The Future of Urban Farming Could Be In A Shipping Container

The Future of Urban Farming Could Be In A Shipping Container

Posted: Mar 21, 2017 11:12 PM CDT |  Updated: Mar 22, 2017 1:17 AM CDT

By Jeff Van Sant | GLENDALE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) -

Urban farming has exploded in popularity over the last few years.  

People are becoming more conscious of organic foods and wanting to take charge with what they put in their bodies.  

One great way is to create an urban farm in your backyard. Most of us would envision a sort of big garden but one Glendale couple has taken it a step into the 21st century by farming indoors inside an old shipping container.

Heather and Brian Szymura run Twisted Infusions. They farm in a unique way called vertical organic hydroponics. They grow several different kinds of lettuce and kale.  

They use an old shipping container that has been converted into an indoor farm. The containers are re-made by a company called Freight Farm.

What's amazing about the containers is that they create whatever atmosphere fits the farmer. All of the controls from the air, water and CO2 levels can be controlled at the touch of an iPad.

The containers are all about creating a sustainable farm and cut down on the use of space. Almost everything can be recycled including the water. Twisted Infusions says they only use about 15 gallons of water a day. Think about that. It's less than your average shower.

The shipping containers run about $85,000.

Copyright 2017 KPHO/KTVK (KPHO Broadcasting Corporation). All rights reserved.

Heather and Brian Szymura are growing vegetables inside a shipping container

The containers are re-made by a company called Freight Farm

All of the controls from the air, water and CO2 levels can be controlled at the touch of an iPad.

The shipping containers run about $85,000.

Vertical Farms Starting New Agricultural Revolution

Vertical Farms Starting New Agricultural Revolution

Lauren Beaver

According to the United Nations, food supply is one of the world’s most pressing issues. The following statement from the World Bank sets the tone for the expected future of food supply around the world. “The world needs to produce at least 50 percent more food to feed 9 billion people by 2050. But climate change could cut crop yields by more than 25 percent. The land, biodiversity, oceans, forests, and other forms of natural capital are being depleted at unprecedented rates. Unless we change how we grow our food and manage our natural capital, food security – especially for the world’s poorest – will be at risk.”

Investing in agriculture technology is one of the most popular ways this problem is being tackled. All over the world, groups are working to create sustainable agricultural practices; which leads us to Vertical Farming. Vertical Farming is a technique that anticipates issues arising with usable land space and rapid urbanization. It uses high tech lighting and climate controlled buildings to grow crops indoors and upwards in layers to minimize ground space.

Vertical farms have grown particularly in cities where space is limited. In the United States, consumer food trends have been increasingly favoring local and organic. This incentivizes
vertical farms to pop-up in big cities, where growing crops might otherwise not be realistic.  Due to the large quantity of crops that vertical farms are able to produce, city dwellers will be able to source their produce from local vertical farms right in their backyards. This growing method is appealing because it ensures that consumers are getting fresh produce that has not traveled for miles to reach the grocery store. The produce from most farms will not travel far past the city it is grown, which is far different from regular agriculture where produce may travel across the country before it reaches its final destination.

There are many benefits to vertical farming. The technology is able to grow crops using up to 70 percent less water, and can do so without soil. On average, outdoor farming has a 50 percent failure rate due to unpredictable events including weather and plant diseases. Vertical farming takes out the majority of those unpredictable events and is able to harvest most of what is grown. Using this controlled environment, farmers are also able to grow a batch of greens much faster than a regular farming cycle. Due to the layered setup of the plants, they are able to capture runoff water that would otherwise be lost to evaporation. It also removes greenhouse gas emissions that would have been caused by the transportation and machinery used to harvest crops.

Most vertical farms have focused on growing greens and herbs because they are the most time and space efficient. In the United States, vertical farming is catering primarily to healthy eaters looking to eat more greens. They are not growing grains, cereals, and other heartier diet staples because those plants weight significantly more. However, this farming technique is new and has lots of growth potential to be able to accommodate those heavier crops.

An example of a successful vertical farm is AeroFarms in Newark, NJ., which has been a pioneer for the Vertical Farm revolution. After installing infrastructure in an old steel mill, they expect to produce two million pounds of greens per year. This company has spent $30 million to realize this new style of green agriculture which promises produce free of pesticides and fertilizer.

Vertical farms are starting to trend in other cities across the world including Europe and Japan. Its immediate benefits include its scale, natural resource savings, and consistency. Many vertical farms have partnered with restaurants to serve their greens “farm-to-table style.”

One of the biggest issues with vertical farming is the cost of infrastructure. They use high tech lighting and climate control to grow produce with less water and soil than what would typically be needed. It can be expensive to install, and is not natural like sunlight and rain. Some vertical farms have failed due to the astronomical cost of electricity used to power the lights. Opponents and supporters of this trend realize that vertical farms take the nature out of growing produce, but is perhaps a step in the right direction for the future of farming.

How An Indoor Farm in Midtown Anchorage Could Help At-Risk Youth

How An Indoor Farm in Midtown Anchorage Could Help At-Risk Youth

Author: Devin Kelly

To help disadvantaged teens and young adults land jobs, an Anchorage mental health provider is staking out ground in the high-tech farming fields of hydroponics and vertical gardening.

Inside a warehouse off Arctic Boulevard last month, violet light bathed rows of tall white columns. Leafy greens poked out in vertical rows, marked with handwritten labels for romaine lettuce and parsley. 

Michael Sobocinski, the chief operating officer of Anchorage Community Mental Health Services, gestured to the columns.

"Each of these towers, you can see up here, has nutrient solution," Sobocinski said, surrounded by the drip-drip-drip sound of small hoses. He showed how water nourishes the roots, collects in a gutter and then recirculates back to a nutrient tank that feeds back into the hydroponic system.

The columns are yielding pounds of fresh veggies. The twist: The gardeners will be largely young adults coming out of foster care, mental health treatment, the juvenile justice system or even homelessness. Sobocinski and his team hope the inside garden will be a turning point for youth at risk of falling through the cracks.

Seeds of Change, as the program is called, has been incubating for years, but it's now on the cusp of becoming reality. Anchorage Community Mental Health Services, a well-established nonprofit that offers a wide range of services to adults and children, is managing the project.

The idea came from Sobocinski, who previously worked at residential children's psychiatric treatment centers in Denver. In that job, Sobocinski saw a lot of kids who grew up hungry. Some of his clients were fishing food out of dumpsters to help feed their siblings. 

A horticultural therapist also showed him that young people tend to respond well to working with plants, he said.

In 2014, after years of research and planning, Anchorage Community Mental Health Services bought the building at 26th Avenue and Arctic Boulevard. At least from the outside, it's nondescript — a kitchen cabinet manufacturing company used to be housed there. 

Renovating the 11,000-square-foot building to suit an indoor farming operation cost about $3 million. The construction money came from a grant through the state Department of Health and Social Services. More than $100,000 came from the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority for planning, development and startup staffing costs.

Once fully up and running, Seeds of Change should yield 50 to 70 tons of produce a year, Sobocinski said.

To staff it, Anchorage Community Mental Health Services plans to hire up to 20 people between the ages of 16 and 24. The wages will likely range between $12 and $13 an hour for 10 to 15 hours of work a week, Sobocinski said.

Priority will go to teens and young adults aging out of Alaska's foster care, juvenile justice or mental health treatment systems. Too many kids are coming out of tough circumstances and getting lost in young adulthood, Sobocinski said.

"When you turn 18, by and large, the system of care says, 'Congratulations, you're an adult,' " Sobocinski said. "And so programs and eligibility that work when you were 17 may not necessarily work when you're 18."

All the workers will have access to mental health services through Anchorage Community Mental Health, though they don't have to be clients, Sobocinski said.

As well as working in the greenhouse, the hired youths are expected to attend classes on life skills, like getting an apartment, interviewing for jobs and maintaining good credit.

The positions will last between six and nine months. Finding the workers full-time jobs from there is key, Sobocinski said.

At the same time, finding work for about 20 teens is a "drop in the bucket," said clinical program manager Seina Johndro, who will be running the life-skills component of the greenhouse program.  

"There's a huge need for programs like this in town," Johndro said.

Seeds of Change doesn't include apartments or places for young workers to live. But housing is a critical piece, Sobocinski said. He said the organization is still exploring ways to connect participants with housing.

In recent years, Anchorage social service agencies have made forays into food to help clients. The Downtown Soup Kitchen started a bakery and garden to offer work to the women who stay there, as well as a culinary arts program.  

But vertical gardening is a novel approach even for the state's farming community. At first, the idea was a more traditional greenhouse, Sobocinski said. But when that plan fell through, Sobocinski and other officials turned to hydroponic growing.

"It's going to give us very big yields, and it's a good use of space," Sobocinski said.

Anchorage Community Mental Health Services bought the system from Bright AgroTech, a Wyoming-based company. The company has also offered startup support, said Johndro, the clinical program manager.

Alaska Seeds of Change is located in a former cabinetry business in Midtown. The location now also houses the drop-in center for Alaska Youth Advocates, which formerly had space at the Anchorage People Mover Transit Center and then briefly at Covenant House Alaska. (Erik Hill / Alaska Dispatch News)

With the help of the Foraker Group, which advises nonprofits, Anchorage Community Mental Health Services also gauged whether there would be demand for the produce.  

One fact they learned: Alaska imports 90 to 95 percent of its food. 

