Welcome to iGrow News, Your Source for the World of Indoor Vertical Farming
AppHarvest, USDA Partner To Expand Educational Container Farm Program
Located at Breathitt High School in Jackson, Ky., the retrofitted shipping container allows students to grow and provide fresh leafy greens to their classmates and those in need in their community
In partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, we’ve opened a new high-tech educational container farm in Eastern Kentucky to offer students a hands-on AgTech experience.
Located at Breathitt High School in Jackson, Ky., the retrofitted shipping container allows students to grow and provide fresh leafy greens to their classmates and those in need in their community. The U.S. Department of Agriculture provided a majority of funding for the container farm through its Community Facilities grants program.
The Breathitt County container farm is the third in our program, which started in 2018 in Eastern Kentucky to excite students about growing their own food.
“This amazing project will not only put fresh vegetables on the table but, more importantly, it will teach tomorrow’s agribusiness leaders — and do all of that right here in Eastern Kentucky,” said U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development State Director Hilda Legg.
Click here to learn more and here for coverage of the container farm’s opening.
“Sharing Technology Is The Only Way The Industry Will Grow”
Lack of this might lead to farmers being susceptible to misleading information, using ineffective technologies, which I’ve seen many people suffering from.
“There is a lack of know-how amongst farmers to apply those techniques in a successful way,” says Joe Swartz, Vice president and Lead horticulturalists at AmHydro. In every situation, according to Joe, from geography to the skill of the grower or climate control, all play into what types of technology should be used. This requires a lot of experience and knowledge. Lack of this might lead to farmers being susceptible to misleading information, using ineffective technologies, which I’ve seen many people suffering from.
Joe adds, “Watching many good growers that have been led down a bad path in the industry, while investing so much into technologies that are not really effective, really breaks my heart. While providers know that they aren’t effective in this particular situation. With many years of industry experience, Joe is well aware of the challenges that the industry faces these days. Within the aquaponics sector there is not one singular technology, just as in conventional farming, rather various unique technologies can be combined for different outcomes.
Lack of know-how
When asked about the kind of growers that Joe educates, he notes that there are two kinds of growers contacting him. “We have two types of growers: either growers facing challenges or new growers wanting equipment and knowledge. Both of those approaches are interesting and it’s great to be able to help them become successful. It is great to see our system helping companies to grow and develop and become a worldwide provider. Growers like that keep coming back to us. They are the ones that move the industry”.
Joe Swartz, Vice president
An essential part of being a vertical farmer, in Joe’s opinion, is having experience with working on the ground floor. Only this will teach you what it takes to manage the equipment, crops and technology. “The best growers have started in the greenhouse. Hydro-experts will get nowhere with their college degree alone,” Joe states. For that reason, AmHydro offers grower seminars and even possesses a commercial greenhouse where growers can work in order to gain experience. “Some growers don’t think that they need it as they rely on technology, but my experience is exactly the opposite.”
Fake promises
Joe observes similar trends as in the 1980s when certain technologies were promoted as ‘the farming of the future’. People talked about automatic farming, in which no farmer would be needed, new techniques and new lightings. All things we hear today were said back then. What happened afterward, according to Joe, was that some techniques turned out disappointing. Millions of dollars invested were lost, leading to the industry losing its credibility.
“As a result, investors only valid projects that already have a positive cash flow, as they have become more cautious. Some growers struggled to get funding, even though they had a viable business model. In a certain way, negative events have closed off some appetite for investments in CEA, which is a shame. It is a good investment in general, but every time we see a less than a reputable company or a technology that fails, it holds the industry back.”
Misconception
Related to that, Joe says that vertical farming still has to overcome a somewhat negative public image. “The traditional consumer, at least in the USA, have an image of farmers working on the land using sustainable methods. Now, being a conventional farmer using hydroponics I know that it is a sustainable and safe way to produce food, but there’s a public perception of automatization, as robotic food. Some people even call it “Frankenfood”. In my opinion, the more we can promote CEA as what it is, sustainable growing techniques, people will be more accepting and investors will invest more easily”.
Joe strongly senses that the vertical farming industry needs more skilled farmers and growers to meet the demand. “A lot of my work is actually training people. We want to help especially young people, new to the industry, by giving them skills, experience and knowledge. I have been blessed to have mentors when I was young and I try my best to pass that knowledge as this will help the industry along. That’s one of the reasons why we now see some consultancy firms who see economic opportunities. Sharing technology is the only way in which the industry will grow,” says Joe.
“Despite the diversity amongst growers that I meet in over 66 countries, all growers face similar problems. Funny tech flitches, pipes that break and spray water all over the greenhouse, or water pumps that break down. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a technologically advanced greenhouse or a small low-tech one. It kind of goes across the board,” says Joe laughing.
For more information:
AmHydro
Joe Swartz, Vice president and Lead horticulturalist
joe@amhydro.com
www.amhydro.com
Author: Rebekka Boekhout
© VerticalFarmDaily.com
International Webinar On Urban Farming - Soilless Cultivation
27th January 2021, between 9 am to 1 pm IST
organised by the
Department of Botany, Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, INDIA
in collaboration with
Universitas Bengkulu, Indonesia
Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Malaysia
Industrial Technology Institute (CISIR), Sri Lanka
With the support of
CropG1 ,dFarms USA, Hydrilla, SAM Agro Biotech, SRC Malaysia, Sujay Biotech, Veggitech UAE and Urban Kisaan
on 27th January 2021, between 9 am to 1 pm IST.
Speakers are
1. A perspective of Hydroponics by Mr Vijay Bhaskar Noti, dFarm Inc., USA
2. Sustainable Farming with Multiloop Aquaponics by Mrs Mamatha, Hydrilla
3. Aeroponics: A versatile research tool in modern Agriculture by Dr Jagadeesh, SAM Agro Biotech
4. Diversity in Hydroponics by Prof. G. Sudarsanam, Sri Venkateswara University
5. Application of ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZAL FUNGI In Hydroponics and Aeroponics by Dr M. Lakshmi Prasad, Sujay Biotech
6. Hydroponics Scope and Opportunities by Bhaskar Rao, VeggiTech, UAE
7. Plant Health in Soilless Cultivation: Management of Deficiencies, Diseases and Pests By Dr Purushottam Dewang, CropG1
8. Hydroponic Urban Farming in Malaysia under MITRA by Chandrasekar, Sai Ram Capital, Malaysia
9. Entrepreneurship in Urban Farming by Dr P. Sairam, Urban Kisaan
Please fill Free Registration form and submit using the following link
https://forms.gle/52WaVECrqpEFQh4w8
*eCertificates & webinar link will be provided to the registered participants only
*Organisers are not responsible for network failures
For more information please contact
Prof.G.Sudarsanam
Convener of the Webinar
Head, Department of Botany
Sri Venkateswara University
Tirupati -517503
E-mail: sudarsanamg@gmail.com
WhatsApp: +91-9989053632
Commercial Urban Farming Course
Agritecture is bringing our knowledge from advising clients on the key best practices for CEA online!
Our online Commercial Urban Farming Course includes more than 2.5 hours of video learning - broken down into 6 comprehensive lessons - each lesson made up of digestible 5-10 minute modules.
Additional resources will help you translate insights into actions.
And finally, after completing 4 lessons, you’ll unlock a free webinar with one of our expert consultants.
The Mexican Tec Graduates Who Are Using Vertical Farming To Eradicate Hunger
Vertical farms use 90% less water than traditional agriculture and can meet the challenge of feeding more than 9 billion people
Vertical farms use 90% less water than traditional agriculture and can meet the challenge of feeding more than 9 billion people
Por Susan Irais
January 11, 2021
Not all fruit and vegetables can be grown using this technique, but a great variety can. (Photo: Courtesy of Verde Karma Fresh)
Every night, seven million people go to bed hungry in Mexico. It is estimated that the coronavirus pandemic will cause that figure to increase. According to the latest report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 130 million people will be affected by chronic hunger worldwide by the end of 2020.
