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Bright Farms Takes Local Produce Model Nationwide With Hydroponics
It wasn’t too long ago when locally-grown produce evoked images of backyard gardens or roadside produce stands many miles outside of city limits. Now, the local produce movement has morphed into an urban-centered industry thanks to the rise of hydroponic greenhouses.
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Way To Grow: Urban Farms Are An Amenity At Many Developments
Denver Construction & Development
July 12, 2018, Margaret Jackson, Bisnow Denver
As people increasingly demand to know where their food comes from, more developers are jumping on board to integrate urban farms into their projects.
Way To Grow: Urban Farms Are An Amenity At Many Developments Courtesy of Tracy Weil RiNo Art District Creative Director Tracy Weil grows heirloom tomatoes at Farm 39 in RiNo
Take S*Park. Named for its heritage as Sustainability Park, the 99-unit residential project in Denver’s Curtis Park neighborhood includes a 7,200 SF greenhouse with 340 aeroponic towers that will grow leafy greens.
The greenhouse will be operated by Altius Farms, which will offer residents a vegetable subscription program, greenhouse tours, and classes and community dinners with Denver celebrity chefs. Altius also will provide neighborhood restaurants with produce from the greenhouse.
Way To Grow: Urban Farms Are An Amenity At Many Developments Courtesy of Altius Farms Altius Farms will grow leafy greens on towers like these at Scissortail Farms in Tulsa, Okla.
Altius Farms founder and CEO Sally Herbert said the tower system at S*Park will produce 75,000 pounds of leafy greens a year — the equivalent of 1.5 acres of conventional farming each month. The towers use 10% of the water of a traditional farm and produce 10 times the yield, and the produce is much fresher than what consumers find in grocery stores, she said. Colorado imports 97% of its produce, and after it spends seven to 14 days in transport, between 20% and 40% of it is discarded.
“When restaurateurs receive produce that’s come in from Arizona or California, it’s been harvested early and gets wilty or bruised,” she said. “You have to throw away the crappy stuff.”
NAVA Real Estate Development is taking a different approach at Lakehouse, its 12-story, 196-unit condominium project at Sloan’s Lake. The produce from its second-floor garden will be available only for residents of the 12-story building.
“We are growing a certain amount of vegetables and herbs on-site that will be professionally managed and harvested,” NAVA co-founder and CEO Brian Levitt said. “We’ll have a harvest room where people can be part of a harvest. There will be opportunities where people can reach over and pick something and put it in their salad. There will be a juicing center and sauna where people can sit and enjoy the juice.”
Way To Grow: Urban Farms Are An Amenity At Many Developments Bisnow/Margaret Jackson The greenhouse at S*Park will provide produce to residents and nearby restaurants.
The garden is just one component of NAVA’s efforts to ensure a healthy environment for residents of Lakehouse, which is seeking Well Building certification. It also must meet standards for air and water quality and fitness, among other things.
Urban Ventures has launched a wellness program that includes food production at Aria Denver development. Aria Denver has partnered with Regis University to launch the Cultivate Health program at its development in northwest Denver. Food production, in both gardens and greenhouses in the neighborhood, is just one component of the program, which is designed to support the health and wellness of residents living in the multi-generational, mixed-income community. Its food production partners are UrbiCulture Farms and Groundwork Denver.
Way To Grow: Urban Farms Are An Amenity At Many Developments Courtesy of Tracy Weil Farm 39 in RiNo sells about 8,000 tomato plants a year
Urban farming is a growing trend both in new developments and in city neighborhoods.
Artist Tracy Weil, creative director of the RiNo Art District, co-founded Heirloom Tomato Farms with Carolyn Jansen in 2004 when they weren’t able to find the produce they wanted. They started with 175 plants, which they sold and gave to friends. Weil was on the board of The GrowHaus, a nonprofit indoor farm, marketplace and educational center in Denver’s Elyria-Swansea neighborhood. The GrowHaus, based in a historic 20K SF greenhouse, agreed to give him enough space to expand to 1,200 plants.
But then aphids from the herbs in The GrowHaus infested Weil's tomato plants, so he built his own greenhouse — Farm 39 — on an eighth of an acre at 3611 Chestnut Place in RiNo. Jansen started The Sparrow in Capital Hill. The combined farms are known as Heirloom Tomato Farms. Now, people line up every spring to purchase some of the 8,000 plants the two farms grow before they sell out.
“It’s been kind of a nice supplemental income,” he said. “As an artist, I wanted to diversify my income stream.
See Also: Sopher Sparn Project Wins Community Building Award Related Topics: urban farming, Brian Levitt, RiNo Art District, Urban Ventures, S*Park, Altius Farms, Sally Herbert, NAVA Real Estate Development, Lakehouse, Aria Denver, Tracy Weil
Read more at: https://www.bisnow.com/denver/news/construction-development/way-to-grow-urban-farms-are-an-amenity-at-many-developments-90572?utm_source=CopyShare&utm_medium=Browser
Meet The Man Who Gave Singapore Local Strawberries
Farming is not so common in Singapore for two reasons, the first being obviously that land is scarce.
Secondly, the hot and humid tropical climate isn’t suitable for all types of fruits and vegetables, meaning conventional local farms can produce bok choy, but not kale.
No one would ever have thought strawberries could be farmed in Singapore.
But in June 2018, one local urban farm made history when it successfully grew and launched its latest product, Splendid Strawberries.
Strawberries are the sixth of Sustenir Agriculture‘s products, and the first fruit among the six.
Before they succeeded in their breakthrough with strawberries, the company has produced lettuce, arugula, basil, and two types of kale in its indoor vertical farm.
Co-founder and CEO of Sustenir, 37-year-old Benjamin Swan, shared his story with the Vulcan Post about how he decided to open the urban farm and tackle vegetables impossible to grow in Singapore.
Publication date: 7/18/2018
Views On Local Food, Not A Kumbaya Chorus
Everything is not rainbows and unicorns when it comes to feelings about local food demand.
Views On Local Food, Not A Kumbaya Chorus
July 18, 2018
Everything is not rainbows and unicorns when it comes to feelings about local food demand.
As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I asked the LinkedIn Fresh Produce Industry Discussion Group this question:
What do you think is the number one reason behind the consumer appeal of local produce? Will consumer preference for localincrease or decrease over the next five years? How should the supply chain respond?
While many see the enduring appeal of local food, others say it is not that simple.
Here are a few of the diverse comments on the question:
DL: Freshness and supporting local growers is important Pick your own fruits and veggies is a family experience to support healthier eating experience
JP: Part of the knee-jerk appeal is the consumer connection with a supposed environmental benefit, in this case, the discredited food miles campaigns. If we get back to the meaning behind the meaning, the benefits these consumers attribute to local are actually a cry for seasonal. Most things are always in season but some seasons are better than others. Eating an 11-month old apple is better than eating a 60-day old grape or a 30-day old blueberry. But sometimes an 11-month old apple from out of state, like I’m enjoying right now, is better than the 7-day old peach from the next county my grocer ruined by holding it at 42 degrees. Flavor trumps geography
VK; Just wait until the nonsense “vertical” farms implode
BB: Supporting “Locally Grown” is on the upswing. My wife and I do it ourselves and I haul produce. However, consumers have become used to having fruits and vegetables available year ‘round at their local grocery store and I wonder how many shoppers stop to ask where that plum they bought in December came from?
DV: It is good to support local. The path from farm to plate is also much shorter with a much smaller risk of contamination than the major retailers’ long supply chains.
JJ: In my opinion the preponderance of “local” produce is directly related to the environment and the myriad problems climate change presents. Educated consumers or “correct consumers” see their food choices from all angles including how it was grown, how far away it was grown and who grew it. Shipping a salad from a drought-plagued area 3000 miles away may not bother most customers now but going forward more and more consumers will use their wallets to demand a less environmentally damaging method of procuring things like salad greens that can be grown year round and shipped 90% fewer miles.
Great input and diverse thinking from the group as always.
Another item that caught my eye this morning:
On the importance of incentivizing healthy eating. From Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. in the Congressional Record:
One shining example of a collaboration formed to tackle this terrible problem is Vitality. John Hancock, a leading life insurance company based in Boston, has partnered with the Friedman School at Tufts University on an innovative life insurance product that helps to encourage healthier behaviors.
John Hancock clients complete an online health review and engage in activities like preventative care, physical activity, smoking cessation, education, and improved nutrition to earn points that translate into discounts on insurance and other products. What is particularly impressive about the program is the discount it provides to participants who want to increase their purchases of fruits and vegetables. Those who sign up receive a 25 percent discount on healthy food at more than 14,000 grocery stores across the country.
The Vitality program is one example of the positive impact incentives can have on our collective public health when they motivate and reward individuals to take up healthy behaviors. We should learn from this innovative model and look at ways to expand upon its reach to greater segments of the population.
In 2011, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts worked with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to pilot a first in the Nation initiative to provide incentives for the purchase of healthy foods. The pilot enabled participants to increase their consumption of fruits and vegetables by 26 percent and led to the creation of USDA’s Food Insecurity and Nutrition Incentive, known as FINI.
FINI has provided States and localities across the country with Federal resources to expand incentive programs for SNAP beneficiaries. Massachusetts currently uses Federal FINI dollars in conjunction with private donations and State resources to increase the purchase of fruits and vegetables.
