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Cultivating Farmers
Cultivating Farmers
The nation’s first USDA-recognized urban agricultural fellow program yields nine budding entrepreneurs who want to connect city residents with the power and profit that can rise from the ground | Photos by Jay Paul
January 8, 2018
Fellows Kamala Bhagat and Sonia Allen examine some scarlet queen turnips in Tricycle Gardens' hoop house at RVA Urban Farm in Manchester.
Alex Badecker, a VCU biology graduate who has worked for years in the food industry, has spent the past year planting and pruning on Tricycle Gardens’ 1-acre urban farm in Manchester — and that work has given him the confidence to attempt making a living off Creighton Farm, a 2-acre property that he purchased in eastern Henrico.
Alex Badecker
While a member of Tricycle Gardens’ inaugural class of urban agricultural fellows, Badecker has held open house days on his farm and has invited the public to help him form beds, plant cover crops and lay irrigation. On pick-your-own-produce days, he’s sold carrots, squash and eggplant.
“I want to bring people out and show them what you can do with 1 or 2 acres,” says Badecker, who completed the fellowship program in December.
A Dream Realized
Tricycle Gardens’ Executive Director Sally Schwitters developed the Urban Agricultural Fellowship because many of the nonprofit’s volunteers and interns did not have technical farming skills. With classroom sessions and fieldwork, the fellowship program is educating a new generation of urban farmers through the wisdom of an aging farming workforce.
The program has been a longtime dream of Schwitters. Financial support and participation by experts from Virginia Tech, The Rodale Institute, Bon Secours and the U.S. Department of Agriculture meant that a formal 41-week program could be developed. The fellowship also helped Tricycle double its staff and increase its production.
“Growing [food] is a magical process,” Schwitters says. “I love sharing our knowledge and sharing that feeling and opportunity. That is the root of my motivation. We don’t want to be a nonprofit that grows food for everyone; we want to grow farmers who localize food for everyone.”
“Healthy communities are always at stake, especially in the urban areas,” says Albert Walker, Bon Secours’ director of healthy communities. Based out of the Sara Garland Jones Center, where the fellows meet, he serves as a liaison with the program. “We need grocery stores in the city, yes. But putting farms in urban areas is one step closer toward healthier communities.”
Mark Davis
Because low-income urban communities are so detached from fresh produce for economic reasons or because of the perception that healthy food is for the rich, Mark Davis, another member of the Tricycle Fellows, views this as a public health problem, what he calls nutricide.
“The community is convinced that farmers are poor,” Davis says. “I want to show them that farming is very viable as a [job] option. But you must know what you are doing.
I want to show them the money they can make growing and selling food.” Land acquisition is the biggest hurdle, he adds. “But farming is about problem-solving.”
Classrooms, Inside and Out
Over the course of the yearlong program, for about 20 hours every week, Badecker and the eight other fellows had many hands-on, hands-on experiences.
A highlight of the program for Badecker was coming together as a group on Fridays to participate in workdays at Tricycle — planting garlic, weeding or making compost. On weekends, the group visited area farms and urban agriculture conferences. They experienced the retail aspect of agriculture, harvesting and selling produce at markets. Finally, they developed business plans for their planned endeavors, which are both for-profit and nonprofit.
Badecker says he has always been into food and an outdoor person, but those interests hadn’t clicked until his experience with Tricycle.
“You can still be a farmer and be successful,” Badecker says. “People don’t understand that there is a lot of math and a lot of science and a lot of engineering involved in agriculture. All farmers are always designing and making something to use on their farms. No two farmers are the same. I’ve enjoyed meeting all the fellows. We’re so different, with such different backgrounds, with different ideas of what we are going to do. I’ve loved bouncing around our ideas of what we want to do and problem-solving things on the farm.”
Ash Hobson Carr
Fellow Ash Hobson Carr started planting herbs in her backyard to counter the hours she spent sitting and editing photos as a professional photographer. She was drawn to the physical work of gardening. She plans to start a seed-saving and medicinal-herb business.
“One highlight has been to meet all the amazing women farmers in the classes and field trips with an average age of around 58,” Carr says. “They have been so generous with their knowledge. They were figuring out how to do organic farming before there were books and networking.”
Davis wants to develop a market farm made up of quarter- and half-acre vacant plots throughout the city sown by city residents. Davis says his project addresses a crucial problem — the disconnect between urban youth and farming. He’s also not new to urban agriculture. As a student at Howard University, Davis started a community garden on campus to teach people about the beauty of eating food grown by their own hands.
A Plan and a Journal a Must
The fellow program was designed to teach students how to go from seed to sale as they mastered growing techniques, harvesting practices and farm-food safety. The inaugural group had varied backgrounds, from social justice to cosmetology, and they ranged in age from their mid-20s to their mid-40s.
“Agriculture is very regional. It is climate- and-soil specific,” says Chris Lawrence, a Richmond-based cropland agronomist with the USDA who works with farmers across the state. He taught the fellows about soil science. “The class I taught them was refreshing because you do not often think of farmers coming from an alternative angle, but we have a lot in common.”
Tricycle Urban Farm Manager Amy Wilderman
During a recent Tuesday morning classroom session at the Bon Secours’ Sara Garland Jones Center, Tricycle’s Urban Farm Manager Amy Wilderman quizzed the group on the tenets of crop rotation, soil nutrients and plant parts. She led a discussion on the differences in plant families and what makes plants heavy versus light feeders. Sometimes, she told them, farmers should not rotate crops.
“When you are maximizing small spaces, you have to have a plan,” Wilderman says, holding up a farm chart. “The plan will probably change, but you have to have a plan to start with. I’ve learned in past years to plan for the entire year in winter.” She also tells the group to use a farm journal to write about which crops do not work and record how each crop does each season.
“Take stock,” Wilderman instructs the group. “Then you get to dream about what you want to grow next.”
Through homework assignments, required journaling and a final exam, the fellows, Wilderman says, will ultimately have a firm business plan that they can potentially present to a bank.
A $400,000 grant from the USDA and support from Bon Secours were enough to provide each participant a full scholarship, pay for a new hoop house at Tricycle and cover the cost of speakers who focused on technical points. The grant funding also covers the 2018 fellows, and Tricycle staff fundraising is focused on continuing the program well into the future, with a vision to share it with other cities.
Walker says that Bon Secours’ involvement with the fellowship program connects with its mission to serve the community, but it also got him thinking that it’s a logical move to put in a garden next to the Sarah Garland Jones Center, with a rain catchment system to make it sustainable, and maybe even plant fruit trees.
For fellow Alex Badecker, his participation has allowed him to develop a solid crop plan for when he starts planting in 2018.
“I’m more confident that I will start next spring on the right foot.”
The Rest of the Fellows
SONIA ALLEN
Background: Co-founder of An Access In Food Inc., a Richmond nonprofit that aims to serve economically disadvantaged people through nutrition education and food access
Project: Wayside green spaces, gardens for restaurants and a teaching farm in Maine
Takeaway: “We were taught to plant properly by specifications instead of a hodgepodge.”
NICOLE BRODER
Background: Created a mobile farm on a truck as a student at William & Mary
Project: Establish and maintain rooftop gardens in the city, where space is at a premium
Takeaway: “I think my knowledge, especially about soil science, will be valuable and will benefit me through the years. Now I have a network of experts I can call on if I have a question.”
DANA WRIGHT
Background: A graduate of VCUArts who has worked in restaurants focused on the farm-to-table concept
Project: Create green spaces for businesses and restaurants, as well as teaching gardens
Takeaway: “A highlight of the year for me has been being on the farm and having a full-year experience — winter spring, summer, fall.”
MANDY YARNELL
Background: A degree in international studies from VCU and a decade in the food industry, plus alpaca farm experience
Project: Her farm, Owl Creek Heirlooms and Oddities, or OCHO, will offer exotic varieties of plants and animals.
Takeaway: “With urban agriculture, anyone can do it. Even in containers you can plant what you need.”
KAMALA BHAGAT
Background: Natural hairstylist
Project: She plans to open a natural beauty parlor in the city, with a garden that will act as the source of her hair products.
Takeaway: “I want to show people how important nutrition is in hair care, not just for consumption. In hair care, your scalp is like soil. Your scalp needs moisture and light.”
KITTIE STOREY
Background: Has taught gardening to teens at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden and now works at Little Green House Grocery. Was a Tricycle Gardens farm intern in 2012 and helped run the East End farmstand.
Project: Wants to use the knowledge she gained during the fellowship to implement agricultural education in public schools and community centers
The application period runs through Jan. 19. It’s for high school graduates who are interested in getting into agricultural work. Participants need to be prepared for physical labor and to be outside in variable weather. On Jan. 11, Tricycle is holding an open farm volunteer day for potential applicants from noon to 2 p.m., followed by an information session from 2:30 to 4 p.m. For more information, visit tricycleurbanag.org.
Urban Farm Flourishes in Former Akron Tire Plant
Urban Farm Flourishes in Former Akron Tire Plant
Vigeo Gardens is growing produce and success inside the BOUNCE, Akron's innovation hub at the former site of B.F. Goodrich tire plant.
Author: Amani Abraham
January 10, 2018
From farm to table, in the middle of the winter?
Vegetables and flowers are not something you’d expect to see growing anywhere in Northeast Ohio right now – let alone inside an old tire plant in Akron.
But that’s exactly what an Akron-based agricultural company is doing.
Jacob Craine, Vincent Peterson, and Mark Preston are the founders of Vigeo Gardens, which sits on the third floor of Akron's former B.F. Goodrich tire plant. The business can be easily spotted as it's custom-made blue and red LED lights transform its space into a magenta-like color.
