Hydroponics For The Home Are Elegant, Efficient

Hydroponics For The Home Are Elegant, Efficient

Friday

Posted Nov 11, 2016 at 2:00 AM

The International Space Station and your 500-square-foot studio have more in common than you might think: Both environments are a great place to experiment with hydroponics.

By Shayla Love |The Washington Post

The International Space Station and your 500-square-foot studio have more in common than you might think: Both environments are a great place to experiment with hydroponics.

Hydroponic systems grow plants not in soil but in water that is enriched with nutrients. The process is water-efficient and can be done easily in tight quarters.

Gene Giacomelli, a professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering at the University of Arizona and director of the Controlled Environment Agriculture Center, said that for those interested in commercial agriculture, incorporating hydroponics into large-scale production seems the way of the future.

But is it possible to create a hydroponic system at home?

Absolutely, Giacomelli said.

"If you understand the fundamentals, what the plants need, and you have some practical use of tools, it can be just a kiddie pool filled with water and a floating piece of Styrofoam board with holes cut in it," he said.

There are six kinds of hydroponic systems, the most basic of which is called a deep-water culture. This is what Giacomelli is referring to. It's essentially a container of nutrient-filled water, with plants floating on top of it. You'll need an air pump to introduce oxygen into the water, but it can be simply made with Ikea storage bins, a foam cooler, a bucket or any other container, as long as it sits in a place that gets a lot of light.

There are benefits to using hydroponics in small spaces, just as on the International Space Station.

"You don't have to haul around the heavy soil or artificial soil mixes, which are dirty," Giacomelli said. "You don't want these things floating around your apartment."

You can grow your plants year-round, increasing productivity by eight to 20 times as much as if you were subject to seasonal changes. Most important, Giacomelli said, all the water is recycled, so you'll use a lot less than when watering traditionally.

"Every drop that you put into the system, if you're careful, all of it is used to grow the plant," Giacomelli said. "In our hydroponic indoor closed systems, we might use, easily, only 10 percent of the water you would use outdoors."

It sounds appealing, especially for those in urban areas where gardening is not an option. But who wants a bunch of buckets or foam coolers in their apartment? Michael Zick Doherty, a permaculture designer from California, said that once you've got the basics down, it's easy to transform a hydroponic system into something that adds to your home decor.

He designs hydroponic systems by taking into account the surrounding environment, whatever it may be: architecture, cabinet color, kitchen tiles. He's a fan of using innovative materials: On a research residency in Singapore, he experimented with systems made of clay.

"I think hydroponics has gotten a pretty negative image because they aren't aesthetically pleasing a lot of the time," he said. "I think it's easy to take that next step. Even pipes: Something as simple as making a wood enclosure around them would totally change the feel of them. Find ways to obscure the more mechanical parts."

While living in New York in 2013, Doherty was part of a small team that designed a hydroponic kitchen island. It's a sleek piece of furniture with drawers that pull out to reveal trays of microgreens. The water reservoir is hidden at the bottom.

They also built a window system that uses the nutrient film technique, where the water is pumped up and trickles down over the roots of a plant. These systems cost more to create, but if they look nice, they can become a seamless part of a well-designed home or office.

Beautiful doesn't have to be expensive. Britta Riley is the founder of a social enterprise called Windowfarms, and its first designs used water bottles to create a similar window system. She started an open-source website, on hiatus for this summer, so designers all over the world could share their designs.

If you're interested in hydroponics but not ready to build your own system, there are plenty of ready-made ones to buy, Doherty said. Some are aquaponic systems, which put fish in the water to create the nutrients the plants need. Windowfarms has created a product to purchase, though the designs are available (at bit.ly/2b9kVhF) for those who want to take a DIY approach.

Online, there are hundreds of instruction sets and designs, varying from low- to high-end. Doherty created a Pinterest board (pinterest.com/neufuture/designer-horticulture) where a hydroponics novice can browse and get inspired.

You don't have to grow food plants in your system, though many people in the hydroponics community are part of a growing urban agriculture scene.

"The past 15 years, I've seen this tremendous movement to locally grown food and an interest to know where the food comes from," Giacomelli said. "They say, 'Hey, I'll grow it myself, and I feel more comfortable eating it knowing exactly how it's grown.' "

Riley emphasized that using hydroponics in your apartment does not mean you will stop going to the grocery store. It won't save you loads of money on food, but it will provide you with a small supplement to your diet and insight into the life cycle of a plant.

Doherty said that if it's your first time, take it easy. Try an herb, such as basil or mint.

"Mint is a weed, and it loves hydroponics," he said. "Just see how it works, and then once you've grown that mint and you're happy and you understand a little bit about the system, then start branching out, grow some basil, but just don't grow tomatoes."

He laughed and said that tomatoes, often a first inclination for new indoor gardeners, are one of the hardest plants to grow.

"Don't even think about it – just grow mint," he said. "Everyone loves it. You can make so many mojitos from all the mint you grow."

Over One Million Grown!

Over One Million Grown!

Green Sense Farms has just announced that they have grown 1.4 million plants using their innovative vertical farming technology. 

Headquartered in Portage, IN, Green Sense Farms is the largest indoor vertical farm network.  These progressive farms grow leafy green vegetables (micro greens, baby greens, culinary herbs and lettuces) indoors in stacking hydroponic towers in a controlled environment year-round, without the use of pesticide, herbicides, and GMOs.

Using sustainable farming practices, Green Sense Farms can grow vegetables, using much less land, water and fertilizer than traditional field farms. They conserve resources, which is good for the environment and the bottom line. Green Sense Farms is working towards zero net energy use, and zero waste, recycling all water.

Green Sense Farms has launched an Equity Crowd Funding campaign.

To learn more about this investment opportunity, please visit StartEngine: https://www.startengine.com/startup/green-sense-farms-llc

Trendy Indoor Farms Will Allow You To Have Personal Produce

Trendy Indoor Farms Will Allow You To Have Personal Produce

Eve Turow Paul,  I write about Millennials and food culture.  

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Now, what if this simple houseplant could feed you too? Companies like Grove, SproutsIO, Aerogarden and Replantable are working to make your in-home edible garden a reality, with compact aquaponic, aeroponic and hydroponic systems that will seamlessly integrate into your living room, kitchen, or wherever your green-thumb strikes you.

With rising rates of “nature deficit disorder,” a raucous Millennial obsession with food, only 2% of Americans living on farms, and skyrocketing rates of stress, distraction, and anxiety, many entrepreneurs believe that in-home “farming” can alleviate many of modern society’s pain points . The goal is not necessarily to feed people exclusively from their countertops. The mission, instead, is far more philosophical. And a bit political.

“ I really believe that people need to have more of a connection to their food ,” states SproutsIO co-founder Jennifer Farah. Farah began her journey to in-home gardening via architecture, designing grow-walls and other mechanisms to bring nature into cities. Then, as a Masters candidate at MIT, Farah was able to observe the benefits of taking this concept down to a more personal level, as she watched young students interact with an early prototype of a SproutsIO growing system.

First and foremost, Farah believes that we, as a society, a better understanding of our food will ultimately lead to greater respect for produce and thus improve diets. But overall, Farah focuses more on the fun and creativity generated by putting seeds into the eater’s hands.

Grocery store produce sections are limited by the current supply chain: what produce can survive the travel time, the refrigeration, what’s worth the shipping and handling costs, what can be harvested in bulk, etcetera. Indoor growing systems allow consumers to explore thousands of varietals of tomatoes or lettuce or basil that simply aren’t available at the local supermarket.

And with Sprouts IO, users can even customize the environment of a plant to grow a product exactly as they want it. Think of it as personal produce. For example, if you like a more peppery arugula or a sweeter tomato, you can adjust the nutrient levels and misting of your SproutsIO system to cultivate ingredients with your desired characteristics. “These things are allowing us to get more nuanced flavors,” explains Farah. It’s for this reason that SproutsIO launched first with chefs. And it’s also part of what excites users: putting all the control and creativity into their own hands. It’s like building a recipe far before the measuring cups are taken out of the drawer. 

Both Grove and SproutsIO put the act of “farming” into a plug-and-play setting, utilizing the benefits of technology to connect people with something truly un-digital: plant growth and the act of harvest. Both Grove and SproutsIO are regulated by app, allowing users to monitor and assess their units even while away from home. It also relieves the user of many of the unknowns and uncontrollable elements of traditional farming.

“When the microwave came out people didn’t know why they needed it or what to do with it,” says Farah, “but soon people gravitated towards it.” Why, Farah ponders, shouldn’t growing produce become ubiquitous in our lives? “When we’re cooking for friends and family, why shouldn’t some of that produce be grown in your home? I do think it will become more a part of people’s everyday experiences.”

The transparency and interactive design of these in-home units also encourage education and conversation, notes Grove co-founder Jamie Byron. “It’s social. The entire family,” he says, or your group of friends or a classroom, “really come together around this experience. It’s a shared responsibility.”

As an undergraduate student at MIT, Byron was able to witness the communitarian, as well as health aspects, of in-home gardens. Back in 2013, Byron built an aquaponic system with a “Rube Goldberg Machine”-like contraption of PVC pipes, lights, and bins that balanced in the window of his fraternity house where he shared a bedroom with Grove co-founder Gabe Blanchet. The eye-sore experiment eventually flowered into a mass of peas, chard, tomatoes, kale and more.

Though Blanchet was at first skeptical of his roommate’s fish and greenery creation, the benefits of his little jungle were obvious. While the fraternity hallway smelled like beer and body odor, Byron and Blanchet’s room provided an oasis of oxygen-rich air and attractive foliage. The two found themselves grazing on their home garden daily, thus increasing their vegetable intake. Inspired by this makeshift garden, the roommates graduated and founded Grove to create a clean-cut product that has already found its way into some school and homes. Byron hopes that one day they can put their indoor gardens in prisons and hospitals to offer not just physical benefits, but the positive emotional experience as well.

