Riding The Agriculture & Food Wave – Indoor Vertical Farming

Riding The Agriculture & Food Wave – Indoor Vertical Farming

Posted on May 11, 2017  by Leo Zhang

Following our recent blog post on alternative proteins, let’s take another look at the agriculture & food sector and touch on a related topic of sustainable food production – indoor vertical farming. Although vertical farming has yet to attract similar level of investments compared to alternative proteins, this space is certainly worth keeping track of as we expect more mega-cities to form over the next decade, and subsequently, the demand for a more sustainable food production system.

Below is a quick overview of what we are seeing in terms of innovators and investors, and for a close look at this space, please do get in touch with us at research@cleantech.com.

Hydroponics, Aquapoincs, and Aeroponics

There are three main types of vertical farming systems – hydroponics, aquapoincs, and aeropoincs. The hydroponic system grows plants without soil using mineral solutions in water, and it is the predominant system currently used in vertical farms. The aquaponic system combines a plant hydroponic system with indoor fish ponds. Finally, the aeroponic system grows plants without soil, and uses an air or mist solution to deliver nutrients. Examples of innovators include:

Who’s Interested?

We have seen the rise in the overall agriculture & food investment amount starting in 2014. Among this wave of investments, agricultural software, plant genomics, and even drones & robotics make up a large percentage of the total investment. Nevertheless, we have tracked a number of venture deals in the vertical farming subsector, particularly by early-stage investors.

For example, Bowery, a New York-based indoor produce grower, raised $7.5M in seed funding in April 2017. Participating early-stage investors include First Round Capital, SV Angel, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, in addition to a number of private angel investors.

Another notable example to highlight is Plenty, a California-based developer of vertical farms that incorporates AI, data analytics and IoT sensors, which raised an astonishing $26M in Series A funding earlier this year. Two noteworthy investors to highlight here – Bezos Expeditions (Amazon’s Jeff Bezos) and Innovation Endeavors (Google’s Eric Schmidt) – signify the growing importance of sustainable food production.

What’s Next?

As most vertical farm companies are still operating at a very small scale, it is expected that most of the funding has come from angel and seed investors. However, will the next wave of investments in this space come from corporate investors? Will vertical farming be able to scale up to massive food production systems?

We will certainly be keeping our eyes on this space. Let us know your thoughts via research@cleantech.com

This Company Is Bringing Gardening Into The 21st Century

This Company Is Bringing Gardening Into The 21st Century

Seedsheet, a Vermont-based agri-tech company, just made it to the eighth season of Shark Tank. The business accepted a US$500,000 offer from Shark Tank cast member Lori Greiner.

Founder and CEO Cam MacKugler cooked up the idea for Seedsheet while house-sitting on his co-worker’s 80-acre dairy farm. MacKugler’s background in architecture helped him realize that combining architecture and agriculture could help encourage city-dwellers to pursue farming. Seedsheet is a malleable sheet that has seeds already embedded in the fabric. The sheet can be rolled out on soil with minimal fuss in a matter of seconds, making planting a garden almost as easy as making your bed.

Seedsheet allows users to program their own virtual gardens online and then ships ready-made-gardens directly their homes. Users can choose their garden variety online by looking through options like “Caprese,” “Tacos,” or “Design Your Own.” The kits only require soil and water, and, according to MacKugler, can “help you put a Vermont Farm on your fire escape, stoop, patio, yard or rooftop.” The company’s mission is to promote better food transparency and availability by making it easy to grow food at home.

The sheets come pre-loaded with non-GMO seeds and range from US$15 to US$50. They are made with a weed-resistant fabric, which means the personalized gardens require no weeding.

Seedsheet launched as a campaign on Kickstarter and spread rapidly in its first 12 months. You can find Seedsheet at Home Depot or online.

Nation's Largest Commercial Hydroponic Greenhouse To Open In Monroe County

15 Acre Hydronov Aquaponic Greenhouse Comes to Rochester, New York

Clearwater Organic Farms LLC will soon start construction of a 15 acre (6.07 hectare) commercial leafy greens production facility in Monroe County, New York. The plans were announced by Governor Andrew Cuomo yesterday. The project will make use of Hydronov's leafy greens deep water floating raft technology and is estimated to create 137 new jobs. 

The state-of-the-art greenhouse facility is expected to be completed by the end of 2017. The production system is designed by Canadian manufacturer Hydronov. This company has developed similar commercial projects in China, Mexico, Canada, the U.S., Japan and France. Hydronov's system, that has a big focus on the use of automation, enables growers to operate a leafy greens production with 5 to 10 workers per hectare, depending on the type of crop and level of automation. 

The Hydronov system makes use of a high density system for leafy greens production. In close cooperation with suppliers like the Italian horticultural machinery company DaRos, the company has developed their own tray system that enables intensive automation from seeding, to transplanting, harvesting and packing. Most of the transportation in the system is done over water, instead of mechanical conveyors. 

At the new Clearwater Organic Farms facility, most of the jobs will be in packaging, shipping, receiving and warehousing. 55 of those jobs are reserved for veterans or those who are underemployed. In order to encourage Clearwater Organic Farms to build in the Finger Lakes region, Empire State Development has offered up to $4 million in Upstate Revitalization Initiative funding and $2 million in Excelsior jobs tax credits, which are tied to the commitment to create more than 135 new jobs. The total cost of the project is approximately $50 million.

"We are very pleased with the level of support that we’ve received from the State of New York, the County of Monroe and COMIDA to bring innovative and leading technology to the Finger Lakes Region", said Clearwater Organic Farms Chief Executive Officer, Phillip Theodor. "We’ll be providing pesticide free, fresh, locally grown and organic produce on a year round basis to the consumers in a 400 mile radius of the city of Rochester."

The new facility for Clearwater is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

It's A season of Renewal At A Farm In Downtown Salt Lake City

It's A season of Renewal At A Farm In Downtown Salt Lake City

By Sandra Olney  |  Posted May 5th, 2017 @ 7:31pm

SALT LAKE CITY — Signs of new life are popping up in gardens across Utah this time of year. And there's a different type of renewal taking root on a farm in Salt Lake's Depot District.

Urban farmer Nikki Long says, "I never used to like my hands to get dirty ever."

But Long has been digging deep into the soil over the past year.

"And now I am touching the dirt and I am planting lots of plants in the dirt," Long says.

Last August, Long started working on the Green Team Farm, a 1½-acre urban vegetable garden in downtown Salt Lake. And that is when Long says she started to feel like "there's a spiritual healing in here (the farm)."

It has taken a combination of faith and hard work to transform this once garbage-strewn vacant lot into what farm director James Loomis calls an emerald eden.

In fact, Loomis says his half-dozen female farmers "want to be here more often and work more hours."

Talking about dedication and perseverance in the face of tough conditions, Loomis says, "If you have any doubt about the work ethic of these women, you come work with me for a day."

The labor can be intense, but the women don't mind the challenging work. They've taken the produce operation through a growing season, a bitter winter and into spring planting. It's been a period of renewal for the farmers as well.

"This has been a great spiritual healing for me. I was so disconnected that just the minute I stepped on this ground, it was like amazing," Long says.

Loomis tells us he knows how to grow vegetables and other farm products easily, but his biggest challenge on the Green Team Farm has been cultivating a sense of pride and self-confidence in the gardeners.

"Growing people's mojo and self-worth, you know I'm still taking notes on how to do that," Loomis says.

Why? Because these women have been trying to dig their way out of homelessness for years now.

"It was real tough. I had to learn how to stand on my own two feet again," Long says.

Signs of new life are popping up in gardens across Utah this time of year. There's a different type of renewal taking root on a farm in Salt Lake's Depot District. (KSL TV)

And just like the green shoots of new growth on the farm, hopeful signs are popping up. Long and two fellow gardeners have moved into downtown apartments in the last couple of months.

"It makes me feel that I can start life again," Long says.

Loomis is excited about what he's witnessed. "I've seen miraculous change in every one of the participants that have stuck with us."

The Green Team Farm is the newest piece of a patchwork of programs designed to put the homeless to work while they find full-time employment and permanent housing.

"It makes me incredibly optimistic for the long-term vision of this farm," Loomis says.

The farmers are also paying their success forward. Everything they grow this season will be donated to a Headstart program for low-income pre-schoolers.

Long stands in the middle of the farm and tells us, "I was meant to be here. I didn't stumble this time, I wasn't forced to be here."

And now look at how she's grown. "I love the soil," Long says.

The Green Team farmers start their workdays with yoga and meditation. It's been life-changing for the women who often suffer from stress and anxiety.

This spring, Long is completing her training to be a power yoga instructor

Vertical Harvest Blazes Trail In Its First Year

Vertical Harvest Blazes Trail In Its First Year

Employees are working out operational kinks at 13,500-square-foot greenhouse downtown.

BRADLY J. BONER / NEWS&GUIDE

Kai Hoffman hangs tomato plants at the Vertical Harvest greenhouse. After one year operators said the greenhouse is about halfway to their goal of growing 100,000 pounds of produce annually. Though it has not turned a profit yet, they said farms usually take three years to do so.

POSTED: WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017 4:30 AM

By John Spina | 0 comments

When Vertical Harvest opened its doors to the public on May 26, 2016, it received national attention for its innovative design and business model. Communities around the world immediately started calling to figure out ways to replicate it.

There was just one problem: Vertical Harvest was still trying to figure it out for itself. Being one of the first of its kind required a constant trial-and-error process to get all the parts working together.

“There’s not a week that goes by where another community doesn’t contact us and say they want to replicate this,” said Nona Yehia, co-founder of Vertical Harvest. “We had a vision of how this would all work out, but that’s definitely still an evolution. I don’t think you can underestimate the fact that there is no playbook for this.”

The 13,500-square-foot greenhouse is state of the art. Each room acts as its own microecosystem, regulated to maintain the ideal heat, moisture, UV light and carbon dioxide levels for 35 crops so that they grow in the fastest, most nutritious and environmentally sustainable way possible, all year long, at 6,200 feet above sea level.

Figuring out how to get all the cutting-edge technology to work together, however, was a daunting task.

Lettuce short-circuited lights

During the first year Vertical Harvest had to replace tens of thousands of specially made Dutch LED lights because the recycled water splashing out of the rotating carousels carrying lettuce plants short-circuited them. It took four months to order new ones.

“Once we took care of the lights then the plants started getting heavier, and the ones that were next to the irrigation started creating their own little wetlands,” Yehia said. “So we had really big plants on one end and really little plants on the other end. We adjusted the irrigation system again, but that increased the splashing. Once we got that under control the plants got so heavy it started straining the carousel.”

