Housing Nonprofit Cultivating Farmers Adults With Disabilities To Help Run Hydroponic Effort

ROSA SALTER RODRIGUEZ

The Journal Gazette

For a few moments early Friday morning, an 80-foot-by-40-foot shipping container the size of a semi hung high in the air, suspended by a huge crane.

Then, the green-trimmed white container was placed on specially constructed supports – to a short round of applause from about a dozen onlookers.

The construction site off Constance Avenue just north of Turnstone's adaptive sports complex is a bit different from most – the shipping container isn't for storage, a contractor's office or even housing.

It's going to become part of a farm.

CASS Housing, a Fort Wayne nonprofit that has been busily building homes with customized living arrangements for adults with developmental disabilities including autism and Down syndrome, is sprouting a new program.

The organization plans to use the containers to grow produce hydroponically – with water and nutrients but no soil.

David Buuck, CASS founder and executive director, said the idea is to provide not only food but “meaningful days” for the 15 residents of what will soon be five homes.

And the organization has even bigger aspirations – it recently applied to the Fort Wayne Plan Commission to locate another 15 trailers on a lot on Homewood Drive in Washington Township to scale up the growing.

Buuck hopes to grow enough produce to sell to members of the Fort Wayne community through a subscription service, to other nonprofit organizations and, potentially, at wholesale and retail.

Money from sales would be plowed back not only into the farm but also into building more homes for a growing list of potential residents. Buuck said that list now stands at about 200.

The organization's initials stand for Customizable, Affordable, Sustainable and Safe.

Idea planted

The farm plans started, Buuck said, with the knowledge that one of the hardest aspects of life for developmentally challenged young people is finding employment.

“Only 34% of people are employed in the traditional economy,” he said. And, when times get hard, that employment may not last.

“We saw it play out with the pandemic,” Buuck said. Only one out of six employed CASS residents kept a job throughout COVID, he said.

The pandemic got him thinking seriously about an idea from the father of a potential resident.

John Hornbostel of Fort Wayne had been reading about farming in containers as a prospective career for his 21-year-old daughter with disabilities, Rachel.

She has autism and needs someone to be with her while on the job, but she loves salads and growing things, said Hornbostel, vice president of sustainability and milling for Egg Innovations in Warsaw.

He remembers broaching the subject with Buuck, and telling him that 2 acres' worth of leafy produce could be grown in one shipping container.

Hornbostel recalls Buuck's eyes widening. “Really?” Buuck said.

Yes, really.

And not only that, one shipping container could grow 4,400 heads of buttercrunch lettuce a month or 90 pounds of herbs – using only 5 gallons of water a day, 95% less than traditional agriculture.

And the containers' food could be non-GMO and pesticide free.

Teaming up

Soon enough, Buuck got in touch with Freight Farms, a Boston-based company pioneering the idea.

Rick Vanzura, Freight Farms' chief executive officer, said the company has been developing shipping container farms for about a decade. Farms now operate in 49 states and 33 countries.

“Our business is really a global business,” he said, adding that demand comes from small farmers, especially in places with bad soils or difficult climates.

But container farms also have been sold to college and university food suppliers, agricultural education programs, nonprofit organizations feeding underserved populations, and even a grocery store chain in Sweden.

But this is the first time he's heard of an organization using container farms in an integrated program for people with disabilities, Vanzura said.

And, he said, he's thrilled.

“I'm totally on board,” Vanzura said. “I don't know any other way to say it, but it's heartwarming. That's the only way I can put it.”

Growing produce hydroponically isn't new, Vanzura said; many grocery stores sell food grown that way – typically greens including lettuces, spinach, arugula and kale.

But Freight Farms' container systems have several features that set them apart, he explained.

For one thing, they grow produce vertically, not horizontally, in what growers call troughs or benches. Growing vertically maximizes growing space. Second, the trailers use programmable LED light, saving energy costs, and some can use renewable wind or solar energy for power.

Third, the system is fully programmable on a cellphone app called FarmHand.The app provides recipes for regulating the proper amount of water, light and temperature for growing, as well as planting and maturity dates for the precise crop desired. That takes a lot of the trial and error out of growing, Vanzura said.

He said the recipes have been developed over several years in conjunction with participating farmers. The company now can grow more than 500 crops, including some varieties of flowers. Experiments with strawberries are also going on, Vanzura said.

But the best applications are greens, herbs and small root crops such as radishes, he said.

“The tremendous thing is you don't need any specialized knowledge to start. But you do need discipline and a willingness to follow through,” Vanzura said.

Getting started

Buuck said CASS has hired someone to help manage the farm, Robert Johnson, and the resident employees, three to four for each container, will be paid as they would be for any job.

The first two containers, placed Friday, were funded at a cost of $300,000 through a private donation and The James Foundation in Angola, which donates to youth programs.

CASS residents Anna Kramer, 24, and Matthew Hammitch, 26, can't wait to start.

“It's just a really cool idea,” said Kramer, who briefly held a job in retail but got frustrated dealing with a lot of people every day.

Kramer said she gardened with her family before coming to live at CASS. She said she thinks working with plants would be natural.

“I never knew this existed, but if it existed, I never thought it would come to Fort Wayne,” she said.

Hammitch's previous job was as a family dog-sitter. But the FarmHand App technology intrigues him.

“I would really like to get into FarmHand and be able to go into the app and control the temperature and things right through our phones,” he said.

“I was really excited about this. I thought I could do this and have fun,” the young man said.

And make some money?

“That part too,” he said.

Lead photo: For a few moments early Friday morning, an 80-foot-by-40-foot shipping container the size of a semi hung high in the air, suspended by a huge crane.

rsalter@jg.net

Also

CASS seeks rezoning for farm project

CASS Housing will go before the Fort Wayne Plan Commission next month to ask for approval of a rezoning and modified primary development plan for a 1.63-acre tract off Homewood Drive in Washington Township.

CASS in August had the site rezoned to planned residential to construct eight attached residential homes for its living programs. It now wants to have the southern part of that site rezoned to general industrial.

The rezoning would allow the nonprofit to place 15 specially outfitted shipping containers for the hydroponic growing of produce.

The site would extend the program now being started on CASS's Constance Avenue property in Fort Wayne.

The organization also is asking to place a building for office space, produce processing and storage as an accessory use. The placement of solar panels and a parking lot also is being considered.

CASS still plans to construct homes on the site, said David Buuck, founder and executive director. The farm is estimated to cost $2.5 million and create 45 part-time jobs for people with disabilities, he said.

The organization is beginning a fund drive to finance some of the construction, he said.

Produce from the 15 containers will be equivalent to the yield of a 40-acre farm, Buuck said.

In its application, the organization said there would be no retail sales at the site and a minimal increase in traffic, as most employees will walk from nearby homes to their jobs.

The application will have a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. June 7 in Room 30 of Citizens Square.

Want To Grow Your Own Food? Try A Hydroponic Garden

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05.08.2021

Today’s home kits are stylish, smart, and easier to use than ever. Here’s how to get started.

WE ALL BECAME homesteaders during the pandemic. The inability to leave home and disruptions to the food supply chain led a lot of people to plant gardens to grow their own food. Upon flexing their green thumbs, though, many found that gardening comes with its own set of issues, from vermin to seasonal shifts. But what if there was a way to bypass those vexations? Say hello to home hydroponics.

How Home Hydroponics Work

To grow something hydroponically is to grow plants without soil. It’s long been associated with growing weed—just saying the word hydroponics will induce smirks—but in recent years, systems like Rise Gardens and AeroGarden have come along to give gardeners a sleek, high-tech way to grow produce like bell peppers, lettuce, and tomatoes from the confines of their homes.

All you need for a hydroponic growing system is a bin filled with water, nutrients, and LED lights, so you don’t need to buy a whole system at all, really. But many of the systems on the market are designed to be aesthetically pleasing and meant to be part of your home, not hidden away.

Most are horizontal and basically have a planter bed that you drop seedpods into. A pump delivers water and nutrients to the seeds, and LED lights mimic the sun. Some systems are vertical, like the Gardyn and the forthcoming Soilless. Large systems typically start at around $400, with plenty of small ones to be found around $100.

Hank Adams, founder, and CEO of Rise Gardens, lives in Chicago where the growing season is short and the summers are hot, he says. A lot of gardening enthusiasts use the hydroponic system to supplement their outdoor endeavors, and he says it's the food lovers that really get a lot out of it. “Everybody knows that fresh ingredients are better. They're better tasting, and what may be less well known, is just how much more nutrient-dense they are,” says Adams. Compared to produce that has been shipped to the grocery store, traveling hundreds or even thousands of miles, freshly plucked lettuce can be more nutritious. It tastes better when it's been freshly snipped too.

The aroma of fresh produce is enough to make Teresa Edmisten, an architect with Tvsdesign in Atlanta, appreciate her hydroponic system. Hers is more utilitarian, she says, but it still effectively grows basil which she and her husband frequently turn into pesto. “Depending on the varieties you do, those leaves are luscious. And the smell is ridiculously beautiful,” says Edmisten.

More Than Just a Garden

One thing that’s certain about modern hydroponic systems is that they are not what they used to be. Manufacturers are being intentional about designing structures that you’d actually want decorating your home.

