Welcome to iGrow News, Your Source for the World of Indoor Vertical Farming
Infarm Looks to Raise $200m For Vertical Farm Expansion
Berlin-based Infarm has closed an initial $140m of a planned $200m Series C funding round, said people involved in the deal, at more than double the valuation at which it raised $100m a year ago
German Start-Up Grows Herbs and Salads
Inside Supermarkets and Restaurants
Infarm’s latest funding deal will value the company in the hundreds of millions of dollars © Simone M.Neumann - www.simone-m-neumann.de
June 28, 2020
by Tim Bradshaw in London
Infarm, a German start-up developing indoor farms, is closing in on a new $200m investment, hoping to capitalise on renewed investor appetite for companies that can address food supply problems that arose during the pandemic.
Berlin-based Infarm has closed an initial $140m of a planned $200m Series C funding round, said people involved in the deal, at more than double the valuation at which it raised $100m a year ago. The deal values the company in the hundreds of millions of dollars, these people said.
Unlike other vertical farming ventures that install crops in huge warehouses, Infarm’s smaller “modular” units sit on supermarket aisles and inside restaurants. These hydroponic farms can avoid the use of pesticides thanks to a tightly controlled environment, and reduce lengthy supply chains by offering produce that is fresh at the point of sale.
Hundreds of its small farms growing herbs and salads can be found on the shelves of supermarkets after it struck deals with Marks and Spencer in the UK and Kroger in the US, as well as European supermarkets including Metro, Casino, and Migros. Last month it signed up Aldi in Germany.
LGT Lightstone, the “impact investing” arm of the Princely House of Liechtenstein, is said to be among Infarm’s new investors, joining venture capitalists including Atomico, Balderton, TriplePoint, Cherry Ventures, and LocalGlobe. LGT Lightstone is also an investor in Lilium, the German air-taxi developer.
Infarm’s modular units sit on supermarket aisles and inside restaurants © Simone M.Neumann - www.simone-m-neumann.de
“Vertical farming is a pandemic-proof business,” said one investor.
Infarm declined to comment. LGT Lightstone did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But while the Covid-19 pandemic’s pressures on food supply chains have opened opportunities for new producers such as Infarm, it has also hit demand from restaurants, which make up a smaller portion of the company’s business.
While tech investing has continued during the pandemic, lockdowns make it harder for potential investors to perform due diligence on hardware-based companies such as Infarm.
The company was founded in 2013 by Osnat Michaeli and brothers Erez and Guy Galonska. It competes with several other venture-backed indoor farming start-ups including Plenty, Bowery Farming and AeroFarms.
The group was founded in 2013 by Osnat Michaeli, pictured, along with brothers Erez and Guy Galonska © Simone M.Neumann - www.simone-m-neumann.de
Bowery has raised more than $140m from investors including Alphabet’s GV, according to Crunchbase, while SoftBank-backed Plenty has a $400m war chest.
Infarm’s latest fundraising, when complete, would allow it to close the gap with Plenty, which also counts Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and former Google chief Eric Schmidt among its investors. In late March, Bloomberg reported that Plenty was looking to raise at least $100m in new financing.
However, Infarm’s expansion has outpaced Plenty, which remains largely focused on building facilities in its native California.
While larger warehouses such as Plenty’s have high upfront costs and are expensive to provide with lighting and air conditioning, Infarm argues its modular farms are easier to scale and prove appealing to retailers looking for differentiation. Investors hope that it can also build a brand of its own, unlike most agricultural suppliers.
Additional reporting by Emiko Terazono
Microgreens Launched By Vertical Farmer April Sun
Just in time for this year’s winter season, vertical farmer April Sun launched its range of sustainably grown microgreens from its new commercial-sized micro-farming facility in Melbourne
Food & Beverage | June 4, 2020
Just in time for this year’s winter season, vertical farmer April Sun launched its range of sustainably grown microgreens from its new commercial-sized micro-farming facility in Melbourne.
With a philosophy of true sustainability and paired with cutting-edge technology, the local farm wants to provide the community with a range of nutrient-packed microgreens available year-round to their nearby community.
Co-founder Darren Nichol, April Sun visionary of Australia’s cleanest and highest nutritional food supply who has a wealth of knowledge due to his agricultural background, says, “This is a particular focus of the Darebin Council. They have an actual goal to increase food production within its municipality.”
These super foods are grown without pesticides and utilise 95 percent less water than traditional farming methods due to a hydroponic based (closed loop) watering system. Co-founder Ty Dickson, April Sun technologist and facility designer, said this system guarantees the plants do not receive too little or too much water.
“The watering targets each individual plant or root system and is drained back to the holding tanks,” he said. “Traditional farming methods would see water being lost to the ground and you would use more water to achieve the same level of fertigation without the ability to recapture the excess.”
With custom-spectrum lights developed in-house, the microgreens are grown in their ideal conditions, allowing for year-round production and minimal waste.
“We use a combination of specific wavelengths of blue, red, far red and full spectrum light to stimulate the chlorophyll A and B of the plants, while giving the right signals to ensure proper colour, increased nutrients through stress and, above all, a very healthy plant,” Dickson said.
“We are a non-single use plastics company; we opt for PLA compostable packaging. Our facility uses the highest efficiency components and equipment available. We do run on electricity, although we are engaging in using 100% renewables, and are in preliminary talks with the Darebin Council to implement 100kW of solar panels on our warehouse roof.” said Dickson.
In traditional farming, external factors such as drought, pollution, soil erosion and more can impact crop success. However, the world of vertical farming is “most often done indoors in a controlled environment”, he adds. “Vertical farming when done sustainably has less impact on the environment, there are significant reductions in water usage, land usage, gas usage and many other resources. This is all achieved whilst controlling the indoor growing environment with minimal impact to it outside.”
“By controlling every factor in the plant’s environment, you end up with a high-quality product on a number of levels,” said Nichol.
“We can grow to a timeline and the removal of variables such as the weather allows us to more accurately forecast and grow to our customers’ demands. This can reduce the amount of waste and also increase consistency of supply to customers. This is a huge problem for traditional farming and is the cause for the large price jumps and shortages of produce on the market.”
To see more, click here.
Online Course: Wednesday, June 17 - Plant Response to CEA Variables - 3 PM CST
Learn how plants respond to different environmental variables and how to apply this knowledge to improve your indoor system management and crop production!
Learn how plants respond to different environmental variables and how to apply this knowledge to improve your indoor system management and crop production!
Instructor: M.S. Karla Garcia
- Hort Americas Technical Service
- Master in Plant Sciences from The University of Arizona
- Recognition by ISHS in strawberry hydroponic research
- Editor: Book Roadmap to Growing Leafy Greens and Herbs
- CEO at Microgreens FLN
DATE: Wednesday, June 17, 2020
Schedule: 3 pm to 5 pm (Central Standard Time)
Platform: ZOOM US
Price: $50 US
Once you have registered, we will make contact to provide access to our LIVE session.
Course Content
-Advantages of controlled environment agriculture
-Energy balance
-Light
a) Solar radiation
b) Artificial lighting
c) How improve net photosynthetic rate
-Wind
a) Fans/ Air circulation
-Humidity
a) Plant transpiration
-Temperature
a) Effect in plant metabolism
b) How plants respond to temperature?
c) Treatments
-CO2
-Nutrients
a) Nutrient function and uptake
-Oxygen in root zone
-Water and root zone temperature
Research For Workforce Development in Controlled Environment Ag: What Makes a Successful Indoor Farm Manager?
