Vertical Barrels Components "Ready For Vertical Farming Integration"

The aponix vertical barrel system is an alternative vertical NFT solution from Germany that can be used instead of rack systems to use vertical space more efficiently in hydroponic setups and at the same time use natural sunlight better. The system aims to maximize the number of possible grow spaces per level arranged in a given 3D room by increasing the diameter from a ‘Tower’ to a ‘Barrel’.

The whole system is based on lego-like ring segment pieces that serve either as spacers or provide differently organized inserts for standard 2-inch netpots. Assembling multiple of these ring segment pieces will result in stackable ring segments or barrel levels to assemble one or multiple such vertical cylinders. With more ring segments stacked, the height and the number of grow spaces are increased.

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By the end of 2020 aponix will have developed the new ‘Version 3’ that will incorporate all collected improvements from the existing global user base from the last 3 years and adding a few more features:

• Liquid will be guided more precisely inside. It will also have a new more robust and tight connection mechanism and air traps to keep liquid inside also on high flow rates.

• There will be a backwards-compatible and reusable grow plug insert, that is supposed to replace 2-inch one-time use plastic netpots also in other systems. It will also have an optional plant trellis insert to grow larger flowers and fruiting dwarf varieties.

• There will be a new lid-base that speeds up setup of lines of vertical barrels and enable rotation of the units if needed.

• There will also be a dedicated sprinkler dome lid enabling different sprinkler options including own solutions and also the own existing pressure-less irrigation option using the waterbuffer.

• Vertical barrels will be more stable and can be built higher unsing the new V3 part.

• There will only be a single ring segment piece in ‘Version 3’ with 2 grow pod inserts that only allow 2 stacking positions instead of 4 in V2. If spaces are unused they can be capped with a nice green cover plug.

As of 2020 aponix also changed their market strategy from looking for distributors to starting to work only with product partners who bring in own engineering and create more specific and distinguishable solutions based on aponix components. Aponix parts are now defined as being mere infrastructure parts that always need to be integrated into a greater individual context involving more or less horticulture engineering depending on the application. Which means product partners create their own unique solutions based on aponix components adding other external even competitive pieces, logic and/or service and market them independently under their own brand and own product name. 

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For more information:
Aponix
hello@aponix.eu
www.aponix.eu 

18 Feb 2021

Little Leaf Farms Raises $90M to Grow Its Greenhouse Network

by Jennifer Marston

Image from: Little Leaf Farms

Massachusetts-based Little Leaf Farms has raised $90 million in a debt and equity financing round to expand its network of hydroponic greenhouses on the East Coast. The round was led by Equilibrium Capital as well as founding investors Bill Helman and Pilot House Associates. Bank of America also participated.

Little Leaf Farms says the capital is “earmarked” to build new greenhouse sites along the East Coast, where its lettuce is currently available in about 2,500 stores. 

The company already operates one 10-acre greenhouse in Devins, Massachusetts. Its facility grows leafy greens using hydroponics and a mixture of sunlight supplemented by LED-powered grow lights. Rainwater captured from the facility’s roof provides most of the water used on the farm. 

According to a press release, Little Leaf Farms has doubled its retail sales to $38 million since 2019. And last year, the company bought180 acres of land in Pennsylvania on which to build an additional facility. Still another greenhouse, slated for North Carolina, will serve the Southeast region of the U.S. 

Little Leaf Farms joins the likes of Revol Greens, Gotham Greens, AppHarvest, and others in bringing local(ish) greens to a greater percentage of the population. These facilities generally pack and ship their greens on the day of or day after harvesting, and only supply retailers within a certain radius. Little Leaf Farms, for example, currently servers only parts of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. 

The list of regions the company serves will no doubt lengthen as the company builds up its greenhouse network in the coming months.

VIDEO: How This Vertical Farm Grows 80,000 Pounds of Produce Per Week

Bowery Farming Uses Technology To Prioritize

Accessibility And Sustainability In Their Produce

Growing Operations

by Terri Ciccone and Eater Video Feb 20, 2021

To some, the pristine growing conditions and perceived mechanical interference of a vertical farm can seem unnatural, but at Bowery Farming “interference” is actually not the goal at all. “We don’t really think about how people are involved in the growing process, but how to take people out of the growing process,” says chief science officer Henry Sztul. “Our goal is actually to have as few people walking around our plants as possible.”

Bowery Farming is a network of vertical farms working to reengineer the growing process. Using a system of light and watering technology, Bowery is able to use 95 percent less water than a traditional outdoor farm, zero pesticides, and chemicals, and grow food that tastes as good as anyone else’s.

Bowery Farming uses vertical farm-specific seeds that are optimized for flavor instead of insect resistance and durability. Seeds are mechanically pressed into trays of soil and sent out into growing positions, or racks within the building that have their own lighting and watering systems. Each tray gets its own QR code so that they can be monitored and assigned a customized plan for water and light until they’re ready to be harvested.

Irving Fain, Bowery Farming’s founder, and CEO contemplates the prediction from the United Nations that 70 to 80 percent of the world’s population will be living in and around cities in the next 30 years. “Figuring out” how do you feed and how do you provide fresh food to urban environments both more efficiently as well as more sustainably?’ is a very important question today, and an even more important question in the years to come.”

Agritech: Precision Farming With AI, IoT and 5G

Image from: Photo by Mohd Izwan Mohd Nazam/The Edge

For a company that grows and delivers vegetables, Boomgrow Productions Sdn Bhd’s office is nothing like a farm, or even a vertical farm.

Where farms are bedecked with wheelbarrows, spades and hoes, Boomgrow’s floor plan is akin to a co-working space with a communal island table, several cubicles, comfortable armchairs, a cosy hanging rattan chair and a glass-walled conference room in the middle.

At a corner, propped up along a walkway leading to a rectangular chamber fitted with grow lights, are rows of support stilts with hydroponic planters developed in-house and an agricultural technologist perched on a chair, perusing data. “This is where some of the R&D work happens,” says Jay Dasen, co-founder of the agritech start-up.

But there is a larger farm where most of the work behind this high-tech initiative is executed. Located a stone’s throw from the city centre in Ampang is a 40ft repurposed shipping container outfitted with perception technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that mimic the ideal environment to produce more than 50,000kg of vegetables a year.

Stacked in vertical layers, Boomgrow’s vegetables are grown under artificial lights with Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to detect everything from leaf discolouration to nitrate composition. This is coupled with AI and machine learning algorithms.

Boomgrow is the country’s first 5G-connected vertical farm. With the low latency and larger bandwidth technology, the start-up is able to monitor production in real time as well as maintain key para­meters, such as temperature and humidity, to ensure optimal growth conditions.

When Jay and her co-founders, K Muralidesan and Shan Palani, embarked on this initiative six years ago, Boomgrow was nowhere near what it is today.

The three founders got together hoping to do their part in building a more sustainable future. “I’ve spent years advising small and large companies on sustainability, environmental and social governance disclosures. I even embarked on a doctorate in sustainability disclosure and governance,” says Jay.

“But I felt a deep sense of disconnect because while I saw companies evolving in terms of policies, processes and procedures towards sustainability, the people in those organisations were not transforming. Sustainability is almost like this white noise in the background. We know it’s important and we know it needs to be done, but we don’t really know how to integrate it into our lives.

“That disconnect really troubled me. When we started Boomgrow, it wasn’t a linear journey. Boomgrow is something that came out of meaningful conversations and many years of research.”

Shan, on the other hand, was an architect who developed a taste for sustainable designs when he was designing modular structures with minimal impact on their surroundings between regular projects. “It was great doing that kind of work. But I was getting very dissatisfied because the projects were customer-driven, which meant I would end up having debates about trivial stuff such as the colour of wall tiles,” he says.

As for Murali, the impetus to start Boomgrow came from having lived overseas — while working in capital markets and financial services — where quality and nutritious produce was easily available.

Ultimately, they concluded that the best way to work towards their shared sustainability goals was to address the imminent problem of food shortage.

“By 2050, the world’s population is expected to grow to 9.7 billion people, two-thirds of whom will be in Asia-Pacific. Feeding all those people will definitely be a huge challenge,” says Jay. 

“The current agricultural practice is not built for resilience, but efficiency. So, when you think of farming, you think of vast tracts of land located far away from where you live or shop.

“The only way we could reimagine or rethink that was to make sure the food is located closer to consumers, with a hyperlocal strategy that is traceable and transparent, and also free of pesticides.”

Having little experience in growing anything, it took them a while to figure out the best mechanism to achieve their goal. “After we started working on prototypes, we realised that the tropics are not designed for certain types of farming,” says Jay. 

“And then, there is the problem of harmful chemicals and pesticides everywhere, which has become a necessity for farmers to protect their crops because of the unpredictable climate. We went through many iterations … when we started, we used to farm in little boxes, but that didn’t quite work out.”

They explored different methodologies, from hydroponics to aquaponics, and even started growing outdoors. But they lost a lot of crops when a heat wave struck.

That was when they started exploring more effective ways to farm. “How can we protect the farm from terrible torrential rains, plant 365 days a year and keep prices affordable? It took us five years to answer these questions,” says Jay.

