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Join Us for Our Third Annual Fresh in February Event in NYC Tomorrow!
The NYC Agriculture Collective would like to invite you to the third annual Fresh in February event, hosted by us and taking place on Thursday, February 28th, 2019 from 6:00-9:30 pm at Project Farmhouse. Where else can you find fresh, local produce in below freezing weather? Luckily, New York is chock full of urban farms that grow all year round.
Join the NYC Agriculture Collective to celebrate our winter harvest for the third year in a row at Fresh in February and observe why New York strives to become another large agriculture economy, second to California!
Our diverse collection of urban farms, urban agriculture service companies and NYC-based agtech businesses invite you to taste fresh local food as part of a unique food experience at Project Farmhouse in Union Square.
The evening will consist of an exclusive venue where local, year-round farmers will display how they are making agriculture possible in the wintertime in NYC. See the technology in action, meet farmers and indulge on local produce.
Enjoy hyper-local and delicious snacks, as well as locally sourced beers and wines - delicately curated with our Collective's produce, and products from other fine local purveyors.
We're able to give our community 20% discount (Promo Code: "WELOVEOURMEMBERS") on all tickets to the event here.
RE-NUBLE IN THE COMMUNITY
How do we turn plastic into reusable building materials? How do you design products to be infinitely recyclable? How can we turn food waste into a fuel source? Clean Energy Connections presents an introduction to the Circular Economy and the exciting new technologies and businesses that will produce a sustainable future. Speakers include Mayor's Office of Sustainability, Trust of Governors Island, Center for the Circular Economy and Re-Nuble.
Interested in hearing the latest challenges in need of circular business solutions from our perspective? Register for tickets here and use Promo Code: "Friends" for a 25% discount.
INTERESTED IN OUR UPCOMING NEW PRODUCT?
Re-Nuble is 100% committed to plant-based only technologies that help us meet the growing fertility, and pest and disease suppression challenges in agriculture. We have a few new tools and solutions underneath our belt that we'll soon be releasing. Most recent is a topical solution that can be directly applied to plants to help mitigate, and, if wildly successful, eradicate the common pest and disease issues that both indoor and outdoor farms currently manage using alternative such as, microbes, genetically modified enzymes, and/or traditional pesticides and herbicides. If you are a farmer interested in testing a product to help with managing aphids, thrips, powdery mildew and/or fungus gnats, to name a few, email us at wecare@re-nuble.com and drop us an email with the subject line: "We're Interested". In the next 4 weeks, we plan to engage farmers for feedback on this new product and you may be the first to receive it before its formal public release. Your feedback makes us better.
How Freight Farms Plans To Grow Sales (And More Veggies) With Its Next-Gen Farm In A Box
Brad McNamara (left) and Jon Friedman, co-founders of Freight Farms, in front of their new Greenery, a high-tech, hydroponic farm built inside of a shipping container.FREIGHT FARMS
Almost a decade ago, the cofounders of Boston-based Freight Farms pioneered the idea of outfitting used shipping containers with everything a farmer needs to grow greens and herbs in a pesticide-free, climate-controlled environment– without soil. These hydroponic vertical farms, which grow plants in nutrient-enriched water, are turnkey operations that enable a farmer to get up and running in a matter of days. And the whole thing takes up just 320 square feet.
Co-founders Jon Friedman and Brad McNamara formed their company in 2010, raised their first funds on Kickstarter in 2011 and introduced their Leafy Green Machine a year later. Freight Farms has since raised about $12 million from VC firms. To date, it has sold more than 250 of those shipping-container farms, which use off-the shelf parts and their own proprietary software, in more than 15 countries.
"After about four years of working with that model and pushing it as far as we could go, we realized we needed to make a more quantum leap," said Friedman, who is chief operating officer.
Freight Farms says its new LED lighting system produces higher yields and heavier plants FREIGHT FARMS
Today Freight Farms will announce its next-gen product, called the Greenery. Instead of using recycled shipping containers, the units are built from the ground up for Freight Farms with all new components. Growing racks can now be configured to accommodate bigger plants, such as tomatoes. Lighting has improved too. Its energy-efficient LED arrays, with three times the power of the old ones, result in heavier plants and greater yields, according to the company.
Water and energy usage are also more efficient than the old design. The farm's new climate-control system condenses and recycles ambient moisture. The company said it offers 70% more growing space, among other features. Its IoT-connected sensors continuously send the farmer data on temperature, lighting, moisture content, CO2 levels and other environmental variables to allow them to monitor and adjust conditions remotely from a smart phone.
I first wrote about Freight Farms in December 2015, when revenue was about $3 million and the company had about 50 customers. Granted, the business is still small, but it's growing steadily and adapting, much as plants do, to a changing environment. The company declined to disclose its revenue this time around, citing intense industry competition. Indeed, a quick Google search shows they aren't alone anymore in the shipping-container farm business. Competitors include the CropBox and Growtainer. Customers might also opt for other types of vertical, hydroponic systems that don't use a shipping container.
In 2015, Leafy Green Machines had a base price of $76,000. The new Greenery costs $104,000.
Some of the most enthusiastic customers of the freight-container farms are big corporations, who see it as an extension of health and wellness programs or social action initiatives. You can find a Leafy Green Machine on the Google campus in Mountainview, Calif., where it's used to grow greens and edible flowers. In Detroit, Ford Motor Company Fund, the automaker's philanthropic arm, also has a freight farm, that it's operating in partnership with a nonprofit to help supply its community kitchen with fresh produce and provide job training. Everlane, the clothing company, uses its shipping-container farms in Vietnam to provide food for its workers.
Academic institutions find freight farming particularly appealing, said McNamara, who is CEO. "We're seeing more and more of the education segment who want onsite local high quality produce and want to connect students and employees to where their food is coming from."
The University of Georgia has just ordered two Greenery farms to help supply their dining halls with local greens more efficiently and sustainably while educating students about where their food comes from, the school told me in an email.
Of course, not every university or corporation wants to actually do the work of farming, the co-founders realized. So, in late 2018, they launched Grown by Freight Farms, where customers sign up for a service contract. "We provide them with a farm and a farmer," said McNamara, who is CEO.
Small farmers are also an important market for Freight Farms. In Guam, a farmer uses his Leafy Green Machine to supply Wendy's with lettuce. In North Carolina, Heather David and John Peters, who sell pasture-raised meat to chefs from their WhyNot Farms with two locations in North Carolina and a new one in Tennessee, are among the first in line for a Greenery. They expect to receive delivery in May.
"We were looking to diversify our business in a way that would be less labor intensive, and we wanted something that would weigh less than cows or pigs," said Davis. 'We're middle-aged and felt it would be more sustainable for us to be raising vegetables."
Heather Davis and John Peters, owners of Whynot Farms, are buying a Greenery from Freight Farms to diversify from grass-fed animals into vegetables. WHYNOT FARMS
Davis, president and chief investment officer at Nuveen Private Markets in Charlotte, N.C., moonlights as her husband's farmhand on weekends and she happens to have a local vertical, hydroponic farming operation in her portfolio. There were plenty of options for Davis to consider for their own hydroponic system, which they hope to power mostly with solar energy.
"What appealed to me about Freight Farms is that they are very focused on the sustainability aspect and conservation of water," she said. "It's in a compact unit, and they just drop it on your site."
Davis also liked the fact that the company provides intensive farmer support and education.
"It's not clear to me yet the extent of what we'll be able to grow in this," she said. "I'll grow what anybody will buy as long as it's not a total pain in the neck and I can make a profit."
Robin D. Schatz is a New York-based writer focusing on food, nutrition, business and health care. Follow her on Twitter @Robin_Schatz. Read her Forbes stories here.
Robin D. Schatz Contributor
I'm a prize-winning business journalist, most recently working as an assistant managing editor at Crain's New York Business, where I managed health care coverage. I've been a staff writer and editor at Bloomberg News, Businessweek and other publications and a freelance writer for a broad media clientele. I'm also a weekend organic farmer in the Catskill Mountains with a keen interest in sustainable agriculture, plant-based eating and the future of food.
After a long break from blogging about food entrepreneurs, I'm happy to be relaunching on Forbes' food and wine vertical. I'll still be writing about game-changing entrepreneurs, those who are trying to figure out how we'll feed a planet of 9 billion people and others are just trying to make a living producing something healthy and delicious. I'll also be looking at the nexus of nutrition, public health and business.
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Nigeria: Farming Without Soil
Farmers are growing crops without soil.
They are on a national campaign to promote this type of agriculture, DANIEL ESSIET writes.
In a room in Anifowoshe, Ikeja, Lagos, kale, romaine, lettuce, oregano, thyme, arugula and basil are grown in trays under energy bulbs.
The seeds are cultivated without soil. You are greeted by the pleasant sight of rows of young maize leaves growing out of pipes filled with water and saw dust –no soil.
Though they are growing in a protected environment, the leaves are thick, lush green, and free of dust particles, giving them a clean and healthy look.
BIC Farms Concept Chief Executive, Pastor Debo Onafowora, believes hydroponics – growing plants without soil – is the best way to go.
Hydroponics, he explained, involves growing plants without soil.
An Associate Pastor with Living Faith Church (aka Winners’ Chapel), Ota in Ogun State, Onafowora grows crops hydroponically. The most common are tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and maize. The seeds are placed in trays and watered several times daily with a nutrient solution.
Onafowora added that hydroponics is better than conventional farming.
He emphasised that a plant only need some nutrients, water, and sunlight to grow.
He listed the advanges of hydroponics as high quality products, less space, and consumes fewer resources.
He harvests his vegetables just after 25 days, half the time needed with regular planting.
