Have A Look Inside Large Plant Factory on JPFA Training Course

Have you ever visited a plant factory with artificial lighting (PFAL)? The Japan Plant Factory Association is now receiving applications for its 2021 Online Training Course on PFALs scheduled for Feb. 18-March 11. The course gives you the privilege of taking an exclusive look inside a large-scale, commercial PFAL in central Japan.

Plant factories, or vertical farms, are grabbing the headlines lately. Learn about them on our science-based practical online course--anytime at your convenience and anywhere in the world during the course period.

Besides introductory classes on the basics of PFALs, the course has the just mentioned PFAL virtual tour and the following other special content:

• A lecture on phenomics and the potential of phenotyping

• Hands-on technical training on PFAL business management

• Tailored, further explanations on previous-course lectures,

• Operational and hygiene management, future of PFALs in COVID-19 times (2020 Workshop)

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Its introductory classes cover not only PFAL principles and the basics like photosynthesis, respiration, transpiration, light environment and plant growth, nutrient solution and hydroponic cultivation, but also forthcoming technologies and PFAL business management.

The JPFA oversees a plant factory hub on the Chiba University Kashiwanoha campus in Kashiwa, northeast of Tokyo. The nonprofit organization has shifted from on-site to online training due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The first-rate lecturers of the coming course include Toyoki Kozai, professor emeritus and former president of Chiba University, who is known as the father of plant factories, and Chieri Kubota, professor at the Ohio State University.

Along with lectures, the training course, run on a specified platform, encourages participants to interact each other and gives them a chance to join an online live question-and-answer session.

The course is available for anybody interested in PFALs--not only JPFA members but nonmembers as well. If you are curious, check here and apply now.

Apply Now

For more information

Japan Plant Factory Association
https://npoplantfactory.org/en/
https://npoplantfactory.org/information/news/2120/

https://npoplantfactory.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Renewed-Information-for-JPFA-2021-Online-Training-Course-on-Plant-Factories-with-Artificial-Lighting-PFALs-2021.1.20.pdf

Japan Plant Factory Association

The Japan Plant Factory Association, a nonprofit organization founded in 2010, is devoted to advancing the plant factory industry and controlled-environment agriculture in and outside Japan through academia-industry collaborations.

Its mission is to develop and disseminate sustainable plant factory systems in a bid to address issues concerning food, the environment, energy and natural resources.

The JPFA oversees plant factories on the Chiba University Kashiwanoha campus in Kashiwa, northeast of Tokyo. Also, it works on about 20 R&D projects and runs workshops and training courses.

How to Become a JPFA Member

Apply for JPFA membership here. For more information, visit the JPFA website or email us at training@npoplantfactory.org. We welcome your inquiries.

Price List for JPFA 2021 Online Training Course on PFALs

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Indoor Ag-Con To Change Dates, Location For 2021

Co-Location With The NGA Show Shifts To 2022 Edition

Press Release — With safety in mind, the Indoor Ag-Con management team has made the decision to push the dates for its previously announced May 16-18, 2021 agriculture trade show and conference for the indoor and vertical farming industry to the third quarter of 2021. The decision is in keeping with The NGA Show | National Grocers Association decision to shift its show — which was previously scheduled to run concurrently at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas — to the third quarter as well. While venue and space limitations in the Las Vegas marketplace prevent co-location for this later time frame in 2021, the two events will come together in 2022. 

The Indoor Ag-Con team is currently gathering feedback from its board and monitoring leading sources of health information to secure a fall date pattern and convenient venue that ensures a safe, cost-effective show.  The new 2021 dates and location will be announced shortly.  

“The safety of the indoor ag community is our top priority,” explains Brian Sullivan, co-owner, Indoor Ag-Con.  “By moving our event to a Fall 2021 pattern, we’ll be better aligned with the expanding Covid-19 vaccine rollout and growing confidence levels in travel and attendance at live events.  And, looking ahead to 2022, we’re excited to renew our plans to co-locate with The NGA Show and give our audience the incredible opportunity to connect with supermarket and food retail industry professionals.”

“We were very much looking forward to co-locating The NGA Show with Indoor Ag-Con this year and celebrating the synergy between the two events,” said Courtney Muller, chief corporate development and strategy officer with Clarion Events North America. “Delivering a cross-over resource to help retailers partner with growers in a new way to address supply chain challenges, transparency in food sourcing, and meeting consumer demand will only grow in value until we are able to co-locate the two events in 2022.”

For 2022, Indoor Ag-Con and The NGA Show will co-locate at Caesars Forum Convention Center in Las Vegas , February 27 – March 1, 2022. The NGA Show 2021 edition will be held September 19-21 at Paris Hotel Casino, Las Vegas, NV.

Indoor Ag-Con, launched in 2013, provides exhibitors and attendees with the latest technology and business strategies for growing crops in indoor systems, using hydroponic, aeroponic, and aquaponic techniques, bringing together growers, investors, chefs, produce buyers, academics, policymakers, industry suppliers and advocates.  The 2021 edition will feature an expanded exhibit floor, new networking opportunities, and some of the industry’s top innovators and business leaders presenting keynote addresses and participating in a range of panel discussions.

About Indoor Ag-Con
Founded in 2013, Indoor Ag-Con has emerged as the premier trade event for vertical farming | indoor agriculture, the practice of growing crops in indoor systems, using hydroponic, aquaponic and aeroponic techniques. Its events are crop-agnostic and touch all sectors of the business, covering produce, legal cannabis |hemp, alternate protein and non-food crops. In December 2018, three event industry professionals – Nancy Hallberg, Kris Sieradzki and Brian Sullivan – acquired Indoor Ag-Con LLC,  setting the stage for further expansion of the events globally. More information is at https://indoor.ag.

About The National Grocers Association
The National Grocers Association (NGA) is the national trade association representing the retail and wholesale grocers that comprise the independent sector of the food distribution industry. An independent retailer is a privately owned or controlled food retail company operating a variety of formats. The independent grocery sector is accountable for close to one percent of the nation’s overall economy and is responsible for generating $131 billion in sales, 944,000 jobs, $30 billion in wages and $27 billion in taxes. NGA members include retail and wholesale grocers, state grocers’ associations, as well as manufacturers and service suppliers. For more information about NGA, visit www.nationalgrocers.org.

 About Clarion Events

Clarion Events (www.US.ClarionEvents.com) produces 37 events across 13 sectors of both trade and consumer events. Clarion Events, which is the U.S. division of Clarion Events UK and backed by The Blackstone Group, has become one of the fastest-growing event companies in the U.S. with aggressive growth through both acquisition and launch. Clarion acquired PennWell in early 2018, bringing four Tradeshow 200 events into the U.S. portfolio and supercharging the already rapid growth. Clarion Events has offices in Trumbull, Conn.; Kennesaw, Ga.; Boca Raton, Fla.; Tacoma, Wash., and Fairlawn, N.J. www.US.ClarionEvents.com

Farmland Asset Class Holds Strong During Volatile Year; Learn More At Global AgInvesting Events

NEW YORK (January 29, 2021) – Global AgInvesting (GAI) will host the preeminent community of agriculture investment stakeholders at a special edition of its flagship U.S. gathering on 13-15 July 2021 at the prestigious Sleepy Hollow Country Club here, just an hour north of NYC. Uncompromising industry-leading content and networking opportunities will be presented in-person while providing extra precautions for safety at this all-outdoor event.

“Through an unprecedented year of challenges across all businesses, farmland investing stayed resilient and gained greater recognition from institutional investors,” said Kate Westfall, COO of GAI for HighQuest Group, the parent company of Global AgInvesting. “And our global GAI community did not waver in its commitment to advancements and investments in the burgeoning sector during a year of virtual events. We are, however, very excited about coming together again this summer in a unique and safe way.”

The conference agenda will provide insight into agriculture as an impact investment, key in on sustainable strategies in the sector such as opportunities in regenerative agriculture and carbon capture, and highlight the value of investing in the stability of ag, as evidenced by NCREIF, the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF) Farmland Index, numbers.

For the first quarter of 2020, NCREIF cited total returns that were down -0.10 percent – the first negative total return for the Index in nearly 20 years. While this might not seem inspiring at first glance, when compared with other indices, it highlights the strength of farmland as an asset class. For example, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished Q1 having fallen by more than 23 percent, the Russell 3000 Index fell by 20.9 percent for the quarter and the S&P 500 posted a total return for Q1 of -19.60 percent.

“These factors are not unnoticed by institutions who are increasingly focused on stability in their investment portfolios,” said Westfall. “As the food and ag community comes together to find sustainable solutions through ESG initiatives and a commitment to natural capital, we expect to see growing allocations to agriculture as an asset class. GAI will continue to be the source for unrivaled networking and education in the sector, both through our annual conferences and year-round webinars.”

The GAI Community also will gather later this year for Global AgInvesting Asia, 28-29 October in Tokyo, and Global AgInvesting Europe in London, 6-7 December.

Register here for Global AgInvesting in New York, or here for the latest complimentary webinar, or to view any of the nearly 20 previous webinars on topics such as carbon markets, investing in Australian agriculture, COVID-19 and the impact on the agricultural sector, supply chain disruptions and the latest Global AgInvesting Rankings & Trends Report.

Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook.

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Global AgInvesting, a brand of HighQuest Group, is the world’s most well attended agricultural investment conference series and leading resource for news and insight into the global agricultural sector. www.globalaginvesting.com

A New White House Signals New Opportunities For AgTech Startups. Are We Up For The Challenge?

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February 9, 2021

Editor’s note: Ponsi Trivisvavet is CEO at Inari, a seed genetics startup based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The views expressed in this guest article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of AFN.

Much has been analyzed and debated as the new administration enters the White House, but President Joe Biden has made a number of appointments that clearly illustrate his commitment to addressing climate change and the critical role science will play.

