Welcome to iGrow News, Your Source for the World of Indoor Vertical Farming
Vertical Farming: The Potential Climate Benefits May Stack Up, But Is It A Distraction?
Vertical Farming: The Potential Climate Benefits May Stack Up, But Is It A Distraction?
Credit: Crop One Holdings
- 04 July 2018
The world's largest vertical farm is to be built in Dubai backed by $40m investment, but is this the future for agriculture or a distraction from more pressing climate problems?
Vertical farming: eco-friend or foe? Well, the first thing to say - to invoke Jez from Peep Show - is that it is not pyramiding selling.
No, whatever the name might imply to the suspicious and unacquainted, 'vertical farming' isn't, to its proponents at least, an obtuse money-grabbing scam. What it actually refers to is the growing of fruit, vegetables, and medicinal ingredients on stacks of shelves indoors using artificial light and nutrient solutions, negating the need for sunshine and soil.
Now, to some cannabis dealers in high-rise buildings the general concept may not seem particularly novel, but the idea that large numbers of humans can actually be fed from indoor cultivation has risen to much wider prominence over the past decade, thanks in part to huge advances in hydroponics - aka growing plants using nutrient solutions instead of soil - and sunlight-mimicking LED technology.
At first glance, the concept sounds a potential game-changer for action on climate change and world hunger. After all, the planet is already rapidly warming, bringing with it increased risks of drought, devastating storms, soil erosion, flooding, and crop failure, all of which impact global supply chains and hit some of the world's most climate vulnerable, agriculture-reliant economies.
Surely, then, by cultivating crops inside multi-story buildings we can protect them from these extremes, while also potentially reducing pressure on land-use, boosting biodiversity, and opening up opportunities for rewilding in rural areas elsewhere? Indeed, unlike crops exposed to the elements outside, vertical farms aren't subservient to the seasons, thus promising year-round production with little risk of crop failure. What's more, supporters of the technology point to lower water usage, a reduction in fossil-fuelled farming machinery, no pesticides or herbicides, and the opportunity to bring food production closer to growing urban populations where it is needed.
Yet detractors highlight suspiciously strong interest from Silicon Valley tech investors and water-scarce petrostates in the Middle East as evidence that vertical farming is merely a power grab for a means of production that could hurt developing economies while also putting yet more distance between humans and nature.
Moreover, despite its many promised green benefits, vertical farming remains a niche concern that has never quite taken off, largely because property, energy, and technology costs make commercialization difficult. But might that be about to change?
Last week, vertical farm operator Crop One Holdings announced a $40m joint venture with Emirates Flight Catering to later this year begin constructing the world's largest vertical farming facility close to Dubai South airport in the UAE. At 130,000sq ft and 50ft high, it is envisaged the facility will be able to harvest up to 2,700kg of pesticide-free leafy greens each day for use in, essentially, airline meals.
According to Sonia Lo, Crop One CEO, the facility is commercially viable because of its scale, low-cost base, falling LED costs, and because the leafy greens market, in the US at least, is projected to grow from around $8bn to $50bn in the coming years.
In the not too distant future, she says, costs will continue to fall and vertical farming could account for more than half of our leafy greens as well as potentially helping to grow certain types of strawberries, rice, coffee, and vanilla.
"This farm is definitely a Rubicon for the industry as a whole because we are transitioning from these little dinky, pilot-scale farms to a major industrial-scale farm," Lo tells BusinessGreen.
Many, however, remain unconvinced of the concept's potential to scale in any significant way, and once you dig below the surface, it becomes easier to see why. After all, architects, city planners, and tech investors may be excited by the idea, but it still seems a long way from playing a serious role in feeding the world, let alone making a sizeable dent in agriculture's estimated six billion gigatons annual greenhouse gas contribution. Surely a better use of the money and effort being invested in vertical farming would be better spent on reducing humanity's reliance on livestock - the agriculture sector's biggest single environmental impact by far, and one to which vertical farming offers no obvious solution?
Tim Lang, professor of food policy and City University London, certainly doesn't mince his words on the subject, describing vertical farming as "ludicrous", "hyped-up", and a "speculative investment" that will merely end up growing flavorless fruit and vegetables. "Let's be realistic, this is a technology looking for a justification, it is not a technology one would invest in and develop if it wasn't for the fact that we are screwing up on other fronts," he tells BusinessGreen. "This is anti-nature food growing."
Costs of production are certain to drop, but at present vertical farming does indeed seem a highly expensive means of cultivation compared to simply growing food in the ground using sunlight. But either way, the issue does raise fundamental questions about how the human race will feed itself in a future likely hit by less predictable weather and resource scarcities.
Some of the potential benefits of vertical farming are hard to argue with, but in fighting so hard to make it commercially viable we may fail to consider its negative impacts, both on nature and our society, and miss the far lower hanging fruit in developing more climate-friendly and resilient outdoor farming methods.
Vertical farming may not be a money-grabbing scam, but without proper pause for thought about its consequences, it could be a worrying distraction.
A Dallas-Based Company Is Aiming For A Vertical Revolution In Farming
A Dallas-Based Company Is Aiming For A Vertical Revolution In Farming
BY ROBERT PHILPOT
June 28, 2018
CLEBURNE - Not far from the southern end of Chisholm Trail Parkway is a side road with the kind of warehouse-style buildings you might drive by without even thinking about them, although it's pretty hard not to notice the Wal-Mart distribution center.
Across from the center is a fairly anonymous-looking structure, with a large greenhouse near the road. Inside the greenhouse are rows and rows of produce — romaine, kale, bok choy, mustard greens — stretching from front to back and, more unusually, from the floor to nearly the ceiling.
Each plant has its own perch, and sits vinelike on 18-foot-tall pipes. On each perch, a small stream of water reaches each plant — and each plant has its own microclimate. And that is one of the unique things about Eden Green Technology, the Dallas-based "vertical-farming" company behind the Cleburne facility.
"We control the microclimate of [each] plant," says Gentry Beach, co-chairman of Eden Green. "It's almost like, think if you had air-conditioning in your house, but it was only one foot around you. You wouldn't need to air-condition your whole house — just right around you."
It can be a little hard to wrap your head around, even after company executives conducted a tour showing how the system works: The technology uses nutrient-filled water, which comes not from Cleburne's water system but from condensation inside the greenhouse, and employs sunlight instead of LED lights, which saves on energy.
The greenhouse captures carbon gas that plants absorb for fuel.
Agronomist Allie Daniels tends the crops at the launch of Eden Green Technology's Cleburne facility.Rodger Mallison rmallison@star-telegram.com
Company officials say the technology will allow for 10 to 15 harvests a year, compared with two or three for conventional farms, meaning that fresher produce will be on shelves year-round. They add that the system will also reduce produce contamination, since produce is planted, picked and packed at the facility and kept cold till it's delivered to a retail distributor.
It's not a coincidence that there's a Wal-Mart distribution center across the street. Wal-Mart is Eden Green's first big retail partner, and part of Eden Green's philosophy is to build near its partners' distribution centers, so that produce can be delivered the day it's harvested. At a Wednesday morning preview event, the company introduced Crisply, a pesticide/herbicide/chemical-free produce line scheduled to debut July 15 in Texas Wal-Mart stores. Beach says that the initial rollout will be about 20 stores, but then it will expand to 100 stores and then more.
"Lots of people have tried to do small, urban things, you know, stuff in shipping containers," Beach says. "We wanted this to be a product for the masses. People'd say, 'Why'd you start with Wal-Mart? They're the everyday low-price guys. You've got a premium product.' I said, 'We want to give this to everyone.' "
The growth of an idea
Eden Green was formed about a year ago in Dallas, but its roots stretch back to several years ago in South Africa. According to a brief introductory speech by co-chairman Jaco Booyens (a South Africa native who has lived in Dallas for several years), it began with the vision of two brothers, Jacques and Eugene Van Buuren, from South Africa.
