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Innovation Consulting Community Team Proposes Sustainable Farming Container At ISU
In just a few months, a team of motivated students put together a proposal to implement a shipping container farm on Illinois State’s campus
Evan Linden April 15, 2020
NOTE: The photos in this story were taken before travel restrictions from coronavirus (COVID-19) were in place.
In just a few months, a team of motivated students put together a proposal to implement a shipping container farm on Illinois State’s campus.
“Self-motivation is impressive to employers,” said Marketing Professor Dr. Peter Kaufman, one of the founders of the Innovation Consulting Community (ICC). “Most students are taught one discipline in school, but world problems are interdisciplinary.”
Kaufman and others founded the ICC in 2016 to provide students with hands-on experiences outside their classes. Each year, teams of students are matched with clients at companies and nonprofit organizations to help solve a current issue they are facing. “It’s a unique experience to tackle both profit and nonprofit projects,” said Kaufman. “This experience helps students enhance their skills all around and helps our clients find solutions.”
This year, the ICC assigned 14 projects to 90 students representing 24 majors. One group of four students tackled an increasingly pressing issue: sustainable farming.
The students assembled in late October, mentored by Elisabeth Reed, director of the Office of Sustainability, and Dr. David Kopsell, assistant chair of and professor in the Department of Agriculture. Ryan Strange, a senior from Bloomington double majoring in business administration and small business management, led the team and collaborated with fellow students Joe Kennedy, Madison Steines, and Joe Quigley.
The project was inspired by the Boston company Freight Farms, urban agriculture innovators who create farms in shipping containers. Kopsell, who is familiar with growing systems, was brought in by Kaufman to be a horticulture mentor.
“I shared some of the ideas that I’d always wanted to investigate, and one that he really liked was the idea of writing a grant for a containerized growing system,” said Kopsell.
From there, the team focused on analyzing the benefits of a containerized growing system on campus.
“Our project was a feasibility study of the purchase of one of these units,” said Strange. “The unit itself is the technology necessary for hydroponic farming, and all of that goes inside an old freight container.”
The inside of a shipping container farm located in Champaign.
To see one of these units in action, the group visited a current model located at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “The director there was a tremendous help,” said Strange. “He gave us many details about operations and risk management.”
The team spent weeks finding the right contacts and establishing relationships in order to gather information for the project. “We built this huge network of different partnerships that helped us find out how we would finance this unit,” said Strange.
According to Strange, the purchase of one of these units would cost $120,000, with recurring costs adding up to around $40,000 a year.
“I think the cost is within the reach of a grant program,” said Kopsell. “These containers can operate year-round and provide great teaching and learning tools.”
Most importantly, the containers are both efficient and sustainable. Each container system can produce as much as one acre of field production —up to 13,000 plants depending on the crop. The efficient drip irrigation system uses five gallons of water per day, which is marginally less than a field.
“This is really the forefront of innovation in terms of agricultural production,” said Strange. “It’s going to cut back on a lot of the carbon emissions from transporting the food. It’s really going to cut back on costs also because most of the costs for food come from transportation.”
If installed on campus, the container system could be located next to the South University Street Garage.
Strange’s team presented its project at ICC’s annual symposium. In adherence with social distancing requirements, the symposium took place via Zoom on April 10.
Strange and his team noted that the ICC experience greatly benefited them as professionals. “It opens up a lot of doors and you have to teach yourself a lot,” said Strange. “Our mentors were definitely there for help, but it was mostly our group that set up all of the meetings and held ourselves to the deadlines. All of those things are fundamental skills that you’ll need when you move on to the professional workforce.”
Reed and Kopsell were impressed by the group’s work ethic and commitment.
“This student group was very well organized and stayed on task throughout the entire semester,” said Reed. “They communicated well with each other.”
“For me, this project represents the best of Illinois State University,” said Kopsell. “It allows students to find their passion and provides them an avenue to learn how to overcome challenges, solve problems, and make a difference.”
Students interested in participating in the Innovation Consulting Community for the next academic year can email innovationconsulting@IllinoisState.edu for more information.
Lead Photo: The ICC team visits a shipping container farm in Champaign. Pictured from left to right: Ryan Strange, Joe Quigley, Madison Steines, James Smith, Phoebe Naylon, Brennan Douglas, Alicia Chiakas, Aviv Zelniker, Max Snyderman, Bill Bagby with Central Illinois Produce, Dr. Eric Godoy, and Joe Kennedy
Filed Under Agriculture Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning College of Business Office of Sustainability
You Are Invited To Join A GLASE Webinar: Lighting Approaches To Maximize Profits
Supplemental lighting is often necessary for year-round greenhouse production of ornamentals and vegetables
Date: April 16, 2020
Time: 2 p.m. - 3 p.m. EST
Presented by: Marc van Iersel
Register here
Supplemental lighting is often necessary for year-round greenhouse production of ornamentals and vegetables. However, the cost of providing supplemental light is high. It is therefore important that supplemental light is provided in a way that provides the greatest benefits for the crop, at the lowest possible price. To do so, it is important to understand the cost of providing supplemental light as well as how plants use that light. Accurate weather predictions can help minimize the risk of providing more excess light than is required by a specific crop. Learn how to account for these factors to help grow high-quality, profitable crops.
Special thanks to our Industry partners
Join today
If you have any questions or would like to know more about GLASE, please contact its executive director Erico Mattos at em796@cornell.edu
April Indoor Science Cafe - Tuesday April 14th 12:00 PM EDT Photons = Flavor The Case Study of Basil
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
April Indoor Science Cafe
If you already signed up -- Thank you!
Tuesday, April 14th, 12:00 PM EDT
Photons = Flavor
The case study of basil
Presented by
Dr. Roberto Lopez & Kellie Walters (Michigan State University)
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 April 14th Cafe
Cafe Q&A Forum
Please visit the Indoor Ag Science Cafe Q&A Forum at Public Good Ag website. OptimIA team is collaborating with Penny McBride to develop an information-sharing site with a lively discussion platform for indoor farmers and scientists.
