Welcome to iGrow News, Your Source for the World of Indoor Vertical Farming
Secret Garden: Palais des Congres Shares Rooftop Harvest
The garden also functions as a teaching tool, to show building owners and managers how to create green roof-tops.
Secret Garden: Palais des Congres Shares Rooftop Harvest
Angela MacKenzie, Reporter/Web Reporter @AMacKenzieCTV
Published Saturday, July 22, 2017 3:18PM EDT | Last Updated Sunday, July 23, 2017 11:33AM EDT
The Palais des Congres is known for hosting major events within is walls but what happens up on its rooftop is a well-hidden secret.
The convention centre has had a rooftop garden since 2010 where fruits, vegetables and herbs are grown.
“There are also edible flowers,” said Palais des Congres spokesperson Amelie Asselin. “It’s really a great harvest.”
The Palais de Congres convention centre has had a rooftop garden since 2010 where fruits, vegetables and herbs are grown. (CTV Montreal)
Initially the idea grew as a way to help reduce so-called heat islands in the downtown area, but the resulting harvest has proven to be an added benefit.
Each year the garden produces around 650 kilos of food, and much of the produce is used by the congress centre’s official caterer to feed delegates at the Palais.
The garden also functions as a teaching tool, to show building owners and managers how to create green roof-tops.
What’s more, it houses an experimental lab for urban agriculture techniques.
“The space that we use to produce the same quantity of strawberry is less because we are vertical farming,” Asselin explained.
Vertical methods also allow the berries to grow quickly, in addition to taking up less space than traditional farming.
The roof is also home to bee hives, which provide tasty honey but also help with pollination.
In fact, the rooftop honey was even given to former U.S. President Barack Obama as a souvenir gift last month when he was in Montreal to deliver a speech.
The garden is so fruitful that it actually produces more food than the Palais needs. So a portion of the harvest is donated to the Maison du Pere to help feed those less fortunate.
The shelter relies on donations to prepare the 1,000 meals it serves each day, and the fresh produce from the garden provides welcome and delicious ingredients.
Vertical Farming Proves Popular For Faribault Company
Vertical Farming Proves Popular For Faribault Company
Photo: KARE 11
Vertical Farming Is Growing In Popularity
Janel Klein, KARE 7:04 PM. CDT July 28, 2017
FARIBAULT, Minn. - As a longtime financial planner, Dana Anderson knows a good investment.
And when he first grew lettuce with a homemade frame in his garage, he started to love a different kind of green.
“(The frame) really was quite crude—it was just two rod-iron fences leaning together,” said Anderson. “But there's a bunch of opportunities there.”
Five years later, that idea is now Living Greens Farm, housed in an abandoned warehouse and getting global attention.
“Now we're building one of the biggest indoor farms in the world,” said Dave Augustine, who left his corporate job a year ago to join Living Greens as CEO, with Anderson as Chairman.
Using aeroponics, Living Greens Farm is growing lettuce, herbs and microgreens vertically, with just 5 percent of the water and 1/200th of the land of traditional fields, all without herbicides or pesticides.
Fast Company says vertical farms will soon be a $42 billion dollar industry.
“Things like this are totally necessary to feed the human population in the future,” said Augustine.
Already, it seems futuristic, with a high tech system that eliminates the risk of bad weather since light, humidity, nutrients and temperature are all controlled by computer. That means crops grow year round in half the time and can be sold the next day, with nearly two dozen stores and restaurants already buying their produce.
And as its crops thrive, Living Greens is itself growing, expanding to more than 15 times its current size. It may next go worldwide, replicating its Minnesota operation in Europe and Asia, in turn creating both food and jobs for those who grow it.
“This is an opportunity to grow a product indoors that the community needs using the labor force that's available,” said Augustine.
As an acre of soil is reduced to just inches, farms—and the idea of what they should look like—are growing up.
Artemis Takes on The World
We’re currently helping indoor farmers get to profitability and beyond in 8 markets around the world.
Artemis Takes on The World
It’s no secret — the indoor farming market is huge… and growing! As Allison detailed in this blog post, indoor farms in the US produce over $21B in revenue annually. And the US only represents 0.2% of the global greenhouse vegetable market. This is the the same industry that is aggressively growing to help increase food production by 70% to feed 9B people by 2050.
Global Expansion
Artemist has set out to provide the world’s best management software from its inception. In order to be the world’s best, you have to be a global company. Within just a few months of our launch, we were proud to support incredible customers in South America, Sri Lanka, Canada, and the United States.
We’re not stopping there — we’re excited to announce that in addition to continuing to add customers in our existing markets, this month we’ve entered new markets, adding customers in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia!
Supporting Customers
The biggest challenge any growing company faces in adding new customers is supporting them while keeping existing customers both excited and engaged. Over the past month we’ve introduced a new onboarding process to ensure customers see value from Day 1 as well as easier ways for our customers to use our software. We’ve also welcomed Regina Bellows to our team as our dedicated Customer Success Manager.
Managing customers across so many time zones can lead to sleepless nights. One of the things I love about Artemis is everyone here is customer-obsessed. We take turns monitoring support channels all hours of the day and night so a customer never feels like they’re left in the dark when they run into a question. I think it’s probably one of our customers’ favorite things about us.
Let’s Chat!
While we’re excited with our progress to-date, we’re not stopping here. We continue to be excited about how we can use data to evolve one of the world’s largest legacy industries. I’d love to understand more about your farm, your challenges, and how we can help you solve your problems with data. Please email me at jschmitz@agrilyst.com or call at +1 646–719–0304.
Take-aways
The global greenhouse market is large and growing.
Agrilyst is growing along with the market, now working with clients across four continents.
We‘re keeping a close eye on support to ensure our customers are getting the most out of their software investment.
Artemis is the virtual agronomist powering the horticulture industry. We invite you to join the #DigitalHorticulture movement on social media and share your stories of farm innovation.
If you enjoyed this story, tune in for more here and be sure to check out our website: https://artemisag.com/
Malaysia: Farming In The City
Malaysia: Farming In The City
Urban agriculture is able to cater to food demand for the urban population, if it is practised in a proper way. FILE PIC
By DATUK DR MAD NASIR SHAMSUDIN - July 21, 2017 @ 9:52am
AS world population increases, with urbanisation moving in tandem, more people are expected to live in the cities. By 2025, it is estimated that 60 to 85 per cent of the world’s population will be considered as city dwellers.
In Malaysia, it is predicted that the urban population will increase to 75 per cent in three years.
Rapid urbanisation is pulling poverty and food insecurity into cities, given the fact that urban dwellers are actually net food buyers and depend largely on cash income to access food.
In fact, the urban poor are vulnerable to food price shocks and always suffer most from higher food prices, which eventually could lead to food insecurity since food composes a substantial part of urban household expenditure.
Food production has always been associated with rural environment.
In fact, to feed the urban population, it is assumed that relying on rural food production would be sufficient. However, this turned out to be rather inaccurate — urban agriculture itself is able to cater to food demand for urban population, given that it is practised in a proper way.
Urban agriculture is defined by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as any agricultural activity which grows, raises, processes and distributes agricultural produce, regardless of land size and number of human resources within the cities and towns.
Studies from both developed and developing economies claimed that urban agricultural activities can contribute to the availability of fresh and nutritious food items, reduction in food expenditure and having direct access to varieties of food products.
Studies in 15 countries show that urban agricultural activities are closely related to food security, dietary diversity and nutritionally adequate diet.
Furthermore, urban agriculture also plays an important role to the climate change problem. It can green the city and improve the urban climate, while encouraging the reuse of urban organic waste and reducing the urban energy footprint.
Having recognised the importance of urban agriculture, the Malaysian government gave its full support towards this activity. This can be seen from the formation of the urban agriculture division under the Department of Agriculture Malaysia in 2010 to promote, among others, agricultural activities in the city to reduce the cost of living of the urban community.
Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) has designed and developed several affordable vertical farming methods, which can be adopted by the urban poor.
The technology is suitable for flat dwellers with limited and unsuitable growing space.
Vertical farming is the practice of producing food and medicine in vertically stacked layers, inclined surfaces or integrated in other structures, such as in a skyscraper, used warehouse or shipping container.
The modern idea of vertical farming use indoor farming techniques and controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) technology, where all environmental factors can be controlled.
These facilities utilise artificial control of light, environmental control (humidity, temperature, gases) and fertigation.
Some vertical farms use techniques similar to greenhouses, where natural sunlight can be augmented with artificial lighting and metal reflectors.
Since urban agriculture has the potential to gain momentum in Malaysia, it is therefore essential that appropriate strategies be put in place to ensure availability and affordability of safe and healthy foods.
There is also a need to promoting the production of such foods in urban areas, thus enhancing the livelihoods of actors, along the food value chain.
The contribution of urban agriculture to food availability and healthy nutrition for the urban population is an important asset, in addition to providing a source of income and livelihood for its participants.
Moving forward, policymakers should consider a number of approaches to make this activity socially and economically viable.
Among others, introducing technology and technology know-how to grow vegetables in flats and apartments, and identifying land for farming by urban dwellers.
This can be done by local government agencies, where they can identify vacant lots and make this information publicly available and authorising contracts with private landowners.
Datuk Dr Mad Nasir Shamsudin is professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Faculty of Environmental Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM).
Job Layoff Kick Starts Vertical Farming Venture
Job Layoff Kick Starts Vertical Farming Venture
Landscape architect Jeffrey Orkin never planned to start his own vertical growing operation, but a job lay off and a passion for sustainability led to the launch of Greener Roots Farm.
After six years of college and landing a position with a large architecture and engineering firm in Nashville, Tenn., Jeffrey Orkin thought his career as a landscape architect was ready to take off. Then the recession hit. In 2009, after only 1½ years of employment, Orkin found himself jobless with limited prospects in his field.
