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Funiture Giant IKEA Wants to Help Restaurants Build Their Own Indoor Farms
The furniture chain is getting into the sustainable farming industry, one restaurant kitchen at a time
By Gillie Houston Posted June 17, 2016
The furniture chain is getting into the sustainable farming industry, one restaurant kitchen at a time.
Swedish home furnishing giant IKEA is known for its simple, affordable furniture that populates dorm rooms and studio apartments across the country. Now, the furniture chain is hoping to get into the sustainable farming industry, one restaurant kitchen at a time.
The company—which has put further emphasis on becoming more environmentally sustainable—recently threw its support behind "The Farm," a hydroponic garden that could potentially allow them to grow the food served at their stores directly inside the IKEA restaurants. The in-store cafes—known for their Swedish meatballs, cinnamon rolls and lingonberry everything—are just one small slice of the company's $2 billion-a-year business. However, IKEA is hoping to use The Farm as a model for restaurants everywhere to take a more holistic, home-grown approach to the food supply chain.
The brand partnered with Space10, an independent "future-living lab" and exhibition space in Copenhagen, which acts as “an external innovation hub for IKEA.” According to PSFK, one Space10 employee compared the state of the environment to a sick human body, saying that the earth needs to time to rest and get healthier in order to recover from its current issues. The lab is hoping this DIY farming concept will provide some of that rest for the planet by moving gardens indoors and taking a little stress off the land. “We are looking into the potential of growing fresh, healthy food without chemicals much closer to consumption,” says Space10’s Simon Caspersen.
The Farm utilizes a variety of IKEA products in its design; The LED lights that power the hydroponic garden are from the store's Rydda/Vaxer line, and IKEA-brand shelves and plastic bins are used to house the plant life. All said, 80 percent of the supplies used in The Farm's initial model came from the company.
While The Farm is still in its early developmental states right now, in hopes to be eventually developed and tested in one of the chain’s restaurants—one day chefs, restaurateurs and home cooks across the world could be creating their own on-site gardens. A sustainably sourced food future could be just an IKEA trip away.
Thesis Book - The Seed: Urban Vertical Farming
Thesis Book - The Seed: Urban Vertical Farming
2016 Syracuse University School of Architecture exhibition prize-winning thesis on Urban Vertical Farming.
IKEA is selling hydroponic grow kits to grow vegetables inside. Urban farmers unite!
Ikea & hydroponic grow kits!
No soil necessary. It's the hallmark of hydroponic gardening, plants held in place while their roots dangle in nourishing water.
IKEA is using is mass marketing capabilities to bring this, newly miniaturized, technology to the masses.
It is with the idea that it should be affordable to grow your own food. An aspiring gardener can suit up and get to it, even in a high-rise apartment building, for around $50.
The system is a basic grow tray with small pods to put your seeds in. Once seeded, keep an eye on the water level and make sure they get enough light. You'll have veggies soon.
One of the scientists that worked with IKEA to help create the hydroponic system is Helena Karlén, lecturer at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. She reveals the challenge "to make growing plants in a hydroponic system simple, so that anyone could succeed," adding, "we were also very interested, not only that they grow, but also the taste... they should taste good, very good actually."
Vertically farming vegetables and living in the city just got synergistic on the cheap.
By Ian Crossland
Profits From Eco-friendly Vertical Farming Stack Up
“We look at every single major urban environment as an opportunity”
Profits From Eco-friendly Vertical Farming Stack Up
Last Updated: May 20, 2016 9:47 AM
Profits From Eco-friendly Vertical Farming Stack Up
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY —
Vertical farming — a tech-savvy subset of farming in which plants are stacked indoors, floor-to-ceiling, using controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) methods — is growing rapidly, changing the business landscape of traditional supply chains and growing seasons.
It is also having a profound effect on the environment.
Ask Newark, New Jersey-based AeroFarms, which set up shop in a neon-sprayed former paintball and laser tag arena next to a highway in the city’s Ironbound district. Its warehouse is the size of a Walmart Supercenter, but exclusively for leafy greens and herbs — more than 250 varieties.
AeroFarms aisles rise tall — accessible only by forklift crane — with shelves that are specialized growing labs using patented LED lights, aeroponic mist and reusable cloth.
To enter, farmers must suit up appropriately: gloves, lab coat, hairnet. Shoes must be disinfected.
AeroFarms’ high-yielding, economically efficient technology has made it the commercial leader in indoor farming, a market that is expected to quadruple over the next five years to nearly $4 billion.
AeroFarms co-founder and CEO David Rosenberg says the decision to focus on leafy greens was not based on any technological constraint, but rather business optimization.
“These are relatively high price-per-pound items, so it absorbs some of the price premiums with the new technology,” Rosenberg said.
95% water reduction, zero pesticides
AeroFarms’ output is consistent year-round, and it's consistently good for the environment — the effects of soil erosion, pesticides, water overuse and carbon emissions are heavily reduced, in some cases eliminated. The result is a net win for AeroFarms and the Earth.
“We could take up seed, we could grow it using 95 percent less water. In about 16 days our output per square foot is approximately 80 times per square foot over a field farmer, and we also grow using about 50 percent less fertilizers and zero pesticides, herbicides, fungicides,” Rosenberg said. “We could do this whether it is in the Sahara or a city like Newark.”
With indoor farms already in development on four continents, AeroFarms co-founder and chief marketing officer Marc Oshima says the company’s goals are to increase its production efficiency and scale operations worldwide near major distribution channels.
“We look at every single major urban environment as an opportunity,” Oshima said. “We look at things like urban density, we think about population, we think about people who are eating leafy greens.”
They also consider plants that are specific to their audience.
“We think about amaranth, one of the most popular greens in Africa and Southeast Asia. We think about how we can really bring and celebrate different types of varieties and different types of greens that are going to be specific to those regions.”
The farms also serve as tasting labs for AeroFarms' packaged varieties of supermarket-available, ready-to-eat leafy greens. Its baby watercress — labeled as “bright and crisp with a slight sweetness and a healthy dose of spice" — also happens to be an AeroFarms office favorite.
Alina Zolotareva, registered dietitian nutritionist and self-described foodie at AeroFarms, says her objective, from a public health standpoint, is to get people to eat more leafy greens like kale, one of the most nutritionally dense foods on the planet. To achieve this, producing the perfect taste is essential.
“Americans especially don't eat enough vegetables, so for me the most exciting part is all of the different flavors that we have here,” Zolotareva said. “It makes eating your vegetables so much more exciting and so much more fun.”
The farm’s specialty kale, in her opinion, “melts in your mouth.”
“A lot of people like the nutritional density of kale, but they don’t like the taste,” added Rosenberg. “So we can make a sweeter kale using the same seed, just stressing a plant to change the phytochemistry to get certain outcomes.”
6,500 square meters = 900,000-kilo harvest
Rosenberg says AeroFarms’ focus on leafy greens serves a greater function in addressing a growing food shortage worldwide. As part of a multifaceted approach to the crisis, he says consumers must shift their focus from calorie intake to nutrition.
Recent studies by the World Bank predict that an estimated global population of 9 billion in 2050 will require at least 50 percent more food. To add to the crisis, climate change is projected to cut crop yields by more than 25 percent during that span, an effect that would disproportionately affect the world’s poorest citizens.
AeroFarms, for its part, is slated to increase production significantly in the United States, in addition to its global operations. Less than a kilometer from its 2,800-square-meter farm is the site of its new global headquarters, a 6,500-square-meter former steel mill — the largest indoor vertical farm worldwide based on annual growing capacity, with a harvest rate of up to 900,000 kilos.
Vertical Greenhouse Company Expands In Canada
There is a huge amount of activity in indoor farming worldwide now
By Andy Nelson May 18, 2016 | 12:16 pm EDT
A builder of vertical greenhouse growing equipment has inked a deal with a Canadian distributor.
