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AppHarvest, USDA Partner To Expand Educational Container Farm Program
Located at Breathitt High School in Jackson, Ky., the retrofitted shipping container allows students to grow and provide fresh leafy greens to their classmates and those in need in their community
In partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, we’ve opened a new high-tech educational container farm in Eastern Kentucky to offer students a hands-on AgTech experience.
Located at Breathitt High School in Jackson, Ky., the retrofitted shipping container allows students to grow and provide fresh leafy greens to their classmates and those in need in their community. The U.S. Department of Agriculture provided a majority of funding for the container farm through its Community Facilities grants program.
The Breathitt County container farm is the third in our program, which started in 2018 in Eastern Kentucky to excite students about growing their own food.
“This amazing project will not only put fresh vegetables on the table but, more importantly, it will teach tomorrow’s agribusiness leaders — and do all of that right here in Eastern Kentucky,” said U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development State Director Hilda Legg.
Click here to learn more and here for coverage of the container farm’s opening.
Abandoned Spaces And Automation: What To Expect For Indoor Farming in 2021
Controlled-environment agriculture — also simply known as indoor farming — had a big year both in terms of activity and investment dollars
Controlled-environment agriculture — also simply known as indoor farming — had a big year both in terms of activity and investment dollars. While once we might have questioned the sector’s economic viability and ability to actually feed a growing global population, a lot of those doubts have diminished and indoor ag in its many forms now has an important role in our future food system.
What that role is, however, will continue to evolve over time. Here are a few thoughts on how that will happen over the next 12 months.
More automation.
Automation isn’t new to controlled-environment agriculture, but its presence as a part of indoor farming operations has increased over the last several months and will continue to in the next year.
In the context of controlled-environment farming, automation can refer to any kind of technology that removes manual human labor from the growing process. In some cases that includes robots that plant and harvest greens or move trays of produce around the farm. More often, though, automation refers to software that can calculate the optimal environmental temperature for each plant, know when plants need to be fed and harvested, and handle many other calculations that would otherwise require a person to have horticultural and technological (hardware and software) expertise.
Moving into 2021, we’ll definitely see a few more robots buzzing around the indoor farm. But the bulk of automation will be about software.
More grocery store partnerships.
Many large-scale indoor farms started out selling their leafy green wares to restaurants and hotels. The pandemic, of course, put a hold on that in 2020, and controlled-environment agriculture operations had to look elsewhere for customers.
Enter the grocery store. From container farms at local markets to Kalera’s partnership with Publix stores across the U.S., more indoor farming companies are growing their greens either onsite at grocery stores or within throwing distance of them.
This could in turn help bring the cost of greens grown on high-tech farms down, since the shipping and distribution steps will be less resource intensive in many cases and nonexistent in others.
More underutilized space.
One of my favorite stories from 2020 was this one, about a company called Wilder Fields that turned an abandoned Target store in south Chicago into a massive indoor farm.
Many companies are constructing their own facilities from the ground up, while others stick to smaller scale container farms that are a bit more mobile. Finding existing space, such as an abandoned big box retailer, seems a logical middle ground, and one we’ll likely see more of as companies work to lower costs and keep their environmental footprint down.
Predictions pieces, of course, are always a bit of a crapshoot, and even if the above forecasts turn out to be true, they’ll be but a smattering of the activity that will happen for controlled-environment ag in 2021.
FILED UNDER: AG TECH BUSINESS OF FOOD DELIVERY & COMMERCE FEATURED FOODTECH
ISRAEL: The Supermarkets That Have A Farm In The Parking Lot
“Our first Vertical Field farm at Rami Levy was launched in Modi’in. Now we have four farms at Rami Levy branches whose produce is already sold inside the supermarket
Four Israeli supermarkets sell their customer’s pesticide-free greens and herbs grown inside an indoor vertical farm set up in a trailer just outside their doors.
DECEMBER 14, 2020
When you buy supermarket veggies, you don’t know how far they traveled or when they left the farm. And that matters because picked produce loses nutritional potency rapidly.
Now, shoppers in four Israeli supermarkets can buy pesticide-free greens and herbs harvested from an indoor farm right on the premises.
This unusual setup comes courtesy of Israeli agri-tech business Vertical Field and the Rami Levy supermarket chain.
A Vertical Field indoor farm at a Rami Levy supermarket in Israel. Photo courtesy of Vertical Field
“Vertical Field has been operating in partnership with Rami Levy for approximately a year,” says Noa Winston, marketing director for Vertical Field.
“Our first Vertical Field farm at Rami Levy was launched in Modi’in. Now we have four farms at Rami Levy branches whose produce is already sold inside the supermarket,” Winston tells ISRAEL21c.
“Additionally, we have a farm at the Tel Aviv Port in collaboration with the city of Tel Aviv. We have plans to significantly expand our operations with Rami Levy and to open more farms over the course of 2021.”
The indoor farms raise leafy greens and herbs such as kale, lettuce, basil, cilantro, dill, parsley and peppermint. Bok choy and spinach are now being planted.
Leafy greens and herbs growing in a Vertical Field farm at a Rami Levy supermarket.Photo courtesy of Vertical Field
The space-saving vertical containers grow the plants in soil under LED lighting from BioLed EcoLight Systems based at Kibbutz Tzuba. (BioLed also provides the lighting for Energy Boxes that Innovation: Africa provides to off-grid African schools and health centers.)
The Ra’anana-based company says that indoor vertical farming uses 90 percent less water than traditional field farming and saves as much as 20 days’ time from seeding to harvest in a typical growth cycle. The system is weather- and pest-resistant.
Vertical Field has two installations in New York State – at a supermarket and a restaurant – and has ambitious expansion plans.
“Our goal is to penetrate the global market,” says Winston. “We have begun that process starting with the United States, where we have two farms, and we plan to continue to expand there. We are also currently developing several promising projects both in the field of vertical urban farms as well as vertical landscaping that will be launched in the USA, in Europe, and other regions.”
Lead photo: These boxes of Vertical Field greens say, “Grown and picked here and now,” because they are raised on the supermarket premises. Photo courtesy of Vertical field
E. coli Strikes Again
On November 10th, the CDC issued a statement alerting us that E.coli has struck again, this time in a pre-packaged single-head romaine after several people became ill from eating E. coli contaminated lettuce
The World Is Scary Enough Without Our Lettuce Trying To Kill Us.
On November 10th, the CDC issued a statement alerting us that E.coli has struck again, this time in a pre-packaged single-head romaine after several people became ill from eating E. coli contaminated lettuce.
This calls us back to the past two Novembers where salad mix and commercial romaine were mass-recalled surrounding the most popular eating holiday in the US: Thanksgiving.
You might remember, the shelves all looked like this:
No lettuce as far as the eye can see. Photo: Washington State University
Lucky for us, the food system is slowly changing (too slowly), so that when E.coli strikes some lucky consumers can turn to small-scale indoor farmers in their area for salad greens that are not only safe, but also very tasty.
We know E. coli is bad... but what, exactly, is it?
E. coli is a bacteria found in the intestines of humans and animals.
That’s right...it’s inside of us.
Before you freak out, most strains of the bacteria are completely harmless. Unfortunately, the bad one that makes you sick (E. coli 0157:H7) is the one that’s currently in our lettuce. Womp-womp.
