AppHarvest Names Julie Nelson EVP, Operations to Build Industry-Leading Manufacturing and Supply Chain Capabilities and Drive Performance Across Network of Farms

August 5, 2021

AppHarvest to leverage Nelson’s proven experience at PepsiCo, McKinsey to drive productivity across the company’s network of high-tech indoor farms and optimize operations to support profitable growth

MOREHEAD, Ky., Aug. 05, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AgTech leader AppHarvest (NASDAQ: APPH, APPHW), a public benefit company and certified B Corporation focused on farming more sustainably using up to 90% less water than open-field agriculture and only recycled rainwater, has named Julie Nelson its executive vice president, operations. Nelson will lead efforts to scale AppHarvest’s network of farms and to build manufacturing and supply chain capability to ensure efficient delivery of consistent, high-quality products to major grocers and restaurants.

“Julie’s deep experience optimizing complex manufacturing and distribution networks for major consumer goods companies and her proven ability to drive productivity across the supply chain will help us to deliver improved profitability as we scale,” said AppHarvest President David Lee.

Nelson will play an integral role as an executive management committee member, reporting to President David Lee, and will aid in developing company strategy, establishing operations and driving efficiency to reach productivity and cost goals while ensuring quality and customer satisfaction.

“Julie has battleground-tested experience in scaling operations across sites,” said AppHarvest Founder & CEO Jonathan Webb. “Her recent focus on improving sustainability in the food and beverage supply chain by reducing food waste, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions makes her a natural fit at AppHarvest.”

Nelson joins AppHarvest most recently from McKinsey & Company, following a long tenure with PepsiCo, where she led supply chain teams in the North American beverage business and the global operations team. Her focus areas included network optimization, scaling new digital technologies and end-to-end value chain productivity.

“AppHarvest’s mission aligns with my personal values,” Nelson said. “AppHarvest’s vision of combining the best that nature offers boosted with world-class technology to sustainably and affordably grow nutritious fruits and vegetables is inspiring, and I look forward to building a best-in-class operational team in support of this mission to build a climate-resilient food supply.”

Nelson holds a bachelor of science in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is an advisory council member for the West Virginia University Global Supply Chain Management Program.

About AppHarvest

AppHarvest is an applied technology company in Appalachia developing and operating some of the world’s largest high-tech indoor farms, designed to grow non-GMO, chemical pesticide-free produce, using up to 90 percent less water than open-field agriculture and only recycled rainwater while producing yields up to 30 times that of traditional agriculture on the same amount of land without agricultural runoff. The company combines the best that nature offers boosted with world-class technology including artificial intelligence and robotics to improve access for all to nutritious food, farming more sustainably, building a domestic food supply, and increasing investment in Appalachia. The company’s 60-acre Morehead, Ky. facility is among the largest indoor farms in the U.S. For more information, visit https://www.appharvest.com/.

MEDIA CONTACTS: Travis Parman, Travis.Parman@appharvest.com;
Blair Carpenter, Blair.Carpenter@appharvest.com
IMAGE/VIDEO GALLERY: Available here

Lead Photo: Julie Nelson will be joining AppHarvest as its executive vice president, operations.

Outstanding Women in Ag Receive WIA Demeter Award of Excellence

BOSTON, July 27, 2021 – Three ag industry all-stars have been named recipients of the Women in Agribusiness Demeter Award of Excellence, an honor bestowed each year to women who have achieved excellence in their field and/or who have exhibited an outstanding contribution to the agribusiness industry. Presented by HighQuest’s Women in Agribusiness (WIA) division, this year’s recipients are: Dr. Toni Bucci of AgBiome, Anne Cleary of Wilbur-Ellis and Dr. Vicky Salin of Texas A&M University.

Each recipient will be recognized at the 10th annual Women in Agribusiness (WIA) Summit, which will be held in-person (and online) this year at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis, September 21-23.

The annual award, so named for Demeter, the Greek goddess of agriculture, also seeks out women who have demonstrated a positive impact on her clients, her company, her colleagues or the agribusiness sector as a whole.

Dr. Toni Bucci

Chief Operating Officer, AgBiome 

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Dr. Toni Bucci has over 20 years of experience in the agricultural sector – from an R&D biologist at BASF to currently AgBiome’s chief operating officer, a position she has held since 2018. She also leads the commercial organization where she is responsible for attracting and retaining scientific and commercial talent. Under Toni’s leadership, Howler®, a revolutionary fungicide that harnesses the power of the plant microbiome, was launched and is now registered in 49 U.S. states. She is currently working on her second fungicide launch – Theia™ – which promises wide success as well. “During this time, she has led an organization in product development and growth, motivated her colleagues, and has inspired the industry of agribusiness as a whole to become the best it can be,” as was said in her nomination letter.

Toni also has stood out in her efforts in mentorship by growing the company’s program. “Toni’s approach to AgBiome’s mentor program is rooted in attracting and retaining the brightest talent. With a passion for building female leaders in science, Toni is an example and inspiration for her female colleagues entering the field. Her enthusiasm for mentoring and sharing her knowledge and skills with others is highly appreciated by all of her AgBiome mentees,” as was noted in her nomination application.

Anne Cleary

Vice President of Human Resources, Wilbur-Ellis 

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Anne Cleary was commended in her Demeter nomination letter for her “ability to adapt and even anticipate change that has helped her to lead positive business transformation. And she’s done so with agility, a strong sense of vision, and always with humor and empathy.” She also is credited with centralizing the company's HR systems across the U.S., Canada and Asia – and for the creation of THRIVE (a nod to the company’s purpose) to unify and enhance the recruiting, onboarding and ‘reboarding’ experience for all employees.

 When in-depth analysis of the company’s demographics revealed that women represented only 30 percent of their workforce, Anne drove efforts to look at pay equity, growth opportunities, recruiting practices, and culture for women. This led to the establishment of the first employee resource group, the Women of Wilbur-Ellis (WoW), and to incorporating diversity and inclusion as part of the broader company business plans.

John Thacher, Wilbur-Ellis’ executive chairman, said: “She turned it [the HR department] from a transaction-focused organization into a strategic business partner.” Added John Buckley, company president, and CEO, “When I came to the company four years ago, it was important to me that our HR leader possesses the skillset I knew we would need. But equally important, did they have their finger on the employee's pulse? Did they have a clear understanding of what employees are thinking and feeling? With Anne, we have both.”

Dr. Vicky Salin

Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, Texas A&M University

Dr. Salin was one of the founding supporters and board members of WIA and has been instrumental in growing WIA’s student scholarship program. “Dr. Salin was eager to be a part of the creation of Women in Agribusiness in 2012 and remained the on advisory board for several years,” said Joy O’Shaughnessy, WIA event director and COO of HighQuest. “She continues to be involved in this event in various ways, including supporting several of her ag students in attending the WIA Summit each year. This feeds the workforce pipeline and results in a high percentage of these students becoming the new hires with our attending companies.”

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In her work, Vicky, who also is chair of the Intercollegiate Faculty of Agribusiness at Texas A&M University, researches food safety, traceability, and efficiency of enterprises involved in food distribution. She provides economic and financial research for the Scientific Advisory Council of the World Food Logistics Organization, an affiliate of the Global Cold Chain Alliance. Vicky serves on the Board of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, where she monitors entrepreneurial ventures and other means to commercialize agricultural technologies to enhance food security in Africa. 

Learn more about the Demeter Award and the Women in Agribusiness Summit at womeninag.com, and visit us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

# # #

About Women in Agribusiness

Women in Agribusiness (WIA) is a business unit of HighQuest Partners, a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) global agribusiness consulting, events, and media firm. The Women in Agribusiness Summit took root in 2012, and since then initiatives have grown to include WIA Membership, WIA Demeter Award of Excellence, Student Scholarships, and the WIA Today blog. Learn more at womeninag.com.

VIDEO: Freight Farm To Teach Youth About Sustainable Agriculture

by Nicole Weaving

July 24th, 2021

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To View The Video, Please Click Here

Freight Farm to teach youth about sustainable agriculture (Photo Credit: NTV News)

LINCOLN, Neb. — Beyond School Bells is partnering with the Bay in Lincoln for a new after-school program that will teach students about sustainable ag technology.

"We really see Freight Farm as kind of that key, climate-change impervious tool that young people need to know about as we face an uncertain future," said Jeff Cole, Network Lead for Beyond School Bells.

An old shipping container in the parking lot of the Bay has been transformed in a self-contained hydroponic farm.

Using red and blue LED lights, this Freight Farm, known as the Greenery, creates a climate-controlled environment, where the plants grow vertically without a need for soil.

"We enrich the water with nutrients that would normally be in the soil," said Colton Harper, Organizing Manager for the Greenery. "And then in these grow walls, we've got spickets that come right through these foam and it's directly onto the roots of the plants."

According to Harper, there are currently about 6,000 plants growing in the Freight Farm, but at full capacity, it can hold 13,000 plants between the seeding area and that walls. That would produce the equivalent of a 2.5-acre farm year-round.

"Even in the winter, if there are shortages anywhere, we can turn on a dime, 7-week grow cycle and be able to provide those crops for local markets," said Harper.

The Greenery arrived in Lincoln in April, and Harper has led to two teams to get it up and running. They are currently preparing for their first harvest with items like basil, lettuce and radishes.

"We're at about Week 7, and in 2-3 weeks, we'll have our produce at a farmer's market," said Harper.

After a few more grow cycles, the program will open to local students to teach them all aspects of sustainable farming.

"From the electrical side, the growing, the programming, computer science to the irrigation, the HVAC system, there's so many elements," said Harper. "And we're particularly well-placed with the Bay and their digital design area of focus, the students will also be able to design the packaging, design the labeling, so it's really a full-circle, interdisciplinary opportunity for the students to get involved."

The Greenery plans to hold a Harvest Party to celebrates the farm's success in the coming weeks.

Working In Partnership, GLASE, OptimIA, And LAMP Are Excited To Announce The First Annual Plant Lighting Short Course!

