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Urban Crop Solutions Presents Its Technology To The Belgian King Filip And the French President Macron
The French president Emmanuel Macron and his wife are making a two-day state visit to Belgium (Europe) on November 19th and 20th .
The delegation visits different cities at the invitation of the Belgian King Filip and Queen Mathilde. In addition to the protocol ceremonies, solemn receptions and the state banquet, there was also an important economic part on this two-day state visit. Urban Crop Solutions was selected to present itself as a Belgian high potential innovative company in the category 'eco technology'. The royal and presidential delegation focused mainly on the past realisations, the technology and target markets of Urban Crop Solutions in the world.
On Monday 19 November 2018, 8 entrepreneurs from 4 leading Belgian companies and 4 promising technology companies were given the opportunity to present their high tech innovations during the state visit of the French president Macron to the city of Ghent. The presentation and the Q&A session was attended by the French President Emmanuel Macron, King Philip of Belgium, the Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel and the minister-president of Flanders Geert Bourgeois. All selected companies’ mission contributes to 1 of 4 themes: circular economy, financial technology, nanotechnology & artificial intelligence and eco technology.
Urban Crop Solutions was selected alongside with Sioen Industries in the 'eco technology' category. As a specialist in indoor vertical agriculture solutions, this was an excellent opportunity for Urban Crop Solutions to put its vision and innovative technologies in the spotlight.
"We are delighted to see that European leaders and our Belgian Royal family are deeply interested in promising technologies and processes that can contribute in the near future to a better world," says Maarten Vandecruys, CEO of Urban Crop Solutions. "I personally did not expect that the Belgian King and the French President had so much questions about our technology and our target markets. They were very enthusiastic about the international potential of our venture. "
Urban Crop Solutions is a one-stop-shop for turnkey and tailor-made solutions in the field of vertical indoor farming. The Belgian company, with offices in the United States and Japan, offers besides growing infrastructures and consumables for indoor farming such as seeds, substrates and nutrients, also consulting, research, training and after sales services.
The advantages of its vertical farming solutions are endless and offer huge added value in the circular economy of today. Thanks to hydroponics (soilless plant growth on water) and the use of automation and robotics in a completely enclosed environment, the use of pesticides, herbicides or other forms of polluting products are obsolete. On top of that 95% less water is consumed compared to traditional outdoor cultivation methods.
Urban Crop Solutions realized in 2016 the largest automated indoor vertical farming plant in Europe and has since then set up numerous research collaborations all over the world. This thanks to its industry-leading technology. The limited need for land due to the multi-layer cultivation structure, high water efficiency (low consumption and recycling) and local production thereby avoiding (international) transport, are key reasons why the indoor vertical farming solutions of Urban Crop Solutions are driver for a better environment of tomorrow.
Schneider Electric Goes Big By Going Local In The Microgrid Market
November 16, 2018 By Elisa Wood
Advanced microgrids were still something of a bet four years ago when Schneider Electric and partners rolled out the Oncor microgrid in Texas, an early demonstration project.
Tiptoeing into microgrids then, the energy management and automation giant now is in full stride, made clear this week at its Innovation Summit North America in Atlanta, Georgia.
Schneider Electric’s Innovation Summit North America in Atlanta, Georgia. Courtesy of Schneider
Top company brass have their eyes on the microgrid market. Chairman and CEO Jean-Pascal Tricoire featured some of the company’s advanced microgrids as he highlighted various Schneider success stories during his opening remarks.
“You’ve got powerful catalyzers of change here in the electrical system, which are pushing the grid to be richer at the level of the edge, closer to the consumption,” Tricoire said, to an audience of 1,200 companies, buyers, analysts and others tracking Schneider’s business, which netter $28.5 billion in revenue last year.
Tricoire described microgrids at the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Miramar in San Diego, California and in Montgomery County, Maryland, two large and sophisticated projects.
But they soon became old news when two days later Schneider unveiled another microgrid project, the latest in a string of announcements. The new microgrid is for Bowery Farming, a New York company that offers indoor agriculture.
Cultivating local partners
The Bowery Farming microgrid emerged out of Schneider’s strategy of partnering with smaller microgrid developers and local electrical contracting companies to reach into local markets.
“We can’t call on every small building to make an offer,” said Mark Feasel, vice president, electric utility segment & smart grid, in an interview with Microgrid Knowledge.
But local contractors are in neighborhood buildings all the time — they see where opportunity lies.
So Schneider has launched a program called EcoXpert, which makes available training tools and demos to help smaller companies upskill their work force, create new jobs and tackle more complex projects.
By gaining a better understanding of the digital overlays and cloud products being integrated into microgrids, the partners gain a competitive edge, Feasel said.
“The electrical contractor has to transform along with this market. In a world where the consumer is no longer passive, their requirements are changing,” he said.
Schneider selects the best of the EcoXpert participants as partners for microgrid development.
The division of labor can take various forms in the partnerships. For example, Schneider doesn’t necessarily handle the microgrid engineering, procurement and construction; it may relinquish the role to the local partner and instead sell products, software and services. In the case of Bowery Farming, New Jersey-based Scale Microgrid Solutions will build, own and operate the microgrid.
Natural pairing of urban farms and microgrids
The indoor farming movement melds philosophically with microgrids. Often in urban areas, indoor farms are typically close to those they serve – just as microgrids are. So the indoor farms use fewer resources than agribusinesses in delivering product, creating efficiencies, again as microgrids do.
Indoor farms also use less water and crop treatment because they are in contained environments. However, they demand substantial energy for lights, water pumping and other operations.
Bowery Farming will improve its environmental profile by using energy from a microgrid that will rely on solar, energy storage and natural gas. Schneider will provide the lithium-ion battery energy storage system, the microgrid controller and a cloud-connected energy management software platform.
Indoor farming melds philosophically with microgrids. Photo by ESstock/Shutterstock.com
The microgrid will generate energy at a price lower than grid power due to the spark spread, Feasel said.
The indoor farm also gains reliability since the microgrid can island from the central grid during a power outage and rely on its on-site generators. The digital platform orchestrates when to stop and start, when to charge and discharge, forecasting, weather monitoring, and load balancing in real time. The solar can operate when the microgrid is in island mode.
At a future date the Bowery Farming microgrid may also gain revenue through demand response and ancillary services. However, the microgrid can achieve cost savings even without those potential revenue streams, Feasel said.
Speed to market and standardization
Indoor urban farms tend to occupy buildings that were once used for other purposes. Not long ago, installing a microgrid in that kind of setting would have meant extensive study and engineering. That too has changed for many projects. Microgrids are becoming more standardized and modular, taking a few months — not years — to build, Feasel said.
