Welcome to iGrow News, Your Source for the World of Indoor Vertical Farming
Aquaponic Growers, Researchers, Educators, And Enthusiasts:
Hi Everyone,
Friday and Saturday Passport Tickets for the Putting Up Shoots conference are now on sale. Head to our Putting Up Shoots homepage to purchase tickets and for more info.
Best wishes,
Brian Filipowich, Chairman
Aquaponics Association
From now until the September Putting Up Shoots conference we'll be rolling out a steady stream of conference previews. Check out the content we've already featured:
The Aquaponics Association is proud to present our tentative program for the Sept 21-23 Putting Up Shoots conference!
Check it out here: http://bit.ly/2MHWXO0
Oh my! A tremendous learning experience with the world's top experts and over SIXTY unique sessions. You don't want to miss it!
ALSO - The conference room block discount at the Hartford Hilton ends TODAY! Get your hotel room ASAP. Click here for the room block:
http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/groups/personalized/H/HFDHHHF-NAA-20180920/index.jhtml?WT.mc_id=POG
Nick Savidov, Lethbridge College: Development of the First Zero-Waste Food Production System Based on Aquaponics
Ryan Chatterson, Aquaponic Engineering and Design: Finding Profitability in an Ever-Changing Aquaponic Landscape
Kevin Savage, Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy: An Engineering Design Process Model to Teach STEM Education through Aquaponics
The Husky-Ponics Tour - visiting the University of Connecticut Spring Valley Student Farm and Bigelow Brook Farm
Carlos Leon, Acuaponia: Bio-Engineering for Commercial Aquaponics
Ken Armstrong, Ouroboros Farms: The Future of Aquaponics is Now
Vendor Spotlight: Stalite Environmental
This is a small fraction of all the great content we have in store. For tickets and other conference information, head to our Putting Up Shoots conference homepage.
PUTTING UP SHOOTS 2018 SCHEDULE
Don't forget we still have space for presentation proposals in our four learning tracks: Commercial Aquaponics, Community Aquaponics, Aquaponics Research & Food Safety, and Aquaponics in STEM Education.
We hope to see you in September!
Brian Filipowich, Chairman
Aquaponics Association
P.S. Don't forget to check if you qualify for the STEM & Community Aquaponics Discount:
Apply for the STEM & Community Discount!
5 Urban Farms Around The U.S. Changing Their Communities For The Better
In abandoned lots, in parks, on rooftops, and even in hospitals, urban farming is thriving.
BY KOTY NEELIS
In abandoned lots, in parks, on rooftops, and even in hospitals, urban farming is thriving. As more people want to know where their food comes from, community leaders across the country are seeking creative ways to grow fresh produce for residents in their city. But urban agricultural does more than just provide access to locally grown food — it boosts economic growth, lowers carbon emissions, and tackles issues surrounding environmental degradation, public health, poverty, and more by giving people greater control over the food system.
From quarter-acre farms run by elementary students to green roof gardens feeding thousands, here are a few urban farming projects aiming to make their community a better place.
1. Detroit Dirt
Detroit Dirt's mission is to create a zero-waste mindset throughout communities and drive forward a low-carbon economy. It's a compost company that helps complete the “circle of life” in food production by regenerating waste into resources. Pashon Murray, the leader behind the composting revolution in Detroit, is diverting tens of thousands of tons of food waste a year away from landfills and into a closed-loop composting system Murray built entirely from the ground up.
2. Boston Medical Center
As more hospitals move towards growing their own food for their patients and the community, one New England hospital has become a leader in this movement by placing a farm right on the hospital's rooftop. Boston Medical Center is not only the largest rooftop farm in Boston, but it's also first hospital-based rooftop farm in Massachusetts. The 7,000 square foot farm grows more than 25 crops and aims to generate 15,000 pounds of food every season, along with a couple of beehives to produce honey.
3. Ohio City Farm
Located in Cleveland, Ohio, Ohio City Farm is one of the largest contiguous urban farms in the United States. With over six acres, the farm aims to provide fresh, local, and healthy food to Cleveland’s underserved residents, while also boosting the local food economy and teaching the community about healthy eating. It's also home to Refugee Response, an employment training program that helps the city’s newest immigrants acquire the needed skills to succeed in their new communities by growing and selling organically farmed fresh produce
4. SAVOR…Chicago
Located on top of McCormick Place (the largest convention center in North America), this roof top farm is the largest soil-based rooftop farm in the Midwest, according to the Chicago Botanic Garden, which maintains the farm through its Windy City Harvest program. SAVOR serves about 3 million people a year at McCormick Place and has been recognized for its sustainability leadership and innovation including Green Seal Certification and International APEX certification in sustainability.
5. Acta Non Verba
Located in Oakland, CA, Acta Non Verba is a youth urban farm that's planned, planted, harvested, and sold by local elementary and middle school-aged kids. Founded and led mainly by women of color from the surrounding neighborhood and larger community, the quarter-acre nonprofit farm aims to challenge oppressive dynamics and environment with urban farming. ANV designs their monthly farm days, camps, and after-school program, so that young children have the opportunity to experience nature in a safe and welcoming green space, learning, creating, and accessing healthy, nature-based experiences that will empower them.
Urban Farming Popularity On The Rise In Columbus
I feel like it's like a huge privilege to be able to have a space where I can farm in the city.
by Rachael Penton
Thursday, July 19th 2018
“We have summer squash, dill, collards, tomatoes." Marcie Todd’s urban pocket farm is nestled in between the homes of Ann Street. "People come through every day and they're like oh I didn't even see this here!"
Todd has built the farm on land that she leases from the city where a vacant house was town down. “I feel like it's like a huge privilege to be able to have a space where I can farm in the city." Michael Hogan with the OSU extension says urban for-profit farms like Todd’s are growing in Columbus. "About 4 or 5 years ago we had 4 or 5 in the city limits of Columbus, and this summer there are 30 that we know of."
In addition to being a source of income for the farmers the garden provides fresh produce in an area where there isn't always a lot. "When I saw the garden going in I thought this is just awesome," says neighbor Michelle Schultz.
Rachael - Urban ag farm.jpg
Todd donates 15 percent of everything grown on the farm. "I feel like it's really important to give as much from the urban site to our community as we can." She sells the rest to the neighbors- who are enjoying watching the garden grow. "I think it's going to do a lot to make people take notice and maybe take more pride in their properties when they see something like that happening in their neighborhood."
More information on The City of Columbus Land Bank Community Garden Program on their website here.
A Suffolk Greenhouse The Size of 11 Football Pitches
A company’s multi-million pound investment is about to turn Suffolk into a major producer of vine tomatoes.
Cliff Matthews, a director of Sterling Suffolk Ltd., inside the giant glasshouse being built on land between Great Blakenham and Bramford. The new greenhouse will be used to grow vine tomatoes by hydroponic
A company’s multi-million pound investment is about to turn Suffolk into a major producer of vine tomatoes.
Cliff Matthews, a director of Sterling Suffolk Ltd., inside the giant glasshouse being built on land between Great Blakenham and Bramford. The new greenhouse will be used to grow vine tomatoes by hydroponics
In the first stage of a £30m project, at Great Blakenham near Ipswich, Sterling Suffolk Ltd has built a massive Dutch-style glasshouse with the dimensions of an aircraft hangar - or 11 football pitches.
It is on track for the first tomatoes to be planted in December, and for the first cropping to begin from mid February 2019.
The plan is to produce tomato vines by hydroponics - without soil, but perhaps coconut matting (coir), and fed water and nutrients that are carefully controlled.
This giant greenhouse is similar to those seen in parts of Holland and France, and used to produce a range of salad vegetables, fruit and flowers.
Cliff Matthews, a director of the developers, Sterling Suffolk Ltd, said: “It has been great to start this, seven years ago, and to be here to see it coming to fruition,
“There are some bigger ones in the country of course. This phase one is the size of 11 football pitches.
“It is the most environmentally efficient glasshouse in the UK. The first of its kind here.
“There are a number in France and Holland.
“Real glass is more efficient for this.
“This is agriculture on a industrial scale. There is an art and science to growing tomatoes and we have a very good expert involved, Richard Lewis, one of the best in the UK.”
Vine tomatoes, with clumps of tomatoes still attached to the vine, would be harvested and supplied to supermarkets and the restaurant trade.
“We aim to produce 50,000 vines per week. It is more about the taste than the quantity.” he added. “These will be top of the range quality.”
The 5.6 hectare building is phase one of a three-phase project, costing around £30m in all, over the next three years.
When complete there will be 17 hectares of production glasshouses, plus office, packaging and production on site.
The first giant 8,3 metre tall house has been constructed since March, despite the bad weather.
Now it will be fitted out with blinds and hydroponics equipment ready for the first planting in December.
It would be very environmentlly friendly, he said, with air ciculation systems and the water for the hydroponics collected from the roof and stored in a reservoir.
The tomatoes would grow in natural light, with a season from March through to October, and one hectare of plants would grow under lights at other times.
The site would employ between 40 and 50 people, he said. “And we will employ more when we get growing and expanding.
“We have spent about half a million pounds in the local environment so far, with more to follow.
“Over the years it is gooing to benefit all of the community,”
The project attracted some local opposition during the planning process.