Learning to farm in Wyoming’s severe climate was another hurdle.

“We had to go back to the source on everything,” she said. “What are the proper seeds, what are the proper labs to use, how can we have replacement material on hand? Just all of these different levels of learning. Then, once you think you figured something out, there are 1,000 different consequences to your success.”

Three years to make a profit

Having operated for a year Vertical Harvest is still working out the kinks, but the problems are becoming fewer and farther between.

Since the LED lights were replaced in January the greenhouse has quadrupled its lettuce production. The goal is to grow 100,000 pounds of fresh produce a year. Right now Vertical Harvest produces somewhere between 50,000 and 60,000 pounds a year.

“It’s definitely getting better,” said Tim Schutz, Vertical Harvest’s director of production. “It takes time because every crop that you run though that takes two months to grow, you learn one or two things how to make it better.”

The produce has provided needed income, but it hasn’t pushed Vertical Harvest into the black. Sam Bartels, Vertical Harvest’s head of business operations, isn’t too worried, saying traditional farms usually take about three years to make a profit.

“Honestly, if we didn’t have these issues it’d be almost insulting to the farmers who have been fighting the hard fight for years,” Bartels said. “If you put that 50,000 or 60,000 pounds to scale back to general agriculture it’s incredibly good, especially for a 13,500-square-foot greenhouse.”

While the farming aspect of Vertical Harvest has been challenging, its employment model, which focuses on hiring developmentally disabled people, has been a clear success.

“What I’m most surprised by is not the greenhouse’s effect on the employees,” Yehia said, “but the employees’ impact on the greenhouse.”

From the beginning Vertical Harvest’s co-founders Penny McBride and Yehia were intent on integrating disabled people into the greenhouses workforce. One year in, 17 physically or mentally disabled people are employed at least part time.

“In terms of stress this project has probably pushed us all to our limits at different points in time,” Bartels said, “and it probably will continue to, but the motivation and morale our employees provide to the team is really important and something we really want to share with other businesses.

“When it’s one in the morning and there’s something I want to do, I’m like, ‘Oh, get it together, Johnny needs this job,’” he said. “It really does change your work behavior. That’s why we all come into work.”

Critical to the operation

With roughly half of the staff having some form of disability, Caroline Croft, Vertical Harvest’s employment facilitator, said the young men and women have not only developed better personal and communication skills but also become critical to the greenhouse’s operations. Some have been promoted to managerial positions.

“One of our employees told me, ‘I love working at Vertical Harvest because I can be myself,’” Croft said. “We’ve got a young man working here who was changing sheets at one of the local hotels. It was a pretty solitary job, and if he had stayed in that isolated environment he would have gone inwards and become isolated.

“Now, working here, he literally can do every job in the greenhouse, from tour guide to retail workers to microgreens seeder to doing deliveries,” she said. “I’ve had old teachers, old labor providers, even his parents tell me it’s amazing how much he’s come out of his shell.”

Thanks to community support Vertical Harvest was given the chance to push the boundaries of agriculture. Adding social, educational and environmental aspects pushed staffers to their limits, but with a year of experience they believe they have accomplished something truly groundbreaking.

“It’s insanity,” Bartels said. “But it’s just the right amount of insanity. This is a world-first farm. I think the opportunities it presents for Wyoming as a state are great. This is like the tech boom for agriculture. Nine years ago this was just a concept.”

Cheevers beet sprouts at Vertical Harvest

Green butter-head lettuce at Vertical Harvest.

Tomatos at Vertical Harvest.

Growing Student Success - One Seed At A Time

GROWING STUDENT SUCCESS

One Seed at a Time

Taylor Pruitt is an agricultural business and hospitality innovation double major. She’s a busy sophomore involved in her sorority, taking in study groups and coffee breaks and Arkansas football games. But between classes, instead of heading back to her room or chatting with friends, Pruitt heads over to a shipping container where she spends around 20 hours doing one thing – farming lettuce.

Since August 2016, Chartwells has been growing lettuce in a shipping-container-turned-sustainable-farm called the Leafy Green Machine. The farm comes from an environmentally conscious, sustainability-minded company based out of Boston, Massachusetts, called Freight Farms.

Protected from temperature changes and other environmental disturbances, the refurbished shipping freight is a fully functioning hydroponic farm that uses a vertical growing system. With approximately 260 hanging towers, over 3,000 heads of lettuce are growing in the Freight Farm at any given time.

Inside the container, LED light strips provide crops with shades of red and blue – the light spectrums required for photosynthesis. A hydroponic system delivers a nutrient rich water solution directly to roots, using only 10 gallons of water a day. Energy-efficient equipment automatically regulates temperature and humidity in the Freight Farm through a series of sensors and controls.

Overall, the Freight Farm project has the potential to shorten the food supply chain, cut emissions, decrease costs, and overall, significantly reduce the campus’ carbon footprint.

After sliding off her backpack and switching off the LED growing lights for the overhead fluorescents, Pruitt begins her work. She examines the health of the heads of lettuce and replants sprouting seedlings that have moved on from germination. She checks the nutrient levels on the in-house farm monitoring system. If it’s time to harvest a crop of lettuce, she throws her hair back and starts slinging vertical growers around with a speed that can only come with familiarity.

Pruitt, along with Merrisa Jennings, another student worker, and Ashley Meek, nutritionist and staff manager of the Freight Farm project, all work in the farm during the week. They handle weekly harvests, un-racking vertical growers, removing the lettuce head, bagging it, replanting the rack with a new seedling, and repeating.

The entire project is funded by Chartwells Dining Services. Why pour funds and resources into a project like this? Growing student success.

12,716 HEADS OF LETTUCE HARVESTED

15 # OF HOURS SPENT IN THE FREIGHT FARM EACH WEEK

2 NUMBER OF STUDENT WORKERS

While researching new ways to incorporate sustainability-minded projects into food service on campus, Andrew Lipson, resident district manager for Chartwells at UARK, became intrigued with the idea of locally growing food on campus and distributing it to the dining halls. Lipson realized the Freight Farm project would also allow for Chartwells to bring students into the farming process.

“Of course we want to be able to reduce waste and shorten the food supply chain on campus – we’re always looking for innovative ways of doing that, but we also want to do is work with students,” Lipson said. “We want to bring them in however we can. I mean, we’re here to serve them. They’re the reason why we come into work everyday.”

Lipson said after securing the funding and space for the Freight Farm, it was time to find a staff.

“And then we met Taylor,” Lipson said. “She was this dynamic, energetic freshman we met at a hospitality fair at 8 a.m. in the morning on a Saturday. That shows some real initiative, especially from a student at that stage of their college career. We instantly knew she would be a great fit for the project.”

Lipson, Pruitt and other Chartwells employees travelled to Boston to train with Freight Farm staff members on how to maintain the farm and be successful hydroponic farmers. The two-day training consisted of technical skills and community development.

Outside of the environmental benefits of the Freight Farm and the delicious, leafy greens it brings to campus dining halls, the hydroponic farm is fostering a deep growth of interest in students for community engagement, food security, and social responsibility.

For Freight Farms the company, the main goal is to spread an awareness of the need for sustainable solutions to food systems and breed a kind of connectedness and engagement with the community on where it’s food comes from.

“We’re not just selling a product, we’re building a community,” Caroline Katsiroubas, director of marketing for Freight Farms said. “If we’re trying to decentralize the food system and put the power back into the hands of the smaller farmers, we have to invest in an infrastructure that will follow them throughout their journey. We want people to join the movement and push it forward.”

Katsiroubas said the company has always been interested in working with institutions of higher learning.

“The coolest thing has been seeing the enthusiasm and almost urgency to get Freight Farms onto college campuses,” Katsiroubas said. “There is such value to having a Freight Farm on campus because its not just the fresh produce – its having students interact with sustainable farming and engaging with locally grown produce. It allows the food to be attached to a larger story of community engagement.”

“I’ve always had an interest in agriculture. I grew up going to my grandfather’s farm and my dad had one too. So I have a real appreciation for the actual cultivation of plants. I take classes where I learn about plants and the science behind it, but working on the Freight Farm is a common ground between my two majors. It brings together agriculture in the way that food is produce and hospitality in the way that food is given to the consumer.”

Taylor Pruitt -Freight Farm Student Worker

With the global community concerned about the pervasive global warming, food, and water security issues, teaching students about sustainable food options is vital to building tomorrow’s innovators.

For Pruitt, her job working at the Freight Farm is a creative way to combine both of her interests of agriculture and hospitality.

“I’ve always had an interest in agriculture. I grew up going to my grandfather’s farm and my dad had one too,” Pruitt said. “So I have a real appreciation for the actual cultivation of plants. I take classes where I learn about plants and the science behind it, but working on the Freight Farm is a common ground between my two majors. It brings together agriculture in the way that food is produce and hospitality in the way that food is given to the consumer.”

This past year, Pruitt took an educational trip to India and interacted with food insecurity in a way she never had before.

“Being in India, it helped me get that bigger picture of what is going on in our world and what needs to be worked on,” Pruitt said. “I feel like working in the Freight Farm is me contributing to society and contributing in a way that I can use my knowledge, my information, my resources to contribute and make this world a better place.”

“We can’t live in a world where we have people dying of starvation. People are dying because we can’t figure out a way to provide food soon enough,” Pruitt said. “Working in the Freight Farm, participating in that community and spreading that knowledge, I feel like is one small way for me to make a difference.”

Pruitt said working the in the hydroponic farm day-to-day is giving her a real world connection to what she’s learning in the classroom.

“Actually working in a hydroponic farm makes it so real. That’s why I’ve been so thankful that Chartwells decided to invest in students. Chartwells has invested so much into me, and they want to make sure that students here get involved in things they’re passionate about,” Pruitt said. “Whenever they first told me about the Freight Farm, I was excited to work on the project but I wasn’t super passionate these environmental process or food security. But it’s become such a reality in my life, and it’s made me realize we really need to work more on projects like this and further this project so we can provide for people and help people provide for themselves.”

Not only is Pruitt working to build a more informed and sustainable community at UARK, she is building her resume.

“Professors would love to send kids for professional development and out-of-classroom experiences if they could, but they don’t have the money to do that. Chartwells has been able to hire students, giving me work while I’m in school,” Pruitt said. “I have to work to get myself through school, so I would have been working a normal part-time job. That job would have gotten me through, but it wouldn’t have given me a once in a lifetime opportunity like the Freight Farm project has given me. Other students don’t get to do this everyday. I feel so lucky and blessed that I’m a part of something like this.”

