Solar Panels And Water Canals Could Form A Real Power Couple In California

BY SHAENA MONTANARI 

MARCH 25, 2021

SOLAR AQUA GRID LLC

Solar canals save water, create energy, and protect natural lands all at the same time.

California has around 4,000 miles of canals that shuttle clean water throughout the state. New research shows that these canals can do way more than bringing California’s residents with drinking water—paired with solar panels, these canals might also be a way to both generate solar power and save water.

This new study presents an analysis from researchers at the University of California Merced and University of California Santa Cruz that quantifies the economic feasibility of building a “solar canal” system in the state.

California’s water system is one of the largest in the world and brings critical water resources to over 27 million people. Brandi McKuin, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Santa Cruz and lead author of the study, found that that shading the canals would lead to a reduction in evaporation of water, kind of like keeping your glass of water under the shade instead of out in the open on a hot summer day prevents evaporation from stealing sips. Putting up a solar panel using trusses or suspension cables to act as a canal’s umbrella is what makes the double-whammy of a solar canal. 

“We could save upwards of 63 billion gallons of water annually,” she says. “That would be comparable to the amount needed to irrigate 50,000 acres of farmland, or meet the residential water needs of over 2 million people.” Water is of especially critical importance to California, a state regularly stricken with drought.

So why don’t we cover up our water canals already? Micheal Kiparsky, the director of the Wheeler Water Institute at the UC Berkeley School of Law who was not involved in the study, says while the water savings from solar canals may sound really great, they are modest when considering the scale of the project. “Water might not be enough of a motivator to tip the scales to do this for the whole state,” he says. 

[Related: At New York City’s biggest power plant, a switch to clean energy will help a neighborhood breathe easier.]

Beyond just cooling down canals, those solar panels can pick up loads of energy from being out in the open sunlight. While the analysis didn’t measure how much capacity these solar panels would have, McKuin estimates through a “back of the envelope” calculation it would be about 13 gigawatts, or “half the projected new capacity needed by 2030 to meet the state’s decarbonization goals.” With that kind of electricity,  there is a possibility that diesel-powered irrigation pumps, which do a number on air quality, could be replaced.

Kiparsky finds the idea of tying electricity generation with the water system that uses a vast amount of electricity intriguing. “I like the idea of making things internally renewable,” he says.

Aquatic weeds also plague canals and can bring water flow to a standstill, but the researchers found that by adding shade and decreasing the plant’s sunshine slashes the amount of weed growth. McKuin says preventing weed growth would also lighten the load for sometimes costly mechanical and chemical waterway maintenance.

[Related: 4 sustainability experts on how they’d spend Elon Musk’s $100 million climate commitment.]

While this study is a “modeling exercise” to show the potential of this idea, McKuin hopes this analysis will inspire utilities, as well as state and federal agencies, to test it out on the real waterways. So far, the only test cases of suspended solar panels are in India. In the city of Gujarat, a “canal-top” solar power plant cost over $18 million in 2015 but has saved 16 hectares of land and trillions of gallons of water. In other locations, where flowing water is not critical, floating solar panels have been installed on reservoirs and lakes around the world in places such as Japan and Indonesia.

Placing solar panels above existing canals can also spare untouched natural land that is frequently slated for sometimes expensive or environmentally destructive solar panel installations. “I think one of the important parts of this story is that in California we have this mandate to produce renewable energy at scale, but we also have to be careful about taking large parcels of land,” McKuin says. “By being creative about where we put solar panels we can maybe avoid some of these trade-offs.”

Tags: CLIMATE ENERGY RENEWABLE ENERGY SOLAR PANELS SUSTAINABILITY SCIENCE ENVIRONMENT

Lisette Templin, Professor At Texas A&M University - A Pioneering Woman In Agriculture

According to Lenny Geist and Anne Amoury, with Kansas Freedom Farms, one of many pioneering women in agriculture is Lisette Templin, a professor of health and kinesiology at Texas A&M University (TAMU) in College Station, Texas. Lisette Templin is the director and founder of the Texas Urban Farm United (TUFU - TAMU) a startup vertical farm she and a couple of students began in 2019. 

As a faculty member overseeing Physical Education, Templin is keenly aware of how food choices and essential daily nutrition are to overall animal and human health.  

She and her students received a small grant from the TAMU public health school to go vertical. Templin has a number of hydroponic growing towers in her new venue she and a few co-workers maintain.  Some of the all-natural forage is donated to the university’s “12th Can” food bank program to alleviate local hunger...clearly one of Templin’s strongest passions.  

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Lisette Templin (Photo credits: Texas A&M University)

“Food as medicine must play a more urgent and vital role in the health of our children and the health of our country. Indoor hydroponic farms can play a pivotal role in transitioning people off of medication from chronic diseases as well as strengthen the immune system.

Micro and macronutrient dense food grown locally can effortlessly replace food that is highly inflammatory to the human body while providing the needed phytochemicals that promote health,” she wrote recently. Templin is in the process of applying for grants and financial support in hopes of raising $1 million (USD) to erect a two-story CEA facility that will be home to hydroponic growing operations on the top floor with a kitchen, cafeteria, classrooms, and offices on the ground floor. 

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Photo credits: Texas A&M Urban Farm United / The Eagle 

“Hydroponic food is about the impact of delivering maximum nutrient density to the immediate local community. Hydroponic vertical growing technology's innate potential is its ability to eradicate food deserts across our country,” Templin says. Clearly, she’s a Texas trailblazer with tall towers to tend. 

According to Lenny Geist, "we need more like Templin, to improve agriculture and promote environmental stewardship. It behooves the stuffed shirts to follow the determined bunch out on the “north 40” -- the bunch that likes to wear Gucci or Louis Vitton heels just as much as they do Justin or Tony Lama boots." 

"They aren’t afraid of hard work, trying new things, and exploring what’s possible even if it means a setback or two along the way," he adds. "Since they see these as learning opportunities to get better and march forward toward their ultimate objectives having gained greater perspectives. Someday, these movers and shakers or any of their sure-to-follow feminine disciples may just give the old, stodgy stuffed shirts the boot. There are lots of reasons to believe this will be for the best." 

For more information:
Lisette Templin, 
Texas A&M, Texas Urban Farm United 
lisettetemplin@tamu.edu 
www.agrilifetoday.tamu.edu 

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29 Mar 2021

The Pollination Pickle of Indoor Farming

New Post On Shubham Khoje

by Shubham

A few months ago, I wrote a post about how the farms in the future could go indoors. I had looked at some of the pros and cons of indoor farming and had barely scratched the surface. So I dived a little deeper and found this really interesting challenge as the nascent indoor farming industry moves forward.

Pollinators like bees, birds, and bats account for 35% of the world's current food production, so every third bite of food you eat, thank the pollinators. In the US, these pollinators alone contribute to over $18 billion in the production of over 100 crops every year. Pollination of some form is vital for 75% of the major food crops of the world including apples, almonds, coffee, and many more. In short, pollination is essential to growing food and ultimately for the survival of human beings.

Source: Flower vector created by brgfx - www.freepik.com

But what does pollination have to do with indoor farms?

A majority of the indoor farming companies, be it greenhouses or vertical farms, are focused on growing leafy greens like lettuce, kale, arugula, etc. using either hydroponics, aquaponics, or their hybrid versions. To build these farms you need a lot of cash upfront. The short growth cycles and relative ease of growing these leafy greens are what makes them lucrative to cover the high capital costs.

Stephen Pankhurst in his video explains how there would be three phases of indoor farming, the leafy greens marking the first phase of this industry.

• Phase I - Leafy Greens

• Phase II - Roots and Fruits

• Phase III - Staple Crops

So far, the indoor farming companies have researched and worked towards improving their leafy green growing recipes. They have built software for controlling and optimizing the light, water, wind, and now adding AI to the mix gives them a head start. Having mastery of Phase I has given them the courage to venture further into Phase II, growing fruits.

The big guns of vertical farming like Plenty are already stepping up their game. With their $140 million series D funding, they have partnered with Driscolls, the company that controls 1/3rd of the U.S berry market, to expand into growing strawberries.

But in order to grow fruits, the flowers need to be pollinated. When you try to grow fruits in an indoor farm, which is a closed environment with no access to bees and birds, the biggest challenge would be the pollination process.

The pollination pickle

The main purpose of automating any process is to reduce laborious tasks and make machines do our bidding. Indoor farming companies love to automate their processes, from machines that help the seeding process to automatic conveyors that move the racks for growing the greens, and ultimately robots that harvest the leafy green produce.

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In the natural world, however, the labor-intensive task of pollination is left to the wind, birds, and the bees at no cost to us. But with the indoor farms that are spread over millions of square feet either horizontally or vertically, natural pollination becomes a problem. So as we move indoors, some efforts are being made to build tech for reducing the efforts needed for the pollination process.

Tomatoes, for example, are self-pollinating, meaning, the pollen needs to fall inside the flower itself to pollinate and develop into a fruit. But the pollen needs to be "shaken" to fall down, usually, the bees help the tomato plant. But in a greenhouse or an indoor farm, hand pollination with electrical wands replaces the humming of the bees to pollinate the tomatoes. Humans have to move from flower to flower on a scissor lift, making sure the pollination is done on all the flowers. From passionfruit in Brazil, tomatoes in the USA, and eggplants in Nederlands that are grown indoors are hand-pollinated, a tedious and labor-intensive task indeed.

A new approach is being taken by companies like Polybee that are developing drones small enough to fly from flower to flower and pollinate them. The Israeli company Edete has automated almond pollination by using lasers to locate the almond flowers and blow pollen into them. Although almonds are an outdoor crop, the breakthrough technology could someday be possibly used for indoor farms.

Oishii, a New Jersey-based indoor farm, on the other hand, is playing a different ball game altogether, they are growing world class Omakase strawberries that sell for $5 for a single strawberry. Unlike any other indoor farm, they have mastered the technology of using bees to pollinate their fruit and just closed a $50 million Series A funding to expand their farms. They are also at par with using robots for automating their other process. I believe this to be a step in the right direction.

In conclusion, the indoor farming industry that is focused on growing leafy greens is venturing into growing fruits. They have brought down power consumption with energy-saving LEDs, reduced manpower by automating all the processes, built high precision software to help monitor and improve the growth and yield of their produce. Surely, these technological advancements will help them move forward into the next phase, but to scale up the second phase to the humongous levels of Phase I, the industry will have to solve this pollination pickle.

