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Farming In The City: DC’s Urban Agriculture Movement
Photo: Amber Breitenberg
Farming In The City: DC’s Urban Agriculture Movement
June 2, 2018/in Featured, Lifestyle /by Amanda Weisbrod
Amidst the District’s hustle and bustle, green paradises breathe fresh air and deliciously colorful life into the otherwise grey and concrete landscape. For some, passion for urban farming comes from a deep love of an old hobby. For others, the desire to provide jobs and fresh produce to their community is the true driving force. Either way, DC’s urban farming scene is growing – its tendrils reaching into notable bars and restaurants all over the city.
Urban farming, otherwise known as urban agriculture, is exactly what it sounds like: the process of growing food in a city or heavily populated area. Despite difficulties such as finding enough space and the right equipment to grow and harvest plants, several urban farming organizations in DC have found unexpected spots to thrive in the city.
While on a run one day in 2014, former Peace Corps volunteer Mary Ackley was contemplating the best locations to host her new project, Little Wild Things Farm. She drew inspiration from bin-farming techniques, which use small plots of land as efficiently as possible. But after searching high and low in the heart of the District, she couldn’t find adequate green space anywhere. That’s when she jogged past the Carmelite Friars Monastery in Northeast DC and realized that institutions often had large plots of land, so she sent them an email.
“At first, they were hesitant but we worked out an agreement, and years later, we still have a wonderful partnership with them,” Ackley says. “We maintain the land, they get produce from us every week, and we donate to a local homeless shelter on their behalf. Everybody wins.”
Later, Ackley found another home for Little Wild Things in the basement of The Pub & The People, an award-winning neighborhood bar. Because The Pub already had plans to build a second bar in their basement in the future, they thought it would be great to have a farm downstairs in the meantime. Little did they know that this unexpected partnership would immensely help both businesses.
When she was getting started, Ackley grew traditional vegetables but decided to switch to edible flowers and microgreens because they mature faster, allowing her to experiment more with varieties and growing techniques. Microgreens are sprouts of vegetables, herbs and leafy greens that pack an even bigger punch of nutrients and vitamins compared to their full-grown selves.
Many gourmet dishes are incomplete without fresh microgreens, so some of the best chefs in the city flock to Little Wild Things to get their fix. To Nick Bernel, one of The Pub’s four co-owners, this was one of the coolest parts of having a “zen garden” in their basement.
“[Little Wild Things] sells to the best restaurants in the whole city, so there were constantly chefs and sous chefs in our bar,” says Bernel, who adds this was great exposure for their business, which opened in 2015.
Eric Milton, sous chef at popular Mediterranean eatery Zaytinya, is one of many high-profile customers who goes to Little Wild Things for all of their microgreen needs.
“They are passionate about their product and that translates into their excellent farmer-to-chef relationship,” says Milton, who has been working with Little Wild Things for a year and a half. “They have a great micro fennel that goes well with white fish dishes, and their micro parsley and celery give fresh vegetable dishes a nice pop. The quality of their product is superb, their product is consistent and they are just super easy to work with.”
While The Pub grew in popularity, Little Wild Things grew in size as its proximity to its clients led to higher demand. In October 2017, Little Wild Things grew too large for the space and Ackley decided her time at The Pub was over.
“It was a bittersweet move because we loved The Pub and our partnership, but we just needed more space,” Ackley says. “It was a great way for us to learn about urban farming and how to be space intensive because we really perfected how to be efficient with our time.”
Little Wild Things is moving to a custom-built space in Ivy City this fall, where it will have all the space it needs to grow over 40 varieties of microgreens and over 20 kinds of edible flowers.
“We are really excited to have more events and pop-ups, and give tours of our new space,” Ackley says. “It’s great to be able to set our roots down in a neighborhood and build our community even further.”
Ackley’s right-hand woman, “work wife” and director of operations Chelsea Barker says that she finds urban farming to be a fulfilling and challenging line of work and hopes others will follow suit.
“The challenge that we are most interested in solving is the idea that farming is an exciting and desirable profession for people who like problem-solving, hard work, relationship building and working with your hands,” says Barker, who joined Ackley in 2016. “It really can be a win-win when urban farming is a texture of urban life.”
A similar philosophy and approach to urban farming is found at Cultivate the City, another for-profit commercial farm working to promote urban agriculture by creating more jobs and keeping profit within the neighborhood. Cultivate the City founder and CEO Niraj Ray found his love of gardening while living in Florida, then brought his hobby back to DC at his job with the EPA where he created a rooftop garden. He eventually decided to quit his day job to pursue his true passion, and so far, it’s been working out great.
In 2016, Cultivate the City installed an expansive rooftop garden at Nationals Park, where they grow produce and leafy greens for food services and dining in the Delta Club. Along with produce the chefs specifically ask for like squash, tomatoes and herbs, Ray likes to mix it up and surprise them with unique produce every season.
Cultivate the City also has a rooftop garden location on H Street where they grow a variety of unique crops indigenous to other regions for both restaurants and members of the public. For Pansaari, an Indian restaurant in Dupont Circle, Ray grows curry leaf and bitter melon. For his CSA (community-supported agriculture program), he sends a variety of fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs every week for 30 weeks to subscribers. And for fun, Ray likes to push the limit of what he can grow in the northeastern United States. This season, he’s excited to announce a healthy crop of passion fruit, which is native to southern Brazil.
“I try to grow unique things that you can’t buy at the grocery store, so we’re able to provide a commodity through what we’re growing,” he says. “It’s unique produce that you can’t find anywhere else, and it has a good story behind it.”
Along with tending to their own rooftop gardens, Cultivate the City offers plant management and garden build contracts for restaurants. At Calabash Tea & Tonic in Shaw, Cultivate the City maintains a garden full of basil, lemongrass, lavender, rosemary and a variety of mints used in tea blends.
When Calabash opens its new storefront in Brookland this summer, it will have an exterior designed by Cultivate the City, featuring 20 planters built by students at IDEA Public Charter School, where Ray teaches a senior seminar and manages a garden club. He notes that one of Cultivate the City’s greatest missions is to work with students and other nonprofit organizations to foster a passion for urban agriculture in the next generation of farmers.
“We’re trying to promote urban agriculture and create more jobs and sustainability around it,” he says. “It’s great to teach people how to grow their own food, but we’re focusing on how they can create careers out of that by maintaining all of the green spaces that we’re creating.”
At Community Connections DC, the capital’s largest not-for-profit mental health agency, Cultivate the City provides horticulture therapy training to help youths with traumatic histories gain necessary career skills like team building and punctuality. Many of these students graduate from the program and find their first jobs with Cultivate the City at the urban farms located in the backyards of their group homes. Nearby restaurants buy produce from these group home farms, closing the loop and keeping money within the neighborhood.
“Not only is urban farming creating positive psychological and societal benefit and quantifiable economic return, but it’s had such unquantifiable environmental benefits as well,” he says. “You’re helping create wildlife quarters for the bees and monarch butterflies, you’re helping to promote more wildlife, and you’re mitigating storm water onsite.”
At Rooftop Roots, a nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming the way people engage with their urban surroundings, environmental awareness and sustainability is a top priority. Founder Thomas Schneider says that based on its three-pillar model of sustainability including economical, societal and environmental considerations, Rooftop Roots works to create jobs, build sustainable gardens and increase the availability to fresh produce to those who might not have access.
“We try to create these spaces as an experience where people feel like they’re not only having a great garden, but they’re also giving back to the community,” Schneider says. “People are certainly taking a greater interest in their health and nutrition. I think growing food is a really powerful experience in terms of how people understand the connection between the life that they’re living and how small actions can play a big part in helping not only the environment but also the society that we live in.”
As organizations like Little Wild Things Farm, Cultivate the City and Rooftop Roots work to spread awareness on how people can use their urban and suburban landscapes to help the environment and their local communities, the urban agriculture movement is becoming more than just a trend – it’s transforming into a sustainable lifestyle.
Find microgreens from Little Wild Things Farm at the Dupont Circle Farmer’s Market once a month, and sign up for any of these organization’s CSA programs at their websites below.
Cultivate the City: www.cultivatethecity.com
Little Wild Things: www.littlewildthingsfarm.com
Rooftop Roots: www.rooftoproots.org
Amanda is currently a senior at Ohio University, and will graduate with a bachelor's degree in journalism, news and information in December 2018. She has written for multiple professional publications including Cincinnati Magazine, CityBeat and Athens Messenger. Amanda loves to play the saxophone, watch cult classic movies, and hang out with her handsome cat, Darko.
Categories: Featured, Lifestyle
Tags: DC, Eco-Friendly, Featured, Green, Lifestyle, Urban Farming
Hydroponic Baby Greens Are ‘Clean From The Start’
Hydroponic Baby Greens Are ‘Clean From The Start’
Hydroponic Baby Greens Are ‘Clean From The Start’
By Cindy Cantrell GLOBE CORRESPONDENT JUNE 02, 2018
As founder of Backyard Farms, Paul Sellew of Carlisle brought flavorful, greenhouse-grown tomatoes to the East Coast market. His next company, Harvest Power, became a major processor of organic materials in North America. As founder and chief executive of Little Leaf Farms in Devens, he oversees the growing of hydroponic baby greens that are sold to grocery stores, food service institutions, and restaurants, as well as donated to food banks and other organizations.
Q. What is hydroponics?
A. It means growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions in water, without soil. This method is completely sustainable and 20 to 25 times more productive than soil-grown horticulture. In Massachusetts, where we have fierce winters, it’s also more efficient. The plants grow year-round in a controlled environment utilizing natural sunlight and a rainwater-based irrigation system that uses 90 percent less water than field-grown lettuce companies.
Q. Why is that advantageous to the consumer?
A. We seed and harvest seven days a week, so our produce is in the market the next day. We’re delivering unparalleled freshness and quality, which translates into better flavor and more nutrition.
Q. What does your motto ‘Clean From the Start’ mean?
A. Our lettuce is seeded, grown, cut, and packaged without ever being touched by human hands. We have never, and we never will use chemical pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides. Instead, we vigilantly practice biological control so if an insect attacks our lettuce, we introduce another insect to attack that one. Consumers can be confident they’re purchasing a safe product, grown in an environment that employs the most advanced food safety practices.
