work within sterile conditions and get to know every single crop within the unit. Once the crop is ready to consume it is delivered straight to our kitchens where our dedicated chefs prepare it ready to be served to our guests. It really take the farm to table concept to the next level.”

The hydroponic container system uses 90% less water than traditional farming methods, while the short distance from farm to fork ensures a large reduction in carbon footprint caused by typical distribution methods.

Guests visiting Andaz’s dining venues, including The Locale and Hanami, will be able to enjoy dishes made with ingredients sourced daily from the farm.

Tags: ANDAZ FARMING SUSTAINABILITY

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CANADA: The Arrival of A Hydroponic Growing Container In Inukjuak

The Pirursiivik Project combines social art and on-the-land activities to improve the health of Inukjuammiut through a local greenhouse and the promotion of healthy practices around water and nutrition

NEWS PROVIDED BY

One Drop Foundation

October 30, 2020

The Pirursiivik Project combines social art and on-the-land activities to improve the health of Inukjuammiut through a local greenhouse and the promotion of healthy practices around water and nutrition.

INUKJUAK, QC, Oct. 30, 2020 /CNW Telbec/ - The arrival of a hydroponic growing container in Inukjuak is a significant milestone in the Pirursiivik Project, and one of the first phases of a larger collaboration with the Pituvik Landholding Corporation (LHC) and Sirivik Food Centre to use a year-round greenhouse and container farm to grow, cook and share food and knowledge among the community. Over the past three years, the One Drop Foundation and Makivik Corporation have partnered with the RBC Foundation to implement the Pirursiivik Project in Inukjuak, Nunavik.

The Pirursiivik Project, meaning "a place to grow" in Inuktitut, is a 4-year initiative which aims to improve the community's health through the implementation of a greenhouse and a social art program to promote healthy habits around water and nutrition. This project represents a $2.7-million community investment between the RBC Foundation and the One Drop Foundation.

The arrival of the hydroponic container farm on October 11, 2020, is a significant milestone in this ambitious project yet is only the tip of the iceberg. The true success of this initiative lies under the waterline: the community mobilization and leadership at each step of the project. From day one, the community of Inukjuak stepped up to take concrete action towards improving access to fresh produce for Inukjuammiut. A Community Advisory Committee with representatives from over 15 local organizations was established, and this group of volunteers has continued to meet monthly to provide key input on project activities and planning.

The hydroponic container which uses water to grow instead of soil was purchased from The Growcer, a Canadian company established in Ottawa, and will be locally owned and operated. It will soon be installed and begin producing leafy greens this winter with the target to share the first harvest with the community. The fresh produce will be available to community members who, through social art activities, have learned fun new ways to use little-known vegetables such as kale and bok choy.

This growing initiative in Inukjuak was first piloted on a smaller scale, when the Pirursiivik Project supported the construction of and growing in seven community cold frames (outdoor garden boxes made of wood and polycarbonate). These were built using materials donated by the Kativik Ilisarniliriniq and constructed by the Environment Club at the Innalik School, and the Unaaq Men's Association.

With this new hydroponic container farm adapted for the Arctic, the community is now ready to take this next step towards increasing food security and access to fresh local produce grown by and for Inukjuammiut. This is the first phase in a larger collaboration with Pituvik Landholding Corporation and Sirivik Food Centre, a year-round greenhouse and Food Centre in which to grow, cook, and share food and knowledge among the community. The project team is currently identifying fundraising opportunities to secure the $6 million needed to advance this next phase. This innovative multifunctional infrastructure would be the first of its kind in the North and would set a precedent for future greenhouse initiatives in Nunavik and across the Arctic.

About the Pirursiivik Project
Over the past 3 years, almost 1,000 community members have participated in various social art and on-the-land activities, from drumming and cooking classes to a nature trip to identify and document knowledge related to local plant species. A circus show was created by Tupiq ACT, the first Inuit circus troupe from Nunavik, with the support of the project and technical assistance from One Drop (including advice and accompaniment throughout the process). These activities, inspired by Inuit culture and art, were not only fun and entertaining, but also created spaces for shared learning and exchange on traditional foods, nutrition, and the importance of clean water. Collective learning and sharing that will continue both in-person and online through the digital knowledge hub currently in development with the support of a grant from RBC Tech for Nature. Learn more about the project at www.onedrop.org/en/projects/canada

About One Drop
One DropTM is an international foundation created by Cirque du Soleil and Lune Rouge founder Guy Laliberté with the vision of a better world, where all have access to living conditions that allow empowerment and development. Together with its partners, One Drop deploys its unique artistic approach to promote the adoption of healthy water, sanitation, and hygiene-related behaviours and empower communities. For this to be possible, One Drop creates and produces novel fundraising initiatives supported by a visionary community of partners and donors. This year, One Drop is celebrating 13 years of turning water into action, with projects that will soon have improved the living conditions of over 2.1 million people around the world. In 2019, the Foundation was recognized for the second year in a row by Charity Intelligence, this time as one of the Top 10 International Impact Charities in Canada. To learn more about One Drop, visit www.onedrop.org Interact with One Drop on Facebook and Twitter @onedrop, or on Instagram @1dropwater

About Makivik Corporation
Makivik Corporation is the land claims organization mandated to manage the heritage funds of the Inuit of Nunavik provided for under the James Bay and Northern Québec Agreement. Makivik's role includes the administration and investment of these funds and the promotion of economic growth by providing assistance for the creation of Inuit-operated businesses in Nunavik. Makivik promotes the preservation of Inuit culture and language as well as the health, welfare, relief of poverty, and education of Inuit in the communities.

About Pituvik Landholding Corporation
Incorporated January 30, 1979, Pituvik holds title to 521 sq. km. on lands classified as Category I. These lands are held by Pituvik on behalf of the Inukjuaqmiut beneficiaries of the James Bay and Northern Québec Agreement. In this holding capacity, Pituvik has the right to allow people and organizations to use these lands and for that use is allowed to charge compensation. Pituvik also maintains a beneficiary list on behalf of all Inukjuakmiut. Pituvik is a not-for-profit corporation, however it can create and own for-profit subsidiaries to stimulate local economic growth and job creation.

About RBC Tech for Nature
RBC Tech for Nature is a global, multi-year commitment from the RBC Foundation to support new ideas, technologies, and partnerships to address our most complex environmental challenges. It is a core pillar of RBC's Climate Blueprint – its enterprise approach to accelerating clean economic growth and supporting clients in the transition to a low-carbon, sustainable economy. RBC Tech for Nature brings together charitable partners, technology experts, the public and private sector – as well as RBC's own unique capabilities – to build the multi-partner coalitions needed to work towards solving our shared environmental challenges. Learn more at: rbc.com/techfornature

About The Growcer
Growcer manufactures modular hydroponic systems that enable commercial food production in plug-and-play 40- foot modules. Its vertical farming technology enables customers to grow fresh vegetables in virtually any climate and has been deployed within the Arctic Circle at temperatures below -50°C. Growcer empowers conventional farmers, entrepreneurs, communities and institutions to grow food locally all year round. Growcer's work has been recognized with awards from Fast Company's World Changing Ideas, the Entrepreneurs' Organization, and was also featured on season 13 of CBC's hit show, Dragons' Den.

SOURCE One Drop Foundation

For further information: Media Resource Contact: One Drop Foundation, Marie-France Dos Santos, Marie-France.DosSantos@onedrop.org; Makivik Corporation, Carson Tagoona, CTagoona@makivik.org

Related Links

http://www.onedrop.org/

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GP Solutions, Inc. Enters Into Distribution Agreement With Advanced Container Technologies, Inc. 