As indoor agriculture has grown, finding, training, and retaining a skilled workforce has emerged as an important challenge to the industry. A unique combination of plant production, tech troubleshooting, and innovation is needed among employees managing these operations
By urbanagnews
June 8, 2020
As indoor agriculture has grown, finding, training, and retaining a skilled workforce has emerged as an important challenge to the industry. A unique combination of plant production, tech troubleshooting, and innovation is needed among employees managing these operations.
What are the critical skill sets, and how can we create a larger pipeline of individuals trained in these skills so that they can contribute to CEA business success?
At Cornell University, a group led by Professor Anu Rangarajan (Director, Small Farms Program) seeks to provide answers as part of a National Science Foundation-funded research project on CEA Viability in Metro Areas.
Rangarajan’s team has conducted extensive research to date in order to understand the workforce needs of the hydroponics industry, including greenhouses and indoor vertical farms—and the research continues.
With the long-term goal of creating robust curricula for training CEA employees in mind, a team from Cornell University conducted many in-depth interviews with professional CEA growers in 2018 and 2019.
The team then organized a workshop, in consultation with The Ohio State and Agritecture Consulting, that invited a focus group of CEA operations managers to model in detail the diverse activities that they perform on the job.
The resulting chart is a detailed, peer-reviewed list of duties (responsibilities) and tasks (activities, skills) that describe the work of the expert Indoor Farm Operations Manager.
The chart is currently being reviewed by peer growers worldwide, who are asked to verify how important each skill is, and how frequently it is conducted.
Based on this input, the Indoor Farm Operations Manager chart will be used as a starting point for prioritizing future CEA training modules. After that, a deeper analysis of key individual skills will be conducted in order to translate the foundational research into a teachable vocational curriculum.
Right now, however, Rangarajan’s team is actively seeking more responses to the verification survey.
“We need your help,” she emphasizes, speaking to professional CEA growers. “We want to learn your priorities for a CEA curriculum that will enhance the skills of current or future employees.”
The survey takes approximately thirty minutes to complete and can be completely anonymously. CEA growers who complete the survey will also be provided with an Amazon gift card for $25 as a token of appreciation, although they must provide their names and email addresses in order to receive this gift.
To take the survey, register here. The Cornell team will send a survey link directly from Qualtrics.
As Rangarajan notes, “Grower input will help us prioritize the core education and training relevant to indoor agriculture,” helping provide the industry with the skilled workforce it will need to scale.
For more information about this study regarding the future of the CEA workforce, please contact project lead Anu Rangarajan (ar47@cornell.edu) or research associate Wythe Marschall (wmarschall@fas.harvard.edu).
USA: Indoor Growers Wanted For CEA Survey
"The current step in our research plan is to verify the details of this chart with peer growers worldwide via a survey", explains research associate Wythe Marschall. "It invites indoor farm managers to tell us how important each skill is, and how frequently it is conducted
A Cornell team is leading a new project to investigate how Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) compares to conventional field agriculture in terms of energy, carbon and water footprints, profitability, workforce development and scalability. Strategic FEW (food, energy, water) and Workforce Investments to Enhance Viability of Controlled Environment Agriculture in Metropolitan Areas is funded by a three-year, $2.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation, through its new funding initiative called Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems.
The workforce development research, led by Professor Anu Rangarajan (Director, Small Farms Program), consisted in 2018 and early 2019 of interviews and an intensive two-day workshop with industry experts. During that workshop, a focus group of indoor farm operations managers produced this chart detailing the duties (responsibilities) and tasks (activities, skills) that describe their work.
Survey
"The current step in our research plan is to verify the details of this chart with peer growers worldwide via a survey", explains research associate Wythe Marschall. "It invites indoor farm managers to tell us how important each skill is, and how frequently it is conducted. The survey can be completed anonymously, or growers can provide us with their names and emails to receive a $25 Amazon gift card as a token of our appreciation."
To take this survey, register here. The Cornell team will send a survey link directly from Qualtrics. Respondents may provide their names and emails to receive a $25 Amazon gift card as a token of appreciation.
Online workshops
"We are also interested to ask growers if they would be interested in a series of upcoming online workshops to help us detail what specific, teachable steps (activities) are contained within each important skill needed by indoor farm operations managers", Wythe adds. "For example, we'll ask growers to dive into the specific skill, 'Manage crop fertigation (e.g., mixing nutrients, monitoring pH, monitoring water temp),' breaking this down into teachable, specific components.
"This series of workshops will be compensated, and we are beginning to schedule it now. Any CEA farm manager is invited to participate, regardless of location or modality."
For more information about this study regarding the future of the CEA workforce, please contact project lead Anu Rangarajan (ar47@cornell.edu) or research associate Wythe Marschall (wmarschall@fas.harvard.edu).
Publication date: Tue 9 Jun 2020
AeroFarms Reveals To California North Coast Food Producers Its High-Tech Controlled Environment Agriculture
Imagine a farming method so efficient that you could grow a variety of leafy greens in half the time it traditionally takes — without any pesticides, herbicides or fungicides — and where the sun has no role
NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL March 2, 2020
CHERYL SARFATY
Imagine a farming method so efficient that you could grow a variety of leafy greens in half the time it traditionally takes — without any pesticides, herbicides or fungicides — and where the sun has no role.
It’s all done indoors, and it’s a growing trend known as controlled environment agriculture (CEA). The biggest player in the space is AeroFarms, a Newark, New Jersey-based operation that was among the businesses that participated at the Feb. 25 North Coast Specialty Food & Beverage Conference.
“We track everything that happens to the plants, from its genetics all the way to harvest. And by measuring along the way, we can use that data to learn more about what makes plants grow,” said AeroFarms Chief Financial Officer Guy Blanchard. “The ability to do this is transformative, it’s brand new if you think of the difference with field farming, where you can’t control the temperature and you can’t control the weather. You’re really reacting and trying to respond to the things that Mother Nature is throwing at you.”
In addition to AeroFarms, which is privately held, there are a variety of CEA players in the marketplace, including Bright Farms, Little Leaf Farms, Bowery Farms, Revol Greens and Plenty, which is based in South San Francisco. The majority of these businesses are headquartered in the Midwest and further east, where bad weather makes it impossible to grow the greens outdoors.
There are a variety of growing methods within the CEA category, the two most common being hydroponics and aeroponics. With hydroponics, plants are grown with mineral nutrients in a water base rather than in soil. Aeroponics, which is AeroFarms’ method, also uses no soil, instead of planting seeds in fabric and misting them with mineral nutrients.
AeroFarms grows 800 varieties of edible greens, such as lettuce, arugula, and spinach. The plants require 95% less water than on farms and are completely grown in 12 to 14 days, rather than 30 to 45 days in the field. The company’s retail brand, Dream Greens, is sold in grocery stores in New Jersey and New York.
Blanchard declined to disclose the company’s financial metrics. According to ROI-NJ, a New Jersey business publication, AeroFarms raised $40 million in 2017.
The vertical farming market size was valued at $2.23 billion in 2018 and projected to hit $12.77 billion by 2026, according to Allied Marketing Research.
There’s going to be change, but I don’t want to lose our small farmers.
Pegi Ball, Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market
Pegi Ball and Janet Ciel, who each run farmers markets in the North Bay, said at the conference they wonder how the CEA industry might someday impact the region’s farmers“.