Submit Your Questions for 'Indoor Ag Sci Queries'!
Please submit your questions (anonymously if you wish) about the sciences and technologies of indoor farming to this submission site. Any questions are welcome! The site is always open for your questions. Selected questions will be discussed in our future Indoor Ag Science Queries series.
Previous café recordings are available on this YouTube channel and OptimIA project website.
Please contact for more info: kubota.10@osu.edu
Upcoming Cafes:
April 14th, 12 PM EST [Dr. Roberto Lopez and Kellie Walters, Michigan State University]
May 26th, 11 AM EST [Nicola Kerslake, Contain Inc.]
Interested in giving a talk to share your thoughts and experiences? Please contact us!
Related Events:
July 10, 2020 - Plant Empowerment Workshop - Advanced learning to optimize crop production (Columbus, OH) [More Information]
July 11-14, 2020 - Cultivate '20 (Columbus, OH) [More information]
July 29, 2020 - OptimIA Annual Stakeholder Meeting (East Lansing, MI) [more information TBA]
September 13-17, 2020 - NCERA-101 Committee on Controlled Environment Technology and Use Annual & International Meeting (Tucson, AZ) [More Information]
May 31-June 4, 2021 - ISHS International Symposium on Light in Horticulture (Malmo, Sweden) [More Information]
Growing Up: Welcome To Vertical Farming
A new word will have to be coined to describe Zhihao Chen. Is he a farmer if there’s no farm? Chen, a chemistry instructor at Arizona State University, has created a new system for growing food. Forget farm to table. Chen has skipped the farm entirely
April 7, 2020
Closed system processes food waste and produces organic produce in record time
A new word will have to be coined to describe Zhihao Chen. Is he a farmer if there’s no farm?
Chen, a chemistry instructor at Arizona State University, has created a new system for growing food. Forget farm to table. Chen has skipped the farm entirely.
In a time when grocery stores are struggling to keep shelves full, Chen’s vertical farm could sit in the corner of a market parking lot, sending lettuce grown from a completely organic closed system to the shelves in as little as three weeks.
The system, which Chen describes as "cleantech," is contained within two standard shipping containers. One contains a system for breaking down food waste — anything from potato peels to rotten carrots to egg shells — and transforming it into fertilizer and methane gas. It’s capable of processing 2,000 pounds of food waste per day – the amount an average grocery store tosses out daily.
The second container hosts shelves of produce grown in a carefully-controlled environment.
Zhihao Chen, inside the digester container, talks about the vertical farming system he and his colleagues have developed at the Laboratory for Algae Research and Biotechnology on the Polytechnic campus. Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
The 160-square-foot space can produce 1,200 heads of lettuce per month — the equivalent of two acres of farmland production. Traditionally, it takes lettuce 30 days to grow to maturity. Chen’s system produces a mature head in three weeks. It also doesn’t depend on climate. And the system uses 95% less water than traditional agriculture.
This could work on an island, in space, at sea — anywhere.
Chen came up with the idea two years ago. An instructor in the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts on ASU’s Polytechnic campus, he assembled a team to work on the project and created a startup called Homer Farms.
He takes food waste from the campus and grows lettuce, which goes back to ASU Dining Services.
“We want to achieve zero waste at ASU,” Chen said. He plans to expand operations to the other campuses. He is also in talks with grocery chains Fry’s and Kroger right now. Fry’s is interested in putting the system in their parking lots to use their food waste.
“The customer can actually see what’s going on,” he said. No pesticides, no chemicals or artificial fertilizers are used. It’s completely organic.
And, he adds, “You pretty much don’t emit any greenhouse gas emissions.”
A lattice of roots float in the fertilizer brine in the racks for the week-old butterhead lettuce at the Laboratory for Algae Research and Biotechnology. Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
The process is called anaerobic digestion. Certain bacteria under a certain temperature with the proper pH will break down the carbon chain in food waste and feed the carbon into the biogas. (Biogas is a mixture of CO2 and methane.) You can combust the methane for energy to run the unit and heat it to keep growing conditions optimal.
“We process the waste, it becomes liquid fertilizer and biogas,” said faculty sponsor and Assistant Professor Taylor Weiss. “Some of the liquid fertilizer is used in algae production and some is used in the vertical farm to feed the lettuce. When the lettuce is mature, we send it to ASU Dining Services to close the loop.”
It saves long-distance transportation. How about using this in a major metropolitan area like New York or San Francisco?
“We’re able to produce on-site, so the lettuce doesn’t have to be transported from Arizona to New York,” said Chad Geelhood, assistant director of Environmental and Resource Management. “We cut down energy costs, we cut down greenhouse gas emissions, and we make the city more resilient.”
Right now, with the supply chain overwhelmed, “if you have something like that on-site, the city can self-sustain,” Geelhood said. “You don’t have to worry about waste and the food will be supplied on time."
Arizona ranks second, following California, in production of lettuce. Lettuce production in Arizona includes head, leaf and romaine lettuces and is the state's leading cash crop, averaging more than $300 million in value.
“If you air condition the container, it can be year-round in a New York environment,” Geelhood said. “Here we don’t have to add as much heat because we’re in the desert.”
The system can grow any type of vegetables.
Instructional professional Zhihao Chen (left) talks with the assistant director of the Environmental and Resource Management Chad Geelhood inside the growing room with racks of week-old butterhead lettuce, at the Laboratory for Algae Research and Biotechnology. Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
“Lettuce and leafy greens are a good target because they’re high-bulk and it costs a lot to transport them relatively, but also growing them in a closed space makes them more nutritious as well,” Weiss said.
The fertilizer is super-concentrated and has to be diluted. Inside the grow container, temperature, humidity, light intensity and plant temperature are all intensely monitored.
