Job Layoff Kick Starts Vertical Farming Venture

Job Layoff Kick Starts Vertical Farming Venture

 JUNE 20, 2017  DAVID KUACK 

Landscape architect Jeffrey Orkin never planned to start his own vertical growing operation, but a job lay off and a passion for sustainability led to the launch of Greener Roots Farm.

After six years of college and landing a position with a large architecture and engineering firm in Nashville, Tenn., Jeffrey Orkin thought his career as a landscape architect was ready to take off. Then the recession hit. In 2009, after only 1½ years of employment, Orkin found himself jobless with limited prospects in his field.

Orkin partnered with his similarly unemployed friend Cliff Jones to start their own company called Landscape Solutions. The company is focused on design-build for residential and commercial outdoor spaces.

“We focus on how sustainable landscapes can contribute to the development of a healthier community,” Orkin said. “We are using native plants, rain gardens, bioswales and things other than typical high-demanding ornamental landscapes.”

Focus On Food

While Orkin’s main focus is on sustainable landscaping he also has a personal interest in extending his sustainability commitment to food production.

“I was living in a downtown fourth floor condominium trying to grow my own food,” Orkin said. “The only option at the time was to grow indoors on my windowsill using hydroponics. I started using a system developed by the Windowfarms Project, which got its start with a Kickstarter campaign.

In 2011 Orkin expanded from his windowsill plantings to a 4-foot wide by 12-foot long storage unit. He said that didn’t work real well because the unit lacked any kind of climate control.

The next move was to the roof of his 12-story condominium building.

“I discovered a 130-square-foot room on the roof of the building I was living in,” he said.” It was an unused utility room. I negotiated with the building management to rent me the room for a very reasonable rate. The room had a really tall ceiling which enabled me to grow using vertical farming with three different levels. That was in December 2012.”

In order to purchase the equipment he needed to set up his vertical farming facility, Orkin established the Urban Hydro Project.

“I did a Kickstarter campaign that helped to fund the build out and allowed me to test different crops and the other things necessary in a commercial hydroponic system. Urban Hydro Project was where the commercial business got its start. It was really the research and development arm of where I have transitioned to now.”

Expanding Again

Orkin has made a major production expansion by leasing a 6,000-square-foot warehouse that is about 5 miles outside of downtown Nashville. The new business venture is called Greener Roots Farm.

“I have divided the warehouse and curtained off a 3,000-square-foot grow room,” Orkin said. “I’m only about one-third of the way built out. Initially it was all I could afford. I am operating two vertical systems with space for two more. The warehouse production system is completely different than the one I was using in the condo building utility room.

“The warehouse has a completely new production design. It is a vertical set up with five levels of growing that maxes out at about 13 feet. I have a total of about 2,000 square feet of growing space that only occupies 224 square feet of floor space as it is currently built.”

Orkin is also renting 1,200 square feet of the warehouse space to Nashville Grown, a food hub that aggregates food from local growers and distributes it to area restaurants, grocery stores and schools.

Orkin said one of the biggest issues when moving to the larger facility was thinking through how to scale the system.

“This included everything from water volume and structural concerns with water weight,” he said. “We had to think through whether or not the warehouse’s existing HVAC system had the capabilities to do what we needed it to do. There were facilities considerations as far as the height, cooling, and where the water is coming from and where it is draining to.”

Everything from seed sowing to harvest takes place in the warehouse. Orkin is using 4-foot long Philips LED Production Modules in the production system.

Maximizing Crop Production

Orkin is producing a mix of herbs and leafy greens, including basil, cilantro, and parsley. He said he doesn’t have a major specific product.

“I signed a lease in April 2014 on the warehouse and we spent several months on build out,” he said. “The first seeds were planted on July 19. The crop mix allows me to provide some diversity and selection to the different restaurants that are purchasing from me. In the future there may be some direct to consumer sales at farmers markets. Right now I prefer being able to sell a larger volume in one delivery.”

Orkin said there are numerous farmers markets in the immediate Nashville area, including an “official” farmers market as well as several neighborhood markets.

“I don’t doubt that I eventually will carry many of my products to a farmers market on a regular basis,” he said. “Selling to restaurants I don’t harvest the plants unless they’re sold. It’s nice to be able to harvest for a restaurant customer and know that the crop was freshly harvested just an hour earlier.”

Orkin also said he shouldn’t have an issue with supplying local grocery stores year-round.

“I am really passionate about sustainability,” he said. “The one thing that kind of wears on me at retail is the amount of packaging that is required. Right now it’s nice to be able to put 4 pounds of product in one bag for a restaurant instead of placing that same 4 pounds in all of the 5-ounce clam shells that would have to be filled for grocery sales.

“I am trying to have the biggest impact on the local food scene that I can. I’m trying to produce and deliver the freshest local food that I can. Also, I have to figure out where I can be the most successful as a business.”

Excited About Future Opportunities

When Orkin started the Ultra Hydro Project he never expected the business to expand to the size it has.

“When my friend Cliff Jones and I started this business, we never planned to do it for as long as we have,” Orkin said. “It wasn’t necessarily our dream job. Although we have infused our passions into every aspect of the business, we can and do have a lot of fun with it. At the onset, however, it was something that we were able to do to make some money. It has just continued to grow.”

During the process of setting up the business Orkin went back to school for an MBA degree focusing on sustainability.

“A part of the degree program resulted in me going to California for a food security summit,” he said. “My mind was open to food security issues, the importance of local food and educating people about local food. Ultimately, I developed a passion for creative, innovative agriculture as it relates to augmenting the local food movement. I saw growing indoors as a way to remove seasonality when it comes to crops that in many instances are being shipped from thousands of miles away when there is this ability to grow it indoors.

“This concept of local food production presented a very interesting challenge. There is a lot of local food production going on, but not a lot of it necessarily makes money. For me the challenge is combining all of these factors. I want to be able to operate a farm with a business model that has the potential to make money and create jobs, while educating the community about how this can be done, and what it does for our food system. That gets me excited!”

For more: Greener Roots Farm, info@greenerroots.com; http://greenerroots.com.

David Kuack is a freelance technical writer in Fort Worth, Texas; dkuack@gmail.com.

Nine of America’s Largest Urban Farms

Nine of America’s Largest Urban Farms

July 17, 2017 | Trish Popovitch

The American urban farm comes in many guises but come it does. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 800 million people worldwide practice urban agriculture. That accounts for between 15 to 20 percent of the world’s food supply. As urban ag continues to build momentum across all 50 states, the influence and scope of the urban farm is growing. Most of us think of less than a couple of acres when we think urban farm, yet urban farms are getting bigger. And some are getting really big. You know, given that whole city space constraint thing. Here are just nine of America’s larger city-based farming outfits (listed alphabetically).

1. Alemany Farm (San Francisco, CA – 4.5 Acres)

Although it has enjoyed several incarnations in its time, Alemany Farm of San Francisco was founded in 1995 when a youth group turned an urban lot into a community garden. Since then, the site has grown (and changed its name a few times) and become a hub for community education on growing your own food. The farm produced and distributed 20,000 pounds of food in 2016, all of which was given away for free to area residents. Even though the farm has enjoyed a 20 year life, 2017 will be the first year with paid staff.

2. D-Town Farm (Detroit, Michigan – 7 Acres)

In Detroit’s River Rouge Park lies D-Town, the Motor City’s largest urban farm. Here, using four hoop houses and row beds, the staff and volunteers grow and harvest seasonal vegetables using traditional methods. The farm began as a ¼ acre lot back in 2006 and has grown through cooperation and community effort. The farm enjoys a complex irrigation system that involves underground piping and hydrants. Funded by grant money and enjoying a 10 year lease from the city, D-Town Farm offers a farm stand, CSA and educational programming to the local community.

3. Metro Atlanta Urban Farm (Atlanta, Georgia – 5 Acres)

Metro Atlanta Urban Farm, in Atlanta, Georgia exists on donations and grant money alone as it tries to improve access to local food for local residents. Making the most of seasonal vegetables and multiple opportunities to harvest, Metro offers cool and warm weather crops. The farm is best known for its tomatoes and okra. Located on a five acre lot in College Park, food desert eradication is the focus of this urban nonprofit. The farm is located on a traditional farming plot and still has the original farmhouse from the 1880s.

4. Ohio City Farm (Cleveland, Ohio – 6 Acres)

A collaborative effort, Ohio City Farm is compromised of six acres of fertile land with five organizations sponsoring five different projects. Working cooperatively, the farm produces food for its weekly farm stand that takes place at Cleveland’s Riverview site providing fresh food access to urban residents and city workers. The farm also provides several area restaurants with produce such as beets, garlic, peppers, leafy greens and tomatoes. Part of the City Farm team is the organization Refugee Response. They help refugees farm the land, maintaining their own farming traditions while sharing their cultural produce with their new neighbors. Cultivating 150 types of vegetables annually, Ohio City Farm is growing economically and expanding its tenancies as it becomes a permanent part of the cityscape.

5. Rainier Beach Urban Farm (Seattle, Washington – 8 Acres)

A joint endeavor between the city’s parks department, Seattle’s Tilth and the Friends of Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands, Rainier Beach Urban Farm was founded in 2010 as Seattle’s first private farm on public land. Besides growing fruit and produce for area residents in greenhouses and ground plots, the folks at Rainier Urban Farm work to restore the wetlands habitat that just happens to run right through the center of the farm’s property. 2017 sees new programming facilities and access improvement to the farm and wetlands as the partners work together to use Seattle’s larger urban farm as a hub for sustainable education.

6. Real Food Farm (Baltimore, Maryland – 8 Acres)

Founded in 2009, Real Food Farm is a Baltimore non-profit operating on eight acres of city parkland (six contiguous with an additional two acre site added in 2014). A program of the larger Civic Worksorganization, the team uses their hoop houses of fruit, vegetables and herbs to keep costs low while working towards a more sustainable local economy. They have produced 60,000 lbs of food and educated over 3000 people. Real Food Farm offers both a CSA and a mobile farmers’ market increasing access for local residents. Among their many programs, gardens and activities, the farm houses a large gas heated greenhouse that is shared with the other members of the Farm Alliance of Baltimore City.

7. Springdale Farm (Austin, Texas – 4.83 Acres)

Glen and Paula Foore founded Springdale Farm in 2009 and grow 75 different types of fruits and vegetables using traditional methods. Comprised of 4.83 acres in East Austin, Springdale is a community hub for locavores. Like most urban farms, work is twofold: production and education. Originally, the property operated as a landscaping business and their former business employees simply transitioned to the new business. The Foores employ seven long time employees. The farm hosts an annual tomato dinner and has won Edible Communities’ Local Hero award four times. Springdale Farm’s nonprofit arm Springdale Center is an educational program center for students to promote sustainable education and awareness.

8. Skarsgard Farms (Albuquerque, New Mexico – 40 Acres)

Skarsgard Farms was founded by Monte Skarsgard in 2003. Coming from a century old tradition of family farming, he knew how to put the river valley soil and water to best use. Skarsgard Farms offers a CSA and mobile delivery service, partnering with area businesses to increase product availability to their customers. With six greenhouses and a hydroponic operation, Skarsgard grows throughout the year producing seasonal warm and cold weather crops. The farm operates all its sales online and offers value-added hard cider from its apple crop.

9. Sunspot Urban Farm (Fort Collins, Colorado – 4.5 Acres)

Founded in 2008 by Amy Yackel and Rod Adams, Sunspot Urban is a neighbor friendly operation focused on building urban soil. They offer a farm share style CSA with a day’s work exchanged for a week of freshly harvested produce. Utilizing high tunnels, the couple extend the Colorado growing season while offering locals farm tours and workshops. The farm utilizes a ‘carbon farming’ method with the main goal being to create a carbon regenerative farm focused on growing nutrient rich vegetables. The couple appears to be succeeding, growing their CSA customers and finding time to conduct compost research for the USDA in between planting and harvesting the rows.