A key component of the agreement is ACT's exclusivity to market GP Solutions "Grow Pods." GP Solutions "Grow Pods" has become a popular and trusted technology in the agriculture industry. Subsequently, ACT completed a share exchange on October 9th, 2020, with Medtainer, Inc., (MDTRD). Medtainer, Inc. is a California based company that specializes in manufacturing, branding, sales and marketing consultation

NEWS PROVIDED BY

GP Solutions 

Oct 27, 2020

CORONA, Calif., Oct. 27, 2020,/PRNewswire/ -- On August 6th, 2020, GP Solutions, Inc. (GWPD) finalized a distribution agreement with California-based Advanced Container Technologies, Inc., (ACT). The agreement states ACT has the exclusive right to market, sell, and distribute GP's products in the United States and its territories.  This agreement has an initial term that expires on December 31, 2025, and is renewable indefinitely as long as ACT meets prescribed sales targets. GP manufactures fully insulated, food-grade shipping containers that are specifically modified to provide an optimally controlled environment for growing a wide range of horticultural and agricultural products in all environments and climates.

A key component of the agreement is ACT's exclusivity to market GP Solutions "Grow Pods." GP Solutions "Grow Pods" have become a popular and trusted technology in the agriculture industry. Subsequently, ACT completed a share exchange on October 9th, 2020, with Medtainer, Inc., (MDTRD). Medtainer, Inc. is a California based company that specializes in manufacturing, branding, sales, and marketing consultation.

GP Solutions, Inc. President, George Natzic, stated, "We are very excited about the prospects of this agreement allowing ACT to use its expertise to market and sell GP Solutions' Grow Pods." Also stating, "This also allows GP Solutions to focus on manufacturing new products and executing our business model into new industries and territories."

GrowPods are controlled environment micro-farms with a sealed eco-system, utilizing filtered air and water while maintaining a pest-free environment to eliminate pathogens. Grow Pods offers farmers a high-margin niche to expand into and gives consumers access to safe, tested, and nutritious "Super Foods."

For more information, call: (855) 247-8054 or visit: www.growpodsolutions.com.
Connect:

Website: www.growpodsolutions.com 
Facebook: facebook.com/GrowPodTechnology 
Twitter: @GrowPodSolution

Forward-Looking Statements
This release includes predictions or information that might be considered "forward-looking" within securities laws. These statements represent Company's current judgments, but are subject to uncertainties that could cause results to differ. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on these statements, which reflect management's opinions only as of the date of this release. The Company is not obligated to revise any statements in light of new information or events.

SOURCE GP Solutions

Related Links

https://www.growpodsolutions.com

Also from this source

Vertical Farm Market Projected to Reach $7.3 Billion...

Test Results Show Lettuce Grown in GrowPods to be Pathogen Free...

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Israeli Start-Up Makes Vertical Farms To Grow Crops In City Parking Lots

The farms come with a number of other advantages over traditional farming. It's container-like nature provides a controlled growing environment, ensuring more sterility and keeping it safe from bugs and therefore not needing pesticides. It also allows for automated crop management, which limits human contact and allows for consistent quality

Vertical farms subvert the space limitations of cities by allowing for portable, shipping container-esque produce farms that can operate in any urban environment.

445964.png

By AARON REICH

OCTOBER 28, 2020

Vertical Field’s Urban Crops offers an ideal alternative to traditional agriculture.

(photo credit: VERTICAL FIELD)

An Israeli agri-tech start-up has created vertical farms in urban environments, allowing for fresh produce to be grown in cities.

These vertical, sustainable farms were developed by Ra'anana-based Vertical Field through the use of geoponic technology, agricultural expertise and smart design. This is especially useful in "urban food deserts," which are often lacking in available space for crop cultivation.

The vertical farms subvert this limitation by creating vertical growing platforms to essentially farm produce on walls. These greenhouse crop-fields are portable, and are around the size of shipping containers ranging from 20 feet to 40 feet, which can fit right in a parking lot, allowing supermarkets and groceries to grow and sell their own home-grown produce right outside the door.

The farms come with a number of other advantages over traditional farming. It's container-like nature provides a controlled growing environment, ensuring more sterility and keeping it safe from bugs and therefore not needing pesticides. It also allows for automated crop management, which limits human contact and allows for consistent quality.

Furthermore, it also produces less waste, as well as a 90% decrease in the amount of water needed.But perhaps most importantly, it isn't limited by traditional seasons for produce, with all crops being "in season" year-round, having shorter overall growing cycles and longer shelf lives.

And, by growing produce locally, it also reduces wasted emissions in the supply chain.The development builds off of Vertical Fields's successes in 2019, where it was recognized among the top start-ups to watch by Silicon Review and World Smart City.

“Vertical Field offers a revolutionary way to eat the freshest greens and herbs, by producing soil-based indoor vertical farms grown at the very location where food is consumed,” said Vertical Field’s CEO Guy Elitzur, who is hoping to place his vertical farms in retail chains and restaurant establishments in cities throughout the US.

“Not only do our products facilitate and promote sustainable life and make a positive impact on the environment, we offer an easy to use real alternative to traditional agriculture. Our urban farms give new meaning to the term ‘farm-to-table,’ because one can virtually pick their own greens and herbs at supermarkets, restaurants or other retail sites.”

The development of these vertical farms comes at the perfect time, with the coronavirus pandemic cutting off the produce supply chain on both local and global levels. And with the population still growing, and projected by some to reach 10 billion in around 30 years, the need to maintain a sustainable source of fresh produce has become a mounting concern.

This also ties in with a growing demand for fresh and organic foods on the global market. As seen at Tuesday's 2020 Israeli Culinary Expo, more and more consumers are seeking plant-based food products, which translates to a growing demand for fresh produce.

But with Vertical Field's innovative new crop cultivation method, everyone from restaurants, supermarkets, hotels, architects and urban developers can have their own ready supply of local produce.Hagay Hacohen contributed to this report.

Tags food hi-tech Farming Coronavirus COVID-19

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Why This First Nation Bought A Shipping Container During COVID-19

To get fresh produce, Sheshegwaning First Nation turned to a technology initially developed for growing food in space. But is it a real solution for food insecurity?

Sheshegwaning First Nation purchased a container farm in June. (Courtesy of April Folz)

By Charnel Anderson  October 23, 2020

To Get Fresh Produce, Sheshegwaning First Nation Turned

To A Technology Initially Developed For Growing Food In Space.

But Is It A Real Solution For Food Insecurity?

The first frosts have already arrived in Ontario, but in Sheshegwaning First Nation, a small community on the western edge of Manitoulin Island, April Folz is still awaiting the first harvest of the year. In about a week, Folz says, the community will have fresh produce: “Monte Carlo romaine lettuce, wildfire lettuce. We have a couple of variations of kale and spinach. I’m missing something,” says Folz, the economic development director at Sheshegwaning First Nation. “Oh, bok choy! I’m excited for that.”

Sheshegwaning First Nation, a two-hour drive from the mainland, is home to about 130 residents. There’s a convenience store in the community with a few grocery items, but the nearest grocery store is 40 minutes away. When COVID-19 hit, the community put up a checkpoint, and, Folz says, there was talk of closing the swing bridge to outsiders. That would have made it “tough to get food in,” says Folz. So, in response, community leaders came up with a locally grown solution.

In June, the community purchased a container farm from the Ottawa-based company

Growcer for about $300,000 (CAD). Folz describes the setup as a repurposed shipping container divided into six growing sections, with a separate room housing climate controls and a monitoring system. The growing sections are outfitted with shelving, LED lighting, and a hydroponic growing system in which plants grow with their roots in water rather than soil.