Dates: October 14 - November 18, 2021
Time: Thursdays 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. EDT
Presented by: GLASE, LAMP, OptimIA

More Info and Registration

About the Course

Working in partnership, GLASE, OptimIA, and LAMP are excited to announce the first annual Plant Lighting Short Course! This 6-week modular short course is designed to provide participants the opportunity to learn about all aspects related to the selection, implementation, and benefits of plant lighting systems. In each sequential module, attendees will use interactive tools to define their specific lighting requirements, hear from industry experts about available horticultural lighting systems, and learn how to compare different lighting strategies. By the end of the course, participants will be equipped to make informed decisions about the best options to meet their lighting needs.

Speakers

Bruce Bugbee (Utah State University)
Erik Runkle (Michigan State University)
Roberto Lopez (Michigan State University)
Neil Mattson (Cornell University)
Marc van Iersel (University of Georgia)
Jim Faust (Clemson University)
Kale Harbick (USDA ARS)
A.J. Both (Rutgers University)
Paul Sellew (Little Leaf Farms)
Travis Higginbotham (Harborside Group)
Paal Elfstrum (Wheatfield Gardens)
Tessa Pocock (Shenandoah Growers)
Drew Koschmann (Walters Gardens)
Kenneth Tran (Koidra)
Mark Blonquist (Apogee)
Michael Eaton (Cornell University)
Trevor Burns (PL Lighting)
Joe Sullivan - (Franklin Energy)
David Hawley (Fluence Bioengineering)
Ben Campbell (University of Georgia)
Tim Shelford (Cornell University)
Erico Mattos (GLASE)

Special Thanks To Our Industry Partners

Join today

If you have any questions or would like to know more about GLASE, please contact its executive director Erico Mattos at em796@cornell.edu

By the end of the course, participants will be equipped to make informed decisions about the best options to meet their lighting needs.

Event Webpage

What’s Real And What’s Hype With Controlled Environment Agriculture?

July 27, 2021

The flourishing development of Controlled Environment Agriculture and how retailers and consumers view this emerging segment of fresh produce production will be the topic of an educational session at Organic Produce Summit 2021. The Growth of CEA—What’s Real and What’s Hype from a Retail and Consumer Perspective will feature leadership from a pair of recognized retailers and one of the fresh produce industry’s most progressive grower-shippers, offering their insight on how indoor-grown fresh produce items come to market, pricing and marketing challenges, and how consumers are reacting to them.

Moderated by Walter Robb, former CEO of Whole Foods, the session is the second of a two-part educational series at OPS offering a retailer and consumer perspective on the growth of indoor growing. Among the topics to be discussed in the session are the impact of indoor-grown products on the supply chain, the messaging and labeling of these various items, and the ramifications of what CEA production means for the organic fresh produce industry.

Panelists for the session include Frances Dillard, vice president of brand and product marketing at Driscoll’s; Victor Savanello, vice president produce and floral at Spartan Nash; and Shawn Peery, vice president produce and floral at Albertsons.

Production of fresh produce in CEA has become a $100 billion-plus industry, showcasing how growing indoors uses less water and no pesticides, while incorporating innovative and efficient technologies to provide fresher produce to consumers. “CEA is changing the landscape of food production and providing consumers a variety of new items that will continue to evolve in the years ahead,” said Susan Canales, president of Organic Produce Summit. “OPS attendees will have the chance to hear from retail leadership on how these products are marketed and learn about the challenges and opportunities these new items offer consumers.”

This second educational workshop follows a session exploring the growth of CEA from leaders actively involved in the production of indoor growing. The panelists for the first session include Philip Karp, president of Shenandoah Growers; Marc Oshima, co-founder of AeroFarms; and Caitlin Tierney, director of business development for Mastronardi Produce.

“Indoor agriculture is increasingly playing a more meaningful role in our fresh produce supply, in terms of volume, variety, and geographical footprint,” said Robb. “The ability of indoor ag to provide predictability and resiliency for supply, coupled with its lower impact on both the environment and resource use, is drawing substantial interest from both investors and consumers. Clearly, the future will be a hybrid one and our panels will explore how quickly and responsibly this will happen.”

Organic Produce Summit 2021 is a live and in-person two-day event specifically designed to bring together organic fresh produce growers, shippers, and processors with retailer and buying organizations from across North America. Over 1,000 attendees will meet Sept. 15-16 in Monterey, CA, to exchange ideas, information and insights into the organic fresh produce industry.   

In addition to the educational sessions focused on CEA, a session looking at the organic industry in a post-COVID-19 environment and a keynote presentation by Jim Donald, co-chairman of Albertsons, have also been announced. OPS 2021 also includes a selection of field tours for retailers and buyers, a gala opening night reception, and a sold-out trade show floor featuring over 150 producers and processors of organic fresh produce from across North America and the globe.

Sprout AI Inc. Vertical Farming Aims To Provide Sustainable Solutions To Global Food Production

Begins Growth Initiatives After Completion of Go Public Transaction and Financing

July 29, 2021

Source: Sprout AI Inc

Calgary, Alberta, July 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via InvestorWire – Sprout AI Inc. ("Sprout AI" or the "Company") (CSE: SPRT) is a technologically focused, sustainable vertical farming company that has developed scalable controlled aeroponic cultivation habitats. Sprout AI’s technology will provide solutions to the ever-increasing complexities surrounding the current and future supply of sustainable global food production and supply chain.

Sprout AI is committed to both environmental and social sustainability. With a lowered carbon footprint, Sprout AI provides solutions to many of the negative environmental impacts generated by conventional farming methods, including over-fertilization, long transport distances, and biodiversity disturbances. Social sustainability is enhanced through increased food security from a simplified supply chain, especially during Covid-19, higher density production in a world with declining arable land per capita, and a food supply less susceptible to drought, floods, wildfires, disease, and overall climate change.

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The Company’s vision is to be a leader in sustainable vertical cultivation technology by ensuring each harvest is of high quality, high yield, and with minimal product variability. The adaptive AI monitored aeroponic system generates less waste and requires a fraction of the water needed for outdoor, aquaponic, or hydroponic farming. As growth statistics from across the globe are collected, the learning technology will continue to perfect the growing formula, reducing the growth cycle and increasing future output. Additionally, the self-contained habitats reduce cross-contamination and disease which reduces the risk of large crop failures.

The Sprout AI habitats are highly relevant in urban and remote areas alike, and can be assembled in any structure throughout the world that meets, or can meet, food-grade requirements, mitigating the need for a purpose-built structure and allowing it to take advantage of virtually any vacant indoor space.

The Value of Sprout AI

• Local Availability. Achieve consistent, year-round local supply of indigenous and non-indigenous produce that is agnostic to seasons, climates, weather and geographies.

• Environmentally Friendly. Up to 95% water savings(1), significant reduction in fossil fuel required to plant, sow, fertilize and transport crops, and reduces land use and biodiversity disturbances.

• Risk Mitigation. Mitigation against natural disasters such as hail and wildfires that can wipe out entire crops, droughts and infestations that can adversely impact yields, and supply chain impacts such as Covid-19.

• Consistent Quality. Controlled, repeatable growing conditions allow for consistent quality produce that can be rapidly delivered to local markets and reduces the number of perishables from long range shipping.

• Meeting Organic Preferences. Consumer preferences are evolving to more natural, organic products(2). The controlled environment of vertical farming reduces the need for chemicals and pesticides.

• Enhanced Food Safety. Tracking and recall of local produce serving a local market is more manageable than produce grown in international jurisdictions and shipped to a broad network of international markets.

• Feeding a Growing Population. Up to 100x more productive than traditional methods(3), providing a solution to feed a growing global population amid a decrease in arable land per capita(4).

The Sprout AI Business Model and Growth Initiatives

Sprout AI is focused on a two-pronged approach to continue to commercialize its technology. Both paths are intended to provide ongoing, recurring revenue; (i) turnkey unit sales to third parties with ongoing support, and (ii) the construction of proprietary vertical farms owned 100% by Sprout AI or in a joint venture or partner format. These proprietary farms will utilize Sprout AI technology and be branded under Beyond FarmsTM, a trademark owned by Sprout AI.

Since completing the go public transaction and financing on July 5th, 2021, Sprout AI has aggressively expanded its resource base, and has begun to fulfill its first third party sales of Sprout AI units. Sprout AI has also begun discussions with potential partners for the construction of a sustainably operated Beyond FarmsTM vertical farming facility in Canada, and potentially other jurisdictions around the world.

More information about the business of the Company can be found in the final long-form prospectus of Sprout AI dated May 31, 2021, and the listing statement dated June 30, 2021, both available on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

About Sprout AI

Sprout AI is a vertical farming technology company in the business of planning, designing, manufacturing and/or assembling sustainable and scalable AI-controlled vertical cultivation equipment for indoor vertical farming. The adaptive technology produces an environment with improved growing parameters and early detection of adverse conditions resulting in consistent and repeatable crops, with shorter cultivation cycles independent of geographic climates. The self-contained multi-level rolling rack technology increases the cubic cultivation area while mitigating the risk of outside and cross-contaminants.

For more information about Sprout AI, please visit http://sproutai.solutions

Chief Executive Officer
Chris Bolton
Sprout AI Inc.
Phone: +011 (507) 6384-8734
E-mail: mainweb@sproutai.solutions

Investor Relations Contact
Colleen McKay
Tel: (289) 231-9026
E-mail: cmckay@sproutai.solutions

Website: http://sproutai.solutions

Address: International Business Park, Unit 5B, Building 3860
Panama Pacifico, Republic of Panama

THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY OR ADEQUACY OF THIS RELEASE, NOR HAS OR DOES THE CSE'S REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation, with respect to the Company. The forward-looking information included in this news release is not based on historical facts, but rather on the expectations of the Company's management regarding the future growth of the Company, its results of operations, performance, business prospects, and opportunities. This news release uses words such as "will", "expects", "anticipates", "intends", "plans", "believes", "estimates", or similar expressions to identify forward-looking information. Such forward-looking information reflects the current beliefs of the Company's management, based on information currently available to them.