Besides farming, he teaches agriculturists how to apply the technology. He helps his customers to set up farms and provides consultation and training.
A small scale vegetable hydroponic farm requires an investment of N500,000. This will give a 10 ft X 20ft greenhouse hydroponics farm with hydroponics with systems for growing 250 kilogrammes ( KG) of tomatoes or 350 kg of cucumber.
One can make net profits of 40 to N50,000 monthly. He has established over 100 farms across the country.
By growing cattle fodder off the fields, he said hydroponics could offer a solution to the frequent violent clashes between farmers and herdsmen over arable farmland that is disappearing due to desertification.
Onafowora advocated the use of hydroponic fodder as the best option for livestock feed, adding that this would help reduce the cost of the product by over 20 per cent.
He said the fodder could be grown within nine days and that it saves about 95 per cent of land.
Onafowora noted that hydroponics fodder production technology is a climate-controlled crop growing system, which guaranteed daily production of highly nutritious livestock feeds.
“It is grown from grains. We convert one kilogramme of grain to 5kg of fodder within nine days. Normally, on the soil, it will take up to 90 days.
“What you need is 100 hectares of land to grow. In terms of fodder quantity, we will do that on one hectare of land and we are doing that saving about 90 per cent of water,” he added.
He is partnering Landmark University, Omu-Aran, Kwara State.
Universities of Lagos, Ibadan, Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Lead City University have also picked the technology.
To boost food production, Samson Ogbole is employing aeroponics- a process of growing plants in the air.
He became involved in soilless farming in 2014. Two years later, he founded PS Nutraceuticals, a firm that applies agricultural technologies to boost food production.
The firm Nutracueuticals deploys various technologies, including hydroponics (plants in water), aquaponics (use of waste produce of fishes to feed plants) and aeroponics (plants grown in air) to grow crops all year round.
To him, aeroponics is a better alternative for growing crops indoors.
Experts say aeroponics is similar to hydroponics and that it uses water. The roots are suspended in a dark chamber and sprayed with nutrient-rich solution.
To Fresh Direct Produce and Agro-Allied Services CEO/founder Angel Adelaja, urban agriculture has brought a new hope. She uses old shipping containers for farming.
A self-taught hydroponics expert, Adelaja appears to be making headway. The entrepreneur, who has a background in biostatistics and epidemiology, learnt hydroponics online.
She created a stackable container farm in Abuja, which is essentially an aggregation of vertical farming and hydroponics.
She is campaigning for the transformation of old shipping containers into miniature hydroponic farms.
The containers are retrofitted with growing platforms where beds of lettuce are grown with their roots in water.
Adelaja and her team grow those vegetables using only nutrient, water and LED light.
The method makes it possible to grow crops all year round.
Adelaja encourages farmers to use abandoned shipping containers in their farms.
Her company, Fresh Direct, has several divisions one of which produces stackable containers.
She is passionate about creating awareness among other farmers.
"Successful Brand Structure And Promotion Are Key To Market Success"
The two greatest influencing factors in the competitive fruit trade are price and brand
Joy Wing Mau blueberry brand promotion
"The annual import volume of fruit into China has been around 4 million tons in the last 3 years. The average annual fruit import value was around 5.5 billion USD. This volume, however, only accounts for 3%-5% of the volume in China's fruit market.
There is still great potential for imported fruit in the Chinese market, and in high-end markets in particular. There are several reasons for this situation. First, the disposable income of Chinese consumers continues to increase every day, as does their awareness of healthy foods. Second, China takes advantage of great trade relations with numerous countries to open the doors wide to a variety of imported fruits.
Of course, the world economy suffered from fluctuations caused by a number of factors. This could have its short-term effects on the Chinese market, but I think that it will not have any lasting, structural influence." This is according to Li Liang of Joy Wing Mau Group.
"The two greatest influencing factors in the competitive fruit trade are price and brand. The continuous increase in living standards in China mean that some previously high-end, expensive fruits have become relatively common products.
Take for example Red Globe grapes or Royal Gala apples. Some other fruits, however, are new in the market. Their novelty attracts the attention of consumers and wins their praise. These new fruits are in a luxurious position of high-quality, expensive fruits. This is the case, for example, for domestic Shine Muscat green grapes, imported Muscat grapes, and Rockit apples."
"Apart from this, branding has become one of the most important ways for consumers to recognize various fruits in the past few years. Several larger trading companies have recognized this development and stepped up the pace of branding in the fruit industry. Zespri kiwifruit, for example, has become the first choice for many consumers looking for kiwifruit.
Envy established its name as one of the high-quality apple brands. Joyvio has established a similarly effective brand for high-quality blueberries. It is particularly important in the multi-layered fruit market of China to establish a unique brand and carry out effective promotional activities. Joy Wing Mau spent many years of industrious effort in the construction of brand structure and brand promotion. They achieved great results in today's fruit market."
"One expression that vividly describes the Chinese economy is that 'Chinese economy is not a small pond, but an ocean.' Although China's fruit trade has felt the effects of the Sino-US trade war in recent years, the overall fruit consumption in China continues unchanged. Consumers still demand high-quality fruit, especially consumers from the rapidly growing middle-class. People have growing standards for healthy food. We are more than optimistic about the future of the fruit import and export industry in China. Joy Wing Mau Group will continue to work hard for the integration of global fruit production core areas and the vast Chinese consumer market. We will bring high-quality fruit from all over the world, and simultaneously promote great Chinese fruit abroad."
Li Liang
Joy Wing Mau Group
Publication date : 2/18/2019
© FreshPlaza.com
US: Florida Hydroponics Grower Brings Produce To Lucky’s Markets
Orlando-based Eco Convergence Group (ECG) is bringing three of its HyTaste lettuce varieties to consumers of all 18 Lucky’s Markets in Florida over the next six weeks
Orlando-based Eco Convergence Group (ECG) is bringing three of its HyTaste lettuce varieties to consumers of all 18 Lucky’s Markets in Florida over the next six weeks. The produce is currently available in two Orlando stores. It will be available at an additional five stores in Orlando, Sarasota and Naples on Saturday, Feb. 16.
Baby Bibb, Red Oak Leaf, and Crystal Lalique are the three selections of living lettuces to be sold in stores. The hydroponic lettuces are locally-grown, pesticide, fungicide, and insecticide free, as well as non-GMO. To ensure food safety, the production facilities are operated like cleanrooms.
“We’re thrilled to introduce our lettuces to Lucky’s Market shoppers,” said Cristian Toma, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of ECG. “We grow our produce in highly controlled environments, providing perfect conditions year-round with no seasonality, so consumers can continually purchase our products at stable prices throughout the year.”
Since its inception in 2010, ECG has focused on providing produce that is nutrient dense and has the best taste through an innovative vertical hydroponic system. The group has supplied HyTaste produce to high-end hotels and restaurants in Orlando since April 2018. This is ECG’s first time going retail, and the team has plans to expand to other retailers in the near future.
For more information:
www.hytastechef.com
www.ecghydro.com
Publication date : 2/18/2019
The NYC Agriculture Collective: Third Annual Fresh In February Event
The NYC Agriculture Collective would like to invite you as a fellow farmer to our third annual Fresh in February event, hosted by us and taking place on Thursday, February 28th, 2019 from 6:00-9:30 pm at Project Farmhouse
Where else can you find fresh, local produce in 12-degree weather? Luckily, New York is chock full of urban farms, like yours, that grow all year round. We'd like to showcase your farm in addition to the NYC Agriculture Collective to celebrate winter harvests for the third year in a row at Fresh in February and observe why New York strives to become another large agriculture economy, second to California!
Together, our diverse collection of urban farms, urban agriculture service companies and NYC-based agtech businesses invite investors, academia, chefs, and the general public to taste fresh local food as part of a unique food experience at Project Farmhouse in Union Square.
The evening will consist of an exclusive venue where local, year-round farmers will display how they are making agriculture possible in the wintertime in NYC. See the technology in action, meet the farmer and indulge on local produce.
Enjoy hyper-local and delicious snacks, as well as one of a kind specialty cocktails - delicately curated with our Collective's produce, and products from other fine local purveyors.
TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE HERE
We Need To Prioritize Urban Farming In City Planning
The new faces of farming — millennials, career changers, refugees — are all looking for opportunities, and many of them want to farm in urban places, next to their customers
January 31, 2019 By Mary Kimball
Last November, I stood on the stage of the Meeting of the Minds Summit in Sacramento, sandwiched between a panel led by energetic Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs and his vision for economic prosperity, and a talk on the future of autonomous delivery vehicles. My talk? To encourage city planners, developers and urban architects to bring agriculture back to cities and urban spaces, and what this addition can do for the future of their communities’ resiliency, job creation, healthy citizens and carbon footprint.
Stay with me here. I know, agriculture is not “the new wave.” It’s not even close. I mean, we’re talking something that started about 10,000 years ago when eight of the Neolithic founder crops, like emmer wheat, hulled barley, lentils and chickpeas, were first cultivated. Fast forward to the late 1800s in the Sacramento Valley, when Yolo County was the largest producer of wheat in the entire United States.
The new faces of farming — millennials, career changers, refugees — are all looking for opportunities, and many of them want to farm in urban places, next to their customers.
Things have changed quite a bit since then. In 1900, 60 percent of the U.S. population consisted of farmers — so around 45 million — and most, if not all, lived and farmed in rural areas. Today, only 1.8 percent of our population is a farmer, or about 6 million. Today, we don’t just have fewer farmers than we did then (for a much larger population), we also have an age issue. The average age of the American farmer is just under 60. The only occupation with an older average age is truck drivers. A more critical statistic is the age distribution. For every farmer under the age of 25, there are five over the age of 75.