The brothers had rented a bounce house and brought it to an orphanage in their home country. They were handing out candy to children and they noticed that one little boy kept coming back for candy, but instead of eating it, he would stuff it in his pockets.
One of the brothers asked the little boy why he wasn't eating the sweets immediately. "He said, 'It's not my day to eat,' " Booyens said, relating the tale. "And he explained to Jacques and Eugene that it was his 3-year-old sister's day to eat. So while he was ... at the jumping castle, having fun, he was going to take that candy back to the rural village to feed his sister."
Believing that no one should go hungry, the brothers were inspired to come up with a way of producing nutrient-rich food that was quickly accessible to everyone. They spent at least eight years developing a vertical-farm technology.
Jacques van Buuren, chief operating officer of Eden Green Technology, and company co-chair Jaco Booyens give a tour of the Cleburne greenhouse at the launch of Eden Green, a Dallas-based "next-generation vertical farming company" that has plans to grow nationwide. Rodger Mallison rmallison@star-telegram.com
During that time, Booyens and Beach, who had also been looking at vertical farming for a number of years, met the Van Buurens. The Dallas residents flew to South Africa to discuss a business plan with the brothers, and the Van Buurens made trips to America. Jacques Van Buuren is now the company's chief operating officer; Eugene is the co-chief technology officer.
Part of the company's mission is a program called First Fruits, in which it will donate the first portion of every harvest to local communities in need. The North Texas Food Bank will be its first U.S. recipient.
More than 40 varieties of produce
Although Booyens told the Van Buurens' story, they were at the preview, and Jacques Van Buuren helped lead a brief tour of the greenhouse.
"We've got nutrients running from the top," Van Buuren said, standing amid one of the rows of 18-foot-tall pipes. "We control temperatures, humidity, everything a plant requires. But we do it for every individual plant. The moment that we can create this environment, we can do something unique. We're not heating up or cooling down the whole greenhouse."
Trey Thomas, CEO of Eden Green, was also on the tour and added that there are more than 40 varieties of produce growing in the greenhouse right now — but that's because of demand. "We can grow an unlimited amount of varietals," he said. "Each different vine can be a different varietal. We can actually blend some of the vines."
According to Thomas, a normal farm grows about one plant per square foot; an Eden Green vine is effectively one square foot. "If you think about a normal farm, you'd have a plant here, a plant there at ground level," he said. "We have an 18-foot-tall vine, with 36 plants on each vine. Because we don't use herbicides or pesticides or any harmful chemicals, we're able to do this in 27 to 32 days."
Samples of produce were available, both as straight leaf and in hors d'oeuvre-style samples. A mustard green started off with an herb like taste, then unleashed its mustard flavor, which finished with an almost wasabi-level kick. A chocolate-mint leaf might not have had the force of an Andes mint, but definitely had a chocolate flavor that came through. A take on a tomato-mozzarella salad got an earthy punch from its tomatoes. Dallas chef Tiffany Derry, who has appeared as a contestant on "Top Chef" and "Top Chef All-Stars" made a healthy, gingery green juice using ingredients grown in the greenhouse.
Booyens said that the Cleburne facility — currently 44,000 square feet with plans to grow to a million — grows the most food per square foot on the planet. The company hopes to add similar facilities nationwide and even worldwide.
"We are able to do what you see here today in every climate zone on the planet," Booyens said. 'We can do this in the Abu Dhabi desert ... and we're excited to announce that we will be going to the Caribbean this year." He added that strategic locations are planned throughout the United States.
As enthusiastic as Eden Green officials are about their technology, they're also continually working to improve it. "Things are still evolving," said Beach, the co-chairman. "We're kind of like Johnny Appleseed. We had a seed, now we have a dream."
Greenhouses shelter produce growing in high-tech vertical racks at Eden Green Technology in Cleburne. Rodger Mallison rmallison@star-telegram.com
Growing a Greener World Awarded Emmy For Green Bronx Machine Episode
Atlanta, Georgia: On June 16, 2018, the long-running Sustainability Television Program Growing a Greener World® received a Daytime Emmy Award® for its powerful episode The Green Bronx Machine.
This is the broadcast’s first Emmy win. The honor comes on the heels of Growing a Greener World receiving the coveted 2017 Pioneer Taste Award® in April.
The mission of the show has always been to help others grow a greener world themselves – through gardening, responsible environmental stewardship and building healthy communities. In 2007, Growing a Greener World explored a non-profit organization known as The Green Bronx Machine and instantly knew this was a story needing to be told.
Moved by emotion at the love and care he witnessed during filming, Executive Producer and show host Joe Lamp’l, states “After filming over 100 episodes of Growing a Greener World®, I don’t think we’ve ever told a story that’s impacted me more emotionally than this one.”
Mr. Lamp’l is referring to the compelling story of educator, entrepreneur and self-proclaimed “People Farmer,” Stephen Ritz, who came from and returned to the Bronx to heal, to show love toward and to nurture generations of school children growing up in this difficult district. His thunderbolt idea, which ultimately formed The Green Bronx Machine, was to utilize gardening in the classroom to improve the lives of inner city youth.
And improve lives it has. In a community where it’s easier to get liquor than lettuce, Mr. Ritz’s non-profit has helped high school attendance improve from 40% to 93% and has reduced behavioral incidents and out-of-classroom time by a whopping 50% in the elementary school in which he teaches.
This humble man with unparalleled charismatic, infectious energy has changed the landscape of students’ lives through tireless 12-hour days where “Garden Time with Mr. Ritz” is always in eager demand. The kids are taught the botany, the biology, and the history of the fruits and veggies they grow in a way that sparks fascination and new-found ownership of the joy of growing food that is improving eating habits and helping create healthy food relationships.
And as the children love and nurture the plants they’re raising, the plants reward them with tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, lettuce, and apples to be eaten during school lunch and taken home to their families. The sense of accomplishment and taste for success that is borne of this symbiotic relationship will carry into the rest of these kids’ lives.
The Green Bronx Machine is truly breaking new ground in the world of education. This investment of passion for our food source isn’t just working, it’s creating one person(al) miracle at a time.
The Growing a Greener World® series featuring this remarkable program will continue to resonate with future audiences, and future seasons will remain dedicated to telling these impactful stories of people creating change.
The Emmy Award-Winning episode The Green Bronx Machine can be viewed at:
https://www.growingagreenerworld.com/episode-808-green-bronx-machine/
Dubai Is Getting The World's Largest Vertical Farm — And It Will Grow Produce For The World's Largest International Airport
Dubai Is Getting The World's Largest Vertical Farm — And It Will Grow Produce For The World's Largest International Airport
Crop One Holdings' vertical farm in Massachusetts. Credit: Crop One Holdings
July 5, 2018
- Crop One Holdings, a Silicon Valley food startup, and Emirates Flight Catering (EKFC), one of the world's largest airline catering operators, plan build a 130,000-square-foot vertical farm in Dubai.
- Vertical farms grow crops indoors and year-round without natural sunlight or soil.The facility will be the largest of its kind, and will produce 6,000 pounds of crops daily.
- The greens and herbs will be used for in-flight meals at Dubai International Airport, the world's largest by international passenger traffic.
When passengers board their flights at Dubai International Airport, most are served in-flight meals that include salads or greens atop sandwiches. These crops usually come from traditional, outdoor farms in the United Arab Emirates.
By 2020, flights taking off from the airport will serve greens and herbs grown from a more high-tech source.
Emirates Flight Catering (EKFC), one of the world's largest airline catering operators, and Crop One Holdings, a San Francisco Bay Area food startup, are building a massive vertical farm to supply crops for in-flight meals.
EKFC provides catering for Emirates Airlines and all other airlines at Dubai International Airport, which is the world's largest airport by passenger traffic.