"It allows us to grow a plant in a much quicker time than you would in traditional farming, as well as environmental improvements," Craine said. "We use about a tenth of the water a traditional farmer would use."
Vigeo specializes in growing hydroponic lettuce, hydroponic basil and microgreens. The produce is then sold to local restaurants in Akron, Cleveland and surrounding areas. The company recently landed a deal with Quicken Loans Arena to supply fresh produce to private chefs for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
"People are getting more conscious about what they eat and what they put in their body."
The concept of the farm began in Craine's basement where teamed with Peterson to begin growing microgreens. Vigeo soon emerged after time spent inside of the Akron Global Business Accelerator, also home to BOUNCE, Akron's innovation hub.
"We want to re-purpose old buildings like this, start in the Rust Belt and hopefully go across the country."
Your Next Salad Might Be Grown in a Recycled Shipping Container
Your Next Salad Might Be Grown in a Recycled Shipping Container
JANUARY 5, 2018, BY RICH DEMURO,
Salad greens from a recycled shipping container? One LA company is producing healthier, fresher tasting produce thanks to a mix of technology and good old-fashioned farming.
Imagine growing salad greens in the dead cold of winter. Thanks to a system being pioneered by Los Angeles based Local Roots, it can be done.
The company is building farms inside recycled shipping containers. You know, the type that used to carry electronics or other assorted goods across vast oceans. Now, they might be growing basil or kale inside.
I visited the company's warehouse just outside of downtown Los Angeles and got to see - and taste - what they're doing firsthand.
The containers are rigged with shelves that have little or no dirt. A combination of custom lighting, temperature and humidity give plants the perfect environment to thrive. But the brilliant part - these shipping containers can be moved or placed anywhere in the world.
This means that greens can be grown just miles from the restaurant that serves them. Local Roots tells me that their greens stay fresher for about 2 weeks longer than typical because they aren't traveling as far to be eaten.
As for the taste? I was impressed with the fresh, bold flavors of the lettuce I tried. Pretty crazy to think it was grown in a container that had a previous life hauling goods.
Right now, several restaurants in the LA area are serving up greens grown by Local Roots. The company is close to announcing a partnership with a national retailer where you'll be able to buy them in store. They are also hiring lots of smart people to help them in their quest of growing fresher food closer to home.
Reclaiming Our Cities, Starting From Food
Reclaiming Our Cities, Starting From Food
10 JANUARY 2018 MICHELA MARCHI
Over half the world’s people now lives in cities, an extraordinary statistic given that in 1900, just over a century ago, only 10% of the population was urban.
And the trend is continuing in the same direction: Predictions estimate that 75% of us will be city-dwellers by 2050. The roots of this anthropological upset lie in the very idea of progress, in that paradigm of infinite, rule-free growth that dominates the West: Modernity is by definition urban. The rural and natural are disappearing from our lives and everything that lies outside the metropolitan area is swallowed up and transformed into mere function, answering to the city’s needs, or rather adapted to the urban organization of the world. But could we rethink the urban fabric and the metropolitan area, starting from a recovery of that lost rurality? Could we imagine and above all design our cities in a way that recolonizes with greater humanity the spaces in which modernity lives?
Modernity has in fact forgotten to answer a fundamental question: If everyone lives in cities, then how will we be fed? Who will feed us? How is the food that arrives in our metropolises produced, distributed, sold, consumed (and shamefully wasted), now and in the future?
The industrial production model has in practice engulfed every aspect of our life, and most worryingly has relegated agriculture and rural areas to a marginal role, with a removal of the rural that is not only physical but also intellectual. This has progressed so far that agricultural areas are perceived and treated by urban and regional planning as “not yet urbanized” spaces. And yet until a few decades ago, the agricultural areas at the edges of cities had close links with the centers, and many areas inside the cities themselves were being cultivated and serving important functions such as maintaining the climate during the hottest season. These days the most common image we have of agriculture in cities is limited to urban food gardens, which, especially in Italy, tend to be “marginal” in all senses: often illegal and located along the edge of railway lines or in other degraded, peripheral areas. And environmental education often struggles to leave room for the multidisciplinary food education that could ensure children and young people get the training they need to interpret the world from different perspectives, prioritizing social and environmental aspects over purely productivist ones.
What has happened? And how can we reappropriate those spaces, rural identity and agricultural knowledge that would allow us to tackle the challenge of an urbanized future at the mercy of a dramatically changing climate?
Agriculture and Urbanization: A Common History
As architect Carolyn Steel writes in Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives, this process of urbanization began 10,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, when agriculture and urbanizationdeveloped side by side. It is no coincidence that these activities developed at the same time, she says. Cities and agriculture are linked and each needs the other. She outlines the subsequent course of history, as the domestication of wheat gave our ancestors a food source that allowed them to establish permanent settlements. The cycles of the harvest then went on to dominate life in cities throughout the pre-industrial era. Not only was food grown and reared within the city, but streets, squares and other public spaces were the only places where food was bought and sold. We need to imagine cities full of food, places in which it would be hard to ignore where your Sunday lunch came from, given that it had probably been bleating outside your window a few days earlier, as the picture of Smithfield in 1830 reminds us.
The birth of the railway and a food revolution
Only a decade later the railways had arrived, with pigs and sheep among the first passengers. Suddenly these animals no longer reached the city markets on their own trotters, but were slaughtered somewhere in the countryside, out of sight and out of mind. This changed everything. Cities were able to grow in every shape and direction, with no more geographical restraints limiting its growth and access. Just look at how London developed in the 90 years following the arrival of the trains, morphing from a small, compact, easy-to-feed cluster to a vast sprawling metropolis that would be very hard to feed if food was only being transported on foot or by horse.
With cars came the total emancipation of the city from any visible relationship with nature, and then the arrival of foodstuffs that made us dependent on unsustainable models, harmful to us and the planet: factory farms, monocultures, the indiscriminate use of pesticides, herbicides and synthetic fertilizers that leave the soil sterile, products that travel across continents, refrigerated and plastic-wrapped, consuming water and emitting greenhouse gases with terrible effects on the climate, the environment and our health.
What can we do about all this?
It is not a new question, and in fact Thomas More was already asking it 500 years ago in his Utopia, writes Steel. More describes a series of semi-independent cities, a day’s walk apart, where everyone enjoys cultivating vegetables in their gardens, and eats communal meals together. Another famous utopian vision is that of Ebenezer Howard and his “garden cities”: a similar concept of semi-independent cities surrounded by arable land and linked by railways. Attempts were made to make them a reality, but they failed. Carolyn Steel explains that there is a basic problem with these utopian visions, which is that they are utopian. More chose this word intentionally because it has a double derivation from the Greek: It can mean a “good place” (eu +topos) or a “non-place” (ou + topos), in other words an ideal, something imaginary that we can never have.
From Utopia to Sitopia
Instead, as a conceptual tool for rethinking human settlements, Steel proposes “sitopia,” from the Ancient Greek sitos (“food”) and topos (“place”). In order to think about the question of human cohabitation and how we want to see our urban future, we must realize that we already live in a sitopia, that our world is guided by food and that if we become aware of this then we can use food as a powerful and extraordinary tool. This process starts from knowledge, from educating people so that they can recognize what they are eating. We must rediscover markets and we must demand and put into practice policies that can renew a pact with the countryside. We must act on the food supply chain, valuing quality and encouraging direct sales, including in the restaurant industry, making sourcing easier and launching awareness-raising campaigns.
Many cities have already introduced urban agriculture programs to support food production: Ghent, for example, has involved restaurateurs in the spread of a local quality brand and the promotion of a vegetarian option on restaurant and café menus as well as in school cafeterias. Through the creation of 50 community kitchens, Vancouver is encourging neighbors to be more social and to cook together. Lusaka has involved local women in the development of a program to help them start their own food businesses, while Toronto has developed a strategy with local residents to come up with a list of healthy foods to be sold within affilitated shops located within food deserts.
We must look at how agriculture offers sustainable solutions to designing and living in cities, imagining food systems that take into account urban needs and lifestyles, but also and above all the challenges that the future holds for us. And the future can be imagined starting from the education of our children, our young people, starting perhaps with the cultivation of an educational food garden supported by serious food and environmental education programs that talk about prevention and health too. This process must necessarily expand to the entire surrounding area and region so that it is not reduced to mere administrative marketing.
Sources
“Food and the city,” Slowfood 44, February 2010
Research Outlines Interconnected Benefits of Urban Agriculture
Research Outlines Interconnected Benefits of Urban Agriculture
Led by ASU and Google, the study assesses the value of urban agriculture and quantifies its benefits on a global scale
January 10, 2018
From a vacant plot in a blighted neighborhood spring neatly combed rows of plants put in by the neighbors. They meticulously care for this small piece of land, and among the drab-looking buildings sprouts a patch of green. Cultivating the land may have started as a way to unite a neighborhood, to give pride to place, or it might be the project of a local high school to teach land stewardship.
The urban agriculture phenomenon has grown over the years for many reasons, each specific to the plot of land or rooftop it covers. While most of the benefits from these efforts seem to be limited and very local, when taken collectively the result is a significant environmental impact.
The Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis campus garden. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Now a team of researchers led by Arizona State University and Google has assessed the value of urban agriculture and quantified its benefits at a global scale. They report their findings in “A Global Geospatial Ecosystems Services Estimate of Urban Agriculture,” in the current issue of Earth’s Future.
Crunching the numbers
“For the first time, we have a data-driven approach that quantifies the ecosystem benefits from urban agriculture,” said Matei Georgescu, an ASU associate professor of geographical sciences and urban planning and corresponding author of the paper. “Our estimates of ecosystem services show potential for millions of tons of food production, thousands of tons of nitrogen sequestration, billions of kilowatt hours of energy savings and billions of cubic meters of avoided storm runoff from agriculture in urban areas.”