To automate or not to automate the pollination process, that is the question.

P.S: There is an episode on the dystopian Netflix series "Black Mirror", about how in the future, autonomous drone bees built to replace the extinct natural bees, takes a turn for the worse and ends up killing people.

https://shubhamkhoje.files.wordpress.com/2021/03/pexels-videos-4408-1.mp4

New Research by Edith Cowan University: ‘Green Leafy Vegetables Are Essential For Muscle Strength’

According to new Edith Cowan University (ECU) research, eating just one cup of leafy green vegetables every day could boost muscle function. The study was published in the Journal of Nutrition; it found that people who consumed a nitrate-rich diet, predominantly from vegetables, had significantly better muscle function of their lower limbs.

Researchers examined data from 3,759 Australians taking part in Melbourne’s Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute AusDiab study over a 12-year period. They found those with the highest regular nitrate consumption had 11 percent stronger lower limb strength than those with the lowest nitrate intake.

According to scitechdaily.com, Lead researcher Dr. Marc Sim from ECU’s Institute for Nutrition Research said the findings reveal important evidence for the role diet plays in overall health. “Our study has shown that diets high in nitrate-rich vegetables may bolster your muscle strength independently of any physical activity,” he said. “Nevertheless, to optimize muscle function we propose that a balanced diet rich in green leafy vegetables in combination with regular exercise, including weight training, is ideal.”

Lead photo: mage: Dreamstime.com 

26 Mar 2021

What Went Into Building Europe’s Largest Floating Solar Park

For centuries the Dutch have been inventive with their use of water development, but Rotterdam's Floating Solar takes it to a whole new level

By Jeanine Barone

March 26, 2021

Floating Solar will move with the sun through the arc of a day, providing more opportunity for solar energy production. All images are courtesy of Evides

The Dutch have always been inspired by the water—no surprise, considering the country borders the North Sea and its interior is speckled with an abundance of lakes, ponds, and waterways. Land is scarce in the Netherlands. And much of the terrain, including Rotterdam, the second-largest city, sits below sea level. This fact has spurred a concerted eco-consciousness and inventive use of water for technological developments, including generating electricity. Enter Floating Solar, a Dutch company that creates innovative renewable solar systems, including Europe’s largest floating, sun-tracking solar park that’s just four miles from central Rotterdam. (In several months, they’ll have three even bigger ones generating electricity in the Netherlands.) Collaborating with Floating Solar, Evides Waterbedrijf, a company that supplies drinking water to more than two million consumers and companies in the Netherlands, is home to this unconventional assembly.

"We see it as our social responsibility to contribute to our national sustainability goals and to the Dutch energy transition," says Dirk Mathijssen, program manager. Almost 3,000 solar panels stretch across a circular platform that’s 345 feet in diameter (essentially an island) that floats in a seven-some-acre reservoir, where Evides stores river water before it’s treated to become drinking water. "By using this water surface, we ensure that the scarce land remains available for other purposes," Mathijssen explains.

The solar park yield is 20 to 30% more energy than with static (land) systems, mainly due to the fact that it rotates with the sun while allowing the water beneath to cool the solar panels. 

Unlike what we’re accustomed to with land-based solar panels that are mounted on a stationary surface, here, thanks to solar-sensors embedded in the platform and a series of anchor cables and winches, the entire rig rotates, allowing the solar panels to track the sun’s movement across the sky.

These floating, sun-tracking solar panels offer myriad advantages. According to Kees-Jan van der Geer, general manager at Floating Solar, "The energy yield is 20 to 30% higher than with static (land) systems." That’s because this system is highly efficient, both due to the fact that it keeps its eye on the sun, so to speak, and also the water has a cooling effect on the solar panels. The result: this distinctive assemblage generates about 15% of the electricity that Evides consumes at this water processing site, a significant amount, to be sure. (Evides also employs a number of land-based solar panels, the entire set up producing an impressive two gigawatts of electricity, an amount that some 650 households might use, on average, in a year.)

“Be prepared” could be Floating Solar’s motto, given that they’ve taken into consideration a variety of problems that can befall floating solar panels. For example, Rotterdam can often see powerful winds gusting across the city. So, they’ve implemented sensors to monitor wind forces, the height of waves and many other variables, making the system stormproof, explains van der Geer. If the wind gusts at 47 to 53 m.p.h., "we turn the island square into the wind so it blows through the rows of solar panels."

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The solar panels have been designed to take nesting birds and potential harm from strong winds into account.

And then there are the birds that might think about alighting on the panels, leaving droppings, or building nests, situations that would reduce the system’s efficiency. That's why the solar panels are set at an angle that's not conducive to bird visits.

The future, for Evides, seems quite green—a commitment to environmental consciousness that is understandable, given the need to protect and preserve its water sources. With the floating and land-based solar panels, “we are aiming to be energy neutral by somewhere between 2025 and 2030," says Mathijssen.

Explore adt echnology

VIDEOS: How To Design A Successful Vertical Farm

By Women Fitness Magazine

March 26, 2021

Vertical farming provides a practical and cost-effective way to bring food production to congested spaces. Getting a vertical farm off the ground requires more than just a green thumb and some warehouse space, though. Read on to find out how to design a successful vertical farm and start harvesting crops indoors in city environments.

What Is Vertical Farming?

Vertical farming is an indoor cultivation technique that maximizes the use of space for plant production. It involves layering multiple crops or types of crops in a highly controlled vertical hydroponic or container-based system. Those who are already familiar with indoor growing can think of it like a traditional hydroponic or container garden but on multiple levels.

The Four Key Design Factors

There are four key design factors that future vertical farmers must keep in mind if they want to bring down large, high-quality yields. They mimic processes that occur in nature but would otherwise be absent in a man-made system. The four factors are:

1. Lighting

2. Climate control

3. Nutrient control

4. Vertical integration

There’s little sense in purchasing seeds or rootstock until future farmers know exactly how they will provide for all the plants’ needs, so this is a good place to start. Let’s take a look at what factors farmers need to take into account before they start the design phase.

1. Adequate Lighting
   All indoor farms and gardens require some form of artificial lighting. Farmers and growers who are still in the beginning stages of taking their operations indoors can get the basics down by visiting Agron and reading through their educational materials. However, vertical farming is a little more complicated than a normal hydroponic or container-based garden.

   Since plants will be grown on multiple levels, hanging lights from the ceiling isn’t always the best solution. Most vertical farmers purchase specialized ballasts and use LED lights that emit very little heat so they can keep their lighting as close to the plants’ canopies as possible. Some modern farmers also go in for more advanced options like installing rotating beds or utilizing smart lights, but they won’t make up for inadequate lighting for all levels of the vertical farm.

2. Climate Control

   Plants can only grow and thrive under the right climate conditions. Vertical farms need good temperature, humidity, and air handling systems. In most cases, the building’s HVAC system will be able to handle heating and cooling demands. Without adequate ventilation and air handling systems in place, though, high humidity can negatively impact plants’ cellular respiration processes and create a perfect environment for the spread of fungal diseases. It’s worth taking the time to investigate options like dehumidification systems, exhaust fans, or specialized HVAC systems that manage humidity and airflow as well as temperature control.

3. Nutrient Control

   Plants don’t get all the energy they need from photosynthesis alone. They require nutrients as well as light and water. Every species has a different set of requirements, but all terrestrial plants need macronutrients like nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), and potassium (K) along with a smaller amount of micronutrients to fuel healthy growth and crop production. How they get those nutrients is largely a matter of farmers’ preferences.

   There are four types of systems that are appropriate for vertical farming. On a small scale, container farming using soil, amendments, and fertilizers can work. However, most large-scale vertical farms eschew this traditional practice in favor of hydroponic or aeroponic systems. Hydroponic and aeroponic setups remove soil from the equation entirely. They’re similar systems, but while hydroponics gives plants access to nutrients via a water-based solution, aeroponics involves leaving the roots exposed and spraying them with nutrients.

   Finally, some more sustainability-minded vertical farmers introduce elements of aquaponics into their farms. Aquaponics involves cultivating both plants and fish. The fish provide beneficial nutrients via a hydroponic system, while the plants filter the water so the fish can thrive. The benefits of vertical aquaponics systems include improved sustainability, water conservation, and added crop value.

4. Vertical Integration
   Not all indoor farms are vertical farms. To qualify as a vertical farm, the plants must be cultivated on multiple levels in the same room. Warehouses are perfect for this approach since they have high ceilings that can accommodate tall towers of plants and all the equipment required to maintain optimal temperatures, humidity levels, light, and nutrient delivery. The key in designing a vertically integrated farm is to maximize crop production by ensuring that the plants have just enough space to grow and thrive and receive as much light as possible.

Crop Selection for Vertical Farming

It may be tempting to assume that since vertical farming occurs indoors in a highly controlled environment, that means it’s suitable for all crops. While it’s true that vertical farmers can grow almost any kind of annual plants, and even some perennials, that doesn’t mean they should. Farmers need to consider these factors when selecting crops:

• Local demand

• Time to harvest

• Climate requirements

Revenue margins

If the idea is to get crops out to market as fast as possible, farmers may want to stick with fast-turn crops like lettuce, potherbs, and other greens. Most of these crops will be ready for harvest in six weeks or less. Slow turn crops have higher revenue margins but require more inputs and time to grow than leafy greens. It’s also perfectly fine to plant a combination of crops as long as they all have similar climate requirements.

Vertical Farming Is the Future

With climate change poised to wreak havoc on agricultural lands across the globe and the costs associated with water scarcity on the rise, vertical farming poses a viable solution. A well-designed system can help to conserve water, avoid the impacts of inclement weather, and provide reliable, year-long access to fresh food.

The best part is, designing sustainability features like LED lighting, aquaponic systems, or even wind turbines into the vertical farm from the beginning can help to offset both the financial and environmental costs of producing food for city-dwellers, often right in their backyards. It takes a large initial investment to get started, but the payoffs will be worth it.