Located in a Dubai, the 130,000-square-foot indoor farm will produce up to 6,000 pounds of greens and herbs every day. Unlike traditional outdoor farms, Crop One grows crops year-round under LEDs (which mimic natural sunlight) located inside climate-controlled rooms, which are each set to optimal temperature and oxygen levels depending on the crop. Instead of soil, greens sprout in nutrient-rich water beds on trays stacked from the floor to the ceiling. Sensors in the trays track how the plants are doing in real time.
The two companies will start construction in November 2018, and start delivering crops to Emirates Flight Catering's customers, including 105 airlines and 25 airport lounges, in December 2019. Crop One currently operates a vertical farm in Millis, Massachusetts, and delivers to Boston metro area grocery stores under the Fresh Box Farms brand name.
The new farm in Dubai will surpass the size of the current world's largest vertical farm, which is operated by AeroFarms. The facility grows greens inside a 69,000-square-foot warehouse in Newark, New Jersey. AeroFarms and other big indoor farming companies mostly sell their products to supermarkets, but Crop One believes greater opportunity may lie within airline partnerships.
A farmer works inside Crop One Holdings' vertical farm in Massachusetts. Credit: Crop One Holdings
According to Sonia Lo, Crop One's CEO, airlines tend to have a more reliable demand than grocers.
"Airlines are attractive, because they give our farms anchor customers that have a predictable volume and price," she told Business Insider. "Most vertical farmers can't address the food-service market, because they simply can't make money doing so."
Lo is referring to the economic challenges that a number of vertical farming companies have faced in the US. (Panasonic and Google have abandoned vertical farming projects, and FarmedHere — once the largest vertical farm in the US — shut down last year.) Since vertical farms rely on large amounts of electricity from the LEDs, high energy costs can make it harder for them to compete in regions where cheap produce is abundant.
While many vertical farming companies depend on venture-capital, the majority of Crop One's funding comes from private equity, Lo said.
Crop One could find more success abroad — but only if its new Dubai farm manages to scale as promised, lowering production costs. The company also plans to expand domestically in the US. In coming years, it will launch two farms in the Northeast and one in the Southwest, selling to nearby retailers and food-service customers.
Belgian Supermarket Starts Serving Homegrown Produce From Rooftop Garden
Belgian Supermarket Starts Serving Homegrown Produce From Rooftop Garden
July 5, 2018
Shoppers in the Brussels neighbourhood of Ixelles are going green and eating clean as the Boondael Delhaize supermarket sells produce grown on its own roof, without the use of pesticides or preservatives.
Called the "Urban Farm", the garden contains rows of vegetables and a greenhouse for the colder months. The first salads reached the store's shelves in October last year, but production really picked up at the beginning of the summer.
The rooftop garden is the first of its kind in Belgium's Delhaize stores and is serving as a test run, a Delhaize employee said, adding that other stores could build their own gardens in the future.
Driverless Cars And Climate Change Prompt Push For Urban Farming
Driverless Cars And Climate Change Prompt Push For Urban Farming
Modular Farms. Image: Chris Jack
Cameron Jewell | 4 June 2018
Five kilograms of mushrooms, 100 heads of lettuce and 25 trays of micro-greens. These are the spoils so far from Mirvac’s urban farm pilot set up in the basement of its 200 George Street HQ in Sydney.
The pilot program, Cultivate, has been operating for about six weeks, and has seen 200 staff sign up to get involved in fresh food production.
The farm includes veggie patches and hydroponic vertical farms, as well as mushrooms grown in coffee grounds diverted from landfill. Special grow lamps are used to stimulate plant growth in the basement environment.
The pilot could be a sign of the future for commercial office basements, as technology such as autonomous vehicles promises to make traditional car parks all but redundant.
Mirvac’s cultivate pilot
Real estate services firm JLL last year predicted that adaptive reuse of basement car parking could see urban farms sprout up all over cities.
“An urban farm could be created in a building’s redundant car park and the produce used to service local kitchens and cafes within that proximity,” JLL head of property and asset management – Australia Richard Fennell said.
“Urban farming is yet to be embraced by mainstream property companies, no doubt due to the traditional concepts of value and property best use, but we believe this could change.”
The report said developers needed to be designing new buildings with adaptive reuse in mind.
Mirvac’s Cultivate pilot
Mirvac group general manager of innovation Teresa Giuffrida said the company was thinking seriously about future transport’s effects on the built environment.
“We are starting to make step changes towards a time when we need to think differently about using assets like car parks,” she said.
“We will be looking at the long-term advantages of this, while assessing the health and wellbeing benefits of nurturing urban farming skills within the busy office environment,” she said.
Mirvachead of office and industrial Campbell Hanan said the trial was already seeing changes in staff behaviour, with some even coinducting meetings in the basement.
“People are telling us that it gives them a peaceful break in the middle of the working day, as well as a way of learning more about growing food.”
New technology opening the door to wider take-up
The technology has been provided by start-up Farmwall. Its chief executive Geert Hendrix said having urban farms eliminated transport and packing waste while reconnecting people to the process of growing.
“We have started supplying some produce to nearby cafés, including Avenue On George cafe, and it can basically get from farm to plate in about seven minutes.”
Co-founder Serena Lee said at the end of the experiment there would be data generated on interest, effects on mental health and wellbeing, and whether it could be a replicable business model.
Farmwall has also set up its vertical farming systems in Melbourne restaurants and cafes, allowing chefs to grow and harvest their own greens. It uses an aquaponics system where water used for the plants is fed through a fish tank, and the filtered fish waste recycled back to feeding the plants.
Another business launched this year is Modular Farms Australia, which uses converted shipping containers for its modular farming systems, which it says can be deployed in any environment regardless of climate. Energy and water supply are the only necessities.
The Brisbane-headquartered company says its technology can see a 5-10 time higher output than traditional farming, an 80 percent increase in yield compared with standard shipping container farming, and can grow 50,000 heads of lettuce a year with as little as 40 litres of water.
The systems could have particular applications in “remote and island communities, grocery stores, food services, agribusinesses and educational facilities wanting access to sustainable healthy produce”, the company says.
“The main goal is to reduce food waste, increase food security and eliminate supply chain logistics to cut food miles.”
A Modular Farms module. Image: Modular Farms Australia
Modular Farms Australia director James Pateras said being brought up on a farm and witnessing the impact of drought was key to creating the product.
“As a third generation farmer, I felt that doing what we have done for the past 100 years will not suffice for the next 100 years,” he said.
As climate change impacts become more pronounced, such solutions could become more widespread as cities move to increase resilience and self-sufficiency.
Tags: Cultivate, mirvac, urban farming
Valoya Launches a High Intensity LED Grow Light for Greenhouses
Valoya Launches a High Intensity LED Grow Light for Greenhouses
Valoya is the leading LED grow lights provider for crop science applications. Its fixtures are typically used by seed breeding companies, crop protection companies, vertical farms, research institutes, and universities. This includes 8 out of 10 world’s largest agricultural companies. The wide, patented spectra are what Valoya is known for and now these will become more accessible to greenhouse growers in Valoya’s brand new luminaire for greenhouse cultivation – the RX400.
The RX400 is a dimmable 400W LED grow light that boasts a light efficiency of 2,3 µmol/W making it a suitable one-to-one replacement for a 600W HPS light. It is rated IP55 meaning it is suitable for highly humid and dusty locations and can withstand getting sprayed by water. The RX400 is passively cooled and the little heat that is created is emitted upwards and not in the direction of plants. Its compact design results in minimal shading over the canopy and its lighting angle of 120° means it covers a large area of plants. In fact, it can be placed up to 4 m (13’) above the canopy, or if needed down to 0,5 m (20”).
