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Vertical Greenhouse Production Becoming Popular In Turkey
Turkey is looking to improve its position in the global agriculture market and has directed its focus to vertical greenhouses
Turkey is looking to improve its position in the global agriculture market and has directed its focus to vertical greenhouses.
Vertical greenhouses are expected to triple within the next 30 years and they will bring significant savings in transportation, environmental and energy costs. Vertical greenhouses are expected to be built specifically in major cities in order to save space and to prevent price increase in agricultural products. Additionally, it will create more jobs for the people living in the area.
Vertical greenhouse production is also identified by the government as one of the most important investment areas and the government is offering grants and no-interest credits through state bank programs.
Growers can receive as many as 8 times more products from vertical greenhouses compared to other production methods and it also has significant environmental benefits due to less waste coming from the production process. Irrigation requirements for vertical greenhouses are also less than other production methods and with the right equipment, growers can grow 240 root plants in one square meter.
Source: Yeni Asir
Publication date: 7/4/2019
Perspectives on Business Strategy and Economics of Vertical Agriculture
Indoor Ag Science Café is a monthly based open forum for indoor growers and scientists. Anyone is welcome to participate to better understand and support this emerging industry
By urbanagnews
March 26, 2019
Two economists at MSU Product Center Food-Ag-Bio, Michigan State University, Chris Peterson and Simone Valle de Souza were presenting “Perspectives on the business strategy and economics of vertical agriculture”.
Chris started out this month’s Café presentation by giving a strategic overview of indoor agriculture industry, followed by Simone’s proposed model-based optimization approach including crop yield model, market demand and costs.
Simone emphasized the need of data usable for analyses. Increasing profitability by minimizing the costs alone does not seem to help establish profitable indoor ag industry, and so value proposition seems to be critical to feed into this optimization model.
They are recruiting potential partners of indoor farms in this project.
Indoor Ag Science Café is a monthly based open forum for indoor growers and scientists. Anyone is welcome to participate to better understand and support this emerging industry.
TAGS Business Chieri Kubota Indoor Ag Sci Cafe Michigan State University
Living Greens Farm Becomes One of The Largest Indoor Farms In The World
FARIBAULT, MINN. – With the opening of a new grow room, Living Greens Farm, a vertical, indoor aeroponic farm that provides year-round fresh salads, microgreens and herbs, is set to become the largest vertical plane aeroponic farm in the world on February 22, 2019. This brings their farming operation to 60,000 square feet – allowing Living Greens to offer produce that’s better for you and the environment. Unlike most produce, Living Greens Farm never uses pesticides, herbicides or GMOs – delivering the highest standards in food safety. Because Living Greens’ products are fresher, they contain more vitamins and nutrients than conventional produce.
While aeroponics has been around for decades, Living Greens Farm has discovered a way to successfully transition and improve this technology for commercial production. Aeroponics is the practice of suspending a plant’s roots in the air and spraying them with a nutrient-rich solution, instead of burying them in soil. Living Greens Farms’ patented vertical plane design allows one acre to produce the equivalent of hundreds of conventional acres.
A high-tech computer system manages the plants growing conditions for variables such as light, temperature, humidity and CO2 to grow year-round produce. Overall, Living Greens Farms’ system uses 200 times less land and 95 percent less water than traditional growing methods. While other vertical aeroponic farms are larger in square footage, Living Greens Farms’ vertical plane design is the first of its kind and is more efficient than other aeroponic growing methods which decreases labor by up to 60 percent.
“Our patented growing technology has changed the game of aeroponics, within one year our new farm will save 24 million gallons of water and several hundred thousand miles of shipping – saving over 35,000 gallons of diesel and nearly a million pounds of CO2 emissions,” said Dana Anderson, Chairman and CEO of Living Greens Farm. “With our third grow room, Living Greens Farm will nearly triple its capacity, move into major market segments and position the company for even stronger growth in 2019. The expansion places Living Greens as the world’s largest vertical plane aeroponic farm in the world.”
Living Greens Farm’s new grow room will allow an expansion of their consumer product line into new states including Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota by February 2019.
