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US: Little Leaf Farms Doubling Hydroponic, Greenhouse-Growing Operations in MA In 2020
In 2016, Little Leaf Farms opened its doors in Devens, Massachusetts and sent its first truck of fresh baby greens off to grocery stores in New England, and they haven’t stopped since
For many business owners, Paul Sellew has a good problem to solve. The founder and chief executive officer of Little Leaf Farms is producing one million boxes of fresh greenhouse-grown baby green lettuce a month, delivered to every major supermarket chain in New England usually within 24 hours, year-round, and demand cannot keep up with supply.
In 2016, Little Leaf Farms opened its doors in Devens, Massachusetts and sent its first truck of fresh baby greens off to grocery stores in New England, and they haven’t stopped since. New Englanders can’t get enough of the sustainably grown, pesticide free, crispy baby lettuce.
Demand has increased so much that Little Leaf Farms will double its growing capacity in May 2020 to 10 acres in Devens and will expand distribution to New York and New Jersey’s major supermarket chains. Little Leaf Farms also plans to break ground in the Eastern Pennsylvania region on a 20-acre greenhouse to supply stores locally, followed by another 20-acre greenhouse located in Western North Carolina to extend distribution of its signature locally-grown lettuce that has a devoted – some would say cult-like -- following among consumers in New England. Each acre of greenhouse will yield 25 times that of lettuce grown on an outdoor farm. To support this expansion, Bank of America has stepped in with over $18 million of financing today, to be followed by another $20 million to help finance the company’s growth.
“We are changing the way food is grown in New England and changing consumer expectations for fresh produce in this part of the world. And after becoming the number one lettuce brand in New England in just two years, we know there is tremendous opportunity to expand to new geographies and feed families, a fresher, cleaner, more nutritious lettuce than what they can buy today,” Sellew said. Little Leaf Farms is a great business success story.
Little Leaf Farms grows lettuce hydroponically with great efficiency. The company uses 100 percent captured rainwater and utilizes advanced fertilization and irrigation systems that use 90 percent less water than field-grown greens so there is no depletion of groundwater reserves. With the nation’s dual problem of farming issues that are a result of climate change and growing population demands, Little Leaf Farms has a model growing method that brings year-round sustainable farming to New England and the East Coast with a smaller carbon footprint. “California is a state without a lot of water, yet that’s where most of our nation’s lettuce is being grown,” Sellew says. “That’s unsustainable.”
Growing locally and shipping within 24 hours to local stores adds to their efficiency. No human hands ever touch the lettuce as its grown safely, with less risk of contamination. As Little Leaf Farms expands, Sellew said they are also looking at growing new varieties of lettuce.
“We’ve been in an over-demand situation for 18 months,” said Little Leaf Farms’ co-founder Tim Cunniff. “Customers tell us all the time that this is the best lettuce out there. It’s the freshest. It’s the tastiest. It’s the safest. It’s grown the most sustainably. It will last the longest in your refrigerator, and it’s a good price value.”
For more information:
Little Leaf Farms
P.O. Box 2069
Devens, MA 01434
844-LIL-LEAF (844-545-5323)
info@LittleLeafFarms.com
www.littleleaffarms.com
Publication date: Mon 23 Dec 2019
United Fresh 2020 To Feature Inaugural Controlled-Environment Pavilion
To support this growing category of indoor agriculture, the United Fresh Produce Association has joined forces with the Controlled Environment Agriculture Food Safety Coalition (CEA Food Safety Coalition) on a Controlled Environment Pavilion.
By Bridget Goldschmidt - 12/26/2019
Indoor agriculture methods such as hydroponic greenhouses have seen rapid growth over the past few years
To support this growing category of indoor agriculture, the United Fresh Produce Association has joined forces with the Controlled Environment Agriculture Food Safety Coalition (CEA Food Safety Coalition) on a Controlled Environment Pavilion. The new pavilion on the United 2020 expo floor will bring together growers, companies offering tools and technologies for indoor production, and thought leaders helping to grow the farming method.
“We’re pleased to collaborate with United Fresh in hosting this new pavilion,” said Marni Karlin, executive director of the coalition, a member-governed group whose mission is to develop credible, strong, and appropriate food safety standards; educate consumers and regulators on controlled-environment growing; and communicate the value of this type of agriculture. “Our members are pioneering new production models in fresh produce, and we look forward to the opportunity to engage with participants at the United Fresh event – to share perspectives and create an opportunity for conversation across the entire supply chain.”
Among the members of the CEA Food Safety Coalition are BrightFarms, AeroFarms, Plenty, Little Leaf Farms, Revol Greens and Bowery.
The pavilion will feature a discussion area where thought leaders can discuss current issues and growth opportunities for indoor agriculture, hydroponics, vertical farms and rapidly expanding greenhouse production. Retail and foodservice buyers can visit the pavilion to find out more about the category and meet with potential suppliers.
“From first-generation indoor farms growing tomatoes and cukes, to today’s innovators growing berries, leafy greens, microgreens, herbs and more, the Controlled Environment Pavilion is the place to meet with potential customers and service providers, and learn from experts in every phase of the business,” said Tom Stenzel, president and CEO of Washington, D.C.-based United Fresh, which represents companies across every segment of the fresh produce supply chain, including growers, shippers, fresh-cut processors, wholesalers, distributors, retailers, foodservice operators, industry suppliers and allied associations.
Growers and service providers may exhibit their products in stand-alone booths alongside the Controlled Environment Pavilion, or choose from 10-foot-by-10-foot in-line booths or kiosks within the pavilion.
United Fresh 2020 will take place June 16-19 in San Diego.
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Making Sense of The Terms In Vertical Farming
What exactly is vertical farming? I know that I picture stacked layers of plants sprouting in organized rows inside some big, bright warehouse
13 JUNE 2018
By Meghan Horvath, EUFIC
What exactly is vertical farming? I know that I picture stacked layers of plants sprouting in organized rows inside some big, bright warehouse.
Putting it all together
This isn’t quite wrong. Columbia emeritus professor Dickson Despommier is credited for making the term mainstream. His definition refers to a method of growing crops, “usually without soil or light, in beds stacked vertically inside a controlled-environment building.”1
Definitions certainly vary. The Vertical Farming Institute in Vienna defines VF as “agricultural production inside buildings, in the metropolitan areas of cities,” therefore often repurposing existing structures for use as vertical farming facilities.2
VF is primarily used for food production, but not exclusively as the process can be applied for horticulture purposes as well. Regardless, when reading about vertical farming, there are several terms that are often used interchangeably, making it hard to understand just what they describe. For clarity, we put into context the following key terms when discussing the topic of vertical farming.
An overview
Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA)
Vertical Farming
Hydroponics
Aquaponics
Aeroponics
Rooftop Farms
Indoor Plant Cultivation, Indoor Farming
Urban Agriculture, Microgreens
Why not familiarise yourself with the language, —we’ll also link terms within future blog posts back to this page to guide your reading and help when in need of a refresher.
Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA)
CEA is an umbrella term for the many ways of growing crops indoors.3 An easy way to look at it in the context of VF is that VF can use CEA technology. CEA includes greenhouse agriculture, vertical farms, and some rooftop farms.4 Plants are grown in a controlled environment using technology to ensure crops are growing under optimal conditions, which, in the most advanced forms is without the use of soil.
It is important to note the debate around energy consumption and the CO2 footprint of current CEA systems. Critics argue CEA is expensive and requires a high use of energy as artificial light must be created.5 However, this system also uses less water than traditional methods and allows year-round crop production and thus often higher crop yields.3
Vertical Farming (VF)
VF is a type of CEA and is considered a system of food production where crops are cultivated on vertically stacked levels in buildings.8
Predominantly, VF takes place without soil and natural sunlight. These resources are instead provided via the use of artificial lights and growth systems that give the crops the nutrients they need.9
In some cases one acre of vertical farming can provide the produce equivalent to between 10-20 acres of conventional agriculture.9 With climate change expected to pose a major issue for crop production due to increasing temperatures, carbon dioxide emissions, and severe weather events, vertical farming presents an alternative to existing farming methods that aims to address these issues.10
Critics of VF, however, see even greater increases in pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and argue against how expensive the technology is.10 From a climate standpoint, some argue that going vertical, sustainably, would require advances in renewable energy because of today’s high carbon cost due to light for vertically farmed crops.8
There are three growth systems you can use inside a Vertical Farm:
The first type of CEA is Hydroponics, a water-based growth system without soil in which a nutrient solution is pumped around reservoirs that plant roots grow directly into.6 This system is also widely used in greenhouses.
Next is Aquaponics, which is a combination of hydroponics and aquaculture, so plants grow in an aquatic environment with nutrients that come from aquatic species raised in tanks, i.e. fish.7
Next is Aeroponics, where plant roots grow not in a base of soil or water, but where a water and nutrient solution is sprayed directly onto them.5 The unabsorbed mist then condenses and returns to reservoir tanks to be used again, preventing the plants from becoming water-logged.3
Rooftop farms
The next type of CEA, rooftop farms are found to regulate building temperatures in New York City while using 75% less water than conventional farms.4 Within rooftop farms and VF as well, all production factors can be regulated as crops grow in a closed system.
