BrightFarms’ Indoor Farming System Lands $30M to Grow

Consumers can easily make garden salads year round because grocery stores get their greens from farms across the country where items like lettuce are always in season. But those leafy greens and tomatoes don’t necessarily have to travel hundreds of miles to reach salad plates.

Agtech startup BrightFarms uses indoor farming to try to shorten grocery store supply chains, and also lower costs by using less land, water, transportation fuel, and pesticides than traditional farming. The New York-based company announced last week that it raised $30.1 million from investors to take this greenhouse model to new markets across the country.

The BrightFarms investment eclipses the $18 million raised by Harrisonburg, VA-based Shenandoah Growers earlier this year. That company, which sells herbs and herb plants grown in its greenhouses, raised funds from S2G Ventures and Middleland Capital, according to AgFunder. Despite those deals, indoor agriculture remains a small part of overall agtech investment.

The technologies claiming most of the $1.8 billion in global agtech investments in the first half of the year were food e-commerce, biomaterials and biochemicals, soil and crop technology, and precision agriculture, according to AgFunder. That six-month total marked a 20 percent decline compared to the same period in 2015. Indoor agriculture accounted for $21 million across 10 deals in the first half of 2016—just 1 percent of all agtech funding raised and just 3 percent of all deal flow, according to AgFunder. Still, a number of startups, including BrightFarms, are betting on consumer and investor interest in indoor farming.

The indoor farming market is shaking out into several segments. BrightFarms is a food supplier, distributing the food it grows to contracted retailers, who in turn sell the produce to consumers. That’s the same approach taken by Brooklyn, NY-based startup Edenworks, which grows produce inside a warehouse and supplies stores in New York. Other companies are providing businesses with the hardware to do their own indoor farming. Atlanta-based PodPonics, for example, sells shipping containers and software to manage food-growing operations inside them. Boston-based Freight Farms also sells refashioned shipping containers outfitted with LED lights and climate controls.

Some startups are bringing indoor growing options directly to consumers. Somerville, MA-based Grove sells high-tech growing cabinets that consumers can place in their homes. And Cambridge, MA-based SproutsIO, which like Grove shares MIT roots, has developed a microfarming system that fits on a kitchen countertop.

All of these startups pledge to provide locally grown food that reduces water use and eliminates pesticides. For its part, BrightFarms claims its greenhouses use 80 percent less water, 90 percent less land, and 95 percent less shipping fuel compared with crops grown outdoors and shipped to market via conventional supply chains.

BrightFarms currently operates greenhouses near Chicago, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. It says it has long-term, fixed price contracts to provide produce to several supermarket companies including Mariano’s, a Chicago-area grocery retailer owned by Kroger (NYSE: KR); ShopRite, whose footprint includes New York and New Jersey; and Giant Foods, which has stores in the central Atlantic states.

When BrightFarms opened its newest greenhouse in Illinois, CEO Paul Lightfoot told the Chicago Tribune that the 160,000 square-foot facility cost about $10 million, which included land acquisition and construction. In the funding announcement, the company did not say where it will use the fresh capital to expand.

Frank Vinluan is a contributing editor at Xconomy, based in Research Triangle Park. You can reach him at fvinluan@xconomy.com  Follow @frankvinluan

High Times: Vertical Farming Is On the Rise — But Can It Save the Planet?

Farming as we know it is failing. Mom-and-pop operations are struggling to survive and Big Ag cares far more about its bottom line than about your health, or the health of the planet. Ecologists, anti-GMO activists, even sticker-shocked soccer moms in the produce aisle agree: It’s time for a revolution. Now, some experts are saying, this revolution may come via vertical farming, in which produce is grown indoors, in stacked layers. After years of technological trial and error, the practice is primed for blastoff.

The basic idea is not new. For centuries, indigenous people in South America pioneered layered farming techniques, and the term “vertical farming” was coined by geologist Gilbert Ellis Bailey in 1915. But the need for its large-scale implementation has never been greater. Under our current system, U.S. retail food prices are rising faster than inflation rates, and the number of “food insecure” people in the country — those without reliable access to affordable, nutritious options — is greater than it was before the era of agricultural industrialization began in the 1960s. And we’re only looking at more mouths to feed; according to the UN, the world’s population will skyrocket to 9.7 billion by 2050, an increase of more than 2.5 billion people.

Additionally, climate change is threatening the sustainability of our current food production system. Rising temperatures will reduce crop yields, while creating ideal conditions for weeds, pests and fungi to thrive. More frequent floods and droughts are expected, and decreases in the water supply will result in estimated losses of $1,700 an acre in California alone. Because the agricultural industry is responsible for one-third of climate-changing carbon emissions, at least until Tesla reimagines the tractor, we’re trapped in a vicious cycle. 

So how do we break out?

“We have to extinct outdoor farming,” Dickson Despommier, PhD, emeritus professor of microbiology and public health at Columbia University and author of “The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century,” told Salon. “We have to put the earth back to the way it was when trees were the most abundant crop. If we paid farmers to plant carbon-sucking trees instead of corn — what’s called carbon farming — the earth’s atmospheric makeup could be completely different in 20 years’ time. But this means looking elsewhere for a food source.”

In vertical farming, that food source starts with a building – any building – usually comprising more than one floor. On every level are flat racks of plants taking root not in soil, which is unnecessary for growth, but instead in a solid, sustainable, and pesticide-free substrate, like mashed-up coconut husk. In these hydroponic systems, plants are fed a nutrient solution from one of a variety of devices, including a misting nozzle, a slow-feed drip, and a wicking tool (like the volcanic glass called perlite) that carries nutrients from an in-house reservoir directly to the roots.

CA Farmers Use Advanced Drone Tech to Save Water http://videos.tout.com/dry/mp4/7ef39d7e62d9b298.mp4

The buildings are equipped with artificial lighting in place of sun, and they’re temperature and humidity controlled. Unlike in the great outdoors — where wind, precipitation, and season are out of a farmer’s hands — growing conditions are controlled and plants are able to reach maturity twice as fast. Often, the spaces are hermetically sealed to prevent common plant diseases, like wheat rust, from blowing through. And the final product? It tastes the same as crops grown outside, even better if those outside crops came from degraded soil. While leafy greens have traditionally been the most cost-effective crop to grow indoors, improved technology is also allowing for a broader range of options (think tomatoes, berries and ramps).

Vertical farming operations are sprouting in the U.S. and around the globe. Earlier this year, the $39 million AeroFarms, comprising 12 layers spread over 3.5 acres, opened in an old steel mill in Newark, New Jersey. Production yields the equivalent of 13,000 acres of farmland in the region. It also utilizes 95 percent less water than traditional vegetable farms since the H2O is recirculated.

In Philadelphia, Metropolis Farms, which already operates the world’s first vegan-certified vertical farm in North America, is planning a network of 10 vertical projects throughout the city, including the world’s first solar-powered vertical farm. Because the technology has advanced so much in recent months, according to president Jack Griffin, this network will cost 5 percent of what AeroFarms did, require 80 percent less real estate, and allow for a greater yield. Similar projects are seeing success in Japan and Berlin —and in Sweden, a plantagon, or plantscraper, 16 stories tall is in the works.

The goal, in addition to creating green-collar jobs, is to bring nutritious produce to urban areas where high-quality, fresh food is hard to come by. With 70 percent of the world’s population expected to reside in cities by 2050, utilizing agritecture to eliminate these food deserts is an increasingly attractive option. In the U.S., $32 million in venture capital was invested in indoor agriculture in 2014, and proponents say the industry has a revenue potential of $9 billion.

But not everyone is convinced the idea won’t go to seed. Early this year, in an article for Alternet, environmental writer Stan Cox argued against growing food in high-rises because of the method’s large energy requirement — specifically, the need for LED lighting in lieu of sunshine. Louis Albright, PhD, emeritus professor of biological and environmental engineering at Cornell University, called vertical farming “pie in the sky” for the same reason.

“The sun is equivalent to $400,000 worth of electricity per acre when growing outdoors,” Albright told Salon. “What vertical farming can save in transportation costs is quite small comparatively. It’s not viable.”