“Microgrids are becoming more accessible to a larger population. It’s due to standardization and a commercial, off-the-shelf approach,” he said.
“Microgrids are becoming more accessible to a larger population,” says Mark Feasel of Schneider Electric
The Bowery Farming microgrid, for example, is scheduled to begin operation in the first quarter of 2019.
To simplify microgrids “for folks who don’t wake up everyday thinking about electricity,” Schneider developed what it calls the Energy Control Center, which orchestrates all of the resources within the microgrid.
The owner can configure how many and what kind of distributed energy resources it wants to employ in the microgrid, based on pre-defined use cases. For Bowery Farming, the microgrid’s distributed energy are all managed within a simplified panel board. The system is monitored within the cloud by Schneider’s EcoStruxure Microgrid Advisor, a software platform that the company uses for both its small microgrids, like Bowery Farming. and its large ones like the Montgomery County.
“Bowery will have the same kind of visualization — a small microgrid for a relatively small price — that someday a big airport might have,” Feasel said.
Microgrids for the rest of us?
Expect to hear about more new microgrids soon; Schneider says it’s got them coming.
Still, the microgrid market is not moving as quickly as it might, Feasel said.
For one thing, “there is still too much management by catastrophe,” Feasel said. Companies and communities often don’t consider microgrids until they’ve experienced the cost and pain of power outages brought on by severe storms. For corporations and other large energy users, the microgrid industry encourages pro-active project development by quantifying what power outages will cost them. But it’s harder to do the calculations for smaller operations and neighborhoods. So developers lack data to make an economic case for microgrids to a broad swath of society.
Credit-worthiness creates another roadblock. Some customers want microgrids but cannot secure financing. Feasel sees a possible role for electric utilities in helping those customers — but so far state regulators have been slow to allow utility microgrid development.
So even as more and more microgrids come on line, “there is still a real question of how do we make this transition work for everybody,” Feasel said.
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Second Greenhouse Heated by Cryptocurrency Mining
UnitedCorp's technology uses the heat from cryptocurrency mining to support greenhouse agricultural operations
Miami-based United American Corp announces the completion of its second BlockchainDome and the full commissioning of 1,500 additional miners for a total of 2,500 miners (3.8 megawatts) now in service in two BlockchainDomes. Pre-installation of 1.5 megawatts of electrical service for adjacent greenhouses heated by the BlockchainDomes is now also complete.
The latest BlockchainDome incorporates a number of improvements in construction and deployment from the first dome which includes mass pre-fabrication of a number of dome components and in-house CNC manufacturing of the mining rig docking stations. Construction logistics have also been refined to include pre-installation of foundations and utilities for future domes resulting in overall lower construction costs and shorter construction timelines.
"We have taken everything we have learned from the construction of the first BlockchainDome and used this knowledge to make the implementation of this subsequent BlockchainDomes faster, cheaper and of better quality," stated UnitedCorp CEO Benoit Laliberte. "Along with the generation of heat from the BlockchainDomes for agricultural purposes, our goal remains to be the low cost and environmentally sustainable standard for the industry."
UnitedCorp's technology uses the heat from cryptocurrency mining to support greenhouse agricultural operations through the BlockchainDome Heat Station system which keeps greenhouses at 20oC year-round. This represents a simple design solution compared to various alternatives whereby the cost of generating this heat from a single source is shared between multiple use cases.
Commercial greenhouses in cooler climates like in the Province of Quebec typically require a significant amount of thermal energy to supplement daytime solar energy, particularly during the period of September to May, and many older greenhouses utilize inefficient heating systems for this purpose. The dry heat produced by the BlockchainDome Heat Station is also used in the summer to reduce greenhouse mold and fungus caused by condensation thereby reducing or eliminating the need for chemicals to treat this problem and creating a more organic growth environment.
UnitedCorp believes this "Heat Campus" approach for heat generation and utilization is the future for agriculture and any other industry that can make use of low-cost heat with the ultimate goal being to get as close zero waste as possible. This is not only good economically but allows businesses to "green" their operations by significantly reducing the amount of electricity the combined operations require from the grid.
For more information:
UnitedCorp
5201 Blue Lagoon Drive, 8th floor,
Miami FL 33126
www.unitedcorp.com
The Age Of Hemp: Global Advanced Industrial Applications
The Age Of Hemp: Global Advanced Industrial Applications
Giadha De Carcer is Founder/CEO of New Frontier Data, an independent, tech-driven analytics company specializing in global cannabis markets.
Getty
Hemp, the non-psychoactive variety of the cannabis sativa plant, is already being integrated into several mature markets such as food, textiles, construction, personal care and nutraceuticals. This relatively quiet cannabis relative is emerging as a potential commodity ripe to not only impact, but possibly revolutionize, tech-driven markets and economies around the world.
In 2014, I founded New Frontier Data, an analytics and business intelligence reporting group dedicated to the global cannabis industry, after more than 20 years in finance, industry analytics, intelligence reporting and emerging markets. As such, I have had the privilege of following hemp’s emergence and evolution. Half a decade later, this robust, environmentally friendly, low -cost-to-produce plant has become one of the most diversely applied and globally significant natural resources in the world. Here is a look at its applications across several mature industries:
Automotive
In 2013, BMW announced its newest electric car, the i3. Using low-weight hemp in its interior, the i3 weighs 800 pounds less than its market competitors. The Kestrel, created by Canadian Motive Industries, uses polymer resin-infused hemp stalks to replace fiberglass in the body of the vehicle. From this replacement, consumers can expect a dramatic reduction in weight, improved efficiency and the appeal of an ecologically sustainable vehicle.
Supercapacitors
The challenge to find lighter and longer-lasting energy storage devices (e.g., batteries) can be found in almost every sector. Hemp could prove to revolutionize battery life by aiding in the development of faster, smaller and cheaper supercapacitors. A supercapacitor is an energy storage device that can discharge powerful infusions of energy, needed only in small bursts. Such powerful discharges are used in braking systems of electric vehicles, the powering on of computers and new technologies such as rapid phone charging or cordless tools.
The current top-performing supercapacitors use graphene. However, in 2004, Dr. David Mitlin of Clarkson University and researchers at the National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT), discovered that hemp-based supercapacitors outperformed graphene supercapacitors in energy storage by nearly 200%.
The downsides of graphene are its dwindling sources and costly process to mine and import from rural areas in China and India. Hemp, however, can be grown in almost any terrain or country, and produces hemp bast, the key material used to replace graphene, as a waste byproduct of hemp processing. According to Mitlin’s research, hemp processing is 1,000 times cheaper than graphene processing.