Orkin partnered with his similarly unemployed friend Cliff Jones to start their own company called Landscape Solutions. The company is focused on design-build for residential and commercial outdoor spaces.
“We focus on how sustainable landscapes can contribute to the development of a healthier community,” Orkin said. “We are using native plants, rain gardens, bioswales and things other than typical high-demanding ornamental landscapes.”
Focus On Food
While Orkin’s main focus is on sustainable landscaping he also has a personal interest in extending his sustainability commitment to food production.
“I was living in a downtown fourth floor condominium trying to grow my own food,” Orkin said. “The only option at the time was to grow indoors on my windowsill using hydroponics. I started using a system developed by the Windowfarms Project, which got its start with a Kickstarter campaign.
In 2011 Orkin expanded from his windowsill plantings to a 4-foot wide by 12-foot long storage unit. He said that didn’t work real well because the unit lacked any kind of climate control.
The next move was to the roof of his 12-story condominium building.
“I discovered a 130-square-foot room on the roof of the building I was living in,” he said.” It was an unused utility room. I negotiated with the building management to rent me the room for a very reasonable rate. The room had a really tall ceiling which enabled me to grow using vertical farming with three different levels. That was in December 2012.”
In order to purchase the equipment he needed to set up his vertical farming facility, Orkin established the Urban Hydro Project.
“I did a Kickstarter campaign that helped to fund the build out and allowed me to test different crops and the other things necessary in a commercial hydroponic system. Urban Hydro Project was where the commercial business got its start. It was really the research and development arm of where I have transitioned to now.”
Expanding Again
Orkin has made a major production expansion by leasing a 6,000-square-foot warehouse that is about 5 miles outside of downtown Nashville. The new business venture is called Greener Roots Farm.
“I have divided the warehouse and curtained off a 3,000-square-foot grow room,” Orkin said. “I’m only about one-third of the way built out. Initially it was all I could afford. I am operating two vertical systems with space for two more. The warehouse production system is completely different than the one I was using in the condo building utility room.
“The warehouse has a completely new production design. It is a vertical set up with five levels of growing that maxes out at about 13 feet. I have a total of about 2,000 square feet of growing space that only occupies 224 square feet of floor space as it is currently built.”
Orkin is also renting 1,200 square feet of the warehouse space to Nashville Grown, a food hub that aggregates food from local growers and distributes it to area restaurants, grocery stores and schools.
Orkin said one of the biggest issues when moving to the larger facility was thinking through how to scale the system.
“This included everything from water volume and structural concerns with water weight,” he said. “We had to think through whether or not the warehouse’s existing HVAC system had the capabilities to do what we needed it to do. There were facilities considerations as far as the height, cooling, and where the water is coming from and where it is draining to.”
Everything from seed sowing to harvest takes place in the warehouse. Orkin is using 4-foot long Philips LED Production Modules in the production system.
Maximizing Crop Production
Orkin is producing a mix of herbs and leafy greens, including basil, cilantro, and parsley. He said he doesn’t have a major specific product.
“I signed a lease in April 2014 on the warehouse and we spent several months on build out,” he said. “The first seeds were planted on July 19. The crop mix allows me to provide some diversity and selection to the different restaurants that are purchasing from me. In the future there may be some direct to consumer sales at farmers markets. Right now I prefer being able to sell a larger volume in one delivery.”
Orkin said there are numerous farmers markets in the immediate Nashville area, including an “official” farmers market as well as several neighborhood markets.
“I don’t doubt that I eventually will carry many of my products to a farmers market on a regular basis,” he said. “Selling to restaurants I don’t harvest the plants unless they’re sold. It’s nice to be able to harvest for a restaurant customer and know that the crop was freshly harvested just an hour earlier.”
Orkin also said he shouldn’t have an issue with supplying local grocery stores year-round.
“I am really passionate about sustainability,” he said. “The one thing that kind of wears on me at retail is the amount of packaging that is required. Right now it’s nice to be able to put 4 pounds of product in one bag for a restaurant instead of placing that same 4 pounds in all of the 5-ounce clam shells that would have to be filled for grocery sales.
“I am trying to have the biggest impact on the local food scene that I can. I’m trying to produce and deliver the freshest local food that I can. Also, I have to figure out where I can be the most successful as a business.”
Excited About Future Opportunities
When Orkin started the Ultra Hydro Project he never expected the business to expand to the size it has.
“When my friend Cliff Jones and I started this business, we never planned to do it for as long as we have,” Orkin said. “It wasn’t necessarily our dream job. Although we have infused our passions into every aspect of the business, we can and do have a lot of fun with it. At the onset, however, it was something that we were able to do to make some money. It has just continued to grow.”
During the process of setting up the business Orkin went back to school for an MBA degree focusing on sustainability.
“A part of the degree program resulted in me going to California for a food security summit,” he said. “My mind was open to food security issues, the importance of local food and educating people about local food. Ultimately, I developed a passion for creative, innovative agriculture as it relates to augmenting the local food movement. I saw growing indoors as a way to remove seasonality when it comes to crops that in many instances are being shipped from thousands of miles away when there is this ability to grow it indoors.
“This concept of local food production presented a very interesting challenge. There is a lot of local food production going on, but not a lot of it necessarily makes money. For me the challenge is combining all of these factors. I want to be able to operate a farm with a business model that has the potential to make money and create jobs, while educating the community about how this can be done, and what it does for our food system. That gets me excited!”
For more: Greener Roots Farm, info@greenerroots.com; http://greenerroots.com.
David Kuack is a freelance technical writer in Fort Worth, Texas; dkuack@gmail.com.
Motorleaf’s Monk on Priorities and Challenges of Being an AI Startup in Indoor Ag
Motorleaf’s Monk on Priorities and Challenges of Being an AI Startup in Indoor Ag
JULY 19, 2017 LOUISA BURWOOD-TAYLOR
Motorleaf is a Canadian startup that has built a smart and automated indoor farming operating system, consisting of hardware devices and software analytics, to enable growers to capture data about their crops, learn what the crops need, and instruct existing equipment to answer those needs.
The motorleaf system can be used in any type of indoor farming operation from greenhouses through to warehouses and at any size. Motorleaf receives 40,000 data points per customer per week and therefore can start predicting a crop’s needs, solving potential problems before they exist. Also, the startup plans to use its network of data and growers to connect users to each other – on an opt-in basis – to share data, plant recipes and knowledge.
We caught up with Ally Monk, CEO of motorleaf, a few months after the business raised a $1.1 million seed round of funding — which was launched on AgFunder — to get an update on how the business is progressing.
It’s now been seven month months since you closed your seed round; how have you spent the proceeds so far?
The first thing we bought was a robot vacuum we’ve named Elroy (from the Jetsons). That was about the extent of any extravagant spending. Other than welcoming Elroy, we’ve increased the team and invested in talent that builds amazing software, hardware and understands the needs of our client base.
We’ve been fortunate to be invited to talk at a few events in Vegas and Tokyo on the topic of artificial intelligence and big data at agriculture-focused events, so some travel as well. We’ve also invested in a small secondary location to accommodate testing our new technology on various crop types.
What have been your biggest milestones to-date?
I think if I could pick my top three they would be:
1) Getting picked for the FounderFuel accelerator AI cohort; can you imagine how many companies applied for the six places on offer? And then becoming a ‘proper company’ soon thereafter! That was quite the journey in itself, which I did a TEDx talk about.
2) Building two versions of our hardware — now five different units — and software within 12 months, with the deployments proving everything is working as it should. That may sound simple, but it’s like building two different companies with half the budget normally needed for both. Then getting repeat orders.
3) Seeing real AI + Machine Learning built out, integrated into our software, deployed in indoor farms, and then seeing it exceed expectations. As we now like to say: “AI is what we do, it’s not a buzzword.’
What are your priorities for the rest of 2017?
Again – it’s never just one thing – my top three are:
1) We’re looking to grow the team, so planning for that big next step will begin in Q4 2017.
2) Continued and increased communication with our clients; we learn more in these interactions than in any staff meetings.
3) Stick to our technology road map. It’s aggressive, but with access to some of the best R&D financial programs in the country (Canada) and likely in the whole of North America; we can do more with one dollar than most companies — even those that outsource overseas.
What have been the biggest challenges to getting where you are today?
Focus. Every day we are approached by potential companies/partners/distributors/clients that ask us to work with them, and some cases ask us to modify what we have for them. We can only do so much, so trying not to get distracted by people from all over the world who reach out is tough. It’s exciting to know your little idea that went from a friendship + prototype in a ski town of 4,000 people, in less than two years is getting contacted from all corners of the planet; it’s amazing, but it could break us if we don’t execute a plan that’s agreed and well thought out.
What are the biggest hurdles ahead?
If I knew that we’d be bullet proof! The hurdles we know of center around what parts of a very large market we double down on. Part of what investors expect you to do with seed money is investigate various hypotheses. Our technology can help an indoor farmer who grows in a grow tent, and all the way up to hundreds of acres under glass. So we can’t service everyone the same way, and at times that feels like leaving money on the table. So a huge challenge is looking at which partners to ‘allow’ your products to be sold by, where we won’t wish to focus directly ourselves, but still know there is huge sales potential.
That and the fact I still sleep on the office floor on an air mattress due to workload. That’s proving to be a challenge- I may upgrade to a futon at some point!
Machine learning and AI are all the buzz across industries today, but it seems to me that it takes some time before a startup can really start deploying this tech and it requires a lot of data. Do you agree?
Access to data is certainly an issue for a lot of young companies, but likely, more importantly, access to data you can parse/understand/and then draw relevant conclusions from is harder still. Where we see a huge advantage on what we’re able to do, is the fact we can collect data ourselves, we don’t have to rely on someone else’s data. We’ve processed over 1 million datasets since we started deploying our units, but not all that data is useful. So it may sound a lot, but in the big scheme of things, we’ve just gotten started.
What’s your take on early stage startups name dropping their use of AI/ML?