While you might not feel this threat every day, it’s very real — it’s a threat to our food supply and health, and to the resilience of our communities and nation. As former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said, if left unchecked, this shortage of farmers and farmer succession could threaten our ability to produce the food we need.
What can you do about it? For one thing, recognize that your cities, towns and new developments not only have room for farming, but should welcome it with open arms. The new faces of farming — millennials, career changers, refugees — are all looking for opportunities, and many of them want to farm in urban places, next to their customers.
The City of West Sacramento did something about this need for new farmers. As city officials learned that the two largest obstacles to starting a farm are access to land and access to capital, they also realized they had one of these critical resources at their disposal — land. In 2014, my organization, the Center for Land-Based Learning, partnered with West Sacramento to begin the first urban farm on a site that was formerly a gas station and had sat an idle dumping ground for almost 20 years. Today that farm is flourishing — literally. A graduate of our California Farm Academy training program, Laurie Gates of Flourish Farm, is growing a half-acre of fresh flowers for u-picks, farmers markets and local farm stands.
Lake Washington Farm, a privately-owned site next to a fire station and across from Nugget Market, is another innovative West Sacramento example. Not only do the three farmers at this 3.5-acre site have an onsite farm stand, but they sell to Nugget and to local restaurants.
Just down the road from Lake Washington Farm sits the West Sacramento Housing Development Corporation farm site, formerly an under-utilized half-acre lawn in the middle of a low-income senior housing complex. Now it’s a thriving farm that provides acreage for three farmers who grow everything from fresh veggies sold to residents and neighbors, to the Sacramento area’s first Saffron crop. The farmers even take time to educate the students at the elementary school across the street.
These revitalized, formerly unused urban spaces are growing much-needed healthy food. All of these farms are in food deserts. Several of our farms grow food for school lunch programs in local districts. They completely change the look and feel of a neighborhood, inviting new development and businesses to connect and grow with them. These urban farms can be a critical carbon sink and have been prioritized in the newly released California 2020 Natural and Working Lands Climate Implementation Plan. They provide local markets and food access to people who haven’t had it in generations. Local businesses support these projects by bringing employees out for volunteer days and buying produce they then donate to food banks. These farms provide opportunities for people of all ages to learn about where their food comes from and how it’s grown.
So, what is holding you back from unleashing this economic and community building engine? Whether you’re a landowner, developer, city or regional planner, or elected official, I challenge you to do what you can to promote urban farming. You can tear down the fences surrounding vacant lots. Create citywide policies that encourage and even incentivize urban agriculture, and perhaps even more importantly, incentivize institutions like hospitals and schools to purchase locally grown food. Prioritize updating zoning policies that restrict or constrict urban farming. Seek out your local and regional beginning farmer training programs and ask them to join you. Stop saying, we can’t do that here, and instead take action to include urban agriculture in your city planning.
Use of Coco Coir To Grow Substantially Over The Next Decades
Since its introduction, over 20 years ago, coir has gained ground rapidly in North, Central and South America, as well as Asia.
With a history of only 25 years, coco is a relatively new product in the horticultural industry. Its popularity has been on a continuous rise and is expected to keep on growing over the next couple of years. “The European growing industry was very peat minded, but this has changed. Nowadays peat and coco are fully compliant raw materials being used in the production of potting soil”, Geerten van Eldik with Fibredust tells us. That’s why the company recently joined Growing Media Europe – the first coco producer to do so.
The global substrate market is always on the move. Since its introduction, over 20 years ago, coir has gained ground rapidly in North, Central and South America, as well as Asia. Making it possible for growers to start hydroponic cultivation in an affordable way, and therefore offering higher yield levels and the possibility to avoid diseases while still mono cropping, the use of coco grew alongside the use of hydroponics. In Europe, the rise of coir hasn’t been as mad, as many growers were already familiar with substrate growing when coco entered the industry.
“Currently about 12.5% of global growing media being used is coir, as researched by Wageningen UR and RHP”, Geerten continues. This percentage is expected to grow further. Wageningen UR researcher Chris Blok estimates the amount of coco being used, currently 5 million m3, might even multiply by seven over the next couple of years. With both the production and the use of peat being limited more and more, an alternative is needed. And coco could be it.” Nowadays soft fruit is changing the industry. “In America, the market for coco slabs is growing thanks to the popularity of the product in crops such as soft fruit and cannabis. In Europe, bulk is key and since peat is a complete raw material, it's of good use in this industry. The use of slabs could grow in the next couple of years, but nowadays we see coir is being used as an alternative to peat in the mix of potting soils”, Geerten explains."
FibreDust India production location Anar Coir. About 40 hectare drying and processing facilities.
Team Fibre Dust India - Anar Coir - visited by Geerten
The USA sales team
Challenges
Being a reusable product, a product of nature and an easy to use substrate, coco is favored by more and more growers. However, coco is facing challenges as well. As a product of nature, the residual product from the coconut growing industry, coir had to deal with supplying issues due to climate circumstances in production regions in India and Sri Lanka.
By spreading their production over various Indian and Sri Lankan facilities and investing in the production chain, Fibredust has been able to solve the issues and secure their supply for the future. “Drying the raw material is an important topic. We’re testing this thoroughly and are nearly there, but it’s a complicated matter: you do not want to adjust the internal quality of the material. We’re looking for the perfect way to ensure our buffering quality whilst maximizing the output and keeping an eye out on the energy costs.” In the production chain, water and transport are also of concern. “With a special system we collect a lot of rainwater, which can be used in the process. By using a reverse osmosis system, we are able to re-use the water and since the buffering process is optimised, we can buffer large amounts of peat in a short time. With investments like these we want to keep investing in the sustainability of the industry. We expect this will result in an RHP certificate in 2019 as well.”
The USA sales team
Geerten with Satheesh Rao
Coco is bought based on trust
“Coco is bought based on trust”, Geerten continues. “On the outside, you cannot see if a product is good or bad, and since the delivery time is four weeks, the problems are big when there’s something wrong with the product. That’s why to us, trust in the company is valued highly.” Certificates like SA8000 and ISO14000, ISO9001 and OMRO are examples of this – but there’s more. This year Fibredust joined Growing Media Europe, the body representing the growing media industry and known for being a rockwool-peat organization.
“The European growing industry was very peat-minded, and peat and coco were even competing, but this has changed. Peat and coco are fully compliant as raw materials being used in the production of potting soil, and the choice is for the grower to make.” With the importance of coco growing, the interests of the coco industry have grown as well. “The industry needs to be represented”, says Geerten.
For example, the import of coco material into Europe has attracted interest from the European Commission. “With coco being officially a plant waste, it was said every consignment had to be tested separately before it could be imported. With thousands of containers being imported, that would be an immense setback. Thanks to the effort made by the coco industry and the network and support of Growing Media Europe, this plan was torpedoed. We’re proud to be a part of this. Of course we’re Fibredust and are a commercial company, but the major issues of the industry concern us as well. If the industry flourishes, we flourish as well.”
For more information
FibreDust LLC
T: 860-613-0077
American Hydroponics Celebrates 35 Years In Business!
We're so proud to celebrate 35 years of hydroponic solutions! We're a family based company helping other families and communities sustainably produce healthy, clean food. Our founder Michael Christian received the Green Entrepreneur of the Year award, from the Governor of California 20 years after the birth of AmHydro.
It was exactly this type of forward thinking that our company was founded on and continues to operate with today. Jenny Harris joined the company in 2011 and soon after became owner and CEO. With the strong momentum already created, we're moving forward to even greater things. Our future looks very bright, and our goals include:
expanding our international reach
supporting our customers even better
creating the largest controlled environment farm in the US
So, please stay tuned for a year of celebration, great deals and next level hydroponics!
We are committed to hydroponic solutions.
Largest manufacturer of rooftop farms in the world
1st Nutrient Film Technique farm in the US
Only FDA approved food grade HDPE growing channels available in US
Farms on 6 continents and over 60 countries worldwide
Hundreds of commercial hydroponic farms across North America
Hydroponic components are made in the USA
When you choose AmHydro, you get proven results with experienced experts by your side.
Over the past 35 years our dedicated employees have helped hundreds of people follow their dreams and become hydroponic farmers in their local communities. Turning 35 makes us proud to have been able to provide real, working solutions to our customers. People know they can count on us for good, honest service and products that really work.
We're celebrating with 35% off our Epic Nutrient Line!
35EPICYEARS
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What Is Hydroponics - And Is It The Future of Farming?
Hydroponics offers one particular advantage over traditional growing methods. Through careful manipulation and management of the growing environment, including the amount of water, the pH levels and the combination of specific nutrients plants can be encouraged to grow faster
No soil, no waste, no pesticides. So how does it work? Image: REUTERS/Edgar Su
05 Feb 2019
Sean Fleming Senior Writer, Formative Content
While industrialized farming techniques have meant a more plentiful supply of cheaper, fresher food – most notably in the developed world – they can also be a threat to the environment, promoting waste, putting too much strain on resources and causing pollution. That’s one of the findings of a report published by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos.
The report highlights the importance of cities in the production and consumption of food: “80% of all food is expected to be consumed in cities by 2050, they have to be central to this story. Today they often act as black holes, sucking in resources but wasting many of them – the final stop in the take-make-waste approach.”
From producer to retailer, vast volumes of food is wasted. Image: UNFAO
Partly, this is due to the need to transport food to urban areas. That’s a process that places great importance on producing a lot of food, then packing and shipping it across sometimes vast distances, before storing and finally selling it to people. From start to finish that requires resources to be deployed at every step of a long chain of events – fuel, people, land, buildings, the list goes on.