It is working. In our State, FINI has helped more than 63,000 SNAP recipients increase their fruit and vegetable intake in 1 year alone. Estimates suggest this increase can mean savings of more than $1.1 million in public health costs. So imagine the impact these sorts of programs and incentives could have if they were replicated and expanded on a larger scale.
New research from Tufts’ Friedman School shows that incorporating technology-based incentives for healthier eating into other Federal programs like Medicare and Medicaid would be highly cost-effective, saving millions of lives and billions of dollars in healthcare costs.
We should also look at how we can reach beyond Federal health and nutrition programs to encourage private worksite wellness programs.
TK: McGovern deserves more love as a strong advocate for industry interests. I’d like to hear more from him at fresh produce events.
Related Topics:
Urban Farming Social Enterprise Bears Fruit For Local Community
Urban Farming Social Enterprise Bears Fruit For Local Community
Edible Garden City has two aims: bring people together through farming and solve the sustainability problem in Singapore.
July 12, 2018
Bjorn Low, co-founder of Edible Garden City (back row, first from right), and the Citizen Farm team. Edible Garden City holds workshops at its production arm, Citizen Farm, and collaborates with local primary schools to teach farming to students.
Singapore
BECOMING a farmer in Singapore sounds risky enough, but former digital marketer Bjorn Low decided to take it a step further by starting his own urban farming social enterprise, Edible Garden City.
Established in 2012, the company aims to bring people together through farming, by building community farms and sharing its knowledge on urban farming.
"In every community, there is always a group of people who need help. So when we have the opportunity and capability to do so, we jump straight into it," said Mr Low.
After learning that many male elderly men tend to be reclusive and are at risk of social isolation, he worked with social workers to start a new project, Ah Gong Farm.
Located at Pearl Hill, Chinatown, the farm serves as an avenue for elderly men to learn about farming together and forge friendships. It also allows social workers to get to know them better and to cater to each elderly's individual needs.
Mr Low was deeply moved when he saw one withdrawn participant become more cheerful and talkative as the biweekly lessons progressed. The man even shared that he visited the garden on nights when he had difficulty sleeping.
"Boundaries are very blurred between gardening and therapy," said Mr. Low, who hopes that the elderly might become motivated to join Edible Garden City's team of part-time farmers.
"It is noble - something to be proud of - to grow food for the community. It is important to give our elderly this confidence," he added.
Recently, Ah Gong Farm also welcomed its first two female members.
Through collaborations with the Autism Resource Centre, Employment For People with Intellectual Disabilities, and the Singapore Prison Service, Edible Garden City also brings these farming lessons to people with autism, people with mental disabilities, and inmates as well, equipping them with the skills to pursue farming as a career.
Edible Garden City's other main objective is to solve the sustainability problem in Singapore.
"Mass-scale agriculture is causing land degradation. And Singapore, which imports 90 percent of its food products, is at the receiving end of it. So this is an urgent matter not for the sake of us today, but for our future generation," explained Mr. Low.
To tackle this, he is practicing closed loop agriculture, where food waste is made into compost to grow more food.
As an example, after three years of trial and error, Edible Garden City recently discovered a viable way of using grounded coffee waste to grow mushrooms, which are then sold to local restaurants.
With support from Temasek Foundation, the company is also currently working on creating closed-loop self-contained farming units in the form of containers. It hopes to distribute these containers to housing areas across the island so that each community can grow their own food sustainably.
Similar to Edible Garden City's other farms, these container farms will also be semi-commercial, which means the yield will be sold to generate profit.
"For Singapore to be a fully closed loop is possible, but becoming fully self-sustainable will be a challenge. Growing rice and grains locally is still challenging, but if there is a need, we will find a way to do it," stated Mr. Low.
To achieve this goal, Edible Garden City also holds workshops at its production arm, Citizen Farm, and collaborates with local primary schools to teach farming to students.
"The industry is so young and so new, we want to encourage more people to join it. We even encourage our own staff to go out and create their own urban farming systems. Competitors can bring in new ideas and push for healthy growth in the industry," said Mr. Low.
However, competition does not hinder the business from growing rapidly. From an S$10,000 capital six years ago, Edible Garden City's revenue reached S$1.3 million last year. This was generated from building herb gardens for restaurants and hotels, teaching in schools, and selling harvested plants and urban farming tools. The company's team has also expanded to almost 40 individuals from various walks of life.
"Whenever we do a project, we always remind ourselves that we are a social enterprise, so we try to find areas where we can maximize our social impact."
This year, Mr. Low was nominated as a fellow of Ashoka, a non-profit organization which supports social entrepreneurship.
"It made me happy that the work done in the last five years is being recognized, but I'm also a little bit nervous because it means I have more responsibilities," shared Mr. Low, who hopes to exchange knowledge and ideas with the fellows from all around the globe.
- This article is part of a fortnightly series highlighting socially impactful companies. For more information, visit www.raise.sg
Vertical Farms Supersize Their Ambitions
Vertical Farms Supersize Their Ambitions
July 23, 2018
Crop One won a bid to expand internationally and build a vertical farm in Dubai, which is attracting investments from other indoor farming companies as well.
After witnessing a crop of failures that struggled with money and scale, the indoor farming business is picking up momentum in a bid to better compete against traditional farms in freshness and yields while avoiding forces of nature, from pests to drought.
Recent announcements by several indoor farming startups reflect this ambition. California-based Crop One just announced a $40 million joint venture with Emirates Flight Catering to build one of the largest vertical farms in the world. The new farm, set to be completed in December 2019, would rise up in Dubai and harvest 6,000 pounds of leafy greens per day.
The project is a major coup for Crop One, which is running one farm near Boston and selling its harvest to markets and other retailers locally through its brand FreshBox Farms. The joint venture also gives the venture-funded company a chance to show it can scale up and serve customers beyond markets and restaurants, the two common outlets for indoor farms.
We want to feed the world and do better.
"The food service industry is attractive because they have very high, fixed volumes, but they demand lower prices. You need a cost structure that can serve that market profitably," said Sonia Lo, CEO of Crop One, which also plans to build a farm in Connecticut and another in Texas this year. "There are plenty of vertical farms that are venture-financed where profitability is not a goal. They want market size and proof of science."
Lo's competitors are scaling up, too. Oasis Biotech, backed with a $30 million investment to date from Sananbio, a joint venture between Chinese LED maker Sanan Group and the Institute of Botany at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, held a grand opening of its farm in Las Vegas last week. Oasis plans to deliver later this month to its first customer, local produce distributor Get Fresh.
Oasis is building the production capacity of its vertical farm in two phases. The first, completed phase allows the company to produce 1,500 pounds of leafy greens per day, said Brock Leach, Oasis's chief operating officer. When the second phase is done, the farm will boost its daily yields to 6,000 pounds.
Oasis Biotech recently launched its first consumer brand, Evercress, after moving into its Las Vegas farm in May. Oasis Biotech
"At Oasis, we want to feed the world and do better," Leach said. "With an increasing population and decreasing in agricultural production, we are heading to a dark place in the future unless we can change course and increase production."
Oasis doesn't only want to be a grower. Its business model includes selling equipment for vertical farming and designing and building indoor farms for others, Leach said.
Crop One and Oasis Biotech are part of a new batch of tech-savvy companies that emerged within the past decade to build indoor farms near big cities and deliver fresher and pesticide-free produce, typically highly perishable and high-value leafy greens, such as arugula and baby kale, to markets and restaurants. Lo noted that lettuce, which is otherwise grown mostly in Arizona and California, may have aged by two weeks between its harvest and appearance on your plate in New York City.
Indoor farm designs range from a farm-in-a-box that fits inside a restaurant or grocery store, such as the one marketed by such as Farmery, to larger operations pursued by the likes of Crop One and Oasis.
Growing produce indoors is nothing new, of course. A greenhouse is an old concept that brings crops into an enclosure but retains some key characteristics of field farming, such as the reliance on sunlight and soil, although some are using nutrient mixtures instead of soil to cut water use. This space is attracting newcomers, too. BrightFarms, a 7-year-old New York company, just raised $55 million from investors such as NGEN Partners to build more greenhouses across the country.
Vertical farms tend to have more electromechanical equipment and software to insulate them from the outside world.
A newer bundle of indoor farms starting to attract big-name investors is forgoing soil and sunlight altogether, relying instead on advanced lighting technology that lasts longer and is more tunable to different light spectrums for creating optimal conditions for different plants.
NASA claims to be the first organization to use LED light for growing vegetables indoors, back in the 1980s. Improvements in LED technology and price in the past decade prompted the growth spurt in indoor farming. The use of artificial lighting also allows growers to stack planters. Vertical farms tend to have more electromechanical equipment and software to insulate them from the outside world than greenhouses do, further reducing pests and diseases, said Neil Mattson, associate professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University.
Indoor farm executives like to highlight their efficient use of land and water to grow vegetables without soil, using 99 percent less water than the same acreage equivalent of field farms. But installing and running an LED light system — and for some farms, sensors and infrared cameras and automated equipment — means a high startup and operational costs when compared to conventional farming, Mattson said. Labor cost also can be significant.
Oasis Biotech
Oasis Biotech is growing leafy greens now. Its crop road map calls for producing strawberries, blackberries, beets and carrots in the future.