Valoya’s spectra available in this luminaire are:
- the sunlight spectrum NS1, favored by researchers worldwide
- the plant biomass boosting AP673L, typically used by growers of leafy green vegetables
- the AP67 spectrum for strong vegetative and generative growth, typically used by seed breeding companies
The RX400 was presented at GreenTech last week and is immediately available to order. To get a quote, please reach out to your local Valoya distributor. To see the full specs, please download Valoya’s Product Brochure.
About Valoya Oy
Valoya is a provider of high end, energy efficient LED grow lights for use in crop science, vertical farming, and medicinal plants cultivation. Valoya LED grow lights have been developed using Valoya's proprietary LED technology and extensive plant photobiology research. Valoya's customer base includes numerous vertical farms, greenhouses and research institutions all over the world (including 8 out of 10 world’s largest agricultural companies).
Additional information:
Valoya Oy, Finland
Tel: +358 10 2350300
Email: sales@valoya.com
Web: www.valoya.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valoyafi/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/valoya
NYCHA Residents Cultivate Urban Farms
NYCHA Residents Cultivate Urban Farms
By: ANTWAN LEWIS
- MAY 23 2018
NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) - Farms in New York City are pretty common. But when the farm is in the middle of an NYCHA housing complex, now that is uncommon. The urban farm at the Howard Houses in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn is one of six citywide that are part of an NYCHA program called Building Healthy Communities.
Its primary goal is to help underserved communities get better access to healthy organic foods and learn more about the impact it has on healthier eating habits. Manning the farms are NYCHA residents who are trained by agriculture experts.
"We have actual farmers in-house that are training them, but we have our local organizations that are managing our farms with to train them in the field," program director Jennifer Tirado said.
"I never knew that people that grew up in this type of environment would ever think about growing in our area and the way we live," trainee Shanique Green. "It's different"
Whether it is beets or collards or parsley, the housing residents determine what crops are planted in their complex. And once the fruits and vegetables are grown, the tenants can come and get some just like any farmers market. It costs them just scraps—literally.
"So imagine a banana peel, an orange peel," Tirado said. "They provide us with organic food scraps, and it doesn't have to be organic, just scraps period, and we give them produce."
NYCHA's urban farms operate for 10 months beginning each May. And at the end of that cycle, the other trainees transition from core members into the workforce, as the program helps them find jobs in a horticulture-related field where they proudly show off their green thumbs.
"So it's nice to learn about carrots and how they're a root crop so you can't take them out, once you take them out the ground that's it, you cannot grow them anymore," trainee Lisa Kelly said. "You have to wait until they're in season again. So that's something that I like, yes."
Farming In The City: DC’s Urban Agriculture Movement
Photo: Amber Breitenberg
Farming In The City: DC’s Urban Agriculture Movement
June 2, 2018/in Featured, Lifestyle /by Amanda Weisbrod
Amidst the District’s hustle and bustle, green paradises breathe fresh air and deliciously colorful life into the otherwise grey and concrete landscape. For some, passion for urban farming comes from a deep love of an old hobby. For others, the desire to provide jobs and fresh produce to their community is the true driving force. Either way, DC’s urban farming scene is growing – its tendrils reaching into notable bars and restaurants all over the city.
Urban farming, otherwise known as urban agriculture, is exactly what it sounds like: the process of growing food in a city or heavily populated area. Despite difficulties such as finding enough space and the right equipment to grow and harvest plants, several urban farming organizations in DC have found unexpected spots to thrive in the city.
While on a run one day in 2014, former Peace Corps volunteer Mary Ackley was contemplating the best locations to host her new project, Little Wild Things Farm. She drew inspiration from bin-farming techniques, which use small plots of land as efficiently as possible. But after searching high and low in the heart of the District, she couldn’t find adequate green space anywhere. That’s when she jogged past the Carmelite Friars Monastery in Northeast DC and realized that institutions often had large plots of land, so she sent them an email.
“At first, they were hesitant but we worked out an agreement, and years later, we still have a wonderful partnership with them,” Ackley says. “We maintain the land, they get produce from us every week, and we donate to a local homeless shelter on their behalf. Everybody wins.”
Later, Ackley found another home for Little Wild Things in the basement of The Pub & The People, an award-winning neighborhood bar. Because The Pub already had plans to build a second bar in their basement in the future, they thought it would be great to have a farm downstairs in the meantime. Little did they know that this unexpected partnership would immensely help both businesses.
When she was getting started, Ackley grew traditional vegetables but decided to switch to edible flowers and microgreens because they mature faster, allowing her to experiment more with varieties and growing techniques. Microgreens are sprouts of vegetables, herbs and leafy greens that pack an even bigger punch of nutrients and vitamins compared to their full-grown selves.
Many gourmet dishes are incomplete without fresh microgreens, so some of the best chefs in the city flock to Little Wild Things to get their fix. To Nick Bernel, one of The Pub’s four co-owners, this was one of the coolest parts of having a “zen garden” in their basement.
“[Little Wild Things] sells to the best restaurants in the whole city, so there were constantly chefs and sous chefs in our bar,” says Bernel, who adds this was great exposure for their business, which opened in 2015.
Eric Milton, sous chef at popular Mediterranean eatery Zaytinya, is one of many high-profile customers who goes to Little Wild Things for all of their microgreen needs.
“They are passionate about their product and that translates into their excellent farmer-to-chef relationship,” says Milton, who has been working with Little Wild Things for a year and a half. “They have a great micro fennel that goes well with white fish dishes, and their micro parsley and celery give fresh vegetable dishes a nice pop. The quality of their product is superb, their product is consistent and they are just super easy to work with.”
While The Pub grew in popularity, Little Wild Things grew in size as its proximity to its clients led to higher demand. In October 2017, Little Wild Things grew too large for the space and Ackley decided her time at The Pub was over.
“It was a bittersweet move because we loved The Pub and our partnership, but we just needed more space,” Ackley says. “It was a great way for us to learn about urban farming and how to be space intensive because we really perfected how to be efficient with our time.”
Little Wild Things is moving to a custom-built space in Ivy City this fall, where it will have all the space it needs to grow over 40 varieties of microgreens and over 20 kinds of edible flowers.
“We are really excited to have more events and pop-ups, and give tours of our new space,” Ackley says. “It’s great to be able to set our roots down in a neighborhood and build our community even further.”
Ackley’s right-hand woman, “work wife” and director of operations Chelsea Barker says that she finds urban farming to be a fulfilling and challenging line of work and hopes others will follow suit.
“The challenge that we are most interested in solving is the idea that farming is an exciting and desirable profession for people who like problem-solving, hard work, relationship building and working with your hands,” says Barker, who joined Ackley in 2016. “It really can be a win-win when urban farming is a texture of urban life.”
A similar philosophy and approach to urban farming is found at Cultivate the City, another for-profit commercial farm working to promote urban agriculture by creating more jobs and keeping profit within the neighborhood. Cultivate the City founder and CEO Niraj Ray found his love of gardening while living in Florida, then brought his hobby back to DC at his job with the EPA where he created a rooftop garden. He eventually decided to quit his day job to pursue his true passion, and so far, it’s been working out great.
In 2016, Cultivate the City installed an expansive rooftop garden at Nationals Park, where they grow produce and leafy greens for food services and dining in the Delta Club. Along with produce the chefs specifically ask for like squash, tomatoes and herbs, Ray likes to mix it up and surprise them with unique produce every season.
Cultivate the City also has a rooftop garden location on H Street where they grow a variety of unique crops indigenous to other regions for both restaurants and members of the public. For Pansaari, an Indian restaurant in Dupont Circle, Ray grows curry leaf and bitter melon. For his CSA (community-supported agriculture program), he sends a variety of fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs every week for 30 weeks to subscribers. And for fun, Ray likes to push the limit of what he can grow in the northeastern United States. This season, he’s excited to announce a healthy crop of passion fruit, which is native to southern Brazil.