Related Videos about How to Design a Successful Vertical Farm :

Vertical Farms | Design, and Innovation

Growing Up: How Vertical Farming Works

Designing the vertical farm

Vertical Farming

Tags: vertical farming design pdf, vertical farming business plan, vertical farming technology, vertical farm for home, vertical farming in india, hydroponic vertical farming, vertical farming equipment, how to start vertical farming,

Introducing Low-Cost Farming Models To The Philippines

Through Local Sourcing

And The Use of Natural Resources

The Philippines is one of the greatest exporter of coconuts, mangoes, and pineapples worldwide, it is quite a surprise that a large number of vegetables are imported from surrounding countries. “Fresh herbs and leafy greens, in particular as they’re much more expensive here and low-quality,” says Ralph Becker, CEO and founder of Urban Greens. “Our climate is not ideal for some specific vegetable cultivation because of the extreme heat, torrential typhoons and other natural disasters. However, there is growing awareness regarding a healthy lifestyle, whereas the demand for vegetables is increasing noticeably.”

After spending a decade in corporate technology with Sony Electronics, Ralph Becker decided to shift his focus. “When I left the shelter of corporate life and moved back to the Philippines, I noticed that lots of food was imported. It made me think whether that could be done more efficiently with a smaller carbon foodprint and eventually better food quality.” 

Ralph Becker

Sourcing locally
Hydroponic material and equipment is easily obtainable in most western countries but less so in the Philippines and particularly when he started his venturesome 4 years ago, which is why Ralph and his team designed everything themselves from the ground up.  

“I am convinced that we found a system that works perfectly here for the local climate conditions, with minimal cost of electricity and well suited for the skill level of the labor force, whilst delivering the highest quality produce. One of the benefits for us is that the equipment can easily be repaired from parts available in a local hardware shop, for instance.

Contrary to other players who brought in technology from abroad that was not particularly designed for these temperature and humidity conditions, such as container farms which heat up in this tropical climate and take a lot of electricity to cool down – cost that has to be recovered on a slim profit margin to start with. We have our own technology and we’re able to scale it, without having to rely on outside technology.” 

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The new warehouse

With the brand-new warehouse farm right in the city center, the company will soon be delivering more than 1,5 tons of fresh produce per month. “Everything we’ve learned thus far in previous smaller units is now replicated in our new farms implementing the same model. The Philippines is a big country with many cities that rely quite heavily on imports, which is the main market we want to target,” says Ralph.

Ralph had always been interested in plant growing ever since being exposed to hydroponic farming in Japan and the US. Once he relocated to the Philippines he started doing some experiments with growing herbs. Posting about his project on social media many people reached out as they wanted him to grow for them too. Ralph says that restaurants and hotels were eager to validate the demand of high-quality local produce.

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Pilot model
Urban Greens is building the new warehouse farm with a bigger purpose in mind, namely, as a pilot model for more farms. People interested in the vertical farming space can come and visit the farm. Ralph adds, “We want to inspire visitors by showing the possibilities of these new farming models. After all, we need young farmers to come into the industry. The younger generation isn’t that interested in farming because of the hard labor and low wages. We want to prove them wrong by showing that farming can be lucrative and modern too.”

Apart from cost-effectiveness, reliability is one of Urban Greens’ greatest assets. “Consistency of supply gets easily interrupted due to tropical storms, which is both bad for the farmer and for those who rely on it. Reducing food miles is of essential importance to food availability,” Ralph states. This also happened during COVID, when many supply chains were cut and the company noticed a strong increase in demand. “We turned hardship into an opportunity,” says Ralph. “Once we’ve finished up this warehouse farm in the heart of Makati, people will see that vertical farming can be viable in the Philippines. This country has 7000 islands, and I think each of them is in need of an Urban Greens farm.”

For more information:
Ralph Becker, CEO
Urban Greens
ralph@eaturbangreens.com 
www.eaturbangreens.com 

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Publication date: Mon 29 Mar 2021
Author: Rebekka Boekhout
© VerticalFarmDaily.com

SINGAPORE: New Guidelines For Local Farms To Ensure Produce Is Safe, Sustainable

The guidelines are meant to assure consumers that produce

from local vegetable farms are fresh, free from synthetic

pesticides, and grown sustainably

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Jolene Ang

March 25, 2021

SINGAPORE - New guidelines to help local farms ensure the production of clean and green local produce were launched on Thursday (March 25).

They are meant to assure consumers that produce from local vegetable farms is fresh, free from synthetic pesticides, and grown sustainably - with efficient use of resources and without compromising the environment.

"SS 661: Specification for Clean and Green Urban Farms - Agriculture", the standard including the guidelines, was launched by the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) together with Enterprise Singapore, the Singapore Manufacturing Federation - Standards Development Organisation, and Republic Polytechnic (RP).

It contains criteria that urban vegetable farms have to meet in terms of farm management, techniques, and practices to achieve a clean and green production system.

A clean farm production system refers to one that does not use pollutive farm inputs, such as synthetic pesticides, and does not leave behind undesirable residue for consumers and the environment.

A green farm production system ensures the efficient use of farm inputs and natural resources, the recycling of farm waste to minimize the impact on the environment and ecosystem, as well as the optimization of farm production.

The criteria include minimum competency requirements for farm employees, plans for the responsible management of resources, green procurement practices and farm operations, as well as procedures for handling customer complaints, farm product recalls and conducting internal audits.

The standard will also help vegetable farms adopt smart farming techniques and practices to reduce wastage of resources, incorporate circularity in their resource management, and optimize operational efficiency.

Dr. Tan Lee Kim, SFA director-general of food administration and deputy chief executive, said these guidelines are timely, given the increasing challenges from climate change.

"(Climate change) can put a strain on food supply chains, including our local food production... The standard will be critical in ensuring our local farms employ farming practices that make efficient use of our resources to grow more in land-scarce Singapore and are sustainable in the long run," Dr. Tan said.

"As a result, local urban farms will be recognized for producing safe, quality food, using resource-efficient practices in a clean and sustainable environment. This will allow us to differentiate and brand local produce, further strengthening Singapore's reputation for quality produce as we work towards achieving our '30 by 30' goal."

The "30 by 30" goal is for Singapore to produce 30 percent of its nutritional needs locally by 2030.

The SFA will work with local farmers and industry players to promote and raise awareness of the standard.

RP will also launch a three-day training course from April to assist farms in adopting the standard.

Lead photo: by LIANHE ZAOBAO: The guidelines are meant to assure consumers that produce from local vegetable farms is fresh, free from synthetic pesticides, and grown sustainably.

Webinar: Tuesday, 30 March 2021 Dr. Csaba Hornyik (Intelligent Growth Solutions), Peter-James Lennox (Kroptek), Katia Zacharaki (Digital Farming / Harper Adams University / UKUAT)

Discover The UK Strawberry

Vertical Farming Industry

Strawberries can be grown in TCEA. That is well established. Challenges exist, but the industry is thriving to tackle them. Are you wondering where the UK urban farming industry is in terms of the development of TCEA strawberry systems? Are you keen to ask questions about pesticide use in TCEA? Or where the plants are coming from? Or questions about the yields and the fruit quality (size, Brix)? UKUAT brings to you a panel discussion to answer all these questions.

REGISTER

This panel is the second online event, which succeeds the intro webinar with the title ‘What is the secret to growing strawberries in TCEA?’. Following some of your questions, we bring to you two fine organization members of UKUAT to share their experience working with strawberries in TCEA and answer more of your questions.

Dr. Csaba Hornyik from Intelligent Growth Solutions Ltd. and Peter-James Lennox from Kroptek will be our panelists, and Katia Zacharaki will facilitate the discussion. The webinar will be interactive, engaging and will provide a collision space for like-minded interested growers, producers, scientists and enthusiasts for this field. And of course, there will be opportunities for a live Q & A at the end of the session. Katia Zacharaki will facilitate the discussion.

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Dr. Csaba Hornyik, Plant Scientist at Intelligent Growth Solutions Ltd.
Csaba is an experienced plant scientist having a background in plant development, molecular biology and pathology. His main role at IGS is to plan, carry out and analyze crop trials focusing on the development of environmental recipes for crops growing in a total controlled-environment. Csaba also develops the crop portfolio and manages customers trials at the vertical farm in Invergowrie, Dundee.
Strawberry is in the focus of several customers and the industry needs a reliable supply of propagules. The vertical farm is suitable to grow strawberry plants from seeds, grow them up and produce runners to further propagate the plants. All of the different stages of plant development need special settings which could be set in the vertical farm. We develop recipes for germination, early-stage growth and runner production. Root development is also under optimization to produce strong propagules during a short time. Flower and berry production is out of scope for IGS at the moment, but optimization is underway for flower development and berry production.

Peter-James Lennox, Project Manager at Kroptek
Peter is a project manager at Kroptek for the last two years, an LED grow lights and farming solutions company - with over 16 years of experience in the horticultural industry. Having previously worked as a Designer Manager in the technology sector made him realize the lack of equipment and knowledge in the TCEA horticultural industry. This, combined with the passion developed from growing up in a strawberry farm that only used soil, inspired me to find the best solutions for the horticultural sector.

Bio of webinar moderator:
Katia Zacharaki is working as Senior Research Engineer for Digital Farming involved in leafy salads, microgreens, and strawberry research. She is working on her Ph.D. with Harper Adams University and supports UKUAT as Communications Director.

RUSSIA: iFarm Supports Urban Greenhouse Challenge At TPU

By avborovskaia

March 27, 2021

iFarm, the winner of The Europas Awards 2020 as the Hottest Ag/FoodTech startup, has supported Urban Greenhouse Challenge: Reforest, an international competition held at Tomsk Polytechnic University.

iFarm creates technologies to grow fresh herbs, berries and vegetables throughout the year, including modular automated vertical farms and iFarm Growtune IT-platform. and has offices in Novosibirsk, Moscow, and Amsterdam, along with a  showroom in Finland. The herbs, grown using iFarm technologies, are sold in all federal chain stores of Russia.

iFarm is a winner of the CovHack-2020 Virtual Innovation Challenge in the Best Startup category, a winner of the Nordic Startup Awards in the Best Social Impact Startup category, an Overall Indoor Farming Solution Provider of the Year in AgTech Breakthrough-2020 Awards in the Indoor Farming category and others.

“Urban farming arises at the intersection of multiple technological disciplines: agricultural engineering, engineering, and IT. We consider that similar competitions help teams to dive into such a multidisciplinary environment, master their skills, and further, together with us, change approaches to plant growing. It does not matter if it is about trees or food products, the set of technologies will be approximately the same,” Kirill Zelenski, iFarm Europe Managing Director, says.

