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UAE Tries Vertical Farming To Produce Food With Little Water
UAE Tries Vertical Farming To Produce Food With Little Water
Sustainable agriculture is a challenge in the arid United Arab Emirates, but a new indoor approach to farming may be the key to supplying the region with food without overdrawing from its limited water stores.
Anwar Mirza/Reuters
May 10, 2018
- By Rabiya Jaffery Reuters
ABU DHABI
When people picture the United Arab Emirates (UAE), what likely comes to mind are desert sands, skyscrapers, and a blue sea under a shimmering sun. Agriculture does not.
There are good reasons for this: The federation of seven emirates is hampered by high temperatures, a lack of arable land, salty soil, and steep production costs. And that is without accounting for the occasional voracious locust swarm.
So it is hardly surprising that the UAE imports nearly 90 percent of its food needs, according to the Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data Initiative, a data research organization.
This reliance on the global food trade brings opportunity, said Saudi Arabian entrepreneur Omar Al Jundi, who has built the Middle East's first commercial vertical farm in Dubai.
Badia Farm – the word means 'oasis' in Arabic – grows greens like radish, kale, mustard, basil, and arugula in a controlled, indoor environment using hydroponic technology and LED lights.
"As a region that has struggled to grow crops due to largely hostile desert landscapes, our farm offers a viable solution to farming that produces harvests 365 days of the year," he said.
"The produce will not only be cheaper than imported goods but fresher too, as the farms will be producing all year round."
The farm, which began production late last year, is on an 800-square-meter plot of land in one of Dubai's main industrial areas and produces two hundred boxes of green vegetables a day.
Though this pales in comparison to the world's largest vertical farm – which operates on 6,500 square meters of a former steel factory in New Jersey in the United States – it marks a big step for alternative farming in this region.
Vertical farming is taking off elsewhere, too: Europe's first commercial farm opened near Amsterdam last year, and Shanghai will next year start a 250-acre agricultural district with skyscrapers dedicated to growing fruit and vegetables.
Vertical farming brings some important benefits, said Mr. Al Jundi: because produce is grown in a controlled environment there is no need for pesticides or chemicals. And they use much less water – 90 percent less than open-field farming.
Growing food locally for the firm's 30 UAE clients – mainly restaurants and hotels – means a smaller carbon footprint, and saves on transport costs.
"It makes no sense to order produce that arrives in boxes in the back of a ship from as far as tens of thousands of miles away when it can be grown at home," he said.
Even though the UAE imports most of its food, the emirates are food secure, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
However, its food security is not without risk, said Hina Kamal, a research analyst at the UAE University's College of Food & Agriculture, as it is reliant on vulnerabilities in supplier countries and on the international food trade market.
Another concern is climate change, which is likely to increase food prices in the years ahead, said Majid Sultan Al Qassimi of the UAE's ministry of climate change and environment.
Although the UAE has strategic reserves in place to protect it from short-term disruptions, he said, "ensuring global food security will be challenging in the future due to impacts of climate change."
Part of the solution, he said, is to boost domestic production through sustainable means; another is "to diversify imports and investments to ensure that the country is food secure in the long-run."
Other solutions include setting up storage facilities abroad and acquiring farmland in Africa, Europe, and Asia. Emirates NBD, a large regional bank, says UAE investors were part of at least 28 deals in the past 50 years covering about 1 million hectares of farmland globally.
The Emirates' drive to secure land abroad to assure its food supply is not risk-free, Ms. Kamal said and could be undone by political conditions in those countries or by climate change.
"It is possible that some of [the countries] will be highly affected by climate change – both through more extreme weather events and reduced productivity over time."
Droughts or food shortages could, for example, see host governments impose export bans, she said, which is why boosting productivity at home is the lowest-risk way to ensure food security in the decades to come. It is also more sustainable.
The UAE will need to improve its agricultural productivity in the coming decades to meet demand, said Mr. Qassimi, and to do so in the face of rising global temperatures that are expected to worsen extreme weather events.
"All of this has a direct impact on agricultural production, affecting both food producers and those who depend on them. The UAE is no exception," he said.
Nor, for that matter, is the Gulf region, noted a report last year from the Emirates Wildlife Society and World Wildlife Fund (EWS-WWF), which evaluated the likely effects of climate change on food security.
The UAE is a major regional hub for the re-export of food commodities, it pointed out, and the consequences of climate change, including hotter weather, could affect those facilities.
Any resultant food price spikes would hurt the poorest the most, and that could drive a long-term need for food subsidies.
There are other factors too, not least water. The UAE's agricultural sector accounts for just 1 percent of its economy, the EWS-WWF report noted, yet uses about one-third of its water – vastly disproportionate to its GDP contribution, said Fanack Water, a research group.
Given that water is more expensive than electricity in the UAE – and given that regular farmers benefit from subsidies for water Al Jundi of Badia Farm said ending such breaks would make vertical farming a cheaper solution.
"The money spent on powering vertical farms is relatively much lower than of the cost of water used in open fields."
That said, Badia does use plenty of electricity: from pumping water to powering the artificial lighting and computers that monitor temperatures. But looking ahead, said Al Jundi, it is working with the government on a shift to renewable energy.
The impact one vertical farm can have, though, is limited, and will be felt only on the margins: It will not change the UAE's reliance on countries such as Brazil, India, Iran, and South Africa for cereals, sugar, and food oils, for example.
But what it represents – a better way of growing produce in a region that is facing significant challenges from climate change – is important, Al Jundi said.
"This technology will be a major contributor to agriculture sustainability, food diversity, and security as it enhances crop production and lowers their cost," he said.
This story was reported by The Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Turkish Growers In Love With Soilless Agriculture
Turkish Growers In Love With Soilless Agriculture
There is an emerging interest towards hydroponic growing in Turkey. Hydroponic growing has become popular globally in recent years and its popularity started to spread around Turkish growers as well. The first attempts for soilless growing started in Antalya around 1995 and nowadays it has been carried out approximately in a 100 million square feet area in total. 55% of this area is located in the Aegean region whereas 43% is located in the Mediterranean region of Turkey.
Hydroponic growing is commonly used in Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, USA, Israel, Colombia, and China but is most used in the Netherlands, with almost 95% of the greenhouses being utilized with this particular method of production. This contributes significantly to the Netherlands being the second biggest food exporter in the world after the US.
Turkey Association of Chambers of Agriculture Chairman Semsi Bayraktar: “The world population is increasing rapidly and is projected to reach 9.6 billion people in 2050. In order to feed this population, you need to utilize all the production methods, including greenhouse production and hydroponic growing in addition to the traditional field growing. The whole global industry is around 55 – 60 billion USD.
In the greenhouses, a lot of growers are experiencing problems with soil which caused a lot of growers to explore the soilless production methods. There are usually a few varieties grown in a greenhouse and they are grown without any break between them thus it causes soil fatigue. That’s why it is suggested you need to replace the top 20 cm of the soil in a greenhouse every 4-5 years.
Turkey has tremendous potential in soilless agriculture and we are located in a very advantageous position to be in close proximity to European, Russian and Middle Eastern markets. If we can use modern technology in soilless production, we can increase the productivity per square feet and contribute significantly to our country’s economy.
As the grower is not dependent on the soil and its characteristics for production, the grower is free to grow products anywhere they like. You can feed the products at the right amounts and at the right times and this way you can achieve total control in production. This method of production enables you to get the products ready earlier and at the right time where the grower can get better prices for their products. As the production area can be sterilized very quickly, you can have continuous production all year round.
Another additional benefit is the elimination of the soil based diseases with the absence of the soil. Moreover as there are no pests in the production, there is no need to use pesticide which makes the fruits and vegetables grown in this method more healthy for consumers. As there is no vaporization, the grower also saves on water expenses. If the grower also sets up his production with proper automation systems, they can also save on labor costs.”
Source: Sozcu
Publication date: 5/3/2018
Coalition For Sustainable Organics Continues Efforts To Ensure Containers And Hydroponics In The National Organic Program
Coalition For Sustainable Organics Continues Efforts To Ensure Containers And Hydroponics In The National Organic Program
May 8, 2018
Led by executive director Lee Frankel, the Coalition for Sustainable Organics (CSO), continued its advocacy efforts at the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) Spring meeting to ensure the National Organic Program remains open to producers using containers and hydroponic cultivation methods.
Frankel testified, “Comprised of growers big and small, we [the CSO] advocate for the continued allowance of containerized growing methods under the National Organic Program while enabling growers to select the most appropriate production system for their specific site and commodity needs.”
“In addition, the CSO was pleased to receive confirmation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that of the legal basis for these methods via Sections 6503 and 6512 of the Organic Foods Production Act,” stated Lee Frankel. “CSO has long argued that OFPA and the accompanying regulations do not prohibit containers and hydroponics from the organic program.”
“Thanks to USDA’s strong statement, producers can continue to meet the rising demand for fresh organic produce using a wide variety of environmentally sound and sustainable farming methods such as containers and hydroponics,” continued Frankel.
Following a presentation by Undersecretary Ibach on USDA efforts to increase organic integrity, members of the CSO as well as Frankel testified today in Tucson, Arizona at the meeting of the National Organic Standards Board to show continued support for efforts to further strengthen and clarify the USDA organic regulations and ensure integrity in the USDA Organic Seal.
Vertical Farm In Jackson Wyoming Offers Fresh Produce And Jobs For The Disabled
Vertical Farm In Jackson Wyoming Offers Fresh Produce And Jobs For The Disabled
The idea for Vertical Harvest first blossomed about 10 years ago, when three women from different backgrounds came together to solve a problem.
“Our growing season is only about four months long, so we shipped a lot of our produce in from other places,” said Vertical Harvest CEO Nona Yehia. “A friend of mine said she got some lettuce from the grocery and by the time she got it home, it was brown.”
Yehia said Jackson is also known for having a high unemployment rate for people with disabilities, something the three women believed they could cure with their business model.
Vertical Harvest uses a growing method called hydroponic farming.
“It means that you feed the plant through water so we don’t need soil in the greenhouse,” said Yehia. “So basically we have a growing medium that holds the roots for the plants and is basically a delivery device for the nutrients.”
Each of the three floors has a different micro-climate, allowing a variety of produce – from tomatoes to micro-greens – to thrive year round.
Sam Bartels: “If we have a hail storm outside if we have snow our plants are smugly watching from their high rise apartments,” said Vertical Harvest Director of Business Development Sam Bartels. “So there are a lot of benefits to growing indoors.”
On Tuesday, the temperature in Jackson was a cool 34 degrees, which is less than optimal for most growing.
But on the third floor of vertical harvest, they grow tomato plants that will be served on dinner plates in Jackson restaurants in just a few weeks time.
“When you go out and see your produce on a gorgeous plate and others enjoying it and commenting on the quality of the produce, it’s incredibly rewarding,” said Barels.
It’s a feeling shared not only by the company’s three female co-owners, but Vertical Harvest’s 15 employees, who now have an opportunity like never before.
Johnny Fifles, like most of his co-workers, has a developmental disability. It’s something that limited his employment options for years.
“I used to work at the Elk Country Inn,” said Fifles. “I had to fold laundry and carry bags of dirty laundry.”
But at Vertical Harvest, Fifles and Sean Stone find purpose. “It’s a great job,” said Stone. “It’s good for the environment and it’s healthy for people that buy this stuff from us.”
“It’s really shifted the perception of what this population is able to do and I think that story brings people to vertical harvest first and then they keep coming back because of the quality of the produce,” said Yehia.
Customers return for both the quality and the quantity, because Vertical Harvest produces 10 acres worth of fruits, vegetables and herbs on just a tenth of an acre.
Vertical Harvest distributes produce to multiple restaurants in Jackson and soon, it will be able to distribute to grocery chains like Albertson’s following its recent Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) certification.
While the idea clearly works today, skeptics had their doubts. “It’s a pretty far out thing to say to someone, we’re going to grow this 3-story high greenhouse in Jackson when it’s minus 20 degrees out and we’re going to employ these different growing methods that have never been done before and employ all these people with disabilities and people might be inclined to think that’s a bit much to bite off,” said Bartels. “But I think anyone with doubts has not only become a believer but has become an advocate.”
It’s a system of support the team at Vertical Harvest hopes to achieve in the five other communities they’ve pegged for future development.
“It’s all about pairing innovation with an under-served community and in Jackson that’s people with disabilities,” said Bartels. “But in other towns that might be veterans or ex-felons or the homeless so we’re excited to go do good elsewhere.”
