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Ellepot Introducing New Paper For Organic Production
Ellepot has developed and patented a new technology for their Ellepot propagation papers, and the first product in a new line to come is Ellepot Organic 2.0
Ellepot has developed and patented a new technology for their Ellepot propagation papers, and the first product in a new line to come is Ellepot Organic 2.0.
New patented technology
The new propagation paper - Ellepot Organic 2.0 consist of 100% fully compostable and degradable materials. The new patented technology for the paper is the result of six years’ intense product development. A development process to ensure environmental compliance at every stage of the paper’s life cycle, including material selection, handling, testing, & degradation.
Certified and ideal for organic production
With a decomposition time of 6-8 weeks, the new Ellepot Organic 2.0 is ideal for producers of organic crops and crops with a shorter propagation time. The paper is made from wood fibers sourced from FSC certified forests and other controlled sources, and is furthermore approved by the Soil Association in UK. The new product is also approved as input for organic crops in Denmark, Sweden & Canada. Soil Association is one of the world’s leading and oldest certifiers for organic crops, assuring conformity to the highest standards of environmental and social responsibility. On a finishing note, Ellepot have applied to have the Ellepot Organic 2.0 certified according to the “Home Compost” and “Biodegradable in Soil” certifications.
Ellepot Organic 2.0
Based on renewable wood fibers from FSC certified forests and other controlled sources
100% degradable in soil
Certified and approved for organic production (UK, Sweden, Canada & Denmark)
Great root development resulting in faster growth & healthier plants
Suitable for all plant propagation, field planting, & farming of organic produce.
Through the past 6 years of developing the Ellepot Organic 2.0 product, Ellepot have learned what it takes to achieve the best results. Please speak with your technical Ellepot representative about water management, soil mixture, and propagation trays. For further information, samples or testing, please contact Ellepot or its partners.
Head office can be reached at +45 76147676 or visit our website: www.ellepot.com.
Innovative Aquaponics Company Achieves a Greener World’s First Non-GMO Certification For Salmon
Superior Fresh, an industry-leading aquaponics facility specializing in organic leafy greens and Atlantic salmon, is the first company to offer salmon Certified Non-GMO by A Greener World
HIXTON, WI –Superior Fresh, an industry-leading aquaponics facility specializing in organic leafy greens and Atlantic salmon, is the first company to offer salmon Certified Non-GMO by A Greener World. The company’s flagship facility is the largest of its kind, practicing ecologically sound water conservation and native prairie restoration in a closed-loop, zero-discharge system.
Developed at the request of farmers and consumers seeking a meaningful non-GMO label, Certified Non-GMO by AGW guarantees food is produced without the use of genetically modified feed, supplements or ingredients, and comes from animals raised according to higher animal welfare standards using sustainable agriculture methods. On salmon, the Certified Non-GMO by AGW label includes A Greener World’s Salmon Welfare Certified standards, incorporating the UK RSPCA’s respected higher welfare salmon standards. Certified Non-GMO by AGW has meaningful prohibitions on GMO contamination (see comparison chart here for more details), and ensures that at no point in the growing, processing or manufacturing of the product will GMOs enter the system.
Superior Fresh’s announcement follows FDA’s recent controversial approval of genetically modified salmon for human consumption–despite significant opposition from consumer advocates, fishing groups, public health officials and native communities. As public concern for the labeling of GMOs (genetically modified organisms, also known as GE, or genetically engineered) continues to grow, the market for non-GMO products is surging 17% annually and expected to reach 1.1 billion USD by 2023, according to industry analyst, Technavio. Consumers seek out non-GMO products for a variety of reasons, including environmental sustainability, health, corporate consolidation and transparency. A lack of clear labeling around GMOs means that consumers must actively seek out Certified Non-GMO products to avoid them.
Superior Fresh President Brandon Gottsacker says,
“The fish production systems at Superior Fresh are designed and managed using technology that maintains clean water, giving our salmon the opportunity to live in a stress-free environment. It is our duty to make sure our fish have great welfare, leading to the best quality fish for the consumer. In the absence of a USDA Organic standard for seafood, we chose to obtain the AGW certifications for Salmon Welfare and GMO-Free to assure our customers that we meet their standards.”
AGW Executive Director Andrew Gunther says,
“We work with some of the most forward-thinking food producers on the planet, and the team at Superior Fresh is no exception. Wild fisheries are under significant threat–through habitat destruction, industrially abusive production practices, and now genetically modified salmon. Stewardship-based approaches like that of Superior Fresh are essential solutions if we are to meet our current needs without impacting wild ecosystems while we work to rebuild them. This has been an inspiring project and we are thrilled to support the work of independent, sustainable aquaculturists in this sphere.”
ABOUT A GREENER WORLD
A Greener World (AGW) identifies, audits, certifies and promotes practical, sustainable farming systems by supporting farmers and ranchers and informing consumers. AGW’s growing family of trusted certifications includes Certified Animal Welfare Approved by AGW, Certified Grassfed by AGW and Certified Non-GMO by AGW. Each program is designed to have positive and measurable impacts on the environment, society and animals, and to encourage truly sustainable farming practices. AGW’s standards and procedures are robust and transparent and achievable.
A nonprofilt funded by public donations and membership, A Greener World offers a range of resources to help people make informed food choices, including an Online Directory of certified farms and products and Food Labels Exposed–a definitive guide to food label claims (available in print and online). For more information visit agreenerworld.org.
ABOUT SUPERIOR FRESH
Superior Fresh brings together a one-of-a kind sustainable ecosystem that combines the world’s most advanced aquaculture and hydroponic growing techniques. By using the cleanest water and mimicking the natural environment, we provide an ideal and safe growing environment for our fish. Our Atlantic salmon receive only the best care and animal husbandry–they never receive any hormones or antibiotics, and they’re fed a sustainable, organic diet. We’re delivering an unparalleled eating experience with the most premium fish. For more information and availability visit superiorfresh.com.
Sales of Organic Products In The US Continue To Grow
Retail sales of organic fruits and vegetables in the US continue to grow, but the way each store assumes their sale and the presentation strategies they use to do so may differ considerably
Retail sales of organic fruits and vegetables in the US continue to grow, but the way each store assumes their sale and the presentation strategies they use to do so may differ considerably.
The five stores of Sunset Foods Inc. in Highland Park, Illinois, usually offer more than 200 green items, said Vince Mastromauro, the stores' product director, who highlighted that the organic product category accounts for 8% to 10% of their product offer.
The main vegetable sales are of bagged salads, romaine lettuce, red and green leaves, kale, and spinach. In fruits, apples, summer fruits, and citrus fruits stand out. Mastromauro stressed that sales of organic berries, grapes, and lettuce had increased in recent years, possibly due to concerns about product safety.
Another example is the Apple Valley stores in Berrien Springs, Michigan, which have 40-50 units of organic produce in the fresh produce department, according to Brandon Easton, Apple Valley's product and supermarket manager. That accounts for at least 10% of the store's products.
The best-selling fruits, the professional stressed, are the bananas, the Gala apples, and the avocados. Meanwhile, the best selling vegetables in the store are the salad mixes. The Apple Valley Market presents one to five organic items in their ads each week.
Another example is Felton's Meat & Produce, from Plant City, Florida. This store's ecological program, however, is still not as advanced as that of other supermarkets.
The store only has three or four organic products, and they rarely have more than a dozen of them, according to their production manager, Ron Marshall. The organic products that have the highest demand there are the bananas, a couple of apple varieties, ripe tomatoes, and peppers packages.
Announcing the ecological offer is key
Positioning organic products in the retail sector is one of the key factors to increase sales of these products.
Sunset Foods stores display the refrigerated organic products in a 16-foot section, and their fresh organic produce is in a 12-foot section with a sign to differentiate it.
The Apple Valley Market of Easton markets most organic products together, but they also place some organic products that are clearly differentiated from their conventional counterparts next to the latter. For example, they can exhibit 2-pound bags of conventional lemons next to the organic versions, as the organic bags are clearly labeled as organic.
Organic avocados, on the other hand, are displayed separately from the conventional ones, as it is difficult to distinguish between the two types. The store uses colored signs so that consumers can distinguish between several items.
In the same way, the organic products at Felton's, Marshall, are marketed together in a 6-foot section and they are identified as organic via a large sign.