E. coli makes its way into the outside world… through poop. If the poop makes contact with food, you’ve got an E. coli contamination. If the poop makes contact with a lot of food, it becomes a full-on outbreak.
This isn’t just gross, it's dangerous. E. coli 0157:H7 causes intestinal infections (read: diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, fever, and fatigue). In severe cases it can cause bloody diarrhea (*silent scream*), dehydration, kidney failure… even death.
This is awful. How the heck did it get on our lettuce?
The best explanation we have is animal or human poop infected the soil or water source at a big romaine farm. The scary thing is, this is only an educated guess. Since people might not start getting sick until several weeks after harvest, it’s hard to go back and try to figure out what actually happened at Ground Zero (or even where Ground Zero is).
Feel like you’re having deja-vu?
That’s because this happened literally the past two years! In 2018 we had three E. coli outbreaks in romaine alone, the worst of which was in the spring: There were reported outbreaks in 36 states with 210 infected, 96 hospitalized and 5 dead. Only months later, another outbreak struck 12 states with 43 infected and 19 hospitalized just after Thanksgiving. Since then, romaine-related Ecoli has been popping up all over the place. The most frustrating part is that it usually takes the CDC months to investigate, meaning we don’t even hear about these outbreaks until well after the dangerous food is long-forgotten.
By now you’re probably thinking…
Before you denounce all salad, forever, we may have a solution.
The problem is with the system as a whole.
The reason that E. coli outbreaks are so widespread is because we source 95 percent of our leafy greens from a few farms in California and Arizona. Those greens (romaine included), get harvested and amassed at big distribution points before making their way cross-country to stores and restaurants. This means zero transparency into where the E. coli originated, making it difficult to eradicate. Not to mention, a lack of regulations prevents any actual accountability. The result? We keep eating the nasty stuff, and more people get sick.
One solution is surprisingly simple… decentralization.
This problem wouldn’t exist if we moved away from a centralized food system to a distributed one with small indoor farms. Here's why:
(1) Small, indoor farms create total environmental control with all types of fancy filters and regular water tests. Plus, this prevents exposure to two common sources of E. coli: contaminated soil and animal waste.
(2) Decentralization = transparency. Lettuce from small farmers isn’t changing hands, like, a million times. In the event of an outbreak, we can easily trace it back to its source to confirm that it’s safe to eat. With a shorter supply chain, this process take days, not months.
(3) While chances of contamination in a small indoor farm are much, much, much smaller… it is theoretically possible. Distributed production means, even if you do have one contaminated small farm, the exposure is contained, so it’s still safe to eat lettuces from other local farms.
Cultivar Boston | Massachusetts, @chefmarydumont @cultivarboston
These are all things we know a lot of our farmers' customers appreciate about the Leafy Green Machine. Throughout this whole ordeal, they've had access to safe greens in their neighborhoods.
It’s always rattling to see how fragile our food system can be, and we hope this whole hoopla motivates policymakers, wholesalers, and shoppers to think more about how we source our food.
Want to be the change you want to see in the world?
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Colorado Students Become Virtual Farmers During Pandemic
Students at a Douglas County high school are learning COVID-era business skills using a freight container converted into a high-tech hydroponic vertical farm as their virtual classroom
December 3, 2020
HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. -- Students at a Douglas County high school are learning COVID-era business skills using a freight container converted into a high-tech hydroponic vertical farm as their virtual classroom.
After Mountain Vista High School recently switched to remote learning, students and teachers had to completely reorganize the farm's workflows and lesson plans.
David Larsen, agriculture business teacher and farms manager at Mountain Vista High School, said while some students may go on to pursue biology or horticulture, skills learned during the pandemic should transfer to any field.
"Most of these kids are not going to actually be farmers," Larsen admitted. "But they all will have jobs in which they have to troubleshoot, scheduling, logistics, it all comes into play. And the goal I always have with students is to, as much as possible, involve them in that decision-making."
With kids unable to be physically inside the farm to seed, plant, tend, harvest, package and sell crops, Larsen live streams, and records every lesson.
Supply-chain disruption during the pandemic drove up sales, and Larsen saw an opportunity for a business lesson in supply and demand. Crops typically sold during two-day markets have been selling out within two to three hours.
Larsen noted the Greenery unit created by Massachusetts-based company Freight Farms is resistant to pandemics, but also extreme weather and drought.
The unit uses nearly 99% less water than a traditional farm, running on less than the average dishwasher uses.
While most food consumed in the U.S. travels hundreds or even thousands of miles, Larsen observed the Mountain Vista operation is as close to zero food-production miles as you can get.
"So we are literally harvesting and putting into bags as the customer is standing right there," Larsen explained. "So they are living plants. People love lettuce; it's definitely delicious and very clean."
Larsen added students still are able to interact with local shoppers via live video streaming, learning important customer-service lessons.
Because the climate is controlled inside the container, Larsen said food can be grown all school year long with a predictable commercial-scale output.
A Greenery unit can support 13,000 plants at a time, producing harvests of up to 900 heads of lettuce per week.
Lead photo: Crops produced by students at Mountain Vista High School in Douglas County usually are sold during two-day market sales, but post-COVID, customer volume has shot up, selling out within two to three hours. (Mountain Vista High School)
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New Modular Scalable Indoor Vertical Farm Design
In addition to our 20,000 sq. ft. farm, we now offer a modular scalable farm system that can “start small and grow big” to meet increased demand
Green Sense Farms has been an early adopter and pioneer when it comes to indoor vertical farming. We built our first 20,000 sq. ft. indoor vertical farm in 2012 in Portage, IN. Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) has changed greatly since that first farm and so has our company. We started our journey focused on operating our indoor vegetable farm, selling lettuce, baby greens, herbs, and microgreens to grocery stores and produce companies in IN, IL, and MI. Since that time, we have leveraged our operating experience and evolved the company to provide contract research and farm design & build services on a global basis.
One of our recent innovations is the development of a modular scalable growing system using our proven grow technology. We found that our standard 20,000 sq. ft. farm can be cost-prohibitive in many parts of the world. We have also seen that many vertical farm companies “start big and grow small” making right-sizing a farm the key to being profitable.
In addition to our 20,000 sq. ft. farm, we now offer a modular scalable farm system that can “start small and grow big” to meet increased demand. After spending a year studying container farms to objectively understand their strengths and weakness, we came up with a better indoor grow design that includes:
• Touchless conveyance
• Improved IPM and automated sanitization
• Higher crop density and improved economics
• Can be operated with 2 employees plus a packing team
• Computer delivery of growing inputs and climate control with improved air circulation
• Can be housed in functionally obsolete industrial buildings with minimal tenant improvements.
Our modular scalable custom farms use shipping containers as a prefabricated low-cost structure to install the individual farm components. Components can be sold separately or as a system and include:
• Seeding line
• Germ / Nursery Room
• Grow Room
• Packing / Cooler
• Equipment Room, with CO2, fertigator, water treatment, water storage, and recirculation, HVAC, data collection, sensors, and automation controls.