“There’s this joy that people don’t talk about,” says Farah. “When you’re planning your vacation, there’s a joy in setting up that experience, and then the vacation is the culmination of that. Growing your own produce can provide a similar joy. When I can also incorporate produce I’ve grown to make a dinner, it’s even more special.” Both founders, independently, observed that the true benefit of their products is actually not what they had originally thought it would be, that growing produce at home has ramifications far beyond great tasting food. Ultimately, they hope these units will become touchstone items for creativity, connection to nature, and perhaps, an tool for taking a deep breath of fresh air and enjoying the roses…or wheatgrass…or whatever you have growing in your kitchen corner. 

 Usurping the common supply chain opens a whole new window of exploration for foodies and farm enthusiasts alike.

What's Indoor Farming All About?

What's indoor farming all about?

 

Chris Michael

Co-Founder and CMO at Bright Agrotech  

If you've found yourself asking this question in the past few months, you're not alone.

For a lot of folks, the idea of growing plants indoors on a [relatively] large scale is a little mind boggling.

And rightly so.

At first, it's hard to understand why anyone would want to give up the beautiful, life-giving sunshine and start a farm in a warehouse, shipping container, or even their garage saying things like....

Sure the technology is fascinating and all, but sunlight is free! How could indoor farms ever justify the additional lighting cost?

I'm going to stop you right there.

As all farmer's know, there's a cost to everything. Including sunlight.

That's because sunlight (assuming you actually have enough where you're trying to grow crops) comes with its own set of limitations.

For instance, relying on the sun means you need to grow outdoors or in a greenhouse, both of which also constrain you to specific sets of conditions, crops, and costs.

Growing outside without a greenhouse of any kind means you have to live in a location with the optimal temperature range and enough quality light to grow your crops effectively. And without a covering, you're subject to temperature fluctuations and/or weather events like hail or strong winds - all of which can damage crops due to shock.

Maybe that doesn't sound devastating enough to make you want to grow indoors, but you're probably not relying on the successful sale of these crops for your livelihood either. Remember today's small farmers are largely bootstrapping their operations their ability to not only grow but sell their food means staying in business or closing their doors. No farm subsidies here either.

Growing in a greenhouse also allows you to leverage "free" sunlight as well, but don't forget about the seasons! Depending on your location, you may actually have too much sunlight in the summer and not enough in the winter (you know, like most places in the northern hemisphere). That means you have to factor in the added costs of dealing with too much heat in your growing environment (e.g. fans, cooling walls or even HVAC systems that all suck up electricity at alarming rates).

And unless you're planning on closing up shop for the winter, you're going to need to think about how to give your plants the optimal amount of light when the sun angle is too low and your light quality/duration drops significantly.

All of this assumes you have the land (and zoning approval) needed to grow crops in your city or other urban/suburban environment.

You see, nothing - including the sun - is without tradeoffs. That's how life works. That's how farming works.

Indoor Farming Helps Control the [Climate] Chaos

Now I know what you're thinking...

"If growing outdoors or in a greenhouse cost money, then growing in a warehouse must be crazy expensive!"

Maybe, but you're really thinking about this the wrong way.

The cost of farming depends on a wide variety of factors from the growing technology you use to the cost of real estate/rent, to electricity prices and market demand, but these are factors all growers, regardless of technique have to think about.

That said, once you understand the tradeoff between the benefits of natural light vs. the benefits of increased control, it's pretty easy to see all the advantages growing indoors gives modern growers and subsequently the communities they serve.

The benefits mostly come in the form of optimizing the environment to stabilize temperatures, humidity levels, lighting quality and duration, and much more. Optimizing all of these variables allows tech-savvy indoor farmers to maintain better plant health, with faster, more consistent yields.

More control also means more flexibility in terms of where farmers grow food. Barring any type of natural disaster, indoor farms aren't nearly as susceptible to the climate constraints or variability that conventional farms are, giving them the ability to grow all year long.

Because of that, I believe we're rapidly approaching a reality where fresh crops can be grown and sold anywhere, regardless of climate or conventional food distribution capabilities.

And these are just the benefits we know about... Don't even get Dr. Storey started about the ones we haven't discovered yet.

"But, what's in it for me?"

Most people who read this may not have any current connection to farming or a farmer and may be wondering why this all matters.

Well for one, it matters because our food system is broken... and chances are, you eat food.

Broken not just in terms of the 1,500 miles from farm-to-plate, the depletion of precious soil nutrients, the rampant pesticide use, the massive factory farms owned by just a few food conglomerates exploiting low-wage labor, and don't forget about the chronic droughts in parts of the country that historically have grown most of our produce... but broken in terms of the transparency and accountability that existed when agriculture was relational.

For some, the idea of "shaking your farmer's hand" might sound a little overly romanticized. And, that's fine, but can't we have some middle ground? Wouldn't you feel better about the lettuce you buy if you knew who grew it and how it was grown at the very least?

It's like they took our most basic relational (i.e. human) elements of communication, trust and accountability. All we got in return was an empty "O" label.

But indoor farming is changing all that.

One small farmer at a time.

Thanks to the bold, yet generous modern farmers around the country like Localize Farm, more and more people are getting greater access to better food everywhere.

Soon we can all have the option of feeding our families fresh, healthy food regardless of whether you live in the light-deprived tundra or the water-starved desert. 

If you don't have one of these innovative farmers in your city yet, don't fret.

You will soon enough. 😉

[This article expands on a recent Instagram post I created on behalf of Bright Agrotech. If you want a glimpse inside some of the world's most innovative farms, you should totally be following us.]

Chris is the Chief Marketing Officer and Chief of Staff at Bright Agrotech. He believes strongly in the power of small farmers and small businesses to impact their communities in meaningful ways and loves playing a small role in their ability to be successful.

Embracing Technology Is Necessary To Nurture The Next Generation Of Farmers

Kareyst Lin | Nov. 3, 2016 

Emerging technology like robotics, sensors, closed-loop agriculture systems and the Internet-of-Things (IoT) make the agriculture sector interesting and exciting for the millennials.

The new generation can help to transform farming into a high-tech profession that requires skillsets like engineering, computing and data analytics, said Lawrence Wong, Minister for National Development and Second Minister for Finance. He was speaking at the 27th Commonwealth Agriculture Conference on 2 November 2016.

Wong asserted that it is important for farmers to adopt technology because of its ability to help turn out more reliable and high-quality good products.

In a modern farm, there are sensors to monitor everything from temperature to humidity and illumination. Data is collected in real-time and information is analysed to work out the best regimes for future crops.

Developments in environmental control systems enable us to work out the best lighting, heat and humidity for optimal growth, Wong said.

This has resulted in the emergence of commercial-scale indoor farming, which protects crops from environmental impact. At the same time, it allows for vertical scaling, intensification and optimisation of agriculture land.

Even robots are being deployed on the ground to take over back-breaking work in the farms. These robots can identify weeds in fields of vegetables and zap the weeds individually. They can also recognise and pick fruits which are ripe for plucking.

These new advances will increase yield and reduce the resources required for crop production, Wong urged. 

Can Vertical Farming Sustain Food Demands in the Wake of Climate Change?

Posted by Guest Blogger on October 31, 2016

By Robert Colangelo

According to a 2015 report by the United Nations, the world’s population is expected to reach 9.7 billion by the year 2050. While those numbers are set to increase, so are rising surface temperatures and worsening droughts caused by severe weather patterns. Changes in climate are already reducing the amount of arable land and rising urban populations are depleting aquifers, creating a need for more sustainable farming solutions.

Indoor vertical farming is the practice of growing plants indoors in a controlled environment in stacking hydroponic towers.  These farms produce a consistent, high quality crop year-round in a small footprint. By growing indoors, weather and climate change is taken out of the equation. Over time these farms will produce zero waste by recycling all water with net zero energy use.

Green Sense Farms grows leafy green produce indoors using sustainable farming practices with minimal impact to the environment. They can grow vegetables faster than field farms using less land, water and fertilizer- free of pesticides, herbicide and GMOs. By locating these farms at or near produce distribution centers and on institutional campuses wherever large volumes of meals are served daily, they are transforming farming. The produce is fresher and the miles food travels from the farm to the table is reduced. This truly is the future of not just sustainable farming, but a farming solution to meet growing populations and changing global weather patterns.

Green Sense Farms is building a network of indoor vertical farms around the world. By farming smarter and providing consumers with access to fresh leafy greens, communities become healthier. Research has shown that a diet filled with leafy greens is rich in antioxidants and enzymes that reduce heart disease and cancers.

Green Sense Farms has been the fortunate recipient of numerous stories about our exciting innovative indoor vertical farming technology. All this press has generated many inquiries from individuals asking how they can invest in our sustainable farm. We’re pleased to announce that the recently released crowdfunding regulations now allow for individuals to make direct equity investments in growth companies like ours. Just as Green Sense Farms has disrupted produce distribution and cut out the middleman, the new crowdfunding regulations have democratized the capital markets, allowing individuals the opportunity to take advantage of public offerings without the use of traditional stock brokers.

Green Sense Farms, the country’s largest network of commercial indoor vertical farms is an early adopter of technology and employed a new strategy to finance its growth through equity crowd funding.  We launched this equity crowdfunding campaign to share the unique offering with our community. The 60-day campaign which launched in early September reached its $100,000 goal in just one day and has accumulated over $360,000 to date. The campaign, ending October 31st, can be found here: https://www.startengine.com/startup/green-sense-farms-llc.