This forward-looking information includes, among other things, statements relating to: the intentions, plans, and future actions of the Company; statements relating to the business and future activities of the Company and anticipated developments in operations of the Company. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, intentions, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances contain forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and analyses made by the Company in light of the experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions, and expected future developments and other factors it believes are appropriate and are subject to risks and uncertainties.

Although the Company believes that the assumptions underlying these statements are reasonable, they may prove to be incorrect, and there can be no assurance that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. Given these risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, prospective investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Whether actual results, performance, or achievements will conform to the expectations and predictions of the Company is subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and other factors, including: global or national health concerns, including the outbreak of pandemic or contagious diseases, such as COVID-19 and including the evolution of new variants of COVID-19, the duration and effect thereof and delays relating to vaccine development, procurement and distribution; risks relating to the effective management of the Company's growth; liabilities and risks, including environmental liabilities and risks associated with the Company's operations; the Company's ability to attract and retain customers; the competitive nature of the industries in which the Company operates; and the other risk factors described in the Company's final long form prospectus dated May 31, 2021.

If any of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results might vary materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. Information contained in forward-looking statements in this news release is provided as of the date of this news release, and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or future events or results, except to the extent required by applicable Canadian securities laws. Accordingly, potential investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, or the information contained in those statements.

All of the forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by the foregoing cautionary statements.

1. Columbia University Earth Institute. “How Sustainable Is Vertical Farming? Students Try to Answer the Question”

2. Fortune Business Insights. “Organic Foods Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Raw Material/Commodity (Fruits and Vegetables, Cereals and Grains, Others), By End-use (Bakery & Confectionery, Ready-to-eat food products, Breakfast Cereals, Processing Industry, Others), By Distribution Channel (Direct Market, Processing Industry) and Regional Forecast 2019-2026”

3. Plant Factory: An Indoor Vertical Farming System for Efficient Quality Food Production. Toyoki Kozai, Genhua Niu and Michiko Takagaki.

4. The World Bank

Wire Service Contact
InvestorWire (IW)
Los Angeles, California
www.InvestorWire.com
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Three Reasons To Attend Women in Agribusiness Summit

For ten years, Women in Agribusiness (WIA) has been at the forefront of advancing women in the food and ag industries by helping them know their business better. Join WIA live in Minneapolis, September 21-23 for the 10th anniversary WIA Summit.

 THREE REASONS TO ATTEND

1.  Be the most informed person on your team.

With so many changes happening in the industry, how do you nail down what’s most important? The sessions at WIA Summit are led by industry experts and address the most critical topics of today so you can execute business decisions with confidence.

2.  It’s all about who you know.

Submerse yourself in a room full of leaders who feel equally as passionate about agribusiness as you do. Grab a glass of champagne and start learning and sharing about the topics that mean the most to you at the WIA networking receptions. 

3.  Never stop learning.

Life is busy. It’s hard to brainstorm and innovate when business moves fast. The WIA Summit gives you access to leaders and changemakers that provide new perspectives and insights to help you stay innovative.

 REGISTER NOW

Save $100 when you register before August 7.

*Virtual registration available

Event safety: The WIA Summit team looks forward to welcoming you safely to Minneapolis in September. We will continue to work with state officials and follow CDC best practices for in-person events.

The Global Food Security & Sustainability Virtual Summit 2021 , 17th September 2021

The Global food system is at a critical stage and made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic.  As many as 265 million people are threatened by famine, up 50% from last year. 700 million suffer from chronic hunger and 2 billion more from malnutrition, with obesity and associated diet-related diseases increasing in all regions. During the height of the pandemic with lockdowns, we have witnessed the collapse of the global food system with reports of food producers resorting to dumping their produce.  The food crisis faced during the pandemic is a wake-up call for both developed and developing countries of the looming crisis facing the world when the next major crisis hits us, be it climate change, pandemics, etc.  

Website link:

Website Registration Link

Linkedin: Event

The Global Food Security & Sustainability

Although the world has progressed significantly in terms of technological advancements in food production, food is not distributed in an equitable manner to regions, countries, households, and individuals. Government policies, availability of investments, and technological know-how including access to food supplies are key issues to meet the urgent food needs of the world’s growing population.  New and innovative farming technologies such as high-tech agriculture and aquaculture methods that produce more yields inland and urban conditions offer hope for the future. 

The Global Food Security & Sustainability Virtual Summit 2021 held on 17 September 2021, would be one of the most important events ever held to address the critical issues of food security from the local to the global level, and from an interdisciplinary and systemic food systems perspective. The summit will invite multi-stakeholders from governmental organizations, private sector businesses, and NGOs to address the current disruptions and possible solutions on the world food supply chain.  Discussions will also include issues surrounding sustainability issues and how societies and businesses can design more sustainable solutions in their entire food chain to minimize impact to the environment and reduce food waste. 

PODCAST: This Weeks Episode - Season 3 Episode 39

Join Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes to the show, CEO and co-founder of Fifth Season, Austin Webb. Fifth Season is a consumer tech company and indoor farming pioneer with Carnegie Mellon University roots that is creating a new era of fresh foods. Its commercial-scale indoor vertical farms use proprietary robotics, AI, and smart operations technology to grow leafy greens and herbs at affordable prices year-round. 

Today, Harry and Austin talk about the origin story of Fifth Season, the relationship he has with the city of Braddock, and how Austin initially got involved in vertical farming. Austin expounds on the concepts of smart manufacturing and pest pressure and speaks to the learning curve he’s experienced as a first-time CEO. Finally, Austin speaks to the mission of Fifth Season and what excites him most about his future endeavors.

Listen & Subscribe

Nordic Harvest: Danish-Taiwanese Indoor Farming Collaboration

August 1, 2021

by Joakim Persson

Jesper Hansen, Chief Commercial Officer at YesHealth Group in Taiwan, has played an instrumental role in establishing a business partnership with Danish start-up Nordic Harvest and setting up their first Indoor Vertical Farming (IVF) plant in Copenhagen. Jesper has, a side business planning and marketing, developed vertical farm designs and so far helped raise more than USD $100 million for vertical farming projects across the world.

Following ten years of development and establishing Taiwan’s largest and profitable indoor vertical farm, further expansion in Denmark, the Nordics as well as in various countries in Asia is in the works. Their elaborate international expansion plan is based on developing technology, and building and operating such indoor vertical farming systems. Their farming technology is hydroponics-based; where plants grow in a solution of water and nutrients and no soil is used. This addresses climate change and food security challenges through sustainable and environment-friendly agricultural practices.

YesHealth Group is currently the largest vertical farming company in Asia, with its own operations and proprietary technology that underpins their vertical farms such as engineering design, climate control systems, fertilizer and micro-biology, automation design, and data collection and management.

The launch in Denmark represents a crucial milestone and the first step in its elaborate international expansion plan. “We are by far the largest player in Taiwan and our main production unit is the largest farm provider for the major retailers, in addition to hotels,” says Jesper.

Chinese studies the beginning

Jesper got involved through the family business of his Taiwanese wife. So let’s rewind to how it all started with this Dane working for a Taiwanese company exporting to Denmark.

After taking a degree in history at the University of Copenhagen earlier, Jesper realised that being a historian was not the kind of job he wanted. He then thought how he could further his studies with some skills that could allow him to travel. Language! Chinese! So he started Chinese studies, which included language, history, culture, politics, and society.

“That really kick-started my studies overseas and the first stay I had was in Hangzhou, where I first learned the basics of Chinese and got to a level where I could have a very basic conversation. I spent six months there as an integrated part of the Chinese programme at the University of Copenhagen.”

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Then an opportunity to apply for a one-year scholarship worldwide came up and Jesper applied to the University of California is very strong on Chinese studies.

“I did a one-year programme of combined history and Chinese studies. That really took me to the next level of understanding Chinese – learning how to read and write and how to understand more technical conversations.”

“Next, a Taiwanese representative office in Copenhagen contacted my Professor with the offer of some of the best students from Copenhagen to go to Taiwan, paid by the Taiwanese government, to study Chinese. My professor offered that to me and I was granted six months of Chinese studies at Taiwan University – the top university in Taipei. So I took another six months on top of my degree to go there, and I managed to increase my Chinese to an even higher level during my time here,” says the Dane about his new-found home.

“When I was just about to go back to Copenhagen I met my current wife, my girlfriend at the time. I had little time to get to know her before I was going back to Copenhagen, so I told her that I would return after completing my graduation in Copenhagen. And so I did.”

Family job offer

“Once there I first joined a local Taiwanese company that helps large Western manufacturers (American and big customers such as Ericsson in Sweden), with mechanical components, specialising on Wi-Fi devices. My role was sales but just as much a matter of acting as a cross-cultural bridge. During my two years with this company I got very familiar with Taiwanese business and I also experience in how to link a Taiwanese company’s business mindset and way of approaching business with western practice. I was gradually becoming an expert on how to sell something from there to overseas, especially towards the western world,” he explains.

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Indoor Vertical Farming by YesHealth Group in Taiwan

Then, as YesHealth Group was building a larger facility, his Taiwanese father in law took Jesper under his shoulders and offered him to join the company and work on its global expansion.

”So I joined and then spent about a year before we took on the first project, which was in China in 2018. And we succeeded in delivering that project in Shenzen and that remains one of the largest farms ever built up to today. And from 2019 onwards I started developing projects in Europe.”

Danish partnership

First out is Denmark, where in the fourth quarter of 2020 Nordic Harvest began operations of its vertical farm in greater Copenhagen, which will with full production capacity yield more than 3.000 kg every day, making it the most efficient vertical farm in Europe to date.

This Danish start-up that aims to make food production more sustainable has been made possible through a business partnership with YesHealth Group.

“Nordic Harvest ApS is backed by prominent investors and leaders within business, the food industry, and agriculture making Nordic Harvest an ideal partner,” says Jesper.