It doesn’t take long for young startups to hear “just say you do AI – investors love it!” and so they add it to their company description. One of our mentors at our accelerator program was Jean-François Gagnét, Founder/CEO of Element AI. They raised 100 million recently, and are by far the company with the most ‘AI talent’ in N America, perhaps the world.
He said to us “What you need to remember is that you never tried to convince anyone you were doing AI, you were doing it before the buzzword came along, so keep building out as you planned, and no one can accuse you of jumping on the band wagon.” It was a big relief to hear him say that, as now, only a short time after we ’emerged’ we feel we have to justify the use of these terms in what we do, and then remember that we actually don’t.
The proof is in the pudding; once we’ve finished our private beta, I can’t wait to show our clients video testimonials on how our AI/Machine Learning helps them.
So I would say this: ask how many crops a young company can successfully use AI/Machine Learning on: the higher the number, the more salt you should sprinkle on their answer. Growing crops and proving out this kind of tech takes a lot of time; plants take time, results take time, triple testing and more takes time.
Where is the indoor ag industry today? How fast is it growing in Canada and beyond?
I think it’s at a crossroads. A lot of great press for the industry is making people aware technology MUST help it transform, investors are aware it’s one of the last huge industries that’s been around for centuries that’s ripe for disruption, or just ‘change’ if you want to avoid the cliche buzzwords!
However, technology needs to travel. Data needs not to be kept behind closed doors, especially when the farmer is the one who owns it, and will benefit the most if it’s allowed to visit other service providers to help him/her get better insight/results.
So the market is certainly growing fast, but it’s shooting off in different directions.
In Canada and the US we’ve found a ton of growers who EXPECT tech to help them, and if fairly new to growing crops indoors, are quickly frustrated by some of the incumbents in the market who seem to think they have no obligation to change how their systems work to accommodate any newcomers trying to work with indoor farmers.
It reminds me of the first time I used Uber, I asked myself: ”Why did it take someone from outside of the taxi industry to come up with this; it’s a way better service.” Then I realized, they all had it way too easy being top dog in their city, no real need to service their customers any better.
Agtech is moving so fast, and young companies are laser-focused on the needs of real customers across the world. So you can’t help agree with David Bowie: “Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming.” If you choose to listen that is.
Farmer Josh is Bringing Ultra Local Food to NYC (and Asking Hard Questions About Our Food System)
Farmer Josh is Bringing Ultra Local Food to NYC (and Asking Hard Questions About Our Food System)
JULY 11, 2017 by EMILY MONACO
Josh Lee may have grown up on a farm in North Carolina, but he never expected to end up a farmer himself -– especially not in New York City. And yet that’s exactly what the fifth-generation farmer has done with Green Top Farms, a “seed-to-salad” delivery service that brings ultra fresh, ultra local food to offices throughout NYC, in the hopes of helping people think more about where their food comes from.
Fifth-Generation Farmer From NC to NYC
At 18, Lee left the farming life behind, and he was never encouraged to return.
“Even though I was farming every summer, it wasn’t something that I was encouraged to stay and do,” he says. “’You’ve got to go to college; be a doctor or a lawyer, some sort of professional career.’”
For Lee, the calling came from education, and so he became a special education teacher in New York City. But while Lee was living and working in the Bronx, he never quite abandoned his farming roots. He kept up an interest in the industry, particularly in new developments like vertical farming, which allows growers to produce food in vertically stacked layers, thus using a smaller footprint of space – within a shipping container or building, for example.
“I kind of became in-tune with vertical farming and urban farming in general, when I saw this Colbert Report back in 2008,” he says. “I just thought that was the coolest thing I’d ever seen.”
While Lee still had no intentions of going back into farming – at least not until he was retired – vertical farming piqued enough of an interest for him to set up a Google Alert, which yielded maybe an article every few months. Of course, that was all about to change.
Taking Vertical Farming to New Heights
Over the years, Lee’s Google Alert yielded more and more information, and in 2014, Lee decided to join the trend. He left teaching to found Green Top Farms, a hydroponic urban growing experiment. The farm grows microgreens, which are harvested daily and paired with local, seasonal ingredients to create delicious salads, which can either be ordered individually or, the company’s specialty, for “farm-to-work” salad bars, delivered right to your office.
“I don’t know if in a blind taste test it tastes better,” says Lee, “but for me, knowing where food comes from, it always tastes better, because it comes with a story, something behind it.”
Image care of Green Top Farms
Over the past three years, the project has grown exponentially, and now, Green Top Farms is looking for more space. The company’s new Kickstarterproject was created with the hope of moving into a new 1,000 square foot location that will combine hydroponic farming and kitchen.
“Right now we are completely squeezed where we are,” says Lee. “We have a very small growing operation, and everything we’re growing is being used.”
But while Lee and his colleagues can be applauded for their success, they are still encountering one major problem – a problem that’s plaguing not just these local food producers, but America’s food system on the whole: transparent sourcing. While Lee and his colleagues know exactly where their microgreens come from, they have to rely on external sources for their other salad ingredients, and sometimes, no matter how hard they try, even they don’t know where these foods are coming from.
Local Food Is A Question of Education
It was when Lee was first teaching that he realized what a huge problem the lack of transparency in our food system is.
“That’s where I really saw the night and day contrast with how I grew up and my relationship with food and farming and the kids I was teaching and their relationship to food and farming,” he says of the Bronx high schoolers he was working with.
“I remember interrupting the whole lesson several times to explain the difference between a fruit snack and a real fruit or explain why they spell cheese with a z in some of these ‘cheez’ snacks: because it’s not real cheese.”
Lee’s roots in education persist in his new career: he continues to teach people about these important issues through Green Top Farms.
“I tell our customers, ‘Well, we know where some of it comes from, but we don’t know where all of it comes from, and we think that’s a problem, so help us move in that direction of more transparency.’”
All deliveries are made with zero-emission vehicles. They go faster than regular bikes, so couriers can deliver more food in the same amount of time.
Fixing Our Food System One Salad At A Time
Green Top Farms is, at its core, a micro-solution to a macro-problem. From the depletion of the rainforests to the death of pollinators to the record rates of diabetes, problems related to food and nutrition are skyrocketing in this country, problems that Lee believes are all inextricably linked.
“I personally think that all of those problems come from the fact that we’re really just not in touch with what we’re eating,” he says.
“If you’re really serious about having a better food system, then we not only have to change some of the things we’re doing in farming and improve our distribution so that we’re not wasting so much food, we also have to change the way we’re eating,” he says. “And that’s on all of us.”
Green Top Farms is doing its part to reconnect people with their food: not only by growing it close to where people live, but in being open about all the work that still needs to be done. But at least as far as Lee is concerned, it’s a true labor of love.
“I’ve never been so broke, I’ve never eaten so well, and I’ve never been so happy, all at once,” he says. “I’m living my dream life, for sure.”
SoftBank Invests in Largest Ever Agtech Deal, a $200m Series B for Indoor Ag Startup
Indoor vertical farming company Plenty has raised $200 million in a Series B round of funding, the largest agtech investment to date.
Just one month after the grower acquired indoor agriculture hardware company Bright Agrotech, this round was led by Japan’s SoftBank Vision Fund, a $93 billion, multi-stage tech fund.
BREAKING: SoftBank Invests in Largest Ever Agtech Deal, a $200m Series B for Indoor Ag Startup
**UPDATE: Added comments from S2G Ventures managing director Sanjeev Krishnan, AeroFarms CEO David Rosenberg***
**UPDATE: Added comments from Plenty CEO Matt Barnard, and AgFunder CEO Rob Leclerc**
Indoor vertical farming company Plenty has raised $200 million in a Series B round of funding, the largest agtech investment to date.
Just one month after the grower acquired indoor agriculture hardware company Bright Agrotech, this round was led by Japan’s SoftBank Vision Fund, a $93 billion, multi-stage tech fund.
Affiliates of Louis M. Bacon, the founder of Moore Capital Management, also joined the round alongside existing investors including Innovation Endeavors, Bezos Expeditions, Chinese VC DCM, Data Collective, and Finistere Ventures.
Plenty uses a vertical growing plane to grow leafy greens in a 52,000 square foot South San Francisco facility. The Series B — which takes total funding for the startup to $226 million — will fuel further expansion and more farms.
One agtech venture capitalist said that Plenty had a pre-money valuation of $500 million, but Plenty CEO Matt Barnard would not confirm this figure. The same venture capitalist said that if that figure was true, the valuation would be “crazy” for a company that appears to be pre-revenue.
But Plenty’s Barnard is confident about Plenty’s “aggressive” expansion plans to improve food quality globally. This expansion will include building farms in Japan, China, and the Middle East, as well as the US.
“This is an enormous investment, which is a testament to the strength of the founders and the strong conviction from Vision Fund in making bets that are true to its mandate,” said Rob Leclerc, CEO of AgFunder. “Plenty is a young company, so there’s going to be a lot of work for their economics to catch up to the valuation, but if they succeed, this will have looked cheap.”
Barnard offered no specific timeline or number of farms in the near-term, saying that the company prefers to announce new locations when all relevant partners are in place. Further, he did not confirm any retail partners for his South San Francisco farm. But he did say that Japan is a priority. “It is one of our top priorities not only because SoftBank is a partner, but there are some specific needs that we plan to fill,” said Barnard.
The CEO said that Plenty used its $1.5 million seed and $24.5 million Series A rounds of financing to prove to investors that the company had the capability to deliver “vegetables and fruits” as good or better than what is currently on the market.
Barnard, who was introduced to SoftBank by an existing investor, confirmed that in addition to leafy greens, Plenty has successfully grown strawberries, but would not confirm any other crops. He told Bloomberg that cucumbers are on the way as well.
What Plenty has yet to demonstrate is the ability to operate at scale.