Vertical Farming: On The Up
The cost of energy – financially and environmentally – remains the greatest challenge to scaling up vertical farming. Even using off-peak energy, and with ever more efficient LEDs coming on the market, the energy requirements are high
Ramona Andrews Author
24th April 2019
Standing 12 metres high and with 17 stacked levels of indoor growing space, lit with LEDs in a mixture of red, white and blues – is this really the future of farming?
Lincolnshire-based Jones Food Company’s (JFC) vertical farming system is capable of producing over 400 tonnes of baby leaf salad a year in about 5,000 square metres of indoor space. While there has been development in growing berries, tomatoes and other fruiting plants through these systems, the technology is not yet there to make these crops scalable and JFC is concentrating efforts on baby leaf and herbs. As co-founder Paul Challinor explains, the intention is to make the business commercial from the beginning “rather than having a trial shipping container to look at how it could develop”.
Other city hydroponic growers, such as New York’s Sky Vegetables, a rooftop farm in The Bronx and Growing Underground, a hydroponic farm located 33 metres below the streets of Clapham in London, see their role as an incredibly short supply chain for produce directly into the city.
But not everyone has the same end goal – Grow Bristol has built a vertical farm inside a shipping container on disused land, offering an opportunity for public engagement and connecting urban communities to food, rather than to provide high quantities of salad to the city.
The Jones Food Company grows over 400 tonnes of salad a year. Image Holly Challinor
The sky isn’t the limit
The cost of energy – financially and environmentally – remains the greatest challenge to scaling up vertical farming. Even using off-peak energy, and with ever more efficient LEDs coming on the market, the energy requirements are high.
Jaz Singh of Innovation Agri-Tech Group, behind an indoor farm in Bracknell, Berkshire, says: “It doesn’t really matter what time of day your energy is getting produced. It’s about how you cycle it. You can turn the evening into effectively daytime if you’re doing it in a fully closed environment.”
For Grow Bristol’s Oscar Davidson, the future of vertical farming must be in renewables, such as biogas or through anaerobic digestion, and ideally on-site generation. This is echoed by another hydroponics expert Kate Hofman, of GrowUp Urban Farms, who says: “From my point of view, the only purpose of doing this kind of farming is to be able to grow food more sustainably…you’ve got to use renewable energy and at the moment it’s too expensive to buy off the grid, so we’ve got to be co-located.”
GrowUp tested a pilot aquaponics urban farm (aquaponics combines raising fish with hydroponics, feeding the plants fish waste), but the system has not proved financially sustainable in its original East London location due to high land rental costs. For Hofman, in theory, the more production moved indoors, the more land can be freed up for other uses, less intensively farmed and even used for carbon sequestering.
Moving beyond salad
Described by Davidson as a “gateway crop to the technology”, salad greens are easy and quick growing (baby leaf salad takes four to five weeks to mature, microgreens just over two weeks), require minimal nutrients and provide multiple crops per season.
Oscar Davidson and Dermot O’Regan of Grow Bristol
But will we be seeing more than just baby leaf and herbs anytime soon? There has been researching into crops including sweet potatoes and broccoli, and Singh says he has had some success trialing strawberries. But this poses a greater financial risk with the longer growing time required, and the extra light hours needed.
It all comes back to considering the whole cycle of growing and supply, including energy use. Vertical farming is becoming ever more environmentally and economically sustainable, and if these startups continue to develop at the current rate, a lot more of the food in our fridge could be grown in the tower block down the road.
Is vertical farming organic?
Vertical farming often uses hydroponic growing systems that do not use soil
The Soil Association does not currently class hydroponic growing as organic – in the UK, plants classified as organic need to be grown in soil, whereas in the US, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) does not make this requirement.
That said, there are no pesticides involved in the growing at JFC and other hydroponic farms, and the no pesticide factor is often a major motivator for people choosing organic. Hofman says: “I would wonder that the organic movement’s reliance on soil was good for the time it was created, but there’s actually the opportunity to think a bit more broadly about how both systems might be able to coexist or work together.”
Davidson adds: “There are other things to consider, where has that been grown, what was the conditions of the workers who have grown that crop? So yes, we use a lot of energy to grow our crops with our lighting, but we don’t use big agricultural machinery that uses diesel, we don’t use petrol fertilizers, and we don’t use endless amounts of groundwater.”
Netherlands: Bankrupt 58 ha Organic Facility Acquired By Best Fresh
"The purchase is a logical next step for Best Fresh in its strategic development and brings an end to a period of uncertainty for employees and customers of A.C. Hartman", the companies say
Best Fresh has reached an agreement with the administrator handling the bankruptcy of greenhouse horticulture company A.C. Hartman on acquiring its assets. The 58-hectare greenhouse facility was declared bankrupt almost two weeks ago.
"The purchase is a logical next step for Best Fresh in its strategic development and brings an end to a period of uncertainty for employees and customers of A.C. Hartman", the companies say. "For many years, A.C. Hartman has been an absolute top performer in the greenhouse horticulture sector, growing cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers for major customers in the Netherlands and abroad. Founded almost half a century ago, it recently encountered financial difficulties when its Belgian parent filed for the company’s bankruptcy."
Mart Valstar, the owner of Best Fresh, states: “We are delighted to have acquired the assets of A.C. Hartman. The company delivers quality products and is a welcome addition to our company, especially our organic foods division. With A.C. Hartman, we will be better able to meet the needs of customers who want direct delivery.”
End of a turbulent period
Kenaad Tewarie, acting director of A.C. Hartman, says: “We are now reaching the end of a turbulent period. We have guided the company through a process of restructuring and bankruptcy ultimately became unavoidable in order to ensure a healthy future. Best Fresh will benefit from a great company with motivated employees, high-quality products and loyal customers. Everyone involved deserves this fresh start with a strong new owner.”
During the takeover talks, which started after the bankruptcy order on 1 November, the grower of cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes 'just' continued to grow on the full 58 hectares. "A big advantage, which made a quick restart possible", says curator Hillie Lunter the day after the news about the restart. "Best Fresh has taken over the assets, i.e. the real estate such as the glass stands and all movable property such as machines and suchlike, and can make a fresh start.
Ongoing investment
The bankruptcy has not yet ended. "After a period of intensive acquisition discussions, we are now going to investigate the causes of the bankruptcy. In accordance with the rules, I will make an initial report within four weeks, followed by an update every three months." And of course, the creditors will also be listed. "Best Fresh isn't a part of this", assures Lunter.
Acquintancy
Over the next few weeks, Best Fresh will acquaint itself with the staff, customers, and methods of cultivation. As a result of the takeover, the import and export company will become the owner of a large nursery, as spokesman Dick Braakhekke, on behalf of Best Fresh, has stated. "That's what the company wanted and with Hartman, the opportunity arose."
The aim is to continue the company as far as possible in its current form, retaining jobs and preserving the sense of community and pride in Friesland. Currently, under administration, A.C. Hartman employs 70 permanent staff and supplies such leading names as Bakker Barendrecht and Albert Heijn.
Ongoing delivery
The 'normal delivery' of the customers will continue via Hartman. "With the advantage that Best Fresh can also be used to deliver directly to retailers if customers want to," said Braakhekke. The management of Best Fresh did not want to go into further details yet. "The ink has just dried." In the coming period, it will have to become clear what investments will be made.
Financial information about the takeover of assets will not be released.
Publication date: Thu 14 Nov 2019
Pressure To Revoke Certification of Containers Continues At Fall NOSB Meeting
Multiple groups push USDA to revoke certification for organic production systems with containers during most recent National Organic Standards Board meeting cycle
Multiple groups push USDA to revoke certification for organic production systems with containers during most recent National Organic Standards Board meeting cycle
The June 3 USDA memo summarizing the land-use history requirements has not slowed down the efforts of opponents to organic production systems incorporating containers into their farms. Several organizations including retail organizations belonging to the National Organic Coalition in their written and verbal comments for the Fall NOSB meeting continued to call for revocation of certifications of operations using containers. Multiple members of the NOSB went so far as to call for the decertification of seedling facilities that produce transplants for vegetable growers if those facilities rotate greenhouses where raised tables are located during the course of the year between organic and non-organic potting soils in the containers. However, USDA continues to stand firm on the June 3 memo and has not placed the issue of containers on the work agenda of the NOSB nor USDA staff.
