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Indoor Farming Expert Says Korea, Japan Need To Up Investment
Indoor Farming Expert Says Korea, Japan Need To Up Investment
Nov 26, 2017
CHIBA, Japan -- To meet the pace of the aggressive growth of the indoor farming industry in China and the United States, both South Korea, and Japan should bet bigger on industry innovation, a Japanese expert said.
Toyoki Kozai, professor emeritus of Chiba University and president of the Japan Plant Factory Association, told reporters that Korea should spur efforts to invest in smart indoor farming technologies.
“Indoor horticulture farms are attracting an increasing level of investment, especially from Chinese and American firms,” Kozai said. “Such overwhelming pace of growth in funding leaves (the sectors in) Korea and Japan vulnerable.”
Toyoki Kozai, professor emeritus of Chiba University and president of the Japan Plant Factory Association, speaks to the press at an indoor farming facility in Chiba University in Chiba, Japan. (Son Ji-hyoung / The Korea Herald)
His remark largely resonated with Korean corporations that have for years faced opposition from farmers.
The 74-year-old Kozai added China’s interest in indoor farms stemmed from the need to grow herbs for cosmetic products, such as Chinese angelica root.
Over recent years, Japanese tech giants have joined the race for investment in farms. After incorporating technology -- mainly from Dutch firms -- with their own tech prowess, some of the giants, including Panasonic and Fujitsu, gained the capacity to team up with advanced overseas business entities in China and Finland.
A worker harvests bell peppers in a smart farm run by Japanese IT firm Fujitsu, located in Iwata, Japan. (Son Ji-hyoung / The Korea Herald)
In addition, Softbank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son decided in July to invest $200 million in Plenty, a Silicon Valley startup for vertical farm technology.
Despite such efforts, Kozai expressed concerns over the soaring volume of investments in China and the United States. An example is the $1 billion investment in factory farms by Sanabio, a joint venture between the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese optoelectronics giant Sanan Group.
Countries such as Singapore, Vietnam, Mongolia, and Russia are also moving to establish and operate vertical green farms, Kozai said.
In the wake of cost-saving light-emitting diode technologies, now is the best time to invest in indoor farming, according to Kozai.
Currently, products grown in indoor vertical farms are 20 to 30 percent more expensive than those of conventional farms.
JPFA, a Chiba University-affiliated vegetable factory operated across 10,000 square meters, uses solar light to grow tomatoes and strawberries, and artificial light for lettuce production.
The nonprofit organization, headed by Kozai, has sought automation of the facility by amassing a database while adopting hydroponics -- or soilless -- technologies.
Combined with the advent of artificial intelligence, such progress is taking factory farming technology to new heights. For example, JPFA will be able to produce lettuce for heart disease patients by modifying lights, Kozai said.
An interior view of an artificial light plant factory growing lettuce in an indoor farming facility in Chiba University in Chiba, Japan. (Son Ji-hyoung / The Korea Herald)
Following the success it had achieved in the artificial light growing development, JPFA has gained financial support from about 125 corporate members and 100 individual members, as of September.
In contrast, Korean firms have long faced resistance from local farmers, who say the market entry of large businesses will infringe on their livelihoods.
In September 2016, LG CNS, a software firm under the conglomerate LG, withdrew its plan to invest 380 billion won ($349.7 million) in smart farms on 760,000 square meters of reclaimed land in North Jeolla Province by teaming up with Turkish Advance International Group.
This came three years after Farm Hannong, another agricultural firm currently owned wholly by LG Corp., was forced to cancel a project to build greenhouses on reclaimed land in Gyeonggi Province, due to farmers’ protests.
SK Telecom has operated a smart farm in Sejong City on 8,264 square meters of floor space since 2015, while K Venture Group, affiliated to Kakao Corp., is holding 33.16 percent of Manna CEA, a maker of hydroponic and aquaponic products. However, industry watchers view the high-tech farming sector as being at the nascent stage.
“Business penetration into agriculture has encountered a conflict of interest,” a source told The Korea Herald, declining to be identified.
However, Kozai said Korea has the potential to stimulate farming factory growth, on the back of advanced light-emitting diode technology largely owned by local conglomerates, as well as Dutch technology-backed bell pepper farming capacity. He added that 70 percent of Korean bell pepper production is exported to Japan and dominates the market.
“Korea should increase funding to indoor farming technology,” he said. “(The) time is ripe for Korea to have the second boom in investment in the Korean agricultural market.”
By Son Ji-hyoung
Korea Herald Correspondent
(consnow@heraldcorp.com)
NOSB Votes Not To Ban Hydroponics From Organic Certification
A longtime organic tomato farmer believes this could effectively be the beginning of “divorce proceedings” between the organic movement and the USDA’s National Organic Program.
The U.S. National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) has controversially voted against banning hydroponic and aquaponic crops being eligible for organic certification, in a move that has provoked strong opinions from the sector’s stakeholders.
The vote took place last week as part of the advisory board’s fall meeting in Jacksonville, Florida, which was open to the public and involved a range of testimonies given to the 15-member board.
The board voted to prohibit aeroponic agriculture – which grows plants suspended in the air with their roots exposed – but did not pass motions to ban hydroponics, a method that cultivates plants in water-based nutrient solutions, or aquaponics which combines hydroponic systems with farmed fish operations.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) spokesperson told Fresh Fruit Portal the NOSB had heard two days of testimony that were mostly focused on the three production systems.
“The Board did not come to an agreement on any recommendations about the certification of hydroponic or aquaponic production systems. Both systems remain eligible for Organic Certification,” she said.
“The Board passed a proposal to recommend prohibition of aeroponics systems in organic production. Certification of aeroponic operations also remains allowed while USDA considers the Board’s work on this topic.”
Organic pioneers have typically argued that including hydroponic crops in the National Organic Program (NOP) undermines the integrity of the label and that nurturing the fertility of the soil is a fundamental aspect of the farming method.
Meanwhile, those on the other side of the debate have held that there should be no issue including hydroponics as long as farming inputs are organic.
Maintaining the status quo
Organic Trade Association (OTA) farm policy director Nate Lewis said that this vote essentially maintained the status quo for the vast majority of the industry.
“All these systems have been allowed in organic since 2002, so I think the outcome – with the exception of aeroponics – shouldn’t really change the reality for many producers,” he said, explaining that organic aeroponics represented a tiny proportion of the sector.
He said the OTA would have supported the motion to ban hydroponics – as it did in 2010 when the NOSB recommended prohibiting the production method – if the definition of the production system had remained unchanged.
However, he said that as the Crops Subcommittee had revised the definition and coupled it with proposed standards for organic container production – which involves raising plants in containers filled with a mixture of organic matter, water and nutrients – the association, therefore, did not support it this time around.
It should be noted that despite the NOSB previously voting to recommend hydroponics be banned from organic certification – albeit at a time when the hydroponic industry was far less developed than today – the advice was not upheld by regulator the NOP.
Lewis also commented that among the OTA’s members were those who strongly supported organic certifications for hydroponics and those who strongly opposed them, but said there was a “significant segment” of membership in the middle who thought entirely water-based systems shouldn’t be allowed but container production should be, with appropriate guidelines and standards.
Banning would have been “irresponsible”
United Natural Foods vice president of policy and industry relations Melody Meyer said it was positive to see so many members of the organic community come out to participate in last week’s event, but believed the decision left the sector “deeply divided”.
“I was present in Jacksonville to witness one of the most divided NOSB meetings to date.I believe they made the right decision not to prohibit these out-of-soil production methods,” she said.
“It would have put hundreds of growers out of business, taken valuable supply away from organic consumers and squelched innovation in our movement.”
Meanwhile, the head of the Recirculating Farms Commission, which represents hydroponic and aquaponic growers, also believed the NOSB had made the right decision in not prohibiting the two production methods.
The entity’s executive director Marianne Cufone said that as many products from these farms already carried a USDA Organic label, it would have been “irresponsible and confusing” for consumers and farmers to withdraw it now.
“By siding with current science and recognizing that existing law purposely leaves the door open for various farming methods, the NOSB is sending a critical message that sustainability and innovation are valuable in U.S. agriculture,” she said in a statement.
“These goals are at the center of the nationwide local food movement and spur growth of urban and rural farms alike, by a wide range of people. Inclusiveness is important in our food system.
“The Board did vote to prohibit use of aeroponics in USDA Organic production and indicated they would discuss what type of label hydroponic and aquaponic USDA Organic certified products would display.”
The financial factor?
In support of the motions to ban the three production methods, Mark Kastel of farm policy watchdog group the Cornucopia Institute said the industry had effectively created “two organic labels”.
“One label is all about integrity and production and that impacts the nutritional flavor and quality of the food (found at farmers’ markets, CSAs, co-ops and other local retailers). The other is all about profit,” he said.
“What has made the organic industry financially attractive is the fact that consumers are willing to pay a premium for food produced to a different environmental and animal husbandry model.”
He also believed that part of the “organic story” had been about economic justice for family farmers, and that industrial-scale hydroponic production is a stark disconnect from that.
“The industry, in throwing their weight around the regulatory arena at the USDA, in appealing to Congress when that doesn’t work, is poised to kill the golden goose. A loss of consumer goodwill will impact all players, large and small – growers, distributors and retailers.”
The Cornucopia Institute is now engaging with its outside legal counsel to investigate filing a federal lawsuit, he said.
Dave Chapman, a longtime organic tomato grower with a farm in Vermont, said he was “dismayed” by the result of the vote and that it was a “great disappointment”.
“The fact that it was a close vote is a sign of how much the whole process of the National Organic Program has been compromised. It should have been consensus that hydroponics should not be certified as organic,” he said.
“That was the last vote of the same body seven years earlier when there was just one descending vote. What happened in seven years that suddenly reversed the definition of organic? I would say what happened was a lot of money.