Garden Battle: Quebec City Woman Told She Can't Grow Veggies in Her Front Yard

Garden Battle: Quebec City Woman Told She Can't Grow Veggies in Her Front Yard

Véronique Chapier has until Aug. 1 to comply with city's bylaws or will face fines

CBC News Posted: Jul 27, 2017 10:08 AM ET Last Updated: Jul 27, 2017 10:10 AM ET

Véronique Chapier wants to grow vegetables on her front lawn, but her neighbours say her yard is a mess. (Cathy Senay/Radio-Canada)

Related Stories

• Drummondville couple fights to keep vegetable garden

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, they say, and a Quebec City woman believes her front-lawn vegetable garden is a living work of art.

But Véronique Chapier's neighbours don't quite agree with that assessment. And neither does the city, which has informed her that her garden breaks a number of bylaws.

Chapier, who lives in the Quebec City borough of Charlesbourg, has been growing vegetables such as lettuce, tomatoes and asparagus on her front lawn for years.

Her backyard is shady so she can't grow certain plants she wants to back there, she explained.

Chapier said she likes to use her garden as a way to teach children and others about what it takes to grow food. She also considers it to be something of a community initiative.

"I went to get some lettuce that was ready and it wasn't here, and I was happy about that," she said.

Her neighbours, however, think her work of art is just a mess and complained to the city.

Chapier now has days to move her garden to the backyard or side of her house, or face fines. 

'Nothing aesthetic about it,' neighbour says

Two weeks ago, a city inspector informed Chapier that her garden breaks a number of rules, namely that:

• The vegetable garden can't be on her front lawn.
• Some plants are too tall and the landscaping is messy.
• Some are planted beyond her property line.
• There are wooden pallets and plastic containers on her lawn that constitute a nuisance.

Her neighbour Louisette Alain has reported the garden to the city once a year for the last three years. Alain says she has been trying to sell her house for two years and prospective buyers are put off by the garden.

She said she has no problem with it when it's maintained, but right now, "it's not a garden. There's nothing aesthetic about it."

Louisette Alain and Claude Aubut are Chapier's neighbours, and complained about her front-lawn vegetable garden to the city. (Radio-Canada)

Chapier's problem is reminiscent of a similar conflict from five years ago, when a Drummondville couple with a front-yard vegetable garden fought and succeeding in changing the city bylaw that prohibits the practice.

Such gardens are not allowed in Quebec City, Longueuil and Laval, but Montreal and Sherbrooke are OK with its residents growing food elsewhere than their backyards.

Chapier has already started moving her plants to the backyard and cleaning up. She has until Aug. 1 to finish the job, or her case could end up in court.

She said she is hoping the city will change the rules.

Marjorie Potvin, a spokesperson for the city, says though vegetable gardens at the front of residences are prohibited, they are tolerated as long as no one complains about them.

She said the city is looking into adopting a policy on urban agriculture, but there is no guarantee this issue will be part of it.

Couple's 'Micro-Mini Farm' Venture Began As A Hobby

Couple's 'Micro-Mini Farm' Venture Began As A Hobby

Anne Schamberg, Special to the Journal SentinelPublished 6:00 a.m. CT July 16, 2017 | Updated 10:21 a.m. CT July 16, 2017

Photos: Aromatic Acres

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(Photo: Courtesy of Carly Ledger)

During an end-of-June walk through the community garden space that Aromatic Acres calls home, rows of herbs, flowers and vegetables were showing promise. And some of the plants, like sharp-tasting radish seed pods, were ready to be harvested.

“Try this,” said Joseph Ledger, offering a few beanlike pods. “We eat them raw and they’re also good roasted.”

Since last summer, Joseph and wife Carly have been trying their luck at market gardening, digging in at the Firefly Ridge community gardens in Wauwatosa, which are rented from Milwaukee County University of Wisconsin-Extension.

The couple sell to a handful of area restaurants, but their their main outlet is Tosa Farmers Market, where they are first-time vendors. Last season, for their initial commercial foray, they were at Enderis Park Farmers Market.

They got their start as avid hobby gardeners. “We’re really self-taught,” said Carly.

Their “micro-mini farm,” as she calls it, adds up to about 1/6 of an acre, including three adjacent annual plots and, in a separate part of the gardens, a perennial plot where they plan to put a hoop house that will allow them to extend the growing season.

It was a brainstorming session that led to the name Aromatic Acres. And for the quibblers out there, she notes that “we personally aren’t farming on acres of land, but our garden is located on 11 acres of community garden space.”

The aromatics include more than 30 different herbs, for both culinary and medicinal use, that range from pineapple sage and anise hyssop to bronze fennel and epazote. They also grow cut flowers, many of which are edible, and a selection of veggies including heirloom tomatoes and oddballs like Mexican sour gherkins and those radish seed pods, an heirloom variety also known as rat’s tail radish.

“There are enough people out there selling your basic string beans,” he said. “I like growing some fun weird stuff that you don’t see.”

Joseph’s full-time gig is as an audio technician for Northern Lights Theater at Potawatomi Hotel and Casino, so he often spends mornings in the garden while she gardens later in the day. “We don’t sleep. We work nonstop,” she said. He quickly agreed. 

“We do the farmers market together on Saturdays because we just love hanging out together — and we don’t have a lot of free time with each other,” said Carly, 32, whose day job is as office administrator for The Green Team, a Milwaukee-based landscaping service.

But the long hours are worth it.

Carly describes “the joy of working with the soil and being outside. I can’t put a price on it. I feel like my whole life has been bringing me here.”

With a degree in art and environmental studies from UW-La Crosse, she has been gardening since her college days and has had a series of outdoor jobs at parks around the country over the years.

Her “just-a-hired-hand” husband, as he dubs himself, has a degree in mathematics from Milwaukee’s Cardinal Stritch University — and he’s particularly enthusiastic about “growing chemical-free food and preserving the soil.”

Because it’s rented space, they are not moving toward organic certification, but they follow an organic-based system known as SPIN, or Small Plot INtensive, which helps them get the most from their limited urban space.

When it comes to peddling their produce, they find that people need to be sweet-talked into trying, say, electric blue borage flowers or honey melon sage.

“I hand someone some lemon basil and say see those strawberries over there? Sprinkle some lemon basil on them and you have a wonderful, simple dessert,” said Joseph, 40, who loves to cook.

They bring a different recipe each Saturday to the farmers market. In summer, it might be for a for a lemon balm mojito. And in fall, it’s perhaps a soup or stew with an accompanying “bouquet” of herbs.

And, somehow, this busy couple manages to cook at home on many evenings.

“This week we smoked two chickens and then had enough leftovers for sandwiches and to make stock,” he said. “We always make stock and a lot of soup. We just throw maybe some lentils in the pot and then add whatever vegetables and herbs we have. Once in a while we use a recipe.”

Leftovers make quick mealtimes possible.

“We cook, we freeze and we eat leftovers. I can’t get enough leftovers,” she said with a laugh.

They’ve just bought a house not too far from Aromatic Acres, so they’re dedicated to continuing their “urban farming” in Wauwatosa with an eye toward expanding their community garden space.

Possibilities for future projects keep cropping up, whether it’s mushroom growing, building a plant cloner for seedling starting, or setting up a portable kitchen for garden-side cooking demonstrations.

And they both dream about a day when they could do market gardening full time.

As Joseph wistfully puts it, “If we could make a living at this, we wouldn’t have a care in the world.”

To see the list of what they grow or for more information, go to aromaticacres.com.

Want your own garden plot?

Whether you’re a city slicker hoping to grow a few vegetables or an aspiring urban farmer, the University of Wisconsin-Extension in Milwaukee County is a good place to start.

According to the Extension website, the community garden program, which began in 1972, now rents to something like 500 families on 75 acres of land around the county.

There’s a wide range of plot sizes and rental prices. This summer, for example, a 20-by-20-foot plot at Firefly Ridge in Wauwatosa costs $45; and at Kohl Farm on West County Line Road in Milwaukee, a market gardener can rent a 120-by-90-foot “micro-farm” for $252.

If you need expert advice, the Extension has programs on urban agriculture or micro-farming, beekeeping and accessible gardening. For links to these programs and for more information on garden rental, go to http://milwaukee.uwex.edu/agriculture/.

Motorleaf’s Monk on Priorities and Challenges of Being an AI Startup in Indoor Ag

Motorleaf’s Monk on Priorities and Challenges of Being an AI Startup in Indoor Ag

JULY 19, 2017 LOUISA BURWOOD-TAYLOR

Motorleaf is a Canadian startup that has built a smart and automated indoor farming operating system, consisting of hardware devices and software analytics, to enable growers to capture data about their crops, learn what the crops need, and instruct existing equipment to answer those needs.

The motorleaf system can be used in any type of indoor farming operation from greenhouses through to warehouses and at any size. Motorleaf receives 40,000 data points per customer per week and therefore can start predicting a crop’s needs, solving potential problems before they exist. Also, the startup plans to use its network of data and growers to connect users to each other – on an opt-in basis – to share data, plant recipes and knowledge.

We caught up with Ally Monk, CEO of motorleaf, a few months after the business raised a $1.1 million seed round of funding — which was launched on AgFunder — to get an update on how the business is progressing.

Alastair has a dream: allowing every single one of us to be able to grow our own crops automatically and produce our own food thanks to intelligent automated systems. To learn more about how he started his journey from zero to one, and what drives him to pursue his dream, watch this fascinating talk.

It’s now been seven month months since you closed your seed round; how have you spent the proceeds so far?

The first thing we bought was a robot vacuum we’ve named Elroy (from the Jetsons). That was about the extent of any extravagant spending. Other than welcoming Elroy, we’ve increased the team and invested in talent that builds amazing software, hardware and understands the needs of our client base.

We’ve been fortunate to be invited to talk at a few events in Vegas and Tokyo on the topic of artificial intelligence and big data at agriculture-focused events, so some travel as well. We’ve also invested in a small secondary location to accommodate testing our new technology on various crop types.

What have been your biggest milestones to-date?

I think if I could pick my top three they would be:

1) Getting picked for the FounderFuel accelerator AI cohort; can you imagine how many companies applied for the six places on offer? And then becoming a ‘proper company’ soon thereafter! That was quite the journey in itself, which I did a TEDx talk about. 

2) Building two versions of our hardware — now five different units — and software within 12 months, with the deployments proving everything is working as it should. That may sound simple, but it’s like building two different companies with half the budget normally needed for both. Then getting repeat orders.

3) Seeing real AI + Machine Learning built out, integrated into our software, deployed in indoor farms, and then seeing it exceed expectations. As we now like to say: “AI is what we do, it’s not a buzzword.’

What are your priorities for the rest of 2017?

Again – it’s never just one thing – my top three are:

1) We’re looking to grow the team, so planning for that big next step will begin in Q4 2017.

2) Continued and increased communication with our clients; we learn more in these interactions than in any staff meetings.

3) Stick to our technology road map. It’s aggressive, but with access to some of the best R&D financial programs in the country (Canada) and likely in the whole of North America; we can do more with one dollar than most companies — even those that outsource overseas.

What have been the biggest challenges to getting where you are today?

Focus. Every day we are approached by potential companies/partners/distributors/clients that ask us to work with them, and some cases ask us to modify what we have for them. We can only do so much, so trying not to get distracted by people from all over the world who reach out is tough. It’s exciting to know your little idea that went from a friendship + prototype in a ski town of 4,000 people, in less than two years is getting contacted from all corners of the planet; it’s amazing, but it could break us if we don’t execute a plan that’s agreed and well thought out.