Las Vegas-based Indoor Farms of America signed an agreement with Greenhouses Canada to supply vertical greenhouse equipment in several Canadian provinces, according to a news release.
Indoor Farms of America’s GrowTrucks line of high-yield aeroponic growing equipment is designed to fit into a variety of spaces, including existing greenhouses, warehouse farms and container farms.
Joining forces with Indoor Farms of America will allow more Canadians to have access to locally-grown produce, Jeff Scharf, Greenhouses Canada’s president, said in the release.
“Our research shows there is no other equipment available that brings the positive economics to indoor growing in our cold regions like this does.”
Indoor Farms of America provides a cost-effective alternative to other forms of greenhouse agriculture, David Martin, the company’s CEO, said in the release.
“There is a huge amount of activity in indoor farming worldwide now. The harsh reality is that many projects won’t survive due to capital costs that are simply too high related to perceived financial performance. Our equipment was specifically designed to eliminate those harsh economics, and provide real ROI in a timely manner.”
Japanese Robot Farm Company Going Big And Looking At New Vegetables
Vertical farming is undergoing a revolution with companies emerging across the world. They are in once case even moving straight into the supermarket’s vegetable section.
May 16, 2016 @ 06:03 AM 69,756 views The Little Black Book of Billionaire Secrets
Japanese Robot Farm Company Going Big And Looking At New Vegetable
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I write about technology, science, finance and entrepreneurship
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Companies like Spread are giving Japan’s agriculture industry a serious upgrade for the 21st century. Spread shot to fame for its highly automated, vertical farming units. The company is now looking at possibilities for widening its business, as well as possibly expanding into new kinds of produce.
Vertical farming is undergoing a revolution with companies emerging across the world. They are in once case even moving straight into the supermarket’s vegetable section.
What sets Spread apart from almost all other companies in the space is its level of automation. Its concept has been hailed as one of the world’s first true robot farms.
The company is busy creating a new, large-scale vertical farm that will deliver cleaner, more efficient production of vegetables. It is set to open in 2017. Next on the menu is opening further farms across Japan, each capable of producing up to 30.000 thousand heads of lettuce a day – making for a grand total of up to 219 million heads of lettuce a year.
New plant takes form
Construction machines are being drafted in and Spread plan to begin building the new vertical farm, which has taken almost two and a half years to plan and design, later this year. Once completed, it will also house an integrated research and development center.
The total cost will be between 1.6 and 2.0 billion yen ($14 million to $18 million). Spread expects to produce between 20 thousand and 30 thousand heads of lettuce a day. With projected prices, the plant will reach ROI in 7-9 years.
The plant’s profitability is based around economy of scale and the use of technology. The plant will grow lettuce in a soil-less and sunless environment. Robots take care of much of the handling, LEDs deliver the necessary lighting and hydroponic technology delivers water.
Spread’s environment for growing vegetables is high-tech and highly automated. Credit: Spread.
“A farming plant like this requires about half the amount of human workers our existing facility for lettuce production without automation does. We grow in a highly controlled environment, and the plants themselves are mostly handled by machines and robots. This is in part done to increase efficiency. Apart from automation, we also use water saving technology and pesticide-free cultivation,” J.J. Price, Global Marketing Manager at Spread, explains.
Boston’s Freight Farms Grows Greens In Shipping Containers
Imagine leafy greens growing in Boston’s bitter winter, or fresh herbs thriving in the rocky mountains of Colorado
Boston’s Freight Farms Grows Greens In Shipping Containers
Imagine leafy greens growing in Boston’s bitter winter, or fresh herbs thriving in the rocky mountains of Colorado. This is all possible, by way of farming inside shipping containers. The Leafy Green Machine, a creation of Freight Farms of Boston, Massachusetts, provides a way to grow greens in the harshest of climates and in urban settings.
Becoming A Business
It all started with Boston rooftops. Freight Farms co-founders Brad McNamara and Jon Friedman originally thought roof top greenhouses were the way to farm in an urban setting, but that proved difficult.
“There were challenges with infrastructure, not all city rooftops are uniform and it was not a viable way to grow a large amount of crops,” said Caroline Katsiroubas, Community Manager for Freight Farms.
“Then the co-founders had the idea to grow produce in shipping containers,” Katsiroubas said, adding that the shipping container is a uniform structure where the growing environment could be controlled. The containers allow for year-round growing and vertical farming, which maximizes space for food production.
The 40’ x 8’ x 9.5’ shipping container, dubbed the Leafy Green Machine, or LGM for short, is outfitted with a hydroponic growing system, innovative climate technology and growing equipment. At $82,000, the container also comes with an app with which to remotely monitor crop growth.
“You can see real-time data on the farm: air, water, nutrients, and plant growth,” explained Katsiroubas, adding that this is an attractive benefit to the farming operation.
“This appeals to a lot of customers, as it cuts down on the time they have to be at the farm, and removes certain variables that make farming challenging in urban or other environments,” described Katsiroubas.
Growing Greens
“Smaller, compact crops such as leafy greens grow well in this setting,” explained Katsiroubas.
Think head lettuce, kale, swiss chard, herbs such as basil, thyme, mint and more.
“We are also experimenting with tomatoes, strawberries, squash and peppers,” said Katsiroubas, adding that while hydroponics has traditionally been associated with bland tasting produce, Freight Farms is challenging that notion.
“We are able to create a crop recipe of sorts, where climate and nutrients are controlled to yield optimal tasting greens,” explained Katsiroubas.
The end result?
“Mustard greens with incredible spicy flavor, arugula with a lot of punch,” described Katsiroubas.
Growing Business
The company concept started in 2011 while the first few sales of the Leafy Green Machine occurred in 2013. Forty containers were sold in 2015, and that number is growing rapidly.
Success stories include Freight Farms in Montana, Colorado, downtown Boston, downtown Detroit, and in places such as city public high schools and universities, to name a few.
“We are on track to add 150 farms to our network this year,” said Katsiroubas, adding that a Freight Farm shipping container can be found in at least 22 states. This method of farming is a perfect fit for certain areas or environments.
“For any place that is remote, or has limited access to fresh produce, or an area that only has access to incredibly expensive produce, this method of growing greens is ideal.”
For more information:
Caroline Katsiroubas
Freight Farms
+1 877 687 4326
Publication date: 5/5/2016
Author: Jennifer Harrison
Copyright: www.freshplaza.com
The "Farm From A Box" Delivers Modern Agriculture To Places That Need It
A 2-acre Farm in a Box: Kits Deliver Off-grid Farming Components in Shipping Container
May 1, 2016 | Anne Craig
San Francisco-based Farm From a Box supplies all the components needed to create a two-acre off-grid farm, packed in a shipping container that will then serve as a farm building. It recently announced a new partnership with Netafim, an Israel-based irrigation firm with offices in 120 countries, to supply the irrigation components.
Farm From a Box is the brainchild of partners Scott Thompson and Brandi DiCarli. Their kits include renewable power systems, internet connectivity, basic farm tools, micro-drip irrigation systems and water pumps that can be adapted to fit either a ground well or municipal water supply.
The concept was born in 2009 in Kisumu, Kenya, where Thompson and DiCarli worked together on creating a youth empowerment center using modified shipping containers set around a soccer field. Realizing that that area and many others around the world were in desperate need of a reliable supply of fresh, healthy food, they began to research and develop what they began to think of as “food sovereignty in a box,” applying the shipping container concept to sustainable agriculture.
The approach is market-based; Thompson and DiCarli intend to market Farm From a Box to aid agencies and multinationals that distribute food in hungry places, allowing the residents to establish self-sufficiency. A prototype, Adam, is up and running in Sonoma, California; the second is getting underway in the Rift Valley of Ethiopia. The kits incorporate Trojan batteries, Sierra Wireless connectivity systems, Grundfos pumps, and SMA solar technology.