Even though farmers all over the world currently produce more than enough food to feed everyone, 820 million people — roughly 11% of the global population — did not have enough to eat in 2018, according to the World Health Organization. Concurrently, food safety and quality concerns are rising, with more consumers opting for organically produced food as well as safe foods, out of fear of harmful synthetic fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides.

According to ResearchAndMarkets.com, consumer demand for global organic fruit and vegetables was valued at US$19.16 billion in 2019 and is anticipated to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.5% by 2026.

Meanwhile, the precision farming market was estimated to be US$7 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach US$12.8 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 12.7% between 2020 and 2025, states MarketsandMarkets Research Pte Ltd.

Malaysia currently imports RM1 billion worth of leafy vegetables from countries such as Australia, China and Japan. Sourcing good and safe food from local suppliers not only benefits the country from a food security standpoint but also improves Malaysia’s competitive advantage, says Jay.

Unlike organic farming — which is still a soil-based method — tech-enabled precision farming has the advantage of catering for increasing demand and optimum crop production with the limited resources available. Moreover, changing weather patterns due to global warming encourage the adoption of advanced farming technologies to enhance farm productivity and crop yield.

Boomgrow’s model does not require the acres of land that traditional farms need, Jay emphasises. With indoor farms, the company promises a year-round harvest, undisturbed by climate and which uses 95% less water, land and fuel to operate.

Traditional farming is back-breaking labour. But with precision technology, farmers can spend less time on the farm and more on doing other things to develop their business, she says.

Boomgrow has secured more than RM300,000 in funding via technology and innovation grants from SME Corporation Malaysia, PlaTCOM Ventures and Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation, and is on track to build the country’s largest indoor farms.

Image from: Boomgrow

The company got its chance to showcase the strength of its smart technology when Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) approached it to be a part of the telco’s Smart Agriculture cluster in Langkawi last October.

“5G makes it faster for us to process the multiple data streams that we need because we collect data for machine learning, and then AI helps us to make decisions faster,” Jay explains.

“We manage the farm using machines to study inputs like water and electricity and even measure humidity. All the farm’s produce is lab-tested and we can keep our promise that there are no pesticides, herbicides or any preserving chemicals. We follow the food safety standards set by the EU, where nitrate accumulation in plant tissues is a big issue.”

With TM’s 5G technology and Boomgrow’s patent-pending technology, the latter is able to grow vegetables like the staple Asian greens and highland crops such as butterhead and romaine lettuce as well as kale and mint. While the company is able to grow more than 30 varieties of leafy greens, it has decided to stick to a selection of crops that is most in demand to reduce waste, says Jay.

As it stands, shipping containers are the best fit for the company’s current endeavour as containerised modular farms are the simplest means of bringing better food to local communities. However, it is also developing a blueprint to house farms in buildings, she says.

Since the showcase, Boomgrow has started to supply its crops to various hotels in Langkawi. It rolled out its e-commerce platform last year after the Movement Control Order was imposed. 

“On our website, we promise to deliver the greens within six hours of harvest. But actually, you could get them way earlier. We harvest the morning after the orders come in and the vegetables are delivered on the same day,” says Jay.

Being mindful of Boomgrow’s carbon footprint, orders are organised and scheduled according to consumers’ localities, she points out. “We don’t want our delivery partners zipping everywhere, so we stagger the orders based on where consumers live. 

“For example, all deliveries to Petaling Jaya happen on Thursdays, but the vegetables are harvested that morning. They are not harvested a week before, three days before or the night before. This is what it means to be hyperlocal. We want to deliver produce at its freshest and most nutritious state.”

Plans to expand regionally are also underway, once Boomgrow’s fundraising exercise is complete, says Jay. “Most probably, this will only happen when the Covid-19 pandemic ends.”

To gain the knowledge they have today, the team had to “unlearn” everything they knew and take up new skills to figure what would work best for their business, says Jay. “All this wouldn’t have been possible if we had not experimented with smart cameras to monitor the condition of our produce,” she laughs.

These Buildings Combine Affordable Housing And Vertical Farming

A Million Pounds of Produce A Year, Along With Housing And Jobs.

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[Image: Harriman/Gyde/courtesy Vertical Harvest]

BY ADELE PETERS

02-18-21

Some vertical farms grow greens in old warehouses, former steel mills, or other sites set apart from the heart of cities. But a new series of projects will build multistory greenhouses directly inside affordable housing developments.

“Bringing the farm back to the city center can have a lot of benefits,” says Nona Yehia, CEO of Vertical Harvest, a company that will soon break ground on a new building in Westbrook, Maine, that combines a vertical farm with affordable housing. Similar developments will follow in Chicago and in Philadelphia, where a farm-plus-housing will be built in the Tioga District, an opportunity zone.

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[Image: Harriman/Gyde/courtesy Vertical Harvest]

“I think what we’ve truly understood in the past year and a half—although we’ve been rooted in it all along—is that we have in this country converging economic, climate, and health crises that are rooted in people’s access to healthy food, resilient, nourishing jobs, and fair housing,” Yehia says. “And we saw this as an urban redevelopment tool that has the potential to address all three.”

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Nona Yehia [Image: Harriman/Gyde/courtesy Vertical Harvest]

The company launched in 2015 on a vacant lot in Jackson, Wyoming, aiming in part to create jobs for people with physical and developmental disabilities in the area. In 2019, it got a contract from Fannie Mae to explore how its greenhouses could help with the challenge of food security and nutrition, studying how a farm could be integrated into an existing affordable housing development in Chicago as a model for new projects.

Now, as it moves forward with the Chicago project and expands to other cities, it will also create new jobs for people who might have otherwise had difficulty finding work, working with local stakeholders to identify underserved populations. “Part of this is providing healthy, nutritious food,” Yehia says, “but also jobs at livable wages. We’re positioning all of our firms to address the new minimum wage level of $15 an hour with a path towards career development.”

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[Image: Harriman/Gyde/courtesy Vertical Harvest]

Inside each building, the ground level will offer community access, while the greenhouse fills the second, third, and fourth floors, covering 70,000 square feet and growing around a million pounds of produce a year. (The amount of housing varies by site; in Maine, the plan includes 50 unites of housing, and the project will also create 50 new jobs.) In Chicago, there may be a community kitchen on the first level. In each location, residents will be able to buy fresh produce on-site; Vertical Harvest also plans to let others in the neighborhood buy greens directly from the farm. While it will sell to supermarkets, restaurants, hospitals, and other large customers, it also plans to subsidize 10-15% of its harvest for local food pantries and other community organizations. “By creating a large-scale farm in a food desert we are creating a large source of healthy, locally grown food 365 days a year,” she says.

Correction: We’ve updated this article to note that the project in Maine has 50 units of housing, not 15, and the company received a contract—not a grant—from Fannie Mae.

ADELE PETERS

ADELE PETERS IS A STAFF WRITER AT FAST COMPANY WHO FOCUSES ON SOLUTIONS TO SOME OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST PROBLEMS, FROM CLIMATE CHANGE TO HOMELESSNESS. PREVIOUSLY, SHE WORKED WITH GOOD, BIOLITE, AND THE SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS AND SOLUTIONS PROGRAM AT UC BERKELEY, AND CONTRIBUTED TO THE SECOND EDITION OF THE BESTSELLING BOOK "WORLDCHANGING: A USER'S GUIDE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY."

CANADA - CALGARY: Local Produce Options Expand With Vertically Farmed Greens

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Elizabeth Chorney-Booth

Feb 20, 2021

Pictured is a package of sunflower microgreens produced by ALLPA in Calgary on Thursday, February 11, 2021. Azin Ghaffari/Postmedia PHOTO BY AZIN GHAFFARI /Azin Ghaffari/Postmedia

Over the years, the local food movement has grown from a handful of agriculture advocates touting the importance of supporting local farmers to a large-scale demand for everything from meat to chocolate that’s been produced and, when possible, grown here in Alberta. With Canada’s Agriculture Day being this Tuesday, it’s as good a time as any to celebrate homegrown products, be it artisanal honey or good ol’ Alberta beef.

Yet, as we look outside at our February weather, it’s obvious that some of our favourite foods simply can’t grow in abundance here. Greenhouse technology allows farmers to grow local cucumbers and tomatoes alongside wheat and canola fields, but greenhouses take up a lot of real estate. A new breed of urban farmer is using vertical farming techniques to grow crops like microgreens and baby kale on a much smaller footprint, right inside the city limits.

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Pictured are some of the microgreens produced by Allpa in Calgary. Azin Ghaffari/Postmedia PHOTO BY AZIN GHAFFARI /Azin Ghaffari/Postmedia

The newest local player is Allpa Vertical Farms. The company is headed by three young entrepreneurs who used their shared interest in food, sustainability, and engineering to build a vertical farming operation. It involves vertically stacked levels of plants, grown indoors, usually in a warehouse or shipping container. The lighting, irrigation, and soil are carefully controlled so that crop yields aren’t reliant on exterior factors like weather and sunlight.

Allpa specializes in microgreens, growing radish, broccoli, sunflower, and arugula sprouts that can be bought by the tub at the Italian Centre Shop and all Sunterra locations. Since microgreens only take about 11 days to go from seed to harvest, the Allpa crew can grow their greens to order, making for less food waste.

