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INDIA: Indoor Farming: From Vertical Trays To Your Table Within Hours, How Veggie, Salad Market Has Gone Hyperlocal
As climate change worsens due to long-haul transportation as one of the factors, going hyperlocal on production and supply makes indoor farming a lucrative business. What are the dynamics involved?
Sep 04, 2020
As climate change worsens due to long-haul transportation as one of the factors, going hyperlocal on production and supply makes indoor farming a lucrative business. What are the dynamics involved? Check here.
Call it indoor farming, Hydroponics or vertical farming, this green nursery method is gaining popularity | Photo Credit: iStock Images
The lack of space in urban locales, people's preference for fresh vegetables that have not been tossed and battered in transit through wholesale markets, and some bit of out-of-the-box thinking has helped create businesses based on an indoor green revolution within Delhi.
A Times of India report brings one face-to-face with a number of nouveau farmers who have made thriving businesses by nursing their newly developed green fingers.
These new-age farmers are growing romaine lettuce, oak leaves, mint, kale, basil, etc in their vertical plants in urban localities like Lajpat Nagar in Delhi, etc.
Not convinced how one can grow vegetables in crowded, chaotic market areas, the TOI journalist confesses he went to the plants to verify.
Himanshu Aggarwal of 9Growers showed around his farm on the second floor of a building that houses a bank and an electronics store on floors below. His hydroponic farm houses shelves and shelves of microgreens, herbs, and leafy vegetables growing in rows of white, laboratory-like ambiance.
The indoor green revolution of soil-less farming:
There are Petri dishes that hold plants, there is artificial light and the setup has its humidity and temperature monitored and strictly controlled. This soil-less farming is called hydroponic (sustained on water and nutrients) farming, not a new idea at all, but one that is now being widely adopted.
TOI also mentions a visit to farmingV2, a hydroponic farm being run by Rohit Nagdewani in the National Capital Region. Nagdewani says that the need to follow social distancing and to get clean veggies - a demand of the precautions against the coronavirus pandemic has made people appreciate this form of produce more. People want vegetables and salads that are hyperlocal, fresh, and not loaded with pesticides or fertilizers.
What is Hydroponic farming?
Hydroponics is the art of gardening without soil. The word originates from the Latin word meaning “working water.” Instead of using soil, water is deployed to provide nutrients, hydration, and oxygen to plant life. One can grow anything from watermelons to jalapeños to orchids under the careful regimen of hydroponics. It requires very little space, 90 to 95% less water than traditional agriculture, and helps grow a garden full of fruits and flowers in half the time.
Hydroponics helps the cultivation of plants in a manner such that the yield reflects rapid growth, stronger yields, and superior quality.
When nutrients are dissolved in soil-less water beds, they can be applied directly to the plant’s root system by flooding, misting, or immersion. Since no soil is used, there are no pests and therefore no insecticide/pesticide is required. Grown in an environment that is controlled in terms of water at the plants' roots, moisture in the air, humidity in the air, ambient light (same spectrum as of sunlight) etc, the food thus grown is cleaner in physical, chemical, and biological nature.
AI-based Indoor farming will support traditional farming:
The global population is predicted to reach 9.7 billion by the year 2050 and to feed everyone, it’s estimated that global food production will need to increase by up to 70% in the next 30 years. This method will decentralize supply chains and give more business to local suppliers, thereby cutting fuel costs and carbon emissions that long-haul transportation creates.
The indoor farming technology market was valued at $23.75 billion in 2016 and is projected to reach $40.25 billion by 2022, as per a report in The Forbes. Indoor green farms may be an idea whose time has come.
The views expressed by the author are personal and do not in any way represent those of Times Network.
VIDEO: The Supermarkets That Grow Their Own Food
There's a food-tech revolution happening in our supermarkets, and it could change the way we eat forever
Jul-2020
Ian Dickson
There's a food-tech revolution happening in our supermarkets, and it could change the way we eat forever.
To View The Video, Please Click Here.
From romaine lettuce to curly parsley, salads and herbs are leaving the fields behind to be grown in-store in front of customers' eyes.
Under the glare of artificial light and computer-controlled temperatures, these pioneering plants are part of an ambitious vertical farming project. One that could fundamentally change how fresh food is grown and help dramatically reduce food miles (the distance food travels to get to your plate) and the use of natural resources.