Q. What led to your recent greenhouse expansion?
A. It’s a consumer-driven expansion. In trying to keep up with demand, we concluded that we need to more than double production. We just added 2 1/2 acres, for a total of 5 acres under glass. We also got approval to build on 5 contiguous acres, which will give us 10 acres total when we expand the greenhouse again in 2019.
Q. What is your goal for the business?
A. We want to build a sustainable food production model that will be the dominant supplier to local markets. We’ve gone up against gigantic West Coast companies, and we’re honored that we’ve been able to build traction and a loyal customer following. We’re doing it a better way at Little Leaf Farms.
For more information, visit littleleaffarms.com.
Cindy Cantrell may be reached at cindycantrell20@gmail.com.
Does Indoor Farming Hold The Key To The Global Food And Nutrition Challenge? Indoor Farming Visionaries Gather For Major Summit In New York
Does Indoor Farming Hold The Key To The Global Food And Nutrition Challenge? Indoor Farming Visionaries Gather For Major Summit In New York
The world is on the cusp of a global agri-food revolution, powered by technology innovation. Globally, we face enormous challenges of water scarcity, hunger and malnutrition as the traditional food supply chain struggles to feed a population set to grow by more than a third by 2050. In the United States alone, the next 30 years will see the population swell by an enormous 112 million from its 328 million today. (Source: https://www.census.gov).
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, there are just 60 harvests left before the world’s topsoil is completely depleted, after decades of chemical-heavy intensive farming and erosion through deforestation and global warming. By 2050, the amount of arable and productive land per person will be only a quarter of what it was in 1960.
Already, we have growing inner-city populations that lack access to affordable fresh food, with increasing malnutrition and obesity, the effects of which impact our communities and stress our health infrastructure.
This month, over 200 agribusiness leaders, entrepreneurs and investors from around the world will gather in New York to discuss how indoor farming offers a solution. At the indoor AgTech Innovation Summit on June 20-21, they will discuss the challenges that need to be met to build sustainable, profitable and healthy local and national food systems.
Serving as the summit’s Strategic Partner is Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), the country’s leading owner, operator, and developer of collaborative life science, technology and AgTech campuses, and the company’s venture capital arm, Alexandria Venture Investments, which invests in cutting-edge AgTech companies. With its position at the forefront of emerging innovation in AgTech, Alexandria Venture Investments led a blue-chip investment syndicate to create the AgTech Accelerator, a unique start-up venture development fund focused on discovering and developing agricultural technology companies.
“Through our sustainable, vibrant environments and our strategic investments in agricultural innovation, we continue to support the next generation of companies and technologies that are essential to the growth of the AgTech sector,” said Joel S. Marcus, Executive Chairman and Founder of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc./Alexandria Venture Investments, who will co-moderate the panel discussion Investor Debate: What Type of Capital Does This Sector Need to Grow. “We recognize the immense potential of indoor farming to benefit the health and well-being of the people in our communities and ultimately to help solve the critical challenges of global hunger and nutrition.”
Indoor farming’s precision systems create optimal growing conditions, delivering exactly the right amount of water, nutrients, and light directly to the plant, using up to 90% less water than traditional agriculture. Grown indoors in a controlled environment, with no need for pesticides or herbicides, the produce is as clean and organic as it’s possible to be.
Historically, the indoor sector has struggled with cost-efficiencies at scale, limiting its produce to a premium price-point. At last, breakthroughs in LED efficiencies, power optimization, AI and machine-learning are reducing costs and increasing yields, enabling indoor-grown produce to compete on price-point with traditional open field produce. The super-fresh locally-grown model is now within reach of being achievable on a massive scale, making healthy fresh food affordable to millions.
Brooklyn Borough President, Eric L. Adams will open the Indoor AgTech Innovation Summit with insights into how the indoor farming revolution is transforming New York’s thriving communities.
He is joined by leading innovators and operators from around the world, including AeroFarms, FreshBox Farms, Shenandoah Growers, Plenty, Infarm (Germany), Gotham Greens, Bright Farms, Square Roots, Bowery Farming, Badia Farms (UAE) and the Japan Plant Factory Association.
The summit will host senior representatives from the biggest names across agribusiness, food, and finance: Bayer, Monsanto, Cargill, Kelloggs, McCain, InVivo, US Foods, Barclays, Wells Fargo, Finistere Ventures and Tyson Ventures, alongside technology developers including IGS, Cornell CALS, Fluence, Motorleaf, Priva, OSRAM and Signify, with pitches from six agtech start-ups showcasing their breakthrough solutions.
This powerhouse audience will focus on best practice, defining growth opportunities and the need for collaboration in this fast-emerging precision ag sector.
The Indoor AgTech Innovation Summit is part of the World Agri-Tech Innovation Series of summits focused on international networking and deal-making for agribusinesses, solution providers, entrepreneurs and investors.
For full information about the event program and speakers, visit www.indooragtechnyc.com
Mucci Farms Awarded For Flavour At The 11th Annual Greenhouse Competition!
Mucci Farms Awarded For Flavour At The 11th Annual Greenhouse Competition!
June 16th, 2018 (Leamington, Ontario) – Mucci Farms announces that it has been awarded several top prizes at the 11th Annual Greenhouse Competition held at the Leamington Fair. The big winner was SmucciesTM Sweet Strawberries that swept the all-new strawberry category with the Best Overall Strawberry, People’s Choice and Kid’s Choice awards. In addition, their newest item, CutecumberTM Poppers, a one-bite cucumber variety was awarded the People’s Choice award in the cucumber category.
To cap off the weekend, RusticoTM Long Red Peppers, an item geared for grilling season took home the award for best Specialty Long Pepper along with English Cucumbers winning the Coolest Cucumber category.
New to the competition this year was the highly anticipated Strawberry category, one gaining lots of notoriety in the greenhouse space in recent years. “Smuccies are a prized possession for us, so it’s really special to win three awards in the category in the inaugural year,” said Emily Murracas, Director of Marketing at Mucci Farms. “At Mucci Farms, we prioritize flavour right from the first step which is to identify the best seed varieties, followed by the best and safest growing methods.
We’re grateful to the judges and the local community for recognizing our team and our growers for all the work they’ve put in.” This year, the community had the opportunity to experience the RCMP Musical Ride, known around the world for its equestrian performances choreographed to music. Members of the RCMP enjoyed award-winning SmucciesTM throughout the weekend, donated by Mucci Farms.
The Greenhouse Competition is presented at the Leamington Fair by REACH International to celebrate Essex County as being the largest greenhouse industry in North America. All net proceeds from the event are dedicated to REACH International's Uganda project aimed at building schools, clinics and providing care for impoverished children in the African country. “The objectives of REACH International lineup seamlessly with our goals of giving back to those less fortunate, so we enjoy participating in this competition for the charity aspect as much, or even more than receiving awards,” remarked Danny Mucci, President of Mucci International Marketing.
Winners for the two-day Greenhouse Competition were selected in two stages. Judges from across the food industry judged each entry on Friday before the public was allowed in the competition tent. The entry with the highest score for each category and the overall competition were declared the winners. Once official judging is complete, the public is given the opportunity to taste all the entries and vote for the People’s Choice Award and Kid’s Choice Awards.
The awards ceremony was held on Saturday evening, June 16th at the Leamington Fair.
NatureFresh™ Farms Takes Home People’s & Kids’ Choice Awards At Leamington Greenhouse Vegetable Competition
NatureFresh™ Farms Takes Home People’s & Kids’ Choice Awards At Leamington Greenhouse Vegetable Competition
Leamington, ON (June 17th, 2018) – The Tomato Capital of Canada, Leamington, ON, hosted its 11th annual Greenhouse Vegetable Awards this past weekend at the Leamington Fair. Showcasing the best greenhouse-grown produce from leading North American growers, family-owned NatureFresh™ Farms was awarded many top accolades, including People’s and Kids’ Choice Awards for 2018’s Hottest Tomato, the Tomberry®.
On Saturday evening, NatureFresh™ Farms took home awards in the following categories:
- People’s Choice Award for Hottest Tomato – NatureFresh™ Tomberry® Tomatoes
- Kids’ Choice Award for Hottest Tomato - NatureFresh™ Tomberry® Tomatoes
- Kids’ Choice Award for Coolest Cucumber – NatureFresh™ Mini Cucumbers
- Kids’ Choice Award for Perfect Pepper – NatureFresh™ Yellow Bell Pepper
Matt Quiring, Executive Retail Sales Accounts Manager at NatureFresh™ Farms, was especially excited that NatureFresh™ took home the coveted Kids’ Choice Awards in the Tomato, Bell Pepper, and Cucumber categories: “The People’s Choice and Kids’ Choice Awards are such impactful awards to win because they have everything to do with the end consumer. They’re also incredibly important because children are the buyers of tomorrow – knowing that they choose NatureFresh™-grown products above every other label is a huge testament to what we do and what’s in store for the future.”
At the Awards, the Tomberry® Tomato was chosen by both adults and children as this year’s Hottest Tomato. Benny Teichroeb, a member of the Trial Development team at NatureFresh™ Farms, was confident after his experiences with the Tomberry® that it would perform well at the Awards this year: “The Tomberry® is definitely one of the most unique Tomatoes we have ever trialled in the Discovery Center. It performed beyond our expectations from the start, and due to its small size and sweet flavor, it tends to draw a lot of positive attention. People of all ages love the World’s Smallest Tomato, and we are very excited to now have it in our program full-time!”. The NatureFresh™ Farms team is looking forward to watching this little Tomato do big things within the Tomato category.
All funds raised from the Greenhouse Vegetable Awards go to R.E.A.C.H. International. This local charity has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to build clinics and schools, drill water wells, and sponsor and care for impoverished children in Uganda, Africa.
Water of Plenty: Meet The Trio Practicing Soilless Farming in Delhi
Water of Plenty: Meet The Trio Practicing Soilless Farming in Delhi
Triton Foodworks aims to change the face of urban farming through hydroponics
BY SAYAN CHAKRABORTY Forbes India Staff
May 28, 2018
Two of Triton Foodworks’ five co-founders quit after a brush with Delhi’s municipal authorities, but Deepak Kukreja (sitting), Ullas Samrat (left) and Dhruv Khanna (right) decided to stay put
Image: Madhu Kapparath
When Ullas Samrat and Dhruv Khanna spoke after a long hiatus in the summer of 2014, they had a lot to share. The childhood friends had drifted apart when Khanna relocated to Singapore for a master’s degree in 2013, while Samrat stayed back in Delhi to work in his family’s lighting business.
