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PODCAST: Controlled Environmental Agriculture
Controlled Environmental Agriculture promises to be cleaner and greener. It’s focussed on technology and it’s essentially about bringing food production closer to the point of consumption. We examine the potential and the pitfalls
Future Tense
with Antony Funnell
Vertical farming is a bit of a buzz term. Despite the hype, it’s an important part of a growing approach to food production known as Controlled Environmental Agriculture.
Controlled Environmental Agriculture promises to be cleaner and greener. It’s focussed on technology and it’s essentially about bringing food production closer to the point of consumption.
We examine the potential and the pitfalls.
Original broadcast on November 3, 2019
Duration: 29min 38sec
Broadcast: Sun 13 Sep 2020, 10:30am
Guests
Dr. Asaf Tzachor – Lead Researcher for Food Security, Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, Cambridge University
Viraj Puri – CEO and co-founder, Gotham Greens
Jeffrey Landau – Director of Business Development, Agritecture
Dr. Paul Gauthier – Senior Agricultural Scientist, Bowery Farming
Dr. Pasi Vainikka – CEO, Solar Foods
Credits
Presenter Antony Funnell
Producer Karin Zsivanovits
Further Information
AgriTech - A Hotspot For Investments
In recent times, AgriTech or AgTech solutions are gaining their popularity factor because individuals and entities alike, are becoming increasingly aware of the efficiency technology adds to their daily processes, which otherwise would have been tasking to follow through with. The ‘revolutionary’ factor has been highlighted in the AgTech space and hence, it has caught the eyes of investors and big corporations
AgriTech - The Sought After Technology Breakthrough
In recent times, AgriTech or AgTech solutions are gaining their popularity factor because individuals and entities alike, are becoming increasingly aware of the efficiency technology adds to their daily processes, which otherwise would have been tasking to follow through with. The ‘revolutionary’ factor has been highlighted in the AgTech space and hence, it has caught the eyes of investors and big corporations.
AgTech represents that specific niche category of technology buffs that intermingle the age-old occupation of agriculture with the new age specs and wonders of technology.
The specifics of Agronomic Processes:
The agronomic processes encompass diverse solutions in every step, ranging from the sowing of seeds to the harvesting of crops. The processes comprise of integrated resolutions to enhance efficiency within agricultural organizations, along with benefiting smallholder and marginal farmers.
AgriTech, breaking barriers and records:
The upward curve of investments and profitability within the industry does not seem like it would dip anytime soon, with a continuous maturity, breaking barriers, and records. Since 2013, funding within the AgTech sector has increased by roughly a whopping 370%. According to an AgFunder report, specifically, startup investments bucked global venture capital markets across all sectors to $4.7 billion in 2019. The 695 deals were carried out across 940 unique investors.
COVID-19 comes into play:
Similar growth cannot be expected for the remainder of 2020, due to Coronavirus governing industries across all business streams. However, there is less chance of the investments cutting to a freefall wherein they would dip way lower than initially expected. New investment projects may be put on hold, however, ongoing funding is expected to be perennial.
Localizing our viewpoint, we notice that most of these investments are still being carried out within the United States. However, investments in India continue to rise at a rapid rate, representative of a two-way flow (up-stream as well as down-stream) of funding, again highlighting the maturity of the sector.
The reasoning:
WHY? Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Sir Isaac Newton was well aware of the specifics of investment and the network within which it functions. Our world is at a point today, where overpopulation is a severe problem in various countries, along with the overall population set to increase by 30% over the next 35 years, according to Global-Engage.com. According to a report conducted by FAO, agricultural production will have to increase by 60-70% to feed the world population by 2050. To work towards an increase in the production of food, along with keeping a tap on the factor of ‘sustainability’, it is essential and integral to adopt smart farming and smart agricultural practices, allowing processes and outcomes to become more efficient in the long run.
The Need for Emerging Trends:
The importance of utilizing ‘big data’ and ‘predictive analytics’ to counteract the issues faced by farmers daily is now more than ever. They will allow farmers to achieve and maybe even surpass their targets for the seasons, resulting in an influx of productivity. In a survey conducted with farmers, 60% mentioned that precision farming is an influential trend to look towards for a structural and foundational change in the way daily practices take place. With the risk of climate change looming overhead at all times, it is crucial to understand the essential need to channel funds towards projects that solve difficult and foreseen problems.
The Agricultural 4.0 wave:
Today, 25-30% of all food produced is wasted, which incurs a social, economic, and environmental cost of $2.5 trillion annually. An outdated supply chain with no digital integrations or climate-smart advisory results in around 20% of the crops produced in developed countries being left in the field itself. To spark a change and make a difference, socially conscious investors who look to profitability as well, view the AgTech sector as a gold mine, essentially killing two birds with one stone.
AgriTech today is an area that is ripe for innovation with limits imposed solely due to constraints in terms of available capital. When this constraint is counteracted, creativity applied to AI and food production will be ten-fold.
Sanjay Borkar
Founder, CEO of FarmERP
Latest ZipGrow Inc. Product Introduces Vertical Indoor Farming To New Growers
Controlled Environmental Agriculture (CEA) is currently undergoing an upturn in public interest as the general population begins to appreciate the importance of locally produced food from sustainable sources
September 9, 2020
ONTARIO, CA - Controlled Environmental Agriculture (CEA) is currently undergoing an upturn in public interest as the general population begins to appreciate the importance of locally produced food from sustainable sources. ZipGrow Inc.’s new product offering, the Introduction to Commercial Growing package, is designed to make commercial growing more accessible to farmers and businesses wanting to get into the CEA industry.
“As interest grows in improving food security, we wanted to make commercial growing more accessible to newcomers to the hydroponics world”, explains Eric Lang, President of ZipGrow Inc. “This new package is an accessible, and affordable entry-level product for anyone interested in testing out if controlled environmental agriculture is right for them.”
The new product package includes a discounted set of everything you need to get started, including 90 patented 8’ ZipGrow™ Towers, steel ZipRacks, LED growing lights, a seedling area, a comprehensive plumbing system, and an automatic doser from Atom Controllers. This package is not only all-inclusive, but also modular to be able to expand as the operation grows.
“This package can set someone up to produce up to 100 pounds of leafy greens or herbs such as lettuce or basil each week, and is a great way to test a pilot system in your local community”, adds Lang. “Since the start of COVID-19 we have seen interest in sustainable food sources skyrocket, and this is one way we are trying to encourage more people to see if hydroponic farming is right for them.”
The Introduction to Commercial Growing package has a flat rate shipping option for all locations within Canada and the continental United States, with shipping to other locations available at custom rates. The package will be fully installed on-site, with costs varying dependent on location. ZipGrow team members will work with customers to ensure the product is the right fit for them and ensure all training and ongoing education needs are fulfilled.
ZipGrow Inc. is an international leader in indoor, vertical farming technology. Our flagship product, the ZipGrow™ Tower, is a core component of many of the world’s most innovative farms; from indoor hydroponic warehouses to vertical aquaponic greenhouses and high-density container farms.
For more information contact Gina Scandrett at hello@zipgrow.com or at 1-855-ZIPGROW.
Jake Savageau, COO At FarmBox Foods "There’s A Huge Potential In Helping African Countries Become Self-Reliant And Self-Sufficient”
We offer multiple products that can feed large populations with nutrient-dense food. With mushrooms, we are diversifying that vision because we cannot feed the world with leafy greens alone”, Savageau adds
FarmBox Foods is aiming to scale its production of shipping container farms significantly by the end of 2020. “We have been working with some exciting partners outside the private sector, like Ministries of Agriculture in West Africa. There’s a huge potential in helping African countries become self-reliant and self-sufficient”, Jake Savageau, COO at FarmBox Foods says.
FarmBox Foods holds patents for its vertical hydroponic and mushroom farms. “We are trying to grow the right way, not only in terms of scaling but in separating ourselves from the competition, with logistics as our core tenet. The competition doesn’t focus on logistics like we do, in terms of dealing with governments, and getting our farms deployed all over the world.
We offer multiple products that can feed large populations with nutrient-dense food. With mushrooms, we are diversifying that vision because we cannot feed the world with leafy greens alone”, Savageau adds. “Everyone is growing greens and raising tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, but what I think they are missing is becoming a full-circle food security entity.”
Gourmet mushrooms
Alternative energy solutions
The company is also working on solar power solutions which will eventually be used for running their farms off-grid. Atmospheric water generation technologies are also in the works—a vertical hydroponic farm uses three to five gallons (11.4-19 liters) of water per day. FarmBox Foods has partnered with a Denver company that develops microgrid systems. “As we start working with governments, they won’t be putting just one farm into a warehouse or village. Rather it will be 100 farms or more where there’s limited infrastructure. That’s why we want to ensure that our farms will be fully amenable to off-grid setups.”
It’s not about making money and raising money—it’s about feeding the world. The FarmBox Foods team ultimately offers a solution to a global problem. “We are not the only solution, but I think we are a pretty good one. Our system is very well-thought-out for the end-user. We built the farms to allow for the least amount of labor with the highest yield”, Savageau notes. Currently, FarmBox foods is developing its third product, a root vegetable farm which will allow an entirely new group of crops to be grown in its farms.
Jake Savageau, COO at FarmBox Foods
Savageau continues: “The mushroom farm is a bit different than our previous designs, but we have taken care of everything in just one container. So, from start to finish, we have everything inside that’s needed to produce up to 400 pounds (180kg) of gourmet mushrooms per week. Just like the vertical hydroponic farm, it’s deployable for national disasters or food shortages. There are benefits to small compartmentalized systems because when you have a large greenhouse, it cannot be moved easily. Island nations are particularly well suited for container farming because they can control their food supply in a way that was previously unimaginable”
For more information:
Farmbox Foods
Jake Savageau, COO
jake@farmboxfoods.com
www.farmboxfoods.com
Is Hydroponic Farming Actually Sustainable?
