OUR NEW FUTURE: German Firm Says Indoor Vertical Farm in Singapore Will Produce 1.5 Tons of ‘Leafy Greens’ Every Day

stock photo/ @rebecca_lee_creative

KEY POINTS

• Henner Schwarz, CEO of German firm &ever, said that his company’s new indoor vertical farm in Singapore will produce 1.5 tons of “leafy green” produce per day.

• Schwarz said he expects produce from his firm’s new research and development facility in Changi will reach a lot of Singaporeans over time and “make a small contribution to food security in Singapore.”

• &ever already has an operational indoor farm in Kuwait, which has become a testing ground for indoor vertical farming.



The boss of German firm &ever has said that his company’s new indoor vertical farm in Singapore will produce 1.5 tons of “leafy green” produce every day when it is up and running in the fourth quarter of next year.

Henner Schwarz, Chief Executive Officer at &ever, told CNBC on Monday that he expects produce from his firm’s new research and development facility in Changi will reach a lot of Singaporeans over time and “make a small contribution to food security in Singapore.”

The company, which competes with more conventional food producers, sells living plants to customers that can then be harvested at home as and when they’re needed. As a result, it tastes better and fresher, Schwarz said.

Schwarz said Singapore is “not the easiest market for indoor vertical farming” as electricity is fairly expensive and there are “lots of cheap imports.”

However, &ever has been awarded a grant by the Singapore government, which decided to speed up plans to increase locally produced food after seeing how the coronavirus pandemic impacted food supplies.

Singapore’s land scarcity makes conventional farming a real challenge and the country is keen to embrace solutions that don’t have a large footprint.

In terms of price, Schwarz said: “We think that we’re pricing our products similar to existing premium organic produce that you can find on the Singapore market today.”

He added: “The price point for indoor vertical farming products in many markets in the world, for example in the U.S., is very expensive. Our system is really geared towards making a meaningful contribution and we have taken quite some time to get things right, and to have the most energy efficient solution on the market.”

In order to reduce energy consumption at its Singapore site, &ever plans to use a combination of sunlight capture systems and LED lights. It is teaming up with lighting producer Signify to carry out a number of experiments.

Wikimedia | Valcenteu

Kuwait farm

&ever already has an operational indoor farm in Kuwait, which has become a testing ground for indoor vertical farming as it has similar, but different food security issues.

“We launched our farm in Kuwait just when Covid really hit in March,” said Schwarz. “It has been quite difficult to ramp production capacity up. However, the reception in the market has really been great thus far, and the Kuwaiti people really like our produce.”

When it comes to farming, access to fresh water is a problem in many areas of the world. “We need 95% less fresh water than traditional farms,” said Schwarz.

He added: “We expect that over time, as our efficiency becomes better and better, the price points can become lower and lower.”

Sam Shead@SAM_L_SHEAD

PUBLISHED TUE, DEC 22 2020 - 2:11 AM EST | UPDATED TUE, DEC 22 2020 - 2:12 AM EST

2-Acre Vertical Farm Run By AI And Robots Out-Produces 720-Acre Flat Farm

Plenty is an ag-tech startup in San Francisco, co-founded by Nate Storey, that is reinventing farms and farming. Storey, who is also the company’s chief science officer, says the future of farms is vertical and indoors because that way, the food can grow anywhere in the world, year-round; and the future of farms employ robots and AI to continually improve the quality of growth for fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Plenty does all these things and uses 95% less water and 99% less land because of it.

In recent years, farmers on flat farms have been using new tools for making farming better or easier. They’re using drones and robots to improve crop maintenance, while artificial intelligence is also on the rise, with over 1,600 startups and total investments reaching tens of billions of dollars. Plenty is one of those startups. However, flat farms still use a lot of water and land, while a Plenty vertical farm can produce the same quantity of fruits and vegetables as a 720-acre flat farm, but on only 2 acres!

Storey said:

“Vertical farming exists because we want to grow the world’s capacity for fresh fruits and vegetables, and we know it’s necessary.”

Plenty brought the farm indoors to create a better future for people and our planet. We need to triple the production of fruits and vegetables if we want to ...

Plenty’s climate-controlled indoor farm has rows of plants growing vertically, hung from the ceiling. There are sun-mimicking LED lights shining on them, robots that move them around, and artificial intelligence (AI) managing all the variables of water, temperature, and light, and continually learning and optimizing how to grow bigger, faster, better crops. These futuristic features ensure every plant grows perfectly year-round. The conditions are so good that the farm produces 400 times more food per acre than an outdoor flat farm.

Storey said:

“400X greater yield per acre of ground is not just an incremental improvement, and using almost two orders of magnitude less water is also critical in a time of increasing environmental stress and climate uncertainty. All of these are truly game-changers, but they’re not the only goals.”

Another perk of vertical farming is locally produced food. The fruits and vegetables aren’t grown 1,000 miles away or more from a city; instead, at a warehouse nearby. Meaning, many transportation miles are eliminated, which is useful for reducing millions of tons of yearly CO2 emissions and prices for consumers. Imported fruits and vegetables are more expensive, so society’s most impoverished are at an extreme nutritional disadvantage. Vertical farms could solve this problem.

Storey said:

“Supply-chain breakdowns resulting from COVID-19 and natural disruptions like this year’s California wildfires demonstrate the need for a predictable and durable supply of products can only come from vertical farming.”

(Credit: Reuters)

Plenty’s farms grow non-GMO crops and don’t use herbicides or pesticides. They recycle all water used, even capturing the evaporated water in the air. The flagship farm in San Francisco is using 100% renewable energy too.

Furthermore, all the packaging is 100% recyclable, made of recycled plastic, and specially designed to keep the food fresh longer to reduce food waste.

Storey told Forbes:

“The future will be quite remarkable. And I think the size of the global fresh fruit and vegetable industry will be multiples of what it is today.”

Plenty has already received $400 million in investment capital from SoftBank, former Google chairman Eric Schmidt, and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. It’s also struck a deal with Albertsons stores in California to supply 430 stores with fresh produce.

Ideally, the company will branch out, opening vertical farms across the country and beyond. There can never be too many places graced by better food growing with a less environmental cost.

Here’s a TechFirst podcast about the story behind Plenty:

Published by Dani Kliegerman for iGrow.News

Vera Vertical Farming Technology Introduced in Finland’s Largest Retail Group

Netled And Pirkanmaan Osuuskauppa Sign A New Long-Term Cooperation Agreement

In the photo: Ville Jylhä, COO of Pirkanmaan Osuuskauppa

Netled has entered into a significant long-term cooperation agreement with Pirkanmaan Osuuskauppa, a regional operator of S-Group, the largest retail chain in Finland.

Netled’s Vera Instore Premium Growing Cabinets, offering a range of herbs and salads, will now be a regular feature in Prisma retail stores in the Pirkanmaa area. Herbs and some of the leafy greens are grown in-store in the cabinets, and are harvested directly off the shelf. The growing conditions are fully automated and controlled remotely.

The newly opened Prisma Pirkkala is Finland’s first hypermarket to launch the new Vera Instore Cabinets. In addition, Netled will deliver to the hypermarket salads and herbs grown on its own vertical farm nearby, thereby allowing customers to get same-day harvested herbs and salads all year round.

”With this newly formed collaboration we can offer consumers fresh, ultra-locally produced products and at the same time introduce them to vertical farming as a method of ecological, urban farming”, says Ville Jylhä, COO of Pirkanmaan Osuuskauppa.

S-Group is a customer-owned Finnish network of companies in the retail and service sectors, with more than 1 800 outlets in Finland. The group offers services in areas such as, supermarket trade, department store, and speciality store trade. As the largest retail group in Finland, S-Group’s main focus is also on sustainable food and innovative ways it can offer healthy and responsibly produced food to its customers.

Netled Ltd. is Finland’s leading provider of turn-key vertical farming systems and innovative greenhouse lighting solutions.

”As the leading vertical farming technology provider in Finland, we have developed an extensive range of products for all segments of vertical farming. Instore growing systems are a rapid-growth segment, and our cutting-edge Vera technology puts us at the forefront of the instore space”, says Niko Kivioja, CEO of Netled Ltd.

“The agreement with Pirkanmaan Osuuskauppa is just the latest proof of concept, and is also a clear signal to potential customers, investors and other global partners that Vera technology is a game changer.”

  18th December 2020 by johannak

More information:

Niko Kivioja

CEO, Netled Ltd

+358 50 360 8121

niko.kivioja@netled.fi

Robert Brooks, Investor Relations and Communications Manager

+358 50 484 0003

robert.brooks@netled.fi

VIDEO: IGS Intelligent System Design – FTS Finds Out More

Tom Zöllner

July 6, 2020

IGS has, as a company, focused from the outset on automation, intelligent system design, and the energy equation of CEA vertical farming. This has garnered them a reputation as one of the leading and most innovative companies in the industry. We took some time to have a chat with them and find out a bit more about how this all works in practice.

FTS: Hello and thanks for taking the time to talk with us. Can you briefly introduce IGS, its history as well as its outlook?

IGS:   IGS was founded in 2013 bringing together decades of farming and engineering experience with a vision to revolutionize the indoor growing market. The two founders, farmer Henry Aykroyd and our CTO Dave Scott had an appetite for innovation and realized that there were significant gaps in the provision of scalable technology for the sector. 

Henry knew how to grow and understood the challenges which faced traditional farming: Dave knew how to manage automation and power controls in an industrial environment. The opportunity to bring greater climate control to a growing environment was significant. The ability to manage power consumption was revolutionary. The simplicity of its implementation and use is pivotal. 

We opened our first vertical farm demonstrator in Scotland in 2018. Artificial intelligence determines optimal nutritional input and the exact combination or ‘recipes’ of weather: lighting, watering, and ventilation. Data is collected continuously and machine learning used to make iterative adjustments, all of which is monitored through a web-based app. The whole Intelligent Growth platform is IOT-enabled to automate system control and management. Our degree of control is so fine that each 6m2 growth tray has its own microclimate. Technical simplicity is at the heart of our mechanical design.

Our commitment to innovation has continued apace and we have evolved the applications of our technology beyond agriculture to create solutions for a wide variety of indoor environments, developing the Intelligent Grid platform.

The Intelligent Grid uses the same IOT-enabled power and controls platform to manage and monitor lights, sensors, cameras, and communications for complete climate control and reporting. It too has a very simple, clean, and elegant design for application in any commercial building, greenhouse or livestock shed. In contrast to the vertical farm, we use our same core technology through the Intelligent Grid to create whole-space macroclimates.

Both IGS demonstrators are based at the James Hutton Institute, a world-renowned crop, and plant science research facility. IGS and the Hutton collaborate closely to help advance the understanding of plant science for indoor growing. 