He has elevated the role of Science Advisor to a cabinet-level position. It will be filled by mathematician, geneticist, MIT professor, and founding director of the Broad Institute, Eric Lander.

Biden has also created a new White House Office of Climate Policy. And one of his very first acts as president was signing executive orders to enable the US to rejoin the international Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation.

It’s also clear that agriculture will play a major role, with Biden saying, “we see farmers making American agriculture first in the world to achieve net-zero emissions and gaining new sources of income in the process.”

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Secretary of Agriculture nominee Tom Vilsack, who looks set to return to the post he held during the Obama administration, has indicated that he will quickly ramp up programs to combat climate change.

Simply put, “expect administrative actions aplenty from a variety of USDA [US Department of Agriculture] agencies to combat climate change,” he said.

The time is right

The need couldn’t be more pressing, or more clear. 2020 was one of the hottest years on record, tied with 2016 .Carlo Buontempo, director of the EU’s Copernicus service, noted it is “no surprise that the last decade was the warmest on record, and is yet another reminder of the urgency of ambitious emissions reductions to prevent adverse climate impacts in the future.”

Research reported by ScienceNews projects global farmland will need to grow 3.4 million square kilometers – approximately the size of India – by 2050 to meet the needs of a growing population. But, as the article notes, an overhaul of the global food system could drastically reduce the need for land while still feeding the world’s ever-expanding population.

The need to address climate change is nothing new, but the new White House is signaling new opportunities for agriculture to lead the way with science and technology.

Agriculture has an impressive history: the technology of recent times has allowed food producers to keep pace with the spectacular growth in the population, with approximately 6 billion more mouths to feed in the last 60 years alone. But agriculture currently requires more resources than can be replaced. This is clearly not sustainable.

A radical new approach is needed, and startups have the agility to bring new technology to market at the pace which is required. So, are we up to the challenge?

Leading with technology

The problem to date isn’t a lack of desire to address these pressing environmental issues. Simply put, existing practices and technology cannot sustainably feed a world of 8 billion people.

There is a great deal of focus being put on soil, which is critical; but let’s not forget the seed. Everything we grow begins with a seed – it holds all of the potential and determines the resources needed to grow.

The seed technology on the market today is primarily focused on pest and weed management. This was critical in meeting the demands of the recent past and will certainly continue to be relevant as we move forward.

However, in our efforts to address these issues, we inadvertently reduced the diversity in major crops – one of nature’s best survival tools – by selecting for traits that best met the needs of the day.

So, how can we bring back biodiversity without sacrificing productivity or growing crops that require more resources?

By designing better seeds.

At Inari, our SEEDesign platform aims to take on this challenge with the ambitious goal of satisfying demand while enriching the environment. Through predictive design and advanced multiplex gene editing, we are developing seeds that generate a positive impact on the planet. This technology is capable of addressing any crop in any geography.

Advanced multiplex gene editing opens the door to new possibilities with seed because it can address very complex genetic challenges.

President Biden and the future of regenerative agriculture in the US – read more here

To make a significant impact on yield or dramatically improve a plant’s use of water, you have to make multiple changes within a single plant. Basic gene knockout is often too blunt of an editing tool to properly address all of the changes required. While you might need to knock out a gene in one part of the code, another might require only a slight adjustment; whereas another might need to be replaced altogether, all within the same seed.

These types of edits aren’t simple, but are possible with the right technology. By understanding the full potential of seed, we can unlock new possibilities and better address the specific needs of growers based on their land, creating more diversity in the seeds being planted.

It’s not that others have decided not to tackle these complex issues within a seed – it’s simply that the technology didn’t exist. As startups, this is where our agility comes into play. When you are small, it’s easier to be nimble and quickly pivot.

Value creation across the system

Despite historical advances, the people who grow our food have not always received their fair share of the value created by new technology. While Vilsack recently spoke of creating a “whole new suite of revenue streams” for farm income, it’s equally important to ensure value creation with new technology being brought to market.

Part of the struggle in the past is that regulatory hurdles associated with genetic modification of seeds added significant time and cost. This made it nearly impossible for anyone but the large industry players to compete. The added time and costs also played a role in driving competitive intellectual property and exclusivity strategies, which only contributed to further to cost.

Conversely, the regulatory environment for gene-editing technology in the US will enable a clear and efficient path to get the technologies in the hands of growers. This will also help to democratize the technology and let players of all sizes compete in the development of new solutions.

In order to ensure value creation across the food system, we’re going to have to work with the new White House to ensure clear paths to market. This will encourage competition at every level and bring more viable solutions to growers.

In sharing value creation with farmers, we not only protect their income, but allow their communities to benefit as well.

Making agriculture the climate hero

With clear signals from the Biden administration, now is the time for startups to show our leadership with truly innovative solutions.

Many of us have dedicated our work to finding more sustainable solutions for agriculture. We have been asking for the opportunity to show how agriculture can mitigate climate change and we’ve seen a number of organizations roll-out ‘net zero’ commitments. This is a great start.

I challenge my fellow agtech leaders – especially those in the startup space – to work towards a shared goal of positively impacting the environment with the technology we bring forward. We know our organizations are best suited to move at the speed which is required to meet the challenges ahead. Let’s work in cooperation to address the needs of our industry and the planet.

So, are we up for the challenge?

I believe we are.

Smart Agriculture Startup Bowery Farming Hires A Google Veteran As CTO

BY AARON PRESSMAN

One goal of high-tech indoor farming startup Bowery Farming is to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance its crop yields and reduce costs. So the five-year-old Manhattan-based company has hired Google and Samsung veteran Injong Rhee as its new chief technology officer.

Rhee, who was previously Internet of Things VP at Google and chief technologist at Samsung Mobile, will focus on improving Bowery’s computer-vision system and other sensors that analyze when plants need water and nutrients, while also looking to apply the company’s accumulated historical data to new problems.

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Bowery grow room near Baltimore

“Agriculture is sitting at the crux of the world’s most challenging problems like food shortages, climate change, water shortages, a lack of arable space,” Rhee tells Fortune about his decision to join the startup. “These are very challenging problems, and all of these are relevant to what Bowery tackles every day. Any advances we make here lead to a better world.”

There’s also the matter of the kale, Rhee adds.

Bowery so far has focused on growing and selling green leafy vegetables like lettuce, arugula, and kale, though it aims to add other categories of produce soon. “It was an eye-popping experience,” Rhee says of his first time trying Bowery’s kale. “How can it be so sweet and so crunchy. That was amazing.”

The hire comes after a year of accelerated growth at Bowery, with retail sales at outlets like Whole Foods rising 600% and e-commerce sales via Amazon and others increasing fourfold, the company says, while declining to disclose its actual sales or production figures. With two large warehouse-size farms in operation, in New Jersey and Maryland, Bowery is on the verge of opening its third indoor growing center in Bethlehem, Pa. The startup claims its high-tech methods, though more expensive than growing outdoors, create farms that are more than 100 times as productive per square foot as traditional outdoor farms.

“COVID was an accelerator of trends,” Bowery CEO and founder Irving Fain says. The pandemic disrupted food supply chains stretching across the globe, giving an advantage to Bowery, which sells its produce within just a few hundred miles of each farm, he says. “That amplified and accelerated a trend towards simplifying supply chains, and creating a surety of supply.”

But Bowery also faces a host of competitors, from other indoor farming startups like AeroFarms and Gotham Greens, to more traditional ag companies like John Deere and Bayer’s Monsanto, all fueling a movement toward precision farming. If one-quarter of farms worldwide adopted precision agriculture using A.I. and other data-crunching methods by 2030, farmers’ annual expenses would decline by $100 billion, or as much as 4% of the sector’s total expenses, while saving water and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a recent study by McKinsey found.

Rhee spent 15 years as a professor of computer science at North Carolina State University, where he helped develop core Internet standards for transporting data at high speeds. He joined Samsung in 2011 where he helped lead a wide range of projects including the Bixby digital assistant, Knox security app, and Samsung Pay mobile payments service. He moved to Google in 2018 as an entrepreneur-in-residence to focus on Internet of Things projects.

Bowery has raised over $170 million in venture capital from a mix of tech figures like Amazon consumer CEO Jeff Wilke and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, well-known restaurateurs such as Tom Colicchio and David Barber, and venture capital firms including Temasek, GV, and General Catalyst.

WIA Summit Europe Agenda Announced

International Women’s Day marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality. Take your place at the virtual Women in Agribusiness Summit Europe where we celebrate women’s expertise in the Ag industry and find solutions to tipping the scales toward parity.

Sessions And Interactive Workshops Include:

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VIDEO: Freight Farms - Greenery Tour Recording

 Below we've included the entire recording along with additional resources to help jump start your farming project. 

If you have any unanswered questions or would like to discuss your individual project, please reach out to your Account Executive  rick@freightfarms.com, and they will be able to assist you

Greenery Tour Recording

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Additional Resources Provided During the Event:

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Farming Goes Indoors

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By JOY LEE

06 Feb 2021

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Beyond profits: Lim, seen here briefing an investor, says the company is also looking at creating new high-valued jobs and generate income for local communities.

THE pandemic has shone a light on many of the gaps that exist in the country’s economy. And one of these is the need for better food security, an issue that resonated with Gerard Lim long before Covid-19.

Many years ago, he started noticing that most of the vegetables sold in local supermarkets and grocers were not necessarily the best of quality as top-grade vegetables grown here were mainly exported. That means locals were consuming lower grade vegetables.

Additionally, a lot of the vegetables that can be grown in Malaysia were, in fact, imported.

Lim wasn’t a farmer but he knew that technology could help boost quality production for local consumption and improve the local supply chain for vegetables.

“My exposure and experience with farming started about five years ago when I introduced smart farming solutions using sensors, the Internet of Things, and Big Data to various farmers. But I found that many farmers in Malaysia were smallholders who could not afford the technology.