The researchers analyzed global population, urban, meteorological, terrain and Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) data sets in Google Earth Engine to come to their global scale estimates. They then aggregated them by country.
Overall, the researchers estimated the annual value of four ecosystem services provided by existing vegetation in urban areas to be on the order of $33 billion. In this scenario, they projected an annual food production of 100 million to 180 million tons, energy savings of 14 billion to 15 billion kilowatt-hours (insulation properties provided by soil on roofs), nitrogen sequestration between 100,000 to 170,000 tons and avoided storm runoff of 45 billion to 57 billion cubic meters annually.
With intense urban agriculture implementation, the researchers estimate the overall annual worth of urban agriculture could be as much as $80 billion to $160 billion. Importantly, urban agriculture could help feed a world that may face future challenges in industrial agriculture as a result of climate change.
“We’ve known there are benefits to having these small plots of land in our cities, but we found that the benefits extend well beyond having fresh food in the hands of those who will consume it,” explained lead author Nicholas Clinton of Google.
“By integrating across elements that comprise the food-energy-water nexus, our work characterizes the heterogeneous nature of ecosystem services. It is a benchmark global scale assessment,” added Georgescu, who also is a senior scientist in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability at ASU.
In addition to Georgescu and Clinton, co-authors of the paper are Albie Miles of the University of Hawaii; Peng Gong of Tsinghua University, Beijing; ASU graduate students Michelle Stuhlmacher, Nazli Uludere and Melissa Wagner; and Chris Herwig of Google.
Urban agriculture’s full effect
“The most obvious benefit of urban agriculture is that it improves access to healthy foods,” Stuhlmacher said. “In addition to considering yield, our analysis evaluates the potential ecosystem services — such as urban nitrogen fixation, pollination, biological control of pests, control of damaging stormwater runoff and energy conservation — that result from urban agriculture.”
The work, the researchers say, provides more than an accounting of the effect of urban agriculture in one scenario. It can be used as a tool for future assessments of the changing urban agriculture landscape to better understand tradeoffs between urban design strategies.
“The value of this approach to the global community — research, governmental organizations, political groups — is that it provides local stakeholders with a quantitative framework that they themselves can use. For example, they can assess local implications of varying urban agriculture deployment scenarios based on current or projected urban extent, current or projected building height and facades, different yields, etc., that are all specific to the location under consideration,” Clinton explained.
“The global estimates that we provide are useful because they provide a benchmark for other researchers but the societal benefits extend well beyond that because of the implementation of Google’s Earth Engine platform,” Georgescu added. “Anyone on the planet who wants to know whether and how much urban agriculture can provide for their locality can now do so using open data and code provided with the paper.”
Looking at the future of urban agriculture, Clinton said countries that have the most incentives to encourage it to share two primary characteristics — sufficient urban area, and a national-scale mixture of crops that lends itself to urban cultivation.
“Relatively temperate, developed or developing countries with the right mix of crops are expected to have the greatest incentives for urban agriculture,” he said. “These would include China, Japan, Germany and the U.S.”
Seeing the whole picture
“Analysis of the food-energy-water nexus sometimes leaves the impression that benefits are concentrated in one place and costs in another,” said Tom Torgersen, program director for the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Water, Sustainability and Climate program, which supported the research. “But that’s not always the case. Urban agriculture, for example, is an underdeveloped industry that could produce food, sequester urban nitrogen, generate energy savings, help moderate the urban climate and reduce stormwater runoff, as well as provide more nutritious foods.”
In addition to the NSF, funding for the project came from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a National High Technology Grant from China and Google Inc.
Farming Without Soil
Farming Without Soil
Meena R. Prashant
January 11, 2018
Vijay Yelmalle teaches agriculturists – both urban and rural – how to apply technology to practice eco-friendly farming and increase yield
Mumbai: Vijay Yelmalle had a steady career spanning 14 years in the chemical industry in Singapore. But there was something that kept tugging at him back home. “Whenever I read about farmer suicides, it depressed me. I wanted to do something for them, especially farmers from my home State, Maharashtra,” says Mr. Yelmalle.
In 2012, he ended his lucrative career and returned to India to establish the Center for Research in Alternative Farming Technologies (CRAFT). Mr. Yelmalle spent the first two years doing extensive research in technologies like hydroponics and aquaponics, which involve farming without soil. “These technologies make farming sustainable. The main reason for farmer suicide is unsustainable conventional farming,” says Mr. Yelmalle.
He began by growing vegetables on his terrace in Mumbai and giving them to his family and friends. After the success of this initiative, he began CRAFT in 2014 with four employees and a personal investment of ₹30 lakh.
Breaking through
The beginning was challenging. “I began CRAFT to become a leading service provider in alternative farming technologies. Despite being one of the leading companies in the field, business was not good, as not many people knew about these methods,” he says.
Mr. Yelmalle had to devote a good deal of time educating people and destroying misconceptions: most of their knowledge came from YouTube videos, and they would come to him asking how to produce 200-400 tonnes of vegetables in one acre, with no idea of the cost it entailed. Many others were not aware of the volatility of the agricultural produce market, while some thought hydroponics or aquaponics were forms of magic, and required no technical skills.
Today, CRAFT has a pan-India customer base. “We have sent supplies and do-it-yourself kits to hundreds of people which cost anywhere between 2,000 and 40,000. Till date, we have trained almost 1,500 people in hydroponics, aquaponics, urban farming, commercial aspects of the technologies etc,” says Mr. Yelmalle.
CRAFT helps its customers set up farms and provides consultation and training at Kharghar, Navi Mumbai. Mr. Yelmalle stays in touch with his clients on WhatsApp to help with problems they face.
In addition, CRAFT has developed two sustainable business models. One is focused on the health of urban dwellers. This model is about growing vegetables in urban spaces and supplying fresh, nutritious produce to subscribers from nearby areas at market prices. The other model, called ‘Rural Integrated and Digitalised Economical Aquaponics’ relates to the economic sustainability of marginal farmers using aquaponics. Mr. Yelmalle is also looking at establishing an institute to bring in
more educated people into this sector. The government, he says, needs to subsidise protected cultivation to allow more farmers to adopt this technology. He plans to collaborate with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development to impart these skills to farmers.
Sustainable farming
Traditional soil-based farming has many problems. Farmland is getting increasingly fragmented [as families expand, successive generations own less land per person]. Land is also getting infertile due to the heavy use of fertilizers, and climate change is having its own adverse effets. Soilless farming, on the other hand, uses just 10% of water as compared to the traditional method, says Mr. Yelmalle. There is no drainage of water or fertilizers into the ground, and all the nutrients are re-circulated within the system. Mr. Yelmalle says soilless farming gives a higher yield as all the parameters such as pH nutrient concentration and water temperature are controlled within the required levels. The produce in soilless farming is also more uniform.
As for the costs involved, he says, “Hydroponics [providing crops synthetic nutrients in the right quantity and combination for the highest yield] is very technical and scientific and requires a very high investment. It is more suitable for urban areas and rich farmers who can afford to employ skilled manpower. Aquaponics, where fish and vegetables are grown together, is a more organic method; after the initial training, a farmer can work it out on his own. The cost of inputs could be reduced drastically with innovation.” A kitchen garden made with recycled material works out to a few thousand rupees, while the cost of a commercial farm runs into a few lakhs.
Further, these technologies require minimal use of nutrients and no pesticides, thereby reducing input costs and giving pesticide-free produce, which has a premium in the market in terms of pricing as well as demand. The technologies also reduce the incidence of crop failures due to drought, thanks to the minimal use of water and inspect or pest attack due to the use of protected growing environment such as shade net, greenhouse, etc.
The greatest advantage of hydroponics or aquaponics is vertical farming — utilising scarce land in cities to get a greater higher yield per square feet. Although the cost of setting up a vertical farm is high, the selling of vegetables in retail makes the venture attractive. Urban farms also have a smaller carbon footprint as produce is grown locally, avoiding transportation.
Manas Kulkarni, a farmer from Vivare village in Jalgaon district said, “We are into traditional farming and grow bananas, cotton, onion, maze, gram, and wheat. Using hydrophonics, we can now grow all types of vegetables, like coloured peppers, tomatoes, exotic leafy vegetables, broccoli and Chinese cabbage.”
Mr. Kulkarni said he attended the CRAFT workshops with the understanding that with the growing population, availability of land for farming will be a challenge in the near future. He has opened a small hydroponics setup in his village and will soon start growing leafy vegetables.
Pravin Tulpule, an entrepreneur said, “I was looking to improve my kitchen gardening skills; something I love doing at home. The use of cocopeat [a natural fibre made of coconut husks] and clay pops, not soil, made it easy to manage.” The technology, he said, is “not rocket science”, and the advantage is that one can practise it at home or on a commercial scale. “The results of micronutrients were phenomenal. The best part was getting fresh vegetables to eat. It helped me understand the optimum use of resources, including space.”
The concept
In hydroponic farming, crops are given synthetic nutrients calculated to meet their requirement.
In aquaponics, fish, and plants are grown together with the single input of fish feed. Fish are reared in tanks and the water is circulated to vegetable roots. All other nutrients required for plant growth are provided by the fish excreta
The advantages
Vertical farming: utilizing scarce land in cities to get a greater higher yield per sq ft
Eco-friendly: Urban farms have a smaller carbon footprint as produce is grown locally.