This allows for a more self-sufficient, circular economy in which crops can grow faster and year-round, producing greater yields without harming more land by overuse and use of pesticides.10
Indoor Plant Cultivation
Indoor plant cultivation is a way to describe how CEA can allow for optimal growing conditions. This method arguably promotes food security by avoiding uncertainties in terms of climate and environmental factors, while making it possible to grow certain plants anywhere, even in cities.6
Indoor Farming
As Dickson Despommier, the Vertical Farming spokesman once said, “Nature will repair itself if you give it a chance, and indoor farming gives it that chance.” While land loss, overuse of pesticides and soil degradation is a serious, global issue, what is often overlooked in the discussions on VF is the very specific local, country and city contexts. Not all areas around the world have the same pressing issue of pesticide over-application, soil degradation and loss of agricultural land.
Urban Agriculture
Still, as the world’s population increases and people increasingly move to cities, our food system and conventional food production is feeling the pressure.13 Urban Agriculture or “the growing, processing, and distribution of food and other products through plant cultivation in and around cities for feeding local populations” is thus becoming a more viable option.4 Urban Ag can provide fresh food where people live, cutting down on food miles and often creating a true community of self-sufficient urban growers in the process. Urban Ag also may use less land, less water, and have less production loss to pests and diseases, while allowing for year-round crop production, as well as increased daylight hours or growing time per day.9
Critics point to the cost of this method and find it hard to alleviate food deserts when producing food in this way is so expensive. Are we not just making hipster food for yuppies? What should be kept in mind as well is that even if urban populations are rising, at present and in the future, many people will still live in rural areas – a factor often overlooked in discussions on sustainable, local food production. It’s important to note as well that there are a lot of crops that simply cannot be grown indoors, at least not yet.
Microgreens
Microgreens, lettuce and herbs, for instance, consist of the bulk of crops produced indoors with this technology.12 However, in a few years and with technology progression, other crops such as cucumbers or tomatoes could be grown at an affordable price. Therefore, indoor farming is not necessarily the solution to solving hunger in the face of a changing climate, but it may be a part of it.11
What do you think about these technologies? Will they become the norm? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below! Also watch for our next blog and series as part of our Cultivating Engagement project, where we’ll expand on how horticulture and agriculture fit into the conversation.
References
Frazier I (2017). The Vertical Farm. The New Yorker.
Vertical Farm Institute. What Is Vertical Farming?
FreshBox Farms (2016). Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA): More than Hydroponics. Medium.
Game I, Primus R (2015). Urban Agriculture. Sustainable Development UN.
Balch O (2018). This Swedish Indoor Urban Farm Wants To Revolutionize How We Live And Eat. Huffington Post.
Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (2012). About CEA.
European Commission. Aquaculture.
Schubert D, Vrakking V, Zeidler C (2013). Feasibility Study: Vertical Farm EDEN. ResearchGate.
Welsh Government (2018). Vertical Farming: A new future for food production? Business Wales.
Coyle B, Ellison B (2017). Will Consumers Find Vertically Farmed Produce “Out of Reach”? Choices Magazine. Agricultural & Applied Economics Association.
Caughill P (2018). Urban Farming Is the Future of Agriculture. Futurism.
Haspel T (2016). Will indoor, vertical farming help us feed the planet – or hurt it? The Washington Post.
FAO. Urban agriculture.
About The Author: Meghan Horvath
I graduated with a bachelor's degree in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and am now part of the Communications Team at the European Food Information Council (EUFIC). I began university as a Food Science major, but I found my skill set better suited communicating about food issues rather than scientifically researching them. Food has always been a main passion of mine and I look forward to my involvement in EIT Food Communications, including content creation for the Vertical Farming blog.
The industrialization of the agricultural sector has brought with it a large increase in the number of pesticides we use to protect plants and humans from various diseases. However, these same pesticides can also have a large number of negative health and environmental effects. In this video, entrepreneur Luca Speziga explains how his new technology can produce a completely natural fertilizer that is just as powerful as a chemical fertilizer.
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'This Is The Farming of The Future': The Rise of Hydroponic Food Labs
Needing no soil or sun, an underground farm in Liverpool challenges traditional methods
Needing no soil or sun, an underground farm in Liverpool challenges traditional methods
Farm Urban’s operations director, Jayne Goss, carries a strip of hydroponically grown lettuce.
Photograph: Joel Goodman/The Guardian
Nazia Parveen North of England correspondent @NParveenGT
26 Dec 2019
Beautifully arranged rows of bok choi, parsley, tarragon and basil alongside dozens of variety of lettuce grow together in harmony under the pink glow of an LED light in a former sugar factory.
Water infused with nutrients trickles on to the green towers, keeping the rosettes hydrated and fed. This is a technically advanced indoor vertical farm buried deep in a basement at a former Tate & Lyle warehouse and now the Liverpool Life Sciences UTC.
Two academics pooled their resources, recruited Ph.D. and master’s students and are growing food hydroponically in towers – an increasingly popular concept where salads and leafy greens are grown all year round under precise conditions in vertically stacked foam-filled beds without natural sunlight and soil.
The farm is the creation of Jens Thomas and Paul Myers, both with scientific backgrounds, who first met at a conference and then again at a Thai boxing class before deciding to work together. They founded Farm Urban in 2014.
Since then, they have installed systems across the city including at the University of Liverpool, Alder Hey children’s hospital and Ness Botanic Gardens and have carried out a range of public outreach activities.
Jayne Goss, left, technical director, Jens Thomas, and managing director, Paul Myers, in a skate park next to Liverpool Life Sciences UTC. Photograph: Joel Goodman/The Guardian
Their aim is to change our relationship with food: the traditional methods of agriculture, they say, and using acres of land is no longer sustainable. The world’s population is growing – the World Health Organization estimates it will have increased to 9.7 billion people by 2050, with 70% of people living in urban areas
To preserve natural habitats and improve worldwide food security there needs to be a complete overhaul of food production methods, say Thomas and Myers.
They are in precarious territory. Similar schemes have failed, including one in Greater Manchester. The Biospheric Foundation, based in a mill by the banks of the River Irwell in Salford, was supposed to be a state-of-the-art urban aquaponic farm, where fish waste provided the food source for growing plants, and the plants provided a natural filter for the water. Three years after the project opened, it went under more than £100,000 in debt, with the reputation of the whole scheme in tatters.
Can we ditch intensive farming - and still feed the world?
Such food production schemes face very real financial challenges. First, there are the costs that, if not carefully managed, could end up being astronomical. They are mainly associated with the energy use required to maintain a controlled environment and provide artificial light. There is the issue of the carbon footprint of using high amounts of energy amid efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There has also been criticism of the farms for being geared to producing only leafy greens and not higher-calorie crops.
Thomas and Myers insist their project is different. Their aims are hyperlocal – they want to start small and gear production in tandem with increasing commercial interest in their products. Their current vertical farm, which was shipped over from Canada, has been paid for by First Ark, a Knowsley-based social investment organization. The £150,000 funding is part-loan and part-grant.
Thomas and Myers are hoping to recoup some of the cash by selling salad boxes for £12.50 to individuals and businesses, with annual subscriptions costing £600. They have also launched a crowdfunding campaign, Greens for Good, where every box of greens bought by a local business supports a box of greens going to a local school. They have raised more than £17,000 of their £25,000 goal.
Jens Thomas stands between the rows of optimised LED lighting and vertical strips of vegetables growing on moveable racks. Photograph: Joel Goodman/The Guardian
Myers, 32, the son of a hairdresser and entrepreneur, became interested in food production while working on his Ph.D. at the National Cancer Institute. Billions are spent on drug research, but he feels there needs to be a more holistic approach to look at how diet and food quality can affect health.
“This is the farming of the future. Pesticide-free and moving from the traditional horse and tractor agriculture that is steadily destroying the planet to a more sustainable approach,” he says.
Myers is fully aware of the risks of his chosen career path. “Yes, I am a bit scared – we have taken on a huge debt – but we de-risked it as much as humanly possible and now it’s just a case of carrying on and working to make it work.
”He certainly has the backing of students Emmanuella Aul-Mku and Rhianna Ghalleb, both 14, who have seen firsthand the benefits of growing salad in vertical farms. Their school canteen upstairs serves salad from the farm and pupils are regularly invited into the basement to see the mechanics of the technologically advanced food production.
Ghalleb, who spent some of her childhood in Tunisia, and Aul-Mku in Nigeria, both come from families which grew their own vegetables and fruit in their back gardens.
“My nanna had olive trees and figs and I would do gardening with her all the time and help her grow things but we don’t do that here. We just go to Asda and buy our food in plastic packets – we don’t know what conditions it has been grown in – what has been used to help it grow,” says Ghalleb.
Aul-Mku agrees this reliance on supermarkets affects people’s relationship with food and thinks these new vertical farms could change that.
“We get to see it growing in front of us and that really makes a difference. If there were farms like this everywhere then people would be able to feel part of a community because they would all be growing food for each other,” she says.
LG's Herb Fridge Is A Full-Size Indoor Gardening Center
You've heard of wine and beer fridges, but what about an herb fridge? LG thinks this full-size greens grower will be the next big thing
You've heard of wine and beer fridges, but what about an herb fridge? LG thinks this full-size greens grower will be the next big thing.
December 25, 2019
When you think of growing herbs indoors (calm down, not that kind), most people image terra cotta pots lined neatly on a window sill. Smart indoor gardening has so far been predominantly gadget-size, like the countertop herb growing machines from MiracleGro and Click and Grow. Now, LG is taking on the green indoors with a full-size appliance in 2020. Today, the company announced an "indoor gardening appliance" and "indoor vegetable cultivator," tentatively called the LG Harvester, and plans to exhibit it at CES in January.
The built-in, column style refrigerator uses light, temperature and water controls to create the best environment for gardening in your kitchen. A non-circulating water supply system distributes the right amount of water for each plant type and prevents algae growth. Flexible modules replicate the best outdoor conditions by matching the temperature in the cabinet with the time of day. There are LED lights, forced air circulation, and a wick-based water management system.