One response to this, which is beginning to take shape, is vertical farming. Forecasts from Research & Markets claim the vertical farming industry could be worth as much as $3 billion by 2024. Key to this approach, where food is grown in densely populated towns and cities where land is scarce, is the use of hydroponics.
The plants you don’t actually plant
Essentially, hydroponics is the process of growing plants without using soil, which might sound counterintuitive to anyone unfamiliar with the practice. The word itself is an amalgamation of two Greek words: hydro, meaning water and ponein, meaning to toil. Plants are rooted into a variety of compounds, including vermiculite, rockwool, or clay pellets – inert substances that won’t introduce any elements into the plant’s environment. Nutrient-enriched water then feeds the plant.
Hydroponics offers one particular advantage over traditional growing methods. Through careful manipulation and management of the growing environment, including the amount of water, the pH levels and the combination of specific nutrients plants can be encouraged to grow faster. Air and soil temperatures can also be carefully controlled, as can the prevalence of pests and diseases.
The net effect is an increased yield and improved use of resources. A less wasteful approach to resource consumption means reduced waste, preservation of water stocks and a diminished reliance on pesticides, fertilizers and other potentially harmful materials.
Have you read?
Our food system is no longer fit for the 21st century. Here are three ways to fix it
China has made a shocking food production discovery – electro culture
A holistic view of supply and demand
Around one-third of all the food produced each year ends up being wasted, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. That’s approximately 1.3 billion tonnes, which equates to a loss of almost $1 trillion.
The point in the value chain at which food tends to get wasted most differs between developed and developing countries. In developing countries, losses and waste tend to occur during the earlier stages of the food value chain. Reasons for that include constraints around farming, crop management and harvesting caused by a lack of finances and expertise. Improving the infrastructure and logistics of food in developing nations can help address many of these challenges.
Perhaps less surprisingly, in higher-income countries food is generally wasted later in the process. Often that is driven by consumer behaviour and retailers’ approach to in-store discounting practices; discounts that fail to attract purchases while food approaches the end of its “eat-by” period invariably lead to waste and loss. The situation is further hampered by ineffective strategies for taking unsold food and finding other destinations for it – such as, but not limited to, homeless shelters.
Consumers in rich countries waste almost as much (222 million tonnes) as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tonnes). Meanwhile, the UNFAO says the number of malnourished people is on the rise: in 2016, it stood at 804 million but the following year had grown to 821 million.
Written by
Sean Fleming, Senior Writer, Formative Content
The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.
Headline image taken by photographer Holly Challinor, Jones Food Company Ltd.
First Wheelchair Accessible Farm At Local Bronx Public School
By urbanagnews
February 8, 2019
Empire BlueCross BlueShield and Green Bronx Machine to Launch First Wheelchair Accessible Farm at Local Bronx Public School
Press Release – NEW YORK – Green Bronx Machine (GBM), a nationally recognized non-profit organization dedicated to helping students live happier and healthier lives, is partnering with Empire BlueCross BlueShield (Empire) to launch the first wheelchair accessible farm and teaching kitchen in America at P.S. 721x, a District 75 school in the Bronx dedicated to educating students living with disabilities.
“Our students and faculty are so excited and so grateful to Empire and Green Bronx Machine for this classroom makeover that inspires healthy living, healthy learning, and creates 21st century career and college readiness.”~ Frank Degennaro, Principal, P.S. 721x
On Wednesday, February 13th, GBM and Empire will host a ribbon-cutting event at the school to unveil the new, in-school farm. In addition to the wheelchair accessible farm and teaching kitchen, P.S. 721x teachers and students will receive GBMs fully integrated health and wellness curriculum, a GBM Mobile Classroom Kitchen—a fully portable “indoor food truck” complete with sink, refrigerator, convection oven and food warmer and a media studio where students can participate in video conferences with other schools and organizations, post updates to social media, live stream educational programming and older students can record practice interview sessions.
“Thanks to this partnership, we’ve been able to develop the first fully accessible piece of hydroponic technology that will create opportunities for untold Americans and farmers around the world. Empire and Green Bronx Machine are growing something greater – for all!”~ Chris Higgins, Founder & CEO, Hort Americas
GBM founder Stephen Ritz has built his program on the belief that healthy students drive healthy schools, which in turn drives healthy communities. To help educate students on the importance of proper nutrition, Stephen developed a fully integrated core curriculum that teaches students how to grow, eat and love their vegetables while also learning about math, science, and English in a fresh and engaging way.
“To see these future chefs and farmers smiling with glee as they cook and farm, three stories up in the middle of winter, makes me proud and excited to be a New York City public school teacher with District 75.” ~ Jeremy Kottkamp, Teacher, P.S. 721x
In addition to forever changing their eating habits and health, these students will be more prepared to enter the workforce in emerging fields that provide living wage opportunities while enhancing quality of life for all.
“Beyond happy healthy students, this partnership proves that every classroom in America can have an affordable, portable, professional, mobile classroom teaching kitchen that is accessible for all.”~ John Stephenson, Founder of Port-Equip/Stephenson Custom Case
Having first launched GBM’s National Health, Wellness and Learning Center in an underutilized 100+ year-old library at C.S. 55 in Claremont Village, students who have participated in this program have experienced health improvements that lower the risk of childhood obesity, diabetes and heart disease while also increasing their performance in school.
“We’re proud to partner with Empire and NYC DOE to create the first wheelchair accessible classroom farm and kitchen in America. Every child deserves a safe, healthy, nurturing environment and we’re so proud – this is Bronx innovation at its best!” ~ Stephen Ritz, Founder, Green Bronx Machine
If you are interested in attending the event, details are included below and interviews are available.
WHO:
Stephen Ritz, Green Bronx Machine
Victor Pupo, Empire
Frank Degennaro, Principal, P.S. 721x
WHEN:
Wednesday, February 13th at 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
WHERE:
P.S. 721x; Room 319
2697 Westchester Ave.
Bronx, NY 10461
Media Contacts:
James Freeman, Empire Communications
215.756.2495
James.freeman2@anthem.com
Stephen Ritz, Green Bronx Machine
917.873.6449
Stephen.ritz@greenbronxmachine.org
Meet The People Running A Farm In The Middle Of Andheri – Herbivore Farms
The young guns from Mumbai set themselves up on a mission to directly provide the citizens with vegetables through their hyperlocal, hydroponic farm, a first for the city.
By Mallika Dabke January 15, 2019
The minds behind Herbivore Farms
There’s no doubt that the awareness of eating clean food is growing by the day, but for most of us, it’s an ongoing struggle to make that lifestyle shift. Most of us are grossly unaware about where our produce comes from, and the authenticity of organic products is often left as an unanswered question at the back of our minds. Bringing clarity to our kitchens, is Herbivore Farms, which is an actual farm in the middle of Andheri, set up by duo Sakina Rajkotwala and Joshua Lewis. The young guns from Mumbai set themselves up on a mission to directly provide the citizens with vegetables through their hyperlocal, hydroponic farm, a first for the city. I spoke to Sakina and Joshua to know more about them and their work, read on to see what we spoke about!
Give us a quick introduction to Herbivore Farms.
Herbivore Farms is Mumbai’s first hyper local farm located in Andheri East. We grow the super healthy varieties of leafy green veggies like Swiss Chard, Kale, Rocket and Lettuce using hydroponic methods of cultivation.
Our produce is delivered to customer’s homes a few hours post-harvest, so it’s always at its peak of freshness, nutrition and flavour. Our indoor farm enables to grow in a clean, sterile environment and we use absolutely 0 pesticides so it’s 100% safe. We also use up to 80% less water to grow our produce using a recirculating irrigation system.
Talk us through your story – what inspired you, how you started, and the journey so far.
The journey that led us to start this project began in 2017 when we both quit our jobs – Sakina worked at an NGO called Magic Bus and Joshua was working with an ad company called Directi. While our jobs seemed to be working out well for us, we were missing a sense of purpose and were on a mission to find it. So, we decided to pack our bags and go live in Auroville for three months and work on a farm. We wanted to get our hands dirty and also reconnect with ourselves and nature.
We worked as farm labor for three months at Solitude Farm. The farm also had a cafe where lunch was served and made from ingredients that were harvested fresh off the farm the same morning. We ate meals post work there every day and food had never tasted better. It was always basic and simple food but it changed everything for us in terms of our energy levels, our mood and in general, our overall health. We felt happy and well.
This was the starting point of our inspiration. We wanted to create a way for people to enjoy fresh, healthy local produce. We also wanted people to revive their relationship with their food – understand where it comes from, who grows it, how it’s grown, why it’s good for you. We wanted people to be able to feel as good as we did. And that’s how Herbivore Farms was born.
Through extensive research we discovered how we could build a farm within the city and grow indoors. Hydroponics appealed to us because it saves two of the most precious urban resources – space and water. After a year of trial and error and lots of research, we built our small indoor farm. The two of us handle everything right from the farm tasks (planting, monitoring, harvesting) to deliveries, sales and marketing.
We believe that the food we eat is one of the most important factors in determining our health and more and more people are starting to realise it too. What we put in our bodies three times a day can impact just about everything in our lives and we are on a mission to get everyone to start valuing good food and make good choices. We also wanted to build a chain of supply that is completely transparent so people can trust what’s on their plate as opposed to the way our markets currently work.
Give us an overview of the set up and functioning of Herbivore Farms.
We have converted an old industrial warehouse in Andheri East into a climate controlled greenhouse. We’ve built vertical hydroponics systems that enable us to grow 10 times more in the same square footage. Our recirculating irrigation system also enables us to use 75% less water as compared to traditional agriculture. We’ve put in place processes that allow us to harvest on a daily basis, and each morning’s harvest is delivered to the customer’s homes a few hours later.
