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Video: A Look Inside The Vertical Farming Industry In Paris

Paris is not a place where you'd expect to find rows of neatly planted fruit and vegetables, but urban farming is flourishing in the French capital. The Down to Earth team takes a closer look in this video

Publication date: Tue, 08 Oct 2019

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Bowery Farming's Irving Fain Pens Essay On Need For 'Scalable Solutions' In Food Production

"When I founded Bowery Farming in 2015, vertical farming certainly wasn’t new. But to many, the concept as an answer to feeding a hungry planet was far more a dream than a reality

Bowery Farming's Irving Fain | Photo courtesy of Bowery Farming — **Bowery Farming's** **Irving Fain | Photo courtesy of Bowery Farming**

Fain, the company's founder, says Bowery and other indoor farmers have to improve but are taking the right steps, in helping to combat climate change.

September 26, 2019

Posted by Chris Manning

In an essay posted by Bowery Farming's Medium page, company founder and CEO wrote about climate change during 2019's 'Climate Week' and noted indoor farming's role in combating climate change.

"When I founded Bowery Farming in 2015, vertical farming certainly wasn’t new. But to many, the concept as an answer to feeding a hungry planet was far more a dream than a reality. However, here we are, just four years later, and Bowery has two fully operational farms and more in development," Fain wrote. "Our controlled indoor growing environment enables us to use zero pesticides and 95% less water to grow fresh produce — all of which make it on local store shelves within just a few days of harvest, minimizing food miles and extending shelf life to reduce food waste."

"However, on the first day of Climate Week, I acknowledge that indoor vertical farming still has a way to go. Our sector is in its infancy, and we too have work to do in curbing our own emissions, investing in alternative energy sources, moving away from plastic packaging, and selling beyond just leafy greens. Fortunately, these are all areas that we’re aggressively making progress toward at Bowery. We have seen meaningful gains on many of these fronts already, and I am not dissuaded by the work ahead; in fact, I’m energized by the opportunities that are still in front of us. Today, our effort is now recognized as a scalable solution tailored to our most pressing problems."

You can read Fain's full post by clicking here.

Vertical farms Urban agriculture Technology

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How This Aquaponic Farm Is Transforming Rome’s Dining Scene

A short drive southeast of Rome, four young entrepreneurs are paving the way to a greener dining scene in the Italian capital – with the help of 400 koi fish

September 30, 2019

Livia Hengel Contributor

Travel share stories about travel, culture, food & wine.

The Circle's founders from left: Simone Cofini, Valerio Ciotola, Thomas Marino and Lorenzo Garreffa.COURTESY OF THE CIRCLE — The Circle's founders from left: Simone Cofini, Valerio Ciotola, Thomas Marino and Lorenzo Garreffa.
COURTESY OF THE CIRCLE

A short drive southeast of Rome, four young entrepreneurs are paving the way to a greener dining scene in the Italian capital – with the help of 400 koi fish. That’s because the group of friends-turned-business owners are the founders of The Circle Food & Energy Solutions, a farm designed to produce food and energy in the most sustainable and competitive way: through aquaponics.

The Circle grows in a vertical system so plants and aromatic herbs thrive year-round.COURTESY OF THE CIRCLE — The Circle grows in a vertical system so plants and aromatic herbs thrive year-round.
COURTESY OF THE CIRCLE

“We began with the idea to resolve concrete problems of scarcity like the lack of land, water and food,” says Thomas Marino, co-founder and director of marketing for The Circle. The farm, in fact, strives to create a positive impact through innovation. “We wanted to use any waste to fuel our production,” he adds.

Aquaponic farming is a circular system of agriculture that uses fish to naturally fertilize the crops, and in turn uses the plants themselves to purify the water, creating a virtuous cycle of growth with little to no waste. This system saves more than 90% of water compared to traditional farming methods, making it an excellent solution in environments with scarce resources like water or arable land. And because crops are grown vertically in greenhouses, the team is able to grow plants and aromatic herbs year-round – without the use of chemicals or pesticides.

The Circle has 400 Japanese koi fish that provide natural fertilizers for the farm's plants.

The four founders of The Circle – Valerio Ciotola, Simone Cofini, Lorenzo Garreffa and Thomas Marino – graduated with degrees in biotechnology, political science and marketing, making them perfectly poised to develop a sustainable agricultural business and communicate its advantages. And at only 27-years-old, they’ve managed to do what many Italians can’t: thrive in an environment notoriously difficult for entrepreneurs.

The Circle has plans to expand its team as it becomes a leader in sustainable food production.

Since it was established in 2017, The Circle has created partnerships with a hundred restaurants in Rome and throughout Italy, providing fresh crops and herbs to celebrated names like Il Pagliaccio (two-Michelin stars), Marco Martini Restaurant (one-Michelin star), Roscioli, Zia and Marzapane. The company’s sustainable ethos and technical expertise undoubtedly first generated interest in The Circle but it’s the farm’s quality products that have helped grow their loyal clientele.

The Circle grows hundreds of micro herbs including baby salad, wild strawberries, stevia and mustard ... [+]BLIND EYE FACTORY — The Circle grows hundreds of micro herbs including baby salad, wild strawberries, stevia and mustard ... [+]
BLIND EYE FACTORY

“The restaurants we work with appreciate the variety and quality of our products,” says Mr. Marino, “And we pride ourselves on customization.” The Circle grows hundreds of plants, vegetables and aromatic herbs and works closely with chefs to create bespoke varieties destined to dress and enhance the plates of their guests. Mustard leaves, red basil, lemon thyme, and edible flowers are just some of the varieties grown in the greenhouse.

The Circle provides kitchen plants and micro herbs for celebrated restaurants like Il Pagliaccio in ... [+]COURTESY OF IL PAGLIACCIO — The Circle provides kitchen plants and micro herbs for celebrated restaurants like Il Pagliaccio in ... [+]
COURTESY OF IL PAGLIACCIO

The future looks bright for The Circle, which began with just a 1000-square meter greenhouse and recently inaugurated a second structure to meet rising demand. This additional space will allow the farm to triple its production and help reach €500,000 in revenue by the end of the year, establishing it as a leader in the production of sustainable food. The Circle has also been selected as a partner for Innesto, the first carbon-neutral “social housing” project in Italy which will be developed in the coming years along the Scalo Greco Breda railway in Milan.

The Circle recently inaugurated a second greenhouse to meet rising demand.COURTESY OF THE CIRCLE — The Circle recently inaugurated a second greenhouse to meet rising demand.
COURTESY OF THE CIRCLE

“We want to create the first hectare of aquaponics farm in Europe by the end of 2020, championing the most sustainable food production plant on the continent", says Mr. Marino. The company also has plans to expand its technology outside of Europe and work with partners across Africa, South America and Asia.

Follow me on Twitter. Check out my website.Livia Hengel

I'm an Italian-American writer, photographer and culture enthusiast with a penchant for la dolce vita and a severe case of wanderlust. Originally born in Rome, I grew up moving around the world from a young age, fueling my curiosity and igniting my passion for travel. I lived in Washington DC, Peru, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Turkey before returning to Italy in 2010. Today, I strive to offer a fresh perspective on Italy - one that goes beyond the stereotypes and main attractions and provides insight into the cultural nuances of the country. My writing and photography have been published in The Independent, Telegraph Travel, Fodor’s, Time Out and USA Today.

IGrow PreOwned 10/9/19 IGrow PreOwned 10/9/19

Bootstrap Farmer Announces The Urban Farm Academy in NYC

Online Platform for Business & Workforce

Development is Evolving Local Food & Agriculture

New York, NY, September 23, 2019 -- Bootstrap Farmer, a company known for supplying small and medium-sized farms, announced the launch of the Urban Farm Academy during the NYC Agtech Week, a collaboration with entrepreneurs across food and agriculture.

The collaboration consists of entrepreneurs, teachers, and farmers rebuilding local food systems through the business they’ve created. The classes teach frameworks for developing, running & scaling a business or career inside of the hyperlocal food economy using their own businesses as the proof of concept.

“We’re people who came from other careers,” said Brandon Youst, a co-founder. “But we didn’t want to be commodity farmers. We wanted to leverage our past experiences to do something different within food & ag.”

This isn’t a typical academy with a typical curriculum. “These are self-guided courses for creating within a hyperlocal food economy. That means zero-waste supply chains, businesses built on relationships and lean-startup principles” said Youst.

There are future classes in development for addressing food deserts, teaching STEM through aquaponics and urban farm manager training.

The goal of this collaboration is to provide a low-cost education option outside of the traditional educational system. With higher education becoming increasingly expensive and less relevant in many areas, the Urban Farm Academy looks to provide an online option for those not needing a degree for the business they want to start, or the job they seek to get.

“As a business owner, I’d rather see what someone has accomplished rather than seeing what school they went to before I work with them. It’s just a better filter” said Jeff Bednar, co-founder, and owner of Profound Microfarms. “Through this academy, we want to help those who want to join the local food movement in a more practical way, and it doesn’t involve sitting in a classroom.”

The first courses are available through the website

www.urbanfarmacademy.com.

For all inquiries, please contact admin@urbanfarmacademy.com.

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Pakistan: A Futuristic Vertical Farm Now Blooms In Karachi’s Old Yarn Factory

Having setups like the vertical farm allows us to grow these vegetables within our own country throughout the year and then send it to the market. Pakistan’s first urban vertical farm is a commercial venture, with the produce being supplied to some of the city’s finest restaurants and supermarkets

NAIMAT KHAN

September 30, 2019

**To View The Video, Please Click Here**

Pakistan’s first vertical farm grows eco-friendly, fresh greens for sale to city’s finest restaurants and markets

Urban agriculture is immune to the constraints of climate, allowing non-seasonal vegetables to grow year-round

KARACHI: In 2006, Sohail Ahmed’s once-booming polyester filament yarn plant closed down due to a worldwide recession, alongside lawlessness and a power crisis at home, in Pakistan’s seaside metropolis of Karachi. Twelve years later, Ahmed has converted the top floor of the old yarn factory into a futuristic farm, with kale, rosemary and dozens of other vegetables growing vertically under the purple glow of LED lights.

Different types of vegetables, mostly non-seasonal, are grown at this vertical farm at the Site Industrial Area of Karachi, where light, humidity and temperature is optimally controlled. September 26, 2019. (AN Photo)

Pakistan’s first urban vertical farm is a commercial venture, with the produce being supplied to some of the city’s finest restaurants and supermarkets. But the use of hydroponics, where plants grow in nutrient solution instead of traditional soil, and where water is continuously recycled, contributes toward eco-friendly practices by using 90 percent less water than field farming, using no pesticides and omitting gas emissions involved in the long transportation routes from rural to urban centers- all leading to the freshest greens in the city.

**Farhan Sohail, a process and product development engineer in Pakistan’s first vertical farm, speaks to Arab News in Karachi on September 26, 2019 (AN Photo)**

“When our family business shut down in 2006, I started to think about different business models with the help of technology. In 2009, I did a course on environmentally friendly and futuristic plant growing technologies. In the next two years, we set up our flower greenhouses in Karachi and Murree,” Ahmed told Arab News, and added that the success of his greenhouses led him to think of urban agriculture as a serious business model.

Ahmed and his son, Farhan Sohail, an engineering graduate from the American University, started working on the urban agriculture project in 2016 and by April 2018, their vertical farm had been set up in the 60 ft. room, and already blooming.
Farhan, who largely oversees the project, said around 2,500 plants of kale, cherry tomatoes, pak choi, iceberg lettuce, red swiss chard, rocket, basil, capsicum, jalapenos, microgreens, parsley, celery, oregano, rosemary, thyme, and sage are grown within a cycle of 45 to 60 days from the time of seeding to harvesting.

