This Tiny Country Feeds the World

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This Tiny Country Feeds the World

The Netherlands has become an agricultural giant by showing what the future of farming could look like.

10/10/2017

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In a potato field near the Netherlands’ border with Belgium, Dutch farmer Jacob van den Borne is seated in the cabin of an immense harvester before an instrument panel worthy of the starship Enterprise.

From his perch 10 feet above the ground, he’s monitoring two drones—a driverless tractor roaming the fields and a quadcopter in the air—that provide detailed readings on soil chemistry, water content, nutrients, and growth, measuring the progress of every plant down to the individual potato. Van den Borne’s production numbers testify to the power of this “precision farming,” as it’s known. The global average yield of potatoes per acre is about nine tons. Van den Borne’s fields reliably produce more than 20.

That copious output is made all the more remarkable by the other side of the balance sheet: inputs. Almost two decades ago, the Dutch made a national commitment to sustainable agriculture under the rallying cry “Twice as much food using half as many resources.” Since 2000, van den Borne and many of his fellow farmers have reduced dependence on water for key crops by as much as 90 percent. They’ve almost completely eliminated the use of chemical pesticides on plants in greenhouses, and since 2009 Dutch poultry and livestock producers have cut their use of antibiotics by as much as 60 percent.

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UVa Alum’s Green Innovation Brings Micro-Farm To Table

UVa Alum’s Green Innovation Brings Micro-Farm To Table

• BY RUTH SERVEN
  • Sep 24, 2017

Hydroponic tables made by University of Virginia alum Alexander Olesen, founder of Babylon Micro-Farms, make fresh herbs available to students in the O-Hill Dining Hall at UVa.

Andrew Shurtleff/The Daily Progress

Student dining at the University of Virginia has begun chopping some of its greens and herbs from an unlikely source: trays of ultraviolet-lit plants set up in Clark, Newcomb and Observatory Hill halls.

The innovative hydroponics system is the brainchild of UVa alum Alexander Olesen, who founded Babylon Micro-Farms last year. Olesen is now relying on UVa’s support to launch the company’s next phase as it begins selling the tables on the market.

Hydroponic farming is growing plants without the use of soil, typically in water or nutrient-rich solutions. Most hydroponic systems are industrial-scale, but Babylon’s system, about the size of a pool table, is meant for personal use.

On a recent Saturday, Olesen set up at Charlottesville’s City Market with a 5-foot by 4-foot table clad in pinewood. The wooden finish shields the Babylon team’s real pride: wires and sensors that measure water, light and temperature and adjust systems for maximum yield. Small cups set in the top of the table hold individual marigold and pepper plants. Purple LED grow lights hang above the plants.

“We provide all seeds and nutrients pre-measured, and there’s an automatic system of text updates so users don’t have to do anything,” Olesen said. “No one’s doing hydroponics like this. We’re one of the first doing something like this on the Eastern Seaboard. I mean, at an industrial level, everyone’s doing it, but no one’s doing automated, no one’s doing quality design.”

UVa has provided invaluable support to Babylon Micro-Farms, Olesen said, from giving grants to helping him brainstorm the next phase of the business.

“The idea is bringing micro-farming to a whole new level, in your living room,” said Christine Mahoney, director of UVa’s social entrepreneurship initiative, which helped fund Babylon’s prototypes. “Social entrepreneurs can solve the world’s toughest problems with smart business ideas.”

Now, Olesen is in talks with Bob Creeden, managing director of new ventures and the Seed Fund for UVa’s Licensing and Ventures Group, which connects innovators with funding sources.

Typically, the group helps UVa faculty who have business concepts or inventions, Creeden said, but he has a steady stream of students who want to bounce ideas off him.

“I sometimes think of us as one-stop shopping,” he said. “If you come to us, we’re going to be able to connect you with funding, or grants or staffing.”

Creeden has given Babylon advice about how to raise capital and scale its project, and right now he’s thinking about whether to invest in the company, he said.

Olesen’s models cost about $2,000 apiece. He has sold one to the Corner Juice Bar on the Corner, and said several restaurants are interested in custom projects.

He’s also received some interest from schools, and thinks they could help teach children about food and sustainability.

That’s why UVa Dining got three of the tables and planted basil, cilantro and mint. The tables drive awareness and education about food production, according to Samantha Jameson, UVa Dining’s sustainability coordinator.

“We encourage students to come in and pick what they need,” Jameson said. “All of these ingredients students can use to add to any dish or take to cook on their own.”

Olesen has sold about 15 tables so far, and he said he expects to deliver those orders by the end of the year.

Vertical Farming's Best Kept Secret?

A visit to PlantLab:

Vertical Farming's Best Kept Secret?

Stacked layers with leafy greens in fully controlled units; some call it the future of farming. While opinions are divided if all that fancy lettuce will indeed solve world hunger, at PlantLab they are convinced that controlled environment agriculture can introduce groundshaking revolutions to our food system. But how viable is this relatively new industry? And what does a patent have to do with it? Highest time to figure out and pay a visit to PlantLab ourselves.

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PlantLab’s indoor growing activities cover a range of various horticultural and agricultural sectors. Partnerships and joint ventures link PlantLab, still fully privately owned, to top international players in agribusiness, breeding, large scale horticultural production and propagating as well as industry leaders in food ingredients, flavours, fragrances and cosmetics.

“Controlled indoor growing changes the way how we approach our food system and enables providing consumers fresh food with distinct taste and nutrient profiles, produced in a complete circular and sustainable system”, according to PlantLab’s Marcel Kers when he welcomed us at their headquarters in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

“By tweaking the right parameters, crops can be made nutrient dense and become a medicine for example”, adds colleague Ard Reijtenbagh. “We partner with companies from various industries to explore such opportunities and jointly develop and run integrated production solutions with a financially sound business case and a concrete go-to-market strategy. This varies from consumer ready products such as lettuces and herbs to young planting material for growers; and also various crops for specific natural active ingredients for the food industry as well as improved breeding processes.”

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HortiDaily was invited to take a look inside their 20,000 square meters facility to witness the PlantLab approach first hand. Here, more than 5,000 square meters of advanced indoor growing facility is currently utilized to develop 'Plant Paradise®’ recipes. The remainder area is used for technology development, production of various crops and there is still space for further expansion. 

It is obvious we have entered a facility where it is about more than only R&D and growing leafy greens and were amazed to see so many dedicated indoor vertical farming technologies and production. Without any doubt PlantLab operates one of the largest, if not the largest, most advanced commercial R&D vertical farming facility that we have ever visited. 

The PlantLab philosophy is to only introduce its solution with a clear proof of concept from a technology, production and marketing point of view with a sound financial business case. PlantLab says that they are currently the only organization in its sector to guarantee quality and production.

To achieve this, the company works in multi-disciplinary teams with disciplines such as technology, plant science, production, business analysts, supply chain and market experts. This approach in combination with the expertise of its external partners leads to complete new ways of working and products.

The reason that PlantLab and its successes have remained unknown to the broader public? The numerous partnerships and non-disclosure agreements that the company is involved with. "We are working on so many great things and it is often a pity that we can not share it with the outside world. However, we get a lot of satisfaction from our work in the partnerships. To be part of this evolution is very rewarding." Kers said.

Accompanied by large investments, the entire PlantLab team performed dedicated research and development to create what they call 'Plant Paradise’. 

"Taking into account the smallest details, we discovered that a fully closed environment enabled maximization of the plant performance by influencing more factors than just temperature and humidity. We need to control more than 80 variables in most cases. It creates new opportunities as a whole, and not just in terms of higher yields or quality." 

The method is described by Kers as modifying the complete environment where the plant is growing in. From changing the light spectra to influencing the root zone temperature and humidity at canopy level. "The combination of influencing these parameters in a controlled environment to enhance or influence crop growth is what is covered by our patent”.

And that patent is where PlantLab made headlines with, when the European Patent Office denied the opposition against the PlantLab patent on their method of controlled environment agriculture, which means it remains valid. "Unfortunately the patent has become, for some people, a too loaded topic. We can totally understand that it caused a stir, just like with any patent related to food production. The fact however is that we are open to work together with any company that likes to take advantage of our knowledge and methods", Marcel Kers said. “We do not want this to stop different initiatives around controlled environment growing in the world, on the contrary. All parties can contact us for a licence agreement.” Marcel Kers added.

Kers was eager to explain the background behind their technology and why they filed a patent on it in a period when, according to PlantLab, nobody else was investigating the same opportunities. “We just wanted to protect our investments and hard work that we started in 2005. We have been actively investigating controlled indoor growing methods for more than a decade. Everyone was still convinced that it was not even possible. Nonetheless, we continued our research on the possibilities of fully closed cultivation with the use of new technology such as LEDs. We believed in it more than anyone else at that time.

We are not here to argue or bully the vertical farming and controlled environment agriculture industry, we are here to take the whole industry to the next level".

And that next level is definitely approached at the company's headquarters in ’s-Hertogenbosch. The group invested millions to transform 20,000 square meters of vacant factory and warehouse space into an indoor production unit in combination with an indoor growing research & development centre, which aesthetics could have passed for the biggest Apple store on earth.

Apple or ASML?

"That’s quit the comparison! We have many elements in our business model like ASML in which we enable our partnerships with our solutions, but we have grown over the past years towards a model with a ready go-to-market strategy with consumer products, such as fresh vegetables.” Reijtenbagh commented.

He said that PlantLab always had the vision to develop stand alone closed growing systems that could be applied anywhere in the world and contribute to the challenges of feeding a growing world population. From research, development, production to a consumer ready product; companies that partner with them are offered a solid solution that does what it needs to do; growing a crop with a consistent amount of maximized beneficial properties. "It is our aim to develop indoor cultivation to its fullest and create new opportunities and new profitable business models. Not just in terms of growing leafy greens or other vegetables, but moreover in a broader scope. Think about nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, flavours, fragrances, cosmetics and aromas. By innovating in indoor farming we can enhance the development of new production technologies to create unique products that contribute to the environment, health and welfare. Basically, we have grown from a company providing the “next generation of growing” to a situation where it is about “the next generation of food”! When developing new technologies it is so important to interact with your market and the consumer”, according to Reijtenbagh.

Reaching out to consumers?

“Yes, growing crops without daylight in a fully closed environment is no longer a hip trend, but here to stay. We are so convinced of the beneficial properties of the product we produce and that it is the most sustainable way of production; but how to make the consumer familiar and trusted with the product and how it is being produced? This is always a challenge with new technologies.” Reijtenbagh said. “Just showing the purple light in the growing rooms will not work. Consumer panels help us, to test our products. And we also measure the content of our products. In the coming months we will be starting a large-scale program in which we reach out to consumers. We will not do this on our own, but in combination with other companies, universities and experts. We expect a lot of this. In a couple of months we hope to tell you more”.

