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Crisis Looming In Trucking And Shipping; Here Is What’s At Stake for Horticulture
Spear called on the Senate panel to advance a bipartisan surface transportation infrastructure bill this year, focused on roads and bridges, that’s responsibly funded with a modernized user-fee system
By American Trucking Associations
May 12, 2021
American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear told the Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee this week that growing pressures on the U.S. supply chain are fast approaching crisis levels, and that immediate action from Congress is needed to ensure our economic recovery is not derailed by further disruptions.
In testimony before the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, during a hearing titled “Freight Mobility: Strengthening America’s Supply Chains and Competitiveness,” Spear outlined the trucking industry’s key priorities on infrastructure, workforce, safety, and the environment, detailing specific legislative steps lawmakers must take to ensure the integrity and longevity of the nation’s supply lines as the economy climbs out of the COVID-19 crisis.
“Investments in our supply chain are desperately needed, including the roads and bridges that connect our ports, rail yards, and airports to the National Highway System. Do that, and you will witness measurable efficiencies, including gains in productivity and safety, job growth, and sustainable employment, and historic reductions in carbon emissions,” Spear told members of the committee in his opening remarks.
The trucking industry moves more than 72% of the nation’s freight tonnage, and over the next decade, trucks will be tasked with moving 2.4 billion more tons of freight than they do today. Breakdowns in surface transportation infrastructure, as well as a severe and widening truck driver and diesel technician shortage, threaten the industry’s ability to keep goods moving safely and on time.
Freight bottlenecks and congestion on the National Highway System already cost the trucking industry an annual 1.2 billion hours of lost productivity, which is equivalent to more than 425,000 drivers sitting idle for an entire year — adding $75 billion to the cost of freight transportation. In addition, the industry currently faces a shortfall of nearly 61,000 drivers and will need to hire roughly 1.1 million new drivers over the next decade to keep pace with the economy’s increased freight demands.
Spear called on the Senate panel to advance a bipartisan surface transportation infrastructure bill this year, focused on roads and bridges, that’s responsibly funded with a modernized user-fee system. He also called on lawmakers to pass the DRIVE-Safe Act, legislation to remedy the driver shortage by promoting opportunity and enhancing safety training for emerging members of the trucking workforce. The bipartisan bill is backed by more than 117 organizations representing all levels of the U.S. supply chain.
A transcript of his opening remarks is available here.
FRANCE: Designs Unveiled For The World's Largest Single-Domed Greenhouse
French architecture firm Coldefy has revealed its latest ambitious project: the largest single-domed greenhouse in the entire world. Spanning over 20,000 square meters (215,278 square feet) the gigantic energy self-sufficient structure, christened "Tropicalia," is set to be completed in 2024 in the Cote d'Opale, or Opal Coast, in France
14-05-2021 | CNN Style
Written by: Leah DolanMegan C. Hills, CNN
French architecture firm Coldefy has revealed its latest ambitious project: the largest single-domed greenhouse in the entire world. Spanning over 20,000 square meters (215,278 square feet) the gigantic energy self-sufficient structure, christened "Tropicalia," is set to be completed in 2024 in the Cote d'Opale, or Opal Coast, in France.
Designs will be on display from May 22 to November 21 at the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale, where Coldefy and interdisciplinary not-for-profit Zuecca Projects will showcase architectural models, sketches and videos detailing the grand plans for the dome.
Renderings revealed ahead of the international exhibition show a sleek dome nestled into the lush, rolling plains of France's natural landscape. Described by Coldefy on its website as a "bubble of harmony," the structure -- which will house a tropical forest featuring a range of flora and fauna, from orchids and butterflies to fish and reptiles -- was built to incorporate the natural environment. As such, the 35-meter-high (115-foot) design is partially embedded in the ground and blends into the landscape with the addition of a second outer wall of greenery.
The roof will be crafted from pressurized thermal pillows set into an aluminum frame -- they are similar to the cushions used in a grouping of domed greenhouses at the Eden Project in Cornwall, England. Inside, the dome will be heated to 82.4°F, a temperature that ensures "luxuriant vegetation," according to the press statement. A technology called Terraotherm will recycle the structure's thermal energy, with surplus heat siphoned to surrounding buildings.
The "bubble of harmony" will blend into the natural landscape of the French coast. Credit: Octav Tirziu/Zuecca Project Space
Like many exhibiting at the Venice Biennale this year -- which follows the altruistic theme "How will we live together?" -- Coldefy's founding architect Thomas Coldefy designed Tropicalia with the health of the planet in mind. For Coldefy, the data surrounding climate change is too often consumed "unwillingly," he said in a press statement, and its oversaturation means the data can quickly become "a new source of anxiety." Tropicalia, however, is meant to be a place of wonder as well as education, providing an opportunity to experience the fragility of the earth's ecosystem up close.
Elsewhere in the biennale, environmental concerns are set to dominate the show. The Nordic pavilion will be transformed into an experimental co-housing project aiming to reduce energy consumption and cut carbon emissions by architects Helen & Hard. Meanwhile, the Taiwan pavilion will spotlight five existing architectural projects that explore the island's ongoing dialogue with nature and investigate how Taiwan's current population of 23 million can be sustained inside its ecologically diverse landscape.
Lead Photo: Credit: Octav Tirziu/Zuecca Project Space
What’s A Hydroponic Farm Start Up Cost? Know What To Expect
Is a typical hydroponic farm start-up cost very steep? Or is it something that’s affordable and easy to manage? If you are looking into starting with hydroponic farming, you may be quite eager to know the overhead and upfront cost
Is a typical hydroponic farm start-up cost very steep?
Or is it something that’s affordable and easy to manage?
If you are looking into starting with hydroponic farming, you may be quite eager to know the overhead and upfront cost.
So, get to know more about the necessary cost you should include in your budget as you read along. Here are the typical expenses to take note of when starting a hydroponic farm.
Hydroponic Farm Start Up Cost You Should Know
When determining an average hydroponic farm start up cost, you need to also take into account having a greenhouse. you can buy or even build. The size of your greenhouse impacts the overall cost of your hydroponic farm.
Moreover, the size depends on how many crops you are planning to cultivate and grow.
If you want to build a greenhouse that’s about a few thousand square feet, you can expect to pay about $11,000 USD. But this is the standard size for commercial greenhouses.
The price significantly goes down the smaller your greenhouse gets.
Read more: Is PVC Safe for Hydroponics? Behind the Safety of These Plastics
Materials and Equipment
Next up, let’s talk about the equipment you need. These include your growing tunnels, water solvent, racks, lighting, nutrient reservoirs, UV filtration, and seeds.
For these items, we are looking at a few thousand dollars in addition to the figure we have mentioned earlier for the greenhouse price.
Recurring Expenses
Setting up a hydroponic farm is not all about the upfront cost. There are also recurring bills to think about, which are basically your electric and water expenses. Expect to pay about $500 per month since your farm would need ample light and water to sustain the growth and development of your crops.
Lettuce plant growing in vegetable hydroponic farm.
Indoor Hydroponic Farm Cost
There are some people who may opt to do indoor hydroponic farming. The cost is also dependent on the size of the farm and any other materials you need.
For instance, a 500 square feet hydroponic farm should cost about $110,000, which is just for the unit and the components such as 192 towers, 15 racks, 2 lighting racks, 48 lighting units, and a 330-gallon reservoir for nutrients, complete with automated nutrient management and UV filtration.
With all of these things in place, you already have a very production hydroponic vertical farm that you can place indoors – measuring 500 square feet.
Hydroponic Systems
There are different tiers for hydroponic systems, which include the low-tech or DIY, which should cost you about $50 up to $200.
But if you opt for mid-tech, you can easily purchase these at suppliers. They come with higher-end lighting technology and even water flow control in some cases. The cost can go from $300 to as much as $1000, and it all depends on the features and size.
As for the high-tech ones, there is complete system control for higher volume production. In this case, we are talking tens of thousands of dollars upfront.
Bringing The Cost Down
Is it possible to bring down the cost of a hydroponic farm?