Soil Regeneration
Hemp has the ability to mitigate the toxin transfer from contaminated soil into food products. This process uses phytoremediation, an organic process where toxins are absorbed by plant roots and then stored in the cellulose for disposal. Hemp phytoremediation became more well-known after the Chernobyl disaster for its use in helping grow crops that are safe for consumption.
Challenges
Hemp’s greatest obstacle is its association with psychoactive cannabis, despite the important distinction that hemp contains only nominal amounts (no more than 0.3%) of the psychoactive ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Although the U.S. is the largest importer of hemp products according to the Hemp Business Journal (a New Frontier Data subsidiary), hemp itself has struggled to gain social acceptance in the country and elsewhere. For instance, current U.S. legislation only permits universities and states performing agricultural or academic research to cultivate hemp. However, the 2018 Farm Bill currently in Congress would grant hemp full legalization across the nation. Passage of this bill would be a key step in promoting public acceptance in the U.S. and elsewhere, allowing the country to participate in the rapidly growing global hemp market.
Africa And China: The Rise Of Global Hemp Markets
Hemp is legally cultivated in countries around the world, and China is leading the way. As detailed in a High Times article, China produces approximately 44,000 tons annually, almost 40% of the world’s total. According to that same article, Chile is South America’s largest producer, and France is Europe’s most proliferate producer.
China is also positioning itself to become the world’s leading semiconductor and microchip producer. Under an initiative called Made in China 2025, the country announced its intention to dominate technologies such as industrial robots and software, electromobility and more.
The way I see it, the marriage of China’s position as the world’s supplier of hemp -- and its burgeoning semiconductor industry -- could be the key to China’s hegemony over the microchip industry. Semiconductors are traditionally made using silicon. Graphene semiconductors, however, could one day lead to computers that are a thousand times faster, consume significantly less power and are smaller than silicon semiconductors used in computer transistors. In application, graphene’s dwindling supply and costly manufacturing issues would still exist. Putting this all together, Mitlin’s research has sparked interest in the potential for hemp to create the next-generation semiconductor.
Approximately 65% of sub-Saharan Africa’s agricultural land is degraded, according to data collected in 2015, resulting in food insecurity and a declining economy in a region where the agricultural industry employs more than half of the total labor force. Hemp’s soil nutrient replenishing properties could be the key to reviving crop production, providing a novel food source (hemp seeds) and boosting the agro-based economies of South Africa and other hemp-cultivating sub-Saharan countries.
The U.S. hemp-derived CBD market alone is projected to reach $450 million by 2020, and China's cannabis market could grow to 100 billion yuan by 2022 (approximately $14.5 billion). Hemp is already interwoven into the futures of the automotive, construction, energy, environmental mediation and technology industries. Once fully utilized and legal, this plant could impact the global economic positionings of North America, China and Africa.
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Giadha De Carcer is Founder/CEO of New Frontier Data, an independent, tech-driven analytics company specializing in global cannabis markets.
New Hydroponics Approach Draws £500k Seed Funding for Welsh Startup Phytoponics
A new deep-water approach to hydroponics has earned Welsh agtech startup, Phytoponics, £500,000 ($650k) of seed funding support over the last two years, lining the company up for major Series A investment push in mid-2019.
The first round in 2017, which closed on £200k, was backed by five new angel investors led by Smart Anchor Capital based in London and Cardiff. This year’s second round, which raised £300k and was also led by Smart Anchor Capital, consisted of follow-on funding by four of the first round investors, alongside eight new people.
The Aberystwyth-based company was co-founded by Adam Dixon and Luke Parkin in October 2016 with the aim of delivering hydroponic systems designed to produce better crop yields than are possible through conventional greenhouse-based methods. The company’s patented Hydrosac technology is now deemed to be ready for high volume commercial output, having proven itself by producing high-quality tomatoes through a pilot project run in conjunction with Aberystwyth University in Wales.
“The primary difference of Hydrosac is its use of more water than existing hydroponic systems, giving plants a wider buffer range of nutrients, temperature and dissolved oxygen,” said Dixon. “This results in less fluctuation in root zone conditions, which makes production more predictable and programmable than has been possible in the past.”
“Our system is particularly designed for large vine crops such as tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers, as opposed to many others who concentrate more on salad crops.”
For tomato production, the Phytoponics system provides about 10 liters of water per plant, which the company says depletes the available nutrients at a much-reduced rate compared to when less water is used.
“I’ve been with working with hydroponics for more than 10 years, including leading up to starting preparations for the launch of Phytoponics about three years ago,” said Dixon. “Our first two years in business, since our official launch, has been focused on development and initial trials with a little bit of funding being sourced in year one, followed by the £500,000 we’ve raised this year.
“This new money allowed us to progress to the pilot trial at Aberystwyth University and the bringing in of high-level horticulture sector expertise to help us make our system fully commercial and ready to go.
“It was hard finding investors during the period we were developing the technology, especially in a sector like horticulture where trials, which are greenhouse-based, can only be run on an annual basis.
“Our big technology breakthrough came through running the pilot at Aberystwyth University and then winning the United Nation’s Young Champion of the Earth award in 2017. That gave us a major boost of recognition, enabling us to take our plans to a London investor in December last year, which led to our first round of seed funding.”
Despite gaining a $15,000 prize as part of the UN award and a number of other relatively small competition prizes over the last two years, Dixon doesn’t believe start-ups should concentrate too much on competitions and awards.
“It’s important to focus primarily on building the proof points of your business, relating to potential customers and developing the necessary specialist expertise to allow you to progress,” he said. “Awards are good if you can’t get sales, which we couldn’t in the early stage of our development, but not so much after that point.”
The next big change for the business was Smart Anchor Capital’s founder partner, Mark Hindmarsh, recently joining Phytoponics as chairman.
“Mark has really helped us refine and develop our business model, work on our proof points for fundraising and generally commercialize our operation,” said Dixon, whose initial contact with Mark came via a shared LinkedIn friend.
Hindmarsh is also upbeat about the relationship he has with Phytoponics and the company’s potential.
“The team at Phytoponics have achieved an amazing amount in the last 12 months, often with little resource,” said Hindmarsh. “Despite that, they have attracted the attention of potential partners and customers in the US, India, UAE, Africa, Canada, and many other countries.
“As new shareholders ourselves, we are excited to see what the future holds for the company considering the opportunities that lie ahead. As their recently appointed Chairman, I am personally looking forward to playing my part in helping the company achieve its next milestones in advance of a larger fund-raise within the next 12 months.”
Hindmarsh added that with this year’s round ending up 3x over-subscribed, the team is now considering opening up another £400,000 or so for funding early in 2019. This would be done via a convertible loan note instrument to give investors an opportunity to participate prior to the Series A round in late summer 2019.