ABOUT GREEN SENSE FARMS:

Green Sense Farms is the country’s largest commercial indoor vertical farm. The company provides nutritious and delicious produce that’s good for people and the planet. Because Green Sense Farms creates conditions that are always perfect for growing, they’re able to harvest year-round, using a fraction of the land, water, and fertilizer of traditional field farming. These sustainable farming practices make Green Sense Farms a local solution to a global challenge.Green Sense Farms is located in Portage, Indiana—40 miles outside of Chicago and has created innovation partnerships with Philips, Hortimax, Rijk Zwaan, Desert Aire and Dramm.  We have also formed a business partnership with Infinite Herbs. Find more information on their website at greensensefarms.com.

As Vertical Farming Grows, A New Real Estate Opportunity Takes Root

As vertical farming grows, a new real estate opportunity takes root

The head of AeroFarms, an industry leader, talks tech and expansion

BY PATRICK SISSON  OCT 31, 2016, 9:59AM EDT

It’s a staple of rosy pictures of our urban future, often viewed as the farming equivalent of flying cars. But vertical farming, long considered a curiosity, is starting to take root now. And according to the executive of one growing company, that means expanding beyond its niche, which offers a string of related commercial real estate possibilities.

Speaking at the ULI Fall Meeting in Dallas last week, David Rosenberg, CEO of AeroFarms, spoke about the company’s technological approach to growing crops, which involves a team of engineers, data scientists, and biologists. The high-tech private agriculture company, which opened a 69,000-square-foot farm in a converted steel factory in Newark, New Jersey, earlier this year, grows greens using aquaponics: plants are raised in beds without soil, sun, or pesticides, counting on LED lights and a rigorously monitored system of pumps and HVAC units to grow. It currently counts Goldman Sachs and Prudential Financial as investors, has raised more than $70 million, and plans to open 25 farms over the next five years.

Developed over a decade, the company’s proprietary technologies, which utilizes automation and data analysis, produces results with just a fraction of the space used by traditional growing, and can constantly turn over new crops, regardless of the weather. The company is also betting that mushrooming urban populations, a desire to eat local, and worries about foodborne illness will make its system more and more attractive to consumers and investors. Executives also believe they have the necessary technological head start to be an industry leader.

“Many businesses in this space are going to go out of business,” says Rosenberg. “I’d say 90 percent in the next three years. There’s real complexity to our business that we’ve focused on. We have more than 100 people working for us, and most of them are electrical engineers, structural engineers, lighting engineers, biologists, and microbiologists.”

Since lighting and energy are the biggest cost for AeroFarms’s unconventional growing system, recent advances in LED tech have made the company’s crops of kale, arugula, and lettuce more cost-efficient. The company, which claims it offers 75 times higher productivity per square foot than the conventional model and 95 percent water, foresees even more gains as technology improves and costs drop.

That also means expansion, and as AeroFarms and other companies in the industry master the technology, it offers a new use for industrial and warehouse real estate. Right now, AeroFarms is seeking out sites with proximity to produce distribution hubs, looking for cheap land and warehouse space, as well as cheap energy; offsetting the cost of electricity with reduced transportation costs is are the core of the company’s sustainability pitch. AeroFarms is mainly concentrating on the northeast, and looking at a space in Buffalo, New York, due to nearby hyrdro-electric power. They’re also finalizing a deal for a space out west as well.

While the technology may not work for more energy-dense crops such as corn and potatoes, as it stands now, it offers a model for leafy greens that may help feed our expanding cities (just look at the concurrent rise in rooftop farming).

As AeroFarms looks to refine its next-generation take on agricultural technology, it also offers a new take on commercial real estate, combining a farm and warehouse in one large, urban facility. It just may give older industrial sites a chance for a greener future.

“We can deliver anything the plant wants, when it wants it, how it wants it and where it wants it,” Rosenberg told The New York Times.

Size Isn’t Everything. Here’s a Farm That Fits in Your Kitchen

It's like a microwave that grows food!

Image courtesy of Replantable

You’ve got a microwave, a toaster oven, and a myriad of other kitchen appliances, none of which actually grow food. That could change thanks to a Georgia-based startup Replantable. They've created Nanofarm, an almost completely automated system that grows vegetables and herbs in a unit small enough to fit on your kitchen counter.

The key to Nanofarm, which is  smaller than a mini-fridge, are its patent-pending plant pads, which are made out of multiple layers of fabric and paper. The pads contain the seeds and the same kinds of plant nutrients used in traditional hydroponics—elements like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium—that are culled from sustainable sources like compost tea and aquaculture waste. The pads sit on top of a water-filled reservoir.

The Nanofarm only has two knobs: a dial to control the grow cycle and a start button. Theoretically making it more straight-forward to grow your own vegetables than defrost leftovers in a microwave.

To start a grow cycle, just turn the dial labeled “weeks” to the number indicated on the plant pad and then push start. The “harvest” light turns on when your plants are grown. You then have about two weeks to pick your veggies or herbs. The used pads are biodegradable and can be composted. The company offers a variety of vegetables, like romaine lettuce, radishes and kale; and herbs like basil, thyme, and cilantro.

One Nanofarm can produce around 12 ounces of romaine lettuce or four ounces of basil (about five and a half packs of what you would find at the grocery store). The growing space is comparable to a good-sized windowsill planter, but the produce only takes between two to four weeks to grow thanks to the daylight spectrum LED lights that provide as much light as a California summer day, but consume less than a dollar of electricity per month, according to the company. The smoked glass front of the Nanofarm keeps the light from being annoyingly bright on the outside of the device.

The estimated retail price of the Nanofarm is $400, but you can pre-order one on the company’s website for $350. The plant pads are $8 each or $5 if you buy five or more at a time.

But it may be a while before you can get one for your own kitchen. While the company has created beta versions of the Nanofarm, the product won’t be available to consumers until late next year. Ruwan Subasinghe, the company’s co-founder, tells Modern Farmer they are currently getting samples of the parts that go into the Nanofarm and once approved, they can move into prototyping units for mass production, then onto actual production.

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The Ultimate Ikea Hack: A Hydroponic Farm

The FarmBot Genesis Brings Precision Agriculture To Your Own Backyard

A Hydroponic Rooftop Farm Grows in the Bronx

The company just finished a Kickstarter campaign that raised about $61,000, $11,000 more than their goal. Subasinghe says they were “quite surprised” by the support they received—and not just financially. He says they got a ton of messages from people who enthusiastically believe in what they were doing. The Kickstarter contributors get the first mass-produced models that are tentatively set to be shipped next October. It will be a few more months after that when the general public will be able to get one.

Subasinghe and his business partner, Alex Weiss, met when they were attending Georgia Tech, in Atlanta, where they were working on projects involving hydroponics and issues of food waste. They realized that the produce you get at grocery stores tends to have travelled  thousands of miles to reach the store’s shelves, which leaves only a small window of time before the produce goes bad, leading to food waste. They joined forces with the idea of combatting food waste and last year started Replantables following their involvement in a startup accelerator through the school. “We saw the potential for hydroponics to allow people to grow their own food at home,” says Subasinghe.

The initial prototype was just a souped up hydroponics system made out of PVC pipes with running water, filters and pumps that needed to be cleaned by the user, according to Subasinghe. They quickly realized that consumers wanted something simpler and easier to use. By the time they were done with the beta version, it was almost completely automatic and no longer resembled a typical hydroponic system since they’d ditched the pump, liquid nutrients, and inert growing medium.

“We hope that by providing technology that allows people to easily grow their own food while using fewer resources, we’re allowing the future of food to be more earth-conscious.” says Subasinghe.

This Farm Uses Only Sun and Seawater To Grow Food

In the arid desert of coastal South Australia, a new indoor farm is using the two most available resources, that also happen to be free—sun and seawater—to grow tomatoes. Lots and lots of tomatoes.

Sundrop Farms, located near Port Augusta in South Australia, is the first commercial agricultural system of its kind: It doesn’t use groundwater, soil, pesticides, or fossil fuels to grow crops. The project has been a six-year odyssey that began with a pilot greenhouse in 2010, followed by the construction of  a nearly 50-acre facility in 2014 that, as of earlier this month, is now fully up and running with a projected capacity of 18,000 tons of tomatoes —the crop the company is focused on at this facility—a year, according to Sundrop.

Here’s how the company explains it: Seawater is pumped from Spencer Gulf, located about a mile and a half away from the facility, where it’s desalinated through a solar powered thermal unit. “Sustainably sourced” fertilizers and micronutrients are added to the water (they won’t give details regarding their nutrient mix), which is then used to hydrate the tomato plants, which are grown in coconut husks instead of soil (a renewable resource), which also aids in root growth due to their natural hormones. According to Philipp Saumweber, Sundrop Farms CEO, the they don’t have to use pesticides the they pump seawater through the facility’s air filters, which kills insect pests due to the high salt content in the water-saturated air.

The farm’s solar power is generated by 23,000 mirrors that reflect sunlight to a more than 375-foot high receiver tower. On a sunny day, it can produce up to 39 megawatts of electricity, which is more than enough to power the desalination system and the rest of the facility’s power needs. Excess thermal heat and water are kept in storage facilities on the farm to use when needed, according to Saumweber. That said, the facility remains on the electrical grid as a back up for 10 to 15 percent of its power needs when weather makes it difficult to rely solely on solar power.

The company spent about $200 million on the project, with $100 million coming from the global investment firm KKR, a larger outlay than a typical hydroponic greenhouse system, which can run about $1 million an acre. But, according to Saumweber, who spoke to New Scientist, the seawater system will pay off in the long run since conventional greenhouses are more expensive to run on an annual basis since the rely on the power grid, which is powered by fossil fuels.

The price tag isn’t stopping the company from building another farm in Australia, one in Portugal, which was recently completed, and one in Tennessee, which broke ground this year. While not all of them may use seawater or a solar tower, they will all have some “sustainable resource angle,” according to an Australian Broadcasting Corporation interview with Reinier Wolterbeek, the chief technology officer for Sundrop Farms. When Modern Farmer asked Saumweber whether he could be more specific, he answered that he couldn’t “at this stage,” and added “that we will always use sustainable inputs to dramatically reduce our reliance on finite natural resources.”