It is possible but this all depends on the equipment you use. If you opt to create a DIY farm, then it will be cheaper but may be risky if the systems are not working well.
Thus, you should determine your goals, your budget, and what your intentions are for setting up your hydroponic farm. You can also start small, if you are uncertain if you want to go in it full time. Or, you can choose low-tech hydroponic systems at the onset and slowly invest in higher tech systems.
The choice is all up to you, so go ahead and consider these tips, run the numbers in your head, and enjoy the world of hydroponics!
New Solar Greenhouse With A Window To The Future Opens
The glasshouse was built by Perth high-tech building materials company ClearVue Technologies using three different versions of its transparent solar photovoltaic glazing panels
10-05-2021 | Farm Online
AUSTRALIA, Perth- The world's first clear solar glass greenhouse has been opened at Murdoch University's new grains research precinct in Perth. The glasshouse was built by Perth high-tech building materials company ClearVue Technologies using three different versions of its transparent solar photovoltaic glazing panels.
SOLAR GREENHOUSE: The world's first clear solar glass greenhouse at Perth's Murdoch University uses three different versions of ClearVue Technologies' transparent solar photovoltaic glazing panels.
The ClearVue technology turns windows into a generator of renewable energy.
The facility will be used by Murdoch University geneticist Professor Chengdao Li and his team to develop new plant breeding technologies and use them to develop commercial crop varieties.
Murdoch University Vice-Chancellor Professor Eeva Leinonen said the ClearVue greenhouse project was a number of years in the making but represented what universities and industry could achieve when they worked together.
"Murdoch's research strategy is focused on food, health, and the environment and the interconnections between each," Professor Leinonen said.
"I am delighted ClearVue has become an important new collaborator as we seek answers to wicked global problems - increased food demand, environmental sustainability and food safety."
Constructed using a $1.6 million grant from the federal government's AusIndustry Co-operative Research Centre Projects program, the greenhouse uses clear solar glass that not only lets natural sunlight through but also generates power using the unwanted UV and IR light wavelengths and converts these to power from photovoltaics at the perimeter of the window.
SOLAR VISIONARY: ClearVue executive chairman Victor Rosenberg.
The ClearVue greenhouse has a range of sensors that record and present data in real-time providing scientists with accurate information relating to conditions like temperature, humidity, and the amount of light that plants are receiving.
This information is used to make automatic adjustments to air conditioning, lighting, fans, louvres, blinds, and reticulation systems which in turn allows scientists to maintain a constant micro-climate (23 to 26 degrees C) that provides optimum growing conditions - all while being powered by the energy generated by the ClearVue glass.
ClearVue Technologies executive chairman and founder Victor Rosenberg said ClearVue was also looking to expands into Japan, the US, and Europe.
He hoped to develop a carbon sink that would capture all the carbon produced by the various equipment in the greenhouse and turn it into food-grade carbon dioxide which could be fed to the plants to boost growth.
ROOM WITH A VIEW: Murdoch University's new clear solar glass greenhouse.
"Estimates indicate the world's arable land has reduced by one third in the past 40 years," Mr Rosenberg said.
"By 2050, two-thirds of the world's population is predicted to be urbanized, which will further impact the availability of land for agricultural production."
He said the ability to control the microclimate within the ClearVue greenhouse created an optimum growing environment to achieve higher yields.
Leafy plants required protection from harmful UV rays in the same way humans need to protect their skin, he said.
Plants did this naturally by producing a waxy substance that shielded them from harmful UV rays.
Mr Rosenberg said ClearVue glass blocked these UV rays so the energy required by plants to create the protective layer on leafy vegetables can be redirected to growing more produce.
Source and Photo courtesy of Farmonline
Investing In Indoor Vertical Farming
The vertical farming market is projected to reach USD 7.3 billion by 2025 from USD 2.9 billion in 2020; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 20.2% during the forecast period
By: Robert Colangelo, CEO Green Sense Farms Holdings, Inc.
Indoor vertical farms are the new kid on the block, with commercial production farms being a little more than a decade old. The vertical farming market is projected to reach USD 7.3 billion by 2025 from USD 2.9 billion in 2020; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 20.2% during the forecast period. 1
One vertical farm startup has raised over $250 million, and another has a valuation of over $1 billion. Are vertical farms hype, urban legend, or a good investment? Conducting thorough due diligence by a qualified expert is critical when considering an investment in a vertical farm.
Here are a few pointers to consider when exploring investment candidates.
Business Model: A good business model is a start to creating a profitable vertical farm. The model should include: where the farm will be located, who is the anchor customer, what crop will be grown and what volume, how produce will be packaged, how it will be distributed, and how it will be sold. In addition, it should speak to the type of farm that will be built- a turnkey operation "seed to supermarket" vs. a grow farm, that contracts germination, packing and sales. Startups always take longer than expected to get up and running, make sure there is a grace period built into the plan for initial operations and distribution challenges.
Management Team: After you have developed the winning business model, you need a qualified team to execute the business plan. Now that vertical farming has been around for several years, it’s easier to find qualified people with experience operating these types of farms. The C Suite should consist of professionals experienced in business administration and a technical team with horticultural production experience. This includes a senior grower, production manager, food safety manager, chief ag engineer, and sales manager. Depending on the farm; for example, a highly automated farm could look to related industries to find an operations manager with experience in a mechanized food production facility.
Marketing and Sales: The produce market is very competitive and is referred to as "a pennies business" with tight margins and profit being made on large volume. Shrink can minimize the profitability of a vertical farm. The worst thing for any operator is throwing away crop and shrink can happen at each point of the growing chain (seeding, germination, nursery, growth, harvesting, packing, and shipping). In addition, produce is perishables having a short shelf life of 1-3 weeks. The best way to reduce shrink is to grow high-quality produce that is pre-sold. This will also yield the highest price. Having an experienced sales team with relationships with a wide variety of produce buyers is paramount to success. A well-thought-out marketing and a branding plan are also required to position your crop for the target buyer and detail how to make your brand known, such as in-store samples/tastings, sponsorships, chef partnerships, merchandising…
Technology: What technology will be used in the growing operation? Will the farm be designed and built by the management team, or will they contract an experienced farm design and builder? Will they use a proven hydroponic, aeroponic, or aquaponics growing system or deploy a disruptive new technology A well-designed farm will include a seeding area, a germ room, a nursery, a growing area, a packing area, and a cooler. It will require the Temperature (T), Relative Humidity (RH), and air circulation to be monitored and controlled at each operation. At a minimum, it will require specialized equipment to control the climate, irrigation, treat nutrient water, enrich the grow room with CO2 and control LED lights. In addition, the farm should have adequate sensors, a central data collection system with automated vales, so the delivery of all inputs can be precisely controlled. A disruptive technology can be transformative when scaling the business, increasing yields, generating profit, and optimizing productivity.
Capital is the grease that lubricates the wheels of innovation. Investors continue to explore opportunities in the vertical farming market helping the industry grow.
Investors be(a)aware, there is a lot of hype in this market and much nuance in operating a successful vertical farm that does not show up in financial projections or a business plan. A good business model, a seasoned management team, and a proven growing technology can all add up to make a vertical farm profitable.
1. PRNewswire, NY, Aug 17, 2020.
Robert Colangelo is the founder of Green Sense Farms Holdings, Inc. (GSF. He is an early adopter in Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) and has over ten years of experience with the design-build, operations, and raising capital for vertical farms.
GSF provides contract research, consulting, and farm design and build services.
CANADA: Feeding a City From The World’s Largest Rooftop Greenhouse
Can you grow enough produce for an entire city in rooftop greenhouses? Two entrepreneurs in Montreal, Canada, believe it might be possible.
May. 08, 2021
By Sean Fleming
The world's largest rooftop greenhouse is in Montreal, Canada.
It measures more than 15,000m2 and produces more than 11,000kg of food per week.
The company behind it had to hire 200 new employees due to pandemic-driven demand.
Can you grow enough produce for an entire city in rooftop greenhouses? Two entrepreneurs in Montreal, Canada, believe it might be possible.