It has more than 40 private investors, aside some bigger investors and lenders like Vækstfonden, the Danish government’s financing fund for venture capital & private equity; and Danmarks Grønne Investeringsfond, a new, independent investment fund that co-finances investments supporting the transfer to a green society.

As an investor Yeshealth has also contributed capital towards setting up the Danish food business. “And we have a significantly larger stake through our technology transfer; licensing our technologies and proprietary formulas.”

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Setting up sales and distribution, marketing and operating the business is done by Nordic Harvest, while Yeshealth looks after everything relating to technology.

“We are building the next phase in 2021, which will almost triple the capacity to around 1000 tons per year – to be completed and fully operational by early next year.”

The grow area is utilised optimally by placing the plants in floors. By having full control over the plants’environment the best conditions is created for their growth. Therefore, the indoor farm can deliver delicious, tasteful and nutrient-rich herbs and lettuces every day year round – 100% free of pesticides and herbicides.

Nordic Harvest is also one part in a two-pillar idea, by the Danish founder and CEO Anders Riemann, to take away the need for traditional farmland and instead grow vegetables inside cities. Farmland outside the cities should be returned to nature by growing forests, creating lakes etc.

“What we call nature in Denmark consist in farmland everywhere, and that’s not what nature looks like before. It’s all artificial – made by people. We should have untouched forest, which we almost don’t have any more. So the idea is to regenerate and create a better balance in the ecosystem.”

Making it sustainable and viable

The start-up also has further plans to expand into the other Nordic countries over the next years.
Jesper called the Danish launch proof “that it is now possible to commercialise vertical farming produce on a large scale and that this produce will be able to support the traditional farming sector from now on. Vertical farming is no longer just a theoretical concept for the garage.”

Favourable conditions in various markets and countries can vary. “It can be a combination of climate conditions favouring indoor farming, coupled with inexpensive energy or access to green energy. We are not dependent on the weather, so this enables us to supply the whole world locally. We can build a farm even in Greenland or Iceland if we want to and supply locally and take out the need for transportation,” says Jesper.

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Jesper Hansen inspecting YesHealth Group’s Indoor vertical farming produce

“The harsher the climate is outside the better our technology is because it means you cannot grow outside. But it also means the more difficult it is for us to control the temperature inside. And we try purposefully to link our technology with green energy resources. Actually in the case of Denmark, including the wind power, electricity is not inexpensive. But it’s clean, so we don’t have the carbon footprint. The link with green energy sources is a driver and whether or not there is a market for high quality sustainably produced produce,” adds the Dane.

“In Denmark we are the only large-scale vertical farm. So the competition comes from overseas’ producers. We identify which crops that can be, and are grown, in Denmark, and we purposely grow other things. We are trying to take away import to Denmark. Competitors would be from countries like Italy and Spain. But we’re selling at a certain price point – because the cost structure is still relatively high compared to outdoor farming. The challenge is to make it a sustainable and viable business by being able to offer produce that doesn’t cost more than the traditional. So our goal is to bring down the cost so that this kind of quality and healthy produce is available to anyone,” he continues.

This is something they will achieve gradually, partly via technology improvement in terms of driving down cost. LED technology, for instance, becomes better and better and lower in cost. The same goes for software and automation.

“There is also an operational aspect that you get better and better at operating these farms, so using the same input in money and labour we can get more and more out of the farms,” says Jesper. “So there’s a learning curve in terms of being better at that but there’s also technology improvement over time.”

“With all of our technology in-house, YesHealth Group will be able to utilise real-world data from vastly different climates and environments and improve our technology at an even greater speed and efficiency.”

The Taiwanese company is the developer of all the technology that underpins their vertical farms such as engineering design, climate control systems, fertiliser and micro-biology, automation design, and data collection and management.

Bugs and insects on the market

YesHealth Group was actually mainly started to solve the issue with pesticides: “Taiwan is a hot country with lots of bugs and insects in nature. So the farmers have to spray a lot of pesticides on the crops. By bringing farming into a closed environment, relying on LED for light source instead of the sun, we have a whole lot of advantages. For instance, we can skip all the harmful chemicals and pesticides – we don’t need them anymore; they belong to the outside world. We can also use significantly less fertilizer and water to achieve the same result. We hardly use any other water than what goes into the crops, so it’s very resource-efficient. Then, in some areas like for instance Singapore, we have the ability to grow a lot on a very small footprint.”

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Over time the Taiwanese company has developed technology and become experts at running these large farms that are suitable solutions also for export. “And our combination of being both a technology developer and manufacturer, and an operator, gives us a competitive edge towards many of our competitors who focus only on making the equipment; they don’t have live insights from operating these systems. We are one of the few companies that have been operating these farms over a number of years.”

“Almost everything essential to a vertical farm, such as LED lighting, is proprietary; something we developed. The same goes for the automation equipment – everything is made in-house.”

“We have something called ‘Nanobubble oxygene injection system’, which we use to induce oxygen in the water. We have some 50 patents of which some are only here in Taiwan and some are international, but, actually most of our core technologies are what we call trade secrets,” informs Jesper.

In Taiwan, they have a cost competitiveness advantage, but it is by no means any easy market for vertical farming and thus a tough test-bed. “Some of the values – for instance being pesticide-free and sustainable – are things that just don’t resonate. Taiwan is a little bit behind Europe and the U.S in focusing on these kinds of things, so selling the produce is more difficult. The fact that traditional produce from the field is extremely cheap in Taiwan also contributes to that. Hence, the price gap between the traditional produce and our premium produce becomes higher, whereas in Denmark people are used to eating organic, pesticide-free, high-quality produce. There, we don’t have to fight this price gap and change people’s perceptions. We just tap into the mass market, while in Taiwan we’re still a very premium product and a niche.”

“The way we see vertical farming is that it’s never going to replace traditional farming: it’s just going to be a big niche technology that will have applications in areas where you cannot grow, or have a problem with pesticides. And providing year-round pesticide-free, safe and healthy vegetables is part of a larger trend, which is to move away from the need for meat every day to a more plant-based diet. This is the kind of trend we are tapping into.”

Lead photo: Jesper Hansen, Chief Commercial Officer at YesHealth Group in Taiwan

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About Joakim Persson

Freelance business and lifestyle photojournalist

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Tags: AGRICULTURE, FISHING, FORESTRY / BUSINESS IN ASIA / CHINA / DENMARK / SUSTAINABILITY / TAIWAN

Projected Water Scarcity Prompts Need For Farming Ingenuity

Posted by chrismichlewicz

July 31, 2021

The common refrain that freshwater is the next gold is ringing true as drastic changes in our climate are resulting in greater competition and a need for more efficient water uses, especially in the agricultural industry.

National Geographic points out that while the amount of fresh water on the planet has remained fairly constant over time — continually recycling through the atmosphere and back into our oceans, lakes, and rivers — the global population has exploded in the last century. This means that competition for a clean supply of water for drinking, cooking, bathing, and sustaining life intensifies every year. There is only so much water to go around.

Essentially, when taking saltwater into account, only about .007 percent of the Earth’s water supply is usable for the planet’s 6.8 billion (and counting) people, National Geographic says.

The vast majority of freshwater  — about 70 percent by most estimates — is used for agriculture, and when you consider that feeding a planet of 9 billion people in 2050 will require an estimated 50 percent increase in agricultural production and a corresponding 15 percent increase in water withdrawals, the future becomes a lot clearer, according to World Bank.

Without proper governance, there is likely to be increased competition for water between sectors and an escalation of water crises of various kinds, triggering emergencies in a range of water-dependent sectors, according to a U.N. report.

Emerging technologies are quickly trying to find ways to get the most bang for each drop of water. Efficiencies have been identified, including vertical hydroponic farming, which drastically reduces the amount of water needed to grow crops. FarmBox Foods, a Colorado company that builds automated hydroponic farms inside repurposed shipping containers, has set its sights on creating a tangible shift in the approach to farming.

FarmBox Foods’ innovative, closed-watering system only uses 3-5 gallons of water per day and, almost as important, it does not contribute to groundwater contamination the way that traditional farming does. Furthermore, one farm is able to produce the same yield as 2 – 2.5 acres of farmland on an annual basis. 

“Our container farms are built in such a way that it takes only a fraction of the amount of water to grow that same amount of produce,” said Rusty Walker, CEO of FarmBox Foods.

Climate change is projected to increase the number of water-stressed regions and exacerbate shortages in already water-stressed regions. It’s those regions that will realize the most benefit from vertical hydroponic farming and more efficient water usage in general.

An integrated view on water, the biosphere, and environmental flows is necessary to devise sustainable agricultural and economic systems that will allow us to decelerate climate change, protect us from extremes and adapt to the unavoidable at the same time, the U.N. says.

The automated hydroponic farms have a secondary benefit, as they can grow pine trees that contribute to the overall health of the environment by helping reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. One container farm from FarmBox Foods can grow 35,000 tree saplings per year.

For more information, go to www.UNwater.org or www.FarmBoxFoods.com.

Posted by chrismichlewicz on July 31, 2021 in Arapahoe County Business, Douglas County, Douglas County Business, Featured, Greenwood Village Business

Tagged #farmboxfoods, agriculture, cleanwater, Colorado, containerfarm, containerfarming, environment, farmboxfoods, freshwater, indoorag, indoorfarming, UN, Water, waterscarcity, watershortage, watersupply, waterusage

iUNU Meets U.S. House Agriculture Committee & Highlights Importance of CEA To U.S. Food Supply

Chairman David Scott (GA) held a Congressional Hearing Thursday morning to increase public awareness of the critical importance of the CEA (Controlled Environment Agriculture) industry to promote food safety, nutritious produce, and food security for the American people.