It’s an honor and privileged to be part of CEA and watch it evolve from an idea into an industry. For more information on contract research or design and build services contact:
Robert Colangelo, Founding Farmer
VIDEOS: The Technologies Helping Move Agriculture Indoors
As more agriculture moves indoors, Israeli technologies are moving in with them to optimize lighting, watering, temperature, and other factors for an efficient and effective operation. Greenhouses and urban farm factories are expensive to set up but pay off in higher yield, quality, and market value, growing all through the seasons.
Greenhouses and urban farm factories are expensive to set up but pay off in higher yield, quality, and market value, growing all through the seasons.
A pick-yourself strawberry farm in China built inside an Azrom greenhouse. Photo courtesy of Azrom
Grain crops will always need large fields. But tomatoes, leafy greens, peppers, and strawberries are some of the many fruits and veggies that thrive indoors under precisely controlled conditions.
Though it costs more to raise produce in greenhouses or urban “farm factories,” the payoff is higher yield, quality, and market value. The plants can grow year-round with less fertilizer and pesticide.
As more agriculture moves indoors, Israeli technologies are moving in with them to optimize lighting, watering, temperature, and other factors for an efficient and effective operation.
Sarai Kemp, vice president of deal flow at Trendlines AgriFood. Photo: courtesy
“There is a growing trend for traditional greenhouse farming and indoor hydroponic and vertical farming for certain types of crops,” says Sarai Kemp, vice president of deal flow at Trendlines AgriFood based in Israel with branches in China and Singapore.
Kemp tells ISRAEL21c that most greenhouse-grown tomatoes go straight to consumers while most field-grown tomatoes go into items like ketchup.
“Growing indoors helps you produce more in a better environment than in open fields,” she says. “Farmers invest in technology for greenhouses because they can control the growing environment and sell the produce at a higher value.”
Kemp says a lot of indoor farming technology originated in Israel. “We have the experience, capability, and technology to provide monitoring solutions.”
Europe is the main market for Israeli indoor farming technology, and Kemp notes that a new market has opened closer to home.
“The United Arab Emirates is very interested in indoor farming because of the desert conditions that make it difficult to grow in open fields there.”
Let’s look at a few Israeli solutions for indoor farming.
Greenhouse experts
This 5.5-acre medical cannabis greenhouse complex in Greece is covered with f-CLEAN, a durable polymer offering exceptional light transmission and energy savings. Photo courtesy of Azrom
One of the oldest market leaders in the greenhouse farming business is Azrom, a family company that has specialized in designing, building, and installing fully customized greenhouse systems since 1979.
“That’s all we do,” says Zviki Porat, Azrom’s international marketing manager. “We started exporting in 1979 to Greece and since then we have done about 1,500 projects in more than 70 countries.”
In the old days, technology meant simple drip irrigation. Today, Azrom partners with Israeli research institutes and ag-tech companies to stay a step ahead of the greenhouse technologies curve.
“Now it’s a whole package of high-tech systems that lead to much higher yields and monitor processes better, including weather and topography, planning, designing, engineering, and remote controls,” says Porat.
Also in the early days, greenhouse crops were raised in the ground. Today, most farmers opt for hydroponics – growing in soil-free mediums.
“There are 10 kinds of platforms to choose from in hydroponics, so it’s much more complicated today to plan and price a greenhouse system,” says Porat.
Four kinds of crops growing under one greenhouse roof in Belarus. Photo courtesy of Azrom
“And every year more crops are being grown in greenhouses because land is in short supply. The main crops are vegetables, strawberries, ornamental flowers, and medical cannabis. But you can even grow watermelon, pineapple, and mango indoors where they stay warm and are exposed to fewer pests.”
In addition to Asia and Europe, Azrom has projects planned in Louisiana (US) and Dubai (UAE).
“Greenhouse growing requires a high investment. But you pollute less because you don’t spray as much, and you can collect and reuse water and even fertilizer,” Porat says. “So we have a lot to contribute to desert agriculture.”
Hydroponic greenhouse factories
A British-Israeli venture formed from a merger of two established companies about eight years ago, Growponics designs and builds automated hydroponic greenhouse factories in urban settings.
“You can grow vegetables all year round in greenhouses in many places, like in California’s Salinas Valley. But that is not where the population is,” says founder Lior Hessel.
Hessel says shipping costs today account for more than 80% of the landed cost of vegetables – that is, the total expense to get a product to its destination.
“Local greenhouse farming is expensive, but it pays off compared to shipping costs,” Hessel tells ISRAEL21c. “In the last 10 years, a new trend is local production with a lower landed price and lower carbon footprint.”
Still, for a massive greenhouse factory to be profitable, its steep capital and operating expenses must be offset by maximizing yield per square meter, Hessel explains.
“In Growponics we do this by using automation. The plants move on conveyers. We eliminate aisles, which normally take up 15 to 20% of greenhouse space; and we adjust the spacing between plants in different parts of the growth cycle. That alone can increase yield by more than 40% on top of the savings from eliminating aisles. It’s a gamechanger when you put them together.”
With funding in part from the Israel Innovation Authority, Growponics invests heavily in R&D in cooperation with institutes in Israel, the UK, and continental Europe.
One innovation is a data collection robot that supplements the data collection done by sensors in the greenhouses. Another is organic fertilizer produced via atmospheric nitrogen fixation, which uses bacteria to make nitrogen in the air available to plants. This technology won Growponics the European Union’s Seal of Excellence and €2.5 million in funding to implement it in Europe.
Growponics has three sites in Israel, accounting for more than 70% of domestic hydroponics.
“In Europe, we registered a new company in Greece to do more than $4 million in projects,” says Hessel, “and we are going to the UAE as part of an Israeli business delegation before the end of the year.”
Three years ago, Growponics established a two-acre greenhouse factory in Connecticut that sells its produce to New England supermarket chains. Further US expansion is planned with local partners as owner-operators to handle marketing and distribution.
Lighting and growing system
“Indoor growing demands scientific knowledge of what each plant needs and when,” says Daniel Levin, founder of Tel Aviv-headquartered Growor, whose indoor agriculture system can reduce overall costs up to 40 percent (up to 70% electricity saving alone) while increasing yield by about 30%.
The business started five years ago with a light-bulb idea, literally.
Pharma-grade cannabis thriving under Growor’s lighting system. Photo: courtesy
The smart LED light, which can manipulate outcomes such as tomato color and juiciness, was developed by Levin’s business partner Michael Naich, now CEO of Growor and its companion R&D company Group 1607 (so named because both their birthdays are on July 16).
But lighting alone wasn’t enough. Indoor farmers must control and monitor a variety of inputs such as water, nutrients, temperature, and humidity.
“Because we had so much data from our lighting system, we were able to develop a full dynamic protocol for any kind of indoor growing,” says Levin. “The protocols adapt to help each plant feel it is in the best conditions at any time and location.”
Energy-efficient LED lighting retains a starring role in the Growor system, which includes sensors, AI software, and a mobile app to manage cultivation remotely.
“We adjust the rest of the parameters to the light parameters because only light can manipulate the plant’s behavior drastically. More or less water, or more or less fertilizer, won’t change a tomato’s color.”
Growor has pilot projects in Israel, North America, Europe, and Asia for growing flowers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and pharma-grade cannabis. The latter crop, says Levin, is raised in clean rooms and must be reliably stable and consistent because “there’s no room for surprises.”