“There was no new scientific evidence. I think the market was invaded by some large companies that were making hundreds of millions of dollars and that is what changed the conversation.”
Chapman also emphasized that the organic movement and the NOP were two different things, and believed last week’s vote may result in some profound changes in the future.
“I think that this vote was basically the beginning of divorce proceedings. The NOP is of course going to continue, and the organic movement is going to continue, but I think they’re not going to continue together.
“If consumers become aware that most of the tomatoes – and soon I suspect most of the berries, cucumbers, pepper, lettuce and basil – they’re buying in the store that’s certified organic is in fact hydroponic, they’re going to become further disheartened and stop using organic certification for the basis of how they find good food to buy.
“I think that most likely we will see the creation of one or many alternative labels to the USDA, because the USDA is failing. Of course, this is going to be a lot of work and very confusing, but I really don’t know what other choice there is.”
Amazon's Jeff Bezos Invests in Vertical Produce Farming Company Plenty
, according to a report from getting into the fresh produce businessA new investment by Jeff Bezos has the man behind the Amazon Whole Foods buyout Business Insider
Amazon's Jeff Bezos Invests in Vertical Produce Farming Company Plenty
Nov. 6th, 2017
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA - A new investment by Jeff Bezos has the man behind the Amazon Whole Foods buyout getting into the fresh produce business, according to a report from Business Insider. Bezos reportedly has taken his place alongside the likes of Eric Schmidt of Alphabet, SoftBank Vision, and DCM Ventures to get in on the ground floor of Bay Area-based vertical farming startup, Plenty.
With the new investors signing on, Plenty announced it will now open a 100,000-square-foot farm in Kent, Washington, where the startup hopes to grow pesticide-free, “backyard quality,” fresh fruits and vegetables for consumers in the Seattle and Vancouver, B.C., areas. This second farm marks the first occasion Plenty will grow beyond its home in South San Francisco.
A plenty vertical farm
Business Insider reports that Plenty’s new farm will grow 4.5 million pounds of greens annually, which, according to the USDA, is enough to feed around 183,600 Americans. Set to come online in spring 2018, Plenty’s twist on the classic produce farm means that all of its crops will grow on glowing, LED-lit, 20-foot-tall towers, taking all soil, pesticides, and even natural sunlight out of the growing equation. Those of us in the biz know this is called indoor vertical farming and allows for a climate-controlled, year-round growing option.
In Seattle, Plenty has said it will begin growing leafy greens and herbs first, but will later expand to fruits, such as strawberries, tomatoes, and watermelons. CEO and Co-Founder Matt Barnard told Business Insider the company will begin selling in 2018 under it’s newly achieved organic certification and may be even looking at delivery as one option for distribution.
Matt Barnard, CEO, Plenty
Seattle’s emphasis on delicious, healthy food and energy and water efficiency makes the area a natural fit for our next Plenty farm,” said Barnard in a press release. “At nearly 100,000 square feet, Seattle will be home to our first full-scale farm and help set the standard by which our global farm network makes locally-grown, backyard-quality produce accessible to everyone. We’re excited about what’s next and look forward to building the Seattle team.”
A plenty vertical farm
To date, after Bezos’ contribution, Plenty has raised $226 million, which Barnard said will help the company fund new farms around the world in order to drive down prices and costs.
Will the Amazon leader move further into fresh produce investments as he seems to be keeping a watchful eye on the food industry? AndNowUKnow will keep you apprised with the latest.
Valoya Launches a New Line of State-of-the-Art LED Grow Lights
Valoya Launches a New Line of State-of-the-Art LED Grow Lights
Since its entrance to the LED grow lights market in 2009 Valoya has been dedicated to producing the highest quality horticultural LED lights for its customers which include 8 out of 10 world’s largest agricultural companies. Countless crop science companies, research institutes, universities, vertical farms etc are equipped with Valoya’s existing series (L, C, B and R). The range is now complemented with a new a line that brings significant improvements and pushes the LED grow lights industry forward.
The BX-Series is the next evolution step of the existing B-Series, the high intensity bar shaped luminaires widely used in growth chambers and similar applications demanding high light intensity. With the intensity of up to 2,1 µmol/W and a dimming feature these luminaires can produce the micromole output for the widest range of plants. The spectra include Valoya’s already available, patented wide-spectra such as NS1 (sunlight spectrum widely used in research) and AP673L (vegetative growth spectrum, widely used by vertical farmers and other growers). These adhere to Valoya's Spectrum Quality Standards which define the permitted wavelength variations among production batches as well as over time of the fixtures' usable life. This is a quality guarantee for researchers and growers ensuring them that the spectrum will remain consistent with minimal variation over a long period of time as well as when they acquire luminaires produced in more recent batches. The BX-Series, like all Valoya products, has been designed with GMP compliant production facilities in mind.
Boasting an Ingress Protection rating of IP67 the BX-Series is entirely dust and humidity resistant and can even withstand water submersion. These fixtures are passively cooled without fins thus they do not accumulate dirt over time and can be easily cleaned and if needed sterilized with harsh chemicals like peroxide, alcohol etc. Another innovation that the BX-Series brings are the GORE-TEX components in its end-caps that push the hot air and moisture out of the luminaire preventing condensation and overheating. This means the luminaires can function in high temperatures (up to 40°C / 104°F) and thus the LED chips inside last longer than in a typical LED grow light. Furthermore, their high Impact Protection (IK) rating (IK08) makes them robust and allows them to keep functioning consistently even when getting dropped or hit. All of this comes in an only 2,6 kg / 5.7 lb heavy luminaire that consumes 132 Watts (model BX120).
These are heavy duty, research grade luminaires designed to produce high and uniform light output over a long period of time. Combined with Valoya’s patented spectra and the support of a team of photobiologists, BX-Series is a smart choice of LED grow lights.
To learn more about the BX-Series, please download the brochure.
About Valoya Oy
Valoya is a provider of high end, energy efficient LED grow lights for use in crop science, vertical farming and medicinal plants cultivation. Valoya LED grow lights have been developed using Valoya's proprietary LED technology and extensive plant photobiology research. Valoya's customer base includes numerous vertical farms, greenhouses and research institutions all over the world (including 8 out of 10 world’s largest agricultural companies).
Additional information:
Valoya Oy, Finland
Tel: +358 10 2350300
Email: sales@valoya.com
Web: www.valoya.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valoyafi/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/valoya
Amazon’s Seattle Campus Is Using Data Center Next Door As A Furnace. It’s Pretty Neat
Using “waste heat” from digital infrastructure to stay warm downtown.
Amazon’s Seattle Campus Is Using A Data Center Next Door As A Furnace. It’s Pretty Neat
Using “waste heat” from digital infrastructure to stay warm downtown.
Updated by David Roberts@drvoxdavid@vox.com Nov 22, 2017
The hippest new technology: big pipes carrying hot water. Jordan Stead/Amazon
Retail giant Amazon has a rather mixed reputation among progressives, to say the least. There are ongoing debates about its labor practices and its ruthless competitive tactics, which have driven competitor after competitor out of business. Among environmentalists, opinion is also divided — some argue that online shopping (and shipping) has accelerated wasteful consumer culture, others that it has reduced the carbon footprint of shopping that was going to happen anyway.
Putting those broader disputes aside, there is one area where the company is making substantial and undeniable progress. After years of what could charitably be called benign neglect, Amazon has recently moved aggressively toward corporate sustainability.
It plans to have 15 rooftop solar systems, with a total capacity of around 41 MW, deployed atop fulfillment centers by the end of this year, with plans to have 50 such systems installed by 2020.
Amazon was the lead corporate purchaser of green energy in 2016. That year, it also announced its largest wind energy project to date, the 253 MW Amazon Wind Farm Texas. Overall, the company says, it has “announced or commenced construction on wind and solar projects that will generate a total of 3.6 million megawatt hours (MWh) of renewable energy annually.”
(Of particular interest to Vox nerds: The company also signed on to an amicus brief in support of Clean Power Plan, Obama’s signature climate policy, which the Trump administration wants to kill.)
But what recently caught my eye is the clever way that Amazon’s giant new campus in downtown Seattle will keep its occupants warm in the winter — a pleasingly low-tech solution that sits squarely at the intersection of several of my enduring obsessions: the importance of smart design, the benefits of urban density, and the need for electrification of the power system.
Juicy! Let’s take a look.
Hot water is so hot right now
Amazon is building a giant four-block campus in downtown Seattle’s Denny Triangle, which will eventually encompass five towers and five million square feet. This schematic is fromGeekwire (which has its own excellent story on Amazon’s project).
That’s a lot of space to heat during the dreary Pacific Northwest winters.
Good fortune! Just across 6th Avenue from Doppler Tower is the 34-story Westin Building Exchange, a regional telecom “carrier hotel” that houses computer and server hardware for some 250 telecom and internet companies. About 70 percent of the building is occupied by data centers.
All that hardware creates an enormous amount of heat. Lacking any better options, Westin has been venting that heat into the Seattle air, through giant cooling towers, at considerable expense.
Waste heat, meet heat consumer.
Amazon and the co-owners of the Westin — Seattle’s Clise Properties and San Francisco’s Digital Realty Trust — struck a deal: Amazon would buy some of the Westin’s waste heat.
As winter approaches, an innovative heat source will be keeping our Seattle headquarters warm. #greenenergyhttp://amzn.to/2j2t8pI
The technology is impressive at this scale, but conceptually, it’s pretty simple. Water circulates in PVC pipes throughout the Westin, gathering heat. It is then sent beneath the street (city waivers had to be granted to cross public rights of way, a huge problem for waste-heat projects historically) to Doppler tower.