Unfortunately for Mexico, the traditional agricultural industry uses a lot of resources and wastes a large amount of what it takes from the land.
For example, 34% of total production ends up in landfills due to inefficiencies during processing, storage, and transportation. What’s more, 40 billion liters of water are wasted annually due to poor irrigation.
“Fresh” products travel 300 to 1,000 kilometers and have already lost 45% of their nutritional value by the time they hit the shelves. But there is a complementary option for agriculture: vertical gardens.
Vertical Farming
“Vertical farming –in controlled environments– is a method of growing in vertically stacked layers, optimizing growing conditions and soil-less cultivation techniques, such as hydroponics,” says Leo Lobato Kelly, CEO of Verde Karma Fresh, a vertical farming company from Monterrey, Nuevo León.
The modern concept of vertical farming was proposed in 1999 by Dickson Despommier, Professor of Public and Environmental Health at Columbia University in the United States.
Due to climate change, this method has become a real alternative for countries like Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and now, Mexico.
Karma Verde Fresh (KVF) has spent the last five years developing farming systems and growing a variety of vegetables, sprouts, and seedlings in Monterrey, Nuevo León. “This has been achieved through an association with two universities and Tec graduate agronomists, using natural substrates, in this case: tezontle (volcanic rock). This substrate can be washed without contaminating the soil. By substituting mineral products, you allow fields to regenerate themselves, which is highly beneficial to the soil,” says the CEO of Karma Verde Fresh.
Not all fruit and vegetables can be grown using this technique, but a great variety can be (Photo: courtesy of Karma Verde Fresh).
Vertical farming systems use 90% less water and 95% less space than traditional farming and are 100% herbicide and pesticide-free. “Our crops can be adapted to any space, which allows us to be closer to the consumer, reduce our carbon footprint, and promote local purchases that are fresher,” says Leo Lobato.
Vertical farms keep crops fresh for longer, so they don’t lose any nutrients, using state-of-the-art LEDs that are extremely energy efficient. Energy can also be generated from renewable sources and this creates job opportunities.
Traditional Agriculture Plus Vertical Farming
“Vertical farming is another option within the agricultural industry, though it is intended as a way of complementing rather than replacing traditional agriculture,” adds Tagino Lobato from KVF.
Not all fruit and vegetables can be grown using this technique, but a great variety can be, “enough to have a balanced diet,” according to Leo Lobato.
For example, KVF produces lettuce, microgreens (mustard), Ballerina lettuce, Alexandria lettuce, peas, beetroot, large-eared lettuce, radish, Italian lettuce, and sunflowers, as well as others such as astro arugula, rocket arugula, spinach, coriander, chard, strawberries, and tomato seedlings.
Vertical farms are very beneficial. For example, they use 90% less water than traditional agriculture and they can be built anywhere, which means many spaces could be repurposed. (Infographic: Karma Verde Fresh)
This type of initiative hopes to feed the 150 million people who will be living in Mexico by 2050, of whom approximately will be in 80% urban areas, according to FAO estimates.
Karma Verde Fresh saw a great entrepreneurial opportunity in vertical technology. “We need this in all communities because we all need to eat better without damaging the planet. Vertical farming in a controlled environment has many possibilities. We can take it to schools or food bank centers,” says the co-founder of Verde Karma Fresh.
The company wants to make this innovation in agriculture available to everyone, so they are looking to make the technology accessible. For example, “we already have one of these vertical farms in Dr. Adriana Elizondo’s house in the Linda Vista neighborhood of Guadalupe in Monterrey. She’s farming with this prototype from her bedroom,” says Leo.
Karma Verde Fresh has two versions of the growing system: one for crops (KVF-AG6) and one for seedlings (KVF-AG10). (Photo: Karma Verde Fresh)
Mexico, The Land of Opportunity
The Lobato technology has already made deals with 20 international universities to take their equipment and establish laboratories. “By involving universities, we are hoping to find Mexican ingenuity that will produce better technology and create more employment opportunities in all Spanish-speaking countries,” he says.
KVF doesn’t just want to sell the technology but also to lower the costs by using Mexican technology. Sources of financing are being set up for all of the entrepreneurs who wish to take vertical farms to different levels.
The end product from vertical farms promotes local purchases that are more nutritious (Photo: Courtesy)
How Vertical Farms Could Be Ready To Take-Off
Carried out by the John Innes Centre, the University of Bristol, and the aeroponic technology provider LettUs Grow, the study identifies future research areas needed to accelerate the sustainable growth of vertical farming using aeroponic systems
12-01-2021 | LettUsGROW
Vertical farms with their soil-free, computer-controlled environments may sound like sci-fi, but there is a growing environmental and economic case for them, according to new research laying out radical ways of putting food on our plates.
The interdisciplinary study combining biology and engineering sets down steps towards accelerating the growth of this branch of precision agriculture, including the use of aeroponics which uses nutrient-enriched aerosols in place of soil.
Carried out by the John Innes Centre, the University of Bristol, and the aeroponic technology provider LettUs Grow, the study identifies future research areas needed to accelerate the sustainable growth of vertical farming using aeroponic systems.
Dr. Antony Dodd, a Group Leader at the John Innes Centre and senior author of the study, says: “By bringing fundamental biological insights into the context of the physics of growing plants in an aerosol, we can help the vertical farming business become more productive more quickly while producing healthier food with less environmental impact.”
Jack Farmer, Chief Scientific Officer at LettUs Grow and one of the authors of the study, adds: “Climate change is only going to increase the demand for this technology. Projected changes in regional weather patterns and water availability are likely to impact agricultural productivity soon. Vertical farming offers the ability to grow high-value nutritious crops in a climate-resilient manner all year round, proving a reliable income stream for growers.”
Vertical farming is a type of indoor agriculture where crops are cultivated in stacked systems with water, lighting and nutrient sources carefully controlled.
It is part of a rapidly growing sector supported by artificial intelligence in which machines are taught to manage day to day horticultural tasks. The industry is set to grow annually by 21% by 2025 according to one commercial forecast (Grand View Research, 2019).
Green benefits include better use of space because vertical farms can be sited in urban locations, fewer food miles, isolation from pathogens, reduction in soil degradation and nutrient and water recapturing and recycling.
Vertical farms also allow product consistency, price stabilization, and cultivation at latitudes incompatible with certain crops such as the desert or arctic.
“Vertical systems allow us to extend the latitude range on which crops can be grown on the planet, from the deserts of Dubai to the 4-hour winter days of Iceland. In fact, if you were growing crops on Mars you would need to use this kind of technology because there is no soil,” says Dr Dodd.
The study, which appears in the journal New Phytologist, lays out seven steps – strategic areas of future research needed to underpin increased productivity and sustainability of aeroponic vertical farms.
These seek to understand:
Why aeroponic cultivation can be more productive than hydroponic or soil cultivation
The relationship between aeroponic cultivation and 24-hour circadian rhythms of plants
Root development of a range of crops in aeroponic conditions
The relationship between aerosol droplet size and deposition and plant performance
How we can establish frameworks for comparing vertical farming technologies for a range of crops
How aeroponic methods affect microbial interactions with plant roots
The nature of recycling of root exudates (fluids secreted by the roots of plants) within the nutrient solutions of closed aeroponic systems
The report argues that a driver of technological innovation in vertical farms is minimising operation costs whilst maximising productivity – and that investment in fundamental biological research has a significant role.