The fridge will work with a line of all-in-one seed packages and with a monitoring app to keep watch over your garden from anywhere, manage settings and give you gardening tips along the way.
You'll be able to grow up to 24 seed packages of vegetables and herbs in one appliance. Each package contains seeds, peat moss, and fertilizer. Initial packages will include 20 varieties, including romaine, other types of lettuce, arugula, chicory, and basil.
Vertical farming, smart indoor planters, and micro-gardening are changing the way city dwellers pick their parsley. There are other herb fridge models, out there. Most are wine-fridge-size appointments, like the ones from Viking and Urban Cultivator.
This LG model certainly doesn't look space-saving, so you'll need to really love your leafy greens to be on board. Still, taking the garden full-size is an exciting idea.
United Fresh 2020 Launches Controlled Environment Pavilion
According to a press release, the CEA Food Safety Coalition is a new independent and member-governed coalition whose mission is to develop credible, strong, and appropriate food safety standards; educate consumers and regulators on controlled environment growing; and communicate the value of controlled environment agriculture
Dec. 23rd, 2019
WASHINGTON, DC - Right about now, everybody is experiencing the full swing of the holiday season, but that’s not slowing United Fresh down. The organization announced that it has teamed up with the Controlled Environment Agriculture Food Safety Coalition (CEA Food Safety Coalition) to launch a new Controlled Environment Pavilion at the United Fresh Convention & Expo. This new Pavilion was made to support the growing category of indoor growers and the commitment to drive innovation in fresh produce.
Tom Stenzel, President and CEO, United Fresh Produce Association
“From first-generation indoor farms growing tomatoes and cukes to today’s innovators growing berries, leafy greens, microgreens, herbs, and more, the Controlled Environment Pavilion is the place to meet with potential customers and service providers, and learn from experts in every phase of the business,” said United Fresh President and CEO Tom Stenzel.
According to a press release, the CEA Food Safety Coalition is a new independent and member-governed coalition whose mission is to develop credible, strong, and appropriate food safety standards; educate consumers and regulators on controlled environment growing, and communicate the value of controlled environment agriculture.
This year’s United Fresh Convention & Expo will feature a Controlled Environment Pavilion, sponsored by the Controlled Environmental Agricultural Food Safety Coalition (CEA Food Safety Coalition)
Marni Karlin, Executive Director of the CEA Food Safety Coalition
“We’re pleased to collaborate with United Fresh in hosting this new pavilion,” said Marni Karlin, Executive Director of the CEA Food Safety Coalition. “Our members are pioneering new production models in fresh produce, and we look forward to the opportunity to engage with participants at the United Fresh event—to share perspectives and create an opportunity for conversation across the entire supply chain.”
Members of the CEA Food Safety Coalition include BrightFarms, AeroFarms, Plenty, Little Leaf Farms, Revol Greens, and Bowery. The Pavilion will feature a discussion area where thought leaders will share perspectives on current issues and growth opportunities for indoor ag, hydroponics, vertical farms, and rapidly expanding greenhouse production. Retail and foodservice buyers can visit the pavilion to learn more about the category and meet with potential suppliers.
For more innovative opportunities happening in the produce world, keep reading ANUK.
Trade Association United Fresh Produce Association Controlled Environment Agriculture Food Safety Coalition Innovation Launch Partnership Expo Feature New Feature Discussion Trade Show Event New Partner Marni Karlin Tom Stenzel
Meet Angus: A Robotic Field Hand For The Autonomous Farming Revolution
Angus rolls through the Iron Ox warehouse hoisting trays into position for robotic-arms that can plant crops, add nutrients, transplant crops as they grow, harvest and ultimately package their bounty
The farm robot is part of Iron Ox’s aim to build hyper-efficient farms in the urban centers where most food is consumed.
By Carl Engelking December 23, 2019
Angus in action. (Credit: Iron Ox)
For centuries, farmers cajoled Earth’s bounty with oxen and plow. But eventually, grass-fed power gave way to steel workhorses fueled by steam and diesel — and a new era of agricultural efficiency followed. Now, rays of light from a new agricultural dawn are splintering the bucolic horizon: autonomous indoor farms tended by fleets of robots connected to hyper-efficient agro-hiveminds.
For a glimpse at this new twist on the farm workhorse, look no further than Iron Ox’s robotic farmhand nicknamed Angus. Angus’ job on the “farm” — a warehouse in Silicon Valley, technically — is to transport 1,000-pound trays of leafy greens growing in a perfectly-balanced hydroponic bath. Angus rolls through the Iron Ox warehouse hoisting trays into position for robotic-arms that can plant crops, add nutrients, transplant crops as they grow, harvest and ultimately package their bounty.
But Angus isn’t really “Angus” the individual. Rather, Angus is just one appendage of an entire robotic-software-sensor system controlled by “The Brain.” It’s a central computer that monitors the entire operation, from Angus’ next move to the nitrogen levels in tray 2. It’s all part of Iron Ox’s aim to build hyper-efficient farms in the urban centers where most food is consumed.
By locating autonomous farms closer to consumption, you already cut down on the fuel and labor costs needed to get plants from point A to B. But Iron Ox isn’t doing too bad on the productivity side, either. Their farm, on a foot-to-foot comparison, is about five times as productive as a traditional farm.
That’s because Iron Ox monitors every single facet of the growing cycle. Plants are given just the right amount of space, sun (the warehouse allows natural light in) and nutrients to grow. Because computers can run 24/7, the plants are constantly monitored and conditions adjusted to optimize growth. With the aid of machine learning algorithms, every additional crop improves the ability of “The Brain” to grow the next crop. Of course, it also helps that Angus doesn’t need to eat, sleep or collect a wage for his labor.
Iron Ox isn’t the only enterprise taking autonomous, robotic farming to the city. There are now dozens of startups putting their vision of urban farming to the test, and indoor farming is expected to be a $40 billion industry within a decade. Some are vertical farms that bathe walls of plants in LED lights. Aquaponic farms raise fish and veggies in a circular system: the fish poop and feed the plants, and the plants filter the water for the fish. But even old-school farms are getting a hand from robotic labor.
While there’s a lot of buzz about autonomous vehicles on highways, it’s the endless rows of farm fields that will likely first play host to widespread autonomous vehicle operations.
Already, precision-ag giants like John Deere are testing autonomous planters, sprayers and harvesters that chart daily routes and interventions based on data gathered by self-directed drones flying over fields and other real-time sensors. Indeed, though tractors still rule the farm, their days of dominance may be numbered.
16 Initiatives Changing Urban Agriculture Through Tech And Innovation
The United Nations estimates that nearly 10 billion people will be living in cities by 2050.
The United Nations estimates that nearly 10 billion people will be living in cities by 2050. According to a recent publication by the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition, urban eaters consume most of the food produced globally and maintain more resource-intensive diets including increased animal-source and processed foods—rich in salt, sugar, and fats. At the same time, many urban populations—particularly in low-income areas and informal communities—endure acute hunger and malnutrition as well as limited access to affordable, healthy food.
But there are countless ways that cities can feed themselves and create better linkages between rural and urban food systems. In Mexico City, the organization CultiCiudad built the Huerto Tlatelolco, an edible forest with 45 tree varieties, a seed bank, and plots for biointensive gardening. In the United States, City Growers uses New York City’s urban farms as a learning laboratory for children to reconnect with nature. And in the Kalobeyei Settlement in northern Kenya, urban agriculture represents a tool for empowerment by improving food security, nutrition, and self-sufficiency among refugees.
“Agriculture and forestry in the city… answer to a variety of urban development goals beyond the provision of green infrastructure and food, such as social inclusion, adaptation to climate change, poverty alleviation, urban water management, and opportunities for the productive reuse of urban waste,” says Henk de Zeeuw, Senior Advisor at the RUAF Foundation.
And thankfully, there are hundreds of entrepreneurs and organizations using this opportunity to improve urban agriculture and satisfy the demands of an increasingly urban population. From high-tech indoor farms in France and Singapore to mobile apps connecting urban growers and eaters in India and the U.S., Food Tank highlights 16 initiatives using tech, entrepreneurship, and social innovation to change urban agriculture.
1. AeroFarms, Newark (United States)
AeroFarms builds and operates vertical indoor farms to enable local production at scale and increase the availability of safe and nutritious food. The company uses aeroponics to grow leafy greens without sun or soil in a fully controlled environment. The technology enables year-round production while, they say, using 95 percent less water than field farming, resulting in yields 400 times higher per square foot annually. Since its foundation in 2004, AeroFarms aims to disrupt conventional food supply chains by building farms along major distribution routes and in urban areas. The company also won multiple awards, including the 2018 Global SDG Award, for its environmentally responsible practices and leadership in agriculture.
2. Agricool, Paris (France)
Agricool is a start-up that grows strawberries in containers spread throughout urban areas. The company retrofits old, unused containers to accommodate both an LED-lights and aeroponics system making it possible to grow strawberries year-round. The Cooltainers are powered by clean energy and use 90 percent less water than conventional farming. Agricool also works on building a network of urban farmers through the Cooltivators training program, aiming to open up job opportunities for city residents to work in the agricultural sector. The start-up now works on expanding operations to other cities, an effort made possible by the replicability of the container’s design.