Up until a month ago it was the two of us managing absolutely everything, we personally went to people’s doors to hand them their produce. It was exhausting but extremely rewarding, and the motive was to dive into the depth of every little detail to put into place effective farm processes which we have been able to do now, and we’re still learning every day. A few weeks ago, we hired our first employee. He is learning quickly and developing into the role of Primary Farm Manager.
How has the feedback been? What are some of the things that customers are saying about you?
The response from customers who tried our free samples was phenomenal. About 90% of the people who took a sample home wrote back to us saying they loved how fresh and flavourful the leaves were and how they wanted to know how soon they can start buying. Some even said that we had changed their perception on leafy greens – what they previously associated with tasting “bitter” or “bland” and didn’t enjoy eating but would force themselves to, to try and be healthy. A lot of people we met at events told us were happy to finally have some transparency as to where their veggies are grown and where they come from, as they were skeptical of eating raw greens because of the fear of pesticides, unhygienic growing conditions, and not knowing who has handled the produce.
How does one place an order at the farm and what all do you currently grow to offer?
A Herbivore Harvest Box (Monthly Subscription) is INR 1500 (extra delivery charges for South Mumbai) for one month. One subscription = total four deliveries (one per week) on a fixed day depending on where the subscriber lives. Each week the subscriber will receive one box at their chosen address which will contain two to three varieties of leafy greens harvested that morning.
Our range of leafy greens – seven types of lettuce (lollo rosso, oakleaf, French romaine, summercrisp, butterhead), three types of Swiss chard (red, yellow, mangold), two types of rocket (wild and cultivated) and we are working on four kale varieties that will be part of our box soon!
Pick from a range of leafy greens!
Lastly, what’s next for Herbivore Farms?
We can’t wait to upgrade to a much larger facility and cater to a larger population of our city. We want to be more than just a farm. We want to teach kids how to grow their own food “kindly”, for that is the most essential foundation of a community of the future. Herbivore Farms aims to create jobs with meaning, and bring people closer together.
Can We Grow More Food on Less Land? We’ll Have To, A New Study Finds
If the world hopes to make meaningful progress on climate change, it won’t be enough for cars and factories to get cleaner. Our cows and wheat fields will have to become radically more efficient, too.
By Brad Plumer
Dec. 5, 2018
WASHINGTON — If the world hopes to make meaningful progress on climate change, it won’t be enough for cars and factories to get cleaner. Our cows and wheat fields will have to become radically more efficient, too.
That’s the basic conclusion of a sweeping new study issued Wednesday by the World Resources Institute, an environmental group. The report warns that the world’s agricultural system will need drastic changes in the next few decades in order to feed billions more people without triggering a climate catastrophe.
The challenge is daunting: Agriculture already occupies roughly 40 percent of the world’s land and is responsible for about a quarter of humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions. But with the global population expected to grow from 7.2 billion people today to nearly 10 billion by 2050, and with many millions of people eating more meat as incomes rise, that environmental impact is on pace to expand dramatically.
Based on current trends, the authors calculated, the world would need to produce 56 percent more calories in 2050 than it did in 2010. If farmers and ranchers met that demand by clearing away more forests and other ecosystems for cropland and pasture, as they have often done in the past, they would end up transforming an area twice the size of India.
That, in turn, could make it nearly impossible to stay below 2 degrees Celsius of global warming, the agreed-upon international goal, even if the world’s fossil-fuel emissions were rapidly phased down. When forests are converted into farmland, the large stores of carbon locked away in those trees is released into the atmosphere.
“Food is the mother of all sustainability challenges,” said Janet Ranganathan, vice president for science and research at the World Resources Institute. “We can’t get below 2 degrees without major changes to this system.”
Less meat, but also better farming
The new study, the result of six years’ worth of modeling work conducted in partnership with French agricultural researchers, is hardly the first to warn that feeding the world sustainably will be a formidable task. But the authors take a different view of the most plausible solutions.
In the past, researchers who have looked at the food problem have suggested that the key to a sustainable agriculture system is to persuade consumers to eat far less meat and waste far less of the food that’s already grown.
The new report, however, cautions that there may be limits to how much those strategies can achieve on their own. The authors do recommend that the biggest consumers of beef and lamb, such as those in Europe and the United States, could cut back their consumption by about 40 percent by 2050, or down to about 1.5 servings a week on average. Those two types of meat have especially large environmental footprints.
But the authors are not counting on a major worldwide shift to vegetarianism.
“We wanted to avoid relying on magic asterisks,” said Timothy D. Searchinger, a researcher at Princeton University and the World Resources Institute and lead author of the report. “We could imagine a significant shift from beef to chicken, and that by itself goes a long way.” (Poultry production has about one-eighth the climate impact of beef production.)
So, in addition to actions on diet and food waste, the researchers also focused on dozens of broad strategies that could allow farmers and ranchers to grow far more food on existing agricultural lands while cutting emissions, a feat that would require a major shift in farming practices worldwide and rapid advances in technology.
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A farm in the Pays de la Loire region of France. Cows have an especially large environmental footprint.CreditLoic Venance/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
For example, they note, in parts of Brazil, the best-managed grazing lands can produce four times as much beef per acre as poorly managed lands — in part owing to differences in cattle health and how well the grass is fertilized. Improving productivity across the board could help satisfy rising meat demand while lessening the need to clear broad swaths of rain forest.
The authors also pointed to possible techniques to reduce the climate impact of existing farms. For instance, new chemical compounds could help prevent nitrogen fertilizers from producing nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas. And scientists are exploring feed additives that get cows to burp up less methane, another big contributor to global warming.
The report notes that producing 56 percent more calories without expanding agricultural land could prove even more difficult if, as expected, rising temperatures reduce crop yields. But, Mr. Searchinger said, many of the recommendations in the report, such as breeding new, higher-yielding crop varieties or preventing soil erosion, could also help farmers adapt to climate change.
Conserving the world’s remaining forests
The researchers emphasize that strategies to improve the productivity of existing croplands and pastures will have to be paired with more rigorous conservation policies to protect existing forests in places like Brazil or sub-Saharan Africa. Otherwise, farmers will just find it more profitable to clear more forests for agriculture — with dire climate consequences.
“In the past, we’ve often seen agricultural policies and conservation policies moving in parallel without a lot of interaction,” said Linus Blomqvist, director of conservation at the Breakthrough Institute, who was not involved in the study. “The big challenge is to link the two, so that we get more intensive farming without using more land.”
In another contentious recommendation, the report’s authors call for a limit on the use of bioenergy crops, such as corn grown for ethanol in cars, that compete with food crops for land.
Money is also a hurdle. The report’s authors call for large increases in research funding to look at ideas like fertilizers that can be made without the use of fossil fuels, organic sprays that can reduce waste by preserving fresh food for longer, and genetic editing techniques that might produce higher-yielding crops. They also urge new regulations that would encourage private industry to develop sustainable agricultural technologies.
Over the past three years, 51 countries have spent roughly $570 billion a year to support food production, said Tobias Baedeker, an agricultural economist at the World Bank, which contributed to the new study.
If those subsidies were overhauled so that they helped support more sustainable practices, Mr. Baedeker said, “we could have a real game-changer on our hands.”
Convert Your Hydroponic System To An Aquaponic System
As we rush towards a greener tomorrow, techniques that have been given to us by mother nature are being revived with modern methods. Aquaponics has a long way to go but both economically and environmentally speaking, this path with have many rewards.
Contributed by | GoblinHydro
01/08/19, 08:48 AM
For those of you who are seasoned growers, aquaponics might be an investment worth while. Aquaponics is all about your water and nutrients in your solution tank, so your not really "converting" as much as you are "adding." it doesn't matter how you choose to deliver water and nutrients to your plant, as long as it comes from the tank inhabited by the fish. Everything you have set up, however it is laid out, you're just a couple steps away from converting your hydroponic or aeroponic system to a aquaponic system.
Aside from the many benefits you will read below, teachers have been turning to hands on education using small aquaponic systems in the classroom.
Why convert?
Yes, it may require a little bit of extra capital, but the benefits far exceed the cost. Organic matter contained in fish feces and feed are used for the conversion of fish generated ammonia to nitrate. Bacteria breaks down the fish waste and converts it to plant food and nutrients. This is a huge cut in your nutrient upkeep. Instead, you will be supplying your fish with food and letting them take care of the plants.
Water is constantly being recycled instead of disposed of, which will give you a huge break when paying your hydro bill. Since the water is recycled, the only loss of water comes from evaporation and transpiration.
PH balance is very important to keep an eye on, in aquaponics or any other method. While you will still need to keep that eye on it, bacteria breaking down the fish waste should adjust the PH balance on its own.
Vegetation and fish happen to be healthiest choice in food, and your farming both! Once a fish has matured (depending on species,) you can remove and enjoy a healthy organic dinner while enjoying the freedom of being self sufficient.
Will my yield increase or decrease?
Many cultivators are reporting a rate of 400% - 500% faster crop turns. Not only that but crop density has been heavily increased for many. Every plant responds to aquaponics differently and certain fish seem to partner with plants just a little bit better.
Many different species of fish can be used. Which kind you select will depend on not only your plant species but tank size.
If this is a home project you might want to use ornamental fish like guppies, fancy goldfish, angelfish or even a swordfish. Some have even created environments for turtles, crayfish and even shrimp. If the purpose is not decorative, but still home based, pacu, koi and catfish get along with many different plants. Larger commercial operations use larger fish including larger mouth bass, salmon burramundi, this is to maximize nutrients per fish and to provide a cheaper upkeep solution.
