High Hopes For Aquaponics System Inspired By Sewage Treatment

View fullsize

by The Fish Site

30 June 2021

A novel water purification system inspired by sewage plants has been shown to be effective at optimizing fish waste for use as fertilizer for plants in aquaponics facilities.

In a recent study, researchers demonstrated that the system could improve nutrient remineralization for the plants, while removing excess nitrogen and carbon from the system, creating a healthier environment for fish.

The study, published in Frontiers in Plant Science, was undertaken by researchers from the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Gothenburg and involved the production of rainbow trout and lettuce.

As lead author, Victor Lobanov explained to Frontiers Science News: “Fish sludge is a waste product made up of uneaten food and fish feces and is normally broken down by bacteria in the water. In addition to physically harming fish gills, excess carbon in the solids leads to excessive bacterial growth – diminishing oxygen in the water and hampering the ability of the fish to breathe. We wanted to find out whether this waste could be used to fertilize plants in aquaponics systems by removing the excessive carbon, yet preserving the minerals needed for growing crops.”

The researchers investigated a potential solution inspired by sewage and wastewater treatment plants found around the world, called enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR). They adapted it so that the risk of bacteria build-up in the water was reduced, but the minerals from the fish waste were soluble in the water and could therefore be biologically available for plants to take up.

They found that their solid treatment system was as effective at delivering nutrients from the fish waste to the aquaponic system as a commercial nutrient solution. Although the fertilizer did not meet plant needs entirely, as some nutrients such as manganese were missing, the researchers hope to optimize this system in future studies.

“Hopefully we can scale the system more efficiently in the future, not just for lettuce as used in this study but as well as for other plants, with the right number of fish corresponding to the size of the system. By further optimizing the breakdown of fish solids by the solid treatment system, we can also achieve a faster treatment rate and make the whole process more efficient,” explained Lobanov.

Commercial fertilizer solutions often have very high levels of nitrogen, stimulating crops to swell and absorb large amounts of water and giving the appearance of improved growth but often decreasing the amounts of minerals in the plant. Despite the fertilizer created by the solids treatment system containing lower levels of nitrogen than commercially available chemical fertilizers, plants were not nutrient deficient. This suggests that the high nitrogen levels commonly used are in excess of what the plants need. The authors hope that this finding will stimulate further research into the connections between plant nutrients, health, and taste,

“Our work shows that this type of cultivation is not only more sustainable, but it is also capable of providing nutrients in a form that is easily accessible to plants. Farmers can take this system and optimize it for their specific crops and production volumes, potentially even supplementing with additional nutrients if required,” said Lobanov.

Lead photo: The aquaponics facility where the trial took place. © Victor Lobanov

AQUAPONICS PRODUCTION SYSTEMS WATER QUALITY ENVIRONMENT

Urban Crop Solutions SpaceBakery Project Wins First Place At Global Space Exploration Conference

The Global Space Exploration Conference (GLEX) took place in St. Petersburg in June 2021. The conference brought together several leaders and decision-makers in the international science and space exploration community. Urban Crop Solutions and partners were selected to present two projects of the 250 that were presented during the conference. The SpaceBakery project was awarded the first-place prize.

Organised by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) and Roscosmos (the Russian space agency responsible for space flights and aerospace research), the conference gathered several international stakeholders from the science and space exploration community, on a year which marks the 60th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s spaceflight.

The winning SpaceBakery project is an interdisciplinary cooperative research project between seven partners, of whom, Urban Crop Solutions is the lead vertical farming technology and research partner. The objective of the consortium is to develop the next generation of bread products to support future space missions and aid the long-term survival of settlers on Mars, in addition to being applicable for modern agriculture. The overall goals and objectives of the consortium were presented by the Puratos Group (Belgium), the leading commercial partner of the SpaceBakery project.

Urban Crop Solutions also presented another joint project, the ‘variable climate biosphere’ that they have designed. The variable climate biosphere is a macro life support system that aims to create the best-suited environment for humans and plants to thrive together during extended periods of isolation, either on another planet – namely, the moon and Mars – or on earth in an underground shelter. The presentation showcased the 3D renderings, as well as the results that have so far been obtained.

“Our approach to partner with ambitious global industrial groups and research institutions for controlled indoor farming solutions is finally paying off. We feel that we are at the cutting-edge with our technology, products and services in the fast-emerging urban farming industry – whether it is in space, in cities, on the surface or beneath it.” – Maarten Vandecruys, CTO and co-founder of Urban Crop Solutions

View fullsize

ABOUT UCS

Urban Crop Solutions is a Belgium-based pioneer in the fast-emerging technology of indoor vertical farming. It has developed over the past six years, 220+ plant growth recipes in its research centre in Waregem, Belgium. To date, UCS has delivered over 25 projects in multiple global locations. Their farms are being operated both for commercial and research purposes. Uses range from the production of leafy greens, microgreens, and herbs for food retail, service and industrial use, and scientific research across multiple institutions.

Website: www.urbancropsolutions.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/urbancropsolutions
Twitter: www.twitter.com/U_C_Solutions
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/urbancropsolutions

For more information on this press release, on Urban Crop Solutions and their products and services, or the SpaceBakery project, you may contact Maarten Vandecruys, Serge Ameye or Lucie Beckers.

Maarten Vandecruys
Founder & CTO, UCS        
maarten.vandecruys@urbancropsolutions.com

Serge Ameye,
Space, Tunnels & Special Projects, UCS
serge.ameye@marsbakingsociety.space

Lucie Beckers,
Research Manager Agronomy, Puratos Group
LBeckers@puratos.com

Is Vertical Farming Cost Effective?

The technological change caused a shift in farming from conventional to container farms. Currently, farming is turning to vertical farms.

The more exciting part is that this time round, key economy participants such as Amazon, Google’s Eric Schmidt are pumping money into the trending farming method.

Since it is a new technology, many investors are still unsure about its profitability. They have several questions on vertical farming’s viability. That is to enable them to have a better understanding of the technology.

One of the most typical questions is whether vertical farming is cost-effective. The most straightforward answer is yes. Vertical farming is cost-effective if done on a large scale.

Here, you will find out differences among the core farming technologies in terms of

• initial investment,

• operating costs,

• appreciation, and

• profit margins.

You will find it easier to decide whether to continue your current farming methods or switch to vertical farming after reading this article. Find out more below.

What Is Vertical Farming?

Understanding vertical farming requires finding out milestones of farming.

The traditional form of farming is open field farming. Here, the crops grow under direct sunlight, temperature, and humidity. Also, it does not entail artificial fertilizers.

The second milestone of farming is conventional farming, mainly called greenhouse farming. Here, you design appropriate growth conditions for the crops. For example, you introduce artificial seeds, fertilizers and shield the plants from harsh weather conditions such as an extreme cold.

The increasing scarcity of farming lands and demand for more food has caused many farmers to implement container farming. In container farming, you grow crops in soils in vessels instead of letting them grow in the open fields.

The growing technology has resulted in vertical farming. Vertical farming entails packing and growing crops indoors with the help of vertical farming lighting.

Here, you incorporate energy efficiency and customizability of LED lights— to set color, temperature, and humidity conditions for plants to thrive.

Factors that Lead to Changing Farming Criteria

The core reason for farming evolution is market demand and supply. For example, most consumers need tasty and healthy food. The plants’ growth conditions should not hurt consumer health in the long run.

They should be assured of the availability of food whenever and wherever they need it. Most importantly, the supplier should provide competitive prices. 

It is on the price that many farmers question the viability of vertical framing, bearing in mind the massive cost of material needed to operate vertical farms.

Here is a summary of recent findings on vertical farming costs.

Cost Determination

Research tells that vertical farming costs three times to implement than conventional farming. The prices inflate when you cater to initial investment and operating costs.

On the other hand, you can produce twice on a vertical farm than on a convention farm. For example, investing in 70000 feet vertical farm is likely to output 1 million kilograms of vegetables annually.

Depending on market location and pricing, you are likely to propel your profit margin when you sell than in the case of conventional farming.

The more exciting part is vertical farming value appreciates twice a year compared to greenhouse farming.

So, Is Vertical Farming Effective in the Long Run?

From the above figures, you can realize that vertical farming is more profitable on a large-scale application. The appreciating value proves that the market demands its products.

The best part is that it is becoming cheaper due to smart lighting technology that becomes less expensive. What do the above findings imply?

Key Takeaways

The best time to invest in vertical farming is now. Chief economic players are channeling a wealth of money into it.

For example, leading investors such as SoftBank Vision Bank, AeroFarms, and BrightFarms recently pumped more than $200 million into vertical farming.

Large-scale investment, crops’ quick turn, and increasing food demand for the growing population make vertical farming cost-effective.

Lead photo: Image by BrightAgrotech from Pixabay

How Much Are You Willing To Pay For The Perfect Strawberry?

One of Japan's most coveted strawberry varietals is now being grown in a high-tech farm in Newark. And you can get a taste for a cool $50.

BY LEENA KIM

JULY 2, 2021

MICHAEL STILLWELL

Of the reasons for which Newark is famous—namely its reputation as a former murder capital of America—there is a high likelihood that it will soon be known for something a little more savory: as the epicenter of the agricultural revolution, 2.0.