Robotic indoor harvesting
The higher yield in indoor agriculture requires more farmhands, and that’s a problem.
“One of most the urgent issues today is a labor shortage because most activities are done manually,” says MetoMotion CEO Adi Nir.
MetoMotion is developing a robotic system that automates labor-intensive greenhouse tasks and simultaneously gathers actionable data to improve yield and quality.
MetoMotion’s GRoW robot picks tomatoes and performs other labor-intensive tasks in greenhouses. Photo: courtesy
This portfolio company of The Trendlines Group has been testing its unique GRoW robotic tomato harvester in Israel and in The Netherlands in partnership with Bayer Crop Science.
“Since March we haven’t been able to travel from our offices in Yokne’am,” says Nir. “Our team there works with the robot and the software is operated mainly from here. This reduces the amount of staff needed at the greenhouse.
“You always need people too, but the robots work autonomously and from the office, you can see yield and yield forecast and other actionable data collected and transmitted to the cloud.”
The first commercial GRoW units will be shipped to a few farmers in Europe for evaluation in the next eight months.
“We are currently focused on tomatoes, but the platform can be adapted to different vegetables,” says Nir. GRoW also can be adapted to perform pruning, pollination, and de-leafing.
Wall to fork
As ISRAEL21c previously reported, “green walls” can provide insulation, air purification, and aesthetic landscaping to the interior or exterior of buildings.
They can also produce salad greens, mushrooms, and strawberries in an urban space-saving way.
However, vertical farming is still quite limited because to be profitable “you have to either grow more or save on costs of labor or resources such as electricity,” Sarai Kemp from Trendlines tells ISRAEL21c.
Among several Israeli vertical farming startups working to make this model viable are Verticanna and Vertical Field.
Verticanna, in the seed investment stage with two medical cannabis pilots running in Israel, aims to revolutionize vertical hydroponic growing systems for crops including, uniquely, citrus fruit.
Vertical Field of Ra’anana makes the Vertical Farm, a modular, moveable soil-based platform that can grow 200 types of organic, pesticide-free crops and requires no special training to operate.
The Vertical Farm can grow hundreds of types of crops indoors or outdoors at a supermarket, restaurant or another retail outlet. Photo courtesy of Vertical Field
Vertical Farm can be placed in a 20-foot or 40-foot standalone container equipped with advanced sensors that monitor, irrigate, and fertilize crops throughout every growth stage.
Vertical Farms are up and running at some Israeli supermarkets and at Farmers & Chefs restaurant in Poughkeepsie, NY, and at Evergreen Kosher Market in Monsey, NY. Expansion across other US cities is planned.
“We offer an easy-to-use real alternative to traditional agriculture,” CEO Guy Elitzur said. “Our urban farms give new meaning to the term ‘farm-to-table,’ because one can pick their own pesticide-free greens and herbs at supermarkets, restaurants, or other retail sites.”
The Israeli startup was cited by Silicon Review as one of “50 Innovative Companies to Watch in 2019” and named by World Smart City in 2019 as “Best Startup.”
Abigail Klein Leichman is a writer and associate editor at ISRAEL21c. Prior to moving to Israel in 2007, she was a specialty writer and copy editor at a major daily newspaper in New Jersey and has freelanced for a variety of newspapers and periodicals since 1984.
Vertical Garden Operation Utilizes Shipping Container
Tim and Harline Moyer, owners of The Farm at River’s Bend, are embarking on a new adventure at their property east of Whitefish. They’re beginning a vertical garden operation aimed at supplying local restaurants with fresh lettuce even in the depths of winter
Harline and Tim Moyer, and Dustin Lang at The Farm at River’s Bend east of Whitefish. The Moyers are beginning a vertical container farm on their property. (Heidi Desch/Whitefish Pilot)
By HEIDI DESCH
Editor | November 18, 2020
On the outside, it looks like a regular shipping container, but inside the promise of a full-fledged garden full of greens is represented by young sprouts.
Tim and Harline Moyer, owners of The Farm at River’s Bend, are embarking on a new adventure at their property east of Whitefish. They’re beginning a vertical garden operation aimed at supplying local restaurants with fresh lettuce even in the depths of winter.
The Moyers moved to Whitefish in the spring after running their own farm in Hawaii. They have a friend who suggested they move here, so they bought 10 acres of land and brought along their plan to operate a vertical garden.
Colored by blue and red lights, young plants begin to sprout inside the vertical container garden at The Farm at River’s Bend. (Heidi Desch/Whitefish Pilot)
“We can operate year-round sustainably because it’s not subject to the weather,” Tim said. “There’s no herbicides and no pesticides.”
Sitting on their property is a Freight Farms container that’s fully equipped to operate as a hydroponic garden. One container can grow as much food as would be produced on 2.5 acres of land and they hope to eventually have four containers, which would grow the equivalent of 10 acres worth of land.
“That will leave us plenty of space for the horses to run around,” Tim said standing beside the container. “We want to provide fresh lettuce and be good stewards of the land, and this will let us do both.”
The Moyers own the Lahaina Family Farms, a sustainable organic educational farm, on Maui. The farm operates with volunteers, and it was one volunteer who owns restaurants in New York City that introduced them to the concept of Freight Farms, a hydroponic container farm.
Tim was intrigued by the idea and knew it worked on some of the same concepts their farm did such as using as little water as possible for the plants, but the cost of electricity in Hawaii made it cost-prohibitive to run such an operation. But when the Moyers moved to Montana they knew they wanted to begin building their vertical greens farm here.
Freight Farms is a Boston-based agricultural technology company that manufactures and sells container farms, which are retrofitted 40-foot freight containers that come with a hydroponic farm system that utilizes technology to create the optimal growing conditions.
Once the vertical farm is fully operational, the Moyers expect to be harvesting 1,200 heads of lettuce per week with 13,000 plants growing at one time.
“We can deliver it at 2 p.m. and then it’s on the table at 5 p.m.,” Tim said. “It’s quick farm to table — the chef orders it, we pick it that day and then deliver it.”
A family friend Dustin Lang runs the container farm monitoring the software that runs the LED lighting and nutrient irrigation system designed to make the leafy greens or potential herbs grow at optimal levels.
Dustin Lang walks between the rows that will eventually be planted with lettuce for the hydroponic vertical garden. LED lights cast blue and red light onto the plants for optimal growth. (Heidi Desch/Whitefish Pilot)
Lang said it was a visit as a child that he took to Disney World’s Epcot and a display on life on Mars that spurred his interest in non-traditional food cultivation.
“I have been interested in garden farming,” he said. “The more I learned about hydroponics, the more I was interested. I was tired of my job, so it seemed like a good time to come here and join them.”
Plants are started in containers and then when ready are moved into a drip irrigation system that allows for vertical growing. The system uses red and blue light at set wavelengths to aid in the optimal exposure for growth, while the container maintains an ideal temperature and humidity to provide plants with the right climate for growth.
The hydroponic system delivers the right amount of water to plants during the various stages of growth.
The Moyers plan to begin selling to restaurants, but as they expand they’d also like to sell directly to customers. In addition, they expect to follow the same model as their farm in Hawaii with education by bringing on volunteers to work in the container farm.
For more information, visit www.thefarmatriversbend.com.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Thrive Container Website!