On that call, they mostly spoke about where their lives were headed. Samrat was figuring out a way to keep his mother, who suffered from a lung disorder, away from Delhi’s air pollution. His plan to shift his mother to a farmhouse on the outskirts was struck down by doctors—pesticides, soil and dust at the farms would do her no good. This got him thinking about farming without soil. Khanna, stationed in Singapore, was building his own startup, one that aspired to make TVs smart.
A few minutes into the conversation, both figured they wanted to do something more “meaningful and impactful in life”. Working on a sustainable farming module could be a good starting point, the friends agreed.
“When I told Dhruv about soilless farming, he called me back in three days and said there are a few startups in Singapore [like Comcrop] doing the same. Dhruv said he would be visiting India in a couple of months and if we could figure out a pilot by then, he could work on his startup from Delhi and relocate,” says Samrat, 28, in a phone interview.
Khanna, also 28, did return in September. By then, the duo had sold their dream to three others—Devanshu Shivnani, Deepak Kukreja and Vaibhav Batra. In October they set up Triton Foodworks and started out by growing strawberries hydroponically—without the use of soil, in a nutrient-rich medium using water as a solvent—on a plot in Delhi’s Sainik Farms, where Samrat’s family owned some land. The yield was heartening—eight tonnes, which fetched them a profit of about ₹3.5 lakh.
The five founders, all in their twenties, were elated as the dream to create something impactful had started to take wing. Hydroponics was the way forward for sustainable agriculture, they concluded. First, hydroponics requires 60-80 percent less water than conventional farming. Second, one can practise high-density cultivation with hydroponics. Third, since there is no soil involved, there is no scope of lacerating the soil with pesticides and other chemicals.
Explains Kukreja, 39, “In soil cultivation, plant spacing has to be maintained because the plants compete for minerals, but here, since we feed the plants with precision, it gives us the scope to increase plant density. We can also grow vertically for small and compact plants like strawberries, lettuces and herbs.”
He adds, “In conventional farming, we have to do crop rotation to avoid soil erosion and avoid problems like nematodes and pests, but hydroponics gives us the advantage to cultivate a certain crop throughout the year.”
In hydroponics, since there is no soil involved, the farmer is free to cultivate the same crop repeatedly
However, the company’s wings were soon clipped by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, which razed a greenhouse structure they were starting to put up. “In Sainik Farms, construction of new houses and digging borewells for residential use is not permitted due to an ongoing case, but there is no restriction for agricultural activities,” says Khanna, adding that they were asked for bribes.
“When we refused, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi demolished the greenhouse without giving any notice. When we complained to the local MLA, a few days later a junior engineer from MCD came to apologise and told us he thought we were building a house.”
The team was shaken to the core, the immediate fallout of the corporation’s action being Batra’s exit. Next, Shivnani chose to take a break and pursue an MBA. Meanwhile, an institutional investor who had evinced interest in the firm also withheld investment. The flight, in effect, was grounded even before it could take off.
“More money had to be pumped in and we were all very tense. Everyone had this awkward conversation at home where we asked for more money and our parents were not convinced this time. They had already given us money to kick-start the operations,” recalls Samrat of the tumultuous days.
However, Samrat, Kukreja and Khanna decided to stay put. The plan was to take up hydroponics consultancy work for about a year or two, make enough revenue and plough it back into their firm to continue with R&D—the firm had set up two research and production facilities in Rohini in Delhi and Wada near Mumbai. Between January 2016 and mid-2017, the company executed about five projects in Delhi, Karnataka, and Maharashtra —which fetched them about ₹1 crore in revenue—simultaneously working on the research facilities.
The idea was to develop indigenous hydroponics techniques as well as reduce the cost of operations, which could skyrocket to about ₹2 crore for an acre of land. By the end of 2017, Triton Foodworks had devised a way to reduce the cost of setting up a greenhouse hydroponics unit to about ₹1.25 crore.
“The idea was to source as much raw material as possible from local vendors, design the systems ourselves and get them made by local manufacturers,” says Khanna. Adds Kukreja of some of their innovations, “Instead of plastic moulds to hold the crops, which cost about ₹25 lakh for an acre, we use styrofoam, which is not only cheaper but also keeps the temperature low. The cost comes down to ₹15 lakh.” The team has also developed a high-pressure fogger, which sprays smaller water droplets compared to conventional fogging systems.
Late last year, the company stopped consultancy work and turned its attention to developing their own farms. To consolidate operations, it shut down their research facilities and took up a five-acre plot in Manesar, where it grows different varieties of tomato, strawberries, lettuce, eggplants, and pepper among other plants. The plan is to stock the produce in retail outlets in Delhi under the ChopChop brand as well as sell directly to hotels and restaurants. The current fiscal is expected to fetch the firm ₹1 crore in revenue.
“There has been a lot of exposure around food and food experimentation has become big in urban markets. Also, the eating out market has grown and exposed a lot of urban centres to new tastes and ingredients, which have found their way into people’s kitchens. Hence, this category is finding significant retail shelf in outlets, which makes startups in this space interesting,” says Ankur Bisen, senior vice-president at retail consultancy firm Technopak Advisors.
The greenfield opportunity in hydroponics has also attracted businesses such as Letcetra Agritech, BitMantis Innovations, Junga FreshnGreen and Future Farms.
The trio of Triton is in no mood to let go of the opportunity.
First Road Trip - Opening the Greenhouse Education Center
FIRST ROAD TRIP
Opening the Greenhouse Education Center
May 25, 2018
The initial opening of the Greenhouse Education Center had to be my favorite part of the first trip. I had seen it before but it had only been without the actual plants up to this point. As the team and I opened the trailer at our first location, I found myself mostly focused on correctly positioning all the components of the trailer, making sure our signs were up in position and nervously anticipating my first conversation with a visitor. Once I had gotten over that anticipation, I finally took a step back from the trailer and got to see it in its entirety. It was amazing to finally get to see the mobile greenhouse with all the plants on it! Everything had come together and we finally got the opportunity to show everyone where some of the produce that they are buying in the grocery stores comes from and how it’s grown.
The First Day
Beginning our first trip with the Greenhouse Education Center was just as exciting as it was nerve-wracking. Although I was excited to begin my summer journey and meet people from various cities, I didn’t quite know what to expect. I eagerly woke up on the morning of May 10th to begin the adventure. We all had been familiarized with the greenhouse environment through our thorough training days where we got to experience the greenhouse growing first hand – now it was time to put it all into action. The first day in Toronto was extremely exciting! We were ready and confident to show everyone how we grow our produce. We definitely experienced a couple hiccups throughout the day, as expected, but once we worked out all the kinks it was smooth sailing. There was no shortage of walking traffic in Toronto, which meant tons of visitors at the mobile greenhouse. They all tested our knowledge on the growing process of the plants, which I think was the best learning experience to solidify the knowledge we gained during orientation week. It was a great day with great weather and by the end of it the team was exhausted. We knew this would take some getting used to.
Getting to Know the Team
This is my first job working in a team-oriented environment. On the first trip I got to know everyone I would be spending the summer with. It was very interesting to know where the team had all come from. Even though we had all come from Essex County, we all had different backgrounds and interests which made for a well rounded, diverse team with various skill sets.
I also had the pleasure of getting to know the man in charge of pulling the mobile greenhouse around; Kenny! He quickly assumed the role of comic relief with his witty jokes and always managed to keep smiles on our faces. It’s amazing how quickly the team has come together and developed great communication with each other. I’m looking forward to the rest of our journey together!
NASA Is Learning The Best Way To Grow Food In Space
The Voorhes
NASA Is Learning The Best Way To Grow Food In Space
Can gardens help astronauts go farther?
By Sarah Scoles June 6, 2018
“Our plants aren’t looking too good,” astronaut Scott Kelly tweeted from the International Space Station on December 27, 2015. He was right: The attached picture showed four baby zinnias bathed in magenta light. Three of the four leafy stalks were discolored and curling in on themselves. The station’s garden was struggling to recover from a mold problem. It’s an issue familiar to terrestrial gardeners. And while on Earth, the problem means a trip to the local nursery for replacements, in space you can’t do that.
Space gardens will be essential someday if astronauts are to go beyond low-earth orbit or make more than a quick trip to the moon. They can't carry all the food they need.
The Voorhes
The zinnias, brightly colored flowers in the daisy family, were part of an experiment called Veggie, whose ultimate mission is to provide crews with a long-term source of food. In prior tests, astronauts had successfully harvested lettuce. The zinnias had a longer growth period—60 to 80 days—and then would bloom, producing neon-hued blossoms that look like they belong in a psychedelic corsage. They were practice for something finickier and tastier than leafy greens: tomatoes. If station crews were ever going to grow something that intricate, they needed to figure out—among other things— how to vanquish mold.
Veggie is a relatively uncomplicated way for astronauts to develop their green thumbs. “It’s a very simple system,” says Gioia Massa, one of the project’s lead scientists. “It doesn’t control much at all.” Instead, the humans do.
Space gardening will be essential someday if space travelers are to go beyond low-Earth orbit or make more than a quick trip to the moon. They can’t carry on all the food they need, and the rations they do bring will lose nutrients. So astronauts will need a replenishable stash, with extra vitamins. They’ll also require ways to make more oxygen, recycle waste, and help them not miss home so much. Space gardens can, theoretically, help accomplish all of that.
Veggie and other systems aboard the space station are helping researchers figure out how radiation and lack of gravity affect plants, how much water is Goldilocks-good, and how to deal with deplorables like mold. Just as important, scientists are learning how much work astronauts have to put in, how much work they want to put in, and how plants nourish their brains as well as their bodies.
For all its potential importance, Veggie is pretty compact. It weighs 41 pounds, just a hair less than the station’s 44-pound coffeemaker. The top—an off-white rectangular box that houses the grow lights—resembles an old VCR. From this, a curtain of clear plastic hangs to encase the 1.7-square-foot planting surface. Astronauts preset how long the lights stay on each day; how brightly they emit red light to optimize photosynthesis, and blue light to control the plants’ form and function. They can also activate a built-in fan to adjust the humidity.