PlantLab and its partners continue their investments. The group is currently expanding its facilities in ‘s-Hertogenbosch as well as implementing projects on a few spots in the world. Earlier, it opened an office in California to develop and support the North American market. "We have room to double our floor space in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. This illustrates the potential behind our approach", according to Kers. "We did not jump on the indoor farming market too hastily, but wanted to go to market with a proven integrated solution and substantiated decisions. That approach, which started with the first small scale trials in 2005 is still standing. Our playground might be larger, but we still start every experiment with a single plant before we increase scale. This resulted in a successful formula for our partnerships. Before our partnerships invest in a system, it is guaranteed that it works, meets the expectations and that it is commercially and financially feasible. This is exactly where we try to make the difference".

www.plantlab.nl

Food For Thought: Bringing Farms Into Canadian Universities

Food For Thought: Bringing Farms Into Canadian Universities

Having a farm at McMaster can do even more to build our personal capacity to address climate change in way that does not build cynicism, but rather creates community and shows that we can make a difference while having fun.

By Adam Chiaravalle
Published September 28, 2017

Something quite remarkable is happening at Universities from coast to coast across Canada. This something is urban farms. I was inspired when I read the following from a 2011 Maclean's article:

This past September [2011], New Brunswick's Mount Allison University held an event unprecedented in its 172-year-long history: a you-pick potato harvest. For the first five Saturdays of the new school year, students and Sackville residents were able to pick Russet and Superior potatoes from a boggy, 9.7-hectare [24 acre] farm in the heart of the campus. The rest of the spud harvest - a yield of 30,000 pounds - was transformed, to the delight of many ravenous undergrads, into fresh, hand-cut french fries and mashed potatoes in the kitchen at Jennings Hall.

Can you imagine being a Mount Allison student going to school and eating food that you helped grow on your own campus? It does not stop there, as the University of British Columbia has a 24 hectare (59 acre) farm on their campus. The University of Toronto has a 60 hectare farm off-campus an hour away in the Niagara escarpment. Dalhousie University has a 1 hectare farm. Concordia University has a one-half hectare farm on their campus.

The purpose of these farms is to act as living laboratories for students to understand how to grow nutritious food that works with the planet.

Teaching students how to provide themselves with nutritious food and how to do it in a sustainable way is some of tremendous importance. This is because two existential problems in the world today are human health and climate change.

These two issues are not only intrinsically interconnected, but also healthy eating and climate change can both be learned about on a farm. Learning about two of the most sever issues on our planet certainty seems like they would be worth learning about.

The word farm may be too big of a concept for some people, but the severity of climate change commands for us to take bold and ambitious actions. A farm helps with climate change because it allows for us to tangibly interact with our planet and for us to attain a true understanding of what sustainable living entails.

Getting people to have sustainable consciousness is vital, as 2017 is the 30th anniversary of the term 'Sustainable Development' that was coined for the 1987 Bruntland Commission Report [PDF], and the planet's condition has only gotten worse since 1987.

Having said that, we need to understand that climate change is not some future concept that we will have to address, rather it is dangerously unfolding right now.

Farming at McMaster

Even though McMaster University in Hamilton does not have an urban farm, there is a groundswell for local food among students, faculty and staff.

McMaster garden

The incredibly progressive thinking Director of Grounds, Carlos Figueira, created a garden for Dr. Chad Harvey and me to test the appetite McMaster students have to grow their own food. We ran six garden-based cooking classes through the Student Wellness Centre's Food for Thought program that is funded generously by Alumni House's Mac 10 program.

Students preparing meals in the Food for Thought program

Two questions were answered this summer: McMaster is proactive in creating a sustainable food system in order to be a place of learning, and the students want to see more of this.

In addition to this, I have talked to many faculty and staff members at McMaster and they are all supportive of a large sustainable food system at the university that goes beyond the two current community gardens that McMaster has.

Is it time for a McMaster Urban Farm? In April 2016, one McMaster professor asked, "Question for @McMasterU community in the wake of #BIBCclimate week: why don't we have a Mac farm for student food & education?"

A farm is not just for us to grow food, but it is for us to be connected to our food system and for us to understand the impacts it has.

Industrial agriculture is responsible for the health of food being at an all-time low, as four out of the six biggest killers in the United States are related to the food we eat.

Also, industrial agriculture has eroded natural lands to such a point that 27 percent of natural land in North America is now farmland and the type of agriculture of that is practiced is monoculture systems, which are the grave for bio-diversity.

Ontarians should have chills running down our spines when we hear that there are 2,337 species in Ontario that are either endangered or vulnerable and of special concern. Without Biodiversity, ecosystems cannot run and thus the health of the planet is seriously diminished.

Growing Food More Sustainably

The saddest thing here is that agriculture does not have to be practiced in this way, as we can do it differently. Dr. Chad Harvey and I are trying to bring permaculture farm to McMaster.

Permaculture is an agricultural design system that mimics a natural ecosystem to produce food while restoring nature. The benefit of permaculture is that biodiversity and the production of food can co-exist. This is an example of true sustainability because it is tending to the needs of humans and nature.

Before we can talk about any farm or physical project being constructed, we must understand that the land is not ours, but rather it belongs to Indigenous people. If we are to progress in a dignified human way, we would be much improved if we adopted the Indigenous perspective of land in the sense that is no one owns it but rather we all act as stewards of the land.

McMaster has gotten a step closer to respecting and honouring Indigenous people by acknowledging that it is located on the traditional territories of the Mississauga and Haudenosaunee nations.

The next step for McMaster to continue respecting Indigenous people is to have a farm that grows Indigenous plants so that we can begin to learn more about Indigenous perspectives and culture.

Battle of the Eggplants

Additionally, if we are going to talk about how growing our own food has the ability to enact change, we should also talk about the joy of cooking, because this is something I think we have been forgotten as the waves of restaurants continue to open in Hamilton.

The Battle of the Eggplant can remind us about the fun of cooking, as this competition saw two of McMaster's very own square-off.

In one corner we had Dr. Ameil Joseph, a professor from the school of social work, and in the other corner we had Taryn Aarssen, an outreach assistant from the student wellness centre.

Both competitors were given eggplants from the garden behind the Biology Greenhouse and they were to cook a meal with this ingredient. The rules were simple: the best-tasting dish would be chosen as the winner.

Dr. Joseph is one of the most gastronomically inclined professors on campus. Taryn, on the other hand, has never found an ingredient that she could not turn into a tasty treat.

Dr. Joseph began his dish by sautéing the eggplant in a screaming hot skillet until they reached a juicy golden brown. My heart simultaneously melted a little as I watched the spectacle. Then Dr. Joseph drew upon his nuanced worldview and added garlic soya sauce over the eggplant. This brought the taste of Asian into the dish.

The result of this worldly combination of flavours was like experiencing a perfectly choreographed opera song, as the sweet eggplant was contrasted brilliantly with the nutty, salty, rich soya sauce. The loveliness of this dish was that it was a three-ingredient wonder: Dr. Joseph let the eggplant do all the talking.

Dr. Ameil Joseph showing off his sauteed eggplant

Taryn started her dish by slicing the eggplant so thinly that it only had one side and then she placed it on top of a sauced pizza dough. Then she added fresh mozzarella and purple basil. Then time and space stood still for a few moments, because instead of simply cooking the pizza in a generic oven, she cooked it in a wood-burning oven!

The result was one for the ages as the crisp and perfectly-charred pizza was as gorgeous as it was delicious. The toppings on the pizza were kissed with a lick of flame that made the flavours take on another life form.

The creamy fresh mozzarella cheese with the zesty tomato sauce was the perfect place for the tender sweet eggplant to call home and then the symphony of flavours were topped off with a floral aroma of purple basil.

Taryn Aarssen showing off her eggplant pizza

Both dishes tasted of summer and they were great in their own unique ways, but I would give the victory to Taryn. It was difficult work tasting both dishes and deciding on a winner, but somebody has got to do it. The pizza beat the garlic soya sauce eggplant because the crisp of the pizza crust with creamy center could quite literally defeat any force in the world. Perhaps if everyone in the world ate this pizza everyday there would be peace on earth.

Cooking Connects Us

Some of you may think that my explanation on the battle of the eggplants was too much of a dramatic embellishment. However, we need to remember that cooking with each other not only connects us with one another, but it binds us to the best bit of life and is an expression that our common desire to eat is a social act.

Witnessing strangers cooking, laughing, learning and sharing food with one another is seeing humans at their very best. This is what the Food for Thought cooking classes are all about and I am so happy to see students building relationships and find meaning in the mundane act of food that many of us take for granted.

We can use this fun and familiar context of cooking to take climate change head-on because it spins this systemic problem of antagonistic drudgery into a more hopeful context where relationships are built, and where climate change is viewed as an opportunity to create change and achieve fulfillment.

Having a farm at McMaster can do even more to build our personal capacity to address climate change in way that does not build cynicism, but rather creates community and shows that we can make a difference while having fun.

Growing food is something we can all do to improve our health and the health of the planet that provides so much for us, it is a very empowering opportunity, all we need to do is start and we will be surprised to see many great people already out there making change happen!

Adam Chiaravalle is a McMaster University student looking for opportunities to create change in the world.

Meeting The Environmental Challenge of Growing Food Crops

Meeting The Environmental Challenge of Growing Food Crops

 SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 DAVID KUACK

More predictable production levels and harvest dates are driving growers to adopt controlled environment agriculture.

Even though most greenhouse vegetable growers are producing fewer types of crops than ornamental plant growers, trying to control the environment of these food crops can be a much bigger challenge.

“The environmental control challenges for vegetables are much tougher because the produce is going to be consumed,” said University of Guelph professor Mike Dixon, who is director of the Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. “The fact that they are destined to be a food commodity requires more attention to things like pest control.

“For vegetable production, since the margins are typically small for food crops, growers are trying to tightly control inputs as much as they can without compromising the quality and productivity of the commodity. This is a significant challenge and requires a great amount of detail to environmental control than for typical ornamental crops. Ornamental commodities, since they are not eaten, are not subject to the same kinds of stringent controls, especially with pesticide residues. But it’s more than that. The food safety regulations for food crop inputs and production outputs (e.g. nutrient runoff) are much tighter than they are for ornamental commodities. That means that environment control is a key factor in maintaining production standards and quality standards in a competitive market.”

Meeting market expectations

Dixon said part of the issue with trying to maintain the proper environment for vegetable production is consumer expectations for “perfect” fruits and vegetables.

“Consumers have been conditioned by generations of what today are considered environmentally unacceptable cultural management practices, using chemicals and pest management protocols, that occasionally leave residues,” he said. “Consumers don’t want peppers with spots on them. Consumers don’t want roses with blemishes on the flower petals. In the minds of consumers, they expect virtual perfection and don’t appreciate that the means to achieve this are not necessarily environmentally correct today.

“There is a transition between the old ways of doing things and the new ways of doing things. In terms of controlled environment agriculture, growers are transitioning to production practices that don’t compromise quality and productivity and yet meet environmental standards as well. That can be a tough balance.”

Dixon said that growing food crops in the northern latitudes year-round requires some type of controlled environment production.

“In Canada, six months out of the year food crops can’t be produced unless they’re grown in a controlled environment,” he said. “This requires that the growing has to be done in a nearly subtropical environment in which many disease pathogens and insects thrive. These pests gravitate toward these ideal controlled environment conditions. It’s the growers’ challenge to maintain some kind of balance and still meet the quality and production requirements of the market.”