If you've ever wondered how sustainable hydroponic farming really is—or what exactly is involved in vertical farming—this article is for you.
September 4, 2020
According to the UN, the world is on the brink of its worst food crisis in 50 years.
The global food industry is searching for a more sustainable and accessible system for producing healthy food, particularly fresh fruit and vegetables. Techniques such as hydroponics and vertical farming may provide the solution by maximizing overall output and minimizing the use of space, soil, and other resources.
But what exactly is hydroponic farming? And is it actually sustainable?
Gotham Greens grows fresh produce such as leafy greens in urban greenhouses. | Image/Gotham Greens
What Is Hydroponic Farming?
There are a variety of different approaches to Hydroponic Farming. But they all involve growing plants and fresh produce minus the soil.
There are several main styles of hydroponic systems. One uses an absorbent wick to transfer nutrients from a water reservoir up to the roots of the crop. While others leave an air-gap, allowing part of the root system to absorb nutrients directly while the remainder is exposed to oxygen in the air.
Plants may also be positioned on a floating raft, or grown through a medium, into which water is regularly pumped. Top feeding also requires regular water circulation, while aeroponics involves leaving the roots completely exposed but frequently filling or misting the space with nutrient-enriched water.
Whatever the precise method used, hydroponics involves regular exposure to both air and nutrient-rich water. According to Vertical Roots, a South Carolina-based Indoor Hydroponic Container Farm, there are five core elements to hydroponic farming. These are freshwater, oxygen, root support, nutrients, and light.
By growing crops in water, vertically, and in climate-controlled greenhouses, Vertical Roots and other similar farms are able to produce nutrient-dense food anywhere in the world, at any time of year, and using fewer resources than traditional methods.
Hydroponic farming is more resource-efficient than traditional methods. | Image/Shawn Ang via Unsplash
Is Hydroponic Farming Sustainable?
Soil-less farming techniques, in general, are typically more resource-efficient long term than traditional methods. According to the National Parks Service (NPS), hydroponics can use up to 10 percent less water than field crop watering.
By operating a closed-loop system and recycling rainwater, high-tech greenhouse developer AppHarvest uses up to 90 percent less water than traditional methods.
Most hydroponic farms utilize closed-loop systems, like AppHarvest, that contain and preserve water. This control over the water system also allows for delicate adjustments to the environment. PH levels, amount and type of light, and quantity of nutrients can all be modified to enhance the growth of crops.
Emphasizing perennial agriculture—particularly in combination with vertical farming and hydroponics—can further maximize both production and nutritional content per-plant. Many perennials, which can be maintained all year round with no replanting, are extremely nutrient-dense.
Start-up costs for hydroponic systems are typically greater than for traditional farming. But overall, it produces far greater output with fewer resources. It also allows growers to produce food anywhere in the world. Thereby reducing the carbon emissions generated through transportation, and allowing for year-round production in even inhospitable environments or weather conditions.
In general, hydroponic systems can produce a greater yield of fruits and vegetables. This is in part due to the controlled environment, but also because plants can be housed much more densely than possible using traditional methods. This both increases the overall output and reduces the quantity of land required.
Vertical farming can decrease the amount of land used for fresh produce even further. | Image/Markus Spiske via Unsplash
What Is Vertical Farming?
Vertical farming involves the growing of vegetables in stacked layers, frequently in a controlled environment.
Vertical farming also requires much less land than traditional methods. Typically, it incorporates controlled-environment systems such as hydroponics to maximize output. The primary goal of vertical farming is to increase the crop yield while reducing the space required, much like hydroponics itself.
Vertical farming firm Infarm recently partnered with supermarket chain Marks & Spencer to grow fresh herbs in select stores. The company is also working with several retailers and chefs across Europe who aim to add small vertical farms to their restaurants and stores.
“Our vertical farms can be installed directly in any urban space,” said Emmanuel Evita, global communications director at Infarm. “Which is where the majority of the global population will live in the next few decades.”
It is particularly useful for growing produce in areas where there is a lack of arable land. In Abu Dhabi, where there are extremely high temperatures and increasing water scarcity, the government is investing $100 million in indoor farming.
Inner-city gardening, in general, also lends itself to vertical farming. While harder to create a controlled environment, guerilla gardening and other community-based projects have also made use of the vertical system. This enables greater access to fresh produce and reduced mileage overall, even with rudimentary systems in place.
Emphasizing perennial vegetables could also maximize nutrients, increase production, and reduce the consumption of resources.
Why Do We Need Alternative Farming Methods?
Studies indicate that the suburbanization of major supermarkets has led to food deserts within cities. This disproportionately impacts low-income people and those who live in urban areas. Traditional malnutrition affects around two billion people worldwide. But the Standard American Diet (SAD) and lack of access to fresh food is also responsible for chronic deficiencies.
Access to fresh fruit and vegetables is likely to become even more restrictive in the recession following the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. And even in countries with plenty of food, there will likely be further disruptions in the food supply chain.
In order to provide enough vegetables for the global population to maintain a healthy diet, food production would need to triple. Alternative methods such as vertical farming and hydroponics could provide a resource-efficient and accessible way of revolutionizing the global food industry.
Gotham Greens, a fresh food farming company, specifically choose to build sustainable greenhouses within cities. Local cultivation helps the company deliver products quickly and with minimal energy expenditure. This also allows those who live within urban areas access to fresh, nutrient-dense food, and to agricultural jobs.
AppHarvest is also creating jobs, minimizing its carbon footprint, and increasing its output with its choice of location. By opening a new facility in Morehead, Kentucky, the company is both tackling high local unemployment rates while placing itself less than one day’s drive from 70 percent of the U.S. population. This reduction in travel for delivery has dropped its overall diesel costs by 80 percent.
“It’s time for agriculture in America to change,” said Johnathan Webb, the founder, and CEO of AppHarvest. “The pandemic has demonstrated the need to establish more resilient food systems, and our work is on the forefront of that effort.”
STAFF WRITER | BRISTOL, UNITED KINGDOM | CONTACTABLE VIA: LIAM@LIVEKINDLY.COM
Liam writes about environmental and social sustainability, and the protection of animals. He has a BA Hons in English Literature and Film and also writes for Sustainable Business Magazine. Liam is interested in intersectional politics and DIY music.
Lead photo: How sustainable is hydroponic farming? | Image/Gotham Greens
LIVE Virtual Tour - Inside the Greenery Container Farm with Freight Farms' Lead Designer - Thurs, Sept 10, 2020 - 4:30 PM EST
Explore the technology behind our Greenery container farm that allows farmers to grow food anywhere in the world!
Take a Virtual Tour of the Freight Farms Greenery™
Explore the technology behind our Greenery container farm that allows farmers to grow food anywhere in the world!
Farm expert Derek will explain the ins and outs of the Greenery using a live video stream inside the farm. He’ll cover the basics of controlled environment agriculture, hydroponics, vertical farming, and how all those work together inside the Greenery to create the perfect conditions for crop growth regardless of geographic location.
To Register For This Free Zoom Virtual Live Tour
Thursday, September 10, 2020 - 4:30 PM
54 Million People In The U.S. May Go Hungry During The Pandemic — Can Urban Farms Help?
Commercial urban agriculture is on the rise, with small-scale farms in New York City like Gotham Greens, which reduces the amount of energy, land use and food waste in tight, underutilized spaces to produce herbs and roughage for the masses
Sep. 07, 2020
By Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner
When I call Chef Q. Ibraheem to discuss urban farming in her own cooking career, she's in the middle of placing an order for microgreens from a small farm in Lake Forest, a ritzy suburb just north of downtown Chicago. Now's a great time for her to chat, actually, because the Chicago-based chef is immersed in what she loves, sourcing ingredients as locally as possible."
It's really important we know where our food is coming from," she says. "I know my farmers by name. I can go to the farms, see how they are growing everything, see it in the soil. It's always nice to have something within reach and know your produce." Chef Q runs supper clubs and chef camps throughout Chicagoland, sustaining the local economy by purchasing ingredients from urban gardens and farms within miles of her pop-up experiences."
As a chef, you realize you have a responsibility to your guests," she says, and for her, that responsibility means being transparent about ingredients, and even educating diners about what's on their plates. Growing up spending summers on a farm in Georgia, Chef Q has an innate curiosity about where and how her food is grown, and she recognizes the importance of farms in both urban and rural areas.
Commercial urban agriculture is on the rise, with small-scale farms in New York City like Gotham Greens, which reduces the amount of energy, land use, and food waste in tight, underutilized spaces to produce herbs and roughage for the masses. In Austin, Texas, backyard farms and urban gardens sell ingredients to restaurants and markets throughout the region, as do similar projects in Los Angeles. In fact, innovations allowing farmers to grow without soil or natural light expand the potential for food sourcing in urban areas. Urban farming has increased by over 30 percent in the past 30 years, with no indication of slowing down. Urban land could grow fruit and vegetables for 15 percent of the population, research shows.
While the COVID-19 lockdowns have inspired a burst of urban farming as people have been starting to grow their own fruits and vegetables at home, a renewed interest in culinary arts, plus a nostalgia for simpler times in many fast-paced big cities — just look at all the mid-century-era diners popping up in Manhattan right before the pandemic — may be accountable for the steady rise in urban farms. More consciousness about the environment, too, may lead small growers to want to reduce transportation emissions and take charge of the use of pesticides and fertilizers in their foods, but there's another great reason for urban farms to continue growing: feeding the masses. And with 68 percent of the world's population expected to live in urban areas by 2050, it's time to take urban farming seriously as a viable, primary food source.
Despite being the wealthiest nation in the world, the United States had more than 37 million people struggling with hunger in 2018. Since the pandemic, that number is expected to rise to up to 54 million people. And while systemic changes may one day be able to greatly reduce this number, a planting cycle is quicker than an election cycle. Bureaucracy may not immediately solve fair wages, but vegetable seeds may help communities when times are tough.