The greenhouse is open to tours.
Source: KTVH
Publication date: 5/4/2018
Using Sun To Desalinate Water For Irrigation
Using Sun To Desalinate Water For Irrigation
By Gardy Chacha | Published Sat, May 5th 2018
Solar water desalination
Water efficiency in farming and food production, whether for traditional rural irrigation, arid regions or urban farms, represents a key metric in the face of global population growth and climate change.
As it is, 71 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered in water.
A big percentage of this water is salt water – in world’s oceans and seas. Scarcity of freshwater resources therefore makes a compelling argument for desalination. However, the process of desalinating seawater consumes large amounts of energy that some scientists have argued that more energy is lost than gained in the long term – relative to agricultural profit margins.
Sundrop Farms in Australia thus solved the problem by coming up with a solution that draws on one of the few renewable resources in even more abundant supply than seawater – sunlight.
Sundrop Farms harvests solar power to generate energy for desalination to supply hydroponic greenhouses. Requiring no freshwater, farmland or fossil fuels, this potential game-changer for sustainable farming is creating 300 jobs in Port Augusta, South Australia, with a 10-year contract won to grow tomatoes for Coles supermarkets.
RELATED TOPICS: food production farming Clean water Irrigation desalination
Hydroponics, The Future of food?
Hydroponics is built around the concept of having constant optimum farming conditions, in an isolated closed loop environment such as a warehouse, in which variables such as CO2 and light levels can all be controlled. A key feature is that the roots of the plants are suspended in a mineral-rich solution rather than soil.
Hydroponics, The Future of food?
Earth's population is expected to reach in excess of 8 billion by 2050, meaning food production will need to increase by 50%. Whilst 1 in 9 people do not have access to the food needed in order to live a healthy life.
Despite this, human activities that are also restricting the amount of arable land means the future concerning food production has to shift.
One of the solutions being considered currently, and which is being treated as feasible on a local and countrywide platform concerns the field of hydroponics.
Hydroponics is built around the concept of having constant optimum farming conditions, in an isolated closed loop environment such as a warehouse, in which variables such as CO2 and light levels can all be controlled. A key feature is that the roots of the plants are suspended in a mineral rich solution rather than soil.
In order to discover more about the future of hydroponics I interviewed Robert Jones. The director of South London based start up Hydroponics company Herb and Bloom.
“The future for Urban Farming is Hydroponics” Mr Jones states, “There's a massive need to combat the food production problem due to population growth and this method of farming will hopefully be able to meet these demands and is sustainable ”
Farming, he envisions will become increasingly localised as “Technology gets cheaper it will become easier and more affordable. A wider range of produce can be made.”
“The benefits are abundant when it comes to the future of farming, produce will be fresher than ever and be much better for the environment thanks to dramatic reduction in transportation cost and less plastic packaging.”
Currently across London multiple projects are being orchestrated, with grand visions including layered skyscraper farms, whilst others focuses on individual units. Already we see this happening on a small scale with disused bomb shelters in London harbouring small hydroponic farms.
Despite it not being cost effective yet, in the near future perhaps we will be seeing hydroponics being utilised on a local level in order to provide the food of tomorrow.
Big Tex Urban Farms Uses Hydroponic Systems To Teach, Feed Local Dallas Residents
Big Tex Urban Farms Uses Hydroponic Systems To Teach, Feed Local Dallas Residents
By David Kuack
May 8, 2018
Big Tex Urban Farms has seen the benefits of hydroponic growing in its efforts to become a better community partner.
Big Tex Urban Farms has exceeded beyond anything that co-founder Drew Demler could have ever imagined. Demler, who is the director of horticulture at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas, said the growing operation got its start out of an interest by fair president Mitchell Glieber to become more involved with the Dallas community.
Drew Demler, director of horticulture at the State Fair of Texas, founded Big Tex Urban Farms in order to grow food that would be donated to the local community.
Photos by Jessie Wood, State Fair of Texas
Demler said one of Glieber’s main objectives when he became president was to get the State Fair of Texas to be more active in the community.
“The goal was to be a better community partner,” said Demler. “With that in mind, Jason Hayes, who is the fair’s creative director, and I hatched this plan to start a vegetable garden. We wanted to utilize space that was not in use during the rest of the year when the fair isn’t going on. This space is primarily asphalt parking lots.
“We pitched the idea of growing in these specially-designed mobile grow boxes to use up some of that parking space to grow food that would be donated to the local community. We started with a small budget in 2016 using 100 mobile planter boxes to grow food outdoors.
During that first year, we learned a lot about the soil, how to grow and ways to improve. We got some decent yields. More importantly, we made some important connections with a couple community groups to whom we donated the food we produced.”
During 2016 all of the planting and maintenance was done by Demler and his full time staff of three people.
“During that first year I was really the only one who had much experience growing vegetables,” he said. “There was definitely a learning process for the rest of the crew. We learned when to plant crops, how to harvest and what it needs to look like when it is harvested.”
Community outreach
The food that was harvested the first year was donated to two local charitable organizations.
Drew Demler (left) and the Big Tex Urban Farms crew are producing food using outdoor mobile grow boxes and greenhouse hydroponic production systems.
“Baylor Scott & White Health and Wellness Institute in Mill City, Texas, is our primary beneficiary,” Demler said. “Mill City starts about a mile down the street from the fairgrounds. The institute hosts a farmers market for the community on Tuesday and Friday.
“A big focus of the institute is helping people with chronic diseases including heart disease and diabetes. One of the institute’s main objectives is to get people eating healthy, fresh vegetables. We donate vegetables to them and they in turn give the produce away. This is in a community where there really aren’t many other good options for fresh produce. Community residents have learned that they can show up on Tuesday and Friday and pick up lettuce, collard greens, Swiss chard, basil, chives and other vegetables that we produce.”
Prior to working with Demler, the institute had a contract with a produce supply company that provided fruits and vegetables shipped in from California and other outside areas where produce is grown. None of the produce was grown locally.
Another beneficiary of the fresh produce grown by Demler and his staff is Cornerstone Baptist Church. The church feeds the homeless six days a week.
“The church is involved with feeding the people who need food more than anyone,” Demler said. “The church had been receiving donated produce that was declined by different area grocery stores. They weren’t receiving anything that would be considered fresh and they weren’t receiving any greens or lettuces at all. We have been able to change that. A lot of what we donate to the church are leafy greens.”
Positive response leads to hydroponic production
Demler said growing and donating the fresh vegetables gave him and his staff an opportunity to develop good relationships with the organizations they were assisting.
“These community groups were really happy with what we were doing to assist them in their efforts to feed people in the community who really needed help,” Demler said. “We also received some good media coverage which helped generate more interest in what we were doing.”
Because of the positive response from the groups being helped and the media coverage, Demler said his budget for 2017 was increased considerably from what he started in 2016.
In 2017 Big Tex Urban Farms installed a deep water culture tank and six 8-foot tall vertical grow towers.
“With an increase in funding, we expanded from around 100 mobile outdoor planter beds in 2016 to 529 by the time 2017 ended,” he said. “Also before the fair started in late September we installed a 30- by 15-foot hydroponic deep water culture tank in one corner of our largest 7,200-square-foot greenhouse. We also installed six 8-foot tall vertical tower gardens. This was our first venture into hydroponic growing. The greenhouse had been used to grow plants like palm trees and bougainvillea, and to overwinter hanging baskets, as well as be a really beautiful exhibit room during the state fair itself.”
Demler worked with the staff at Hort Americas, including Chris Higgins, Tyler Baras, Matt White and Jared Lee, to design and install the hydroponic production systems.
Expanding hydroponic production, systems
Demler said the amount of produce that was being harvested from the hydroponic systems got his attention right away.
“In the short amount of time that we had installed the systems and started growing, we were very impressed with the results,” he said. “Our total production indoors and outdoors in 2017 was around 2,800 pounds of produce. This year we have already grown over 2,000 pounds of produce. Over 90 percent of that has come from the hydroponic systems. By the end of April we will have exceeded what we produced for all of 2017. This is one of the main reasons that we’re going to expand our hydroponic systems. It is such a better and more efficient way to grow.”
Demler said the hydroponic systems that were installed in 2017 take up about a 50- by 50-foot area, which he considers to be a relatively small footprint.
“Another reason for expanding the hydroponic systems is the overwhelmingly positive response from the public during last year’s state fair. We are planning to turn the greenhouse into an indoor ag growing exhibit. This year the public will have access to the hydroponic systems all 24 days of the fair. We have plans to expand on our hydroponics and indoor growing setups using more of the greenhouse space that we have. We currently have three permanent greenhouse structures and one greenhouse we put up and take down every year.”
Big Tex Urban Farms is expanding its hydroponic systems at the State Fair of Texas because of the overwhelmingly positive response from the public during last year’s state fair. This year the public will have access to the hydroponic systems during the 24 days of the fair.
Demler said he and his staff are in the process of deciding which additional type of hydroponic systems they plan to install.
“We definitely plan to add another deep water culture tank,” he said. “This tank is going to be slightly larger, measuring 15-feet wide like the first tank, but about 45-feet long. This will provide an increase in production space so that we should be able to crank out a lot more leafy greens by the end of this year.
“We are also going to add another production system so that we can grow hydroponic vine crops inside the greenhouse as well. This system will enable us to grow tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers if we choose. We haven’t chosen the system yet. We are doing the research to see what systems are within our budget.”
Another hydroponic system that Demler plans to add is a nutrient film technique trough system.
“Since we began using the hydroponic systems right before the fair started last year that didn’t give me a lot of time to trial the systems,” he said. “One of the things I bring to this is a general horticulture view of knowing what to grow when. We have people telling us they have a hard time managing lettuce in NFT hydroponics systems during the summer because of the heat. So I want to try growing some bush beans and other crops that I haven’t seen other people grow. I want to see what different crops these systems can support. I’m thinking of growing mini bell peppers and dwarf tomatoes in the NFT set up.
“We not only want to be a facility that grows produce for the community—that’s our primary focus. But we also want to be a research facility as well. We want people to be able to learn about how to grow using these systems. We want outside groups to come in and participate and learn from our successes and our mistakes.”
For more: Big Tex Urban Farms, (214) 565-9931; info@BigTex.com; https://bigtex.com/urbanfarm.
David Kuack is a freelance technical writer in Fort Worth, Texas; dkuack@gmail.com.
New Unique Designer Hydroponic System To Land On Indiegogo
New Unique Designer Hydroponic System To Land On Indiegogo
May 3, 2018
(Isstories Editorial) London, May 3, 2018 (Issuewire.com) – Good news on the way for Urbanites who struggle to grow herb gardens in the concrete jungle. London-based promising startup VictoryGrow is launching a revolutionary designer low-powered hydroponic system on Crowdsourcing website Indiegogo that will allow green enthusiasts to have a lovely herb garden right on their windowsill. Aptly titled as PowerPot, the new-age system assures energy, space and water-efficient horticulture that can be easily practiced at apartments and commercial establishments.
The Indiegogo campaign is geared to raise around $19,500.
VictoryGrow PowerPots are small yet powerful hydroponic systems which will allow users to grow-from-seed various edible plants such as small tomatoes, chilies, herbs and so on. Users can also use the USB-powered system to grow fancy display plants and flowers. The PowerPot sports a clear viewport which will enable you to check up the growth and health of your plants roots any time -something which is simply impossible with soil-grown plants.
One of the best bits about our PowerPot is its all-in-one seed-to-fruit design that eliminates the hassle of transplanting your seedlings once they start to grow up. We have designed it to bring a little bling to growing whilst preventing the unwanted mess of growing plants in soil. Its convenient, easy to use, powerful and most importantly renders that desired green touch to your urban home or office when you are lamenting about the absence of a garden, stated Nick Outram, a visionary tech veteran, a seasoned hydroponic system designer and the man behind the innovative PowerPot.
Speaking further, Mr. Outram revealed the state of the art features of his new unique VictoryGrow PowerPot-
- Robust 4 mm thick high quality acrylic case manufactured with care by a leading aquarium producer
- Durable brushless and noiseless motor instead of cheap air pump brushed motors usually found in regular hydroponics systems
- In-built multicolor LED light inside the pot that can change color via remote control according to the mood of the user
- Customizable Facerings that are available in broad range of hues to choose as per specific preferences
- Low voltage powered (USB=5V) hydroponic system to ensure safe usage
VictoryGrow has also plans for a safety magnetic coupler for power in the near future.