For Rise, Adams worked with industrial designers to create a system that is made of polished metal and real wood. They went through seven prototypes before landing on a model that can double up as a piece of furniture. Their systems are modular, allowing users to stack up to three tiers of gardens, and the top one has a hard surface that can serve as a table. “It’s minimalist because we wanted plants to be the stars of the show, but it's still a physical structure that has some size to it,” says Adams. “So we wanted people to find it attractive and kind of neutral, so it would fit a lot of different settings.”

A more artful approach to this is the forthcoming system made by Soilless. The company is the brainchild of Westen Johnson and Julie Joo, two graduates of the Rhode Island School of Design who first came up with the system while they were students. The design is simple: “It’s basically a big bag,” says Johnson. He explains that the bag consists of two layers that seal together similarly to a pool float, except instead of being inflated with air, it’s water. The vertical system can grow up to 23 plants. It hangs from a rod with an LED lighting fixture attached and looks like something you'd see hanging in a high-end loft. “It's basically something that a normal person can afford and eat off of that's like a living piece of art in your home,” says Johnson. When the system launches, it’ll retail for around $200.

There's a System for Every Space

You don't need a suburban house with ample space in order to make room for a hydroponic gardening system. In Atlanta, Greg Crafter founded Produce’d with the urban dweller in mind. “For an urbanite, space is very limited and comes at a premium So you want to utilize it and maximize it the best way you can,” says Crafter. People testing his system, which will launch in Atlanta this summer, keep it everywhere from their office to their living room.

If space is just too tight, there are tabletop options too. Rise has a personal garden system that grows 12 plants, but others include Edn which grows 10 plants, down to the petite Sprout by Aero Garden, which grows three plants (perfect for kitchen herbs). These smaller systems will probably not replace the produce you buy at the grocery store, but it’s a good way to supplement things like herbs.

Plants Are Good for Your Mental Health

Spending so much time at home has made us rethink our indoor spaces. We’re surrounded by square shapes and hard lines, which, whether we know it or not, has our brains longing for something akin to nature. It’s why more people are turning to biophilic (love of life) design, which focuses on incorporating nature into indoor spaces. “There are certain patterns and forms and sights and sounds that we encounter in the natural world that give us a positive physiological response,” explains Jennifer Bissonnette, the interim director of RISD’s Nature Lab. From the sound of running water to the aroma of basil, biophilic design elements can help reduce stress, lower blood pressure, and improve overall happiness, says Bissonnette.

While being a “plant parent” is a familiar Instagram trope, it applies to hydroponic plant owners too. Hydroponic systems don't necessarily require the same amount of daily attention that a houseplant might, but engaging with these plants makes us feel connected to them. “I can't stress that enough: It’s wonderful to have it in your living environment, but there's something about engaging with another living thing and understanding that you're in a relationship with it. I think that's a marvelous thing for us,” says Bissonnette.

In a continuous loop of Zoom calls and reruns of The Office, these systems can also help you feel grounded. For Edmisten, checking on her plants is part of her daily routine. “It’s just a focused escape. The escape isn't going somewhere else, it's getting connected to where you are,” says Edmisten.

Tech Offers Faster, Foolproof Growing

Want produce quickly? Then hydroponic growing is definitely for you. “The plants grow twice as fast, because the nutrients are being supplied right to the roots. You can have a smaller garden and still produce a lot more food with it,” says Johnson.

As an added bonus, many of these systems connect with apps that make it harder to kill your plants. Rise, for example, has users enter which plants they’re growing on the app, and then it tracks the water levels, pH balance, and sets the lighting schedule. “We tell you when to do it, how to do it, how much. You really don't need to be techie,” says Adams.

Lia Picard is an Atlanta-based freelance writer who loves exploring all things food and design.

Lead Photo: COURTESY OF RISE GARDENS

AeroFarms Rebranding Retail Product Line

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May 4, 2021

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NEWARK, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–AeroFarms, a certified B Corporation and leader in indoor vertical farming, today announced a new brand identity for AeroFarms and the rebranding of its Dream Greens retail brand to AeroFarms, uniting its mission and activities under one fresh, powerful identity that celebrates its leadership for indoor vertical farming and a brighter future for all.

Since 2004, AeroFarms has been the world trailblazer for technology-enabled controlled environment agriculture and has won over 50 awards for its leadership for innovation, sustainability, and food — including being honored today by Fast Company for its World-Changing Ideas for the 4th year in a row.

Honoring its legacy as farmers and agriculture innovators, AeroFarms’ mission today is bigger and bolder than ever: to grow the best plants possible for the betterment of humanity, using proprietary aeroponics and indoor vertical farming technologies to solve agriculture’s biggest challenges and grow the most delicious produce for its communities.

The blue and green colors of the new AeroFarms logo represent the core elements of growing – water and plants – as well as AeroFarms’ environmental stewardship of Mother Earth, that includes using up to 95% less water and zero pesticides versus traditional and organic field farming.

The unique floating “E” design represents AeroFarms’ expertise in indoor vertical farming and continued work to raise the bar today and for generations to come for agriculture and business overall.

Confident and assertive, the lettering is a modern Gotham font in all capitals that is very straightforward with an engineering quality that speaks to AeroFarms’ leadership and science-driven history while still being sophisticated.

In essence, the font sensibility reflects AeroFarms’ bold positioning for years to come. AeroFarms’ expertise in plant biology and the broader farming industry is captured further in its new tagline Agriculture, Elevated.

AeroFarms starts by selecting the most flavorful varietals of microgreens and baby greens, then perfects them in its proprietary indoor vertical farms for optimal quality, yield, color, nutrition, texture, and taste.

In fact, AeroFarms has trademarked Vertical Farming, Elevated Flavor™ to highlight to consumers not only where and how their food is grown, but also, more importantly, the key growing benefits that AeroFarms uniquely brings to the market, setting a new culinary standard with millions of data points to prove it.

AeroFarms is able to grow its kale to be sweeter and its arugula to be perfectly peppery, and the Company has developed its signature FlavorSpectrum™ to represent the breadth of flavors and hundreds of varieties of leafy greens that it is able to grow.

AeroFarms’ team of experts from horticulturists to engineers to data scientists to nutritionists paired each specific tasting note with a representative color to bring the FlavorSpectrum™ philosophy to life. Across its leafy greens packaging line, the cool blue tones represent sweet and mellow notes, while the intense reds represent bold and zesty flavors.

In addition, AeroFarms’ new packaging design for its sealed tray that is made with 40% less plastic than a traditional clamshell, was developed with rounds of primary consumer research and collaboration with key selling partners. The breakthrough packaging design boasts the largest clear window in the entire packaged salads category.

As a result, the leafy greens are showcased, allowing the product to be the hero to signal the ultimate in freshness and flavor. Major consumer attributes like sustainably grown indoors, no pesticides ever, locally grown, no washing needed, and non-GMO are highlighted in a clean presentation for the consumer, and AeroFarms’ expertise in flavor is brought to life through its descriptive product tasting notes and its “Taste our Difference” invitation to the consumer.

AeroFarms’ leadership in authenticity and transparency (also represented by the clear window) is reinforced by the grown with purpose messaging and by the logo for Certified B Corporation, that provides a scorecard on both environmental and societal factors.

The new elevated AeroFarms branded leafy greens will continue to be available at Northeast Whole Foods Market and ShopRite locations, and online via FreshDirect and Amazon Fresh. Baldor will continue to serve as the brand’s primary retail and foodservice distribution partner in the Northeast.

“Now more than ever, customers want to have an emotional and values-based connection to their food. They want to know and understand where their food comes from, how it’s grown and what it stands for,” said David Rosenberg, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. “We are excited to roll out the new look of our namesake brand with the same delicious, sustainably grown local greens that consistently win on quality, texture, and flavor. The AeroFarms brand further connects our customers to our team of growers and plant scientists, and our leading sustainable farming technology platform, that yields annual productivity up to 390 times greater than traditional field farming, while using up to 95% less water and zero pesticides.”

AeroFarms also recently announced the groundbreaking of its next commercial indoor vertical farm in Danville-Pittsylvania County, Virginia. AeroFarms’ next-generation Model 5 farm will be the largest and most technologically advanced aeroponic indoor vertical farm in the world. Strategically located in close proximity to more than 1,000 food retailers in the region, the Danville farm will provide access to approximately 50 million people located within a day’s drive. The new farm will advance AeroFarms’ leadership in plant science and technology and expand its leafy greens business to the Mid-Atlantic and South regions.

About AeroFarms

Since 2004, AeroFarms 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 Company 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 in Food, 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 ever versus traditional field farming. AeroFarms enables local production to safely grow all year round, using vertical farming for elevated flavor. In addition, through its proprietary growing technology platform, 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: AeroFarms.

Tagged aerofarms, retail

AeroFarms CEO Rosenberg Kicks Off Indoor Ag-Con 2021 Keynote Address

Rosenberg Headlines Full Roster of Keynotes, Panels, Networking & Expo Floor Innovations For In-Person October 4-5, 2021 Edition In Orlando

MAY 6, 2021  -- AeroFarms CEO David Rosenberg will lead the opening morning keynote address for the 8th annual edition of Indoor Ag-Con, scheduled for October 4-5, 2021 at the Hilton Orlando, Florida.

Themed “Growing Your Business,” the premier trade show and conference for the indoor |vertical farming industry will give attendees the opportunity to explore new resources on the expo floor and hear from Rosenberg, other CEOs, thought leaders and industry experts from today’s cutting-edge farms and other innovative companies.