3. BIGH Farms, Brussels (Belgium)
BIGH (Building Integrated Greenhouses) Farms, a start-up based in Brussels, works on building a network of urban farms in Europe to promote the role urban agriculture can play in the circular economy. BIGH’s designs integrate aquaponics with existing buildings to reduce a site’s environmental impact. The first pilot—located above the historic Abattoir in Brussel’s city center—includes a fish farm, a greenhouse, and over 2,000 square meters of outdoor vegetable gardens. They started in 2018 producing microgreens, herbs, tomatoes, and striped bass. BIGH Farms also partners with local businesses and growers to make sure the farm’s production is complementary to the existing food community.
4. Bites, Phoenix (United States)
Bites is a mobile platform working to help connect urban farmers, chefs, and eaters in Phoenix through farm-to-table dining experiences. Eaters and chefs sign up and meet through the app to organize an in-home dining event. Chefs gather the ingredients from urban growers registered on the platform in an effort to promote local, small businesses. Bites was launched in 2017 by Roza Derfowsmakan, founder of Warehouse Apps, to improve accessibility to farm-to-table experiences and support urban farmers. By using technology to build culinary communities, Bites aims to change consumer choices from shipped-in, trucked-in produce to locally sourced food—involving people in the solution itself.
5. BitGrange, Multiple Locations (North America)
BitGrange is an urban farming tool and learning platform working to help educate children on food and agriculture. The BitGrange device, a hydroponics and Internet of Things-based system, produces edible plants with little water and energy. BitGrange’s software evaluates environmental variables in real-time and notifies growers through a smartphone app to take necessary actions, such as adding more water or plant food. Founded in 2015 according to their philosophy, Plant-Connect-Sync-Play, BitGrange aims to inspire youth to engage in farming by gamifying agriculture. The nano-farm’s design is available for download at BitGrange’s website for potential growers to 3D print the device in their own location.
6. Bowery Farming, New York Metro Area (United States)
Bowery Farming, an indoor farming start-up, uses software and robotics to grow produce inside warehouses located in and around cities. By controlling every aspect of the growing process, the start-up is able to produce leafy greens and herbs using a minimal amount of water and energy per square foot. The technology also makes it possible to grow customized products for chefs and restaurants, such as softer kale and more peppery arugula. Since its establishment in 2017, Bowery Farming is now expanding operations beyond its warehouse in New Jersey to build vertical farms in other cities and, ultimately, bring efficient food production closer to consumers.
7. Farmizen, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Surat (India)
Farmizen is a mobile-based platform renting farmland to city residents to grow locally grown, organic produce. The app allocates its users a 600 square foot mini-farm in a community nearby. Users can visit the farm anytime to grow and harvest chemical-free produce. Farmworkers look after the plots when the users return to the city, making a fixed and stable income—up to three times more than that of conventional farming. The app is live in Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Surat with 1,500 subscribers and 40 acres of land under cultivation. Farmizen was founded in 2017 by entrepreneur Gitanjali Rajamani, driven by the need to create stable livelihoods for farmers and reconnect city-dwellers to agriculture and nature.
8. Fresh Direct, Abuja (Nigeria)
Fresh Direct is an impact-driven start-up using vertical farming and hydroponics to promote locally grown produce and the involvement of youth in agriculture. When young entrepreneur Angel Adelaja started engaging in eco-friendly farming, she faced multiple challenges with conventional farming practices, including access to land, water, and technology. As a response, Adelaja founded Fresh Direct in 2014 to make urban agriculture more accessible to everyone, especially youth. Fresh Direct installs stackable container farms in the city, growing organic produce closer to the market. In the future, Adelaja aims to eradicate the notion among young professionals that agriculture is a line of work for the older generations.
9. Gotham Greens, Multiple Locations (United States)
Gotham Greens builds and operates data-driven, climate-controlled greenhouses in cities across the United States. The greenhouses, powered by wind and solar energy, use hydroponics to grow salad greens and herbs year-round using fewer resources than conventional farming. In addition to its goal of sustainable food production, Gotham Greens also partners with local organizations, schools, community gardens, and businesses to support urban renewal and community development projects. Gotham Greens is also the company behind the country’s first commercial rooftop greenhouse, a partnership with Whole Foods Market to operate the greenhouse located above their flagship store in Brooklyn, New York.
10. GrowUp Urban Farms, London (United Kingdom)
GrowUp Urban Farms works on developing commercial scale, Controlled Environment Production (CEP) solutions to grow fresh food in communities across London. The CEP farms use aquaponics to farm fish and grow leafy greens in a soil-less system, turning previously unused brownfield sites into productive areas. The GrowUp Box—a community farm developed together with sister organization GrowUp Community Farms—produces over 400kg of salads and 150kg of fish each year. Over the long run, the company aims to replicate the aquaponics system to build urban farms in other cities, opening employment opportunities for youth, and using agriculture as a means to make communities more self-sustaining.
11. InFarm, Multiple Locations (Europe)
InFarm, a Berlin-based start-up, develops modular indoor farming systems to bring agriculture into cities. Designed to combat the long distances food travels, the InFarms produce leafy greens and herbs using 95 percent less water than traditional farms and no pesticides. The technology, the company claims, can reduce food transportation up to 90 percent. In 2013, the company pioneered the modular system in restaurants, schools, hospitals, and shopping centers. Operations have now expanded to distribute portable farms in neighborhoods and supermarkets across Germany, Denmark, France, and Switzerland. The expansion, AgFunder reports, can be attributed to InFarm’s decentralized, data-driven model.
12. Liv Up, São Paulo (Brazil)
Liv Up works to deliver healthy meals and snack kits prepared with locally grown food to residents of the Greater São Paulo region. The start-up sources organic ingredients from family farmers in peri-urban areas, in an effort to shorten value chains and better connect small producers to the urban market. A team of chefs and nutritionists prepares the meals, which are later deep frozen to maintain the food’s integrity and extend its shelf life. Liv Up was founded in 2016 by a trio of young entrepreneurs driven by the lack of access to healthy foods in São Paulo. The start-up now operates in seven municipalities of the metropolitan area, rotating its menu every two weeks.
13. Pasona Urban Ranch, Tokyo (Japan)
Pasona Urban Ranch, an initiative of the Pasona Group, is a mix of office space and animal farm located in the heart of Tokyo’s busy Ōtemachi district. The initiative aims to raise interest in agriculture and dairy farming among city residents by bringing them in close contact with farm animals. The ranch houses eight animal species, including cattle, goats, and an alpaca, which are cared for by specialized staff. Visitors and employees of the building can attend seminars on dietary education and dairy farming. Previously, the Pasona Group gained worldwide acknowledgment for Pasona O2—an underground office farm built by Kono Designs in 2010 growing 100 regional crops in downtown Tokyo.
14. RotterZwam, Rotterdam (The Netherlands)
RotterZwam, an urban mushroom farm, raises awareness on the potential of the circular economy for addressing environmental issues. The farm’s closed-loop system works with used coffee grounds—collected from local businesses—to turn residual flows into food. The mushroom nursery, built out of old containers, uses solar paneling to power the farm’s operations and the e-vehicles used for product delivery. The farm’s team offers tours to educate citizens on circular systems and trains entrepreneurs wishing to start a mushroom farm. RotterZwam’s second location in the Schiehaven area opened in mid-2019 thanks to a crowdfunding campaign to bring back the farm after a devastating fire in 2017.
15. Sustenir Agriculture (Singapore)
Sustenir Agriculture is a vertical farm working to promote high quality, locally grown, and safe food with the lowest possible footprint. The farm—located in the heart of Singapore—uses the latest technology in hydroponics and smart indoor farming to produce leafy greens, tomatoes, strawberries, and fresh herbs. Starting as a basement project in 2012, Sustenir now produces 1 ton of kale and 3.2 tons of lettuce per month in an area of 54 square meters.
16. Urban Bees, London (United Kingdom)
Urban Bees is a social enterprise working with communities and businesses in London to help bees thrive in the city. Through education and training, the initiative raises awareness on how to create bee-friendly communities and on how to become responsible beekeepers. The first training apiary was established together with the Co-op Plan Bee in Battersea, South London. The enterprise also advises urban gardening initiatives, including Lush’s rooftop garden, to ensure that green areas install the right forage and create healthy bee habitats. Co-founder Alison Benjamin says that city residents often suffer from the nature-deficit disorder and urban beekeeping is one path to reconnect with nature in the city.
Andrea Oyuela
Andrea Oyuela is a Food Tank Intern—and chef in the making—with more than 5 years of experience in environmental research, urban agriculture, and healthy urban planning. Until recently, Andrea worked at UN-Habitat in Kenya as manager of the program on Planning for Urban Health. She holds a Master’s degree in Urban Environmental Management from Wageningen University and is the author of a number of published works. Her favorite ingredient is garlic.
Sustainability In Three Dimensions
Picture a snow globe. Inside its crystalline sphere, the conditions are always ideal for a winter wonderland—even in the hottest days of summer. So, what if farmers could take this idea and use it to create optimal, self-contained cultivation environments that allowed them to grow their crops during the dead of winter?
Technology Spotlight December 20, 2018
Picture a snow globe. Inside its crystalline sphere, the conditions are always ideal for a winter wonderland—even in the hottest days of summer. So, what if farmers could take this idea and use it to create optimal, self-contained cultivation environments that allowed them to grow their crops during the dead of winter?
A traditional approach to this challenge is greenhouse farming, in which glass domes heighten and retain solar energy within a growing environment that’s closed off from the surrounding atmosphere. As a result, the temperature inside the dome is warmer and more stable, allowing farmers to cultivate warm-weather crops during the cold seasons.
If farmers can grow their crops through the winter, what if they could grow them through the night?