We have got a revolutionary hydroponic system for you which is a perfect blend of form and function. At present, we are looking towards mass production and building a following around the PowerPot hence this Indiegogo campaign. Your generous support will enable us to kick-start our production at an affordable cost and start an urban growing revolution!
Backers will be rewarded with the new-age PowerPot at discounted prices along with 2 seed trays providing 12-18months of hassle free growing.
To show your support for this campaign, please visit IndieGoGo and search PowerPots
Press Kit Link: http://www.victorygrowuk.com/contact-and-presskit
Indie Link: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/victorygrow-powerpots-designer-growing-systems/coming_soon
Victory Grow
noutram@victorygrowuk.com
Upper Richmond Road, Putney London, United Kingdom
Australia's Largest Hydroponic Strawberry Glasshouse To Be Built In Victoria's Latrobe Valley
Australia's Largest Hydroponic Strawberry Glasshouse To Be Built In Victoria's Latrobe Valley
April 16, 2018
Mercus Group is about to release 12 new exclusive strawberry varieties following years of research at a Gippsland site.(Supplied: Gippsland Strawberries)
Strawberry growers say plans for Australia's largest hydroponic strawberry glasshouse, to be built in Victoria's Latrobe Valley, will oversaturate an already crowded market.
The Federal Government has provided $3 million towards the glasshouse to be built by Mecrus Group, which trades as Gippsland Strawberries and Berry Sensation. The glasshouse would be six times the size of the MCG.
It will cost $37 million, and will be capable of producing more than 2,000 tonnes of strawberries annually.
Mecrus Group already grows strawberries at Officer and Shady Creek near Warragul, east of Melbourne.
The new $37 million hydroponic strawberry glasshouse will be six times the size of the MCG.
(Supplied: Gippsland Strawberries)
Managing director Barry Richards said more than 120 ongoing jobs will be created after the 12-hectare glasshouse is constructed.
The glasshouse will be built in the Latrobe Valley, a region which has lost hundreds of jobs after a power station closure.
"We'll build it in three, four-hectare stages, just so that's more manageable," he said.
"It's a significant increase from where we are now.
"There'll be 122 full-time jobs after construction and they'll range from professional growers, quality control, harvesting, planting and crop maintenance."
Mr Richards said demand for the company's strawberries was growing locally and it had set its eyes on domestic markets moving forward.
"For the future it'll be interstate but right now we can't keep up with the demand in Victoria," he said.
"Glasshouse production of fresh fruit has grown dramatically over the last 15 years, particularly with tomatoes, cucumbers and eggplants, but glasshouse production of strawberries hasn't as yet developed."
Growers' association says glasshouse will be 'another nail in the coffin' for strawberry industry
Victorian Strawberry Growers Association president Sam Violi said the development of a large strawberry glasshouse in Victoria would kill the industry.
"For the industry, this will be like another nail in the coffin for the strawberry industry in Victoria," he said.
"Most of the strawberry industry in Victoria is family-oriented, husband and wife and maybe some children. There are quite a lot of smaller growers. With the competition, they'll probably be forced out."
Mr Violi said there was already strong competition in Victoria from strawberry growers in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.
"We are going to have a fair bit of fruit on the market. The fruit coming out of Queensland in the last few years has caused a glut and we've seen strawberries retail for 99 cents. I think this will have a detrimental effect," he said.
"The prices will go down and be uneconomical.
"We know that the cost of production in Victoria has been about $2 for a 250 gram punnet. It's all manual labour. The profit margin is diminishing and you can't stay in the marketplace for a loss. Bigger corporate people, using other money, can absorb the cost.
"I'm not sure they are tyring to force the closures of business, but it will have that effect."
New strawberry variety to be released
Mecrus Group is about to release 12 new exclusive strawberry varieties following years of research at its Shady Creek site in West Gippsland.
"We spent a number of years overseas working with overseas breeders to try to find newer varieties of strawberries that have a much sweeter taste, more fragrance, a greater shelf life," Mr Richards said.
"All the sorts of things the consumer in Australia is looking for in strawberries.
The first commercial variety to be released is called Desire.
"It has been out over the past year through our stalls at farmers markets and some fruiterers and proved very popular," Mr Richards said.
"It's a reasonably sweet, very red fruit."
Family Harvest: Hydroponic Farming Provides A New Job And A New Life On The Northern Neck
Family Harvest: Hydroponic Farming Provides A New Job And A New Life On The Northern Neck
April 16, 2018
Farnham, Virginia
As snow fell on the fields of the Northern Neck last month, Justin McKenney was in his tomato greenhouse tending to his plants with his young assistants: daughters Josslyn, 5, and Joely, 2.
Last week, he was back in the greenhouse, and the plants were about 4 feet tall with plump, green tomatoes forming on the vines. He expects to pick the first ripe tomatoes by the end of April. He will harvest until December, with each of his 1,050 plants — growing to about 40 feet in length by then — producing upwards of 50 pounds of tomatoes for the year.
Hydroponic farming has its advantages.
Before they launched Sion House Farm in 2015, McKenney and his father, Jack Mc- Kenney, had no connection to farming, except for cousins who farmed land along the Rappahannock River that has been in the family for more than a century. Justin McKenney, 32, worked for an oil-field services company in Pennsylvania; Jack McKenney, 64, had retired from a career in banking.
“I’d never grown anything,” said Justin. “I don’t think I’d even grown grass seed.”
But they were looking for a joint business venture so Justin could start a new career, his old job having worn him down with the night shifts and long hours that kept him away from his wife and young daughters. They also wanted to do something that might bring them together on the Northern Neck, where neither had lived full-time but both had spent summers and many weekends during their youth visiting grandparents and cousins.
Scouting around for an opportunity, Jack came upon hydroponic farming — essentially growing plants without benefit of soil — and looked into it. The men were further intrigued after attending a two-day orientation in Ohio held by a company that manufactures hydroponic supplies. After a particularly unhappy night on the job in Pennsylvania, Justin called his father: “I’m tired of this. Let’s do it.”
Justin and his wife, Jamie, decided to make the move, and they relocated to the Northern Neck, near the Farnham community. Justin acquired 12 acres of family land that had been in grain production and set up four greenhouses.
Justin has taught himself about hydroponic farming, becoming a voracious reader on the subject and making Google and YouTube his personal online classrooms, while his dad is generally more involved with sales and deliveries and that side of the business. Both McKenneys live nearby. Justin and Jamie’s home, just beyond the greenhouses, is in the approximate footprint of where his great-grandparents’ home stood.
Besides tomatoes, they raise bibb lettuce and bok choy year-round, selling to supermarkets (including Tom Leonard’s in Richmond), wholesalers, home-delivery services and roadside stands. They have added two greenhouses, and Justin has branched out into field-farming, where he will grow several acres of sweet potatoes, potatoes, and tomatoes this summer. For someone who had never even grown grass, Justin has embraced his new profession and lifestyle.
“Absolutely, I love it,” he said. “My days haven’t gotten any shorter. They’re just in daylight now instead of in the dark.”
***
Jack McKenney’s great-grandfather, Carter Mothers- head, acquired a stretch of land along the Rappahannock, between Sharps and Morattico, about 1906. Four of his sons farmed the land and made their homes along what is now known as Mothershead Neck Road, where Sion House Farm occupies about a dozen acres. (The farm takes its name from a former plantation house on the property, thought to be the childhood home of Cyrus Griffin, who served as the last president of the Continental Congress prior to ratification of the U.S. Constitution.)
“This was called ‘coming to the country,’ ” said Jack, who grew up outside Philadelphia. “I was the oldest grandchild, and I got to hang around with my grandfather. I felt pretty lucky.”
In high school, Jack’s family moved first to Tampa, Fla., and then to Richmond, where he was in the first class to graduate from what was then the “new” Hermitage High in the spring of 1972. After attending the University of Virginia, he went into banking, working mostly in Northern Virginia, where Justin and his two siblings grew up.
Justin also grew up with a long-distance affection for the Northern Neck and liked the notion of making his home there, though job prospects seemed limited until he and his father struck upon the idea of hydroponic farming.
Hydroponic farming is not an inexpensive venture — with its infrastructure and internal systems controlled by computers, propane to warm the greenhouses in winter, electricity to operate pumps and fans around the clock, and the labor necessary for frequent planting and transferring (in the case of lettuce and bok choy), and pruning and trellising (in the case of tomatoes) and regular harvesting of everything. But it also doesn’t require the capital investment of expensive machinery for conventional farming and is not at the mercy of variables such as weather.
High wind or hail storms can destroy field crops in a matter of seconds, and heat and drought are always serious possibilities. Not so in greenhouses. A run of cloudy days can slow the growth of plants coming up indoors, and extreme cold can raise heating costs, but an indoor crop is generally safe from outside disasters. Pests and disease also can be managed somewhat more easily in a greenhouse’s climate-controlled environment, though plants grown indoors are certainly not immune.
Production in a hydroponic operation also is more predictable, Justin said, and there is little waste: he sells almost everything he grows. What he doesn’t sell he gives to a local food bank, and if he has some particularly unsightly produce that has hung around the greenhouse a little too long, he’ll drop it off at a buddy’s pigpen.
And his operation becomes particularly lucrative when he can attract a premium price for his fresh produce when other local growers don’t have it to sell — vine-ripened tomatoes in May or November and lettuce in the heat of the summer.
“I’m definitely sold on [hydroponic farming],” he said. “We can make the plants do what we want them to do.”
The lettuce and bok choy grow in long trays, roots dangling in a closed-circuit stream of ever-moving water that is constantly refreshed and replenished with nutrients. In the case of each, it’s about 48-62 days from seed to harvest, depending on the time of year and the availability of daylight, Justin said. The tomatoes grow in Perlite, a lightweight soil substitute, and are fed by drip irrigation every half-hour. Hives of bumblebees pollinate the tomatoes.
How much land would be required to produce the same amount of food?
“I don’t know the answer to that,” Justin said, “but I know it’s way higher than what we are doing here.”
Last year, he said, Sion produced 42,000 pounds of tomatoes in a 4,200-square-foot greenhouse, the equivalent of about one-tenth of an acre.
Jack McKenney said the future of hydroponic farming is promising because “you’re able to produce so much more in smaller acreage, you’re able to go year-round, and you don’t use as much water.”
Elaine Lidholm, director of communications for the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, agreed.
“It is safe to say that hydroponics is a very small part of the overall industry of agriculture, but it is growing, and I believe it will continue to grow,” she said in an email.
“This is just my opinion, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a real burst of new companies in the very near future. I think it has advantages for new farmers or urban farmers, although it can occur on farms, too. It is a good fit for urban agriculture, and the world is becoming more urbanized every year. I don’t think it’s going to feed the world by itself, but it can help, and we are going to have to explore every avenue for food production in order to feed the burgeoning world population.”
(804) 649-6639
AgriTech Startup Pindfresh Is On A Mission To Bring Urban Farming Revolution In India
AgriTech Startup Pindfresh Is On A Mission To Bring Urban Farming Revolution In India
The Startup Is Developing An App That Will Notify Customers When To Take Care Of The Plants Diana ChingakhamApril 10, 2018 11 min read
INC42 STAFF
Food today is laden with chemical fertilizers that cause some major health risks such as cancer. Fertilisers such as ammonium nitrate, cadmium, potassium chloride, organophosphate (OP), pyrethroids, etc. are used to protect vegetables against pest and premature decay. Despite the apparent impact on health, the irony is that India is now the second largest manufacturer of pesticides in Asia after China and ranks twelfth globally.
“It was the importance of clean and healthy food dawned upon us. Bringing farming to the urban Indian homes, and making people aware of what they eat is the mission behind setting up Pindfresh,” says Somveer Anand, founder of agritech startup Pindfresh.
For Somveer and his wife Sohila Anand, the idea to launch Pindfresh was very much based on a personal experience that he had after one of his close relative fell ill due to the consumption of chemical-loaded food.
During their India visit the husband-wife duo had an hands-on experience on the extreme dearth of hygienic, nutritious food in India and this is where, they also felt, there was a dire need to provide people with the ability to grow vegetables locally. That’s precisely where the Pindfresh’s journey began 2016 when they were also joined in by Jaspal Singh Anand.