“We are thrilled to have an industry leader like David Rosenberg join us as we kick off our return to the live event format,” says Brian Sullivan, co-owner, Indoor Ag-Con LLC along with other event industry veterans Nancy Hallberg and Kris Sieradzki. “We look forward to gathering with our industry colleagues again and are working hard to bring the best possible combination of networking, education and exhibition opportunities together in Orlando.”

Scheduled for opening morning, October 4, Rosenberg’s address will be held from 8:30 am – 9:20 am. Rosenberg co-founded and leads AeroFarms. AeroFarms has been leading the way for indoor vertical farming and championing transformational innovation for agriculture overall. On a mission to grow the best plants possible for the betterment of humanity, AeroFarms is a Certified B Corp Company with global headquarters in Newark, New Jersey, United States. Named one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company three 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 vs. traditional field farming. Grown for flavor first, AeroFarms enables local production to safely grow flavorful baby greens and microgreens all year round.

ROBUST 2021 CONFERENCE SCHEDULE NOW IN DEVELOPMENT

In addition to Rosenberg’s keynote, look for additional announcements coming soon on other CEO keynote presentations planned for the October event. The 2021 conference will also include a full roster of panel discussions, fireside chats and presentations offering a deep dive into three core tracks – Business & Marketing, Science & Technology and Alternative Crops.

In addition to the extensive educational component, attendees will find more new initiatives and show highlights to explore, including:

NEW LOCATION: HILTON ORLANDO – DISCOUNTED HOTEL RATES, TOO

Indoor Ag-Con’s Hilton Orlando venue makes it the perfect opportunity for a business vacation. Centrally located to all major theme parks and attractions, it is just minutes from the eclectic dining scene and entertainment of International Drive. What’s more, the Hilton Orlando resort sits on more than 26 acres of lush landscaping and tropical inspirations making it a true destination of its own. Indoor Ag-Con has arranged for discounted hotel rates for attendees and exhibitors starting as low as $129/night. Complete details are available on the show website.

NEW ASSOCIATION ALLIANCES

Indoor Ag-Con is also forging new alliances with other events, industry associations/groups that will play an integral role in its marketing outreach and conference programming. Look for partnership announcements coming soon.

EXPANDED EXHIBIT FLOOR & NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES

The Indoor Ag-Con team is working to bring even more resources for farmers/growers to explore across all sectors – everything from IT, energy, AI and lighting solutions to substrates, vertical farming solutions, business services and much more. Attendees and exhibitors alike will also have even more networking opportunities with daily luncheon sessions and receptions on the show floor.

QUICK FACTS:

WHEN: Monday, October 4 – Tuesday, October 5

WHERE: Hilton Orlando, 6001 Destination Pkwy, Orlando, FL 32819

INFO: For information on exhibiting or attending visit www.indoor.ag

ABOUT INDOOR AG-CON LLC

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

US: INDIANA - Indianapolis Indoor Farm Packages Leafy Greens To Uplift East Side

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by: David Williams

May 7, 2021

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — An indoor-farming facility using cutting-edge technology is bringing new food options to the city’s east side.

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Uplift Produce grows, harvests, and packages leafy greens in a renovated 60,000-square-foot facility in Indianapolis.

“We say that we’re fresh-to-market in hours and the reason for that is we actually harvest, pack, and ship within a matter of a few hours into distribution channels,” Chris Arnold, CEO of Uplift Produce, said Friday.

Keith Cooper, Uplift Produce location manager, said depending on the product, they grow from seed to finish in 14-21 days, with a “100% controlled environment. So, we’re controlling the CO2, the humidity, and temperature to be exactly at the set points that the plant needs.”

The business is a joint venture with a Dutch company called PlantLab. The first product launched from the Indianapolis facility in October. Arnold said the company is committed to uplifting the community.

“It’s working well here in Indianapolis to have that partnership, meaning that every dollar that’s ever made here, a portion of those goes directly right back here into the community,” Arnold said.

They’ve got 11 employees right now. Uplift produce donates about 150 pounds of food a week to places that include Second Helpings hunger relief and the Cafe Patachou Foundation. This area is in the midst of revitalization.

“Everything that we do is really centered around, ‘How do we uplift people and the whole community support?’ Really that partnership with Englewood and the work that the folks at the Englewood Community Development Corporation are doing here in the community, we’re really just trying to equip them to continue to do the work that they do,” Arnold said.

Arnold said he is called to do this work — not only to feed people but also to help this area.

“Our desire is that people would be able to just live, work and play in this neighborhood. Be able to directly walk into work and never have to get in a car,” Arnold said.

The Englewood Community Development Corporation is an ownership partner, Arnold said. The facility is housed at the historic P.R. Mallory campus, inside the Bunker Building.

Arnold told News 8 there are plans to expand the facility even more by the end of this year and bring an additional 20 jobs to Indianapolis.

Uplift Produce has facilities in seven different states and several cities. You can find their products online at Green Bean Delivery and hope to sell on retail shelves in Indianapolis soon.

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USA: INDIANA - 5 Acres of Food In 80 Feet: Urban Farmer Grows A Garden In The Heart of Indianapolis

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London Gibson

May 6, 2021

An unassuming plot of land sits on the eastside of Indianapolis on 30th Street. From the outside, it looks like an empty lot with a couple of shipping containers on it. But inside those containers is an entire garden. 

And among the plants, you can find DeMario Vitalis.

Vitalis is the first in Indiana to own a hydroponic farm inside of a shipping container. The unique method involves planting seedlings of plants such as herbs and lettuces on vertical panels and feeding them controlled levels of water, nutrients, and light — no soil required.

It’s a mode of farming uniquely suited for urban environments. Vitalis is able to produce almost 5 acres of food a year from two 40-foot shipping containers. It also uses 99% less water than traditional farming, according to the company that makes the containers.

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Vitalis sells his fresh herbs, lettuces, and more to people in the community through online platforms such as Market Wagon.

The climate control is a huge advantage for Vitalis, who set up his farm, called New Age Provisions, in the latter half of last year. Regardless of the outside weather, he can grow anything he wants.

“It can be 30 degrees outside and raining,” he said, “but inside it’s 65 degrees. In here I’m watching Netflix and planting seeds.”

Even though he now spends much of his time dedicated to plants, Vitalis wasn’t a farmer when he started all of this. He was just an entrepreneur looking for his next project, and farming — which connected to his history as a descendent of enslaved people and Southern sharecroppers — felt like the right choice. 

“It was just a way to become an entrepreneur,” he said, “and also get back into the type of occupation my ancestors once had.”

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‘It’s in his blood’

Vitalis was looking for something that would put a piece of property he owned to use, and he had a hunch shipping containers were key. 

At first, he thought he would set up some modular tiny homes built out of containers. But then he came across Freight Farms, a Boston-based company that could cram 2.5 acres of production into one shipping container, and the decision was made. 

Although born in San Francisco, Vitalis’ family is originally from the South, and he moved around quite a bit before settling in Indiana. 

“Three of my four grandparents started off from the South,” Vitalis said, “So we were part of that Black migration when we moved eventually from the South to San Francisco on the West Coast.”

After living in Germany, Kansas, and other places as his stepfather moved around with the military, Vitalis’ mother decided to move him to Indianapolis, where he stayed and attended Arlington High School and Purdue University.

Vitalis’ mother Barbara Johnson is a cook, so food has always been important to the family. And the herbs and vegetables grown by her son, she said, are “absolutely wonderful.”

“I just believe that you can always inspire a person with a good meal,” she said.

Even so, farming or food production was never anything they did at home, she said. But she knows it’s something he feels close to because of the family’s history.

“I guess it was just in his blood,” she said.

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Vitalis was one of the first Black owners of a Freight Farms shipping container in the country, said Caroline Katsiroubas, marketing, and communications director for the company. 

“He, in particular, wanted to be a catalyst for more Black farmers to join the Freight Farming community,” she said, “and I’ve definitely seen the impact.”

Overcoming learning, funding hurdles

It wasn’t easy learning how to grow food. 

Despite two degrees from Purdue University, Vitalis doesn’t have a background in farming and had to put himself through some education before diving into his urban farm. He took online classes and even visited Freight Farms in Boston to learn about the equipment and process. 

“It does take a learning curve,” he said. “It’s not easy to learn how to farm; you have to learn how to react to the plants.”

Sometimes his daughter will help him with the planting. Johnson, too, will help out and trim plants, clean or help with planting, and occasionally brings her grandson along. Understanding how the farm works was a learning curve for her, too.

“I didn’t know anything about hydroponic farming,” she said. “When I saw that wall of plants, I didn’t think it was possible.”

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Funding was another obstacle. The farms cost $100,000 each. 

After some research, Vitalis found that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will supply loans for these types of businesses, so he requested $50,000 to help him pay for one container and was promptly denied. 

The people evaluating the profitability of these containers simply didn’t understand how it worked or how much it could produce, he said. But instead of giving up, he pushed back. Black farmers have historically been discriminated against when trying to obtain USDA loans, and he was motivated to make sure his business plan was being fairly evaluated.

“There’s a history behind that,” he said. “I was just one of many.” 

Vitalis appealed the decision and won. Then, he turned around and asked for $200,000 instead — and got it.

Finally one day, a semi-trailer pulled up outside his property with the containers, picked them up with an enormous crane, and plopped them right down behind the nearby building.