“Netafim has developed a complete custom kit that is specifically tailored to the Farm from a Box 2-acre system,” says DiCarli, “designed to provide growers with an easy-to-assemble, precise water delivery solution that lowers labor and maintenance costs while improving crop performance.”
According to Ze’ev Barylka, marketing director for Netafim, the partnership will advance the company’s goals to educate people about the potential of off-grid water solutions to support sustainable farming.
“We strongly believe that education is a key initiative for future adoption of water technologies in general and drip irrigation in particular,” Barylka says. “We believe that Farm from a Box has a lot of potential to connect with education institutions as they provide with a turnkey ‘box’ that includes ‘all you need’ to irrigate a small field.”
Farm From a Box provides customers not just physical components, but also training. They purchase what the company half-jokingly calls a “Swiss Army Knife” kit for sustainable off-grid farming, along with know-how to help new farmers tackle the steep learning curve of permaculture technique.
“Farming is a complicated enterprise,” she says. “We want people to know how to maximize the income from that two acres and truly make this a vocational opportunity. We hope that with the right tools, the integrative technology, and the training, our product will empower people and encourage the next generation of farmers that the world so needs.”
Barylka says spreading that energy dovetails perfectly with what Netafim is all about.
“Farm from a Box provides an opportunity for Netafim to connect with developing markets across the world. Netafim is committed to delivering solutions to all farmers, small and big, growing commodity and high-value crops in developed and developing countries.”
The company was recognized by Ecowatch as one of their “Ten Coolest Eco Products of 2015.” According to DiCarli, every shipping container is highly customized to local needs and conditions on the ground.
“There are so many different variables that you can’t just copy and paste,” she says. “The basic template (which costs around $50,000) includes a renewable kit, a water system, and training, but we can plug in or take out the components that will fit the climate and conditions for the end user. That might be localized production for a school or community or a hyperefficient system for disaster relief. Whatever it is, our goal is to give people an easy jump start for growing off the grid.”
Wind-Powered Vertical Skyfarms Look To A More Sustainable Future For Farming
What if the future of farming took root in the city rather than in the countryside?
What if the future of farming took root in the city rather than in the countryside? London firm Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners explores that idea with Skyfarm, a hyperboloid tower that combines different farming techniques - from aquaponics to traditional soil-based planting methods - in a bamboo-framed vertical farm designed to produce its own clean energy. The civic project was the 2014 winner of the World Architecture Festival’s Future Projects Experimental category and was praised by the jury as a “thorough, believable, and beautiful project.
- Inspired by the 2015 Milan Expo theme “feed the world,” Skyfarm was developed to help solve the global food crisis, which may be exacerbated if traditional food production fails to keep up with skyrocketing population growth. As an alternative to traditional land-intensive farming, the Skyfarm grows food vertically rather than horizontally, and can be integrated into high-density urban environments. The multi-story tensegrity structure would be made with a light bamboo frame optimized for solar exposure and efficient water distribution.
The scalable and adaptable structure’s upper levels support different kinds of agriculture including aquaponics, which produce crops and fish in a near closed-loop system. The base of the tower can be converted into a market, restaurant, or learning space to educate the public about the farm. Water tanks and wind turbines top the tower. The structure can also be altered for use in different climates; in cooler climates, for example, a double skin enclosure and heating can be applied to optimize growing conditions.
“While the upfront costs of Skyfarm are higher than standard industrial scale agriculture, the ability to grow produce with a short shelf life, such as strawberries, spinach and lettuce, around the year and close to market without costly air-freighting, makes it an attractive, sustainable proposition,” wrote the architects.
This German Invention Puts An Actual Mini Farm At The End Of Your Supermarket Aisle
This German invention puts an actual mini farm at the end of your supermarket aisle
Gives a whole new meaning to 'fresh produce'.
PETER DOCKRILL
1 APR 2016
We all know that we should be including as many fresh vegetables as possible in our diets, but the fact is that the energy and environmental costs of growing and then transporting vegetables from the farm to the supermarket can stack up pretty high.
Now one German company has come up with an interesting way of tackling the problem, designing miniature farm units that are so small and self-contained, they can be installed at the end of a conventional supermarket aisle.
Kräutergarten, meaning "herb garden", is the brainchild of vertical farming startup Infarm, which is rolling out these mini farms as part of an experimental pilot with Metro Group, a German retail chain.
"Pretty much any type of greenhouse needs scale to be economic and efficient," Infarm co-founder Guy Galonska told Adele Peters at Fast Company. "In our case, the technology we developed is kind of a building-block approach, and this building block reaches efficiencies that are much higher… It works at a very small scale, just a few square metres. So it makes a lot of sense in your neighbourhood supermarket scale."
Like other vertical farm approaches we've seen in the US and the UK, Infarm's systems take advantage of things like year-round production, low water usage, and pesticide-free techniques to deliver a low-cost, low-impact means of farming greens.
In the modular, configurable units, greens and herbs literally grow in one spot until they're ready for picking. Unlike other greenhouse systems, seedlings and more mature plants aren't moved around at all, meaning the boxes need to make clever use of every available millimetre of space inside.
Right now, only one of these farms is operating in a special supermarket designed for chefs and wholesale customers, but the company intends to begin mass-manufacturing units for mainstream outlets before the end of the year. Aside from the energy savings and environmental benefits of cutting out veggie transport from farms to where they're sold, Infarm says it also makes for a revitalised way of looking at the food you buy.
"We got many interesting responses from chefs who saw vegetables they know – because they use them every day – but they'd never seen the plants at 15 days old," says Galonska. "It really engages people. You're used to having kind of a boring experience in the grocery store. You come and get your things. Here you see a farm – it's a piece of farm in the supermarket."
The pilot unit is focusing on herbs and specialty greens including mizuna and wasabi mustard greens, but Infarm says the same boxes could easily grow produce such as eggplants, tomatoes, and chili peppers. In conjunction with an app that lets customers order the vegetables they want to buy, it's a pretty unique alternative to perusing the stock on offer down at your local grocer.
"We call this farming as a service," says Galonska. "It's similar to the software world… where we sell the technology at relatively low prices, and then provide all the supplies and additional services, like the software, for example."
Infarm hopes all kinds of supermarkets will look at installing the mini farms, and if the idea takes off, it could help transform the assumption that vertical farming and other approaches to urban agriculture aren't a robust alternative to today's high-yield but high-impact agricultural practices.
"[I]f you look forward five, 10 years from now, you see the rate of technology that is expanding, evolving. We definitely see how vertical farming can supply many other things such as rice, soybeans, certain types of fruits," says Galonska. "Will it replace completely all traditional agriculture? It will take some time. But Mars, for example, will be vertical farming only."
This German Supermarket Grows Its Own Produce
In the future, a trip to your local farm could be as simple as visiting your local grocery store
This German Supermarket Grows Its Own Produce
Tiffany DoMarch 24, 2016
You could soon be picking your lettuce straight from the source, thanks to Infarm.
In the future, a trip to your local farm could be as simple as visiting your local grocery store. This is already a reality at the Metro Supermarket in Berlin, according to Fast Co.Exist.
The Infarm, a miniature greenhouse, makes vertical farming and fresh produce accessible to the public by allowing shoppers to grab vegetables straight from the source. With this sustainable and environmentally friendly technology, transportation, storage and refrigeration are no longer factors in getting produce to the people.
The vegetables live their entire growth cycle within the glowing greenhouse, from seeds to harvest. A popular supermarket among Berlin chefs, Metro was a prime choice for Infarm, allowing shoppers to experience urban vertical farming.
“We got many interesting responses from chefs who saw vegetables they know — because they use them every day — but they’d never seen the plants at 15 days old,” Infarm cofounder Guy Galonksa told Co.Exist. “This opens up new ideas for chefs. They really see the benefits of having a burger-sized [head of] lettuce and not a really big one.”
