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Farm In A Box Planned For Bridgeport's East End
BRIDGEPORT — You will not find any vast acres of fertile soil and crops in the East End neighbourhood. So the state, city and area activists have teamed with an entrepreneur on what they all said they believe is the next best thing: farmland in a box
Image from: CT Post
BRIDGEPORT — You will not find any vast acres of fertile soil and crops in the East End neighbourhood. So the state, city and area activists have teamed with an entrepreneur on what they all said they believe is the next best thing: farmland in a box.
Joe Alvarez, founder of High Ridge Hydroponics of Ridgefield, describes it on his website as “an indoor, vertical, hydroponic, shipping container farm to be located in the most urban settings throughout the world.” And the East End — which has been labeled a “food desert” because of the lack of fresh edibles easily available to residents there — will be that urban setting.
“We’re very excited about this,” Keith Williams, head of the East End Neighborhood Revitalization Zone community group, said during a teleconference Friday announcing a $49,999 state grant for Alvarez’s project. “Fresh vegetables. Healthy. That’s what we’re all about — healthy eating.”
High Ridge’s container will produce young micro-greens from broccoli, kale, cabbage, arugula and other plants to be sold at the East End NRZ’s market as a salad mix.
“These greens are harvested after only 10 to 14 days from being planted, which is extremely quick (and) they are super concentrated in nutrition,” Alvarez said.
Friday’s teleconference included several dignitaries who pledged to do everything they can to ensure High Ridge’s success in town, including Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, state Agriculture Commissioner Bryan Hurlburt, state Sen. Marilyn Moore, state Rep. Andre Baker, Mayor Joe Ganim and Edward Lavernoich of the Bridgeport Economic Development Corporation.
“I hope this project has a lasting and positive impact on your community,” Bysiewicz said. “And I hope it will become a model for other urban areas in our state to grow their own food using innovative technology and techniques.”
“This is not just a shipping container in the city,” Hurlburt said. “This is a much larger, deeper and richer project that we get to celebrate today.”
State Rep. Joe Gresko, D-Stratford, was also included, but wearing a different hat. Gresko works for Ganim continuing a mission started by former Mayor Bill Finch to turn Bridgeport from an ex-manufacturing hub into a leader in the green and environmentally sustainable economy.
It was under Finch that the East End was previously promised an urban green house on the site of the former “Mt. Trashmore” illegal dump. That project, dubbed “Boot Camp Farms” because it would hire veterans, was announced in 2013 and was also supposed to have financial backing from the state. But the developers had no prior experience in that field and the proposal never broke ground.
Alvarez, according to his online biography, “studied environmental science at Fordham University in New York City, graduated in May of 2017 (and) has worked as a private organic gardener, an aquaponic farmer, built greenhouses, maintained greenhouses and designed several custom hydroponic growing systems.”
Hurlburt said he felt confident the new project would be a success.
Alvarez “has limited experience but he knows what he’s doing. ... I know how much Joe was calling us and emailing us and how badly he wanted this grant to make it a reality. I know his heart is right where it needs to be to make it a success.”
“We’re all in this together to make sure Joe has the support he needs to be successful,” Hurlburt emphasized.
There are still important details to be finalized, including getting a site for the shipping container and additional money to cover the full, nearly $150,000 cost. Gresko said that the NRZ was negotiating to use some property and that “when the time comes” Bridgeport will “match” additional private funds Alvarez obtains.
“We’re going to keep an eye on this and troubleshoot as we go forward any issues,” Gresko said.
Alvarez said he hopes to complete construction by the fall. And the colder months are when his crops will be the most needed, said Deborah Sims, who operates the NRZ market.
“After farmer’s market season is over, we have difficulty sourcing (fresh food),” Sims said.
“Three hundred sixty five (days) we’re going to have the greens available,” said Gresko.
Baker recalled how his East End funeral home has hosted some farmer’s markets and called the High Ridge project “a long time coming.” He also told Bysiewicz he hoped similar initiatives to offer more fresh food to his constituents will follow.
“Lieutenant governor, we’re going to be leaning on you and the governor for more support,” he said. “You’re going to hear more from us.”
USDA Seeks Members For New Urban/Indoor Ag Committee
The dozen members of the board will advise the agriculture secretary on issues relating to urban/indoor/vertical farms and identify barriers to establishing them
by Chris Koger
January 7, 2021
(Courtesy AeroFarms )
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is seeking members for a new advisory committee for urban agriculture.
The dozen members of the board will advise the agriculture secretary on issues relating to urban/indoor/vertical farms and identify barriers to establishing them.
“This group will underscore USDA’s commitment to all segments of agriculture and has the potential to support innovative ways to increase local food production in urban environments,” Bill Northey, USDA’s undersecretary for farm production and conservation, said in a news release.
The members will represent:
Four growers, two from an urban area/cluster and two who use innovative technology;
Two people from a university or extension program;
One person from a nonprofit organization, which may be a public health, environmental or community organization;
One person from of business and economic development, such as chamber of commerce, city government or planning organization;
One person with supply chain experience, such as a good aggregator, wholesaler, food hub, or a background in a direct-to-consumer program;
One person from a financing entity; and
Two people with experience in urban, indoor or other emerging agriculture production practices, as determined by the USDA.
Nominations are due by March 5, and should include a cover letter, resume and a background form.
Send them to Ronald Harris, Designated Federal Officer, Director of Outreach and Partnerships, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Department of Agriculture, 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W., Room 6006-S, Washington, D.C. 20250, or mail them to Ronald.Harris@USDA.gov.
The NRCS oversees the Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production, which was established by the 2018 farm bill.
Greenhouse Villages To Sprout In Metro Manila
The Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) recently partnered with four barangays in Caloocan and Quezon for the creation of greenhouse villages as part of the urban agriculture program of the government
Louise Maureen Simeon
12/22/2020
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture will start establishing greenhouse villages in Metro Manila to help ensure a sustainable food supply in the country.
The Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) recently partnered with four barangays in Caloocan and Quezon for the creation of greenhouse villages as part of the urban agriculture program of the government.
Urban agriculture is one of the flagship programs of the Plant Plant Plant initiative of the DA to boost supply amid the pandemic.
Barangays 179 and 180 in Caloocan and barangays Payatas and Tandang Sora in Quezon City will serve as pilot areas for the project.
Under the partnership, ATI will provide funding assistance for the establishment of a greenhouse village per barangay.
This will feature one unit of high greenhouse with an administration office and storage area, one unit of seedling nursery with micro-sprinkler irrigation, and one unit of production area with drip kit irrigation system.
The agreement also calls for 10 sessions of training program from the construction phase until harvest time.
Through this, the DA and ATI aim to showcase doable technologies of protective farming systems.
The partnership also targets to increase the production of vegetables and to make these available in the barangay level throughout the year amid varying weather conditions.
DA’s urban agriculture program has been gaining positive feedback from more institutions as it continues to help stabilize food supply, foster social integration, and protect the environment through eco-friendly methods and innovative gardening methods.
It was launched in April as an immediate response to the food supply disruption due to the pandemic.
AUSTRALIA: Can Urban Areas Become A Powerhouse For Horticultural Production?
Hort Innovation, a grower-owned research corporation, is working with a consortium led by agricultural consultancy RMCG in partnership with the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and urban agriculture consultancy Agritecture to assess the potential of emerging production technology and its application in urban Australia
DECEMBER 18, 2020
Australia is looking to become more engaged with the global swing to high-technology horticulture in urban areas.
High-tech urban hort is being implemented across the world using vertical farm systems, hydroponics and aquaponic systems and nearly fully automated production as well as rooftop, underground and floating farms.
Hort Innovation, a grower-owned research corporation, is working with a consortium led by agricultural consultancy RMCG in partnership with the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and urban agriculture consultancy Agritecture to assess the potential of emerging production technology and its application in urban Australia.
They are looking at the potential benefits for growers and Australia through the wider use of technology such as vertical farm systems and hydroponics in food production and delivery systems.
Hort Innovation CEO Matt Brand said bringing such technology to Australia would attract capital and new entrants to the sector with new ideas, approaches and mindsets.
NO URBAN MYTH: CEO of Hort Innovation Matt Brand said the research and development corporation was keen to explore the potential for increased horticultural production in urban areas.
"It gives us the opportunity to grow more from less and to keep demonstrating the good work that Australian growers do, day in day out, providing food to families both here and overseas.
"Urban in this context also captures regional areas and hubs. Growers will use the technology as part of the overall production mix. It's another production system that will be part of the diversity and variety that is Aussie horticulture," he said.
"High technology horticulture may have the potential to play a significant role in increasing Australia's horticulture sector value and help achieve Australia's target of a $100 billion industry by 2030."
The feasibility study aims to identify the opportunities and challenges for high technology horticulture in urban Australia.
The outcomes of the study will identify future priorities for research, development and extension activities and investment into Australian high technology horticulture in urban areas.
The study is being guided by an industry-led reference group including growers and emerging commercial leaders engaged in urban high technology horticulture in Brisbane and Sydney, members of local city councils, and subject-matter experts in protected cropping.
Greenhouse and hydroponic consultant Graeme Smith said these new systems were the modern face of horticulture that should complement the current supply chain in a key range of nutritious and delicious produce.
Lead photo: PERFECTLY RED: Hydroponics has enabled the intensive production of premium quality tomatoes and other horticultural staples in protected environments.
This story Can urban areas become a powerhouse for horticultural production? first appeared on Farm Online.
Making Singapore A Land of Farmers
By 2030, the government has announced that 30 percent of food consumed locally will be locally grown under its “30 by 30” initiative
AUTHOR Malay Mail
December 13, 2020
Kuala Lumpur, Dec. 13 — Singapore is known for its ambition.
This tiny nation (just 700 square kilometers in area, 400 times smaller than Malaysia) is now one of the most competitive economies on Earth.
And yet even by its own standards, it has set a very lofty goal.
By 2030, the government has announced that 30 percent of food consumed locally will be locally grown under its “30 by 30” initiative.
Presently, under 10 percent of the things Singaporeans eat are grown in Singapore. This is extremely low by global standards but again Singapore has a resident population of almost six million, on a small island, with just 400 acres of true farmland in the entire country.
Four hundred acres is the size of a single modest farm in places like the USA and even a mid-scale Malaysian plantation can be double the size.
Yet in Singapore, this is the sum total of all our agricultural land so how on earth are we going to feed millions of people?
The answer is an unprecedented deployment of technology. Vertical farms, advanced hydroponics and growing techniques using nutrients, perfectly calibrated irrigation systems, robotics, and 24/7 monitoring.
The government is also going to work to utilize urban spaces – rooftops, balconies, alleys – on quite an unprecedented scale to achieve greater food self-sufficiency.
While the investment will be high, Covid-19 has proved the benefits are likely to be worth it.
The pandemic showed us that global supply chains can collapse and in times of disruption, governments will prioritize feeding their own populations.
A country with no farmland and agriculture is completely at the mercy of its suppliers.
While Singapore has long been somewhat cognizant of this vulnerability – the government does hold strategic food reserves – this simply isn’t enough and some sort of local agricultural base is needed.
Of course, local sourcing doesn’t just improve our security, it also reduces our carbon footprint and can help ensure what is being consumed is of a very high standard.
So more local farming seems like a clear win all around.
But things are never quite so simple.
As we ramp up our urban farming capacity, won’t we once again be shifting more power and capital to the same tech companies and multinationals that already control so much of our lives?