Mr Matthews added: “Personally I don’t think it looks too bad in the countryside. There are trees and we are goiong to plant more for screening.”
This project will not be the largest in the region, at Wissington in Norfolk British Sugar has an 18 hectatre glasshouse - and products there include medicinal cannabis.
The World’s First “High-Tech Eco Village” Will Reinvent Suburbs
A half-hour commute from Amsterdam, a piece of farmland is slated to become a new kind of neighborhood. Vertical farms, along with traditional fields and orchards surrounding homes, will supply food to people living there. Food waste will turn into fish feed for on-site aquaculture. Houses will filter rainwater, but won’t have driveways. A “village OS” tech platform will use AI to simultaneously manage systems for renewable energy, food production, water supply, and waste.
The 50-acre neighborhood, which will be nearly self-sufficient as it collects and stores water and energy, grows food, and processes much of its own waste, was initially planned for construction in 2017. The developers, called ReGen Villages, struggled with red tape–the area, on a piece of land that used to be underwater but was reclaimed in the 1960s when a seawall was constructed–has regulations that make it difficult for someone other than an individual homeowner to build on land that is mostly used for farming now. But after the project finally got government approval this month, it’s ready to take its next steps.
![[Photo: ReGen Villages]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c8695d5016e11e71be1d83/1534760237080-2520TS7R23O8T7ZR9D2M/eco+village-2.jpg)
[Photo: ReGen Villages]
“We can connect a neighborhood the way it’s supposed to be connected, which is around natural resources,” says James Ehrlich, founder of ReGen Villages. If the project raises the final funding needed to begin construction, what is now a simple field will have new canals, wetlands, and ponds that can soak up stormwater (the area is seven meters below sea level, and at risk for flooding) and attract migrating birds. The land will be planted with trees, gardens, and food forests. Vertical gardens inside greenhouses will grow food on a small footprint. The 203 new homes, from tiny houses and row houses to larger villas, will provide needed housing in an area where the population may double in 15 years. The houses range in cost from 200,000 to 850,000 euros.
As cities become increasingly expensive and crowded, Ehrlich believes that this type of development may become more common. “In the last few years, we’ve really seen that the market has shifted and that there’s a hollowing out of cities,” he says. “They are really expensive and the quality of life is going down, and as much as millennials or younger people really want to be in the city, the fact is that they can’t really afford it . . . the trends are really moving toward this kind of neighborhood development outside of cities.”
![[Photo: ReGen Villages]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c8695d5016e11e71be1d83/1534760323234-E8PYCK6PT7ZLEV48UXZ5/eco+village-3.PNG)
[Photo: ReGen Villages]
There’s also a need to rethink infrastructure so it works more efficiently, with a lower environmental footprint. The new development considers everything–from electricity to sewage–as an interconnected system, and software links the pieces together. Electric cars, for example, which will be parked on the perimeter of the neighborhood to keep streets walkable, can store some of the extra power from the neighborhood’s solar panels and other renewable energy.
The neighborhood works differently than most. Because of the expected arrival of self-driving cars in coming years, and to encourage walking and biking, the houses aren’t designed with parking; a new bus line along the edge of the neighborhood, with a dedicated bus lane, can take residents to the town of Almere or into Amsterdam. (As in other parts of the Netherlands, separated bike paths also connect to the city.) Water will come primarily from rain collection. The on-site farming, including raising chicken and fish, will supply a large portion of the local food supply. If neighbors volunteer for the community–to garden, or teach a yoga class, or provide elder care, for example–the community will use a blockchain-based time bank to track their hours, and then provide a discount on their HOA fees.
![[Photo: ReGen Villages]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c8695d5016e11e71be1d83/1534760367146-N6LO14QFMR1T625FFX3A/eco+village-4.jpg)
[Photo: ReGen Villages]
A “living machine,” a system that uses plants and trees to filter sewage, and a separate anaerobic digester, can handle the neighborhood’s sewage and provide irrigation or water reused in energy systems. A system for processing food and animal waste will use black soldier flies and aquatic worms to digest the waste and create both chicken and fish feed. Other household waste–like cans and bottles–will be handled by the municipal recycling system, at least initially.
It’s a design that Ehrlich believes is feasible elsewhere, though it may not easily fit into existing regulations, and it would need political support. (Some other “agrihoods,” neighborhoods with built-in farming, do already exist, like Kuwili Lani in Hawaii, which also uses renewable energy and harvests some rainwater.)
“We know that governments around the world are in a desperate situation to build probably over a billion new homes around the world,” he says. “It’s a terrible housing crisis. At the same time, they wrestle with a number of things: the commercial interest of farmers, the commercial interests of traditional real estate developers, material companies who have a way of doing things that they’ve been doing for 100, 150 years. Most of the rules on the books relate to this district-scale thinking–of grid-based electricity, of district-scale water, of district-scale sewage.”
Financing is another challenge: While typical real estate developers look for large rates of return and quick exits, ReGen Villages plans to stay involved in its developments and get long-term, single-digit returns. The company is still raising the last round of money needed for the new development. Because Almere has regulations that don’t allow for high density, the initial development will also be more expensive. But once it’s built–something that Ehrlich expects to happen in 2019–others can follow more quickly. “We have access to a lot of really big money that’s waiting for us to finish the next pilot, and so we need the proof of concept,” he says.
The company has plans to build future developments near cities like Lund, Sweden, and Lejre-Hvalso, Denmark, and it ultimately hopes to bring a low-cost version of the neighborhoods to developing countries. “We can imagine going to rural India, sub-Saharan Africa, where we know the next 2 [billion] to 3 billion people are coming to the planet, and where we know that hundreds of millions of people are moving into the middle class,” he says. “And [we want] to get there as quickly as we can to provide new kinds of suburbs, new kinds of neighborhoods.”
A Farm Is Coming To Downtown Shreveport. For Real
Tiana Kennell, Shreveport Times Published August 21, 2018
Hydroponic gardening is good business. BART BOATWRIGHT/Staff
Hydroponics uses water, LED lights and nutrients, but no soil, to grow plants.
Catching a bus to a market miles away from home and then hauling armfuls of groceries back may not be the ideal shopping scenario. But it’s a reality many residents in downtown Shreveport and other “food desert” communities live every day.
Michael Billings, a resident of downtown Shreveport, realized he lives in a food desert — an urban neighborhood lacking affordable, fresh and quality food. Many of his neighbors are older, physically unable to travel or have limited modes of transportation, he said.
He plans to lighten the load for his neighbors by bringing fresh produce to their doorstep within minutes through his business, Cotton St. Farms.
Billings is flipping a vacant building in downtown Shreveport — once used as a mechanic’s shop and computer server office — to open an indoor hydroponic farm.
Cotton St. Farms will take urban farming to the next level by using a soil-less gardening technique to grow the leafy greens and herbs in an environmentally friendly, controlled environment.
Billings talked to The Shreveport Times to explain hydroponics and how it will help downtown residents and other local communities acquire fresh, quality produce.
Why found Cotton St. Farms?
Billings is a member of the family that owns and operates DixieMaze Farms in rural north Caddo Parish. He and his father discussed alternative farming methods, prompted in part by the lack of fresh produce in his downtown Shreveport neighborhood.
That led to hydroponic farming. Through hydroponics, he would bring the farm to the “food desert.”
Cotton St. Farms will partner with local farms, beekeepers and others to sell and deliver fresh vegetables, fruit, meat and more.
“We’ll be growing leafy greens and herbs, some vegetables, and we work with local farmers to provide produce for delivery or pickup downtown,” Billings said.
Cotton St. Farms' first day of operation has not yet been announced. Consumers may stay up to date on the farm's progress at cottonstfarms.com.
Cotton St. Farms will grow herbs and vegetables, as well as partner with local farms, beekeepers and other businesses to supply fresh produce and more. (Photo: Tiana Kennell/The Times)
What is hydroponic farming?
The U.S. Agriculture Department defines hydroponics as “growing plants in a nutrient solution root medium.” No soil is used.
“You’ve seen them in five-gallon buckets with rocks," Billings said. "Our (way) is vertical and has a foam material in it."
In his method, Billings will suspend plant roots in a medium that allows both air and nutrient-rich water to circulate.
"They’re never drowned, but they constantly have just the right amount of oxygen, water, nutrients and that allows us to grow it soil-less.”
Is hydroponic farming new?
Billings researched how other urban communities are using hydroponics to improve access to food sources. In Detroit, he found some urban farmers use vacant manufacturing warehouses for hydroponic farming.
“We are not inventing, in any means, hydroponic farming,” Billings said. “They’re popping up all over the nation."
Seedlings will be used to begin the soil-less farming process at Cotton St. Farms. (Photo: Tiana Kennell/The Times)
How does growth begin?
Planting and growing begins with seedlings placed into starter cubes that are then put into trays like muffin tins — without soil. Water is pulled into the cubes. When the plants are tall enough, they are placed in hydroponic channels between two long, metal trays that then are locked onto a vertical tower. Under grow-lights, the seedlings grow horizontally. Then the plants are harvested.
Cotton St. Farms will grow vegetables and herbs from vertical towers in its indoor hydroponics farm in downtown Shreveport. (Photo: Tiana Kennell/The Times)
"If you imagine library stacks, (the towers) will be eight feet tall and six to eight feet long," Billings said. "We’re going to build our own equipment. They’ll be double-sided and the lights will be suspended on a rail system with two of them traveling back and forth."