Over the past few years, New Jersey's gritty port city has become ground zero for a burgeoning vertical farm movement. First, what is a vertical farm? It's basically an indoor farm that uses aeroponics (or hydroponics) systems, artificial intelligence, robots, LED lights, and other forms of technology to grow produce in a controlled environment sans sun, soil, and pesticides. Newark is currently home to the world's largest vertical farm, the 70,000-square-foot AeroFarms, which has 8 others in this city alone (plus facilities in Virginia and Abu Dhabi) and is slated to IPO this month at a $1.2 billion valuation.

Nearly all of the vertical farms that have sprung up around the country specialize in leafy greens (kale, watercress, spinach, arugula, etc.). Why? It's the easiest crop to grow—and the cheapest ticket into the business. But Hiroki Koga, co-founder and CEO of Oishii, a 4-year-old vertical farm near Newark, had far grander ambitions. He didn't want to open yet another outfit for lettuce and spinach that, to be honest, can't taste so radically different from lettuce and spinach shipped in from California. He was going to go straight for Goliath on the first try: the strawberry.

View fullsize

Most vertical farms specialize in leafy greens because they are the easiest to grow. Not Oishii, which went straight for the holy grail in vertical farming: strawberries. OISHII

"They are one of the most sophisticated crops with an extremely complicated plant physiology, and one of hardest to grow in a vertical farm," says Koga, whose former life in Tokyo as a consultant to large corporations making headway in this agricultural category provided an early education in the business. (Not surprisingly, Japan has been way ahead of the curve on this trend, mastering the tech long before the term even entered the modern lexicon—today, many vertical farms use machines made by Japanese corporations like Sony and Panasonic.) "So while other companies started with something easy, we decided to invest all of the money we raised into something that was harder and might take longer to succeed, but that once we cracked the code to it, it would let us unlock other crops, like tomatoes, melons, and grapes, much more easily."

View fullsize

Hiroki Koga, co-founder and CEO of Oishii.

OISHII

Another key reason that deters vertical farms from graduating beyond leafy produce: the bees. Or rather, the lack of them. Greens don't need pollination but fruits do. The problem is, though, bees are sensitive. Put them in an artificial environment and they'll soon realize it's a setup and stop functioning properly. Koga has cracked this, too. "We were the first in the world to figure out how to trick the bees into believing they are in Mother Nature," he says.

Mind you, Koga certainly hasn't gone through this much trouble for just any kind of strawberries. His are a replica of Japan's Omakase berries, a unique, highly prized, and rare varietal grown in greenhouses in the foothills of the Japanese Alps only during wintertime (from January to March). They are characterized by an intensely fragrant, almost floral, bouquet, and a flavor profile that is juicy and creamy, soft and buttery, and, above all, super sweet. In other words, like nothing that is found in America. Oishii's Omakase berries tick all of these boxes, plus one more: they are perfect every time. Because even Japan's most meticulous strawberry growers can't control sun and temperature. "In our vertical farm, we can control for temperature, humidity, even levels of carbon dioxide, to optimize for this specific variety to thrive every single day," Koga says.

View fullsize

The strawberries grown in Oishii’s vertical farm in New Jersey. ZI JIAN/OISHII

So, about that price tag. Oishii's Omakase berries—at first only supplied to Michelin-starred restaurants, they are now available for delivery in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Jersey City, and at select purveyors like Eli's on the Upper East Side and Carissa's in East Hampton—are $50 for a box of 11 medium-sized strawberries (or 8 large). While these are exponentially more expensive than your average Driscoll's, even traditionally grown Omakases command a similar cost back in Japan, where they are considered treasured gifts for special occasions and celebrations.

But they are hardly Japan's most expensive strawberry. That distinction is held by the Bijin-hime varietal, grown exclusively by a veteran farmer named Nichio Okuda, who spent 15 years perfecting the berry and produces only 500 a year. A single Bijin-hime strawberry retails for 50,000 yen, or $448. (It ought to be noted that the Japanese are unrivaled in the realm of status produce: in 2019, for example, two Hokkaido melons sold at auction for $5 million yen, aka $45,000.)

Of course there are far more reasonably-priced Japanese varietals as well—the country has 250 different strawberry cultivars, which account for more than half of the global supply—and Koga plans to introduce them to the U.S. market, and eventually, the rest of the world. Thanks to a recent $50 million infusion of investor capital, Oishii has begun its expansion, first with the construction of a second vertical farm the size of a football field. "We're not just a small strawberry farm in New York selling fancy strawberries. We're offering a new way to grow, experience, and access food," he says. "We hope to bring a really big paradigm shift to the agriculture industry. Vertical farming is the way forward."

LEENA KIM Associate EditorLeena Kim is an associate editor at Town & Country, where she writes about travel, weddings, arts, and culture.

BrightFarms Launches Multimillion-Dollar R&D Hub in Greater Cincinnati

By Liz Engel - Staff reporter

June 24, 2021

An indoor farming company is investing millions in Ohio with the debut of a new research and development hub.

BrightFarms, a New York-based grower of indoor leafy greens since 2013, is forming BrightLabs, a new innovation and research hub, at its Wilmington greenhouse. BrightLabs, overall, will represent a tenfold increase in the company’s research capabilities, while increasing profitability and delivering new product innovations.

Steve Platt is the CEO of BrightFarms. (Jenn Erickson)

CEO Steve Platt declined to disclose the exact investment but told me it’s in the multimillions. The project is being launched as part of the company’s $100 million Series E funding round in October led by media conglomerate Cox Enterprises.

“BrightFarms as a company has been growing very consistently, and the indoor farming industry is at an inflection point,” Platt said. “We’ve perfected how we grow – among competitors, we’ve developed the most profitable model for the production of indoor leafy greens – but now’s the time to invest behind R&D to secure an advantage for the future. It’s essential to stay ahead of the curve.”

Like others in the indoor farming space, BrightFarms lauds the fact that its lettuce is healthier, tastier, looks better, is more nutritious, and, particularly for customers in Ohio, fresher than field-grown produce hauled in from states like California and Arizona. Today the company’s five greenhouses in Ohio, Virginia, Illinois, Pennsylvania produce 9 million pounds of produce each year. 

But unlike several outfits, particularly vertical farms that use purple-hued LED lighting, BrightFarms leverages natural sunshine. Its souped up, high-tech greenhouses grow spinach, romaine, arugula and more using a hydroponic system, or water instead of soil.

Wilmington, which celebrated its first harvest in 2018, isn’t the company’s largest greenhouse in terms of size or production, but Platt said it made a good host for the innovation hub because of its centralized location. It’s close to customers and easily accessible from its other farms. He also credited the workforce and level of academic talent available from universities nearby. 

BrightFarms celebrated its first harvest in Wilmington in 2018. BrightLabs is investing millions to build out an innovation and research hub at the site. (Brian Mollenkopf)

Phase one for BrightLabs includes a new, approximately 1,350 square foot lab that has been built at the Wilmington greenhouse site. BrightFarms will also dedicate space on the farm for the BrightLabs team to work. 

Platt said BrightLabs will focus on three key areas:

• Biotech. BrightFarms wants to study the environments in which plants grow to increase yield, flavor, and texture.

• Agtech. BrightOS, the company’s proprietary AI software system, acts as the company’s central nervous system, Platt said, collecting millions of data points from its fives farms to streamline operations. How can the company improve that technology?

• Product innovation. BrightFarms recently launched NutriGreens, a new lettuce packed with antioxidants – double the amount, Platt said, found in a serving of blueberries. BrightFarms wants more advances like that.

BrightLabs itself will be led by Matt Lingard, a former Bayer plant scientist and Ph.D. with over 15 years of experience, who joined BrightFarms in May as its VP of agriculture and science. Platt said the BrightLabs team will include four employees to start.

“We’re the leading grower of indoor spinach – in the U.S. we grow 90% of the indoor spinach that’s sold – but we want to double our production on that. How do we come out with new types of spinach that can grow even better in a hydroponic system?” he said. 

“We’re taking on a massive industry and a complicated, broken system – where greens are grown all in one location, shipped thousands of miles across the country, generally with pesticide reside, there’s a food-borne illness, and the product isn’t that good,” Platt added. “We have a simpler system and a better product, but we need to deliver that at a price point and at a volume that competes with what’s coming out of California. If we’re trying to unseat this big gorilla, we can’t be this niche that’s only affordable to people who drive Teslas.”

Overall, there’s billions being invested in the industry. New York City-based Bowery Farming, in late May, announced a $300 million funding round with a $2.3 billion valuation. Kentucky-based AppHarvest merged with a special purpose acquisition company in February, an IPO approach that’s gaining ground in 2021, and is now worth $1.5 billion. 

BrightFarms, with its Series E, has raised more than $200 million in total. In addition to launching BrightLabs, it plans to use the funds to expand its network of regional indoor farms – new farms are currently under development in Massachusetts and Texas – and grow its retail footprint. Locally, BrightFarms is available at Sam’s Club, Walmart and Pipkin Produce as well as Food Lion and Kroger in other markets.

The company said by the end of 2021 its leafy greens will be available at over 3,500 stores.

“It’s amazing. Even when I joined the company two years ago, we were convincing people this was the future. Now customers are coming to us saying, ‘We want to replace field grown with indoor-grown,’” he said. “We think the future is here.”