“The degrees that we offer here, whether it be biological engineering, horticulture, agriculture, cultural sciences and environmental sciences – all of these degrees would work really well with working in the Freight Farm. I think it gives them an alternative idea of what they could use their degrees for instead of the conventional go work on a farm or go to food processing centers. Those jobs are important and needed, but this gives them an option they might not have thought about before. It gives them a completely new area of study to look towards.”

Merrisa Jennings - Freight Farm Student Worker

In order to take better care of the environment and find a way to feed the hungry, farmers and scientists must get creative. Environmental solutions like the Freight Farm project might be one answer to the complicated issue of food insecurity and environment consciousness farmers and scientists face. Moreover, as the world becomes more urbanized, vertical farming like Freight Farms can be used to help meet the increasing demand for fresh local produce.

Merissa Jennings said working in the Freight Farm brought life to what she’s learning in the classroom and gave it a practical, real-world application.

“I took a class called Sustainable Biosystem Design this past semester. It’s all about making sure whatever you’re doing, whether it be building a bridge or building a power plant, from start to finish it comes from sustainably sourced materials with efficient designs,” Jennings said. “So this is something that touches home because the Freight Farm lives in a cargo container – Freight Farms recycled the container, the nutrients they give us come from reused or recycled materials, and it runs on very little energy and water.”

Jennings, a biological engineering and biochemistry double major, is graduating in May 2018 and heading off into a career that will involve graduate school, but ultimately a career in sustainable community development.

“The Freight Farm project definitely ties into what I’m learning in school, and then what I’ve noticed with all my experiences both here and abroad,” Jennings said. “Food is a huge necessity; I think we all can agree on that. One of the biggest environmental issues that we have is the way we are currently producing our food; it’s really, really damaging to our environment and our water systems. It’s also economically detrimental to us because the more fertilizers we have to keep adding to soil, the more it’s being drained of nutrients. And then because of all the crops we’re putting into the soil that fertilizer is going to start running off, and it has been running off into our water systems, making it more and more expensive for us to clean that water for us to drink it. The cycle for human implications is huge. This project just shows me that this is another way we can lessen our effect on our food crisis.”

Jennings is excited about what her future career in biological engineering and biochemistry and the possibilities ahead.

“I’m really interested in sustainable community development – plant genetics, bacteria genetics, yeast genetics. I want to go into either biofuels or food production or maybe even both, because with plants, you can mess with their genetics and make them better for food and fuel,” Jennings said.

“Let’s say, for example, with crops you can use corn stalks, the part of the plant that’s not edible, and turn that into biofuels. I could use genetics with the plants to make them a better food source. I can change the microbes that will be eating that corn stalk to be converted into biofuels. I can even change the corn stalks genetics so it produces a certain protein or make them more resistant to pesticide if that’s something that’s going to be used on the crops. The possibilities are endless and the impact is so great when you’re dealing with plant genetics.”

Jennings said students with a variety of majors in STEM could benefit from working in the Freight Farm.

“The degrees that we offer here, whether it be biological engineering, horticulture, agriculture, cultural sciences and environmental sciences – all of these degrees would work really well with working in the Freight Farm,” Jennings said. “I think it gives them an alternative idea of what they could use their degrees for instead of the conventional go work on a farm or go to food processing centers. Those jobs are important and needed, but this gives them an option they might not have thought about before. It gives them a completely new area of study to look towards.”

Jennings said she realizes the high-level science behind some of these processes turns students away from learning about agriculture and sustainability, but being able to bring students into the Freight Farm and tell students about it around campus really breaks down the barrier of entry.

“That’s the ‘wow’ factor, because bringing student in here who have no idea what the Freight Farm is, even if the students aren’t already passionate about sustainable food processes, showing them what we’re doing kind of breeds this curiosity and draws them in,” Jennings said. “We’re told to question everything during college and explore ideas we haven’t been exposed to yet, so I think its pretty cool that we’re able to introduce these ideas not just to already passionate, sustainability minded people but to the average student who wouldn’t have any idea about sustainable farming through the shipping container.”

“Not only did we want to give our campus fresh, locally grown produce, we also wanted to make it an educational experience. I feel like you’ve really established a great program for students now and we’re looking forward to continuing that.”

Ashley Meek - Campus Dietician

Ashley Meek, the campus dietician for Chartwells at the University of Arkansas and staff member in charge of the Freight Farm project, said the future of the Freight Farm looks like producing even more lettuce, maybe some different herbs as well, and potentially hiring more students and taking on interns.

“Not only did we want to give our campus fresh, locally grown produce, we also wanted to make it an educational experience,” Meek said. “I feel like you’ve really established a great program for students now and we’re looking forward to continuing that.”

The Freight Farm has consistently produced a harvest every week since August 2016. Meek said the consistency is not just because of the innovative engineering of the Freight Farm, but because of the dedication and hard work put in by the student workers.

“Taylor and Merissa’s two unique backgrounds come together so well, and so much of both worlds end up playing a role in our Freight Farm,” Meek said. “They’re the primary operators. They get to run it on a day-to-day basis. They both handle the nitty-gritty work that goes into hydroponic farming.”

Meek said she is proud of what the team has been able to accomplish and what they’ve been able to contribute to the campus food system.

“People want their produce from where they’re living and where they’re working. Being on a large campus where we serve over 10,000 meals, it can be a real challenge trying to source that much local produce,” Meek said. “The Freight Farm is one way we can start attacking that problem.”

The Freight Farm will continue to produce harvests over the summer, seeing new student workers come and put in work on the hydroponic farm, planting new opportunities to grow more student success.

Is Farming In a Box Viable, or Just a Fad?

Is Farming In a Box Viable, or Just a Fad?

May 8, 2017 | Trish Popovitch

Bed in a bag, soup in a jar, cake in a cup and now ‘farm in a box’? As many urban-ag-ers jump on the shipping container farm bandwagon that’s made inroads across the pro-grow community, some are wondering if the farm in a shipping container idea is really as cost effective and sustainable as it may at first appear. Hydroponics has proven a sustainable and reliable method for growing food in the city. Where concrete fields abound, so do vertical towers. Yet some would argue that a successful hydroponics system needs more than an upcycled shipping container to sustain success.

In states with short growing seasons and tumultuous weather, the idea of an indoor, self-contained growing unit employed to produce consistent and plentiful yields and steady revenue streams seems like the ideal solution for spreading sustainability, growing local and decreasing the impact of long established food deserts.Essentially, the typical farm in a box is an upcycled shipping container with approximately 320 square-feet of grow space outfitted with a custom hydroponic kit utilizing vertical growing systems. The farmer, or entrepreneur, who invests anywhere from $70,000 – $125,000 in a single farm unit has the potential to produce hundreds of pounds of leafy greens that he/she can sell to restaurant and wholesale customers, or at the farmers’ market. Some farmers have had success while others have

Nate Storey, founder of Bright Agrotech, the world’s leading manufacturer of vertical grow towers, believes in hydroponics and the water saving science that lies behind his highly successful product. Storey is not a fan of putting his growing containers in, well… shipping containers.

“So my opinion is that shipping containers are great for shipping things around the world and a serious compromise for anything else. I believe that container farming is possible, but shipping containers are the wrong way to do it,” says Storey.

Storey has no issue with the idea of a self-contained farm but every business needs room to operate effectively and for this reason, Storey finds freight containers too small.

“I’ve never known anyone with the patience or bankroll to grow in a freight container for more than a few years,” he says. “And given the fact that they depreciate very, very quickly compared to most other farms, shipping containers are a pretty questionable investment.”

As Storey explains, flexibility is a must in the container farmer’s world. Without room to grow, experiment and even expand, the container farmer is limited. “There are folks like Modular Farms selling containers that are larger than shipping containers and fabricated specifically for plant production. I think that those types of farms have a future,” says Storey. “Those are the types of container farms that will ultimately own the container market because they were designed with intent.”

Even with a preference for the larger container on the market, Storey feels warehouse space is still the best option for many. “Most growers growing in warehouses are doing quite well on the other hand, and warehouses are typically more valuable after years of growing/occupancy than they were before.  Folks are getting better yields because they have more room to operate and more systems flexibility,” says Storey.

In the world of sustainable agriculture, the desire, often the need, to be as sustainable as possible can cause issues. Repurposing can facilitate startups and demonstrate a commitment to bettering the planet through mindful growing practices. Yet sustainable businesses must be sustainable. If rapid expansion is necessary to facilitate the growth of a business, perhaps a warehouse makes more sense than a row of used shipping containers. If leasing warehouse space is not in the startup budget, perhaps a container farm would provide a temporary platform for a new brand. A chance for short growing season states, like that of Wyoming-based Bright Agrotech, to extend the growing season, farming in shipping containers needs careful planning to insure long-term success.

“Ultimately, I’m excited to see anyone farming locally, but we really need to be discerning about what is worth investing in and what is not,” concludes Storey.

Fresh Food By Prescription: This Health Care Firm Is Trimming Costs — And Waistlines

Fresh Food By Prescription: This Health Care Firm Is Trimming Costs — And Waistlines

May 8, 20174:43 AM ET

ALLISON AUBREY

BigFishDesign/iStockphoto/Getty Images

The advice to eat a healthy diet is not new. Back around 400 B.C., Hippocrates, the Greek doctor, had this missive: Let food be thy medicine.

But as a society, we've got a long way to go. About 1 out of every 2 deaths from heart disease, stroke and Type 2 diabetes in the U.S. is linked to a poor diet. That's about 1,000 deaths a day.

There are lots of places to lay the blame. Calories are cheap, and indulgent foods full of salt, sugar and fat are usually within our reach 24/7.

So, how best to turn this around? Consider Tom Shicowich's story. It begins with a toe. His left pinky toe.

"One day I looked down and it was a different color ... kind of blue," Shicowich says. And he began to feel sick. "I thought I was coming down with the flu."

The next day he was on the operating table. A surgeon amputated his toe, and it took two weeks of intravenous antibiotics to fend off the infection.

Registered dietitian Anna Ziegler counsels Tom Shicowich, who has Type 2 diabetes. Since enrolling in the Fresh Food Pharmacy program, Shicowich has lost about 45 pounds. His hemoglobin A1C level has dropped significantly.

Allison Aubrey/NPR

All told, he spent a month in the hospital and a rehab facility. "Oh, I tell you, it was a bad year," Shicowich recalls.

But this wasn't just bad luck. His toe emergency was somewhat predictable. Foot infections are a common complication of Type 2 diabetes — often due to nerve damage and poor blood flow, especially when the disease isn't well-controlled.