The most important part of Veggie, though, is the fragile bounty it is meant to cultivate. That begins as seeds encased in little Teflon- coated Kevlar pouches. The scientists call them plant pillows. “You can think of it like a grow bag,” Massa says of these packets stuffed with seeds, water wicks, fertilizer, and soil.
People have anticipated this scenario for more than a century. In 1880, science-fiction author Percy Greg wrote Across the Zodiac, a novel about an astronaut who traveled to Mars with plants to recycle waste. Fifteen years later, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a Russian rocket scientist, wrote Dreams of Earth and Sky, which laid out how spacefarers and flora could live together inside a closed system.
In the 1950s, green things burst from book covers and into the lab. NASA and the U.S. Air Force started growing algae to see if it could help with life support (turns out, it tasted bad, was full of indigestible cell walls, and had too much protein). Then, Soviet scientists experimented with nearly self-sufficient ecosystems in which humans survived on oxygen, water, and nutrition produced mostly within an enclosed habitat. In the longest run, a 180-day trial inside a facility called BIOS-3, an earthbound crew got 80 percent of its food from its own wheat and vegetables. Finally, in 1982, plants in space became a reality when Soviet cosmonauts grew Arabidopsis thaliana, a flowering species related to cabbage and mustard, to maturity aboard their Salyut 7 space station. The yield was too small to be a source of food.
LIQUID REFRESHMENT
Astronauts dispense precise amounts of water to the plants inside Veggie.
NASA
Around this time, in the mid-’80s, Veggie’s Massa was in middle school, and her seventh- grade teacher returned from an astroagriculture workshop at Kennedy Space Center with reams of information on the topic. Inspired, a teenage Massa kept taking ag classes as she moved on to high school and later teamed up with her middle-school mentor for a hydroponics project.
While Massa continued her studies and self-guided experimentation, NASA began building orbital plant-growing apparatus, most notably the Biomass Production System. Designed to be used for experiments on the space station, it was a rectangle with sides each about the length of an arm. Four cube-shaped growth chambers rested like safes inside. Designed by scientists at a Wisconsin-based company, Orbitec, the Biomass Production System joined the space station in 2001. There, Brassica rapa field mustard soon sprouted tall, illuminated by plain white fluorescent light.
When researchers compared the harvest to a control plant on the ground, though, they found that the space mustard had more bacteria and fungus. “The significance of the difference is uncertain,” states NASA’s official conclusion. By which the agency meant it didn’t know why the microbes proliferated, not that their presence wasn’t important. In fact, as Veggie’s mold would show, it was critically important.
NASA retired the Biomass Production System in 2002, but Russian cosmonauts picked up where the U.S. left off. Over the decade, they successfully grew dwarf wheat, leafy mizuna, and dwarf peas. Bonus: In four successive generations of orbiting dwarf peas, the vegetables didn’t show signs of genetic messiness.
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Meanwhile Orbitec, in consultation with NASA, cultivated another plant-growing instrument. So when NASA awarded a grant in 2012 for a new space garden, the company had something to show for itself: Veggie, which, unlike its predecessor, was meant to produce food on an edible scale. Massa, by then a postdoc, tested different types of media and crops for the plant pillows. It was the kind of tinkering she’d been preparing for since she was 12. The United States’ first real space garden launched in 2014, not long after Massa advanced from her postdoc to become a Veggie project scientist at the space agency.
All went pretty well for Veggie until the flower flap. Most of its initial edible plants—a lettuce variety called Outredgeous—sprouted as they should have in 2014, and the astronauts shot them back down to Earth for testing. Massa says they’re still working on all the analyses. “But in general, the plants are pretty similar to our ground samples.” When they’re finished, they’ll know about chemical contents like antioxidants, anthocyanin (pigments), and phenolics, which protect plants against stress. Short term, the priority was mealtime: Could we have consumed the harvest? The crew, Massa, and NASA all wanted to know. Yes, it turned out, the produce was microbially safe to eat.
Kevlar-coated pouches help protect seeds from microbial contamination; fully grown Outredgeous lettuce NASA
Still, when the astronauts planted a second set of seeds, in summer 2015, Massa ran into a new challenge: With harvest approaching, NASA had no protocol to approve the crew chowing down on the leaves of their labor. “We said, ‘We have only 28 days, and then they’re going to have to eat it,’” Massa recalls. With the clock ticking, management found a way to officially add the lettuce to the astronauts’ diet.
On August 9, Kelly snapped a picture, standing in front of the unfurling greens. His brow was furrowed, faux-serious. “Tomorrow we’ll eat the anticipated veggie harvest on @space_station!” he tweeted. “But first, lettuce take a #selfie.” Soon he crunched the harvest live on NASA TV. It might seem like no big deal, but a single leaf can make a big difference to someone who’s been eating rehydrated fare for months. During a later harvest, astronaut Peggy Whitson would use them to wrap a reconstituted lobster salad. “Even with a really good diet with hundreds of items, there’s dietary fatigue,” Massa says. “People get bored. Adding a new flavor or texture—like something crisp and juicy—could spice up your regular meal.”
That’s not the only brain boost. Sure, astronauts can gaze down at Earth and see its most beautiful spots—literally all of them—every 90 minutes. But those places are always out of reach, reminders of how far away sea level is. Having something nearby that photosynthesizes might cheer the crew. “It’s the psychological aspect of something green and growing when you’re far away from home,” Massa says.
In the next growing cycle, the astronauts fostered the ill-fated zinnias. About two weeks in, Kjell Lindgren saw the first warning signs. Water leaked from the wicks that hold the seeds. Then moisture began seeping from the infant leaves, which started to curl in on themselves. Veggie staff on the ground, in charge of the operation, decided it was time to turn the airflow fan from low to high. But an impromptu spacewalk to fix a broken robotic arm delayed the change because, in space, nothing is as simple as flicking a switch on your way out of the spaceship. While reprogramming Veggie’s settings takes only about 15 minutes, NASA prefers astronauts move anything lower priority out of the way when they have a high-priority task.
And then the leaves started to die.
That’s bad enough on its own. But, worse, dying vegetation can be a breeding ground for mold, which had somehow come to space with the astronauts and cargo. Soon, menacing white fuzz began choking the plants.
By this time, Lindgren had returned to Earth, and Kelly had taken over the garden. On December 22, with instructions from ground control, Kelly snipped away the moldy parts like bad spots from a piece of cheese, and swabbed the remaining zinnias and equipment with cleaning wipes. He left the fans on high to help dehydrate the setup.
It was a good try but not without a cost: It made the plants thirsty. Kelly relayed that to ground control and asked to water them. Sergeants who were set on sticking to the drill told Kelly it wasn’t time yet. Not till December 27. “You know, I think if we’re going to Mars, and we were growing stuff, we would be responsible for deciding when the stuff needed water,” Kelly told them, according to NASA’s write-up of the event.
FARM TO TABLE
On-Orbit Gardeners Kjell Lindgren (left) and Scott Kelly. The fast-growing salad green was the first plant to be grown, harvested, and eaten in space. NASA
Eventually, they gave autonomy to the person who was actually next to the plants, along with one page of instructions called “The Zinnia Care Guide for the On-Orbit Gardener.”
Under the On-Orbit Gardener’s thumb, half of the zinnias revived, unfurling and growing green. NASA spun the whole thing as a positive: They now knew that crops could survive floods, drought, and disease and that excising the problem plants and cleaning the remainder could keep the fungus from taking over.
Kelly loved the now-flourishing flowers and carried their container all over the space station for photo shoots, like those people who snapshots of themselves in Hard Rock T-shirts all over the world. “He asked if he could harvest them on Valentine’s Day,” Massa says. He’d been in space, away from everyone except his smelly crewmates for more than 300 days. NASA let him make the bouquet.
It was one of Massa’s favorite moments. “We had been a part of something that gave him pleasure,” she says.
In upcoming Veggie experiments, scientists will learn more about that part of gardening—the mental part. “We’ve heard a lot anecdotally,” Massa says, “but we’ve never been able to collect data.” They’ll also investigate how much farming crewmembers actually want to do, how much is fun versus how much is a chore, how their sense of taste changes in orbit, and which plants can survive human error (no offense, astronauts).
Veggie’s experiments will continue in tandem with those of a brand-new Type-A companion, the Advanced Plant Habitat, an 18-inch-square self-sufficient laboratory with more than 180 sensors and automated watering. Scientists can establish their variables and thus nail down the specific conditions that cultivate plants—and how those plants can cultivate humans. A temperature-control system keeps the air within 0.5°C of the thermostat setting. Sensors relay data about air temperature, light, moisture, and oxygen levels back to base. While the Advanced Plant Habitat will quantify the circumstances for successful gardening, Veggie will help qualify how—and why—humans can facilitate their own food supply. In other words, through the habitat’s tight controls, researchers can learn how to grow which plants best. Then, using those parameters, they can set up a system like Veggie that astronauts get to interact with.
Astronauts assembled the habitat over six hours in October 2017, after it rumbled into space in two shipments. The automated contraption looks like a microwave that could survive… being shot into space. Wires stream from here to there and there to here on a control panel. Red indicator lights blink next to toggle switches. And inside the plant chamber, LEDs beam from the ceiling, illuminating the plants below with concert-stage color combinations. It has red, green, and blue lights like Veggie—plus white, near-, and far-infrared ones.
Plants might also be a brain boost. "It's the psychological aspect of having something green and growing when you're far away from home," says Massa.
The Voorhes
Robert Richter, director of environmental systems at Sierra Nevada, which acquired Orbitec in 2014, monitored its progress from the earthbound Space Station Processing Facility. He’d helped design and build the new lab, as well as Veggie and Biomass. When he started in the field, almost 20 years ago, he was a bit naive. “I thought, How hard is it to grow plants?”
He’s partly joking, of course—and he knows, now, that when you’re trying to keep the humidity level within 3 percent of a given number, when you must make and measure light and moisture, and when you maintain the temperature to a fraction of a degree, there’s a long row to hoe between growing some basil in a cup and farming lettuce in space.