ABOUT LIVING GREENS FARM
Headquartered in Minnesota, Living Greens Farm is the world’s largest vertical plane aeroponic farm. Living Greens Farm produce requires 95 water and 99 percent less land to grow year-round and all products are grown without pesticides or GMOs. Living Greens Farm has a full product line that includes salads, microgreens and herbs available throughout the Midwest. For more information, please visit http://www.livinggreensfarm.com
How Urban Farmers Are learning To Grow Food Without Soil Or Natural Light
How Urban Farmers Are learning To Grow Food Without Soil Or Natural Light
February 13, 2018
Mandy Zammit/Grow Up, Author provided
Author
- Silvio Caputo
Senior Lecturer, University of Portsmouth
Disclosure statement
Silvio Caputo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Partners
University of Portsmouth provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK.
Growing food in cities became popular in Europe and North America during and immediately after World War II. Urban farming provided citizens with food, at a time when resources were desperately scarce. In the decades that followed, parcels of land which had been given over to allotments and city farms were gradually taken up for urban development. But recently, there has been a renewed interest in urban farming – albeit for very different reasons than before.
As part of a recent research project investigating how urban farming is evolving across Europe, I found that in countries where growing food was embedded in the national culture, many people have started new food production projects. There was less uptake in countries such as Greece and Slovenia, where there was no tradition of urban farming. Yet a few community projects had recently been started in those places too.
Today’s urban farmers don’t just grow food to eat; they also see urban agriculture as a way of increasing the diversity of plants and animals in the city, bringing people from different backgrounds and age groups together, improving mental and physical health and regenerating derelict neighbourhoods.
Many new urban farming projects still struggle to find suitable green spaces. But people are finding inventive solutions; growing food in skips or on rooftops, on sites that are only temporarily free, or on raised beds in abandoned industrial yards. Growers are even using technologies such as hydroponics, aquaculture and aquaponics to make the most of unoccupied spaces.
Something fishy
Hydroponic systems were engineered as a highly space and resource efficient form of farming. Today, they represent a considerable source of industrially grown produce; one estimate suggests that, in 2016, the hydroponic vegetable market was worth about US$6.9 billion worldwide.
Hydroponics enable people to grow food without soil and natural light, using blocks of porous material where the plants’ roots grow, and artificial lighting such as low-energy LED. A study on lettuce production found that although hydroponic crops require significantly more energy than conventionally grown food, they also use less water and have considerably higher yields.
Growing hydroponic crops usually requires sophisticated technology, specialist skills and expensive equipment. But simplified versions can be affordable and easy to use.
Hemmaodlat is an organisation based in Malmö, in a neighbourhood primarily occupied by low-income groups and immigrants. The area is densely built, and there’s no green space available to grow food locally. Plus, the Swedish summer is short and not always ideal for growing crops. Instead, the organisation aims to promote hydroponic systems among local communities, as a way to grow fresh food using low-cost equipment.
The Bristol Fish Project is a community-supported aquaponics farm, which breeds fish and uses the organic waste they produce to fertilise plants grown hydroponically. GrowUp is another aquaponics venture located in an East London warehouse – they grow food and farm fish using only artificial light. Similarly, Growing Underground is an enterprise that produces crops in tunnels, which were originally built as air raid shelters during World War II in London.
The next big thing?
The potential to grow food in small spaces, under any environmental conditions, are certainly big advantages in an urban context. But these technologies also mean that the time spent outdoors, weathering the natural cycles of the seasons, is lost. Also, hydroponic systems require nutrients that are often synthesised chemically – although organic nutrients are now becoming available. Many urban farmers grow their food following organic principles, partly because the excessive use of chemical fertilisers is damaging soil fertilityand polluting groundwater.
To see whether these drawbacks would put urban growers off using hydroponic systems, my colleagues and I conducted a pilot study in Portsmouth. We installed small hydroponic units in two local community gardens, and interviewed volunteers and visitors to the gardens. Many of the people we spoke to were well informed about hydroponic technology, and knew that some of the vegetables sold in supermarkets today are produced with this system.
Many were fascinated by the idea of growing food without soil within their community projects, but at the same time reluctant to consume the produce because of the chemical nutrients used. A few interviewees were also uncomfortable with the idea that the food was not grown naturally. We intend to repeat this experiment in the near future, to see how public opinion changes over time.