Dr. Dodd’s research area covers circadian rhythms – biological clocks that align plant physiology and molecular processes to the day to day cycle of light and dark. He recently completed a year-long Royal Society Industry Fellowship with LettUs Grow.
This involved combining Dr Dodd’s expertise in circadian rhythms and plant physiology with the work of LettUs Grow’s team of biologists and engineers to design optimal aeroponic cultivation regimens. This is a key area of investigation as these molecular internal timers will perform differently in vertical farms.
Aeroponic platforms are often used to grow high-value crops such as salads, pak choi, herbs, small brassica crops, pea shoots, and bean shoots. LettUs Grow are also working on growth regimens for fruiting and rooting crops such as strawberries and carrots, as well as aeroponic propagation of trees for both fruit and forestry.
John Innes Centre researchers have bred a line of broccoli adapted to grow indoors for a major supermarket and one of the aims of research will be to test how we can genetically tune more crops to grow in the controlled space of vertical farms.
Bethany Eldridge, a researcher at the University of Bristol studying root-environment interactions and first author of the study adds: “Given that 80% of agricultural land worldwide is reported to have moderate or severe erosion, the ability to grow crops in a soilless system with minimal fertilizers and pesticides is advantageous because it provides an opportunity to grow crops in areas facing soil erosion or other environmental issues such as algal blooms in local water bodies that may have been driven by traditional, soil-based, agriculture.”
Lilly Manzoni, Head of Research and Development at LettUs Grow and one of the authors of the study says, “This paper is unique because it is broader than a typical plant research paper, it combines the expertise of engineers, aerosol scientists, plant biologists, and horticulturalists. The wonderful thing about controlled environment agriculture and aeroponics is that it is truly interdisciplinary”
The study ‘Getting to the Roots of Aeroponic Indoor Farming‘ appears in the New Phytologist journal.
Source and Photo Courtesy of LettUsGROW
JPFA Offering Online Training Course On Plant Factories
The Japan Plant Factory Association is starting a new online English-language training course on Plant Factories with Artificial Lighting (PFAL) in February and is receiving applications now
English Training Course on Artificial Lighting In February
The Japan Plant Factory Association is starting a new online English-language training course on Plant Factories with Artificial Lighting (PFAL) in February and is receiving applications now.
The JPFA 2021 online training course on PFALs scheduled for February 18 – March 11 comprises introductory classes and special content designed for participants to acquire practical knowledge and expertise. The learning event follows its first online English-language training course that was offered last year.
Click here to view the course brochure.
All interested parties in plant factories or vertical farms can seize this opportunity as the course is not only available for JPFA members but also for non-JPFA members. The JPFA is a nonprofit organization committed to advancing controlled-environment agriculture.
The lecturers include Toyoki Kozai, honorary president of the JPFA and former president and professor emeritus of Chiba University, who is known as the father of plant factories. Introductory classes will cover such topics as current PFALs and forthcoming technologies as well as environmental effects on plants. Special content will allow participants to learn practical methods.
The course will also provide participants with a virtual tour to a commercial, large-scale PFAL and exhibitions by companies in the PFAL and related businesses. Although participants cannot get together as in on-site courses, the course’s platform allows them to enjoy interacting with other attendees and representatives of exhibitors. Also, a live question-and-answer session is planned for participants to deepen their understanding.
“Thank you so much for the opportunity to look deeper into this ‘industry,’ which is likely to reshape our future soon,” a Romanian participant of the 2020 course said.
Because the course is online, it may be easier to attend it than an on-site one, especially for those who live outside Japan.
Click here to apply for the course.
Université de Sherbrooke Students Create Greener Greenhouse
Three engineering students at l'Université de Sherbrooke spent three years designing and building their perfect greenhouse
Off-Grid VG360 Greenhouse Project Can Feed
A Family of Four For A Year
Spencer Van Dyk · CBC News · Dec 28, 2020
Three engineering students at l'Université de Sherbrooke spent three years designing and building their perfect greenhouse.
They set out to build a smart green building, which would be entirely off-grid, and a model for future construction projects, while also promoting food autonomy.
The three-by-six-meter structure — called VG360 — is made of cedar, with an inclined south-facing window wall, solar panels, and a red metal roof.
And it does not need a power source.
"We believe it is possible to build greenhouses — and other houses — using less power," said Valerie Pouliot, one of the students on the project. "We want to build green to be better for the environment."
The angled south-facing window wall is designed to bring heat from the sun into the greenhouse, while thick insulated walls keep it in, so the structure can stay warm throughout the cold winter months. (Spencer Van Dyk/CBC)
The team started by excavating five feet into the ground, and then added insulation using rocks and sand, essentially creating an underground cooler, into which the greenhouse will pump hot air, explained building engineering student Raphael Boisjoly-Sallafranque.
The double-beamed walls and roof each have more than a foot of insulation, so all the heat that's brought into the building thanks to the window and solar panels will stay inside, keeping the greenhouse warm during the cold winter months.
"It's gonna be our first test winter, so we're gonna be able to see the performance of it," Boisjoly-Sallafranque said. "Which is why we haven't released the plans yet, because we want to make sure the concept is viable."
The solar panels generate electricity, which can be stored and used for at least three days in the event of inclement weather, Pouliot explained.
"Just with the sun coming in, you can do all that, so it's not harder than being aligned with the sunlight," she said.
A hot air collector near the ceiling of the greenhouse will then push all the hot air down into the soil, where all the plants will grow directly in the ground.
Building engineering student Raphael Boisjoly-Sallafranque says the greenhouse's battery acts as its grid, and it stores energy in the event of inclement weather. (Spencer Van Dyk/CBC)
The group intends to release the plans for the greenhouse, including the structure itself and the technology, via open-source, so anyone can have access to it.
The prototype, which was built over four months this summer at a farm in Durham-Sud, 50 kilometres northwest of Sherbrooke, cost about $25,000.
But Pouliot says future builds will cost less because anyone hoping to have their own off-grid greenhouse wouldn't have the same data collecting costs the students had.
She said especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, people seem to be working toward being more self-sufficient and sustainable, and she thinks an off-grid greenhouse aligns with those goals.
The greenhouse's mechanical system, which includes its solar panel controls, battery, and a pump to send hot air into the soil to help plants grow. (Spencer Van Dyk/CBC)
While energy-efficient buildings are fairly common, the team wanted the food security and food autonomy elements of the project highlighted.
"Our grid is like the battery system, so it's like a typical off-grid with a battery bank system," Boisjoly-Sallafranque said. "There are a bunch already out there, but the thing is to put it inside of a greenhouse."
The team plans to get seeds in the ground in the next few weeks and will spend the winter months tracking the greenhouse's efficiency.
"Now it's the hard part, and the fun part for myself, particularly because I love the control world and the data collecting part of this," Boisjoly-Sallafranque said.
The students hope to release the open-source plans by late Spring 2021.
Lead photo: CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices|About CBC News
Grow Plants Indoors All Year Long With Hydroponics
Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil. Usually, hydroponic production is done indoors, but it is also an excellent method for gardeners with a balcony or limited access to gardening space outdoors
December 3, 2020
A simple DIY hydroponics system for growing lettuce and other greens
Are you looking for:
A new winter hobby?
Access to fresh greens or herbs throughout the winter?
A fun project for kids?
A unique holiday gift idea?
Hydroponic gardening checks all of these boxes! Hydroponic gardening allows you to grow greens and herbs all winter long indoors and can be done easily and affordably.
Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil. Usually, hydroponic production is done indoors, but it is also an excellent method for gardeners with a balcony or limited access to gardening space outdoors. This method uses less water than soil-based gardening, allows for faster growth and often higher yields, and requires few materials.
Check out our new webpage to learn
more about whether hydroponic gardening is for you!