But proponents of vertical farming say such rebukes are based on outdated information — the efficiency of LED lighting has increased dramatically, by 50 percent between 2012 and 2014. Progress is expected to continue — the U.S. Department of Energy has recently adopted new LED efficiency standards, set to be finalized by January 2017. Meanwhile, vertical farms are hiring engineers and ergonomists to reduce the footprint even further.

“We designed our own LED lights to dial into wavelength spectrums,” Allison Towle, director of community engagement at the Los Angeles vertical farm Local Roots, told Salon. “We control them to emit only red or only blue or only white light, whichever helps a specific plant grow, which reduces energy output. Our R&D phase was two years long, because we developed these specific recipes, meaning for each plant we determined the right kind of lighting, the right nutrient makeup in the water, and the right amounts of each. This has brought outdoor growth times down by 40 percent.”

Robert Colangelo of the Indiana-based Green Sense Farms, which has 10 new projects in the deal pipeline, says improvements in LED efficiency are largely responsible for his current expansion, which involves building a network of vertical farms throughout the U.S., Canada, Scandinavia and China. The plan is to launch at points of consumption — grocery stores, hospitals, colleges and military bases — for direct-to-consumer sales. The food will be fresh, and the distribution-related carbon emissions, nonexistent.

“Comparing the energy requirement of growing outdoors versus growing inside is like comparing apples and oranges,” Colangelo told Salon. “We use LED lighting and they use sunlight. But they need tractors and other mechanical equipment, more water, fertilizer. It’s two different growing processes. Instead of comparing them, look at the crops and evaluate the most sustainable way to grow each one. Commodity crops, like soybeans, will likely always be grown outdoors. Leafy greens are better inside. What vertical farming has done is stratified the industry.”

In the future, some vertical farmers, like Colangelo, are looking to incorporate biopharmaceuticals into their growing rosters. And NASA, which counts itself as a vertical farming pioneer, may end up using the method for growing food on other planets, in a more sophisticated version of the techniques used in “The Martian.” But for now, the industry is still in its infancy.

“It’s like the beginning of the Internet, or even the Internet 10 years ago,” Despommier told Salon. “Look how far that’s come. There are people who looked at the airplane and thought: ‘That will never fly.’ But people are going to continue innovating. In 10 years’ time, we’ll all be getting our food this way.”

Bay View Grows Mushrooms

Three urban farmers are growing mushrooms in an old industrial building on Milwaukee’s south side, using coffee grounds from local coffee shops as mushroom food, and selling the finished fungi to restaurants.

Grow Local, a natural-foods business from Neenah in the Fox Valley has the 6,000 square-foot mushroom operation in the old W.B. Bottle Co. building at 822 E. Bay St. in Milwaukee's Bay View neighborhood.

Grow Local owners Steve Catlin, Calvin Andersen and Alex Fehrenbach share the building with other businesses, including a furniture store and a carpentry shop. They grow about 100 pounds of mushrooms a week for restaurants, with plans to boost that to 500 pounds a week over the next year.

By Rick Barrett

“We are in full production mode, but we are still investing more in this space, building out our system and network,” Catlin said.

Mushrooms get their nutrition by metabolizing nonliving organic matter. The Grow Local mushrooms’ food includes coffee grounds from Stone Creek and Kickapoo coffee shops.

The fungi are grown in a big, open room that’s essentially a humidity and light-controlled greenhouse.

Catlin developed a system for growing the gourmet mushrooms, including the shiitake and oyster varieties, that uses coffee grounds, sawdust and wood chips as the substrate.

Mushrooms don’t require as much light as vegetables, making them a good fit with indoor urban farming.

“I am kind of an evangelist for getting people to grow mushrooms. You can grow them on your own if you can maintain a semimoist mulch bed,” Catlin said.

Catlin is a 2011 Marquette University graduate, with a degree in psychology and philosophy. Andersen and Fehrenbach are University of Wisconsin-Madison graduates with degrees in biological systems engineering and geography.

Their business produces greens, herbs and fish in Neenah, and the mushrooms in Milwaukee.

Most of Grow Local’s products are sold in the Fox Valley, but it also sells to some Milwaukee-area restaurants. The business aims to develop a direct-to-consumer market that would partner with other farmers and would provide customers with information on how their food was produced.

Catlin said he wants to offer people year-round the experience they get at farmers markets.  "You look the farmer in the eye, and that person tells you the reasons why their product is good,” Catlin said.

The Bay View neighborhood — with its young, health-conscious residents — could be a prime location for that.

“One of our niches is year-round production of chemical-free products,” Catlin said. “There are a lot of organic farmers quietly doing an awesome job.”

The trio wrote their business plan while they were in college. They started with the 2,000-square-foot greenhouse in Neenah, using a system in which the waste produced by farmed fish supplies nutrients for plants grown hydroponically. The Neenah location also has a herb garden.

The large, open space in the former bottling plant in Bay View was perfect for growing mushrooms.

“And we don’t see this as our last space, for sure,” Catlin said.

Milwaukee has been a leader in urban farming, whether it’s growing mushrooms indoors or fruits and vegetables on vacant lots.

“We were getting excited about all of the changes in local foods in Wisconsin, especially in Milwaukee. We were inspired by Will Allen and some other farms in the area,” Catlin said.

Allen is the founder and CEO of Growing Power, a nonprofit focused on urban farming and creating sustainable food systems. He started with 3 acres of land on Milwaukee’s north side in 1993 and now has locations in Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit and other places throughout the world.

“We have the largest urban farm in the world, but we need more folks who really want to scale it up,” Allen said.

“There are going to be people who do this on a small scale, and that’s great … but we need to scale up to the point where we can grow some jobs and put people to work,” he said.

Allen, named one of the 100 World’s Most Influential People by Time Magazine, believes that urban farming can help address poverty and related social issues.

“The answer to end poverty and violence is to give people living-wage jobs, and this is an industry that can do that. We don’t see other industries moving into troubled communities,” Allen said.

Growing Power has trained mushroom farmers from all over the world. It also has greenhouses for year-round production of fruits and vegetables in cold climates.

Increasingly, consumers have sought locally-grown foods.

“The market is there. The problem is there’s not enough production. We have to grow some farmers,” Allen said.

Edible Learning Lab – A Year In Growth

Edible Learning Lab – A Year In Growt

Nick Spanos, nick@buffalobulletin.com

On most afternoons, a magenta glow can be seen reflecting out from the eastside stairwell of the Bomber Mountain Civic Center. If you follow the light down the stairs and through the side door, you’ll find yourself in what was once the middle school’s music room, but in place of scattered music stands and an upright piano collecting dust, you’ll find a room budding with life, literally.

The converted space houses a fully functional edible learning lab complete with raised planting beds, a fully equipped teaching kitchen and a vertical hydroponic system with red and blue LED grow lights to stimulate plant growth – the source of the magenta glow.

The Edible Learning Lab program is the brainchild of admitted foodies and entrepreneurs Tim Miner and Dave Creech.

They launched the program in Buffalo last September, and in the lab’s first year of operation it has prospered, producing well over 100 pounds of food and educating hundreds of Johnson County students in the process.

“Our mission is to bring edible education to all kids K through 12, and it’s something we think about all the time,” Miner said.

Edible education means giving students hands on experience growing their own food, but it also means teaching them the biological processes that bring food from a seed to a family’s table.

Educating the kids and introducing students to healthy eating practices is something that Miner sees as invaluable.  

“We think it’s important because this is one of the solutions or one of the processes that can lead to health changes,” he said.

Miner also mentioned the staggering number of health problems caused by dietary related issues in the U.S.

“We feel that educating kids at an early age is going to set them on the right trajectory. It’s going to give them understanding and love for the relationship they have with food,” Miner said. “It’s going to create a more sound foundation for that relationship, and over time kids are going to be making healthier choices and they’ll be exposed to things they wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to, and we feel that’s our way to plant the seed for change going forward.”

The strong vision that Miner has for the learning lab wasn’t always set in stone. He’ll be the first to tell you it’s been an evolving journey from day one to now.  