And while we don’t think hydroponic systems can replace the enjoyment that growing food in soil can offer, they can save water and produce safe food, either indoors or outdoors, in a world with increasingly scarce resources. Learning to use these new technologies, and integrating them into existing projects, can only help to grow even more sustainable food.
As with many technological advancements, it could be that a period of slow acceptance will be followed by rapid, widespread uptake. Perhaps the fact that IKEA is selling portable hydroponic units, while hydroponic cabinets are on the market as components of kitchen systems, is a sign that this technology is primed to enter mainstream use.
Vincent Callebaut’s Arboricole Tower Brings Vertical Agriculture To The City
Vincent Callebaut Architectures, known for green projects that combine smart building with advanced renewable energy solutions, has officially unveiled Arboricole – a new “biophilic” building that brings agriculture to the urban landscape.
Vincent Callebaut’s Arboricole Tower Brings Vertical Agriculture To The City
Vincent Callebaut Architectures, known for green projects that combine smart building with advanced renewable energy solutions, has officially unveiled Arboricole – a new “biophilic” building that brings agriculture to the urban landscape. Residents of the building can grow food on their own terraces thanks to permaculture, with the building’s curved, sinuous design acting to reduce turbulence and maximize comfort in these elevated gardens.
- Arboricole aims to answer a vital question: how can we adapt our European historic cities to climate change and the ensuing phenomena of strong floods, heavy rains, and current heat waves? To help combat these events, the building is covered with endemic plants from the Loire region that act as a “sponge,” limiting its carbon footprint, collecting rainwater, and optimizing the residents’ quality of life.
Related: Vincent Callebaut’s twisting carbon-absorbing skyscraper nears completion in Taipei
White tuffeau stone covers the building’s wave-shaped facade. The architects drew inspiration from the agriculture of the Angevin groves, whose undulating plateaus create a visually engaging waterfall effect. Designed for the intersection of Boulevard Ayrault and Quai Gambetta in Angers, France, the building gradually rises to 114 feet (35 meters) and maximizes the amount of sunshine each terrace receives during the day.
Related: This plant-covered Singapore skyscraper is the tropical building of the future
Micro-perforated satin aluminum plates serve as false acoustic ceilings for the balconies, absorbing the noise pollution emitted by car traffic and showcasing the plant life climbing Arboricole’s vertical grove. And, not to be outdone, the plants themselves – 20,000 perennials, shrubs, and trees – could absorb up to 50 tons of CO2 in Angers’s atmosphere each year.
Letter From The Chairwoman of The AVF (2018)
The Association for Vertical Farming is evolving from an emerging movement into an industry organization ready for the next steps.
Letter From The Chairwoman of The AVF (2018)
FEBRUARY 21, 2018 URBAN AG NEWS
A Letter from AVF Chairwoman Christine Zimmermann-Loessl
Dear AVF Members,
The Association for Vertical Farming is evolving from an emerging movement into an industry organization ready for the next steps. To quote Alibaba founder and philanthropist Jack Ma, “The next generation of globalization should be inclusive and create opportunities for young people to get involved. The last 30 years of globalization was controlled by 60,000 big companies. In the next 30 years, we will have 6 or 16 or 60 million companies get involved in globalization.”
At the AVF, we have taken this quote to heart based on experience from the past and with members feedback, we are adjusting the overall AVF strategy by bringing changes to the board and staff to ensure that the Association is ready and able to pick up the priorities that we agreed on at the Annual General Meeting in Munich on the 1st of December 2017.
We will want to engage with our members at the core of our mission and interact more effectively with policy makers, the horticulture industry and our partners. Also important is the further development of our global network of members and acquisition of new members – to meet that goal we are planning an upcoming AVF summit in Hong Kong in September.
The AVF is now developing into a more professional organization. We are changing the way we work and in the course of that process we have also made some changes to AVF staff. A few well-known names have now moved on in a different direction, such as Henry Gordon Smith, Zjef van Acker and Mark Horler. I would like to thank them for the contributions they have made to the Association in the past years and wish them all the best in their future in the vertical farming industry.
With this, the AVF team is looking forward to helping our members turn 2018 into a successful and prosperous year and encourage all of you to reach out to us with your ideas and suggestions @ members@vertical-farming.net.