Minimizing costs, maximizing production

Dixon said the degree of sophistication that is achievable with today’s technology should really be taken advantage of by growers especially in regards to minimizing labor.

“Labor is the top line in the cost of production in a controlled environment commodity,” he said. “Automation, including computer controlled environments and automated irrigation can mitigate the labor bill. Energy is a close second in regards to major costs.”

Dixon said the winter environment in the northern areas of the United States and in Canada is a major challenge for controlled environment growers.

“Winter production in these areas requires a higher level of technical sophistication than is needed for operations located further south,” he said. “The farther south an operation is located the issue then becomes heat extremes. In the middle latitudes, which include a large portion of the United States, environment control challenges are not as extreme as they are in Canada, Mexico and South America.

“In more moderate climates, growers tend to be slower in adopting more sophisticated technology because the cost benefit is harder to justify. Labor costs will be the major factor that will drive the conversion to automation for a lot of middle latitude growers. Up until recently they haven’t been required. What has changed is that the capital cost requirements for a lot of technology enhancements or retrofits in older greenhouses have become very attractive. For example, the cost of LED lighting is not only energy conservative, but it can also enhance productivity with the appropriate technology and application information.”

More predictable, profitable production

Dixon said since the margins on food crops are relatively small compared to many ornamental crops, growers need to have relatively large greenhouse operations in order to be profitable.

“We’re talking on the order of 50-200 acres of controlled environment greenhouses,” he said. “To consider manually managing that scope of a greenhouse production system is prohibitive. It’s not realistic, growers couldn’t do it. It’s absolutely required that that they engage some form of automation, controlling especially irrigation, lighting and conventional environment control including opening vents, etc. The largest controlled environment food production area in North America is in the Leamington area in southwest Ontario. This area is typified by very large, highly sophisticated controlled environment agriculture systems for the production of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.”

Dixon said automating irrigation to reduce labor costs and automating basic temperature and humidity control in the greenhouse will significantly enhance the production system.

“It comes down to the cost benefits analysis,” he said. “Each grower has to look at it on the basis of their own specific case. It depends on the commodity. It depends on the local market and the margins growers can obtain with a more homogenous quality that they realize with automation. Automation offers more predictable production levels and predictable harvest dates. These are the kinds of issues that drive the adaptation to controlled environment computer automation and even robotic systems.

“Adding more sophistication gives more reliability in some cases as well as predictability in terms of production and quality. And that can only enhance a grower’s attractiveness to the market.”

Dixon said automating irrigation to reduce labor costs and automating basic temperature and humidity control in the greenhouse has been shown to significantly enhance the production system of a grower’s greenhouse.

“That’s really the goal,” he said. “Look at the capital cost requirement to obtain that level of technical sophistication and amortize over a reasonable three- to five-year period. Then look realistically at the labor savings, energy savings and the environmental impact savings including waste and runoff that would be realized by doing it. If it makes economic sense then there’s the answer.

“Sometimes it’s difficult to line up all of the things that need to be considered in a cost-benefit analysis. Depending on the size of an operation, if it’s a small-scale operation, it may not make economic sense to incorporate this automation because the cost-benefit is probably going to take 10 years to realize. But as the scale of the operation goes up, generally the justification for automating the system and reducing labor costs is greater.”

Bringing space technology back to Earth

One of the major elements of Mike Dixon’s research program at the University of Guelph’s Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility is the development of technologies for food production (i.e. life support) in the context of long term human space exploration missions. Dixon said the technologies being transferred from his program to the greenhouse sector are those that were developed for these missions.

“These technologies are being adapted to terrestrial agri-food sector applications in as economical a way as possible,” Dixon said. “Some of the technologies being developed include LED systems, environment control protocols, recycling systems, environment sensors and imaging systems for diagnostics.Terrestrial agriculture is benefiting greatly from research activities taking on the challenge of growing food on the Moon and Mars.”

For more: Mike Dixon, University of Guelph, Ontario Agricultural College, School of Environmental Sciences, Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1; (519) 824-4120, Ext. 52555; mdixon@uoguelph.ca; http://www.ces.uoguelph.ca.

David Kuack is a freelance technical writer in Fort Worth, Texas; dkuack@gmail.com.

Vertical Forests Are Returning Nature To Cities, One Skyscraper At A Time

Vertical Forests Are Returning Nature To Cities, One Skyscraper At A Time

By Clayton Moore — Posted on September 23, 2017 1:00 pm

Stefano Borei Architett Vertial Forest

Stefano Borei Architett

Who on Earth decides to plant a forest on the side of skyscrapers? Architects, that’s who. Two bold designers working on opposite ends of the planet are actively designing farms, gardens and forests designed to live on massive residential buildings. Far from simply putting a few houseplants in the office, these ambitious designs are meant to clean the air, reduce energy use to net zero, and maximize food production and quality of life.

LIFE IS SWEET IN THESE “VERTICAL FORESTS” IN MILAN, ITALY

One of these projects is already complete. The Bosco Verticale (“Vertical Forest” in Italian) is a dual skyscraper project designed by Stefano Boeri that is covered in more than 21,000 plants—a level of greenery equivalent to more than five acres of forest spread over more than 1,200 square meters.

The project has just been named one of the best tall buildings in the world. It’s a completely green design that even supports its own moderate ecosystem, including more than 20 species of birds. The massive amount of vegetation helps reduce Singapore’s moderate pollution and carbon dioxide, cleaning up the air. The plant life also diminishes noise, boosts oxygen in the air, and helps regulate the temperatures between the two towers. Internally, a complex irrigation system directs “used” water back onto the forested terraces to sustain the vegetation and reduce waste.

It’s a level of greenery equivalent to more than five acres of forest.

“Vertical Forest is a model for a sustainable residential building, a project for metropolitan reforestation contributing to the regeneration of the environment and urban biodiversity without the implication of expanding the city upon the territory,” Boeri noted on his website. “It is a model for vertical densification of nature within the city. Vertical Forest increases biodiversity, so it becomes both a magnet for and a symbol of the spontaneous re-colonization of the city by vegetation and by animal life.”

The concept earned his firm second place in the 2014 Emporis Skyscraper Award, beating out more than 120 competitors including The Leadenhall Building in the United Kingdom, the KKR Tower in Malaysia, and the Burj Mohammed Bin Rashid Tower in Abu Dhabi. Only the WangJing SOHO triple skyscraper in Beijing bested the Boeri design, awarded for “its excellent energy efficiency and its distinctive design, which gives the complex a harmonious and organic momentum.”

But this completed design isn’t the only plant-accented project on Boeri’s plate; he has a portfolio of potential and ongoing projects around the world that use urbanized plant life to make the world better for the people who live and work in his buildings.

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Boeri has announced plans for two Vertical Forest projects in Nanjing, China, as well as “Liuzhou Forest City,” in mainland China, the Wonderwoods residential tower in the Netherlands, and the sprawling Guizhou Mountain Forest Hotel in Southern China. His new “Tower of Cedars” in Lausanne, Switzerland is a 36-story tower that features nearly 20,000 plants and 100 trees to protect residents from pollution and dust.

“All these projects together are important for us,” Boeri told Mashable recently. “It’s very important to completely change how these new cities are developing. Urban forestation is one of the biggest issues for me in that context. That means parks, it means gardens, but it also means having buildings with trees.”

DESIGNING THE URBAN SKYFARM

Developing concurrently is one of the most dramatic building projects in the world. The Urban Skyfarm, designed by Brooklyn-based Aprilli Design Studio and to be located in Seoul, South Korea, will house nearly 25 acres of space for growing trees, tomatoes, and other sustainable crops.

The prototype building is modeled after the iconic design of a tree, with the “root,” “trunk,” “leaves,” and “branches” components to house different aspects of the sustainable farming operation.

Aprilli Urban Skyfarm

The “trunk” of the Urban Skyfarm will contain an indoor hydroponic farm, while the “roots” provide a wide, environmentally friendly space for farmer’s markets and public events. On top of the tower, turbines provide enough power to fuel the building operations and farming spaces in a net-zero environment. The building will also capture rainwater and filter it through a synthetic wetland before returning it as fresh water to a nearby river.

The space could efficiently host more than 5,000 fruit trees.

“With the support of hydroponic farming technology, the space could efficiently host more than 5,000 fruit trees,” architects Steve Lee and Soon Yun Park recently told Fast Company. “Vertical farming is more than an issue of economical feasibility, since it can provide more trees than average urban parks, helping resolve urban environmental issues such as air pollution, water run-off and heat island effects, and bringing back balance to the urban ecology.”

Despite a location in crowded Seoul, the Urban Skyfarm will act as a living machine by producing renewable energy and giving residents improved air quality. Reproducing the biological structure of a tree gives the design certain advantages because it is light in weight but houses enough space to host a diverse range of farming activities. The design is also intended to reduce heat buildup, rain runoff, and carbon dioxide.

The architects believe that their design can support hundreds of environmental projects and experiments and serve as a future model as to how buildings are designed, built, and used.

“We hope the Urban Skyfarm can become part of the discussions as a prototype proposal,” Lee and Park said. “Vertical farming really is not only a great solution to future food shortage problems but a great strategy to address many environmental problems resulting from urbanization.

BUILDING GARDENS IN THE SKY

Boeri and Aprilli are the furthest along in these wild, green experiments, but there are plenty of other firms thinking about how arboreal and greenery-inspired designs can help make life better and more sustainable for residents and tenants around the world.

In Southeast Asia, Vo Trang Nghia Architects are building a huge complex in Ho Cho Minh City that will feature a 90,000-square-foot facility with a rooftop garden. The firm is also working with FPT University to build a tree-lined campus that will raise an elevated forest over the 14-square-mile site.

Vo Trong Nghia

One Central Park in Sydney features massive creeping vines that climb the building’s face as well as nearly 200 native plant species.

Back on western shores, the Rolex corporation recently broke ground on its new Dallas-based headquarters, which features landscaped terraces and a tree-lined rooftop event space. The elegant design by architect Kengo Kuma was inspired by Japanese castles.

Under construction in Los Angeles is 670 Mesquit, a 2.6 million-square-foot mixed-use project that features two massive cubes that feature landscaped terraces. This is Danish architect Bjarke Ingels’ first project in Los Angeles.

Other architects are pushing the envelope of what’s possible. Harmonia 57 is a building in Brazil designed by Triptyque that actually “breathes and sweats,” according to the designers. Plants embedded in porous concrete structures are watered with a mist that makes the building look like it’s returning to nature.

All this added greenery is a pleasant distraction from the densification of urban environments, but these designers are also redefining what it means to live in an urban landscape—and providing a fresh chance to build sustainable urban environments that help cut down on pollution while they simultaneously generate energy, biodiversity, and a breath of fresh air.

The Art of Future Food | A Nebullam Newsletter

The Art of Future Food  |  A Nebullam Newsletter

September 2017

Volume 2

We're back, with our 2nd newsletter! We promise to keep our updates simple and short. Let's jump right in.  