The company partnered with a large Australian grocery retailer, Coles, with whom they have a ten-year contract. Tomatoes from their pilot program, which started before the larger facility came online, are already on grocery store shelves.

Not everyone feels the system makes economic or environmental sense, at least in regard to the project in Australia. Paul Kristiansen, a professor at the University of New England, Australia, told New Scientist, that since there wasn’t a problem growing tomatoes in other parts of Australia, the need to grow tomatoes in a desert was a “bit like crushing a garlic clove with a sledgehammer.”

Environmentalists have taken issue with desalination due to the amount of energy it takes to produce potable water, and the problem of the disposal of the highly concentrated salt brine that’s dumped back into the ocean, which can be too salty for marine life to inhabit. 

Sundrop Farms’ technology answers the energy question with its use of solar power. As to concerns about impacts on marine life, Saumweber says their system doesn’t result in water with high levels of salinity. According to Saumweber, cooled seawater from the greenhouse cooling system is mixed with warm elevated salinity seawater in a large lined storage tank for discharge back to the ocean.

“The large size and surface area of the storage and the mixing of warm and cool streams results in a seawater that is only slightly more concentrated and at a similar temperature to the ocean,” he tells Modern Farmer in an email. “The minor increases in salinity at the discharge location as approved by the Environmental Protection Authority.”

In the face of the high loss of groundwater worldwide and other problems associated with climate change, Sundrop Farms’ technology may prove to be helpful in combating these issues as we try to figure out how to provide enough food to feed the world’s growing population, estimated to be 9.6 billion people by the year 2050.

 https://vimeo.com/183859356

How Two IIT Scientists Are Using Food Waste To Revolutionize Indoor Farming

Mary Byrne

10/18/16 @10:28am in Tech

Two scientists at Illinois Institute of Technology may have solved one of the biggest inefficiencies in aquaponic farming -- the abundant use of energy that it requires.

Elena Timofeeva, a research professor in chemistry, and John Katsoudas, a senior research associate in physics, have developed a system that uses organic food waste -- rather than electricity -- to generate a mobile, containerized aquaponics farm that will bring locally produced food to food-poor areas while also cutting down on the pollution that contributes to global warming. The team was recently selected as a semi-finalist in the 2016 Cleantech Open Accelerator Program, which identifies promising early-stage clean technology companies and provides them with six months of educational and mentoring support. Now, they're working with Cleantech adviser on market research, business strategy and fundraising, and they plan to have the full-scale prototype finished in the next 18 months.

The two explained that in a traditional aquaponics farm, the fish in the tank produce waste that is converted into a natural fertilizer for the plants. In turn, the plants keep the water clean for the fish. It's a system that requires about 80 percent less water than traditional farming, Katsoudas said.

However, it's not a perfect system. There are at least two popular methods of aquaponics farming -- completely enclosed units where artificial light is brought in to do year-round growing or operating one within a greenhouse. In both cases, energy is consumed for the electricity, heating or cooling of the enclosed environment.

"[Aquaponic farming] has really started to take off now in the modern age because of the stresses being put on the environment. From increased farming to increased population density,  it’s been identified [that] the production model for food needs to change," Katsoudas said. "The problems with aquaponics ... is that they consume a lot of energy. What AquaGrow Technology does is [identify] a way to bring in bio-digestion."

Biodigestion is where food waste, which comes from outside sources like cafeterias, food processing plants, food banks or anywhere else organic waste is generated and destined for landfills, comes into play, Katsoudas said.

"[Food waste] is introduced into the biodigester through an external chute and then over the period of  about 21 days it's converted into methane," he later explained in an email to Chicago Inno. "We then pipe that methane into an electric generator and produce electricity and CO2. The electricity is what we use to power the aquaponics systems, i.e. the grow lights, heaters, pumps, air conditioners, control systems, life support for the fish, etc. The byproduct of generating electricity using methane is CO2."

Simply put, the aquaponics farm that Timofeeva and Katsoundas have developed replaces electricity with organic food waste as the energy source for the lights and other technologies that support the system.

The other key difference to their system is the size, according to Timofeeva. The container will come to a total size of 10 feet wide, 10 feet deep and 45 feet tall.

"[The size] also enables smaller players -- like individual families, individual churches, individual communities -- to get into this farming locally," she said. "If it’s a huge farm, you need a large investment to get involved in this. Having a containerized farm that can be located in small plots of land would enable local farming and engaging pops in farming as well."

They estimated that the cost of such a unit would come to about $150k, and it would produce an annual profit of $40-$80k, depending on the plant or crop harvested.

"The investment [an individual family] would make would pay back in 2-3 years," Timofeeva said. "They can locally produce food and make money off of it ... It works really well economically … by minimizing operational expenses on site."

Katsoudas also said that the mobility of these containers would prove especially useful in communities after national disasters where there is no access to food, or in underserved urban communities

"We have to believe that when there’s a good investment made, there will be resources available to make it," he said. "When you look at the nature of the grants coming out, there is a whole new movement of grant money that's coming to bear for social impact."

He explained that there is a direct correlation between the level of crime in an urban area, and the amount of nutritional food in that area.

"You look at the dollars that society spends on police forces and incarceration ... If you were able to bring the crime down but supplying a nutritional value, an asset to the local community, those are dollars better spent.," he said, explaining that after obtaining grants, ministries, congregations and social organizations would likely be the first adopters of their aquaponics farm.

"I think that’s a good investment," he said. "I do believe there are organizations and people that will see that."

Why Cities Are the Future for Farming

Urban Explorer

Opinion: Why Cities Are the Future for Farming

Self-described nerd farmer Caleb Harper wants you to join his league of high-tech growers.

National Geographic Emerging Explorer Caleb Harper holds lettuce grown at the MIT Media Lab, where he operates a climate-controlled “digital farm” using aeroponics, a network of sensors, and LED lighting.

By Caleb Harper

PUBLISHED October 14, 2016

The landscape of our food future appears bleak, if not apocalyptic.

Humanity’s impact on the environment has become undeniable and will continue to manifest itself in ways already familiar to us, except on a grander scale. In a warmer world, heavier floods, more intense droughts, and unpredictable, violent, and increasingly frequent storms could become a new normal.

Little wonder that the theme for this year's World Food Day, which happens on Sunday, is “Climate is changing. Food and agriculture must too.” The need for an agricultural sea change was also tackled at the recent South by South Lawn, President Obama’s festival of art, ideas, and action (inspired by the innovative drive of Austin’s SXSW), where I was honored to present.

As our global agricultural system buckles under its own weight, we’re losing our farmers and we’re not creating more. In the U.S. alone, only 2 percent of the population is involved in farming, with 60 percent of our farmers above the age of 58. We’re also experiencing a dramatic move away from rural areas, our traditional growing centers. The UN estimates that by 2050, 6.5 billion people will be living in cities, nearly double what it is today.

Those of us at the helm of agricultural innovation simply must tack into these winds of change—and I see the tremendous potential of the city as a sustainable solution. After all, the domestication of plants gave rise to the first human settlements—our original cities were literally rooted in agriculture. Since then, city life has parted ways with it entirely, as urbanites have become almost completely disconnected from their food sources. But the reintegration of farming into the city is beginning to close the circle. Urban farming could not only feed future generations, but also create appealing clean-tech jobs for the waves of new “immigrants” that cities across the world will see in coming years.

Food Computers: Are These Devices the Future of Agriculture?

Harper takes us on a tour of his lab, which he envisions could be adapted for individual home use, shipping container-size for cafeterias and restaurants, and warehouses of “food data centers” capable of industrial-scale production.

Detractors of urban farming often scramble to point out that the production potential of urban farms is so minimal as to be insignificant. From where I’m standing, this is a dangerously shortsighted perspective. There are two major roles for urban agriculture: yes, the actual production of food intended to feed large numbers, but also the cumulative social benefit of cultivating what we eat. While I anticipate that eventually high-tech urban farming will account for at least 30 to 40 percent of an individual’s diet, the invaluable “product” of human-centered endeavors like farm stands and school and urban gardens lies in weaving communities together and building a foundation for food education.

Of course, we can’t expect a community garden to have the same production capacity as a conventional, massive monoculture farm or—wait for it—a multitiered, digitally integrated vertical farm. That doesn’t mean the community garden has no true value; the amount of calories it yields shouldn’t be the sole metric of its worth.

Instead, we need a renewed appreciation of the myriad benefits of growing food in the city. They range from the healing effect on veterans tending to patches in community gardens, witnessing the transformation of their plants, to the physical benefits of getting a student outside in a school garden while seeing the lessons of the classroom come to life in a burgeoning vegetable.

During World War II, victory gardens were planted both in private residences and public parks to boost morale as much as food supply. That tradition continues in the work of modern pioneers like Ron Finley, the “gangsta gardener” of Los Angeles, who similarly empowers communities by planting beautiful, defiant gardens in abandoned lots, traffic medians, and along curbs, and Will Allen, the founder of a Milwaukee non-profit center for urban agriculture training—teaching people to grow food in neighborhoods that are essentially food deserts dominated by drive-thrus.

Harper inspects a developing chocolate bell pepper. His team creates specific conditions—he calls them climate recipes—to produce plants with unique qualities of color, size, texture, taste, and nutrient density. A pepper grown in his Massachusetts lab could have the features of one grown in, say, Central America.

At the same time, technological leaps in urban agriculture are attracting bright, science-minded youth in droves and paving the path for high-volume production in cities. We’re seeing vertical farms—controlled environment agriculture—get smarter and larger. These aren’t necessarily new methods, but we are reaching a point at which they are becoming more energy efficient and cost effective. At the most cutting edge are “agri-culturing” companies like Modern Meadow and Perfect Day, culturing meat from mammalian cells and fermenting milk from yeast, moving meat and dairy production into cities.