Until 2018 IGS had invested approximately £7m in R&D to ensure that its platforms offered the greatest levels of control and achieved levels of economic viability, scale, and minimal environmental impact compared to other systems on the market. In 2019 IGS raised £7 million in institutional capital to enter production and take its systems to global markets. We continue to invest over £1m per annum in R&D.

FTS: You have recently shared news of two reseller partnerships – one in the Middle East and one in the UK and Italy with TEP Renewables. Can you tell us briefly a bit more about them? 

IGS: We have been talking to International Real Estate Partners (IREP), the international facilities management firm for some time in the Middle East, and we’re really pleased to recently sign this referral agreement which is specifically focused on indoor vertical farming for the UAE and Saudi Arabian markets.

We also have an opportunity to extend into Asian markets in the future. It gives us a greater capacity to service the Middle East market and secure and deploy vertical farming platforms across the region. IREP’s presence in this market is well established with many existing customers across agriculture, retail, and construction and it is a very positive development for both companies we believe.

The agreement with TEP Renewables is an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) or a reseller-type partnership if we identify customers who would like to operate solar-powered vertical farms in Italy or the United Kingdom that we will work with them.

FTS: Fantastic! In the end, any vertical farm (indeed any farm!) is only as environmentally sustainable as its energy equations. But it is also only as financially sustainable as its energy cost. You have focused quite intensely on this energy cost question. As we see this dramatic collapse of fossil fuel energy production return on investment, it seems that NOW is the time to have renewable energy options on hand for CEA.  Do you believe that renewable energy can be cost-competitive – both in terms of installation, sustainable life-cycle and with regard to the price of the final product for the consumer?   

IGS: We consider a variety of power distribution and supply methods. Renewables can have considerable benefits from an environmental perspective and also specific to grants and other financial support for utilizing renewable energy resources.   

The “virtual power plant”  capabilities of our systems indicate strong Demand Side Response (DSR) potential. We can manipulate our growth cycles to respond to power availability and respond to inherent instabilities in power networks. This is already having an influence on our engagement in circular energy projects to utilize spare energy for growing and allows for more renewable power sources to be adopted.

FTS: Labor cost is the other biggest outlay for any vertical farm. You have invested heavily in automation. Is the trade-off of increased capital expenditure for automation worth the reduction in operational expenditure for labor, in your experience? 

IGS: Absolutely. Driving down the farm gate price is the ultimate goal and while labor costs vary from region to region, we believe that this investment in the automation (and indeed the associated patents) within our growing operations is imperative and differentiates our systems considerably.

FTS: You’ve set about designing modular and intelligent systems. Such a bespoke system offers advantages of course, as we’ve seen above.  But it can also present challenges if it cannot be integrated with other equipment and systems later. Do you future-proof your systems to be able to accommodate such updates and integrations over time? 

IGS: We have thought about this from the outset, and our systems are designed in a plug and play model, rather than being bespoke as such. Scalability is paramount for our customers and this has been a consideration throughout our R&D development.  Rather than using proprietary systems for processes such as sowing and harvesting, we use off-the-shelf equipment and components. This means we can keep startup and maintenance costs down by providing items with which farmers are already familiar. If a section of the vertical farming system needs to be replaced or upgraded, such as a water filter, a lighting panel or a tray, it can be done with almost no interruption. 

However, what is also imperative to think about in terms of future proofing, and a hugely important part of our approach, is how we work so closely with the science community to better understand plant light interactions. The level of control we have designed into our hardware systems allows us to flex and adapt as we need to deploy the most up to date plant light information through our software development, which is continuously evolving. 

The approach of our software development has also involved maximising security of our systems and ensuring simplicity of operation. This will be continuously updated, but with seamless integration for our customers. 

FTS: Along with FTS, you’ve joined a number of other associations and similar collaborative groups. Why is this important to you as a company, and how do you balance the proprietary needs of your company against this desire to cooperate?

IGS:  Collaboration and cooperation across this sector is essential. Our vision is that sustainable change will only be delivered not only when we collaborate, but when we are all open and honest about the limitations, as well as the opportunities for this sector.  We want to work alongside technology vendors with complementary products, and with growers and producers, supported by science and greater understanding of growing plants indoors, all backed by far-sighted investors.

We firmly believe that through innovation, collaboration and investment we can create an economically and environmentally sustainable global indoor food industry.

FTS: Thanks so much for taking the time to talk with us today. We wish you every success and look forward to working with you in the future.

IGS: Thanks very much indeed. We look forward very much to be part of Farmtech Society as we all move forward in the development and innovation of agricultural technology.

For IGS

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David Farquhar

CEO

As Food Supply Chain Breaks Down, Farm-To-Door CSAs Take Off

By Eric Westervelt | NPR | May 10, 2020

Images of some American farmers dumping milk, plowing under crops and tossing perishables amid sagging demand and falling prices during the deadly coronavirus pandemic has made for dramatic TV.

But it's not the whole story.

"We had a reporter call here and say, 'We want to see some produce rotting in the field and milk going down the drains,' " said Judith Redmond, a longtime farmer in California's Capay Valley, northwest of Sacramento. "And I said, 'Well, actually, that's not what's happening in the Capay Valley.' "

Redmond, a founding partner of the 450-acre, organic Full Belly Farm, is busier than ever trying to ramp up production to meet soaring demand.

From California to Maine, the movement known as community supported agriculture (CSA) is booming. Members buy a share of a farm's often organic harvest that gets delivered weekly in a box. CSA programs almost everywhere report a surge in memberships and growing waiting lists.

"The interest in getting local, fresh, organic produce just has skyrocketed during this crisis," Redmond said.

As with many farms, the restaurant and farmers market sides of her business have cratered. But the CSA side, which includes business across the San Francisco Bay Area, has jumped to 2,000 boxes a week. "We've doubled our CSA box numbers and quadrupled our add-ons like wheat flour, oils like olive oil, nuts, fruit juices, even yarn," Redmond said.

CSAs have long been something of a niche market that have never really penetrated the mainstream. Yet, the coronavirus just might prove to be sparking community supported agriculture's breakout moment.

"In all the time that we've worked with CSAs, which is several decades, we've never seen a surge as quickly as we have of the last few weeks," said Evan Wiig with the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, which supports and lobbies on behalf of CSAs across California.

"It's sort of a heyday for CSAs," he said. "Farmers that were starting in March struggling to get enough members for the season – which we see every year — by mid-March were dealing with waiting lists with hundreds of people trying to get in."

The coronavirus has exposed the vulnerabilities and fragility of the U.S. global agribusiness supply chain. The CSA model's focus on local and fresh is ideally suited for a crisis that has people deeply worried about germs on lettuce, beets or broccoli as the crops make their way from the field to the kitchen counter.

People "don't want that many hands on their food right now," said Sarah Voiland. "And we can offer that."

She and her husband, Ryan, run the organic CSA Red Fire Farm, in the Connecticut River Valley outside of Amherst, Mass.

The low-touch factor is an especially big draw at a time when a trip to a supermarket can involve masks, social-distancing lines, hand sanitizer and angst. "The supply chain with CSA is very short. It's like, we harvest the produce and you come pick it up" at a local site, she said.

"We think people's habits will shift because of this" pandemic, said John Tecklin, who runs the CSA Mountain Bounty Farm, serving the northern California communities around Truckee, Nevada City and Lake Tahoe, as well as Reno, Nev. "For a lot of them, it's kind of a wake-up call: 'what's really important to you?' "

In a move spurred partly by the pandemic, and a sign of the changing times for CSAs, Tecklin's farm is now entering into a partnership called Forever Farms with a non-profit land trust, a local food advocacy group and a food cooperative to help secure ownership of part of the farm's land in perpetuity.

"It's local food security for our community," Tecklin said. "In these times it's more important than ever now."

He believes that's the same motivation driving the recent doubling of interest in his CSA. "Everyone is just all of a sudden, 'Wow this is the kind of thing we need, we need local farmers who we're dealing with directly.' "

Some farms, large and small, that relied on restaurant, hotel, school and university food-service contracts have been hit hard. Many are now scrambling to adapt to a CSA-type model, at least in the short term, to survive. Some are now partnering with CSAs in a mutually beneficial pact that helps CSAs meet growing demand while offering an outlet for suffering farms.

Federal and state governments are also now taking a page from CSAs. As part of its coronavirus relief, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has put out a call for $3 billion in contracts for farmers to produce and deliver fresh produce and dairy boxes to food banks, many of which are struggling to support the growing ranks of Americans who are hurting and out of work.

Some states are trying to redirect to charities farm produce that in normal times would have headed to restaurants and hotels. California has expanded funding to help cover the costs of harvesting, packaging and transporting fresh fruits and vegetables from farms to local food banks. The state's Farm to Family Program, a partnership with the California Association of Food Banks (CAFB) and the USDA, provides fresh produce to needy households across the state.

CSAs still represent a very small slice of America's $100 billion farm economy. But their renaissance marks a rare bit of good economic news for an agriculture industry battered by trade wars, threatened by climate change and now facing a global pandemic.

And the new success brings new challenges. Many CSAs are now scrambling to find additional labor to plant, harvest and deliver produce to meet the moment. "We're totally able to produce so much more than we are, but we don't have the workers," said Redmond, of Full Belly Farm. "We're so stressed out by that that, you know, just knowing that there's going to be a difficult time getting workers, it just doesn't make any sense to ramp up production."

A big question for CSAs is whether the renewed interest represents a fleeting reaction to fear or a more sustainable, long-term trend.

"When the lockdown or shelter-in-place started in March, people were just a little panicked," Redmond said. "And what we're trying to do is turn it into a longer-term relationship with our farm and those members so that they see that there's a tremendous advantage of getting food locally from people that they know."

Building Resilience Into The Vegetable Supply Chain Using Container Farming

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Canada’s food supply chain is robust and reliable - even in times of the COVID-19 crisis - but there is an opportunity to become more self-sufficient. Container farming can provide your food supply with some autonomy and reduced reliance on external food supply chains.

THE SUPPLY CHAIN DURING COVID-19

Empty shelves at the outbreak of the pandemic were a shock to many as grocery store retailers have experienced shortages, or delays, in their supply chain during this adjustment period. 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) wrote in a special COVID-19 report that “supermarket shelves remain stocked for now [...] but a protracted pandemic crisis could quickly put a strain on the food supply chains, a complex web of interactions involving farmers, agricultural inputs, processing plants, shipping, retailers and more.” The FAO emphasizes that there is enough supply, but transportation is lacking to help get the crops where they are needed most.

FOOD PRICES ARE RISING

Even before COVID-19 struck, food prices in Canada were predicted to rise between 2 and 4 percent, especially vegetables and bakery items. Now, according to a new forecast by the University of Guelph and Dalhousie University, researchers say the factors contributing to the rise have changed but they still expect prices to rise nonetheless. Plus, grocery stores are now spending more to ensure the proper protection protocols are in place on top of paying their essential workers more. These costs won’t be changing soon, so what ways can more resilience be built into the grocery store model?