“It was pretty interesting to see a big old 40-foot container fly over a building,” Vitalis said. “It was not easy, but you know, God was on my side and I was able to get through the hurdles that were put in my way.”

How hydroponics works

In a hydroponic farm, everything is vertical — and everything is controlled. 

At first, the plants start as seedlings or seeds and are placed on shelves under LED lights, and water flushed with nutrients is dispensed to them with attached machines. 

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After a few weeks, the plants are large enough to transfer to a series of vertical panels that roll along tracks. These panels are also connected to machines for dosing water and nutrients and placed in between LED lights. The water circulating through the plants is saved and re-cycled through the system, conserving water and nutrients.

Although space may seem tight, one container can output the equivalent of 1,000 heads of lettuce each week, Katsiroubas said.

And throughout the whole process, Vitalis controls the light, temperature, nutrients, and water. The plants live in a perfectly contained ecosystem that’s never under threat from drought, flooding or pests. 

“It has its own brain,” Vitalis said. 

It’s a big advantage, he said, because he can grow food year-round and he doesn’t have to worry about pesticides or herbicides. It’s also “hyper-local,” he said. When he gets an order, the food comes from the planter into the customer’s hands within a matter of hours.

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David Bosley, Vitalis’ former boss at Cummins, Inc., used Vitalis’ greens for his Thanksgiving meal and said he was impressed by the packaging and freshness. At first, he said, the idea of a hydroponics farm was surprising.

“I thought it was rather novel,” he said, “but I also thought, well that’s just like DeMario.”

Nobody was surprised that Vitalis made New Age Provisions happen. 

He’s always been one to tackle a project without giving up, Bosley said. And he’s always been a trailblazer and hard worker, his mother said. She thinks it’s something he may have picked up from her, since she worked multiple jobs and attended school while caring for him and his siblings.

“I’m even more amazed with my son,” Johnson said. “He‘s satisfying a need in the community and following a dream. It was his vision and he brought it to fruition.”

Contact IndyStar reporter London Gibson at 317-419-1912 or lbgibson@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @londongibson. 

Connect with IndyStar’s environmental reporters: Join The Scrub on Facebook.

IndyStar's environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.

HighQuest Events – Global AgInvesting, WIA Summit, Organic & Non-GMO Forum – Return To In-Person

BOSTON (May 5, 2021) – It’s time to reconnect! Global ag event, consulting and media firm HighQuest Partners has announced that it will return to in-person events in the second half of 2021.

The company will once again bring together the communities of Global AgInvesting, Women in Agribusiness, and the Organic & Non-GMO Forum for unparalleled onsite networking and engagement at its next events, all while respecting current safety guidelines and instituting unique ways of bridging relationships and partnerships in the agribusiness and investing sectors. Most events also will offer a virtual option for those who are not able to attend the live events.

Global AgInvesting On the Green

Just outside NYC, July 13-15

“Despite an extraordinary year of challenges, the GAI community did not waver in its commitment to agricultural advancements and investments,” said Kate Westfall, chief operating officer for the Ag Investing Division. “We are very excited to bring everyone together again this summer in a safe and unique way, and have had an overwhelming response from attendees eager to join us and reconnect.”

The 13th annual Global AgInvesting conference will be held July 13-15 at the Sleepy Hollow Country Club, just an hour north of NYC. Sessions and networking will take place in a professional, covered outdoor setting overlooking the Hudson River and a top 50 golf course,

with plenty of opportunities for al fresco meetings. Preliminary agenda topics include international deal flow in the ag sector, the growth of carbon sequestration/monetization, regenerative farming, agtech investment and adoption, the role of PE and a broad range of agriculture investment vehicles, and many more current themes in the burgeoning sector. Visit globalaginvesting.com to register or for more details.

Women in Agribusiness Summit

Minneapolis, September 21-23

Women in Agribusiness initiatives have fostered a year-round community of engaged executives, leaders and professional women through its distinctive virtual event offerings, its WIA Meet Ups, and informative webinars. “

Our goal is always to provide as much value to as much of our community as possible, so, for our 10th anniversary Summit, we’ve decided to host it both in-person and virtually to ensure that anyone who wants to attend can,” said Joy O’Shaughnessy, chief operating officer for HighQuest’s Agribus

The 10th anniversary Women in Agribusiness Summit, September 21-23, will be held at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis on Nicollet Mall. Discussions will ensue on innovations in the sector, the supply chain crisis and sustainability, as well as the annual highlights of the executive profiles panel and industry tour. Register and learn more at womeninag.com.

Organic & Non-GMO Forum

Minneapolis, December 1-2

The Organic & Non-GMO Forum is the event that is the source for conventional food and ag businesses to learn about the opportunities in the organic and non-GMO industries. Now in its seventh year, the event returns to Minneapolis at the Hyatt Regency on December 1-2.

Producers, processors, manufacturers, buyers and more will convene to consider the potential in these growing sectors, where sales of certified organic food products in the U.S. alone more than doubled to $7.6 billion from 2011 to 2016. Likewise, the global non-GMO food market is expected to reach $2.76 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 16.5 percent. A plethora of current topics will be presented and examined by expert industry speakers. Learn more at ongforum.com.

A 10 percent discount on registration is offered to all of these events by using the code: HQ10 at check out.

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Indoor Ag Science Cafe May 18th

May Indoor Ag Science Cafe

May 18th Tuesday 11 AM Eastern Time

Please sign up!

"Smart Sensors For Indoor Farming"

by Dr. Krishna Nemali
Purdue University

• Please sign up to receive the Zoom link.

• Indoor Ag Science Cafe is an open discussion forum, planned and organized by OptimIA project team supported by USDA SCRI grants.

Sign Up Here

Transparent Solar Cells Boost Lettuce Farming While Decreasing Energy Use

New research found transparent solar cells can help greenhouse growers generate electricity and reduce energy use while cultivating crops

Dimitris Mavrokefalidis

29 April 2021

Greenhouse farming of lettuce can be sustainable and energy-efficient under transparent solar cells.

That’s according to a new study by a team of researchers at North Carolina State University, which suggests semi-transparent organic solar cells (OSCs) can help greenhouse growers generate electricity, reduce energy use and cultivate lettuce.

Researchers, who have worked with the organic photovoltaic cell company NextGen Nano, believe OSCs provide a way for greenhouse cultivation without the large energy demands traditionally associated with it.

Published in Cell Reports Physical Science, the research found that red lettuce can be grown in greenhouses with OSCs that filter out the wavelengths of light used to generate solar power.

This means it is feasible to use transparent solar panels in greenhouses to cover their high electricity needs while not shrinking the crop yield.

Doctor Carr Ho, Research Scientist at NextGen Nano, said: “Greenhouses are used to grow plants because they drastically increase yield in non-native climates while lowering water consumption and pesticide use compared to conventional farming.

“But greenhouse glazing has poor thermal insulation, so heating and ventilation systems need to be installed to help maintain optimal conditions. Along with supplemental lighting, this lights to large, unsustainable energy consumptions.”

Lead Image: North Carolina State University

Growing Drought: USDA Indicates 14 States Have No Topsoil Moisture In Surplus Conditions

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By TYNE MORGAN May 3, 2021

Drier weather helped aid major planting progress for U.S. farmers last week, but it didn’t help the topsoil moisture situation.

USDA's latest Crop Progress report indicates 55% of the U.S. topsoil is considered ‘adequate,’ which is 10 points worse than this time last year. It also indicated soil moisture deteriorated from last week, when the U.S. had 59% of the topsoil in ‘adequate’ condition.

USDA shows 14 states have no topsoil moisture considered ‘surplus,’ which includes California Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

More than half of the topsoil in California, North Dakota, and New Mexico is considered ‘very short,’ which is the driest category and echoes the latest U.S. Drought Monitor that showed dry conditions intensified in the Upper Midwest. 

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The Climate Prediction Center’s Monthly Drought Outlook shows expectations for drought to remain parked in the West, but it’s also expected to worsen across portions of northern Iowa and Wisconsin. While CPC expects drought relief to hit southern Michigan fields, forecasters expect drought to persist across northern Michigan.  

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In the latest report, CPC did show some slightly good news for drought conditions.  

“Heavy precipitation during late April and into the beginning of May is likely to result in either drought removal or improvement across northeast Colorado along with central to eastern Texas,” the CPC in its monthly outlook. “Persistence is likely for western Texas and also throughout the long-term drought areas of the West. Recent dryness and elevated probabilities of below-normal precipitation and above normal temperatures during May favor a return of drought to northwest Oklahoma and parts of the Texas Panhandle. Development is also favored to occur across southern Idaho and eastern Oregon by the end of May.”

Lead photo: Topsoil Moisture in Short or Very Short Condition (Source: USDA, NASS; Photo & Graphic: Lindsey Pound)

USA: CONNECTICUT - Killingly High School Breaks Down How Adding A ‘Hydroponics’ And ‘Aquaponics’ Class Encourages Sustainability

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WHAT’S RIGHT WITH SCHOOLS

by: Mackenzie Maynard

May 6, 2021

KILLINGLY, Conn. (WTNH) — At Killingly High School over the past few years, they’ve truly enhanced their Agriculture Education Program. They’ve added a hydroponics and aquaponics class to help encourage sustainability.  

Beth Knowlton is a plant science teacher at Killingly and has been for about fifteen years. She tells News 8 hydroponics is a fairly new career in the AG industry, “The future holds us growing plants in warehouse buildings and things in inner cities so we can provide a local food source.”  