“I try to grow unique things that you can’t buy at the grocery store, so we’re able to provide a commodity through what we’re growing,” he says. “It’s unique produce that you can’t find anywhere else, and it has a good story behind it.”
Along with tending to their own rooftop gardens, Cultivate the City offers plant management and garden build contracts for restaurants. At Calabash Tea & Tonic in Shaw, Cultivate the City maintains a garden full of basil, lemongrass, lavender, rosemary and a variety of mints used in tea blends.
When Calabash opens its new storefront in Brookland this summer, it will have an exterior designed by Cultivate the City, featuring 20 planters built by students at IDEA Public Charter School, where Ray teaches a senior seminar and manages a garden club. He notes that one of Cultivate the City’s greatest missions is to work with students and other nonprofit organizations to foster a passion for urban agriculture in the next generation of farmers.
“We’re trying to promote urban agriculture and create more jobs and sustainability around it,” he says. “It’s great to teach people how to grow their own food, but we’re focusing on how they can create careers out of that by maintaining all of the green spaces that we’re creating.”
At Community Connections DC, the capital’s largest not-for-profit mental health agency, Cultivate the City provides horticulture therapy training to help youths with traumatic histories gain necessary career skills like team building and punctuality. Many of these students graduate from the program and find their first jobs with Cultivate the City at the urban farms located in the backyards of their group homes. Nearby restaurants buy produce from these group home farms, closing the loop and keeping money within the neighborhood.
“Not only is urban farming creating positive psychological and societal benefit and quantifiable economic return, but it’s had such unquantifiable environmental benefits as well,” he says. “You’re helping create wildlife quarters for the bees and monarch butterflies, you’re helping to promote more wildlife, and you’re mitigating storm water onsite.”
At Rooftop Roots, a nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming the way people engage with their urban surroundings, environmental awareness and sustainability is a top priority. Founder Thomas Schneider says that based on its three-pillar model of sustainability including economical, societal and environmental considerations, Rooftop Roots works to create jobs, build sustainable gardens and increase the availability to fresh produce to those who might not have access.
“We try to create these spaces as an experience where people feel like they’re not only having a great garden, but they’re also giving back to the community,” Schneider says. “People are certainly taking a greater interest in their health and nutrition. I think growing food is a really powerful experience in terms of how people understand the connection between the life that they’re living and how small actions can play a big part in helping not only the environment but also the society that we live in.”
As organizations like Little Wild Things Farm, Cultivate the City and Rooftop Roots work to spread awareness on how people can use their urban and suburban landscapes to help the environment and their local communities, the urban agriculture movement is becoming more than just a trend – it’s transforming into a sustainable lifestyle.
Find microgreens from Little Wild Things Farm at the Dupont Circle Farmer’s Market once a month, and sign up for any of these organization’s CSA programs at their websites below.
Cultivate the City: www.cultivatethecity.com
Little Wild Things: www.littlewildthingsfarm.com
Rooftop Roots: www.rooftoproots.org
Amanda is currently a senior at Ohio University, and will graduate with a bachelor's degree in journalism, news and information in December 2018. She has written for multiple professional publications including Cincinnati Magazine, CityBeat and Athens Messenger. Amanda loves to play the saxophone, watch cult classic movies, and hang out with her handsome cat, Darko.
Categories: Featured, Lifestyle
Tags: DC, Eco-Friendly, Featured, Green, Lifestyle, Urban Farming
Superior Fresh – Largest Aquaponics Facility In The World
Superior Fresh – Largest Aquaponics Facility In The World
Linked by Michael Levenston
Uses LumiGrow LED Grow Lights
LumiGrow Lighting | May 21, 2018
Superior Fresh is the largest aquaponics facility in the world. Their state-of-the-art fish facility is coupled with a 3-acre glass greenhouse where they grow various leafy greens and herbs. They grow everything from seed in their greenhouse under LumiGrow grow lights and produce 1.8 million pounds of leafy greens each year. The leafy vegetables make their journey from the greenhouse to supermarket shelves within 48 hours.
Superior Fresh’s fish house and greenhouse have been meticulously designed and built using state-of-the-art technology to maximize profits with a superbly modern facility. For their greenhouse lighting, Superior Fresh is using LumiGrow LED grow lights paired with LumiGrow Light Sensor technology to ensure yield and quality goals are met consistently while reducing energy costs by 50% compared to traditional HPS lighting.
The light sensor technology allows Superior Fresh to monitor the exact light levels in the greenhouse and create programs that automatically adjust the fixtures to efficiently meet production goals year-round.
“Our biggest leap forward has been the [LumiGrow] smartPAR software,” says Adam Shinner, Head Grower at Superior Fresh. “…When we have enough sun, the lights turn off. When we don’t have enough sun, they turn back on. It allows for full integration of our lighting system [with the greenhouse zoning], which has truly not been possible up until this point.”
“Understanding that we are going to have 9 billion people on this planet in the next 30 years or so, we have to start thinking about how we’re going to efficiently grow food close to the marketplace,” says Brendan Gottsacker, CEO at Superior Fresh. “LumiGrow has allowed us to grow food right here in Wisconsin in the middle of the winter.”
Kiribati Man Keen To Expand Hydroponics
Kiribati Man Keen To Expand Hydroponics
June 17, 2018
The Kiribati capital and most populated area, South Tarawa, consists of several islets, connected by a series of causeways. Photo: Supplied
A Kiribati man has come up with an ambitious target to get every family in Kiribati growing plants and vegetables hydroponically.
Hydroponics uses mineral nutrient rich water instead of soil to grow plants.
Eritai Kateibwi launched his business with 500 hydroponic units using a UN start-up grant he won last year.
He said in just one month, he has installed 20 units for more than 10 families and has helped train them up.
"That's our vision, we want to install at least two units per family and it will go really fast if we get the word out there right now."
Eritai Kateibwi said he first learned about hydroponics when studying in the United States.
He said it is his passion to teach others back in Kiribati home to 115,000 people and densely populated in some parts.
‘Worlds First’ Development In Melbourne’s East Has Farm On Shopping Centre Roof
‘Worlds First’ Development In Melbourne’s East Has Farm On Shopping Centre Roof
JIM MALO REPORTER JUN 12, 2018
In what used to be a brickworks in Melbourne’s east, a huge and environmentally-conscious development is springing up.
Frasers Property has created what it calls a “world first” mixed-use development in the suburb of Burwood, with a focus on lessening the impact of development and making each new building have a net positive effect on the environment.
“[The Living Building Challenge] is the most advanced measure of sustainability in the built environment,” Frasers’ head of retail Peri Macdonald said. “Whereas most measures look at how your building can be less bad, it looks at how your development gives back rather than just takes.”
Artist’s impression of the sustainable shopping centre and urban farm planned for the former Burwood Brickworks site. Photo: Frasers Property Australia
The challenge is set out by the Seattle-based International Living Future Institute, and no retail centre had achieved the award before Burwood Brickworks.
The centerpiece of the sustainable offering is a 2000-square-metre rooftop farm, which will be run by a yet-to-be-picked operator.
“At this stage, our preferred model is that [an adjacent] restaurant is linked to the urban farm. We want a paddock-to-plate model,” Mr. Macdonald said.
A CGI render of proposed open space in the Brickworks development. Photo: Frasers Property Australia
A growing preference for produce grown close to where consumers live made Mr Macdonald think more urban farms could open in Melbourne.
“I think we’re definitely seeing a community preference for hyper-local produce,” he said. “One of the challenges [will be] finding enough space to grow produce on a large enough scale to meet demand.”Frasers hoped it would also be used as a teaching tool for schools and universities.
“It’s also something we see as a major attractor for the centre,” Mr. Macdonald said. “And it’s something that doesn’t exist in any of the retail offerings in Melbourne for that matter.”
Frasers is planning to produce 105 percent of the energy needed to power the development, predominantly through the use of solar panels and batteries, and features such as glazing on windows to reduce the building’s energy demands.