“I would love to tell you that we had this crystal clear idea of what an edible learning lab would be, what it would look like and how it would be organized, but the reality is this has been kind of a snaking back and forth approach. When we first started working on the rough outline of the curriculum we had intended it to be for adults,” Miner said. “I was on the board of the BDTA at the time, and I was serving with Lisa (Mueller) who was the CEO of the Boys & Girls Club, and we were talking about the curriculum and I was telling her how surprised I was by the number of kids who couldn’t pick broccoli out of a line up of vegetables, and she said, ‘You’re working on the course, do you think you could apply that to kids?’”

Miner responded with an immediate yes, and when Mueller came back a week later and said she might be able to secure grant money for the project, Miner was fully on board.

Miner and Mueller worked together to prepare the grant application just before the deadline and were approved for the maximum award of $125,000 a year for five years, and after Miner and Creech reworked the curriculum and ordered the equipment for the lab, everything began to fall into place.

A year later, Miner is just putting the finishing touches on the project.

“We’re placing our last orders for equipment, we’ve fully equipped the kitchen and are working on the rain harvesting system, which will allow us to capture over 200 gallons of rainwater from the downspouts to be used in the lab,” Miner said.  

The concept of the edible learning lab has always been something that Miner and Creech wanted to be applicable and repeatable on a national scale.

“The plan has always been to open as many of these labs around the ounty as possible. Right now we’re talking to about 100 schools. We’re really interested in having this information being presented to all schools around the country,” Miner said.

Vertical Farming Market worth 3.88 Billion USD by 2020, at a CAGR of 30.7%

Arshad Singh

Vertical Farming Corporate Communicator at MarketsandMarkets

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Vertical Farming Market worth 3.88 Billion USD by 2020, at a CAGR of 30.7%

Sep 21, 2016

The factors which are driving the vertical farming market include need for high quality food with no use of pesticides, less dependency on the weather, increasing urban population, and need for year round production. The largest market in the functional device segment is lighting market owing to the high acceptance of LEDs to replace traditional lighting. LEDs have been developed which provide optimum electromagnetic spectrum for photosynthesis, consume less energy, and have minimal heat signatures which keeps the energy requirement for temperature maintenance at a minimum.

Download Free PDF Brochure @http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=221795343

The vertical farming market is estimated to reach USD 3.88 billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 30.7% between 2015 and 2020.

Lighting functional device expected to lead the vertical farming market

Lighting as a functional device, in terms of value, is expected to hold the largest share of the vertical farming market by 2020. The traditional lighting system is being replaced by LED lighting system which is more efficient, emits electromagnetic spectrum ideal for photosynthesis and generates low heat. The increased acceptance of LED lighting system by end users is driving the growth of this market.

Hydroponics as a growth mechanism segment dominates the vertical farming market

The market for hydroponics as a growth mechanism is expected to be the largest between 2015 and 2020. This is mainly because of the benefits associated with it such as quicker growth, faster harvest, higher yield, and low nutrient wastage as mineral nutrients are dissolved in water and are fed directly to a plant’s root system without any involvement of soil.

APAC expected to hold the largest market share and grow during the forecast period

The APAC vertical farming market is expected to hold the largest share by 2020 owing to major driving forces such as growth in urban population, less availability of cultivable land, government initiatives, and demand for food with low impact on environment, the vertical farming market is growing in this region.

Global Vertical Farming Market, by Functional Device

• Lighting
• Hydroponic Components
• Climate Control
• Sensors

Global Vertical Farming Market, by Growth Mechanism

• Aeroponics
• Hydroponics
• Others 

This research report categorizes the global vertical farming market based on functional devices, growth mechanism, and regions. This report describes the drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges with respect to the vertical farming market. The Porter’s five forces analysis has been included in the report with a description of each of its forces and their respective impact on the vertical farming market.

Major players involved in the development of vertical farming market Aerofarms (U.S.), FarmedHere (U.S.) Koninklijke Philips N.V (The Netherlands), Illumitex Inc. (U.S.), Sky Greens (Singapore), and others.

Independence LED Lighting

Inside Look: Independence LED Lighting Creates Better Produce!

Next-Generation Food Supply! See this time-lapse video showing 30 days growth in the controlled environment under Independence LED lighting. The LED Grow lighting creates a heavier and leafier product, which in this case is basil. 

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LED Grow Lights can dramatically change the economics of indoor framing for warehouse and greenhouse facilities. Independence LED Lighting is ideal for Horticulture LED Lighting that advanced Agriculture LED Lighting for Indoor Farming such as the production of cost-effective Indoor Vegetables at Grow Operations.

Since LED lighting for commercial farming is “green” and on the rise, we welcome content submission such as LED grow light videos, LED grow lights photographs, and LED grow light production case studies.

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BrightFarms Raises $30.1 Million to Set Up Futuristic Greenhouses Across the U.S.

Agriculture tech startup BrightFarms has raised $30.1 million in Series C funding to bring its high-tech greenhouses, and fresh produce, across the U.S.

The company is on a mission to make all fresh fruit and vegetables locally, rather than require them to be hauled from long distances or imported from overseas before they are sold at groceries.

Taking a page from the playbook of solar power providers in the U.S., BrightFarms offers customers a long-term, fixed rate on the salad greens and tomatoes it grows in its greenhouses to grocers.

BrightFarms-raised produce.

The startup’s CEO Paul Lightfoot explained that after BrightFarms locks in a “produce purchasing agreement,” it raises funds from various sources including economic development programs and different banks or equity firms to build a new greenhouse.

In effect, a big chunk of the company’s cost of goods is already committed revenue before they open up a greenhouse’s doors and start growing.

The new round of funding was led by Catalyst Investors, and joined by BrightFarms earlier backers WP Global Partners and NGEN.

Catalyst’s Tyler Newton said his firm backed BrightFarms largely due to its business model innovation and ability to “out-execute” other food producers in the U.S.

Consumers definitely want to buy groceries made by local businesses, and to help support jobs that pay a local living wage in their own back yard. According to research by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, local food sales totaled $12 billion in 2014 and are expected to grow to $20 billion by 2019.

A BrightFarms greenhouse that grows tomatoes and salad greens.

“Where the seasons don’t cooperate, we just didn’t have the option to buy local before. So that feels good. But when you taste a tomato or some arugula from BrightFarms, and compare it to something that’s been shipped from out West, there is an obvious taste advantage, too. That’s what grocers want,” Newton said.

BrightFarms is going after a huge market that doesn’t have a lot of competition outside of the states of California and Arizona, today.

America’s farms contribute $177.2 billion, or about 1 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product each year according to the most recent available calculations also from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

And 90% of the salad greens consumed in the U.S. are produced in California and Arizona, then shipped across the country or exported out of it.

Other agriculture tech startups like AeroFarms or FreightFarms are building out indoor and container-based farms, in urban areas to meet rising consumer demands for locally-produced, and delicious fresh foods.

BrightFarms CEO Paul Lightfoot

But Lightfoot believes that his company’s greenhouses – which take advantage of natural sunlight, obviously—can prove more environmentally sustainable and cost-efficient than indoor farms, and produce more supply than container-based and rooftop farms.

He says that’s because BrightFarms controlled environment greenhouses don’t need to use as much electricity for grow lights and temperature controls as indoor farms. Both are significantly more water efficient than traditional farms, even those using precise irrigation systems.

So far, BrightFarms operates three greenhouses, each employing 25 full-time workers, in the greater Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and Chicago metro areas.

If drought conditions continue, Lightfoot said, the company could someday move into the “salad bowl” state of California, or other agricultural hubs, displacing traditional, and often water-intensive, farms.

But for now it will focus on metro areas where demand for fresh produce is high but there isn’t a lot of arable land or weather to support traditional farms.

BrightFarms’ customers and partners have so far included grocers like Kroger, Ahold USA, Wegmans and ShopRite.

Besides using the new Series C capital to build out additional greenhouses, Lightfoot says the company will explore new crops and is likely to start growing peppers and strawberries in the near future.

Featured Image: BrightFarms Inc.