He racked up about $200,000 in medical charges from his toe emergency. The portion he had to pay out of pocket drained his savings account. "I did shell out $23,000 to the hospital, so that was a kick in the head," Shicowich tells us.

It was also a wake-up call.

Shicowich was more than 100 pounds overweight. He was was fighting nerve damage, high blood pressure and kidney problems — all complications of diabetes.

"So I knew it was time for a change," he told me. And last year, he found the help — and the motivation — he was looking for: a new food pharmacy program that has helped him overhaul how he eats.

Welcome to the food pharmacy

"Folks, good morning, and welcome to the ribbon-cutting and opening of the Fresh Food Pharmacy," intoned Sam Balukoff, the master of ceremonies at Geisinger Health System's recent debut of a new food pharmacy located on the grounds of a hospital in central Pennsylvania.

At this event, Shicowich was one of the stars of the show. Over the past year, he and about 180 patients with Type 2 diabetes have been participating in a pilot program aimed at getting them to change their diets and lose weight. They receive free groceries of healthy foods every week.

Shicowich has lost about 45 pounds, and he is now much more active.

The Geisinger Fresh Food Pharmacy is stocked with healthy pantry staples, like oatmeal and peanut butter, as well as fresh produce.

Allison Aubrey/NPR

Each week, Shicowich and the other participants come to the food pharmacy. In its new incarnation, it looks more like a grocery, with neatly stocked shelves filled with healthy staples such as whole grain pasta and beans. The refrigerators are full of fresh produce, greens, low-fat dairy, lean meats and fish.

The participants meet one-on-one with a registered dietitian. They're given recipes and hands-on instruction on how to prepare healthy meals. Then, they go home with a very different kind of prescription: five days' worth of free, fresh food.

Shicowich says it's a huge change from his old habit. "I would stop at a Burger King or a McDonald's or buy a frozen Hungry-Man dinner, basic bachelor food — you know, heat and eat."

But those days are over. Now, he and his girlfriend cook meals at home. He says now it's much easier to climb a flight of stairs or take a walk with his girlfriend.

"It's life-changing"

Shicowich's health has improved. His blood sugar and blood pressure have dropped so much that if he keeps on track, his doctors say they will reduce his medications.

"It's life-changing," David Feinberg, the president and CEO of Geisinger Health System, says of the results Geisinger has seen.

He says, so far, all the patients in the pilot program have made similar improvements. "It's mind-blowing," he says. And he says the range of support patients are offered — everything from dietary counseling to wellness classes and workshops — can help them succeed.

Take, for instance, the significant declines in patients' hemoglobin A1C levels. This is a blood test used to track how well patients with diabetes are controlling their blood sugar.

A year ago, Shicowich's A1C was close to 11. Now it's down in the high-6 range. Anything under 6.5 is considered below the threshold of Type 2 diabetes, according to the Mayo Clinic. Feinberg says this means that Shicowich — and other participants in the program — have a much better chance of avoiding many complications of Type 2 diabetes if they can maintain their A1C levels down in this range.

"[They] won't go blind; [they] won't have kidney disease, amputations," Feinberg says. "The list goes on and on."

Cheaper than paying for complications

When this program started, some questioned the premise of giving away free, fresh food to patients with diabetes. But keep in mind, the costs associated with diabetes in the U.S. now exceed $240 billion a year.

Once you consider that price tag, Geisinger's program can look like a bargain. Over the course of a year, the company will spend about $1,000 on each Fresh Food Pharmacy patient. All of the participants in the program are low-income, so the gift of the food eliminated a key obstacle to eating well.

Patients enrolled in the Fresh Food Pharmacy program receive about a week's worth of free, fresh produce and other healthy items.

Allison Aubrey/NPR

But would this lead to a reduction in health care costs?

Feinberg says as his team tracks hemoglobin A1C levels in the pilot participants, it is also assessing the number of medical visits and sicknesses along with the overall cost of caring for these patients.

It's still early days, and the team plans to fully analyze its first year of data. But here's what it estimates so far: "A decrease in hemoglobin A1C of 1 point saves us [about] $8,000," Feinberg says.

And many of the participants have seen a decline in hemoglobin A1C of about 3 points. "So that's [about] $24,000 we're saving in health care costs," Feinberg says. "It's a really good value." Geisinger is now in the process of expanding the program to new locations within Pennsylvania.

Is prevention medicine the future?

This program is an example of the booming interest in prevention-oriented medicine.

The current health care system in the U.S. is often more aptly described as a disease-care system. "It's reactive," says Mitesh Patel, a physician and assistant professor of health care management at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. "We wait until people get sick and then spend lot of resources helping them get better."

But Patel says there are signs this is beginning to change. "I think the paradigm shift has already begun," he told us. Patel's take on Geisinger's new Fresh Food Pharmacy program: It includes the kind of financial and social incentives that can help motivate people to make changes.

For instance, the Fresh Food Pharmacy gives free, fresh food not just to the patients enrolled but to everyone in their household as well.

"The way we behave is really influenced by others around us," says Patel. So promoting a group effort could "make the program a lot more sticky and more likely to succeed."

It's always a challenge to get people to maintain lifestyle changes over the long term. But, Patel says, "If you get the entire family to change the way they eat, you're much more likely to improve health."

A Coca-Cola truck drives past a Burger King in Northumberland County, Pa. More than 40 percent of county residents have conditions that put them at risk of diabetes, and 14.2 percent of households are food-insecure.

Allison Aubrey/NPR

The evidence that lifestyle-modification programs can reduce health care costs is starting to accumulate.

Earlier this year, researchers published findings in the journal Health Affairs that evaluated the medical expenses of Medicare patients with prediabetes. The patients had completed a one-year diabetes prevention program focused on healthy eating and increased physical activity. The researchers found, overall, the average health care savings was about $300 per person, per quarter — compared with patients who hadn't been through the program.

Freight Farmer Q&A: Tassinong Farms

FREIGHT FARMER Q&A: TASSINONG FARMS

APRIL 18, 2017

8 QUESTIONS WITH KATE HAVERKAMPF OF TASSINONG FARMS 

One of the best parts of being part of the Freight Farms team is talking to our freight farmers and hearing about their successes, their businesses, their customers, and their challenges. They are a wealth of information, so now we are sharing some of their stories with you! 

Kate Haverkampf of Tassinong Farms is providing the community of Crested Butte, Colorado with fresh produce year-round. In terms of location, Kate is one of our most extreme farmers, growing at an elevation of 8,885 feet. Crested Butte has less than ideal growing conditions, so the food available there is often shipped from hundreds to even thousands of miles away. Kate was motivated to start farming because she wanted to supply her region with local, fresh produce. We recently spoke with Kate about her experience as a freight farmer and the ways in which it has impacted her community. 

Freight Farms (FF): What, if any was your experience with farming before becoming a Freight Farmer?

Kate Haverkampf (KH): Before becoming a freight farmer, my closest connection to farming was the nine generations of farmers in my family. I spent holidays at my grandmother's, uncle's and godfathers' farms, played in the barns, wandered around the corn fields but never really did any actual farming. I was a real beginner!

FF: Who do you sell to and how do you sell to them?

KH: I sell to restaurants, bars, caterers and local residents within 20 miles of my farm. I like to stay "hyper-local." I have standing orders that are pre-arranged with restaurants and bars. My website offers residents the ability to order on a week to week basis. Caterers text, call or email me when they are looking to order.

FF: What kinds of crops do you grow?

KH: I grow different varieties of lettuce: Alkindus Butterhead, Muir Greenleaf, Coastal Star Romaine, Truchas Romaine, and Sylvestra Butterhead. I also grow Toscano Kale, Rainbow Swiss Chard, Sorrel and Edible Violets. Occasionally I experiment with new types of lettuce as well.

FF: What’s the best piece of advice you can give to people interested in becoming Freight Farmers?

KH: Three things: 1.) Give yourself at least one year to turn a profit and consider waiting if that timeframe seems too long. 2.) You are going to mess up and make mistakes, and that is okay. Give yourself six months to feel comfortable understanding the workings of the farm and Agrotek programming. 3.) Do not promise your customer specific yields when they first sign on based on what your farm should be able to grow. Commit to conservative yields while you're learning, and then once you become an expert you can increase what you can sell them. Issues will occur, and you don't want to be always calling them when you are newly operating and having to tell them you cannot deliver what you promised.

FF: What’s your favorite crop and why?

KH: Alkindus Butterhead - it is so yummy, crispy, colorful!

FF: How has urban agriculture improved or impacted the lives of people in your community?

KH: A great example is as follows: I have a friend with a four-year-old and a seven-year-old boy. Both boys and her husband don't like vegetables. Ever since they tried my mixed greens, the boys and the husband love salads and will only eat my mixed greens. That is a great example of why I am doing this. To get my local community to love greens again that are fresh, local and always the best quality.

FF: What are your plans for the future?

KH: We'll be adding two new farms to make a total of four by the beginning of summer 2017. We'll also be adding a retail storefront that will sell my product and other local produce. In the evening it will be a small wine bar and craft beer lounge where my product and other tasty appetizers will be served.

FF: What reaction do you typically get from people when you tell them what you do for a living?

KH: They have so many questions and are genuinely curious about how it all works. They especially like to learn that I transitioned to a new career and I think they feel inspired that they can do it, too, if they choose.

Make sure to follow Kate and Tassinong Farms on Facebook and Instagram for updates from the farm!

If you'd like to learn more about how Freight Farms is helping farmers grow food in regions across the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Caribbean reach out to us here.

Your Voice - Your Future - Your Opportunity

Dear Supporter,

Every five years, America's farmers and ranchers have the opportunity to represent ourselves, our farms, and our communities by taking part in USDA's Census of Agriculture—and 2017 is a census year!

For farmers and ranchers, especially young and beginning farmers and ranchers, participation in the 2017 Ag Census is a critical opportunity to shape American agriculture for years to come. The Ag Census is the only source of uniform, comprehensive, and impartial agriculture data for every county in the nation. NYFC relies on this data to advocate for you and for policies, services, and programs that support young farmers!

Please sign up to take the 2017 Census of Agriculture. Make sure you're counted! 

If you're new to farming or did not receive a Census of Agriculture in 2012, you MUST SIGN UP BY JUNE 30th in order to complete the 2017 Census. 

NASS defines a farm as "any place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the census year (2017)." To sign up, click the button below.
 

https://www.agcounts.usda.gov/cgi-bin/counts/

The census report form will not be mailed out until December 2017, but in order to receive it you MUST SIGN UP BY JUNE 30th. 

If you took the 2012 Census of Agriculture, you should receive the 2017 census without signing up again.