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Click the link below to check out the Thrive website!
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Vintage Hospitality Group Expands Its State of The Art Hydroponic Farm
This addition lets MGM Greens work within multiple environments to grow additional produce allowing a diverse crop yield for its restaurants, Vintage Cafe and Vintage Year, both 50 feet away. With the Greenery expansion, the group is selling retail and also plans to host its own local neighborhood farmers market on a monthly basis
October 21, 2020
In partnership with Alabama Power, Vintage Hospitality Group recently expanded MGM Greens by adding Freight Farm’s Greenery, a fully climate-controlled hydroponic farm built inside of a compact 320 sq. ft. container.
This smart farm is self-contained, growing vertically and hydroponically without soil, getting its nutrition from water and light energy from powerful LEDs. Through these climate-controlled components, plants can thrive inside the containers offering the capability to harvest fresh produce multiple times a week and grow 365 days a year.
This addition lets MGM Greens work within multiple environments to grow additional produce allowing a diverse crop yield for its restaurants, Vintage Cafe and Vintage Year, both 50 feet away. With the Greenery expansion, the group is selling retail and also plans to host its own local neighborhood farmers market on a monthly basis.
“Purchasing the second Greenery has allowed us to now be able to curate our menu based on new successful crops,” said Vintage Hospitality Group’s Executive Chef Eric Rivera. “It will further be maximizing growing potential as it also offers the capability for multiple test crops for upcoming menus at our new restaurant, Ravello.”
While Vintage Hospitality Group’s flagship restaurant Vintage Year is a fine dining establishment, Vintage Café is a coffee shop, daytime eatery, and retail store. As the group also owns MGM Greens, it will be opening City Fed and Ravello restaurant in 2021.
Vintage Hospitality Group’s national press accolades include receiving mentions in the New York Times, U.S. News & World Report, Forbes, and Newsweek Magazines. In addition to being named a Smart Catch Leader, Executive Chef Eric Rivera has been recognized by the James Beard Foundation as a winner of its Blended Burger competition. Chef Eric has also led Vintage Year to be named one of OpenTable’s 100 Most Romantic Restaurants in America and a Traveler’s Choice winner by Trip Advisor.
Vintage Hospitality Group is dedicated to providing guests with the finest culinary selections, premium coffees, specialty teas, outstanding wines, and spirits along with unparalleled customer service.
For more information about Vintage Hospitality Group, visit www.vintagehospitalitygroup.com.
US - AppHarvest Expands Educational Container Farm Program For Eastern Kentucky Students
The Rowan County container farm joins AppHarvest’s inaugural container farm serving Shelby Valley High School students in Pike County. Both are part of AppHarvest’s high school AgTech program, which provides Eastern Kentucky students with knowledge about the importance of eating healthy and hands-on experience growing fruits and vegetables in high-tech environments
Rowan County Senior High School Students
To Receive Hands-On, High-Tech Growing Experience
October 13, 2020
Morehead, Ky. — AppHarvest announced today the expansion of its educational high-tech container farm program for Eastern Kentucky students, unveiling a new container farm unit in Rowan County. The program demonstrates the company’s ongoing commitment to fostering interest in high-tech farming, as it seeks to create America’s AgTech capital from within Appalachia.
The retrofitted shipping container will serve as a hands-on agricultural classroom for students at Rowan County Senior High School, allowing them to grow and provide fresh, nutritious fruits and vegetables to their classmates and those in need in and around Morehead. The county is home to AppHarvest’s first controlled environment agriculture facility, a massive 2.76-million-square-foot farm that opens later this month. The facility will employ more than 300 and grow tomatoes to be sold through the top 25 grocers nationwide.
The educational container farm’s arrival will be formally celebrated at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 13, with live music and refreshments, as acclaimed Kentucky muralists Often Seen Rarely Spoken (OSRS) work with the high school’s art students to paint the container farm’s exterior. Attendees will have the opportunity to tour the container farm and learn about its high-tech tools, as well as see butterhead lettuce starters growing on the container’s vertical columns.
The container farm is 2,880 cubic feet, weighs 7.5 tons, and includes space to grow up to 3,600 seedlings and 4,500 mature plants all at once using 256 vertical crop columns. The container’s unique design utilizes cutting-edge LED lighting and closed-loop irrigation systems to allow students to grow far more than traditional open-field agriculture. For instance, they can grow up to 500 full heads of lettuce, or 1,000 miniature heads, as part of a single crop if they desire.
The Rowan County container farm joins AppHarvest’s inaugural container farm serving Shelby Valley High School students in Pike County. Both are part of AppHarvest’s high school AgTech program, which provides Eastern Kentucky students with knowledge about the importance of eating healthy and hands-on experience growing fruits and vegetables in high-tech environments.
Students at Shelby Valley High School have grown leafy greens, donating them to those in need through a backpack program and food pantry. Guests in attendance will include Rocky Adkins, senior adviser to Gov. Andy Beshear; Rowan County Schools Superintendent John Maxey; Rowan County Judge-Executive Harry Clark; Rowan County High School Principal Brandy Carver; and Morehead Mayor Laura White-Brown. All social distancing protocols will be strictly followed, with all in attendance wearing face masks and remaining at least six feet apart while enjoying festivities.
The Rowan County Senior High School container farm program will be led by agriculture teacher Bradley McKinney. The program’s curriculum combines existing agricultural education with six new units focusing on leading AgTech advancements. McKinney said the container farm will allow students to be competitive in the national Supervised Agricultural Experience Program, which, along with Future Farmers of America (FFA) and traditional classroom instruction, is an integral part of agriculture education.
The program requires students to gain hands-on experience through agriculture-based entrepreneurship, placement programs, or research. “The container farm is the exact type of hands-on tool that excites students and shows first-hand the excitement of modern farming,” McKinney said. “Students can have their own projects and learn all about entrepreneurship, as they make decisions about what to grow and how to distribute it.”
About AppHarvest
AppHarvest is building some of the world’s largest indoor farms, combining conventional agricultural techniques with today’s technology to grow non-GMO, chemical-free fruits and vegetables to be sold to the top 25 U.S. grocers.
The company has developed a unique system to reduce water usage by 90% compared to typical farms, as a 10-acre rainwater retention pond pairs with sophisticated circular irrigation systems. The system also eliminates agricultural runoff entirely.
By locating within Appalachia, AppHarvest benefits from being less than a day’s drive to 70% of the U.S. population. That lowers diesel use in transportation costs by 80%, allowing the company’s fresher produce to compete against low-cost foreign imports.
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.
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
Tri-State, EPRI Team To Officially Bring ‘Farm In A Box’ Program To Moffat County School District
Tri-State will install one of EPRI’s cutting-edge indoor agriculture facilities on the grounds of Moffat County High School later this year, according to a press release from Tri-State
09-23-20 | Joshua Carney | Follow
Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association’s decades-long relationship with the Electric Power Research Institute is about to bear fruit for Moffat County School District students and the Craig community as a whole as the “Farm in a Box” project moves forward.
Tri-State will install one of EPRI’s cutting-edge indoor agriculture facilities on the grounds of Moffat County High School later this year, according to a press release from Tri-State.