“The events like Urban Greenhouse Challenge are an investment in the development of a new industry, staff training and highlighting really crucial problems, that humanity is going to face soon,” Kirill Zelenski emphasizes.

Besides the lecture part, the iFarm representatives will take part in mentoring the teams over the period of the competition. The company is interested in involving as many students from different countries as possible in this new industry.

“Non-specialists are usually the ones who change technological approaches to various fields of life. For instance, it was Henry Ford who made a revolution in people transportation but not the companies, which had been constructing carts and carriages for centuries. iFarm is a striking case in point. It is an IT-company that creates automated vertical farming technologies applying knowledge and approaches that have almost never been used in agriculture before. Therefore, what we expect from students is different, even the most incredible but well-elaborated ideas, which we will help them implement,” the expert says.

“We wish the participants not to be afraid to ask questions and try to understand things that they are not good at yet. Only such an audacious approach leads to the emergence of new and breakthrough solutions,”

• TAGS Russia Tomsk Polytechnic University Urban Farming Urban Greenhouse Challenge

VIDEO: Device Communicates With Plants Using Electric Signals

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24 March 2021

Researchers envision a future where farmers can take preventive steps to protect their crops, using the plant ‘communication’ device they have developed.

A team of scientists led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has developed a device that can deliver electrical signals to and from plants, opening the door to new technologies that make use of plants.

The NTU team developed their plant ‘communication’ device by attaching a conformable electrode (a piece of conductive material) on the surface of a Venus flytrap plant using a soft and sticky adhesive known as hydrogel.

Pick up and transmit electric signals

With the electrode attached to the surface of the flytrap, researchers can achieve two things: pick up electrical signals to monitor how the plant responds to its environment, and transmit electrical signals to the plant, to cause it to close its leaves.

According to the scientists, the ability to measure the electrical signals of plants could create opportunities for a range of useful applications, such as plant-based robots that can help to pick up fragile objects or to help enhance food security by detecting diseases in crops early.

Text continues underneath the video

Monitor crop health

The research team envisions a future where farmers can take preventive steps to protect their crops, using the plant ‘communication’ device they have developed.

Lead author of the study, Chen Xiaodong, President’s Chair Professor in Materials Science and Engineering at NTU Singapore said: “Climate change is threatening food security around the world. By monitoring the plants’ electrical signals, we may be able to detect possible distress signals and abnormalities. When used for agriculture purpose, farmers may find out when a disease is in progress, even before full‑blown symptoms appear on the crops, such as yellowed leaves. This may provide us the opportunity to act quickly to maximise crop yield for the population.”

Smartphone

The device has a diameter of 3 mm and is harmless to the plant. The researchers say it does not affect the plant’s ability to perform photosynthesis while successfully detecting electrical signals from the plant. Using a smartphone to transmit electric pulses to the device at a specific frequency, the team elicited the Venus flytrap to close its leaves on demand, in 1.3 seconds.

The researchers have also attached the Venus flytrap to a robotic arm and, through the smartphone and the ‘communication’ device, stimulated its leaf to close and pick up a piece of wire half a millimetre in diameter.

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Hugo Claver

Web editor for Future Farming

Read more about: Crop Science Crop Monitoring

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US: INDIANA - Hi-Tech Indoor Farm In South Bend Taking On Lettuce Market

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By ED SEMMLER South Bend Tribune

March 27, 2021

SOUTH BEND — It’s a chilly, wet, and windy day – enough to remind us that winter still isn’t too far in the rearview mirror.

But inside a new six-acre building on West Calvert Street in South Bend, Matt Gura is keeping a close watch over a sea of baby plants that fill a greenhouse about the size of two big-box retailers, or 174,000 square feet.

It’s like a warm day in early summer inside the building, which uses computers and monitors to control light, liquid nutrients, temperature, humidity, and even plant-loving carbon dioxide.

Gura, director of operations at Pure Green Farms – a hydroponic indoor farm on the city’s southwest side – touts it as the “most technologically advanced leafy green greenhouse in the world.”

“And it’s in South Bend,” he says.

Though it might seem odd to build a massive indoor farm in northern Indiana – considering the cold weather and the perma-cloud that seemingly hangs over the region each winter – leaders at South Bend-based Ceres Partners, an agricultural investment firm, studied the project for years.

They believe there is an opportunity to disrupt the lettuce trade, which is largely dominated by growers in California who ship products to markets in the Midwest.

There’s more sunlight here than most of us realize, and the fact that it doesn’t get too hot in the summer means that the cost of trying to keep the building cool won’t be out of line, Gura said.

A combination of LED and high-pressure sodium lights will supplement the light needs of the plants, and there’s an automated shade that can be used to cut down on light coming in or out of the greenhouse as needed.

In the winter, the indoor farm will use offal heat from the nearby South Bend Ethanol plant, and discussions are underway to possibly use carbon dioxide produced by the facility if it makes economic sense for both businesses.

Ceres also liked the location because it’s near its headquarters near the University of Notre Dame as well as major transportation links that will be crucial to getting the leafy greens produced by Pure Green Farms to grocers, restaurants, and other customers throughout the region, said Brandon Zick, chief investment officer for the firm.

“There’s 55 million people within a 300-mile radius,” said Joe McGuire, a seasoned produce distribution executive who was brought in to serve as CEO of Pure Green Farms. “There’s 75 million people within 400 miles.”

That distance gives Pure Green a significant shipping advantage over traditional leafy green producers that are located in California, Arizona and other far-away locations.

By the time lettuce is harvested and processed in California, for example, it might take 10 days to reach store shelves in the Midwest. Conversely, the romaine, arugula and leaf lettuces grown at Pure Green could be on store shelves in a couple of days or even less.

“We think there’s going to be strong demand for fresher produce that’s grown in the market,” McGuire said.

The first shipments have gone out to Kroger stores in Indiana, and it won’t be long before Pure Green is available at Martin’s Super Markets and other grocers.

Beyond the freshness factor, Pure Green believes it can separate itself from other salad providers because it is not using pesticides or other sprays that might be needed to control bugs and plant diseases outdoors.

Plant protection and eliminating chances for contamination are of paramount importance at the South Bend facility, which currently has 20 workers.

Employees crossing into the greenhouse walk through a tray of shoe sanitizer and wear gloves, coats and hairnets.

After seeds are inserted into a blend of sanitized peat and wood fiber by machine, the planting trays move into the greenhouse, where they are given a nutrient drink while germinating under less intense light and then growing up under full light.

Depending on the variety, it will take about 25 days for the romaine, arugula and leaf lettuces to reach the stage where they are harvested by lightning-fast cutters, blended together, packaged and boxed for shipment.

“From planting to packaging, it’s never touched by human hands until it’s opened by the consumer,” McGuire said.

Nothing is wasted. The nutrient mix that isn’t consumed by the plants is collected, cleaned, tested and reused; the peat material in the growing trays will be composted and used for other agricultural purposes.

“We use 90 percent less water than field-grown lettuces,” said Gura, who previously served as director of operations at Ceres-owned Hop Head Farms in Baroda, Michigan, before joining the team at Pure Green. “I believe it’s the future of growing.”

Though current laws don’t allow the lettuce to be labeled as organic, Zick and McGuire indicated there could be court challenges as controlled-environment growing facilities continue to spring up around the country.

“It’s not classifiable as organic because we don’t put it into the ground,” McGuire said.

Though indoor facilities have been used to produce tomatoes and other crops, producing leaf lettuces at a significant volume is a more recent phenomenon, brought about by shipping distances, food safety and the push for locally produced food.

Beyond the freshness factor, lettuces produced at Pure Green Farms could eliminate 500,000 truck miles annually and up to 300,000 pounds of food waste each year, according to figures provided by Ceres.

Ariana Torres, an assistant professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University, said the timing is right for ventures such as Pure Green because people are consuming more salad and insisting on higher quality produce.

“Consumers want something that is local and fresher,” Torres said. “People also are more aware of food safety, and the pandemic showed that there can be disruptions in the supply chain.”

Though there are competitors in the market – such as Gotham Greens in New York and Chicago, and Little Leaf Farms in Massachusetts – Pure Green is still at the front-edge of a what could be an enormous trend in the future, Zick said.

“The market is huge and only a tiny fraction is grown indoors,” said Zick, the Ceres executive. “Though we won’t be the first to do it, we’re still getting into it early and gaining important experience.”

Looking ahead, the business needs to dial in its efficiencies by fine-tuning its highly-automated growing, harvesting and packaging processes, Gura said.

About $25 million already has been spent on the project, but up to three additional phases are planned. Eventually, Green Farms could have about 16 acres of enclosed greenhouse and about four acres under roof for planting, processing, and packaging.

With 64 acres owned by Green Farms and an additional 280 adjoining acres owned by its parent organization – Ceres – there’s plenty of room for growth, including the possibility of bringing in other operators that are experienced in growing tomatoes, strawberries, and other produce.

“We’ve been interested in developing an ag-tech campus there,” said Zick, adding that partnerships could be developed with Purdue, Notre Dame and other universities to work on problems associated with controlled-environment agriculture.

South Bend Mayor James Mueller was impressed by what he saw during a tour of Pure Green Farms on Friday.

“A lot of people would be surprised by what’s going on there and the level of technology,” Mueller said. “It’s part laboratory, part agriculture, and part advanced manufacturing.”

And he said he’s looking forward to seeing the South Bend-produced lettuces on store shelves.

“Their farm will serve as a model for sustainable and advanced farming techniques,” he said.

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AeroFarms, The World Leader In Indoor Vertical Farming, To Become Publicly Traded Company Through Combination With Spring Valley Acquisition Corp

March 26, 2021

NEWARK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AeroFarms, a certified B Corporation, and leader in vertical farming, announced today it has entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Merger Agreement”) with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: SV) (“Spring Valley”), a special purpose acquisition company. Upon closing of the transaction, AeroFarms will become publicly traded on Nasdaq under the new ticker symbol "ARFM". The combined company will be led by David Rosenberg, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of AeroFarms.

Founded in 2004, AeroFarms is widely recognized as the world leader in vertical farming. As a certified B Corporation and public benefit corporation since 2017, AeroFarms is on a mission to grow the best plants possible for the betterment of humanity. Through its innovative growing platform, AeroFarms helps solve issues brought on by macro challenges such as population growth, water scarcity, arable land loss, health consciousness, and supply chain risks like the COVID-19 pandemic. AeroFarms has developed patented and award-winning technology in areas such as plant biology, mechanical design, environmental control, data science, operations, and plant genetics.