At the MIT Media Lab, where I run the Open Agriculture Initiative, we’re developing digital farming through what we call “the food computer.” Along with aeroponic technology, we use a network of sensors to monitor a plant’s water, nutrient, and carbon needs and deliver optimal light wavelengths—not just for photosynthesis but to change flavor. This allows us to recreate climates that yield, for example, the sweetest strawberries.

Our entire endeavor is open source. We’re now piloting it outside the lab in Boston schools, and we see a near future where farmers can build their own food computers, using instructional videos and schematics already available online, and larger-scale units for restaurants, cafeterias, and industrial production—all in the city. By bringing agriculture home, we’ll have access to fresher, more nutritious food and potentially reduce spoilage and waste.

Our ultimate #nerdfarmer goal is to develop a database of climate “recipes”— for example, the ingredients for mimicking the Mexican climate that produces those sweet strawberries. We hope to pair that database with assembly kits for “personal” food computers that will be increasingly accessible, with the goal of creating and networking a billion farmers by providing access to the tools and the data required to both grow their own food and generate even more data to share—a sort of global “climate democracy” to see us through a world in flux.

Yet even at our post at the high-tech end of the spectrum, we share a common goal with even the smallest, most traditional city garden—to serve our community by creating a new lexicon of food values for the future.

Japan's 'agri-tech' Farming Revolution

By Allan Croft

TECHNOLOGY OCT. 10, 2016 - 06:41AM JST

TOKYO —

Japan’s high-tech agricultural businesses are to gather at the Agri World trade fair held in Tokyo this week (Oct 12-14) to showcase the industries next generation of technologies such as plant factories, robotic automation and IT systems, claimed as advancing the “fourth industrial revolution” into the sector.

Business analysts forecast the “agri-tech” market is primed for extensive growth internationally over the decades ahead. As global population is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, food needs would require a doubling of agricultural production, state U.N. World Food Programme experts.

Offering technological solutions, “agri-tech” businesses are marketing a wide variety of products and services for meeting industry demands, to generally increase productivity, lower costs, use less resources such as energy, water and pesticides, and improve produce quality and availability.

There is also a strong demand for labor saving and assistive agricultural equipment driven by a different demographic trend, that of ageing agricultural farmers, whereby according to U.N. figures, in developed countries the average age is 60, and where in Japan it has risen to 67.

Overall Japan has a shrinking agricultural sector, demonstrated by government data showing the number of full-time farmers at 1.7 million in 2014, declining from 2.2 million a decade earlier. Workforce and skills shortages are compounded by the lack of young people becoming farmers. Also, due to the increasing rate of farmers retiring, the overall amount of uncultivated farmland within Japan has doubled over the past two decades, increasing to 420,000 hectares in 2015.

Japan’s reliance on food imports is a further factor of concern, currently estimated at 60%, prompting recent government targets for boosting domestic production to 55% by 2050. Agricultural production at present is valued at around 1 trillion yen of which the government aims to increase to 10 trillion yen by 2020, raising food self-sufficiency as a major agricultural policy.

Another government initiative is 4 billion yen budgeted over the year through March for promoting farming automation technology in order to raise crop yields and make-up for workforce deficits. Specifically, the financial subsidy supports the development of 20 robot types, such as devices which separate over-ripe fruits during harvesting, to enable large reductions in manual farm labor.

As physical activities bring more difficulties for a greater number of aging farmers, technological innovations to assist with and replace workers performing agricultural tasks is an urgent priority.

Japanese tech companies are heavily investing in agricultural technology as a big opportunity for profits in both domestic and global markets such as India and the APAC countries, attracting small scale start-ups to big corporations such as Mitsubishi, Fujitsu, and Panasonic, to name but a few.

There is also a trend for farmland in Japan to be cultivated by “business farmers” and “agribusiness,” at around 50% today, leading to 80% by 2025, according to government estimates.

As an indicator of growth potential in the “agri-tech” sector, the global market for agricultural robots is projected to reach $73.9 billion by 2024, up from $3 billion in 2015, predicted by Tractica, a market intelligence firm. Driverless tractors are trended to gain the highest revenue at $30.7 billion by 2024, with agricultural drones comprising the most amount of units shipped.

The applications of farming technologies are wide ranging and often interconnect. A typical farm scenario could involve a driverless tractor in a rice paddy field utilising a global positioning system, both synchronised to automate cultivation and fertilization after monitoring the soil conditions.

For work that is harder to be automated, wearable robotics put on like a backpack have been designed to assist harvesting and carrying produce, more so for elderly and female farmers.

As well as automating work, high-tech farming technologies provide accurate information which farmers can use to make decisions managing crops. For example, a combination of high resolution drone images, historical weather data from geo-satellites and sensors in the field would generate real-time alerts on mobile devices to inform farmers when to reduce a mandarin orchards water supply, so the trees absorb less water from the soil, therefore increasing sugar levels of the fruits.

The valuable experience and techniques of veteran farmers could also be more accessible to newer farmers via the web, such as learning resources about harvesting times with databases and photos.

Many news items about “agri-tech” businesses have featured in both the Japanese and international media, with reports of indoor “vertical farms” and automated greenhouses gaining the most coverage. There is often a focus on robotic automation, also the use of IT systems and sensors to measure and control growing processes, evidently enhancing work efficiencies, crop yields and produce quality.

For example, GRA Inc is a medium-size Japanese business with an automated indoor greenhouse facility producing strawberries, providing a reliable quality and increased supply all year round.

The company joins conventional farming expertise and technological innovation, employing local farmers as advisors and management, founded by a former IT administrator turned agriculturalist.

Based in Miyagi Prefecture, the business started a few months after the Tōhoku disaster. In an area famous for its strawberries, thousands of greenhouses were destroyed and damaged ensuing huge losses for farmers. The business has therefore helped to modernise and revitalise regional trade.

Such stories show the real potential for young tech-savvy farmers to work alongside older, more experienced farmers, toward overcoming the challenges confronting Japan’s agricultural industry.

Allan Croft is a freelance writer focusing on the latest science, tech and green news in Japan and Asia.

This Singapore Device Turns Your Home Into An Urban Farm

This Singapore device turns your home into an urban farm

Creator Brian Ong hopes his device will help people grow and eat more fresh, wholesome food

By Yon Heong Tung

26 Sep, 2016

The late founder of modern Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, rolled out a plan in 1967 to transform the republic into a “garden city”; today, parks and gardens green spaces adorn the city’s urban landscape amidst the ever-growing high-rise developments.

Even in HDB flats, many Singaporeans are fond of keeping potted plants along the dreary-looking corridors.

But the problem with urban life is that time constraints create unhealthy gardening habits. So unless it’s cactus or a similarly resilient plant, many plants die from the neglect and lack of water.

Brian Ong, a Masters of Architecture graduate from the Singapore University of Technology (SUTD), has created a device that helps urban farmers/botanists automate plant care.

There is no team behind Hydra. Ong as a one-man inventor, and was spurred to embark on this project because of his own pain point.

“This project started off when I was in university. As my schedule got busier, my plants began to suffer as a result. As I could not find any suitable watering solutions for the indoor garden (the systems I came across on the market had various shortcomings), I decided to design one for myself,” says Ong, in an interview with e27.

Another factor was the growing trend of urban farming, In a nutshell, the concept revolves around urban dwellers growing high-quality produce within confined spaces, in a sustainable fashion.

“More people are striving to grow their own mini edible gardens to provide a small but steady stream of herbs and vegetables to their kitchen,” he says.

Ong took to taking apart and scrutinised the shortcomings of current indoor watering systems on the market.

“Some systems are difficult to install in existing indoor setups – for example, drip systems that require a connection to a tap,” he says.

“Other systems are not very discreet – for example, capillary action solutions (water channelling) that have one bottle per pot or gravity solutions that require the water source to be placed above the pots. Some systems also run on battery power, which is not good for everyday use,” adds Ong.

The solution

Thus, the findings came to one clear-cut conclusion – Hydra needs to be a simple plug and play device.

Hydra essentially acts as a hub and “is designed to be simple to install in any existing indoor/balcony garden setup and easy to maintain. It draws water from a bucket on the ground and distributes it to up to 10 plants via tubes once a day,” says Ong.

“Each output’s watering volume can also be adjusted independently of one another, so the needs of different plants can be catered to,” he adds.

For those who seek to build a mini indoor farm, Ong says it is also possible to water more than 10 plants if the pots are set up in a way that allows water to be drained from one pot to the next. Water can also be pumped up to a 2.25 metres height.

The user also can plug in multiple sources of water, so it’s possible to water plants for weeks without refilling the water source(s). And once the system has been properly rigged up, the user can start calibrating the sequence.

First, the current time and water dispensing time have to be set. Then comes dispensing volumes, which can be set in three different ways: visual dispensing (see a rough gauge of much will be dispensed), preset volumes, and volumetric dispensing (meaning specific user set volumes).

It’s not smart

One surprising thing about Hydra is that — despite the trend of IoT devices such as this — it is not smart.

Ong opted for the low-tech route because “a smart watering system would have incorporated soil moisture sensors in each pot, which would have increased costs and led to a whole bunch of wires running around the place.”

The goal, Ong emphasises, is to create a simple automated watering machine without bells and whistles.

Development

Hydra has been in development for close to 11 months. The initial funding for the prototype and samples for various parts amounted to around S$2,000 (US$1,470).

Ong is seeking to raise capital via Kickstarter. Currently, it has raised nearly half of its S$55,000 (US$40,400).

So if you would like to go on a long holiday without fretting about your plants withering away, Hydra might be a good fit for the home.

Just remember to cover the water source(s) or your home will be ground zero for a Zika mosquito breeding spot.