WHAT IF GROWERS COULD CREATE THE INFRASTRUCTURE TO GET 10 ACRES WORTH OF PRODUCTION FROM ONLY ONE ACRE OF LAND?
It may sound improbable to grow plants in closed environments without relying on the sun, but modern agriculture is already making incredible strides in bringing 24/7 cultivation to reality by augmenting existing practices with indoor vertical farms and robotic technologies.
In fact, vertical farms are on the rise. There are currently 2.2 million square feet of indoor farms operating across the globe, and that number is expected to increase almost tenfold to 22 million square feet in the next five years. Will vertical farming replace conventional farming practices? No, but this dramatic rise in indoor farms will add even more of a boost to our future food production capabilities, complementing the incredible innovations that are being made in traditional sun-soaked, outdoor crops.
Why such the exponential increase in interest and investment in both vertical farms and robotics? In short, this pairing offers profound potential to help agriculture achieve sustainability in the environmental, economic, and societal spheres.
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Lettuce Scare Spurs Sales At Superior's Bay Produce
Recent outbreaks of foodborne illnesses have generally been bad news for lettuce growers nationwide, but one greenhouse operation in snowy Superior reports its sales actually have been bolstered as consumers search for healthy alternatives to field-grown greens
Written By: Peter Passi | Dec 21st, 2019
Greenhouse with a mission delivers safe greens to the local market.
Rich Fisher, Bay Produce's head grower, checks the pH level of the water in flats growing butterhead lettuce at Bay Produce in Superior. (Clint Austin / caustin@duluthnews.com)
Recent outbreaks of foodborne illnesses have generally been bad news for lettuce growers nationwide, but one greenhouse operation in snowy Superior reports its sales actually have been bolstered as consumers search for healthy alternatives to field-grown greens.
Bay Produce, located next door to the Mariner Retail and Business Center, has found a strong market for the red and green butterhead lettuces it grows in the wake of a national lettuce scare.
"It seems like any time there's a lettuce recall, our sales go up," said Don Gitz, a specialist for Bay Produce.
Most recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned consumers to avoid eating romaine lettuce harvested in California's Salinas Valley — a prolific agricultural region often referred to as the nation's salad bowl. This latest E. coli outbreak resulted in more than 100 reported cases of illness in 23 states. But regulators advised people that there was no reason to avoid hydroponic and greenhouse-grown lettuce.
8 / 8
The silver tube at the center of the photo houses a high-intensity ultraviolet light used to kill pathogens in the water at Bay Produce in Superior. (Clint Austin / caustin@duluthnews.com)
Bay Produce fits that bill to a T. It grows lettuce, basil, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and eggplant inside a 1 1/2-acre greenhouse equipped with hydroponics.
Rich Fisher, Bay Produce's head grower, said the greenhouse uses Superior city water that has been treated with ultraviolet light, rendering it "99.9% microbe-free."
He contrasted the sterile greenhouse setting at Bay Produce to farm fields where lettuce is often grown on plots adjacent to livestock "where they really have almost no control over runoff."
In addition to producing a consistently safe and tasty product, Bay Produce also has a story to sell. The greenhouse is operated by Challenge Center Inc., an organization established by Catholic Charities 50 years ago to serve children and adults with developmental disabilities. The greenhouse is staffed with 10 Challenge Center staff members and up to about 40 clients at any given time.
Challenge Center Director Mark Kroll said the greenhouse provides a sheltered work setting that can accommodate clients' unique needs, whether that's a short two-hour shift or one accompanied by a job coach.
"We provide sheltered employment for folks with disabilities," Kroll said. "It's an amazing program we have here. So, we already have a lot of local folks looking for our projects anyway, because they support our mission. But this provides a little extra push for us. It's one more reason for folks to look for Bay Produce products."
Bay Produce has enjoyed a safety edge over larger growers in regard to other products, too. For instance, earlier this summer people across the nation were sickened with cyclosporiasis from contaminated basil grown in Mexico. Again, Bay Produce offered a safe alternative.
"It's amazing how things that happen on a national scale that make the national news can really affect local growers," Kroll said.
Bay Produce distributes its products exclusively in the Northland through grocers and restaurants as far north as Grand Marais and as far east as Ashland. Because its produce isn't traveling great distances, Kroll said they are able to deliver a product that's ripe and ready to eat the moment it hits the shelves or lands on a restaurant's sandwich.
This UVA-Born Startup Is Revolutionizing The Home Farming Industry
Imagine a world where you can grow your own produce right in your kitchen. That world might be closer than we think
December 23, 2019
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Imagine a world where you can grow your own produce right in your kitchen. That world might be closer than we think.
Alexander Olesen, CEO of Babylon Micro-Farms, and his business partner Graham Smith, CTO, started exploring hydroponics in 2016 while in school at the University of Virginia in terms of its hypothetical applications to grow crops in refugee camps.
“We realized that this was an incredibly efficient way of growing crops,” Olesen said.
Upon researching into how large commercial greenhouses use this technology, Olesen and Smith began looking into how it could be used on a smaller scale. While the technology never made it into refugee camps, they started looking into practical applications in their community and researching the minimum square foot of farming space needed to feed one person, feed a family or sustain a business.
Image courtesy of Babylon Micro-Farms.
When they realized those measurements could fit into a home or business, the idea of the small vertical farming modules utilizing unique hydroponics technology that Babylon Micro-Farms creates today was born.
Named for the famed ancient Hanging Gardens, Babylon Micro-Farms produces self-contained vertical farming units that can easily fit into a home or business. The company sends weekly “meal-prep style” subscription packages of produce kits and remotely manages the units, including the airflow, irrigation, sunlight-mimicking grow lights, fertilizer mixes and pH for the acidity of the water. Customers lease the farming space on a 24-month contract, which includes an all-inclusive monthly fee.
“We’ve essentially automated the need for a green thumb,” Olesen said.
The company just this year finalized a $2.4 million seed round of fundraising from investors including CIT GAP Funds and Plug and Play Ventures, following a $600,000 pre-seed round in 2018. Additionally, Babylon received a $25,000 grant to continue their research this year from the National Science Foundation.
Grown out of UVA, the company is still based in Charlottesville but hopes to begin expanding its operations into Richmond soon. The company is focusing on building their core market in Virginia and expects to see the growth of customers in commercial food service and corporate dining.
While Olesen and Smith have ambitions to bring their farming units into the household, the business currently targets clients in industries such as institutional food service and restaurants, higher education and corporate dining. Babylon’s products are already in use at companies including Dominion Energy, Commonwealth Senior Living, and Hampton Roads Academy, to name a few.
Currently, the company has 14 employees with a heavy emphasis on software and mechanical engineering, developing their patented software platform, app, hardware product, and weekly subscriptions.
Olesen believes this is just the beginning of a booming industry, similar to the way in which solar panels have become popular for use even on residential homes.
“We’re in the infancy of an industry for fresh produce or herbs,” Olesen said. “Vertical farming is going to disrupt that industry and become the status quo given how inefficient things are today. We see what we’re doing as a sustainable infrastructure play that is going to become a necessity.”
Image courtesy of Babylon Micro-Farms
Mpatisi Moyo Joins Autogrow
Working closely with the wider R&D team and alongside the Director of Agronomy & Crop Science, Dr. Tharindu Weeraratne; Mpatisi will focus on yield prediction models and computer vision enhanced products
Autogrow has recruited Mpatisi Moyo Ph.D. as Head of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) to further their strategy towards creating the digital farmer.
PHOTO: Mpatisi Moyo
Working closely with the wider R&D team and alongside the Director of Agronomy & Crop Science, Dr Tharindu Weeraratne; Mpatisi will focus on yield prediction models and computer vision enhanced products.
“A.I. by itself is not enough to solve the larger issues across the industry. We see the value in the combination of biological science with modern cloud technologies creating value and insight for our customers. You can’t make improvements to crop growth without fully understanding the crop itself and all the variables that go into getting quality yield,” says Jonathan Morgan, Chief Technology Officer.
“Mpatisi’s background in statistical, biological and machine learning technologies will enable us to further extend our solutions and push into new and as yet undiscovered areas of Controlled Environment Agriculture.”
Mpatisi has worked across the health, government and corporate sector and is eager to find ways to assist growers with forecast revenue and harvest times.
“The experience Mpastisi brings will be particularly useful across our FarmRoad solution where the focus is on bringing together what can be incredibly broad and complex information in a format that is easy to understand and manage - especially for larger, global organizations,” explains CEO Darryn Keiller.
“His appointment as Head of A.I. represents our absolute commitment to leading the industry in the long-term development of cognitive services such as the virtual agronomist; leveraging vision, voice, language and critically knowledge - comprising genetics, environment, and management.”
About Autogrow
Autogrow leverages the power of technology, data science, and plant biology to provide indoor growers affordable, accessible and easy-to-use innovation – 24/7, anywhere in the world.
Our hardware, software and data solutions support growers and resellers in over 40 countries producing over 100 different crop types.
We are the experts in Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) and continue to stay ahead of a rapidly evolving landscape.
NEW YORK: Bronx School Garden Program Serves Up Good Hydroponically Grown Greens
The students are learning the bigger-picture benefits of urban farming. “Food justice is about the ability to get that healthy food and how it’s not really that easy to get it because there’s a lot of fast-food places around.”
Drive through the littered streets of the Bronx, New York City’s poorest borough. You’ll pass children playing in the water spray from a fire hydrant and empty storefronts covered in graffiti. Folks are perched on their stoops, hoping to catch a bit of breeze on a hot summer day. The last thing that comes to mind is farming. The second to last may be vegetables: block after block of bright neon signs announce the presence of yet another meat- and carbohydrate-heavy fast-food joint—a typical urban food desert.
