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UAE Delegation Visit To Japan Opens Avenues For Environmental Collaboration
A UAE delegation, headed by Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, MoCCAE, has concluded its visit to the Japanese capital Tokyo. The agenda included a visit to ‘Techno Farm Keihanna’, the largest automated vertical farm in the world
30-07-2019
TOKYO, 30th July, 2019 (WAM) -- A UAE delegation, headed by Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, MoCCAE, has concluded its visit to the Japanese capital Tokyo. The visit aimed to promote collaboration on various environmental fronts and allow the delegation to explore best practices and technologies in Japan’s agricultural and fisheries sectors.
The delegation comprised Salah Al Rayssi, Acting Assistant Under-Secretary for the Biodiversity and Marine Life Sector at MoCCAE, and a host of representatives of private sector companies in the UAE.
Commenting on the visit, Dr. Al Zeyoudi said, "The UAE enjoys deep-rooted economic and environmental ties with Japan. Our visit aimed to build on our strong synergies and identify new opportunities for collaboration in the environmental sector. We also sought to exchange expertise in relevant areas."
"The UAE strives to boost international cooperation and learn from successful experiences of friendly nations with the aim of ensuring sustainable development across all sectors," the minister added.
Al Zeyoudi held multiple bilateral meetings with high-level environment officials, in the presence of Khalid Omran Al Ameri, UAE Ambassador to Japan. Among these was a meeting with Yoshiaki Harada, Japan’s Minister of the Environment, who reiterated the importance of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Initiative that will elevate relations between the two countries to new heights.
The UAE Minister also met with Mitsuhiro Miyakoshi, Japan’s Minister of State for Consumer Affairs and Food Safety, who applauded the strong UAE-Japan relations, and highlighted the UAE’s leading role in supplying natural gas and other energy resources to Japan following the Fukushima earthquake.
Dr Al Zeyoudi met with Kohjiro Takano, Japanese Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, who praised the recent measures taken by the UAE to relax the restrictions on all imports from Fukushima.
He also met with Saito Ken, Chief Secretary of Japan-UAE Parliamentary Friendship Association, to explore ways to enhance the strategic bilateral relationship.
In a meeting with Yuriko Koike, Governor of Tokyo, Al Zeyoudi discussed further boosting bilateral relations through creating investment opportunities in renewables as well as twinning Abu Dhabi and Tokyo.
The agenda included a visit to ‘Techno Farm Keihanna’, the largest automated vertical farm in the world, where Dr Al Zeyoudi and delegates from Madar Farms, the UAE-based vertical farming company, gained insights into the latest developments and technologies in vertical farming that significantly accelerates food production.
The delegation also visited Toyosu Fish market, the largest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world, the Institute of Energy and Economics, Japan International Cooperation Agency, a governmental agency that coordinates official development assistance for the government of Japan, and Mebiol, a Tokyo-based technology corporation that invented the sustainable agro-tech concept of using films to cultivate plants and ensure zero wastage of water.
On the sidelines of the visit to Japan, Dr Al Zeyoudi attended the second round of the fifth edition of the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam Jiu-Jitsu World Tour that witnessed athletes from 35 countries competing for the top honour.
WAM/Nour Salman/MOHD AAMIR
History of Microgrids In The US: From Pearl Street To Plug-and-Play
While it may seem that microgrids are new, the history of microgrids shows they have been around in some form for years in the US
July 22, 2019
By Lisa Cohn
While it may seem that microgrids are new, the history of microgrids shows they have been around in some form for years in the US — although they haven’t always been called microgrids. The first one was introduced by Thomas Edison in 1882 at his Pearl Street Station, which combined heat and power and produced electricity and thermal energy.
The Battery and Control Room in the first Edison Electric Lighting Station at Pearl Street in lower Manhattan in 1882. By Everett Historical/Shutterstock.com
In fact, campuses have been using microgrids for decades and have shown that microgrids are compatible with local utility grids and provide benefits to both the campuses and the larger grids.
Universities were ideal early adapters of microgrids because they have large, easily defined loads. In addition, many campuses have physical plants that provide steam for heating.
As a result, an upgrade to combined heat and power (CHP) microgrid makes sense in many cases. CHP technology allows them to produce both electricity and steam from a single fuel, which dramatically boosts the efficiency of the system.
Campuses with microgrids include Wesleyan University, Harvard University, Princeton University and the University of California at San Diego (UCSD). One of the biggest microgrids in the US is at the University of Texas at Austin, which can supply all of the university’s power, heating and cooling needs.
In the late 1990s, Congress was concerned about the reliability of national electricity transmission, and asked the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for guidance. The conversation focused on maximizing distributed generation to reduce stress on the grid. A number of research projects were launched over the years, leading to demonstration projects of microgrid technology for utilities, universities, industry, school districts, jails, hospitals, laboratories, military bases and industrial parks.
Pivotal event in history of microgrids: Superstorm Sandy
A series of severe storms from 2011-2012 in the Northeast heightened interest in microgrids, the most destructive being Superstorm Sandy. Microgrid operators, like Princeton University, showcased how microgrid technology kept power on when the central grid failed during Sandy.
Efforts to rebuild the electricity infrastructure prompted people to ask questions about how to better prepare in the future. This helped raise awareness about microgrids and distributed energy.
A handful of states played a big role in the history of microgrids, among them California, Connecticut, illinois, Massachuetts, New Jersey and New York.
For example, in 2013 Connecticut became the first state to offer microgrid funding when it announced its Microgrid Pilot Program. Nine microgrid projects were awarded $18 million in funding through the first round.
The program is now in its fourth round of funding, awarding up to $30 million to microgrid projects. Award recipients have included two campuses, Trinity College and Wesleyan University, a family-owned dairy farm and pet shelter, the town of Coventry, and even an apartment complex.
The Ameren Microgrid in Champaign, Illinois, August 2017. Photo courtesy Ameren Illinois
In 2014, New York created the New York Prize, a $40 million competition launched to offer money to those who plan on developing community microgrids. The initiative was created to find microgrids that could be easily replicated and used as models for other communities nationwide.
On the other side of the country, in 2016, the California Energy Commission (CEC) met to began working on a new microgrid roadmap, created to encourage microgrid development in California. The roadmap identifies the top barriers to microgrid commercialization and examines ways to improve commercialization and standardization.
Initially, the CEC cited as barriers lack of policies and regulations that enable microgrids, plus interconnection rules that impose limitations on microgrids. The CEC has since awarded almost $80 million in grants.
Clustering microgrids
Another big moment in the history of microgrids came when Illinois regulators approved Commonwealth Edison’s microgrid cluster in Chicago in 2018. The $25 million project — the first utility-scale microgrid cluster in the nation — is designed to help teach utilities how to integrate microgrids with renewable energy resources and how to maximize the efficiency and value of two microgrids that interact with one another. The microgrid will directly serve more than 1,000 residential, commercial, and small industrial customers in the South Side of Chicago.
A national security play
Along with these programs that gave microgrids a boost, the US Military has been an enthusiastic early adapter of microgrids in efforts to ensure the power stays on in mission-critical operations. The military has for many years relied on small, isolated, self-contained grids in remote locations. More recently, the modern microgrid has altered the way the military and the federal government approach reliability and sustainability.
The federal government realized that a military base could install solar panels for some portion of its load to help achieve renewable goals while also making the base more resilient and self-sufficient. The Navy was one of the first branches of the military to build microgrids, installing one at the hospital Navy Base in San Diego. Since then, the military has installed several others including sophisticated projects at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) in San Diego and the US Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) Parris Island, South Carolina.
Evolution of microgrid financing
While microgrid awareness and interest was building among the military and others, acquiring the financing to build the microgrids was challenging. Commercial building structures, ownership and leasing arrangements all varied considerably, which made financing specific to the project and therefore difficult.
While it made sense logically to build microgrids, it didn’t yet make sense financially or operationally for many businesses. Financiers were not set up to finance projects that were small and specific to each individual project. This has changed in recent years because of models that derisk the investment for customers. These are offered under such names as microgrid-as-a-service, reliability-as-a-service, and energy as a service (EaaS).
These approaches convert a long-term capital expenditure to a short-term operational expense, thus keeping a large capital expense off a company’s books. Commercial customers can take on projects with no uprfont capital spending. Instead, a third party or financier typically owns the equipment and the customer pays a service fee, much like a monthly utility bill. Agreements vary on a case-by-case basis.