It’s a unique way of agriculture, that relies solely on the light and water in the greenhouse, using no soil at all.   

They grow everything from cucumbers to tomatoes and kale.  

They’re hoping to add to their hydroponics greenhouse, a misting system. They’ll be able to plant strawberries and have their roots continually misted from the inside, helping them grow.  

Just down the hall, Courtney Cardinal teaches her aquaponics students the ways to use fish waste to grow plants.  

The setup for aquaponics is a little different, plants grow in gravel beds connected to a water source that comes from pools full of tilapia. As the gravel beds fill and drain, the nutrients are brought to the roots of the plants.  

They use hundreds of tilapia fish to water the plants. Cardinal says, “One input of the fish food is actually growing two products. So we’re growing both the fish, the filets of the fish, and then the waste is being reused to grow plants.”  

The major nutrient the plants need is Nitrogen, and they get that from the fish waste. Non-traditional but efficient ways to grow food and adjust to the advancing industry. 

USA: WASHINGTON - Lacey Is Home To The Largest Vertical Farm On The West Coast

The Future of Farming Is Happening

Right Now In This 25,000 Square Foot Warehouse.

Author: Saint Bryan

May 6, 2021

LACEY, Wash. — Though it looks like the set of some far-out science fiction fantasy, with bright walls of light and characters dressed in medical gowns, this is actually a farm growing six different kinds of lettuce inside a 25-thousand square foot warehouse located in a Lacey Business Park.

“In the beginning, it was always our goal to find a better way to grow healthier and more nutritious food for families,” says Bryce Clemmer who owns NW Farms with his wife Andrea. It’s the largest vertical farm in the Northwest.

Here they can grow 6 million heads of lettuce a year, using just 2 percent of the water an outdoor farm would need.

“This is a unique combination of robotics, software but also hardware that ultimately makes growing food at large scale possible,” says Clemmer, who is an engineer. He’s invented a few proprietary systems that make this vertical farm unlike any other.

“We've created a perfect environment for plants to grow,” he says.

Everything is monitored here: the temperature, the humidity, the light, the nutrients that go into the water. The result is produce that grows three times faster indoors than outside. The lettuce needs just 20 days from planting to be ready for your table.

“We have experimented with growing everything from strawberries and blueberries to edamame and any type of herbs that you can imagine,” says Clemmer. The only produce he can't imagine growing here are pineapples and pumpkins.

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A NW Farms employee prepares to plant lettuce. Credit: KING TV

There are no overalls or John Deere caps here. All farmhands are gowned up, with hairnets and food handling gloves.

“So food safety, the handling, and the overall environment is the cleanest in which it can be,” says Clemmer.

“It's all-natural and healthy,” adds Andrea Clemmer.

She says other farms may rely on pesticides. And with farms so far away from our supermarkets, half of all produce gets thrown out. That doesn’t happen here.

“When our product is pulled off the towers it goes right into the bag, and it's in the store the same day so it's fresh same day and it is still living,” she says.

As the world’s population grows and more pressure is put on natural resources vertical farmers say they may have the key that prevents hunger and famine in the future.

“We have to figure out how to grow reliably and sustainably fresh food that's nutritious for everybody,” says Bryce Clemmer.

KING 5's Evening celebrates the Northwest. Contact us: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Email.

Robotic Warehouse Farms Will Save The World

by Elle Griffin

April 13, 20211

Four years ago, Ritch Wood was looking for a better way to grow plants. As the CEO of global skincare company Nu Skin, he ran into ingredient shortages every winter when fields went dormant―and when he moved grow operations to the equator he ran into water and land shortages, along with a host of quality control issues. 

Nu Skin needed reliable, quality ingredients for their skincare products. But farming was too unpredictable an industry. “If there was a way to grow indoors,” he thought, “and be able to do that 24 hours a day, 365 days a year―if we could guarantee that it was grown without any herbicides or pesticides and in a sustainable way that uses less water and land―that would be really helpful.”

At the time, controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) was in its infancy and grow-light technology had yet to take a turn for the more affordable. When he learned of an agricultural system that promised to use a fraction of the land and water used by traditional agriculture methods and had the potential to make it more affordable, Wood made an investment. 

Nu Skin paid $3 million for 70 percent of the company and rights to its IP―and Grōv Technologies was born. 

Grōv grass grown in the Olympus machine at the Bateman Mosida Farms. Photo from Grōv Technologies

Controlled-environment agriculture is on the rise

The theory behind CEA is that by controlling the environment in which it grows, we can control everything about a plant and what it grows into by micro-tweaking one of a thousand different characteristics―including temperature, humidity, light duration, light wavelength, dissolved oxygen in the water, and carbon dioxide saturation in the air. By tweaking the growing cycle, we can control the caloric content as well as the nutrient content and density of the plant. 

“What we’ve learned through controlled-environment agriculture,” Benjamin Swan, co-founder and CEO at Sustenir in Singapore, once told National Geographic, “[is] we can actually emphasize certain characteristics of the plants. So, without using GMO, we can make our kale softer, we can actually make it sweet.” 

The theoretical use cases for this technology are endless―from being able to grow in places where water is scarce (like in much of Africa), or where water is overly abundant (like Hawaii), or in places where labor is scarce (like in parts of Asia), or even in places that have long winters (like Northern Europe). Theoretically, we could have grow towers in every town and feed the whole of it no matter its natural environment. 

We could even grow those foods to those cities’ exact nutritional needs―more vitamin D-rich foods in wintery places, for example. Dr. Lee Mun Wei, a senior manager at the Food Innovation and Resource Centre (FIRC) in Singapore aims to predict and prevent illness in a given population by tracking their biometric data using Apple watch-like wearables, then 3D printing nutrient-specific foods that could mitigate imbalances. 

Though these technologies exist, they are still in their infancy. Singapore leads much of the research and development out of necessity. With limited land and water resources, the county is forced to import 90 percent of their food and 40 percent of their water from outside the country. As a result, they have no option but to grow vertically and desalinate water from the ocean. 

Elsewhere, the industry has been slow to catch on, largely due to exorbitant startup costs, low returns, and lack of urgent need. According to a 2017 State of Farming report by L.E.K., only 27 percent of indoor, vertical farms are profitable compared with 50 percent of container farms and 75 percent of greenhouses. But one thing has spurred the industry on in recent years: cannabis. 

Legalized in 39 states, demand for cannabis has created a $13.6 billion industry and enough capital to fund CEA-enabled grow operations. “When you have a crop that fetches up to $2,400 or $2,500 a pound, you need to be able to dial everything in and make it consistent and repeatable,” says Dashiel Kulander, co-founder and CEO at Boojum Group. “If the temperature swings five to 10 degrees on a cannabis plant, that will change the plant’s various cannabinoids. The goal is to create a medicine that is consistent batch after batch.” 

It’s only recently that there has been some financial incentive to use CEA technologies for food use―largely driven by Big Ag players hoping to hedge out the competition. Berry farming giant Driscoll’s, for one, led a $500 million round to fund Plenty, a 2.2-acre vertical farm in California they hope will help them fulfill a contract with Albertsons. The Ingka Group, for another, led a $100 million round to fund AeroFarms, a 2.4-acre vertical farm in New Jersey that will help them fulfill a contract with Singapore Airlines. 

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Grōv tent at the Bateman Mosida Farms. Photo from Grōv Technologies

Grōv Tech is building CEA prototypes in Utah

By investing in Grōv Tech, Nu Skin hopes to do something similar, getting ahead of the supply chain that fuels their skincare products before the competition can beat them to it, or before climate change makes traditional methods more difficult, all while shoring up technology that could provide a farming model that is more sustainable―if only it were more economical.  

“The purpose was always, can we build a better product for Nu Skin?” Wood says. “We think there’s a huge story around the ingredient sustainability, and there were a lot of ingredients we felt we could grow, but the challenge was: could we do it in an economical way?”

Grōv Tech started out with a prototype: a tower that pairs hydroponic growing technology with grow lights. But like all CEA startups, a lot of the growing process was manual and the technology was prohibitively expensive. To make something that was scalable and profitable the whole thing needed to be automated and it needed to be cheap. 

With this goal in mind, Wood decided they would start by growing animal feed for Bateman’s Dairy farm. Having grown up on a dairy farm himself, Wood figured this would allow the company to scale the product while refining and automating the technology to the point that it could be replicated. And all of this would have a fortuitous effect on Nu Skin’s bottom line. 

“One of our bestselling products is a weight-loss protein powder which uses whey protein,” Wood says. “So again, a very nice connection there is if the animal is eating a more sustainable product and producing better milk with better protein and it’s being done in a sustainable way―certainly that can be a benefit to Nu Skin down the road.”

One year into feeding the 20,000 animals at Bateman, the company has learned a lot. For instance: cows need a lot of magnesium, but they don’t like eating it. Now, Grōv Tech puts magnesium in the water so it’s directly absorbed into the plant and then becomes bioavailable to the cow upon eating it. And because the growing process only takes seven days, data scientists can analyze the results in real-time and adjust the components to optimize production for the next batch of feed. 

According to Grōv Tech president Steven Lindsley, it’s not far off that we’ll be looking at milk production (butter, fats, and proteins) and optimizing a herd’s diet for taste, quality, and nutritional value―not to mention the wellbeing of the animal. We’ll be able to look at how many trips from the veterinarian an animal gets when they’re fed certain nutrients in their diet, and whether they can have more calves and produce the same amount of dairy on less, better quality feed. (So far, the answer to this last question is yes. When animals are fed better quality food they need less of it―just like humans.) 