Said Barnard, “Operating any farm, anywhere is extremely difficult and requires a lot of diligence, processes, people, and systems. The thing that is hard about investing is that at some point someone has to invest in scale before the scale is there and SoftBank is both visionary and courageous.”
Sanjeev Krishnan of S2G Ventures said that despite the large sums raised, vertical farming is unlikely to be dominated by one name.
“This investment shows the potential of the sector. Indoor agriculture is a real toolkit for the produce industry. There is no winner takes all potential here. I could even see some traditional, outdoor growers do indoor ag as a way to manage some of the fundamental issues of the produce industry: agronomy, logistics costs, shrinkage, freshness, seasonality and manage inventory cycles better. There are many different models that could work and we are excited about the platforms being built in the market.”
In addition to Plenty’s global expansion, this round will go toward hiring in computer science, machine learning, mechanical engineering, crop science, biology among others.
“By combining technology with optimal agriculture methods, Plenty is working to make ultra-fresh, nutrient-rich food accessible to everyone in an always-local way that minimizes wastage from transport,” said Masayoshi Son, Chairman & CEO of SoftBank Group Corp. “We believe that Plenty’s team will remake the current food system to improve people’s quality of life.”
Plenty claims to use 1 percent of the water and land of a conventional farm with no pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. Like other large soilless, hi-tech farms growing today, Plenty says it uses custom sensors feeding data-enabled systems resulting in finely-tuned environmental controls to produce greens with superior flavor.
The SoftBank Vision fund invests no less than $100 million checks in deals across internet-of-things, AI, robotics, infrastructure, telecoms, biotech, fintech, mobile apps and more.
Existing fund investments and recent deals include Indian fintech unicorn Paytm, virtual reality Improbable Worlds, China’s Uber killer Didi Chuxing, and global connectivity company OneWeb.
SoftBank Vision Fund’s managing director, Jeffrey Housenbold, will join the Plenty Board of Directors.
Plenty’s Series B pushes microbial crop input products company Indigo off the top position for the largest agtech deal on record; Indigo raised a $100 million Series C round last year, just months after raising a $56 million Series B.
Today’s deal is also far larger than any other in the indoor ag space; SunDrop Farms, the Australian greenhouse operator, raised $100 million from global private equity group in 2014. The closest in the vertical farming space is AeroFarms, which recently announced $34 million of a $40 million Series D round bring it’s fundraising total to more than $100 million.
Said AeroFarms CEO David Rosenberg, “This is a monster raise, and ultimately competition can be good for the industry to drive further advancement.”
Plenty raised $1.5 million in seed funding and a $24.5 million Series A round, both in 2016. The startup’s other investors are Innovation Endeavors , Bezos Expeditions , Finistere Ventures, Data Collective, Kirenaga Partners, DCM Ventures, and Western Technology Investment.
Food Strategist & Brand Builder Joins FreshBox Farms Advisory Board
Food Strategist & Brand Builder Joins FreshBox Farms Advisory Board
Former Starbucks VP Recognized for Innovations and R&D Strategies
MILLIS, MA – June 26, 2017 – Food strategist and recognized brand builder Dr. Mary Wagner has joined FreshBox Farms’ advisory board.
Wagner, who has worked with brands including Starbucks, Mars, Taco Bell and General Mills, will be focusing on product/business development and strategy for one of the nation’s most profitable modular vertical farms.
“We are very pleased to have someone with Dr. Wagner’s experience and record of success among our advisors,” says FreshBox Farms CEO Sonia Lo. “As a Senior Vice President at Starbucks, Mary built a culture of innovation, and she is recognized for her work in food quality and safety as well as her ability to build brands and create successful strategies that foster innovation.”
FreshBox Farms uses sustainable growing enclosures that use no soil, very little water, a rigorously-tested nutrient mix and LED lighting to produce the freshest, cleanest, tastiest produce possible. FreshBox Farms’ non-GMO certified products go from harvest to the grocer’s produce section in hours, rather than days, and it is the only greens grower -- hydroponic or conventional -- in Massachusetts to be certified kosher.
“As one of only two commercial vertical farms in the US that are gross margin positive, FreshBox Farms continues to innovate and continues to be an industry leader, and we look forward to Mary’s wise counsel as we continue to be a success story in this advanced, technologically-sophisticated food industry,” says Lo.
“Indoor hydroponic farming in the US has amazing growth potential -- no pun intended,” says Wagner. “Forecasters believe that over the next 10 years, 50% of all greens will be harvested indoors through some form of hydroponic growing, and I am eager to work with Sonia and her team on research and innovation that will keep FreshBox Farms an industry leader.”
As Senior Vice President at Starbucks, Wagner was responsible for creating global food and beverage products and solutions for Starbucks and its Evolution Fresh and Teavana brands. She led the effort to create Global Centers of Excellence for R&D, Quality and Regulatory in US, Asia and Europe, with the aim of offering innovative locally relevant products in key markets outside the U.S.
She also created a “stage/gate” product development priority process that focused resources and energy on innovations that had the highest return. The result was improved time to market and an increase in more meaningful new product launches.
Wagner recently founded MK Wagner and Associates, a global food science management consulting firm that specializes in R&D strategic leadership.
About FreshBox Farms, The Thoughtful Choice
Each time consumers go shopping, they make a variety of decisions. “The Thoughtful Choice” is knowing that FreshBox Farms’ produce will always be the best option for their health, happiness, and the planet. Founded in 2013, FreshBox Farms is an entrepreneurial company with a mission of producing non-GMO certified, fresh, healthy, and pure produce for local markets through industry leading and sustainable vertical farming. Its technology and values have received global attention with interest from European, Middle Eastern and Asian markets. To learn more about FreshBox Farms, please visit www.freshboxfarms.com.
With Urban Grit and Pink Lights, London Warehouse Farms Fish and Greens
With Urban Grit and Pink Lights, London Warehouse Farms Fish and Greens
By Reuters
PUBLISHED: 20:00 EDT, 26 July 2017 | UPDATED: 20:00 EDT, 26 July 2017
By Lin Taylor
LONDON, July 27 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Inside a warehouse in industrial southeast London, farmed tilapia swim in blue tubs filled with pristine water, ready to be sold to trendy restaurants across the capital.
In an adjacent room, under pink LED lights and controlled temperatures, shoots of salad leaves and herbs grow on recycled carpet fibre fertilised with the fish waste. In this cavernous, windowless space more suited to a nightclub than a farm, the greens are stacked on metal shelves stretching to the ceiling.
It's a far cry from traditional British farms that sprawl across acres of land. But for Kate Hofman, who co-founded GrowUp Urban Farms in 2013, producing food in this 6,000 square feet building in Beckton was not only clever and cost-effective, it was also a sustainable way to feed people in the city.
"Sometimes people have an idealised idea of how their food is being produced. In their head, they think that farmer Joe tends to his field with his hoe and grows his heads of lettuce," the 32-year-old told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"We're trying to show that you can have an industrialised food system ... but you can do it in a way that's sustainable," said Hofman, who launched Britain's first commercial aquaponic farm - a system that uses fish waste to fertilise crops, which in turn filtrate the water used to farm the fish.
Rich and poor countries alike are tasked with creating sustainable and inclusive cities by 2030 under global development goals agreed in 2015 - and sorting out how cities are fed is a crucial part of that challenge, experts say.
As two thirds of the global population are forecast to live in cities by 2050, compared with about half now, urban planners and policymakers are increasingly looking to agriculture in towns and cities as a solution to provide nutritious food.
CLOSER AND FRESHER
Land used for farming in cities and the areas around them equals the size of the European Union, a recent study said, while others estimate some 800 million urban farmers provide up to 20 percent of the world's food.
Unlike imported produce, food from city farms and gardens travels less, reducing production costs, waste and fuel use.
"Because (urban farms) are in proximity to an urban population, they can see for themselves where their food is coming from. This has a benefit in terms of education and reconnecting food with the consumer," said Makiko Taguchi, an urban agricultural expert at U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).
Having your food come from sources close by is also crucial if supply is disrupted by civil unrest or extreme weather in the rural areas that still supply most of the world's food.
Hofman said Britain's huge appetite for salad leaves and herbs, and the fact that most of it is imported, were key reasons why she decided to grow such plants in her warehouse.
"It makes sense to grow crops like these close to people so you can get it to consumers more quickly - they're fresher, they last longer in the fridge, they're less likely to go to waste," said Hofman, who sells 200,000 bags of salad each year to local food retailers and restaurants.
Hofman also sells 4 tonnes (4000 kg) of fish each year and believes the ethical farming of fish provides a sustainable source of protein, especially at a time when nearly 800 million people worldwide do not have enough to eat, according to FAO.
Though Hofman doesn't think urban farming could ever replace existing food production systems, she hopes to pioneer ways to scale up the output of urban farms.
"It's terrifying. There's so much unknown in the model that we're trying to do. There are so many challenges that we're trying to overcome," Hofman said.
"But it offers a really exciting opportunity for people to engage with the idea of farming as something that can be sustainable and high-tech."
(Reporting by Lin Taylor @linnytayls, Editing by Lyndsay Griffiths. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters that covers humanitarian issues, conflicts, global land and property rights, modern slavery and human trafficking, women's rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org to see more stories)
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Urban Farming 2.0: From Plow Beams to Leafy Green Machines
Urban Farming 2.0: From Plow Beams to Leafy Green Machines
SEARCH FOR SOLUTIONS
A new generation of urban farmers is leaving dirt behind and turning shipping containers into tech-driven vertical farms.
Shane Witters Hicks/Staff
Shane Witters Hicks | Staff
JULY 26, 2017 BOSTON—Shawn Cooney swings open the door of 320-square-foot industrial shipping container to reveal a futuristic setting: hundreds of edible plants growing in vertical columns, fed by the energy from strings of neon red and blue LED lights. Nutrient-infused water cascades from ceiling spigots down through artificial root systems in the growing towers. The temperature inside feels like a comfortable spring day – about 70 degrees F., with a touch of humidity. There isn’t a speck of dirt anywhere.
