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Local Roots: Farm-In-A-Box Coming To A Distribution Center Near You
Local Roots: Farm-In-A-Box Coming To A Distribution Center Near You
Ars checks out shipping-container farming that’s said to have price parity with farms.
Diana Gitig - 12/16/2017, 11:00 AM
The interior of a TerraFarm | Local Roots
Eric and Matt could not be more earnest in their quest to feed the world.
These two fresh-faced LA boys founded Local Roots four years ago. Their first purchases were broken-down, 40-foot shipping containers—this is apparently easy to do, since it is cheaper for shipping companies to just churn out new ones rather than fix broken ones. Local Roots then upcycles them into modular, shippable, customizable farms, each of which can grow as much produce as five acres of farmland. The idea is to supplement, not supplant, outdoor agriculture. And Ars got a look at one of these "farms" when it was set up in New York City recently.
Every aspect of the TerraFarm, as the repurposed shipping containers have been dubbed, has been designed and optimized. The gently pulsing LED lights are purplish—apparently, that’s what lettuce likes—and the solution in which the plants are grown is clean and clear. The "farm" is bright and vibrant, and it smells great in there.
This environment came about because Local Roots consulted a lot of experts. It employs horticulturalists, mechanical, electrical, and environmental engineers, software and AI developers, and data and nutrition scientists. The company does this to ensure that the growing conditions and produce are always optimal—both for the plants' growth and their nutritional content.
TerraFarms use no pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers—they don’t have to. This means they generate no toxic runoff, and the produce fits most definitions of organic food. They use 99-percent less water and obviously much less land than outdoor farms. Since the farms are indoors, they are not subject to the vagaries of weather, be it the extreme temperatures, storms, and droughts brought on by climate change or the more mundane conditions of heat, cold, or dryness that exist outside of LA.
They can be moved anywhere—desert, tundra, underground, and even Mars, as both Eric and Matt pointed out independently of each other. Wherever the TerraFarms are, their conditions will be constantly monitored by the experts back at HQ in Vernon, California, just outside of downtown LA, where Local Roots recently built a huge new facility.
The difference two weeks makes
Most of the crops that we grow today have been bred for the stability of the final product, whether a fruit or leaf or root. This way, the produce can last for the two weeks it takes to truck it from where it's grown (California, for example, which produces more food than any other state) to wherever it's headed. But TerraFarms is intended to reside and be staffed near distribution centers for major retailers, never further than 50 miles from the consumers eating the produce. So most of that same two-week period will elapse while the produce is in your fridge.
Regardless of their location, TerraFarms will provide people with fresh, local, organic produce all year long. Local Roots thus seems to have managed to attain both the benefits of small organic farms—i.e., fresh, local produce—while keeping the benefits of large, industrialized agriculture, like technical expertise and centralized distribution.
Local Roots already provides food to SpaceX, Tender Greens, and Mendocino Farms, and the United Nations World Food Programme has just purchased TerraFarms to provide produce to developing areas of the world; although the Food Programme supplies essentials like rice and beans, about two million people still suffer from micronutrient deficiencies which other produce can alleviate.
A solution like this in a developing economy doesn't seem to make much sense on the surface. But the company is now claiming that it has achieved cost parity with traditional, outdoor farming. It's the first in the indoor/urban/vertical farming model to have done so, possibly because the shipping containers allow them to generate more farmland more quickly and more cheaply than can be done in a warehouse or other indoor systems.
Thus far, Local Roots has concentrated on growing greens—lettuces and some herbs. Since these are highly perishable, they benefit the most from being grown locally and getting to consumers quickly. But in principle, each TerraFarm can be customized to grown anything, anywhere. Which might be a very good thing, as climate change is not going to be good for the coffee crop.
Futuristic Vertical Farming Helps Plants to 'Overcome Hostile Environments' in the Middle East
Futuristic Vertical Farming Helps Plants to 'Overcome Hostile Environments' in the Middle East
December 29, 2017
Source: Associated Press
A number of entrepreneurs in the Gulf are now banking on vertical indoor farming and other alternative ways to grow food in the Middle East, where traditional farming becomes a challenge due to harsh climatic conditions.
One such vertical indoor farm has just opened the business in Dubai and claims to be the first of its kind in the region.
"It's an excellent use of space, but more importantly you're overcoming that hostile environment of climate, weather and the heat as well. So you're giving the plant exactly what it needs so you can grow it 365 days per year," said Omar Al Jundi, founder, and CEO of Badia Farms.
Indoor farming isn't a new technology, but not many have been set up for commercial purposes in the Gulf.
The vertical indoor farm is just one of several private investment ventures focused on alternative agriculture in the UAE.
According to local government data, Dubai imported almost 34-million tonnes of food last year; and a figure like this is what projects like the vertical farm are trying to make a dent into.
Meanwhile, authorities have been investing in research for decades, and they're mindful of the challenges presented by vertical farming.
"This is a system which is very sensitive and needs a lot of maintenance. And needs also a lot of technical skills, so which make him a little bit, very difficult to implement.
"But actually if we have these capacities, if you have these facilities, this will be the best system and will be the technology of the future," said Dr. Abdelaziz Hirich, a horticulture scientist at the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture.
While the founders of Dubai's new vertical farm agree that setting up a business can be tricky, they're confident that the idea is scalable.
"The project is high-capex but then once you run it the operation costs are pretty minimal. So it's extremely exciting because this is the beginning of the farming revolution in this part of the world," concluded Al Jundi.
Growing The Farming Scene
Growing The Farming Scene
Mr Lionel Wong (left) and Mr Terence Tan. PHOTO: TEMASEK POLYTECHNIC
Duo improving local produce with problem-solving capacities learned in school
Jan Lee | Jan 02, 2018
Does lettuce grow from seeds?
This was one of the many questions Mr. Terence Tan and Mr. Lionel Wong, both 30, have received in the course of their work as co-founders of Upgrown Farming Company.
The answer is yes.
But the two Temasek Polytechnic (TP) alumni, who graduated in 2007, were shaken by the question.
Mr Tan said: "There is such a complacent attitude towards food here that some people do not even know how vegetables are grown."
The friends pursued their degrees at the University of Queensland in Australia, where they were made aware of food security issues and the relatively lower quality of produce here.
Mr Wong said: "During our time there, we were exposed to the local farming and fresh produce scene.
"When we returned to Singapore, we realised there was a significant disparity in the quality and value for money of vegetables here as compared with in Australia."
To improve local produce and counter Singapore's dependence on food imports - over 90 per cent of food consumed here is imported - the pair, who studied biotechnology in TP, co-founded Upgrown four years ago.
With two other co-founders, Upgrown consults on, designs and builds farms with technology that allows crops not naturally found here to thrive and be harvested.
Through mimicking natural conditions, such as sunlight via modified lights with adjusted wavelengths, the co-founders have seen non-native varieties of leafy greens and herbs introduced to local farming through their projects.
Superfood kale and more exotic species such as spicy mizuna, a Japanese vegetable with a wasabi aftertaste, are now available locally via their clients' farms.
PROBLEM-SOLVING
They credit their success to the unique problem-solving capacities cultivated at TP, where they had to approach their studies with a problem-based learning approach.
Mr Tan said: "We had to apply our skills to solve real-world problems with practical solutions."
While Upgrown has about seven projects locally, it is also active in the region, with projects in China, Japan and the Middle East.
As urban farming gains awareness in Singapore, the pair hope to inspire more people to join farming.
Upgrown has seen an increase in interest from polytechnic and university students for internship opportunities in the past two years. It has also hosted over 10 groups of secondary school and polytechnic students at its office to showcase modern farming.
Mr Tan said: "If you go out and ask around now, who actually wants to be a farmer? So, part of our job is to reinvent farming, make it cool and entice younger people to join us."
Jacob Eisenberg Visits Japan Plant Factory Association (JPFA)
Jacob Eisenberg Visits Japan Plant Factory Association (JPFA)
DECEMBER 28, 2017 URBAN AG NEWS
By Jacob Eisenberg, Editor of Agri-Futures
View of JPFA and neighboring city skyline
The Mecca of all vertical farming can be found an hour outside Tokyo, a city often heralded as the world’s largest metropolitan area. The Japan Plant Factory Association (JPFA) sits on a quiet plot next to the Chiba University campus.
Across from three towering apartment buildings and a sprawling UNIQLO mall, the JPFA greenhouses sit translucently illuminated on the boundary of a dense city center and quiet suburb surrounding the agricultural campus. Large crows sit quietly in the branches of the beautifully pruned dwarf tree orchard of the university — and for a few moments, it becomes easy to forget the traumatic commute in a “sardine can” — referred to colloquially as the Tokyo subway system.
The notion of indoor agriculture often invokes feelings of food far removed from nature — confined to the inside of a dark urban building or warehouse. However, I found it fitting to see the center of indoor agriculture actually situated at the crossroads of these two natural and urban settings.
Chiba University growing facilities
From the outside, there is little to differentiate the transparent greenhouses and dark industrial sheds from any other small farm common around the periphery of Tokyo. And with the exception of a small sign, it’s easy to walk right by the entrance of the JPFA visitor center. It is truly a humble facility from the outside — but inside is a far different story.
A cornerstone of industry innovation
Since 2010 the JPFA has helped to test and research viable solutions to current problems related to food, the environment, energy, and resource use. Their work has helped to educate the development and dissemination of sustainable plant factory systems — that are both resource efficient and environmentally friendly.
With 6 different testing greenhouses and two fully enclosed plant factory facilities, the JPFA works closely as platform between the Japanese government and over 50 private companies to develop, manage and innovate the plant factory space. While their newest plant factory is under construction, their low cost, 10-layer cultivation facility produces 3000 heads of lettuce — every single day.
But what separates the JPFA from others in the plant factory space isn’t its technology per se, it is the platform it offers to help innovate the space.
The JPFA bridges the common innovation gap as an educational institution between private and public resources. In addition to working with dozens of commercial agricultural companies, the JPFA partners with the Japanese government to develop separate agricultural solutions for an aging Japanese farm workforce.
This has allowed the JPFA to become an aggregator in this highly fragmented and competitive industry. By collecting insights from technical consulting with private companies and receiving grants from the national government, the JPFA is perfectly situated to test, research and educate a market hungry for solutions. And interest is growing. The JPFA has a couple thousand visitors annually from many countries around the world — all eager to learn more for application in the public and private sectors.
Dr. Toyoki Kozai
After taking a brief tour of the facility and greenhouses, I had the pleasure to speak with arguably the father of the vertical farming industry, Dr. Toyoki Kozai.
“Plant Factories (at this point) will likely never be viable to grow large scale crops like wheat, corn and rice. But they could have a great impact on producing vegetables, medicinal herbs, cash crops and possibly fruits and nuts with dwarf tree varieties”.
Dr. Kozai was modest in our conversation, but his contributions to the industry have been immense. Since 1973, Dr. Kozai has helped pioneer the understanding of plant biology and physiology across different indoor growing systems. He has published dozens of academic studies documenting everything from the optimum light spectrum exposure to full automation with AI robotics.
While our conversation covered a dizzying array of industry topics, I wanted to briefly share his response to my question about the biggest continued issues in developing the industry. Since he is a premier thought leader, I was curious to know what challenges are anxiety provoking enough to keep him up at night and motivated to find solutions for.