Specialized lighting equipment will help create the ideal growing environment for vegetables and herb. (Photo: Tiana Kennell/The Times)
Is it environmentally friendly?
The grow lamps use LED lights and the farm will be highly water efficient, Billings said. The only water loss is in evaporation and plant consumption.
"Our carbon footprint is super low," he said. "It’s artificial sun, but the same spectrum. We’re allowing the vegetables to get everything they need to grow super-fast but develop on their own."
Successful growth will come by controlling and monitoring all elements of the growth process.
"It’s a closed system. Every seven to 10 days we flush the system so we don’t have fungus built into it, but it’s clean, pure water," Billings said. "We have sensors that will detect the nutrient level and electrical levels of the water — if water becomes too murky or too filled with nutrients. We create the perfect growing environment."
What will be grown?
“Off the bat, we’ll be growing kale, spinach, lettuce, lots of cooking herbs, micro greens, alfalfa, beans, edible flowers and possibly some mushrooms,” Billings said. “Once we’re up and going, we’ll extend that to heritage tomatoes, some really cool cucumbers.”
What won’t be grown?
“A lot of the traditional produce isn’t really cost-efficient to grow indoors because you have such a big plant and then you have one ear of corn. One square foot is one ear of corn, and I can’t sell two ears of corn for very much," Billings said.
"Depending on how it’s set up and the efficiency of the vegetable, it kind of limits you. You can grow almost anything hydroponically, but you don’t really want to on a commercial level.”
Does hydroponic produce taste the same as traditionally grown produce?
“It’s absolutely delicious — big, full-bodied plants. They’ve grown with the exact amount of nutrients, the exact amount of water, the perfect light spectrum," Billings said. "It's a reason why plants grow in certain times of the year — because they require certain spectrums of light. We put all that and make a perfect growing environment."
Hydroponics is a natural way of farming without the fungicides, herbicides and pesticides, Billings said, which creates "a very clean environment."
"Grocery stores pick the tomato green because it has to live for a week before it gets to the grocery store," he said. "And before it goes to the grocery store it’s bombarded with chemicals to ripen it. Then they put it on the shelf."
Billings said garden vegetables taste better they're naturally ripened.
"It takes time to build the minerals and vitamins inside vegetables and leafy greens. If you shorten that process, you don’t get all of it and that’s where the taste is."
How fresh are your ingredients compared to a big grocery store's?
Products are picked within 24 hours so they’re fresh for customers, Billings said.
"You go to the grocery store and that little container of herbs is $4. Those herbs have been sitting there a couple of weeks," Billing said. "Imagine getting herbs that were cut an hour before you got it. If you want to cook with rosemary, oregano, basil — it was living minutes before you put it in your spaghetti sauce. You’ll taste the difference.”
How will cost compare to grocery stores?
Products will be available for purchase at the downtown store or available for delivery through On The Go Delivery and Waitr.
The prices will be comparable to those at Whole Foods Market, Billings said, but slightly higher than those at Walmart.
How sustainable is hydroponic farming?
"If I’m able to sell everything we grow, it comes out to about $1 million in sales a year out of this location — not $1 million in profit," Billings said.
The idea behind urban farming is not needing 100 acres or more to produce fresh fruits and vegetables, he said. The hydroponics farm will have a smaller production rate, so Billings plans to work in tandem with other local farms.
"We will never replace traditional farmers," he said.
Michael Billings is the CEO of Cotton St. Farms, a hydroponics grow house to begin operation in downtown Shreveport. (Photo: Tiana Kennell/The Times)
5 Urban Farms Around The U.S. Changing Their Communities For The Better
In abandoned lots, in parks, on rooftops, and even in hospitals, urban farming is thriving. As more people want to know where their food comes from, community leaders across the country are seeking creative ways to grow fresh produce for residents in their city
By Koty Neelis
In abandoned lots, in parks, on rooftops, and even in hospitals, urban farming is thriving. As more people want to know where their food comes from, community leaders across the country are seeking creative ways to grow fresh produce for residents in their city. But urban agricultural does more than just provide access to locally grown food — it boosts economic growth, lowers carbon emissions, and tackles issues surrounding environmental degradation, public health, poverty, and more by giving people greater control over the food system.
From quarter-acre farms run by elementary students to green roof gardens feeding thousands, here are a few urban farming projects aiming to make their community a better place.
1. Detroit Dirt
Detroit Dirt's mission is to create a zero-waste mindset throughout communities and drive forward a low-carbon economy. It's a compost company that helps complete the “circle of life” in food production by regenerating waste into resources. Pashon Murray, the leader behind the composting revolution in Detroit, is diverting tens of thousands of tons of food waste a year away from landfills and into a closed-loop composting system Murray built entirely from the ground up.
2. Boston Medical Center
As more hospitals move towards growing their own food for their patients and the community, one New England hospital has become a leader in this movement by placing a farm right on the hospital's rooftop. Boston Medical Center is not only the largest rooftop farm in Boston, but it's also first hospital-based rooftop farm in Massachusetts. The 7,000 square foot farm grows more than 25 crops and aims to generate 15,000 pounds of food every season, along with a couple of beehives to produce honey.
3. Ohio City Farm
Located in Cleveland, Ohio, Ohio City Farm is one of the largest contiguous urban farms in the United States. With over six acres, the farm aims to provide fresh, local, and healthy food to Cleveland’s underserved residents, while also boosting the local food economy and teaching the community about healthy eating. It's also home to Refugee Response, an employment training program that helps the city’s newest immigrants acquire the needed skills to succeed in their new communities by growing and selling organically farmed fresh produce
4. SAVOR…Chicago
Located on top of McCormick Place (the largest convention center in North America), this roof top farm is the largest soil-based rooftop farm in the Midwest, according to the Chicago Botanic Garden, which maintains the farm through its Windy City Harvest program. SAVOR serves about 3 million people a year at McCormick Place and has been recognized for its sustainability leadership and innovation including Green Seal Certification and International APEX certification in sustainability.
5. Acta Non Verba
Located in Oakland, CA, Acta Non Verba is a youth urban farm that's planned, planted, harvested, and sold by local elementary and middle school-aged kids. Founded and led mainly by women of color from the surrounding neighborhood and larger community, the quarter-acre nonprofit farm aims to challenge oppressive dynamics and environment with urban farming. ANV designs their monthly farm days, camps, and after-school program, so that young children have the opportunity to experience nature in a safe and welcoming green space, learning, creating, and accessing healthy, nature-based experiences that will empower them.
Can Artificial Intelligence Do As Well As Farmers In The Future?
Cucumber plants to enter autonomous greenhouse of Wageningen University & Research
Tuesday 14 August marked the start of the Autonomous Greenhouses Challenge as five international teams try to grow cucumbers at a distance with the use of artificial intelligence at the facilities of Wageningen University & Research (WUR). “The goal is to convert knowledge about cultivation into algorithms that can enable computers to regulate cultivation automatically in the future, even in places where such knowledge is lacking. So the question is: can computers do as well as farmers?”
The five international teams will have four months to produce a cucumber yield remotely and without human intervention, using as little water, nutrition and energy as possible while achieving the highest possible output (i.e. production). Each team has been allocated 96 square metres in the facilities of WUR’s business unit Greenhouse Horticulture in Bleiswijk.
“The teams have partly developed their own algorithms and used them to determine output settings such as temperature, light quantity, CO2 concentration, fertilisation and several cultivation-related parameters such as plant and stem density,” says the head of the Horticulture Technology research team Silke Hemming. “The sensors and cameras – which they will be installing themselves in the week of 20 August – measure some of these cultivation data. The sensors send the information to the computer systems, allowing them to control the climate and fertilization in the greenhouse. The teams will not be allowed to enter the greenhouses apart from to install the equipment.”
The teams will collect all data remotely and be able to continuously adjust their algorithms for the software. Hemming: “The software itself will adjust the output settings like temperature where necessary. The goal is that the self-teaching software gradually takes over human decision-making.”
The challenge was organized by Wageningen University & Research Greenhouse Horticulture and the internet company Tencent. “We think we can further improve food production in greenhouse horticulture by introducing artificial intelligence,” Hemming continues. “This unique challenge lets us connect with international partners and make major strides forward. Although they are already global leaders in cultivation expertise, we believe even Dutch breeders will benefit from results of the challenge, as it will enable them to make decisions based on more carefully considered information.”
According to Hemming, the use of artificial intelligence will have an even greater impact globally. “In many countries, there is very little knowledge about complex plant production. Artificial intelligence can help people make complicated decisions, so they can locally produce vegetables and fruit with fewer means. The higher yield and production are especially important in view of the growing global population.”
Cucumber, the crop of choiceIn addition to the autonomously controlled greenhouses, the challenge will comprise a reference greenhouse where the chief grower of WUR Greenhouse Horticulture and several Dutch growers will cultivate cucumbers in an authentic way. “We settled on cucumbers as our crop of choice because they grow fast,” says Hemming. “This will enable us to obtain lots of information in four months. Cucumber plants are also very quickly affected if something is done incorrectly during cultivation. A breeding company cultivated the plants for the teams, and people from the test company of WUR Greenhouse Horticulture will put the plants in the greenhouses. The yields, their value and the associated costs and sustainability factors will be compared to the reference greenhouse.”