Farhan explained the nutrient solution traveled from a tank into PVC pipes which became inundated, and because the plants rested inside these pipes, when they were flooded, the roots took water up and the plant watered itself.
Dim LED lights are optimized for every plant, adjusted according to its own declared spectrum.
“In addition to that, we also artificially provide exactly what the plant needs in terms of carbon dioxide, humidity as well as temperature levels,” Farhan said.

“We have 70 times more production per square meter as compared to field farming,” he said, and added that the elimination of pesticides and preservatives, meant the produce that came out of his vertical farm was “extremely healthy.”

Urban agriculture is largely immune to the restraints of climate conditions, which force most farmers in Pakistan to stay away from growing certain crops throughout the year and adding to the country’s import bill, Farhan said.

“Having setups like the vertical farm allow us to grow these vegetables within our own country throughout the year and then send it to the market,” he said, and added that if the model was successful on a large scale, Pakistan could start producing vegetables for export to international markets as well, especially to the Middle East.

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Colorado: Urban Farm, Restaurant And Market Coming To Englewood

Behind that glass window will reside a hydroponic system where plants will grow on indoor towers. Hydroponics is a method of growing plants year-round in sand, gravel or liquid with added nutrients without using soil. Farms that use the hydroponic method use up to 10 times less water than traditional farms, according to the National Park Service

Grow + Gather Will Occupy The Old Bill's Auto Service Building

Monday, September 16, 2019

Joseph Rios
jrios@coloradocommunitymedia.com

George Gastis sold his tech business four years ago — a year after he packed his bags and moved to Englewood from Platt Park. Contemplating what his next move would be, he knew he always had a green thumb and a love for food.

At first, he had planned to find a property to purchase or rent where he would grow food that would be sold to grocery stores and restaurants. In the process of planning his next steps, Gastis purchased the old Bill's Auto Service building, located at 900 E. Hampden Ave.

“The idea quickly became more than just a place to grow food. There seemed to be a great opportunity to create a place where not only can we grow food, but reconnect the neighborhood and surrounding communities,” said Gastis, referring to places like Littleton, south Denver, Greenwood Village and other areas near Englewood. “Our geographic location is sort of strangely unique in the sense that we sit on the edge of some of those communities.”

After planning and talking to people from his past, Gastis realized there was an opportunity to create a hub around food at the old Bill's Auto Service building. Gastis seized the opportunity, and depending on construction, Grow + Gather will open its doors in October. The development will be a casual restaurant and a market that'll sell coffee and freshly harvested produce and foods - all grown at Grow + Gather.

“When we moved to this neighborhood, I saw the potential in this area. There wasn't a ton to do,” said Gastis. “Combined with trying to figure out what I wanted to do and recognizing the opportunity here — Englewood seemed to be in the process of reviving itself with a lot of new businesses moving in, a lot of development, certainly (Swedish Medical Center) and their role they played in the community — it seemed really interesting.”

The restaurant will be operated by chefs like Caleb Phillips, a Tennessee native who plans to bring a Southern twist to some of Grow + Gather's dishes. Phillips says the menu will be simple, but it'll center around ingredients that will come from Grow + Gather's farm. Some of its dishes will include biscuits, salads, pies, egg dishes, and grits. Beer will also be available at the restaurant, brewed from the second level of the building.

“It's just the neatest idea. I get to walk 20 yards to get fresh vegetables,” said Phillips. “The community has already been super kind and receptive. I think it's going to be a lot of fun.”

When customers walk through Grow + Gather's community room, an area designated for guests to have coffee and for classes on gardening and cooking, they'll be able to see their food being grown behind a glass window. Behind that glass window will reside a hydroponic system where plants will grow on indoor towers. Hydroponics is a method of growing plants year-round in sand, gravel or liquid with added nutrients without using soil. Farms that use the hydroponic method use up to 10 times less water than traditional farms, according to the National Park Service.

Gastis says the rooftop of the building will serve as rooftop greenhouse, where he'll grow crops like tomatoes.

“It is exciting to see a new business concept like Grow + Gather here in Englewood as well as the repurposing of the property once occupied by Bill's Auto Service. It is sure to bring new life to that area,” said David Carroll, executive director of the Greater Englewood Chamber of Commerce. The chamber works to promote its business members while engaging with new businesses in the city.

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF GEORGE GASTIS

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5 Tips On Being More Sustainable, The Brooklyn Way

It’s easy to feel cynical in regards to the current state of our environmental resources. With the recent release of a United Nations report highlighting the dire future of our global food supply, fires scorching the Amazon rainforest and record-breaking temperatures hitting cities across the world, the news cycle continues to project little hope in solving our global climate crisis

Screen Shot 2019-09-06 at 1.55.26 PM.png

September 6, 2019

Keyshae Robinson

**Brooklyn Grange's Navy Yard location. Eagle file photo by Lore Croghan**

It’s easy to feel cynical in regards to the current state of our environmental resources. With the recent release of a United Nations report highlighting the dire future of our global food supply, fires scorching the Amazon rainforest and record-breaking temperatures hitting cities across the world, the news cycle continues to project little hope in solving our global climate crisis.

But by implementing habitual sustainable practices into a daily routine, we can all be more active in preventing further damage to our fragile environmental ecosystem.

“I think it’s really about purchasing habits, consumption habits, waste habits,” said Anastasia Plakias, co-founder and COO of Brooklyn Grange Farms, the largest soil-based rooftop farming business in the world. “The key to sustainability is knowing you’re not going to be perfect and making peace with that.”

To make the transition of “going green” less intimidating, we spoke to three different eco-conscious organizations local to Brooklyn about how to be both more sustainable and more accountable. Here’s what they had to say:

Brooklyn Grange Farms:

The agricultural space opened their third farm, the largest to date, on Aug. 18th in Sunset Park. Aside from providing fresh produce to local farmer’s markets and restaurants, the space will absorb roughly 175,000 gallons of rainwater, helping to reduce the amount of CSO’s entering NYC’s water system. Learn more here.

1. Find practices that make you happy

“If you enjoy skincare or beauty routines, great! Save your coffee grinds and use them as a skin exfoliator. Or if it’s shopping, shop local by visiting the nearby co-op or butcher,” said Plakias. “Most New Yorkers are incredibly busy, so it has to be habits that spark joy in order for us to actually make a routine of it.”

Grow NYC

Founded in 1970, Grow NYC is the largest environmental nonprofit in the city. With several programs, including educational outreach, waste reduction, and community gardens, their efforts provide essential sustainable resources for more than 3 million New Yorkers. Learn more here.

2. Start small

“Cooking at home is a huge step in the direction of sustainability,” said Liz Carollo, assistant director of GrowNYC’s Green Market programming. “You can buy food directly from a farmer, save your food waste and take it directly to a market for composting, or drop off your old clothing so it doesn’t go into a landfill. All great efforts in reducing your carbon footprint.”

3. Don’t let false perceptions dissuade you

“We have markets in all five boroughs and we serve every single income level,” said Carollo. “It’s ridiculous that there is a belief that if you’re lower income, you aren’t concerned about the environment because those from vulnerable communities are the most impacted by climate change.”

Earth Angel

Headquartered in Brooklyn, Earth Angel is an organization holding the local entertainment industry accountable by mitigating the waste and disposal habits on production sets. The film industry has bypassed much of the environmental criticisms typically aimed at fashion, aviation or oil industries, despite contributing an estimated 500,000 tons of waste each year in production alone. Learn more here.

4. Cut back on meat

“It takes 660 gallons of water to produce one hamburger and people don’t often think about the environmental impact of agriculture,” said Emillie O’Brien, founder and CEO of Earth Angel. “When it comes to livestock, it’s even more exaggerated. Eating meat three times a week instead of five for example is a small shift that has a profound impact.”

5. Eliminate single-use plastic

“Plastics are a petroleum based product and a lot of them aren’t safe so I always advocate for using reusable straws, shopping bags, or avoiding ordering from delivery services,” O’Brien said.

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US: Indiana - High-Tech Aeroponic Farming Company Bringing Greenhouse To Electric Works

A northeast Indiana native and Purdue graduate, Clint Crowe, with an extensive background in health technology, is bringing his innovative and high-tech urban-farming concept to Electric Works

September 18, 2019

A northeast Indiana native and Purdue graduate, Clint Crowe, with an extensive background in health technology, is bringing his innovative and high-tech urban-farming concept to Electric Works.

Sweetwater Urban Farms, an Atlanta-based company founded in 2017 that uses aeroponic technology, helped by with proven Internet of Things — no human interaction to transfer data — to produce nutrient-rich greens and herbs, will open a greenhouse in the food hall at the planned Electric Works, according to a statement from a spokesman for the developer, RTM Ventures.

The greenhouse uses a “zero-mile delivery” system, so food is available closer to where it is consumed. It will also offer retail sales of its produce at Electric Works, a mixed-use project that reuses the former General Electric complex on Broadway. As of Aug. 29, the project had up to 15 leases or letters of intent for leases on between 200,000 and 225,000 square feet at Electric Works.

Sweetwater Urban Farms plans to make produce available for delivery to local restaurants, hotels, health care institutions, and schools.

The greenhouse is expected to house up to 400 patented commercial Tower Gardens and produce an estimated 47,000 pounds of produce a year, according to the statement. Tower Garden aeroponic technology re-circulates valuable water, requiring only 10% of the land and water of traditional growing methods.

Crowe, a Decatur native with nearly 18 years of experience in healthcare technology, founded the company with his wife, Sheree.

“When we visited the Electric Works site, we immediately saw the unique potential it offered our company and the community,” Crowe said in the statement. “Being from the region, it’s exciting to come back and see the momentum in the city. Food security is at the heart of any community’s long-term plan, and we see Sweetwater Urban Farms and Electric Works as a strategic starting point and will play a key role in ensuring this community’s future food security.”

Crowe expects to partner with area healthcare and educational institutions, and fellow agricultural-business entities to support increased awareness and education of the value of locally sourced food and its impact on health and wellness. The company may also support a planned agriculture-technology program that Fort Wayne Community Schools is exploring for its planned STEAM — Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics school at Electric Works.

“At the intersection of agriculture and technology, Sweetwater Urban Farms is the kind of innovative company that we want to bring to Electric Works and Northeast Indiana,” said Jeff Kingsbury of the Electric Works development team in the statement. “Clint’s unique background — both in health care technology and as a regional native — makes the company a perfect fit for Electric Works. The food hall and public market are important to building community within the Electric Works district. But, it’s also about enhancing access to healthy food to address this neighborhood’s long-standing status as a food desert – Clint and his team will play an important role in that from the beginning.”

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Singapore Airlines, One of The Most Ritzy Airlines In The World, Is Partnering With A High-Tech Urban Farm

AeroFarms, the company supplying the greens, is a high-tech "vertical farm," which uses a controlled climate, LED lights, and a new type of farming called aeroponics to grow crops in reclaimed urban spaces

Singapore Airlines, one of the most ritzy airlines in the world, is partnering with a high-tech urban farm to make sure it serves the best meal on every flight. Take a look inside the futuristic operation.

David Slotnick

September 17, 2019

Singapore Airlines is about to launch a new "farm-to-plane" dining program, using vegetables grown at a local farm in Newark, New Jersey, in dishes on board its flights from the New York City area.