"I don't think there's any risk of oversupply of locally produced, Alaska-grown products," said Danny Consenstein, the executive director of the Department of Agriculture's Alaska Farm Service Agency.

No marketing contracts have been signed yet. But Sobocinski said his organization is talking to a local restaurant owner as well as grocery chains about buying produce. He thinks businesses may be interested in having a "Seeds of Alaska" stamp on a menu.

Sobocinski said he's confident the operation will be able to support itself by the end of the year and make enough to reinvest in new programs.

For the teens and young adults slated to work in the garden, there's a lot of hands-on work to do, said Ryan Witten, the greenhouse manager. The workers are also expected to learn how to market and sell the produce.

At the moment, the only young people working in the greenhouse were employees of Alaska Youth Advocates, a supportive program for at-risk youth that is part of Anchorage Community Mental Health Services. The program recently moved to the greenhouse building after its floor in the Anchorage transit center closed.

Quavon Bracken, 19, has been an outreach worker with Alaska Youth Advocates for about three years. He had friends in "really bad living situations," he said, but until he got the job, he didn't know how to help them.

Standing in the greenhouse, Bracken, who's headed to University of Alaska Anchorage as a business administration student this spring, said he's looking forward to learning more about marketing. He also helped set up the greenhouse and expected to be part of the hiring team for the teens who will work there. 

By early February, the first harvest was on its way. Greenhouse managers were preparing to pick dill and chervil. 

About this Author

Devin Kelly

Devin Kelly covers Anchorage city government and general assignments.

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The U.S.'s First Organic Farm REIT is Based in Evanston

The U.S.'s First Organic Farm REIT is Based in Evanston

By: DAWN REISS

Access to capital is notoriously difficult for farmers. Growing and raising certified organic food is even more daunting. That's because the USDA requires organic farmers to work the soil for three years before allowing them to certify their crops as organic. What's more, yields are lower for a good five years after starting out while the soil becomes richer.

To make the process easier, Dr. Stephen Rivard—former co-director of emergency medicine at Good Shepherd Hospital, and David Miller, former vice president for First Chicago Bank & Trust, created Iroquois Valley Farms to invest in land leased to farmers who convert conventional operations to organic. Rivard was spurred on in part because he saw patients hospitalized after coming into contact with pesticides.

Many younger farmers are looking for funding, says Miller, noting 72 percent of his private-equity firm's farmers are millennials. "The big guys don't operate there," he says, noting his average farm purchase is between 100 and 120 acres. "It's hard for family farmers to find funding to buy parcels of small to medium size. We are reactive to farmers looking for a specific piece of land. It's their business, and they come to us with a specific opportunity they want to finance."

A small group of 10 original investors has grown to 250—from 34 states and Canada and Great Britain—who converted their limited-liability company and began offering what they say is the first organic family farm real estate investment trust in the U.S. on Jan. 1, says Kevin Egolf, CFO of Iroquois Valley.

The Iroquois Valley Farmland REIT public benefit corporation, based in Evanston, includes 32 farms across nearly 4,500 acres in Michigan, Maine, New York, Kentucky, Montana, West Virginia, Illinois and Indiana; 73 percent of that acreage has transitioned into certified organic land. It has some $30 million in assets, with 41,500 shares valued at $568 per share, Egolf says. Compared to other private farmland funds and REITs that focus on conventional farming, Iroquois is small.

The concept blossomed after Miller purchased his uncle's 10-acre farm in Danforth, Ill., 30 miles southwest of Kankakee in Iroquois County, in 2005. Miller asked Harold Wilken—a local conventional-turned-organic fifth-generation farmer of Janie's Farm Organics, which grows hard and soft wheat, black beans, corn and soybeans—to look for other property that might become available.

Miller and Rivard, high school friends and college roommates at Loyola University Chicago, began with the $650,000 purchase of a 142-acre farm near Danforth in 2007, which they bought with eight friends and family members to start Iroquois. They followed that with an $800,000 investment for a nearby 160-acre farm in 2008.

Iroquois doubled its holdings from 302 acres in 2010 to four farms and 606 acres in 2011, in part, Miller says, after attending the Sustainable Responsible Impact Investing Conference, where Iroquois met with financial advisers. Soon after, Iroquois landed on a list of socially responsible private-equity and debt impact investment fund managers, a spot it's held for four consecutive years. That helped Iroquois scale its investments to 1,790 acres across 15 farms by the end of 2013 and 3,518 acres across 25 farms in 2015.

"There's no cookie-cutter approach," says Wilken, who sits on the company's board, owns shares and farms more than 2,000 acres among 16 farms. "Each family farm is structured differently. They aren't investing and only looking for a financial return. They are also looking to build up soil, build up the farmer and also be responsible stewards of the investments."

About 15 percent of Iroquois Valley Farms investment assets—five investments total—are mortgage finance offers to farmers, Egolf says, and the remaining 32 investments are in farmland the company owns and leases to organic family farmers.

Investments in farmland increased by $4.5 million to total $23.2 million in 2015, according to Iroquois Valley Farms' audited reports for 2014 and 2015.

TWO OFFERINGS ON TAP

Iroquois posted a net unrealized loss on investments in real estate of $312,018 in 2015 due to a decline in land value. "The market is a little soft right now," Egolf says. Since the audited report compares organic farmland to conventional farmland, which tracks the commodity market— something organics don't do since produce is sold at higher prices once it's certified—Egolf says it's not an accurate comparison, and it makes the organic farmland appear undervalued.

Later this month Iroquois will issue a $5 million to $7 million offering for "Soil Restoration Notes" to help pay millennial farmers to transition their land with short-term loans with a minimum of $25,000 buy-in amount for investors, Egolf says. The program is part of a three-year, $944,715 Conservation Innovation Grant the U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded Iroquois. Proceeds from the notes will help Iroquois' partner farmers increase profits while transitioning land to organic production and help Iroquois research how organic management practices affect soil health.

In April, Iroquois plans to issue a $15 million offering of REIT shares to accredited investors. Egolf says Iroquois will also issue two offerings for non-accredited investors in the third and fourth quarters of 2017 with a goal of raising at least $20 million. Aside from typical farm risk factors (weather, disease, labor), Iroquois cites reliance on tenants and the possibility that organic certification requirements could change.

The offerings come at a time when organic farming is becoming more popular and profitable, says Jeff Moyer, executive director of the Rodale Institute, a nonprofit research and education center. He cites a 2008-10 study conducted with Mississippi State University that found organic farms generate $558 in profit per acre, almost three times the $190 from conventional farming. Consumer demand for most organics is outpacing production growth, but investors have to decide if the trend will continue in the long-term, says Robert Johansson, the Department of Agriculture's chief economist. Because organic farming doesn't follow commodity prices, it can be more profitable, says Moyer, because farmers can help set the price and value of an organic product.

In 2015, a little more than 2 million farms were left in the U.S., and 14,861 certified organic farms with 5.3 million acres—up from 12,941 farms and 4.8 million acres in 2008—according to the USDA. While the number of certified organic farms in Illinois increased to 218 in 2015 from 50 in 2008, the number of acres decreased to 27,275 in 2015 from 35,887 in 2008.

Iroquois partners say that bodes well for the company's prospects as demand increases. "They aren't making more farmland," says Arne Lau, Iroquois chief operating officer. "We will always need food, and sustainable farming practices are critical."

Vertical Farming: A High-Growth Trend

Vertical Farming: A High-Growth Trend

by Samuel Taube, Investment U Research TeamFriday, February 3, 2017

 Market Trends

Every year, Americans care more about where our food comes from. Organic food sales are growing by double-digit percentages annually. And the “eat local” movement is still picking up steam.

But if you live in a big metro area, how local or natural can you really eat? For years, the answer was “not very.” Then vertical farming started to enter the commercial mainstream.

As the name implies, vertical farming means using hydroponic technology, grow lights and other agricultural innovations to build multilevel indoor farms. It allows farmers to grow fresh organic produce in the middle of our ever-growing cities. And in many cases, it’s more efficient than traditional farming.

As demand for locally grown organic food continues to outstrip supply, vertical farming is poised to become a tremendous investment opportunity. In this piece, we’re looking at why - and how to get in early.

Why Vertical Farming Matters

There are two almost unstoppable trends propelling the growth of vertical farming. First, local organic food is getting more popular every year. Second, more people are moving to cities, suburbs and other areas that can’t support traditional agriculture.

As our Editor-in-Chief wrote over the holidays, organic food is quite scarce in our country. That’s not some kind of environmentalist statement. It’s a simple fact. We want more naturally grown stuff than we can produce right now.

That’s why the organic food business has experienced such consistent growth recently. Last year, for the first time ever, a solid 5% of the total food sales in America were organic.

Now, the above graph just shows the growing market for organic food. It wouldn’t be relevant to organic farming... if most people lived near farmland. But they don’t. Four out of five Americans live in an urban area... and that number is constantly going up.

As you can see from the graph below, the U.S. as a whole has never experienced de-urbanization in recent memory. The pace of migration to cities has slowed at times, but it’s never gone below zero.

Plus, American cities are geographically huge compared to those elsewhere in the world. Most major U.S. cities are surrounded by huge rings of suburbs. These can sprawl out for dozens or hundreds of miles.

That means that our city dwellers can get their food in one of two ways. They can load it up with preservatives and truck it in from faraway rural areas. Or they can grow it in the city with vertical farming.