From left: Andrey Salazar and Guillermo Borges, Allpa co-founders, with Zakk Tambasco, head of production, with their products. Azin Ghaffari/Postmedia PHOTO BY AZIN GHAFFARI /Azin Ghaffari/Postmedia

“The company (began) with an internal conflict I had between climate change and farming,” says founder Andrey Salazar, who grew up on a coffee farm in Columbia and has studied physics and electrical engineering in Calgary. “I wanted to combine my background as a farmer and my practical skills as an engineer, so I went to my garage and started building the equipment.”

Allpa is far from the first vertical farming outfit in Calgary. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Deepwater Farms had developed a huge following among restaurant chefs with its greens grown via a vertical hydroponics system. The company was originally conceived as a closed-loop aquaponics operation, raising fish and using the fish waste to fertilize plants. Food safety regulations have prompted the company to decouple the two systems, but it continues to sell both indoor-grown baby kale, arugula and beet greens as well as barramundi and tilapia.

It’s been a successful model. Before COVID-19, the majority of Deepwater’s business was with restaurants seeking products previously unavailable from local producers (you don’t see a lot of barramundi swimming around Calgary), all of which came to a screeching halt last spring. The company was able to pivot and is now doing a booming retail business, with their products available in 80 retailers, including all Calgary Co-Op stores, select Safeway and Sobeys locations, Blush Lane and Community Natural Foods, among many others.

“We work with some of the best restaurants in the area and that’s how we started,” says Paul Shumlich, Deepwater’s founder and CEO. “Now we’re 99 percent selling to retail, which we’re very grateful for.”

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Reid Henuset and Paul Shumlich of Deepwater Farms pose for a photo in the city’s first commercial aquaponics farm on Tuesday, November 20, 2018. Al Charest/Postmedia Al Charest/Postmedia

Vertical farming methods are hardly dominating in Alberta – with so much farmland we obviously have other options to grow food, along with a reliable flow of food grown in warmer climes. But it is taking hold in other parts of the world and Calgary has the potential to be a leader in vertical farming technology. The Harvest Hub is a local tech start-up developing soil-based indoor farms, with a focus on green energy and diversification of crops, which will allow urban farmers to go beyond microgreens and leafy greens. Founder Alina Martin says Harvest Hub has had success growing crops like saffron, zucchini, carrots, and bell peppers in its Calgary test farm. Once they hit the market, technological innovations should make vertical farming more feasible for urban growers.

“Vertical farming is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world, but most people in Canada don’t understand it,” Martin says. “As much as we romanticize the idea of having your food growing just down the street, the challenge here is the cost. You can’t be in downtown Calgary growing basil and make money. The infrastructure costs will kill you.”

While Martin suspects that Harvest Hub’s business will largely come from outside of Calgary (the company is working on addressing food insecurity in communities in Canada’s North), she does believe vertical farming is the way of the future on a global scale. While we may not have locally grown saffron in our cupboards in the immediate future, it is nice to have access to that Calgary-bred barramundi and handfuls of affordable microgreens for now.

Elizabeth Chorney-Booth can be reached at elizabooth@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter at @elizaboothy or Instagram at @elizabooth.

USA - LOS ANGELES: Indoor Urban Farm Planned For Century City

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By Brandon Anderegg

Feb 19, 2021

New York-based Planet to Plate Inc. wants to operate an urban farm within an industrial building in Milwaukee’s Century City business park.

The company’s plans consist of spending $150,000 to renovate a portion of the industrial building at 3945 N. 31st St. for an indoor growing operation, according to a permit recently filed with the city.

The industrial building is owned by an affiliate of Good City Brewing, which has offices and distribution operations in the space. Planet to Plate operations would be confined to an approximately 8,900-square-foot space within the building, said Christopher Corkery, Planet to Plate chief executive officer.

Planet to Plate aims to bring hyper-local fresh greens to the Milwaukee market, allowing food businesses to reinvest in “food deserts” and improve the socio-economic conditions of these areas,” according to a building code variance and commercial alterations permit filed with the city.

“Really the goal is to create supply chain resilience in food systems and create new jobs in food tech,” Corkery said, adding that because of the coronavirus pandemic, food security has never been more relevant.

Planet to Plate at Century City would be operational by this spring pending city approval, Corkery said.

Planet to Plate’s proposal at Century City could bring renewed momentum to the business park after Strauss Brands’ proposal for a $60 million facility became mired in controversy in 2019. Strauss Brands withdrew its proposal days after Ald. Khalif Rainey, whose district includes Century City, pulled his support for the project due to public pressure.

The Century City Business Park is located at the former site of the A.O. Smith and Tower Automotive manufacturing complex, which once employed thousands of workers. After Tower Automotive shut down the operation in 2006, the site was acquired by the city, which has spent years converting it into a business park.

While Spanish train maker Talgo Inc. and Good City Brewing have established operations in Century City, efforts to attract more companies to the area have been slow in-part because of location challenges including crime, facility security, employee safety, and its distance from the freeway.

Last year, Planet to Plate received special use permits from the city to operate an urban farm at the Cecilia Annex building and an adjacent vacant parking lot near the northwest corner of West Wells Street and North 27th Street on Milwaukee’s west side.

However, due to the scale of the project and coronavirus-related challenges, Planet to Plate has shifted its focus to the smaller Century City proposal, which Corkery said will be a more immediate response to local food systems disrupted by the pandemic.

“It’s something we (still) hope to do but obviously that’s a grander project and COVID certainly disrupted much of the business community,” Corkery said. “We hope to continue on (the Cecilia Annex building) project in the future.”

Brandon Anderegg

http://biztimes.com

Brandon covers startups, technology, banking, and finance. He previously worked as a general assignment and court reporter for The Freeman in Waukesha. Brandon graduated from UW-Milwaukee’s journalism, advertising and media studies program with an emphasis in journalism. He enjoys live music, playing guitar, and loves to hacky sack.

Training Artificial Intelligence To Track Greenhouses in Antarctica and Mars

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FEBRUARY 17, 2021

by Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology

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Credit: Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology

Scientists from the Skoltech Center for Computational and Data-Intensive Science and Engineering (CDISE) and the Skoltech Digital Agriculture Laboratory and their collaborators from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system that enables processing images from autonomous greenhouses, monitoring plant growth and automating the cultivation process. Their research was published in the journal IEEE Sensors.

Modern technology has long become a fixture in all spheres of human life on Earth. Reaching out to other planets is a new challenge for humankind. Since greenhouses are likely to be the only source of fresh food for Mars space crews and settlers, development of artificial intelligence (AI) and computer-vision-based technologies for plant growth automation is perceived as a priority research target. A test site is already in place for developing and testing advanced life support systems: An autonomous plant cultivation module is operating at the Antarctic Neumayer Station III near the South Pole. Right now, scientists are focusing on creating an AI system that could collect information about all the plant growth factors and seedling health and control greenhouses in autonomous mode without human involvement.

"One cannot maintain continuous communication with Neumayer III, and training computer vision models onboard requires too many resources, so we had to find a way to send a stream of plant photographs to external servers for data processing and analysis," Skoltech Ph.D. student Sergey Nesteruk explains.

As a conclusion to their research, the Skoltech team processed a collection of images from remote automated systems using their new approach based on convolutional neural networks and outperforming popular codecs by over seven times in reducing the image size without apparent quality degradation. The researchers used the information from the reconstructed images to train a computer vision algorithm which, once trained, is capable of classifying 18 plant varieties according to species at different stages of development with an accuracy of 92%. This approach makes it possible to both visually monitor the system operation and continuously gather new ML model training data in order to enhance the models' functionality.

There are plans to deploy and test the new systems right on Neumayer III, which will mark an important step towards automation of plant growing modules, thus removing yet another roadblock on the way to Mars.

Lead photo: Plant cultivation module in Antarctica. Credit: Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology

February Indoor Ag Science Cafe - February 23rd Tuesday 11 AM Eastern Time - "Indoor Farming In Mexico: Current Status And Opportunities"

Karla Garcia

Microgreen FLN & HortAmericas

• Please sign up so that you will receive Zoom link info.

• Indoor Ag Science Cafe is an open discussion forum, planned and organized by OptimIA project team supported by USDA SCRI grants.

Sign Up Here

Cafe archive & QA forum

Our archived Indoor Ag Science Cafe page in OptimIA website now has a forum function!  Please click on presentations of your interest and ask your quick questions. Notifications come to us and we should be able to respond promptly. 

Submit Your General Questions

For 'Indoor Ag Sci Queries'!

Please submit your questions (anonymously if you wish) about sciences and technologies of indoor farming to this submission site.  Any questions are welcome! The site is always open for your questions. Selected questions will be discussed in our future Indoor Ag Science Queries series.

Indoor Ag Science Cafe is organized by the OptimIA project team funded by USDA SCRI grants program.
Previous café recordings are available in the OptimIA project website.
Please contact for more info: kubota.10@osu.edu

BRITISH COLUMBIA: Learning Centre Gearing Up For “Village Greens”

Published on February 13, 2021

By Laura Keil

Fresh, local and green aren’t words you often hear about Robson Valley products in the wintertime, but the Valemount Learning Society hopes to change that.