“I knew that if I wanted to move the needle, I had to adopt the technology and build large commercial scale, industrial-grade farms to achieve better economies of scale.

“What was compelling to me was that I was not alone in wanting better quality food and vegetables. There was a ready and strong demand from friends and contacts who wanted the same good quality, clean and fresh vegetables, ” he points out.

Lim has vast experience with tech startups and had previously served in the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

When he left the regulatory body last year, the time seemed right to embark on a venture that would focus on scaling up smart farming. And with the Covid-19 pandemic ongoing, it became even more evident that there was a need to grow food and vegetables closer to where they are consumed.

He founded Agroz Group Sdn Bhd, an agritech and indoor vertical farming company, to simplify the distribution supply chain of vegetables while reducing the long- and mid-haul transport of vegetables from far away farms. This is done by establishing indoor vertical farms to grow vegetables in local neighbourhoods instead.

Lim is targeting to build 100,000 sq ft of indoor vertical farms in Malaysia this year to make Agroz the largest indoor vertical farm operator in Malaysia.

While it should seem like a no-brainer to support a move into the agriculture industry at a time like this, Lim notes that it is not all straightforward. A lot of stakeholders do not understand that smart farming is different from traditional farms.

“Malaysia does not have policies to support the use of advanced technologies for smart farming, urban farming and indoor vertical farming. So, existing special grants, incentives and loans are provided for the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides for traditional farming but there are no grants, incentives and loans for the use of technology in smart farming, ” he says.

This makes it a challenge for the company to access ongoing assistance for the agriculture industry.

The lack of policy support and guidelines also make it difficult for them to get funding from financial institutions. Lim says most banks in Malaysia were not particularly supportive of indoor vertical farming as they do not understand these new modern, high-tech forms of farming.

Agroz is currently seeking to raise RM100mil through the issuance of redeemable convertible preference shares to fund its expansion.

Lim says the company has drawn interest from several investors, both local and foreign, and they are in the midst of evaluating some of these offers. He is, however, open to any other interest.

To sweeten the deal for potential investors, Lim is looking at exit plans in five years’ time, either through an initial public offering or via a trade sale to a special purpose acquisition company.

At the moment, Agroz has a small farm in Seri Kembangan, Selangor. It is in the midst of building a 3,000 sq ft farm in Sg Buloh and upgrading a commercial-scale indoor vertical farm in Shah Alam to 90,000 sq ft.

Lim believes Agroz’s indoor vertical farms will complement traditional farming.

“Customers who demand for higher quality will prefer to buy their vegetables from sources like Agroz, which delivers clean, fresh and quality vegetables from farms that you can see and are located within your neighbourhood.

“At the same time, we need to recognise that the market is huge with Malaysia importing over RM5bil worth of vegetables in 2019 alone. And this number is increasing.

“So it will take an entire industry of indoor vertical farmers to grow clean and fresh vegetables in farms within the city before we even make a dent in the traditional agriculture space. Taking even a 10% share, which is only RM500mil, of the multi-billion ringgit market would take some time, ” he says.

However, its efforts, and perhaps that of many other budding agritech companies that have popped up in recent times, are moving in the right direction.

Lim points out that Malaysia ranks 28th on the 2019 Global Food Security (GFS) Index, according to the Economist Group. Singapore, on the other hand, which hardly produces its own food, has topped the index two years in a row, in 2018 and 2019.

A myriad of advanced technologies to ensure that the methods and approach of growing food is repeatable, scalable and traceable to feed a growing population is key to achieving better sufficiency to meet domestic demands.

“We also aim to create hundreds of new high-valued jobs and generate income in our local communities heading into this post-Covid-19 era, ” Lim says.

In some countries, green jobs have been mulled over as a potential area to generate jobs to help with economic recovery. This could also be a space that policymakers could explore further.

Currently, Agroz’s produce is sold directly to consumers through a subscription programme and also supplied to neighbourhood grocers, eateries, restaurants and the hospitality industry.

The company is already growing 200kg of produce per month and will soon have the capacity to grow 1 tonne per day from the various farms already committed.

Once its 100,000 sq ft of indoor vertical farms is achieved, it is expected to produce 3 tonnes of vegetables every day.

Agroz has a current order book of RM5mil to license its technology including supply of its indoor vertical farm systems to warehouses and land asset owners as well as through supply of vegetable products to consumers and businesses. Lim says its got more orders in the pipeline.

TAGS / KEYWORDS:SME , Startup , Indoor Farming , Agroz ,

TOPIC: Corporate News SME

How Vertical Farming Is Taking Off

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By George Nott

5 February 2021

Food supply chains are under more scrutiny than ever in the era of coronavirus and Brexit. The vertical farming movement offers solutions to some of the biggest challenges facing agriculture today

This feature is the first in a two-part series on the future of farming 

Michiel Peters has been fielding some frantic calls in recent weeks. “People are saying, ‘You have to come now! We’re sorry we didn’t call you a year earlier!’” the CEO of vertical farming company PlantLab reports.

It seems vertical farming has reached a tipping point. For a long time, any consideration of the method soon ended with unit economics. But the price of produce has been rapidly falling – to the point that it’s now beginning to compete with traditional farms. And the unique advantages of vertical farming are suddenly coming into sharp relief for manufacturers, suppliers and retailers. So much so that the sector is preparing for a huge boom in interest and investment.

Indeed, demand is so heightened that Peters and his peers are having to turn potential customers away. Could now be vertical farming’s big moment?

“It’s not really a question of ‘if’ anymore. It’s going to happen,” Peters says. “And it’s already happening. It’s a matter of scaling up now.”

The benefits lie in the vertical farming method. Produce is grown indoors under LED lights, with a plant’s roots typically suspended in nutrient-rich water or mist. Temperature, humidity and light is carefully regulated within the sealed environment, and more plants can be packed into a space, on racks that can be seven storeys high.

While yield per square metre, low water consumption and lack of soil or pesticides have long been touted as the method’s main selling points, another one is becoming increasingly important: a guaranteed, year-round supply situated right where it is needed.

“On a small island or in remote locations, vertical farms can have a tremendous impact on food supply, especially in Covid times,” says Peters. “The food chain is typically very long and sensitive. When things break down, people realise their security of supply is not always a given.”

“It’s not really a question of ‘if’ any more. It’s going to happen. It’s a matter of scaling up now”

That’s not to say vertical farming businesses have been immune from the effects of the pandemic. The construction of Amsterdam-based PlantLab’s second overseas site in the Bahamas is being thwarted by current travel restrictions, for example. But Covid, and the disruption it has wreaked on global supply chains, is ultimately helping the sector make its case.

“There’s huge interest from island economies, hot economies and countries that have a higher propensity to import and have less arable land,” says Jamie Burrows, CEO of London-based Vertical Future. “From Iceland to Singapore, they all have very similar requirements.”

Plus, the pandemic isn’t the only threat to imports, Burrows adds. “If you import a lot of food, climate change is going to impact the countries that are producing that food for you. Even now, there have been pretty significant inflections in price on shelves and availability because of small fluctuations in temperature during the key growing seasons,” he explains.

And there is yet another factor that is throwing vertical farming into the spotlight in the UK, specifically: Brexit. That’s not just down to the immediate effect of imports disruption. The local produce sector remains riddled with uncertainty over access to the many seasonal workers that used to come from the EU, with a potential labour crisis looming.

Indoor farms, which are typically highly automated, require far fewer people to run. Furthermore, with constant harvesting, a small and constant rather than large and seasonal workforce is needed.

The yield and potential of vertical farming

The market opportunity for vertical farms is huge. Barclays Research analysts estimate the size of the global fruit & vegetable market is roughly $1.2tn (£800bn), and calculate that the addressable produce market for vertical farms is closer to $700bn (£513bn), leading to an approximately $50bn (£36.7bn) market opportunity. Plus, vertical farming boasts some environmental benefits, as produce requires less water and space to grow

Jones Food Company’s Scunthorpe vertical farm is a prime example. It has 26 tennis courts of growing space, operating 365 days a year – with a staff of six.

“Imagine if you have next to no labour in a farm that big. One of your largest costs is one you can really attack,” says James Lloyd-Jones, JFC CEO, and founder.

As a bonus, businesses such as JFC can boast lower carbon emissions than outdoor farms. While energy-intensive – to make up for the lack of natural sunlight – sector argues overall carbon savings are made when indoor farms are positioned close to where produce is needed, drastically reducing food miles.

Furthermore, Peters says, “if you make the chain radically short, you don’t need to waste so much of the harvest. You can avoid it altogether.”

This element could be particularly important to retailers with ambitious carbon commitments. “Retailers are being asked more questions than they’d probably like about carbon. You can’t just fudge it any more,” says Lloyd-Jones.

It’s not all plain sailing, though. There are some major hurdles for the sector to overcome – chiefly,  the huge capex needed to build an indoor farm. Because of this, many vertical farming companies, whose main interest is in providing the technology for the farms to function, are becoming farm operators and even consumer brands.

PlantLab launched its first US production site – or ‘Plant Paradise’ – in December, within a former battery factory near Indianapolis city centre.

Having spent some time “working in relative silence” on the technology, PlantLab is now a site developer and operator. Local partners distribute and brand the end product into local supermarkets. As patent holder for its indoor farming tech in 74 countries, it is also in talks with major players about licensing the IP. But, adds Peters: “We’ve started this company to change the world, not just sit behind a desk and talk about licenses.”

It helps that PlantLab can point to the success of its own farms. Because building farms yourself is necessary to prove the technology and economics, says Lloyd-Jones. “There’s a lot of vertical farming companies that are tech companies, but they don’t grow anything so the person buying is the guinea pig,” he says.

