Welcome to iGrow News, Your Source for the World of Indoor Vertical Farming
Smart-Farming Startup Grow Computer Has Just Launched Their First Product - A Digital Growing Platform Called GrowStrip
BROOKLYN, NY, September 26, 2018
GrowStrip offers a user-friendly way for growers of all kinds to make their grows smarter through a simple hardware and software platform. GrowStrip gives any farmer, student, home grower, or researcher the ability to collect environmental and energy data, build automation, remotely monitor, and receive alerts.
The system was designed for usability and takes only minutes to setup, requires no tools, and is totally plug and play.
Indoor farming is an exciting global trend and is empowering anybody to grow almost any plant in their own homes. Hydroponics and other indoor systems conserve water, remove the need for pesticides, and allow a year-round growing cycle. Around the world, hydroponic systems are being used to build amazing indoor farms, empower entrepreneurs, and teach STEAM education in K–12 classrooms.
The company grew out of two communities of agtech startups, one in Brooklyn, NY, and the other in Sacramento, CA. Co-founders Dan Nelson (CEO) and Ian McEachern (CTO) met online through MIT’s Open Agriculture forums, and built out the rest of team at the urban farming co-working space AgTech X in Brooklyn.
McEachern is a medical device engineer with over fifteen years’ experience developing exciting products and, cutting-edge medical devices, including artificial hearts. Nelson is an experienced startup founder and has worked with dozens of companies as a for-hire virtual CFO.
Grow Computer’s vision is to empower people around the world to connect and share plant growing “recipes” and new ideas. They hope this will democratize critical technologies and techniques. In Nelson’s words, Grow Computer may unlock a new urban farming revolution by providing access to better hardware around the world. If we can get a distributed community of growers working together, the potential for scientific, educational, economic, phenotypical, genetic, or operational innovations becomes incredible.”
Grow Computer is proud to launch our crowdfunding campaign in conjunction with Agritecture Xchange, taking place in Brooklyn from September 24–29.
The Xchange conference is a week-long series of events in New York City that will explore agriculture’s role within the sustainable city movement.
GrowStrip will launch exclusively on Indiegogo starting on Wednesday, September 26.
GrowStrip retails for around $600 US and ships with a thermometer and camera, as well as the free, open-source software platform. Indiegogo buyers can purchase GrowStrips at a significant discount.
Why Indoor Growing is Important
Urban populations are growing, bringing with them a growing need for high-quality, sustainably produced food.
To meet global demand, the world needs more farmers, and farms that are more efficient than ever.
We believe that indoor agriculture is the answer. Hydroponics, rooftop greenhouses, and vertical farms are proliferating in major cities and in people’s homes around the world. But, the available technology is still either prohibitively expensive or stuck in the 1980s.
press@growcomputer.com
40 Bushwick Ave
C/O AgTech X
Brooklyn, NY 11206
###
This Toronto Skyscraper Is Covered With 450 Trees
A new tower will have greenery lining the balconies and roofs to clean up the air and provide a new environment for pollinators and humans alike.
Toronto has long been serious about its urban canopy. The Ontario city is already home to around 10 million trees, which cover around 26% of the city. The current mayor, John Tory, wants to grow that to 40%.
Brisbin Brook Beynon, a local architecture firm, is already giving the city a leg up on that goal, albeit in an unconventional way: a 27-story residential building that will be covered with around 450 trees, growing on its balconies and roofs. This “vertical forest,” as BBB terms it, takes inspiration from the Bosco Verticale–residential towers in Milan that went up in 2014 with as many as 11,000 plants lining the sides. Since then, copycat buildings have been built in cities like Nanjing and in Taiwan–designed to combat pollution and prove that green space does not need to be limited to the ground. This latest iteration could open as early as later next year.
![[Image: Brisbin Brook Beynon]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c8695d5016e11e71be1d83/1535869663666-WOXUB9PD0TNXISVYQH4O/Image+Brisbin+Brook+Beynon-1.jpg)
[Image: Brisbin Brook Beynon]
For Brian Brisbin, principal at BBB, bringing the vertical forest concept to Toronto aligned perfectly with the mayor’s goals for increasing tree coverage. And when he began researching the concept by studying the Bosco Verticale, he realized that all of the technology that enabled the Milanese building to function originated in Canada and North America. “That felt fairly profound,” Brisbin says.
And it also, Brisbin says, made bringing the concept to Toronto feel much more feasible. “We have a lot of depth of specialty in this area in Toronto, with horticultural and agricultural universities and research facilities,” he says, “and we’ve brought a lot of together to take a very science-based approach to developing this project.”
The team behind BBB’s vertical forest includes experts like Robert Wright, the dean of the faculty of forestry at University of Toronto, researchers from the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, which researches the viability of tree species in urban areas, and Vanden Bussche Irrigation, which develops horticultural technology. Together, the team has developed a specialized system to monitor and irrigate all 450 trees. Currently, the trees are growing offsite at a nursery managed by PAO Horticultural outside of the city. Planted in their own portable woven stainless steel planters, the trees–half conifers, half deciduous–will eventually be scattered evenly across the building’s exterior terrace surfaces. A monitored system integrated into the building will connect with all of the planters to track key metrics for each of the trees–amount of water, nutrient density, and external conditions like wind strength.
![[Image: Brisbin Brook Beynon]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c8695d5016e11e71be1d83/1535869604869-VLL0DOMYK1S75RXI4QQF/Image+Brisbin+Brook+Beynon-2.jpg)
[Image: Brisbin Brook Beynon]
“We have this saying that there’s no management without metrics,” Wright says. Part of the strategy for the building is to hire a dedicated maintenance team, who will navigate throughout the many balconies, caring for the trees. Especially as Toronto faces extreme weather variability–dipping down as low as –22 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter and up to the 90s in the summer–having a team on hand to monitor the trees’ metrics and ensure their health will be key. This, Wright says, is a crucial task across the whole city of Toronto’s urban forestry efforts, but the height of the vertical forest compounds the urgency. “It’s one thing if a branch drops 20 feet to the ground, and quite another for one to drop 200 feet off a balcony,” he says.
While covering buildings in trees will not alone help cities like Toronto achieve their urban canopy goals, projects like these certainly deliver benefits to the surrounding area (though they also have some critics), like cleaner air and more space for birds and pollinator species, which will in turn assist more mainstream green infrastructure projects. Toronto, for instance, has made strides to increase the presence of green roofs of city buildings, and projects like the vertical forest could act, Brisbin says, “as a sustainable microclimate between these horizontal green spaces on roofs and on the ground” and direct pollinator species between the two.
Because projects like this are still new, the price tag for living in the building will be steep, Brisbin says. While final prices for the units are not yet set, as the vertical forest is still in the process of gaining approval from the city, tenants and buyers will have to pay a premium to fund the maintenance team that will keep the greenery alive and thriving. “And it involves a lot of science, data, and research to develop,” Brisbin says. The team is conscious of the fact that the high cost of living in the vertical forest perpetuates an unfortunate and longstanding urban divide: Areas where poorer residents live often lack good green infrastructure, whereas wealthier residents tend to live on tree-lined streets. “But what we’re hoping is that once we develop the system and the partnership with the farms that are growing the trees, all of that will be available directly to any other project, whether it be public housing or private development,” he adds.
NL: The Green East Opened A New Innovation Center
“We are proud that we have such a gem in the municipality of Raalte,” said mayor Martijn Dadema during the opening of The Green East on Friday 24 August.
Exactly a year ago, the presentation of the plans for a new innovation center with its focus on a circular economic future for the agri-food business was held. Now a large part of the innovation center was ready for use. During this festive day, The Green East, ABC Kroos and Energiefonds Overijssel also signed an agreement to jointly establish a pilot factory for the extraction of proteins out of duckweed.
Cultivation room
The new innovation center wants to be a 'home of green development', not only for Raalte and the Zwolle region, but it also has ambitions to be active nationally and internationally. Educational institutions, (research) companies and start-ups can head to The Green East to acquire knowledge and to exchange information with each other. For example, secondary education students will be able to complete a research project at the innovation center. Also for higher education institutions, there is the opportunity to gain knowledge about the latest developments in the field of circular economy. For example, students from Aeres Hogeschool Dronten will start their Entrepreneurship minor at The Green East in early September, as is explained by Geert Sol, board member of The Green East. “Knowledge valorisation and multifold value creation are two of our core values. We are very much looking for links with companies, governments and educational institutions to take steps together in the transition to a circular economy in the agri-food business.”
Water lentils the new gourmet food
Jeroen Willemsen, 'green protein crusader', was pleased with the cooperation agreement signed between The Green East, ABC Kroos and Energiefonds Overijssel in order to work towards energy efficiency in the meat industry. ABC Kroos is going to install a pilot factory on the site of The Green East where duckweed, also called water lentils, can be processed into ingredients that can be used in human food and food supplements, but also in raw materials for use in animal feed. In order to provide the world's population in the future with food, a food transition has to take place. "There will have to be a shift in the consumption from animal to vegetable proteins. A margarine manufacturer already advertises with the slogan 'plants are the new cows'. Soon water lentils will be the new gourmet food", according to Willemsen.
Laboratory
Martijn Dadema, mayor of Raalte, is also pleased with such an innovation center within his municipality, where companies and educational institutions are willing to contribute to the revolution in agribusiness. One of the other speakers, Menno ten Heggelen, program manager for circular economy at the Province of Overijssel, was also positive about the arrival of an innovation center that fits within his field of expertise. He already sees various initiatives in the province in the field of circular economy, but calls for a transition of, for and by the sector. "The Green East research center is already a great example of this."
For more information:
The Green East B.V.
Drosteweg 6 - 8
8101 NB Raalte
The Netherlands
info@thegreeneast.nl
www.thegreeneast.nl
Publication date: 9/13/2018
VividGro® Launches GroNet™
Company Announces Indoor Precision Agriculture Platform, Enabling The Connected Indoor Farm
NEWS PROVIDED BY VividGro
CHICAGO, Sept. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/
Building on its position as a market leader in horticultural lighting, VividGro announced today the release of its intelligent farm platform, GroNet, which enables growers to optimize crop yields and profitability. GroNet leverages sophisticated diagnostic and monitoring technology in a user-friendly format to reduce overhead and maximize crop health. "The keys to profitably operating a modern indoor farming business are data and analytics. GroNet offers commercial growers the real-time insights and recommendations they need to optimize every aspect of their growing environment in order to maximize yield at minimum cost," said Ted Vucurevich, VividGro's Chief Technology Officer.