Sheshegwaning First Nation is growing produce, such as kale in spinach, in a repurposed shipping container. (Courtesy of April Folz)

The first harvest has been delayed due to issues with the system’s artificial lighting, which takes the place of sunlight, and a carbon-dioxide tank, says Folz. But, once the system is fully operational, she plans to start a weekly subscription box that members can sign up for to get fresh produce delivered right to their door.

Because they make it possible to grow food in harsh climates, container farms are often touted as a solution for food insecurity in remote communities. However, research suggests that the technology does little to address the true causes of food insecurity or the inability to access nutritious and affordable food, which is rooted in the ongoing effects of colonialism and climate change, among other things. “All of these stories make it sound like [container farms] are the solution to food insecurity, and they absolutely aren’t,” says Thomas Graham, PhytoGro research chair in controlled-environment systems at Guelph University.

Container farms (or, as Graham calls them, “growth chambers”) were initially developed as a research tool for growing food in space, he explains; only within the last few decades have they been marketed as a commercial solution: “You can’t have a greenhouse in space, but you can certainly have a growth chamber. And the next, most severe climate to space, as [my colleague] Mike [Dixon] would say, is a snowbank in Nunavut somewhere.”

More than half of on-reserve First Nations households across Canada experience food insecurity; 8.8 per cent of people elsewhere in the country experience moderate to severe food security. A number of complex issues cause the disparity: high levels of poverty amongst Indigenous populations, the inflated cost of food in remote communities, and decreased access to traditional foods, which are culturally and regionally specific but usually include such things as wild game.

The repurposed shipping container is divided into six growing sections. (Courtesy of April Folz)

The repurposed shipping container is divided into six growing sections. (Courtesy of April Folz)

“Food insecurity has been caused by colonialism in this country,” says Julie Price, a member of the Northern Manitoba Food, Culture, and Community Collaborative, which this year is working with more than 40 communities in northern Manitoba on food-related projects intended to improve access to healthy food. “Many of the communities that we work with have very clear, direct stories that illustrate it,” she says, citing the example of O-pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation.

In 1942, O-pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation, located 130 kilometres north of Thompson, Manitoba, built a commercial whitefish fishery on South Indian Lake. It produced approximately 1 million pounds of Grade A whitefish per year, making it the second most productive whitefish fishery in North America. Then, in the 1970s, the Manitoba government gave Manitoba Hydro permission to divert the Churchill River: that raised South Indian Lake by three metres and forced the relocation of O-pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation from its ancestral lands.

The flooding demolished the fishery, disrupted seasonal fish-spawning cycles, and forced wild game to migrate inland. It destroyed a community “that was so self-sufficient and happy, and healthy, and economically healthy,” says Price, adding that it now faces “serious challenges on all these fronts that were virtually absent prior to the hydroelectric development.”

Historically, Cree people were migratory and spent a lot of time searching, harvesting, preparing, and storing food, says Alex Wilson, a member of Opaskwayak Cree Nation, a community with roughly 3,200 on-reserve members near the Town of the Pas, in northern Manitoba. “That changed very quickly during colonization and settlement,” says Wilson, adding that the fur trade, the Indian Act, and the residential-school system rapidly changed “our relationship with food.”

Food-related projects at Opaskwayak Cree Nation include community gardens. (Courtesy of Opakwayak Culture and Healthy Living Initiatives)

Since 2014, Opaskwayak Cree Nation has been working with NMFCCC to develop a number of food-related projects, including beekeeping, community gardens, and a hydroponic container farm. Container farms may have their place in addressing food insecurity in First Nations communities, she says, but they would align better with Indigenous values if they produced culturally relevant foods, thereby enhancing the transmission of knowledge many Indigenous communities are trying to reclaim. “Not many people eat kale. Is there a way to grow things in there that would have more contextual meaning to people in the north?” Community-led approaches, she says, give northern communities agency over their food systems: NMFCCC is “not just mitigating, but trying to reverse” the damage caused by colonialism.

Price feels the same. “We have seen these units have lots of benefits in communities that have done the research and then chose to try them out, but they’re not going to solve food insecurity alone,” says Price. “Selling northern people on eating more leafy greens is still trying to colonize diets further.”

Over the years spent working with NMFCCC, Price has learned — or as she puts it, has been taught — a few things about working with northern communities. It’s crucial, she says, to develop non-transactional, human relationships and to listen to the community’s vision and priorities: “I’ve never seen yet, where somebody from outside [the region] has solved a problem in the north. It usually makes it worse.”

Ontario Hubs are made possible by the Barry and Laurie Green Family Charitable Trust & Goldie Feldman. 

Related tags: 

Indigenous Food

Author

Charnel Anderson

Charnel Anderson is TVO.org's northwestern Ontario Hubs reporter.

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VIDEO: Urban Fresh Farms Launches New ZipGrow Facility In Dubai

A 1,000 square foot ZipGrowTM ZipFarmTM was recently installed in Urban Fresh Farm’s facility in the Industrial center of Dubai and will soon be producing pesticide-free fresh herbs and leafy greens for the local market

October 8, 2020

ONTARIO, CANADA & DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - With more than ​80% of food being imported into the UAE​, Urban Fresh Farms, Dubai’s newest indoor vertical hydroponic farm from ZipGrowTM, is doing its part to contribute to a more sustainable local food system.

Watch as the ZipGrow team install a new ZipFarm™ for Urban Fresh Farms in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Learn more about the ZipGrow™ ZipFarm™ here: https://z...

A 1,000 square foot ZipGrowTM ZipFarmTM was recently installed in Urban Fresh Farm’s facility in the Industrial center of Dubai and will soon be producing pesticide-free fresh herbs and leafy greens for the local market. Urban Fresh Farms is a new company, founded by people who always had an interest in sustainable agriculture but thought they did not have the knowledge or financial backing to get into the industry.

“We, as a group, always found vertical farming really interesting and knew there would be a strong demand for it in the Dubai area”, said Scott Naude, co-founder of Urban Fresh Farms. “We were hesitant to jump in at first, but the combination of ZipGrow’s technology and ongoing training, the increasing demand for higher quality and fresh produce, and the Middle East’s booming tech sector all aligned perfectly for us to begin this venture.”

As with the rest of the world, COVID-19’s impact on the local supply chain has also impacted the Dubai area, with food selections being limited in local grocery stores during the peak of lockdowns.

“Around the world, we are hearing from all our growers that food retailers are actively looking for local food goods to supply”, explains Eric Lang, President of ZipGrow Inc. “We are also hearing from government’s around the world, ​including in the UAE​, who want to actively seek out ways to reduce supply chain lengths to ensure a more consistent and high-quality food stream.”

Hydroponic growing, as an industry, is still recently new to the Middle East region. The UAE government is a leader in the Middle East region, and in 2018 launched a ​National Food Security Strategy 2051​, led by the Minister of State for Food and Water Security, Her Excellency Mariam bint Mohammed Al Mheiri. This strategy aims to increase local food production in the UAE, while simultaneously maximizing the use of modern technologies to bring fresh and sustainable food to the region.

“There's also a demand for healthy eating options and this has given rise to a number of excellent meal plan services and all-in-one meal ingredient boxes which in turn is creating a need for the best, freshest vegetables to be readily available” adds Naude. “We’re planning on starting out growing primarily herbs such as basil, parsley, and coriander, and hope to have our first crop available in December.”

Urban Fresh Farm and ZipGrow Inc. plan to use this new facility to showcase this vertical farming technology to the UAE and the wider Middle East region. Naude adds; “We’re excited about our ongoing partnership with ZipGrow Inc. There is so much educational content available, as well as a fantastic team. So even for someone like myself who is new to all of this, ZipGrow provides all the tools needed to get growing.”