The team powered up the unit in November 2017. And by February this year, test crops of Arabidopsis thaliana and dwarf wheat sprouted. Soon, they’ll begin experiments like investigating plants’ DNA and physiological changes. A lot of the previous plant research has been focused on whether things would grow at all, says Robert Morrow, Sierra Nevada’s principal scientist. Will they reproduce from generation to generation? And are they as productive in space as on the ground?
Yes, he says. Scientists are beyond those basics now. They need to dig into the dirtier details and more-complicated ecosystems. Astronauts, for instance, exhale carbon dioxide that plants can inhale. The plants then exhale oxygen, which humans can inhale. Human waste can become plant fertilizer and hydration. Nothing wasted, everything gained.
Ultimately, Morrow believes, a garden on a deep-space mission will be more like Veggie than like the Advanced Space Habitat. “It’s really not practical to put all the stuff you have in APH in a system like that,” he says. With so many sensors and tubes, lots can go mechanically wrong, and it’s easier to repair a Veggie than an APH. For now, scientists need APH to home in on optimal guidelines for plant growth and understand how leaving the planet changes them so they can instruct future astronauts how to better manage Veggie-esque systems.
Looking toward the future, Massa is interested in observing astronaut interactions with the instruments. “Do you always want to pick your ripe tomatoes, but maybe you don’t want to have to water them every other day?” she wonders. She’ll have a chance to find out because Veggie will grow its first dwarf tomatoes, a variety called Red Robin, early next year.
Other nations continue to experiment too. China, for instance, intends to send silkworms and potato seeds to the moon this year aboard its Chang’e-4 spacecraft. When the silkworms hatch, they’ll create carbon dioxide, which the potato plants will suck up and turn into oxygen, which the silkworms will then take up.
All this research doesn’t just help people above the atmosphere. Creating self-contained growth systems might help farmers on Earth grow crops year-round or foster plants with extra protein and high yield. Someday, the work will lead to gardening systems substantial—and stable—enough to support space journeyers. Then, those travelers can wrap anything they want in lettuce and crunch their way through the cosmos.
Contributing editor Sarah Scoles is the author of Making Contact: Jill Tartar and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
This article was originally published in the Summer 2018 Life/Death issue of Popular Science.
tags: science gardening farming space travel features summer 2018
Edible Routes Launches Its New And Innovative ‘Farmlets’ Program
Edible Routes Launches Its New And Innovative ‘Farmlets’ Program
New Delhi based urban farming consultancy Edible Routes recently launched its new and innovative ‘Farmlets’ program. The program permits people from Delhi/NCR to rent their own little plot of land (‘farmlet’) in order to grow greens, vegetables, fruits and herbs for their own kitchens. Edible Routes will fully manage and run each farmlet and deliver produce twice a month to renters’ homes. The site for the Sultanpur Farmlet Project is conveniently located 20kms from Gurgaon and 40kms from New Delhi. The program is another step towards creating an ecology of safe and healthy eating in the Delhi/NCR area.
People interested in renting a farmlet can sign up for a 6-month subscription which costs Rs 29,992. This fee includes a 2,400sqft plot of land, all farming inputs, and twice-monthly delivery of produce. Edible Routes will provide the design of beds, irrigation system, seeds, maintenance, planting plans, composting system, harvesting and delivery to all subscribers. Although the design of each farmlet will be pre-decided, planting will be carried out in consultation with clients. After the summer, once the weather is cooler, monthly events and activities are also planned to facilitate the creation of this community of ‘farmletters’.
Like ‘allotments’ in the UK or ‘kleinfarms’ in Germany, farmlets aims to give its renters the chance to grow their own food and re-establish a connection to nature severed by modern life. This will be a community of city folk who can spend a leisurely Sunday with their families, working on their plots, enjoying the outdoors, and exchanging notes with fellow urban farmers. Farmletters will finally know the answer to where, how and by whom their food is being grown. They will also understand the seasonality of vegetables and fruits, the difficulty of growing edibles and, through this, hopefully develop a sense of empathy for the Indian farmer. Overall, Edible Routes hopes that the program will create a community of conscious urban farmers who put their energies into revitalizing Indian agriculture.
GET IN TOUCH:
Contact: 9599806387 or 9811071751
Email: letsfarm@edibleroutes.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cityfarmlets
The Farmhouse Launches UAE-Grown Pesticide-Free Produce
The Farmhouse Launches UAE-Grown Pesticide-Free Produce
The food producer has signed its first deal with Barakat Group to supply multiple product varieties
jobtphotography Tomato crops at The Farmhouse
Devina Divecha May 27, 2018
A new UAE fresh food producer, The Farmhouse, has launched its inaugural line of locally grown, pesticide-free vegetables.
The Farmhouse has since signed its first major sales contract, partnering with Barakat Group to supply multiple product varieties. The produce will also be sold in supermarkets across the UAE. The Farmhouse is currently selling cucumbers, capsicums, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and zucchinis and has plans to expand its offering over time.
All crops are being grown in the controlled environment of its 430,000-square-foot greenhouse hydroponic farm in Ras Al Khaimah. The first phase of the facility was completed and produced its first harvest in March. When all crops are in harvest, The Farmhouse will supply more than 25 tonnes per week for local consumers.
The pesticide-free produce is grown using fully enclosed growbags and an advanced water runoff recovery system, resulting in 80% less water usage and significantly higher crop yields.
The Farmhouse offers customers a 'Grow to Suit' model, growing precise volumes required, providing options for various size and shape specifications, and delivering orders to a pre-agreed schedule.
A second phase expansion to over one million square feet will commence later this year.
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Different Types of Microgreens Seeds
Different Types of Microgreens Seeds
June 12, 2018
This blog will highlight a range of microgreens seeds that can be grown indoors. There are many varieties that can be experimented with. While there are a few different methods used to grow microgreens, our experience is with using high-quality microgreens pad.
Brassicaceae family
(Cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, watercress, radish, and arugula)
Arugula
Growing Advice
* Can germinate in temperatures as low as 45 degrees F.
* Easy and fast crop to grow.
* Seeds are relatively cheap.
* Make sure you use the right amount of seeds.
Harvesting Advice
* Normally quick and simple to harvest.
* Shortage of air flow makes this crop vulnerable to rot.
Asteraceae family
(Lettuce, endive, chicory and radicchio)
Endive
Growing Advice
* Germinate and grow in cold conditions.
* Over seeding can lead to stunted growth
* pH sensitive, so please keep it under 7.
Harvesting Advice
* Due to how close endive grows to the medium, use a microgreens pad.
* Endive doesn't produce a long stem like other seedlings but instead stays short and wide, so you'll want to harvest close to the microgreens pad.
Apiaceae family
(Dill, carrot, fennel and celery)
Celery
Growing Advice
* Keep celery in consistent temperatures.
* Celery is a slow grower. It can be slow to germinate and slow to mature.
* Because of it's small cotyledons it is a crop you will definitely want to grow to its true leaf stage.
* A intricate crop, celery can be easily stunted. Optimal conditions are compromised, it can turn yellow and stop growing.
* pH sensitive, so please keep it under 7.
Harvesting Advice
* Harvest close to the medium.
* Celery micros are compact and extremely lightweight.
* Harvest below the cotyledons to make sure you are cutting the entire seedling with its true leaf.
Amaryllidaceae family
(Garlic, onion, leek)
Leek
Growing Advice
* Rinse your seeds to remove dust or debris.
* Soak your seeds for 8-12 hrs. before germination.
Harvesting Advice
* Harvest them close to medium.
* Transfer the microgreens to a plastic bag or clam shell before refrigeration.
Amaranthaceae family
(Amaranth, quinoa swiss chard, beet and spinach)
Amaranth
Growing Advice
* Keep celery in constant temperatures.
* You can harvest it at the cotyledon stage or allow it to mature and grow true leaves for a different texture.
* Amaranth is a summer crop and prefers the heat, avoid growing it in the winter months.
* Grown as a grain in dry climates, amaranth doesn't like constant soil saturation.
Harvesting Advice
* Harvest close to medium.
* Amaranth is very lightweight and is generally used solely as a slash of color rather than adding to the weight of a mix.
Cucurbitaceae family
(Melon, cucumber, and squash)
Melon
Growing Advice
* Keep medium between 80-90 degrees F.
* Once seed germinate, lower medium temp.
Harvesting Advice
* Harvest close to medium
* Transfer the microgreens to a plastic bag or clamshell before refrigeration.
Cereals such as rice, oats, wheat, corn, and barley, as well as legumes like chickpeas, beans and lentils, are also sometimes grown into microgreens.
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Tags: growingmicrogreensathome microgreens microgreensgrower
Who Really Owns American Farmland?
Claire
Who Really Owns American Farmland?
The answer, increasingly, is not American farmers.
July 31st, 2017
by Katy Keiffer
We’re used to thinking of escalating rents as an urban problem, something suffered mostly by the citizens of booming cities. So when city people look out over a farm—whether they see corn stalks, or long rows of fruit bushes, or cattle herds roving across wild grasses—the price of real estate is probably the last thing that’s going to come to mind. But the soil under farmers’ feet has become much more valuable in the past decade. While urban commercial real estate has skyrocketed in places like New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., powerful investors have also sought to turn a profit by investing in the most valuable rural real estate: farmland. It’s a trend that’s driving up costs up for the people who grow our food, and—slowly—it’s started to change the economics of American agriculture.
Today, USDA estimates that at least 30 percent of American farmland is owned by non-operators who lease it out to farmers.
Think of it this way: If you wanted to buy Iowa farmland in 1970, the average going price was $419 per acre, according to the Iowa State University Farmland Value Survey. By 2016, the price per acre was $7,183—a drop from the 2013 peak of $8,716, but still a colossal increase of 1,600 percent. For comparison, in the same period, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose less than half as fast, from $2,633 to $21,476. Farmland, the Economist announced in 2014, had outperformed most asset classes for the previous 20 years, delivering average U.S. returns of 12 percent a year with low volatility.