Eliminating the guesswork
In the GroNet solution, hardware sensors and photometric equipment continuously measure the environmental conditions that are critical for growers to be able to optimize yields. Standard conditions that GroNet monitors include ambient temperature and humidity, CO2 levels and light exposure. Additional factors, such as nutrient dosing, fertigation management and power usage and consumption can be easily configured to each grower's specific preferences on a crop-by-crop. Integrated software proactively alerts the grower when conditions fall outside defined parameters, enabling quick action to eliminate or minimize adverse effects on the crops. GroNet creates algorithms to establish and automate predictive and corrective actions through direct communication with agricultural equipment. A streamlined, user-friendly dashboard offers at-a-glance data, detailed reporting and ongoing grower education.
Connects to existing systems
The GroNet sensors and software seamlessly interface with any compatible hardware, allowing for easy installation and integration. The system is already compatible with many existing lighting, HVAC, humidity control and nutrient delivery systems. Customized interfaces are available for systems that are not currently supported. OPIX Systems has signed a Master Integrator agreement with VividGro and will sell and integrate the GroNet system via its nationwide group of experienced systems integration professionals. OPIX and its affiliates have been working with the underlying control technology that GroNet is built upon for over a decade. "We are excited to be the premier partner selected to work with VividGro and the exciting new market for horticulture automation control systems," said Charlie Garcia, Managing Partner at OPIX Systems, LLC.
About VividGro
VividGro is a pioneer in the AgTech space. Tailored to the automation and efficiency needs of the indoor agriculture and horticultural markets, VividGro implements solutions that help growers maximize yields and reduce costs. Our state-of-the-art VividGro customized lighting product line delivers optimized PAR to maximize plant growth and PAR efficacy. Our control automation systems and data collection strategies are able to measure and modify growing to help growers learn how to use their resources more efficiently. It is not the lights you use it is how you use them. Learn more about VividGro at www.VividGro.com and join us on social media at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
SOURCE VividGro
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Nebullam Aims To Revolutionize Indoor Farming
Jul 16, 2018 | News
By leveraging artificial intelligence, Ames startup focused on introducing product-to-producer method of production
Founded in a region of the United States with, arguably, the richest soil on the planet, a young Ames-based startup is aiming to revolutionize farming – without any of that soil. Employing a combination of high pressure aeroponics and artificial intelligence (AI), Nebullam is making waves in an increasingly competitive indoor farming industry.
The company was founded in 2016 when two former community college classmates reconnected. Today, Nebullam is operating two model farms – simultaneously generating income to keep the lights on and providing proof of concept for their innovative approach to agriculture – and seeking investment from engaged venture capitalists across the country.
The Genesis of an Idea
The seed for Nebullam’s founding was planted almost a decade ago when Danen Pool, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, made a trip to Africa.
“The purpose of the trip was to provide water chlorinators to people in Swaziland and Johannesburg, South Africa,” Pool says. “A lot of the areas we visited were in a very arid climate. There was not a lot of fertile soil and produce had to be shipped in from long distances. It got me thinking about how you could sustainably grow produce in an area like that and that led me to begin researching different types of non-traditional growing techniques.”
That was in 2010. For months, Pool spent his free time experimenting with various forms of hydroponics and drip irrigation. By chance, during his research, he stumbled upon a NASA article detailing high pressure aeroponics, a technology developed originally in the 1980s as a method to grow produce on space missions.
The deeper Pool got into the science, the more he believed this was the way forward.
“It took me about six years to get a few system up and running,” Pool says, looking back. “I did all of the initial work in my home and it was promising. I could get the system up and going, leave it for a couple weeks and come back to it running just fine. I could grow produce very quickly and that was the major thing. Just with this first very rudimentary system, I could shorten growth cycles considerably.”
Reaching Out
With the technology, even in a very early stage, developed and tested, Pool knew that he needed some help with the business aspects of bringing his system to market. Among those at the top of Pool’s list was Clayton Mooney, a former classmate at Indian Hills Community College who had spent time as a professional poker player among other things.
“We had kept in touch, and I had been following what he was up to on social media,” Pool says of Mooney. “I knew he had returned to Ames and was in the startup space. I contacted him and let him know what I was thinking, hoping we could figure out a way to move forward together.”
Mooney took a measured approach to Pool’s initial pitch.
“Initially, I told him I’d be happy to look at his business plan and help him make connections here in Ames,” Mooney says. “I wasn’t really looking to get into something like this because I had a commitment coming up at Startup Ireland in Dublin. I told him I would take the summer to think about it.”
The summer in Dublin offered Mooney the time and space to consider the potential in full. The more he thought about it, he says, the more intrigued he became. Upon returning to Iowa, he was ready to partner with Pool to move the business forward. Mooney became the Chief Executive Officer, they settled on the name AeroLands, and began the startup process in earnest.
Building the Business
Among the newly formed team’s first actions was to reach out to experts at Iowa State University for feedback on the concept. The initial business model called for them to be producers – “indoor farmers” – providing their product from a warehouse. The longer term play was to put production units right into grocery stores and sell consumers produce they could pick themselves in the aisles of Hy-Vee or Fareway.
“We heard from a lot of people that they loved our technology but weren’t sold on our business model,” Mooney says. “The cost of labor just didn’t pencil out. We could grow indoors, but we were still going to need space to do it and workers to plant, manage and harvest the crops. That was all going to eat into our margins. We needed to figure out a way to automate as much as we possibly could.”
In the search for help in solving the automation challenge, Pool and Mooney met Mahmoud Parto, who would eventually become the Chief Software Architect and final member of the founding team. Mooney met Parto within the CYstarters cohort in summer of 2016. After learning of his background in computer and software engineering, Mooney asked Parto if he’d been interested in learning more about the company.
Initially, Pool and Mooney were just looking for a little help.
“When I showed him what we were working with in terms of automation, I was most interested in whether he could help us to reduce the cost of the equipment we were using to measure things like temperature and humidity,” Mooney says. “He came out of that meeting and was able to build us a working prototype with the same functionality, plus Bluetooth capability, for next to nothing.”
It was then, Pool and Mooney knew that Parto could play a pivotal role.
“I remember calling Danen that night,” Mooney says. “I told him we had to get Mahmoud on the team. We decided that night to offer him equity as a co-founder.”
Parto couldn’t commit to the idea at first.
“He told us he’d rather just help us out in the short term,” Mooney recalls. “But I think the gears started turning and it wasn’t long before he saw the potential and reached back out to accept our offer.”
Growing and Learning
With a full founding team established, the trio began looking for opportunities to get bigger and better. In December of 2016, they were accepted into the second cohort of the ISU Startup Factory.
The Startup Factory schooled the group on best practices in building a business while pushing them into a formal customer discovery process. The year-long program proved invaluable in clarifying the vision, developing a plan for growth, completing a friends and family round of investment, and preparing the team for pitching to larger investors. They also settled on the name change to Nebullam during their participation.
“The Startup Factory was instrumental in helping us to maintain a structured approach to building the company and keeping the team accountable to the vision,” Mooney says.
“The accountability is huge,” Pool adds. “I think the first time you become your own boss, you see the freedom to it, but there is also some trepidation that you are the one making the decisions. The intro classes were a big help to me in knowing what to expect.”
As part of their participation in the Startup Factory, the team was provided office space in the Vermeer building in the Iowa State University Research Park. With a location so close to Iowa State, it offered more than a place for meetings and to sit down in front of a laptop. It offered access to top tier interns to move the company forward.
“It is such a supportive entrepreneurial ecosystem,” Mooney says.
The Next Steps
Now “graduates” of the Startup Factory and a series of other accelerators and business development programs, the team at Nebullam has swelled to 10. They have settled on a hardware + software model that will enable indoor growers to leverage AI to fully automate the growing and harvesting process.
“The vast majority of indoor grow operations currently employ a producer-to-product model,” Pool says. “That means that the staff has to go to the product to plant it, tend to it, and harvest it, a method that isn’t much different from traditional farming.”
Nebullam, however, is developing proof of concept on a product-to-producer model. The plants would come to the producer, at a central transplanting and harvesting point. Using an elaborate network that learns with each crop cycle, everything is managed by AI – from what minerals are needed to spur growth, to when a given crop is ready for harvest.
This is a major differentiating factor for Nebullam when compared to others in the marketspace.
“There are a lot of startups on the hardware side, and a lot of others on the software side,” Pool says. “But running those varied systems together, there is a huge learning curve for the producer. We eliminate that. If you are powering your grow with Nebullam, we’ve eliminated any compatibility issues or learning curves.”
With Nebullam’s technology, when crops are ready to be picked, the system is automated to perform the entire process from harvesting and cleaning conveyor belts to planting the next crop.
“Everything will be monitored,” Pool says. “That monitoring will continually inform the network on what is working with a specific crop and help us to increase efficiencies and yields over time. The more we can automate, the more we can address the initial concerns that were raised in the infancy of our business about labor eating into our margins.”
The plan is being put into practice at the company’s second model farm, located in space at the ISU Research Park.
Nebullam’s vision – and the addition of Model Farm 2 – has been met with interest. The company was recently a top 3 finisher in the Young Entrepreneur Convention Pitch Competition, which is one of the largest single-day pitch competitions in the world. Through that, the team earned a coveted spot in angel investor Jason Calacanis’ intensive program for founders, Founder University. They have also reached the finals of a handful of other prestigious pitch and business plan competitions as they continue to identify individual accredited investors and venture capitalist firms to partner with in moving Nebullam along.
The team is confident they will find the right partner to bring Nebullam’s idea into practice on a large scale. And once that happens, the team is ready to shoot for the moon … or beyond.
“Our technology is applicable in zero gravity conditions,” Pool says with a smile.
“Seriously,” Mooney quickly adds, “we think we can complement a lot of the companies that are figuring out space travel. We might be nerding out a bit, but we are less than 1,500 days away from a spaceship landing on Mars. We are less than 2,500 days away from being a multi-planetary species. Who knows? Maybe our technology will be the one that makes it possible to nourish people as they explore space.”