Product differentiation emerges
As microgrid use has expanded, so has its applications. Microgrids at first were viewed as a way to increase reliability, keeping the power on when the central grid failed. Their applications have widened into carbon efficiency. Wider adoption of microgrid technology has also been buoyed by cities, states, corporations and campuses that have set sustainability or carbon-emissions reduction goals. These have helped drive development of clean energy microgrids – those that incorporate renewables. Newer microgrids often use solar panels or wind turbines, and more are beginning to emerge that incorporate electric vehicle charging stations.
The military microgrid on Parris Island. Photo courtesy of Ameresco
Microgrids also are used to keep energy costs in check, as developers become increasingly adept at employing financing innovations and state and federal renewable energy incentives to lower energy costs. Sophisticated microgrids can participate in certain wholesale markets and leverage their assets to reduce costs.
As microgrid applications have expanded, they have entered the phase of product differentiation, which has led to many different types of microgrids, from fractal microgrids to virtual, blockchain, flying, sailing and more. At this time, NRG offers asset-backed demand response microgrids that focus on providing demand response and S&C Electric provides non-wires alternatives, which allow utilities to avoid investing in traditional poles and wires. And while microgrids continue to be highly customized products, the industry also is working on refining simple plug-and-play microgrids that can be manufactured in a replicable fashion and in some cases be installed in a day.
Today microgrids can be found at a broad range of commercial, institutional, industrial, community and government facilities. But residential microgrids remain rare, although some do exist, including one at the ranch of former California Gov. Jerry Brown. And some home developers are beginning to install neighborhood microgrids, but they too remain unusual.
Even though the history of microgrids spans for more than a hundred years, it’s been the last six that have brought growth in the leaps and bounds. Numerous drivers suggest it’s just the start of a lengthy buildup of microgrids in the US.
If you found this article on the history of microgrids helpful, subscribe to the free Microgrid Knowledge newsletter for more news and information about the growing industry.
New Zealand: $2.75m of Funding to Make Northland Hydroponic Horticultural Capital
The partnership will enable Maungatapere Berries, owned by the Malley Family, to develop the first phase of a high-tech education, training and employment operation, as part of a 20ha hydroponic orchard expansion, doubling its workforce to 360 over the next five to eight years
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announces $2.75million of Provincial Growth Fund money for Maungatapere Berries, which grows fruit hydroponically, west of Whangārei.
Northern Advocate
13 Jul, 2019
Northland could become the hydroponic horticultural capital of the country with a $2.37-million Provincial Growth Fund loan going to a Whangarei company to expand its already huge hydroponic operation and create 45 new full time jobs.
The $2.37m PGF partnership was announced by the Minister of Regional Economic Development, Shane Jones, at Whangarei business Maungatapere Berries that will create the first centre for growing excellence in the New Zealand hydroponics horticulture industry.
The partnership will enable Maungatapere Berries, owned by the Malley Family, to develop the first phase of a high-tech education, training and employment operation, as part of a 20ha hydroponic orchard expansion, doubling its workforce to 360 over the next five to eight years.
As new generation growers Patrick and Rebecca Malley said they are excited at the potential of hydroponics as one of the greatest untapped opportunities for the future of sustainable horticulture in Northland.
Maungatapere Berries director Patrick Malley and berryfruit manager Aroha Heta.
"Our plan, as part of the PGF partnership, is to further build on the extensive work the family's business has already undertaken in hydroponics providing permanent employment opportunities for locals in horticulture,'' Patrick Malley said.
"We aim to use it as a template designed to create better paying jobs and lifelong careers for young Northlanders as well as improving the social and economic benefits for local communities.''
The hydroponic orchard will focus on berryfruit and other fruit varieties that flourish when grown hydroponically in Northland's warm semi-tropical climate. He said the hydroponic centre of excellence will become a sustainable farming reference site for Northland growers with the aim of introducing and increasing the production of hydroponic fruit crops in the region and improving the economic opportunities for the Northland region.
The Malley family first started developing part of their 37ha kiwifruit orchard into a hydroponic berry operation four years ago, focusing on growing high-quality, good-tasting fruit to supply the New Zealand domestic market all year round.
They have continued investing and expanding their operation, which employs 45 fulltime staff and an additional 180 staff during the peak season, and includes an advanced packhouse servicing the domestic market, with future plans to export.
He said ongoing research into new fruit crops combined with greenhouse innovation and a strategy to build deep capability has the potential to develop a large environmentally sustainable horticultural industry that supports real growth in living wage employment and social equality for Northland.
Conversations About Food: Food Tank Live in NYC Speakers Series
A year-round event series by Food Tank featuring incredible speakers followed by a delicious reception/networking held in partnership with NYU Steinhardt, the NYC Food Policy Center at Hunter, and Salon.com
Tue, Jul 16 (7:00 PM) Tue, Aug 13 (7:00 PM)
A year-round event series by Food Tank featuring incredible speakers followed by a delicious reception/networking held in partnership with NYU Steinhardt, the NYC Food Policy Center at Hunter, and Salon.com.
May 14: "Equity in the Food System." Speakers: Joel Berg, CEO, Hunger Free America; Manny Howard, Salon.com; Qiana Mickie, Executive Director, Just Food; Danielle Nierenberg, Food Tank; Krishnendu Ray,NYU Steinhardt; Raymond Figueroa, Jr, President, New York City Community Garden Coalition; Chloe Sorvino, Forbes; Noreen Springstead, Executive Director, WhyHunger; and Ellen J. Wulfhorst,Reuters.
June 11: "Good Tech in Good Food." Speakers: Roee Adler, SVP, Global Head of We Work Labs, WeWork; Emma Cosgrove, Supply Chain Dive; Alexander Gillett, CEO, HowGood; Jennifer Goggin, Co-Founder, Startle Innovation; Manny Howard, Salon.com; Bertha Jimenez, CEO, RISE Products; Jenna Liut, Heritage Radio Network; and Danielle Nierenberg, Food Tank.
July 16: "Eating for a Healthier and Sustainable Planet." Speakers: Lisa Held, The Farm Report; Manny Howard, Salon.com; Martin Lemos,Interim Executive Director, National Young Farmers Coalition; Chris McGrath, Chief Sustainability and Well-Being Officer, Mondelez;Danielle Nierenberg, Food Tank; Alex Sammon, The New Republic; Shino Tanikawa, Executive Director, NYC Soil & Water Conservation District; Beth Weitzman, Professor of Health and Public Policy, New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development; Walter Willett, EAT Lancet primary author, Harvard University; and more to be announced.
August 13: "Healthy Food at Every Age." Speakers: Meserete Davis, Culinary Education Training Developer, NYC DOE School Foods; Dan Giusti, Founder, Brigaid; Manny Howard, Salon.com; Danielle Nierenberg, Food Tank; and more to be announced
In partnership with Great Performances Catering, a leading caterer committed to balancing inequalities in our communities, the events will be followed by networking opportunities as well as some delicious food.
Each of the talks will also be aired as part of a Facebook Live series in partnership with Facebook Community Leadership Program and released on our charting iTunes podcast, “Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg.”
Hurry each event has limited availability!
To join the waitlist for a full event,
please apply at www.foodtank.com/waitlist.
Tags United States Events New York EventsThings To Do In New York, NY New York Appearances New York Charity & Causes Appearances
Food Security In The UAE
With increasing concerns over climate change, urbanization and overpopulation in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), there is a major issue that is on the table of all Gulf countries — food security
WORLD NEWS /06 APR 2019
Theodore Karasik and Maya Yang
With increasing concerns over climate change, urbanization and overpopulation in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), there is a major issue that is on the table of all Gulf countries — food security. For a region that imports upwards of 90 percent of its current food supply, self-sustainability remains a significant challenge. According to Aquastat, GCC countries currently use up to 500 percent of total freshwater resources and as demand is expected to exceed by 40% in the next 30 years, the region’s precipitation is also forecasted to decrease.
Additionally, because one third of the region’s food supply passes through only one maritime chokepoint, asserting control over such chokepoints can become political and quickly result in a food security emergency — the most recent example being the first few days of the 2017 Qatar blockade (note that the import dependency ratio in the Gulf reaches up to 70 percent). Finally, compounding the issue is the region’s food wastage.
In a report released in 2019 by Dubai Industrial Park and The Economist Intelligence Unit, yearly food waste in Saudi Arabia is around 427 kilograms per person and 197 kilograms per person in the UAE. In contrast, food waste in Europe and North America lies between 96 to 115 kilograms per person.