Some vertical farms, such as PodPonics and FarmedHere, have shuttered because they couldn’t drive down costs or raise money quickly enough.
"The vertical farming industry in its current version is only about six years old, and people are leveraging experiences from other industries," said Lo, a longtime tech investor and executive before coming to Crop One, initially as an investor and now its chief executive. "A lot of founders getting into this industry not appreciating the capital intensity and the need to have a sophisticated financial and operational skills."
This new agricultural sector continues to attract investments. The poster child of this phenomenon is the South San Francisco-based Plenty, which raised $200 million Softbank Group and investment firms backed by Jeff Bezos and Eric Schmidt last year.
The four-year-old startup wants to plant its vertical farms near big cities around the world and is already making moves do that in Japan and China. Middle East is also another potential target. Its CEO, Matt Barnard, told Reuters earlier this year that each farm will run from three to 10 acres.
Other venture-funded startups include Bowery, whose investors include Google Ventures, and AeroFarms.
Lettuce, which is otherwise grown mostly in Arizona and California, may have aged by two weeks between its harvest and appearance on your plate in New York City.
Water scarcity and the shortage of arable land certainly makes the Middle East a hotspot for indoor farming. The promise of a secured food supply and pesticide-free leafy greens is what prompted Emirates Flight Catering to invest its first vertical farm, the joint venture with Crop One, said Saeed Mohammed, the company CEO, via email.
The catering company, majority owned by the Emirates airline, also serves 105 other airlines that fly out of the Dubai International Airport. The new farm will allow the food service company to bring leafy greens from farm to fork within 24 hours, Mohammed said. It also enables the company to claim a lighter carbon footprint with its supply chain, he added.
The $40 million joint venture, split 60 percent-to-40-percent between Emirates and Crop One, won't be the last vertical farm for the catering firm.
"There are plans to extend our facilities across the UAE and into other geographies," Mohammed said. "There are already a number of ongoing discussions, but it is too early to confirm anything further at this point."
Topics:
Hydroponics Farm In Shipping Container Seeking Ann Arbor Restaurants
Hydroponics Farm In Shipping Container Seeking Ann Arbor Restaurants
July 9, 2018
By McKenzie Sanderson MSanderson@mlive.com
ANN ARBOR, MI - Hidden inside an upcycled shipping container tucked away in the corner of an industrial plaza parking lot is a fully functional hydroponics farm.
Crop Spot Farms is essentially a two-acre farm retrofitted inside a 320-square foot container that was previously used for transporting meats, fruits and vegetables.
The recycled container now shares space with vehicles in the parking lot of the Michigan Innovation Headquarters on 600 Wagner Rd.
Inside the farm are rows of leafy greens -- lettuce, arugula, swiss chard, kale, and herbs - nestled inside vertically hanging tubes, each connected to a controlled water source and surrounded by strips of grow lights.
Crop Spot Farms brings hydroponic farm tech to Ann Arbor inside a shipping container
Founder and lead farmer Nabeel Kasim can control the farm's climate and irrigation through a mobile phone application, which is connected to the main power source inside the container. The controlled environment allows for more consistency in plant production and a better tasting, more nutritional product, Kasim says.
"Using the (hydroponics system) indoors is more environmentally-friendly because it requires 95 percent less water," Kasim said. "Growing outdoors brings about the issue of bugs and pesticides, so this system reduces the pollutants and toxins that come with that. It also allows the produce to be available year-round, which is why it's so great to have in Michigan where there are limited harvest seasons."
After graduating from the University of Michigan in 2015, Kasim picked up an interest in hydroponics during a trip to a remote village in Cambodia, where he encountered a family using a soil-free farming technique.
The technique, collectively known as hydroponics, was successful in an area with sporadic rainy weather, which inspired Kasim to experiment with it in Michigan.
Kasim hopes Crop Spot Farms will foster engagement and educational opportunities with Ann Arbor restaurants, schools, and the community.
"I want to help people realize the value of healthy, good-tasting food," Kasim said. "It's all about giving back to the community and make people aware of locally-sourced, environmentally-friendly food. I also hope to supply local restaurants so they can have at-scale, quality produce year-round."
Crop Spot Farms has been in operation since the beginning of May. Kasim said the farm's first major harvest was expected to begin this month.
A launch party for Crop Spot Farms is set from noon to 7 p.m. Sunday, July 15 outside the Michigan Innovation Headquarters building on Wagner Road. There will be produce samples and informational tours of the farm.
"Typically, restaurants are less busy or closed on Sundays, so this event will give them the opportunity to learn about the farm and see it in person," Kasim said. "I'll have some yard games and samples for people to try or take home. I also plan on giving tours every half hour as people start to arrive."
The launch event is free and open to the community. More information can be found on the Crop Spot Farms website.
Jacob Hamilton
Owner Nabeel Kasim poses inside Crop Spot Farms, a hydroponic farm in a recycled shipping container at MI-HQ, 600 S. Wagner Rd. In Ann Arbor on July 5, 2018. Kasim started off gardening as a hobby before realizing he could apply his engineering and logistics skills to hydroponics - a technique he discovered on a trip to Cambodia. "Gardening was dirty," Kasim said. Now he plans to make a business selling heirloom variety leafy greens to Ann Arbor restaurants and hopes to turn the operation into an educational example of future farming techniques.
Jacob Hamilton
Lettuce plants grow from hanging hydroponic columns at Crop Spot Farms, a hydroponic farm in a recycled shipping container at MI-HQ, 600 S. Wagner Rd. In Ann Arbor on July 5, 2018.
Jacob Hamilton
Lettuce plants grow under violet-and-blue LED lights at Crop Spot Farms, a hydroponic farm in a recycled shipping container at MI-HQ, 600 S. Wagner Rd. In Ann Arbor on July 5, 2018.
Jacob Hamilton
Plants grow from hanging columns on either side of UV and infrared LED strips at Crop Spot Farms, a hydroponic farm in a recycled shipping container at MI-HQ, 600 S. Wagner Rd. In Ann Arbor on July 5, 2018.
Jacob Hamilton
Plants grow from hanging columns on either side of UV and infrared LED strips at Crop Spot Farms, a hydroponic farm in a recycled shipping container at MI-HQ, 600 S. Wagner Rd. In Ann Arbor on July 5, 2018.
Jacob Hamilton
Plants grow from hanging columns on either side of UV and infrared LED strips at Crop Spot Farms, a hydroponic farm in a recycled shipping container at MI-HQ, 600 S. Wagner Rd. In Ann Arbor on July 5, 2018.
Jacob Hamilton
Plants grow from hanging columns on either side of UV and infrared LED strips at Crop Spot Farms, a hydroponic farm in a recycled shipping container at MI-HQ, 600 S. Wagner Rd. In Ann Arbor on July 5, 2018.
Jacob Hamilton
A drip regulator provides the water for a hydroponic column planter at Crop Spot Farms, a hydroponic farm in a recycled shipping container at MI-HQ, 600 S. Wagner Rd. In Ann Arbor on July 5, 2018.
Jacob Hamilton
Owner Nabeel Kasim peers between vertical hydroponic columns at Crop Spot Farms, a hydroponic farm in a recycled shipping container at MI-HQ, 600 S. Wagner Rd. In Ann Arbor on July 5, 2018.
Jacob Hamilton
Owner Nabeel Kasim peers between vertical hydroponic columns at Crop Spot Farms, a hydroponic farm in a recycled shipping container at MI-HQ, 600 S. Wagner Rd. In Ann Arbor on July 5, 2018.
Rep. Goyke Commends UW School for Urban Agriculture Initiative
Rep. Goyke Commends UW School for Urban Agriculture Initiative
Rep. Goyke Commends UW School for Urban Agriculture Initiative
Federal USDA grant follows on urban farming legislation introduced by Rep. Goyke calling for a School of Urban Agriculture in Wisconsin
By State Rep. Evan Goyke - Jul 12th, 2018
MADISON – The University of Wisconsin – Madison recently received a three year federal grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture to initiate the creation of a School for Urban Agriculture. The new school, as part of the University’s Farming the City Project, will target students, farmers, and non-profit staff.
This legislative session Rep. Goyke introduced the “The Wisconsin Urban Farming Futures” Initiative that focused on promoting urban agriculture in Wisconsin, including funding and sitting for a future urban agriculture school (Assembly Bills 671, 672, 673, 674).
According to the grant description the new school and program will “…create curricula that meets the needs of students seeking short, intense training in specific aspects of urban agriculture (workshop and short course instruction) and the needs of four-year baccalaureate students who are interested in enhancing their education in this emerging content area.
…Importantly, the project will also target secondary students in an existing pipeline for college-level agricultural training in Wisconsin. In doing so, the project envisions a future workforce of urban farmers reflecting the social composition of the communities where many urban farms are being established.”
In response to the grant announcement and in support of its goals, Rep. Goyke stated:
“The fields of urban farmers look very different than the dairy farm my grandfather owned. Urban Agriculture offers a modern expansion of one of Wisconsin’s strongest traditions and can transform urban communities. In Milwaukee, we’ve seen new life spring from the ashes of old industry. Growing fresh healthy food in and near cities offers positive economic activity, job skills training, brings diverse communities together, and offers access to quality healthy food. Wisconsin’s agricultural future rests in the hands of future farmers, including those in this emerging sector of our agricultural economy. This new initiative and school will provide the tools and skills necessary for Wisconsin’s urban farmers to be successful.”