The Learning Centre is branching out from its usual array of employment services and courses and digging into local food, thanks to a grant last summer from Northern Development Initiative Trust. The Society used the $166,328 grant to buy a Growcer “growing container” to supply the community with fresh greens year-round: they have made inquiries at IGA and local restaurants and plan to donate some to the food bank. They are also considering a box program if other options don’t work out.

The container is currently on order and will arrive sometime in March, said Riette Kenkel, manager of the Valemount Learning Centre, and she hopes they will have their first harvest in May.

Mike Johnson, who works for VLC as an employment advisor, will run the Growcer operation, which will be called “Village Greens.” Prior to arriving in Valemount, he worked in a commercial greenhouse for 20 years, Kenkel said.

The Growcer company provides training as the food is grown hydroponically.

The container will be set up in the Valemount Industrial Park next door to Robson Valley Mushrooms and near the Valemount Community Forest offices. Kenkel said the heating costs should be offset by the well-insulated container walls, which are good to -50 degrees.

She hopes to package most of the food in biodegradable packaging.

Kenkel previously told the Goat it’s no one’s fault the fresh food supply in Valemount isn’t always consistent.

“By the time the truck gets here the produce is old, and if stuff flies off the shelf we have to wait for the next (truck),” she said. “The Learning Centre has always responded to community needs. This was something we were hearing.”

She said it’s a social enterprise, so if it makes money, that cash will be cycled back into the programs that the Valemount Learning Centre delivers.

One of the more recent programs they’ve taken on is 4-H, which has a focus on agriculture and livestock and they’ve put a call-out for people to come up with program ideas.

Kenkel says it goes beyond just agriculture, however. Projects can relate to environmental issues, learning about aspects of farming, soil, and animals- not just farm animals.

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The Growcer container is self-contained and ready to go in any season using hydroponics. The Valemount Learning Centre hopes to fill the winter void, create a job or two and raise money for their other programs. //GROWCER

“It’s wide open right now for whatever the community wants it to be.”

Farmers Market management
The Society recently took over management of the Valemount Farmers’ Market from long-time organizer Christine Pelletier.

“We’re pretty excited about it,” Kenkel said. “We’re not really going to make any changes. We want to just run this next season as close to what it’s been in the past.”

She said the market will run from June 17th until September 30th this year and the rates for vendors will be the same: $10 per day plus a $10 annual membership.

Kenkel says they likely won’t sell their own fresh greens at the market, as they don’t want to compete with local growers.

“If Village Greens has something that’s marketable at the farmers market that isn’t competing with existing customers, then we might look at it. But yeah, we don’t want to compete with any of the smaller farmers that have been reliably selling lettuce, kale, basil, that kind of stuff.”

Related Posts:

• Non-profit to invest in local wintertime greens

USA - OHIO: Thinking And Growing Inside The Box

FEBRUARY 10, 2021 By SIDNEY DAILY NEWS

Local Farmer Takes The Farm Indoors

By Blythe Alspaugh - balspaugh@sidneydailynews.com

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PIQUA — A brother-sister team has taken the mechanics of farming out of the field and into a freight container.

“We are growing beautiful plants without the sun; there’s no soil, and so it’s all a closed-loop water system,” Britt Decker, co-owner of Fifth Season FARM, said. “We use non-GMO seeds, completely free of herbicides and pesticides, so the product is really, really clean. In fact, we recommend people don’t even wash it, because there’s no reason to.”

Fifth Season FARM is unique in many ways; the 3-acre hydroponic farm is contained in a 320-square-foot freight container that sits along 120 S. Main St. in Piqua, with everything from varying varities of lettuce, to radishes, to kale and even flowers in a climate-controlled smart farm that allows Decker and his sister, Laura Jackson, to turn crops in a six- to eight-week cycle. The crops spend 18 hours in “daytime” every day, and the farm uses 90% less water than traditional farming.

“It’s tricky because we’re completely controlling the environment in here. It’s kind of a laboratory more than a farm,” Decker said. “I think there’s about 50 of them around the world right now. These are really international, and they’re perfect for places that are food deserts where they can’t grow food because of climate or other reasons. It gives them a way to grow food in the middle of nowhere.”

Decker and Jackson, along with their brother Bill Decker, also do traditional farming and grow corn, wheat and soybeans, but Decker said they were looking for a new venture that would help lead them to a healthier lifestyle and learn something new.

“Just with the whole local food movement becoming more and more important and food traceability, we just thought it would be a great thing to bring to our community to help everyone have a healthier lifestyle,” Decker said. “People love food that’s grown right in their hometown and the shelf-life on it, when you get it home, is remarkable. It’ll keep for two weeks.”

Currently, Decker and Jackson are growing a half-dozen variety of specialty lettuces that include arugula, butterhead, and romaine, as well as specialty greens like kale and Swiss chard, and even radishes and flowers. They received their freight container at the end of July and set up their indoor farm over two weeks; while the farm has been in operation for less than six months, Decker says that they’re growing beautiful product.

They have also started growing micro-greens, said Decker. Micro-greens are immature plants which are 1 to 3 inches tall and are in a 5-inch by 5-inch container.

“People will use them as garnishments and in smoothies,” said Decker. “Since they are immature plants, they have an intense flavor.”

Decker said they are growing wheat germ, broccoli and spicy salad mixes.

They’ve also started moving forward with sales and marketing. Fifth Season FARM has partnered with the Miami County Locally Grown Virtual Market to sell their products to the community. They also take orders through their website, fifthseasonfarm.com; customers can opt to pick up their orders between 4 and 6 p.m. on Wednesdays, or Decker and Jackson will deliver products up to five miles from the farm. Decker said that Fifth Season FARM is also in discussions with three restaurants in the area about including their specialty greens on their menus.

Decker said they also plan to attend the Sidney Farmers Market when it opens for the spring/summer season.

“We’re really just getting going,” Decker said. “While we were learning to grow products, we didn’t want to overcommit to a restaurant or grocery store before we knew we could really grow a beautiful product, so we’ve been donating product every week to the food pantry at the Presbyterian Church. It feels good to plant the seeds and watch them grow, and it feels good to make sure that people who aren’t getting the proper nutrition are getting some.”

Video: Babylon Micro-Farms To Expand, Relocate To Richmond

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February 11, 2021

Virginia Economic Development Partnership 

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Richmond—Governor Ralph Northam today announced that Babylon Micro-Farms, a Virginia-based company that develops and produces remotely controlled, indoor hydroponic systems for growing fresh herbs, vegetables, and salad greens, will invest $140,000 to expand operations and relocate to the City of Richmond. Babylon’s new location in Scott’s Addition will enable the company to expand its capabilities in manufacturing, software development, and research and development so it can begin distributing nationally and internationally. Virginia successfully competed with Arizona and California for the project, which will create 24 new jobs.

“We are thrilled to celebrate the growth of innovative Virginia businesses like Babylon Micro-Farms,” said Governor Northam. “The company’s dynamic, high-tech systems are helping to address food insecurity during the pandemic and getting fresh, local produce into the hands of more people. This expansion demonstrates the success that entrepreneurs can find in our Commonwealth, while also maintaining a strong commitment to environmental sustainability.”

Co-founded in 2017 by University of Virginia students Alexander Olesen and Graham Smith, Babylon Micro-Farms started when Olesen and Smith first designed a low-cost micro-farm to provide nutritious produce for food-insecure refugees in the Middle East. Motivated by the desire to bring benefits of sustainable hydroponic farming to those who need it most, the pair set out to develop technology that would automate the complex aspects of indoor farming and in doing so, make this transformative method of crop production accessible to anyone. Babylon’s key innovation was developing a technology system that enables its own staff to remotely manage the light, water, and nutrients for its farming systems.

“The demand for Babylon Micro-Farms’ engineered indoor farming systems is growing in assisted living facilities, student centers, restaurants, and across the globe,” said Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball. “This expansion will enhance the company’s development and distribution of its products, and the addition of 24 new jobs is welcome as we work toward economic recovery amid this global health crisis.”

“Richmond is an exciting city with a rapidly expanding start-up and technology scene,” said Alexander Olesen, CEO, and Co-Founder of Babylon Micro-Farms. “We hope to attract some of the leading talent to our new headquarters in Scott’s Addition.”

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with the City of Richmond to secure the project for Virginia. Babylon Micro-Farms is eligible to receive state benefits from the Virginia Enterprise Zone Program, administered by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. Funding and services to support the company’s employee training activities will be provided through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program.

“Richmond has proven to be fertile ground for innovative companies, and Babylon Micro-Farms’ environmentally friendly, technology-driven, indoor farming methods provide healthy food options for many people,” said Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney. “We’re excited to welcome them to Richmond, and look forward to the company growing its product and its presence in our city.”

“Babylon Micro-Farms’ relocation to the City of Richmond and the expansion of its operations represents an exciting opportunity for the city,” said Senator Ghazala Hashmi. “Not only is the venture bringing new jobs, the company’s use of innovative technologies for indoor farming offers a model for fresh and healthy produce that is grown locally and within urban settings. I am delighted that the company will be a part of Scott’s Addition.”