Urban Farming as a Social practice in her work, Chef Q has helped turn empty lots and abandoned buildings into urban farms, which allows neighbors to "take ownership in their communities" and also become educated consumers. In neighborhoods where the fancy grocery store is referred to as "Whole Paycheck," Chef Q has seen seed exchanges help folks start growing new produce, and regain agency over their food budgets and eating habits. Programs like the Chicago Food Policy Summit, a free annual event on Chicago's South Side, help popularize urban farming and education and help provide Chicagoans with grants to start growing their own food. Though gentrification may bring relief to previously dubbed food deserts — neighborhoods without a nearby source of fresh food — the slew of problems attached to gentrification, including higher costs of living, can easily make these new, more nutritious food options completely unaffordable to residents of the neighborhood.
As seen in smaller cities, urban farming may be the key for cities to be less reliant on rural areas, and also help achieve food security. As Dr. Miguel Altieri, professor of agroecology at the University of California, Berkeley, has shown, diversified gardens in urban areas can yield a large range of produce and efficiently feed nearby residents.
Of course, land in cities is often at a premium, with many people living in little space. Shifting public land use to incorporate food growth and getting creative with rooftops, basements and unused buildings can seriously change the way cities consume fresh ingredients. In fact, renewed efforts by the conservation organization World Wildlife Fund to boost indoor farming may revolutionize some sources of produce, particularly in cities. Repurposing unused indoor space, such as warehouses, can create direct sources of ingredients for restaurants or community-supported agriculture for neighbors. Indoor farming, while potentially more expensive, also allows urbanites from all walks of life to connect to the food system, repurpose food waste into compost and expand knowledge on growing food. Greenhouses like Gotham Greens' rooftop spaces can supplement indoor and outdoor spaces, adding even more potential healthy food to local ecosystems.
Urban Gardening With Neighbors in mind when she's not hosting pop-up dinners with culinarily curious Chicagoans, Chef Q volunteers with Foster Street Urban Agriculture, a nonprofit garden that aims to help end food insecurity in Evanston, the Chicago suburb home to Northwestern University. In the garden, Chef Q teaches kids how to water, plant, weed, and grow to produce. She'll notice a multigenerational interest: "Once kids taste zucchini, it's over," she jokes, of little ones bringing in parents and grandparents to learn to cook with more fresh produce. "They'll start [the program] eating hot Cheetos, and they're eating something green and leafy and won't go back."
Kids also just love being able to eat something that comes out of the ground and will take their passion back home, growing tomatoes in their windowsills or trying other small gardening projects in spaces available to them near home. Harvests from Foster Street are donated to food pantries and also sold at a local farmers market, where kids learn community-based entrepreneurial skills.
"Everyone eats, it's a common denominator," she says. "When food is on the table, people will have conversations."
Now, in the wake of COVID-19, urban farms have become more essential than ever. Chef Q has partnered with farms that would otherwise throw away produce without their major restaurant and hotel clients, to redistribute food to Chicagoans in need. She's noticed a spike in the price of fresh food, thanks in part to the expensive early May crops — peas, leeks, and spinach. "It's been imperative," she says, of feeding the community with a local bounty of eggplant, microgreens, cheese, and more farm-to-fork provisions.
Chef Q emphasizes that urban gardens still have to grow food to feed communities. Across the nation, we've seen victory gardens pop up in yards of homebound upper-middle-class Americans, planted with hope, thriftiness, and a creative outlet in mind. But for those who don't have yards or ample space, shared urban gardens can still serve a local population. When people don't have money, growing food is a solution to provide nutrition, and perhaps even income. And it starts with advocacy, volunteers, and outreach. "Plant something in the windowsill," Chef Q suggests, as an entryway into small-scale gardening. "It's essential. We can't stop."
Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner is a writer based in New York. She is a writing fellow at Earth | Food | Life, a project of the Independent Media Institute. She's written for the New York Times, Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Travel & Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, Glamour, AlterNet, Cosmopolitan, Teen Vogue, Architectural Digest, Them and other publications. She holds a bachelor's degree in creative writing from Columbia University and is also at work on a novel. Follow her on Twitter: @melissabethk.
This article was produced by Earth | Food | Life, a project of the Independent Media Institute.
Lead photo: An example of urban farming is seen on this Chicago rooftop. Linda / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 2.0
Urban Farming Is Revolutionizing Our Cities - EcoWatch ›5 Examples of Creative Urban Agriculture From Around the World ... ›
Urban Farming Booms During Coronavirus Lockdowns - EcoWatch ›
The real value of urban farming. (Hint: It's not always the food.) - Vox ›
Could Urban Agriculture Feed The Cities of The Future?
Vertical farms, rooftop farms and computer-controlled growing environments are an emergent phenomenon in cities around the world, which are eager to take advantage of the many benefits of urban agriculture
03 Sep 2020
By Agency
Vertical farms, rooftop farms, and computer-controlled growing environments are an emergent phenomenon in cities around the world, which are eager to take advantage of the many benefits of urban agriculture.
Drawing on new technologies and enthusiasm for locally sourced organic produce, these promising initiatives have raised hopes for greater sustainability that will reduce the environmental impact of cities and agricultural production required to meet the needs of their citizens.
However, the question remains: will urban farms be able to produce enough food to make cities self-sufficient?
The vast majority of fruit and vegetables sold in cities are picked before they are ripe, and are produced using intensive farming methods, which do extensive damage to the environment.
In contrast, urban agriculture offers the hope that we will one day be able to meet the global challenge of feeding cities in a much more sustainable manner. At the same time, it also provides a solution to the need for high-quality and locally sourced fresh food.
Recent successes in the field speak for themselves, notably the US$4mil (RM16.6mil) in funding raised by IFarm, which provides software and technology to the vertical farming sector.
The Helsinki-based company manages heavily automated indoor farms in which produce is grown in vertically stacked beds with a host of technologies that include a wide range of sensors, computer vision, and machine learning.
It currently has some 50 farms that are in development and is hoping to manage one million square meters of vertical farms and provide support for 500 different crops by 2026.
Is food self-sufficiency within reach?
It could be, notably with regard to vertical farms and certain crops. A recent publication in the interdisciplinary scientific journal PNAS has drawn attention to the potential of vertical farming to generate enormous yields of wheat.
Researchers have calculated, on the basis of theoretical values for the growth of wheat under optimal conditions, that a 10-story building on a one-hectare site could provide up to 1,940 tonnes of wheat per year, 600 times more than the average yield from traditional agriculture.
One of the reasons for this is because vertical farming provides conditions that would allow for five harvests per year instead of one. With the added advantages of doing away with the need for herbicides and pesticides, low water use, and land depletion, vertical farms may well fulfill their promise.
Questions remain about the viability of projects
However, as it stands, urban farms are very expensive to set up, and only a very few are actually profitable. Taking advantage of their situation in cities, most of those that are now operating are sustained by revenue from sources other than food production: notably income generated by cultural events, workshops, and renting plots to private individuals. – AFP Relaxnews
Related stories:
Community farm brings residents together
Getting ready for Agriculture 4.0
Lead photo: Urban agriculture is increasingly common in cities. This picture shows one of six farms created by the New York City Housing Authority in Brooklyn, New York. Photo: Leticia Barboza/AFP
TAGS / KEYWORDS: Urban Farming , Food Security , Vertical Farming , Rooftop Farms
Urban Vertical Farming: The Key To A Sustainable Future
By 2050, the forecast is that we will have an extra 2 billion people on the planet. Many of these people will live in urban areas. And we have already used a third of arable farmland in the past 40 years
Living in a dense city population can make you wonder, "where does our food come from?" When you live in urban areas like Houston, New York City, or Seattle, it's rare that you notice farms on your drive to work.
The idea that our food is grown hundreds to thousands of miles away can be worrisome. What if something were to happen to those farms? Our resources would cut off and we would have limited access to foods. This is why vertical farming in urban areas is critical to ensure cities can be sustainable food leaders.
What is vertical farming?
Vertical farming is the practice of growing crops/foods in vertically stacked layers. This is usually done indoors and in a controlled environment. This method optimizes plant growth and allows the use of soilless techniques such as hydroponics.
How does vertical farming work?
Vertical farming needs several things to work. We'll cover each one below:
Physical Layout - The purpose of farming indoors is to maximize volume. We do this by maximizing the output efficiency per square meter. This is why you will see physical layouts in the form of skyscrapers or vertical tower-like structures.
Lighting - To optimize crop growth, a need for artificial and natural lights are essential.
Growing Medium - There are several different growing mediums for vertical farming. These methods include hydroponics, aeroponics, and aquaponics. Coco Coir, Rockwool, ,Biostrate, Vericulite, Perlite, SunShine #4 and Black Gold are great mediums used in indoor farming.
Sustainability Features - Sustainable features often used with vertical farming feature rainwater tanks, wind turbines, and spaces with low energy costs.
Why is urban vertical farming important?
By 2050, the forecast is that we will have an extra 2 billion people on the planet. Many of these people will live in urban areas. And we have already used a third of arable farmland in the past 40 years.
We need to come up with other sustainable ways to grow food to ensure we can feed everyone. Vertical farming allows us to grow healthy, accessible foods within a few acres of land, close to home.
This is critical for urban areas because they will become more populated over time. Instead of relying on faraway food sources, we need to take matters into our own hands. By establishing urban vertical farming settings, we'll be able to control and grow our own food sources.
Vertical farming also uses 95% less water than traditional farming methods. The use of water needed to grow crops traditionally is wasteful. To be able to handle an influx in population, vertical farming is a sustainable solution.
How does vertical farming benefit us?
There are many reasons why vertical farming is the future of farming. By building vertical farms, there will be an increase in job opportunities. There will be easier access to healthier and attainable foods. With food grown close to home, we will always be aware of where our food comes from.