Supervisors from WUR Greenhouse Horticulture will provide the teams with the required digital information. Information will be shared with and output settings received from the teams via an interface produced by LetsGrow.com, one of WUR’s tech partners. WUR employees will be responsible for harvesting and communicating standard crop information, including yield weight, to the teams. An international jury will oversee the process and award points.
“Most of the points will be awarded for maximization of net profit,” Hemming explains. “Another criterion will be sustainability: energy & water consumption, CO2 levels and the use of crop protection agents.” Teams will also receive points for the use of artificial intelligence. Questions such as ‘how autonomous was the teams’ actual approach?’ and ‘how realistically could this system be applied on a large scale?’ will be the main issues evaluated by the jury in the final stage.
An exciting competition
“We expect an exciting competition in which the teams – deep_greens, AiCU, The Croperators, Sonoma, and iGrow – apply different approaches,” Hemming concludes. “For one team, for instance, the focus will be on artificial intelligence, while another team will highlight cultivation expertise.” The winner will be announced in the second week of December during the AgriFoodTech trade exhibition. “We will gain lots of new knowledge for a new cultivation method for the future.”
For more information:
Publication date: 8/15/2018
Stories From Around the Food System
How to go from City Living to Urban Farming in Six Months [Northeastern]
Do you know where your leafy greens come from? If you’re dining at a restaurant in Boston, there’s a good chance the salad greens you’re eating have been grown by two friends inside a small apartment in the city’s South End neighborhood.
Urban Farmers Forced Off Land Find New Ground to Grow [Chicago Tribune]
The wind-whipped rooftop of a converted warehouse in the Kinzie Industrial Corridor might be the last place you'd expect to find fertile farmland, unless you're Jen Rosenthal, founder and owner of Planted Chicago.
Urban Agriculture Could Transform Food Security [SciDev.net]
Using science, technology and innovation (STI) could help promote the use of urban agriculture to sustain food and nutrition security in African cities, experts say.
Helping the Homeless Through Farm-to-Table Training [Great Big Story]
There’s a San Francisco garden growing more than just produce. In a city plagued by homelessness, the Farming Hope Initiative offers urban farming and cooking training to those without a place to live.
The Water Wars of Arizona [New York Times]
Attracted by lax regulations, industrial agriculture has descended on a remote valley, depleting its aquifer — leaving many residents with no water at all.
Weird New Fruits Could Hit Aisles Soon Thanks to Gene Editing [Guardian]
Smooth or hairy, pungent or tasteless, deep-hued or bright: new versions of old fruits could be hitting the produce aisles as plant experts embrace cutting-edge technology, scientists say.
Giant Indoor Vertical Farm Launches Just East of Las Vegas [CNBC]
An indoor vertical farm that uses 90 percent less water than conventional growers is about to launch in Las Vegas and will be able to supply nearly 9,500 servings of leafy green salads per day to casinos and local restaurant chains.
Meriden Aquaponics Scores $500K for New Haven Expansion [Hartford Business]
Meriden-based Trifecta Ecosystems, an aquaponics technology company and indoor farm, has received a $500,000 investment to grow its aquatic systems in the New Haven region.
Dubai Will Be Home To the World’s Biggest Vertical Farm [Smithsonian]
An indoor megafarm might be the best way for the United Arab Emirates—a country that imports an estimated 85 percent of its food—to attempt to feed itself
NatureFresh™ Farms Partners With Forgotten Harvest To Reduce Food Waste Footprint
Leamington, ON (August 30th, 2018) – In an organized effort to reduce their food waste footprint, NatureFresh™ Farms has partnered with Forgotten Harvest, a perishable food rescue, and redistribution organization, to deliver nutritious food to people in need. So far in 2018 2018, NatureFresh™ Farms has successfully donated over 150,000 pounds of produce to the Forgotten Harvest program.
The issue of food waste, both at the commercial and consumer level, is beginning to gain more recognition as a serious global problem. Every year, roughly 1.3 billion tons of food gets thrown out globally, and this food ends up in landfills where it is not used and begins to emit greenhouse gases (primarily methane). As food wastage becomes a more recognized problem, consumers and businesses in the food industry are improving their efforts to curb the issue of food waste.
The NatureFresh™ Farms team has made a firm commitment to consistently collecting and donating greenhouse-grown products that cannot be sold at the retail level but are still nutritious and fully edible, to Forgotten Harvest. The food rescue organization then gleans and repackages the produce into family-friendly sizes that are redistributed within their network of food banks.
Justin Guenther, the Allocation/Shipping Manager at NatureFresh™ Farms, has been a driving force for this program’s development: “The initial creation of this donation program saw some obstacles, as every new program does, but once people started to realize how much food we were saving, it really opened their eyes to the good we could do as a company.” In 2018, NatureFresh™ Farms is projecting that they will reallocate roughly 600,000 pounds of produce to feed food insecure families through Forgotten Harvest’s food bank network.
NatureFresh™ Farms has been donating produce to Forgotten Harvest since 2011, but the food rescue organization has been feeding members of the metro-Detroit area since 1990. With 35 tracks, over 16,000 annual volunteers, and a massive local and international network, Forgotten Harvest is committed to providing food insecure families with fresh, nutritious food as quickly as possible. Chris Ivey, Director of Marketing & Public Relations at Forgotten Harvest, cites the importance of their partnership with NatureFresh™ Farms: “As metro Detroit’s only fresh food rescue, our partnership with NatureFresh™ is a critical portion of our supply chain. Because of these efforts, Forgotten Harvest can deliver on the promise of providing a fresh nutritious mix of food, delivered free of charge, to the over 250 partner agencies we support in our community.”
Forgotten Harvest’s mission to provide people with access to essential foods is a mission that Peter Quiring, the Founder and CEO of NatureFresh™ Farms, also champions: “Working with an organization like Forgotten Harvest, as well as many other community food banks, means that our company can help even more people live healthier lives. To build strong communities, it’s essential to work hand in hand with like-minded organizations.”
In addition to their work with Forgotten Harvest, NatureFresh™ Farms constantly seeks to engage with local food banks and food rescue organizations, including Southwestern Ontario Gleaners.
Kara Badder
Marketing Project Manager
Container Farms: A New Type of Agriculture
August 20, 2018
A forklift truck picks up a container at the Freight Farms production facility. (Freight Farms)
Innovators within the produce industry are breaking the boundaries of food production — by growing crops not in fields, but in recycled shipping containers.
This modern twist on farming is designed to bypass some of the challenges and restrictions that farmers traditionally have faced, such as extreme weather, pests and limited growing seasons.
By overcoming these limitations, farming operations are capable of producing more food and growing certain crops in regions that otherwise would have had to import them.
By growing this food locally, suppliers are able to cut out the long travel distances often necessary to transport these foods to certain markets.
According to Jeff Moore, vice president of sales at produce supplier Tom Lange Co., shorter travel distances provide numerous benefits, such as fresher product, reduced transportation costs, less waste and fewer empty shelves at markets.
The use of innovative farming methods also is being pushed in Canada. Grocery retailer Loblaw Companies Ltd. announced plans to spend $150 million more each year with Canadian farmers by 2025. As part of that effort, the company pledged to help farmers implement growing techniques that will enable them to produce fruits and vegetables in Canada that the country has traditionally imported.
Freight Farms and Tiger Corner Farms are two companies that are growing produce in shipping containers through the use of hydroponics and aeroponics — methods of growing plants without the use of soil.
Freight Farms is working with NASA to find ways to grow produce in space. (Freight Farms)
Both companies use nutrient-rich water as a substitute for soil, but beyond that, their container farms are quite different.
Tiger Corner Farms’ farming units consist of five shipping containers; four are used for farming and the fifth one is used as a working station where the plants germinate and as a post-harvest station.
Tiger Corner Farms, based out of Summerville, S.C., is a family company that began with the combined interest of Stefanie Swackhamer, the general manager, and her dad, Don Taylor.
Through Grow Food Carolina, a nonprofit organization focused on preserving farming in South Carolina, Tiger Corner Farms has partnered with two other companies: Vertical Roots and Boxcar Central. Tiger Corner Farms manufactures farming units from recycled shipping containers, Boxcar Central works on the automation of the hardware and software used for these container farms, and Vertical Roots deals with the production of the produce.
With Tiger Corner Farms’ shipping container farmsshipping container farms, Vertical Roots can increase food production. Having 13 farms in total, Vertical Roots is able to produce about 40,000 heads of lettuce in about half the time it would take a traditional farm.
Vertical Roots sells its produce to grocery stores such as Whole Foods and Harris Teeter.
Vertical Roots is able to produce about 40,000 heads of lettuce in about half the time it would take a traditional farm (Tiger Corner Farms)
For Vertical Roots, founded by Andrew Hare and Matt Daniels, working with Tiger Corner Farms was a no-brainer.
“Providing cleaner, fresher, better access to food was something all four of us were wanting to do. They wanted to provide jobs and educate people on the importance of sustainable agriculture, and we wanted to do the same thing,” said Hare, Vertical Roots’ general manager. “We wanted to bring transparency and education and empowering our community in knowing where their food comes from and how important the freshness and quality is.”