The pilot installation, which has been running for six months and is slated to continue through the year, is currently growing herbs and greens like wasabi mustard greens and mizuna, but Co.Exist reports that the farm can be adjusted to grow anything including chilies, eggplants and tomatoes.
Study Finds Philips LED Lights Provide Improved Energy Efficiency and Production for Growing Food Crops in Space
Philips LED Lights & Production for Growing Food Crops in Space?
SOMERSET, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Philips Lighting, a Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX, PHIA) company and global leader in lighting, has collaborated with The University of Arizona Controlled Environment Agriculture Center (CEAC) to test energy efficient ways to grow food that will help feed astronauts on missions to the moon, Mars and beyond. A recent study, conducted over a nine week period, found that replacing water-cooled high-pressure sodium (HPS) systems with energy efficient LED lighting from Philips in a prototype lunar greenhouse resulted in an increased amount of high-quality, edible lettuce while dramatically improving operational efficiency and use of resources. Lettuce grown under Philips LED modules achieved up to 54 grams/kWh of fresh weight, edible lettuce compared to lettuce grown under a high pressure sodium system which achieved only 24 grams/kWh of fresh weight, edible lettuce. This represents an energy savings of 56 percent.
“The lunar greenhouses equipped with Philips LED modules provided the light needed to produce the same amount of indoor crops that the specialized water-cooled sodium systems provide while significantly decreasing the amount of electrical energy used,” said Gene Giacomelli, Ph.D and CEAC Director. “Findings from this study are critical in that not only can it be applied to growing food in space but can be applied to farming techniques in places where there is a shortage of water and good agricultural land right here on this planet.”
Philips GreenPower LED toplighting was installed and programmed with a customized “light recipe” developed by plant specialists at Philips to optimize the results. Light recipes are formulated by taking into account a variety of factors including light spectrum, intensity, uniformity and relative position of the lamp to plant canopy. These are combined to develop specific plant characteristics such as compactness, color intensity and branch development.
In addition, the LED modules, which create less concentrated heat loads than HPS lamps, even without water cooling, can be placed closer to the plants resulting in uniform light distribution throughout the greenhouse. This ensures all plants receive the same level and quality of light, resulting in better, more uniform plant quality and a more predictable yield. The Philips LED systems also cool independently, which means no additional investment is required in cooling water distribution.
“Dr. Giacomelli and his team at CEAC have been on the cutting edge of pioneering research that is uncovering new ways to grow crops in closed and controlled environments. Results from this study will not only impact growing crops in space but will provide tangible sustainability benefits for indoor farming on our own planet,” commented Blake Lange, Business Development Manager of the Philips City Farming Division. “We know that it is becoming more difficult for traditional farming practices to keep up with the demand for high-quality, locally grown food, particularly in areas of high population density and with local water shortages. The work we are doing is focused on driving innovation of new farming technologies that allow food crops to grow in indoor environments, absent of natural light and in close proximity of cities and major population centers, thus reducing the distance from farm to fork.”
“NASA has been working with universities for over 25 years to discover how the use of LEDs can support plant growth in closed environments. Over that time we have used patented LED technology as part of the Astroculture plant growth chambers for the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS), NASA’s ground based Habitat Demonstration Unit, as well as NASA’s VEGGIE plant unit on the ISS,” said Ray Wheeler, a NASA plant physiologist. “It is fascinating to see how LED plant lighting has expanded so rapidly around the world and continues to further develop as we have seen most recently with the Mars-Lunar Greenhouse Project at the University of Arizona.”
About the Study
The project was completed over a six month period by a team led by Dr. Gene Giacomelli within the Mars-Lunar Greenhouse created by Sadler Machine Co. During a nine week period, four harvests of lettuce heads weighing 5 to 6 ounces were analyzed. All plant production and growing practices remained constant between two distinct growing systems—LEDs with the specially developed light recipes from Philips Lighting versus a traditional high pressure sodium system, which included a glass water jacket for removing the concentrated heat from the lamp bulb.
About the University of Arizona CEAC
The University of Arizona Controlled Environment Agriculture Center located in Tucson, Arizona is focused on the science and engineering of maximizing plant production within controlled environments. The Mars-Lunar Greenhouse project is a NASA collaboration supported by the Arizona-NASA Steckler Space Grant, which supports university research and technology development activities to achieve innovative research and expanded technology applications.
About Philips Lighting
Philips Lighting, a Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) company, is the global leader in lighting products, systems and services. Our understanding of how lighting positively affects people coupled with our deep technological know-how enable us to deliver digital lighting innovations that unlock new business value, deliver rich user experiences and help to improve lives. Serving professional and consumer markets, we sell more energy efficient LED lighting than any other company. We lead the industry in connected lighting systems and services, leveraging the Internet of Things to take light beyond illumination and transform homes, buildings and urban spaces. In 2015, we had sales of EUR 7.4 billion and employed 33,000 people worldwide. News from Philips Lighting is located at www.philips.com/newscenter.
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/2876870#ixzz4J3BuIQzP
Contacts
Philips Lighting
Melissa Kanter, 732-563-3994
melissa.kanter@philips.com
IKEA Launches Indoor Garden That Can Grow Food All Year-Round
If you’ve always wanted to grow your own veggies and herbs, but don’t have a yard where you can set up a garden, IKEA has the perfect product for you
If you’ve always wanted to grow your own veggies and herbs, but don’t have a yard where you can set up a garden, IKEA has the perfect product for you. The furniture retailer just unveiled its new KRYDDA/VÄXER hydroponic garden, which allows anyone to easily grow fresh produce at home. Check out the video: https://youtu.be/Sv9wD2HNSnA
The system allows customers to sprout and grow plants without any soil. Seeds can be sprouted using the absorbent foam plugs that come with the system, which keeps them moist without over-watering. Once the seeds have germinated, you can simply transfer the entire plug into its own pot and fill it with a scoop of water-absorbing pumice stones. These pots fit into a growing tray equipped with a solar lamp, providing year-round nourishment for the plants even in rooms without direct sunlight. (Or, if you choose to do things the old-fashioned way, you can simply place the tray in a convenient window.) The growing tray is even equipped with a built-in water sensor to help you ensure your plants are neither under- or over-watered.
IKEA claims the system is so simple that anyone — regardless of their experience with gardening — can successfully use it. While it’s not yet clear how much the set will cost, IKEA plans to launch the indoor gardening set in April. It’s worth noting that this is not the first indoor hydroponic garden to hit the market, although it may be a good option for people who aren’t exactly sure where to get started.
While the new system is a departure from IKEA’s usual catalog of items like bookshelves and tables, it’s in keeping with the company’s trend toward sustainability and away from a traditional retail business model. IKEA’s head of sustainability famously proclaimed earlier this year that the Western world had hit “peak home furnishings” and spoke about helping customers live more eco-friendly lives. Hopefully that means more products like this compact indoor garden are on the horizon.
How Vertical Farming Is Revolutionising The Way We Grow Food
Traditional farming is taking a huge toll on the environment...
Gizmodo Australia 3/05/2016
Traditional farming is taking a huge toll on the environment -- a problem that's set to worsen due to our ever-growing global population. Yet there are some high-tech solutions. Here's what you need to know about the burgeoning practice of controlled-environment agriculture and how it's set to change everything from the foods we eat to the communities we live in.
As a practice, traditional farming is not going to disappear any time soon. It will be quite some time -- if ever -- before other methods completely supplant it. But it's crucial that alternatives be devised to alleviate the pressure imposed by conventional farming methods.
An Unsustainable Practice
Negative environmental effects of traditional farming include the steady decline of soil productivity, over-consumption of water (including water pollution via sediments, salts, pesticides, manures, and fertilisers), the rise of pesticide-resistant insects, dramatic loss of wetlands and wildlife habitat, reduced genetic diversity in most crops, destruction of tropical forests and other native vegetation, and elevated levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. And as urban sprawl continues unabated, vast swaths of productive farmland are being eliminated. Estimates place the amount of farmland lost to development since 1970 at a whopping 30 million acres.