As the region continues to grow rapidly, the UAE has adopted several comprehensive tactics to tackle food security, a few of which this article will seek to highlight. Among these approaches include its comprehensive food security strategy, high tech agriculture, as well as the creation of international platforms to foster dialogue and innovation surrounding food security solutions.
Late last year, the UAE’s Minister of State of Food Security, Mariam Hareb Almheiri, announced the National Strategy for Food Security. According to Almheiri, the plan comes at a pressing time, given that “the UAE’s climate makes it exceptionally critical for us to develop holistic and ambitious plans to ensure our food security.” The plan is based on three main elements: knowledge of domestic consumption volume, production capacity, and processing and nutritional needs.
Furthermore, its long-term initiatives focus on facilitating global food trade, diversifying food import sources, and identifying alternative supply schemes. The National Strategy for Food Security seeks to break the country into the top ten of the Global Food Security Index by 2021, a vision compliant with the country’s Vision 2021 (currently, the UAE ranks 31st). Part of the country’s approach to fulfill these goals is to increase domestic food production, one method being vertical farming. Last year, Dubai allocated 7,600 square meters of land for the region’s first-ever 12 vertical farms, a method employed by Singapore (which ranks 1st on the Global Food Security Index).
Additionally, the country has launched several key programs that can be modeled by surrounding countries, given the similar climate and urbanization transformations they are undergoing. These initiatives include the Food Valley Platform, a database (accessible to interested parties) containing information on research and food security development including resource funding, patent registration mechanisms, and a compilation on global findings. Also, as a way to mobilize the public in addressing food security, the UAE launched the National Governance Structure for Food Security, a policymaking body that includes representatives and stakeholders from all parts of society to discuss and address food security policies. As many argue that climate change, drought, and food security issues were chief causes of the Arab Spring, this platform is an opportune way to ensure public participation in expressing and addressing such concerns.
Another method adopted by the country is high tech agriculture. As mentioned earlier, the UAE models its vertical farming after Singapore; however, this is not the only method. The country has also adopted soilless farming and hydroponics, an alternative to water-intensive methods that has increased from 50 projects in 2009 to 1000 in 2017. Other pillars of the national food security agenda includes aquaculture. A coastal country, the UAE has invested over $27 million to develop controlled farming conditions for fish, mollusks, aquatic plants, and algae, amongst other freshwater and saltwater organisms. Moreover, the country has adopted sensors into both small and large-scale agricultural projects. According to Almheiri, gyroscopes, accelerators, and GPS monitors are used to identify salinity and mineral levels in soil, as well as light and humidity levels. Now the country is able to farm grow Salmon.
Lastly, in attempts to position itself as a worldwide hub of innovation, the UAE has in recent years hosted a slew of international platforms to promote sustainable agriculture and food security discussions. In 2014, Abu Dhabi launched the annual Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture (GFIA). With attendees from over 120 countries in 2018, the exhibition hosted start-ups, government officials, supply chains, and food producers from various sectors of agriculture including indoor farming, animal, crop, and aquaculture production. Furthermore, Dubai has been the annual host of Gulfood, the world’s largest food and beverage trade exhibition. This year, the festival, which attracted guests from over 120 countries, focused on changing consumer trends towards healthier options, as well as addressing food wastage and international partnerships on agro-product trade. Lastly, with the Dubai Expo 2020 around the corner, sustainability serves as a major subtheme at the international exhibition.
Ultimately, as the region faces increasing aridity due to climate change, as well as the pressing need for economic diversification, the UAE has proven itself as an ambitious pioneer in food security and sustainability. Due to its reputation as an international transit and innovation hub, as well as its massive wealth to acquire and invest in high technologies, it is able to easily develop comprehensive methods to tackle food security. With that said, it should now seek to distribute its methods and technologies to its neighbors, especially to countries with comparatively lower GDPs such as Oman and Kuwait (which face similar climate conditions and food security challenges).
Photo: Aurélie Marrier d'Unienville/IFRC
Japan Plant Factory Association Announces Innovative Approach To Sustainability With Plant Factories With Artificial Lighting (PFAL)
Industry: Agriculture
A New approach to sustainability with plant factories was announced this month by Toyoki Kozai, Japan Plant Factory Association (NPO)
New York City, NY (PRUnderground) April 18th, 2019
Plant Factory is a facility that aids the steady production of high-quality vegetables all year round by artificially controlling the cultivation environment (e.g., light, temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide concentration, and culture solution), allowing growers to plan production. Japan leads the world in the cutting-edge technology contained in plant factories and it continues to motivate entrepreneurs and start-ups.
In the book “Smart Plant Factory: The next generation indoor vertical farms”, Toyoki Kozai has tried to provide readers with an accurate understanding of plant factories. The book presents an overview of the role of plant factories in the 21st century. Furthermore, it comprises of a lucid description of the concept, characteristics, methodology, design, management, business, recent advances and future technologies of plant factories with artificial lighting (PFAL) and indoor vertical farms.
According to the Shift, indoor farming is the future of urban farming as it allows vertical farms that grow all crops, in any place, at any time. It has been observed that there is an emerging interest around the globe in smart PFAL R&D and business and this book tries to cover smart solutions in PFAL et al.
In another book, “Light-Emitting Diodes, the readers can gain insight into the latest theories, technologies, and applications of LEDs based on III-V semiconductor materials. Jinmin Li and G.Q. Zhang describe the latest developments of LEDs with spectral coverage from ultra-violet (UV) to the entire visible light wavelength.
The book is a highly recommended read for all the researchers and students working with semiconductors, optoelectronics, and optics. It delves into the various novel ways LEDs can be used, for example, the benefits of LEDs in healthcare and wellbeing or the innovative solutions LEDs can provide in horticulture and animal breeding. The foreword of the book is written by Hiroshi Amano, one of the 2014 winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on light-emitting diodes. Overall, the book is an interesting, thought-provoking read.
In a research paper, “Benefits, problems, and challenges of plant factories with artificial lighting (PFALs), T. Kozai has discussed the potential and actualized benefits of the PFAL, the current unresolved problems of PFALs and the challenges for the smart PFAL. According to the Kozai, the global and local trilemma on foods, resources, and environment can be solved with the help of PFALs. According to Kozai et al., the benefits of the PFAL are high resource-use efficiency (RUE), high annual productivity per unit land area, and the production of high-quality plants without using pesticides.
However, high initial investment, electricity, and labor costs remain a challenge which has further led to a limited number of profitable PFALs. Kozai suggests that it is vital to understand the concepts behind the benefits and the methodology before designing and operating a PFAL to actualize the potential benefits of the PFAL. In addition to the above, a considerable amount of systematic research, development, and marketing with the appropriate vision, mission, strategy, and methodologies is also crucial.
The research on PFALs shows that actualization of potential benefits is relatively easy compared to a greenhouse in which the energy and material balance and the plant-environment relationship is much more complex. Hence, the straightforward approach with respect to the PFAL is helpful.
Tags: AI, artificial intelligence, factories, News, plant, Science
Agriculture and Food Research Initiative - Sustainable Agricultural Systems
Program:
Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) | AFRI Sustainable Agricultural Systems
Applications to the FY 2019 Agriculture and Food Research Initiative - Sustainable Agricultural Systems (SAS) Request for Applications (RFA) must focus on approaches that promote transformational changes in the U.S. food and agriculture system within the next 25 years.
NIFA seeks creative and visionary applications that take a systems approach, and that will significantly improve the supply of abundant, affordable, safe, nutritious, and accessible food, while providing sustainable opportunities for expansion of the bioeconomy through novel animal, crop, and forest products and supporting technologies.
These approaches must demonstrate current and future social, behavioral, economic, health, and environmental impacts.
Additionally, the outcomes of the work being proposed must result in societal benefits, including promotion of rural prosperity and enhancement of quality of life for those involved in food and agricultural value chains from production to utilization and consumption. See AFRI SAS RFA for details.
APPLY FOR GRANT(LINK IS EXTERNAL)VIEW RFA
ELIGIBILITY DETAILS
Who Is Eligible to Apply:
1862 Land-Grant Institutions, 1890 Land-Grant Institutions, 1994 Land-Grant Institutions, Other or Additional Information (See below), Private Institutions of Higher Ed, State Controlled Institutions of Higher Ed
More on Eligibility:
Note: This RFA invites only integrated project (must include research, education, and extension) applications. Please see Part III, A. of the this AFRI SAS RFA for more specific eligibility requirements for integrated projects. Applications from ineligible institutions will not be reviewed.