Beneath Doppler, a series of large heat exchangers run the Westin’s warm water next to cool water from Amazon, heating it up (exchanging the heat). That warmed water is around 65 degrees, so it is run through a series of five heat-reclaiming chillers to raise the temperature to 130 degrees (also reducing the volume of water).
Amazon’s five big chillers, chilling.
That hot water is then circulated beneath the floors of the campus buildings via radiant heating systems, providing more than three-quarters of the heating required by the campus, at about four times the energy efficiency of a comparable HVAC system.
The cooled water then returns to the basement to gather more heat, and lo, the cycle continues.
Westin’s building manager told the Seattle Times that the building generates the heat equivalent of about 11 megawatts per day. During winter, Amazon will siphon off about 5 megawatts of that.
In effect, Westin is replacing Amazon’s need for natural gas boilers to heat the water, which would have run close to a million dollars annually in fuel and maintenance costs. Another way of looking at it: the system will allow Amazon to avoid the purchase of some 4 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a year.
What’s more, the data center is a rock-solid, reliable source of heat; it is guaranteed to always be running (unless the grid goes down). Amazon has a couple of efficient natural gas boilers for backup, but at least over the past two winters, it says they have rarely been run.
In exchange, during the winter, Amazon’s campus is serving as a giant cooling tower for the Westin, substantially reducing its cooling bill — and paying for the privilege.
It is, to risk cliché, a win-win.
To pull all this off, Amazon and Clise had to create an “ecodistrict” (navigating a thicket of city bureaucracy). The coolest part is that there’s lots more heat to use, so there’s no reason the district couldn’t be extended to more Amazon buildings, or to surrounding buildings.
An aerial view of Amazon’s Doppler Tower and Meeting Center (with its green roof). Note the “biospheres,” which will be filled with plants. (Amazon)
Old technology with intriguing new applications
There’s nothing new about “district heating” — i.e., heating multiple buildings using a single source and a network of pipes. The concept dates all the way back to the Roman Empire. In the Industrial Era, such systems were frequently used to exploit the heat from small in-city power plants. A number of modern cities, from Paris to Tokyo to Vancouver, BC, have district heating systems in use today, fueled by everything from biomass to sewer water to solid waste incineration.
What is somewhat novel about Amazon’s arrangement is the use of an electricity consumer — a data center — as the heat source. (Waste heat from data centers is used in other places, though Amazon says this is the first contract between a data center and a heat consumer with different owners.)
As I mentioned, this sits right at the intersection of three of my enduring obsessions.
First, it represents enormous energy savings with relatively old and reliable technology — it’s just water run through pipes. What produced the savings was not some whiz-bang tech innovation, but simple design. Cities produce enormous amounts of waste heat and then import enormous amounts of energy to warm themselves. It’s kinda crazy. Smarter design could help close that loop, reducing the need for imports, reducing emissions, and bringing more of a city’s energy management under its own control.
Second, along the same lines: cities! Cities are everything this century. State, provincial, and national governments are often captured by rural or corporate interests, creating substantial status quo bias. In cities, however, constant change is a fact of life and governments are at least somewhat more nimble — and that’s especially true when it comes to experimentation and innovation around the clean-energy transition. The more cities can generate and manage their own energy, the less hostage they are to state and national policy shifts.
With that in mind, why not bring more highly energy-intensive operations — not just data centers, but, oh, indoor farms, or marijuana grow operations — into dense urban areas? They have traditionally been built in the hinterlands, where land and power are cheap, but if they could make a substantial second income selling their waste heat, they might be able to justify urban locations.
That would reduce shipping supply lines. It would bring tax-paying, profit-making industrial facilities that don’t pollute into urban boundaries and budgets. It could potentially reduce urban HVAC bills, if the facilities are hooked up to district heating systems. And it would give cities more direct control over their energy fate.
Indoor farming generates lots of waste heat. Plenty
Third: Amazon explicitly decided against an electricity-based heating system, instead opting for hydroponic (fluid-circulating) system, which must draw on local sources of heat. Is this an exception to my “electrify everything” mantra?
Yes and no. Mostly no. The key difference here is that the local source of heat is itself electrical — a data center. So in that sense, Amazon is using electricity for heat. In fact, it is helping Seattle use its electricity more efficiently, getting more work out of the same kWh.
The expert community is divided on the possibility, or advisability, of moving all HVAC to electricity (like heat pumps). It would require an enormous amount of capital and produce an enormous new electricity load. Limitations on both probably mean that we’ll need zero-carbon HVAC alternatives that still draw on heated water or combusted fuel, which can substitute more easily in retrofits of today’s buildings.
Perhaps some of that fuel can itself come from electricity — it is increasingly possible tosynthesize liquid fuels that way. But a great deal of the heated water can come from existing and planned sources of waste heat, preferably drawing on electrical sources.
Making sunlight and CO2 into methane and other liquid fuels. MIT
If electricity is zero carbon, then all subsequent derivatives, from waste heat to synthetic liquid fuels, will be zero carbon as well. That is the magic of clean electricity.
Better design, urban density, and electrification all require far-seeing investment
There’s a telling line in Amazon’s blog post on this project:
Because of the up-front investment to build it, the ecodistrict isn't currently delivering heat that's any cheaper compared to a typical system, according to [Mike Moriarty, the Senior Engineering Manager who leads operations and maintenance for campus], but “the price of electricity is only going to go up.”
This is like so many clean-energy technologies: The upfront investment is high relative to the alternatives, but it pays back many times over throughout its life.
As Amazon adds buildings to the system — and maybe someday, as Seattle expands the system beyond Amazon’s campus — the savings will pile up ever higher, eventually dwarfing the upfront investment.
A robust district energy system could save Seattle money for a hundred years. Again, it’s just pipes with water, a technology that has stood the test of time. All that’s needed is policy coordination and good design.
Whatever its other sins, Amazon has shown itself willing to make patient investments; that’s why it keeps growing but never makes much profit. It invests for the long term.
Almost more than anything, it is that mentality — the willingness to sink upfront investment into long-term savings — that can move corporations (and society) toward sustainability. For that reason alone, I hope this project pays off for Amazon.
And I hope Amazon carries the lesson over to its next headquarters.
IKEA Wants ‘Radical Change’ For its Food Business to Promote Sustainability
Another area of change could be in growing its own produce through vertical farming. The company recently invested inAeroFarms, the New Jersey-based indoor farming group.
IKEA Wants ‘Radical Change’ For its Food Business to Promote Sustainability
NOVEMBER 8, 2017 | LOUISA BURWOOD-TAYLOR
“The horsemeat scandal made us take inventory of our food business,” Michael la Cour, managing director of IKEA Food Services, told an audience at the Sustainology Summit in New York on Tuesday.
While IKEA is best known for its furniture, which apparently uses 1% of the world’s timber, the retailer also has a well-known food retail business, including in-store restaurants selling its famous meatballs and marketplaces selling over 180 Swedish food products. This sideline food business sells a cool €2 billion ($2.3 billion) of food per year and serves 650 million customers, making it Sweden’s biggest restaurant by default, said la Cour.
Turning its attention to the provenance of its meat amid the horsemeat scandal — which started in the UK in 2013 but spread to other parts of Europe, including Sweden, and even the US when retailers such as Tesco realised there was horsemeat in their beef products — brought other challenges within the food system into the spotlight for IKEA, according to la Cour, such as food waste.
“It was a great opportunity for us to take responsibility for what we serve, where we source it, and who we partner with,” said la Cour.
Some key changes at IKEA in the wake of this deep dive into their supply chain included introducing the veggie meatball in April 2015 as well as taking Coca-Cola and Pepsi products off the menu in favor of Swedish fruit waters.
“Our veggie meatballs have a significantly lower carbon footprint than the meat alternatives, and are actually priced lower too; we need to move to a more plant-based diet,” said la Cour. “Everything we do is driven by sustainability design. It’s at the core of what we do and not a bi-thought.”
Referencing a conversation about the sustainability of insect-based protein compared to meat, la Cour added “I don’t know if the future is a crispy bug ball, but I know we are going to work with lots of different partners to bring changes to our food business.”
The company’s interest in edible insects is more than just lip service too, since Israeli fruit fly farm and insect protein startup Flying SpArk joined IKEA’s first boot camp and startup accelerator in September.
Another area of change could be in growing its own produce through vertical farming. The company recently invested inAeroFarms, the New Jersey-based indoor farming group.
Speaking to AgFunderNews on the sidelines of the conference, la Cour said it might be possible for stores to grow food on-site using this technology. He was set to visit AeroFarms later this week to explore opportunities.
However the company incites change at its stores and within its supply chain, la Cour said it is not wasting any time.
“We don’t need gradual change but radical change and we are willing to challenge our business model to get there,” he said. But he admitted that it still may take time to get consumers to catch up when it comes to some shifts, such as going totally vegetarian at some point.
Three Startups That Wowed Jack Ma And Won Alibaba's Backing
Three Startups That Wowed Jack Ma And Won Alibaba's Backing
November 22, 2017
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
[HONG KONG] After hearing 600 pitches spanning fintech and robotics to healthy ageing, three startups will share US$3 million in backing from an entrepreneurs fund set up by billionaire Jack Ma.
Jumpstarter, a competition for new ideas and products similar to TechCrunch Disrupt, has the backing of Mr Ma's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, which unveiled its HK$1 billion (S$173.4 million) fund in 2015 to support startups.
A shortlist of six candidates made the final pitches on Tuesday, getting eight minutes to talk about their products and then four minutes of questioning by the judging panel. Among the criteria used to decide winners were innovation, community impact and market potential.
The winners:
Cuttingedge Medtech Ltd: Robot doctors may not be science fiction anymore. A team of robotic and medical imaging graduates is building specialised surgical robots for orthopedics, neural surgery and oral implants. The vision is personalised care with minimal invasive surgery.