Students in Kugluktuk, Nunavut help run their Growcer system which provides produce to the school and community.

EVERYONE IS IMPACTED DIFFERENTLY

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It is important to note that not every community’s food supply is going to be impacted the same way. In a Food Secure Canada webinar about Food Policy and COVID-19, the speakers spoke to how rural and Indigenous communities will be impacted differently than cities. One of the speakers, Jessica McLaughlin with the Indigenous Food Circle, said, “What has become very evident to us is the vulnerability of communities on that big industrial food supply chain and the lack of autonomy to self-determine their own food systems.” However, Mclaughlin added that despite this, communities are working together. “In this crisis, communities have been really resilient . . . you really see how communities pull together and they are taking this into their own hands,” McLaughlin said.

WHAT COULD A SOLUTION LOOK LIKE?

Each community has different needs, but one possible solution is container farming. With container farms, communities and grocery stores can grow a variety of produce year-round, no matter the weather, and even customize what’s being grown to match the demand of the community. You’re also not stuck to growing one crop. A grower can grow multiple types of produce at a time and switch out what’s being grown regularly. Having a local, year-round, consistent supply of produce allows the community not to rely solely on external sources and can provide a buffer when the supply chain experiences delays. 

The Yellowknife Co-op's Growcer unit is operated by its existing employees who see it as an opportunity to serve their community.

Now, hydroponic growing might sound technical but operating one of Growcer’s systems is extremely simple. It only takes one week of on-site training to have employees comfortable with the system. Justin Nelson, general manager for The Yellowknife Co-op, shared that their employees love working in the Grower unit. “On a cold dark day in Yellowknife there’s no better place to be than inside the Growcer unit,” Nelson said. “When you’re actually harvesting the product that you’re selling it’s a great feeling.” You can read more about The Yellowknife Co-op’s story to see how they integrated a container farm with their store.
Food sovereignty and the ability for communities to decide how their food systems run has been brought to the forefront during COVID-19. It’s impossible to predict what lays ahead, but we do know that this could be a time for a reset for some of us.

Stephanie

April 27, 2020

Get Growing Today!

IGS Announces Referral Partnership With IREP in Middle East

Agritech Business Gains A Greater Presence In Middle Eastern Markets

Indoor agritech specialist IGS has today announced a referral partnership agreement with International Real Estate Partners (IREP), the international facilities management firm. The agreement is specifically focused on indoor vertical farming for the UAE and Saudi Arabian markets. 

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The agreement will enhance the capacity for IGS to service the Middle East market and bring greater opportunity to secure and deploy vertical farming platforms across the region. IREP’s presence in this market is well established with many existing customers across agriculture, retail, and construction. The agreement establishes the opportunity for IREP to refer potential customers and support in the deployment, construction, and management of vertical farms.

The highly sophisticated plug-and-play vertical farming technology developed by IGS assures the efficient production of food in any location in the world. The modular indoor farms offer a highly controllable platform designed to maximize productivity whilst minimizing energy consumption and allowing the production of consistently high-quality produce at scale.

Ole Mygind, Managing Director of IGS Agri business commented: “The signing of this agreement is a very positive step forward for both IGS and IREP in the future deployment of vertical farming platforms in the Middle East. The imperative need for systems such as ours has been highlighted in the last few weeks as global reliance on complex food supply chains has been dramatically impacted.

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“Many countries around the world have plans to secure an independent and sustainable food supply chain. Vertical farming can be a key part of that solution, we believe, particularly in areas where arable land is minimal and there is a high reliance on importing food. These systems offer a secure, controlled environment, independent of weather and location to provide a sustainable, secure food supply across a range of crops.” 

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Christina Porter from IREP commented: “We have been working with IGS since 2018 to enable its entry into the UAE and Saudi Arabian markets. We wholeheartedly believe that IGS’s vertical farming technology is best-in-class, and with an excellent management team behind it, that it can be the solution that many clients in the region are now looking for to address food security and sustainability. Through this agreement, IREP will work very closely with the IGS management team to ensure that its product penetrates the market here and is delivered in a very effective and efficient way.” 

IGS has designed all its products to be highly pragmatic, flexible, modular, and scalable in line with market requirements.

The R&D team at IGS has developed, patented, and productized a breakthrough, IoT-enabled power and communications platform consisting of patented electrical, electronic and mechanical technologies as well as the world’s most sophisticated ventilation system for its Growth platform. All this is managed by a SaaS and data platform using AI to deliver economic and operational benefits to indoor environments across the globe.

Ends

About IGS:

Founded in 2013, IGS brought together decades of farming and engineering experience to create an agritech business with a vision to revolutionize the indoor growing market. Its commitment to innovation has continued apace and it has evolved the applications of its technology beyond agriculture to create solutions for a wide variety of indoor environments that enhance life for people, plants, and animals.

IGS launched its first vertical farming demonstration facility in August 2018.

For more information visit www.intelligentgrowthsolutions.com

About IREP

IREP is a multi-discipline management services firm operating in 25 countries, with its headquarters in Dubai. 

We incorporate a high-level structure in all departments that include;

• Facilities Management

• Asset & Energy Management

• Agri-Tech & IoT

• Real Estate Advisory

For more information visit www.irepartners.com

How Sodexo, Ford, And Others Use Sustainable Farming As CSR Platforms

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 4 Companies Championing

Social Responsibility With Sustainable Farming

More than ever, it’s important for companies to show that they don’t only just care for their customers and employees, but for the health, well-being, and prosperity of their community as well. We’ve seen many institutions use container farming as a way to provide people with access to healthy food, education, and jobs. See how four of our corporate customers–Sodexo, Everlane, SEFCU, and Ford–are using container farms in their corporate social responsibility initiatives. (Header image: Times Union).

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1) Sodexo champions sustainability on campus

With over 420,000 employees at 34,000 sites in 80 countries, Sodexo is one of the largest multinational corporations. Over the past several years, Sodexo has dedicated countless resources to promoting nutrition, health, and wellness to its customers and employees.

One concrete way Sodexo works to bring sustainability and wellness to its global customer base is through the Better Tomorrow 2025 plan. The plan is Sodexo’s commitment to protecting and rehabilitating the environment, supporting local community development, promoting health and wellness, and developing their team to promote diversity. To achieve these goals, Sodexo partnered with Alliance for a Healthier Generation, Fair Trade USA, the Marine Stewardship Council, the Sustainable Food Lab, the Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops, and Freight Farms.

“Our ‘Better Tomorrow Plan’ specifically focuses on individuals, our communities, and our environment…Freight Farms has given us a great opportunity to have that engagement with students on a higher level, especially with sustainability.”

— Heather Vaillete, District Manager, Sodexo Campus Services & Independent Schools

Since 2016, Sodexo has worked with multiple universities and high-school customers (Clark University and Cumberland High School to name just two) to place Freight Farms on their campuses. The presence of the farm on these campuses is a sure way to add sustainable and fresh produce to students’ everyday diets. Sodexo found that using Freight Farms container farms can continuously provide students healthy fresh food options year-round without reliance on resource-inefficient fresh food supply chains.

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2) Everlane & Saitex provide employees with food-safe greens

Everlane is a relatively new company (founded in 2010) which is taking huge strides in reforming the fashion industry. With a focus on “radical transparency”, Everlane’s mission is to sell high-quality clothing with fair pricing and ethical sourcing practices from factories around the world. In doing so, they seek to forge a stronger connection between the end purchaser and the people making the luxury goods in the hopes of instilling consumers with a greater sense of community and transparency.

While Everlane commits to its values all year round, they go above and beyond for their Black Friday Fund. On a day where other retailers focus on making profits, Everlane dedicates Black Friday shopping proceeds to benefit one of their factories.

In 2016, they used the Black Friday Fund to donate motorcycle helmets to workers at the Saitex denim factory in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to protect them while commuting.

In 2017, Everlane and Saitex raised $300,000 for the Black Friday Fund and used the money to gift Saitex factory employees Freight Farms containers.

Everlane video to promote Black Friday Fund donations to benefit the workers at Saitex Denim in Vietnam.

The hydroponic farms serve an important function for the factory employees. As a result of virtually non-existent regulations, Vietnamese food supplies have been repeatedly doused with dangerous pesticides that are unsafe for consumption (see source). The hydroponic container farms are protected from pests and require no pesticides, making the fresh crops growing inside much safer to eat. With the three hydroponic container farms, Everlane will make a huge difference in the lives of hundreds of Saitex employees by providing them with two fresh and pesticide-free meals a day. You can learn more about the initiative in our joint press release!

Since 2017, Everlane has continued to champion important causes. In 2018, the company partnered with the Surfrider Foundation clean up across the U.S. In 2019, they continued on the theme by partnering with Oceania to help reduce single-use plastic.

3) SEFCU & Boys & Girls Club educate kids about farming & nutrition

SEFCU is a powerful name in the banking world. Established in 1934, it is one of the 50 largest credit unions in the United States, with more than $3 billion in assets. Not only does SEFCU have a lot of money – they also have a lot of heart. From their headquarters in Albany, NY, they are dedicated to making a positive difference in the communities they serve. They assist thousands of organizations through their 2008 Banking with a Purpose initiative and give millions of dollars towards community financial education programs.

They don’t limit themselves to just helping with financial matters but also work hard for food reform to prevent obesity and food insecurity. Over the past three years, they purchased two hydroponic container farms. One resides at the Albany office, where it grows food for the employee cafe and various non-profits in the area. The company also introduced a Produce Shuttle to transport donated fresh food from the farm, restaurants, and food pantries to those in need.

SEFCU’s second farm was donated directly to the Boys & Girls Club chapter in Troy, NY to give kids access to healthy and fresh food, teach them about farming, and–eventually–become a revenue driver for the program.

The Boys & Girls Club of the Capital Area is using their Freight Farm to teach kids about agriculture and professional development, while also providing prod...

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4) Ford Motors & Cass Community Social Services provide important community access to fresh food.

In 2017, the Bill Ford Better World Challenge awarded $250,000 to the Ford Mobile Farm Project in Detroit. The project involved donating a Freight Farms container farm (named the Ford Freight Farm) and a Ford F-150 pickup to Cass Community Social Services (CCSS) with the goal of bringing fresh food access and nutrition education to at-risk Detroit residents. CCSS was founded in 2002 to fight poverty in the Detroit area. The non-profit focuses on democratizing food access, health services, housing, and jobs to Detroit residents living below the poverty line.

“The greatest feature for us is the ability to have fresh, free, organic food all year long.”