Because of the controlled environment, there is a higher chance of growth success. We will be able to grow crops year-round and have larger yields. Crops will not be exposed to harsh weather conditions since they'll be grown indoors. Urban vertical farming methods should start being adopted right now.
The Takeaway
To prepare for the upcoming increase in food demand, urban areas need to adopt sustainable policies. People should start growing their food indoors as well as increasing the demand for high-tech farming methods.
Four Storeys Up, A Commercial Vegetable Garden Thrives In A Converted Sears Warehouse
Growing food on roofs represents the future of farming, especially in these pandemic times, says Mohamed Hage, Lufa’s chief executive officer, who co-founded the company with his wife, Lauren Rathmell
DAVID ISRAELS
SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL
SEPTEMBER 1, 2020
The Lufa greenhouse sits atop a former Sears warehouse in Montreal's St-Laurent neighbourhood.
CHRISTINNE MUSCHI/THE GLOBE AND MAIL
In the industrial part of Montreal’s St-Laurent area, it can be hard to distinguish the bulky buildings from one another, except for one – the roof sticks out like a green thumb.
It’s a great glass greenhouse roof atop a former Sears warehouse – a giant vegetable garden, said by its creators to be the world’s biggest commercial rooftop greenhouse.
The 163,000-square-foot garden, which opened last week, is the equivalent of nearly three football fields worth of food. To date, it is the fourth and biggest commercial facility for Montreal-based Lufa Farms.
Lufa is already well known among local “Lufavores” – foodies, restaurants, and alterna-living people in the Montreal area, who value its fresh tomatoes, eggplants, and vegetables, as well as the produce it gathers from local farmers.
Growing food on roofs represents the future of farming, especially in these pandemic times, says Mohamed Hage, Lufa’s chief executive officer, who co-founded the company with his wife, Lauren Rathmell.“
When we looked at how to grow where people live, we realized that there was only one option – rooftops. It’s not sustainable to always be trucking food in from across the continent or shipping from all over the world,” Mr. Hage says.
The new building was planned and construction began well before COVID-19 hit the world, but it offers a strong response to the pandemic, he explains.“
In March 2020, we saw a doubling of demand for our food. Growing food locally on rooftops and sourcing from local farming families allows us to swiftly adjust and respond to this demand,” he says.
An employee works inside the Lufa greenhouse. | HANDOUT
Co-founder Ms. Rathmell, who is also Lufa’s greenhouse director, says it took three months to build the St-Laurent facility and grow the site.“That would normally have taken years,” she says.
“In response to COVID-19, we enacted stringent safety protocols early on, launched seven-day service, tripled our home-delivery capacity, and launched new software tools,” she says. The company also brought in more than 200 new team members, 35 new local farmers and food makers, and 30,000 new Lufavores customers.
Lufa’s new staff includes two full-time nurses to take workers’ temperatures as well as “social-distancing police” to walk around and make sure workers aren’t too close to one another, Mr. Hage says. The company has also boosted the frequency of its air exchange in all of its facilities, including the new one.
Designing and building a rooftop greenhouse is challenging, Mr. Hage says. Although some of the preparation required is not much different than getting any equipment onto a roof, some of the prep work up there is more complicated, he says.“
We have to meet national building codes, and of course, everything for the greenhouse needs to be hauled up to the roof on a crane,” he says. “Yet once it’s there, you have to do a lot of stuff manually rather than mechanically. All of this is harder than it would be to do on the ground.”
It’s also expensive. “This greenhouse costs two times as much as a ground-based greenhouse,” he says. Lufa declines to give out the cost of this latest project but says the first of its four facilities, built 10 years ago, cost $2.2-million.
Using buildings for farming is catching on, says Mike Zelkind, co-founder of 80 Acres Farms in Cincinnati, Ohio, which also operates building-based facilities in Arkansas, North Carolina, and New York.
“A field can be the least efficient place to grow food,” he says. “An indoor farm can produce more than 300 times more food, with 100-per-cent renewable energy and 97 percent less water. That’s the beauty of growing in buildings.
Montreal-area foodies value Lufa's fresh tomatoes, eggplants and various other vegetables. HANDOUT
”Similarly, in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., up the Hudson River from New York City, restaurateur, food-truck owner, and chef John Lekic pivoted as the COVID-19 lockdowns spread to launch an indoor farming business called Farmers & Chefs.“
“We use technology from an Israeli company called Vertical Field that was being showcased at the Culinary Institute of America, which is nearby,” he says. The Israeli company supplies all the materials to grow some 200 different crops on roofs and in parking lots with minimal experience required.“
We planted and installed a container in March and our first harvest was in April, Mr. Lekic says. “We’re learning fast, but it’s an easy way to grow herbs and produce.”
”Mr. Hage agrees, adding that “rooftops are superior places for an urban farm.”
“When we started [in 2009], we considered leasing parking lots for growing, but no one wanted to give them up,” he recalls. “But for most commercial building owners, rooftops are unloved – they leak, they have to be maintained and, in a cold climate like ours, you have to clean off the snow. A commercial rooftop greenhouse is a solution.”
The new St-Laurent project gives Lufa a total of about 300,000 square feet of agricultural production, and the company plans to eventually expand into Southern Ontario and the U.S. northeast.
Mr. Hage points out that a rooftop greenhouse also makes great sense in terms of environmental sustainability and reducing energy and carbon emissions.“
“We don’t use pesticides and our greenhouses use half the energy that a greenhouse at ground level would consume because we use heating from the building that rises up to the roof,” he explains.
“The biggest challenge is not the greenhouse space – who doesn’t want to walk around in a warm sunny greenhouse when it’s 20 below outside? The challenge is maximizing the warehouse space below the greenhouse,” he says.
“We’re growing so many tomatoes that the warehouses never seem to be big enough to store them.”
Urban farming in Canada is still a niche in a nationwide food industry that is primarily export-based, and accounts for 12 percent, or $62.5-billion, of Canada’s total exports every year, says Claire Citeau, executive director of the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance (CAFTA).
But in a post-COVID-19 world, every bit of food production counts, she says. “We continue to see the adoption of science, technology, and innovative ways to feed people and create new economic opportunities at home and abroad.”
And if that’s not enough, just look at the place, Mr. Hage says. “Boy, do I like driving by – it sticks out like a crystal,” he says. “And when you go inside, it’s like being in a spa.”
TOPICS AGRICULTURE CORONAVIRUS GREENHOUSE MONTREAL ORGANIC FOOD
Horticulture Lighting Based on LEDs To Be Installed In Commercial Buildings, Breaking The Limitation of Plant Growth
Adding LED grow lights and smart cultivation system into commercial construction offer a solution for urban farming to enhance local food production
A new deal announced by Heliospectra, a Sweden based horticulture lighting technology provider, unveiled a new approach for achieving urban farming with LED grow lights.
(Image: Heliospectra)
Heliospectra reported that it has received an order from BBL Construction, who operates as a general contractor in the fields of commercial and institutional construction. According to Heliospectra, the two business partners are going to apply their expertise for several projects.
The partnership might indicate that LED grow light and vertical farming facilities are now considered a function to be integrated into commercial and institutional buildings, highlighting the trend of urban and indoor farming.
Increasing urban farming and indoor cultivation facilities are considered one of the prioritized projects for countries and area who used to rely heavily on imported food, as the food security issue was emphasized with the COVID-19 pandemic. Adding LED grow lights and smart cultivation system into commercial construction offer a solution for urban farming to enhance local food production.
VIDEO: Automated Vertical Indoor Farming Set To Sprout
Vertical farms could make use of abandoned professional spaces as the pandemic grinds on
Vertical Farms Could Make Use of
Abandoned Professional Spaces As The Pandemic Grinds On
By Greg Nichols for Robotics | August 20, 2020
To View the Video, Please Click Here
A Finish startup has been climbing the walls during the pandemic. At least the crops it helps grow in vertical gardens have been, including greens, berries, and vegetables in areas like the Middle East.
Vertical farming, which utilizes vertically-stacked layers of crops grown in climate-controlled facilities, utilizes significantly less water and soil than traditional agriculture. Increasingly we're seeing examples of the concept scaling to industrial-levels, which is good news with populations booming, arable land in ever-shorter supply, and waning interest in agriculture among city-bound youth.
iFarm has figured out a smart value proposition in the still-nascent market as a developer of vertical farm management technology, essentially an operating system that utilizes tremendous volumes of sensor data to fine tune automated crop growing. The company believes it's entering a market primed for steep growth.
"Investors can participate in the worldwide network of vertical farms and receive a rate of return well above bank deposit rates.", says Alex Lyskovsky, co-founder and President of iFarm. "We already have a group of financial partners involved in the development of our farms, and now there is a direct opportunity for this type of investment in Finland, UK, Switzerland, Netherlands, Russia and UAE."
One of the interesting advantages of vertical farming, particularly in a pandemic when so many professional spaces stand empty, is that it's possible to utilize the urban environment to facilitate crop growing. By growing crops closer to city dwellers, the company can offer logistics efficiencies and unparalleled freshness.
This at a time when traditional farming is less and less viable. Global agricultural productivity is suddenly slowing for the first time in decades. No one is quite sure why, but it's likely a systemic problem related to the rise of monocultures and the overuse of fertilizers, which add harmful salts to soils. Farmers are also aging globally as younger generations migrate to cities. That's largely because a productivity boom over the last century has kept food prices low, which makes farming unattractive economically. It's a double whammy now that that productivity can no longer be taken for granted without major rethinks to the food supply chain.
Vertical farming and other smart agriculture innovations may offer realistic alternatives, and they've captured imaginations due to novel use of space and cutting edge technologies. iFarm's Growtune tech platform allows growers to leverage technologies like computer vision, machine learning, and huge volumes of data. The system can enable farming operations to spread vertical farms across distributed networks while still maintaining centralized control. And if there's any doubt that farming has changed, the level of control is staggering.