ZipGrow Inc. is an international leader in indoor, vertical farming technology. Our flagship product, the ZipGrowTM Tower, is a core component of many of the world’s most innovative farms; from indoor hydroponic warehouses to vertical aquaponic greenhouses and high-density container farms.

For more information contact:

Gina Scandrett at ​hello@zipgrow.com​ or at 1-855-ZIPGROW.

425F Fourth Street West, Cornwall, Ontario K6J 2S7, Canada www.zipgrow.com 1-855-ZIPGROW

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Fresh Hydroponic Produce In A Swedish Ski Resort

ICA Åre, located in one of the leading Scandinavian ski resorts, is the second ICA supermarket store in Sweden to install a hydroponic vertical container farm from Boston-based Freight Farms – providing its customers with just-picked leafy greens grown onsite, year-round

ICA Åre, located in one of the leading Scandinavian ski resorts, is the second ICA supermarket store in Sweden to install a hydroponic vertical container farm from Boston-based Freight Farms – providing its customers with just-picked leafy greens grown onsite, year-round. 

Housed inside a 13-meter long shipping container, the onsite Freight Farm will reduce ICA Åre’s reliance on transported produce shipped long-distance into the mountain region, while providing pesticide and herbicide-free greens to customers at the peak of freshness year-round.

The initiative, Åre Byodling, was led by ICA Åre store owner Lars Ocklind and real estate company Diös Fastigheter, who recognized the benefits Freight Farms’ environmentally-controlled technology can have in the Nordic climate, particularly within the resort community hub that’s home to ICA Åre, the main train station, and other surrounding stores and restaurants. Ocklind believes that the store’s ability to grow its own crops is an investment in its future and that of its community.

Freight Farms, founded in 2010, pioneered hydronic vertical container farming and has a large network of IoT-connected farms in the world. The container farms, integrated with IoT data platform, farmhand, creates and maintains the optimal growing conditions to harvest crops year-round using less than 5 gallons of water per day. The technology has empowered ICA Åre and ICA Maxi Högskolan to create closed-loop food systems onsite, eliminating transportation emissions. Harvesting crops onsite also keeps crops fresh and nutrient-dense for longer, significantly reducing food waste for both sellers and consumers. 

ICA Åre’s first farm harvest is scheduled for mid-October. The supermarket will begin by selling a selection of lettuce, kale and herbs in-store, and crops will also be used in their own restaurant and sold to other restaurants in the village. The range of crop offerings will continue to develop and expand – there is already great interest in collaboration from local restaurateurs for special lines of locally-grown crops.

For more information:
Freight Farms
www.freightfarms.com

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Publication date: Fri 2 Oct 2020

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Urban Crop Solutions Appoints Commercial Representative For Asian Market

Urban Crop Solutions and BAF signed a representation agreement for the East and South-East Asian markets

Urban Crop Solutions and BAF signed a representation agreement for the East and South-East Asian markets. The collaboration fits with Urban Crop Solutions' vision for global expansion and allows for local customer service in one of the fastest-growing countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

BAF is an Aggrotech company based in Singapore which has extensive experience and network in the Agri and aqua industry in Asia and beyond. The company has also built a strong network and business track record in the region and will provide as a perfect match to operate as an agent for Urban Crop Solutions in what is called the strategic gateway for Europe to the Southern parts of Asia.

NOSH visiting an Urban Crop Solutions ‘FarmPro’ container

Kenneth Tay, Chief Executive Officer at BAF, explains: “Based on my many years of experience in the aggrotech industry, I can see a great synergy between my business and the state-of-the-art solutions that Urban Crop Solutions provides. I believe that this technology will also play a critical role towards food security goals in the region.”

For a start, BAF has already procured its first customer, NOSH Produce, a high tech start-up in the indoor vertical farming industry who has put in a purchase order for an Urban Crop Solutions ‘FarmPro’ for their very first plant production site in Singapore. This will be Singapore’s first fully automated container farm that sets to grow local herbs for the high-end retail market and restaurants. The container farm will not only have a commercial purpose but will also serve as a demonstration facility for interested buyers. 

NOSH & BAF and Urban Crop Solutions closing the deal

According to Brecht Stubbe, global sales director at Urban Crop Solutions: “With this opportunity to work with BAF and NOSH, we can demonstrate the economically viable model of our vertical farming solutions in the Asia-Pacific region”

The collaboration between Urban Crop Solutions, BAF & NOSH Produce came to fruition in the beginning of January 2020. The ‘FarmPro’ is set to be operational in May 2020.

For more information:
Urban Crop Solutions
Grote Heerweg 67, 8791 Beveren-Leie (Waregem), Belgium
800 Brickell Avenue 1100 Suite, Miami (FL 33131), USA
+32 56 96 03 06
info@urbancropsolutions.com
sales@urbancropsolutions.com
urbancropsolutions.com

Publication date: Thu 26 Mar 2020

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How Greenhouse Yields Compare To Container Farms

As the agriculture industry searches for more sustainable alternatives to field farming, greenhouses remain the most popular solution, making up 47% of the indoor farming industry in the United States

Pure Greens Arizona, LLC

March 10, 2020 

As the agriculture industry searches for more sustainable alternatives to field farming, greenhouses remain the most popular solution, making up 47% of the indoor farming industry in the United States.

Screen Shot 2020-03-20 at 10.29.20 AM.png

Greenhouse popularity is also on the rise worldwide.

A 2019 statistical survey found that more than 1.2 million acres worth of vegetable-growing greenhouses were in use globally, an increase of 223% since 1980.

But they aren’t the only indoor farming option out there.

In this article, you’ll learn about how typical greenhouse yields compare to our Pure Greens container farms.

Let’s start with a little bit of background info.

Greenhouses are structures with glass or clear roofs that are used for cultivating plants. They range in size from small backyard sheds to massive commercial farms.

Greenhouses utilize a variety of crop growing systems. Most use typical soil methods planting in boxes, pots, or raised garden beds. Others use soil-less growing solutions such as hydroponic and aeroponic systems.

Other types of indoor farms include vertical, container, and deep water culture (DWC) systems.

What sets greenhouses apart from these other indoor farms is the use of glass or clear plastic roofing and sides to provide plants with natural sunlight. Other indoor farms rely on artificial light.

Growing indoors has plenty of advantages over outdoor farming. For example, indoor farming allows for highly controlled environments, creating near-perfect growing conditions for plants.

Greenhouses and container farms both offer the ability to control factors such as humidity and temperature and help prevent damage from weather, pests, and diseases. As a result, plants are healthier and can be grown at any time, no matter the season.

Our Pure Greens farms made from repurposed shipping containers are fully controllable from your smartphone!

Soil-based greenhouses are subject to similar space restrictions as field farms because plants need to have enough room for their roots to grow.

Hydroponic systems deliver water and nutrients directly to roots so that plants don’t have to spread. Therefore, our hydroponic container farms yield more per square foot than traditional greenhouse yields.

Using traditional soil methods, each lettuce crop would have to be placed 10 to 16 inches apart, meaning only six to 18 lettuce plants would be able to grow in a 16-square-foot row.

Using our hydroponic technology, we’re able to fit 36 lettuce plants in one row! That’s at least three times as many.

But lettuce takes up a lot of space in both types of farms. Herbs like rosemary and sage are much easier to grow in bulk in our hydroponic container farms than they are in soil-using greenhouses.

In soil, rosemary and sage plants need to be spaced a couple of feet apart. If we were to follow that rule in one of our 16-square-foot rows, we’d only be able to grow four plants total.