With thanks,

Lindsey Lusher Shute

Executive Director and Co-founder
National Young Farmers Coalition

 follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | follow on Instagram

Copyright ©  2017 National Young Farmers Coalition. All rights reserved. 

NATIONAL YOUNG FARMERS COALITION
PO BOX 1074, Hudson, NY 12534
 

 

 

AeroFarms Partners With 100 Resilient Cities – Pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation To combat Climate Change And Food Insecurity

AeroFarms Partners With 100 Resilient Cities – Pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation To combat Climate Change And Food Insecurity

AeroFarms, the world leader in indoor vertical farming announces a strategic partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities to combat climate change and food insecurity.

100 Resilient Cities - Pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation (100RC) helps cities around the world become more resilient to social, economic, and physical challenges that are a growing part of the 21st century. 100RC provides this assistance through: funding for a Chief Resilience Officer in each city who will lead the resilience efforts; resources for drafting a Resilience Strategy; access to private sector, public sector, academic, and NGO resilience tools; and membership in a global network of peer cities to share best practices and challenges.

Feeding a growing population while stemming the tide of climate change is a major challenge for cities all over the world and AeroFarms will offer its expertise in addressing these pressing issues to the 100RC members.

“We are thrilled to be able to offer our considerable expertise and experience to help make cities more food resilient and find effective and creative ways to address food security, and announcing this strategic partnership at the annual Seeds + Chips Global Innovation Summit in Milan, Italy where Milan is one of the 100 Resilient Cities is the perfect way to kick off this program as we look to build responsible farms all over the world” said AeroFarms CEO David Rosenberg.

AeroFarms joins a prestigious group of other “Platform Partners” that have committed to helping cities around the world prepare for, withstand, and bounce back from the ‘shocks’ – catastrophic events like hurricanes, fires, and floods – and ‘stresses’ – slow-moving disasters like water shortages, homelessness, and unemployment – that are increasingly part of 21st century life.

“In an increasingly complex and challenging world, cities need partnerships with leading companies like AeroFarms to help build a global resilience movement particularly for food security, just when it is needed most,” said Michael Berkowitz, President of 100 Resilient Cities.

Strategic Platform Partners are dedicated to providing 100RC network cities with solutions that integrate big data, analytics, technology, resilience land use planning, infrastructure design, and new financing and insuring products. Other 100RC Platform Partners include Microsoft, The World Bank, Ernst & Young, Siemins, Cisco, The Nature Conservancy, Save the Children, and World Wildlife Fund.

For more information, visit: www.100ResilientCities.org.

About AeroFarms

Founded in 2004 and having built 9 farms to date, AeroFarms® is on a mission to fundamentally change the way the world thinks about agriculture by building, owning, and operating indoor, vertical farms that grow flavorful, safe, healthy food in a sustainable and socially responsible way. AeroFarms patented indoor vertical farming systems make year- round harvests with peak flavor possible while disrupting the traditional distribution channels that lead to massive carbon emissions and food waste. AeroFarms is able to bring the farm to the consumer while mitigating the food safety and environmental risk of commercial field farming.

Harris County Pushes Vertical Farming Course

Harris County Pushes Vertical Farming Course

By Mihir Zaveri

Published 10:57 am, Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Staff

Sprouts grow at Moonflower Farms, which uses hydroponics and is Houston's first commercial indoor vertical farm.

Harris County wants to develop a training program on indoor, vertical farming as part of its effort to reduce childhood obesity in north Pasadena.

Commissioners Court this week approved an agreement with the non-profit Association for Vertical Farming to develop a one-semester course that could be taught at an indoor farm in Pasadena. The county has been working with the city of Pasadena to set up the effort.

"The purpose of the training is to teach students and residents about the science and technology of various methods of producing healthy food," county documents state.

The county will pay the association $25,000 for implementing the course.

The industry is extremely small in Texas and the Houston area. But it could be growing.

Internationally, vertical farming has garnered more interest given concerns over population growth, food shortages, a lack of arable land, water supply and climate change. The market is expected to grow worldwide by more than 27 percent annually through 2022, according to Irish firm Research and Markets.

In March, Moonflower Farms became Houston's first commercial indoor farm. The compnay has a 900-square-foot space in south Houston.

County officials said nurturing workforce training in the agriculture technology field could help further understanding of healthy food, in turn reducing childhood obesity in the "food desert" of north Pasadena, according to backup materials provided to Commissioners Court.

Vertical Farm Competes With Conventional AG

Vertical Farm Competes With Conventional AG

 MAY 10, 2017 DAVID KUACK

Famgro Farms is using a vertical farm production system to successfully compete with conventional farming to produce healthier, better tasting food.

Steve Fambro, CEO at Famgro Farms in Oceanside, Calif., isn’t your typical farmer. And his “farm” isn’t the typical agricultural operation. It’s located in a 10,000-square-foot building that was previously used to make surf boards.

Prior to starting Famgro Farms, Fambro, who is an electrical engineer by training, raised $30-$40 million to start electric car company Aptera Motors in 2006. While working at Aptera, Fambro and his wife converted to an organic lifestyle.

“After buying organic produce for a few years I started asking myself why are these products so expensive?,” Fambro said. “I determined a large part of the cost of organic farming is the labor, including the weeding, tending to the plants, etc. I hypothesized that if we could think about things differently and design from the ground up with scale and automation in mind, then we could lower the cost of food. That was really the genesis of Famgro Farms.”

Steve Fambro, CEO of Famgro Farms, developed a vertical growing system that he said is more efficient than greenhouse and field food crop production. 
Photos courtesy of Famgro Farms.

Building a better production system

Fambro, who left Aptera in 2009, started Famgro Farms in 2010. His goal was to produce a premium line of pesticide- and herbicide-free food.

“We don’t sell hardware. We don’t sell technology. We don’t sell farms. We sell the best food consumers can buy,” Fambro said. “We deliver on that promise of fresh, local, chemical-free, always in season and always available.” In order to realize his aspirations, Fambro said a completely new production platform had to be developed.

“We had to design and manufacture every component of it,” he said. “Trying to use off-the-shelf products like lighting and hydroponic systems wasn’t going to work.

“In systems engineering, which is my background, you have to think about everything from how is the electrical power delivered to the building to how it is delivered to the circuit boards. Looking at off-the-shelf components, they become a nightmare when connecting all of the parts in a system. From a system’s engineering perspective, whether it is cooling, water-proofing or serviceability, all of it has been designed to work together.”

Fambro said it took three generations of designing and building a vertical farm platform over a 2-year period to come up with an operable system.

“We are currently using the third generation platform and each one was radically different, better and cheaper than the previous platform,” he said. “That’s a rule of engineering, from concept to production usually takes three reps. “The vertical farm platform we developed has been designed to easily change between a substrate and a hydroponic system. The one we are currently using is a hydroponic system.”

Famgro Farms is growing some microgreens and herbs, but kale is its bread-and-butter crop.

Deciding what to grow

Fambro said his company has grown about 100 different kinds of leafy greens, herbs, flowers and pharmaceutical plants in the vertical farming system.

“The platform is easily adapted for many different plants, both flowering and food crops,” he said. “Right now our focus is just on food items. We went through a phase where we had to stop developing the platform. We proved that it worked and had to develop a brand around this locally-grown, chemical-free food.”

Initially Fambro said his company began with too many crops.

“We would contact retailers and offer them five different kinds of basil,” he said. “They didn’t know which one to buy and they ended up not buying any of them. We pared our offerings down to something that we thought we could grow better than anybody else. The one crop we chose to focus on was kale. Our kale, which we have branded as “Sweet Kale”, is tender and sweet. These characteristics are immediately observable to the consumer. The different kale varieties that we grow are as soft as lettuce. We’re also growing some microgreens and herbs, but the kale is our bread-and-butter crop.”

Famgro Farms sells half of its produce to grocery stores and the other half to restaurants. Retailers of Famgro’s products in southern California include Whole Foods Market, Barons, Cardiff Seaside Market and other local grocery stores.

Famgro Farms promotes its products as being free of pesticides and herbicides.

Addressing food production issues

Fambro said the businesses and consumers purchasing his company’s produce are mindful of labels and environmental issues.

“Most of the lettuce produced in the U.S. is coming from California and Arizona,” he said. “The biggest user of water in California is the agriculture industry. People identify with water use and conservation. They want to know if they can buy a brand that is mindful of the environment, mindful of using no chemicals and mindful of workers’ rights. Customers care about those issues.

“The way we produce leafy greens in this country is broken. The system is so labor intensive. That method of production is not sustainable.”

Fambro said his company has plans for expansion, but that expansion won’t occur in California.

“We are in the heart of “America’s Salad Bowl”,” he said. “If we can compete here, and we do, then that is a real testament to how our company’s technology works. We are able to compete with produce that is grown in fields 100 miles away. That whole value proposition becomes even more powerful the further away one gets from California. If we can compete with cheaper produce, more of which is being grown in Mexico, that validates our model.

“We are producing food and delivering it at the exact time and in the quantities that our customers want it. We are radically simplifying cold storage and the logistics. If you compare production systems, ours might use more electricity than greenhouse or field farming, but you have to consider the total energy use. That includes the energy used to create the fertilizers and other chemicals applied in field farming and the energy in the form of fuel used in tractors and other harvesting equipment. If you add all of that up, our vertical farming system is more efficient and more sustainable.”

Vertical Farms Are Green—And Growing

Vertical Farms Are Green—And Growing

AeroFarms is bringing innovation to Newark's Ironbound section and growing salad greens in vertical farms without the use of soil or sunlight.

By Shelby Vittek | May 9, 2017 | Appears in the May 2017 issue

Photo courtesy of AeroFarms.

Newark has a new growth industry—literally.

AeroFarms, an indoor agriculture company, moved to the Brick City from upstate New York in 2015. In April, it expanded into a new facility, the company’s ninth farm and its new global headquarters, repurposing what used to be a steel mill on Rome Street in the city’s Ironbound section. At nearly 70,000 square feet, it is the world’s largest indoor vertical farm.

Vertical farming means growing crops indoors in stacked beds. “This is a new way of farming, and it’s really redefining how we can bring local produce to the cities,” says Marc Oshima, a Morristown native and cofounder of AeroFarms. Oshima, CEO David Rosenberg and scientist Ed Harwood started the business in an effort to address global concerns over food shortages and hunger.

In its original New Jersey location, a 30,000-square-foot indoor vertical farm on Ferry Street, AeroFarms has grown arugula, kale, watercress, mustard greens, red romaine, bok choy and other baby salad greens—all without soil or sunlight.