- Keeping up with different farming systems. There is no definitive growing guide to using different systems with the same plants — and sensitive quality controls can change drastically with increased space/density affecting airflow and light.
- Scalability from an operations and business side is precarious since it is also based on the optimal size of a facility — and that is a factor that hasn’t been well defined either.
At the end of our conversation, I asked Dr. Kozai if he was optimistic about plant factories changing the food industry and he immediately prefaced his answer with a solemn “no”.
However he went on to explain that “Plant Factories (at this point) will never be viable to grow large scale crops like wheat, corn and rice. But they could have a great impact on producing vegetables, medicinal herbs, cash crops and possibly fruits and nuts with dwarf tree varieties”.
Test propagation of tomatoes in new harvesting system and soil medium
At the epicenter of indoor agriculture innovation, my visit to the JPFA highlighted the real shortcomings of a food industry often reimagined, rather than fully understood. Indoor agriculture faces many critical challenges before it can be truly revolutionary — let alone viable.
It is also much easier to understand why organizations like the JPFA are so critical for developing this early industry. With forefront concerns from industry leaders like Dr. Kozai on what cultivation practices even work, testing and collaboration are more necessary than ever.
By Jacob Eisenberg, Editor of Agri-Futures
Going Beyond Organic With Vertical Hydroponic Farming
Going Beyond Organic With Vertical Hydroponic Farming
Crop One Holdings (COH) farms, called FreshBox Farms, deliver fresh produce to stores within 24 hours of harvest. The company aims to address the need for a local, fresh, and sustainably produced food supply through vertical hydroponic farming in Millis, Massachusetts.
With 54 percent of the world’s population residing in urban areas—expected to increase to about 66 percent by 2050, according to the 2014 Revision of World Urbanization Prospect—vertical farming projects strive to expand production on and in buildings and vertical structures. In doing so, growers can reduce their agricultural footprint on the environment and address food security of the urban population.
COH vertical farming units grow modularly and use custom-engineered hydroponic systems to produce their leafy vegetables. They can substitute up to 19 acres of farmland with 29.72-square-meter (320-square-feet) growing units. The units use 1/2500th of the amount of water typically used by field-based growing, and due to their farms’ proximity to their urban consumers, they also have a reduced carbon footprint. The COH’s FreshBox Farms produce are available in 30 locations in the Greater Boston Area within the 100 miles radius from the farm.
Food Tank had the opportunity to speak with Crop One Holdings CEO Sonia Lo about the origins of the organization and how it hopes to solve current food system issues impacting the cities of the United States and go “Beyond Organic.”
Food Tank (FT): What was the inspiration behind establishing Crop One Holding (COH)?
Sonia Lo (SL): Crop One is the successor company to a concept stage venture founded by Jim Wilson, a great visionary who was among the first to propose that crops could be grown in modified shipping containers.
I was an early investor in the company. First, I was intrigued by the potential of using modified shipping structures—it was a ground-breaking idea, no pun intended. But not only was I drawn to Jim’s technological innovation, I had also spent some time as a personal chef, so the foodie in me was hooked as well. So, I stepped in to take the venture to the next level and we rebranded to Crop One. We’ve now built a scale-level farm and are one of only two vertical farmers in the industry running our farm at a profit.
FT: COH uses the hydroponics technology for its crop production. What are some of the advantages hydroponics has over aquaponics or aeroponics?
SL: Hydroponics is the most well proven of the three technologies and the least expensive.
FT: Could you explain the crop production procedure followed at COH?
SL: We are a seed-to-harvest company. Many hydroponic growers use third-party seedlings but we grow our own from seed because we want to be able to select the cultivars we produce for sale and because it means that we know our seedlings are free of pests/pathogens before we plant them to grow out to full height. Our production is entirely based in water, which we dose with micro-nutrient levels (the precise amount that each plant needs), and also plant our seeds in a soil-less growth medium, ensuring optimum cleanliness. We also use no pesticides, herbicides, fungicides—no ‘cides for that matter, at all. Finally, we grow in a ‘clean-room’ environment, mimicking high-tech operations. Our environment is so clean and precisely managed that our waste water comes out completely clean—cleaner than the local potable tap water!
FT: In one of your interviews, you have mentioned that COH products are “Beyond Organic.” Could you explain this label?
SL: Organic produce that is field-grown may not use pesticides but it is allowed to be grown with herbicides and can also be grown with fertilizer that is full of pathogens. Organic also generally uses soil—which may harbor pests and transmit pathogens. Our products are grown in the cleanest, most precise environment as possible and does not use soil. Many people prefer organic produce because of the perception that is clean and healthier but organic produce, for example, is often not recommended for people with compromised immune systems because it’s not as clean as conventionally grown. Our product is ‘Beyond Organic’ in that it is extremely fresh (and by implication, very healthy because phytonutrients in produce start to decay upon harvest—we offer our produce within 24 hours of harvest; most produce is served within 7 to 17 days of harvest across the U.S.) and clean, without the use of chemical controls. We are also unique in being kosher certified as a vertical farmer—this means that we are insect free—and very clean.
FT: Lack of access to food has become a central problem in some of the major cities and urban areas in the U.S. How does COH hope to address such food system problems?
SL: Our food is grown and served within what is known as a hyper-local radius (fewer than 100 miles). Food is considered local in the U.S. if it is produced (not necessarily grown, but perhaps processed), within 400 miles of the point of consumption. Our hyper-local growing allows for distribution, year-round, of produce for even the most inclement of climates. Our unit economics also allows us to be a low-cost provider of healthy greens, something most vertical farmers won’t be able to do.
FT: Vertical farming uses less land area and comparatively less water than conventional farming. What do you think are the major concern areas in this form of production (vertical hydroponic farming) that COH hopes to work on?
SL: Energy is our largest cost. Up to 70 percent of our production cost is energy and we focus on reducing our energy usage every day.
FT: How does COH hope to grow in terms of technology; variety, quantity, and quality of the product; and expansion, in future?
SL: Our scale farms will have a good deal of software and computer vision capability because what we manually inspect today will have to go over to machine based inspection. The quality of the product is always a concern and we will seek to continue to obtain kosher certification for all our farms. Our product offerings are expanding to include packaged products as well. Finally, our geographic expansion will be growing to 9 farms in our current pipeline and then ultimately to over 25 farms across the U.S. as a whole.
Fastidious Farming
Fastidious Farming
Lee Pitts | December 29, 2017
Farm wives will like the bit of news that farming may soon go dirtless, at least according to a company called Indoor Farms of America. There will be no more dirty clothes to wash or messes to clean up when your hubby forgets to leave his mud in the mudroom. Indoor Farms of America has just built the first 100 percent solar-powered vertical aeroponic indoor farm in the world. Talk about "no-till" farming, this news should have John Deere shaking in its shorts.
The company announced this "major milestone for indoor farming" in Las Vegas, and that's fitting because it sounds like a BIG gamble. But Indoor Farms of America has sold their indoor farms all over the world, in places like the Yukon, Dubai and West Africa where they can "grow over double the yield of anything else in the world." Indoor Farms of America insists "containerized farming will allow local people to have access to daily fresh herbs and greens that they never experienced before, all year long, no matter the weather."
It does sound like an easier way to make a hard living but personally, I'll believe it when an indoor grown pumpkin wins the biggest pumpkin prize next Halloween, or a giant zucchini grows so large they have to remove the roof of the indoor farm to get the sizable squash out.
If this way of farming takes hold there will be no more clodhoppers, punkin' pilers, stubble jumpers, pea pickers, hoe men, plow chasers, cotton backs or dirt farmers. The price of farmland in Iowa will plummet and farm dogs, who before got to ride around in a pickup and explore the world, will now just mope under the porch all day.
I shouldn't be surprised, everything else is moving indoors. Chickens and hogs have been raised inside for decades and more "hoop-houses" are being used to raise cattle inside. The marijuana growers started all this by developing the technology to grow pot indoors to hide it from the cops. But indoor farming brings with it a whole new bunch of problems, like how do you know how good your crop is compared to your neighbors if you can't see it?
Indoor farming means no more ditch banks, tractor pulling contests or rubber irrigating boots that leak. Instead of rednecks and brown faces covered with skin cancer this new breed of farmer will be pasty white from being inside all day. If they want to fit in with the old traditional farmers who meet every morning at the coffee shop two hours before sun-up they'll have to spend some serious time in a tanning booth. The farm workers will be easy to distinguish from the old clodhoppers in bib overalls and steel-toed boots … they'll be the ones wearing shorts and flip-flops. The pickers will be able to harvest tomatoes and potatoes standing up. And what's the worst that can happen, a broken beaker might fall on their toes? It will be hard, however, to tell the indoor farm managers from the suited-up, soft shoe bankers who financed this fiasco.
Because there's no dirt, farm wives won't even have to change clothes when they come home from their day job to go to work on the farm. I suppose it's possible that a grocery store cashier might go to work in the hog house with her Piggly Wiggly badge still on.
Indoor farming will bring with it another upheaval in farming. Farm shows will be entirely indoors, of course, and this new breed of cell phone farmer won't have to pray for rain ever again. He'll just dial up an inch of rain from his cell phone.
There are some things that will stay the same, of course. The indoor farmers will overproduce and the government will come up with some sort of program to give the farmers something else to complain about other than the price. Farming used to be like throwing dice in the dirt but in the future, there may be no need for dirt. Just think, if things get too bad we may read about the occasional indoor farmer who commits suicide by jumping from the tenth floor of his farm.
I just have one thing to say to this new breed of indoor farmers: "Shame on you. Turn in your cap."
Helping Small-Scale Operations Develop A Recipe For Horticultural Lighting Success
Helping Small-Scale Operations Develop A Recipe For Horticultural Lighting Success
December 19, 2017
By Jeff Mastin
Venntis Technologies LLC
During the Emerging Applications track at Strategies in Light (SIL), co-located with The LED Show and Lightspace California in Long Beach, CA, Venntis Technologies biologist Jeff Mastin will explore the landscape of modern farming on the smaller scale, with a presentation on the economics of equipping a small indoor/vertical farm and how such operations can leverage the qualities of LED-based horticultural lighting. Mastin explains the appeal of close-to-consumer growing operations, but notes that a smaller operation will naturally need a different approach than a mass commercial grower. In the presentation “Small-scale vertical farming success recipes: Horticultural lighting reports from the field,” he will address a Michigan-based grower as a case study for analyzing the horticultural lighting needs of localized vertical farms with specific crop and usage objectives. Here Mastin looks at the prospects and exciting opportunities for both the grower community and the solid-state lighting (SSL) industry in expanding this horticultural niche. — Carrie Meadows
Where does our food come from? Three generations ago, this question had much simpler and well-known answers. Most food was derived from family gardens and family farms. Organic, local, sustainable, hydroponic, aeroponic, vertical-farming, container farming, etc. — these terms were not in our vocabulary with the absence of a dozen ways to buy lettuce at the local grocery store. After recent decades of urbanization, population growth, climate care (or lack thereof), and both geographic and relational disconnect from our food sources, vertical farms are an exciting new approach to shorten these distances in fascinating new ways with the help of recent technological advancements. Most foundational to the ability to move some types of farming indoors into dense, highly productive spaces is the advancement of LED-based horticultural lighting technology to make it possible to grow without the Sun and have a chance at economic viability.