Recently the government announced that well-known agri-tech company Bayer would launch a large-scale vertical farm in Singapore with a multimillion-dollar investment.
Surely it’s only a matter of time before we have Amazon and Tencent farms. They already supply our homes with all manner of goods, so why not farmed produce? Basically, are we about to see another great leap forward in the dominance of big tech?
Farming has long been the domain of a fairly diverse array of small- and medium-scale producers.
A shift to local production under large-scale corporations will disadvantage many Indonesian and Malaysian farmers who currently supply Singapore.
Previously our purchasing power helped the broader region as we paid high prices for our foodstuff.
And, of course, what of the local population? If there is going to be a shift to local agriculture how can we ensure it creates opportunities for ordinary Singaporeans?
If giant corporations set up automated vertical farms, how will this create employment for us?
The government is clearly aware of the issue and it has been working to increase the number of allotments (plots that give those with no access to a garden a small green space to grow their own fruits and vegetables).
Local sourcing needs to engage local communities yet the resources needed to allow significant local agriculture in Singapore means ordinary citizens will struggle to participate meaningfully in this bid for self-sufficiency.
To reach this 30 percent target sustainably and in a way that benefits us all, we will all need to become urban farmers.
Virtually every home would need a micro-irrigation system, HDB (government housing) corridors would need to overflow with produce and bomb shelters and basements would need to be converted into little hydroponic farms on a staggering scale.
It really could be transformative – bringing together an entire nation to achieve the objective of locally-sourced food.
Working together to sustain the basis of our existence and a return to farming – something the ancestors of most Singaporeans left some time ago.
But for this to happen, as much effort must go into investing in ordinary families and homes as in big corporations.
I for one am already prepared; I’ve bought a few mushroom-growing packs and just acquired a small tomato plant so in a few weeks I look forward to my homegrown pasta sauce.
And in the meantime, I’ll keep waiting for the government to give me the grant to install a giant indoor hydroponic system.
*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at contentservices@htlive.com
Copyright 2017 Malay Mail Online
US: NEW YORK: Wall-To-Fork Fresh Produce Comes To Monsey
The iconic Evergreen Market is debuting a revolutionary 20-foot high geoponic (soil-based) wall farm that lets customers not only choose clean, fresh-picked produce but also see exactly where it comes from
NEW VERTICAL FIELD URBAN FARM SYSTEM AT EVERGREEN MARKET MEANS TASTY, HEALTHY AND BUG-FREE SUSTAINABLE PRODUCE 365 DAYS A YEAR
[Monsey, NY, DEC 9, 2020] – The world of freshly harvested greens and herbs is looking up – literally – in Monsey, NY. The iconic Evergreen Market is debuting a revolutionary 20-foot high geoponic (soil-based) wall farm that lets customers not only choose clean, fresh-picked produce but also see exactly where it comes from.
The pesticide-free lettuce, kale, arugula, basil, and cilantro from Evergreen’s on-site farm are sold at competitive prices in individual pots, making the “buying local” experience more convenient than ever. Pesticide-free and grown in soil that is never exposed to bugs, all products are Star-K Kosher Certified for purity.
“We are gratified to be the first kosher supermarket in the country to introduce the Vertical farm,” said Malki Levine of Evergreen. “Our customers are very much looking forward to buying fresh produce that is grown in our own backyard rather than being transported on long hauls from farms across the country. They will also appreciate the significantly reduced level of infestation, a major concern of kosher consumers.”
Shoppers can visit the thriving vertical farm when they visit the store. The state-of-the-art system features a controlled, sterile environment with soil beds containing a proprietary mix of minerals and nutrients. Advanced sensors constantly monitor, irrigate, and fertilize the crops throughout every growth stage.
Evergreen’s wall farm is the latest installation from Vertical Field (www.verticalfield.com), an Israeli ag-tech company that produces innovative vertical agricultural solutions that help the environment, improve human health conditions, and make fresh, delicious produce available all year round.
Geoponic (soil-based) vertical farming yields a new crop every few days, ensuring that fresh greens and herbs will always be in season in Monsey. The sustainable and eco-friendly method produces cleaner, healthier, tastier veggies than those shipped from miles away. And, reduced soil-to-plate time means a longer shelf life and fewer hands involved – a welcome benefit in the age of Covid-19.
“We are extremely excited with the partnership with Evergreen,” said Guy Elitzur, the CEO of Vertical Field. “They are precisely the type of supermarket that has the right customer base and will successfully integrate the latest technological advances in geoponic farming.”
About Vertical Field: Vertical Field is a leading ag-tech provider of vertical farming and active landscaping solutions for urban environments and smart cities. The company is operated by professionals, agronomists, researchers, and a multi-disciplinary team, enabling the development of smart plant-based solutions that combine the best of design and manufacturing, smart computerized monitoring, soil-based technology, water and lighting technology, and more. Vertical Field delivers next-generation vertical farming systems for a global clientele, including Facebook, Intel, Apple, Isrotel, Microsoft, and many more. Vertical Field is currently also on-site at Farmers And Chefs Restaurant in Poughkeepsie, NY, supplying fresh greens for the Chef's creative, locally-sourced menu.
About Evergreen: Located in Town Square in the heart of Monsey, NY, Evergreen is 30,000 square feet of grocery, butcher, bakery, health food, fish, produce, sushi, full-service deli & prepared foods. The store provides wide aisles, huge product selection & competitive prices. Evergreen is a shopping destination that combines the friendliness of a neighborhood grocery with the value and convenience of a state-of-the-art specialty supermarket. Evergreen also has a similar store in Lakewood, NJ, and will soon be opening its third major market in Pomona NY.
Vertical Farming In New Jersey
Indoor farming represents the cultivation of crops in a controlled environment thus allowing for year-round growing. This approach to growing food includes a range of methods such as greenhouse production, hydroponics, aeroponics, plant factories, and vertical farming
November 19, 2020
By Eric Stein
Introduction
Vertical and indoor farming is an emerging growth industry and New Jersey is show-casing itself as a leader in the field. Some of the most well-known companies like AeroFarms, Bowery Farming, and Element Farms have made New Jersey their home in part due to the proximity to New York City and Philadelphia, which represent huge markets for food and dining out. This post will highlight the impacts these and other indoor farms are having in the Garden State.
What is Indoor Farming?
Indoor farming represents the cultivation of crops in a controlled environment thus allowing for year-round growing. This approach to growing food includes a range of methods such as greenhouse production, hydroponics, aeroponics, plant factories, and vertical farming.
Many new technologies and methods are used to fine-tune nutrient delivery, water use, climate conditions and artificial lighting to create optimal growing conditions using fewer resources. These innovative designs and technologies help make indoor farming methods more sustainable and allow for the production of fresh vegetables and greens anywhere throughout the year.
Benefits of Indoor Farming
The benefits of indoor farming are numerous. Some argue that on a macro scale indoor farming addresses many of the concerns regarding traditional food production methods such as the over-use of pesticides, the consumption of freshwater, soil erosion, and nutrient loading. Furthermore, some argue that it offers a new way to feed an ever increasing world population, which is expected to climb to over 9 billion by 2050.
On a micro level, indoor and vertical farming offers sustainable growing practices, higher yields with the use of less water and space, pesticide-free fresh foods, consistent quality, stable pricing, year-round availability, and local production close to urban centers. The appearance of Covid-19 has highlighted the weakness of long-distance food supply chains in the United States, pointing towards the importance of local and sustainable food sources.
Why New Jersey?
New Jersey has a long agricultural history dating back to pre-colonial times, which is how it acquired its name as the “Garden State.” Traditional cultivation methods of NJ’s fertile land have earned New Jersey its spot as a top producer of several horticultural crops. New Jersey ‘s cultivation of over 720,000 acres is thus seen as vital part of a multi-billion-dollar industry totaling over $115 billion (2019). However, in recent years, the high cost of land and urban encroachment of farmlands has become a serious concern for the state. New Jersey has experienced the highest decline of farmland and rural open land in the United States.
Limited available farmland has pushed some producers into urban and peri-urban areas. Others have been enticed with investments and tax incentives to move operations to urban areas across the Garden State. Companies like AeroFarms, Bowery and others have established themselves in New Jersey’s cities and are benefitting consumers with local fresh foods, offering employment opportunities, and championing urban development initiatives and partnerships.
Bowery Farming in Kearny, NJ
Headquartered in New York City, Bowery Farming has farms in Kearny, NJ, Maryland, and Washington DC. Bowery’s recent series B funding led by a $90 million investment by GGV brings the indoor vertical farming company’s venture funding to $117.5 million. The indoor farm in Kearny produces arugula, basil, crispy leaf, and butterhead lettuce in a repurposed industrial space using Bowery’s proprietary technologies, which help to collect data and optimize production. According to its website, the farm claims to be 100 times more productive on the same amount of land and use 90% less water than traditional agricultural methods. Bowery Farming’s produce is now available in over 650 retail stores in the Mid-Atlantic area making it one of the larger producers of vertically farmed greens and herbs in the U.S.
“Climate events continue to disrupt the way food is grown and distributed, and the pandemic exacerbated the vulnerabilities in our already fragile food system. We need a more resilient solution focused on the future, and that’s exactly what we’re building at Bowery,” says Irving Fain, Founder & CEO of Bowery Farming. “Our growth has been driven by consumer demand for safer and more transparently grown produce, and our ability to provide a consistent and reliable supply to our retail partners. We’re incredibly fortunate to have a dynamic team at Bowery that is relentlessly committed to innovation, strengthening our food system, and increasing access to fresh, healthy food.”
In addition to employing local residents, community partnerships with Bowery include a New Jersey food rescue effort, Table to Table, the Maryland Food Bank, DC Central Kitchen, and Teens for Food Justice.
AeroFarms in Newark, NJ
AeroFarms operates a 70,000 square foot farm in a former steel mill in Newark, NJ. They are also building vertical farms in Danville, VA, and in Dubai. AeroFarms raised $100 million in a 2019 funding round, bringing its total funding to over $238 million. Additionally, the company benefits from a grant of $11.14 million in tax incentives over 10 years from the Grow New Jersey Assistance Program, which encouraged them to move to New Jersey. These incentives included requirements for AeroFarms to bring operations into economically depressed areas and make capital improvements to the buildings they occupy.
Their Dream Greens brand features blends of baby greens and microgreens for local retail sales. AeroFarms uses a proprietary aeroponics method to produce its greens. Aerofarms offers fully-controlled indoor vertical farming with 390 times greater productivity per square foot annually vs. traditional field farming while using 95% less water and zero pesticides according to its web site and in statements by CEO David Rosenberg. The company highlights its use of advanced sensing technologies, data science, machine vision, and artificial intelligence to achieve these gains.
Moving forward, AeroFarms will be partnering with the city of Jersey City to create a municipal vertical farm. It is a part of the World Economic Forum’s Healthy Cities and Communities 2030 Initiative whereby produce from its vertical farms are delivered to people in the community. AeroFarms also has partnerships with Table to Table and Matriark Foods in New Jersey.
Other Smaller Indoor Farms in New Jersey
Element Farms produces a variety of baby greens and salad mixes in their greenhouse hydroponics operation which is housed in a new 70,000 square foot facility in Lafayette, NJ, about an hour northwest of Newark. Almost $700,000 was crowdfunded for their expansion into a new greenhouse facility. Element Farms serves the New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania tri-state area and seeks to expand into other states in the future.