“In that way, we can predict the quality we need,” said Yujin Park, an assistant professor in the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts who researches what types of light wavelengths are best for growing. Conditions can be optimized for different crops.
Homer Farms is currently under incubation at the University of Arizona Center for Innovation.
Top photo: Assistant Professor Yujin Park checks the week-old butterhead lettuce plants at the Laboratory for Algae Research and Biotechnology on the Polytechnic campus on March 26, 2020. The plants will be ready for harvest at three weeks. With the goal of creating a circular economy, the lab takes food waste from the university's food services and turns it into a fertilizer by way of a digester. The fertilizer is diluted and used as a hydroponic medium to grow lettuce, which is then returned to the food services. Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
Solutions Polytechnic campus College of Integrative Sciences and Arts Biology Sustainability Innovation Food and Dining Healthy Living Faculty Community
Is Containerized Blackberry Production-Ready For Prime Time? By e-GRO
Growing small fruit crops in containers requires additional capital and effort compared to field production, but has some potential benefits
By urbanagnews
April 6, 2020
Ryan Dickson and Leala Machesney
University of Arkansas
Blackberries and other small fruits are increasingly being grown in soilless substrate and containers versus field soil.
Growing small fruit crops in containers requires additional capital and effort compared to field production, but has some potential benefits.
e-gro Edible Alert: Containerized Blackberry Production
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How To Grow Microgreens With Children
Microgreens can be taught to everyone, not just adults. Let’s face it, most children stay inside and play video games. What do children know about farming, besides crops and cows?
Microgreens can be taught to everyone, not just adults. Let’s face it, most children stay inside and play video games. What do children know about farming, besides crops and cows? This is the current stigma that has been associated with farming for the longest time. That’s great and all, but along came microgreens. Watching the microgreens sprout is really something that can’t be explained. It’s exciting and might inspire children to be urban farmers or just entrepreneurs. Introducing microgreens to children at a young age is engaging and fulfilling. It’s become a field where innovation is key and the younger generation has plenty of ideas. It’s also a fun and exciting way to connect kids with nature.
Here at Nick Greens Grow Team we worked with Kipp One Academy Charter school and had put in place a program that developed an understanding of where food comes. It was a success as the children and faculty all had to work together to make this work. This made it possible for children to connect with and appreciate the food they eat. They might even want to eat veggies if they see them in the form of microgreens. Having the microgreens program also gave children the fundamentals. The fundamentals are important because children can attempt to grow much more challenging microgreens.
Here are our steps to grow at home with your children:
Grab a 10X20 tray with drainage holes and fill it 1" thick with moist coco coir.
Weigh 14 grams of arugula microgreens Seeds into seed shaker, then broadcast evenly across the 10X20 tray.
Apply an even mist of water to the tray, then cover it with a humidity dome and place it in a dark space.
Germinate for two or three days in a dark location with at least 75% - 80% humidity. Water as described in step three at least once a day.
Remove humidity dome from the tray on day two/three. Then begin feeding plants your favorite fertilizer using a low flood/continuous flow method of irrigation.
Micro Arugula will be ready for harvest around 7-14 days, They will need about 8 to 16 hours of light with a typical fluorescent grow light about 12"-15" from the base of the plant.
It’s a fun process and gets children to get active and appreciate the world. Who knows maybe your child will start a whole urban farm in your backyard or basement.
If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy these post:"Guide to growing microgreens"
TAGS: #growingmicrogreens #microgreens #organicmicrogreens #microgreen #growathome #growfoodathome #microarugula #arugula #urbanfarming #urbanfarm
US: Pennsylvania - Hope Street Learning Lab Opening Aquaponics Classroom This Summer
Hydroponics and aquaponics are two urban farming techniques in which plants are grown in water without soil and fertilized with fish waste. These techniques often help provide fresh produce in food deserts
Lindsay C VanAsdalan York Dispatch
Mar 2, 2020
Hope Street Learning Lab will be opening a community aquaponics classroom this summer, following plans announced in November to install a hydroponics lab.
"We are super excited about it, and the ability to partner with somebody like Dr. Bracey-Green — it really is phenomenal," said Blanda Nace, executive director of York City's Redevelopment Authority. Jamie Bracey-Green, director of the Center for Inclusive Competitiveness at Temple University's College of Engineering, is partnering with the Hope Street nonprofit to donate shipping containers for its aquaponics and hydroponics in York City.
The partnership comes through a local chapter of MESA — Mathematics, Engineering and Science Achievement — housed in the center, to bring more of those studies to underserved areas.
Hope Street lab looks to buy a stretch of York City property
Jamie Bracey-Green, director for the Center of Inclusive Competitiveness at Temple University, is providing shipping containers for a new aquaponics classroom for Hope Street Learning Lab. She announced the proposed classroom along with Hope Street officials in February. The addition to the York City community learning center will involve soil-less hydroponic and aquaponic growing techniques. The classroom is slated to be open this July. Pictured, L to R: State Rep. Carol Hill-Evans, D-York City, Jamie Bracey-Green, Lincoln Charter Director of Community Outreach Anne Clark. Submitted, c/o Randy Flaum
Hydroponics and aquaponics are two urban farming techniques in which plants are grown in water without soil and fertilized with fish waste. These techniques often help provide fresh produce in food deserts.
Groundbreaking for the classroom is expected to commence March 31, and with it will be other additions to the Hope Street property, including a greenhouse next to the lab on the east side and a mint and herb garden on the west side.
The produce would be donated to the community. One shipping container is the equivalent to planting on 2 acres of ground, said Hope Street Executive Director Anne Clark.
Clark said the learning lab has been offering produce to residents in the city's west end for years, and the goal is to expand those efforts.
"It really is a neighborhood asset," Nace said of the planned farming technology, noting that the west end is definitely a priority in the city, but the need for food is even broader.
"The city in its entirely is a food desert," he said. "Anything we can do that change that is a step in the right direction."