How Fruit And Vegetables Grown In Vertical Farms Could Soon On Plates In Water-Scarce Countries Across The Middle East
How Fruit And Vegetables Grown In Vertical Farms Could Soon On Plates In Water-Scarce Countries Across The Middle East
High-density, low-water facilities – often located in the heart of major cities – could transform food production in arid climates
Daniel Bardsley
June 28, 2018
The crop-growing warehouse in Al Quoz, Dubai, run by Badia Farms. Badia Farms
Row upon row of leafy vegetables is stacked one above the other, stretching into the distance as far as the eye can see, all inside a huge shed, under bright artificial lights.
This is the new frontier of agriculture: vertical farming, a system that, proponents say, makes the best use of land and water for high-value crop production.
From an old steel warehouse in Newark in the United States to a Second World War tunnel beneath London, vertical farming and its bright artificial lights offer a stark contrast to the traditional earthy image of crops growing in fields.
The UAE is becoming a key centre for the phenomenon, with the news this week that the catering arm of Emirates Airline has partnered with a Californian company, Crop One, to develop what has been described as the world's largest vertical farm.
In a country that depends on imports for at least four-fifths of its food, it offers the prospect of growing more produce locally – albeit in this case for aircraft and airport lounges, rather than homes and restaurants – while making the best use of precious water resources.
Vertical farming is based on the use of hydroponics, in which plants are grown using nutrient media instead of soil, a technique first used in the UAE almost half a century ago and now well established locally through a number of commercial farms.
Emirates Hydroponics Farms, for example, based between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, can produce one kilogram of lettuce using about 20 litres of water, with water being recycled instead of draining into the soil; standard farming methods might require 400 litres, an astonishing amount for any country, particularly a water-scarce one.
By controlling variables such as temperature, nutrient levels and humidity, growth rates are increased significantly, so 18 crops per year can be produced – three times the number of standard agriculture.
The absence of soil – with hydroponics, plants grow in media such as rock wool, a fibrous substance produced from molten rock – eliminates soil-borne diseases.
Read more on Science
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Temperature can be controlled by air conditioning, allowing year-round production even in the UAE, or evaporative cooling.
Typically, hydroponics is used for leafy crops such as salad rocket and lettuce, along with vine crops – among them peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes. In the UAE, it has been used to grow even rice, papayas, oranges and grapes, albeit on a small scale.
In taking hydroponics and employing it on multiple levels, instead of sunlight, vertical farming uses LED lights tailored to the requirements of the particular crop. Artificial lights allow farms to be located anywhere, including in urban environments.
“There's a growing awareness that you can use hydroponics and you can use spaces that would otherwise not have a purpose, like these disused tunnels [under London where a vertical farm is located]. Vertical farms are quite topical because they don't use much space,” said Professor Neil Bricklebank, who has worked on hydroponics technology at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK.
Improvements in LED light technology have been credited with helping to promote vertical farming: artificial illumination can generate all the light that a plant needs, and the latest types can be located just a short distance above the crop, allowing for the stacking of layers. LED lights are also becoming more efficient, cutting energy costs.
Fresh vertical farming produce will reach the customers within hours of harvest. Emirates
As reported by The National, the newly announced US$40 million (Dh146.9 million) Emirates Flight Catering facility will be located at Dubai World Central near Al Maktoum Airport and will produce 2,700kg of leafy greens per day without pesticides or herbicides. It will cover 130,000 square feet or about 1.2 hectares – but it is claimed that it will grow as much produce as a 364-hectare farm.
The announcement of the new farm, construction of which is set to begin in November, comes not long after the official opening in Dubai of what has been described as the GCC's first commercial vertical farm. This 8,500-square-feet facility in Al Quoz Industrial Area 1 was developed by Badia Farms and began producing leafy green vegetables in December last year, before a ceremonial launch in March.
On a smaller scale, through other operators, vertical farming has been carried out in the UAE since at least 2012.
New patented technologies are being promoted for use in vertical farms. The US-based AeroFarms, for example, which created the vertical farm in the former steel facility in Newark, describes its method as “aeroponic”, with roots receiving water, nutrients and oxygen in a mist instead of liquid. This is said to use 40 per cent less water than hydroponics.
Although now found in countries including Japan, South Korea and the Netherlands, vertical farming has, until now, had several disadvantages, according to one specialist.
Dr Howard Resh, a Canada-based consultant who has been involved with hydroponics projects in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, among other places, says that vertical farms can be “extremely costly to construct and operate”, partly because of significant wage costs.
Also, energy inputs are high thanks to lighting and temperature controls, although local vertical production can reduce carbon emissions from transporting foodstuffs.
Dr Resh argues that the lighting in some vertical systems is not as good as in greenhouses, producing poorer-quality crops. However, he also sees positives.
“These vertical systems may have an advantage in a hot, humid climate where greenhouse cooling cannot maintain temperatures at optimum levels. In an insulated building, these temperatures could be better regulated with air conditioning systems,” said Dr Resh, who is involved with a new vertical system that can be fully automated without the need for harvesting, because the plant is sold in the growing container.
“It has the potential for being economically feasible for growing lettuce, leafy greens and herbs,” he said of his vertical farming method.
Chicago's North Lawndale’s ‘Farm on Ogden’ Looks to Supply Fresh Produce, Jobs
North Lawndale’s ‘Farm on Ogden’ Looks to Supply Fresh Produce, Jobs
Alex Ruppenthal | June 19, 2018
A graphic rendering of the soon-to-be-completed Farm on Ogden, which opens June 22. (Courtesy Chicago Botanic Garden)
Angela Mason has spent decades running school and neighborhood garden programs in Chicago, but she’s never been part of anything quite like this.
Neither has anyone else.
On Friday, two organizations that might seem to have little in common – the Chicago Botanic Garden and Lawndale Christian Health Center – will celebrate the opening of the Farm on Ogden, a 20,000-square-foot urban agriculture facility that aims to bring healthy foods and good-paying jobs to North Lawndale. Data shows that North Lawndale has some of the highest unemployment and poverty rates in the city, and residents there suffer from conditions such as diabetes and post-traumatic stress syndrome at rates far exceeding city and national averages.
Located in the heart of the Southwest Side neighborhood – at 3555 Ogden Ave., next to the Central Park Pink Line CTA station – the Farm on Ogden will allow the Botanic Garden’s Windy City Harvest to expand programs for job training, farming, food safety, cooking and nutrition, while also providing more fresh produce to community members and patients at Lawndale Christian Health Center.
Participants in Windy City Harvest's Corps training program construct a platform for the Farm on Ogden's aquaponics system. (Courtesy Chicago Botanic Garden)
Mason said the project is the culmination of 15 years of work in urban agriculture – and a giant step forward from the school and neighborhood-focused garden programs she once ran.
“We used to say that our programs served 10,000 kids per year,” said Mason, who has led Windy City Harvest since shortly after its founding in 2001. “But what does that really mean when you spend 20 minutes with one kid, put a plant in the ground and say, ‘Good luck,’ and then walk away?”
With the Farm on Ogden, Mason said Windy City Harvest will be able to grow its job training program – which targets people who have been incarcerated – from 250 to 350 people per year. Participants in the program can obtain industry-specific training certificates in a number of areas, including aquaponics and vertical farming, edible landscaping and rooftop farming.
Thanks to the new facility, Windy City Harvest will also be able to operate its Youth Farm job training program year-round as opposed to only during summer months.
“If you can pack and sort produce or perishable items, you can pack and sort car parts,” said Mason, noting that participants in WCH’s training programs have landed jobs at Whole Foods, Eataly Chicago, a number of food distribution warehouses and other companies. “It’s just figuring out how to transfer that skill to another industry.”
Tilapia tanks for the aquaponics system at the Farm on Ogden (Courtesy Chicago Botanic Garden)
The farm will also supply produce to patients at Lawndale Christian Health Center through the Veggie Rx program, which allows doctors to write prescriptions for healthy foods to combat diet-related conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes. The program, which served 160 families last year, will now aim to provide boxes of fresh produce to 400 families, Mason said.
The space will also feature a 7,300-square-foot greenhouse, a commercial and teaching kitchen, a year-round farm stand and shared space for urban farmers – in addition to a 50,000-gallon aquaponics system, which will produce 2,500 heads of lettuce each week and 14,000 pounds of tilapia annually.
Once fully complete in several months, the facility will glow with special purple LED lights facing one of the city’s busiest streets.
“It’s no accident that we chose to put this on Ogden Avenue,” said Dr. Wayne Detmer, director of operations for Lawndale Christian Health Center. “We want this to be a place where people can see possibilities in a neighborhood where that’s not often the case.”
Detmer first envisioned something like the Farm on Ogden in 2010 after attending a seminar at Duke University’s Divinity School, where he met a theologian who made the case that providing residents with access to local foods is a societal responsibility.
Detmer and Mason connected soon after and eventually joined forces to try and make something of their shared vision for a new type of urban garden.
To Detmer’s knowledge, the project is the nation’s first to combine elements of a community health clinic, botanic garden, agriculture-focused jobs training program and a year-round farm stand.