What are the biggest hurdles ahead?

If I knew that we’d be bullet proof! The hurdles we know of center around what parts of a very large market we double down on. Part of what investors expect you to do with seed money is investigate various hypotheses. Our technology can help an indoor farmer who grows in a grow tent, and all the way up to hundreds of acres under glass. So we can’t service everyone the same way, and at times that feels like leaving money on the table. So a huge challenge is looking at which partners to ‘allow’ your products to be sold by, where we won’t wish to focus directly ourselves, but still know there is huge sales potential.

That and the fact I still sleep on the office floor on an air mattress due to workload. That’s proving to be a challenge- I may upgrade to a futon at some point!

Machine learning and AI are all the buzz across industries today, but it seems to me that it takes some time before a startup can really start deploying this tech and it requires a lot of data. Do you agree?

Access to data is certainly an issue for a lot of young companies, but likely, more importantly, access to data you can parse/understand/and then draw relevant conclusions from is harder still. Where we see a huge advantage on what we’re able to do, is the fact we can collect data ourselves, we don’t have to rely on someone else’s data. We’ve processed over 1 million datasets since we started deploying our units, but not all that data is useful. So it may sound a lot, but in the big scheme of things, we’ve just gotten started.

What’s your take on early stage startups name dropping their use of AI/ML?

It doesn’t take long for young startups to hear “just say you do AI – investors love it!” and so they add it to their company description. One of our mentors at our accelerator program was Jean-François Gagnét, Founder/CEO of Element AI. They raised 100 million recently, and are by far the company with the most ‘AI talent’ in N America, perhaps the world.

He said to us “What you need to remember is that you never tried to convince anyone you were doing AI, you were doing it before the buzzword came along, so keep building out as you planned, and no one can accuse you of jumping on the band wagon.” It was a big relief to hear him say that, as now, only a short time after we ’emerged’ we feel we have to justify the use of these terms in what we do, and then remember that we actually don’t.

The proof is in the pudding; once we’ve finished our private beta, I can’t wait to show our clients video testimonials on how our AI/Machine Learning helps them.

So I would say this: ask how many crops a young company can successfully use AI/Machine Learning on: the higher the number, the more salt you should sprinkle on their answer. Growing crops and proving out this kind of tech takes a lot of time; plants take time, results take time, triple testing and more takes time.

Where is the indoor ag industry today? How fast is it growing in Canada and beyond?

I think it’s at a crossroads. A lot of great press for the industry is making people aware technology MUST help it transform, investors are aware it’s one of the last huge industries that’s been around for centuries that’s ripe for disruption, or just ‘change’ if you want to avoid the cliche buzzwords!

However, technology needs to travel. Data needs not to be kept behind closed doors, especially when the farmer is the one who owns it, and will benefit the most if it’s allowed to visit other service providers to help him/her get better insight/results.

So the market is certainly growing fast, but it’s shooting off in different directions.

In Canada and the US we’ve found a ton of growers who EXPECT tech to help them, and if fairly new to growing crops indoors, are quickly frustrated by some of the incumbents in the market who seem to think they have no obligation to change how their systems work to accommodate any newcomers trying to work with indoor farmers.

It reminds me of the first time I used Uber, I asked myself: ”Why did it take someone from outside of the taxi industry to come up with this; it’s a way better service.” Then I realized, they all had it way too easy being top dog in their city, no real need to service their customers any better.

Agtech is moving so fast, and young companies are laser-focused on the needs of real customers across the world. So you can’t help agree with David Bowie: “Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming.” If you choose to listen that is.

Farmer Josh is Bringing Ultra Local Food to NYC (and Asking Hard Questions About Our Food System)

Farmer Josh is Bringing Ultra Local Food to NYC (and Asking Hard Questions About Our Food System)

JULY 11, 2017 by EMILY MONACO

Josh Lee may have grown up on a farm in North Carolina, but he never expected to end up a farmer himself -– especially not in New York City. And yet that’s exactly what the fifth-generation farmer has done with Green Top Farms, a “seed-to-salad” delivery service that brings ultra fresh, ultra local food to offices throughout NYC, in the hopes of helping people think more about where their food comes from.

Fifth-Generation Farmer From NC to NYC

At 18, Lee left the farming life behind, and he was never encouraged to return.

“Even though I was farming every summer, it wasn’t something that I was encouraged to stay and do,” he says. “’You’ve got to go to college; be a doctor or a lawyer, some sort of professional career.’”

For Lee, the calling came from education, and so he became a special education teacher in New York City. But while Lee was living and working in the Bronx, he never quite abandoned his farming roots. He kept up an interest in the industry, particularly in new developments like vertical farming, which allows growers to produce food in vertically stacked layers, thus using a smaller footprint of space – within a shipping container or building, for example.

“I kind of became in-tune with vertical farming and urban farming in general, when I saw this Colbert Report back in 2008,” he says. “I just thought that was the coolest thing I’d ever seen.”

While Lee still had no intentions of going back into farming – at least not until he was retired – vertical farming piqued enough of an interest for him to set up a Google Alert, which yielded maybe an article every few months. Of course, that was all about to change.

Taking Vertical Farming to New Heights

Over the years, Lee’s Google Alert yielded more and more information, and in 2014, Lee decided to join the trend. He left teaching to found Green Top Farms, a hydroponic urban growing experiment. The farm grows microgreens, which are harvested daily and paired with local, seasonal ingredients to create delicious salads, which can either be ordered individually or, the company’s specialty, for “farm-to-work” salad bars, delivered right to your office.

“I don’t know if in a blind taste test it tastes better,” says Lee, “but for me, knowing where food comes from, it always tastes better, because it comes with a story, something behind it.”

Image care of Green Top Farms

Over the past three years, the project has grown exponentially, and now, Green Top Farms is looking for more space. The company’s new Kickstarterproject was created with the hope of moving into a new 1,000 square foot location that will combine hydroponic farming and kitchen.

“Right now we are completely squeezed where we are,” says Lee. “We have a very small growing operation, and everything we’re growing is being used.”

But while Lee and his colleagues can be applauded for their success, they are still encountering one major problem – a problem that’s plaguing not just these local food producers, but America’s food system on the whole: transparent sourcing. While Lee and his colleagues know exactly where their microgreens come from, they have to rely on external sources for their other salad ingredients, and sometimes, no matter how hard they try, even they don’t know where these foods are coming from.

Local Food Is A Question of Education

It was when Lee was first teaching that he realized what a huge problem the lack of transparency in our food system is.

“That’s where I really saw the night and day contrast with how I grew up and my relationship with food and farming and the kids I was teaching and their relationship to food and farming,” he says of the Bronx high schoolers he was working with.

“I remember interrupting the whole lesson several times to explain the difference between a fruit snack and a real fruit or explain why they spell cheese with a z in some of these ‘cheez’ snacks: because it’s not real cheese.”

Lee’s roots in education persist in his new career: he continues to teach people about these important issues through Green Top Farms.

“I tell our customers, ‘Well, we know where some of it comes from, but we don’t know where all of it comes from, and we think that’s a problem, so help us move in that direction of more transparency.’”

All deliveries are made with zero-emission vehicles. They go faster than regular bikes, so couriers can deliver more food in the same amount of time.

Fixing Our Food System One Salad At A Time

Green Top Farms is, at its core, a micro-solution to a macro-problem. From the depletion of the rainforests to the death of pollinators to the record rates of diabetes, problems related to food and nutrition are skyrocketing in this country, problems that Lee believes are all inextricably linked.

“I personally think that all of those problems come from the fact that we’re really just not in touch with what we’re eating,” he says.

“If you’re really serious about having a better food system, then we not only have to change some of the things we’re doing in farming and improve our distribution so that we’re not wasting so much food, we also have to change the way we’re eating,” he says. “And that’s on all of us.”

Green Top Farms is doing its part to reconnect people with their food: not only by growing it close to where people live, but in being open about all the work that still needs to be done. But at least as far as Lee is concerned, it’s a true labor of love.

“I’ve never been so broke, I’ve never eaten so well, and I’ve never been so happy, all at once,” he says. “I’m living my dream life, for sure.”

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SoftBank Invests in Largest Ever Agtech Deal, a $200m Series B for Indoor Ag Startup

BREAKING: SoftBank Invests in Largest Ever Agtech Deal, a $200m Series B for Indoor Ag Startup

JULY 19, 2017 EMMA COSGROVE

**UPDATE: Added comments from S2G Ventures managing director Sanjeev Krishnan, AeroFarms CEO David Rosenberg***

**UPDATE: Added comments from Plenty CEO Matt Barnard, and AgFunder CEO Rob Leclerc**

Indoor vertical farming company Plenty has raised $200 million in a Series B round of funding, the largest agtech investment to date.

Just one month after the grower acquired indoor agriculture hardware company Bright Agrotech, this round was led by Japan’s SoftBank Vision Fund, a $93 billion, multi-stage tech fund.

Affiliates of Louis M. Bacon, the founder of Moore Capital Management, also joined the round alongside existing investors including Innovation Endeavors, Bezos Expeditions, Chinese VC DCM, Data Collective, and Finistere Ventures.

Plenty uses a vertical growing plane to grow leafy greens in a 52,000 square foot South San Francisco facility. The Series B — which takes total funding for the startup to $226 million — will fuel further expansion and more farms.

One agtech venture capitalist said that Plenty had a pre-money valuation of $500 million, but Plenty CEO Matt Barnard would not confirm this figure. The same venture capitalist said that if that figure was true, the valuation would be “crazy” for a company that appears to be pre-revenue.

But Plenty’s Barnard is confident about Plenty’s “aggressive” expansion plans to improve food quality globally. This expansion will include building farms in Japan, China, and the Middle East, as well as the US.

“This is an enormous investment, which is a testament to the strength of the founders and the strong conviction from Vision Fund in making bets that are true to its mandate,” said Rob Leclerc, CEO of AgFunder. “Plenty is a young company, so there’s going to be a lot of work for their economics to catch up to the valuation, but if they succeed, this will have looked cheap.”

Barnard offered no specific timeline or number of farms in the near-term, saying that the company prefers to announce new locations when all relevant partners are in place. Further, he did not confirm any retail partners for his South San Francisco farm. But he did say that Japan is a priority. “It is one of our top priorities not only because SoftBank is a partner, but there are some specific needs that we plan to fill,” said Barnard.

The CEO said that Plenty used its $1.5 million seed and $24.5 million Series A rounds of financing to prove to investors that the company had the capability to deliver “vegetables and fruits” as good or better than what is currently on the market.

Barnard, who was introduced to SoftBank by an existing investor, confirmed that in addition to leafy greens,  Plenty has successfully grown strawberries, but would not confirm any other crops. He told Bloomberg that cucumbers are on the way as well.

What Plenty has yet to demonstrate is the ability to operate at scale.

Said Barnard, “Operating any farm, anywhere is extremely difficult and requires a lot of diligence, processes, people, and systems. The thing that is hard about investing is that at some point someone has to invest in scale before the scale is there and SoftBank is both visionary and courageous.”

Sanjeev Krishnan of S2G Ventures said that despite the large sums raised, vertical farming is unlikely to be dominated by one name.

“This investment shows the potential of the sector. Indoor agriculture is a real toolkit for the produce industry. There is no winner takes all potential here. I could even see some traditional, outdoor growers do indoor ag as a way to manage some of the fundamental issues of the produce industry: agronomy, logistics costs, shrinkage, freshness, seasonality and manage inventory cycles better. There are many different models that could work and we are excited about the platforms being built in the market.”

