Seven Ways To Get Funding For Your Indoor Farm

Seven Ways to Get Funding for Your Indoor Farm

NOVEMBER 2, 2016 LAUREN MANNING

Finding funding for your indoor agriculture operation is tough. Recently we wrote that venture capital funding doesn’t always make sense for startups planning to build indoor farms because the time horizon and returns profile may not match.

Newbean Capital, the investment advisory firm focused on indoor ag and organizer of Indoor Ag-Con, clearly sees the struggle faced by startups after launching a financing arm called Contain Inc.

“We decided to launch Contain, Inc. because we saw that many of the kinds of financing that were readily available to outdoor farmers—such as leasing equipment—weren’t currently offered to indoor farmers,” Nicola Kerslake, founder of Newbean Capital recently told AgFunderNews via email. “This is a significant disadvantage, as one critical aspect of establishing or expanding a farm is access to capital.”

The long-term goal for Contain Inc? To become the premier provider of capital for the indoor ag sector.

Part of Newbean Capital’s efforts has included talking to lenders about the needs of indoor farmers to help them understand the unique aspects of the sector. It’s also selected some strategic partners.

“We’re working just with Bright Agrotech’s current and prospective Upstart Farming community now, but we envision rolling it out to all indoor farmers over time,” says Kerslake. “We’ve also been thinking through the way that farmers interact with banks, and that’s something that will lead to several new features over time.”

While Newbean Capital is busy creating new and disruptive financing options, there are a few channels that indoor ag startups and businesses can use to keep the lights on and the hydroponic systems pumping.

Here are six routes you could go, whether you run a hydroponic greenhouse, a container farm, a vertical growing operation, or some other outfit.

USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program

One of the biggest inputs for indoor ag is electricity. Keeping those pink and purple hued lights burning around the clock can lead to costly bills no matter how energy efficient they may be.

The USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) offers grants of $20k or less along with guaranteed loan financing to ag producers and small rural businesses that want to install renewable energy systems or make other energy efficiency upgrades. Examples of the ways the cash can be used include equipment to produce energy from biomass, hydropower, hydrogen, wind and solar generation, and ocean-based generation.

Applicants must earn at least half of their gross income from an agricultural operation, while small businesses in rural areas must meet other specified criteria. Eligible businesses must be located in areas with a population of less than 50,000 folks.

USDA Specialty Crop Production Grant Program

This provides funding to indoor farms in participating states to conduct specialty crop research provided that the partners in the operation include a research organization or cooperative extension that can publish the research results. The purpose of the program is to address the critical needs of the specialty crop industry by awarding grants to support research and extension that address key challenges of national, regional, and multi-state importance in sustaining all components of food and agriculture, including conventional and organic food production systems. Indoor ag companies that are willing to do some research could really benefit from this opportunity.

USDA Value-Added Producer Grant Program

Funds provided through this grant can be used to promote, market, and distribute value-added products from farms and other agricultural enterprises. This can cover things like packaging, delivery, labels, and websites. Priority is given to certain groups, including beginning farmers or ranchers, socially-disadvantaged farmers or ranchers, and small-to-medium sized operations. Family farms are also looked upon favorably. The maximum amount available to each awardee is $75k for planning grants and $250k for working capital grants.

USDA Local Food Promotion Program

Offering planning grants between $25k to $100k and implementation grants from $100k to $500k, this program supports the development and expansion of local food businesses. It’s geared toward boosting the amount of domestically-produced and regionally-grown agricultural products and to help create new markets for farmers in their local communities. Eligible entities must support local and regional food business enterprises that process, distribute, aggregate, or store locally or regionally-produced food, including agricultural businesses and cooperatives, as well as other for-profit agricultural business entities.

Microloans

Providing under $50k in capital, these short loans are geared toward early-stage companies that may not have substantial credit history. Some non-profit lenders like KivaZip offer loans of up to $25k. It usually takes some sort of collateral to get the loan, but this can be as simple as using a farm vehicle. In some instances, the lender will even provide some business support services like business planning with the microloan. Some banks shy away from offering them, finding that the cost of servicing the microloan outweighs the money that they make on the interest. Although there are numerous private and non-profit organizations that provide microloans, some public entities provide them, too. For info about the US Small Business Administration’s microloans program, click here.

Lobbying for Tax Abatements or Rebates for Indoor Crop Production at the Local Level

Local governments can create incentives for indoor ag production, giving people a financial motive for turning abandoned structures, vacant overgrown lots, and other spaces into food-producing businesses. In New York, for example, there are 10k acres of land and rooftop areas that could be prime indoor ag space. California recently passed an Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones Act, which lets landowners in metropolitan areas use a tax incentive for putting some of their property into agriculture use.

Know of another funding route for the indoor ag space? Get in touch Media@AgFunderNews.com.

Vertical Farming Innovator Urban Crops Opens U.S. Regional Headquarters

November 1, 2016

Vertical Farming Innovator Urban Crops Opens U.S. Regional Headquarters

Posted By: Rosemary Gordon | Email

Growing crops in a climate controlled multi-layer environment with the LED lights achieves shorter growth cycles, higher water efficiency, flexible but guaranteed harvests and safe and healthy crops. Photo courtesy of Urban Crops.

Urban Crops, a Belgian agriculture technology company, recently established operations in the U.S. The company opened an office in Miami, FL, that will be responsible for North and South America.

Urban Crops is a solution provider in the closed environment, vertical farming industry and is expanding its business globally through its own offices as well as a network of sales agents. Pieter De Smedt is leading the U.S. operations for Urban Crops.

The company creates tailored growth infrastructures, which are turnkey, automated, robotized, and able to be integrated into existing production facilities or food processing units. Urban Crops also has its own range of growth container products.

The company also can supply seeds, substrates, and nutrients for all its growth recipes. Currently, more than 160 varieties of crops that can be grown in Urban Crops’ systems using growth protocols developed specifically for indoor farming by the company’s team of plant scientists.

Growing crops in a climate controlled, multilayer environment with LED lights achieves shorter growth cycles, higher water-use efficiency, flexible but guaranteed harvests, and safe and healthy crops, according to Urban Crops. The grow infrastructure can be installed in new buildings, as well as in existing (industrial) buildings, or unused spaces. The grow infrastructure also gives the clients the possibility to grow, harvest, and consume locally, every day, and in any chosen quantity.

Urban Crops’ main office is in Belgium, where the company has built the largest European automated growth indoor farm to date, which is used mainly for R&D purposes and test runs for potential customers.

“Opening an office in the U.S. became a necessity as we received numerous requests in the past months from the American continent,” says Maarten Vandecruys, Managing Director of Urban Crops. “Our grow systems and business model make it possible for all people that have interest in the agri-food, medicinal industry, or any other industrial crop production to start its own production activities, leveraging on our proven know-how of plant science and plant grow infrastructure.”

De Smedt adds: “Supplying innovative and high-quality solutions, products, and services is our core strength. Our U.S. presence is thus a very important factor if we want to service our clients and sales agents from this continent.”

Urban Crops is currently looking for sales agent candidates. For more information, contact Pieter De Smedt at pieter.desmedt@urbancrops.be, or 786-479-8902.

Target’s Talk of Vertical Farms Met With Skepticism

By Ashley Nickle October 31, 2016 | 2:46 pm EDT

Some analysts are less than impressed with Target’s plans to start testing vertical farms in stores.

Business Insider reported that the Minneapolis-based retailer is looking to implement the technology as early as spring 2017. Target declined to provide information on those plans and declined to make chief strategy and innovation officer Casey Carl available for an interview.

Kurt Jetta, founder and CEO of TABS Analytics, and David Livingston, founder and managing partner of DJL Research, expressed skepticism regarding Target’s plans for vertical farming and cited the company’s reputation in the grocery category as a key reason for their opinions.

“Target struggles with just basic produce sales before getting all exotic with vertical farming,” Jetta said in an e-mail. “Their problem is that they don’t generate enough store traffic to justify a presence in produce at all. Spoilage is a recurring problem for them because the average Target shopper goes there less than 10 times per year. The average grocery store gets 20-25 trips.”

Livingston had a similar take. He noted that the company might view vertical farming as a differentiator, but he questioned whether it would be a meaningful one.

“I think this is a desperate attempt from probably an executive that really doesn’t know what they’re doing,” Livingston said. “Whoever did it did a good job of selling it to the senior-level team, but in my opinion, I doubt that it’ll work because, I’ll put it this way, if it was a good idea, wouldn’t the really successful grocers be doing it — not the one at the bottom?

“If this was a good idea, somebody like Publix and Kroger, they’d already be doing it,” Livingston said. “H.E.B., they’d already be doing it.”

Jetta cited limited appeal of vertical farms as another obstacle, stating that the concept would likely interest 10% of the population at most, a statistic he attributed to a TABS Analytics food & beverage study on purchasing of natural and organics.

“This is too niche for Target,” Jetta said in the e-mail. “They are a mass merchandiser, with the emphasis on mass. The only path to success in produce is to get more trips per shopper, and generating a 2.5x increase in trips is an insurmountable hurdle. They need to stick with high-velocity, packaged groceries.”

Livingston suggested Target might have a difficult time with vertical farming even if the idea was a great one.

“When it comes to grocery execution, Target’s been one of the worst in the industry to do it, so anything they do, the rest of the industry just assumes it’s going to be an ineffectual effect on the market,” Livingston said, “and so far everything Target’s done has been very ineffectual on the competition.”

On a more positive note, Jetta indicated that he expects Target’s new store format to be successful and said vertical farms might be a useful addition there.

“The only place where it would be viable is their new Target Express concept,” Jetta said in an e-mail. “These small-format urban stores will have the right target audience for these products. I think this new store concept will be (a) winner, but it begs the question on why they would complicate their logistics and increase their costs with this gimmick before establishing success in basic produce.”