“We are excited to welcome Babylon Micro-Farms to Richmond,” said Delegate Jeffrey Bourne. “We admire the company’s ingenuity and commitment to sustainability and food accessibility. Its presence will be a great addition to our community as well as create valuable new jobs.”

BABYLON MICRO-FARMS GOVERNOR RALPH NORTHAM GREENHOUSE HERBS HYDROPONIC SALAD GREENS VIRGINIA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP

Funding Now Available To Help Farmers Withe FMSA

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February 10, 2021

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A hoop house with tomatoes and peppers grown in New Mexico. Photo Credit: USDA Photo by Bob Nichols.

Farmers are working to improve food safety on the farm, and prepare for Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) inspections, but this requires both assistance and resources. We are excited that the Food Safety Outreach Program (FSOP) applications have just opened up and will provide organizations with funding to assist and help farmers and small food businesses with both FSMA and food safety.

FSOP is a federal grants program that funds community-based organizations, non-governmental organizations, cooperative extension, and local, state, and tribal governments’ programs focused on food safety and FSMA. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) recently announced $9.6 million in FSOP grant funding this year – the most funding ever available and an increase of almost $2 million from last year.

The deadline for applications is Thursday, April 1, 2021.

Application Details

FSOP projects should focus on outreach, education, and assistance for farmers and small processors around food safety practices and the new FSMA rules. There are two types of projects eligible organizations can pursue to receive FSOP funding: Community Outreach and Collaborative Education and Training Projects. There is no match requirement.

Community Outreach Projects

FSOP will once again offer Community Outreach Projects, to support the development of new food safety programs and to help groups build capacity to address the needs of their communities. Awards can be between $80,000 and $150,000 for projects lasting up to two years. Community Outreach Projects must:

• Create, implement or expand food safety education to niche, underserved, or non-traditional audiences.

• Be led by a team with a record of strong community partnerships and working with others to educate target audiences.

• Create and implement a customized food safety training and outreach program for various types of farms or food processors, including those working with conservation systems, sustainable businesses, and organic food producers.

Collaborative Education and Training Projects

Collaborative Education and Training Projects aim to fund state-wide, multi-state, or multi-county food safety training projects. Grant awards are available for $200,000 to $400,000 for projects up to three years. These projects must:

• Be led by a project team with a track record of community partnerships and serving the educational needs of the target audiences.

• Create and execute food safety education and outreach for various types of farms or food processors, including those working with conservation systems, sustainable businesses, and organic food producers.

Additional Funds Available for Outreach to Communities of Color

An additional $150,000 is available for applications to either project type that increase outreach to communities of color through the Collaborative Engagement Supplements. Organizations applying for this supplemental support must include a significant collaboration with either one or more of the following universities, colleges, or organizations: 1890s, 1994s, Insular Areas, Alaska Native-Serving and Native Hawaiian-Serving (ANNH), Hispanic Serving Agricultural Colleges and Universities (HSACU), and community-based organizations serving socially disadvantaged populations.

Regional Centers Funds 

There is also funding available for the four regional centers focusing on food safety and FSMA. Current centers include:

• Southern Region: University of Florida (also “Lead Regional Center”)

• Western Region: Oregon State University

• North Central Region: Iowa State University

• Northeast Region: University of Vermont

Program Changes for FY 2021

The FSOP RFA changes highlight a few recommendations the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition requested, and we are thankful for NIFA’s continued partnership, and efforts to ensure these changes.

NIFA clarified that the additional Collaborative Engagement Supplements must be in direct partnership with a Minority-Serving Institution or an organization working to serve farmers of color that have been historically underserved, and that the proposed budget must adequately reflect this partnership. NSAC appreciates this clarity and looks forward to further analyzing the racial equity impact of FSOP grants.

NSAC is also excited about the new requirements for Regional Centers to partner with an 1890, 1994, ANNH, HSACUs and/or community-based organizations serving socially-disadvantaged populations within their region, which will help ensure outreach and resources to farmers of color continues to be prioritized. 

NSAC also appreciates the clarity that Community Outreach Projects can be used for FSMA training for the organization’s staff with minimal food safety experience and that organizations must have relationships with the target audience.

Upcoming FSOP Webinar for Tribal Staff

On Friday, February 19, 2021, from 2:00-3:00 p.m. Eastern Time the United South and Eastern Tribes, in partnership with Intertribal Agriculture Council, Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, and National Institute of Food and Agriculture, will be hosting a FSOP webinar for anyone who works with indigenous producers. For more information, and to register for the webinar, click here.

Additional Resources 

For additional application details and requirements, see the FY 2021 Request for Applications.

Additional information is also available via Grants.gov and on the NIFA FSOP webpage.

You can read more about analyzing FSOP awards through an equity lens here.

You can also learn more about FSOP through the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition’s Grassroots Guide to the Farm Bill.

Have A Look Inside Large Plant Factory on JPFA Training Course

Have you ever visited a plant factory with artificial lighting (PFAL)? The Japan Plant Factory Association is now receiving applications for its 2021 Online Training Course on PFALs scheduled for Feb. 18-March 11. The course gives you the privilege of taking an exclusive look inside a large-scale, commercial PFAL in central Japan.

Plant factories, or vertical farms, are grabbing the headlines lately. Learn about them on our science-based practical online course--anytime at your convenience and anywhere in the world during the course period.

Besides introductory classes on the basics of PFALs, the course has the just mentioned PFAL virtual tour and the following other special content:

• A lecture on phenomics and the potential of phenotyping

• Hands-on technical training on PFAL business management

• Tailored, further explanations on previous-course lectures,

• Operational and hygiene management, future of PFALs in COVID-19 times (2020 Workshop)

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To View the Video, Please Click Here

Its introductory classes cover not only PFAL principles and the basics like photosynthesis, respiration, transpiration, light environment and plant growth, nutrient solution and hydroponic cultivation, but also forthcoming technologies and PFAL business management.

The JPFA oversees a plant factory hub on the Chiba University Kashiwanoha campus in Kashiwa, northeast of Tokyo. The nonprofit organization has shifted from on-site to online training due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The first-rate lecturers of the coming course include Toyoki Kozai, professor emeritus and former president of Chiba University, who is known as the father of plant factories, and Chieri Kubota, professor at the Ohio State University.

Along with lectures, the training course, run on a specified platform, encourages participants to interact each other and gives them a chance to join an online live question-and-answer session.

The course is available for anybody interested in PFALs--not only JPFA members but nonmembers as well. If you are curious, check here and apply now.

Apply Now

For more information

Japan Plant Factory Association
https://npoplantfactory.org/en/
https://npoplantfactory.org/information/news/2120/

https://npoplantfactory.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Renewed-Information-for-JPFA-2021-Online-Training-Course-on-Plant-Factories-with-Artificial-Lighting-PFALs-2021.1.20.pdf

Japan Plant Factory Association

The Japan Plant Factory Association, a nonprofit organization founded in 2010, is devoted to advancing the plant factory industry and controlled-environment agriculture in and outside Japan through academia-industry collaborations.

Its mission is to develop and disseminate sustainable plant factory systems in a bid to address issues concerning food, the environment, energy and natural resources.

The JPFA oversees plant factories on the Chiba University Kashiwanoha campus in Kashiwa, northeast of Tokyo. Also, it works on about 20 R&D projects and runs workshops and training courses.

How to Become a JPFA Member

Apply for JPFA membership here. For more information, visit the JPFA website or email us at training@npoplantfactory.org. We welcome your inquiries.

Price List for JPFA 2021 Online Training Course on PFALs

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Hort Americas

How Vertical Farming Will Shape The Post Pandemic Food Supply Chain

We're building for a future where modular vertical farming solutions are an accessible means of food production in urban areas. By modular vertical farming solution, we are referring to turnkey grow systems from the size of a shipping container down to a household appliance.

Q&A with Alexander Olesen, Co-Founder | Babylon Micro-Farms

Tell us about yourselves and Babylon Micro-Farms.

While still taking full course loads at the University of Virginia, we were actively involved in the Social Entrepreneur Program, a reflection of our values and determination to incubate a socially good company. Our original vision of starting an environmentally responsible company to provide fresh food to refugees living in camps by building hydroponic farms was put to the test when logistical realities of adequate power supply and access to clean water forced them to put that aspect of the business on hold. We became determined to develop a technology-based solution reducing the cost, complexity, and infrastructure requirements to grow fresh food. This technology is the backbone of Babylon’s platform today, the R&D has taken a dedicated effort for over 4 years. Our commitment to building Babylon into a successful company required an unforeseen amount of perseverance and we ran into a few issues along the way. We're now a team of 23 people working tirelessly towards the same goal of creating an integrated platform for modular vertical farming. It's inspiring to work alongside so many talented people and it's so rewarding to see how well our products are being received in the market and we're just getting started.

How have your customers' priorities shifted due to the pandemic?