Our new shirts. We're thankful for the opportunity to work on technologies with applications here, and elsewhere. These shirts aren't for sale, but we may have a few extra if you catch us out and about (or on social media @nebullam).

In the News

• We've made the semi-finals of this year's John Pappajohn Iowa Entrepreneurial Venture Competition, along with plenty of other familiar faces (see photo above)
• America's SBDC Profile - Nebullam

What We're Reading

• NASA Betting On Space Agriculture

The Trajectory

• Our pilot site will be growing new varieties of microgeens this month
• Our R&D space is up and running 
• Our seed round of investment has been raised from $300,000 to $500,000. If you know of anyone interested in investing in vertical farming technologies, or artificial intelligence, we'd be happy to visit with them

Quote of the Month

"Instead of thinking outside the box, get rid of the box." - Deepak Chopra

If you enjoy our newseltters, please consider forwarding them onto anyone else who may be interested in our story, progress, or contributing to our mission; to create the art of future food, now.

- The Nebullam Team

2710 South Loop Drive, Ames, IA, United States  |  641-201-0651

Check out our website! 

Life On Mars A Possibility With New Indoor-Farming Technology

Life On Mars A Possibility With New Indoor-Farming Technology

September 1, 2017

A US-based company has developed technology that can replicate any kind of climate inside a shipping container, bringing sustenance on a mission on Mars one step closer to reality.

The company, Local Roots Farms, has joined forces with Space X, a company that's trying to get people to Mars. (File photo/ Reuters)

A company in California says it could be the first to grow food on Mars.

Local Roots Farms has developed an indoor farm that could feed astronauts on longer-term space missions.

They say their technology will also benefit the earth as it uses less water than traditional farming techniques.

Ever since the first moon landing in 1969, scientists have been looking for a way for humans to sustain a mission to the Red Planet. And while David Bowie may have sung about Life on Mars, a company in California says it may have found a way to grow food there.

TRT World’s Frances Read reports from Los Angeles.

9 AgTech Startups Using AI to Grow Smarter

9 AgTech Startups Using AI to Grow Smarter

SEPTEMBER 9, 2017 BY NANALYZE

We won’t spend too much time belaboring some obvious points when it comes to feeding future Earth. Basically, we’re pretty well screwed. Estimates from just a few years ago said we would need to increase agricultural production by 70 percent to feed nine billion people. A more recent estimate says we can expect closer to 10 billion mouths to feed by mid-century. You do the math (mainly because our MBAs flunked their pre-algebra classes). Throw in a few record-setting storms every year for the next few decades, and soylent green is starting to taste pretty good. Still, we’re an optimistic bunch at Nanalyze (a lucrative opioid addiction will do that for you), and we have found plenty of reasons to be excited about agriculture technology—or, in the parlance of our times, agtech—and its use of artificial intelligence to grow some smart solutions.

AgTech Grows Up

One of the big reasons we’re rooting for the future is that the world’s biggest tech fund, the SoftBank Vision Fund, planted $200 million in the biggest agtech funding round ever for San Francisco-based Plenty. That brought total funding for the three-year-old company up to $226 million. SoftBank basically bought a farm. A vertical farm. Plenty employs the latest tech like IoT sensors and machine learning to grow crops vertically indoors using only light, water and nutrients. Its system reputedly uses only 1 percent of the water guzzled down by conventional farming techniques. Plenty also maintains it can grow up to 350 times as much produce per square foot as Old MacDonald.

This woman at Plenty looks so happy you’d think she was growing a wall of marijuana. Credit: Plenty

Only a month before, Plenty had made its first acquisition: Bright Agrotech, an indoor agtech hardware company for indoor growers. All the new green from the Series B round will see the company open urban farms outside of its one 52,000-square-foot facility, as well as invest in hiring staff in computer science, machine learning, mechanical engineering, crop science, biology among others, according to AgFunder News.

The SoftBank investment certainly catapulted Plenty to the head of the class among agtech vertical farming systems, but it still faces some stiff competition against the likes of Bowery Farming and AeroFarms.

Founded in 2015, New York City-based Bowery Farming has raised a total of $31 million in disclosed funding, following a $20 million Series A in June. It has a long list of investors behind it, including Google. The company’s BoweryOS platform uses computer vision, automation and machine learning to monitor plants to get more out of less. It claims to use 95 percent less water than conventional farming while producing 100 times more against the same footprint of agricultural land.

Founded way back in 2004, Newark-based AeroFarms has compiled nearly $96 million in disclosed funding after a $34.3 million Series D in May. This agtech startup doesn’t outright say that it uses machine learning, only “predictive analytics”, to crunch big data for optimizing its system. AeroFarms boasts similar yields and water efficiencies as its competitors.

Yielding Better Results

Conventional farming certainly isn’t being left out of the agtech space when it comes to applying AI for solving the problem of boosting yields without increasing inputs like fertilizer and water. For Benson Hill BioSystems, founded in 2012, the way forward is to identify genetic traits in crops that will produce the most bang for the buck. That approach has brought the Raleigh, North Carolina some big bucks of its own, with $34.5 million in disclosed funding, including a $25 million Series B in May.

Credit: Benson Hill Biosystems

Its CropOS platform uses big data and AI to predict crop outcomes from certain traits, starting with photosynthesis. The system is hitting the mark about 10 percent of the time, which doesn’t sound so impressive until you learn that the best you can do otherwise is about 1 percent. The company recently revealed that it is developing a gene-editing tool it calls CRISPR 2.0 that it claims is better than CRISPR/Cas-9. Benson Hill plans to make its new CRISPR technology openly available, as it already has with CropOS. Sounds like this startup might be one company truly interested in feeding the planet and not just its bottom line.

Without a Trace

A community of good and bad microorganisms inhabit soils just like they do the human gut, which is called the microbiome. San Francisco-based Trace Genomics, founded in 2015, produces kits for farmers so they can test the health of their soil microbiome. The agtech startup has raised $4 million in one early stage round to date. The company says it applies AI techniques similar to those used in fraud detection to ID the good microbes from the bad. Its screening products retail at $199 and up.

Credit: Trace Genomics

Trace Genomics is part of a growing sector in agtech microbiology. For instance, we profiled a Massachusetts company earlier this year called Indigo that uses the beneficial microbes to help plants grow better. The company scooped up $156 million in VC funds last year to lead all agtech startups.

Seeing a Difference

Even the healthiest soils and the best genes won’t always protect your farm or garden from the scourge of pests or disease. If only there was a way to ID the culprit quickly. Why, yes, there’s an app for that. Founded in 2015, Germany’s PEAT has developed a free app called Plantix that uses machine learning and computer vision, technologies within the broader AI umbrella, to identify the problem with a plant from just a picture. It also offers solutions and preventive measures.

Credit: PEAT

The company is giving the tech away for free with the hopes it can bank on all of the anonymized data Plantix collects over time. We’ve seen the benefits of AI and computer vision on agriculture with another company called Blue River Technology, which has developed a system that can actually “see” weeds so that farmers can dramatically reduce the use of pesticides. Deere and Company just snapped up Blue River for $305 million this month. The California company, one of CB Insights’ AI 100 in 2017, had raised about $30 million prior to exiting the startup scene.

Agricultural Intelligence

Agtech meets fintech with Colorado-based aWhere, which has raised about$14.45 million since it was founded in 1999, with almost all of the disclosed funding coming 15 years later in 2014. The company has developed a global weather data platform keyed onto the agricultural landscape. It has turned more than a billion daily data points into what it calls agricultural intelligence.

The insights it can provide from all that data target a number of different sectors, from the farms themselves to agribusiness and commodity risk to food security for government customers. As John Corbett, CEO of aWhere, told AgFunder News (AgFunder being one of two of the company’s primary investors): “Anyone with commodity risk exposure should be looking at this: these data have greater fidelity in space and time than anyone else.”

Founded in 2017, Spanish company ec2ec (easy to see) has raised $1 million, according to CB Insights, for its AI platform that supports several solutions similar to aWhere. These include farm management, supply chain insights and market forecasts. Information is sparse on how it does this or what datasets its machine learning system mines for predictive analytics.

A Smart Camera

Swiss agtech startup Gamaya straddles the worlds of drones and AI. Founded in 2015, the company has raised about $4 million. The startup has developed a specialized hyperspectral camera designed to fly on a drone. Whereas the human eye or your typical digital camera can use three bands of the electromagnetic spectrum, hyperspectral cameras can use many narrow bands to create images that provide details unavailable to the naked eye. The Gamaya camera has 40 spectral channels. Algorithms then process the data, providing insights on crop health that could be affected by such things as disease or drought. Below you can see it identifies gaps in a field of sugarcane.

Credit: Gayama

The company claims the data acquired from its cameras are 10 times more information than any other monitoring solution currently on the market.

Conclusion

Investors poured more than $3.2 billion into agtech in 2016. This year’s $200 million mega-round to Plenty and $305 million exit by Blue River show that the sector is drawing serious attention. You can build all of the cool VR headsets in the world, but the biggest disruption on the planet will always be hunger. Remember the Arab Spring? That was driven, in part, from high commodity pricescaused by agricultural failures and the diversion of crops for biofuels. These agtech startups, applying AI solutions, are showing they can not only feed more people but even predict when those times of instability might arise again. That’s something to chew on.

Global Data Collection And The Future of Indoor Urban Farming

From The Future of Urban Farming

September 8, 2017

Global Data Collection And The Future of Indoor Urban Farming

by Francis Lam

Photo: Nettedotca/iStock/Getty Images Plus

The urban farming movement takes many forms, both indoors and outdoors: school gardens, community vegetable patches, fish farms in tanks. Scientist Caleb Harper believes that indoor urban farming specifically can create the best tasting, most nutritious, and least energy intensive crops anywhere in the world. Harper is director of the Open Agriculture Initiative (OpenAg) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab. He and a global collection of “nerd farmers” are working on a Food Computer, which closely detects – and allows you to adjust – the growing conditions of any plant in the room. Francis Lam talks with Harper about the project.

Francis Lam: There are so many things that make a great farm great. You start with the farmers, of course. But then the kind of sunlight it gets, the soil composition, the temperature, all sorts of factors. You’re trying to bring those characteristics to growing plants – indoors.

Caleb Harper: Exactly. If someone says the best tomato in the world comes from Tuscany on the north side of the slope with the happy cow next door, we try to factor in all of the biotic or abiotic stress – most people would call it climate – that caused those specific genetics to create the flavor that they liked. We try to figure that out and, in the process, use the least amount of resources – less water, energy, and nutrition loss from transportation – so that we can make a good product that's healthy and available in our cities.

FL: I assume that means you also pipe in audio of a happy cow mooing just to make sure that's covered?

CH: A lot of my freshmen that come into my lab at MIT, the first thing they want to do is put the plants through Mozart and then put the plants through Tupac. And you know who wins between Mozart and Tupac? Tupac! Because it's all about microvibrations, which in the natural world you'd call wind. You need wind inside of these environments because the plant gets stressed by the wind and starts to grow taller, so it's morphologically correct. Those microvibrations of Tupac really help it out.