Sweetleaf Farm in Andover, NJ, also about 50 minutes northwest of Newark, is a smaller, low-tech operation, run by New Jersey locals Cris and Guy Tuhy. They produce an array of greens, herbs, and microgreens. Some are traditional crops but they found that the use of hydroponics in their greenhouse allowed them to serve their community with locally grown produce year-round, using minimal land and water. Fortunately, they have found the demand for safe, local produce has increased since the pandemic began.
In Freehold, NJ, Beyond Organic Growers has transformed the family’s sod farm into a state of the art greenhouse that houses their vertical farming aeroponics operations. The Reid family grows leafy greens, herbs, microgreens, and some specialty crops. In addition to the sales of their produce, they have an organic juice bar on-premise and they host events such as farm-to-table dinners and yoga classes in the greenhouse.
Non-Profit Indoor Farms
The town of Robbinsville, NJ created one of the first municipal indoor farms in 2017 using a box container farm purchased rom Freight Farms. The program allows for community participation and provides healthy fresh foods to those in need.
Greens Do Good is a nonprofit organization producing lettuce, microgreens, and basil in Hackensack, NJ to benefit its customers and a portion of the proceeds go to autistic members of the community. The organization offers individuals with autism the opportunity to work alongside their farmers. They also donate 100% of their proceeds to the REED Foundation for Autism, a nonprofit organization that supports adults with autism by providing continuing education, life experience, and work opportunities so they can achieve greater independence and participate meaningfully in their communities.
Kula Urban Farm in Asbury Park, NJ includes a mix of traditional farming and a greenhouse for various hydroponic crops. The farm is run by the non-profit organization Interfaith Neighbors as part of a larger array of programs addressing homelessness and food insecurity in the community.
Summary
In New Jersey, not only are we are seeing an interesting mix of businesses large and small as part of a growing industry but also non-profits benefitting the populations they serve. Vertical and indoor farming ventures are versatile in the ways they can operate in the community by bringing fresh healthy foods, sustainable practices, and new opportunities for education and employment. We look forward to seeing how indoor farming continues to add to the rich history of agriculture in the state of New Jersey.
Tags: Industry Snapshot, Knowledge Base, Learning
Greenhouse And Vertical Farming In New Jersey
Vertical and indoor farming ventures are versatile in the ways they can operate in the community by bringing fresh healthy foods, sustainable practices, and new opportunities for education and employment
New Jersey has a long agricultural history dating back to pre-colonial times, which is how it acquired its name as the “Garden State.” Traditional cultivation methods of NJ’s fertile land have earned New Jersey its spot as a top producer of several horticultural crops. New Jersey‘s cultivation of over 720,000 acres is thus seen as a vital part of a multi-billion-dollar industry totaling over $115 billion (2019). However, in recent years, the high cost of land and urban encroachment of farmlands has become a serious concern for the state. New Jersey has experienced the highest decline of farmland and rural open land in the United States.
Limited available farmland has pushed some producers into urban and peri-urban areas. Others have been enticed with investments and tax incentives to move operations to urban areas across the Garden State. Companies like AeroFarms, Bowery, and others have established themselves in New Jersey’s cities and are benefitting consumers with local fresh foods, offering employment opportunities, and championing urban development initiatives and partnerships.
In New Jersey, not only are we seeing an interesting mix of businesses large and small as part of a growing industry but also non-profits benefitting the populations they serve. Vertical and indoor farming ventures are versatile in the ways they can operate in the community by bringing fresh healthy foods, sustainable practices, and new opportunities for education and employment. We look forward to seeing how indoor farming continues to add to the rich history of agriculture in the state of New Jersey.
Read more about the New Jersey market on Indooragcenter.org
Tue 24 Nov 2020
Infarm Raises $200 Million To Add “Farm” to Cities
heir environment-controlled and automated growing chambers grow food such as leafy greens inside the supermarket, so it’s fresh, without your food accumulating food miles
Infarm’s Israeli founders take on Berlin and the farm to table movement with high-tech farms.
Infarm, a company that grows fresh produce inside supermarkets, has recently announced a $170 million USD funding round to help the company expand across Europe. Their environment-controlled and automated growing chambers grow food such as leafy greens inside the supermarket, so it’s fresh, without your food accumulating food miles.
The company was founded by three Israelis in Berlin in 2013, and they announced this astounding investment achievement despite the Covid plague destroying global markets. Food, we understood, is something that must stay constant. The need for food which is grown locally, and available fresh now resonates at a time of uncertainty and the basic need for survival.
The company has raised $200 million USD total in their Series C round funding which was by LGT Lightstone, Hanaco, Bonnier, Haniel, and Latitude, Atomico, TriplePoint Capital, Mons Capital, and Astanor Ventures.
With a mix of equity and debt financing, the fresh capital brings Infarm’s total funding to date to more than $300 million, underscoring consumer and retailer appetite for Infarm’s approach to fresh, sustainable, and local food production in the wake of this year’s pandemic.
By 2025, Infarm’s farming fridge network is expected to reach more than 5,000,000 square feet to become the largest distributed hydroponic network in the world as it builds towards helping cities become self-sufficient in their food production. Competition includes Freight Farms in the US, and BrightFarms, also American.
“The coronavirus pandemic has put a global spotlight on the urgent agricultural and ecological challenges of our time,” says Erez Galonska, Co-founder and CEO of Infarm. His brother Guy Galonska is also a founder: “At Infarm, we believe there’s a better, healthier way to feed our cities: increasing access to fresh, pure, sustainable produce, grown as close as possible to people,” adds Erez.
The investment will be used to deepen the regional and local penetration of Infarm’s global farming network and complete development of Infarm’s new generation of vertical cloud-connected farms, capable of generating the crop-equivalent of acres of farmland and amplifying the diversity of produce currently available through vertical farming. Vertical farming is also known as hydroponic farming or controlled environment agriculture.
The technology has become developed and well-known over the years thanks to cannabis growers who used this energy-intensive and “stealth” mode of farming to grow cannabis with high concentrations of the active ingredient THC. When it was illegal to grow in Canada, young entrepreneurs were inspired by early blueprints from NASA and farming in space and found ways to set up a soil-less system in basements and closets. To their surprise, they could grow better quality cannabis, faster as inputs such as lighting, humidity, and nutrients could be tightly controlled.
And growing food became the next natural step for people who wanted to grow fresh food year-round even though it’s usually not cost-effective to grow tomatoes or lettuce this way unless you do it at scale.
Hydroponics and variations of it, using just water, a semi-solid coir medium or Styrofoam and/or with fish added, has become the promise for growing food in far-flung locations like Antarctica and food deserts where chocolate bars are available at bodegas, but fresh greens are not. This is according to mothers I have met in Harlem, New York. The hydroponic method is not that complicated at all in theory but in practice, it is hard to achieve good results without know-how in chemistry, engineering, and biology.
An integration of advanced engineering, software, and farming technology, the Infarm farms will save labour, land, water, energy, and food-miles, while contributing to a more sustainable food system, the company proposes.
Partnering with Aldi, Marks & Spencer, Sobeys
While companies like Farmigo founded in New York (also by an Israeli) wanted to put supermarkets out of business, in the past year Infarm has been working to keep them relevant and formed new partnerships with the world’s largest retailers, including Albert Heijn (Netherlands), Aldi Süd (Germany), COOP/Irma (Denmark), Empire Company Ltd (Sobeys, Safeway, Thrifty Foods – Canada), Kinokuniya (Japan), Kroger (United States), Marks & Spencer (United Kingdom) and Selfridges (United Kingdom).
With operations across 10 countries and 30 cities worldwide, Infarm harvests 500,000+ plants monthly, while using 99.5% less space than soil-based agriculture, some 95% less water, 90% less transport, and zero chemical pesticides. Today, 90% of the electricity use throughout the Infarm network is from renewable energy and the company has set a target to reach zero emissions from their production next year.
With the cost of lighting typically very high in hydroponics systems, I’d be curious to know how they will do that without buying carbon credits. Consider this Stanford research paper that mentioned the cost of hydroponic lettuce to be about 8KG of carbon compared to 150g if grown conventionally. The research is a few years old and certainly, there can be ways to improve energy efficiencies.
What organic farmers think?
Proponents of organic farming, regenerative agriculture, and permaculture don’t love hydroponics farming because it relies on petroleum-based fertilizers and nutrients as additives, and while there may be no or few bugs in the grow chambers, there is a risk of fungus and bacteria; in nature, there is always free natural sun (unless you are in Finland in the winter) and natural interactions between plant, soil; and even among small biota like mycorrhizal fungi which play a role in the uptake of micronutrients to the roots and the overall essence of what we call a plant. There is one school of thought that says the “organic” label can only be applied to soil-based farming. Lawyers are debating the issue now.
The answer will be somewhere in the middle. Like most things in life the middle way will help us. The dream is many one-acre regenerative farms to feed us healthily and to feed the planet too but meanwhile there is a gap. How do we feed everyone else who can’t afford to buy at Whole Foods?
We need to improve our local supply chain for food. When you live in a country like Israel, Egypt or Jordan with ample sun, growing food inside a supermarket fridge makes no sense, although hydroponics does. See this project in Jordan, funded by the USAID. Or the one that has changed lives in Harlem.
I had a hydroponics robotics venture (see this article on Bloomberg) and I took it to New York a few years ago and found myself running in circles trying to explain why eating local is good for the planet, it’s good for a circular economy that might one day be about survival. Venture Capitalists laughed at me. They said my technology and vision was a vitamin and not a bandaid –– “a nice to have” but not “a necessary to have”, especially in cities like New York. Then Covid thinking happened.
Here is what investors in Infarm say now (and kudos to the team who worked hard building physical farms and maintaining the pilots):
“We are excited to partner with the Infarm team to accelerate their urban vertical farm vision, ultimately creating a more sustainable food system for a growing population,” says Dharmash Mistry, Partner of LGT Lightstone: “With over $1bn of customer demand, partnerships with 17 of the top 50 global grocers, Infarm is set to revolutionise the market behind a unique ‘demand led’ modular business model.”
Let’s hope. Another Israeli called Benzi Ronen came from Silicon Valley and started a farm-to-table venture in New York and was on top of the world. He had just raised $26 million to grow Farmigo into the Amazon for fresh food and I spoke with him at one point when he warned me to stay in Israel and work there locally for a couple of years before moving stateside. That’s me in the biodome below, growing bok choy for future Martians on my roof in Tel Aviv. I didn’t listen.
I had a venture in robotics to help cannabis farmers (even Mars farmers grow cannabis in space – see this article in Fast Company) and city hydroponic farmers. Farmigo was trying to eliminate supermarkets, by connecting farmers to consumers at drop off points throughout the city. The model was valorous –– who doesn’t want the freshest farm picked veggies every morning? The modern CSA? And it supported local farming, just like what Michael Pollan wants us to do. And to compete with Amazon? Yes. Yes. Yes.
Farmigo raised millions and then the company’s vision to be the Amazon of fresh food could not compete with Amazon. Farmigo changed its business model and now sells software.
I saw the challenges of the business in supplying fresh food. The mechanics of the machines, the lack of willing labor, software needed, the logistics, the importance of food safety. The fungus, the bacteria. The good bacteria. The bad. The responsibility. The chemicals needed to feed the plants, to keep the systems “clean” and safe. So much is hard to control when you are talking about living things.