The “Farm in a Box” is valued at $250,000 – which is covered as part of Tri-State’s EPRI membership – and will provide a new source for fresh produce in the region and educational opportunities for MCSD students. Moffat County High School Business Teacher Krista Schenck presented the project to City Council in early September. The project has the capability to produce various crops, such as lettuce, kale, arugula herbs, flowers, carrots, and radishes, year-round inside the shipping container.
“Tri-State invests in its EPRI membership and is keen to find immediately applicable uses for the remarkable technologies that emerge to benefit the electric sector and society at large,” said Tri-State CEO Duane Highley in a press release. “We also recognize that the transition brought on by our Responsible Energy Plan will have a major impact on coal-dependent communities, so if we can leverage a program to bring new educational, economic, and lifestyle benefits to support Moffat County schools, we are proud and eager to do so.”
An EPRI-led team is constructing the facility – a 40-foot long shipping container equipped with efficient lighting, temperature control, and plumbing infrastructure needed to grow crops inside the container on a year-round basis.
Since 2015, EPRI has been examining the operational, technological, sustainability, and environmental characteristics for indoor agriculture, by installing container farms across the United States and assessing their performance with local electricity providers, academic institutions, and other community organizations.“
As an emerging industry in urban and rural areas throughout the United States, indoor farming can help us use our energy and water resources more efficiently,” said EPRI President Arshad Mansoor. “EPRI’s indoor food production research aims to help electric utilities better understand, plan for, and engage with this novel enterprise while also offering educational opportunities for project collaborators, the local community, and the next generation of farmers to address food availability challenges.”
According to Tri-State, EPRI staff will monitor the container to evaluate nutrient quality of the produce, utility program compatibility, community impacts, sustainability performance, technology trends, market drivers, electricity load profiles, and other broader environmental and economic aspects of indoor food production for the first two years following installation. EPRI will conduct research on the container and MCSD will be the sole owner and operator of the equipment.
“Moffat County School District is excited about the learning potential this program affords its career and technical education students in our community,” said Principal Sarah Hepworth of Moffat County High School.“
Through the collaboration between agricultural, business, marketing, and culinary programs, the opportunities to learn about horticulture, conservation, food regulations, business, and project management, marketing, sales, and food preparation are endless for MCSD students,” said Schenck. “Students and faculty look forward to utilizing this partnership and the technology of ‘Farm in a Box’ to grow crops from microgreens to lettuce and carrots.”
Preparing the container farm will take several weeks and involve manufacturing and a customized graphic treatment of its exterior. School officials are targeting early to mid-November for its arrival in Craig. The EPRI team will consult with the school district on installation and operation.“
This is a true team effort,” added Highley. “One of the seven cooperative principles under which we operate is ‘Concern for Community,’ so we’re excited to see the school district adopt this project and turn it into a real asset for community betterment.”In January, Tri-State announced its Responsible Energy Plan, which will transition the company to more renewable energy production for its members to address changes in the industry and to support new state requirements for clean energy. The effort will result in the closure of the Craig Generation Station by 2030, and Tri-State has been working with state and local officials to support transition efforts in the community.jcarney@craigdailypress.com
How Sodexo, Ford, And Others Use Sustainable Farming As CSR Platforms
More than ever, it’s important for companies to show that they don’t only just care for their customers and employees, but for the health, well-being, and prosperity of their community as well
4 Companies Championing
Social Responsibility With Sustainable Farming
More than ever, it’s important for companies to show that they don’t only just care for their customers and employees, but for the health, well-being, and prosperity of their community as well. We’ve seen many institutions use container farming as a way to provide people with access to healthy food, education, and jobs. See how four of our corporate customers–Sodexo, Everlane, SEFCU, and Ford–are using container farms in their corporate social responsibility initiatives. (Header image: Times Union).
1) Sodexo champions sustainability on campus
With over 420,000 employees at 34,000 sites in 80 countries, Sodexo is one of the largest multinational corporations. Over the past several years, Sodexo has dedicated countless resources to promoting nutrition, health, and wellness to its customers and employees.
One concrete way Sodexo works to bring sustainability and wellness to its global customer base is through the Better Tomorrow 2025 plan. The plan is Sodexo’s commitment to protecting and rehabilitating the environment, supporting local community development, promoting health and wellness, and developing their team to promote diversity. To achieve these goals, Sodexo partnered with Alliance for a Healthier Generation, Fair Trade USA, the Marine Stewardship Council, the Sustainable Food Lab, the Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops, and Freight Farms.
“Our ‘Better Tomorrow Plan’ specifically focuses on individuals, our communities, and our environment…Freight Farms has given us a great opportunity to have that engagement with students on a higher level, especially with sustainability.”
— Heather Vaillete, District Manager, Sodexo Campus Services & Independent Schools
Since 2016, Sodexo has worked with multiple universities and high-school customers (Clark University and Cumberland High School to name just two) to place Freight Farms on their campuses. The presence of the farm on these campuses is a sure way to add sustainable and fresh produce to students’ everyday diets. Sodexo found that using Freight Farms container farms can continuously provide students healthy fresh food options year-round without reliance on resource-inefficient fresh food supply chains.
2) Everlane & Saitex provide employees with food-safe greens
Everlane is a relatively new company (founded in 2010) which is taking huge strides in reforming the fashion industry. With a focus on “radical transparency”, Everlane’s mission is to sell high-quality clothing with fair pricing and ethical sourcing practices from factories around the world. In doing so, they seek to forge a stronger connection between the end purchaser and the people making the luxury goods in the hopes of instilling consumers with a greater sense of community and transparency.
While Everlane commits to its values all year round, they go above and beyond for their Black Friday Fund. On a day where other retailers focus on making profits, Everlane dedicates Black Friday shopping proceeds to benefit one of their factories.
In 2016, they used the Black Friday Fund to donate motorcycle helmets to workers at the Saitex denim factory in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to protect them while commuting.
In 2017, Everlane and Saitex raised $300,000 for the Black Friday Fund and used the money to gift Saitex factory employees Freight Farms containers.
Everlane video to promote Black Friday Fund donations to benefit the workers at Saitex Denim in Vietnam.
The hydroponic farms serve an important function for the factory employees. As a result of virtually non-existent regulations, Vietnamese food supplies have been repeatedly doused with dangerous pesticides that are unsafe for consumption (see source). The hydroponic container farms are protected from pests and require no pesticides, making the fresh crops growing inside much safer to eat. With the three hydroponic container farms, Everlane will make a huge difference in the lives of hundreds of Saitex employees by providing them with two fresh and pesticide-free meals a day. You can learn more about the initiative in our joint press release!
Since 2017, Everlane has continued to champion important causes. In 2018, the company partnered with the Surfrider Foundation clean up across the U.S. In 2019, they continued on the theme by partnering with Oceania to help reduce single-use plastic.
3) SEFCU & Boys & Girls Club educate kids about farming & nutrition
SEFCU is a powerful name in the banking world. Established in 1934, it is one of the 50 largest credit unions in the United States, with more than $3 billion in assets. Not only does SEFCU have a lot of money – they also have a lot of heart. From their headquarters in Albany, NY, they are dedicated to making a positive difference in the communities they serve. They assist thousands of organizations through their 2008 Banking with a Purpose initiative and give millions of dollars towards community financial education programs.