Snapshot:
Center for Research in Alternative Farming Technologies
Founder: Vijay Yelmalle
Employees: 6
Funding: Bootstrapped
Web: www.craftagro.com
Sustainable Farming Gets An Urban Upgrade
Sustainable Farming Gets An Urban Upgrade
Aquaponics systems use a combination of hydroponics and aquaculture to farm aquatic animals for food. (Photo courtesy of Catherine Schrading)
ANISH SALVI | Staff Writer
January 8, 2018
Kareem Adam Rabbat formed an appreciation for nature from fishing with his father as a young boy, which eventually led him to join an initiative as an adult to find sustainable ways of getting fresh food to people.
“That kind of instilled in me a great value for the outdoors,” Rabbat said. “I wanted to do everything I could to save and protect the environment.”
As a sophomore environmental engineering student at Pitt, Rabbat combined both his passions for protecting nature and his academic knowledge to become president of The Aquaponics Project — an initiative meant to provide food for communities using sustainable practices and energy-efficient means. Students from Pitt, Carnegie Mellon and the University of Michigan work together on The Aquaponics Project and develop a facility that provides both basil and fish for local communities in Pittsburgh. The facility was previously used by the students working on the project to educate the public about sustainable practices through tours. The students involved in The Aquaponics Project are now working on making improvements and are hoping the facility will start producing food for wider consumption this spring.
The East Liberty facility consists of a 500-gallon fish tank housing tilapia with 30 grow towers — vertical structures within the tank that are capable of growing 27 basil plants each. It operates through the use of aquaponics, a combination of hydroponics — growing plants in water without soil — and aquaculture, farming aquatic animals for food.
Essentially, the facility creates a closed loop system that follows a circular flow. The waste products of the fish provides nutrients for the plants while the plants keep the water clean for the fish. The only input into the system is the food for the fish. According to Rabbat, the output is food produced in an environmentally sound way.
“We’re really trying to attack the whole food issue from multiple perspectives so we can produce this food and distribute it to the community, but at the same time take food waste that would usually go to landfill and decompose [it],” Rabbat said.
Catherine Schrading, a junior majoring in environmental science, co-founded The Aquaponics Project as a first year in 2015 alongside fellow first year and computer science major Vinh Luong with the intention of finding a solution for “food deserts” — communities across the globe without easy access to fresh, healthy foods.
“It’s a portable farm to bring fresh food,” Schrading said. “And also educate people about where their food is coming from, and bring that to communities that would otherwise have no knowledge of those sorts of things and no access to fresh food.”
While the project did begin at Pitt, additional members from the other schools joined to bring a more varied approach with their differing majors, including information sciences and engineering. The original group met its new members from outside of class through volunteering opportunities and Pittsburgh’s environmental community, Schrading said.
“We needed people in different majors and we have students from three different universities and basically every major that you can think off which provides a lot of different insight,” she said. “There are people just very passionate about environmental work in all the different universities.”
The team recently won first place in the 2017 Ford College Community Challenge — a sustainability contest held by the Ford Motor Company Fund — for their project in November. They received $35,000 and a 2017 Ford Transit for their “portable farm.”
Farah Harb, the education program coordinator for the Ford Motor Company Fund, said the projects in the 2017 competition focused on sustainability and that mobility was also part of the challenge — either literal movement or social mobility.
“We want [the students] to think more about community needs, impacting lives,” Harb said. “By exposing them to a project like this we put leadership in their hands.”
According to Rabbat, the team began designing the project in 2015. After a year of collecting grants, fundraising and coming up with a final design for the facility, they began constructing their farm out of a decommissioned shipping container, completing the facility in the summer of 2016.
“The idea is you put this container really anywhere and you don’t have to put that much water into it, don’t have to put that much energy into it,” Rabbat said. “It’ll just provide food for the community whether that be a food desert in the United States or a place in the Sahara Desert in Africa.”
Rabbat said the system allows for 90 percent less water to be used for growing fish and plants compared that for traditional farming.The group had its most successful crop yield this past summer.
“It relies on the symbiotic relationship between fish and plants,” Rabbat said. “[This relationship] also takes out the toxicity of the water so it is clean for the fish so you can just recycle the water through the entire system.”
The group has used their project as a teaching device for Pittsburgh residents. According to Schrading, the group has given tours to the community to explain how the project worked and how this was a sustainable method of procuring food because it produced little to no emissions.
Rabbat said the group has also developed partnerships with several Pittsburgh organizations, including The Door Campaign, an organization that encourages STEM-based learning among young people. The Door Campaign at Savoy utilized the basil that the group grew for hors d’oeurves and drinks at an event last summer, according to Rabbat.
The team plans on reinvesting their prize money back into their aquaponics project by adding on an anaerobic digester that will take on any food waste produced and convert it into energy.
“Food waste would usually go to landfill and decompose and produce methane,” Rabatt said. “But we can control it, have it decompose, harvest that methane, and use it for energy to grow more food.”
The group hopes to finish completing the digestor this spring. Schrading said finding funding for this device is one of the reasons the group entered the Ford College Community Challenge.
“This Ford grant … made us rethink our focus so we’ve expanded our view from just aquaponics to now the food system at large with the anaerobic digester,” Schrading said. “We’re looking at all different aspects of the food system now, so we might actually rebrand.”
Kimbal Musk Doubles Down On School Garden Effort
Learning gardens provide access to nutritious food and serve as educational tools at underserved schools. Photo courtesy of the Kitchen
Kimbal Musk Doubles Down On School Garden Effort
The Colorado 100 Fund is a $2.5 million effort toward creating 100 learning gardens in Colorado by 2020.
BY DALIAH SINGER | JANUARY 3, 2018
In 2011, Kimbal Musk, co-founder of the Kitchen (and brother of tech giant Elon Musk), decided it wasn’t enough serving real, local food at his family of restaurants. So he launched the Kitchen Community nonprofit with the goal of “empower[ing] kids and their families to build real food communities from the ground up.”
In practice, what that means is creating learning gardens—a garden as an outdoor classroom—in underserved, low-income schools across the country. Since the first opened in Denver in 2011, 450 learning gardens have been built across the country. Colorado, though, has begun lagging behind. The state currently has 55 learning gardens; Chicago has 150. But that will soon change: Musk recently announced theColorado 100 Fund, a $2.5 million initiative to increase the number of Centennial State learning gardens to 100 (in other words, adding 45 more) by the end of 2020. “We built our first [learning garden] in Denver,” says Courtney Walsh, Musk’s communications director. “We need to look at our own backyard…to really impact change.”
Kimbal Musk (right) and a student at a Kitchen Community learning garden in Los Angeles in 2015. Photo by Patrick T. Fallon for the Kitchen Community
According to the 2017 Kids Count report from the Colorado Children’s Campaign (CCC), 16 percent of Colorado children experienced food insecurity—“their access to adequate food was limited by lack of money and other resources”—between 2013 and 2015. In addition, many high-poverty neighborhoods are located in food deserts, meaning they have limited access to affordable and nutritious foods. That’s one of the reasons the CCC says, “…children growing up in low-income or food-insecure families are likely to…have challenges getting the nutrients they need for proper growth and development.”
School gardens can help reverse those concerns by exposing children to fruits and vegetables, teaching them where their food comes from, and encouraging healthy lifelong eating habits. At an elementary school, students might count the plants and learn their names. In middle and high school, the gardens become the foundation for a science class or a lesson in entrepreneurship (how to run a farm stand, for instance).
To accomplish the 100-garden goal, Musk formed a Leadership Circle comprised of prominent Coloradans who support his efforts to improve children’s health. Among them is Robin Luff, who also serves on the board of the Kitchen Community. “We’re there to talk about the importance of real food, of changing behaviors. We all believe that can happen when we have a really strong effort in a city,” Luff says. “It’s useful, and it’s lasting.”
Schools submit applications for learning gardens, and the district has to approve the Kitchen Community’s efforts. The nonprofit has already worked with the Denver Public Schools and the Poudre School District and will continue to do so; it expects to add some gardens in Jefferson County as part of the Colorado 100.
“One of the challenges in Colorado versus some of the other inner cities we’re working with is that we have this gorgeous landscape we look at every day,” Luff says, “and it’s really hard to imagine that some kids have never played in a stream or with sticks. [Determining how to] make a lasting impression in Denver is really important.”
One hundred learning gardens is a big enough number to convince people (the legislature, school boards) to pay more attention to the issue. “It becomes an ecosystem about learning about food,” Walsh says. “If you have 100, then you’re able to truly impact the community…and reach kids at all age levels.”
But don’t expect this work to stop once Musk and team reach 100. ”Kimbal’s overarching national goal is to build 1,000 learning gardens to ostensibly impact a million children,“ Walsh says. We have no doubt he’ll get there.
DALIAH SINGER, 5280 CONTRIBUTOR
Daliah Singer is an award-winning writer and editor based in Denver. You can find more of her work at daliahsinger.com.
Urban/Indoor Farming Accelerator in Brooklyn Feeds New Yorkers Year-Round
Urban/Indoor Farming Accelerator in Brooklyn Feeds New Yorkers Year-Round
Square Roots is a high-tech indoor farming accelerator in the heart of Brooklyn, New York, working to ensure that city residents can source fresh, sustainable produce twelve months a year. In a major urban center like New York City, where fresh produce can be tough to find even in seasons of peak agricultural output, Square Roots is proving the potential of indoor, climate-controlled agriculture.
The company was co-founded by entrepreneurs Tobias Peggs and Kimbal Musk, who also runs two restaurant chains, with the dual goals of satisfying a demand for produce and training a new generation of entrepreneurial leaders who understand urban agriculture, local food systems, and the transparency and trust that personal relationships bring to food
Over the course of a 13-month program, Square Roots’ ten Resident Entrepreneurs run businesses at the accelerator’s physical home while taking part in a curriculum of skill-based training, professional development, and experiential business learning. They work with hydroponic growing systems housed in old, repurposed shipping containers calledLeafy Green Machines, sold by Freight Farms. Depending on crops and conditions, each container can yield up to 50 pounds of leafy greens per week while using only eight gallons of water a day, according to Freight Farms.