There’s going to be change, but I don’t want to lose our small farmers,” said Ball, who manages the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts. “It’s more than just lettuce and that sort of thing. It’s the culture, it’s the tradition, it’s our community, so that’s what concerns me.”Ciel, who manages the Healdsburg Certified Farmers Market and also works with the Agricultural Institute of Marin’s Stonestown Farmers Market in San Francisco, came away impressed by Blanchard’s presentation, but also curious about how traditional farming and controlled environment agriculture could potentially coexist.
“I think the technology is brilliant,” Ciel said.
“I just think the small farmer is … dealing with the weather and pests and (various other factors), and they don’t have the funding or the education to pull something like this off. Is there something there that is for them?”
Blanchard views the growing CEA industry to be more comparable to — and therefore more competitive with — commercial food-processing operations than traditional farming because of the costs involved, from investing in capital equipment to staffing, of which AeroFarms employs about 160 people.
“If you’re going to have a farm manager, a safety manager, a shipping manager and a maintenance manager (among the staff), you may be up to like $600,000 a year in wages and benefits before you’ve even gotten to anything really related to the farm,” Blanchard said. “In many ways, even though the processes are different, this isn’t different than some other food-processing (businesses) necessarily, and you’ve got to manage it.”
I’m certain we’ll continue to see new and different commodities take advantage of innovative growing techniques of a controlled environment.
Mary Coppola, United Fresh Produce Association
Another reason CEA poses little to no threat to farmers, at least at this point in time, is because food grown in this vertical indoor environment is limited primarily to leafy greens. Greenhouses have more latitude.
“There are a number of companies who are growing greenhouse strawberries, peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes with much success,” said Mary Coppola, vice president for marketing and communications at United Fresh Produce Association. The Washington, D.C.-based organization was founded in 1904 and advocates for companies in the fresh produce supply chain. “I’m certain we’ll continue to see new and different commodities take advantage of innovative growing techniques of a controlled environment.”
And where agriculture industry experts laud controlled environment agriculture for its renewable and sustainable efforts, such as conserving land and water, there are other cost concerns.“
They rely a lot on artificial lighting, so obviously energy consumption is an issue,” said Humberto Izquierdo, agricultural commissioner, and sealer of weights and measures for Napa County. “I think the economics have to be there.”
Guy Blanchard, chief financial officer of AeroFarms, explains how the New Jersey-based startup gets dozens of turns of fresh produce annually through its vertical indoor farm, speaking at North Bay Business Journal’s North Coast Specialty Food and Beverage Industry Conference on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020, at Doubletree Hotel by Hilton Sonoma Wine Country in Rohnert Park. (Jeff Quackenbush / North Bay Business Journal)
Blanchard said he doesn’t view energy consumption as a challenge for AeroFarms.“I think when people think about energy or environmental footprint, it’s tough to see how much is really embedded in traditional agriculture when you have all the energy going to root watering, soil and soil degradation, and the energy that goes into fertilizers and harvesting a field,” Blanchard said, as well as transporting, cooling and washing.
Marc Oshima, AeroFarms co-founder, and chief marketing officer said the company and its competitors are focused on strengthening the overall agriculture industry, such as sharing their expertise about how to grow greens safely to avoid contamination. They also formed their own group, called the Controlled Environment Agriculture Food Safety Coalition.
“(It) was a critical step to establishing best practices and educating the FDA and customers on why indoor farming has so many more safeguards versus traditional field farming, and less exposure that often occurs with co-mingling at the major leafy greens processors, who are sourcing from multiple growing regions both domestically and internationally,” he said.
The coalition also has partnered with Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research on a $2 million, three-year program to identify stressors of leafy greens in order to optimize taste and nutrition, he said.
Staff Writer Cheryl Sarfaty covers tourism, hospitality, health care, and education. Reach her at cheryl.sarfaty@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4259.
RSVP - Indoor Ag Science Cafe March 10th 1:30 PM EST
March Indoor Science Cafe
Please sign up!
Tuesday, March 10th, 1:30 PM EST
'Controlled Environment Production for Safer Leafy Greens'
Presented by
Paul Lightfoot (BrightFarms)
Please sign up so that you will receive Zoom link info.
Indoor Ag Science Cafe is an open discussion forum, organized by Chieri Kubota (OSU), Erik Runkle (MSU), and Cary Mitchell (Purdue U.) supported by USDA SCRI grants.
Sign up for March 10th Cafe
Stimulating Debate In Controlled Environment Agriculture - 18th March, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Can we really feed 40,000 people with a ‘SkyFarm’? Or will everyone in London have a ‘Personal Food Computer’ by 2040? These are the sorts of provocative questions being posed ahead of the upcoming Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) conference being held on 18th March at the John Innes Centre
DESIGNED FOR THE FUTURE: STIMULATING DEBATE IN CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT AGRICULTURE
Can we really feed 40,000 people with a ‘SkyFarm’? Or will everyone in London have a ‘Personal Food Computer’ by 2040? These are the sorts of provocative questions being posed ahead of the upcoming Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) conference being held on 18th March at the John Innes Centre.
The event is hosted by Agri-TechE, a business-focused membership organization that is supporting the growth of a vibrant agri-tech cluster of innovative farmers, food producers and processors, scientists, technologists, and entrepreneurs.
Matt Millington, of Method Strategic Design Studio, is a speaker at the event. He comments: “Humans only evolve when they are pushed to. There are technological advances that can contribute to making urban farming a wider reality, but more importantly, there are drivers: climate change, soil degradation, urbanization…”
He’s right about there being drivers of change: models indicate that 70% of the human population will live in cities by 2050*.
CEA, the concept of growing crops in a secure indoor space, is seen by many as the ultimate solution to food security in an urban context and the upcoming conference will provide an opportunity for stakeholders in the field to discuss how to reach the future that they want to see.
Speakers include visionaries: Matt, from Method; and Thomas Cox, a Bristolian Architect with ambitious plans for a modular high-rise farming block. Both will arrive at the upcoming Agri-TechE conference with plenty of thoughts to fuel a debate on the future of CEA.
Food Computers and Cooperatives – Matt Millington, Method
Method is a strategic design studio, making products, services, experiences, and businesses for the digital age. They use design as a tool to help organizations make better strategic decisions about the future of business.
Matt says: “At Method, we often make things that are designed to trigger controversy and promote a conversation about what a future might look like, and in this case, we hit upon the Personal Food Computer as just that – an object to frame a conversation around.
“What does it mean for the food system, if something like the food computer became common-place?” According to Matt, it’s all part of the mission to simulate debate: “Rather than asking people what they want, we show them that potential future.”
“The food computer is an experimental growth chamber designed to be built by anybody, and at a low cost, with detailed instructions also available for free online,” Matt adds. 'Growth recipes', shared via the cloud, enable the grower to control specific attributes of the crop through close monitoring of ‘environmental inputs' such as lighting.
Matt expects that as CEA is picked up in urban centers, growers could begin to form into cooperatives, which will provide a big boost to the overall productivity: “Much as we’re starting to see local urban energy production in parts of London, producing their own electricity and selling it back, I think you’ll see in future cooperatives within London who are producing their own food on a relatively large scale.
“So, I think you’ll see CEA in cities develop more on a cellular basis – areas of cities providing the urban farming model, which then influences perhaps what a supermarket sells in that region. I think supermarkets will play a big role influencing the sorts of crops that get grown and sold within local communities.”
At the Agri-TechE conference, Matt is ready to fuel debate: “We need to provoke a conversation around what the future should look like… in order to make decisions to design toward that future or, more importantly, away from that future that we don’t want.”