At the moment, the former option still feeds most of America’s urban population. But the demand for fresh, local and organic produce is still growing. So will the necessity of vertical farming.

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How to Invest

It’s tough to find pure plays on vertical farming. That’s a common problem among emerging technologies. Not many S&P 500 companies are willing to bet everything on a new industry.

Fortunately, several food retailers and gardening companies have made big investments in urban agriculture. These companies offer investors indirect plays on vertical farming.

Whole Foods (Nasdaq: WFM) is a major buyer and financer of vertically farmed produce. Its Local Producer Loan Program has lent tens of millions of dollars to local farming projects. And for the last few years, many of those projects have been urban and indoors.

Then there’s Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE: SMG), perhaps the nation’s most prominent gardening supply company. Almost 10% of Scotts’ revenue comes from its hydroponic equipment division. That has given the company an important stake in two investing trends: marijuana production and vertical farming.

As you can see, these two vertical farming “brokers” have done quite well for themselves in the past year.

If you live in a city today, chances are that you’re eating food grown in a place you’ve never been - by people you’ll never meet. And if you’re into organic food, then you’re likely paying a pretty penny for the logistical cost of getting it into the city without preservatives.

But that may soon be changing. As the trends of urbanization and organic food continue to grow, city dwellers need a new way to feed themselves. In a few years, your apples might be grown a few blocks from your apartment. And if you invest in the right grocers and gardening companies today, then you can profit from this futuristic transition.

Connecticut Invests $3 Million in Indoor Agriculture Venture

Connecticut Invests $3 Million in Indoor Agriculture Venture

By Luther Turmelle, New Haven Register

POSTED: 02/03/17, 9:16 PM EST | UPDATED: 6 HRS AGO

The state is investing a lot of green — $3 million in financing — to get an indoor agriculture venture off the ground in Suffield.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced Friday that Four Seasons Farm LLC, the project for which the state is providing financing, is expected to create 40 new jobs over the next two years. The money from the state Department of Economic and Community Development will be used to purchase equipment and machinery for the 10-acre indoor farm, which initially will grow millions of pounds tomatoes.

Although the farm will be located in northern Connecticut, one of the partners in the project is a well-known New Haven County farmer.

Joe Geremia, who runs seven acres of greenhouses in Wallingford, is one of three partners in the project. The other two partners are Henry Froese, a pioneer and expert in the building of greenhouse operations, and Herbert Soroca, chief executive officer of Stamford-based North Cove Capital Advisors, which works with emerging growth companies.

Geremia, a third-generation farmer, called the Four Season Farm “a 21st century agriculture project.”

“Four Season Farm will lay the foundation for a new generation of indoor agriculture to compete with foreign produce, create living wage jobs and tax revenues for Suffield and the state, and provide locally grown, healthy food for Connecticut consumers,” Geremia said. “It is a win-win for everyone.”

Hydroponic farming is a method of growing fruits or vegetables without soil. The plants typically are placed in trays or inserted into tubing over a container of water with a submergible pump.

The pump circulates the water making traditional gardening methods unnecessary.

Four Season Farm will use technology such as computer controlled light, humidity and nutrients. The partners in the project have a five-year plan that includes a ten-acre facility that will produce 5.75 million pounds in the first year and 7.5 million pounds by the third year.

The partners ultimately hope to create a 43-acre greenhouse complex and add crops such as cucumbers, peppers and micro greens.

While hydropinc farming is comparatively new to Connecticut, Four Seasons Farm already has plenty of company in the sector, even in New Haven County. Maple Lane Farms II is located in a Cheshire industrial park while another area hydroponic grower is H2O Farm in Guilford.

Call Luther Turmelle at 203-680-9388.

Aglanta Announces Panel About Closed Vertical Farming Operations

Aglanta Announces Panel About Closed Vertical Farming Operations

The event is highlighted by three vertical growing operations that weren't forced to shut down.

February 2, 2017

ATLANTA, GA - Recently, Aglanta's organizers posted an open letter from Paul Hardej about the closure of FarmedHere’s 90,000 square foot Bedford Park facility. After the post, they received inquiries about how and why this happened - and what does this mean for the industry?

Those of you were who were left wondering these question are in luck: Agritecture is pleased to announce that itwill be moderating an exclusive panel - An Examination of Shuttered Vertical Farming Facilities - according to a press release. This panel will held at the Aglanta Conference on Feb. 19 and panelists will include:

• Paul Hardej, Co-Founder of FarmedHere
• Mike Nasseri, Harvest Supervisor at LocalGarden
• Matt Liotta, CEO of PodPonics

Podponics and LocalGarden, like FarmedHere, each operated a vertical farming facility that is now closed. Podponics operated a large facility in Atlanta before declaring bankruptcy and closing their Atlanta facility in June 2016 - while Local Garden operated a large rooftop vertical farm in Vancouver that declared bankruptcy back in 2014.

If you clicked on any of those above links, you may have found you have some questions that you would like answered from our panelists. If so, please comment or drop us a note for what you’d like to know as we prepare for this discussion. There will also be a subsequent Q & A for those in attendance at #Aglanta.

Register here: aglanta.eventbrite.com

Women In CEA Startups

Women In CEA Startups

Meet 4 female trailblazers raising the bar in controlled environment agriculture through entrepreneurship.

January 25, 2017
Cassie Neiden

Interest in furthering the development of controlled environment agriculture (CEA) is propelled forward by the idea that we can create real solutions to some of humanity’s basic needs: like growing nutritious food. By bringing farming under cover, be that in a hoophouse, greenhouse or vertical farm, we have found ways to closely monitor and manipulate growing conditions. These efforts have resulted in extended growing seasons — all while improving food access, flavor and local economies.

But CEA’s improvements do not stop there. As this dynamic, ever-changing industry continues to adapt and evolve, new ideas coming to the forefront aim to solve challenges and streamline systems. Unsurprisingly, many of them are coming from women, who asking the simple question: Why not?

Why not integrate greenhouse data into a user-friendly platform? Why not ask if an abandoned garden needs a revamp? Why not grow clean, healthy greens in the comfort of a home? Why not make a greenhouse three stories tall?

On the following pages, we feature determined, inspiring women who are finding CEA success through their innovations and leadership.

Allison Kopf,  Founder & CEO, Agrilyst

DATA-DRIVEN: Kopf put together a team of highly skilled data scientists and engineers to form Agrilyst, an intelligence software platform for indoor farmers, in 2015. Agrilyst utilizes algorithms to track and record data from sensors throughout the greenhouse to help growers better understand their operation’s metrics to improve plant quality and output.

Since the company’s conception, Kopf and her 10-member team have nabbed first place in TechCrunch Disrupt’s prestigious technology startup competition, raised more than $1 million in investments for development, secured customers in five countries, and in January, launched Agrilyst Reporting, which helps growers curate their own customized data sets.

“We’re helping [growers] visualize data like never before,” Kopf says. “Big data is just a [phrase], but having insights and having meaningful visualizations is important to growers, so we’ve spent a lot of time focused on that.”

BRIGHT IDEA: Based in the startup central, NYC, Kopf has experience in helping to build companies. Before founding Agrilyst, she spent four years as the Real Estate and Government Relations Manager at BrightFarms, a hydroponic grower and greenhouse builder in New York. She was one of the first employees at the company back in 2011.

“It was a really easy jump for me to say, ‘I want to be in this startup world, and I want to do something that I believe in and work alongside a team on something that’s a big problem that’s solvable by us,’” she says.

In fact, much of the idea for Agrilyst came from her time at BrightFarms. “When I was on the operating side, my job was to essentially solve problems as they came up. And that was really challenging to do because we had fragmented data systems,” she says.

Essentially, climate control systems and other technological advances provided data to the growers — but they had no comprehensive way of gathering and analyzing it. “I said, ‘That’s it. We can’t do this anymore. We have to find a way to log this data somehow,’” Kopf says. “I can build this platform to integrate this data and build a team of people smarter than me to get [growers] insights into that data.” And Agrilyst was born.

Kopf's startup advice is to make yourself an expert in your field, but don't go it alone. "It wastes time and money, especially in this space," she says.

LEVELED OUT: Part of Kopf’s success in the male-dominated technology space is due to her mindset. She was the only woman in her physics class in college; she’s spearheaded a legislative campaign; and also fearlessly pitched her business model to venture capitalists. No matter the space she’s in, she refuses to be intimidated based on her gender because she simply doesn’t factor it in.

“The way that I approach it is that I’m there because I’m the person to do this,” Kopf says. “I presented the company that I had built because I was the right person to build this company. This [is] the thing I was put on this earth to solve. That’s the way I operate … I’ve made myself the expert in the thing I’m doing, and that’s the only [way] you can have confidence standing up there and presenting something that’s yours, in my opinion.”

BORN LEADER: While Agrilyst takes up much of Kopf’s time, she hasn’t shied away from additional professional leadership opportunities. She’s an advisor for a nonprofit to promote young women’s involvement in tech called #BUILTBYGIRLS, as well as a mentor for Square Roots Urban Growers, a hydroponic vertical farm builder. Kopf was also named Entrepreneur of the Year by Technical.ly Brooklyn, and Changemaker of the Year by the Association for Vertical Farming earlier this year.

So it’s no surprise that her favorite part of starting a business is building a team.

“I get to work with people who are tremendously brilliant and interesting, especially in our space,” she says. “And we have not yet hired from a job posting. We’ve consistently hired through our team’s network. But what we’ve done a very good job at is expanding our network broad enough to find [those] people … and make sure we incentivize them to put them on our team.”