For his part, he’s looking to refine the JFC concept further before embarking on a licensing model. The company already has plenty of expertise. Ocado-backed JFC is Europe’s largest vertical high-care farming operation, its 5,000 sq m facility stacking up 12 metres high with more than 17 layers of produce. But it will go one step further with its two new sites in the Midlands and the south west, due to open by the end of this year.

They will be more technologically advanced – “it’s like we built the first iPhone in Scunthorpe. We’ve jumped to making the iPhone 8,” Lloyd-Jones says – and will provide enough produce to meet 25% of UK demand for herbs.

The end goal is to develop a “cookie cutter” vertical farm that can be quickly and cheaply built wherever needed. “Once we’re happy with that we’ll look at a licensing model where we build these facilities all round the world. But anyone building them will know they’ve been stressed, used and run at 100%,” he says.

The model for vertical farming firms then is likely to be akin to Ocado and Ocado Retail, where the latter proves the case for the former’s technology, which rivals then adopt.

So similar, in fact, that Ocado itself is looking to get involved. In February last year, it  formed Infinite Acres – a joint venture with Netherlands-based automation tech provider Priva Holding BV and US-based 80 Acres Farms, a vertical farm operator and brand. Customers have two options. They can either partner with Infinite Acres to build their own farm, or they can have 80 Acres run a farm on their behalf using that same technology.

If companies get it right, the licensing model can be lucrative. See Vertical Future for proof. It has two farms in London, with three more being built, but the output of the farms is only a small part of the business. “We retain them to keep our finger on the pulse and customer trends and it validates what we’re doing,” says Burrows. “Ninety-five per cent or more of our revenue now is from technology sales and software.”

Funding flurry

That potential has prompted a flurry of investment in the sector, kicked off in 2017 by Japanese media giant SoftBank, Alphabet’s Eric Schmidt and outgoing Amazon boss Jeff Bezos’ funding of San Francisco vertical farming startup Plenty. Plenty has now raised more than $200m in venture funding.

With it has come a lot of hype. “There is a lot of hot air in vertical farming,” Burrows says. “People can make crazy claims – one company said it could grow a head of lettuce in five days, which is ridiculous. And there is a lot of smoke and mirrors and low-grade companies trying to jump on the bandwagon.

“The risk is farms will fail and make the sector look bad,” he adds. “The impact for the good companies is investors will look at the sector and say it seems risky.”

Nevertheless, the pile-on is ultimately a positive thing, says Peters. “It’s maybe a matter of culture. In the US things tend to be more hyped and people tend to promise the world – then figure out after they have the money, they still need to do all the R&D,” he explains. “But it all helps to underline it’s really happening, and makes it acceptable and credible to consumers.”

Just how big vertical farming can get remains to be seen. Barclays estimates a $50bn (£36.7bn) market opportunity. As a total share of fresh produce output, it’s “going to be a single digit for years” says Burrows. “But as a standalone sector the growth rates are very high and will continue to be.”

Indeed, although it is currently focused on a small range of herbs and leafy greens, ultimately “you can grow anything” says Lloyd-Jones. While staples like rice and wheat might not be viable now, that will soon change. Competitive prices will doubtless be added to vertical farming’s multitude of advantages.

“We don’t want to get stuck in just being a premium, niche product that will only be affordable by a small part of the market,” says Peters. “We want to change the world.” Suddenly, that aim seems within reach.

Five firms leading the global vertical farming movement

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InFarm

Vertical farms don’t have to be on a grand scale. In fact, they can fit in a chiller cabinet. InFarm places production right in the supermarket aisles at clients including Whole Foods Market and M&S.

“Modern agricultural production is built on a supply chain that is vulnerable to ecological and supply shocks. The global pandemic highlighted this. Retailers are having difficulties importing fresh produce, highlighting the need to develop a local and sustainable supply chain,” says Daniel Kats, VP of corporate sales.

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Source: LettUs Grow

LettUs Grow

Bristol start-up LettUs Grow specialises in aeroponic farms that fit within a shipping container. Customers can purchase the full “business in a box”, which includes the grow beds and control system.

“Unlike a traditional farm, you’re not limited by location or climate. Your container farm needs no fertile land to operate and with its advanced climate control system, every day is a perfect summer’s day with ideal growing conditions,” LettUs Grow says. The company has raised a total £3.4m.

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Source: PlantLab

PlantLab

This Dutch indoor farming firm launched its Indianapolis site in December. The 54,000 sq ft farm, developed in partnership with the Englewood Community Development Corporation, will provide an annual supply of close to 45,000 kg of fresh herbs and lettuce to local supermarkets and foodservice companies.

The fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, and herbs grown in the ‘Plant Paradise’ are being marketed under the brand name Uplift, with the tagline ‘good food on purpose’.

Source: CropOne

CropOne

The world’s largest vertical farm is being built in Dubai, a joint venture between US firm Crop One and Emirates Flight Catering.

The $40m, 130,000 sq ft controlled environment facility will produce 6,000 pounds of high-quality, herbicide and pesticide-free leafy greens, harvested daily.

“We secure our own supply chain of high-quality and locally-sourced fresh vegetables, while significantly reducing our environmental footprint,” said Saeed Mohammed, EFC CEO.

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Source: AeroFarms

AeroFarms

US firm AeroFarms last year announced it was building a 90,000 sq ft vertical farm in Abu Dhabi, which will be the world’s largest indoor agriculture research centre. The facility will house research centres for plant reproduction, seed breeding, machine learning and vision as well as robotics.

The company has grown more than 800 varieties of crops and is eyeing opportunity beyond food production in other industries like pharmaceutical, cosmeceutical and nutraceutical.

The Grocer

Lead photo: Source: AeroFarms

Topics: Farming Fruit & Veg Supply chain Sustainability & environment Technology

CGTN Conversations: Chinese Firms Add Strength To Dubai's Future Tech Ecosystem

Abhishek G Bhaya

Over the decades, the Gulf city of Dubai has emerged as a land of innovation and a place where the future could be felt right now in the present. The city is actively encouraging global collaborations to drive innovation and future technology in the United Arab Emirates and internationally through its Dubai Future Accelerators (DFA) initiative that was launched in 2016 under the aegis of Dubai Future Foundation.

In recent years, many Chinese tech firms and start-ups – which are known for their technological prowess – have partnered with DFA to contribute to their mission of imagining, designing and co-creating solutions for future challenges.

One such successful initiative has come from Beijing-headquartered Alesca Life, an agro-tech company that is creating next-generation urban farming solutions that consume five per cent water and 30 per cent energy vis-à-vis conventional farming.

To get an overview of DFA's future innovation agenda and how Chinese firms are contributing in making that vision a reality, CGTN Digital's International Editor Abhishek G. Bhaya spoke with Faisal Al Hawi, the head of Accelerator and Incubators at the Dubai Future Foundation, and Stuart Oda, the founder and CEO of Alesca Life.

Al Hawi is responsible for creating a myriad of programs that connect different stakeholders, government and private, with innovative startups and companies from around the world to experiment with and making Dubai the testbed for future ideas.

Oda is an investment banker-turned- urban farmer with a passion for innovation and sustainability. He founded Alesca Life in 2013 with an aim to make food production more localized and data-driven.

Edited excerpts:

Bhaya: Faisal, please tell us a bit about the vision of the DFA initiative and what it aims to achieve and also some of the main areas and technologies it has tasted success in the past four years?

Al Hawi: Dubai Future Accelerators is an initiative that was born four years ago under the Dubai Future Foundation. The vision was pretty much straightforward – to put Dubai as a leading city of the world when it comes to technology innovation. Our mission is to turn Dubai into a global testbed for innovations and technologies. The DFA looks around for all the start-ups in the global scene, trying to understand the technology needs, the partner needs, the local ecosystem needs, and trying to bridge the gap between these two players of the market.

We do this in what we call the Area 2071, which is like the heart of our ecosystem in Dubai and we've had tremendous success. Throughout the four years, we've run eight cohorts, the eighth cohort is ongoing as we speak. We've engaged with more than 300 start-ups and over 60 pilot projects were produced out of DFA and more than 150 memoranda of understanding or commercial agreements were signed with different government entities and private sector partners.

Dubai Future Accelerators is positioned in a way that basically bridges the gap between the big players, be it government or private sector, and the start-up innovators from around the world.

Bhaya: How many Chinese firms and start-ups have availed the DFA program so far? Please name some of the major projects the Chinese entities have undertaken in the UAE as part of the DFA initiative.

Al Hawi: We've worked with Chinese companies ever since Cohort 1 back in 2016. So, Alesca Life is one of them. Shellpay, which was a fintech company working with the General Directorate of Immigration in Dubai, was another company. There was another company called Future Trends, working with Dubai Health Authority on medical imaging, and utilizing the technologies of AI and machine learning to optimize the diagnosis of late-stage cancers.

Yitu Technology is another Chinese AI-based company which worked very closely with [UAE's largest telecom service provider] Etisalat on solving some of their telecom related issues. So these are just to name a few companies that worked with us.

We really understand the strength Chinese ecosystem brings to our ecosystem. And I think we complement each other in a lot of areas.

Another example, broader than just Dubai Future Accelerators, is within Area 2071, where SenseTime actually has an office here, and they work very closely with the AI office, in a couple of strategic projects.

So, the partnership is growing stronger and stronger, year after year. And we definitely believe that there are areas specifically in the fourth industrial revolution technologies, blockchain, AI and IoT and the likes that we will definitely materialize more and more outcomes and success moving forward.

Bhaya: Stuart, what is the story behind Alesca Life?

Oda: Seven years ago, I started Alesca Life here in Beijing. The vision of the company is to democratize access to fresh and nutritious food by democratizing the means and the knowledge of production.