Welcome to the new urban farm.
This shipping container is one of four that comprise Corner Stalk Farm run by Mr. Cooney and his wife in the heart of Boston. Once the cargo holds for exhaust-spewing 18-wheelers, these discarded freight vessels have been transformed into units known as Leafy Green Machines outfitted with state-of-the-art growing technology by a company called Freight Farms. Now they help farmers turn out crops of lettuce and herbs at a rapid pace.
In the past, urban farmers have eked a living from food grown in greenhouses, reclaimed brownfields, vacant lots, or rooftop farms. But with these new kinds of urban crops – grown using what’s known as controlled-environment agriculture, or CEA – farmers leverage technology to break free from the seasonal and climatic limitations that bind traditional crops. As a result, these farmers enjoy longer growing seasons and more plentiful harvests – a hopeful promise for urban communities looking to boost access to fresh produce.
“To think that you don’t have to worry about whether it’s going to rain, or whether the sun is too bright because you flick a switch and you know how much light you have, you know how much water is being supplied ... that would take a lot of the stress out of agriculture,” says Joel Gruver, associate professor and director of Western Illinois University's research and demonstration farm.
Getting fresh food into urban centers has proved to be a persistent and growing problem. By 2050, 66 percent of the world’s more than 9 billion people will live in cities, predicts the United Nations. While some cities offer farmers’ markets and have worked to open more grocery stores in so-called food deserts, these farmer-entrepreneurs are searching for solutions that will not only grow fresh food within city limits but also mitigate some of the environmental effects of traditional farming.
“People want real food. And increasingly people live in the city. So there has been – unsurprisingly – a lot of innovation and investment in urban farming in the last handful of years,” says Tobias Peggs, co-founder and chief executive officer of Square Roots Urban Growers in Brooklyn, N.Y. Upon launching, the company received more than 500 applicants for 10 farmer slots from those wanting to take up the challenge.
Easing An Environmental Burden
Small-scale sustainable farming and organic practices have long sought to lessen the environmental impacts of monocropping and pesticide reliance, but CEA has a significant advantage: the ability to scale up without significantly increasing its ecological footprint. The vertical farming market is expected to quadruple from its $1.5 billion market value in 2016 to $6.4 billion in 2023, according to a recent report by Allied Market Research.
In San Francisco, agrotech company Plenty boasts a 51,000-square-foot warehouse that leverages machine learning to optimize plant growth.
Nate Storey, Plenty’s co-founder and chief science officer, says the environmental benefits gained by fusing technology and food production make large-scale CEA a no-brainer.
“We have no runoff, we have no erosion, we have few, if any, pests, we don’t need to use many of the pesticides, we don’t have any soil to sterilize, we don’t have any intensive irrigation, we use a fraction of the water,” he explains. “There are just not a whole lot of reasons not to do this.”
Unlike other large-scale food producers who must optimize their goods for long truck rides and shelf lives, indoor growers located closer to customers can instead prioritize food quality, such as flavor and “mouth feel,” as Dr. Storey puts it.
For independent CEA farmers, starting up a controlled environment for indoor growing doesn’t come cheap. A Freight Farms unit costs $85,000 and the annual operating costs range between $8,000 and $16,500. But Cooney of Corner Stalk Farm, who bases the size of his crop on customer demand, explains that similarly sized outdoor farms are pressured to overproduce during short growing seasons.
“Their losses are much higher. So that’s why it comes out to be about the same,” he says. Moreover, other farms may spend a fortune on transportation and land. Taking up about 1/34th of an acre, Cooney’s lettuce farm can have a marketable yield that’s about the equivalent of 8 acres of traditional farmland yield, according to Freight Farms. And the indoor environment allows for a continual harvest.
But without the government subsidies that larger farms receive, greens grown within shipping containers will inevitably cost more than most supermarket greens.
“A bag of our Square Roots greens costs about as much as a Starbucks [coffee],” admits Mr. Peggs. He is quick to add that the enhanced sense of community fostered through farmer-customer relationships makes the price worthwhile.
“Customers come to the farm and hangout – we have a big window on the farm, so everyone can see what’s going on. It’s all about total transparency in the food-supply chain,” Peggs says.
But is High-Tech Food ‘Natural’?
The benefits of CEA may be tantalizing, but Dr. Gruver of Western Illinois University foresees potential difficulties for the burgeoning industry. Controlled-environment agriculture depends upon those who can operate and fix the technology. In other words, finding someone who can troubleshoot a malfunctioning LED system may prove more difficult than finding someone who can repair a tractor, for example.
And while local food and connections to the farmers who grow it have proven to be profitable in urban markets, not everyone embraces the idea of food grown exclusively in an artificial environment.
“I think with any high-tech approach, there is a general concern that it’s not natural,” says Gruver. “There’s more potential for unforeseen, unintended consequences.”
Urban tech growers are well aware of this perception.
“We’re sensitive to that,” responds Storey of Plenty. “We’re really focused on how do we show people that this new growing environment is something that is important for our food supply.”
Before indoor farmers can dominate the urban food arena, however, they’ll need to grow more than lettuce and herbs. The larger the plant, the more energy it costs to grow it, and this energy is currently expensive.
But based on the rapid pace of innovation and technology, Peggs predicts large, affordable produce may not be far off. He thinks his Square Roots entrepreneurs will figure out how to grow sustainable strawberries within 18 months.
“Imagine a farmer traipsing through 2 feet of snow to deliver you a box of freshly harvested, locally grown strawberries in the middle of a New York winter,” he says. “In the near future everyone will have local food and they will know your farmer.”
Aquaponics Operation Tests Cayman’s Potential
Aquaponics Operation Tests Cayman’s Potential
Canadian company aims to fulfill Cayman’s leafy vegetable demand
By Kayla Young | July 25, 2017
While Cayman’s natural barriers may inhibit its agricultural potential, a Canadian farming operation is betting on transforming the islands into a potential aquaponics site.
Alberta-based NutraPonics is evaluating plans to set up a 6,000-square-meter (64,580-square-foot) growing bed in Grand Cayman that director Tim Goltz anticipates will satisfy 80 percent of the local leafy greens market.
“We can blow the top off it and really surprise people. We can make Cayman a global leader,” Mr. Goltz said.
“Indoor vertical farming in and of itself is probably one of the hottest investment spaces in the world right now,” Mr. Goltz said.
The company’s aquaponics systems operate in a fully enclosed, high-density growing environment. Tilapia kept in tanks produce byproducts that are then filtered to create nitrate-rich water. These nutrients are filtered to the vertical growing area, where plants sit under LED lighting.
Pesticides unnecessary
The enclosed nature of the growing method eliminates the need for fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals.
The setup aims to minimize operating costs and maximize food production. Mr. Goltz estimates a 6,000-square-meter growing bed would produce enough leafy greens to feed 60,000 people.
Vertical stacks allow the NutraPonics system to grow more food in less space.
He noted that shoppers in Cayman depend on high-cost imports routed from farms in North and Central America. While Cayman’s grocers and restaurants already receive a limited supply of local produce, including some grown using hydroponics, Mr. Goltz hopes NutraPonics will be able to supplement supply and offer an alternative to imports.
The perishable leafy greens are particularly sensitive to long journeys, which creates an extra headache for supermarkets, Mr. Goltz said. Temperature fluctuations, delays on the tarmac and other disruptions can all compromise shelf life.
“Grocers have a real logistical and structural problem unless someone can figure out how to grow the volume they require,” Mr. Goltz said.
After meeting with grocers in November, Mr. Goltz said aquaponics could solve many of their supply-chain problems. He contends vertical, indoor farming could provide a local solution.
He expects the operation would require around 40 local employees.
Vertical stacks allow the NutraPonics system to grow more food in less space.
With two other operations under way in Saskatoon and White Horse, Canada, NutraPonics hopes to prove its model can operate under the most hostile growing environments. Once a Cayman facility takes off, Mr. Goltz envisions moving beyond leafy greens to a range of hothouse vegetables, including strawberries, tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers and cucumbers.
“Our ultimate goal is to become kings of the strawberry empire in the Caribbean,” Mr. Goltz said.
Investment interest
While it has been difficult to attract international partners to the company’s Edmonton facility, Mr. Goltz said entrepreneurs in Singapore, Dubai and Oman have already shown interest in Cayman’s potential. He expects the islands’ natural beauty and tax neutrality will be a draw for investors.
NutraPonics’ operations in Cayman would fall under two branches, the vertical aquaponics facility, and a separate corporation for global development.
In the long term, Mr. Goltz hopes to turn the Cayman facility into a showcase for sustainable agriculture, where tourists and schoolchildren can learn about farming.
The company is evaluating a West Bay property owned by the National Trust for the project but has not finalized a lease on the land.
Mr. Goltz said his team is in the fundraising stage and meeting with potential partners.
Tanks of tilapia produce byproducts that then nourish plants in the growing house.
This Vertical Farm Wants To Be An Agriculture Company, Not A Tech Company
- 07.12.17 | Updated: 07-26-17
This Vertical Farm Wants To Be An Agriculture Company, Not A Tech Company
The FreshBox model centers around shipping containers. [Photos: courtesy FreshBox Farms]
FreshBox Farms is going big by focusing on harvests, not proprietary growing systems.
As the indoor farming industry has taken off in the last several years–over the next 10 years, indoor farming is expected to account for 50% of leafy green production, and grow to a $42 billion industry–it’s become apparent that it’s as much about technology as it is about agriculture. Bowery, a new startup operating out of an old warehouse building in Kearney, New Jersey, developed a sensor-based proprietary technology, called BoweryOS, specifically to support the venture by determining necessary nutrient levels, as well as when crops are ready for harvesting. And in South San Francisco, Plenty is growing produce via a tech-supported vertical farming model that has already received $26 million from tech investors like Bezos Expeditions and Innovation Endeavors.