The agritech startup Pindfresh is turning small plots or spaces between buildings or in buildings into usable farm space. From rooftop gardens to floors specifically designed to incorporate farming, to other spaces within high-rises filled with racks of perfectly lined leaf vegetables, it is striving to bring about a farming revolution in urban India.
Apart from selling in-house home systems (hydroponic and others) and fresh produce (lettuce, rocket, basil, and mushrooms), it also runs programmes to train people (in schools and societies).
By using hydroponics, cocopeat gardening, and other soilless techniques, Pindfresh is attempting to educate urban dwellers to use a technology which takes less space, demands lesser water and is completely free from pathogens and biological contaminants.
Organic Farming: Ushering In Organic Food Revolution
The concept of urban farming is a trend that is catching up fast globally. For instance, Tokyo-based Kono Designs started an urban farm by the name of Pasona in a nine-story building in 2010, and this gave the employees a chance to grow and harvest their own food at work. Apart from Pasona, major companies in Japan like Mitsubishi are also leading the way to set up urban farms at their offices. Japan has become a front-runner in urban farming, which is, in turn, helping the country cut food import costs.
India too needs to plant the idea of urban farming. Why? Here is the reason.
The urban population in India, which stands at 377 Mn, is expected to reach 600 Mn by 2031, according to a new UN-backed report. The increasing nutritional requirements of this fast-growing urban population will pose a huge challenge in the coming years.
Due to the ever-increasing urban population and decreasing rural population that used to tend to frame as a traditional occupation, India imported $906.3 Mn (INR 5,897 Cr) worth of fruit and vegetables in 2016-17, while the figure in 2014-15 was $832 Mn (INR 5,414 Cr).
As a result, Indian consumers are becoming victims of processed food as there is a wide gap in the supply and demand chain.
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To address this problem, there is a subtle movement that is taking place in India over urban farming, spearheaded by millennials. Of these, integrating farming ideas into the urban space is also Pindfresh.
As far as India is concerned, a survey on the Status of Organic Farming in India was conducted by scientists from different universities including the Indian Institute of Soil Science to ascertain the real benefits and feasibility of organic farming in terms of the production potential, economics and soil health, in comparison to the conventional farms in India. The study revealed that organic farming, in spite of the reduction in crop productivity by 9.2%, resulted in an increase of 22% in the farmers’ net profit compared to conventional farming.
This trend got further escalated with the coming of urban farming and today, agritech startups are not only helping farmers to assess the soil and weather conditions or crop production but are also coming up with unique ideas to optimize the limited space in urban India to grow vegetation in offices and other commercial complexes.
And the best part is that the idea of organic farming is not limited to just offices; balconies, roofs, terraces, drawing rooms and kitchens in urban homes but could be seen as a future of vegetation in urban India and Pindfresh is determined to make it a reality with its advanced organic farming techniques.
Pindfresh And Their Concrete Vegetable Farms
Pindfresh’s journey began with an initial capital of $7.68K (INR 5 Lakh). When the agritech startup was taking shape, the trio did a lot of research to learn about hydroponics and then tailor make it to suit the Indian conditions (or rather, that of any developing nation).
“For example, we try and promote hydroponics where the space requirements are important. For places we have no space constraint, we try and promote coco peat gardening in grow bags and feed them using hydroponic nutrients. Not being wedded to a particular technology allows us the freedom to experiment and recommend the most appropriate ways of growing our food,” says Somveer.
But this agritech technology or perhaps the trend is soon catching up across India today.
According to a research pursued by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, the area under hydroponics began to expand significantly in Europe and Asia during the 1950s and 1960s, and large hydroponic systems were developed in the deserts of California, Arizona, Abu Dhabi and Iran (1970).
The research elaborates that hydroponics did not reach India until 1946. By 2008, localized experiments were adopted to grow exotic crops like strawberry, green garlic, and tomatoes.
Today, ‘Landmark Agrotech’ project is the second biggest hydroponics project in Gujarat and is currently under implementation. Likewise, for Pindfresh, all the growing is done at their prototype growing facility in Nayagaon, Punjab.
Startup Pindfresh Making Systems To Flourish ‘Mini Pinds’
The startup is attempting to make cities holistic in their requirements of food and vegetation. To that end, it is working towards creating systems by which people will actually eat the local and fresh produce – just as if the food is coming directly from the Pind.
Essentially, they offer three services: creating and selling systems for home and commercial use; producing food using Pindfresh systems and selling it and holding workshops.
The startup is grossing over a monetization strategy that involves making the vegetable saplings available for procurement by offices and houses. They have two types of customers: one who buys the plants to grow the vegetables themselves and those who only buy the vegetables. Pindfresh is also selling to wholesale markets.
“Traditionally, cities have sourced all their food and supplies from the surrounding villages. The reason why we call ourselves Pindfresh is because we want to move the production of food from the villages to the cities. We want to create mini pinds (villages) in the center of the towns and in every household!” Somveer enumerates.
The startup is planning to develop an app which can advise customers on the right way and time to water the plants, add nutrients, check the pH of the water, etc.
The Road To Augur In An Organic Revolution Via Agritech
In the two years of growing leafy vegetables and building the organic ‘farm to fork’ concept for the urban landscape, agritech startup Pindfresh has seen quite a number of challenges.
“The major challenge we had initially was a complete lack of an agri startup ecosystem in Chandigarh (which was surprising, considering its the gateway to Punjab, the ‘Bread Basket of India’. The other problems that we faced included sourcing specialized materials and equipment (that we needed to make our hydroponic equipment with) and customer education but made us realize that a HUGE opportunity existed here,” highlights Somveer.
Despite the challenges, the agritech startup has been well on the path of exploring the opportunity as their traction shows.
- It has a top line of about $6.14K (INR 4 Lakh) a month (growing at 20% M-o-M).
- Sold more than a 1,000 units over the last 12 months
- Chandigarh and Delhi are its two major traction areas
As urban farming is fairly a new idea in India, Pindfresh is shaping itself to become a robust sustainable agritech startup to lead the industry amidst many people who deal with home-grown balcony systems and hydroponics. Organisations like City Farming, Earthoholics, Fresh & Local, Urban Leaves, etc. are its likely competitors.
According to Somveer, “This industry has a lot of scope of becoming a rage. The main reason behind it is that it is aimed at our well-being, and health, which are the burning topics of discourse these days.”
He adds, “It is well suited to the modern day lifestyle, where we are living in smaller spaces, with even lesser time to devote. Hydroponic and soilless systems are easier to maintain, requiring on an average of 30 mins a week – produce wonderful and nutritional food and flowers, are modular and DIY in nature and most importantly will not break the bank once you start!”
The agritech startup is aiming to introduce consistent innovations to grow and aid to the development of urban farms in India.
On the latest innovation the company is working on, Somveer mentions, “We’re always thinking about how we can use hydroponics to solve other real-world problems. So, we ‘invented’ the Niño. The Niño is a unique vertical system (the first of its kind in India) and apart from being easy on the pocket, is very low on maintenance as well! This system can hold up to 36 air cleaning plants, looks beautiful in being placed in a corner and it not only removes formaldehyde, acetone, NOx’s and COx’s, etc. from the room, it also releases fresh oxygen for us to breathe and work in a healthy environment.”
As for the way ahead, Somveer avers that they are currently toying with the idea of raising a little bit of money for the R&D and for inventory, but prefers an investor who understands the space. The startup says it will need about $307,600 (INR 2 Cr) to roll out its rooftop system for growing plants (and that doubles as a nursery for their farmers).
The founders plan to use the funds for the development of sensors and IoT systems that can predict how much food will be required at what time, what the growing conditions are going to be in the future and how much of the produce must be consumed to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
The Green Of The Future
In countries like Israel and the US, hydroponic produce is already part of the market, which is yet to happen in India. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon is perhaps one of the earliest examples of hydroponics.
Urban farming, especially in the case of India, can play a significant role in urban environmental management as it can combat urban heat island effects and enhance the quality of air, besides offering organic, fertiliser-free produce. The Food and Agricultural Organization has long since recognised urban agriculture as a key element in food security strategies.
However, a formal recognition of urban agriculture and its integration into the urban planning process are necessary for it to be successful. In India, urban agriculture is being carried out in many cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Chennai under the leadership of the government, private agencies or even individuals. Considering the wave of organic revolution that it can ignite, startups like Pindfresh may go a long way in equipping India to meet its future food demands.
Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.
More African Farms Turning to Hydroponics
More African Farms Turning to Hydroponics
As climate change begins to pose new challenges for conventional outdoor food production methods, hydroponic farming is fast gaining popularity in South Africa. Considering the current drought in the Western Cape and other parts of South Africa, you may say it is a forced shift, but it does bode well for the environment and our scarcest resource on planet earth – water.
For anyone who cares about our resources, it’s not difficult to obtain research about the “carbon footprint” of food transportation and the many other ways in which we harm our environment through producing our food. It is clear that we cannot continue on the way we have always produced food.
NFT Hydro, as the manufacturers and suppliers of Hydroponic NFT Systems and equipment, has become a key part of this shift change in South Africa & Africa. We have seen a significant up-take in growing hydroponically from our South African urban farmers, rooftops growers in our cities and commercial farmers searching for alternative methods of farming to meet the demand for higher yield and the consumers’ concern for the environment.
These urban growers and emerging farmers in South Africa are able contribute to food security through the KHULA farmers App (meaning GROW) which allow farmers to list their produce and track real time inventory levels from emerging farmers as well as basic production forecasting. The App also includes a crowd-sourcing marketplace where farmers can satisfy market demand and incoming orders.
That being said, some of our African neighbours have been even quicker on the uptake of Hydroponics than South Africans, the vast majority of whom, not surprisingly, are women.
NFT Hydro export on a regular basis into Africa as well as the rest of the world, attesting to the quality of our products proudly manufactured here in South Africa.
For more information:
Lynn Gunning
NFT Hydro
Tel: +27 (0)83 737 8602
Lynn@nfthydro.co.za
www.nfthydro.co.za
Pittsburgh Farmer Takes The Highway To Hydroponics
Pittsburgh Farmer Takes The Highway To Hydroponics
- Eric Hurlock, Digital Editor
- Apr 13, 2018
BALLY, Pa. — Three hundred miles may seem like a long way to go for lettuce, but Tuesday’s trip to Butter Valley Harvest Farm was well worth the extra gas for Henry Wilde.
The Pittsburgh farmer is relatively new to hydroponics, and Butter Valley was offering some veteran tips during a teaching session organized by the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture and Penn State Extension.
“I’ve been running my own (hydroponics) farm since August, and I’ve never been to a working farm, so I’m working through every learning curve as it comes up,” said Wilde, who farms butterhead lettuce. “I wanted to come here and talk to someone who’s been doing it for 10 years.”
Seeing Ryan Ehst’s hydroponic operation was an eye-opening experience.
“He’s got all these channels right up next to one another because he’s got these small crops,” Wilde said. “And that surprises me because I could be growing a lot more stuff in the same number of square feet.”
Wilde was one of about 20 people in attendance at the session. And while he may have traveled the farthest, his reason for attending was similar to everyone else’s: curiosity.
Chelsea Mackie is in a farmer apprenticeship program at Pennypack Farm in Horsham and had never seen a hydroponic farm. She was surprised that the growing environment was less controlled than she thought it would be.
“It sounds like you still deal with a lot of the same issues you would if you were growing in the field,” she said. “It’s probably easier in some ways and harder in others.”
Changing perceptions and expanding knowledge was a main goal of the event for Ehst, who led the group on a tour of his Butter Valley Greenhouses. The growing facilities consist of four 22-by-128 foot bays, three of which are connected and used for growing herbs and greens, and the fourth for growing tomatoes and cucumbers.
Ehst grew up on the farm, which traces its roots back to a land grant from Pennsylvania founder William Penn.
Looking for a way to expand operations, he and his father, who had just retired from teaching, formed a partnership, drew up a business plan, and went forward with hydroponics.
They broke ground in 2008 and started growing a year later, but didn’t reach capacity until well into 2010, “because you can’t just plant your greenhouse full and get rid of it unless you want to give stuff away.”
They originally planned for three tomato houses, but realized pretty quickly that was too risky, so they scaled back and expanded into greens.
“The business plan we wrote was for three bays of tomatoes, and we would have never made it,” he said. “Tomatoes are a lot of risk/reward scenario. After the first risky year, we said that’s enough, and got into more greens.”
In their third year, they added a fourth house and reconfigured the original greenhouses to better accommodate growing greens.