I always said that if hydroponics or farmers that come from Microsoft want to make city farming work the model will look like the cellphone industry: different players supplying various parts like Qualcomm, Verizon, 3M, Broadcom, and Texas Instruments does. Even to make iPhones work.
Can and will Infarm do it all?
“We see a massive demand in the market for sustainable, environment-friendly, and healthy food – and Infarm has just the right team in place to make this happen,” says Pasha Romanovski, Co-founding Partner of Hanaco Ventures.
More about Infarm
Founded in Berlin in 2013 by Osnat Michaeli and the brothers Erez and Guy Galonska, Infarm is dedicated to creating a future where local super fresh produce is available for everyone. The farms are placed in various locations in the city, like supermarkets, restaurants, and distribution centers, so that vegetables grow and are harvested close to the moment of purchase or consumption. People like Elon Musk’s brother Kimbal Musk has been doing this in New York with a project called Square Roots. They train young entrepreneurs to dream up all sorts of business models inside the shipping container farms built by Freight Farms.
Some in the VC world I have talked with question the viability of the business model of these containers. While it’s a nice idea it’s hard to get the return on the upfront investment.
But when it comes to specialty products and “farms” you can find the Infarm service model in all sorts of permutations in the United States. I got to spend some ample time in meetups with a pile of entrepreneurs building an urban farming project in New York. There I met Andrew Carter, now growing mushrooms in a warehouse in Williamsburg. There is also Farm.One which grows papalo, minutina and all the boutique and hipster greens any chef could dream up in the center of New York City. They deliver.
Lastly and most easily is to try out growing fresh greens at home without the supermarket, or less of the supermarket. I met the founder of Hamama when she was in Israel via MIT helping kids in Israel grow their own food using hydroponics at The Greenhouse. (After I wrote this story in 2008 <— kids from the US were writing me about how to donate their Bar Mitzva money to Noam Geva).
Over at The Greenhouse Camille had her head inside an aeroponics system she’d rigged up last time I saw her. She brought a few of her MIT geek friends over to my house in Jaffa and we talked about hydroponics changing the world. And now she helps people in the easiest way to grow microgreens at home. That’s a hyper simplified way to do hydroponics. She was one of the most inspiring people I met in hydroponics and urban farming.
In fact many in the business are. They are people who want to change the world. Have you met Henry?
Go out and meet someone, start a farm. Grow something. That’s how we change the world.
Now over to Infarm: good luck!
LATVIA: Safety of Food Grown In Urban Vertical Gardens
The project, called G(U)ARDEN, is a vertical garden experience set in Latvia aimed at exploring the safety of growing food in urban gardens.
26-10-2020 | Inhabitat
Interior architecture firm Annvil has brought together a team of urban planners, designers, environmentalists, and natural scientists to study the interaction between the urban environment and horticulture. The project, called G(U)ARDEN, is a vertical garden experience set in Latvia aimed at exploring the safety of growing food in urban gardens.
Urban agriculture has already been proven to reduce air pollution, collect and use runoff, increase productivity of space, and aid in urban cooling, but it is still lacking in substantial scientific research in the safety of these plants being used for food. The G(U)ARDEN project will measure the biochemical composition of vegetables and fruits grown in urban environments, especially in places with intense traffic and air pollution.
The primary urban vertical garden of this project is located in Riga, Latvia and is made up of local plants from the city’s horticulture centers and nurseries. Researchers chose to use endemic plants to inspire residents to grow and conserve locally as well as to encourage sustainable and effective urban environmental development discussions.
“Today we live in a digital world where everything is instantaneous. In answer to that, we want to stimulate people’s interest in real-life — interest in the physical world and in being close to nature,” said Anna Butele, author of project G(U)ARDEN and the founder of Annvil. “We can do that by creating even more green environments in the city — meeting places that bring together different groups of society. This way we can also bring attention to neglected environments in the city.”
The pilot program has started with the team studying the garden’s vegetable and fruit harvest in a scientific laboratory. Crops are measured for the presence of heavy metals, while the air and water is measured for the microbiological composition to help identify all possible risk factors associated with the impact of the urban environment on edible plants. The data obtained from the experiment will aid in continued projects to help create a series of urban gardens in Latvia’s largest cities next year.
Photography by Ingus Bajārs via Annvil
Source: Inhabitat
Pure Harvest Smart Farms, How To Grow Local In The Middle East ?
In the UAE where the climate is arid and very hot most of the time of the year, growing local and fresh vegetables can be a challenge or even impossible
03.11.20
Pure Harvest Smart Farms is a tech company that tries to disrupt the agricultural market in the UAE by tackling the problem of food security.
In the UAE where the climate is arid and very hot most of the time of the year, growing local and fresh vegetables can be a challenge or even impossible. There are imports from other countries to secure fresh vegetable supply year-round, but due to the air freight, the products aren’t fresh and are expensive. An issue that Pure Harvest farm tries to address by bringing the best of agriculture technology to develop fresh and locally grown tomatoes in the UAE. Today the company has raised $100 million to expand its production, and start growing in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. We met Sky Kurtz, its CEO, and Co-Founder.
What is controlled environment agriculture and why is it so important in the UAE today?
Controlled environment agriculture (CEA) is the strategy taken by Pure Harvest to tackle the issue of food security. This means we engage in CEA with hybrid growing solutions that provide precise climate and environmental controls to deliver quality fresh produce. Pure Harvest’s CEA ensures increased productivity and reduced waste (including water, energy, time, and transport). The UAE is the perfect starting point for us to expand our agritech solutions into other import-reliant regions. There is a huge amount of sun energy waiting to be harnessed!
In which aspects is Pure Harvest disrupting the industry compared to other traditional greenhouses?
The UAE’s arid climate is the right laboratory for the conditions needed for this kind of project and as a result, Pure Harvest is now entering the world stage as a tech-agricultural business tackling the problem of food security. Some other vertical farming countries in the world such as the United States, Holland, France are looking at similar solutions but don’t have the right conditions or a laboratory. The gap between traditional greenhouse countries and import countries has been bridged, this is particularly relevant given the risk of long term import reliance exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
What kind of technologies do you use to grow fresh vegetables in the hostile climate of the UAE?
Pure Harvest integrates world-leading Dutch greenhouse growing technologies together with our proprietary climate management systems. Pure Harvest seeks to leverage innovative semi-closed growing technology (with overpressure climate control and mechanical cooling) in order to pioneer year-round production of affordable, premium quality fresh produce.
What kind of crops do you grow in your greenhouses today?
We are currently growing 26 varieties of tomatoes and 6 varieties of strawberries. We are creating new markets, not just displacing existing commercial import markets. There are over 400 commercial varieties of tomato, and Pure Harvest is proud to grow six that have never before been seen. We’re aiming to be able to produce anything which already grows under a Mediterranean climate in any variety.
Last April, you secured a multi-stage investment commitment valued at over USD 100 million with Wafra Investment company. Which kind of developments do you expect for the company?
This year, the company entered into a first-of-its-kind retailer-integration partnership with The Sultan Centre (TSC) in Kuwait, creating a ‘farm center’ that will include edutainment, a retail farmers’ market, and an integrated café. We are completely committed to supporting public initiatives focused on improved food security, water conservation, skilled job creation, and economic diversification. Through constant engagement with governments, schools, and research institutions, we believe that together, we can lead the Middle East into the next generation of sustainable agriculture.
SEE ALSO A French-Tunisian startup changes the future of sustainable agriculture with insect proteins
3 November 2020
Singapore’s Farms Face An Even Greater Challenge In A Post-COVID-19 World
A question now arises as to whether the '30 by 30' food supply vision will suffice for the country. The programme For Food’s Sake! finds out what changes are needed in the growing agri-tech sector
A question now arises as to whether the '30 by 30' food supply vision will suffice for the country. The program For Food’s Sake! finds out what changes are needed in the growing agri-tech sector.
Figuring out new ways to increase productivity on farms is one of the challenges.
01 Nov 2020
SINGAPORE: It is a vision that predates COVID-19. Spurred by threats like climate change, Singapore set about having 30 percent of its food produced locally by 2030, to improve its food security.
But food security expert Paul Teng thinks the country is not going far enough with its “30 by 30” goal set last year.
“Even if we achieve that in 10 years’ time, we’re still dependent on the rest of the world for the remaining 70 percent. If all things are normal, then it should be enough … to create a buffer,” he says.
“But if indeed all the worst-case climate change scenarios come true, and there are many other black swan events, then we may need more than two or three months’ worth.”
Professor Paul Teng.
The professor, an adjunct senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, sees COVID-19 as a “wake-up call” to do more.
“I don’t imagine that the COVID-19 pandemic will be the last time that we’ll be disrupted in terms of food supplies … If you look around Asia at the moment, you’ve got a whole host of issues affecting us,” he notes.
“The armyworm is just one example. But there are many other pest problems, disease problems … Anything could flare up and affect our supply chain. Then there’s also politics.”
There are 220 farms in Singapore as of last year, producing mainly leafy vegetables, fish and eggs.
Millions of dollars are being poured into this growing agri-food industry. But it still produces less than 10 percent of the country’s food, and the rest is imported from more than 170 countries and regions.
Local farms contributed 14 percent of Singapore's consumption of leafy vegetables last year.
Most of the farms are “not what I’d call modern farms”, says Teng, urging improvements in productivity. Not only that, other changes are also needed more than ever, the programme For Food’s Sake! finds out.
THE ISSUE OF LAND
One of Singapore’s largest producers of Asian leafy vegetables is Farm 85, which lies on 12 hectares of land in Lim Chu Kang — roughly the size of 17 football fields.
But its owner, Tan Koon Hua, who started the farm in 1991, does not think it is easy to increase production further.
“The most we can do is to find ways to prevent disruptions,” says the 52-year-old, citing the example of greenhouses, which he has built to protect his crops against changes in weather.
For Food’s Sake! host Ming Tan (left) with Tan Koon Hua.
The other solution, he believes, is a bigger land area. One of the reasons the work on the farm is laborious is its current size, agrees his son Zach, who works there.
For example, while large farms overseas “can invest in a big tractor” to aerate the soil, Farm 85 uses hand-operated soil tiller machines, cites the 26-year-old.
Less than one per cent of Singapore’s land is used for agriculture. In recent years, new plots have been released for farming, but in smaller parcel sizes ranging from about 0.6 to two hectares.
The largest plots awarded have been about six hectares, which means farmers still need to reduce their reliance on land.
Short leases have been another disincentive to making long-term investments in better equipment or infrastructure. It is one of the reasons, along with lack of technical know-how, that farmers are not as productive they could be, according to Teng.
Farm 85.
Today, the new plots have longer lease terms of up to 20 years, compared with previous ad-hoc lease extensions that were as short as three years.
PRODUCTIVITY PLATFORMS AND PITFALLS
To further help with productivity, the government has made several grants available since 2014. At least three are targeted specifically at the agriculture industry.
One is the Singapore Food Agency’s (SFA’s) S$63-million Agriculture Productivity Fund. It is meant for farmers to invest in more innovative systems that can boost their yield, for example under a scheme — capped at S$50,000 — for the purchase of equipment.
There is also a scheme for farmers to convert their farm into a more high-tech farming system.
There are funding schemes for farmers to transform the work done on their farms.
To apply, the proposal they submit must include: The project’s objectives; a comprehensive description of the farming system, with the layout; brochures of the equipment; a full business plan; and a track record of the project team’s area of expertise.