Meanwhile, Boston-based Freight Farms offers a hydroponic “farm in a box,” dubbed the Leafy Green Machine, built entirely inside a single 40-foot shipping container.
The company, founded in 2010 by Brad McNamara and Jon Friedman, also offers a farming service and mobile app, Farmhand, to aid farmers in monitoring their farms.
Freight Farms’ customers range from individual farmers to universities and corporations.
One of those customers is Kim Curren of Shaggy Bear Farm in Bozeman, Mont., which provides local restaurants with leafy greens that aren’t grown in the region.
Someday, hydroponic farming might even play a role in space exploration and colonization.
Freight Farms is working with NASA and Clemson University to improve the efficiency of its farming units in the hopes of eventually using them in space.
Joshua Summers is one of the professors at Clemson that worked on the project. Professors Cameron Turner and John Wagner and students Doug Chickarello, Malena Agyemang and Amaninder Singh Gill also worked on the project.
Lettuce grows inside a climate-controlled container farm from Tiger Corner Farms. (Tiger Corner Farms)
In order to enable the farming units to work in space, the Clemson team is focusing on making it a closed-loop system by looking at thermal and electrical loads of the LED lights as well as the heating, ventilation and air conditioning unit.
While working on this project, there is one major issue that Summers said needs to be taken into consideration.
“One of the major issues in moving into space is gravity. As you move away from gravity, a lot of their growing patterns are based on plants growing in a specific way,” Summers said. “Now you don’t know exactly how they are going to grow, so it’s going to be a bit more random, so we have to change some of the geometric layout to make it more efficient in terms of volume.”
Clemson, NASA and Freight Farms are working on a new proposal to continue this project.
Through its work with individual farmers as well as organizations such as NASA, Freight Farms is taking steps toward its goal of empowering anyone to grow food anywhere.
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Affinor Growers Signs Tom Baumann to Consult for Agriculture Development
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 16, 2018 - Affinor Growers Ltd. (“Affinor Growers”) (CSE:AFI), (OTC:RSSFF), (Frankfurt:1AF) is pleased to announce that it has signed a consulting agreement with Tom Baumann, a professor at The University Of The Fraser Valley, to assist the Company in developing and implementing the appropriate protocols required for growing fruits and vegetables and other related crops using the Company’s technology. The expertise Mr. Baumann brings will ensure our clients receive not only our towers, but the appropriate guidance and expertise to ensure their success.
Tom Baumann has a Masters Degree in Plant Science from Germany and a Masters Degree in Horticulture from the University of British Columbia. Mr. Baumann has been teaching at the University of the Fraser Valley (“UFV”) since 1991 and has been in charge of UFV’s greenhouse and field operations in Chilliwack, Langley and Qualicum. Mr. Baumann specializes in berries and has been employed by the BC Strawberry Growers Association and by the Raspberry Industry Development Council in the past. Mr. Baumann is also the President of Expert Agriculture Team Ltd. (“EAT”), a research and consulting company that provides expertise to numerous growers in the Fraser Valley.
Tom Baumann, commented that "I am extremely excited to join Affinor in this capacity. I have seen the technology in use and am grateful to have the opportunity to help implement this technology throughout the world. Climate change is causing significant changes to the way we grow crops and Affinor’s technology is a great example of technology and agriculture coming together to adapt to these changes."
Nick Brusatore CEO, commented that "We are very excited to have an expert of Mr. Baumann’s stature join the Affinor team. Mr. Baumann brings a wealth of knowledge and experience that, combined with our technology, will be a game changer in the agriculture industry."
About Affinor Growers
Affinor Growers is a publicly traded company on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol ("AFI"). Affinor is focused on growing high-quality crops such as romaine lettuce, spinach, strawberries using its vertical farming techniques. Affinor is committed to becoming a pre-eminent supplier and grower, using exclusive vertical farming techniques.
Neither Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
This news release may contain assumptions, estimates, and other forward-looking statements regarding future events. Such forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties and are subject to factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control that may cause actual results or performance to differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements.
AFFINOR GROWERS INC.
"Nicholas Brusatore"
For More Information, please contact:
Nicholas Brusatore, CEO
contact@affinorgrowers.com
Rep. Goyke Commends UW School For Urban Agriculture Initiative
Federal USDA grant follows on urban farming legislation introduced by Rep. Goyke calling for a School of Urban Agriculture in Wisconsin
By State Rep. Evan Goyke - July 12, 2018
MADISON – The University of Wisconsin – Madison recently received a three year federal grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture to initiate the creation of a School for Urban Agriculture. The new school, as part of the University’s Farming the City Project, will target students, farmers, and non-profit staff.
This legislative session Rep. Goyke introduced the “The Wisconsin Urban Farming Futures” Initiative that focused on promoting urban agriculture in Wisconsin, including funding and siting for a future urban agriculture school (Assembly Bills 671, 672, 673, 674).
According to the grant description the new school and program will “…create curricula that meets the needs of students seeking short, intense training in specific aspects of urban agriculture (workshop and short course instruction) and the needs of four-year baccalaureate students who are interested in enhancing their education in this emerging content area.
…Importantly, the project will also target secondary students in an existing pipeline for college-level agricultural training in Wisconsin. In doing so, the project envisions a future workforce of urban farmers reflecting the social composition of the communities where many urban farms are being established.”
In response to the grant announcement and in support of its goals, Rep. Goyke stated:
“The fields of urban farmers look very different than the dairy farm my grandfather owned. Urban Agriculture offers a modern expansion of one of Wisconsin’s strongest traditions and can transform urban communities. In Milwaukee, we’ve seen new life spring from the ashes of old industry. Growing fresh healthy food in and near cities offers positive economic activity, job skills training, brings diverse communities together, and offers access to quality healthy food. Wisconsin’s agricultural future rests in the hands of future farmers, including those in this emerging sector of our agricultural economy. This new initiative and school will provide the tools and skills necessary for Wisconsin’s urban farmers to be successful.”
South Africa: Soilless Farming Shows Potential
Farmers in the Central District; Messrs Olemogile Botsile and Lesego Obuseng have called on their peers to take to soilless horticulture.
The duo explained in an interview after Serowe Agricultural Show where they were exhibiting recently, that the practice, termed hydroponic had the potential to assist the horticultural sector turn the corner.
They said they took to the method after experimenting with traditional farming for a long time without much success, given the climatic condition of the country.
Mr Botsile explained that under hydroponic farming, vegetables are grown in soilless conditions, with cultivation taking place in an aquatic-based environment.
He said the system had become popular over the years because of its yields.
“We would like to advice farmers specialising in horticulture to consider growing hydroponically, as the plants here are of exceeding high quality, occupy less space and consume fewer resources than traditional growing methods,” he said.
He said after planting for three years without satisfactory yields, they decided to find out if there were other methods which they could utilise to make returns.
“Through our research and benchmarking in South Africa, we identified, hydroponic as the best. Traditional farming has proved an upset in our returns as we were spending more than we could benefit on aspects such as water, herbicides and fertilisers,” he said.
Mr Botsile said the method proved a success after its trial at Taukome lands, adding that they realised that it had potential to assist those who had failed in their back yard gardens as a result of water shortages.
He noted that the water was mostly recycled and could yield 90 to 100 per cent harvest, as the farmer was able to monitor individual plants.
“Although the concept of growing plants without soil seems contrary to a plant’s nutritional needs, plants can actually grow exceedingly well in soilless growing systems.
To thrive, plants need water and nutrients, which are traditionally absorbed from the soil they are grown in. However, if these nutrients can be provided through a nutrient-rich solution applied directly to a plant’s root zone, it can be grown without any soil at all. This is what basically happens under hydroponics planting,” he said.
Mr Botsile noted that under hydroponic systems, they use dnutrient solutions to feed plants, and use other substrates to provide support for roots, adding that some hydroponic systems required no substrates at all.
“Our company supplies different methods and variations of hydroponic gardening, ranging from small, in-home systems to large, complex commercial systems, depending on our client’s need,” he said.
He indicated that hydroponic growing methods, in combination with vertical gardening, could aid in expanding the possibilities of urban gardening and indoor gardening, where there was insufficient space.
“Although the amount of hydroponically grown produce has not overtaken the amount of field-grown produce yet, it is quickly gaining a foothold,” he said.
Mr Botsile indicated that this was especially true as more and more consumers were becoming aware of where their food came from and how it was grown, as evident in the growing interest people had shown towards the system.
“In addition to using much less water, he noted that hydroponic farms did not require the same amount of upkeep as traditional farms, adding that it was ideal for people with less time on their hands and could be best used by even retired individuals.
“Hydroponic farms are much less labour intensive, hence less tiring, than traditional farms because they are in compact spaces, often at waist-high levels.
Therefore, harvesting and replanting is much easier with hydroponic systems.
In this system there is no digging or weeding required, making the overall upkeep of hydroponic systems minimal.
Source : BOPA
Author : Thuso Kgakatsi
Location : SEROWE
Event : Interview
Date : Aug 13 Mon,2018
Mucci Farms Opens In San Antonio!