The Growtune platform can determine the plant's weight, as well as growth deviations or pathologies, and build a system that improves crop quality and characteristics on its own. According to iFarm, the optimization will reduce labor costs for crops like strawberries, cherry tomatoes, sweet peppers, radish, and others.
"The 2020 pandemic exposed the problems of the global food system – food supplies, sowing, and harvesting were disrupted across the globe", says Mikhail Taver, Managing Partner at Gagarin Capital. "iFarm is taking a novel approach to agriculture, offering an automated solution to grow crops close to the consumer and ensure food security. We believe that the future of the food market lies in modern technologies and are excited to support the project on its way."
Future of Farming: Vertical Harvest Announces Plans For New Location In Westbrook, Maine
Maine’s first vertical farm, Vertical Harvest, is dedicated to jobs serving the underemployed population and enhancing community access to exceptional farm-fresh foods year-round using less land, water, and fuel
Maine’s first vertical farm, Vertical Harvest, is dedicated to jobs serving the underemployed population and enhancing community access to exceptional farm-fresh foods year-round using less land, water, and fuel
Westbrook, Maine (July 28, 2020) – Born from the creative minds of a group of women in Jackson Hole, Vertical Harvest became the first vertical greenhouse in the United States. In the last four years, Vertical Harvest has perfected the urban farm model and will bring their second location to Westbrook, Maine. The project will start construction in 2021 in partnership with the City of Westbrook.
Vertical farming is a growing industry that uses environmentally sound practices to produce nutrient-dense food grown locally year-round, and yields more crops per-square-foot than traditional farming. Vertical Harvest has a company mission to grow both food and futures. The company pairs innovative growing technologies of vertical farming with jobs for the underemployed population in what has been proven in Jackson to be a successful model for uplifting local economies, providing fresh nutritious produce to schools, hospitals, restaurants, markets, and consumers, and embodies a commitment to civic participation, health, and the environment.
Co-founder Nona Yehia stated, “We have felt a kinship with Maine for quite some time. At our beginning stages 10 years ago, Vertical Harvest Jackson engaged the same engineer as Backyard Farms in Madison, Maine. Wyoming and Maine have more in common than just a four-to-five month grow season and drastic seasonal climates – they have polar rural and urban areas, there is deep-rooted respect for the environment, the farming and food communities are a source of pride, and there is a sense of responsibility to serve the job and food insecure population. With our second location for Vertical Harvest, we feel honored to become a part of this special state and Westbrook community.”
Pictured: Co-founders Nona Yehia (right) and Caroline Estay (left)
Vertical Harvest will generally not compete with local Maine growers. Instead, the farm lowers the need for out-of-state produce imports into Maine (representing over 90 percent of the State’s consumption), and the out-of-state jobs these imports benefit, thereby helping to strengthen the overall business base of Maine’s economy. Vertical Harvest will also support local businesses for its growing supplies, increase food security, and be part of the solution to fulfill objectives for the Maine State Economic Plan focusing on talent and innovation. In addition, Vertical Harvest will strengthen the Maine businesses it will serve by providing a stable, consistent source of produce, year-round at competitive prices.
Co-founder Caroline Estay said, “At Vertical Harvest, we have reimagined the food systems and the jobs they create to make them more nourishing, resilient, and sustainable. Maine has an impressive history of changemakers in the food and farming industry and inspiring culinary thought leaders – we are excited to bring Vertical Harvest to Westbrook and work alongside valued community members in these industries and beyond.”
The company anticipates bringing 50 full-time equivalent jobs to Westbrook, in addition to currently working with Portland-based architect and engineering firm, Harriman (in partnership with GYDE Architects in Jackson, WY where Nona Yehia is partner/co-founder).
City of Westbrook Mayor Michael Foley stated, “This exceptional mixed-use project, anchored by Vertical Harvest’s four-story greenhouse, will provide significant private commercial investment and job creation, expanded residential presence and expansion of free public parking to support growth and development of other businesses in our downtown. We are excited about the partnership and welcome Vertical Harvest to the City of Westbrook. “
Pictured: New employees get an orientation tour at Vertical Harvest Jackson Hole (L); two employees harvest produce in the greenhouse (R).
The 70,000 square-foot Vertical Harvest Westbrook located on Mechanic Street will initially grow a variety of microgreens and lettuces. It’s estimated this vertical farm will produce a million pounds of produce per year. In addition to wholesale partnerships with hospitals, corporate cafeterias, schools, chefs, restaurants, caterers and more, the Westbrook location will also have a consumer marketplace and plans for a presence at farmer’s markets.
Pictured L to R: Varieties of microgreens and lettuces grow in the Vertical Harvest flagship, Jackson Hole. Microgreen Kale (middle) is packaged for consumers.
For more information please follow @verticalharvest on Instagram, Facebook, and visit www.verticalharvestjackson.com
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About Vertical Harvest:
Vertical Harvest is a vertical farm that provides consistent, meaningful employment for people with intellectual and physical disabilities by cultivating nutritious food for the community. The Vertical Harvest company's impact is much larger, joining private investment, public resources, and philanthropy as a model to create positive economic and social impact for communities. Vertical Harvest’s focus is to create partnerships to build cost-effective, profitable hydroponic farms that will not only act as innovative urban models for growing fresh food but will have a substantial social impact. The first of these is a state-of-the-art, three-story hydroponic farm in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
The second location will be in Westbrook, Maine. In 2020, a documentary on Vertical Harvest was released on PBS called Hearts of Glass: https://www.heartsofglassfilm.com/
About Vertical Farming:
Vertical farming is an industry that can work to supplement traditional agriculture by developing controlled indoor growing environments that save space, water, and energy use. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that by 2050 the human population will increase by 3 billion people demanding a 70% increase in agricultural production. Globally, over 80% of arable land is in use. At the same time, food deserts, where affordable and healthy food is difficult to obtain, are becoming more common in urban neighborhoods. Hydroponic agriculture uses a fraction of the water and energy of field agriculture.
Additional Press:
Farms that grow up—rather than spread out
Vertical Harvest seeks to grow jobs for disabled in city
How VeggiTech Contributes To UAE's Agenda To build Food And Water Security
VeggiTech's produce utilizes less than 10 percent of the water used in traditional farms
VeggiTech farm - Image Credit: Supplied
VeggiTech's Produce Utilizes Less Than 10 Percent
of The Water Used In Traditional Farms
August 31, 2020
VeggiTech is an agrotech company with the sole aim of disrupting the agriculture industry. VeggiTech focuses on addressing the key challenges of traditional farming – soil, temperature, and water through its design of protected hydroponics and grow lights-assisted hydroponics. We have chosen the challenging conditions of the UAE to demonstrate the positive use of agro-technology to create sustainable farms aligned to the UAE’s vision of food security.
In the last 18 months, VeggiTech has built and is operating over 30 hectares of farms with protected hydroponics. It is in the process of going live with 4,500 sq meters of indoor vertical farms that employ grow light-assisted hydroponics. We produced over 1.6million kilograms of produce last year and this year (including the summer months), we are delighted to produce over 1.9million kilograms with over 500+ tones of organic produce from our farms between August 2020 and July 2021.
VeggiTech's produce utilizes less than 10 percent of the water used in traditional farms and is pesticide-free. In addition, we have deployed technology for complete food transparency through QR codes that give complete visibility of the growing process of the vegetable produced in our farms.
VeggiTech's current operations and plans in H1 2021
VeggiTech is in the business of offering farming as a service, where it builds and operates digital smart farms that are sustainable and environmentally-friendly for our customers. With a team of over 160+ professionals; and one of the strongest agronomy and engineering teams in the region, we are poised for growth over the next 3 – 5 years.
In the first half of 2020, despite the COVID–19 circumstances we have signed contracts for 13,000 sq.ft. grow area of indoor vertical farms, and are building protected hydroponic farms of 80,000 sqft. You will experience buying live produce from our indoor vertical farm installations in all Sharjah Co-operative Society stores soon with the first one going live in Al Rahmaniya Mall, Sharjah, next month.
We opened our Helsinki, Finland, offices in March 2020; joined the Association of Vertical Farming (AVF) headquartered in Munich, Germany, where we have been invited to play a lead role in creating industry standards for Indoor Vertical farms world-wide.
VeggiTech was invited by the Ministry of Education and Food and Water Security Office to host a webinar series “Grow Your Food” for students in the Youth Summer Camps across July and August 2020. We live-streamed the informative sessions from our farms providing insights on achieving food security through technology. The audience was segregated into three batches of 6 – 10-year-olds; 10 – 14-year-olds and 14 – 18-year-olds.
We are currently in advanced discussions with private investors and government organizations in Sharjah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi on large scale projects to make UAE food secure with good quality local food.
Sustainable Communities
VeggiTech has recently signed up for designing and developing sustainable grow areas with major players that specialize in developing sustainable communities in UAE. This exciting development underlines our vision of bringing “grow” spaces close to our “living” spaces.
Sustainable agro - Economic model
Dubai SME, the agency of Dubai Economy, mandated to develop the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector, collaborated with VeggiTech through their Innovation Accelerator program and commissioned it to install an Indoor Vertical farm in their Business Village campus in Deira Dubai (scheduled to go live in Q4 2020). This set-up would showcase the circular farm-to-fork economic model with the Indoor Vertical farm (IVF), growing green leafy, herbs, and microgreens, and these are converted into end consumer produce in the form of farm-fresh salads / curated recipe packages.
Food security
We are upbeat on the current pipeline of projects (10M+ sqft of farms - protected hydroponics; 200,000+ sqft of Indoor vertical farms) to be signed in Q3 / Q4 2020 and these would start producing over 25million kgs of produce every year from 2021 - 2022. The optimal use of land assets combined with the reduction in water resources and pesticide-free crops are an ideal example of using technology to align with UAE’s food security goals.
