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New Floating Farm Facility in NYC Designed To Withstand Storm Surge
The developer is building a 158,000 square foot floating farm structure located off the Hunts Point food distribution center in the Bronx
The indoor farming industry has been rapidly expanding. With that, we are seeing innovations in design, technology, and products. A principle of indoor farming is around how food can be grown while using land, space, and resources efficiently. In New York City, space is certainly limited and we’ve seen urban farms utilize space in innovative ways. Some examples include rooftop farms like Brooklyn Grange, indoor usage of small spaces like Farm One, and floating demonstration farms like Swale.
Cities that are surrounded by water have been constructing their coastal areas to build structures that are resilient to storm surge. Aqua Ark, an experienced developer for building commercial and residential water-borne structures, believes in the concept of floating cities. Aqua Ark’s most recent water-borne venture is constructing the largest farm in New York City. The developer is building a 158,000 square foot floating farm structure located off the Hunts Point food distribution center in the Bronx. The facility provides up to 4 acres of horizontal growing area, a scale otherwise unattainable in NYC. This is a unique opportunity for farm operators to grow food in such close proximity to the largest food distribution center in the world. The proximity to Hunts Point reduces the impact of transport costs and environmental costs for produce deliveries.
Being a coastal city, New York City is susceptible to flooding and stormwater surge. The city is still rebuilding from the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The storm brought to light the realities of climate change and rising sea levels for developers and urban planners. The hurricane highlighted Hunts Point distribution center's “vulnerability to rising flood waters and to power outages that could be caused by extreme heat waves or infrastructure failures.” Thus, Hunts Point has become a priority zone to invest in the area and protect it from multiple risk factors. The City of New York has made coastal protection the top priority for the Hunts Point resiliency project. The Waterborne Farm facility was designed to withstand the effects of storm surge. During extreme surges the facility rises, staying secured in place until the surge recedes ensuring no structural damage will occur.
The water environment also provides benefits for energy savings from reduced heating and cooling costs. Through water mass heat pumps and the possible use of extra heat from a nearby water treatment plant, savings of 30-70% on heating costs and 20-50% on cooling costs are feasible, as shown by data from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The energy efficiency of the facility is specifically important for this region which suffers from the highest levels of air pollution in New York City. Additionally, because this site will be located on the water, there are minimal obstructions to natural light, a benefit that brings with it more potential cost savings.
Aqua Ark is seeking applicants from potential farming operators around the world wishing to lease the facility. The facility is a blank canvas where Aqua Ark is willing to work with the tenant to customize a design to accommodate any type of indoor farming operation, whether that’s a vertical farm, greenhouse, aquaponics or another growing system.
To be eligible, you must have experience opening and operating a large scale indoor farm and or qualifications of staff and supervision to manage and maintain a class A indoor farm proof of financial viability.
For more information:
Agritecture
Yara Nagi
yara@agritecture.com
www.agritecture.com
Publication date: Tue 21 Jan 2020
Malaysian Brothers Cultivate Indoor Farming
Agriculture technology firm Plant Cartridge Sdn Bhd has developed a growing kit to enable sustainable urban farming at home
Agriculture technology firm Plant Cartridge Sdn Bhd has developed a growing kit to enable sustainable urban farming at home. Now, it is utilising its knowledge for the growth of smart industry-scale farms in response to an insatiable demand for safe and sustainable food produce.
By collaborating with Cultiveat Group Sdn Bhd, another innovative agritech company, Liang and his team have been able to industrialise their humble growing kit. It is based on the simple science of hydroponics but refined and upgraded using a one-step soilless growing method.
The current venture with brothers John-Hans and John-Ian Oei of Cultiveat involves the extension of Plant Cartridge’s existing business and the former’s expertise in developing and managing industrial farms. Plant Cartridge provides the technology, which includes its highly successful growing kit — a 2ft-long covered rectangular ultraviolet-coated polyethylene tank that has holes to fit eight pods that contain select seeds and growing medium as well as a hole in the centre for irrigation purposes.
Meanwhile, Cultiveat worked on clearing the land it owns and is in the process of constructing greenhouses on a two-acre plot at the edge of Kapar, which is less than 3km from the coast of the Straits of Malacca. It already has a greenhouse on a plot of land in Klang, where it is growing 18 types of lettuce.
Read more at The Edge (Pathma Subramaniam)
Publication date: Mon 13 Jan 2020
Underground Farms Sprout in Seoul's Subway Stations
Subterranean vegetable farms are cropping up at subway stations in Seoul in a collaboration between Seoul Metro and an agricultural startup to utilize vacant spaces and diversify the subway operator's revenue sources
Consumers give thumbs up to less polluted air
KOTARO HOSOKAWA, Nikkei staff writerJ
ANUARY 14, 2020 JSTSeoul
Metro and startup Farm8 are exploring innovative methods of food production in urban areas. (Photo by Kotaro Hosokawa)
SEOUL -- Subterranean vegetable farms are cropping up at subway stations in Seoul in a collaboration between Seoul Metro and an agricultural startup to utilize vacant spaces and diversify the subway operator's revenue sources.
Seoul Metro is renting idle spaces to Farm8, a startup with about 300 employees which supplies vegetables grown indoors efficiently and safely to retailers and restaurants.Farm8 is also testing farm cafes in three stations and plans to open more outlets in the future, as well as to export longer-life vegetables, including paprika, to Japan.
Passing through a ticket gate at Sangdo Station on Line 7 of Seoul Metro in the central area of the city, passengers can see a glass-walled room filled with leafy vegetables in an underground space. Business people and families are seen relaxing at a cafe equipped with juicer-mixers and coffee machines next to Metro Farm, which opened in September last year.
As South Korea's subway stations contain large underground spaces, most transfer hubs and other big stations have commercial areas with restaurants and shops. However, locations further away from ticket gates are often left unused because they are unattractive to retailers.
Hydroponically grown vegetables at a Metro Farm in Seoul's Dongjak district.
(Photo by Kotaro Hosokawa)
Seoul Metro has been seeking tenants that will help improve the image of subway stations without additional costs as part of efforts to make use of unoccupied spaces, said Kim Seong-jin, a Seoul Metro manager. Farm8, which runs vegetable farms nationwide, grabbed Kim's attention.
Unlike with ordinary tenants, Seoul Metro signed a 10-year contract with Farm8 to cover rents and provide a fixed amount of profit. The store also provides a space next to the cafe in which children can learn about agriculture.
Some 30 types of vegetables, including varieties of lettuce, basil, and edible flowers, are grown in a cultivation room of about 200 sq. meters. The plan is to harvest 30 to 40 kg of vegetables a day on shelves of about 4 meters and sell them as ingredients for the cafe's salads, priced at 5,900 won ($5.04), and 3,000-won vegetable juice. Vegetables that are unsuitable for consumption at the cafes will be sold to outside restaurants.
Growing hydroponic vegetables under light-emitting diodes is 40 times more efficient per unit area than growing them outdoors, according to Yeo Chan-dong, assistant manager of Farm8. The company's hydroponic vegetables are gaining popularity among consumers, particularly parents, who are wary of vegetables grown outdoors because of air pollution caused by PM2.5 -- particulate matter that measures less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter -- which is seen as hazardous in South Korea.
The company will operate stores combining cultivation rooms and cafes depending on locations, including setting up salad box vending machines at subway stations in business districts. Farm8 has already started testing "smart farms" in which artificial intelligence-powered robots will plant and harvest vegetables as well as adjust water quality. It also plans to develop new types of stores so that it can reduce operation costs, and it will open two more outlets in early 2020.
There is still so much to do to improve the profitability of the subway station business, Yeo said, but Farm8 plans to open more Metro Farm stores, betting that opening "plant factories" at subway stations used by several million people per day will have a huge advertising impact. The effort is likely to draw attention as a new method of local food production for local consumption in urban areas.
An Urban Farm Is In The Works For Milwaukee's Near West Side
Planet2Plate's plans include a building at 817 N. 27th St. and a lot at 2734 W. Wells St. that will be used for growing, processing and serving the produce grown on-site
Sarah Hauer Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Dec 30, 2019
Building at 817 N. 27th Street in Milwaukee, site of proposed urban farm.
Michael Sears / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
An urban farm is in the works for Milwaukee's near west side.
Planet2Plate Inc. has filed applications to develop a building and lot off Wells Street west of downtown into an urban farming site. The Brooklyn-based company that designs edible learning spaces and hands-on education programming is planning to launch its first project in Milwaukee.
Planet2Plate's plans include a building at 817 N. 27th St. and a lot at 2734 W. Wells St. that will be used for growing, processing and serving the produce grown on-site.
At 817 N. 27th St., Planet2Plate applied to use the first and second floors as a commercial farming enterprise with food processing, a sit-down restaurant, a retail area, an assembly hall and space for personal instruction. Planet2Plate plans to use the lot at 2734 W. Wells St. to grow plants with plans to build a new greenhouse.
Building at 817 N. 27th Street in Milwaukee, site of proposed urban farm.
Michael Sears / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The building on 27th Street is owned by Cecelia Building LLC, which is led by Rick Wiegand, the owner of the Ambassador Hotel. He said earlier this year he was considering plans to redevelop buildings at 801-813 and 817-831 N. 27th St.
Planet2Plate says that it revitalizes existing urban spaces with green infrastructure for hands-on learning opportunities. It said in December 2018 that it was looking for a space in Milwaukee to develop its new project.
Sarah Hauer can be reached at shauer@journalsentinel.com or on Instagram @HauerSarah and Twitter @SarahHauer. Subscribe to her weekly newsletter Be MKE at jsonline.com/bemke.
Maryland Helps Grow Urban Rooftop Farms
Farm-to-table, the movement which looks to illuminate and shorten the distance between the two, is all well and good. But what if you're city-dweller living miles from the nearest farm?
John Tolley, January 10, 2020
Farm-to-table, the movement which looks to illuminate and shorten the distance between the two, is all well and good. But what if you're city-dweller living miles from the nearest farm?
Enter the University of Maryland, who is working to make urban rooftop farming as ubiquitous as the corner Starbucks. The concept is no more difficult to understand than the name. People in cities cultivate their own fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers on these untapped open spaces.
"The interesting thing about cities is they're fragile," notes John Lea-Cox, a professor in the Departments of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture at Maryland. "By fragile I mean that urban people are really dependent upon transport to get food into cities. That's why this kind of urban food production, whether it be at grade or on a rooftop, is really important."
From the deceptively simple idea of urban rooftop farming sprouts a plethora of potential benefits for cities and surrounding communities alike.
FRESH FOOD
As alluded to before, due to transport costs and limitations of space, most cities find themselves plagued with food deserts. These are areas where unprocessed, fresh foods are difficult to obtain and grocery stores are difficult to access.
Partnering with Up Top Acres, Maryland is countering this trend, helping the group refine and improve their practices, one rooftop at a time. Kristof Grina, co-owner of Up Top Acres, says that the difference between local and shipped-in produce is night and day.
"It comes to the miles that are attached to the vegetables they are eating," says Grina. "We're not even measuring it in miles. We're measuring it in flights of stairs or floors in a building. That has an impact on the freshness of the food, which correlates to the nutrient density."
A HELPING HAND
The partnership between Maryland and Up Top Acres began when the urban farmers found themselves out of their element in terms of data collection. They launched a program to gauge the performance of Up Top Acres' systems, but quickly saw the potential for more.
Lea-Cox, alongside Andrew Ristvey, extension specialist at Maryland's Wye Research and Education Center, helped Up Top Acres develop soil media blends and a nutrient management program for the unique environment.