AeroFarms, the company supplying the greens, is a high-tech "vertical farm," which uses a controlled climate, LED lights, and a new type of farming called aeroponics to grow crops in reclaimed urban spaces.
Business Insider toured the AeroFarms facility to learn more about how the process works, and how things like baby kale and watercress can go from the farm to 35,000 feet in just a few short hours. Scroll down to walk through this unique urban farm.

What's the deal with airplane food?

If Singapore Airlines has anything to say about it, that classic stand-up joke will soon be a thing of the past.

The airline made headlines in 2017 when it announced a new "farm-to-plane" dining service coming to its long-haul flights, and again this spring when it announced its first sourcing partner.

Now, the locally-sourced, fine-dining initiative is about to launch on the world's longest flight.

After months of planning and preparation, the farm-to-plane service is kicking off next month on the airline's flight between the New York City-area Newark airport and Singapore.

The airline will work with AeroFarms, a unique indoor vertical farming company based in Newark, New Jersey, to source leafy greens and vegetables for several of the appetizers in its business class cabin starting in October. Meals made with the local greens will eventually be expanded to other courses and other cabins — the plane operating the flight is entirely business class and premium economy.

While the novelty of the "farm-to-table" concept in the sky, coupled with the fresh taste of the meals has an obvious appeal, the airline also touts the sustainability of both sourcing ingredients locally, and supporting eco-efficient businesses like AeroFarms with its business. It could be easy to dismiss that — the airline, after all, is an airline, and relies on fossil fuels to fly emission-generating planes around the world — but there's a twofold benefit that sourcing crops from a company like AeroFarms can provide.

Normally, while catering in the winter, "the greens for our flights from Newark had to be flown in from 3,000 miles away, from California, Mexico, or Florida," said James Boyd, Singapore's head of US communications. "This allows us to instead source our greens from less than five miles away, cutting down on shipping waste."

Additionally, Singapore is looking to expand the farm-to-plane initiative with similar sustainable urban farms around the world, giving a boost to growing eco-friendly businesses — for instance, AeroFarms, which said it plans to add more facilities, is a certified B-Corp, a designation given to businesses that meet certain environmental and ethical standards.

Business Insider recently toured the AeroFarms facility at Newark to see how everything works. Take a look below for our walkthrough of the facility, and the process of getting the greens from the farm to the skies.

Welcome to AeroFarms.

This high-tech, the one-acre vertical farm can be found at an old steel plant in Newark, New Jersey.

The farm grows a variety of leafy greens and vegetables that will be used in dishes prepared by Singapore Airlines for its flight from Newark Airport to Singapore — the longest flight in the world.

Despite its small one-acre footprint, the farm can grow roughly 390 times as much output as a normal farm with the same acreage.

That incredible output isn't just because the crops are grown on trays stacked to the ceiling — it's because of a unique and proprietary method that AeroFarms uses, based off a technology called "aeroponics."

Aeroponics is a seemingly simple but cutting-edge growing process.

It uses a mist of water and air to help crops grow in an environment without soil, pesticides, sunlight, or weeds. Aeroponics farms can grow crops year-round, regardless of season.

It starts with a cloth-like material on which seeds are placed, and where the roots will eventually take hold. The material is laid across trays, which are placed into the farm's growing racks.

From there, the farm uses a mist of water, coupled with nutrients, to start the seeds' growth.

Instead of sunlight, the farm uses LED bulbs emitting specific light spectrums, designed to discourage pests, optimize the nutrients the plants get, and even control the flavor of the plants.

With this method, AeroFarms can grow mature, ready-to-harvest plants in a fraction of the time of a normal farm.

While baby leafy greens would normally take 30–45 days to reach maturity, AeroFarms said that it only takes AeroFarms 12–14 days.

That faster growth means that food can be supplied faster, keeping up with demand while using just a fraction of the energy.

Within just a few days, the farm will see its seeds begin to germinate...

...Begin to grow...

... Take hold in the cloth medium ...

... And grow ...

... And grow.

The farm has a variety of high-tech solutions to optimize plant growth, including computer-controlled misting...

... Temperature controls ...

... And systems that help manage the growth environment, ranging from fans, controlled air pressure between different rooms, and more.

The racks of trays resembled a server room in an office, except that each row had plants growing on it ...

... Something you typically wouldn't see around computer servers.

Sensors, controls, and backups help ensure that the plants can grow in the best conditions possible ...

... And make it easier to keep track of different crops and growing cycles.

Employees and visitors take a number of precautions to avoid accidentally interfering with the growth or contaminating the food-bound plants ...

... Including removing jewelry, entering through a series of pressurized rooms and doorways, and wearing hair nets, gowns, gloves, and more.

The farm employs about 150 people.

Once plants reach a certain point...

... They're ready to go into the food supply — including in Singapore Airlines' dishes.

Growing trays can be taken individually to the harvest room, whenever they're ready — unfortunately, we weren't able to take photos of the process ...

... And then to the packaging room ...

... Where they're packaged either for bulk delivery to clients like Singapore Airlines, or for retail.

The growing, harvesting, and packaging operation may be unique ...

... But AeroFarms is planning to expand, hoping to open additional locations.

Business Insider sampled a few different harvested greens, including baby kale, and spicy watercress.

After being packaged, the sky-bound greens are trucked to nearby Flying Food Group — the caterer that supplies Singapore's Newark flight, which is about four miles away — where they're used for the day's dishes. The airline said it would start with three appetizers, including a garden green salad, heirloom tomato ceviche, and a soy poached chicken, pictured here.

Then, the dishes are brought from Flying Food Group just down the road to Newark Airport, where they're loaded onto the plane.

**Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images**

If you're interested in trying AeroFarms' produce and you're located in the New York City metropolitan area, the farm sells packaged goods in local grocery stores under the brand name Dream Greens.

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Urban Agriculture Group Seeking Farm At Amazon’s HQ2

The Arlington Friends of Urban Agriculture (FOUA) have formally submitted a request for less than 2% (or 1,000 square feet) of the upcoming HQ2 campus to become an urban farm space

Screen Shot 2019-09-17 at 11.48.57 AM.png

Kalina Newman

September 11, 2019

An urban agriculture group wants in on one of the most elusive spaces in town: Amazon’s new headquarters in Pentagon City.

The Arlington Friends of Urban Agriculture (FOUA) have formally submitted a request for less than 2% (or 1,000 square feet) of the upcoming HQ2 campus to become an urban farm space.

“We believe Arlington is poised to become a national leader for urban agriculture, and the Metropolitan Park project offers an opportunity to showcase Amazon’s and Arlington’s commitment to sustainable, biophilic (integrating the natural world into the built environment) development,” the FOUA board wrote in a letter to HQ2 stakeholders this month.

FOUA said in exchange for dedicating space for the farm, Amazon and the community will reap the rewards of:

Aesthetically appealing, biophilic focal point event space for movie nights, public or private receptions, exercise classes, etc.STEM plant lab for K-12 researchPublic demonstrations of growing sustainable techniques & methodsAt-scale food production for distribution to local food banks.Incubator for urban agriculture-focused startupsEncourage public interaction with local food systems.

Amazon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

There has been growing interest in urban agriculture in Arlington, advocates say, and Amazon could help spread it to an area where there is little land available for growing fruits and vegetables.

“We really think Amazon’s commitment to creating an environmentally-sound campus provides an opportunity to create a public amenity that would benefit everyone,” said Matt McKinstry, a FOUA board member.

FOUA wrote the proposal in light of the upcoming Site Plan Review Committee meeting for HQ2 on Monday, September 23.

Amazon Pentagon City urban agriculture

IGrow PreOwned 10/3/19 IGrow PreOwned 10/3/19

VIDEO: Get An Inside Look At A Vertical Indoor Microgreens Business - From Growing Systems To Harvesting

Located in East Garfield Park, Garfield Produce Company is an indoor vertical farm and a licensed wholesale food establishment in the City of Chicago

More About Garfield Produce Company:

Website: https://www.garfieldproduce.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/garfieldpro...

Twitter: https://twitter.com/garfieldproduce

Located in East Garfield Park, Garfield Produce Company is an indoor vertical farm and a licensed wholesale food establishment in the City of Chicago.

The company was formed with the social mission of serving the neighborhood by building sustainable wealth and creating employment in Chicago’s impoverished areas while growing some of the highest

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Sustainable Urban Farming: M&S Partners With Infarm For In-Store Cultivated Fresh Herbs

Marks & Spencer is partnering with urban farming platform infarm to deliver a range of fresh produce – including Italian basil, Greek basil, Bordeaux basil, mint, mountain coriander, and curly parsley – to some London stores, where they will be grown and harvested

16 Sep 2019 --- Marks & Spencer is partnering with urban farming platform infarm to deliver a range of fresh produce – including Italian basil, Greek basil, Bordeaux basil, mint, mountain coriander and curly parsley – to some London stores, where they will be grown and harvested. The first in-store vertical farming will be in a newly reopened South West London store and the high-end UK grocer is set to roll out vertical farming units to a further six stores by the end of the year.

Each in-store farm unit uses 95 percent less water and 75 percent less fertilizer than traditional soil-based agriculture and is capable of producing the equivalent of 400 square meters of farmland. This results in a more sustainable use of natural resources and ensures zero pesticide use.

Infarm’s groundbreaking farming technology combines highly efficient vertical farming units with the latest Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and machine learning to deliver a controlled ecosystem with the optimum amount of light, air, and nutrients, says the company.

Each unit is remotely controlled using a cloud-based platform that learns, adjusts and continuously improves to ensure each plant grows better than the last one.

“Infarm’s innovative farming platform is a fantastic example of what can happen when passionate agricultural, food and technology experts work together,” says Paul Willgoss, Director of Food Technology, M&S Food. “We operate as part of a complex global food supply chain and want to understand the emerging technologies that could help provide more sustainable solutions, while also delivering fantastic products with exceptional taste, quality, and freshness.”

Erez Galonska, co-founder and CEO of infarm adds that London represents many of the sustainability challenges that people will experience in cities over the next several decades. “By offering produce grown and harvested in the heart of the city, we want to practice a form of agriculture that is resilient, sustainable and beneficial to our planet. This is also while meeting the needs of urban communities – first in London, and in the future, in cities across the UK,” he says.

M&S is the first UK retailer to work with infarm and the partnership will be supported by the construction of a series of infarm distribution centers in and around London. These central hubs will provide the seedlings for each unit, which are then grown in-store. Infarm farmers will visit the stores at least twice a week to harvest and add new seedlings to the farm. The plants retain their roots post-harvest to maintain flavor and freshness.

Founded in 2013, infarm is one of the world’s largest urban farming platforms harvesting and distributing more than 200,000 plants each month across its network. Infarm currently operates across Germany, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg and the UK, where it has deployed more than 500 farms in stores and distribution centers.

The herb range available in M&S will all be priced at £1.20 (US$1.49)

Edited by Gaynor Selby

To contact our editorial team please email us at editorial@cnsmedia.com

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US: CHICAGO - Indoor Farm of The Future Uses Robots, A.I. And Cameras To Help Grow Produce

For the last three years Jake Counne, the founder and CEO of Backyard Fresh Farms, has been pilot testing vertical farming using the principles of manufacturing

September 27, 2019

By: Ash-har Quraishi

Farm of the future uses robots and A.I. to help grow produce

CHICAGO – According to the USDA, the average head of lettuce travels 1,500 miles from harvest to plate. That transport leaves a heavy carbon footprint as flavors in the produce also begin to degrade. While many have looked to vertical farming as an Eco-friendly alternative, high costs have been a challenge.

But inside a warehouse on Chicago’s south side, one entrepreneur hopes to unlock the secret to the future of farming.