FL: I imagine the more you do it, the more you learn what these factors are –

CH: That's a bleeding edge of science. We've never before had the ability to gather or process so much data so cheaply. Now, with advancements in robotics, sensors technology, and data processing, we can start to get at some basic science that we haven’t been able to do before.

FL: It’s almost like you're creating a virtual reality for these plants that is, in fact, reality.

CH:  That's totally true. One of the things that limits agriculture and agricultural science is seasons. We go season-to-season, we try and make changes, we select for genetics that did well in that season. But we have a lot of asynchronistic or non-categorized variables during that season. Imagine you could run the season ten thousand times. If you could run the season ten thousand times, you could try all different kinds of things that you would have done, and see which one worked out the best without having to wait ten thousand years. The idea is, how can we make agriculture and plant science more like computing?

Caleb Harper
(Photo: MIT Media Lab)

FL: How are we going to get to the point where this happens on every other block in every other city? How will this scale up?

CH: Right now, it’s bubbling in the entrepreneurial realm. There are a lot of start-ups – shipping container size or warehouse size – in Japan, China, Europe, and the United States, with hundreds of millions of dollars going into this. But what I think needs to happen, and what my group is trying to be a part of, is the sharing of this knowledge so it can scale up.

There are so many unanswered questions. We need trillions of data points. We need one hundred thousand images to do any machine learning. We've taken all of our plans, software and hardware, and made it open source. You can access it for free; you can use it for whatever you want and you contribute as part of the project. It’s kind of like a citizen science for horticulture or botany. After the last year and a half, there are people in 40 countries around the world contributing to our project. They are contributing code. They are growing in the bots whatever they want to grow, whatever excites them. We are able to collect data on that, and it starts to build up this data set that we can use.

This is the way of the future. You look at Tesla open sourcing their patents so that more infrastructure can be built; it’s part of that network economy. Apple open sourcing their app developer language; this is because of our networked world. There's never been a time in human history where you can get more people working on a single problem – if you share that infrastructure. I don't think anything is more important than how we are going to feed all the people in the world with the least amount of resources and the highest amount of flavor and nutrition.

FL: This sounds incredible. Good luck to you, and I think that means good luck to all of us.

CH: Absolutely. There's a nerd farmer inside all of us. A lot of us think we don't have a green thumb. But what if a green thumb was a digital asset? What if I could download a farmer's eye that took 60 years to cultivate? That beautiful eye that can tell you what's wrong with a plant. You might come into this saying, “My houseplants are always dying; I don't know what to do with them.” What if we could make that a program? What if you literally downloaded a tomato, and that tomato meant that you put a seed in an environment that was then created by a master gardener or a master horticulturalist, or by a chef that knew what to do with this plant in the northern part of Spain to get the most beautiful expression of flavor – but we captured that as a recipe? You downloaded it, you grew it, and all the sudden, you're in the Basque region in your apartment.

FL: What other technologies do you see right now in terms of farming and agriculture that we laypeople don’t know about?

CH: In a bigger context, what I’m seeing is a general shift that’s a coming together of biologic and digital technologies. For example, rapid sequencing – the ability to get to the genetics of whatever we’re interested in very quickly. And now, the ability to edit those genetics. There is something called CRISPR (Clustered Regulatory Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats); it’s a system that makes it easy and cheap to edit something within a genome. This might be something that people are concerned about. But when you think about the fact that everything we’ve eaten in our entire life has been genetically modified because it’s been trait selected for hundreds of years down to become the corn that we eat today –

FL: Breeding sweeter and sweeter corn.

CH: Exactly. Or a bigger version of whatever we were looking for. What CRISPR is, is the ability to do what used to take many years outside, one day to do in a lab. That can radically change what we’re able to do with agriculture in the short term.

There are some amazing things going on in the microbiome. I don’t know if you’re following the conversation about human microbiome, but in the plant world, we’re saying “root microbiome.” We look at what should be in the soil. Maybe it isn’t there because the method of farming that we’ve been using hasn’t cultivated that microbiome. Maybe it was never there in the first place, for whatever reason. What microbes and bacteria would we want to put back into the soil that would cause a better plant to come out? What’s even more radical than that, is people are starting to engineer microbes. If you know the process you are trying to help, you can literally engineer a helper microbe to go into the soil to cause a more efficient plant.

Things like microsatellites and drones are getting a lot more data on our fields. There is a start-up that has recently created more data about infield farming in the last five years than the USDA has in its entire existence. Part of that is the cheaper sensors and cheaper processing power.  We’re getting a very described field, the ability to modify very quickly within genome, trait select using CRISPR, and we’re looking at how we would intentionally the soil with microbes.

Achievements of the Ag Innovation Showcase Community

Achievements of the Ag Innovation Showcase Community

BY AG SHOWCASE • AUGUST 27, 2017 • SPEAKERS, UPDATES

As we approach this year’s Ag Innovation Showcase, we at Larta are proud to launch regular postings that celebrate and acknowledge the achievements of our community.

Here are several community members who will be speaking at this year’s Ag Innovation Showcase that you won’t want to miss: Nicola Kerslake, Pete Nelson, and Vonnie Estes.

The Ag Innovation Showcase will take place in St. Louis, MO at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center on September 11th-13th, 2017. Visit our website at www.AgShowcase.com

Nicola Kerslake, founder of Newbean Capital, Reno, Nevada and an Ag Innovation Showcase Advisory Committee member will be speaking on “Data and Machine Learning Inside the Bubble”.  Nicola and her colleagues at Newbean Capital focus on filling capital and technical gaps to accelerate the growth of indoor agriculture.  In late 2016, she co-founded an alternate finance business, Contain Inc., to improve access to capital for indoor growers, those farming in hydroponic, aquaponics, and aeroponic systems in warehouses, greenhouses, and containers.  Contain arranged their first lease of indoor agriculture equipment in May 2017. Read more

Pete Nelson, president and executive director of AgLaunch, Memphis Tennessee, will be moderating a disruptive dialogue (panel discussion) on “Soil Health and Input Management”.  Pete and his colleagues launched AgLaunch, as a vehicle to develop programs and investment deals to continue their development of a farmer-centric model for bringing agriculture solutions from innovation to full commercialization.  In Pete’s words: “We believe (that changing the) role for the farmer as a partner in innovation, not just a first customer will change the entire agricultural investment thesis.  (and).. bring forward solutions that more efficiently address real-world agricultural problems.”  Read more

Vonnie Estes, an ag biotech industry veteran, will be joining our closing keynote panel to “Showcase Highlights Trends to Watch”.  Vonnie has held leadership roles at big Ag companies along with startups and venture funds.  She was awarded the 2017 Rosalind Franklin Award for Leadership in Industrial Biotechnology.

As a member of the ag innovation community, if you have a recent achievement you would like to share through our Ag Innovation Showcase blog, we invite you to send them to ckinlaw@larta.org.

Logistics Industry Will See Improved Connectivity, Efficiency And Security With Blockchain

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Jody Cleworth - Marine Transport International

Logistics Industry Will See Improved Connectivity, Efficiency And Security With Blockchain

A successful pilot program delivered by logistics technology company Marine Transport International (MTI) has demonstrated that the logistics industry will see improved connectivity, efficiency and security thanks to blockchain.

MTI, in conjunction with Agility Sciences, have today released a white paper detailing the deployment of their Container Streams system in a supply chain environment. The results of the pilot have been verified by scientists at the University of Copenhagen and maritime technology leaders at Blockchain Labs for Open Collaboration (BLOC). 

Jody Cleworth, CEO of Marine Transport International, comments: “The results of this successful pilot demonstrate the strengths of blockchain technology when deployed to link the various actors in the supply chain. We are confident that firms throughout the logistics industry will see a broad spectrum of benefits stemming from blockchain deployment.

"We will need to be able to communicate between multiple block chains and work interoperatively. We have already created some work to do this so that we can communicate between multiple devices, blockchains and legacy systems so it would be one single version of communication between the blockchains.

“A blockchain-enabled supply chain is highly resilient to cyber attack – a copy of the essential shipping data is stored on each node on a decentralised network, meaning that even if one node is compromised, the data is safe nevertheless.

Karim Jabbar, from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Copenhagen, added: “This pilot demonstrates the great potential for distributed ledger technologies to be used in improving supply chain processes. The Container Streams system is unique in the fact that it does not require the complete replacement of existing systems - instead, MTI’s solution allows complete interoperability with existing legacy infrastructure. The logistics industry as a whole can expect better visibility, connectivity and cost savings as a result of distributed ledger adoption.”

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Cleworth goes on the say that the cost entry is quite low, it is more about having the right people with the right skills to get this done. 

"A conservative estimate is a cost saving of 90%. In the shipping and logistics industry we are very good with new regulations and milestones, putting in an end-perfect way of managing it: 'This is what it is going to cost me to manage a specific milestone'. 

The cost saving here comes through the automation of data, you have all these different data silos which have data locked in them or which is not being communicated in an effective way. Smart contact takes the data from those different points and processes it, removing the requirement for human beings to interact with it. We are able then to process that data and format it, whether is it a new system or an old system we can use a blockchain to do that work for us reducing admin costs."

"What people find difficult to get over is that you have your local sales force and internal reporting system to put in numbers and data and using that to augment the outcome or create a spreadsheet, blockchain will actually do this job based on existing parameters so the programmability of the technology. 

This can be applied in the food supply chain, firstly to guarantee provenance, "You know where the product has come from and where it is going to. Transactions become frictionless, we can remove the amount of paper work which is required in terms of moving that data between parties. There are a lot of certificates and regulations in terms of what gets exported to where. Regulatory bodies would normally only follow up regulations when it is necessary. With data entering the blockchain the regulators would be able to follow it up based on specific parameters, they would be able to read those contracts or certificates in real-time.

Effectively what we have done with our white paper is to pull in data as soon as that container starts loading, growers can record specific yields for each commodity and enter photos etc. along with all the weather data to attest to the quality of product which consumers are buying. This data entering process can continue along the chain whether it is to a coldstore or to be processed or straight to the retailer, you can follow the chain the whole way through. The management of that data would be automated based on data coming into the system from different points.

"When we have discussions with food producers they want to unlock that data source which is coming into the blockchain to prove the provenance and certification of those goods. This system would also take away inefficiencies in the supply chain and allow more 'just in time' deliveries, doing away with bulk delivery discounts.

For more information:
Jody Cleworth
Marine Transport International
jody@askmti.com

Publication date: 8/30/2017
Author: Nichola Watson
Copyright: www.freshplaza.com

Autogrow Launches Jelly - The First Indoor-Agricultural SDK

Autogrow Launches Jelly - The First Indoor-Agricultural SDK
 
31 August 2017, Auckland, New Zealand: 

Autogrow has launched the first indoor-agricultural SDK (Software Development Kit), opening the door for a new revolution in the industry.

Called Jelly, this first SDK will form part of a group of software Autogrow will provide publicly on the world leading development platform Github.
 