IMPORTANT DATES
Posted Date:
Friday, March 29, 2019
Closing Date:
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Other Due Date:
Letter of Intent Due:
Tuesday, June 4, 2019
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
For More Information Contact:
AFRI Sustainable Agricultural Systems Team
Contact for Electronic Access Problems:
electronic@nifa.usda.gov(link sends e-mail)
Funding Opportunity Number:
USDA-NIFA-AFRI-006739
CFDA number:
10.310
Previous fiscal year(s) RFA:
FY 2018 AFRI SAS FINAL RFA (431.48 KB)
Estimated Total Program Funding:
$90,000,000
Percent of Applications Funded:
10%
Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement:
See RFA
Range of Awards:
$5,000,000 - $10,000,000
Watch: This Futuristic Vertical Farm Would Farm Fish, Bugs And Plants in The Middle of The City
March 25, 2019
Futuristic vertical farm would grow food in the middle of the city
French design company Studio NAB has come up with the idea of creating a large vertical farm called the Superfarm to promote sustainable living.
Designers at Studio NAB have come up with the idea of creating a large vertical farm called the Superfarm to promote sustainable living.
The designer’s nifty solution is to focus on the production of super foods, or foods with a high nutritional value.
The six-storey building would incorporate renewable energy to farm fish, insects, and plants including aloes and seaweed.
French design company Studio NAB has come up with the idea of creating a large vertical farm called the Superfarm to promote sustainable living.
It forms part of their idea to combat future food shortages as the world’s population increases to 10 billion and brings food to where, by 2050, 80% of the world's population will be living: urban spaces.
Feeding the world would require new land the size of Brazil to be farmed in order to produce enough food, if farming practices continue as they are practiced today, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations,
“Nowadays, the agri-food system and its production methods are poorly organised and unsustainable over the long term, we see its limits and misdeeds everyday,” the design company says.
The designer’s solution is to build indoor vertical farms which can produce sustainable food for the consumer in urban areas.
Far from the traditional urban farm producing salads or other fruits and vegetables, the Superfarm project, as its name suggests, focuses its production on the culture of foods with a high nutritional value.
The Superfarm would be six stories tall, with its topmost layer containing solar panels and wind turbines to produce renewable energy.
Level two would feature an open terrace with plants such as ginseng, spirulina and aloe vera cultures.
Levels three and four would be dedicated to insect breeding and algae cultures.
The fifth floor would farm aquatic creatures such as trout and tilapia and young plant cultures, while the sixth story would contain a greenhouse that would include plants such as acai berries and goji berries.
Each floor would have a specific purpose and would work in unison with other floors to create a viable ecosystem.
The project strives to recreate an ecosystem in an urban environment that incorporates seaweed, beekeeping, insect farming, aquaponics and also various greenhouse cultivations and outdoor cultures, allow each living being to serve the growth of the others.
NatureFresh™ Introduces New Sustainability Initiatives and Team Member
Leamington, ON (March 29, 2019) - NatureFresh™ Farms is leading the way in the farming industry by expanding their facilities, providing year-round Ontario grown produce and introducing their new sustainable practices along with their most recent addition to the NatureFresh™ Farms team.
On April 3rd to 4th, NatureFresh™ Farms will be sharing their achievements in sustainable development by featuring their new eco-friendly compostable tray at this year’s Canadian Produce Marketing Association convention & tradeshow. Sustainability is a topic that has continued to be a focus of the company since the beginning and has seen an increased amount of interest throughout the industry. NatureFresh™ Farms maintains sustainability as a priority by continuously working with suppliers to develop new technology in their greenhouse operations and packaging.
By launching this new compostable packaging for both their conventional and Organic Mini Cucumbers, attendees will get an opportunity to see the tray while learning more about the role of sustainability within the produce industry.
In addition to their compostable tray, their greenhouse expansion will also assist in meeting their sustainability initiatives by reducing food miles with more locally-grown produce in their greenhouses. The expansion has been a large project that will be occurring over the coming months and once complete will increase their production and efficiency in the growing process, while consistently providing high-quality products, giving Canadian consumers a greater opportunity to purchase locally-grown produce throughout the year. The new facility will grow more Tomato assortments, with supplemental lighting assisting in year-round production.
NatureFresh™ Farms is also thrilled to announce the expansion of their team with Retail Sales Account Manager, Conor Chilvers. Conor joined the company early this March and will be accompanying them at the convention this spring. “I am excited for my first show as part of the NatureFresh™ Farms team,” shared Conor. “I’m really looking forward to introducing my customers to the brand and telling the NatureFresh™ story”.
Executive Retail Sales Account Manager; Paul Schockman, also shared his excitement for the upcoming show and the arrival of Conor. “We are very pleased to welcome Conor to our team, having multiple years of experience in the produce industry, he will be a great asset in supporting our rapid growth and servicing our customers in the best way possible,” said Paul. “NatureFresh™ Farms has a lot of exciting things occurring this year with our sustainable initiatives, the expansion of our facilities and the growth of the team, which we are eager to share at the convention, along with showcasing our new products and packaging alternatives.”
With 20 years of providing quality greenhouse grown vegetables all year-round, NatureFresh™ Farms looks forward to the future with their continued advancements in sustainable technology and product innovation. Be sure to visit the NatureFresh™ Farms booth #408 from April 3rd to 4th and connect with their team to learn more about their sustainable efforts.
Bristol Startup LettUs Grow Attracts £1M Funding To Develop Sustainable Farms For Future
January 11, 2019
The UK agri-tech startup LettUs Grow has obtained £1 million in funding to build commercial indoor farm facilities. The startup designs aeroponic irrigation and control technology for vertical farms. The funding will steer the company to expand globally and develop innovative eco-friendly farming solutions.
Supported by renowned organisations
Innovate UK has endowed LettUs Grow with £399,650 to manoeuvre a £700,000 project enabling food security in the emergent challenge of climate change.
The agri-tech startup will work in collaboration with ECH Engineering and Grow Bristol. Besides, the company has won several research grants including the Green Challenge, amounting €100,000 in total.
Prior to the latest capital ingestion, LettUs Grow raised £460,000 from ClearlySo, Bethnal Green Ventures, and the University of Bristol Enterprise Fund II, managed by Parkwalk Advisors and angel investors.
Matias Wibowo, investment manager at ClearlySo articulated, “Innovation is critical to ensuring long-term food security and sustainability. Our investors see the value, both in terms of financial and environmental/social returns from tackling this systemic global problem. That’s why they got involved in LettUs Grow. LettUs Grow provides the technological innovation piece to the vertical smart farming movement that is currently trending rapidly in the urban context.”
Challenges of rising populace and climate change
With the exponentially growing population, the food production needs to be augmented by many folds. The traditional farming will not be enough to feed this escalating global population facing the menace of climate change, soil degradation and looming farmland. Besides, a significant proportion of crops get damaged due to logistical anomalies.
LettUs Grow – sustainable farming for a better future
LettUs Grow has invented a patent-pending aeroponic technology for growing shrubs and herbs with over 70% higher growth rate compared to existing methods. In this technology, plant roots are suspended in a nutrient-rich mist instead of using soil. This ensures faster, consistent and predictable yields resulting in 95% reduction in water usage against open-field farming. LettUs Grow enables reduction of carbon footprints with 0% use of pesticides and chemicals.
Headquartered in Bristol, LettUs Grow was founded by Ben Crowther, Charlie Guy and Jack Farmer in 2015.
Charlie Guy, co-founder and Managing Director of LettUs Grow stated, “This injection of private and public funding into the company enables us to accelerate our innovative products to market and build one of the most technically advanced facilities for indoor growing in the world. The global agri-tech industry is very exciting right now, all stemming from the necessity to improve the economic and environmental sustainability of food production. We are fielding enquiries from all around the world from food producers and farmers who want to experience the benefits of our technology across a growing range of crops.”
Stay tuned to Silicon Canals for more updates in the tech startup world.
One of The Largest Living Things Even Bigger Than Previously Thought
This makes the enormous honey mushroom, which mostly consists of an underground network of tendrils wrapped around tree roots, heavier than three blue whales.
US Biologists Re-Examine Giant Honey Mushroom
A giant honey mushroom, since some decades considered a contender for the largest organism on the planet, is both much larger and much older than previously thought. Scientists first studied the enormous fungus, which lives deep underground in a Michigan forest, in 1992.