Lighting as a Platform Part I: What It Is and Why You Should Care
In the world of the smart building, smart has real meaning. Creating buildings whose performance is optimised with respect to a variety of goals and which meet the increasingly challenging demands of building and energy efficiency regulations is a tough job these days. Energy use must be minimised and operating costs kept low.
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Related: 10 Things to Love about Strategies in Light 2018
LEDs Magazine will continue its countdown to Strategies in Light with more industry insights here at ledsmagazine.com. You can find details on the conference program, speakers, exhibitors, and more at strategiesinlight.com.
Within the realm of vertical farming, besides both strong proponents and objectors, there is also a wide spectrum of approaches. Vertical farmers can grow in soil, hydroponically, or aeroponically; use pallet rack shelving or vertical towers with plants growing horizontally; invest in various levels of control of humidity, CO2, isolation from potential pests; establish operations in abandoned warehouses or new facilities; and focus on “simpler” crops like leafy greens and herbs or break metaphorical ground on potentially higher value crops. For the Feb. 14 Strategies in Light session, we will of course focus on the various options and opportunities related to the critical lighting component of vertical farms, with an emphasis on how the scale of the vertical farm may impact horticultural lighting choices.
Garden manager Christy Kaledas has established indoor vertical farming operations that utilize LED horticultural lighting for the Black Pearl restaurant in Ann Arbor, MI.
Understandably, the most press is given to the largest vertical farming entities such as Plenty, which has raised at least $260 million to date with visions of large vertical farms on the outskirts of every major city. However, your local news might also have shared a story recently about a garage, basement, classroom, or industrial space that is now growing microgreens, leafy greens, or herbs for local restaurants, groceries, and farmers’ markets. In many cases, these are self-funded and driven by conversations with local chefs regarding exactly what they’d like to be adding to their menu next. The specifics of how these grow operations are set up are dictated by budget, physical space constraints, and information sources. Many of these growers are coming out of non-horticultural career paths and are learning from blogs, books, university extension offices, equipment suppliers, and other sources.
Related: Strategies in Light tracks send strong signals about lighting prospects
For the largest-scale vertical farmers, lighting technology is often developed in-house to lower costs. Facilities are large enough to justify multiple lighting approaches where experience, curiosity, or a physical constraint makes it worthwhile. These can include lights of various intensities and spectra. However, for smaller-scale vertical farmers, developing their own horticultural lighting is not an option. Furthermore, changes in their operation as they grow, changing customers, and the completely unforeseen places a premium on versatility within their lighting source. At any scale, upfront costs and operating costs are extremely important as lighting can represent a very large proportion of both costs. Furthermore, lighting performance will have a drastic impact on growth quality and quantity.
An example to be discussed in detail at Strategies in Light will be Black Pearl Gardens. The Black Pearl restaurant recruited its garden manager, Christy Kaledas, to begin growing microgreens and other crops for the restaurant in 2014. The small vertical farm began in Christy’s basement until the restaurant basement was ready, and has since expanded to include a warehouse facility for increased production space. The aforementioned need for versatility resulted in early setups using soil-filled trays, simple and adjustable wire shelving, and TotalGrow Broad Grow Spectrum LED lamps on flexible socketed cords, which could be configured to match the various setups that fit in the basements. The modular, individual lights with an all-purpose growing spectrum also allow the ability to adjust lighting concentrations as needed for different crops and production schedules. Most of this equipment is still used in the new spaces, though not necessarily in the same configuration. Besides multiplying shelving quantities, Black Pearl Gardens has experimented with varying degrees of success with hydroponic systems, higher-powered lighting over more spacious grow ponds, and other variations on its base system.
Black Pearl Gardens’ operations have since expanded into the restaurant basement (shown) and an additional warehouse facility equipped with TotalGrow Broad Grow Spectrum LED lamps with flexible configurations for various crops and growing schedules.
The combination of entrepreneurial aptitude, a great culture for selling high-quality and high-value crops in Ann Arbor, MI, successful horticultural lighting, and other growing techniques are consistent with the stories of other successful small-scale vertical farmers who seek to bring the farm closer to the consumer.
JEFF MASTIN is chief biologist for Venntis Technologies, a specialist in custom spectra, volumetric LED lighting, and custom output pattern lighting, and a finalist in the 2017 LEDs Magazine Sapphire Awards.
This Underground Urban Farm Also Heats The Building Above It
Underneath a 26-floor office tower in Stockholm, an underground space once used as an archive for a newspaper will soon become a farm. And because of a unique business model, the urban farmers growing greens in the new farm won’t pay rent–their farm will pay for itself in heat.
12.06.17
This Underground Urban Farm Also Heats The Building Above It
Truly local food is when it’s grown in your basement. Plantagon CityFarm wants to create a network of underground urban farms–and whole skyscrapers filled with plants.
![1/5 The DN Skrapen building, planned site of the Plantagon CityFarm. [Photo: Flickr user Storkholm]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c8695d5016e11e71be1d83/1513357515946-ABKITJPGPMDIPIE0JFTC/Screen+shot+2017-12-15+at+10.54.11+AM.png)
1/5 The DN Skrapen building, planned site of the Plantagon CityFarm. [Photo: Flickr user Storkholm]
Underneath a 26-floor office tower in Stockholm, an underground space once used as an archive for a newspaper will soon become a farm. And because of a unique business model, the urban farmers growing greens in the new farm won’t pay rent–their farm will pay for itself in heat.
Like some other indoor farms, the Plantagon CityFarm, set to begin production in early 2018, will grow greens in vertical towers under LED lights. But by capturing the heat from the lights–heat that would normally have to be vented out of the room and require air conditioning to keep the plants from overheating–the farm operators can send it into a heat storage system for the office building, and the heat can be used to help keep the offices warm through the winter.
[Photo: Refarmers]
The system will save the office building 700,000 kilowatt-hours of energy a year, worth roughly three times as much as the previous tenant of the basement was paying in rent.
“[The building owner] agreed to give us a free lease for three years, so we don’t pay one single Swedish kroner for the room,” says Plantagon cofounder Hans Hassle. “This is the challenge, very often, for urban farmers: If you really want to grow things in the city, you have to find new business models that actually make the food not too expensive in the end.”
The company plans to sell food directly to people working in the offices above, along with two restaurants that are located in the high-rise. Roughly a third of the produce will be sold to nearby grocery stores, all close enough that the greens can be delivered without fossil fuels. Another third of the produce will be sold in an on-site store in the skyscraper.
[Image: Plantagon, Sweco (Illustration)]
“In Sweden, we have a higher demand for locally grown food than we do for organic food,” Hassle says. “People tend to want to know where the production comes from.”
If organic kale or lettuce travels hundreds or thousands of miles to a store, Hassle says, the environmental footprint could be higher than the same greens, grown without pesticides or herbicides, inside the closed-loop system of the indoor farm. Like other indoor farming, the Plantagon system also uses a tiny fraction of the water used on outdoor farms. The heat is captured in water that travels in tubes over the LED lights, and then sent into a heat pump system. Carbon dioxide from the offices will also be sent to the farm, and fresh oxygen from the plants will be sent back to office workers.
The company plans to open 10 underground farms in Stockholm over the next three years, working in buildings that already have underground heat pump systems. The team is also talking to a local power company about whether its heat could be sold into the larger district heating system that connects to other buildings throughout the city.
A two-hour drive away, in the city of Linköping, the company is planning an indoor system on a much larger scale: a 16-story “plantscraper” that will produce food throughout the building. Two-thirds of the building will include office space that can be rented to make the system financially viable, and, as in the underground farm, heat from the greenhouse will help heat the rest of the building. Conference rooms at the end of each floor will have views of the farm. The company and partners are still finalizing leases with prospective tenants, but plan for the building to be open in 2020 or 2021.
[Image: Plantagon, Sweco (Illustration)]
A similar farm is planned for a building in Singapore, where the lack of land for farming means that most produce is imported from other countries such as Malaysia. As Malaysia and other countries run out of its own arable land and their populations continue to grow–a pattern happening around the world–Singapore is increasingly interested in Plantagon’s vision of high-rise buildings focused on growing food locally. Cities in China that are already struggling to source enough food are also in talks with the company.
While the large-scale farms take more time to construct, the underground farms can be constructed quickly. The company is currently crowdfunding investment in the first farm. Hassle hopes to involve as many people as possible–not for financial reasons, but because he argues that citizens need to be active stakeholders in the burgeoning field of urban farming.
“To us, food production is not like running any business–food is like water, it’s a human right,” he says. “So it’s not only business as usual. This has lots to do with social responsibility and of course with environmental responsibility. That’s why we’re inviting people to be part of owning these facilities because they should have input.”
The company is also structured to be controlled partly by a nonprofit founded at the same time, a business model chosen to keep the company committed to larger goals than just maximizing profit. It’s a somewhat similar approach to B Corporations in the United States.
“We tried to not only speak about this–because that could be lots of corporate bullshit when you say things like this,” Hassle says. “We actually try to institutionalize this in what we’re doing through the articles of incorporation and letting people be part and actually have influence over what we do.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adele Peters is a staff writer at Fast Company who focuses on solutions to some of the world's largest problems, from climate change to homelessness. Previously, she worked with GOOD, BioLite, and the Sustainable Products and Solutions program at UC Berkeley.
Canon Electronics Plans Full Automation At Vegetable Factory
The Canon unit will convert empty space at a Gunma Prefecture facility into an indoor farm initially dedicated to growing lettuce and other green, leafy vegetables friendly to hydroponics.
December 28, 2017
Canon Electronics Plans Full Automation At Vegetable Factory
Robots may bring lower costs crucial to profit in growing but finicky sector
At this Gunma Prefecture plant, Canon aims to turn empty space into a roboticized indoor farm.
TOKYO -- Canon Electronics plans to open an entirely automated vegetable factory in 2019, seeking to lower costs by applying homegrown robotics technology to a burgeoning industry where stable profits remain tough to cultivate.
The Canon unit will convert empty space at a Gunma Prefecture facility into an indoor farm initially dedicated to growing lettuce and other green, leafy vegetables friendly to hydroponics. Robots will handle everything from planting seeds and transplanting seedlings to harvesting and packaging crops for shipment. Details such as annual production scale and sales targets will be settled later.
The company will partner with other businesses for know-how on managing the factory and building sales networks. Canon Electronics is also considering building a second such factory in western Japan.
The unit makes some of the manufacturing machinery on the automated production lines in Canon's domestic camera business. Its delicate automation technology from that precision machinery will be put to use developing green-thumbed robots for the company's new factory plan.
Japan had 197 plant factories using artificial light as of February, roughly triple the count in 2011, a survey by the Japan Greenhouse Horticulture Association shows. But production costs run high at such factories, driving up retail prices and making it hard to turn steady profits. In 2016, 37% of the factories operated in the red, the association reported.
Those losses recently led some companies to back out. At the end of 2016, Toshiba closed one such facility in Kanagawa Prefecture. And in 2015, an agricultural startup and plant factory manager based in Miyagi Prefecture went bankrupt under a debt burden of 1 billion yen ($8.81 million at present rates).