Lead photo: BrightFarms grows leafy greens like spinach, romaine, and arugula in high-tech, computer-controlled greenhouses.

Signify Announces New Philips Horticulture LED Partner Hortipar

June 28, 2021

Eindhoven, the Netherlands – Signify (Euronext: LIGHT), the world leader in lighting, has signed a partnership agreement with Hortipar, an expert in realizing lighting projects for the horticultural sector worldwide. Hortipar is based in ‘s Gravenzande, the Netherlands, and operates mainly in North America, Canada, Eastern Europe, and the Netherlands.

Hortipar will now add Philips GreenPower LED grow lights to their global portfolio. Focussing on quality, flexibility, knowledge, and expertise, Hortipar offers their customers a complete solution for their greenhouse from the beginning till the end of a lighting project. With their independent advisors and team of dedicated experts, Signify is proud to add Hortipar to the global partnership network of Philips Horticulture LED.

View fullsize

“We are excited to be a partner of Signify and offer the range of Philips GreenPower LED grow lights to our customers”, said Aad van Ruijven, director at Hortipar. “Sustainability and innovation are of great value to us and to our network. Our customers expect the highest quality, and that we offer them the full package for their lighting installation, together with high-end advice and project management. The expertise of the team at Signify and their Philips GreenPower LED grow lights fit perfectly within these expectations and in our ambitions for the future.”

View fullsize

“Adding Hortipar to our global network of certified Philips Horticulture LED partners is something we are proud of”, said Udo van Slooten, Business Leader Horticulture at Signify. “According to our estimates, about 30% of the world’s greenhouse surface will be lit by 2025, and LED technology will light more than half of that surface. Therefore, we are continuously pursuing further development of our Horti LED partnerships worldwide, and Hortipar is a valuable addition.”

Signify continues to expand its Horticulture partner network, further demonstrating its commitment to lead the horticulture industry as the innovative LED lighting systems provider for greenhouses and indoor farming. 

--- END ---

 For further information, please contact:

Global Marcom Manager Horticulture at Signify

Daniela Damoiseaux

Tel: +31 6 31 65 29 69

E-mail: daniela.damoiseaux@signify.com

www.philips.com/horti

About Signify

Signify (Euronext: LIGHT) is the world leader in lighting for professionals and consumers and lighting for the Internet of Things. Our Philips products, Interact connected lighting systems and data-enabled services, deliver business value and transform life in homes, buildings and public spaces. With 2020 sales of EUR 6.5 billion, we have approximately 37,000 employees and are present in over 70 countries. We unlock the extraordinary potential of light for brighter lives and a better world. We achieved carbon neutrality in 2020, have been in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index since our IPO for four consecutive years and were named Industry Leader in 2017, 2018 and 2019. News from Signify is located at the Newsroom, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. Information for investors can be found on the Investor Relations page.

VIDEO: Is Hydroponic Produce Organic?

Aaron Fields, Eden Green Technology's Head of Horticulture
Photo from Eden Green Technology

The organic farming standards were created by the USDA in the 1990s when there was increased public awareness of the health and safety of our food. However, at that time, hydroponic farming wasn't as widespread as it is today. That leads us to question: is hydroponic produce organic? 

Check out this great video from Eden Green Technology, a hydroponic farm based in Texas. Aaron Fields, their Head of Horticulture, explains what organic really means and how hydroponic growing can be sometimes cleaner and safer. (Did you know? I hate to burst the organic bubble, but produce that is grown organically can still have some level of pesticides.)

AeroFarms Commences Construction On AgX Research Center

AeroFarms Wholly-Owned Subsidiary AeroFarms AgX LTD Has Started

Construction Focused On Some Recent Developments

by Disha Dadlani

03 Jul 2021

AeroFarms, a certified B Corporation, and specialist in indoor vertical farming announced that AeroFarms AgX LTD, its wholly-owned subsidiary in the UAE, has started construction in Abu Dhabi on the company’s Research Center focused on the latest developments for indoor vertical farming, innovation, and AgTech.

AgX will bring innovative research and development to the UAE and the Middle East to advance sustainable controlled environment agriculture (CEA) and vertical farming and help address broader global agriculture supply chain issues.

Last year, ADIO announced that it is providing $150m in incentives to bring global AgTech pioneers to Abu Dhabi, including its partnership with AeroFarms to build a vertical farming facility dedicated to developing next-generation agriculture in arid and desert climates.

The transformational R&D conducted at AeroFarms AgX is expected to enable new business lines, technologies, and growth of the AeroFarms platform while serving as a hub for regional expansion. AeroFarms AgX is expected to be completed and operational in the first quarter of 2022.

HE Dr Tariq Bin Hendi, Director General of ADIO, said: “This important milestone for AeroFarms AgX is another step in the realization of Abu Dhabi’s mission to ‘turn the desert green’. In line with this goal, ADIO is supporting innovative technology that has the potential to impact farming practices across the globe and improve the food production value chain worldwide. AeroFarms AgX will add to the growing capabilities of Abu Dhabi’s agriculture ecosystem while benefiting from the emirate’s plentiful land, natural heat, competitive energy prices, access to research universities, and skilled talent.”

AeroFarms AgX will be the largest indoor vertical farm of its kind for research and development in the world, leading the way in breakthrough innovation to solve some of the world’s most pressing agriculture challenges.

AeroFarms AgX will employ a projected 60 highly skilled engineers, horticulturists, and scientists and will have high-tech laboratories conducting organoleptic research and precision phenotyping, phytochemical analysis, advanced speed breeding, as well as next-generation machine vision, machine learning, robotics, and automation. AeroFarms AgX will also play a key role in Abu Dhabi’s AgTech ecosystem by working with local universities on research projects to tackle problems of agriculture within desert and arid climates.

David Rosenberg, Co-Founder, and CEO of AeroFarms commented: “This is an important development for AeroFarms as we expand globally and leverage our R&D and growing expertise. AeroFarms has been the global leader for controlled environment agriculture since 2004, and we will utilize this cutting-edge R&D Center to conduct the latest research in plant science, vertical farming, and automation, accelerating innovation cycles and commercializing products.

Our vision has always been to leverage our expertise in plant biology and build on our successful history of collaborating with government, universities, industry and major international companies. We are pleased to take this step forward and proud to be a catalyst for helping to establish the Emirate of Abu Dhabi as a global hub for AgTech innovation.”

Lead photo: AeroFarms to build world's largest indoor vertical farm in Abu Dhabi. AeroFarms

AEROFARMS AEROFARM ABU DHABI AGX INDOOR FARMING

Why Does Energy Efficiency Matter When Selecting LED Grow Lights?

Exclusives From Urban Ag News

June 29, 2021 Chris Higgins

Learn the 3 things to consider when choosing energy-efficient lighting in your greenhouse or vertical farm. 

Before we get started, let’s set some ground rules for this article. 

1. I want to believe that everyone wants to do what’s right for the planet as long as they think their business can afford it, so we will not focus on energy efficiency and its impact on sustainability. 

2. In this article I will not post the name of suppliers or the price of the lights. The price of the light will definitely impact people’s decisions and will vary widely based on the volume of lights being purchased and the supplier providing it. 

3. This article is not about light quality or light spectrum. To look for information on spectrum please read this article: Why I Still Believe in Red/Blue LED Grow Lights

4. This article is written with commercial greenhouse produce growers in mind, but we do include a model which shows high output led grow lights running for long hours per day which could imply a greenhouse cannabis crop. 

5. We are fully aware that when you change the amount of energy going into the light as well as the type of electric light (HPS vs LED) one is using, it will have an impact on the climate in the growing/production area. Factors like heat and relative humidity would need to be taken into consideration if one was taking a holistic approach to energy savings on the farm. 

6. All lights have different output (measured in PPF.) In this article we are going to make the assumption that a grower is using the same amount of fixtures per acre regardless of output. For simplicity we are also going to assume that the grower is running the lights for the same amount of time. We are fully aware that this will have an impact on the potential yield of the crop. 

7. All greenhouses can require a different amount of lights per acre to achieve the target light intensities. I am using an average of the amount of lights per acre. Height of the greenhouse, width of the bays, placement of walkways, crop layout, crop density, as well as many other variables will impact the exact number of lights per acre. 

__________

There is a growing amount of discussion around the environmental sustainability of a greenhouse or a vertical farm. Much of this discussion is being driven by two or three big energy hogs inside these production facilities. This includes the grow lights and climate management equipment like heaters and cooling units. 

We all know that LED grow lights are more efficient than the older HPS lights that growers have used for decades, but do we know just exactly how to measure that? And do we understand how that will have a direct impact on not only energy savings but the operational cost at the farm? For those growing in a greenhouse, understanding these numbers during dark winter months can have a huge impact on electricity bills.

3 FOCUS POINTS 

1. Start by understanding the amount of light you need.
Urban Ag News recommends going to websites like Suntracker or the ESRI DLI maps site. These websites allow anyone to determine the historical DLI monthly averages for their individual locations. For this example I am going to use the area where my grandparents farm is located in southwestern Michigan. As one can see this is an area of the United States that has very dark winters. 