In addition to Plenty’s global expansion, this round will go toward hiring in computer science, machine learning, mechanical engineering, crop science, biology among others.

“By combining technology with optimal agriculture methods, Plenty is working to make ultra-fresh, nutrient-rich food accessible to everyone in an always-local way that minimizes wastage from transport,” said Masayoshi Son, Chairman & CEO of SoftBank Group Corp. “We believe that Plenty’s team will remake the current food system to improve people’s quality of life.”

Plenty claims to use 1 percent of the water and land of a conventional farm with no pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. Like other large soilless, hi-tech farms growing today, Plenty says it uses custom sensors feeding data-enabled systems resulting in finely-tuned environmental controls to produce greens with superior flavor.

The SoftBank Vision fund invests no less than $100 million checks in deals across internet-of-things, AI, robotics, infrastructure, telecoms, biotech, fintech, mobile apps and more.

Existing fund investments and recent deals include Indian fintech unicorn Paytm, virtual reality Improbable Worlds, China’s Uber killer Didi Chuxing, and global connectivity company OneWeb.

SoftBank Vision Fund’s managing director, Jeffrey Housenbold, will join the Plenty Board of Directors.

Plenty’s Series B pushes microbial crop input products company Indigo off the top position for the largest agtech deal on record; Indigo raised a $100 million Series C round last year, just months after raising a $56 million Series B.

Today’s deal is also far larger than any other in the indoor ag space; SunDrop Farms, the Australian greenhouse operator, raised $100 million from global private equity group in 2014. The closest in the vertical farming space is AeroFarms, which recently announced $34 million of a $40 million Series D round bring it’s fundraising total to more than $100 million.

Said AeroFarms CEO David Rosenberg, “This is a monster raise, and ultimately competition can be good for the industry to drive further advancement.”

Plenty raised $1.5 million in seed funding and a $24.5 million Series A round, both in 2016. The startup’s other investors are Innovation Endeavors , Bezos Expeditions , Finistere Ventures, Data Collective, Kirenaga Partners,  DCM Ventures, and Western Technology Investment.

Bring On Next-Gen Urban Farming: Usher In A New Era Of Food Production in New York City

Bring On Next-Gen Urban Farming: Usher In A New Era Of Food Production in New York City

We can do so much more

 (MIKE DI PAOLA/BLOOMBERG)

BY ERIC ADAMSRAFAEL ESPINAL

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS  |  Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 5:36 PM

If a tree grows in Brooklyn, so too can a cherry or a cucumber. Now imagine a crop large enough to feed our entire city.

When New Yorkers go to their local grocer or supermarket, we often see produce imported from other states or countries. There is no reason why the majority of our natural food products cannot be grown and sold right here in the Big Apple. For an urban center as large as New York City, we must be prepared for the challenges of climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, a changing ecological system, and the need to supply healthy food to an ever-growing population.

At the same time, we face a crisis of diabetes, heart disease, and obesity of epidemic proportions. The growing urban agriculture movement around the world, estimated at between 15% and 20% of global agricultural output, has the substantial potential to revolutionize our city's food system and turn a page on protecting our health and environment while bolstering the economy.

We have the ingenuity at hand to take advantage of the plentiful space in the five boroughs, to make this 21st century dream a reality. New York City has rehabilitated unused space before, most famously with the High Line. Our city has 14,000 acres of unused rooftop space, and there are more than 45,000 square feet of publicly owned land in East New York alone. With the use of smart, cutting-edge technology, we would be able to grow enough to feed as many as 20 million people in the metropolitan area.

As New Yorkers, we need to think boldly about the many benefits of expanding urban agriculture. Cities contribute to 70% of the world's global greenhouse gases, and a City Hall analysis from last year found transportation accounts for nearly 30% of our own output.

Local food production means less trucking required to go in and out of our neighborhoods, reducing the amount of carbon emissions pumped into our city as well as relieving stress on our highways. Green roofs and gardens used to grow produce pump oxygen into the air and cool down our environment, while playing a major role in reducing the runoff and flooding that heavy downpours create. Our environmental future is at stake, and urban farming helps us grow a more sustainable and resilient city.

In Brooklyn, food insecurity and poverty are compounded to create an economic and health crisis. A 2016 report by FoodBankNYC showed Kings County has a food insecurity rate of 20 percent, the only borough with a rising trend since 2009. Lacking basic healthy food access contributes to high levels of preventable diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. African-American and Latino communities across central and eastern Brooklyn are twice as likely to suffer from these debilitating and deadly diseases.

There's even a condition known as Flatbush diabetes; that says it all.

Urban farming is the key to solving this problem, creating mixed-use neighborhoods where this kind of horticultural industry could thrive. The aquaponics market alone is expected to expand over the next five years at an annual rate of 14.3%, generating a value of more than $900 million by 2021. Thinking beyond the traditional expansive farms of America's heartland, the technology exists to grow crops and careers on unused spaces in the heart of New York City.

Think of the broad potential. We can even establish high-yield farms on our many public housing developments, creating jobs in communities plagued with chronic unemployment, educating a new generation in healthy living, and providing access to fresh foods right at residents' doorsteps.

The buds of this revolution are growing, but commercial and industrial scale urban farming is tangled in the weeds of bureaucratic uncertainty, making implementation that much more difficult. While scientists and agro-experts have done their jobs of innovating, government has not caught up.

Sophisticated vertical farming operations can be more efficient and profitable, but our zoning laws leave open many questions as to where these businesses can operate. For example, current regulations prohibit growing and selling produce on the same lot regardless of what the lot is zoned. In fact, the zoning text only mentions the word "agriculture" on a handful of its nearly 4,000 pages, thereby making this practice permissive but vague at best. This uncertainty stifles growth.

That is why we are proud to introduce City Council legislation that would rationalize this industry through the creation of a comprehensive urban agriculture plan in New York City. Our legislation would catalogue existing and potential growing spaces, classify and prioritize uses, identify potential land use policies that would favor expanding agricultural uses, as well as expand the availability of healthy food in low-income neighborhoods by integrating this practice across the city's conservation and resiliency plans.

This plan is the seed to robust growth. Let's cultivate a multi-million dollar industry here in New York City with a harvest of economic, environmental, and health benefits that we can all share.

Adams currently serves as the Brooklyn borough president. Espinal is a member of the New York City Council for District 37, which includes the neighborhoods of Bushwick, Brownsville, Cypress Hills and East New York in Brooklyn.

Print Your Own Aquaponics Garden With This Open Source Urban Farming System

Print Your Own Aquaponics Garden With This Open Source Urban Farming System

Derek Markham (@derekmarkham)  Lawn & Garden June 29, 2017

Aquapioneers has developed what it calls the world's first open source aquaponics kit in a bid to reconnect urban dwellers with the production of their food.

Combining open source, digital fabrication, DIY, and urban farming, this startup's project aims to put the tools for zero-mile food into the hands of everyone. Aquapioneers, based in Barcelona, Spain, is focused on getting more people to grow more of their own food right at home, while at the same time enabling a 90% reduction in garden water consumption and a doubling of plant growth rates.

The Aquapioneers system resembles the Open Source Beehives project and the AKER open source urban ag kit in its construction, as the aquaponics plans are designed to be downloaded and "printed" locally with a CNC router at a Maker Space or Fab Lab, which keeps shipping costs and emissions down, while also allowing for easy assembly and a low-maintenance growing experience.

"With this system in place, carbon-intensive worldwide shipping is no longer necessary, reducing dramatically our environmental footprint and contributing to mitigate climate change. In fact only the data will travel, not the material" - Guillaume Teyssié, co-founder of Aquapioneers.

With this aquaponics setup, the entire growing ecosystem waters and fertilizes itself, thanks to the (almost) closed loop created by the conjoined 50-liter fish tank and 70 x 30 x 30 cm (~27.5" x 11.8" x 11.8") grow bed, which feeds the food crops with the waste from the fish while the plants' roots clean the water for the fish. The fish do need to be fed, and the Aquapioneer system is designed to employ an LED grow light, which requires an electricity input, but it could be illuminated by the sun instead, enabling the carbon footprint of food grown in it to be kept as low as possible.

"Cities are growing bigger and they lack sufficient space. Aquaponics comes as a perfect solution for this, as it allows vertical farming and utilizing unused public and private space." - Loic Le Goueff, co-founder of Aquapioneers

ENGLISH link: https://www.ulule.com/aquapioneers/ We believe Aquapioneers will contribute to the growing urban farming movement in Barcelona. We envision a future where Barcelona's citizens source most of their food from local farmers, from their rooftops, and from inside their own homes. We are committed to change the future of food, and we're proud to start with the Aquapioneers Ecosystem.

"We aim to revolutionize urban agriculture and promote food self-sufficiency in cities." - Le Goueff

© Aquapioneers
Aquapioneers is currently in a crowdfunding phase in a bid to raise at least €15,000 to finalize and fully document the open source plans. Backers of the campaign at the $43 level will receive early access to both the design files for printing locally, as well as a manual for successfully operating an Aquapioneers ecosystem. The team will release the files into the public domain under a Creative Commons license several weeks after the end of the campaign. More information is available at Aquapioneers.

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Food Strategist & Brand Builder Joins FreshBox Farms Advisory Board

Food Strategist & Brand Builder Joins FreshBox Farms Advisory Board

Former Starbucks VP Recognized for Innovations and R&D Strategies

MILLIS, MA – June 26, 2017 – Food strategist and recognized brand builder Dr. Mary Wagner has joined FreshBox Farms’ advisory board.

Wagner, who has worked with brands including Starbucks, Mars, Taco Bell and General Mills, will be focusing on product/business development and strategy for one of the nation’s most profitable modular vertical farms.

“We are very pleased to have someone with Dr. Wagner’s experience and record of success among our advisors,” says FreshBox Farms CEO Sonia Lo. “As a Senior Vice President at Starbucks, Mary built a culture of innovation, and she is recognized for her work in food quality and safety as well as her ability to build brands and create successful strategies that foster innovation.”

FreshBox Farms uses sustainable growing enclosures that use no soil, very little water, a rigorously-tested nutrient mix and LED lighting to produce the freshest, cleanest, tastiest produce possible. FreshBox Farms’ non-GMO certified products go from harvest to the grocer’s produce section in hours, rather than days, and it is the only greens grower -- hydroponic or conventional -- in Massachusetts to be certified kosher.

“As one of only two commercial vertical farms in the US that are gross margin positive, FreshBox Farms continues to innovate and continues to be an industry leader, and we look forward to Mary’s wise counsel as we continue to be a success story in this advanced, technologically-sophisticated food industry,” says Lo.

“Indoor hydroponic farming in the US has amazing growth potential -- no pun intended,” says Wagner. “Forecasters believe that over the next 10 years, 50% of all greens will be harvested indoors through some form of hydroponic growing, and I am eager to work with Sonia and her team on research and innovation that will keep FreshBox Farms an industry leader.”

As Senior Vice President at Starbucks, Wagner was responsible for creating global food and beverage products and solutions for Starbucks and its Evolution Fresh and Teavana brands. She led the effort to create Global Centers of Excellence for R&D, Quality and Regulatory in US, Asia and Europe, with the aim of offering innovative locally relevant products in key markets outside the U.S.

She also created a “stage/gate” product development priority process that focused resources and energy on innovations that had the highest return. The result was improved time to market and an increase in more meaningful new product launches.

Wagner recently founded MK Wagner and Associates, a global food science management consulting firm that specializes in R&D strategic leadership.