The Bronx is home to DeWitt Clinton High School, incongruously housed in a majestic 1920s building complete with Tiffany chandeliers and a roster of famous alumni including James Baldwin, Neil Simon, Stan Lee, and Ralph Lauren. The school’s glory days are long past, however. Last year, DeWitt Clinton ranked fourth-highest among all New York City schools in the number of gun seizures, and it graduated significantly fewer students who went on to college than the average city high school.
But way up on the third floor, at the end of a long hallway, sits a classroom unlike any other at the school. Flooded with light and filled with shelf after shelf of leafy vegetables, it is the source of all the vegetables served in the nearly 3,000-student school’s cafeteria—and of both inspiration and aspiration for the student-farmers who care for it.
Green teens
Those vegetables—everything from bok choy to wasabi arugula —are growing hydroponically, as part of a program called Teens for Food Justice (TFFJ). The students grow enough lettuces, leafy greens, and herbs—an extraordinary 19,000 pounds a year—not just to supply the cafeteria but to sell at their community market at reasonable prices. This is no small feat in a neighborhood where approximately 46 percent of children live below the poverty line, 33 percent of the population is obese, and access to fresh vegetables is limited.
TFFJ is an independent nonprofit that organizes programs like the one at DeWitt Clinton in a growing number of food-insecure communities. Since 2013, when the organization built its first hydroponic farm in the low-income neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, the focus has been on training youth in hydroponic urban agricultural farming in order to give their communities access to sustainable, healthy food. In the process, the students learn about entrepreneurship, health and nutrition, community advocacy, and the science and technology skills they’ll need in a new green-sector economy. There are currently two other established programs in Brooklyn, and three more sites in New York City are planned for in the next year. The organization is also developing three sites in Miami in partnership with the Gloria Estefan Foundation. TFFJ is just one of countless such programs all over the country that teach young people what it means to grow your own food.
About 100 students from DeWitt Clinton participate in TFFJ every year. While the majority are involved through school curriculum classes (environmental sustainability or advanced placement environmental science), a handful participate in an after-school program that has an additional focus on social entrepreneurship, food justice and advocacy and relieving the problems of food insecurity. All the students build and maintain a high-tech hydroponic farm, where they learn about the biology of plants, use chemistry, math, and data tracking to maintain plant health, and learn basic plant and human nutrition.
Best of all, the students are learning about urban farming in a tangible, real-life, hands-on context, in which they advocate for their communities and acquire the tools they need to create an oasis in their food desert and build a healthier future.
Student advocates
Joshua Delgado, who graduated from DeWitt Clinton in June, shows visitors around the farm, he speaks with pride about both the growing process and the vegetables. He walks around the racks of shelves, pointing as he explains how the plants are transplanted. His favorite job, he says with a broad smile on his face, is “to clean the systems—I’d make sure they were sparkling clean.”
The students are learning the bigger-picture benefits of urban farming. “Food justice is about the ability to get that healthy food and how it’s not really that easy to get it because there’s a lot of fast-food places around,” says Joshua. In fact, in this neighborhood, there are 114 square feet of supermarket per 100 people—as compared to 450 square feet per 100 people in one wealthier Staten Island neighborhood, for example.
Learning about the health impacts of eating more vegetables is an important part of TFFJ. At the program’s Fresh Food Box market, where the produce not used by the cafeteria is offered for sale, several students stand behind tables laden with baskets of greens, herbs, peppers, and other produce with a cashbox at the ready. Tenth-grader Miguel Graham is demonstrating how to cook a stir-fry of yellow and green peppers with sausage. As Miguel flips the food around in the sizzling pan, he talks about how the program has taught him how vegetables “can help you live longer.” Before he says, “I wasn’t really interested in vegetables, but since I’ve been in this program, I started loving vegetables more.”
TFFJ intern Jholie Meikle, who graduated from DeWitt Clinton this past June, is walking a potential customer through the various greens. Jholie says that the program has taught her that staying healthy doesn’t have to be expensive, and it has changed the way she shops. “Now when I go, I look at the nutrition facts.” Jholie also credits the program for exposing her three-year-old daughter to new fresh foods. “She comes with me a lot,” says Jholie. “One day she saw Swiss chard and she just started eating it. Now, every time she sees it, she has to have it.”
Learning experiences
As the students learn the science of hydroponic farming, they are also learning how to reduce their environmental impact. Hydroponics requires just a quart of water per head of lettuce, while traditional agriculture methods use more than 4 gallons. The students use no herbicides, pesticides, or fungicides. And by growing right where the produce is being consumed, they avoid the cost in both dollars and carbon emissions of transportation.
“The kids are really motivated by the environmental impact of the farm and are aware of current environmental issues,” says Clare Hyre, TFFJ’s senior program manager. An added benefit: “The food I grow tastes better than the food other people grow,” Miguel states emphatically.
But TFFJ was not conceived as simply a place to grow food. Students gain a hands-on, relatable STEM education as they learn how to build and maintain a high-tech hydroponic farm, which requires engineering, architectural drafting, and mathematics. They learn about the biology of plants and use chemistry and data tracking (math again!) to maintain plant health. They also learn basic plant and human nutrition, explore the nutrient content of what they grow, and apply their nutrition knowledge while tracking their own food consumption and exercise.
Social entrepreneurship is also an important part of the program. The students write a business plan to run their own farm stand. They learn to address the details required to run a successful business, including targeting an audience, distribution, and analyzing the competition.
As the teens become excited about the program and advocate for it to others, they are building self-confidence, and communication and public speaking skills. After their first round of apprenticeship in the program, they can come back and train, or mentor, other students, which helps develop their ability to lead. After they graduate from the program, they can earn a stipend as they help run the Fresh Food Box program, mentor students, and continue to develop their leadership abilities.
Growing their food—and their world in a resource-deprived neighborhood where canned and fast foods dominate, learning to farm helps these young people break away from the confines of their environment. Farming gives them access to healthier foods, amps up their STEM education, and makes them better leaders, stewards of their environment, and advocates for their community. And sometimes it makes them want to be farmers. Joshua dreams of having enough money to build his own hydroponic farm. He has researched it online, he says, and he thinks he could do it.
When he does, he will be part of the solution for sustainable farming that brings healthy food to communities in need—just like the organization that taught and inspired him.
For more information:
Corteva Agriscience
www.corteva.com
Publication date: Thu 19 Dec 2019
Detroit Organization Uses Shipping Containers As Farms Providing Food For Soup Kitchen, Restaurant
The farming being done inside the shipping container is the equivalent of almost two acres of land
By Amy Lange
December 2, 2019
DETROIT (FOX 2) - At the new Three Cats restaurant in Clawson, co-owner and Chef Matt Prentice is serving up the Cass Community arugula salad and the beet stack with Cass basil.
Prentice, a big fan of farm to table, says this is as close and as fresh as you can get.
Shipping container farm is as close to fresh as it gets
It comes from the Freight Farm at Cass Community Social Services in Detroit where seeds are watered in trays then transferred to hangers farming vertically inside a shipping container"It gets harvested two, three, four days a week.
The arugula that I get from California -- I mean it's fine, but it's two weeks old before I get it. Here it's sometimes two hours old," he said.
That's because it comes from the Freight Farm at Cass Community Social Services in Detroit, where seeds are watered in trays then transferred to hangers, farming vertically inside a shipping container."So you can see everything's dated - what it is and when it was started so they'll know," said Faith Fowler, Cass Community Social Services. "It comes down almost like drip irrigation so that you're wasting very little water at all."
This is a great solution to having fresh good food year-round.
"Donated by the Ford Fund about a year ago, the Freight Farm is now producing fresh produce year-round for the soup kitchen at Cass and at Three Cats."
It means his restaurant is able to have farm to table, table to farm in a really good way and to support the work we're doing here, with hungry people and homeless people and others," said Rev. Faith Fowler with Cass Community Social Services. Fowler runs Cass Community Social Services, where serving the homeless and getting them work and housing is also about health and the environment."It tastes really good and it is good for you," she said. "We're using solar for here and considerably less water so it ties in with sustainability which is a theme at Cass.
"The farming being done inside the shipping container is the equivalent of almost two acres of land.
"It's a lot better product but it also gets the Cass name out there," said Prentice. "I mean, this little kitchen here feeds hundreds of thousands of people every year."
Prentice should know. As a longtime volunteer at Cass who then became the director of food services, serving up fresh produce to clients at the soup kitchen and customers here at Three Cats - it's about more than just good food."
The bottom line is, the fresher the produce is, the better it is for you - it's just that simple," he said. "There's a lot of advantages to it but the biggest thing is just making people aware of what we're doing down here."
Indoor Agriculture And The Farm Bill
Jim Pantaleo is an Indoor Vertical Farming Adviser and Writer based in Orange County. Pantaleo…”When you look at the major costs of indoor farming, there's three of them that will jump right out at you. Number one is your building costs. Number two are your labor costs. Number three are your energy costs.”
Wednesday, Dec 18th, 2019
News Reporter
Indoor agriculture has certainly gained in momentum over the past decades as technology has improved and some of the costs of production have declined.
Still, it can be a costly endeavor, and like any young industry, there have been companies unable to make the numbers work.
Jim Pantaleo is an Indoor Vertical Farming Adviser and Writer based in Orange County.
Pantaleo…”When you look at the major costs of indoor farming, there's three of them that will jump right out at you. Number one is your building costs. Number two are your labor costs. Number three are your energy costs.”