Funding aside, the next physical step for Phytoponics involves the launch of a farm-scale trial with a major commercial grower (still secret at present) who will use the company’s technology to grow tomatoes for two major UK supermarkets early in 2019.
Beyond that, the company is planning to hire new employees to help with both technical and commercial developments.
“I believe our technology is globally significant,” said Dixon. “Initially, therefore, we’re looking to make a big impact on horticultural production in the UK, with the potential to scale our operation internationally through our own technology platform and business partnerships.”
Ag Software Provider Launches Survey
October 13, 2018
Written by Agrilyst (edited)
Software solutions provider Agrilyst has launched their third annual State of Indoor Farming Survey.
This survey will give Agrilyst and growers insight on emerging trends and challenges in the greenhouse and vertical farming industries.
Last year, Agrilyst received over 150 responses from indoor farmers in the US. The 2017 report shared insight on the benefits and challenges for growers. According to the report, 25 per cent of growers said that their biggest challenge was capital - from access to working capital and expansion capital to cost of production. Even though they faced these challenges, 51 per cent of growers reported operating profitably.
Allison Kopf, CEO of Agrilyst said, "this year we are digging even further into the costs of operating an indoor farm. We hope that the report will give everyone insight on the industry and help new growers get up and running faster." The company aims to expand their survey participants to growers in Canada.
More data collected means better insights for growers. Growers can participate in the 2018 State of Indoor Farming survey here. The survey takes approximately 25 minutes to complete.
Agrilyst provides software solutions to greenhouse and vertical farming operations, enabling them to track and analyze farm data in one place. They have customers in more than 10 countries.
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Grow & Roll With Vertical Farms
Vertical farming is one of the solutions to the problem of the growing demand for food. A multilayer system uses less surface, energy and water. And production takes place all year round, resulting in a higher yield. At Bosman Van Zaal they create vertical production systems, where sustainability, convenience and a higher yield are paramount.
A multi-layer production system consists of two or more levels with cultivation containers. Bosman Van Zaal's multilayer system uses air and light to optimise conditions. Besides efficient use of space and energy and reduction of labour costs, the system can be fully linked to other installations and can be integrated within total logistical cultivation systems.
As one component of their vertical agricultural and horticultural systems they introduced the Grow & Roll. The mobile container with multilayer carts functions as a closed laboratory for the efficient cultivation of seeds, cuttings and crops.
In the container any desired climate is simulated by means of adjusting temperature, humidity, light, CO2 and irrigation. Each module has its own docking station including water connection and electrical connection for dimmable LED lamps with white supplemental light and UV for disinfection of air and water. Air circulation can be fine-tuned. Moisture and temperature problems are thus reduced to a minimum. Disinfection of the container is made easy by the movable modules. Heat exchangers enable energy recovery.
The climate is controlled by the iSii compact climate computer of partner Hoogendoorn, which measures and registers the growing conditions. This makes analyses easily available via the internet.
For more information:
Bosman van Zaal
+31 297 344 344
sales@bosmanvanzaal.com
www.bosmanvanzaal.com
US (NC): Verdesian Opens New Greenhouse At Duke University
Verdesian Life Sciences has expanded its research pipeline by opening a greenhouse facility at Duke University to develop early technology validation screening for agricultural nutrient use efficiency (NUE) technologies.
The new Verdesian greenhouse is part of Verdesian’s Early Technology Validation (ETV) screening to facilitate the Verdesian Technology Advancement (VTA) pipeline. Improved pipeline efficiency through early testing of new concepts under small-scale, controlled conditions will allow Verdesian to better understand capabilities at an early stage, helping to define opportunities while mitigating risks and optimizing time and resources on viable candidates. The 1,000 square feet of greenhouse space at Duke University adds to Verdesian’s existing growth chambers in Research Triangle Park (RTP).
“Our greenhouse at Duke University supports our R&D as a science-backed company,” said Kenny Avery, CEO for Verdesian. “The greenhouse provides the necessary environment to support vetting and evaluating new technologies that meet grower needs.”
New technology opportunities vary drastically, requiring a customized ETV screening method that brings together various growth system components and methods for detecting differences in plant function.
Agricultural field trials are critical to product development but are time consuming and introduce unnecessary risks for untested products. The new Verdesian greenhouses at Duke University will allow Verdesian to efficiently and economically identify and classify new prospects, test viable technologies and prioritize and develop those opportunities into NUE technologies. Prospects passing ETV screening will continue down the VTA pipeline and on to field testing.
The new Verdesian greenhouse at Duke is overseen by the ETV team which is leading the effort to develop these new screening capabilities. The team was formed to build a robust and flexible screening platform in 2018, further expanding those capabilities with additional laboratory methods and instruments into early 2019.
Plant physiologist, Dr. Amy Burton, joined Verdesian in December of 2017 and leads the VTA pipeline. Prior to Verdesian, Dr. Burton was with Bayer CropScience in Research Triangle Park. She completed her post-doctoral work in plant stress physiology with the United States Department of Agriculture.
The Verdesian ETV team was expanded in the first quarter of 2018, with the additions of Biology Laboratory Technician, Sandra Paa, and Greenhouse Technician, Beth Waller.
For more information:
Verdesian
1001 Winstead Drive, Suite 480
Cary, NC 27513
919.825.1901
www.vlsci.com
Publication date : 10/8/2018
New Autonomous Farm Wants To Produce Food Without Human Workers
To View Video Please Click Here | COURTESY OF IRON OX
Down on a new robot farm, machines tend rows of leafy greens under the watch of software called “The Brain.”
by Erin Winick
October 3, 2018
Iron Ox isn’t like most robotics companies. Instead of trying to flog you its technology, it wants to sell you food.
As the firm’s cofounder Brandon Alexander puts it: “We are a farm and will always be a farm.”
But it’s no ordinary farm. For starters, the company’s 15 human employees share their work space with robots who quietly go about the business of tending rows and rows of leafy greens.
Today Iron Ox is opening its first production facility in San Carlos, near San Francisco. The 8,000-square-foot indoor hydroponic facility—which is attached to the startup’s offices—will be producing leafy greens at a rate of roughly 26,000 heads a year. That’s the production level of a typical outdoor farm that might be five times bigger. The opening is the next big step toward fulfilling the company’s grand vision: a fully autonomous farm where software and robotics fill the place of human agricultural workers, which are currently in short supply.
COURTESY OF IRON OX
Iron Ox isn’t selling any of the food it produces just yet (it is still in talks with a number of local restaurants and grocers). So for now, those tens of thousands of heads of lettuce are going to a local food bank and to the company salad bar. Its employees had better love eating lettuce.
The farm’s non-lettuce-consuming staff consists of a series of robotic arms and movers. The arms individually pluck the plants from their hydroponic trays and transfer them to new trays as they increase in size, maximizing their health and output—a luxury most outdoor farms don’t have. Big white mechanical movers carry the 800-pound water-filled trays around the facility.