We grow 90 rosemary or sage plants in one row!

Thai basil crops need to be spaced 12 to 18 inches apart. Like sage and rosemary, we easily fit 90 Thai basil plants in just one of our rows. Farmers who use soil can only grow 16 max in the same space.

This means our hydroponic farms yield at least 5.6 times as much basil per square foot than a traditional soil greenhouse yields in just one grow cycle.

It’s clear that our container farms come out on top when it comes to yield.

If you’d like to learn more about maximizing your production with one of our farms, reach out to us on our website or give us a call at 602.753.3469.

WRITTEN BY

Pure Greens Arizona LLC

Pure Greens’ container-based grow systems offer a variety of interior layouts, sizes, and options so customers can create a farm that meets their needs.

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Top 7 Vertical Farming Companies

Vertical farming refers to the practice of producing fruits and vegetables or cannabis vertically, in stacked layers, perhaps on many floors inside a building, using artificial lights instead of the sun, and a whole range of relatively new technologies

gp-solutions-logo-19-250.png

Written by: GP Solutions

Vertical farming refers to the practice of producing fruits and vegetables or cannabis vertically, in stacked layers, perhaps on many floors inside a building, using artificial lights instead of the sun, and a whole range of relatively new technologies.

The three main reasons why it’s a much-discussed topic now is because:

There are a number of startup companies emerging in the sector and attracting tens of millions of dollars in investment; and more people live in cities than do in rural areas, a global trend which seems irreversible, and this means that the demand for fresh produce will increase in urban areas, and bringing the production closer to the consumer would make sense.

Vertical farming provides a low-cost, turnkey method to start farming. This is especially useful in the cannabis industry where traditional greenhouses require land that could cost many millions of dollars.

Some of these technologies have been available for some time, decades even, but they were probably too expensive in the past to make vertical farming a viable business proposition.

The key technologies in vertical farming include:

  • Perception Technologies – cameras and other sensors which can monitor for colour and other factors, such as disease;

  • Artificial Intelligence – which can process the data from the sensors and formulate solutions;

  • Automated and Even Autonomous Mechatronics – robots and other automated machines which pick the produce when it is ready for market, or apply cures to ailments during their growing.

The above list is a very simple breakdown of the fundamental technologies that will be required to, basically, reduce to a minimum or even eliminate the need for human involvement.

If vertical farms are run like traditional greenhouses, there would be too much human input required and it probably would not be profitable.

It’s the new automation technologies that will make it work.

Carnegie Mellon University is among a number of organizations which have developed integrated systems for vertical farming. CMU’s version is called ACESys, short for Automation, Culture, Environment, and Systems Model for Vertical Farming.

An academic paper probably worth checking out is called Advances in greenhouse automation and controlled environment agriculture: A transition to plant factories and urban agriculture.

In their introduction to the paper, the authors note: “Greenhouse cultivation has evolved from simple covered rows of open-fields crops to highly sophisticated controlled environment agriculture facilities that projected the image of plant factories for urban farming.

“The advances and improvements in CEA have promoted the scientific solutions for the efficient production of plants in populated cities and multi-story buildings.”

So the interest in the field is strong and most people seem to think it’s a viable business proposition.

And to underline the positivity about the sector, Research and Marketsforecasts the vertical farming market will grow to a value of $3 billion by 2024, from virtually nothing now.

In some sectors, such as marijuana production, indoor farming is providing a strong foundation for healthy profits.

COMPANIES FOCUS ON VERTICAL FARMING

It’s a very new business sector, so this list is subject to change:

1. AEROFARMS

This company has won many plaudits for its operation and uses its own patented “aeroponic technology… to take indoor vertical farming to a new level of precision and productivity with minimal environmental impact and virtually zero risks”.

The company has raised at least $138 million in funding since launch in 2004, according to CrunchBase. Some of its backers are quite impressive, as this article in Ag Funder News reports.

The term “aeroponic farming” refers to the process of growing plants in an air or mist environment without the use of soil or any earth-like material, which is known as “geoponics.”

Aeroponic systems enable the production of plants using 95 percent less water, which is what AeroFarms says it does.

2. GP SOLUTIONS

GP Solutions developed “GrowPods” – finely tuned, automated, transportable and scalable micro-farms that have been shown to grow all types of crops, including cannabis, at a faster rate than conventional means of agriculture.

GrowPods allow cultivation to take place year-round, which maximizes ROI. The systems are sealed from outside pathogens, contaminants, pesticides, and chemicals, and produce clean and robust crops.

The company has licensed its technology to Micro Lab Farms for the cannabis market only. The Pods from Micro Lab Farms differ slightly from the regular GrowPods from GP Solutions in that they have been specifically tuned for the production of cannabis.

Micro Lab Farms recently announced the development of a cannabis complex in Southern California that will hold many of the aforementioned GrowPods – some of which are being made available to farmers, businesses, and entrepreneurs looking to quickly enter the California cannabis market (the largest in the world).

GP Solutions also has a line of remarkable new proprietary soil mixtures, which contain no animal products. This is critical because many other soils and additives can contain harmful pathogens and contaminants that can cause crops to become tainted or fail rigorous testing.

The company is traded on the OTC stock exchange (ticker: GWPD) and is growing at a rapid pace (pardon the pun).

3. PLENTY

Like the other big vertical farming companies on this list, Plenty is another one that retails its produce, which includes kale and other greens, as well as some exotic herbs.

Plenty is probably the biggest company in terms of the amount of money it has raised in funding – approximately $226 million, according to CrunchBase.

4. BOWERY FARMING

You’d think any farming startup of any kind would steer clear of everything that’s genetically modified, but the fact that Bowery makes a point of saying it uses “zero pesticides and non-GMO” seeds might suggest that some vertical farming companies don’t have the same ideas.

Having raised more than $140 million in investment since inception in 2015, Bowery has carefully developed a distribution network in the US. Its leafy greens are available to buy in Whole Foods Market and Foragers. It also supplies a number of restaurants and sells online.

It doesn’t look like Bowery supplies its platform to other companies, even though some might be interested in its claims, such as: 95 percent less water usage than traditional agriculture; 100 times more productive on the same amount of land; and from harvest to shelf “within a few days”.

5. BRIGHTFARMS

Another of the big-money startups, BrightFarms has so far raised more than $112 million since its establishment in 2010, according to CrunchBase.

But unlike some of the other big companies, it isn’t into aeroponics as much. It seems more interested in hydroponics, which refers to growing plants with water, or, to be more accurate, mineral nutrient solutions in a water solvent.

6. GOTHAM GREENS

This company is one of many which have started up in the New York area. Strange to say it about such a new sector, but the market for vertical farming produce may be saturated – in that city at least.

Gotham Greens has so fair raised at least $45 million since its launch in 2011. It has four production-scale facilities, in New York City and in Chicago, and plans for more in several other states.

And, like BrightFarms, it’s more of a proponent for the hydroponic growing method, although it may well eventually mix it all up and try different approaches in different facilities.

7. IRON OX

This company appears to use robotics perhaps more than the others, in the picking process at least, and claims to operate fully autonomous indoor farmings. It too is a proponent of hydroponics, and is a retail-oriented company.

Its products are similar to the others’ – leafy greens such as lettuce and kale or things like that. It’s one of the newer startups on the list so a lot might change.

Iron Ox has only recently started supplying its products to local markets in California. The company has so far raised over $6 million in funding, according to CrunchBase.