'Jelly is the first step in raising agtech to the next level. For us this is about building a community for a new generation of growers who love to grow and hack the tech,' says Darryn Keiller, CEO of Autogrow.
 
'We are opening the door for 3rd parties to access our technology programmatically which has never been done in our industry and is just the beginning as we work our way towards our open source initiative.'
 
Traditionally agricultural providers utilise proprietary products and services which leave little flexibility for the growers to create their own solutions or connect them with existing infrastructure. Autogrow's move will provide their customers access to the programmable layer of Autogrow's Intelli product range. Other future products will follow suit.
 
'Growing crops is no longer just about dirt and seeds - it's about tech and data. The most successful and sustainable growers embrace technology and utilise every opportunity to understand their growing environments,' explains Mr Keiller.
 
'Technology has a huge role to play in future food production but we can only really do that if we create an open environment where everyone is pushing hard to design better, more innovative solutions - regardless of who owns the IP.'

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Darryn Keiller - CEO (left), Jeffrey Law - Chief Technology Officer (right)

Autogrow's Chief Technology Officer, Jeffrey Law, is the driving force behind Jelly and the various solutions the research and development team are currently creating.
 
'We came up with the name Jelly as it reflects that early incubation stage where everything is flexible, you can mould it in any configuration, it comes in different variations, and of course it's quite tasty,' says Mr Law.
 
'For us it's like a play area where we get to experiment and come up with original ideas. The biggest difference here is that we are opening the door to the play room and welcoming in anyone who wants to revolutionise the agricultural industry.'
 
Autogrow will monitor the progress of their Jelly SDK with availability via Github from 6 September 2017 - https://github.com/AutogrowSystems/go-jelly

About Autogrow
Established in 1994, Autogrow (www.autogrow.com) is committed to creating original ideas for agriculture - and making them a reality.
With a global headquarters in Auckland, New Zealand, and growers and resellers in over 39 countries, Autogrow provides growers with affordable, accessible and easy-to-use innovation - 24/7, anywhere in the world. 
By leveraging the power of technology, data science and plant biology through a team of software designers, engineers and crop science experts - Autogrow continues to push innovation boundaries to gain the best result for the growers.
 
MEDIA QUERIES
Autogrow
Kylie Horomia, Communications Manager
(e) Kylie.horomia@autogrow.com
(m) +6421 733 025

Israel Agritech Market Map: 400 Startups Putting The Tech in Agritech

Israel Agritech Market Map: 400 Startups Putting The Tech in Agritech

AUGUST 10, 2017 LOUISA BURWOOD-TAYLOR

For a young nation built on the collectivist agricultural ethos of the Kibbutz movement, it’s perhaps no surprise that Israel’s agricultural technology startup ecosystem is booming.

There are now more than 400 Israel agritech startups working on innovations for the global agriculture sector, according to new research from Start-Up Nation Central, an Israeli NGO and Greensoil Investments, a local agritech venture capital firm.

These agritech startups are innovating across a range of challenges such as drought and water efficiency, as well as crop productivity and waste. 

While Israel’s agritech funding footprint might look relatively small compared to other leading markets such as the US — according to AgFunder, Israeli agritech startups raised just 2% of funding dollars in 2016 ($51.7m), accounting for 3.3% of deal-flow (19 deals) in 2016, while US startups raised 58% of funding dollars and 48% of deal-flow — this is still impressive with a population of 8.5 million next to the US’s 323 million.

Israel is undoubtedly an innovation hub, and there are many serial entrepreneurs moving into agritech bringing experience, tech, methodologies, and connections from other sectors into the agritech vertical.

Companies like ATP Labs and Agritask were founded by people moving from military data analytics and sensor technology, respectively, into the peaceful and impactful area of agritech.

Israeli agritech is also growing in terms of incoming investments. Since the beginning of 2017, there have been many large investments such as Prospera’s $15 million Series B financing, Taranis’ $7.5 million Series A, a strategic $15 million investment in Hinoman, and others.

Currently, Start-Up Nation’s online, searchable startup database includes more than 5,500 profiles of active, innovative startups across all tech verticals, including agritech. 

Along with Greensoil Investments, Start-Up Nation Central has used the Start-Up Nation Finder platform to build a taxonomy that identifies different sub categories in agritech. This has been visualized in an Israeli agritech market map along with a representative, and non-exhaustive, selection of companies in each category.

Here is a description of each category according to Start-Up Nation and Greensoil, and some company examples.

• Biotech – Typically involves breeding of plants and bacteria with improved traits to help plant growth. Some companies use genetic technologies for that. These include companies such as Groundwork BioAg, Rootility, and Kaiima.

• Smart farming – Data-based technologies making use of big data and predictive analytics to help farmers make better decisions on daily farm issues (irrigation, pest management, risk management, etc). Some of the more known companies are Taranis, Phythech, Cropx, and Prospera

• Crop protection – Biological or chemical substances used for protecting the crops from pests & diseases, nontoxic and environmentally friendly. Companies like Biofeed which lures insects away or EdenShield.

• Machinery and Robotics – Companies that build all kinds of robotics, machinery, and equipment used primarily to automate farm work, harvest crops and to sort it. Metomotion is one example with a robotic system developed for greenhouses.

• Irrigation & water management – Israel is well known for water innovation, but there are new companies that are creating innovative irrigation methods and water efficiency, such as Neotop which covers water reservoirs and Emefcy which created an Energy-efficient Wastewater Treatment.

• Post-harvest – Technologies to reduce post-harvest losses in diverse ways (e.g. storage, packaging, treatments and climate management technologies). An example for these companies can be found in Amaizz which deals with drying produce or Valentis Nanotech, which produces polymeric films for coating.

• Farm to consumer – Companies that leverage new business models to shorten and simplify the supply chain by connecting the farm to the end consumer. Usually done through digital platforms. A good example would be Avenews-GT, which builds a digital trading platform connecting food wholesalers with producers.

• Novel farming systems – Innovative systems for growing plants, new types of greenhouses, urban farming, hydroponics, and aquaponics. It could be small scale growing in the case of Flux or lighting solutions for farmers such as FloraFotonica.

• Livestock – Companies that create technology for farm animals and pets. With mass vaccination companies such as adst Technologies and Eggxyt’s pre-hatch sex detection for chicks

• Waste technologies – Processing livestock manure, fertilizer run-off, harvest, and food waste to reduce harmful substances and reuse the materials. Companies like 3PLW and HomeBiogas which convert organic waste to bioplastic and cooking gas, respectively.

• Special crops – Companies which deal with medicinal plants from growing human tissue repair plants, such as Collplant to cannabis-based products, in the case of Corsica Innovations

• Aquaculture – These are companies that develop technologies to grow things in water – algae (e.g., Algalo), fish or sea food (e.g., BioFishency)

“The Israel agritech market map displays the wide variety of Israeli agritech innovation and the growth of this sector”, says Eitan Elkin, Start-Up Nation Central’s director of marketing, “The number of companies behind it and the fact that most of them were founded in recent years really brings to attention of the boom which this industry enjoys in Israel and the appeal it has to many entrepreneurs.”

Click here to download your own free copy of the Israel Agritech market map.

About Start-Up Nation Central

Start-Up Nation Central is an independent, nonprofit and nonrevenue organization committed to leveraging deep knowledge of the Israeli innovation ecosystem to connect business, government, and NGO leaders from around the world to people and technologies in Israel to help them solve their most pressing challenges while creating value for the Israeli innovation ecosystem.

Start-Up Nation Central has curated the largest and most up-to-date collection of Israeli innovators and entrepreneurs, providing critical information on over 6,000 companies across dozens of industries. To search Start-up Nation’s Finder, click here.

About Greensoil Investments

With offices in Raanana and Toronto, and $100m under management, GreenSoil Investments funds companies in the agro & food technologies and building innovation sectors. Founded in 2011, GreenSoil’s agro & food technologies fund has a portfolio of six promising companies and is the largest dedicated fund in this space in Israel.

INDOOR AG-CON PHILLY

INDOOR AG-CON PHILLY

ABOUT INDOOR AG-CON PHILLY

After two successful years in New York, Indoor Ag-Con is relocating its East coast event to Philadelphia for its inaugural Indoor Ag-Con Philly on October 16, 2017. Our venue is the modern gallery at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and our agenda will include 12 industry-leading keynotes covering topical “big picture” subjects such as the use of artificial intelligence in indoor agriculture.  As for other Indoor Ag-Con events, our agenda for Indoor Ag-Con Philly will be tech-focused and crop-agnostic.  With extended Q&A sessions and networking breaks, there will be plenty of opportunity to network with the growers, produce buyers, entrepreneurs, tech geeks and investors we expect to join us.  Participation will be capped at 120 to keep the conversation flowing and maximize networking opportunities.

On October 17, the day after Indoor Ag-Con Philly, our Nextbean Ambassador sponsors at Kennett Township, PA – one hour’s drive outside of Philadelphia – will be hosting tours, free to Indoor Ag-Con Philly participants, of the extensive indoor agriculture production and distribution facilities which support their world-class mushroom industry. Every day Kennett produces, packs and ships 1.5M lbs of fresh mushrooms, single-handedly supplying ~50% of the US market, an amazing feat that’s been going on year-round for over 100 years! This is a truly unusual opportunity to get an insider’s view of what’s involved in producing and distributing a large-scale agriculture commodity grown entirely indoors. In addition, the event will start from world-famous Longwood Gardens, home to more than 1,000 acres of formal gardens, conservatories, woodlands and meadows, and includes a custom tour of Longwood’s own indoor production horticultural facilities, plus a complimentary farm-to-table lunch and free admission to the public gardens. You’ll be asked if you would like to join the Kennett event – at no extra charge – as you purchase your Indoor Ag-Con Philly admission.

What is AgriFood Tech?

What is AgriFood Tech?

AUGUST 15, 2017 LOUISA BURWOOD-TAYLOR

Agrifood tech is the small but growing segment of the startup and venture capital universe that’s aiming to improve or disrupt the global food and agriculture industry.

Globally, food and agriculture (agrifood) is a $7.8 trillion industry, responsible for feeding the planet and hiring well over 40% of it. It is also responsible for a large portion of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions; agriculture alone contributes to around one of third of all carbon emissions, without counting the contribution of supply chain processes before it reaches the consumer, such as food processing, transportation, and retail.

As with all industries, technology plays a key role in the operation of the agrifood sector, but the pace of innovation has not kept up with other industries. Agriculture is the least digitized of all major industries, according to the McKinsey Global Institute’s Digitization Index.

The industrial agrifood sector of today is largely inefficient with an increasing number of demands and constraints being placed on it, making the need for agrifood tech and innovation ever more important. These pressures include:

• a growing global population set to reach 9 billion in 2050

• climate change and global warming

• changing consumer demands including increased demand for meat protein in emerging markets and less processed food in the western world

• limited natural resources, particularly land and water

• food waste: in the US, 40% of food that’s grown is wasted and food loss and waste account for 8% of greenhouse gas emissions. In developing countries, that figure can be even higher, with particular challenges around logistics and refrigeration

• consumer health issues and chronic disease; more than one-third of US adults are obese and 17% of children and adolescents aged 2–19 years, with similar statistics in the UK.