Diving Into Aquaponics
Aquaponics, a method of raising crops and fish in an all-water, soilless environment, presented a fun challenge to Aquaponics Club co-founders Jonathan Dong ’21 and Robbie Rioux ’21
21 DECEMBER 3, 2020
Tucked away in the Taylor Science Center’s greenhouse, a new aquaponics system brims with tilapia, lettuce, and other developing life. Built in 2019 by Hamilton’s Aquaponics Club, the system promotes on-campus food sustainability while also providing a space for students and faculty to learn about aquaponics. And with its accessibility, regular maintenance, and potential to expand with student interest, the system does just that.
Aquaponics, a method of raising crops and fish in an all-water, soilless environment, presented a fun challenge to Aquaponics Club co-founders Jonathan Dong ’21 and Robbie Rioux ’21. According to Dong, the club started with the aim of creating “a sustainable farming practice and system on campus that [community] members could maintain.” With members representing a variety of disciplines, including chemistry, history, and government, the club teaches students about animal and plant biology and practicing aquaponics.
After building the aquaponics system, Dong and Rioux populated it first with tilapia and lettuce, two of the easiest and most efficient products to cultivate in water. The 400-gallon system includes a 100-gallon tilapia tank, tanks that break down tilapia waste, and tanks that contain the plants. Nutrients from the tilapia waste sustain the plant life, and club members feed the tilapia daily. (The club’s adviser, Supervisor of Introductory Laboratories in Biology and Lecturer in Environmental Studies Jason Townsend, feeds the fish during breaks.) The $7,000 system was funded through Student Assembly.
“The thought is that we grow the food and give it to someone on campus or in the Hamilton community,” Rioux said. The Aquaponics Club donated the first batch of lettuce to students living in the Woollcott Cooperative and the first tilapia harvest to a family from the Utica Refugee Center. Rioux said the club hopes to eventually have the tilapia served in Commons.
In addition to the initial tilapia and lettuce, the club is looking to raise and grow other animals and plants in the system. The effort to expand reflects student curiosity about how aquaponics works. “We got a ton of students on campus with their own questions about the system that they want answered,” Dong said. Club projects include researching which tilapia breed, vegetable types, and flower species that grow best with aquaponics.
Since its founding in 2018, the Aquaponics Club has come a long way in both bringing aquaponics to Hamilton and recruiting members to maintain and learn about the system. Both Dong and Rioux expressed their appreciation for the opportunity to design and continue the project. “We transformed the greenhouse into our own space, and that was a lot of fun,” Rioux said. “Hamilton’s [has] been very supportive of having us in there and letting us do what we need to, so that’s been pretty great to be able to do.”
Inside AgTech Startup Evergreens Farms' Scalable Vertical Farms
Unlike typical hydroponic farming, Evergreens has a unique irrigation system that allows plants to grow in dense environments, which speeds up their growth cycle. The plants are grown in stacks, either next to each other or vertically atop one another
By Emma Campbell
November 25, 2020
Sometimes, the grass is greener on the other side.
Just ask Evergreens Farms, an agribusiness that’s bringing innovation to the farming industry. With patented vertical farming technology, the startup has invented a way to increase crop production year-round, while reducing costs, waste, and lengthy supply chains.
Unlike typical hydroponic farming, Evergreens has a unique irrigation system that allows plants to grow in dense environments, which speeds up their growth cycle. The plants are grown in stacks, either next to each other or vertically atop one another.
“We can grow 300 to 400 times the amount of product at the same square foot as compared to a field farm,” said founder and CEO Ahmad Zameli. “That's because we stack everything up and because the cycles are a lot faster than field farming.”
The company, which grows everything indoors, currently has four products: baby arugula, baby kale, an arugula-and-cress mix, and a brassica mix. The ability to grow produce indoors also allows for an increase in crop production, since the plants aren’t dependent on the seasons. Instead, the produce is grown year-round.
Zameli, who studied industrial engineering at Northeastern University, founded Evergreens in 2017. He originally planned to set the company up in the Middle East; Zameli is Lebanese and grew up in Saudi Arabia.
“My dream was to take indoor farming and bring it to the Middle East, specifically to Saudi Arabia—take it home because 90 percent, if not 100 percent, of all of our fresh food in Saudi Arabia is flown in from outside the country,” Zameli said. “The supply chain is really, really crazy. There's a lot of waste in the product, and the carbon footprint is massive.”
He initially wanted to buy indoor farming technology and grow food locally through a network of farms across the region. However, the farming technology that existed couldn’t operate at a large enough scale to turn a profit.
“If you really want to break into the larger food space, you need to be able to meet cost—cost of production to compete at wholesale, and not just in a niche distribution channel,” Zameli said. “Our mission is to create a piece of technology that's profitable to operate at a large scale and able to distribute food in wholesale markets.”
The company will now be focused on New England. Evergreens’ business model has also evolved. Rather than exclusively building and owning farms, Zameli and his team decided that to be able to scale effectively, they would need to partner with growers.
Zameli partnered with Northeastern University three years ago and has since built three farms on the school’s innovation campus in Burlington, Massachusetts. Evergreens is currently building its fourth farm off of the Burlington campus. This new farm will be the company’s first commercial, revenue-generating farm.
“Our farms are going to be gradually larger, they're all going to be in New England, and they're all going to be serving the New England region,” Zameli said. “The portfolio of crops that they're going to grow is going to change, it's going to expand over time... And the point of building those three is to kind of prove our technology and prove our marketability...Once we get to that point, we will then switch over our model and begin to franchise, where we will partner with growers and investors who are interested in operating technology like this.”
During the past three years, Evergreens Farm’s technology has reduced costs, waste and lengthy supply chains. With the company’s patented technology and unique irrigation method, the company has been able to grow plants in a production line method, thereby saving money on a key growing component—light.
“We're not lighting unused space, essentially ever,” Zameli said. “All of the light that we're giving the plants is being used by plants. It's not being absorbed by sunlight materials elsewhere.”
Evergreens also reduces two types of waste: water and food. First, the company never washes its produce, because the plants are not treated with pesticides, herbicides or fungicides. Evergreens also recaptures and reuses water, including atmospheric humidity, which reduces the farms’ water use by up to 99 percent.
For Evergreens, reducing food waste goes hand in hand with reducing lengthy supply chains. Typically, in conventional farming, when produce is transported by trucks, it can take approximately five to eight days before it reaches the grocery store. The produce changes hands as many as five times before it reaches its final destination, each time increasing the chance of introducing foodborne illnesses, degrading the flavor, and decreasing the shelf life, Zameli said.
According to Zameli, about half of all food harvested is thrown away before it reaches its final destination, a “shrink factor” that contributes immensely to food waste in agricultural supply chains.
“By being close to where the stuff is consumed, by being close to all of the grocery stores, we can deliver directly to them right after we harvest,” Zameli said. “Within hours of us putting the stuff into boxes, we ship it directly to the store, and it's on the shelf within 24 hours. Consumers can pick it up, and it's freshly harvested. It lasts two weeks longer in your fridge.”
Evergreens won the Ahold Delhaize Supply Chain Innovation Pitch Award earlier this year. It was also part of MassChallenge Boston’s 2020 cohort. The startup has raised $750,000 in pre-seed funding.
Evergreens Farms is one of BostInno’s 2020 Inno on Fire. Celebrate Evergreens and the other winners at our virtual awards ceremony on Dec. 3. Register here.
Lead photo: Zameli at work on Northeastern's Innovation Campus in Burlington, Massachusetts.
Matt Modoono/Northeastern University
Emma Campbell is a contributing writer for BostInno.