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US: Florida - Making Microgreens A Household Word

In The Box, which is a completely retrofitted shipping container, Rodriguez sustainably grows an assorted variety of herbs and microgreens, using a minimal amount of water, energy, and soil

January 30, 2020

These broccoli microgreens are 40 to 50 times higher in nutritional value than the conventional form of broccoli. LOIS KINDLE PHOTOS

Farmer Seeks To Make Microgreens

A Household Word

By LOIS KINDLE


Eco-farmer Dario Rodriguez shows the container he uses to sell a variety of microgreens he sustainably grows at The Box Eco-Farm in Ruskin.

Dario Rodriguez wants the whole world to know about the nutritive value of microgreens, but for now, he’ll settle for South Shore and surrounding areas. LOIS KINDLE PHOTOS

The owner of Sustainable Eco-System LLC began his quest to make organic microgreens more mainstream by establishing The Box Eco-Urban Farm and setting it up at the Circle Pond Tiny Home Community in Ruskin last December.

In The Box, which is a completely retrofitted shipping container, Rodriguez sustainably grows an assorted variety of herbs and microgreens, using a minimal amount of water, energy, and soil.

“(The Box) allows for the maximum production of highly nutritional food in the smallest amount of space,” he said. “That’s what makes us eco-farmers.”

As part of his sustainability mission, Rodriguez sells only locally to individuals, restaurants, nutritionists, and chefs. His service area is South Shore, Brandon and some parts of south Tampa.

“To avoid the use of fossil fuels, I would rather place another box in Wesley Chapel, for example, rather than make deliveries there,” said Rodriguez, 49. “We do not ship what we grow.”

Microgreens are green, tiny vegetables with high concentrations of flavor and nutritional value. For example, broccoli microgreens are 40 to 50 times higher in nutritional value than the conventional form of broccoli, Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez’s wife, Iliana, helps him sell microgreens at the Firehouse Cultural Center in Ruskin.

Currently, he is growing broccoli, basil, red cabbage, peas, cilantro, arugula, parsley, kale, radish, sunflower, wheatgrass, and fennel Greek and mustard kohlrabi – all as microgreens. About 48 veggies can be grown as microgreens, Rodriguez said.

“When you buy microgreens from us, I like to tell you about their nutrients and health benefits, which have been acknowledged by the FDA,” he said.

The farmer also likes to tell you about their uses.

“Microgreens can be used in salads, sandwiches and as a topping for soups, pasta, eggs, and rice,” he said. “You don’t cook them; they’re tender without heat.”

Although Rodriguez and The Box are new to the area, he already has many satisfied customers.

“I bought four boxes last week: salad mix, broccoli, arugula, and radish,” said Dee Hood of Ruskin. “I use them on salads, and they’re so good, I just cut and eat them on their own.

“My teenage granddaughter and her boyfriend had some for lunch and loved them,” Hood continued. “I knew they were good for you, but I had no idea they would taste so good.”

Wheat grass, foreground is one of many microgreens Rodriguez currently grows in The Box.

Rodriguez uses high-density seeds in an organic growing medium like jute. In The Box, he’s able to control all of the production parameters: temperature, airflow and the humidity content of the air. The urban farm has a capacity of 720 10-inch by 20-inch trays of microgreens.

Rodriguez and his family moved to Ruskin from Argentina in 2016, when one of his three daughters began studying international business at the University of Tampa.

“We came as a two-year adventure,” said Rodriguez, who earned a master’s degree in global sustainability in 2018 from the University of South Florida. “But we’ve been here almost four years now, so we’ve decided to stay.”

He has invested $124,000 thus far between the Ruskin location and another at Fat Beet Farm in Oldsmar, where he grows mushrooms.

This is the completely retrofitted shipping container Rodriguez located at the Circle Pond Tiny Home Community in Ruskin to grow his microgreens. The Box allows him to produce the maximum amount of highly nutritional food in the smallest amount of space.

Rodriguez sells his microgreens for $3 per box, which is well below what you’d pay at a commercial establishment, and because they’re grown in an organic medium you can harvest as needed and they last longer.

Every Friday, you can find him set up at the Firehouse Cultural Center from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Microgreens can be preordered, paid for and picked up there.

To do so, call 813-416-5444, email sustainableecosystems@gmail.com or visit www.sustainablemicrogreens.net.

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Are Indoor Agriculture and Vertical Farming Growing Up?

In the US alone, the vertical farming market is projected to reach values of around $3 billion by 2024. Globally, the predicted value is $6.4 billion by 2023, with both figures growing at a similar rate of 24% CAGR

Urban agriculture and vertical farming, are they viable? There are question marks on efficiency, availability of useful and reasonably priced real estate, and demand for the leafy greens and herbs that are most often the crop of choice. That said, there are several high-profile companies in the U.S. that have been around for several years, e.g. AeroFarmsPlenty, and Bowery, which have raised a total of over $400M. Alongside these farm developers, we are seeing more indoor agriculture-specific technology (see iUNU’s $7.5M Series A in February for an example).

Indoor farming is attractive

In the US alone, the vertical farming market is projected to reach values of around $3 billion by 2024. Globally, the predicted value is $6.4 billion by 2023, with both figures growing at a similar rate of 24% CAGR.

Vertical farming’s value propositions include; a controlled environment, less water use, no pesticides, controlled fertilizer use, easier automation, optimized growing conditions and high-density output that can be placed in or near urban demand. In an agriculture system that will need to support another 3.25 billion people in urban environments over the next thirty years, the high volume of investment in this sector is understandable. In order to support the investment required these farms have focused on high-value greens and herbs and the ability to provide a consistent predictable volume of produce all year round. Reduced water use is particularly important in markets such as EMEA where this is a more expensive input or in areas with often restricted supply but large demand such as Southern Spain or California.

Food safety is an increasingly valuable part of vertical farming, as food born illness is estimated to cost the US economy $15.6 billion per year. There have been two high profile outbreaks of E. coli in romaine lettuce in the US in the last 12 months related to washing practices. Vertical farms are controlled growing environments, and dirt-free, therefore no washing is required. As a high-value, short shelf-life, leafy-green this is a key market for vertical farming.

Underlying technologies are maturing

There are three technologies used in vertical farming; hydroponics, aeroponics, and aquaponics.

  • Hydroponics is the most popular method, accounting for around 70% of installed capacity, as it is the least expensive system to build, and the water substrate system is easiest to control.

  • Aeroponics is next, with a nutrient-rich mist substrate that feeds plants. It is generally a more expensive system to install, but water use is 40% lower than hydroponics and 95% lower than field farming. Leading installers include AeroFarms and Living Greens.

  • Aquaponics incorporates fish farming into the hydroponic substrate to take advantage of natural feeding and waste cycles to produce nutrients for the crops. Leaders in aquaponics include BIGH and Superior Fresh.

Indoor cultivation systems arranged by commercial development

Many of these companies have either adapted existing components or created their own. New specialized component suppliers  such as Inno-3B are developing more complex automation systems, which they describe as having a high ‘unit of production per dollar of automation spent.’ The company also water cools the LEDs, providing a longer expected life.

Beyond technologies – exploring business models

Vertical farms can have many more harvests per year than traditional farming methods. For a leafy green, this can mean up to thirty harvests per year compared to five or six. This lends itself to a subscription-based model. Growing Underground, a vertical farmer based in an old air-raid shelter in south London has this arrangement with high-end restaurateurs as well as selling to retailers like Waitrose and Whole Foods. This can be extended to farming-as-a-service, as fast-growing cycles allow vertical farmers to plant crops at a client’s request, ensuring a buyer for produce before a seed is planted.