Kopf’s also a huge proponent of hiring people of diversity. Agrilyst’s small team is made up of employees from many different backgrounds, and an even split of men and women. “It makes your company and product better, too, by having diversity and by having people who don’t look and think and speak like you do. By nature, you end up building a product that’s more inclusive for a broader set of customers,” she says. “Not ignoring colorblind people when you are building the colors of your platform; not ignoring left-handed folks when you’re building an iPad that doesn’t switch the right way … All of those things can be included earlier by broadening your community.”

BIGGEST CHALLENGE: Opportunities abound with any startup as it morphs into its own identity. So Kopf’s biggest challenge is keeping the company focused. “There are so many areas of agriculture that have a data problem,” she says. “This is why you see so many data companies sprouting up in the outdoor space — or cash commodities crops … It’s one of our biggest industries.

“But as a startup, and as 10 people,” she continues, “you can’t tackle every problem.” She says she’s proud of the way Agrilyst communicates with indoor growers, listening to them and building on what they want to see.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The most rewarding aspect of Kopf’s job is realizing results from what she and her team have created. “Seeing something physically change, or seeing operational management methods change based on using our platform and how that makes a grower able to reach profitability, or expand operations, or open a new facility, or expand into new crops — that, to me, is probably the most successful thing that we could possibly do,” she says.

Vanessa Hanel,  Owner & Operator, Micro YY

TINY PRODUCT, BIG OPPORTUNITY: After working on the administrative side of the Calgary Farmers Market for about a year and a half, Hanel decided she wanted to be the grower, not the one sitting behind the desk. So in the basement of her home in Calgary, Alberta, Hanel launched Micro YYC and began to grow a plethora of microgreens varieties and other leafy greens for multiple clients, including a large local farmers market, a CSA-inspired subscription service, and local restaurants and specialty grocers. Hanel’s offerings include pea shoots, broccoli, kale, kohlrabi, arugula and other microgreen blends. “I’m super passionate about quality, delicious food,” Hanel says. “So it makes me happy every day to be growing these happy little sprouts.”

COMMUNITY COLLABORATION: One of Hanel’s biggest accounts is a cooperative with other local growers called YYC Growers’ Harvest Box. On a bi-weekly basis, customers can pick up a “harvest box” that includes a selection of seasonal produce from several different farms in the area. Hanel says not only does this bring her a good amount of business — the collective has grown exponentially from 80 shares in 2015 to more than 500 in 2016 — it also gives her a sense of belonging. The farmers frequently get together for meetings and potlucks and lean on each other for advice and moral support. “It makes you realize you’re not the only one doing something weird for a job,” she jokes.

SOCIAL STANDING: As a one-woman operation, Hanel says she hasn’t had much time to craft a website, but she’s acquired plenty of customers and mentors through social media marketing to keep her going. Every restaurant she’s worked with has found her either on Twitter or Instagram, and she’s acquired some helpful growing advice along the way.

Hanel's microgreens are sold to YYC restaurants and farmers markets.

Photo: Kevin Daines, courtesy of Hop Compost

“Instagram is amazing because it’s so easy to post good pictures on there,” Hanel says. “There’s a great community — it’s so easy to find other people in Calgary doing small local businesses, and food business, and other urban farms in other cities and countries. I connect with a lot of other microgreen growers on Instagram, just asking each other questions, like, ‘What trays are those?’”

PLUS ONE: While Hanel doesn’t necessarily need a large working area to bring in her produce-growing profits, she says her biggest challenge is keeping up with the daily workflow. Because her crop can turn over as quickly as nine days, Hanel plants every week. “I plant on Mondays, and I start harvesting last week’s planting and by the end of the week I clean everything up and I start again on Monday,” she says. It doesn’t leave her much time to strategically grow her business, which she says is her biggest challenge, and so she’s looking to bring on a part-time employee in the near future.

ENTREPRENEUR TIP: Since being featured in Modern Farmer in December 2015, Hanel says she receives many calls from people asking how to get started and where to go to acquire resources. She suggests hitting up local food events and being willing to network, listening to others and being willing to learn. “You can’t expect it to happen overnight,” she says. “But those things will end up counting in the long run.”

Mary Ackley, Founder, Little Wild Things City Farm

Photo: Amber Breitenberg

DREAM JOB: Ackley began her career in a different field, working as an engineer in the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) environmental sector for about seven years, but she aspired to own her own farming business while she was working and hobby gardening overseas in Sri Lanka. When she moved home to Washington, D.C. in 2013, she decided to pursue her love of farming. In 2014, Ackley established Little Wild Things City Farm, a microgreen and edible flower producer specializing in more than 50 different varieties. The produce is sold at local restaurants, grocery stores and farmers markets in the D.C. area. The farm also sells value-added products, like wedding cakes with edible garnishes and ready-made salads.

LAND HUNT: When it came time to find a space to grow, it was a bit difficult, as it can be in any highly populated urban area. Then she realized the only places where there was available land was at institutions, such as schools and churches, so she thought it might be best to ask to use an abandoned plot on another property, instead of purchasing one outright.

On a jog one afternoon, she came across a monastery with an abandoned garden, so she inquired about it. A monk had maintained the space for many years, but when he passed on, no one else had the know-how or passion to take it over — so Ackley offered to help. “To have someone young and ambitious come in to help grow something productive there and also maintain the space — and then [receive] produce — is great,” Ackley says. So in 2014, she started the business with edible flowers and leafy greens.

But that’s not the only location Little Wild Things is currently inhabiting. When a new restaurant, The Pub and the People, came to the area, Ackley did the same thing. But this time, she moved into the restaurant’s basement to grow microgreens under sole-source lighting.

Ackley has also found success in value-added products such as ready-made salads.

MODEL FOR SUCCESS: Ackley wanted to grow something that had the shortest phase to maturity as possible, so she could have more crop turns in a smaller space. Microgreens fit her business plan well. “I was really attracted to the idea that farming in the most environmentally sustainable way would also be the most productive way of farming, and the most profitable way of farming, in theory,” she says. The shorter-term crops have also allowed her to improve growing techniques along the way. “With microgreens, you grow them every 10 days, so you’re learning everything about all these different varieties,” she adds. “Within two years you’re a total expert.”

TECH SAVVY: She and her four-member team have moved to online-only ordering, which has helped her streamline and organize the business. It’s also allowed for on-demand deliveries Monday through Friday. “A chef can log onto our website and place an order, and we’ll actually harvest it right then and there on the spot,” she says. Then a courier service delivers it to the customers. The process can be as quick as 45 minutes, or a maximum of about four hours. “It allows us to compete with farms that are farther outside the city that can’t provide that type of quick service,” she adds.

Photo: Amber Breitenberg

WORDS OF WISDOM: Ackley says jump in, even if your roadmap isn’t complete yet. “People spend a lot of time planning,” she says. “But sometimes you need to just give it a try, and get past the barrier of doing something ... You [won’t] know what the challenges are going to be until you actually are doing whatever it is you want to do.”

Nona Yehia, CEO & Co-Founder, Vertical Harves

PROFESSIONAL PIVOT: An architect by trade, Yehia, and her co-founder Penny McBride, set out for an endeavor to create a sustainable business operation in the city of Jackson Hole, Wyo. in 2008. Providing local food through greenhouse growing was top of mind because of the city’s short four-month growing season. But the duo’s biggest challenge was to find an available construction site in Jackson Hole, a city whose proximity to a national park makes land extremely costly. A town councilman showed them a piece of property owned by the city in the heart of downtown, essentially left over from a parking garage construction. The land was 30 feet wide by 150 feet long and owned by Jackson Hole. “I’m sure, knowing him quite well, that he thought we would put [up] a hoophouse and extend the growing season by a few months,” Yehia says. “But we had bigger aspirations. We wanted to create a consistent source of local food that served the community year-round, and provided employment for people year-round at a substantial level.”

So up they went.

ONE-OF-A-KIND: Vertical Harvest opened a greenhouse that expands in height rather than square footage. The structure opened in March 2016. The entire building works as a complete ecosystem, Yehia says, but each of the three floors has a different microclimate.

The first floor is public-facing. There is an on-site market, as well as a small public atrium that allows people to “experience the verticality of the greenhouse,” Yehia says. It boasts a three-story living wall, as well as a living classroom where basil is grown and educational sessions will soon take place.

The second floor is used for lettuce and microgreen production, where the product is placed on vertically and horizontally rotating carousels. “Not only do we take advantage of as much natural light as we can give to those plants, but it balances out with supplemental artificial lights as plants rotate back into the depth of the building. It brings the plant to the farmer for harvesting and transplanting,” Yehia says.

On the third floor is tomato production, which looks very similar to a standard tomato greenhouse. “It’s really hot up there because we get the solar gain from not only the south but the roof, and it creates the perfect environment,” she says.

The tomato house at Vertical Harvest sits on the top floor of the structure to take advantage of its natural light and heat benefits.

HELPING HANDS: Vertical Harvest employs persons with developmental disabilities, which resonates with Yehia because she has a brother with developmental disabilities. “That was important to my involvement with the project because growing up, I was acutely aware of our ability as a society to really nurture this population during education, but when it comes to employment, there are still a lot of challenges out there.”