Social impact
While the COVID – 19 circumstances are charting unprecedented scenarios across our lives; we, as the local farmers, were privileged to work with Sharjah Charity Association, Shurooq, The Noodle House, and Dubai Police to support our heroes, our frontline healthcare workers, and families, with over 20 tons of our farm fresh vegetables delivered contactless.
VeggiTech is privileged to play its role in this journey.
Source Courtesy of Gulf News
USA: VIRGINIA - Hull Street Indoor Urban Farm Launches Sales In September
In 2016, Ferguson started his tech-driven farming business Nouveau Farms in the quiet of his basement. An engineer by day, Ferguson says he began researching how to grow his own food after he realized that imported, out-of-season produce was not what he wanted to feed his family
Trevor Ferguson is now accepting orders from his Hull Street indoor hydroponic farm, Nouveau Farms. Scott Elmquist
While most farmers fight daily against the peccadilloes of ever-abrasive Mother Nature, Trevor Ferguson battles only market demands and water flow inside his hydroponic urban farm.
In 2016, Ferguson started his tech-driven farming business Nouveau Farms in the quiet of his basement. An engineer by day, Ferguson says he began researching how to grow his own food after he realized that imported, out-of-season produce was not what he wanted to feed his family.
Once the left-brained Ferguson started learning about hydroponics, he was hooked. For those unfamiliar with the ’ponic world, this type of horticulture forgoes soil and instead uses mineral nutrient solutions, light, oxygen and filtered, freshwater to grow plants as much as 50% faster than those grown in the great outdoors.
“When you start eating those greens and those herbs, you can taste the difference,” Ferguson says. “It sort of changed my whole perspective.”
Ferguson started with an eight-tower wall garden, growing microgreens, salad greens, and herbs like mint, chive, and basil. “I’m originally from the Bahamas and we had fruit trees in the backyard,” Ferguson says. “I would go and get mangoes right off the tree, so that’s where that connection comes from.”
While still working his 9 to 5 as a natural gas infrastructure development manager, Ferguson carved out time for hydroponic training courses, moving his small underground operation into his garage. He started the commercial rollout of Nouveau Farms in January. As of Tuesday, Sept. 1, you can order your microgreens and mint directly from Ferguson’s 800-square-foot Hull Street indoor farm.
“I surely hope this turns into a full-time thing,” Ferguson says. “I am building this for the long run, making long-term investments. People who go into farming know it isn’t to get rich quick, I won’t become a millionaire.”
Ferguson says when the business launched at the beginning of 2020, the goal was to provide major suppliers with bulk orders. “That sort of bottomed out for us.” Like the rest of the world operating during the pandemic, he readjusted his business model. And, a bit serendipitously, Ferguson says he likes this initial direct-to-consumer approach better.
“People have been so disconnected from their food for such a long time,” he says. “The pandemic has made people realize how important it is to have food security.” Ferguson wishes he were “further ahead” in his rollout plan, simply so he could meet the needs of the people in his community. “One of the things I’m hyper-focused on is that whatever we grow and supply, we need to be cost-competitive.”
So while his salad greens will damn sure be more flavorful than the imported grocery store stuff that’s grown primarily for hardiness, Ferguson isn’t going to charge people an exorbitant price. “If you’re buying a bag of red romaine from me, it will be the same price as any place else,” he assures.
The Hull Street farm is currently catering to individual consumers and pledges that all produce is harvested within 24 hours of delivery. Customers can place orders online (nouveaufarms.com) Sundays-Fridays, with free deliveries to those within 15 miles on Saturdays.
In addition to the Hull Street business, Ferguson also has his sights set on a truly halcyon, pastoral dream: a sprawling farmhouse located on 7 acres in Varina, situated amongst a vineyard, strawberry patches, and a space allotted to weekend farmers markets.
Only seven minutes from Richmond’s city center, Nouveau Farms & Vineyard consists of three abutting lots, with the farmhouse to the far left, the middle lot devoted to grape-growing, and the far lot serving as an active farm open to the public. A huge undertaking, yes, but Ferguson is ready for the challenge.
“The Varina farm is going to be strawberry heaven,” Ferguson laughs. He says that one impetus to grow his own food was to create the best berries for his daughter. “We would go to the grocery store and she loves strawberries and we would buy them on a weekly basis, but it was really hit or miss.”
The Nouveau Farms berries will all be hits, with Ferguson using “a bit of hydroponics” plus traditional farming methods to grow his fruits de terre. “We won’t be in the soil – we will use a hybrid version of soil with a mix of peat moss, plus good drainage. And we’ll be feeding nutrients straight to the berries.”
Ferguson says he will be experimenting with a couple of different berry varieties and will solicit help from the public to choose which berry is best — he’s hoping the farm will be able to institute weekend pick-your-own days for families, too.
By 2022, Ferguson plans to have weekend farmers’ markets in addition to events and weddings – the backdrop is a bridal dream. “We’ll have smoothies made of our fresh fruit, people can enjoy a glass of wine and play cornhole,” Ferguson muses.
He can see it now: a weekend reset on the farm before heading back into the city for the daily grind. Now all he needs are some mango trees.
Follow Nouveau Farms on Instagram for updates about produce, purchasing, and when the farm will be ready for strawberry picking.
What Are The Pros And Cons of Hydroponics?
Hydroponics is a type of aquaculture that uses nutrients and water to grow plants without soil. It is an increasingly popular growing method in urban areas and regions with extreme climates
AUGUST 28, 2020
Hydroponics is a type of aquaculture that uses nutrients and water to grow plants without soil. It is an increasingly popular growing method in urban areas and regions with extreme climates. There are many benefits to hydroponics as an alternative form of agriculture, including fewer chemicals, higher yields and greater water efficiency.
However, hydroponics is not a perfect solution. The initial setup is expensive, and the whole growing system is heavily dependent on access to electricity and a clean water source. Here are just a few pros and cons of hydroponics.
Pros
The benefits of hydroponics are myriad and include:
1. More Water Efficient
Growing plants can require a lot of water, and conventional agriculture is historically wasteful of this resource. For example, a single walnut requires almost 5 gallons of water, and an orange uses nearly 14 gallons. Globally, over 70% of freshwater is used for agriculture.
Compared to traditional growing methods, hydroponic systems are much more water-efficient. Growing in a climate-controlled environment allows cultivators to use the exact amount of water required for healthy plants, without any waste. Overall, hydroponics utilizes 10 times less water than conventional agriculture.
2. Higher Yields
Since crops are grown in a climate-controlled environment, hydroponic farmers are not limited by extreme weather or annual rainfall, resulting in higher crop yields. There’s more control over the setup of the system, and crops aren’t limited to a specific growing season.
Additionally, when comparing vegetables grown in soil, hydroponics can sometimes grow plants at up to 16 times higher density. Hydroponics allows growers to do this without using significantly more nutrients or other inputs.
3. Less Space
Some crops require a lot of space, and many conventional forms of agriculture are inefficient when it comes to using land. For example, row crops like soybeans and corn take up most of the arable land in the United States, but the harvest is used mostly for livestock and processed food, not human consumption.
In contrast, hydroponic systems focus on cultivating fruits and vegetables, providing nutrient-dense food for consumers without taking up significant amounts of space. Additionally, researchers at NASA are studying how to incorporate hydroponic systems for longer-duration space missions by providing the right balance of light, carbon dioxide, and water.
4. Community Resilience
Many cities have significant food deserts, and access to quality and affordable items is significantly limited. Urban hydroponic systems enable communities to cultivate their own crops, increasing food security for vulnerable populations.
While hydroponics requires significant operational costs, there is also some proof that it may be a possible solution for countries that struggle with food insecurity or need back-up options during months of extreme drought.
For example, in the United States, many agricultural enterprises grow food in one region but ship it to another for consumption. Many rural communities struggle with access to healthy produce because of this. Hydroponics may help foster community resilience by setting up an accessible system.
5. Fewer Chemicals
Many advocates of hydroponic systems stress that hydroponics reduces the need for synthetic chemicals. Since plants are most often grown in greenhouses with strictly controlled environmental inputs, pest pressure is almost nonexistent. Considering the detrimental impact of pesticides on the environment, using fewer chemicals is a huge advantage for hydroponics compared to traditional growing systems.
However, there is an ongoing debate regarding how to qualify hydroponic crops, and whether they are eligible for organic certification. According to the USDA, this refers to the care and maintenance of soil without chemicals. Since hydroponics do not use earth, many traditional organic growers feel that they are not eligible. Regardless of how crops are labeled, the fact that hydroponics uses fewer chemicals is a definitive advantage compared to conventional agriculture.
Cons
Despite the many positives, hydroponics also has some challenges to overcome.
1. Technology Reliance
Hydroponics is a high-tech process. Most commercial operations utilize specialized equipment that regulates water temperature, as well as acidity and nutrient density. Because plants are cultivated in a completely climate-controlled environment, there is a significant reliance on technology. Hydroponics is considerably more high-tech than other growing methods, and there is an opportunity in agtech to improve yields and decrease inputs. However, the amount of tech also makes it cost-prohibitive for beginning growers.
2. Initial Investment
The hydroponics market is expected to grow from $9 billion to $16 billion in the next five years, so there is certainly an opportunity for investors to consider vertical farming as a viable operation. In traditional agriculture, is it hard for new and beginning farmers to get started, as many face difficulties with land access and infrastructure investments.
However, getting into hydroponics is not necessarily any easier or cheaper. Despite a growing market, the initial investment in hydroponic systems is steep, especially on a commercial scale. For this reason, many of the largest growers are established agriculture corporations that already have capital in place. The initial investment limits profitable hydroponic operations to a few large farms, making it tricky for smaller growers to enter the market.
3. Organic Debate
As mentioned above, there is an ongoing debate in the farming community about whether hydroponic produce can be labeled organic according to USDA standards. Without a clear definition of the nutrient profile of hydroponics, nor stringent guidelines on which fertilizers or chemicals are permissible, many consumers remain cautious about hydroponic produce. This affects the industry’s success, as many consumers don’t know how crops are grown or what’s added to the water.