For FreshBox Farms, an indoor farm operational since 2015 at an old factory site in Millis, Massachusetts, around 30 miles outside of Boston, the technology is important–it is, after all, what enables the greens to grow–but it’s not sacred. “We’re equipment agnostic,” Sonia Lo, the CEO of Crop One Holdings, FreshBox’s parent company, tells Fast Company. “There are people out there doing great work to perfect lights, trays, control systems, nutrient dosing systems–we focus on growing as much as possible.” This almost brusque approach, Lo says, has enabled FreshBox Farms to become one of just two commercial indoor farming ventures in the U.S. that is gross-margin positive. The other is the Newark, New Jersey-based AeroFarms, which grows up to 2 million pounds of produce per year.
Earlier this year, Matt Barnard, CEO of Plenty, told Fast Company that “small-scale growing in 2017 is not a profitable enterprise.” He was referring to the fact that indoor farming startups, which, since the boom began within the last five years, have a track record of failure. FarmedHere, a Chicago-based venture, intended to expand nationally but instead went bankrupt earlier this year, citing the difficulty of maintaining financial equilibrium. PodPonics and LocalGarden, ventures based respectively in Atlanta and Vancouver, similarly failed; the business tensions derived from the high cost of technology, and the relatively small return on investment from output and distribution. Given the hefty price tag of developing proprietary growing technologies, not to mention renting pricey urban land, underwhelming harvests (which are common among startups still tinkering with their growing systems) can be financially devastating.
But with the cost of technology (for instance, LED lights, sensor technology, and smartphones, all of which are necessary for indoor farming) falling, and interest in local produce continuing to increase, Lo believes FreshBox Farms has hit on a sweet spot with its growing strategy. The company spends less money growing more product than any other indoor farm in the country, and Lo attributes that to FreshBox’s approach to technology, and easily scalable farm setup.
The FreshBox model centers around shipping containers (hence the name of the farm). At the farm in Massachusetts, which currently serves 37 supermarkets in the Boston region, each of FreshBox’s 12 commercial products, whether it be kale, arugula, or chard, is grown with hydroponics in its own shipping container; the farm currently houses 15, along with one “Mod”–a modular unit equivalent to nine containers. Conditions inside each container are optimized for each product, but the network as a whole is governed and monitored by the same technology system. By growing crops in separate containers, Lo says, FreshBox can focus on optimizing yield for each product.
The modular system, Lo says, is really what has enabled FreshBox to become profitable just 23 months after launching two years ago. “Because we’re modular, we’re not waiting for a whole farm to be built out to create revenue,” Lo says. “Once we have a box or two on the ground, we’re growing.” FreshBox can have a farm up and running, and selling, within 12 weeks.
The current FreshBox Farm configuration in Massachusetts produces a quarter ton of produce per day, but Lo emphasizes that as the company continues to iterate on the technology it uses and the size of the containers themselves, that number will likely increase. Currently, FreshBox is growing the equivalent of as much as 19 acres of produce in 320 square feet; as FreshBox verticalizes further, that efficiency will grow. “Real estate is a square-foot venture,” Lo says, “But we’re dealing in cubic feet.” Meaning that once FreshBox secures a plot of land on which to operate, they can continue stacking shipping containers higher and higher, and maximizing output. The containers on the farm are not yet stacked, but that’s a next step, Lo says.
Even as other indoor farming companies struggle with expansion, Crop One Holdings has locked in nine new locations for the next generation of FreshBox Farms. The majority will be in the northeast, and, like the Millis farm, located outside the urban center to cut down on property rental costs. And the focus, Lo says, will remain on productivity and profit–not necessarily for profits sake, but to ensure that fresh produce can become more available. “There are a ton of urban farmers out there who are talking about how they’re on the cutting edge of technology and measuring 20,000 data points,” Lo says. “But we’ve never fallen in love with the science. We’re all about: What is the yield? Are we actually growing things? Are we selling every leaf?”
Over the next five years, FreshBox is aiming to reach 25 farms across the U.S., each of which will produce between one and three tons of produce per day. The company will continue to iterate and switch out technology as it grows, and as more efficient systems become available. “I don’t think you should be in this industry unless you’re planning to be big,” Lo says.
Indoor Farms of America Bridges the Gap with Traditional U.S. Agriculture in Landmark Farm Sales
"With the sale of these farms, which will be up and running in the great state of Indiana in about 90 days from today, our company has achieved the first stage of the plans to have large scale indoor farming adopted by the very folks who have kept us fed in this country since its inception, and that is the traditional farmer," stated David Martin, CEO of Indoor Farms of America.
Indoor Farms of America Bridges the Gap with Traditional U.S. Agriculture in Landmark Farm Sales
NEWS PROVIDED BY | Indoor Farms of America
Indoor Farms of America corporate Farm Manager Anthony Randolph grows beautiful greens in the vertical aeroponics from IFOA.
LAS VEGAS, July 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- In what is a watershed transaction and a continuance of plans to integrate world-class indoor agriculture equipment into traditional farming, Indoor Farms of America announces that it has sold the first two "warehouse" style farms to Co-Alliance, LLP one of the largest, oldest and most respected major locally owned Farmer Cooperatives in the United States.
Unlike all other commercial scale Indoor Farm equipment, Indoor Farms of America patented equipment does not require ladders or skylifts to operate, and grows 40 plant sites per square foot in just 8 feet of ceiling height.
"With the sale of these farms, which will be up and running in the great state of Indiana in about 90 days from today, our company has achieved the first stage of the plans to have large scale indoor farming adopted by the very folks who have kept us fed in this country since its inception, and that is the traditional farmer," stated David Martin, CEO of Indoor Farms of America.
"Co-Alliance has been investigating several companies and the equipment available for the indoor agriculture space for some time," states Darren Radde, Business Development Manager at Co-Alliance. "Our team understands quality equipment, and after reviewing numerous growing platforms, we believe the equipment developed and manufactured by Indoor Farms of America will provide our Farmer Members with a viable means of supplementing their income, allowing them to farm new crops all year long, and be within 30 minutes to 2 hours delivery time to any major market they can serve from their existing farm."
John Graham, CFO of Co-Alliance, said: "When we visited with the team at Indoor Farms of America, they expressed to us that while their indoor growing equipment was designed to be superior in performance to anything else in the world, which makes them very 'disruptive' in that space, Ron and Dave have a real desire to see existing traditional farmers embrace the technology."
Graham went on to say, "This means our farmers can take advantage of all our existing channels to market, our inherent ability to be close to those markets, which means our farmers can deliver fresh produce every day of the year from their farms. When the fields are covered in snow, they can produce income for their families. We like that."
The first of the two farms will be owned and operated by a long-time family farming operation, who have an existing building as part of their farming operation in central Indiana, that will be converted to state-of-the-art indoor growing facility at pretty minimal expense.
Phil Brewer, VP of Marketing at Co-Alliance, sees new opportunities for member farmers to have a major impact on the "locally grown" food movement, never seen before. "By bringing scale production of a variety of crops such as premium herbs, for example, to within a very short distance of the actual consumption of those products, we are able to deliver on two fronts. First, the consumer wins by having truly fresh, locally grown and high quality products available to them from local farmers they know and trust. Second, our farmers win, as they are now able to operate during the cold winter season when the fields are out of operation. This creates meaningful additional income for themselves."
After seeing a solid first year in sales of its game-changing vertical aeroponic farm equipment, Indoor Farms of America is on a path to more than quadruple first year sales in 2017, which is year two.
"The largest food-related companies in the world are working with us at this point. They have compared every aspect of every available indoor platform and come back to us. We designed, patented with multiple patents, and now build a fundamentally and economically sound indoor farming product that scales to as large as may be required, anywhere in the world. Nothing grows in quantities that are even close to our equipment, in terms of robust, healthy, clean and nutritious produce," states Martin.
According to company President Ron Evans, "We have seen traditional farmers who purchased our equipment last year respond with praise for our equipment and how it performs. This year we are seeing them buy larger farms. When you get compliments from a farmer that operates 5,000 acres for a living, yet understands the real need and place for this in his own operation, the light bulb goes on for him and those around him."
2 East Bay Companies Redefine Urban Farming
2 East Bay Companies Redefine Urban Farming
By Alix WallApril 4, 2017, 1 p.m. - Up Dated: July 25, 2017
Benjamin Fahrer at work at the Top Leaf Farms location on the roof of 2201 Dwight Way in Berkeley. Photo: Alix Wall
One hundred miles, give or take, from farm to table, is the ideal maximum distance for produce to be considered local. But there are some companies that are greatly improving on that goal — instead of triple-digit mileage, they’re offering produce that’s grown within just a few miles. Even better, when there’s a short distance involved, delivery happens by bicycle or on foot, eliminating any reliance on fossil fuels.
Traditionally, this type of urban farming takes place in abandoned lots, backyards or parks. But two new East Bay companies are changing up that paradigm.
Read more about Berkeley’s Garden Village building.
The larger of the two operations is Top Leaf Farms, a rooftop garden at 2201 Dwight Way in Berkeley. The building, which was built by the Oakland-based Nautilus Group, Inc., is called Garden Village and functions as student housing for UC Berkeley. It was completed in January 2016 and Top Leaf began installing its garden in August 2016. By October it was up and running, growing produce in 10,000 of its 12,000 square feet of space.
Top Leaf Farms is in contract for another rooftop garden at Telegraph and 51st Street in Oakland, where the garden will be grown across 30,000 square feet of roof space. The mixed-use building will include apartments, as well as a Whole Foods’ 365 store. In fact Top Leaf is already gardening in the vacant lot on which the building will be constructed; that garden will be dug up once construction begins. While Top Leaf Farms is in discussion to sell produce to the new 365 store headed to the building, nothing has been confirmed yet.