And if we hook all of the cows up to robotic milking equipment and connect everything to artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the Internet of Things―Lindsley’s far-flung goal―then we might be able to collect enough data to not only feed cows to their optimum health and performance ability, but humans too. And that could have ramifications not only for feeding the world, but nourishing it― just like Dr. Wei hopes to do in Singapore.  

“Last year was about starting to feed animals and get data and prove out the hypothesis we have while continuing to perfect the technology and get confidence there,” Wood says. “And now we’re really to a point where we’ve got data that proves that it works and that financially it’ll be a good thing for a farmer. So now we can really take that proposition to farmers and start to scale.”

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Olympus Tower Farm at Bateman Farms in Mosida, UT. Photo from Grōv Technologies

CEA technology could feed the world

Right now, Grōv Tech is focused on refining its technology right here in our own backyard. But once they do that, the plan is to expand internationally. 

“Saudi Arabia has actually passed a law where you cannot use water to grow fodder or feed for animals, so all of that now has to be imported. China imports one-third of their alfalfa feed for their dairy animals because they don’t have the capability of growing it,” Wood says. “So there are countries that will probably benefit more than the US would. But we’ve got to refine the technology and get that built to where it’s ready to scale before we start spreading ourselves all around the globe.”

CEA technology is just getting started. Like the Tesla Cybertruck, we have a working concept that promises a more-than-Jetson’s-level future many of us can see the benefits of and actively want―it’s just not quite available to the masses yet. But with more than a billion dollars invested in the technology in just the past few years alone―we’re getting there. And the “there” we are heading toward is rosy indeed. 

“To put it in perspective, one tower that is about 875 square feet on the ground will replace 35 to 50 acres of land,” says Lindsley. “And that will feed the animals on roughly five percent of the amount of water. The UN says that that the world will add about 2.5 billion people in the next 30 years. And we have to find a way to feed them on arguably less arable land and water. The good news is the technology is coming along to help solve that equation.”

If COVID-19 taught us anything, it’s that our food supply chain is fragile. But that’s only because our supply chain was built to grow food in California, refrigerate it so it stays fresh, then transport it 1,500 miles so we can eat a salad in the winter in Chicago. In the future, that might not be a thing. “We’re having a dry year now,” Lindsley tells me in February. “But a year ago we were in a blizzard, and even in the middle of a blizzard in February in Utah, we’re pumping out fresh, beautiful, safe green grass for animals. It’s a paradigm shift.”

“Four years ago it was a good idea,” Wood tells me of his company’s investment in CEA technology, “But four years from now it’s going to be required.”

Elle Griffin

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Elle is the editor-in-chief of Utah Business and a freelance writer for Forbes, The Muse, and The Startup. She is also a literary novelist and the author of a weekly newsletter called The Novelleist. Learn more at ellegriffin.com.

CANADA: Startup Bets 'Vertical Farms' Can Boost Quebec's Winter Berry Output

Brossard-Based Ferme d’Hiver Has Just Raised $5 million

In A So-Called "Seed Round" To Help Accelerate Its Expansion.

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Frédéric Tomesco

May 05, 2021

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Ferme d'Hiver president Alain Brisebois, right, and founder and COO Yves Daoust in the vertical farming grow room at their operation in Brossard. PHOTO BY JOHN MAHONEY /Montreal Gazette

A South Shore startup is going live with a technology it says will help Quebec growers produce tasty strawberries year-round and reduce the province’s wintertime reliance on imports.

Brossard-based Ferme d’Hiver said Wednesday it has begun building a “vertical farm” in Vaudreuil to produce pesticide-free berries starting in October. The three-year-old company has just raised $5 million in a so-called “seed round” from investors such as Investissement Québec to help accelerate its expansion, while the Quebec government chipped in with $1.7 million in loans and loan guarantees.

Standing about six metres tall, the indoor Vaudreuil facility will cover about 1,250 square metres and eventually produce 15 to 18 tons of strawberries a month, according to founder and chief operating officer Yves Daoust. That would double Quebec’s current winter berry output, he said.

Known as precision farming, Ferme d’Hiver’s technology optimizes climate conditions for indoor gardening, resulting in production and crop density per square metre that’s 15 times greater than that of a traditional greenhouse, the company says.

“This is a game-changer for the growers,” chief executive Alain Brisebois said in an interview Wednesday. “Instead of only producing seven months a year, they can now produce year-round. Our goal in Vaudreuil is to prove to the industry that our technology is not only viable, but profitable and that it can work on a large scale.”

While most growers typically use propane to produce fruits and vegetables, Ferme d’Hiver’s technology relies on electricity. As a result, the company says its solution is 30 percent more energy efficient than a typical greenhouse, which cuts capital costs by 40 percent.

When it strikes a deal with a grower, Ferme d’Hiver commits to buying 100 percent of the production and acting as a wholesaler. It has a long-term contract with IGA in Quebec to deliver at least 25 tons of strawberries every week, Daoust said.

Ferme d’Hiver has signed partnership agreements with about a dozen Quebec growers thus far, and talks are underway with additional producers to buy their output, according to Brisebois.

Within three years, the company is aiming to replace 10 percent of Quebec’s strawberry imports with the production of its grower partners.

Premier François Legault has singled out food production as one of the areas in which he wants Quebec to become self-sufficient to better insulate the province from disruptions in the global supply chain — such as the current pandemic. His government unveiled plans to invest $157 million to increase the province’s “food autonomy” in November.

“The government was very clear when they started financing us two years ago: the goal here is not to become the Amazon.com of strawberry production, but rather to create an industrial cluster around agri-foods,” Daoust said. “We want to help create a nexus of Quebec growers with specific skills in the production of winter fruits and vegetables.”

Although it’s currently unprofitable, Ferme d’Hiver plans to break even when it hits 5,000 square metres of total production capacity, the CEO said.

“Given all the discussions we’re having with producers, we’re very confident of getting to 5,000 square metres next year. Then we can start covering our expenses,” said Brisebois, a former Metro Inc. and Alimentation Couche-Tard executive. “As a startup, I would say we’ve just finished childhood. Now we’re entering adolescence.”

ftomesco@postmedia.com

AmplifiedAg Increases Better Fresh Farms Production 50% With New Indoor Farm And AmpEDGE Operating System

By AmplifiedAg

May 6, 2021

AmplifiedAg hydroponic container farm and technologies increased leafy green production over 50% for Better Fresh Farms.

AmplifiedAg, Inc. is an agtech visionary on a mission to provide global access to safe food. (PRNewsfoto/AmplifiedAg)

CHARLESTON, S.C., May 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- AmplifiedAg, Inc.®, holistic indoor farming leader with a mission to provide global access to safe food, has increased leafy green production over 50% for Metter, Georgia-based Better Fresh Farms with its automated hydroponic container farm and AmpEDGE™ proprietary Operating System. 

AmplifiedAg farms sustainably grow consistent yields of 800-1000 pounds of full head leafy greens per harvest every 3 weeks.

Founded in 2016 by Grant Anderson, Better Fresh Farms is expanding its hyperlocal produce throughout Georgia with the addition of its first AmplifiedAg farm, the company's exclusive producer of leafy greens.

Anderson said, "Our AmplifiedAg farm replaced two existing models that were fairly inefficient for our goals. The new system has optimized our production in the same square footage,"

"The software is going to help us get our arms around the whole operation; there's nothing out there really like it," added Anderson. "To have tracking processes that follow produce from growth all the way through to the sale is huge. It's been cumbersome up until now, and it will save us money in the long run to have one efficient system instead of multiple programs."

AmpEDGE uniquely combines farm production and business management for an end-to-end system. 24/7 environment controls, detailed analytics, and traceability features allow farmers to easily optimize crop growth, mitigate risk, while also tracking sales forecasts, revenue streams, and daily operations. Multi-tenant software with data-driven learning capabilities, AmpEDGE can operate any type of controlled environment.

"We grow 52 weeks a year in Georgia where the majority of the time weather is extremely hot and humid," added Grant. "We're constantly trying to adapt our systems to work in an environment that they weren't designed for. AmplifiedAg understands how to adapt their containers to different weather."

Manufactured from upcycled shipping containers, AmplifiedAg's enterprise-scale farms are built to the highest global food safety certifications. The resilient architecture allows for farming in any region regardless of resources and climate. A compact 320-square feet container design promotes ultimate segmentation and risk mitigation for reliable production.

AmplifiedAg farms sustainably grow consistent yields of 800-1000 pounds of full head leafy greens per harvest every 3 weeks. The company deploys farms 70% faster and at a fraction of the cost of other CEA implementations

"This has given us a chance to start exploring larger and more legitimate sales opportunities," added Anderson.

David Flynn is the General Manager of AmplifiedAg and leader behind the company's farm and technology production. He and his team have built and deployed over 180 farm containers that services farms across the country. This includes AmplifiedAg's Vertical Roots hydroponic container farm, with produce in nearly 1,500 stores nationwide.

"We've spent the last five years developing a platform that proves our technology and shipping container farms can be used to operate a profitable produce business at scale," said Flynn.

"We're excited to share our technologies and farms with other indoor farming experts like Grant and Better Fresh Farms, and continue to refine the indoor farming process for the future."