That boom has resulted in more people and companies bidding on American farmland. And not just farmers. Financial investors, too. Institutional investors have long balanced their portfolios by putting part of their money in natural resources—goldmines and coal fields and forests. But farmland, which was largely held by small property owners and difficult for the financial industry to access, was largely off the table. That changed around 2007. In the wake of the stock market collapse, institutional investors were eager to find new places to park money that might prove more robust than the complex financial instruments that collapsed when the housing bubble burst. What they found was a market ready for change. The owners of farms were aging, and many were looking for a way to get cash out of the enterprises they’d built.
Are we looking at a bubble that will burst?
And so the real estate investment trusts, pension funds, and investment banks made their move. Today, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that at least 30 percent of American farmland is owned by non-operators who lease it out to farmers. And with a median age for the American farmer of about 55, it is anticipated that in the next five years, some 92,000,000 acres will change hands, with much of it passing to investors rather than traditional farmers.
But what about the people—often tenant farmers—who actually work the land being acquired? During the same period that farmland prices started gaining steam, many crop prices have stagnated or fallen. After hitting highs above $8 a bushel in 2012, corn prices today have fallen back to less than $4 a bushel—about what they were ten years ago, in 2007, when farmland prices first started to soar.
It’s a tenuous predicament, growing low-cost food, feed, and fuel (corn-based ethanol) on ever-more-expensive land, and it raises a host of questions. Is this a sustainable situation? What happens to small farmers? And are we looking at a bubble that will burst?
Three big factors have contributed to the rapid increase in the prices paid for farmland—which is usually defined to include grazing land and forests—according to Wendong Zhang, an assistant professor of economics at Iowa State University. (Zhang tracks farmland prices, especially Iowa farmland prices, which are among the best documented in the country.)
First, interest rates, since the financial crash of 2007–2008, have been at historic lows, which tends to drive asset prices up. There has been “phenomenal growth” in the ethanol market, Zhang says, linked to increasing interest in sustainable fuels. Indeed, if you graph ethanol production over the past 20 years, it shows exactly the same explosive growth as land prices. And as exports to China and elsewhere have increased, farm income has risen. “Farm income is the variable to track” in analyzing land prices, Zhang explains.
“Some act as landlords by buying land and leasing it out. Others buy plots of low-value land, such as pastures, and upgrade them to higher-yielding orchards.”
But there’s an additional factor: well-heeled investors are snapping up farmland, driving prices up. Here’s how the Economist explained it: “Institutional investors such as pension funds see farmland as fertile ground to plough, either doing their own deals or farming them out to specialist funds. Some act as landlords by buying land and leasing it out. Others buy plots of low-value land, such as pastures, and upgrade them to higher-yielding orchards.”
And, says Craig Dobbins, a professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University, “Farmland and other real estate investments are good investments to balance the risk of investments in stocks and bonds. These buyers are sensitive to the expected rate of return that will be received from the purchase of such an investment. If farmland values rise to levels that it does not appear the investment will provide the threshold rate of return, they will not purchase. The location preferences of these buyers are much more flexible than an individual farmer.”
Institutional investors can and do buy land in every region and of every type: cropland in the Corn Belt, rangeland in cattle country, or fruits and nuts in California. Among the big players are TIAA-Cref, BlackDirt, Hancock Agricultural Investment Group, American Farmland Company, AgIS Capital, and Gladstone Land Corporation. There are other institutional investors as well, showing a cross-section of financial interests in the relatively stable investment that land represents over time. According to RD Schrader, a real estate broker of farmland based in Colorado, “The number of investors is growing, and because of that, it occurs more often and makes the marketplace more fluid. With the downturn in values now, the institutional investors help keep the land values more stable.”
“We have no plan B for this type of eventuality.”
That sounds great if you want to sell land, as many American farmers, approaching retirement age do. But from the viewpoint of sustainability, there are many disadvantages to consolidating farmland in the hands of financially oriented landlords.
Chief among them: The investment entities that own the land can control what’s grown on it and how. A quick look at farmland investment company websites makes it clear that they are very particular about assessing the fertility, the access to water and distribution, and other criteria of the land they are buying. And they favor conventional agriculture—the kind that uses the agro-chemicals, mono-cropping, and extensive tilling that continue to degrade American farmland. For financial investors, commodity crops are king, and it’s hard to imagine that they will change their minds anytime soon. As Don Buckloh of the American Farmland Trust put it, “When it comes to crop diversification it is nearly impossible to shift a commodity operation to something less monolithic. For example, the infrastructure for dealing with products other than corn or soy in Iowa, simply doesn’t exist. So farmers are stuck with having to grow the same crops ad infinitum. It’s a scary proposition because should the ethanol program be dissolved, what will corn farmers do with all that extra corn? Already the prices are so low that farm incomes are projected to be half what they were six or seven years ago. We have no plan B for this type of eventuality.”
Access to secure, affordable land is the biggest challenge young farmers and ranchers face in this country.
Could investment companies become a force for a more ecological approach to agriculture? In theory, yes. BlackDirt Capital, a Connecticut-based firm that specializes in property in the northeastern part of the country, claims to be wholly based on agroecological principles. But that approach is rare and likely to remain so.
In practice, our best hope of true stewardship of the land will come from enlightened, committed owner-farmers. But the trend toward treating farmland as a financial investment, and the high prices that have come with it, make it harder and harder for new young farmers to enter the field. Lindsey Schute, Director of the National Young Farmers Coalition points out, “Access to secure, affordable land is the biggest challenge young farmers and ranchers face in this country. With two-thirds of our nation’s farmland set to change hands in the next few decades, we cannot afford to see the price of farmland driven up beyond what a working farmer can compete with.”
In these examples, ownership of the land becomes corporate, but it remains in U.S. hands. In another variant of land investing that’s become increasingly significant over the past few years, ownership—and control over the land and the food it produces—goes overseas.
We’re all familiar with the concept—though going the other way, with multinational corporations from the United States, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Egypt, China, or some other developed nation buying from sellers in developing nations. Investment in farmland is a key strategy for governments anxious to stabilize their food supply and their food prices. By buying land in other countries and farming it, foreign buyers are able to support their domestic food supply and other markets that depend on agriculture without having to compete for essential products on the global market. Foreign investors will buy several hundred thousand acres, say in Africa, to produce palm oil, rubber, or a biofuel. The deals are typically accompanied by promises of jobs, infrastructure, resource development, or just a jolt for the national economy, but all too often, those promises come to nothing. The local population reaps no benefit, they lose their farming rights, access to water, even their homes. Quite often, civil unrest will ensue. Ethiopia at this very moment provides a prime example of this phenomenon.
China now controls more than 400 American farms.
The new target for farmland investment: The United States. Themost recent figures from USDA, dating from 2011, show that roughly 25 million acres, about 2 percent of our national total of 930,000,000 acres, are in foreign hands. And the pace of investment seems to be picking up. In the period since USDA’s 2011 report, foreign investors have gone on shopping sprees in the heartland and beyond. Saudi Arabia and the UAE alone have acquired more than 15,000 acres in Arizona and Southern California to grow fodder for dairy cattle. Italian buyers are reported to have purchased 102,000 acres in Missouri, and New Zealand some 18,000.
The most memorable deal—though most coverage treated it as a corporate acquisition rather than a resource grab—was the 2013 acquisition of America’s largest producer of pork, the Smithfield Company, by a Chinese company called Shuanghui—which subsequently changed its name to the WH Group. The company is an independent entity, but it has received substantial funding from the Chinese government. It’s probably not overstating much to say that the government of China now controls more than 400 American farms consisting of a hundred thousand acres of farmland, with at least 50,000 in Missouri alone, plus CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations), 33 processing plants, the distribution system—and one out of every four American hogs.
Smithfield is a “vertically integrated” company, meaning that it owns everything right down to the feed supply and all the way up the food chain to the many brands of processed and packaged foods distributed throughout the United States and the world. However, one could make the argument that the most important assets within this $4.72 billion sale are the farmland and the water.
States like Iowa have banned the sale of farmland to foreign buyers and others have laws that limit the number of acres that can legally be sold, but it can be quite tricky to tell who is doing the buying.
One thing that is clear is the lack of a universal national policy governing water rights and water use. In states that are water insecure in the Southwest, there is a dizzying and arcane array of regulations that are barely equal now to the challenges of current domestic use, much less answering the needs of foreign agriculture. It seems the barest common sense that there should be some federal entity protecting citizens’ rights to water against anonymous industrial agribusiness. As yet that has not happened. And while California and the Southwest would seem the most obvious areas that will face serious water challenges in the future, we have already seen similar drought conditions playing out in other states, such as Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma. Eventually we may find that dry states must be supplied in some measure by wet states. Logic would dictate that laws regarding water use and access should be firmly in place before selling off resources to another nation.
States like Iowa have banned the sale of farmland to foreign buyers and others have laws that limit the number of acres that can legally be sold, but it can be quite tricky to tell who is doing the buying. Foreign buyers can hide their identity by creating an American corporation, or buying through a U.S. majority-owned subsidiary.
So just how much of our farmland are we willing to sell? And who decides? Most proposed deals must go through the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Established under the Ford Administration in 1975, it has broad powers to accept or deny requests for foreign acquisitions of American companies and land. After September 11, additional criteria were included under the jurisdiction of the CFIUS, including food, water, and agriculture. The committee is made up of representatives from 16 government agencies, and chaired by the Secretary of the Treasury. It includes members from the Department of Defense, Homeland Security, the State Department, and the Departments of Commerce, Energy, and Justice, as well as the offices of the U.S. Trade Representative and Science and Technology Policy. Its reviews and deliberations are closed to the public, and decisions are handed down with virtually no transparency.
The dangers of high land prices are obvious—especially for younger farmers who are trying to get established and farmers who want to steer away from Big Ag approaches. The dangers of ownership by large corporations and foreign buyers are equally clear. But there is another danger to high, rapidly rising land prices—one that brings to mind the great real estate bust of 2007: a bubble. Bubbles can be devastating, leaving small landowners underwater on their mortgages and depriving them of the crucial collateral they need to get loans on operating expenses.
“I don’t think it’s a bubble.”
Could the current rise in farm prices be a bubble? Certainly, if you read some headlines in Midwestern newspapers, you might get the impression not only that there’s a bubble but that it is in the process of bursting. Though farmland prices are still high, they peaked somewhere around 2013 and have fallen for three years in a row—the first time that’s happened.