Farm66 Investment Ltd: The company is joining the increasingly hot field of hydroponics and vertical farming as companies try to alleviate a global food crisis with sustainable agriculture. Combining indoor farming with fish ponds, this startup has already won a couple of awards from local industry associations.
En-Trak Hong Kong Ltd:This four-year-old startup targets commercial buildings with a connected device platform to help manage power use. En-Trak says it can pull in data from existing meters to manage consumption and lower costs while also lowering carbon emissions, with customers already including Hong Kong Stock Exchange and Fuji Xerox.
The other finalists:
BeeInventor: Trying to bring a technology solution to an old-fashioned industry, BeeInventor has built a cloud-based platform for communication among construction workers. Its Dasloop product fits over the helmets worn on building sites and monitors body temperatures, warns of potential collisions and provides video feeds. It can also connect to gas detectors or a flashlight.
Viewider: This startup aims to help merchants on e-commerce sites pick the best site to sell on. Viewider builds search and market research tools that help online merchants suss out global e-commerce services such as eBay or Amazon, register products for sale and price their wares accordingly.
Human Washer Ltd: Like a car wash for people. This startup offers the Sit & Shower, a device that enables the elderly and mobility impaired to bathe with automated soaping, temperature control, 13 surrounding water jets and air drying. The company says the device also cleans itself.
BLOOMBERG
With Vertical Farms, Food Banks Are Growing Their Own Produce to Fight Hunger
With Vertical Farms, Food Banks Are Growing Their Own Produce to Fight Hunger
Vertical farms allow food banks to grow their own produce with high-tech systems in an effort to fight food insecurity year-round.
The Community Food Bank of Oklahoma’s Growtainers. Photo courtesy of Growtainers.
BY JODI HELMER | Technology, Urban Agriculture
11.17.17
When temperatures dip below zero, it’s too cold for farmers to grow fresh produce in Tulsa.
Until spring, almost all of the fresh fruits and vegetables distributed through the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma are imported from warmer climes like Mexico and California. Those donations are few and far between, often leaving the food bank distributing non-perishable items such as canned tomatoes, peanut butter, and pasta instead of fresh foods. To address this gap, the food bank started to grow its own greens, ensuring a stable supply of fresh, locally-grown produce for its clients.
“Our priority is getting healthy foods to the people that need them, but getting donated produce has been a big challenge for us—and having fresh produce is even tougher in the winter months,” said John McCarthy, the food bank’s director of community incentives.
Inside the Community Food Bank of Oklahoma’s vertical farm. (Photo courtesy Growtainers)
In 2016, the food bank installed a vertical farm—an indoor, temperature-controlled environment where food is grown in stacked towers under LED lights. The two 40-foot by 8-foot shipping containers that make up the operation were upfitted into indoor hydroponic farms by Growtainers, one of several manufacturers of vertical farm systems. The containers are designed to produce up to 1,800 heads of lettuce and other leafy greens every 45 days—regardless of the time of year.
“We harvest greens in the morning, and they’re available in the afternoon, producing a really nice product we can count on,” McCarthy said.
Farming is generally not commonplace among food banks. Feeding America, a nonprofit, nationwide network of food banks, reports that only 29 of its 200 members operate farms and distribute that produce to food insecure and low-income clients. And this is mostly because land is expensive to acquire or lease; growing food is time- and labor-intensive and requires specialized knowledge; and many food banks choose instead to focus their efforts on the logistics of getting food to people in need.
But vertical farms—with manufacturers’ promises of producing large amounts of food in a small footprint through high-tech, plug-and-play growing operations—could bring about a shift in food banks’ willingness to grow their own food. Unlike greenhouses, which can lack light and temperature control, thereby limiting the growing season, vertical farms might offer food banks the ability to grow food year-round.
With the National Organic Standards Board recently making the controversial recommendation that hydroponic and aeroponic systems be eligible to earn organic certification, vertical farms are poised to reach new levels of popularity. And though there is no data on the number of food banks operating vertical farms, several appear to be experimenting with the high-tech approach.
Cultivating the Right Approach for the Climate
One of the biggest arguments against food banks getting into the vertical-farming business is simply that these systems are pricey. The Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma paid $140,000 for its two Growtainers, securing a grant from the Morningcrest Healthcare Foundation to purchase the vertical farms. It costs an additional $680 per month for electricity to power them.
For nonprofits, cost can be a barrier and, in some locations, indoor farms are an unnecessary expense. The learning curve can also be steep and most food banks rely on volunteer labor to handle maintenance and harvesting, often with training from the manufacturers of the vertical systems.
The climate was the main reason the Surrey Food Bank, the second-largest food bank in British Columbia, installed a vertical farm from Living Garden Foods at one of its four locations earlier this year. The wall-mounted towers grow produce in eight rows; fresh lettuce and kale are harvested every six weeks, allowing the food bank to provide fresh greens for up to 80 families at its Cloverdale location.
“A lot of food banks have outdoor community gardens, but this is a new thing, and we think it’s working well,” said Feezah Jaffer, the food bank’s executive director.
The Surrey Food Bank’s vertical farm system. (Photo © Pixel Perfect Photography)
Still, some food banks growing food in warmer climates are continuing to grow outside. San Antonio Food Bank, for example. operates a 75-acre farm and an urban orchard with 170 fruit trees, distributing produce to clients in 16 counties across Texas. The conventional farming plots grow everything from onions and potatoes to watermelons and cantaloupe, helping the food bank achieve its mission to provide fresh, healthy foods to those in need.
Because of the success of the farms, Patrick Brennan, manager of facilities and agricultural initiatives at the San Antonio Food Bank, has no immediate plans to add vertical farming to the agricultural operations.
“In more extreme climates, growing indoors is a more attractive option,” Brennan explained. “We do get temperature fluctuations and occasional freezes, so vertical farming might be in our future, but for now we have the ability in Central Texas to decrease costs by growing produce traditionally.”
Working Through the Growing Pains
For food banks where the climate isn’t as friendly to outdoor farming, vertical farms may hold promise. Given their positive experience with vertical farming, Surrey Food Bank in B.C. is hoping to install similar systems at the bank’s three other sites as well. While farmers donate apples, pears, cherries, and other locally grown fruits and vegetables to the food bank, those donations often fall short of demand, requiring the food bank to allocate part of its budget to purchase fresh produce. All together, produce comprises 45 percent of the food the bank distributes.
Before expanding the farming effort, however, Jaffer wants to address some of the challenges facing the current operation.
First harvest in the Community Food Bank of Oklahoma’s Growtainers. (Photo courtesy Growtainers)
Less than six months into production, volunteers at the Surrey Food Bank are still figuring out how to maximize the farm’s output. Some of the greens failed to grow, and others went to seed too fast. Additionally, varieties like Swiss chard grew well, but clients were unfamiliar with the greens or disliked their flavor. As volunteers gained experience with the vertical towers, production problems became less common and surveying families about what kinds of greens they prefer helped the food bank tweak its crop mix so no greens went uneaten.
The Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma also adjusted its approach based on feedback from clients and experience with the vertical growing system. In addition to experimenting with growing tomatoes in one of its Growtainers, the food bank reduced output of non-nutrient-dense greens such as butter lettuce, romaine, and mesclun in favor of growing more kale and spinach—and teaching clients on how to prepare it by offering recipes—to maximize the nutritional value, and reduce waste.
Jaffer at the Surrey Food Bank believes asking clients about their preferences helps provide a sense of ownership in the harvest and increases their willingness to add fresh greens to their food baskets.
“There have been growing pains, but the more we learn these lessons, the bigger of a success it becomes,” she said. “We think food banks need to evolve to meet the needs of our clients, and embracing vertical farming technology is one way we can do that.”
The Farms of the Future Will Be Automated From Seed to Harvest
Image Credit: Valentin Valkov / Shutterstock.com
The Farms of the Future Will Be Automated From Seed to Harvest
By Peter Rejcek
Swarms of drones buzz overhead, while robotic vehicles crawl across the landscape. Orbiting satellites snap high-resolution images of the scene far below. Not one human being can be seen in the pre-dawn glow spreading across the land.
This isn’t some post-apocalyptic vision of the future à la The Terminator. This is a snapshot of the farm of the future. Every phase of the operation—from seed to harvest—may someday be automated, without the need to ever get one’s fingernails dirty.
In fact, it’s science fiction already being engineered into reality. Today, robots empowered with artificial intelligence can zap weeds with preternatural precision, while autonomous tractors move with tireless efficiency across the farmland. Satellites can assess crop health from outer space, providing gobs of data to help produce the sort of business intelligence once accessible only to Fortune 500 companies.
“Precision agriculture is on the brink of a new phase of development involving smart machines that can operate by themselves, which will allow production agriculture to become significantly more efficient. Precision agriculture is becoming robotic agriculture,” said professor Simon Blackmore last year during a conference in Asia on the latest developments in robotic agriculture. Blackmore is head of engineering at Harper Adams University and head of the National Centre for Precision Farming in the UK.
It’s Blackmore’s university that recently showcased what may someday be possible. The project, dubbed Hands Free Hectare and led by researchers from Harper Adams and private industry, farmed one hectare (about 2.5 acres) of spring barley without one person ever setting foot in the field.
The team re-purposed, re-wired and roboticized farm equipment ranging from a Japanese tractor to a 25-year-old combine. Drones served as scouts to survey the operation and collect samples to help the team monitor the progress of the barley. At the end of the season, the robo farmers harvested about 4.5 tons of barley at a price tag of £200,000.
“This project aimed to prove that there’s no technological reason why a field can’t be farmed without humans working the land directly now, and we’ve done that,” said Martin Abell, mechatronics researcher for Precision Decisions, which partnered with Harper Adams, in a press release.