For Food’s Sake! host Ming Tan was uncertain, however, whether farmers are able to “suddenly just provide this information”. “If they already knew how to do these (high-tech) things, don’t you think they’d have done them?” he questioned.
So a new type of farmer has sprung up in recent years. Ex-engineers and venture capitalists are among those who have set up tech-focused farms that do not rely on large fields.
Between 2015 and 2019, the number of vegetable farms increased from 54 to 83. Despite this increase of 54 percent, the production of leafy vegetables rose only by 11 percent, from 11,400 to 12,700 tonnes.
Up to 14 types of local vegetables are grown on Farm 85.
There are “still a lot of challenges on the ground”, an industry insider tells Ming. “There aren’t that many dedicated contractors who can build farms … Almost always the infrastructure cost starts ballooning,” he says.
Plus … you need to spend time, effort and money training everyone from scratch literally. We don’t have a ready pool of skilled indoor farmers.
In this high-tech farming space, proprietary technologies have been brought in from different parts of the world, but “these are also varied in terms of how (they’re) translated on the ground in Singapore, in the context of a tropical environment”.
“There’s a lot of clamor, sound … and hype coming,” he adds. “Still … they all need to translate into a viable business.”
IT’S EARLY DAYS YET
According to the SFA, the outlook for high-tech farms is not bleak.
A high-tech farm with lighting, climate control and plant racks extending to the ceiling.
“It’s a really nascent technology and sector. And as with any other new industry, it would take time for commercial models to sort of become viable,” says SFA deputy director (Food Supply Resilience) Sim Wi Min.
“There’s almost a five-year period where they have to do construction and fine-tune their operations. So while you don’t see that corresponding amount of production, I assure you we’ll see more production in years to come.”
She acknowledges that there are “inherent risks” involved, as “technology doesn’t come cheap”. Some farms that were grant recipients, for example, have wound down earlier than expected.
“Some of them don’t make it. Sometimes it’s not because the technologies don’t work. It could be that partnerships fall through,” she adds. “But cases that are successful outweigh those who exit the industry.”
Sim Wi Min.
One of the success stories is ComCrop, which was one of the first to attempt rooftop farming in Singapore eight years ago. Located in a Woodlands industrial estate, its crops are grown using hydroponics instead of traditional soil-based methods.
Chief executive officer Peter Barber thinks of it as a hybrid farm, using sunlight and a greenhouse designed for constant airflow, unlike high-tech indoor farms that use artificial lights and air conditioning. And he can see why the latter might struggle.
“These two worlds (high-tech and traditional farming) have operated in isolation,” he says. “(The traditional farmers) know what they need to do to grow vegetables, but they may not be so adept on the technological side.
“Then you’ve got the tech guys who have all their artificial intelligence and their robots … The problem is, the new guys don’t have the growing experience, and I think that’s why they’re falling down on the volume side.”
Peter Barber shows Ming around ComCrop's rooftop farm in Woodlands.
To create a flourishing industry, he says “we have to build an ecosystem”.
“Then we need the support of the food agency to make sure that Singaporean consumers see the quality, the safety and the nutritional value of what’s grown here in Singapore … and say, ‘That’s a gold standard,’” he adds.
“We still haven’t seen the full repercussions of the food supply problems that’ve been created by COVID. If we don’t change how much we’re growing here, we’re going to be paying more for food no matter which way we look at it.”
BRIDGING THE NUTRITION GAP
In the supermarket, however, some consumers have a preference for one type of vegetable over the other. Demand for vegetables from soil-based farms is higher than for those from high-tech farms, according to NTUC FairPrice, Singapore’s largest supermarket chain.
WATCH: Why aren’t Singaporeans buying more locally farmed produce? (5:26)
As a chef, Ming expected this to have something to do with taste. But in a blind taste test of bok choy (Chinese cabbage), the results were split evenly among customers at a tze char restaurant.
It turns out, however, that some people think soil-grown vegetables are more nutritious, as Ming found out when he asked on Instagram why people preferred to buy these vegetables.
Plant scientist Mandar Godge, who specializes in the study of Asian leafy vegetables, knows what is behind this partiality.
“There was a stark difference between the hydroponics-grown leafy vegetables and soil-grown (ones) five years ago, or even three years ago, in terms of the nutritional density,” says the Temasek Polytechnic researcher and lecturer.
“Now, the gap is bridged. We’re looking at very improved hydroponics techniques coming in and (producing) a similar nutritional density (to that) which we get in soil-based farming.”
Dr. Mandar Godge.
Over the past decade, scientists like him have been trying to supercharge hydroponics produce by, for example, customising them “based on what kinds of properties you need”, like high levels of vitamins and minerals.
Things like enzymes added to the water can “boost” the nutritional value of the leafy vegetables. Different light intensities can also make a difference in terms of the taste.
The nutritional density of the leafy vegetables in his laboratory, he says, “is much higher compared to what’s available”. And for more farms to adopt these technologies, he suggests that a “technology showcase has to be done Singapore-wide”.
THE DUTCH EXAMPLE
One country that has successfully mass-adopted technology in its farming systems, including urban farming, is the Netherlands. Despite its size, it has become the world’s second-largest food exporter by value.
The Netherlands.
Pepper farmer Ron Jansen, for example, has transformed his grandfather’s farm, Jansen Paprika — located one hour north of Amsterdam — into one of Holland’s most modern farms.
His farm, the size of eight football fields, produces more than 2,000 tonnes of peppers each year, which is 15 times more than what his grandfather grew.
To ensure optimum conditions for his plants, he uses temperature and humidity sensors, which he can track from his office. Machines do the heavy lifting. And he is looking to adopt more cutting-edge technology.
“There are tests to grow plants autonomously — so not by hand. You put your set-up in your computer, and the computer will think for you,” he cites.
Ron Jansen.
Universities play an important part in Holland’s agricultural sector, whose exports last year were worth 95 billion euros (S$152 billion).
“One of the missions of the university is to set up research and demonstration centres to show the possibilities of technology … and transfer the knowledge,” says plant researcher Sjaak Bakker from Wageningen University and Research.
To facilitate this, a central organisation groups farmers according to the crops they grow, where they present their problems to researchers and government agencies, and collectively brainstorm solutions.
“Farmers can’t survive on their own. They need a certain scale in doing research and … innovation,” Bakker adds. “This is why the ecosystem in the Netherlands has come this far and is such a successful sector.”
Dr Sjaak Bakker.
THE NEED TO CHANGE PERCEPTIONS
There are more than 20 agricultural universities in Holland that prime people for the industry. In contrast, there are no universities or polytechnics in Singapore offering agriculture as a full-time course. Most farmhands here are foreign workers.
“Not a lot of Singaporeans want to come to a farm and work. It’s hard work, it’s all day … and you have to be here, rain or shine,” says Zach.
Although he is an anomaly, he has helped out on his father’s farm since he was in school. Bjorn Low is even more of an outlier. Eight years ago, he quit the advertising industry to become an urban farmer.
The co-founder of Edible Garden City now has a team of 40 people, with an average age of 25. He thinks it is important to change the perception of farming and to have more young people see it as a career.
WATCH: The full episode — Growing more of our own food: Can Singapore get there? (47:24)
“This is a national security issue. And so, urban farmers or agriculturalists coming up should be seen as an important part of the economy for the future,” says the 39-year-old.
"We need new ideas in this space and to encourage young people to experiment in this space and then drive other initiatives in the local agricultural industry."
He also wants consumers to “step up” for the sake of their food security in future. “Buy local food,” he urges.
“Sometimes the price points … may be five per cent, two per cent higher than things that are produced in Malaysia or Indonesia or Thailand. And consumers are not willing to fork out that additional 20 cents.”
Bjorn Low.
To this end, Restaurant Labyrinth chef and owner Han Li Guang makes a point of sourcing 80 per cent of his produce — including mussels and herbs — from local farms.
The 35-year-old believes restaurants have a part to play, and can even lead the charge, in getting people to buy more local produce.
“We’re like a showroom for Singapore’s agricultural produce … If we can convince people to ‘use local’, no matter how many percent, it’s a good start,” he says.
“My hope for the future is … we’ll see consumption of local produce as a norm.”
Han Li Guang plates up a locally grown dish for Ming.
New Smart Urban Farm Takes Root
Using New Tech, it Can Grow Up to 100 Tonnes
or About 1% of Leafy Vegetables Grown Here
October 23, 2020
An urban farm that aims to produce high-yield greens without sacrificing any flavour by leveraging Internet of Things technology was officially launched yesterday.
Commonwealth Greens took root in Jurong in May. The forest-like farm consists of over 6,200 pillars, each of them 2.4m tall, that are reminiscent of the foliage of trees.
Positioned in six different rooms the size of Housing Board flats, the pillars in each room support one type of leafy green: lettuce, kale, chard or herbs. Hydroponics is used to grow the plants.
The farm can grow up to 100 tonnes of vegetables a year, which is close to 1 per cent of leafy vegetables grown locally.
Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu (centre) viewing Just Harvest, the latest farm to table solution which will be announced soon for potential clients such as hotels, restaurants and cafes. ST PHOTO: TIMOTHY DAVID
During the launch yesterday, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu visited the farm as well as Archisen, the agri-tech firm that set up and manages Commonwealth Greens.
Archisen's co-founder and chief technology officer Sven Yeo said Commonwealth Greens is one of the highest-yielding indoor farms in Singapore and that it will support and contribute to the country's goal to self-produce 30 per cent of its nutritional needs by 2030.
The farm's leafy greens are currently sold on online supermarkets such as RedMart and PandaMart, under the brand Just Produce. Each 100g salad mix that costs between $4 and $4.50 comprises a variety of lettuce and kale, along with either mustard greens, sorrel or mizuna.
From the middle of next month, the farm will start selling speciality herbs - mustard greens, ice plant and sorrel - in 20g boxes which will cost between $4 and $5.
Archisen has also developed a mini version of its farming system.
Shorter pillars brimming with full-grown veggies are stored in a glass cabinet and can be sent to restaurants for direct harvesting. From next month, the company will deploy those cabinets to five hotels, restaurants and food service companies.
Walls of edible greens: This forest-like area is one of six grow rooms in a new urban farm called Commonwealth Greens. Leafy greens such as lettuce, kale, chard and sorrel are grown hydroponically along each 2.4m white pillar. ST PHOTO: TIMOTHY DAVID
It is not just its aesthetic that makes Commonwealth Greens unique.
To ensure optimal yield, fast growth and highly nutritious and flavourful greens, the vertical systems are powered by a smart cockpit that heavily leverages Internet of Things technology, data analytics and sensors.Culinary uses for speciality herbs
ICE PLANT
The edible succulent is coated with tiny, crystal-like beads that give the unique vegetable a frosty, magical appearance.It typically grows in saline environments and its beads trap salt - hence its salty taste.
Archisen grew different sets of ice plant using nutrient solutions filled with either table salt, sea salt or Himalayan pink salt. It was discovered that table and sea salt made the taste too sharp for comfort but Himalayan pink salt was easier on the palate. The mildly salty succulent has a crunchy texture, and is juicy and refreshing.
MUSTARD GREENS
The dainty-looking leaf with the frilly edges can be a healthier substitute for wasabi.
The fierce wasabi heat hits you immediately, spreading down the throat and up the nose. You may tear up a little too.R&D was used to intensify the wasabi flavour.
RED-VEINED SORREL
The leaves can replace lemon juice or dressing in salads. On second bite, the citrusy flavour explodes, giving a sour surprise.Data is continually stored in the cloud, in real time, for the scientists to analyse and to drive automation. For example, if the pH of the nutrient for lettuce reaches unhealthy levels, sensors will alert a device to automatically restore the acidity level."