Along the way, they added a geothermal heating system that allowed the farm to heat the greenhouse with a sustainable source: the earth itself.
The only time the farm uses its propane heaters is when the outside temperature dips into the 20s.
The farm’s main crops are cherry and beefsteak tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, butterhead lettuce, salad blend lettuce, arugula, and watercress. To a smaller degree, they grow baby kale, baby bok choy, romaine lettuce, and spinach.
Ehst started out selling to a few area chefs and grocery stores and has been adding customers ever since. His largest buyer now is Lafayette College in Easton, which features his produce in its dining halls. Ehst also manages an on-farm market.
The process of growing hydroponically is pretty simple, he explained. Instead of growing in soil, the plants grow in water that has been supplemented with nutrients.
The system Ehst uses for his greens is a closed system, where the nutrient-rich water is circulated by a pump. But for his tomatoes and cucumbers, it’s an open system where gravity controls the flow of the nutrients.
Ehst uses rock wool to start tomatoes from seed in January. Once the seedlings are established, they are transferred into a system of interconnected buckets, two plants per bucket, and set in the greenhouse.
There are 360 buckets growing 720 tomato vines suspended by spools of string, which will be moved throughout the greenhouses as the vines grow, letting the plants climb up to 50 feet by the end of the season, from March to October.
“The hope is that each plant gets a minimum of 30 to 35 pounds (of fruit). If everything goes well, it should be over 40,” Ehst said.
The air in the tomato house was thick and warm and had the smell of a backyard garden in August. The plants were already towering nearly 6 feet high, heavy with blossoms and fruit. Big fans kept the air circulating.
But there was another, smaller buzzing sound in the air too: Bumblebees.
The farm brings in hives of bees to do the pollination work throughout the growing season.
The biggest challenges the farm faces in the greenhouses are downy mildew on the basil and powdery mildew on the lettuces. Ehst says it’s easier for him to prevent these problems than it is to get rid of them once they appear on his crops. Diligent, methodical surveying of his plants is necessary, as is inspection of their nutrient delivery system, where algae will occasionally start to grow and cause the system to clog.
By the end of the tour, the finer points of farming in water started to soak in, giving Wilde a lot to think about on his long journey back to the Steel City.
What impressed him most was the geothermal system that heats the greenhouses.
“He doesn’t use any propane until it gets to 28 degrees,” Wilde said. “My gas bill in January was $5,500. You have to grow a lot of lettuce to overcome $5,500 gas bills.”
LifeLab Is Making The World’s Smallest Hydroponic Modules In Lebanon
LifeLab Is Making The World’s Smallest Hydroponic Modules In Lebanon
by Agrytech | Apr 13, 2018 | In The News |
We talked to Ali Makhzoum, co-founder of LifeLab, to have his in-depth insight on the hydroponics sector, the solutions LifeLab is providing and where it stands in the international scene.
LifeLab provides the world’s smallest turnkey vertical hydroponic modules. These modules connect to each other and then ultimately to an industrial grade automation system that runs the entire grow process with very little human intervention. LifeLab joined the Agrytech Accelerator Batch I in the Bootcamp and Acceleration phases. Their work with the Agrytech team continues.
Q: What are the specificities of your hydroponics system?
A: It’s 2 things: 1) Modularity: Our systems are modular, and I’m not talking about a 20-ft container module, but a 0.5 cubic meter module, which makes our LiveCube™ system the smallest, and hence, most flexible, vertical hydroponic module in the world, and it’s specifically designed for commercial (B2B use).
Besides its modularity factor, we’ve technically invented a new measurement unit in the world of commercial agro production to highlight the benefits of vertical farming. People still measure in square meters, we measure in LiveCubes, factoring in the entire volume of any given farm space instead of only its area. 2) Hybrid Technique: Loosely based around NFT (Nutrient Film Technique), yet surpassing it by drawing on the strong points of several other hydroponic growing methods, our technology is a hybrid model that combines the best parts from each known technique, and adds our own magic touch to them to create a robust, dependable growing environment that maximizes the advantages and minimizes the known disadvantages/weaknesses of hydroponics.
Q: What are the elements of the LifeLab solution?
A: Our solution is a 360-degree approach that aims at tackling the entire farm-to-fork chain. It’s composed of 3 parts:
I) The Physical Tech: This is the actual farm, composed of the combination of our proprietary modules and their governing control mechanism in which the plants grow: BaseCube™ modules + LiveCube™ modules + Command & Control Module = LifeLab UpFarm™
II) The LifeLine™ Dashboard: To control quality (and generate recurring income) we supply the farms with everything they need to grow their produce. Currently this is a simple on-the-ground system whereby customers order the supplies they need and we deliver them, but we’re developing it into an online dashboard connected to the farm, that tracks the operators inventory (plugs, seeds, nutrients, and all other growing supplies) and connects to our supply system to inform the farmer/operator, and us, of current inventory levels and imminent requirements, which will enable the farmer/operator to automatically replenish their inventory with great ease.
III) The ‘Community’ OTMP (Online Trade Management Platform): This is a fully online platform currently in early phases of design, which will be composed of a virtual marketplace, connecting our operators/producers directly to buyers.
Q: Is anyone else working on something similar in Lebanon?
A: That really depends on what you mean by “similar”. We come across new attempts at commercial hydroponic farms on a weekly basis. All of them are set up within traditional greenhouses, which constitute a very poor environment for hydroponics and an even poorer one for vertical growing since they depend on sunlight coming from a single source at the highest point of the structure, leaving the lower layers partially or completely shaded. Not to mention the insects, and radical environmental changes with the change of the external climate, which totally defeats the purpose of CEA (controlled environment agriculture).
Q: How does LifeLab’s innovation compare to international solutions in hydroponics?
A: Besides the small handful of global players with the right idea in mind, most international attempts are focusing either on B2C grow-your-own food-on-your-bookshelf- type products, which is not our market, or on “Urban farming”, which is nice in theory but ridiculously unsustainable in reality.
Because of their modularity and flexibility, our systems can thrive anywhere, particularly in suburban and rural areas, where actual farmers are more likely to be available. Even if the investors behind the farms were large food companies, which fits quite well into our business model, you still need farmers with green thumbs to run these places. So we’d be creating a new breed of partnerships.
Literature aside, and on a more technical note, there are generally two types of hydroponic technologies in the world: Very high tech, very expensive, high maintenance, good results, but terrible payback period, and there’s the low tech, less expensive, low maintenance model set up in traditional greenhouses, which is significantly less productive, problem-ridden, and yields average to mediocre results.
From day one, our goal was to optimize vertical hydroponics for commercial feasibility, and we did exactly that. Our technology strikes the perfect balance between the available options, bringing together the best of both worlds: Robust, dependable technology that’s designed around the most important aspect of the farm: The farmer/operator.
Our technology is a well rounded combination of hardware, software, and intuitive design; sophisticated enough to automate most of the work saving over 75% of the labor otherwise required, yet simple and practical enough to allow easy operation and still allow the farmer/operator their own input and personal touch into the process, putting their growing experience to good use, resulting in a seamless combination of human know-how and experience on one hand, and technology that does the heavy lifting on the other hand; creating standard, predictable results with a payback period that trumps the competition by years, not months.
(The smallest LifeLab UpFarm yields 100% ROI in 2.3 years with OPEX included, this period goes down as the area of the farm increases; compared to ~4.5 years for our closest European Competitors “Urban Crop Solutions” and 8.8 years for our closest American Competitor “Freight Farms” – based on CAPEX alone. I’m not even going to bring up the Japanese competition because then it just gets embarrassing, but just for your reference: Japanese Container Farms – Qatar listen for the price in the first few seconds of commentary).
Q: What are the setup costs vs revenue compared to conventional farming?
A: A traditional plastic greenhouse costs less than $100 per square meter to set up without any sophisticated features, and depending on climate and availability of water, the operational cost varies, rendering the average COGS (cost of goods sold) per plant at around 25 cents, not factoring in the pesticides/herbicides or labor required to run the operation which would drive the cost up even more.
Produce from such a greenhouse would be considered gourmet if the plant sells for $1, which is rarely the case as most local farmers sell their greens at 60-75 cents per plant and are restricted by seasonality, which means they can produce 3-4 harvests a year on average for most types of crops.
Compare that to one of our farms, where one square meter costs approximately $1,000 to set up (at 5 levels; 3M height) , and around 30 cents COGS per plant, produces the equivalent of 30 Square Meters, 365 days a year, with near zero crop losses. No pests, no weeds, and hence no pesticides or herbicides.
90% less water consumption. Fully climate controlled which means they can be used to grow produce specifically when it’s out of season, and sell it for premium prices, and when said produce gets back in season and the competition increases, our farmers/operators can immediately switch (within 24 hours) to producing whatever else has now gone out of season and sell THAT at a premium price when nobody else around them can grow it.
Q: Who is your target market? Who are you planning to sell your product to?
A: At first we wanted to target traditional farmers. Needless to say that didn’t fly. However, their educated children who are now doctors, engineers…etc and have inherited the family land/business are loving the concept of a farm that fits in a small space, operates year-round, produces 30 times as much in a fraction of the time (4 hours a day instead of 10-12), a fraction of the labor, and requires no tractors/harvesters/other heavy machinery, weeding, dirty work or heavy lifting, controlled by a touchscreen and can be monitored from anywhere through their smartphones. This allows them to invest their savings in a family business that makes them several times the profit their fathers used to make while still keeping their jobs.
Besides these individual neo-farmers, we want to target a wide range of F&B companies, supermarket chains, and governmental agencies specialized in agro-development & subsidization. In the future, we can create private-sector consotrium-type cooperatives, where we pair investors with farmers. The investors put in the money, the farmer operates the farm and is a partner, our system handles the rest, and everyone makes money.
Our GTM strategy involves creating strategic partnerships with existing companies (mainly agriculture equipment/supplies providers) who’s staff we would train to handle sales and maintenance on our behalf using their already existing infrastructure instead of us investing heavily in every new geography/market we want to penetrate.
Q: What is the dollar value of the hydroponics sector internationally?
A: Global Annual Fresh Produce Imports:
MENA: $92.4 Billion
USA: $70 Billion
Europe: $45 Billion
Global Hydroponics Market (2017):
Equpiment & Supplies: $ 340 Million
Produce Market: $ 114 Billion
Medical Cannabis: $ 52 Billion
Q: Where are you now? Where are you planning to be? What do you need to achieve that?
A: We recently finished our very intensive foundation phase of R&D and product + market validation. Our technology has been installed and performing very well for over 2 years now, we did all the necessarily polishing & debugging to have a viable, commercially feasible, market-ready product that can produce 70+ types of greens as well as strawberries* with very stable and predictable results. It’s now time for us to start selling our first product and capitalize on all the product development we’ve done over the past few years.
While starting to sell our first product, we want to be working in parallel on developing our second hardware product, the OmniHive™, which is a vertical hydroponic system capable of growing everything else our current product (and all our global competitors products) cannot grow: 40+ varieties of fruiting plants, berry bushes, and dwarf fruit trees.
To achieve all that we need a new, sizeable round of funding, and a network of strategic partners to help us achieve our goals.
Watch Ali’s video
Agrytech is a program by Berytech jointly funded by Berytech and the Embassy of the Netherlands in Lebanon. Applications are now open for Batch II of the Agrytech Accelerator.
European Parliament Sets Stronger Organic Regulations than U.S., Rejects Labeling Hydroponic as Organic
(Beyond Pesticides, April 27, 2018) After more than five years of intensive negotiations, European Members of Parliament (MEP) overwhelmingly passed the long-anticipated, new organic certification and labeling regulations, with 466 voting in favor, 124 against and 50 abstentions. While the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers, must formally adopt the regulations, their easy passage is expected. Regulations will take effect in January 2021. The new organic regulations are purported to provide more clarity to organic producers and consumers and to harmonize organic regulation across the EU. But, they also are likely to fuel disharmony with the U.S. National Organic Program (NOP) by failing to act swiftly to curtail fraudulent organic exports and by prohibiting hydroponics systems of production in organic, which the US currently allows.
“The development of organic production is a political objective of the EU,” According to the EP’s background document on the regulations. As a strategy for increasing organic agriculture, which now encompasses 6.7% of EU agricultural land, MEPs intend for the new regulations to encourage more farmers to go organic, enhance consumer trust in the EU organic logo, and improve the quality of organic food. According to the European Parliament’s press release, “Strict, risk-based checks will take place along the supply chain” to facilitate product traceability and boost consumer confidence in the authenticity of the organic foods they buy.