Through the integration of these disciplines, AeroFarms achieves up to 390 times greater productivity per square foot annually versus traditional field farming while using up to 95% less water and zero pesticides. With over 250 invention disclosures and a vast library of data collected over 15 years of operations, AeroFarms is continually improving its systems to understand plants at unprecedented levels and solve agriculture-related supply chain issues. Today, AeroFarms sells great-tasting leafy greens products under its Dream Greens brand, which is consistently celebrated by top chefs and tastemakers.

AeroFarms’ Investment Highlights

• AeroFarms is revolutionizing agriculture and has been innovating vertical farming for 15 years.

• $1.9 trillion total addressable market opportunity within its core leafy greens market and other adjacencies.

• Proprietary technology and industry leadership with proven innovation and design evolution through five generations of farm models supported by an experienced team and a robust portfolio of over 250 invention disclosures.

• Data science-driven and fully-controlled technology platform enables AeroFarms to better understand plants and optimize farms while improving quality and reducing costs.

• Commercially selling leafy greens with a brand that is already winning at retail, providing customers with a premium product with superior quality, flavor, taste, and texture.

• Grown over 550 varieties of produce to date and working with key strategic partners to use its growing platform to address broader problems in agriculture.

• Strong projected financial performance driven by demonstrated farm key performance indicators (KPIs) and an accelerated farm rollout schedule.

Management Commentary

Chris Sorrells, CEO of Spring Valley, said, “Our goal was to partner with an industry-leading, best-in-class, sustainability-focused company and we are ecstatic to combine forces with AeroFarms, the market leader in vertical farming, to accomplish this vision. AeroFarms has a technological edge on the industry, developing a world-class innovation team that has fueled a robust and growing intellectual property portfolio of patents and trade secrets. Moreover, their team has been selling commercial product with major retailers, building a trusted brand that is performing well, and developing influential partnerships that will enhance their ability to scale this business quickly. The future is very bright for AeroFarms and we are excited to share this highly compelling ESG investment opportunity by bringing the market leader in the vertical farming industry public.”

David Rosenberg, Co-Founder, and CEO of AeroFarms, added, “At AeroFarms, our mission is to grow the best plants possible for the betterment of humanity, and we are executing on this by taking agriculture to new heights with the latest in technology, innovation, and understanding of plant science. Our technology empowers our operations – this is how we get closer to where the problems, opportunities, and solutions are. We also have the capabilities to innovate fast by turning our crops a typical 26 times per year that allows us to continuously learn and improve yield and quality while simultaneously reducing capital and operating costs. Our business is at an inflection point where we will scale up our proven operational framework and begin our expansion plans in earnest. With the support of Spring Valley, we not only have the capital in place to execute our plan, but also a sponsor who shares the same ESG philosophies to make a positive impact on the world, while serving the interests of our shareholders.”

Transaction Overview

Under the terms of the Merger Agreement, the transaction is valued at a fully diluted pro forma equity value of approximately $1.2 billion assuming no redemptions by Spring Valley shareholders. The PIPE offering was anchored by leading institutional investors, AeroFarms insiders, and Pearl Energy Investments, the sponsor of Spring Valley. The transaction will provide approximately $317 million of unrestricted cash at close to fund future farm development and general corporate purposes.

The transaction has been unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of Spring Valley, as well as the Board of Directors of AeroFarms, and is subject to satisfaction of closing conditions, including the approval of the shareholders of Spring Valley.

Upon completion of the proposed transaction, AeroFarms expects to nominate two of Spring Valley’s existing directors, Debora Frodl and Patrick Wood, III, to its Board of Directors. The remaining directors and officers of Spring Valley are expected to resign and be replaced with AeroFarms nominees, which will be named at a future date.

Additional information about the proposed transaction, including a copy of the Merger Agreement and investor presentation, will be provided in a Current Report on Form 8-K to be filed by Spring Valley with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and is available on the AeroFarms investor relations page at https://aerofarms.com/investors and at www.sec.gov.

Advisors

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is acting as exclusive financial advisor to AeroFarms. Cowen is acting as a financial advisor to Spring Valley. Cowen and Wells Fargo Securities are acting as capital markets advisors to Spring Valley. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Cowen, and Wells Fargo Securities acted as placement agents to Spring Valley in connection with the PIPE offering.

DLA Piper LLP (US) is acting as legal counsel to AeroFarms, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP is acting as legal counsel to the placement agents and Kirkland & Ellis LLP is acting as legal counsel to Spring Valley.

Webcast Information

Spring Valley and AeroFarms management will host a webcast to discuss the proposed transaction on March 26, 2021, at 8:00 a.m. ET. Hosting the call will be Chris Sorrells, CEO of Spring Valley; David Rosenberg, Co-Founder and CEO of AeroFarms; and Guy Blanchard, CFO of AeroFarms.

To listen to the prepared remarks via telephone, dial 1-877-407-0784 (U.S.) or 1-201-689-8560 (international) and an operator will assist you, or via webcast which can be found on AeroFarms’ investor relations website at https://aerofarms.com/investors. A telephone replay will be available through April 9, 2021, at 11:59 p.m. ET by using 1-844-512-2921 (U.S.) or 1-412-317-6671 (international) and pin number: 13718018.

About Spring Valley Acquisition Corp.

Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. is a blank check company formed for the purpose of entering into a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses or entities. While Spring Valley may pursue an initial business combination target in any business or industry, it is targeting companies focusing on sustainability, including clean energy and storage, smart grid/efficiency, environmental services and recycling, mobility, water and wastewater management, advanced materials and technology-enabled services. Spring Valley’s sponsor is supported by Pearl Energy Investment Management, LLC, a Dallas, Texas-based investment firm that focuses on partnering with best-in-class management teams to invest in the North American energy industry.

About AeroFarms

Since 2004, AeroFarms, through its holding company, Dream Holdings, Inc., has been leading the way for indoor vertical farming and championing transformational innovation for agriculture. On a mission to grow the best plants possible for the betterment of humanity, AeroFarms is a Certified B Corporation with global headquarters in Newark, New Jersey, United States. Named one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company two years in a row and one of TIME’s Best Inventions, AeroFarms’ patented, award-winning indoor vertical farming technology provides the perfect conditions for healthy plants to thrive, taking agriculture to a new level of precision, food safety and productivity while using up to 95% less water and no pesticides versus traditional field farming. AeroFarms enables local production to safely grow all year round for its commercial retail brand Dream Greens that has peak flavor always®. In addition, AeroFarms has developed multi-year strategic partnerships ranging from government to major Fortune 500 companies to help uniquely solve agriculture supply chain needs.

For additional information, visit: https://aerofarms.com/.

SEC Filing

Additional Information and Where to Find It

In connection with the business combination, Spring Valley intends to file a Registration Statement on Form S-4 (the “Form S-4”) with the SEC which will include a preliminary prospectus with respect to its securities to be issued in connection with the business combination and a preliminary proxy statement with respect to Spring Valley’s stockholder meeting at which Spring Valley’s stockholders will be asked to vote on the proposed business combination. Spring Valley and AeroFarms urge investors, stockholders, and other interested persons to read, when available, the Form S-4, including the proxy statement/prospectus, any amendments thereto and any other documents filed with the SEC, because these documents will contain important information about the proposed business combination. After the Form S-4 has been filed and declared effective, Spring Valley will mail the definitive proxy statement/prospectus to stockholders of Spring Valley as of a record date to be established for voting on the business combination. Spring Valley stockholders will also be able to obtain a copy of such documents, without charge, by directing a request to: Spring Valley Acquisition Corp., 2100 McKinney Avenue Suite 1675 Dallas, TX 75201; e-mail: investors@sv-ac.com. These documents, once available, can also be obtained, without charge, at the SEC’s website www.sec.gov.

Participants in the Solicitation

Spring Valley and its directors and officers may be deemed participants in the solicitation of proxies of Spring Valley’s shareholders in connection with the proposed business combination. Security holders may obtain more detailed information regarding the names, affiliations and interests of certain of Spring Valley’s executive officers and directors in the solicitation by reading Spring Valley’s final prospectus filed with the SEC on November 25, 2020, the proxy statement/prospectus and other relevant materials filed with the SEC in connection with the business combination when they become available. Information concerning the interests of Spring Valley’s participants in the solicitation, which may, in some cases, be different than those of their stockholders generally, will be set forth in the proxy statement/prospectus relating to the business combination when it becomes available.

No Offer or Solicitation

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, or the solicitation of any vote or approval in any jurisdiction in connection with a proposed potential business combination among Spring Valley and AeroFarms or any related transactions, nor shall there be any sale, issuance or transfer of securities in any jurisdiction where, or to any person to whom, such offer, solicitation or sale may be unlawful. Any offering of securities or solicitation of votes regarding the proposed transaction will be made only by means of a proxy statement/prospectus that complies with applicable rules and regulations promulgated under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or pursuant to an exemption from the Securities Act or in a transaction not subject to the registration requirements of the Securities Act.

Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements included in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as “believe,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “expect,” “should,” “would,” “plan,” “predict,” “potential,” “seem,” “seek,” “future,” “outlook,” and similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. All statements, other than statements of present or historical fact included in this press release, regarding Spring Valley’s proposed acquisition of AeroFarms, Spring Valley’s ability to consummate the transaction, the benefits of the transaction and the combined company’s future financial performance, as well as the combined company’s strategy, future operations, estimated financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects, plans and objectives of management are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on various assumptions, whether or not identified in this press release, and on the current expectations of the respective management of AeroFarms and Spring Valley and are not predictions of actual performance. These forward-looking statements are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to serve as, and must not be relied on as, a guarantee, an assurance, a prediction, or a definitive statement of fact or probability. Actual events and circumstances are difficult or impossible to predict and will differ from assumptions. Many actual events and circumstances are beyond the control of AeroFarms and Spring Valley. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including changes in domestic and foreign business, market, financial, political, and legal conditions; the inability of the parties to successfully or timely consummate the proposed transaction, including the risk that any regulatory approvals are not obtained, are delayed or are subject to unanticipated conditions that could adversely affect the combined company or the expected benefits of the proposed transaction or that the approval of the stockholders of Spring Valley or AeroFarms is not obtained; failure to realize the anticipated benefits of the proposed transaction; risks relating to the uncertainty of the projected financial information with respect to AeroFarms; risks related to the expansion of AeroFarms’ business and the timing of expected business milestones; the effects of competition on AeroFarms’ business; the ability of Spring Valley or AeroFarms to issue equity or equity-linked securities or obtain debt financing in connection with the proposed transaction or in the future, and those factors discussed in Spring Valley’s final prospectus dated November 25, 2020 under the heading “Risk Factors,” and other documents Spring Valley has filed, or will file, with the SEC. If any of these risks materialize or our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. There may be additional risks that neither Spring Valley nor AeroFarms presently know, or that Spring Valley nor AeroFarms currently believe are immaterial, that could also cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements reflect Spring Valley’s and AeroFarms’ expectations, plans, or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this press release. Spring Valley and AeroFarms anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause Spring Valley’s and AeroFarms’ assessments to change. However, while Spring Valley and AeroFarms may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Spring Valley and AeroFarms specifically disclaim any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Spring Valley’s and AeroFarms’ assessments of any date subsequent to the date of this press release. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed upon the forward-looking statements.