As we have more growth cycles over time, our data sets increase, and that enables us to construct mathematical models to predict the outcome of how we grow," said Mr Yeo.
Tenders awarded to turn 9 HDB carpark rooftops into urban farming sitesWild teen to urban farmer: He wants to make Singapore a more sustainable and liveable city
Archisen's office, which is one level above Commonwealth Greens, also houses a research lab for conducting experiments and testing new solutions.In the near future, the company plans to build indoor fruit orchards or vineyards.
Parliament: Encourage growth of urban farming to secure Singapore's food supplies, says Ang Wei NengFeeding cities of the future
Scientists in the lab are now growing black, red and green grapes in a controlled environment. In 10 months, the vines have started to bear clusters of grapes, each fruit about the size of a chickpea. Through traditional farming, it takes about three years to fully grow grapes.Although immature and smaller grapes tend to be sour, the black grapes from the lab taste sweet.
A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on October 23, 2020, with the headline 'New smart urban farm takes root'.
Lead photo: Archisen co-founder and chief executive Vincent Wei (left) and chief technology officer and fellow co-founder Sven Yeo seen here with full-grown veggies from the mini version of its farming system, which will be deployed to restaurants and hotels.ST PHOTO: TIMOTHY DAVID
INDIA: Grounded Mumbai Pilots Use Hydroponics to Grow & Deliver Toxin-Free Veggies
The duo decided to grow a range of vegetables like Pak Choi, Lettuce, Red Basil, Italian Basil, Kale, Iceberg, Baby Spinach, and rocket arugula. To provide nutrients for the plants, the water runs across the UPVC pipes for 10 minutes with nutrients like magnesium, calcium, and potassium dissolved – every two minutes
Mumbai based pilots Harsh Parekh and Ishan Modi
launched the hydroponics startup FarmJet
to provide fresh toxin-free exotic vegetables
AUTHOR: HIMANSHU NITNAWARE
OCTOBER 20, 2020
What would you do if you’re cruising at 30,000 feet in the air daily and are suddenly grounded for months? Well, these pilots started a hydroponics business on their terrace. A long-held ‘project’ in the mind of Mumbai-based domestic airline pilot Harsh Parekh, the Covid-19 lockdown paved the way to bring this idea into reality.
In 2017, Harsh witnessed a lady harvesting coriander leaves opposite the Kurla local train station in Mumbai.
“The coriander and other greens were being picked up along the railway lines of the station. The visuals lingered in my mind making me think about where our food comes from,” says Harsh Parekh, a pilot.
When he learned about Hydroponics, the idea intrigued him. Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil. The nutrients are mainly introduced with the water, while the plant is rooted in coco peat, vermiculture, or rock wool. Harsh then started researching on the topic and accessing all the details required to be such a farmer.
From pilot to farmer
Hydroponics are grown in pipes where water flows through them
But it was only during the Covid-19 lockdown around March when he shared the idea with his friend, also a captain with another private airline, Ishan Modi.
“I discussed the idea with my wife Garima, and after feeling confident, shared the same with Ishan. He along with his wife Soumya agreed to come on board,” Harsh said.
The pilot said the duo worked for the entire month of April to plan and set up the startup. Living in Matunga, Harsh agreed to take the operational tasks under him, while Ishan from Borivali took up the responsibility of accounts and packaging.
“We did not have space and had to hunt one down. Luckily, a childhood friend in Chembur offered his terrace for setting up the farm,” Harsh said.
The pilot added they purposefully chose to take up outdoor farming. With the foundation in place and around Rs 10 lakh invested, the startup FarmJet officially opened in May.
“There are many indoor hydroponic farms, but that requires air conditioning and LED lights. We wanted to cut down on our carbon footprint and grow plants in a natural environment,” Harsh said, adding the farm got installed with A-structured UPVC pipes. The PVC pipes have lead in them, thus harmful to their health.
The duo decided to grow a range of vegetables like Pak Choi, Lettuce, Red Basil, Italian Basil, Kale, Iceberg, Baby Spinach, and rocket arugula.
To provide nutrients for the plants, the water runs across the UPVC pipes for 10 minutes with nutrients like magnesium, calcium, and potassium dissolved – every two minutes.
Freshness is the key
Hydroponics facility set up at a friend’s house at Chembur.
Ishan says the only selling point of the company is guaranteed freshness. “We harvest the vegetables ordered in the morning and deliver it by noon. There are no harvests without orders and storing of the vegetables,” he adds.
The hydroponics grown do not get sprayed with insecticide or pesticides. “As the greens grow without soil, the need for such products does not arise. They are completely natural through the process,” he adds.
Ishan said the freshness is guaranteed at all times. “We often send videos of the harvest to the customers. One customer even did a litmus test on our produce for chemicals which turned out negative,” he adds.
The co-founder said the initial days were quite challenging for the duo. “We started around monsoon when the sunlight is not adequate at all times. The plants could grow better in other seasons,” Ishan said.
Speaking to The Better India, Ishan added that with no workforce permitted due to Covid-19 lockdown, the entire responsibility of setting up, maintaining, and cleaning the facility was upon them.
“Moreover, the market is not so open to exotic vegetables. It is only in recent times that people are aware of such vegetables and want to try them. The taste buds are yet to develop for a majority of the people,” Ishan says.
More potential to tap
Hydroponics are grown in a germination tray before they are placed in hydroponic pots
Almost six months since its inception, the company is attending about 25-30 customers a week. “Our followers are growing by 200 a week and customers by 25 percent. However, we are still in a nascent stage to take commercial produce and build capacity,” Harsh says adding the company is catering to orders based in Mumbai for now.
However, with the resuming of flights the pilots are back in the skies. Ishan said that with their wives as stakeholders of the company, they ensure that operations do not get affected.
“We plan the operations to see that at least one of the four members are present for the operations,” Ishan added.
Harsh adds the duo wants to expand in Navi Mumbai and Thane soon. “We are also open to assisting residential societies in setting up a facility on their terrace. The terrace only gets used on New Year parties and remains vacant for the other 364 days of the year,” he said.
When asked if they plan to quit their airline job, Harsh says, “We might think it in the future, but surely not for now.”
Harsh, however, adds, “The prospect is good and gives joy. The thought that the lettuce in my burger is grown in a toxin-free environment and harvested by me has an entirely different kind of satisfaction.”
Reciprocating the thoughts, Ishan says soon they plan for customers to visit the farm, harvest their produce and experience, and enjoy a fresh green salad beside the farm.
FarmJet accepts orders at +91 9867677779.
(Edited by Vinayak Hegde)
Running A For-Profit Business With A Not-For-Profit Mission
Vertical Harvest is using controlled environment agriculture to give people with disabilities the opportunity to improve their livelihoods along with the sustainability and economies of their communities
Vertical Harvest is using controlled environment agriculture to give people with disabilities the opportunity to improve their livelihoods along with the sustainability and economies of their communities.
Jackson, Wyo., might not be the first place you think of when it comes to innovation in controlled environment agriculture. Vertical Harvest, which began operating in 2016, produces leafy greens, tomatoes, and microgreens in a 13,500-square-foot vertical greenhouse.
“From the beginning, Vertical Harvest set out to create a model that could leverage the greatest impact in communities,” said Nona Yehia, co-founder and CEO. “We are a model that is setting forth to cultivate healthy people, communities, and economies. It is through that understanding that all those things are linked to create sustainable communities. We know that successful communities are sustainable communities.”
Yehia said Vertical Harvest was born out of two critical needs in her community.
Nona Yehia, co-founder and CEO at Vertical Harvest, said her company is a model that aims
to cultivate healthy people, communities, and economies. Photos courtesy of Vertical Harvest
“Number one was that we import the vast majority of food that we eat,” she said. “By the time it arrives, it’s not that great to eat. Number two is that Jackson is a burgeoning local community, but it has never been a place that has been known to build careers. People come here to ski and party and then they leave. Business owners were having a really hard time keeping consistent employees, making it really hard to run a business.”
Creating a diverse, inclusive, and profitable workplace
One of the things most unique and innovative about Vertical Harvest is the workforce it employs.
“What was really important to me and to company co-founder Caroline Croft Estay was that Vertical Harvest would provide a place where underemployed populations could feel that they were contributing in a profitable environment,” Yehia said. “By employing people with physical and intellectual disabilities we were exposing peoples’ abilities rather than focusing on their disabilities. We were creating an employment bank that was actually beneficial to the bottom line. This was a big part of why we wanted to be a for-profit organization as well.”
From the beginning, Vertical Harvest was set up as a L3C or a benefit corporate model.
By employing people with physical and intellectual disabilities, Vertical Harvest has developed a workforce that is beneficial to the company’s bottom line.
“We wanted Vertical Harvest to be a scalable, replicable model that doesn’t have to be supported by a charitable or philanthropic organization,” Yehia said. “We wanted it to be a model that could be a part of the civic infrastructure and could perpetuate its own growth. The scalability and replicability of Vertical Harvest was why we chose the L3C model.”
Croft Estay was an employment facilitator trying to find consistent, meaningful work for her clients with physical and intellectual disabilities.
“These were people who grew up in the community, who wanted to contribute to their community and wanted to find consistent meaningful work,” Yehia said. “This is where we put food and jobs together in this vertical capacity. From the beginning, we were targeting a common problem that businesses undergo in our community.
“Right from the outset, other business owners were saying they were having this problem and they saw that Vertical Harvest was not. They asked us to help them. There is not only support for the individuals with disabilities, but there is support for the whole employee team to create a diverse inclusive workplace. The most valuable thing that we have built out of this commitment is our culture. We all know that businesses live or die on the quality of the culture that they have built. It is one of the most amazing things that we have built through this commitment to diversity and inclusion.”
Vertical Harvest, which initially built a 13,500-square-foot vertical greenhouse (shown) to
produce leafy greens, tomatoes and microgreens, is planning to expand with a 50,000-square-
foot prototype.
Developing a premium brand
Arik Griffin, who is Vertical Harvest’s chief financial officer, said one of the things the company has discovered is that part of the power of Vertical Harvest’s brand is the humanitarian good it is doing.
“People want to support us and buy our products,” Griffin said. “The restaurants and grocery stores like us for our quality and for the humanitarian message that they can get behind as do the consumers in the market place. People love our quality and they love our message. That translates into a brand premium.”
Yehia said it also helps that more people want to know where their food is coming from.
“Everybody has someone they know or a family who has a disability and the struggles that person goes through,” she said. “The reason that I am so passionate about this project is because I have a brother with a disability. At a very young age I realized he wasn’t going to have the same opportunities that I was going to have to create a career. That really resonates with people.
Vertical Harvest has expanded its customer base for its leafy greens, tomatoes and microgreens from Wyoming to include Montana and Idaho.
“We are creating opportunities and we have created an employment model where we bring out the abilities and it changes perceptions of what people are able to do. That creates a foundation of trust and strength with the community that really resonates with people, especially right now. It is what businesses can do. There is a real reward in benefitting people outside of your own stakeholder groups. This is something that is going to become more attractive as we move into 2021 and beyond.”
Unlimited expansion
Yehia has no doubt that the model Vertical Harvest has created can be profitable.