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Adam Greenberg | CEO | IUNU LLC

“While a global pandemic certainly magnified our food supply chain issues, one of the issues we can cover today is how to ensure a supply of fresh fruits and vegetables from all sources,” Chairman Scott asserted in his opening statement. “Controlled environment agriculture has the ability to fill in gaps where there are food deserts, reduce emissions from transportation of produce, and very importantly, limit our reliance on imports to fill our needs for fresh produce. We have an opportunity today to be on the cutting edge of technologies and the ability to provide affordable food to more households that need it.”

iUNU, an AI and computer vision-based technology platform that is employed by large commercial growers to enhance productivity is working with Congress and the USDA to ensure nutritious produce is available to all Americans. 

“iUNU is an integral part of the solution to these issues as the leading provider of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning to help indoor growers rapidly expand their operations,” stated CEO Adam Greenberg at the Hearing. “The fact that 87% of the imported tomatoes come from one country, Mexico, leaves the U.S. population highly susceptible to food insecurity whether it is from a pandemic or other forces we can’t control. The CEA industry can significantly reduce these risks.”

Representative Jim McGovern (MA) expressed deep concerns about the need to recognize that food security is a national security issue in terms of ensuring the availability of healthy, nutritious produce for all Americans. “Every child in America deserves fresh, nutritious, contaminant-free fruits and vegetables they can trust.”

iUNU provides indoor growers with an AI and machine learning technology that gives growers the ability to see a plant from the time it sprouts until the time it is harvested in real-time.

“Our LUNA system can see where a problem is when it is happening and what is causing it, which significantly reduces the time it takes to identify any potential outbreak,” Mr. Greenberg said. “By catching a pest or pathogen issue as early as possible, we help growers reduce the need for pesticides. In short, we help reduce a grower’s risks and increase their productivity.”

 Representative Jim Costa (CA) reiterated his concern with the nation’s food supply. “The sustainability of our food supply is critical,” he stated. “Focusing on protecting America's food supply chain is a national security issue. We need to focus on innovation as we move forward.”

 Later in the afternoon, both Chairman Scott (GA) and Ranking Member Thompson (PA) issued a joint statement urging Congress to address the expansion of Broadband Internet so Americans living in rural areas and food deserts will have the same access as those living in urban areas. The lack of access hampers the ability of businesses such as growers to optimize their facilities through the use of AI and computer vision.

SINGAPORE - VIDEOS: How IoT And Machine Learning Are Automating Agriculture

A New Generation of Farmers Is Tapping The internet of Things And Machine Learning To Operate Self-Sustaining Urban Farms With Minimal Supervision

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By Aaron Tan, TechTarget

21 Jul 2021

A new generation of farmers is turning to technologies such as the internet of things (IoT) and machine learning to automate agricultural production, alleviating the need to toil on the land while keeping a watchful eye on their crops.

Joining their ranks is Phoebe Xie, director, and co-founder of Singapore-based agrotechnology startup AbyFarm. Teaming up with technology service provider SPTel, Xie is building a smart hydroponics farm in a greenhouse that uses a plethora of IoT sensors, including video cameras, to keep the farm humming around the clock.

“To run a self-regulating farm at the optimal temperature with optimal water and nutrient supply, and to control the quality and taste of vegetables and fruits, we need IoT sensors,” she said, adding that the farm and its sensors collect and monitor thousands of data points, including humidity and temperature.

With the data and in certain environmental conditions, processes and actions are automatically triggered to protect crops from the elements. For instance, if the temperature or humidity gets too high, fans, water curtains, and roof shades are activated in the greenhouse.

Xie said the smart farm, located at a rooftop carpark in Singapore, is also equipped with sensors that monitor the pH and electrical conductivity levels of water. Among the sensors, which are connected to a Lora low-power wide area network, is a dozer that automatically releases acidic or alkaline nutrients to maintain optimal pH levels. 

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Whereas the farmers of old had to physically inspect their crops, AbyFarm’s agronomists and farmers can do so remotely using video cameras and image recognition technology to identify crops that might be succumbing to disease.

“If the image recognition finds that a plant is likely to be sick, the farmer will be alerted to go onsite to check how the plant is right now,” said Xie, adding that agronomists will also advise farmers on taking corrective actions to prevent disease or restore the health of their crops.

Like any machine learning system, AbyFarm’s algorithms get smarter over time. Each time a crop is affected by disease, data about the occurrence and corrective action is fed into the system, enabling its algorithms to formulate solutions for other farmers with similar crop issues – without consulting an agronomist.

With that, said Xie, even those who are new to the field can use the system to guide them on treating diseased crops, which can be isolated from other crops to prevent cross-infections.

AbyFarm’s automated farming system, which is hosted on SPTel’s private cloud, can also advise farmers on the best time to transplant their crops after germination and harvest them later for sale, said Xie.

Heng Kwee Tong, vice-president for engineering and customer solutions at SPTel, said the company has built up a software-defined platform to help companies like AbyFarm overcome the challenges of deploying applications such as IoT.

“The common struggle that companies like AbyFarm face with building an IoT solution is that it is quite intensive in terms of ICT infrastructure,” said Heng. “You’ve got to find the radio connectivity like Lora, subscribe to a service provider, and connect your sensors to a sensor collector.

“We make it easy by investing in a platform and because we are a service provider with edge hub assets for deploying radio connectivity, all AbyFarm needs to do is to bring their sensors onboard.”

Going forward, Heng said SPTel is looking to support next-generation video analytics capabilities through edge cloud services that can be used to crunch workloads closer to where they reside, reducing latency.

AbyFarm was one of six companies to win contracts from the Singapore Food Agency last year to build urban farms at nine rooftop carparks in public housing estates across Singapore.

The goal is to collectively produce about 1,600 tonnes of vegetables a year in a bid by the city-state – where less than 1% of the land is used for agriculture – to become more self-sufficient in meeting the nutritional needs of its people.

That could well be achievable with technology that makes farming more efficient, scalable, and less labor-intensive than before. “We are willing to train and educate the next generation in agrotechnology because now you don’t need 10 farmers to take care of one farm,” said Xie. “It’s just looking at the dashboard and, with the alerts, doing what is required.”

Farm Merges With Food Retail Spaces

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By Sylvain Charlebois

July 29, 2021

Opinion

Canadians have started to notice that grocers have begun to sell plants in miniature greenhouses.

We’ve seen gardens on rooftops, vertical farms close to stores, and even some selling gardening equipment to gardeners who are shopping for food. The farm is essentially merging with food retail spaces.

We’re slowly witnessing the rise of the “grow-cer.”

For years, customers accepted the myth that food just magically shows up at the grocery store. But COVID-19 got many of us to think differently about supply chains.

With the addition of new farmgate features, grocery stores are becoming the gateway to a world most of us rarely see: farming.

Sobeys has provided one recent example of what’s going on. The second-largest grocer in Canada recently signed a partnership agreement with German-based Infarm to get greenhouses into many outlets across the country. Infarm units were installed last year in British Columbia and can now be found in many other locations across the country.

In-farm units enable Sobeys to offer fresh herbs and produce grown hydroponically, which requires 95 percent less water, 90 percent less transportation, and 75 percent less fertilizer than industrial agriculture. As well, no pesticides are used.

Produce grown inside the store includes leafy greens, lettuce, kale, and herbs such as basil, cilantro, mint, and parsley. Expansion plans include chili peppers, mushrooms, and tomatoes. The growing cycle for most of these averages five weeks.

It’s not just Sobeys. Other grocers also have decent-sized vertical farms inside their stores or nearby.

For many consumers, gardening remains a luxury due to the lack of space or time. But now grocers are bringing the farm to the store so consumers can have both the farming and the retail experience at once.

Before COVID, farmers desperately tried to get closer to city dwellers so their work could be appreciated. Campaigns over the years brought mixed results. Farming is still largely misunderstood.

City dwellers have always respected farmers and the hard work they do, but many consumers who were looking for natural and organically produced goods have grown leery of farming in general.

Grocers are starting to bridge the worlds of farmers and urban consumers.

For years, we saw pictures of farmers on packages and posters. It was nice, but it wasn’t real. The hard work, and everything else that comes with farming, can only be properly conveyed when visiting a farm or working on one for a while.

The pictures likely won’t disappear from grocery stores but they don’t really tell the whole story.

The new grow-cer brings the imagery of farming in retail to a new level. Grabbing a living plant or produce off a living plant is real and increasingly valuable for Canadians longing for local and freshness. It just can’t get more local than growing it in the grocery store.

COVID-19 eliminated many rules for grocers. Previously, every business played a part. Grocers sold food, processors manufactured it and restaurants provided ready-to-eat solutions. Lines between sectors were already becoming blurred before COVID, but the pandemic blew up the blurred lines.

Grocers are becoming brokers, connecting various functions of the supply chain. Farming connects with retail by way of new initiatives that we’re now seeing everywhere.

For example, restaurants are selling meal kits through grocers’ apps. Few saw that coming.

Food brokering for grocers is no doubt the next frontier of growth.

Whether it will last is unknown. But grocers are embracing the fact they have the privilege of interacting with consumers every day. That privilege comes with a responsibility to show consumers the true value of food by being knowledge brokers.

If that means growing more food in stores, so be it.

Dr. Sylvain Charlebois is senior director of the agri-food analytics lab and a professor in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University.

Lead photo: An employee of the urban farming start-up Infarm checks an indoor growing system at the company’s showroom in Berlin, Germany. Sobeys is working with the German company to put greenhouses into its Canadian stores. | REUTERS/HANNIBAL HANSCHKE PHOTO

Dairy Container Costs "Going Crazy"

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30 Jul 2021

Andrew Miller

@journoandy26

CONTAINER PAIN: Wimpak, Minyip, general manager James French says margins are being squeezed by the price of containers.

The skyrocketing cost of shipping containers is hitting the margins of Victorian pulse, grain, dairy and meat processors and exporters.

Thomas Elder Markets analyst Andrew Whitelaw said containers (boxes) were used to export pulses, grains, meat, and wool from Victoria.

"The box market has gone crazy this year," Mr. Whitelaw said.

Rates were at their highest since 2001, with the cost of hiring a 40-foot container to export products to India now sitting at $4000, (A$7700).

That compared with the first week in June 2019 when the rate was US$1300.