Employee positions vary widely, from market associates, to spokespersons and marketing personnel, to IPM assistants, production associates and even an assistant greenhouse manager. “One of the big models that we use to make this whole thing work is something that’s just recently been adopted in the disability world,” Yehia says. “So some people work three hours, some people work 40 hours, depending on skill and ability, and we have a customized plan for each employee.”

STARTUP TAKEAWAYS: Yehia advises aspiring startup owners to let others challenge your ideas. “Listen to your skeptics and critics and value them just as much as your supporters because they will ask you the hard questions,” she says. “And if you can answer them, then you know you’ve got a dream that’s 

Aglanta Conference Details Released

Aglanta Conference Details Released

The urban and controlled environment agriculture takes place on Feb. 19.

February 1, 2017

The Aglanta Conference is a gathering to showcase urban and controlled environment agriculture (CEA) innovation in the City of Atlanta. The City of Atlanta has partnered with Blue Planet Consulting to bring together restaurateurs, grocers, architects, entrepreneurs, technologists, business owners, and urban farmers for this premium networking and knowledge sharing opportunity, according to a press release.

The Aglanta Conference will feature an environment for participants to engage with a local, national, and international audience. Through workshops, lectures, and networking sessions, the conference will cover issues across the spectrum of urban agriculture business models and technologies, with a particular focus on the emerging field of vertical/indoor farming. It will spotlight local operations food as means of ecological restoration, social cohesion, cultural preservation, economic development and biopharmaceutical development.

The event takes place on Feb. 19 at the Georgia Freight Depot in Alanta and, according to a press release, is the South’s first CEA focused conference. For more information, contact Mario Cambardella at Mcambardella@atlantaga.gov or Jeffrey Landau Jeffrey@blueplanet.consulting

Modular Farms Newsletter #6

Modular Farms Newsletter #6

January has undoubtedly been the busiest month in the history of our young company. For each calendar day that passed we were introduced to more and more people that are driven to reshape the agricultural landscape, both domestically and abroad, via the use of ZipGrow technology, Modular Farms and other sustainable farming practices. At this rate, 2017 is poised to be a huge year for the indoor farming industry as a whole, and we are honored to be amongst the cohort of businesses that are helping to educate and empower the next generation of hydroponic farmers to make a difference in their communities. 

Recently, we had the privilege of taking some of our FarmWalls out of our office and showcasing them at various places throughout our community. The first stop on tour was at an event hosted by 4Life Natural Foods in Kensington Market - an urban Toronto grocery store focused on selling locally sourced, sustainable organic produce. We partnered with 4Life to assist in the development and construction of a 5000 square foot indoor ZipFarm that will be located on the roof of their downtown location.

The FarmWall we showcased at the event gave the grocer's patrons a chance to get a first-hand look, feel and taste of the produce that will be available to them year-round once construction of the rooftop farm is complete. Needless to say, a lot of excitement ensued from those who bravely trekked through the hideous snowstorm to attend that evening. 

The second, and more permanent, stop on the FarmWall tour was at the Institute of Management and Innovation, located at the University of Toronto's Mississauga campus. Under the guidance of our Plant Health Technician, Kevin, the Sustainability Management grad students have been eagerly putting their studies into practice by utilizing the 2-tower system as a part of their Capstone project. We are overjoyed with the amount of interest that the students are having with the project, and are excited to see and taste the fruits of their labour! 

This month marked the end of an era for Modular Farms, as we watched our beloved beta farm get unplugged, decommissioned and whisked away from our office on the back of a truck. On the bright side, we took solace in the fact that it was on its way to Cornwall, where the Smart Greens team will be using it to educate and train the first generation of Canadian Modular Farmers. As much as our team will miss working and growing in the ol' girl, the farm's departure from our Brampton office signifies our official transition from farmers to manufacturers, as we begin getting the first set of Modular Farms off the production line and into the eager hands of our customers. 

As most of you already know, unlike other containerized indoor farming providers, who simply re-purpose used shipping containers, we custom build our farms from the ground up. Aside from the extra room allotted to farmers for working, the fact that our farms are made in-house allows us to meticulously observe and scrutinize the entire manufacturing process. This ensures that the farms our customers are receiving meet all of our stringent quality control requirements; and, as you can see from the above video, it also ensures that we will have a steady stream of memorizing time-lapses of the farms being assembled for years to come!

This month also featured our CEO's yearly overseas pilgrimage out east to the annual Indoor Ag-Con event in Singapore, where he was once again honoured as a featured speaker. The event this year was mainly focused on the accelerating innovation in the industry, from plant biology to innovative farm designs and new business models. Once the event concluded, Eric also had the pleasure of venturing slightly south for the official ribbon-cutting of Modular Farms' new office and manufacturing facility in Australia!
 

Stay tuned for the next installment of our newsletter!

Modular Aeroponic Farms Open Door to Clean Energy Urban Agriculture Modular Aeroponic Farms Open Door to Clean Energy Urban Agriculture

Modular Aeroponic Farms Open Door to Clean Energy Urban Agriculture

Andrew Burger 01/29/2017

Generally speaking, agriculture is rich in opportunities for clean, efficient energy self-generation and, more broadly and significantly, improvements at the nexus of energy, water and food production and use.

The opportunities gain in significance as the climate changes, urbanization continues and people and families, whether by choice or necessity, continue to leave rural areas, farming and ranching to seek out new lives and livelihoods in cities and metropolitan areas.

Agriculture-clean energy entrepreneurs are capitalizing on the confluence of these trends amidst broad-based popular movements to produce food and energy locally, even in cities. Indoor Farms of America (IFOA) on Jan. 27 announced the latest iteration of its soon-to-be-released aeroponic “Container Farms” will be self-sufficient in terms of both energy and water.

Energy and Water-Efficient Indoor Farming

Incorporating IFOA’s patented food-grade aeroponic growing equipment, the Las Vegas, Nevada-based company’s aeroponic indoor “farms” are designed for use in totally enclosed, controlled growing environments and greenhouse operations.

Aeroponics entails growing plants without the use of soil or an aggregate growing medium. Akin to hydroponics and aquaponics, aeroponics uses less water. Reducing the cultivation method to its most basic level, plant’s are suspended and their roots and lower stems sprayed, or misted, with a water solution rich in nutrients.

In addition to being highly efficient in terms of use of space and water, the ability to control environmental conditions enables a much wider variety of high quality greens and fruits to be grown in any given climate/geographic area all year round.

IFOA’s vertical aeroponic equipment offers growing capacities in excess of 40 plants per square foot of floor space at an operating height of just 8 feet, according to the company. Modular and scalable, they can be configured as bi-level and multi-level vertical farms, a key selling point in densely populated urban areas where land is comparatively scarce and expensive. The company has also developed a mobile, “Farmers’ Market” version.

Growing Strawberries in New York – in Winter

Among its U.S. installations, IFOA recently installed an aeroponic “warehouse farm” in Salamanca, New York. Outdoor temperatures were around four degrees Fahrenheit (-15.56°C).

“The use of our patented mineral uptake system allows them to use rocks from the lands they own and speaks to their culture in meaningful ways, while lessening dependence on costly supplemental inputs into the system to yield food that tastes fantastic,” IFOA president Ron Evans explained.

Evans pointed out that the Salamanca, New York farm’s unnamed owners “are particularly focused on operating a very green farm.” That extends to energy.

The upstate New York farm employs geothermal heating, enabling high quality fruits and vegetables to be grown all year long. That includes strawberries, which the farm’s owners are just starting to grow.

Looking ahead, IFOA says it will be shipping multiple container farms internationally this spring. “We are continually humbled by the visits we receive to our facility in Las Vegas from the brightest people in agriculture. It is what drives us to keep making it better, to fulfill our purpose as a company,” company president Ron Evans said in a statement.

MIT’s Food Computers Set the Stage for Open Source Agriculture

MIT’s Food Computers Set the Stage for Open Source Agriculture

29 Jan 2017 6:00am, by Kimberley Mok

Most of us probably don’t think too much about the foodstuffs we buy in the supermarket. But behind the scenes, today’s food production system relies on a centralized, industrial-scale supply chain that’s still dependent upon soil-based agriculture for the majority of our food crops

In many instances, that means that food has to travel long distances from farm to table, meaning that food has lost much of its freshness and nutritional value by the time it reaches your table. There’s also a growing awareness that this model isn’t sustainable: the pressures of increasing urbanization and loss of arable land, rising populations and the increased frequency of extreme weather events like droughts and floods — brought on by climate change — means that slowly but surely, we are going to have to change the way we grow our food.

There are some indications of this shift: the appearance of urban rooftop farms, an explosion of interest in automated hydroponic systems. The problem with all these systems is that their platforms are proprietary, and the lack of a common platform between them means these won’t necessarily scale up.

That’s where the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Food Computer might shake up the status quo a bit. Developed as part of the Open Agriculture (OpenAG) Initiative at MIT’s Media Lab, the Food Computer is an open-source platform that uses robotic systems to create a controlled, hydroponic food growing environment inside a custom-designed incubation chamber. Data gathered from these food-growing units is shared among users worldwide, encouraging a computationally based food system that’s accessible and collaborative.

Watch as Caleb Harper, principal research scientist for MIT’s OpenAG Initiative, explains how Food Computers work and why they might be the future of agriculture:

Sharing “Climate Recipes”

Food Computers would allow variables like energy use, carbon dioxide, temperature, humidity, dissolved oxygen, potential hydrogen and even electrical conductivity to be monitored and tweaked to optimize growing conditions. Even more intriguingly, these variables could also be adjusted according to a “climate recipe” that would replicate the growing conditions of a certain desired locale.