Research And Indoor Farming University Network
The Indoor Farming University Network (IFUN) aims to create a space for strategic communication in the indoor farming industry between research departments and universities across the world
OCTOBER 29, 2020
When the pioneering vertical farms were established around the world, comparatively basic first-generation technology used created relatively inefficient systems compared with today. Although these operations only enabled the most basic functions to occur, they demonstrated how feasible it was to grow plants in vertical structures and thus, for the first time in history, opened doors to the vast number of opportunities associated with space-optimised and controlled-environment food production in urban environments.
Notably, this had the potential to bridge the gap between the food source and consumer-created by the second agricultural revolution of the 17th century, which led to the industrial revolution and mass urbanisation.
As the industry’s capital expenditure tends to remain high, increasing the financial viability of vertical farming businesses by cutting down the operating costs is crucial for securing a successful future and has thus become a key focus of research. The transition from first-generation to second-generation technology is critical. Second-generation technology enables automation and continual optimisation of the growing process, resulting in immensely higher yields and more appealing and feasible investment opportunities.
In the indoor farming industry’s short history, advancements in automation have been made in a range of areas including watering and hydroponics, and monitoring of water parameters. More modern practices integrate robotics and even allow plants to be moved. The automation of light quality and intensity plus the incorporation of LEDs has also been key to creating big energy savings and higher quality produce, and there are emerging examples of systems with LEDs that respond and automatically adjust their intensity according to real time data output from the plants.
Check Out UPLIFT, a Fully Automated Vertical Farm by SANANBIO
An example of interdisciplinary research projects
PB ‘Horticultural Systems of the Future’ (HORTSYS) innovates for the future of indoor (and outdoor) horticulture using the latest sensor technology and model-based decision support systems (DSS). The research group, HORTSYS.2, is developing resource-optimised production systems in controlled growing environments including vertical farms. It is a cooperative effort between Wageningen University, the Leibniz Institute for Vegetable and Ornamental Plant Production (IGZ), Danish Technological Institute, Aarhus University, Humboldt University Berlin, and many more.
Laura Cammarisano at AVF Indoor Learning Lab and Demo Center, Munich, Germany
Laura Cammarisano (a scientist at the IGZ and AVF member), describes her work:
“I collaborate to create solutions that combine plant mathematical models and sensors for the automation of plant cultivation in closed environments.”
HORTSYS.2 uses knowledge of important parameters affecting plant behaviour, such as light quality or nutrient uptake. They combine understanding from addressing key research questions related to mathematical modelling and sensor technology as well as plant physiology.
There is a call for and a growing need for such collaborative efforts because high tech farming systems, such as vertical farming, combine knowledge and data from a range of different research areas.
Laura Cammarisano added: “One very important aspect at the moment, at least to me, is the need for data as it would help a lot in the automation process.”
The Importance of Building Networks and Consortia
Communication and working together is vital to help the industry move forward as this facilitates more rapid advancements in the automation process and produce quality, increasing the economic viability of VF technology. This helps to secure investment, in turn paving the way for the integration of VF technology and its innumerable benefits into our daily lives.
The Indoor Farming University Network (IFUN) aims to create a space for strategic communication in the indoor farming industry between research departments and universities across the world. With the main priority being to emphasise the importance of research and collaboration during the climate crisis, IFUN will initiate and support interdisciplinary partnerships to create a network offering a range of benefits to its members from consortium building for grant applications and identifying knowledge gaps to education for future researchers, decision-makers, and the general public.
You can find out more about IFUN and how to join here.
Author: Laura Nelson
US - AppHarvest Expands Educational Container Farm Program For Eastern Kentucky Students
The Rowan County container farm joins AppHarvest’s inaugural container farm serving Shelby Valley High School students in Pike County. Both are part of AppHarvest’s high school AgTech program, which provides Eastern Kentucky students with knowledge about the importance of eating healthy and hands-on experience growing fruits and vegetables in high-tech environments
Rowan County Senior High School Students
To Receive Hands-On, High-Tech Growing Experience
October 13, 2020
Morehead, Ky. — AppHarvest announced today the expansion of its educational high-tech container farm program for Eastern Kentucky students, unveiling a new container farm unit in Rowan County. The program demonstrates the company’s ongoing commitment to fostering interest in high-tech farming, as it seeks to create America’s AgTech capital from within Appalachia.
The retrofitted shipping container will serve as a hands-on agricultural classroom for students at Rowan County Senior High School, allowing them to grow and provide fresh, nutritious fruits and vegetables to their classmates and those in need in and around Morehead. The county is home to AppHarvest’s first controlled environment agriculture facility, a massive 2.76-million-square-foot farm that opens later this month. The facility will employ more than 300 and grow tomatoes to be sold through the top 25 grocers nationwide.
The educational container farm’s arrival will be formally celebrated at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 13, with live music and refreshments, as acclaimed Kentucky muralists Often Seen Rarely Spoken (OSRS) work with the high school’s art students to paint the container farm’s exterior. Attendees will have the opportunity to tour the container farm and learn about its high-tech tools, as well as see butterhead lettuce starters growing on the container’s vertical columns.
The container farm is 2,880 cubic feet, weighs 7.5 tons, and includes space to grow up to 3,600 seedlings and 4,500 mature plants all at once using 256 vertical crop columns. The container’s unique design utilizes cutting-edge LED lighting and closed-loop irrigation systems to allow students to grow far more than traditional open-field agriculture. For instance, they can grow up to 500 full heads of lettuce, or 1,000 miniature heads, as part of a single crop if they desire.
The Rowan County container farm joins AppHarvest’s inaugural container farm serving Shelby Valley High School students in Pike County. Both are part of AppHarvest’s high school AgTech program, which provides Eastern Kentucky students with knowledge about the importance of eating healthy and hands-on experience growing fruits and vegetables in high-tech environments.
Students at Shelby Valley High School have grown leafy greens, donating them to those in need through a backpack program and food pantry. Guests in attendance will include Rocky Adkins, senior adviser to Gov. Andy Beshear; Rowan County Schools Superintendent John Maxey; Rowan County Judge-Executive Harry Clark; Rowan County High School Principal Brandy Carver; and Morehead Mayor Laura White-Brown. All social distancing protocols will be strictly followed, with all in attendance wearing face masks and remaining at least six feet apart while enjoying festivities.
The Rowan County Senior High School container farm program will be led by agriculture teacher Bradley McKinney. The program’s curriculum combines existing agricultural education with six new units focusing on leading AgTech advancements. McKinney said the container farm will allow students to be competitive in the national Supervised Agricultural Experience Program, which, along with Future Farmers of America (FFA) and traditional classroom instruction, is an integral part of agriculture education.
The program requires students to gain hands-on experience through agriculture-based entrepreneurship, placement programs, or research. “The container farm is the exact type of hands-on tool that excites students and shows first-hand the excitement of modern farming,” McKinney said. “Students can have their own projects and learn all about entrepreneurship, as they make decisions about what to grow and how to distribute it.”
About AppHarvest
AppHarvest is building some of the world’s largest indoor farms, combining conventional agricultural techniques with today’s technology to grow non-GMO, chemical-free fruits and vegetables to be sold to the top 25 U.S. grocers.
The company has developed a unique system to reduce water usage by 90% compared to typical farms, as a 10-acre rainwater retention pond pairs with sophisticated circular irrigation systems. The system also eliminates agricultural runoff entirely.
By locating within Appalachia, AppHarvest benefits from being less than a day’s drive to 70% of the U.S. population. That lowers diesel use in transportation costs by 80%, allowing the company’s fresher produce to compete against low-cost foreign imports.