CSO reaffirms sensible application of USDA organic standards in Washington and at the NOSB meetings
Members of the CSO met with members of Congress and the USDA as well as testified in front of the NOSB over the last few weeks to reiterate the importance of containers to help meet their obligations as growers under the organic requirements of conserving natural resources. CSO members and staff reminded officials on the importance of organic containers in conserving wildlands by reducing the footprint of fruit and vegetable production, minimizing nutrient runoff from farming operations, increasing the efficiency of water use, enhancing the effectiveness of beneficial insects and generally helping growers properly respond to the site-specific conditions on their farms.
Frankel urged USDA and the NOSB to avoid making false statements regarding the production practices of container growers, especially when making policy decisions. Frankel also presented data showing that the June 3 memo was not raising prices yet was stifling supply increases as growers and marketers are withdrawing investment, promotion, and research necessary to build fresh produce categories as a result of uncertainty surrounding how policy is interpreted and made.
US: Study: Organic Farming Is Worse For Climate Change
The MIT Technology Review also highlighted other recent research which has concluded that organic farming produces more climate pollution than conventional practices because of land-use changes
October 22, 2019
According to a study recently published by Nature Communications, organic farming can reduce pollution produced from farming however it takes considerably more land, which means considerably more greenhouse gases would be released in order to clear that land.
The MIT Technology Review also highlighted other recent research which has concluded that organic farming produces more climate pollution than conventional practices because of land-use changes.
"Our study shows that organic peas, farmed in Sweden, have around a 50 percent bigger climate impact than conventionally farmed peas. For some foodstuffs, there is an even bigger difference -- for example, with organic Swedish winter wheat the difference is closer to 70 percent," says Stefan Wirsenius, who was responsible for a similar study in Science Daily. "The greater land-use in organic farming leads indirectly to higher carbon dioxide emissions, thanks to deforestation."
A 2017 Nature Communications study revealed that in the United States, it would require a 16-33 percent increase in land use to switch to all organic farming. However, that number skyrockets in parts of Europe because of particularly high yields.
“Looking at the farm scale doesn’t really tell you what a large-scale transition to organic would look like,” Dan Blaustein-Rejto, associate director of food and agriculture at the Breakthrough Institute, a think tank that promotes technology solutions to environmental challenges, told the MIT Technology Review. “Only a study like this, that takes a system-wide perspective, really does.”
New York City - Essex Crossing Organic Farm Launches In Lower East Side
Located on the sixth floor of The Essex at 125 Essex Street, the quarter-acre farm will be run by Project EATS—a nonprofit that operates farms across the city—and will grow organic carrots, radishes, beets, turnips, and baby greens, such as kale, mustards, and arugula
The farm will hawk fresh produce including carrots, radishes, and arugula
August 1, 2019
Delancey Street Associates
A new farm, now among the largest in the borough, launched Wednesday at the Essex Crossing megaproject in the Lower East Side.
Located on the sixth floor of The Essex at 125 Essex Street, the quarter-acre farm will be run by Project EATS—a nonprofit that operates farms across the city—and will grow organic carrots, radishes, beets, turnips, and baby greens, such as kale, mustards, and arugula.
“We’re looking forward to welcoming the LES community to the farm and providing fresh produce for the neighborhood in the Market Line,” said Debbie Kenyon, vice chair and senior partner at L+M Development Partners, in a statement.
Produce from the urban grange will be sold at the Farmacy, a stand at the mega development’s upcoming Market Line, which will run below Essex Street Market. Until then, the Farmacy will temporarily sell the fresh veggies at a recently opened public park that was similarly developed by Essex Crossing’s development team, Delancey Street Associates (a collaboration between L+M Development Partners, BFC Partners, Taconic, Prusik Group, and the Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group).
That stand will be open for business on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m until the Market Line stall is up and running.
The farm will also feature programming for public schools on the importance of nutritious food and will offer free Saturday breakfast for seniors living in the neighborhood. Healthy lifestyle workshops, neighborhood forums, and community dinners are also in the works.
Opportunities for workforce development are another component of the project, as Project Eats will train and employ students from Seward Park High School to work at the farm and the Farmacy.
Just over a month ago, Essex Crossing debuted its 15,000-square-foot park, and earlier that month, the new version of Essex Street Market opened its doors to much fanfare.
Shenandoah Growers Opens Next Generation USDA Certified Indoor Biofarms In Virginia
The new BioFarms will solve persistent problems in the fresh product supply chain – delivering peak freshness, longer shelf life, enhanced food safety, reduced food miles, and year-round organic supply.
ROCKINGHAM, Va. — Shenandoah Growers, Inc., the US leader in indoor USDA certified organic agriculture, has begun harvests at its next generation BioFarm facilities in Rockingham and Elkwood, Virginia. The company will now grow, pack and ship locally grown, premium quality organic produce from its sustainable indoor farms to its customers in the Mid-Atlantic region 365 days a year.
Shenandoah Growers BioFarm Basil Plants
The new BioFarms will solve persistent problems in the fresh product supply chain – delivering peak freshness, longer shelf life, enhanced food safety, reduced food miles, and year-round organic supply. Shenandoah’s sustainable growing technology uses bioactive soil and fresh water, just like in nature, producing healthy organic plants and delivering on the company’s mission to reduce its carbon footprint and lead in environmental stewardship.
The Rockingham BioFarm will supply 100% of Shenandoah’s basil in the Mid-Atlantic region, marking the transition away from traditional field production. Basil is not only the best-selling herb, but it is also the most difficult to grow and ship nationally due to its vulnerability to weather volatility, disease and temperature damage. The Elkwood BioFarm will supply the company’s new line of local organic lettuces to Mid-Atlantic customers.
“Being able to grow the totality of our basil demand inside our pack house and not fly or truck hundreds or thousands of miles from the field was inconceivable when I entered the business over 20 years ago,” says Tim Heydon, CEO.
While Shenandoah Growers are pioneers in indoor organic agriculture, they are quick to emphasize that the company has been farming and operating in the industry for over 30 years. Chief Customer Officer Steven Wright intoned, “It’s one thing to be able to grow indoors, it’s quite another to harvest, pack and deliver with consistent quality 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year while meeting demand during peak seasons.”
The company points out that its indoor production units, many of which have been in operation for over 4 years, are proven efficient. According to company President, Phillip Karp, “Fundamentally we are about the democratization of sustainably grown organic produce, and for the promise of indoor agriculture to truly unlock its great potential, it must achieve cost parity with traditional farming. Anything we launch from our indoor farms will be scalable and profitable for us and our customers and affordable for the shopper.”
The company is in the process of accelerating its indoor farming capacity with a clearly defined plan to deploy additional next generation USDA certified organic Biofarms across its entire national platform of operating locations.
About Shenandoah Growers, Inc.
Founded in 1989, Shenandoah Growers is the leading grower and marketer of fresh organic culinary herbs in the United States, providing sustainable, USDA certified organic, regionally grown produce to retailers coast-to-coast. The Rockingham, Virginia-based company has developed the nation’s largest commercial indoor organic growing systems and continues to redefine how to bring fresh, organic, and sustainably farmed produce to market—operating across a nationally integrated platform of farms, production, and logistics facilities. For more information, please visit www.shenandoahgrowers.com.
Under the THAT’S TASTY® BRAND, Shenandoah Growers provides USDA organic, non-GMO, regionally grown, and sustainably farmed fresh culinary herbs and greens. Launched in 2017, the THAT’S TASTY BRAND offers consumers ways to add Pure Organic Flavor™ to their everyday cooking by offering a full line of products including living organic herb plants, fresh cut herbs, herb purees, lettuces and microgreens. www.thatstasty.com
A Look Inside The First Certified Organic Rooftop Farm In The Country
"A small working farm that provided food for a restaurant, provided a community center and place for people to learn how to grow food and a place for us to teach people about local food and why that's so important," Co-Owner Helen Cameron said
To View The Video, Please Click Here
For eleven years, Devon St. has been home to the first certified organic rooftop farm in the country.
By Jalyn Henderson
July 12, 2019 CHICAGO (WLS)
On the corner of Devon and Glenwood Ave. in Edgewater, sits Uncommon Ground.
"A small working farm that provided food for a restaurant, provided a community center and place for people to learn how to grow food and a place for us to teach people about local food and why that's so important," Co-Owner Helen Cameron said.