Existing food distributors are integrating vertical farmers in their supply chain, the partnership between Square Roots and Gordon Food Service is one example. The startup has agreed to build farming facilities in shipping containers located on or near Gordon Food Service distribution centers. For vertical farms, finding customers for high-value produce and having the logistics network to deliver has been a stumbling block – this partnership solves that problem. Similarly, Bonbio recently teamed up with IKEA to build container farms on IKEA sites to serve produce to the homeware chain’s restaurants.

Getting vertical farm produce to the consumer has also been taken to a logical conclusion – put the farm in front of the customer. Infarm has developed a system that can be installed in grocery stores, shopping malls, and restaurants, while Vertical Harvest has built the market and farm right where fresh produce was hard to come by. Click & Grow (an IKEA portfolio company) has put the hydroponic farm in the home with a smart home-growing kit.

Freight Farms has developed a turnkey hydroponics farm in a shipping container called the Greenery. Twenty have sold so far for $104,000, with price varying according to customization. The company estimates that ROI ranges from 2.5 to 3 years depending on the market. With the company’s hardware in place, it sells Farmhand, it’s farming services platform, offering farm management as well as sales of farm input. Freight Farms are keen to point out that the farmer is not tied to buying inputs from Freight Farms. It is also continuing to sell produce it grows itself in select locations. This model aims to reduce the need for large project financing rounds to build out capacity, creating a hardware + software model for expansion.

Grönska Stadsodling is the operator of one of Europe’s largest vertical farms and has developed the hardware it grows with from the ground-up. The company was born from the work of two engineering-minded founders. Their growing system includes a proprietary LED system which, Grönska claims, out-performs the off-the-shelf options available. The company aims to be cost-competitive with greenhouses, and eventually conventional growers. To get there Grönska believes the cost of automation will be a factor as vertical automation is easier than over the large footprint of a greenhouse. Combined with balancing energy costs, price of land, production scale, and matching product to market demand, there is plenty to balance in defining a vertical farm business model.

In trying to create an effective business model, Grönska Stadsodling has learned a lot about competing with the established brands. The first challenge is to reach cost parity with traditional methods of farming. The next challenge is particular to food; it is difficult to draw customers’ attention from a familiar and trusted branded, even when their product sits side-by-side on the supermarket shelf. The decades of marketing and trust, and associated cost, of establishing that customer base requires large marketing and branding budgets. While this is not insurmountable, another route may be to white label produce and sell to wholesalers to prevent these costs.

Who’s investing?

Investors in vertical farms are not what you would expect. There are the agriculture and food-focused investors, such as Wheatsheaf Investments (AeroFarms) or Finistere Ventures (Plenty, BioLumic), but the majority are generalists, and there is a noticeable lack of food and agricultural industry incumbents. No large agricultural OEM such as a John Deere, CNH, AGCO, or others, have placed a bet in vertical farming. However, IKEA, a food, logistics, and homewares company, has invested in Click & Grow and AeroFarms’ latest round, giving an insight into where food will be grown and who will be growing it in the future. We expect to see more agricultural corporate direct interest into these companies in the coming year.

Keep an eye on

In order to answer the question of long-term viability, we will need to keep up with the market’s response to the following questions:

  • Will vertical farms stay focused on niche produce and markets?

  • Do they compete against rooftop farms that have lower energy costs and provide a wider range of produce?

  • Will they compete against greenhouse farms that benefit from cheaper real estate, but must ship produce long distances to the urban markets and have higher costs of automation?

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Summit Offers Businesses A Chance to Connect

Start-up Sherpa Space will also offer visitors a chance to taste its specially-bred strawberries that are grown in container farms at the fair

A Host of Events On The Sidelines Encourage

Investment And Growth

November 25, 2019

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As Korea welcomes Asean for a special summit in Busan today and tomorrow, the state-backed Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (Kotra) is hosting four trade fairs and conferences on the sidelines to showcase the latest technologies from Korean companies and their cooperative efforts with Asean.

The group of 10 countries has increasingly grown in importance as a major trading partner for Korea since a free trade deal went into effect in 2007.

According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Korea exported $100.3 billion worth of products to Asean in 2018, compared to just $41.0 billion in 2009. In fact, taken as a trading bloc, Asean was Korea’s second-largest trading partner last year.

Korea’s efforts to court the group have also picked up under President Moon Jae-in’s New Southern Policy that seeks to improve relations with the group to diversify from Korea’s traditional trade reliance on China and the United States.

At the Busan Exhibition & Convention Center (Bexco), Kotra will offer its ideas for a more collaborative future with Southeast Asia through the Asean-Republic of Korea Innovation Showcase, Invest Asean, Multilateral Development Bank Project Plaza and Smart City Fair.

Innovating with Asean

At the Asean-Korea Innovation Showcase, 45 companies will display technology and projects that is being developed with Asean in four areas: mobility, lifestyle and health care, agriculture and environment and energy sectors.

Automakers such as Hyundai Motor and Renault Samsung Motors will take the stage in the mobility section with six other companies to show off their efforts to develop the sector in collaboration with their Asean-based partners.

Amid Korea’s recent bet into hydrogen technology, Kotra will feature fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEV) at the fair, including motorcycles and auto rickshaws equipped with the technology as an example of how such vehicles could roll out in the Asean market.

Hyundai Motor’s booth will display its efforts to push FCEVs into the Indonesian and Bruneian markets and its vision of an eco-friendly Asean auto market.

Renault Samsung Motors will showcase its project to deploy its two-seater electric micro car Twizy in Asean.

It currently manufactures the miniature vehicle at its Busan plant.

Korea’s IT heavyweights, including Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, will be present in the Smart Life section of the show.

Samsung Electronics will showcase its smart home appliances, while LG Electronics and LG U+ will display Internet of Things products designed for the office using the superfast 5G network.

KT will also be present at the show.

The company is currently looking to deploy its 5G network technology in Asean, with support from the Korean Ministry of Science and ICT.
In the Future Environment and Energy corner of the fair, 16 companies will showcase environmentally-friendly smart grid systems and energy storage systems.

Social venture Tree Planet will share its efforts to develop an eco-friendly coffee farm in Indonesia.

Seoul-based Rosign will showcase its road pavement material targeted for the Vietnamese market at the show. The company has created a joint venture with Vietnam’s Bidico and is expected to establish a manufacturing plant in the country next year.

In the Smart Farming section, 13 companies will show off the newest agricultural technologies, including LS Mtron’s small-sized tractor geared exclusively for Southeast Asia.

Start-up Sherpa Space will also offer visitors a chance to taste its specially-bred strawberries that are grown in container farms at the fair.

Smart cities

After Asean launched the Asean Smart Cities Network last year, interest has surged in smart city technology that attempts to connect urban infrastructure through a wider network.

Kotra expects its Smart City Fair to serve as a platform to connect Korean and Asean companies.

Thailand’s Digital Economy Promotion Agency and Surbana Jurong, a Singaporean consulting agency, will hold sessions to explain their projects at the conference.

According to Kotra, 27 companies and institutions from Asean seeking smart city partners and 130 Korean companies will be present at the conference.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport will host the main smart city event at Bexco, the Asean-Republic of Korea Smart City Fair 2019.

The fair, which runs until Wednesday, will host a total of 21 countries including the 10 Asean members and will have 220 booths from 119 smart-city-related companies.

Korea will exhibit its own efforts to develop smart city technology.

Sejong and Busan are currently designated as two of Korea’s smart city test beds. The government plans to incorporate artificial intelligence to introduce a self-driving shuttle service and emergency-response drones in Sejong.

Busan is currently working toward creating a combined control center for planned robot services, such as parking robots and medical centers that utilize robot assistance.

The government has committed 26.5 billion won ($22.5 million) into smart city projects pursued by state-backed institutions this year.