York College and Temple will work with Hope Street on design to allow some natural light in the shipping containers so they'll fit in with their environment, Clark said.
"I really want the indoor classroom to be part of outside," she said, but the challenge will be also keeping them dark enough to allow the artificial light needed for the hydroponic and aquaponic farming techniques.
West Shore aquaponics supports urban agriculture, STEM education
Clark, who is also the director of outreach for Lincoln Charter School, said Hope Street is also working with the state Department of Education to match standards for the new classroom with each grade level.
Lincoln Charter School president and CEO Leonard Hart speaks at the announcement of a new aquaponics classroom for Hope Street Learning Lab in February. Lincoln Charter School is a founding partner of the learning lab, and its students often use the facility. The addition to the York City community learning center will involve soil-less hydroponic and aquaponic growing techniques in two shipping containers. The classroom is slated to be open this July. Submitted, c/o Randy Flaum
It would be available to all York County schools, as well as adult residents.
The cost of the project is about $10,000, which Clark plans to cover through financial or material donations of items such as paint, desk chairs, and solar panels.
The nonprofit is also looking at partnerships with Crispus Attucks York and York County School of Technology on some building elements and possible student mentoring.
Annual maintenance costs of Hope Street Learning Lab, which will increase about $5,000 with the new additions, would be offset in part by giving students the opportunity to plant and sell flowers.
Clark also plans to meet with the RDA in May to purchase the lab's property. Hope Street has an agreement with the authority to operate for a year, but does not own the property.
Nace said it will be up to the RDA's board to decide, but the authority has been working to assemble all the Hope Street properties into one parcel. The RDA owns several, one is privately owned and two are owned by the city.
The new aquaponics classroom is slated to open by July.
Pennsylvania Rep. Carol Hill-Evans, D-York City, speaks at the announcement of a new aquaponics classroom for Hope Street Learning Lab in February. The addition to the York City community learning center will involve soil-less hydroponic and aquaponic growing techniques in two shipping containers. The classroom is slated to be open this July.
Submitted, c/o Randy Flaum
Whole Foods Charity, Teens To Grow Tons of Produce For NYC
A group of New York City teens grew enough food in an indoor hydroponic farm to feed more than 2,000 students at lunch, with the help of a Whole Kids Foundation partnership with Teens for Food Justice
Students of Martin Luther King, Jr. Educational Campus in Manhattan are feeding thousands at school lunches from what they grow at an indoor hydroponic farm. ( Photo courtesy The Parkside Group )
March 3, 2020
A group of New York City teens grew enough food in an indoor hydroponic farm to feed more than 2,000 students at lunch, with the help of a Whole Kids Foundation partnership with Teens for Food Justice.
Industry leaders and local elected officials attended a press conference Feb. 28, at the Martin Luther King Jr. Educational Campus where students, along with staff and community members, have built a hydroponic farm, according to a news release.
In January, the students harvested more than 700 pounds of fresh produce including kale and lettuce, which were used in school lunches. They are on track to grow more than 10,000 pounds of produce for the school and community this year, according to the release.
The students had help from Hunter College and funding from Whole Foods Market. Also participating were Manhattan borough president Gale Brewer, city council member Helen Rosenthal and United Way of New York City.
“The MLK farm will provide real-world opportunities for students to apply the concepts they learn in classes like biology and chemistry, and it also creates an indelible understanding of how food grows,” Nona Evans, president and executive director of Whole Kids Foundation, said in the release. “ ... We know from years of experience and stacks of research, that when students understand and participate in growing food — they make healthier choices for a lifetime.”The foundation’s goal is to support schools and inspire families to improve children’s nutrition and wellness.
One of the goals of this farm is to encourage students to transform their relationship with food, instilling a lifelong understanding of healthy eating habits and sustainability, according to the release.
The nonprofit Teens for Food Justice has a mission to ensure that all New Yorkers have access to healthy, affordable food through youth-led, community-based solutions. The organization runs four farms serving 14 schools in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan.
These farms are expected to grow more than 30,000 pounds of produce annually that feed students daily at lunch and their local communities, according to the release.
Related Topics: Schools Northeast (U.S.) New York New York City New York ProduceNutrition Sustainability
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
Elon Musk's Brother Wants To Transform Farming
Vertical farming is an indoor farming method in which crops are grown in stacked layers, often without soil. The practice is becoming more popular and important as urban populations grow dramatically and available farmland decreases
February 28, 2020
New York (CNN Business)Plant-based foods are all the rage right now, and vertical farms are capitalizing on the trend.
Vertical farming is an indoor farming method in which crops are grown in stacked layers, often without soil. The practice is becoming more popular and important as urban populations grow dramatically and available farmland decreases.
While vertical farming isn't a new concept, these eco-friendly indoor farms are now rapidly expanding.
Elon Musk's younger brother, Kimbal Musk, who was named "Global Social Entrepreneur" of the year by the World Economic Forum in 2017, started Square Roots, an indoor urban farming company based in Brooklyn, in 2016. Square Roots' mission is to bring fresh, local food to cities around the world by empowering younger generations to participate in urban farming.
"When I was a kid, the only way I could get my family to sit down and connect was by cooking the meal," Musk, co-founder and executive chairman of Square Roots, told CNN Business in an email.
Kimbal Musk teaches students how to plant a vegetable garden in California.
"Getting involved with the internet, especially in the late '90s, was very exciting and I wouldn't change anything about those experiences, but my passion has always been food," Musk said. "The moment Elon and I sold Zip2, our first internet company, I knew I wanted to pursue food and become a trained chef." He moved to New York and enrolled at the International Culinary Center.
Musk said the company plans to open a Square Roots "Super Farm" — with 25 climate-controlled shipping containers, cold storage, biosecurity infrastructure and everything else needed to run a vertical farm at scale — in less than three months.
Since its inception, Square Roots has grown more than 120 varieties of crops, including greens, vegetables, and strawberries.