While there is plenty to be done in those 2,500 days to make it happen, Mooney says the team is ready to do what it takes to make Nebullam a household name.
“The juice is always worth the squeeze,” he says.
Imagining The Impossible: The Futuristic Designs of Vincent Callebaut
New Atlas takes a look at Vincent Callebaut's most interesting architectural designs.
July 24th, 2018
New Atlas takes a look at Vincent Callebaut's most interesting architectural designs (Credit: Vincent Callebaut Architectures)
Sometimes outlandish, often fantastical, but always compelling, Vincent Callebaut's projects range from realizable ideas like towers covered in greenery to conceptual works depicting a near-future in which architecture, technology, and nature are blended to make cities a more pleasant – and sustainable – place to live.
The Belgian architect heads his firm Vincent Callebaut Architectures in Paris, France. Over the years he has developed a recognizable design language that draws inspiration from nature and makes liberal use of honeycomb patterns and complex geometry. He seems poised for greater prominence now though, as at least two of his projects are due to be built in the next few years.
Let's take a look at some of his most interesting designs.
5 Farming Bridges
Now that the so-called Islamic State has been expelled from Mosul, Iraq, the reconstruction of the city can begin. The 5 Farming Bridges proposal involves rebuilding a like number of bridges destroyed during the fighting and using them as residential units and urban farms. Existing rubble would be used as building material, with flying drones and spider-like robots doing the actual construction.
Manta Ray
The Manta Ray proposal envisions a manta ray-shaped ferry terminal in Seoul, South Korea. The remarkable-looking building would float in place to deal with seasonal flooding and sport a huge roof covered with a solar power array, along with a wind turbine farm. Biodegradable waste and high-tech water turbines would transform the river's kinetic energy into power too – all of which would allow the ferry terminal to power itself and send a surplus to Seoul.
2050 Paris Smart City
Created for a competition seeking ideas to turn the City of Light into a City of Green in the coming decades, 2050 Paris Smart City calls for 15 new sustainable towers to be built on the rooftops of existing buildings on the city's famous Rue De Rivoli. The towers would feature residential units and sport dragonfly-shaped solar panels on their facade, providing all required electricity for the project.
Nautilus Eco-Resort
The Nautilus Eco-Resort is a paradise imagined for the Philippines that would allow well-heeled tourists to vacation without polluting the planet (excepting on the flight there, presumably). The whole thing would be arranged into a shape inspired by the Fibonacci sequence and include a dozen spiral hotel towers that rotate to follow the sun. Nearby, a like number of sea snail-shaped buildings would include exhibition spaces and hotels, while at its center would be a large timber building covered with vegetable gardens and orchards.
Tour & Taxis
Callebaut's Tour & Taxis sees the Belgian architect propose a return to his home country to transform a former industrial area in Brussels into a vibrant sustainable community. The area would comprise three ski jump-shaped high-rises that would be topped by solar panels and covered in greenery. Other notable elements include wind turbines, rainwater harvesting, and the production of fruit and vegetables.
Hyperions
Hyperions consists of a cluster of connected timber towers in New Delhi, India, that are named after, and take design cues from, the world's tallest living tree. It will boast extensive greenery and enable occupants to grow their own vegetables on balconies, as well as the facades, the rooftops, and in specialized greenhouses. The interior is taken up by apartments, student housing, and office space, and it will all be powered by solar panels. According to Callebaut, this one is going to be built and is due to be completed by 2022.
Agora Garden Tower
It can be difficult to imagine how exactly all these renders would translate into brick and mortar buildings, but Taipei's Agora Garden Tower shows the way. Sporting a twisting form inspired by DNA's double helix shape, the building twists 4.5 degrees each floor, turning a total of 90 degrees in all. Once completed, it'll feature 23,000 trees, as well as a rainwater capture system and solar power.
Autogrow Unveils OpenMinderTM – An Open-Source Solution For Water Monitoring
29 August 2018: Global AgTech innovator Autogrow has unveiled an open-source root zone monitor as part of an ‘open-collaboration’ platform.
“OpenMinderTM is a product that someone can build themselves, but more than that it represents where this industry is going with open-collaboration, APIs and a focus on water sustainability,” explains CEO Darryn Keiller.
“Governments and local legislators around the world are tightening the rules for growers when it comes to water usage and run-off. Growers need to use any and all tools at their disposal to ensure they are not only growing sustainably but have the data to back it up.”
OpenMinderTM is an open-source DIY project from Autogrow targeted to technology developers and for application with small growers. Released under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license, OpenMinderTM provides an open-source API used in conjunction with a Raspberry Pi HAT.
“Essentially we are giving away water management technology. There are very few people who understand how to design and build these technologies and, for someone motivated enough, we are providing the hardware schematics and source code to do it.”
“OpenMinderTM is the perfect product for an NGO or government to fund and manufacture for countries whose farmers need a subsidized or free, water run-off or irrigation monitoring system. And from an education perspective, there are high schools all around the U.S. and in other countries introducing classes on hydroponic systems. OpenMinderTM gives them a practical build they can do.”
Autogrow sees OpenMinderTM and other products built with APIs as the future for the industry where tech-savvy growers will demand suppliers work together and provide tools that can integrate seamlessly and give them exactly what they want.
“When I first began shaping the new vision for Autogrow one key realization was to embrace the idea of open collaboration, and this was because the entire tech sector that supported indoor and controlled environment growing was built on closed and proprietary technologies,” says Mr. Keiller.
“Fundamentally, that behavior is a roadblock to accelerating growers and producers’ rapid adoption of new and beneficial technologies. Having polite discussions isn’t changing anything. Robert Stallman, GNU and Linus Torvalds with Linux changed the way that all commercial operating systems got developed by breaking the stranglehold of UNIX, which was dominated by Sun, DEC, and IBM. We are doing the same for agriculture.”
For more information:
OpenMinderTM Getting Started – https://lab.autogrow.com/docs/en/open-source.html
OpenMinderTM Blog post - https://medium.com/the-growroom/monitoring-your-rootzone-with-openminder-fba51b16913
Go to GitHub - https://github.com/autogrow
ENDS
MEDIA QUERIES
Kylie Horomia, Head of Communications
(e) Kylie.horomia@autogrow.com
(m) +6421 733 025
(w) www.autogrow.com https://lab.autogrow.com/ www.cropsonmars.com
Sales queries – Sales@autogrow.com
About Autogrow
Autogrow leverages the power of technology, data science and plant biology to provide indoor growers affordable, accessible and easy-to-use innovation – 24/7, anywhere in the world.
Our hardware, software and data solutions support growers and resellers in over 40 countries producing over 100 different crop types.
We have a depth of experience and passionate, fun people creating original ideas and making them a reality for our growers.
Technology Promises To Calculate "True" Shelf Life
One of the causes of food waste is produce that goes bad earlier than expected. Of course, shipping produce that is fresh is the goal of every grower. In what manner it arrives and how fresh it remains once in the store, however, is largely out of their control. Furthermore, it is also in the retailer's best interest for the produce to remain fresh and tasty for customer's enjoyment.
Zest Labs, a company based in San Jose, California, has come up with a solution called Zest Fresh that allows growers and shippers to know how long each pallet of their produce will remain fresh. Using IoT sensors placed in each pallet at the time of harvest and cloud-based analytics, Zest Fresh takes into consideration temperatures at time of harvest, cut-to-cool duration, as well as conditions at each point right up until the receiver, and based on this data, calculates what the "true" remaining shelf life is.
"IoT sensors in each pallet use predictive analytics, machine learning and other functions to calculate a freshness metric of the dynamic remaining shelf life for each pallet," said Kevin Payne of Zest Labs. "We have profiled produce from different regions to determine the maximum freshness duration. Consider us as a postharvest freshness management solution. The reason is that despite a batch of produce coming out of the same field on the same day, the conditions in which they were harvested and eventually placed in the cooler can vary significantly. A pallet of strawberries picked at 7:00am and placed in the cooler at 8:00am will have a different shelf life than the pallet picked at 2:00pm during the heat of the day and placed in the cooler at the end of the day. This causes the 'true' remaining shelf life to be different for each pallet."
Kevin Payne and Todd Clayton with Zest Labs
Sending the pallets to the optimal destinations
Data collection and analysis is great, but varying forms have been around for a long time. Zest Labs noted that the point of difference with their Zest Fresh technology is that something can be done about proactively solving the problem. "Many solutions out there tend to be reactive, meaning an action can only take place after the fact," Payne explained. "However, we believe we offer the only proactive solution, by using the predictions and allowing the shipper to make decisions based on insights and information."
Fundamentally, the idea is to utilize the information to send pallets to destinations most appropriate for the calculated freshness. Most obviously, the greater the shelf life remaining, the further the produce can be sent. "When the calculated shelf life of one pallet is, say, 3 days shorter than another, it can be sent to a receiver that is closer, in order to maximize the shelf life for the receiver," Payne added. "The data is collected continuously and is read at pre-determined waypoints, such as being placed in the cooler, in the truck, moving out of the warehouse, arrival at the receiver, etc. This produces a dynamic shelf life, updated at each interval to give the most accurate shelf life at any one time."
Payne further noted that growers can use the data to monitor their processes to ensure they're being adhered to, adjusting procedures accordingly. "Zest Fresh empowers workers to keep product on process with real-time tools that reflect each process step – such as received inventory, time and temperature of product staged for pre-cool, pre-cooling, and shipping," he said. "It also drives notifications when preset process parameters are exceeded, focusing workers on the most acute problems in real-time."
The ZIPR Code
To help with the monitoring process, Zest Fresh collects, stores and displays all the data in a unique, automatically-generated code, called the "ZIPR Code" which stands for Zest Intelligent Pallet Routing, the industry’s first freshness metric. The ZIPR Code references the dynamic remaining shelf-life of individual pallets and then users can view and manage that pallet's information.
"Once Zest Fresh combines the data and applies a score, it creates the ZIPR Code for each pallet," Payne explained. "This ZIPR Code is then matched to pending orders to ensure each pallet has sufficient remaining freshness to meet the retailer’s needs. The ZIPR Code ensures that customer shipments are loaded correctly, and that quality is tracked through actual delivery – providing the grower with visibility of delivered quality."