Head of residential Sarah Bloom said the urban farm and other sustainable features would help to sell the project’s 700 homes that will go on the market in the next few months.
“It’s the overarching package of the development that will set it apart,” she said. “That urban farm will be a truly unique proposition. There will be nothing like it.”
Work on Burwood Brickworks began on Tuesday after a two-year approval process with the Whitehorse Council.
“Approval for the project has taken some time and that’s because of the complexity of what we want to achieve … This community will set a new benchmark for what’s possible in sustainable urban design,” Ms. Bloom said. “This project exemplifies everything we stand for: building sustainable, livable communities that promote the long-term health and well-being of our residents.”
"PRODUCT SHOWCASE" Revolutionizing Agriculture With Household Appliances | Scott Massey | TEDxWabashCollege
Revolutionizing Agriculture With Household Appliances | Scott Massey | TEDxWabashCollege
Published on Jun 8, 2018
With a rapidly growing population and the flawed design of agriculture, concerns rise about how to feed the global population in 2050. Using innovation, experience, and hydroponics, Scott Massey reveals a new way to grow certain vegetables within the comfort of your own home.
Scott Massey designed refinement systems in the oil and natural gas industry as a mechanical engineer and made patent drawings for a local patent attorney.
He then teamed up with a fellow Purdue research student to design a hydroponic plant growth chamber to grow food in future space colonies. Wanting to make a larger impact he set out to create personal, hydroponic appliances that could yield a full head of leafy greens on a daily basis to eliminate a user's dependence on a grocery store for most produce. Scott Massey (CEO) designed refinement systems in the oil and natural gas industry as a mechanical engineer and made patent drawings for a local patent attorney. Ivan Ball (CTO) worked as an electrical and computer engineer managing production of ethanol at a processing plant.
They met while working as student research engineers at the Purdue University Horticulture College designing a NASA funded, hydroponic plant growth chamber to grow food in future space colonies.
They then set out to create personal, hydroponic appliances that could yield a full head of leafy greens on a daily basis to eliminate a user's dependence on a grocery store for most produce. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.
Heliponix
Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
Category
License
Standard YouTube License
Autogrow’s API And Amazon’s Alexa Leads To World's First Talking AgTech System
Autogrow’s API And Amazon’s Alexa Leads To World's First Talking AgTech System
June 8, 2018
Global AgTech company Autogrow has utilized Amazon’s virtual assistant ‘Alexa’, and their IntelliGrow API (Application Programming Interface) to create the first ever talking automated growing system.
Their breakthrough technology demonstrates the versatility of their API and proves Autogrow’s commitment to crack the code of future crop production.
“We think this is the best use-case of AI (Artificial Intelligence) today. We’ve basically turned a vocal sound into a machine command and proven integration of different systems is possible,” says CEO Darryn Keiller.
“We have done it with Alexa, but we can also integrate with a growers HVAC or lighting system. The possibilities are limitless.”
Autogrow has been considering voice activation technology for a while, but it was a recent conversation with one of their growers that spurred them to accelerate development.
“One of our growers noted how modern apps like Apple’s Siri allows you to interact and how great it would be if he could ask his controller to update him on his crop environment but also instruct it to take action if required,” explains CTO Jeffrey Law.
“Our Solutions Architect, Lee Dunn, relished the challenge and chose Amazon’s Alexa Voice Service (AVS) due to their commitment to enable developers to voice-enable connected products.”
By connecting with Autogrow’s API, Alexa can answer a variety of questions related to readings from Autogrow’s Intelli Range of products including EC, pH, humidity, temperature, and light as well as force a nutrient dose.
“This is a new tool we can build on to give our growers more flexibility and control in their business and from here, the possibilities are limitless,” says Mr Keiller.
“At the heart of it, our burning drive is to help producers of crops grown in non-outdoor environments produce more yield, better quality crops, all year round. They can then generate more profit, enabling them to produce crops that the consumer wants, and when they want it,” says Mr. Keiller.
Lee Dunn, Solutions Engineer
About Autogrow
Autogrow leverages the power of technology, data science, and plant biology to provide indoor growers affordable, accessible and easy-to-use innovation – 24/7, anywhere in the world.
Our hardware, software and data solutions support growers and resellers in over 40 countries producing over 100 different crop types.
We have over two decades of experience and passionate, fun people creating original ideas and making them a reality for our growers.
Indoor Farms: The solution To Memphis' Abandoned Buildings?
One St. Louis investor has proposed a solution to abandoned buildings in Memphis. Carter Williams said many of Memphis' abandoned buildings, especially the larger ones, can be turned into indoor farms.
Indoor Farms: The solution To Memphis' Abandoned Buildings?
May 22, 2018
By WMCActionNews5.com Staff
By Brandon Richard
(Source: Wikimedia Commons)
One St. Louis investor has proposed a solution to abandoned buildings in Memphis.
Carter Williams said many of Memphis' abandoned buildings, especially the larger ones, can be turned into indoor farms.
"You can produce enough food for more than 2.5 million people year round," Williams said.
For now, Williams is just floating the idea.
"Maybe they'd be inside malls, maybe not. But that's something for local developers to figure out," he said.
Williams said indoor farms could provide healthier choices for a city once named the fattest and unhealthiest in America.
"So people get fresh lettuce, fresh leafy greens, fresh spinach year round," he said.
While the idea sounds appealing to many people on the surface--some folks at the Cooper-Young Farmers Market question if it's the best option.
"It's workable. It can be done, but I don't know from a cost-benefit standpoint if it's really viable," Memphian Katie Felts said.
Felts wants to know more about how the food in those indoor farms would be grown.
"I don't know about the product, the indoor product. You know, is it really coming from the soil?" Felts asked.
While not everyone is sold on his idea, Williams recently brought 200 scientists, farmers, entrepreneurs and investors to the Bluff City for an agriculture technology conference he co-founded.
He said he did that because he believes Memphis is destined to be the hub of farming innovation--with or without those abandoned buildings.
Copyright 2018 WMC Action News 5. All rights reserved.
Last Chance to Sign-Up For The Free LED Conference at GreenTech - June 13th
Last Chance to Sign-Up For The Free LED Conference at GreenTech - June 13th
Crop science, vertical farming, and cannabis industry experts are in the speaker's line-up of the LEDs & Innovators Conference 2018 held on Wednesday, the 2nd day of GreenTech. The conference consists of three blocks participants may choose from, it is free of charge for GreenTech visitors but seats are limited and only a few left.
Program:
10.20 – 11.30 Crop Science and Light
12.00 – 13.30 Vertical Farming Innovators Panel
14.00 – 15.00 Hard Science Talk on Cannabis
The Crop Science and Light session will cover topics of speed breeding, basil cultivation and peronospora control with LEDs. (presented by Ms. Stefanie Linzer, Biologist of Valoya, the provider of LED grow lights and Dr. Giovanni Minuto, the Director of CeRSAA, the Italian agriculture research institute).
The Vertical Farming Innovators Panel follows and the speakers line-up consists of:
- Mr. Richard Ballard (Co-Founder, Growing Underground, London)
- Mr. John Apesos (CEO & Co-Founder, GROWx, Amsterdam)
- Mr. Mark Korzilius (CEO & Co-Founder, Farmers Cut, Hamburg)
- Mr. Thomas Zöllner (Vice Chair, Association for Vertical Farming) and
- Mr. Lars Aikala (CEO, Valoya).
During this session, the panelists will briefly present themselves and their companies after which we will go through the questions submitted by participants in advance, in the sign-up form. This will be followed by additional questions from the audience. This panel is a unique opportunity to hear directly from the heads of some of the most known European vertical farms about the ins and outs of vertical farming.