“Our incubator farm in Jackson will achieve profitability next year,” she said. “Vertical Harvest’s position in the industry is unique. There are a lot of these farms that have not succeeded. We have created a group of stakeholders who are committed to seeing Vertical Harvest and its prototype achieve profitability.
“Our two biggest hurdles that we learned are the production facility was too small to start out with and our market is too small. Jackson is a seasonal market. It is a smaller market than what our production system can produce in order to be profitable. We’ve expanded our customer base to include Montana and Idaho.
Arik Griffin, chief financial officer at Vertical Harvest, said part of the power of the company’s brand is the humanitarian good it is doing, which has been supported by its customers and consumers.
“We have worked very hard to understand the right crop mix, the correct market size, and the correct farm size that can create a return that would be attractive to social impact investors. We have created a 50,000-square-foot prototype that when placed in the right markets will succeed and that will occur quickly. We knew that we could take what we’ve learned from our successes as well as our failures to create this model that fits within the objectives of social impact finance.”
Vertical Harvest is looking at building five new greenhouses in the next five years. Its next project will be built in Westbrook, Maine, in 2021 with crop production expected to begin the following year.
“We want to bring this model to every community that we possibly can within the country and internationally,” Griffin said. “We have as our mission providing good food and good jobs to local communities. Another piece of our mission is to spread that out, to bring it to as many people as possible. We’re in the first stage of our Series A capital raise. We are raising funds in order to provide the infrastructure at the corporate level so that we can expand.
“The other thing we need to achieve this is hearing from communities and finding local stakeholders who want to do impact investing and make a difference in their communities. Bringing together the people who want to make a difference. We also need to make sure we are constantly in touch with experts in the CEA industry trying to nurture our relationships with the very best people.”
For more:
Vertical Harvest, (307) 201 4452; info@verticalharvestfarms.com; https://verticalharvestfarms.com/
This article is the property of Urban Ag News and was written by David Kuack, a freelance technical writer in Fort Worth, Texas.
Q & A With Jake Counne, Founder, Wilder Fields
Jake Counne, founder, Wilder Fields shares greens with Calumet City Mayor Michelle Markiewicz Qualkinbush
Jake Counne, founder, Wilder Fields shares greens with Calumet City Mayor Michelle Markiewicz Qualkinbush. Pictured announcing Wilder Fields’ commitment to build and operate a full-scale commercial vertical farm in a former Super Target store in Calumet City, Ill.
When Jake Counne established Backyard Fresh Farms as an incubator in 2016, he knew that most large-scale vertical farming operations were large-scale financial disappointments.
So rather than attempting to patch up the prevailing model, he and his team chose to build something new from the ground up. “Other start-ups had tried scaling their operations with antiquated greenhouse practices,” he says. “We realized that to solve the massive labor and energy problems that persist with indoor vertical farming. We needed to look to other industries that had mastered how to scale.”
That vision, and several years of persistent innovation, came to fruition in 2019 when Counne announced he would transplant the successful pilot farm—now renamed Wilder Fields—into a full-scale commercial vertical farm. It is currently under construction in an abandoned Super Target store, with an uninterrupted expanse of three acres under its roof in Calumet City, just outside Chicago.
Wilder Fields is designed to supply supermarkets and restaurants in the Chicago metro trade area,. It is scheduled to sell its first produce in the spring of 2021. It will provide fresh produce to those living in nearby food deserts in Illinois and Northwest Indiana. In this Q & A With Jake Counne, Indoor Ag-Con will share more about Jake’s vision and plans for the future.
According to an Artemis survey, only 27 percent of indoor vertical farms are profitable despite attracting $2.23 billion in investments in 2018. Why do you think a small start-up like Wilder Fields can succeed where so many have yet to earn a profit?
We started four years ago by investing our own resources. We were also working on a very limited scale in a small incubator space. I think those constraints pushed us to be more discerning about what we should tackle first. In that time, we developed an array of proprietary software and hardware, many of which have patents pending. And we refined a new paradigm for vertical farming, moving from the greenhouse model to lean manufacturing.
We also had the good fortune of starting up just as many first-wave indoor farms were closing down. So we looked at those case studies to understand what went wrong. And, what they could have done differently—what was needed to succeed. In fact, the founder of one of those first-wave farms now serves on our advisory board and really helped us identify the right blend of automation and labor.
With traditional vertical farming, the bigger you get, the more your labor costs increase. It seemed to us that the first generation of large-scale commercial vertical farms thought they could simply scale-up labor as they grew.
But we realized that operational excellence and efficiencies are essential to marry growth and profitability. It’s very hard to control a wide variety of factors using a 100 percent human workforce; for the most part, our industry has realized we need to recalibrate and find ways to automate.
This 135 thousand square foot former Super Target store in Calumet City, Ill. will soon be transformed into one of the world’s largest vertical farms. This former retail space will house 24 clean rooms with the capacity to produce 25 million leafy green plants each year.
So automation solves the problem? It’s not as simple as that.
Now the problem that the pendulum has swung a little too far in the other direction. The industry is almost hyper-focused on automation—as if automation is the answer to all of the vertical farming’s problems. It’s not. Remember when Elon Musk tried using too much automation to produce the Model 3? I believe he called his big mistake “excessive automation” and concluded that humans are underrated.
We believe well-run vertical farms, and the most profitable ones will achieve the right balance of human labor and automation. And that’s been our laser-focused goal from day one—to bring down labor costs in an intelligent way, in order to make vertical farming economically sustainable.
We also reduced costs by repurposing an existing structure rather than building a new one. We located a vacant, 135,000-square-foot Super Target in the Chicago suburb of Calumet City. What better way to farm sustainably than to build our farm in a sustainable way? Along with City leaders, we think we can help revitalize the depressed retail corridor where it is located.
To my knowledge, converting a big-box space to an indoor vertical farm has never been done before. So we also are creating a blueprint for how to impart new life to empty, expansive buildings.
We also will provide opportunities for upwardly mobile jobs and environmentally sound innovations, and produce food that promotes community health.
Vertical farming is a fairly new development. How does it fit into the history of modern agriculture?
I make an analogy with the automobile industry. Field agriculture is sort of like the combustion engine. It came first and was easy to scale up, making it available to more and more people. There were obvious downsides to it, but soon the whole world was using the combustion engine, so we kept churning them out.
But as the detrimental effects began to accumulate, we started asking ourselves how to reduce the negative impact. That’s when the auto industry came up with hybrid cars—they’re the greenhouses in this analogy—and while they were certainly a less bad solution, they weren’t really the solution.
And now we have the fully electric car and it has started outperforming combustion engines on many different levels—just as indoor vertical farming is now beginning to outperform field agriculture
Today’s business mantra holds that the more you automate, the more efficient you become. So why is vertical farming any different?
There are certain efficiencies that don’t require specialized robotics, especially if these tasks can be accomplished in other ways that sustain quality and reduce costs. For example, instead of our workers going among the plants to tend them, the plants come to the workers in an assembly-line fashion that requires fewer harvesters. So it’s always a balance between the investment in specialized machinery and the cost of the labor that it will eliminate.
And while there’s definitely room for automation, it doesn’t always require new specialized robotics. In our industry, plenty of mature automation already exists that can be used to good effects, such as automated transplanting and automated seeding: both employ proven, decades-old technology.
So when I see some other start-ups trying to reinvent these processes, it’s hard to understand. They design and build new, expensive equipment—something possible with an unlimited budget—but in fact, a more affordable, simple solution already is available.
Start-up costs are notoriously difficult to finance. How were you able to get off the ground? What advice would you have for others in the industry?
There’s no easy way to bootstrap from a small start-up to a large scale without that big infusion of capital. You’ve got to decide early on if you should try to secure venture capital from institutional folks or search out more, smaller checks from friends and family and accredited investors.
As I see it, venture capitalists look to the founders’ background and education more than a business model that needs to be tested. If you don’t have that pedigree out of the gate, it’s an uphill battle.
We chose to take a different path, one that has proven successful for me in the past. It’s one where I led a group of investors who acquired overlooked residential properties on Chicago’s South Side. We brought stability to neighborhoods and now manage a large portfolio of quality rental properties. There was no white paper when we embarked on that venture, but we shared a vision for revitalizing good housing stock.
I also tell people to explore equipment financing, which thanks to the cannabis industry has opened up more and more. It’s definitely possible to finance some of this equipment. That seems to be a good route as well.
How will vertical farming impact the types of the crops you grow?
Wilder Fields grows and will continue to grow a wonderful variety of leafy greens. Many will be new to people because they can’t be efficiently raised in a field. So we are building our product line around flavor and texture as opposed to supply-chain hardiness.
But remember, the indoor vertical farming industry is in its very early days. Soon we will have a whole new frontier of applications and crops to grow. Especially now that certain companies are offering indoor-specific seeds. We’ve seen this movie before. When greenhouse-style vertical farms first came on the scene, they used seeds that were really bred for the field. They were doing okay. But, as soon as seeds were bred specifically for that greenhouse environment, yield and quality shot through the roof.
Now that we’re on the cusp of having specialized seeds bred specifically for our purposes, I think we’re going to see that same leap in yield and quality as well.
Of course, your initial planning could not have factored in a global pandemic and ailing economy. How have the ramifications of COVID-19 affected Wilder Fields, and your industry at large?
This is a time for us to champion the benefits of indoor agriculture because vertical farming is doing really well. Any farms primarily serving restaurants obviously had a problem. Companies that pivoted away from restaurants have been able to reach consumers more than ever. They’re capitalizing on their indoor-grown—and therefore much cleaner—product.
Supermarkets are our primary market. With people cooking more at home and looking for fresher and healthier choices, they’re eating more leafy greens. This is another positive phenomenon.
The success of your model relies heavily on your proprietary technology. Do you have any plans to eventually license your innovations—to make them available to others, for a fee?
That’s a question we’ve been asked a lot, not only from our industry but also from the cannabis industry. We may revisit that opportunity in the future, but it’s not something we’re immediately considering.
Here’s why. When I first entered the industry in 2016, I noticed there were so many consultants. Many people were licensing technology, but none of them were actually using that technology to grow leafy greens at scale. They’re like the folks who sell the pickaxes and the shovels instead of mining the gold.
My perspective is, “You’ve got to venture into the mine to know what sort of shovel and pickaxe you need”; in other words, that’s how to understand what models to create for logistics and ergonomics and what tools are needed to make them work. I did not want our company to be one of those that are just sort of camping outside the mine and hawking its wares.
I think the only way we can develop a solution that’s worth its weight is by operating our own technology and equipment at scale. And I haven’t seen anybody do that yet. Is it possible that we license our technology somewhere down the road once we’ve actually proven it out at scale? Maybe; but it’s not part of our business model right now.
So, along those lines, when will Wilder Fields deliver your first produce—grown in your first full-scale commercial vertical farm—to grocers in metro Chicago?
We have committed to the end of the first quarter of next year: March 2021. In addition to this Indoor Ag-Con Q & A with Jake Counne, you can learn more about Wilder Fields visit the company website
Harvest London Invests In State-of-The-Art Vertical Farm
Harvest London has invested in its second vertical farm in the capital, transforming an empty industrial unit in Leyton into a state-of-the-art indoor farm
30th September 2020
New facility in Leyton is vertical producer’s second site in north London and the latest construction project by booming tech firm CambridgeHOK
Basil will be the farm's first crop
Harvest London has invested in its second vertical farm in the capital, transforming an empty industrial unit in Leyton into a state-of-the-art indoor farm.