Related articles: The Spoon - Cheddar - Go Dan River - Food Dive

Contacts

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Spring Valley Acquisition Corp.
www.sv-ac.com
Robert Kaplan
Investors@sv-ac.com

Investor Relations:
Jeff Sonnek
ICR
Jeff.Sonnek@icrinc.com
1-646-277-1263

Media Relations:
Marc Oshima
AeroFarms
MarcOshima@AeroFarms.com
1-917-673-4602

VIDEO: What Makes Organic Food "Organic"?

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By Natalia Oelsner

Updated: 25/03/21

In partnership with The European Commission

The EU is the second-largest consumer of organic food in the world. - Copyright nsplaUsh

Organic food is no longer a niche market.

Sales of organic food products in the European Union have more than doubled over the last decade - from €16.3 billion in 2008 to €37.4 billion in 2018 - and demand continues to grow.

However, many Europeans are still unsure of what "organic" really means. Is it natural? Free of pesticides? Locally grown?

Well not exactly. Here are some of the conditions food products must meet in order to be considered organic in the EU:

No synthetic fertilizers

Natural fertilizers, such as compost and seaweed derivatives, are essential to maintaining fertile and healthy soil. So organic food must be grown with these products, rather than synthetic fertilizers that are used in conventional farming, and which tend to be made of harsher chemical ingredients including nitrogen compounds, phosphorus, and potassium.

"Organic farming improves soil structures and quality and enhances biodiversity. Studies have shown that organic farming present 30% more of biodiversity in the fields", explains Elena Panichi, Head of Unit at DG Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI).

No synthetic pesticides

Farmers need to fight weeds and pests. Organic farmers are only allowed to use naturally-derived pesticides, made from plants, animals, microorganisms, or minerals.

"These chemicals are of a natural origin. For instance, essential oils, plant extracts, that are listed in the relevant regulation, and are authorized, following a process that implies a scientific committee to assess the effect on the environment", says Panichi.

Organic farms also have techniques such as crop rotation or planting different crops on the same plot of land, to help to prevent soil-borne diseases.

Natural predators, such as ladybugs, can also be an effective method of pest control.

However, it is important to remember that just because something is “natural”, it doesn’t automatically make it harmless to either people or the environment.

No GMOs

To be certified as “organic”, food cannot contain products made from genetically modified crops.

This rule is the same for organic meat and other livestock products. Besides, the animals are to be raised on 100% organic feed.

Antibiotics as a last resort

The animals we eat, or whose products we consume, need to be kept disease-free. Many conventional farmers routinely use antibiotics for disease prevention. These can end up making their way into the food chain.

Excessive antibiotics are not good for people or animals because they can help create superbugs. Antimicrobial resistance is a global concern. Every year, around 33, 000 people die in the EU, due to infections from antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

On organic farms, the use of antibiotics is severely restricted. Farmers control disease by limiting the number of animals they raise and using methods such as a healthy diet for their livestock. They are only allowed to use antibiotics when absolutely necessary for an animal's health, in order to avoid suffering, and when natural remedies such as phytotherapeutic and homeopathic medicines are not effective.

"If in conventional [farming], sometimes antibiotics are given as preventive tools, inorganics, antibiotics can be given as a last resort if there are no other methods to intervene. Normally, the higher animal welfare standards applied in organics already keep animals in a healthier status that prevent the use of antibiotics", explains Panichi.

However, studies have shown that antibiotic use on farms is on the decline. Sales of animal antibiotics in the EU have fallen by more than 34% between 2011 and 2018.

Better animal welfare

Organic farmers must provide the environmental conditions necessary for animals to express their natural behavior, such as adequate outdoor space. This is not compulsory in conventional farming.

There are additional rules such as the prohibition on caging or mutilation unless absolutely necessary for health reasons.

What "organic" doesn't mean

Locally grown

Europeans are the second largest consumers of organic in the world. Local supply can’t meet demand yet, so a large number of organic products are imported.

China, Ukraine, Dominican Republic and Ecuador are the main EU trade partners for organic food imports.

"Green" packaging

Words like “natural”, “green” or “eco” on labels and packaging do not necessarily mean a product is organic.

Healthy

There's a wide range of organic product on supermarket shelves, from burgers to pizzas, from cheese to wine. The health implications of consuming excess fats, salt, or sugar don't disappear just because a food product is organic. Too much fat, salt, and sugar are still bad for you, whether it is organic or not.

How can you be sure that the “organic” food you’re buying is actually organic?

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EU organic logo European Commission

The most reliable way to know if a product is organic is if it has this official EU logo.

The white leaf on a green background means that EU rules on production, processing, handling, and distribution, have been followed and that the product contains at least 95% organic ingredients. This logo can only be used on products that have been certified by an authorized control agency or body.

Some countries have also created their own organic logos. They are optional and complementary to the EU's leaf. This is the French one, for instance.

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French organic logo Agence Bio

New rules coming in 2022

EU rules on organic production will change soon. In 2022, Europe will have legislation with stricter controls.

Panichi believes it will bring a "substantial improvement" to the organic sector.

"We have to bear in mind that the new organic legislation is not a revolution, but it's an evolution of the organic legislation that started in the past years and has been kept evolving together with the sector".

The new legislation will harmonize rules for non-EU and EU producers. It will also simplify procedures for small farms in order to attract new producers, thanks to a new system of group validation.

The list of organic foods is expected to grow, with the addition of products such as salt and cork. The possibility of certifying insects as organic is also expected in the rules.

What is the future of organics?

"Surfaces in Europe are increasing or as well as all over the world, and they are increasing at a fast pace," says Panichi.

As part of its Farm To Fork strategy, the EU has committed to increasing organic production, with the goal of 25% of all agricultural land being used for organic farming by 2030. In 2019, it was only around 8%.

By 2030, Europe also aims to reduce the use of harmful chemicals and hazardous pesticides by 50%.

Buying organic food is still too expensive for many. One of Farm To Fork's main goals is to make healthy, sustainable food more accessible and affordable to all Europeans. A French family 2019 shows that a basket of eight organic fruits and eight organic vegetables is, on average, twice as expensive as a basket of non-organic products.

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Note: The requirements listed in this article are just some of the conditions necessary for a product to be considered organic. If you want to know more about what is needed to obtain the green logo, please check the EU regulation.

Lead photo: EU organic logo European Commission

Fashion Giant Makes Foray Into Leafy Greens

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Y CHRIS KOMOREK

@ckfruitnet

25th March 2021, London

New Investment In Vertical Farming Company Ljusgårda AB

Comes From Platform Owned By Chairman of H&M

The investment platform owned by H&M chairman, Karl Johan Persson, has invested in Ljusgårda AB, the Swedish vertical farming business based in Tibro.

Reports published by HortNews indicate the vertical farming company is backed by a number of investors, including Philian, which is the investment platform owned by Persson.

Ljusgårda, which produces crispy bagged salads, is planning to use the new investment to expand its production area in order to produce more products.

“We will grow from a cultivation area of 300m2 to 2,500m2, and thus from cultivating two tonnes a month to 60 tonnes when the factory is in full swing after the summer,” Ljusgårda marketing manager Maria Hillerström told reporters. “We will expand with more products this spring.”

Ljusgårda’s chief executive, Andreas Wilhelmsson, added the company is ambitious to expand. “We are looking at a number of possible new locations. As our first factory will soon start producing, it’s time to start financing the growth plans.

“The interest is huge out there. On the one hand, we are joining the sustainability trend, food-tech is starting to become very popular at the same time as this type of company out in the countryside where we are is not so common.”

Lead Image credit: Hort News

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Three Way To Maximize A Vertical Farm's Potential

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17 March 2021

Posted in Blog by monique

By Abhay Thosar, Ph.D., director of horticulture services for Fluence by OSRAM

Previously published in the February 2021 issue of Inside Grower.

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Population growth and urbanization are forcing global food production to a crossroads. Overall, migration to high-density areas increases access to health care, higher-paying jobs, education, and other socio-economic opportunities. But it also places more strain on existing infrastructure and demand for resources, leading to greater water scarcity, energy consumption, waste, and, perhaps most importantly, threats to the food supply, prices, and quality.

The economically disadvantaged will be the first to pay the price of increased urbanization. As prices increase and access to quality food sources decreases, the nutritional health of poor populations will decline. Over the next several years, the responsibility of bridging the gap between projected food supply and demand in urban areas will largely fall on vertical farms, an industry that is expected to nearly quadruple by 2025 to about $16 billion. The COVID-19 pandemic could accelerate that growth rate even further.

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The vertical farming industry still has challenges to overcome. Production costs remain relatively high and, as a young market, knowledge gaps in operational best practices in critical areas like facility design and environmental conditions threaten long-term sustainability and profitability. The evolving economic dynamic with supermarkets is forcing vertical farms to scale quickly as they attempt to grow and supply a wider variety of crops while maintaining the buyer’s standards around produce size, quality, and nutritional value.

And, as we look to the future, new innovations in lighting strategies, facility design, cultivation best practices, and automation mean that vertical farming operations have to be constantly adapting and seeking new operational advantages. This is just as true for new market entrants and relatively established players alike, and each will be critical to not only maintaining profitability, but ensuring that food production in urban areas can increase with demand.