"For the last ten or fifteen years, I've been involved in sensor-driven irrigation and nutrient management," says Lea-Cox. "What that does is it actually provides the tools for Kristof to monitor his practices in real-time. What we are doing is we're providing sensors that will actually sense not only the soil, the soil moisture, but also the atmosphere. So, what we do is we connect the dots. Connect the dots, provide that information to Kristof, so that he can get on with his day, he can understand what's happening in the soil and make better decisions."
WEATHERING STORMS
Another especially salient benefit for the state of Maryland, which hugs the Chesapeake Bay, is the role urban rooftop farms can play in mitigating the detrimental effects of stormwater.
Modern cities, covered in a skin of concrete, asphalt and other impermeable materials, displace natural areas of soil and vegetation. Without these elements to capture the rain, it careens out of the area and into local waterways. As it does, that rain carries pollutants and nutrients, negatively impacting the entire ecosystem.
Ristvey explains that urban rooftop farms can help hold back the wash. "A green roof system, if it's working and functioning properly, is retaining stormwater and preventing that initial slug of stormwater from getting into the waterways."
BACK TO NATURE
On a more philosophical level, Lea-Cox says that urban rooftop farms of any scale afford city dwellers a connection to the natural world. Beyond the nutritional and environmental benefits of the farm plots, he surmises that people yearn to get their fingernails a little dirty.
"Of course, an urban area is a really exciting place to live," says Lea-Cox. "But I think what a lot of us miss is that connection to the earth. That's what's so great about working for a land-grant university, is that we are connecting people back to the earth."
JOHN TOLLEY
John Tolley is a BTN.com contributor covering stories of inspiration, impact and innovation - on and off the field - in the areas of science, philanthropy and the arts.
Lead Photo: BTN LiveBIG
Vertical Farming Startup Expands Through New Retail Deals With Whole Foods, Safeway
A South San Francisco farming startup is quickly growing its retail roots after landing new distribution deals with two of the area's largest grocers
Vertical farming startup Plenty is ramping up its retail distribution through two new deals with Whole Foods Market and Safeway.
South San Francisco, CA
By Katie Burke – Staff Reporter, San Francisco Business Times
A South San Francisco farming startup is quickly growing its retail roots after landing new distribution deals with two of the area's largest grocers.
Vertical agriculture company Plenty will soon stock the produce shelves at a handful of Whole Foods Market and Safeway locations across the Bay Area to mark the beginning of what the startup is hoping will be a widespread push into new retailers and restaurants. Plenty's vegetables first began selling in retail outlets last year and are now available through Good Eggs, Berkeley Bowl, Bi-Rite Market and the robotic burger restaurant, Creator.
Plenty grows its produce hydroponically, meaning it feeds the plant without having it rooted in soil. By cutting water consumption, shortening the supply chain and shrinking the amount of space needed to grow produce, Plenty will be able to deliver more produce at a faster rate, Plenty CEO Matt Barnard previously told the San Francisco Business Times.
Matt Barnard, CEO and CoFounder, Plenty Inc.
Since it was founded in 2013, Plenty has raised more than $400 million, $175 million of which was raised as part of a Series C round the company closed last June. The round pushed the company's valuation to its current $1.05 billion.
The latest infusion of capital has helped fund the company's expansion to Los Angeles, where it's in the process of opening a new 95,000-square-foot farm in Compton. The new facility is expected to begin supplying produce like bok choy, mizuna, fennel, and kale to retail partners by the end of this year.
The company's South San Francisco farm, which launched last summer, is on track to hit full capacity before the end of the year. At that point, it will be able to supply more than 100 grocery partners throughout the Bay Area. Plenty also operates a test farm in Wyoming, where it experiments with different seeds and varietals.
Plenty is ultimately aiming to have as many as 500 vertical farms stationed in highly populated, urban areas around the world.
"We are able to deliver a product that’s both better than and at a price that is less than anything that’s in the market," Barnard previously said. "You are going to see us on more and more shelves. You going to be able to find us, have us delivered to your home. We want our product in more people’s hands and mouths."
Texas A&M Undergraduate Initiates Urban Farm On Campus
Urban farming comes in many forms, and now one of those, vertical farming, is helping feed students at Texas A&M University
Vertical farm project helps provide fresh vegetables to students while advancing agriculture
JANUARY 1, 2020
Urban farming comes in many forms, and now one of those, vertical farming, is helping feed students at Texas A&M University.
The project is part of an experiential learning initiative, which is a required part of the curriculum for undergraduates in Texas A&M’s Department of Soil and Crop Sciences.
The department offers internships and study abroad opportunities to help students meet this requirement. Broch Saxton, one of the department’s December graduates, created his own internship as a student leader and greenhouse project director with Texas A&M’s Urban Farm United, or TUFU.
Seedlings are planted in the towers where they will remain until they reach maturity and are harvested. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Beth Ann Luedeker)
Campus farming
Seedlings are planted in the towers where they will remain until they reach maturity and are harvested. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Beth Ann Luedeker)
TUFU is an urban farm that utilizes tower gardens or vertical towers that produce high-value/specialty crops in a space-conscious technique via hydroponic growing methods.
The project, started by Saxton, is in a greenhouse on the Texas A&M campus. It currently includes 24 towers in which a variety of produce is grown, with plenty of room to expand.
The urban farm project began as a collaboration between Saxton and Lisette Templin, an instructional assistant professor from Texas A&M’s Department of Health and Kinesiology.
“I have dreamed of running greenhouses in this form,” Saxton said. “Using the knowledge obtained from my degree, I want to help people have better access to greater food, all while ingraining hydroponic farming into the university. My experience in this process has been completely driven by networking and passion. This is what I want a career in.”
Saxton earned his bachelor’s degree in plant and environmental soil science Dec. 13.
“Hydroponics has huge potential to benefit many people,” he said. “When I approached the Texas A&M Office of Sustainability with my idea of a vertical farm project, they suggested I partner with Ms. Templin, who had approached them with a similar idea.”
Templin has a tower garden on her patio, which feeds her family of four.
Feeding students
Templin and Saxton envisioned a project that could potentially feed Aggie students and staff on campus. They submitted an abstract to the Aggie Green Fund. In January 2019 received a $60,000 grant and permission to use space in a greenhouse owned by the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology.
Using grant funds, they purchased towers and a closed-loop watering system that provides nutrition to the plants. They also bought 800 seedlings from an urban farm in Austin to use for their initial crop. They will be self-sufficient and seed their own plants for future endeavors.
Seedlings are planted in the towers where they will remain until they reach maturity and are harvested. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Beth Ann Luedeker)
Seedlings are planted in the towers where they will remain until they reach maturity and are harvested. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Beth Ann Luedeker)
The first crop included four different types of lettuce, kale, snap peas, snow peas, herbs, chard, bok choy, tatsoi, and celery. They plan to expand the project to include peppers in the next round.
The team manages each tower individually to ensure the pH of the water is appropriate for the stage of growth and nutritional requirements are met.
Educational aspect
Since it is an internship and Saxton received college credit for his time with TUFU, he needed an adviser in the department. He reached out to Jacqueline Aitkenhead-Peterson, Ph.D., associate professor of urban nutrient and water management.
“I had taken courses under Dr. Peterson and was impressed by her value as a teacher and her approach to education,” Saxton said. “She has the mentality of mentorship and guidance that I was looking for.”
Aitkenhead-Peterson said she was happy to serve as Saxton’s adviser for the project.
“The fact that this project was not research-based was very unusual to me,” she said. “However, this project is about feeding people and educating them on the possibilities of feeding themselves, which I deem to be a very important exercise.”
Providing food
The produce harvest by TUFU was distributed by the 12th Can Food Pantry, a student-run program on the Texas A&M campus, which serves all students, faculty, and staff in need of assistance.
TUFU looks forward to continuing to support the 12th Can and hopes to expand to support student dining.
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SOUTH KOREA: Urban Farming Bonds Communities In Seoul
Tucked away in a dark, damp corner of an underground parking lot in Nowon-gu, northeastern Seoul, mushrooms mature under fluorescent lights. The vertical farm is tended by residents who live right above it, in Sanggye Hyundai Apartment Complex.
Residents at Nowon Energy Zero housing complex in Nowon-gu, northeastern Seoul, tend small box gardens earlier this year. / Courtesy of Nowon-gu Office
By Lee Suh-yoon
Tucked away in a dark, damp corner of an underground parking lot in Nowon-gu, northeastern Seoul, mushrooms mature under fluorescent lights.
The vertical farm is tended by residents who live right above it, in Sanggye Hyundai Apartment Complex.
Together, the residents grow, share and sell the mushrooms, donating the profits to local charities and welfare centers.
A community mushroom farm is located under Sanggye Hyundai Apartment Complex in Nowon-gu, northeastern Seoul. / Courtesy of Nowon-gu Office
About five kilometers south, residents of Nowon Energy Zero housing complex, known for its energy-efficient apartment and villa designs, come together to tend small box gardens.
"People who live in the same apartment complexes don't really talk to each other these days," Park Geun-gu, an official from Nowon-gu Office, told The Korea Times recently. "Apart from providing safe locally grown produce, these urban farms help residents get to know each other better, strengthening community bonds."
To create an urban farm in their leftover spaces, usually snuggled between close-knit buildings or on a roof, residents can easily apply for financial and professional support from their local government offices. The city government and district offices fund 80 percent to 100 percent of the initial installation fees of accepted projects.
Seoul is now home to a thriving network of community gardens. The number of urban farms increased six-fold in the last seven years, bringing the total area of such green spaces in Seoul to 170 hectares ― about the size of 238 football fields.
Most are located in patches between apartments or on the roofs of schools and government buildings.
"We refer to these participating groups as urban farming communities," said Lee Byung-hun, a city official in charge of the urban farm projects.
"The main focus of these projects is not supplying food; it's about the social experience the urban farms can bring to residents. We're also providing hands-on gardening experience and environmental education to children at urban farms set up next to kindergartens."
Last year, the city government started allocating a 5 million won ($4,400) annual budget to each district to solicit help from professionals who can give lectures and offer personalized gardening solutions ― ranging from raising soil productivity to using safe pesticides ― to urban farming communities.
Called "farm clinics," these classes are currently held at 4,000 urban farm sites across 19 districts in Seoul. Last month, the city government announced plans to extend the classes to 7,000 sites.
Districts that lie along the green belt, like Gangdong-gu and Gwangjin-gu, can spare more green space for these community farms.
The land, usually located at the foot of a mountain or riverside, is divided up among residents in an open lottery system at the beginning of each spring.
"The competition for a plot of land at these community farms is very high: we get 10 to 15 times more applicants than the number of plots available, depending on the location," a Gwangjin-gu official said. "Residents usually grow lettuce or peppers, and some of the produce is donated to local welfare centers."
A community farm near the Han River in Gangdong-gu, eastern Seoul / Courtesy of Gangdong-gu Office
A rooftop community garden in Seodaemun-gu, northwestern Seoul. / Courtesy of Seodaemun-gu Office
Residents listen to a gardening instructor at an urban farm in Gwangjin-gu, eastern Seoul. / Courtesy of Gwangjin-gu Office
How 16 Initiatives Are Changing Urban Agriculture Through Tech And Innovation
The United Nations estimates (PDF) that nearly 10 billion people will live in cities by 2050. According to a recent publication by the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition
Thursday, January 2, 2020
The United Nations estimates (PDF) that nearly 10 billion people will live in cities by 2050. According to a recent publication by the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition, urban eaters consume most of the food produced globally and maintain more resource-intensive diets including increased animal-source and processed foods — rich in salt, sugar and fats. At the same time, many urban populations — particularly in low-income areas and informal communities — endure acute hunger and malnutrition as well as limited access to affordable, healthy food.