Canon Electronics intends to wield its automated production to make operations profitable. Some domestic plant factories automate seed-planting or other processes, but virtually none are automated start to finish. Agricultural startup Spread is building a fully automated plant factory in Kyoto Prefecture, set to begin operations in summer 2018.
(Nikkei)
This Stylish Table Is the “Next Generation” of Automated Urban Farming
One of the more promising urban-farm concepts is not in New York, Los Angeles, or any other major city. It’s in Charlottesville, Virginia, courtesy of one University of Virginia alum and a very small team of employees.
This Stylish Table Is the “Next Generation” of Automated Urban Farming
By Jennifer Marston December 29, 2017
One of the more promising urban-farm concepts is not in New York, Los Angeles, or any other major city. It’s in Charlottesville, Virginia, courtesy of one University of Virginia alum and a very small team of employees.
Recent grad Alexander Olsen started Babylon Micro-Farms in 2016, as part of the UVA student entrepreneurial clubhouse, HackCville. An early prototype won $6,500 from Green Initiatives Funding Tomorrow, part of the UVA student council.
Now, Olsen and six other employees are working to get the hydroponic farms inside the homes of consumers, billing them as “the next generation home appliance.”
The concept is pretty straightforward. You start by selecting crops from Babylon’s online menu. Pre-seeded plant packs are then delivered to your door. Right now, pod pack choices include: wellness (kale), spicy peppers, pesto, a mini romaine crop, herbs, edible flowers, a cocktail mix, Asian greens, and arugula.
Once seed pods are set up, the farm regulates itself—you may occasionally have to top off the water or nutrients, but otherwise, the process is automated. A corresponding app provides live data about crop health, notifies users when water and nutrients are needed, and tells you when it’s time to harvest your crops. Once the latter is done, you can order another round of crops and start the process all over again. For the extra-ambitious (and restaurants), the app can control multiple farms at once.
One thing setting Babylon Mirco-Farms apart from other urban farming products is its emphasis on visual design. To that end, the system takes the form of a table with a UV light hanging overhead and is small compared to its industrial counterparts: 6 feet wide by 3 feet deep and 6 feet tall. And instead of seeing wires and buttons, everywhere, pinewood hides those operational things and makes the farm as much a stylish conversation piece as it is a food supply.
The company isn’t alone in their mission to marry urban farming with, uh, urban style. The Ava Byte also uses soil-less grow pods, which come in a slick, space-age-looking container that would blend into a lot of modern kitchen designs. Verdical calls itself “a living food appliance” and is also small enough to fit into most homes. Farmshelf is more geared at serving restaurants and retail spaces, but as of November, they were considering a move to more residential markets.
UVA has given Olsen and Co. considerable support for the project, from grants to advice about the next phase of business. Farms are also installed at university dining halls, where students are encouraged to harvest what they need. According to Olsen, the farms are “a massive hit” amongst the students.
Babylon is now focused on bringing the farms to consumers outside of universities. Currently, a the micro-farm farm goes for $1,799. Pre-order one here. East Coasters get free shipping.
The company also wants to eventually offer a smaller system for less than $1,000, which would be a hit for both cost-conscious consumers and those of us living in shoebox-sized apartments. Neither price tag is pocket change, but I suspect with the right amount of dedication, an investment in one of these would pay for itself pretty fast. Stay tuned.
Photo credit: Dan Addison, University Communications, UVA
How An Ecological Approach to Architecture Can Help Reinvent Urban Food Systems
Fish, plants, and water are combined in Aqualoop, a continuous loop of cleaning, growing and eating.
How An Ecological Approach to Architecture Can Help Reinvent Urban Food Systems
By weaving together infrastructure, urbanism, and ecology, architecture is a perfect medium to envision the sustainable food systems of the future.
By Amale Andraos, Dan Wood / The Monacelli Press
December 20, 2017
Fish, plants, and water are combined in Aqualoop, a continuous loop of cleaning, growing and eating.
Photo Credit: Monacellii Press
The following is an excerpt fromWORKac: We’ll Get There When We Cross That Bridge by Amale Andraos and Dan Wood, published by The Monacelli Press, 2017. WORKac (WORK Architecture Company) is a New York-based architecture firm founded by Amale Andraos and Dan Wood, known for their re-inventions of the relationship between urban and natural environments.
Infoodstructure
Dan Wood (DX): PF1 [Public Farm 1, a completely off-grid, biodegradable, and recyclable cardboard-tube farm] started off as almost an academic exercise: let’s build Superstudio’s Continuous Monument and put a farm in it. At the beginning it was such an abstract idea. Farm was just a four-letter word on a page. It just meant green space, a pattern. . . .
Amale Andraos (AA): . . . and by the end it became a whole world. What 49 Citiesbrought forward was that while these visionary cities had been extensively analyzed from the perspective of politics, ideology, or their social context, no one had looked in detail at their shades of green: how they engaged with open space, with parks and forests but also with systems of farming and food economics.
DX:It’s not that the future of food is to grow it in cities, but that engaging food systems opened up a different and more holistic way to talk about infrastructure. Embracing systems and food was simply the catalyst that allowed us to open up our thinking.
AA: At the same time, you could say that our interests in these infrastructural systems—whether through urbanism or ecology—were increasingly woven together and brought into architecture. Architecture’s boundaries became porous, not by blurring the skin, but literally, by collecting water from the roof and drawing it into the building, for example. Architecture became a medium to organize all of these systems and ideas as part of a larger infrastructure and ecosystem, which connected it back to its context.
DX: At the time a lot of people were asking us if we were looking at the work of Dickson Despommier, who designs vertical farms that are completely interiorized in power-sucking, multistory buildings that are embedded in an urban landscape.
AA:Our network was farmers, eager to produce food in new ways. In contrast, Despommier’s propositions prioritized engineering over farming. And while our position is certainly guilty of being nostalgic for a more rustic era, reading Michael Pollan made us quite critical of that kind of technological superfluity.
DX: We made a counter-proposal, Locavore Fantasia. Going vertical can be about more than engineering food to grow indoors; you can design for in-soil growing, have every farming floor open to the sun, and rather than isolate the farm from the city, make the farm a part of it.
AA: It’s actually only doubling the ground once, that’s an achievable level of urban density. Think of community gardens or rooftops. Infoodstructure was a similar idea—what would happen if streets were turned into farms, assuming fewer driverless cars. It was about transforming what is already there rather than putting faith into a new kind of skyscraper.
DX: We were interested in how people were developing new ideas about farming, at a time when architecture seemed to have exhausted itself. That led to a fascination with aquaponics: a system where fish, plants, and water are combined in a continuous loop of cleaning, growing, and eating. You can use the same water over and over again. That loop for us had incredible formal possibilities. A lot of our inspiration was—
AA: —making the loop visible! That became our Aqualoop project—fish and plants combined with a sushi restaurant and a playground. The systems are generative of the architecture. You take the lines of the system and at some point you thicken them.
Fish, plants and water are combined in Aqualoop, a continuous loop of cleaning, growing and eating.
DX: I always say that one of the most exciting things about architecture is that someone’s floor is another person’s ceiling. There are these relationships that translate through the section, whether it’s transforming the Guggenheim into a lazy river and hydroponics tower for the Flow Show or enlarging a typical core to contain new ecological infrastructure and public spaces as we did for the Plug Out project. In embracing all of these systems it becomes so clear. A sloped roof collects water naturally, and it is collected in a cistern, which becomes a curved wall. The section becomes a system in itself.
Installed at New York's Guggenheim Museum in 2010, "Flow Show" was a water slide using rainwater filtered on the museum's roof.
AA: Soon after we won PS1 we had an interesting conversation with Winy Maas of MVRDV, who had also been looking at food systems and cities, especially with their—
DX:—Pig City—
AA: but the conversation made us feel somewhat more American, and less in tune with that kind of Dutch engineering, pragmatism, and the stacking of pigs. Maybe we’re more romantic or dangerously nostalgic.
DX: But our pigs would be much happier.
Amale Andraos is the dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. She has taught at numerous institutions including the Princeton University School of Architecture, the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the University of Pennsylvania Design School, and the American University in Beirut.
Dan Wood leads international projects for WORKac. He holds the 2013-14 Louis I. Kahn Chair at the Yale School of Architecture and has taught at the Princeton University School of Architecture, the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at the Cooper Union, Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, Ohio State University’s Knowlton School of Architecture, and the UC Berkeley School of Environmental Design, where he was the Friedman Distinguished Chair.
Farmers of The Future at Urban Organics
Farmers of The Future at Urban Organics
December 26, 2017 by Morgan Mercer0 Comments
The interior fish incubation room of Urban Organics // Photo by Tj Turner
An inconspicuous white tube travels along the length of the ceiling, connecting two very different rooms. The first room is a cool 60 degrees and smells slightly fishy. Gray concrete floors and colorless walls make the space appear colder than it is. The neighboring room couldn’t be more different. The air smells sweet and vaguely earthy. When you open the door, it feels like stepping into the glow of a warm spring day.
This is a farm of the future.
In the middle of St. Paul, tucked inside a brewery that sat empty for years, life is thriving in the dead of winter. No soil. No natural light. Just a white pipe that carries the lifeblood of the entire operation from room to room: water. Kale, red romaine, and other leafy greens grow on racks stacked five planters high. In an adjacent room, tens of thousands of Arctic char swim in 26,000-gallon tanks. Thanks to the fish, the plants at Urban Organics grow all year long.
With a new 87,000-square-foot space at the Schmidt Brewery complex, Urban Organics is one of the largest commercial aquaponics facilities in the world. The company converts waste produced by fish to fertilize thousands of pounds of produce a month. The farm, which is certified organic by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is 10 times larger than Urban Organics’ first facility at the historic Hamm’s Brewery complex in St. Paul.
An Arctic Char pool, racks of leafy greens and an Arctic Char // Photos by Tj Turner
“When we would tell people our plan, we still joke about the number of people who thought we were nuts. They would say, ‘Don’t quit your day job,’” says Dave Haider, who did just that when he closed down his construction business to launch the original Hamm’s site with three other partners in 2012.
Since then, the team has built a worldwide reputation as a pioneer in year-round urban organic farming. In 2014, the Guardian dubbed Urban Organics one of the 10 most innovative farms in the world. The company sets itself apart with a state-of-the-art design, courtesy of an ongoing partnership with Pentair, a global leader in water technology. At a time when the agriculture industry faces increasing environmental challenges like climate change and water shortages, Urban Organics is out to prove there is a more sustainable way to produce fresh food—one that uses less water, and stays close to home.
“People want to know where their food is coming from and that it is being farmed in this safe, sustainable manner,” says Dave, who has seen aquaponics transition from a largely unknown concept to more of a mainstream idea in recent years. “We’re still trying to prove to people that we’re not nuts, but it’s not as many as it was.”
A game-changing partnership
Fred Haberman examines rows of Romaine Lettuce // Photo by Tj Turner
Limp. Tasteless. Old. Too many stores in the Twin Cities stocked bad lettuce, and Fred Haberman was fed up. The problem was shipping. By the time his salad greens arrived from California and hit local shelves, they were already days old. That’s when Fred remembered Will Allen, a former professional basketball player who started an urban farm in Milwaukee. That’s what the Twin Cities needs, Haberman thought—food grown where it’s consumed. Coincidentally, Dave had the same idea, too.