15 Ways Urban Farming Can Revitalize a Neighborhood—And Help Farmers Too

15 Ways Urban Farming Can Revitalize a Neighborhood—and Help Farmers Too

What if farms and food production were integrated into every aspect of urban living?

By Michael Ableman / Chelsea Green Publishing

September 8, 2016

Friendly team harvesting fresh vegetables from the rooftop greenhouse garden and planning harvest season on a digital tablet
Photo Credit: LUMOimages/Shutterstock

[Editor's note: What if farms and food production were integrated into every aspect of urban living—from special assessments to create new farms and food businesses to teaching people how to grow fruits and vegetables so farmers can focus on staple crops? That’s the crux of Michael Ableman’s Urban Food Manifesto, which has been ten years in the making and is spelled out in his new book, Street Farm. The book tells the story of Sole Food Street Farms, and the role it has played in revitalizing not only a neighborhood, but the lives of its individual farmers. The urban farming manifesto below—as told through Street Farm—is a story of recovery, of land and food, of people, and of the power of farming and nourishing others as a way to heal our world and ourselves. You can also check out this Q&A with Ableman, where he describes in more detail the promise of urban farming.]

I have been developing the following 15-point Urban Food Manifesto over the last ten years.

Some of the ideas may sound radical; others will likely seem terribly obvious.

Some are practical, some more ideological, but either way they are focused on the municipal and on individual ways to address what I consider to be some of the most prominent challenges in how we feed ourselves.

1. Every municipality should establish publicly supported agricultural training centers in central and accessible locations. I’m not talking about think tanks or demonstration gardens. I’m talking about working urban farms that model not only the social, cultural, and ecological benefits of farming in the city, but the economic benefits as well. We can talk about all of the wonderful reasons to farm in urban areas, but until we can demonstrate that it’s possible to make a decent living doing it, it’s going to be a tough sell.

2. Regular folks are now so removed from the work of farming that they need to literally see what’s possible. They need access to those who have maintained this knowledge and those who are serious and active practitioners. Every city should have teams of trained farm advisers in numbers proportionate to the population devoted to urban food production. Those agents should operate out of their local urban agriculture centers to run training workshops and classes; they should also venture out into the community to provide on-site technical support in production, in marketing, and in food processing and preparation.

3. The nutrient cycle that once tied farms with those they supplied has been interrupted. We need a full-cycle food system that allows for the return of organic waste via central regional composting facilities that can support the nutrient needs of both urban farms and farms on the fringes of our urban centers. Every community could be composting all its cardboard, paper, old clothing, shoes, restaurant and grocery store waste, and on and on. We need to reduce what comes into our communities from elsewhere, but we also need to reduce what leaves those communities, especially if it has nutritional or soil conditioning values for our land.

4.My fields at Foxglove Farm have as many rocks as grains of soil. Removing those rocks represents a huge amount of work for me, but each one of those rocks also represents an enormous amount of embodied energy, if I could just release it. Every community should own a portable rock grinder that could be taken to farms and used to grind rocks in and around fields that contain essential minerals now being mined elsewhere at great ecological cost. There are huge holes in the world, entire mountains removed, to supply minerals such as gypsum and lime and rock phosphate to our farms. We cannot talk about a sustainable agriculture unless we address where the minerals—especially phosphorous—are going to come from.

5. We’ve all heard about peak oil; we need to prepare for peak water and peak phosphorous. We can grow food without oil, but we cannot grow it without phosphorous and water. Phosphorous is a mined mineral, which now has limited reserves, most of which are located in China, Morocco, and the Western Sahara. Some scientists believe that at the rate we now use it, remaining reserves will be depleted within fifty to one hundred years.

6. Let’s get over our phobia around human waste, stop spending billions of dollars to flush it away and pollute our rivers and oceans, and start recycling it onto our farms and gardens. Urine is the best local source of phosphorous, and we need to figure out creative ways to recycle it.

7. Every community should support the construction and funding of a permanent covered year-round farmers market space in a dominant central location. Providing this type of physical space is just as important to our civic health, if not more, as the public swimming pool, the sports fields, schools, churches, and libraries.

8. Every new permit for a housing development should be contingent on inclusion of an approved food-production component on a scale relative to the number of people who will live in the development. And every new office or retail building should be engineered for a full-scale rooftop food production component, including greenhouses warmed by the spent heat vented from the building.

9. Every neighborhood, school, and church should be required to restructure existing institutional-kitchen facilities to accommodate cooperative canning, freezing, and dehydrating services for their neighborhoods during non-peak hours.

10. Every real estate transaction should include a small urban farmland preservation tax from which lands could be purchased specifically for the production of food, and those lands could have protective easements that require agricultural use in perpetuity.

11. A great deal of privately owned arable land currently lies fallow. This land could be made available to new farmers under long-term leases. We need to recognize that there is not necessarily any relationship between landownership and land stewardship. The only requirement for landownership in our society is access to capital. That’s not enough. I believe that ownership of land should come with a set of responsibilities.

12. Building inspections are common practice prior to many real estate transactions; we should require land inspections, including ecological assessments and baseline documentation, on every piece of land over five acres. Every land purchaser should be required to attend a stewardship and restoration training course based on the particularities of that piece of land. This will help move land away from its status as commodity and bring some sense of stewardship into ownership.

13.When I was in school my favorite classes were wood shop, metal shop, mechanics, and home economics, which included cooking and sewing. Those subjects were well respected. I looked forward to shop class far more than math or science or English. It was a time when I could make something real and tangible. (Every wood shop teacher I’ve known was missing a finger or two, and I am sure that was a requirement for those positions. I made the connection very quickly between those missing fingers and the machines we worked with.) Life skills classes are coming back into schools, but we need to give farming and cooking and mechanics and plumbing and carpentry the same status and attention as math or English or the sciences.

14. It sounds radical, but in the future full-time professional farmers may no longer have the luxury of raising fruits and vegetables. This should become the responsibility of individuals and families to grow for themselves in their front and backyards, on their balconies and rooftops, and in community garden plots. We could probably survive without another carrot or tomato, but we cannot live without grains and beans and protein sources.

15. Every municipality should initiate a phase-out of all home lawns—effective immediately—but they must also provide neighborhood training programs and technical support for home- and building owners to replace those lawns with food production.

It may be that along with growing food, the real work of farmers in the future should be seen as the sequestration of water and carbon. Anyone who has land, or is managing land, has a huge opportunity and a responsibility to address two of our greatest global challenges—water and climate.

Slowing and spreading surface water and allowing it to percolate and not run off, along with learning to use land and improve soils to store and hold carbon, are urgent and essential roles that farmers need to play now and into the future.

Michael Ableman is the cofounder and director of Sole Food Street Farm and an early proponent of the urban agriculture movement. He has created urban farms in Watts, California; Goleta, California; and Vancouver, British Columbia. Ableman has also worked on and advised dozens of similar projects throughout North America and the Caribbean, and he is the founder of the nonprofit Center for Urban Agriculture. He is the subject of the award-winning PBS film Beyond Organic narrated by Meryl Streep. His previous books include From the Good Earth, On Good Land, and Fields of Plenty. Ableman lives and farms at the 120-acre Foxglove Farm on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia.

Square Roots Launches Urban Farming Accelerator Using Freight Farms Platform

Square Roots Launches Urban Farming Accelerator Using Freight Farms Platform

Kimbal Musk just recently announced that he will be launching a new business in the fall — Square Roots. An urban farming accelerator program focused on training young entrepreneurs to grow non-GMO, fresh, tasty, food year-round, Square Roots will be leveraging the Freight Farms technology to create campuses of climate-controlled, indoor, vertical farms. These campuses will be located in major urban centers across the US starting in the fall.

The Square Roots team is made up of an incredible group of individuals and network of mentors that will coach each entrepreneur in the program. Their goal is to help facilitate the creation of forward-thinking companies that strengthen communities by bringing local, #realfood to everyone. Pretty awesome, right? We think so too! The first campus is launching this fall in Brooklyn, and they’re looking for their first class of real food entrepreneurs. If you want a chance to work in an LGM and receive guidance from industry experts, be sure to apply.

We’ve always said that our network of farmers brings to life the vision of our company, and this is yet another perfect example. Sure, we build the farms and the software, but ultimately it’s what each farmer does with those farms that makes the true impact. Square Roots is harnessing the Freight Farms platform to bring a larger vision to life, and we’re beyond excited to watch this partnership grow.

If you’d like to hear more about how Freight Farms is helping grow local food ecosystems across the globe, give us a shout!

Could This Glass-Enclosed Farm/Condo Grow on Rem Koolhaas’ High Line Site?

• Chelsea, New Developments, Starchitecture

Could This Glass-Enclosed Farm/Condo Grow on Rem Koolhaas’ High Line Site?

Posted On Fri, August 5, 2016 By Michelle Cohen

VIEW PHOTO IN GALLERY

From multidisciplinary architectural firm Weston Baker Creative comes this vision of glass, grass and sass in the form of a mixed-use high-rise springing from the Rem Koolhaas parcel along Tenth Avenue and West 18th Street on banks of the High Line. As CityRealty reported, the mixed-use concept would include residences, an art gallery and ten levels of indoor farming terraces. The 12-story structure would rise from a grassy plaza, with the tower’s concrete base meeting the High Line walkway in a full-floor, glass-enclosed gallery that would sit at eye level with the park.

The tower’s form is driven by sunlight, similar to Jeanne Gang‘s “Solar Carve Tower” planned for the Meatpacking District. From Weston Baker’s page: “As the sun comes across the sky to the west, the building twists to evenly distribute daylight throughout the day.” On the southern elevation an enclosed atrium would hold 10 sets of farming terraces on view for High Line visitors and accessible to building residents. There would also be a public “observation garden” on the top floor and an art gallery on the second floor, also accessible from the High Line.