2. Work with a trusted advisor or extension specialist to determine the amount of hours your crop needs to grow consistently year round. Remember not all crops have the same light requirements and some crops have very specific photoperiods which can determine the amount of hours one can light their crops. Use all of this information to see when you will need supplemental light and how much light you will need to supplement with. 

For this example I am going to use 1 acre of greenhouse tomatoes in a glass greenhouse located in southwestern Michigan.

3. Now let’s calculate how much it’s going to cost you to run the grow lights for the estimated hours you and your advisor determined were needed per year to get the desired yields. 

• a) To provide a baseline, we started with traditional 1000w HPS lights which are highlighted in yellow.

• b) Then we chose six different LED grow light fixtures. Because the light spectrum has an impact on how efficiently the lights run, we chose three broad spectrum fixtures and three that are red and blue only.

• c) Since HPS is the baseline, the final column labeled “savings” shows how much the total savings per year one would achieve when replacing traditional HPS with the latest LED grow light technology.

• d) We made a few important assumptions in this example. First, the cost per kwh is around the USA national average of $0.09/kwh. Second, the same amount of grow lights would be used even though there would be some relative differences in umols/m2/s measurements for two of the samples. We decided not to change them because that would have an impact on uniformity (the even spread of the light over one’s entire crop) and associated capital cost not addressed in this article.

View fullsize

IMPORTANT NOTES! 
It’s important to remember the 7 assumptions made at the beginning of this article and that lights are not equal. This chart only compares ppf (output) and w (watts). We elected to account for the difference in output by changing the amount of hours we estimated you would need to run the lights. Another way to look at this would be to remember the Golden Rule of Light in which 1% increase in light is equal to 1% increase in yield. 

Running these simple calculations will show you why you need to look at energy efficient lighting and in general the importance of researching energy efficient equipment in general. What these calculations do not show is the quality of some fixtures over others. Buyers must always be aware of the value of warranties, ease of returns, durability and quality of product plus accuracy of your vendor to create detailed information on the best way to use and install fixtures. We understand that this topic is intimidating for most, but this is a major purchase for your farm. Make sure to take the time to learn the math and do your homework before purchasing. 

Diving into these calculations will also highlight how much energy will be required to grow a wide variety of crops consistently with uniformed yields year round in climates with low light. Hopefully in articles to come we can discuss what this means for our environment and how we might develop additional ways to lower that ecological footprint. 

For help in calculating the energy efficiency of grow lights you are considering, please email us and we will connect you with professionals capable of helping you make an informed decision.

Chris Higgins is the founder of Urban Ag News, as well as General Manager and co-Owner of Hort Americas, LLC a wholesale supply company focused on all aspects of the horticultural industries. With over 20 years of commercial horticulture industry experience, Chris is dedicated to the horticulture and niche agriculture industries and is inspired by the current opportunities for continued innovation in the field of controlled environment agriculture. Message him here.

Tagged GreenhouseGreenhouse TechnologyIndoor Ag TechnologyTechnologyVertical Farming

USA - GEORGIA - Giant Photovoltaic Canopy Tops Net-Positive Kendeda Building In Atlanta

Jenna McKnight | 6 June 2021

US firms Miller Hull Partnership and Lord Aeck Sargent have designed a highly sustainable building at Georgia Tech university that generates more electricity and recycles more water than it uses.

The project – officially called The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design – is located at the Georgia Institute of Technology, a public research university in central Atlanta.

The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design is in Georgia

The educational building was designed by Seattle's Miller Hull Partnership in collaboration with local firm Lord Aeck Sargent, which was purchased by tech startup Katerra in 2018.

The project was backed by the Kendeda Fund, a private family foundation that supports a range of social and environmental initiatives. Skanska served as the general contractor.

The project is a highly sustainable building

The facility recently earned certification from the Seattle-based International Living Future Institute under its Living Building Challenge – one of the most rigorous green-building certification programmes in the world. The facility is considered to be a "regenerative building."

"Regenerative buildings create more resources than they use, including energy and water," the team said.

Classrooms and a design studio are included in the design

"The project's goal is to support the educational mission of Georgia Tech while transforming the architecture, engineering and construction industry in the Southeast US by advancing regenerative building and innovation."

The facility – which totals 47,000 square feet (4,366 square metres) – holds a range of spaces for students and faculty.

These include a design studio, two large classrooms, several laboratories, a seminar room, an auditorium and office space. There also is a rooftop garden with an apiary and pollinator garden.

The building's rooftop garden

Certain areas of the building are open to the public for special events.

While designing the facility, the team took inspiration from vernacular architecture – in particular, large porches that are commonly found on Southern homes.

"The project reimagines this regionally ubiquitous architectural device for the civic scale of the campus," said Miller Hull.

Rectangular in plan, the building is topped with a giant white canopy supported by steel columns. On the west elevation, the roof extends 40 feet (12 metres) to form a large, shaded area below with steps and seating.

A white canopy tops the building

In addition to providing shade, the canopy generates electricity. Its 900-plus solar panels form a 330-kilowatt array that produces enough power to exceed the building's energy needs.

For the exterior cladding, the team incorporated a mix of accoya wood, metal, glass and recycled masonry. The foundation walls are made of concrete.

Materials such as metal form the exterior cladding

Mass timber was used for the structural system due to it having a smaller embodied carbon footprint compared to concrete and steel, the team said.

In large-span areas of the building, the team used glue-laminated trusses with steel bottom chords.

Details on the building's exterior

"This hybrid approach reduces the quantity of wood required while making routing of building services more efficient," the team said.

For the structural decking, nail-laminated timber panels were made off-site and craned into place. A local nonprofit organisation, Lifecycle Building Center, sourced the lumber from discarded movie sets in Georgia.

Large windows flood spaces with natural light

Structural elements, along with mechanical systems, were left exposed so they could serve as a teaching tool.

Salvaged and recycled materials are found throughout the facility. For instance, stairs in the building's atrium are made of lumber off-cuts, and countertops and benches are made of storm-felled trees.

Mechanical systems were left exposed

Water recycling is also part of the building's sustainable design. Rainwater is captured, treated and used in sinks, showers and drinking fountains. In turn, that greywater is channelled to a constructed wetland, where it is treated and used to support vegetation.

The facility is also fitted with composting toilets, which nearly eliminate the use of potable water. The human waste is turned into fertilizer that is used off-site.

The rooftop has a pollinator garden

The building recently earned its Living Building Challenge (LBC) certification following a year-long assessment, in which it needed to prove it is net-positive for energy and water usage.

"It generates more energy from onsite renewable sources than it uses," the team said. "The building also collects and treats more rainwater onsite than it uses for all purposes, including for drinking."

The LBC programme evaluates buildings in seven categories – place, water, energy, health and happiness, materials, equity and beauty.

The Kendeda Building is the 28th building in the world to achieve LBC certification and the first in Georgia. The state's warm and humid climate poses a particular challenge when it comes to energy efficiency, the team said.

A large classroom

A communal workspace

"In spite of this, over the performance period the building generated 225 per cent of the energy needed to power all of its electrical systems from solar panels on its roof," the team said.

"It also collected, treated, and infiltrated 15 times the amount of water needed for building functions."

Students gather under the canopy outside

Other American projects that are designed to meet the LBC standards include the wood-clad Frick Environmental Center in Pittsburgh, designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson. It achieved certification in 2018.

Photography is by Jonathan Hillyer and Gregg Willett.

Project credits:

Design architect: The Miller Hull Partnership, LLP
Collaborating and prime architect: Lord Aeck Sargent, a Katerra Company
Contractor: Skanska USA
Landscape architect: Andropogon
Civil engineer: Long Engineering
Mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineer: PAE and Newcomb & Boyd
Structural engineer: Uzun & Case
Greywater systems: Biohabitatssolar panels

INDIA: Gourmet Garden Raises Over USD 3 Million Funding

Gourmet Garden aims to expand their zero-contamination farming operations, broaden their portfolio with additional fresh categories, boost customer experience by deploying India’s first end-to-end B2C tech-enabled cold-chain, and improve ease of ordering with a mobile app and refreshed website.

View fullsize

01 July, 2021

by BW Online Bureau

Arjun Balaji Co-founder and Director Gourmet Garden and Vishal Narayanaswamy Co-founder Gourmet Garden.png

Gourmet Garden, the first full-range zero-contamination F&V brand in the country, has announced its latest round of funding of Rs 25 Crores led by Beyond Next Ventures, M Venture Partners, and existing investors Incubate India & Whiteboard Capital among others.

Established in early 2019, Gourmet Garden is known for offering the widest range of zero-contamination vegetables and fruits and other curated essential offerings. They stand out on quality and safety owing to their patented naturoponic farming operations, certified organic farming extensions, and a lean 1-day & 2-touch supply chain. Already a leading brand in Bengaluru and Chennai, the start-up is founded by Arjun Balaji, erstwhile a Partner at McKinsey and Company, and Vishal Narayanaswamy who launched among the first hydroponic farms in India.

With this funding, Gourmet Garden aims to expand their zero-contamination farming operations, broaden their portfolio with additional fresh categories, boost customer experience by deploying India’s first end-to-end B2C tech-enabled cold-chain, and improve ease of ordering with a mobile app and refreshed website.