SkyFarms – Thomas Cox, Wotton Donoghue Architects
Thomas Cox is a ‘grey-sky’ thinker. He is concerned by levels of air pollution in dense urban centers. Smog, caused by the release of Nitrogen Oxides from internal combustion engines, is a major health issue in the world’s largest population centers such as Los Angeles, Beijing, and Delhi, and is becoming increasingly prevalent in London. Thomas’ response is a building design that he calls the ‘Sky-Farm’.
“The Sky Farm is covered in beans and pulses that take in nitrogen from the air and store it in their roots. Essentially, you have a big greenhouse, which is cleaning up air pollution and converting this into green fertilizer and food.”
Thomas designed his Sky Farm to sit on a small footprint of land in Battersea, on the south bank of the River Thames in London. “The ‘Sky Farm’ was designed to be a small-scale supplement to traditional farming, but I worked out that it could sustainably feed half of the population of the borough of Battersea – approximately 40,000 people.”
“I think we need to plan now, so we’re ready to act when population increase starts to detrimentally affect our quality of life. I know that’s a bit of a bleak vision, and we’re maybe talking 100 years’ time, but we need to stay ahead of the curve.”
Matt and Thomas will be joining the fray at Agri-TechE’s ‘Controlled Environment Agriculture – The Industry is Growing Up’ conference, alongside some twenty other speakers. Other participants include IGS, world-leaders in vertical farm engineering; LettUs Grow, looking at total in-farm automation; and Growpura, designing hydroponics solutions on a massive scale.
The all-day event will be held at The John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park NR4 7UH on 18th March, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm. For tickets or more information, please visit www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/events
Contacts for media
Ewan Richardson / Rachel Holdsworth, Holdsworth Associates PR
Tel: 01954 202789 or email: ewan.richardson@holdsworth-associates.co.uk
About Agri-TechE www.agri-tech-e.co.uk
Agri-TechE is a business-focused membership organization that is supporting the growth of a vibrant agri-tech cluster of innovative farmers, food producers, and processors, scientists, technologists, and entrepreneurs.
Agri-TechE brings together organizations and individuals that share a passion for improving the productivity, profitability and sustainability of agriculture. It aims to help turn challenges into business opportunities and facilitate mutually beneficial collaboration.
Michigan State University’s Specialty Crop Research Initiative Grant Funded by The USDA
The initiative, OptimIA, which stands for Optimizing Indoor Agriculture, aims to improve the profitability and sustainability of indoor leafy-greens production
The initiative, OptimIA, which stands for Optimizing Indoor Agriculture, aims to improve the profitability and sustainability of indoor leafy-greens production.
February 11, 2020
A multi-university team of horticulturists, engineers and agricultural economists led by Michigan State University (MSU) has received a four-year, $2.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to study indoor production of leafy greens. Industry partners have matched funding, bringing the project total to $5.4 million. The investigators on the grant include Erik Runkle, Roberto Lopez and Simone Valle de Souza of Michigan State University; Chieri Kubota of Ohio State University; Cary Mitchell of Purdue University and Murat Kacira of University of Arizona.
Leafy greens include commonly consumed vegetables such as lettuce, kale, and microgreens. Production challenges outdoors have led to interest in growing these specialty crops hydroponically in controlled environments, such as indoor farms. However, there is little information on whether this is economically viable. Capital and operating costs can be significant for startups, especially as it relates to light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and cooling systems. Leafy greens are a good candidate for indoor farming because they can be grown rapidly and in relatively small spaces. Indoor environments are heavily controlled, so growers aren’t constrained to a small geographic area within the U.S. There are, however, other geographic concerns.
The team and its collaborators have three major goals:
Defining optimal profitability based on yield and other high-value attributes of the plants, such as nutrition content.
Optimizing indoor environmental conditions, such as humidity, air movement, temperature, light and carbon dioxide concentration, to increase yield and high-value attributes.
Encouraging indoor farming stakeholders to collaborate with academic and industry groups that are working in controlled-environment agriculture.
The long-term project goals are to help integrate indoor farming into the specialty-crop segment of agriculture in the U.S.; to increase the sustainability and hence profitability of this rapidly emerging sector; and to locally produce leafy greens that have higher quality attributes.
To this end, economists will better understand operating and capital expenditures (capex), and define risk and production scenarios that are most profitable. Horticulturists and engineers will improve production efficiency, product quality and value-added attributes of leafy greens for reliable, consistent, year-round production. In addition, the team will design and test more effective localized air-distribution methods suitable for indoor production systems, as well as develop strategies to better manage humidity around plants to reduce tip burn.
While the project focuses on leafy greens, the results will also inform a wide range of controlled-environment growers through the development of growth recipes, strategies for nutritional content and anthocyanin enhancement, environmental management recommendations, and insights for economic sustainability as well as market and consumer perception of locally produced crops.
For more information, visit the project website here.
Leafy greens Sustainability USDA Microgreens Controlled Environment Agriculture
What Are The Challenges To Running A Successful Indoor Farm?
The amount of investments made in the vertical farming and controlled environment agriculture industries has been well documented. Those companies that successfully raise capital are seen as industry heroes and it’s quickly assumed that they must have all the answers. But, the big question is…do they?
October 3, 2019
(I had the opportunity to host the Great Lakes Ag-Tech Summit in Cleveland on Sept. 23, 2019.)
The amount of investments made in the vertical farming and controlled environment agriculture industries has been well documented. Those companies that successfully raise capital are seen as industry heroes and it’s quickly assumed that they must have all the answers. But, the big question is…do they?
In order to answer that question, it is important to be specific about the questions we are asking, the assumptions we are making and to understand that the answers will come from a wide variety of different perspectives.
List of questions
Examples of questions I am receiving and ones that we might want to ask include:
Can a farm using controlled environment agriculture techniques be profitable?
What crops have proven to be profitable in a greenhouse?
What crops have proven to be profitable in a warehouse?
What crops have proven to be profitable in a shipping container?
What segment of the produce industry are these farms capable of serving?
What defines a vertical farm?
What is the difference between a greenhouse and an indoor ag facility?
What makes controlled environment agriculture techniques and innovations unique?
Does geographic location play a role in designing a controlled environment agriculture facility?
Why invest in controlled environment agriculture?
What problems are we solving?
Is controlled environment agriculture environmentally sustainable?
The answers to all these questions are extremely important. The answers provide important insight on whether there are existing examples of multiple successful projects in a given region for a given set of crops to be produced in a controlled environment agriculture facility.
An example of how this plays out can be seen when looking at the greenhouse-grown vegetable industry. There are a number of Dutch greenhouse experts for those climates and crops that companies have proven successful over the past decades. But this does not mean that their expertise necessarily transfers to every situation. Any time ag technology and “experience” are taken to a new climate and introduced to a new market and crop there will be problems, mistakes, and failures. This has been proven time and time again.
Successful business models
It is also important to realize that it is highly likely that there are many different business models that can be successful as we look at innovation to solve growing problems within horticulture and agriculture. This can easily be seen in existing greenhouse industries.
For those of us close to the industry, we can acknowledge the fact that there are low-, medium- and high-tech greenhouse facilities that are capable of producing good quality crops consistently and profitably. The reason for this is that depending on where the greenhouse is built and the crops that are grown, the greenhouse and the technology within it are designed to serve different purposes based on labor and access to natural resources. It is likely that as the indoor ag industry matures, we will find similar models.