But there are countless ways that cities can feed themselves and create better linkages between rural and urban food systems. In Mexico City, the organization CultiCiudad built the Huerto Tlatelolco, an edible forest with 45 tree varieties, a seed bank and plots for biointensive gardening. In the United States, City Growers uses New York City’s urban farms as a learning laboratory for children to reconnect with nature. And in the Kalobeyei Settlement in northern Kenya, urban agriculture represents a tool for empowerment by improving food security, nutrition, and self-sufficiency among refugees.
"Agriculture and forestry in the city… answer to a variety of urban development goals beyond the provision of green infrastructure and food, such as social inclusion, adaptation to climate change, poverty alleviation, urban water management and opportunities for the productive reuse of urban waste," says Henk de Zeeuw, senior adviser at the RUAF Foundation.
And thankfully, hundreds of entrepreneurs and organizations are using this opportunity to improve urban agriculture and satisfy the demands of an increasingly urban population. From high-tech indoor farms in France and Singapore to mobile apps connecting urban growers and eaters in India and the United States, Food Tank highlights 16 initiatives using tech, entrepreneurship and social innovation to change urban agriculture.
There are countless ways that cities can feed themselves and create better linkages between rural and urban food systems.
1. AeroFarms, Newark (United States)
AeroFarms builds and operates vertical indoor farms to enable local production at scale and increase the availability of safe and nutritious food. The company uses aeroponics to grow leafy greens without sun or soil in a fully controlled environment. The technology enables year-round production while, they say, using 95 percent less water than field farming, resulting in yields 400 times higher per square foot annually. Since its foundation in 2004, AeroFarms aims to disrupt conventional food supply chains by building farms along major distribution routes and in urban areas. The company also won multiple awards, including the 2018 Global SDG Award, for its environmentally responsible practices and leadership in agriculture.
2. Agricool, Paris (France)
Agricool is a start-up that grows strawberries in containers spread throughout urban areas. The company retrofits old, unused containers to accommodate both an LED-lights and aeroponics system making it possible to grow strawberries year-round. The Cooltainers are powered by clean energy and use 90 percent less water than conventional farming. Agricool also works on building a network of urban farmers through the Cooltivators training program, aiming to open up job opportunities for city residents to work in the agricultural sector. The start-up works on expanding operations to other cities, an effort made possible by the replicability of the container’s design.
3. BIGH Farms, Brussels (Belgium)
BIGH (Building Integrated Greenhouses) Farms, a start-up based in Brussels, works on building a network of urban farms in Europe to promote the role urban agriculture can play in the circular economy. BIGH’s designs integrate aquaponics with existing buildings to reduce a site’s environmental impact. The first pilot — above the historic Abattoir in Brussel’s city center — includes a fish farm, a greenhouse and over 2,000 square meters of outdoor vegetable gardens. It started in 2018 producing microgreens, herbs, tomatoes and striped bass. BIGH Farms also partners with local businesses and growers to make sure the farm’s production is complementary to the existing food community.
4. Bites, Phoenix (United States)
Bites is a mobile platform working to help connect urban farmers, chefs and eaters in Phoenix through farm-to-table dining experiences. Eaters and chefs sign up and meet through the app to organize an in-home dining event. Chefs gather the ingredients from urban growers registered on the platform in an effort to promote local, small businesses. Bites was launched in 2017 by Roza Derfowsmakan, founder of Warehouse Apps, to improve accessibility to farm-to-table experiences and support urban farmers. By using technology to build culinary communities, Bites aims to change consumer choices from shipped-in, trucked-in produce to locally sourced food — involving people in the solution itself.
5. BitGrange, Multiple Locations (North America)
BitGrange is an urban farming tool and learning platform working to help educate children on food and agriculture. The BitGrange device, a hydroponics and internet of things-based system, produces edible plants with little water and energy. BitGrange’s software evaluates environmental variables in real-time and notifies growers through a smartphone app to take necessary actions, such as adding more water or plant food. Founded in 2015 according to its philosophy, Plant-Connect-Sync-Play, BitGrange aims to inspire youth to engage in farming by gamifying agriculture. The nano-farm’s design is available for download at BitGrange’s website for potential growers to 3D print the device in their own location.
Chefs gather the ingredients from urban growers registered on the platform in an effort to promote local, small businesses.
6. Bowery Farming, New York Metro Area (United States)
Bowery Farming, an indoor farming start-up, uses software and robotics to grow produce inside warehouses in and around cities. By controlling every aspect of the growing process, the start-up is able to produce leafy greens and herbs using a minimal amount of water and energy per square foot. The technology also makes it possible to grow customized products for chefs and restaurants, such as softer kale and more peppery arugula. Since its establishment in 2017, Bowery Farming is expanding operations beyond its New Jersey warehouse to build vertical farms in other cities and, ultimately, bring efficient food production closer to consumers.
7. Farmizen, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Surat (India)
Farmizen is a mobile-based platform renting farmland to city residents to grow locally grown, organic produce. The app allocates its users a 600 square foot mini-farm in a community nearby. Users can visit the farm anytime to grow and harvest chemical-free produce. Farmworkers look after the plots when the users return to the city, making a fixed and stable income — up to three times more than that of conventional farming. The app is live in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Surat with 1,500 subscribers and 40 acres of land under cultivation. Farmizen was founded in 2017 by entrepreneur Gitanjali Rajamani, driven by the need to create stable livelihoods for farmers and reconnect city-dwellers to agriculture and nature.
8. Fresh Direct, Abuja (Nigeria)
Fresh Direct is an impact-driven start-up using vertical farming and hydroponics to promote locally grown produce and the involvement of youth in agriculture. When young entrepreneur Angel Adelaja started engaging in eco-friendly farming, she faced multiple challenges with conventional farming practices, including access to land, water and technology. As a response, Adelaja founded Fresh Direct in 2014 to make urban agriculture more accessible to everyone, especially youth. Fresh Direct installs stackable container farms in the city, growing organic produce closer to the market. In the future, Adelaja aims to eradicate the notion among young professionals that agriculture is a line of work for the older generations.
9. Gotham Greens, multiple locations (United States)
Gotham Greens builds and operates data-driven, climate-controlled greenhouses in cities across the United States. The greenhouses, powered by wind and solar energy, use hydroponics to grow salad greens and herbs year-round using fewer resources than conventional farming. In addition to its goal of sustainable food production, Gotham Greens also partners with local organizations, schools, community gardens and businesses to support urban renewal and community development projects. Gotham Greens is also the company behind the country’s first commercial rooftop greenhouse, a partnership with Whole Foods Market to operate the greenhouse above its flagship store in Brooklyn, New York.
10. GrowUp Urban Farms, London (United Kingdom)
GrowUp Urban Farms works on developing commercial scale, Controlled Environment Production (CEP) solutions to grow fresh food in communities across London. The CEP farms use aquaponics to farm fish and grow leafy greens in a soil-less system, turning previously unused brownfield sites into productive areas. The GrowUp Box — a community farm developed together with sister organization GrowUp Community Farms — produces over 400kg of salads and 150kg of fish each year. Over the long run, the company aims to replicate the aquaponics system to build urban farms in other cities, opening employment opportunities for youth and using agriculture as a means to make communities more self-sustaining.
11. InFarm, multiple locations (Europe)
InFarm, a Berlin-based start-up, develops modular indoor farming systems to bring agriculture into cities. Designed to combat the long distances food travels, the InFarms produce leafy greens and herbs using 95 percent less water than traditional farms and no pesticides. The technology, the company claims, can reduce food transportation up to 90 percent. In 2013, the company pioneered the modular system in restaurants, schools, hospitals and shopping centers. Operations have expanded to distribute portable farms in neighborhoods and supermarkets across Germany, Denmark, France and Switzerland. The expansion, AgFunder reports, can be attributed to InFarm’s decentralized, data-driven model.
The farm’s closed-loop system works with used coffee grounds — collected from local businesses — to turn residual flows into food.
12. Liv Up, São Paulo (Brazil)
Liv Up works to deliver healthy meals and snack kits prepared with locally grown food to residents of the Greater São Paulo region. The start-up sources organic ingredients from family farmers in peri-urban areas, in an effort to shorten value chains and better connect small producers to the urban market. A team of chefs and nutritionists prepares the meals, which are later deep frozen to maintain the food’s integrity and extend its shelf life. Liv Up was founded in 2016 by a trio of young entrepreneurs driven by the lack of access to healthy foods in São Paulo. The start-up operates in seven municipalities of the metropolitan area, rotating its menu every two weeks.
13. Pasona Urban Ranch, Tokyo (Japan)
Pasona Urban Ranch, an initiative of the Pasona Group, is a mix of office space and animal farm in the heart of Tokyo’s busy Ōtemachi district. The initiative aims to raise interest in agriculture and dairy farming among city residents by bringing them in close contact with farm animals. The ranch houses eight animal species, including cattle, goats and an alpaca, which are cared for by specialized staff. Visitors and employees of the building can attend seminars on dietary education and dairy farming. Previously, the Pasona Group gained worldwide acknowledgment for Pasona O2 — an underground office farm built by Kono Designs in 2010 growing 100 regional crops in downtown Tokyo.
14. RotterZwam, Rotterdam (The Netherlands)
RotterZwam, an urban mushroom farm, raises awareness on the potential of the circular economy for addressing environmental issues. The farm’s closed-loop system works with used coffee grounds — collected from local businesses — to turn residual flows into food. The mushroom nursery, built out of old containers, uses solar paneling to power the farm’s operations and the e-vehicles used for product delivery. The farm’s team offers tours to educate citizens on circular systems and trains entrepreneurs wishing to start a mushroom farm. RotterZwam’s second location in the Schiehaven area opened in mid-2019 thanks to a crowdfunding campaign to bring back the farm after a devastating fire in 2017.
15. Sustenir Agriculture (Singapore)
Sustenir Agriculture is a vertical farm working to promote high quality, locally grown and safe food with the lowest possible footprint. The farm — in the heart of Singapore — uses the latest technology in hydroponics and smart indoor farming to produce leafy greens, tomatoes, strawberries and fresh herbs. Starting as a basement project in 2012, Sustenir produces 1 ton of kale and 3.2 tons of lettuce per month in an area of 54 square meters.
16. Urban Bees, London (United Kingdom)
Urban Bees is a social enterprise working with communities and businesses in London to help bees thrive in the city. Through education and training, the initiative raises awareness on how to create bee-friendly communities and on how to become responsible beekeepers. The first training apiary was established together with the Co-op Plan Bee in Battersea, South London. The enterprise also advises urban gardening initiatives, including Lush’s rooftop garden, to ensure that green areas install the right forage and create healthy bee habitats. Co-founder Alison Benjamin says that city residents often suffer from nature-deficit disorder and urban beekeeping is one path to reconnect with nature in the city.
This story first appeared on: Food Tank
Lead Photo: Shutterstock Jose L VilchezView of an urban garden in the Panyu District in Guangzhou, China
Tags: Food & Agriculture urban agriculture Technology Innovation
CALIFORNIA: Proposed Ordinance Would Promote And Protect Agriculture
UAIZ is intended to promote small-scale urban agriculture by providing a financial incentive for property owners of unimproved, underutilized, and vacant properties in census-designated urban areas to use their properties for agricultural uses
admin | on January 01, 2020
A proposed county ordinance that would implement California’s AB 551 is seen as benefiting local agriculture by recognizing its benefits, according to the San Diego County Farm Bureau.
The County of San Diego recently made the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones (UAIZ) Draft Ordinance available for public review. That period will end January 31, 2020.
The draft ordinance can be found at: www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/dam/sdc/pds/advance/UAIZ/UAIZ%20Draft%20Ordinance.pdf
In 2018, the Board of Supervisors directed staff to establish an Urban Agriculture Incentive Zone ordinance within the unincorporated areas of the County. It implements California Assembly Bill No. 551 (AB 551), the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones Act (UAIZ,) authorizes counties and/or cities to establish Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones whereby the county or city and a landowner can enter into a contract for small-scale production of agricultural crops in exchange for a potential property tax benefit.