Arjun Balaji, Co-founder, and Director, Gourmet Garden said, "We are fulfilling the consumer need-gap for a brand offering wholesome, distinctly fresh and safe food essentials for everyday consumption. Most other offerings are aggregating commodity supply, however, our focus has been to operate end-to-end and focus disproportionately on source quality and safety, which is at the core of overall customer experience and differentiation.”

"We wish to be the favoured brand destination for all things wholesome, fresh and curated. Our patented Naturoponic farming yields the highest quality vegetables and is our customers’ most loved offering. Essentials grown in certified organic farms along with an assortment of imported fruits make up our extended safe F&V range. In addition, we also offer a selection of authentic spices and dry fruits, and will soon be launching wholesome breads and organic sauces & dips for a wider range in fresh” said Vishal Narayanaswamy, Co-founder, Gourmet Garden.

The company now spans 60,000 customers in Bengaluru and Chennai alone. Over 75% orders, every month come from repeat customers, a testimony to their loyalty-building quality.

Tsuyoshi Ito, CEO, and Akito Arima, Agri/FoodTech Lead Capitalist, Beyond Next Ventures said, “We are delighted to see that their sustainable cultivation techniques and quality of succulent vegetables are comparable to those in Japan. The focus on affordable, high-quality and safe fruits and vegetables is rising in urban India. Gourmet Garden possesses a full basket of high-quality produce, delivered in shortest time keeping their loyal customers happy.”

“Simply put, we partner with great founder entrepreneurs,” commented Mayank Parekh, Founder - M Venture Partners, a Singapore-based venture capitalist. “The distinctive talent combination of Arjun and Vishal is the perfect formula to scale this incredible offering for consumers”

The existing investors are very excited by the progress thus far and have extended their commitments further. Nao Murakami, Founder - Incubate Fund India, said, “Since our initial investment in the start-up a few months ago, the founders and the team have shown a very strong execution capability. Even under COVID-19 pandemic and the series of lockdowns, the team managed to operate with full intensity despite a leaner covid-impacted team, showing agility to solve challenges. This is clearly backed by their passion and conviction”

"We continue to be very excited by the organic growth and customer love that has become the cornerstone of Gourmet Garden's promise. The offering has scaled well and is all set to become the largest clean and contamination-free fresh essentials D2C brand in India and we are looking forward to the journey ahead with Arjun, Vishal, and our co-investors" said Anshu Prasher, General Partner at Whiteboard Capital.

Tags assigned to this article:

Gourmet Garden fundraising fund investment investment investors Covid 19 zero-contamination vegetables Organic Farming

Q&A, Expert Source: Viraj Puri, Co-Founder And CEO of Gotham Greens, An Indoor Farming Company With Hydroponic Greenhouses Located In Cities Across America

Exclusives From Urban Ag News

June 2, 2021

View fullsize

A Q&A with Viraj Puri, Co-Founder, and CEO of Gotham Greens

For those that do not know Gotham Greens, please tell us a little bit about the company and when the company was formed?

View fullsize

Viraj Puri, Co-Founder, and CEO of Gotham Greens

Viraj: We are on a mission to transform how and where fresh food is grown. Gotham Greens is a pioneer in indoor greenhouse agriculture and a leading producer of fresh and sustainably- grown salad greens, herbs, dressings, dips, and cooking sauces. By using hydroponic systems in 100% renewable energy-powered greenhouses, our farms use 95% less water and 97% less land than conventional farming. Since our launch in 2011, Gotham Greens has grown from a single urban rooftop greenhouse in Brooklyn, N.Y., to a multi-state greenhouse operator and one of the largest hydroponic leafy green producers in North America.

How many farms do you operate?  And where are those farms located? What do you grow?

Viraj: Gotham Greens currently operates 500,000 square feet of greenhouses across five U.S. states (and growing), including locations in New York City, Chicago, Providence, R.I., Baltimore, and Denver. Through our national network of high-tech, hydroponic greenhouses, Gotham Greens produces fresh, long-lasting, and tasty leafy greens and herbs along with a line of plant-based salad dressings, dips, and sauces, available in more than 2,000 retailers in 40 states, restaurants in select cities, and foodservice customers all year-round.

Why did you choose a greenhouse over a vertical farm?

Viraj: Gotham Greens is focused on building a more sustainable food system and we are drawn to adaptive reuse projects in cities across America. Gotham Greens has a track record of established, robust and proven operations and technology compared to vertical farming, which is still a relatively young industry. Our hydroponic greenhouse technology uses less energy than vertical farming. While vertical farming is an innovative extension of modern greenhouse farming with overlapping principles that has garnered quite a bit of interest, there are still questions surrounding the technology and financial viability of this farming method. In theory, fully indoor environments that rely on artificial light and HVAC systems can offer very high yields and levels of climate control, pest management, and food safety, but these benefits can be outweighed by significantly higher capital and operating costs than our hydroponic greenhouses. 

What are your predictions for the future of controlled environment agriculture?

Viraj: For many parts of the country, it’s difficult to get fresh, locally-grown produce all year round. Since more than 95% of lettuce grown in the United States comes from California and Arizona, by the time it reaches other markets, it loses its quality, taste, and nutritional value – and has a much shorter shelf life. Gotham Greens, and controlled environment agriculture at large, provide an opportunity to transform our food system for the better by growing more fresh foods closer to where consumers live — all while using fewer natural resources. 

Consumers, retailers and foodservice operators are increasingly recognizing the reliability, consistency and high quality of greenhouse-grown produce that’s grown in close proximity to large portions of the population and we only expect this model to continue to grow as consumers pay greater attention to the food they eat and its impact on the planet. While indoor farming may not represent the future of all fresh produce production, for certain types of crops, it will become much more prevalent in the coming years.

You can hear Viraj Puri speak at the virtual Indoor AgTech Innovation Summit June 24-25, 2021. 

Register Now!

Learn more: @gothamgreens or gothamgreens.com

CEA Producers Join To Support Data-Driven USDA Project

Four agricultural producers have joined with nonprofit Resource Innovation Institute (RII) under the banner of its USDA Conservation Innovation Grant-funded project: Data-Driven Market Transformation for Efficient, Sustainable Controlled Environment Agriculture.

AppHarvest (Ky.) and Revol Greens (Texas) are vanguards of modern greenhouse cultivation, while Elevate Farms (N.J.) and Fifth Season (Penn.) are pioneers in vertical farming. The producers will serve as initial pilot partners in support of the USDA-funded project that aims to transform the controlled environment agriculture (CEA) market sector toward more efficient production through coordinated research on energy and water practices spearheaded by RII and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).

“We are thrilled to unite with these categories in the name of innovation and agricultural resilience,” said Derek Smith, Executive Director of RII. “Working together with these initial pilot partners and others to follow, we can unlock basic knowledge about performance metrics that will serve as beacons of efficiency and productivity for CEA producers globally.” In addition to geographic diversity, the producers represent an expanding global market growing a range of crops in indoor environments, from microgreens to tomatoes to berries. 

Resource Innovation Institute’s PowerScore resource benchmarking platform enables CEA producers to confidentially validate their innovative practices. Using standardized key performance indicators, PowerScore helps producers gain powerful insights into their operational performance while protecting strategic business interests.

“RII is trusted throughout the supply chain to provide data analysis and peer-reviewed guidance to producers, vendors, governments and utilities. Our consortium of members and partners are committed to collaboratively study the most sustainable horticultural practices across climate zones, building types, technologies and techniques to guide decision-makers on how to advance agricultural resilience,” said RII’s Smith.

To ensure the highest level of PowerScore data protection, RII has engaged Management Science Associates (MSA), global companies in data security and analytics, with expertise in HIPAA compliance and benchmarking for associations across industries. Together with producers, investors, and supply chain partners, RII continues to develop protocols that clearly define access, use, and ownership of data.

“We believe that the only way to fundamentally build an industry starts with data capture and accountability,” said Travis Kanellos, Chief Strategy Officer, Elevate Farms. “Our approach from day one has been to drive yields and profitability through metrics and KPIs. We believe RII will validate our approach." 

View fullsize

For more information:
Resource Innovation Center
www.resourceinnovation.org 

View fullsize

23 June 2021

USA - WISCONSIN: Kenosha Plan Commission Backs Plans For Indoor Garden Facility Near City Airport

DAVE FIDLIN

Kenosha News correspondent

June 27, 2021

A food distributor’s plans for a year-round indoor garden facility on Kenosha’s northwest side moved one step closer to reality, following a city panel’s favorable recommendation.

The Plan Commission on Thursday reviewed and advanced a proposed year-round standalone indoor garden facility adjacent to the existing Gordon Food Service distribution plant at 10901 38th St.

GFS plans to partner with Square Roots, an organization specializing in urban farming, in the development. A new 8,715-square-foot facility will be used to grow fresh produce, greens, and herbs.

Gordon has forged similar partnerships with Square Roots at other distribution centers within the U.S., the first taking place two years ago near the company’s Michigan-based corporate headquarters.

At a Thursday’s meeting, GFS representatives indicated the indoor garden facility would serve a variety of purposes, with about 60 percent of it going toward direct-to-consumer retail sales and the balance toward distribution.