With two other partners, they formed Urban Organics. At the time, there were only a handful of companies testing hydroponic growing methods in urban areas, and even fewer trying aquaponics. A partnership with Pentair helped the company break into the fledgling industry.
“When they reached out to us it seemed too good to be true,” says Dave of the water tech company. “They saw it as a way to address some of these food concerns we’re facing now. This was their way of not only supporting a local company like ours, but catalyzing an industry as well.”
Pentair supplied all of the pumps, filters, and aerators needed to get the state-of-the-art aquaponics facility up and running. The system converts wastewater from the fish tanks into plant food. First, solid waste is filtered out. Then, bacteria convert the remaining ammonia into nitrates. This nitrate-rich water is what nourishes the 12 varieties of leafy greens Urban Organics grows.
Not only is the company’s organic produce free of pesticides and chemicals, but it also uses significantly less water than traditional soil-based farming practices. Nitrate-rich water is pumped underneath plant beds to minimize evaporation and deliver nutrients straight to the plant’s roots. All the water—except what evaporates on the plant side—is continually recycled and reused through the facility’s closed-loop system, too.
Last April, Co-op Partners Warehouse started selling the St. Paul-grown greens to stores and restaurants across the Midwest, including Wedge Commuity Co-op, Mississippi Market, and Seward Co-op. For a company that often buys and transports large volumes of California-grown salad mixes throughout the Midwest, Co-op Partners Warehouse was happy to finally have a local option.
“Urban Organics is using a sustainable system for production. Our customers want to support this type of innovation in the food industry,” says Lori Zuidema, the sales manager at Co-op Partners. “It reduces the need to transport food across the country [and] our year-round reliance on California produce.”
Packaged greens at Urban Organics ready to be shipped to stores // Photo by Tj Turner
By the time California lettuce makes it to stores, Lori says it’s already often six days away from expiring. Thanks to Urban Organics’ proximity, its products last seven to 10 days longer on the shelf. Plus, the St. Paul company offers unique salad mixes—like the rosé blend, a mix of red lettuces—that she can’t find anywhere else.
Right now Urban Organics harvests up to 15,000 pounds of produce a month. That’s enough to fill 45,000 pre-packed salad containers for stores like Lunds & Byerlys. Annually, the St. Paul farm will also harvest 275,000 pounds of fish—either Atlantic salmon or Arctic char—for restaurants like Birchwood Cafe that want a local and sustainable protein option. Beyond food, Urban Organics is an investment in a neighborhood. By rehabbing spaces at two defunct breweries, the St. Paul business leveraged urban farming to create jobs and spur economic development.
“We don’t want to replace traditional farming. It should be complementary,” says Dave, who sees smaller, local farms like Urban Organics as an opportunity to conserve water, save on distribution costs, and expand traditional growing areas. “I think we can do a lot better.”
High-tech food, designed by data
An Urban Organics seed planting machine // Photo Tj Turner
Aside from leafy greens and fish, Urban Organics is a data farm. Hidden throughout Urban Organics’ facility are more than 100 probes and sensors programmed to measure the slightest shifts in water temperature, pH levels, and dissolved oxygen. From seed to shelf, Urban Organics can track a single plant throughout its 35-day life cycle. Harvest logs allow the team to monitor growing trends and see how the fish influence the plants and vice versa. Every day, each probe in the facility shoots off a report to the company’s central computer. Those small slices of information help Dave and his team understand how to improve the farm’s design to raise fish and grow produce in the most sustainable and efficient way possible.
“We’re still in some ways pioneering an industry. There is no playbook for this. We learn something on a daily basis,” says Dave. “Everything we’re doing here is being recorded, which is going to help us design the next better facility.”
That’s in part what made the first site at Hamm’s Brewery so valuable. After farming that location for more than two years, Urban Organics knew how to upgrade the blueprint of the Schmidt Brewery site. First, Urban Organics scaled up in size—from 8,000 square feet to 87,000 square feet. Then, it switched out its grow lights from compact fluorescents to LEDs. That change alone helped the company cut down on its biggest cost, electricity, by 40 percent. Last, Urban Organics got smarter about its water. At the Hamm’s site, water flowed from the fish tanks, to the sump, to the plants, and then back to the fish again. But Dave found that wasn’t ideal. If the pH in the water from the fish tanks spiked, it could cause the plants’ leaves to yellow. So Urban Organics devised a solution that allowed him to separate the system into two continuously looping water cycles. Dave can pump nutrient-rich water from the fish to the plants as they need it, giving him greater control to create the best water conditions for both sides.
“This is a world that requires a lot of iteration because it’s new,” says Fred, who credits the engineering strength and aquaponics experts at Pentair for putting Urban Organics in a league of its own. “Even though this idea of leveraging the symbiotic relationship between fish and plants has been around for millennia, the idea of using technology to do it is new.”
Urban Organic’s seedlings // Photo by Tj Turner
By early 2018, Dave plans to have the Urban Organics farm in St. Paul running at its full potential. His team hopes to harvest the first of the Arctic char this spring, and more than triple the amount of greens it cranks out each month. But that’s just the beginning. Dave and Fred are already plotting the next city they want to expand to and brainstorming the next iteration of Urban Organics: a facility powered entirely by solar energy.
“I don’t think we can stay the course with traditional farming as our population grows in hopes that we’re going to have healthy food 50 years from now,” says Dave. “I’m not saying we’ve cracked the code and others haven’t. We’re just doing our part to come up with a perfect solution.”
Filed Under: Arts and Culture, Homepage Featured, MakersTagged With: Aquaponics, craft culture, Dave Haider, Fred Haberman, Schmidt Brewery, Urban Organics
Feeding The Future of Agriculture With Vertical Farming
Hunger and malnutrition issues persist, especially in developing countries. Food scarcity problems have also been linked to political unrest and violence. According to the United Nations World Food Programme, record-high food prices in 2008 prompted riots in 48 countries, including fragile states like Somalia and Yemen.
Feeding The Future of Agriculture With Vertical Farming
The technology-driven model of agriculture may offer a means to address farm output and food security in the years to come.
By Mark Esposito, Terence Tse, Khaled Soufani, & Lisa Xiong
Dec. 27, 2017
Average global food prices have gone up by 2.6 percent annually in the past two decades. If that trend continues, not only does it threaten a baseline quality of life as more disposable income goes toward food, it also threatens our overall food security.
Hunger and malnutrition issues persist, especially in developing countries. Food scarcity problems have also been linked to political unrest and violence. According to the United Nations World Food Programme, record-high food prices in 2008 prompted riots in 48 countries, including fragile states like Somalia and Yemen.
Rising food costs reflect underlying trends leading to failures with traditional agriculture. Vertical farming, a technology-driven model of agriculture, may offer a means to address farm output and food security in the years to come, even if it may not impact food prices in the many months ahead.
Why is conventional farming frustrating us?
Field farming requires labor, amenable weather conditions, adequate sunshine for photosynthesis, irrigation, and often pesticides to protect crops. That hasn’t changed, but we can detect reasons why conventional farming is no longer working as well as it used to by using a framework we developed. While it may appear that the world’s economies are significantly affected by unforeseeable events, the DRIVE framework is based on the notion that certain interrelated large-scale processes, which drive the behavior of businesses, governments, and societies, also influence the future. By analyzing demographic and social changes, resource scarcity, inequalities, and volatility, scale, and complexity, we can forecast how the future may unfold. Analyzed together, these megatrends can reveal the root causes behind the shifts in conventional agriculture.
- Demographic and social changes
The global food supply cannot keep up with the growing global population. According to theFood and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, food production must increase by 70 percent before the year 2050 in order to meet global food needs. This growth must happen against a headwind—urbanization is taking over arable land while simultaneously pushing people away from farming as a profession.
- Resource scarcity
Agriculture sucks up 70 percent of our global water consumption, adding to its total cost. Given the estimate that half of the world’s population will experience water scarcity by 2030, agriculture’s production methods are unsustainable. Supply chain inefficiencies compound the scarcity effect. Perishable crops blemish and spoil during harvesting, packaging, processing, and distribution. According to a Natural Resources Defense Council report on food from field to fork to landfill, up to 40 percent of all crops are ultimately wasted.
- Inequality
In addition to longstanding problems with malnutrition and widespread poverty in developing countries, inequalities related to food prices have also arisen in industrialized countries. In places like the United States, the cost of fresh foods have led vulnerable populations to opt for fat- and sugar-laden processed foods with little nutritional value. The consequence of these food “choices” is a nationwide obesity epidemic as well as an increase in diet-related diseases like diabetes. At the other end of the spectrum, higher-income households are driving demand for more health-conscious “superfoods” like antioxidant-rich kale and protein-packed quinoa. As global food requirements and the costs of agriculture continue to rise, the prospects of improving health and nutrition conditions are dire for low-income families in industrialized and developing countries alike.
- Volatility
Agriculture remains one of the most vulnerable industries when it comes to natural disasters. Climate change has caused more frequent extreme weather events, which can damage an entire season’s worth of harvest. Higher temperatures are also leading to rampant spreading of crop pests. In addition, government policy can also affect food production and prices. For instance, in the United States ethanol mandates diverted corn fields used for food production to fuel production, and resulted in price hikes from $2 or $3 to $7 a bushel. Such forces, which determine the direction of price volatility, are here to stay.
Through the lens of the DRIVE framework, we can see how conventional agriculture alone will be unsustainable as a reliable and affordable source of food production.
Vertical farming born out of challenges
One answer to these food supply problems is emerging from high-tech structures to our dining tables. Vertical farming, a term coined by Dickson Despommier, is the practice of producing food in vertically-stacked layers. These “farms” make use of enclosed structures like warehouses and shipping containers to provide a controlled environment to grow crops in a hydroponic or aeroponic system. Electronic sensors ensure that crops receive the right amount of LED light, nutrients, and heat. The benefits include independence from arable land, year-round growing capacities, less water consumption, and improved crop predictability.
(iStock)
For example, AeroFarms, a 70,000-square-foot vertical farm in a renovated steel plant in New Jersey, claims 95 percent less water use and 390 times more productivity than a commercial field farm with the same square footage. The company Growtainer sells easy-to-operate 20- or 40-foot shipping containers set up as insulated hydroponic farms. The goal is to help communities grow leafy vegetables in the same places where they will be consumed, such as schools, food banks, restaurants, and military bases.
Vertical farms can help meet our growing population’s needs by offering an additional way to produce food that does not share the same volatility and risk as conventional agriculture. While vertical farms require less water and arable land than conventional farms, they are not carbon neutral. Their climate footprint depends heavily on the source from which they draw their electricity to power lighting and control the indoor environment. As renewable energy sources become adopted more widely, the carbon cost of vertical farming will continue decreasing. From a market perspective, it may not bring down prices, but on a societal level, the hope is that vertical farming can help address gaps in overall food demand where conventional agriculture fails.