Without a clear definition from the USDA, there remains some question over self-labeling of hydroponic crops as organic when synthetic chemicals may still be added.
4. Equipment Requirements
While a home gardener can easily utilize some plastic bottles and storage containers to build a small hydroponic system, commercial farmers have significant equipment requirements. In addition to the initial costs of setup for infrastructure, there are also necessary and costly machines to consider. Pumps, tanks, and other controls can be expensive, not to mention electricity and access to filtered water.
5. Waterborne Diseases
While hydroponic systems may reduce or eliminate pest pressure, certain waterborne diseases are more prevalent in hydroponically grown produce. The most common ones affect the plant’s root structure, such as Pythium, which includes several water mold species.
Proper hygiene and cleaning practices can reduce the risk of plant disease, but it is often impossible to avoid completely. Because of this likelihood, many hydroponic growers incorporate bio fungicides to prevent breakouts.
Soil-Free Growing
Hydroponic growing can increase crop yields while reducing water usage. The benefits of hydroponics are significant, and the industry is expected to grow astronomically in the next five years. However, there are also some disadvantages to growing hydroponically. Improving access to infrastructure and making technology more accessible will enable more beginning growers to enter the market.
VIDEO: Will This Y Combinator-Backed Startup’s Urban Home Farms Take Root In India?
UrbanKisaan leverages hydroponic technology for home growing kits, as well as a network of urban farms for online delivery and retail channels
Inc42 Staff
27 Aug'20
UrbanKisaan leverages hydroponic technology for home growing kits, as well as a network of urban farms for online delivery and retail channels
During the lockdown phase, the company claimed to have seen 10x growth in terms of demand for its fresh produce, compared to pre-Covid times.
Based in Hyderabad, UrbanKisaan has installed close to 30+ vertical farms and plans to expand to Bengaluru, Chennai among other cities
There’s a minor revolution underway in many of India’s biggest cities. We are talking about hydroponic farming and this soil-less method is fast becoming the answer to solving the problem of carbon footprint in food. Call it hydroponic farming, soilless farming, vertical farming or anything else — for many it is the long-awaited answer to responsible eating.
In this backdrop, agritech and hydroponics startups are quickly finding niches in various produce categories and cities. Despite their shared ethos for sustainable food production, the likes of UrbanKisaan, Barton Breeze, Hydrilla, Simply Fresh, Acqua Farms, Letcetra Agritech, BitMantis Innovations, Future Farms, Ela Sustainable Solutions, Agro2o, Junga FreshnGreen, Pindfresh are working in this field through different models and targeting different niches — from large-scale hydroponics farming in rural areas to small home farms for the cities.
Working on the philosophy of bringing farms closer to home is Hyderabad-based UrbanKisaan. With the vision of making hydroponic technology more affordable and accessible for the masses, UrbanKisaan offers home-grow kits or vertical hydroponic farms. And by creating mini-farms in cities and revitalizing farmlands with hydroponic technology, the startup also supplies fresh produce to customers through Swiggy, Zomato, Dunzo, and other retail channels as well as in the D2C model on subscription and on-demand basis.
“We are the only startup in the hydroponic landscape to have taken a hybrid approach, where we have 20,000 sq. ft. research and development facility, along with 15+ in-house scientists working on newer innovations and products,” claimed cofounder and CEO Vihari Kanukollu elaborating on how the company is looking to differentiate itself in the burgeoning hydroponic market.
However, UrbanKisaan is not alone in the game, Simply Fresh, another Hyderabad based agritech startup, also grows and supplies a line of medicinal plants and fresh produce from its greenhouses. Similarly, Chennai-based Future Farms works on hydroponic technology at a commercial level, where it designs integrated full-stack solutions for alternative farming in the country. The vibrancy of the hydroponic models and the large ground area that needs to be covered across cities and villages has made it possible for multiple startups to thrive in this space.
Needless to say, the market opportunity is huge, as ‘urban farming’ is catching up at a rapid pace globally. According to MarketsandMarkets, the global hydroponics market is expected to reach $16.6 Bn by 2025, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 11.9% from $9.5 Bn in 2020. The growth of the sector is said to be driven by the increase in population and the need for food security through alternative high-yield farming techniques, given the depletion of water across the globe.
Plus, the rise in awareness and demand for a healthier lifestyle is said to have opened doors for a plethora of possibilities for hydroponic startups to reap the benefits in the long run.
UrbanKisaan earns revenue from its multiple channels which allow it to reach all kinds of consumers — from those who want a taste of the hydroponic produce to those who want to grow it themselves. Its urban farms are strategically located next to retail stores to facilitate hyperlocal deliveries and its DIY home kits are for the latter set. Additionally, it is also supplying its technology to local farmers to reutilise farmland.
The startup was founded in 2017 by Kanukollu, Srinivas Chaganti, Dr Hari, Shiva Prasad and Dr Sai Ram, a scientist who has been instrumental in developing the nutrient solution for their state-of-the-art vertical farming technique. In March 2020, the company also raised $1.5 Mn in seed funding from Y Combinator.
Home Farming In The Times Of Covid
During the lockdown phase, the company claimed to have witnessed 10x growth in terms of demand for its fresh produce, compared to pre-Covid levels. Further, cofounder Kanukollu said that the disruption in the supply chain and consumers leveraging on the hyperlocal delivery modes, along with the change in consumer lifestyle, for the consumption of fresh, organic produce has resulted in the surge in demand.
The Covid-19 pandemic temporarily halted the movement of produce across India and highlighted the gap in the food supply chain. This allowed agritech startups such as UrbanKisaan that specialise in hydroponic farming to tap a tremendous opportunity and bring efficiency in the supply chain.
With its hyperlocal urban farms model, Kanukollu claimed UrbanKisaan is not only bringing transparency to the vegetable supply chain but also lowering the carbon footprint, reducing food waste. Most importantly, their farming technique also claimed to save 95% water, and grow the produce 30x compared to traditional farms.
Its home kits are priced anywhere between INR 9,900 and INR 19,900 with about 50+ varieties of leafy vegetables and exotic vegetables supported by these kits, including spinach, coriander, mint, basil, bok choy, lettuce, parsley, fenugreek, capsicum, tomato and kale among others.
Further, the company claimed to have semi-automated the entire process and has designed the kits in such a way that it requires limited resources to manage it. “Once installed, it requires 15 min/week of effort to take care of the plants, thereby making it seamless for consumers to grow their own fresh produce,” said Kanukollu.
A Tech Upgrade For Rural Farmers
In addition to this, UrbanKisaan also works with local farmers who own greenhouses, where it helps them in setting up vertical farms from scratch to producing and supplying fresh fruits and vegetables.
Cost-wise, the poly house or greenhouse setup would typically cost farmers anywhere between INR 35 to INR 50 Lakhs per acre, of which, the government may subsidise up to 80%. Once this is installed, which is a fixed cost, for setting up of hydroponic setup, it would cost the farmer additionally INR 50 Lakhs. But, UrbanKisaan told Inc42 that it looks to reduce this cost at INR 15 to INR 20 Lakhs.
UrbanKisaan claims to have installed close to 30+ hydroponics farms in the state, across its various offerings. In the coming days, it plans to expand into other cities, including Bengaluru, Chennai among others, along with growing its team, adding newer varieties of hydroponic seeds, fruits and vegetables, and enhancing its technology capabilities.
Kanukollu is looking at creating a centralised monitoring system through UrbanKisaan for these various hubs and farms. “We are heavily investing in artificial and machine learning tools, where once the network of the urban farm increases, we will be able to monitor and control their farms remotely and provide a real-time update to customers.”
Special Report: How Farming Is Gaining Ground in UAE
The UAE has implemented a range of policies, measures and strategies to ensure constant food supplies from abroad and scaled up agricultural production at home - and this is evident as businesses come forward and share their roles in aligning their strategies to boost food and water security.
Photo Supplied by VeggiTech
8/24/2020 11:00:45 PM
(MENAFN - Khaleej Times) The UAE has implemented a range of policies, measures and strategies to ensure constant food supplies from abroad and scaled up agricultural production at home - and this is evident as businesses come forward and share their roles in aligning their strategies to boost food and water security.
On Sunday, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said: "Food and water security are among the priorities of the UAE government for the post-coronavirus period, and the objective is to launch specialist initiatives that will ensure our readiness to confront all types of crises."
The farming sector is aggressively working towards boosting local production of agro produce. Agrotech company VeggiTech, for instance, is addressing the key challenges of traditional farming through its design of protected hydroponics and grow lights-assisted hydroponics.
"We have chosen the challenging conditions of UAE to demonstrate the positive use of agro technology to create sustainable farms aligned to the UAE's vision of food security," said Hemant Julka, co-founder and COO of VeggiTech.
In the last 18 months, the company has built and is operating over 30 hectares of farms with protected hydroponics and is also in the process of going live with 4,500 sqm of indoor vertical farms that employ grow light-assisted hydroponics.
"We produced over 1.6 million kg of produce last year and this year [including the summer months] and we will produce more than 1.9 million kg with over 500 tonnes of organic produce from our farms between August 2020 and July 2021," added Julka.
Similarly, Dake Rechsand's primary focus is enabling desert regions to expand their agriculture and long-term water storage capacities and create food and water security.
"Our strength is being able to achieve this using simple, ordinary and abundantly available sand as a raw material. We are ramping up production and expect our technologies to enable farming and greenery for at least 10,000 acres across the UAE or for half-a-million trees by the first half of 2021," said Chandra Dake, executive chairman and group CEO of Dake Group.
"Within the same period we also expect to be ready with a comprehensive strategy for harvesting and usage of rainwater, which will allow us to enable 10 cubic metres [two million gallons] of water storage from harvested rainwater. In fact, we are ready to take on pilot projects during the upcoming monsoons next month and work with the government bodies to showcase how our products and technology can help harness rainfall and deliver immediate and tangible results for the UAE."