Can Vertical Farming Sustain Food Demands in the Wake of Climate Change?

Posted by Guest Blogger on October 31, 2016

By Robert Colangelo

According to a 2015 report by the United Nations, the world’s population is expected to reach 9.7 billion by the year 2050. While those numbers are set to increase, so are rising surface temperatures and worsening droughts caused by severe weather patterns. Changes in climate are already reducing the amount of arable land and rising urban populations are depleting aquifers, creating a need for more sustainable farming solutions.

Indoor vertical farming is the practice of growing plants indoors in a controlled environment in stacking hydroponic towers.  These farms produce a consistent, high quality crop year-round in a small footprint. By growing indoors, weather and climate change is taken out of the equation. Over time these farms will produce zero waste by recycling all water with net zero energy use.

Green Sense Farms grows leafy green produce indoors using sustainable farming practices with minimal impact to the environment. They can grow vegetables faster than field farms using less land, water and fertilizer- free of pesticides, herbicide and GMOs. By locating these farms at or near produce distribution centers and on institutional campuses wherever large volumes of meals are served daily, they are transforming farming. The produce is fresher and the miles food travels from the farm to the table is reduced. This truly is the future of not just sustainable farming, but a farming solution to meet growing populations and changing global weather patterns.

Green Sense Farms is building a network of indoor vertical farms around the world. By farming smarter and providing consumers with access to fresh leafy greens, communities become healthier. Research has shown that a diet filled with leafy greens is rich in antioxidants and enzymes that reduce heart disease and cancers.

Green Sense Farms has been the fortunate recipient of numerous stories about our exciting innovative indoor vertical farming technology. 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. 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.

Green Sense Farms, the country’s largest network of commercial indoor vertical farms is an early adopter of technology and employed a new strategy to finance its growth through equity crowd funding.  We launched this equity crowdfunding campaign to share the unique offering with our community. The 60-day campaign which launched in early September reached its $100,000 goal in just one day and has accumulated over $360,000 to date. The campaign, ending October 31st, can be found here: https://www.startengine.com/startup/green-sense-farms-llc.

ABOUT GREEN SENSE FARMS:

Green Sense Farms is the country’s largest commercial indoor vertical farm. The company provides nutritious and delicious produce that’s good for people and the planet. Because Green Sense Farms creates conditions that are always perfect for growing, they’re able to harvest year-round, using a fraction of the land, water, and fertilizer of traditional field farming. These sustainable farming practices make Green Sense Farms a local solution to a global challenge.Green Sense Farms is located in Portage, Indiana—40 miles outside of Chicago and has created innovation partnerships with Philips, Hortimax, Rijk Zwaan, Desert Aire and Dramm.  We have also formed a business partnership with Infinite Herbs. Find more information on their website at greensensefarms.com.

As Vertical Farming Grows, A New Real Estate Opportunity Takes Root

As vertical farming grows, a new real estate opportunity takes root

The head of AeroFarms, an industry leader, talks tech and expansion

BY PATRICK SISSON  OCT 31, 2016, 9:59AM EDT

It’s a staple of rosy pictures of our urban future, often viewed as the farming equivalent of flying cars. But vertical farming, long considered a curiosity, is starting to take root now. And according to the executive of one growing company, that means expanding beyond its niche, which offers a string of related commercial real estate possibilities.

Speaking at the ULI Fall Meeting in Dallas last week, David Rosenberg, CEO of AeroFarms, spoke about the company’s technological approach to growing crops, which involves a team of engineers, data scientists, and biologists. The high-tech private agriculture company, which opened a 69,000-square-foot farm in a converted steel factory in Newark, New Jersey, earlier this year, grows greens using aquaponics: plants are raised in beds without soil, sun, or pesticides, counting on LED lights and a rigorously monitored system of pumps and HVAC units to grow. It currently counts Goldman Sachs and Prudential Financial as investors, has raised more than $70 million, and plans to open 25 farms over the next five years.

Developed over a decade, the company’s proprietary technologies, which utilizes automation and data analysis, produces results with just a fraction of the space used by traditional growing, and can constantly turn over new crops, regardless of the weather. The company is also betting that mushrooming urban populations, a desire to eat local, and worries about foodborne illness will make its system more and more attractive to consumers and investors. Executives also believe they have the necessary technological head start to be an industry leader.

“Many businesses in this space are going to go out of business,” says Rosenberg. “I’d say 90 percent in the next three years. There’s real complexity to our business that we’ve focused on. We have more than 100 people working for us, and most of them are electrical engineers, structural engineers, lighting engineers, biologists, and microbiologists.”

Since lighting and energy are the biggest cost for AeroFarms’s unconventional growing system, recent advances in LED tech have made the company’s crops of kale, arugula, and lettuce more cost-efficient. The company, which claims it offers 75 times higher productivity per square foot than the conventional model and 95 percent water, foresees even more gains as technology improves and costs drop.

That also means expansion, and as AeroFarms and other companies in the industry master the technology, it offers a new use for industrial and warehouse real estate. Right now, AeroFarms is seeking out sites with proximity to produce distribution hubs, looking for cheap land and warehouse space, as well as cheap energy; offsetting the cost of electricity with reduced transportation costs is are the core of the company’s sustainability pitch. AeroFarms is mainly concentrating on the northeast, and looking at a space in Buffalo, New York, due to nearby hyrdro-electric power. They’re also finalizing a deal for a space out west as well.

While the technology may not work for more energy-dense crops such as corn and potatoes, as it stands now, it offers a model for leafy greens that may help feed our expanding cities (just look at the concurrent rise in rooftop farming).

As AeroFarms looks to refine its next-generation take on agricultural technology, it also offers a new take on commercial real estate, combining a farm and warehouse in one large, urban facility. It just may give older industrial sites a chance for a greener future.

“We can deliver anything the plant wants, when it wants it, how it wants it and where it wants it,” Rosenberg told The New York Times.

Garden Fresh Farms - Indoor Aquaponic, All-Natural Produce From Harvest To Store In 24 Hours

Garden Fresh Farms - Indoor Aquaponic, all-natural produce from harvest to store in 24 Hours  

MENAFN Press - 29/10/2016

(MENAFN Press) Garden Fresh Farms - Indoor Aquaponic, all-natural produce from harvest to store in 24 Hours iCrowdNewswire - Oct 28, 2016 Garden Fresh FarmsIndoor Aquaponic, all-natural produce from harvest to store in 24 Hours

Introduce Garden Fresh Farms: the farming technology company on a mission to change the way the world is fed.

GFF is already an approved vendor for Whole Foods, J & J Distributing, Bon Appétit, Kowalski'sand H Brooks. With more partnerships with major distributors in the works, GFF will soon be the provider of choice for every major retailer who wants to deliver fresh produce to its customers.

Sustainability: Solving the Density & Energy Puzzle

Sustainability isn";t just a buzzword: it";s a call to action. With so much at stake, the obvious place to start transforming our planet is our food supply. That starts at the farm, where the vast majority of our food source problems begin.

The average traditional outdoor farm can produce just two lettuce crops per season, taking 60 to 80 days to produce each crop.That";s wildly inefficient.

If we";re going to change the way the world is fed, it starts with reducing the energy required to produce foods in the first place.

According to a University of California Extension study, it takes 19 gallons of water to grow a single head of lettuce in the irrigated fields of California. Given the drought crisis California is experiencing, that method of growing just isn";t sustainable.

Because 70 percent of our country";s produce comes from California, America";s food security is at risk. If we";re going to change the way the world is fed, it starts with reducing the energy and water required to produce foods in the first place.At GFF, that";s just what we did.

The Garden Fresh Farms Value Proposition
Garden Fresh Farms decentralizes growing, so fresh food gets to your local grocer within24 hours ofharvest. High-value leafy greens, herbs and micro-greens are harvested each morning, packaged and sent to the distributor the same day in most cases.

The GFF model is at least four times denser than current models, meaning we can grow an astounding amount of good in a very small space.

In the GFF model, light fixtures are placed just inches away from plants during the growing cycle. That subtle change allows us to optimize the light used by each plant.

In traditional models, every foot of distance between a plant and the light source means a 75 percent drop in the value of that light to the growth of the plant.

Because our model uses light sources so close to the plant, we substantially reduce the energy output required to grow each plant.

All of our farms can be hydroponic, aquaponic or a hybrid of the two.

Aquaponic farms use the aquaponic component as a source of all-natural fertilizer. Water is recycled from the fish tanks to the plants and back to the fish tanks.

The aquaponic method produces a closed loop, eco-friendly system that reduces water consumption by over 95 percent compared to a typical dirt farm.

With the Garden Fresh Farms model in place, a two-week-old seedling can be harvested in just 35 days.

Once harvesting begins, crops can be harvested 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year. Each grow simply moves down the overhead conveyer system, and is harvested daily.

Using that system, our one-acre warehouse can produce as much leafy green lettuce plants as a 100-acre dirt farm.

The Garden Fresh Farms model gives entire communities access to healthy food. We";re going to revitalize American farming and commerce, one community at a time.

As we transition to a greener form of capitalism, those that lead the sustainability charge aren";t just delivering a greener future: they";re delivering a more viable profit model.

The GFF model is environmentally holistic, taking into account the four main areas of sustainability:

When we revolutionized the food industry, the food industry took notice.

Target Corp is ready for in-store testing, and Wal-Mart is ready to order when we have the capacity.

Minnesota Cup 2013 FinalistReceived Energy and Clean Tech Division AwardFinalist in 2013 Midwest Regional Clean Tech Open CompetitionWon Sustainability Award by near unanimous voteWon National CleanTech Open Global Forum (won the National Sustainability award by unanimous vote and won the People";s Choice Award)Honored by Progress Minnesota, Eureka AwardGreen Products award from St. Paul Sustainable City

GFF is already affecting change at the local level. We";re selling our product through major distributors and are currently in local area grocery stores like Whole Foods, Mississippi Market Co-op and Kowalski";s.