For instance, if you like the taste of strawberries from Spain, you can program the Food Computer to create the same conditions, producing strawberries in your own home that would taste and nourish in the same way.

According to the researchers, you can even “program biotic and abiotic stresses, such as an induced drought, to create desired plant-based expressions.” For instance, for sweeter tasting lettuce, you stress the plant by lowering one variable, and in response, it produces more sugars to protect itself.

Data points about plant growth and development are constantly being gathered via the Food Computer’s network of sensors, with an average of 3.5 million data points per plant being collected each growth cycle. That abundance of data is aggregated and shared in an open database, where a  machine learning algorithm sifts it through to create those customized “climate recipes.”

These recipes can be downloaded, modified and used by anyone around the world. The idea here is to leverage the advantages that come with sharing data in such an open way, to revolutionize a food system that is poorly adapted to today’s environmental, economic and societal realities.

“The current state of [networked agriculture] is very one-off,” Harper told IEEE Spectrum. “Everybody designs their own little unique ‘data center’ for plants, for a warehouse farm or for a vertical farm. They say it’s super special, and they try to create intellectual property out of it. And they won’t let people go in it because they don’t want other people to steal their brilliant ideas. That’s the problem in my industry now. They haven’t realized that there’s a system that underlies this. And it won’t scale until there is a common platform.”

Playing on the idea that food becomes digitized data, the Food Computer comes in three sizes: a desktop-sized Personal Food computer aimed at hobbyists and schools; a shipping container-sized Food Server, designed for research institutions and restaurants; and a warehouse-scale Food Datacenter that can be subdivided for industrial production of different crops.

There’s no doubt that our current agricultural and distribution paradigm needs to change. In the future, we might look forward to not only widespread food computing, but also distributed robot gardens that combine machine intelligence with that of plants to build truly green and sustainable cities. At the very least, data-driven initiatives like OpenAG and its Food Computers will make agriculture ‘cool’ again, inspiring people to not only innovate, collaborate and to think creatively outside of the box, but also empowering them to change the way they feed themselves.

Images: MIT

Marc Oshima: "Food Is A Fundamental Right"

Marc Oshima: "Food Is A Fundamental Right"

Marc Oshima, Chief Marketing Officer and Co-Founder of AeroFarms, is speaking at the third annual D.C. Food Tank Summit, Let’s Build a Better Food Policy, which will be hosted in partnership with George Washington University and the World Resources Institute on February 2, 2017.

Mr. Oshima has an extensive background in marketing for retail industries, brand management, and media. Prior to founding AeroFarms, an award-winning clean-technology company that builds and operates responsible, state-of-the art indoor vertical farms in urban environments around the world, Mr. Oshima led the marketing for The Food Emporium and Citarella Gourmet Markets. He has created partnerships with the James Beard Foundation, Museum of Food & Drink, City Harvest, and Le Fooding. 

Food Tank had the chance to speak with Mr. Oshima about his work developing AeroFarms and passion for improving America’s food system.

Marc Oshima, Chief Marketing Officer and Co-Founder of AeroFarms

Food Tank (FT): What originally inspired you to get involved in your work?

Marc Oshima (MO): A combination of both professional and personal experience has helped shape my passion for improving our food system. I have been in food retail and marketing for years, and have also been involved with the Marketing Advisory Committee for the Food Bank for NYC, and have seen the challenges of not knowing where your next meal may come from. Here at AeroFarms, with our indoor vertical farming approach, we are focused on democratizing access to nutritious, great-tasting produce that is safely and locally grown all year round.

FT: What makes you continue to want to be involved in this kind of work?

MO: I see first-hand the impact that we are having within the community—creating year-round jobs, addressing food deserts, educating students about agriculture, bringing better product to the market—and I want to help inspire and lead our team to scale our farms around the world.

FT: Who inspired you as a kid?

MO: My parents, teachers, and coaches helped inspire me to grow and be curious. In particular, my middle-school math teacher Mr. Cook helped me develop critical thinking and taught me how to come up with different creative approaches to problems, and to appreciate that there could be more than one solution.

FT: What do you see as the biggest opportunity to fix the food system?

MO: There is such a disconnect between the real challenges of farming and the global macro pressures of an increasing population and urbanization, decreasing access to arable land and fresh water, worker welfare, food safety, food security, and we need to increase awareness of these issues. Fundamentally, I think that we need to develop a greater connection and appreciation for how and where our food is grown, and that will help foster new breakthroughs.

FT: Can you share a story about a food hero who inspired you?

MO: There are many, but one that stands out is Dr. Lucy Cabrera who is the former CEO of the Food Bank for NYC. For over 20 years, Dr. Cabrera lead that organization to help distribute over 70 million pounds of food annually and help raise awareness that one out of five New Yorkers is food challenged and at risk. She helped me appreciate more than ever that food is a fundamental right, and I am inspired to help address that every single day.

FT: What’s the most pressing issue in food and agriculture that you’d like to see solved?

MO: There is an artificially-depressed cost of food, where the externalities and true costs of farming and environmental negative impacts are not factored in.

FT: What is one small change every person can make in their daily lives to make a big difference?

MO: Vote with your wallet, and make informed purchases to buy responsibly grown food.

FT: What advice can you give to President Trump and the U.S. Congress on food and agriculture?

MO: Access to healthy, delicious food is not about party lines—it is a fundamental right for every American, and we need to figure out how to come together to work collectively.

Indoor Farms of America Bringing Fully Off-Grid Containerized Vertical Aeroponic Farms To Market

Indoor Farms of America Bringing Fully Off-Grid Containerized Vertical Aeroponic Farms To Market

Wisconsin State Farmer

11:11 p.m. CT - Jan. 27, 2017

Las Vegas — Indoor Farms of America announces today the company is now preparing to launch a version of its Container Farms that will be energy independent and water independent, allowing deployment of the farms anywhere in the world.

"We have been working on this for quite some time, and these enhancements to our farm products will be available in production form by the end of Q1 this year", according to David Martin, CEO of Indoor Farms of America.

"From the beginning of our company's existence, we have been, and remain on a path of improvement of what we know to be the best indoor agricultural equipment in existence, and to bring it to every corner of the world in a cost effective manner.  We are achieving milestones each month in that regard." states Martin.

The company has container farms in operation across the U.S. and will be shipping multiple container farms to countries around the globe this spring.  "We are continually humbled by the visits we receive to our facility in Las Vegas from the brightest people in agriculture. It is what drives us to keep making it better, to fulfill our purpose as a company," commented Ron Evans, President of IFOA.

Sales and delivery of larger vertical indoor farm formats produced by IFOA, such as those in warehouse facilities, has increased rapidly, and the company is working with some of the largest companies in the world that produce or process food due to the extremely attractive financial metrics the equipment represents, according to Martin.  He added: "We recently installed a warehouse farm in Salamanca New York, when outside temps were four degrees, and the owners are amazed at what their new farm represents.  They have compared our equipment to every other form of indoor growing, and chose us hands down. They are particularly focused on operating a very green farm, and use geothermal for heating of their facility, which means superior fresh greens of any kind, and strawberries, which they are starting to grow, all year long no matter what the weather is like outside."

"The use of our patented mineral uptake system allows them to use rocks from the lands they own and speaks to their culture in meaningful ways, while lessoning dependence on costly supplemental inputs into the system to yield food that tastes fantastic." said Evans.
The company will be exhibiting its patented vertical aeroponic equipment, which provides growing capacities in excess of 40 plants per square foot of floor space in an operating height of just 8 feet, at numerous events in coming months.
Upcoming events in February, including at the World Ag Expo in Tulare, CA from February 14th to the 16th, and at the Aglanta show for indoor agriculture being held in Atlanta, GA on February 19th will allow more folks to see and touch this amazing crop growing equipment, according to Evans.

For more information, visit the company website at indoorfarmsamerica.com.

Hydroponics Towers To Be Built In Lafayette

Hydroponics Towers To Be Built In Lafayette

Hydroponics Towers To Be Built In LafayetteA Purdue entrepreneur in hydroponics is working in conjunction with the non-profit Red Giant Union to bring nine-foot hydroponics towers to Lafayette.

Scott Massey, Purdue senior and founder and CEO of Hydro Grow LLC, has developed a household hydroponics garden that could replace the traditional refrigerator. Cups containing different seeds are inserted into a tower “Keurig-style,” allowing the user to grow fresh produce in the comfort of their own kitchen. Massey and his team are currently working on the second generation model of the Hydro Grow system, which is based on artificial intelligence, or AI.

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“The system would actually be aware of what plants were growing in it and it would adapt its environmental conditions to the specific preferences of that plant,” said Massey. “The sunlight, the pH of the water, the electroconductivity of the water, the humidity; our system will automatically adapt to it without the user having to do anything other than placing the cup into the system.”

The AI component will also take the average values of different plants to create the optimal overall environment. As a result, each garden becomes customized to the user.

“(The AI) is something that really no one in the world, as far as I’m aware, is even considering developing right now, because no one thinks it’s possible,” said Massey. “But we’ve found a pretty good way to do it.”

Massey has recently formed a partnership with Red Giant Union, a non-profit group that is striving to create an urban food system in Lafayette focusing on fresh produce, community involvement and sustainability. The executive director and founder of Red Giant Union, Austin Kasso, is currently fundraising for a community garden called the Tower Farms that will consist of nine-foot hydroponics towers housed at 419 N. Third Street in downtown Lafayette, across from the bus depot. The garden would provide fresh produce and a place for community interaction.