COURTESY OF IRON OX
At first, making sure these different machines worked together was tricky. “We had different robots doing different tasks, but they weren’t integrated together into a production environment,” says Alexander.
So Iron Ox has developed software—nicknamed “The Brain”—to get them to collaborate. Like an all-seeing eye, it keeps watch over the farm, monitoring things like nitrogen levels, temperature, and robot location. It orchestrates both robot and human attention wherever it is needed.
Yes, although most of the operation is automated, it still does require a bit of human input. Currently, workers help with seeding and processing of crops, but Alexander says he hopes to automate these steps.
But why go to the trouble of automating farming at all?
Alexander sees it as solving two problems in one: the shortage of agricultural workers and the distances that fresh produce currently has to be shipped.
Rather than eliminating jobs, the company hopes, the robots will fill the gaps in the industry’s workforce. And he believes that by making it possible to grow crops close to urban areas without paying city-level salaries, the automated farms will enable stores to chose vegetables fresher than those that had to travel thousands of miles to get there. That is, assuming the startup can get its prices to match those of traditional competitors.
COURTESY OF IRON OX
“The problem with the indoor [farm] is the initial investment in the system,” says Yiannis Ampatzidis, an assistant professor of agricultural engineering at the University of Florida. “You have to invest a lot up front. A lot of small growers can’t do that.” This could risk creating a gap between the big farming institutions and smaller family-owned operations, in terms of gaining access to new technology.
To View Video Please Click Here | COURTESY OF IRON OX
Despite this, Ampatzidis says that bringing automation to both indoor and outdoor farming is necessary to help a wider swath of the agricultural industry solve the long-standing labor shortage.
“If we don’t find another way to bring people [to the US] for labor, automation is the only way to survive,” he says.
Erin Winick Associate Editor
I am the associate editor of the future of work at MIT Technology Review. I am particularly interested in automation and advanced manufacturing, spurring from my background in mechanical engineering. I produce our future of work e-mail… More
Canada: Factory Of The Future: The Automatic Farm
The company, formed by CEO Amin Jadavji and six fellow foodies in 2017, had a simple mission: to grow high-quality herbs and salad greens such as kale and arugula for five Toronto restaurants.
Linked by Michael Levenston
Shining down on each tier are nine-foot-long lamps equipped with 60 LED lights. Those lights are a specific combination of light (cool white, green, deep red, ultraviolet, far red), depending on the plant being grown.
The company, formed by CEO Amin Jadavji and six fellow foodies in 2017, had a simple mission: to grow high-quality herbs and salad greens such as kale and arugula for five Toronto restaurants.
Photography By Nathan Cyprys
Written By Judith Pereira
Globe And Mail
Published October 1, 2018
Excerpt:
That’s where the University of Guelph’s Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility (CESRF) comes in. CESRF is home to the Space and Advanced Life Support Agriculture program, which has been at the forefront of trying to grow plants in a variety of hostile environments without an atmosphere—think of The Martian’s stranded astronaut, Mark Watney, growing potatoes using a complex hydroponics system.
The Guelph facility started off testing the kind of warm lights used by greenhouses, but then it began experimenting with LED systems created by Intravision Group, a photobiology company based in Norway. Intravision founder and CEO Per Aage Lysaa studies how plants respond to various wavelengths of light spectrum and intensity, and how changes in light could affect a plant’s nutrient or medicinal properties.
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Controlled-Environment Farming Advancing With Improved Technologies
Dr. Paul Ulanch, left, executive director of the crop commercialization program at the North Carolina Biotechnology facilitated a discussion on controlled environment agriculture with Michael Barron with AeroFarms, Dr. Ricardo Hernandez with North Carolina State University, and Dr. Matt DiLeo with Elo Life Systems.
Controlled environment agriculture is viewed as another important technology to feed a growing world population.
John Hart | Oct 05, 2018
Thanks to advances in LED (Light Emitting Diodes) lighting, producing crops indoors is now a reality. But will indoor agriculture replace outdoor farming as the technology progresses?
Speakers at a forum on indoor production systems or controlled environmental agriculture held at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center in Research Triangle Park, N.C., agreed that the new technology is just one more tool needed to feed a growing world population, but it will never replace conventional outdoor agriculture. However, they all see great promise for the technology.
“I’m excited about controlled environment agriculture. There is a lot of potential now that we can control these environments and cater to what the plants really need. We can focus a lot more on quality traits, on flavor and nutrition,” said Dr. Matt DiLeo, director of Elo Life Systems, based in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
DiLeo said controlled environment agriculture combined with a suite of new technologies that includes gene editing, genotyping and gene discovery will drive forward improvements in crops faster than has been possible with previous generations of technology.
AeroFarms is a Newark, N.J.,-based company that produces greens in a converted steel warehouse that does not require sunlight or soil. The company has built indoor farms that can produce food using a technology called “aeroponics.” Plants are not grown in soil, but in air canals spayed with water mist. This provides the roots with the necessary water to grow.
AeroFarms is marketing Dream Greens, a retail brand of blends of baby greens that feature baby kale, arugula, ruby streaks and baby watercress produced through the indoor farming system.
Michael Barron, director of research and development for AeroFarms, emphasized the technology is not designed to replace conventional agriculture, but to add to it.
“It is one more step in feeding more people. We don’t see ourselves replacing field faming. It’s more of a complement to current systems. There are a lot of innovations that are needed to address food security worldwide, and this is just one of many advances that will be taking place,” he said.
“With the increased control you can produce more, and you can also have it be higher quality. You can change the nutrition of it. There is lot more you can do. It gives you a lot more control over the crop and the production of the crop,” Barron said.
In fact, Barron notes that with the advances AeroFarms has made in its production system, the growing cycle of producing baby greens has been reduced from 30 to 45 days in the field to two weeks under controlled environment conditions.
Meanwhile, DiLeo points to the benefits-controlled environment agriculture can offer to plant breeding, particular in improving the quality, flavor and nutrition of produce.
“For those involved in breeding, it’s a pretty tough environment out there for plants. Breeders first focus on yield because wherever you are growing your crop, you need to have it survive and produce enough so farmers can make money,” DiLeo said.
“After that you have to have storage and shipping traits because you may be sending your fruits and vegetables 2,000 miles away. They might have to sit in storage for six months or longer. And only after that is quality, flavor, nutrition. As important as that is that comes way below these other practical concerns.”
Through controlled environment agriculture, food can now be grown right next to where the consumer lives and at any time of the year. “That’s going to give us on the breeding and genetics side the ability really to focus on quality in a way that was never really possible before” he said.