UAIZ is intended to promote small-scale urban agriculture by providing a financial incentive for property owners of unimproved, underutilized, and vacant properties in census-designated urban areas to use their properties for agricultural uses.
Hannah Gbeh, executive director of the San Diego County Farm Bureau, told The Roadrunner, “I am encouraged to see the County implementing AB 551, which intends to promote and protect agricultural uses while recognizing the public benefit of agriculture. The County’s proposed Urban Agricultural Incentive Zones Ordinance aims to promote small-scale urban agriculture by providing a financial incentive for eligible property owners. For agriculture in San Diego County, where 69% of our farms are 1 to 9 acres in size, this ordinance has the potential to significantly benefit agriculture.”
Gbeh added, “The Draft Ordinance is available for public review until January 31st and I would encourage anyone interested in urban agriculture to review and provide comments to the County. The San Diego County Farm Bureau stands ready to assist all local growers in starting or expanding agriculture operations within our County lines. We encourage all growers to be active and engaged in activities affecting the regulatory environment of agriculture and are available to assist any members experiencing issues.”
Under this ordinance, a property owner voluntarily enters into a contract with the county for a minimum of five years. While under contract, the property owner pays property taxes based on the assessed agricultural value of the property, which can offer substantial savings.
To be eligible for the program, the property must be located within an urbanized census area; be between 0.1 and 3.0 acres in size; vacant, unimproved, or have only non-residential structures; and be fully dedicated to agriculture.
Lands that are not eligible include (1) property that is currently subject to, or has been subject to within the previous three years, a Williamson Act Contract (current Government Code section 51200 et seq.); or (2) property in the unincorporated County, within the sphere of influence of a city, unless the legislative body of the city consents to inclusion of the property within the County UAIZ Establishment Area.
For more information contact: Project Contact: Timothy Vertino at timothy.vertino@sdcounty.ca.gov or call 858-495-5468
How This Chennai Firm Is Changing The Way We Consume Food
Housed in a bustling commercial complex on GP Road, the Sustenance Agritech office is an oasis of calm
DECEMBER 03, 2019
Akhil Nichani of Sustenance Agrotech | Photo Credit: M Vedhan
Microgreens pack in a lot of power and flavour, and this year-old startup is tapping into their potential by supplying to restaurants around town
Housed in a bustling commercial complex on GP Road, the Sustenance Agritech office is an oasis of calm.
Akhil Nichani, the 23-year-old founder, inspects rows of greens jostling for space in their plastic containers. As he runs a check on the produce to be shipped the next day, he pulls out a radish microgreen, plucks off the root and proffers it to me. “Go ahead. Try it.”
”As I bite into the delicate green, the intensity of flavour in a mere two-inch plant surprises me. The radish green creates an explosion of spiciness; in comparison, a slice of radish itself is much milder.“
That is because microgreens pack in a lot more nutrition and flavour when compared to the actual vegetable,” says Akhil, who supplies to hotels like Crowne Plaza and Radisson Blu Hotel GRT, and a set of restaurants, which include The Summer House Eatery, Patina, Broken Bridge Cafe, Radio Room, Lord of The Drinks and Soul Garden Bistro.
An electronic engineer by qualification, Akhil decided to get into hydroponics and microgreens after stumbling upon the concept in college.“I read up extensively about microgreens. I then walked into the kitchen and asked my mother for mustard seeds and began experimenting,” he laughs. Once he graduated from SRM University last year, he began seriously working on Sustenance.
Currently, Sustenance offers microgreens in radish (red, white, pink and purple), amaranth (red and green), bok choy, cabbage, cauliflower, mustard, clover and broccoli. “I have experimented with beetroot, but the weather in Chennai is not conducive to it. Beets need colder climate. I am experimenting with sunflower too.”Typically, he uses seeds that have a germination rate of 90 to 95%. “At the very least 75%. We also prefer untreated seeds, since seed covers usually linger on microgreens and one doesn’t want to be ingesting chemicals.
Seed growers often use a chemical to coat the seed to protect it from fungus or infection,” he says. His hunt for quality seeds led to a tie-up with Durga Seeds and All That Grows, in Chandigarh.
Micro Facts
Microgreens are plants that are seven to 10 days old.
Once the seeds germinate and grow their first set of leaves, they are harvested and consumed.
Seeds usually have enough energy in terms of starch and carbohydrates to germinate and grow the first set of leaves. So microgreens don’t need any growth mixtures.
Microgreens offer anywhere between 20% to 40% more nutrition than regular vegetables. The flavour profile is more intense as well.
When they first started, deliveries were done by Akhil and his then business partner. Today, he has a team in place, with one person exclusively handling deliveries.“I started off by myself, but soon I had two seniors from school join me. One of them moved on, but Maulin Tolia and I are continuing in the business.” Akhil also runs a 300-square-foot hydroponics farm in Kilpauk, where he grows Thai basil, kankong and watercress.
Akhil says that one of the biggest challenges he faced when he first started out was to be taken seriously due to his age.“Chefs and purchase managers would assume I’d landed up at the wrong place,” he laughs. “But microgreens open a lot of doors. There aren’t many players in Chennai; most of the microgreens used here come from Pune and Bengaluru. I began approaching chefs with samples and they knew I was there to talk business.”
Chennai’s weather also limits variety. “I know people in Mumbai who can offer around 50 varieties, while I offer around 15. Here we keep a watch on temperature and humidity. The air conditioner the humidity in the room at about 40% and we don’t let the temperature go beyond 30°C.”
Akhil adds that microgreens as a concept is still picking up in Chennai. Weather and awareness are major factors, but “it is all about marketing now.”
Business Ideas For 2020: Urban Farming
With urbanization meaning we have less and less arable land for farming and agriculture, urban farming is the solution we need to continue feeding the world in the future. Unsurprisingly, then, this field presents a wealth of business opportunities
With urbanization meaning we have less and less arable land for farming and agriculture, urban farming is the solution we need to continue feeding the world in the future. Unsurprisingly, then, this field presents a wealth of business opportunities.
December 20, 2019
by Robyn Summers-Emler
How much does the food I eat contribute to my carbon footprint? How are we going to continue to feed a growing population in the future?
When it comes to the food we eat, these questions regarding the environment and overpopulation have taken centre stage in recent years – which might explain the growing trend of urban farming solutions.
Urban farming, put simply, is the cultivation and distribution of food in an urban or densely populated areas. More specifically, this can mean the DIY growing of food (or even keeping of bees or farming of bugs!) in your own home or the high-tech setups such as vertical farming and Controlled Environment Production (CEP).
Vertical farming is the indoor cultivation of plants in a stacked formation, allowing for several rows of crops to be grown in vertically arranged layers. The produce is grown in a controlled environment (light and temperature) and, in some cases, even without any soil (thanks to techniques such as hydroponics). The urban spaces used for this farming can be anything from abandoned warehouses to shipping containers.
Finally, as people become more concerned about exactly where their food is coming from, and with ‘field-to-fork’ on the rise, it’s unsurprising that there’s been a surge in restaurants, companies, and individuals wanting to grow food themselves in the city. Whether it be in a city allotment, on a rooftop, or on a tiny London apartment windowsill – we’re becoming much more inventive and resourceful when it comes to finding farming space!
Read on to learn more about the importance of this ‘trend’ (although you’ll probably realize this concept is much bigger than a passing curiosity) and the interesting variety of business opportunities urban farming presents for 2020 – and the future of the planet.
Find out more:
Why is urban farming a good business idea for 2020
Is urban farming a Brexit proof business idea?
Urban farming: business opportunities
Is urban farming a sustainable business idea?
Insider opinion
Interested in starting a business? Why not take a look at these posts for more inspiration and practical advice:
Business ideas 2020 – what business should you start this year?
How to start a business – what steps do you need to take?
Small business statistics – find out how the UK small business scene is evolving
Why is urban farming a good business idea for 2020
“In order to feed the anticipated 10 billion people living on earth by 2050, food production must be increased by 70%,” says Thomas Constant, the founder of the brand new vertical bug-farming product startup BioBea (don’t worry – more on that innovative idea later!).
One reason urban farming is likely to prove a lucrative business opportunity in 2020 (and far beyond) is due to its necessity in an increasingly urbanized world with a crippling demand for more food. In addition, the growth of the industry will continue to be driven by a growing demand for produce that is high-quality and grown without the use of pesticides, in a way that does not negatively impact the environment and climate.
As the Telegraph reported in 2019, the desperate clamoring of the agriculture industry to keep up with the needs of a growing population has a huge environmental impact in terms of emissions.
So, it’s no surprise that urban farming solutions are growing in interest and popularity. By 2022, it is predicted that the global vertical farming market will have an estimated value of $5.8 billion, having grown by 24.8% between 2016 and 2022.
On the home-growing side of things, a 2019 article from Insightdiy reported a 29% increase in millennials enjoying gardening, and that 81% of young gardeners claimed to grow plants specifically for food (53% said they grow their own produce as a cheaper alternative to buying and 45% for well-being and health reasons.)
The buzz around this concept hasn’t gone unnoticed, with publications such as the Guardian writing about how to grow your own food at home “even if you don’t have a garden”, and several companies such as above-mentioned BioBea offering easy-to-use indoor farming solutions.
If you’re still not convinced by the potential of urban farming, the many examples you can see around you in major cities around the UK may tip the balance. Looking to the incredible ‘green-roofing’ projects in Paris, the futuristic Growing Underground salad farm located 100 feet below Clapham High Street, and the 16-storey food towers on the cards for the future – there are plenty of examples which, as The Guardian put it in 2019, “show that urban agriculture is, in some cases at least, not a fad”.
Quick urban farming glossary
Urban farming can mean…
Urban agriculture – this term suggests urban farming on a large scale and with commercial intent (selling of produce).
Homesteading (in relation to farming) – the growing of food to feed yourself, in your own home, garden, allotment, etc. (no commercial intent).
Indoor farming – the umbrella term for growing produce entirely indoors, usually in artificial or controlled environments (light and temperature), like vertical farming.
Is urban farming a Brexit proof business idea?
The Grow Like Grandad blog, a finalist in The Garden Media Guild Awards two years running, explained in 2018 about how new (hard) Brexit importing laws could have a dramatic negative impact on the price and availability of fruit and vegetables in the UK. The proposed solution? Grow your own.
With one of the main focuses of urban farming being local production and distribution of produce, this concept seems to not only be Brexit proof but possibly the answer to agricultural and farming issues posed by the leaving of the EU.
Urban farming: business opportunities
Starting a business as technologically sophisticated and large-scale as a commercial vertical farm may seem daunting, and will certainly require knowledge of the science behind growing produce and the relevant technology. However, there are now plenty of available resources, such as those offered by the Vertical Farming Academy, which offers step-by-step support to launching your own urban or vertical farming project. The UK success-story Growup Urban Farms also offers inspiration in its honest description of the somewhat rocky road it took to get to where it is today.
With the demand for vertical farms increasing, any business providing such projects with the technology they need will likely see demand for its products grow.
Some highly innovative home-farming products have come to the market recently, reflecting consumers’ growing interest in grow-your-own, homesteading, and self-sufficiency. One memorable example of this is BioBea’s new home insect-growing pod, which allows users to farm insects to eat as a high-protein addition to their diets.
“The sustainability of insect farming, which uses a fraction of the land, water and resources needed for traditional livestock while producing greater nutritional benefits, is key to the demand of the product,” says Thomas Constant, the founder of BioBea.