Lauren and Mohamed Hage cofounded Lufa in 2009. The company has four urban gardens in the Canadian city, all in rooftop greenhouses. Lufa's most recent sits on top of a former warehouse and measures more than 15,000m2 – larger than the other three greenhouses combined. Its main crops are tomatoes and aubergines, producing more than 11,000kg of food per week. It is, the company says, the largest rooftop greenhouse in the world.
An Ambitious Goal
Rathmell says the new greenhouse will accelerate Lufa's mission to grow food where people live and help it to meet an "ever-growing demand for fresh, local, and responsible foods".
The company – which says it's not trying to replace local farms and food makers, acknowledging that not everything can be grown on rooftops – follows what it calls 'responsible agriculture' practices. These include capturing and recirculating rainwater, energy-saving glass panels, and an absence of synthetic pesticides. Any waste is composted and reused, and food is sold directly to customers on the day it is harvested. Lufa also has a fleet of electric vehicles to make those deliveries.
"Our objective at Lufa is to get to the point where we're feeding everyone in the city," Hage said in an interview in Fortune. Lufa's fifth greenhouse is due to open later in 2021.
At the moment, Lufa grows food for around 2% of the city's population. While that might sound like a modest proportion, interest in urban agriculture is on the rise. Presently, agriculture in urban areas tends to be more common in developing countries. But the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) favors an increase in urban agriculture, saying it can have "important benefits for food security."
Urban farming is often more common among poorer members of society. UN FAO
A Growing Global Trend
Lufa produces more than 11,000kg of food per week, including tomatoes and aubergines. Lufa
Urban agriculture has been taking off in other parts of the world in recent years, too – from shipping containers in Brooklyn, New York City, to allotments in unused spaces in Brussels, Belgium.
And at 14,000 m2, there's Nature Urbaine in Paris – which claims to be the world's largest urban rooftop farm. Nature Urbaine rents out growing space to Parisians who want to grow their own crops. Tenant farmers pay around $450 per year per 1m2 sized plot. They get a welcome pack with everything they need to start growing, as well as regular access to the Nature Urbine gardening team who are on hand to offer advice and support.
Lufa's first greenhouse was opened in 2011, in Montreal's Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough, to grow herbs, microgreens, cucumbers, and peppers. Two more were added in 2013 and 2017, with the fourth joining last year. It sits on top of a former Sears warehouse in the Saint-Laurent area of the city.
In addition to its own produce, Lufa also sells a selection of other locally made or grown food, including bread, cheese, and drinks to its customers. Rising demand for its service, in the wake of the pandemic, led to the company hiring an additional 200 people, and partnering with 35 new farmers and food makers.
Lead photo: The new greenhouse will accelerate Lufa's mission to grow food. Lufa
Lufa
USA: WASHINGTON - Lacey Is Home To The Largest Vertical Farm On The West Coast
Here they can grow 6 million heads of lettuce a year, using just 2 percent of the water an outdoor farm would need
The Future of Farming Is Happening
Right Now In This 25,000 Square Foot Warehouse.
Author: Saint Bryan
May 6, 2021
LACEY, Wash. — Though it looks like the set of some far-out science fiction fantasy, with bright walls of light and characters dressed in medical gowns, this is actually a farm growing six different kinds of lettuce inside a 25-thousand square foot warehouse located in a Lacey Business Park.
“In the beginning, it was always our goal to find a better way to grow healthier and more nutritious food for families,” says Bryce Clemmer who owns NW Farms with his wife Andrea. It’s the largest vertical farm in the Northwest.
Here they can grow 6 million heads of lettuce a year, using just 2 percent of the water an outdoor farm would need.
“This is a unique combination of robotics, software but also hardware that ultimately makes growing food at large scale possible,” says Clemmer, who is an engineer. He’s invented a few proprietary systems that make this vertical farm unlike any other.
“We've created a perfect environment for plants to grow,” he says.
Everything is monitored here: the temperature, the humidity, the light, the nutrients that go into the water. The result is produce that grows three times faster indoors than outside. The lettuce needs just 20 days from planting to be ready for your table.
“We have experimented with growing everything from strawberries and blueberries to edamame and any type of herbs that you can imagine,” says Clemmer. The only produce he can't imagine growing here are pineapples and pumpkins.
A NW Farms employee prepares to plant lettuce. Credit: KING TV
There are no overalls or John Deere caps here. All farmhands are gowned up, with hairnets and food handling gloves.
“So food safety, the handling, and the overall environment is the cleanest in which it can be,” says Clemmer.
“It's all-natural and healthy,” adds Andrea Clemmer.
She says other farms may rely on pesticides. And with farms so far away from our supermarkets, half of all produce gets thrown out. That doesn’t happen here.
“When our product is pulled off the towers it goes right into the bag, and it's in the store the same day so it's fresh same day and it is still living,” she says.
As the world’s population grows and more pressure is put on natural resources vertical farmers say they may have the key that prevents hunger and famine in the future.
“We have to figure out how to grow reliably and sustainably fresh food that's nutritious for everybody,” says Bryce Clemmer.
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Vertical Farmer LettUsGrow Sets Sights on Commercial Greenhouse Market With New Harper Adams Partnership
New research project to explore how vertical farming approaches could be applied to the greenhouse sector to boost yields and curb environmental impacts
Jessica Rawnsley
29 April 2021
EXCLUSIVE: New research project to explore how vertical farming approaches could be applied to the greenhouse sector to boost yields and curb environmental impacts.
Vertical farming technology is poised to branch out into the commercial greenhouse sector, after indoor farming specialist LettUsGrow announced a major new partnership with Harper Adams, the UK's leading specialist agri-food university.
The partnership will enable a long-running trial to span across most of 2021, which will explore the environmental impact and compare growth data from two irrigation systems, aeroponics and hydroponics, in different settings: an aeroponic vertical farm and greenhouse, and a hydroponic greenhouse.
"Our food supply chain needs to be diversified to achieve productivity and stability, which means maximising the benefits of new technologies in different horticultural environments," said Charlie Guy, co-founder and CEO of LettUsGrow. "The advanced greenhouse industry is a huge part of modern food production and is entering an exciting new phase of growth to help meet global production and sustainability targets. We want to help this industry to grow more, sustainably."
According to company figures, vertical farms use 95 per cent less fertiliser and 95 per cent less water than open field farming. LettUsGrow has evolved a system for utilising aeroponics where rather than soak plant roots in water and nutrients, they are suspended and sprayed with mist. The company claims the approach consumes 30 per cent less water than a conventional hydroponic system, while produce grows an average 70 per cent faster. While a wide range of crops can be grown with the tech, the initial focus will be on growing kale and pea shoots.
The company has also developed Ostara, a smart control and farm management software systems, that will be used within the greenhouse and vertical farm trials. Ostara can be used to tailor lighting, irrigation, nutrient doses, and environment to individual crops within the same farm, as well as being used to collect a wide range of data sets, the company said.
To date vertical farms have been hampered by the considerable ongoing costs of generating artificial light. As such a key feature of the trials will be to identify whether an increase in energy use is balanced by an increase in farm productivity.
However, LettUsGrow is optimistic the application of its advanced aeroponics and Ostara technologies can deliver benefits for commercial greenhouses as well as vertical farms.
"Bringing aeroponics into a greenhouse setting is really exciting, as traditionally they run on hydroponics," said Ricardo Lopes, research scientist at LettUsGrow and the project's research lead. "There has been little research into this before so we're starting from scratch. There is huge potential in the opportunity to combine the precision of high-tech greenhouses with optimised aeroponic irrigation - meaning we could offer the plant the exact amount of water it needs, when it needs it, alongside the unique environmental control of greenhouse technology. The prospect of using aeroponics to decrease water usage within greenhouses could be a very important step in making greenhouse production even more sustainable and less energy demanding."