And the more research that I was doing, it became very clear that one of the most pressing challenges over the next decades wasn't so much actually related to connectivity, as these things were becoming easier with the proliferation of smartphones and computers, but access to fresh and nutritious food. And so, my team and I wanted to find a way in which we can make this access a lot easier. And wherever it made sense to localize that fresh food production, and wherever food production currently existed to make it more data driven.

So we set on this journey seven years ago, and we currently have our teams and offices across Japan, China, and the United Arab Emirates and we have partnerships across many more countries. We're developing precision farming tools to accomplish, to increase the productivity, the profitability, and the predictability of food production by up to 10 times.

Bhaya: The urban farming technologies including vertical farms and data-driven food production are certainly relevant for an arid region like the Arabian Peninsula. How did your partnership with DFA come about and what has been the journey like in the UAE for Alesca Life?

Oda: In 2016, our team was selected into the DFA program as part of Cohort 1. It was actually our first entry into the Gulf region. We knew that the technology had huge promise and potential in the region, and we wanted to make a serious commitment to the region. The DFA program was kind enough to offer us a spot in Cohort 1.

It has been hugely transformational in two ways. You know, the way in which business is done in the Middle East is very different. And to be able to have an organization like DFA, both providing the meaningful introductions, reducing some of the barriers related to the company's formation, and then also just the credibility that is bestowed on some of the companies that get to go through the program. All three of these things contributed enormously to our success in the region.

Through this program we've also been able to find meaningful strategic partnerships to mitigate some of the challenges related to concentration of supply chain, for example, even being in a place like China, to have manufacturing bases and other places in other countries, is beneficial for us.

So, right after the DFA program, we had an opportunity to localize the manufacturing of our container farm in the Emirates of Ajman in the UAE, so that we can serve our customers and our base in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) and also to showcase our commitment to the region that we're not just there to sell our systems, but that we are there for the long term.

Bhaya: The year 2020 has been a watershed in many ways for the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reinforcing our increasing reliance on digital and AI technologies without which we can't imagine a future. How did the global crisis impact the long-term vision of DFA?

Al Hawi: The pandemic has definitely affected everyone. At DFA, we realized that innovation is the way to be resilient for the future, prepared for the future and understanding exactly the problems of today that potentially, and unfortunately, led us into the pandemic. We had just a very short drop-in time in which everybody had to just realign ourselves, and that was around March. But we immediately resumed back in October.

Not just the DFA, I think all the government entities, as well as start-ups, realized how important a role they play in this ecosystem. And Cohort 8, that is currently ongoing and will last until the end of March, is specifically looking at challenges that will basically be more specific around life after COVID.

I'll share a couple of examples. The Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) is looking into new solutions of shared mobility. We are very much accustomed to the ride-hailing apps and public transport systems. But that has changed forever. So they (RTA) are really being proactive in trying to foresight what new models of public transport and shared mobility will be out there. And we're really excited to see what comes out as solutions in a couple of weeks' time.

Another entity which is really looking at how things might evolve in the health care sector is the Dubai Health Authority. They are focusing on preventive health care measures, solutions and products, but not only from a sense of being preventive or proactive but in a sense of also democratizing access to that device.

Bhaya: Food security is already a global concern and going to be a top challenge in the future. It did aggravate last year due to the supply-chain disruption caused by the pandemic. What are some of the innovative solutions that Alesca Life offers to meet this challenge and has COVID-19 triggered a sense of greater urgency?

Oda: This is a great point. Pre-pandemic, in 2018-19, a lot of the interest and investment from governments, companies and investors was in food tech, which was related to food delivery and meal kits at home. And it was really focused on one thing, which was consumer convenience. What has happened in 2020, with the pandemic and now that we're in 2021, is that the focus has shifted materially from food tech to agtech - agricultural technology, which is focused on resilience. It's about community resilience, as opposed to consumer convenience.

So, one of the solutions, the benefits or the outcomes of the pandemic, was a renewed interest in agtech. And by that, I mean, local food production is in control of your own supply chain for fresh and nutritious food. So, since the pandemic has happened, since the lockdowns have begun, I've probably spoken to individuals and government entities from over 30 countries that are interested in finding ways in which they can secure a minimum supply of local fresh food production in their own countries, in their own communities.

The shift has accelerated towards this localization, towards this decentralized form of food production that can happen almost anywhere. And one of the solutions that we're providing for this is to bundle all of our precision farming tools – our monitoring equipment, our automation systems, our farm management and software tools, and even our latest computer vision AI cameras – and bundle all these products together to create an incredibly capital efficient indoor farm. And this allows both governments, at large scale, and even community, at a smaller scale, to be able to be in control of their local food production needs.

Interviewer and script: Abhishek G Bhaya

Video editors: Meiyi Yan & Wu Chutian

Cover image: Du Chenxin

Infographics: Jia Jieqiong

Director: Mei Yan

Purdue Plant Science Startup Receives NSF Funding to Advance In-Home Greenhouse Technologies

February 8, 2021

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A Purdue University-affiliated startup that designs, distributes and supports direct-to-consumer, in-home greenhouses has won a National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research grant.

The SBIR grant, worth $256,000, is in addition to $50,000 in matching funding from Elevate Ventures to conduct research and development work on multispectral photomorphogenesis in rotary aeroponic cultivation chambers.

Heliponix LLC, founded by Purdue Polytechnic Institute graduates Ivan Ball and Scott Massey, sells the GroPod Smart Garden Appliance. It is a small in-home greenhouse to grow daily servings of Pure Produce from subscription Seed Pods. The dishwasher-sized device fits under a kitchen counter and grows produce year-round, providing consumers with lettuce and other greens that are fresh and pesticide-free.

Heliponix, a Purdue-affiliated startup that designs, distributes and supports direct-to-consumer, in-home greenhouses, has won a National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research grant. (Image provided)

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Heliponix LLC, founded by Purdue Polytechnic Institute graduates Ivan Ball and Scott Massey, sells the GroPod Smart Garden Appliance. It is a small in-home greenhouse to grow daily servings of Pure Produce from subscription Seed Pods. The dishwasher-sized device fits under a kitchen counter and grows produce year-round, providing consumers with lettuce and other greens that are fresh and pesticide-free.

As a leader in tunable horticultural research lighting systems, the Lighting Enabled Systems and Applications (LESA) Center of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is working with Heliponix to provide research-grade, multi-spectral, tunable LED modules and associated programmable control systems compatible with Heliponix’s rotary chamber.

These modules are based on the LESA Center’s TIGER horticulture research lighting modules and will provide the research flexibility needed in Phase I to optimize the LED illumination impact on plant growth variables in leafy greens including biomass, crop yield, nutritional content and energy efficiency.

“NSF is proud to support the technology of the future by thinking beyond incremental developments and funding the most creative, impactful ideas across all markets and areas of science and engineering,” said Andrea Belz, division director of the Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships at NSF. “With the support of our research funds, any deep technology startup or small business can guide basic science into meaningful solutions that address tremendous needs.”

Massey said, “In the wake of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic’s disruptive force on produce cultivation and recurring food safety recalls, there’s an urgent need to democratize cultivation to establish food sovereignty. We are incredibly thankful for the backing of the National Science Foundation, Purdue University, Elevate Ventures and the countless Hoosiers who have supported our pursuit to grow to become the world’s largest farm through our connected, smart garden appliances known as GroPods without owning a single acre of land.”

Once a small business gains a Phase I SBIR/STTR grant (up to $256,000), it becomes eligible to apply for a Phase II grant (up to $1 million). Small businesses with Phase II grants are eligible to receive up to $500,000 in additional matching funds with qualifying third-party investment or sales.

Startups or entrepreneurs who submit a three-page project pitch will know within three weeks if they meet the program’s objectives to support innovative technologies that show promise of commercial and/or societal impact and involve a level of technical risk. Small businesses with innovative science and technology solutions and commercial potential are encouraged to apply. All proposals submitted to the NSF SBIR/STTR program, also known as America’s Seed Fund powered by NSF, undergo a rigorous merit-based review process. Learn more about America’s Seed Fund powered by NSF.

About the Lighting Enabled Systems & Applications (LESA) Center

The LESA Center is a graduated National Science Foundation engineering research center, with matching fund support from the New York State Empire Development Corporation and corporate membership. LESA is an interdisciplinary, multi-university center developing “Systems that Think.” It is dedicated to developing autonomous intelligent systems to address modern challenges in the connected environment and is housed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. To learn more, visit https://lesa.rpi.edu.

About Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Founded in 1824, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is America’s first technological research university. Rensselaer encompasses five schools, 32 research centers, more than 145 academic programs and a dynamic community made up of more than 7,600 students and over 100,000 living alumni. Rensselaer faculty and alumni include more than 145 National Academy members, six members of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, six National Medal of Technology winners, five National Medal of Science winners, and a Nobel Prize winner in physics. With nearly 200 years of experience advancing scientific and technological knowledge, Rensselaer remains focused on addressing global challenges with a spirit of ingenuity and collaboration. To learn more, visit www.rpi.edu.

About the National Science Foundation's Small Business Programs

America’s Seed Fund powered by NSF awards $200 million annually to startups and small businesses, transforming scientific discovery into products and services with commercial and societal impact. Startups working across almost all areas of science and technology can receive up to $1.75 million to support research and development, helping de-risk technology for commercial success. America’s Seed Fund is congressionally mandated through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The NSF is an independent federal agency with a budget of about $8.1 billion that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to today’s toughest challenges. Ranked the No. 5 Most Innovative University in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at purdue.edu.

Writer: Chris Adam, cladam@prf.org

Source: Scott Massey, scott@GroPod.io

Bringing The Future To life In Abu Dhabi

Amid the deserts of Abu Dhabi, a new wave of entrepreneurs and innovators are sowing the seeds of a more sustainable future.