Hurdles to overcome
So, what are the hurdles the indoor ag industry needs to overcome in order to be successful? And how are we as an industry going to achieve this success?
Based on my conversations with many industry leaders, these are the top 11 topics we need to address:
Finally, how are we as an industry going to provide solutions to these challenges or other larger problems?
First, we need to agree on which challenges we should address first and which ones we have the best chance of overcoming. Second, we need to be self-critical. We need to determine if these challenges are caused by problems we created and determine if they really need to be solved?
We then need to learn from other industries that have come before us. This means we need some level of open collaboration. We will need some form of standardization. We will need to focus on education. And finally, we will need some luck.
“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller
If you are interested in taking this conversation to the next level, I encourage you to join me on social media, at one of the many upcoming events I will be participating in or through collaboration.
Written by Chris Higgins – Urban Ag News and Hort Americas.
Controlled Environment Agriculture: Scale-Up or Keep Niche?
"Scale-up is the next big challenge for controlled environment agriculture,” comments Dr Belinda Clarke, Director of Agri-TechE, which is bringing together innovators to discuss progress in an industry that is predicted to be valued at almost £10Bn by 2026, five times the size it is today
06-02-2020
Indoor farming is expanding at an astounding rate - and with the urban population alone set to soar by almost a third in the next 30 years, viable scale-up is the next big challenge facing the industry. Agri-TechE is bringing together international experts and industry leaders to discuss the progress and pitfalls of Controlled Environment Agriculture at an all-day event at The John Innes Centre, Norwich, next month.
"Scale-up is the next big challenge for controlled environment agriculture,” comments Dr. Belinda Clarke, Director of Agri-TechE, which is bringing together innovators to discuss progress in an industry that is predicted to be valued at almost £10Bn by 2026, five times the size it is today.
“There are still obstacles to overcome and the industry is experimenting with different technologies and business models, such as diversification of existing vegetable production, purpose-built facilities or niche cultivation close to the point of use – to gain competitive market price for its products.”
Industry leaders including LettUs Grow, Growpura, Capital Agri International and Square Mile Farms will be sharing their insights and learnings at Agri-TechE’s ‘Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) – The Industry is Growing Up’ event in Norwich, 18 March 2020.
“The urban population is set to increase to 6.3 billion by 2050 and this will place increasing pressure on supply chains,” Luuk Graamans of Wageningen University & Research explains. Luuk, who is also due to speak at the Agri-TechE CEA conference, continues: “One proposed solution is a closed production system, that maximizes resource use efficiency by adapting the interior climate to provide uniformity and limiting the interaction with the external climate.
“A shortcoming of this system is the need for artificial illumination and high demand for cooling and vapor removal; creating a high energy load. The viability of plant factories [vertical farms] depends on their resource productivity.
“Our research shows that when compared to greenhouses, a plant factory produces dry matter that is higher and more consistent and uses resources more efficiently. This could be further improved by increasing the production layers, enabling more growing area on the same amount of land.”
“Indoor vertical farms need economies of scale to really get down to current market pricing,” reflects Jack Farmer, co-founder of LettUs Grow – developers of aeroponic systems. “So, we are working with key players to boost productivity and crop quality at scale.”
LettUs Grow is also working on a farm management system, Ostara, that uses powerful data on biological growing conditions to enable automation of facilities. The software can also be retrofitted into more traditional glasshouse environments and Jack sees synergy between the existing horticulture business model and advances in CEA: “Essentially, vertical farms will prove complementary to glasshouse horticulture, with technology increasingly being shared between them.”
Jack continues, “The benefits of aeroponics come from the health of the plant’s root base and this is particularly valuable when you are seeking to accelerate the growth rate, such as in leafy green production or propagation. But we are very open to collaborating with different tech providers where that adds value to the grower.”
Jock Richardson of Growpura (formerly H20-ganics) agrees there is a place for multiple solutions in CEA, his technology is designed for big production facilities. It uses hydroponics in a cleanroom environment and features an automated moving system to allow movement of the plants.
Jock comments: “We are going to see continued invention for small scale hydroponics, but on the industrial end the challenge to be broached is how growing operations are scaled. A lot of operators have some great technology but to grow bigger means a linear, or worse increase in costs.
"Energy management is one of the key issues to be solved in this. There is a lot happening in sustainable energy supply and I think it is going to make a big difference to how farmers and consumers view CEA in the coming years.”
Kiryon Skippen of investment firm Capital Agri International adds: “I think CEA will provide a solution, but not on its own, it has to be part of the bigger picture. We are not leaving land-based food production behind.
“Also, the systems need to be properly de-risked, while indoor farms provide ideal growing conditions for plants, they are good for pests too. Systems in Asia are ahead of us as they’ve built systems more conservatively and then, year on year, tweaked and build them up. A more haste less speed approach.”
Urban farms may help reunite consumers with food production; doing more than simply growing fresh produce, they also re-engage consumers with the impact of food on our health and the environment.
Johnathan Ransom’s family are farmers in Lincolnshire and he could see the potential for a complementary approach in smaller urban spaces. Together with Patrick Dumas and Doug Bar, he founded Square Mile Farms out of a desire to re-engineer urban food systems and shorten the current food supply chains.
Johnathan explains: “Initially we came up with ‘flat-pack farms’, which enabled us to put growing units into tight urban spaces such as offices or on rooftops. However, growing and supplying food in cities is challenging and we realized we needed a commercial model that is not wholly reliant on produce sales to ensure this was going to really work for the future.”
So Square Mile Farms now offers farm installations to big businesses, to help them achieve their sustainability and employee engagement goals. After receiving an invitation from British Land, the company opened its flagship farm in February 2019. It grows leafy greens, microgreens, and herbs on the rooftop of British Land’s north-west London campus in Paddington Central. Produce is delivered to local restaurants and fresh ‘veg bags’ provided for local employees.
Johnathan and his team have also installed farms for multinational businesses based on the campus and deliver a suite of activities and workplace experiences, centered on the farms and their produce.
Luuk, Jack, Jock, Kiryon, Johnthan and 20 or so other speakers and exhibitors from CEA will be at Agri-TechE’s ‘Controlled Environment Agriculture – The Industry is Growing Up’. The all-day event will be held at The John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park NR4 7UH on 18 March, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm.
For more information, full program details and tickets please visit Agri-TechE's dedicated event page.
Lead Image: Leafy greens and herbs on the roof of Microsoft's office in NW London
CREDIT Square Mile Farms
Safe, Not Sorry
There are certainly many reasons why agriculture is making a big move indoors. It can be argued that CEA offers more local and sustainable food production and that it requires less water than field growing and doesn’t impact topsoil or lead to erosion
By Leslie F. Halleck
Food poisoning is not something you wish on anyone.
It’s horrible, miserable and downright deadly.
If you’ve ever had an E. coli or Salmonella infection, then you probably take food safety seriously. I know I do. Outbreaks of E. coli have plagued the field-grown leafy greens industry for the past three years in a row, with the most recent outbreaks sending romaine lettuce to the garbage bins across the country. With each recall, consumers are forced to focus more closely on where and how their food is grown.
With animal feces and surface water contamination for field-grown produce at the center of most of the leafy greens recalls, some food companies and restaurants are making shifts to buy from hydroponic and CEA producers. While this is a great opportunity for those of you growing under glass or in controlled environments, don’t make the mistake of thinking that you won’t come under the same safety and transparency scrutiny, or liability.