Our institutional customers, predominantly from the education, healthcare, hospitality, and senior living spaces, have had a completely different set of priorities since the advent of COVID. We have been amazed at their complete commitment to their people - staff, students, patients, residents, and visitors. They were required to do an incredibly hard, fast pivot to safeguard the safety of the people they are responsible for and to and have done an outstanding job. Schools had to close their doors and learn how to operate virtually, hospitals were hit hard and continue to be, and the hospitality industry will take some time to recover. Senior living community residents have been the most vulnerable to the pandemic and the protocols that were put in place almost instantly have saved many lives. We are proud of how our partners responded to the ongoing public health crisis and that in the midst of all the challenges we continued to be able to supply them with fresh food, despite the lockdowns and quarantines. Our remote management system enabled us to make sure at least one thing stayed consistent for our partners during a difficult time for them.   

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How do you feel urban farming, and specifically modular indoor farming, addresses these new problems and priorities?

1. Supply chain resiliency - We provide peace of mind that fresh produce is being grown there on-site.

2. Reduced Food waste - Our customers love harvesting highly-perishable produce as needed and not having to waste anything

3. Improved Nutrition - We have much higher quality produce that is free from pesticides and it's helping our customers improve their diets.

 How has the pandemic shaped the trajectory of indoor farming?

The pandemic has focused a very bright light on the frailty of our food systems and supply chain. The growth of the indoor farming industry has been rapidly escalating as a result, as demonstrated by the enormous sums being raised by companies that are actively involved in addressing the vulnerabilities and trying to ensure a safer, more sustainable, and hopefully a more equitable food system for the future. 

Why is Babylon’s software platform important to the industry? How is it different from what’s out there today? 

We're solving a very different set of problems to most people in this industry. We're building for a future where modular vertical farming solutions are an accessible means of food production in urban areas. By modular vertical farming solution, we are referring to turnkey grow systems typically from the size of a shipping container down to a household appliance. We do not compete with the large industrial growers at all. Most companies in this emerging segment are focused on creating configurations of hydroponic systems to optimize specific markets, aesthetics, or certain crop varieties, etc. There's nothing wrong with that and it's exciting to see all the innovation. However, our firm belief is that there is not a one size fits all solution to this market and that every modular vertical farming solution shares the same scalability challenges. These are the challenges we are trying to address through our remote management platform. The platform enables us to control semi-automated hydroponic systems through the cloud and aggregate the data from all the farms in our fleet. We combine this with an automated inventory fulfillment system that enables us to prepare and ship consumables to our customers while they interact with their farm through a simple app. The software infrastructure we are developing creates a superior user experience for the end consumer and provides data analysis that is critical to scaling support for a distributed network of vertical farms. In this way, we seek to be an enabling platform that can help grow the market for modular vertical farming solutions as an accessible alternative to large scale, capital intensive, commercial growers.

What is Babylon’s vision for the future? 

See above. We envision a world where controlled environment crop cultivation becomes the predominant source of major highly-perishable produce categories, such as, leafy greens, herbs, vine crops, berries, etc.. As the market grows we need modular vertical farming solutions that are accessible and can scale more easily than the large scale, capital intensive, commercial operations that dominate the headlines today. These solutions are not mutually exclusive and we need both in order to reform our food system. New technologies and new business models are making modular vertical farms viable. We're aiming to be the platform that drives this segment forward.

About Alexander Olesen
Alexander Olesen, CEO, and Co-founder of Babylon has embraced and excelled at every opportunity he has encountered, from academic challenges to bootstrapping his second company, Babylon Micro-Farms, at the age of just 21 while still taking a full course load at the University of Virginia. Originally from England, Alexander relocated to attend the University and was actively involved in the Social Entrepreneur Program, a reflection of his values and determination to incubate a socially good company. The original research into the technology that became the basis for Babylon's success was based on research to provide low-cost food systems for refugees. He maintains the vision for the company and is an expert at managing people and bringing on partners and investors.

The content & opinions in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of AgriTechTomorrow

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02/04/21

Indoor & Vertical Farming, Processing & Supply Chain | Containers, modular, Urban Farming

More Indoor & Vertical Farming Articles | Stories | News

Forget Politics, Danny Ayalon Wants to Effect Change on The Ground

Having transitioned from politics to agriculture, Danny Ayalon shares how vertical farming, which provides fresh fruits and vegetables all year round, and lab-grown meat can rehabilitate the environment and dramatically reduce household expenditures.

Image from: Yehoshua Yosef

The coronavirus pandemic has drawn attention to humankind's carbon footprint. More than ever before we ask ourselves, how can we become more sustainable? Can we prevent pollution? How can we minimize waste? What about lowering emission levels? Will there be enough food for everyone in the future?

Danny Ayalon, a former ambassador and foreign policy adviser to three prime ministers-turned entrepreneur,  believes that the answer to many of the world's problems lies in modern agriculture. 

Having transitioned from politics to agriculture, he works with Future Crops, an Amsterdam-based company focused on vertical farming – the practice of growing crops in vertically stacked layers that often incorporates controlled-environment agriculture, which aims to optimize plant growth – and MeaTech, a company that creates lab-grown meat.

"Ever since the coronavirus came into our lives, we realized that man is not in charge of the universe," Ayalon told Israel Hayom. 

"Our control over the forces of nature, of Earth, of our future is more limited than we had thought. And when we are no longer in charge of the world, only three things guarantee our lives here: food, water, and energy security. Food, water, and energy are three resources that can be depleted and therefore literally cast a cloud on our world. 

"Experts have come to a conclusion that one of the most important fields to focus on is agriculture, and indeed we are currently witnessing the most significant agricultural revolution ever since the first agricultural revolution that took place about 10,00 years ago."

Q: Back then, in the first agricultural revolution, there was a need for a lot of land. 

"But today we have technology. The name of the game is to reach maximum output with minimum input in the smallest space possible. This is the holy grail of the new revolution. And that is how technology enters the picture. To grow fruits, vegetables and spices today requires lots of space. The technology we developed at Future Crops allows us to minimize the space, increase production and redefine the food supply chain."

Q: How exactly? 

"We have a nine-story hangar in Amsterdam to grow crops like coriander, basil, dill, and parsley. It has LED lights, and each plant gets exactly the amount of light it needs. We are the plant psychologists, [we] listen to all its needs and do everything to make sure the plant grows in the most optimal way. 

Image from: Future Crops

"If it lacks something, it immediately receives water. Everything is done without a human's touch. We use algorithms and big data in collaboration with world-class researchers from the Weizmann Institute. It is essentially the application of vertical farming, growing various crops in vertically stacked layers,  in enclosed structures, on soil platforms. 

"For example, if it takes a month to grow lettuce in an open field, in a vertical farm, it takes two weeks, half that time. There's also a significant reduction in water consumption, and no pesticides or sprays are used at all. Also, the produce is available in all seasons; it does not depend on the temperature. Whoever likes mangos and strawberries, for example, will be able to enjoy them all year round."

Q: So if produce is grown faster and within a smaller space, is it going to cost less?

"The prices might be a bit higher today because this technology and the various infrastructures require an economic return of the initial investment in them. With time, the process will become more efficient, and the investments will be repaid, so in the end, the prices that the consumer will need to pay will be lower than today. 

"Let me give you a simple example. Do you know how much a kilogram [2.2 pounds] of basil costs in Europe today? €90 ($108). In Israel, the price is €20 ($24). In the [United Arab] Emirates, where almost everything connected to food is imported – the prices go accordingly as well. Once you have more innovative vertical farms, consumers will pay much less."

Q: Should we expect vertical farm skyscrapers to pop up all over? 

"I'm not sure that we will need skyscrapers, as with time the facilities will become smaller. Imagine that in every supermarket there will be a vertical produce stand with all the vegetables and spices, and later also fruits which you pick on the spot, without the need to move the produce from place to place. That is why vertical farming is also called urban farming, meaning there is no need for fields; you can grow [produce] on the rooftop. No resource limits you."

Q: What about the taste? 

"Ours is a fresher and tastier product. I ought to give credit to the Weizmann Institute here. The challenge for them wasn't the quality of the vitamins but the taste, and they managed to achieve a great taste. In the Netherlands, Future Crops already sells parsley, and it tastes outstanding."

Q: Regular parsley lasts for about two weeks in the fridge. What about Future Crops parsley? 

"Our parsley has a two-month shelf life, and it does not oxidize within a week or two."

Q: If every country will be self-reliant in terms of agriculture, do you think it will affect relations between countries? 

"Economies will become self-sufficient eventually, which will ensure security with far fewer conflicts. There is less and less water in the Middle East, which might someday lead to tensions. We hope technology will reduce the tensions between countries, and territory will be less critical. Our world faces crucial challenges. Food and water security have the potential to either divide or bring us together and ensure our long-term existence. 

"By the way, in every developed Western country, like the United States, Australia, and also in Europe, issues of food security, climate, and greenhouse emissions are on the top of the political agenda. We are not talking about it [in Israel,] as security and foreign affairs take the central stage, but Israel does have a lot to offer here."

Q: Do we have the potential to become the Silicon Valley of advanced agriculture? 