Image from: Wired

A cluster of shipping containers in a city centre is about the last place you’d expect to find salad growing. Yet for the past year, vertical farming startup Madar Farms has been using this site in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, to grow leafy green vegetables using 95 per cent less water than traditional agriculture. 

Madar Farms is one of a number of agtech startups benefitting from a package of incentives from the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) aimed at spurring the development of innovative solutions for sustainable desert farming. The partnership is part of ADIO’s $545 million Innovation Programme dedicated to supporting companies in high-growth areas.

“Abu Dhabi is pressing ahead with our mission to ‘turn the desert green’,” explained H.E. Dr. Tariq Bin Hendi, Director General of ADIO, in November 2020. “We have created an environment where innovative ideas can flourish and the companies we partnered with earlier this year are already propelling the growth of Abu Dhabi’s 24,000 farms.”

The pandemic has made food supply a critical concern across the entire world, combined with the effects of population growth and climate change, which are stretching the capacity of less efficient traditional farming methods. Abu Dhabi’s pioneering efforts to drive agricultural innovation have been gathering pace and look set to produce cutting-edge solutions addressing food security challenges.

Beyond work supporting the application of novel agricultural technologies, Abu Dhabi is also investing in foundational research and development to tackle this growing problem. 

In December, the emirate’s recently created Advanced Technology Research Council [ATRC], responsible for defining Abu Dhabi’s R&D strategy and establishing the emirate and the wider UAE as a desired home for advanced technology talent, announced a four-year competition with a $15 million prize for food security research. Launched through ATRC’s project management arm, ASPIRE, in partnership with the XPRIZE Foundation, the award will support the development of environmentally-friendly protein alternatives with the aim to "feed the next billion".

Image from: Madar Farms

Global Challenges, Local Solutions

Food security is far from the only global challenge on the emirate’s R&D menu. In November 2020, the ATRC announced the launch of the Technology Innovation Institute (TII), created to support applied research on the key priorities of quantum research, autonomous robotics, cryptography, advanced materials, digital security, directed energy and secure systems.

“The technologies under development at TII are not randomly selected,” explains the centre’s secretary general Faisal Al Bannai. “This research will complement fields that are of national importance. Quantum technologies and cryptography are crucial for protecting critical infrastructure, for example, while directed energy research has use-cases in healthcare. But beyond this, the technologies and research of TII will have global impact.”

Future research directions will be developed by the ATRC’s ASPIRE pillar, in collaboration with stakeholders from across a diverse range of industry sectors.

“ASPIRE defines the problem, sets milestones, and monitors the progress of the projects,” Al Bannai says. “It will also make impactful decisions related to the selection of research partners and the allocation of funding, to ensure that their R&D priorities align with Abu Dhabi and the UAE's broader development goals.”

Image from: Agritecture

Nurturing Next-Generation Talent

To address these challenges, ATRC’s first initiative is a talent development programme, NexTech, which has begun the recruitment of 125 local researchers, who will work across 31 projects in collaboration with 23 world-leading research centres.

Alongside universities and research institutes from across the US, the UK, Europe and South America, these partners include Abu Dhabi’s own Khalifa University, and Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, the world’s first graduate-level institute focused on artificial intelligence. 

“Our aim is to up skill the researchers by allowing them to work across various disciplines in collaboration with world-renowned experts,” Al Bannai says. 

Beyond academic collaborators, TII is also working with a number of industry partners, such as hyperloop technology company, Virgin Hyperloop. Such industry collaborations, Al Bannai points out, are essential to ensuring that TII research directly tackles relevant problems and has a smooth path to commercial impact in order to fuel job creation across the UAE.

“By engaging with top global talent, universities and research institutions and industry players, TII connects an intellectual community,” he says. “This reinforces Abu Dhabi and the UAE’s status as a global hub for innovation and contributes to the broader development of the knowledge-based economy.”

US - OHIO: Thinking And Growing Inside The Box

A brother-sister team has taken the mechanics of farming out of the field and into a freight container.

“We are growing beautiful plants without the sun; there’s no soil, and so it’s all a closed-loop water system,” Britt Decker, co-owner of Fifth Season FARM, said. “We use non-GMO seeds, completely free of herbicides and pesticides, so the product is really, really clean. In fact, we recommend people don’t even wash it, because there’s no reason to.”

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Fifth Season FARM is unique in many ways; the 3-acre hydroponic farm is contained in a 320-square-foot freight container that sits along 120 S. Main St. in Piqua, with everything from varying varities of lettuce, to radishes, to kale and even flowers in a climate-controlled smart farm that allows Decker and his sister, Laura Jackson, to turn crops in a six- to eight-week cycle. The crops spend 18 hours in “daytime” every day, and the farm uses 90% less water than traditional farming.

“It’s tricky because we’re completely controlling the environment in here. It’s kind of a laboratory more than a farm,” Decker said. “I think there’s about 50 of them around the world right now. These are really international, and they’re perfect for places that are food deserts where they can’t grow food because of climate or other reasons. It gives them a way to grow food in the middle of nowhere.”

Image from: Sidney Daily News

Decker and Jackson, along with their brother Bill Decker, also do traditional farming and grow corn, wheat and soybeans, but Decker said they were looking for a new venture that would help lead them to a healthier lifestyle and learn something new.

“Just with the whole local food movement becoming more and more important and food traceability, we just thought it would be a great thing to bring to our community to help everyone have a healthier lifestyle,” Decker said. “People love food that’s grown right in their hometown and the shelf-life on it, when you get it home, is remarkable. It’ll keep for two weeks.”

Image from: AgFunder News

Currently, Decker and Jackson are growing a half-dozen variety of specialty lettuces that include arugula, butterhead and romaine, as well as specialty greens like kale and Swiss chard, and even radishes and flowers. They received their freight container at the end of July and set up their indoor farm over two weeks; while the farm has been in operation for less than six months, Decker says that they’re growing beautiful product.

They have also started growing micro-greens, said Decker. Micro-greens are immature plants which are 1 to 3 inches tall and are in a 5-inch by 5-inch container.

“People will use them as garnishments and in smoothies,” said Decker. “Since they are immature plants, they have an intense flavor.”

Decker said they are growing wheat germ, broccoli and spicy salad mixes.

They’ve also started moving forward with sales and marketing. Fifth Season FARM has partnered with the Miami County Locally Grown Virtual Market to sell their products to the community. They also take orders through their website, customers can opt to pick up their orders between 4 and 6 p.m. on Wednesdays, or Decker and Jackson will deliver products up to five miles from the farm. Decker said that Fifth Season FARM is also in discussions with three restaurants in the area about including their specialty greens on their menus.

Decker said they also plan to attend the Sidney Farmers Market when it opens for the spring/summer season.

“We’re really just getting going,” Decker said. “While we were learning to grow products, we didn’t want to overcommit to a restaurant or grocery store before we knew we could really grow beautiful product, so we’ve been donating product every week to the food pantry at the Presbyterian Church. It feels good to plant the seeds and watch them grow, and it feels good to make sure that people who aren’t getting the proper nutrition are getting some.”

Democratic Mayoral Candidates Offer Ideas for Addressing Food Insecurity

Image from: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office

Nine candidates vying for the Democratic nomination to become the next mayor of New York City gathered Tuesday morning in a virtual forum to discuss their visions for the city's food policy and serving the roughly 2 million New Yorkers who are food insecure.

At the "Town Hall on the Future of Food in New York City" -- hosted by Hunter College in partnership with City Harvest, CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute, Food Bank for NYC, Hunger Free America, and other organizations, and moderated by NY1 anchor Errol Louis -- the candidates discussed the city's urgent need to manage rampant hunger during the pandemic and center it in the recovery effort. But the discussion also focused on the pre-existing problems of food insecurity, inequitable access to nutritious meals, and inefficiencies and lack of sustainability in the city's food use.

The participants, who were selected based on their polling and fundraising standings among a field of dozens of candidates, included Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, former federal housing secretary Shaun Donovan, former city sanitation commissioner and "covid food czar" Kathryn Garcia, former Citigroup executive Ray McGuire, former nonprofit executive Dianne Morales, former city veterans' services commissioner Loree Sutton, city Comptroller Scott Stringer, small business owner Joycelyn Taylor, and Maya Wiley, a civil rights attorney and former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio. Louis pushed them to focus on how they would bring anti-hunger initiatives to scale to address the food crisis compounded by the pandemic.

Programs to help feed New Yorkers have often missed the mark, failing to meet adequate health standards and leaving many New Yorkers out entirely. A 2017 study from the Robin Hood Poverty Tracker found 1 in 4 eligible food stamp, or SNAP, recipients -- 700,000 New York City residents -- were not enrolled in the program, less than the statewide participation rate of 93 percent the same year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. In September, the Poverty Tracker reporter 1.7 million New Yorkers were getting food stamps, over 200,000 more than last February. During roughly the same period the percentage of food stamp recipients who also used a food pantry doubled, from 27 percent of enrollees to 60 percent.

Nearly all candidates agreed on the need to increase SNAP benefits, and improve enrollment in the program; expand community gardens and urban agriculture; and improve access to nutritious food throughout communities and in institutional settings like schools and food pantries. There was also broad consensus around creating a more unified food procurement and distribution system in New York City by strengthening the Mayor's Office of Food Policy. Multiple candidates highlighted the frequent lack of coordination among the myriad city agencies that provide food as part of their services.

"One of the reasons why I needed to step in is that the Mayor's Office of Food Policy is incredibly understaffed," said Garcia, who managed the city's emergency food response last summer before leaving the de Blasio administration last fall and launching her campaign to succeed him.

"[Food Policy Director] Kate McKenzie does an amazing job but she doesn't have procurement authority, she doesn't have logistical authority...one of the clear things is how we approach food is very siloed, very fragmented," Garcia said, noting the separate food procurement activities of the Department of Education, Department of Correction, and senior centers. Garcia says the city provided 1 million meals a day and shored up food pantries last summer under her leadership. (Shortly after the forum, Garcia released a multi-pronged platform to fight food insecurity with an emphasis on enrolling more New Yorkers in SNAP and expanding what the benefits would cover.) 