They don’t limit themselves to just helping with financial matters but also work hard for food reform to prevent obesity and food insecurity. Over the past three years, they purchased two hydroponic container farms. One resides at the Albany office, where it grows food for the employee cafe and various non-profits in the area. The company also introduced a Produce Shuttle to transport donated fresh food from the farm, restaurants, and food pantries to those in need.
SEFCU’s second farm was donated directly to the Boys & Girls Club chapter in Troy, NY to give kids access to healthy and fresh food, teach them about farming, and–eventually–become a revenue driver for the program.
4) Ford Motors & Cass Community Social Services provide important community access to fresh food.
In 2017, the Bill Ford Better World Challenge awarded $250,000 to the Ford Mobile Farm Project in Detroit. The project involved donating a Freight Farms container farm (named the Ford Freight Farm) and a Ford F-150 pickup to Cass Community Social Services (CCSS) with the goal of bringing fresh food access and nutrition education to at-risk Detroit residents. CCSS was founded in 2002 to fight poverty in the Detroit area. The non-profit focuses on democratizing food access, health services, housing, and jobs to Detroit residents living below the poverty line.
“The greatest feature for us is the ability to have fresh, free, organic food all year long.”
— Reverend Faith Fowler, Executive Director of CCSS
The contents of the Ford Freight Farm will be used to supply the CCSS community kitchen with a variety of fresh leafy greens to provide important nutritional benefits to the 700,000+ meals served each year. In addition to supplying the kitchens, the Ford Freight Farm will provide part-time employment to adults with developmental disabilities. Starting in 2019, CCSS has been using the farm as a revenue stream to fund other projects, selling high-quality greens to restaurants in the area.
Create Multiple Streams of Income With Container Farming
Right now, despite COVID-19 repercussions, food remains a necessity, and there exists an opportunity to build resilience into our business models. As a result, many businesses, food-related or not, can create a viable new stream of income by growing your own produce with a container farm
CURRENT CHALLENGES
Right now, despite COVID-19 repercussions, food remains a necessity, and there exists an opportunity to build resilience into our business models.
As a result, many businesses, food-related or not, can create a viable new stream of income by growing your own produce with a container farm.
WHAT IS CONTAINER FARMING?
Container farming uses a hydroponic growing system to commercially grow a variety of fresh produce more sustainably and year-round. This type of growth is done in a controlled environment that is time, space, and resource-efficient.
The real value is not only the produce grown, but the ability for a container farm to offer a community or business a local source of produce, a source of employment, and an additional stream of income.
GROWING FOR THE LOCAL COMMUNITY
Those who work closely with our food systems know that growing your own food is not going to solve food security immediately. However, we can’t dismiss the benefit of growing food closer to the people who consume it.
If you’re a co-op store, the container farm is behind your store and ready to fill your shelves. If you’re a nonprofit that cooks meals, sourcing produce is one logistic you can cross off your list. If your community is remote, or further from city centers, the importance of having a local source of food is not lost on you. Access to local food becomes even more critical in light of current events that have shaken our supply chains.
Abbey Gardens purchased a Growcer to ensure that they were able to generate revenue year-round instead of seasonally.
YEAR-ROUND RELIABILITY
Growcer systems are plug-and-play systems built to operate year-round among all conditions. The system allows you to consistently harvest produce and benefit from this stream of income year-round.
If you rely on a seasonal bump for a boost, this consistent source of income increases the foundation you have to work with.
The hydroponic growing system also allows multiple types of crops can be grown at once from over 140 different varieties of produce and the ability to swap what you’re growing to meet demand.
The Yellowknife Co-op has created their own produce line and branding for their Growcer greens.
PROOF OF CONCEPT
Can a container farm really be an extra source of income? We know it can. We’ve collaborated with many diverse communities and organizations that have tailored a Growcer system to work for them.
For example, businesses like Abbey Gardens and The Yellowknife Co-op used the Growcer system to add extra revenue to their main line of business. For the Gitmaxmak’ay Nisga’a Society, they are adding the system to create an entirely new source of revenue for their non-profit.
While a container farm can be a source of extra income, it has to be feasible first. You must factor your situation, your market, and your financial options when investigating if this is a fit.
Take the first step and plug in your specifics into our ROI calculator to evaluate the feasibility of a container farm for you.
StephanieMay 4, 2020
Vertical Farms: The Height of Sustainability In A Post-COVID World
Vertical farms are innovative soil-based indoor farms that bring production of food to the location where it is consumed: supermarkets, local distribution sites, and restaurants
Among the many indelible images of the COVID-19 crisis have been the photos of mountains of surplus produce rotting in fields while millions of Americans go hungry. Urban areas are especially hard hit as supply chains are disrupted due to coronavirus fallout.
Vertical farms are innovative soil-based indoor farms that bring production of food to the location where it is consumed: supermarkets, local distribution sites, and restaurants.
Vertical Field, an Israeli start-up, has a container up and running at a Poughkeepsie, New York, restaurant and arriving soon at Evergreen supermarket in Monsey, N.Y. Its global clientele for its next-gen vertical farming systems includes Facebook, Intel, Apple, Isrotel, Microsoft, and many more.
Benefits include:
Consistent Supply
Reduced Inventory Waste
Less Human Handling
More Sterile Environment
Modular, expandable, and moveable farm
Bug-free and pesticide-free – healthy, fresh, and clean produce
Uses 90% less water
For more information:
Vertical Field
www.verticalfield.com
Five Reasons To Go Vertical
The rapidly increasing global population means you can be sure of two things: there’s a never-ending demand for food and a rapid reduction in the availability of land on which you can grow it
The rapidly increasing global population means you can be sure of two things: there’s a never-ending demand for food and a rapid reduction in the availability of land on which you can grow it.
The UN has predicted that the global population will surpass the 9 billion mark by 2050 which leaves government officials and scientists scratching their heads as to how we’ll provide for this colossal amount of mouths to feed. Enter vertical farming. Vertical farming presents itself as one of the answers to our population growth, which in short allows plants, fruit, and veg to grow upwards rather than outwards.
With a booming culinary industry gracing the bustling global hubs such as London, New York, and Tokyo, urban farms provide a controlled and automated climate to grow more delicate niche fruit and veg, as well as mass producing heavily demanded greens and herbs on that were once upon a time confined to their natural habitats.
Although, when it comes to vertical farming the question is not “what you can grow?”, it’s “what should you grow?”. Extensive R&D shows that leafy greens and herbs remain the most profitable and sustainable crops to mass-produce at present. Vertical farming will become a huge part of the agricultural sector in the very near future, but why is it taking off so quickly? Here are 5 reasons why:
Increase your crops per m²
Although it may look smaller than your average outdoor farm, a vertical system can equate to 4-6 X more growth surface than your standard glasshouse or polytunnel area. 1 acre of vertical farm on average produces 4-6 acres depending on the crop density and cycle duration.
Protection from the elements
Vertical farming allows the grower to exploit the advantages of growing in a fully controllable climate, safe from the natural elements such as wind, rain, and frost, meaning post-harvest spoiling and crop wastage becomes significantly less of a problem. Additionally, the secure environment results in zero pests and invasive bacteria, which allows the grower to provide organic pesticide-free produce.