By Lora Kolodny 

Elon Musk’s Brother Aims to Revolutionize Urban Farming with Square Roots

Kimbal Musk, Elon Musk’s younger brother has launched a new accelerator and company in Brooklyn called Square Roots that will invest in startups, growing fresh produce in cities.

By opening an urban farm in Brooklyn, New York, Square Roots aims to revolutionise the way Americans think about food and produce.

The accelerator will also provide mentorship and resources to millennial urban farmers, using shipping containers with hydroponic growing towers.

What is Square Roots?

Square Roots is a new agriculture venture that is located in the old Pfizer factory, Brooklyn, New York that holds 10 farms and young farmers who tend to the fresh produce.

Along with Tobias Peggs he two entrepreneurs will use 10 steel, 320 square foot shipping containers full of organic greens and herbs to make vertical farms inside the Pfizer building.

The young millennial farmers “Will get hands-on experience running a vertical farming business with us- but we’re here to help them become future leaders in food, wherever that journey leads,” said co-founder Tobias Peggs.

The incubator program that starts this this fall will give food-tech entrepreneurs space to develop and increase farming startups.

They will use technology developed by startups freight Farms and Zip Grow using climate controlled LED lights and a hydroponic system.

Who is Kimbal Musk?

Photo was taken of Musk outside The Kitchen in Boulder

Kimbal Musk is the younger brother of Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, who has invested in SolarCity and SpaceX.

Originally from South Africa the brothers worked together to found Zip2, a startup in 1995 that allowed newspapers to build their own city guides.

After selling the company for $300 million in 1999 to Compaq, Elon Musk founded PayPal, the online payments platform, Tesla and his other space ventures.

Kimbal took a different route, moving to New York to take French cooking classes at international Culinary Center.

When he volunteered to feed firefighters after the terror attacks on September 11 2001, Musk had an epiphany, citing “That sense of community that I felt was just profound to me,” opening a restaurant soon after.

Kimal Musk then opened the restaurant The Kitchen Upstairs and taking an executive job at social networking startup, OneRiot, before launching Next Door, to merge community and fresh food, and quality burgers together. There are five restaurants in Colorado at present with plans to expand.

What is Urban Farming?

Photo Credit: Freight Farms

Urban farming or agriculture is producing food in cities or heavily populated areas where space is scarce.

The difference between urban farming and community gardening is the commercial aspect involved. The former is based on selling produce rather than for personal needs.

Food can be sold to restaurants, farmers markets or community enterprises.

Why Choose Urban Farming?

Many advocates of urban farming point to the fact that vertical farms expend 80 percent less water than outdoor farms and require much less space, which is significant in urban areas.

With seven billion people earth, the planet is under massive strain with pollution, habitat damage and climate change.

Urban farming decreases the ‘food miles’ linked to long-distance transportation, making it a more sustainable way to grow food.

By increasing greenery in cities, this increases shading, and reduces toxic emissions. Urban farming also helps people reconnect to their food, understanding how it is grown.

Why is Urban Farming So Important for Americans? 

Photo Credit: Square Roots

Tobias Peggs noted that he is often approached by young people who are frustrated with the industrial food system but don’t know what to do about it.

Peggs said, “Seeing this frustration, and pent up energy, was a big part of the original inspiration for founding Square Roots.”

Musk said in a Medium article that people want real food:

“Young people especially are turning away from McDonald’s towards healthy, locally-sourced options like Next Door and Sweetgreen.”

According to thestateofobesity.org, in 2016 adult obesity rates now exceed 35 percent in four states, 30 percent in 25 states and are above 20 percent in all states.

What Impact will Square Roots Have on Urban Farming?

Square Roots aims to help young urban farmers to start thinking about innovative food production.

With investors such as food tech VCs Powerplant Ventures, Lightbank, GroundUp, FoodTech Angels and The Kitchen, there is plenty of scope for this venture to work.

If successful, Musk will be able to build more farms similar to the Square Roots in Brooklyn, within New York and expand to other US cities.

By Tanya Geddes

Containers Could Hold The Future of Farming

Containers could hold the future of farming

by: Wolf Depner - Saanich News

•  posted Sep 20, 2016 at 3:00 PM

Tamara Knott looks over some of the plants growing in her Leafy Green Machine, inside a refurbished shipping container on her West Saanich Road property.— Image Credit: Wolf Depner/News Staff

The future of farming might be found inside the 40 x 8 x 9.5 feet dimensions of the Leafy Green Machine.

Those are the dimensions of a refurbished shipping container that stands on an agricultural lot in the 6000 block of West Saanich Road.

From the outside, the green-and-metallic box underwhelms. Step inside it though and you enter a world that evokes the agricultural wizardry of Matt Damon’s character in The Martian.

Tamara and Bruce Knott, who own the container, burst out in approving laughter when they hear this comparison.

“Except,” says Tamara, “he was growing those potatoes with a particular type of material with which we have nothing to do. I keep my vegans very happy.”

Differences in fertilizers aside, the Knotts also grow different crops, mainly lettuce as of now. Yet even the most cursory survey of the container underscores the technological sophistication of the Knotts’ business.

“Yeah, we are kind of nerds,” says Tamara.

Developed by the Boston-based company Freight Farms, the container houses an automated lighting and irrigation system that can roughly produce the yield of 1.5 acres of farmland.

Its heart consists of 256 vertically suspended cuboids (rectangular prisms). Each of these narrow “towers”, as the Knotts call them, can hold anywhere between 14 to 17 heads of various types of salad greens.

Each head begins life as a granular seed planted inside what Bruce calls a “peat plug” about the size of a pinky finger.

After growing in horizontally placed trays that receive a steady supply of nutrient-enhanced water, the plants are then planted several inches apart in the towers, each lined with a growing medium completely free of dirt and of a texture that Bruce compares to a “coarse brush.”

The towers are then hung between two horizontal metal cuboids.

The upper supplies each of the towers and the produce within them with nutrient-enriched water; the lower catches the run-off and sends it back into the irrigation system, where sensors continuously monitor the nutrient content, ph level and temperature of the water running through the system to ensure optimal growth.

“We don’t discharge any of that [water],” says Bruce. “We use it all. It just continues [to circulate through the system] and we just keep adding water at a rate of about five gallons a day, as the plants use it.”

This volume of water use marks a drastically reduced rate. “In terms of a conventional farming operation for these types of crops, the estimate is that the water use is 90 per cent less,” says Tamara.

Narrow ropes of energy-efficient LED lights, which Bruce says “look a little bit like disco lights,” add to the futuristic atmosphere.

Cascading off the container’s ceiling like party streamers, they emit blue and red light following a specialized schedule that ensures the plants receive optimal energy and rest. “For photosynthesis, plants predominately use light in the red and the blue spectrum, so we just give them that, because that is what they need to thrive,” says Tamara.

“They actually reflect the yellow and green back at our eyes, because they are not using it for photosynthesis.”

Aside from using far less water than outdoor farming, this type of indoor farming also foregoes pesticides and herbicides and requires far less land.

“You can put this unit on almost two parking spots downtown ... and you can feed a lot of people,” he says.

Finally, it can provide fresh produce year-around.

As such, it offers itself as a solution to a future marked by water shortages, declining supplies of arable land and growing urban populations facing various food security issues.

“The water, the lack of waste, the proximity to the people who are actually going to consume the food — we like all those things,” says Bruce. “That is why we sort of thought, this is the way of the future and we just want to be part of that future.”

With 85 million discarded sea containers available, others may follow the Knotts’ example.

If so, foodies might be in for a treat as well.

The Knotts, who describe themselves as “salad snobs,” say they “are pretty pleased with the quality of products.”

After spending three to four months to get their operation off the ground, the Knotts have been on the market for about a month now, selling to three local restaurants and customers at the local farmers’ markets. The Knotts are also organizing a network of pick-up points across Greater Victoria, where customers can pick up prepaid weekly produce baskets. “So folks are able to get their fresh produce, particularly at a time of year when none of the farmers’ markets are operating,” says Tamara.

So how do people react when the Knotts tell them where their lettuce comes from?