A restaurant with an all-natural, organic farm, you can find on the roof. The first of its kind in the country, certified by the Midwest Organic Services Association.
"You know, we're a zero spray farm so we're not killing the good bugs or the bad bugs, we kind of let them battle it out so we're working with nature instead of working against nature," said Allison Glovak-Webb, Uncommon Ground's Farm Director.
The farm grows a variety of crops including peas, carrots, peppers, garlic and hops.
"I mean we just are growing all manner of goodies here," Cameron said.
But running a farm takes a lot of work, work that Cameron couldn't handle on her own.
"Then we decided we were going to create an internship program," Cameron said. "In exchange for interns coming to help us with this, we would teach them about urban agriculture, sustainable food systems, organic farming and try to give them as much input as we could to make this kind of thing happen."
More than 100 students have interned at Uncommon Ground from all across the city, some interns even travel internationally.
Cameron's goal is to make her businesses as sustainable as possible. So the restaurant is solar-powered, locally sourced, and everything that comes out of the kitchen is organic.
"We don't use any conventional fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides. We don't use anything that's genetically modified," Cameron said.
"We about the furthest thing from a monoculture you can possibly get. A lot of farms focus on one crop and we focus on a diverse amount of crops. That's not just because that's what our kitchen prefers, but it's also because it's what's best for the environment and the ecosystem. We kind of have our own little ecosystem here," Glovak-Webb added
Test For Organic Produce Detects Food Fraud
“Our method does not reveal whether pesticides have been used, but whether organic plants have been fertilized correctly. As such, the method complements existing analytical controls and, overall, provides a much more detailed picture of the growing history,” explains Laursen
TEST FOR ORGANIC PRODUCE DETECTS FOOD FRAUD
AUGUST 28TH, 2019
BY MICHAEL SKOV JENSEN-COPENHAGEN
A new method can determine whether an “organic” piece of produce is legit or fraudulently labeled.
By looking at fertilizer for organic plants, the method provides a deeper, more accurate portrayal of whether eco-labelled produce is indeed organic. According to experts, imported organic fruits and vegetables are susceptible to food fraud.
Increased consumer demand and higher profits for producers have made organic foods susceptible to food fraud.
“While a major eco-labelling scandal has yet to occur in Denmark, we often forget that our diet is sourced globally, and that our foods are often imported from countries where problems have been documented. For example, in southern Europe, where a large quantity of organic fruits and vegetables are sourced,” according to Kristian Holst Laursen, assistant professor in the plant and environmental sciences department at the University of Copenhagen. He has been developing food fraud detection methods for the past decade.
“Our method can be used to distinguish organic vegetables from conventionally farmed produce by looking at how plants have been fertilized,” says Laursen. The scope of fraudulently labeled tomatoes, potatoes, and apples and other produce is unknown as there has never been an examination of their fertilizers.
ISOTOPES, NOT PESTICIDES
The new method focuses on the isotope signature in a plant by isolating sulfate, a chemical compound that can reveal how a particular plant was grown. Humans, animals, and plants all have isotope signatures that provide information about the environment in which we live and how we live—diets included.
The current way of finding out whether an item is organic or not focuses on identifying pesticide residue. According to Laursen, this method is far from secure. For example, the use of pesticides on a neighboring field or traces from former conventional production on a now organic field can taint crops. Moreover, the analysis of pesticide residues is unable to reveal whether all of the rules for organic production have been complied with, such as the absence of inorganic fertilizers.
“Our method does not reveal whether pesticides have been used, but whether organic plants have been fertilized correctly. As such, the method complements existing analytical controls and, overall, provides a much more detailed picture of the growing history,” explains Laursen.
FOOD FRAUD
When a consumer purchases an organic vegetable, they’re often paying a premium for the method of cultivation, such as in soil without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. Organized criminals are trying to exploit these conditions and profit in a global food fraud industry worth billions.
“Nobody really knows the extent of this type of fraud, but we have seen bad examples from abroad that extend well beyond organic products. Rice made of plastic, wine with toxins, artificial honey, etc. There is not always a health risk associated with food fraud, but it is clear that when you pay a higher price, you expect the product that you are paying for. And, of course, honest producers must be protected,” says Laursen.
Laursen’s research group is working with the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration and the method is ready for further testing, approval, and use by public agencies and commercial interests. The paper appears in Food Chemistry.
Source: University of Copenhagen
Original Study DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2019.03.125
Lead photo: (Credit: Getty Images)
TAGS AGRICULTURE CRIMES FOOD
New York's Rooftop Farms Provide Fresh Local Produce - And Help Stop A Sewage Problem
High above the streets of New York, more than 36 tonnes of organic vegetables are grown every year. And the farms that produce them aren’t just feeding residents – they’re helping to stop sewage polluting the city’s rivers too
21 Aug 2019
Douglas Broom Senior Writer, Formative Content
High above the streets of New York, more than 36 tonnes of organic vegetables are grown every year. And the farms that produce them aren’t just feeding residents – they’re helping to stop sewage polluting the city’s rivers too.
Covering a total of 2.3 hectares (5.6 acres), the farms sit on top of three historic industrial buildings. Their soil is just 25 cm (10 inches) deep, but it absorbs millions of litres of rainfall each year – water that would otherwise flush straight into the city’s drains.
New York has long had a problem with what is known as Combined Sewer Overflow, where rainwater inundates water treatment plants causing the sewers to overflow directly into the Hudson and East River.
Sewer systems around New York can become overwhelmed during heavy rainfall.
Image: Open Sewer Atlas NYC
Growing business
The city has made progress in recent decades, spending $45 billion since the 1980s on wastewater treatment to reduce discharges into waterways. But with more than 70% of its area paved and upwards of 8 million residents, the problem still occurs when it rains heavily.
Brooklyn Grange, which operates the three rooftop sites, built its first farm in 2010. It broke even in its first year, moved into profit two years later and now employs 20 full-time and 60 seasonal staff.
Its founders believe commercial urban agriculture can help cities become cleaner and greener. And they measure their success against a “triple bottom line” – profit, the environment and impact on people.
Image: Brooklyn Grange
A buzzing project
Green roofs help urban areas reduce the heat that otherwise radiates on summer nights from conventional rooftops. That not only helps to make the city cooler in summer but also reduces the amount of energy needed to keep the buildings cool.
The rooftop farms use waste food to produce compost. Half their produce is sold to restaurants and they run two weekly markets and deliver locally through a community-supported agriculture scheme, which connects farmers directly to consumers. They are home to 40 beehives, too.
The farms have so far hosted 50,000 young people on educational visits to learn about sustainable city farming. They run public courses on everything from sustainable dye-making to making hot chilli sauces. They host yoga classes and even weddings.
The company has now expanded into designing and building mini farms and wild flower gardens for private clients across the city.
Show
Almost 70% of the global population is predicted to live in cities by 2050. And while cities drive the global economy, they are also responsible for three-quarters of global CO2 emissions.
So projects like these will become ever more important, according to the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Cities and Urbanization, if urban areas are to meet targets such as those set out in the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Lead Photo: New York has spent $45 billion on wastewater treatment since the 1980s. Image: REUTERS/Seth Wenig
Have you read?
Podcast / Video: The Microgreens Show - Episode 6
This podcast is a basic introduction to microgreens
The Microgreens Show - Episode 6
August 24, 2019
The Grow Team was asked to be on Rock 107 WIRX Podcast #19 last week. This podcast is a basic introduction to microgreens.
Nick Greens
Want To Grow Food On Your Terrace? This Startup Has Helped Over 400 Homes Do So!
Archana Mishra, 65, was first inspired to grow her own food when her friend from Germany spoke to her about it. The former school teacher wanted to eat healthy but organic produce in the market was considerably expensive
Turning your terrace into a thriving farm doesn’t just help your family eat healthy food, it also helps save the planet. And this Jaipur man can help you do this, one step at a time! #LiveGreen #GrowOrganic
August 16, 2019,
Archana Mishra, 65, was first inspired to grow her own food when her friend from Germany spoke to her about it. The former school teacher wanted to eat healthy but organic produce in the market was considerably expensive.
Want to try your hand at farming? Check out these gardening accessories and start your own vegetable patch at home now!