Behind the revolution is Germany-based Infarm, one of a growing number of companies weaving technology and food production together.
Infarm sells supermarkets a modular growing chamber, a bit like a giant fridge, with plants stacked in rows to ceiling height, where they're remotely controlled through a cloud-based and "internet of things" enabled farming platform.
Currently, Infarm supplies more than 700 local "farms" across the world, from The Netherlands to Japan, and harvests in excess of 250,000 plants a month.
So far, these farms have saved 2.4 million kilometers of transport, 27 million liters of water and 38,000 square kilometers of land.
Infarm are based in Berlin, and were founded in 2013. /Infarm
Emmanuel Evita is the global communications director at Infarm and he says it's vital to grow fresh produce as close as you can to where it will be consumed because of the environmental burden of agriculture supply chains.
He tells CGTN Europe: "At Infarm, we want to find another way. We want to practice a form of agriculture that is resilient, sustainable and beneficial to our planet."
The farms are designed to easily "plug into any urban space." As Evita says: "Our in-store farms each occupy less than 2 square meters of ground. When these plants are purchased, they are so fresh they are still living."
Over in the UK, supermarket chain M&S has been trialing Infarm at seven of its London branches. It says that each of its micro-farms produces a crop equivalent to 400 square meters of farmland.
And because they are controlled by self-learning internet of things technology, the plants are continually monitored and receive only the optimum level of light, water and nutrients.
As a result, M&S says its store-grown plants use 95 percent less water and 75 percent less fertilizer than traditional soil-grown plants.
"Infarm's innovative farming platform is a fantastic example of what can happen when passionate agricultural, food and technology experts work together," said Paul Willgoss, director of food technology at M&S Food. "We operate as part of a complex global food supply chain and want to understand the emerging technologies that could help provide more sustainable solutions, while also delivering fantastic products."
Infarm's vertical farms specialise in herbs. /Infarm
In May, Infarm partnered with Germany's ALDI SUD to grow chives, parsley, basil, mint, and coriander in stores across Frankfurt and Dusseldorf. Additionally, ALDI SUD is providing 300 more stores with fresh Infarm produce from centralized distribution centers.
"Our customers can watch the herbs grow. They are grown and harvested in our stores – they couldn't be more fresh," says David Labinsky, group buying director at ALDI SUD.
While customers can watch the plants grow, they can't pick their own. Instead, they're harvested on a regular basis and packaged in-store where they're at their freshest.
Could vertical farms be the future of food? That's certainly what Paul Gauthier, professor of plant science at Delaware Valley University, believes. As he told The Daily Princetonian newspaper: "There is no question about it, vertical farming will be part of our lives. It's important to start thinking and finding solutions for the future."
Video editor: David Bamford
Shipping Container Farms Come to London as Growers Ditch Soil
In the era of climate change and Brexit, British farming is facing unprecedented challenges. How to supply environmentally friendly, locally sourced, and competitively priced food?
Vegetables Are Grown Vertically Supplied With Nutrient-Rich Water
20 June 2020
Racks of vegetables grown in a shipping container in London CREDIT: Fiona Hanson
In the era of climate change and Brexit, British farming is facing unprecedented challenges. How to supply environmentally friendly, locally sourced, and competitively priced food?
One part of the answer could lie in a shipping container in an east London car park, just moment’s away from the capital’s business district. Inside are racks of leafy green vegetables, grown vertically using hydroponic technology. Instead of being planted in soil, the vegetables are plugged into a system of nutrient-rich water and kept at the optimal temperature, under specially designed lighting.
The result is flavorsome lettuces, kale, basil, and other leaves, free of pesticides and using up to 95 percent less water than traditional agriculture over a fraction of the space. The shipping containers, which are custom made, mean the produce can be located virtually on the doorstep of its market, effectively eliminating food miles.“
Traditional organic farming is not sustainable if we're going to feed a population,” says Sebastian Sainsbury, the founder of Crate to Plate, which has just had its first harvest.
Not only does Crate to Plate use otherwise wasted space - these three shipping containers can grow the equivalent of an acre’s soil - but the proximity to customers keeps the produce fresh.“ When you harvest the lettuce from the soil, within 48 hours, you've lost 40 percent of the nutritional value. And it goes down every day,”
Indoor farming has boomed in recent years, particularly in the US, where Mr. Sainsbury lived until recently and where he developed his business.