New AVF Staff – Our team is eager to work with you and help you succeed.
Anne Flour, European Affairs Manager,
Anne is a highly motivated EU Project Manager with extensive experience in agriculture and environment. As an independent, she supports organisations to thrive in the European Union context.
Gus van der Feltz, Head of Member Relations
Gus is a self-employed entrepreneur and Vertical Farming expert. Between 2014 and 2017 Gus was responsible for Vertical Farming at Philips and Philips Lightning
Yanni Garica Postigo Operations Manager,
Yanni is the co-founder of PlantHive. Formerly business controller @ St. Gilles Municipality, International-minded and curious!
New Board of Directors
Thomas Zöllner, Vice-Chairman
Tom is an entrepreneur and expert for innovation in agri-tech, with a solid base in the Vertical Farming Industry.
Penny McBride, Vice-Chairwoman
Penny is a start-up/strategic advisor in the urban agriculture industry in the US and internationally.
Key objectives for the Association for Vertical Farming in 2018 / 2019:
1. Standardization and Certification (S&C): With our members, AVF will lay out the groundwork for standards and reference data for agri-tech crop production. We will soon announce a proposal for committee composition and the roadmap for partnerships with our members and regional organizations.
2. Education (E): The AVF will facilitate education & training for the agri-tech industry while integrating a new e-learning platform. Additionally, we will strive to publish relevant industry white papers in multiple languages to help distribute knowledge into the global market.
3. Policy Advocacy (PA): Policy development, already started with the successful Summit in Washington DC, will continue to foster advocacy with policymakers, pursue grant opportunities, partnerships and lobby on behalf of the members in the EU and USA. We have established an office in Brussels and registered officially as a lobby organization at the EU.
Finally, a short reminder of membership payment – please remit, membership is due 01. January of each Year. If you have not received your invoice yet, please contact us at info@vertical-farming.net
Vertical Farm A Towering Feat For Diablo Valley College, Pleasant Hill, CA, Community
Vertical Farm A Towering Feat For Diablo Valley College, Pleasant Hill, CA, Community
Shannon Richey, Assistant editor
March 12, 2018
Keren Pasule sets about inspecting a series of capped PVC tubes, each with a tidy row of holes drilled into it, stacked on a utility shelf in the balmy greenhouse in the DVC Horticulture Area.
She makes her way over to an empty fish tank, explaining that it will eventually be stocked with roach fish, providing a nutrient rich water source for growing a variety of lettuces.
Pasule, 19, a biochemistry major, is the project manager for DVC’s Vertical Farming Club, which is in the process of constructing an aquaponic vertical farming system.
Unlike traditional methods of farming, which require large swaths of land and soil, a plentiful water supply, and a favorable climate, vertical farming takes place indoors, in grow beds stacked vertically. Crops are grown without soil, with necessary nutrients being delivered through an irrigation system of recirculating water, while LED lights provide a replacement for sunlight.
“Vertical farming is the future of farming,” wrote Peter Swenson, chair of the club, noting that the system offers solutions for many of the issues facing food security and current farming practices.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that there needs to be 50 percent more food for an additional 2.3 billion people by 2050, with two-thirds of that global population living in densely packed urban environments. As already declining rural populations age, the traditional agricultural workforce will dwindle further, creating a significant deficit.
The FAO also point out that roughly 1.3 billion tons of global food production is lost or wasted annually due to natural disasters, spoilage, and long transportation routes.
Through technology and simply by nature of being indoors, they are able to avoid some of the environmental consequences and hardships, such as droughts, infestations and hurricanes, beleaguering traditional farms with increasing frequency.
In vertical farms, conditions can be specifically regulated to replicate an optimal growing climate. Water is recycled, requiring significantly less of it. There is no fertilizer runoff into the water supply of natural habitats and little to no need for pesticides.
Such operations can be woven into the urban fabric, often springing up in warehouses, repurposed shipping containers and even skyscrapers. The food is available fresh to the surrounding community, eliminating long haul shipping routes, along with their associated CO2 emissions.
And most importantly said Ryan Moschiano, 23, a horticulture major and Vertical Farming Club member, “It takes up a lot less space.”