Down the road, company officials have indicated the new operation could have an educational component, such as workshops on how basil is grown. Partnerships with nearby colleges and universities also were discussed as a possibility.

During deliberations, several members of the panel lauded the plans for the site. Commissioner Lydia Spottswood said she viewed Square Roots’ addition as an example of forward-thinking development.

“It seems like a brilliant opportunity for more and more (of this type of development) to happen, given the proximity to Lake Michigan,” Spottswood said. “We’re trying to brand this as a city of innovation, and this is an innovative process.”

Commissioner Charles Bradley said he, too, was pleased with the proposal, though he did weigh in on the proximity of the development, which is near the Kenosha Regional Airport.

“I’m happy, but I am a little surprised by the location,” Bradley said.!

Commissioners also discussed GFS and Square Roots’ planned building materials for the new facility, which include the use of metal shipping containers on a portion of the facility.

According to information commissioners reviewed, the shipping containers will be accessible from inside the building and will include windows cut into the ends of the containers, alongside perforated architectural metal screens along the exposed sidewalls.

The companies’ tentative plans state the shipping containers will be stacked two rows high, 10 containers wide. A portion of the facility also will be constructed with more traditional building materials, including a concrete foundation and exterior walls made of insulated metal.

“This is a really interesting, adaptive reuse,” Spottswood said.

The City Council, which has final say on the proposal, will take up the Plan Commission’s recommendation and could act on it in July.

Meeting in person

Thursday’s Plan Commission meeting was the first time the appointed body gathered in-person, since COVID-19 lockdowns forced an abrupt pivot to virtual meetings in March 2020.

As is the case with all Kenosha municipal meetings, the Plan Commission is reverting back to its pre-pandemic practices.

“I’m very excited about it,” said Ald. David Bogdala, who serves on the Plan Commission. “We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, and I’m glad to see, for the most part, that we’re back to normal.”

Lead photo: A concept rendering of the southeast view of the proposed Square Roots and Gordon Food Service indoor garden facility adjacent to the existing GFS distribution plant at 10901 38th St.

USA - Pennsylvania: Container Farm To Be Delivered To School In Oakmont

CEA Advisors announced today that they have delivered another custom-built 40’ Growtainer® Vertical Farm to the Riverview School District in Oakmont, PA. Unlike other school’s container farms that can only teach one method of production, this farm is specifically designed to teach the students about multiple growing methods.

The Oakmont Growtainer has three distinct chambers to provide a real hands-on experience for the students, including a classroom/lab/germination area, an LED-lit multi-level soil chamber, and an LED-lit multi-level hydroponic system.

Glenn Behrman, President, and founder of CEA Advisors, a global controlled environment consulting firm and the manufacturer of Growtainers worked with the school’s staff to design a cost-effective system that could provide various levels of a learning experience as well as providing fresh leafy greens for the cafeteria for their students of all ages.

“Due to Corona virus supply chain issues, the school couldn’t wait for our Growracks to arrive from our manufacturing partner in Holland. So we designed and built a custom multi-level racking system for the ebb and flood hydroponic installation including automatic irrigation and water monitoring and dosing.”

The soil side is also a multi-level design with LED lighting and an irrigation system. The climate is independently controlled in each chamber including de-humidification. In the next month or so the entire campus, including the Growtainer will be powered by solar.

For more information:
CEA Advisors LLC
Glenn Behrman, Founder, and President 
gb@cea-advisors.com
www.cea-advisors.com

View fullsize

23 June 2021

Indoor Farming And The Prospects For Profitability

By Simon Harvey

29 Jun 2021

Concerns over climate change and food security have fuelled optimism over controlled-environment farming but operators face questions over their forecasts for profitability.

Growing fresh produce in a controlled indoor environment using technology inputs has, in some cases, been around for almost two decades. But it has only recently started to gain traction linked to climate change and sustainability concerns. However, what is the path to profitability for indoor farming? And can it be competitive?

Indoor or controlled-environment farming is a niche yet expanding sector, but questions have been raised over whether these operations are profitable, and are able to compete with traditional field-grown crops, given the capital-intensive nature of the industry.

Much, however, depends on individual operations, and the objectives in terms of scale – whether it be targeting mass-market consumers or local buyers, the geographical location, etc – whether the farm is in a hot or cold climate, along with the types of crops grown and, most importantly, the technologies employed to replicate the natural environment at the lowest cost possible.

Vertical farming, per se, is the most popular system where crops are grown on stacked units in a warehouse, underground tunnel, or even in shipping containers, requiring artificial lighting, usually through expensive LEDs to mimic sunlight. But some operators, particularly in hot countries such as the Middle East and Asia, are growing crops in high-tech greenhouses using mostly natural light.

Nonetheless, even the companies in those hot climates need LED lighting to supplement the daylight hours, and, generally speaking, all operators within controlled-environment farming are similar in terms of the inputs such as labour, ventilation, irrigation, and cooling. And all require huge capital investment to purchase land, build the farm, put in the appropriate technology, and run it.

Despite the costs, indoor farming is viewed through a longer-term lens to address environmental concerns like the decreasing availability of land, unpredictable weather patterns and climate change, and the limited resources on hand to feed the world’s growing population.

Securing future harvests

Fraser Black, the CEO of UK-based Crop Health and Protection (CHAP), one of the country’s agri-tech centres and funded by Innovate UK, a government-backed agency, gives his interpretation of the current landscape.

“I think it is going to be a while before you see millionaires in vertical farming,” Black says. “It’s still at that point where you are justifying the costs and developing the market.

“I think there are enough people around now that are breaking even and starting to become profitable, but we are not there yet. Look at electric cars, we are sort of following that same trajectory.”

Controlled-environment farming comes with advantages: less water than regular agriculture and without the need for pesticides, and higher yields linked to year-round production. And, from the consumer perspective, better-quality produce because the nutrient inputs can be controlled, and freshness, because the crops tend to be grown close to the source.

For food importers like those in the Middle East and some parts of Asia, the technology offers food security, too.

All those benefits stack up through the eyes of private equity and venture-capital funds, which are ploughing vast sums of money into the sector.

This is no doubt in the hope of reaping profits when indoor farming has reached scale and matured beyond the current leafy greens and herbs – although soft fruits such as strawberries and blueberries, and tomatoes, cucumbers, and mushrooms, are starting to emerge.

Black also addresses the consumer angle and how controlled-environment farming is likely to develop over the coming years.

“The first decades are going to see people getting involved, learning how to do it, and leading the charge, and it will be niche. But, as they learn and as they build, and they learn how to get the costs down, and control the costs, the more mainstream it will become, and then more people pile in and the bigger the scale.

“There are other points of differentiation people are picking up on, which I think will project it forward until such time that the volume is big enough and people recognise all of the benefits that it will become profitable like other systems.

“Trying to compete with the major growers and put it all in the major supermarkets right now is more difficult because they don’t have the volume. But I think those sort of trends are starting to shift.’”

Sky Greens in Singapore is one of the oldest vertical-farming businesses in Asia, founded in 2012 by Jack Ng to grow leafy greens under glasshouses using hydroponic systems and natural light. While Ng points out that labour is the biggest operational cost, he also says that Sky Greens saves money by not employing LEDs, enabling the business to focus on yield and productivity.

“Our energy use is similar to traditional farming, so we can save about 75% on labour,” Ng says. “Our running costs are cheaper than traditional farming, the only thing is the investment cost. Because our output is ten times higher than traditional farming, the investment costs average out.”

He adds: “We have proven in Singapore that we can grow and sell mass-market vegetables. The reason many vertical farms aren’t competitive is because they are using artificial lighting, which is a high energy cost, so your payback is high and your overheads are high, plus you have the replacement costs because LED lights only have a two to three-year lifespan.”

Ng says that the price of locally-grown crops is important given that Singapore is an import-dependent economy when it comes to food, having to contend with cheap products coming in from Malaysia, Indonesia, and China, but its optimum yield gives Sky Greens the ability to compete.

“Our farm operation is profitable. Using our system, based on studies, the payback is about five years but your crop price has to be at a certain level. Therefore, what we produce is usually the higher-end vegetables like pak choi, which is, in a sense, a smaller market.”

Indicative of the costs, Plenty Unlimited in California, a vertical-farming business set up in 2014, has raised $500m to date from investors as it seeks to scale up production of leafy greens such as lettuce, kale, and rocket, along with tomatoes and strawberries.

Others, like AeroFarms, established in 2004 in New Jersey, and Infarm in Berlin founded in 2013, are turning to special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, to raise funds and gain public listings.

AeroFarms, which grows leafy greens, herbs, blueberries, and raspberries using aeroponic systems, recently entered a SPAC deal with Spring Valley Acquisition Company valued at $1.2bn, which will give the business access to more than $300m in cash to invest.

Infarm is also proposing a SPAC, said to be valued at $1bn, to expand from herbs and greens into chillies, mushrooms, and tomatoes, all grown using hydroponic technology. The company has so far raised around $400m.

Expensive seeds to sow

Nonetheless, the chief executive of Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS) in Scotland, a tech firm that designs and patents controlled-environment platforms using artificial intelligence and robotics, with a particular focus on productivity and efficiencies, is critical of the sums being raised relative to the individual revenues generated, and the technologies employed.