DiLeo said controlled environment agriculture will make the breeding cycle faster and produce crops that offer the diversity of flavors and nutritional qualities consumers demand.
At North Carolina State University, Dr. Ricardo Hernández, associate professor in the Department of Horticultural Science, is leading research efforts on controlled environment horticulture. His work focuses on indoor production systems, including greenhouses, vertical farms/plant factories and tissue culture.
Hernandez notes that improvements in LEDs allow scientists to focus on the effect of light quality or spectrum, light intensity and the interaction of light with other environmental factors to produce crops indoors.
“Controlled environment agriculture increases the amount of product you can get for every kilowatt hour of energy,” Hernández explains.
“By doing this, we like to see the interaction between the different components that compromise plant growth such as light, light quality, air velocity, C02, humidity and temperature and then see through a combination of these if we can actually reduce the amount of light needed and increase the amount of grams produced for every kilowatt hour.”
Like Barron and DiLeo, Hernandez emphasizes that indoor farming or controlled environment agriculture is just one more tool to increase global food production and will not replace, but complement conventional agriculture.
TAGS: CROPS TECHNOLOGY VEGETABLES FRUIT
Combining Geothermal Heat With Super-Fast Internet
The geothermal heat project Nature’s Heat in Kwintsheul is running at full speed to the satisfaction of the nine growers connected to the project. Not only heat pipes but also fiber optic cables were placed, so now they can even make use of high-speed internet. Nature’s Heat operator Paul van Schie: “More often than not, townships and cable companies don’t see the need to place fiber optic cables in the rural areas. We were able to hitch along with a cable that was placed from the town to a high-voltage tower close to here. Nature’s Heat is now the distribution station for fiber optic cable connections to a variety of connections.
Dennis Bos of CBizz tells us that the plans to put in fiber optic cables have been entertained for a while. “At the beginning of 2018, Paul came to us with the question if we could realize a collective fiber optic connection. In February we were ready to start when the needed number of clients was reached.” Dennis looks back on a fantastic project. “These types of projects are one in a million, they are quite unique. Worthy to be repeated, though a next project will need to be tailor-made again.”
100 percent uptime
Geothermic heating projects require a lot of stamina. Nature's Heat is an initiative of nine horticultural companies in Kwintsheul that, together, grow 51 hectares of tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplants, strelitzias, chrysanthemums, roses, and potted plants. On the 21st of March 2018, the project started. According to Paul, it was the well-executed preparations that resulted in a high-quality project. “We did have some teething problems here and there. In May the installation was turned off a few times for a software update, but we haven’t run into any big problems yet. Since May we've had a score of 100% uptime, not counting the planned pump changeover in July.”
Tailor-made
The software was developed specially for Nature’s Heat, says Paul. The company that designed and built the above-ground installations also wrote the software. And this is very convenient, because of this you have very short lines. This party does not only do the maintenance but also the management of the installation. Every day they monitor from a distance whether or not the installation is functioning accordingly.
“The above ground installation is made of stainless steel and the design of the filter units is different than usual. Also for the de-gassing, an entirely different installation is used. Where the de-gassing normally happens in big horizontal tanks, this installation accomplishes this by using cyclones. Underpressure is created, which separates the gas. You can compare it to the drain in your sink when you pull the plug.”
No free lunch
A heat roundabout in the province of South Holland is meant to connect all the heat projects so that the optimal amount can be saved on fossil energy. “It would be great if heat pipes would be placed from Rotterdam to the Westland, but there's no such thing as a free lunch. The horticulture industry has an important part to play in the supply of electricity. I think we ought to be careful to exclude CHP from the discussion involving the closing of the gas taps. If the demand to be able to flexibly switch to the use of electricity would arise, CHPs have preference over energy from power plants. Wiebes, the Dutch Minister of Economy and Climate, wants to get rid of the use of gas. But do we then need to close down sustainable CHPs and keep coal plants open? These are the questions that you as a grower need to consider.”
For more information:
Nature's Heat CBizz
info@naturesheat.nl
www.naturesheat.nl
CBizz
+31(0)88 002 0200
www.cbizz.nl
New Farming Method To Grow Strawberries In Dubai Bears Fruit
Liz Cookman
September 30, 2018
How far does a strawberry travel from the plant it is plucked from to reach your lips?
In the UAE, where demand for fresh produce is growing all the time, the answer is perhaps hundreds or even thousands of kilometres.
But a French company is trialling a method of farming in Dubai that would allow communities to grow food right on their doorstep, despite the harsh desert climate, and it is beginning to bear fruit.
Agricool have already had success in Paris, where the company grows strawberries around the city in recycled shipping containers and sells them in local supermarkets.
Their self-contained hydroponic grow rooms — branded as "cooltainers" — can be placed anywhere there is an electricity supply, meaning you can go from plant to plate in the same day.
"It makes no sense that the food you eat should travel more than you do,” said Georges Beaudoin, Agricool’s international operations manager in Dubai.
But achieving the right ecological balance to grow a tricky crop like strawberries is no mean feat — they even drafted in the help of a hive of bumble bees.
Strawberries grown at Dubai's Sustainable City - Agricool is a French start-up that grows pesticide-free inside shipping containers. Reem Mohammed / The National
The first test batch was planted in July and this month they have been harvesting around 40 punnets of juicy strawberries that they hand out to the local community each day.
Over the course of each three-month season, the cooltainer can produce 1.5 tonnes of strawberries from 300 plants — the equivalent of what can be produced in 4,000 square metres of traditional farm space in just 30 sq m.
The container walls are insulated against the intense heat, and chilled using 3 cubic metres of recycled water, which is about 1 per cent of that usually used.
The plants are nurtured in an otherworldly, purple-glowing hydroponic room, where a fog of nutrient solution nourishes the roots in a way that is easier for the plants to absorb than through soil. In fact, no soil is required at all.
The electricity consumption of the cooltainer is maximised by focusing energy on using specific colours of light. “Blue, white and red — because we’re French … I’m just kidding," said Mr Beaudoin.
The red LEDs are for photosynthesis, the production of sugar and the growth of the plant. Blue helps flowering and the plant’s metabolism, and white is there to soften the purple glow a little so the fruit does not become too dark.
Georges Beaudoin, Agricool's international operations manager, picks fresh strawberries grown in the company's Dubai test cooltainer. Reem Mohammed / The National
First the leaves grow and, a month later, the first flowers arrive. Then bumble bees are introduced to the container to pollinate the flowers so they can transform into fruit. In the last month of each season, the berries are harvested. Then the team can start the whole process again.
This controlled cycle, away from the natural ebb and flow of the seasons, means they can grow the crop all year around, and because there is less time between picking and eating they taste better and are better for you, too, retaining a high concentration of vitamin C.