"Israel takes tremendous pride in its actions that help save the world. Will we become the Silicon Valley of agriculture? There is no doubt about it. We can already see foreign investors who come here to look for opportunities, including my business partner Lior Maimon, co-founder and CEO of Silver Road Capital, and Steven Levin, one of the leaders of the US food industry. Silver Road Capital is a holdings and financial advisory firm with a broad portfolio of high-tech companies, as well as agricultural and food technologies, and represents international companies and funds in investments in Israel and the world. 

"Future Crops's goal is to raise 35 million shekels on the Israeli stock exchange to invest in enlarging the existing facilities and [set up] other production lines and facilities in Europe and other continents. We cooperate with the Albert Heijn supermarket chain [in the Netherlands] and a leading food chain in France."

Q: Vertical farming is estimated at $3 billion. Google and Amazon have invested hundreds of millions in the field as well. What is their goal? 

"A simple answer would be profit. A longer answer is that they [large corporations] understand that food has the highest demand. People cannot live without food and water, and Google and Amazon understand that potential."

Q: US President Joe Biden took office with the largest team of climate experts ever. That ought to give the field momentum. 

"Green energy and vertical farming will get a considerable boost. Climate change and green energy are well-rooted in the Democratic Party's ideology. 

"It is also possible that large companies entered the agriculture fields precisely because of the Biden administration; they are worried about their future. They are afraid of a certain dismantling, so focusing on secondary fields is part of a security scenario for them."

Q: Biden also wants to address greenhouse emissions, which are the result of the food production industry, mainly meat. Are Amazon and Google's food counterparts - McDonald's and Burger King - looking for meat substitutes?

"Firstly, cultured [lab-grown] meat does not require grazing land, cows do not need to be fed, and so much land can instead be turned into forests that support the environment. This is an optimistic industry that leaves us with a better world. 

"As for the meat alternatives market, there are two major companies in the US that produce plant-based protein, Beyond Meat, and Impossible Foods. 

"Impossible's burgers are already at Burger King, McDonald's has partnered up with Beyond Meat, and last November, it announced that it would create its own plant-based burger. 

"The problem is that pea protein [used in plant-based burgers,] does not have all the amino acids that animal protein contains. Also, they need to add additives to supplement for taste and smell.

"At MeaTech, where I'm a director, we are on our way to producing animal meat, cultured meat, real stakes: we take a cow's own stem cell from which meat can be produced in almost unlimited quantities. We also use 3D digital printing technology. And we also created a thin layer of meat, carpaccio. Needless to say, no cow was harmed in the process."

Image from: MeaTech

Q: Why do you use 3D printers? 

"Because there is no need for a human being's involvement. It is relevant now during the coronavirus pandemic when the food supply chain is disrupted. With such printers, your production can continue without delays, whenever you want. 

Also, it is theoretically possible to provide food for space flights. Astronauts who go out into space will not have to take food with them; rather, they will be able to produce it on the spot.

"People understand that crises like the coronavirus can disrupt the supply chain and are looking for alternatives. A 3D printer allows restaurants, supermarkets, and butcher shops to have meat without relying on the supply chain."

Q: The death rate from obesity is higher than the death rate from hunger. How will cultured meat affect these statistics? 

"It is possible to create meat with much less fat and more protein in each portion and add various nutrients in the future to strengthen the immune system and prevent disease. This, of course, requires a lot of research and approvals. Just like there's talk about customized medicine, so it will be possible to produce food that suits a person's genetic structure and body in the most optimal way."

Q: Will the cost of this meat also be optimal? 

"They will cost more in the beginning compared to regular meat because there are initial costs that have to be repaid. When it becomes a mass production, prices will drop over time."

Q: With your vast experience in politics, what do you think of Israeli politics these days? Do you ever consider a political comeback? 

"No election campaign goes by without someone making me an offer [to return to politics] but I'm not interested. Unfortunately, the Israeli government, and all governments in the Western world, have not been able to run their countries properly in recent years.

"For example, more of the government's national taks are transitioning to the private market or the third sector. We see that associations [are the ones] who take care of the needy, establish settlements in the Negev and in the Galilee, bring immigrants to Israel and provide Israelis with information. All these things should be done by the government.

"The Israeli government lacks vision, ideologies, every matter is personal and is charged with negative sentiments. If I do return one day, it will only happen after we change the government system which will take its power from small [political] parties.

"In my opinion, we need to transition to a regional choice, by district. This will result in higher quality politicians. How so? Because whoever wants to be elected will need to run and convince the people who live in his area and district, and they are the ones who know his activities best. Also, closed primaries should be avoided because they make all kinds of deals possible. That needs to change."

“Autonomy Will Not Happen Until We Start Sharing Data”

In an emerging industry with companies eager to prove their technologies’ worth, Sensei Ag remains form-factor agnostic, meaning that the agtech company remains unbiased towards different farm hardware solutions – focusing more on software and plant biology.

Sensei Ag is a market-changing agtech company that develops agile growing solutions through a highly iterative approach to farming, focused on improving the nutritional quality of fruits and vegetables while also reducing production costs. The company combines plant science, computer vision, machine learning, automation and artificial intelligence into its growing systems.

According to Sensei Ag CEO Sonia Lo, remaining form factor agnostic is key to the company’s mission of providing hyper-nutritious food to as large a consumer base as possible, which it achieves through both vertical farms and greenhouses.

Image from: Sensei Ag

“We believe that the most robust data comes from operating farms of multiple types. So, not just vertical farms, but also low-tech and high-tech greenhouses. And with vertical farms, we are looking at a number of form factors. Our end goal is to be  a grower’s resource and know more about growing at scale with different form factors than anyone else.”

The company is also a strong advocate for open data in the vertical farming industry, which is currently lacking, as evidenced by the siloed development of multiple systems and products, some of which cannot be easily integrated into third-party systems.

“There are lots of data flows and increasingly inexpensive farm management systems. The question, then, is the organization of data into intelligence. Intelligence facilitates autonomy, and as we manage data flows, more farms can become autonomous. But I don’t think autonomy will happen until we start sharing data. For example, we saw an automation supplier with a great robot.

The problem was the robot only works in their ecosystem, so you have to buy the whole farming solution in order for the one robot to work. Ideally, that robot would be plug and play and be able to work in greenhouses and vertical farms,” says Sonia.

Image from: Sensei Ag

According to Sonia, open data in the vertical farming industry may currently be restricted by the dominance of venture financing, which has its own return mandates to fulfill and sometimes wants a “winner takes it all” mentality for the ventures it chooses to back. While such financing has allowed the vertical farming industry to emerge, it may ultimately hinder the industry’s scalability and information sharing.

“There is definitely a capital model in Silicon Valley and in venture capital world in general which is not focused on profitability but is focused on technological achievement and market penetration. We saw this in solar and in the renewables industry when multiple venture capital funds invested in solar assets. Then, the bottom fell out because government subsidies fell away in certain jurisdictions.

I hope that agricultural infrastructure currently financed by venture capital will not necessarily follow the same pathway as solar, but will instead find a public-private partnership model. At some point, these farms need to demonstrate a profit for the debt capital markets to allow scale to occur.”

Image from: Sensei Ag

By embracing open data and transparency, Sonia explains that the vertical farming industry can further mature and iterate with technology to continue lowering costs. By continuously collecting and sharing data from different farm forms, the vertical farming industry would have better insights into the true costs which, according to Sonia, “helps drive scale because it enables the finance community to understand how the farms can be risk assessed and financed.”

Looking ahead, Sensei Ag hopes to form partnerships around the world to bring its innovative, data-driven growing systems across the globe. Taking the Middle East, China and Japan as examples, Sonia explained that the goal would be to choose strategic partners in each region whose local knowledge and business prowess would allow Sensei Ag to iterate its technologies appropriately and serve local markets, bringing cost-competitive farming techniques and nutritious, local produce around the world.

Warehouse Becoming Vertical Farms — And They’re Feeding New Jersey

Image from: New Jersey 101.5

New Jersey's vertical farms are transforming agriculture by helping farmers meet growing food demand.

New Jersey Agriculture Secretary Doug Fisher said that while conventional farming in outdoor fields remains critical, vertical farming has its advantages because of its efficiency and resistance to pests and thus less need for chemicals.

Vertical farming is the process of growing food vertically in stacked layers indoors under artificial light and temperature, mainly in buildings. These plants receive the same nutrients and all the elements needed to grow plants for food.

Vertical farms are also versatile. Plants may be growing in containers, in old warehouses, in shipping containers, in abandoned buildings.

"That's one of the great advantages — that we can put agriculture in the midst of many landscapes that have lost their vitality," said Fisher.

ResearchandMarkets.com says the U.S. vertical farming market is projected to reach values of around $3 billion by the year 2024.

The one drawback is that its operational and labor costs make it expensive to get up and running.

Image from: AeroFarms

In the past decade, however, vertical farming has become more popular, creating significant crop yields all over the state.

AeroFarms in Newark is the world's largest indoor vertical farm. The farm converted a 75-year-old 70,000-square-foot steel mill into a vertical farming operation. AeroFarms' key products include Dream Greens, its retail brand of baby and micro-greens, available year-round in several ShopRite supermarkets.

Kula Urban Farm in Asbury Park opened in 2014. Vacant lots are transformed into urban farms and there's a hydroponic greenhouse on site. That produce is sold to local restaurants.