Time to add in your aquaponics tank
Choose your tank - As mentioned above, the size of the tank will be dependent on your grow area and fish species you plan to manage.
Choose your fish - This should have already been decided at the time your obtained your tank. Proper research should be done on the species and the habitat required. Search for studies and/or personal experiences through blogs, forums and research papers on what fish people recommend for your specific plant.
Transfer your pump - Remove the pump from your nutrient tank and place it into your fish tank. The minute delay of water to your plants should not cause any stress. Make sure the pump is safe from any holes or crevices your fish can wedge itself into.
Maintenance - Now that the hard part is complete, a close eye will be needed to ensure your fish accept their new home and produce the bacteria required to detoxify the water. Fish feeding should start off gently so you don't overfeed the fish. Leaving traces of leftover food particles can contaminate the water and throw off the bacteria process causing a buildup of ammonia and nitrate.
The best solution to measuring the amount of food required by your fish is to start with a predetermined amount wait 10 minutes while the fish take their fill. Up to 10% can be left in while more should be added if less than 5%.
Oxygen must be dissolved, if the oxygen falls below 2 mg/l, denitrification can occur. For optimum fish performance, keep the oxygen above 5 mg/l but below 10 mg/l. PH should be kept about 6.0, just add potassium for a boost when needed. tools such as API or Tetra kits for measuring nitrate and ammonia are readily available and relatively inexpensive.
As we rush towards a greener tomorrow, techniques that have been given to us by mother nature are being revived with modern methods. Aquaponics has a long way to go but both economically and environmentally speaking, this path with have many rewards.
The Effect Of Light Leaks On A Sealed Growroom
Kent Gruetzmacher | January 4, 2019
Takeaway: Light leaks in your sealed growroom can be disastrous for some kinds of plants. They can also be a sign that more than just light is getting in, including pests and other environmental variables.
When planning and setting up indoor gardens, growers spend time and money in the creation of environments where plant species thrive. For sealed growrooms, this process represents a careful balancing act between temperature, humidity, light, and CO2. However, once an indoor grow is operational, these synthetic environments create challenges for growers that are non-existent in the natural world. The reaction of indoor plants to light leaks during dark periods (nighttime) presents one of these unusual phenomena.
Certain species of plants are subject to photoperiodism, in which the varying duration of light cycles between day and night cause plants to enter new phases of growth. To illustrate, uninterrupted 12-hour periods of darkness (nighttime) causes some plant species to start flowering. This process occurs when a hormone called photochrome reacts to sunlight intensity and durations, directing plants towards the different phases of growth.
If a sealed growroom is not 100 percent dark during the nighttime period, photoperiodism cycles can be interrupted, causing photochrome imbalances as related to specific plant processes. These hormonal imbalances can have negative and sometimes detrimental effects on an indoor harvest.
For those looking to avoid issues with light leaks in their sealed growrooms, consider the following points.
Inconsistencies and Stress
Indoor gardeners should always strive for consistency in their growroom environments. Most crops perform best in stable environments, and bountiful harvests are the result of constant environmental balance—including stable lighting intervals—during both vegetative growth and flowering. A common misconception amongst indoor growers is that light leaks during the vegetative growth phase won’t disrupt crop growth. However, any irregularities in lighting patterns can stress plants out. Along this line of thought, all environmental stressors inhibit essential plant functions, such as nutrient uptake, and retard growth.
Light leaks can also prove troublesome regarding photochrome levels in plants, as unexpected or irregular doses of light can alter stable hormonal conversion processes. During flowering phases, excess light during dark periods can push photochrome activity to the point of converting a plant back into vegetative growth.
(Check out Three Considerations to Make When Designing Growroom Lighting.)
Hermaphrodites
One of the most widely known negative side effects of growroom light seepage has to do with the transformation of female plants into hermaphrodites. For those looking to grow seed-free flowering plant varietals, hermaphrodites can prove devastating for a crop. This is because male flowers on a single plant can pollinate an entire growroom and greatly devalue a harvest.
Expert horticulturists agree that certain plant species turn hermaphrodite as a result of environmental stressors, and light leaks are notorious for being associated with this phenomenon. However, it should be noted that the occasional beam of light on a garden from a headlamp won’t cause plants to “herm.” While indoor growers should strive to avoid any disruptions in regular light cycles, it takes rather consistent light exposure to force a plant into hermaphrodite growth. These sorts of leaks come from constant sources, such as under doorways and walls, that occur on a daily basis.
Light Leaks Mean Other Leaks
Indoor growers can be assured that if their sealed growroom is leaking light, it has issues with other leaks. Seasoned cultivators go to great lengths to ensure that their sealed gardens are functioning at their best when it comes to atmosphere, temperature, and sterility. All these contingencies are compromised with an improperly sealed growroom.
If leakage issues arise, growers, sacrifice the total environmental control that is so essential in sealed room growing. With this issue comes potential problems with maintaining ideal, static levels of temperature, humidity, and CO2. Moreover, as sealed rooms are wholly dependent upon CO2 injection technology, the regular loss of CO2 to leaks is financially burdensome and operationally threatening.
If light leaks can penetrate the confines of a sealed garden, so can airborne pathogens. As such, it is virtually impossible to fully sterilize an indoor grow if bugs and spores (of powdery mildew and botrytis) can continuously access the grow space via leaks.
Locating Light Leaks
Many indoor growers don’t know that their rooms have light leaks until it is too late, and the problem expresses itself by way of hermaphrodites and seeded flowers. As a result, it’s a good idea for cultivators to regularly check their growrooms to make sure they are 100 percent dark during the nighttime period.
To inspect an indoor garden for light leaks, it’s best to enter the grow with a green light when the primary lights are off. Once situated in the garden, turn off the green light and sit still for a while to let your eyes adjust to the blackness. At this point, it should be easy to canvass the walls and ceilings of the room and discern any potential points of light leak trouble. Also, this inspection process should be done during various parts of the day, as different angles of sunlight outside can cause light leaks during isolated time frames.
Gardeners should also be advised that control panels on grow equipment, such as atmospheric controllers and AC units, often give off light. This light is usually red or green and is residual from the digital readout. As such, it is recommended that growers cover up these light sources with electrical tape or some sort of removable opaque material.
Compared to any other form of controlled environment agriculture, sealed room growing provides the most mastery over environmental factors. However, these growrooms present novel challenges of their own, as seen with the issues surrounding light leaks. For the conscientious gardener, regular inspections of one’s garden should alleviate any light leak problems. All things considered, this knowledge will provide a better platform for troubleshooting on the macro-level moving forward.
(For info on new lighting technologies, check out You Light Up My Leaf: New Lighting Technologies for Growrooms.)
Written by Kent Gruetzmacher
Kent Gruetzmacher is a California-based freelance writer and the west coast director of business development at Mac & Fulton Executive Search and Consulting, an employment recruiting firm dedicated to the indoor gardening and hydroponics industries. He is interested in utilizing his Master of Arts in humanities to explore the many cultural and business facets of this emerging industry by way of his entrepreneurial projects.
Demonstration Polyhouse Showcases The Future of Closed Cultivation In India
On 18th of January 2019 the partners of FoodTechIndia being Future Consumer Limited, Broekman Logistics, Rijk Zwaan, TNO, Larive International and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands have inaugurated a demonstration polyhouse of 1 acre in Tumkur, Karnataka, India.
India Food Park - Demonstration Polyhouse FoodTechIndia
The aim of the demonstration polyhouse, built at the India Food Park in Tumkur is to showcase the future of closed cultivation in India. In the polyhouse vegetables such as cherry tomatoes, cucumber, capsicum and eggplant are being grown in a temperature-controlled environment. High quality seeds, biological crop protection and technology and knowledge from the Netherlands are being used and implemented to reduce the usage of pesticides and fertilizers, improve the yield and produce better, safe and higher quality vegetable products.
Demonstration Polyhouse Tumkur
With the demonstration polyhouse, the FoodTechIndia partners want to show the farmers in Karnataka the benefits of growing crops in a controlled environment and train them on closed cultivation practices. Demonstrations and trainings in the greenhouse will take place the upcoming three years until April 2022.
Demonstration Polyhouse Tukmkur
Facility for Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Food Security
The Dutch Government is supporting the FoodTechIndia project and partners via the Facility for Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Food Security (FDOV). The FDOV facility aims to contribute to the achievement of various sustainable development goals in developing countries. It encourages the establishment of Public-Private Partnerships for joint initiatives of private sector development for food security. The FDOV facility focuses on a/multiple of the following goals:
Reducing malnutrition;
Promoting growth in the agricultural and fisheries sector;
Creating sustainable and ecologically sound food chains;
Creating better labour conditions and efficient working procedures;
Causing an increase in private investments.
FoodTechIndia
FoodTechIndia (FTI) is a public-private initiative combining the strengths of Dutch agro-food companies, knowledge institutes, governmental agencies and their Indian counterparts to reduce food wastage in India through the establishment of an improved supply and cold chain. The objective of FTI is to reduce food wastage in India through the implementation of an integrated supply and cold chain infrastructure for fruits and vegetables in the state of Karnataka. Furthermore, the project focuses on enabling sustainable inclusive economic growth amongst local small-scale farmers.
For more information:
Larive International
info@larive.com
www.larive.com
Publication date : 1/21/2019
The 3 Most Important Factors for a Profitable Farm
Regardless of how you grow, the profitability of your farm will depend on three main factors: demand, viability, and profit margin.
by Mia Godfrey | Nov 9, 2018 | Farm Management | 1 comment
Regardless of how you grow, the profitability of your farm will depend on three main factors: demand, viability, and profit margin. Lots of new farmers focus the majority of their efforts on their ability to grow a single crop and forget to do research on the other factors. In this article, learn how to appropriately address questions like the following:
What can you sell a lot of? What does your market want?