— Reverend Faith Fowler, Executive Director of CCSS

The contents of the Ford Freight Farm will be used to supply the CCSS community kitchen with a variety of fresh leafy greens to provide important nutritional benefits to the 700,000+ meals served each year. In addition to supplying the kitchens, the Ford Freight Farm will provide part-time employment to adults with developmental disabilities. Starting in 2019, CCSS has been using the farm as a revenue stream to fund other projects, selling high-quality greens to restaurants in the area.

Turning Your Home Into Your Main Food Producer

The coronavirus has led countless Americans to rethink how they cook, eat and source food, both to expand their supply and connect to community.

Gardening has long been a hobby for Jason McCune, which at least partly explains why the coronavirus pandemic has turned him into a thyme farmer.

It started in early March when coronavirus prompted a run on hand sanitizer and Mr. McCune, 39, happened across a YouTube video on the disinfectant qualities of thyme. He also learned, via a YouTube video sent to him by a friend, that the essential oil of thyme, an antiseptic, might help fight respiratory illnesses.

“I thought, if I grow a lot of thyme and drink thyme tea, it certainly won’t hurt,” said Mr. McCune, an engineer at a compost heat-recovery company who lives in Richmond, Vt. He and his wife, Ellen, an early-childhood educator, run a preschool out of their home, but with the school now closed indefinitely, they’ve moved out the children’s dining and play tables and converted the dining room into a thyme greenhouse with a 4-foot by 10-foot bed of seeds.

“I’ll dry the thyme, share it with friends and we’ll make an apocalypse tea blend,” he said.

As isolation orders across the country stretch into their second month and grocery stores race to restock shelves, Mr. McCune has joined countless Americans who are making changes to how they cook, eat and source food to expand their food supply and connect to community.

“Stores weren’t anticipating the sort of stocking issues they were going to have,” said Joseph Glauber, a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), partly because of hoarding, but also because so many people normally rely on restaurants to feed themselves.

“Fifty percent of what U.S. households spend on food happens away from their home,” Mr. Glauber said. “So all of a sudden, when they can’t eat away from home, they’re having to go to the grocery store and buy a lot more food.”

The research institute has reported that Covid-19 does not pose a threat to the global food supply, but shoppers have been stocking up nevertheless — sales of consumer packaged goods rose more than $8.5 billion during the two-week period ending March 21, according to the Nielsen Corporation, the global market research company.

Whatever the method, many Americans are looking for ways to expand and enrich what they normally eat. Google searches for the term “home farming” jumped 50 percent in March; “how to raise chickens” spiked 75 percent.

“I feel like I no longer know the availability of things from week to week,” said Kate Bertash, who lives in a two-bedroom apartment in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Venice Beach. An avid pickler, she now makes sure her regular C.S.A. box — a package of farm-sourced vegetables delivered each week — includes items that can be salted or preserved, and her “rot closet,” a dedicated kitchen cabinet for fermenting vegetables, is full. “Pickling and fermenting is really cool because you can be more flexible with what’s available,” she said.

Phyllis Davis, president of Virginia-based Portable Farms Aquaponics Systems, said its web traffic has doubled since the coronavirus outbreak. The company offers clients at-home farming kits, with online instructional courses on assembling its portable system and understanding aquaponics, a process of growing food using fish excretions as fertilizer. “Food security and sustainability are a very hot topic right now,” Ms. Davis said.

David Siegel, a dietitian who lives with his wife and 5-year-old son in a railroad-style apartment in Brooklyn, has begun hosting online chats about aquaponics. Mr. Siegel, 40, got a home fish tank a year ago, both to have something beautiful to look at and to fertilize herbs and vegetables. He initially tried tropical fish because of their bright colors, but found them too hard to care for. Now he has goldfish in a 20-gallon tank in the apartment’s central room, pumping nutrient-rich water into a multitiered system above with lettuce, basil, parsley and arugula.

Mr. Siegel said he doesn’t grow nearly enough food to feed his family, but as he has cut back on trips to the store, his fresh vegetables have made meals much tastier. “We say, tongue in cheek, that this is a pandemic hobby,” he said. “But right now we’re stocking up on frozen goods and canned and dry goods, and we’re able to supplement, especially with the herbs. It’s adding some much-needed freshness to our diet.”

For some, the pandemic has added a new immediacy to old hobbies. Stephanie Gravalese, a freelance writer in Delmar, N.Y., is quarantining with her partner, Max Clement, who is immuno-compromised and not leaving the house. Mr. Clement, 32, has always dabbled in baking. Now he’s making sourdough loaves every day to share with friends who have lost their jobs. The couple is also producing homemade vinegar, pastas, ricotta and liquors, much of which they trade for other goods. The couple’s front porch has become a contact-free swap zone, where they put out their creations for local bakers and farmers, who in turn leave them fresh meat, raspberry bars and lemon bread.

“Baking, and creating anything we can share is creating community for us right now,” Ms. Gravalese, 36, said. “It’s also turned the kitchen into a very special place for us. Right now, the center of our lives is in the kitchen.”

A version of this article appears in print on April 12, 2020, Section RE, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: Your New Main Food Producer? Your Home, Naturally.

By Debra Kamin | The New York Times | April 7, 2020

In The Unterwiehre In Freiburg, Lettuce Grows Almost Under Laboratory Conditions

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By Christian Engel

April 24, 2020

David Rösch grows lettuce. However, not in the soil, but in plastic. Plants like that of his P 3 project could in the future contribute to the food supply of the growing world population.

Salad grows in Oltmannsstrasse. Surrounded by solar companies, insurance companies, and moving companies, 800 salads flourish there, as if they were rooted in juicy South Baden fields. They are not in the ground at all, but in thin plates made of Styrodur plastic, the roots ultimately hang in the air - and yet the lettuce thrives wonderfully in the lower part of the body. How does it work?  David Rösch knows that, who sees his initiative primarily as an educational project.

Hydroponics plants could be a solution for feeding the growing world population
David Rösch is not a gardener, but still has a lot to do with nature. He studied forestry and the environment at the University of Freiburg. In the meantime, he was dealing with refugees - and decided to make this his profession. In 2018 he founded his own company: P 3, a workshop in which refugees are trained as carpenters or prepared for an apprenticeship. On the one hand, P 3 produces furniture on request, from stools to fitted kitchens, and on the other hand attachments for cargo bikes as mobile sales and information stands. Then managing director Rösch came up with the idea of ​​the salads a year ago. More specifically: for a hydroponic system (derived from the Greek words for "water" and "wages of work").

The 31-year-old has long thought about how to feed a growing world population - especially in urban areas such as around Oltmannsstraße, where arable land is as common as fresh vegetables in school canteens. Hydroponics systems enable vegetables to be grown without soil: the plants only grow with the help of water and nutrients. The latter comes from fish feces, for example, which is widely used in fish farming and is called aquaponics in technical jargon. The feces that are filtered out are converted to nitrate with the help of microbes and used as fertilizer, which is mixed with the useful water of the animals and allows the tomatoes and cucumbers to thrive in the adjacent bed. The water separated from the plants then flows back into the basin - this is how the material cycle goes. P 3 boss David Rösch wanted that too.

The regional energy service provider Badenova supported the project with 110,000 euros, P 3 then designed a prototype, on the styrofoam walls of which lettuce grew, which the staff consumed at a large salad party in autumn. But the breakthrough was not yet: And so we continued to tinker. The employees and trainees converted two old containers into a greenhouse. There they put their further developed system, consisting of two elements.

The origin of the fertilizer takes getting used to
The outer structure is reminiscent of narrow wooden tents, and inside there is a pool with water that sprinkles the walls every two minutes. Better said: the free-floating roots of the salads (now: lettuce and Lollo Rosso), whose seedlings are in the holes in the sloping walls. In fact, it's aeroponics because the roots are in the air.

Fish tanks are currently not feasible, says David Rösch. So where do the nutrients come from? P 3 is currently getting the fertilizer from a company in Switzerland that processes human urine. This also follows the principle of the material cycle. So far, the social acceptance of hydroponics systems has generally been rather low. The tenor of the people is rather: "It's feed from the laboratory, grown-up, we want real vegetables from the field!" When asked how long it would take for consumers to accept this alternative cultivation, Rösch replied: "Boah, long!" And urine fertilizer as a source of nutrients doesn't make it better at first.

Systems are suitable for locations in an urban environment
The advantages of the system are obvious: it can stand on flat roofs in the middle of the city. In comparison to the usual arable cultivation, the duration of growth is constant and the space requirement is reduced to a fifth. Because of the cycle, 90 percent less water would be used - "This is relevant in many countries around the world," says Rösch: "And the taste of the salad is perfect." It takes a while before you can try this on the new harvest: it takes around ten weeks from seedling to ready-to-eat lettuce.

"People have to get to know this cultivation better."David RöschDavid Rösch now wants to do a lot of educational work, such as collaborations with schools. The idea of ​​a gardener community is in the room: "People have to get to know this cultivation better." Tomatoes, cucumbers, and herbs are also expected to soon grow in the hydroponics plant. Perhaps the company would sell some of the products in its workshop, but marketing would not be in the foreground. There are many other ideas that keep Rösch busy, not just those with their own fish tank, which could easily be connected. Initially, however, there will probably be an internal salad party - if Corona allows it.

Lead Photo: David Rösch with his steep slope salad breeding, which he sees primarily as an educational project. Photo: Thomas Kunz

Major Food Shortages Possible In Asia Says "Food Industry Asia"

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30-Mar-2020 By

Jim Cornall

In light of the increasing number of nationwide lockdowns and border restrictions, Food Industry Asia (FIA) and the ASEAN Food and Beverage Alliance (AFBA), the regional associations representing Asia and ASEAN’s food and beverage (F&B) industries respectively, are jointly calling upon governments across the region to ensure the unhindered production and supply of food and beverages as each country tries to contain the outbreak of COVID-19.

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The Climate Crisis May Have Helped Spawn Massive Locust Swarms in East Africa

Dharna Noor 1/31/20

East Africa is currently plagued with locust swarms of biblical proportions, but these swarms aren’t the act of an angry god. According to UN scientists, they may be a result of the human-caused climate crisis.

Hundreds of millions of these spooky creatures are flying across East Africa. The swarms are the worst to hit Ethiopia and Somalia in 25 years and the worst Kenya has seen in 70 years, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a statement. The insects are now plaguing Djibouti and Eritrea, too. By June, their numbers could grow by 500 times, and new swarms could form in Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Yemen.

Locusts swarms aren’t by themselves unusual for the region, but last year, the East African region saw a lot of rain and eight devastating cyclones, which created the kinds of wet conditions that locusts need to breed in these numbers

.A Massive Locust Swarm Poses an 'Unprecedented Threat' to East Africa

A grim report from the United Nations warns that unusually large swarms of locusts will be…Read more

That rain came because of warming waters on the African side of the Indian Ocean; warmer waters mean more evaporation and precipitation. “That side of the ocean is much warmer than the other side, which meets with Australia and Indonesia,” Muhammad Azhar Ehsan, a research scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society who studies the climate of the region, told Earther. “So the African side saw so much rain, but Australians got a drought.” That drought, of course, has furled the apocalyptic fires the Australian continent has been dealing with since last fall.