For the last three years Jake Counne, the founder and CEO of Backyard Fresh Farms, has been pilot testing vertical farming using the principles of manufacturing.

“Being able to have the crop come to the farmer instead of the farmer going to the crop,” said Counne. “That translated into huge efficiencies because we can start treating this like a manufacturing process instead of a farming process.”

It’s a high-tech approach – implementing artificial intelligence, cameras, and robotics that help to yield leafy, organic greens of high quality while reducing waste and the time it takes to harvest.

Some have called it Old McDonald meets Henry Ford. Large pallets of vegetables are run down conveyor belts under LED lights.

“The system will be queuing up trays to the harvester based on where the plants are in their life-cycle,” explains Counne.

It’s the automation and assembly line he says that makes this vertical farming model unique. Artificial intelligence algorithms and cameras monitor the growth of the crops.

Lead research and development scientist Jonathan Weekley explains how the cameras work.

“They’re capturing live images, they’re doing live image analysis,” he said. “They’re also collecting energy use data so we can monitor how much energy our lights are using.”

“So, what essentially happens is the plant itself is becoming the sensor that controls its own environment,” Counne added.

Another factor that makes the process different is scaleability. Right now, Backyard Fresh Farms can grow 100 different varieties of vegetables with an eye on expansion.

“There’s really no end to the type of varieties we can grow and specifically in the leafy greens,” said Counne. “I mean flavors that explode in your mouth.”

And it’s becoming big business.

The global vertical farming market valued at $2.2 billion last year is projected to grow to nearly $13 billion by 2026.

Daniel Huebschmann, Corporate Executive Chef at Gibson’s Restaurant Group, says the quality of Backyard’s produce is of extremely high quality.

“We’ve talked about freshness, but the flavors are intense,” he says. “It’s just delivering an unbelievably sweet, tender product.”

Counne says he has nine patents pending for the hardware and software system he and his team have developed in the 2,000 square foot space. But, he says the ultimate goal is to have the product make its way to grocery shelves nationwide.

“The vision is really to build 100 square foot facilities near the major population centers to be able to provide amazing, delicious greens that were grown sustainably,” he said.

If he succeeds where others have failed, his high-tech plan could get him a slice of the $63 billion U.S. produce market. At the same time, he hopes to bring sustainable, fresh vegetables to a table near you.

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Bruce Carman, CEF: "Urban Farming Is Getting More And More Recognition"

"CEF’s mission is to engineer, construct and operate agricultural facilities that contain the optimum growing environment for the cultivation of locally grown fresh fruit, vegetables, herbs, shrimp and fish year-round", says Bruce Carman, owner of CEF

They intend to address the demand for locally grown, nutritious, quality food at competitive and consistent pricing through the construction of new, patent-pending, organic food production facilities. Each facility, engineered as a kit, can be replicated anywhere geographically and permits the cultivation of a wide range of organically cultivated products.

CEF facilities contain IP cultivation concepts, including software development, that will integrate the most critical aspect of closed-loop aquaponics: nutrient water purification and oxygenation. Product cultivation occurs through a closed-loop, aquaponics water flow system that uses the fish waste to provide nutrients for plant growth. The fish waste is cycled through mechanical and microbial filtering equipment, eventually being dissolved within the nutrient water system. The ability to consolidate and intensify this process, within the controlled environment facility, provides for sustainable water conservation and enhanced cultivation. The facilities are engineered to operate successfully by producing nutritious, quality consistent product, and consistent quantities with affordable pricing, year-round.

Licensing
CEF will License facilities to those who wish to own and operate a CEF facility. License applications are approved on a case by case basis and take into consideration: Financial Capacity, Knowledge of CEF Methods and Systems, Knowledge of Aquaponics, Marketing and Distribution Capacity, Site Location, Demographic Analysis, Human Resource Capacity, and Employee Education.

CEF will work for the owner(s) to develop the facility in the same way it would if it was a CEF facility. This includes demographics, economic analysis, product diversity/demand, distribution, and future expansion capacity. Licensing includes on-going outreach/support with webinars as needed on improvements within the methods and systems, employee education, R&D on products and equipment and market trends. Outreach/support programs are for five years and are renewable.

Currently, SBA 504 and USDA Business & Industry loan programs are available.

Tucson facility progress
CEF's proposed Urban Farm in Tucson, AZ took a step forward with the acceptance of a Purchase Agreement, by both parties, for the land. The proposed facility will be located in downtown Tucson, on E 22nd Street, and will have a footprint of approximately 40K SF.

Internal operations will consist of a closed-loop aquaponics nutrient system that will support the germination, cultivation, harvesting, processing, packaging, and distribution of locally grown fruit, vegetables, herbs, shrimp and fish. Recognition of the need for locally grown food and the Urban Farming Regulations within the City of Tucson made the location possible.

The preliminary schedule is to finish financing and engineering over the next 4 to 5 months and start construction early next year. Food production operations should be starting in late 2020 with product availability in early 2021.

"Placement of Indoor Ag facilities within the city limits of a municipality, Urban Farming, is getting more and more recognition," said Bruce Carman. "It definitely provides greater freshness and affordability to the residents of the local community. That provides tangible value to the area."

Click here for the site plan of the Tucson facility.

For more information:
CEF
218.370.2005
conenvfarm@gmail.com

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New York City Needs More Vertical Farms: Urban Growth On A Higher Plane

In the last few years a novel form of urban farming — vertical farming — has been slowly but surely emerging in the greater New York area, holding promise as a potent antidote to the city’s notably burgeoning food miles by growing and offering fresh produce locally

By JOEL CUELLO

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

October 1, 2019

While New York City as a whole by no means is a food desert, wherein access to fresh produce by its residents is severely constrained, such access nonetheless appears to require significant enhancement.

The 2019 American Fitness Index for America’s 100 largest cities, for instance, shows that only 17% of New York City’s residents get their recommended daily portion of vegetables, compared with the top-ranked city in the category, Washington, D.C., wherein 30% of its residents do.

Intriguingly, the same survey shows that New York City only has 18 farmers’ markets per one million residents compared with Washington’s 82.

It does not help that the state of New York’s production of vegetables, representing a measly 7% of its total agricultural output, does not come close to meeting the city’s demand.

Not surprisingly, a significant portion of New York City’s fresh vegetables are sourced from California and Arizona, a distance of at least 2,500 miles. This leads to considerably diminished food freshness, food waste through spoilage, significant long-distance transport energy expenditure, and substantial greenhouse gas emissions, among other problems.

Vertical farms are indoor crop production systems — using a warehouse, greenhouse or a modular structure like a shipping container — wherein crops are grown without soil and using liquid nutrient solution that is either flowing (hydroponic) or sprayed (aeroponic). Crop lighting in vertical farms is typically provided using red and blue LEDs, and ambient air temperature and relative humidity are also regulated. The concentration of carbon dioxide in its air is also typically enriched to hasten the crop’s photosynthetic growth.

Consequently, the growth, yield, and quality of crops in vertical farms are consistently much higher than in open-field cultivation, and the reliability of harvest throughout the year independent of the season and external climate conditions is virtually guaranteed.

And in addition to consuming less than 20% freshwater compared with open-field production, produce from vertical farms are patently fresh, pesticide-free and hyper-local — with all of the latter’s attendant benefits including local jobs creation.

The greater New York area is now home to a number of highly innovative and enterprising vertical farms, including Square Roots, Gotham Greens, Farm.One, Aerofarms and Bowery Farming, among others, most of which regularly deliver their produce to the city’s local grocers and even to Whole Foods Market and to numerous high-end restaurants.

To help ensure both the economic and environmental sustainability of New York City’s growing vertical farms, however, the city needs to see and recognize them also as crucial nodes in the design of the city’s emerging circular economy. We need many more vertical farms.

In a circular economy, the methods of production and consumption are looped into a continuous cycle of resource recycle and reuse, thus minimizing or eliminating waste, with a view to achieving optimized resource utilization and value preservation.

Vertical farms serve as crucial nodes in a circular economy because they consume energy and require material inputs in the form of water, nutrients and carbon dioxide, among others — which may be derived or up-cycled from the effluent streams of other existing nodes in the economy.

For instance, while Gotham Greens is already harnessing solar photovoltaic electricity to power their indoor farming operations, the use of renewable natural gas produced from digested organic wastes is also an already available option for others — and for which vertical farms can possibly deliver their own organics in the form of inedible plant biomass waste.

The needed freshwater, nutrients and carbon dioxide for vertical farms may similarly be bio-cycled from other existing nodes in the economy.

In New York City and other big cities around the world, the future of food is decidedly vertical and circular. Let’s seize it.

Cuello is vice-chair of the Association for Vertical Farming and professor of biosystems engineering at The University of Arizona.

Lead photo by: Growing up. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images)

IGrow PreOwned 10/1/19 IGrow PreOwned 10/1/19

Harvard Political Review: Green Thumb

Urban farms currently feed more than 800 million urban dwellers every year, but that number will certainly grow as the world’s population keeps increasing and urbanizing. Indeed, the UN estimated that 68 percent of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050, a larger proportion of a much larger number as the Earth’s population continues to grow more broadly

Screen Shot 2019-09-29 at 5.04.58 PM.png

By Kendrick Foster | September 29, 2019

When I think of a farm, I usually imagine an Iowa cornfield stretching for miles on end. A combine harvester spews out straw in collecting this crop; perhaps it’s destined for our plates, but more likely it will become biofuel. Indeed, forty percent of the nation’s corn supply goes to ethanol. The vast majority of the remainder, meanwhile, goes to feed livestock or to manufacture high fructose corn syrup. Only a small portion of the corn grown on these rural farms is served as corn on the cob at America’s restaurants, barbecues, and supermarkets.

Urban farms differ in every way from the corporate behemoth that Midwestern corn agriculture has become. They are small, locally owned, and grow a wide range of crops, from garlic to tomatillos, callaloo to coriander. In turn, those crops often go directly onto plates, bypassing the dizzying amount of processing that most of our food goes through.

I must admit that I had a different conception of urban farming when I started this project. I imagined a monolithic venture, an industrial enterprise merely ported to the confines of the city. Of course, I was wrong: Even within Boston, urban farms range from small community farms to rooftop gardens on top of Fenway Park to hydroponic operations growing underneath the LED lights of a shipping container.

Urban farms currently feed more than 800 million urban dwellers every year, but that number will certainly grow as the world’s population keeps increasing and urbanizing. Indeed, the UN estimated that 68 percent of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050, a larger proportion of a much larger number as the Earth’s population continues to grow more broadly. Feeding these urban dwellers will require reimagining our agricultural systems, creating a puzzle for policymakers across the globe.

Urban farms can serve as a piece of the answer to that puzzle; increased urban farming will improve food security, aid in environmental justice, and help beautify neighborhoods, all while increasing community happiness. Urban farms certainly need increased governmental support, but policymakers must remember one key thing: Urban farming is a highly localized endeavor, and each city must consider its own local conditions before making generalized policies.

Garlic in the Ground

Jet engines from planes departing Logan Airport roared overhead as I ambled towards the Eastie Farm, just a short walk from Maverick Square in East Boston. The farm looked out of place, sandwiched between two multi-family rowhouses along Sumner Street, but I felt strangely relaxed at the farm, standing in the springtime breeze, smelling the dirt, and observing just a small slice of these plants’ gradual growth process.