There are certainly many reasons why agriculture is making a big move indoors. It can be argued that CEA offers more local and sustainable food production and that it requires less water than field growing and doesn’t impact topsoil or lead to erosion. Controlled growing may also create conditions where fewer, or no, pesticides or herbicides are used. And when you’re growing local, with potentially less pest pressure, you can grow edible varieties that offer up better flavor and nutritional value, versus having to grow varieties or use harvesting methods that cater to shipability.
While there may be a perception that the boundaries created by greenhouses or controlled environments mean safer produce, we all know that there are still plenty of ways contamination can happen. Growing in a controlled environment means you lose the benefits of nature’s sanitizers: air and sunlight. Close monitoring of all environmental conditions is a must in hydroponics and controlled environments. Anywhere there is water involved, pathogens can spread. And of course, any time you have people involved in your production process, there’s ample opportunity for all sorts of contamination.
With venture capitalists jumping into the CEA game, and new operations launching left and right, we can also argue that this is a very young industry with a lot of learning and growing to do. Mistakes are bound to happen. Many CEA growers may not even have a good understanding of what translates to safe, or not safe, growing or processing procedures. Technology is changing rapidly, influencing a variety of production techniques utilized differently by different growers. You do have much better opportunities for authentic transparency and traceability as a CEA, but collective standard protocols aren’t yet where we need them to be.
This is a very young industry with a lot of learning and growing to do.
Enter, the CEA Food Safety Coalition (FSC). This new independent and member-governed organization debuted in 2018 and just recently announced the appointment of its first executive director. The goal of the organization is to bring together CEA growers of leafy greens to self-submit to external audits of their production processes. Then, thorough evaluation to develop appropriate food safety standards and consumer education.
If you grow leafy greens using any sort of controlled environment, be it hydroponics, aeroponics or aquaponics, and you’re willing to submit to a third-party food safety audit, then you are welcome to join the CEA FSC.
If you grow produce, do you have a Farm Food Safety Plan (FFSP) in place? If not, it’s time to get your house in order. You need to make sure you’re keeping a detailed record of your operation’s procedures and adherence to growing and processing safe greens or other produce. I suspect the CEA FSC will be working with members to develop FFSPs that help them fine-tune their safety measures and comply with federal regulations.
Good news if you’ll be attending the United Fresh 2020 Convention & Expo, because they’ve just partnered with the CEA FSC to create a new Controlled Environmental Pavilion at the show. The Pavilion will showcase thought leaders and foster discussions between experienced and new growers, as well as highlight new technologies and food safety issues. If you’re a CEA or service provider, you can now book booths both inside and adjacent to the Pavilion.
No one likes getting food poisoning, and we already throw away far too much food in this country. Growing as a CEA offers up the ability to not only limit waste of resources but also produce safer and contamination-free food. Consumers are willing to pay you a bit more for your produce when you can be totally transparent about your methods and food safety concerns. But it’s going to take a lot more research, learning, communication, and community standards before CEAs can truly take the lead on produce safety.
Lead photo: PHOTO: © freshidea | Adobe stock
Leslie (CPH) owns Halleck Horticultural, LLC, through which she provides horticultural consulting, business and marketing strategy, product development and branding, and content creation for green industry companies. lesliehalleck.com
International Partnership For New Certificate For CEA-Grown Produce
The FarmTech Society and GlobalGAP recognize each other in their membership programs, initiating a new open partnership to develop and implement a certification specifically for new “indoor” high tech systems with natural and artificial lights
The FarmTech Society and GlobalGAP recognize each other in their membership programs, initiating a new open partnership to develop and implement a certification specifically for new “indoor” high tech systems with natural and artificial lights.
The partnership is open to all industry stakeholders small and large to help advance a comprehensive new certificate for innovative production systems.
Innovative production systems in CEA require new standards
The partners have identified the need for all stakeholders active in the production of produce in CEA systems to form a working group at a pre-competitive level to address critical challenges, such as climate change, consumer trust and food security facing the industry. The partnership will develop best-practice standards for the certification process, recognizing the need for a multidisciplinary/multi-stakeholder approach in developing a certificate – by and for industry stakeholders in CEA.
The partnership will strengthen the existing well-established foundation of the GlobalGAP Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) process by adding criteria for new technologies and cultivation methods, inserting dynamic data collection applications and adapting to the potential of the digital era, keeping future options valid.
The main goal of the GlobalGAP revision process is to deliver a standard that will take into account producers’ practices and the risks presented. The unique challenges presented by vertical farming or more generally, produce grown in controlled environments will be addressed to ensure appropriate user experience. Additionally, the group will focus on implementing real-time monitoring and data-driven solutions to facilitate the certification process, enabling transparency and traceability.
Taking into consideration the limits in technology by engaging with growers, retail, innovators and proven experts in the supply chain, the certification target will enhance the advantages of the end products and differentiate them in the marketplace.
The development roadmap will have three milestones: The first phase “open call for design and information gathering” will be kicked-off with a press conference at Fruit Logistica 2020, on February 6th, 2020. The second phase commences in June 2020 with the conclusion of the public consultations with multiple partners, and extensive international stakeholder meetings. The third phase is scheduled for the fall of 2020 with pilot testing in key supply chains followed by a market-wide peer review and introduction in 2021.
For more information:
www.globalgap.org
www.farmtechsociety.org
www.ukuat.org
www.cultinova.com
www.integar.de
Publication date: Mon 3 Feb 2020
Join The FarmTech Society And Help The CEA Industry Grow
FTS strengthens the CEA sector as it develops and implements resilient, circular methods and technologies for indoor growing
The FarmTech Society has enjoyed a flying start to its activities in 2019. FTS is designed and built as an industry association for the benefit of the Controlled Environment Agriculture industry, with a mission to unite and support the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) industry. FTS strengthens the CEA sector as it develops and implements resilient, circular methods and technologies for indoor growing.
Highlights of FarmTech Society’s first year include
FarmTech Society was officially registered
ASBL (non-profit in Belgium) with a transparent governance structure
Formally established the board of directors and created an advisory board
Developed our policy Advocacy efforts in the EU
Registered FTS as an EU advocacy organization, the only one with a focus on CEA
Included as Horizon 2020 EU project
Initiated Urban Heat Island Mitigation working group
Started Educational activities
Founded the international FTS education committee
Included as a partner in the Erasmus+ EU project partner PonicsVET
Partnering with the Vertical Farming field lab in the Westland
Made big steps forward in the certification of indoor farmed produce
Initiated the B2C certificate with Global G.A.P., an international standard for indoor farmed produce
Developed the FTS Network
Co-organized 5 international events, workshops and conferences
Attracted membership from 16 countries covering most continents
Selected by RAI/GreenTech as a preferred partner
Partnered w1ith Indoor Ag-Con, PublicGoodAg, and Ponic Jobs
The FarmTech Society has four focus areas. Firstly, we support the education of farmers of the future by engaging in initiatives that develop courses and create credentials that meet industry needs. Secondly, we engage with policymakers to help develop and promote policies that foster innovation and support CEA businesses. Thirdly, we support the establishment of standards and best practices that help the industry grow and innovate. Finally, we provide an international network for our members.
Join the FTS! Find us at farmtechsociety.org
US (VA): Controlled Environment Agriculture Innovation Center Launched in Danville
The Innovation Center will leverage technology and research to accelerate advancements, economic development, and regional participation in the developing industry of indoor farming
The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR) is partnering with the Virginia Tech School of Plant and Environmental Sciences and the Virginia Seafood Agricultural Research and Extension Center to launch a Controlled Environment Agriculture Innovation Center on IALR’s campus in Danville, Virginia.