Kasso said that Red Giant Union is working with various local groups to create the community-centered garden. The West Lafayette Farmer’s Market will theme their next market in May on hydroponics and the Tower Farms to promote the fundraising campaign within the community. The Tippecanoe Extension is also helping to promote the project in addition to many other groups.

“People think, ‘One dollar can’t make a difference,’ but it does,” said Kasso. Getting 10,000 people with one dollar to donate involves the community and “inspires engagement with the project.”

Massey’s and Kasso’s mutual interests are what led to their strategic partnership. Massey will be applying his knowledge and experience in hydroponics to help make the vertical gardens a reality.

Hydro Grow LLC is rapidly expanding, and Massey won $35,000 through competitions in a single month. He is looking for people to assist him as his project evolves. Massey said all disciplines are welcome and he will find a way for them to “contribute to the project.”

Interested individuals can contact Massey at hydrogrow.site@gmail.com. More information on Hydro Grow LLC is available at www.hydrogrow.site and through the previously published Exponent article titled, ‘Purdue entrepreneur creates next kitchen appliance: a hydroponics garden,’ available at purdueexponent.org.

The Urban Agriculture Trend Continues in 2017

The Urban Agriculture Trend Continues in 2017

Urban agriculture can reconnect communities with healthy food, thereby supporting economic opportunities and innovative ideas around land use. Several new resources for urban agriculture were published in 2016 which support the movement going forward.

Posted on January 26, 2017 by Terry McLean, Michigan State University Extension

The practice of urban agriculture and community gardening as an organizational strategy, a comprehensive approach to supporting and engaging individuals and neighborhoods, promoting economic development through food production, improving neighborhood safety through combating blight, and exposing youth to intergenerational interactions and encouraging self-reliance has been a trend in recent years in the United States, particularly in Rust Belt cities that have experienced many years of economic decline. If the number of new resources about urban agriculturepublished in 2016 are any indicator of it’s popularity, there is plenty of interest out there. A recent search found several comprehensive new tools and a comprehensive literature review available. The case for urban agriculture is often made around food production and economic development, but a new publication makes the case that urban agriculture can also increase social capital, community well-being, and civic engagement within the food system.

New resources published/announced in 2016

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Urban Agriculture Toolkit, published in late April, 2016, includes information on funding opportunities, technical assistance, and informational resources from federal, state, and local partners. One major focus of the toolkit is business planning.  Whether a for-profit,  non-profit, sole proprietorship, partnership, or cooperative, an urban farm will need a business plan, and urban farmers will need to understand legal issues that could affect the business. Additional topics covered include: land access, soil quality, water access/use, capital and financing, infrastructure, market development, and production strategies.

The National Center for Appropriate Technology High Tunnels in Urban Agriculture was published in October of 2016, and identifies the unique benefits of high tunnels to urban farmers, and makes the case that the use of high tunnels in urban agriculture can reduce risks and increase profitability. It covers the basics of siting and constructing a high tunnel, as well as some of the policy and zoning challenges urban growers face when planning to erect a tunnel. It also discusses high tunnel management, including soil fertility, irrigation, and disease and pest control. Finally, it includes resources on intensive crop production and other uses for high tunnels.

Senator Stabenow’s Urban Agriculture Act of 2016, announced in Detroit and Flint on September 26, 2016, will help create new economic opportunities, give families greater access to healthy food, and create a healthier environment in cities and towns across our state and nation. The legislation addresses the unique needs of urban farmers by investing new resources and increasing flexibility through existing programs administered by the USDA. Included in the bill are new economic opportunites like farm cooperatives, alternative growing systems like rooftop and indoor food production, and research dollars to explore market opportunities and develop new technologies for lowering energy and water needs. New financial tools and risk management options, a new urban ag office, and mentorship and education support for urban farmers are also part of the bill.

An extensive review of urban agriculture literature was published by the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future in May of 2016 titled Vacant Lots to Vibrant Plots: A Review of the Benefits and Limitations of Urban Agriculture . Compelling themes include:

• The face of agriculture is changing, and urban agriculture is one of the latest movements to challenge the traditional view of farming. From rooftop gardens to aquaponics centers in old warehouses to growing crops on abandoned properties, urban agriculture provides many benefits to a community, including closer neighborhood ties, reduced crime, education and job training opportunities, and healthy food access for low-income residents.
• Urban farms won’t feed entire cities — but the can provide residents with an additional source of healthy, low-cost produce.
• The social benefits of urban farming can be large, and when they are shared, the residents of the communities being affected by urban agriculture projects are not just consulted but fully empowered in leadership and decision-making to the greatest extent possible.
• Urban farming isn’t always more environmentally friendly -  some vertical farms, which are often touted as a sustainable option that use less soil and water, can use an enormous amount of energy, especially if they require artificial lighting. When designed right, urban farms can make some modest but valuable improvements to the sustainability of our food system.
• One little-studied aspect of urban farms is that they can teach us to appreciate food. They can reconnect people with how to grow food, and the practice of urban agriculture is most valuable for how it forces us to be more conscientious about the people who feed us.

Detroit has been a leader in urban agriculture over time, having been the first city in the US to offer urban farming programs to help the homeless and assist city residents facing economic hardships in the 1890’s (see Pingree’s Potato Patch Plan). In an economic analysis of Detroit’s food systems conducted in 2014, urban agriculture production in Detroit was estimated to be worth $3.8 M. In Flint, urban farming /gardening has long been a custom, dating back decades, reflecting resident’s resiliency and self-sufficiency in the face of years of economic disinvestment. In Flint and Genesee County, the Genesee Conservation District, in partnership with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, has managed a seasonal high tunnel cost share initiative in 2016 that has 29 new hoophouses contracted, 11 of which are in the City of Flint. In 2017, 25 new applications are anticipated. This is a very new set of urban growers who are in various stages of constructing hoop-houses through the High Tunnel urban initiative, some of whom plan to grow for sales, and will need technical assistance for growing, marketing and food safety. Partnering with Michigan State University Extension, the Genesee Conservation District and the Edible Flinturban agriculture organization, these new Flint area farmers will have the support they need for future success.

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. For more information, visit http://www.msue.msu.edu. To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit http://www.msue.msu.edu/newsletters. To contact an expert in your area, visit http://expert.msue.msu.edu, or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).

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Cornell Students Prepare To Become Leaders In Controlled Environment Agriculture

Cornell Students Prepare To Become Leaders In Controlled Environment Agriculture

With more than 9 billion people expected to be alive by 2050, feeding a booming global population means agriculture must respond with increased food production. In the U.S., greenhouses are increasingly being used to grow vegetables and herbs. Growers are taking advantage of controlled environment agriculture CEA as leafy greens, tomatoes, basil, and other produce are being grown indoors under conditions that can be monitored and optimized. To better prepare Cornell students to thrive in this innovative industry segment, horticulture associate professor Neil Mattson initiated a course in the fall on Hydroponic Food Crop Production and Management to teach the principles and practices of sustainable, commercial food crop production in CEA.

RELATED LINKS

• Cornell Controlled Environment Agriculture
• New course teaches cutting-edge food production (Cornell Chronicle)

Pegasus Agriculture Group and Kennett Township to Cooperate on Indoor Agriculture Hub

Pegasus Agriculture Group and Kennett Township to Cooperate on Indoor Agriculture Hub

SINGAPORE, January 23, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Today at Indoor Ag Con Asia, the indoor agriculture industry's premier trade conference, international hydroponics expert Pegasus Agriculture Group reinforced its recent decision to actively enter the US marketplace by announcing its intention to support a major public-private initiative to develop a global indoor agriculture production, research, training, and service hub on the US East Coast.

Plans for the hub initiative are being presented publically for the first time at Indoor Ag Con Asia today by Kennett Township, a municipality in SE Pennsylvania, the historic center of the US indoor mushroom industry. The initiative was developed by Kennett's Sustainable Development Office (SDO) with strong support from Kennett area growers and packers, regional economic development agencies, and regional agriculture, engineering, and business schools.  

Pegasus' public announcement of support for Kennett's initiative is the first by any indoor agriculture firm based outside of the Kennett area. According to Mahmood Almas, Pegasus' founder and chairman, "Kennett's initiative to develop a world-class indoor agriculture hub is not only visionary, but eminently practical. That's because Kennett, unlike most other areas, can leverage the extensive infrastructure of its historic indoor agriculture industry. That makes all the difference to Pegasus."

Michael Guttman, who directs the initiative for Kennett, explained that "Kennett currently produces 50% of the annual US mushroom crop - some 500M pounds of produce - all grown indoors year-round and delivered fresh every day with 48 hours of picking all across North America. We've already developed an extensive infrastructure to accomplish this that includes engineering, construction, maintenance, public utilities, cold storage, logistics, transportation, and of course a very experienced workforce. That infrastructure is largely crop-agnostic, so it can just as readily serve the needs of a 'green' indoor agricultural firm such as Pegasus, giving them a fast and easy way to enter the vast US marketplace we already serve at the lowest possible cost and risk."

"Kennett's extensive infrastructure alone makes it an extremely attractive location for us," Almas continued. "But that's only one facet of this initiative. Kennett is also working with a number of its world-class regional agriculture, engineering and business schools to develop a joint indoor agriculture research, training, and innovation incubator center in Kennett, designed to work closely with private production firms located in the area. This center, the first of its kind in a major production area, will be a major asset to the rapidly evolving indoor agriculture industry."