Tasty prospects but not one-size-fits-all
The social, ecological, and economic promise of vertical farming has been embraced but not yet scaled. Due to various factors related to geographic location, cultural difference, political support, investor dynamics, and local agricultural market conditions, what works for the companies described above might not work for others entering vertical farming. Moreover, there are limitations to what plant species can be grown in an indoor environment. For instance, fruits and vegetables that have a lot of inedible weight, such as leaves, stems, and roots, would not make good use of vertical farming space or resources. For commercial farmers interested in expanding into vertical farming and social entrepreneurs who see potential for using vertical farming to address local food and hunger issues, there are ways to minimize the expensive learning curve and improve their chances of success:
Change the perception of the farming profession
Traditional farming has been characterized as labor-intensive and remote to a modern and urbanized lifestyle. In some places, farm work is associated with poverty and isolation, but in the vertical farm, farmers must be data analysts, bio-scientists, and system supervisors in addition to working with crops. Should urban farms continue to scale, this could result in displacement of existing low-skilled labor. Such a shift is typical of any major industry transformation—economists call this the rebound effect. Understanding this transformation in farming provides professionals who are either entering or already in the vertical farming industry with leverage when communicating the need to embrace vertical farming with different stakeholders.
Educate consumers
Vertical farming is not Frankenstein food, but might as well be without any efforts to educate the public. Companies can use promotional campaigns to clarify the value of non-field farming crops and educate consumers on the nutritional and environmental benefits of vertical farming. Food-tasting events can also provide consumers the opportunity to sample hydroponic and aeroponic produce and judge the taste for themselves.
Support local food economies
Governments and industry groups can be valuable allies who view local food production as economic development. In Canada, for example, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) actively supports a regional food strategy, with project support ranging from promotional campaigns to the creation of farmers markets and funding for agricultural companies to buy new equipment. With OMAFRA’s support, the sector added $1.3 billion in GDP and created more than 34,000 jobs between 2013 and 2015. Such government support is a sign that local food movements are a credible source of economic development with no signs of abating.
Encourage continued investment
Investors are essential to helping vertical farming scale. While some major investments in vertical farming are already happening—Silicon Valley startup Plenty recently received $200 million to support its global expansion—others may have to strategize a bit more, particularly since some vertical farm startups have failed in that same timeframe. AeroFarms, for instance, secured equity funding of $95.8 million by positioning itself not as a nontraditional farm but rather as “an urban agriculture and cleantech company.” Other trends that are attracting investment include using vertical farming technology to grow nutrient-specific crops likeFujitsu’s low-potassium lettuce.
Revamping the future of agriculture
Though vertical farms can never be expected to replace traditional farms, it is likely that they will have to complement each other if we are to meet the food demands of tomorrow. It is economically sensible, environmentally friendly, tech-savvy, and most importantly, health-sensitive. Vertical farming is not a fairytale; it is happening now.
Mark Esposito (@Exp_Mark) is a professor of business and economics at Hult International Business School and Grenoble Ecole de Management. He is a member of the teaching faculty at Harvard University’s Division of Continuing Education and a fellow in the Circular Economy Center at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge.
Terence Tse (@terencecmtse) is an associate professor at ESCP Europe and a research fellow at the Judge Business School. He is head of competitiveness studies at i7 Institute for Innovation and Competitiveness and a fellow in the Circular Economy Center at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge.
Khaled Soufani is a professor of management practice and director of the executive MBA program at the Judge Business School. He also directs the school’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies and the Circular Economy Center. His current research interests relate to fast-expanding markets and the economics of innovation.
Lisa Xiong is a doctoral candidate in business administration at Ecole des Ponts Business School. She is a teaching associate for business schools in Europe, the United Arab Emirates, and China. Her research interests cover inequalities, Chinese economic development, entrepreneurship, and open innovation. She researched vertical farming during a doctoral residency at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge.
UW Architectural Engineering Graduate Embarks on Exciting Career Path
UW Architectural Engineering Graduate Embarks on Exciting Career Path
December 20, 2017
Yara Thomas, a May 2017 UW graduate, is now working as an energy systems engineer for Plenty, a leading field-scale vertical farming company based in San Francisco. (Yara Thomas Photo)
Yara Thomas has always had a connection with the University of Wyoming, and it led to a life-changing opportunity this summer.
Originally from Jackson, Thomas took summer trips to the Laramie area to be near her grandmother, and her family spent time at a homestead near Arlington. She attended Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore., as a freshman. After a year, however, she had a change of heart and headed back to her home state.
“I chose to transfer to UW because of the incredible value for your education,” Thomas says. “I wanted to switch from physics, my original major, to engineering, which was not offered at Lewis & Clark. Additionally, I was an art major and was lucky enough to start at UW the year the new facility was open.”
The College of Engineering and Applied Science made an immediate impression on Thomas, who graduated with a degree in architectural engineering earlier this year.
“In my opinion, the best thing about engineering at UW is the incredible support that I received from the professors,” she says. “Because UW is still relatively small compared to other institutions, individuals with ambition and work ethic have almost unlimited opportunity to shine. Hard work is recognized and appreciated.”
Her hard work led to a chance to work for an up-and-coming company in California shortly after she graduated in May. Thomas now is an energy systems engineer in San Francisco with Plenty, after she was recruited by the company’s co-founder and Chief Science Officer Nate Storey, a UW graduate. Plenty is a leading field-scale vertical farming company.
“I was acquainted with the company this summer when Nate Storey reached out to me after hearing about my thesis research on sustainable greenhouse design,” Thomas says. “At Plenty, I work on the mechanical engineering team. I have been designing our unique air distribution system and aiding contracted engineers on heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment.
“Additionally, I build and coordinate models to represent energy flows through our system. These models will help to identify areas in which we can reduce our energy consumption and help to optimize our system.”
In summer 2017, Plenty acquired Laramie-based Bright Agrotech, a leader in vertical farming production system technology. Per a company press release, “Bright’s technology and industry leadership combined with Plenty’s own technology will help Plenty realize its plans to build field-scale indoor farms around the world, bringing the highest quality produce and healthy diets to everyone’s budget.”
Founded by Storey, Bright has partnered with small farmers for more than seven years to start and grow indoor farms, providing high-tech growing systems and controls, workflow design, education and software.
“We’re excited to join Plenty on their mission to bring the same exceptional quality local produce to families and communities around the world,” Storey says. “The need for local produce and healthy food that fits in everyone’s budget is not one that small farmers alone can satisfy, and I’m glad that, with Plenty, we can all work toward bringing people everywhere the freshest, pesticide-free food.”
Thomas didn’t necessarily envision working in her current industry while she was studying at UW. But, she definitely is embracing the chance to make a real difference for people and use her engineering degree to its full extent.
“I have found engineering to be one of the most reliable paths toward a job and rewarding career,” she says. “Architectural engineering particularly offers flexibility into civil, structural, architectural and MEP (mechanical, electrical and plumbing) professions.”
How 3D Printing is Transforming Urban Farming
How 3D Printing is Transforming Urban Farming
BEAU JACKSON DECEMBER 21, 2017
With limited green spaces and temperate environments, cities are a challenging habitat for growing herbs and vegetables. The perfect addition to any dish, high quality fresh produce often comes with a designer price tag too. With the help of 3D printing though, a number of projects are here to prove that it can be done – without costing the earth.
Farmshelf is a company based in Brooklyn, New York, that makes a living by setting up compact shelving units for plants. Installed in restaurants, homes and residential communities, each Farmshelf is realized by custom parts made on a desktop FDM 3D printer.
And, in a side project from Jake Clark, co-founder of North Dakota 3D printing hub Fargo 3D Printing, FDM technology is used to make an Indoor Garden that helps manage the water content of your carrots.
A touch of blue sky thinking
At Farmshelf, 3D printing has enabled the company to bring its products to market much faster than anticipated. The customizable, modular layout out of each shelving unit can be designed, tested and refined on site in a fraction of the time and cost that it would if relying on traditional manufacturing.
The company uses an Ultimaker 2+ 3D printer for product development, and Andrew Shearer, CEO and Co-Founder of Farmshelf, believes that the tech has been key to the company’s success. “As we approached prototyping all of these parts,” says Shearer, “Ultimaker proved to be a great solution,”
“For all the different needs we’ve had, from prototyping to small batch, short-run production parts, this technology enabled us to push forward our timelines, and keep this company on the fast track.”
Andrew Shearer, CEO and Co-Founder of Farmshelf tends to seedlings on 3D printed pods. Photo via Ultimaker
Shelving brackets and small plant pods capable of holding enough soil to root a seedling are made on the Ultimaker 2+.
In turn, FDM technology has enabled Shearer to rethink Farmshelf’s business model, and devote more time to blue-sky ideas. Shearer adds, “As a company, you can now look at 3D printing as a way to involve more people in the building process, and involve more in the prototyping and dreaming process, thanks to how easy it is.”
A 3D printed Farmshelf prototype plant pod. Photo via Ultimaker
Home farming
With simple single-part planter designs and a grow-your-own project, Fargo’s Jake Clark puts carrot farming in the hands of anyone with access to a 3D printer.
Noticing a trend for handy household projects on sites like Thingiverse and MyMiniFactory, Clark explains, “It started out as something to see if I can grow plants while using 3D printing.”
Design of Jake Clark’s Indoor Garden Carrot Pods. Image via Fargo 3D Printing
In the first iteration, it is possible to grow a batch of 49 carrots, each enclosed inside its own protective pod. Taking great care in the design of his Indoor Garden modules, Clark added a well at the bottom of each planter that allows for runoff if a carrot is over watered.
“I’m hoping to add additional things later next year once I get past the first growing cycle (~80days) such as automated watering,” he adds. In a step by step summary, he also details how home users can add a 132w LED to give sunlight to the plants, and manage day – night duration. The modules were designed with Fusion 360, and test printed on a MakerBot Replicator Z18.
The .stl files of Clark’s Indoor Garden can be found online here.
A complete 3D printed Indoor Garden. Photo by Jake Clark/Fargo 3D Printing
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Featured image shows an Ultimaker 2+ 3D printer used by Farmshelf. Photo via Ultimaker
Before ‘Plantscrapers’ Can Grow Food in The City, They’ll Need to Grow Money
Before ‘Plantscrapers’ Can Grow Food in The City, They’ll Need to Grow Money
By Dyllan Furness — December 24, 2017
When Hans Hassle imagines the future, he sees urban farms and office spaces growing side-by-side. He sees half-green high rises providing Stockholm with lettuce, spinach, and swiss chard. Herbs grow underground. During winter, heat from grow lamps is recovered to help heat the buildings. Employees might not smell the crops growing across the hall, but they breathe their filtered air and they’ll probably eat them for lunch.
“If we will farm the same way we do today, we will have to grow food in cities.”
Hassle envisions a similar scene in every big city. There might be more bok choy grown in Singapore or napa cabbage in Seoul. Crops may differ depending on a city’s tastes preferences and population density. But no city is exempt for being too tropical or too temperate. Hassle hopes his company, Plantagon, can provide solutions for any climate.
With the right infrastructure, major cities around the world may someday grow a fraction of their produce in towering “plantscrapers,” hybrid buildings that combine vertical farms with residential or business spaces. In fact, Hassle thinks they’ll have to.
GROWING CROPS FOR A GROWING WORLD
Agriculture accounts for over 37 percent of all land area use on Earth, according to the World Bank, and that figure is set to increase as the global population continues to rise, particularly within cities, where 80 percent of the population is projected to live by 2050.