We";re scheduled to start supplying Target stores, and we";re in conversations with Walmart to build a 10-unit farm in Mankato, MN, near their own produce distribution center.

We";re supplying restaurants and corporate dining through Bon Appétit to clients like Best Buy and St. Olaf Colleges. We";re also selling direct to consumers through a CSA subscription service.

The response to GFF has been tremendous - in fact, we";re having trouble keeping up with demand!

But we";re not about to let up.

We are working toward guaranteed contracts with major distributors where we can provide a huge advantage over remote long-distance suppliers with a steady supply of fresh produce at stable prices with reduced costs of transportation and spoilage.

Dave is a veteran of corporate America, and has started 10 businesses, sold several and is still active in several. He started Garden Fresh Farms to solve an empty warehouse problem, after his research on sustainable indoor systems yielded virtually nothing. He's an equipment inventor, patent-holder, manufacturer, and operations officer.

DJ worked up the retail ladder to Divisional Manager at Target. In 1997, he left Target to join Dave.

Peter has more than 42 years of experience in the agricultural commodities business. He started, expanded and later sold a commodity brokerage business. He's currently the Vice Chairman of No Time for Poverty. 

Bryan has a degree from the U of M in Biology, cell genetics and chemistry. He is a co-inventor of the patented equipment.

Jeff started a thriving retail business with several locations in multi states. After successfully selling the business he set up a marketing and consulting business. Jeff";s asset is working with big box companies.

Size Isn’t Everything. Here’s a Farm That Fits in Your Kitchen

It's like a microwave that grows food!

Image courtesy of Replantable

You’ve got a microwave, a toaster oven, and a myriad of other kitchen appliances, none of which actually grow food. That could change thanks to a Georgia-based startup Replantable. They've created Nanofarm, an almost completely automated system that grows vegetables and herbs in a unit small enough to fit on your kitchen counter.

The key to Nanofarm, which is  smaller than a mini-fridge, are its patent-pending plant pads, which are made out of multiple layers of fabric and paper. The pads contain the seeds and the same kinds of plant nutrients used in traditional hydroponics—elements like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium—that are culled from sustainable sources like compost tea and aquaculture waste. The pads sit on top of a water-filled reservoir.

The Nanofarm only has two knobs: a dial to control the grow cycle and a start button. Theoretically making it more straight-forward to grow your own vegetables than defrost leftovers in a microwave.

To start a grow cycle, just turn the dial labeled “weeks” to the number indicated on the plant pad and then push start. The “harvest” light turns on when your plants are grown. You then have about two weeks to pick your veggies or herbs. The used pads are biodegradable and can be composted. The company offers a variety of vegetables, like romaine lettuce, radishes and kale; and herbs like basil, thyme, and cilantro.

One Nanofarm can produce around 12 ounces of romaine lettuce or four ounces of basil (about five and a half packs of what you would find at the grocery store). The growing space is comparable to a good-sized windowsill planter, but the produce only takes between two to four weeks to grow thanks to the daylight spectrum LED lights that provide as much light as a California summer day, but consume less than a dollar of electricity per month, according to the company. The smoked glass front of the Nanofarm keeps the light from being annoyingly bright on the outside of the device.

The estimated retail price of the Nanofarm is $400, but you can pre-order one on the company’s website for $350. The plant pads are $8 each or $5 if you buy five or more at a time.

But it may be a while before you can get one for your own kitchen. While the company has created beta versions of the Nanofarm, the product won’t be available to consumers until late next year. Ruwan Subasinghe, the company’s co-founder, tells Modern Farmer they are currently getting samples of the parts that go into the Nanofarm and once approved, they can move into prototyping units for mass production, then onto actual production.

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The company just finished a Kickstarter campaign that raised about $61,000, $11,000 more than their goal. Subasinghe says they were “quite surprised” by the support they received—and not just financially. He says they got a ton of messages from people who enthusiastically believe in what they were doing. The Kickstarter contributors get the first mass-produced models that are tentatively set to be shipped next October. It will be a few more months after that when the general public will be able to get one.

Subasinghe and his business partner, Alex Weiss, met when they were attending Georgia Tech, in Atlanta, where they were working on projects involving hydroponics and issues of food waste. They realized that the produce you get at grocery stores tends to have travelled  thousands of miles to reach the store’s shelves, which leaves only a small window of time before the produce goes bad, leading to food waste. They joined forces with the idea of combatting food waste and last year started Replantables following their involvement in a startup accelerator through the school. “We saw the potential for hydroponics to allow people to grow their own food at home,” says Subasinghe.

The initial prototype was just a souped up hydroponics system made out of PVC pipes with running water, filters and pumps that needed to be cleaned by the user, according to Subasinghe. They quickly realized that consumers wanted something simpler and easier to use. By the time they were done with the beta version, it was almost completely automatic and no longer resembled a typical hydroponic system since they’d ditched the pump, liquid nutrients, and inert growing medium.

“We hope that by providing technology that allows people to easily grow their own food while using fewer resources, we’re allowing the future of food to be more earth-conscious.” says Subasinghe.

Trials See Cucumbers Gain From LED Lighting

Trials see cucumbers gain from LED lighting

28 October 2016, , Be the first to comment

Recent trials of supplemental LED lighting in cucumber glasshouses show they can increase both productivity and sustainability, Philips Horticulture high-wire crops specialist Piet Hein van Baar told the Cucumber & Pepper Growers Day.

Trials show how LED lighting in cucumber crops boosts productivity and sustainability

One trial compared growing midi cucumbers on a high-wire format in Poland under three lighting regimes: high-pressure sodium (HPS) toplighting and LED interlighting; both LED topand interlighting; and only HPS toplighting, each in a 60 sq m compartment at 3.14 plants per square metre.

These were first planted in December 2014. Over the four months of the trial, the all-LED plot yielded 43.1kg of fruit, compared to 40.6kg for the hybrid format and 34.7kg for the HPS-only control - indicating an uplift of 24 per cent for the all-LED format.

A further crop begun in December 2015 then tested the proposal that higher planting densities, hence higher yields, would be possible under LED lighting. Indeed at 3.66 plants per square metre, the all-LED format yielded 54.3kg in four months, and the hybrid 47.5kg, while at the lower density the yield under HPS also improved to 39.6kg, but this still left the all-LED system 37 per cent ahead.

"With 100 per cent LED the fruit development is also faster while the water use is nearly 14 per cent lower," Van Baar added. "But adding LED interlight to an existing HPS system can also give you more grams per mol of light."

A separate trial at a Dutch commercial grower in a glasshouse too low for overhead lighting assessed what benefits if any are brought by double LED interlighting booms between high-wire long cucumber aisles.

"With 18 hours of lighting there was significantly more production," said Van Barr, adding that this had the side-effect of raising temperature over much of the trial period. The interlighting appeared to promote earlier production, gave fewer signs of Mycosphaerella infection and yielded fruit with five-to-seven days longer shelf life.

Trials are also ongoing to ascertain the value of LED lighting in pepper production, he said. "Interlighting appears to strengthen the pepper plant and boost production by seven-to-10 per cent, but it takes two months for the crop to grow high enough to fully benefit." LED toplighting remains another area for further work, he added. "It should make winter pepper production possible - you can't do it with just interlighting."

He estimated that around two per cent of the Netherlands' glasshouse area now uses some form of LED lighting, but pointed out: "You need a specialist to work out the most efficient light distribution for your crop."

CGA technical officer Derek Hargreaves noted: "HPS is effective but not profitable - not due to the lighting, but to the price of cucumbers."

LED lighting further complicates the already complex interactions of factors governing the behaviour of pests, beneficial insects and the growing environment, Stockbridge Technology Centre (STC) director of entomology and sustainable agriculture Dr David George told the conference. These include visual, chemical and physical cues, he said. "Plants alter their chemistry in response to pests, to limit damage and attract biocontrol agents, and the nature of this response can be affected by the type of light."

Enclosed LED systems such as the LED4Crops facility at STC "require back-to-basics thinking" to optimise pest monitoring, choice of beneficial insects and pollination, he said. "Supplemental lighting in glasshouses and polytunnels could present similar opportunities and challenges."

His STC colleague Dr Phillip Davis, who manages LED4Crops, explained the growing understanding of individual crops' lighting needs. "Light colour influences leaf pigmentation and morphology," he said. "Flowering is inhibited by red light but promoted by far-red light. Under blue light you can get lettuces that are almost black, and so high in anthocyanins. Blue also helps to open stomata, though there is a trade-off between biomass and quality. Plants are very sensitive to UV-B light as it's very damaging."

With all this in mind "we can start to design a lighting regime that gives you the kind of plant you want, including by supplementing sunlight in a glasshouse", he said. "Selecting light spectra can improve quality and efficiency, and plants will benefit from different spectra at different stages of growth."

He added: "We are hoping to look next at the interaction of light and pathogens - but informally we seem to be enhancing plant immunity with LEDs."

Indoor Gardening Made Easy: The NutriTower!

I’ve always dreamed of having my own indoor garden so that I can be self-sufficient during winter, but I live in a tiny apartment and have no room for a hydroponic system… Or so I thought! Thanks to the NutriTower, this dream of mine is now possible!

The NutriTower

The NutriTower is a vertical hydroponic system specifically designed for indoor use. It is the first system to use the patent-pending vertical lighting design. This technology allows you to grow more food than ever before without taking up valuable floor space! In just under 2 square feet of floor space, with up to 48 pots, it’s the most efficient method of growing food on the market.

How Does It Work?

The NutriTower is a vertical hydroponic system that is simple, elegant and efficient. The patent-pending vertical lighting design and the gravity fed nutrient delivery system make this the most effective way of growing food in your home year round.