About FreshBox Farms, The Thoughtful Choice

Each time consumers go shopping, they make a variety of decisions. “The Thoughtful Choice” is knowing that FreshBox Farms’ produce will always be the best option for their health, happiness, and the planet. Founded in 2013, FreshBox Farms is an entrepreneurial company with a mission of producing non-GMO certified, fresh, healthy, and pure produce for local markets through industry leading and sustainable vertical farming. Its technology and values have received global attention with interest from European, Middle Eastern and Asian markets. To learn more about FreshBox Farms, please visit www.freshboxfarms.com.

With Urban Grit and Pink Lights, London Warehouse Farms Fish and Greens

With Urban Grit and Pink Lights, London Warehouse Farms Fish and Greens

View fullsize

By Reuters

PUBLISHED: 20:00 EDT, 26 July 2017 | UPDATED: 20:00 EDT, 26 July 2017

By Lin Taylor

LONDON, July 27 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Inside a warehouse in industrial southeast London, farmed tilapia swim in blue tubs filled with pristine water, ready to be sold to trendy restaurants across the capital.

In an adjacent room, under pink LED lights and controlled temperatures, shoots of salad leaves and herbs grow on recycled carpet fibre fertilised with the fish waste. In this cavernous, windowless space more suited to a nightclub than a farm, the greens are stacked on metal shelves stretching to the ceiling.

It's a far cry from traditional British farms that sprawl across acres of land. But for Kate Hofman, who co-founded GrowUp Urban Farms in 2013, producing food in this 6,000 square feet building in Beckton was not only clever and cost-effective, it was also a sustainable way to feed people in the city.

"Sometimes people have an idealised idea of how their food is being produced. In their head, they think that farmer Joe tends to his field with his hoe and grows his heads of lettuce," the 32-year-old told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"We're trying to show that you can have an industrialised food system ... but you can do it in a way that's sustainable," said Hofman, who launched Britain's first commercial aquaponic farm - a system that uses fish waste to fertilise crops, which in turn filtrate the water used to farm the fish.

Rich and poor countries alike are tasked with creating sustainable and inclusive cities by 2030 under global development goals agreed in 2015 - and sorting out how cities are fed is a crucial part of that challenge, experts say.

As two thirds of the global population are forecast to live in cities by 2050, compared with about half now, urban planners and policymakers are increasingly looking to agriculture in towns and cities as a solution to provide nutritious food.

CLOSER AND FRESHER

Land used for farming in cities and the areas around them equals the size of the European Union, a recent study said, while others estimate some 800 million urban farmers provide up to 20 percent of the world's food.

Unlike imported produce, food from city farms and gardens travels less, reducing production costs, waste and fuel use.

"Because (urban farms) are in proximity to an urban population, they can see for themselves where their food is coming from. This has a benefit in terms of education and reconnecting food with the consumer," said Makiko Taguchi, an urban agricultural expert at U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).

Having your food come from sources close by is also crucial if supply is disrupted by civil unrest or extreme weather in the rural areas that still supply most of the world's food.

Hofman said Britain's huge appetite for salad leaves and herbs, and the fact that most of it is imported, were key reasons why she decided to grow such plants in her warehouse.

"It makes sense to grow crops like these close to people so you can get it to consumers more quickly - they're fresher, they last longer in the fridge, they're less likely to go to waste," said Hofman, who sells 200,000 bags of salad each year to local food retailers and restaurants.

Hofman also sells 4 tonnes (4000 kg) of fish each year and believes the ethical farming of fish provides a sustainable source of protein, especially at a time when nearly 800 million people worldwide do not have enough to eat, according to FAO.

Though Hofman doesn't think urban farming could ever replace existing food production systems, she hopes to pioneer ways to scale up the output of urban farms.

"It's terrifying. There's so much unknown in the model that we're trying to do. There are so many challenges that we're trying to overcome," Hofman said.

"But it offers a really exciting opportunity for people to engage with the idea of farming as something that can be sustainable and high-tech."

(Reporting by Lin Taylor @linnytayls, Editing by Lyndsay Griffiths. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters that covers humanitarian issues, conflicts, global land and property rights, modern slavery and human trafficking, women's rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org to see more stories)

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No Soil, No Sunshine, No Problem! Meet the Farmer of the Future, Growing Real Food Indoors

No Soil, No Sunshine, No Problem! Meet the Farmer of the Future, Growing Real Food Indoors

Kate Good
July 26, 2017 

Okay, let’s be real – most of us have no clue what it takes to grow food … or much about farming, generally. But, despite our potential ignorance of the tenets of farming, most of us would say that in order to grow crops you need dirt, water, and sunshine. With these three things at the ready, all you have to do is add a few seeds, sit back and wait for tomatoes! Ah, how wonderfully simple (we guess…)!

Now, regardless of whether or not we know what it takes to grow food, there is one thing that the majority of people in the U.S. are wholly unaware of – where our food comes from. Chances are, you picture the above farming ideal when you think about the produce that ends up in your grocery store. In reality, most of our food is grown on a large-scale industrial farmwith the help of giant tractors and heavy machinery.

The bulk of the food grown in the U.S. is made up of things called “commodity crops,” such as corn, wheat, and soy. The majority of these crops are never fed to people but instead redirected to livestock, used in packaged foods, or relegated to the biofuel industry. In order to make these crops, which are grown en masse with little to no biodiversity, resistant to pests and disease, they’re frequently doused with herbicides, pesticides, and synthetic fertilizers. Once a field of monocultures has been farmed repeatedly, the soil becomes depleted of nutrients and therefore, the nutrition content and quality of the food goes down. Crops also become less resistant to bugs and infection, leading to the need for higher strength pesticides and herbicides – plus more fertilizer to make up for the depleted soil.

On top of this, produce that is grown in the U.S. travels an average of 1,500 miles to get from farm to grocery store – that’s like half the distance of the country. In order to make this possible, they have to be locked in refrigeration units and or frozen themselves, so when you finally get to the tomatoes in your grocery store – it more than often tastes like a potato with the consistency of a peach.

Adding insult to injury, our industrialized food system is failing to feed people – around one in nine people worldwide go to bed hungry every night and countless communities – many of which are in urban areas – are deemed “food deserts,” completely devoid of healthy, fresh, affordable foods.

So, if you’re like us, you’ve probably figured that mass producing food isn’t exactly the answer to feeding the growing population of Americans. In fact, our reckless industrial farming practices are rendering us less able to produce food, especially in the face of changing climate conditions.

But, since we need dirt, water, and sunshine to grow food … seems like we’re pretty set in our ways. Right? Well, Rob Laing, farmer of the future and CEO of Farm.One might beg to differ.

In a recent episode of the #EatForThePlanet with Nil Zacharias podcast, Rob explains how he is pioneering the world of hydroponics, a system of growing plants without many of the traditional inputs. Basically, using just a finely tuned solution of water, Farm.One can grow crops without soil or even sunlight. In fact, Farm.One is a unique indoor farm in downtown Manhattan, which uses hydroponics to reduce water use by around 95 percent, and advanced climate control technology to grow a wide variety of plants year-round without pesticides, pollution, soil contamination, herbicides, manure or waiting in cold storage.

His specialty is microgreens and specialty herbs, which he grows on demand for some of New York City’s top rated chefs, but he sees the future of farming as going far beyond this.

Listen in to hear how Rob thinks technology can transform the food system and help to create a more sustainable, healthy world!

Image source: Farm.One

You can listen to the full episode on the following platforms: iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher

If you like this episode, be sure to subscribe to the #EatForThePlanet with Nil Zacharias podcast for new episodes with food industry leaders, health, and sustainability experts, as well as entrepreneurs and creative minds who are redefining the future of food.

Grow Your Salad in Your Closet With The GrowChef Hydroponic Garden

Grow Your Salad in Your Closet With The GrowChef Hydroponic Garden

By Lulu Chang — Posted on July 25, 2017 12:20 pm

WHY IT MATTERS TO YOU

Who needs a supermarket when you have GrowChef? This indoor hydroponic garden will let you make salad more often.

The nearest farmer’s market? Your kitchen. Thanks to the GrowChef, you can enjoy the goodness of fresh farm produce, even in the midst of an urban jungle. Heralded as the “ultimate hydroponic food generator,” the GrowChefis a small indoor garden that promises to let you harvest a full pot of greens every day. Because why pay $15 for a salad when you can just make your own fresher version?

Designed to live just about anywhere in your home, no matter how cramped your space may be, the GrowChef can be hung on a wall, set on a floor or a window sill, or even hidden away in a closet. Because of its three-color LED illumination, this little garden creates enough light on its own so you don’t have to worry about placing it in a sunny spot. And while it measures just 24 inches long, 30 inches tall, and 12 inches wide, it claims to produce the same harvest as a three-meter long garden bed.

Of course, because this is a 21st-century invention, the GrowChef comes with an app that allows you to monitor the progress of your plants. And given that you can grow up to 51 plants at once, that’s a lot of monitoring. Luckily, you don’t have to worry about potting any of these plants, as there’s no soil involved. There’s just nutrient solution and vermiculite, the former of which you replenish once a month.

The three tiers of the GrowChef correspond with three stages of growth for your plants. When you’ve just slid new pods into their slots, they go to the very top, where they’ll receive the most light. As they begin to grow, they can be moved to the second tier, where they can continue to develop. And finally, when they’re almost ready for harvest, you can move them to the bottom tier, which really gives the plants room to blossom.

“I’m delighted to bring people a new original opportunity to have fresh herbs on your plate every day,” said founder Viktor Pjatnitski of the hydroponic garden. “GrowChef helps you to eat healthier, [and] reduce your shopping list and expenses. After two and a half years of experiments, we’ve figured out how to perfect the hydroponic farm to constantly provide you with ready-to-eat plants.”

You can pre-order the GrowChef now from Kickstarter for $210, with an estimated shipment date of March 2018.

Indigenous Hydroponics System A Boon For Organic Farming

Agrico managing director Nasser Ahmed al-Khalaf at his organic hydroponics farm in Al Khor. PICTURE: Joey Aguilar

Indigenous Hydroponics System A Boon For Organic Farming

July 25 2017 10:15 PM  |  QATAR  |  Joey Aguilar

A local farm in Qatar has developed a highly sophisticated hydroponics system capable of producing various types of organic vegetables and fruits in a bid to help the country achieve food security, it is learnt.

Organic eggplants at the 120,000sqm hydroponics farm in Al Khor

Speaking to Gulf Times, Agrico managing director Nasser Ahmed al-Khalaf said they made a lot of modifications in hydroponics farming to produce an all-organic fresh produce to meet the growing demand in Qatar.
Agrico, a private local Qatari agricultural development company established in 2011 with the aim of helping Qatar achieve food security, operates a 120,000sqm (12 hectare) organic farm in Al Khor. Its first production was in May 2012.
“The Asians, European or Western people have not developed a system that would be suitable for this area, especially for Qatar,” he stressed. “What we did is to develop our own system which is suitable for our environment.”

The local farm owner noted that vegetable-exporting countries in Asia, Europe, and America have the technology and knowhow in their region but inapplicable in the Gulf.

Al-Khalaf explained that regions with winter seasons such as Europe, especially those in the northern part, only have heating systems. 
But in Qatar, he said they developed a cooling system that can reduce the temperature inside the greenhouse down to 16 degrees, depending on the variety of vegetables and fruits.
Some varieties need 16, 18 or 20 degrees, during a certain time of the day, for the plant to give the right texture, size, and taste, among others.

“Our vegetables they can last for a month on shelf without changing,” he said, adding that they can produce an average of 6 tonnes daily during the summer, which is 30% less compared to their production in the winter. The farm plans to produce more in the near future.
With this technology, he said Qatar has become one of the largest producers of organic vegetables in the world using what he described as a very promising and one-of-its-kind hydroponics technology.