Given the building’s fantastical form, West Chelsea‘s zoning guidelines, the amount of public space and the fact the the High Line prohibits direct access to adjacent private properties, the building likely exists only in the conceptual realm at the moment, but it’s definitely a space to watch. In 2015, the New York Post reported that Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas of Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) will design a project at the site, which had been recently purchased by luxury development firm Related Companies.

How Motorleaf Is Helping Automate Indoor Farming

How Motorleaf Is Helping Automate Indoor Farming

July 20, 2016 AgFunder

Editor’s Note: motorleaf is raising $750k in seed funding on AgFunder.

If you walk into the produce aisle at Price Chopper’s Market Bistro store in Latham, New York, you will be greeted with one of the first hydroponic tomato growing operations inside a grocery store.

Installed in the store when it was built in 2014, the hydroponic display has developed quite a following from local consumers who keenly report back on the progress of the tomato plants to the operator, Vermont Hydroponic Produce.

What they don’t realize is that Vermont Hydroponic Produce has a clear view of this operation without having to step foot into the store, because the operation is being monitored, and automated, by a technology platform developed by Canadian startup motorleaf.

Motorleaf has built a smart and automated indoor farming operating system, consisting of hardware devices and software analytics, to enable growers to capture data about their crops, learn what the crops need, and instruct existing equipment to answer those needs.

Price Chopper is using motorleaf’s HEART device, which collects air temperature, humidity, and lighting level data, and feeds into motorleaf’s intuitive software. The HEART device then connects to an operation’s lighting hardware and feeder pumps to start automating their use. Growers can receive custom alerts to any mobile device to find out about the changing conditions of their farm and can even connect webcams into the HEART so they can view the farm in real-time.

The HEART, one of 4 hardware units. Plug it in and it starts collecting Air Temp, Humidity, & Light Level data. Connect any lighting hardware, and feeder pump and start automating their operation in seconds.

The HEART is the central hub of the motorleaf system, and can connect with up to 250 pieces of equipment. motorleaf has also developed another three pieces of hardware that can connect into the system and perform other tasks. The DROPLET connects to an operation’s water reservoir and collects essential information about water, PH, and nutrient levels, as well as temperature in the reservoir, and sends that data to the HEART. The DRIPLET enables growers to automate the delivery of PH and nutrients into the water supply based on a timer or conditions on the farm. Lastly, the POWERLEAF unit can control other equipment such as air conditioners and heaters, and can be instructed by the HEART to turn them off based on timers or sensor readings from the HEART and the DROPLET.

Motorleaf has the added benefit of continuing to collect data and automate operations even if an internet connection is lost, because the HEART acts as the main controller and router, sending out a signal to anything in range — about 90 meters — using low-frequency radio.

This 99% of guaranteed uptime is just one of the things setting motorleaf apart from other indoor grow solutions on the market. It also uses industrial quality sensors and probes, both local and cloud-stored data, multiple log-in and access profiles with a view only feature, motion detection with any webcam, and machine learning algorithms.

The motorleaf system can be used in any type of indoor farming operation from greenhouses through to warehouses and at any size. IBISWorld estimates that hydroponic growing equipment purchased in stores is already valued at $645 million, and with global hydroponic produce valued at $17.7 billion by Manifest Mind, and US legal cannabis at $5.7 billion, motorleaf has plenty of potential customers.

Motorleaf receives 40,000 data points per customer per week and therefore can start predicting a crop’s needs, solving potential problems before they exist. Also, the startup plans to use its network of data and growers to connect users to each other – on an opt-in basis – to share data, plant recipes and knowledge.

Ramen Dutta, the inventor of motorleaf, started building the first prototype after trying to find a solution flexible enough to control and automate his own gardens.

Dutta graduated from McGill University with a degree in agriculture engineering. Instead of pursuing a career in agriculture, he went into IT and launched his own company, RamComputing Services, but continued to pursue his passion for agriculture by running a small indoor hobby farm.

After several months of hacking and improving his prototype and realizing that other growers in his area also wanted such a solution, he joined forces with Ally Monk, now CEO of motorleaf. Monk has a background in business and product development for technology, including roles at eFundraising.com, which was sold to Readers Digest for $27 million, OneBigPlanet, where he helped to raise $3 million in venture capital, and MemberBenefits Inc, which was acquired by Brook Ventures.

“The demands of Ramen’s IT business meant that he didn’t want to constantly go back and forth to his operation to test PH and nutrient levels, so he looked for an off-the-shelf solution that could turn his garden into a smart garden — like a ‘Nest’ for ag — and he couldn’t find anything on the market,” says Monk. “So he started hacking together what we eventually called the HUB — for Huge Ugly Box — which was giant but started to offer the solutions he wanted.” The company has since reduced the size of this box significantly in an elegant and functional design.

Local growers instantly showed interest in the system, pushing Dutta and Monk to focus full-time on the business and they won a place in the Founders Fuel accelerator program, one of Canada’s leading accelerators, where the theme was artificial intelligence. This accelerator is funded by Real Ventures, which has now invested in motorleaf.

Now the technology is market ready and without any cash spent on marketing, motorleaf has over 200 units on order from a range of customers including OEM manufacturers, supermarkets, high schools and licensed cannabis farmers. motorleaf is now raising $750k in seed funding on AgFunder to manufacture and market its technology at scale and build out the motorleaf team.

View the profile here and email motorleaf@agfunder.com to connect with the company.

A Quick Guide to Growing Herbs Indoors - Hydroponically!

A Quick Guide to Growing Herbs Indoors - Hydroponically!

May 24, 2016

Posted by: Greg Hendrick

Filed under:growing, hydroponics

I've been growing herbs indoors with hydroponics for more than 10 years now. Why? Hydroponically grown herbs grow quickly and (to my taste) have more flavor and aroma than herbs grown in soil. 

A few other things I've learned about growing herbs indoors via hydroponics:

• Daytime temperatures of about 65°F to 70°F are preferred by herbs, although they can withstand climbs into the 70s. It's helpful if night temperatures drop at least 10°F to simulate outdoor conditions.”
• Most herbs like to be well watered but don't like constantly wet feet ... so good drainage or exposure to oxygen is important.
• Remember that plants weakened by hot, dry indoor conditions are more susceptible to spider mites, whiteflys, or aphid damage.

Here’s a list of the 8 herbs I've found grow best with hydroponics:

Cilantro

Cilantro can be used in a variety of ways but is particularly suited to Asian and Mexican dishes. Pruning back Cilantro often will help delay bolting and prolong its harvest time. I suggest planting new seeds about every 6-8 weeks to ensure good, year around production. Health benefits of Cilantro.

Chamomile

The two most commonly found types of chamomile are the German and Roman varieties. These have been used since Ancient times for their calming and anti-inflammatory properties. Health benefits of chamomile. 

Lemon Balm

Lemon Balm propagates easily and growth is rapid. Historically it has been used as a natural flavoring additive for foods, a cosmetic, an herbal tea and a highly-revered essential oil. Pick individual leaves, or bunches. If you have picked branches/bunches of them, tie them in bunches and hang them in a cool, dry location.

Marjoram

Marjoram has a milder, sweet flavor than oregano with perhaps a hint of balsam. It is said to be “the” meat herb but compliments all foods except sweets.

It thrives with full sun and grows to a compact 8 or 10 inches. Tiny white or pink clumps of flowers will form at the tips of the marjoram plant. To extend the life of the plant and encourage more leaf production, remove these buds as they form. More about majoram. 

Oregano

Oregano is great in pizza, spaghetti and marinara sauces and also complements beef or lamb stews, gravies, salads, soups, and even tomato juice!  It will germinate rapidly in Root cubes or Rapid Rooters when propagating. It grows exceptionally well indoors under high output T5 fluorescent plant lights in hydroponic systems. It’s an excellent companion plant for tomatoes and peppers and actually grows better when near basil.  Oregano is a repellent of aphids.

Mint

Mint is well-suited for hydroponic growing and was, in fact, one of the first plants to be grown hydroponically. Mint grown in water tends to have bigger, fuller foliage than land-grown mint, and is ideal in hydroponic gardens. Mint may be transplanted using cuttings.

Harvesting is easy — simply snip leaves and sprigs as needed.  To harvest larger quantities, cut stems about an inch above its growing surface.

Thyme

Thyme requires minimal fertilization when grown in a hydroponic system. It propagates well through stem cuttings and is in fact the herb which no cook should be without!  It’s an aromatic and attractive plant which likes full sun and will grow poorly in minimum light.  Thyme can be propagated easily using stem cuttings. Watch out for whitefly and spider mites though as Thyme s susceptible to them.

Basil

Basil is one of the most tasty and prolific herbs that may be grown and is extremely popular for hydroponic growing. Once mature, it can be harvested and trimmed weekly.  It prefers a pH range between 5.5 and 6.5 so fits well other herbs. Compact cultivars of basil such as “Bush” or “Spicy Globe” make fragrant and attractive houseplants without needing a lot of room. 

Watercress

Watercress is a water loving herb that can be easily grown from seed or propagated by bits of stem placed in a rooting plug or growing medium. It’s an easy cut-and-grow type of herb that’s wonderfully suited in fresh salads, soups and watercress sandwiches. Normally the thicker stems are removed and just the succulent leaves are eaten.

A few other herbs that do well hydroponically include: anise, catnip, chamomile, chervil, chives, coriander, dill, fennel, lavender, parsley, rosemary, and tarragon.

Growing Tips

Water & Nutrients for Herbs

A good quality hydroponic nutrient formulation is important. I suggest products with adequate nitrogen and a good phosphorus ratio.  Most herbs prefer low to mid electrical conductivity levels (1-1.6) and total dissolvable salt levels of between 800 and 1200 ppm (measuring total salts is a way to ensure correct nutrient levels). A slightly acidic pH between 5.5 and 6.4 is ideal. Here’s a link to a list of pH, EC, and salt levels for a number of vegetables and herbs.