“Empowering people of any age to produce their own sustainable source of protein and make use of their food waste, even in urban locations, is one of the most effective ways consumers can impact the global food supply chain.”
BioBea’s insect-growing pod
Moving from bugs to fungi, another grow-your-own concept comes from Fungi Futures CIC (trading as GroCycle) which operates out of an urban mushroom farm in Exeter selling ‘grow your own gourmet mushrooms’ kits – and there are many suppliers offering iterations of similar grow-your-own products.
Another potential business idea in this field: shipping containers. Yes, you read that correctly. As Johnathan Bulmer, MD at UK-based company Cleveland Containers, explains: “There is a billion-dollar demand for local food, due to environmental, economic and food-quality reasons. Because of this, the appeal of urban farming – specifically container farming – to consumers and businesses will only continue to rise.” With large container units being used as the home for an increasing number of urban and vertical farming projects, you can see why supplying the farmers with this equipment could be lucrative.
If hospitality is your area of expertise, you could take inspiration from an increasing number of restaurants who grow their own food locally, a world-famous example being Michelin-starred Noma in Copenhagen. Farm-to-Fork restaurants are growing in popularity in the UK and beyond, with more people conscious of the environmental impact of their meals and the farming standards behind the growing of the ingredients used.
Finally – and moving on from just-food – the demand for responsibly farmed products is growing. “We are seeing a growing and enduring movement towards consumers selecting sustainably sourced and ethical products,” says Katie Tyndale, the founder of Bee Green Wraps, which offers an eco-friendly alternative to clingfilm, and Let’s Go Plastic Free, a lifestyle platform for eco-friendly products. Farming in a sustainable way to produce food or textiles to sell (at increasingly popular farmers’ markets and farm shops) would be a smart way to capitalize on this trend whilst doing your bit for the planet.
Business ideas in the field of urban farming:
Start a commercial vertical or urban farm
Supply vertical or urban farming technology to related businesses
Create a farming product that consumers can use in their own home, even with limited space
Break into the growing market of edible insects and insect farming
Supply (shipping) containers for indoor farming projects
Start an eatery which grows its own ingredients
Create and/or sell locally farmed, eco-friendly products (urban growing, beekeeping, etc.)
Is urban farming a sustainable business idea?
Sustainability is, essentially, what urban farming is all about. The challenge it aims to solve is the current unsustainable situation of food demand outweighing agricultural production. Compared to traditional farming methods, vertical farming uses an estimated 95% less water. It also encourages food to be grown very close to where it is eaten, meaning the financial and environmental costs of transportation are minimal.
Insider opinion
Urban farming businesses are likely to thrive owing to the absolute necessity for change in how we farm and eat. Thomas Constant explains that “we are currently living in a ‘food enlightening’ period. Consumers are becoming increasingly conscious about where their food comes from, what impact their diet has on the planet, and what nutritional benefits their diet offers them.”
Dr. Richard Anderson, the Head of Learning & Development at High-Speed Training, adds, “Urban farming is on the rise and leading the millennial food revolution.
“The food industry is one that is constantly changing, and many companies may feel that they are not able to keep up with their competition. However, in order to not only compete, but also thrive, they should look at alternative and niche methods that put them a level ahead of the rest.
The implementation of urban farming methods is a fantastic example of how issues relating to the environment and food fraud can be overcome by adopting a forward-thinking approach to the traditional method of farming.”
Robyn Joined Startups as the Deputy Editor in 2019, bringing with her first-hand experience of working in Berlin’s startup scene. Along with the Editor, she helps determine the site's content strategy, and contributes to creating engaging, aspirational articles and campaigns aimed at making a positive impact on your small business and the wider startup community.
Let Them Eat The City, Say The Urban Farmers of Paris
From underground former car-parks to the rooftops of the famous skyline, an agricultural revolution is taking place
From underground former car-parks to the rooftops of the famous skyline, an agricultural revolution is taking place.
by Helen Massy-Beresford 5 Dec 2019
The rooftop farm on top of the Opera Bastille produces fruits and hops, tomatoes, cucumbers, salad leaves, edible flowers and more [Topager]
Paris, France - Parisian mushrooms are reclaiming their space in the dark spaces under the City of Light.
"When cars arrived in Paris in the 1930s they pushed out "champignons de Paris" (known in English as button mushrooms)," explains Jean-Noel Gertz, CEO of Cycloponics, the start-up that has transformed an abandoned car park into La Caverne, an organic underground urban farm.
Huge quantities of button mushrooms used to be grown using the manure of the city's horses, so the rise of the car led to an abrupt drop in production. But things have now come full circle.
"Now, with car use declining, Paris mushrooms are pushing out cars," says Gertz, who is testing the growing of the variety at La Caverne's existing site below the concrete near Porte de La Chapelle, with plans to launch larger-scale production in a new underground site in the city's 19th arrondissement next March.
At La Caverne's existing site, under a high-rise neighbourhood in the north of Europe's most densely populated city, shiitake and oyster mushrooms sprout on rows of specially treated bales, while water trickles through huge trays of endives growing in the dark.
The produce, 100kg-200kg of mushrooms per day, is delivered by bicycle to grocery shops and restaurants.
Hundreds of kilograms are harvested each day from this abandoned underground car park and sent to local restaurants thanks to the La Caverne project [ICF La Sabliere Cycloponics]
La Caverne is part of the Parisculteurs project which city authorities launched in 2016, offering would-be city farmers abandoned urban spaces to cultivate.
In spring 2020 in the project's biggest milestone to date, a 14,000sq-metre (150,695sq-foot) rooftop urban farm - the world's largest - is due to open at the newly redeveloped Paris Expo Porte de Versailles exhibition centre, cultivating more than 30 varieties of vegetables and fruits and including allotments for local residents.
Parisculteurs' original aim was to turn 100 hectares (247 acres) green by 2020, in a bid to help cut emissions, slow the decline in biodiversity, give city dwellers access to nature and create local jobs and social links.
Those targets have already been achieved, says Penelope Komites, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of green spaces, biodiversity and urban agriculture, with more than 116 hectares (287 acres) of walls and rooftops "greened".
"When the projects from the first three seasons of Parisculteurs are at full production, they will be producing 1,650 tonnes of fruit, vegetables, mushrooms and herbs, seven tonnes of fish, 1.2 million cut flowers and 1.3 million plants per year - as well as honey, saffron, edible flowers, hops and spirulina, and 250 jobs will have been created," Komites says.
Parisculteurs has come at a time when interest among French consumers in local products is also growing.
"We're seeing a boom in organic food shops in France, particularly in Paris," says Gertz. "In Paris, 75 percent of people eat organic."
Brewery La Parisienne, which started life in the city before moving to bigger premises in the nearby suburb of Pantin, is also taking part in Parisculteurs, growing its own hops at three sites in the city, with another planned for 2022.
La Parisienne brewery uses locally produced hops to offer Parisians 'a truly Parisian beer' [Jean Baptiste Monteil]
"We wanted to be as sustainable as possible, and urban agriculture is just a part of that," says communications manager Lucas Lebrun. "The idea is to brew the most local beer possible and offer Parisians a truly Parisian beer."
La Parisienne harvested around 25kg (55lbs) of city hops this year, using them to brew Intramuros, a light seasonal beer designed to be accessible and to appeal not just to craft beer aficionados. It sold out.
An important part of the project is getting local residents as well as fans of La Parisienne involved in harvesting the hops, Lebrun says.
That collaborative approach is something BienElevees also wanted to capitalise on, explains Amela du Bessey, one of four sisters behind the saffron-growing start-up, which has just received the top ISO certification for its 2019 saffron.
"We're very proud of that quality. But it's the human aspect that is extraordinary," du Bessey says: around 500 people visited during this year's three-week harvest, taking part in workshops and helping with the picking and planting. "It brings people together - and that's great."
The Parisculteurs project provided the ideal opportunity for the sisters to try growing saffron, the world's most expensive spice, close to Paris' high-end food shops and Michelin-starred restaurants.
"Saffron is very happy in city conditions and the flowers have to be harvested within a day so there is no risk from air pollution," du Bessey says.
The saffron crocuses must be harvested within one day of blooming, meaning air pollution is no obstacle to city centre rooftop farming [BienElevees]
Their Parisculteurs-backed plantation is on the roof of a Monoprix supermarket in the south of the city, and there are four other Paris sites, including their first, on the roof of the Institut du Monde Arabe (Arab World Institute), in a nod to saffron's Middle Eastern origins.
Pascal Mayol, an expert ecologist at the Nicolas Hulot Foundation, an environmental NGO, and a member of the CESE, an assembly that advises the government on social, environmental and economic matters, also believes that the education and social links provided by urban agriculture may be as important as the production itself.
Re-building social links among isolated city dwellers, re-educating them on how food is grown and increasing cities' food autonomy will be vital in the face of a food production system at risk from the decline of fossil fuels in the coming decades, he says.
"Big cities risk interruptions to their food supply as early as 2050," says Mayol. "We won't be able to feed entire cities with urban agriculture - in a city like Paris, it could produce a maximum of 10 percent of what is needed. But it allows us to reconnect to the agricultural world and realise that a carrot doesn't grow in a supermarket, it grows in a field and for that to happen we need to preserve the land around cities that is used for agriculture."
Fostering a sense of community and cooperation will also help people to navigate the shift from abundance to scarcity, he believes.
La Caverne produces food deep below Porte de La Chapelle, in the north of the city [ICF La Sabliere Cycloponics]
In the shorter-term, urban agriculture projects should also help limit rising temperatures, a growing concern for Paris city authorities after the city recorded an all-time high of 42.6 degrees Celsius (109F) during a July 2019 heatwave.
"We believe that cities are going to become literally uninhabitable by the end of the century," Mayol says. "Temperatures in a city like Paris could reach 50 degrees, and that's not compatible with life as it's organised today. Greening can air-condition cities naturally."
Urban agriculture specialist Topager, the start-up behind multiple urban agriculture projects including a rooftop urban farm growing fruits and hops, tomatoes, cucumbers, salad leaves, edible flowers and more on top of the Bastille opera house also sees urban agriculture as a tool for introducing ecological awareness to city dwellers.
"We think ecology is more efficient with a carrot than a stick, and instead of endless rules, urban agriculture projects that create a desire to favour local production will push people to change their behaviour," says Frederic Madre, co-founder of Topager. "It's utopian to think we will feed cities entirely with local production but it's good to create better links between people and for city dwellers to be better connected with nature."
Parisculteurs is just part of an ongoing drive to make the French capital greener, with more underused spaces set to be transformed into gardens, farms and vineyards as part of broader infrastructure projects in the coming years.
"I think Parisculteurs has demonstrated that cities can have a role as production sites that complement those in rural and peri-urban areas," Komites says. "We are not aiming to be self-sufficient, but we want to raise awareness among Parisians that we need to eat local and seasonal products."
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS
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West Village Farms’ Indoor, Vertical Style A Growing Success
Inside the old Hewlett-Packard printer factory in east Vancouver, Ken Kaneko walks among towering rows of scaffolding that hold sprouted plants growing under LED lights
East Vancouver Company Sells Lettuce, Microgreens
To Chuck's, New Seasons, High-End Grocers
By Will Campbell, Columbian Assistant Metro Editor
November 10, 2019
Inside the old Hewlett-Packard printer factory in east Vancouver, Ken Kaneko walks among towering rows of scaffolding that hold sprouted plants growing under LED lights.
Kaneko is the co-owner and CEO of West Village Farms, a company harnessing a new type of agriculture called “vertical farming,” and it’s among the first in Clark County that’s growing food indoors using marijuana-industry methods.
Every factor of the farm can be controlled because the operation is indoors: the temperature, the amount of light and what touches the plants — never bugs or pesticides. Growing the plants in dirt trays stacked eight rows high allows the farm to conserve space.