AeroFarms uses an innovative agricultural method known as aeroponics to grow greens year-round. Plants grow indoors beneath LED lights on a cloth made from recycled water bottles that anchors their roots. Below the cloth, roots are misted with the exact amount of nutrients and water they need. It’s all done without pesticides and with 95 percent less water than traditional farming. It’s more efficient, too: The same seed that takes 30 to 35 days to mature outdoors takes just 12 to 16 days at AeroFarms.

The Ferry Street vertical farm is located in a former warehouse that more recently served as a paintball and laser-tag center. The interior is still decorated with spray-painted neon messages. “Come throw your next party,” screams one wall. Says Oshima: “We’ve intentionally left it up to remember what it was and how we’ve been able to repurpose it.”

A few miles away, students at Newark’s Philip’s Academy Charter School get hands-on experience cultivating greens on an AeroFarms growing bed in their dining hall. The students grow and harvest the greens for use in the school’s salad bar. Last spring, then first lady Michelle Obama visited these young urban farmers.

Beyond educating students and supplying the Newark area with fresh, locally grown produce, AeroFarms has created jobs for more than 115 people. According to Oshima, 85 percent of the AeroFarms team lives within 15 miles of the farm; 40 percent of the staff lives in Newark.

The most rewarding part of the job for Oshima is providing the community with responsibly grown produce. “We open our doors here every Wednesday and set up a farm stand,” he says. “People come in and have access to freshly harvested produce. We always sell out. It’s been tremendous to see the response.”

The company’s salad-greens brand, Dream Greens, sells for $3.99 per package at ShopRite locations in Newark and Bloomfield and at the new Whole Foods in Newark.

Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones: Four Years In

Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones: Four Years In

By Eli Zigas, Food and Agriculture Policy Director

May 1, 2017

Photo by Eli Zigas

The Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones Act will turn four years old this fall, and the California Legislature is now considering extending its statutory life. Conceived in 2013, the act — also known as AB 551 — allows cities and counties to provide landowners with a property tax deduction in exchange for committing their land to urban agricultural use for at least five years. When it was passed, the bill included a sunset provision that would stop any new property tax reduction under the program in 2019, unless the legislature voted to extend it. This session, the legislature is considering a 10-year extension to allow the existing programs more time to develop and give other jurisdictions more time to start incentive programs.  

SPUR was a strong supporter of the original legislation and supports its extension as well, as the program provides a way for some urban agriculture projects to have another avenue to access land and secure land tenure.   

Since its passage, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Jose and Santa Clara County opted into the program and passed local laws establishing urban agriculture incentive zones. San Diego, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oceanside and Chula Vista are currently in the process of establishing their own zones or considering doing so.

The impact of the legislation has been more modest than anticipated. SPUR contacted all the jurisdictions that had urban ag incentive zones earlier this year and found four parcels across three cities that were currently under contract. For the city gardens and farms on those sites  — including the 18th and Rhode Island Garden in San Francisco and Valley Verde in San Jose — the incentive is providing either access to land or a greater sense of land security than the gardens otherwise might have. For cities and counties, the loss in property tax revenue has been minimal — in all but one case less than $7,000 per year. The fact that only a few property owners and projects have taken advantage of the incentive, and that jurisdictions continue moving forward on implementation, supports the idea of giving the program more time to see how the programs develop.

The extension bill —AB 465 — has already passed the Assembly Local Government and Agriculture committees with unanimous support. It now moves to more committees in the legislature and, if successful, to the governor’s desk in the fall. Given the low cost of establishing urban agriculture incentive zones and the continued interest from advocates and cities, extending the program through 2029 makes sense and SPUR is hopeful that it will pass.

Urban Farm And Mortgage Firm Latest In Line For N.J. Tax Breaks To MoveTo Camden

Urban Farm And Mortgage Firm Latest In Line For N.J. Tax Breaks To MoveTo Camden

Updated: MAY 9, 2017 — 6:45 PM EDT

 VIA AEROFARMS.COM                                                                                 AeroFarms Vertical farm

by David O'Reilly, Staff Writer  @doreillyinq |  doreilly@phillynews.com

Two very different New Jersey businesses -- an online mortgage broker  and an urban farming operation -- are in line for  sizable tax incentives from the state’s Economic Development Authority this week to locate operations in Camden.

E Mortgage Management LLC of Cherry Hill  is awaiting word on a Grow New Jersey Assistance Program Grant that would award it $23.6 million in tax incentives over 10 years if it relocates and builds in Camden.

AeroFarms Camden LLC is seeking a similar grant of $11.14 million over 10 years to build an indoor hydroponic farm in Camden modeled on its operation in Newark, which its website calls the “world’s largest vertical farm.”

The EDA is scheduled to vote on both applications at its Thursday meeting in Trenton.

AeroFarms did not return a request for comment Tuesday, but its website says it grows “leafy greens and herbs” in a 70,000-square-foot urban building “without sunlight, soil, or pesticides.”  Nutrients are misted directly onto the plants’ roots, which are illuminated by LEDs.

The company has been operating since 2015 in Newark, where it grows watercress, bok choy, kale, arugula, red-leaf lettuce, and other baby salad greens. Its process is, according to AeroFarms, “130 times more productive than field farming.” The Newark operation current employs about 60 workers.

E Mortgage’s president and chief operating officer, Kevin Crichton, said Tuesday that his company, with operations in 35 states, had been in discussions with the EDA for more than a year. “We feel pretty hopeful,” said Crichton. “We’re told that if it makes it to the board for a vote, it’s got a good chance.”

Crichton said his firm, which projects $1.5 billion in loans this year, became interested in the tax benefits of relocating to Camden when it saw the sizable incentives the EDA has awarded to other South Jersey firms, including Subaru, New Jersey American Water Co., and Holtec.

Created in 2002, E Mortgage leased 12,000 square feet of office space two years ago at 3 Executive Campus in Cherry Hill, and soon expanded to 17,000 square feet. Crichton said the company, which has about 100 employees, is looking to about double the office space it has now.

But Camden’s waterfront, which Holtec, New Jersey American Water, the 76ers (for their practice facility), and Sun Bank now or will soon call home, has already become too expensive for E Mortgage, according to Crichton. He said  the company was looking instead to build along the Admiral Wilson Boulevard, near Campbell Soup and Subaru’s corporate offices.

“It’s a much better environment than it once was, and it’s really convenient,” said Crichton, who cited PATCO trains, NJ Transit, and Routes 30 and 676, which he said should make the new offices accessible for its current workforce.

He said the company chose not to relocate to the Navy Yard or Florida because it wanted to stay in New Jersey.     

The tax credits are contingent on the companies’ making capital investments, and on the retention and creation of a certain number of jobs. They are paid annually over a decade after the companies complete construction.

Read more by David O'Reilly

Published: May 9, 2017 — 6:45 PM EDT

Bespoke Produce? New Farming Venture Tweaks Veggies to Suit Needs

Bespoke Produce? New Farming Venture Tweaks Veggies to Suit Needs

By Andrew Amelinckx on May 9, 2017

Bowery's indoor farm                                                                                                                 Bowery

You can get bespoke suits, shoes, and furnishings. Now, Bowery, a new indoor hydroponic farming venture based in New Jersey, is offering the same for greens and herbs. Think of it as ‘bespoke’ produce.

Bowery, which officially launched at the end of February, is housed in a repurposed Kearny, N.J. warehouse. They grow vertically using hydroponic methods and LED lighting. The company bills itself as a “seed to store” venture, and currently grows more than 80 different greens and herbs like baby kale, basil, and arugula. Their products are sold at select Whole Foods Markets in the Tristate area, and at Foragers market grocery stores in New York City. What sets Bowery Farms apart from the myriad other indoor farms that are popping up these days is their ability to adjust specific flavors in their produce.

Irving Fain, Bowery‘s cofounder and CEO, likens it to wine terroir. Just as the environmental conditions in which grapes are grown—things like an early frost or a hot summer—affects a wine’s taste, the same can happen with their greens. And since Bowery has total control over their growing environment—unlike the farmer who is growing outdoors, in the elements—they can reproduce the conditions that will affect the plants in the specific way they’re looking for.

According to Fain, various factors, such as light intensity and quantity, or the types of nutrients a plant receives, impact a crop’s flavor profile. Bowery uses proprietary technology—an operating system they call the “BoweryOS”—to automate growing and tweak these different factors in order to optimize for certain characteristics like texture or spice.

The BoweryOS uses an array of sensors, including cameras, to monitor the plants and their climate, amassing millions of data points on the variables that affect the growth, taste, and other attributes of a plant. The operating system can then direct the farm’s hardware to make the changes.

“The taste of produce is a response to the environment they’re grown in.” Fain tells Modern Farmer. “And so being able to do that means we can move different environmental variables, different nutritional parameters, even the spectrum of the light itself, which all have different effects and impacts on the taste and flavor of the plant and even on growth itself.”

Among the company’s clients are celebrity chef Tom Colicchio, who features Bowery’s produce in his New York City restaurants Craft and Fowler & Wells. The restaurateur was so taken by the company’s vision that he also became an investor and advisor.

Fain says the company isn’t just about creating delicious produce, it’s about developing a scalable model that will be able to efficiently and sustainably provide fresh food to a growing global urban population in the coming decades.  He points to a quickly growing population—an estimated 9.6 billion by 2050, with about 70 to 80 percent of those people living in cities. Fain believes he and his cofounders David Golden, who has a background in finance, and systems engineer Brian Falther, have come up with a longterm model to help deal with these issues since they use 95 percent less water than traditional farms and can produce crops 365 days a year without the use of any pesticides. Additionally, their model can be easily replicated in any city in the world, according to Fain.

“There’s a need for what we’re building at Bowery in cities across the country and across the world. We’re already at work on our next farm that’s going to be in the Tristate area and we certainly have plans to expand nationally and internationally as well,” says Fain

28 Inspiring Urban Agriculture Projects

28 Inspiring Urban Agriculture Projects

Around 15 percent of the world’s food is now grown in urban areas. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), urban farms already supply food to about 700 million residents of cities, representing about a quarter of the world’s urban population. By 2030, 60 percent of people in developing countries will likely live in cities.

At Food Tank, we are amazed by the efforts of hundreds of urban farms and gardens to grow organic produce, cultivate food justice and equity in their communities, and revitalize urban land. Urban agriculture not only contributes to food security, but also to environmental stewardship and a cultural reconnection with the land through education.

The Urban Food Policy Pact (UFPP), to be signed on World Food Day, will address the potential of cities to contribute to food security through urban agriculture. A technical team of 10 members organized physical and virtual workshops with many of the 45 cities participating in the Pact, and drafted a Framework for Action that includes 37 provisions covering the themes of governance, food supply and distribution, sustainable diets and nutrition, poverty alleviation, food production and food and nutrient recovery.