With that in mind, here are three critical factors vertical farmers need to consider to meet market expectations, improve efficiency and ultimately grow, cultivate and distribute larger quantities of quality food to more people in a smaller area.

Facility design as a function of market demand

The history and growth of the vertical farming market are largely driven by two trends at the consumer and buyer levels. A decade ago, consumers asking questions about how, where, and when their food was grown was practically unheard of. Things are different today. People want to know the provenance behind the food they buy and ensure it is chemical-free and safe to eat. Every product has become more than a label, it’s become a story that consumers want to hear, and one that has an equally significant impact in where they shop and what they buy.

Supermarkets have taken notice. Beyond that, though, vertical farming operations have given supermarkets one more option in addition to the existing supply chains on which they’ve relied for food production and distribution. Vertical farms play an even more important role during large-scale disruption events like the COVID-19 pandemic or massive recalls. As a result, supermarkets—which value the consistent supply of produce above all—are turning to their local vertical farming operations and, in some cases, even investing in them directly. The increased attention, however, comes at a cost (literally and metaphorically). Supermarkets are demanding that the vertical farms supplying them grow a wider variety of crops—lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, leafy greens, microgreens, herbs—more consistently while also meeting unique specifications around weight, aesthetic, nutritional value and a variety of other factors that are ultimately dictated by the vertical farm’s environment and the grower’s expertise.

Vertical farmers are quickly realizing they need to expand their portfolio from potentially a handful of crops to a few dozen or more, raising a range of questions on how to design or retrofit their facilities and adjust environmental conditions that favor any given crop.

The first decision many vertical farmers face is the growing technique that will be most scalable and viable for their operation. Hydroponics, aeroponics and aquaponics have all emerged as viable options with varying degrees of success, but they’re far from interchangeable.

In the end, there is no universal solution for every vertical farm. Cultivators should closely consider their buyers’ expectations, and how those expectations might change over time. Then, cultivators must assess the full range of their crops’ needs and how each might respond differently to various environmental factors and lighting strategies.

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Strike a balance between environmental factors

The next set of factors governing facility design, investment and day-to-day operations should always be the environmental conditions themselves.

How air flows into and across each rack of a vertical farm is one of the most unique and important challenges vertical farms have to solve. Ignoring or failing to closely monitor airflow is often a death blow to entire sections of crops and to profitability, yield, and consistency as a result. Air movement helps to maintain temperature, humidity, and transpiration at each rack, and lack of it creates wide temperature swings or large gaps between crops at the bottom and crops at the top. It’s an incredibly fragile balance to strike. Everything from the number of access points into a warehouse—there should only be one access point—to HVAC and circulation systems affect air movement.

As a best practice, the maximum difference between the temperature at the top-most rack and the bottom-most rack should be no more than two degrees Fahrenheit. In practical scenarios, cultivators facing large temperature fluctuations can also consider placing crops that prefer relatively warmer temperatures—such as basil, oregano, chives, sage or thyme—at the top and simply let the laws of thermodynamics do the rest.

Carbon dioxide enrichment is a slightly easier condition to manage but no less important and changes based on temperature and lighting strategy. CO2 enrichment, too, can fluctuate based on the number of access points into a warehouse (again, there should only be one). Enriching a cultivation environment with carbon dioxide stimulates photosynthesis and plant growth, the rate of which is critically dependent on the difference between CO2 concentrations in the air and in the leaf cells.

The law of diminishing returns puts a cap on the amount of carbon dioxide cultivators should be introducing. CO2 is by no means the only factor governing plant growth, but vertical farms have the advantage of being able to closely monitor and control CO2 levels. To do so properly, however, they shouldn’t shy away from significant investments in both handheld devices—which allow cultivators to measure carbon dioxide levels at each rack, each plant, and each leaf—but also large-scale control systems that can measure and track CO2 throughout the entire warehouse.

Humidity levels govern a plant’s transpiration rate and the aperture sizes of its stomata, ultimately affecting how much water it moves from its root zone to release back into the warehouse. When a plant’s stomata open, they release water while also collecting carbon dioxide, making the balance of humidity, temperature, and carbon dioxide all the more crucial. Different plant types in different growth stages have different transpiration rates, adding even more complexity to how a vertical farm is designed and managed. The most common way to express humidity is relative humidity, the percentage of water vapor in the air at a given temperature compared to the total amount of water the air can hold at that temperature. In vertical farming, however, vapor pressure deficit (VPD) is the more accurate way to gauge humidity’s effect on plant growth. VPD remains an interesting discussion among researchers as the industry seeks to understand the differences between VPDs for air and leaves as well as exact VPD calculations.

Every environmental factor in a vertical farm affects the others to some degree. Nearly everything can be controlled; it’s both the advantage and the challenge native to the market. No factor, however, is more important to photosynthesis than its primary driver: light. Each factor—CO2, temperature, airflow, humidity, fertilizer, irrigation, VPD—need to be fine-tuned with changes to light quantity and quality to optimize plant performance and response.

Designing an effective lighting strategy

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The design and implementation of an effective lighting strategy is and always will be the primary driver of your vertical farm’s success. In environments as complex as vertical farms, identifying the correct light intensity, spectra, photoperiod, and configuration will determine how other environmental factors work together to optimize a facility for plant yield and quality.

The first of these, the fixtures themselves, carry more implications for vertical farms than other cultivation spaces; in a vertical farm, plants receive no other source of light. The sun isn’t the safety blanket that it is for greenhouses. This simple and obvious fact means that vertical farmers have to find efficiencies in ways others don’t, which can manifest across a variety of operational metrics. Light efficacy, for instance, becomes more important. Most vertical farms are located in urban areas and are likely paying a premium for electricity. Maximizing micromoles per watt and reducing energy waste becomes more than a sustainability initiative, it’s critical to overall profitability.

Similarly, vertical farms operating warehouses measuring in the tens of thousands of square feet need fixtures with a good form factor without sacrificing light intensity. The right configuration means vertical farms can squeeze more racks into their facilities while also putting the lights closer to the plants for better results.

Beyond the hardware specifications, lighting design and strategy consist of several key factors: light intensity, light quality (or spectra), and light bar configuration. Each should be rooted in a facility’s overarching goals—typically defined by the consumer or buyer. Lighting strategies can be customized by crop, yielding specific plant chemistries or changes in biomass. Differences in spectra and light intensity can affect a crop’s coloration, shelf life, taste, and smell. Desired crop characteristics should be determined upfront in conjunction with the prospective buyer, therefore guiding a lighting designer to identify the optimal strategy to accomplish a facility’s goals.

Light quantity is the first and foremost aspect when it comes to optimizing the productivity of the crop. It is important to target the correct mols/day for each crop. Light quality (or spectra) is defined by measuring light’s wavelength in nanometers (nm). Wavelengths of light that drive photosynthesis are primarily found within 400 to 700nm—a range identified as photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). In a vertical farming environment, broad, white light has proven effective for tissue culture, propagation, and vegetative growth—while also serving the more practical function of making it easier for human eyes to diagnose and observe crops day in and day out. As the body of research into LED applications has expanded, it’s become clear that lighting strategies need to shift based on the growth stage. The days of bombarding plants with the same intensity and spectra are quickly fading. More and more research is showing that different cultivars respond to different lighting strategies at different stages of their maturation. More nuanced, customized lighting strategies are increasingly leading to tangible business outcomes for cultivators: longer shelf life, improved aesthetic, enhanced nutritional value, faster cycle times, and higher yields.

LED improvements will continue to drive costs down, while more in-depth research will discover and confirm a new set of lighting strategies and operational best practices to help vertical farmers meet future market demand for increased food production while also improving profitability. Overall, the future for vertical farms is bright and ripe for even broader innovation. Automation—the final frontier of food production—will mean even greater control of agricultural environments. That future is on the horizon. For now, though, vertical farms just need to stick to what they can control, which is pretty much everything else.

About Abhay

Abhay Thosar is the director of horticulture services at Fluence by OSRAM, where he is responsible for managing a team of horticulture specialists that enhances how cultivators grow their crops, optimize their lighting strategies and increase profitability in their operations. He holds a Ph.D. in plant physiology from Gujarat Agricultural University and spent more than a decade at leading greenhouses and nurseries throughout the U.S.

Vertical Growing Solutions That Are Easily Multiplied Increasing The Management Scale of Each Grower

GrowSpec is an indoor farming equipment supplier established in 2015.  GrowSpec offers three main products, each with numerous product lines contained therein. These three products include LED grow lights, vertical grow systems, and container farms. According to GrowSpec CEO Alvis Ma, these products can be used to produce a variety of crops indoors.

LED Grow Lights

GrowSpec offers six different types of LED lighting: AgriSpec, AgriBar, Sun Ray, Panel, SlimSpec, and Quantum. According to the company’s website, AgriSpec is a high-performance top-lighting solution with dimmable capabilities to allow growers to transition from vegetative to regenerative growth (i.e., flowering). The lights’ slim configuration enables installation in low rooms, racking systems, etc. While AgriBar and Sun Ray are both advertised as applicable for greenhouses as well as indoor farms, Panel is more specifically designed for indoor growing as the wide panels are somewhat wide for greenhouse use yet provide high light uniformity for indoor environments.

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Vertical Grow Systems

GrowSpec also designs a number of vertical grow systems, all consisting of racks with integrated power supply, control system, and PVC trays so that each  4’x 8’ tray can be managed independently. Among these product lines in VertiDrip, a modular rack consisting of GrowSpec’s lighting, drip irrigation, airflow system, power supply, and touchscreen controls. The company’s VertiGro follows similar principles. GrowSpec’s main grow system, which was previously featured in IGrow (Combining Hydroponic And Aeroponic In Vertical Farming — iGrow) is VertiAero, which uses aeroponic technology. According to Alvis, VertiAero is patent pending in both the United States and Europe and offers various savings to growers.

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“VertiAero reduces operational costs by 40%. In terms of electricity, we use 30% less. With nutrients, we save 85% because we use aeroponics rather than soil, so the root area is sealed and water losses are reduced. Our vertical grow systems are designed to optimize farm’s operation, they can match up with different irrigation systems so as to meet growers’ different preferred cultivation skills, and easily multiplied increasing the management scale of each grower,” explains Alvis.