In 2018, East Africa saw drought peppered with cyclones. “Those cyclones were really unusual—they even created rainfall in the Empty Quarter,” said Ehsan, referring to the vast desert region in the southern Arabian Peninsula. “That’s a region known for high temperatures and [being] very dry. It never gets rain.” Those cyclones, too, created an extra-long breeding season for locusts, but they mostly lived in remote areas, so humans didn’t notice them at the time.“Nobody knew about it,” Keith Cressman, the FAO’s senior locust forecaster, told Buzzfeed News. “They were increasing about 8,000-fold for those nine months, with no disturbance and no control.”Swarms of desert locusts fly up into the air from crops in Katitika village, Kitui county, Kenya on Friday, Jan. 24, 2020.Photo: Ben Curtis (AP)The locusts aren’t just scary—they’re also threatening to exacerbate food insecurity. “A small swarm covering one square kilometer can eat the same amount of food in one day as 35,000 people,” the FAO said.

The creatures have already damaged pasture and croplands in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia. “There are potentially severe consequences for the region where nearly 12 million people are coping with severe acute food insecurity and many rely on agriculture for their survival,” says the FAO. The recent floods and droughts had already put severe stress on agriculture, and the locusts storms are making that stress far worse.

The FAO has called for $70 million to help residents of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia limit the spread of locusts and preserve people’s livelihoods. “Timing and location are crucial. I hope we can work hard day and night so people do not lose their crops,” FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu said in a briefing.

More money will likely be needed because the locust swarms are expected to grow. And if the Indian Ocean continues to warm, infestations like this could happen more frequently. 

Dharna Noor. |. Staff writer, Earther

Lead photo: Ben Curtis (AP) | A girl tries to chase swarms of desert locusts away from her crops in Kitui county, Kenya on Friday, Jan. 24, 2020.

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Coronavirus And The Water Cycle — Here Is What Treatment Professionals Need To Know

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Guest Column | March 5, 2020

By Nicole McLellan, David Pernitsky, and Arthur Umble

As the global health community tracks the spread of this virus, it’s important for water and wastewater professionals to keep updated on potential impacts.

It's hard to miss the headlines. The recent outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV or COVID-19) has dominated news cycles in recent weeks. The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling it “public enemy number one.” But what information do we have that is related to coronaviruses in water and wastewater systems? And what can water- and wastewater-system operators do to protect public health?

Modern water and wastewater treatment systems play an important role in public health protection. With the potential for environmental transmission, water and wastewater operators need to know the potential for survival of this type of virus in water and wastewater treatment systems.

Coronaviruses, named for the crown-like spikes on their surface, were first identified in the mid-1960s. Currently, seven coronaviruses are known to infect people and make them ill. Three of these — MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, and COVID-19 — emerged in the last 20 years and are examples of how some coronaviruses that infect animals can evolve to infect humans. COVID-19 is a new variety of coronavirus and is an enveloped, single-stranded (positive-sense) RNA virus.

So, what is the fate of coronavirus in sewage and wastewater treatment plants? Or in the aquatic environment? And should we be worried about the efficacy of water treatment filtration and disinfection processes for coronavirus removal and inactivation?

The short answer: No — if we take proper precautions and risk considerations.

The long answer: This is a new virus without an extensive body of literature on the effectiveness of water and wastewater treatment processes. And real-life experiences will vary due to water quality and treatment plant details.

According to a 2008 University of Arizona study, coronaviruses have not been found to be more resistant to water treatment than other microorganisms such as E. coli, phage, or poliovirus — which are commonly used as surrogates for treatment performance evaluations. Results from bench-scale studies suggest that the survival of coronaviruses is temperature-dependent, with greater survival at lower temperatures. Therefore, coronavirus is expected to be reduced in raw wastewater and surface waters in warmer seasons. 

How is it transmitted?

Human viruses do not replicate in the environment. For a coronavirus to be transferred via the water cycle, it must have the ability to survive in human waste, retain its infectivity, and come in contact with another person — most likely via aerosols. Findings suggest that COVID-19 can be transmitted through human waste.

Should a major virus pandemic occur, wastewater and drinking water treatment industries would face increased scrutiny. Utilities would need to respond rapidly to minimize occupational and public health risks based on the available evidence. Wastewater effluents would possibly impact recreation, irrigation, and drinking waters. While wastewater treatment does reduce virus levels, infective human viruses are often detected in wastewater treatment plant effluent.

Information for wastewater treatment plant operators

Typically, human waste entering a sewage system is carried through an underground pipe system to a municipal treatment plant. Wastewater treatment plants receiving sewage from hospitals and isolation centers treating coronavirus patients — and domestic sewage from areas of known large contamination — may have elevated concentrations of viruses. Wastewater is treated by a variety of processes to reduce the pollution impacts on nearby receiving waters (lakes, rivers) and disinfected.

Currently, major data gaps exist on the potential role of the water cycle in the spread of enveloped viruses. The lack of detection methods for these strains of viruses is a main reason this type of information is still relatively unknown. Most detection methods are designed and optimized for non-enveloped enteric viruses, and there just isn’t enough information available.

In general, secondary wastewater treatment is credited with removing 1-log (90 percent) of viruses, though broad studies suggest the level of virus removal is highly variable, ranging from insignificant to greater than 2-log removal (99 percent). Because of this variability, the primary process for the inactivation of viruses in wastewater treatment is chemical disinfection (e.g., chlorination) and/or by ultraviolet light.

Drinking water treatment is an effective barrier

Surface-water treatment plants with upstream wastewater impacts are the most susceptible to having coronavirus contamination in the raw water supply during, and after, an outbreak. Viruses are exposed to several potentially inactivating stresses in surface waters, including sunlight, oxidative chemicals, and predation by microorganisms. Generally, enveloped viruses are more susceptible to common drinking water disinfectants than non-enveloped viruses.

Based on published research, water treatment processes that meet virus removal/inactivation regulations are effective for coronavirus control.

For example, drinking water quality guidelines from Health Canada note conventional treatment with free available chlorine can achieve at least 8-log inactivation of viruses in general. Of course, disinfection performance must be continuously monitored (e.g., turbidity, disinfectant dose, residual, pH, temperature, and flow). Optimized conventional filtration can achieve 2-log (99 percent) virus removal and is just one of many processes water treatment facilities incorporate to make our water safe to drink.

Modern drinking water treatment plants are well equipped to remove and disinfect viruses through filtration and disinfection processes.

So now what?

By and large, these viruses are not considered a major threat to the wastewater and water industries due to their low concentrations in municipal wastewater and high susceptibilities to degradation in aqueous environments. According to new OHSA guidance, there is no evidence to suggest that additional, COVID-19-specific protections are needed for employees involved in wastewater treatment operations.

The WHO found that risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) has been integral to the success of response to health emergencies. Action items related to coronavirus include communicating about preparedness measures and establishing a system for listening to public perceptions to prevent misinformation.

Basic recommendations for treatment-plant operators when dealing with a potential virus outbreak

So far, this virus does not appear to survive well in the environment and can be eliminated effectively by water treatment, especially chlorination, and would pose a minimal risk through drinking water. As the outbreak continues, more water-quality experiments are needed before major conclusions can be drawn on their fate within treatment processes. While this will be tricky, especially as viruses continue to replicate and evolve, quantitative risk assessments should be a top priority for enveloped viruses in wastewater, recreational waters, and drinking water.

Treatment-plant operators can download this white paper for more details on the current state of knowledge on coronaviruses as it relates to our practice. For additional reputable and reliable sources of information that are updated frequently with technical guidance, public health information, and the latest research visit the Water Environment Federation’s coronavirus site. 

Lead Photo: The spikes on the surface of coronaviruses give this virus family its name — corona, which is Latin for “crown.”

About the authors

Nicole McLellan is an environmental scientist. She has an academic background in environmental microbiology and civil engineering for drinking water treatment performance evaluations.

David Pernitsky is the global practice leader for water treatment. He has more than 25 years of environmental engineering experience, managing many challenging studies.

Arthur Umble is Stantec’s global lead for wastewater practice. He develops strategies and provides solutions for complex wastewater treatment challenges.

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Comments (9)

Geoff Jensen· 3 weeks ago

We must thank the authors for this sensible evaluation of the public health risks from Coronovirus Corvid 19. It would appear they are indicating that there are potential risks from Coronovirus in wastewater for example aerosols from uncovered activated sludge aeration tanks and in discharging untreated sewage into cold (bathing) water through Combined Sewer storm Overflows of which there are 31,000 in the UK alone.

Matthew· 2 weeks ago

Hmm, I have one of these uncovered sludge aeration tanks on the other side of my fence downwind of my garden and house. Seems I'm right to be concerned?

Ben Tangena· 3 weeks ago

Of course, chlorination, UV or Reverse Osmosis in drinking water treatment are effective barriers against all viruses, also coronavirus. But what will happen if such a barrier fails? Then the coronavirus can spread through the distribution system. What is the risk if you drink such contaminated water? In other words: Is the oral intake of coronavirus a significant route for infection?

1 reply · active 3 weeks ago

Vadim Malkov· 3 weeks ago

This is why we need to stick to WQ monitoring - you cannot control what you do not measure!

kondala rao g· 3 weeks ago

Very informative article and quite useful in understanding the impact of controlling corona viruses in water and wastewaters.

Joaquin Alayola· 2 weeks ago

Very good article, very focused, especially in this time of exaggeration and disinformation. Based on what the author has stated, I would like to highly recommend the reliable and sustainable online disinfection system (directly on the water stream): BlueSense OXAQUA manufactured in the Netherlands, is a natural generator of Electrochemically Activated Water (ECA Water). This system produces hypochlorous acid (HOCI) naturally in drinking water to disinfect flows of up to 10 m3 / hour, without adding chemicals or precursors such as sodium chloride (the concentration must be greater than 20 ppm of chlorides). OXAQUA also creates a residual oxidant up to the point of use by the end-user. OXAQUA uses chlorides naturally present in water to generate up to 2 ppm of free chlorine in the form of hypochlorous acid. This strong oxidant is known to prevent the spread of bacteria, viruses, algae, and molds in drinking water and hot water systems.

Ray Walton· 2 weeks ago

This info seems to be deliberately 'suppressed' here in the UK.