"The ZIPR Code can be integrated into a warehousing management solution, providing alerts and updates on whether the pallet is still in a suitable condition and routing," he added. "It is designed to be autonomous and wireless."
Practicalities
The company said the sensors themselves are small and easy to handle. They can be inserted into pallets at any time, depending on whether the grower wishes to monitor the entire supply chain, or just certain sections.
"The IoT sensors are about the same size as a deck of cards and are placed in the pallet in the field or at any point along the way," Payne described. "They are reusable and can also be used for certain segments. The software to view information is cloud-based, with the desktop and mobile tags operated by access points. A technician will install these and all that is required is power and a network connection."
The Zest Fresh "dashboard"
Zest Labs is aiming to be at the forefront of technology, so Payne shared that Zest Fresh has Blockchain capability for those that desire it. "Blockchain, which is basically a secure way to exchange and share information, is one of the aspects that I get asked about often," he said. "We do have the support for it although it is not required."
What types of produce and where?
According to Payne, the most common produce type that growers use Zest Fresh for are highly perishable fruits like berries. This is no surprise as these fruits are the ones that feel every effect of temperature changes and inadequate cooling times, for example. Currently, the company is working with growers in North America, and has also worked with suppliers in Central and South America.
"Zest Fresh can be used for any produce type, however most growers and retailers start by using them for the highly perishable produce items like berries, closely followed by leafy greens," Payne said. "We have also seen interest in grapes, cherries and stone fruit. Right now, our technology is used across North America, and we have also worked with growers in Central and South America, particularly in the northern winter. We are aiming to be at the forefront of technology and modernize the supply chain for the fresh produce industry."
For more information:
Kevin Payne
Zest Labs
Tel: +1 (408) 200-6527
Publication date: 7/10/2018
Author: Dennis M. Rettke
Copyright: www.freshplaza.com
Indoor-Farming Tech Is Growing On Investors
TYLER HAMILTON
CONTRIBUTED TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL
fin AUGUST 15, 2018
Tyler Hamilton works with cleantech companies from across Canada as an adviser with the non-profit MaRS Discovery District in Toronto.
There’s plenty of buzz around the coming legalization of cannabis, but behind all the smoke, another type of grow-op is catching the attention of investors and budding entrepreneurs.
Indoor farming is taking root in Canada and around the world – in homes and businesses, cities and remote communities, in bone-dry deserts and in the frigidness of the Arctic Circle.
These aren’t just greenhouses. Most of the growth has been around a subcategory called vertical farming, which involves the cultivation of leafy greens and other produce using surfaces that are vertically stacked or vertically inclined. Often, the plants are grown without soil and in climate-controlled environments. Almost always, they use LED lighting systems to allow for precision, year-round growing, an approach pioneered by NASA in the 1980s for long-duration space travel.
An employee inspects a wall of kale and greens growing vertically inside a modular farming unit at Modular Farms Co. headquarters in Brampton, Ont., on Aug. 11, 2017. JAMES MACDONALD / BLOOMBERG
Leaders in the market include Canada’s Modular Farms, based in Toronto, and Nova Scotia’s TruLeaf, which are joined by competitors across the United States and Europe, including names such as Plenty, Infarms, AeroFarms, Oasis Biotech and Bowery Farms. As a group, they attracted $350-million in venture capital last year, a big increase over 2016.
Some harsh realities are driving investment. Rising world population means more mouths to feed, while the availability of arable land isn’t just capped, it’s shrinking. shrinking as a result of development and changing climate patterns. Vertical indoor farming allows nutritious food to be grown where it’s needed, regardless of land availability or climate. It also reduces, sometimes dramatically, the amount of water and energy that goes into agriculture production.
“Every hectare under vertical farming can potentially substitute nine hectares of conventional outdoor farmlands, and save up to 200 tonnes of water every day,” according to market-intelligence firm Frost & Sullivan.
Frost calculated that about 22,000 vertical farming patents were filed globally between 2014 and 2016 alone. Allied Market Research, another research firm, estimates the market will grow at a compound annual rate of 23.6 percent, to US$6.4-billion by 2023 from US$1.5-billion in 2016.
“A new container-farm company still probably pops up every month, but this is about more than just growing heads of lettuce,” says Aaron Spiro, president of Modular Farms, founded three years ago out of frustration with vertical indoor farming systems that overpromise and underdeliver.
He says anyone can grow herbs and leafy greens indoors. “But if the goal is to get the highest quality and yield, and be flexible enough to grow everything from kale and quinoa to raspberries and tomatoes, then achieving the perfect balance of temperature, air flow, water, light and nutrients is crucial.”
A tour of a Modular Farms system in an industrial parking lot in east Toronto demonstrates just how far vertical farming has come. Roughly the dimensions of a shipping container, the company’s core farming module is heavily insulated and designed with its own automated heating, air-conditioning and humidity-control systems.
Inside, two evenly divided rows accommodate four growing walls, each lit up by a retractable LED curtain emitting a spectrum of purple-hued light that’s ideal for growing. The walls themselves are lined with 240 vertical growing towers capable of supporting more than 3,500 plants at the same time.
No soil is used. Instead, seedlings take root inside grow plugs made of moss. Once the seedlings grow large enough, they are transplanted into a fibrous material housed within each tower. An automated closed-loop drip system makes sure the roots get just the right amount of nutrient-spiked water.
All key operations can be remotely monitored and its spacious layout makes for easy maintenance and harvesting. The company says this design allows a range of plants to be grown using 95 per cent less water and up to 30 per cent less energy than an outdoor soil-based farm with similar yields.
Time will tell if the system delivers as promised, but after only a year on the market more than 15 of these container farms have been sold with dozens more in the sales pipeline.
“We’ve been getting so much interest from people we never thought we’d be selling to initially,” Mr. Spiro says, explaining that urban and remote communities alike are drawn to the idea of growing their own food year round. Schools, mining and logging operations, commercial caterers and food distributors are among the customers Modular Farms is now targeting.
In September, for example, the company will deliver one of its farms to Dene High School in La Loche, Sask. The student-run farm will grow vegetables and fruit to support the school’s lunch program, and will double as a classroom where students can learn about biology, nutrition and entrepreneurship.
Over time, as more operational data is collected on different plant species, the company’s farms are expected to get smarter and more self-sufficient by incorporating advanced robotics, machine vision and artificial intelligence. Want to grow strawberries? Just press “strawberry” mode and the farm will make sure temperature, humidity, nutrients and lighting are balanced just right. Is tower five in Aisle 2 underperforming? A text alerts you and recommends corrective action.
Modular Farms is also taking a more holistic approach to its farms, developing a variety of connectible, plug-and-play modules with different capabilities and climate settings, including air-tight vestibules that allow seamless movement between modules – similar to the way the International Space Station is designed. One module, for example, would generate its own power using solar panels, while another would extract and store water from the outside air.
“It’s about pushing the boundaries of what and where people think it’s possible to grow,” Mr. Spiro says.
And yes, he adds wryly, growing cannabis is an option.
NASA Awards UbiQD Contract To Develop Greenhouse Films For Space Missions
PRESS RELEASE PR Newswire
Aug. 13, 2018
LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Aug. 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- UbiQD, Inc., a New Mexico-based nanotechnology development company, announced today that it has been awarded a Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR) Phase I contract by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The contract will provide funding for UbiQD's collaborative research and development with the University of Arizona to explore using quantum dots (QDs) to tailor the spectrum of sunlight for optimized crop growth for in-space and planetary exploration missions.
"We are excited to be working with UbiQD to explore this innovative approach in managing wavelengths of light from light source to plant leaf within a food plant production application," said Dr. Gene Giacomelli, professor in the Department of Biosystems Engineering Department and the Controlled Environment Agriculture Center at the University of Arizona. "This technology has the potential to improve the PAR light source efficiency, thereby becoming a game-changer for indoor crop production."
UbiQD has quietly been developing its QD agriculture films after receiving funding from Breakout Labs in 2017 to explore the concept. The company is now aiming to launch a retrofit version of its film product in late 2018 under the UbiGro™ brand. The UbiGro™ Film is designed to promote vegetable production and accelerate plant growth.
"With NASA's support we will work with the University of Arizona controlled Environment Agriculture Center in their College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to evaluate our quantum dot agriculture films for improved lettuce production," said Dr. Matt Bergren, Chief of Product at UbiQD and Principal Investigator for the project. "We have already been testing the films, in both research and commercial greenhouses in the U.S., and we've seen yield improvements for tomatoes on the order of 20-30 percent."
About UbiQD, Inc.
UbiQD is a nanotechnology company based in Los Alamos, New Mexico that manufactures high-performance cadmium-free quantum dots and composite materials. The company uniquely focuses on applications that utilize its nanomaterials to manipulate sunlight, enabling solar windows and spectrum-controlled greenhouses. Spun out of technology developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Washington, and Western Washington University, UbiQD envisions a future where quantum dots are ubiquitous in a wide spectrum of applications. For more information visit UbiQD.com and UbiGro.com.
About University of Arizona Controlled Environment Agriculture Center
The Mission of the Controlled Environment Agriculture Center (UA-CEAC) is to develop economically, environmentally and socially sustainable agricultural systems that will provide food of high quality for helping to feed the world. Engineers and scientists focus on CEA production agricultural practices within greenhouse, growth rooms and vertical farms to provide the desired aerial environment and the necessary root zone environment using hydroponic production techniques. Resource use efficiency of water, energy and plant nutrients are improved within automated systems.
About NASA STTR Program
The NASA STTR program is sponsored by its Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) and managed at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. STMD is responsible for developing the cross-cutting, pioneering, new technologies and capabilities needed by the agency to achieve its current and future missions. For more information about the SBIR/STTR program, including the selection list, visit sbir.nasa.gov/. To learn more about the other missions and programs NASA's Kennedy Space Center supports, visit www.nasa.gov/kennedy.
MEDIA CONTACTS
UbiQD, Inc.
info@ubiqd.com | 505.310.6766
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SOURCE UbiQD, Inc.
Food Safety, Sustainability And Frontier Tech Leading An Evolution In Agriculture
By Paul Ausick August 13, 2018
By Gene Munster and Austin Bohlig of Loup Ventures
- Due to advancements in technology, as well as consumers’ growing appetite for locally grown leafy greens and vegetables that are both high in nutritional value and come with improved taste, an evolution is underway in the agriculture space.