Agrico Organic Farm in Al Khor produces 14 types of tomatoes. 

“As long as you are providing the right temperature, right humidity, right amount of light (sun radiation), right fertiliser, and right amount of water, then you can grow anything,” al-Khalaf added. “I guarantee that all types of vegetables can be grown, I have tried this myself and we have been successful on this.”

Agrico has started growing five types of fruits, including papaya and lemon (experimental stage). It expects the plants to bear fruits in a year or two.
As Agrico products continue to supply more than 150 supermarkets and small outlets in Qatar, he said “there will be a lot of surprises soon.”

“We are going to produce root crops, fresh leaf and herbs such as coriander, parsley, green onion, basil, and mint, among others,” he said, adding that producing iceberg lettuce and other types, carrots, potatoes, and white onion, in the next few months.

While Qatar currently imports various types of fresh vegetable and fruits from European, Asian, and American countries, he expressed confidence that the country will soon achieve self-sufficiency. 
He noted that even before the economic blockade imposed by the Saudi-led group on June 5, Qatar already has plans to import fresh produce in the future.

System suitable for livestock, poultry, fish farming

Apart from vegetables and fruits, local farm owner Nasser Ahmed al-Khalaf said the cooling system they developed is also suitable for livestock, poultry and fish farming.

“It is an integrated system, we take advantage of the vegetable greenhouses and in between we cool an empty wasted area using the cold air that comes out from the greenhouse,” he added.
Al-Khalaf explained that they harness this cold air, which comes out of the greenhouse, for testing an area of his farm for growing fruits. This can bring down the temperature from 45 degrees, for example, to 27 degrees in an open field.

The system, from temperature, humidity to sun radiation and water irrigation, has to be monitored round-the-clock seven days a week, according to the farm owner. 
“Even if I am abroad I get a warning from my mobile phone if any abnormality happens,” he noted.

Greenhouses In The Arctic Will Reduce Food Insecurity In Canada's North

Greenhouses In The Arctic Will Reduce Food Insecurity In Canada's North

• SAMAR WARSI

Growing North’s Greenhouse in Naujaat, Nunavut. Image: Growing North

Jul 26 2017, 10:41am

Greenhouses grow food at a fraction of what it would normally cost.

In Nunavut, in Canada's Arctic, shoppers pay $12.44 for for a kilogram of celery, almost four times more than the $3.38 national average, and $6.90 for a kilogram of potatoes. It's just one of many examples of food inaccessibility in the region, which severely affects 18.5 percent of Nunavut households, a problem the government is addressing by investing $13.8 million per year to support isolated Northern communities.

To address this problem, not-for-profit Growing North built a greenhouse in the Inuit hamlet of Naujaat in September 2015 to increase accessibility to fresh food.

The greenhouse produced 13,250 lbs of food last year for the local community of 1,082 people, an amount that "could feed just over 50 percent of the Naujaat population Health Canada's daily recommended amount of produce," explained Stefany Nieto, co-founder of Growing North. With the success of the Naujaat greenhouse, the organization is expanding to Arviat, Nunavut's third-largest community, in August.

"It is completely unacceptable that many northern and Indigenous families cannot afford to put healthy food on the table," the Office of the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada told Motherboard in an email. In an effort to "support families and hunters - and improve access to country foods," in 2016, the Canadian government invested an additional $64.5 million over five years, and $13.8 million per year ongoing, and have now expanded full subsidies to an additional 37 isolated northern communities. Investments in local greenhouses could help grow fresh food and make it more accessible.

Bright Agrotech's ZipFarm System. Image: Bright Agrotech

Growing North is exploring alternative and sustainable ways of feeding Canada's north by using some of the latest in vertical farming techniques.

What was a once far-fetched idea is now a sustainable option for providing food to a growing population. Vertical farming allows farmers to have a 365-day season without having to use pesticides or worry about traditional farming concerns like sunlight, rain, or drought.

Over the last ten years, a number of companies have popped up around the world using old warehouses and other unconventional urban spaces to grow fresh produce. Many of these farms operate in densely populated places like China, Japan, Belgium, and the United States. The largest floor-to-ceiling farm is currently in New Jersey at nearly 70,000 square feet. And the phenomenon is only going to get bigger. By some estimates, the vertical farming industry is projected to be worth USD $13 billion by 2024.

Bright Agrotech, a Wyoming startup, allows small urban and suburban farmers to grow crops through its vertical hydroponic farming systems. Hydroponic refers to soilless growing, in which the plants are grown using only nutrient-rich water. The water flows across the root structure and is taken up by the plants. Bright Agrotech's systems, which focus on greens and herbs is being used in Growing North's Naujaat greenhouse.

"Nunavut has the highest rate of food insecurity in Canada," Nieto told Motherboard in an interview. The organization estimates the price reductions on fresh produce grown in their greenhouses to be anywhere from 50 to 70 percent, depending on whether the produce is sold to local grocers or sold directly to consumers through places like the farmer's market.

"You can face food insecurity even living in a city like downtown Toronto if there is not a grocery store for miles around," explained Ben Canning, co-founder of Growing North.

Food inaccessibility persists in northern Canada, in large part, due to the cost of getting food to the region. Fresh food has to be flown in from the south. Each community faces its own challenges. Some are only accessible by road and not by air, which adds time and money. "Whether it's food or construction goods that need to shipped in, the farther north you go, the longer the supply chain gets and the more it costs. Even a lot of our food consumed in Toronto is shipped in. To get to the North, they spend an extra two weeks in cargo freights, craters, and planes," said Canning.

Growing North's current greenhouse is 75 percent hydroponic and 25 percent soil-based agriculture. The hydroponic system can grow any herb as well as greens like lettuce, kale, collard greens and swish chards. The agricultural side grows vegetables like radishes, potatoes, and carrots.

But the cost to construct these systems is extremely high—much higher than soil-based farming. For example, the 1300-square-foot dome shaped greenhouse in Naujaat cost Growing North about $100,000. For poor communities, especially in developing countries, vertical farming can be unaffordable. In addition to the initial costs, there are other ongoing expenses related to paying tech-savvy workers needed to run the farms. Currently, Growing North is working on lowering that cost through in-house research and development which would make project implementation in smaller communities with limited access to funds, possible.

Still, local greenhouses may be a viable answer to the problem of food accessibility in the north.

Urban Farming 2.0: From Plow Beams to Leafy Green Machines

Urban Farming 2.0: From Plow Beams to Leafy Green Machines

SEARCH FOR SOLUTIONS 

A new generation of urban farmers is leaving dirt behind and turning shipping containers into tech-driven vertical farms.

Shane Witters Hicks/Staff

Shane Witters Hicks  |  Staff

JULY 26, 2017  BOSTON—Shawn Cooney swings open the door of 320-square-foot industrial shipping container to reveal a futuristic setting: hundreds of edible plants growing in vertical columns, fed by the energy from strings of neon red and blue LED lights. Nutrient-infused water cascades from ceiling spigots down through artificial root systems in the growing towers. The temperature inside feels like a comfortable spring day – about 70 degrees F., with a touch of humidity. There isn’t a speck of dirt anywhere.

Welcome to the new urban farm.

This shipping container is one of four that comprise Corner Stalk Farm run by Mr. Cooney and his wife in the heart of Boston. Once the cargo holds for exhaust-spewing 18-wheelers, these discarded freight vessels have been transformed into units known as Leafy Green Machines outfitted with state-of-the-art growing technology by a company called Freight Farms. Now they help farmers turn out crops of lettuce and herbs at a rapid pace.

In the past, urban farmers have eked a living from food grown in greenhouses, reclaimed brownfields, vacant lots, or rooftop farms. But with these new kinds of urban crops – grown using what’s known as controlled-environment agriculture, or CEA – farmers leverage technology to break free from the seasonal and climatic limitations that bind traditional crops. As a result, these farmers enjoy longer growing seasons and more plentiful harvests – a hopeful promise for urban communities looking to boost access to fresh produce.

“To think that you don’t have to worry about whether it’s going to rain, or whether the sun is too bright because you flick a switch and you know how much light you have, you know how much water is being supplied ... that would take a lot of the stress out of agriculture,” says Joel Gruver, associate professor and director of Western Illinois University's research and demonstration farm.

Getting fresh food into urban centers has proved to be a persistent and growing problem. By 2050, 66 percent of the world’s more than 9 billion people will live in cities, predicts the United Nations. While some cities offer farmers’ markets and have worked to open more grocery stores in so-called food deserts, these farmer-entrepreneurs are searching for solutions that will not only grow fresh food within city limits but also mitigate some of the environmental effects of traditional farming.

“People want real food. And increasingly people live in the city. So there has been – unsurprisingly – a lot of innovation and investment in urban farming in the last handful of years,” says Tobias Peggs, co-founder and chief executive officer of Square Roots Urban Growers in Brooklyn, N.Y. Upon launching, the company received more than 500 applicants for 10 farmer slots from those wanting to take up the challenge.

Easing An Environmental Burden

Small-scale sustainable farming and organic practices have long sought to lessen the environmental impacts of monocropping and pesticide reliance, but CEA has a significant advantage: the ability to scale up without significantly increasing its ecological footprint. The vertical farming market is expected to quadruple from its $1.5 billion market value in 2016 to $6.4 billion in 2023, according to a recent report by Allied Market Research.

In San Francisco, agrotech company Plenty boasts a 51,000-square-foot warehouse that leverages machine learning to optimize plant growth.

Nate Storey, Plenty’s co-founder and chief science officer, says the environmental benefits gained by fusing technology and food production make large-scale CEA a no-brainer.

“We have no runoff, we have no erosion, we have few, if any, pests, we don’t need to use many of the pesticides, we don’t have any soil to sterilize, we don’t have any intensive irrigation, we use a fraction of the water,” he explains. “There are just not a whole lot of reasons not to do this.”

Unlike other large-scale food producers who must optimize their goods for long truck rides and shelf lives, indoor growers located closer to customers can instead prioritize food quality, such as flavor and “mouth feel,” as Dr. Storey puts it.

For independent CEA farmers, starting up a controlled environment for indoor growing doesn’t come cheap. A Freight Farms unit costs $85,000 and the annual operating costs range between $8,000 and $16,500. But Cooney of Corner Stalk Farm, who bases the size of his crop on customer demand, explains that similarly sized outdoor farms are pressured to overproduce during short growing seasons.

“Their losses are much higher. So that’s why it comes out to be about the same,” he says. Moreover, other farms may spend a fortune on transportation and land. Taking up about 1/34th of an acre, Cooney’s lettuce farm can have a marketable yield that’s about the equivalent of 8 acres of traditional farmland yield, according to Freight Farms. And the indoor environment allows for a continual harvest.

But without the government subsidies that larger farms receive, greens grown within shipping containers will inevitably cost more than most supermarket greens.

“A bag of our Square Roots greens costs about as much as a Starbucks [coffee],” admits Mr. Peggs. He is quick to add that the enhanced sense of community fostered through farmer-customer relationships makes the price worthwhile.

“Customers come to the farm and hangout – we have a big window on the farm, so everyone can see what’s going on. It’s all about total transparency in the food-supply chain,” Peggs says.

But is High-Tech Food ‘Natural’?

The benefits of CEA may be tantalizing, but Dr. Gruver of Western Illinois University foresees potential difficulties for the burgeoning industry. Controlled-environment agriculture depends upon those who can operate and fix the technology. In other words, finding someone who can troubleshoot a malfunctioning LED system may prove more difficult than finding someone who can repair a tractor, for example.

And while local food and connections to the farmers who grow it have proven to be profitable in urban markets, not everyone embraces the idea of food grown exclusively in an artificial environment.