But the UK is yet to fully capitalize on its opportunities, says Dr. Robert Hancock of the James Hutton Institute, which is supporting pioneering vertical farming techniques from its facility in Dundee.“
Even with current technologies and current efficiencies, there's probably a lot more that can be done. And I think that indoor farming can interface a lot more with the broader agricultural picture,” he said.
Lead Farmer of Crate to Plate, a hydroponic vertical farm producing leafy greens and herbs.
CREDIT: Fiona Hanson
Environment Secretary George Eustice this week said vertical farming would have a vital role to play in helping British farming meet the challenges of climate change and post-Brexit food security.
“There are a lot of pressures on land use,” he told the parliamentary environment committee, highlighting “the tricky issue” of repairing biodiversity and soil health in our intensely farmed landscapes.
Mr. Hancock highlighted the UK’s strawberry industry, which relies on imports of propagated plants from the Netherlands, as one example of where indoor farming could boost British production. Britain produces just 7 percent of its fruit and 53 percent of its vegetables. But ultimately, he says, vertical farming can only ever be part of the answer and will likely be limited to salads, berries, and niche crops.
“The replacement for calorie crops I don't think is ever going to happen,” he said.
Crate to Plate is the latest of several hydroponic farming ventures started by those outside of traditional agriculture (Mr. Sainsbury is an ex-banker), many of which haven’t translated to long-term success. The key to seeing vertical farming at scale will be getting more existing farmers on board, says Mr. Hancock.“
They understand the economics of growing.
And they also understand the routes to market,” he said.
The government is hoping that the end of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy could be a chance for new blood to enter the agricultural industry, and will offer older farmers a “golden handshake” if they retire early.
Mr. Sainsbury employs three recent agricultural graduates and says the younger generation are eager to explore new technologies. He has also had interest from farmers keen to locate his shipping containers on their land.
So far, Crate to Plate’s economies of scale and niche produce puts them out of reach of the average supermarket shopper (think £10+ salads marketed to City workers). But they have hopes of moving into residential areas, amid a growing trend for urban farming. The dream, says Mr. Sainsbury, would be a vegetable farm in every urban neighborhood, manned by a dedicated farmer and producing fresh produce for everyone to buy.“
The aim is to make it as local as possible,” he said.
Madar Farms To Sell It's UAE-Grown Vegetables Online Directly To Consumers For The First Time
Madar Farms is a local company providing a holistic approach to sustainability to help tackle food and water security challenges in the region
Seven varieties of microgreens are now available to purchase through FreshOnTable, Narinport and Barakat platforms.
Abu Dhabi, 8 April 2020: As part of its commitment to support the UAE communities during the current situation, Madar Farms’ locally grown produce can now be purchased online for the first time through three online platforms.
Madar Farms, a UAE-based AgTech company, has partnered with FreshOnTable, Narinport, and Barakat to deliver its high-quality microgreens directly to consumers across the country.
The announcement comes at a significant time with Madar Farms using innovative and safe ways to cope with the high demands of local food given the present global health challenges. Madar Farms also plans to launch more of its products online in the coming weeks.
The seven varieties that can be ordered include Pea Shoots (which pairs well with fish and chicken), Arugula (ideal for salads and sandwiches) and Bull’s Blood, which is tender, crunchy and sweet with a beet-like flavour. Also available are Tendril Peas – a versatile ingredient that can be added to salads, sandwiches, soups and summer fruits - and Daikon Radish that can be used in Asian cuisine dishes, salads, soups and with many sandwich varieties.
Customers can also try Amaranth (which is mild in flavour, similar to spinach) as well as Shiso Britton (a delicious, mild, mint-basil aroma microgreen that adds flavour to salads, Asian dishes, and fish).
By working with FreshOnTable, Narinport, and Barakat, it gives the people the opportunity to try Madar Farms produce in the comfort of their own home and support local suppliers in the UAE.
Now in its third year of operation, Madar Farms has been leading an agricultural revolution in the region by using Controlled Environment Agriculture methods to produce a wide variety of fresh produce. As well as growing local produce, part of Madar Farms’ mission is to help solve food and water security challenges in the region.