Agrifood is a complex industry, which makes change challenging as it includes a wide range of processes, operations, and roles as food travels from the farm to the fork. However, this creates lots of opportunities for entrepreneurs and technologists to disrupt the industry and create new efficiencies with agrifood tech at various points in the chain.

These processes and roles include:

• Agriculture and aquaculture: raising crops, livestock, and seafood

• Manufacturing agricultural inputs: agrichemicals, farm machinery, seeds, livestock pharmaceuticals, and other supplies

• Food processing: the preparation of fresh products, manufacture of prepared food products and ingredients

• Non-food processing: extraction of bioenergy and biomaterials from agricultural crops and products

• Marketing, wholesale and distribution, logistics, transportation, and warehousing

• Retail and foodservice: grocery, farmers’ markets, restaurants, and other retailing

• Consumer cooking and food discovery

• Regulation: food quality, food security, and food safety

• Research and development

• Financial services

Separation anxiety

Food and agriculture are often viewed as separate industries meaning that the above roles are often segmented in the minds of entrepreneurs, investors, and business. But at AgFunder, we believe the interconnectedness of the supply chain increasingly demands a more holistic view of our food and agriculture system.

Today’s consumer is no longer content with a black box food system; they are increasingly sensitive about how our food is grown and how it’s processed, with growing awareness and concern about agriculture’s social and environmental footprint. The impact of food on our health is also in focus more than ever before.

At the same time, we have an inflexible and staid supply chain that makes change very difficult to effect; it will take McDonald’s eight years to transition to all cage-free eggs for example. And that supply chain is used to operating in an opaque environment with few checks and balances, which causes the many food scandals and crises that still beset large food companies, such as Chipotle, which had failed to invest in food safety & traceability resulting in incidences of food poisoning at several of its chain restaurants.

This lack of transparency and communication with consumers has created a backlash from consumers as they continue to educate themselves about how their food is grown. There’s no better example of this failure of food companies to communicate with their consumers than the success of the anti-GMO lobby, where in many cases consumers are choosing to ignore regulators’ stance on these foods, instead coming to their own assumptions about the safety of food containing GMO ingredients.

Agrifood tech solution

Agrifood tech can help to mend many of these bridges, make the agrifood industry more sustainable, transparent, agile, and able to respond more quickly to changing consumer demands. Issues such as food waste, which occurs across the food chain, can be better solved with a more holistic view of the industry, for example. Viewing agrifood as a single industry that spans the value chain from farm to fork can also help engage consumers early with technologies that go into food production to avoid backlash, and raise awareness of issues on the farm such as soil health and environmental impact.

On the consumer side, companies as diverse as Blue Apron, Heinz, and Costco, are now working directly with growers to address various challenges and opportunities in their own supply chain. On the agriculture side, farming cooperatives like Land O’ Lakes are building powerful food brands, while companies like Soufflet in France have built a portfolio that spans ag retail, grain trading, food processing, consumer packaged goods (CPG) and catering. Similarly, Rabobank started as a farmer’s cooperative but has become the world’s largest food and agriculture focused bank. We’re also seeing the convergence of agriculture and food in venture capital where VC funds like Avrio Capital and S2G Ventures invest seamlessly across the agrifood value chain.

There are many ways to categorize agrifood tech startups — again coming back to the complexity of the agrifood industry, it’s not easy — but we’ve thought hard about it and these are the categories we will be using in our new agrifood investing report due next month.

Ag Biotechnology

This agrifood tech category includes most agricultural inputs including seed, fertilizer, pesticides, and animal pharmaceuticals. The large agribusinesses have been innovating in biotech for many decades to increase crop yields with synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and genetically-modified seeds, and have created multibillion dollar businesses out of it. But agrifood tech startup companies are now adopting, embracing, and developing new capabilities in plant breeding, gene editing, biologicals, microbiome research and more to create new, more sustainable input products to disrupt the status quo in ag biotech. On the livestock side, consumer backlash against antibiotic use is pushing startups to create alternatives.

Bioenergy & Biomaterials

Agricultural products have been used for non-food applications for decades, particularly bioethanol, and technologies are being developed around feedstocks, extraction, processing, and byproduct use, although the low price of oil in the US has tempered much of this innovation in recent years. This category also encompasses the use of cannabis-related inputs for pharmaceutical and non-food products.

eGrocery

As consumers lives get busier, they have less time for grocery shopping while at the same time they want to know where their food comes from, and have access to new, innovative products from across the globe. This category includes on-demand e-grocers selling third party brand goods like Instacart as well as online farmers markets like FreshDirect. It also includes specialty and niche food & beverage providers that only sell their products online, such as alcohol, spice, or tea delivery services.

Farm Management Software, Sensing & IoT

This category arguably sparked the interest of the first agrifood technology investors after Monsanto acquired The Climate Corporation, a weather data and analytics software company, for nearly $1 billion in 2013. It’s the capture and analysis of big data using technologies that have been rolled out across other industries. It encompasses sensors and satellite imagery, online enterprise resource planning tools, decision support software, data analytics algorithms, machine learning, and Internet-of-Things (IoT) connectivity technology used across agricultural production systems.

Farm Robotics, Mechanization, & Equipment

Mechanization defined the British agricultural revolution in the 1700s and is now on the verge of another revolution with the advent of robotics & automation. While this category encompasses all on-farm machinery innovation, most startups here are working on automating many tasks farmers conduct with their existing machinery using artificial intelligence and automation. This will become crucial as labor shortages persist and the need for precision increases. This category includes startups across agricultural sectors and farming systems.

Home & Cooking Tech

As consumers spend more of their time thinking about and researching the food they are going to eat, many want to maintain more control by cooking at home more frequently. To help them do that and make it easier, agrifood tech startups are cropping up with new technologies to disrupt, and hopefully improve, consumers’ relationships with home cooking. This category includes smart kitchen appliances, automated baking technologies, nutrition technologies, and food testing devices.

Innovative Food

Consumer demands are changing at a faster pace than ever as our understanding of nutrition evolves. Protein-rich foods are in particular demand, but with the meat industry responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions, innovators are finding alternative ways to give consumers what they want, including plant-based burgers and cricket bars. This product-focused category also includes novel ingredients and supplements such as algae.

In-Store Retail & Restaurant Tech

Technologies are transforming how food service businesses operate in-store with quality control, inventory management, HR, and food waste just some of the challenges they face. New technology is also impacting how these businesses interact with their consumers in the store. Technologies in this category range from automated shelf-stacking robots and 3D food printers to point-of-sale systems and food waste monitoring IoT systems.

Novel Farming Systems

As the world scrutinizes the agrifood industry more than ever, particularly with regards to its carbon footprint, innovators are finding new ways to produce food and ingredients with the hope of doing so more sustainably, using fewer natural resources. This category includes indoor farms — growing produce in high-tech greenhouses and automated vertical farms; insect farms — producing protein alternatives to replace animal and aquaculture feed, and for human food; and the production of new living ingredients such as algae and microbes for use in food as well as other industries and applications.

Online Restaurants & Meal Kits

Consumers want more control over what they eat, but also want to be adventurous with their meal choices at home. Online restaurants, where the startup prepares, cooks and delivers meals to customers, are opening access to new types of foods for consumers to enjoy, often with a particular angle or theme like a special diet or vegan menu. In the same category, we include meal kit companies that prepare pre-portioned ingredients for consumers to cook at home.

Restaurant Marketplaces

As part of the same trend as e-grocery and online restaurants, take-out is being revolutionized with online restaurant marketplaces. These are online tech platforms delivering food from a wide range of vendors in the shortest amount of time possible. In Europe, many consumers are already using DeliveryHero, while in the US Seamless is one of the most popular in this category. There is also a range of services across Asia.

Supply Chain Technologies

Increasing consumer demand for transparency, traceability and clean, safe food drives much of the innovation taking place along the supply chain — after food leaves the farm and before it reaches the consumer. Agrifood tech startups in this category span several technology-types including food testing devices, logistics tracking software, food freshness sensors, shelf life enhancement technology, and food processing tech.

$8.8m Awarded To Support Innovation In US Strawberry Production

$8.8m Awarded To Support Innovation In US Strawberry Production

US Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded two research grants to help California strawberry farms manage soil disease. One grant for $4.5 million supports a national team of experts led by University of California (UC) Davis to identify strawberry plants naturally resistant to certain diseases.  

The other grant for $2.5 million supports another national team of experts led by UC Santa Cruz to continue research on bio-fumigation (a natural process that suppresses soil disease). 

“California strawberry farmers have a history of innovation and collaboration with scientists at UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz. We are optimistic that these two world-class research projects will identify new solutions to help our local farms through sustainable improvements to remain competitive in a global environment,” said Rick Tomlinson, president of the California Strawberry Commission.

Identifying Strawberry Plants with Natural Disease Resistance
The grant for $4.5 million will support a team of scientists from UC, Davis, UC, Riverside, UC, Santa Cruz, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, UC Agricultural and Natural Resources, and University of Florida, to identify genetic markers that are naturally present in some strawberry plants. This work will help plant breeders use plants with natural disease resistance to develop new strawberry varieties that can tolerate disease in the field, while still producing delicate and great tasting fruit for the consumer.

After a briefing with UC Davis researchers, strawberry farmers took action by adding another $1.8 million to the UC Davis Public Strawberry Breeding Program. These funds will augment the $4.5 million to support a collaborative research initiative to support the long-term sustainability of U.S. strawberry production.

“The California Strawberry Commission continues to be a key partner in advancing the work of the UC Davis Public Strawberry Breeding program, “ said Steve Knapp, director of the UC Davis Strawberry Breeding Program, who will head the collaborative team of scientists. “We look forward to another century of support from California’s strawberry growers to develop the world’s best strawberry varieties and production practices.”

Control for Organic and Conventional Farming
USDA also announced a $2.5 million grant to UC Santa Cruz, for further collaborative research integrating knowledge in anaerobic soil disinfestation, crop rotation and strawberry varieties to manage diseases in strawberry production.  

The core of the research focuses on adding a soil supplement such as rice hulls, and then adding water to cut-off the oxygen supply.  The microbes in the soil naturally shift to an anaerobic state, digesting the soil supplement to clean the soil of disease.  

In recent years, the California Strawberry Commission has funded UC Santa Cruz scientists, and introduced this natural process to strawberry farmers.  The additional USDA funding supports work to make bio-fumigation a more reliable process for a variety of different soil types and conditions, and for different diseases.

“These projects are a natural extension of the commission’s farming without fumigants initiative launched in 2008. This grant is key to crucial research addressing plant diseases in the soil as fumigants are phased out,” said Dan Legard, vice president of research and grower education at the commission.

“California continues to lead the world in agricultural innovations. These grants are good news, keeping our state’s strawberry farmers at the forefront of sustainable farming practices,” said Karen Ross, Secretary for California Department of Food and Agriculture.