Asean and beyond

Korean companies have aggressively expanded into Asean in recent years.

According to Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance, the number of newly registered Korean companies in Asean stood at 1,292 last year compared to 850 in 2014.

Kotra expects the Invest Asean event at Bexco to help provide more investment opportunities in the region as 75 investment agencies and related institutions from Asean countries will attend the event.

Each Asean country will have its own investment booth to share information to Korean companies. There will also be separate sessions on investment opportunities.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Asean has swiftly grown to $155 billion in 2018, accounting for 11.9 percent of total global FDI that year, from just $21.8 billion in 2000.

The region is also Korea’s top market for overseas infrastructure orders, at $11.9 billion last year.

Meanwhile, Kotra will host the seventh Multilateral Development Bank Project Plaza 2019, which will provide information for companies to win global infrastructure projects led by development banks.

The annual event, which has run since 2013, will host the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Central American Bank for Economic Integration and Inter-American Development Bank.

The projects will focus beyond Asean and into Africa and Central and South America.

BY CHAE YUN-HWAN [chae.yunhwan@joongang.co.kr]

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Urban Crop Solutions Celebrates it's 5th Anniversary

The company is a total solution provider and offers container farms and plant factories and all products and services that growers need to grow healthy crops in an indoor farm

Today, Urban Crop Solutions celebrates its 5th anniversary. On this occasion, a movie was released with testimonials from customers around the globe. Urban Crop Solutions is proud to be a pioneer in the emerging market of indoor vertical farming with a unique business model. The company is a total solution provider and offers container farms and plant factories and all products and services that growers need to grow healthy crops in an indoor farm.

The story of the founding of Urban Crop Solutions starts in 2012 when the founders were experimenting with rooftop farming in urban areas. Only in 2014, the choice was made to focus on indoor vertical farming after some successful tests where done in the warehouse of one of the founders. Since then the company was taken on a rollercoaster and the company evolved from a local AgTech startup to an international scale-up with unique commercial products and services.

Link to the 5 years anniversary movie with testimonials from over the globe.

https://youtu.be/KnqLMtNrr7w

From its incorporation, the company’s vision was always that the knowledge of plant growth is key. Today, the company operates 10 labs, 1 demo plant factory and 1 demo container farm for its research operations.

Over the last 5 years, we have conducted over 800 cultivar trials. Some tests with seeds failed miserably.” explains dr. Oscar Navarrete, chief plant scientist and the first employee of Urban Crop Solutions. “But through our continuous work to tweak seed selection, LED spectrum, irrigation, substrate and nutrition, we have developed more than 200 plant growth recipes that are available for our clients.

The design of the plant growth infrastructure that Urban Crops Solutions is building for its clients is the result of the know-how the plant scientists transfer to the mechanical engineers to achieve optimal plant growth in an indoor vertical farm environment. In February 2016, the Flemish Minister-President Geert Bourgeois opened Urban Crop Solutions’ automated indoor farm which was the largest in Europe. This installation was built and is operated by Urban Crop Solutions for research purposes.

We’ve been at the forefront of this emerging industry since the beginning. Some of our engineering concepts lacked robustness, but by listening to the feedback of our customers we’ve upgraded numerous components to improve the reliability, the operational efficiency, and food safety”, says Maarten Vandecruys, founder and CTO of Urban Crops Solutions. “We now have 24 containers in operation with our customers, of which about half in Europe and half in the USA. We are proud to have collaborations with large corporates and with several scientific institutions”.

Urban Crop Solutions caught in the past 5 years much attention by media, by trendwatchers, by large corporates, by politicians, and by royals. In November 2018, the company could present its technology to the French president Emmanuel Macron and the Belgian King Filip. In September 2019, the company realized a series A capital round, marking the start of the international commercialization of its products and services portfolio.

It is clear that indoor vertical farming is still an early-stage industry. With the current high initial cost involved, it requires finding the right market niche for the right crop in order to achieve an attractive ROI.” Explains CEO and co-investor Tom Debusschere. “However, the world is changing very fast and besides the obvious food industry we see a lot potential for our products and services in some high-value end-markets like food supplements, fragrances, cosmetics, aromatics and phyto-pharmaceuticals.”

The technology and the products of Urban Crop Solutions are best explained as at “the crossroads between plant biology and factory engineering”. In the coming years, the company will continue to invest in products and services for ‘killer applications’ (revolutionizing market segments) and ‘moonshot crops’ (developing indoor plant growth recipes with large impact) in order to realize its mission: ‘Urban Crop Solutions contributes to the solutions for the challenges caused by global urbanization, the growing world population and the lack of agricultural land in the world’

For more information on this press release, on Urban Crop Solutions or on the products and services of Urban Crop Solutions you can contact Tom Debusschere, Managing Director (tode@urbancropsolutions.com), or Maarten Vandecruys, Co-founder and CTO (mava@urbancropsolutions.com ) or visit our website ( www.urbancropsolutions.com ):

European headquarters:                                    American headquarters:

Grote Heerweg 67                                              800 Brickell Avenue, 1100 Suite 
8791 Beveren-Leie (Waregem)                            Miami (FL 33131)
Belgium                                                              Florida

(+32)56 96 03 06                                                +1 (786) 408-6027

 

Facebook:                                                                                    www.facebook.com/urbancropsolutions
Twitter:                                                                                          
www.twitter.com/U_C_Solutions
LinkedIn:                                                                                       
www.linkedin.com/company/urbancropsolutions
YouTube channel:                                                                       
http://www.youtube.com/c/UrbanCropSolutions

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THE NETHERLANDS: "Container Offers Flexible Research Solutions"

On the outside it's 'just' a container. But when the doors open, a good deal of high-tech reveals itself. A climate container to be precise

on their way to USA

On the outside it's 'just' a container. But when the doors open, a good deal of high-tech reveals itself. A climate container to be precise. In Aalsmeer in the Bosman Van Zaal production hall, two are ready to be transported to a large American herb grower who wants to use the container to work out the optimum cultivation recipe for basil.

Carlo Castelijn inside of the container in which three 'Danish carts' fit next to each other. If desired, both sides can also be provided with a Grow&Roll-system with Danish carts.

Container over climate chamber
But why a container and not a climate chamber? "Simple", says Carlo Castelijn of Bosman Van Zaal. "These containers can then be clicked onto the back of a trailer. This makes it possible, after a research project, to sell the container or transport it to another location of the company. A lot cheaper than demolishing an entire climate chamber and rebuilding it elsewhere."

Recently, numbers three and four were built, after the first container had already been built two years ago at the request of another customer.

Three Danish cars
A total of three extra wide 'Danish' cars fit in one half of the container. These can be used to create a small-scale multilayer cultivation system with LED and all the bells and whistles that come with it. On the other hand, a growing table has been mounted for research into 'normal', non-multi-layer cultivation.

The only thing needed to get the climate container up and running is electricity, water and CO2. Electricity to keep the LED lights on and the climate computer running. The latter then takes care of the rest, including the water and CO2 dosing.

The side containing the grow table, a request from the customer who wanted the table as low as possible. In addition, gutters are hung in the container so that the customer can experiment with strawberry cultivation.

Over the past few weeks, the finishing touches have been put to the containers, which will be transported in December.

Finishing off with the numbers: 

-Container outer dimensions: 6058x2500x2896 mm LxWxH
-Grow&Roll cultivation area: 9x0.9 square meters
-Cultivation surface table: 2 square meters

For more information:
Bosman Van Zaal
info@bosmanvanzaal.com
www.bosmanvanzaal.com


Publication date: Tue 26 Nov 2019
© HortiDaily.com

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