Abdulaziz AlMulla, CEO and co-founder of Madar Farms, said: “In these challenging times, it is more important than ever to eat and shop local - and across the UAE we are seeing an increasing move towards this. By working with FreshOnTable, Narinport, and Barakat, we will be able to make our produce available directly to consumers for the first time and reach out to even more people across the UAE.
“We are responding to this current demand that we’re facing today, partnering with our online ordering and delivery partners to service people across the Emirates. When our customers receive their produce, it will be clean, safe and fresh as all our products are delivered within 24 hours of harvesting.
“This is just the beginning of offering directly to consumers as we plan to launch more products in the coming weeks.
“We look forward to hearing about some of the delicious recipes people are cooking up at home using our microgreens!”
Madar Farms recently announced the company will quadruple the quantity of its microgreens when its new facility begins operating at Khalifa Industrial Abu Dhabi Zone (KIZAD) by the end of this year. The facility will also include the world’s first commercial indoor tomato farm using LED lights.
Madar Farms’ microgreens can be ordered by visiting FreshOnTable (www.freshontable.ae), Barakat (www.barakatfresh.ae) and Narinport (www.narinport.com).
ENDS
About Madar Farms
Madar Farms is a local company providing a holistic approach to sustainability to help tackle food and water security challenges in the region.
With offices in Dubai and a research and development centre in Abu Dhabi, Madar Farms offers products and services that help drive responsible sourcing, environmental ownership, and social impact. This purpose-driven offering is underpinned by the application of innovative AgTech.
Madar Farms also operates the Sustainable Futures program, a hands-on, localised, easy-to-integrate sustainability curriculum that uses food to explore a wide range of topics across the sustainability agenda. This school program is designed to empower the next generation with the awareness, knowledge, skills, and behaviors to create a sustainable future for us all.
Keep up to date with the latest news and events from Madar Farms on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
Contacts:
Seven Media
Denzil Pinto
050 564 8424
Could One Parking Lot Feed A City? They're Betting On It
May 3, 2019
VERTICAL FARMING COMPANY SQUARE ROOTS HAS A PLAN TO FEED CITY RESIDENTS WITH LOCALLY GROWN PRODUCE. THE ONLY CATCH IS, CAN WE AFFORD IT?
In a parking lot in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, there’s a 20-acre farm. But there’s no soil or tractors in sight. Instead, 10 bright white shipping containers occupy the asphalt.
The lot is contested space in a major city like Brooklyn. But Square Roots isn’t using it for parked cars. It’s using the space to grow herbs. The company has deliberately chosen the middle of an urban environment, and its goal is to feed the city that surrounds it.
“We’re literally in a parking lot of an old Pfizer pharmaceutical factory. We’re across the road from the Marcy [housing] project. We’re within a subway ride of 8 million people in New York,” Tobias Peggs, a co-founder of Square Roots, told NationSwell.
Square Roots, a vertical farming company, runs its operation out of the refurbished containers. Its goal is to make local food accessible to everyone.
A lack of fresh produce is a major problem for many residents in urban areas like New York, where over 16 percent of the population is food insecure. And for those who do have access to fresh produce, chances are it traveled hundreds of miles before ending up at the grocery store.
This leads to a variety of problems. People living in food deserts generally rely on processed foods and have higher health risks than those who can afford weekly trips to Whole Foods. Transporting vegetables and fruits around the world has a hefty carbon footprint and nutritional values quickly diminish after produce is picked.
And as the world’s population grows to 10 billion by 2050, our food output will need to drastically increase — by an estimated 70 percent, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.
Square Roots’ founders think they may have found a solution to the aforementioned problems.
“Rather than shipping food from one part of the planet to the next, what if you could just ship environmental data?” Peggs asked. “And recreate climates from all over the world, but recreate those climates in your backyard.”
Square Roots relies on technology to create each crop’s ideal environment in every container. The humidity, temperature, water and light are all controlled. The farms are connected to the “cloud,” which provides accurate, real-time information on each crop.
And the setup is yielding results. When Square Roots first grew basil it took 50 days. Now the growth cycle is just 28 days. By tracking light, heat and water, it can adjust each variable and create the conditions under which each crop grows best.
Tobias Peggs dives into the technology behind Square Roots’ operations.
Photo courtesy of Square Roots
Once a month, Square Roots invites people from across New York’s five boroughs to look inside the business’s operations. Visitors trickle in, and I watch as they munch on the 28-day-grown basil, chives and mint while learning about Square Roots’ operation.