When she visited her daughter in the US, she was amazed by the concept of a farmer’s market where her daughter would frequently go to buy fresh produce.
Archana Mishra gardening with her granddaughter
She came across Living Greens, a company which provides portable farming systems to customers living in urban spaces. In addition to working with individuals, they also work with corporates in developing green walls (vertical green spaces) in office spaces.
It has been six years since, and now, Mishra grows her vegetables at her home terrace in Jaipur.
Speaking to The Better India, the delighted septuagenarian says, “My entire family is now involved in this process of growing food and it makes me so happy. Even my granddaughters join me while I am tending to my garden.”
In the backdrop of widespread land clearing for agriculture leading to at least 22 per cent of the overall greenhouse gas emissions, it has become imperative that we make efficient use of space. Living Greens was founded by Prateek Tiwari in 2013 with seed-funding from NRI investors living in the Silicon Valley.
Prateek is an Agricultural Engineer and an alumnus of the prestigious Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi. After serving in blue-chip companies like M&M, Reliance Fresh, ITC (Agri Business Division) and Walmart India, he decided to take the plunge to revolutionise urban farming. He resigned from Walmart in May 2011 but had to put in two arduous years of experimentation to create a do-it-yourself portable farming system.
How it began
Although the Living Greens was officially founded in 2013, it had its modest beginnings in July 2012.
Prateek Tiwari with his team receiving a leadership award for his services
“We launched our concept not as a product but as a service i.e. anybody interested in experimenting with this idea could take our Portable Farming Systems on rent. This attracted many people to experiment. As most of them subsequently decided to purchase the equipment, we scrapped the rental scheme,” says Prateek.
He had a deep and strong conviction that cities must grow their own food. “There is a strong sense of fear that we are eating a bit of cancer everyday in our vegetables, which have been grown using lethal pesticides and effluent water containing carcinogenic heavy metals,” he says.
He discusses several benefits of developing a rooftop farming system. “Covering the rooftops with lush green organic farms not only cools the building but also generates tonnes of fresh oxygen in cities suffocating in their own pollution besides making use of under-utilised urban spaces,” says Prateek.
Along with a profound sense of responsibility to utilise his agricultural education and knowledge, he had a strong desire to convert under-utilised urban spaces like rooftops, plots, gardens, and farmhouses into food-growing urban spaces.
After the idea gained traction, the team of Living Greens focused on offering an A-Plus service experience to clients. “As they [customers] enjoyed growing their vegetables on their rooftops, we encouraged them to spread their ‘joy of farming’ among their friends and on social media. We thus expanded our client base through referrals from happy customers,” says the founder.
Since then, over 400 houses have become organic homes where people grow fresh vegetables on their rooftops. Mishra was one of their first ten customers and she still gets in touch with them when she needs help with anything related to her garden. For this, she pays a nominal fee.
How it works
The Living Greens has a range of services. The portable farming system (PFS) service is available for Rs 14,500 for two units. The prices go down per unit when purchased in bulk. The installation takes between 48 to 72 hours.
A terrace garden belonging to a client
They also provide a set of organic sprays for pest, disease and nutrient management of plants being grown in the PFS. One organic inputs kit can be applied to two PFSs for four months.
There are also four kinds of root fertilisers that must be used regularly by the client.
Prateek points out that the pesticides for an organic garden also need to be free of chemicals.
He believes that a focus on a prophylactic approach instead of a symptomatic one is better for the overall health of plants. For this, they developed seven sprays for seven days which must be applied on the plants for four months. These bio-pesticides are made of organic materials like neem oil which reduces the egg-laying capacity of pests.
Another example is a liquid fungus called Beauveria bassiana which is used to control pests like whiteflies among other insects in agriculture.
Onsite support system is another service they offer. This comprises of weekly and monthly visits once the unit is installed. After the 4-month support period, customers can pay per visit for additional guidance.
They also provide the services of an online support system.
“Our team of agri experts can receive the problem-pics from the client, identify the pest/disease/nutrient issue and give precise recommendations from within the organic inputs kit, for solving the problem,” says Prateek. This facility is free.
“After offering a basic training to the client at the time of installation, we continue to support them online, by sending all required information in the form of charts/diagrams/videos/video-chats,” he adds.
Expansion and challenges
The Living Greens helps transform terraces into urban farms
The road to success was not easy. When Living Greens first began, a lot of people did not know much about urban farming and believed that it was practiced by farmers on open lands in rural areas. There was also a dearth of quality and well-tested organic inputs, says Prateek.
He also started with a very small team who did not have much knowledge of organic farming. There was a need for a collaborative effort between the client and employees on site, with a constant exchange of expertise.
Now, the company tries to employ people who have some background in agriculture. Hardayal Shefma, 24, is one such employee who has a diploma in agriculture from the Krishi Vigyan Kendra.
“I have learnt so much about organic farming and its health benefits. I help in installation, provide support, and expertise for the maintenance of these gardens,” says the employee who has been working in the company for over three years now.
The Living Greens has also expanded its operations from Jaipur to New Delhi, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. They transport their PFSs with one person from their installation team who then arranges for local labour for installation on site.
The Living Greens also has its franchisees in Lucknow, Bhopal, and Pune.
So, what is on the cards for the Living Greens now? “We want to become the largest urban organic farming company in the world, apart from creating greener and more breathable cities for future generations,” says Prateek as he signs off.
Also Read: 42-YO Breathes Life Into Ghost Villages With Natural Farming, Rural Tourism!
Picture Courtesy: The Living Greens
(Edited by Shruti Singhal)
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Organic vs. Non-Organic: Does It Make A Difference?
Organic isn’t as black and white as it seems. Eating plentiful amounts of fruits and veggies will benefit you no matter how they are grown and organic junk food is still junk!
We Investigate If Buying Organic Foods
Really Makes A Difference For Your Health
By: Dana Angelo White, M.S., R.D., A.T.C.
Steve Debenport
Are you breaking the bank on organic produce and other organic foods? The word “organic” has become synonymous with all kinds of nutrition superlatives, but healthy is not a mandatory part of the definition. We are setting the record straight and giving you the facts so you can make the most of your next shopping trip.
What Are Organic Foods?
The USDA defines organic foods as those items grown and produced without the use of chemical pesticides, herbicides and other prohibited substances. This process is strictly policed by the USDA in efforts to protect the foodstuffs and the land it’s grown on. Their website reads:
“Produce can be called organic if it’s certified to have grown on soil that had no prohibited substances applied for three years prior to harvest.”
All the government oversight, certification expenses and other financial issues associated with growing organic produce (such as lower yields and alternative pest control practices) means organic foods come at a higher price point. Despite these remarkable differences, there is not much solid science to support that organic produce is any more nutritious than conventionally grown items – an organic apple has the same nutrients as a non-organic one. Confused yet? Understandable. Food labeling can also get tricky. Only foods that contain nothing but organic ingredients can be labeled “100% organic,” while foods deemed “organic” only need to be 95 to 99 percent organic. And yes, there’s more: Foods made with 70 to 94 percent organic ingredients can flash the title “made with organic ingredients."
What About Dirty and Clean Food?
Some folks may look to other organizations for guidance to help make sense of organic dos and don’ts. The Environmental Working Group’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce sets out to rank traces of non organic residues found on regularly consumed produce items. They review available data each year to create the trendy “Dirty Dozen” and “Clean Fifteen” lists indicating which 12 produce items carry the highest amount of pesticide residues and which 15 carry the lowest. According to the EWG: “People can lower their pesticide exposure by almost 80 percent by avoiding the top 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating the least contaminated instead.” But these “dirty" and "clean” labels should not deter you from eating fresh fruits and vegetables whether they are grown organic or conventionally. When you take a closer look at the research even the highest loads of deductible pesticides found in the dirty dozen do not appear to pose imminent harm to those that eat them. For example, kale ranked high on the pesticide residue list this year, but the amount it contains is still pretty negligible – meaning it would be impossible to eat enough of the leafy green for it to be harmful.
What About Packaged Organic Foods?
Organic foods come in all shapes and sizes and you can easily find organically-produced junk food. Organic cookies, fried snack foods and other less-than-healthy foods are little or no better for you than their conventionally grown counterparts. Treat these highly processed foods with the same caution and moderation you would any other highly processed junk food.
How About Local Organic Food?