There are economic and social concerns as well. In addition to relying on huge federal expenditures, Big Agriculture has resulted in widening disparity among farmer incomes, concentrating agribusiness into fewer hands, and limited market competition. What's more, farmers have very little control over prices, while progressively receiving smaller and smaller portions of consumer dollars. From 1987 to 1997, for example, more than 155,000 farms were lost in North America. As noted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, this "contributes to the disintegration of rural communities and localised marketing systems."
Controlled-environment Agriculture
As a solution, an increasing number of horticulturalists and entrepreneurs are turning to controlled-environment agriculture (CEA), and the related practice of vertical farming. While not a total panacea, these high-tech farms are doing much to address many of the problems associated with conventional farming practices.
One company that's leveraging the power of CEA is IGES Canada Ltd. Headed by President and Executive Director Michel Alarcon, IGES is working to own and operate a number of CEA facilities in both populated and remote communities. The company's overriding mandate is to rebuild resilient communities and dramatically reduce CO2 emissions.
As Alarcon explained to io9, environmentally-controlled farms like the one implemented by IGES have a number of inherent advantages. Compared to conventional farms (and depending on the exact configuration and technologies used), they're around 100 times more efficient in terms of their usage of space, 70-90% less reliant on water, with a lower CO2 footprint. Foods are grown without the use of pesticides, they're nutrient-rich, and free from chemical contaminants. And because they can be built virtually anywhere, CEAs can serve communities where certain foods aren't normally grown.
Alarcon plans to introduce his company's technology to northern regions of Canada, where they would serve aboriginal populations. Conceivably, such facilities could be installed in any number of extreme environments, including the desert or in regions stricken by drought.
These facilities, which are used by IGES to produce broad leaf products like micro-greens, herbs, and soft fruit, can produce 912 metric tons per year in a 10,000 square meter space. And that's via horizontal farming, IGES's preferred method of CEA. With increased roll-out of these facilities, the company can supplant foreign food imports during winter months.
"The savings from a reduction in transportation costs will enable the price of our food to be less than organic food prices," says Alceron.
(Credit: Goldlocki/Hochgeladen von Rasbak/CC BY-SA 3.0)
Operations like the ones visualized by IGES Canada likely will have a profound impact on local communities. CEAs will make certain foods available year-round, providing a variety of healthy food sources, while creating local employment and promoting cultural preservation.
IGES Canada will soon be initiating a crowd financing campaign, while expanding its equity financing partner base.
(Credit: Goldlocki/Hochgeladen von Rasbak/CC BY-SA 3.0)
Startup costs for ventures like these can be intense. A few years ago in Vancouver, a company sought to install a massive greenhouse for vertical lettuce production on top of a city-owned parking structure, but failed. Some of it had to do with investors and contracts with the city, but it was also hampered by high startup costs relative to the resulting crop yields. As Foodshare Senior Coordinator Katie German explained to io9, many of the farms are also set up to grow food for restaurants -- growing for high price points -- and are not necessarily concerned about making food more accessible (which the high startup costs requires). Currently, the Vancouver company is trying to sell their failed $US1.5 ($2) million greenhouse on craigslist.
AeroFarms is currently building the world’s largest vertical farm in Newark, NJ. (Credit: AeroFarms)
At the same time, there have been a number of successful implementations, including Green Sense Farms in Portage, Indiana. They're currently leasing a 30,000-square-foot warehouse in an industrial park which can serve a five-state Midwestern region. According to its CEO, Robert Colangelo, "By growing crops vertically, we are able to achieve a higher yield, with a smaller footprint."
Other successful examples include plant factories set up by the Mirai Group, and the Zero Carbon Food's operation in which a WWII bomb shelter was converted into a high-tech underground farm.
"The whole system runs automatically, with an environmental computer controlling the lighting, temperature, nutrients and air flow," noted Steven Dring, co-founder of the company, in a Bloomberg article.
Tools of the Trade
Environmentally-controlled farming is more than just a glorified form of hydroponics. These facilities employ a number of sophisticated techniques and technologies to produce nutritious and tasty foods at reasonably high yields.
Polarised Water
One critical component of the IGES model is the use of polarised water, which enables water to hold on to a greater amount of nutrients.
"The injection of energy in water modifies the bond angle of hydrogen and oxygen atoms and makes the molecular structure more attractive to nutrients, and therefore carry a higher amount of these nutrient to root and plant leaf surface and increasing growth rate," explained Alarcon.
This process also increases redox effect (oxidation) and elimination of bacterial and microbial pathogens.
CO2 Injection
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is an essential component of photosynthesis, a process also called carbon assimilation.
Photosynthesis is a chemical process that uses light energy to convert CO2 and water into sugars in green plants. These sugars are then used for growth within the plant, through respiration. The difference between the rate of photosynthesis and the rate of respiration is the basis for dry-matter accumulation, i.e. growth, in the plant.
"In greenhouse production the aim of all growers is to increase dry-matter content and economically optimise crop yield," Alarcon told io9. "CO2 increases productivity through improved plant growth and vigour."
For the majority of greenhouse crops, net photosynthesis increases as CO2 levels increase from 340 -- 1,000 ppm (parts per million). According to Alarcon, most crops show that for any given level of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), increasing the CO2 level to 1,000 ppm will increase the photosynthesis by about 50% over ambient CO2 levels.
Ambient CO2 level in outside air is about 340 ppm by volume. All plants grow well at this level, but as CO2 levels are raised by 1,000 ppm, photosynthesis increases proportionately, resulting in more sugars and carbohydrates available for plant growth.
And CEAs provide an excellent venue for our excess CO2.
Microalgae Photobireactor
These bioreactors employ a light source and photosynthesis to cultivate phototrophic microorganisms (those that use energy from light to fuel metabolism), including plants, mosses, microalgae, cyanobacteria, and purple bacteria.
(Credit IGV Biotech/CC BY-SA 3.0)
It typically allows for much higher growth rates and purity levels than in natural habitats. Photobioreactors transform CO2 into highly nutritious plant food which is readily absorbed by plants.
Climate Control
The internal environment of CEAs must be carefully maintained, including steady temperature, humidity, and isolation from external air. Climate control minimizes plant environmental stress and exposure to harmful pests.
Lighting
Similarly, optimal multi-spectrum lighting and light exposure can be applied year-round, regardless of season and natural light availability. Recently, LED grow lights have evolved to offer multi spectrum lighting range, thus enabling a broader range of plant varieties to thrive in this environment.
Scalability
These facilities are also highly scalable. IGES Canada's operations are scalable from a 1/4 acre (250m2) operation to multiples of 3 acres (10,000m2) facilities.
Tempering Expectations
According to Timothy Hughes, an organic horticulture specialist working in Toronto, the potential social benefits to enviro-controlled farming are enormous.
"Local, dense food production spaces would provide permanent green-sector employment, as well as an excellent educational model -- providing a wider knowledge base for students and employees alike," Hughes told io9. "From one farm, you could produce vegetables, fruit, honey, fish, and textiles, for example. And by expanding the variety of crops produced, you're ensuring overall success through diversity."
At the same time, however, Hughes says that environmentally-controlled farming may be technologically flashy, but it's not as efficient as it's being touted. He points to high building maintenance and energy costs, along with ongoing technological investments.
"In terms of plant life, these systems are often reliant on technology, such as powering the hydroponics," he says. "This could be a bad thing for struggling or remote communities when reliant on these types of technology -- we're only beginning to understand these kinds of vertical farms because they haven't been built beyond traditional greenhouses."
Hughes would rather see the money spent on labour and horticultural infrastructure innovations than on enormously expensive megastructures. He points to permaculture as a possible alternative -- aquaponics in particular. Aquaponics is a system of symbiotically growing hydroponic vegetables and fish. This delivers two high-value crops while sharing resources, reducing or totally eliminating waste, and increasing energy efficiency during production.