An overhead view of the Farm on Ogden site during construction in summer 2017 (Courtesy Chicago Botanic Garden)
Detmer estimates that the new farm stand, or “healthy corner store,” could draw tens of thousands of residents each year, given the success of an existing farm stand stationed at Lawndale Christian Health Center, which sells out every week.
But he acknowledges that it’s difficult to project whether the Farm on Ogden will actually work – or, if it does, how anyone will be able to tell.
“I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to measure the direct impact on our community in terms of health indicators,” he said. “It doesn’t mean we’re not going to try.”
Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago are already on board to study the project’s effect on residents’ health and well-being, and other researchers could join the effort later, Detmer said.
Based on the project’s initial performance, Detmer said it could expand to serve a broader range of individuals by adding programs for those suffering from mental illness or substance abuse.
“Getting people doing things related to growing and being exposed to nature can be therapeutic in and of itself,” Detmer said.
The Farm on Garden will host an opening celebration and ribbon cutting on Friday from 10 a.m. to noon. A community celebration is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
Visit the Chicago Botanic Garden’s website for more information.
Contact Alex Ruppenthal: @arupp | aruppenthal@wttw.com | (773) 509-5623
Indoor Urban Agriculture Is Growing Up Thanks To These Cities
At this point, the benefits of indoor urban farming are common knowledge: fresher food, fewer transportation emissions, and less spoilage thanks to shorter transit distances.
NYC’s Gotham Greens highlighted those and other benefits this week with the announcement that it had closed a $29 million Series C equity funding round led by Silverman Group and Creadiv. This latest round brings the company’s total funding to $45 million, and will help them “finance the expansion trajectory,” which covers 500,000 square feet currently under development in five different states.
Gotham is one of several major success stories for NYC-based urban indoor farming companies, many of which we’ve covered extensively at The Spoon. But the Big Apple’s not the only city making indoor urban farming widely available and, in the process, changing the way we think about farming.
In fact, today marks the opening of the Farm on Ogden in Chicago, a massive facility and project aimed at providing fresh, local food to an undernourished (literally and figuratively) part of the Windy City.
With those two pieces of news in mind, here’s a brief look at a few other cities and companies where the indoor farming movement is thriving:
The Farm on Ogden
Chicago
Though the enormous vertical farming operation FarmedHere shuttered in 2017, Chicago is still seeing plenty of developments from other urban agriculture players. Gotham Greens operates a facility in the Pullman area. And generating quite a bit of buzz of late is the aforementioned Farm on Ogden, a partnership between the Lawndale Christian Health Center and Chicago Botanic Garden. The $3.5 million year-round project will provide both jobs and local, sustainably produced food to the struggling North Lawndale area, where unemployment soars, over 14 percent of the population has diabetes, and one in four adults suffers from PTSD. The multi-use facility will offer year-round food production, teaching kitchens, and job training for everyone from teenagers to those with criminal backgrounds. The project is also in the midst of building a 50,000-gallon aquaponic system that will raise lettuce and tilapia.
Grove
Boston
Like Chicago, Boston’s urban landscape and often-grim weather make it a prime candidate for the indoor urban farming movement.
Dorm-room project turned full-fledged business Grove takes a slightly different approach, trading enormous warehouses for compact pieces of furniture in which to place its “farms.” As my colleague Catherine noted recently, Grove has teamed up with furniture and appliance companies to create custom hardware, while it supplies seed pods and ag software to cultivate the crops.
If, on the other hand, you’re after a more utilitarian means of growing your produce, Freight Farms can provide you with one of its vertical farms housed in 40-square-foot shipping containers. Each Leafy Green Machine container is a fully climate controlled environment with vertical crop columns, LEDs, and a closed-loop hydroponic irrigations system. The accompanying farmhand platform, meanwhile, lets users automate many of the growing tasks, and generates real-time data for crop analysis. Freight Farms counts multiple universities, as well as big names like Google, among its customers.
Detroit
Of course, if any city stands poised to benefit from the urban agriculture revolution, it’s Detroit; its 78,000 empty/abandoned spaces are prime real estate for potential farming endeavors.
Artesian Farms is a great example: the company’s current warehouse facility sat abandoned from the late ’90s to when the company moved in around 2014. Now, thanks to a collaboration with Green Spirit Farms, Artesian has turned the warehouse’s 7,500 square feet of traditional space into one gigantic vertical farm. The company is also a community builder: 100 percent of current employees are from the surrounding Brightmoor neighborhood, which also benefits from access to the food produced.
RecoveryPark Farms, meanwhile, is another effort to transform urban blight via indoor and urban farming practices. The project grows produce, root vegetables, and herbs in hydroponic greenhouses that’s then shipped out to restaurants within a 300-mile radius.
Like many other companies listed here, RecoverPark provides as much community outreach and employment as it does homegrown food. Which, at the end of the day, is really what “eating local” should be all about.
Jenn is a writer, editor, and ghostwriter based in NYC. At The Spoon, she covers agtech, sustainable food issues, and restaurant tech. She is obsessed with IKEA.
Panel Tackles Cities And Social Media
SESSION: State of the Nation panelists, Ausveg CEO James Whiteside, PMA A-NZ CEO Darren Keating, University of Qld's Professor Jimmy Botella, science writer and communicator Julian Cribb, with Hort Connections MC, Toby Travanner.
STOP talking about horticulture and agriculture and start talking about food, says science writer, Julian Cribb.
The well-known communicator was part of the State of the Nation panel session held at Hort Connections 2018 at Brisbane on Tuesday.
"You have to close the gap both mentally and economically between producers and consumers. People don't eat agriculture, they don't eat horticulture," Mr. Cribb said.
As heard at other horticulture conferences at which he's addressed, Mr. Cribb called for an embracing of vertical farms for food production in urban centres.
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"Production is going to move off farm and into the cities," Mr. Cribb said.
"Half the world's food is going to be grown in cities using wastewater from those cities.
"We humans only eat about 200 different plants. We haven't even begun to explore the earth as to what is good to eat.
"Horticulture is going to be the mainstay in these diets."
But his fellow panelists took a more here and now approach to the issues facing horticulture.
The panel consisted of Produce Marketing Association Australia and New Zealand chief executive officer, Darren Keating, Ausveg CEO James Whiteside and the University of Queensland's Professor Jimmy Botella.
Mr. Whiteside posed the question of who will be the farmers of tomorrow?
"That's a much greater challenge than the industry has given thought to," he said.
"I think there is a whole long list of innovation of how we are going to grow food. That will happen in course.
"The broader question is, how do we go from a relatively agrarian horticulture to those growing in cities?"
FOCUS: PMA A-NZ CEO Darren Keating taking part in the State of the Nation panel session.
Mr. Cribb's view of the future was based on green cities.
"Cities are such ugly places compared to what it's going to be when they are covered with plants and trees," Mr. Cribb said.
Futuristic hydroponic cities cost money though, a point not dismissed by Mr. Whiteside.
"The issue is we have enormous potential to grow more food but it takes capital and it takes people taking risks," he said.
"We can't assume our food will be grown within 20 kilometres (of major cities).
"Fundamentally, we are in the business of feeding our fair share of the population."
Away from the production issues, PMA A-NZ's Mr. Keating said one area of concern was how consumers viewed the food supply chain through the lens of social media.
"The way people eat and interact with food has changed over the years," Mr. Keating said.
"When you look at the number of conversations people are having with food, it can be overwhelming.
"A big part of this problem is the billions of customers being face to face with social media.
"It may not always be well informed but it will impact your business.
FUTURE VIEW: Ausveg CEO James Whiteside says the horticulture industry needs to think about who will be farming fresh produce in the future.
"We can't control the discussions but we can add our voice."
Professor Botella pushed the case for innovation and technology as a means of creating change for both growers and consumers.
"Adopt technology and adopt technology early," he said.
Mr. Keating suggested technology as a way to engage young people into horticulture.
"Don't fear the technology. There is a way to be involved in agriculture and food which doesn't mean you have to be living in a regional area," he said.
Mr. Cribb also reiterated his call for "a year of food" for every school on the planet.
"We need the Stephanie Alexander model of a farm in every school," he said.
"When kids grow their own vegetables, they eat their vegetables. Broccoli becomes delicious."
The conversation also covered part of the conference's theme - halving waste.
"The other side of the coin is waste. Having a good conversation about how the product gets there and in good condition, is a tough one," Mr. Keating said.
"The waste part is a really important conversation to be had.
"Packaging is easy to call evil but it's also the thing that can minimize food waste. Getting to something that works is important."
Mr. Cribb said recycling needed to become second nature.
"We've got to build these large recycling plants. We've got to recycle everything," he said
Gotham Greens Raises $29 Million In Growth Equity Funding
Gotham Greens Raises $29 Million In Growth Equity Funding
JULY 06, 2018
Gotham Greens, a leading urban greenhouse developer and grower of locally and sustainably grown produce, has announced the closing of $29 million in Series C equity funding last month. The new round brings the company’s total funding to $45 million, not including bank debt. Since its launch in 2011, Gotham Greens has grown from a single urban rooftop greenhouse in Brooklyn to a multi-state indoor farming leader and one of the largest hydroponic leafy greens producers in North America.
The round was led by the company’s existing investors, including the Silverman Group, along with a significant new investment from Creadev, a global private equity investment firm controlled by the Mulliez family.