“The 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognize the importance of building sustainable cities,” says Maurizio Baruffi, Chief of Staff of the Mayor of Milan, Italy. “The City of Milan is partnering with urban areas around the world to embark on this journey, starting from food.”

Do you want to discover urban agriculture projects in your own city, or are you interested in visiting farms during your travels to new urban areas? Check out these inspiring projects, and find even more links to urban agriculture projects below.

Abalimi

Abalimi is an urban agriculture and environmental action group located outside of Capetown, South Africa. The organization supports and assists groups and individuals looking to improve their livelihoods through organic farming.

Alternatives’ Feeding Citizenship

A nonprofit that promotes social and environmental justice in Montreal, Canada, Alternatives’ Feeding Citizenship is growing healthy food to fuel healthy communities. The project engages the community through horticultural training programs while supporting school and neighborhood gardens.

Baltimore Urban Gardening with Students  (BUGS)

An after-school and summer program, BUGS provides children from low-income neighborhoods in Baltimore, Maryland with a safe place for learning. Kids can garden, visit local farms, and try new foods while improving math and reading skills as well as exploring creative entrepreneurial projects.

Camino Verde

Located in Puerto Maldonado, Peru, Camino Verde’s mission is to plant trees and encourage environmental stewardship through educational programs and public awareness. The project’s Living Seed Bank acts as a botanical garden with over 250 tree species and protects endangered varieties. Camino Verde has planted over 70 different fruit trees, 40 flowering species, and enough trees to cover seven hectares of land.

Canberra City Farm

Serving communities in Canberra, Australia, Canberra City Farms is dedicated to establishing learning hubs where people can collaborate and share their knowledge of sustainable and environmentally responsible food production.

Compost Pedallers

A 100 percent bike-powered compost recycling project in Austin, Texas, Compost Pedallers strives to reduce waste, strengthen the local food system, and connect the community with farms. Residents can sign up to redirect organic waste to local farms and gardens through the bicycle-powered network.

Detroit Dirt

Detroit Dirt is a compost company that helps complete the “circle of life” in food production by regenerating waste into resources. Through partnerships with community coffee houses and local businesses, the organization is hoping to instill a self-sustaining culture of recycling organic waste and provide a valuable resource to urban farms and gardens in Detroit.

Ferme de Paris

A municipal organic farm nestled in an expansive park, Ferme de Paris provides the public with vegetable gardens, orchards, medicinal plant gardens and a number of farm animals housed in sustainably-constructed buildings. City residents can even stay to volunteer if they want to.

Fresh & Local

Fresh & Local is looking to use urban agriculture to improve the health and wellbeing of Mumbai. The organization takes underutilized spaces and transforms them into places of community empowered food production.

Frisch vom Dach (Fresh from the Roof)

An aquaponics project starting on the rooftop of a former malt factory in Berlin, Germany, Frisch vom Dach uses nutrients from aquaculture to irrigate plants in a mostly closed loop.

Green Machine Mobile Food Market

A collaborative project among a number of organizations in Memphis, Tennessee, the Green Machine Mobile Food Market uses a bus to deliver fresh fruits and vegetables to almost 400 customers in the food deserts of South Memphis.

Grignon Energie Positive

Grignon Energie Positive, located in Paris, France, is an experimental farm run by the AgroParisTech program for sustainable development. The farm is working to reduce energy inputs by developing techniques that minimize its carbon footprint while growing enough organic food to feed between 5,500 and 8,000 people annually.

Grow City

Grow City is a nonprofit in San Francisco, California that works to amend the way people consider the division between urban and rural to build a “more secure, sustainable, and fair” food system.

Huerto Tlatelolco

An edible forest in Mexico City, Mexico with 45 tree varieties, a seed bank, and a large section of bio-intensive gardening, Huerto Tlatelolco was created with the objective of building the local community.

La Finca del Sur

A nonprofit farming cooperative in the South Bronx, New York, La Finca del Sur is led by Latina and black women. By empowering minority women through economic and food stability, the project is contributing to social and political equity in an underserved area.

The Last Organic Outpost

The Last Organic Outpost is a research farm that teaches sustainable agriculture techniques to residents of Houston, Texas. The project targets underserved areas and supports local farmers so they can develop a safe, healthy local food economy.

Local Sprout

An urban farm in San Antonio, Texas, Local Sprout grows fresh fruits and vegetables year-round using a hydroponic growing system. The project aims to contribute to food security, provide education, and reduce environmental impact.

Marathon Urban Farm

Marathon Restaurants, a small, sustainably minded chain in Philadelphia, now sources its fresh, organic produce from Marathon Urban Farm. The farm is revitalizing urban land and providing workshops on cooking and composting.

Mazingira Institute

The Mazingira Institute provides training and support for urban farmers in Nairobi, Kenya. The NGO has trained about three thousand urban farmers and organized youth and women’s hubs.

Natural Sound Agriculture and Craft Education

Natural Sound Agriculture and Craft Education is a private enterprise that offers educational opportunities about agriculture and food crafts to increase knowledge about urban gardening, sustainable agriculture, and traditional skills like beekeeping, mushroom growing, and brick-making.

O’Hare International Airport Urban Garden

At the Rotunda Building of O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, 26 vertical, aeroponic towers house herbs, greens, and tomatoes. The project also raises animals that mow the property’s lawn.

Pasona O2

An urban farm in Tokyo that grows over 100 types of produce indoors, underground, and on the exterior walls of the nine-story office-style building, Pasona O2 has been described as technologically intensive.

The People’s Potato

Located in Montreal, Canada, The People’s Potato is a neighborhood collective providing garden and greenhouse space for community members. Volunteers grow and distribute organic produce to the surrounding community and distribute vegan meals through a food bank. The People’s Potato maintains an educational program in the form of monthly workshops and an affordable Good Food Box program.

ReVision Urban Farm

ReVision Urban Farm is a community-based urban agriculture project that grows nutritious, culturally appropriate food for residents of its family home and the Boston community. The project also teaches locals about healthy eating and offers job training for youth and the homeless in the area.

Roosevelt Row Growhouse

Roosevelt Row Growhouse is a revitalization initiative from two artists that transformed a vacant, dilapidated property into a learning center for urban desert vegetable farming, sustainable living, healthy eating, and edible landscaping in Phoenix, Arizona.

SoCal Urban Farms

An urban farm and San Diego-based company that creates and distributes small-scale vertical gardens, SoCal Urban Farms aims to help anyone produce sustainable and healthy food, even with minimal space and poor soil.

Urban Farms of Central Ohio  (UFCO)

A nonprofit organization formed by the Mid-Ohio Foodbank, UFCO transforms vacant or under-utilized land into community gardens to generate a sustainable source of food stability for underserved communities.

The Washington Youth Garden (WYG)

WYG is a community garden that teaches science, environmental stewardship, and nutrition to youth in Washington, D.C. through hands-on gardening experience.

These are just a few examples from a cornucopia of urban agriculture projects happening in these cities. To learn more, read the full lists here:

• Austin
• Baltimore
• Berlin
• Boston
• Charlotte
• Chicago
• Columbus
• Dallas
• Detroit
• Frieburg
• Houston
• Memphis
• Mexico City
• Montreal
• Mumbai
• New York City
• Paris
• Philadelphia
• Phoenix
• San Antonio
• San Diego
• San Francisco
• Tokyo
• Washington DC

What innovative urban agriculture projects are getting started in your city?

Hydroponic Farm In Lakewood, Colo., Takes Next Step

Hydroponic Farm In Lakewood, Colo., Takes Next Step

Photo courtesy Infinite Harvest |

The room Infinite Harvest grows food in look pink because only red and blue lights are used during photosynthesis.

Before 2002, Tommy Romano's life plans were not necessarily Earthly.

He was at the University of Colorado studing for his master's in aerospace engineering. His thesis was on ways to grow food in space.

But man still has yet to land on Mars, so Romano thought, why not tru this technology on Earth, first?

It took a lot of trial and error and growing food in his basement, including ears of corn. And in January 2015, Infinite Harvest began.

“The traditional ways aren’t fulfilling (the holes left by problems). If we held to the same traditions of farming ... we’d still be riding horses right now. We’re helping it take the next step.”

Infinite Harvest is an indoor hydroponic vertical farm. Currently the farm in Lakewood, Colo., grows 13 microgreens and lettuce. A week ago, when the Denver-metro area was hit with rain, hail and snow, the crops at Infinite Harvest weren't even touched by the elements.

TECHNOLOGY

That's the beauty of growing vegetables in an indoor hydroponic vertical farm — the weather is controlled by technology.

"We don't actively manage a lot," said Nathan Lorne, operations manager. "We really rely on her."

The "her" in this scenario isn't a human, but the greenhouse control system. A box containing machines and wires takes notes on everything that happens in the greenhouse.

The system controls how much water and nutrients the plants get, the temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide levels — anything that can and will affect the plants.

And, if something goes wrong, the control system will send a message to someone so they can come in to fix it.

The room doesn't have any natural lighting, only blue and red spectrum lights are used because that's all the plants need for photosynthesis. They go through day and night cycles.

One you leave the room, everything has a green hue to it because your eyes overcompensate after only seeing two hues of light.

The other lights just waste energy, which is against the goals of Infinite Harvest.

A tech-based farm might sound like it's just wasting energy, but the way the control system is set up, the farm actually pays about six times less than marijuana greenhouses pay in electricity costs each month. When it comes to energy comparisons, marijuana is the best comparison because both grow crops are grown indoors.

Another concern that Lorne said hydroponic farms raise is the amount of CO2 released.

But the system controls the amount of CO2 that is released at all times.

'BEYOND ORGANIC'

Lorne said one of the benefits of having an indoor farm is having complete control over what the plants are exposed to. Even more important for them, though, is what the plants aren't exposed to.

Before going into the farm, a person enters an air cleanser room. Air is circulating and that is where hair nets, hats, shoe covers or specific farm shoes are put on. This helps prevent some unwanted outside elements from getting in. There are traps that attract bugs to keep them from going in, too.

Because there aren't bugs or anything else in the farm, aside from what is planned, Infinite Harvest doesn't have to use genetically modified plants and there is no need to use pesticides.

Even organic farms use natural products to get rid of weeds or pests. Infinite Harvest doesn't have to.

Even with the organic trend, Romano said there aren't plans to apply to be organically certified because he thinks the "Colorado Proud" label means more.