I, Robot Farmer
The Harper Adams experiment is the latest example of how machines are disrupting the agricultural industry. Around the same time that the Hands Free Hectare combine was harvesting barley, Deere & Company announced it would acquire a startup called Blue River Technology for a reported $305 million.
Blue River has developed a “see-and-spray” system that combines computer vision and artificial intelligence to discriminate between crops and weeds. It hits the former with fertilizer and blasts the latter with herbicides with such precision that it can eliminate 90 percent of the chemicals used in conventional agriculture.
It’s not just farmland that’s getting a helping hand from robots. A California company called Abundant Robotics, spun out of the nonprofit research institute SRI International, is developing robots capable of picking apples with vacuum-like arms that suck the fruit straight off the trees in the orchards.
“Traditional robots were designed to perform very specific tasks over and over again. But the robots that will be used in food and agricultural applications will have to be much more flexible than what we’ve seen in automotive manufacturing plants in order to deal with natural variation in food products or the outdoor environment,” Dan Harburg, an associate at venture capital firm Anterra Capital who previously worked at a Massachusetts-based startup making a robotic arm capable of grabbing fruit, told AgFunder News.
“This means ag-focused robotics startups have to design systems from the ground up, which can take time and money, and their robots have to be able to complete multiple tasks to avoid sitting on the shelf for a significant portion of the year,” he noted.
Eyes in the Sky
It will take more than an army of robotic tractors to grow a successful crop. The farm of the future will rely on drones, satellites, and other airborne instruments to provide data about their crops on the ground.
Companies like Descartes Labs, for instance, employ machine learning to analyze satellite imagery to forecast soy and corn yields. The Los Alamos, New Mexico startup collects five terabytes of data every day from multiple satellite constellations, including NASA and the European Space Agency. Combined with weather readings and other real-time inputs, Descartes Labs can predict cornfield yields with 99 percent accuracy. Its AI platform can even assess crop health from infrared readings.
The US agency DARPA recently granted Descartes Labs $1.5 million to monitor and analyze wheat yields in the Middle East and Africa. The idea is that accurate forecasts may help identify regions at risk of crop failure, which could lead to famine and political unrest. Another company called TellusLabs out of Somerville, Massachusetts also employs machine learning algorithms to predict corn and soy yields with similar accuracy from satellite imagery.
Farmers don’t have to reach orbit to get insights on their cropland. A startup in Oakland, Ceres Imaging, produces high-resolution imagery from multispectral cameras flown across fields aboard small planes. The snapshots capture the landscape at different wavelengths, identifying insights into problems like water stress, as well as providing estimates of chlorophyll and nitrogen levels. The geo-tagged images mean farmers can easily locate areas that need to be addressed.
Growing From the Inside
Even the best intelligence—whether from drones, satellites, or machine learning algorithms—will be challenged to predict the unpredictable issues posed by climate change. That’s one reason more and more companies are betting the farm on what’s called controlled environment agriculture. Today, that doesn’t just mean fancy greenhouses, but everything from warehouse-sized, automated vertical farms to grow rooms run by robots, located not in the emptiness of Kansas or Nebraska but smack dab in the middle of the main streets of America.
Proponents of these new concepts argue these high-tech indoor farms can produce much higher yields while drastically reducing water usage and synthetic inputs like fertilizer and herbicides.
Iron Ox, out of San Francisco, is developing one-acre urban greenhouses that will be operated by robots and reportedly capable of producing the equivalent of 30 acres of farmland. Powered by artificial intelligence, a team of three robots will run the entire operation of planting, nurturing, and harvesting the crops.
Vertical farming startup Plenty, also based in San Francisco, uses AI to automate its operations, and got a $200 million vote of confidence from the SoftBank Vision Fund earlier this year. The company claims its system uses only 1 percent of the water consumed in conventional agriculture while producing 350 times as much produce. Plenty is part of a new crop of urban-oriented farms, including Bowery Farming and AeroFarms.
“What I can envision is locating a larger scale indoor farm in the economically disadvantaged food desert, in order to stimulate a broader economic impact that could create jobs and generate income for that area,” said Dr. Gary Stutte, an expert in space agriculture and controlled environment agriculture, in an interview with AgFunder News. “The indoor agriculture model is adaptable to becoming an engine for economic growth and food security in both rural and urban food deserts.”
Still, the model is not without its own challenges and criticisms. Most of what these farms can produce falls into the “leafy greens” category and often comes with a premium price, which seems antithetical to the proposed mission of creating oases in the food deserts of cities. While water usage may be minimized, the electricity required to power the operation, especially the LEDs (which played a huge part in revolutionizing indoor agriculture), are not cheap.
Still, all of these advances, from robo farmers to automated greenhouses, may need to be part of a future where nearly 10 billion people will inhabit the planet by 2050. An oft-quoted statistic from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations says the world must boost food production by 70 percent to meet the needs of the population. Technology may not save the world, but it will help feed it.
Formerly the world’s only full-time journalist covering research in Antarctica, Peter became a freelance writer and digital nomad in 2015. Peter’s focus for the last decade has been on science journalism, but his interests and expertise include travel, outdoors, cycling, and Epicureanism (food and beer). Follow him at @poliepete.
San Francisco Startup Plenty Takes Vertical Farming to New Heights
San Francisco Startup Plenty Takes Vertical Farming to New Heights
Nov. 14, 2017
Plenty, an indoor agriculture company based in San Francisco, claims it has found a way to make vertical farming scalable and profitable, according to Vox.
The company uses ultra-efficient grow methods to produce 350 times as much produce per acre as conventional farming, and using just 1% of the amount of water. According to Vox, this is more than twice as much production as the next leading production level in the vertical farming industry.
Plenty operates a growing warehouse in San Francisco and plants to build one outside Seattle next year capable of producing 4.5 million pounds of greens per year. The company ultimately hopes to place grow facilities near every city in the world with one million or more residents.
For years, vertical farms have been touted as the future of agriculture — a way to grow food efficiently using a fraction of the space of conventional farmland. And for years, startup operations have hemorrhaged money before eventually going out of business.
Labor and energy are the two main costs that vertical farms struggle to overcome. Startups also pay high real estate costs, often fail to adequately use data, and frequently have a shaky go-to-market strategy. There are, in other words, numerous ways to fail in the promising but very low-margin field.
Plenty doesn’t offer a new approach to vertical farming but rather a more refined one. As an example, Vox writer David Roberts highlights Plenty’s grow walls. Rather than use stacks of horizontal planters, as many vertical farms do, Plenty employs 20-foot grow walls packed with greens. Water and nutrients pour down the walls, meaning the company is using gravity instead of expensive pumps to feed its greens and makes sure to trap any water and condensation that filters down and recycle it.
Plenty uses automation whenever possible, including tiny robots called “Schleppers” that move seedlings around. The company is also obsessive about tracking and maintaining optimal growing conditions. Its San Francisco warehouse has 7,500 cameras and 35,000 sensors to monitor temperature and numerous other metrics.
As it scales, Plenty claims it will be able to offer competitively priced produce to stores around the country. It will also have the selling point of being locally grown and very flavorful.
But will Plenty deliver, or is it just another company making big promises? Potential pitfalls abound, including high real estate costs and quality control. Plenty’s model is built around achieving massive scale, and getting there will require lots of money and minimal mistakes.
As Roberts points out, if Plenty doesn’t succeed, another company likely will. Bright Farms and Gotham Greens are two other outfits that are refining the model, and that have partnered with retailers to offer branded locally sourced greens. Vertical farming carries the promise of local, flavorful, efficiently produced fruits and vegetables, and a large payoff for whoever can make it efficient and scalable enough.
This $40 Million Robotic 'Plantscraper' Will Feed over 5,000 People Per Year
By 2050, the world's population is expected to swell to 9.6 billion, with around 66% living in urban areas. This projection is leaving many cities wondering how they will feed all those people.
This $40 Million Robotic 'Plantscraper' Will Feed over 5,000 People Per Year
- Leanna Garfield
- Nov. 18, 2017
Plantagon
By 2050, the world's population is expected to swell to 9.6 billion, with around 66% living in urban areas. This projection is leaving many cities wondering how they will feed all those people.
A Swedish food-tech company called Plantagon is proposing that cities consider building what it calls "plantscrapers" — office towers that contain giant indoor farms. Plantagon is constructing its first plantscraper in Linköping, Sweden.
Called The World Food Building, the tower will operate hydroponically, meaning vegetables (mostly greens) will grow without soil in a nutrient-rich, water-based solution. The farm will largely be automated, Plantagon CEO Hans Hassle told Business Insider.
Construction of the $40 million building began in 2012, and it's set to open by early 2020.
Check out the plans below.
The World Food Building will produce approximately 550 tons of vegetables annually — enough to feed around 5,500 people each year.
Plantagon
Source: Helgi Analytics
The front of the 16-story tower will include the farm, while the back will include the offices.
Plantagon
About two-thirds of the building will be devoted to offices, while the other third will include a huge indoor farm.
Plantagon
Companies are now signing leases to move in when it's complete.
The crops will grow using both natural sunlight and LEDs.
Plantagon
The LEDs will be calibrated to specific light frequencies to maximize production.
Plantagon
Robots will perform many of the farm's processes. This will keep operational costs down.
Plantagon
Compared to an outdoor farm of the same size, the plantscraper will generate more food while using less land and water, Hassle said. He estimates the tower will save 1,100 tons of CO2 emissions and 13 million gallons of water annually.
Plantagon
Some meeting rooms, like the one below, will have a view of the farm.
Plantagon
In other areas of the tower, there will be eateries for office employees and the public.
Plantagon
In addition, the building will include a market where people can purchase veggies. Local restaurants and other food retailers will be able to buy directly from Plantagon, which will operate the farm, Hassle said.