Locally grown produce often comes from smaller farms that don’t have to use the same types or amounts pesticides as large farms that service grocery stores. Talk to your local farmer about their use of pesticides and decide if going local seems like a better fit than organic for your home.
Bottom Line: Organic isn’t as black and white as it seems. Eating plentiful amounts of fruits and veggies will benefit you no matter how they are grown and organic junk food is still junk!
Should GMOs Be Allowed In Organic Food? USDA Sparks Debate
USDA Undersecretary of Agriculture Greg Ibach testified before the House Agriculture Subcommittee this month that plants grown with the aid of genetically modified organisms and gene editing could be allowed to be certified organic in the future.
AUTHOR Jessi Devenyns
July 29, 2019
Dive Brief:
USDA Undersecretary of Agriculture Greg Ibach testified before the House Agriculture Subcommittee this month that plants grown with the aid of genetically modified organisms and gene editing could be allowed to be certified organic in the future.
"I think there is the opportunity to open the discussion to consider whether it is appropriate for some of these new technologies that include gene-editing to be eligible to be used to enhance organic production and to have drought and disease-resistant varieties, as well as higher-yield varieties available," he said.
Currently, organic standards prohibit genetic engineering and GMOs to be certified under that label. In June, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that instructed federal agencies to be more lenient on the approvals for genetic crop modifications and other forms of agricultural biotech.
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Dive Insight:
The current organic certification requires that products with the organic label lack antibiotics, artificial colors, genetically modified ingredients and synthetic pesticides. GMOs made the list because they are not naturally occurring, a value which is at the root of the organic movement. However, Ibach's comments show that policymakers are considering GMO as a possible addition to the list of acceptable practices for organic farming.
GMOs have been a touchy subject in recent years. A 2018 study by the Hartman Group found that nearly half the respondents would avoid purchasing products with GMOs. At that same time, 60% of consumers in one study admitted they don't know much about GMOs, according to a presentation at the IFT19 conference by Intertek. Still, with widespread skepticism of so-called "frankenfoods," companies are voluntarily acknowledging or removing GMO ingredients from their products.
While these genetically altered foods are often seen in an unfavorable light by consumers, about 12% of global agricultural land is still planted each year with genetically modified crops. In the U.S., those numbers are even higher for certain crops. The Grocery Manufacturers Association said about 90% of the nation's corn, soybean and sugar beet crops are genetically modified, which translates to up to 75% of the products in a grocery store that are made with ingredients derived from crops that were genetically modified.
The reason for the prevalence of GMOs boils down to practicality. A World Resources Institute report published this month said urgent changes in the global food system are needed to make sure there is enough food for an estimated 10 billion people by 2050. One of the primary solutions the report named was increasing the number of bioengineered crops in both quantity and variety of species. Feeding the planet in the future is a concern for the organic farming community, but there is still hesitation given that consumers have an aversion to GMOs.
Despite the predominant scientific consensus that GMO food is safe and items made with these ingredients are just as nutritious as their counterparts, many still don't trust them. As consumers increasingly value transparency, changing the acceptability of GMO ingredients in organic food production could result in backlash. Although a 2018 study in Agriculture and Human Values showed about two-thirds of consumers didn't notice a GMO label on a product, of those who did, more than half of the consumers said the label influenced them not to buy the product. It may also be difficult for the USDA to keep track of since there are different GE methods.
"The allowance of any GE techniques under the organic label raises legitimate 'slippery slope; concerns," Cornucopia's Director of Domestic Policy Marie Burcham said in a statement. "The USDA would be hard-pressed to find the resources to track allowed GE technologies and products in the organic sector, assuming they could summon the will."
Even if GMOs are allowed in organics, it organic producers may still want to consider keeping GMOs out of their farming practices. While organic food sales increased by an average of 10% per year between 2010 and 2016, that pace has cooled to 6% for the past two years, according to a report from Rabobank. While the growth of the industry is slowing, prices for organic products are also dropping, which could encourage organic shoppers to buy more products. But they might not do so if there are GMOs included in those foods.
The importance of having a guarantee that organic means non-GMO may become even more important when the new labeling laws go into effect next year since not all products containing GMO ingredients fall under the labeling requirements. Having the organic label be synonymous with GMO-free could be one way for some producers to present added value to those consumers who care about keeping modification out of their foods.
Lead Photo: (Credit: U.S. Department of Agriculture )
Recommended Reading:
France: No More Heated Organic Greenhouse Crops Sold In Winter
European organic rules say organic growers have to respect the natural seasons and use energy responsibly and if possible in a renewable way.
Growing organic vegetables in a heated greenhouse. According to various French organizations this is a complete contradiction, but according to the European organic certification rules there's nothing wrong with it. Today the French decided it will remain possible to grow organic in heated greenhouses - although new restrictions will come into place.
The debate
European organic rules say organic growers have to respect the natural seasons and use energy responsibly and if possible in a renewable way. A not very clear guideline - and therefore currently over 40 French greenhouses are heated and organic. This amount is growing: the demand for organic vegetables in France is currently higher than the supply. However, the heating of organic greenhouses is a thorn in the side of many French.
This week nearly 100 Parliamentarians wrote to Didier Guillaume, Minister of Agriculture, to emphasize their support with an online petition, started by the French organic organization FNAB, Greenpeace France and other organizations. Within 6 weeks this petition was signed by over 80,000 people. "We expect you to listen to these voices on July 11th", they said. "Because it's not only about heated greenhouses - it's also about the future of both agriculture and energy in our country."
They called out to refuse the use of heating in French organic greenhouses. According to Philippe Riffared, organic greenhouse grower and co-president of Grab Bio Center, the shelf life of heated produce is way lower and it's grown in a non-sustainable way. "We don't want the consumer to lose faith in the organic label", he says, pointing out the use of CO2 by heated production is way higher than non-heated production. Other growers point out that during summer, the unheated crops are being pushed out of the market by greenhouse-grown tomatoes.
Only producing three months per year
Of course, there's another side to the story as well. Greenhouse growers try to explain how they need heating. "If we have to stop heating our greenhouses tomorrow, it means the French consumer has to buy Spanish produce in April and May. Our quality is much better though", organic grower Jean-Luc Roux told Europe1. He grows his tomatoes with a biomass boiler and therefore reduces the needed carbon dioxide as well.
Horticultural organization FNSEA points out that greenhouse growing helps nature, limiting the use of chemicals and water and saving the soils, and on top of that limiting import needs for produce from Germany, Poland, Israel or Argentina. They say giving up heating would distort competition within Europe, pointing out currently 78% of the French organic tomatoes are imported.
Also the Minister of Agriculture, Didier Guillaume, said Tuesday to senators, the government was "not opposed" to the heating of greenhouses in organic farming. "We are, and I am, very opposed to the counter-seasonality of fruits and vegetables," he insisted.
Debate
It's clear that the debate over unheated greenhouses has heated up in France. The decision on the rules was postponed twice in the last 8 months since there was no unity to be reached. Now the rules have become clear. The Ministry of Agriculture announced heating will be allowed, but on a restricted schedule: there will be no marketing between 21 December and 30 April of organic fruit and vegetables produced in French heated greenhouses, said the Ministry of Agriculture.
On top of that the government plans to impose the use of renewable energy to feed these greenhouses by 2025, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
The responses are mixed. "Allowing the sale of organic tomatoes from the first day of spring is equivalent to authorizing the heating of organic greenhouses throughout the winter to more than 20 degrees, the equivalent of 200,000 to 250,000 liters of fuel oil per hectare", said Jean-Paul Gabillard, market gardener and national vegetable secretary at Fnab.
Publication date: 7/11/2019
Biomimicry Helps Urban Farmers Scale Up
The Biomimicry Institute sat down virtually with Felipe Hernandez Villa-Roel, CEO and founder of Hexagro Urban Farming, to ask him about his experience as an entrepreneur and Biomimicry Launchpad participant
The Biomimicry Institute sat down virtually with Felipe Hernandez Villa-Roel, CEO and founder of Hexagro Urban Farming, to ask him about his experience as an entrepreneur and Biomimicry Launchpad participant.
What motivated you to start HEXAGRO?