Adams, who repeatedly discussed the need for nutritious food, criticized the nutritional value of many of the government-provided or -supported food services, including Garcia’s covid effort, and said increasing the size of the Mayor's Office of Food Policy would have a limited impact if the city did not also incorporate the new perspectives from food-access "visionaries."

"They don't share the values," Adams said of the city's food-oriented bureaucrats, historically. "I am amazed at the roadblocks, that organizations like Rockaway Youth Task Force are not able to scale," he said during a segment of the conversation on urban agriculture programs. 

Some of the candidates saw the city's food dilemmas rooted in job scarcity and low wages and frequently discussed the importance of building food policy into the city's economic recovery.

"We solve none of this if we don't recognize that fundamentally what is broken and why 30% of our people were not eating through the month before covid is because the rent was too damn high and people were choosing to pay rent instead of buying groceries," Wiley said, adding, "at the end of the day it is about the city's ability to generate new jobs." Wiley has announced a plan as mayor to create 100,000 jobs through a $10 billion capital investment and cited it as an example of how she would leverage existing city resources to bring her approach to scale.

"Fundamentally, food insecurity is about income and it is about the fact that we do not intentionally ensure that our young people have pathways to careers and are prepared for the careers of the 21st Century," said Garcia.

The conversation of workforce development dovetailed with another on building an urban agrarian economy in New York to create good jobs and ensure both sustainable and equitable food access for city residents.

"We need to also think about aligning not just food policy, but the resilience office that exists right now to work more in tandem with each other because we know that food justice is also climate justice," said Morales, who was the executive director of Phipps Neighborhoods in the South Bronx, a social services provider. As mayor, Morales said she would invest $25 million to food innovation and sustainability programs in communities of color.

Multiple candidates, including Stringer, Donovan, and Adams wanted to see a greater emphasis on local and regional food procurement. "If I'm mayor, I really want to create a Mayor's Office of Food Markets because we've got to link farming with communities and for a farm-to-table policy that brings the purchasing power of this city regionally, upstate, downstate, and create those relationships," Stringer said. "Farmers markets should be everywhere."

Image from: Square Roots

"There is huge potential to grow, so to speak, the power of locally-grown produce," said Donovan, who was the city’s housing commissioner under Mayor Bloomberg before spending all eight years in the Obama presidential cabinet. "We need innovative approaches to ensure we are using every inch of available space that we can." Like other candidates, he expressed support for ideas like more community gardens and vertical agriculture. Donovan also repeatedly stressed the need to support struggling restaurants and incorporate them into the city's food programs as well as its economic recovery.

While supportive of partnerships with upstate and Long Island counties, Garcia took issue with the notion that New York could achieve a sustainable food market locally. "If we want fresh, healthy food day in and day out, we're not harvesting today in this region, we are going to have to bring it in," she said following Donovan's comments. "We need to make sure the systems go beyond just this region so that we can still be getting lettuce even though it's February."

"That should not hold us back from starting to have a robust agrarian economy in New York City," Adams countered, echoing Donovan's statements about the importance of life sciences in city schools and connecting lessons about food production to healthy eating.

When asked directly whether they would use the city's power of eminent domain to force the sale of private land for the city to use, most candidates raised their hands affirmatively. Adams expressed his dissent, noting that the many existing city resources that he said are being wasted or under-utilized should be tapped before forcing land sales. (Others also raised the importance of better using available land, with Stringer naming a report he issued as comptroller on the number of vacant city-owned lots that could be used to develop housing and noting that many lots could also be used for community gardens.)

McGuire, who recently stepped down from one of the biggest jobs on Wall Street to run for mayor, also criticized the mismanagement of city resources and cautioned on the costs to the city that eminent domain could pose. "It gets expensive so you have to figure out when you exercise eminent domain at market rates who is going to pay for it," he said.

Equity was an overriding theme in a number of areas of the food policy discussion, from eradicating food deserts to ensuring healthy options in schools and pantries.

"I think we do have a moral obligation to ensure that every resident of the city has those basic needs of food and housing," said Taylor, who created the nonprofit NYC WMBE Alliance, according to her website. "We have to make sure that when we look at the budget we look things that are 'nice to have' and things that are 'needs to have,' and if it means that we have to reallocate funds from the things that are nice to have to the needs, then that's what I would do."

"We need to stop leaving communities out of the co-creation process," said Morales, who stressed participation of food advocacy groups.

Wiley and Taylor also discussed the need for community participation in the form of locally-based food councils to inform nutrition, per Wiley, and more active mayoral outposts in each borough, per Taylor. Both also discussed the importance of collecting more targeted data to better determine the outcomes of food programs. Other candidates outlined plans or past work to incorporate cultural sensitivity into food access, including then-Manhattan Borough President Stringer's 2008 "Go Green East Harlem Cookbook" and Garcia's discussion of halal and kosher options in meal services, something others mentioned as well.

The candidates agreed that compounded structural problems of food deserts and the reliance of low-income communities on the city's various food programs exacerbate malnutrition and health outcomes, but not all offered the same solution.

"Today food deserts are such that many of our people don't have access to healthy food. They have access to those institutions that provide food that is pretty low on the nutrition scale," McGuire said. He laid out a more corporate-friendly view of the path forward, that involved rezoning to allow big supermarket chains, hiring gig workers to deliver meals to seniors, and bringing refrigeration resources to bodegas in order to better store fresh produce.

As is often the case, Morales was at the other end of the spectrum, saying she supports community land trusts to create both better access to fresh produce and greater "food sovereignty" in poor communities. Sutton said the solution was to leverage public-private partnerships.

"It's one thing to talk about all these ideas, but in the same breath to disdain, disparage and disrespect the top 1 percent of New Yorkers who bring in nearly 40 percent of our tax base or reject and shun real estate as one example, as a number of my fellow candidate have during this campaign," said Sutton, a former Army psychiatrist who led de Blasio's Department of Veterans' Services. "We are absolutely shutting down those pathways to partnership and prosperity."

Recycling Solar Energy for Indoor Farming Use

New patented technology that recycles renewable energy is ready to revolutionize CEA (Controlled Environment Agriculture) and make indoor farming both more profitable and more attainable in remote rural areas. This upgrade in solar technology offers benefits for farmers, consumers, businesses, environmentalists and local governments.

Two businesses are building a prototype of the vertical farm of the future in Marquette, Kansas (pop. 620.) The indoor farm will recycle its own solar energy at night and during storms by absorbing LED light energy when it’s used to illuminate the interior growing spaces. The 60-unit, 11-acre prototype development will function independently of the local power grid using technology designed and built by Kansas native David Hinson, CTO of TSO Greenhouses.

Image from: Hortidaily

This technology will reduce burdensome costs of power, water, financing, real estate acquisitions, and property taxes. Such hurdles have often been the downfall of previous vertical farms, especially in urban areas. The forward-thinking pair’s plan addresses and solves all of these challenges.

The duo’s “ag tech campus” model includes accelerated growing of all-natural, clean food and protein fodder as well as reliable 5G internet for rural farmers, citizens and businesses. The entire system will be powered by renewable energy and make digital telecom deployment more practical.

Image from: Hortidaily

Hinson’s technology enables roof-mounted “solar trackers” to capture LED energy at night from the light reflected inside the structures that house hydroponic crops growing inside. These trackers rotate East to West when the sun is shining and then flip inward at night and during bad weather.

As a result, farmers can harness the energy generated “off-hours” to grow a variety of crops 24 hours a day in multiple vertical “stacks” based on bespoke microclimates. Growing by “zones” inside a multi-level structure boosts crop production and horticulture flexibility.  Traditional indoor farms and rudimentary greenhouses usually grow only 1-2 crops for local distribution.

In contrast, these new farms will be able to produce 10-15 different plant species simultaneously. Increased agility and production speed will also improve vertical farmers' ability to react to sudden demand shifts.

Image from: Hortidaily

5G Adds Lucrative Tech Payoff to Growth Cycle
Since the new 24/7/365 solar energy recycling technology only needs 33 percent to 40 percent of the harnessed energy, developers and farmers can sell excess energy for additional revenue. The local clean energy will power wireless 5G with the help of small rotating solar trackers with batteries. These trackers can be placed on community buildings, water towers, grain elevators, farm silos, bridge spans, existing cell towers and other permanent objects to ensure uptime and reliability. 

This new source of 5G will create emerging markets for renewable energy, boosting rural economies. In the past, 5G telecom has been difficult to install and deploy in remote areas.

Path Diversity will be a game-changer
The pair plan to locate data centers near 100GB digital fiber trunks to further reduce the cost and time required to deploy 5G wireless. High-end data processing groups pay premium rates for 5G, which is rated as Tier 5 (aka T5 or always-on) based on its reliability. T5 is far less subject to outages and service disruptions.

Such state-of-the-art data centers are expected to attract the largest data processing groups in the world based on their enhanced functionality and amenities. This market also provides another lucrative revenue stream for farmers and tax-equity entrepreneurs interested in sustainability.   

Investors Can Support Sustainability with “free money”
Freedom Farms CEO Geist and TSO Greenhouses Hinson have already raised nearly half a million dollars for Phase One, which will be the prototype of the vertical farming headquarters. They’re seeking an additional $2.5 million to finish the prototype by summer 2021.

Phase Two will be devoted to building 12 larger campuses that will fan out statewide from the headquarters in McPherson, Kansas. The entire $2 billion hub-and-spoke sustainability system is targeted for completion by 2030. Yields are expected to feed nearly 3 million residents statewide including many school lunch programs. Local hospitals, restaurants, colleges, universities, assisted living centers and public agencies are expected to become customers of the same-day harvests.