Moreover, Alvis explained that having an integrated ventilation system in every rack of GrowSpec’s vertical grow systems helps to decrease plant disease.

“With inadequate ventilation, some plants will have diseases like powdery mildew or botrytis. But if you have full ventilation and every leaf can be blown with air, you will seldom have those diseases,” says Alvis.

Alvis also explained that the racks are space-efficient by both having an adjustable height and by being horizontally mobile using a mechanical assist. This, according to Alvis, allows growers to fit more racks into a grow room.

Container Farms

GrowSpec’s third product offering is container farms, which are equipped with GrowSpec’s vertical grow systems. According to Alvis, GrowSpec’s container farms are ideal both for production and for research as the conditions are highly modifiable and allow growers to test various things.  

“If people want to do research, they can use this container to do so. They can set up irrigation, lighting, temperature of the root zone, temperature of the canopy, light intensity, etc. It is the perfect toy for them.”

Efficiency and scalability as priorities

Across GrowSpec’s three product types (LEDs, vertical grow systems and container farms), the company has emphasized improved resource use efficiency and scalability so that growers can easily increase production over time.

“For installation, we design our systems in modules so that they are very easy to install. It is a complex system yet easy to install. And it is scalable. It is easy to design the grow room because every rack is independent. The rack height is also customizable, and the power is integrated so that there is one main cable per rack, this allows requires the systems to be easy to maintenance ” explains Alvis.

GrowSpec also reports increased crop productivity by allowing growers to produce seven crops per year rather than four crops in traditional farming systems.

For more information:

www.growspec-inc.com

US: INDIANA - Purdue Students Earn Top Honors For Crop Stimulant Developed From Soybeans

by: Wes Mills, Inside INdiana Business

March 25, 2021

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (Inside INdiana Business) — A group of students from Purdue University has developed an organic additive that is designed to promote crops in vertical farms. The primary ingredient of the liquid biostimulant is soybeans. The innovation earned the team top honors during the 27th annual Student Soybean Innovation Competition sponsored by the Indiana Soybean Alliance.

To win this competition, Purdue University students must develop novel applications for soybeans that satisfy a market need.

“The goal of this contest is to highlight the versatility of soybeans while addressing a need in agriculture or the general public,” said Anngie Steinbarger, a farmer from Edinburgh and one of the judges for the contest. “This biostimulant is mostly made of a soybean protein, and it has been developed to help grow crops. This seems like a slam dunk for what we want from this competition.”

The soybean alliance says biostimulants help crops germinate rapidly, achieve greater plant mass and yield, and improve nutrient uptake. The team says its organic product is not a fertilizer, but it does improve grow rate and ease crop stress.

“One of the major successes we saw with our product is how great it worked with lettuce we’ve grown in the greenhouse,” said Purdue Sophomore Cai Chen, who is a member of the winning team.

Chen says when biostimulant was added to lettuce, it was 30% larger than standard lettuce.

In addition to Chen, the other members of the team include Nate Nauman, a sophomore from West Lafayette, and graduate student Emmanuel Alagbe of Nigeria. They will share the competition’s $20,000 top prize.

The team says soy protein peptides have antimicrobial and antibacterial properties which could help reduce the risk of foodborne illnesses in leafy greens.

Second place was awarded to a team that developed a hypoallergenic tape for athletes. Third place honors went to the creators of a biodegradable cosmetic face mask.

“Indiana soybean checkoff funds are used to find new uses and new markets for our soybeans; thereby creating demand and helping our farms to be more profitable and sustainable,” said Steinbarger. “Some of the products that evolve out of this contest could potentially have a positive impact on our soybean prices.”

Lead photo: (photo courtesy: United Soybean Board)

© 2021 Circle City Broadcasting I, LLC. | All Rights Reserve

USA: ILLINOIS - Glenview's Wiseacre Farm To Be Featured On History Channel

This Sunday's Episode of "Modern Marvels"

Will Highlight Innovative Hydroponic Techniques

Eric DeGrechie, Patch Staff

March 23, 2021

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The Wiseacre Farm crew (left to right): Sam Sheinfeld, Yael Sheinfeld and Aviad Sheinfeld. (Photo by Wiseacre Farm)

GLENVIEW, IL — Back in December of last year, a television production crew from the History Channel made a special visit to Glenview. Wiseacre Farm, a family-owned hydroponic farm, will be featured this Sunday as part of the network's "Modern Marvels" program.

Yael Sheinfeld, who handles marketing for the farm at 1975 N Lake Terrace, said the team at Wiseacre hasn't seen the episode titled, "Future of Food," yet. It is set to air at 9 p.m.

"We were connected to this opportunity through Freight Farms, a hydroponic farming container company in Boston. Our farm was built and distributed by Freight Farms," said Yael Sheinfeld, whose father, Aviad, founded Wiseacre Farm. "We're so grateful for the experience, and are very excited for the episode to air."

Aviad Sheinfeld shows off Wiseacre Farm during an episode of "Modern Marvels" on The History Channel. (Courtesy of Wiseacre Farm)

Sunday's episode of "Modern Marvels," hosted by food author and culinary entrepreneur Adam Richman, showcases Wiseacre's innovative hydroponic farming process as the future of food, highlighting the farm's mission to grow clean, fresh produce within the community that it serves.

"It was exciting for the film crew to visit the farm. Our farming team (Aviad Sheinfeld and his dad, Sam Sheinfeld) talked through each step of the plant life cycle and delivery process while the crew filmed," Yael Sheinfeld said. "[We also] participated in sit-down interviews where we discussed the concept behind the farm, how we started it, etc."

Yael Sheinfeld said that due to COVID-19 restrictions, the entire film crew for the episode was local.

Founder Aviad Sheinfeld talks about Wiseacre Farm during the episode of "Modern Marvels" titled, "Future of Food." (Photo by Wiseacre Farm)

Wiseacre Farm works to shorten the path from farm to table, promote and practice environmental sustainability, and educate consumers about the origins of their food.

"We're a family-owned hydroponic farm in Glenview that provides fresh, hyperlocal greens to the community," Yael Sheinfeld said. "We currently offer home delivery and farmside pickup options."

Wiseacre greens are available through home delivery subscriptions and weekly farmside pickup. Wiseacre Farm also makes frequent donations to local food pantries, working to ensure that fresh greens are accessible to all.

More information about Wiseacre Farm can be found here: https://www.wiseacre.farm/.

Could Depletion of Fertile Soil Trigger A Bigger U.S. Food Crisis?

By Ted Kelly

March 9, 2021

U.S. farmland in the Midwest has lost over one-third of the soil necessary to sustain crop production, according to scientists at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The study concluded that fertile soil has been destroyed — not as a result of natural wind and water erosion, but by a century of overplowing. (tinyurl.com/wps8c99c) 

Topsoil is the “black, organic, [carbon and mineral] rich soil that’s really good for growing crops,” said Evan Thaler, a Ph.D. student at UMass. Topsoil accumulates over centuries and is teeming with microorganisms. 

 The healthy and fertile soil was effectively managed and stewarded by Indigenous peoples of the region for centuries, if not millennia. But after a few hundred years of hyper-exploitation, first, by European colonial settlers and later big agribusiness, a third of all the topsoil across Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, and Minnesota is now gone according to a study reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (tinyurl.com/3yxy4v9d) This figure is much higher than has been reported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Lead researcher Thaler said, “I think the USDA is dramatically underestimating the amount of loss.” (NPR) 

This assessment is corroborated by a 2006 study from Cornell University which found fertile soil is disappearing faster than it’s being replaced, stating: “Each year about 10 million hectares of cropland are lost due to soil erosion, thus reducing the cropland available for food production. The loss of cropland is a serious problem because the World Health Organization reports that more than 3.7 billion people are malnourished in the world. Overall soil is being lost from land areas 10 to 40 times faster than the rate of soil renewal imperiling future human food security and environmental quality.” (tinyurl.com/cpav2xj9) [One hectare is the equivalent of 100 acres.]

This follows a global trend that has caused a drastic reduction in fertile farmland due to capitalist overdevelopment. Almost all food production — 99.7%, according to the Cornell study — depends on healthy topsoil. But half of it has been destroyed in the last 150 years according to the World Wildlife Federation. (tinyurl.com/pxkcx37b)

An impending food crisis is not the only issue at stake. Low-nutrient soil produces low-nutrient crops. Food today simply does not have as many vitamins and minerals as it did a few decades ago. 

Another study, conducted by the University of Texas at Austin, found “‘reliable declines’ in the amount of protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin (vitamin B2) and vitamin C” in dozens of fruits and vegetables since 1950. (tinyurl.com/3nhwhzza) 

Corporate genetic modification of plant species, like corn, is aimed at making more profitable — not healthier — produce. “Efforts to breed new varieties of crops that provide greater yield, pest resistance and climate adaptability have allowed crops to grow bigger and more rapidly, but their ability to manufacture or uptake nutrients has not kept pace with their rapid growth,” the UT study claimed.

Cuba shows the way

There is a model, however, for soil replenishment and food production that could point to a way forward that would avoid famine and nutritional starvation. And it comes, unsurprisingly, from the socialist world.

The “Special Period” in the history of revolutionary Cuba refers to the great upheaval immediately after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, which socialist states around the world had depended on. 

In 1993, the Cuban Communist Party formed agricultural cooperatives to manage hundreds of state-owned farms. The goal was to increase domestic food production, while providing jobs and housing to Cuban workers, and to rely less on imported chemical pesticides and other synthetic farming techniques.

“The land redistribution program has been supported by solid research-extension systems that have played key roles in the expansion of organic and urban agriculture, and the massive artisanal production and deployment of biological inputs for soil and pest management,” writes Miguel Altieri, one of the founders of the Cuban Association of Organic Agriculture.  (Monthly Review, “The Paradox of Cuban Agriculture,” Jan. 1, 2012)

Even more impressive is the growth of food production on urban farms, or organopónicos. “Cuba’s achievements in urban agriculture are truly remarkable — there are 383,000 urban farms, covering 50,000 hectares of otherwise unused land and producing more than 1.5 million tons of vegetables . . . using no synthetic chemicals. . . . Urban farms supply 70% or more of all the fresh vegetables consumed in cities such as Havana and Villa Clara.” 

Capitalism is at a dead-end by every conceivable metric. Socialist societies point the way forward to providing healthy, nutritious foods for all without a profit motive. 

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