His comments were echoed by Dr Laura Vickers, senior lecturer in plant biology at Harper Adams, who said: "This is a particularly exciting project, greenhouses provide the half-way house between field based production and total controlled environment agriculture. They are excellent systems to apply to urban spaces, such as building rooftops. Quantifying the performance of technologies developed by LettUsGrow in our campus greenhouses, opens up the ability to assess resource efficiency, and evaluate how crop production could work in a variety of landscapes that could bring an array of stakeholders that we just don't see at the moment."
The hope is the partnership could represent a further step forward for a vertical farming sector that advocates maintain could make a huge contribution to efforts to bolster food production as climate impacts escalate. "Indoor farms can be deployed in areas without any fertile land," India Langley, LettUsGrow communications lead, told BusinessGreen. "That could be deserts, cities. There's one currently in the South Pole. As well as providing food, it takes the pressure off land that's already so stretched."
Lead photo: Credit: LettUsGrow
INDIA: VIDEO - University Student Runs Farm In Kuala Lumpur
Ah Pa, a well-known YouTube cook recently visited Sean, a university student living in Kuala Lumpur who runs his own farm. As Sean calls it, his E-farm is located in the middle of the city
Ah Pa, a well-known YouTube cook recently visited Sean, a university student living in Kuala Lumpur who runs his own farm. As Sean calls it, his E-farm is located in the middle of the city.
The self-built foil-greenhouse comprises 1000 sq. ft. and is filled with vertical growing towers and an aquaponic system. Currently, the farm has 1000 tilapia that are fed by the plants grown in Sean's greenhouse. "We're growing more than 20 plants here," says Sean, whereas we can grow up to 60 different plants and herbs."
Click on the video below to hear Sean's story.
23 Apr 2021
Urban Farmers Captured On Canvas
“Re-Enchanting the City,” an exhibition in Chelsea, highlights the visual record of the many vibrant local farms, community gardens, and rooftop plantings around the city by the artist Elizabeth Downer Riker
An Exhibition by The Painter Elizabeth Downer Riker
Documents A Decade of Urban Gardening
April 26, 2021
“Re-Enchanting the City,” an exhibition in Chelsea, highlights the visual record of the many vibrant local farms, community gardens, and rooftop plantings around the city by the artist Elizabeth Downer Riker. About 10 years ago she started painting rooftop farms in Long Island City, Queens, and parts of Brooklyn, and then took her oils and canvas to other neighborhoods in the city, and even upstate. The exhibition features 20 of her works, and they are for sale, from $1,000 to $2,200.
“Re-Enchanting the City: Greening New York City,” April 27 through May 22, Ceres Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, Suite 201, 212-947-6100, ceresgallery.org.
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Florence Fabricant is a food and wine writer. She writes the weekly Front Burner and Off the Menu columns, as well as the Pairings column, which appears alongside the monthly wine reviews. She has also written 12 cookbooks.
Lead photo: “Bird’s-Eye View of Brooklyn Grange-Future,” a portrait of the Brooklyn Grange rooftop farm.Credit...Elizabeth Downer Riker
UNITED KINGDOM: New Vertical Farm To Launch In The Midlands
High-growth technology company specialising in controlled-environment-agriculture (CEA), Vertical Future, has partnered with newly established Northamptonshire based vertical farming company, Syan Farms
April 22, 2021
Posted by: Barney Cotton
High-growth technology company specialising in controlled-environment-agriculture (CEA), Vertical Future, has partnered with newly established Northamptonshire-based vertical farming company, Syan Farms.
Launching with Vertical Future’s proprietary production systems, Syan Farms will also be brought on board as a research partner as part of Vertical Future’s wider research activities, focused on seed breeding, genetics, and robotics.
Syan Farms – a mainly family-run business based in Horton, Northamptonshire – was recently established to contribute towards the building of a better, more sustainable food system, tackling food security and other key issues. Able to grow fresh produce without the need for herbicides, pesticides or fungicides, and without use of soil, the Syan Farms team are able to provide ‘beyond-organic’ solutions with dramatically reduced emissions and water usage. The use of vertical farming also frees up land for local ecosystems to rebound from agricultural damage.
Vertical Future’s innovative production systems will be housed in a new development in Horton, Northamptonshire, integrated with solar energy and rainwater harvesting in order to provide the most efficient model possible. This is Northamptonshire’s first vertical farm, aimed to serve restaurants, distributors, and homes with the freshest produce around.
Resh Diu, co-founder of Syan Farms, says: “The construction of our first vertical farm with Vertical Future is a great first step for us – and really just the start of our journey in light of our ambitious growth plans. It marks the progression that the UK industry is making towards providing local, sustainable produce all year round whilst protecting the environment. Our ambitions, team, and business model, combined with Vertical Future’s technologies and expertise are set to leave a positive mark on the growing vertical farming industry in the UK and beyond.”
Jamie Burrows, CEO, Vertical Future says: “Growing fresh produce in a fully controlled environment allows our partners to have a measurable influence on flavours, aesthetics, and other product characteristics – this is because we control all of the different variables associated with plant growth. Our systems enable our partners to do this in a sustainable way, year-round, on-demand, and with absolutely no chemicals. We’re so excited to bring on board the Syan Farms team to generate further improvements in UK agriculture.”
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Nature Fresh Farms Introduces New Program For Their Imperfect Produce
The Waste Me Nots program was recently created to leverage Nature Fresh Farms Tomatoes, Peppers, and Cucumbers that do not meet the criteria of their Quality Control team
Leamington, ON (April 13, 2021)
A recent loss-conscious program focuses on selling Nature Fresh Farms imperfect produce to reduce food waste.
The Waste Me Nots program was recently created to leverage Nature Fresh Farms Tomatoes, Peppers, and Cucumbers that do not meet the criteria of their Quality Control team. As most greenhouses hope to grow flawless quality produce, some product grows to be naturally bent or smaller in size. Although unique in shape and size, these vegetables still have the same nutritional value and flavor as their perfect counterparts. Nature Fresh Farms wants to put these pieces of produce in the spotlight, creating more of an opportunity to fight waste and give shoppers further access to nutritious foods.
‘We believe it’s important to ensure that nutritious and delicious produce does not go to waste,” shared Ray Wowryk, Director of Business Development. “By creating this program, we are helping our retailers with a ready-made waste reduction alternative.”
Since volume of this type of product is not predictable, the program cannot be guaranteed to supply specific quantities and will depend on the product grown. However, Nature Fresh Farm feels that the unpredictability is outweighed by the fact that their quality and freshness is worth rescuing and sharing with consumers, making the most of all their product grown.
“Sustainability is at the center of everything we do at Nature Fresh Farms. Not only does this encompass our packaging and growing processes but also that the food we grow gets utilized completely,” explained the Director of Sales, Matt Quiring. “The Waste Me Nots program helps us to reduce waste while allowing us to better service the price-focused shoppers looking for quality tasting products at a discounted price and let our retail partners bring in some incremental sales to the category.”
Nature Fresh Farms wants to bring more cost-effective options to its consumers and bring the focus back to the taste and freshness of the produce, not solely the look of it. They hope to break the cycle of imperfect food waste by offering discounted misshapen vegetables that there would normally not be a market for and expand the consumer’s knowledge of the type of produce they purchase.
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About Nature Fresh Farms
Continuously expanding, Nature Fresh Farms has become one of the largest independent, vertically integrated greenhouse vegetable farms in North America. As a year-round grower with farms in Leamington, ON, Delta, OH, and Mexico, Nature Fresh Farms prides itself on consistently delivering exceptional flavor and quality to key retailers throughout North America, while continuing to innovate and introduce more viable and sustainable growing and packaging solutions.
SOURCE:
Nature Fresh Farms | info@naturefresh.ca T: 519 326 1111 | www.naturefresh.ca
BrightFarms Hosting Virtual Event To Open North Carolina Farm
BrightFarms is one of the latest, announcing that it will be hosting a grand opening of its new state-of-the-art farm in Hendersonville, North Carolina of May 7
April 14th, 2021
- by Lilian Diep
HENDERSONVILLE, NC - As spring creates a new liveliness in the air, companies across our industry are preparing to host events to inspire connection between members. BrightFarms is one of the latest, announcing that it will be hosting a grand opening of its new state-of-the-art farm in Hendersonville, North Carolina of May 7. In addition to industry members, the event will be open to the public and will educate those in attendance about BrightFarms’ vision to scale farming across the U.S.