“I think with any high-tech approach, there is a general concern that it’s not natural,” says Gruver. “There’s more potential for unforeseen, unintended consequences.”

Urban tech growers are well aware of this perception.

“We’re sensitive to that,” responds Storey of Plenty. “We’re really focused on how do we show people that this new growing environment is something that is important for our food supply.”

Before indoor farmers can dominate the urban food arena, however, they’ll need to grow more than lettuce and herbs. The larger the plant, the more energy it costs to grow it, and this energy is currently expensive.

But based on the rapid pace of innovation and technology, Peggs predicts large, affordable produce may not be far off. He thinks his Square Roots entrepreneurs will figure out how to grow sustainable strawberries within 18 months.

“Imagine a farmer traipsing through 2 feet of snow to deliver you a box of freshly harvested, locally grown strawberries in the middle of a New York winter,” he says. “In the near future everyone will have local food and they will know your farmer.”

How Urban Agriculture Swept Through Greater Cleveland

How Urban Agriculture Swept Through Greater Cleveland

Posted on July 17, 2017 at 7:00 AM  |  By Patrick Cooley, cleveland.com  |  pcooley@cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Kinsman Farm, marked by crop-filled fields and surrounded by tall trees and grass filled lots, would seem at home in a rural Ohio county.

But the pasture of leafy greens sits in the heart of Cleveland, Ohio's second most populous city.

And Kinsman Farm isn't the only field of fruits and vegetables within Cleveland's city limits. It's part of a trend that picked up steam in recent years: urban farming. That practice began 25 to 30 years ago, said Kareem Usher, an assistant professor of city and regional planning at the Ohio State University. But a push by restaurateurs for local ingredients and the desire of city officials to fill empty and unused lots helped fuel the rise of urban agriculture in recent years.

The city leases land to Kinsman Farm, which in turn leases quarter acre plots to local farmers looking to advance from gardening or backyard farming to full-scale urban farming.

"I've been farming on a plot in North Royalton for the past two and a half years and I just moved (to Kinsman Farm) this season," said farmer Halle Kirsch. She plans to grow lettuce, microgreens and kale and manages a beehive that produces honey.

The Kinsman Farm on Cleveland's East Side. Halle Kirsch shows off the farm's beehive and crops.

Kirsch said her time in North Royalton was her first foray into urban agriculture. Fellow farmer David Horvath, who also has a plot at Kinsman Farm, said he had an urban garden before he decided to grow crops for sale.

"I'm using Kinsman as an opportunity to scale up and learn as I go," Horvath said.

He grows tomatoes, peppers, herbs and mouse melons (a small cucumber) on his plot in Kinsman.

Both Kirsch and Horvath said they hope to sell their crops to Cleveland area restaurants.

"This past fall I went to a variety of restaurants (from small-scale family owned restaurants to trendy, upscale restaurants) and gave them samples and they were receptive," Kirsch said. "They were so happy to have local, fresh produce. The demand is way bigger than the push that's happening right now."

Urban farms are taking up root in formerly vacant lots all over the East Side, encouraged by local laws intended to convert unused land into green space.

Most are much smaller than Kinsman Farm and Rid-All, containing a single hoop house or a small field (Bay Branch Farm, a Lakewood farm run by a Cleveland couple, is a half acre).

Erich Hooper is one Northeast Ohio's first urban farmers. He grows fruits and vegetables in his backyard and sells food (mostly vegan and vegetarian) at festivals. He took up the pastime in 1994 and now proudly refers to his farm -- which he calls Hooper Farm -- as the oldest urban farm in the city of Cleveland.

Hooper grows Swiss chard in a small greenhouse. Further down the gentle slope of the hill that his house sits on, he keeps a pasture surrounded by a four-foot-high fence that's filled with asparagus, squash, beets and other assorted fruits and vegetables.

An elaborate system of barrels captures rainwater.

"We collect about 1,000 gallons of water a summer," Hooper said. "It saves us on water costs."

A strategically placed set of traps capture animals like groundhogs that burrow under the garden and endanger his crops.

Hooper sells much of his crops to local restaurants, a common theme among urban farmers. Shortly before speaking with a cleveland.com reporter on a recent Wednesday, he had just sold Fahrenheit -- an Ohio City restaurant -- a shipment of ghost peppers.

What follows is a look at urban farms, and how and why they have proliferated.

You can read about specific urban farms in Greater Cleveland here.

How many urban farms are there in Greater Cleveland?

It is difficult to come up with an exact number because there's no commonly accepted definition of an urban farm that separates it from an urban garden. But by some estimates, Cleveland is the second largest urban farming city in the United States.

Justin Husher, a horticulture specialist for the Cuyahoga County Soil and Water Conservation District, said the county has between 30 and 40 urban farmers.

Do they benefit the community?

By putting empty lots to use and creating jobs in impoverished neighborhoods, urban farms appear to provide many benefits to the communities they inhabit.

"It's putting that land to some use, particularly in cities that are shrinking," said Usher, the assistant professor at the Ohio State. "And I think it can build community pride and social capital."

Cleveland has more than 14,000 parcels of vacant land, and although it will likely experience population growth, said Michael Cosgrove, director of community development for the city of Cleveland, the city probably won't grow enough to fill all of its empty space.

Although they are still few and far between, urban farms could help make up some of the difference.

But experts said more research is necessary to determine whether or not urban agriculture helps a community in other ways.

While urban farmers tout the advantages of their trade, the practice hasn't been scrutinized enough to conclusively say how it impacts a neighborhood, said Zoe Plakias, an assistant professor of agriculture at the Ohio State University.

"Urban ag is very exciting and promising, and we've seen a lot of positive impacts," she said. But "there's definitely a need for more research to better understand" those impacts.

For example: an urban farm can absorb carbon and reduce the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. However it's unclear if urban farms absorbs carbon better than urban forests.

And as urban farms become more prevalent, they may begin to clash with traditional farms, Usher said.

"What happens to food producers who exist outside of the city?" he asked. "When we help local growers, are we going to be competing with family-owned farms? There's a long of entanglement. It can work well, but we don't have a sustainable model as of yet."

A 2016 report from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future found that urban farming and urban gardens can raise property values, but said that higher property rates can push poor people out of their neighborhoods. Farms create jobs in impoverished areas, the report said, but few of the jobs pay a living wage.

Indeed, Cleveland Area urban farmers interviewed for this story said they pay workers between minimum wage and $10 an hour. Their goal, they said, isn't solving joblessness, but giving young people valuable experience.

"This year I'm expecting 20 kids," Ka La Healing Garden Founder and CEO Tanya Holmes said. "I teach them how to do landscaping and urban farming."

In 2015 "I had 32 kids and only two of them knew how to cut grass," Holmes said.

But she said the most important lesson she teaches is community stewardship.

"We generally have three to four people here," said Mansfield Frazier, executive director of Neighborhood Solutions, which manages Chateau Hough in the rugged and Hough neighborhood on Cleveland's East Side.

His farm -- which grows grapes used to make wine -- was built by workers from Oriana House, which provides rehabilitation for alcoholics and drug addicts. But Frazier said he mostly hires teenagers now.

How do they get started?

Cleveland's city government, along with state and federal agencies, offer financial help to aspiring urban farmers. Available assistance includes grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Ohio State University Extension Office and the National Resources Conservation Service.

The NRCS, for example, invested in more than 80 hoop houses throughout Cuyahoga County in 2011 and 2012, said Husher, the horticulture specialist.

Holmes, of the Ka La Healing Garden, secured loans from Farm Credit of Mid America -- with help from Cleveland Congresswoman Marcia Fudge -- to repair the garden's gate and feed her workers.

Legal changes made the city more amenable to urban agriculture in the 2000s, when zoning laws changed to accommodate hoop houses and other buildings urban farmers rely on.

Cleveland has programs for both urban farmers looking to sell their crops for profit and community gardeners who grow mostly for themselves.

"Community gardens are, at most, a few parcels large," said Cosgrove, the Cleveland community development director. "They're usually in the sort of area that is accessible to the community. They're small scale, more built around the neighborhood.

The city leases land to farmers -- and occasionally sells them plots at a hefty discount. Cleveland also partners with Cuyahoga County's Ohio State University Extension office to fund community gardens through a Summer Sprout program, which provides grants that extension officials use to train gardeners and provide them with seeds, starter plants and services like soil tilling.

Eric and Annabelle Stoffer of Bay Branch Farm in Lakewood said they took a master gardener training program through the OSU extension.

In 2008, Cleveland amended its Neighborhood Retail Assistance Program to create the Gardening for Greenbacks program, which provides $3,000 grants to farmers who pledge to stay in urban agriculture for at least two years and sell their crops for profit.

"Some of them sell at local farm stands in neighborhoods that could be a food desert," said Kevin Kevin Schmotzer, executive for small business development for the Cleveland Department of Economic Development.

Others sell to local restaurants, he said.

In 2012, Cleveland got the attention of CoBank, which is part of the U.S. Farm Credit system, which helped Cleveland increase the value of its grants to $5,000. The city awarded $40,000 to eight community farms in 2015 and 2016.

Technical help is also available. Husher's duties include connecting farmers with the services they require.

"Sometimes people are really good growers but they need an insurance agent," he said. "Other times it's people trying to build a hoop house and they have really bad soil and they need to bring it up to speed."

What are the challenges?

Starting an urban farm requires an upfront investment that can reach tens of thousands of dollars. Eric Stoffer of Bay Branch Farm said he and his wife spent thousands on equipment alone

And while most urban farms are self-sustaining, many don't provide their operators with a living wage. Most urban farmers have a job off the farm. Eric Stoffer tends to his farm full time, but his wife still works part-time.

And farmers taking up root in a city have to deal with limited space and soil that is not always conducive to agriculture.

"One of the webpages I'm developing is literally just pictures of rocks to show what farmers have to contend with in terms of soil quality," said Husher, the horticulture specialist. Much of Cleveland's vacant land was once industrial, making its tainted soil of little interest to farmers, Cosgrove said.

Once they've established their farm, he said, some struggle to find places to sell their crops.

Farmers who work on the Kinsman Farm said they've spoken to local restaurateurs who are eager to use locally grown fruits and vegetables in their kitchens. But Husher said Cleveland's lack of a central farmer's market can hinder an urban farmer's ability to sell their crops to everyday customers.

Cities like Portland, Oregon and Ithaca, New York have large, central farmer's markets, whereas Cleveland and its suburbs have many small ones, which Husher said dilutes the customer base.

"Farmer's market sales are down across the board," he said. "There are just too many."

Even as restaurants increasingly seek out local fruits and vegetables, smaller farmers say they must with large-scale farms that can provide larger volumes of food. Eric Stoffer said only a small portion of his crops are sold to restaurants.

"There are restaurants that want to do local, but I've worked in the food-service business, and I understand you have a menu" and you can't take items off of it because suppliers aren't able to provide certain ingredients that week, he said.

What are they growing?

Most urban farmers grow specialty crops like tomatoes, kale, chard, beets and peppers.

Limited space means that most urban farmers can rule out the volume crops -- such as corn and soybeans -- that rural farmers depend on. 

The Hough Chateau grows grapes for wine and the Rid-All Green Partnership has, among other things, peach trees and raspberry bushes.

Tanya Holmes of the Ka La Healing Garden sold vegetables at farmer's markets before upgrading to a full scale urban farm complete with a greenhouse on Cleveland's East Side in 2010.

Her garden grows tomatoes, collard greens, squash, peppers, zucchini, cantaloupe, cucumbers, and Swiss chard.

Eric Stoffer of the Bay Branch farm in Lakewood said he grows leafy greens and root vegetables, which he sells at farmers markets and to local restaurants, most notably the Root Cafe on Lakewood's Detroit Avenue.