Because crops are stacked vertically, the amount of land needed to yield a large amount of agricultural product is significantly reduced.
A study by Stanford University, in partnership with the Institute for Food and Resource Economics at the University of Bonn in Germany, found that a vertical farm in Berlin, built on two-thirds of an acre, standing 37 stories tall, yielded 516 times more produce on average than a traditional farm with as much land.
That’s 3, 573 tons of edible fruit and vegetables for neighboring residents and restaurants.
According to the study, one hurtle that seems to stand in the way of vertical farms taking off on a large scale is cost. Certain factors, like the hydroponic nutrients they use as a substitute for soil, are more expensive than in traditional farming.
But the vertical farming students at DVC have created a work around for this problem.
It may sound less than savory, but the roach fish will create waste which possesses the nutrients that the plants need to flourish. By filtering the water through the fish tank they can eliminate the need for artificial nutrients thus creating a more feasible, cost-effective system.
Swenson points out that finding these kinds of solutions requires a cross-disciplinary team. Vertical farming offers students the opportunity to learn about and apply skills in horticulture, engineering and project management.
Brandon Chan, 22, an engineering major and club member said, “I like the idea of being able to design a sustainable system and then build it from the ground up.”
The Vertical Farming Club hopes to build a system that sustains itself for years to come and eventually partner with the culinary program on campus to deliver the fresh, high quality produce that they grow.
“We want this to be a community asset, something that really benefits DVC in the long run,” said Pasule.
Keren Pasule, 19, biochemistry major and Vertical Farming Club project manager, works in the greenhouse in the DVC Horticulture area on Feb 23rd. She and the rest of the club are creating a sustainable vertical farming system to grow vegetables in layered beds.
To learn more about the club visit https://chem.libretexts.org/LibreTexts/Diablo_Valley_College/Vertical_Farming_Project
This Hydroponic Farm Is Speeding Up NYC's Farm-To-Table Process
Hydroponic farming is becoming an increasingly popular option in cities with a high demand for fresh produce. Farm One is one such system that is providing their restaurant clientele with microgreens, herbs, and edible flowers grown right in Manhattan, Inhabitat reports.
This Hydroponic Farm Is Speeding Up NYC's Farm-To-Table Process
BY AIMEE LUTKIN
March 1, 2018
Hydroponic farming is becoming an increasingly popular option in cities with a high demand for fresh produce. Farm One is one such system that is providing their restaurant clientele with microgreens, herbs, and edible flowers grown right in Manhattan, Inhabitat reports. They claim they can reach 90 percent of their buyers by bike within 30 minutes. That's fresh.
Farm One is part of the Institute of Culinary Education, so it's a place for learning chefs as well—which is also a great way to build up a network of people who know about and support it. The hydroponic farm was built in April of 2016, with 150 different varieties of crops on rotation.
The space was developed by urban agriculture firm Agritecture, whose managing director Henry Gordon-Smith told Green Matters in an email that it's a really special place that is building a roadmap for future hydroponic growing technology.
"Farm One isn't like other vertical farms: for one, they grow the most unique and rare crops on demand for the most curious and sophisticated chefs. Additionally, each farm is optimized to match the urban site they set up an operation in, embracing the positive attributes of the space to the demands of their customers. Farm One is leading the way in the production of crops that have often never been grown in vertical farms to inspire chefs, cities, and customers to ignite their senses with the future of local agriculture," wrote Gordon-Smith.
The indoor farm is lit by LEDs, and the interior is monitored for conditions that are primed to grow greens. They use zero pesticides or herbicides, and the hydroponic system requires 95 percent less water than in a traditional garden. The main waste product from the enterprise is plant matter, which is composted.
Farm One is also committed to variety. They say on their website that they "scour the world" for "rare seeds" in an effort to promote biodiversity. It also doesn't hurt that the growers are themselves chefs, which means an interest in variety and flavor for its own sake. The farm is growing, but remains committed to staying local and minimizing travel time for their produce. If you can grow lettuce in the basement, you never need to eat a wilted leaf again.
The Farm of The Future Is Magenta
The Farm of The Future Is Magenta
After the US, guess what country is the second largest exporter of food by dollar value? The Netherlands. One of the smallest countries in the world has become one of the biggest exporters of food.