Throughout the past year, BrightFarms has transformed the Hendersonville site to include sustainable, high-tech agricultural capabilities. The facility is one of the largest indoor salad farms in the Carolinas, expected to grow more than 2 million pounds of salad per year for supermarkets in the Carolinas and throughout the Southeast.
BrightFarms is hosting a grand opening ceremony for the unveiling of its new state-of-the-art farm in Hendersonville, North Carolina on May 7
The grand opening ceremony will be held via Zoom and will offer participants a first-hand look at the company’s most technologically advanced farm yet. According to a press release, the new greenhouse will add to BrightFarms’ network of sustainable greenhouse farms, serving markets including Charlotte, NC; Winston-Salem, NC; Greenville, SC; Spartanburg, SC; and Atlanta, GA. The grower already has existing farms in operation in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois.
Featured at the event will be prominent speakers that include North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis; Sam Kass, former White House Chef and Senior Policy Advisor for Nutrition; and Steve Platt, BrightFarms CEO. The ceremony will begin with the speakers and conclude with a virtual tour hosted by Founder, Paul Lightfoot, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
BrightFarms has transformed the Hendersonville site to include sustainable, high-tech agricultural capabilities, making it one of the largest indoor salad farms in the Carolinas
To sign up to attend the event, click here.
As BrightFarms and other greenhouse growers across the industry continue to expand, AndNowUKnow will bring you the latest.
Polygreens Podcast Episode 21 - Dan Ovadya
Dan Ovadya stumbled into his career passion growing super sweet Chandler strawberries in low-tech greenhouses on the Israel-Jordan border in 1991
Dan Ovadya stumbled into his career passion growing super sweet Chandler strawberries in low-tech greenhouses on the Israel-Jordan border in 1991. That dusty summer was the start of his journey into agriculture and has since accumulated 30 years of experience with control environment crop production, research, and development.
Latest Episode
How Can The World Benefit From Indoor Vertical Farming
Due to urbanization and enormous industrial development, we are losing our natural sources and farming land each year, bit by bit
by Bhok Thompson in Lifestyle
Have you ever sat down and wondered about the uncertainty of our future? With the world population growing and expanding each day, will we reach a point where we might face a scarcity of food? It has been speculated that three decades later, our world population will reach nearly 10 billion people. And feeding such a massive population is nothing less than a challenge.
Due to urbanization and enormous industrial development, we are losing our natural sources and farming land each year, bit by bit. As a matter of fact, according to a report published in 2015, our planet has lost 1/3 of its cultivable lands, which is quite alarming given the fact that our population is expanding each year.
That said, nothing can be predicted for sure about how much more arable land humanity will lose in the upcoming decades. Nonetheless, food demands will continue to grow proportionally to the growth of the world population. Many believe that vertical farming and indoor vertical farming software installation is the ultimate solution to our potential world hunger problems.
Read on to find out more about vertical farming and the future of our agriculture. Let us cover the basics first:
What Exactly is Vertical Farming?
You might have already figured out that vertical farming is all about producing and cultivating food on specifically vertically inclined surfaces. Instead of the traditional food cultivation methods of farming veggies and other food items on horizontally inclined surfaces, such as greenhouses and agriculture fields, the method of vertical farming intends to produce foods in vertically established layers with structures resembling a skyscraper. Nonetheless, the structures can also identify a shipping container and a warehouse.
For the effective production of foods in the vertical farming method, the integration of technology is mandatory. This is where the indoor vertical farming software comes in. With the integration of CEA (Controlled Environment Agriculture) technology, indoor vertical farming has been made possible.
The integration of the technology includes induced control of humidity, light, climate, temperature, and artificial gases that contribute to the possibility of growing indoor foods, herbs, and medicine. In this way, you can think of vertical farming in terms of a greenhouse where natural sunlight is induced with the help of metal reflectors and artificial light sources.
Nonetheless, indoor vertical farming’s primary goal is the optimization of food production within a limited space.
Why The World Needs Indoor Vertical Farming Software?
Vertical farming is the ultimate solution that can save us from hunger and starvation in the long run. Vertical farming allows more output and food production while using a small area of cultivation. The below-given list includes the essential benefits of vertical farming:
Preparing for The Future
As we mentioned earlier, four decades from now, our world population is more likely to expand to 10 billion. Not to mention that nearly 70% of the world population is expected to live in industrialized and urbanized areas, which will also peak food demand. The proficient use of vertical farming will prepare us for any upcoming challenges related to food scarcity.
All-Season Crop Production
Vertical farming enables us to produce more crops while using the limited square footage of the production area. If we were to make a rough estimation about the potential crop production, you could think of it in the following ways. For example, one acre of the indoor vertical farming area will allow you to produce crops worth four to six acres of outdoor capacity. Suppose you are running an indoor vertical farm inside a 30-story skyscraper that includes a basal area of five acres. With the integration of vertical farming software, you will produce food/ crops worth 2500 acres.
Unaffected by Weather and Climate Issues
Amongst the top benefits of indoor vertical farming is that this farming method is explicitly unaffected by unfavorable outside temperatures and weather conditions. Since everything is controlled and monitored inside, the crops and foods cultivated with indoor vertical farming are least affected by natural calamities. That said, indoor vertical farming allows you to produce food throughout the year without worrying about favorable weather conditions.
Indoor vertical farming is also good for biodiversity. This method is essentially environment friendly and exposes farmers to lesser risks and diseases.
AppHarvest Acquires Agricultural Robotics And Artificial Intelligence Company Root AI To Increase Efficiency
Acquisition of Root AI and its signature robot, Virgo, bolsters the company’s intelligent tools to produce foods sustainably. Root AI CEO Joins AppHarvest as Chief Technology Officer
Acquisition of Root AI and its signature robot, Virgo, bolsters the company’s intelligent tools to produce foods sustainably. Root AI CEO Joins AppHarvest as Chief Technology Officer
MOREHEAD, Ky., April 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AppHarvest, Inc. (NASDAQ: APPH, APPHW), a leading AgTech company and Certified B Corp focused on farming more sustainably using 90 percent less water than open-field agriculture and only recycled rainwater, announced today that it has acquired Root AI, an artificial intelligence farming startup that creates intelligent robots to help manage high-tech indoor farms. The acquisition of Root AI and its robotic universal harvester, Virgo, is expected to provide AppHarvest with a baseline of harvesting support working alongside crop care specialists focused on more complex tasks. AppHarvest expects the game-changing advantage of the technology to be in the data the robots can collect as they harvest, which can help evaluate crop health, precisely predict yield and optimize overall operations of the controlled environment agriculture (CEA) facility.
“Farming as we’ve known it is broken because of the increasing number of variables such as extreme weather, droughts, fire, and contamination by animals that make our food system unreliable. Indoor farming solves for many of those challenges, and the data gathered can exponentially deliver more insights that help us predict and control crop quality and yield,” said AppHarvest Founder & CEO Jonathan Webb. “One of the key challenges in agriculture is accurately predicting yield. Many downstream decisions from work scheduling to transportation to retail planning are based on that. Any deviation between projection and actual yield can result in fire drills for numerous functions to adjust for the change, and AI can help solve for that.”
Root AI co-founder and CEO Josh Lessing will take on the role of Chief Technology Officer for AppHarvest where he will take the lead in continuing to develop the robots and their AI capabilities for the network of indoor farms that AppHarvest is building. Lessing, along with co-founder Ryan Knopf who will join AppHarvest as vice president of technology, helped establish Root AI as an early leader in employing artificial intelligence in CEA. Virgo is the world’s first universal harvester, which can be configured to identify and harvest multiple crops of varying sizes including tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and more delicate fruits such as strawberries among others.