The luscious strawberries are also 100 per cent pesticide free — “I don’t even wash the strawberry from the plant to the punnet,” said Mr Beaudoin.
Growing food locally like this is better for the planet since fresh produce often has to be brought in to the UAE from faraway places such as the US and the Netherlands, taking up to two weeks to arrive.
________________
Read more:
Neighbourhood Watch: Farming grows sense of community at Dubai's Sustainable City
Forward-thinking plan served up to protect UAE's future food supply
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This type of enterprise is particularly important in the UAE, where food security is a major issue. According to figures from the Produce Marketing Association, the GCC's population is expected to have increased by 30 per cent by 2030 from where it stood in 2000.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia alone account for over 2 per cent of the world's fresh produce imports, and there is a growing taste for fresh food in the region. The market for fresh berries alone grew by 8 per cent between 2014 and 2016.
Greenhouses take significant energy to keep cool and water is scarce. Falling groundwater levels in the Arabian Peninsula, as well as an arid climate with limited rainfall and rising soil salinity pose a challenge for those wishing to grow food in the region. But these difficult conditions are driving a wave of innovation from entrepreneurs trying to find solutions.
A boy eats a strawberry grown by Agricool's at Dubai's Sustainable City. Reem Mohammed / The National
In June, Mariam Almheiri, Minister of State for Future Food Security, announced during a radio interview that the UAE is set to establish a "Silicon Valley" of food technology.
“We are living in an era of increased pressures on food production stemming from a host of interlocking challenges, including accelerating climate change, dwindling fresh water access and escalating energy demands,” she said.
“Providing adequate food for the world’s citizens is a global problem and one that is likely to become more pressing in the coming decades.”
In July, the Dubai government said it would build 12 vertical farms, hydroponics is growing in popularity and, in Al Ain, one farmer saves water by fostering a symbiosis between watermelon and fish.
Agricool's containers mean that food can be grown in challenging climates, such as a desert or even the tundra, and could also be leased to people to grow for themselves for their remote community or city high-rise. Should the strawberries prove successful, they hope to sell them locally and then diversify their crops. Tomatoes are one possible option — they are among the most imported foods globally, and one that also suffers the most in terms of quality.
"We could ship the containers around the world and everyone can have their fresh product," said Mr Beaudoin.
“Everyone should have the right to eat well."
Evergreen Farm Will Install 6 Operational Grow360 Units (worth 750,000 €) In Espoo Innovation Garden in Finland
This farming facility will perform research, as well as, produce food and industrial crops (biofuels and bioplastics), yielding up to 12,960 crops per harvest.
Evergreen Farm Oy will provide the farming units, training, and mentoring free of charge, since Ali Amirlatifi believes in the enormous educational value this hands-on experience has for students particularly in fields of automation, robotics, computer science, electrical engineering, space technology, material science, manufacturing, chemistry, biology, water management, marketing, communication, and business.
This farming facility will perform research, as well as, produce food and industrial crops (biofuels and bioplastics), yielding up to 12,960 crops per harvest. The students’ objective is that the revenue from food production can be used to fund further technological development in indoor farming, biorefineries, manufacturing, and the space adaptation of such technologies.
Evergreen Farm is in negotiation with Urban Mill, Aalto University (ACRE), and City of Espoo,
Finland to obtain the premises for the indoor farm, which could be the pre-existing underground tunnel or any other available facilities in the Espoo Innovation Garden ecosystem in the heart of Aalto university campus.
British Startup Wins 100,000 Euros For Indoor Agriculture Method
The startup LettUs Grow from Bristol (UK) beat 844 other startups to win €100,000 in the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge, hosted in Amsterdam. During the final, Co-founder and Managing Director Charlie Guy convinced the international jury that their indoor agriculture method, in which the roots of the crops are suspended in a dense nutritious mist, was a winner.
LettUs Grow’s technology can be utilised by greenhouses and vertical farms. Contrary to methods where crops are grown in soil or water containers, LettUs Grow lets the roots hang in a dense, nutritious mist. This results in a better harvest, and significantly less water and energy consumption. Also, by growing the crops closer to the consumer, the carbon emissions caused by transport decrease as well.
The Managing Director of LettUs Grow, Charlie Guy, said: “The recognition of the Green Challenge shows that we are developing a viable solution to the many problems that our global agricultural systems will face in the future, from water shortages to the effects of extreme weather. We allow farmers to protect their crops, diversify what they are growing and massively reduce their ecological footprint.”
With this sum of money, LettUs Grow can further develop their business. Ben Crowther, CTO of LettUs Grow, had this to say about the awards: “The support we've had from Green Challenge will allow us to accelerate the development of our technology, bring about a real step change in agricultural productivity and reduce the resource cost of fresh produce for farmers all over the world.”
In addition to LettUs Grow, the Dutch startup AquaBattery and American startup AlgiKnit will take the same amount home. The first prize of half a million euros goes to the air bubble curtain that combats plastic pollution in our seas by startup The Great Bubble Barrier from The Netherlands. The runner-up prize of EUR 200,000 is for the textile recycling marketplace by startup Reverse Resources from Estonia. This brings the total prize pool of one of the biggest sustainability competitions in the world to EUR 1 million. In addition to the prize money, all five finalists will receive six months of expert coaching to improve the likelihood of their businesses succeeding.
Charlie had this to say about the awards: “It was a brilliant experience to stand up on stage in front of so many people who share the same passion for sustainable enterprises.
“Although the stakes were high, there was a fantastic atmosphere because everybody taking part was already a winner, and anything else we could of won would have just been a huge bonus.”
This year, a record number of 845 entrepreneurs from 100 countries submitted their sustainable business plans aimed at combating climate change. Last year, the Rwandan startup EarthEnable won the EUR 500,000 first prize with their sustainable alternative to cement.
For more information:
LettUs Grow
lettusgrow.com
Publication date : 9/24/2018
Will America's Future Farmers Be Robots?
Iron Ox Start-Up
Angus possibly will be America’s farmer of the future. He's heavyset, weighing in at nearly 1,000 pounds, and he is a bit slow. But he's strong enough to hoist 800-pound pallets of maturing vegetables and can move them from place to place on his own. Angus is a robot.
To Brandon Alexander, Angus and other robots are key to a new wave of local agriculture that aims to raise lettuce, basil and other produce in metropolitan areas while conserving water and sidestepping the high costs of human labor. It's a big challenge, and some earlier efforts have flopped.
After raising $6 million and tinkering with autonomous robots for two years, Alexander's startup Iron Ox says it's ready to start delivering crops of its robotically grown vegetables to people's salad bowls.