Reduce water consumption
Vertical farming systems allow produce to grow with 70-95% less water required for normal plant cultivation. Taking lettuce as an example: open-field production requires 250L/kg of lettuce and greenhouse systems consume 20L/kg. However, vertical systems come in at a minimal 1L/kg of lettuce, with the only water extracted during the growth cycle being that of the plant’s consumption, with any leftover water being recycled back through the filtering system and reintroduced to the irrigation.
Standardized crop growth and yields
With vertical farming technology constantly improving, the ease of creating a completely controlled environment is increasing by the day. The use of bespoke LED spectrums, automated irrigation, and climate control allows the farm to standardize each growth cycle, producing the same amount, quality and size crop, which in turn results in standardized yields.
Local production
Being a controlled environment, vertical farms can settle wherever they choose, with climates and weather patterns becoming obsolete. Local production means a positive impact on local communities, resulting in an influx of jobs and contribution to smaller economies. Its local production and harvesting of crops reduce the amount of ‘food miles’, meaning a decrease in the global carbon footprint. Research has found that vertical farms lower overall CO2 emissions by 67-92% when compared with greenhouses.
Bridge Vertical Farming partners with Urban Crop Solutions to provide high-tech automated container farms, research facilities, and bespoke vertical farming solutions.
For more information:
Bridge Vertical Farming
Keynor Lane
Chalk Lane
Chichester
PO20 7LL
bridgeverticalfarming.co.uk
bridge@urbancropsolutions.co.uk
01243 641789
Publication date: Tue 31 Mar 2020
Coalition For Sustainable Organics Disappointed in Latest Attempts Center For Food Safety To Restrict Supplies Organic Foods through Lawsuit
Lee Frankel, the executive director of the CSO stated, “It is disappointing to see groups target pioneering organic farmers that use the most appropriate organic growing methods adapted to their site-specific conditions on their farms to meet the needs of consumers
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA March 3, 2020 – The Coalition for Sustainable Organics (CSO) is saddened by the latest attempts by the Center for Food Safety and their allies to limit fair competition and organic supplies in the market through legal action.
Lee Frankel, the executive director of the CSO stated, “It is disappointing to see groups target pioneering organic farmers that use the most appropriate organic growing methods adapted to their site-specific conditions on their farms to meet the needs of consumers. The members of the CSO are strongly committed to the integrity of organic standards and the organic label. The groups behind the lawsuit failed to convince the members of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) to prohibit container and hydroponic production methods after significant industry debate and submission of public comments. Instead of unifying the industry after the decision made by representatives of the organic community at the NOSB, the CFS is seeking to eliminate public input to achieve their goals of restricting competition to drive up the price of organics for organic consumers to allow favored producers to increase their profit margins.”
Frankel continued, “Growers using containers adhere to the U.S. Department of Agriculture organic standards under the National Organic Program (NOP) and have been allowed to grow certified organic produce since the initiation of the NOP more than 25 years ago. After extensive study in 2010, the USDA through the NOP opted not to change these high standards for certifying organic produce – and affirmed that organic produce can be grown through containerized methods. After additional review in 2015-2017, the National Organic Standards Board voted to reject a proposed prohibition on container and hydroponic systems.”
Karen Archipley of Archi’s Acres of Escondido, California added “Our production systems are managed in accordance with the federal organic law. We chose to incorporate hydro-organic methods at our operations since it is the most appropriate way to promote ecological balance by drastically reducing our water use, conserve biological diversity by preserving valuable habitat while still incorporating the microbial processes described by organic pioneers to recycle nutrients to nourish our crops. Every choice we make and every input we use must be audited and approved by USDA-accredited certifying agents like any other Organic Farmer.”
Archipley continued “Changing the rules now would limit the amount of organic produce available to the public – just as the public is demanding more organic produce. This is not an issue that should be settled in the courts or politicized. If a grower meets USDA standards for organic certification, they should be able to market organic produce, whether they grow in soil or any other sustainable, certified organic growing media.
Containerized Vertical Farming Company Freight Farms Secures $15 Million
Freight Farms — a global innovation leader of containerized vertical farming — announced that it has raised $15 million in Series B funding
By Noah Long ● February 15, 2020
Freight Farms — a global innovation leader of containerized vertical farming — announced that it has raised $15 million in Series B funding
Freight Farms — a global innovation leader of containerized vertical farming — announced that it has raised $15 million in Series B funding led by Ospraie Ag Science. Spark Capital also participated in the round. Including this funding round, the company has raised over $28 million.
“It’s a big step forward for the industry when financial markets recognize and champion the value of creating a distributed food system,” said Freight Farms CEO Brad McNamara. “Aligned on mission-driven growth as a team, there is a massive opportunity before us to scale across global markets, propelling meaningful technology that’s already doing good.”
Freight Farms’ Greenery is able to produce over 500 varieties of crops like calendula at commercial scale year-round using 99.8% less water than traditional agriculture. Four rows of the company’s panels on a flexible moving rack system are able to house more than 8,000 living plants at once thus creating a dense canopy of fresh crops.
This round of funding will be used for advancing the Freight Farms’ platform through continued innovation with new services designed to benefit its growing global network of farmers and corporate partners. And this investment follows the announcement of Freight Farms’ strategic national partnership with Sodexo to grow food onsite at educational and corporate campuses nationwide and will support ongoing contributions to collaborative research projects and partnerships.
“Freight Farms has redefined vertical farming and made decentralizing the food system something that’s possible and meaningful right now, not in the ‘future of food,'” added Jason Mraz, President of Ospraie Ag Science. “Full traceability, high nutrition without herbicides and pesticides, year-round availability – these are elements that should be inherent to food sourcing. Freight Farms’ Greenery makes it possible to meet this burgeoning global demand from campuses, hospitals, municipal institutions and corporate businesses, while also enabling small business farmers to meet these needs for their customers.”
Launched in 2010 by McNamara and COO Jon Friedman, Freight Farms debuted the first vertical hydroponic farm built inside an intermodal shipping container called the Leafy Green Machine with the mission of democratizing and decentralizing the local production of fresh, healthy food. And this innovation, with integral IoT data platform farmhand, launched a new category of indoor farming and propelled Freight Farms into the largest network of IoT-connected farms in the world.
Freight Farm’s 2019 launch of the Greenery raised the industry bar, advancing the limits of containerized vertical farming to put the most progressive, accessible, and scalable vertical farming technology into the hands of people of diverse industry, age, and mission.
“With the Greenery and farmhand, we’ve created an infrastructure that lowers the barrier of entry into food production, an industry that’s historically been difficult to get into,” explained Friedman. “With this platform, we’re also able to harness and build upon a wider set of technologies including cloud IoT, automation, and machine learning, while enabling new developments in plant science for future generations.”
Freight Farms has been an integral part of scientific and academic research studies in collaboration with industry-leading organizations, including NASA (exploring self-sustaining crop production) and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (exploring the integration of CRISPR seed genetics and vertical farming to create commercial opportunity).
The company’s customers hail from education, hospitality, retail, corporate, and nonprofit sectors across 44 states and 25 countries, and include independent small business farmers — who distribute to restaurants, farmers’ markets, and businesses such as Central Market, Meijer, and Wendy’s