The company isn't the first of its kind. Startups like Silicon Valley's Plenty, which was founded in 2013 and is backed by Jeff Bezos, are also beginning to dominate the space.
"Environmentalists, urban farmers, architects, agronomists, and public health experts, among others, have been joining this mini-revolution as they partner to work out a way to salvage a food-scarce, ultra-urbanized future," Kheir Al-Kodmany, a professor of sustainable urban design at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said in a report.
It involves various techniques, such as hydroponics, which uses mineral nutrient solutions in a water solvent; aquaponics, which uses aquatic creatures -- such as fish and snails -- and cultivates plants in water; and aeroponics, which grows plants in the air.
As for job creation, rapid climate change will put millions of traditional farmers out of business, but vertical farmers won't be affected, according to microbiologist Dickson Despommier, an emeritus professor of public and environmental health at Columbia University.
Although vertical farming was first introduced in the early 1900s, it was recently popularized by Despommier. More than 20 years ago, he began teaching a class at Columbia called Medical Ecology.
Despommier spent a decade growing crops indoors with his students. "Ten years ago, there were no vertical farms," he said, noting that LED grow lights have vastly improved farming efficiency over the last five years, making indoor growing cheaper and more reliable.
Basil growing at the Square Roots farm in Brooklyn.
"People want local food because they've lost trust in the industrial food system that ships in high calorie, low nutrient food from thousands of miles away with little transparency as to who grew the food and how," said Peggs, the Square Roots CEO.
At the same time, the world population is growing and urbanizing rapidly. Peggs said climate change is threatening existing supplies of food, forcing the industry to figure out new ways to grow food quickly.
Peggs is optimistic about raising money for vertical farming. "A lot of smart money and capital is entering the space," he said. "The quality of food that can now be produced in these indoor systems is at least on par with the best organic field-grown food you can buy."
Despommier said that cities will eventually be able to grow "all they can eat" from indoor farms located within city limits. "If an outdoor farm fails, the farmer has to wait until next year to start again, he said. "Indoor farms fail too, but the indoor farmer can start again within weeks."
Harvest Fresh Canteen Vegetables On-Site
In schools and universities in America, the catering and service provider Sodexo plans to produce fresh vegetables all year round via indoor farming. To this end, the company is cooperating with the US hydroponics provider Freight Farms. The salad should grow vertically in containers on campus
by Frauke Brodkorb-Kettenbach
February 15, 2020
In the container greenery of the US company Freight Farms, Sodexo grows fresh vegetables for its cafeterias directly on campus. CAROLINE KATSIROUBAS / FREIGHT FARMS
In schools and universities in America, the catering and service provider Sodexo plans to produce fresh vegetables all year round via indoor farming. To this end, the company is cooperating with the US hydroponics provider Freight Farms. The salad should grow vertically in containers on campus.
Over 500 vegetables, such as Salanova Green Butter Salad (pictured), can be grown on a commercial scale in Freight Farm’s containers with 320 square meters of vertical acreage - regardless of the season and without pesticides or herbicides. Delivery routes are also eliminated with this type of vegetable cultivation.
Save resources
With the cooperation, Sodexo is pursuing its strategy of operating as sustainably as possible and at the same time being precisely informed about the origin of its food for customers in the education segment.
In addition, students could monitor the stages of growing their food. For example, schools could integrate hydroponic farming into interactive curricula or school subjects such as technology, agriculture, nutrition, and economics, according to Freight Farms' approach. The vertical farming provider also sees similar advantages for employees when using the containers in companies.
CAROLINE KATSIROUBAS / FREIGHT FARMS
So far, vegetables grow in freight farm containers in 25 countries and 44 states in the US - in small and medium-sized businesses, hospitals, as well as in retail and non-profit organizations, the information says. 35 school facilities now work with the hydroponics system. By working with Sodexo, the number should grow rapidly.
SODEXO, USA
Sodexo USA offers building management and catering services to schools, universities, hospitals, senior citizens' communities, venues, and other key industries. The parent company Sodexo Quality of Life Services, with headquarters in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, was founded in 1966. According to its own statements, the group offers Benefits and Rewards Services and Personal and Home Services daily for 100 million people in 72 countries. In 2019, it had an annual turnover of 22 billion euros with 460,000 employees worldwide. The portfolio includes reception, security, maintenance and cleaning services, catering, facility management, restaurant, and gift vouchers and fuel passes for employees.
Institute For Advanced Learning And Research And Virginia Tech Launch The Controlled Environment Agriculture Innovation Center in Danville
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
By urbanagnews
February 17, 2020
The partnership will create a hub of innovation and economic development in an industry expected to grow to $4 billion
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.”
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, visit www.ialr.org.
For more information on IALR, contact Allison Moore at allison.moore@ialr.org or 434.766.6766
Researchers Tackling Viability of Leafy Greens In Vertical Farming Production
To better serve this burgeoning industry, researchers hope to integrate the indoor vertical growers within the specialty crop segment of agriculture, with the ultimate goal of increasing sustainability and profitability
Posted by Brian Sparks
February 19, 2020
Murat Kacira, University of Arizona. Photo: Rosemarie Brandt/College of Agriculture and LIfe SciencesA research team from the University of Arizona, Michigan State University, Purdue University, and The Ohio State University is using a $2.7 million grant from USDA’s Specialty Crops Research Initiative to study indoor leafy green production, with the goal of improving the quality, quantity, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of indoor vertical farming production.
The initiative — called Optimizing Indoor Agriculture, or OptimIA — has caught the eye of more than 25 industry leaders, whose matching financial support brings the project total to $5.4 million.
“We’re privileged to work with a team of powerhouse scientists, engineers, economists, and industry partners to collectively address the significant challenges faced by the indoor vertical farming industry,” says Murat Kacira, a Professor of Biosystems Engineering and Director of the University of Arizona Controlled Environment Agriculture Center. “Controlled environmental agriculture is one piece of the puzzle, combining plant science, engineering, and computer-controlled production systems to enhance the yield and quality of our crops and optimize resource use.”