“As a representative of the salad bowl of the world, I believe it is of the utmost importance to equip our researchers and farmers with the most effective tools possible to foster innovation and growth. These USDA grants will help our strawberry farmers thrive,” said Congressman Jimmy Panetta, representative of the central coast region of California, where the majority of the state’s strawberries are grown.

Both grants are funded by the USDA Specialty Crop Research Initiative.  This is a highly competitive program awarded only two grants to California projects.

A full summary of each project can be read here. 
 

Publication date: 8/29/2017

Solar-Powered Bike Sharing Farm Is A Mobile Community Garden For The City (Video)

Solar-Powered Bike Sharing Farm Is A Mobile Community Garden For The City (Video)

Kimberley Mok (@kimberleymok)
Design / Urban Design
August 17, 2017

© People’s Industrial Design Office

Our long love for the bicycle extends beyond the two-wheeler itself, spilling over into bike-powered inventions, electricity-generating gyms, even whole buildings designed around the bike.

Seen over at Designboom and created by the People’s Industrial Design Office -- the design arm of Beijing firm People’s Architecture Office -- during a three-day design hackathon in Seoul, South Korea, the Bike Share Farm is a solar-powered and bike-propelled mobile hydroponic garden, inspired by the bike sharing concept. The idea was to bring plant life to the citizenry, the designers say:

Seoul is a massive vertical city with minimal garden space. Mobile farms can make shared urban farming possible in such a dense megacity.

Bike Share Farm has been made with mobility in mind. Using off-the-shelf components, a portable hydroponic system with a series of zigzagging tubes forms a frame into which two different bikes can be slotted as the mobile garden travels from place to place. The hydroponic system's irrigation mechanisms are powered by a series of photovoltaic panels.

The Bike Share Farm is a prototype attempts to tackle the issues highlighted during the hackathon of how to "[share an] eco-city with technology." While there may be finer details to work out (such as factoring in how long it will take the plants to mature before harvesting), one could almost imagine a mobile garden like this bringing 'instant' fresh green produce to food deserts or neighbourhoods lacking community gardens. An intriguing idea as well as a powerful symbol of food security and human-powered mobility; see more over at People’s Industrial Design Office.

Dole And Driscoll's Join IBM Blockchain

Dole And Driscoll's Join IBM Blockchain

A group of leading companies across the global food supply chain today announced a major blockchain collaboration with IBM intended to further strengthen consumer confidence in the global food system.

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The consortium includes Dole, Driscoll's, Golden State Foods, Kroger, McCormick and Company, McLane Company, Nestlé, Tyson Foods, Unilever and Walmart, who will work with IBM to identify new areas where the global supply chain can benefit from blockchain.

Every year, one-in-ten people fall ill - and 400,000 die - due to contaminated food. Many of the critical issues impacting food safety such as cross-contamination, the spread of food-borne illness, unnecessary waste and the economic burden of recalls are magnified by lack of access to information and traceability. 

It can take weeks to identify the precise point of contamination, causing further illness, lost revenue and wasted product. For example, it took more than two months to identify the farm source of contamination in a recent incidence of salmonella in papayas.

Blockchain is ideally suited to help address these challenges because it establishes a trusted environment for all transactions. In the case of the global food supply chain, all participants - growers, suppliers, processors, distributors, retailers, regulators and consumers - can gain permissioned access to known and trusted information regarding the origin and state of food for their transactions. 

This can enable food providers and other members of the ecosystem to use a blockchain network to trace contaminated product to its source in a short amount of time to ensure safe removal from store shelves and stem the spread of illnesses.

Dole, Driscoll's, Golden State Foods, Kroger, McCormick and Company, McLane Company, Nestlé, Tyson Foods, Unilever, Walmart and others are now coming together with IBM to further champion blockchain as an enabling technology for the food sector. Together they will help identify and prioritize new areas where blockchain can benefit food ecosystems and inform new IBM solutions. This work will draw on multiple IBM pilots and production networks in related areas that successfully demonstrate ways in which blockchain can positively impact global food traceability. 

"Unlike any technology before it, blockchain is transforming the way like-minded organizations come together and enabling a new level of trust based on a single view of the truth," said Marie Wieck, general manager, IBM Blockchain. "Our work with organizations across the food ecosystem, as well as IBM's new platform, will further unleash the vast potential of this exciting technology, making it faster for organizations of all sizes and in all industries to move from concept to production to improve the way business gets done."

New IBM Blockchain Platform
Beyond food supply chain applications, blockchains are now being used to transform processes and streamline transactions for everything from flowers, real estate and trade finance, to education, insurance and medical services.

To accelerate this adoption, IBM is introducing the first fully integrated, enterprise-grade production blockchain platform, as well as consulting services, that will allow more organizations to quickly activate their own business networks and access the vital capabilities needed to successfully develop, operate, govern and secure these networks. The IBM Blockchain Platform is available via the IBM Cloud.

The platform builds off of the successful blockchain work IBM has delivered to more than 400 organizations, incorporating insights gained as IBM has built blockchain networks across industries including financial services, supply chain and logistics, retail, government and health care.

Extensively tested and piloted, the platform addresses a wide range of enterprise pain points, including both business and technical requirements around security, performance, collaboration and privacy that no other blockchain platform delivers today. It includes innovation developed through open source collaboration in the Hyperledger community, including the newest Hyperledger Fabric v1.0 framework and Hyperledger Composer blockchain tool, both hosted by the Linux Foundation. 

The integrated platform allows multiple parties to jointly develop, govern, operate and secure blockchain networks to help enterprises accelerate blockchain adoption.

Features of the IBM Blockchain Platform include:

Govern - The platform offers all participating members a level of control, while preventing any one member from having exclusive control. A new class of democratic governance tools is designed to help improve productivity across the organizations using a voting process that collects signatures from members to govern member invitation distribution of smart contracts and creation of transactions channels. By quickly onboarding participants, assigning roles and managing access, organizations can begin transacting via the blockchain.

Operate –The platform is underpinned by an architecture that operates more than 55% of today's global transactional systems. It is the first offering available to allow updates to be made to the network while it is running without any downtime. Running in the IBM Cloud, it offers protection from insider credential abuse, protection from malware and hardware encryption key protection. IBM claims their Blockchain Platform provides the highest-level commercially available tamper resistant FIPS140-2 level 4 protection for encryption keys.

The IBM Blockchain Platform offers a range of pricing options, starting at $0.50 per hour, to support rapid adoption for networks of all sizes. To support blockchain ecosystems among different organizations, the cost of the network can be shared across all network members.

Strengthening Trust Across the Global Food Supply Ecosystem
In parallel trials in China and the U.S., IBM and Walmart recently demonstrated that blockchain can be used to track a product from the farm through every stage of the supply chain, right to the retail shelf, in seconds instead of days or weeks.

These trials also demonstrated that stakeholders throughout the global food supply chain view food safety as a collaborative issue, rather than a competitive one, and are willing to work together to improve the food system for everyone. 

"As an advocate for greater transparency in the food system to benefit customers, Walmart looks forward to expanding on our initial work by collaborating with others to accelerate exploration on how this technology can be used as a more effective food traceability and food safety tool," said Frank Yiannas, vice president, food safety, Walmart. 

"Blockchain technology enables a new era of end-to-end transparency in the global food system – equivalent to shining a light on food ecosystem participants that will further promote responsible actions and behaviors. It also allows all participants to share information rapidly and with confidence across a strong trusted network. This is critical to ensuring that the global food system remains safe for all." 

"IBM has deep experience and a commitment to business processing and security needs, which are exactly the skill sets needed to bring blockchain to full maturity for food safety and all associated transactions," said Guilda Javaheri, chief technology officer. As a customer and partner with IBM for more than forty years, Golden State Foods is pleased to collaborate with IBM and this group of trusted food companies."

"Safety is a key value for Kroger, and our partnership with IBM positions us to explore and test blockchain technology as a solution for enhanced food safety across our business," said Howard Popoola, Kroger's vice president of Corporate Food Technology and Regulatory Compliance. "Food safety is a universal priority for food retailers and companies. It's not a competitive advantage; it benefits our customers to have greater transparency and traceability in the supply chain."

"We're excited about the possibilities that come with this technology and are glad to collaborate with IBM and others," said Scott Stillwell, Ph.D., senior vice president of food safety and quality assurance for Tyson Foods. "Producing safe food is critical to our business; it appears blockchain can help provide trust not only about the origin of food, but also about how that food moved through the supply chain."

For more information:
Holli Haswell
IBM
Tel: +1 720 396 5485
www.ibm.com/blockchain/

Seattle-Based iUNU Raises $6 Million To Launch LUNA

Seattle-Based iUNU Raises $6 Million To Launch LUNA

Turning Commercial Greenhouses Into Predictable, Demand-Based Manufacturers

iUNU (“you knew”) has raised $6 million from 2nd Avenue Partners, Initialized Capital, Fuel Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, and others, to bring large scale, computer vision-based, industrial manufacturing process and inventory management to the commercial greenhouse market.  

"This solution turns greenhouses into data driven manufacturing plants. It is both a seriously practical and crucial commercial application of AI to a fundamental industry,” says Alexis Ohanian of Initialized Capital. 

Building detailed models of individual plants

Following three years of development and testing in large scale commercial operations, LUNA combines computer vision and machine learning technologies to continuously build detailed models of individual plants, unique among millions, throughout the day. Using high resolution and 3D imagery, as well as real-time bioinformatics, LUNA monitors even the most minute changes in health of individual plants, giving growers the precise knowledge they need for proactive management. 

“When we saw how differentiated LUNA is from the other solutions in this space, we knew we had to invest in iUNU,” said Liquid 2 Ventures in a statement (Joe Montana, Mike Miller, and Michael Ma). “LUNA provides a truly comprehensive understanding of each plant’s health and growth, focused on the plant’s actual performance, not just the environment around it. Closing the control loop has the potential to change the equation of the economics of commercial-scale, indoor horticulture.”  

Greenhouse growers must deal with pests, diseases and other environmental threats to plants. The struggle is quantifiable: up to 20 percent of fruits and vegetables go to waste before they have even left the farm — and that number can be even higher for delicate ornamentals. At the same time, growers are under relentless pressure from retailers to deliver consistently on quantity and quality. While technologies such as sensors and cloud computing offer incremental relief to growers, LUNA offers a solution that enables greenhouses to operate as modern, demand-based, information-driven, manufacturing facilities. 

Model crop and timelapse comparison

Empowering growers

“We have built a customer focused, plant-first solution with LUNA that does more than just improve a grower’s reaction time to problems,” said Adam Greenberg, CEO of iUNU. “We reject the premise that ‘reactive mode’ is the natural state for growers. With the right technology, thoughtfully applied, we can give them better computer driven visibility, greenhouse operations can be as precise, proactive, and predictable as modern manufacturing. We are empowering growers to see and control more.” 

LUNA begins to learn, and remember, the moment her cameras and sensors are first installed in your greenhouses, giving growers historical records of every detail of every plant in the system, as well as live information – everything they need to make the decisions to run their business, all in one place.  

Contact:   John Murray           

iUNU  |  Tel: 202-821-2219  |  pr@iunu.com  |  www.iunu.com