Plantagon
Plantagon has designed another similar indoor farm with offices, though it's in the shape of a globe. There are no plans to build it yet.
Plantagon
This plantscraper will include a spiraled food production line, which automatically moves the plants from the bottom to the top and back again while they grow. The length of the cycle would depend on the crop, but would normally take around 30 days, Hassle said.
Plantagon
The designers hope Linköping's plantscraper will encourage other cities around the world to build large-scale indoor farms that have multiple uses.
Plantagon
Plantagon is in conversations with other developers in Sweden, Singapore, the United States, Hong Kong, and Shanghai to build similar structures.
Hassle believes that more cities should grow food closer to urban centers. "This project demonstrates how to feed cities of the future when they lack land, water, and other resources," he said.
Former Tesla Executive to Lead Vertical Farming Effort at Plenty
Former Tesla Executive to Lead Vertical Farming Effort at Plenty
The aim of startup Plenty is to generate more produce with less water.
Bloomberg 1 | Oct 16, 2017 | by Selina Wang
Tesla Inc.’s former director of battery technology has joined Plenty Inc. to lead the vertical farming startup’s plan to build indoor growing rooms around the world.
FEB 03, 2017
Kurt Kelty, who joined Tesla in 2006 and left earlier this year, was one of the longest-serving executives at the carmaker led by Elon Musk. He joins SoftBank Group Corp.-backed Plenty as the senior vice president of operations and market development. Kelty had previously spent more than 14 years at Panasonic Corp.
"At Tesla I was employee number fifty or sixty,” Kelty said in an interview. “It’s a very different company from when I joined. I wanted to figure out where I would contribute to the next big wave. I see my next 10-year-run as growing Plenty."
Japanese telecommunications giant SoftBank led a $200 million investment in Plenty in July. The startup is betting that with its technology and the backing of SoftBank Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi Son, it has the connections and capital to accelerate international development. Plenty says it can yield up to 350 times more produce in a given area than conventional farms -- with 1% of the water.
At Tesla, Kelty said he spearheaded the battery gigafactory near Reno, Nevada, with Musk. Kelty had spent a significant amount of his time in Japan and had previously focused on selling Tesla vehicles in that country. At Plenty, Kelty’s first priority is getting a mass production facility running in the U.S. Kelty compares the experience to bringing the Roadster -- an early Tesla model -- to production the first time.
To contact the reporter on this story: Selina Wang in New York at swang533@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net
Molly Schuetz, Alistair Barr
© 2017 Bloomberg L.P
Urban Farming 2.0
Delhaize, the leading retailer in Belgium, has launched a vegetable garden and greenhouse on the rooftop of one of its stores in the Brussels area. The produce will be sold in-store and offer customers an opportunity to buy locally.
Urban Farming 2.0
Jade Perry, 20 November 2017
Supermarkets are finding new ways to show their commitment to locally-grown food.
Delhaize, the leading retailer in Belgium, has launched a vegetable garden and greenhouse on the rooftop of one of its stores in the Brussels area. The produce will be sold in-store and offer customers an opportunity to buy locally. Five kinds of lettuce are currently being grown and tomatoes, eggplants, and zucchini will be added next year. The farm will also serve an educational purpose, offering workshops to schools in 2018.
While urban farming has been discussed in the past, major supermarkets are now making these conceptual ideas a reality. There is a range of benefits to these kinds of farms. Indoor farming can give consumers access to fresh produce year-round—even those who live in dense, urban areas. In addition to greatly reducing carbon emissions, indoor farming also uses less water than traditional farming and doesn’t require pesticides.
“Developing a healthy and high-quality nutritional pattern…is one of the challenges of the Brussels region,” Brussels Minster for Environment and Energy Céline Fremault stated in a release. “This first city farm of Delhaize is therefore an excellent initiative, which fully fits into one of Brussels’ ambitions: to increase local production.”
Shoppers at the Living Herb Garden. © studiomfd
Earlier this year, French retailer Carrefour revealed a similar rooftop initiative to Delhaize which is managed by students of a local agricultural school. Albert Heijn, the largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands, similarly launched a “Help-yourself Herb Garden” in one of its shops that allowed customers to pick fresh plants. Meanwhile in Canada, IGA became the first store to sell store-grown produce in Montreal, offering 30 varieties of vegetables. Even Target in the US is piloting vertical gardens in its stores.
Infarm, a Berlin-based start-up, is trying to make this a reality for every supermarket. The company created an indoor “herb garden” for supermarkets which houses plants in a protected, nutrient-rich environment. The customer-facing farm connects to an app that monitors important factors such as pH levels and temperature.
“Behind our farms is a robust hardware and software platform for precision farming,” Infarm co-founder Osnat Michaeli tells TechCrunch. “Each farming unit is its own individual ecosystem, creating the exact environment our plants need to flourish.” Los Angeles-based start-up Local Roots has taken a similar approach, using shipping containers to bring urban farms to grocers, universities, and community centres. Their goal is to create a network of community-based farms across the US.
Local Roots at SXSW.
Ethically-minded consumers are becoming more health conscious and starting to question where their food comes from and the effect it has on the environment. It’s imperative that brands respond to this concern and continue to implement initiatives that reduce emissions. Brands that are creative in reducing their carbon footprint will reduce costs, tackle climate change and ultimately attract more consumers looking for fresh, high-quality food.
Main image: © studiomfd
INFOGRAPHIC: How Vertical Farming Could Help Cities Feed Themselves
As arable land decreases and urban populations increase, planners and designers worldwide have begun looking at vertical farming as a way to boost urban food security. Dickson explores vertical farming’s many benefits in an infographic packed with interesting data, including the estimate that a 30-story farm could feed 50,000 people a 2,000 calorie-per-day diet for an entire year.
INFOGRAPHIC: How Vertical Farming Could Help Cities Feed Themselves
As arable land decreases and urban populations increase, planners and designers worldwide have begun looking at vertical farming as a way to boost urban food security. Dickson explores vertical farming’s many benefits in an infographic packed with interesting data, including the estimate that a 30-story farm could feed 50,000 people a 2,000 calorie-per-day diet for an entire year. Click through to learn more about the advantages of vertical farming and some of the obstacles that are holding the non-traditional farming system back.
It's Called Vertical Farming, And It Could Be The Future Of Agriculture
The concept sounds like science fiction: instead of spreading out across acres and acres, the farms of the future will grow lettuce and strawberries inside climate-controlled, light-controlled cylinders. Less land, less water, but year-round light and perfectly controlled moisture.
NOV 4, 2017
It's Called Vertical Farming, And It Could Be The Future Of Agriculture
Ronald Holden, CONTRIBUTOR
A 20-foot vertical farm inside a climate-controlled cylinder. Courtesy Plenty.ag
The concept sounds like science fiction: instead of spreading out across acres and acres, the farms of the future will grow lettuce and strawberries inside climate-controlled, light-controlled cylinders. Less land, less water, but year-round light and perfectly controlled moisture.
The California company behind this concept, Plenty, announced this week that it will open a 100,000 square-foot farm in Kent, Wash., south of Seattle, where it intends to grow pesticide-free, “backyard quality” produce for regional consumers. It's the start-up's first full-scale farm.
The plants (fruit, vegetables) grow in 20-foot tall towers inside a climate-controlled facility with LED lights without using pesticides, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, or GMOs. Instead, thousands of infrared cameras and sensors collect data that is analyzed to optimize how the plants grow.
"Plenty claims its technology can achieve yields of up to 350 times greater than traditional agriculture while using 1 percent of the water and barely any land compared to conventional methods," according to a company press release.
This would sound like pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking, except that Plenty has the eye of some savvy investors, including Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, who just spent $14 billion to take over Whole Foods.
Hydroponic farming already exists, albeit not on a large commercial scale.
"Research shows that hydroponic farming could well be the future of global agriculture, combining the benefits of local outdoor organic farming with the high yields of large-scale agricultural production," the company believes.
Backers of Plenty’s $200 million round, in July, in addition to Bezos, included SoftBank (via its Vision Fund); Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt (through Innovation Endeavors); DCM Ventures; Data Collective; Finistere Ventures; and Louis Bacon.
In an interview with GeekWire, Plenty CEO and co-founder Matt Barnard said Seattle’s "relative lack of access to local produce" and the region’s emphasis on healthy food made it a perfect place to expand.
“As we looked at the West Coast, Seattle was the best example of a large community of people who really don’t have much access to any fresh fruits and vegetables grown locally,” he explained.
But Seattle's extensive community of food lovers scoffed at the notion that the region does not have access to fresh, local produce.
"The Yakima Valley was known as America's fruit basket," one food writer complained and Puget Sound, the region surrounding Seattle, is one of the most fertile in the nation.
"I will personally organize a round table for the company with local farmers," said Audra Gaines Mulken, a photographer who works extensively with local farms. Her most recent book is the Female Farmer Project.
(By coincidence, I wrote just yesterday about experiments in Finland to incubate seeds in counter-top bioreactors.)
Ronald Holden is a Seattle-based food writer. His latest book is Forking Seattle.
I've lived and worked in the Pacific Northwest as a reporter and editor for the past 40 years, in print, broadcast, and online media. I've been writing reviews since I tasted my first Little League hot dog with yellow mustard; since then I've published five books about wine, and two about local food & drink. I think most food writers do a pretty good job describing flavors, but they don't pay enough attention to the bigger economic picture. (For example, Why suddenly all this kale? Why cider? Who's going to pick all those grapes?) Food is a business, and a big, global business at that.
The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.
This Is Why Jeff Bezos Is Spending Millions on an Indoor Farming Startup
At just 100,000 square feet, Plenty’s new facility will be 99 percent smaller than a typical American farm. But Plenty’s goal is to optimize every inch of that available space for ideal cultivation. Fruits and vegetables grow on 20-foot-tall towers, bathed in LED lights and connected to a wealth of data-collecting microsensors.