What are you good at growing?
What has a good profit margin?
For a profitable farm, you must consider all three. Let’s start with how you know you can sell something well.
What can you sell a lot of?
This is the most important thing: if people don’t want it, you won’t make money off of it. It may seem obvious, but it’s easy to get excited and overlook the importance of demand.
Imagine that you’ve just invested a lot of money in starting up a farm. You’ve tried a few different crops but discovered that you’ve been able to grow cilantro especially well. Since you can grow it so successfully, you decided to overhaul your whole farm and plant tons of cilantro. Then you discover that your market does not want to buy cilantro. Now, your whole farm is taken up by rows and rows of cilantro, and you’ve got nothing to do with it. You’re out of money and have no way to make it back.
This is why market research is so crucial. You need to know what people will buy from you not just once, but many times. You also need to know how much they want to consume on a regular basis so you don’t end up with a lot of wasted produce. This is called market volume. Aim for high market volume—lots of people want to consume lots of what you’re growing.
But market research isn’t just looking at numbers. Spend a little bit of time talking to buyers and looking at what other people are growing. Is there a gap you could fill with your unique product? Could you alleviate customers’ pain points by offering a better product at a better price? Take the Market Research for Farmers course to learn more about effective strategies.
In addition to high market volume, you want to choose a product that has low supply competition. If everybody grows cilantro and sells it at the market, you probably don’t want to depend on cilantro for the success of your farm, even if you can grow it well.
Insider tip: Wholesale retailers—think grocery stores and restaurants—are great places to find information on demand because they’ll have consistent records where you can get an idea of what they’ve had success with in the past. This information is slightly more difficult to find in something like a farmers’ market, where different vendors will have different experiences based on a variety of factors.
Low supply competition means that there are fewer people in your area growing it. This leads us to what you can grow well.
What can you grow well?
In your particular climate, with your particular capabilities, what grows best? Are you good at it? Do you understand it well? Are you excited about it?
Now that you know what people want, you’ll need to successfully execute production. Say you find out that the market in your area has a high demand for spinach. You figure it’s a pretty good bet, and throw everything you’ve got into growing spinach but you just cannot get the little buggers to grow. You are not going to make money.
You won’t know what you’re good at growing—or even if you like it—until you give it a try. You will likely experience some error, so when you’re starting out keep it fairly small in order to minimize cost and risk.
That said, this type of success isn’t just dependent on your personal farming abilities. It will largely be influenced by where you farm, what type of farm environment you have, and what type of system you’re growing in.
Additional factors to consider are the costs and resources that are available to you. Do you have affordable access to the resources you need to build a successful farm? Unreliable or inconsistent availability of resources—like nutrients, plugs, and system repair parts—can throw a wrench in your production as well as your relationships with your customers.
Even if you can get reliable access, think about the total cost. Whether or not you have great profitability, you’ll still need to make sure your costs are as low as possible.
Finally, if you don’t like doing it, even if all the other factors are there, it’s possible that you won’t do it well. Find something that you enjoy!
What has a good profit margin?
First of all, what is profit margin?
Profit margin is the money you have left over after you pay to cover all of your costs. Some crops can provide better profit margins than others. Think of it this way:
When you set up a farm, you pay capital expenses (CapEx) to acquire all of your system components, like media, lights, and structural components. Then, when your farm is running, you have operating expenses (OpEx) like water, electricity, and nutrients. The CapEx plus the OpEx is what you pay to create your product (the plants). You then sell the product, and the money you receive in return should be a larger amount than what you originally paid. The difference (what you sold your product for minus what you paid to create it) is your profit margin. Ideally, you have a positive profit margin.
During your market research process, you should also consider discovering what the possible profit margins are for a variety of crops. Research the nutrient and water demand of the crop in addition to the market demand.
Essentially, you want a crop that is cheap to produce, but that people will pay more for. Fortunately, being a hydroponic or aquaponic grower gives you a unique advantage because your product is likely higher in quality than what your customers have had previously.
All of your profit margins contribute to your net profit, which is the total amount of money you’ll keep as a result of your sales. Much of the profit you make from selling your produce will need to be put back into your farm to keep it running and producing.
Business is about trade-offs and compromises, and you get to play the exciting game of finding the most profitable compromise for your business. For example, you could grow and sell a high volume of produce at a lower price, or more specialized produce at lower volumes and higher prices.
There are ways to make all of these cases work, and it will depend on your business model.
Decide based on your business model
Different markets and market types will provide different pros and cons when it comes to profit margin. Think carefully about the trade-offs between high volume versus high prices, and do your research—which works best for you?
Making decisions
If you do decide to focus your farming efforts on a single crop, ensure that:
your market wants it,
that you can grow it well,
and that you can make money off it.
Say you discover that you are really good at growing hydroponic cucumbers, for example, and you have a lot of market demand for them. You may be able to get away with only growing and selling cucumbers. While these are three critical decisions that can lead your farm to profitable success, there are other factors you’ll need to consider as well, such as inputs, seasons, and environmental controls.
Interested in learning more? Take these courses:
Republic Polytechnic (RP) Invests In Urban Farming With New Diploma
The Agriculture Technology Laboratory will be equipped with indoor farming systems. PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO
Jan 11, 2019
Republic Polytechnic (RP) is paving the way for the future of Singapore's high-tech urban farming.
Yesterday, the poly launched the specialist diploma in urban agricultural technology - the first full-qualification diploma in the field.
At the launch, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Dr Koh Poh Koon, emphasised the importance of increasing the margin of safety for Singapore's food supply through agricultural technology.
Dr Koh explained that since Singapore imports more than 90 per cent of its food supply, it is crucial to leverage on technology to minimise challenges like disruptive weather conditions and optimise crops' growth cycles.
To overcome the challenges of unpredictable weather and land scarcity, the agricultural industry has turned to urban agriculture.
Commencing in June with an inaugural batch of 25 students, the part-time diploma in applied science gives students the option of signing up for the associated SkillsFuture Earn and Learn Programme.
Dr Koh also witnessed the opening of RP's Agriculture Technology Laboratory and memorandum of understanding signing with Singapore Agro-Food Enterprises Federation.
The Agriculture Technology Laboratory is a new facility to support students in deepening their skills through hands-on training.
The lab will be equipped with indoor farming systems like vertical plane cultivation,conduit-based horizontal hydroponic nutrient film technique, tray-based horizontal hydroponic growing and substrate growing systems.
According to Mr Yeo Li Pheow, the principal of RP, the motivation behind the new course and lab stemmed from the pressing issue of food security due to Singapore's limited land area.
"In order for Singapore to be more self-sufficient and resilient, we need to increase the amount of food we produce locally and reduce our dependence on food imports," said Mr Yeo.
Despite Small Wins, the New Farm Bill is a Failure of Imagination
Maintaining the status quo in the farm bill might feel like a victory to some, but long-time farm bill expert Dan Imhoff says it still won’t support the kinds of agriculture we need most as the climate warms.
BY DAN IMHOFF
Posted on: December 13, 2018
The $867 billion 2018 Farm Bill the House and Senate passed this week is a hot mess. The Washington Post editorial board described it as “a bad outcome—that could have been worse.” And they’re right. Unfortunately, we’re all going to be affected by it.
Congress passes a farm bill around every five years. It’s an encyclopedic set of rules that doles out nearly a trillion dollars every 10 years for farm subsidies and crop insurance, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and on-farm conservation programs.
To be fair, the farm bill is a mirror of our political process. As such, it is a lopsided mix of some good policy and a lot of bad. I’ll get into the good (and mixed) news in more detail below, but for now let’s just say that progressives can be happy that programs to combat hunger, expand local and organic food production, train beginning farmers, and protect the land were all successfully championed this time around.
Still, the revised farm bill will ensure that citizens continue to pay for their food at least three times: 1) at the checkout stand; 2) in environmental cleanup and medical costs related to the consequences of industrial agriculture; and 3) as taxpayers who fund subsidies to a small group of commodity farmers deemed too big to fail.
Granted, many of those farmers are caught in a vicious cycle. Most live in areas where the only market and infrastructure support commodity crops, and yet those crops don’t support a resilient farm system. One-half of agricultural counties in the United States were designated as disaster areas from 2012 to 2016. Current subsidies are supposed to provide a safety net to even out the financial ups and downs of crop production and help farmers stay afloat in a competitive global economy.
Instead, over the last half century they’ve created an expensive and polluting engine of overproduction, which drives down prices, saturates markets, and shifts the burden of recouping costs to taxpayers who subsidize farmers’ insurance policies and other relief.
The 2018 Farm Bill will strengthen crop insurance subsidies that guarantee farm income even across swaths of the U.S. where soybean, corn and wheat growers will benefit from more generous terms on government loans. Small dairy farmers, who are regularly swamped by a flood of cheap milk from mega-dairies, will also gain protection.
Perhaps the biggest boon for commodity producers is the opening of eligibility loopholes. By blurring the definitions of what constitutes a “family farm,” the new bill will allow these farms to balloon in size and exponentially dip into the public trough. Current household limits for the two largest subsidy programs are set at $125,000 per year per operator and $250,000 for a married couple. (Household operations with an adjusted gross income under $900,000, and $1,800,000 for couples, are eligible.)
The revised law will now permit children and their spouses to also be seen as “actively engaged” in farming and therefore eligible for subsidies. It doesn’t end there. Nephews, nieces, cousins, and other extended family members can be daisy-chained to receive benefits as long as they can demonstrate participation in farm management even if they don’t set foot on the farm. This was justified in the name of supporting a new generation of family farmers. It seems more designed to help the big operations get bigger.