Investors will be able to reap these profits without ever risking their own money. Thanks to little-known U.S tax credit programs and clean-energy incentives, these projects don’t require a cash infusion. VC firms can "pool" their tax obligations, converting them to credits. This structure sets the project apart from previous urban farms or sluggish VC-funded startups.

Solar panels rotate with the sun so direct sunlight can reach inside the CEA facility and stimulate photosynthesis. Software allows the indoor farmer to create direct sun exposure on certain plants while creating shade for others, all based on each plant’s DNA preference.

The solar panels (modules) can be fully closed facing outward to create 100% shade inside if desired for any length of time controlled by the grower. By using TSO Greenhouses’ technology, vertical farmers and greenhouse growers can control and optimize sun and shade exposure simultaneously. This allows different crops to grow in zones inside the structure tailored precisely to receive the ideal light and shade to maximize plant life and production.

This 11-acre greenhouse will eventually serve as a headquarters to 12 smaller greenhouse hubs across Kansas. What makes this greenhouse unique is its ability to recycle solar energy to grow crops 24 hours a day while powering lucrative 5G data centers.

USA - ARIZONA: UA-CEAC 2021 Online Short Course

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Only a few weeks away from the 2021 Online Greenhouse Crop Production and Engineering Design Short Course put on by the University of Arizona's Controlled Environment Agriculture Center. This virtual program will be hosted through Zoom on Wednesdays- March 3rd, 10th, & 17th from 10 am-3 pm (MST). Come expand your knowledge, sharpen your skills, and hear innovative presentations given by industry leaders and academia experts in Controlled Environment Agriculture.  Click here to register.  Registration will close on February 26th.

For more information, visit ceac.arizona.edu/events/cea-short-course or email ellenworth@email.arizona.edu

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USA - ALASKA: Big Grants & New Ideas

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Customized Vertical Farming

VH Hydroponics has modular growing systems, cabinets, and shipping containers for scalable vertical farming to meet the needs of anyone - individuals, organizations, communities, hotels, and schools - who want fresh, healthy choices and food security.

Multiple Delicious Options

Micro-Grant Scoping Pre-Application

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Due February 15th

$1.8 million dollars in Mico-Grants for Food Security are available in 2021.

Full details at the State of Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Agriculture

The first step is to submit the Pre-Scoping Application by the February 15th deadline.

TURKEY: Vegetables Will Be Grown In The Geothermal Greenhouse Established on 60 Decares In Sivasta

The first seedlings were planted for the products to be grown in the geothermal greenhouse established on 60 decares of land in Sivasta Hot Çermik region.

120 thousand tomato seedlings were planted in a 60-acre glass greenhouse, which was started to be built a year ago in the region and will be heated by geothermal water, which cost about 40 million lira. Sivas Governor Salih Ayhan, Mayor Hilmi Bilgin and former Sivas Mayor businessperson Sami Aydın Stating that Sivas has gained a great value, Ayhan said: “I congratulate our company, which has brought a very high technology and a seminal service to Sivas, for its courage,”.

I can say that it is one of the projects that excites me the most. Sivas is developing in every field, but there is a completely different development in agriculture. I can say that Sivas has gained a very good momentum in agriculture. We use Thermal not only for health tourism but also for visual and cultural purposes. This place almost added value to the region. Saying that the greenhouse will open a vision for Sivas, Bilgin thanked Sami Aydın for bringing a modern, world-class greenhouse to Sivas. The Çermik Region has been distributing healing for years. I hope Sivas will be a cluster with this greenhouse project.

Sami Aydın also said that they have accomplished a first in Sivas and implemented the thermal smart greenhouse project. Stating that he was happy to realise the first seedling planting of such a facility, Aydın said, This is the first greenhouse project in Sivas, a smart greenhouse. While hot Çermik water has been healing for health until today, it will also be healing for agriculture from now on.

In the seedling planting done in accordance with the social distance rules, the protocol members passed through the disinfectant cabin one by one and were taken to the greenhouse area.

In Malahide, Two Friends Raise A Vertical Farm

Image from: Dublin Inquirer

When salesman Jack Hussey finishes his work day, he closes the laptop, leaves his home in Malahide and walks 10 minutes down the road. At the bottom of his friend’s farm sits an outhouse with a coldroom which now hosts his side business, Upfarm. A farm that goes upwards.

Imagine a shelf rack, says Hussey. “We’ve kitted the roofs of each shelf with an LED grow light. It’s to replicate the sunlight basically.”

A photo of the farm shows purple light beaming down on thick heads of lemongrass and basil, stacked on shelves. Yields from vertical farming are far more efficient than in-the-ground farming, Hussey said, on the phone last Friday.

He likens it to real estate. “You can have houses that are populated side by side or you can start going upwards with apartments.”

From Podcast to Table

Hussey always had an interest in food, he says. Last year he and a school friend, Bill Abbott, began to look into urban farming.

“But we were saying, is farming in the ground actually the best route to go?” Hussey says.

It’s labour intensive, which didn’t suit the two guys, who work other full-time jobs. Then, in March 2020, Hussey heard a podcast with American urban farmer Curtis Stone. He had an urban farm where he was using a spin-farming method, says Hussey. “It’s what they call it. You rotate crops out of the ground in a much more efficient way.”

“Essentially he was able to capitalise on a third acre of land. He was able to take in 80k a year,” he says.

Hussey was inspired by that, by somebody making the most of a small bit of land. So in June last year, in the middle of a pandemic and juggling working from home, Hussey and Abbot set about doing the same, albeit with a different model, and launched their vertical farm.

Image from: Farmony

How It Works

Farmony, which specialises in tech for vertical farming, sold Upfarm with the tools to get up and running – shelves, special LED lighting, a watering system and humidifiers. It is the ideal conditions for growing produce, says Framony co-founder John Paul Prior. Nutrients, hours of light, humidity and temperature are controlled in vertical farming, Prior says.

But Farmony is also a data company, Prior says. “So we capture data at all stages of the growing cycle. And we feed that back to the grower.”

This helps the grower to establish the optimum conditions, he says. “That’s not just in terms of plant growth, that’s in terms of workflow management.”

The size of an operation can be the small coldroom in Malahide that uses one Farmony module, and produces microgreens and wheatgrass for sale. Or it can be like a farm in Tipperary with 60 modules, he says. A module is 1 metre wide, 1.3 metres long and 2.5 metres tall, Prior says. Hussey says it is labour-intensive looking after a vertical farm module.

After work last Thursday, he and his dad replanted his microgreen crops into 30 different trays. “It took about two hours,” he says.

What Is the Benefit?

“So as long as you can control your temperature, your humidity, and your nutrient levels in the water, you can basically grow all year round,” says Prior. Vertical farming also means better conditions for workers, Prior says.

“If you’re working in a controlled environment, like a vertical farm, you’re working in a clean environment,” Prior says.

“You work between 18 to 22 degrees. There’s no harsh frost. There’s no extreme cold winters, equally there’s no burning-hot summers.,” says Prior.

The crop is consistent too, says Prior, thanks to the controlled environment.

“Let’s say I’m someone who loves basil and who makes a lot of pesto at home,” he says.

Getting basil of consistent quality from the supermarket can be difficult when it comes from different countries, or may have been sitting on a shelf for days after travelling thousands of miles, he says.

Image from: Farmony

Why Is this Important?

Soil quality is dropping, Hussey says. “What does that mean for outdoor growing?”

The answer, Hussey says, is vertical farming. It uses mineral-rich water so it doesn’t rely on nutrients from the ground, Hussey says.

Says Prior: “Vertical farming uses about 10 percent of the water of traditional farming.”

Prior says it takes less energy to get food from a nearby vertical farm than to ship it from afar. It was not always the case until a breakthrough in another industry, he says.

“Billions of dollars have been invested in the cannabis industry globally. It’s meant that the investment in grow-lighting technology has been huge,” he says.

“As a result, the price, the efficiency and most importantly, the energy efficiency of the lighting is really amazing” he says.

Says Hussey: “It’s not easy work but it is nice work. It’s good work.”

UNFI Picks Up Living Greens Farm Products in Midwest Expansion

I|mage from: Living Green Farms

Living Greens Farm (LGF), the largest vertical, indoor aeroponic farm in the US that provides year-round fresh salads, salad kits, microgreens and herbs, announced the addition of significant new retail distribution of its products in the upper Midwest to independent, specialty, and co-op retailers.

Starting February 2021, LGF’s full line of products featuring ready-to-eat bagged salad products (Caesar Salad Kit, Southwest Salad Kit, Harvest Salad Kit, Chopped Romaine, and Chopped Butter Lettuce) will be carried by UNFI Produce Prescott (formerly Alberts Fresh Produce). UNFI Produce Prescott is a division of UNFI, which distributes food products to thousands of stores nationwide. Their focus is on independent, specialty and co-op retailers.

UNFI has eight warehouses nationwide. LGF’s products will be carried by their upper Midwest location, located just across the river from the Twin Cities in Prescott, WI. This distribution center services hundreds of retailers throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska. UNFI is the first national Certified Organic distributor, something they take a lot of pride in. Their produce and floral businesses are rooted in local farms and seasonal import growers.

LGF’s proprietary vertical indoor farming method yields the highest quality and freshest produce available. This is because there are no pesticides or chemicals used in the growing process. And because LGF’s growing, cleaning and bagging process significantly reduces handling and time to the retail shelf, consumers enjoy the freshest product on the market. These benefits continue to attract new users and new retail distribution as UNFI Produce Prescott is the second UNFI location to carry LGF. In December, UNFI’s Hopkins, MN location began offering LGF products.

For more information on why Living Greens Farm products are the cleanest, freshest and healthiest farm salads and greens available, go to www.livinggreensfarm.com.