“Mostly, they say, ‘Cool! You can do that?’” says Tamara. “It has been really positively received and people are really excited about it. They think it is just a really, really neat idea.”

Buyers to Gain Product Consistency Thanks to Vertical Growing Solution

Achieving the optimum light environment to maximise growth and enhance plant quality and consistency is no longer the stuff of dreams. A new initiative from the James Hutton Institute, near Dundee and Intelligent Growth Solutions is set to make this a reality. Produce Business UK investigates

Work is beginning on a £2.5 million purpose-built facility at the institute in Invergowrie, which will be the first in the UK to house automated growth towers for vertical, indoor farming. The facility involves the creation of four towers, each nine metres tall. It will incorporate an automated system allowing trays to move up and down the tower, to provide access for maintenance, seeding and harvesting. What makes the system unique is the degree of control over the light environment that can be achieved.

Lighting gap 

Intelligent Growth Solutions has been exploring this concept for several years. Founder and CEO Henry Aykroyd believes there is a gap in the market: lighting companies think about lights, researchers focus on plants, and growers are concerned about economics. All are separate but together they could provide a viable growing concept.

Aykroyd is convinced of the importance of vertical growing since it could avoid the need for pesticides, and takes up a relatively small area. By taking advantage of the decreasing cost of LEDs, and combining this with research expertise and integrated automation, Aykroyd felt he could change the way vertical growing was viewed.

A pilot scheme was set up in Scotland, near the world-famous plant research establishment, The James Hutton Institute. And following negotiations with the institute, planning permission was obtained for the project. A wide range of leafy plants will be grown using semi-hydroponic systems. Water consumption will be kept to a minimum and temperatures carefully regulated. Researchers from James Hutton will be closely involved at all stages, investigating growth patterns so as to identify optimum plant growth within the light spectrum.

Sensory development

Dr Robert Hancock of the institute explains. “What Intelligent Growth Solutions has done is to create a much better lighting system. This is possible due to major improvements in LED technology that have taken place. Up until now, growers have focused on areas of the light spectrum which drive photosynthesis.

“Plants normally live in an environment where they use the full spectrum of light at different wave lengths to interpret their environment and adjust their growth and metabolism accordingly. We know that plants use different parts of the light spectrum to respond to events. A classic example is the shade avoidance response where plants recognise a shift in the red to far-red spectral ratio caused by light absorbance by other plants growing in close proximity. Plants respond to this potential competition by putting on elongation, making a tall spindly plant. By manipulating the light spectrum, the architecture of the plant can be adjusted to suit the demands of growers and supermarket buyers.”

The researchers will not stop there. Hancock says: “We eventually hope to develop a series of sensors to identify suboptimal growing conditions in real time and well before physical symptoms manifest themselves. Colleagues at James Hutton are already doing this in the fields by imaging crops beyond the visible spectrum, a technique known as hyperspectral imaging, to identify the onset of disease or stress before it impacts crop yields.

“Within the growth towers our ultimate aim is to be able to interpret sensor signatures that indicate specific stresses such as high or low temperatures, water stress or nutrient imbalances. We want to build algorithms that allow a constant evaluation and optimisation of the growing environment. This could eventually become automated so that growers can simply seed the facility and return when the crop is ready to harvest.

“Furthermore by providing a consistently high-quality crop we will be able to reduce waste by eliminating supermarket rejections. Not only that but by manipulating light and other environmental conditions we will be able to schedule the crop to meet demand.”

The special lighting systems that have been created by IGS enables LED efficiency to be increased by up to 50%, while varying the intensity of light by 0.01% increments across all wavelengths, effectively recreating the effect of solar radiation on plants. This enables the lighting to be carefully targeted and feedback systems developed.

Cost effective

As a result, IGS predicts that vertical growing and lighting costs will fall quickly to allow crops such as strawberries and tomatoes to be added to the leafy salads and herbs already grown indoors within a closed environment.

Aykroyd says: “Our project at The James Hutton Institute is an exciting opportunity for the vertical farming market in the UK and beyond. The project will facilitate the development of our technology to demonstrate its scalability and the opportunities to deliver this at a global level.”

“Our mission is to enable our customers to be the lowest cost producers by growing local globally, with better quality produce and saving natural resources. 

“Modern agriculture faces a number of challenges, which will only be exacerbated as climate and population conditions change. These include water scarcity, land-use and the problems associated with monoculture, the use of pesticides and their impacts on health and the natural environment due to their use.

“By growing closer to the market in controlled vertical farming conditions, it is possible to predict accurately and grow to market demand. The products are fresher, have a longer shelf life, and crop losses due to weather, disease, drought, or pests are effectively eliminated.

“The precisely controlled lighting and power management opportunities which our technology addresses are essential for more efficient growing capabilities. Our real-time software can ‘grab’ power when the grid has surplus power and ‘shut down’ at peak times, and will offer a scalable solution for the vertical farming market.

“Vertical farming is not the ultimate solution to urbanisation and food security, but it can be part of it, freeing up land and reducing waste.”

By Angela Youngman 

Garden going up: Work begins to turn old MFA mill into high-tech indoor farm

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. For decades, the landmark MFA logo towered over downtown. The colorful sign on the tall white grain elevator served as a nod to our farming heritage. Now, after 65 years, it is gone. In its place is a sign announcing something new to come. 

This week, workers rolled out a new banner highlighting the building's new tenant, Vertical Innovations, LLC.

"It was about a six hour project," stated David Geisler, Manager and General Counsel of Vertical Innovations. "That is a lot of work to fasten a banner 200 feet in the air," he laughed.

Vertical Innovations is turning the long-vacant Missouri Farmers Association grain silo complex into a massive indoor vegetable farm. The structure, which has been vacant for years, is owned by Missouri State University, and is being leased to Vertical Innovations for the project.

Geisler explained, "If it works, we are going to be able to supply a large amount of food for the people of Springfield that we know is safe, it is traceable. They are going to be able to say, this is hours old. It is going to be fresh."

There's obviously no sunlight in the tall tubes. So, artificial light and other technologies will help the garden grow. Several new employees will be brought on board to tend the crops and facility.

"Essentially, we are going to be a true vertical farm. We will be a farm using some new ideas we have that nobody else has done before," Geisler said. 

As you can imagine, there are not a lot of companies left that build grain elevators. So, for this project, the developer had to hire the modern incarnation of the company that built this place back in 1955. Borton Contractors & Engineers, based in South Hutchinson, KS, is now busy retrofitting the structure for its new purpose.

Geisler said, "I think that is part of the beauty of the project is it allows us to take these icons of our agricultural heritage and reuse them in the 21st century environment. It is refreshing." 

Developers and supporters have high hopes for the future of farming in urban environments. Though a grand opening is still months away, Geisler believes this project could be the first of many. 

"I think we will provide a model, a blueprint if you will, for how we can use abandoned grain elevators in other cities. But, Springfield will always be first."

As for the old MFA signs, Geisler says the one removed from the north side of the headhouse has been saved for preservation. The emblem facing south, which remains in place, will likely also be taken down and preserved.

By Michael Landis

Startup That Grows Crops in Shipping Containers Unveils Sleek, New Design

At first glance, the tall metal box on the Greenway looks somewhat innocuous. But open the doors and there’s a salad disco happening inside. 

The large white container, which will be situated in the park all day Friday at the corner of High and Purchase streets, is the latest product from Freight Farms, the local startup that enables would-be farmers to grow produce anywhere using its tricked-out shipping containers. 

The company, which has raised nearly $5 million in funding, has become somewhat of a darling to the startup set. Google is using one of its hydroponic containers to feed its 20,000 employees in Palo Alto, and last month Freight Farms partnered with Elon Musk’s chef brother, Kimbal, to help launch his urban farming accelerator, Square Roots.

Since launching in 2010, the company has sold 100 of its signature device, the Leafy Green Machine, said its president, Jon Friedman. 

The prototype is a slightly smaller version of the modular growing system. He dubbed it the Leafy Green C (the C stands for community, or compact ... they haven’t decided yet). It’s about one quarter the size of a typical shipping container, clocking in at about 10 feet long, 9 feet high, and 8 feet wide. And it can grow 200 heads of lettuce each week. 