“This funding enables us to continue on our path of rapid growth that is providing consumers with fresher, better tasting, locally grown produce while transforming urban real estate and promoting sustainable agriculture,” said Viraj Puri, co-founder, and chief executive officer. “We’re inspired every day by the dedication and talent of our team to grow and purvey exceptionally high-quality, nutritious produce while contributing to the better food movement.”
Gotham Greens grows fresh produce in technologically advanced, climate-controlled urban greenhouses in close proximity to retailers and food service providers. This ensures year-round supply chain reliability, transparency, and traceability. The company currently owns and operates four production-scale facilities in New York City and Chicago totaling 170,000 square feet and has another 500,000 square feet under development in five states. The company announced new greenhouses in Chicago and Baltimore earlier this year. The funding will help finance the expansion trajectory, widen distribution, grow its team, and enhance research and development in controlled environment food production techniques, data science, and machine learning.
“The oversubscribed financing is strong validation of our proven farm unit economics, efficient utilization of capital, growth rate, and best in class brand,” said Eric Haley, co-founder, and chief financial officer. “We are excited to welcome Creadev to the Gotham Greens family and for this next phase of growth to bring local produce nationwide.”
“Indoor farming is one of the most exciting and promising sectors in the world of food and ag-tech. Gotham Greens is a clear market leader and is positioned for significant growth. We were highly impressed by the company’s proven track record, greenhouse profitability, exceptional product quality and human-driven values,” said Delphine Descamps, managing director for Creadev USA. “We believe that the Gotham Greens team will continue to significantly influence how fresh produce is grown and distributed both in the U.S. and globally.
Gotham Greens’ business model combines proven hydroponic controlled environment agriculture together with proprietary cultivation techniques and the art of growing. The company reports best-in-class crop yields under the leadership of managing partner and plant scientist, Jenn Nelkin Frymark. Gotham Greens’ greenhouses are powered by 100 percent renewable electricity and yield up to 30 times more crop per acre than conventional agriculture while using 90 percent less water and eliminating agricultural runoff and the use of harmful chemicals.
The company’s growing methods and shortened supply chain reduce the risk of food-borne pathogens. By locating its greenhouse farms in cities, Gotham Greens eliminates the environmental footprint and food waste linked to shipping produce long distances while advocating for improved healthy food access, environmental education, and green collar economic development.
An Amazon Veteran Joins Indoor Farming Startup
Source: Bowery Farming Inc.
An Amazon Veteran Joins Indoor Farming Startup
After helping the e-commerce giant automate its warehouses, Brian Donato will lead Bowery Farming’s efforts to scale up.
June 29, 2018
Bowery Farming Inc., an agriculture startup that’s less than two years old, got a big boost last month when it poached Brian Donato, a veteran of Amazon's automation efforts.
Donato will oversee Bowery's indoor farm in Kearny, New Jersey, a forgotten industrial enclave once famous for building warships. There, Bowery grows leafy greens in a computerized labyrinth of sensor-rich trays that monitor and react to humidity, light and carbon dioxide. Human farmers work alongside the crates, which automatically adjust inputs, like light and temperature. The system, which resembles a giant game of three-dimensional Tetris, is designed to grow lettuce and herbs with limited water and no pesticides.
During his seven years at Amazon, Donato managed Amazon fulfillment centers, the massive distribution hubs where humans and robots pick, pack and assemble hundreds of thousands of orders, each day, for delivery. He most recently ran Amazon Home Services, which provides cleaners, carpenters and more to harried homeowners.
Before that he directed operations for the Amazon Fresh and Pantry food delivery services. Bowery's heavily automated process reminds Donato of the fulfillment systems he implemented at Amazon, where he was part of the team that integrated robots into the human workforce. “We had to teach people to care for the automation and to work with it,” he says.
Bowery’s warehouse facility. Source: Bowery Farming Inc.
Bowery's indoor farm is controlled by proprietary software called BoweryOS. It uses a web of cameras and sensors to automatically tinker with inputs, like air flow, that help plants flourish. Bowery says one square foot of its indoor farm is 100 times more productive, and less wasteful, than an equivalent plot of arable land. Rival indoor farms make similar claims.
Besides running the existing farm, Donato will help Bowery Farming set up automated facilities on the outskirts of cities. This summer, he’ll launch Bowery's second grow house; it’s not far from the current operation in Kearny and 30 times the size of the original farm. A representative for Bowery declined to provide the square footage and yield of its current operation.
Human farmers at the Kearny facility Source: Bowery Farming Inc.
The United Nations says food production will need to double in the next three decades to feed the planet's swelling population. Bowery and a handful of other vertical farming startups aim to cash in on this dire situation by building massive grow houses in and on the outskirts of cities.
Growing near cities could prove lucrative. The U.S. currently imports 35 percent of fruits and vegetables, according to research conducted by Bain & Co. in 2017; leafy greens, mostly grown in California and Arizona, travel an average of 2,000 miles (3,200 km) before reaching most urban supermarkets.
Some critics says the electricity required to run indoor farms negates the potential transportation savings. “You're using power to produce electricity to replace the sun,” says Michael Hamm, a professor of sustainable agriculture at Michigan State University. Bowery Farming doesn’t use renewable energy to power its farm.
So far, Bowery sells its own brand of kale, arugula, butter lettuce and herbs to Whole Foods and a few restaurants. The greens are only available in New York City.
Packaged greens Source: Bowery Farming Inc.
The technology is there to produce herbs and lettuces and tomatoes, Hamm says. “But you need more than greens to feed a city.” He says vertical farming has yet to accommodate heartier crops like wheat, corn, berries and root vegetables like carrots, at scale.
Regardless, investors seem excited about the opportunity to disrupt traditional agriculture. Bowery has raised $27.5 million since launching in 2017. Firms piling in include General Catalyst, First Round Capital and Alphabet's venture arm, GGV Capital.
Vertical farming has also caught the attention of SoftBank Group Corp. Last summer, the Japanese conglomerate bet $200 million on San Francisco’s Plenty. Where Bowery grows its crop in flat trays stacked like floors of a building, Plenty grows its veggies on poles. Both companies are chasing consumers who want fresh and organic produce.
Bowery Farming's co-founder and chief executive officer, Irving Fain, doesn’t seem concerned he’s raised significantly less than his West Coast rival. “There’s a clear need to improve on the traditional agriculture industry,” he says. “We can’t do this alone.”
Bowery is looking to significantly expand its operation beyond New Jersey by leasing warehouses outside additional cities, as soon next year. Donato will oversee the effort. “I wanted to shed that Amazon shroud of protection and do it on my own,” he says.
iGrow News, Badia Farm Interview With CEO, Omar Al Jundi
iGrow News, Badia Farm Interview With CEO, Omar Al Jundi
Content Contributor to iGrow News: Scott Massey
Omar Al Jundi decided to not only tackle a national issue but also to independently finance it. Why?
Omar grew up in Saudi Arabia eating food predominantly from elsewhere; produce grown in other countries was imported into the desert, where growing conditions were harsh or impossible. Only through travels to the USA and Europe, did Omar experience the taste of fresh produce that had not lost its flavor and quality through extensive travel, handling, and preservatives. These experiences inspired him to find ways to grow produce indoors using Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) to make fresh produce available to customers.
Today, Omar is the current CEO and Founder of Badia Farms in Dubai. Badia Farms is the first Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) commercial vertical indoor farm, using innovative hydroponic technology to grow leafy greens. The company’s vision is to revolutionize the agricultural industry in the Middle East; to provide a sustainable solution for the region’s dependence on food imports and ultimately to safeguard food security in a country that currently imports more than 80% of its food requirements.
Traditionally, “locally grown in Dubai (or in any GCC country for that matter)” has not been synonymous with quality. Despite this deeply ingrained notion, Omar was able to secure early client interest and orders by inviting hotel managers and chefs to taste the quality of the produce at Badia Farms. Six months post-launch, Badia Farms is now supplying to 75 restaurants, including Four Seasons Hotel Abu Dhabi, Emirates Palace, Tashas, Fairmont the Palm, and will be available in supermarkets and directly to the consumer by Q2 2019. The company anticipates being more affordable than imported produce as there is no product deterioration due to travel, and as demands increase, production costs will also fall over time.
Badia Farms is also led by fourth-generation British horticultural expert Grahame Dunling. Equipped with state of the art bespoke-spectrum LED lighting, the highly controlled environment uses the most advanced hydroponic technology, chemical free, soil-free, nutrient-rich base to grow a product range of optimal quality, flavor, and yield. The sustainable eco-system created at Badia Farms uses 90 percent less water than in open field farming, energy efficient and is pesticide free. Indoor, controlled agriculture also removes a majority of the variables that could lead to food contamination that frequently plagues field grown produce.
This revolutionary approach to address food security in the Middle East has not gone without notice. Badia Farms is now engaged by both local and international entities; private, governmental and non-profit organizations to share insights and developments in the agricultural industry and how it can bring about regional food supply stability and aid environmental conservation on both national and global scale.
“They believe this is the way forward, and want to promote it”, says Al Jundi. “We do not get food security without water security. It is true that our underground aquifers have been depleted over the years. To make matters worse, as a region, we have one of the highest consumption rates of water in the entire world.”