Benjamin Fahrer uses a Quick Greens Harvester (made by Farmer’s Friend LLC) at Top Leaf Farms. Photo: Alix Wall
Top Leaf has just two full-time employees. Benjamin Fahrer is the co-owner, principal designer and farm manager, and he is a 20-year veteran of organic farming in such places as Ocean Song Farm and Wilderness Center in Sonoma, as well as Esalen in Big Sur.
No doubt he would still be farming in a more rural locale had he not fallen in love with his wife, whose career requires her to be in an urban environment — she is a physician at UCSF and performs in a band.
There’s been a bit of a learning curve when taking his farming skills to the roof of a building. For one, much less soil can be used because of weight restrictions.
“Agriculture is a contrived system where we impose a production system on nature to serve our needs to extract product,” Fahrer explained. “On a roof, it’s even more contrived in that it’s separated from the earth. On the ground, you’re working with nature, and here you’re working with concrete, steel and metal. Fabricated materials have a certain rigidity you can’t be flexible with.”
The rooftop farm created by Top Leaf Farms at 2201 Dwight Way in Berkeley. Photo: Alix Wall
Whatever challenges a rooftop presents, though, are not apparent to a farming novice visiting the roof on Dwight. One can walk through numerous terraces and see neat rows of crops growing; it looks no different than a regular farm, except for the fact that you can also see the tops of nearby office buildings and past those, the Bay Bridge in the distance.
They may call the arugula they grow “arufula” or “aroofula”
Right now Fahrer is growing numerous varieties of kale and lettuces, arugula, pea shoots, herbs, flowers and more. Fahrer said he’s already determined which variety of arugula grows best on the roof — they may call it “arufula,” or “aroofula.”
Top Leaf sells produce to the students in the building in limited quantities, but makes most of its income with its “RSA,” or restaurant-supported agriculture, as Fahrer likes to call it. It currently supplies six restaurants with produce and all are within a three-mile radius. These include all three of Charlie Hallowell’s restaurants (Pizzaiolo, Boot & Shoe Service and Penrose), Juhu Beach Club, Chez Panisse, Ramen Shop, Benchmark Pizzeria and Gather.
“Ideally the [building’s] residents would take the majority of food that’s grown above them,” Fahrer said. “But right now the restaurants provide a constant revenue stream.”
Top Leaf Farms has an advisory board that includes author and sustainability expert Raj Patel and former Oakland Food Policy Council director Esperanza Pallana, and is in contract to design a handful of other projects, but Fahrer said they are very particular about their clients. The company has had a few experiences where a developer asks for a rooftop garden with the latest green technology, but after entering into a discussion, “at a certain point we realize we don’t agree with the ethics of that development,” said Fahrer. “We’ve declined because of gentrification and the way in which they’re developing because they’re evicting people from their homes.”
The hope for the Temescal farm, which Fahrer expects will be finished in 2019, is for it to be “a worker-owned cooperative, where we can train and employ local people to become part owners, and create more of a livelihood from urban agriculture,” he said.
Oaktown Farms: The only way is up
John Wichmann of Oaktown Farms (left) sells lettuce to Paul Bosky at the Temescal farmers market. Photo: Alix Wall
Meanwhile, another Oakland farm has taken shape, albeit on a much smaller scale. If you’ve shopped at the Temescal farmers market these past few weeks, you will likely have seen a white tower, attached to a bike trailer, with various types of greens growing in it.
This is Oaktown Farms.
While vertical towers are a new fad in urban agriculture, Oakland engineer John Wichmann has built one of his own design that he believes is better than any on the market.
“There’s one person making a tower system similar to mine but you’re only able to grow plants on one side of a four-sided box. Why not utilize all the real estate you have?” he asks.
Noting that this other system grows nine plants in the same amount of space in which he can grow 40, Wichmann said his tower grows 1,000 plants in 100 square feet of space.
Then there’s the portability factor. He can disconnect a piece of his farm, attach it to his bike, and ride it approximately three-quarters of a mile to the market. Wichmann doesn’t give out the exact address of the farm, but it is on a friend’s lot somewhere within a one mile radius of the Claremont Department of Motor Vehicles.
“The tower allows me to grow, transport and sell from one device, which is unique,” Wichmann said.
Oaktown Farms grows all of its produce in a vertical system. Photo: Alix Wall
Wichmann’s day job is as an engineer at Nauto, a company that’s competing with Google and Uber in the self-driving car space. His interest in gardening has been lifelong; growing up in Southern California, his father was a food technologist and his mother a dietician.
“My dad had a compost pile in the 1970s when I was a kid,” he said. “I always thought that was normal.”
His high school had a Future Farmers of America organization, and also offered advanced courses in wood and metal shop, all of which Wichmann took advantage of.
But while farming had always been a hobby, Wichmann was especially inspired when learning about aquaponics systems. “I got really excited about that because you can get fish and greens in the same system,” he said.
Like Fahrer, Wichmann was also inspired by the fact that more and more people are living in an urban environment. He thinks that new food systems should be feeding them.
And then, of course, there’s the issue of California’s drought.
While it’s hard to quantify, Wichmann believes his system uses 90% less water than conventional farming.
“When you water plants, a lot of it runs off and some evaporates,” he said. With his vertical-farming methods, called a close-looped system, “the water is in a reservoir if it’s not being sprayed onto the roots, and the only water that’s taken up [goes to] the roots.”
The Oaktown Farms stand at the Temescal farmers market. Photo: Alix Wall
Wichmann’s system also prevents waste, as customers only cut the plants when they buy them; whatever isn’t sold remains planted until the next market.
Wichmann also argues that his produce has better health benefits than traditionally farmed vegetables. He said that once you cut a plant, it slowly starts to lose its nutritional value. His are as close to living as you can get.
He’s been bringing to market a mix of Asian greens like tatsoi and mizuna, as well as heirloom varieties of lettuce and mustard greens. People have been puzzled so far, and they sometimes inquire about buying the tower rather than the greens from it.
This last request may become a reality: Wichmann has some big ideas about how a tower like his could alleviate hunger in certain parts of the world, and he is busy pitching it around.
Room To Grow More Local Veggies At Panasonic's Farm
Room To Grow More Local Veggies At Panasonic's Farm
PUBLISHED - JUL 10, 2017, 5:00 AM SGT | Updated July 25, 2017
S'pore Farm Now Yields 40 Varieties, Aims to More Than Double Production
Consumers here can look forward to more home-grown leafy greens from Panasonic, which plans to expand its high-tech indoor vegetable farm and more than double its production by next year.
The Japanese electronics giant is also looking into cultivating seasonal fruit usually grown in temperate climates.
It runs a 1,154 sq m indoor farm, about the size of 11/2 soccer fields, at Panasonic Factory Solutions Asia-Pacific's premises in Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim.
The farm produces up to 40 crop varieties, amounting to 81 tonnes of vegetables annually.
Plans are under way to increase farm size to 1,710 sq m, which will allow it to produce up to 180 tonnes at optimum capacity. The cultivated varieties include mizuna, oba, leafy lettuce, mini red radish, Swiss chard and baby spinach.
Mr Paul Wong, managing director of Panasonic Singapore, said the company embarked on vertical farming as a viable and efficient means of producing vegetables in a limited space.
Mr Wong said: "We started with eight types of crops. Through constant research and development, we now produce 40 varieties of leafy greens and we want to expand that list with seasonal fruits.
"Increasing our overall crop production is also in line with our goal to contribute to Singapore's food security through a stable local supply of leafy greens."
Latest figures from the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) show that last year, 11,300 tonnes of vegetables were locally produced, which accounts for 12 per cent of the total vegetable supply. Singapore imports over 90 per cent of its food supply.
Mr Melvin Chow, group director of AVA's Food Supply Resilience Group, said local food production provides a crucial buffer in the event of disruptions in overseas food supply.
The AVA encourages the use of technology that can help local farms optimise land use, boost capability and raise production.
Mr Chow said: "The most important step is for our industry to adopt a progressive mindset and improve productivity."
Panasonic's indoor vegetable farm was the first of its kind to be licensed by the AVA in 2013.
It utilises both soil cultivation and hydroponics. No pesticides are used. Seeding and potting are automated, which doubles productivity compared with traditional farming methods. An intelligent lighting system using LED lights helps to accelerate plant growth.
Through a system of automated irrigation, controlled temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide, the farm is able to increase crop growth and achieve a high yield rate of 95 per cent.
The farm is also licensed by the AVA to process salads. Panasonic produces three ready-to-eat salad mixes, which are sold at major supermarkets. It also supplies vegetables to hotels, restaurants and catering companies.
Japanese restaurant chain Ootoya placed its first order of vegetables with Panasonic in 2014.
Mr Yusuke Shimizu, 39, managing director of Ootoya Asia-Pacific, said: "Our customers... complimented us on the freshness and some even asked us where to buy the vegetables."
Ootoya orders an average of 150kg of vegetables from Panasonic every month for its three outlets. Mr Shimizu said: "Freshness is a priority at our restaurants and Panasonic supplies us with vegetables that are harvested on the same day."
A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on July 10, 2017, with the headline 'Room to grow more local veggies at Panasonic's farm'.
$200M Invested For a Global Network of Indoor Farms? That’s Plenty
$200M Invested For a Global Network of Indoor Farms? That’s Plenty
Frank Vinluan | July 21st, 2017 | @frankvinluan | @xconomy | Email
Agtech startup Plenty has reeled in $200 million in financing as the company presses forward on its plans to build a global network of indoor vertical farms.
Softbank Vision Fund of Japan led the Series B funding round for South San Francisco, CA-based Plenty. The round included investments from affiliates of Louis Bacon, the founder of Moore Capital Management, as well earlier investors Innovation Endeavors, Bezos Expeditions, DCM, Data Collective, and Finistere Ventures.