August 23rd, 2018 | San Antonio, Texas
Mucci Farms announces the opening of a brand new distribution facility in San Antonio, Texas, strategically located to optimize service in the southern United States. “We are thrilled to continue our expansion into the US with a southern facility that can help us service the region effectively,” said Joe Spano, Vice President of Mucci International Marketing. “As a company committed to efficient execution, our main focus was to reduce food miles as well as our carbon footprint to better serve our partners and customers.” The company plans to begin operations over the next 8-10 weeks.
With an appetite for a larger US footprint, the announcement comes on the heels of their first harvest from Phase 1 of a 3-Phase 60-Acre Huron, Ohio expansion. The organization has been actively searching for a strategic opportunity to serve current and potential clients in the south and the southwestern United States. “San Antonio was a logical city for us because it is a major southern crossing, and this location will help us increase efficiencies and assist with logistics,” remarked Danny Mucci, President of Mucci International Marketing. “Through this facility, we’ll be able to distribute our full lineup of products to the region in a timely manner, allowing consumers to take advantage of maximum shelf life and high quality of our produce.”
Growing fresh produce for over 50 years, Mucci Farms is a vertically integrated Greenhouse farming company with over 200 acres of Lettuce, Tomato, Pepper, Cucumber and Strawberry farms in Canada and the United States. Headquartered in Kingsville, Ontario, the Award Winning company is dedicated to continual investments in automation and technology along with a high level of research and development to offer consumers the most flavourful fruit and vegetable varieties in the world.
Food Safety, Sustainability And Frontier Tech Leading An Evolution In Agriculture
By Paul Ausick August 13, 2018
By Gene Munster and Austin Bohlig of Loup Ventures
- Due to advancements in technology, as well as consumers’ growing appetite for locally grown leafy greens and vegetables that are both high in nutritional value and come with improved taste, an evolution is underway in the agriculture space.
- This is changing the way produce is produced, and where it is being grown.
- This new method is called Indoor Ag, commonly known as Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA).
- We see Indoor Ag as an attractive investment opportunity and believe frontier tech will play a prominent role in this flourishing market.
Why now?
According to Indoor Farm Economics, there were 15 commercial-scale Indoor Ag farms in the US in 2016. In Spring 2017, there were 56, and the number continues to grow at a healthy rate. While Indoor Agriculture is not new and has been most recently used to grow cannabis, farmers are beginning to explore these methods because of the quality and cost benefits it offers consumers, as well as consumers growing concern over food safety. In addition, technological innovations have improved profitability and are beginning to create a more sustainable method over traditional processes as the world population continues to grow. For these reasons, we see indoor ag as an attractive investment opportunity and believe frontier tech will play a prominent role in its rise.
Industry overview
Indoor agriculture is the process of growing produce using hydroponics, aquaponics, and aeroponic techniques in standardized form factors such as warehouses, greenhouses, and containers. Today, indoor agriculture farms primarily produce leafy greens, microgreens, herbs, and tomatoes. In addition, strawberries, nutraceutical plants, and pharmaceutical plants are under intense R&D and are now starting to come to market. The biggest advantages of moving to an Indoor Ag model, include:
- Year-round availability of any and all produce items at competitive wholesale pricing.
- Time to market is measured in hours versus days contributing to a better, more nutritious product that tastes better and minimizes transportation costs and carbon emissions.
- Superior “science” of growing can be applied using advanced LED lighting, controls, and mechanisms to guarantee a perfect crop every time regardless of outside weather or location.
- Grown without chemicals and drastically more efficient use of water plus ability to recapture/recycle.
These CEA advantages improve food safety and sustainability. However, the industry still has a long way to go until Indoor Ag becomes mainstream. The biggest challenges holding this up include:
- The lack of capital from banks and VCs that will invest in this theme.
- Gaining sufficient scale to service accounts like a Wal-Mart.
- Concerns around profitability due to the limited size of the growing building.
Key frontier tech
The emergence of Indoor Ag startups creating innovative tech has been a material catalyst to adoption and improving profitability. Specifically, technological advancements around LEDs, robotics, and genomics have helped meaningfully.
- Excessive heat can be incredibly damaging to plants. GrowFilm, a Minnesota startup (growfilm.ag), has developed light emitters that operate around 93º F, allowing them to be placed closer to plants. This also eliminates the need for multiple lamps and lighting systems, which can increase yields by 40%. Additionally, a better understanding of how photosynthesis is impacted by different light spectrums is allowing Indoor Ag locations to work with cost-effective LEDs to further “tune” their grow recipe.
- Given indoor robotics is considered a “lab” environment by the US Labor Department, personnel requirements are more stringent than the migrant workers used to pick 70%+ of the nation’s produce. In addition, rising farm wages and labor shortage have been headwinds. Advancements in robotics and artificial intelligence have lowered the cost of labor and increased productivity. This includes cameras and sensors to enhance grow cycles and provide real-time feedback. Tortuga AgTech is a startup developing robotic systems for harvesting fresh produce in controlled environments.
- Advanced indoor farmers are turning their attention to how they can create seeds that are better designed for indoor systems, producing higher yields. Some are turning to heirloom seeds because they cost less and produce more nutritious foods than hybrid seeds, which are the primary seeds used in traditional agriculture.
Indoor Ag economics
One of the arguments against indoor farms historically has been the limited size of the growing form factor, and many struggled to reach profitability. While this was a challenge, the technological improvements discussed above, new CEA farms capable of producing over one million leafy green products per month, recycling resources, and lowering transportation costs are making indoor ag economics very favorable. Another advantage of indoor ag is it is less exposed to the cyclical nature of traditional agriculture due to the ability to steadily produce the same amount all year long. Plus, given labor shortages to harvest field grows, the dynamics of CEA farming become compelling.
Venture committed to this theme growing
While receiving capital has been another challenge for indoor farmers, VC dollars increased 3-fold in 2017 to $300M year/year. This was primarily driven by Softbank’s $200M investment into Plenty, which also included an investment from Jeff Bezos. We think the opportunity in indoor agriculture is large and believe it is an attractive theme for frontier technology over the next decade.
Disclaimer: We actively write about the themes in which we invest: virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and robotics. From time to time, we will write about companies that are in our portfolio. Content on this site including opinions on specific themes in technology, market estimates, and estimates and commentary regarding publicly traded or private companies is not intended for use in making investment decisions. We hold no obligation to update any of our projections. We express no warranties about any estimates or opinions we make.
Stanford Seed Startup Future Farms Is Out To Solve India’s Food Crisis With Clean, Soil-Less Farming
Sohini Mitter July 8, 2018
Chennai-based Future Farms was one of the first agri startups in India to utilise hydroponics and set up rooftop farms that produce clean food crops.
At a Glance
Startup: Future Farms
Founder: Sriram Gopal
Year it was founded: 2014
Where it is located: Chennai
The problem it solves: Pesticide-free, soil-less farming for “clean” food
Sector: Agritech
Funding raised: Bootstrapped
Sriram Gopal was running Synamen Thinklabs, an IT firm, in Chennai when he stumbled upon videos of soil-less farming and rooftop farms on YouTube. The year was 2014, and Sriram’s seven-year-old IT venture, which offered business consulting and go-to-market strategies to tech startups, was enjoying a good run with a turnover of about Rs 2 crore.
Sriram was keen to do more, and to experiment, even as his top team at Synamen Thinklabs was content sticking to their core business. It was then that the Caledonian Business School (UK) alumnus began scouting for newer ideas and opportunities, and discovered hydroponics.
Sriram Gopal, Founder & CEO, Future Farms
Hydroponics is the practice of growing plants without soil, using mineral nutrient solutions in a water solvent. It not only helps reduce water consumption and increase yield, but also ensures pesticide-free farming, making it a cleaner, greener agri solution.
“I was fascinated. It looked more like engineering than agriculture,” Sriram tells YourStory. “Hydroponics had existed in Southeast Asia for nearly 15 years. But no Indian company was doing it. I wondered why,” he says.
Bringing precision farming to India
YouTube videos and reading matter on the web led Sriram to develop small DIY hydroponics kits. His father, who was the owner of a printing factory in Chennai, aided him in the activity. They would soon go on to acquire the distributorship of a foreign company that sold hydroponics kits in India.
“We listed on Trade India and other online directories. But sales were low because the kits were expensive,” Sriram recalls.
However, it helped him network with “like-minded people” that included engineers, biotechnologists, agronomists, and some with a simple interest in gardening. About 8-10 of them were willing to join Sriram in his hydroponics “adventure” and they formed a company in late 2014.
Each of them, “core team members” as they are referred to, now own shares in Future Farms, which has grown to be a 70-member startup in four years. It has executed over “32 commercial projects” for companies, including the Adani Group, Parry Agro, Dabur, Kalpataru Group, Aries Agro, and others, essentially pioneering hydroponics in Indian agriculture.
Future Farms now grows 16 crop varieties, classified under English Exotic, Asian Exotic and Indian Exotic, across 15 acres of land spread over 10 states. It recorded a $1 million turnover last year.
Future Farms' hydroponics cultivation in Kotagiri, Tamil Nadu
Sriram says,
“The focus is mostly on leafy vegetables and we have farms in every corner of the country from Delhi and Gujarat to Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. We have grown significantly in the past two years.”