Then they estimated it was 1,500 years old, and the extensive mass of underground fibres and mushrooms that formed it weighed 100,000 kg and stretched 15 hectares. Returning to the site, the same team used more rigorous testing to estimate the fungus was in fact closer to 2,500 years old.
They also discovered that it weighed closer to 400,000 kg and stretched over 70 hectares.
This makes the enormous honey mushroom, which mostly consists of an underground network of tendrils wrapped around tree roots, heavier than three blue whales.
“I view these estimates as the lower bound… The fungus could actually be much older,” said Professor James Anderson, a biologist at the University of Toronto who undertook both studies. The findings were published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
While the Michigan fungus is large, it is outclassed by another honey mushroom from Oregon that is even larger. Uk.news.yahoo.com also tells of the Pando aspen in Utah, a forest originating from a single underground parent clone that is thought to weigh up to 6 million kg.
Seeds&Chips
“We believe that technological innovation can create a better, safer, and more resilient food system to fight hunger for everyone”
ITALY
Marco Gualtieri is an Italian businessman who has used his entrepreneurial skills to put together a coalition of private-sector partners and others focused on innovation in the global food chain.
Gualtieri’s innovative company, Seeds&Chips, concerns itself with a wide variety of issues surrounding the challenges of sustainable food system. Seeds&Chips in fact works with people who are dedicated to transforming the food chain towards a more meaningful future in the belief that the key to sustainability lies in connecting the dots, creating partnerships and fostering collaborations that bring new ideas to life.
“But we can’t do it alone. Collaboration is at the heart of our mission,” Gualtieri says.
Through their Global Food Innovation Summit and other activities, participants look at new ways to improve their roles in food production, processing, distribution, communication and consumption.
In fact, Seeds&Chips has built one of the largest food and ag tech ecosystems in the world, and through this network they engage innovators, investors, companies, institutions and policy makers from every point of the global food chain, and provide a platform for them to connect and work together for a more sustainable future.
They are applying their expertise in agriculture, food distribution, technology, economics, socio-economic development, and other areas to address issues as varied as the promotion of local food crops for better nutrition, improving financing, training and markets for smallholder farmers, reducing the environmental footprint of irrigation, food transportation and packaging, and reducing food loss and waste along the entire supply chain.
VIA 57 West
VIA 57 West, a decidedly fantastic architectural mash-up with resident connection to views and nature
Linda Velazquez on September 24, 2018 at 2:50
VIA 57 West
22,000 sf Courtyard Greenroof
New York, NY, USA
Greenroofs.com Featured Project September 24, 2018
With the launch of our website redesign today, what better way to follow up the awesome Venice-Mestre Hospital (Ospedale dell’Angelo Mestre – Angel Hospital) than with the over-the-top VIA 57 West, a decidedly fantastic architectural mash-up with resident connection to views and nature at the forefront of its design strategy?
And the fact that BIG is one of my personal favorite team of architects just sealed the deal.
We also chose VIA 57 West this week in honor of CitiesAlive 2018– Green Infrastructure: Designing the Future of Resilience held in NYC starting today, September 24 and running through Friday, September 28. Brought to you by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, this year’s conference theme focuses on how green infrastructure builds resilience and equity in cities.
New York City has had quite a ride with an early array of beautiful and sensitive greenroof projects, and VIA 57 West adds a splash of the dramatic to its list of greened buildings.
Image courtesy of BIG, ©Iwan Bann
Mini Description & Details
Comprised of VIA, FRANK and Helena, the 57 WEST Superblock is an oasis in one of New York’s most vibrant neighborhoods. Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the multi-award winning 35-floor VIA 57 WEST is redefining green living with a vision of sustainability that both respects nature and promotes wellbeing.
And its gleaming tetrahedron shape is an immediately recognizable presence on Manhattan’s West Side. A hybrid between the European perimeter block and a traditional Manhattan high-rise, VIA 57 West combines the advantages of both typologies: the compactness and efficiency of a courtyard building with the airiness and the expansive views of a skyscraper.
Image courtesy of Starr Whitehouse
Image courtesy of BIG
By keeping three corners of the block low and lifting the north-east corner up towards its 450 ft peak, the courtyard opens views towards the Hudson River, bringing low western sun deep into the block and graciously preserving the adjacent Helena Tower’s views of the river.
The form of the 77,202 square meter building shifts depending on the viewer’s vantage point. While appearing like a pyramid from the West-Side-Highway, it turns into a dramatic glass spire from West 58th Street.
Image courtesy of BIG, ©Iwan Bann
Image courtesy of BIG, ©Iwan Bann
Designed by Starr Whitehouse, the design of the open-air landscaped courtyard shares the exact proportions as Olmsted’s Central Park, planted with 47 species of native plant material including over 80 trees and lawn.
Starting in a grove of fern and birch, the path meanders up one story into a plaza that recalls a forest glade. Crossing through a fog feature, the path climbs a flight of stairs to arrive on a platform overlooking the Hudson. At this rocky summit, visitors can barbecue, enjoy the view, or sunbathe on a grassy knoll beneath a honey locust, surrounded by sumac, pine, and meadow grasses.
Image courtesy of Starr Whitehouse
Image courtesy of Starr Whitehouse
The single-source greenroof system chosen for Via 57 West is the Garden Roof Assembly® with Waterproofing Monolithic Membrane 6125® from American Hydrotech.
Built with an array of sustainable features and materials – not to mention stunning, unsurpassed vistas across the Hudson River and Manhattan – the spacious alfresco courtyard sky garden beckons to become a part of the engaging VIA 57 West community.
Image courtesy of BIG, ©Iwan Bann
Image: VIA 57 West Facebook page.
Year: 2016
Owner: The Durst Organization
Location: New York, NY
Building Type: Multi Use, Multi-Family Residential
Greenroof Type: Intensive
System: Single-Source
Size: 22,000 sq.ft.
Slope: 5%
Access: Accessible, Private
Image courtesy of Starr Whitehouse
Credits:
ARCHITECT: BIG
PROJECT ARCHITECT: David Brown, BIG
EXECUTIVE ARCHITECT: SLCE Architects
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT: Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER OF RECORD: Thornton Tomasetti
MEP ENGINEER OF RECORD: Dagher Engineering
CIVIL ENGINEER: Langan Engineering
MAIN CONTRACTOR: Hunter Roberts Construction Group
FAÇADE CONSULTANT: Enclos Corp., Vidaris, Inc.
TRAFFIC CONSULTANT: Philip Habib & Associates
VERTICAL TRANSPORTATION CONSULTANT: Van Deusen & Associates
ACOUSTICS CONSULTANT: Cerami & Associates
WIND CONSULTANT: CPP (Cermak Peterka Petersen)
ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANT: AKRF and ROUX Associates, Inc.
LIGHTING CONSULTANT: Brandston Partnership Inc.
GREENROOF SYSTEM: American Hydrotech Roof Garden Assembly®
Image courtesy of BIG, ©Iwan Bann
All the Info:
View the VIA 57 West project profile to see ALL of the Photos and Additional Information about this particular project in the Greenroofs.com Projects Database.
Image courtesy of BIG, ©Iwan Bann
Featured Project
Watch the VIA 57 West Featured Project Video above or see it on our GreenroofsTV channel on YouTube.
Greenroofs.com Featured Project 9/24/18 video photo credits: Courtesy of BIG, ©Iwan Bann and ©Nic Lehoux; Starr Whitehouse, ©Iwan Bann and others; and American Hydrotech, ©Kirsten Bucher.
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Love the Earth, Plant a Roof (or Wall)!
By Linda S. Velazquez, ASLA, LEED AP, GRP
Greenroofs.com Publisher & Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summits Host
A Year After Passing “Green Roof” Law, Denver Suddenly the Focus of 20-Year “Cool Roof” Debate
New law would force affected property owners to choose between creating green space, installing solar panels and saving energy.
By ANDREW KENNEY | akenney@denverpost.com | The Denver Post
October 27, 2018
RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post
The Flight office building, at 3575 Ringsby Court in Denver, has a green roof in its design on May 9, 2018 in Denver. If a cool roof ordinance was passed for the city, it would replace the green roof law that voters approved last year.
The days of sprawling black roofs in Denver may be ending — but they won’t go quietly.
The Denver City Council will decide Monday whether to create a “cool roof” law for the city. The big hope is that requiring reflective, light-colored roofs on large buildings would lower ambient temperatures, fighting back against the city’s heat-island effect.
“It’s not groundbreaking in Denver, but it’s one of the biggest” of the new cool roof laws, said Kurt Shickman, executive director of the Global Cool Cities Alliance. “They’ll join a small number of big cities.”