IGS CEO David Farquhar says many of the vertical-farm operators “are still a long way from being profitable”.

“The first important thing is to get our positioning in the market right. There are a lot of very big and noisy companies that have had to raise a huge amount of money because they are trying to reinvent the wheel,” he explains.

“There is no one magic bullet that makes these things economically competitive. It is a combination of about six subsystems. There are two major costs in commercial agriculture in an enclosed environment.

“One is energy and the other one is labour. If you can take the labour out, and we’ve managed to reduce it by about 80%, that is a major cost-saving and will make you much more economically efficient.”

Farquhar argues that there is no need to have numerous people tending to these farms, as is depicted on many a website, if AI technology and robotics are employed, which reduce costs and ultimately helps with the profitability of indoor farming.

He continues: “We give recipes of weather to the AI and the computer does all that work and the mechanical handling system does all that work. Once you have put the seed into the substrate, in the inserts that go into the growth trays, there is really no need for human intervention at all.

“And if you don’t put humans in, you are not going to introduce bugs and disease and things, and therefore you don’t need to use fungicides and herbicides, whatever. That means you don’t need to wash the crop, which means that you are saving more money but also you are going to increase the shelf life by about 50%-100% and you are also going to reduce waste.”

Dr. Nate Storey, a co-founder of Plenty, says it’s surprising how quickly a vertical-farm operator can become profitable, compared to those in field crops, but it’s more difficult for a “company that’s raised a couple of hundred million dollars – it takes time for them to grow into that investment than it does for a farm that you just stood up”.

“Agriculture has historically been a low-margin industry, especially field production. And one thing we want to correct as we move into a new era of agriculture is to make it much more profitable. Having a better margin also makes you more investable.

“If we can get the flywheel spinning, we can drive costs out of the business faster and pull capital into the business in a way that allows us to expand much more quickly than you could probably imagine today,” Storey suggests.

“We are on a cost curve, more so than some of the other folks in the space, because we have invested very heavily in R&D. That builds our own internal cost curve, which allows us to drive yield up by seven times and costs out by 50% over the course of two years. So we have this kind of crazy economic curve that we get to ride towards higher profitability.”

Storey says that Plenty is competitive with field crops: “I know that’s not true for everyone but again, people have some catch up to play. People are just waiting for these external cost curves to drive their costs down.”

Jonathan Webb, the CEO who founded US vertical-farming business AppHarvest in 2017, says that scale is key to profitability.

The company, based in Kentucky, grows a wide range of tomatoes in glass houses and has recently invested $60m to buy artificial intelligence and robotics firm Root AI, which has the technology to predict yields and evaluate crop health.

While Webb admits that one of its farms in the city of Morehead is a user of LED lighting, it mainly uses natural sunlight, and it also recycles rainwater to save on costs.

“If you are just in a warehouse then you can’t use sunlight. So, for us, the two free inputs would be sunlight and rainwater. We are only adding in technology when we need it,” Webb says.

“If you package all that and go at scale, which ends up getting our construction costs down and our operating costs down, we can compete with conventional pricing today. If you are not using sunlight and you are not using rainwater how are you possibly going to compete with conventional crops and keep your costs low? It doesn’t make sense.”

Webb adds AppHarvest’s new Morehead facility is going through the ramp-up stage and costs usually level out in year two. “Year three on is where you really start to drive profitability,” he concedes.

“As the industry matures and scales, we are going to see our costs for lighting come down, you’ll see costs for steel and glass come down, and then it becomes that self-fulfilling prophecy because, as the industry scales, your material costs are going to be lower and the business models themselves will be fine-tuned to better perform.”

Smart applications of technology

In the Middle East, Pure Harvest is growing tomatoes and strawberries in high-tech glasshouses using natural sunlight and only uses LEDs to a small degree because they have more daylight hours and more intense sunlight than other parts of the world.

The business, founded in 2016 in Abu Dhabi, is about to move into leafy greens, with capsicums, cucumbers, and other berry fruits in the pipeline.

Majed Halawi, the vice president for growth at Pure Harvest, says that “it’s completely uneconomical” to use artificial lighting, although LEDs are used for “control and steering… but only to supplement the natural light”.

However, Pure Harvest doesn’t use stacked units like vertical-farm operators, and the company is very different in its objective, which is mainly to address food security and reduce the Emirates’ reliance on food imports.

“Where we compete and where we position ourselves is that we are this local, very high-quality product that is at a discounted price to what comes from Europe and outside of the market,” Halawi explains.

“We have a lot of similarities to a vertical farm in terms of climate management, however, our operating strategy and our set up of the greenhouses and the facilities is different. We find we have a more efficient set-up.

“Vertical farms bank on selling their produce at a very high cost, assuming the customers would pay them a premium for the fact they are grown on a vertical farm.

“However, what we find in this market in the Middle East is it doesn’t make any sense to be growing using vertical farms because firstly, the consumer is very price-conscious, so you need to be able to compete with your traditional farms and imports, and, secondly, we have such an abundance of natural light.”

AppHarvest’s Webb believes that controlled-environment farming has a bright future, given the unpredictability of the weather and climate change, and will eventually become a necessity to ensure the long-term supply of fresh produce. As the sector expands and scales, the cost of borrowing is likely to come down too, he says.

“We feel we are really at that tipping point. Over the next ten years, our estimation is you will see tens of billions of dollars flood into controlled-environment agriculture globally, and it’s because of the need. You will see scale and you will see profitability immediately because the industry can be profitable if you design the right facility in the right region.”

This feature was initially published in the June 2021 issue of Just Food magazine.

VIDEO: France’s First ‘Vertical Farm’ Sets Its Sights On Sustainability

View fullsize

There’s no soil and no sunshine, just stacks of boxes of microgreens and herbs, robot sprinklers and LED lights at France’s first ‘vertical farm’. The aromatic plants grown by Jungle company in a hangar in the northern French town Château-Thierry will soon supply the national supermarket chain Monoprix. Eventually, it is expected to produce eight million plants a year without any of them ever seeing the light of day.

Click here to watch the short video of the news.

Source: Yahoo News
Photo: Screenshot from the video on Yahoo news

What Is Driving The UK’s CEA boom?

“In the UK, fruits and vegetables are quite cheap in comparison to other European countries and other parts of the world. In the UK, the market has been squeezed by supermarkets that squeeze out the margins of the supply chain,” said Andrew Lloud, COO at Intelligent Growth Solutions, during a panel at the Indoor AgTech Innovation Summit.  

During the session, three UK-supplier panelists elaborated on the topic. Joining were, Andrew Lloud, COO at IGS, Ben Crowther, Co-founder and CTO at LettUs Grow, Jen Bromley, Head of Plant R&D at Vertical Future, and Oscar Brennecke with Rethink Events who led the conversation. 

The main findings of the panel were that the UK has been lucky with its well-established greenhouse industry which offers a great foundation for vertical farmers to understand the CEA space. 

However, at the same time, it's quite costly to produce indoors given the high electricity and transport costs. This might change over time, due to several renewable energies coming into the market that will allow for cheaper production. Later on, the panelists will elaborate on the differences between the US and Europe, being monocropping whereas EU farmers grow more different varieties at the same time.

What makes the UK CEA space unique?
Andrew noted that UK consumers are willing to pay a certain price for fruits and vegetables. However, indoor ag bring along high electricity costs, whereas UK transport costs are high as well. Next to that, the economic and political dynamic being post-Brexit and currently battling the pandemic has highlighted its challenges. “Technology can economically viable grow a wide variety of crops, forming part of the food mix in the UK and in other parts of the world.”

73% of the surface area available for farming, said Ben Crowther, Co-Founder and CTO at LettUs Grow, a UK-vertical farming supplier, however, the UK still imports half of the produce.” He claimed that there’s an opportunity to make things more sustainable and efficient. Jen Bromley, Head of Plant R&D at Vertical Future, said that it’s not always about growing at a large scale, but that it differs per crop. “It’s always about pushing boundaries to see where the economics can work for the crop.” 

Opportunities 
More renewables and power generation are coming in, so there’s the opportunity to drop in things like vertical farms according to Andrew. “The real trick is to see if you can get a tariff from the energy provider so that the price per kw/h consumed is optimized to grow plants in the cheapest way. 

Jen added that there are some obvious low-hanging fruits that can be taken within the market. Such as leafy greens, herbs, and fruits, given they work really well with the infrastructure. “However, there are also markets we can go deeper into, such as proteins, high-care products that can all be managed very well in the vertical farming space.”

Andrew added that a wide variety of crops will eventually be important, depending on your location. The difference in the US is that it’s a lot about monocropping, but they don’t tend to have the same diversity as seen in the UK or other European countries. I’ve seen it here, but I expect it to come to America as well.”

UK greenhouse- vs vertical farming market 
Ben notes that “because of the well-established UK greenhouse industry, we can better understand the vertical farming market.” Berries are a great example, in the UK there has been a 10% market growth. It drives how people are looking for rootstock in these markets, specifically in greenhouses. As well as looking into year-round growing to complement their off-season. The idea translates into more traditional farmers, looking for a more consistent, lower-risk way to make their business more resilient. 