“If we will farm the same way we do today, then the lack of land issue will be one reason to try to grow food inside cities,” Hassle tells Digital Trends. “That would put food as close to consumers as possible.”
Urban agriculture is practically as old as civilization itself, but locally-grown food movements have increased interest, as communities search for more sustainable ways to feed themselves.
Bringing crops closer to consumers means eliminating much of the financial and environmental strain caused by transportation, sometimes including thousands of miles between farm and table. But, since few cities have the real estate available to convert buildings into conventional farms, a handful of innovators are looking for solutions upwards and underground.
One such innovation is multilayered greenhouses called vertical farms, which can be erected in urban areas like skyscrapers.
“There’s little land [in cities] because most is already used,” Hassle says. “And you don’t want to use, for example, recreational areas. So if you start to discuss how to grow food with little land inside a dense city, then you end up talking rooftops, basements, and vertically.”
Unfortunately, real estate comes at premium in cities, even when a building’s footprint is relatively small. And that makes finding a profitable solution difficult.
Thomas Zöllner
“Making a commercial viability out of growing food in an urban setting is primarily challenged by the expense of the land that your building on,” Thomas Zöllner, Vice Chair of the non-profit association of Vertical Farming, says. “When you’re doing that calculation and you talk to real estate developers, they’ll quickly tell you that you have to generate quite a good return on investment with whatever you do in order to pay for this square footage.”
Plantagon plans to address that problem with by leveraging the proven side of real estate to support the economically risky urban agriculture side. Rather than developing buildings that are strictly dedicated to vertical farms, Plantagon is pushing for hybrid structures that could integrate with our living spaces, satisfying a number of needs and functioning as a symbiotic system. In other words, the main tenants might be office spaces or residences, while a portion of the building would be reserved for crops. The company uses the term “agritechture” to describe the process of weaving urban agricultural interests into contemporary architecture in an effort to meet local food demands.
THE PLANTAGON APPROACH
There are a lot of startups focusing on urban vertical farming in cities around the world. Besides its agritechture idea, Plantagon brings to the table a series of techniques to make the process more efficient. For example, the company has introduced a vertical production line that rotates crops from floor to ceiling as they grow. Working something like a merry-go-round, the system brings crops back to floor-level once they’ve grown for ease of harvesting. Its other innovations relate to energy and climate control.
“If you can’t reuse the energy that the LED lamps use, it’s difficult to compete with normal prices,” Hassle says. “But if we can reuse the energy if the supply chain is short enough, then we can compete with wholesale prices.”
“Vertical farming has still not been proven to be commercially viable.”
Vertical farms won’t replace conventional farms anytime soon. They’ll be limited by the kinds and quantity of crops they can grow while still turning a profit. For now, Plantagon has focused its efforts on leafy green and herds, but Hassle says, “We don’t want to develop all this technology to only grow herbs for people. That won’t solve the upcoming food crisis.”
Plantagon boasts that its technology has “infinite scalability,” which is to say it’s constrained only by the size of the buildings themselves. Still, implementing such systems is expensive and developers proably won’t be very keen to allocate half of their shiny new building to food production without proof of profitability.
“Vertical farming has still not proven that you can make a living growing food on multiple layers,” Zöllner says. “It’s proven that you can do it on a single layer with the help of LEDs or other lights sources, but it hasn’t been proven that you can do this from a grower’s perspective on a multilayer.”
Other experts agree that vertical farming shows promise but lacks evidence as a sustainable, large-scale approach for the future of food. To Hassle’s own calculations, vertical farms may only supply ten to fifteen percent of our future produce needs. While that helps, it certainly won’t feed the planet.
GROWING PAINS
At least two more challenges face Plantagon and the vertical farming industry at large, according to Zöllner — the needs for labor and food safety standards.
“Today, the real challenge for a vertical farm trying to scale is finding people to run, direct, and operate it,” he says. “And to find enough people willing to stick to the job, doing simple things like harvesting.” Still, in the not so distant future, automated machines may well take on the workload.
As for food safety, Zöllner thinks that a vertical farm’s apparent cleanliness could lull operators into a false sense of security.
“The vertical farm space is a very clean space, it will be less chemically intensive than a lot of the conventional agriculture, but it also creates and environment where you have a lot of issues with bacteria growth,” he says. “The moment a company sells something that gets a consumer sick, that will be a real blow to the industry. They’ll have to start planning now with conventional food safety on hand to try to prevent a disastrous outcome like that.”
Zöllner has followed Plantagon for a few years and says he’s been impressed with the company’s unique approach, but is careful not to get too enthusiastic.
“It’s interesting,” he says, “the dimension of a vision combined with resources and translating them into something feasible. The sad part is they haven’t yet built their building.”
Despite the buzz it’s created, Plantagon has struggled to erect its plantscrapers in the real world. The company broke ground on its “World Food Building” in 2012, but the project remains in slow progress. Located a couple hours south of Stockholm, in the city of Linköping, the World Food Building is designed as a massive greenhouse and office space that Plantagon says will produce 500 metric tons of food annually once fully functional. Earlier this month, the company also launched a crowdfunding campaign called CityFarms, a series of underground farming operations in Stockholm.
The world might not yet need Plantagon and its technology, but Hassle plans to be there once it does. “The challenge for us being so early in development, is to implement the technology with the market now before it really needs these big scale vertical farms,” he says. By then, Hassle hopes to see his vision come to fruition.
Why Engineer Ajay Naik Sold His Successful Startup To Become A Hi-Tech Farmer
Letcetra Agritech is a hydroponics farm that occupies just 150 square metres of space but grows three tonnes of lettuce a month.
Why Engineer Ajay Naik Sold His Successful Startup To Become A Hi-Tech Farmer
Rakhi Chakraborty December 23, 2017
Letcetra Agritech is a hydroponics farm that occupies just 150 square metres of space but grows three tonnes of lettuce a month.
“I am an early adopter. Early adopters of any new technology are few and far between, but in business, there is no reward without risk. The ones who can see the vision when no one else can, and work on it like there is no tomorrow, will succeed. The rest will follow,” says Ajay Naik, the Founder of Letcetra Agritech Pvt. Ltd.
Founded in 2016 and built at the intersection of agriculture and technology, Letcetra Agritech grows organic vegetables using hydroponics and sells them across hotel chains, supermarkets and farmers markets. “We also help set up commercial hydroponic farms for large-scale growers,” says Ajay.
Second Innings
Ajay had a successful mobile apps company which he sold to a German firm. For his second innings in the startup game, he chose a field radically opposite to his background of software engineering – agriculture. Although since he is an engineer, it was a given that his farming enterprise would be a technological one as well.
“I was looking for agricultural technologies that help grow organic food and I came across hydroponics, in which one can grow healthy food without using soil in a controlled environment with very less land, water, and labour. After doing research for two months, I decided to start a hi-tech vertical hydroponics indoor farm to grow top-quality pesticide-free exotic vegetables,” says Ajay.
Hydroponics
Apart from enabling the growth of produce that is 20-30 percent higher on quality than traditional agriculture allows, hydroponics also helps save water and resources during farming. Using hydroponics, one can grow crops in any environment- be it sterile unproductive lands or bustling urban centres. “It helps cutting down on expensive intermediaries and shipping costs and reducing our carbon footprint. It is user-friendly so that any grower with a will can apply it successfully,” he had stated in a previous interview.
Experts estimate that earth has only sixty years of topsoil left. If the current trend of destructive agricultural practices continues, we will not be able to grow food in six decades’ time. Our population is booming while our ability to feed that population is fast deteriorating. Hydroponics can be a viable alternative to this looming crisis. For now, Ajay is one of the few pioneers of this system in India.
ALSO READ: How these guerrilla gardeners are reclaiming urban spaces to grow food
Letcetra Agritech
Ajay says, “After seeing the lack of technology in farming, I wanted to understand the economics of the business. After assessing that I plunged headlong. In all this, we have always wanted to be farmers who use technology to grow pesticide-free, high quality, and affordable vegetables. Our success will always be measured by how much we grow versus how much we earn.”
Ajay’s indoor farm occupies an area of 150 square metres in which he grows three tonnes of lettuce a month. His company’s name Letcetra is a cheeky derivative of lettuce. “Lettuce etc.,” he says. In the future, he plans on adding more variety of crops, but for now, lettuce and salad greens are a good return on his investment. “Goa is a conducive place to start a farm, as the state sees visitors from all over the world and they all have a need to be served fresh and high-quality vegetables,” he says.
Business Model, Revenue, and Growth
Though a hydroponics farm assures financial returns in the long run, setting one up is an expensive affair. For thosesetting up a hydroponic farm in a poly house, the initial investment is approximately Rs 560 per square foot. The majority of this goes towards setting up pumping systems and electrical equipment.
For those setting up their farm indoors, the expense is considerably higher at approximately Rs 3500 per square foot. This is because you’ll be swapping sunlight for LED lights and air conditioners and heaters for temperature control. Ajay found growing exotic vegetables a quick way to recoup his investments. Given the perennial demand for fresh and organic salad greens, he is confident his lettuces will continue to pave the path to profitability.
“As of now, I have two investors, whose angel investment was key to our development. On the operational cost front, we are profitable even though we are just a year old. As for the rest we expect to break-even in a year from now. We are expanding to a bigger farm now and also in the process of expanding to Bengaluru. We want to become the largest producers of pesticide-free vegetables in India. We are expanding, and targeting a production of five tons of pesticide-free exotic vegetables per day by the first quarter of 2019,” says Ajay.
Personal Journey
There are two key challenges Ajay has faced while becoming a successful hydroponics farmer. One has been fighting the status quo. He says, “The hardest part of becoming an entrepreneur is keeping yourself motivated to keep fighting. When you are trying something, which no one has dared to try before, everyone around you will tell you that you are taking a foolish risk. Keeping yourself going is very important.”
The second has been finding people who connect with his vision. “Even with all the difficulties, I am happy with what I am doing as I am being able to live my dreams while making a positive difference in our society,” he adds.
Having overcome many rigorous obstacles since starting Letcetra Agritech, Ajay is gearing up to face an equally demanding but bright future. He says, “The executive chef of one of the most reputed seven-star hotel chains in India told us after tasting our lettuce that we have cracked the formula to grow the best lettuce in India. We have a very bright future. We are a country whose population is rapidly growing and we are here to feed this behemoth. We are working very hard on research and trying to make sure we can get the formula right at scale, which will be a great investment.”
India is an agrarian country but the exploitative agriculture industry is seen as the least lucrative of livelihoods. With millennials like Ajay marrying technology with the traditional, one hopes that such ventures appeal to the young upstarts looking to make a positive difference in the world through their work. Ajay’s advice for them: “I believe in what LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman said – ‘Entrepreneurs are those who jump off the cliff and build a plane on their way down.’ If you are seeking to make a switch, just jump.”
How This Startup Produces 700 Tonnes of Fruits and Vegetables Without Soil
Triton Foodworks started as an experiment in urban farming in September of 2014 by four friends — Deepak Kukreja, Dhruv Khanna, Ullas Samrat, and Devanshu Shivnani.