To better serve this burgeoning industry, researchers hope to integrate the indoor vertical growers within the specialty crop segment of agriculture, with the ultimate goal of increasing sustainability and profitability.
To do that, the multi-university team plans to assess variable environmental conditions, such as humidity, air movement, temperature, light, and carbon dioxide concentration, and then provide a more complete picture of best practices for indoor farming stakeholders.
Kacira and his team will be using computer simulations, modeling, and experimental studies to design and test more effective localized air-distribution methods, environmental monitoring, and control strategies for indoor vertical farms
.Michigan State University will lead final economic modeling, with Erik Runkle collaborating with co-principal investigators Roberto Lopez and Simone Valle de Souza. Chieri Kubota will take the reins testing environmental condition variables at The Ohio State University, and Cary Mitchell will lead closed canopy and phasic lighting tests at Purdue University.
Learn more about the research here.
Brian Sparks is senior editor of Greenhouse Grower and editor of Greenhouse Grower Technology.
See all author stories here.
Dissertation On Indoor Vertical Farming - Survey
I looked into several aspects of vertical farming including its advantages and disadvantages over conventional farming, energy requirements, perceptions of the industry and the challenges and opportunities that are currently facing the industry
My name is Caleb Owen and I am currently in my final year at Harper Adams University studying BSc (Hons) Agriculture. As part of my course, I am required to complete a dissertation. With the wide range of sectors within agriculture to choose from, I opted to look into urban agriculture and more specifically vertical farming. This field has become of growing interest to me due to it being a relatively young sector within agriculture. It offers exciting new opportunities for the industry as well as individuals who are interested in going into urban agriculture.
As it is a young industry I was intrigued to better understand the opinions that various stakeholders within vertical farming have towards the growth and especially the sustainability of their industry. I, therefore, decided to construct a questionnaire in order to understand the opinions and views of various stakeholders and try to determine any similarities as such.
Once my aims were established I underwent a literature review on the subject. I focused mainly on published peer-reviewed articles where I picked out their strengths and weaknesses. I discovered unsurprisingly that there was not much-published literature on vertical farming as it is such a young sector. However, I was surprised to find out that the concept was first mentioned over 100 years ago in a 1915 book by Gilbert Ellis Bailey where he described it as a utopian concept with the system similarly describing that of underground vertical farming in the Netherlands.
I looked into several aspects of vertical farming including its advantages and disadvantages over conventional farming, energy requirements, perceptions of the industry and the challenges and opportunities that are currently facing the industry. Although these were the topics that were mostly covered by the literature, there was still a lack of research. For example, there is a significant lack of information about the perceptions of vertical farming and more specifically the public perception of the industry. From looking at these various topics I drew out possible research gaps that can be looked into in the future. This included conducting more primary research into the sustainability and perceptions of vertical farming.
After conducting the literature review I was better informed in constructing a questionnaire that would help me achieve my targets. I then went to it to construct a short questionnaire that would provide me with as much information as possible about the views and opinions of vertical farming stakeholders. I chose to do this by using an online survey as it was easy to edit as well as being easy to distribute to as many people as possible. I understood from the start that there would not be many vertical farmers within the United Kingdom and therefore I have chosen to contact as many vertical farmers globally in order to make my results as statistically significant as possible. I hope that the results are drawn from my questionnaire highlight the knowledge that the stakeholders have on the sector as well as their concerns about any possible challenges.
Over the past few months, I have conducted a literature review on the topic and made a short questionnaire in order to better gain an understanding of vertical farmers perceptions on their industry
I would be very grateful if you are able to distribute the questionnaire link that is provided below to your members. The questionnaire should take 5-10 minutes to complete and will close on the 6th of March at 18:00 GMT.
Questionnaire link: https://harper-adams.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/vertical-farmers-perceptions-of-vertical-farming-copy
Can You Fit A 2-Acre Garden In A Shipping Container?
As the bustling streets of Brooklyn, New York rumble nearby, most passersby have no idea there’s a bountiful garden just steps away
WRITTEN BY SAM BURNS
As the bustling streets of Brooklyn, New York rumble nearby, most passersby have no idea there’s a bountiful garden just steps away. It may have something to do with the fact that this garden’s not in a field or in someone’s lawn but in a parking lot, with acres and acres of fresh food growing inside shipping containers!
When people can’t go to the farm, why not bring the farm to the people? That’s what Square Roots is doing by growing fresh, nutritious food in cities to feed the communities around them.
Tucked away inside your everyday shipping container is the equivalent of a two-acre farm. Leaves from a variety of herbs and greens line the walls in columns, as purple lights shine on them and young farmers are hard at work tending to their needs. Let’s take a look at how this all works and what it means for our future with food!
Courtesy of Square Roots
As we face growing populations and changing climates, our ability to grow enough food to support everyone’s health remains in question. But this fascinating look into the future of food with Square Roots gives us the inspiration to keep pushing the barriers on our definitions of what “farming” is, where it happens, and who does it.
On a mission to bring nutritious food to people living in the city and counteract the nutrient loss that happens in our typical food system (when produce is shipped many, many miles), Square Roots is perfecting a sustainable model of farming that can change what we can eat in our growing cities.
To give us an introduction to their work, here’s BEME News:
Dive deeper into Square Roots!
Square Roots has sure been up to a lot in the two years since that video was released! Not only are they continuing their awesome Next-Gen Farmer Training Program to help young people get started in the industry, but they’ve also taken major steps to increase the transparency of information about our food and access to it with some amazing new launches!
Since Square Roots has data collection and technology in their DNA, they’ve decided to let the public in on it. In late 2018, they started putting QR codes on the back of all of their produce packaging so consumers can read the life story of their food; where it was grown, when, how, and by whom! Think about that: when was the last time you knew who picked that bag of spinach you just plucked off the shelf? Or what sort of environment it’s coming from? Square Roots Transparency Timeline lifts the curtain on the stories of our food system and hands the consumer more power. (Read more about their Transparency Timetable here!)