This Is Why Jeff Bezos Is Spending Millions on an Indoor Farming Startup
The results could very well change the way you eat fruits and vegetables
TEXT BY TIM NELSON | Posted November 3, 2017
A look at one of the 20-foot-tall towers which, bathed in LED lights, have the ability to grow fruits and vegetables. | All images are courtesy of Plenty
With the amount of farmable acreage seemingly shrinking all the time, access to fresh fruits and vegetables can be hard to come by. Small-scale produce can be prohibitively expensive, and cheaper options from far-flung corners of the globe carry a hidden environmental cost. But one well-funded startup called Plenty believes that its technology harbors the secret to bringing “backyard quality” produce to the masses, and hopes that its newest indoor growing facility in Kent, Washington, will prove it.
At just 100,000 square feet, Plenty’s new facility will be 99 percent smaller than a typical American farm. But Plenty’s goal is to optimize every inch of that available space for ideal cultivation. Fruits and vegetables grow on 20-foot-tall towers, bathed in LED lights and connected to a wealth of data-collecting microsensors
In essence, Plenty applies the latest in machine learning technology and big data processing to the age-old wisdom of crop science, continually optimizing the climate to ensure ideal flavor and nutrition. The end result is a yield of up to 300 different variants of pesticide and GMO-free produce that far outpaces traditional agricultural methods, all while using a fraction of the water or energy.
CEO and co-founder Matt Barnard hopes the new facility serves as further proof that Plenty’s mission to sustainably feed a planet of 7.3 billion is viable: “Seattle will be home to our first full-scale farm and help set the standard by which our global farm network makes locally grown, backyard-quality produce accessible to everyone.” The facility will be staffed by a team of around 50 indoor farming engineers, organic growers, and operations experts to make certain that the technological and agricultural sides of the facility work in concert.
Plenty's CEO and cofounder, Matt Barnard. | Francis Baker
While the concept of eating produce grown inside on a tower might strike the farmer’s market crowd as puzzling, a recent $235 million funding round from Bezos Expeditions (whose founder is Jeff Bezos, current CEO of Amazon and among the richest people in the U.S.) and other VC firms suggests that there might just be a future in internet of things-driven agriculture. How ’bout them apples indeed.
Urban Farming 2.0
07-11-2017
Supermarkets are finding new ways to show their commitment to locally-grown food.
Delhaize, the leading retailer in Belgium, has launched a vegetable garden and greenhouse on the rooftop of one of its stores in the Brussels area. The produce will be sold in-store and offer customers an opportunity to buy locally. Five kinds of lettuce are currently being grown and tomatoes, eggplants, and zucchini will be added next year. The farm will also serve an educational purpose, offering workshops to schools in 2018.
While urban farming has been discussed in the past, major supermarkets are now making these conceptual ideas a reality. There is a range of benefits to these kinds of farms. Indoor farming can give consumers access to fresh produce year-round—even those who live in dense, urban areas. In addition to greatly reducing carbon emissions, indoor farming also uses less water than traditional farming and doesn’t require pesticides.
“Developing a healthy and high-quality nutritional pattern…is one of the challenges of the Brussels region,” Brussels Minster for Environment and Energy Céline Fremault stated in a release. “This first city farm of Delhaize is therefore an excellent initiative, which fully fits into one of Brussels’ ambitions: to increase local production.”
Earlier this year, French retailer Carrefour revealed a similar rooftop initiative to Delhaize which is managed by students of a local agricultural school. Albert Heijn, the largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands, similarly launched a “Help-yourself Herb Garden” in one of its shops that allowed customers to pick fresh plants. Meanwhile in Canada, IGA became the first store to sell store-grown produce in Montreal, offering 30 varieties of vegetables. Even Target in the US is piloting vertical gardens in its stores.
Infarm, a Berlin-based start-up, is trying to make this a reality for every supermarket. The company created an indoor “herb garden” for supermarkets which houses plants in a protected, nutrient-rich environment. The customer-facing farm connects to an app that monitors important factors such as pH levels and temperature.
“Behind our farms is a robust hardware and software platform for precision farming,” Infarm co-founder Osnat Michaeli tells TechCrunch. “Each farming unit is its own individual ecosystem, creating the exact environment our plants need to flourish.” Los Angeles-based start-up Local Roots has taken a similar approach, using shipping containers to bring urban farms to grocers, universities, and community centres. Their goal is to create a network of community-based farms across the US.
Ethically-minded consumers are becoming more health conscious and starting to question where their food comes from and the effect it has on the environment. It’s imperative that brands respond to this concern and continue to implement initiatives that reduce emissions. Brands that are creative in reducing their carbon footprint will reduce costs, tackle climate change and ultimately attract more consumers looking for fresh, high-quality food.
Source: Jwt intelligence
Vertical Farming: The Promise, Pitfalls And The Role of Pot
One opportunity will be the growing popularity of food delivery, said Sally Rockey, head of the Foundation for Food and Agriculture, which recently awarded a $1 million grant to vertical farming company Aero Farms to improve the nutritional quality of leafy greens.
Vertical Farming: The Promise, Pitfalls And The Role of Pot
10/04/17 6:20 AM By Steve Davies
WASHINGTON, Oct. 4, 2017 - Vertical farming holds great promise, but it must overcome challenges – most notably the cost of energy – in order to feed the world’s growing population, attendees were told at the recent Association for Vertical Farming Summiton the campus of the University of the District of Columbia.
Sonny Ramaswamy, director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, said that when it comes to feeding the 9 billion-plus people estimated to occupy the earth in 2050, controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) “will be part of the toolkit,” including conventional, organic, livestock and urban agriculture systems.
Ramaswamy said that one of the chief advantages of CEA – broadly speaking, growing crops indoors, including using vertically stacked layers – is its potential to harvest crops more frequently than open-field agricultural systems. Research he cited from Purdue University shows that CEA systems can produce 15 lettuce crops and six spinach crops in the time it takes to produce two in the field, and five tomato crops and four potato crops compared to one.
Sonny Ramaswamy
But Ramaswamy also said CEA systems, which have become proficient at growing leafy greens such as lettuce, arugula and basil, cannot currently fulfill the entire range of humans’ nutritional requirements. He spoke about the problem of “nutritional security,” a term he began using a few years ago instead of “food security.”
“Globally tonight, 800 million people are going to go to bed hungry,” he said. In the United States, “we still have almost 16 percent of our households that are food-insecure at some time in the year. That is about 50 million people.”
At the same time, the United States and other countries that have significant percentages of food-insecure populations are dealing with an obesity epidemic, with 1.3 billion people taking medication daily for cholesterol, diabetes or some type of metabolic disorder.
“In the U.S., we know that one of five people has to take those drugs to have some semblance of normalcy in their lives,” he said.
It will take an “all of the above” approach to address the issue of nutritional security, Ramaswamy said, pointedly disagreeing with Dickson Despommier, a prominent vertical farming advocate (and honorary member of AVF’s board) who predicted in 2009 that “if climate change and population growth progress at their current pace, in roughly 50 years farming as we know it will no longer exist.”
“I have to disagree with Professor Despommier,” an emeritus professor of microbiology and Public Health at Columbia University, Ramaswamy said. “It’s not going to ‘not exist.’” The future of agriculture will continue to be mostly “horizontal,” he said.
The most basic goal CEA must meet is one common to all businesses: making a profit. “With apologies to Bill Clinton,” whose successful 1992 run for the presidency used the mantra “It’s the economy, stupid,” Ramaswamy said, “It’s the market, stupid.”
“It really is about connecting the producer broadly with the consumer,” he said.
One opportunity will be the growing popularity of food delivery, said Sally Rockey, head of the Foundation for Food and Agriculture, which recently awarded a $1 million grant to vertical farming company Aero Farms to improve the nutritional quality of leafy greens.
“The estimates are that in the next 10 years, close to 30 percent (of food) will be purchased online,” Rockey said at the summit. “For controlled environments, this could be a real market opportunity because if you’re going to purchase vegetables, you want fresh vegetables and fresh fruits that are available quickly, this intersection between controlled environments production and online purchasing of food could be really, really vital. As this market grows, it’s a great opportunity for vertical farmers.”
Sally Rockey
While indoor growers, including vertical farming operations, have been the beneficiary of huge investments recently – Silicon Valley startup Plenty just got a $200 million boost – CEA still represents a drop in the bucket compared to conventional ag. Figures from the last Census of Agriculture in 2012 show greenhouse production at a little over $2 billion in sales annually, compared to the overall $400 billion in sales for agriculture.
One “big, big challenge” in CEA will be energy, Ramaswamy said. Presenting figures that showed even the best LED lighting systems are only 40-50 percent efficient, Ramaswamy said, “We’ve got to have significant innovations,” he said, citing promising research at Purdue in the area of targeted LED lighting.
CEA systems are becoming more efficient, thanks in part to the growth of the legal cannabis industry, Travis Williams, vice president of marketing at Austin, Texas, lighting company Fluence Bioengineering told attendees.
In fact, Williams said, if vertical farmers want to see technological advances in their sector, they should support reform of cannabis laws.
“We would not be able to give you the technology you need at the cost you need it if it was not for the cannabis industry fueling our growth,” he said.
Williams said the company’s work to help large-scale operations such as Shenandoah Growers in Virginia – which has increased production by 25 percent and efficiency by 50 percent – would not have been possible without the explosive growth of the cannabis industry.
Williams said cannabis legalization led to the collection of an estimated $559 million in state tax revenue this year, and the cannabis market as a whole is projected to be a $50 billion/year business in a decade.