West Village is about a year into selling its lettuce and microgreens at high-end grocers in Oregon and Washington, including New Seasons and Chuck’s Produce, where a plastic container retails for $4.99. The young company is in a state of rapid growth as it works its way into more stores on the West Coast.
In October, the farm began harvesting three times a week, up from twice, to get fresher products to customers. It’s also seeing double or triple revenue growth each month, Kaneko said.
“Compared to last year, we made 80 times more,” he said of the revenue. “But we’re still in the infant stages of the company.”
Kaneko expects to expand operations inside West Village Farm‘s rented space at 18110 S.E. 34th St. It’s using a little more than half its 25,000-square-foot space and plans to be at full capacity by the first quarter of 2020.
Unlike any outdoor farm, West Village also plans to expand operations upward by adding at least four more rows, which are bundled into a “pod” reaching nearly to the ceiling.
Kaneko touts both health and environmental benefits of consuming indoor-grown plants. Even outdoor-grown food labeled organic can sometimes be exposed to herbicides or pesticides, he said.
Another advantage is having a short farm-to-table time. Compared with plants harvested on outdoor farms and trucked long distances to the grocer, harvesting plants in Vancouver means putting them on shelves in one or two days.
“A lot of microgreens are shipped here from (California), but it takes two weeks before they hit the shelves,” he said. “With West Village Farms, the product arrives at grocery stores a day or two after it’s harvested. That’s how we provide quality to our customers.”
West Village Farm’s method uses 95 percent less water compared with an outdoor farm, Kaneko said. Part of that is due to the company’s patented irrigation system.
Technology company
Before Kaneko co-founded West Village, he worked for Apple in California and often traveled for work. He recalls a business trip to Japan, where he saw a vertical farm operating out of a defunct semiconductor factory.
“I thought it was an interesting idea,” he said. “It was a thing in Japan, especially after the Fukushima disaster, to secure the supply chains of food.”
The vertical farms also reminded Kaneko of his time at Stanford University studying computer hardware manufacturing. At Stanford, where Kaneko earned a degree in materials science and engineering, he learned about two of the legends to come out of the department: Craig Barrett, former CEO of Intel, and Ko Nishimura. Nishimura fell victim to American internment during World War II but eventually became CEO of Solectron, one of the world’s largest electronics manufacturing companies.
“I idolized both those people,” Kaneko said.
After Kaneko toured the vertical farm in Japan, he learned that Nishimura owned one in California called Ecopia, so he reached out to him via email.
The two met for lunch, and Kaneko began to materialize his interest in starting his own vertical farm in the Pacific Northwest, where Kaneko held his first job after college at Intel’s Hillsboro, Ore., complex.
Over the next year, Nishimura “probably was vetting me out,” Kaneko said. “Afterward, when we felt comfortable with each other, we decided to create this new company.”
Kaneko, Nishimura and some other investors eventually decided to name the company after Nishimura, which in Japanese translates to “West Village.”
Modular Micro Farms: A New Approach To Urban Food Production?
One key tenet of the “urban resilience” idea is local food production. If fruits, veggies, and herbs are grown in cities, they’ll reduce the runoff, emissions, perishability and transport costs of produce
November 25, 2019
Nov 25, 2019,
Scott Beyer Contributor
A micro-farm installation creates farm-to-salad-bar food. BABYLON MICROFARMS
One key tenet of the “urban resilience” idea is local food production. If fruits, veggies, and herbs are grown in cities, they’ll reduce the runoff, emissions, perishability and transport costs of produce. They’ll also make cities more self-sustaining, rather than having to fully rely on food grown elsewhere.
The problem is that urban agriculture doesn’t always seem like a practical concept. Urban land is expensive, and the prospect of making it farmland - even in distressed cities - could present long-term opportunity costs if these cities later revive. Furthermore, the vertical farming idea - where structures are built to grow produce at large scales - seems premature, since this brick-and-mortar infrastructure must compete with cheap, horizontal farmland. As fellow Forbes contributor Erik Kobayashi-Solomon writes, vertical farming is still a largely untested concept that receives limited capital compared to standard farming.
An urban agriculture technique that seems more practical, though, is micro-farming, which involves fitting small farms into tight spaces, sometimes ad hoc. The website Lexicon of Food defines micro-farming as “small-scale farming that takes place in urban or suburban areas, usually on less than 5 acres of land.”
Modular micro-farming is a subset within this niche, using small, automated modular food-growing equipment, often contained within a few square feet. Modular farms are easier to use and possibly more scalable, since they can fit into almost any home or apartment.
One example of this modular approach is Babylon Micro-Farms, a startup based in my hometown of Charlottesville, VA. The company sells 32” x 66” x 96” tall machines that use controlled environment hydroponics to grow leafy greens, herbs, and edible flowers. The farms don’t have soil, sunlight or standard seeds. Instead, Babylon places seed pods onto its trays. Depending on the seed variety (Babylon has 227 of them), the machines use remotely-managed equipment to cast the appropriate water and light. This causes produce to generate significantly more per-acre yield than standard farms. Babylon’s 15sqft micro-farms are capable of producing as much produce as 2000 sqft of outdoor farmland.
Babylon's latest modular micro-farm model. BABYLON MICROFARMS
These modular farms can be connected together to create indoor farms of different scales that can work within existing buildings. Their operations are remotely managed via the cloud with real-time data collection on all aspects of the growing environment. This is an exciting development in a space that has remained out of reach for businesses and consumers due to high capital costs and complex technology with a steep learning curve.
Babylon sells these machines the way some green energy companies sell solar panels. Customers agree to a minimum 2-year lease, paying a fixed monthly fee. Babylon installs the machines, provides a subscription of growing supplies, and remotely manages the crop growth via the cloud using a proprietary software platform. This lets customers enjoy the produce without needing a “green thumb or any real expertise,” says Alexander Olesen.
Olesen co-founded the company with Graham Smith, when they were at the University of Virginia and participating in the iLab Accelerator at Darden School of Business. They incorporated in 2017, and now work in a small warehouse-style space near downtown Charlottesville. Babylon has 14 employees and $3 million in seed funding, including a grant from the National Science Foundation, and venture capital from Virginia, Washington, DC and Silicon Valley. They have dedicated these first couple years to building and testing the product, landing a few early clients for feedback. These include UVA, Dominion Energy, and some local restaurants, schools and country clubs.
But their ambitions go well beyond central Virginia. Olesen said the first major act of scaling is currently underway, with Babylon installing their farms in major corporate restaurants, cafeterias, resort hotels, and grocery stores. Because such institutions thrive on b-to-c relations, they would benefit from the experiential component of a modular farm. Rather than just saying they use organic food, they can show customers where and how it’s being grown.
“This has the additional value of being able to show your customers that you care about those things,” said Smith. “If it’s growing 10 feet from the table, that’s pretty clear.”
Babylon believes that their technology can increase the biodiversity of produce available to consumers in urban areas, so they place a lot of emphasis on the underlying plant science required to grow crops using their machines.
“One of the most exciting things about hydroponics is the amount of blue ocean space, it’s theoretically possible to grow any plant this way, yet only a handful of crops have successfully been commercialized,” said Olesen.
Babylon has a controlled environment test facility in Charlottesville where plant scientists run trials on seed varieties from around the world, dialing in tailored growth recipes to produce higher yields and consistent flavors. Their technology consists of an array of sensors and utilizes camera vision to create an automated feedback loop that analyzes the data to increase the rate at which growth recipes can be developed. In doing so, they plan to learn how to grow heirloom crop varieties and reintroduce them to the supply chain, leading to more options for chefs and consumers alike.
In the long run, Babylon plans to use their modular vertical farming platform to build larger farms capable of growing the majority of fresh produce for their clients. They envision micro-farming becoming an amenity in urban areas located in, or adjacent to, all grocery stores, foodservice operations, and food distribution hubs. These companies now get their supply from different farms nationwide, then process, package and sell it to consumers. The benefit to them of growing it onsite would be to significantly reduce perishability, which now wipes out 50% of food, much of it during the transport process, which can be over 1500 miles from farm to fork in the U.S. Not to mention the emissions generated by such a long supply chain.
Users scan crops into the farm, and Babylon remotely manages the growth cycle for them through... [+]
“Initially, we’re focused strictly on the b-to-b market, and utilizing these farms to grow food for companies with a known means of consumption or distribution,” said Olesen, while walking me through the facilities. “The next step…is creating these farms as a means for people to sell.”
This latter vision makes modular micro-farming seem like a viable future urban food source. Land owners in dense cities struggle to find the right surface lots to convert into vertical or horizontal farms. But Babylon’s 15sqft machine provides an adaptable solution that can work with existing infrastructure by slotting into unused space throughout urban areas.
Other companies have, for this reason, embraced small modular micro-farming. Ones like Cityblooms and Zipgrow focus on slightly larger, more commercialized modular units. However, small scale urban farms have faced a scalability issue; the technology that is commercially available only allows for basic automation, but lacks any feedback that would enable these farms to learn how to operate more efficiently. The most direct competitor to Babylon is InFarm, a Berlin-based startup that operates in Europe. They have created a system similar to Babylon’s, which has gathered momentum with installations in grocery stores across Europe. It’s an exciting prospect to think of indoor farms in grocery stores here in the U.S.
If any or all of these companies can make modular micro-farms a standard provider of fresh produce, it has the potential to disrupt the current supply chain - from manufacturers down to individual households. It would be an environmentally-friendly way to increase crop yields, reduce emissions, and feed people in the future. If it becomes a city phenomenon, in particular, it could be key to improving urban resilience across the U.S.
I am the owner of a media company called The Market Urbanism Report. It is meant to advance free-market policy ideas in cities. The Report features multiple articles daily, along with a video series that explains urban issues from street level. I’m also a roving urban affairs journalist who writes columns for Forbes, Governing Magazine and HousingOnline.com. For three years, I'm circling America to live for a month each in 30 cities, starting from Miami and ending in New York City. The point is to write a book about revitalizing cities through this Market Urbanism concept. But my articles cover other city subjects too. I have also written for the Wall Street Journal, Atlantic, American Interest and National Review. You can find my work at MarketUrbanismReport.com.
7 Smart City Urban Planning Ideas Using IoT
Square Roots, another high-tech vertical farming startup that has raised $6.5 million for its shipping container farms. At the helm is a somewhat familiar name, Kimbal Musk, the brother of a more familiar CEO who favors Twitter and flame throwers
One of the things that you learn after being a digital nomad for a while is that some cities are much better designed than others. There is a certain aesthetic quality to a well-laid out urban center like New York City compared to, say, Boston, which one article on the topic of city grids said appears as if “a group of city planners decided to lay out the roads one day by taking turns pissing blindfolded onto a scroll of parchment – during an earthquake.” The idea of urban planning dates back to Egypt and its contemporaries, as archaeologists have found evidence of paved streets laid out at right angles in a grid pattern, all leading to the same slave brothel. Today, we have internet porn. And we have the Internet of Things (IoT), which is becoming increasingly integral to smart city urban planning.
The whole idea behind using IoT infrastructure – sensors, big data, and analytics that help manage everything from traffic and parking to buildings and baseball stadiums – is to make cities more efficient. The more efficient the city, the theory goes, the more sustainable it will be in a future where we’re harvesting methane-munching bacteria or growing bugs to feed 10 billion or more people by mid-century. Earlier this year, the big brains at data research firm CB Insights produced one of their iconic market maps on companies developing smart city solutions:
Credit: CB Insights
You’ll notice there’s a whole category devoted to smart city urban planning startups, which can tell us something about the possible breadth of this emerging industry to shape the way a city is developed – and how far an analyst can stretch the definition of urban planning to complete a market map.