Beyond Organic Growers in Freehold uses no pesticides and all seeds and nutrients are organic. There's a minimum of 12,000 plants growing on 144 vertical towers. On its website, it says the greenhouse utilizes a new growing technique called aeroponics, which involves vertical towers where the plant roots hang in the air while a nutrient solution is delivered with a fine mist. It also boasts that by using this method, plants can grow with less land and water while yielding up to 30% more three times faster than traditional soil farming.

Vertical farms in New Jersey help feed local communities. Many are in urban areas and are a form of urban farming.

Fisher predicts that vertical farms will be operational in stores and supermarkets around the state.

"It's continued to expand. There's going to be many, many ways and almost any area in the state has the opportunity to have a vertical farm," Fisher said.

Is AppHarvest the Future of Farming?

Special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, are red-hot right now, with investors clamoring to get into promising young companies.

In this video from Motley Fool Live, recorded on Jan. 28, Industry Focus host Nick Sciple and Motley Fool contributor Lou Whiteman discuss AppHarvest, one such SPAC that is looking to disrupt the agriculture industry. Here are the details on what AppHarvest wants to do, and a look at whether the company represents the future of farming.

Nick Sciple: One last company I wanted to talk about, Lou, and this is one I think it's -- you pay attention to, but not one I'm super excited to run in and buy. It was a company called AppHarvest. It's coming public via a [SPAC] this year. This vertical farming space. We talked about Gladstone Land buying traditional farmland. AppHarvest is taking a very different approach, trying to lean into some of the ESG-type movements.

Lou Whiteman: Yeah. Let's look at this. It probably wouldn't surprise you that the U.S. is the biggest global farm exporter as we said, but it might surprise you that the Netherlands, the tiny little country, is No. 2. The way they do that is tech: Greenhouse farm structure. AppHarvest has taken that model and brought it to the U.S. They have, I believe, three farms in Appalachia. The pitches can produce 30x the yields using 90% less water. Right now, it's mostly tomatoes and it is early-stage. I don't own this stock either. I love this idea. There's some reasons that I'm not buying in right now that we can get into. But this is fascinating to me. We talked about making the world a better place. This is the company that we need to be successful to make the world a better place. The warning on it is that it is a SPAC. So it's not public yet. Right now, I believe N-O-V-S. That deal should close soon. [Editor's note: The deal has since closed.] I'm not the only one excited about it. I tend not to like to buy IPOs and new companies anyway. I think the caution around buying into the excitement applies here. There is a Martha Stewart video on their website talking up the company, which I love Martha Stewart, but that's a hype level that makes me want to just watch and see what they produce. This is just three little farms in Appalachia right now and a great idea. This was all over my watchlist. I would imagine I would love to hold it at some point, but just be careful because this is, as we saw SPACs last year in other areas, people are very excited about this.

Sciple: Yeah. I think, like we've said, for a lot of these companies, the prospects are great. I think when you look at the reduced water usage, better, environmentally friendly, all those sorts of things. I like that they are in Appalachia. As someone who is from the South, I like it when more rural areas get some people actually investing money there. But again, there's a lot of execution between now and really getting to a place where this is the future of farming and they're going to reach scale and all those sorts of things. But this is a company I'm definitely going to have my radar on and pay attention to as they continue to report earnings. Because you can tell yourself a story about how this type of vertical farming, indoor farming disrupts this traditional model, can be more efficient, cleaner, etc. Something to continue paying attention to as we have more information, because this company, like you said, Lou, isn't all the way public yet. We still got to have this SPAC deal finalized and then we get all our fun SEC filings and quarterly calls and all those sorts of things. Once we have that, I will be very much looking forward to seeing what the company has to say.

Whiteman: Right. Just to finish up along too, the interesting thing here is that it is a proven concept because it has worked elsewhere. The downside of that is that it needed to work there. Netherlands just doesn't have -- and this is an expensive proposition to get started, to get going. There's potential there, but in a country blessed with almost seemingly unlimited farmland for now, for long term it makes sense. But in the short term, it could be a hard thing to really get up and running. I think you're right, just one to watch.

Advice For New Vertical Farmers: Grower Spotlight on Andrew Worrall

Last week we spoke about running a farm at LettUs Grow. What excites you about vertical farming? 

It’s the future of the industry. Also, the amount of salad that these farms can produce for their local community. We want to be able to eat salad all year round and we import to make that happen. However, just a small farm can easily provide for its local community, very efficiently and all year round. The sustainability element is also exciting: with our salad there’s no food miles, it’s very minimalistic. You could use an electric van or bike to distribute this crop if you wanted to. It’s a step forward in terms of what we need to do to take care of our planet. 

What do you think are the biggest downsides to vertical farming?

It’s still a new technology and it can be expensive. The biggest roadblock facing the industry is that we need more people and companies to collaborate together to make sure we can build these farms at a sensible rate, so we can provide farms to anyone. We want to be able to provide farms to people, communities and countries that don’t have a lot of money, so that they can provide affordable fresh produce to local people. 

How has vertical farming impacted your life?

Massively!  I wanted to find my passion, a job that I loved - that was very important to me. It’s satisfying to be in a position now where I’m very happy to be doing what I do and I look forward to going into work. I was happy to make the move from London to Bristol. I would have moved even further if it meant being able to continue working within this industry.

Image from: LettUs Grow

How do you see vertical farming playing a part in the future? 

When indoor farming first came about, it had a reputation of being competition for outdoor farming, which just isn’t the case. There’s so much we can’t grow that outdoor farming can provide, such as cereal crops. I’m glad we’re at a stage where indoor and outdoor farms can start to work together to optimise both methods. With these new relationships, there should be a good increase in the amount of indoor farms you’ll be seeing. What LettUs Grow offers with DROP & GROW™ is an exciting project because that’s a 40ft shipping container which can be placed pretty much anywhere. It’s not that big - it could go in a car park or behind a restaurant, but actually provide quite a lot of salad to that area. 

How much of our food should be grown this way? 

Good question. If you had asked me a while back I would have just said salad, but now I’ve changed my mind. Indoor farming can have a massive impact on propagation, especially aeroponics, because of how we aerate and nourish our roots. We could start lettuce for greenhouse projects and we can also propagate tomatoes, strawberries and tree whips. Propagating trees in this way could potentially be hugely beneficial and it’s something we want to do more of. 

We can also quickly grow large amounts of microgreens, baby leafs, herbs and we can grow fruiting crops like strawberries. We are slowly chipping away and it’s really exciting. I’m waiting to see if I can ever say I’ve grown or propagated every crop that can be grown in these farms! 

What do you think are the biggest benefits of vertical farming? 

How fast these crops can grow! The turnover can be as short as 5 days from seed, depending on the crop. Also how clean it can be - I’m very dedicated to making sure these farms are built to ensure they are easy to be maintained and clean. The most exciting part is the crop growth rate though - it’s incredible how fast our crop grows from seed to plate. In a very well maintained growing calendar, which Ostara® is great for supporting, you can optimise your beds so that the day you harvest can also be the day you germinate onto that same bed. Your farms can be forever providing salad at very fast rates. 

Image from: LettUs Grow

What was the biggest change you encountered during your years indoor farming?

Moving from being a production grower to an R&D grower. It has been a great change! As a production grower I knew what I needed to know about growing the plant safely and getting it onto a plate so it was good for the consumer. Now I’m fully optimising, learning and understanding the plants completely, so that I can help the grower that I used to be. We spend a lot of time on crop recipes to make sure that whoever we sell our farms to can start up very quickly and they won’t have to spend months developing their crops. If they have the customers and clients behind them, they can buy DROP & GROW and start producing salad as soon as it's been commissioned. 

What was the biggest change you encountered in the industry?

More and more people are speaking about what’s going on in the industry and getting involved. I get so many messages on LinkedIn with people who want to get into this career. It’s exciting to see that indoor growing is a career people can access now. When I was developing my skills I didn’t know I would end up in indoor farming. There are more opportunities than ever before. For example, our Crop Technician is doing a placement here for 2 years. The aim is that they can gain the skill sets and knowledge they need to then go off and do the same practice in any farm they want. 

What advice do you have for people who are looking to start a career in growing? 

Reach out to companies who are already out there. You could start off part-time or as an assistant. If you are patient and dedicated then it’s a journey I promise you won’t regret. It takes a lot of work, but the outcome is amazing - you’ll be learning so much about this new technology. You’ll also build great relationships: there are so many amazing people in this industry who are so interesting, with different backgrounds, who are willing to share their knowledge. You can always learn more and other people are a great source of that. 

What about for those looking to start a vertical farming business?

Do your homework.  There are people out there who you can reach out to and it’s very easy to get information. It’s very easy to get excited about the idea and jump straight into it, because it is exciting and can be very rewarding, but it’s really important to do it step by step. Know how to scale properly, learning the differences between a small and larger farm. Understand how many people you’ll need and the logistics. I’d also advise people to get some practical work experience before you buy. You want to start the company knowing the tricks of the trade. 

Image from: LettUs Grow

LettUs Grow Blog: www.lettusgrow.com/blog/advice-for-vertical-farmers