The entrepreneurs deliver fresh greens to consumers at 80 office locations in the city, sell specialty items through a number of retail channels, and work in direct partnership with restaurants. Square Roots shares 30 percent of the total revenue with the farmers, amounting to between US$30,000 and US$40,000 annually, according to co-founder and CEO Tobias Peggs.
“The idea is: with the skills they acquire at Square Roots, and the experience they gain running a business, they can graduate confidently with the knowledge to set up all kinds of companies,” says Peggs. “They might create hardware companies designing more efficient lights for urban farmers. Or software companies to better connect local farmers to consumers. Or value-add companies using locally grown basil to make pesto.”
Peggs attributes the company’s recent success to two primary factors: the high efficiency of the production modules and the trust that the company has built with its customer base.
“Because you are growing in three dimensions instead of two, you can get a lot of food from a tiny footprint,” he says. “And it’s always in season indoors! Even if there’s two feet of snow on the ground outside, we can create the perfect growing conditions inside.”
The company’s proximity to customers is an important element in building trust. “At Square Roots, we’re literally in the same neighborhood as our customers,” says Peggs. He also suggests that building trust requires intentional transparency. To that end, Square Roots elected to install big windows on the modules so that passersby could see how the food was being grown and hosts open house community events on the farm once a monthfor city residents to tour the farms, meet the farmers, taste the food, and engage in a question-and-answer session.
“These notions of trust and transparency are baked into our values and into our product,” says Peggs. “It’s what people expect from modern food companies.”
At the end of one year with the company, trainees pass off their fully-running farming businesses to the next season’s entrepreneurs.
Because the farmer-entrepreneurs are only with the company for a year, the production modules are designed to be easy to understand and use, a significant difference from the knowledge intensity of traditional farming. Peggs doesn’t go so far as to describe the modules as “plug-and-play,” though, explaining that the training program receives substantial support from Square Roots’ head farmer Phil Cuddeback and from farming mentors who have worked at companies like Small Hold, Eden Works, Farm.One, and Gotham Greens
Their first cohort of ten entrepreneurs, which the company refers to as “Season 1,” graduated at the end of October 2017. Four of them are in the process of starting their own businesses, two moved into roles at companies working in the urban agriculture space, two have been rehired by Square Roots to work on research and development efforts, and one is staying on for a second season of production at Square Roots’ facility.
Square Roots raised US$5.4 million in funding in 2017 and aims to expand towards 20 cities by the year 2020.
Pieter De Smedt Comments on 2017 Investments On Vertical Farming
Pieter De Smedt Comments on 2017 Investments On Vertical Farming
Are you a grower or a technology company? You will have to make up your mind someday!
2017 marked another year where several of vertical farming's big names raised millions of dollars for their future development. Aerofarms closed on its 40 million USD series D, Bowery Farming secured 27.5 million USD for its series A, and of course Plenty locked in a whopping 200 million USD as well. What have these companies done with these type of funds in the past and what are they planning on doing with them now? Pieter De Smedt, US country manager for Urban Crop Solutions explains it to HortiDaily.com
"The answer is twofold. First, they plan to allocate the funds into substantial engineering and biological R&D to come up with an indoor growing system and operational playbook to grow crops efficiently (or improve their current set up). Second, they will use the other part of the funding to build and operate said system to expand a brand, grow produce and sell it into the market. But does that make sense?"
A young industry required companies to do the work on technology themselves
"Let us begin by saying that we understand why this approach arose. The industry is young. Companies that wanted to get into vertical farming until recently had almost no integrated technologies available. They were for that reason forced to invest in doing all of that themselves. This meant that all these different companies had to reinvent the wheel as well as make the same mistakes as had been made previously by someone else - just to get started farming indoor. As a result, each time millions were raised and spent on R&D just to arrive at that first operational vertical farm. As technology progressed, these companies were forced to again raise and invest millions into the continued improvement of their R&D, then to build, and lastly to grow and sell.
So now the question arises whether they should continue this loop or at least for how long they should. This is really a matter of what they believe the future will look like."
A future with defined roles for growers and technology providers
"If they continue, then in their vision of the future competition in the industry will comprise of brands of indoor produce growers competing against each other based on (among other things) who has developed the best technology and horticultural know-how in-house. This obviously puts a huge strain on any ambition of profitability as the company must earn back not only the cap-ex of the construction of the system but also of the immense (and continued) R&D investments that preceded it. With limited margins, we argue that that is not a realistic expectation.
If we compare with the more mature greenhouse growing industry, the future is likely to have technology providers on the one hand and growers on the other. Let us take the example of a greenhouse tomato grower. Each time this grower will want to open a new farm or update an old one, he looks at what is available in the market and asks the e.g. 10 leading technology providers (the greenhouse project developers) to present an offer that meets his needs. After careful consideration, he will proceed with the partner he feels most comfortable with. If two years later he wants to open another farm, the process is reiterated and perhaps a different technology provider wins that time. In this model, R&D capital investment on engineering and horticulture remain with the technology supply companies - as we argue they rationally should.
Maturing vertical farming industry
Translate this to the maturing vertical farming industry. What will the companies mentioned above do when they see their technology surpassed by that of a third party technology provider or when a technology provider starts offering new crops? Will they then continue to put venture capital funds into R&D to keep their own system competitive in the (unrealistic) hopes of earning those ever-increasing investments back by selling produce? No. They will have to become technology agnostics and purchase whichever technology on the market best fits their growing needs for a given project at a given time.
In this more mature market new types of entrants will change the playing field too. Whereas now we see primarily investor backed entrepreneurs entering the vertical farming industry, it is likely to assume that the existing incumbent growers, produce processors, as well as produce sellers will at one point also make their move. We predict that they will do so relying on technology providers – as they are doing now as well for their current precision ag and/or greenhouse production.
For the sake of completeness, let me emphasize that we are not saying that the grower will not be doing any R&D - of course they will. Every grower will have specific projects aimed at diversifying its portfolio of produce, improving process flow, cutting energy requirements, increasing yields, etc. and they should do this.
What we are saying though – and this can be construed as the conclusion of this text – Is that in a gradually maturing industry, companies will necessarily need to focus on the primary scope of their business if they want to be successful. That means growers will grow and sell produce while their suppliers will develop and provide the required technology. This will be key to ensure that the future of vertical farming is one of efficient, profitable, diverse, and global operations.
Pieter De Smedt is the US country manager for Urban Crop Solutions, a global indoor farming group building fully robotized vertical plant factories and containers with projects in Europe, North America, and South East Asia.
For more information:
Urban Crop Solutions
Grote Heerweg 67, 8791 Beveren-Leie (Waregem), Belgium
800 Brickell Avenue 1100 Suite, Miami (FL 33131), USA
+32 56 96 03 06
info@urbancropsolutions.com
sales@urbancropsolutions.com
urbancropsolutions.com
Locally Grown Produce Could Reach New Heights
Jennifer Adams, who began serving as Okaloosa County’s tourist development department director last September, is thinking of starting a produce garden at the Emerald Coast Convention Center.
Jennifer Adams, who began serving as Okaloosa County’s tourist development department director last September, is thinking of starting a produce garden at the Emerald Coast Convention Center.
OKALOOSA ISLAND — Jennifer Adams is pondering a green “What if?” type of question.
Adams, who began serving as Okaloosa County’s tourist development department director last September, is thinking of starting a produce garden at the Emerald Coast Convention Center.
If this idea blooms into reality, organic food might be grown in either a rooftop garden or a traditional garden in the ground.
“We already get fresh, local seafood” for convention guests dining at the center, Adams said Thursday. “It would be great to get fresh, local produce as well.”
She said she has recently been talking about the possible garden with staff from Aramark, which handles food services at the 70,000-square-foot, 15-year-old convention center.
In early 2015, Philadelphia-based Aramark helped establish a 5,000-square-foot rooftop farm at Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Sox. Green City Growers in Boston maintains Fenway Farms, which produces more than 6,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables each season to be used in on-site restaurants and concessions.
“At Fenway, the executive chef uses the food in his meals” for diners at the ballpark, said Adams, who is a Boston-area native. “Aramark brought this to our attention, and I thought, ‘Cool!’ Once the weather warms up, we’ll see if we can get a garden so our chef (at the convention center) can use organically grown produce.
“If our building is not conducive to that, we would do a garden outside somewhere.”
The local area obviously has a much longer growing season than Boston, Adams noted. She said the possible garden at the convention center could, depending on the season, feature produce such as potatoes, squash, corn, watermelons, tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, and eggplants.
In addition to working with Aramark on establishing the garden, she said the TDD could partner with the Okaloosa County Extension Office to provide gardening programs to the community.
“This is really preliminary,” Adams said. “We’re only in the idea stage.”
But she added that she expects the convention center’s new general manager to help the possible garden take shape. Former GM Bill Leaman retired last October. His replacement might be on board in February, Adams said.
“We’re going to be very visionary because we are the only convention center between Tallahassee and Pensacola,” she said. “But even if this (proposed garden) doesn’t work out, we have to start thinking beyond the ways we have been thinking for the past 15 years at the convention center. I’m charging my staff to come up with new ideas. Some of them may work, some might not. Why not do the ‘What ifs?’”
Jennifer Bearden, agriculture agent at the County Extension Office in Crestview, said she and other staff have been learning about the possible convention center garden from Extension Director Pam Allen.