Tech disruption
VeggiTech produce utilises less than 10 percent of the water used in traditional farms and is pesticide-free. In addition, they have deployed technology for complete food transparency through QR codes that give complete visibility of the growing process of the vegetable produce from farms. The firm is in the business of offering "farming as a service", where the firm builds and operates digital smart farms that are sustainable and environmentally friendly.
In the first half of 2020, despite the Covid-19 circumstances, VeggiTech signed contracts for 13,000 sqft of grow area for indoor vertical farms and building protected hydroponic farms of 80,000 sqft.
"We are upbeat on the current pipeline of projects [over 10 million sqft of farms - protected hydroponics; more than 200,000 sqft of indoor vertical farms] to be signed in the third and fourth quarters of 2020 and these would start producing over 25 million kg of produce every year from 2021-22. The optimal use of land assets combined with the reduction in water resources and pesticide free crops are an ideal example of using technology to align with the UAE's food security goals," added Julka.
Desert farming
The Middle East, including the UAE and GCC, is enriched with desert sand. However, most of these desert regions import a bulk of their food commodities. Dake Rechsand has what it calls 'magic sand', a technology enables the sustainable production of organic food in the desert using up to 70 percent less water than conventional methods. At 65 percent of total use, the agriculture sector is the largest consumer of water in the UAE.
"On average, about 11 to 12 litres of water is being used to irrigate one sqm of land per day in the UAE. If we reduce that requirement by 70 percent, we could conserve about 45 percent of the total water consumed in the UAE. More importantly, this can be achieved while increasing the UAE's agricultural production significantly," said Dake.
Dake Rechsand creates breathable surfaces for roads, kerbstones and pavements, etc, which can absorb water, and harvest it.
"Coupled with our decentralised mini-reservoirs made from the same material, we can help harvest rainwater and keep it fresh for up to seven years, without any energy inputs. This can not only result in creating a new, reliable and cost effective water source, adding to the UAE's water reserves, but also one that is much cleaner since rainwater is a better source than desalination," added Dake.
"Our approach towards maximising water retention in sand is what propels desert farming and is both economically as well as organically efficient. That means one can get organic products grown from these regions very easily. Our products are designed scientifically, and they contribute to environmental sustainability."
ICBA committed to boost food and water security
The International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) completely supports every effort towards the food and water security of the UAE's vision.
Dr Ismahane Elouafi, director-general of the ICBA, said: "Like national security, food and water security must be a priority for all countries. Thanks to the UAE's wise and visionary leadership, the country has always been at the forefront of ensuring food and water security in the country. During the recent disruption to global food systems, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the UAE set an excellent example of its efforts towards food security. It was one of the few countries where the food supply remained uninterrupted. Even though the UAE is short of arable land and freshwater resources, and has harsh climatic conditions, the country harness the benefits of innovation to make agriculture possible and profitable in the country."
The UAE's National Food Security Strategy 2051, which was launched in 2018 with a vision to become a world-leading hub for innovation-driven food security, also prioritizes agricultural research and development. The country rose from 33rd place in 2017 to 21st in 2019 in the Global Food Security Index, compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The ICBA has been working on several technologies and innovations to boost agricultural productivity and improve farmers' livelihood, in non-arable lands and harsh ecosystems.
All of the ICBA's research and development programmes are directly beneficial to the region, particularly to the UAE.
"We have introduced what we call climate-smart and resource-efficient crops such as quinoa, pearl millet, sorghum, and Salicornia, among others, in countries in Central Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. These crops are nutritious and resilient to heat, drought, and salinity, therefore fit for ecosystems such as UAE. Furthermore, our crop development and research trials have been mostly conducted in our experimental farm in Dubai. Hence, all data and results are very relevant to the UAE," added Dr Elouafi.
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Boys And Girls Clubs of Metro South Awarded Food Security Infrastructure Grant
The Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro South was awarded a grant of $128,960 by the Baker-Polito Administration in partnership with the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs as part of the commonwealth’s $36 million Food Security Infrastructure Grant Program on Aug. 18
The Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro South was awarded a grant of $128,960 by the Baker-Polito Administration in partnership with the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs as part of the commonwealth’s $36 million Food Security Infrastructure Grant Program on Aug. 18.
In a concerted effort to address food insecurities in their service area, BGCMS will be using the grant to purchase and operate a Freight Farms Greenery container farm on their Camp Riverside property located at 388 Harvey St., Taunton. The Greenery is a fully functioning, self-contained hydroponic farm housed in a shipping container that allows for plants to grow vertically indoors year-round without soil or direct sunlight. The Greenery will be able to support over 13,000 plants at once.
BGCMS intends to use this produce to support their Kids Café Healthy Meals program which provides hot, healthy dinners to every child who attends the Brockton and Taunton Clubhouse each weeknight. The clubs’ Kids Café program feeds more than 400 youth per day and serves more than 100,000 healthy meals annually. In addition to meal service, the clubs will utilize the Greenery to teach members about nutrition, agriculture and how to keep eating healthy foods at home.
“Our goal is to also build upon existing partnerships with local community organizations and other nonprofits that are working to tackle food insecurity — like homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and food pantries in our region — to support their efforts to feed the hungry and feed them nutritious food,” said Monica Lombardo, vice president of advancement at Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro South.
In March, BGCMS jumped into action to adapt its Kids Café meals program into an open grab and go dinner program for youth from 0 to 18 years old in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since March 18, meals have been served in a socially distanced fashion at both the Brockton and Taunton Clubhouses every weeknight between 4:30 and 6 p.m. The community response to the grab and go meals program inspired BGCMS to think critically about the clubs’ ongoing role in supporting food security in the region as its afterschool, weekend and summer programs are key social supports for economically vulnerable families.
“Increasing access to fresh, local food is critical to ensure the health and wellbeing of all commonwealth families,” said Gov. Charlie Baker about the grants being offered. “Through this grant program, we are helping residents and businesses who’ve been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic while making investments in building a strong and equitable local food system for Massachusetts that is prepared for the future.”
To support BGCMS and their mission or to learn more about their Kids Café healthy meals program, visit https://bgcmetrosouth.org.
Posted Aug 25, 2020 at 4:44 PM
Updated Aug 25, 2020 at 4:44 PM
AeroFarms Helps Reduce Food Waste With New Partnership With Table to Table and Matriark Foods
With its global headquarter and farms in Newark NJ, AeroFarms is excited to be able to provide delicious, healthy stems and greens from a second-harvest that normally would be left in the traditional field
AeroFarms Helps Reduce Food Waste with New Partnership with Table to Table and Matriark Foods Through New FarmPlus to People Program, funded by ReFED COVID-19 Food Waste Solutions Fund
AeroFarms is proud to support the new FarmPlus to People program, an innovative partnership with Matriark Foods and to upcycle farm surplus into a healthy, added-value vegetable stew for distribution to the hungry in New Jersey.
Matriark Foods and Table to Table were awarded a $50,000 grant from ReFED COVID-19 Food Waste Solutions Fund to pilot a processing program that pays farmers, creates jobs, diverts vegetables from landfill, feeds the hungry, and proves out the metrics for nimble processing infrastructure. The goal is to deliver 500,000+ meals and offset 1,000,000+ pounds of greenhouse gases over the next 90 days.
With its global headquarter and farms in Newark NJ, AeroFarms is excited to be able to provide delicious, healthy stems and greens from a second-harvest that normally would be left in the traditional field. AeroFarms pioneering indoor vertical farming allows access to the entire root to leaf to create upcycled products that are breaking through for their culinary flavor and nutrition.
The nutritious, tasty vegetable stew will be distributed to the hungry using Table to Table’s established logistics capability and large network of agencies in Bergen, Essex, Passaic and Hudson Counties in New Jersey.
The Covid19 pandemic has increased the challenges of accessibility and availability for much-needed fresh food, straining food system logistics of storage and distribution resulting in an increase in food waste at a time when so many are in need. We are thrilled for the opportunity to partner with such extraordinary organizations who will help us provide an alternative source of nutritious produce. ReFED’s commitment to this project will have a significant impact on our ability to feed our hungry neighbors, while keeping a little less food from ending up in our landfills.” said Ilene Isaacs, Executive Director of Table to Table.
“The goal of this public/private partnership pilot is to demonstrate that with the existence of more nimble food processing, massive amounts of food waste could be diverted from landfill while providing jobs, nutritious food for those who need it, and offsetting GHGs at scale,” states Anna Hammond, Founder and CEO of Matriark Foods. “We plan to optimize the use of the ReFED grant to inspire investment in scaling our model for the benefit of people and the environment.”
“AeroFarms is proud to partner with Table to Table and Matriark to help provide fresh, nutritious, delicious leafy greens and stems and serve our communities struggling with food insecurity. As a Certified B Corporation, we are committed to helping increase access to fresh, healthy, great tasting food while minimizing food waste, a huge contributor to climate change. “Marc Oshima, Co-Founder & Chief Marketing Officer, AeroFarms
“We’re thrilled to collaborate with Matriark and Table to Table to divert high quality produce at risk of going to waste to those who need it most. In particular, we see enormous value in demonstrating a proof of concept for in-time processing of surplus produce, a development that has the potential to build capacity for a food waste reduction strategy that has remained elusive due to lack of nimble processing infrastructure.” Anya Ranganathan, Co-Founder, Bad Apple Produce
“COVID-19 has disrupted the regular flow of the food supply chain, making it difficult to get fresh, healthy food to the people who need it most and increasing the amount of food insecurity,” said Alexandria Coari, Capital and Innovation Director at ReFED, a national nonprofit working to advance solutions to reduce the amount of food waste. “The work of organizations like Table to Table and Matriark Foods is urgent, and we’re excited to get them the critical support they need from the ReFED COVID-19 Food Waste Solutions Fund.”