Register For ERASMUS + ECVET PONICS VET LAUNCH - Friday, October 16th
Erasmus plus helps the CEA industry grow with free online vocational training courses in hydroponics for the technician level profile
ERASMUS DAYS PUBLIC LAUNCH
October 16th, 2020
Register for ERASMUS+ ECVET PONICS VET
LAUNCH:
Erasmus plus helps the CEA industry grow with free online vocational training courses in hydroponics for the technician level profile
PONICS VET:
Hydroponics Technician is an Erasmus + project. It aims to service agriculture communities and future growers from outside the industry. It provides essential basic training and an introduction into practices and the use of technology in the soilless growing of plants. Hydroponic systems have a proven track record in resource efficiency and resilience in the age of climate change. It also provides an attractive solution for existing farm operations that are not economical anymore and create new income streams for growers and would-be farmers.
The PONICS VET training services an innovative professional profile, the hydroponics technician, and delivers credentials for such a profile in a commercial context. The course will introduce system definitions, various technical insights, and important proficiencies in practical growing, including pest control, food safety, and certification information. Also included are case studies and ample supporting material. The micro-credential rules are drawn from the ECVET (the European credit system for VET) methodology, which will allow recognition of applied learning outcomes in the EU and beyond.
As the development of workforce pathways in times of CoVid19 and for the agriculture, communities has become a critical demand, FTS and its industry-based membership was selected as a critical partner in the development and deployment of PONICS VET project. Stay tuned for further modules and languages.“Workforce development in Agriculture has been underserviced in new and innovative agriculture practices and needs to be the main focus by the industry as well as the policymaker, PONICS VET is a great start for the Controlled Environment Agriculture sector as there currently no accredited vocational training courses online outside of the NL/BE greenhouse cluster. “ ~ FarmTech Society
HOW TO JOIN THIS EVENT:
Registration Page
INTERESTED IN JOINING THE COURSE:
Link to FREE ONLINE COURSE (Guest)
About FTSFarmTech Society (FTS) ASBL is an international non-profit association that unites and supports the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) industry, seeking to strengthen the sector through the development and implementation of resilient and future-proof methods and technologies for indoor growing. A prime focus area of the FTS is education, by developing training and education courses and creating credentials for graduates facilitating certification that meets industry needs. Secondly, the FTS engages with lawmakers in order to help promote policies and regulations that foster innovation and propel businesses in CEA. Thirdly, the FTS supports the establishment of standards to help the industry grow and innovate. Lastly, the FTS also provides an international network for the CEA industry.
Project Partners:
1 Latvia University of Lifesciences and Technology (Lativia)
2 Eurocrea Merchant Srl (Italy)
3 IDEC (Greece)
4 BIC Innobridge (Bulgaria)
5 FarmTech Society ASBL (Belgium)
6 zemniekusaeima (Lativa)
USA: GEORGIA - Fresh Vegetables From UNG's Garden Feed Lumpkin County Students
A portion of the summer produce was frozen for future use, which helped the school's finances this academic year. Knight-Brown explained the school nutrition program's budget has suffered because of the COVID-19 pandemic
September 16, 2020 by J.K. Devine
Dr. David Patterson, associate professor of biology at UNG, and Julie Knight-Brown, school nutrition director at Lumpkin County Schools, harvested vegetables from the gardens at the Vickery House on UNG's Dahlonega Campus. The fresh radishes, tomatoes, onions, and an assortment of herbs from UNG's gardens were delivered to Lumpkin County Schools and were integrated into school lunches.
As school nutrition director at Lumpkin County Schools, Julie Knight- Brown learned some surprising news about elementary school children.
"The little kids love radishes," Knight-Brown said. "One of the parents thanked the café manager at Long Branch Elementary for introducing her children to radishes. She said, 'They loved them.'"
Fresh radishes, tomatoes, onions, and an assortment of herbs were a few items the University of North Georgia (UNG) supplied the school system this summer and into the fall. The vegetables and herbs were grown and harvested from the gardens at the Vickery House and Appalachian Studies Center on UNG's Dahlonega Campus. The fresh produce was delivered to Lumpkin County Schools and has been integrated into school lunches.
"We started in July and harvested on a weekly basis," said Dr. David Patterson4, associate professor of biology who spearheaded the project.
Knight-Brown said some of the produce such as cherry tomatoes and radishes have been a "featured" vegetable at a school or offered as a side dish in the cafeteria. Other items such as onions were incorporated into other meals while herbs were used for their flavor.
A portion of the summer produce was frozen for future use, which helped the school's finances this academic year. Knight-Brown explained the school nutrition program's budget has suffered because of the COVID-19 pandemic. She said the donations from UNG's gardens happened at an optimal time.
"All school nutrition programs are facing the same financial dilemma," Knight-Brown said. "We will happily take any donated fresh produce."
Lumpkin County Schools is not the only beneficiary of the Hometown Harvest program. UNG students in need of service-learning hours can get their hands dirty in the gardens. Patterson said between five and 10 students helped harvest the produce this summer.
Two more students, Amelia Arthur and Zach Pilgrim, have been involved in a precision agriculture research project funded by UNG's Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities6 (CURCA). The primary objective was to test the impact of a precision agriculture system in small-scale gardens as a means for increasing food production for students in need.
"They took the garden from seed to production," Patterson said. "They also collected the data, which we are analyzing now."
In the meantime, the gardens have been turned to produce fall vegetables for Lumpkin County Schools. Leafy greens and broccoli seeds have been sown. The only missing element this fall is more volunteers.
Fresh produce from the gardens at the Vickery House and Appalachian Studies Center on UNG's Dahlonega Campus were delivered to Lumpkin County Schools and integrated into school lunches.
"The gardens at the Vickery House have always been viewed as an heirloom garden," Patterson said. "But now we have determined how to integrate consistent food production with seed-saving techniques. Now we need more UNG and community involvement."
He said some volunteer opportunities could be as simple as watering the garden or turning over the compost. Pulling weeds may take a little more effort and knowledge, Patterson said.
"Some students may have trouble knowing the difference between an onion stem and a weed, but we are there to help," he said.
To help with the Hometown Harvest, contact:
Patterson at david.patterson@ung.edu or
Knight-Brown at julie.knightbrown@lumpkinschools.com.
Home Hydroponics Guide Released From Cornell University
For people looking for a new project, building a home hydroponic system can be a great way to add some fresh, tasty and aesthetically pleasing greens to the home
For people looking for a new project, building a home hydroponic system can be a great way to add some fresh, tasty, and aesthetically-pleasing greens to the home. Searching around for information can be frustrating, so this guide packs all the information into one spot, with detailed steps for building and operating one's own deep water culture and nutrient film techniques including plant spacing, reservoir size, and system components. The guide includes sections on seeding starting, managing nutrient solutions, lighting, and plant diseases/disorders.
Each section has detailed information on all the major concepts of each topic (including examples with calculations), and finishes with a “quick guide” that recaps the main points. Wondering how much a hydroponic system will cost to build and maintain? Sample calculations are provided for lighting, fertilizer, and entire system costs. There is also an accompanying excel sheet to help with cumbersome calculations.
The guide and excel sheet can be found here under featured resources or the growing tab.
For more details and information contact Ryan Ronzoni at rjr293@cornell.edu
Publication date: Tue 30 Jun 2020
WEBINAR: Stephen Ritz In Conversation With Charles Platkin - Wed, June 17 - 9:30-10:30 AM EST
Free webinar with NYC Food Policy Center - Wednesday, June 17, 9:30 - 10:30 am EST - talking all things health, education, wellness, school garden to school cafe, policy and urban farming
Free Webinar with NYC Food Policy Center
Wednesday, June 17, 9:30 - 10:30 AM EST
Talking all things Health, Education, Wellness, School Garden to School Cafe, Policy and urban Farming
Registration is required in advance and there will be a live Q/A
Please join me this Wednesday, June 17, at 9:30 - 10:30 for a free, LIVE, virtual event with NYC Food Policy Center moderated by Dr. Charles Platkin - the Diet Detective.