Is CORONAVIRUS - COVID-19 present in Raw Sewage? …

YES…AND STILL, THE RAW SEWAGE IS BEING DISCHARGED INTO UK RIVERS, STREAMS, CANALS, SEA, ETC. BY UK PRIVATISED WATER AND SEWAGE COMPANIES NATIONWIDE AND AUTHORISED BY GOVT AND THE ENVIRONMENT AGENCY… TO PROFITEER AND SAVE MONEY ON PROPER SEWAGE TREATMENT THAT WOULD SOMEWHAT LESSEN THE RISK OF SPREADING THE CONTAMINATION... THE PUBLIC PAY FOR RAW SEWAGE TREATMENT IN THEIR WATER AND SEWAGE BILLS.

Chris· 1 week ago

This comment is disturbing knowing I work with alot of people who work in the sewer still everyday even today.... I am self isolating after coming home out of country

Philip Monro· 3 days ago

Am I over concerned regarding the amount/concentration of "human sewage" if there are conference halls being filled with 2000 beds where the plumbing for that conference hall was never designed for the safe disposal/disinfection of "human sewage". Am I also being alarmist as to the low probability of the conference center's "wastewater supply AND THE MAIN DRAINS THEY ARE CONNECTED TO to being "with minimum / fast/temporary wastewater plumbing coping? FINALLY, if this error leads to massive, wider contamination (or even rupture of the system) just how will this significantly larger network of pipe-work be safely disinfected at ACCEPTABLE intervals and with potential repairs if ruptured? Dr. Philip Monro PhD

Corona-Update: French Supermarkets Heed The Call For 'Economic Patriotism'

Several weeks into this unfortunate COVID-19 situation, new developments still arise. There are the French supermarkets, heeding the call for what Le Maire termed "economic patriotism". In Germany, in places, the vegetable crops are under threat as there are no workers. Meanwhile, fruit and vegetable demand in Europe is booming.

In Canada, the pandemic also impacts economic activity and in Florida, the agricultural industry witnesses a drop in demand. In the Philippines, traders are going online to sell their mangoes, and the same might happen in India as their seems to be no demand for the Ulavapadu mangoes. This, and much more, in today's update.

France hopes people will 'buy French' as single market erodes
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire issued a rallying cry to the nation’s supermarkets on 24 March: ‘Stock French products.’

Supermarkets in France have heeded the call for what Le Maire termed "economic patriotism".

French supermarket chain Carrefour has already moved to source 95% of its fruits and vegetables from within France. The supermarket industry’s trade body, La Féderation du Commerce et de la Distribution, told French business daily Les Echos that once fresh foreign produce runs out on French supermarket shelves, it won’t be replaced.

“Delegating our food supply […] to others is madness. We have to take back control,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a speech just two weeks before Le Maire announced the economic measures.

But for a continent that has built an intricate agro-food market connected by cross-border supply chains, France’s plea to focus inwards for its food supply is a cause for concern for Brussels.

Also, with Covid-19 keeping foreign seasonal laborers away and time running out before fruit and vegetables rot, there has been an appeal to French people who are not currently working to help harvest crops and sow seeds. However, it has had mixed results.

A platform launched in mid-march called “Des bras pour ton assiette” has yielded around 150,000 applications so far but about 200,000 will be needed until the end of the harvest season in September, according to the FNSEA, the main agricultural sector union. The greatest need is in the South of France.

German vegetable crop threatened as virus shuts out workers
Currently, Germany’s fruit and vegetable harvest is under threat from the travel bans that are preventing Eastern Europeans from working on German farms, the BOGK association of German fruit and vegetable processors said on Monday.

Neighbouring Poland, the source of many of Germany’s seasonal workers and an important transit country for such workers from other Eastern European countries, has restricted foreigners from entering its territory in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

“The bans, which are preventing foreign seasonal workers entering the country, are endangering sowing, planting and harvesting,” the BOGK association said. “What is not harvested cannot be processed ... supplies for the population would no longer be secure from summer 2020.”

Germany itself has introduced temporary border controls on its frontiers with Austria, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, and Denmark.

Fruit and vegetable demand in Europe is booming
The demand in Europe for fruit and vegetables has seen a large increase in recent weeks, which is being attributed to the measures and restrictions in relation to Covid-19. The European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Janusz Wojciechowski, outlined the increased demand at a meeting of the EU’s agriculture ministers last week.

“The consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables in the EU has been booming in recent weeks. Spain, Italy and the Netherlands report 40% increases, and Germany up to 100%. Demand is expected to stay strong during the containment period,” the commissioner explained.

However, some EU fruit exports have slowed down, particularly those destined for China. Citrus fruits from Spain have been most affected by this. Exports of these fruits from the country usually peak in March, April, and May. There appears to be limited opportunities to redirect these exports to other markets, the commissioner explained.

Statistics Canada expects COVID-19 to impact inflation
Statistics Canada expects the Corona-virus to impact inflation, already pointing downwards, as the pandemic impacts economic activity. Citing declining demand for travel and oil among other factors, the agency expects a notable impact on consumer prices for various goods in the foreseeable future.

“Because of these factors, as well as supply chain disruptions for consumer goods, temporary closures of some stores and service providers, the recent lowering of interest rates and the recent slowing of economic activity, the price effects of the outbreak could be more deeply felt in subsequent months,” it reads in an analysis of inflation figures released Friday.

Accounting for seasonal factors, inflation across Canada rose by 0.1 percent in February 2020, matching the increase in January 2020.

Florida’s agro-industry witnesses drop in demand
Those that are working in the US agricultural industry, especially those in Florida, are still feeling the impacts. The agricultural industry is the second biggest contributor to Florida's economy behind tourism. Small scale farmers across the state are seeing the biggest impacts from the pandemic.

John Hoblick, president of Florida Farm Bureau: "Smaller producers are usually a niche type producer that supply the restaurants or supply farmers markets and those because of the social aspects that we have to deal with you know have been shut down."

Another major concern comes in the form of labor. Farms who use the H2A program have seen a delay in those workers getting to our area.

Brittany Lee, a local blueberry farmer: "Our farm uses H2A contracted workers from Mexico and they have not arrived yet, which is a little stressful, but the association, Florida Farm Bureau, and Florida Fruit and Vegetable all have been working together with the US Department of Ag to expedite those worker visas for ag commodities. Last week and this week the demand is lower than the same weeks that correlate to 2019… and that’s concerning."

Moreover, the visa confusion in Mexico is keeping out agriculture workers. While it is watermelon season in Florida. But as the top U.S. watermelon-producing state prepares for harvest, many of the workers needed to collect the crop are stuck in Mexico, unable to secure visas.

Restricted visa services, quickly evolving regulations and increased border controls risk wider labor shortages in the United States produce industry that may leave grocery stores scrambling for fruits and vegetables as spring and summer harvests spread across the United States.

Washington farm industry faces logistics problems
As Spokane-area farmers have begun spring planting, apple growers set a new sales record during the panic buying as the region continues to adjust to a pandemic that has disrupted most daily lives.

But while items from flour to eggs have been flying off supermarket shelves, including a wild run on apples, that hasn’t immediately helped farmers in Washington, several industry experts said. The higher demand at grocery stores hasn’t covered the market drop for milk, beef and produce that had been sold to restaurants.

“So far, agriculture is doing better than equities,” said Randy Fortenbery, an agriculture economist at Washington State University. “But the risk is not so much what happens to prices, it’s more what happens to logistics. If we have problems getting product to port and vessels out to sea, that’s where we’ll see some potential problems.”

Guimaras, Philippines: Online selling to dispose of mangoes
The mango season in the Philippines’ island province of Guimaras finds growers denied their usual markets this year because COVID-19 has restricted tourist movements and canceled fiestas and trade fairs.

“(Mango farmers) asked for our help because they have a rich supply of mangoes but they find it difficult to sell due to the community quarantine imposed in other provinces,” Lenny S. Gonzaga, an economist at the Provincial Economic Development Office (PEDO), said last week.

Earlier this month, the provincial government banned the entry of tourists and non-essential persons following the COVID-19 outbreak. Iloilo City, the main gateway to the province, has also been placed under enhanced community quarantine to limit the movement of people.

“It has really had a huge impact on our farmers. Before the crisis, Guimaras mangoes were easy to sell and farmers had sure buyers. Now, many of their transactions were cancelled due to the travel restrictions,” Ms. Gonzaga said.

India: No demand for famed Ulavapadu mangoes in Prakasam
Mango growers in the Prakasam district are worried as the country-wide lockdown to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus coincided with the marketing of the king of fruits.

The output this year has been quite encouraging as there was good precipitation, ending five years of consecutive droughts. Flowering also occurred at the right time in December/January promising a yield of about five tonnes per acre.

But the outbreak of the dreaded disease has put paid to their hopes of reaping the benefits. Upcountry buyers, who used to make a beeline for the orchards in and around the ‘mango village’ of Ulavapadu in the district, have not turned up yet to confirm orders, a group of farmers from the village stated.

The best quality mangoes are normally moved to cities such as Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and from there to the US, Europe and West Asian countries.

Turkish citizens complain about high garlic prices

Turkish citizens who shop at the public market in Kirikkale can only buy 3 or 5 pieces while complaining about the high prices of garlic. A market tradesman who suggested that the reason for the increase in garlic prices was flooding, “Garlic is expensive because of the flooding. Because we don't have garlic in place, we are buying it for 40 liras, we sell it for 50 liras. There is no garlic anywhere in Kastamonu at the moment.

Kerala pineapple growers seek help as lockdown hits harvest
The initiative by the Indian federal government to help tomato farmers in Madhya Pradesh market their harvested stock has prompted Kerala’s pineapple growers to seek similar help from the authorities.

According to growers, around 5,000 tonnes of pineapple is ready for harvest across 45,000 acres in various parts of Kerala. However, the lockdown has adversely affected the harvest, leading to the decaying of the fruit. Around 1,000 tonnes have already rotten and the government should take urgent measures to resolve the crisis, said Baby John, president of Pineapple Growers Association Keralam.

The harvested fruit, he said, can be made available directly to the retail market in the State, which is facing a shortage of fruits and vegetables due to the disruption in cargo movement. Also, the government could consider including pineapple in the food kit being distributed to people affected by the lockdown, he added.

Union calls on the UK government to support the ferry industry
P&O Ferries is temporarily standing down 1,100 staff members in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The operator announced its decision yesterday and said it would be suspending its passenger services between Dover and Calais and focusing all its efforts on bringing in freight to the UK.

Chief executive Janette Bell said due to the pandemic, P&O Ferries was having to respond with new measures to keep the business operational and to keep freight moving.

She said: "With respect to the UK, we bring in about 15% of all the goods the country currently urgently needs. The biggest part of which is food, including fresh fruit and vegetables from southern Europe and North Africa, as well as vital medicines and medical equipment. P&O Ferries is also handling important, but hazardous goods, such as detergents and cleaning products.”

Fruit and veg group Total Produce warns about profits
Total Produce, the fruit and vegetable producer chaired by Carl McCann, has become the latest listed business to delay its planned shareholder meeting as it warned that full-year earnings, though expected to be “satisfactory” were now likely to be lower than in 2019.