Inside is where the fun starts. 

Farmers plug their seedlings into six-foot tall, gutter-like “towers” that act as a growing medium for the young shoots. Each tower is then hung from the ceiling and lit with blue and red LED lights, which can be tweaked to emulate the sun as it cycles through the day.

Imagine dozens of vertical spinning towers of lettuce. The entire system gives off a very disco-like feel. 

The original containers, which each cost $85,000, are now in nine countries, six islands, 25 states, and 12 schools. But Friedman said the system’s new design has a different customer in mind. It will be half as expensive as the original model (the exact price is not yet set, he said). He’s hoping to attract restaurants, communities and perhaps even individuals who are excited about the idea of container farming but don’t necessarily need nearly an acres worth of produce a week. The company will begin taking preorders in November. 

Part of the draw, said Kyle Seaman, the company’s farm technology director, is the newly-designed app called Farmhand that allows the owner of the unit to control all aspects of the container from a smartphone, adjusting the light, heat, nutrients, and water. 

“The app informs the farmer if something goes wrong,” said Seamen. 

Should their lettuce need some love, they’ll get a ping on their phone. Now, if they can just make it connect to Spotify, they’ll be in business. 

Janelle Nanos can be reached at janelle.nanos@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @janellenanos.

Modular Farms Newsletter #3

Now that the dog days of summer have passed, we figured it was once again time to get you all formally updated on our whereabouts. Amidst the record-breaking heatwave that has been plaguing Toronto for the last few weeks, we have managed to keep cool by doing what we do best - working away in our climate-controlled Modular Farm!

The moment we have all been anticipating has finally arrived. The technicians have finished their work, our initial run of Modular Farm raised Kale has been harvested, and our first sets of Collard and Lettuce seedlings have been transplanted. Also, as you can see from the above photo, we've begun experimenting with the various colourful spectrums our Intravision Spectra Blade LED lights have to offer. If all proceeds as planned, expect to receive a formal invitation to our official unveiling very soon. 

On the R&D side, our team has been very busy designing the new line of secondary modules. With the Primary Module almost complete, we've turned our attention to developing the Vestibule, Off-Grid and Macro Farm modules next, as we consider them to be the most vital secondary modules. Once completed, those who have already purchased a Primary Module will be able to easily scale up their production capabilities, have an active climate and pest barrier, and have the ability to power their farms even in the most remote locations. 

Every Thursday afternoon for the past month and a half we've had the pleasure of being a part of the #FarmFreshTO pop-up farmer's market at the Bay Adelaide Centre. Unlike other farmers markets around the city, which tend to be more focused on simply buying and selling produce, the main mission of #FarmFreshTO has been to raise awareness of urban­ vertical farming practices and sustainable living.

We've greatly enjoyed engaging with, and educating, the public on the benefits and applications of our technology; we can't thank Usful enough for giving us such an amazing opportunity. If you're in the area we highly recommend coming down to Arnell Plaza on a Thursday to say hi, treat yourself to some samples, and get a hands-on look at our technology. Just be sure to do it soon, as the final day of the market is September 15th. 

Ending the food insecurity issue in Canada has always been, and will always be, the main reason for our existence. While this may seem like a daunting task, we've already seen great strides being made across the country by passionate, like-minded people who have been utilizing ZipGrow technology to feed themselves, their families, and communities in a sustainable fashion. We currently have Modular Farms scheduled for delivery from coast to coast in the next 12 months, however, there are so many Canadians still in desperate need of our help, and we need your help to get them properly fed. Contact us today to find out if a Modular Farm is a good fit for your family and community.
 

Stay tuned for the next installment of our newsletter!

IES Launched Full Range Of LED Horticulture Grow Lighting Products

IES is one of the leading global developers of greenhouse and indoor farming and gardening LED lights solution. With an international team of agriculture experts and researchers, IES focuses on driving innovation and development in their industry which has earned them the status of being a global leading light in the field of supplemental lighting. Recently,

Technological advancements have paved the way to more unconventional methods of cultivating plants, growing and caring for them which include indoor farming and gardening. IES is directed by their desire to generate and cultivate innovative and hi-tech LED Horticulture Lighting technology. Their main point of focus is to satisfy their customers through their high standards of quality in both their products and their customer services. The company spokesperson said: Our Horticulture LED Solutions develops light systems to condition any crop in growth. We do not only provide mere lighting, but we provide the best possible care to increase profit for the grower, we call this custom made plan a ‘light recipe’.”

The range of products has been created to cater to the needs of contemporary indoor and greenhouse farming and gardening lighting needs, the comprehensive range of products includes LED lights specially designed for a greenhouse, hydroponics, aeroponics, home garden, farm, vegetable shed, botanic garden, flower exhibitions, horticulture, hydroponics, hemp cultivations, medical plants cultivations, etc. the spokesperson continued: “Our light recipes are suitable for different segments within horticulture, e.g. vegetable production, tissue culture and young plant production, cut flowers, seedlings and nurseries. Horticulture LED Solutions is offering knowledge of LED Plant lighting around the world to you.”

Consistent global standards of quality and various certifications are the testament to the company's commitment towards maintaining the highest levels of superiority. The company takes a lot of pride in the fact that they maintain a  large worldwide customer based with clients in every part of the world including Europe, America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, their product are available for sale on all major online marketplaces and the complete details of each product is available on the IES horticulture lighting website.

The company looks forward to expanding their global customer base to become a major LED grow lighting manufacturer globally and continue serving their esteemed clients with top of the range products.

About:

IES Lighting  Co., Ltd is a horticulture and agriculture LED light producer based in China.

For more information please visit: http://www.grow-lighting.com/

Contact: Jessie
info@grow-lighting.com
Shenzhen,China

Media Contact
Company Name: IES Lighting Co., Ltd
Contact Person: Jessie
Email: info@grow-lighting.com
Country: China
Website: http://www.grow-lighting.com/

 

2 Acres of Farming In A Shipping Container

2 Acres of Farming in a Shipping Container

Anna Domanska , September 13, 2016 / 2153 0

With the increasing demand for agricultural products, it has become necessary to practice alternative methods for bringing up the supply levels. It has to be taken into consideration that land simply cannot be cleared off to make space for more farms. With this in mind, the technique of vertical farming proves to be beneficial. To explain this further, vertical farming is a technique in which plant cultivation will take place inside skyscraper greenhouses. A specific environment is created using solar or wind turbine energy which is suitable to the plant growth. Furthermore, this type of farming can be done year-round.

The Vertical Farming Accelerator called Square Roots

In order to take this technique further into the agricultural market, entrepreneur Kimbal Musk along with Tobias Peggs is planning to launch a new urban farming incubator program, called Square Roots. Under this program, vertical farming will take place in the Pfizer factory situated in Brooklyn, New York. These vertical farms will be created inside 10 steel containers 320-square-foot each. Each of these containers will be managed by a young agricultural entrepreneur for one year. These entrepreneurs will be given hands-on training in running a vertical farm business by Square Roots. They will have full access to their respective farms at any time they want. In this case, the entrepreneurs can choose to grow anything they like. The entrepreneurs who are interested are supposed to pitch their start-up concept in front of Square Roots.

Such containers will contain rows of organic herbs and these plants will be monitored for watering and proper nutrient content. Due to constant monitoring, many plant diseases and spoilage could be discovered before it starts spreading further. Such farms are located in or around the city. Due to this, the consumer will acquire fresh food products which are a major benefit of vertical farming. The technology used will be developed by vertical farming start-ups Freight Farms and ZipGrow. The plants grown in such containers will be rooted in water instead of soil and cultivated under LED lights. The team of experts has decided to grow green crops inside these containers. This is because such crops are small enough for the entrepreneurs to understand vertical farming thoroughly. One such container is efficient enough to grow crops equivalent to 2 acres of farmland.