Last year, Square Roots opened its first farm campus outside of New York City!
Gordon Food Service, one of the United States’ leading foodservice providers, has signed on to have Square Roots campuses of indoor farms built on or around their distribution and retail centers around the country. Square Roots wrote in their blog that:
“It’s been exciting for us to witness a company as large as Gordon Food Service move so fast to address the increasing consumer demand for locally-grown food. It’s also very clear that Gordon Food Service takes its role as a responsible member of the food supply chain seriously. They recognize that, at their scale, adoption of innovative solutions like Square Roots can drive significant positive change throughout the entire foodservice industry.”
We couldn’t agree more! When the goliaths in any industry shift their practices, they can begin a huge ripple effect. And this first farm is surely a big one. Read more about the farm–which they opened in September 2019 (congrats, y’all!)–in this blog post!
You can learn more about Square Roots by visiting their website or touring one of their farms in person! And subscribe to their blog to receive updates from them directly in your inbox. (They post great stuff! I highly suggest taking a look.)
View of the Square Roots Brooklyn Farm Campus | Courtesy of Square Roots
Can you imagine what it’d be like if your family had access to fresh food all year round?
How would that impact your lives? As our societies and populations have grown steadily over the years, it seems like we’ve been scrambling to establish a food industry that can accommodate our needs. But something else has been happening as humanity grows: our innovations have adapted. We’ve developed new technologies and uncovered more secrets from the natural world, meaning, we have an immensely better grasp on how plants grow and the tools needed to help them. Every year inches us closer and closer to a solution.
Square Roots is a really great piece of the puzzle, but of course, they aren’t the only ones using their knowledge to make a dent in this problem.
What can you do?
Well first, if you live in New York City you can use this locator to see if Square Roots is selling their produce at a market near you. (And make sure you scan those neat QR codes on the back of their produce—they’ll give you all of the information about who grew the food and where it comes from!)
But for the rest of us without a shipping container garden in a parking lot nearby, what can we do? I’ll just give you one piece of advice (and trust me, I’m giving it to myself as well): grow a plant inside! Any plant! Basil, thyme, spinach, tomatoes, strawberries, I don’t care. If you can avoid buying one product at the market, that’s a great start. Plus, you’ll know exactly where that wonderful basil on your hunk of mozzarella came from. This article can give you some ideas.
If that doesn’t seem like something that’s possible, there are also great directories to find farmer’s markets and CSA’s near you! A simple Google search should suffice in pulling up your local options. But for those living in the United States, the Department of Agriculture’s farmer’s market and CSA directories are a really great resource. Just click those respective links and enter your zip code to see what’s happening near you!
Do you have any other tips? Share with us on Twitter or Facebook!
Stay open to new possibilities!
Sam
“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” —Albert Einstein
Partnership Brings Container Farms To Students Across The U.S.
Freight Farms and Sodexo have partnered to bring hydroponic vertical farming technology to schools and universities across the U.S. The collaboration will usher in the implementation of Freight Farms’ Greenery container farms to campuses across the U.S., enabling the onsite growth of fresh, traceable produce year-round
Freight Farms and Sodexo have partnered to bring hydroponic vertical farming technology to schools and universities across the U.S. The collaboration will usher in the implementation of Freight Farms’ Greenery container farms to campuses across the U.S., enabling the onsite growth of fresh, traceable produce year-round.
“Students, institutions, and corporate businesses want healthy, safe, and delicious food, and they want it sourced as sustainably as possible. Sodexo is proud to use and support the latest agricultural technology to create meaningful food system change," said Kenny Lipsman, Director of Produce Category for Sodexo. “Our partnership with Freight Farms allows us to grow nutritious, superior-quality food on-site for our clients, just steps from the kitchens and serveries.
As part of Sodexo’s Better Tomorrow Commitments, developed in accordance with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, this technology allows for traceability, reductions in food waste, and year-round crop consistency.”
Co-founder and CEO of Freight Farms Brad McNamara, continued, “Sodexo’s commitment to offer onsite food production to its customers helps accelerate food system decentralization — leading the charge for better sourcing practices at an institutional level. Sodexo’s adoption of Freight Farms on-site programming will demonstrate to their customers and client communities the positive impact hyper-local food production can have on priorities from nutrition and food safety to emissions reduction.”
For more information:
Freight Farms
www.freightfarms.com
Sodexo
www.sodexo.com
Publication date: Wed 29 Jan 2020
Partnership Bringing Vertical Farming Opportunity To U.S. Colleges
Many colleges and universities are getting access to some of the most advanced hydroponic vertical farming technology around, thanks to a partnership between vertical-farming innovator Freight Farms and food/facilities management company Sodexo
January 29, 2020
Many colleges and universities are getting access to some of the most advanced hydroponic vertical farming technology around, thanks to a partnership between vertical-farming innovator Freight Farms and food/facilities management company Sodexo. The collaboration will usher in the implementation of Freight Farms’ 320-square-foot Greenery containers on campuses, enabling the onsite growth of fresh, traceable produce year-round.
The hope is that having food that would travel zero food miles will help reduce these schools’ environmental impacts. In a news release, the companies said the benefits include:
Food miles and waste reduction
Food is harvested steps from the plate, eliminating food miles
Harvested onsite, food lasts significantly longer, reducing spoilage waste
The Greenery uses 99.8 percent less water than traditional agriculture, and in some humid areas, operations can be water-positive
Peak freshness and nutrition, year-round
Unlike food that has to travel great distances between harvest and plate, freshness and nutrient density does not degrade during transit
Pesticides won’t be used
The farms grow at commercial scale and maintain the perfect environmental conditions every day of the year
Safety, transparency, and data-driven traceability
The hydroponic container farms are soil-free and are decentralized from the mass supply chain
Campus communities can get to know their own farmers and witness every growing stage of their food
Proprietary IoT technology, farmhand, tracks produce from seed to plate, even down to the hour
Student and employee engagement
Schools can choose to integrate their farms into interactive curricula across disciplines like science and technology, agriculture, nutrition, business, and social impact
Corporate businesses can integrate their onsite farms into employee wellness and benefit programs
Freight Farms’ customers are located in 25 countries and 44 U.S. states and range from small business farmers to corporate, hospitality, retail, education, and nonprofit sectors. To date, 35 educational and corporate campuses use Freight Farms’ technology, and together with Sodexo, implementation will rapidly expand across the U.S.