As indoor farmers try to manage these costs to provide year-round local and fresh produce, some help may be on the way from funds allocated in last year’s farm bill. Here’s Jim Pantaleo again.
Pantaleo…”In the 2018 farm bill, there's four, five, or six areas that are, are targeted specifically for what they're calling controlled environment agriculture (CEA) and urban farming. At the moment, there's about $50 million from the 2018 farm bill. Allotted of towards those, the definition of CEA and urban farming.”
Jim notes the loss of arable land, the disconnect from producer and consumer, and the changing climate as just a few of the reasons indoor agriculture is important. He is not alone as entrepreneurs, investors, universities, and governments show interest in these growing methods for the future of agriculture.
It’s Time To Redefine Indoor Agriculture
If you think about indoor agriculture as exclusively the preserve of small mom and pop farms selling leafy greens, or of a handful of VC-funded plant factories, you might want to think again
Nicola Kerslake
Dec 17, 2019
If you think about indoor agriculture as exclusively the preserve of small mom and pop farms selling leafy greens, or of a handful of VC-funded plant factories, you might want to think again.
Although this misconception is understandable — there are many indoor farms that grow leafy greens and operate at a smaller scale — the proposition doesn’t even begin to capture the scale or the diversity of the indoor agriculture industry.
So how should we think about indoor agriculture?
Let’s get one thing straight: the indoor growing sector isn’t small — no matter how you spin it.
Let’s start by looking at the finances of indoor growing. According to a Global Hydroponics Market Source, the global market size is currently valued at $8.1 billion and is expected to grow to $16 billion in 2025. In 2019, the indoor agriculture sector raised $56 million in the first quarter alone — that would be a lot of mom and pop shops!
Media coverage portrays indoor agriculture as the exclusive purview of large scale plant factories, tech-focused entirely controlled environment facilities. These plant factories focus on economies of scale and farm economics. Sometimes, the focus on securing large corporate partnerships, establishing their own produce brands or franchising their approach.
Companies like San Francisco-based Plenty, have raised a total of $226 million; AeroFarms raised $138 million; Bowery raised $118 million; BrightFarms raised $113 million. Oasis Biotech has had a listed parent, SananBio, committed a hefty one billion dollars to indoor agriculture development. Some assume that these raises end up solely in more production, but that’s rarely the case as companies compete to create ever-better tech and recognizable brand names.
But is that the whole picture?
According to Nicola Kerslake, founder of Contain Inc, part of the reason that we think about indoor agriculture as only being large scale plant factories growing leafy greens is because of how we define indoor agriculture.
“Part of the challenge is that some define indoor agriculture as just being a small group of plant factories, such as AeroFarms and Plenty Ag. But we define it to include all forms of protected agriculture, such as greenhouses, hoop houses, and container farms in addition to warehouse farms, which is a much more diverse group,” she said.
As a result, we need to rethink and redefine indoor growing.
To be sure, indoor farm sizes are on the rise regardless of the form they take. We are starting to see more, bigger farms, and see those farms represent a larger percentage of the overall capacity of indoor farming. Greenhouses, in particular, are seeing a revival in fortunes with labor-saving automation technology becoming more common. In California, a state that represents a large portion of indoor growing in the United States, 28 percent of capacity consists of large greenhouse operators of 30 acres or more. We also have the farms that have broken the 100 acre, and 300-acre threshold, like Nature Sweet in Arizona, which is 336 Acres or Windset Farms-Calif which is 125 acres. Produce major Mastronardi announced just this week that it is close to completing the largest single greenhouse in the country, in New York.
Large companies, that historically haven’t been involved with agriculture, are starting to take up indoor agriculture. The globally known Swedish furniture store, Ikea, announced that they would start sourcing their greens from container farms right on site. Singapore Airlines partnered with New Jersey-based AeroFarms to grow food to serve on their flights right at the airport itself.
But this still leaves plenty of space for other players in a market that is growing at 12%+ CAGR. According to the USDA, more than 90% of America’s farms are small, and there is no reason to believe that indoor agriculture will not replicate this pattern as new farmers opt to serve their communities with year-round leafy greens, manufacturers grow their own ingredients or schools and hospitals grow for their own needs.
Indoor agriculture should not be defined by leafy greens, but by the diversity of its offerings.
“At Contain Inc, we cover both traditional leafy greens, and other types of produce, mushrooms, fish, insects and licensed hemp.” says Kerslake.
As time passes, technology develops and indoor agriculture continues to change. A diverse sector becomes even more diverse. One great example of this is strawberries, a newer crop for indoor systems, now moving indoors apace.
Indoor growers are finding that strawberries grow particularly well in an indoor setting — especially in combination with new growing technology.
One vertical farm in The Netherlands saw a 300 percent increase in strawberry yield when compared to traditional cultivation. In a piece for HortiDaily, they told the website that they grew a year’s worth of harvest in just one season using new LED technology.
And others are starting to hop on to the trend. The city of Murray Utah is getting the world’s first commercial farm dedicated to growing strawberries with 40,609 square feet for operations.
There is a role for every kind of grower in indoor agriculture, not just the small ones. Now, it is just a matter of giving indoor farms, big and small, the right resources to get started.
“We’ve seen in other industries like solar, that — when the right financing mechanisms are in place — the industry grows rapidly. At Contain Inc, we’re aiming to do the same for indoor agriculture.”
In the view of Kerslake, “indoor agriculture is inevitable as it starts to be adopted by outdoor farmers, newcomers and mega corps alike.”
Indoor agriculture is large-scale, 100-acre farms. Indoor agriculture is also smaller farms. Indoor agriculture includes growing insects; it includes leafy greens. Indoor agriculture is all of this, and more. All of these sectors together, the big and the small make indoor growing the industry that it is today.
Agriculture Greenhouse Indoor Agriculture Hydroponics
WRITTEN BY Nicola Kerslake
We’re Contain Inc. We use data to improve access to capital for indoor growers, those farming in warehouses, containers & greenhouses. https://www.contain.ag/
Scientists Consider Vertical Farming Ahead of Changing Climate
University of Arizona agricultural and biological engineering professor Joel Cuello is among those developing vertical farming methods that do not use soil or depend on the weather but use water more efficiently
DECEMBER 13, 2019
by Anthony Perkins TWEET SHARE
A UA researcher says the technique could help solve future food concerns.
Scientists are focusing on new ways of farming that can be climate-smart and sustainable.
University of Arizona agricultural and biological engineering professor Joel Cuello is among those developing vertical farming methods that do not use soil or depend on the weather but use water more efficiently.
He thinks interest in sustainable growing methods increased with the growth of the middle class in countries like China.
"That really brought to the fore the critical significance of having our food supply increase because that is a humongous middle class that has been produced, not only in China but all over the world," said Cuello.
Cuello added scientists are considering the same techniques for growing food in future habitats on the moon and Mars.
MORE: AGRICULTURE, CLIMATE CHANGE, ENVIRONMENT, NEWS, SCIENCE
Lead Photo: Vertical farmed plants are fed with liquid nutrients instead of soil.Needpix.com
CANADA: Lettuce Crop Planted In Old School Library As Couple Turn Building Into A Farm
A Quebec couple have moved to the tiny community of Saint-Léolin in northeastern New Brunswick with plans to turn a former school into a large, indoor vertical farm, capable of producing 750,000 heads of lettuce a year
Chantal Gagnon and Daniel Ratté plan to hire 20 people for their indoor farm in Saint-Léolin
Gabrielle Fahmy · CBC News · Posted: Dec 17, 2019
A Quebec couple have moved to the tiny community of Saint-Léolin in northeastern New Brunswick with plans to turn a former school into a large, indoor vertical farm, capable of producing 750,000 heads of lettuce a year.
The opportunity for the farm cropped up after the village of 600 saw its school close in 2012. Saint-Léolin was dealing with a problem experienced by many rural communities: there weren't enough students to keep the school open.
Saint-Léolin Mayor Guy Cormier started looking for someone to purchase the 2,200-square-metre building after the doors closed.
About a year ago, he met Chantal Gagnon and Daniel Ratté, who were living in the United States at the time. The couple were looking to come back to Canada and for a new project to keep them busy.
They'd been inspired by a visit to a vertical farm in Florida a few months earlier.
The couple grow lettuce and other leafy greens in the room where the school's library used to be. (CBC)
"This is when we decided this is what we're going to do," said Gagnon.
"I was very excited. I grew up on a farm."
The mayor gave them a tour of the school by video chat and the rest is history.
Gagnon grew up in the Matapedia Valley of eastern Quebec, just across the border from Campbellton. And so after looking at buildings all across the country, she was drawn by the prospect of returning to a place close to home.
Vertical farming is similar to other methods of indoor farming, such as hydroponics, in that the plants are grown without soil.
Can't keep up with demand
But cultivating them in "trees" allows producers to use the space, and resources, more efficiently.
Instead of rays of sunshine, LED lights are used.
If a purple hue often radiates from these farms, it's because the lights' blue and red wavelengths provide the plants what they need.
The plants get their nutrients through a water system that constantly reuses the supply.
The couple invested $55,000 of their own money in the equipment, and right now, lettuce and other leafy greens, herbs and microgreens are being grown in the school's old library.
What was initially supposed to be just the pilot project has gotten the community so excited that Gagnon and Ratté are having a hard time keeping up with the demand.
The only sign of the couple's indoor farm right now is the purple hue coming from one of the windows, where the library was. (CBC)
"We are amazed," said Gagnon.
"We didn't think that people would respond so well."
Every Saturday morning, when they open their doors to the public, people have been lining up to buy the produce, and the crops usually sell out in a couple of hours.