The Innovation Center will leverage technology and research to accelerate advancements, economic development, and regional participation in the developing industry of indoor farming. The value of U.S. greenhouse-grown food crops is expected to exceed $4 billion this year.
“We are delighted that the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research and Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences have combined their expertise to create a top program in controlled environment agriculture. This collaborative effort is creating tremendous energy and excitement because of its potential to provide innovative solutions to the agricultural community,” said Alan Grant, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “Partnerships like this will help us realize the vision of the SmartFarm Innovation Network Initiative to support the agriculture industry.”
Lettuce is one of the crops that can be grown at the new Controlled Environment Agriculture Innovation Center in Danville, Virginia.
Convening industry, academia, and producers, the Innovation Center will be housed primarily within a modern greenhouse complex on IALR’s campus. Features will include various hydroponic systems, which grow plants in a soilless root medium with optimal amounts of water and nutrients. Vertical growing racks will maximize space, and high-tech engineering and technology will be integrated and on display throughout the center. High-value demonstration crops will include lettuce, herbs, strawberry, blackberry, hemp, and more. In addition, faculty and staff involved in the center will research and educate on raising fish in controlled environments using aquaponics, or recirculating aquaculture systems that integrate plant and fish production. While traditionally viewed as separate fields, plant and fish production share many similar technologies, issues, and needs.
“We are excited to partner with Virginia Tech, a fellow champion of cutting-edge innovation, to expand the impact of agriculture in promising new ways,” said Mark Gignac, executive director of IALR. “While agriculture is a longtime industry of Southern Virginia, economic factors have demanded a new identity. We believe controlled environment agriculture is one of the defining solutions, and we are proud to work with Virginia Tech to introduce the concept to our region’s growers and attract industry.”
According to Michael Schwarz, director of the Virginia Seafood Agricultural Research and Extension Center, this new collaboration will further bolster domestic seafood production.
“The U.S. currently has a national seafood trade deficit in excess of $15 billion, with more than 50 percent of the seafood we consume originating from aquaculture,” he said. “Through this new programming and leveraging of expertise and infrastructure, we have the opportunity to drastically increase domestic seafood and produce production within the state, region, and country, enhancing food safety, security, sustainability, and, most importantly, socioeconomically within our agriculture economies.”
Controlled environmental agriculture helps protect plants from disease and stress while providing ideal growing conditions for high-quality, quick-to-harvest food products — sometimes in as fast as two weeks depending on the crop. In addition to hydroponic systems, the Innovation Center will use data management, sensors, and vertical structures to ensure ideal distribution of water, energy, capital, and labor. Plus, strict entry protocols will prevent pests. Together these factors result in a high-quality, consistent product with significantly more harvests than outdoor conventional production methods. Other advantages of controlled environmental agriculture include uniform, year-round production, potentially pesticide-free agriculture, and greatly reduced land and water requirements.
AeroFarms, a leading controlled environmental commercial producer based in New Jersey, recently announced the world’s largest indoor farm to be located in Cane Creek Centre in Pittsylvania County, just minutes from IALR. While this industrial-sized operation demonstrates scalability, Michael Evans, director of Virginia Tech’s School of Plant and Environmental Science, believes the technology is accessible to even small farmers in the region.
To encourage market growth, and in line with IALR’s role as a regional catalyst for economic transformation, the Innovation Center will introduce controlled environmental technologies to regional parties interested in entering the market. Conferences, workshops, site visits, and a web presence will comprise part of the outreach and educational activities. According to Evans, controlled environment agriculture is a rapidly growing sector that offers many potential opportunities in Southern Virginia.
“We are excited to house this facility on the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research’s campus and to benefit from both the technology developed and the associated economic development opportunities it provides for the region,” said Scott Lowman, director of applied research at IALR. “Consumer demand for healthy, local, and pesticide-free produce is high and will continue to increase in the coming decades. We look forward to serving this need through controlled environment agriculture.”
The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research serves Virginia as a regional catalyst for economic transformation with applied research, advanced learning, advanced manufacturing, conference center services, and economic development efforts. IALR’s major footprint focuses within Southern Virginia, including the counties of Patrick, Henry, Franklin, Pittsylvania, Halifax, and Mecklenburg, along with the cities of Martinsville and Danville.
For more information:
www.ialr.org
Publication date: Fri 24 Jan 2020
How Urban Farms Are Supposed To Feed Millions of People
Urban farming is supposed to provide people with local food in the metropolitan areas. How ecological the farms really are and promising urban farms worldwide
Urban farming is supposed to provide people with local food in the metropolitan areas. How ecological the farms really are and promising urban farms worldwide.
Half of the world's 7.5 billion people already live in cities. According to UN calculations, the figure is expected to reach 70 percent by 2050, with an estimated 10 billion people living in the world. Seven billion people in urban conurbations have to be supplied with food from an agriculture that is already reaching its limits today.
The common solution for decades: A well-rehearsed system made of turbo seeds from the laboratory that is cultivated with artificial fertilizers and dozens of pesticides in monocultures.
Biodiversity is lost and resources are wasted if, for example, food is produced for retailers with lots of water in dry areas and food is transported around the world using fossil fuels.
Lead photo: In this vertical urban farm, lettuce grows with the help of aquaponics. Photo © LouisHiemstra / iStock / Getty Images Plus
Read the complete article here
Monthly Activities of The GLASE Consortium Webinar Series
The GLASE Consortium Webinar Series features the latest technological innovations and best practices in the CEA field providing the audience the opportunity to discover new solutions and to connect with field experts
The GLASE Consortium Webinar Series features the latest technological innovations and best practices in the CEA field providing the audience the opportunity to discover new solutions and to connect with field experts.
January 23, 2020
LED basics applied to horticulture lighting systems presented by Dr. Robert Karlicek
February 20, 2020
Horticultural lighting systems energy-savings calculationspresented by Dr. Neil Mattson and Dr. A.J. Both
March 12, 2020
Influence of temperature and daily light integral on culinary herb production presented by Dr. Roberto Lopez and Kellie Walters
The entire series can be accessed at https://glase.org/resources/webinars/
Technical Article Series
In a series of 10 publications researchers from Cornell University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Rutgers University will cover a wide range of applied CEA technologies including new LED lighting systems, integrated CEA control systems, measurement standards, energy modeling, and commercial case studies.
Jan. 2020 - Revisiting the measurement of Light - available here
Feb. 2020 – A new greenhouse light spectral acquisition system
Mar. 2020 – Plant responses to integrated light and CO2 control
Apr. 2020 – Horticultural lighting standards
May 2020 – Remote chlorophyll fluorescence detection system
Jun. 2020 – Controlled environment agriculture (CEA) energy modeling
Jul. 2020 – A modified infra red gas analyses for light response curves
Aug. 2020 – GLASE commercial pilots – A case study
The entire series can be accessed at https://glase.org/resources/technical-articles/
Shape The Future of CEA Energy Policy at IAES Conference – Special Discount For Growers
Are you an owner, operator, or employee of an indoor farm? IAES Conference is offering a special reduced registration of only $100 for growers and cultivators
SAN DIEGO, CA, January 15, 2020–As California policymakers develop codes for Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA), Resource Innovation Institute (RII) will convene the inaugural Indoor Agriculture Energy Solutions (IAES) Conference, connecting policymakers, utility program managers, equipment manufacturers, and suppliers, researchers, manufacturers, cultivators, and investors to shape the future of energy policies and utility programs for CEA.