• Strong custom extruded aluminium frame

• The only system with vertical lighting

• Energy efficient high output bulbs

• Standard 24 pot layout is highly customizable

• Pots are easily removed for maintenance

• Gravity does most of the work

• Large reservoir means less maintenance

• Quiet pump runs only a few minutes each hour

• Individual timers so you’re in control

• Small footprint allows it to be placed anywhere

The NutriTower is designed to be flexible to its users needs. You can customize your systems to be more oriented toward leafy greens or fruits and vegetables or a mix! Because it is a hydroponic system, there is no messy soil to deal with.

My friends from the Valhalla Movement who have personally seen and interacted with the system have loved it so much they will use it in their own greenhouse inspired earthship! If you are still not convinced why this system is awesome, click here to learn 8 reasons why the food revolution might happen in your kitchen!

 Want This Technology?

Visit NutriTower!

The therapeutic benefits of having living plants around you has been proven again and again. Not only will you have fresh organic food, you will be saving the world from food miles (distance food travels from producer to consumer). With this new addition to your home you will be sure to have some interesting conversations as friends visit to see 5 (or more) different veggies growing in your kitchen!

This Farm Uses Only Sun and Seawater To Grow Food

In the arid desert of coastal South Australia, a new indoor farm is using the two most available resources, that also happen to be free—sun and seawater—to grow tomatoes. Lots and lots of tomatoes.

Sundrop Farms, located near Port Augusta in South Australia, is the first commercial agricultural system of its kind: It doesn’t use groundwater, soil, pesticides, or fossil fuels to grow crops. The project has been a six-year odyssey that began with a pilot greenhouse in 2010, followed by the construction of  a nearly 50-acre facility in 2014 that, as of earlier this month, is now fully up and running with a projected capacity of 18,000 tons of tomatoes —the crop the company is focused on at this facility—a year, according to Sundrop.

Here’s how the company explains it: Seawater is pumped from Spencer Gulf, located about a mile and a half away from the facility, where it’s desalinated through a solar powered thermal unit. “Sustainably sourced” fertilizers and micronutrients are added to the water (they won’t give details regarding their nutrient mix), which is then used to hydrate the tomato plants, which are grown in coconut husks instead of soil (a renewable resource), which also aids in root growth due to their natural hormones. According to Philipp Saumweber, Sundrop Farms CEO, the they don’t have to use pesticides the they pump seawater through the facility’s air filters, which kills insect pests due to the high salt content in the water-saturated air.

The farm’s solar power is generated by 23,000 mirrors that reflect sunlight to a more than 375-foot high receiver tower. On a sunny day, it can produce up to 39 megawatts of electricity, which is more than enough to power the desalination system and the rest of the facility’s power needs. Excess thermal heat and water are kept in storage facilities on the farm to use when needed, according to Saumweber. That said, the facility remains on the electrical grid as a back up for 10 to 15 percent of its power needs when weather makes it difficult to rely solely on solar power.

The company spent about $200 million on the project, with $100 million coming from the global investment firm KKR, a larger outlay than a typical hydroponic greenhouse system, which can run about $1 million an acre. But, according to Saumweber, who spoke to New Scientist, the seawater system will pay off in the long run since conventional greenhouses are more expensive to run on an annual basis since the rely on the power grid, which is powered by fossil fuels.

The price tag isn’t stopping the company from building another farm in Australia, one in Portugal, which was recently completed, and one in Tennessee, which broke ground this year. While not all of them may use seawater or a solar tower, they will all have some “sustainable resource angle,” according to an Australian Broadcasting Corporation interview with Reinier Wolterbeek, the chief technology officer for Sundrop Farms. When Modern Farmer asked Saumweber whether he could be more specific, he answered that he couldn’t “at this stage,” and added “that we will always use sustainable inputs to dramatically reduce our reliance on finite natural resources.”

The company partnered with a large Australian grocery retailer, Coles, with whom they have a ten-year contract. Tomatoes from their pilot program, which started before the larger facility came online, are already on grocery store shelves.

Not everyone feels the system makes economic or environmental sense, at least in regard to the project in Australia. Paul Kristiansen, a professor at the University of New England, Australia, told New Scientist, that since there wasn’t a problem growing tomatoes in other parts of Australia, the need to grow tomatoes in a desert was a “bit like crushing a garlic clove with a sledgehammer.”

Environmentalists have taken issue with desalination due to the amount of energy it takes to produce potable water, and the problem of the disposal of the highly concentrated salt brine that’s dumped back into the ocean, which can be too salty for marine life to inhabit. 

Sundrop Farms’ technology answers the energy question with its use of solar power. As to concerns about impacts on marine life, Saumweber says their system doesn’t result in water with high levels of salinity. According to Saumweber, cooled seawater from the greenhouse cooling system is mixed with warm elevated salinity seawater in a large lined storage tank for discharge back to the ocean.

“The large size and surface area of the storage and the mixing of warm and cool streams results in a seawater that is only slightly more concentrated and at a similar temperature to the ocean,” he tells Modern Farmer in an email. “The minor increases in salinity at the discharge location as approved by the Environmental Protection Authority.”

In the face of the high loss of groundwater worldwide and other problems associated with climate change, Sundrop Farms’ technology may prove to be helpful in combating these issues as we try to figure out how to provide enough food to feed the world’s growing population, estimated to be 9.6 billion people by the year 2050.

 https://vimeo.com/183859356

Making Urban Ag Happen in LA – A Gathering of Thinkers & Leaders

Making Urban Ag Happen in LA – A Gathering of Thinkers & Leaders

 OCTOBER 27, 2016JIM PANTALEO 0

I recently had the opportunity to attend an event in Los Angeles hosted by urban farm start-up, Local Roots Farms. It was sponsored by the Larta Institute, Indoor Ag Con and Autogrow Systems.

The Larta Institute’s mission is “to energize the transformation of technology ideas into solutions that elevate economic opportunities and make lives better for people around the world.” And digging deeper,  the Larta Institute’s Global Ag Innovation Network (GAIN) is a national forum of thinkers and leaders in the agriculture innovation community that utilizes the network to stimulate the creation and implementation of solutions to pressing challenges across current food and agriculture value chains.

With over 100 of those “thinkers and leaders” gathered on a balmy October evening at Local Roots Farms, the Larta Institute is certainly capturing the essence of their mission. On this night, Dr. Claire Kinlaw, Larta’s Director of Agriculture Practice, moderated a panel of indoor agriculture experts which included: Nicola Kerslake of the well-known industry-gatherer, Indoor Ag Con and investment adviser from Newbean Capital; Kelley Nicholson of Autogrow Systems; and Local Roots’ co-founder, Eric Ellestad. Together they fielded questions from the audience which crossed a number of spectrums in the indoor Ag world, including everything from the safety of the plastic used in manufacturing NFT’s (nutrient film techniques) to grow plants in to inquiries from those seeking funding for their Ag start-ups.

Among the notable crowd was Henry Gordon-Smith (see the Association for Vertical Farming andAGRITECTURE), and a student contingent from Cal Poly Pomona’s School of Agriculture, led by Department of Plant Science professor, Eileen Cullen.

Claire Fox, Executive Director of LA’s Food Policy Council detailed their mission of acting as “a collective impact initiative working to build a Good Food system for all Los Angeles residents — where food is healthy, affordable, fair and sustainable.”

Claire Kinlaw relayed her pleasure and excitement at the larger-than-expected turnout, “This is about community justice – people want to know where their food comes from.”

Nicola Kerslake was even more vocal. “This is an awesome event with Larta getting it right in terms of the roles of government and economic development.”

Kelley Nicholson from Autogrow Systems noted, “It is exciting to see all the passionate people exploring Urban Ag… for years I have been supporting indoor farmers and it was great to get everyone together to share their experiences and expertise.  Working together, we will make Urban Ag in Los Angeles a real possibility!”

Eric Ellestad was energized by the “inspiring, diverse and robust crowd” and is “excited that Local Roots Farms is an integral part of the movement” bringing indoor agriculture to Los Angeles and beyond.

Local Roots Farms, in particular, holds a special spot in my heart, and I owe a literary shout-out to their COO, Matt Vail, as he was the very first person to allow me into their initial container for a tour back in late 2014. I remember meeting Matt at the KISS (rock band) restaurant, Rock & Brews in Redondo Beach (his choice) for lunch. I immediately sensed not only was this a smart dude, but that he was going to make a real difference in the world of precision agriculture and indoor farming. The container was housed in an industrial lot around the corner from SpaceX in Hawthorne and my pupils dilated upon entering the inner sanctum of butter lettuce bathed in pink LED lights. Indeed, time has proven me right in that Local Roots Farms has not only grown in employees and containers but they are also supplying produce to the likes of Tender Greens, SpaceX and Mendocino Farms, to name but a few of their marquee customers.

The key themes of this night were about community justice, bringing passionate people together for a shared cause, elevating economic opportunities and making the world a better place. In the view of many, myself included, this is what it’s all about. For this, you’ve got to love LA.  

Growing Up…Vertical Farming

Vertical farming–as the name suggests–refers to cultivating crops in multi-story greenhouses. These vertical farms are fitted with modern technology (hydroponics, aeroponics and aquaponics) and enable crops to be grown in the center of urban areas. Being a closed-loop agricultural system, it's the cleanest industry you can imagine, filtering dirty air and rain water during the process.

The concept of vertical farming has been around since the 1980s–when we started to realize a change was necessary–but didn’t evolve into a viable solution until the late 1990s, thanks to technical advances.

However, today we can no longer avoid the need to find new solutions. One example are wine growing regions which can be used as a barometer to measure climate change as grapes require such a specific regime of humidity and temperature to grow. In fact, according to wineologists, in 50 years wine growers in Bordeaux will no longer be able to grow grapes in the region. We can see in many regions that optimal wine growing conditions are moving north in the northern hemisphere and south in the southern hemisphere–for example, ideal climatic conditions for growing the Pinot Noir grape are shifting steadily north from the Napa Valley, towards northern California and even into Oregon.