Similar to the situation in the U.S. where organic fraud is on the rise, the EU acknowledges the problem by requiring stricter fraud precautions to be taken. Equivalency rules that currently allow non-EU countries to comply with comparable but not exact standards will be phased-out, within the extended timeframe of five years. New regulatory language encourages operators who produce, prepare, import or use organic products to report suspicious imports to the appropriate authorities. Member states are also authorized to take their own enforcement action to avoid fraudulent imports and to notify other member states of their action.
It remains to be seen if these measures prove sufficient for U.S, organic consumers and producers to feel confident that the EU is affording adequate fraud protections for the organic food that passes through its borders. In the US, where at least half of the organic products sold are imported, a recent Inspector General Audit of USDA concluded that it was “unable to provide reasonable assurances” that imported commodities labeled organic were indeed coming from certified organic farms. The situation of rampant fraudulent imports has created substantial economic hardship for US organic grain and soy farmers, where per bushel prices and market share have plummeted since 2015. Executive Director of the Organic Farmers’ Agency for Relationship Marketing, Inc., John Bobbe, estimates that between 60 and 70 percent of organic imports may be fraudulent. “Some come through Turkey, where fraud is rampant, and some from India, where standards are not checked thoroughly for sanitation issues. He thinks Turkish organized crime is involved, with colleagues in Russia and Ukraine.”
The other important point of contention between the EU’s and U.S,’ organic standards is the EU’s explicit prohibition of hydroponic systems of organic food production to be certified organic. In reaffirming that organic systems of production depend upon thriving soil ecosystems, the EU regulation states that “plants should be produced on and in living soil in connection with the subsoil and bedrock. Consequently, hydroponic production should not be allowed nor growing plants in containers, bags or beds where the roots are not in contact with living soil.”
This provision flies in the face of the 2017 decision of the U.S. National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) to allow soilless, hydroponically-produced organic food without requiring labeling. The NOSB overturned a previous 2010 Board decision to prohibit the practice despite widespread public opposition and demands to “keep organic in the soil.” In response, this spring U.S. farmers have created the Real Organic Project, which rejects hydroponic as an organic method and establishes other standards that the U.S. Department of Agriculture refused to implement, despite explicit recommendations from the NOSB. The Real Organic Project is establishing an add-on label to the USDA certified organic label that will let consumers know which commodities meet the standards of the organic law and consumer expectations. While hydroponic food production is already forbidden in the EU, the new regulations clarify instances where non-soil based, organic production is allowed such as in the production of ornamental plants, sprouted seeds, and herbs in pots. These allowances are justified in order to facilitate early growing stages of plants and in instances for which “no risk exists that the consumer is misled regarding the production method.”
Some EU countries, such as Denmark, Sweden and Finland, have been allowing the use of “demarcated beds in greenhouses” as organic, but in the agreement struck with Parliament, those countries will be given 10 years phase-out the practice. An interim report is required to be produced on the status of those greenhouses within 5 years. Similar to the situation in the Nordic countries, some US organic certification agencies have been acting independently in the absence of regulations, certifying hydroponic operations and creating their own rules with respect to the organic soil requirement. While some certifiers allow crops to be grown in an undefined “biodegradable substrate,” others do not. This has created confusion in the marketplace and angered many farmers and consumers who note that the text in the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 (OFPA) specifically states that farmers shall “foster soil fertility, primarily through the management of the organic content of the soil through proper tillage, crop rotation, and manuring.” It makes clear that soil health management is central to organic systems of production as evidenced by the detailed expectations of organic farmers in their annual organic crop and animal production system plan.
Other organic management practices strengthened by the new EU regulations include increasing data collection on organic seed and organic animal availability. The allowed use of conventional seeds and animals in organic production is scheduled to terminate by 2035, but that date could change depending upon the progress made. Mixed organic and conventional production by the same farmer will still be allowed, provided that the two systems of production are clearly delineated. To make it easier for small farmers to enter into organic farming, a group certification will be allowed. This issue has been raised on several occasions in the U.S. but has been rejected to date.
All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.
This entry was posted on Friday, April 27th, 2018 at 1:31 am and is filed under Agriculture, Alternatives/Organics, Hydroponics, National Organic Standards Board/National Organic Program, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Coalition for Sustainable Organics Continues Efforts to Ensure Participation of Containers and Hydroponics in the National Organic Program
Coalition for Sustainable Organics Continues Efforts to Ensure Participation of Containers and Hydroponics in the National Organic Program
TUCSON, ARIZONA - April 25, 2018 - Led by executive director Lee Frankel, the Coalition for Sustainable Organics (CSO), continued its advocacy efforts at the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) Spring meeting to ensure the National Organic Program remains open to producers using containers and hydroponic cultivation methods.
Frankel testified, “Comprised of growers big and small, we [the CSO] advocate for the continued allowance of containerized growing methods under the National Organic Program while enabling growers to select the most appropriate production system for their specific site and commodity needs.”
“In addition, the CSO was pleased to receive confirmation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that of the legal basis for these methods via Sections 6503 and 6512 of the Organic Foods Production Act,” stated Lee Frankel. “CSO has long argued that OFPA and the accompanying regulations do not prohibit containers and hydroponics from the organic program.”
“Thanks to USDA’s strong statement, producers can continue to meet the rising demand for fresh organic produce using a wide variety of environmentally sound and sustainable farming methods such as containers and hydroponics,” continued Frankel.
Following a presentation by Undersecretary Ibach on USDA efforts to increase organic integrity, members of the CSO as well as Frankel testified today in Tucson, Arizona at the meeting of the National Organic Standards Board to show continued support for efforts to further strengthen and clarify the USDA organic regulations and ensure integrity in the USDA Organic Seal.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Lee Frankel, Executive Director
The Coalition for Sustainable Organics
info@coalitionforsustainableorganics.org
619-587-4341
ScottsMiracle-Gro to Acquire Sunlight Supply Inc.
The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company a marketer of branded consumer lawn and garden as well as hydroponic growing products, has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of Sunlight Supply Inc., in a transaction that will greatly enhance the ability of SMG’s wholly-owned subsidiary,
ScottsMiracle-Gro to Acquire Sunlight Supply Inc.
The pending acquisition of the hydroponic distributor will benefit customers while driving growth and synergies that enhance shareholder value.
April 18, 2018
MARYSVILLE, Ohio, April 17, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PRESS RELEASE --
The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company a marketer of branded consumer lawn and garden as well as hydroponic growing products, has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of Sunlight Supply Inc., in a transaction that will greatly enhance the ability of SMG’s wholly-owned subsidiary, The Hawthorne Gardening Company, to meet the needs of the rapidly evolving hydroponic products marketplace, according to a press release.
The transaction will create a direct distribution model for Hawthorne that will service more than 1,800 hydroponic retail customers throughout the United States.
Hawthorne, which had 2017 sales of approximately $290 million, owns leading hydroponic brands such as Gavita, Botanicare, Can-Filters and General Hydroponics. Sunlight Supply is the largest distributor of hydroponic products in the United States. Within the last year, Sunlight opened a state-of-the-art 350,000-square-foot distribution center in Vancouver, Wash., and has eight other distribution facilities across North America.
Among the many benefits of the transaction, Hawthorne will possess the most technologically advanced supply chain in the hydroponic supply industry. By being able to ship directly, Hawthorne will have greatly enhanced relationships with hydroponic retailers, giving it greater visibility into current market trends, retail inventory levels and point-of-sale data that will allow it to operate more effectively.
“We are creating a game-changing moment for ScottsMiracle-Gro, for Hawthorne, the hydroponic products industry and the users of our products,” said Jim Hagedorn, chairman, and CEO of ScottsMiracle-Gro. “Combining Hawthorne’s industry-leading product portfolio with Sunlight’s unparalleled distribution capabilities and complementary portfolio will benefit consumers and all stakeholders in the hydroponic marketplace. It reinforces our confidence in the future of this industry and takes Hawthorne to a new level as a business with unique competitive advantages.”
Transaction details and financial implications
In fiscal 2017, Sunlight Supply recorded sales of approximately $460 million and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of approximately $55 million. On a combined basis, Hawthorne and Sunlight Supply are expected to have combined annualized sales of approximately $600 million. About 20 percent of Sunlight’s current sales come from distributing Hawthorne’s products and are therefore excluded from the annualized estimate. Additionally, both businesses are expected to see unit volume declines in 2018 due to a temporary disruption to the California marketplace.
In fiscal 2018, the transaction is expected to be dilutive by $0.30 to $0.40 per share on a non-GAAP adjusted basis. The dilution is attributable to the timing of the expected close of the deal, non-cash purchase accounting adjustments including amortization, increased deal costs, and increased interest expense.
Upon completion of the transaction, which is expected by June 1, the Company is launching an initiative it is calling ‘Project Catalyst,’ which calls for Hawthorne to achieve no less than $35 million in financial synergies by the end of fiscal 2019. The company expects to incur approximately $15-20 million in restructuring charges to achieve those synergies. Benefits from the transaction are expected to improve year-over-year non-GAAP adjusted earnings by $0.60 to $0.80 per share in fiscal 2019.
The company has set a goal for Hawthorne to achieve segment profit of approximately $120 million and operating profit margin of 17 to 18 percent by the end of fiscal 2020.
“We have been deliberate in the steps we’ve taken thus far in creating the Hawthorne portfolio and made sure not to disrupt the marketplace as we’ve grown,” Hagedorn said. “The pending acquisition of Sunlight Supply now gives us the green light to aggressively optimize the businesses we’ve acquired and create a more efficient business that better serves the needs of consumers and our customers and drives value for our shareholders.”
Terms of the transaction call for ScottsMiracle-Gro to pay $425 million in cash and $25 million in SMG equity to Sunlight Supply upon completion of the deal. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, will be financed using the Company’s existing credit facility. ScottsMiracle-Gro expects to have a debt-to-adjusted EBITDA ratio slightly above 4.0 times at the completion of the transaction.
“We are extremely pleased with the financial terms of the transaction,” said Randy Coleman, chief financial officer for ScottsMiracle-Gro. “The synergies from combining the businesses makes the transaction even more financially attractive. However, purchase accounting adjustments, deal costs, and financing costs from the deal will trigger a leverage ratio higher than our previously stated goals. Because we believe a leverage ratio of 3.5 times is appropriate for our business, we will focus on returning to that level by the end of fiscal 2019. This will likely slow our share repurchase efforts for the next several quarters, although we have not changed our long-term commitment to return cash to shareholders.”
ScottsMiracle-Gro will release complete financial results for its fiscal second quarter on May 1 and expects to provide a detailed overview of the expected impact of the Sunlight Supply transaction on its 2018 financial guidance. The company currently expects it will announce that Hawthorne segment sales declined approximately 30 percent in the second quarter, including the impact of past acquisitions. The Company also anticipates reporting a 5 percent decline in second-quarter sales for its U.S. Consumer segment as extremely unseasonable weather has delayed the start of the lawn and garden season in many key U.S. markets.
“The entire hydroponic industry continues to see pressure on sales due to the recent regulatory changes in California,” Hagedorn said. “We now expect the challenges in California to continue throughout the balance of fiscal 2018. Because our long-term optimism about this category is unchanged, however, we see no reason for these near-term challenges to delay the implementation of our strategy.”
Combination creates benefits for the hydroponic growing supply industry
The combination of Hawthorne and Sunlight Supply will create immediate benefits for consumers, retailers, and vendors throughout the hydroponic products industry. Upon completion of the acquisition, Hawthorne will have a fully vertically integrated operating model that will ship directly to retailers, providing unmatched capabilities in the industry. The Company believes the transaction will make Hawthorne the preferred distributor for the majority of other manufacturers in this space.
Synergies from the transaction will allow Hawthorne to invest in improved service, more attractive promotional programs for its retail partners, as well as benefit consumers with unique R&D efforts to improve the effectiveness of hydroponic growing products.
“In deciding to join forces with Hawthorne we were seeking a partner who shared our long-term optimism for this industry and was focused on further improving the experience for our retail dealers and current vendors,” said Craig Hargreaves, founder, and CEO of Sunlight Supply. “This is an innovative and smart combination that allows our industry to take a giant step forward and benefits consumers and all of Sunlight’s current stakeholders. We are truly excited to become part of the ScottsMiracle-Gro family and to partner with Hawthorne in creating the most important company in the hydroponic products industry.”