“I don’t think it’s a bubble,” says Zhang. “In a bubble, you’ll see dissociation between prices and the value of the underlying assets. This time, when crop prices went down—with corn dropping from six or seven dollars a bushel in 2013 to about half that price today—the land prices dropped with them. And farmers still have some money.”
Don’t get too optimistic—or too pessimistic—just yet, though. Interest rates are creeping up. Farm income, the key factor in determining land prices, has been falling for the past three years from record highs, and USDA is predicting a fourth year of decline. On the other hand, operating costs seem to be going down. And prices in Iowa seem to have ticked up slightly, though that may be just because farmers are holding on to their property, waiting for better prices to return; farmland for sale is in short supply in Iowa. (These insights come courtesy of Professor Zhang. For much, much more, visit the invaluable Iowa Land Portal.)
Zhang himself takes a temperate view: “Despite the deteriorating agricultural financial conditions and continued decline in farm income, the current farm downturn is more likely a liquidity and working capital problem, as opposed to a solvency and balance sheet problem for the entire agricultural sector,” he writes .”Rather than an abrupt farm crisis, we are likely to [see] a gradual, drawn-out downward adjustment to the historical normal return levels for the agricultural economy. The U.S. farmland market [is] likely headed towards stabilization and potentially slightly more modest downward adjustments before bouncing back in the near future.”
If it pans out that way, Zhang’s prediction is probably good news for the economy. Is it good news for a sustainable approach to agriculture rooted in small, independent farms, enlightened farming practices, and short supply chains? That’s less obvious. At the very least, it’s going to require the progressive wing of farming to rethink its economics and its go-to-market strategies and possibly make big changes.
But that is a story for another day.
Katy Keiffer has been in the food industry for over 30 years as a cook, butcher, publicist, and food writer. She is the author of What's The Matter With Meat?, an expose of the meat industry, and is the host and producer of the weekly podcast “What Doesn't Kill You: Food Industry Insights” on HeritageRadioNetwork.org.
Senate Introduces Bipartisan Farm Bill With Big Wins For Young Farmers
Senate Introduces Bipartisan Farm Bill With Big Wins For Young Farmers
NYFC praises investments in farmer training, farmland protection, and racial equity
WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 8, 2018) – The National Young Farmers Coalition (NYFC) praised the bipartisan farm bill draft released by the Senate Agriculture Committee, including increased funding for beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers, investments and reforms to preserve farmland for the next generation, and expansion of local and regional food programs. NYFC celebrated the inclusion of a number of key provisions from its comprehensive platform, the Young Farmer Agenda.
“Chairman Roberts and Ranking Member Stabenow are listening to our nation's young farmers,” said Lindsey Lusher Shute, NYFC’s co-founder and Executive Director. “Despite a challenging budget and political climate, we’re thrilled to see program investments that will support the next generation and the inclusion of policy changes that will make programs better-suited for all farmers. We are also pleased to see additional funding for programs targeting socially disadvantaged farmers, conservation partnerships, and concrete steps to make farmers more resilient in the face of climate change.
Like every bipartisan compromise, today’s draft bill isn’t perfect. As we move forward and conduct a full analysis, NYFC looks forward to collaborating with the Committee and every Member of the Senate to make this a farm bill for the future. We thank Senators Roberts and Stabenow for putting ideology and partisanship aside and working to address the urgent needs of America's farmers and the communities they feed. In stark contrast to the House process, this is how a farm bill should be done.”
The National Young Farmers Coalition (NYFC) is a national advocacy network of young farmers fighting for the future of agriculture. Visit NYFC on the web at www.youngfarmers.org, and on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.
It’s Always Sunny At Red Sun Farms
It’s Always Sunny At Red Sun Farms
BY ELIZABETH LOUISE HATT | JUNE 08, 2018
2018 will be a year of growth and product innovation at Red Sun Farms. The team continues to move forward with expansion plans for Mexico, the United States, and Canada, all while trialing new varieties, which will exceed customer expectations in flavor, texture, and quality.
The Organic Grape tomatoes are some of the sweetest snacking varieties and becoming very popular with retailers and consumers. These delicious varieties also have a unique characteristic, lovingly refer to as dimples. To spread the news, the team is getting ready to “show its dimples” this summer. The upcoming campaign will include new advertising elements and a social media program focused on organic grape tomatoes.
“We can’t wait to show off our dimples,” said Leona Neill, marketing and packaging manager for the Kingsville, ON-based company. “There is always something new growing at Red Sun Farms. The team has been busy and there is a lot more excitement to come.” The new items join the company’s existing portfolio of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and the organic line and artisan line of select specialty products.
Education plays a big part in marketing at Red Sun Farms. The company offers several resources for both retailers and consumers to learn more about its produce. This includes an online catalog highlighting information about each product’s unique attributes; a library of recipes on the website that offers at-home chefs new, exciting ways to incorporate vegetables into their diets; and even information on the company’s eco-friendly packaging, explained Neill.
Education is also driving a new promotion around the seed-to-plate model. One of the largest fully integrated high-tech greenhouse growers in North America, the company owns and operates farms throughout Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The seed-to-plate approach ensures consumers that consistent care is implemented throughout the entire growing process, from seed selection to propagation, to harvest, to transportation and delivery.
The upcoming advertising and social media campaign are designed to teach consumers and retailers about the difference Red Sun Farms delivers by owning all steps from seed to plate. “By controlling all steps in the process, we can ensure the same high-quality product from all our locations,” said Neill.
Retailers can meet the Red Sun Farms team and check out their latest products at the United Fresh Convention. Stop by booth No. 1619 to see the new line of avocados, organic grape tomatoes, and the ever-popular cherry on the vine.
Verticulinary Greenhouse Open House - June 13th
Verticulinary Greenhouse Open House
By urbanagnews
May 15, 2018
Verticulinary Greenhouse Open House
Wednesday, June 13, 2018
Industry tours 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Ivy Tech Community College
3701 Dean Drive, Fort Wayne, Indiana
Though our greenhouse is only 3,000 square feet, visitors can expect to see more industry-relevant hydroponic equipment in one location than we believe is anywhere else in the country. We have visited many vertical farming sites around the US and purchased technology that will provide our Agriculture students with hands-on training using the same systems as these fast-growing companies devoted to hyper-local food production. GrowRacksTM have four shelves of circulated water illuminated by red and blue LED fixtures tuned to plant growth and flowering spectra. They grow 2-3” tall, dense planting of vegetable seedlings called micro-greens that are a favorite of culinary artists to provide color, texture and a flavorful punch to dishes. Species include broccoli, wasabi, radish, amaranth, arugula and many more.
These unique racks are designed to fit inside shipping containers that can be mobilized to grocery distribution centers, school parking lots, or urban deserts. We also use them for edible flowers such as viola, nasturtium, and borage, as well as lettuce and leafy greens. A High-Wire Trellis System simulates the hydroponic tomato and pepper production of massive greenhouses that grow for grocery store chains. Drip irrigation with nutrient solution moistens slabs of coconut husk fiber, while vines are trained up to the rafters on a twine trellis.
Our unique improvement to this system is side-lighting provided by rays of LED fixtures from Fluence Bioengineering that increases photosynthesis along the full length of the vines. TowerGardensTM are seven-foot columns with trailing plants such as strawberries and cherry tomatoes. Water is pumped from a reservoir to the top of each column where it sprays over the roots aeroponically.
ZipGrow RacksTM features an array of vertical gutters that grow lettuce, spinach, kale and other leafy greens using a recirculating system, with an incredible efficiency of 10 plants per square foot of floor space. Our NFT System uses horizontal gutters recirculating a thin film of nutrient solution that lettuce roots grow into. Lastly, our tiered DoubleDeck System with LED illumination and drip irrigation on both levels will simulate vertical production of medicinal cannabis using basil, rosemary, mint and other culinary herbs.
Recirculating water systems greatly reduce the water usage and fertilizer waste, while LED fixtures use less than half the electricity of standard greenhouse lighting. Furthermore, aquaculture units are being put in place that will create organic fertilizer for our systems. This educational greenhouse will be used in partnerships with the Ivy Tech culinary program, local restaurants, the Fort Wayne Zoo, local farmers markets and other community organizations to provide safe, nutritious food while offsetting costs to train the Agriculture students in the new facility.
For more information, contact:
Robert Eddy, CEA Consultancy
Robeddy92@gmail.com
765-607-3412
- TAGS
- Greenhouse
Bill To Boost Urban Agriculture In Illinois Heads To Rauner’s Desk
Bill To Boost Urban Agriculture In Illinois Heads To Rauner’s Desk
Alex Ruppenthal | May 29, 2018
(Linda from Chicago / Creative Commons)
Legislation that could help break up food desserts in Chicago and other cities across the state passed the Illinois Senate last week and now awaits the signature of Gov. Bruce Rauner.
The bill would allow local governments to provide incentives such as reduced water rates and utility fees and property tax abatements for farmers in “urban agriculture zones” established at the municipal or county level.
After passing the Illinois House by a vote of 86-22 in April, the bill passed the state Senate on May 23 by a unanimous 55-0 vote, sending it to Rauner’s desk for final approval.
“[The legislation] will help open doors for urban farmers to supply healthy foods, grow valuable jobs and revitalize land in communities needing extra support,” said Rodger Cooley, executive director of the Chicago Food Policy Action Council, in a statement. The nonprofit aims to increase access to healthy foods in underserved Chicago neighborhoods.
Introduced last year by state Rep. Sonya Harper, D-Chicago, House Bill 3418 would apply to organizations or individuals who grow produce or other agricultural products, raise or process livestock or poultry or sell a minimum of 75 percent locally grown food.
According to the bill, sales tax from agriculture products would be deposited into an urban agriculture zone fund, and monies collected in the fund would be specified for a county, municipality or school district.
Harper has previously said that the money could be used in a variety of ways, such as for educational programs focused on nutrition or to support businesses and farms.
The legislation has received support from both environmental advocates and groups focused on increasing access to healthy foods in urban areas.
“This bill will make farm dreams a reality for many urban growers,” said Liz Moran Stelk, executive director of the Illinois Stewardship Alliance, which advocates for local food and farms, in a statement. "It levels the playing field for producers across the state to access and afford land."