Volunteers worked to clear the space in preparation for more fruitful times. Lanika Sanders, an Americorps volunteer assigned to the site, directed the work party while telling me a little more about the farm. This land used to house an apartment building, but community members started using it as a trash dump once the apartments were torn down. A group of concerned residents petitioned the city to clean it up, and they planted some garlic once they had finished. “When the city said time to take it back, they argued that they still had garlic in the ground, so they had to give it to them for another season,” Sanders explained. Eastie Farm eventually took over the space.

One hour and several subway transfers later, the Fowler-Clark-Epstein Farm looked less out of place in Mattapan, home to more yards than skyscrapers. Sprinklers whirred about watering seedlings, and garlic plants tentatively put their leaves in the air. Still, its history echoes Eastie Farms. Along with Historic Boston and the Trust for Public Land, the Urban Farming Institute renovated a 19th-century barn and farmhouse to serve as its offices and restarted farming on a property that had hosted farm operations as far back as the 1700s. The site lay vacant from 2013 until 2017, when the renovation project started. Currently, the UFI uses the site as a working farm, as well as the site of their well-reputed farmer training program, which has launched graduates into urban farms across the city.

Beantown Farming

Recently, the Boston urban farming scene has started to attract press attention — and a lot of it. An article in The Guardian described the city as “a haven for organic food and urban farming initiatives,” while Inhabitat declared Boston the second-best city in the United States for urban farming — just behind Austin.

Urban farms in Boston generally fall into three main categories: nonprofits like the UFI or Eastie Farm; community gardens in which individual farmer can grow whatever they want on an individual plot of land; or businesses out to make a profit. Some farms operate seasonally in traditional or rooftop gardens, while others operate all-year in greenhouses. Notable farms include Green City Growers’ rooftop farm at Fenway Park and a 2,400 square foot rooftop garden at the Boston Medical Center; smaller clusters of nonprofits, community farms, and greenhouses dot the Mattapan and Dudley Square areas. The city also hosts more than 200 community gardens and 100 school gardens.

***An art installation outside the Dudley Greenhouse reads “Our Liberated Land” in English, Spanish and Cape Verdean Creole.***

Boston has also spawned several agrotech startups that work in the urban farming business. Freight Farms has developed a turnkey farm entirely within a shipping container, ready to grow food as soon as it arrives at its destination. Their Greenery machine uses highly efficient LED panels, a hydroponic nursery, and artificial intelligence to create an extremely efficient automated farm system. Meanwhile, Grove Labs developed a bookshelf-sized hydroponic nursery that homeowners and business owners can control with an app.

Two major components have contributed to the general success of urban farms in Boston. On the technological side of things, a strong entrepreneurial culture means that Bostonians are willing to take risks, and the number of colleges and universities in the area gives entrepreneurs a large pool of talent to draw on to make their ideas come to fruition.

On the farming side, the 2013 passage of Article 89 changed the city’s zoning regulations to permit farming and beekeeping within the city’s jurisdiction. UFI played a major role in working out the kinks in this legislation, Patricia Spence, its Executive Director, described the process when I visited the Fowler-Clark-Epstein Farm. “We were the guinea pigs, in essence … We’ve got the water people, the inspection people, all these different entities that now have to work together in concert.” Even though some of the kinks still create problems, Boston farmers do not have to worry about the legality of their farms or greenhouses, unlike urban farmers in other cities who have to acquire permits on a case-by-case basis.

Out of the (Food) Desert?

The people I spoke with had differing motivations for entering the urban farming field. Spence remembered the importance of family in getting her start in urban farming. As we walked around the Fowler-Clark-Epstein farm in Mattapan, she recounted her story. “My grandfather farmed every piece of the property he owned in Roxbury, and we certainly ate from the yard. My mom and dad bought a vacant lot in Dorchester, and my dad grew food there all summer long. The passion comes from that vantage point.”

Karen Washington, meanwhile, remembers being galvanized by then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s proposal to auction off community garden sites. “Growing in empty lots wasn’t really about food. It was about beautification, taking back our neighborhood,” Washington, a food justice activist and founder of the suburban Rise and Root Farm outside of New York City, told the HPR. “In the middle of the night, we got backstabbed when Giuliani tried to auction off 100 community gardens. Looking back, it was the best thing that happened, but during that time, it was the worst thing that happened. People were telling us we couldn’t fight city hall, but then we said collectively we could fight city hall. A group of community gardens along with your allies, you’re much stronger. You can’t work in a silo, but when you get a community behind you, you can be a lot more successful.”

However, many people at the helm of Boston urban farms got their start in urban farming after they recognized the deficiencies in both local and national food systems. Jessie Banhazl, founder of Green City Growers, read the book Omnivore’s Dilemma, which inspired her to grow food more organically and sustainably. After moving back from New York City, she also realized something about the broader food system. “Upon returning back to the Boston area, I realized that I had been living in a food desert and that I was really feeling the effects of not having access to fresh produce,” she told me. Apolo Cátala, farm manager of the OASIS at Ballou farm in the Codman Square area, realized something similar after going on sabbatical in Puerto Rico.

Many the problems in these food systems center around nutrition and public health. “Many times, people have to go outside of their own neighborhood to find something that’s fresh, that’s edible, instead of the the junk food that’s inundating our community,” Washington said. When people eat junk food instead of fresh fruits and vegetables, their health declines — researchers have linked food deserts, areas without affordable access to fresh fruits and vegetables, to increased rates of obesity and diabetes. Obesity and diabetes disproportionately impact low-income Americans and people of color precisely because low-income Americans and people of color disproportionately live in food deserts.

Boston’s food system in particular presents numerous challenges for low-income residents. Overall, Boston has 30 percent fewer grocery stores per capita than the nationwide average, and predominantly minority neighborhoods in Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan have even fewer, Barbara Knecht, the farmsite development coordinator at UFI, told the HPR. A Boston Globe investigation, meanwhile, found that 40 percent of Massachusetts residents live in a food desert. Even Harvard Square, home to affluent Harvard students, is widely considered to be a food desert.

Broader questions, though, revolve around the sustainability of our food supply and its relation to population growth. America’s farmers are notoriously inefficient. They consume large amounts of water, drawing on aquifers much faster than they can be replenished, and spray an inordinate amount of pesticides and fertilizers, creating a host of environmental issues, from resistant pests to algal deal zones. Meanwhile, the problem of overpopulation is always looming. Jon Friedman, the co-founder and COO of Freight Farms, told the HPR. “Our population is set to exceed our capabilities for food production, and that’s a big, hairy program that we have to solve,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dickson Despommier, a professor at the Columbia School of Public Health, connected urban farming and climate change in conversation with the HPR. “Climate change issues require a different approach because farmers can’t move when the climate changes. They grow corn where they live now, but in twenty or thirty years they won’t be able to because the climate won’t permit it,” he noted.

By bringing fresh produce into cities, urban farming can help address the racial inequalities that characterize food access in America.

It’s easy to imagine these problems converging in coming decades. Climate change causes refugees from low-lying areas to flock to cities, where they go hungry because rising seas have destroyed much of the world’s arable farmland. If they can eat at all, they rely on junk food because the remaining fecund land grows high-profit or subsidized crops. In its own way, urban farming can make a contribution to stop this spiral. It makes use of previously unutilized areas — especially rooftops and vacant lots — to grow more fresh, nutritious food, selling it to the communities that need it most at affordable prices.

Although urban farms do not necessarily operate under organic principles — a set of rules including prohibitions on pesticides and artificial fertilizers — many in the Boston area, including UFI and the OASIS farm, do. Those that do not are typically small, meaning that they cannot indiscriminately spray pesticides or fertilizer. The high price of water in many cities, meanwhile, has forced urban farmers to control their water usage or find new ways to get water.

Innovations in farming practices allow urban farmers to grow their produce without pesticides and fertilizers. In setting up a controlled environment for plants in a shipping container, Freight Farms has created a technology that allows plants to grow more efficiently, with inputs exactly tailored to the plants’ needs. “We’ve uncovered a world of ways that we can help the plant do what it wants to do best or do something it’s never been able to do without the use of chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides, and the like,” Friedman explained.

Beyond its environmental benefits, the green space created by urban farms also lifts property values and community spirits. Urban farming “turns urban spaces back into places where plants are being grown, where there’s oxygen being created, where there’s beautification happening,” Washington explained. “When you go from a vacant lot to an urban farm, it makes people happier.”

Banhazl added that urban farming helps to reduce emissions by decreasing the distance between the source and the consumer — a concept known as reducing ‘food miles’. “By localizing food, you cut down on all sorts of carbon emissions and use of resources [associated with] moving and trucking and distributing food from one point to another.”

Both Banhazl and Friedman emphasized the nutritional benefits of their business models. “The sooner you pick the food and then put it in your mouth, [the more] nutritional value you will get out of that plant,” Friedman explained, and the hyperlocal nature of Freight Farms’ containers (often located right next to the main consumers of the produce, such as restaurants as grocery stores) puts healthy produce into communities that need it. Furthermore, when local residents replace junk food or processed food with fresh vegetables, their health improves. “The whole idea is we’re tapping into local knowledge about healthy food and expanding it,” Knecht of the UFI explained.

*Boston high school students visit the Freight Farms shipping containers, learning about innovations in agrotech.*

Farming for Fairness

Every single person I spoke to emphasized food security in relation to urban farming. Many of the community gardens and nonprofits across Boston sell their produce at farm stands and farmers’ markets in their local communities, improving food access. Green City Growers donates a portion of their produce to local food banks and soup kitchens, while school gardens help provide at-risk teenagers with fresh produce in school lunches. Volunteering programs at many urban farms also provide residents with the opportunity to work with nature, which in turn encourages them to pick healthier foods when they go to the supermarket. In addition to teaching local residents how to grow their own food, the UFI’s farmer training program also helps them to develop useful skills for the workplace.

Above all, urban farms help to inspire the local community to grow their own food, which does the most to improve food access and nutrition. “The most successful thing is to inspire people to make a stronger connection to where their food comes from,” Cátala told me. “We have the ability to engage entire communities. It’s a small scale, but it’s still a scale that has a big impact, and it’s important to measure that.” Patricia Spence reiterated the importance of this point: “We say, whether you’ve got a little bit of dirt in the backyard, if you’ve got a porch, if you’ve got a windowsill, we want you growing food.”

Spence noted the impact urban farming can have beyond nutrition, citing two stories that have stuck with her. “Chris was a part of our class of 2014, and the success of our program is Chris’s story. He was reentering the workforce, he had been incarcerated. It took him a year or two to get into the program, but he went through the program in the 2014 year, lost 100 pounds, and learned what a real tomato tastes like. He became our tomato expert,” Spence began.

“He went on to work with at the Commonwealth Kitchen, this wonderful incubator of food businesses. A lot of the food trucks you see around the city actually do their food there. Chris started with working them, but after two years, he actually was like, ‘I miss the dirt!’ So he came back, and he was with us seasonally for the past two years, and he became our production manager. As of this year, I’m sorry to say, he’s not coming back because he has a full-time job at the Commonwealth Kitchen, and he’s a manager. I am sad, but it’s exactly what we want.”

“If you look at Ronald, it’s a similar story. When Ronald came to us, he was extremely quiet, a very, very quiet man, didn’t say a word. But he was a prolific journaler. He just wrote and wrote. We had to keep giving him journal books. By the end of the class, everyone was saying, ‘You talk all the time now!’ He went to work for the Commonwealth Kitchen as well, and he’s been there for four years. We had a big fundraiser last year, and he was asked to speak. This guy who didn’t speak spoke for seven minutes, I timed him, no script. He said this was the best year of his life.”