(Credit: Johnson State College)
"I believe this maintains a scientific approach, through taking a lesson from more traditional farming -- which we know works -- and augmenting it," says Hughes. "Current greenhouses are already quite technologically advanced and have a huge amount of research put into them in terms of light technology and environmental controls. Why not build upon what we already have?"
Currently, aquaponics is in use, but not widely. Hughes envisions growing this to a larger scale, in more urban spaces, with a greater and denser mass of growing space.
"Vertical farming systems have a lot to offer, but you can further increase productivity and value through increasing biodiversity, and by doing so furthering the benefit to local communities," he says. "Biodiversity is important to the survival of all organisms, but is especially beneficial when replicating or improving a healthy growing environment. By using an Integrated Pest Management system to monitor crops and greenhouse systems, other organisms (such as pollinating and beneficial insects) can thrive in a constructed ecosystem."
And then there's the issue of soil -- or lack thereof. According to Katie German, there has been some pushback from organic farmers about not having any soil, and farming is fundamentally about soil and biology.
"If you don't have soil fertility you might be going with synthetic fertility -- which has a whole myriad of implications in regards to how it was produced and where that might negate other ways of reducing pollution," says German. She points to the work of Elliot Coleman, a veteran organic farmer who says you can't have organic food without soil.
Lastly, German says many of us are guilty of failing to acknowledge the ongoing importance of farms.
"If we talk about urban food production innovation, but lose the conversation and struggle for farmland preservation, then we are doomed," she told io9. "I think sometimes these high-tech environmentally controlled farms are sexy, but we have to make soil sexy. The UN released this report that said if we really want to feed the whole world then we need to shift to small scale organic agriculture. Which isn't sexy like growing butter lettuce in a shipping container outside of your farm-to-table restaurant."
In response to these concerns, IGES Canada says that their offering, along with those of other CEA ventures, are a complement to traditional agriculture.
"The goal isn't to grow every crop using this method, just generally the leafy greens and soft fruits," explained Patrick Hanna, IGES's Director of Marketing and Promotional Campaigns. "Cities still require farmers to provide wheat, soy, potatoes, peppers, and so on. I am of the opinion our system compliments them."
Hanna points out that some 80% of the world's arable land is currently being used by farming. And with the expected population growth, we need to find solutions to this looming issue.
"On the topic of small scale organic production, I actually agree that is the future and we intend to use this system to augment that for small scale communities, in partnership with local farmers," adds Hanna. "We see the problems created by 'Big Ag' and have developed a system to mitigate a large segment of the problems created by that unsustainable, large scale, decentralized model."
Sources:leafcertified.org|USDA
Designing the Future of Urban Farming
Helping a Berlin startup strengthen its offer of vertical farming products and services
Designing the Future of Urban Farming
Helping a Berlin startup strengthen its offer of vertical farming products and services
INFARM
The Challenge
Help INFARM develop the vision, products, and services for their B2B vertical farming offer.
The Outcome
Concepts for the industrial design of B2B vertical farm units, the interaction design of the app to control and monitor the units, and a business model for sustainability.
The challenge of how we’ll feed the exploding world population in the future—in a sustainable, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly way—is seeding an agricultural revolution in Europe.
In 2012, INFARM founders Erez, Guy Galonska, and Osnat Michaeli found that vertical farms could be a solution to urban self-sufficiency. These farms could allow people to grow vegetables and herbs in small spaces, with no soil and far less water.
If every city on earth were to grow 10 percent of its produce indoors, it would allow us to take 340,000 square miles of farmland back to forest.
Dickson Despommier, Emeritus Professor of Public Health and Microbiology at Columbia University, and father of vertical farming
An approach that’s captured the imagination of futurists for decades, vertical farming involves growing vegetables and herbs in stacked units or inclined surfaces, within which moisture, light, temperature, and nutrients are monitored, and controlled.
After creating their first vertical farming experiment in their apartment in Berlin, the founders brought together plant scientists and industrial designers to explore and develop vertical farming’s potential.
Since then, the startup has created custom growing systems for clients including Airbnb, Mercedes-Benz, and Weber. Most recently, INFARM installed a vertical farm growing herbs and vegetables at the Berlin branch of German supermarket chain Metro, the fourth-largest retail chain in the world, to sell to the public. It’s been profiled in Wired Germany, Süddeutsche Zeitung, The Guardian, and Zeit.
The vertical farm is designed to be modular, allowing consumers to purchase according to their needs.
INFARM collaborated with IDEO to further explore their B2B offer, including concepts for the industrial design of the stackable, modular, climate-controlled units; the interaction design of an accompanying app to monitor and control the units, and its business model.
Urban farmers will sign up for “farming as a service,” comprising the units themselves, as well as a monthly subscription for seeds, cartridges filled with nutrients, and a pH regulator. Because they’re stackable, the modules can be scaled to suit anyone from a home grower to a restaurant chef or supermarket owner. And Erez claims a 1 square meter growing tray can yield four to six mature plants every day, 365 days a year, doubling that of state-of-the-art hydroponic greenhouses.
The consumer app allows farmers to choose a set of herbs designed around specific recipes.
As well as remotely regulating each unit’s climate, the app will educate growers about new vegetables and herbs, selling packs of complementary seeds, with suggested recipes for them, and cooking instructions. Aiming to promote biodiversity, the firm will sell rare-breed and heirloom seeds too.
The startup has funding from the EU’s European Pioneers fund, and is now looking to secure investment to accelerate software development and ramp up their hardware production capabilities. Quite literally, it's growing its business.
Is Urban Farming Only For Rich Hipsters?
Farms are springing up in cities across Europe, but if they exclude lower income groups they’ll do little to help shift towards sustainable food system
Is Urban Farming Only For Rich Hipsters?
Farms are springing up in cities across Europe, but if they exclude lower income groups they’ll do little to help shift towards sustainable food system
Gina Lovett
Monday 15 February 2016 07.35 EST
Spending on ethical food and drink products – including organic, Fairtrade, free range and freedom foods – hit £8.4bn in the UK in 2013, making up 8.5% of all household food sales.
By leveraging environmental credentials, such as local, sustainable and transparent production, a new wave of urban agriculture enterprises are justifying a premium price. But while a higher price point might better reflect the true cost of food production and help build a viable business, it can also exclude lower income groups, fuelling perception that local, sustainably produced food is the preserve of food elitists.
Making urban grown produce affordable
“This is a real challenge,” says Kate Hofman, CEO and co-founder of London-based aquaponics enterprise GrowUp Urban Farms, which produces fish, salads and herbs in unused city spaces to sell wholesale. Unit 84 – its aquaponic, vertical farm – is housed in an industrial warehouse in east London. Launched in autumn last year, it has a projected annual production of 20 tonnes of greens, salads, and herbs (enough for 200,000 salad bags) and four tonnes of tilapia (cichlid fish). It sells its produce as wholesale to local restaurants and grocers.
“Food is a commodity, and we have to make the business work. Of course, we are growing more expensive things [such as micro-greens] with a bigger margin for a customer who has more to spend, but we are trying to grow other affordable things like mixed salad, and get those into retailers that are widely accessible,” says Hofman. GrowUp Urban Farms does not share wholesale prices but, as an example, customers can currently buy 50g of peashoots through Farmdrop for £1.10 compared to £1 for the same weight on Sainsbury’s website.
As the business develops, Hofman is aiming to produce premium micro-greens for Michelin-starred restaurants that in turn can, she says, support the expansion of more affordable salads and herbs.
Accessible technology
Erez Galonska, founder and CEO of Berlin-based Infarm which sells a range of modular, app-controlled, indoor hydroponic growing systems, agrees that accessibility is important.
A big part of Infarm’s focus, according to Galonska, is democratising growing technologies to produce high quality produce at affordable prices. “Anyone [shops, restaurants, schools and hospitals] should be able to have their own farm, and grow their own food. The first ones to do it are obviously the early adopter types but, in principle, there is no reason for it not to become a standard.”