- This is changing the way produce is produced, and where it is being grown.
- This new method is called Indoor Ag, commonly known as Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA).
- We see Indoor Ag as an attractive investment opportunity and believe frontier tech will play a prominent role in this flourishing market.
Why now?
According to Indoor Farm Economics, there were 15 commercial-scale Indoor Ag farms in the US in 2016. In Spring 2017, there were 56, and the number continues to grow at a healthy rate. While Indoor Agriculture is not new and has been most recently used to grow cannabis, farmers are beginning to explore these methods because of the quality and cost benefits it offers consumers, as well as consumers growing concern over food safety. In addition, technological innovations have improved profitability and are beginning to create a more sustainable method over traditional processes as the world population continues to grow. For these reasons, we see indoor ag as an attractive investment opportunity and believe frontier tech will play a prominent role in its rise.
Industry overview
Indoor agriculture is the process of growing produce using hydroponics, aquaponics, and aeroponic techniques in standardized form factors such as warehouses, greenhouses, and containers. Today, indoor agriculture farms primarily produce leafy greens, microgreens, herbs, and tomatoes. In addition, strawberries, nutraceutical plants, and pharmaceutical plants are under intense R&D and are now starting to come to market. The biggest advantages of moving to an Indoor Ag model, include:
- Year-round availability of any and all produce items at competitive wholesale pricing.
- Time to market is measured in hours versus days contributing to a better, more nutritious product that tastes better and minimizes transportation costs and carbon emissions.
- Superior “science” of growing can be applied using advanced LED lighting, controls, and mechanisms to guarantee a perfect crop every time regardless of outside weather or location.
- Grown without chemicals and drastically more efficient use of water plus ability to recapture/recycle.
These CEA advantages improve food safety and sustainability. However, the industry still has a long way to go until Indoor Ag becomes mainstream. The biggest challenges holding this up include:
- The lack of capital from banks and VCs that will invest in this theme.
- Gaining sufficient scale to service accounts like a Wal-Mart.
- Concerns around profitability due to the limited size of the growing building.
Key frontier tech
The emergence of Indoor Ag startups creating innovative tech has been a material catalyst to adoption and improving profitability. Specifically, technological advancements around LEDs, robotics, and genomics have helped meaningfully.
- Excessive heat can be incredibly damaging to plants. GrowFilm, a Minnesota startup (growfilm.ag), has developed light emitters that operate around 93º F, allowing them to be placed closer to plants. This also eliminates the need for multiple lamps and lighting systems, which can increase yields by 40%. Additionally, a better understanding of how photosynthesis is impacted by different light spectrums is allowing Indoor Ag locations to work with cost-effective LEDs to further “tune” their grow recipe.
- Given indoor robotics is considered a “lab” environment by the US Labor Department, personnel requirements are more stringent than the migrant workers used to pick 70%+ of the nation’s produce. In addition, rising farm wages and labor shortage have been headwinds. Advancements in robotics and artificial intelligence have lowered the cost of labor and increased productivity. This includes cameras and sensors to enhance grow cycles and provide real-time feedback. Tortuga AgTech is a startup developing robotic systems for harvesting fresh produce in controlled environments.
- Advanced indoor farmers are turning their attention to how they can create seeds that are better designed for indoor systems, producing higher yields. Some are turning to heirloom seeds because they cost less and produce more nutritious foods than hybrid seeds, which are the primary seeds used in traditional agriculture.
Indoor Ag economics
One of the arguments against indoor farms historically has been the limited size of the growing form factor, and many struggled to reach profitability. While this was a challenge, the technological improvements discussed above, new CEA farms capable of producing over one million leafy green products per month, recycling resources, and lowering transportation costs are making indoor ag economics very favorable. Another advantage of indoor ag is it is less exposed to the cyclical nature of traditional agriculture due to the ability to steadily produce the same amount all year long. Plus, given labor shortages to harvest field grows, the dynamics of CEA farming become compelling.
Venture committed to this theme growing
While receiving capital has been another challenge for indoor farmers, VC dollars increased 3-fold in 2017 to $300M year/year. This was primarily driven by Softbank’s $200M investment into Plenty, which also included an investment from Jeff Bezos. We think the opportunity in indoor agriculture is large and believe it is an attractive theme for frontier technology over the next decade.
Disclaimer: We actively write about the themes in which we invest: virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and robotics. From time to time, we will write about companies that are in our portfolio. Content on this site including opinions on specific themes in technology, market estimates, and estimates and commentary regarding publicly traded or private companies is not intended for use in making investment decisions. We hold no obligation to update any of our projections. We express no warranties about any estimates or opinions we make.
Gene Editing – And What It Really Means to Rewrite The Code of Life
We now have a precise way to correct, replace or even delete faulty DNA. Ian Sample explains the science, the risks and what the future may hold.
We now have a precise way to correct, replace or even delete faulty DNA. Ian Sample explains the science, the risks and what the future may hold
Ian Sample Science editor @iansample
2018
Gene editing has the potential to treat or prevent thousands of forms of human disease. Illustration: Guardian design team
So what is gene editing?
Scientists liken it to the find and replace feature used to correct misspellings in documents written on a computer. Instead of fixing words, gene editing rewrites DNA, the biological code that makes up the instruction manuals of living organisms. With gene editing, researchers can disable target genes, correct harmful mutations, and change the activity of specific genes in plants and animals, including humans.
What’s the point?
Much of the excitement around gene editing is fuelled by its potential to treat or prevent human diseases. There are thousands of genetic disorders that can be passed on from one generation to the next; many are serious and debilitating. They are not rare: one in 25 children is born with a genetic disease. Among the most common are cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia and muscular dystrophy. Gene editing holds the promise of treating these disorders by rewriting the corrupt DNA in patients’ cells. But it can do far more than mend faulty genes. Gene editing has already been used to modify people’s immune cells to fight cancer or be resistant to HIV infection. It could also be used to fix defective genes in human embryos and so prevent babies from inheriting serious diseases. This is controversial because the genetic changes would affect their sperm or egg cells, meaning the genetic edits and any bad side effects could be passed on to future generations.
What else is it good for?
The agricultural industry has leaped on gene editing for a host of reasons. The procedure is faster, cheaper and more precise than conventional genetic modification, but it also has the benefit of allowing producers to improve crops without adding genes from other organisms – something that has fuelled the backlash against GM crops in some regions. With gene editing, researchers have made seedless tomatoes, gluten-free wheat, and mushrooms that don’t turn brown when old. Other branches of medicine have also seized on its potential. Companies working on next-generation antibiotics have developed otherwise harmless viruses that find and attack specific strains of bacteria that cause dangerous infections. Meanwhile, researchers are using gene editing to make pig organs safe to transplant into humans. Gene editing has transformed fundamental research too, allowing scientists to understand precisely how specific genes operate.
So how does it work?
There are many ways to edit genes, but the breakthrough behind the greatest achievements in recent years is a molecular tool called Crispr-Cas9. It uses a guide molecule (the Crispr bit) to find a specific region in an organism’s genetic code – a mutated gene, for example – which is then cut by an enzyme (Cas9). When the cell tries to fix the damage, it often makes a hash of it, and effectively disables the gene. This in itself is useful for turning off harmful genes. But other kinds of repairs are possible. For example, to mend a faulty gene, scientists can cut the mutated DNA and replace it with a healthy strand that is injected alongside the Crispr-Cas9 molecules. Different enzymes can be used instead of Cas9, such as Cpf1, which may help edit DNA more effectively.
An illustrated example of Crispr in action
Guardian graphic
Remind me what genes are again?
Genes are the biological templates the body uses to make the structural proteins and enzymes needed to build and maintain tissues and organs. They are made up of strands of genetic code, denoted by the letters G, C, T and A. Humans have about 20,000 genes bundled into 23 pairs of chromosomes all coiled up in the nucleus of nearly every cell in the body. Only about 1.5% of our genetic code, or genome, is made up of genes. Another 10% regulates them, ensuring that genes turn on and off in the right cells at the right time, for example. The rest of our DNA is apparently useless. “The majority of our genome does nothing,” says Gerton Lunter, a geneticist at the University of Oxford. “It’s simply evolutionary detritus.”
What are all those Gs, Cs, Ts and As?
The letters of the genetic code refer to the molecules guanine (G), cytosine (C), thymine (T) and adenine (A). In DNA, these molecules pair up: G with C and T with A. These “base pairs” become the rungs of the familiar DNA double helix. It takes a lot of them to make a gene. The gene damaged in cystic fibrosis contains about 300,000 base pairs, while the one that is mutated in muscular dystrophy has about 2.5m base pairs, making it the largest gene in the human body. Each of us inherits about 60 new mutations from our parents, the majority coming from our father.
But how do you get to the right cells?
This is the big challenge. Most drugs are small molecules that can be ferried around the body in the bloodstream and delivered to organs and tissues on the way. The gene editing molecules are huge by comparison and have trouble getting into cells. But it can be done. One way is to pack the gene editing molecules into harmless viruses that infect particular types of cell. Millions of these are then injected into the bloodstream or directly into affected tissues. Once in the body, the viruses invade the target cells and release the gene editing molecules to do their work. In 2017, scientists in Texas used this approach to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy in mice. The next step is a clinical trial in humans. Viruses are not the only way to do this, though. Researchers have used fatty nanoparticles to carry Crispr-Cas9 molecules to the liver, and tiny zaps of electricity to open pores in embryos through which gene editing molecules can enter.
Does it have to be done in the body?
No. In some of the first gene editing trials, scientists collected cells from patients’ blood, made the necessary genetic edits, and then infused the modified cells back into the patients. It’s an approach that looks promising as a treatment for people with HIV. When the virus enters the body, it infects and kills immune cells. But to infect the cells in the first place, HIV must first latch on to specific proteins on the surface of the immune cells. Scientists have collected immune cells from patients’ blood and used gene editing to cut out the DNA that the cells need in order to make these surface proteins. Without the proteins, the HIV virus can no longer gain entry to the cells. A similar approach can be used to fight certain types of cancer: immune cells are collected from patients’ blood and edited so they produce surface proteins that bind to cancer cells and kill them. Having edited the cells to make them cancer-killers, scientists grow masses of them in the lab and infuse them back into the patient. The beauty of modifying cells outside the body is that they can be checked before they are put back to ensure the editing process has not gone awry.