Though Virgo can work indoors or out, the robot’s focus has been on controlled environment agriculture. Over the past three years, it has collected the world’s largest data set of tomato images to enable it to identify more than 50 varieties in multiple growing environments and at varying stages of maturity to learn how and when to harvest.
Virgo uses a set of cameras combined with an infrared laser to generate a 3D color scan of an area to determine the work it can perform. Once it maps the tomatoes, it assesses their orientation and determines if they are ripe enough to pick. The robot can be programmed to make other quality assessments as well. The scan enables the robot to find the least obstructive and fastest route to pick the crop ahead of the arrival of the robotic arm and gripper. The robot can identify hundreds of tomatoes in a fraction of a second without having to connect to the cloud. Virgo keeps score on its success rate like a video game. A built-in feedback mechanism constantly evaluates its efficiency so it learns how to harvest any given configuration of fruit most effectively.
“A piece of food—whether that’s a tomato or a berry or a cucumber—is an outcome from many variables that are part of the growing process. Enhanced data collection for each plant through the robot can lead to insights that teach us precisely how to design better, more resilient food systems that are reliable and that produce more food with fewer resources,“ said Lessing. “Joining forces with AppHarvest is a natural fit: we want to ensure a stable, safe supply of the nutritious and healthy food that people should be eating -- grown sustainably -- and doing that at the scale of AppHarvest gives us the opportunity to make the greatest difference.”
Gathering more data through AI enables growers to use real-time information to improve a number of sustainability efforts such as detecting and eliminating pests naturally, helping indoor farms successfully grow chemical pesticide-free fruits and vegetables.
AppHarvest is investing approximately $60 million, consisting of approximately $10 million in cash and the balance in AppHarvest common shares, to acquire Root AI. The Company will issue approximately 2,328,000 shares for the transaction.
Founded in 2018, Root AI is based in Somerville, Mass., and has 19 full-time employees, all of whom are expected to join AppHarvest’s technology group to help advance the mission of building a resilient and sustainable food supply.
About AppHarvest
AppHarvest is an applied technology company building some of the world’s largest high-tech indoor farms in Appalachia that grow non-GMO, chemical pesticide-free produce using 90 percent less water than open-field agriculture and only recycled rainwater while producing yields up to 30 times that of traditional agriculture on the same amount of land with zero agricultural runoff. The Company combines conventional agricultural techniques with cutting-edge technology and is addressing key issues including improving access for all to nutritious food, farming more sustainably, building a domestic food supply, and increasing investment in Appalachia. The Company’s 60-acre Morehead, Ky. facility is among the largest indoor farms in the U.S.
For more information, visit https://www.appharvest.com/.
Continuing Education: Urban Agriculture
It’s been 10,000 years since the agricultural revolution gave rise to cities. Agriculture now covers more than half of the world’s habitable land and is spreading at a rate of about 15 million acres annually
April 1, 2021
It’s been 10,000 years since the agricultural revolution gave rise to cities. Agriculture now covers more than half of the world’s habitable land and is spreading at a rate of about 15 million acres annually. Cities, meanwhile, now comprise more than half the global population (over 80 percent in developed countries), and the numbers are rising. Using current farming methods to feed a global population expected to hit 10 billion by midcentury would require adding new farmland equal in size to the continental United States.
This alarming situation is not even factoring in the impact of the climate crisis, which is expected to alter growing seasons and disrupt the phenological cycles that keep plants and their pollinators in sync. What’s more, new agricultural land mostly comes from felling biodiverse, carbon-sequestering forests to make room for mono-crops that stash very few greenhouse gases and for livestock that actually generate them. That makes the climate crisis worse and farming more difficult.
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In addition to land consumption, agriculture guzzles three-quarters of the fresh water used globally each year, while runoff from fields treated with herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers contaminates significant amounts of the water that’s left. Then there’s transportation. As farms extend farther and farther from the cities they supply, food is trucked, shipped, and flown vast distances: farm to plate, the ingredients in a typical American meal travel an average of 1,500 miles. From a security perspective, the fact that most of the world’s food production is controlled by just a handful of corporations is unnerving. And from a public health perspective, the emergence of Covid-19 and other new diseases offers yet another indicator of ecological imbalance. It’s time to rethink the way we farm.
Food security, as defined by the United Nations, means that all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that serves their food preferences and dietary needs for an active and healthy life. Key to achieving food security in a way that’s more sustainable than current practices is urban agriculture—not as an outright replacement for rural farming, but as a crucial component in a balanced system.
Urban agriculture can take many forms: rooftop greenhouses, raised beds, and community-farming initiatives such as the City of Atlanta’s “Aglanta” program, which turns underused parcels in utility rights-of-way into farm plots eligible for U.S. Department of Agriculture certificates and associated loans. Ultimately, though, horizontal strategies are not productive enough to make a real dent in the food needs of a city. (If raised beds covered every rooftop in Manhattan, the produce grown would feed only about 2 percent of the borough’s population.) Just as cities grow vertically, so too must urban agriculture, and that means bringing it indoors.
“Controlled environments have been used for many years,” says Chieri Kubota, a professor of controlled environment agriculture (CEA) in the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science at Ohio State University. “Now that multiple issues are making conventional production outdoors more difficult, putting controlled environments in and near cities brings food production closer to potential markets—and also to younger generations of potential farmers who want to live in urban centers.”
Vertical agriculture is a type of CEA that—like high-rise buildings—stacks layers to provide usable area many times the footprint of the site. Instead of growing in soil, which is a heavy way to deliver nutrients, plants in vertical farms are grown hydroponically, aquaponically, or aeroponically. In hydroponics, plants are cultivated in nutrient-enriched water, which is captured and reused so that the system uses as little as a tenth of the water conventional agriculture needs. An aquaponic system pairs hydroponics with fish production, circulating the nutrients in the fish waste to feed the vegetables, and using the plants as a biofiltration system that returns clean water to the fish. Reducing water consumption even further—by as much as 98 percent, compared to field growing—aeroponic systems deliver nutrients in a fine mist to plant roots that are just hanging in the air. And because controlled environments exclude the weeds and pests that trouble field-grown produce, the use of herbicides and pesticides is all but eliminated.
Stacked plants may need to be rotated to make the most of available sunlight, which can be supplemented (or even substituted altogether) with LED grow lights. These can be calibrated to provide blue and red light in optimal doses for each type of plant, and timed to increase plant growth with extended days and growing seasons. (While it’s technically possible to grow any type of crop this way, for now it’s mainly leafy greens and tomatoes that are economically viable.) Cool enough to be strung right in among the plants without burning them, LEDs reduce site electricity consumption (and costs) per square foot of grow area by about a third compared to older technologies, such as high-pressure sodium. “Energy is a game-changer,” says Dickson Despommier, an emeritus professor of microbiology and public health at Columbia University, whose seminal 2010 book, The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century, is widely credited with kick-starting vertical agriculture in North America. Cost-effective LED lighting opens up the possibility of converting urban and urban-adjacent building types such as parking garages, big-box stores, and shopping malls into productive local farms, he says.
With productivity rates that are orders of magnitude greater than conventional farming, high-rise growing is gaining traction worldwide. The world’s first such system began operations in 2012 in Singapore. The land-strapped city-state, which imports about 90 percent of its food, aims to grow a third of its produce locally by 2030. Indoor vertical farms in the country now produce about 80 tons of greens a year, and the Singapore Food Agency is supporting research into and development of the method as its main bet on the future.
In China, great swaths of arable land have been lost to development (more than 30 million acres between 1997 and 2008) and 20 percent of what’s left is contaminated. At the same time, the country has a strong tradition of urban-adjacent farming. When a 247-acre agricultural site, midway between Shanghai’s main international airport and the megacity’s center, recently came up for redevelopment, global design firm Sasaki proposed that, rather than create yet another tech park, the client take its agricultural mission to the next level. As a result, the Sunqiao Urban Agricultural District is slated to become one of China’s first comprehensive national agricultural zones. Sasaki’s master plan, which has received approval from the Pudong District and is now proceeding for formal approval from the City of Shanghai, expands the district’s role in Shanghai’s food network, integrating vertical agricultural production, research, and education into a dynamic public domain. In addition to research and development facilities and an agriculture production zone, the plan provides for a civic plaza showcasing productive landscapes, a science museum, an interactive greenhouse, an aquaponics display, and a destination market. “It’s urban agriculture on steroids,” says Michael Grove, chair of landscape architecture, civil engineering, and ecology at Sasaki.