Berlin’s Metro Cash & Carry supermarket, part of the Metro Group wholesale chain, has already implemented the Infarm hydroponics system in store, growing herbs, radish and greens which Infarm says will be available at a price comparable to Metro’s other fresh goods. Infarm will begin targeting businesses globally this year.
Workforce diversity
Swiss aquaponics enterprise Urban Farmers – which sells its urban growing system and raises tilapia, micro-greens, salads and herbs – has taken over the rooftop floors of De Schilde, a former Philips TV and phone set factory in The Hague. It aims to produce 45 tonnes of vegetables and 19 tonnes of tilapia annually from summer 2016. Other enterprises including a microbrewery are expected to follow.
Tycho Vermeulen – a horticulture researcher from Wageningen University who has worked to attract more urban agriculture enterprises to become tenants of De Schilde – is concerned about diversity of the urban farming workforce. “It’s just an observation, but the tendency for urban agriculture entrepreneurs is to be white and middle-class,” he says.
Urban Farmers pilot rooftop farm in Basel , based in the Dreispitz area south of Basel, just a few tram stops from the centre of the city. Photograph: Raphi See (Raphael Seebacher)/Urban Farmers
For urban agriculture to move beyond serving a niche group of people and make a real impact on the global food system, it will have to engage a wider demographic. This has been the driver behind GrowUp’s education and training programme in the London borough of Newham.
According to Hofman, Newham has “one of London’s highest unemployment rates ... There’s a real need for job opportunities [with companies] that are prepared to invest in training young people with a poor history of educational attainment”.
GrowUp has created roles specifically for young local people with a history of poor educational attainment, training them as aquaponics technicians for commercial food production and developing their skills in planning crops and monitoring quality. Hofman hopes that they will stay and develop with the business as it expands.
Wider inequalities in the food system
For some the challenges around equality in urban agriculture are simply a reflection of the global food system’s wider issues. Patrick Holden, founding director and CEO of the Sustainable Food Trust, says, for example, that many of those working in the food sector are paid poorly and as a result, “the people who produce our food can’t afford good food”.
Holden hopes the interest in urban food will end up benefitting the whole of society in the future. “There’s a whole generation for whom urban food growing is becoming a major interest. These kinds of food revolutions tend to be led by people who have more information, and maybe more disposable income, but that’s not to say they’re not tapping into something of interest to all sections of society,” he says.
Urban Farms: The New Frontier for Female Farmers
Vanessa Hanel in her basement farm, where she grow micro greens
Urban Farms: The New Frontier for Female Farmers
By Trina Moyles on December 3, 201
Vanessa Hanel in her basement farm, where she grow micro greens.
Vanessa Hanel is a twenty-nine year old female farmer living in the heart of grain-and-cattle country in Calgary, Alberta. Hanel didn’t grow up on a farm, but developed a passion for agriculture in her early twenties. After sowing her first handful of seeds in a community garden plot, she grew hooked on growing food and, eventually, farming.
Hanel isn’t alone.
Studies prove that increasing numbers of women are getting into farming in North America. But while more women are pitching in on the farm, the old Farmer Joe stereotype still has a grip on the reins of rural food production. The statistics don’t lie: Fewer women own farmland than men. It’s estimated that only 27 percent of farm operators in Canada are women. Numbers are even lower in the U.S., with a mere 14 percent of farms headed by women. What’s causing the major gender imbalance in agriculture today?
We could blame history, which has largely defined who drives the tractor in society. More than a century ago, European farmers settled in North America and dropped seed into the soil, raising their sons into farmers and their daughters into “farmer’s wives.” Culture maintained the practice of transferring land and farming knowledge from father to son, while women accessed land through their husbands. Women’s efforts on family farms around food—growing, preserving, preparing, and distributing—are often celebrated in history. But rarely do we talk about how the tradition of inheritance plays a part in the small percentage of women who own farmland today.
Rarely do we talk about how the tradition of inheritance plays a part in the small percentage of women who own farmland today.
For one, it’s never been more expensive for aspiring female farmers to secure land. (Or, really, all farmers.) In Canada, the value of land increased by 113 percent from 2000 to 2012, while in the U.S., the cost of farmland in Iowa jumped 31 percent in a single year alone. In 2015, the United States farm real estate value, a measurement of the value of all land and buildings on farms, averaged $3,020 per acre.
“I don’t think I’ve ever considered owning farmland,” admits Hanel.
Instead of facing the improbability of purchasing land and equipment necessary to farm—which can cost upwards of $1.5 million dollars—the solution for the young urbanite, like Hanel, could be looking within the city—or even in her own home. In early 2015, Hanel started up Micro YYC, an urban farming and micro greens operation in Calgary. She bypassed the barrier of accessing land altogether by “farming” in her basement, investing only $3,000 in industry shelves, grow lights, seed trays, and seeds. “Compared to buying land and things like farm machinery, it was peanuts,” says Hanel. “When I ventured into [farming] on my own, focusing on micro greens just seemed like the most doable thing—no buying, no borrowing, no rent, no weather issues, and I could start right away in the middle of winter.”
Hanel’s approach to farming in the city has paid off. Moving into her third year as a grower and business owner, her creativity and entrepreneurship has already turned a profit.
Plus, Hanel’s trying to shake up micro-green production in Calgary, forgoing growing the common alfalfa and pea shoots to experiment with niche varieties like basil, chervil, kale, red cabbage, and mustard greens. She tends the shoots from home, watering, weeding, and trouble-shooting against mold, and packages her harvest into spicy and mild mixes for weekly sale at the Gull Valley Greenhouse’s booth at the Calgary Farmers’ Market. With more than 10,000 people frequenting the market every week, she’s able to sell around 200 units and gross $500 to $800 a week. Hanel is also cultivating relationships with local chefs. Her basil shoots are featured in an exquisite tomato salad at Taste, a trendy kitchen and lounge in Calgary.
Hanel isn’t deterred by gender dynamics. She’s forging ahead, carving out new possibilities for women to break barriers of accessing land to grow food in the city.
Overall, statistical analysis of the numbers of female urban farm operators in North America is still lacking. But a recent article by The New York Times that interviewed 19 urban farms in New York City reported that 15 of those farms—nearly 80 percent—were led by women. To date, Hanel is one of the only female farmers running her own operation in Calgary, though she hopes it’s just the beginning for other women to follow her lead.
“Even though I am outnumbered by my male peers, I have experienced kindness and support from others in the field, even my competitors,” says Hanel. “This is one of the great things about being involved in a food movement. Having shared values means that, on some level, we are all working together. Urban farming isn’t easy, but if you have the drive to do it, there’s so much opportunity to succeed—and you don’t need to own land to do it.”
While the city offers alternatives to the conventional farm model, the more insidious gender stereotyping about “who can farm” still remains rooted in societal attitudes. But Hanel isn’t deterred by gender dynamics. She’s forging ahead, carving out new possibilities for women to break barriers of accessing land to grow food in the city.
“There will always be people, not necessarily only men, who will question what I could possibly know about growing food, or owning a business,” says Hanel. “But I feel confident to say that I’m doing it successfully.”
Could The Future of Farming Come From Thinking Inside the Box?
Could The Future of Farming Come From Thinking Inside the Box?
11/02/2015 10:42 am ET | Updated Nov 02, 2016
Cari E. Guittard Principal, Global Engagement Partners; Professor of Global Management, Corporate Diplomacy & Women’s Leadership, Hult International Business School
Recently, the first of many Farm from a Box to launch globally, landed in Sonoma county. Nestled among the vineyards of Shone Farm, “Adam” - a fully functioning farm emerged from a modified shipping container - was soft launched surrounded by a small group of supporters, advisors and several pioneering partners, to include those companies that manufacture all the necessary component parts from pumps and irrigation systems, to solar panels, weather tracking devices and batteries. The effort to disrupt the current thinking and approach to farming in rural communities was conceived by founders Brandi DeCarli and Scott Thompson who are taking the concept of ‘Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime’ to a whole new level.