“We picked them yesterday,” a farmer said.
After a quick overview of the program, we head outside for the main attraction — a peek inside the farm.
Peggs commands the crowd. Eager for the big reveal, he opens the heavy, metal doors. A pink glow cascades over us — energy-efficient light that helps the herbs grow.
Peggs dives into the science. “Basically, when you study photosynthesis, plant growth, the plant doesn’t absorb the full spectrum of white light. The plant only absorbs certain spectrums of light. A lot of red and a lot of blue. What we’re able to do in the farm is really control that light spectrum and only give the plant the spectrum of light that it needs.”
Efficiency is at the core of Square Roots’ operations. Besides refurbishing old shipping containers, each farm uses 90 percent less water than a similarly sized outdoor farm. There’s no soil; instead, the plants are fed nutrient-rich water. The containers also boast energy-efficient LED lights, and there are rumors of adding solar panels to power them. The produce is then biked to grocery stores across Manhattan and Brooklyn, which cuts back on emissions from transportation.
The result is a higher yield with fewer resources. Currently, the farms grow herbs, like mint, basil and chives; and greens, like romaine, gem and Tuscan kale. Peggs says the farms can grow practically anything. Strawberries, eggplants, beets, radishes and carrots are on its horizon.
But the catch is that each type of produce has unique energy requirements. One of the main criticisms of vertical farming is its lack of variety. Most vertical farms focus on lettuces and herbs because those greens have the largest output and highest profitability. Denser crops require more sunlight. That means more energy, and therefore, higher costs and more emissions.
Paul Gauthier, an associate research scholar at Princeton and founder of the Princeton Vertical Farming Project, researches vertical farmings sustainability.
“In terms of carbon emission, it’s actually better to have your lettuce transported from California to New York if your [vertical farming] energy is coming from any fossil fuel,” he told NationSwell. “The energy consumption in a vertical farm in New York would be so high that you would produce more CO2 for lettuce than you [would] if you ship it from California.”
But if the energy is coming from renewable sources, then vertical farming is a competitive player.
It comes down to fueling these farms with the right energy and using efficient light.
Gauthier believes that vertical farms and other small, high output farms will be a key factor in feeding the world — but only if the crop variety grows.
“We won’t feed the world with lettuce,” he said.
A farmer harvests basil in Square Roots’ vertical farm.Photo courtesy of Square Roots
But there’s debate on whether these ventures are affordable or realistic.
For example, Square Roots’ lot in Brooklyn cost about $1.5 million to build, which was funded by Peggs, the former CEO of Aviary, a photo-editing program, and Kimbal Musk, Elon Musk’s little brother, who sits on the boards of Tesla and SpaceX. So the idea that shipping container farms are scalable feels a little out of reach for the average person or company.
But the cost hasn’t deterred interest. This year Square Roots partnered with Gordon Food Services, which is the largest food distribution company in North America. This partnership will put Square Roots containers across the country.
Even as the company scales, it won’t reach every demographic. A $3 an ounce, basil isn’t something that’s going to solve America’s food deserts.
Peggs stressed that we’re just not there … yet.
“The reality today is that we’re right at the beginning of the technology road map here. Right at the beginning.”
Square Roots isn’t the only private urban farming company that’s professing scalability. Urban farms, such as AeroFarms and Bowery Farming, are currently attracting lots of attention for their potential to make local food available to everyone. According to AgFunder, agriculture-tech startups raised $16.9 billion in support in 2018. And investors, like Google Ventures and IKEA, have poured millions of dollars into supporting those initiatives.
And urban farming is likely to take root in the coming years. A study published in 2018 on Earth’s Future, found that if urban farming is fully implemented around the world, it could account for 10 percent of the global output of legumes, roots and tubers and vegetable crops — 180 million tons of food every year.
“Not only could urban agriculture account for several percent of global food production, but there are added co-benefits beyond that, and beyond the social impacts,” Matei Georgescu, a co-author of the study, told City Lab.
Peggs and Gauthier agree that there isn’t one clear cut solution. Instead, it’s going to take a combination of urban and traditional farming to feed the world in the future.
“The very clear position here is that the more of us working to get people connected to locally grown food the better,” said Peggs.
Environmental Technology Local Agriculture Local Food Vertical Farming