The change would affect new construction and reroofing projects for buildings over 25,000 square feet — not your typical home renovations. The new law also would force affected property owners to choose between creating green space, installing solar panels and saving energy.
And, for once, many developers are looking forward to a new rule: It would replace the “green roof” law that voters approved last year, which would have required more costly rooftop gardens. The proposal has the support of green-roof organizer Brandon Rietheimer.
Roofers vs. reformers
But even this smaller change has put the city in the middle of an ongoing debate between roofers and reformers. The council on Monday is likely to hear from industry representatives who say that the cool-roof mandate is an oversimplified approach for a complicated problem.
“Mandating a single component of a roofing assembly is just not what is good design practice,” said Ellen Thorp, associate executive director of the EPDM Roofing Association, which represents manufacturers of EPDM, a rubber membrane for roofs.
The trade association argued in a letter that cool roofs can cause two major problems in colder climates like Denver’s. First, they can purportedly accumulate moisture. Second, they are meant to retain less heat, which means heating bills can be higher.
“Some of the best roofs on the market really were not going to be allowed, period,” said Jeff Johnston, president of the Colorado Roofing Association, who says that much of his Steamboat Springs business is still focused on dark roofs. “Why eliminate it?”
Colorado politics from city hall to the halls of Congress, sent every Thursday.
Attempting to adapt
The reason is simple, according to Katrina Managan, the city staffer who coordinated the roof revision.
“The reason to do them is to adapt to climate change,” she said. Denver could see a full month of 100-degree days in typical years at the end of the century, according to projections from the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization for a “high” warming scenario.
And the impact will be worse in urban areas, where dry, unshaded rooftops and pavement are baked by the sun and heat the air around them. Urban environments can average up to 5 degrees hotter than the surrounding rural areas, and the difference can be much greater at times, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Cool roofs address part of that problem: They reflect the sun’s energy away and stay up to 60 degrees cooler than traditional roofs, the EPA reported.
“It will save Denver a tremendous amount of money. It will create a huge amount of benefit through cooling. And it will set the example,” Shickman said. “It really does add to the argument that says we really should be considering this for almost all of our big American cities.”
City research found that the cool roof mandate would be more effective than the green roof initiative in combating heat, since the green roof requirement only covered parts of rooftops.
RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post
Nikki Smith, of Zeppelin Places, shows off the green roof at the Flight office building, at 3575 Ringsby Court, on May 9, 2018 in Denver.
The bottom line?
Major cities began adopting cool-roof requirements nearly 20 years ago, with northerly Chicago among the first. It’s been joined by Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York City and Los Angeles, among others, according to GCCA. Much of the southern United States is now covered by the requirements, and San Francisco in 2017 adopted the first “green roofs” requirement.
“We’ve been in an epic fight between the industry and those of us on my side who are trying to push this forward,” Shickman said.
Thorp, the EPDM Roofing Association representative, pointed to research to argue that Denver should proceed cautiously. Because cool roofs don’t get as hot, they can accumulate more condensation, which requires specialized designs to combat. And she said that a cooler roof could mean higher heating costs and thus more carbon emissions in colder Denver.
She acknowledged that the law would hurt sales of EPDM: Competing materials are cheaper and more popular for cool roofs. But she said that her clients also make those other materials.
“They’re going to make the sale one way or another,” she said.
Shickman countered that the companies are more heavily invested in EPDM, and therefore have a financial motivation to lobby against cool roofs. Other materials “have been eating the lunch of EPDM,” he said. Thorp declined to disclose sales figures for the companies, but said the organization’s “primary driver” was to give roofers options.
Cool roofs are already popular
A city poll of roofers found that about 70 percent of new roofs in Denver are “cool.”
“What we’re tending to find is most companies now are wanting to go to a light roof,” said Scott Nakayama, director of operations for Denver-based North-West Roofing. “The amount that they’re going to save, as far as heating and cooling bills, tends to stand out.”
His company has been installing about 20 light-colored roofs per year, and hasn’t encountered any of the issues raised by the EPDM Roofing Association, he said. Shickman points to this apparent lack of complaints as evidence that a well-designed cool roof can avoid moisture and other issues.
They do come at a cost premium: Cool roofs can cost about 1.5 percent more than a traditional roof, according to city-commissioned research by Stantec, the engineering company. Thorp said that estimate is too low.
If the law is approved, it could take several years before it starts to have a regional effect, since roofs generally only need replacement every 20 years.
The rest of the details
Under the change, developers of new builders can choose among the following options.
Install green space on the building or on the ground.
Pay for green space somewhere else.
Install renewable energy or a mix of renewable energy and green space.
Design the building for 12 percent energy savings compared to city standards, or achieve 5 percent savings plus green space.
Achieve either LEED Gold or Enterprise Green Communities certification for green design.
Existing buildings will have similar types of options, with different details.
Can Cities Produce Enough Food To Feed Their Citizens?
By Dan Nosowitz | October 11, 2018
An urban rooftop garden. YuRi Photolife on Shutterstock
The areas in and around American cities may not scream “farming powerhouse.”
As cries for local food ring louder and louder, many have begun looking to flashy new urban farming missions: rooftop gardens, vertical farms inside abandoned factories or warehouses, that kind of thing. But a new study from the University of Minnesota finds that urban areas already produce a lot of food—the challenge is matching local producers with local consumers.
The study looked at “metropolitan statistical areas,” or MSAs, and compared both their production and their demands for milk, eggs, fruits, and vegetables. MSAs are a sort of confusing metric, but essentially they refer to a county with a population of at least 50,000, plus any surrounding areas that depend in large part or can be considered part of that urban county area. New York City, for example, includes both Newark and Jersey City as part of its MSA. Los Angeles includes Long Beach and Anaheim, and Miami includes Ft. Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.
Food production in these areas is a lot more robust than you might think. Much of the country most associated with farming—the bread basket, for example—is not, primarily, growing crops for direct human consumption. Corn and soy are processed into animal feed or oil or various other products. Near cities, in places without the vast quantities of land required to make a living growing monocrop grain, farmers are more likely to produce eggs, milk, fruits, and vegetables.
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The study found that 20 percent of MSAs already produce enough milk and eggs to feed their individual populations. For fruits and vegetables, that number drops to 10 percent, which is still pretty significant, considering that the vast, vast majority of the American population lives within an MSA.
Those findings vary, of course, by location. Upstate New York, the Philadelphia area, and parts of Wisconsin and Michigan are capable of being fully self-sufficient in dairy. South Florida is already self-sufficient in oranges, and the Seattle area is taken care of for apples.
The authors of the study hope that it can be used to more carefully measure what a community needs and what it has, or could easily have, and try to balance those supplies and demands. Understanding the food needs of a given area can help reduce transportation fees and pollution as well as encouraging local farmers to grow what their community really wants.
'The Next Evolution of Farming Has Already Begun'
By Austin Stankus - Wednesday, October 10, 2018
The world population continues to grow with ever-increasing urbanization predicted to reach 80 percent by 2050. The U.N. predicts that human population will reach nearly 10 billion by 2050. This increasing population is also growing richer — and hungrier.
To feed this population using traditional farming practices, much more land would need to be brought under cultivation. But, already much farmland around the world has been degraded from poor management practices, and lands remaining available for food production are decreasing from the effects of erosion, salt buildup and pollution.
As you read this today, tens of millions of children are going to bed hungry, with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimating the number of hungry in 2018 at 812 million or approximately one out of 9 people.
Something needs to change. Food production needs to get more efficient, more equitable and more environmentally minded. Moreover, food production should follow the population to the cities, or as Dickson Despommier, a forerunner of this movement, simply states: “Put the food where the people live.”
Indoor farming through controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) will be an important component towards establishing local food systems that can address this pending crisis in global food insecurity. CEA, simply put, is using smart, sustainable farming practices inside of high-tech greenhouses. This is nothing new, and these modern greenhouses are an established technology and can be found around the world. In fact, much of the lettuce, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in the EU come from CEA in the Netherlands and Spain.
These greenhouses have incredible benefits compared to traditional farming: They use less water because they are protected from the sun and wind, they use fewer pesticides because insects and disease can be kept outside, and there is less waste because production can be matched exactly to consumer demands.
If hydroponics or other soil-less practices are used, the farmer does not need to use tractors for tilling, plowing and reaping, so the oil bills and energy consumption are lower. In addition, the fertilizer usage is reduced, and all the fertilizer the farmer uses is consumed by the plants, thereby reducing nutrient-rich runoff that can pollute watersheds.