Chantal Gagnon and Daniel Ratté moved to Saint-Léolin in northeastern New Brunswick last year. (Gabrielle Fahmy/CBC)
Watch - This former school was transformed into an indoor vertical farm
A Quebec couple bought a building that used to be a school in Saint-Léolin and turned it into an indoor vertical farm, capable of producing 750,000 heads of lettuce a year. 1:00
The vertical farm began selling its produce on Oct. 29 and the couple are selling at grocery store prices. Customers can pick up a head of romaine lettuce for $2.99.
Romaine troubles
Ratté is not surprised. He thinks ongoing troubles with romaine lettuce coming from California has played a big role in driving people to find alternatives produced closer to home.
He also thinks with climate change and other threats to traditional agriculture, this type of farming will only become more common.
"There's no more land anymore to grow anything," said Ratté.
"And the one we have right now, there's a lot of issues with the pesticides, with the chemicals."
Ratté said if their plants ever get sick, they are treated with vinegar and hydrogen peroxide.
Daniel Ratté thinks this type of indoor farming is part of the solution to worldwide threats to traditional agriculture. (CBC)
The couple hopes to attract investors and fill every classroom with plants so they can supply customers, grocery stores and restaurants in northern New Brunswick year-round, a project estimated at $4.5 million.
Saint-Léolin's mayor said the prospect of new life being injected into the village is helping to spread the word.
"I think it's the future," said Cormier.
"I talk with other friends from other towns around, and they say you're lucky to get that in your town."
Your Grocery Store Could Soon Have A Farm Inside It
Just before Thanksgiving, grocery chain Kroger launched an initiative in partnership with Infarm, a German startup that specializes in “modular vertical farms,” to install hydroponic farms right inside two of their Seattle-area stores
December 16, 2019
Plants grown by Verticrop, a UK-based vertical farm, in 2011.
Photo: Phil Clarke Hill/In Pictures Ltd. (Getty Images)
Just before Thanksgiving, grocery chain Kroger launched an initiative in partnership with Infarm, a German startup that specializes in “modular vertical farms,” to install hydroponic farms right inside two of their Seattle-area stores. Even though it’s been less than a month since the rollout, CityLab reports, Kroger is already declaring the project a success and looking to expand it to other locations.
Vertical farming is a space- and energy-efficient way of growing produce such as lettuce, herbs, and peas right inside the grocery stores where customers shop. According to CityLab, items are sold in bunches, “roots and all,” and shoppers have taken to these tiny farms so quickly that sometimes the produce sells out quicker than new produce can mature.
“For the bulk of the last century, food has been produced far from where it is consumed, generating a supply chain that is environmentally unsustainable,” said Infarm CEO Osnat Michaeli. “Our modular farms offer the potential of turning the supply chain on its head by building the world’s first global farming network.”
Kroger, for its part, touts the program as a way for shoppers to make informed food choices. “Customers today want transparency; they want to know exactly where their product is from, the provenance where it was grown,” said Suzy Monford, vice president of fresh foods at Kroger Group. This is Infarm’s first time collaborating with a U.S. grocery chain to bring customers these in-store hydroponic farms.
Kroger plans to expand vertical farming to 13 more of its locations (all in Washington and Oregon) by April 2020.
Why ‘Vertical’ Farming Is Growing In The UK
Vertical farming – sometimes called indoor farming – is the practice of growing plants under fully controlled conditions in buildings in many stacked layers, without solar light. Unlike glasshouse production, which relies on sunlight, it makes use of LED lighting to provide different wavelengths of light, according to crop and growth stage need
18 December 2019
Louise Impey
© Wu Kailiang/Alamy Stock Photo
Being able to produce crops 365 days a year, without the need for pesticides or much human intervention, while being unaffected by the weather, will appeal to many growers after such prolonged, wet autumn.
Vertical farming – sometimes called indoor farming – is the practice of growing plants under fully controlled conditions in buildings in many stacked layers, without solar light.
Unlike glasshouse production, which relies on sunlight, it makes use of LED lighting to provide different wavelengths of light, according to crop and growth stage need.
Together with soil-less growing techniques and environmental control systems, vertical farming is a specialist business.
Vertical farming – what is it?
The practice of growing crops in stacked layers, vertical farming often incorporates controlled environment agriculture and can be housed in buildings, shipping containers, underground tunnels and even abandoned mine shafts.
Vertical farms use soil-free growing techniques and stack crops in specially designed beds and trays, making use of artificial lighting and climate control to get the desired results.
During the growing process, four elements are controlled – lighting, irrigation, fertigation and climate.
Global and fast-growing
And it’s a fast-growing sector. Worldwide, it was worth £1.72bn in 2018, with experts predicting that will rise to £9.84bn by 2026. Japan and the US are leading the way, but other countries are catching on.
Enthusiasts say that vertical farming offers a means of guaranteeing yields and reducing the industry’s environmental impact, while improving the supply of safe, healthy and nutritious food and minimising the miles involved in its distribution.
Their vision – locally grown, quick-to-market fruit and vegetables, produced in the neighbourhood where it is consumed, with the traceability and integrity that food supply chains demand – is already being delivered by various facilities worldwide.
Solutions to challenges
These high-tech units are presented as the solution to many of the challenges facing traditional production methods, such as pollution and water use – even if they are currently limited to higher- or added-value crops in order to be profitable.
As they spring up around the world, they are also seen as a means of reducing reliance on food imports.
The use of automation and robotics to keep human intervention and labour costs to a minimum is attracting interest, while less food waste and making better use of limited land space are bonus features too.
Trends driving vertical farming
Environmental impact of food production
Demand for healthy, safe food
Legislation
Urbanisation
Growing world population
Scarcity of natural resources
Changing eating habits
UK projects
In the UK, there have been several big projects announced in the last 12 months. Edinburgh-based Shockingly Fresh has ambitions to develop 40 sites and already has five on the go – one in Scotland and four in England.
Ocado is involved too, having invested £17m in the sector during 2019. That has seen it enter a joint venture with 32ha, a US firm, and Priva Holdings in the Netherlands, known as Infinite Acres.
It has also taken a 58% stake in Jones Food Company, a Lincolnshire-based business producing 420t of leafy greens each year at a facility of 5,120sq m – equivalent in size to 26 tennis courts.
In London, there is Growing Underground, which produces micro greens and salad leaves below the busy streets of Clapham, while in Bristol there is LettUs Grow, which provides the cutting edge technology required.
Technological advances
According to Leo Marcelis of Wageningen University, the vertical farming industry received a kick start from advances in the performance of LED lighting, which can be used to provide the type of light that different plant species need at a much better price than the previously used high-pressure sodium lamps.
“This is the most interesting bit,” he says. “LED lights, which are essential for replicating natural daylight, can be used to change the way plants grow, when they flower and how they taste. It’s all about varying the spectrum used at different growth stages.”
LED lights have other advantages, he notes. “They can be positioned between plants and layers, produce hardly any heat radiation and are more energy efficient.”
Asked whether vertical farming is sustainable, Prof Marcelis says that the current bottleneck is energy use.
“It meets so many requirements, such as much lower water and nutrient use, but it is energy-intensive. Of course, that is improving all the time, especially with lower-cost LED lighting and other technical developments.”
Vertical farming is capital intensive too. Plenty of start-up funding is required, with pay-back times depending on the unit’s operational efficiency and chosen retail route. While some have failed, others are finally starting to make small profits.
Case Study: LettUs Grow
© Jack Wiseall Photography
Extreme weather events and consumer demand for freshness are the two reasons LettUs Grow’s co-founder Charlie Guy (pictured) cites as being behind the current interest in vertical farming.
In addition, being able to get consistent yields and produce quality for 12 months of the year, with the traceability and integrity that supply chains require, is opening up market opportunities for both existing growers and entrepreneurs, he says.
“Whether it’s a very cold spell, such as the Beast from the East, or a lengthy summer drought bringing water shortages, the frequency of extreme weather events is increasing. This has a cost to both growers and consumers.”
Diversification
His Bristol-based company designs the hardware and software needs for indoor growing facilities and is seeing interest from traditional producers, who are looking at an indoor system as a diversification project.
“For existing growers, they can add a valuable revenue stream,” he says. “They are predictable and scaleable, offer year-round production and tend to fit in well with existing projects such as renewable energy and anaerobic digesters.”
Technology
The LettUs Grow concept is based on aeroponics and a technology platform known as Ostara. Aeroponics give better growth rates than hydroponics, he claims, while using up to 95% less water than conventional agriculture.
“Aeroponics puts more oxygen in the root zone, which is why the plants perform better.”
Ostara – its cloud-hosted software – offers closed-loop control.
Mr. Guy explains it that does the data capture and automated control of the growing environment, bringing the food safety and traceability that’s needed, but also offering the potential to use sensors and robotic technology.
“That’s important because energy and labour should be the two key areas of focus with any vertical farming project,” he says. “They have the final say on profitability.”
Vertical farming is not just about lettuce, he stresses. “Although the focus has been on high-value herbs and pea shoots, there are around 60 different crops that can be grown in this way.
“The key to choosing what’s right for you is to look at what access you have to various markets, rather than opting for the fashionable crops.”
Hydroponics or aeroponics?
Both hydroponics and aeroponics deal with plants without the traditional growing medium of soil.
How the plants’ roots are situated in the systems determines the way in which they receive nutrients.
In hydroponic systems, the roots are submerged in water and nutrients are delivered in the water.
In aeroponics, the roots are exposed and sprayed with a mist containing water and nutrients, resulting in a humid, fog-like environment