Learn more at www.amplifiedaginc.com.

Sri Lanka: “Ever Since We Started, Costs Have Dropped And Economics Have Improved"

“Even greenhouses are relatively new here,” says Aneeshan, one of the co-founders of Honest Greens. “There were no high-tech greenhouses to be found, until five to ten years ago. Our farm, therefore, is something rather odd here. Many people are trying to work with hybrid systems, but the main problem is high humidity and erratic weather patterns. During the monsoon seasons, humidity could hit 100%.” According to Aneeshan, this causes many problems for greenhouse farmers, therefore the company wanted to come up with something consistent and controllable.

Boosted by critics
Sanuja explains that “compared to local lettuce grown by traditional farmers, we are more expensive. However, their prices fluctuate drastically, whereas our prices are always stable.” Sanuja notes that vertical farming is new to the country and that people were initially skeptical about it. “People think that our choices are unwise, given electricity is very costly here whereas the sun can be used as a free resource. However, we also notice that many others are fascinated about the concept, as it’s something completely new and unexpected here.”

One of the co-founders, Sanuja, explains: “We’re cultivating varieties that are frequently used in the Sri Lankan cuisine. As our country is an island, there are many fluctuations in product availability and price. With our technology, we want to cater to this inconsistent supply.”

Starting in 2015, Honest Greens has been cultivating several greens inside their farm, which is based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. As the team was new to the industry, they literately took the time to experiment, improve and build up the growing system by themselves. Ever since 2019, their products can be found in local supermarkets around Sri Lanka. The growing facility is 930m2 comprises, with a cultivation area of 370m2. This floor area consists of 10 stacked layers, upon which plants can be grown.

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Entrepreneurial approach
Ashish, one of the other co-founders, adds: “We all know it normally takes a lot of time before greens end up on the shelves. We’re glad that we can now render more stability to the market and a guaranteed supply to consumers.” With the home delivery platform, Honest Greens delivers directly to customers, a feature that came in handy during the lockdown. According to Sanuja, the company is looking to expand and increase its product lines. “We already launched pak choi and are working on growing coriander and spinach.”

Besides national expansion, Honest Greens is also planning on taking an international approach in the future. “Once we’ve created a profitable and stable business here, we will scale our company to countries with a large population such as India and Bangladesh,” says Sanuja.

As Ashish Advani explains, their main goal is to give consumers better options in fresh produce available. “People need to eat and food insecurity is becoming a bigger issue worldwide. Countries should own their entire supply chain."

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Opportunities ahead
To balance everything out, the team is constantly working on bringing down the unit costs. Unlike in other parts of the world, labor is cheap in South East Asia, so automatization isn’t a high priority, says Sanuja. “Ever since we started the costs have dropped and the economics have improved. We are also looking into solar energy, to lower our electricity costs.”

Ashish notes that the company can do better on CapEx, whereas in Sri Lanka there are many options for industries to use the roof space. “By doing so, solar systems and electricity can be put up back to the grid. However, it’s not really used so far, but as time goes on, in terms of energy, unique economics are ahead of us.“

Lead photo: The co-founders

For more information:
Honest Greens
Sanuja Cooray, co-founder
sanuja.c@urbanagri.co 
Aneeshan Tyagarajah, co-founder
aneeshan.t@urbanagri.co
Ashish Advani, co-founder
ashish.a@urbanagri.co 
+94 11 702 4251
www.honestgreens.asia 

Publication date: Tue 4 May 2021
Author: Rebekka Boekhout
© VerticalFarmDaily.com

Myths Surrounding ‘White Light’ Part 2 – Do You Need ‘White’ Light To Grow Better Crops?

May 6, 2021

Myths surrounding ‘white light’ – Do you need ‘white’ light to grow better crops?

An interview with our plant specialist

·       There are several myths surrounding the specific light spectra used for growing crops and, more specifically, the use of white, green, or broad-spectrum light.

·       This article is the second in a series of interviews with Signify’s Esther de Beer, manager of the team of plant specialists at Philips Horticulture.

·       In this interview, we asked the question: Do you need ‘white’ light to grow better crops?

Eindhoven, the Netherlands – Light is perhaps the most important consideration for optimizing plant growth in a greenhouse or vertical farm. There are several myths surrounding the specific light spectra used for growing crops and, more specifically, the use of white, green, or broad-spectrum light. This article is the second in a series of interviews with Signify’s Esther de Beer, manager of the team of plant specialists at Philips Horticulture. In this interview we asked the question: Do you need ‘white’ light to grow better crops?

Interested in the first interview with Esther, where she answers the question if green light penetrates deeper into the canopy? Read it here.

First of all, what do we mean with white and green light?

When talking about light for plants, we often distinguish four basic colors: blue (400-499nm), green (500-599nm), red (600-699nm), and far-red (700-799nm). Purple light is actually a combination of red and blue light. Basically, you will get white light when you add enough green light to this red/blue light. Therefore, we will focus on the question of whether you need green light to grow better crops.

How efficient does a plant use green light for growth?

In the first interview it is explained that blue, red and green light are absorbed equally by a plant canopy and only far-red light is absorbed significantly less. But are all these colors used equally for growth?

In the early 1970’s, McCree measured the photosynthetic efficiency as a function of wavelength for a large number of plants. These data show a large commonality between the plants and has been averaged to what is now known as the “McCree curve”, see figure 1 below.

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Figure 1 McCree curve: the photosynthetic efficiency of light as a function of wavelength

This shows that green light is used for photosynthesis, but at a lower efficiency when compared to red light. Since this early work, many researchers have found similar results. [Hogewoning 2012, Paradiso 2011]

For overall plant growth, not only the process of photosynthesis is important, but also other processes which, for instance, influence the shape of the crop. Therefore, for practical applications it is relevant to evaluate the total crop growth rather than only zooming in on photosynthesis.

So, what is the effect of green light on the crop? 

We have found that several crops have significantly higher fresh weight when actually grown without green light. For other crops, however, the amount of green light has no effect on the fresh weight. Also, we have found that to steer the shape of the crop, blue and far-red light are far more effective than green. Let me share some examples from our research.

At the Philips GrowWise Center, we have run a trial where we have grown eight RijkZwaan Salanova lettuce varieties under light spectra with both 0 and 20% green light, but with the same photon flux and percentage of blue light. The graph below shows the relative fresh weight of these crops, comparing the growth under both spectra with 0% green and 20% green light.

As you can see in this graph, not all lettuce varieties react the same. There are two varieties (RZ1 and RZ2) that grow slightly better under the spectrum with 20% green. However, most varieties have significantly higher fresh weight (even up to 20% more fresh weight for RZ8) when grown without green light.

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Figure 2 Significantly higher fresh weight for lettuce varieties when grown without green light

The small effect which green light has on the growth of a crop is confirmed by an extensive academic study by Snowden, who compared the growth of 7 diverse plant species under 8 different spectral compositions: “In contrast to the significant effects of blue light, increasing green light in increments from 0 to 30% had a relatively small effect on growth, leaf area and net assimilation at either low or high PPF”. [Snowden 2016]

A second example from our own research is related to medicinal cannabis. In this trial, two different cultivars were grown under three different light spectra with 0%, 6% and 36% green at the same supplemental light level (600 µmol/m2/s).  Here, in addition to looking at the flower weight, we also looked at the quality of the crops.  

The graph on the right in Figure 3 below shows the dry flower weight for two different cultivars, whereas the graph on the left shows the percentage of active compounds, which are the key factor in determining the product quality for medicinal cannabis. 

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Figure 3 Higher active compounds of medicinal cannabis with lower percentages of green light.

The graph on the right shows that the dry weight remains the same for all three spectra, again confirming that the amount of green light has little effect on growth. However, the active compounds reduce substantially when the green content increases. Since these crops are grown specifically for their medicinal compounds, this leads to a preference of light spectra which contain little or no green.

To summarize: in our studies, we find that different crops require different light spectra for optimal growth. However, in most cases there is no benefit in adding more than a few percent of green; both for the yield and for the quality of the crop.

So, if green light has so little benefits, why use it?

That needs some further clarification; all of the above results describe the use of light by the crop, comparing yields at the same photon flux. However, they do not take into account how much electrical energy is needed to create this light. Since there are big differences in efficacy (mmol/Joule), this of course has a huge impact on the total energy usage. 

Red LEDs give far more photons per electrical Watt (μmol/W) compared to blue and green LEDs.

Our research shows that a spectrum with approximately 6% green light is sufficient for good color recognition by people and is 30% more energy efficient when compared to a ‘sun-like’ spectrum, which contains approximately 40% green light.    

At Signify, we want to provide our end customers with the optimal lighting solution to grow their crops in the most sustainable way. Green light is much less efficient than blue and red LEDs. Only a limited amount of green can be considered for most lighting applications as only a small amount of green light is required for good color recognition by people and as crops do not need a high amount of green light to grow well.

Esther de Beer is the manager of the plant specialist team at Signify horticulture LED solutions. She spends her days trying to make LED grow lights more effective. In this series of articles, she explains facts and fiction with regards to white light and how research has shown which light spectrum helps crops grow better.

 References:

Hogewoning S.W., Wientjes E., Douwstra P., Trouwborst G., Van Ieperen W., Croce R.  and Harbinson J., 2012.

Photosynthetic Quantum Yield Dynamics: From photosystems to Leaves. The Plant Cell 24: 1921-1935.