The IAES Conference will be held at the San Diego La Jolla Marriott, February 24-26, 2020.
Are you an owner, operator, or employee of an indoor farm? IAES Conference is offering a special reduced registration of only $100 for growers and cultivators.
To receive your discount code, please contact
Stephen Baboi at sbaboi@drintl.com
or on LinkedIn and ask about the “IAES Grower Discount.”
Expanding on RII’s mission to advance resource efficiency in the rapidly expanding indoor agriculture sector, this first-of-its-kind event arrives at a critical moment in time for controlled environment agriculture. Cannabis legalization is accelerating across North America, and the urban and vertical farming sector is scaling rapidly for crops of all kinds.
Urban areas and food deserts are looking at indoor farming as a way to access locally grown produce. As a result, the carbon and energy implications of indoor controlled environments are becoming more impactful. Drawing from the experiences of early models, this conference will explore energy solutions for indoor agriculture without focusing on any one crop.
Conference attendees will access educational sessions presented by experts in the field, connect with policymakers and other industry leaders, and discuss cutting-edge policies and technologies. IAES will elevate innovative solutions related to energy access, efficiency and sustainability and shape the future of indoor agriculture.
Keynote speakers include Kay Doyle from the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission, Dr. Mark Lefsrud from McGill University’s Biomass Production Laboratory, and Dr. Nadia Sabeh a.k.a “Dr. Greenhouse.”
“We have the opportunity to take the lessons learned from initial government, utility and non-profit responses addressing the energy and carbon impacts of regulated cannabis and apply them to the broader world of controlled environment agriculture,” said Derek Smith, Executive Director of RII. “These learnings will inform controlled environment agriculture broadly. This is precisely why we are hosting the Indoor Agriculture Energy Solutions conference. And we look forward to convening top stakeholders to join the dialogue.”
Visit www.iaesconference.com to review the program and speaker bios, inquire about sponsorship, and register for the conference. To stay up-to-date on conference news, follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook.
About Resource Innovation Institute
Resource Innovation Institute (RII) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to advance resource efficiency to create a better cannabis future. Founded in 2016 in Portland, Ore., USA, RII’s Board of Directors includes the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), a former Energy Policy Advisor to two Oregon governors, a former board member of the US Green Building Council and leading cannabis industry players.
The organization has unique expertise in data, policy, and education related to cannabis energy use. Its Cannabis PowerScore benchmarking survey is backed by the world’s largest dataset on cannabis energy use. RII’s Technical Advisory Council is the leading multi-disciplinary body assessing the environmental impacts and best practices associated with cultivation resource issues. In 2018, RII advised the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on the establishment of the world’s first cannabis energy regulations, and it is now advising other governments.
RII’s Efficient Yields cultivation workshops are the only grower-led, non-commercial venues for the exchange of resource-efficient cultivation best practices. RII is funded by utilities, foundations, governments, and the cannabis supply chain.
Visit our website at ResourceInnovation.org.
CEA Advisors – Farminova Plant Factories To Exhibit At Fruit Logistica 2020
Glenn Behrman, President, and founder of CEA Advisors, together with Farminova Plant Factories is pleased to invite you to visit us at Fruit Logistica in Berlin, Hall 9, Booth D-25 from February 5-7, 2020
Glenn Behrman, President, and founder of CEA Advisors, together with Farminova Plant Factories is pleased to invite you to visit us at Fruit Logistica in Berlin, Hall 9, Booth D-25 from February 5-7, 2020.
Farminova Plant Factories are competitively priced automated, labor-saving, energy-efficient
high-volume systems designed and developed for the optimized production of a wide variety of food and non-food crops.
Our focus is always on a higher yield in a shorter time. The Farminova research center staff is constantly experimenting with different varieties and different environments and our R & D Department is laser-focused on automation, water quality, fertilizers, and fertigation, LED lighting and Control Systems.
Our team includes world-class plant physiologists, plant scientists, experienced growers, seed specialists, engineers and experts in HVAC systems. Our Business Development team and senior advisors are experts in Controlled Environment Agriculture with years of global experience.
Farminova is a division of the Cantek Group, with almost 30 years of experience in food processing, meat processing, cold storage and the design and manufacture of state-of-the-art HVAC systems. The Cantek Group team of over 300 employees has successfully completed over 13,000 projects in 55 countries. For more information, visit us online at www.cantekgroup.com
CEA Advisors is a global consultant to the vertical farming industry. Our senior management has been in the Horticulture Industry since 1971 and CEA has designed and developed successful projects for commercial clients in the US, England, Spain, Germany including growers, grocery retailers, food manufacturers,
pharmaceutical manufacturers, universities and more. For more information, visit us online at www.cea-advisors.com
United Fresh 2020 Launches Controlled Environment Pavilion
According to a press release, the CEA Food Safety Coalition is a new independent and member-governed coalition whose mission is to develop credible, strong, and appropriate food safety standards; educate consumers and regulators on controlled environment growing; and communicate the value of controlled environment agriculture
Dec. 23rd, 2019
WASHINGTON, DC - Right about now, everybody is experiencing the full swing of the holiday season, but that’s not slowing United Fresh down. The organization announced that it has teamed up with the Controlled Environment Agriculture Food Safety Coalition (CEA Food Safety Coalition) to launch a new Controlled Environment Pavilion at the United Fresh Convention & Expo. This new Pavilion was made to support the growing category of indoor growers and the commitment to drive innovation in fresh produce.
Tom Stenzel, President and CEO, United Fresh Produce Association
“From first-generation indoor farms growing tomatoes and cukes to today’s innovators growing berries, leafy greens, microgreens, herbs, and more, the Controlled Environment Pavilion is the place to meet with potential customers and service providers, and learn from experts in every phase of the business,” said United Fresh President and CEO Tom Stenzel.
According to a press release, the CEA Food Safety Coalition is a new independent and member-governed coalition whose mission is to develop credible, strong, and appropriate food safety standards; educate consumers and regulators on controlled environment growing, and communicate the value of controlled environment agriculture.
This year’s United Fresh Convention & Expo will feature a Controlled Environment Pavilion, sponsored by the Controlled Environmental Agricultural Food Safety Coalition (CEA Food Safety Coalition)
Marni Karlin, Executive Director of the CEA Food Safety Coalition
“We’re pleased to collaborate with United Fresh in hosting this new pavilion,” said Marni Karlin, Executive Director of the CEA Food Safety Coalition. “Our members are pioneering new production models in fresh produce, and we look forward to the opportunity to engage with participants at the United Fresh event—to share perspectives and create an opportunity for conversation across the entire supply chain.”
Members of the CEA Food Safety Coalition include BrightFarms, AeroFarms, Plenty, Little Leaf Farms, Revol Greens, and Bowery. The Pavilion will feature a discussion area where thought leaders will share perspectives on current issues and growth opportunities for indoor ag, hydroponics, vertical farms, and rapidly expanding greenhouse production. Retail and foodservice buyers can visit the pavilion to learn more about the category and meet with potential suppliers.
For more innovative opportunities happening in the produce world, keep reading ANUK.
Trade Association United Fresh Produce Association Controlled Environment Agriculture Food Safety Coalition Innovation Launch Partnership Expo Feature New Feature Discussion Trade Show Event New Partner Marni Karlin Tom Stenzel