“There are just so many ways to grow things these days,” said Bearden, who then noted a vertical garden she saw growing on the side of a building in Pittsburgh.
A raised garden bed, such as the ones that extension officials have set up at several local schools, or a soilless, hydroponic garden are among the options for growing produce on the convention center roof, she said.
“I’m excited to see this whole urban gardening thing take off” at the center, Bearden said. Rooftop gardening stems from “a little out-of-the-box thinking, but it’s a neat way to grow produce.”
Urban Farming: Lessons From Growing Power
Across the country, supporters grieved the loss of Growing Power, of its example, and of the hope it offered for scaling up urban farming as a sustainable model
Urban Farming: Lessons From Growing Power
By: MARY TURCK | December 30, 2017
Just a year ago, an article in Medium touted Will Allen as “the Godfather of Urban Farming, Who’s Breeding the Next Generation of People to Feed the World.” Allen, who started urban farming in Milwaukee in 1993, then moved on to Chicago, ended up with his Growing Power organization involved in urban farming projects around the world. Along the way, Allen won a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2008 and was named one of Time Magazine’s 2010 Time 100.
Allen’s vision and his non-profit corporations focused on reimagining and rebuilding a food system in cities. Among its ambitious projects:
- aquaponic systems growing fish, watercress, and wheatgrass;
- rebuilding soil through composting and vermiculture, including a collection of supermarket wastes and use of red worm composting to turn them into soil;
- increasing productivity with intensive cultivation of food plants on small plots of land;
- sparking a passion for farming in urban youth and teaching them job skills to land jobs in the sustainable farming and food system;
- growing mass quantities of high-quality food and delivering it to people living in inner cities;
- modeling urban farming as a real and sustainable option for people around the world.
Then, in November 2017, Growing Power crashed. After years of running deficits and with more than half a million dollars in legal judgments against the organization, Allen resigned and the organization closed its doors.
New Urban Farming Organizations Sprouting
Across the country, supporters grieved the loss of Growing Power, of its example, and of the hope it offered for scaling up urban farming as a sustainable model. But the end of Growing Power does not mean the end of urban farming, not any more than a hard frost means the end of a garden. Instead, new plants have already begun to sprout.
In Milwaukee, Green Veterans Wisconsin plans to buy Growing Power’s shuttered headquarters, reclaiming it as “an urban farm school, co-op for small farmers and trauma resolution center.” Its mission: “to regenerate men and women who have served in the military for green jobs and green living.”
In Chicago, the Growing Power team has spun off into a new Urban Growers Collective, with a mission of “creating healing spaces through art and innovation rooted within the foundation of growing food.”
Less than a month after the end of Growing Power, it’s too soon to predict outcomes for either initiative, but they are only two of the seeds now growing.
Across the country, urban farming initiatives take multiple forms. Some focus more on producing nutritious, organic food, some more on the powerful therapeutic possibilities of connecting youth with growing, some on building community while feeding community, and some on creating a profitable business model.
Three Minnesota examples show combine focus on food, youth, and community:
Youth Farm MN, established in 1995 in Minneapolis, aims “to create an urban environment where youth could flourish physically, socially, and emotionally as they mature into young adults. Youth were the focus and food was the conduit.” After more than 20 years, Youth Farm engages more than 800 young people and works to build and feed community in five specific Minneapolis and St. Paul neighborhoods.
Youth in the Dirt Group take pride in harvesting produce that they have grown themselves.
The Dirt Group’s motto is “Learning to Grow, Growing to Learn.” Its focus is on giving youth “an opportunity to experience social inclusion by being part of a safe, cohesive, structured group. Students feel pride and ownership in their collective efforts growing food together as they learn, practice, and master important life and social skills and make a difference in their communities by donating food they have grown to local food shelves and other such community organizations.” Its gardens are located in urban (Minneapolis, MN), small town, and rural settings.
The MNyou Youth Garden operates in the Minnesota city of Willmar (population about 20,000) on a plot of land and greenhouse provided by a local college. Its purpose is “to have minority youth, ages 15 to 24, research how to grow and maintain highly sought after vegetables then put that research to work. During their time in the project, the youth will develop entrepreneurial skills from working closely with mentors in local businesses on how to sell and market their products. They will also learn transferable job skills from experienced volunteers while receiving a minimum wage.”
Home-made signs mark the Dirt Group’s herb garden, and plots tended by small groups.
Connecting food, farming, youth, and community works for non-profit organizations that do not need to make urban farming turn a profit. Some other urban farming initiatives rely on heavy infusions of grants and donations or on rent-free use of city-owned or vacant lots. Profitability – or economic sustainability, in the progressive parlance – remains the most difficult problem for any kind of farming, urban or rural, small-scale or larger.
Money, or the lack of money, led to Growing Power’s demise. Does the blame lie with the high cost of organic food production? Or with the exponential growth of Growing Power, beyond the scale that could be effectively managed? Whatever the cause of its eventual dissolution, Growing Power gave a powerful inspiration to others to engage in agriculture that places a higher value on food and community than on profit. The seeds Will Allen planted will continue to flourish long after Growing Power’s end.
Fellows Earn Urban Farming Certification
Fellows Earn Urban Farming Certification
- BY TAMMIE SMITH Richmond Times-Dispatch Dec 17, 2017
Alex Badecker was one of nine people earning certificates in urban agriculture December 12, 2017, as part of the Tricycle Urban Ag Fellowship program.
Urban farming nonprofit Tricycle last week graduated the first class of students to complete its 11-month fellowship program in urban agriculture.
The nine people received certificates in urban agriculture endorsed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.
A number of the students plan to operate or already operate small farming operations. The training emphasized urban farming practices and management, said Beth Nelson, fellowship program manager.
The students spent 15 to 20 hours a week in training — hands-on in the field and in the classroom where topics included holistic business planning, farm business plan development, financial projections and cash flow, record keeping and decision-making for farm profitability.
“My goal is to sell to restaurants and farmers markets,” said Alex Badecker, who grows asparagus, sweet potatoes and other produce part time on an approximately 6,000-square-foot plot in Henrico County.
The others receiving certificates in urban agriculture were Sonia Allen, Kamala Bhagat, Nicole Broder, Ash Carr, Mark Davis, Kittie Storey, Dana Wright and Mandy Yarnell.
Broder said she wants to start a rooftop farm. Carr is planning a farm that will produce medicinal herbs and seeds.
Storey wants to be a small grower. “Keeping food in our local system is a big part of educating the public about where their food comes from,” Storey said.
Davis said “Tricycle and the fellowship have been one of the most powerful experiences” of his life.
The training was presented in collaboration with the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Bon Secours Richmond Health System. Last week’s ceremony was held at the Bon Secours Center for Healthy Living at 2600 Nine Mile Road.
Nonprofit Tricycle is recruiting for the next class of fellows, which will start in March.
For more information, go to tricycleurbanag.org. Application deadline is Jan. 19, and the fellowship runs from March to December. Scholarships are available, and there are information sessions in December and January for those who want to learn more.
Growing The Farming Scene
Growing The Farming Scene
Mr Lionel Wong (left) and Mr Terence Tan. PHOTO: TEMASEK POLYTECHNIC
Duo improving local produce with problem-solving capacities learned in school
Jan Lee | Jan 02, 2018
Does lettuce grow from seeds?
This was one of the many questions Mr. Terence Tan and Mr. Lionel Wong, both 30, have received in the course of their work as co-founders of Upgrown Farming Company.
The answer is yes.
But the two Temasek Polytechnic (TP) alumni, who graduated in 2007, were shaken by the question.
Mr Tan said: "There is such a complacent attitude towards food here that some people do not even know how vegetables are grown."
The friends pursued their degrees at the University of Queensland in Australia, where they were made aware of food security issues and the relatively lower quality of produce here.
Mr Wong said: "During our time there, we were exposed to the local farming and fresh produce scene.
"When we returned to Singapore, we realised there was a significant disparity in the quality and value for money of vegetables here as compared with in Australia."
To improve local produce and counter Singapore's dependence on food imports - over 90 per cent of food consumed here is imported - the pair, who studied biotechnology in TP, co-founded Upgrown four years ago.
With two other co-founders, Upgrown consults on, designs and builds farms with technology that allows crops not naturally found here to thrive and be harvested.
Through mimicking natural conditions, such as sunlight via modified lights with adjusted wavelengths, the co-founders have seen non-native varieties of leafy greens and herbs introduced to local farming through their projects.
Superfood kale and more exotic species such as spicy mizuna, a Japanese vegetable with a wasabi aftertaste, are now available locally via their clients' farms.
PROBLEM-SOLVING
They credit their success to the unique problem-solving capacities cultivated at TP, where they had to approach their studies with a problem-based learning approach.
Mr Tan said: "We had to apply our skills to solve real-world problems with practical solutions."
While Upgrown has about seven projects locally, it is also active in the region, with projects in China, Japan and the Middle East.
As urban farming gains awareness in Singapore, the pair hope to inspire more people to join farming.
Upgrown has seen an increase in interest from polytechnic and university students for internship opportunities in the past two years. It has also hosted over 10 groups of secondary school and polytechnic students at its office to showcase modern farming.
Mr Tan said: "If you go out and ask around now, who actually wants to be a farmer? So, part of our job is to reinvent farming, make it cool and entice younger people to join us."
Unused Tokyo Tunnel Gets New Life As Underground Veggie Farm
Conveyor manufacturer Itoh Denki and electronics maker Fujitsu have set up an automated underground vegetable farm in a disused utility tunnel in Chiba Prefecture, just east of the Japanese capital.