Known as eutrophication, this nutrient pollution is a huge problem for coastal communities in the Chesapeake Bay and Gulf of Mexico and has impacted fisheries, recreational activities and livelihoods around the world.
However, CEA greenhouses can occupy a lot of space. So, the next logical evolution is stacking these modern greenhouses, one atop the other.
Vertical farming, as greenhouses stacking is called, has additional benefits. Reducing the footprint means that more food can be grown in a smaller area and therefore can be brought closer to the people eating that food. As populations move toward the cities, it makes sense for the food to follow.
Part of the vision of vertical farms is the reconnection of the producer and the consumer plus the restructuring of food value chains to become more transparent and responsive to the needs and wants of the people.
An added benefit of farming inside of skyscrapers is the option of having mixed-use buildings. When combined with a wholesale market, the skyscraper can not only produce the food but get it to the consumer faster. Less time in storage, less transportation and less handling means fresher produce and reduced need for postharvest treatments like irradiation and chemical fumigation.
There are still some daunting challenges as well as some encouraging recent developments.
Unleashing the innovative power of American small businesses has jump-started the transition to modern farming, and the public desire for local, healthy food is an economic engine driving the industry toward change. In fact, there are currently so many vertical farm startups that a shortage of qualified workers is now the main hurdle to accelerating the establishment of new indoor farms. On one hand this is a challenge to the industry, but on the other it presents an enormous opportunity for job creation in urban areas if an inclusive, enabling environment is codeveloped with the vertical farms to provide vocational training and career advancement prospects.
On a technical level, there is a significant energy demand needed for pumping water, maintaining good environmental conditions like temperature and humidity, and powering the grow lights to keep producing year-round. However, with smart buildings wired on intelligent platforms, the energy consumption can be monitored and controlled to maximize efficiency — and by tying into other green enterprises like photovoltaic and biogas generation, this energy demand is decreasing day by day. In fact, with the new innovations in LED lighting technology, the power demand has been reduced tenfold in the last few years.
The next evolution of farming has already begun, and big players are already involved. In fact, the National Grange wrote a letter to Congress with their support to public-private funding mechanisms to accelerate the modernization of agriculture, specifically highlighting the potential of vertical farming.
With this type of buy-in from large agribusinesses, national and international agricultural organizations, funded with innovative financial mechanisms, and driven by the innovative spirit and technological power only found in the U.S., vertical farming will feed tomorrow’s children with healthy, safe food; protect the environment while being resistant to environmental shocks; and spur economic growth in the process.
For a detailed look at one such startup, see the centerfold story on Skyscraper Farm.
• Austin Stankus, an integrated farming specialist, is chief science officer at Skyscraper Farm LLC.
Metropolitan Areas Are Becoming Significant Sources of Sustainable Produce
One-in-five cities in the United States produce enough eggs and milk to feed their residents; another one-in-ten could completely satisfy local demand for fruit and vegetables using what they grow within their metropolitan boundaries.
by Emma Bryce | Oct 12, 2018
One-in-five cities in the United States produce enough eggs and milk to feed their residents; another one-in-ten could completely satisfy local demand for fruit and vegetables using what they grow within their metropolitan boundaries. These findings, detailed in a new study, reveal that metropolitan areas are a much more significant source of local, sustainable produce than we might realise.
Through an analysis of food production and demand within the boundaries of 377 US metros, the researchers discovered that a surprisingly high proportion were already producing enough of four staple food products–eggs, dairy, vegetables, and fruits–to feed their citizens. In some cases this food provision may be going unrecognised: for instance, backyard gardens and urban farms may be providing unquantified amounts of food to local citizens. In other cases where food is farmed at larger scales on city outskirts, that produce may not actually be reaching local residents, because supply chains are often set up to export food further afield.
But, if these trade networks were formalised and reconfigured to feed local residents, based on current production a striking 21% of metropolitan areas would be self-sufficient for eggs and milk, 12% would supply their residents’ fruit needs, and 16% would be self-sufficient in vegetables, the study found.
Localising production is widely recognised as a way to make food more sustainable, because it reduces the environmental costs and greenhouse gases associated with producing and exporting produce. It could even make cities more climate-smart by using plant cover to reduce the heat-island effect and deflect flooding. Plus, it brings the added benefit of making cities more food secure.
These advantages have encouraged several US cities to commit to boosting local food production. But the researchers on the new Environmental Science & Technology study say this overlooks the fact that so much urban food is alreadybeing produced.
In fact, while rates of production varied by product and region, they noted that almost every metro analysed in the study produced at least some quantity of eggs, fruit, and veg. In many, the production rates were high enough that they could meet not only direct demand–i.e. fresh eggs, fruit, and veg–but also indirect demand for those products, where they’re used as ingredients in other things, like milk being used to make cheese, and apples as the basis for applesauce.
To get their detailed findings, the researchers first modified an existing database that estimates dietary habits and household demand, based on sociodemographic information. Then they paired this with county-level estimates on the farm-production of eggs, milk, fruit, and veg. They also considered more informal food sources, like backyard food growing and community gardens.
Currently, 80% of the US population lives in an urban area, which underscores the need for urban food security. That’s accompanied by the growing global need for food systems that have a lighter environmental footprint. What the study reveals is the surprising fact that metros have latent potential to fulfil both those roles.
Since publishing, the researchers have made their data public: now they hope it will aid individual cities not only in recognising how much food they actually produce, but in revamping the local food system to feed the people that surround it.
Image: Travis Estell via Flickr
Company Working To Bring Fresh Produce To U.Va. Dining Halls, Charlottesville Businesses And Homes
Babylon Micro-Farms has developed a system using hydroponic farming to make growing fresh produce more sustainable
By Rupa Nallamothu | 10/10/2018
In hydroponic farming, plants are grown in nutrient-rich, water solvent mineral solutions rather than in soil. Courtesy Babylon Micro-Farms
Babylon Micro-Farms, founded by University alumnus Alexander Olesen during his undergraduate years, has developed a system using hydroponic farming to make growing fresh produce sustainable for the urban consumer. The Babylon team has recently installed more apparatuses in the University dining halls, Charlottesville businesses and consumers’ homes.
Olesen developed Babylon Micro-Farms, a hydroponic farming system, to create an urban farming system easily accessible by consumers. During the spring semester of 2016, in the early stages of the company’s development, Olesen utilized several entrepreneurship resources available through the University.
“We started with the social entrepreneurship class, but then the founders went through the HackCville Alpha program, which was very helpful for them,” said Will Graham, the director of sales and marketing at Babylon. “From there, they went through the Darden iLab.”
In hydroponic farming, plants are grown in nutrient-rich, water solvent mineral solutions rather than in soil. This farming method removes environmental limitations to maximize respiration and absorption of nutrients in plants, which contribute to a greater harvest yield. Genetically modified organisms, pesticides or inorganic fertilizers cannot be used in a hydroponic culture.
Moreover, hydroponic farming can help reduce the distance between where a food item is grown and where it is sold by allowing plants to grow in normally inhospitable environments, such as inside urban buildings. This system could potentially allow restaurants and homes to grow plants inside their own spaces.
Since hydroponic systems are generally used in mass production due to their high cost, they are not readily available for urban consumers performing small-scale farming. Hydroponic systems also usually have restrictions on the types of plants that can grow in them.
However, Babylon Micro-Farms seeks to make hydroponics available for personal use and has developed technology that allows consumers to grow several different types of plants in their systems.
According to Graham, the Babylon team has several types of systems with varying degrees of technology. Some of the systems have two different reservoirs to allow different types of plants that require different types of nutrients or stratified sections of the same crop to grow on the same system.
The farming system has several versions which were developed throughout the growth of the company. Initially, the systems could not monitor the growth of the plants on each rack and were not stratified enough to grow multiple different types of produce on the same apparatus. Now, racks are divided based on the type of plant and can also be scanned into an app, which displays available information and data from the hydroponic system.
“You should able to scan a farm and tell it where you're putting plants, and it can adjust the lights and nutrients to grow something,” Graham said.
The Babylon team began testing prototypes around Grounds in 2017 after building an early model through HackCville, and received funding by winning $6,500 from the Green Initiatives Funding Tomorrow grant. After earning the GIFT grant, the company utilized the resources of Darden’s iLab, or the W.L. Lyons Brown III Innovation Laboratory — which supports the growth and development of business at an early stage by providing them resources, such as funding opportunities, legal services and faculty support.