The founders of Plenty say they aim to site their farms near major cities. By growing plants vertically, these farms can produce more food from a smaller footprint while also shortening the supply chain to reach consumers. The company also says these facilities will use sensors and software to optimize growing conditions, avoid the use of crop chemicals, and conserve water—savings that help keep the produce affordable. Plenty CEO Matt Barnard toldBloomberg News that the company’s goal is to provide food priced to fit everyone’s budget.
“That’s the thing that’s hardest to do,” Barnard said. “Now that we’ve accomplished those milestones, we’re looking to scale.”
Plenty has plenty of company in the indoor farming space. In June, New York-based Bowery raised $20 million in its Series A round, four months after announcing its seed round of financing. Bowery CEO Irving Fain hinted at ambitions to build its indoor farms around the world but in the near term, he said the funding will support the construction of at least one additional indoor farm in the New York area. Last year, New York-based BrightFarms raised $30.1 million in a Series C round to bankroll expansion of its indoor farms across the country.
Indoor farming investments have heated up in recent years; the category accounted for $247 million invested in 43 deals last year, according to a report from online investment marketplace AgFunder. But Plenty’s latest round appears to be the biggest agtech investment ever. The $200 million round tops the $100 million Series C round of Boston agricultural microbials startup Indigo a year ago in what AgFunder calculated was previously the largest-ever agtech investment.
Softbank has a lot of money to invest in agtech and elsewhere. In May, the fund announced it had closed on $93 billion in committed capital, a sum that it expected would reach $100 billion. At the time, Softbank said it would seek investments of $100 million or more as it builds a portfolio diversified across technology sectors and geographies. The fund said it is looking to invest in companies “that seek to enable the next age of innovation.”
Plenty has also been a dealmaker in the indoor farming space. Last month, the company acquired Laramie, WY-based Bright Agrotech, a maker of vertical farming equipment. No financial terms were disclosed for that deal but at the time it was announced, Bright Agrotech CEO Chris Michael wrote in a blog post that his company’s technology would help Plenty “build field-scale vertical indoor farms around the world.”
Among the technologies that Plenty gained in the Bright Agrotech deal is the ZipGrow Hydroponic Tower. These towers use gravity to feed nutrient-rich water to plants grown in a vertical plane. Barnard told Bloomberg that using gravity saves energy compared to the energy-consuming systems of other farms that pump nutrients to plants.
Plenty has not yet said where it plans to build its farms, nor has the company set a timeline for bringing produce to the market. Other than the Bright Agrotech facilities, Plenty’s only disclosed location is its 51,000-square-foot warehouse in South San Francisco.
ZipFarm photo by Plenty subsidiary Bright Agrotech.
Frank Vinluan is editor of Xconomy Raleigh-Durham, based in Research Triangle Park. You can reach him at fvinluan [at] xconomy.com Follow @frankvinluan
Living Greens Farm Quadruples Its Vertical Food Growing Operation In Rice County
Next month, the company will add 30 systems to help grow more lettuce, microgreens and herbs in Faribault.
Living Greens Farm Quadruples Its Vertical Food Growing Operation In Rice County
- GUNNAR OLSON golson@faribault.com
- Jul 24, 2017
Head Grower Michelle Keller, left, and Chairman/President Dana Anderson stand in front of rows of food being grown at Living Greens Farm in Faribault. Currently, the business is quadrupling its output with the addition of 30 more growing machines. (Gunnar Olson/Daily News)
From butter lettuce to arugula microgreens, Living Greens Farm specializes in growth. In August, the company will undergo some growth itself, quadrupling its size in its Faribault facility.
Currently, Living Greens Farm houses 10 growing systems in its Faribault Industrial Park facility. These systems grow food products vertically and indoors without the use of herbicides or pesticides. According to its own estimates, the company uses 200 times less land and 95 percent less water than traditional farming.
Next month, the company will add 30 systems to help grow more lettuce, microgreens and herbs in Faribault.
Head Grower Michelle Keller, left, and Chairman/President Dana Anderson stand in front of rows of food being grown at Living Greens Farm in Faribault. Currently, the business is quadrupling its output with the addition of 30 more growing machines. (Gunnar Olson/Daily News)
In 15 to 17 cycles per year, Living Greens Farms harvests about 1,500 plants per cycle. Lettuce, microgreens and herbs each have different grow times, but the company’s 10 patents for its traversing misting system help Living Greens grow food in a shorter time frame.
According to Dana Anderson, chairman and president of Living Greens Farm, the company uses aeroponics to grow the plants quickly.
“We feel aeroponics is the fastest and most disease-resistant way to grow,” he said.
Once the expansion is complete and production begins in September, Living Greens Farm will be one of the “largest indoor farms in the world,” Anderson said.
Getting to that point, however, was a tall task. Development of its traversing misting system took five years and $5 million to complete. While just one part of the equation, Living Greens Farm’s invention was pivotal to the company’s success.
“We didn’t invent aeroponics,” Anderson said. “But we invented how to commercialize it.”
The person tasked with doing the day to day growing is Michelle Keller, the head grower at Living Greens Farm and a four-year master grower.
Keller works with two other individuals that make up the current staff, which she said she expects to grow to six or seven employees once the 30 additional machines are added to the operation.
In the current operation, the plants are first grown outside of the machines before they are placed into the rows under the misting system technology.
“It maximizes the space,” she said. “But it still gives the plants the room they need to grow.”
Growing in Rice County
When the expansion is complete, the earliest stages of growth will occupy the current space, while plants will grow in the 30 new machines in the next room in the latter stages.
The Faribault business is built on a series of high-tech innovations and also contributes to Faribault’s community of growers and agriculture.
For Faribault Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Marketing Director Nort Johnson, Living Greens Farm fits into a growing market.
“Locally grown, homegrown, organic foods are growing in popularity,” he said. “Living Greens Farms is at the very front edge of that. They use no herbicides or pesticides and they do it all in house.”
Johnson also has a particular interest in biomes, or the natural growth within one’s habitat. In Living Greens Farm, Johnson sees the opportunity for people in Rice County to take advantage of their own biome.
“In the big picture of sustainability, the more you can produce and manage within your own biome, the less dependent that you can be in a world economy,” he said.
From the growing rows of Living Greens Farm, its products are distributed locally in Faribault and Northfield at the Smoqhouse, Hy-Vee, Just Foods Co-op, Carleton College and Tanzenwald Brewing.
While those businesses now benefit from Living Greens’ operations in Rice County, it almost didn’t happen here. According to Anderson, former Faribault Mayor John Jasinski and current Economic and Community Development Director Deanna Kuennen were instrumental in bringing Living Greens to Faribault, where they will now expand.
“They were really welcoming and supporting,” he said. “That was the difference for us. That’s why we chose Rice County over Dakota or Hennepin counties.”
Make High Quality Food A Stable of The Culture
For today’s modern corporate campus, Freight Farms provides the opportunity to seamlessly integrate sustainable food production into current operations to make high-quality food a staple of the culture. Each farm offers a unique flexibility to create tailored programs to meet the specific needs of our clients. It becomes a powerful tool for promoting wellness, sustainability, and innovation while building an active community and fostering a culture of social responsibility and creativity.
Here are 7 ways to improve your corporate campus with the Leafy Green Machine:
Champion social responsibility: Companies seeking to reduce their carbon footprint are using the Leafy Green Machine (LGM) to offer great food at a low environmental cost. Google, the internet giant notorious for offering free breakfast, lunch, and dinner for their more than 20,000 employees, is growing produce in an LGM on their campus in Mountain View as part of their farm-to-table initiative.
Demonstrate your commitment to sustainability: Incorporating the Leafy Green Machine system into current operations is a way to showcase your business's commitment to sustainability through more environmentally-sound sourcing practices. Each farm acts as an immediate solution to shorten the food supply chain, thereby cutting fuel emissions, increasing transportation costs, and dramatically reducing the carbon footprint of any food operation. The innovative climate technology and energy-efficient growing equipment allows businesses to grow their own produce 365 days a year, regardless of the outside climate. The closed-loop hydroponic system uses over 90% less water than traditional agriculture, significantly reducing the environmental impact of food production.
Actively promote nutrition, health, and wellness: Today’s industry leaders recognize the importance of equipping employees with the tools and resources to help them lead successful, healthy lives both in and out of the workplace. Food has become a core component of every strategy, as more companies seek to provide the freshest, healthiest foods available to their staff. By equipping them with the right information, they are able to make more informed choices that support their health and in turn the health of the larger community.
Be an advocate for innovative technology and creativity: The Leafy Green Machine gives businesses and their food service teams the opportunity to explore new, innovative approaches to food production and provides a platform for education and engagement throughout each step of the process. Producing fresh food directly on campus with the latest growing technology makes it easy to captivate employees and facilitate a dialogue around food. Campus chefs have the ability to choose what to grow and how to incorporate it into their menus. Produce is grown on-site, and brought directly into the kitchens after harvest, ensuring employees get the freshest, most nutritious food available.
Serve up the freshest food for your employees year-round: Chef Kevin Gibbons of UMass Dartmouth is growing a variety of lettuces of herbs in the Leafy Green Machine on campus. In a recent interview, he told us, “we can harvest lettuce at 10:00 am and serve it for lunch later that day.” It doesn't get fresher than that!
Educate your employees about the food supply chain: Use the Leafy Green Machine as a tool to facilitate engagement and inspire change by providing employees with the opportunity to interact with food in a new way. Increase participation and collaboration by bringing transparency to operations and educating employees on the journey their food takes from farm to table.
Cut costs: Sourcing fresh produce and herbs during the winter months can be expensive. The Courtyard Marriott Grappone Conference Center in Concord, New Hampshire is growing lettuce, kale, spinach, arugula, and basil. Steve Duprey, the owner of the hotel, reported that during the winter months they are now able to produce basil at 1/10 of the cost of wholesale prices.
If you'd like to learn more about how Freight Farms is helping farmers grow food in regions across the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Caribbean reach out to us here.