And, "We're beyond organic," Romano said.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD

There are a number of worries and problems farmers face, and Infinite Harvest looks to find solutions for them, Lorne said.

"Everyone here loves the romance of traditional farming," he said.

Romano said the purpose of this farm is not to compete with traditional farming. In some ways, it is an ongoing science experiment. Because indoor hydroponic vertical farms are a fairly new, some of the technologies are on the expensive side.

But the energy saving measures the company is able to do even that out.

Romano said they're looking to expand, but they don't want it to be a big leap from what they're doing now. They want to take lessons learned and improve upon them a little at a time.

"There is no textbook," Lorne said.

That's something any farmer can relate to. As technology changes on farms, there's always an experimental phase before the technology becomes widely used.

That's why Romano doesn't see Infinite Harvest as a competing entity, but as the next forward step in the industry.

"The traditional ways aren't fulfilling (the holes left by problems)," Romano said. "If we held to the same traditions of farming … we'd still be riding horses right now. We're helping it take the next step."❖

— Fox is a reporter for The Fence Post. She can be reached at (970) 392-4410, sfox@thefencepost.com or on Twitter @FoxonaFarm.

Can Hydroponic Farming Be Organic? The Battle Over The Future Of Organic Is Getting Heated

Can Hydroponic Farming Be Organic? The Battle Over The Future Of Organic Is Getting Heated

By Dan Nosowitz on May 4, 2017

Aqua Mechanical on Flickr

Last month, the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) met in Denver, Colorado to discuss what might be the most hotly-debated subject in all of eco-agriculture: What, exactly, does "organic" mean?

The organic label is worth about $40 billion a year. An organic farmer can charge as much as twice the price for the same item—and work very hard for the ability to do so.

The United States is unlike most countries (or regions, like the EU) in that our organic certification can legally be extended to crops that are not grown in soil. Hydroponic and aquaponic produce is, typically, grown in perpetually-flowing water in which nutrients are dissolved, and in the US, some farms using these methods can be certified organic. Proponents of the hydroponic organic certification say that their farms can be more energy- and water-efficient than soil-based farms, that they can reduce transportation costs by being built basically anywhere (including indoors, smack in the middle of cities), and that they can be just as sustainable and eco-friendly as any traditional farm.

The other side—the side that wants organic certification to be restricted to soil-based farms—sees hydroponic organics as a victory for a spooky sort of agriculture controlled by corporations that perverts the very soul of the organic movement.

What does the NOSB, which is in charge of actually making this decision, think? They’re not sure yet. They determined in Denver that they have more questions than answers, and that they’ll need more data before making any decision. For now, hydrorgranics remain legal.

First, some background

Hydroponics and other technologies like it have captured the imagination of farmers for decades; the technologies enable young farmers, increasing numbers of whom live in cities, to create hyper-local farms that actually produce solid yields. Some systems incorporate big fish tanks—tilapia is a popular choice—which are strung together with the plants to create an ad-hoc sort of ecosystem.

“It’s a very natural-type system,” says Marianne Cufone, executive director of the Recirculating Farms Coalition. “It’s mimicking nature, where the fish do what they do in the water to live and breathe, and they create nutrients in doing so, and those nutrients then are taken with the water to the plants, and the plants absorb the nutrients they need to live from the water, cleaning the water for the fish.” It is, basically, a high-tech artificial pond—a closed-loop system where the fish help the plants and the plants help the fish. And we can eat both the plants and the fish.

These sorts of farms are gaining traction; most cities have a few. Many of them are too small to really be commercial—maybe they’re educational farms, maybe they’re startup-y experiments, maybe they’re an outpost of a restaurant or other facility that doesn’t rely on the farm as a sole source of income. Fact is, they’re popping up more and more.

Cufone represents these farmers, who put a lot of energy into making sure their farms are sustainable and ecologically sound. They reduce their water and energy use as far as possible, they use only accepted fertilizers and nutrients, and if they must use pesticide they’ll only use accepted organic varieties. Describing her own farm, Cufone says, “We have an open-air system, so we have natural pests and natural pest controls. We have bees and butterflies and helpful insects that keep away pests and so forth.”

In her view, Cufone and farmers like her embody the spirit of sustainability and responsibility that customers look for in an organic product.

…But not everyone agrees

“I feel bad for those [small] operations, that they’re getting wrapped up in this debate, but they are not the problem,” says Linley Dixon. Dixon is the chief scientist for the Cornucopia Institute, a group that represents small farmers and has become a major voice in opposition to hydro-organics. Cornucopia firmly believes that the organic certification should go only to farmers who grow in soil.

Their argument against hydro-organic agribusiness is multi-fold. First is their belief in the inherent superiority of soil-grown produce. Kastel repeatedly cited the superior flavor and nutritional content of soil-grown vegetables. (That last part is up for debate; there’s yet to be scientific consensus on whether organic food is more nutritious than conventional food. The former claim varies based on crop.) Cornucopia also believes that the concept—the soul, if you will—of organics isn’t just about the singular crop: it’s about the the ecosystem, the environment, and the planet. Proper soil-based organics ensures healthy soil for generations, allows for thriving communities of beneficial insects, and, in turn, an entire ecosystem around them. Organics is about the planet beyond the pepper, they say.

It’s probably worth pointing out here that Cornucopia repeatedly claims hydro-organic farms are “illegal,” while the hydro people repeatedly state that they’re following the letter of the law. Frankly, it’s too much of a tangle to go into: both sides make compelling legal arguments, but the real battle is not really about which side is, say, bending to abstraction a bunch of minor rules about nutrient sourcing—it’s about money and soul. But probably mostly money.

“This is like Soylent Green in the shape of a vegetable.” —Mark Kastel, cofounder of Cornucopia.

Cornucopia made it a point to say that they approve in spirit of small, sustainable hydro producers like Cufone; they think that stuff is cool, or at least cute. But they do not believe it should ever be labeled organic.

The organic label is worth about $40 billion a year. It is monstrously huge business, which is the only reason many farmers put up with the equally huge amounts of red tape it takes to actually get the certification. An organic farmer can charge as much as twice the price for the same item—and work very hard for the ability to do so. So while the organic standards were designed to reward the most conscientious of farmers, what it’s also done is entice less-conscientious corporations into hitting the bare minimum in order to rake in that sweet organic cash. This is all legal at the moment, keep in mind; Cornucopia is fighting to strengthen the restrictions on organic farmers, in a way that would box out those who, in their mind, are unworthy of the organic label.

The chief villains, to Dixon and Cornucopia, aren’t small timers, like rooftop farms in Brooklyn or progressive vertical projects in Chicago. It’s gigantic agribusiness corporations, chiefly Wholesum Harvest and Driscoll’s. Both of those companies have gigantic organic hydroponic businesses, selling tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, peppers, and berries, which are grown, in some capacity, in hydroponic greenhouses. “It’s almost science fiction, Dan, to say that we want all of our food grown in these hermetically-sealed buildings,” Mark Kastel, the cofounder of Cornucopia. told me. “This is like Soylent Green in the shape of a vegetable.” Kastel believes that these companies are not in the spirit of the organic movement and are thus deceiving customers who have a vision of organic produce coming from ethical farmers, harvested by ethical farmers in ethical overalls covered in ethical dirt.

Hydro-organics often does not include any outside interaction with the planet at all, being less spooky than Kastel thinks they are but no less hermetically sealed. When I presented that to Cufone, she protested. “Not all aquaponic systems are entirely closed,” she says. “For example, the system that we run, we take some of the solid fish waste out and use it on in-ground growing. A lot of people do multiple forms of growing on a farm.” But the current law doesn’t require any of that to earn the certification.

“I think adding new labels dilutes the USDA organic label, and I also think the whole ‘separate but equal’ thing hasn’t worked so well in the United States over the years.” —Marianne Cufone, Executive Director, Recirculating Farms Coalition

The bigger argument is about money, as the end of most arguments are. It is extremely easy for a hydroponic farm to transition to organic; all they need to do, as Kastel says, “is turn a valve.” (Basically, just replace any banned nutrients or fertilizers with permitted ones.) Turning a conventional soil-based farm into an organic farm is much, much more involved; you have to allow the soil to recover for three years before you can call your food organic.

That enables big business like Wholesum Harvest to pump their low-cost organics into the market, boxing out smaller, older producers. And there’s no way to tell the difference between hydro-organics and soil-based organics; there’s only one label, and it just says “certified USDA organic.”

What about a new label?

I offered a few possible solutions to this issue, all of which…failed. What about a totally new label, I asked both Cufone and the folks from Cornucopia? Say, USDA Certified Sustainable Hydro, with totally new rules for what makes a truly sustainable and ecologically-friendly hydro farm. Has a nice ring to it, right? Cornucopia said sure, who cares, they can do whatever they want. Cufone, though, wasn’t into it.

“No,” she said flatly. “Because USDA organic is the thing, it’s the thing that consumers know, and I think it’s really important for it to be the significant label in the United States. I think adding new labels dilutes the USDA organic label, and I also think the whole ‘separate but equal’ thing hasn’t worked so well in the United States over the years.” Whoof.

Okay, how about this genius idea of mine: USDA Organic Hydro. Again, separate rules, and a new label, but it has the word “organic” in there. Cufone thought this was a great idea. The Cornucopia people, not so much.

“It’s pretty telling that they want to steal our word,” says Dixon. Cornucopia does not want any farm besides a traditional operation wherein crops are planted in the Earth to have access to the word “organic,” in any way. That includes hydroponics, aquaponics, rooftop farming, container farming, all of it. “We’ve worked really hard for this word, and it means something, and they want it, and it’s not theirs,” says Dixon. “Let them build it for 30 years, like the organic farmers did.”

For Cornucopia, any use of the “organic” word is, yes, a perversion, but also not enough of a differentiation; considering how lousy the state of agricultural education is in this country, Cornucopia worries that people won’t much care about the difference between “organic” and “organic hydro.” And then they’re in the same position they’re in now: being boxed out by a bunch of techy corporations.

So where do we go from here?

There is no conclusion on the future of organics. It is a complete mess. Without proper education to ensure that customers know or care about the difference between conventional, organic, hydroponic, sustainable hydroponic, and who knows what else, as well as stricter rules to ensure that those labels actually mean what customers think they mean? We’re stuck with basically what we have, which is kind of a free-for-all.

Both sides have a point; both the Cornucopia folks and Cufone want the farmers they represent to be recognized and paid for her dedication to sustainability. How to ensure they both get what they deserve? There’s no real solution. That’s what the NOSB is grappling with. As to when they’ll make a decision? Any decision at all? We have no idea.