We’ll be talking all things equity, policy, public education, life in the age of COVID, school food, school nutrition, school garden to school cafe, health, wellness, nutrition and the role of non-profit organizations. We will be highlighting what works and why, what needs to change and how, and each and every one of us can make a difference and get involved. Let’s go from a tipping point to a turning point! I’ll even be highlighting my living room urban farm 12 stories up - in the Bronx. There will be LIVE Q and A as well.
The event is FREE and open to all - so feel free to share - registration is required for internet safety.
Click here to register
Stephen Ritz is the Founder of Green Bronx Machine and self-proclaimed CEO – Chief Eternal Optimist – of Bronx County
How Sodexo, Ford, And Others Use Sustainable Farming As CSR Platforms
More than ever, it’s important for companies to show that they don’t only just care for their customers and employees, but for the health, well-being, and prosperity of their community as well
4 Companies Championing
Social Responsibility With Sustainable Farming
More than ever, it’s important for companies to show that they don’t only just care for their customers and employees, but for the health, well-being, and prosperity of their community as well. We’ve seen many institutions use container farming as a way to provide people with access to healthy food, education, and jobs. See how four of our corporate customers–Sodexo, Everlane, SEFCU, and Ford–are using container farms in their corporate social responsibility initiatives. (Header image: Times Union).
1) Sodexo champions sustainability on campus
With over 420,000 employees at 34,000 sites in 80 countries, Sodexo is one of the largest multinational corporations. Over the past several years, Sodexo has dedicated countless resources to promoting nutrition, health, and wellness to its customers and employees.
One concrete way Sodexo works to bring sustainability and wellness to its global customer base is through the Better Tomorrow 2025 plan. The plan is Sodexo’s commitment to protecting and rehabilitating the environment, supporting local community development, promoting health and wellness, and developing their team to promote diversity. To achieve these goals, Sodexo partnered with Alliance for a Healthier Generation, Fair Trade USA, the Marine Stewardship Council, the Sustainable Food Lab, the Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops, and Freight Farms.
“Our ‘Better Tomorrow Plan’ specifically focuses on individuals, our communities, and our environment…Freight Farms has given us a great opportunity to have that engagement with students on a higher level, especially with sustainability.”
— Heather Vaillete, District Manager, Sodexo Campus Services & Independent Schools
Since 2016, Sodexo has worked with multiple universities and high-school customers (Clark University and Cumberland High School to name just two) to place Freight Farms on their campuses. The presence of the farm on these campuses is a sure way to add sustainable and fresh produce to students’ everyday diets. Sodexo found that using Freight Farms container farms can continuously provide students healthy fresh food options year-round without reliance on resource-inefficient fresh food supply chains.
2) Everlane & Saitex provide employees with food-safe greens
Everlane is a relatively new company (founded in 2010) which is taking huge strides in reforming the fashion industry. With a focus on “radical transparency”, Everlane’s mission is to sell high-quality clothing with fair pricing and ethical sourcing practices from factories around the world. In doing so, they seek to forge a stronger connection between the end purchaser and the people making the luxury goods in the hopes of instilling consumers with a greater sense of community and transparency.
While Everlane commits to its values all year round, they go above and beyond for their Black Friday Fund. On a day where other retailers focus on making profits, Everlane dedicates Black Friday shopping proceeds to benefit one of their factories.
In 2016, they used the Black Friday Fund to donate motorcycle helmets to workers at the Saitex denim factory in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to protect them while commuting.
In 2017, Everlane and Saitex raised $300,000 for the Black Friday Fund and used the money to gift Saitex factory employees Freight Farms containers.
Everlane video to promote Black Friday Fund donations to benefit the workers at Saitex Denim in Vietnam.
The hydroponic farms serve an important function for the factory employees. As a result of virtually non-existent regulations, Vietnamese food supplies have been repeatedly doused with dangerous pesticides that are unsafe for consumption (see source). The hydroponic container farms are protected from pests and require no pesticides, making the fresh crops growing inside much safer to eat. With the three hydroponic container farms, Everlane will make a huge difference in the lives of hundreds of Saitex employees by providing them with two fresh and pesticide-free meals a day. You can learn more about the initiative in our joint press release!
Since 2017, Everlane has continued to champion important causes. In 2018, the company partnered with the Surfrider Foundation clean up across the U.S. In 2019, they continued on the theme by partnering with Oceania to help reduce single-use plastic.
3) SEFCU & Boys & Girls Club educate kids about farming & nutrition
SEFCU is a powerful name in the banking world. Established in 1934, it is one of the 50 largest credit unions in the United States, with more than $3 billion in assets. Not only does SEFCU have a lot of money – they also have a lot of heart. From their headquarters in Albany, NY, they are dedicated to making a positive difference in the communities they serve. They assist thousands of organizations through their 2008 Banking with a Purpose initiative and give millions of dollars towards community financial education programs.
They don’t limit themselves to just helping with financial matters but also work hard for food reform to prevent obesity and food insecurity. Over the past three years, they purchased two hydroponic container farms. One resides at the Albany office, where it grows food for the employee cafe and various non-profits in the area. The company also introduced a Produce Shuttle to transport donated fresh food from the farm, restaurants, and food pantries to those in need.
SEFCU’s second farm was donated directly to the Boys & Girls Club chapter in Troy, NY to give kids access to healthy and fresh food, teach them about farming, and–eventually–become a revenue driver for the program.
4) Ford Motors & Cass Community Social Services provide important community access to fresh food.
In 2017, the Bill Ford Better World Challenge awarded $250,000 to the Ford Mobile Farm Project in Detroit. The project involved donating a Freight Farms container farm (named the Ford Freight Farm) and a Ford F-150 pickup to Cass Community Social Services (CCSS) with the goal of bringing fresh food access and nutrition education to at-risk Detroit residents. CCSS was founded in 2002 to fight poverty in the Detroit area. The non-profit focuses on democratizing food access, health services, housing, and jobs to Detroit residents living below the poverty line.
“The greatest feature for us is the ability to have fresh, free, organic food all year long.”
— Reverend Faith Fowler, Executive Director of CCSS
The contents of the Ford Freight Farm will be used to supply the CCSS community kitchen with a variety of fresh leafy greens to provide important nutritional benefits to the 700,000+ meals served each year. In addition to supplying the kitchens, the Ford Freight Farm will provide part-time employment to adults with developmental disabilities. Starting in 2019, CCSS has been using the farm as a revenue stream to fund other projects, selling high-quality greens to restaurants in the area.
Agri-Tech Students Investigate Potential Soilless Growing Systems To Aid Food Security
Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without using soil, in which plants are grown with only their roots exposed to nutrient solutions, and may also be supported by inert material such as coconut coir or vermiculite
Students at Pershore College have been undertaking research to see if growing food both without soil and during the winter could make the UK more self-sufficient when it comes to feeding the nation. Agri-Tech degree students have been conducting pea plant trials grown hydroponically at the college’s Agri-Tech Research Centre.
Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without using soil, in which plants are grown with only their roots exposed to nutrient solutions, and may also be supported by inert material such as coconut coir or vermiculite. The students have been monitoring the crop that was planted in the centre’s outdoor vertical farming facilities in November. The aim is to see if pea plants can be grown in a system where produce is stacked in vertical layers without the use of soil.
Tom said: “We are investigating the potential for the UK’s food producers to cultivate overwintering vegetables in our outdoor hydroponic tunnel using a system of vertical farming. This has the potential to replace crops that would be flown into the UK from overseas from Kenya or Guatemala. Normally, this plant can be overwintered in the UK but wouldn’t flower until the spring. We found that our protected unheated trial crop was already flowering by January or February and producing fruits in March.”