In a Covid-19 update, the company said the spread of the coronavirus pandemic was having an increasingly significant impact on the global economy in the three weeks since it published its full-year results. At that time, Mr McCann had said the outbreak was not expected to have any material impact on Total Produce’s business, though he conceded it was too early to form a “definitive view.” However, the company said on Friday that its supply chains were functioning “adequately” and remained open in all its markets.

How the coronavirus crisis is affecting food supplies

Like other parts of the global economy, food supply chains have been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic and empty supermarket shelves have become a symbol of the crisis.

An in-depth article about the way panic buying in some countries has led to some grocery staples like pasta and flour being sold out in supermarkets in recent weeks. Retailers say they are able to replenish most products while bakery and pasta firms in Europe and North America have cranked up production.

Food firms say panic purchases are subsiding once households have stocked up and as they adjust to lockdown routines. However, shoppers may have to get used to less varied or more local food offerings. Logistical snags from closed borders to reduced workforces are putting strain on usual supply routes, particularly for fresh produce.

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation has warned that any rush by importers to buy staples could fuel global food inflation, despite ample reserves of staple crops. Swings in commodity markets are not necessarily passed on in prices of grocery goods, as food firms typically buy raw materials in advance. Some poorer countries also have subsidized food programs that ensure price stability.

Prices of fruit and veg in Argentina went up considerably
Since the implementation of the quarantine due to the coronavirus crisis last week, the prices of the basic Argentinian food basket saw some significant increases, especially those of basic products such as meat, fruit, and vegetables.

The increases occurred precisely in the items where demand was more concentrated and where the measurement of prices is more difficult since purchases are made in local shops, where controls are usually more lax.

Juan Ignacio Paolicchi, an economist with the consulting firm Eco Go, explains that “this is an atypical month in which there was a change in relative prices. “The consumption basket changed as demand fell in some segments that are not essential,” he says.

The Federal Administration of Public Revenues (AFIP) and the Ministry of Domestic Trade reported the results of the controls in different shops. “There were 1,605 price control and supply operations in shops during the first nine days of compulsory social isolation, in which violations of up to 100% of the audits carried out in one day were recorded”.

Davao City to buy vegetables off Filipino farmers
The Davao City government will buy the produce of vegetable farmers to help them cope up with the loss of income due to the community quarantine imposed amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, Mayor Sara Duterte said Monday. She has stated that the vegetables from the affected farmers will be distributed to the residents for free. Duterte noted that several farmers have already complained that their livelihood had been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The demand for vegetables from restaurants has significantly declined after the city was placed under community quarantine on March 15, she said, citing their complaints. “The city agriculturist will buy the vegetables from the farmers since they have an issue with demand. Most restaurants only retained their take-out and food delivery services. In effect, there are fewer customers, and so they only buy fewer vegetables from the farmers,” Duterte explained.

Meanwhile, other sources point to a possible food shortage looms in parts of the Philippines. Faced with a looming food crisis, as the financial assistance promised by the Philippine government has yet to reach them, people in various parts of Luzon are left to their own devices to stave off hunger. A local government plans to distribute repacked vegetable seeds to help households grow "survival gardens".

Cambodian banana exports booming despite pandemic
Cambodia exported 72,182 tonnes of fresh yellow bananas to international markets during the first three month of this year, a Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries report said. Most of the bananas were exported to China, with the rest being shipped to Vietnam and Japan. Cambodia’s yellow banana exports to China have increased rapidly since the first shipment of bananas was sent in mid-2019.

Last year, Cambodia exported a total of 157,812 tonnes of yellow bananas and on average, it exports an average of more than 795 tonnes of bananas per day, the report said. Hun Lak, the director of Longmate Agriculture Co Ltd, which invests in 1,000ha of banana plantations in Kampot province, told The Post on Monday that China is the biggest market for his company.

India: Mother Dairy supplies 250 tonnes of fruits & vegetables
Mother Dairy on Monday supplied around 250 tonnes of fruits and vegetables to its retail stores ‘Safal’ across Delhi-NCR to meet local demand amid the nationwide lockdown, a senior company official said. Last week, the company had double its supply of fruits and vegetables in the Delhi-NCR at over 300 tonnes per day, as customers began panic-buying of household essentials after the announcement of the 21-day nationwide lockdown.

“We have supplied around 250 tonnes of fruits and vegetables today (Monday). The supply has come down from over 300 tonnes last week as panic-buying has stopped but still, it is more than normal,” PTI quoted Sood as saying.

Now that local vendors have the permission to sell fruits and vegetables in colonies, the demand at Safal stores has normalized. Due to the sufficient amount of supply of all vegetables in the local markets the prices of veggies like potatoes, tomatoes, and cauliflowers, too have come down.

Live streaming boosts Chinese farm produce sales
When Hangzhou Women’s Federation visited Dayang Town in Jiande County in late February, officials found that around 900 tons of mandarin oranges were difficult to sell because of the novel coronavirus outbreak. To help local farmers with their produce, the federation launched online sales on Taobao Live, a popular streaming platform. So far, the federation has held six sales promotions, resulting in online sales of 865 tons of Dayang’s mandarin oranges.

Produce from Tonglu, Jiande, Chun’an and Lin’an counties and Fuyang District have also been featured with sales worth 4 million yuan (US$ 563,500) in just nine days. The federation has established a department to direct live stream projects, inviting industry insiders and Internet celebrities to train women farmers.

“We hope more Internet celebrities will join the federation’s live stream activities. That is our responsibility to give a boost to public service projects, especially those related to women and children,” said Zhang Dayi, who has 11.72 million followers on social media.

Fruit exporters urge Thai growers to maintain sanitary standards
“Despite the Covid-19 crisis having a large negative impact on the economy, exports of fresh fruit from Thailand are still operational as demand from China continues, fruit exporters have urged Thai growers to ensure higher sanitary standards to protect the industry from the effects of the pandemic.” This from the president of Thai Fresh Fruit Traders and Exporters Association, Paiboon Wongchotesathit.

To safeguard the export market, Paiboon urged exporters to apply high sanitary standards to ensure that the shipments are not tainted with the Covid-19 virus, especially fruit like durian, longan, and mangosteen which are the main fruits that Thailand imports. He also asks exporters to make sure that workers wear face masks and to supply hand gel for food pickers and packers so their hands are frequently cleansed.

“If the workers are infected and transmit the virus to customers through droplets on products, the whole export industry will be ruined. Fruit exports, especially durian, will be able to achieve growth this year because Chinese consumers are likely to cut back on travel and focus on import and export.”

Mettupalayam auction halted; 80 tons of garlic with no takers
The Mettupalayam auction of garlic has come to a halt amid the Indian lockdown. Traders and farmers find it difficult to arrive for auction, and the regular procedures don’t hold, said garlic traders association president N.S.V. Arumukham.

Under usual circumstances, the garlic procured on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday would be stored separately. On Sunday, auctions are then held at six centers and garlic will be exported to other places. On an average 320 tons of garlic is auctioned where 200 farmers and around 350 traders attend.

At last Sunday's auction, 200 tons of garlic were sold. The remaining 80 tons have piled up with no takers.

Empty shelves incite some Brits to grow their own vegetables
Supermarket store shelves stripped of essentials and rationing of food delivery slots have brought the sustainability of UK supplies into question. Countries worldwide announcing nationwide lockdowns and workers falling ill or being forced to self-isolate have raised questions about where Britain’s produce comes from and who gets it to the supermarkets.

Over half of the UK’s food is produced by suppliers within the country, helping to lessen the impact of any potential disruption to shipping from overseas. Even so, the country is still reliant on the EU for over a quarter of its imports.

Some Britons are taking matters into their own hands. Sales of fruit and vegetable seeds have skyrocketed as people locked down in their own homes look for a productive way to fill their time and gardens, according to the Royal Horticultural Society.

Countries might start hoarding food, threatening global trade
It’s not just grocery shoppers who are hoarding pantry staples. Some governments are moving to secure domestic food supplies during the coronavirus pandemic. Kazakhstan, one of the world’s biggest shippers of wheat flour, banned exports of that product along with others, including carrots, sugar and potatoes. Vietnam temporarily suspended new rice export contracts. Serbia has stopped the flow of its sunflower oil and other goods, while Russia is leaving the door open to shipment bans and said it’s assessing the situation weekly.

To be perfectly clear, there have been just a handful of moves and no sure signs that much more is on the horizon. Still, what’s been happening has raised a question: Is this the start of a wave of food nationalism that will further disrupt supply chains and trade flows?

Korea’s Gangwon potatoes more popular than ever
Since securing a box of face masks during the coronavirus outbreak has become an impossible feat these days, some people have settled instead for a box of potatoes. To be exact, 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of potatoes for just 5,000 won ($4.10). The race to buy potatoes from Gangwon began with an idea thought up at the Gangwon Provincial Office in early March.

Governor Choi Moon-soon hosted a meeting at the office early in the month and told his staff about how many potato farmers in Gangwon no longer had retail partners due to school cafeterias remaining closed and local restaurants faring poorly in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak. According to the provincial government, there were as many 11,000 tons of potatoes harvested in October and November of 2019 that needed to be sold by April, when the next batch of potatoes needed to be planted.

In order to meet the heightened demand from consumers, the provincial government eventually secured 8,000 to 10,000 boxes a day. They still sold out within minutes.

Road Haulage and Freight Lobby gets official recognition for logistics workers
Official confirmation of the importance of logistics in this stressful time was given today in a letter from the Department for Transport clarifying that the essential roles played by road haulage drivers and others in the freight supply chain will not be interfered by officialdom who may otherwise misinterpret government guidelines about travel and work.

The letter, outlining that all travel related to the operation of logistics or necessary travel by logistics workers to places of work such as distribution centers is considered ‘essential travel’ in the context of current restrictions, was delivered to the Road Haulage Association (RHA) and the Freight Transport Association (FTA), both of whom have been closely involved in lobbying and advising the government on the specialties of their respective members.

Possible advantages of COVID 19 for the industry
Companies linked to agriculture, as providers of technology, services, training or knowledge, will see their demand redoubled by the entry of new actors to the undertakings of agricultural projects.

The world is in the midst of a systemic crisis. However, this is not an impediment to reflect and evaluate in a primary way the possible scenarios that can be created in the near future according to the behavior of society and the development of the pandemic.

At first glance, there is a consensus that the production, transport, distribution, and supply of agricultural food is a strategic and vital element for human survival, and, detaching from this, fresh and healthy foods are those that are privileged for consumption.

Companies linked to agriculture, as providers of technology, services, training or knowledge, will also see their demand redoubled by the entry of these new actors to the undertakings of agricultural projects.