The Sunqiao project will include a civic plaza with productive landscapes (top), a science museum, and an interactive greenhouse (above), among other elements. Image courtesy Sasaki, click to enlarge.
Grove identifies three primary drivers for prioritizing urban agriculture globally: the need to curtail agricultural sprawl and thereby protect ecosystems, to reclaim economic agency by diversifying control of food production, and to build community: “Food brings us together,” he says. Behind Asia’s early adoption of urban agriculture, he sees a historic understanding among the region’s societies that the well-being of the population requires systemic support. That may also be a factor in Europe, where the Netherlands is a global leader in controlled-environment technology, and Denmark is home to the world’s latest and largest vertical farm, a partnership between a Taiwanese CEA tech company and a local start-up: with growing shelves stacked 14 deep, the 75,000-square-foot wind-powered facility has the capacity to produce 1,000 metric tons of greens a year.
A hub for teaching, research, and community engagement, located within sight of downtown Columbus and designed by Erdy McHenry Architecture, supports Ohio State’s CEA efforts. Brad Feinknopf
North America has been slower to adopt vertical farming, a lag that Ohio State’s Kubota attributes in large part to the year-round, nationwide availability of produce from California, Arizona, and Florida. But now, she says, climate disruptions and shortages of viable farmland in those states, along with the increasing urbanization of the workforce, strengthen the rationale for controlled environment agriculture. To support Ohio State University’s multidisciplinary research into CEA, a one-acre vertical greenhouse is under construction within sight of downtown Columbus. As part of the facility, the recently completed Kunz-Brundige Franklin County Extension Office serves as a hub for teaching, research, and community engagement around food, health, agricultural production, and sustainability. Both buildings are designed by Philadelphia-based Erdy McHenry Architecture.
Although still tiny, vertical farming is the fastest-growing sector in U.S. agriculture. A projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 20 percent from 2020 to 2026 is expected to bring sales to around $10 billion a year. And while significant numbers of start-ups in the capital-intensive sector have failed—as indicated by the track record of several initiatives profiled in this magazine eight years ago —experts say that’s an inevitable aspect of an emerging technology.
Among the growing number of enterprises going strong, however, is Vertical Harvest, the first vertical hydroponic greenhouse in North America. Cofounded by architect Nona Yehia, principal at GYDE Architects, the company began operations in 2016 in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Jackson is a rural town, but it performs like a city in relevant ways: 97 percent of its developable land is already in use, and, with a four-month growing season, 98 percent of its food is imported. Inspired by Despommier’s work, the need for a local food supply, and the opportunity to provide meaningful work for community members with intellectual and physical challenges, Yehia designed a three-story greenhouse for a 30-by-100-foot municipally owned lot next to a parking garage. “The town councilor who showed us the property thought we’d put up a plastic hoop structure to extend the growing season a couple of months, employ a few people, and call it a day,” recalls Yehia. But she and her business partners wanted to grow as much food as possible, to employ as many people as possible, and to do both year-round. “That’s where the idea to grow up came from,” she says.
Vertical Harvest’s three-story CEA facility in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, produces as much food on a tenth of an acre as on a 10-acre conventional farm. Photos © Vertical Harvest (1), Hannah Hardaway (2 & 3)
With a footprint of a tenth of an acre, the greenhouse produces as much food as would a 10-acre conventional farm. It employs 30 people, more than half of whom have a disability. And it’s profitable. “It would have been easier as a nonprofit,” Yehia says, “but we were committed to creating a replicable model that is not about charity: it’s about empowerment.”
After five years of operation, Vertical Harvest is ready to expand. Construction is scheduled to start this year on a second location that incorporates affordable housing and municipal parking in Westbrooke, Maine. The new 70,000-square-foot greenhouse is expected to provide the equivalent of 50 full-time jobs and to produce 1.3 million pounds of produce a year, supplying hospitals, corporate cafeterias, schools, chefs, restaurants, and caterers, as well as individual customers. “These ecosystems can put out a lot of food,” says Yehia. “Making sure you have customers who can buy at scale is as essential to success as growing plans.”
Vertical Harvest intends to build up to 15 farms in the next five years, with agreements already in place for projects in Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Chicago, and discussion is underway for five other locations. Like the Wyoming and Maine projects, they will integrate social value and community engagement with their agricultural mission. “It’s the perfect intersection to show what architecture can achieve in its social role in our communities,” Yehia says. And while she has run Vertical Harvest as designer, entrepreneur, and urban farmer, it’s entirely possible for architects to advocate for urban agriculture in their more usual role as prime consultants, coordinating the work of other experts.
As CEA picks up speed, the time may not be far off when every municipality will incorporate vertical farming into its civic infrastructure, valued the way public libraries and recreation centers are. “It should be something that we all expect to see when we go to cities,” Yehia says: “infrastructure that grows food and futures, and bolsters the sustainability of the community.”
Continuing Education
To earn one AIA learning unit (LU), including one hour of health, safety, and welfare (HSW) credit, read the article above and watch this video.
Then complete the quiz. Upon passing the test, you will receive a certificate of completion, and your credit will be automatically reported to the AIA. Additional information regarding credit-reporting and continuing-education requirements can be found at continuingeducation.bnpmedia.com
Learning Objectives
Explain how conventional agricultural methods contribute to climate change.
Define terms such as urban agriculture, controlled environment agriculture (CEA), and vertical agriculture.
Describe technologies relevant to CEA, such as hydroponics, aeroponics, and aquaponics.
Discuss how CEA can enhance food security and bring social value to underserved communities.
AIA/CES Course #K2104A
Lead photo: Sunqiao Urban Agricultural District has been designed by Sasaki for a site midway between Shanghai’s city center. Image courtesy Sasaki
KEYWORDS cities / climate change / urban planning
The World’s First Autonomous Greenhouse Manager
Geert van der Wel started in the role of Autonomous Greenhouse Manager at Blue Radix. He represents the human support side of the Crop Controller service in addition to the smart algorithms that control greenhouses
07-04-2021 | Goedemorgen
Early February, Geert van der Wel started in the role of Autonomous Greenhouse Manager at Blue Radix. He represents the human support side of the Crop Controller service in addition to the smart algorithms that control greenhouses. Read more about how Geert helps customers and about his background. As he says himself: "I was almost literally born among tomatoes in De Lier, where my parents had a tomato greenhouse."
Name: Geert van der Wel
Home: I’ve been married to Tessa for 16 years and we have two children. We have lived in Burgundian West Brabant since 1998.
Childhood: Almost literally, I was born among the tomatoes in De Lier, where my parents had a tomato greenhouse.
Study: I completed Secondary Horticultural School in De Lier, and also undertook several (horticultural) studies.
Work experience: I worked in my parents’ tomato greenhouse right from my childhood. After finishing my studies my partner and I became owners of Kwekerij Polderwel for ten years, growing tomatoes on 2.5 hectares. We wound up this undertaking because of the construction of the A4 highway between Antwerp and Rotterdam. Then I did three years as a manager at the Nuijten plant nursery, and when this firm ceased trading I ended up at Nickerson-Zwaan in Made; it later became known as Hazera Seeds. For the first four years, I worked in the Planning & Control department, moving on to become Product Manager High-Tech Tomatoes for the final five years.
What can you do for growers as an Autonomous Greenhouse Manager?