Up, Up, and Away

Dickson Despommier thinks he has another way to transform lives through food: vertical farming. Vertical farming is not a new idea, but its widespread implementation in the United States could radically change the way we think about urban farming. The HPR interviewed Despommier, who originally came up with the idea in 1999; he defined vertical farming as a “multiple-story greenhouse.” In the first few years, Despommier and the students who worked with him labored in obscurity. “We just carried out as if we were living on an iceberg somewhere floating in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and nobody would ever read anything we did or care about what we did, so we did whatever we want. That’s the best way to approach any problem: There’s no limits on the kinds of solutions you can suggest for something as long as the solutions make sense ecologically.”

In recent years, though, larger-scale farms making true use of the vertical farm concept have sprouted up in cities across the world. AeroFarms has four farms in the city of Newark. Using what it calls a “smart aeroponic” technology, it claims to use 95 percent less water than traditional agriculture to produce yields of 370 times that of the standard model. In Japan, Spread Company recently built a vertical farm in ‘Japan’s Silicon Valley’ with automated temperature, humidity, and maintenance controls. Singapore’s Sky Greens also operates a commercially successful vertical farm, consisting of several 4-story translucent structures. Many other businesses have developed smaller-scale vertical farm operations that can take advantage of unused garage space in private residences.

At this point, three major technologies form the basis of the majority of indoor farming projects globally: hydroponics, aeroponics, and aquaponics. Despommier described each system for the HPR. In the main hydroponic technology, plant roots take in an oxygen-infused nutrient mixture through holes in PVC pipes. However, this technology suffers from competing temperature priorities: High temperatures allow more nutrients to be dissolved but also less oxygen. Despite this, the technology remains common: Freight Farms and Grove Labs both rely upon hydroponics for their systems.

***Freight Farms uses innovative technologies and methods like hydroponics to grow produce within shipping containers.***

Aeroponics solves the temperature problem in hydroponics by suspending roots in a chamber, where a nutrient-rich mist is sprayed. However, aeroponics has a valve problem: The valves involved in spraying the mist “routinely clog up, and that became a big problem with troubleshooting. It’s a mess,” Despommier said. Fortunately, a Chinese company, AEssence Grows, has developed a much more reliable valve, one that makes aeroponic systems a lot more viable, he told the HPR.

A third option has also emerged: aquaponics, a combination of aquaculture — fish farming — and hydroponics. In aquaponics, the farm owner feeds tilapia or other kinds of herbivorous fish plant material. The fish then, for lack of a better expression, excrete waste into the water. After the farmer removes the ammonia from the system, the plants take up the nutrients from the fish waste. “This sets up an internal circular economy among the fish and the plants, and you get both for the price of one,” Despommier explained. “However, the big difficulty of this is that you get two completely different growth systems to worry about at the same time. Lots of things can go wrong, and they usually do.” As a result, aquaponics technology will require a lot more innovation before it can enter the world of large-scale vertical farming.

Any vertical farming project would need to be underpinned by one of these technologies, but Despommier has his favorite. “I think aeroponics is going to take over … You can squeeze in many more plants in aeroponics than hydroponics, and aeroponics uses far less resources, including water.”

Vertical farming makes a certain amount of sense agriculturally: you can grow food up instead of just out, and you can grow year-round indoors. Whether it makes sense economically, however, is another question: A recent study found that controlled environment agriculture (a more general term for indoor growing using technologies like hydroponics) in New York City contributed minimally to food security while expending significant resources on the controlled environment itself.

The answer to the vertical farming question may not be skyscrapers filled with stories and stories of aeroponics, but small hydroponic or aeroponic systems in people’s garages. Vertical farming technology seems more suited to for-profit businesses and restaurants hawking hyperlocal produce rather than community organizations focusing on city-wide food security.

Farms from Sea to Shining Sea

Boston has become a hub for urban farming, but many of the largest American cities have their own thriving urban farming ecosystems which include and go beyond vertical farming. It would be mind-numbingly boring to list the urban farms successfully operating in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and a range of other American cities. Cities with an especially sustainable and progressive bent, such as Austin, Seattle, and Portland, are particularly well-known for their urban farms.

Urban farms in these cities generally follow the same model as Boston: a mixture of nonprofits and businesses, greenhouses, rooftop farms, and more traditional farms. Chicago’s urban farms deserve some special note: The city boasts the world’s largest rooftop farm and the country’s largest aquaponic formation. New York schools, meanwhile, have introduced programs that allow students to grow food for their own cafeterias.

Although urban farms have their place in thriving cities, they can also play a role in revitalizing Rust Belt cities suffering because of the steel industry’s decline. Nonprofits have proposed turning vacant Cleveland lots into urban farms that could serve as the centerpieces of new communities, looking to Detroit — a real-life case study for urban farming, its relationship with food and racial justice, and its role in urban renewal. The housing crisis left lots vacant across the city, and many farmers have come to view these lots as an advantage. For example, a for-profit company recently bought 1,500 vacant lots to develop into the world’s largest urban farm. Community gardens have also bought vacant lots, where African-American and Hmong communities, among others, have used the idea of urban farming to reclaim their cultural heritage, educate their youth about food issues, and regain agency in food production.

Mary Carol Hunter, a professor at the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan, agreed to talk to the HPR about the urban farming scene in Detroit, which she noted was, of course, too expansive to cover entirely in a single interview. Initially, Detroit urban farms faced strict regulations on the sale of food, Hunter explained, but then an entrepreneur named Dan Carmody stepped in. Carmody, who took over the local food wholesaler Detroit Eastern Market, “decided it was important to have it be a community building, even though it was a for-profit business,” she said. Over the better part of a decade, the market set up a nonprofit “to help people get a business started where they could sell their food and [gave them] all the support services that went along with it … They really wanted to get a value-added product from the food.” This nonprofit has been instrumental in enabling urban farms in Detroit to create jobs and make money selling local, nutritious food, Hunter argued.

Another key figure in the thriving Detroit urban farming scene is Malik Yakini. A former teacher and principal, Yakini realized the “incredible benefit [that] came to the kids who were actually participating” in hands-on farming. Today, Yakini runs the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, which has emerged as an important voice in Detroit’s black community on a number of issues besides food security.

A second nonprofit, Keep Growing Detroit, has also served as a key actor in growing the Detroit urban farming industry. Several years ago, the organization realized that “they would be a much more powerful group if they focused on teaching leaders in all the communities and having them bring the information back to their own neighborhood,” Hunter said. That approach, she argued, “almost single-handedly removed the neoliberalism problem of nonprofits going into underserved areas and trying to ‘help.’”

Despite this range of benefits, urban farms have not received an exclusively positive response. The Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf argued that vacant lots in San Francisco should be transformed into affordable housing units instead of urban farms, while the Detroit Metro Times criticized what it called “colonialism” in one urban farm giving away its produce. By giving away food for free, the farm competed with other locally-owned farms that sold their produce at farmers’ markets, ultimately harming the community, the paper charged. Environmentally, meanwhile, a recent study from Sydney, Australia found that urban farms there used as much fertilizer as conventional farms.

Some of these concerns have merit, particularly ones regarding affordable housing, but each of these three critiques of urban farming examined one city in particular, and urban farming projects all have different local constraints. What may work in one city may not work in another, and vice versa. Putting community members at the helm of these urban farming projects can mitigate some of these concerns by allowing people with local knowledge to make crucial decisions around priority-setting and program design.

“By Definition Challenging”

Of course, the main challenge urban farmers face is the environment. “If any farmer or gardener says they’re an expert, they’re lying, because the only expert is Mother Nature. She will bring you to your knees if you think you know it all, she’ll test you,” Karen Washington said. For example, the OASIS on Ballou farm struggles to contend with its hillside location, Apolo Cátala told me. Meanwhile, Phoenix urban farmers must heavily irrigate their farms or use native plants since their city is located in the middle of a desert. Unsurprisingly, Phoenix’s heavily alkaline, salty, and rocky soil is quite poor.

Detroit urban farmers, meanwhile, contend with industrial pollutants such as lead and mercury in the soil leftover from the city’s industrial heyday. Leaded gasoline and “manufacturing concerns were the worst pollutants, and the stuff is airborne. But [lead] is everywhere,” Hunter said. “I know that in the area of the Ambassador Bridge, there have been some [manufacturing] plants … that still release a lot of airborne toxins. People who live in those areas are reminded and encouraged not to grow leafy vegetables like lettuce because those plants actually absorb [the pollutants] directly from the air right into the food that you eat.”

Interestingly enough, artificially high water prices in Detroit also contribute to the city’s urban farming challenges. “Despite the fact that Detroit has a huge amount of quite delicious and healthy water, it costs a lot more than water should cost,” Hunter noted. Additionally, the city of Detroit has charged high fees to maintain its aging and crumbling infrastructure. “So people have had to do as much as they possibly can to set up gardens that are water-wise and set up things like rain barrels. It’s an economic issue, not a conservation issue.”

The question of money came up time and time again. “Ask Harvard for a million dollars, some of that endowment money would be much appreciated,” joked Patricia Spence of the UFI. “We could be growing more food on more lots, but the financing has slowed up the process considerably,” she continued more seriously. Washington also turned to the question of resources. “In marginalized communities, resources are next to none. Nonexistent,” she said, skewering local politicians for not providing enough money to urban farming.

Banhazl also emphasized the difficulty associated with getting funding in the beginning stages of her business. “We didn’t have the opportunity to raise a ton of capital all at once because people were like, ‘Why would I invest in local farming? That doesn’t seem like a viable commercial business,’ which clearly it is,” she noted. The process of getting money in fits and spurts, she explained, took up a lot of her time in the formative years of Green City Growers, reducing her ability to focus on innovating and developing.

Indeed, despite the local nuance associated with urban farming, this lack of money seems to be a consistent problem across the country — even in cities with favorable regulatory frameworks. California recently passed tax incentives to convert vacant lots into urban farms, while Houston has no zoning regulations whatsoever. Yet urban farmers in Los Angeles have not taken the state up on its offer, with some landholders reportedly holding off for future development or because urban farms simply do not make enough money. Similarly, land in the Houston urban center is surprisingly expensive, and one of the few urban farms in the city worries that the city will terminate its lease in favor of future development.

Creating the Green Thumb

Obviously, a one-size-fits-all policy solution will not work for every urban farm in every city across the country, but a couple of solutions stick out. First, cities with unfriendly regulatory frameworks need to change those rules to remove the red tape that prevents urban farms from expanding or even starting.

Second, cities and states need to give more resources to urban farms, especially nonprofit farms or community gardens. The businesses selling microgreens or farms in freight containers to trendy restaurants seem to be doing pretty well for themselves, but the urban farms that directly impact local communities largely depend on grant money and donations. Tax incentives for urban farms or direct investment in these farms could do the trick.

As I plodded around the urban farms I visited, as I kneeled down to smell the first inklings of pungent garlic, as I envisioned the small seedlings growing into full-fledged plants, I realized somebody has to grow the food I eat — and that somebody is unlikely to ever be me. But if I did grow my own food, I would care so much more about what I ate and how I ate it, and if I went to a farmer’s market every weekend to hold produce in my hands, I would probably eat a lot more vegetables.

Urban farming has this effect on people. It certainly affects communities quantitatively, improving their access to healthy, nutritious food, but its impact is also more qualitative — it’s hard to calculate the value of bringing communities closer to their food sources and closer to Mother Nature.

Chris and Ronald, the two men who benefited so much from the Urban Farming Institute’s training program, exemplify this point perfectly. Going through the UFI training was “a life-altering scenario for them that got them on a transformative path,” Patricia Spence told the HPR. “I thought this job was all about food, but it’s really all about people, and food is a vehicle. We’ve been able to transform all these lives through this thing called growing food.”