For example, one of the startups on the list, Berlin-based Infarm, is one of many vertical farming startups that we’ve covered in the past. Infarm has since raised an additional $100 million since we profiled the company. CB Insights also lists Square Roots, another high-tech vertical farming startup that has raised $6.5 million for its shipping container farms. At the helm is a somewhat familiar name, Kimbal Musk, the brother of a more familiar CEO who favors Twitter and flame throwers. A QR code on the back of the Brooklyn-based company’s products will give you background info on how the herb was grown. While many of these vertical farms use sensors, big data, and analytics to optimize yield, it’s unclear how exactly Infarm, Square Roots or its cohort are directly involved in the activity of smart city urban planning. Maybe the smart city of tomorrow grows all its own food?
Smart City Urban Planning Acquisitions
In addition, a couple of companies have dropped off the startup scene through acquisitions. San Francisco-based PlanGrid had raised $69.1 million before being bought last year for $875 million by Autodesk (ADSK), the company behind the drafting and design software AutoCAD. PlanGrid provides a variety of products around cloud-based construction software.
Another San Francisco startup called Civic Insight helps cities make their data on buildings and homes – think permits and other zoning or construction information – easily accessible to the public. It’s sort of like Zillow for nosy neighbors. Yet another San Francisco company, Accela, took possession of Civic Insights more than four years ago. Accela offers various solutions for cities to digitize and automate processes like building permits and cannabis licensing. The 20-year-old company, which had raised about $215 million and absorbed 10 startups over that time, was itself acquired by Berkshire Partners in 2017. That now leaves us seven companies still to cover.
Street-Level Mapping
The most well-funded of the bunch is a Swedish startup called Mapillary that was founded in 2013 and has raised $24.5 million, including a $15 million Series B last year led by BMW and involved high-profile venture capital firms like Sequoia Capital and Atomico. Mapillary is one of a growing number of companies putting together high-definition maps for applications like self-driving cars and smart city traffic management. Its platform builds street-level map imagery using computer vision to automatically detect objects like bicycles and trash cans, while also automating the privacy aspect by blurring faces and license plates. It draws on a database of more than 900 million images along millions of miles of roads. Here’s the big-picture view of how the tech works:
Credit: Mapillary
In the case of a small town that needed to inventory its street signs, Mapillary’s cameras and machine vision system identified 5,000 traffic signs. The data could then be used to address repairs and fix obstructions, like your nosy neighbor’s unruly azalea bushes.
Sim City for Smart City Urban Planning
You know you have an urban planning problem if $100,000 qualifies you as low income. That’s the story in San Francisco, where housing costs can make a six-figure income nearly as worthless as Monopoly money. Enter UrbanFootprint, based in nearby Berkeley, that was founded in 2014 and has raised $6.5 million to date for its cloud-based software that helps cities “create sustainable, resilient communities.” That’s according to its founder, a well-known architect named Peter Calthorpe who is one of the leading figures behind New Urbanism, which promotes dense, mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods. In an interview last year, Calthorpe likened UrbanFootprint to Sim City because “it allows non-experts to model the impacts of different urban planning scenarios, such as zoning changes and road reconfigurations” in just a few minutes by leveraging an extensive database on environmental, social, and economic conditions.
An UrbanFootprint analysis of greenhouse gas emissions per household in Merced, California, helped planners understand the impact of land management use and smart city growth. Areas shaded in deep red indicate higher levels of emissions emitted. Credit: UrbanFootprint
The company has partnered with California to bring the smart city urban planning tool to more than 500 cities and government agencies free of charge.
Digital Bulletin Boards
For those who can’t get enough posts about lost cats in their neighborhood from Next Door, there’s Soofa, a Boston area startup that has raised $3.2 million for what amounts to a digital bulletin board that anyone with an app and an agenda a cause can post to. The 42-inch displays are solar-powered. There goes a million jobs in the flyposting industry.
Getting the Public Involved in Smart City Urban Planning
Another startup that is trying to get the public involved in smart city urban planning is Boulder-based Neighborland. And like Soofa, Neighborland is putting a digital spin on re-inventing the wheel. The company basically builds webpages and mobile platforms to support civic engagement on various projects. It claims to have worked with more than 200 city agencies, universities, foundations, and nonprofits across the United States, delivering more than $3 billion in social and economic impact.
For instance, it helped Mesa, Arizona build support for a $300 million bond to improve city facilities and services last year.
Automating Analysis for Smart City Urban Planning
Founded in 2016, UrbanLogiq is a British Columbia, Canada startup that has pulled together $150,000 in disclosed funding. The company offers two smart city urban planning solutions. The first is for traffic management, where the platform aggregates all historic and real-time data about traffic speed, accidents, etc., and then turns the machine-learning algorithms loose to predict traffic patterns days in advance and with a “high level of certainty.” The company also claims it can do the same for a city to forecast economic development using everything but the kitchen sink, from business licensing and building permits to employment and unemployment rates and housing statistics to less structured data like weather and public policy. It’s business intelligence for the public sector.
Geospatial Solutions for Smart City Urban Planning
We’ve written quite a bit over the last few years about the value that companies are getting from satellite imagery. Geospatial intelligence startups like San Francisco-based Planet apply machine-learning algorithms to space-based pictures to help farmers grow better crops or insurance companies spot fraud. In fact, there’s a long list of companies doing this sort of geospatial analytics. Philadelphia-based Azavea has been in the business since 2000 apparently, specializing in urban planning projects, especially in the hometown of Rocky Balboa.
One of the many products that use geospatial tools to help with smart city urban planning. Credit: Azavea
For instance, the company built an application (above) where non-residential building owners can sketch out ideas using up to five different stormwater tools such as green roofs or permeable basins that show how such improvements can help reduce monthly stormwater bills.
Location, Location, Location
Finally, Paris-based Cityzia, founded in 2017, is the Zillow version of online dating in that it helps people find their perfect home through an online Q&A that matches your preferences – quiet neighborhood or party central – against a database of properties. It’s French-centric and seems to imply that the cities of tomorrow will become a small collection of tribes, where each lifestyle flourishes among its own type. The bigger cities get, the more important it is for people to get along. A great example of this can be found in Hong Kong at the local dog park where you’ll see a dozen dogs playing together with hardly a bark to be heard. When you live in small cramped spaces where you can hear your neighbors cough, even the pets learn how to play well with others.
Conclusion
Speaking of CB Insights: The firm projects that within the next five years, the smart city market will be worth $1.4 trillion. You’ll notice that the market map is tilted heavily toward transportation. That’s not surprising, given that traffic congestion hit the U.S. economy for about $87 billion in losses last year, according to the World Economic Forum. Meanwhile, the digital road is being laid for the eventual arrival of self-driving cars and trucks. Smart city urban planning will be a key technology to integrate smart mobility with other smart infrastructure, especially as the 5G revolution helps connect it all together.
Former Steel Site To See Aquaponics Facility
To the complex problems of the City of Duquesne and the Mon Valley, entrepreneur Glenn Ford offers a solution that is both down-to-earth and very fishy
RICH LORD
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
NOV 11, 2019 rlord@post-gazette.com
To the complex problems of the City of Duquesne and the Mon Valley, entrepreneur Glenn Ford offers a solution that is both down-to-earth and very fishy.
Mr. Ford, of Minneapolis, is the founder of InCity Farms, and on Friday he revealed plans for a 180,000-square-foot aquaponics facility on 25 riverfront acres in Duquesne. Backed by the social impact investors Hollymead Capital, the nonprofit Food 21 and an opportunity zone fund, with Peoples Natural Gas as its chief cheerleader, freshly sprouted InCity Farms is in the process of finding a headquarters in Pittsburgh. Its planned $30 million Duquesne facility is expected to employ 130 — starting salaries around $35,000 — potentially expanding to 275.
“We will try to hire as many of these people as we can from Duquesne and the surrounding area,” Mr. Ford said. “We’re going to take 25 [acres] and we’re going to turn that into, if you will, a little metropolis of food businesses there.”
“I think it could be the starting point for the revitalization of the city of Duquesne and the [Mon Valley] region,” Duquesne Mayor Nickole Nesby said.
Grown-up solutions to combat child poverty
In aquaponics, edible fish are raised in clean, indoor pools, and sold commercially. The waste the fish produce is filtered and treated with beneficial bacteria, and the result is used to fertilize vegetable plants.
The plants are grown indoors in optimal temperature, humidity and light. The technique can support the rapid growth of some 800 vegetable varieties year-round, Mr. Ford said. Add the fish, and you’ve got an economically viable business that also cushions against the food shocks created by global warming.
Both technologically sophisticated and labor-intensive, the field “can be the very first job that someone has, and it can also be [an opportunity for] your Ph.D. with a whole lot of experience,” he said.
Raised in Chicago, Mr. Ford worked his way up to the executive level in Pepsico before leaving to create several food-related companies and to consult for many more. He created a pilot aquaponics site in Minneapolis.
Then he got a call from Pittsburgh.
Peoples spokesman Barry Kukovich had read about aquaponics in National Geographic magazine and introduced the concept to Peoples CEO Morgan O’Brien. They saw the indoor food industry as a potential customer for a natural gas system called Combined Heat and Power, or CHP, in which the fuel is converted to electricity on-site — and as a way to help the local economy.
“We’re interested in the ripple effect of creating more jobs, more employment,” Mr. Kukovich said.
They reached out to Hollymead Capital’s managing partner, Joseph Bute, who happened to know Mr. Ford.
“Morgan [O’Brien] said, ‘I want this here, and I don’t want to waste a lot of time looking for the perfect solution,’” Mr. Bute recounted.
That doesn’t mean Duquesne isn’t the perfect solution.
It has large amounts of vacant land, much owned by the nonprofit Regional Industrial Development Corp. The city has a population of 5,500, of which more than one-third (including around 750 kids) are in poverty.
The entry-level, living-wage jobs would be “outstanding, to a community where you have a large group of people, one, with a learning disability, and two, with a criminal background,” Duquesne Mayor Nikole Nesby said.
A child of a modest Chicago neighborhood, Mr. Ford understands that situation.
“In my DNA, I know that people need scenarios where they can work their way out of their circumstances,” he said. “That’s what I want my business to be known for.”
He said 75% of the initial jobs require only that the applicant be “reliable and trainable.”
Low-income communities, he said, often suffer from a negative “balance of trade” because they sell little to the wider world and buy goods and foods that are made far away.
“Until we can start to balance that out a little bit better, we create permanent dysfunction, permanent ghettos, permanent poverty,” he said.
He said aquaponics can restore some balance, letting those communities buy food grown nearby, and giving them a product to sell to the world.
A nonprofit called Food21, created last year will help to coordinate InCity Farms’ growing plans with those of local farmers. That way they won’t be competing to sell the same vegetables at the same time. Instead, they can coordinate to meet a buyer’s needs year-round — for instance, providing traditionally grown tomatoes in summer, and aquaponics product in the winter.
InCity Farms is scouting for other sites, likely including Erie, Pa. But Duquesne comes first.
Mr. Ford said he has an agreement with RIDC to purchase 25 acres of the former Duquesne Steel Works site. He is looking for a public subsidy only for an amphitheater that he hopes will make the site a riverfront destination.
“This is the start of something meaningful and beautiful,” Ms. Nesby said.
Rich Lord: rlord@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1542.
Workers Grow Food And Develop Skills At Arnold Center’s Plant Factory
Arnold Center President Craig Varterian, who began this hydroponic business, called Arnold Farms after growing plants in his basement, likens the facility to a ‘plant factory’.
CHERYL WADE | NOVEMBER 07, 2019
Agencies serving people with disabilities often have piecework projects with workers packaging materials in large quantities. Locally, the Arnold Center is in their second year of a new effort to grow plants in a process that combines recycled water and gravity.