"We very much appreciate the active and public support of Kennett's initiative by Pegasus, a highly respected global leader in indoor agriculture," said Guttman. "In particular, we appreciate how our initiative ties in with Pegasus's global vision of creating a world-wide network of environmentally and economically sustainable indoor agriculture communities to ensure food security. Working with Pegasus and our other partners, our initiative can hopefully serve as a blueprint for developing a network of similar indoor agriculture hubs all around the world."

About Pegasus Agriculture Group

Pegasus Agriculture Group is one of the leading owners and operators of hydroponic farming facilities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Their head office is strategically located in Dubai, U.A.E. and serves as the headquarters for their growing global production and distribution network.

About Kennett Township

Kennett Township is a municipality in SE Pennsylvania, and historically the center of the 100+ year old US mushroom industry, with grows 500M pounds of fresh produce year-round exclusively in climate-controlled indoor facilities. Kennett Township is currently involved in a major initiative to diversify its economy by leveraging its extensive indoor agriculture infrastructure, workforce, and customer base to attract a new influx of 'green' indoor agriculture firms to its area.

For more information, please visit http://pegasusagriculturegroup.com

Pegasus Agriculture Contact
info@pegasusagriculturegroup.com
Dubai Office:
+971-4-818-8300

Farm Of The Future: What Grows In Las Vegas Stays In Las Vegas

Farm Of The Future: What Grows In Las Vegas Stays In Las Vegas

January 23, 2017 | 12:16 PM ET

SARAH FELDBERG

Urban Seed plans to grow 25 different crops, from bell peppers to beets to alpine strawberries, in high-tech greenhouses smack in the middle of Las Vegas.

Courtesy of Urban Seed

Every day, Border Grill restaurant at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas uses a case of tomatillos and at least a case of cilantro. The tomatillos go into dishes like the pozole verde, a spicy stew with chicken and hominy. The cilantro goes into the green rice, the guacamole, the Yucatan pork roasted in banana leaves and just about everything else.

"The Mexican kitchen is very produce heavy," says Border Grill co-chef/owner Mary Sue Milliken. A lot of the ingredients that she and partner Susan Feniger use most frequently also suffer the greatest in transit. Radishes, jicama, that delicate cilantro, they all die so fast, Milliken says.

Nearly every last piece of produce in the kitchen and on the plate at Border Grill's two Las Vegas locations comes from somewhere else. Most of it is trucked in from California — farm to table, with some freeway in between.

But as winter takes hold across the country, a new farm is working to change that. Come spring, Milliken and other chefs like her will be able to source fresh fruits and vegetables harvested blocks from the Las Vegas Strip.

Last July, Urban Seed broke ground on its first farm, an assemblage of high-tech greenhouses located on a small plot of land smack in the center of Las Vegas. Eventually the space will hold six 6,500-square-foot greenhouses that will produce 25 different crops, from bell peppers to beets to alpine strawberries.

If an agriculture company launching in the desert sounds counterintuitive, that's entirely the point.

"The whole world thinks Vegas can't grow food," says Rachel Wenman, vice president of Urban Seed. "We really feel that if you can grow food in Las Vegas, then you can grow food anywhere."

Urban Seed will be the largest local farm in terms of yield, but isn't the first company to attempt farming in the desert. An Australian farm made headlines last fall for growing produce using solar-powered greenhouses and seawater desalinated onsite. The Sahara Forest Project has constructed saltwater-cooled greenhouses in Qatar and is working on a new farm in Jordan. In Las Vegas, the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension has a one-acre outdoor research orchard, and Las Vegas Herbs grows hydroponic microgreens in a 5,000-square-foot greenhouse.

Urban Seed, however, is taking a different approach. The company's strategy for growing in Las Vegas, where summer temperatures regularly top 110 degrees and annual rainfall amounts to just over four inches, is based around a proprietary aeroponic system focused on producing large amounts of food using limited space and resources. The growing system layers plants vertically, but unlike the vertical indoor farms catching on in other cities, its Las Vegas location will be single story and will rely on the area's plentiful sunlight – not artificial LED lights.

To develop Urban Seed's technology, a team of growers and engineers spent years in research and development, testing various indoor farming methods like aquaponics and hydroponics. Eventually they arrived at their current model, where plants are stacked inside of A-frames and grown aeroponically, with roots suspended in the air and water and nutrients delivered via fog. Each varietal gets its own custom nutrient mix, a secret-sauce smoothie to mimic optimal growing conditions.

"They get the exact environment, the exact nutrients that they need," says Wenman.

Each A-frame is also a closed loop that recaptures and recycles excess moisture. While a conventionally grown head of lettuce uses about 13 gallons of water to reach maturity, in an Urban Seed greenhouse, lettuce will grow on just 22 ounces, based on testing of the technology at facilities in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Arizona.

Stacking the plants also maximizes growing space. In a 24-square-foot area, Wenman projects that Urban Seed will be able to grow more than 500 heads of lettuce in 30 days, compared with roughly 50 lettuce heads that might grow during that time on a traditional outdoor farm.

That number might sound hyperbolic, but it's actually pretty conservative when you compare it to estimates for vertical indoor farms currently getting lots of buzz. In Newark, for example, AeroFarms claims per-square-foot yields that are 130 times those of field farms.

"In the same amount of space indoors, you can raise 10 to 100 times what you can do outdoors," says Dr. Dickson Despommier, a professor emeritus at Columbia University and author of The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century. Although Urban Seed's founders call their model a vertical farm, Despommier – who literally wrote the book on the subject – doesn't think the term applies because its buildings in Las Vegas are single story.

The key benefit to growing indoors is the controlled environment: no variance in weather, water, temperature or humidity, no pesky insects, no pests raiding the field for free snacks. When that indoor farm is placed in an urban center, there's also no long-distance shipping, cutting down on the carbon footprint and allowing food to be harvested at peak ripeness, when it tastes the best and packs the most nutritious punch.

With about 42 million annual visitors and a local population of around 2 million, as a test market, Las Vegas is ripe for new sources of produce.

"The longer the produce has to sit in the field and then in the warehouse and then [go through] three or four middlemen and then, finally, getting into the hands of chefs, the more flavor that is lost along the way," says Border Grill's Milliken, who is part of Urban Seed's culinary advisory board.

When the company begins harvesting in spring or early summer, its first customers will be chefs who'll turn the morning's harvest into the evening's menu.

"Just by virtue of the proximity and the freshness it should be better than everything I'm buying, says Milliken. "Having that proximity gives us an opportunity for the flavor to be enhanced so much."

AFBF Entrepreneur of the Year is Vertical Harvest Hydroponics

AFBF Entrepreneur of the Year is Vertical Harvest Hydroponics

Goal of Vertical Harvest Hydroponics is to produce hydroponic vegetables in 40 foot insulated shipping containers.

Jan 20, 2017

Vertical Harvest Hydroponics of Alaska is the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Farm Bureau Entrepreneur of the Year. Team leads Linda Janes and Dan Perpich won AFBF’s Rural Entrepreneurship Challenge by beating three other teams from across the nation.

Janes and Perpich took home a total of $30,000 in prize money, including $15,000 from sponsor Farm Bureau Bank to produce hydroponic vegetables housed in 40 foot insulated shipping containers.

The four finalists each received $15,000 in October for advancing in the competition.

Levrack of Nebraska won the People’s Choice award with 73% of the vote. The award earned Levrack an additional $10,000 in prize money. Levrack produces efficient storage systems for farm shops. Members of the live audience at the finals competition and members of the general public voted online to select the People’s Choice winner. Ryan Stauffer, Austin Stauffer and Peter Miller were team leads for Levrack.

Windcall Manufacturing of Nebraska, led by Martin Bremmer, and Grow Bioplastics of Tennessee, led by Tony Bova, were the other two finalists who competed in the final round of the challenge in Phoenix.

The final four teams competed for the award by pitching their business ideas to a panel of judges before a live audience. The finalist businesses were chosen from 356 applicants.

The challenge, now in its third year, provides opportunities for individuals to showcase business innovations being developed in rural regions of the U.S. It is the first national business competition focused exclusively on rural entrepreneurs working on food and agriculture businesses. The top challenge teams were selected by 40 judges with expertise in business development, equity investment funding management, agribusiness lending and entrepreneurial coaching.

Semi-finalists in the competition were awarded $10,000 each in October, thanks to the sponsorship of Farm Credit Council. They are: Demeter Inc., Irwin, Ohio; Farmzie, Raleigh, North Carolina; Gardens 4 Education, Hanford, California; Inland Sea Company LLC, Ames, Iowa; Lowcountry Street Grocery, Charleston, South Carolina; and Performance Livestock Analytics Inc., Osage, Iowa.

“Entrepreneurs – whether on the farm or in the community – are the lifeblood of the rural economy,” said Todd Van Hoose, CEO, Farm Credit Council. “That’s why we’re excited to partner again with the Farm Bureau for the third annual Rural Entrepreneurship Challenge. This competition recognizes and awards the best and brightest start-ups focused on supporting rural communities and agriculture. We look forward to following the progress of these talented individuals and wish them the best.”

The top 10 challenge teams were selected by 15 judges with expertise in business development, agribusiness lending and entrepreneurial coaching.

Source: AFBF