"That's our main customer," Stoffer said. "But we're still looking for other relationships."

What does the future hold?

Husher said urban agriculture is entering it's "2.0" phase. Farms are starting to mature and flourish, rather than simply subsist, and he said he hopes to see new and exciting crops grown here in Cleveland in the coming years.

Usher, the Ohio State University professor, said he's visited urban farms in cities as far away as Portland, and believes the industry is here to stay.

"People do this because they believe in something," he said. "They believe in doing the work."

Aquaponics Operation Tests Cayman’s Potential

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Aquaponics Operation Tests Cayman’s Potential

Canadian company aims to fulfill Cayman’s leafy vegetable demand

By Kayla Young  |  July 25, 2017   

While Cayman’s natural barriers may inhibit its agricultural potential, a Canadian farming operation is betting on transforming the islands into a potential aquaponics site.

Alberta-based NutraPonics is evaluating plans to set up a 6,000-square-meter (64,580-square-foot) growing bed in Grand Cayman that director Tim Goltz anticipates will satisfy 80 percent of the local leafy greens market.

“We can blow the top off it and really surprise people. We can make Cayman a global leader,” Mr. Goltz said.

“Indoor vertical farming in and of itself is probably one of the hottest investment spaces in the world right now,” Mr. Goltz said.

The company’s aquaponics systems operate in a fully enclosed, high-density growing environment. Tilapia kept in tanks produce byproducts that are then filtered to create nitrate-rich water. These nutrients are filtered to the vertical growing area, where plants sit under LED lighting.

Pesticides unnecessary

The enclosed nature of the growing method eliminates the need for fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals.

The setup aims to minimize operating costs and maximize food production. Mr. Goltz estimates a 6,000-square-meter growing bed would produce enough leafy greens to feed 60,000 people.

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Vertical stacks allow the NutraPonics system to grow more food in less space.

He noted that shoppers in Cayman depend on high-cost imports routed from farms in North and Central America. While Cayman’s grocers and restaurants already receive a limited supply of local produce, including some grown using hydroponics, Mr. Goltz hopes NutraPonics will be able to supplement supply and offer an alternative to imports.

The perishable leafy greens are particularly sensitive to long journeys, which creates an extra headache for supermarkets, Mr. Goltz said. Temperature fluctuations, delays on the tarmac and other disruptions can all compromise shelf life.

“Grocers have a real logistical and structural problem unless someone can figure out how to grow the volume they require,” Mr. Goltz said.

After meeting with grocers in November, Mr. Goltz said aquaponics could solve many of their supply-chain problems. He contends vertical, indoor farming could provide a local solution.

He expects the operation would require around 40 local employees.

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Vertical stacks allow the NutraPonics system to grow more food in less space.

With two other operations under way in Saskatoon and White Horse, Canada, NutraPonics hopes to prove its model can operate under the most hostile growing environments. Once a Cayman facility takes off, Mr. Goltz envisions moving beyond leafy greens to a range of hothouse vegetables, including strawberries, tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers and cucumbers.

“Our ultimate goal is to become kings of the strawberry empire in the Caribbean,” Mr. Goltz said.

Investment interest

While it has been difficult to attract international partners to the company’s Edmonton facility, Mr. Goltz said entrepreneurs in Singapore, Dubai and Oman have already shown interest in Cayman’s potential. He expects the islands’ natural beauty and tax neutrality will be a draw for investors.

NutraPonics’ operations in Cayman would fall under two branches, the vertical aquaponics facility, and a separate corporation for global development.

In the long term, Mr. Goltz hopes to turn the Cayman facility into a showcase for sustainable agriculture, where tourists and schoolchildren can learn about farming.

The company is evaluating a West Bay property owned by the National Trust for the project but has not finalized a lease on the land.

Mr. Goltz said his team is in the fundraising stage and meeting with potential partners.

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Tanks of tilapia produce byproducts that then nourish plants in the growing house.

This Vertical Farm Wants To Be An Agriculture Company, Not A Tech Company

• 07.12.17 | Updated: 07-26-17

This Vertical Farm Wants To Be An Agriculture Company, Not A Tech Company

The FreshBox model centers around shipping containers. [Photos: courtesy FreshBox Farms]

• FreshBox Farms is going big by focusing on harvests, not proprietary growing systems.

BY EILLIE ANZILOTTI

As the indoor farming industry has taken off in the last several years–over the next 10 years, indoor farming is expected to account for 50% of leafy green production, and grow to a $42 billion industry–it’s become apparent that it’s as much about technology as it is about agriculture. Bowery, a new startup operating out of an old warehouse building in Kearney, New Jersey, developed a sensor-based proprietary technology, called BoweryOS, specifically to support the venture by determining necessary nutrient levels, as well as when crops are ready for harvesting. And in South San Francisco, Plenty is growing produce via a tech-supported vertical farming model that has already received $26 million from tech investors like Bezos Expeditions and Innovation Endeavors.

For FreshBox Farms, an indoor farm operational since 2015 at an old factory site in Millis, Massachusetts, around 30 miles outside of Boston, the technology is important–it is, after all, what enables the greens to grow–but it’s not sacred. “We’re equipment agnostic,” Sonia Lo, the CEO of Crop One Holdings, FreshBox’s parent company, tells Fast Company. “There are people out there doing great work to perfect lights, trays, control systems, nutrient dosing systems–we focus on growing as much as possible.” This almost brusque approach, Lo says, has enabled FreshBox Farms to become one of just two commercial indoor farming ventures in the U.S. that is gross-margin positive. The other is the Newark, New Jersey-based AeroFarms, which grows up to 2 million pounds of produce per year.

Earlier this year, Matt Barnard, CEO of Plenty, told Fast Company that “small-scale growing in 2017 is not a profitable enterprise.” He was referring to the fact that indoor farming startups, which, since the boom began within the last five years, have a track record of failure. FarmedHere, a Chicago-based venture, intended to expand nationally but instead went bankrupt earlier this year, citing the difficulty of maintaining financial equilibrium. PodPonics and LocalGarden, ventures based respectively in Atlanta and Vancouver, similarly failed; the business tensions derived from the high cost of technology, and the relatively small return on investment from output and distribution. Given the hefty price tag of developing proprietary growing technologies, not to mention renting pricey urban land, underwhelming harvests (which are common among startups still tinkering with their growing systems) can be financially devastating.

But with the cost of technology (for instance, LED lights, sensor technology, and smartphones, all of which are necessary for indoor farming) falling, and interest in local produce continuing to increase, Lo believes FreshBox Farms has hit on a sweet spot with its growing strategy. The company spends less money growing more product than any other indoor farm in the country, and Lo attributes that to FreshBox’s approach to technology, and easily scalable farm setup.

The FreshBox model centers around shipping containers (hence the name of the farm). At the farm in Massachusetts, which currently serves 37 supermarkets in the Boston region, each of FreshBox’s 12 commercial products, whether it be kale, arugula, or chard, is grown with hydroponics in its own shipping container; the farm currently houses 15, along with one “Mod”–a modular unit equivalent to nine containers. Conditions inside each container are optimized for each product, but the network as a whole is governed and monitored by the same technology system. By growing crops in separate containers, Lo says, FreshBox can focus on optimizing yield for each product.

The modular system, Lo says, is really what has enabled FreshBox to become profitable just 23 months after launching two years ago. “Because we’re modular, we’re not waiting for a whole farm to be built out to create revenue,” Lo says. “Once we have a box or two on the ground, we’re growing.” FreshBox can have a farm up and running, and selling, within 12 weeks.

The current FreshBox Farm configuration in Massachusetts produces a quarter ton of produce per day, but Lo emphasizes that as the company continues to iterate on the technology it uses and the size of the containers themselves, that number will likely increase. Currently, FreshBox is growing the equivalent of as much as 19 acres of produce in 320 square feet; as FreshBox verticalizes further, that efficiency will grow. “Real estate is a square-foot venture,” Lo says, “But we’re dealing in cubic feet.” Meaning that once FreshBox secures a plot of land on which to operate, they can continue stacking shipping containers higher and higher, and maximizing output. The containers on the farm are not yet stacked, but that’s a next step, Lo says.

Even as other indoor farming companies struggle with expansion, Crop One Holdings has locked in nine new locations for the next generation of FreshBox Farms. The majority will be in the northeast, and, like the Millis farm, located outside the urban center to cut down on property rental costs. And the focus, Lo says, will remain on productivity and profit–not necessarily for profits sake, but to ensure that fresh produce can become more available. “There are a ton of urban farmers out there who are talking about how they’re on the cutting edge of technology and measuring 20,000 data points,” Lo says. “But we’ve never fallen in love with the science. We’re all about: What is the yield? Are we actually growing things? Are we selling every leaf?”

Over the next five years, FreshBox is aiming to reach 25 farms across the U.S., each of which will produce between one and three tons of produce per day. The company will continue to iterate and switch out technology as it grows, and as more efficient systems become available. “I don’t think you should be in this industry unless you’re planning to be big,” Lo says.

Startup Launches GrowChef – The Ultimate Hydroponic Food Generator

Startup Launches GrowChef – The Ultimate Hydroponic Food Generator

 An optimized garden solution at home – harvest delicious fresh greens every single day!

Tallinn, Estonia July 23, 2017 - Now, it’s possible to grow nutritious, tasty and fresh food at home faster and easier than ever, thanks to GrowChef, an easy-to-use hydroponic garden, specially designed to let users harvest one pot of greens per day. GrowChef is designed to be used wherever it best suits its user, be it on a wall, on the floor, on a window sill, or in a closet. With its three-color LED illumination, GrowChef produces enough light on its own so there’s no need for additional daylight. Requiring minimal space, it produces the same harvest as a 3 meter long garden bed. Easy to operate, app-supported, and designed to save users time and money, the GrowChef is the optimal growing solution for anyone who wants to successfully grow greens at home. 

GrowChef has 51 pot slots, and can provide users with one pot of greens daily. GrowChef doesn’t have any soil, only nutrient solution and vermiculite, allowing for a twice as fast maturation rate. Once a month a nutrient solution is poured into the slot at the bottom level of the device, and it’s then pumped to fill all three levels automatically every 20 minutes. It then flows back to the lowest level and gets aerated by a non-pressure system, specially developed by GrowChef. The lighting works by a timer which automatically turns the lights on in the morning and off in the evening, but timer settings can be easily changed using the GrowChef app on a smartphone.

GrowChef is designed in three levels, allowing plants to thrive – the grow pots are placed at the top, and stay there until the seeds have germinated and reached 3-5 cm. The pots are moved to the middle level and kept until they reach a height of 10-12 cm, before being moved to the bottom level where they ripen. 

The level design and a carefully calculated spacing system ensures sure the plants get the most light when they need it the most, and that the plants have enough space to grow and don’t block light from each other, ensuring a lush and healthy produce. 

“I’m delighted to bring people a new original opportunity to have fresh herbs on your plate every day! GrowChef helps you to eat healthier, reduce your shopping list and expenses. After two and a half years of experiments we’ve figured out how to perfect the hydroponic farm to constantly provide you with ready-to-eat plants", says founder Viktor Pjatnitski. 

About GrowChef:

Tallinn-based startup GrowChef was founded in 2017 by engineer Viktor Pjatnitski who was 6 years experience in metal structure production. CEO is Liana Guntaisvili, CMO is Jelena Kazakova and Nik Gut is the company’s agronomist.

To bring GrowChef to large scale production, the team has decided to launch the GrowChef on Kickstarter, where it’s available to pre-order until August 30 2017. 

Campaign page: https://goo.gl/tim4im

For additional information about GrowChef please visit our website, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.