How This Startup Produces 700 Tonnes of Fruits and Vegetables Without Soil
Foraying into urban farming, a group of friends has set up a green enterprise that is based on hydroponics.
There is growing concern in urban and semi-urban areas about the dangers of the pesticide-ridden food that is sold in the market.
Following the Green Revolution in the mid-1960s, the use of pesticides in India has increased. Although the period saw the boom in agriculture like never before, the flip side of this revolution has left the country consuming poisonous food. Food production in large quantities at the cost of their health has made people wary and look for alternatives.
In the confines of an urban setting, four youngsters from Delhi are venturing into hydroponics to provide an organic and healthier option for the urban populace.
Hydroponics is the method of growing plants in a water-based, nutrient-rich medium, without the use of soil. This method essentially cuts down the amount of water being used compared to the method in which plants are grown in soil. In some cases, up to 90 percent less water is used in the hydroponics method compared to the traditional soil-based agriculture — a boon for water-starved urban areas. One can plant four times the number of crops in the same space as soil farming.
An Experiment In Urban Farming
Triton Foodworks started as an experiment in urban farming in the September of 2014 by four friends — Deepak Kukreja, Dhruv Khanna, Ullas Samrat, and Devanshu Shivnani.
In early 2014, Ullas was exploring ways to develop his agricultural land in Mohali for his mother, who suffers from ILD, a degenerative disorder of the lungs. When the doctors told him that life on a farmhouse would in fact be counterintuitive for his mother due to dust and other issues related to farming, he became obsessed with finding a way to farm in a clean and hygienic manner.
Dhruv, who was in Singapore at the moment working on his tech startup, wanted to come back to India and start something here. On a catch-up call, the two got discussing how much fun it would be to start a business together; especially something that made sense economically and ecologically. Following a lot of research, they zeroed in on hydroponic farming, something that connected with both of them. Dhruv visited a few hydroponic farms in Singapore to see firsthand how it works. Ullas met Deepak online while researching on hydroponics. The team quickly realized that to make this thing big, they needed a formal structure and a financial disciple — which is when Devanshu was roped in.
“We were just a bunch of friends who wanted to do something in the space of food and agriculture. We were very excited by the opportunities of rooftop farming and farming within the limits of the city. We did a pilot to grow strawberries in Sainik Farm of Delhi. We used an open system with vertical towers to grow eight tonnes of strawberries out of 500 sqm of land. Eventually, we decided against setting rooftop farms due to feasibility issues. Instead, we set up full scale, commercial farms in the outskirts of cities,” says 38-year-old Deepak, technical Co-founder, who takes care of the farming aspect of the business.
Like any bootstrapped startup, Triton Foodworks also faced a huge number of issues at every step. Their farm at the Sainik Farm was demolished by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) because the team refused to pay a bribe.
“We went to the Delhi government to ask for some sort of help in setting up farms in Delhi; we were called ‘food terrorists’ to our face. Quite a few vendors still owe us money for our early projects, something which is a huge issue in this industry. We had no previous data to map our progress against, no previous players who could be used as a yardstick in the field,” says 27-year-old Devanshu, who takes care of the finances and the financial modelling for the business.
Taking Hydroponics Ahead
“Toxic food is the biggest issue we are trying to resolve. People don't realise how toxic their food really is. We don't use chemical pesticides for our plants. The second issue is the fact that we are running out of land and water to grow food. Lastly, we are addressing the problem of traceability, consistency and, by extension, accountability in farming. You buy a bag of chips and you can trace it back to the field in which the potatoes were grown, but if you pick up a tomato from your vegetable vendor, there is no way to know where it came from, who harvested it, when was it harvested, and what all did he put in it to grow. We are teaching people to ask these questions by offering them answers even before they realise this information is important,” says 27-year-old Dhruv, who looks after operations and marketing.
The team relies on Ayurvedic recipes and bio control to fight off pests and other infections, as an alternative to pesticides and insecticides. The team grows the same amount of food grown under conventional farming with just about one-eighth of the area and using 80 percent less water.
The team has successfully set up more than 5 acres of hydroponic farms across three locations in India. The strawberry farm in Mahabaleshwar grows 20 tonnes of strawberries a year and a 1.25 acres facility in Wada district of Maharashtra that produces about 400 tonnes of tomatoes, 150 tonnes of cucumbers, 400 heads of spinach, and over 700 bunches of mint.
Triton also operates an acre facility in Shirval, Pune that grows tomatoes and cucumbers, which are used to feed farmers' markets in Pune. The team also advises companies in Hyderabad, Manesar and Bengaluru that are interested in incorporating hydroponics.
Triton currently has over 200,000 sqft of area under hydroponic cultivation in various locations in the country. Using hydroponics, it produces more than 700 tonnes of residue-free fruits and vegetables every year.
“Our systems enable us to save around 22 crore litres of water per year as compared to traditional agriculture. In terms of volume, our vertical systems grow food comparable to 10,00,000 sqft of land when using traditional agriculture methods, which translates into a saving of more than 800,000 sqft of land to grow the same amount of food. Since our farms are located within a 100-km radius from cities, our produce carries lesser food miles,” says 27-year-old Ullas.
The team is currently in the process of setting up stalls in farmers' markets in Pune and Mumbai.
Tokyo Rail Operator Explores 'Train To Table' Urban Farming
As urban farming becomes increasingly popular across the globe, Tokyo's most-used rapid transit system, Tokyo Metro, is dabbling in hydroponic farming in an unused warehouse space below the system’s elevated transit lines.
Tokyo Rail Operator Explores 'Train To Table' Urban Farming
BY TESSA LOVE
December 20, 2017
As urban farming becomes increasingly popular across the globe, Tokyo's most-used rapid transit system, Tokyo Metro, is dabbling in hydroponic farming in an unused warehouse space below the system’s elevated transit lines.
The project, called Tokyo Salad, takes the idea of urban farming to the next level. Celebrated as a way to save resources by bringing food closer to the people who consume it, urban farming often takes place on rooftops or the walls of hip restaurants. Tokyo Salad, however, is both using an under-utilized space and growing food where millions of people pass through every day.
The Tokyo Salad facility houses 400 plants of 11 varieties of greens, including basil, kale and lettuces. The greens are grown without the use of soil or fertilizers under LED lights that shine on the plants 16 hours a day. The plants are watered with a mist that contains necessary minerals such as zinc, phosphorous and potassium.
Hydroponic farming has many benefits. It reduces energy and water use, creates a perennial food system, and can be done anywhere. But Tokyo Salad says it's system is even more sophisticated: It can turn seeds to greens in just five weeks with a method that it's calling a "trade secret," and though the plants are growing beneath a railway system, its operation is "uber-hygienic."
Like in most parts of the world, urban and hydroponic farming is just getting off the ground in Japan and won't change the food system on a mass scale quite yet. For now, most of Tokyo Salad’s customers are high-end restaurants in Tokyo, not the food halls and mom-and-pops that make up most of the country's food system. But nonetheless, this style of farming could help solve some of the problems that are unique to Japan.
Japan's population is decreasing and is expected to continue decreasing in the coming years. The country's farming population is aging out of the business, but a new generation of farmers isn't stepping to take their place. Farm lands are being abandoned as more young people move to the urban centers, creating a shortage of home-grown food in the country.
Innovations like Tokyo Salad offer solutions to these problems on several fronts. By taking place in a city, urban farming can attract a new generation of workers that don't want to live in rural areas while also regenerating the supply of locally grown food. On top of that, the fact that Tokyo Metro is taking this on shows an innovation for a business that is based on high populations—with the popultion dropping, metro ridership will drop, forcing railway operators to consider supplemental businesses to stay up-and-running.
"Technology could help Japan scale up its local food production, especially if unused spaces long assumed hostile to raising food, like old warehouses, can increasingly do so cost effectively and at a profit," according to Triple Pundit. "And if that technology transfer can move across borders and become affordable, urban farming could feed the world and create a new wave of jobs."
Growing lettuce in unused parts of a train station just might be the answer.
High-Tech Shipping Crates, Precision Technology Poised To Revolutionize Urban Ag
December 19, 2017
Image credit: Freight Farms
Between a growing global population — which is estimated to reach 9.5 billion by 2050 — rapid urbanization and climate change, shifting agricultural to a more sustainable model is essential for safeguarding the future of our food system. Startups in the United States and Singapore are ready to rise to the challenge, championing food sustainability through new technologies and infrastructure solutions designed with urban environments in mind.
Reconnecting consumers with their food is a critical component of future-fitting the food system, but heading straight to the source — farms themselves — isn’t always an option. To close the gap, Boston-based startup Freight Farms developed the Leafy Green Machine (LGM), a refrigerated shipping container repurposed as an indoor hydroponic food growing unit.
The 40-foot containers can be installed just about anywhere — schools, corporate campuses, restaurants, hospitals, retail stores, etc. — and are capable of growing between two to four tons of produce a year (as much as a 1.7-acre farm). The controlled environment eliminates the need for herbicides and pesticides, and the system uses 90 percent less water than traditional farming methods — approximately one gallon per week.
What’s more, Leafy Green Machines use only about 120 kWh of electricity a week — the same as a family of four — to run its heating, cooling, lighting and irrigation systems. A smartphone app is used to monitor and control the growing process. In total, it only takes around 20 hours a week to care for the 9,000 plants housed within the LGM.
High schools in Rhode Island have begun exploring the idea of adding Leafy Green Machines to their campuses in an effort to incorporate fresh, organic produce into their school lunch offerings and teach students about sustainable food production. Cumberland High School has already installed one of the systems. According to Clean Technica, students will be involved in the maintenance of the farm and Sodexo will serve the farm-fresh food in the school cafeteria. Similar projects have also been rolled out at the Boston Latin School, Georgia State University, Stonybrook University and UMASS Dartmouth.
Leafy Green Machines are also being deployed by small businesses and soil farmers: The system is at the heart of Houston-based startup Acre in Box, which supplies kale and lettuces to local restaurants, and helped Karma Farm in Monkton, MD diversify its crops and expand its operations. The farm now supplies local farm-to-table restaurants in the Baltimore area with fresh and local produce.
Meanwhile, a new food sustainability accelerator in Singapore is helping startups bring their sustainable food solutions to scale.
A joint initiative of social impact startup incubator UNFRAMED and the Croeni Foundation, an environmental NGO, Makanpreneur is a four-month holistic training program that offers startups tackling food sustainability challenges comprehensive support from seasoned entrepreneurs and industry experts, training, funding and networking opportunities to develop sustainable food alternatives.
Two of the four startups selected for the program are focusing their efforts on enhancing food-system resiliency in Singapore via local production and precision technology.FarmX is harnessing the power of blockchain and IoT to create a precision farming technology that allows farmers to communicate with their plants. Sensors collect real-time data on temperature, humidity, soil moisture and nutrients, which farmers can access on their smartphones. The data can then be used to help urban growers increase productivity, reduce costs and reduce the likelihood of crop failure. Ecolution is also using precision agriculture technologies to take polyculture farms to the next level by boosting productivity and competitive advantage.
The Makanpreneur accelerator program will run until 28 March 2018, when participating startups will present their ideas to an audience of key players in the food industry and impact investment space. Winners will receive up to $10,000 in funding from the Croeni Foundation to scale their solutions.
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