The top five agricultural containerized export destinations are China, Japan, the USA, Vietnam, and South Korea.

READ MORE: Rising port costs being passed back to the farmer

Port of Melbourne figures show wheat accounts for 10 percent of all agricultural exports, with hay, chaff and fodder coming in a close second.

Other cereals, barley, lentils, and chickpeas comprise nearly 20 percent of all exports.

Dried milk and processed dairy products make up more than 12pc of exports.

Huge demand

Mr. Whitelaw said part of the problem was the huge demand for containers, from Chinese manufacturers.

"Everyone seems to have much more disposable income, and most of the western world isn't able to spend that money on leisure or travel activities," Mr Whitelaw said.

"This has resulted in huge volumes and gadgets and gizmos shipped out of China."

Sea freight broker Anchor Logistics director Bob Brittles said a combination of factors had resulted in supply and demand pressures.

The blockage of the Suez Canal, when the Ever Given ran aground earlier this month, had a massive effect.

"When the Ever Given was freed, 350 ships followed her through and dumped about 350,000 containers in Europe and just after that there were unloading delays in China.

"Those delays held up 650,000 containers."

He said the Australian market was serviced by about 12 major shipping lines.

"They have been influenced by the coronavirus situation and closures of various ports, over the last year and a half."

That had resulted in congestion and delays in unloading in many south-east Asian ports, which was contributing to the container shortages.

"The containers are in the wrong place, the ships are in the wrong place," Mr Brittles said.

Rising prices

Grain cleaning and packing service Wimpak, Minyip, general manager James French said container prices to ship to most overseas ports had risen dramatically.

"The Bangladesh rates are very similar to India and the shipping lines are making a move (on prices) every four to six weeks," Mr. French said.

He said grower pricing might have to reflect the freight cost.

"Normally we are putting work on, six to eight weeks out, but we are struggling to do that, knowing what our freight rates are going to be," he said.

"It makes us more reluctant to buy more product when we don't know what the price will be at the other end."

READ MORE: Food-grade container shortages hitting Victorian exporters hard

Burra Foods exports most of its dairy products and chief executive Stewart Carson said there was a direct container cost, as well as timing and availability.

"You might have a vessel booked to leave on Friday, then you're told the vessel won't be available until Tuesday or Wednesday," Mr. Carson said.

"What do you do with that container? In some cases, you have to put it on power, which costs you money."

Mr. Carson said the company carried the cost or sought to recoup it from the market.

"Everyone is paying a competitive milk price, you can't say sorry I'll pay 10 cents less because the container price has gone up," Mr. Carson said.

Companies could not pass the cost back to the farmer, which was only right.

"I think that's great, it gives an assurance to the farmer," he said.

He said Burra was in the same position as all other processors.

Southern Grain Storage director Campbell Brumby said his company was fortunate that his company had finished its export program before the price increases hit.

"I was speaking to a colleague who was paying $1750 for a box to a particular destination, and was now looking at $4250 if they can get the container," he said.

He put the price increase down to the state government's lease of the Port of Melbourne.

"We've been doing containers for about 10 years and when we first started, charges were negligible," he said.

"Since the lease was sold to DP World, the rates have gone through the roof - we just have to pay them and the market absorbs the cost.

"As long as all our competitors and all the people we are trying to trade with are working on the same cost basis, the market tends to absorb it.

"Whether its pulses or cereals, the market will be the market."

Dairy

Investors Eye Growth In Vertical Farms

Source: Streetwise Reports  (7/29/21)

AeroFarms grows leafy greens in vertical farms using data science and technology; its upcoming acquisition by SPAC Spring Valley could grow its equity value.

Vertical farming is taking root. The market share of large-scale farms was estimated at $3.3 billion by Precedence Research in 2020 and is anticipated to increase nearly ten-fold, reaching $31.6 billion by 2030.

One vertical farm enterprise, AeroFarms, plans to go public in a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) business combination in mid-2021. The company got started in 2004 and was cofounded by CEO David Rosenberg along with Chief Marketing Officer Marc Oshima and Chief Science Officer Ed Harwood, PhD. It is a certified B Corporation and public benefit corporation and has earned spots on Fast Company's World's Most Innovative Companies, Time Inc.'s Best Inventions, INC magazine's 25 Most Disruptive Companies, and a first-place ranking on the FoodTech 500 list.

Click here for more information on SPACs.

A pioneer in the vertical farming space, AeroFarms is on a mission "to grow the best plants possible for the betterment of humanity," with a focus on doing more with less by growing produce using fewer resources, zero pesticides, and less spoilage. "We look for inefficiencies and solve them using data science. We use our proprietary, fully controlled technology platform to better understand plants, optimize farms, improve quality and reduce costs," Rosenberg said.

AeroFarms leafy greens are grown in an approximately 70,000 square-foot facility—a former steel mill—in Newark, New Jersey. Its wide variety of greens are sold throughout the Northeast U.S. at major retailers, including Whole Foods Market, ShopRite, Amazon Fresh, and FreshDirect. In April 2021, AeroFarms broke ground in Danville, Virginia, on a new 136,000 square foot commercial farm that, according to the company, will be the world's largest indoor aeroponic vertical farm of its kind.

According to the company, it has a $1.9 trillion total addressable market and is expanding that through strategic partnerships, such as one with Chile's Hortifrut S.A. Together, the two companies will explore blueberry and cranberry production. "New Jersey is where blueberries were first domesticated in 1910," Rosenberg said. "With Hortifrut, we will be pioneering the next chapter by domesticating blueberries again in New Jersey—this time in a fully controlled environment."

International interest is demonstrated by AeroFarms' inclusion in Abu Dhabi Investment Office's $150 million investment in agricultural technology. AeroFarms' research center in Abu Dhabi will feature an advanced speed-breeding center and laboratories dedicated to R&D in precision phenotyping—studying the observable characteristics of an organism—machine vision and machine learning, robotics, and automation.

AeroFarms is also doing more with less in its entry into the public market. Rather than a time- and resource-consuming IPO, it will go public through a business combination with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. (SV:NASDAQ), a SPAC. Click here for more information on SPACs.

Vertical Farming Attracts Investor Interest

"Our banker at J.P. Morgan introduced us to Spring Valley. A SPAC made sense for us because it gives us an easier platform to tell our story to investors," said Rosenberg. "We share a long-term vision regarding sustainability and align in our concern for environmental issues." In addition, he notes that Spring Valley has a track record of bringing other companies public at a stage similar to AeroFarms.

Spring Valley (NASDAQ:SV), sponsored by Pearl Energy Investments, was formed for the purpose of acquiring a $1+/- billion enterprise value company in the sustainability sector. The total gross proceeds of Spring Valley's own IPO in 2020 were $230 million (23 million units at $10 per unit). J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is acting as the exclusive financial advisor to AeroFarms, while Cowen & Co. is the financial advisor to Spring Valley. It would not be unusual for these firms to initiate coverage on AeroFarms after the completion of the SPAC transaction.

AeroFarms has roughly $75.5 million in cash and will be 65% owned by existing shareholders after the merger. Revenue of $13 million is anticipated in fiscal 2022, jumping to $553 million by fiscal 2026, when EBITDA is expected to reach $193 million. All stockholders will roll 100% of their equity holdings into the new public company, according to Investor Place.

The business combination with Spring Valley is expected to provide up to $357 million in gross proceeds to AeroFarms, composed of Spring Valley's $232 million cash held in trust (assuming no redemptions by its shareholders) and a $125 million fully committed public investment in private equity (PIPE) at $10 per share. This includes investments from leading institutional investors, AeroFarms insiders and Pearl Energy Investments, Spring Valley's sponsor.

The "de-SPACing" is expected in summer 2021, at which point AeroFarms will have an estimated pro forma equity value of $1.2 billion. It will remain listed on Nasdaq under the new ticker symbol ARFM.

Lake Street Capital Markets initiated coverage on AeroFarms on June 15 with a Buy rating and $20 price target. Senior research analyst Ben Klieve wrote, "Representing a leader in next-generation production methods with a significant sustainability benefit, we view AeroFarms as a high conviction Buy opportunity for investors targeting investments redefining food production for decades to come."

The analyst noted that AeroFarms "will enter the public market following a SPAC merger with considerable upside potential from the current level. We see multiple expansion and capacity ramp as alpha drivers."

Venture capital interest in the controlled environment agriculture space—which includes greenhouses or container farms, in addition to vertical farms—has exploded. The Food Institute estimates, using data from PitchBook, that global VC investments in the sector tripled from 2019 to 2020, nearing $2 billion. Investor Place recently named several leading stocks in the space, including Kalera (OTCMKTS:KSLLF), Appharvest (NASDAQ:APPH), Hydrofarm Holdings (NASDAQ:HYFM), Village Farms International (NASDAQ:VFF), GP Solutions (OTCMKTS:GWPD) and Cubicfarm Systems (OTCMKTS:CUBXF), as well as Spring Valley–AeroFarms.

Cutting Edge Technology

AeroFarms grows plants using aeroponics, where a plant's roots are misted with water, nutrients and oxygen. Instead of dirt or water, the plants are grown on a cloth that can be sanitized and reused. Grown indoors under LED light, the controlled environment stymies pests, eliminating the need for pesticides, herbicides and fungicides. Rosenberg says the company can harvest in one acre what would require up to 390 acres outdoors by a farm in New Jersey, using up to 95% less water.

"We are the most vertically integrated tech company in the space," Rosenberg said. "Our proprietary agSTACK technology creates a fully connected and digitally controlled farm that integrates hardware, automation, intelligent controls and sensors, machine vision, supervisory control and data acquisition, and our manufacturing execution system to create a powerful data loop." The company holds 15 patents and has 38 more pending. "The result is clean, nutritious, flavorful produce grown year-round that is ready to eat with no washing needed."