What can go wrong?
Modern gene editing is quite precise but it is not perfect. The procedure can be a bit hit and miss, reaching some cells but not others. Even when Crispr gets where it is needed, the edits can differ from cell to cell, for example mending two copies of a mutated gene in one cell, but only one copy in another. For some genetic diseases, this may not matter, but it may if a single mutated gene causes the disorder. Another common problem happens when edits are made at the wrong place in the genome. There can be hundreds of these “off-target” edits that can be dangerous if they disrupt healthy genes or crucial regulatory DNA.
Will it lead to designer babies?
The overwhelming effort in medicine is aimed at mending faulty genes in children and adults. But a handful of studies have shown it should be possible to fix dangerous mutations in embryos too. In 2017, scientists convened by the US National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine cautiously endorsed gene editing in human embryos to prevent the most serious diseases, but only once shown to be safe. Any edits made in embryos will affect all of the cells in the person and will be passed on to their children, so it is crucial to avoid harmful mistakes and side effects. Engineering human embryos also raises the uneasy prospect of designer babies, where embryos are altered for social rather than medical reasons; to make a person taller or more intelligent, for example. Traits like these can involve thousands of genes, most of them unknown. So for the time being, designer babies are a distant prospect.
How long before it’s ready for patients?
The race is on to get gene editing therapies into the clinic. A dozen or so Crispr-Cas9 trials are underway or planned, most led by Chinese researchers to combat various forms of cancer. One of the first launched in 2016 when doctors in Sichuan province gave edited immune cells to a patient with advanced lung cancer. More US and European trials are expected in the next few years.
What next?
Base editing
A gentler form a gene editing that doesn’t cut DNA into pieces, but instead uses chemical reactions to change the letters of the genetic code. It looks good so far. In 2017, researchers in China used base editing to mend mutations that cause a serious blood disorder called beta thalassemia in human embryos.
Gene drives
Engineered gene drives have the power to push particular genes through an entire population of organisms. For example, they could be used to make mosquitoes infertile and so reduce the burden of disease they spread. But the technology is highly controversial because it could have massive unintended ecological consequences.
Epigenome editing
Sometimes you don’t want to completely remove or replace a gene, but simply dampen down or ramp up its activity. Scientists are now working on Crispr tools to do this, giving them more control than ever before.
Further reading
A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution by Jennifer Doudna and Samuel H. Sternberg
The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee
The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology is Rewriting our Understanding of Genetics, Disease and Inheritance by Nessa Carey
Modern Prometheus: Editing the Human Genome with Crispr-Cas9 by Jim Kozubek
Fluence Appoints Chief Operating Officer to Further Accelerate Business Growth
David Cohen joins as COO to direct operational growth and business consistency globally, in addition to improving the overall customer experience
Austin, Texas – August 16, 2018, Fluence Bioengineering Inc. today announced David Cohen has joined Fluence as chief operating officer. Cohen will lead the Fluence Marketing, Sales and Operations teams, and he will focus on the creation and execution of the global growth strategy along with defining and executing the digitization strategy for Fluence.
“David will be an integral part of Fluence’s growth trajectory as the company expands to become the global leader of the horticultural lighting industry,” said Nick Klase, CEO, and co-founder, Fluence Bioengineering. “David’s experience in directing high-growth products in the LED lighting industry will ensure Fluence anticipates and addresses developing trends in food and cannabis production around the world.”
Cohen has extensive leadership experience in the lighting industry and has held roles as CEO, general manager, COO, executive vice president and managing director while living in China, Italy, the Netherlands, and the U.K. His most recent position was general manager and CEO of Schréder Lighting U.S.A. Prior to that position, David was the general manager of Future Electronics’ lighting business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, while based in London.
“The Fluence Bioengineering acquisition by Osram pairs best in class technology with a global lighting leader. I am excited to be joining Fluence at this critical time to drive global expansion,” said David Cohen, COO, “As Fluence refines its expertise in plant photobiology to address the escalating demand for natural food and medicine, I will be making sure we reach as many customers as possible around the world.”
About Fluence Bioengineering
Fluence Bioengineering Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of OSRAM, creates the most powerful and energy-efficient LED lighting solutions for commercial crop production and research applications. Fluence is the leading LED lighting supplier in the global cannabis market and is committed to solving the looming food crisis by enabling more efficient crop production with the world’s top vertical farming and greenhouse produce growers. All Fluence lighting solutions are designed and built at the company’s headquarters in Austin, Texas, U.S.A., with European sales and support based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://fluence.science
Weird New Fruits Could Hit Aisles Soon Thanks to Gene-Editing
Supermarkets stocked with peach-flavoured strawberries and seedless tomatoes on horizon, scientists say
Supermarkets stocked with peach-flavored strawberries and seedless tomatoes are on the horizon, scientists say
20 July 2018
A red-fleshed apple of the Redlove hybrid variety. Unusual fruits such as this could soon become more common thanks to use of technologies such as Crispr. Photograph: Bailey-Cooper Photography/Alamy Stock Photo
Smooth or hairy, pungent or tasteless, deep-hued or bright: new versions of old fruits could be hitting the produce aisles as plant experts embrace cutting-edge technology, scientists say.
While researchers have previously produced plants with specific traits through traditional breeding techniques, experts say new technologies such as the gene-editing tool Crispr-Cas9 could be used to bring about changes far more rapidly and efficiently.
It could, they say, potentially open the door to a new range of fruits and vegetables that look, taste and feel very different to those we are used to.
Gene-editing is already being used by scientists to change the characteristics of food. One such endeavor used Crispr to make mushrooms that don’t brown, while a team in Spain has been using the approach to try to produce wheat that can be eaten by people with coeliac disease. Still, others are looking at using gene-editing to give crops resistance to particular environmental problems or pathogens.
Earlier this year, biotech firm Monsanto invested $125m in a new gene-editing company called Pairwise that reportedly has goals such as sweeter-tasting strawberries, while scientists in Japan have used the technique to produce seedless tomatoes. Another team have been using Crispr to change the architecture of tomato plant branches and the spacing of fruit.
nside a lab in Norwich where researchers from a startup called Tropic Biosciences are using Crispr to create a better banana. Photograph: Tatum Reid/Tropic Biosciences
Among the genes flagged in the new study in the journal Trends in Plant Science are those behind the production of a family of substances known as MYBs, which are among the proteins that control whether other genes are switched on or off.
“MYBs are great targets because they are central to several consumer traits or features like colour, flavour [and] texture,” said Andrew Allan, a co-author of the review from the University of Auckland whose own projects include working on red-fleshed apples and changing the colour of kiwi fruits. “Russet skin in apple and pear [is linked to MYBs]. Hairs on peaches but not nectarines – another type of MYB.”
Dr Richard Harrison, head of genetics, genomics and breeding at the horticultural organisation NIAB EMR, who was not involved in the article, said tweaking MYB genes or the way such genes are themselves controlled was a fruitful approach.
“For fruits,” he said, “MYB genes have long been known to be associated with expression of molecules such as anthocyanin, a red-coloured compound that gives strawberries or blood-red oranges their colour. “Increasingly, MYBs are being implicated in the production of other important compounds, hence the interest in this family of genes that are conserved between many plant species.”
Gene-editing of MYB genes and other genes could bring a host of benefits, Harrison said, adding: “There is a large opportunity to improve the nutritional profile of fruits and vegetables in the future using gene-editing technology, as well as other techniques.” Such techniques, he said, introduce the same sort of DNA changes as plant breeders have introduced by artificially selecting traits that cropped up through spontaneous DNA mutation – but much faster.
Hybrid purple raspberries of the Glen Coe variety. Crispr may make such specimens more common. Photograph: PR/Suttons
“Red-fleshed apples developed through conventional breeding have taken decades to even come close to market acceptability,” he said, “due to the multiple rounds of breeding and selection that have had to occur to take the naturally occurring red-fleshed gene variant from a wild species of apple and introduce it into a commercially acceptable variety.
“In our normal breeding work, we often see seedlings produced purely from conventional breeding with a range of colour and flavour profiles that simply never make it to the market, such as peach-flavoured strawberries [and] super-dark purpleish strawberries.”
The review is timely: next week the European Court of Justice will announce if or how plants that have been gene-edited using techniques such as Crispr will be regulated, and whether they will be treated like genetically modified plants. The US has already ruled against serious restrictions, provided the changes could have been produced through traditional plant-breeding techniques.
“We are interested in making produce more healthy, sustainable and convenient so that people will eat more produce,” Dr Haven Baker, Pairwise’s chief business officer, said, noting that gene-editing could be used to increase levels of anthocyanins, improve taste, increase shelf life, improve yields, boost disease resistance or even lengthen the season of availability.
Such approaches, said Baker, could not only boost consumers’ nutrient intake, but could also reduce food waste and produce adaptations needed to weather climate change: “We are trying to solve problems that matter to both consumers and the agricultural systems.”
Sustenir Sows The Seeds of Success
Company plows efforts into high-tech methods of farming to maximize land-use and yield while reducing wastage.
July 31, 2018
Sustenir is an urban farming company that uses controlled environment agriculture to grow non-native plants in Singapore. Seen here are regional sales manager Jack Moy (left) and co-founder Benjamin Swan. The company is also looking at using AI to monitor plant growth. BT PHOTO: LEE JIA WEN
GROWING cold-weather crops such as strawberries and kale in Singapore might seem impossible to many, but that is exactly what Sustenir Agriculture is doing.
Since 2014, Sustenir has been using high-tech methods such as controlled environment agriculture (CEA), vertical farming, and hydroponics to grow a variety of non-native plants indoors.
For co-founder Benjamin Swan, this unlikely agricultural venture is far from frivolous. He sees it as an important environmental move: "It was really my opportunity to do the right thing, to fight the good fight, you know. This was something that needed to happen."
Cultivating an idea
The idea first came to Mr. Swan when he read an article about vertical farming on his MRT ride home from work in 2012 - and felt that current methods were not efficient enough.