According to Patrick Mahan, an electrical engineer at Babylon, the resources at the iLab helped the Babylon founders navigate the process of establishing a business.
After obtaining a financial basis for the project, the Babylon team installed their micro-farms in dining halls at the University. At Newcomb and O’Hill, these systems are utilized to grow produce used to prepare meals. On Sept. 12, the Babylon team installed two new systems in O’Hill and Runk.
"We mostly got positive reception,” Mahan said regarding the placement of systems in dining halls. “Part of it was almost confusion because they had never seen anything like it before, so they weren't sure what it was doing. But once they saw the plants start growing and saw the workers harvest the plants, I think they came around to it.”
Although Babylon is still installing systems in O’Hill and Runk, the team is also working on creating new technologies. Currently, they are developing a solar powered farm at the Morven Farm with the Morven Kitchen Garden.
The Morven Kitchen Garden, similar to Babylon Micro-Farms, is part of a student-run undergraduate sustainability initiative, according to Morven Kitchen Garden manager Stephanie Meyers. Students manage a community-supported agriculture program on a one-acre sustainable garden, donated by philanthropist John W. Kluge.
In addition to the project with Morven, the company is expanding their work outside the University. The Babylon team has implemented their hydroponic systems in Boar’s Head Resort and Three Notch'd Craft Kitchen & Brewery, two local businesses a few miles away from Grounds.
Babylon has also provided prototypes for personal use in the home, which are being used to further develop a hydroponics system available for purchase by local consumers.
Vertical Farming As A Local Food Market Innovation
By Dr. Dawn Thilmany
and Elizabeth Thilmany
Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Vertical farming is an emerging niche in the food supply chain, defined as the practice of growing food indoors by controlling all elements of its development.
As vertical farms are stacked, multistory and typically aligned with large skyscrapers in densely populated urban areas, they can prompt mixed feelings about their aesthetics: Some observers believe they make urban areas feel green while others believe the structures will compete with their access to sunlight.
There are additional unique issues related to their role in food markets, the food environment and broader community impacts.
The nature of production
One potential benefit of vertical farming is its role in encouraging cities to become more self-reliant by producing at least some share of their food supplies. This may lead to more resiliency if there are natural or political events that disrupt our food distribution system. Plus, in an era of renewed interest in food-based economic development, a new generation of farmers may be attracted to vertical farming since their operations can be year-round and integrate high-tech solutions.
Still others see vertical farming as a potential innovation in real estate development — operations may be designed to be aesthetically pleasing, or, if rooftop development is used, permit buildings to conserve air-conditioning costs, and more broadly, help mitigate urban heat islands.
However, many potential benefits (eliminating food miles, reducing spoilage and food waste, better management of environmental implications from agricultural inputs) have yet to be evaluated.
Only a few successful vertical farms have been built, and both building and maintenance costs for a vertical farm are expensive, according to a 2014 article in the Journal of Agricultural Studies. In 2011, vertical farming pioneer Dickson Despommier estimated an upfront cost of $80 million to build a commercially viable vertical farm and over $6 million in annual energy expenditures (with other operating and labor costs above that).
One can quickly estimate that such investments are only possible if one is creative about the potential benefits that may accompany a vertical farming development, such as:
— A strong consumer base to create demand to provide a viable market for the local produce offerings as local produce is seen as a premium offering in mainstream food retailers and supply chains.
— The positive “spillovers”of such a real estate amenity, e.g., aesthetic, lifestyle or environmental benefits to the business, government or residential partners who may help offset the original investment of operating costs. For example, a residential building may see vertical farming as an amenity akin to a golf course or fitness center for its tenants.
— The multiple ways vertical farms can benefit communities economically — acting as a food provider to education venue to source of starter plants that expedite production on surrounding farms.
Consumers as a catalyst for change
We can address some of the research that has been done as a starting point to consider these economic tradeoffs.
Consumer research on food buyers is newly focused on where, how and even why people make their food purchase decisions and confirms that local food is a key driver for several food industry changes. For decades, there has been increasing evidence farmers markets were growing as consumers sought to reconnect with their food sources, but increasingly, local foods have been identified as a key market trend by food manufacturers, retailers and chefs as well.
Through farmers markets, community-supported agriculture and farmstands, direct-to-farmer consumer (DTC) engagement is found to be a value to a growing set of consumers — e.g., those who want to re-engage with their food producer, perceive direct purchases as higher quality or believe they can verify that the farms and ranches they purchase from are better environmental stewards or an important part of their local economy.
Direct markets are not always practical for producers (who have too much volume to sell or they live far from consumer markets) or consumers (who perceive barriers to the locations or prices of direct markets). Thus, the majority of consumers experience local food only in the context of intermediated channels, the term used for food hubs or distributors that broker local foods to mainline retailers, restaurants and other large buyers.
Within the U.S. food system, major food retailers see the integration of local foods into their product offerings as one means to compete, but local sourcing by retailers can be challenging as consumers rely on in-store signage, product labelling and/or recognized farm brands to identify local items.
Since retailers entering the local foods space will need to pay particular attention to clearly and credibly communicating their retailer-farmer partnerships, perhaps they will seek nearby sources, such as vertical farms that are visible to urban dwellers. Yet, it may require vertical farms to engage their communities, be transparent with their production processes, and align with other values that local food consumers seek (e.g., environmental benefits, returns to the farmer, healthful offerings and fair treatment of workers).
Since few locally oriented producers have the requisite scale and/or consistent quality to work with medium/large distribution or food retailer networks, vertical farms may be well-suited for intermediated local food sales. If consumers encourage their primary grocer to carry more local food offerings, vertical farms can seize the opportunity to be a key food source for their nearby retailers.
Vertical farming in communities
Urban agriculture, widely upheld as a solution to the food crises facing increasingly metropolitan populations, has seen a resurgence in recent years.
There are, however, potential disadvantages to this increasing drive for urban agriculture including associated urban health risks and threats to already limited water supplies. In response, cities such as Denver, New York City and Baltimore are bringing more permeable land to rooftops to capture and filter water in hopes of lessening the burden to overwhelmed sewage plants.
Clearly, the potential that controlled atmosphere systems, such as vertical agriculture, may have for addressing food security and economic development justifies a closer look, and public institutions are stepping up to that challenge. Expect to see more pilot programs of vertical agriculture aligned with real estate development such as Denver’s Green Roofs initiative (https://www.denvergreenroof.org/the-basics/), or technical assistance from land grants such as University of Maryland’s programs in Baltimore (http://extension.umd.edu/baltimore-city/urban-agriculture).
Still, it is important to realize these new innovations come with questions about best practices for production, and there is a need to develop a policy and regulatory environment that allows for this sector to operate effectively. As a response to new interest in urban farming as a potential food system investment in communities, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has developed toolkits that offer up resources for both urban agriculture producers (http://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/urban-agriculture-toolkit.pdf ) and the communities that want to assess their potential community and economic impacts (https://localfoodeconomics.com/toolkit/).
Dawn Thilmany McFadden, Ph.D., is a professor at Colorado State University and specializes in economic development related to food supply chains, focusing on market responses to consumer behavior. She has over 90 peer-reviewed publications and has presented to over 400 academic, industry, community and policy audiences. She is co-director for CSU’s Regional Economic Development Institute and worked with the USDA on many projects, most recently a Toolkit on the Economics of Local Foods (localfoodeconomics.com). She has provided leadership to the Colorado Food Systems Advisory Council, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, the Western Agricultural Economics Association, and the Food Distribution Research Society.
• Elizabeth Thilmany is an undergraduate student at University of Maryland-College Park studying Agriculture and Natural Resource Economics and has conducted research with Colorado State University on adding value along the wheat supply chain for a Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research project. On campus, she is involved with the Food Recovery Network and the Sustainability Department.
For more information on local food consumers and vertical farming, please read:
Banerjee, C. and L. Adenaeuer. 2014. Up, Up and Away! The Economics of Vertical Farming. Journal of Agricultural Studies. 2, 1-21.
Bauman, A., D. Thilmany and B.B.R. Jablonski. 2018. The financial performance implications of differential marketing strategies: Exploring farms that pursue local markets as a core competitive advantage. Agricultural and Resources Economic Review. 1-28.
Bond, C., D. Thilmany, and J. Bond. 2008. “Understanding consumer interest in product and process-based attributes for fresh produce.” Agribusiness 24(2):231-252.
Despommier, D. 2011. The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century, second ed. St. Martin’s Press, New York.
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