A separate piece of legislation introduced by Harper and passed into law last year requires Illinois to track food deserts, or areas lacking fresh fruit, vegetables and other healthy foods.
Contact Alex Ruppenthal: @arupp | aruppenthal@wttw.com | (773) 509-5623
Wendy's Makes Another First in Fresh with Innovative Tomato Supply Initiative
Wendy's Makes Another First in Fresh with Innovative Tomato Supply Initiative
First-in-QSR Commitment to Source Vine-Ripened, Greenhouse-Grown Fresh Tomatoes
DUBLIN, Ohio, June 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of its ongoing commitment to sourcing fresh, high-quality produce, today, Wendy's® is announcing an initiative to source vine-ripened tomatoes for its North American restaurants exclusively from greenhouse farms by early 2019.
Tomatoes for Wendy's will be grown in indoor greenhouse and hydroponic farms from approximately a dozen suppliers throughout North America, including the West Coast, Pacific Northwest, Southeast and Great Lakes regions of the United States; Eastern and Western Canada; and Mexico. Nearly all tomatoes will be sourced from the United States and Canada, giving Wendy's customers the benefit of fresh, great-tasting tomatoes from sources that match the brand's North American restaurant footprint.
"We've always been committed to providing customers with fresh, high-quality food. From our fresh never frozen beef, to creating the first salad bar in the QSR space, to hand-chopping produce in our restaurants daily, this newest initiative to source vine-ripened tomatoes from greenhouse farms is the latest way we're delivering on that commitment," said Liliana Esposito, chief communications officer for Wendy's.
"We're making this change for a variety of reasons that will benefit our customers, but taste and quality are the top factors and we are excited about the superior flavors we can achieve with this change," said Dennis Hecker, senior vice president of quality assurance for Wendy's. "Additionally, greenhouse farms provide supply predictability and quality assurance benefits—including continuity of supply; protection of crops from harsh weather; safe, indoor growing conditions; and a significant reduction of chemical pesticides used on the plants."
Wendy's also believes that greenhouse growing will support local economies by sustaining the agricultural workforce with fresh produce that can be grown year-round in comfortable, indoor environments. It will also bring economic opportunities to regions that previously have been unable to support year-round agriculture production due to geography and climate.
As Wendy's transitions to its new tomato supply, it expects to see social and environmental sustainability benefits about which it will communicate regularly. Expected benefits include the significant reduction of chemical pesticide use, including replacing pesticides with natural integrated pest management practices such as ladybugs; water and land use benefits; safe, indoor working conditions and economic benefits to regions where the greenhouses are located.
With the transition actively underway, vine-ripened, greenhouse-grown tomatoes will be available at Wendy's in the U.S. and Canada between now and early 2019.
About Wendy's
Wendy's® was founded in 1969 by Dave Thomas in Columbus, Ohio. Dave built his business on the premise, "Quality is our Recipe®," which remains the guidepost of the Wendy's system. Wendy's is best known for its made-to-order square hamburgers, using fresh, never frozen beef*, freshly-prepared salads with hand-chopped lettuce, and other signature items like chili, baked potatoes and the Frosty® dessert. The Wendy's Company (NASDAQ: WEN) is committed to doing the right thing and making a positive difference in the lives of others. This is most visible through the Company's support of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption® and its signature Wendy's Wonderful Kids® program, which seeks to find every child in the North American foster care system a loving, forever home. Today, Wendy's and its franchisees employ hundreds of thousands of people across more than 6,600 restaurants worldwide with a vision of becoming the world's most thriving and beloved restaurant brand.
Please visit www.wendys.com and www.squaredealblog.com for more information and connect with us on Twitter and Instagram using @wendys, and on Facebook, www.facebook.com/wendys.
*Fresh beef available in the contiguous U.S., Alaska, and Canada.
SOURCE Wendy's
Frustrated With Certification Process And Market Access
Frustrated With Certification Process And Market Access
US farmers are dropping organic labels
Midwestern fruit and vegetable farmers are more likely than their counterparts in other regions to give up federal organic certification, according to a Purdue University study.
Obtaining organic certification can be an expensive, year-long process that requires changing management practices and working with certifiers who determine if farms meet the government’s extensive requirements. But many farmers -who can get higher prices for organic products- think this is all worth it.
In 2017, organic food sales topped $45 billion, up 6.4 percent from 2016, according to the Organic Trade Association. Sales have more than doubled since 2010. Fruits and vegetables are the top-selling categories, making up nearly 37 percent of organic food sales.
Despite the boom in demand, the number of organic farms has declined from 14,540 in 2008 to 12,818 in 2015. Some of that is due to the consolidation of small and medium farms into larger operations. But some operations are simply leaving the organic program.
That may be because too few of the smaller organic farms are located near markets that would purchase large quantities of organic produce. Transportation to larger population centers may be less cost-effective for the small organic farms.
Organic farmers were also likely to opt out of certification if the process became too much of a hassle. “Farmers were more likely to decertify if they perceived that loss of freedom, paperwork, cost of certification, interaction with the certifier, and lack of information were barriers to remain certified. It seems that the requirements embedded in the certification process were detrimental to the decision to remain certified,” the authors of the study wrote.
Understanding the reasons why organic farmers decertify may help inform government decisions on certification rules and processes.
Publication date: 6/1/2018
Bronx Teens Create Hydroponic Farm To Grow 25,000 Pounds of Produce A Year
Bronx Teens Create Hydroponic Farm To Grow 25,000 Pounds of Produce A Year
The farm can grow various types of lettuce, Swiss chard, bok choy, tomatoes, and cucumbers along with herbs.
Students Saul Morel, left, and Jasmely Torres examine butterhead lettuce at the DeWitt Clinton Campus' hydroponic farm. Photo Credit: Linda Rosier
By Lisa L. Colangelolisa.colangelo@amny.com @lisalcolangelo
June 4, 2018
No soil? No problem.
A group of Bronx teens helped create a 1,300-square-foot hydroponic farm designed to grow 25,000 pounds of produce a year in one of the city’s toughest “food deserts.”
The project is designed to teach students about sustainable agriculture, advocacy and nutrition while building their science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills.
“Watching the students blossom and change through the program even in this short period of time is really impressive,” said Katherine Soll, CEO and director of Teens for Food Justice, a nonprofit that helped students build the indoor farm with a $127,000 grant from the Green Mountain Energy Sun Club, as well as other donors. “They have really grasped all the concepts of the farm, how the systems work and how it is different from growing in soil.”
Hydroponic farms use water and a nutrient solution to grow food. The farm was built inside a former lab at the DeWitt Clinton Campus, located off the Mosholu Parkway, between October and January, Soll said.
A celebration Saturday marked the end of the farm’s first year and signaled its ability to go into full production mode.
The goal is to grow enough food to use in the school’s cafeteria, distribute to food pantries and sell at a low cost to the community.
The farm can produce various types of lettuce, Swiss chard, bok choy, tomatoes and cucumbers along with herbs as such basil, thyme, oregano and cilantro.
'Rebel' Farmers Launch Second Organic Label
'Rebel' Farmers Launch Second Organic Label
New label will certify foods grown in soil — and exclude others.
June 4, 2018
The role of soil in organic farming is the basis of an ongoing argument. (Photo: wellphoto/Shutterstock)
Can a food be organic if it never touched soil? Some say it can't. They believe foods produced using hydroponic, aquaponic or aeroponic methods don't qualify as organic because they don't use soil. Some farmers have been fighting for the exclusion of these methods from organic certification by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), but now they're taking a different path. They're creating their own organic label that excludes water-grown methods.
Organics and soil
The USDA says these hydroponic tomatoes can be certified if they meet all the agency's standards. (Photo: Alekandre Baevi/Shutterstock)
Last year, these soil-only organic advocates bonded together and held rallies to fight against the inclusion of foods produced using these methods because they can rely heavily on industrialized methods. In addition to believing organics must include soil, they also fear that certifying hydroponics and aquaponics will lead to a loss in traditional organic farms and their healthy soils.
In a press release sent out last year in advance of the rallies, farmers and organic food advocates made their argument clear: For food to be organic, soil must be part of the equation. One champion of this movement is Fred Kirschenmann, who has been an organic farmer for 37 years, is president of Stone Barns in New York and a distinguished fellow at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Iowa.
"So the thing that I think we need to understand more fully in our organic movement today is that it’s ultimately about the soil," Kirschenmann says in the press release. "The soil is what is the foundation of organic agriculture. And the reason for that is because soil is not just dirt as it is often assumed in our culture today. Soil is actually a living community. There are more microbes in a single tablespoonful of soil like this than there are humans on the planet — so billions of microbes — and it’s those microbes that provide all of the benefits from the food that we grow on soil."
Ultimately, the rallies didn't bring about the intended results. The National Organic Standard Board, which advises the USDA on the organic certification program, did not recommend that the USDA exclude hydroponics or aquaponics from organic certification.
In January of this year, the USDA clarified its position on hydroponics and aquaponics, saying they can be certified organic if they meet all standards, according to The Packer. Currently, being grown in soil is not one of the standards.
A second organic label is born
Consumers who want to know if their plants have been grown in soil should be able to find that information out. (Photo: yuris/Shutterstock)
In response to the USDA allowing soil-less foods to qualify for organic certification, some soil-only advocates have banded together again — this time to create their own label. According to the The Register-Mail, there's a rebel group of scientists and farmers, calling themselves the Real Organic Project, who met in Vermont in late March to create the additional organic certification program. This summer, between 20 to 60 farms across the country will pilot the program.
No name for the label or exact wording has been released, but the label will indicate that produce was grown in soil and animal products came from pastured animals. The labels would be added by the farms themselves after an inspector certified that the farm met the new label's standards. These foods could also carry the USDA organic label, should they qualify for it.
The hydroponic industry responded to the new label by saying a second certification label will confuse consumers and give an edge to traditionally grown products. Advocates for the new label say hydroponic farming has the competitive edge because it can produce more than the traditional method.
Consumers should be informed about how their food is grown and the conditions they're grown under. I'm never in favor of the "more information will confuse consumers" argument because it discounts both the intelligence of shoppers and their right to know about their food. If consumers want to purchase foods that have been produced with soil and not hydroponically or aquaponically, I see no problem in an independent program that allows them to find that information easily.