Arnold Center President Craig Varterian, who began this hydroponic business, called Arnold Farms after growing plants in his basement, likens the facility to a ‘plant factory’.
Craig Varterian, Arnold Center President.
For several years before starting Arnold Farms, Varterian read plant journals, consulted experts and grew plants in his basement, often using simple equipment and bins to hold the soil and greens. By the time Arnold Farms launched in 2018, he had done enough background research to design the hydroponic system with help from a couple of other staff members.
“We brought in parts from all over the world – China, Korea,” Varterian says, noting the necessary LED bulbs give off very intense amounts of heat and light. “With some of the parts, you can’t buy in the U.S.”
Walk down the hall toward the large indoor growing area and one quickly breathes air with notes of basil, including a sweet variety that has a little whiff of licorice. There is Genovese, an Italian basil that’s excellent for pesto, and a spicy variety from Thailand that has red stems. Arnold Farms also grows varieties of lettuce and kale, plus edible flowers such as Mexican mint.
Multiple varieties and sizes of plants means the prospect for growth and a diversity of crops that Arnold Farms can produce.
The indoor farm has approximately 6,000 square feet of space and capacity for 26,000 plants. Varterian believes the farm is one of the most advanced, high-tech facilities in Michigan. Unlike many other plant farms with much higher startup costs, Arnold Farms was built for about $500,000, primarily from grants but also from private gifts in order to provide training in a specified field for workers.
Arnold Farms also produces microgreen whicg grow just 10 to 12 days before being harvested. These plant varieties carry many more nutrients than full-grown plants, says Chandra Jewel, the intake coordinator at Arnold Center. Some of the more unusual products include amaranth, green and purple shiso – an Asian member of the mint family -- and a spicy green mix for salads. More common herbs grown include wasabi, cilantro and mint.
The indoor farm has approximately 6,000 square feet of space and capacity for 26,000 plants.
Jewel has found at least one use for the corn shoots the farms grows. She mixes the wispy, grass-like plants with taco seasoning, salsa and sour cream. “They are great to add to Mexican dishes, because they provide the corn taste,” she says.
Jewel remembers when the fledgling hydroponics business began in a room about 14 feet square, a brick-walled space that was a classroom. There were just a few trays for plants and a couple of employees. “Now we can do so much more.”
Varterian explains this experimentation with multiple varieties and sizes of plants has meant the prospect for growth and a diversity of crops that Arnold Farms can produce.
Arnold Farms also produces microgreen whicg grow just 10 to 12 days before being harvested
“We have a great opportunity to explore agricultural sustainability and we’ve got a great opportunity to create jobs for people with disabilities,” Varterian says.
Varterian didn’t get his start in the disability field. First, he owned a factory. Then, he was president of Reclaim Detroit, a blight remediation program that started with 77,000 abandoned houses. The program trained people to make furniture from the recycled wood of houses that had been torn down.
Workers wear protective suits at Arnold Farms.
“I’d been thinking of doing some version of hydroponic farms,” he says, contrasting his new profession with the old. “Life as we did it (working with demolished houses and used wood) was unsustainable.”
Varterian spent years working to employ people, but knew nothing about running a disability-related organization. Still, he says, he’s always been up to a challenge. Recycling practices, which had been a practice for decades, would provide the renewable resource of plants and possibilities for expansion.
“How many times in your life do you get the chance to take over an organization where you could do something meaningful and make something exciting happen?” he says.
Microgreens are harvested after 10-12 days.
Facilities that traditionally provided supported employment or ‘sheltered workshops’ as they are sometimes described are moving away from piecework for large companies and toward providing people with jobs that pay at least minimum wage and give them training that also prepares them to eventually work outside the facility.
As employment needs change, sometimes the amount and type of work changes for people whose work is confined to a rehabilitation facility, leading to a drop in the amount of work contracted. Varterian said 60 to 70 percent of Arnold Center workers are working at jobs outside the center, and that also means their employers are required to pay them minimum wage.
Racks of produce inside Arnold Farms.
Another 12 to 14 full- and part-time employees work at the indoor farm. They monitor the pumps, which dispense nutrients as they are needed. They transfer plants from germination to seedling stage and later to the area where plants grow to their desired size and are harvested.
Plants are then packed into bags or clam shell containers for delivery to stores and restaurants that will use them. Local restaurant customers include Midland Country Club, Gratzi, Pizza Baker and Whine. Stores include Jack’s Fruit and Meat Market and LaLonde’s Market as well as several Bay City businesses.
“Arnold Farms staffers have sold their products at the Midland Area Farmers Market but now have ceased for the season”, Varterian says.
12 to 14 full- and part-time employees work at the indoor farm.
Although he’s aware that individuals might want to buy produce throughout the year, this is a farm and it’s not set up for individual orders.
“We’re focused mainly on training rather than commercialization,” he says.
At some point, the farm might have its own market day apart from the Midland Area Farmers Market, when staff could sell the products.
Joe Allen, who used to work on the Arnold Center’s floor, says he loves his job at the farms. Not only does he harvest and plant, but he helps with accounting tasks.
“They gave me employment and a safe, secure environment,” he says. “I like working with something that grows, something that’s planted, something to watch. And we’re always learning.”
Arnold farms supplies many area restaurants and stores as well as the farmers market.
Robert Goulette has worked at the farm for 10 months. Although he can use just one hand due to his cerebral palsy, Goulette says his disability doesn’t hold him back and he does everything he can. Varterian calls him “one of our rock stars” because he works hard and fast.
Workers need to keep close eyes on the plants, transferring them as they grow and making sure trays and other equipment are washed. Plants are stacked in trays up to five or six levels high. Gravity takes water down through the stacks; then it’s pumped back up to begin the process again.
“I’d like to see people with disabilities as leaders around the country in this type of farming."
Arnold Farms uses no pesticides, and Varterian likes to call the facilities plants ‘purer than organic’. Plants are germinated in a something called a clean room, which requires workers to use gowns so germs don’t come into the facility on their clothes.
What’s Varterian’s dream for the future of Arnold Farms? He’d like to employ this kind of farming around the country, especially in ‘food deserts’ where food isn’t easily accessible.
“I’d like to see people with disabilities as leaders around the country in this type of farming,” he adds.
A Better Use For Sprawling, Big-Box Store Parking Lots? Urban Farms
A typical parking lot at a big-box store, sprawling over several acres, is empty most of the time. With a new design called Car Parks 2.0, the French design firm Studio NAB shows how that space could be reimagined as an urban farm, with a little room left at the side for charging electric cars from onsite solar panels
11.11.19
This Conceptual Design Reimagines The
Parking Lot As Something More Productive
1/12 [Image: Studio NAB]
A typical parking lot at a big-box store, sprawling over several acres, is empty most of the time. With a new design called Car Parks 2.0, the French design firm Studio NAB shows how that space could be reimagined as an urban farm, with a little room left at the side for charging electric cars from onsite solar panels.
“To tackle the problems facing humanity, we must attack the symbols that made us presently in this situation,” says Studio NAB founder and creative director Nicolas Abdelkader. “The parking lot, and especially [supercenter] parking, is one of these symbols, with all that that entails: automotive activity, overconsumption, irrational urbanism.”
[Image: Studio NAB] - To View Video, Please Click Here
The design strips away asphalt to bring life back to the soil trapped underneath it. In one section, greenhouses and fruit trees grow produce that can be supplied directly to the neighboring store—a little like the model used by the urban farming company Gotham Greens, which grows produce in a greenhouse on a Whole Foods rooftop at one of its locations.
Abdelkader also envisions produce being delivered to nearby homes by cargo bike. In another section, former parking spaces are converted into shared garden plots for people living in the area. In the final section, some parking spaces remain—but even here, the asphalt has been replaced by green space that can help sequester CO2 and absorb rainwater. An algae-filled awning over the cars sequesters more carbon and generates electricity for car chargers.
The idea might be appealing to retailers—losing business to Amazon and other online retailers—that want to give customers more reasons to visit. In the U.S., some big-box retailers are realizing that their parking lots are oversized and are starting to carve out room on some of the sprawl for “town hall” developments. People who might otherwise avoid Walmart or Target might be drawn to the gardens.
For cities, it’s clearly a better use of space for multiple reasons, from the mental health benefits of green space and the health benefit of freshly grown food to the potential for gardens like this to help mitigate problems like flooding and the urban “heat island” effect, where vast stretches of concrete make hot days in cities even hotter. While it’s a concept now, Abdelkader hopes to partner with cities and stores that want “to change sterile spaces into ‘living’ and productive spaces,” he says.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adele Peters is a staff writer at Fast Company who focuses on solutions to some of the world's largest problems, from climate change to homelessness. Previously, she worked with GOOD, BioLite, and the Sustainable Products and Solutions program at UC Berkeley, and contributed to the second edition of the bestselling book "Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century." More
The Importance of Using Organic Fertilizers For Plant Nutrition In Contemporary Agriculture And Gardening
Currently, many people are using containers such as pots, flower boxes, raised garden beds, window boxes, and others to grow fruit-bearing plants, salad, and root vegetables and herbs, both in agriculture and urban gardening
October 24, 2019
António Rodrigues
CEO at Minigarden, Join the Urban Green Revolution
Currently, many people are using containers such as pots, flower boxes, raised garden beds, window boxes, and others to grow fruit-bearing plants, salad, and root vegetables and herbs, both in agriculture and urban gardening.
Nowadays there are many plant-growing solutions for spaces where there is no soil, such as balconies, terraces, and roofs, indoors in homes and offices, or in areas where soils are contaminated.
It is good to see that the growing of plants in such spaces is increasingly becoming a reality worldwide; this is the “Urban Green Revolution” in motion.
As an alternative to traditional soil, potting soil is now making an appearance as a medium in which to grow plants. It is available on the market in increasingly specialized formats in terms of its physical, chemical and organic qualities. This means that, unlike normal soil, we can choose the most appropriate growing medium for the roots of the plants we want to grow, directly influencing their growth, health and even their taste.
However, both potting soil and normal soil need care to remain productive. One of the most important steps is fertilizing the soil since this ensures plant nutrition. This is where I would like to talk about our latest product, the Minigarden Grow Up Pure Organic 1 L.
It is a high-quality concentrated liquid universal plant fertilizer, certified for use in organic farming. Produced from organic farm manure by vermicomposting using red Californian earthworms, this new fertilizer provides a response to the growing demand for 100% natural products.
It can be used in a wide range of circumstances and is just as suitable as a soil fertilizer for professional organic farmers as it is for home gardeners growing plants in an ordinary pot on a balcony.
In any case, whether you are using Minigarden Grow Up Pure Organic 1 L in normal soil or potting soil, the recommended dilution ratio is 5 ml of concentrate for each litre of water for watering.
This ensures that the nutrients consumed by the plant in the meantime are replenished in the form of a natural blend of nitrogen (N), phosphorus pentoxide (P2O5) and potassium oxide (K2O). However, nutrients are of little use if there is no replenishment of organic matter and this is precisely where this fertiliser makes all the difference. The Minigarden Grow Up Pure Organic 1 L contains organic matter in the form of humic substances (10g / litre). By replenishing organic matter, whether in normal soil or potting soil, we are directly or indirectly promoting the absorption of nutrients by the plant, thereby fostering its growth and development.
Humic substances in both normal soil and potting soil bring many other benefits too, such as increasing water retention capacity and reducing the tendency for compaction, to name just two examples.
Remember, as well as watering, quality nourishment is also essential for plants to grow strong and healthy. Try Minigarden Grow Up Pure Organic 1L now! Available from Minigarden’s official online shop or from Amazon.
Published by
António Rodrigues CEO at Minigarden,
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