Images courtesy of Freight Farms
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
Freight Farms And Sodexo Are Bringing Vertical Farming to U.S. Schools
In North America alone, Sodexo serves over 13,000 client sites, many of them school cafeterias and university dining halls
Freight Farms, a major player in the world of containerized vertical farms, announced today a partnership with food service and facilities management company Sodexo. Together, the two aim to bring Freight Farms’ hydroponic vertical farms into school campuses across the U.S., according to a press release sent by Freight Farms
In North America alone, Sodexo serves over 13,000 client sites, many of them school cafeterias and university dining halls. The new partnership means Boston-based Freight Farms will be able to implement its Greenery container farms in more locations. At the moment, the company has 35 of these farms set up at educational and corporate campuses. The Sodexo partnership will expand that number “rapidly,” according to the press release, as the two companies implement more farms at both K-12 schools and university campuses that are Sodexo customers.
The 320-sq-foot Greenery farm uses hydroponics to grow leafy greens and herbs inside climate-controlled shipping containers. Users control watering and nutrient schedules and access data on their plants via the company’s proprietary Farmhand software, which can be accessed via the user’s smartphone. The idea is to equip growers with a turnkey offering they can flip on from anywhere in the world and use to grow food with relatively little hassle.
For schools in particular, that means outfitting students and teachers with not just freshly harvested food for the cafeteria but also potential new curriculum around technology, agriculture, and business, if students are allowed to work directly with the farms. Co-founder and CEO of Freight Farms Brad McNamara told me last year that the Greenery “allows us the opportunity to not only feed a demographic and teach them how to farm.”
Still, vertical farming has yet to prove itself in terms of scale and economics. Part of determining the success of the Freight Farms-Sodexo partnership will lie in getting more data on how well the vertical farms function in an institutional environment. Many vertical farms geared towards institutional levels of food production promise simple “plug in and grow” solutions. Not all of them deliver as promised.
And beyond basic functionality of the farms, we also need more information about whether or not its truly cost-effective to bring these farms into schools and cafeterias in place of greens transported across the country. Will the reduction in water usage and food waste translate into money saved for these institutions? Freight Farms noted in the press release that in some parts of the country, those using the Greenery can actually make their operations water positive. We don’t, however, have any numbers on how beneficial being water positive is to these organizations’ overall margins, and if it offsets, say, the electricity required to run the farms.
This isn’t the first food-tech-focused initiative Sodexo has embarked on in the recent past. In 2019, the company partnered with Starship to bring wheeled food delivery robots to college campuses in the U.S. The company also launched an Impossible Burger menu at 1,500 of its U.S. locations.
Sodexo’s sheer reach (it’s a multi-national corporation with services all over the world) gives it a certain amount of influence over the educational sector’s meals many others wouldn’t have. If the partnership with Freight Farms can showcase both the health and economical benefits from hyper-local, hyper-traceable, longer-lasting greens onsite, it could open the door to more schools and institutions considering some form of indoor farming onsite.
Related
US: Minnesota - Shipping Container To Grow Year-Round Veggies At CLC
The project consists of an insulated shipping container outfitted with a complete hydroponic growing system able to provide numerous Minnesotans with fresh, leafy greens year-round. Partners include Todd-Wadena Electric Cooperative, Lakewood Health System, Great River Energy, the Electric Research Power Institute and CLC
By: Brainerd Dispatch | Jan 18th, 2020
A crane places a 'Sota Grown hydroponic growing system at its new home on the Central Lakes College Staples campus. The system will produce year-round leafy greens. Submitted photo
STAPLES — Central Lakes College’s Ag and Energy Center in Staples is the new home of ‘Sota Grown, a collaborative indoor agriculture container farm project.
The project consists of an insulated shipping container outfitted with a complete hydroponic growing system able to provide numerous Minnesotans with fresh, leafy greens year-round. Partners include Todd-Wadena Electric Cooperative, Lakewood Health System, Great River Energy, the Electric Research Power Institute and CLC.
Following the installation of the container farm, CLC students will receive hands-on training to plant, maintain and harvest the growing crops, the first of which will be kale, ready to be harvested 10 weeks from planting. The kale will then be delivered to Lakewood for its Food Farmacy program that feeds more than 600 people monthly.
Great River Energy, Todd-Wadena Electric Cooperative and Electric Research Power will collect data throughout the process for electricity load planning, technology evaluation, and beneficial rate design analysis.
“Efficiencies with indoor food production and hydroponics will be critical as we look to feeding a growing global population that will surpass 9 billion in a few decades,” Keith Olander, CLC dean of agriculture studies, said in a news release.
The ‘Sota Grown project is part of a national indoor crop production demonstration effort that looks at how using efficient electricity, technology, plant sciences, and control solutions to create microclimates can produce ideal conditions for plant growth, yield, quality, and consistency.
Growing produce locally for area communities will also reduce the distance to market — a significant factor for Todd and Wadena counties since they are impacted by food deserts — thereby reducing net greenhouse gas emissions. Leafy greens generally travel an average of 2,000 miles before reaching a store, according to the release.
A ribbon-cutting event where the public will be able to view and tour the container farm will be this spring.
Those interested in following the process from seedlings to the first harvest can do so on the ‘Sota Grown Facebook page.