These changes are also having a tangible impact on corn, wheat, barley, rice and other cash crops. As our populations expand we will need to start growing crops in new regions that don’t necessarily have the correct soil types. Vertical farming provides the opportunity to bypass these regional environmental hurdles by creating prime exterior conditions indoors.

Benefits of vertical farming

1. Year-round crop production – there are no seasons in a vertical farm, so any crop that can be grown indoors can be produced year-round, locally
2. Requires very little water – water is scarce in many locations but water used in vertical farming is recycled in a closed loop cycle which means availability and waste of resources is not a problem
3. Employment opportunities – vertical farms are located in the city and therefore provide employment, in a pleasant environment for urban dwellers
4. No soil contamination – with no agricultural run-off, need for fertilizers or heavy metal contamination, vertical farming eliminates the usual pitfalls associated with outdoor traditional farming
5. Repurposes old buildings – warehouses equipped with the right infrastructure make the ideal vertical farm, negating the need to destroy old buildings

Encouragingly, an increasing number of big companies are now getting on board with vertical farming and developing the idea at a corporate level, including Toshiba, Panasonic and Goldman Sachs–who are funding a large vertical farm in Newark, New Jersey. A clear demonstration that vertical farming is a viable and efficient way of growing food for urban populations and industry will have a core role in making this happen.

Vertical farms are also beginning to harness the power of natural energy sources. For example, the power of geothermal energy is being harnessed in places like Italy, USA, Iceland, New Zealand and Japan. Huge opportunities also exist in places like Australia where the climate is favorable and solar energy could be used. There will be a whole host of alternative energy solutions to generate electricity for these farms, meaning the more we invest in thinking about how to do things ecologically, the more economical the process of vertical farming will become.

Vertical farming presents a huge investment opportunity, and as you would expect, the concept is now gaining extensive global interest thanks to the possibility of creating inexpensive, healthy and locally produced food.

For example, we only need to look to China which has employed US company, Green Sense Farms, to develop 20 vertical farms across major cities in the country.

Farms of the Future

Solar powered irrigation system

SunCulture is providing solar-powered irrigation systems for farmers in Kenya, enabling them to grow additional fresh fruits and vegetables at less cost. The system–delivering water directly to crop roots–provides yield gains of up to 300 percent and 80 percent water savings.1In areas of low and unpredictable rainfall, this system is proving invaluable and ensuring farmers can avoid high fuel costs, negating the need for diesel-powered generators.

Drones for crop management

Start-up PrecisionHawk has created a lightweight drone to gather high-resolution aerial data enabling the agriculture industry to “optimize area usage and increase land use efficiency”. The system–integrating drones and software–provides information on “the status and health of crops and soil”, enabling maximum crop yield. Going one step further, the drone can also identify areas at risk of drought, detect disease (in plants and animals) and estimate growing time for crops. A highly useful tool for drought affected regions.

Dairy hubs

A dairy hub refers to community dairy “development programs” which have been launched successfully in Bangladesh and Pakistan and are currently being piloted in East Africa and India. Linking smallholder farmers to dairy processors, this model enables cost cutting, higher incomes, healthier livestock as well as access to proper infrastructure. With milk being an important source of energy,

vitamins and minerals, it also increases the availability of a long term supply of safe, affordable and local milk in these regions.

CONTRIBUTORS

Dickson Despommier Microbiologist and Ecologist

As an Emeritus Professor of Microbiology and Public Health at Columbia University, Despommier conducted laboratory research for 27 years, which he left in order to focus on globally relevant projects, such as parasitism and its impact on societies living in the tropics. In “Growing Up…Vertical Farming”, IN spoke with Despommier about vertical farming, and its critical role in achieving agricultural s

Indoor Harvest (INQD): Aims to Provide Innovative Equipment Solutions To The Burgeoning Indoor Farming Market

Indoor Harvest (INQD): Aims to Provide Innovative Equipment Solutions to the Burgeoning Indoor Farming Market

Destiny A. Lopez  Follow | Wednesday, 26 October 2016 12:10 (EST)

In an effort to address sustainability and environmental issues, indoor farming is positioned to revolutionize agriculture. According to The Institute, vertical farming has already started to display impressive benefits over traditional farming methods. “Out in a field it could take 45 days to harvest leafy greens; indoors, with optimization techniques, the same greens can grow in as little as 12 days,” The Institute reported in May 2016. “And because indoor farming can continue year-round, it can be up to 75 times as productive as traditional methods.” Indoor Harvest (INQD), an art design-build engineering firm, aims to meet the needs of this burgeoning sector with innovative equipment solutions.

A Houston-based company, Indoor Harvest is a full service firm specializing in equipment design, development, marketing, and direct-selling of commercial grade aeroponics fixtures, vertical farm fixtures and supporting systems for the urban agriculture and building integrated agriculture sectors. Its product offering fall into one of the following categories:

• Leafy Greens/Herbs
• Medicinal Plant/Research/Biomanufacturing
• HVAC/Production Retrofits

Within its Microgreens/Leafy Greens/Herbs category, the company’s Modular Vertical Farm Framing System aims to eliminate complicated, cumbersome and time consuming step ups. Thanks to its modular design, the product allows for expansion.

Within the past 30 days, the company has seen some interesting movement in the market.

Moreover, in an interview with CashiInbis, Chad Sykes, CEO of Indoor Harvest, provided insight into the company’s goal to reduce the high costs associated with cultivation operations. “Indoor Harvest’s technology can dramatically reduce the cost of goods,” Sykes told Cashinbis in 2015. “You can see almost a 70% reduction in the cost of goods for a number of cultivars; It reduces fertilizer use by about 60%; It can reduce water usage by about 90-98%; And it also speeds vegetative growth by about 15-20%. Most of these guys are using rock wool or coco as their growing medium and with aeroponics, there is no growing medium at all needed. You also eliminate the cost of the rock wool, the coco, and the labor associated with disposing of it. “

Along with its current efforts to separate its cannabis and produce operations, the company has a number of strategic developments in progress that potentially strengthen its position for operational and financial growth. “we executed two construction related contracts in July valued at approximately $11.5 million,” said Chad Sykes, CEO and founder of Indoor Harvest. “We will continue to maintain previous guidance and expect that by year's end we will reach positive cash flow and move towards profitability by mid-year 2017.”

The investment community looks forward to future developments from the company.

To learn more about Indoor Harvest, visit www.indoorharvest.com

Ex-Banker Jack Griffin Wants To Turn Philadelphia Into The Vertical Farming Capital of The World

BY QUINN O'CALLAGHAN

OCT. 26, 2016

If you’re a wide-eyed urbanist, you may have seen the online mockups of towering Jetson-esque pod-farms drafted up as a template for vertical farming, possessing as much space as skyscrapers, with mighty oaks exploding toward the sun 500 feet from the ground. A darling notion, but that ain’t what’s happening, at least not yet: Metropolis Farms, Philly’s only vertical farming outfit, sits in a low, unassuming building in South Philly, not far from Tony Luke’s or IKEA.

But it could be the seed of something huge.

“We’re looking to completely change the system,” says Jack Griffin. Griffin is the president of Metropolis Farms. As it stands, Metropolis is one of only a handful of vertical farms in the U.S., and the first certified-vegan vertical farming outfit in the country.

Griffin, a former merchant banker originally from Philadelphia, says that he has been obsessed with the concept of vertical farming for years, ever since turning down a vertical farming outfit for a loan several years ago. He opened Metropolis Farms after two years of planning, research and development last February. Although his outfit currently employs fewer than 10 people, he plans to grow his staff to around 100 by the end of 2017 with coming business expansions. Griffin says that he’s already turning a profit in his vertical farming business, but that’s nearly beside the point: The man has big plans for the future of the exploding industry.

Griffin sees Philadelphia not only as the home base for Metropolis Farms, but as its international hub: R&D will be conducted in Philadelphia; people will come from around the world to train as vertical farmers here; nearly the entirety of the manufacturing will be done in Philadelphia.

Farmers around the world are utilizing new techniques to grow larger crops in more challenging environments than in the past. Israeli farmers have pioneered growing crops from the desert; California farmers are looking to the ancients for ways to solve their water woes; community farming in U.S. cities has exploded in recent years. With good reason: Our population is growing at a massive clip, with an estimated 10 billion people due to be on the planet by 2050. Keeping all of us fed is going to be one of our biggest challenges—especially when arable land is being gobbled up by drought and desertification, and climate change is having an increasingly brutal effect on U.S. crops. And cities, which people are gravitating toward at a nearly unprecedented rate, lack virtually any agricultural infrastructure.

In response, Metropolis is attempting to pioneer modular vertical farming apparati, to be manufactured in Philadelphia. Griffin says that one of his modular vertical farming towers would cost somewhere between $16,000 and $17,000, and that a full array of 30 would cost around $500,000. Compare that to, say, the Aerofarms indoor farming project in Newark, N.J., the premier vertical farming installation on the east coast, which cost $30 million to build.

Griffin says that he’s “sitting on at least $10 million” in potential contracts for his vertical farming system, and that he’s drawn interest from investors as far away as Moscow.

That’s because vertical farming, if done right, is a no-brainer of a civic investment. The process requires considerably less energy than traditional farming. There is no heavy equipment involved; no backhoe or tractor fleet is needed. The most dramatic up-front cost is the lighting and rigging.

Vertical farms are indoors, which means farmers can create perfect growing conditions, letting them grow crops all year, and harvest at a faster rate than traditional farms. A properly sterile environment is also immune to bugs and diseases that plague traditional crops, so there’s no need for pesticides and germicides.