Benefits of Vertical Farming

Musk and Peggs strongly believe that urban farming has a number of advantages over traditional farming. Significantly, vertical farms expend 80% less water than outdoor farms and require much less space. On the other hand, Square Roots aims to help young farmers understand this technology better so that it can be implemented efficiently. Such entrepreneurs will be trained under the best mentors provided by Square Roots. The most important advantage of vertical farming is that it’s healthier than the products of industrial farming. The food produced through industrial farming is high-calorie, low nutrient and processed thousands of miles away. Whereas vertical farming does not compromise with the nutritional value.

Kimbal Musk and his ventures within the Agricultural Industry

Kimbal Musk is an American entrepreneur, known for his investments in several technology and food companies. He is an environmentalist who has introduced technological ideas which help in the sustainable growth of society. Musk co-founded The Kitchen which is a chain of restaurants which stocks up its food sources from local farmers. He has also co-founded a venture called The Kitchen Community, which is a non-profit organization. The Kitchen Community builds learning garden in schools around the USA. This organization has already planted vegetable gardens at more than 200 schools nationwide.

The technique of vertical farming is a progressive step towards the sustainable development on a global scale. As this technique requires minimum resources, it gives an output as good as the traditional farming method. Also, it helps in solving the problem of cutting down vegetation to meet the increasing demand of food.

Growing in the Air

Forget sunshine and soil to grow leafy greens and fresh vegetables for health-conscious consumers. A US venture firm is leading a new wave of future agriculture by adopting the latest technology to produce something more fresh, safe and environmentally conscious at the heart of urban spaces. 

Instead of growing crops on land with the use of pesticide and water, a Newark-based AeroFarms is running high-tech greenhouses to produce high quantities of nutritious and quality fresh food all year round. Indoor vertical farming -- a concept invented by Dickson Despommier, an ecologist and an emeritus professor of Columbia University -- is what the firm has been promoting. 

The firm grows massive amounts of edible greens in stacked rows that reach to the ceiling in a controlled-environment where the temperature, nutrients and lighting are constantly monitored and adjusted. At AeroFarms, plants grow under light-emitting diodes on permeable micro fleece cloth irrigated with a nutrient-infused mist. It uses 95 percent less water, about 50 percent less fertilizers and zero pesticides.

An illustrated image of AeroFarms' vertical farming (AeroFarms)

The US firm is also working on turning an old steel mill in Newark, New Jersey into the world’s largest indoor vertical farm. 

In the 6,503 square-meter space, the firm aims to produce up to 907,184 kilograms of baby greens per year, said Marc Oshima, the co-founder and chief marketng officer of AeroFarms in an email interview with The Korea Herald. 

Indoor farming can ease growing concerns about climate change, population growth and fast urbanization, he said. Not only is vertical farming sustainable and socially responsible, it is a promising business as it produces greens that are tasty, rich and more nutritious, he added.

Vertical farming, in particular, can be a solution for tech-savvy South Korea that has millions of people living in congested city areas, as it offers a greater level of control to consistently grow high quality food, he said. Korean municipalities have been investing in local startups to conduct research and development in indoor farming. But there has not been many local companies involved in such business so far, according to local experts, citing the lack of economic feasibility and efforts in securing the market.

The following are the questions and answers of the interview.

1. What inspired you to start a high-tech farming business? 

We are committed to building, owning, and operating indoor vertical farms that grow delicious, safe, healthy food in a sustainable and socially responsible way all over the world. 

We build our farms in repurposed spaces benefitting communities and creating local jobs. Our R&D facility was once a night club and one of our farms is a former paintball/laser tag arena. We are currently building the world’s largest indoor vertical farm in an old steel mill in Newark, New Jersey. It will be 70,000 square feet (6,503 square meters) and have the capacity up to 2 million pounds (907,184 kilograms) of produce per year. 

2. What are the benefits of vertical farming for customers, businesses and communities? 

Our way of farming mitigates food safety risks: no soil, completely insulated from neighboring operations, no pesticides ever, and we can track a package of greens down to the exact square foot of growing. Most of the common food safety risks simply are not an issue with our system. In addition, all of our farmers and staff go through rigorous food safety training, and we are certified with United States Department of Agriculture Good Agricultural Practices.

Food-borne illnesses from vegetables are mainly a product of the practices needed to sustain large-scale commercial agriculture. Overuse of antibiotics in factory farming of livestock have created resistant bacteria, which are then sold to farmers in the form of manure or fertilizer. 

Also, all of our farms have been in repurposed spaces. Our technology can really fit anywhere, but we have been focusing on dormant warehouse space that is close to existing retailers and food service distributors. A big part of our mission is to decrease food miles and travel time so that our greens are as fresh as possible when you eat them. That is why we focus on urban warehouse space specifically. But also, it’s gratifying to breathe some new life into areas that may have lost manufacturing businesses decades ago. The communities we enter are so ready for us to come in and start growing and hiring. 

3. What differentiates AeroFarms’ greens from other greens produced through conventional farming methods and mass production? 

Just because the supermarket shelves are stocked doesn’t mean that all is well. Food in the US travels thousands of miles and is often up to two weeks old when it reaches consumers. 

That’s why distribution is a huge part of our thought process when opening new facilities. AeroFarms builds farms on major routes and near distribution centers so that our greens spend minimal time in transit. That means longer a shelf life, less shrink, better taste and also better nutrition. The second a leaf is harvested the nutrition starts to degrade, so when we can cut transit time down by growing locally we give consumers an even healthier product. So not only do our greens reach the store with more of their original nutrition, our precise control of every aspect of the nutrients, water and environment our plants use to grow means we can create the perfect conditions to optimize for flavor, taste, color, and yield to have a truly sustainable business. Our products are available to the consumer at the exact same price as field grown produce while delivering superior value.

4. Will high-tech vertical farming be the future of farming? 

Vertical Farming is growing as quickly as it is because the relief of pressure on our natural resources currently caused by industrial farming is striking a chord. Traditional farming will always be an important part of the food supply, but we would like to see vertical farming become a substantial percentage of overall production. From a food security point of view it’s just smart, but also from a biodiversity and flavor point of view.

5. Who does your business mainly target? 

Our greens are incredibly tasty and tend to convert even people who don’t think they like to eat leafy greens -- so there’s really no one in America who is not a potential customer. Our goal is to democratize access to good, healthy food that is responsibly grown. 

6. Do you think that vertical farming could be a good business opportunity in Korea? 

Absolutely. Vertical Farming is a great solution for dense urban areas because fresh food often has to travel long distances from rural areas to these cities. More importantly, vertical farming offers a far greater level of control to be able to consistently high quality food.

7. What are the challenges you have faced so far? Has there been any opposition from local farmers? 

The biggest challenge for us so far has been getting to market fast enough. We have more demand from retailers than we can supply, which is why we’re working hard to bring new farms on line as quickly as possible. We don’t really see ourselves in competition with local farmers. What we’re looking to disrupt is the giant industrial farms in California and Arizona, which have energy and water needs that are vast and generally unreported. Plus, with 20 crop turns a year, we can provide fresh local green in February, when we’re really not competing with anyone. 

Marc Oshima, co-founder and chief marking officer of AeroFarms

8. What kind of advice do you have for Korean start-ups or government-funded entities interested in vertical farming? 

Growing indoors is not easy to do and we really want to underscore the importance of food safety. At the end, we recommend that experts like AeroFarms get engaged to help in the process. 

9. What are your future strategies?

We are looking to build 25 farms over the next five years, and that is a very conservative number given the demand. We currently have farms in development in four different continents including Asia. 

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)

Agrilyst Reports Indoor Agriculture Over 4k Times More Productive Than Outdoor Commodity Crop Production

Better yields, the opportunity to harvest more times a year and higher retail prices are making indoor farming more productive than conventional outdoor operations, according to a new report from data software company Agrilyst.

The State of Indoor Farming details the results of a survey of over 150 indoor growers in the US, representing around 9% of the country’s current indoor farming market. 

While unable to make a 100% like-for-like comparison to outdoor operations for all types of produce, the report builds a comparison between outdoor farms and indoor operations using historical USDA and other public data.

According to the report, indoor horticulture operations stand to make $2.2 million an acre each year compared to an outdoor lettuce operation which makes $12.4k an acre and an outdoor tomato operation, which makes $13k an acre.