Business operations and leadership team
Hawthorne Gardening Co. will remain based in New York although significant operations will be consolidated in Vancouver, Washington, where Sunlight Supply is based and recently opened a world-class and fully automated manufacturing and distribution facility. Chris Hagedorn will continue to serve as general manager of Hawthorne. Doug Hargreaves, currently executive vice president at Sunlight Supply, is expected to be the lead of operations at Hawthorne upon completion of the deal. Craig Hargreaves is also expected to join ScottsMiracle-Gro in a highly visible capacity upon completion of the deal that allows him to influence Hawthorne’s long-term strategy.
“Craig and Doug Hargreaves are not just seasoned business operators, but are among the most respected people in the U.S. hydroponic industry today,” Hagedorn said. “Completing this deal was contingent on both of them joining our team. I welcome them and the entire Sunlight team as we begin this exciting new chapter.”
Wells Fargo Securities acted as financial advisor to ScottsMiracle-Gro in connection with this transaction.
Vermont Tomato Farmer Leads Defense of Organic Principles
Vermont Tomato Farmer Leads Defense of Organic Principles
SARAH PRIESTAP Dave Chapman
The weather forecast in East Thetford on a recent Friday called for snow flurries, but stepping into a greenhouse on Dave Chapman's Long Wind Farm evoked a very different season.
The air was warm and moist, and, as far as the eye could see, robust tomato plants climbed 11-foot guidelines toward the light. Their thick stalks dripped with crimson fruit that exploded summer-sweet and juicy in the mouth.
These are the sort of tomatoes that Vermonters expect to find on a farmers market stand in late July: fully ripe, with delicate skins that break easily to reveal richly hued flesh and rounded flavor. They're nothing like the big, pale, rubber ball-textured slicing tomatoes, or the pints of sweet but characterless grape tomatoes that are shipped these days thousands of miles to supermarkets year-round.
Long Wind Farm sells pints of multicolored, jewel-toned cherry tomatoes whose quirky, artist-designed labels describe them as grown in Vermont and certified organic. A grinning tomato raises its fists proudly over the slogan "Real tomatoes ... with real attitude!"
What the label doesn't currently specify is that Long Wind grows its tomatoes in soil. To Chapman and many organic farmers, that's a given. It's a foundational and non-negotiable principle of organic farming, they believe, that producing healthy food both requires and contributes to a healthy environment achieved by carefully managing the soil.
This is why Chapman believes that produce grown hydroponically — not in soil but in water — should be excluded from organic certification. And he's spent countless hours over the past few years trying to remedy what he and many other organic farmers see as egregious misinterpretation of USDA Organicseal standards. Right now, consumers might find that seal on tomatoes that sit beside Long Wind's in the organic produce section with no disclosure of their hydroponic cultivation.
For farms large and small, the right to use the label "organic" is crucial. In fact, the stakes could not be higher, economically and environmentally.
According to the North American membership-based Organic Trade Association, organic food sales in the United States reached $43 billion in 2016 and claimed more than 5 percent of total food sales. This reflects an 8.4 percent, or $3.3 billion, increase over the previous year, a rate that greatly surpassed the 0.6 percent growth rate in overall food sales.
Whether hydroponics are allowed to carry the organic seal affects the entire market, because they are generally less expensive to produce than their soil-grown equivalents. With organic certification, they are likely to undercut produce like Chapman's on price, leaving consumers with two apparently comparable options at different price points.
The hydroponic issue is at the center of a high-profile debate that has expanded into a full-out battle over the integrity of the National Organic Program, the federal regulatory body that oversees certification standards and their enforcement. Chapman has become a leader in the movement to uphold what he sees as the original intention of organic standards — even if that means creating a new add-on label to help consumers understand what they're buying.
Before organic-certified hydroponics came to his attention, "I wasn't very political," Chapman admitted. As he dug "deeper and deeper," he said, "I realized it was the tip of the iceberg."
It all comes down to consumer transparency, he believes.
In a December 21 Washington Post article headlined "Organic food fraud leads Congress to weigh bill doubling USDA oversight," Chapman was quoted as saying, "There are systemic problems ... This is not just a few bad eggs. Unfortunately, consumers have no idea what they're getting with 'USDA Organic' anymore."
"What they're growing is not more affordable organic," he told Seven Days, referring to hydroponic producers. "It's fraud."
Starting With Soil
Soil at Long Wind Farm SARAH PRIESTAP
Chapman, 65, has been an organic farmer for almost 40 years. He started out with a "classic Vermont mixed vegetable farm," as he described it. Then, in 1990, seeking a viable agricultural business that allowed for more family time, he decided to specialize in soil-grown, organic greenhouse tomatoes.
In one of his East Thetford greenhouses, a bumblebee buzzed through the verdant canopy as he knelt to gather a handful of moist, rich soil. "There are a lot of good things happening here," he said, pointing out wriggling worms, sow bugs and a fine tangle of white roots. "We're trying to feed the life in the soil. The basic principle of organic farming is to feed the soil, not the plant."
Long Wind now produces close to one million pounds of tomatoes annually in two and a half acres of state-of-the-art, soil-floored greenhouse structures. Over the years, Chapman has added more varieties — he's now up to about 10 — and has gradually extended the season longer into winter's dark and cold. This is the first winter he and his 25 employees have produced and sold tomatoes without interruption to restaurants and retailers throughout the Northeast and Pennsylvania.
Chapman is aware that not everyone thinks he should be growing tomatoes year-round in Vermont. He has had his doubts, too, he said, and almost scrapped it all at one point to grow spinach, which requires less energy. But he has worked hard to reduce the operation's environmental footprint, including transitioning to carbon-neutral energy sources. The farmer's current priority is replacing the propane he still uses with air-source heat pumps.
"We would have been a lot further along," he said ruefully, "without all this distraction."
Accidental Activist
The mild-mannered farmer and tai chi instructor seems almost surprised to find himself in the national spotlight.
Chapman cofounded the Keep the Soil in Organic movement in 2013 with fellow organic farmer David Miskell of Charlotte, when it became clear that the USDA was allowing organic certification of hydroponics.
They saw that leniency as a direct contradiction of the text of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, which was championed by U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and legislated the establishment of the National Organic Program and the USDA Organic seal. That act specifies that "an organic plan shall contain provisions designed to foster soil fertility."
In 2012, Chapman recalled, he began to notice "a lot of cheap, pretty tomatoes from Mexico in the stores." He learned from research that they were being raised hydroponically: grown in water or, in some cases, in other non-nutritive material such as coconut husk fiber, and receiving all necessary nutrients through a prepared solution. Such produce did not have to be labeled hydroponic, according to U.S. regulations.
Chapman doesn't deny that hydroponic tomatoes have hurt his business in the past — although, he noted, it has since rebounded. He is also careful to state that he is not against hydroponic agriculture in general. "Whether you like hydro or not, it's here," he said. But he believes that, if produce isn't grown in the earth, "it's just not organic. They should come up with their own label for it."
For organic farmers who believe in the broader benefits of a soil-based food system to humans and the Earth, the lower cost of hydroponic produce poses a risk they cannot ignore.
"The worst-case scenario is, we are silent and all of the tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, basil and berries will be hydroponic and nobody knows," Chapman said. "In that process, we will lose all the real organic producers, just like what is happening with smaller organic dairies trying to compete with the huge CAFOs [concentrated animal feeding operations]."
And, Chapman concluded, in the end, "Eaters will lose, because they won't have a choice to buy real soil-grown organic."
Starting with a simple petition five years ago, Chapman propelled hundreds of organic farmers, environmentalists and other organic food and agriculture supporters into action. He helped draw demonstrators to rallies in Vermont, California and even Costa Rica, and he led the charge to gather more than 100,000 signatures urging the USDA to "keep the soil in organic."
But the movement suffered a crushing defeat last November in Jacksonville, Fla., at a meeting of the National Organic Standards Board. The 15-member citizen advisory board includes organic farmers, processors, environmentalists and consumer advocates appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to make recommendations to the USDA National Organic Program.
In an eight-to-seven vote, the board declined to make a recommendation to prohibit hydroponic organic certification, effectively supporting the continued certification of both hydroponic and aquaponic farming operations that, according to Chapman and others, had sneaked in under the radar over the years.
Changing Standards
Long Wind Farm tomatoes
SARAH PRIESTAP
Proponents of hydroponics — or, as they prefer to call it, "containerized growing" — hailed the NOSB vote as a victory for increased availability of organic food grown using diverse methods. They point out that hydroponics are grown with only organic inputs, such as pesticides and fertilizers approved by the National Organic Program, sometimes in settings where soil growing might not be an option.
But many in the organic farming community, such as Chapman and his mentor, Eliot Coleman, say this practice misses the point completely. To embrace hydroponics is to define "organic" solely as the absence of synthetic inputs, rather than recognizing the positive contributions that soil-based organic agriculture can make to overall environmental health.
"Fertile soil is the cornerstone of organic farming," declared Coleman, a Maine farmer, writer and organic leader. "It's just ridiculous to say it isn't necessary."
Coleman also pointed out that good soil management has always been specified in the USDA's organic standards. "The thing that has caused all of this is not the USDA standards," he said. "It's that the USDA has decided not to enforce them."
The National Organic Program is not legally bound to act on the recommendations of the NOSB, except for those related to the national list of allowable ingredients in organic food. (Even that requirement was recently thrown into question by a precedent-setting USDA decision to permit carrageenan in organic processed foods despite a previous NOSB vote against it.) Still, for those fighting against organic hydroponic certification, the November vote was devastating.
The bigger picture is troubling, too. A series of Washington Post investigative articles last year made credible allegations regarding noncompliance with certification standards by specific large organic dairy and egg operations. The stories also revealed that some of the organic imports flowing in increasing volume from as far away as China were receiving fraudulent certifications from USDA-accredited bodies.
On top of those broader organic certification enforcement issues, the USDA announced in March that it would withdraw the strengthened organic animal-welfare standards that passed during the Obama administration but had yet to be enforced. The USDA press release on the decision cites the growth of the industry under existing organic livestock and poultry regulations, an "approach that balances consumer expectations with the needs of organic producers and handlers."
One thing many consumers expect is low prices. And hydroponic agriculture can deliver them.
What's Wrong With Hydroponic?
From the perspective of some, nothing. Just ask Dave Hartshorn, who has worked on both sides. For the last 25 years, the Waitsfield farmer has raised vegetables and berries organically on 20 acres at his Hartshorn Organic Farm. He's also in his sixth year as a partner in a half-acre hydroponic farm.
The labels of Green Mountain Harvest Hydroponic's lettuce, basil and other greens clearly state they are grown hydroponically. (The watercress, Hartshorn noted, grows naturally in water.) Hartshorn said he uses many of the same organic-approved production inputs and methods on his hydroponic crops that he does on his soil-based outdoor acreage, but he and his partners have no plans to seek organic certification for the hydroponic products.
"It hasn't been our fight, and we don't want it to be our fight," he said.
Hartshorn's goal as a farmer has always been "to produce a crop people want in the safest possible way." It's getting harder and harder, he said, to farm sustainably outdoors with climate extremes such as more frequent flooding and severe hail, as well as new pests. Last year was his worst year ever farming outdoors, he said, and tighter food-safety and water quality-protection regulations "make it even harder."
"We're hedging our bets," Hartshorn said. He believes hydroponic has real potential, affording protection from climate fluctuation and pests, and promising year-round production that enables him to offer steady, better-paying jobs.
With solar-powered electricity and a biomass heating unit, the hydroponic operation produces 20 times the revenue from one-half acre that his soil-grown organic crops do from 20 acres. Green Mountain Harvest Hydroponic currently supports 10 full-time, year-round employees. Hartshorn and his business partners looked into greenhouse growing in soil, he said, but it just didn't produce the numbers. "We need to make a living farming," he added.
Both ways of farming "have their own merit," Hartshorn said. "I'm proud of my organic produce, and I'm proud of my partnership that produces hydroponics."
As for the organic farmers who would ban hydroponics from organic certification, "I respect those guys. I know how it is," he said. "I hate to see a fight between farmers. We're all trying to do the best we can here in Vermont."
A New Label
Long Wind Farm tomatoes SARAH PRIESTAP
At the end of March, Chapman chaired a two-day meeting at Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee with nearly two dozen organic farmers and others involved in organic agriculture. They had traveled from around the country to hash out standards for a new, independently managed add-on label to the existing USDA Organic certification.