WVDA works with local impacted producers and farmers
The West Virginia Department of Agriculture (WVDA) is working with local producers and farmers impacted by COVID-19 by facilitating communication between producers and potential buyers. Business development and marketing staff have received calls from multiple producers are who experiencing a surplus of food or other burdens due to the pandemic. To assist these affected businesses, the Department will provide an on-going directory to those who are interested in being connected with a local, West Virginia farmer and their availability of food.

“We are early in the growing season but many of our West Virginia farmers have lost potential buyers with the shutdown of business such as restaurants. That does not mean there is a lack of need within the food supply but an indication that many businesses have opted to close their businesses to help reduce the spread of the virus. Our hope is to connect those with food to those who need it,” said Commissioner of Agriculture Kent Leonhardt.

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Publication date: Tue 31 Mar 2020

Locusts Are Ravaging The Horn of Africa—The Coronavirus Is Making Things Worse

Dharna Noor

March 30, 2020

For months, hundreds of millions of locusts have been flying across East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Middle East, forming the largest swarms seen in decades. New swarms are continuing to spread from Kenya to Iran, and the worst swarms—those over the Horn of Africa—are multiplying quickly.

The bugs pose an unprecedented threat to nutrition and health in the region, which faces extreme poverty, ongoing violent conflict, and limited healthcare infrastructure. Now the covid-19 pandemic is making it more difficult to quell the swarms, creating a nightmarish situation.“Obviously, the challenge for the international community will be to address the humanitarian needs of multiple layers of need and competing crises all over the globe,” Cyril Ferrand, the FAO’s East Africa resilience team leader, told Earther. “That’s the danger of the current situation where we have huge demands for assistance, combined with the fact that with COVID-19, even the northern hemisphere is quite affected economically.

”The Climate Crisis May Have Helped Spawn Massive Locust Swarms in East Africa

East Africa is currently plagued with locust swarms of biblical proportions, but these swarms…

While COVID-19 is a growing concern in East Africa, the locusts have been an ongoing crisis for months. A swarm that covers a square kilometer of land can eat the same amount of food in a single day as 35,000 people. The Horn of Africa—which includes Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, the Sudan, and Uganda—is already one of the world’s most food-insecure regions. More than 40 percent of the population is undernourished, and in Eritrea and Somalia, that rises to 70 percent.

Right now, a new generation of locusts is taking flight, interrupting farmers’ planting season. And the next generation of locusts is expected to form swarms just as crops are ready to be harvested.“

The threat to food security is unprecedented,” Keith Cressman, the senior locust forecaster at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), told Earther. “The timing is really not very good.”Now, covid-19 is being added to the mix as it begins to spread across the region. It not only threatens health by itself. The pandemic is also interfering with efforts to stop the locust swarms.

The most effective way to quell the spread of the locusts is to spray pesticides from aircraft. Cressman said those efforts were already underway in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya before the COVID-19 pandemic reached the region.

But further operations could be hampered by COVID-19 related restrictions. Shipping costs have increased, and some of the region’s airports and borders are closed, making it more difficult to transport supplies. Ferrand told Earther that in addition to supplies, experts that have been traveling to the region from Australia and Europe also facing travel restrictions, which “will indeed impact” the amount of help local governments can expect.“Suppliers of motorized sprayers and pesticides are [also] facing major challenges with limited airfreight options to facilitate delivery.. .purchased orders were placed a few weeks ago and pesticides expected last week in Kenya have been delayed by 10 days,” he said.

The FAO has appealed for $153 million to help control the swarms and has received $110 million so far, according to Cressman.“If you consider that there’s an awful lot of other things going on in the world at the moment, that’s not bad,” he said.

As governments try to contain covid-19 and the impacts the virus is having on the economy, it’s important to remember that the locust swarms won’t stop for the covid-19 pandemic. Without that aid package, local governments won’t have the resources to put a stop to the spreads. By summer, the swarms could grow by 500 times.

“How do we respond to the needs of the European countries and North American countries as well as the humanitarian and development assistance that is still so necessary in the continent of Africa?”

Ferrand said. “This is the challenge that we will have to face in 2020.”

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Dharna Noor | Staff writer, Earther

Lead photo: Getty

4 Malaysian Engineers Believe Vertical Farming Offers Answer to Food Sustainability

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06 Mar 2020

By WONG LI ZA

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The CityFarm Malaysia team: (from left) Niew Ley Koon, Looi Choon Beng, Koay, Low Cheng Yang and (centre) Chew Jo Han. Photos: CityFarm Malaysia

When Chew Jo Han decided to set up a small hydroponic system in his office because his fashion start-up was not doing well, his friends Jayden Koay, Looi Choon Beng and Low Cheng Yang joked that, if nothing else, he could survive on the vegetables grown!

But, jokes aside, Koay, Looi, and Low were struck by how the plants were grown using artificial light.

With his interest piqued, Koay soon started filling his own balcony at home with hydroponic plants and even converted his bathtub into a germination area for seedlings.

“I started my own system, and my (now business) partners also started to do the same, at home or in their offices, ” said Koay, 32.

They then discovered a common problem – the industry was still in its infancy and materials, equipment like hydroponic fertilizers had to be bought from countries like Japan, Singapore, China, and Taiwan. And, they were expensive.

“We realized that if we needed these materials, more urban farmers in the country would also need them. So, over a mamak session one day, we decided to start up a company to address this issue, ” he said.

CityFarm Malaysia was established in 2016. Within six months, they reported impressive sales. In 2017, they were invited to join a United Nations program held in Kuala Lumpur, where they gained a bigger perspective on urban farming, and specifically, vertical farming.

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Vertical farming refers to a large scale, mostly indoor, type of farming where produce is grown vertically in layers of racks.

“We realized we should have a bigger vision of not only solving industry problems but food security (the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food) issues as well.”

“We wanted to play a bigger role and that’s when we decided to start a consultancy services to plant factories in Malaysia, to get the required technology in and to prepare ourselves for the next 30 years, ” said Koay.

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In vertical farming, plants like vegetables, herbs, and fruits are grown in a highly-controlled environment.

Vertical farming refers to large scale, mostly indoor, a system where crops are grown vertically in layers of racks.

The United Nations estimates that the world population will reach over 9 billion by 2050, out of which two-thirds will be living in urban areas.

A study recently published in the journal Bioscience estimates that overall food production needs to be increased by 25-70% between now and 2050. However, at present, over 80% of arable land suitable for agriculture are already being used.

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) revealed that one-third of all food produced for human consumption, valued at US$1tril (RM4.2tril), is lost or wasted each year.

That’s where vertical farming – touted as one of the possible answers to food sustainability – comes in.

Employing hydroponics, aeroponics or hybrid systems, this method involves growing plants like vegetables, herbs and fruits in a highly-controlled environment where temperature, humidity, light, air, wind and water levels are strictly monitored.

The benefits are many, ranging from higher yield – experts estimate that a 30-storey farm could feed 50,000 people for an entire year – to no wastage from spoilage due to unfavourable weather. This way of farming also reduces water consumption by up to 70% compared to traditional farming, prevents food-borne illnesses such as E. coli, and reduces the need for pesticides or herbicides.

Seasonal produce can also be harvested all year round since there is no dependence on climate. Produce that reach consumers are also fresher as they do not need to travel from out-of-city farms.

Verticals farms located in cities are also good for the environment in terms of reducing carbon footprint from transportation costs.

However, there are downsides to vertical farming – high start-up costs, constant monitoring required, high power consumption from constant use artificial lights (although energy-efficient LED light technology is used), and power outage problems.

And staple crops like rice and wheat have yet to come under large scale vertical farming projects.

However, the fact remains that more and more vertical farms have been cropping up all over the world, Malaysia included.

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The YTL Green Office urban farming project by CityFarm.

To date, CityFarm’s portfolio of customers include those from the commercial, research, education and retail sectors, to individuals. Clients come from Shah Alam, Melaka and Johor Baru to as far as Kuching and Sibu.

A trend that is here to stay“Hydroponic systems – which is basically planting using water – have been around for a while in villages as well as modern households. Before, it’s more like a hobby and trend. But now, hydroponics is part of urban farming, ” said Koay.

Personally, he said he would rather use the term ‘soil-less planting’ as opposed to hydroponics.

“The definition of hydroponics today is different from before, when it was considered hydroponics as long as you used water and not soil. Today, it’s more of a hybrid. In general, as long as water-soluble fertilisers are used, it is considered a hydroponic system.

“What we have is deep water culture (which is done in rectangle boxes), a type of hydroponics. With this system, we enjoy the benefits of using water but also face the challenges that come with it, ” he explained.

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All types of leafy vegetables can be grown indoors using soil-less planting methods.

These include issues related to micro-organisms, air quality, temperature control, concentration of nutrients, PH level and so on.

Hence, there is a need to train more urban farmers when it comes to water-based planting, Koay shared.

“They need to know what is inside the water and what are the parts per million (ppm) measurements. For example, tap water has 70-80ppm of chlorine in Malaysia, which is still acceptable to use. Another thing is the PH levels in the water. For example, you need PH6.5 for lettuce and there also needs to be adequate nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium), ” he explained, adding that temperature, air quality and wind factor also need to be considered when it comes to indoor farming.

At the moment, three out of four main vegetable groups can be planted indoors – leafy greens, herbs and fruiting plants. Root plants can be cultivated indoors with the aeroponic system, something which Koay and his team will look at in the future.

While there is the perception that hydroponic vegetables can be ‘tasteless’ or ‘watery’, Koay explained that it all boils down to the nutrients added to the plants.

“The taste depends on the nutrients we give it. If we give the same nutrients as in soil planting, it will taste the same, ” he claimed.

The Kuching commercial indoor farm project, set up in 2017, spans 5,000sq ft (464sq m) and has a 12,000 plant capacity.

The future of indoor farming

For now, Malaysia still has enough farmable land on the outskirts, but Koay and his team are looking way ahead.

“Urban farming is a solution to the food security issue and will have a future as long as urban populations continue to grow, which means more people to feed and less farmable land, ” he said.

In the next 10 years, Koay and his team aim to be the backbone of the industry where they will play a supportive role to customers.

“Secondly, we also need to educate people about how food is produced, that it’s not just soil, fertilizer and sunshine but there are other systems. Today, we are even able to manipulate the nutrients in vegetables, for example, lower the potassium content in lettuce.

“By 2050, we are confident that the industry will mature, thus lowering the costs of indoor farming. We also hope that people will be more equipped with the knowledge of urban farming and that it might be part of the syllabus in our education system too.

“The future must include indoor farming. If people are living vertically, our food production will need to grow vertically as well, ” he emphasized.

Related stories:

Malaysian urban farmer grows vegetables in back lane of his house in Puchong

Green spaces in urban centres bring many health benefits

TAGS / KEYWORDS:Vertical Farming , Urban Farming , CityFarm Malaysia , Sustainable Living , Food Security , Urban Population

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