Indoor greens growers surveyed reported an average of 340k pounds per acre annually, compared to about 30k pounds per acre reported by the USDA for lettuce under conventional outdoor production. That’s an 11x increase in yield. The majority of this is down to the increase in the number of harvests per year; outdoor lettuce growers harvest four to fives times a year compared to the potential for indoor growers to harvest 18 times a year due to a shorter growing period under controlled conditions.

But even without this cyclicality benefit, indoor growers can produce 2.8x more annually on yield increases alone, according to the report.

There were similar productivity gains for tomato growers, according to the report.

Adding to these harvest and yield figures, the price of indoor-grown produce is also much greater than outdoor-grown produce. 

According to the report, indoor greens farmers are getting 10x more, and indoor tomato growers are getting 2.5x more than their outdoor counterparts. A large reason for this is the distribution channels of these growers: direct to consumer or restaurant sales.

Likely a result of this positive trend, 86% of the indoor growers surveyed plan to expand their operations in the next five years. For all respondents, even the minimum planned expansion is 4.7x larger than their current farm size, which suggests significant market growth in the coming years. 

They also want to invest in technology. On average, growers have an annual budget of $12 per square foot to invest in technology for both increasing plant yields and managing operations more efficiently. They also have an annual budget of $15 per square foot to invest in technology to improve crop quality. 

Topping the list of new technologies, 39% of growers are interested in purchasing a farm management system in the next year, with 90% of all growers surveyed believing that they can increase their crop yields with data analytics. In addition, 28% of growers are interested in purchasing post-harvest automation systems, 28% are interested in purchasing LED lighting, and 27% are interested in purchasing climate control systems. The lowest priority item listed was organic nutrients. 

But it is not plain-sailing for indoor agriculture. There are many challenges for the sector to overcome to be truly efficient and sustainable. 

Keeping operating costs down is the biggest challenge, according to survey respondents, followed by the difficulty in predicting and stabilizing operating costs. Labor costs are one of the biggest and the report delves into the average workforce dependent on the size of the farm, and type of crop.

The report also touches on the issue of organic certification, which we covered in a post here last week.

To find out more about the make-up of the survey respondents, how exactly they plan to spend, and more in-depth analysis of the challenges they face, download the report here.

By LOUISA BURWOOD-TAYLOR

Green Sense Farm Crowdfunding Offer Quickly Hits Goal on StartEngine

Green Sense Farm, raising capital under Reg CF on StartEngine, quickly hit its goal within the first 24 hours of listing.

Green Sense Farms is a “vertical farm”. The company has established a vision of building a network of indoor vertical farms, and locate them at perishable food distribution centers owned by large grocery stores. The company also intends on creating locations at institutional campuses or wherever large volumes of food are served. If you think about it, a vertical farm makes sense. Grow the food close to where it is going to be consumed and you save on transportation (no lettuce from 3000 miles away), minimize associated pollution and harvest only when ripe. Green Sense says it is the market leader in the emerging indoor vertical farming market. The company first launched in Portage, Indiana in a 20,000 square foot facility.  They now have ten development farms in their pipeline in the US, China, Canada and Scandinavia. They formed a Hong Kong company to help build out China operations.  The first farm opened in China last month.

The concept is easy the practice is hard.

Green Sense Farm says it can harvest year round using the fraction of resources necessary in a traditional farm. No pesticides, herbicides, GMO seeds necessary.

Watch the video below published last year about the company.

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By JD Alois

Green Sense Farms Reaches Crowdfunding Goal on Day 1

Green Sense Farms, an indoor farm company based in Portage, has raised more than $120,000 in a crowdfunding campaign on startengine.com.

The market-leading company, which raked in $788,000 in revenue last year and just opened its first farm in China, reached its minimum goal of $100,000 on the first day but hopes to raise up to $1 million to build a network of indoor vertical farms. These would be built at perishable food distribution centers owned by large grocery stores and institutional campuses that serve a lot of food daily, such as at hospital cafeterias.

“We’re not subject to rain or drought," Founder and CEO of Green Sense Farms Robert Colangelo said. "We precisely control the indoor environment, to create the perfect conditions for our plants to grow year-round, every single day.”

Last year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission adopted rules that allow companies to sell securities through crowdfunding, which SEC Chairwoman Mary Jo White said would give smaller companies a more innovative way to raise capital while protecting investors.

Companies can go online to raise up to $1 million through crowdfunding over a 12-month period. They're required to disclose independently audited financial information, including from tax returns, and the crowdfunding platforms have to provide investors with disclosures and educational materials.

Green Sense Farms, which reports having $2.6 million in assets, grows GMO-free leafy green vegetables indoors, using less water and land than traditional agriculture. The company says more sustainable farming practices are needed because climate change is reducing the amount of arable land and the world's population is projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050.

"Green Sense Farms has been the fortunate recipient of numerous stories about our exciting innovative indoor vertical farming technology," Colangelo said. "All this press has generated many inquiries from individuals asking how they can invest in our sustainable farm. We’re pleased to announce that the recently released crowdfunding regulations now allow for individuals to make direct equity investments in growth companies like ours."

The company, which started with a 20,000-square-foot farm in Portage, is seeking investments of at least $100 to fund R&D for new farm designs and to expand its network. It's eyeing indoor farms near colleges, hospitals, military bases and corporate campuses, including abroad in Canada, Scandinavia and China.

"Just as Green Sense Farms has disrupted produce distribution and cut out the middleman, the new crowdfunding regulations have democratized the capital markets, allowing individuals the opportunity to take advantage of public offerings without the use of traditional stock brokers," Colangelo said.

For more information, visit www.startengine.com/startup/green-sense-farms-llc.

By Joseph S. Pete joseph.pete@nwi.com, (219) 933-3316

How to Grow Crops Without Sun, Soil or Water

How to Grow Crops Without Sun, Soil or Water

 

By Gillie Houston Posted September 08, 2016

A massive new indoor farm is about to open in New Jersey.

When you think farm, you might imagine sun-drenched fields of fertile soil. You probably don't imagine a very large building in Newark, New Jersey. But AeroFarms, a startup that's developed technology allowing plants to grow without sunlight or dirt (and with very little water), might be about to change that.

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According to CNN, the company's first 69,000-square-foot farm is slated to open in Newark, New Jersey this September and will produce leafy greens and herbs, like kale and basil. If this sounds a bit dystopian, consider that this approach could have major environmental benefits: AeroFarms says its new structure will require 95 percent less water than the average outdoor farm.

The farm's technological design was inspired by the aeroponic farming techniques already used by astronauts at the International Space Station. At the AeroFarms facility, humidity, temperature, and light are all strictly controlled to create the most growth-friendly environment possible—free of seasons, days or nights. Each of the plant beds, which will cycle through 22-30 harvests every year, grows on a cloth made of recycled materials, under which their roots are misted with a nutrient solution. LED lights replace the sun and shine at the optimal wavelength for each plant.

AeroFarms founder David Rosenberg says the company anticipates the large-scale vertical farm will produce 2 million pounds of greens a year, setting a precedent for the potential of urban indoor farming. The tech entrepreneur, whose ambitions extend far beyond the farmers market, hopes that the technology his company is pioneering will soon be able to help feed the 54 percent of the world's population who live in urban areas, where growing fresh ingredients is difficult. "We are building this company to be wildly impactful. Not just to build a few farms, but to change the world," Rosenberg says.

Though the lack of soil usage in the growing process means AeroFarms crops aren't eligible for organic certification, all of the plants grown in the facility are free of pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides, and use non-GMO seeds. The company also collects extensive data from their plants in order to improve their growth algorithms and future crops. "We build our own software, which take images of leaves to understand height, width, length, stem ratio, curving, color, spotting and tearing," says Rosenberg of the farming method.

Co-founder Marc Oshima, says their crop beds—which the company currently sells exclusively to local markets, shops, and restaurants—are highly computerized, but still require human touch. "We think of ourselves as plant whisperers, listening and observing everything we can do to optimize our plants," he says. "Our growing approach is really leading the way, marrying biology, engineering, and data science."