The Stanford Seed effect
Founder-CEO Sriram attributes much of Future Farms’ recent growth to the Stanford Seed Program, a year-long leadership programme designed for high-potential Indian business leaders and startup founders to scale their ventures. “Stanford Seed has been phenomenal. It helped us in being taken seriously by the VC community, which usually favours the IIT-IIM labels,” Sriram says.
He adds,
“Half the systems that we are running today were non-existent before Stanford Seed happened. They have given a format and a structure to our organisation, extended support and validation. They also helped us network with VCs in the Silicon Valley and put us on the Stanford Seed Angel Network.”
Future Farms has gone on to execute a pilot in Sri Lanka, and has a few more international projects lined up this year.
Davis Albohm, Associate Director, Global Operations, Stanford Seed, tells YourStory,
“The Seed Transformation Program was designed to provide critical skills and support to business leaders in India, with the goal of empowering talented entrepreneurs by growing their companies, developing new products and services and creating new jobs. The success of Sriram and Future Farms is a testament to the great promise and economic potential of India, and we’re thrilled to follow his continued growth and successes.”
The measurable impact
Future Farms claims to have brought down water consumption by a whopping 90 percent, cut down farming cost by half, increased yield (it says it manages four acres worth of produce in a single acre), accelerated the growth cycle (seed to plant takes about 35 days now), and improved the overall produce (120-160 tonnes to 250-270 tonnes annually).
Sriram says,
“This urban farming technique is 100 percent clean. It leaves no pesticide residue, has zero bio-toxicity or metal contamination. It involves lesser labour and input cost, but gives a greater yield. After all, why should people pay a premium for clean food? Isn’t it their right?”
The United Nations estimates that there are over 820 million “hungry” people in the world, and a huge chunk of them are in India. The affordability and accessibility of food is poor, but with hydroponics and other modern farming solutions, it is likely to improve.
Market opportunities
According to Transparency Market Research, the global hydroponics market will reach $12.1 billion by 2025, with Asia-Pacific being the growth driver. The study states,
“Growing awareness about the advantages of this form of cultivation over traditional farming has been propelling the global market. Hydroponics save water, land, use lesser fertilisers, and are a simple solution to problems of climate change.”
Hence, for Future Farms, the world is a stage. In the domestic market, especially, it is one of the few hydroponics startups to have executed commercial projects (BitMantis Innovations, Letcetra Agritech, Triton Foodworks, and Junga FreshnGreen being the others).
Bootstrapped till now, Future Farms is close to sealing a $1 million fund-raise from angels. It is looking to ramp up its agri-technology and expand its farms in India and abroad. “We are a group of people solving a global food crisis,” Sriram says.
How The Lack of Affordable Vegetables is Creating a Billion-Dollar Obesity Epidemic in South Africa
Fruit and vegetable prices in South Africa have increased to the point that poorer people have had to remove them from their grocery lists. Credit: Nalisha Adams/IPS
JOHANNESBURG, August 10, 2018 (IPS) - Every Sunday afternoon, Thembi Majola* cooks a meal of chicken and rice for her mother and herself in their home in Alexandra, an informal settlement adjacent to South Africa’s wealthy economic hub, Sandton.
“Vegetables is only on Sunday,” Majola tells IPS, adding that these constitute potatoes, sweet potato, and pumpkin. Majola, who says she weighs 141 kgs, has trouble walking short distances as it generally leaves her out of breath. And she has been on medication for high blood pressure for almost two decades now.
“It is precisely a justice issue because at the very least our economy should be able to provide access to sufficient and nutritious food. Because, at the basis of our whole humanity, at the very basis of our body, is our nutrition." -- Mervyn Abrahams, Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice, and Dignity Group
“Maize is the first priority,” she says of the staple item that always goes into her shopping basket. “Every Saturday I eat boerewors [South African sausage]. And on Sunday it is chicken and rice. During the week, I eat mincemeat once and then most of the time I fill up my stomach with [instant] cup a soup,” she says of her diet.
Majola is one of about 68 percent of South African women who are overweight or obese, according to the South African Demographic and Health Survey. The Barilla Centre for Food and Nutrition’s Food Sustainability Index (FSI) 2017 ranks 34 countries across three pillars: sustainable agriculture; nutritional challenges; and food loss and waste. South Africa ranks in the third quartile of the index in 19th place. However, the country has a score of 51 on its ability to address nutritional challenges. The higher the score, the greater the progress the country has made. South Africa’s score is lower than a number of countries on the index.
Families go into debt to pay for basic foods
Many South Africans are eating a similar diet to Majola’s not out of choice, but because of affordability.
Dr. Kirthee Pillay, lecturer of dietetics and human nutrition at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, tells IPS that the increase of carbohydrate-based foods as a staple in most people’s diets is cost-related.
“Fruit and vegetable prices have increased to the point that poorer people have had to remove them from their grocery lists.”
The Pietermaritzburg Agency for Community Social Action (Pacsa), a social justice non-governmental organization, noted last October in its annual food barometer report that while the median wage for black South Africans is USD209 a month, a monthly food basket that is nutritionally complete costs USD297.
The report also noted that food expenditure from households arise out of the monies left over after non-negotiable expenses, such as transport, electricity, debt and education needs have been paid first. And this resulted in many families incurring debt in order to meet their food bills.
“Staples are cheaper and more filling and people depend on these, especially when there is less money available for food and many people to feed. Fruit and vegetables are becoming luxury food items for many people given the increasing cost of food. Thus, the high dependence on cheaper, filling staples. However, an excessive intake of carbohydrate-rich foods can increase risk for obesity,” Pillay tells IPS via email.
Majola works at a national supermarket chain, with her only dependent being her elderly mother. She says her grocery bill comes to about USD190 each month, higher than what most average families can afford, but agrees that the current cost of fruit and vegetables are a luxury item for her.
“They are a bit expensive now. Maybe they can sell them at a lesser price,” she says, adding that if she could afford it, she would have vegetables everyday. “Everything comes from the pocket.”
Monopoly of Food Chain Creating a System that Makes People Ill
David Sanders, emeritus professor at the school of public health at the University of the Western Cape, says that South Africans have a very high burden of ill health, much of which is related to their diet.
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But he adds that large corporates dominate every node of the food chain in the country, starting from inputs and production, all the way to processing, manufacturing and retail. “So it is monopolised all the way up the food system from the farm to the fork.”
“The food system is creating, for poor people anyway, a quite unhealthy food environment. So for well-off people there is sufficient choice and people can afford a nutritionally-adequate diet, even one of quite high quality.
“But poor people can’t. In most cases, the great majority, don’t have a kind of subsistence farming to fall back on because of land policies and the fact that in the 24 years of democracy there hasn’t been significant development of small scale farming,” Sanders, who is one of the authors of a report on food systems in Brazil, South Africa and Mexico, tells IPS.
According to the report, about 35,000 medium and large commercial farmers produce most of South Africa’s food.
In addition, Sanders points out that a vast majority of rural South Africans purchase, rather than grow, their own food.
“The food they can afford tends to be largely what we call ultra processed or processed food. That often provides sufficient calories but not enough nutrients. It tends to be quite low often in good-quality proteins and low in vitamins and minerals – what we call hyper nutrients.
“So the latter situation results in quite a lot of people becoming overweight and obese. And yet they are poorly nourished,” Sanders explains.
The Sugar Tax Not Enough to Stem Epidemic of Obesity
In April, South Africa introduced the Sugary Beverages Levy, which charges manufacturers 2.1 cents per gram of sugar content that exceeds 4g per 100 ml. The levy is part of the country’s department of health’s efforts to reduce obesity.
Pillay says while it is still too early to tell if the tax will be effective, in her opinion “customers will fork out the extra money being charged for sugar-sweetened beverages. Only the very poor may decide to stop buying them because of cost.”
Sander’s points out “it’s not just the level of obesity, it is the rate at which this has developed that is so alarming.”
A study shows that the number of young South Africans suffering from obesity doubled in the last six years, while it had taken the United States 13 years for this to happen.
“Here is an epidemic of nutrition, diet-related diseases, which has unfolded extremely rapidly and is just as big and as threatening and expensive as the HIV epidemic, and yet it is going largely unnoticed.”
Overweight people have a risk of high blood pressure, diabetes and hypertension, which places them at risk for heart disease. One of South Africa’s largest medical aid schemes estimated in a report that the economic impact on the country was USD50 billion rands a year.
“Even if people knew what they should eat there is very very little room for maneuver. There is some, but not much,” Sanders says adding that people should rather opt to drink water rather than purchase sugary beverages.
“Education and awareness is a factor but I would say that these big economic drivers are much more important.”
Sanders says that questions need to be asked about how the control of the country’s food system and food chain can “be shifted towards smaller and more diverse production and manufacture and distributions.”
“Those are really the big questions. It would require very targeted and strong policies on the part of government. That would be everything from preferentially financing small operators [producers, manufacturers and retailers]…at every level there would have to be incentives, not just financial, but training and support also,” he says.
Pillay agrees that the increase in food prices “needs to be addressed as it directly influences what people are able to buy and eat. … Sustainable agriculture should assist in reducing the prices of locally-grown fruit and vegetables and to make them more available to South African consumers.”