December 27, 2017 1:15 pm JST
Unused Tokyo Tunnel Gets New Life As Underground Veggie Farm
Stable temperatures cut electricity bills by two-thirds at automated plant
YASUTERU SHIMOMURA, Nikkei staff writer
It is hoped the fully automated underground farm in Chiba Prefecture will be able to produce 5,000 vegetables a day
CHIBA -- Tell anyone you think vegetables will soon be emerging from the ground on a conveyor belt and they will more than likely think you are mad. But that is exactly what will soon start happening in a Tokyo suburb.
Conveyor manufacturer Itoh Denki and electronics maker Fujitsu have set up an automated underground vegetable farm in a disused utility tunnel in Chiba Prefecture, just east of the Japanese capital.
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Urban farms, vertical farms, even space farms have all been touted as solutions to the world's food security challenges. All, however, come with hurdles in terms of cost, sustainability and space.
This new concept not only has the potential to produce vegetables at a fraction of the cost and energy consumption, but also need never even be seen.
Thanks to the stable year-round temperatures, the farm can operate using just one-third of the electricity of a conventional vegetable farm.
The hope is that, by 2020, the plant will be shipping 5,000 heads of lettuce and other produce a day.
The vegetables are grown into seedlings overground before being taken down to the facility on a conveyor belt. Once ready for shipment, they are brought back up, packed and shipped. Apart from the sowing and packing, every step of the process is automated.
Underground, the vegetables are grown in 2.4- by 1-meter cases under light-emitting diodes that spur growth and fed nutrients through tubes.
At a balmy 18-20 C all year, the facility has no need for costly air conditioning and temperatures can be controlled by fans.
Dubbed "Makuhari farm vechica," the facility occupies 4,000 sq. meters of space, 10 meters below ground. The two companies spent 100 million yen ($882,744) building the farm on space rented for 770 yen per square meter annually.
Going Beyond Organic With Vertical Hydroponic Farming
Going Beyond Organic With Vertical Hydroponic Farming
Crop One Holdings (COH) farms, called FreshBox Farms, deliver fresh produce to stores within 24 hours of harvest. The company aims to address the need for a local, fresh, and sustainably produced food supply through vertical hydroponic farming in Millis, Massachusetts.
With 54 percent of the world’s population residing in urban areas—expected to increase to about 66 percent by 2050, according to the 2014 Revision of World Urbanization Prospect—vertical farming projects strive to expand production on and in buildings and vertical structures. In doing so, growers can reduce their agricultural footprint on the environment and address food security of the urban population.
COH vertical farming units grow modularly and use custom-engineered hydroponic systems to produce their leafy vegetables. They can substitute up to 19 acres of farmland with 29.72-square-meter (320-square-feet) growing units. The units use 1/2500th of the amount of water typically used by field-based growing, and due to their farms’ proximity to their urban consumers, they also have a reduced carbon footprint. The COH’s FreshBox Farms produce are available in 30 locations in the Greater Boston Area within the 100 miles radius from the farm.
Food Tank had the opportunity to speak with Crop One Holdings CEO Sonia Lo about the origins of the organization and how it hopes to solve current food system issues impacting the cities of the United States and go “Beyond Organic.”
Food Tank (FT): What was the inspiration behind establishing Crop One Holding (COH)?
Sonia Lo (SL): Crop One is the successor company to a concept stage venture founded by Jim Wilson, a great visionary who was among the first to propose that crops could be grown in modified shipping containers.
I was an early investor in the company. First, I was intrigued by the potential of using modified shipping structures—it was a ground-breaking idea, no pun intended. But not only was I drawn to Jim’s technological innovation, I had also spent some time as a personal chef, so the foodie in me was hooked as well. So, I stepped in to take the venture to the next level and we rebranded to Crop One. We’ve now built a scale-level farm and are one of only two vertical farmers in the industry running our farm at a profit.
FT: COH uses the hydroponics technology for its crop production. What are some of the advantages hydroponics has over aquaponics or aeroponics?
SL: Hydroponics is the most well proven of the three technologies and the least expensive.
FT: Could you explain the crop production procedure followed at COH?
SL: We are a seed-to-harvest company. Many hydroponic growers use third-party seedlings but we grow our own from seed because we want to be able to select the cultivars we produce for sale and because it means that we know our seedlings are free of pests/pathogens before we plant them to grow out to full height. Our production is entirely based in water, which we dose with micro-nutrient levels (the precise amount that each plant needs), and also plant our seeds in a soil-less growth medium, ensuring optimum cleanliness. We also use no pesticides, herbicides, fungicides—no ‘cides for that matter, at all. Finally, we grow in a ‘clean-room’ environment, mimicking high-tech operations. Our environment is so clean and precisely managed that our waste water comes out completely clean—cleaner than the local potable tap water!
FT: In one of your interviews, you have mentioned that COH products are “Beyond Organic.” Could you explain this label?
SL: Organic produce that is field-grown may not use pesticides but it is allowed to be grown with herbicides and can also be grown with fertilizer that is full of pathogens. Organic also generally uses soil—which may harbor pests and transmit pathogens. Our products are grown in the cleanest, most precise environment as possible and does not use soil. Many people prefer organic produce because of the perception that is clean and healthier but organic produce, for example, is often not recommended for people with compromised immune systems because it’s not as clean as conventionally grown. Our product is ‘Beyond Organic’ in that it is extremely fresh (and by implication, very healthy because phytonutrients in produce start to decay upon harvest—we offer our produce within 24 hours of harvest; most produce is served within 7 to 17 days of harvest across the U.S.) and clean, without the use of chemical controls. We are also unique in being kosher certified as a vertical farmer—this means that we are insect free—and very clean.
FT: Lack of access to food has become a central problem in some of the major cities and urban areas in the U.S. How does COH hope to address such food system problems?
SL: Our food is grown and served within what is known as a hyper-local radius (fewer than 100 miles). Food is considered local in the U.S. if it is produced (not necessarily grown, but perhaps processed), within 400 miles of the point of consumption. Our hyper-local growing allows for distribution, year-round, of produce for even the most inclement of climates. Our unit economics also allows us to be a low-cost provider of healthy greens, something most vertical farmers won’t be able to do.
FT: Vertical farming uses less land area and comparatively less water than conventional farming. What do you think are the major concern areas in this form of production (vertical hydroponic farming) that COH hopes to work on?
SL: Energy is our largest cost. Up to 70 percent of our production cost is energy and we focus on reducing our energy usage every day.
FT: How does COH hope to grow in terms of technology; variety, quantity, and quality of the product; and expansion, in future?
SL: Our scale farms will have a good deal of software and computer vision capability because what we manually inspect today will have to go over to machine based inspection. The quality of the product is always a concern and we will seek to continue to obtain kosher certification for all our farms. Our product offerings are expanding to include packaged products as well. Finally, our geographic expansion will be growing to 9 farms in our current pipeline and then ultimately to over 25 farms across the U.S. as a whole.
Global Growables, Inc. Partners With DNM Farms
Global Growables, Inc. Partners With DNM Farms
The first Mobile Growable hydroponic container is growing herbs and greens to augment the Aquaponics and Greenhouse on a farm near Santa Fe New Mexico
San Juan Capistrano, Dec. 29, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Food deserts, food insecurities and lack of education are real issues facing many local communities nationwide and the partnership between Global Growables and DNM Farms provides a sustainable solution that feeds, educates and donates to the local community. This sustainable model does not require government funding or intervention and generates a recurring revenue stream for decades to come.
The first Mobile Growable unit is on location at DNM Farms which is owned and operated by George Budagher, a long-time New Mexico resident that has an existing Aquaponic farm and Greenhouse. DNM Farms has over 1,500 live fish in three large tanks. The fish feeds the community and provides a sustainable solution as the fish waste feeds and fertilizes the tomatoes, peppers, lettuces, and herbs in the 5,000 square foot greenhouse.
DNM Farms recently added the Mobile Growable container to grow high-quality greens and herbs to service the local chefs from private country clubs and restaurants. The Mobile Growable container is made from refurbished freight containers and grows micro-greens, herbs and leafy-greens indoors 24/7 365 days a year using liquid-cooled LED lights and sophisticated hydroponic technology.
The Mobile Growable container will grow over 10,000 pounds of fresh produce annually using 10% of the water of traditional soil-based farming and will provide the chefs at local private clubs, restaurants, and hotels with fresh, organic and local organic food. The combined yield from the Greenhouse, Container, and Aquaponics will feed hundreds of families, provide local jobs and provide financial support to the community with donations from the sale of fresh, healthy and locally grown food.
In addition, DNM Farms will host school field trips, provide fresh produce at farmers markets, provide culinary education and tours to help educate and feed the kids and families living in the community. In addition, local residents living in cities from Santa Fe to Albuquerque New Mexico now have a reliable source for affordable and locally grown fresh vegetables, leafy greens, herbs and fresh fish.
Click here to listen to a recent podcast with Rick Ladendorf, founder of Global Growables.
George Budagher, founder, and farmer explains, “We have over 1,500 Tilapia fish growing in three tanks and they provide our plants with natural fertilizers i.e. fish poop, which in-turn provides the plants natural fertilizers and nutrients for maximum yield and flavor. We deliver live fish to the chefs and grocers and we service the local chefs with specialty herbs, micro-greens and hard to find leafy-greens at local private country clubs, restaurants and hotels. A portion of the proceeds and product are donated to local schools, churches and food banks, which is our way of giving back to the community.”
Global Growables mission is to reduce childhood obesity, prevent and reverse chronic illnesses through education, provide access to affordable plant-based foods and more importantly create sustainable solutions that doesn’t rely on the government. Rick Ladendorf explains, “I recently asked a child if they could tell me where a carrot comes from and he replied, “Wal-mart”! While I was not surprised, I can honestly say his response is a reflection of our society where the lack of educational funds allocated to health in the schools and lack of nutritional knowledge in the home is a major contributing factor to the health crisis. And until we change behavior in the home, mom will continue to load the shopping cart with unhealthy options and the obesity epidemic will continue to get worse. The partnership with DNM Farms will provide local families access to affordable food and provide the education needed to change behavior.”