Williams urged attendees to tell their state legislators to push for cannabis legalization. Twenty-nine states have legalized recreational or medical use – or both – which leaves 21 states without any cannabis legalization laws, though some are in the process of adopting them.
“When cannabis legislation comes to your state or your country, think about how it’s going to fuel the innovation you need to be successful,” Williams said. “Barriers in the way of cannabis will be barriers in the way for you.”
Another message: Make your voice heard in Congress. That came from Bob Van Heuvelen, founder of lobbying and consulting group VH Strategies in Washington, which runs the Agricultural Innovation Alliance and is pushing for the next farm bill to include language providing assistance to urban agriculture.
Both Van Heuvelen and Ramaswamy told the vertical farming advocates they need to engage on the issue of whether indoor growers can label their foods organic. At the next meeting of the National Organic Standards Board (Oct. 31-Nov. 2), that issue is expected to come up again.
“Some of your colleagues have applied for hydroponically produced foods to be designated as organic,” Ramaswamy said. “But the traditional organics community does not want to allow that,” arguing that only foods grown in soil can be designated organic.
Dell Takes a Fresh Look At IoT With Aerofarms
Dell Takes a Fresh Look At IoT With Aerofarms
Dell has joined forces with agtech start-up Aerofarms to propagate IoT and data science in the business of growing greens.
At Dell’s IQT event in New York this week, Andy Rhodes, vice president of IoT edge computing at Dell, was joined on stage by David Rosenberg, CEO and founder of AeroFarms, to discuss how a smart warehouse full of plants exemplifies a forward-thinking IoT strategy.
‘Disruptor’ is probably a term that’s thrown around too easily in the world of technology – but in the case of AeroFarms, it’s hard to argue with that description. The company is a specialist in what it calls ‘vertical farming‘, an emerging form of agriculture that combines data science with horticulture to grow crops indoors. The result is staggering: The warehouse is 130 to 390 times more productive than a conventional farm, while using 95 percent less water.
The Aerofarms system of vertical farming (Credit: Aerofarms)
AeroFarms’ IoT-enabled vision
AeroFarms CEO David Rosenberg is on a mission to disrupt traditional agriculture. But it’s not necessarily out of a love for innovation or a desire for profit. There are more important things at stake here. “We have big problems that, as a species, we have to solve,” he said.
“We’ve lost a third of our arable land in the past 40 years. Seventy percent of our fresh water goes into agriculture. Seventy percent of fresh water contamination comes from agriculture. If you want to address water security, you need to address agriculture. Technology and data science is a big way that we’re going to get there.”
Food waste is another issue that needs tackling. Rosenberg estimates that as much as 60 percent of greens in the US spoil before they are consumed. AeroFarms’s solution is to have vertical farms disrupting traditional supply chains around the world, providing fresh vegetables to major distribution routes and population centers.
Harvesting data is the perfect recipe
Instead of using soil, water and sunlight, AeroFarms’ vertical crops are exposed to the light spectrum through LEDs, to precise nutrients through a special kind of cloth, and to hydration through a closely monitored mist.
AeroFarms’ vertical farm in Newark, New Jersey, wouldn’t be anywhere near as efficient without help from Dell’s IoT team.
“If you think of the age-old question of nature vs nurture, the world of AgTech has focussed mostly on the genetics,” said Rosenberg. “Here, we don’t focus on the genetics as much as the environmental stresses. As funny as it sounds, we actually get a plant to eat differently, sleep differently and exercise differently to change their nutrient density and shelf life.”
“We’re a farming company, but we’re also a technology company. There are thousands of sensors in our warehouse, taking hundreds of thousands of data points. The details matter, the pennies matter, so we’re trying to understand how to optimize yield, and how we can stress a plant [in the right way].”
This notion of stressing plants to develop the perfect recipe wouldn’t be possible without Dell’s edge to core to cloud IoT architecture. “Stressing the plants drives tastes and textures, from temperature [changes] to humidity to PH,” said Rosenberg. “With the Dell team, we’re capturing this information. They asked us questions [that] we weren’t asking ourselves, such as what information needs to go to which people, at what time to be valuable?'”
“That information allows our R&D team to change our algorithm and the recipe of how we grow a plant. So what goes on the edge, what goes in the core, what goes in the cloud… going use case by use case to better develop our architecture and reduce costs.”
The system exemplifies Dell’s new distributed core IoT strategy, which seeks to move analytics closer to the ‘edge’, nearer to all of the various sensors in environments just like Aerofarms’ warehouse.
Antarctic Farm Could One Day Journey to Mars
Antarctic Farm Could One Day Journey to Mars
BY TRACY STAEDTER POSTED OCT 13, 2017
Illustration of the shipping-container greenhouse that'll be providing fresh produce to Antarctic residents from February 2018 to December 2018. LSG
Antarctica is no place for a tomato. But starting in January 2018, researchers at the German Antarctic research station, Neumayer III, will begin growing not only tomatoes but also lettuces, herbs, peppers, cucumbers, swiss chard, radishes and even strawberries inside a climate-controlled shipping container. Although other indoor gardens have existed in Antarctica, the EDEN ISS Mobile Test Facility will be the most advanced indoor farm on the continent — an experiment meant to push the limits of indoor agriculture, so that the technology can hold up for a long mission to Mars.
"Some of my colleagues like to say, 'It's no longer your grandmother's garden anymore,'" says Matthew Bamsey, a research associate at DLR, also known as the German Aerospace Center, and a member of the EDEN ISS team, a multipartner project focused on developing plant cultivation technologies for future use in space.
Out on the Ekström Ice Shelf in the Atlantic sector, the greenhouse will stand against Antarctica's frigid temperatures, the long dark winter and extremely low humidity. From the outside it's a simple structure, just two 20-foot (6-meter) shipping containers placed end to end. But inside, it's a high-tech oasis capable of producing 661 pounds (300 kilograms) of produce annually. To give you an idea of how much that is, in 2013, the average U.S. person consumed 272 pounds (123 kilograms) of fruits and vegetables.
Fine-tuning the operation for space is one of the main goals of the project.
"We don't want an astronaut working 16 hours a day in the greenhouse," he says.
The experiment will allow them to figure out just how much time is needed to tend the garden. Over the next year, they'll get closer to that answer.
The indoor garden is based on a soil-free growing system called aeroponics. The system, first invented in the 1920s but advanced by NASA in the 1990s, is extremely water-efficient, using 98 percent less water than soil-based gardens. Plants grow in trays on racks, with their roots suspended within a protected chamber that prevents light from entering. At regular intervals, the hanging roots are spritzed with a fine water and nutrient-rich mist. Any water not taken in by the roots is captured and recirculated.
The Future Exploration Greenhouse pictured here (not in Antarctica) is the area where the plants grow in the EDEN ISS Mobile Test Facility. The greenhouse has 135 square feet (12.5 square meters) available for cultivation | BRUNO STUBENRAUCH
Sensors monitor the nutrient levels and provide data to a computer that analyzes the mix and adjusts it according to the plants being grown and their stage of growth. Cameras monitor the plant's growth, while other sensors capture temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide levels, which are fed to a computer that keeps the ideal levels precisely tuned. Air filters keep the environment free of bacteria and fungus, while an ultraviolet light helps sterilize the air and kill any organism not caught in the filter. Because of the sterile environment, neither insecticides nor pesticides are required.
The plants grow beneath LED lights that illuminate the leaves in blue, red and white light, which when mixed together, bathe the room in pinkish-violet sci-fi glow, says Bamsey. The lights shine for 16 hours a day and then turn off for eight hours to simulate night.
As of this writing, the greenhouse, comprising two shipping containers, is making its way by ship to Cape Town, South Africa, where it will be transferred to another ship bound for Antarctica, and due to arrive on Dec. 24, 2017. Bamsey and several of his colleagues, including DLR scientist Paul Zabel, will be there to meet the shipment and oversee its transport by tracked vehicle approximately 12 miles (20 kilometers) across the ice shelf. Bamsey says the shipping containers will be placed end to end atop an 8.2-foot (2.5-meter) tall platform that will prevent the greenhouse from becoming buried in snow. One shipping container, named the Future Exploration Greenhouse, houses the plants and the other, the Service Section, contains the control systems that keep them alive.
As this drawing shows, the greenhouse will be split into three separate sections: a cold porch/airlock, a service section and the actual greenhouse | LSG
All of the DLR scientists, including Bamsey, will return home after seven weeks, with the exception of Zabel, who will stay behind at Neumayer III, along with nine other researchers. There, Zabel will keep an eye on the greenhouse, which will sit about (1,312 feet) 400 meters away from the main station. Along with making sure all of the systems are running smoothly, he'll prune the plants, harvest them when they're ready and take samples that will be sent back to partner research labs. Having some interaction with the plants provides a psychological benefit, says Bamsey. And even though a fully autonomous system is possible, the engineers likely will not design one. Previous research has shown that for people stationed in remote areas like Antarctica, tending to plants, interacting with them and just observing them improves a person's state of mind.
Bamsey referred to a 2013 South Korean study, conducted after an indoor garden was installed at the King Sejong Station on Antarctica. It found that 83 percent of station crew members found the fresh produce to be "very helpful" or "somewhat helpful" to their mental health.
The psychological benefits of having greenery in Antarctica goes back to the 1902 Discovery Expedition of the continent, led by Robert Falcon Scott, where some of the crew members grew cress and mustard in the ship's ward under natural light, says Bamsey. In some of the crewmen's journal entries, they talk of the plants, the energy and time they took to care for them and the boost to morale they provided.
"Some of the crew members and explorers of that time talk about how this was the first green material they had eaten in two years," says Bamsey.
The greenhouse has funding until the end of 2018. Produce samples will be sent back to labs in Europe to test for their nutritional value and if all goes well, the researchers will be back again for another frigid growing season.