The lure of vertical farming—the practice of growing crops in vertically stacked layers, typically in a controlled environment—has both economic and environmental benefits. Traditional field agriculture produces significant greenhouse gases, takes up half the U.S. landmass, and accounts for more than half of the country's fresh-water usage. A recent report by EY highlighted some of the economic reasons for the sector's growth, ranging from higher yields per acre to reduced transportation costs for crops grown closer to consumers in cities, to the availability of consistent supply at predictable prices.

A recent report by McAlinden Research Partners contends that efficient vertical farming is poised to surge as an increasingly popular investment as a result of the mounting pressures on traditional agriculture. "A report from Big Think recently found that vertical farms are incredibly efficient when it comes to water usage, requiring 95% less irrigation than soil-grown plants. Nate Storey, co-founder of vertical farming startup Plenty, Inc., has highlighted the efficiency of vertical farming, noting that 99% of moisture transpired by plants can be recaptured and reused in a vertical farming system. . . As climate shifts continue to affect the global agriculture industry, indoor farming provides an efficient and sustainable way to produce more crops with fewer resources," the report stated.

McAlinden noted that AeroFarms is "rapidly expanding its distribution operations in the Northeast, collaborating with Whole Foods Market, Amazon Fresh, and FreshDirect, according to Supermarket News."

"It will likely be several years before vertical farming technologies begin tapping their true potential, but a scaling of the industry is becoming increasingly likely as a counter to climate change and diminishing water availability," McAlinden concluded.

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Disclosure:
1) Diane Fraser compiled this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise Reports as an independent contractor. She and/or members of her household own securities of the following companies mentioned in the article: None. She and/or members of her household are paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. Her company has a financial relationship with the following companies referred to in this article: None.
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4) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees, or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees, or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the decision to publish an article until three business days after the publication of the article. The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of AeroFarms, a company mentioned in this article.

Additional Disclosures:

Lake Street Capital Markets, AeroFarms, June 15, 2021.

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BrightFarms Recall Expands To Include Baby Spinach

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July 28, 2021

ROCHELLE, Ill., July 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — JULY 28, 2021 RECALL EXPANSION: BrightFarms today initiated a voluntary recall expansion of additional packaged salad greens that are past the expiration date and were produced in its Rochelle, Illinois (Ogle County) greenhouse farm sold in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana and Michigan due to potential contamination with Salmonella.

The recall includes the below salad products packaged in clear, plastic clamshells with “best by” dates through 7/26/2021:

1. BrightFarms Baby Spinach (4 oz. and 8 oz. package)

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The affected BrightFarms-branded products were sold by retailers listed in the July 15 recall notice below.

JULY 15, 2021 RECALL:

BrightFarms today initiated a voluntary recall of packaged salad greens produced in its Rochelle, Illinois (Ogle County) greenhouse farm sold in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Indiana because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.

The affected BrightFarms-branded products were sold by the following retailers:

1. Illinois: Mariano’s Fresh Markets, Walmart (select stores), Strack Van Till, Sullivan’s Foods, Caputo’s, Jewel-Osco
2. Wisconsin: Pick ‘n Save, Metro Market, Copps, Tadych’s, Walmart (select stores)
3. Iowa: Walmart (select stores)
4. Indiana: Strack Van Till
5. Michigan: Tadych’s

Additional retailers may be affected.

Salmonella can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy persons infected with Salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. In rare circumstances, infection with Salmonella can result in the organism getting into the bloodstream and producing more severe illnesses such as arterial infections (i.e., infected aneurysms), endocarditis, and arthritis

The recall includes the below salad products packaged in clear, plastic clamshells with “best by” dates through 7/29/2021:

6. BrightFarms NutrigreensTM (3 oz. package)
7. BrightFarms Butter Crisp TM (4 oz. Package)
8. BrightFarms Harvest Crunch ® (4 oz. package)
9. BrightFarms Mighty Romaine TM (4 oz. and 8 oz. package)
10. BrightFarms 50/50 Spring & Spinach (4 oz. package)
11. BrightFarms Spring Crunch (4 oz. package)
12. BrightFarms Spring Mix (4 oz. and 8 oz. package)
13. BrightFarms Sunny Crunch ® (4 oz. and 8 oz. package)
14. 7/28/21 Update: BrightFarms Baby Spinach (4 oz. and 8 oz. package)

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The recall is limited to these specific products grown at the company’s Rochelle, Illinois indoor farm. BrightFarms products from other BrightFarms greenhouses are not affected.

BrightFarms is taking this action out of an abundance of caution after being notified of illnesses among eleven consumers, some of whom purchased or consumed the above products during the month of June.

Affected retailers have been instructed to remove all affected products from store shelves.

BrightFarms is committed to providing wholesome products, and the health and safety of consumers is the company’s number one priority. In addition to today’s voluntary recall, the company has already begun taking steps to enhance their already rigorous food safety protocols, including testing all products produced in its Rochelle facility for exposure to Salmonella prior to distribution.

Consumers who have purchased the affected products should discard them or return them to their place of purchase for a full refund. Consumers with questions are encouraged to call 1-866-857-8745 8 am – 11 pm EDT. Consumers can also email info@brightfarms.com with the subject line: Recall.

Consumers contact:
BrightFarms
info@brightfarms.com
1-866-857-8745

Tagged brightfarms, food safety, outbreak, salad, salmonella, spinach

These Big Food Companies Get Failing Grades On Political Spending Transparency

A new index highlights how Tyson, Cargill, Coca-Cola, and others are largely failing to disclose what they spend on policy advocacy, donations, and research, and how their lobbying shapes public health and climate regulations.

BY GRETA MORAN

JULY 28, 2021

Op-ed: We Need to Get Food Industry Dollars Out of Politics to Save Our Democracy

Big Food is Spending Millions to Lobby for Less Transparency

Questions Remain about Big Food's Influence on the New Dietary Guidelines

Precisely what role do companies like Tyson, Nestlé, and Coca-Cola play in shaping policies that regulate junk food advertisements to children, maintain a low tipped minimum wage, and limit carbon emissions? No one knows for sure, including their shareholders.

While advocacy groups have long gathered evidence about to the ways the world’s largest food companies spend money influencing politics, back powerful trade groups, and fund research that makes it into mainstream discussions about food, just how much influence they really have in shaping food policy is notoriously hard to pinpoint, partially due to lax disclosure requirements on corporate spending.

According to Feed the Truth, a new organization aimed at addressing corporate control of the food system, this lack of transparency “means that corporations can sell us a family-, worker-, and environmentally friendly image even as they spend heavily to block policies that would improve public health, cut down on inequality and poverty, and help prevent the climate breakdown.”

Now, an index just released from the organization draws attention to just how much remains out of the public view—the spending left undisclosed by major food and agricultural corporations.

The Food and Agriculture Corporate Transparency (FACT) Index scores the world’s 10 largest food producers’ level of disclosure across four categories of spending: electioneering, lobbying, charitable donations, and the funding of scientific research. The corporations, selected based on highest reported 2020 revenue, were ranked from most to least transparent, as follows: the Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, Mars, ADM, Unilever, JBS, Cargill, Nestlé, Tyson Foods, and Bunge. The index specifically counts disclosure as publicly posting information on their websites, easily accessed by the public and investors.

Coca-Cola earns the relatively highest marks for transparency with just 39 out of 100 points, and it goes down from there, with Tyson Foods (the second-largest meat processor in the world) and Bunge (a massive agribusiness and ingredient supply company that many in the U.S. have never heard of) coming in at 3 and 2 points respectively.

Lucy Martinez Sullivan, the executive director of Feed the Truth, hopes that by sharing these low scores, her group can shed light on the gap between what these companies profess to do publicly and where their money is actually going.

“If these companies are going to be talking about what they see as priorities for private-sector engagement in food systems and really shaping the narrative and discourse around food, then they have a responsibility to be more transparent about how they are engaging in the policy process,” said Sullivan.

Civil Eats contacted Tyson Foods, Bunge, Coca-Cola, and Cargill for comment, but none had responded by press time.

Low Scores and a Lack of Accountability

Bunge and Tyson Foods, which are both publicly traded corporations, disclosed almost nothing about their political spending. In the lobbying and electioneering categories, they both scored zero, indicating that they reveal nothing about money spent on these engagements.

“It’s really shocking that two publicly held corporations just do not put out any information for investors, shareholders, and the general public to be able to understand how they are using their power,” said Sullivan. Both companies earn upward of $40 billion dollars per year, granting them the potential for significant influence, noted Sullivan.

Even Coca-Cola, the highest scorer, does not have a good track record of accountable public spending. Earlier this year, an investigation by Popular Information revealed that the company funded 29 of the co-sponsors of Georgia’s voter suppression bills, likened to Jim Crow-era laws, which were written to target Black voters. At the same time, the investigation found that “Coca-Cola, through its Sprite brand, ran a series of ads prior to the 2020 election stressing the importance of voting in the Black community.”

Today’s food system is complex.

The lack of spending disclosure enables corporations to take public positions concerning the social good, while quietly financing opposing interests. This also makes for risky investments, a realization that Sullivan hopes will lead investors to push for more transparency. “It’s a brand liability. It’s a reputational liability, and therefore it’s a risk to investors,” said Sullivan.

Already, there is momentum among shareholders across industries to demand greater transparency, including pushing Tyson Foods to increase its disclosure on lobbying and labor practices. And as cited in the report accompanying the index, one of the world’s largest investors, Vanguard, recently warned of the financial and reputational risks of “poor governance of corporate political activity, coupled with misalignment to a company’s stated strategy or a lack of transparency.”

U.N. Summit in the Background

Feed the Truth released the index to coincide with the start of the United Nations Food Systems Pre-Summit, an event that is setting the stage for a larger summit that will be convened in September. As global leaders come together to develop commitments to reform how the world produces and consumes food, a separate conversation is underway about the level of corporate influence over the global food system, led by scientists, advocates, and Indigenous and peasant groups boycotting the event.