Let’s grow more food.

The cover art for this article was created by Kelsey Chen, a student at Harvard College, for the exclusive use of the HPR’s Red Line.

Image Credits: Kendrick Foster / Matthew Rossi / Freight Farms / Freight Farms

IGrow PreOwned 10/1/19 IGrow PreOwned 10/1/19

Raising The Roof: Cultivating Singapore’s Urban Farming Scene

Whether you’re wandering through a residential area or exploring the recently re-opened Funan mall, you may have noticed new urban farms sprouting up – flourishing with fruit, herbs and vegetables, occasionally tilapia inconspicuously swimming in an aquaponics system

September 23, 2019

by STACEY RODRIGUES

NOKA by Open Farm Community at Funan Mall is one of the latest urban farms to take root in Singapore. (Photo: NOKA) — **NOKA** **by Open Farm Community at Funan Mall is one of the latest urban farms to take root in Singapore. (Photo: NOKA)**

Call it a social movement or Singapore’s solution to sustainable self-sufficiency, but urban farming in our garden city is growing to new heights.

Whether you’re wandering through a residential area or exploring the recently re-opened Funan mall, you may have noticed new urban farms sprouting up – flourishing with fruit, herbs, and vegetables, occasionally tilapia inconspicuously swimming in an aquaponics system.

Urban farming has become quite a bit more than a fad or innovation showcase for our garden city. “The practice of urban farming has picked up in scale and sophistication globally in recent years,” said an Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) spokesperson.

“In Singapore, we encourage innovative urban farming approaches such as rooftop farming, which optimizes land, introduces more greenery into the built environment, and potentially enhances our food supply resilience.”

Several companies have taken on the gargantuan task of cultivating the urban farming scene here. Rooftop farming pioneer, Comcrop (short for Community Crop), has been hard at work with its latest commercial farm, an 11-month-old greenhouse in Woodlands Loop. Edible Garden City (EGC) has more than 200 farms across the island and works closely with restaurants to ensure sustainable supply and demand.

READ> WHY THIS MICHELIN STAR CHEF SPENDS SO MUCH TIME ON SINGAPORE FARMS

Indoor micro-greens being grown at NOKA. (Photo: NOKA)

Citiponics has made a name for itself building water-efficient aqua organic “growing towers” that can be used to build anything from butterhead lettuce to sweet basil. In April this year, they opened the first commercial farm on the rooftop of a multi-story car park. The farm produces vegetables sold at the Ang Mo Kio Hub outlet of NTUC FairPrice under the brand, LeafWell.

Sky Greens is arguably the most impressive urban farming venture. It is the world’s first low carbon, hydraulic driven vertical farm, and has been recognized globally for its sustainability innovation.

There are several benefits to having our farms so close to home. Through community gardens or access to commercial-scale farm produce, the public have an opportunity to understand how food is grown.

As urban farmers take great care to ensure produce is pesticide-free, while incorporating sustainable zero-waste and energy-saving practices, there is also comfort in knowing where the food comes from and its impact on the environment.

READ> THE ARCHITECTS OUT TO SAVE THE WORLD THROUGH SUSTAINABLE DESIGN

**Mushrooms fruiting in a chamber at NOKA. (Photo: NOKA)**

“Having food production within the city or heartland [also] brings food closer to the consumers as it cuts transport costs and carbon emissions, and may improve environmental sustainability,” said a spokesperson from the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), the new statutory board created in April this year to develop the food supply and industry.

However, there are also broader concerns of the impact of climate change and food security in Singapore. It is why much is being done by the likes of the SFA to achieve “30 by 30” – “which is to develop the capability and capacity of our agri-food industry to produce 30 per cent of Singapore’s nutritional needs by 2030,” said the SFA. “Local production will help mitigate our reliance on imports and serve as a buffer during supply disruptions to import sources.”

Singapore still has a long way to go as the urban farming scene is still a very young one. But there are opportunities for growth given the continued development here. In the URA’s latest phase of the Landscaping for Urban Spaces and High-Rises (LUSH) 3.0 scheme, “developers of commercial and hotel buildings located in high footfall areas can propose rooftop farms to meet landscape replacement requirements.”

Naturally, developers are taking advantage of this. One of the newest kids on the block is the urban rooftop farm run by EGC for new Japanese restaurant, Noka by Open Farm Community at Funan. Noka is putting its money on offering Japanese cuisine that infuses local ingredients, from the butterfly blue pea to the ulam raja flower – ingredients grown and tended to by the farmers at EGC’s 5,000 sq. ft. urban garden just outside Noka’s windows.

“The urban farming space is still in the emerging stages of development,” said Bjorn Low, co-founder of EGC. “We are literally scratching the surface of what’s possible. The areas of growth are in the application of urban food production in urban design and city planning, the use of urban farms for deeper community engagement and the role urban farms plays in creating social and environmental impact in the city.”

While many farmers have found ways to convert existing rooftop spaces into farms or gardens, Jonathan Choe, associate at WOHA Architects, says that one of the greatest opportunities to advance urban farming in Singapore is to build an entirely integrated system that not only incorporates growing spaces, but also how these farms can interact with the entire building infrastructure – from building cooling measures to water recycling and energy management. The firm, which has their own testbed rooftop garden, is currently working on the upcoming Punggol Digital District development.

READ> THE ARCHITECTS DESIGNING THE PUNGGOL DIGITAL DISTRICT ON CREATING A GREENER SINGAPORE

But the greatest challenge for urban farmers is truly economies of scale. “Agriculture on its own is already a challenging industry due to industrialization of farming and our food system,” said Low. “Scale is a limiting factor in the city, and urban farming business models need to be able to adapt to both the challenges of a globalized food system and the availability of cheap food, whilst operating in areas of high cost and overheads.”

It begins with cultivating an awareness of and demand for local produce amongst both consumers and businesses alike. For Cynthia Chua, co-founder of Spa Esprit Group – the people behind Noka – taking an interest in agriculture is more than necessary, as it will have long-term benefits in preparing for the future generation of Singaporeans.

READ> HOW SINGAPORE’S RESTAURATEURS ARE RISING TO THE CHALLENGES OF SUSTAINABILITY

Restaurants like Noka, which choose to highlight local produce are an easy way in for consumers to learn about the benefits of supporting local farming businesses. As a business owner, Chua has also noticed that “traveling chefs from different countries are gaining interest in playing with our tropical produce.” In Chua’s opinion, it is the “right timing” to push innovation and continue to turn this “scene” into a fully sustainable industry.

“As a city-state, the general population is disconnected from farming and the way food is being farmed,” said Low. “Urban farms should become touchpoints for us to learn about sustainable agriculture techniques, and encourage consumers in Singapore to eat more responsibly, locally and ethically.”

IGrow PreOwned 10/1/19 IGrow PreOwned 10/1/19

The Land Over The Fence: How One New Yorker Moved To The Midwest And Built Her Urban Farm

Reader Contribution By Jodi Kushins, Over the Fence Urban Farm

9/16/2019

I spent the bulk of my childhood and young adult years in metro New York. The daughter of two hard-working physicians, I wasn’t born to be a farmer. And still, I’m sitting here today with dirt under my fingernails and a to-do list that includes water the seedbed, harvest tomatoes, and clean the coop.

In 2003, I moved to Columbus, Ohio, to attend graduate school at Ohio State University (OSU). OSU is so big it has its own zip code. So, while I never lived on campus, it was the center of my world. I didn’t consider myself a resident of the city as much as the university. All that changed when I graduated and decided to make Ohio my home.

There’s a stereotype about New Yorkers that we can’t see west past the Hudson River. When I moved here, my family repeatedly asked if I was warm enough and offered to send extra blankets despite the fact that I was just two states away. I had driven across the country once or twice by then, but I never really got out beside the National Parks and big cities. I had no sense of life in the Midwest before I got here beyond the faint notion that people worked hard and they grew things.

What I learned was that Columbus is a city where people make things and make things happen. Ideas take root here and people support and celebrate the pursuits of their friends and neighbors. Perhaps there are lots of places like Columbus. I hope so.

Finding Land and Taking Advice

***The land Over the Fence, November 2013. Photo by Jodi Kushins***

When I met him in 2005, my husband was living in a house he bought from his grandmother; the house his mother grew up in. His grandfather had kept a large kitchen garden out back and his grandmother had a canning station in the basement. Dan was also an avid gardener, but he had two kids, a dog, and a job and was trying to keep it all together. Together we slowly resurrected his grandfather’s corner of the yard.

I took advice from a wide range of sources. One friend encouraged me to keep on top of weeds before they became a problem. One extolled the importance of watering, deeply and regularly. Another taught me how to lift sod and soon our backyard was transformed from a patch of crabgrass to an ever-evolving menagerie of flowering and fruiting trees and shrubs. I subscribed to MOTHER EARTH NEWS magazine and I read about backyard sharing. And by 2013, we devised a plan to increase our space.

Over the fence from our garden sat a patch of land that was rarely walked on other than the person who mowed it. Our kids played back there from time to time, but our neighbor on that side was elderly and it was more than she needed. I devised a plan to lease the land from her but just as I was preparing to approach her, she had a bad fall and was moved to an assisted living facility.

When her children were ready to sell the house, Dan and I bought it with the intention of turning the yard into an urban farm and the house into a rental property. In a twist of fate, his parents wound up moving in and we have all enjoyed the inter-generational proximity, to one another and to the land.

Starting an Urban CSA

***In full bloom, August 2017. Photo by Jodi Kushins***

I will never forget how we took possession of the house one day and rented a sod lifter the next. After initial amending and tilling, we planted our first crop of garlic (about 100 feet) that week, and it was the best decision we could have made. A few months later, the farm was bursting with new growth. Those initial beds served as our beacon. We had already done something right.

Over that winter, I reached out to our family and friends with invitations to join our CSA. We got a small group of supporters, enough to help us pay for start-up supplies. Our first season was more successful than I could have imagined. We had tons of help from our members establishing beds and tending plants throughout the season.

We’ve had high points and low since then. The weather is a never-ending source of aggravation and sometimes wrangling folks to work feels a lot like herding cats. But I get out there every day and find something to marvel at, something to nibble, something to question.

When we started the project I hesitated to call it a farm or myself a farmer. Six seasons later, it feels like home.

Photos by Jodi Kushins

Jodi Kushins owns and operates Over the Fence Urban Farm, a cooperatively maintained, community-supported agricultural project located in Columbus, Ohio. The farm, founded in 2013, is an experiment in creative placemaking, an outgrowth of Jodi’s training as an artist, teacher, and researcher. Connect with Jodi on Facebook and Instagram, and read all of her MOTHER EARTH NEWS posts here.

Tags: urban homesteading, urban agriculture, community supported agriculture, placemaking, Ohio, Jodi Kushins,

IGrow PreOwned 9/30/19 IGrow PreOwned 9/30/19

Social Entrepreneur: Roots Up Wants To Expand Access To Urban Farming

Roots Up will manufacture and operate systems that enable efficient growing of food literally in the hallway of a home, the dining room of a restaurant and, at larger scale, in a garage, parking lot or empty urban lot

By Allen Proctor

September 26, 2019

John Schrock is an engineer who has an idea for how to transform the farm to table movement. Having worked on the concept for several years, this summer he plugged into Sea Change, an accelerator program in Central Ohio focused on jumpstarting social enterprises.