“We had to overcome many obstacles to make the system as automated as possible. We are profitable without any government subsidies. We currently draw our power from the grid, but are working towards solar to make it a fully sustainable solution from A to Z.”
Now that the commercial success has been proven through Badia Farm’s output yields, a second Badia Farm, which will be located in Saudi Arabia, is in its’ design phase. While success leads to expansion, being the first in the industry has, of course, presented challenges; a key one being how to finance such an initiative. Being first isn’t always compatible with the banks’ risk management and they are naturally skeptical. As such, Omar financed Badia Farms independently; a challenge that sets limits in itself, but a blessing as these limits have ensured the business is running as efficiently, creatively and resourcefully as possible.
Inevitably, Badia Farms and vertical farming, in general, have caught the attention of many, and Badia Farms will soon be joined by healthy competition in the region. However, Omar will forever remain the region’s pioneer; one that personally addressed and funded the issue of our food traveling an average of 3000 miles to get to our plate.
Scott Massey
Content Contributor to iGrow News:
Oasis Biotech Brings Indoor Farming To Las Vegas
Oasis Biotech has opened an indoor farm in the Las Vegas valley and they will soon be growing produce for local restaurants. Parker Collins reporting.
LAS VEGAS (KTNV) - Seeing the building at 6225 Annie Oakley Drive you might not believe there's an entire farm inside.
They're growing a lot of things and they'll start delivering to their first customers July 24.
To go inside you have to wear a mask, gloves, and a full body suit. It looks like workers are gearing up for surgery, but it's actually a very scientific farm called Oasis Biotech. There's a reason for all the layers.
"Nobody wants to get sick from what they eat and quite literally there's cases of it being fatal," said Brock Leach, the general manager of Oasis Biotech.
Workers plant one seed at a time with tweezers. Crops are harvested in air conditioned rooms. In between, they grow crops in rooms right out of a sci-fi thriller. The germination room is kept at 85 degrees Fahrenheit and 85% humidity.
Right now, they're growing baby lettuce and micro-greens. You can't go buy it, but you could see it when you eat out. In fact, that's why the company came from China: because of all the high end restaurants in Las Vegas.
The plain-looking building down the block could give your next dish a kick.
"It's really not the meat and the potatoes of the dinner for say, but the things that add a lot of flavor and a little pizazz," said Leach.
They want to start growing berries and show up in local grocery stores next year.
Next-Gen Leaders In Urban Farming - Josh Aliber
Next-Gen Leaders In Urban Farming - Josh Aliber
Josh joined Square Roots in 2016 as one of ten farmers in the inaugural season of our Urban Farming and Entrepreneurship Program. He’s now part of the R&D team, helping to design our future farming technology. We asked him to share a bit about his journey to become a next-gen leader in urban farming.
Josh Aliber with his thai basil during season one of the Square Roots farming program.
SR: How did you get started in urban farming?
JA: My first time growing a plant was a gardening course in college. I signed up hoping to satisfy some credits not expecting the joy I’d receive from growing food. I had a 5’ x 5’ plot that I decided to fill with broad-leaf mustard. Every week, I returned to my dorm with a bundle of mustards to share with my roommates. They always accepted my greens but never knew what to do with them!
I finished school with a degree in entrepreneurship and spent some time afterwards at a clean-tech startup in Boston before embarking on a multi-month long journey in Central and South America. My travels opened my eyes to the opportunities of sustainable food systems and the perils of processed foods. I remember traveling to Nicaragua, where I was shocked by the rate of obesity. There, it occurred to me that processed foods were cheaper and more readily available than fresh, local food. The longer I traveled, the more I started to observe and analyze the food of different cultures and people.
I returned home to the United States prematurely after injuring myself hiking. During my next six months in recovery, I decided I was going to start my own business when I returned to full health. I started listening to podcasts, because I was not able to read or a use a computer. That’s when I found “Urban Agriculture” — a podcast about vertical farming. I became fascinated and obsessed with the idea of vertical farming — excited by its intersection of technology, social impact, and economics. I spent the following six months studying, networking, and preparing to apply to graduate school to learn controlled environmental agriculture, thinking it’d enable me to start my own farm. This is when I found Square Roots.
“I became fascinated and obsessed with the idea of vertical farming — excited by its intersection of technology, social impact, and economics.”
SR: Tell us about your experience in season one of the Square Roots program.
JA: Rewarding, challenging, and enlightening.
I joined Square Roots with minimal experience in agriculture — hoping to finish the program and start my own farm. I spent the next twelve months effectively learning how to grow and build a small business selling herbs to retail stores and restaurants in New York City. I learned to operate an indoor farm and practice the fundamentals of entrepreneurship. My greatest experiences were in the lessons I learned through failure.
SR: Now that you’ve joined the Square Roots team post-program, what are you up to?
Josh Aliber transplanting basil seedlings in our R&D farm.
JA: I currently work on the R&D team as a farmer. I joined Square Roots at the end of season one to become one of the first members of our R&D team tasked to build new technology, specifically optimizing for healthy plant growth. Today, I work alongside our engineers to beta-test all the hardware and software they build. I build processes to grow food better.
SR: How do you relate to the concept of next-gen leadership in urban farming?
JA: I identify with our next generation of farmers, because I believe that young people have a responsibility to reduce our society’s carbon footprint. I am optimistic that as technology in indoor farming improves, it’s a method through which we can grow food with minimal resources and allow our land to restore itself and heal.
SR: What excites you about future of urban farming?
JA: Circular economies. In regenerative soil farming, inputs are a function of outputs: no resources are wasted. I’m excited by the opportunities of indoor farming to follow a similar approach to build circular systems, to build farms using recycled materials, and to use renewables and waste for power.
SR: What favorite plant are you currently growing?
JA: Stevia! Many people don’t know that stevia is a plant! It’s super sweet and tastes better than the artificial sugar we put in our coffee. I love growing plants that WOW people. I’m excited to see stevia used in a cocktail at a bar. It’s going to be a bestseller!
You can follow along with Josh Aliber on Instagram @joshaliber.
Agriculture Real Food Urban Agriculture Technology Urban Farming
Indoor Farm Hopes To Bring Locally Grown Produce, Technological Innovation To Las Vegas Food Market
A variety of microgreens and herbs on display at Oasis Biotech on Tuesday, July 10, 2018. The 215,000-square-foot indoor farm, located in southeast Las Vegas, will produce a variety of crops for the local market. (Jeff Scheid/The Nevada Independent)
Indoor Farm Hopes To Bring Locally Grown Produce, Technological Innovation To Las Vegas Food Market
By Jackie Valley
July 15th, 2018
In a brightly lit room, workers donning head-to-toe protective clothing — white jumpsuits, blue bouffant caps, surgical masks, booties, and gloves — huddle over tables lined with trays.
The environment could pass as a research lab or sterile-processing center deep inside a bustling hospital, but it’s neither. The trays contain the mission behind this quiet room: Seeds. And lots of them, in perfectly arranged rows.
This is the seeding room at Oasis Biotech, an indoor hydroponic farm in Las Vegas that’s gearing up to ship its crops to restaurants on the casino-dotted Strip. It’s the first step in a new-age farming process that doesn’t carry the traditional trappings of the industry. No soil, tractors or natural sunlight exist in this 215,000-square-foot-building-turned-farm.
And as far as Brock Leach, the facility’s chief operating officer, and general manager, is concerned, that’s a step in the right direction. He points to worldwide population growth, climate changes and land challenges as reasons why indoor farming is becoming increasingly important.
“This movement isn’t about rocket science,” he said. “This movement is really going to be about innovation and continuous improvement.”
That improvement is already underway. Several weeks ago, workers were assembling 145 seed-filled trays per day, Leach said. On this day, they’re poised to produce 1,045 that will birth crops such as baby arugula, microgreens, and red butterhead.
“That’s how quickly they are ramping up,” he said. “They are the rock stars of this organization.”
Technicians plant vegetable seeds at Oasis Biotech on Tuesday, July 10, 2018. The 215,000-square-foot indoor farm, located in southeast Las Vegas, will produce a variety of crops for the local market. (Jeff Scheid/The Nevada Independent)
A growing industry
As of last year, Nevada contained nearly 250 farms, which includes both indoor and outdoor operations. Most are small or medium-sized farms that pump out everything from potatoes and onions to watermelon and cantaloupe, said Jennifer Ott, plant industry division administrator for the Nevada Department of Agriculture.
“We actually have a pretty thriving melon industry in Nevada,” she said.
But to the Las Vegas resident or tourist who doesn’t venture too far beyond the suburban ring, it might not be very obvious. Many of the farms exist in Northern Nevada, in Churchill and Lyon counties, and others are clustered east of Las Vegas in the Moapa Valley.
State officials said the farming industry has grown in recent years. They expect that trend to continue, especially as indoor farming becomes more popular.
“The more farmers and the more agriculture that is in Nevada, the better,” Ott said. “As a community, when everyone is working together, it sort of lifts up everybody. The more locally available food in Nevada and the more Nevada growers that we have is better for the citizens of the state.”
It’s a belief echoed by Leach as Oasis Biotech prepares to enter the scene. The fledgling company’s roots are half a world away: San’an Optoelectronics Co., a Chinese company that is the world’s largest producer of LED chips, owns Oasis Biotech.