The Hard Science Talk on Cannabis session will be hosted by Dr. Gianpaolo Grassi, one of Europe’s leading figures on Cannabis sativa research and head researcher of the research institute CREA-CIN in Italy. Dr. Grassi has been running a comparative study on the effects of various LED spectra on cannabis, more specifically on accumulation of secondary metabolites such as THC, CBD, terpenes etc. The effects were compared against HPS lighting. Some of the data will be presented.
To learn more about the conference and sign-up click here.
About Valoya Oy
Valoya is a provider of high end, energy efficient LED grow lights for use in crop science, vertical farming, and medicinal plants cultivation. Valoya LED grow lights have been developed using Valoya's proprietary LED technology and extensive plant photobiology research. Valoya's customer base includes numerous vertical farms, greenhouses and research institutions all over the world (including 8 out of 10 world’s largest agricultural companies).
Additional information:
Valoya Oy, Finland
Tel: +358 10 2350300
Email: sales@valoya.com
Web: www.valoya.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valoyafi/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/valoya
Nature Meets Technology At Oakland Urban Growers
Nature Meets Technology At Oakland Urban Growers
MAY 16 2018
WATERFORD, Mich. (WJBK) - Oakland Urban Growers provides fresh, local produce to families and businesses across metro Detroit. It's also a perfect example of how technology and nature can come together.
Mike Skinner and Bruce Ellwanger turned a greenhouse that was about to be torn down in Oakland County into a high-tech agriculture company. Their different types of growing systems allow them to grow fresh produce all year long.
"Really, this is a 21st century way of growing produce," Skinner says. It's mostly done via a hydroponics operation -- which means, without dirt.
That means they're responsible for providing all the nutrients to the plants, which usually come from the soil. They figure out what nutrients the plants need through a small water sample that comes in from the gutter.
The nutrients are them pumped into all the different plants.
The shop opened up last year in conjunction with Oakland County. Skinner says they're the first ones to bring hydroponics growing to Oakland County.
Other growing takes place at the greenhouse the more conventional way, in the soil, but in an area that's completely, climate controlled. Specialty, baby crop versions of the vegetables are mostly grown here.
Skinner says they sell a lot of their products to top-notch country clubs and restaurants that are looking for high quality, local produce.
You can learn more about how the systems work by watching the report from Josh Landon in the video player above.
Keeping A Close Eye On Ice Loss
Sea Level Rise
Keeping A Close Eye On Ice Loss
AWI contributes two million euros towards the cost of a new satellite mission
[17. May 2018]
A few months ago, the GRACE mission’s two Earth observation satellites burnt up in the atmosphere. Although this loss was planned, for the experts at the Alfred Wegener Institute it left a considerable gap in monitoring ice loss in the Antarctic and Greenland. Now the follow-up mission will finally be launched, and will play a vital role in predicting future sea level rise.
Without a doubt, one of the greatest threats in connection with climate change is the continuing rise in sea level– and the more intensively the enormous ice sheets in Greenland and the Antarctic melt, the worse it will become. To more accurately gauge the loss in mass of these large ice sheets, scientists at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) permanently evaluate Earth observation data gleaned from satellites. For them, the GRACE satellites were an extremely important pair of spacecraft.
They had been in orbit since 2002, but in 2017, at the ripe old age of 15 they were decommissioned, and early this year they made a controlled re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, where they burnt up as planned. Ever since then, the AWI experts and the international research community have had to do without an important source of information on the condition of the large ice sheets.
And now, to fill that gap, at 12:47 p.m. PST on 22 May 2018 the successor, GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO) will be launched into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California (USA). “We’re delighted,” says AWI geophysicist Ingo Sasgen.“For 15 years, the GRACE mission provided us with unique and fascinating time sequences on the ice sheets’ mass losses. Since June 2017, this time sequence has been interrupted, which means that we don’t have any data on the last melt season in Greenland. It’s very good news that the measurements are now going to be continued.”
GRACE stands for “Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment”. As the name suggests, the satellites' task is to measure the Earth’s gravitational field on a monthly basis. This gravity data can then be used by various experts for different purposes. It is particularly important for the AWI’s researchers because the changes in ice mass in Greenland and the Antarctic can be clearly seen in the Earth’s gravitational field. If more ice is lost as a result of melting or calving than can be recovered through snowfall, the mass of the ice sheet decreases, and so does the gravitational field in that area. Accordingly, the GRACE measurements can tell us whether or not, where, and by how much the ice sheets shrink or grow.
The two GRACE satellites employ a microwave radar system to permanently measure the distance between them and normally fly approximately 220 kilometers apart. If the first satellite flies over an area with higher gravity, it is slightly attracted and thereby accelerated. This increases its distance from the second satellite, and the discrepancy shows how great the change in gravity is within a radius of circa 400 km. The accuracy of this approach is extraordinary – it can measure the distance between the twin satellites to within a few micrometers.
The new GRACE mission will also rely on microwave radar. “To allow the second mission to launch quickly and not to lose too much time and risk gaps in the data, the choice was made to use tried and trusted technologies,” explains Ingo Sasgen. “However, there is also a laser measuring device on board, which will be tested during the mission. Roughly 25 times more accurate than the microwave radar, we believe it can further improve the gravitational field analysis.”
As with the previous mission, the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) and NASA are providing the scientific support for the GRACE-FO mission. The German Aerospace Center will carry out the mission on behalf of the GFZ. In turn, the AWI will contribute not only its ice expertise but also two million euros to help cover the cost of the Falcon 9 booster rocket from SpaceX.
The data provided by GRACE-FO will be essential, as it will not only allow Ingo Sasgen and his colleagues to help determine how major ice sheets are responding to the on-going global warming; they will also feed the data into mathematical models known as numerical climate models to predict how ice losses will evolve over time. Further, GRACE-FO will conduct high-precision gravity-field measurements, which experts at the AWI will combine with readings from other satellites, e.g. CryoSat-2, which uses radar to accurately measure the thickness of the sea-ice cover. CryoSat-2can be used e.g. to identify which parts of an ice sheet had the most snowfall. In addition, GRACE-FO will scan 400-kilometer grid sections, which is comparatively coarse. Measuring five-kilometer sections on average, CryoSat-2 offers significantly higher resolution. But CryoSat-2 has limitations of its own: its radar sweep also penetrates into the upper layers of snow and ice, making it difficult to precisely measure their thickness, especially since the exact conditions on-site are unknown.
To compensate for this aspect, the AWI also takes calibration readings with its research aircraft. A further source of uncertainty: over time, snow collapses under its own weight, which can skew measurements of its thickness. According to Ingo Sasgen, “With the CryoSat-2 data alone, it’s impossible to say whether a change in the thickness of ice and snow was produced by the snow compacting, or by melting. That’s why we need GRACE Follow-On; the respective change in the gravitational field shows us whether or not ice and snow are actually being lost.” In essence, the satellites constitute a perfect match, as they offer complementary strengths.
With the start of the GRACE-FO mission, after roughly a year an important gap in satellite monitoring will become a thing of the past. As with its predecessor, the planned mission duration is five years. But Ingo Sasgen hopes that the second generation, just like the first, might continue to provide data for as long as 15 years. “We would then have a time series covering roughly 30 years, which would mean a truly representative timespan for climate models. The data gained will be a valuable resource for climate research, today and for decades to come.”
Video: NASA
Dubai Gets Its First Indoor Vertical Farm
image via Badia Farm
Dubai Gets Its First Indoor Vertical Farm
MAY 11, 2018 by JILL ETTINGER
The desert makes growing anything — especially food — rather difficult. Or, at least, it used to. A new startup in the United Arab Emirates hopes to reduce some of the food imports to the region, delivering a fresher product that’s grown right in the desert town of Dubai.
The UAE currently imports nearly 90 percent of its food, according to recent data. But Saudi Arabian entrepreneur Omar Al Jundi, hopes his first vertical farm in Dubai will decrease some of the region’s import needs as well as contribute to the health of the residents, and decrease the impact on the environment due to transport.