Jen said that a traditional farm is a long-term play as they’re handed down by generations. In a vertical farming system, it’s an infrastructure that has to last. Whereas, Andrew claimed that the seasonal variation will be smoothed out by multi-tenant farmers using the same facility for different crops for different points in the year. 

Consumer perception
“On the whole, there’s a growing understanding I think,” says Ben. He explains that there are some products available at various retailers already. Jen noted that branding is far more developed in the US, given the produce brands they have. Whereas Andrew affirmed that the elephant in the room in the UK and Europe is the use of the word organic. In the US, vertically farmed produce can be labeled as organic, however, in Europe, we’re still looking at what post-organic looks like. It’s confusing for the consumers, however, we’re at the beginning of educating people, starting with kids. 

Other topics discussed were subsidies and barriers in vertical farming in the UK. 

View fullsize

For more information:
Intelligent Growth Solutions
www.intelligentgrowthsolutions.com 

View fullsize

For more information:
Vertical Future
info@verticalfuture.co.uk
www.verticalfuture.co.uk 

For more information:
LettUs Grow
info@lettusgrow.com
lettusgrow.com

For more information:

View fullsize

Indoor AgTech Innovation Summit
www.indooragtechnyc.com

29 Jun 2021
Author: Rebekka Boekhout
© HortiDaily.com

Pure Harvest Smart Farms Adopts Honeywell’s Sustainable Technology

Al Ain farm uses the Solstice zd for climate-controlled system – an ultra-low-global-warming-potential solution – for growth of its produce

• By ITP.net Staff Writer

• 28 Jun 2021

View fullsize

The Al Ain-based Pure Harvest Smart Farms is using Honeywell’s Solstice zd (R-1233zd) ultra-low-global-warming-potential (LGWP) refrigerant to cool its new indoor farm, while reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions.

The UAE-based company has implemented several high-tech, controlled-environment hybrid growing systems across the Middle East to meet the regional need for fresh fruits and vegetables. However, the Al Ain farm will be the first sustainable initiative to use Honeywell’s solution, which effectively increases energy efficiency when used in chillers, and will assist the farm in reducing its carbon footprint. 

Based on hydrofluoro-olefin technology, Solstice zd is non-flammable with a GWP of 1, and offers better capacity and similar efficiency to HCFC R-123 in low-pressure centrifugal chillers to cool large buildings and infrastructure. 

“We’ve developed a successful controlled agriculture business that converts natural sunlight to grow fresh produce in abundance, helping us to address regional challenges such as food insecurity and water scarcity, and offer consumers fresher and more sustainable choices,” said Sky Kurtz, CEO and co-founder of Pure Harvest Smart Farms.

“Solstice zd is integral to the continued growth of our sustainable operations and is a practical and economical solution that enables us to meet our long-term goals, and comply with existing and proposed regulations for lower-GWP solutions.”

Amir Naqvi, regional business leader, Middle East, Turkey, and Africa for Honeywell Fluorine Products, added: “Solstice zd is a long-term, environmentally preferable solution for farming in the region, which typically has high energy demands as a result of the hot climate.

“Converting to Solstice zd will not only help Pure Harvest Smart Farms with sustainable practices, but will also help to accelerate the industry’s conversion to alternatives that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

Founded in Abu Dhabi, Pure Harvest Smart Farms is a technology-enabled agribusiness focused on year-round, sustainable production of premium quality fresh fruits and vegetables. As makers of the Middle East’s first commercial-scale, semi-automated high-tech hybrid greenhouse food production system, Pure Harvest leverages innovative growing technologies and horticultural best practices to enable local-for-local production of affordable, sustainably-grown, cleaner than organic and protected by nature, fresh produce anywhere.

Pioneering controlled environment agriculture (CEA) in the Middle East, Pure Harvest’s mission is to tackle some of the region’s biggest problems using technology to provide agriculture solutions that address food security, water conservation, economic diversification, and sustainability needs.

The company’s products are found in some of the most respected and far-reaching retailers in the Middle East, such as Spinneys, Waitrose, and Carrefour, as well as numerous reputable hotels and restaurants in the UAE. The company currently grows 26 commercial varieties of tomatoes, including six that have never before been seen, and six varieties of strawberries.

By early next year, upon completion of the company’s Kuwaiti facility and its expansion into KSA, the product portfolio will broaden even further, to include raspberries, blackberries, additional vine crops and lettuces.

Solstice zd has been adopted by Trane, a leading air-conditioner manufacturer, in its new Series E CenTraVac large capacity centrifugal chillers in the Middle East as well as in Europe’s Channel Tunnel, which has demonstrated annual energy savings of 33% (4.8 GWh).

Honeywell refrigerants are sold worldwide under the Solstice and Genetron brand names for a range of applications, including refrigeration, building and automobile air-conditioning. The company and its suppliers have completed a  billion-dollar investment program in research and development, and new capacity based on Honeywell’s hydrofluoroolefin (HFO) technology. Worldwide adoption of Solstice products has resulted in the reduction of more than 200 million metric tons of CO2 to date, equal to eliminating the emissions from more than 42 million cars from the road for a year.

Honeywell recently committed to achieve carbon neutrality in its operations and facilities by 2035. This commitment builds on the company’s track record of sharply reducing the greenhouse gas intensity of its operations and facilities as well as its decades-long history of innovation to help its customers meet their environmental and social goals.

Food TechSustainabilityFarmingPure Harvest Smart Farms (Pureharvest.Ae/)Honeywell

Kalera – Curtis McWilliams Proposed As A New Member of The Board of Directors

View fullsize

June 28, 2021

McWilliams, the former President and CEO of the nation’s largest restaurant REIT and a seasoned independent director of a number of publicly-traded corporate boards, brings a wealth of experience as Kalera prepares for rapid domestic and international expansion

ORLANDO, Fla., June 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kalera (Euronext Growth Oslo ticker KAL, Bloomberg: KSLLF), one of the fastest-growing and largest vertical farming companies in the world and a leader in plant science for producing high-quality produce in controlled environments, today announced the proposed appointment of Curtis McWilliams to its Board of Directors. In addition, it is expected that McWilliams will chair Kalera’s Audit Committee responsible for oversight of the financial reporting and disclosure process. An executive with deep experience in mergers & acquisitions, real estate, corporate governance as well as financial accounting and analysis, McWilliams brings nearly 40 years of executive leadership and experience to the Kalera board. After an extended career in investment banking with Merrill Lynch, McWilliams transitioned to the CEO of Trustreet Properties where over the course of the following 10 years, he oversaw the growth of the company from under $100 million to over $3 billion when it was sold to GE Capital in 2007. He presently is the non-executive chair of Ardmore Shipping Corporation (NYSE: ASC), an independent director for Braemar Hotels & Resorts (NYSE: BHR), and lead independent director for Modiv Inc. McWilliams has previously chaired the audit committee for CNL Bank and presently serves as chair of the audit committee for Braemar Hotels as well as serving on the audit committee for Ardmore Shipping.

The addition of McWilliams to the board coincides with Kalera’s rapid expansion into several new markets and its acquisition of Vindara Inc., the first company to develop seeds specifically designed for use in vertical indoor farm environments as well as other controlled environment agriculture (CEA) farming methods.

“We are thrilled and honored to have Curtis McWilliams join Kalera’s Board,” said Bjørge Gretland, Chairman. “Curtis has been tremendously successful as a CEO and has extensive experience chairing Audit Committees. He also brings valuable expertise doing M&A deals. I am confident he will be a strong contributor to Kalera’s success.”

In addition to his aforementioned business experience, McWilliams also has served on numerous civic and non-profit boards including the Orlando Museum of Art and Young Life. McWilliams received his BSE in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University and his MBA from the University of Chicago with a concentration in finance.

“There has never been a more pressing need for vertical farming than there is today. I’m honored and excited to have the opportunity to join the Board at Kalera, the leader in this innovative and disruptive industry,” said Curtis McWilliams. “I look forward to working with Kalera as they continue to grow and expand domestically and abroad.”

Kalera currently operates two growing facilities in Orlando and a newly opened facility in Atlanta and is building facilities in Houston, Denver, Columbus, Seattle, Minnesota, and Hawaii. Kalera is the only controlled environment agriculture company with coast-to-coast facilities being constructed, offering grocers, restaurants, theme parks, airports, and other businesses nationwide reliable access to locally grown clean, safe, nutritious, price-stable, long-lasting greens. Kalera uses a closed-loop irrigation system which enables its plants to grow while consuming 95% less water compared to field farming.

The appointment of Curtis McWilliams as a member of the Board of Directors will be presented for approval by Kalera’s shareholders at a general meeting and is expected to take effect upon completion of the contemplated merger between Kalera AS and the new Luxembourg parent for the group, which was announced previously.

For further information:

Bjørge Gretland, Chairman
Email: bgretland@kalera.com

About Kalera

Kalera is a technology-driven vertical farming company with unique growing methods combining optimized nutrients and light recipes, precise environmental controls, and cleanroom standards to produce safe, highly nutritious, pesticide-free, non-GMO vegetables with consistent high quality and longer shelf life year-round. The company’s high-yield, automated, data-driven hydroponic production facilities have been designed for rapid rollout with industry-leading payback times to grow vegetables faster, cleaner, at a lower cost, and with less environmental impact. To learn more visit www.Kalera.com.

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.