"The illustrations that I saw, they were wasting a lot of space. It may work in the United States where there is a lot of space, but in Singapore and Hong Kong, where land is scarce and rent is high. It just wouldn't work wasting space like that," he says.
That night, the then-engineer and project manager designed more compact versions.
Much of that early design work has translated to Sustenir's commercial farm in Admiralty today, which covers an area of 10,000 square feet (approximately 930 square metres).
While keeping his day job, the budding indoor farmer spent his weekends and after-office hours connecting with academics and farmers from all over the world to learn more about this industry.
"I took bites from what everyone was doing, because everyone was doing things so differently, and from that, I just formed my own hypothesis on how growing would happen."
With the knowledge gained, he focused on "growing impossible products at impossible places".
His first impossible place was the basement of a swimming facility in April 2013. There, he experimented with varying light wavelengths, nutrient solutions, carbon dioxide levels, and many other variables to find the optimum conditions for different species of plants to grow.
"I was growing kale by tricking the plant into thinking it was cold by chilling the water. It was there that I learned the power of a controlled environment. You just need to think outside the box."
After seeing the fruits of his labor, he decided to become a full-time farmer. The construction of Sustenir's facility in Admiralty started in October that year.
Mr. Swan wanted to use the budding technology of CEA to address the growing issue of environmental sustainability.
"If we keep going with farming the way it's being done right now, we're going to need farming land the size of Brazil by 2050 to feed the growing population. That means more deforestation, more pesticide run-off into rivers killing fish - it's not great.
"It's not to say that traditional farming is the devil, but we're saying that we need to fix it because it's not sustainable."
Through Sustenir's methods of vertical farming, land can be optimized to obtain more yield.
In an area of 54 square metres, Sustenir produces 1 tonne of kale or 3.2 tonnes of lettuce per month.
According to some reports, this can be 14 to 127 times more than the yield produced through traditional farming on the same area of land, depending on the climate.
Unlike traditional outdoor farming, vertical farming is not affected by seasonal changes. This allows for continuous production.
This form of farming also reduces water consumption, as the harvested crops do not need to be washed before they are consumed.
Sustenir keeps the plants clean by keeping external air pollutants out of the growing area and by having staff put on clean-room suits before they enter. This cleanliness is then maintained by packing the produce in airtight containers.
Producing non-native plants locally also reduces the ecological footprint from transport and food waste.
"Thirty-three percent of produce is wasted in the logistics alone before it even gets to the merchants," says Mr. Swan. "Then the merchants also have wastage as well. It's what they call shrinkage."
Sustenir further reduces wastage by using all of its yields. Physically imperfect specimens are made into juice instead of being thrown away.
"Sometimes during the harvesting process, we could be a bit rough and the leaves are not perfect, so we don't sell those to retail," says general manager Jack Moy. "What we do is find a way to repurpose this, because they taste equally good and they have the same nutrition."
To support Singapore's self-sustainability - at least where greens are concerned - Sustenir does not grow local produce. Instead, the firm aims to grow imported veggies which are popular among residents.
"We put our customers at the heart of all our decisions," says Mr. Swan.
For instance, after learning that many Singaporeans are fans of Japanese and Korean strawberries, Sustenir made that fruit its newest project.
Officially launched on June 20 this year, the strawberries have enjoyed substantial demand - so much so that Sustenir plans to allocate more space in its farm for growing the fruit.
Unfortunately, not all its products were equally well-received.
Upon the launch of its kale, the Sustenir team gave out samples at Cold Storage stores, only to find that many locals do not enjoy the vegetable's tough texture and bitter taste.
Mr Swan then went back to the "grow room" - as the growing area is dubbed - and altered the environment to reduce these unpopular attributes of kale, resulting in a softer-leaf, less bitter product.
The team also visits farmers' markets to study customer preferences. This feedback is used to modify produce, for instance by cultivating sweeter strawberries or milder arugula.
Mr. Swan hopes to apply the same CEA methods to maximize the nutrients in plants and grow them for medicinal purposes, too.
Sustenir is also working on developing local grapes and wine.
Leveraging technology
Apart from its own techniques, Sustenir taps external technologies for greater efficiency.
Through Spring Singapore - now Enterprise Singapore, after its merger with International Enterprise Singapore - Sustenir partnered PBA Systems to create robotic arms for seeding. One robotic arm does the work of three people.
Sustenir also works with educational institutions such as the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) to boost awareness of and interest in the industry.
After learning about vertical farming and CEA, students get the opportunity to develop projects and help the company in its green journey.
Says Mr. Moy: "It's kind of like an internship. We even bring NUS (students) onto the business side where they can help with the marketing."
Ideas which the firm finds feasible will be commercialized, he adds. "So it's really cool for the students. They can be proud to share that they worked with Sustenir to create a new innovation that customers love."
In line with its zero-waste policy, Sustenir is working with SIT to find the most suitable way to turn physically imperfect kale into kale powder.
The company is currently exploring different ways of drying the vegetable - from spray drying to vacuum drying - to find one that retains the most nutritional value.
Another technology Sustenir is looking at is artificial intelligence, which can be used to monitor plant growth and detect problems so they can be nipped in the bud.
Says Mr. Swan: "We're working with companies right now to work on our own in-house AI technology, to not only help us monitor and track plant growth, but to also help with the whole farming system. Everything from upstream with the resource materials to downstream with the ERP (enterprise resource planning) system." He declined to reveal the companies.
Sustenir also plans to create an online platform, Sustenir Life, to educate consumers on health, fitness, and vertical farming.
The company will work with health and fitness professionals, environmentalists and charities to share their stories and promote their causes on the blog-like platform.
All this is in the service of a larger, industry-level goal: changing the nature of outdoor farming, too.
"That's really the future of Sustenir," says Mr. Swan. "It's to take technology and help outdoor farmers - through our center of excellence in indoor farming - to apply smart technology into their farms, to optimize their farming programmes."
This is another reason Sustenir does not grow local produce. This ensures it does not compete with local farmers, instead of complementing their existing products.
Currently, Sustenir's cold-weather crops can be found at select Cold Storage outlets and online at Redmart. Sustenir also supplies food chains, restaurants and hotels such as SaladStop!, Les Amis and Shangri-La.
Mr Swan hopes to expand to other countries. "We're going to start with Asia-Pacific. In all heavily urbanized cities in Asia, we want to have Sustenir."
The company is building a 50,000 square foot facility in Hong Kong and is working with local farmers in Indonesia and Malaysia to integrate smart technology - such as the robotic seeding arm - into their traditional methods.
Outdoor farmers can also tap Sustenir's research findings for optimal growth, for instance by varying the pH levels of water in response to changes in climate and temperature.
Ultimately, Mr. Swan envisions Sustenir broadening its reach to the whole world: "It's time for a change in agriculture."
Brought to you by The Future Economy Council
China Unveils High-Tech Indoor Farm That Can Feed 36,000 People
China Unveils High-Tech Indoor Farm That Can Feed 36,000 People
by Ryan General | July 9, 2018
A Chinese firm has unveiled an improved version of their “smart farm” which enables the growth of more vegetables without soil or natural sunlight in an automated environment.
Currently utilized in many parts of the world, the technology of controlled-environment agriculture via indoor farming is being improved upon by a company in Anxi, Fujian Province, called Sanan Sino-Science in hopes of setting the course for the future of agriculture in China.
The firm unveiled its most recent expansion project last Friday, featuring a high-tech indoor farm that has been in development for about two years, MailOnline reports.
The farm, which covers a 5,000-square-meter (53,819-square-foot) indoor space, produces eight to ten metric tons of vegetables daily while requiring only four staff members to manage it. Conventional farmlands would require about 300 farmers to produce the equivalent amount which can feed almost 36,000 people.
Equipped with advanced autonomous technology, the facilities grow vegetables and herbs in multilevel cultivation beds of hydroponic solutions in a controlled environment.
The smart farming method involves a strict system that regulates temperature, water source, humidity, nutrients and LEDs that replace sunlight in a confined indoor space. Such regulations allow the firm to significantly save on water, granting each plant only the right amount it needs.
Sanan Sino-Science’s first generation indoor farm is claimed to be the world’s largest vertical farming complex, covering an area of 1 hectare (2.47 acres).
“Compared with our first generation smart farm, this new plant yields even more effective results while reducing labor and environmental costs,” Sanan Sino-Science CEO Zhan Zhuo was quoted as saying.
Zhan explained that their revolutionary technique “maximizes the plant’s growth potential while maintaining a sustainable and continuous growth cycle.”
While vegetables in a conventional farm need about 40 to 60 days to reach maturity depending on weather condition, Sanan Sino-Science’s “vegetable factory” allows the harvesting of smaller-sized varieties in just 18 days and larger vegetables just between 33 and 35 days.
“This farming method is particularly beneficial in challenging environments such as deserts, mountainside towns, or in cities where labor comes at a high cost,” Zhan said.
Zhan claims that the smart factory can produce 3,000 to 3,500 metric tons of vegetables annually at full capacity.
The company plans to improve its farms by installing AI technology to be able to record and analyze growth data via sensors to identify the optimal growing condition for each specific kind of vegetable.
Vegetables produced from the high-tech farms are shipped to the rest of Fujian Province and Shanghai in supermarkets and high-class restaurants at around 30 yuan ($4.50) to 36 ($5.50) yuan per kilogram (2.2 pounds). These high-tech grown vegetables cost more than regular vegetables which are sold at a wholesale price of 2.85 yuan ($.50) per kilo in China.
Zhan, who expressed the company’s interest in bringing the concept of “produce locally, sold locally” to different cities worldwide, says their technologies have been shared with countries such as the U.S., Japan, and Singapore.
Growlink Announces Beta Program for Exciting New AI Solution
Growlink Announces Beta Program for Exciting New AI Solution
Innovative Technology Collects 200 Million Monthly Data Points to Understand and Maximize Grow Operations
NEWS PROVIDED BY Growlink
DENVER, July 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
Growlink, a leading agriculture technology company, is excited to announce a beta program for its new AI solution for greenhouse and indoor farming. More information on the Growlink Plant Health AI beta program, including online sign-up for Growlink customers, is available at http://growlink.com/ai.