Founded in 2017, Oasis Biotech wants to help feed the world through its massive hydroponic, vertical-farming facility located in a warehouse district in southeast Las Vegas. The plants grow in a nutrient-rich solution, and the seed-to-harvest process all happens inside this massive building, which once served as home to a mail-order pharmaceutical company. Now, white hallways lead to temperature-controlled germination and growing rooms, where the seeds come to life.
As long as farming can be done outdoors, he thinks it will. But Leach considers indoor farming wise preparation for the future.
“It would be foolish for us not to invest and develop in this technology,” he said.
After all, roughly 124 million people in 51 countries endure food insecurity or worse, according to the 2018 Global Report on Food Crises, produced yearly by the Food Security Information Network with help from other global agencies. That’s a 15 percent increase over the prior year.
The report notes that long-lasting conflicts and climate disasters, such as droughts, have contributed to the problem.
The food produced in Oasis Biotech’s indoor farm won’t directly feed the hungry in the most food-insecure nations, but Leach said the operation can indirectly help by fine-tuning indoor farming, thus making it a more common practice.
“Our intent is to help other people engage in this industry by supplying our expertise,” he said.
Decreases in the cost of LED lights paired with an increased desire for locally grown food have spurred the expansion of the indoor farming industry, according to a 2017 report by Agrilyst, a software provider for indoor farmers. Of operation types, indoor vertical farms led the pack in growth last year. And many, like Oasis Biotech, are growing leafy greens and microgreens — crops that have a shorter grow cycle and higher profit margin.
Oasis Biotech has been quietly prepping for its entry into the Las Vegas market. The company, which will sell produce under the brand name Evercress, has been delivering produce to local charities as well as samples to restaurant chefs. Leach said the company plans to work with a local food distributor — he declined to name which one until it’s publicly announced— and provide customizable products to the city’s food-service industry. (For instance, if a chef desires a certain leaf size or a mix of greens, that can be accommodated, he said.)
The long-term plan: produce delivered to local grocery stores.
The company is hosting a grand opening Wednesday for invited guests, followed by a public event Saturday when community members can tour the facility and sample produce. The first distribution to paying customers will occur July 24, Leach said.
Oasis Biotech expects to produce 12,000 servings of salad a day during its initial operational phase, he said. Phase two would quadruple that output. Eventually, the company expects to grow strawberries, raspberries, beets and radishes, among other crops, in the same building. Vast, open rooms await the planned crops.
Former land farmer Dustin Wanders from Caldwell, Idaho, now works at Oasis Biotech The 215,000-square-foot indoor farm, located in southeast Las Vegas, will produce a variety of crops for the local market. (Jeff Scheid/The Nevada Independent)
A new kind of farmer
So far, Oasis Biotech has hired more than 100 people and plans to invest nearly $30 million in the Southern Nevada economy during its inaugural year. The workers include farm hands, data scientists, plant physiologists, salespeople and maintenance crews.
Among them is Dustin Wanders, a 34-year-old who grew up on his family’s potato farm in Caldwell, Idaho. He recently traded his outdoor farming lifestyle for a new gig as grow room supervisor at Oasis Biotech.
Wanders said his father and brother originally thought he just wanted to forgo the farming career. But that’s not the case. The new Las Vegas resident said he developed a fascination with indoor farming and began applying for jobs across the country.
His second day on the new job, Wanders already had identified a perk: “I don’t have to wear sunblock.”
Wanders has a leg up compared to many of the indoor farm workers. Leach said many don’t have prior farming experience, much less in an indoor hydroponic facility, so they’re learning a new skill set. The best way to teach them? “By putting them to work,” he said.
Educational partnerships could sprout in the future. A large group from UNLV recently toured the facility.
Brock Leach, chief operating officer and general manager at Oasis Biotech, displays microgreens and herbs on Tuesday, July 10, 2018. (Jeff Scheid/The Nevada Independent)
In the meantime, Leach said he hopes Oasis Biotech’s presence in Las Vegas at least educates the broader community about indoor farming and its benefits. The grow method and production process, he said, yield fresher produce in a recycled environment that uses less water.
“People don’t understand how much flavor is possible,” he said, motioning to an assortment of product on his desk, including parsley, cilantro, lemon basil and a custom salad mix. “Because of the supply chain and how we’re used to selling our food, we are completely ignorant.”
FROM THE EDITOR
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Berry Fresh Prospects For Vertical Farming
Berry Fresh Prospects For Vertical Farming
JUN 21, 2018
Govt agencies may have to ease rules to let sector flourish, says senior minister of state
Now in selected supermarkets near you: Strawberries grown in a Singapore vertical farm.
On the sidelines of a visit to an R&D laboratory belonging to Sus-tenir Agriculture, which developed a method to grow strawberries here, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Koh Poh Koon said government agencies will need to see how best they can change rules to assist vertical farms.
This means agencies may need to be flexible, and liberalise regulations, to accommodate the needs of such firms, he added yesterday.
Acknowledging the challenges faced by the vertical farm industry, Dr Koh said one solution the Government will explore is to locate such farms near commercial companies, universities and R&D firms.
He explained that having such "clusters" will let urban farmers leverage on expertise in other areas to devise cost-effective technological solutions. He also acknowledged that finding spaces for vertical farms was a challenge, and said the Government would see what more it can do to help farmers who identify areas and buildings they are keen to set up facilities in.
Mr James Liu, co-founder of vertical farming company SING.Fresh, is one such farmer who had to grapple with the "significant challenge" of getting approval from various agencies for the use of unused spaces, which he said is hindered by land usage policies.
Higher location costs for vertical farming would also mean higher costs for consumers, he said.
Most vertical farm companies grow high-value greens like kale and other salad vegetables that can be sold at more competitive prices compared to imported varieties.
Asked about the rationale for growing such crops, co-founder and chief executive of Sustenir Agriculture Benjamin Swan said this was to avoid competing against lower-cost greens like bok choy.
Dr Koh said the know-how gained from growing high-value crops like strawberries can still contribute to supporting Singapore's food security in times of need.
Figures from the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) show there were 26 commercial indoor vertical farms as of end-April this year. In 2016, there were six such farms.
Still, more players need to be willing to adopt such business models even as the Government reaches out to them, Dr Koh said.
And as the urban farming landscape matures, the Government will also seek to engage residents. Dr Koh said the Government is exploring how to incorporate more urban community farming into newer housing estates.
AVA figures show there was only one commercial rooftop vertical farm as of end-April.
A spokesman for the Ministry of National Development, when asked about its policy on rooftop farming, said it adopts "a facilitative approach". "We will continue to push for innovative projects to optimise our land use and grow the urban farming movement," the spokesman added.
Asked if the Government can do more, Dr Koh said it will continue to look at how rooftop spaces like those on multi-storey carparks can be adapted for producing edible food.
"As we explore this space, and as interest grows, we will be able to do something more concrete," he said.
UAE Signs Deal To Build 12 Vertical Farms In Dubai
UAE Signs Deal To Build 12 Vertical Farms In Dubai
Announcement comes after Emirates Flight Catering revealed it will build the world's largest vertical farming facility covering 130,000 square feet
A man works in a hydroponic tomatoes farm. Hydroponics were developed over the ages around the world as an alternative growing system in which plants require a nutrient solution and no soil. (Photo: SIA KAMBOU/AFP/Getty Images)
The UAE’s Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MoCCAE) has signed an agreement with Shalimar Biotech Industries to establish vertical farms on the ministry’s land in Dubai.
The contract will see the ministry allocate 7,600 square metres of its land for the project, while providing Shalimar Biotech Industries with logistical support and services.
The firm will then build 12 vertical farms complete with infrastructure facilities including a water desalination plant, climate-control air conditioning, LED lighting and automatic irrigation systems.
“The agreement leverages synergies between MoCCAE and the private sector to encourage innovation in agriculture, with the aim of enhancing the UAE’s food security and diversity,” said Sultan Alwan, Assistant Under-Secretary for the Regions Sector at MoCCAE.
"As vertical farming has a significantly smaller carbon footprint than traditional farming, ventures such as this one align with the country’s drive to improve its agricultural self-sufficiency," he added.
Alwan signed the five-year agreement with Shalimar Biotech Industries’ founder and CEO CP Ramachandran at the ministry’s headquarters, where Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al-Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, was present.
Sultan Alwan, Assistant Under-Secretary for the Regions Sector at MoCCAE, and CP Ramachandran, Founder, and CEO of Shalimar Biotech Industries, signed the agreement at MoCCAE headquarters. Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al-Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, attended the signing.
The collaboration aims to promote new agricultural technologies, provide an educational centre for local farmers, students and researchers, reduce agricultural waste and the risk of infection, achieve year-round crop production and mitigate thermal emissions from agricultural processes.
The announcement comes less than a month after Emirates Flight Catering (EKFC) revealed it will co-invest $40 million to build the world’s largest vertical farming facility near Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central. The project is a joint venture with US-based vertical farm leader Crop One Holdings.
Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman and chief executive of Emirates airline and group said building and operating the world’s largest vertical farming facility, covering 130,000 square feet, aligns with the UAE’s drive for more agricultural self-sufficiency.
The facility will have a production output equivalent to 900 acres of farmland. It will harvest 2,700 kg of high-quality, herbicide-free and pesticide-free leafy greens daily, using 99% less water than outdoor fields.