Roots Up will manufacture and operate systems that enable efficient growing of food literally in the hallway of a home, the dining room of a restaurant and, at larger scale, in a garage, parking lot or empty urban lot.

We talked with John to see how an accelerator helped and what he hopes Roots Up to become.

What is the problem you are solving?

Our food system is already strained and not sustainable as we expect 25% population growth. Water is scarce, traditional farmland is shrinking, shipping food long distances increases waste and cost. We need to make it more practical and affordable to produce food nearer our homes, workplaces, and restaurants.

Sounds like urban farming, which has had limited success. What are you doing differently?

The team and I have been able to learn from the initial wave of urban farming the last five years and understand how and why some groups failed, or succeeded, for very different reasons. We are creating a new approach to urban farming, which is why we use the phrase “urban farming re-invented.”

The first differentiator is that we are moving away from “urban gardening,” which is an outdoor and seasonal effort in Ohio, often in low-quality urban soil, usually volunteer-dependent, and with limited access to water. Our approach we call “urban farming,” which is year-round production in an efficient design that saves space, is not dependent on the seasonality of rain and sunlight, and is easy to maintain.

The second differentiator is to provide a range of sizes from food racks of eight square feet up to 40,000-square-foot systems of multiple 8-foot by 20-foot food containers. We will build to meet the demand of our partners, as compared to some other (vertical or indoor) urban farms that tried to build first and sell later. A chef or restaurant or apartment manager or school or nonprofit knows they want to grow a certain amount of specific vegetables year-round, and we build a custom solution to meet their needs.

The third differentiator is that we are not just growing herbs and greens to focus on high margin growth, but diversifying the portfolio with mushrooms and hearty vegetables.

How did you use the Sea Change accelerator program to develop your concept?

Sea Change was very helpful in refining our mission and the social impact that is feasible. This led to better messaging and more productive conversations. We have done macro and micro market research and understand better how to strategize the business growth. We believe we can donate 5% of all produce to local charities. It helped us to refine our pitch and, with some financial support from the final pitch, we have some runway to solidify the remaining pieces to get us to an established business.

Who are your ideal customers, what they would be buying from you, and how often?

Our ideal customers are successful, professional, consistent businesses with community-focused reputations, such as restaurants, hotels, corporate in-house food services, schools. They have a need for year-round food sourcing and prioritize quality, ethical, local food. For example, one local restaurant group with 10 locations is very interested in sourcing more locally and is currently spending an average of $40,000 per week on produce. We are able to supply them consistent food growth year-round that meets their existing demand and we can grow with them as they expand.

The food containers would be sized according to the amount of space they have available and the scale of their food needs. Our research has told us that customers would prefer us to locate the units near their locations but for us to operate them. So rather than buy or lease the units, they are essentially subscribing for specific volumes and types of food.

Where are you now in your development and what should we expect to see in the coming months?

We have a half-scale, fully operational unit in my garage that customers can tour by contacting info@rootsup.com. We have partnered with COSI to set up a 20-foot food container. It will be on display outside of COSI and grow herbs, greens, microgreens, and mushrooms to provide weekly produce bags. These bags will be sold with a portion donated directly to a community partner.

We will further refine the business model numbers and continue to work with our architects and industrial designers to refine the systems. We look to being on the ground in 2020.

Allen J. Proctor is CEO of SocialVentures. Learn about local social enterprises at socialventurescbus.com/marketplace.

IGrow PreOwned 9/30/19 IGrow PreOwned 9/30/19

Vertical Farms Offer Solution For Unused Urban Space

InvertiGro founder and CEO Ben Lee will showcase vertical farming, which makes use of urban space to grow food, at the City of Sydney’s Emergent 2050 expo next month

26 September 2019

Amy Cheng

**Indoor vertical farming is a more efficient way of growing crops because it is a controlled environment, proponents say.**

Vertical farms can boost community engagement while making good use of vacant urban spaces, the founder of a vertical farming startup says.

InvertiGro founder and CEO Ben Lee will showcase vertical farming, which makes use of urban space to grow food, at the City of Sydney’s Emergent 2050 expo next month.

Mr. Lee says the functional nature of vertical farms distinguishes them from vertical gardens, which are more ornamental.

He says vertical farming is good for community engagement and sustainable food production and has particular benefits for children in urban areas.

“Lots of children around the world don’t have access to outdoor natural spaces,” he told Government News. “So these indoor farms or vertical farms have been quite beneficial in being able to help with their development.”

Vertical farms can fill up spaces such as disused warehouses and car parks, which Mr Lee predicts will become increasingly available.

“The thought process behind that is, as autonomous cars become more prevalent in the future, car parks will become more and more disused because… you can’t really convert underground spaces into living quarters, and there’s a saturation of retail that you can have,” he says.

A recent InvertiGro pop-up in the basement of Westpac’s Sydney headquarters. Source: InvertiGro.com — **A recent** **InvertiGro** **pop-up in the basement of Westpac’s Sydney headquarters. Source: InvertiGro.com**

Benefits of farming in a controlled environment

Indoor vertical farming is currently seen as futuristic technology where food is grown in a “lab environment”, and this can often be a barrier to communities embracing it, Mr Lee says.

But he says these fears are unfounded.

“It’s not any different from being grown in the field,” he says. “In fact, it’s much better, it’s much more efficient, it’s cleaner.”

The conditions of indoor farms often prove more favorable than crops grown in the field.

“The reality is that with the shifting weather patterns, being able to grow efficiently in a controlled environment is actually better because you can control the amount of output thereby reducing waste,” he says.

“And in a controlled environment, you’re growing product that is cleaner and safer to eat without the risk of microbial contamination, which has happened in some instances in field-grown products.”

Mr. Lee says vertical farming is being widely adopted overseas.

“It’s already starting to be seen as more commonplace, especially in the US and Europe, where larger corporations or businesses are adopting these as part of their strategy for food production, and also to reduce their carbon footprint through the distribution chain,” he says.

“And with more and more of these business coming to the fore and more focus on it, it’s already becoming part of the landscape rather than being totally futuristic.”

When clients approach InvertiGro about starting a vertical farm, Mr. Lee and his team engage with them to find the right sites to use, plan what the farm will look like, consider capacity and costs required, and then mobilize the resources to implement the project.

He says InvertiGro is currently exploring opportunities to work with the City of Sydney to determine potential spaces for vertical farming.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore told Government News Council is continuing to explore existing and emerging technologies to utilize buildings and open spaces to support sustainable communities.

She said increasing urbanization, which 80 percent of the world’s population expected to live in urban areas by 2050, would lead to an increased demand for food, pressure on water supplies and stresses on transport systems.

“Vertical farming potentially offers a significant opportunity to address these issues,” she said.

Going beyond leafy greens and herbs

The potential of vertical farming goes beyond regular fruits and vegetables, Mr. Lee says.

“Outside of the leafy greens and herbs, we are able to use the same infrastructure to grow things like fibre for the material industry,” he says.

“And there’s a whole range of other applications, from medicinal plants to viticulture, which we’re very excited about.”

The 2050 Emergent expo on October 19 is a headline event of the Spark Festival and will showcase emerging technologies, initiatives and ideas shaping the future of Sydney.

It will feature more than 30 startups and 50 displays as well as presentations on green cities, alternative housing models and the sharing economy.

“This event is a unique opportunity to learn more about emerging ideas and technologies, connect with their creators and give everyone a say in the Sydney they’d like to see in 2050,” Lord Mayor Clover Moore said in a statement.

Online Platform for Business & Workforce

Development is Evolving Local Food & Agriculture

The first courses are available through the website

www.urbanfarmacademy.com.

Grow + Gather Will Occupy The Old Bill's Auto Service Building

Brooklyn Grange Farms:

1. Find practices that make you happy

Grow NYC

2. Start small

3. Don’t let false perceptions dissuade you

Earth Angel

4. Cut back on meat

5. Eliminate single-use plastic

Welcome to AeroFarms.

This high-tech, the one-acre vertical farm can be found at an old steel plant in Newark, New Jersey.

The farm grows a variety of leafy greens and vegetables that will be used in dishes prepared by Singapore Airlines for its flight from Newark Airport to Singapore — the longest flight in the world.

Despite its small one-acre footprint, the farm can grow roughly 390 times as much output as a normal farm with the same acreage.

That incredible output isn't just because the crops are grown on trays stacked to the ceiling — it's because of a unique and proprietary method that AeroFarms uses, based off a technology called "aeroponics."

Aeroponics is a seemingly simple but cutting-edge growing process.

It uses a mist of water and air to help crops grow in an environment without soil, pesticides, sunlight, or weeds. Aeroponics farms can grow crops year-round, regardless of season.

It starts with a cloth-like material on which seeds are placed, and where the roots will eventually take hold. The material is laid across trays, which are placed into the farm's growing racks.

From there, the farm uses a mist of water, coupled with nutrients, to start the seeds' growth.

Instead of sunlight, the farm uses LED bulbs emitting specific light spectrums, designed to discourage pests, optimize the nutrients the plants get, and even control the flavor of the plants.

With this method, AeroFarms can grow mature, ready-to-harvest plants in a fraction of the time of a normal farm.

While baby leafy greens would normally take 30–45 days to reach maturity, AeroFarms said that it only takes AeroFarms 12–14 days.

That faster growth means that food can be supplied faster, keeping up with demand while using just a fraction of the energy.

Within just a few days, the farm will see its seeds begin to germinate...

...Begin to grow...

... Take hold in the cloth medium ...

... And grow ...

... And grow ...

... And grow.

The farm has a variety of high-tech solutions to optimize plant growth, including computer-controlled misting...

... Temperature controls ...

... And systems that help manage the growth environment, ranging from fans, controlled air pressure between different rooms, and more.

The racks of trays resembled a server room in an office, except that each row had plants growing on it ...

... Something you typically wouldn't see around computer servers.

Sensors, controls, and backups help ensure that the plants can grow in the best conditions possible ...

... And make it easier to keep track of different crops and growing cycles.

Employees and visitors take a number of precautions to avoid accidentally interfering with the growth or contaminating the food-bound plants ...

... Including removing jewelry, entering through a series of pressurized rooms and doorways, and wearing hair nets, gowns, gloves, and more.

The farm employs about 150 people.

Once plants reach a certain point...

... They're ready to go into the food supply — including in Singapore Airlines' dishes.

Growing trays can be taken individually to the harvest room, whenever they're ready — unfortunately, we weren't able to take photos of the process ...

... And then to the packaging room ...

... Where they're packaged either for bulk delivery to clients like Singapore Airlines, or for retail.

The growing, harvesting, and packaging operation may be unique ...

... But AeroFarms is planning to expand, hoping to open additional locations.

Business Insider sampled a few different harvested greens, including baby kale, and spicy watercress.

Then, the dishes are brought from Flying Food Group just down the road to Newark Airport, where they're loaded onto the plane.

If you're interested in trying AeroFarms' produce and you're located in the New York City metropolitan area, the farm sells packaged goods in local grocery stores under the brand name Dream Greens.

More About Garfield Produce Company:

For more information:CEF218.370.2005conenvfarm@gmail.com

Cuello is vice-chair of the Association for Vertical Farming and professor of biosystems engineering at The University of Arizona.

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What is the problem you are solving?

Sounds like urban farming, which has had limited success. What are you doing differently?

How did you use the Sea Change accelerator program to develop your concept?

Who are your ideal customers, what they would be buying from you, and how often?

Where are you now in your development and what should we expect to see in the coming months?

Interested in Listing or Buying a Farm?

For more information:
CEF
218.370.2005
conenvfarm@gmail.com