“Blue Radix offers autonomous growing as a service. So alongside our smart algorithms controlling the greenhouse, our Crop Controller service also has a ‘human side’, and customers get daily support from an off-site Autonomous Greenhouse Manager (AGM). So as that AGM I’m constantly looking over the customer’s shoulder, and I’m their first point of contact. Right from the start, I guide clients intensively in taking their first steps into the world of algorithms. They are given an extensive onboarding program where they get explanations on the steps to autonomous growing, the operation of the algorithms, and the Crop Controller portal. I also monitor the management of the greenhouse continuously and discuss the progress on a regular basis, including through reports. My work experience has taken me through all the processes involved, from seed to the final product. This is what enables me to support our customers fully as AGM, to advise them, and to help them to realize their crop strategies.”
Blue Radix offers autonomous growing as a service; why is this important?
“Cultivation is the core business of every greenhouse company. To leave this completely to autonomous control requires a lot of trust from the customer. We are very aware that autonomous growing is still quite new and innovative. Providing good service with the support of the AGM lets us guide growers fully in working with algorithms. Our experience shows that customers are more likely to abandon their own processes and working methods step by step because there’s always someone monitoring the entire process.”
Describe your day. How do you monitor greenhouses worldwide?
“Every day I open the Crop Controller portal to see how the algorithms are behaving in terms of our various customers’ crop strategies. I contact the grower if any anomalies appear, or if there’s a technical issue I get in touch with the Blue Radix product developers. This also applies to feedback I receive from customers on how we can optimize Crop Controller still further.”
What do you like about your job? And what are your views on autonomous greenhouse management?
“In the horticultural world, it’s great to see that there’s a continuous search for innovations, and specifically for autonomous growing. I used sensors and digital tools on a small scale when I was a grower myself. But at that time I got very little guidance on how they worked and how to interpret it all. Now I use this experience to give our customers good information so that ultimately they’ll be able to grow autonomously in the best possible way!”
Got a question for Geert, or about autonomous growing generally?
Send us a message, and we’ll be happy to help you.
Your Quick Guide To Grow Room Controllers
A grow room controller brings together all the moving parts of your cultivation facility and allows you to automate your operation
March 5, 2021
What is a Grow Room Controller?
A grow room controller brings together all the moving parts of your cultivation facility and allows you to automate your operation. With a grow room controller, you can monitor and control your climate, lighting, irrigation, fertigation, and track your crop’s success to adjust and improve each cycle. These control systems can connect to existing equipment or come with their own set of sensors to track your environment, and adjust according to your set parameters, ultimately saving you time and money.
Grow room controllers integrate with existing systems, or can be purchased with sensors and equipment for larger operations. Some systems need only a few sensors and an application for your phone or computer, while others require larger computing and monitoring devices. Which option you choose will largely depend on the size of your greenhouse or indoor growing operation.
Being able to monitor and control your indoor or greenhouse facility is crucial for consistent and desired results. These systems are a huge benefit to all crop types, including cannabis, and can be adjusted to fit your cultivation style and desired outcomes. Not only will you be able to more accurately track and monitor your crop’s progress, but you can then take that learning and replicate it or improve upon it for your next growth cycle.
The Benefits
Grow room controllers offer you complete control and oversight of your crop. Any environmental aspect that you wish to control can be monitored and adjusted with a grow room control system. More advanced systems offer automation for your whole system, allowing you to pull yourself out of the weeds (pun intended) of trying to control everything manually. Grow room controllers are also scalable, especially if you purchase a setup with that in mind, allowing you to expand your facility but keep the same environmental parameters and automation.
All greenhouse and indoor growers know that having control over your environment is crucial to achieving desired results. This means monitoring and adjusting your lighting, climate, irrigation, and fertigation to ensure consistency, which can be time-consuming. A greenhouse control system does the monitoring and adjusting for you, ensuring all of the environmental controls work together and are adjusted accurately.
With advanced control systems, you can program light preferences for your greenhouse, so if light falls below a certain threshold your lights will adjust and will turn off if it exceeds that threshold. Indoor growing can also benefit from lighting such as timers and spectrum controls. Hydroponic sensors in your medium can tell you if you need to increase or decrease water durations. Ultimately being as efficient as possible with water and electricity, which is both environmentally and economically beneficial.
This monitoring and automation are incredibly cost-effective in the long run for your greenhouse or indoor facility. The more automation you have, the less labor you need to support your cultivation, and labor is one of the most, if not the most costly aspect of a cultivation facility. Grow room and greenhouse control systems can also schedule timers and alarms for preventative maintenance so that your equipment can receive proper downtime, preventing blowouts and loss of productivity.
How to Select a Grow Room Controller
Figure 1 from GroAdvisor Webinar
The above worksheet is an example of how you can select the right grow room controller for your needs. While many focus on cost, it’s also important to take into account which system will integrate with and enhance your facility the most. Take stock of your equipment and current manual system to ensure that your new grow room controller will add value to your operation.
Finding a grow room controller that is right for your facility will help you realize your fullest growth potential. Once you have compared and found a system that can accommodate the environmental controls you’d like to track and automate, all that’s left is the installation. Once the grow room controller is installed and your parameters are set you will no longer have to manually adjust your elements, saving time and labor, which ultimately saves money.
"We See An Ever-Increasing Interest In Hydroponic Growing"
Quentin has noticed that this movement is already going on in Mexico. “Little by little, farmers and growers are changing their ways
Quentin Gomis, Biogrow Substrates,
On The Mexican Market
"Ever since I was a little boy, my dad took me to the greenhouses where he worked. From a very young age I knew everything about growing tomatoes: the planting, the seedlings, taking care of the growth, and picking them," says Quentin Gomis. He has just been hired as the new commercial manager for Biogrow Substrates in Mexico and, together with their local partner Toyo Kasei, will help this market grow. “I have always believed the future of agriculture should be sustainable, and now it’s the turn of my generation to help move the industry even more in that direction,” he says.
Responsible products
Quentin has noticed that this movement is already going on in Mexico. “Little by little, farmers and growers are changing their ways. The world is changing and consumers are becoming more and more demanding with regard to ecologically responsible products. It’s a big challenge for growers to change their ways of working and the transition to becoming sustainable can also be a synonym of “big investment."
However, growing in a more sustainable way also presents the growers with many advantages. “We see an ever-increasing interest in hydroponic growing, which is in large part due to growers noticing that they can produce up to three times more when using coco peat substrate compared to growing the conventional way.”
Growing demand, growing supply
A growing demand for substrate also means a growing supply, Quentin has noticed. “About 5 years ago, there were only a few coco peat substrate brands, now there must be around 20. So, we could say it is a crowded market and competition is tough, nonetheless, there are always gaps to fill as agricultural techniques are constantly evolving.” New techniques and equipment are what growers are looking for and that is where Biogrow comes in. Quentin will strengthen the service and technical support the company offers to their Mexican customers. “Growers from all over the world are now looking for solutions to help them respond to this growing demand for planet-friendly food. At Biogrow we produce substrates that come from a sustainable resource and respect the environment. At the same time, we accompany our customers all the way through the process from technical support to the delivery at the doors of the greenhouse. This includes a dedicated technical support and logistics team, on-time deliveries and of course maintaining the same substrate quality and efficiency year on year.”
Cooperative base
Quentin is well aware of the challenges and opportunities that growers face. “We give around-the-clock technical support to our customers and we know from first-hand experience what is required to optimize yield and productivity. At Biogrow, we are not only selling coco-based substrates, we are also growers working for growers,” he says, referring to the cooperative that forms the base of the company. “In France, where our head office is located, our primary activity for decades has been growing fruit and vegetables. It’s thanks to this long-established growing experience that we’ve been able to develop our substrate range over the last 25 years."
“Ultimately, we want to build on the solid base we already have here in Mexico, strengthen the link to our customers and accompany them over the years to come, so that they can grow better and more sustainably. A win/win situation for everyone involved,” he concludes. “It really is an exciting time to be part of this industry and see all the positive changes that are happening, especially regarding the industry-wide drive towards sustainability.”
For more information:
Bio-Grow
Quentin Gomis
q.gomis@bio-grow.com
www.bio-grow.com
Toyo Kasei
www.toyokasei.com.mx
Publication date: Tue 6 Apr 2021
Author: Arlette Sijmonsma
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