As reported by cbsnews.com, Iron Ox planted its first robot farm in an 8,000-square-foot warehouse in San Carlos, California, a suburb located 25 miles south of San Francisco. Although no deals have been struck yet, Alexander says Iron Ox has been talking to San Francisco Bay area restaurants interested in buying its leafy vegetables and expects to begin selling to supermarkets next year.
Publication date : 10/4/2018
See How People Are Using FarmBot
Drag & Drop
Graphically design your farm by dragging and dropping plants into the map. The game-like interface is learned in just a few minutes so you’ll have the whole growing season planned in no time.
Growing Regimens
Build regimens for taking care of a plant throughout its entire life by scheduling sequences to run when the plant is a certain age. Regimens can be reused, making replanting a breeze.
Sequence Building
Quickly create custom sequences to take full advantage of your hardware – no coding is required. Simply drag and drop basic operations together, adjust the parameters, and save.
Real-Time Control
Move FarmBot and operate its tools in real-time with the manual controls. Scare birds away from work or next time friends are over, pull out your phone for a quick and impressive demo.
Below are three video stories that chronicle how a young family, a university professor, and a non-profit are all using FarmBot in unique ways. Each video is a little long (~8 minutes) so you might just want to watch the one that sounds most interesting to you.
Video 1: The Sudweeks Family
Garrett and Lexie Sudweeks are first generation FarmBot builders in Cedar City, Utah in the United States. Watch them put together their v1.2 FarmBot Genesis kit and hear what it means to them to grow their own food and be a part of the larger open-source FarmBot community.
Video 2: FarmBot in Education
John G. Wells, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Technology Education at Virginia Tech University. Learn how he is implementing FarmBot in a multi-generational, research-based fashion that engages undergraduate students, doc students, and faculty at the university and K-12 level.
Video 3: FarmBot as an Accessibility Technology
Thrive Upstate is a non-profit in Greenville, South Carolina that provides people with disabilities services, opportunities, and support, so they may thrive. See how they use FarmBot for horticultural therapy and to empower individuals who otherwise could not grow their own food.
Growing Food in Space,
on the Moon, and Mars
In July of 2017, the FarmBot core team and other open-source food groups were invited to the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida to participate in a 2-day event to brainstorm innovative open-source approaches to food production. Watch the video to see how FarmBot technology and our community of open-source contributors from around the world are helping humanity to one day grow food in deep space, on the Moon, and Mars.
Ready to get a FarmBot?
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Lef Farms Introduces Fusion, A Fresh New Take On Standard Spring Mixes
(LOUDON, NH) – How do you satisfy those who love baby greens but possess an unpretentious yet discriminating palette? Those who have been searching for a straightforward mix with a bit more punch than a…excuse us as we yawn…Spring Mix? Well, those are exactly the lettuce lovers lef Farms (pronounced “leaf”) is looking to attract with its newest blend of baby red and green leaf lettuce called Fusion.
“Our goal was to introduce a new mix that captures the hearts and taste buds of those looking for something simple but something that still carries a unique flavor and texture profile they can’t find in an everyday mix”, affirms lef’s President and CEO, Henry Huntington.
Similar to the approach lef took in the creation of its flagship Smooth and Spice mixes, lef performed an extensive analysis of the lettuce market. And what it uncovered was a sizable base that’s looking for a more straightforward lettuce option. But, true to form, lef added its own flair by melding soft, red buttery Bibb lettuce with a crisper and more substantial Romaine variety, resulting in the distinctive combination found in lef’s new Fusion.
“Each bite gives our customers a wonderfully tasty and crunchy experience,” smiles lef’s Sales & Marketing Manager, Donald Grandmaison. “Whether they’re enjoying a Fusion salad or topping off their favorite sandwich with some fresh Fusion greens, our new blend is as versatile as you can get.”
With Fusion the possibilities are endless, which isn’t too dissimilar to its shelf life. Like all of its baby blends, lef's Fusion is harvested in a cooler at 35°F. This quickly removes heat created during the growing process in order to lock in fresh taste, increase post-harvest performance, and extend shelf life. And, like its other blends, Fusion greens are delivered to shelves and kitchens across the Northeast within just 24 hours of harvest. So, they arrive to you just as crisp and fresh as when they left lef’s greenhouse.
Available in 4 oz. fuchsia-labeled clamshells, Fusion can be found, along with lef’s Smooth and Spice blends, at grocers all across the Northeast. For retailers, Fusion comes in an 8-pack case containing 32 oz. of lef-y goodness. And for food service, our 2 x 1.5 lb.-pack case amasses 3 lbs. of fresh Fusion in clear bags.
lef Farms is a 75,000-sq. ft. greenhouse growing facility, expected to produce nearly 1.5 million pounds annually of the freshest and healthiest baby greens for New England. www.lef-farms.com
RUFEPA + Green Sense Farms, Join Forces to Build Next Generation Indoor Farms
September 28, 2018
RUFEPA + Green Sense Farms, Join Forces to Build Next Generation Indoor Farms
Green Sense Farms Holdings, Inc., today announced the formation of a joint venture with RUFEPA a Spanish greenhouse builder with over 25 years of turnkey project experience.
The joint venture will focus on building combined indoor vertical farm and greenhouse projects for third parties to sustainably grow a wide range of vegetables using less land, water and energy- to feed a growing global population. This is the first of its kind.
RUFEPA Designed Green House Interior | Credit: RUFEPA
RUFEPA Designed Green House Exterior | Credit: RUFEPA
Green Sense Farms Grow Room with vertical towers, growing herbs and lettuces Credit: Green Sense Farms
“Using indoor vertical farms to grow leafy greens and healthy, disease free seedlings that can be directly transplanted into a greenhouse to grow to maturity is a cost-effective use of both indoor growing technologies.” Robert Colangelo, President, Green Sense Farms Holdings, Inc.,
“Combining the two technologies will increase the global production of vegetables by taking weather out of the equation which is ideal for growers in Middle East, APAC and Scandinavian countries.” José Antonio Morales Pérez, Director General, RUFEPA
ABOUT
Green Sense Farms Holdings, Inc., based in Portage, IN is a pioneer in indoor vertical farming. The company is building a network of indoor vertical farms in the US they own and operate at their customers location. They also design, build, and license their technology to operating partners abroad. Recently they added capacity to conduct R&D on new cultivars and indoor growing equipment on a contract basis for third parties at their commercial scale production facility.
To schedule an interview with Robert Colangelo or obtain additional photos please contact Angela Meadows by email at Angela@greensensefarms.com
RUFEPA based in the Spanish southern region of Murcia, Spain, designs, manufacturers and provides all the technical growing equipment necessary for the construction and operation of a greenhouse. They are a global provider of services and have built projects in every continent.