What’s more: Locally sourcing your food means significantly lower transportation costs. Transportation costs are a main driver behind the high price of produce, and the length of the transportation process can severely diminish a product’s shelf life. If the number of high-volume vertical farms increased dramatically in cities, it would obviate the need to cart produce in from far and wide; hypothetically, you could U-Haul the crop from South Philly to the Trader Joe’s in Center City (or Whole Foods, which Metropolis Farms currently supplies).

“Instead of being a customer, we have to become our own supplier,” says Griffin of Philadelphia. “That way, we can keep our money moving within our own city.”

Investors are clamoring to get in on all that vertical action, with the market for vertical farming expected to expand to roughly $3.9 billion by 2020. That’s a lot of green for a lot of green.

So vertical farming may yet save the world and make a bonzer profit. But what can it do for Philly, the poorest big city in the country? The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that 11 percent of households in Philadelphia are food insecure; according to the Hunger Coalition, one in four people in Philadelphia is at risk for hunger. “The problem is food access,” says Griffin.

Griffin says that one of his modular vertical farming towers would cost somewhere between $16,000 and $17,000, and that a full array of 30 would cost around $500,000. Compare that to, say, the Aerofarms indoor farming project in Newark, N.J., the premier vertical farming installation on the east coast, which cost $30 million to build.

Metropolis Farms has a plan to battle malnutrition and hunger in a novel way, even before vertical farming becomes commonplace. Griffin has set up a nonprofit, called Grandma’s—a name that he got from a friend—and says he is in the process of negotiating with SEPTA to donate two busses. The buses are going to be converted into “mobile markets” for vegan meals, and deployed into low-income areas—including his old neighborhood in North Philly. “We’re going to develop low-cost, highly-nutritious—but they also have to be really tasty—meals. No one wants to survive on McDonald’s hamburgers, but when that’s all that’s around, that’s all you buy,” he says.

Grandma’s will accept SNAP benefits, and Griffin’s goal is for the meals to cost less than your average fast food meal. He says that he’s already talking with “top chefs” in Philly about the project. But that’s only the short-term play to share the profits of the vertical farming revolution with Philly.

Metropolis Farms wants to keep vertical farming development in Philly. Griffin sees Philadelphia not only as the home base for Metropolis Farms, but as its international hub: If Griffin gets his wish, R&D will be conducted in Philadelphia, assisted by the biggest brains from Penn, Villanova, and Drexel; people will come from around the world to train as vertical farmers in Philadelphia; nearly the entirety of the manufacturing of Metropolis Farms’ modular vertical farming product will be done in Philadelphia.

Ultimately, Griffin hopes, Philadelphia will be able to maintain a self-sustaining, local agricultural system and be able to supply low-income citizens with high-quality, low price fruits and vegetables as a result.

That’s still a ways off. For now, Griffin says the focus is on making vertical farming profitable and available to investors, as well as improving the product.

“We’re making it so that maybe, in the future, some kid will be able to develop those skyscrapers with oak trees shooting out of them,” he says.

Food Safety Plays Part In Urban Agriculture Bill

 

Food Safety Plays Part In Urban Agriculture Bill

BY COOKSON BEECHER | OCTOBER 24, 2016

Imagine walking down the street in your city neighborhood and stopping by a garden, planted in what used to be a vacant lot, to buy some vegetables or fruit for supper. For many people, this is not pie-in-the sky dreaming. It’s a welcome reality — and a pleasant change in scenery.

As urban agriculture continues to put down roots in cities across the United States, more and more people are beginning to see its many benefits. The hope for the future is that it can flourish and sustain a new crop of farmers and farm businesses and help supply city dwellers with healthy food that’s been grown close by.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-MI, at the Lafayette Greens Community Urban Garden in Detroit to discuss the importance of local agriculture with Garden Manager Gwen Meyer, right.

Helping to fuel that hope, U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow on Sept. 28, announced the most comprehensive urban agriculture bill to be introduced in Congress. A Democrat from Michigan, Stabenow is ranking member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.

The Urban Agriculture Act of 2016 would offer urban farmers new resources through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to Stabenow’s Senate office website. It would create a new urban agriculture office at USDA to coordinate policies across the department and provide urban farmers with technical assistance.

Pointing out that urban agriculture is steadily growing in the United States, the senator said the act will build on this momentum by helping urban farmers get started or expand their business “so they can sell more products and supply more healthy food for their neighbors.”

The bill would boost farming cooperatives, encourage rooftop and vertical farms, invest $10 million in research exploring market opportunities, and develop technologies for lowering energy and water needs.

It would also offer loans to finance food production and marketing; risk-management tools to protect crops, food prices, and contracts; and a mentorship support program.

Stabenow announced her legislation during a press conference at D-Town Farm in Detroit with Mayor Mike Duggan and Michigan urban ag leaders.

Currently at seven acres, D-Town Farm is the largest farm in Detroit. Located in a large city park, it is lined by a see-through deer fence and includes large hoop houses and open beds of tomatoes, garlic, beans and other vegetables. Its produce is sold at farm stands and farmers markets.

Launched in 2006 on just one-quarter of an acre, D-Town Farm is an “urban agriculture initiative” of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, which is dedicated to building food security and advocating for food justice for Detroit’s majority African-American community. Blacks or African Americans make up 82.7percent of the city’s population.

Mayor Mike Duggan said here’s an abundance of available land in Detroit and groups like D-Town farms are putting it to productive use in a way that promotes good health and economic opportunity.

As for the abundance of available land in Detroit, there are an estimated 150,000 abandoned lots within in the city’s 360 acres.

“I hope that Sen. Stabenow’s bill will help efforts like this expand and allow others to follow in their footsteps,” Duggan said.

Long-time urban-ag leader Malik Yakini, executive director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, also gives a thumbs-up to Stabenow’s legislation.

“As we rethink how we provide food in an environmentally sustainable way for an increasingly urban population, urban agriculture is an important component,” he said.

When it comes to the economic benefits of this approach, Yakini said “urban agriculture, and the associated businesses needed to support it, helps local economies to thrive.”

He also praised urban agriculture for its ability to grow food closer to population centers, which not only provides people with fresher, more nutrient-rich foods but also reduces the carbon footprint caused by transporting food long distances.

Joan Nelson, executive director of Allen Neighborhood Center, which operates the Allen Market Place in Lansing, MI, had some good news to share about urban ag.

“A steady increase in the number of urban farms in the Capital City is beginning to impact health and nutrition awareness, good food access, and food security, even as it is transforming fragile neighborhoods,” she said.

In praise of Stabenow’s urban ag act, Nelson said it will offer new resources, support, financial tools, educational and economic opportunities that will “most certainly accelerate and strengthen these promising changes in urban communities throughout Michigan.”

A member of the financial community, Dave Armstrong, president and CEO of GreenStone Farm Credit Services, also had good things to say about the legislation, pointing out that it’s an important step in “supporting the evolving agriculture industry.

He pointed to parts of the bill that focus on risk management, education and expanded loan guarantees.

In a conference call with reporters, Stabenow has conceded that the bill likely won’t pass in its current form. But she said it will start the conversation and build broader support for including urban farming as part of the next farm bill.

Starting the conversation
“It’s really exciting to see this — working toward getting the federal government to making a commitment to urban agriculture,” Jennifer Sowerwine, University of California cooperative extension food systems specialist, said.

“There are so many benefits across the spectrum — health, education, economics, food safety, and community health, among them.”

She also said it presents “tremendous opportunities” for low-income people in cities because urban farms help them learn about nutrition and how to cook fresh produce.

The National Farmers Union (NFU) is also pleased with the bill, saying it would expand USDA programs to support urban farmers, encouraging food production, job creation, urban revitalization and diversity in agriculture production

“Urban agriculture provides a feasible and sustainable business option for those wanting to get into farming, attracting new faces to the industry that may not have otherwise considered this profession,” said NFU President Roger Johnson. “This bill will help support the programs that are making these opportunities possible.”

City and suburban agriculture can be found in the form of backyard gardens, roof-top and balcony gardening, community gardening in vacant lots and parks, roadside urban fringe agriculture and livestock grazing in open space, according to the USDA.

The USDA does not keep track of the number of urban farms in the United States. But according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 800 million people worldwide grow vegetables or fruits or raise animals in cities.

“Agriculture — including horticulture, livestock, fisheries, forestry, and fodder and milk production — is increasingly spreading to towns and cities,” according to the FAO website. “Urban agriculture provides fresh food, generates employment, recycles urban wastes, creates greenbelts, and strengthens cities’ resilience to climate change.”

What about food safety
The good news is that food safety is included in Stabenow’s bill in a variety of ways.

Stabenow’s spokeswoman Miranda Margowsky cited several sections in the bill that pertain to food safety:

Sec. 101 Increases funding for Extension activities, which can provide food safety technical assistance and good handling practice information.

Sec. 201 Under the business program review, the bill requires that USDA review/evaluate its technical assistance/training for good agriculture practices (GAPs) and food safety record keeping and must develop best practices to reach urban farmers.

Sec. 301 Addresses soil remediation.

Sec. 401 Includes funding for research on food safety issues related to urban agriculture production.

Nothing in the bill would restrict the community garden grant program from funding cooling equipment as part of overall projects.

First, the soil
When it comes to food safety and urban farming, it’s not as simple as pulling out a shovel and planting some seeds in an abandoned lot.

Land use in urban areas often leaves an unfortunate legacy of contaminated soil. Sites of former commercial or industrial buildings are frequently contaminated with asbestos, petroleum products, lead-based paint chips, dust and debris.

In the case of old houses, lead is often concentrated near their foundations. Even an old apple tree can raise suspicions because it could have been sprayed with an arsenic-based pesticide.

Along roadways, vehicle exhausts leave behind lead and PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons). Consequently urban farmers are advised to erect some sort of barrier between busy roadways and their growing areas, if possible.