The group has dubbed itself the Real Organic Project, but its label will have a different name, currently under development.
Like the USDA seal, it will be awarded to producers who pass an inspection by a program-accredited, independent certifying organization, such as the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont, which is also currently one of about 80 USDA organic certifiers. To qualify, farmers must first be certified USDA Organic.
The additional label will go beyond the hydroponic issue to represent core organic principles that Real Organic Project members believe the federal program has abandoned or ignored. Those principles include committing to growing produce in the ground and giving animals real access to pasture, as well as prohibiting CAFOs.
Iowa crop and dairy farmer Francis Thicke is on the standards board for the new effort. He also recently completed a five-year term as one of the 15 appointed volunteers on the NOSB, where he voted against certifying hydroponics last November. Thicke has been an organic farmer for 30 years, holds a PhD in soil fertility and served as national program leader for soil science for the USDA Extension service.
"To be clear," Thicke told Seven Days, "the Real Organic Project is not about abandoning the National Organic Program. This is an add-on organic certification."
"Much of the NOP certification program is still sound and reliable," he said. "For example, the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances has been carefully vetted by the NOSB over many years."
The new label, Thicke explained, "will cover areas that the NOP has failed to set rigorous standards for, or where it has refused to adequately enforce existing NOP standards."
As a result, he continued, "Consumers have no easy way of knowing if organic tomatoes on the grocery store shelf are hydroponic, or if organic dairy products are from dairy CAFOs. [Our] label will give consumers the option of selecting organic food that has been produced in accord with real organic farming methods."
Chapman and others involved in the Real Organic Project are not without their critics, even within the old guard.
Among them is Grace Gershuny of Barnet, a longtime organic proponent who worked at the USDA on the original standards. Advocating for another set of standards, she said, "is like shooting yourself in the foot."
Gershuny argues that the overall goal should be to encourage production of as much organic food as possible, not to complain about one type of production that only applies to some crops, or worry about a few bad actors who aren't following the rules.
"What we're talking about is a subset of greenhouse production. Soil is important, and it will continue to be important for the vast majority of what is produced organically," Gershuny said, noting that the crops that cover the most acreage, such as wheat, corn and soy, are not suitable for hydroponic cultivation.
"The organic label can't fix all the problems in our food system," Gershuny said. What people really need to do is "fight like hell to change the way farm policy is structured."
Despite the growth in organic food sales, Gershuny pointed out, only about 1 percent of total global agricultural land is devoted to organics.
Part of the pushback is against "corporate large-scale versus righteous small-scale," she believes, "but that horse left the barn a long time ago. We need those [corporate] guys to be organic. We need to convert as many acres of land to organic production as soon as possible. Those farms are still doing better than conventional."
Shotgun Marriage
If organic advocates don't always agree with one another, the relationship between the organic farming movement and the USDA has always been uneasy, too.
Coleman of Maine was among many farmers who felt skeptical about allowing the federal government to define organic farming after passage of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990.
"A lot of people were just blown away that the great USDA was paying attention to organic," Coleman said. "But I knew back then that, the minute you define organic in the law, you open it up to people trying to undercut it."
It took more than a decade for the USDA to develop standards and set up a system for enforcing them. The USDA Organic seal set the first consistent national criteria for production and processing of domestic and imported organic foods. Prior to that, states had their own organic programs with different requirements.
The original legislation also called for the creation of the NOSB. Its founding chair was Michael Sligh, a farmer and now director of the Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA's sustainable agriculture program, based in Pittsboro, N.C. "We knew we needed to balance authority and share power," he said. "It was a public-private partnership from the beginning, but it was always a shotgun marriage."
Over the years, many of the old organic guard noted that the smaller-scale organic farming voice on the NOSB declined with the growth of organic and the rise of larger producers and processors.
"There's a lot more politics and money involved — all these other forces influencing how people vote," said Enid Wonnacott, executive director of NOFA-VT, where she has worked for 31 years. "Many members have felt powerless. The system kind of lost honor."
In addition, Wonnacott and Sligh said, loss of funding and staff have weakened the National Organic Program itself. "There is definite lack of USDA leadership and oversight and credibility," Sligh said.
"This was happening before Trump," Wonnacott noted, "but it's gotten worse."
Both Sligh and Wonnacott are working with the Real Organic Project, but they each admit to concerns about the delicate navigation of launching a new add-on label.
"If this wasn't the fastest-growing market in agriculture, we wouldn't be here," said Sligh, referring to sales of organic foods. The question is, he added, "how do we grow the market while protecting the integrity?"
Through his rural development job, Sligh works with many farmers around the globe for whom the U.S. is their single largest market. "These coffee farmers and banana farmers, for the first time in their lives, have a good market," he said. "They are still benefiting from organic."
"In a perfect world, we would try to fix the USDA label and not add another label," Sligh said. "I don't want to abandon the vast majority of farmers for whom [the USDA Organic label] is working, or cause harm to the thousands of farmers who are out there following the letter of the law — or further confuse consumers who will just throw their hands up in the air."
Wonnacott agreed that the decision to create an add-on set of standards has not been an easy or simple one. It's been giving her flashbacks to the '90s, when she was involved in helping develop the federal organic standards. "It feels a bit like [the movie] Groundhog Day," she said.
"What we don't want to have happen is two classes of organic farmers," Wonnacott said. "It's hard to create a new label that's better than X without throwing X under the bus."
Standing for Consumers
Compromised as the federal organic label may be, it's still worth defending, in the view of Charlotte Vallaeys, a senior policy analyst for Consumers Union, the advocacy division of Consumer Reports. She appreciates that farmers are standing up for the transparent, meaningful organic program that she believes consumers deserve.
"The Real Organic Project came out of multiple serious problems with the USDA organic program," Vallaeys said. "Those problems shouldn't be ignored. The problem is with the USDA; it's with the big certifiers and producers who are ignoring the standards."
Vallaeys and her colleagues actively work to defend what they believe are strong consumer labels. While the USDA Organic label has "taken hits," Vallaeys conceded, "we as an organization feel that the organic label is still a meaningful label, a very strong one, and that its integrity is worth protecting."
Through its national surveys of consumer behavior, Consumers Union has gained insight into the reasons why people buy organic, Vallaeys said. Along with the main driver of protecting their own and their family's health, more than half of consumers who said they buy organic often or always think about how animals are treated. About half think about the environmental impacts of food production.
"It's a very good label because it has meant so many things," Vallaeys said. "It's not just 'no pesticides, no antibiotics.'"
One result is particularly relevant to the hydroponic debate. The Consumers Union 2018 food-label survey showed that a majority of those who buy organic regularly said they expect organic-labeled food to have been grown in well-managed soil by farmers who protected its health. "And that's because that's in the [organic] standards," Vallaeys said.
For labels to matter, she added, it's critical that they stay consistent over time. They can get stronger — as would have happened if the Obama-era animal-welfare standards had been implemented — but they should never get weaker.
Regarding the proposed add-on label, Vallaeys said it could be beneficial given the issues with the USDA Organic label. There are already many add-on labels such as "certified humane" and "fair trade," she pointed out.
"In an ideal world, you'd be able to say to consumers, 'The absolute gold standard, the one label to look for that just captures everything that's good about how we want food to be produced in this country, is USDA Organic,'" Vallaeys said. "That would be lovely, but that's not happening. So the next best thing is add-on labels."
More Choices
Dave Chapman SARAH PRIESTAP
The past month has been especially busy for Dave Chapman, who really would prefer to get back to growing tomatoes. He estimated that he has spent more than 50 hours a week working on the new standards for the add-on label, as well as talking with the media, sending out detailed updates to his mailing list of several thousand, and flying to Washington, D.C., for congressional meetings as a policy committee member for the Organic Farmers Association. That's a lobbying group sponsored by the Rodale Institute.
"I was up at 3:30 this morning thinking about it all," Chapman said with a weary smile. "But this will pass. We're going to hire an executive director."
The Rodale Institute is also working on its own add-on label, called the Regenerative Organic Certified label, built around standards of soil health, animal welfare and fairness regarding the health and safety of farm workers.
"They're beautiful. They're the North Star," Chapman said of the regenerative standards, "but almost no farmer I know qualifies."
The labor standards, he noted, are very tough to meet, as are tillage requirements for many vegetable farmers.
The standards that the Real Organic Project team is developing, he said, are what the USDA Organic label should be — with stronger animal-welfare requirements and explicit prohibition of hydroponic cultivation. That isn't to say farmers should not aim higher, but it sets a higher floor to start. With the current USDA label, he said, "The floor has dropped so low that it's become subterranean.
"We need a platform everyone can stand on," Chapman continued. "All we're going for is transparency. It's not going to change the world, but at least [our label] will give people the information to make choices."
Manhita Farms Seeks Extension On Lease Of Government Land
Manhita Farms Seeks Extension On Lease Of Government Land
By Clynt Ridgell - April 10, 2018
Guam – A locally owned company called Manhita Farms is seeking a 76-year extension on what is essentially a rent-free lease from the Guam Economic Development Authority through bill 256.
The measure that was introduced by Senator Tom Ada would extend the current leasehold on 50 acres in Dededo that was previously foreclosed upon by GEDA and eventually leased to Manhita Farms. Bill 256 would extend this lease to Manhita Farms for 26 years with up to five renewal options of ten years each or an additional 50 years. The measure would essentially extend the current lease which has 24 years left on it for a 100 years. Manhita Farms is seeking this extension in order to get loans to build more infrastructure on the farm. According to the bill loans like this typically require that the lease exceed the term of the loan by ten years.
The bill would also allow Manhita Farms to sublease the property. Manhita Farms has not been paying rent on the lease because it was offset by the large amount of money they have invested into the property. The current way the rent is calculated essentially allows for money invested into the property to be deducted.
“So now you’ve got this plan and in order for this plan to work you need to extend the term beyond what the clear intent of the original lease was,” said Senator Mary Torres adding, “So you not only will pay no rent for the remainder of the land lease agreement as is signed but you also have now the opportunity under this bill to sublease and collect revenue from that? Doesn’t that seem like quite a very good accommodation for your company?”
“We never entered this thinking we were gonna get any more than 26 years and if this body feels that the sustainability and food safety of this island isn’t an important factor we’re fine. We’ll stick to our 26 years and we won’t put another dime into it. Because we can’t go out and invest 8 million dollars with not enough time to recover our money. I wanna be clear that if the good senators feel that this is not worth the time for Guam or you feel that the government is not deriving enough revenue I think just being sustainable in itself is enough benefit for this island,” said Manhita Farms owner John Limtiaco.
Manhita Farms has plans to develop an egg farm as well as indoor vertical hydroponic farming on the property.
Hydroponic Farm Plans To Grow On Reclaimed Mine Site In Eastern Kentucky
An indoor farming company plans to invest $44 million to grow produce on the site of a reclaimed mine in eastern Kentucky.
Hydroponic Farm Plans To Grow On Reclaimed Mine Site In Eastern Kentucky
By RYAN VAN VELZER • APR 2, 2018
CREDIT CREATIVE COMMONS
An indoor farming company plans to invest $44 million to grow produce on the site of a reclaimed mine in eastern Kentucky.
Hydroponic Farms USA says it will bring 121 jobs to the region, which has seen rising unemployment with the decline of eastern Kentucky’s coal industry.
Hydroponic Farms USA spokesman Trevor Terry said investors chose to build on the site of a former mine in Breathitt County for two reasons. First, the large, flat space the former mine provided was perfect for a large indoor growing operation.
Second, Terry said investors made it part of their mission to bring prosperity back to an economically depressed region.
“Somebody said to me the other day that eastern Kentucky kept the lights on for a long time and now they are going to feed the world and I think that’s a fantastic way of looking at it,” he said.
The indoor farming company plans to build a 42-acre facility that will use hydroponic and aeroponic technology to grow leafy greens, tomatoes, peppers and other produce, Terry said.
Gov. Matt Bevin said the move is “wonderful news for eastern Kentucky.”
“We are truly grateful for this vote of confidence in the commonwealth,” he said. “Hydroponic Farms USA will be a great fit for the Jackson community, and continues the economic momentum that is building in eastern Kentucky.”
The farm will be second of its kind in Kentucky for Oz Agribusiness Projects and Investments Ltd., who formed a partnership with Green Ag Technologies LLC to manage and operate the facility.