The UK is currently reliant on importing much of its fresh grown produce during the winter months. According to the British Growers Association, it is only 40% self-sufficient in indigenous fruit supply and less than 60% self-sufficient in vegetables & salads.
Tom’s fellow student Nick said: “The country’s self-sufficiency in food has been declining over the last 30 years and the government acknowledges that climate change will present significant risks to our food supply. The UK needs new food production technology that can provide sustainable food production systems.”
Roy Kennedy, Professor in Agri-Tech research and development said: “As part of the food production module of their Agri-Tech degree course, Tom and Nick are investigating the potential for the UK to grow sustainably-produced overwintered crops which would normally be imported into the UK during the winter months. So far they are finding that peas would be a good candidate for substitution of imported fresh produce.
“Other vegetable and fruit crops are being investigated for their potential for import substitution during the off-season. Hydroponic production regimes appear to give advantages to some cultivars resulting in cropping under lower light and at lower day and night temperatures.”
The Agri-Tech foundation degree at Pershore College is a two-year course aimed at providing students with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in today’s horticultural industry. Modules include agri-tech mechatronics, global food security, and soil science technology.
Publication date: Wed 22 Apr 2020
How Could AI Improve Controlled Environment Agriculture?
The use of artificial intelligence in the production of controlled environment crops has the potential to grow crops more quickly and efficiently
by David Kuack
The use of artificial intelligence in the production of controlled environment crops has the potential to grow crops more quickly and efficiently.
Most people are familiar with the term artificial intelligence or AI. Ken Tran, founder of Koidra LLC, said artificial intelligence is a very loosely defined term.
In his efforts to apply artificial intelligence to controlled environment agriculture, Ken Tran (right) collaborated with horticulture specialists worldwide, including Dr. Xiuming Hao (left) and Shalin Khosla in Canada. Photos courtesy of Ken Tran
“AI very broadly means anything that a computer can do to perform a task,” said Tran. “Classical AI can be a program that doesn’t have the capability to learn and improve all the time. For example, a program can be written for a computer to play chess. A computer can play chess by itself, but it follows a specific logic imposed by the programmer. This type of AI doesn’t improve over time with data.”
A second type of AI can have accountability to learn and improve over time with additional data.
“This type of AI is very promising because it can continuously improve,” Tran said. “With this type of AI a computer can autonomously learn how to use the data.”
Tran said both types of AI are useful and will enhance each other.
“The second type of is considered the second stage of AI,” he said. “The learnable AI is the next phase of the expert-system type of AI. Both types of AI could have major applications to controlled environment agriculture.”
Greenhouse challenge incorporates AI
Tran was the principal investigator and leader of a team of AI and horticulture experts that won the first International Autonomous Greenhouse Challenge organized by Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands. Tran was the principal research engineer for the Project Sonoma team. At the time Tran participated in the challenge he was an employee of Microsoft Research where much of his focus was on machine learning.
Ken Tran (second from left) was the principal investigator and leader of a team of artificial intelligence and horticulture experts that won the first International Autonomous Greenhouse Challenge.
The greenhouse challenge ran from May through December 2018, with five teams growing a cucumber crop in their own greenhouse compartment at the university. The purpose of the challenge was to combine AI with greenhouse data to maximize crop production while minimizing greenhouse inputs.
“The success of the Sonoma team in the competition came from our collaboration with horticulture researchers,” Tran said. “Without their participation and the domain knowledge they provided we wouldn’t have achieved this success.”
The team worked with researchers including Dr. Xiuming Hao at Agriculture and Agrifood Canada, Shalin Khosla at Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Agriculture, and Dr. Chieri Kobota at Ohio State University.
“Before growing cucumbers for the competition, we had not grown cucumbers, but we were still able to win,” Tran said. “During the competition, our team outperformed a team of expert Dutch growers who had previously grown cucumbers. Our team was able to produce more than 55 kilograms of cucumbers per square meter. Also, the net profit on the cucumbers was 17 percent higher than the Dutch growers.”
Potential benefits for CEA
While Tran was employed at Microsoft he worked on reinforcement learning. He explained reinforcement learning, in a simplistic definition, is a data-driven method used in control applications. It learns to find the best actions based on reward or punishment data.
“We wanted to find a good application to motivate our reinforcement learning research,” he said. “In 2017, I was looking for a pure application, meaning an application that would have a great impact and would also be doable for reinforcement learning. I began with indoor vertical farms which are a good application because it is a well-controlled environment with little influence from the outside. It is easy to get started because the test environment can be as simple as a small growth chamber.
“Some types of applications that would fit include using reinforcement learning to solve a control problem. We wanted to solve a problem in the real world, but applying reinforcement learning in the real world is really challenging. That is why I was looking for applications that are well controlled and can have different scales from a small growth chamber to a large grow room.”
Tran saw the potential that vertical farms had to help solve sustainable food production problems worldwide. He spoke with CEA researchers and experts around the world, including the United States, Japan, and China. One of the institutions that Tran contacted was Wageningen University.
“When we were visited the university we learned about how they were going to organize this greenhouse challenge,” Tran said. “We discussed with them exploring collaborative opportunities. With this competition platform we could get our feet wet by actually doing something and not just talking about theory and the possibilities.”
Collecting more data from growers
Tran said much more data is needed from growers in order for computers to autonomously learn how to use the data.
“We are trying to understand how good growers produce a crop,” he said. “This isn’t just one grower, but multiple growers. We study the plant science and try to come up with a sound formula for how to grow a crop. That formula doesn’t evolve itself. It is a fixed formula. It is reacting to changing conditions that indicate under these conditions to try this.
“This is the first step in our research and it was very successful. It already performed better than many other growers would because we were able to aggregate the knowledge from multiple expert growers. We are trying to develop AI that can learn and improve over time with more data. We don’t want to stop at one system.”
Tran said controlling a vertical farm is easier than controlling a greenhouse.
“However, in both scenarios, our current technology can already be used,” he said. “This technology will keep evolving for even further impact. The technology can be used in both applications by using what we already know about plant science, machine learning, and AI in general. It’s not like having to wait for new technology or the research is not ready and we have to wait. We can already leverage the technology today and we have demonstrated that in multiple scenarios.”
Ken Tran is working on a commercial artificial intelligence program that will be adaptable to a variety of crops grown in vertical farms and greenhouses.
Tran is working on a commercial AI program that will be adaptable to a variety of crops.
“The process is going to be similar for developing a program for any CEA crop,” he said. “The data will include environmental data from inside and outside the greenhouse. This data will be generated automatically from multiple sensors installed inside the greenhouse, including light levels, temperature, relative humidity, nutrient levels, water quality, and carbon dioxide levels.
“For every crop, we would need to talk with the growers to find out how they currently grow to set up a baseline. Crop data would be provided manually by the growers on a daily and/or weekly basis depending on the crop. The program will evolve from the baseline with more data coming in. We want the program to be safe for every crop.”
Principles for adopting AI to horticulture
Tran said in order for growers and the horticulture industry to adopt AI, safety-first principles must be followed. These include:
The AI system must start growing the same way as what growers want with no risky deviations from what growers would do. This growing would continuously improve.
Growers could easily switch between manual, recommendation and autopilot modes. The greenhouse operator is always in control and can choose to exit AI control mode at any time. In recommendation mode, the AI system would only send recommendations to the operator for review and the setpoints would still be inputted manually by the operator.
The system must support easy and continuous monitoring.
For more: Ken Tran, Koidra LLC, (512) 436-3250; ken@koidra.ai.
David Kuack is a freelance technical writer in Fort Worth, Texas; dkuack@gmail.com.
Posted in Interviews