Soil in former parks and along railroad rights-of-way can harbor pesticide residues.

Regardless of the former use, soil must be tested and remediated, if necessary, to get rid of as many contaminants as possible. But because testing for an array of toxins can be expensive, and because remediating the soil can be a huge challenge and further expense, some urban farmers remove the old soil. They place an impermeable barrier on the ground and add new top soil.

Boston University toxicologist Wendy Heiger-Bernays suggests skipping the testing and proceed as though the soil is contaminated. Again, taking this approach would mean bringing in good soil and compost to the site.

It’s the soil, not the food growing in it
A number of studies concur that the main problem isn’t the food grown in contaminated soil, but rather the danger that comes to people working in the soil.

A study by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for a Livable Future warns that gardeners can be exposed to soil contaminants in a variety of ways, among them, accidental ingestion, inhalation and skin contact. The study also points out that soil ingestion is even riskier for children, who think nothing of putting their hands in their mouth and who are generally more sensitive to the effects of contaminants.

Elevated blood lead levels in children are linked with cognitive, motor, behavioral and physical problems, including an increased risk of poor performance at school and criminal behavior.

That’s why people working in urban soils should never track the soil into their dwellings on shoes, clothing and tools. As with any activities involving soil, urban agriculture must include frequent and effective hand washing.

A study from the University of Washington found that higher levels of lead in urban garden soils don’t necessary translate into lead-filled fruits and vegetables. While plants do absorb lead from the soil, it usually doesn’t go past the roots. In other words, it doesn’t move through the stems and into leaves or fruits.

But that may mean that root crops such as potatoes, turnips, carrots and beets might have a slightly higher lead content when grown in an urban garden. However, that’s not the case in crops, such as tomatoes and other above-ground produce.

“In fact, the real danger is in the soil, not in items grown in the soil,” says the report.

The study also found that using compost can actually knock out the dangerous effects of lead, even in the roots of plants. In some instances the compost will make the lead insoluble, which means it’s unlikely to be absorbed into the blood stream.

Other studies, among them “When Vacant Lots Become Urban Gardens,” which focuses on food safety concerns of urban agriculture in Ohio, suggest that there are “lower levels of soil contaminants at well-established gardens.” The reason? Tilling the soil and long-term gardening could have diluted the soil metal contaminants by mixing the contaminants with the soil.

Results from the study suggest that “long-term gardening has the potential to reduce soil contaminants and their potential threat to food quality and human health and to improve access to fresh produce in low-income urban communities.”

First lady Michelle Obama used a vegetable garden on the South Lawn at the White house to promote healthy eating as well as her “Let’s Move” initiative to help combat childhood obesity.

Lead levels were part of the discussion when First Lady Michelle Obama decided to plant an organic garden on the South Lawn of the White House. The reason for the initial concern was that the ground previously had be spread with biosolids, also known as sewage sludge.

Testing showed the soil needed no remediation because lead levels were low, far lower than the 200 and 400 ppm that every state agriculture extension agency in the U.S. says is safe for planting crops.

The verdict was that planting crops right in the ground was perfectly appropriate for the White House garden.

Besides being aware of soil contaminants, he advises urban farmers to make sure their equipment — whether it be picking buckets or harvest-preparation tables — be kept sanitary with frequent washing and sanitizing.

Visitors of the human and non-human kind should be monitored at urban growing and packing sites because stray animals, neighbors, and even homeless people can pose food safety risks.

Mariel Borgman, a community food systems educator for Michigan State University Extension, offers these tips for what consumers can ask urban farmers about the safety of their food:

• Was the food grown directly in the soil or in raised beds? If it was grown directly in the soil, was the soil tested for lead and other heavy metals? Was it found to be safe?
• How do you protect the food from critters — rodents, birds, cats, etc.  — and other unwanted visitors? Do you have a fence or some other deterrent?
• Has this produce been washed and do you use a sanitizer in the wash water? Note: If produce was not washed, it does not mean it is unsafe. This is just one particular practice that a farm may choose to use.
• How often to you sanitize your harvest equipment and bins?
• Do you have a food safety plan for your growing operation? Have your employees received training on safe food handling practices?

Borgman also said that it’s always a good idea to wash fruits and vegetables in cool running water before eating them.

The University of California Extension Service’s Jennifer Sowerwine ascribes to WASSH:

W is for water — Is it safe and clean?

A is for animal intrusions — Are they being prevented?

S S is for soil/surface contamination — Are tools and equipment and tables sanitized?

H is for hygiene — Are there restrooms and hand washing stations?

She also suggests that consumer look at the surrounding property, if they are buying urban ag commodities at farm stands. Look for things such as landfills uphill from growing areas that would receive runoff.

Sowerwine, who has been conducting food safety training in the East Bay and other areas of California, is optimistic about how things are going.

“I think there will be a broad-based awareness of food safety and the need to follow best practices,” she said. “The farmers want to make sure what they’re growing is safe and they’re really curious about how to reduce food safety risks.”

Even so, she said they are shocked about the extent of the record keeping that’s required.

“Wow, that’s a lot of paperwork,” she said they frequently tell her.

She understands because she knows the documentation is an added layer of work, which can be hard to get done on top of other work at small farms where there are few employees.

Sower wine said one thing lacking in Stabenow’s bill is a way to deal with the challenges of staying in business when land values are high. For example, a successful urban farm in the Bay Area recently had to close down because the land was slated for development.

“I would really like to see opportunities for some sort of land security and tenure — and additional support to acquire land,” she said.

Additional details on Stabenow’s bill
Agriculture Cooperatives: Expands USDA authority to support farm cooperatives in urban areas, helping urban farmers who want to form and operate an agriculture cooperative get products to market. Reduces individual financial risk and burdensome paperwork by allowing USDA loans to be managed by agriculture cooperatives.

Rooftops, Vertical Farms & Indoor Production: Makes it easier for urban farms to apply for USDA farm programs and assists producers with information on operating rooftop and vertical farms. Supports access to land and production sites in urban communities through innovative conservation grants.

Cutting-Edge Research: Invests $10 million for cutting-edge research to explore market opportunities for urban agriculture and develop new technologies for lowering energy and water needs. Includes national data collection and a new urban agriculture section in the Local and Regional Foods market report.

Loans: Expands existing USDA farm loan programs so urban farmers can cover new farm related activities that improve their business. Now urban farmers can use farm loans to finance food production, marketing, and value-added processing.

Risk Management Tools: Provides a new affordable risk management tool for urban farmers to protect against crop losses, taking into account the risks, food prices and contracts unique to urban farms.

New Urban Ag Office: Creates a new urban agriculture office at USDA to coordinate urban agriculture policies across the Department and provide urban farmers with technical assistance.

Mentorship and Education: Connects urban farmers with rural farmers to provide education and mentorship support.

Community Gardens: Invests $5 million for tools and equipment to develop community gardens that provide community-based nutrition education and donate a portion of the food grown to help feed their neighbors.

Healthy Food: Creates a new pilot program that provides incentives to urban farmers who use sustainable growing practices and commit to supplying healthy food to their neighbors, connecting urban farms with families who need greater access to healthy, local foods.

Soil Remediation: Expands resources for technical and financial support to test and clean up contaminated soils, and invests in new research on the best practices for soil remediation.

Urban Composting: Creates a pilot program to provide urban farmers access to compost while reducing food waste that would otherwise go into landfills.

(To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News, click here.)

Will Target's In-Store Farms Be Sustainable?

RetailWire

Tom Ryan, Contributor

Target is looking to shorten the distance from farm to plate with a planned test of vertical farms, an agricultural technique that involves growing plants and vegetables indoors in climatized conditions.

The initiative, to take place within select U.S. stores, is part of ongoing research and development being pursued by Target’s Food + Future CoLab, a collaboration with the MIT Media Lab and Ideo launched last November that has been exploring urban farming, food transparency and food innovation.

According to Business Insider, tests of the vertical farms could begin in spring 2017. If the trials succeed, Target’s stores will likely be filled with leafy greens, the most common stock for vertical farming at present. Potatoes, beetroot and zucchini could potentially be made available as well. MIT could give Target access to ancient seeds for rare tomatoes or peppers.

“Down the road, it’s something where potentially part of our food supply that we have on our shelves is stuff that we’ve grown ourselves,” Casey Carl, Target’s chief strategy and innovation officer, told Business Insider.

Vertical farming is expected to see a growth spurt in part because food cultivated by farms is being challenged by rapidly increasing urban populations. Besides using less water, taking up less space and being closer to the consumer than traditional farming, vertical farming also addresses demands for healthy food without pesticides and avoids weather risks.

Vertical Farming Venture Proposed Near Davenport Riverfront

An unconventional, innovative farming venture is looking to sprout along the Davenport riverfront.

Friday’s Fresh Market has begun preliminary discussions with the Davenport Levee Commission about the possibility of bringing a hydroponic, vertical farming operation in a 40-foot, insulated shipping container to Freight House property.

“We’re in the business of sustainable agriculture and doing what we can with the technology that we use to take unsalvageable land and buildings and basically convert them into grow facilities,” local farm owner and manufacturing consultant Andrew Freitag said.

Freitag said the 40-foot shipping container is just one of the models his company uses to promote sustainable farming practices.

The riverfront venture would actually not be the first of its kind in Davenport.

Freitag has operated another grow operation in the 2900 block of Hickory Grove Road for the past year and a half and supplies fresh crops to the Quad-Cities Food Hub in Davenport, Hy-Vee, Hemispheres Bistro in Bettendorf and Crow Valley Golf Club, to name a few.

“Our initiative is to help supplement a health food source and reduce carbon footprint,” Freitag said. “We’re trying to implement these efficient methods and go away from traditional farming, which leads to soil erosion and water loss.”