The farm is called Badia Farm — “badia” is Arabic for “oasis” — and, like other urban indoor farms in cities like New York, London, and Chicago, it’s growing a lot of salad greens. Radish, kale, mustard, basil, and arugula all thrive in indoor controlled climate farms. Greens are delicate; transport can often lead to produce arriving wilted and spoiled.
“As a region that has struggled to grow crops due to largely hostile desert landscapes, our farm offers a viable solution to farming that produces harvests 365 days of the year,” Al Jundi said.
“The produce will not only be cheaper than imported goods but fresher too, as the farms will be producing all year round.”
The farm sits on an 800-square-meter plot in a busy industrial Dubai region. Already, Badia is producing two hundred boxes of fresh produce per day in just a year. And the plan is to continue increasing production as the company finds more places in the region’s markets to sell its vegetables.
Vertical farming continues to see significant expansion into urban areas. As more people now live in cities, particularly in the U.S., transport costs, time to ship, and price, all make growing hundreds of miles from city borders less viable. The indoor climates also reduce the pest issues, which means fewer, if any, chemicals are needed in the process. Indoor farms also use significantly less water than outdoor farming operations, a plus as fresh water supplies continue to dwindle.
Indoor urban farms also bring the freshness factor–no more picked over wilted lettuces taking up produce aisle space. Shanghai is set to open a 250-acre “agricultural district” next year, which will be home to skyscrapers growing fresh fruits and vegetables within the city’s borders.
“It makes no sense to order produce that arrives in boxes in the back of a ship from as far tens of thousands of miles away when it can be grown at home,” Al Jundi said.
Find Jill on Twitter and Instagram
Related on Organic Authority
From Fumes to Farming: Pittsburgh Sheds Industrial ‘Steel City’ Past to Open Nation’s Largest Urban Farm
Plant a Vertical Garden: How to Grow Your Own Living Wall
New Kroger Nutrition App Aims to Help Customers Shop Healthier
China's Multi-Story Hog Hotels Elevate Industrial Farms To New Levels
On Yaji Mountain in southern China, they are checking in the sows a thousand head per floor in high-rise “hog hotels”. Privately owned agricultural company Guangxi Yangxiang Co Ltd is running two seven-floor sow breeding operations, and is putting up four more, including one with as many as 13 floors that will be the world’s tallest building of its kind.
MAY 10, 2018
China's Multi-Story Hog Hotels Elevate Industrial Farms To New Levels
BUSINESS NEWS Dominique Patton
YAJI MOUNTAIN, China (Reuters) - On Yaji Mountain in southern China, they are checking in the sows a thousand head per floor in the high-rise “hog hotels”.
Privately owned agricultural company Guangxi Yangxiang Co Ltd is running two seven-floor sow breeding operations and is putting up four more, including one with as many as 13 floors that will be the world’s tallest building of its kind.
Hog farms of two or three floors have been tried in Europe. Some are still operating, others have been abandoned, but few new ones have been built in recent years, because of management difficulties and public resistance to large, intensive farms.
Now, as China pushes ahead with the industrialization of the world’s largest hog herd, part of a 30-year effort to modernize its farm sector and create wealth in rural areas, companies are experimenting with high-rise housing for pigs despite the costs. The “hotels” show how far some breeders are willing to go as China overhauls its farming model.
“There are big advantages to a high-rise building,” said Xu Jiajing, manager of Yangxiang’s mountain-top farm.
“It saves energy and resources. The land area is not that much but you can raise a lot of pigs.”
Companies like Yangxiang are pumping more money into the buildings - about 30 percent more than on single-story modern farms - even as hog prices in China hold at an eight-year low.
For some, the investments are too risky. Besides low prices that have smaller operations culling sows or re-thinking expansion plans, there is worry about diseases spreading through such intensive operations.
But success for high-rise pig farms in China could have implications across densely populated, land-scarce Asia, as well as for equipment suppliers.
“We see an increasing demand for two- or three-level buildings,” said Peter van Issum, managing director of Microfan, a Dutch supplier that designed Yangxiang’s ventilation system.
Microfan also supplied a three-story breeding operation, Daedeok JongDon GGP Farm, in South Korea.
“The higher ones are still an exception, but the future might change rapidly,” van Issum said.
HIGH-RISE HOGS
Yaji Mountain seems an unlikely location for a huge breeding farm. Up a narrow road, away from villages, massive concrete pig buildings overlook a valley of dense forest that Yangxiang plans to develop as a tourist attraction.
The site, however, is relatively close to Guigang, a city with a river port and waterway connections to the Pearl River Delta, one of the world’s most densely populated regions.
While Beijing is encouraging more livestock production in China’s grain basket in the northeast, many worry that farms there will struggle to get fresh pork safely to big cities thousands of miles away.
That has helped push some farm investments to southern provinces like Guangxi and Fujian, where land is hilly but much closer to many of China’s biggest cities.
Yangxiang will house 30,000 sows on its 11-hectare site by year-end, producing as many as 840,000 piglets annually. That will likely make it the biggest, most-intensive breeding farm globally. A more typical large breeding farm in northern China would have 8,000 sows on around 13 hectares.
In Fujian province, Shenzhen Jinxinnong Technology Co Ltd also plans to invest 150 million yuan ($24 million) in two five-story sow farms in Nanping. Two other companies are building high-rise hog farms in Fujian as well, according to an equipment firm involved in the projects.
Thai livestock-to-retail conglomerate CP Foods is also building four six-story pig units with local firm Zhejiang Huatong Meat Products Co in Yiwu, a Chinese city near the large populations around Shanghai.
HIGH-TECH COMPLEXITY
Yangxiang spent 16,000 yuan per sow on its new farm, about 500 million yuan total, not including the cost of the pigs.
Building upwards means higher costs and greater complexity, such as for piping feed into buildings, said Xue Shiwei, vice chief operations officer at Pipestone Livestock Technology Consultancy, a Chinese unit of a U.S. farm management company.
“It would save on land but increase the complexity of the structure, and costs for concrete or steel would be higher,” he said.
Health concerns also raise costs, because the risk of rampant disease - an ever-present problem in China’s livestock sector - is higher with more animals under one roof.
A worker waits for an elevator to transport young pigs out of Guangxi Yangxiang's high-rise pig farm, at Yaji Mountain Forest Park in Guangxi province, China, March 21, 2018. Picture was taken March 21, 2018. REUTERS/Dominique Patton
Even two-story farms in Europe have sparked worries that pigs will receive less care, said Irene Camerlink, an animal welfare expert at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna who has worked with Chinese farms.
Any outbreak of disease could lead to extensive culling, she said.
Farm manager Xu said Yangxiang reduces the risk of disease by managing each floor separately, with staff working on the same floor every day. New sows are introduced to a building on the top floor and are then moved by elevator to an assigned level, where they remain.
The ventilation system is designed to prevent air from circulating between floors or to other buildings. Air enters through ground channels and passes through ventilation ducts on each level. The ducts are connected to a central exhaust on the roof, with powerful extraction fans pulling the air through filters and pushing it out of 15-meter high chimneys.
A waste treatment plant is still under construction on Yaji Mountain to handle the site’s manure. After treatment, the liquid will be sprayed on the surrounding forest, and solids sold to nearby farms as organic fertilizer.
The project’s additional equipment - much of it imported - to reduce disease, environmental impact and labor costs, significantly increased Yangxiang’s spending, the company said.
But after testing other models, Yangxiang concluded the multi-story building was best. Others are less convinced.
“We need time to see if this model is do-able,” said Xue of the farm management firm, adding that he would not encourage clients to opt for “hog hotels”.
“There will be many new, competing ideas (about how to raise pigs in China),” Xue said, including high-rise farms.
Eventually, “a suitable model will emerge.”
Reporting by Dominique Patton; Editing by Tom Hogue
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.