ABOUT GLOBAL GROWABLES, Inc.
Global Growables designs builds, installs and manages Mobile Growable Containers made from refurbished freight containers. Global Growables is strategically aligned with Prevo Health Solutions, the private club industry’s premier wellness experts and Executive Producer of America’s Healthiest Clubs certification program. Global Growables and Prevo Health work together to bridge the gap between the have’s and the have not’s, the private club with the community and the public and private sectors.
For more information call 888-321-1804 or visitwww.globalgrowables.com.
ABOUT DNM FARMS
DNM Farms is a sustainable farm located halfway between Santa Fe and Albuquerque New Mexico. The 8,500 square foot facility is comprised of a 5,000 square foot greenhouse, four 1,500 gallon aquaponic tanks and 3,500 square feet of production area that includes a designated area for growing mushrooms. DNM Farms grows and delivers mushrooms, leafy greens, micro-greens, vegetables and specialty herbs and greens.
For more information call George Budagher at 505-228-5318.
The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation Opens Final Year of GRO1000 Grassroots Grants to Benefit Communities Through Gardens
The GRO1000 program will have funded the creation or enhancement of 1,000 community greenscapes in every state in the U.S. by spring 2018.
The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation Opens Final Year of GRO1000 Grassroots Grants to Benefit Communities Through Gardens
By GlobeNewswire, January 02, 2018
Program to Culminate Having Supported 1,000 Gardens and Greenspaces, Honoring Company's 150th Anniversary
MARYSVILLE, Ohio, Jan. 02, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation announced the opening of theGRO1000 Grassroots Grants award program, inviting nonprofit organizations from across the country to apply for funds to improve their communities. The Grassroots Grants program, now in its eighth and final year, provides support to not-for-profit organizations to better their neighborhoods through the development of community gardens and greenspaces.
The GRO1000 program will have funded the creation or enhancement of 1,000 community greenscapes in every state in the U.S. by spring 2018. The program was originally developed to celebrate The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company's 150th anniversary, which is this year.
"It has been a great honor to improve hundreds of neighborhoods and thousands of lives through the development of these community gardens and greenspaces," said Jim King, president and chairman of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation. "The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation looks forward to continuing its mission to connect people with the life-enhancing benefits of gardens."
From edible gardens to pollinator habitats, urban farms to sensory gardens, GRO1000 supports all types of community-driven greenspace projects and places priority on programs that significantly benefit youth. To date, the GRO1000 program has helped fund more than 12.7 million square feet of revitalized greenspace and 14,400 new garden beds. GRO1000 gardens are donating an estimated 560,000 pounds, or 2.9 million meals, of produce annually, and have helped connect more than 205,000 youth across America to meaningful experiences with nature.
The 2018 GRO1000 Grassroots Grants application is available online now at www.GRO1000.com. The deadline for application submission is February 19, 2018, at 11:59 p.m. EST. Grants range from $500 to $1,500 and are awarded based on youth engagement, community impact, harvest donation, and sustainability, among other factors. Winners will be announced on the first day of spring, March 20, 2018.
In the coming weeks, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation will announce plans for its milestone 1,000th garden dedication and its continued work to support communities through the development of gardens and greenspaces. More information on the GRO1000 program can be found at www.GRO1000.com.
About The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation
The mission of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation is to inspire, connect and cultivate a community of purpose. The Foundation is deeply rooted in helping create healthier communities, empower the next generation, and preserve our planet. The Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization that funds non-profit entities that support its core initiatives in the form of grants, endowments and multi-year capital gifts. For more information, visit www.scottsmiraclegrofoundation.org.
Contact:
Lindsay LaSala
The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation
937-644-7621 (office)
937-516-2732 (mobile)
Lindsay.LaSala@Scotts.com
___________________________________________________________
Kailyn Longoria
Fahlgren Mortine
614-383-1633 (office)
646-919-1234 (mobile)
kailyn.longoria@fahlgren.com
Source: Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (The)
This article appears in: News Headlines
Urban AG Certificate And Fellowship Program
Urban AG Certificate And Fellowship Program
If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.
Through our Urban Ag Certificate and Fellowship program, we are certainly planting seeds and we are planting trees, but most importantly we are teaching people. And, if you like to eat you should be glad we are. The average age of farmers is 58 years old, less than 5% of our country’s farmers are of color and women are underrepresented in the field, yet simultaneously agriculture is the largest industry in our state and the demand for locally grown food is so great that it is not currently being met.
As we look to our local community, we must consider the needs of the Richmond region and how our local food system impacts all of us. It can’t be ignored that collective research tells us that the children born in our city are not born into a place of equity – a child born in the East End is predicted to live 20 years less than a child born just a few miles away in the west end of our city. Why is this? It’s not because of the care they receive within the walls of our hospitals – that care is excellent in both locations. Instead, it is opportunities to play safely outside, to have basic access to real food, to have opportunities for a good education and great jobs that provide self- sufficiency and independence that generates true health.
We recognize incredible opportunities to bridge these disparities while cultivating a new generation of urban farmers. Tricycle’s Urban Agriculture Fellowship and Certificate program is the first program of it’s kind designed in partnership with the USDA- Natural Resources Conservation Service. Urban Ag fellows dig in with Tricycle staff, subject matter experts from USDA, VA Tech, Rodale Institute, Roots of Success, Small Business Association and others for an 11-month term that provides formal instruction and hands-on experiences grounded in the business of sustainable urban agriculture.
Local Roots Shipping Container Farms Achieve Cost Parity With Traditional Farming
4,000 heads oflettuce every 10 days: Local Roots‘ shipping container farms achieve that while using 99 percent less water. Today the LA-based company announced that it has reached cost parity with traditional farming – and they plan to deploy over 100 farms in 2018.
Local Roots Shipping Container Farms Achieve Cost Parity With Traditional Farming
4,000 heads of lettuce every 10 days: Local Roots‘ shipping container farms achieve that while using 99 percent less water. Today the LA-based company announced that it has reached cost parity with traditional farming – and they plan to deploy over 100 farms in 2018. Inhabitat checked out their mobile TerraFarm in New York City and met with CEO Eric Ellestad and COO Matt Vail to learn more.
We visited Local Roots’ TerraFarm in Manhattan a windy, chilly December day, but inside, green butterhead, red butterhead, green leaf, and red leaf lettuce was thriving. Vail and Ellestad started the company around four years ago on a mission to boost global health and seek sustainability in farming.
A few statistics that fuel their mission? For one, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization estimates agriculture is responsible for over 25 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. And then, 52 percent of the food we do grow in America doesn’t even make it to the consumer, according to Ellestad.
Related: 40-foot shipping container farm can grow 5 acres of food with 97% less water
Their indoor farms address those issues. They can deploy TerraFarms right at or near distribution centers. They design, build, deploy, and efficiently operate the vertical farms, and sell the food – which they think is even better than organic produce.
“In outdoor farming, whether it’s organic or traditional, there’s a lot of variabilities. Even across a field, there’s not going to be a uniform nutrient application or soil quality. In our environment we’re able to consistently create growing conditions that optimize for flavor and nutrient density,” Ellestad told Inhabitat. “We can select varietals that are naturally more nutritious, even ones that don’t make sense to grow outdoors or are really susceptible to weather or have a short shelf life or break down in transit. We can bring those to market at scale with price parity and do that for some of the largest buyers.”
They also see an accelerated growth rate in their TerraFarms. Ellestad said crops will grow two or three times as fast as they would in a field since they can create perfect growing conditions for a plant. They can reuse or recycle all of the water – their biggest use of water is actually for cleaning the farms. And since they can control the environment, they can grow local food year-round.
“Instead of being constrained to a growing season, you’re growing fall, winter, summer, spring; in Saudi Arabia in the summer, in New York in December,” he told Inhabitat. “We’re over 600 times more productive per square foot compared with an outdoor farm. So suddenly you can bring commercial-scale food production into urban areas and start to bring them closer to the point of consumption.”
Solar panels lined the roof of the mobile TerraFarm in Manhattan. They could generate three kilowatts, enough to operate the farm in sunny California, according to Vail. The indoor farms can go off-grid with solar or wind and batteries. Local Roots tends to evaluate the local grid before deploying a farm to see if it’s clean or if they might want to add a source of renewable energy.
Now as they’ve cracked the code for cost parity with traditional farming, Local Roots will be expanding in a big way in 2018. They’ll deploy their first projects outside of the Los Angeles area, and plan to hire around 150 people. Ellestad said they’re also launching their retail brand in a new way. They hope to be on the East Coast by the end of 2018.
But they’re already looking ahead to bringing nutrition to people around the world. Vail told Inhabitat, “We’re here with a mission to improve global health, so that means more than just LA and New York. It means developing countries around the world. It means the two billion people who today don’t have access to the micronutrients they need to be healthy.”
Local Roots is working with the World Food Program (WFP) to deploy and field test a few TerraFarms in 2018 in a developing nation to be determined. These farms will be off-grid, likely equipped with solar power, so they will be self-sustaining; locals will just need to bring in water.
Vail told Inhabitat, “We’ll educate and train the community to operate the farms, and they’ll then have ownership so they can feed their community perpetually in a really sustainable way with food that’s healthy, delicious, and local.”
Find out more about Local Roots on their website.
Images via Lacy Cooke for Inhabitat and courtesy of Local Roots