Food Aid Reinvented - The ‘Swiss Army Knife’ of Sustainable Farming
Having spent much of their careers overseas and working in various development and non-profit efforts, when Brandi and Scott see a need they dive in. Farm from a Box, which has been 3 years in the making, came from their personal passion to find a different and sustainable way to reinvent food aid particularly in areas where natural resources, infrastructure and technology are scarce. “Farm from a Box is the Swiss Army knife of sustainable farming,” said Brandi DeCarli. “We found that rural communities often lack the resources needed to access nutritious food. We developed a toolkit that contains all of the core components needed to grow your own food, on a two acre plot of land, without the need for an existing grid. Imagine the good it can do by growing local, organic food for a school, or helping jumpstart food production after a disaster. Farm from a Box enables and empowers communities to provide for themselves.”
Working with renowned agroecology Professor, Dr. Miguel Altieri, at UC Berkeley, who says that it is possible if land, labor, compost and seeds are available, a 2 acre diversified and self-sufficient agroecological farm can be up and running in a week’s time, managed by people locally. “I support the idea of Farm from a Box as it can provide basic resources for rural communities to create farms that don’t require external inputs,”advised Dr. Miguel, “allowing them to reach yields that will deliver sufficient food for themselves, with a surplus that can be sold in local markets.”
Farm from a Box plans to address the three keys areas that surround the global food crisis as noted by the World Resources Institute and underscored by the UN Sustainable Development Goals, ratified last month:
Global Food Crisis
1. Closing the Food Gap - Feeding 9.6 billion people by 2050
2. Supporting Economic Development by Training & Employing People in Agriculture Related Fields
3. Reduce Environmental Impact with Sustainable Technology and Practices
In early 2016 the second Farm from a Box, “Lucy,” will land in the community of Ziway, in the Rift Valley, Ethiopia and be run by a local women’s cooperative, the Rift Valley Women’s and Children’s Development Organization. The Ethiopian Government, showing remarkable leadership and entrepreneurial spirit, in 2011 established the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (EATA) and initiated a massive growth and transformation plan to look at these issues holistically. Their goal, “focus on enhancing productivity and production of smallholder farmers and pastoralists, strengthening market systems, improving participation and engagement of the private sector, expanding the amount of land under irrigation, and reducing the number of chronically food insecure households.” Working closely with partners from the government, NGO and private sector will be key in ensuring that Farm from a Box sees long term success. As Scott shared at the recent groundbreaking,“Women play a vital role in global food security. While Ethiopia has historically struggled with food insecurity, the country is investing heavily in strengthening rural agriculture and building the capacity of smallholders. We chose to pilot “Lucy” in Ethiopia because we know that significant growth is occurring there and giving women access to tools is an investment that will yield tremendous results over the long term.”
Urban Cultivator Indoor Herb Growing Kitchen Appliance
The residential Urban Cultivator provides the means to an opulent herb growing garden right in your kitchen. Eliminate all the dilemma’s that can damage your outdoor garden, including: weather, insects and rodents
Urban Cultivator Indoor Herb Growing Kitchen Appliance
OCTOBER 29, 2015 HEALTHY LIVING KITCHEN APPLIANCES ORGANIC
The residential Urban Cultivator provides the means to an opulent herb growing garden right in your kitchen. Eliminate all the dilemma’s that can damage your outdoor garden, including: weather, insects and rodents.
Our seeds are non-GMO, and no sprays or chemicals are added in the growing process. You’re getting 100% organic, healthy food.
Enjoy true freshness and clean herbs instantly with an endless array of ingredients for your next meal: Aromatic Marjoram, Bold Swiss Chard, Bright Basil, Citrus Dill, Crimson Beet Tops, Crisp Lettuce, Crunchy Cabbage, Delicate Chervil, Earthy Komatsuna, Fragrant, Cilantro, Fresh Parsley, Hearty Sunflower, Indigo Radish, Malt Amaranth, Maple Fenugreek, Mighty Broccoli, Mild Chives, Minty Thyme, Nutty Flax, Pepper Arugula, Power Kale, Robust Lentils, Sharp Mustard, Spicy Radish, Sugar Pea, Sweet Wheatgrass, Tangy Lemon Balm, Tart Sorrel, Umami Savory, Wasabi Nasturtium, Wild Oregano, Woodsy Sage, and Zesty Peppercress.
Fits in the same space as a wine cooler or bar fridge. Or, just have it free standing with the optional butcher block top.
Quick Installation Overview:
1. City Water In Connection
Use the vacuum breaker & braided City Hose to connect to your city water connection. The hose comes with a standard ⅜” compression fitting.
2. City Drain Out Connection
Connect the City Drain Hose (1/2” to 3/4“ hose connection) to your city drain which should be no further than 6’ from the Cultivator and 2’ up from the floor.
3. Power Connection
Connect the Cultivator to a standard 110/240V power outlet. The electricity plug should be no further than 2’ away from the unit and should run out on the same side as the water and drain hose. The wall receptacle is non-replaceable.
4. Hole Size For All Connections
Use a 4” hole saw and remove part of the bottom shelf of the cabinet adjacent to the Cultivator where all the connections run from.
5. Adjustable Feet
Twist the Cultivators feet to adjust its overall height from 34¼” to 34 ½”.
To see the complete installation involvement, check out the appropriate Urban Cultivator support video.
Self-Sustaining Islands, the Future of Farming?
As nautical ways of living catch on, triple decker farms might start supplying a region near you.
Charlie Stephens
The future of oceanic farming is being shaped by a group of Spanish designers. Smart Floating Farms is a floating island of fish farms, hydroponic gardens and solar panels – all of which will help future farmers bypass the inefficiencies of traditional agriculture.
Created by Barcelona design firm Forward Thinking Architecture, Smart Floating Farms (SFF) are modular, self-regulating, and multi-dimensional ocean barges. The 656 x 1,150 ft. rectangular plots provide 2.2 million square feet of farming space, and can be linked or separated according to what is needed.
The main bottom is made up of a fish farm and slaughterhouse, which are maintained by manual labor and an encompassing wave protector. The bottom floor also holds the main storage facility and desalination plant for the hydroponic farm on the story above.
Since hydroponically grown food doesn’t need soil, the floating farm makes practical sense. Production management becomes simplified as well – data is collected from the aeroponic walls and processed through an IoT system that regulates growing conditions such as climate, and eliminates the need for harmful pesticides.
The result is a self-sustaining cycle where waste from the second floor can be used as food for the first, and vice versa. Energy for the farm is sourced from the third story, where high-energy photovoltaic panels and skylights would be located.
Like the designers behind Smart Floating Farms, other entrepreneurs are venturing into unchartered waters. Blueseed is a vision for an ocean-based community of entrepreneurs who live together on an anchored ship, working and creating alongside one another in a collaborative system. While SFF could be floated offshore to any country around the world, Blueseed offers working permits for people regardless of their home citizenship.
We are also seeing new uses of shipping containers, both as living spaces in cities and also as urban farms on college campuses. Traditionally, ships have needed to be compact and efficient to get from place to place, and this maritime model of living and producing appears to be transversing industrial boundaries.
While SFF is not a ship in the exact sense, the idea is still the same – the way we work is being affected by our environmental resources. As we try to bring food production to underserved areas and seek space for making this possible, methods of production are literally changing form.
The vast expanses of rural farms are being supplanted by the vertical farming, and hydroponics are constantly being improved and adapted around the world in place of soil-dependent techniques. Now, food can be brought from farm to table in just four hours, and unused urban spaces are being transformed into agricultural powerhouses.
Smart Floating Farms is yet another one of these innovative models for producing and delivering fresh, abundant food to areas in need around the globe.