The site in north London, which boasts 152 m2 of growing area, will produce herbs and certain vegetables hydroponically for local restaurants 12 months of the year.
The business currently operates from a smaller vertical farm in Walthamstow, growing leafy greens, herbs, flowering plants, and root vegetables for London restaurants.
The main benefits for chefs, according to Harvest London, will be the quality, locality, and freshness of its produce.
Matt Chlebek, chief agronomist at Harvest London, said: “This is a really exciting development for us and a huge step up from our initial facility, which we established on the back of our own research and development two years ago in Walthamstow.
“We started the business having spoken to local chefs about providing freshly grown herbs just a few miles from their kitchens, thereby reducing the distance and time from production to consumption. This was something they were excited about.
“We have worked with a number of restaurants in London over the past two years who have become excellent customers and as a result of that success we wanted to improve further and become more sophisticated in what we are doing.”
He added: “We can certainly look to increase the number of restaurants we supply now, and ask chefs what herbs they want us to grow, and when.
“The plan is to demonstrate the increasing demand at this facility and secure further investment to create more, larger vertical farms across London in the coming years.”
The new farm’s ‘grow room’, which uses energy-saving LED lighting, is controlled by automated climate and irrigation systems to aid production and maximize growth.
Harvest London will be able to control the climate remotely via their mobile phones and analyze data on yield and growing capacity.
As well as the grow room, CambridgeHOK constructed a harvesting room and production management area, where crops will be processed and made ready for collection and delivery.
First, produce off the racks at the north London farm will be basil, of which the unit can produce around seven tonnes a year. The first crop is now almost ready to be harvested just four weeks after being planted.
This is the latest project to be completed by East Yorkshire-based horticultural engineering firm CambridgeHOK, which is currently also working on a multi-million-pound strawberry glasshouse for Beeswax Dyson in Lincolnshire as well as around 30 other projects.
The tech firm is on course for its best-ever financial year amid booming investments in glasshouse and vertical production in the UK.
Chlebek and Harvest London’s chief executive Chris Davies praised CambridgeHOK for their specialist knowledge and handling of their farm’s construction.
“As a client, it is reassuring to know you are working with a company that handles every aspect of planning, design, and building a vertical farm,” said Chlebek.
“You simply wouldn’t get the same knowledge and understanding by using a number of different companies for each element of the project, as we had to do when establishing our first facility.
“The great advantage CambridgeHOK brings is that they are experienced growers. They have explained why the specific approach was being taken with regards to each element of creating the ideal environment.”
Liberty Produce & James Hutton Institute To Transform Agriculture Through Collaboration
Liberty Produce and the James Hutton Institute have been awarded UKRI funding to address the challenges of Climate Change and the food production yield-gap
1st October 2020
London and Dundee, UK
Liberty Produce and James Hutton Institute remotely sign MoU in lockdown and launch new hydrobubble project. Image credit: 2020 Liberty Produce and the Hutton.
Liberty Produce & James Hutton Institute to transform modern agriculture through collaborative research and tech development
Liberty Produce and the James Hutton Institute have been awarded UKRI funding to address the challenges of Climate Change and the food production yield-gap. This ambitious project will develop technologies to utilize captured carbon to boost yields of hydroponic crops. It further develops the growing collaboration between Liberty and the Hutton, formalized in a recently signed Memorandum of Understanding.
By bringing together farmers, technologists, and scientists, the team will develop a unique 'hydrobubble' technology that will deliver significant benefits across the sector. This project will develop cutting-edge technology that will make nutrient delivery to crop roots more effective, efficient, and sustainable.
Through the injection of gas-enriched micro and nano-sized gas bubbles into the irrigation water, ‘hydrobubbles’ have the potential to boost plant growth in hydroponic systems by up to 30%.
The miniature sizes of these bubbles cause them to be negatively charged and electrostatically attracted to plant roots, where they cluster to provide an on-going additional gas resource to the plant.
This approach has proven benefits to plant yield with research demonstrating a marked improvement in root development, fresh weight, and the synthesis of specific plant biocompounds in a number of crop varieties.
This inaugural ‘hydrobubbles’ project is a milestone in the collaborative relationship between the James Hutton Institute and Liberty Produce that will push the boundaries of the vertical farming sector and accelerate its growth in the UK and globally.
A Memorandum of Understanding between the two organizations was recently signed by Professor Lesley Torrance, Executive Director of Science of the James Hutton Institute, and Alex Giles, Commercial Director of Liberty Produce.
Technological solutions are urgently required to overcome the challenges of productivity and sustainable production. This project and the cooperative relationship between Liberty Produce and the Hutton marks a step towards delivering those technological solutions and groundbreaking research through a collaborative multi-disciplinary approach.
Alexander Giles of Liberty Produce commented, “We are delighted to formalize our relationship with the Hutton. Even before the MoU was signed, the collaboration between our organizations has yielded incredible results and we’re excited to continue to work with the Hutton to push the boundaries of research and technology development, which will transform modern agriculture.”
Professor Lesley Torrance, Executive Director of Science of the James Hutton Institute, added: “Our collaboration with Liberty Produce marks the next step in the growth of our Open Science Campus initiative and brings new innovative companies to work closely with world-leading science. This has been facilitated by the Tay Cities Deal funding of an Advanced Plant Growth Centre in Invergowrie and our other new investments there and builds on our track record of engaging with industry, research partners, and the public.”
About Liberty Produce
Liberty Produce is a farming technology company founded in 2018 to drive innovations that will enable us to meet our global crop requirements over the next century, without harming the planet.
As experts in the development of technology (from advanced lighting systems to machine learning for integrated control systems) for the breadth of indoor agriculture (from glasshouses to Totally Controlled Environment Agriculture systems), Liberty delivers research and products that consistently push boundaries.
Liberty Produce develops and builds systems that reduce operational costs with enhanced resource efficiency, improve yields, and increase sustainability for greater food security through the growth of local produce year-round. www.liberty-produce.com
For further information contact:
Benita Rajania
+44 20 3290 8801
About James Hutton Institute
The James Hutton Institute is a world-leading, multi-site scientific organisation encompassing a distinctive range of integrated strengths in land, crop, waters, environmental and socio-economic science. The Institute takes its name from the 18th-century Scottish Enlightenment scientist, James Hutton, widely regarded as the founder of geology and agronomist. www.hutton.ac.uk
For further information contact:
Bernardo Rodriguez-Salcedo
Bernardo.RodriguezSalcedo@hutton.ac.uk
+44 (0)1224 395089 or +44 (0)7791 193918.
About Innovate UK
Innovate UK drives productivity and economic growth by supporting businesses to develop and realise the potential of new ideas. We connect businesses to the partners, customers and investors that can help them turn ideas into commercially successful products and services and business growth. We fund business and research collaborations to accelerate innovation and drive business investment into R&D. Our support is available to businesses across all economic sectors, value chains and UK regions. Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation.
Liberty Produce, The James Hutton Institute, Errol Road, Dundee, Tayside DD2 5DA, UK, +44 20 3290 8801
Berlin-Based Infarm Raises €144 Million During Pandemic To Grow Largest Urban Vertical Farming Network In The World
Founded in Berlin in 2013 by Osnat Michaeli and the brothers Erez and Guy Galonska, Infarm is dedicated to creating a future where local super fresh produce is available for everyone
September 17, 2020
Today German startup Infarm, one of the world’s fastest-growing urban farming networks, has announced an approx. €144 million investment raised in the first close of a Series C funding round expected to reach around €169 million. Led by LGT Lightstone, the first round included participation by investors Hanaco, Bonnier, Haniel, and Latitude and was supported by existing Infarm investors Atomico, TriplePoint Capital, Mons Capital, and Astanor Ventures.
Founded in Berlin in 2013 by Osnat Michaeli and the brothers Erez and Guy Galonska, Infarm is dedicated to creating a future where local super fresh produce is available for everyone. The farms are placed in various locations in the city, like supermarkets, restaurants, and distribution centers, so that vegetables grow and are harvested close to the moment of purchase or consumption.
These controlled, growing environments are connected to a central cloud-based farm-brain which gathers more than 50,000 data points through a plant’s lifetime, allowing the platform to learn, adapt and improve itself constantly so that every plant grows better than the one before. This modular, data-driven, and distributed approach — a combination of big data, IoT, and cloud analytics, in addition to rapid growth at a global scale — sets Infarm apart from any other urban farming solution.
With a mix of equity and debt financing, the scaleup’s fresh capital infusion brings Infarm’s total funding to date to more than €254 million, underscoring consumer and retailer appetite for Infarm’s innovative approach to fresh, sustainable and local food production in the wake of this year’s pandemic. By 2025, Infarm’s farming network is expected to reach more than 5,000,000 square feet to become the largest distributed farming network in the world as it builds towards helping cities become self-sufficient in their food production.
The investment will be used to deepen the regional and local reach of Infarm’s global farming network and complete the development of Infarm’s new generation of vertical cloud-connected farms, capable of generating the crop-equivalent of acres of farmland and amplifying the diversity of produce currently available through vertical farming. An integration of advanced engineering, software and farming technology, these farms will save labor, land, water, energy, and food-miles while contributing to a more sustainable food system.
Erez Galonska, Co-founder and CEO of Infarm said: “The coronavirus pandemic has put a global spotlight on the urgent agricultural and ecological challenges of our time. At Infarm, we believe there’s a better, healthier way to feed our cities: increasing access to fresh, pure, sustainable produce, grown as close as possible to people. As we scale to 5,000,000 sq ft in farming facilities across Europe, North American and Asia by 2025, this investment will help us make a truly global impact through our network, preserving the thousands of acres of land, millions of liters of water, and ultimately change the way people grow, eat and think about food.”
In the past 12 months alone, Infarm has formed new partnerships with the world’s largest retailers, including Albert Heijn (Netherlands), Aldi Süd (Germany), COOP/Irma (Denmark), Empire Company Ltd (Sobeys, Safeway, Thrifty Foods – Canada), Kinokuniya (Japan), Kroger (United States), Marks & Spencer (United Kingdom) and Selfridges (United Kingdom), driving market expansion beyond Germany, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland to the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Japan.
With operations across 10 countries and 30 cities worldwide, Infarm harvests 500,000+ plants monthly and growing while using 99.5% less space than soil-based agriculture, 95% less water, 90% less transport and zero chemical pesticides. Today, 90% of electricity use throughout the Infarm network is from renewable energy and the company has set a target to reach zero emission food production next year.
Dharmash Mistry, Partner of LGT Lightstone said: “We are excited to partner with the Infarm team to accelerate their urban vertical farm vision, ultimately creating a more sustainable food system for a growing population. Fresher, tastier & healthier food using 95% less land & water, no pesticides and 90% less transport. With over $1 billion of customer demand, partnerships with 17 of the top 50 global grocers, Infarm is set to revolutionize the market behind a unique ‘demand led’ modular business model. We look forward to working with Erez, Guy & Osnat to create a better, healthier & tastier future.”
Pasha Romanovski, Co-founding Partner of Hanaco Ventures said: “We are big believers in vertical farming as we see the traditional industry going through (much needed) rapid disruption these days. We were deeply impressed by Infarm’s founders and management, with their ability to move fast and execute. What is extremely appealing about Infarm is their innovative and modular approach, using cutting edge technology that unlocks added value throughout the supply chain, benefiting both the retailers and end-customers. We see a massive demand in the market for sustainable, environment-friendly, and healthy food – and Infarm has just the right team in place to make this happen.”