Dutch farmers have become masters of indoor farming, as National Geographic reports. With advanced greenhouses using LED lights, hydroponics and more, they're able to grow more food, faster and in a smaller space. It's a growing trend (pun intended).
Lighting is one of the biggest costs of indoor farming, but some wavelengths (colors) of visible light are more useful than others. Magenta, for example, is a favorite of green plants. Quantum dots are can be tuned to produce magenta light efficiently.
By using wavelengths the plants want most, less overall light and power needs to be used. No power is wasted creating green wavelengths that a specific plant species doesn't need, for example.
Lights augmented by quantum dots can promote faster growth, not just on a per-plant basis, but even depending on where that plant is in its growing cycle. Certain wavelengths can be used for a young plant, and slightly different wavelengths for a more mature plant.
Researchers have also been able to grow plants faster. Nanoco, makers of the lights you see in the image at the right and above, claim that in some cases plants can grow twice as fast as with standard LED lights.
Quantum dots could be the key to indoor farms producing significantly more food, or small farms being able to produce vastly more food. Indoor farms can also exist in places not typically conducive to farming, such as the cities where most of the world now lives.
And if you look even further ahead, this would be a pretty fantastic way for us to grow a lot of food quickly in space, on the Moon or Mars, and beyond.
Bringing New Technology In Farming To The Emirates
Bringing New Technology In Farming To The Emirates
The new pay – off of Levarht ‘Bringing the best together’ is matching our new project in the Emirates in full. Together with our business partner GrowGroup, we are bringing technology in vertical and horizontal farming to the next level. In close cooperation with our knowledge partners Philips Lighting, Rijk Zwaan, and Delphy. All specialists sharing their unique expertise and knowledge in making this new venture a success!
Green Factory
In Al Ain, in the United Arab Emirates, we will set up a sustainable green factory for the production of lettuce, baby leaves and herbs in a chemical-free environment. A unique combination of vertical & horizontal farming, with our own propagation area. And in addition to that a connected packing facility, which allows us to mix and pack 100% clean mix salads. Non washed and all ready-to-eat.
Tasty, Fresh & Clean, the perfect match
Our joint objective is to serve the final consumer fresh lettuces and herbs, and completely free from any chemicals or other forms of crop-protection. By selecting the tastiest crops, the strongest varieties and creating a clean production, we are able to serve the consumer the best produce within 24 hours after harvest … ready-to-eat. Because our products are so clean, we don’t even have to wash before packing.
Sustainability, the future of farming
By creating a completely closed environment in production, using the latest generation of LED lighting, we can reduce the usage of water and energy to a minimum.
We also see a great opportunity in growing closer to the stores and the final consumer. Local production enables us to reduce mileage and imports. So not only fresher produce on the shelves, but also a step forward in protecting the environment.
Bringing the best together
We have found in each other strong partners, who share the philosophy of not only changing but especially improving farming technics and serving the consumer fresher, cleaner and tastier product. Partners sharing their unique expertise … the best example of “Bringing the best together”.
January 30th, 2018
One of The World's Largest Indoor Farms Is Located in Faribault, Minnesota
One of The World's Largest Indoor Farms Is Located in Faribault, Minnesota
February 28, 2018
Living Greens Farm's founder, president, and chairman Dana Anderson is the brains behind one of the largest indoor farms in the world. And as it turns out, it's located right here in Faribault! To keep this huge production running, Anderson utilizes a computer system to control different aspects of the farming process such as light, CO2, humidity, and temperature. All of that combined with aeroponics is what makes Living Greens Farm so successful!
For those of you that don't know, aeroponics is when you grow plants upside down and, instead of planting the roots in soil, they are sprayed with a nutrient-rich solution.
Aeroponics was by no means invented by Anderson, but he did invent and patent the vertical growing and traversing misting systems which is a super efficient way of farming. Kind of reminds me of a Miracle-Gro AeroGarden. According to Anderson in his interview with Twin Cities Business, it's "the fastest way to grow plants." Living Greens Farm recently expanded and they have even more room to grow in the future.
Currently, the farm's greens are being sold in Lunds & Byerlys, some Cub Foods, and Hy-vee stores, Fresh Thyme, as well as other food co-ops.