Freitag said the shipping container model utilizes an LED lighting system and uses 90 percent less water and 50 percent less nutrients than traditional farming methods.

It can grow an acre and a half of food each month in 320 square feet of space, which equates to more than 30,000 pounds of food in a year.

Although he primarily produces leafy greens and microgreens, Freitag said he rotates through about 125 items year round to give his customers more variety.

Freitag said it made sense to bring the venture to the Freight House property on River Drive where it could be a year-round source for the Food Hub and farmers market.

“We’re actually ramping up our production as the other farmers are dwindling off,” Freitag said.

With the idea of having the venture near the farmers market and Food Hub, Freitag said he was open to how the levee commission would want to design the outside of the container to tie into those themes.

Freitag’s proposal has piqued the interest of Levee Commission, but executive director Steve Ahrens said there are a lot of details, such as location and rental price, yet to be worked out before the idea could come to fruition.

“There’s lots of approvals yet to come, so this just a preliminary discussion,” Ahrens said.

Commissioner Bill Ashton cautioned against getting too far into discussions without checking with other regulatory bodies in the event there were factors that could torpedo the venture.

Although many questions remain, the commission has elected to gather more information and move forward in the discussion process to see if Freitag’s idea can become a reality.

“I just think the whole idea of something so innovative and to showcase it down at the farmers market would really speak to the innovation of the city for taking on something like that,” commissioner Shelley Chambers said.

Dining Hall Officials Serve University-Grown Lettuce

Posted: Wednesday, October 19, 2016 5:25 pm | Updated: 9:02 pm, Wed Oct 19, 2016.

Ethan Owen | 0 comments

Five hundred heads of lettuce per week are being grown on campus by Chartwells to be served in the dining halls.

The lettuce is grown in a Freight Farm container, a product of the Boston-based company Freight Farms, is located near the Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences building and the Northwest Quad.

The model of the farm on campus is known as the Leafy Green Machine and can grow lettuce, herbs, and other leafy items such as chard and kale, according to the Freight Farms website.

The size of the container is 40 feet long, 8 feet wide and 9.5 feet tall. It also houses a vertical hydroponic growing system, meaning the produce is grown without soil and is climate controlled, according to the Freight Farms website.

Ashley Meek, the campus dietician for Chartwells, and Merrisa Jennings, a Chartwells student intern, helped orchestrate the project to bring Freight Farms to the UofA.

The project began in May and is a part of Chartwells’ efforts to be more transparent in where the food that is served comes from, Meek said.

The farm will typically provide 500 heads of lettuce per week that are grown without the use of pesticides, Meek said.

Unlike the experimental garden on the Arkansas Union rooftop in the spring, the farm’s climate-controlled environment protects the plants from wind damage, pests and the heat of the sun, Meek said.

A lack of pests eating away at the produce creates beautiful heads of lettuce, Jennings said.

Jennings, a senior biological engineering major, was brought on as an intern to help address the sustainability side of the project and said that the farm helps campus look more sustainable.

The farm uses 10 gallons of water and 80 kilowatt-hours of electricity per day, according to the Freight Farm website.

They want to see more student involvement with the Freight Farm and that it provides opportunities for business, marketing and communications students, Meek said.

Chartwells would like to get another Freight Farm, Meek said.

The container cost $97,000 and will be paid off in about 4.5 to five years, Meek said.

The 2016 premium Leafy Green Machine costs $85,000 plus an estimated $13,000 per year operating cost, according to the Freight Farm website.

Reception to the farm and its product has been positive amongst students and faculty, Meek said.

Meek said that she gets asked for tours of the farm at least five times a week, but because the farm is a controlled environment, those who ask for tours are turned away for food safety reasons.

Brandon Conrad, a freshman who eats at Brough dining hall, said that he was not aware that lettuce served was grown on campus.

“I think it’s pretty cool,” Conrad said. “I thought it was grown somewhere else.”

In Coal Country, Farmers Get Creative To Bridge The Fresh Produce Gap

In Coal Country, Farmers Get Creative To Bridge The Fresh Produce Ga

Roxy Todd/West Virginia Public Broadcasting

In coal country, thousands of miners have lost jobs. While there aren't any easy solutions, in West Virginia, two farmers are doing what they can to keep wealth in their community and provide healthy food to more people.

In the parking lot of the Five Loaves and Two Fishes Food Bank in McDowell County, squash and basil are growing in 18 tall white towers without any dirt. It's a farming method called hydroponics. The vegetables sprout from tiny holes as water and nutrients flood the roots.

Joel McKinney built this hydroponic garden because it produces a lot of food yet takes up just a little space.

"So like for right here I can grow 44 plants, whereas somebody growing in the ground can only grow four," McKinney says. "So I want to do as much vertical space as I can and really amaze people with the poundage of food, because I'm growing up instead of out."

McKinney sells lettuce to the local high school and makes about $800 every three weeks.

He also gives away some of his produce to the food pantry, which is run by his parents. And along with a handful of other farmers, he has started a farmers market outside the food pantry. The goal is to raise the profile of local farming in the community and help small farmers make extra income.

When the market starts back up in the spring, it will accept benefits from SNAP — the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps — to help encourage purchases from low-income residents.

"People have the ability to grow their own food. I want to help them learn to market their product and earn some money," he says. "Like people who quilt or make necklaces, the same thing with growing food — people have just never seen it as a marketable skill."

With so many coal miners out of work now, the number in need of food has soared.

McKinney's mother, Linda, who runs Five Loaves and Two Fishes, sometimes brings food directly to people's homes — especially if she hears there are children going hungry.

"And when you take them food, you will find out it's not just food that they need," Linda McKinney says. "There are a lot of individuals that are so desperate. These individuals are just surviving."

Farmer Sky Edwards has tried to start a farmers market in McDowell County, W.Va., but so far it hasn't been successful. So he travels 60 miles round trip each week to sell vegetables in Bluefield, W.Va., where residents have more cash to spend on groceries.

In this West Virginia county, many have given up trying to find a job. And the unemployment rate is almost three times the national average.

This is a major problem, says John Deskins of West Virginia University's Bureau of Business and Economic Research. He says McDowell County has had an economic collapse comparable to the Great Depression.

"We're talking about tremendous, tremendous losses in a relatively short time frame," he says. "We've seen major declines in coal production, major declines in coal employment. But then that spills over into the rest of the economy, right? These coal mining jobs are good, high-paying jobs."

Families have to make choices: Do they pay rent or buy fresh food?

Bradley Wilson teaches geography at West Virginia University, and he says at least a quarter of people in the state struggle to afford groceries.

"In places like McDowell, that's compounded by a lack of access to the very kind of food environment necessary to live that healthy lifestyle as stores like Walmart disappear, or businesses close up shop because the population is declining," Wilson says.

Walmart closed its supercenter in McDowell County this past January. Many residents now have to travel over an hour to buy groceries. Not all of them own a car.

"And even when they go grocery shopping at the beginning of the month, they have to pay somebody to take them," says farmer Sky Edwards.

He has tried to start a farmers market in McDowell, but so far it hasn't been successful. So he travels 60 miles round trip each week to sell vegetables in Bluefield, W.Va., where residents have more cash to spend on groceries.

Kristin McCartney is a registered dietician who works with the Family Nutrition Program out of West Virginia University. She says poor access to grocery stores is one reason so many West Virginians eat unhealthy diets. But it's not the only challenge in encouraging better eating habits.

"There's still a struggle in West Virginia to get people to eat vegetables. We're one of the lowest states [in terms of] vegetable consumption," says McCartney.

That's why, at the market in Bluefield, Edwards often shares cooking tips with customers. Late this summer, I watched as he explained a recipe for roasted squash to a customer.

Edwards has also bought a truck to start a mobile farmers market in rural McDowell. He wants to make it easier for people in his community who don't have cars to access fresh produce. He's also planning to accept food stamps at his truck when it gets up and running.

"You have to make it easy for people to eat better," he says.

Target to Add Vertical Farming to Some Locations

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Target is about to shake up the retail realm with its latest plan to put a focus on fresh produce and tap on in consumer penchant for fruits and vegetables. Target will be installing vertical farms in some of its locations.

“Food is a big part of our current portfolio today at Target—it does $20 billion of business for us,” continued Casey Carl, Target’s Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer to Business Insider. “We need to be able to see more effectively around corners in terms of where is the overall food and agriculture industries going domestically and globally.” 

Target’s new focus on fresh will reportedly help the retailer gauge just how consumers want their produce, and how engaged they want to be with their food. Target’s Food + Future CoLab allows the company to do just that; shape the future of food, and deliver on the needs of consumers.

The Food + Future CoLab team announced at the White House that food grown from its in-store garden would be on sale starting in the spring, according to Business Insider. The initial in-store trials could also potentially see consumers picking their own produce from the Target farms. 

“Down the road, it’s something where potentially part of our food supply that we have on our shelves is stuff that we’ve grown ourselves,” continued Carl. 

The Food + Future CoLab was launched by the retailer in January in collaboration with Idea and the MIT Media Lab. This new research partnership is also allowing Target to pursue even further innovations, like taking vertical farming to new metaphorical heights. 

“Because it's MIT, they have access to some of these seed banks around the world,” Greg Shewmaker, Entrepeneur-In-Residence, Food + Future CoLab, stated. “So we're playing with ancient varietals of different things, like tomatoes that haven’t been grown in over a century, different kinds of peppers, things like that, just to see if it's possible.”

The Target farms will use artificial lights and hydroponics to grow its produce. Daily Meal elaborated that while Target’s vertical farms will initially focus on leafy greens, the retailer is exploring growing potatos, beetroot, and zucchini for its next varieties.

As Target and its Food + Future CoLab move towards this new retail strategy, AndNowUKnow will continue to update you in the latest developments and its impact on the buy-side sector.