Lighting

T-5 high-output fluorescent fixtures with 6500K tubes are excellent choices for a hydroponic herb garden. T-5’s run cooler than metal halide lamps and can be placed usually within 6-12 inches from the plants.  They use very little energy and are cost-effective.  

Hydroponic Systems

The Foody 8 hydroponic tower uses a growing medium such as Hydroton clay pellets to provide good anchorage and aeration and is excellent for herbs. It may be used indoors as well as outdoors.

Foody 12 vertical garden towers (indoor use only) use a siphon system which allows water in each growing pod to automatically lower every 2 minutes to pull in fresh oxygen to the roots. This feature ensures healthy plant growth and provides a good herb growing environment.

This German Invention Puts An Actual Mini Farm At The End Of Your Supermarket Aisle

Infarm Berlin/YouTube

This German invention puts an actual mini farm at the end of your supermarket aisle

Gives a whole new meaning to 'fresh produce'.

PETER DOCKRILL

1 APR 2016

We all know that we should be including as many fresh vegetables as possible in our diets, but the fact is that the energy and environmental costs of growing and then transporting vegetables from the farm to the supermarket can stack up pretty high.

Now one German company has come up with an interesting way of tackling the problem, designing miniature farm units that are so small and self-contained, they can be installed at the end of a conventional supermarket aisle.

Kräutergarten, meaning "herb garden", is the brainchild of vertical farming startup Infarm, which is rolling out these mini farms as part of an experimental pilot with Metro Group, a German retail chain.

"Pretty much any type of greenhouse needs scale to be economic and efficient," Infarm co-founder Guy Galonska told Adele Peters at Fast Company. "In our case, the technology we developed is kind of a building-block approach, and this building block reaches efficiencies that are much higher… It works at a very small scale, just a few square metres. So it makes a lot of sense in your neighbourhood supermarket scale."

Like other vertical farm approaches we've seen in the US and the UK, Infarm's systems take advantage of things like year-round production, low water usage, and pesticide-free techniques to deliver a low-cost, low-impact means of farming greens.

In the modular, configurable units, greens and herbs literally grow in one spot until they're ready for picking. Unlike other greenhouse systems, seedlings and more mature plants aren't moved around at all, meaning the boxes need to make clever use of every available millimetre of space inside.

Right now, only one of these farms is operating in a special supermarket designed for chefs and wholesale customers, but the company intends to begin mass-manufacturing units for mainstream outlets before the end of the year. Aside from the energy savings and environmental benefits of cutting out veggie transport from farms to where they're sold, Infarm says it also makes for a revitalised way of looking at the food you buy.

"We got many interesting responses from chefs who saw vegetables they know – because they use them every day – but they'd never seen the plants at 15 days old," says Galonska. "It really engages people. You're used to having kind of a boring experience in the grocery store. You come and get your things. Here you see a farm – it's a piece of farm in the supermarket."

The pilot unit is focusing on herbs and specialty greens including mizuna and wasabi mustard greens, but Infarm says the same boxes could easily grow produce such as eggplants, tomatoes, and chili peppers. In conjunction with an app that lets customers order the vegetables they want to buy, it's a pretty unique alternative to perusing the stock on offer down at your local grocer.

"We call this farming as a service," says Galonska. "It's similar to the software world… where we sell the technology at relatively low prices, and then provide all the supplies and additional services, like the software, for example."

Infarm hopes all kinds of supermarkets will look at installing the mini farms, and if the idea takes off, it could help transform the assumption that vertical farming and other approaches to urban agriculture aren't a robust alternative to today's high-yield but high-impact agricultural practices.

"[I]f you look forward five, 10 years from now, you see the rate of technology that is expanding, evolving. We definitely see how vertical farming can supply many other things such as rice, soybeans, certain types of fruits," says Galonska. "Will it replace completely all traditional agriculture? It will take some time. But Mars, for example, will be vertical farming only."

Why Fixing Food Deserts Is About More Than Building Grocery Store

Why Fixing Food Deserts Is About More Than Building Grocery Store

March 8, 2016 | Davina van Buren

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has defined food deserts as parts of the country where it‘s hard to buy fresh fruit, vegetables, and other whole foods. To be considered a food desert, at least 500 people or 33 percent of an area’s population must live further than one mile from a supermarket or large grocery store. That distance increases to 10 miles when defining a rural food desert. Food deserts are often located in impoverished and in areas with higher concentrations of minorities; though this is not always true.

That’s the textbook definition—but to fully understand where food deserts come from, it’s imperative to examine some of America’s not-so-shining moments. Among them: redlining, a practice used throughout the 20th century (that still occurs today) to limit or deny financial services to residents of minority and poor white neighborhoods; and “white flight,” the term used to describe the departure of whites from urban areas with increasing numbers of minorities.

“One feature of this disinvestment was pulling out places of food access,” explains Adam Brock, Adviser of Strategic Planning at The Growhaus, a nonprofit indoor farm in Denver’s Elyria-Swansea neighborhood. “Investors didn’t see as much economic opportunity in those neighborhoods as in wealthy neighborhoods, which led to situations where the food that was available was cheap and processed, often from fast food restaurants and corner stores.”

Fast forward to 2010. The term “food desert” has caught on in the United States, and first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign is in full swing. Obama has made access to fresh food a cornerstone of her high-profile campaign against childhood obesity. She spearheaded the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, which offers grants, loans and tax incentives to grocers willing to open stores in underserved and impoverished areas.

The previous year, researchers from the Department of Agriculture presented a report to Congress that showed some poor neighborhoods have more grocery stores than wealthier ones. The researchers conducted a follow-up study in 2012 with the same results. Reports from various other agencies and research groups have also shown no correlation between availability of fresh food and individuals choosing a healthier diet.

Food deserts are complicated

What this plethora of contradictory information tells us is that the problem is much more complex than it may have initially seemed.

“It’s not just about plopping down bricks and sticks stores,” says Mari Gallagher of Mari Gallagher Research, a Chicago-based consulting firm known for its groundbreaking research on food deserts. “There is much more we need to do to help communities build a robust food system.”

Brock agrees. “Access to healthy food is about a lot more than proximity. It includes cultural and economic factors,” he explains. “You can have fresh vegetables down the street, but it if you don’t have time to cook them or prepare them, you are still going to go for the items that are cheap and processed.”

At The Growhaus, Brock embraces a more comprehensive approach to providing healthy food to Elyria-Swansea’s residents. Not only does the nonprofit grow food and sell it to their neighbors at a deep discount, but they also work with Denver Food Rescue to collect surplus food from grocery stores and restaurants, and are currently partnering with the city to institute a healthy corner store program. While volunteers sort and divide boxes of rescued food, visitors can take a cooking class where they can get familiar with fruits and vegetables they may have never even seen, never mind tasted or prepared. The Growhaus also works with schools and groups to teach people how to grow their own food, even in cramped apartments or tiny yards.

Brock says that living in a food desert can also lead to other challenges like high rates of obesity, diabetes and heart conditions, which are compounded by the fact that many underserved neighborhoods lack recreational opportunities and have poor air quality.

It’s about more than economics

“Part of the definition of a food desert is not having access to healthy food, but there’s a lot to how that is defined,” says Rebecca Lewis, a registered dietitian at HelloFresh. “It could be older people who don’t drive or people who have to take the bus. When you are talking about distance and transportation, a mile is far to carry groceries,” she emphasizes.

For people who have the money but lack sufficient transportation, meal delivery services like HelloFreshcan be a viable option to a healthier diet (albeit a less environmentally-friendly one). In addition to a lack of fresh food options, food deserts often have a higher concentration of fast food restaurants, which impacts obesity rates in these areas.

“The big error people make is saying, ‘I just want to get calories in,’” Lewis says. “They think, ‘If I get the dollar menu, I’m being a good parent, I’m keeping my kids full.’ But there’s a paradox: low-income people are also the ones at highest risk of obesity, which often causes health problems down the line.”

In addition to putting together nutrient-dense meals for its members, HelloFresh aims to get people cooking again. Each box comes with a recipe card that explains step by step how to prepare a healthy meal. In-house dieticians develop recipes, and even Naked Chef and food guru Jamie Oliver has signed on to curate one recipe a week.

“Back in the day, before the explosion of fast food and restaurants, people were stretching their dollars,” says Lewis. “They bought rice, beans, milk and other staples. Now we spend income on fast food. We’ve allowed others to prepare our food for us. It’s a gap that must be addressed when we talk about food deserts. You have to provide education about why you want to choose the vegetable over the dollar menu.”

As evidenced by the rising popularity of meal delivery services like HelloFresh, not everyone who lives in a food desert (as defined by the USDA’s definition) fits the stereotypical image of someone who lacks access to healthy food.

“As you start improving the problem, you realize there are other issues ingrained in it,” Lewis notes.

Policy matters

Obviously, education is an important part of the food desert puzzle—but policy also matters. Gallagher points out several problematic issues with SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) system, formerly known as food stamps.

“One thing we see is that gas stations are growing at a rapid rate regarding participation in SNAP program, which is supposed to be the first line of defense against malnutrition. One problem with SNAP is that standards are too low, and many retailers don’t even follow those low standards. Many are not in compliance,” she explains. “When you look at who was in SNAP in 2006, and who is in SNAP in 2016, you see some of the biggest spikes are gas stations and second-day bakeries [that sell snack cakes]. That’s a bit of a policy concern. SNAP money needs to be funneled through food providers that offer nutritious foods.”

Perhaps most importantly, Gallagher strongly recommends growing local food economies. 
“Instead of trucking in food to a grocery store—whether rural or urban—let’s implement a food system where more food can be produced locally,” she advocates. “Food gives us the nutrients we need, but we should also have our food system be more of a job generator. We all eat to live, but if we don’t eat well, over time, we might not live that well.”