Swaddling struggling commodity farmers in a lavish safety net might be acceptable if we were also building a nationwide foundation of stewardship and vibrant local food production. But most of the nation’s ever-increasing harvests of corn (farmers grew a near-record 14.6 bushels in 2018) and soybeans (farmers grew a record 4.5 billion bushels in 2018) aren’t even eaten directly by humans. They’re fed to cattle, hogs, and poultry or transformed into processed food ingredients and biofuels.
More than 20 percent of our agricultural output is exported. The real winners are the grain traders, meat packers, ethanol distributors, agrochemical corporations, equipment manufacturers, financiers, and insurers whose lobbyists write the farm bills and who benefit from low commodity prices and capital-intensive farming methods. There is a waste crisis as well: 40 percent of the food produced never reaches an eater’s plate; much of it ends up in landfills.
It is important to note that these increases in farm supports are the product of a compromise reached through negotiation. The bills passed separately by the House and Senate earlier this year were so different that they went into a process known as conferencing, wherein majority and minority leaders in both Agriculture Committees attempt to make a deal.
The House Bill included much-discussed work and job training requirements for some SNAP recipients. In the name of promoting “independence” this would have placed additional hoops in the path of over a million underemployed Americans seeking hunger relief—for questionable budget savings. This issue may not be settled, however. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Purdue has drafted a rule intended to crack down on recipients who currently have work requirement waivers. The House Bill also included riders that would have exempted pesticides from clean water violations and eased restrictions on logging in federal lands under the guise of reducing fuel loads. Democrats declared victory after these crucial elements were dropped in the conference process.
In the end, one wonders whether these were ever serious expectations or just part of a shrewd Republican strategy. More importantly, why did the Democrats not wait until January to conference the bill when the newly elected House may have offered an opportunity for much needed reforms?
There are a few gains to so-called “small but mighty” programs. Efforts to expand composting operations and reduce food waste in 10 states, along with the establishment of a food loss and waste reduction liaison were funded at $25 million per year through 2023. Industrial hemp will now be recognized by the USDA as a legitimate commodity crop, and may offer an additional cash crop to rotate in with commodity crops. (That may also provide some temporary relief in the form of hemp-derived, non-psychoactive cannabidiol, or CBD, for citizens frustrated by the lack of forward thinking in the bill otherwise.)
Permanent mandatory funding was also granted for local food initiatives, beginner farmer support, and organic research. Given the value that these programs generate and proven track records, however, their funding should have not only been guaranteed but increased ten-fold.
Conservation spending—which goes to help farmers use practices that reduce air and water pollution, improve the soil, and sequester carbon—was renewed at 2018 levels. There will be an increase of 3 million acres in the Conservation Reserve Program, which pays landowners not to farm on land and to protect on-farm habitat. CRP payments will be reduced to 80 percent of a county’s average rental acreage, however, making it a less attractive option than rolling the dice with crop insurance.
The innovative Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) survived the House bill’s attempt to absorb it into the Environmental Quality Incentives Program but saw its budget nearly cut in half. The CSP, as it is known, rewards farmers for a range of stewardship activities rather than per acre output of corn, soybeans, etc. CSP pays farmers to reduce their use of chemicals, grow cover crops, optimize their use of energy, protect wildlife habitat, and diversify their operations. This is exactly the type of farming we need more than ever, as the climate warms and becomes less predictable and nitrogen levels in our waterways and oceans have reached crisis level.
Federal money spent on conservation programs are arguably the most justifiable investments the government makes in our rural landscapes. In the absence of policies that encourage supply management, crop subsidies and crop insurance payments encourage the overproduction of commodities by taking the risks out of planting. The consequences of low prices and intensive farming practices then become the responsibility of the taxpayers.
When global markets are flooded with cheap commodities, it’s often the small holder farmers in nations without subsidies who are most affected. Conservation programs should be designed to support landowners for efforts the market does not: building resilience with perennial habitats that can harbor fish and wildlife, filtering runoff, limiting storm damage, and removing carbon from the atmosphere by storing it deep within the soil.
Some policymakers have declared the preservation of conservation budgets at the current spending levels as a key victory. But in the larger scheme of things, citizens were still done a great disservice. Conservation programs were slashed by $6 billion during the 2014 Farm Bill and should have been restored to those former spending levels at a minimum.
That funding could be directed to drastically increase our use of cover crops such as rye and legumes, which provide non-chemical nutrients and build organic matter and protect bare soil on farms and rangelands. On-farm energy use could be aggressively reduced. Research into soil building, no-till and organic farming, and rangeland management must be significantly scaled up. Animals could be removed from massive feeding operations and re-integrated in lesser numbers in managed pasture rotations. This effort will require a whole new generation of training and infrastructure, including hundreds of regional processing facilities.
Farmers could massively expand habitat in and around farmlands by taking marginal lands and former field borders and drained wetlands out of production and planting deep rooted perennials to create a bank of underground carbon. There are historical examples of such bold action in response to crisis. In 1935, for example, the government launched the Plains Shelterbelt Project, with the goal of planting a 100-mile wide swath of trees from North Dakota to Texas to provide a line of defense against wind erosion and the Dust Bowl.
The farm bill is our chance to invest in agriculture that is ecologically and economically sustainable. When it comes to food and agriculture policy, we reap what we sow.
"Every Time We Are Surprised By The Ideas Of Our Clients"
Avner Shohet, TAPkit:
Why would you build a greenhouse on a roof in the middle of the city, with all the compromises and investments you have to make? Why not get out of the city, only 10 or 20 kilometers, to have a simple greenhouse with a smaller investment, and it gives the same solution.”
Indoor farming
With the TAP kit, Israeli company Teshuva Agricultural Projects Ltd. enables small farmers who cannot afford to invest one or two million dollars in a big greenhouse. They see themselves as a competitor of indoor farming. “We want to enable people to get into sophisticated farming without getting into big investments, so we are aiming to keep the price low”, says CEO Avner Shohet.
“Containers and other indoor farming ideas are nice, but we believe in a low cost greenhouse, just outside the city will be more efficient. Also, indoor farms like containers needs artificial light which costs energy. Our partner on lighting is the sun. It is providing us with very good conditions, not charging us at all. It seems the produce here is stronger and better than growing in a container, because of the natural light.”
Rapid expansion
Avner shows the greenhouse of one of his clients in Israel, who is growing a mix of lettuce and herbs. “He first started selling to his neighbors, then came the restaurants. They like the fact that they know the grower of the food they serve. They visit him regularly. In this 500 m2 greenhouse he produces 150-200kg a week. He grows by demand, which is the dream of every farmer.”
Currently the grower is supplying to seven restaurants. He supplies them every week so gradually planning is needed. A new unit is planned. “Only two months after the greenhouse was put in production, he came to me saying his clients wanted more production. Some of them are actually willing to support his investment of the second unit, in order for them to secure his supply.”
Climate system
To keep a constant climate in the greenhouse, a system of Roots is being used. “The temperature underground is stable and the average of summer and winter. They drill a hole in which they put two pipes, 6 meters deep. In summer we get cold, chilled water to cool down, and in winter it is a little bit warm. It is the perfect temperature year-round.” This climate system is not a must for every client of the TAP kit. “It is a valuable addition for places that have big difference between summer and winter. This month we started building two installations in South Korea. There we use the same system. They have even more extreme temperatures. In summer they reach 40 degrees Celsius, in winter below -15 degrees.”
Profitable solution
In a unit of 500 m2 the production of lettuce is 12 tons a year, or in case of herbs, 6 tons a year. This grower is mixing crops, so his production will be 8 tons a year. His turnover should be around 100- 120,000 euros per year. The cost of the unit, including a small plant nursery and packing equipment, is around 55,000 euros. The preparations for the unit will add another 10,000 – 15,000 euros. The return on investment is 1.5 years. This makes it a profitable solution for growers.”
Three modules
Depending on the climate, TAP provides three different modules. The one that is being used in Israel is suitable for sub-tropical countries. There is also one for tropical areas that has more ventilation. For cold countries double plastic is being used. “This unit will cost 80,000 Euros, because it has a different structure. Every three or four years the plastic has to be replaced, which costs a few hundred Euros. This is still a small investment in comparison to containers with automation and artificial lighting.”
Surprised by clients
When we started, we focused mainly on Africa and South America, thinking: ‘these people don’t have much money and with support of the World Bank they are able to grow in our self-assemble hydroponic greenhouse. But very soon we discovered our market was much bigger than that.
“Our first clients were from South Korea. There is one in the Philippines and 2 units are on the way to a resort in Mauritius. I think here in Israel we can sell a few dozen of them. There is also interest from USA, France, Ecuador, Mozambique and even from Gaza.” Most clients will have one or two TAP kits and they can supply the products to the supermarkets, restaurants and vegetable sellers in their neighborhood. “This way they really answer the need of local produce.” A small part of the greenhouse is usually for propagation.
“A client from Miami is to buy 3 to 5 units, which he aims lease to several people”, says Avner. “Another client from New York wants to put a TAP kit in a home for the elderly. There will be food for the kitchen and occupation for the people living there. It’s not a hard job. People don’t have to bend down. These are uses that we have never thought of before. Every time we are surprised by the ideas of our clients.”
For more information:
Teshuva Agricultural Projects
60 Nof Harim St., Olesh, 42855 Israel
+972-9-8940507
+972-50-7922579
+1-201-5803003
office@taprojects.com
www.taprojects.com
Publication date : 12/12/2018
Author: Jobke den Hertog
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