The use of artificial intelligence is the next big innovation in agricultural technology. Growlink Plant Health AI uses cloud machine learning, computer vision, sensor data, and AI to track and predict plant health. Growlink currently collects over 200 million monthly data points from 2,200 active devices (environment, irrigation, and fertigation controllers). This massive amount of data is then combined with high-definition and infrared camera images to provide a comprehensive understanding of what's going on.
Powered by Microsoft Azure, including Computer Vision, Machine Learning and Speech, Growlink Plant Health AI is easily accessed on any internet-connected device through native mobile applications or a desktop browser. Other features of the application include:
- Data-powered agronomy: Growlink helps producers grow healthier, higher-quality crops. It continuously monitors, enforces, and optimizes climate, irrigation, and feed systems. It also helps agronomists plan with greater precision and allows growers to benefit from the collective knowledge and experiences of others.
- Predictable, optimized yields: With yield predictions that are up to 95 percent accurate, Growlink provides sales and purchasing teams with accurate supply forecasts to closely match demand dynamics. It maximizes farm output through optimal variety allocation, planting, and harvest planning.
- Early disease and pest detection: In greenhouse cultivation, disease occurrence is influenced by the basic parameters of temperature and humidity, along with the quantity of sunlight, leaf wetness, the growing environment, and the outside weather. Growlink uses AI to analyze these factors that affect crop development, along with computer vision to predict disease and provide early detection of pests.
- Voice-enabled system management: By using Microsoft Cognitive Services and raw voice files, including captured time stamps and location data, users can improve productivity and workflow management, increase documentation accuracy, and gain valuable insights to optimize the use of resources in crop production.
Current Growlink customers can sign up to be notified when the Growlink Plant Health AI beta program is available at http://growlink.com/ai. As members of the program, users can help shape Growlink software by test-driving pre-release versions and giving their feedback.
"The world must produce more food using fewer resources, and we are certain AI supported by advanced technology platforms will truly benefit farmers," says Ted Tanner, CEO and Co-Founder of Growlink. "From commercial greenhouses to vertical farming, the comprehensive data AI gathers and the real-time actions made from this data will lead to greater, predictable yields and reduced crop loss. Our new Growlink Plant Health AI will take this bold step into the future, and we are thrilled to announce this beta program to give our users the first opportunity to use this incredible new technology."
To learn more about Growlink's innovative farming solutions, visit www.growlink.com.
About Growlink
Growlink's mission is to create smart farms that maximize production by leveraging the power of big data, the cloud, and IoT devices. The Growlink Platform controls and automates lighting, climate, and fertigation and irrigation systems. For more information, visit www.growlink.com.
SOURCE Growlink
Related Links
30MHz And Hort Americas Join Forces To Bring Smart Sensing To North American Growers
30MHz And Hort Americas Join Forces To Bring Smart Sensing To North American Growers
By urbanagnews
July 10, 2018
Photos by 30MHz
Leading commercial horticultural suppliers Hort Americas, and smart sensing technology providers 30MHz are pleased to announce that they’ve partnered to bring the power of real-time, crop-level monitoring to growers across Canada, the United States, the Caribbean, and Mexico. Hort Americas is the first North American distributor of 30MHz technology.
The data platform for Horti - and agriculture
30MHz provides agribusinesses with everything they need to start monitoring their crops and growing environment accurately and in real-time, with just minutes of setup. Customers choose from a variety of sensors sourced and developed with growers and agricultural research institutions (capturing metrics including VPD, dew point, temperature, humidity, soil moisture and airflow.) 30MHz also provides a private, scalable mesh network (with the option to easily add more sensors at any time) and an intuitive analytics platform with real-time alerts, visualizations, heatmaps, charts and graphs accessible on any device.
Photos by 30MHz
With 30MHz technology, customers can deploy a wireless sensor network themselves, without technical expertise. Sensors arrive preconfigured— customers simply connect their gateway to a power supply and ethernet and log into the platform to immediately start measuring.
Built to help agribusinesses of all sizes harness the full power of their environmental data, the 30MHz platform makes crop metrics accessible, shareable and actionable without the burden of juggling multiple interfaces. Real-time sensor data can be viewed alongside data from other sources, including climate control systems, shelf quality control and traceability monitoring and root zone monitoring software.
Empowering agribusinesses across the chain
The scalable and modular nature of 30MHz tech makes it a fit for growers of all sizes across agricultural verticals. With over 150 customers across five continents, 30MHz serves agribusinesses from farm to fork, in a greenhouse, vertical (hydroponic and aeroponic), arable, ornamental, cold store, processing, packing, transport, retail, and livestock. Based in Bedford, Texas, Hort Americas partners with leading suppliers of commercial horticultural products from around to world in order to serve the North American professional greenhouse and indoor ag grower community with the latest technologically advanced products from around the world. Hort Americas’ breadth of expertise across horticulture makes the company ideally positioned to bring the Dutch-founded 30MHz further into the North American market.
“We’ve seen the hunger for actionable data among North American growers— they’re constantly looking to innovate and make the most of their resources. But they don’t have time for overly complex systems that silo their data and take forever to get off the ground. Hort Americas understand the specific challenges and needs of North American agriculture, and how to translate Dutch agri-innovation into efficiency and productivity in local contexts” notes Director of Customer Affairs Cor Jan Holwerda. “Hort Americas continues to look for cutting-edge technology that solves problems and provides answers to the questions our grower partners are asking us. With believe that 30MHz’s product portfolio does just that,” adds founder and general manager, Chris Higgins.
More About 30MHz
30MHz helps agribusinesses of all sizes make the most of their resources with real-time data on their crops and environment, from farm to fork. Through an accessible data platform, scalable mesh network and a selection of wireless sensors, 30MHz provides all the elements growers need to start monitoring in moments, without technical expertise. All it takes is a few minutes and an internet connection.
More About Hort Americas
Based in Bedford, Texas, Hort Americas partners with leading suppliers of commercial horticultural products from around the world in order to serve the North American professional greenhouse and indoor ag grower community with the latest technologically advanced products. Learn more at www.hortamericas.com.
New LED Lighting Technology Brings The Power Of The Sun To Hydroponics
A high-tech lighting system that mimics the huge variety of sunlight — manufactured by Edmonton company G2V and developed in a University of Alberta lab by research scientist Michael Taschuk — is now being tested in four cannabis grow operations across Canada.
The G2V lighting system wasn’t developed to grow plants. Instead, it was built to test solar cells at the U of A’s National Institute of Nanotechnology. The goal with solar cells is to get even slight increases in efficiency. This makes it necessary to have extremely precise diagnostic tools for taking measurements, including lamps that mimic the sunlight as it’s experienced on the Earth’s surface in all its variety, hot and cold, bright and dim, and everything in between.
— David Staples
Panel Tackles Cities And Social Media
SESSION: State of the Nation panelists, Ausveg CEO James Whiteside, PMA A-NZ CEO Darren Keating, University of Qld's Professor Jimmy Botella, science writer and communicator Julian Cribb, with Hort Connections MC, Toby Travanner.
STOP talking about horticulture and agriculture and start talking about food, says science writer, Julian Cribb.
The well-known communicator was part of the State of the Nation panel session held at Hort Connections 2018 at Brisbane on Tuesday.
"You have to close the gap both mentally and economically between producers and consumers. People don't eat agriculture, they don't eat horticulture," Mr. Cribb said.
As heard at other horticulture conferences at which he's addressed, Mr. Cribb called for an embracing of vertical farms for food production in urban centres.
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"Production is going to move off farm and into the cities," Mr. Cribb said.
"Half the world's food is going to be grown in cities using wastewater from those cities.
"We humans only eat about 200 different plants. We haven't even begun to explore the earth as to what is good to eat.
"Horticulture is going to be the mainstay in these diets."
But his fellow panelists took a more here and now approach to the issues facing horticulture.
The panel consisted of Produce Marketing Association Australia and New Zealand chief executive officer, Darren Keating, Ausveg CEO James Whiteside and the University of Queensland's Professor Jimmy Botella.
Mr. Whiteside posed the question of who will be the farmers of tomorrow?
"That's a much greater challenge than the industry has given thought to," he said.
"I think there is a whole long list of innovation of how we are going to grow food. That will happen in course.
"The broader question is, how do we go from a relatively agrarian horticulture to those growing in cities?"
FOCUS: PMA A-NZ CEO Darren Keating taking part in the State of the Nation panel session.
Mr. Cribb's view of the future was based on green cities.
"Cities are such ugly places compared to what it's going to be when they are covered with plants and trees," Mr. Cribb said.
Futuristic hydroponic cities cost money though, a point not dismissed by Mr. Whiteside.
"The issue is we have enormous potential to grow more food but it takes capital and it takes people taking risks," he said.
"We can't assume our food will be grown within 20 kilometres (of major cities).
"Fundamentally, we are in the business of feeding our fair share of the population."
Away from the production issues, PMA A-NZ's Mr. Keating said one area of concern was how consumers viewed the food supply chain through the lens of social media.
"The way people eat and interact with food has changed over the years," Mr. Keating said.
"When you look at the number of conversations people are having with food, it can be overwhelming.
"A big part of this problem is the billions of customers being face to face with social media.
"It may not always be well informed but it will impact your business.
FUTURE VIEW: Ausveg CEO James Whiteside says the horticulture industry needs to think about who will be farming fresh produce in the future.
"We can't control the discussions but we can add our voice."
Professor Botella pushed the case for innovation and technology as a means of creating change for both growers and consumers.
"Adopt technology and adopt technology early," he said.
Mr. Keating suggested technology as a way to engage young people into horticulture.
"Don't fear the technology. There is a way to be involved in agriculture and food which doesn't mean you have to be living in a regional area," he said.
Mr. Cribb also reiterated his call for "a year of food" for every school on the planet.
"We need the Stephanie Alexander model of a farm in every school," he said.
"When kids grow their own vegetables, they eat their vegetables. Broccoli becomes delicious."
The conversation also covered part of the conference's theme - halving waste.
"The other side of the coin is waste. Having a good conversation about how the product gets there and in good condition, is a tough one," Mr. Keating said.
"The waste part is a really important conversation to be had.
"Packaging is easy to call evil but it's also the thing that can minimize food waste. Getting to something that works is important."
Mr. Cribb said recycling needed to become second nature.
"We've got to build these large recycling plants. We've got to recycle everything," he said