Mervyn Abrahams, one of the authors of the Pacsa report, now a programme coordinator at the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group, tells IPS that the organisation is campaigning for a living wage that should be able to provide households with a basic and sufficient nutrition in their food basket. The matter, he says, is one of economic justice.
“It is precisely a justice issue because at the very least our economy should be able to provide access to sufficient and nutritious food. Because, at the basis of our whole humanity, at the very basis of our body, is our nutrition. And so it is the most basic level by which we believe that the economy should be judged, to see whether there is equity and justice in our economic arena.”
*Not her real name.
Real Organic Project Seeks Add-On Label To USDA Organic Seal
July 17, 2018
For some growers, organic certification alone just isn’t good enough anymore.
The East Thetford, Vt.-based Real Organic Project wants an “add-on” label to the U.S. Department of Agriculture organic certification.
The project, a coalition of organic farmers and advocates, objects to USDA’s National Organic Program rules that permit hydroponics and concentrated animal feeding operations to be certified as organic, according to a news release.
The group said its proposed add-on label, which requires adherence to standards above and beyond USDA organic certification, would only be available to agricultural products that have already been certified organic by the USDA.
The Real Organic Project in July announced the launch of its pilot farm inspection program.
The release said the program aims to implement new standards that will provide consumer transparency by “distinguishing organic farms that grow their crops in the ground, foster soil fertility and adequately pasture livestock according to foundational organic standards and principles.”
The Real Organic Project add-on label to USDA organic certification, expected by spring 2019, will increase transparency under the organic seal by allowing consumers to trace retail products back to the farm, according to the release.
The inspection process includes a video interview of the farmers on their land explaining their organic production practices, the group said.
Real Organic Project associate director and Colorado farmer Linley Dixon is leading the pilot project effort, according to the release. For the past five years, she has been the senior scientist at the Cornucopia Institute.
Taking control
Controversy on the question of whether soil is essential to grow organic produce has been bubbling for years.
By a vote of 8 to 7, the USDA National Organic Standards Board on Nov. 1 rejected proposals to make hydroponic and aquaponic production methods prohibited under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program.
“Clearly the industrial egg operations became so powerful that they had significant political influence,” Dixon said in the release.
“We tried to keep the same thing from happening in other sectors of organic, especially tomato and berry production, but we lost that battle at the USDA last fall,” she said.
“Now we are taking matters into our own hands because we know it is what the consumer wants and expects when they choose organic.”
The add-on label will give farmers a way of communicating practices to “consumers who care,” the group said.
Sharing information with consumers and the trade in a positive manner is fair, said Lee Frankel, executive director for the Coalition for Sustainable Organics, a group that has defended USDA certification of hydroponic operations.
“The fear is that people resort to disparaging their competition and claiming that somehow they don’t meet the USDA organic standard,” he said.
“At this point, it looks like the Real Organic Project is trying to tell what they perceive as positive aspects about how they how they grow and how they operate.”
The release said the Real Organic Project will be managing a pilot program this year certifying a limited number of farms.
Real Organic board member Lisa Stokke, executive director of Next7.org, said July 16 that 41 farms from California to the Northeast have signed up for the pilot project so far this year.
The group said the “vast majority” of certified organic farms in the U.S. will easily meet these new “standards,” and the release said the provisional standards will be open for public comment this fall.
Stokke said that the movement is farmer-led, and there hasn’t been a lot of interaction with retailers yet. However, she believes the add-on label will appeal to retailers if consumers want it.
“I think it’s going to be about consumer demand,” she said. “As consumers begin to request this I would imagine retailers would also be on board.”
The pilot program will test the certification process in preparation for the label going public in 2019, according to the release.
In May, the group released what they called their provisional standards for the add-on label.
The standards are available at the group’s website.
5 of The Easiest Crops to Grow In Small Spaces
Increasingly more people are starting to grow their own food in an urban setting, making only minor adjustments to their homes in order to provide proper conditions for the plants. A study by the National Gardening Association in the US revealed that in 2013, Americans spent $3.5 billion on seeds, soil, nutrients, vegetable starts, and other supplies
Takeaway: Here's how to grow your own private garden no matter where you live. Start off by choosing the most suitable edible plants that can be grown in small spaces like a home garden, garage, or even an apartment room.
Organic and healthy food has seen an unprecedented rise in popularity in recent years. People are becoming increasingly more conscious about what they consume and are also paying more attention to the origins of their food. For many people, preference is given to natural and organic products grown without the use of synthetic fertilizers or harsh pesticides.
Big supermarket chains like Tesco are noting a 15% increase in organic sales for 2016. Aside from the health factor, a large part of this organic food boom can be attributed to the efforts of world-renowned chefs like Jamie Oliver, who always stress the importance of using good products.
Growing Your Food at Home
While we can all agree that organic food is better and preferable, not all of us can afford it on a regular basis. Most organic brands are considerably more expensive as compared to their “regular food” counterparts.
Increasingly more people are starting to grow their own food in an urban setting, making only minor adjustments to their homes in order to provide proper conditions for the plants. A study by the National Gardening Association in the US revealed that in 2013, Americans spent $3.5 billion on seeds, soil, nutrients, vegetable starts, and other supplies. Furthermore, the research shows that 42 million households are growing food in their homes or shared gardens.
There is an opportunity for anyone who wants to eat healthy without breaking the bank; the possibility of creating your own private garden and grow the veggies you like, all the while spending drastically less on food. All you need is the space to do so! Even if you don't live in a detached house and don't have a garden plot in the backyard, there are ways to make it work.
Growing the Right Plants
Let's take a look at some of the most suitable edible plants that can be grown in small spaces like a home garden, garage, or even an apartment room. This means that the plants must be grown in pots, DIY containers, or vertical gardening structures.
Tomatoes
Tomatoes grow very well in containers of almost any size, but it all depends on the type of tomato you choose. Make sure that the container you select is sufficiently big to allow for the plant to develop freely. You can choose to plant the tomato from seeds or simply buy a small starter plant. It is advisable that you add some kind of growing support as it grows bigger. It can be a cage or even a regular wooden post.
Basil
Basil is suitable for growing both indoors and in a small yard garden. One of the great benefits of growing it yourself is its wide use in all sorts of recipes. When the need arises you can simply reach out and grab a few fresh leaves. It is important to note that you should avoid getting the plant's leaves and stem wet when watering it, just water the soil itself. It also needs lots of sunlight so growing it in a small container makes it easy to move to a more sunlit location.
Parsley
Parsley is another perfect plant for growing in a container and also has a wide applicability in culinary. Unlike basil, it requires a lot less sunlight so it can thrive even in an apartment with fewer windows or no balcony. The most vital thing when growing parsley is to find the right water balance - keep the soil moist but don't overwater.
Strawberries
It might sound surprising but strawberries are very suitable for growing indoors and don't need that much space. The plant needs a lot of sunlight so make sure to place it near a window. Strawberries also thrive very well under artificial sunlight so they can also be grown in winter.
Zucchini
Zucchini is a high yielding plant and even a single pot can provide enough for the whole family. It can thrive both indoors and outdoors and it's easy to grow from a seed. The plant needs a moist environment and warm soil so the seeding should happen in late summer. As we mentioned earlier, a single plant can produce a lot of zucchinis so make sure that your containers are large enough.
How to Grow Plants in a Small Space
Now that we've discussed which plants are suitable for growing in small places like apartments or tiny gardens it`s time to discuss the process itself.
Preparation
Before starting the growing process and investing in any tools or seeds, first consider the scale of your operations – how many plants you'd like to grow and what kind. If you're a family of three it's likely that you won't need 10 pots for growing tomatoes. Also, don't forget to allow room for the plant to develop. You might be tempted to cram a lot of pots in a single corner but the plants' growth will most likely suffer if you do this.
The Environment
Growing plants in containers is actually not very different from growing them in a garden. It might be less limiting in terms of space but you have more freedom in terms of placing the plants around. Practically, you can grow almost any plant in a container if you provide the necessary environment.
Certain plants like strawberries require more light to thrive so you should consider using LED grow lights for indoor farming. Take care of providing proper light conditions and adequate watering and your small garden will do perfectly, no matter if it`s in your apartment or outside.
The Containers
You can get really creative here and use almost anything from an old wardrobe or a drawer to a bucket, or even create a custom container from wood pallets. This can also serve as decoration for your home. After you have the containers all you need is soil and seeds to plant in it. For a more in-depth and complete explanation on how to create your own garden and grow the plants you like, watch this video.
Creating your own garden full of tasty vegetables and herbs is not as hard as it might sound. Even if you live in a very small apartment you can still find the space for a few containers and try it out, the benefits are definitely worth the effort. Don't forget to provide the plants with proper amounts of water and light and the rest will go smoothly.
Read More: The Do's and Don'ts of Container Gardening
Written by Luis Rivera
Luis has 20+ years of experience in global market expansion, business development, mergers and acquisitions, business re-engineering, finance and investor relations of software companies. He is passionate about technology, spectral science, indoor farming, food production, automation, and more. Since 2015 he has been the president of Advanced LED Lights, a leading LED grow lights manufacturer based in Hiwasse, Arkansas. When not at work, Luis enjoys swimming, yoga, as well as growing grapes and flowers in Sonoma, California. Full Bio