Hexagro started as a bachelor’s thesis in Product Design when I started to analyze the problems that organic farmers in Costa Rica are facing in terms of productivity, sustainability, and health. These challenges are related to the high amounts of pesticides used by adjacent traditional farms, soil degradation, and climate change, so I began researching methods that didn’t use soil as a growing medium.
I analyzed the latest trends on soilless food production, starting from the indoor farming sector and through vertical farming, which proposes a more efficient way to grow food with less effort through new technologies like LED lighting and hydroponics in vertical configurations. I concluded that the main issue with these solutions was their scalability, since they followed a centralized model which is capital-intensive, requires infrastructure and expert personnel, and is difficult to set up and launch. The thesis made an analysis of nature’s strategies to reduce space while maximizing productivity with a modular structure that was then translated into the first version of Hexagro’s Living Farming Tree.
What was your experience in the Biomimicry Launchpad? What did you learn and how did you apply that to your business?
This project became a team and then a finalist in the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge, thanks to the inspiration taken from nature to develop the first product iteration. After that, we were invited to participate in the Launchpad program. From 2015-2016, we participated in many training sessions and had access to expert mentoring. This gave the team the tools to define a clear business model, which changed the approach of the first design iteration and led to a second design iteration that gave the basis for the current pre-industrial product. Today, the team continues to take inspiration from Nature’s Unifying Patterns to create solutions that follow the principles of biomimicry for every aspect, from product development to marketing and business development. Hexagro Urban Farming was incorporated as a for-benefit company in Milan, Italy, after the participation in the finals of the Launchpad in late 2016.
The Hexagro team
Tell us about your work to incorporate the Living Farming Tree in hotels and workplaces. What are you hoping to accomplish?
Our vision for Hexagro is a future in which anybody, anywhere, can access healthy food through urban farming. In order to get there, the team has determined a strategy to enter the market and launch its first product, the Living Farming Tree (LFT). Urbanization is booming, and at the same time we are spending around 90% of our time indoors where the conditions are not always meant for people’s well-being. This disconnection from nature within working spaces has direct consequences in employees’ health and psychology and can lead to lack of productivity and engagement, which could have direct consequences for companies. We are reconnecting employees to nature and their work through a “gamified” urban farming experience in which users follow the instructions from a digital interface to perform various maintenance tasks during the cultivation process, aiming to achieve a successful harvest of medicinal herbs for fresh infusions to improve well-being and productivity. Our LFT educates and increases the awareness of indoor farming technologies, while reducing the costs of office greenery maintenance. It engages people with their company and becomes a “gravitational center” for social gathering and relaxation.
The Living Farming Tree (LFT) utilizes a “gamification” strategy to engage employees in offices to become active participants in their own health.
What are the benefits to a modular, decentralized system?
Our team took inspiration from nature to create a system that could adapt to any space available and provide the maximum diversity with the lowest inventory. The Living Farming Tree has a standard configuration, but our plug-and-play components, along with our 3D-printed node and IoT automation systems, allow our system to adapt to any space available indoors (horizontally or vertically) to make it productive.
What is your ultimate hope for Hexagro?
We envision a new and regenerative food system based on the circular and sharing economy, helping people to grow plants and make a profit through a Smart Urban Farming Network. This nature-inspired model can increase accessibility to healthy food, decentralize indoor farming production, create new economic opportunities, and reconnect people to people through food.
For more information:
Biomimicry Institute
info@biomimicry.org
biomimicry.org
Publication date: 7/5/2019
The Hydroponic Threat To Organic Food
USDA’s organic certification of hydroponically grown produce is an example of conquest and colonization
USDA’s organic certification of hydroponically grown produce is an example of conquest and colonization.
DAVE CHAPMAN
July 5, 2019
In the last seven years there has been a quiet redefinition taking place in the USDA National Organic Program that oversees organic standards. Large scale industrial producers have insinuated themselves into organic certification to transform what the green and white label stands for.
Original organic was based on a simple equation:
Healthy soil = healthy plants = healthy animals = healthy planet.
Hydroponics is a system that relies entirely upon processed inputs to feed the plants. The old organic adage is, “Feed the soil, not the plant.” The guiding principle of conventional agriculture is: “Feed the plant, not the soil.” Obviously, hydroponic production is the most extreme example of this philosophy. Photo by ACME/Flickr
This equation leaves out the discussion of WHY these things are true, but it is a good roadmap for what organic agriculture is all about. The first given is always “healthy soil.” As we look deeper, we cannot study these parts separately, because plants and animals are integral parts of healthy soil system. No plants means no healthy soil. The same is true with animals. Soil and plants coevolved for 350 million years, and neither can be healthy in isolation from the other. The dance between plants, microbial life, and animal life in the soil is necessary for all.
Western soil science got started with the work of German chemist Justus von Liebig (1803-1873). From Liebig’s perspective, soil was a passive storage bin for plant nutrients. However, in Charles Darwin’s 1881 book The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms, these ideas were challenged by a vision of the soil as a living ecosystem. But Liebig’s viewpoint dominated Western soil science until the 1980’s when the role of organisms in soil formation became better understood. Liebig himself turned away from his “storage bin” paradigm in the later part of his life, but our agricultural sciences continued to follow his earlier writings.
If we take away plants, soil can no longer be living. Plants provide the energy via photosynthesis for all animal and microbial life in the soil. These photosynthates are provided first as root exudates that feed the fungi and bacteria in exchange for which they gain the minerals that in turn feed the plants. The visible life forms are as important as the invisible microbial community. Soil animals go from burrowing woodchucks and gophers to snails, slugs, and elongate animals such as earthworms, flatworms, nematodes, soil mites, springtails, ants, termites, beetles and flies. All of these species together create a community that is often called the soil food web.
Organic farming is based on protecting and enhancing this web of life. By cultivating the diversity of life, we create a stable ecosystem in the soil. Diseases or pestilence are symptoms of a loss of balance. So the organic farmer’s first job is to enhance the diversity of life in the soil community. This is done by providing materials and techniques to help build a soil carbon sponge.
Conventional agriculture is based on a very different strategy of control and simplification. By making systems that are as simple as possible, it becomes easy to control the inputs and outputs. The inputs are processed offsite to provide plant available nutrients. “Soil” becomes a device for holding roots. It is thus easier to make these systems replicable, much like the model of a McDonald's restaurant. McDonald’s simplifies their systems as much as possible to serve the same hamburger to every customer around the world. In such a system the expertise is contained in the corporate staff who design the processes and provides the raw materials. The problem is a loss of nutrition in the final product. McDonald’s serves lots of calories that soothe customers’ cravings, but they fail at providing a healthy diet. The end result is the phenomena of customers who are simultaneously malnourished and obese.
Similarly, in a conventional agriculture system, the yields are high per acre, but, as Vandana Shiva has said, the yield of health per acre is low. As it turns out, we are part of that co-evolution of soil and plants and animals. Human nutritional needs are complex and beyond our full understanding at this point. But organic farmers believe that by embracing those natural systems, we can feed ourselves well, even if we never fully understand why.
As Einstein once said, there is a simplicity that comes before complexity that is worthless, but there is a simplicity beyond complexity that is priceless.
These simplified conventional systems have been promoted by an industry that profits by selling remedies to the unintended consequences of such crude simplicity. Their high yields are unsustainable without the liberal use of poisons. Plants grown in a soil devoid of biological complexity are very vulnerable to disease and insect attack. And of course, the more we use such poisons, the less healthy the soil becomes, so more pesticides are needed, and on and on.
In livestock production, the epitome of conventional agriculture is a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) where animals are isolated from the land. Their food is grown far from where they live, so their manure is lost to the production system. There is no honoring of Albert Howard’s Law Of Return: “what comes from the soil must be returned to the soil.”
In vegetables and berries, the epitome of conventional agriculture is hydroponic production. Hydroponics is a system that relies entirely upon processed inputs to feed the plants. The old organic adage is, “Feed the soil, not the plant.” The guiding principle of conventional agriculture is: “Feed the plant, not the soil.” Obviously, hydroponic production is the most extreme example of this philosophy.
The practices of organic farming are ancient, but not all traditional farming systems could be called organic by the definition of such pioneers as Albert Howard. Some traditional agriculture was not sustainable and ultimately led to the downfall of civilizations. But organic principles have been practiced in the intensive farming of southeast Asia for over 4000 years. They were learned by Howard in India and subsequently taught in the West. Since then, soil science has confirmed Howard’s ideas to an astonishing degree. Every day we learn more and more about how soil communities function and about why such a system need not depend on pesticides to thrive. Every day we learn more about the connections between the soil microbiome and our own microbiome.