At the heart of the boycott is concern about the duplicity highlighted by the FACT Index. For instance, the summit included an event in which the CEOs of PepsiCo, Nestlé, and Unilever, among others, convened to discuss their companies’ approach to solving hunger and malnutrition. And yet critics have long argued that the makers of soda and other highly processed foods often use philanthropy to advance their corporate agenda and deflect calls for government programs or laws aimed at reducing consumption of the foods they make.

And, ultimately, it’s unclear how food corporations’ representation at the U.N. Food Systems Summit squares with their spending in other countries, given that almost none of this is disclosed.

“The most notable thing is these truly global corporations don’t give any information for their international markets,” said TJ Faircloth, Feed the Truth’s program and research director. “Coca-Cola, as good as they do on some levels of disclosure, operates in almost 200 countries, but only [shares] information based in the U.S.”

Ashka Naik, the research director of Corporate Accountability, notes that while she finds the index to be “systematic and comprehensive” in its methodology, there are some forms of influence that it doesn’t capture, such as revolving doors with governments, recruiting corporate to advisory boards, and advertising.

Faircloth envisions FACT as an “inaugural index,” which he hopes to expand and refine in the future, including by improving their assessments of foreign markets. The index builds upon the Center for Political Accountability-Zicklin Index, which looks more narrowly at corporate spending on elections. FACT expands on this by including lobbying, philanthropy, and scientific funding, as within the scope of its analysis, while also narrowing the scope to food-producing corporations.

Over half of the food and agriculture corporations listed in the FACT index—PepsiCo, Unilever, ADM, JBS, Tyson, Bunge, and Mars—didn’t disclose any funding of scientific research. This can shield how major food corporations shape the field of nutrition and food science. Faircloth points to McDonald’s funding The Scripps Research Institute to study childhood obesity and Type 2 diabetes. “On paper, it looks really great for the corporation, but then you’re like, ‘Wait a minute, this is a corporation that is a driver of childhood diabetes,’” said Faircloth.

An accompanying report to the index provides recommendations for how to increase transparency around corporate giving. This includes requiring the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) to require “political giving disclosures—including lobbying, charity, science, and indirect spending—across the jurisdictions in which these corporations do business.” It also recommends the U.S. Senate passing the “For the People Act” to improve campaign finance transparency; the bill already passed in the House of Representatives in March. Currently, the SEC does not require reporting on political activities; however, there are regulations that require quarterly lobbying reports and the mandatory disclosure of Political Action Committee (PAC) spending.

Lisa Graves, the executive director of True North Research and board president of the Center for Media and Democracy, was impressed by the index and its methodology. She points to the importance of accessible and public disclosures of the corporations’ lobbying activity at the state and federal level. “[This] would be important to be made publicly available, easily findable on the website, versus relying on someone to go through state by state to decipher it,” said Graves.

Of course, improving transparency is only the first step to curbing corporate influence over the global food system. “Greater transparency of political spending is surely necessary and the lowest hanging fruit for greater corporate accountability,” wrote Naik, in an e-mail. “That said, we must be vigilant that such indices are not exploited by corporations to sugar-coat their progress on real accountability.”

Greta Moran is a Senior Reporter for Civil Eats based in Queens, New York. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, Grist, Pacific Standard, The Guardian, Teen Vogue, The New Republic, The New York Times, The Intercept, and elsewhere. Greta writes narrative-based stories about public health, climate change, and environmental justice, especially with a lens on the people working toward solutions. Read more >

Center To Announce First Winners of Its “Best In Class” Awards

By July 23, 2021

The Center of Excellence for Indoor Agriculture, a U.S. based company that supports the growth and development of the vertical and indoor farming industry, will announce the first winners of its Center of Excellence “Best in Class” TM Awards for indoor farm manufacturers at a virtual event scheduled for August 4th with Indoor Ag-Con. The goal of the “Best in Class” Awards is to recognize operational excellence in the indoor agriculture industry through an analysis of KPI’s on indoor farm operations and the supporting equipment.

The announcement will take place in the context of a virtual panel discussion on the importance of metrics to indoor farm sustainability and future investment in indoor agriculture. Finalists and industry thought leaders will sit on the panel. Those interested may register for the event at: indoor.ag/webinar.

The winners will be announced virtually in two categories: commercial indoor production systems and indoor farm lighting fixtures. Indoor production systems are turnkey systems that are optimized for the production of leafy greens and other vegetables in indoor vertical farm facilities. The top systems use the least amounts of water, energy, labor, and other resources to produce the greatest yield. The top lighting fixtures are energy-efficient, affordable, and yield-optimizing.

“We are really excited to recognize excellence among the Agtech manufacturers supporting the indoor and vertical farming industry. Our finalists offer solutions that help indoor farms achieve operational efficiency and sustainability. We believe the awards can help spur innovation in this space,” stated Eric W. Stein, Ph.D., founder and Executive Director of the Center of Excellence.

The winning products were selected through a process that includes being nominated and then evaluated according to technical and operational merits in several categories. The Center performs a quality check on the data before being input into a proprietary weighted multi-criteria model. Products are also evaluated based on interviews and an analysis of online data.

More Info: More detailed information on the Center’s awards can be found at https://indooragcenter.org/awards. Growers and manufacturers are invited to become nominated and begin the application process. Winners receive several benefits including industry recognition, social media exposure as well as participation in future panel discussions and conferences.

About the Center

The Center of Excellence for Indoor Agriculture provides insights about the economics of indoor farming based on a careful analysis of industry data and from thought leaders in industry and academia. As the first U.S.-based Center of Excellence dedicated to indoor farming, it promotes best practices, benchmarking, networking, knowledge development, and research. Its annual Best in Class Indoor Farming Awards (TM) recognizes top indoor growers and manufacturers. The Center is located in the Philadelphia metro region.

About Indoor Ag-Con

Indoor Ag-Con is an organization that hosts premier events centered around building the indoor agriculture community. They unite growers and engineers alike to create a prime networking opportunity through discussions, workshops, and exhibits enhancing the participants’ knowledge of growing crops in indoor systems.

Media Contact Information

Center of Excellence for Indoor Agriculture

indooragcenter.org

team@indooragcenter.org

Converting Urban Areas Into Indoor Pesticide-Free Farms For Year-Round Food

By Li Yap

July 14, 2021

Concerns With Traditional Farming

Traditional farms typically rely on herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers to grow crops, which can pollute the environment if used in excess. Up to 98% of a chemical spray will bounce off a crop instead of staying on the plant, resulting in chemicals accumulating in the soil and, eventually, waterways.

Biodiversity loss is another concern of conventional farming as the conversion of wild spaces to farmland has resulted in less space for wild plants and animals to live in. With the global population predicted to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, the agriculture industry is under pressure to scale up to meet these demands, which could potentially affect the natural environment further if nothing is done to rethink current farming practices.

With 40% of available global land already occupied by fields of crops and pastures for animals, it would be difficult to completely eliminate the impact that farms have on the natural environment. However, part of the answer could lie in indoor farming where growing conditions can be better managed, reducing the environmental impact of growing produce. 

Indoor Farming Technology Market

The indoor farming technology market was valued at $14.5 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach $24.8 billion by 2026.

The contained facilities used in indoor farming allow farmers to better control and optimize growing conditions. This results in higher yields compared to traditional farming methods whilst using less land area. For example, the average yield of tomatoes grown using traditional methods was reported in 2016 to be 1.85 pounds per square foot, while the average yield of tomatoes grown from greenhouse hydroponics was 10.59 pounds per square foot. By increasing the growing area by stacking additional planting layers, the overall crop yield can be increased.

Indoor farming addresses the concern of limited arable land and water wastage. In vertical farming, the need for land can be reduced by a hundred-fold, and by recirculating and reusing water, an average of 95% less water is required for growing the same crops when compared to outdoor farming.

Vertical farming is one of the techniques used to grow crops within indoor environments. By using artificial light and vertical growing systems such as aeroponics, aquaponics and hydroponics, crops such as kale, lettuce, strawberries and herbs can be grown within a clinically clean indoor system without the need for soil, sunlight and pesticides. This technology allows vertical farms to be set up close to populous areas or urban hubs, where harvests can be distributed locally.  

80 Acres Farms

80 Acres Farms operates vertical farms in eight locations across four states. Its farms produce crops using zero pesticides and consume 97% less water compared to traditional farms.

Using 100% renewable energy and being completely indoors, 80 Acres’ operation is capable of producing various crop varieties all year without the need to rely on favorable weather.

Sophisticated technologies, including AI sensors, are incorporated into its operation to ensure that growth environments are optimized according to the plants’ genetics and that harvests are at the peak of ripeness. By relying on a smaller delivery radius, customers are able to access the produce within a day of picking.

“80 Acres' farms are, on average, 300 to 400 times more productive than field farming”, says co-founder Mike Zelkind. This is due to the vertical structures used for growing produce, which allows room for more crops in less space as well as faster-growing produce.

Current Limitations of Indoor Farming

Apart from the high energy costs associated with operating vertical farms, there are also high investment costs for urban land and for the technologies and devices needed to carefully control and monitor the growing environment – these include aspects such as temperature, lighting, and pollination.

The high initial investment compared with traditional farming is a drawback for indoor farms, but this also invites the opportunity for innovation and the development of more cost-effective technologies.

Transforming Agriculture for the Future

Transforming farming in a way that does not affect the natural environment will be no small task, given the sheer scale of the world’s agriculture. With a growing demand for food, there is an ever-increasing pressure for high-yielding and sustainable farming techniques.

In addition to being a great use of spaces not traditionally utilized for agriculture, the high yields of pesticide-free indoor farms show great promise. Although indoor farming is unlikely to completely replace traditional field farming right now, it still has the potential to answer, at least in part, the question about food security in the years to come. 

Lead Photo: With the ever-growing demand for food placing increased pressure on the Earth’s resources, innovators are re-examining the fundamentals of farming to create a new and sustainable food system. With the hopes of potentially transforming global food systems, many emerging start-ups have identified urban indoor farming as a viable alternative to conventional farming.

mage Credit: Nikolay_E/Shutterstock.com

Video Credit: 80 Acres Farms/YouTube.com