From this logic we derive a conclusion that is important to remember: that the absence of pesticides in a successful organic system is the result of how we farm, not the definition of it.
The organic movement has long believed that food grown in a healthy soil is the foundation of human health. In recent years it has become clear that agriculture is also deeply involved in the climate crisis, both as the problem and as the solution. Conventional agriculture contributes directly to the destruction of the living soil, leading to the spread of deserts and the warming of the planet. We have the skills and understanding to farm without chemicals in a way that will build a soil carbon sponge that can cool our warming planet. Our impediment to achieving this is social and political, not technical.
The inclusion of hydroponics in organic certification is thus not an example of innovation and improvement. It is an example of conquest and colonization. It is simply a hostile takeover of organic by economic forces. It has been widely resisted by the organic community, but the USDA continues to embrace hydroponics as organic just as they embrace CAFOs as organic. Their redefinition of organic is in opposition to the law and to international norms. The US once again becomes the rogue nation throwing away our mutual future so somebody can make a buck.
At this time, huge quantities of hydroponic berries, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and greens are being marketed as “Certified Organic” in partnership with the USDA. And there is no way of identifying what is hydroponic in the organic label.
The Real Organic Project was created to challenge this process. Our efforts include the creation of an add-on label so that real organic farmers and eaters might be able to find one another in a deceptive marketplace. To learn more, please visit us at realorganicproject.org.
Dave Chapman
Dave Chapman runs Long Wind Farm in Vermont and is the Executive Director of the Real Organic Project. He is a founding member of the Vermont Organic Farmers. He has been active in the movement to Keep The Soil In Organic. He is proud to be a current member of the Policy Committee of the Organic Farmers Association. He served on the USDA Hydroponic Task Force.
The Hydroponic Threat to Organic Food
In the last 7 years there has been a quiet redefinition taking place in the USDA National Organic Program that oversees organic standards. Large scale industrial producers have insinuated themselves into organic certification to transform what the green and white label stands for
JUNE 26, 2019
by DAVE CHAPMAN
Real Organic Demonstration photo: linley_dixon.
In the last 7 years there has been a quiet redefinition taking place in the USDA National Organic Program that oversees organic standards. Large scale industrial producers have insinuated themselves into organic certification to transform what the green and white label stands for.
Original organic was based on a simple equation:
Healthy soil = healthy plants = healthy animals = healthy planet.
This equation leaves out the discussion of WHY these things are true, but it is a good roadmap for what organic agriculture is all about. The first given is always “healthy soil.” As we look deeper, we cannot study these parts separately, because plants and animals are integral parts of healthy soil system. No plants means no healthy soil. The same is true with animals. Soil and plants coevolved for 350 million years, and neither can be healthy in isolation from the other. The dance between plants, microbial life, and animal life in the soil is necessary for all.
Western soil science got started with the work of Justus von Liebig (1803-1873). From Liebig’s perspective, soil was a passive storage bin for plant nutrients. However, in Charles Darwin’s 1881 book The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms, these ideas were challenged by a vision of the soil as a living ecosystem. But Liebig’s viewpoint dominated Western soil science until the 1980’s when the role of organisms in soil formation became better understood. Liebig himself even turned away from his “storage bin” paradigm in the later part of his life, but our agricultural sciences continued to follow his earlier writings.
If we take away plants, soil can no longer be living. Plants provide the energy via photosynthesis for all animal and microbial life in the soil. These photosynthates are provided first as root exudates that feed the fungi and bacteria in exchange for which they gain the minerals that in turn feed the plants. The visible life forms are as important as the invisible microbial community. Soil animals go from burrowing woodchucks and gophers to snails, slugs and elongate animals such as earthworms, flatworms, nematodes, soil mites, springtails, ants, termites, beetles and flies. All of these species together create a community that is often called the soil food web.
Organic farming is based on protecting and enhancing this web of life. By cultivating the diversity of life, we create a stable ecosystem in the soil. Diseases or pestilence are symptoms of a loss of balance. So the organic farmer’s first job is to enhance the diversity of life in the soil community. This is done by providing materials and techniques to help build a soil carbon sponge.
Conventional agriculture is based on a very different strategy of control and simplification. By making systems that are as simple as possible, it becomes easy to control the inputs and outputs. The inputs are processed offsite to provide plant available nutrients. “Soil” becomes a device for holding roots. It is thus easier to make these systems replicable, much like the model of a McDonald’s restaurant. McDonald’s simplifies their systems as much as possible to serve the same hamburger to every customer around the world. In such a system the expertise is contained in the corporate staff who design the processes and provides the raw materials. The problem is a loss of nutrition in the final product. McDonald’s serves lots of calories that soothe customers’ cravings, but they fail at providing a healthy diet. The end result is the phenomena of customers who are simultaneously malnourished and obese.
Similarly, in a conventional agriculture system, the yields are high per acre, but, as Vandana Shiva has said, the yield of health per acre is low. As it turns out, we are part of that co-evolution of soil and plants and animals. Human nutritional needs are complex and beyond our full understanding at this point. But organic farmers believe that by embracing those natural systems, we can feed ourselves well, even if we never fully understand why.
As Einstein once said, there is a simplicity that comes before complexity that is worthless, but there is a simplicity beyond complexity that is priceless.
These simplified conventional systems have been promoted by an industry that profits by selling remedies to the unintended consequences of such crude simplicity. Their high yields are unsustainable without the liberal use of poisons. Plants grown in a soil devoid of biological complexity are very vulnerable to disease and insect attack. And of course, the more we use such poisons, the less healthy the soil becomes, so more pesticides are needed, and on and on.
In livestock production, the epitome of conventional agriculture is a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) where animals are isolated from the land. Their food is grown far from where they live, so their manure is lost to the production system. There is no honoring of Albert Howard’s Law Of Return.
In vegetables and berries, the epitome of conventional agriculture is hydroponic production. Hydroponics is a system that relies entirely upon processed inputs to feed the plants. The old organic adage is, “Feed the soil, not the plant.” The guiding principle of conventional agriculture is: “Feed the plant, not the soil.” Obviously, hydroponic production is the most extreme example of this philosophy.
The practices of organic farming are ancient, but not all traditional farming systems could be called organic by the definition of such pioneers as Albert Howard. Some traditional agriculture was not sustainable and ultimately led to the downfall of civilizations. But organic principles have been practiced in the intensive farming of southeast Asia for over 4000 years. They were learned by Howard in India and subsequently taught in the West. Since then, soil science has confirmed Howard’s ideas to an astonishing degree. Every day we learn more and more about how soil communities function and about why such a system need not depend on pesticides to thrive. Every day we learn more about the connections between the soil microbiome and our own microbiome.
From this logic we derive a conclusion that is important to remember: that the absence of pesticides in a successful organic system is the result of how we farm, not the definition of it.
The organic movement has long believed that food grown in a healthy soil is the foundation of human health. In recent years it has become clear that agriculture is also deeply involved in the climate crisis, both as the problem and as the solution. Conventional agriculture contributes directly to the destruction of the living soil, leading to the spread of deserts and the warming of the planet. We have the skills and understanding to farm without chemicals in a way that will build a soil carbon sponge that can cool our warming planet. Our impediment to achieving this is social and political, not technical.
The inclusion of hydroponics in organic certification is thus not an example of innovation and improvement. It is an example of conquest and colonization. It is simply a hostile takeover of organic by economic forces. It has been widely resisted by the organic community, but the USDA continues to embrace hydroponics as organic just as they embrace CAFOs as organic. Their redefinition of organic is in opposition to the law and to international norms. The US once again becomes the rogue nation throwing away our mutual future so somebody can make a buck.
At this time, huge quantities of hydroponic berries, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and greens are being marketed as “Certified Organic” in partnership with the USDA. And there is no way of identifying what is hydroponic in the organic label.
The Real Organic Project was created to challenge this process. Our efforts include the creation of an add-on label so that real organic farmers and eaters might be able to find one another in a deceptive marketplace.
To learn more, please visit us at realorganicproject.org.
This essay originally appeared on Independent Science News.
More articles by:DAVE CHAPMAN