Paradiso, R., Meinen, E., Snel, J.F.H., De Visser, P.H.B, Van Ieperen, W., Hogewoning, S.W., Marcelis, L.F.M., 2011.

Spectral dependence of photosynthesis and light absorptance in single leaves and canopy in rose. Scientia Horticulturae 127: 548-554.

McCree, K.J., 1972.

The action spectrum, absorptance, and quantum yield of photosynthesis in crop plants. Agricultural Meteorology 9: 191-216.

Snowden, M.C., Cope, K.R, Bugbee, B., 2016

Sensitivity of seven diverse species to blue and green light: interactions with photon flux. Plos One 11(10): e0163121. Doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0163121

--- END ---

For more information:

Global Marcom Manager Horticulture at Signify

Daniela Damoiseaux

Tel: +31 6 31 65 29 69

Email: daniela.damoiseaux@signify.com

www.philips.nl/horti 

About Signify

Signify (Euronext: LIGHT) is the world leader in lighting for professionals and consumers and lighting for the Internet of Things. Our Philips products, Interact connected lighting systems, and data-enabled services, deliver business value and transform life in homes, buildings, and public spaces. With 2020 sales of EUR 6.5 billion, we have approximately 37,000 employees and are present in over 70 countries. We unlock the extraordinary potential of light for brighter lives and a better world. We achieved carbon neutrality in 2020, have been in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index since our IPO for four consecutive years, and were named Industry Leader in 2017, 2018, and 2019. News from Signify is located at the Newsroom, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Information for investors can be found on the Investor Relations page.

Start of A New Series of Tests For Plant Cultivation on The Moon And Mars

MAY 4, 2021

NASA Seeds Germinate in

DLR’s EDEN ISS Greenhouse

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Start of a new series of tests for plant cultivation on the Moon and Mars

Nine weeks of darkness and temperatures down to minus 50 degrees Celsius. Under these harsh conditions of Antarctica, NASA and the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) have begun a joint series of experiments on vegetable cultivation techniques for use on the Moon and Mars. Until early 2022, NASA guest scientist Jess Bunchek will research how future astronauts could grow lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and herbs, using as little time and energy as possible.

To this end, she will be working at DLR’s EDEN ISS Antarctic greenhouse, where she will put greenhouse technologies and plant varieties to the test. She is also recording any effects the greenhouse and its yield have on the isolated hibernation crew in the perpetual ice. Bunchek is part of the 10-person overwintering crew on Neumayer Station III, operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI).

First harvest – Lettuce, mustard greens, radishes and herbs

“The polar night will soon begin here on the Antarctic Ekström Ice Shelf. With the nine other members of the overwintering crew, it almost feels like we are alone on another planet,” says Bunchek. “In this hostile world it’s fascinating to see the greenery thrive without soil and under artificial light.”  Bunchek is a botanist from the Kennedy Space Center, where she has primarily supported the VEGGIE project on the International Space Station (ISS) She was able to sow the first seeds in recent weeks, following a technical reconditioning of the EDEN ISS platform conducted by her and the DLR team. The first harvest, which included lettuce, mustard greens, radishes, and various herbs, followed a few days ago.

NASA seeds and new nutrient supply system

The EDEN ISS greenhouse uses particularly robust varieties that were selected by the EDEN ISS Project team and from experiments at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and as part of the VEGGIE project on the ISS. The DLR/NASA mission also aims to record and compare the growth and yield of the crop varieties under the conditions of the Antarctic greenhouse. An additional focus will be studying which microbes thrive in the greenhouse alongside the cultivated plants.

NASA will also be testing a plant watering concept in the EDEN Module that can operate in u-gravity settings, like the ISS.  The system contains the water and delivers it to the plants by a passive method.  “This will provide a side-by-side comparison with the aeroponically grown plants of EDEN ISS” says Ray Wheeler, plant physiologist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. In aeroponic irrigation, the roots of the plants without soil are regularly sprayed with a nutrient solution.

Crew time – a precious commodity

Sowing, harvesting, tending, cleaning, maintaining, calibrating, repairing and conducting scientific activities. Bunchek records every second of her activities in the Antarctic greenhouse with a special time-recording eight-sided die, as crew time will be a precious commodity on future missions to the Moon and Mars. “In an initial test run of the greenhouse during the 2018 mission, we found that operations still took too much time,” explains EDEN ISS project leader Daniel Schubert from the DLR Institute of Space Systems in Bremen. “Now we are working on optimizing processes and procedures. We have learned a lot about operating a greenhouse under extreme conditions. We’re applying all this during the current joint DLR/NASA mission.” In addition to the crew’s time, the focus is on their well-being. The overwinterers regularly answer questions about their eating habits or how the plants affect their mood.  “We hope to increase our understanding of having plants and fresh food for crews in remote, isolated settings like Neumayer III and ultimately for space” says Wheeler.

Eight months in isolation

On 19 January, Jess Bunchek reached the Antarctic continent on board the research vessel Polarstern. Since 19 March, the 10-person overwintering crew has been on their own at Neumayer Station III. “EDEN ISS is an asset for the crew in many ways,” says Tim Heitland, Medical Coordinator and Operations Manager at AWI. “I know from my own overwintering experience just how much you can begin to miss fresh produce. It’s not just about the taste, but also the smells, the colors, and the fascinating fact that something can grow in this inhospitable environment. That’s why there are always volunteers in the overwintering teams to help cultivate and harvest the plants.”  The polar night at Neumayer Station III begins on 21 May, and the first rays of sunlight will not reach the station again until 23 July. Researchers for the summer season and new supplies will end the isolation of this year’s overwintering crew around the beginning of November.

The activities at the EDEN ISS Antarctic greenhouse can be followed on social media using the hashtag #MadeInAntarctica. The Antarctic greenhouse has Facebook and Instagram accounts, as well as a flicker image gallery. Jess Bunchek also writes about her personal experiences of the Antarctica mission in the dedicated DLR blog.

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2021 CEA Awards

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We are excited to announce the winners of the 2021 CEA Awards. The awards were established to recognize distinguished individuals and organizations in the Controlled Environment Agriculture industry across North America.  

The winners were selected by a prestigious, independent awards committee comprised of agriculture professionals from Artemis, Cargill, Fluence by OSRAM, and Schneider Electric. The committee received over 130 qualified nominations for the awards and selected 11 category winners and 3 honorable mention awards.  

“It has been inspiring to see our industry step up through the pandemic and continue innovating in every facet of the value chain.  I am privileged to honor the outstanding contributors via the 2021 CEA Awards,” said Steve Graves, Vice President of Business Development at Fluence by OSRAM and Committee Member.

“All of the winners have had a tremendous impact on our industry this past year. It’s an honor to acknowledge the work of these companies and individuals,” said Allison Kopf, CEO of Artemis and Committee Member.

Top Employer Award

This award honors an employer who has created a great workplace environment.

Winner - AppHarvest, Inc.

Honorable Mention - NatureSweet

Brand Excellence Award

This award honors a brand that has recently dominated on store shelves.

Winner - Dream Greens by AeroFarms

Health and Safety Award

This award honors a company or individual who has gone above and beyond to create a safe and healthy workplace, as well as safe and healthy products in the wake of COVID-19.

Winner - Sudeshna Nambiar, Lakeside Produce

Sustainability Award

This award honors a company or individual who has focused on operating a sustainable facility.

Winner - Legion of Bloom

Produce Person of the Year

This award honors an individual who has made an immeasurable impact on the produce industry in the past 12 months.

Winner - Daniel Malechuk, Kalera

Honorable Mention - Hiroki Koga, Oishii

Cannabis Person of the Year

This award honors an individual who has made an immeasurable impact on the cannabis industry in the past 12 months.

Winner - Wanda James, Simply Pure

Innovative New Packaging Award

This award honors innovation in packaging and highlights new packaging concepts that have launched in the past 12 months.

Winner - Mucci Farms

Honorable Mention - Nature Fresh Farms

Innovative New Product Award

This award honors a new product launched in the past 12 months.

Winner - Wendy’s Sandwich Leaves & Salad Blend by Inspired Greens

Disruptor Award

This award honors an individual who has a spirit of innovation and is constantly looking to disrupt the status quo.

Winner - Stephen Ritz, Green Bronx Machine

Rising Star Award

This award honors an individual with < 3 years of experience in the CEA industry.

Winner - Cory Roof, Ogallala Greens

Industry Connector Award
This award honors a consultant or advisor who helps growers make the best decisions possible.

Winner - Agritecture

Congratulations to all of the winners for having an incredible impact on the CEA industry this past year.  Stay tuned as we will be sharing each winners’ story on our website over the next few weeks.

“We Believe That The Time Has Come To Harness Innovative Technologies”

"The extreme African weather conditions make this market a perfect candidate for controlled environmental growth," says Francois Duvenage, R&D researcher at CAN Agri. “From wet tropical to extreme desert conditions, it especially means we can enable African countries to successfully grow their produce and sell a marketable product.”

Francois says the company has “two extremely exciting projects coming up, one project in Namibia starting in the next few months and the other is an international collaboration that we established and are strengthening.” According to him, the company is not only targeting Africa but also areas such as Eurasia and North America. 

Value proposition
CAN-Agri has developed a multi-faceted solution to ensure our client’s overall support to successfully commission and sustain a CAN-Agri hybrid vertical-greenhouse. “We employ a six-phase approach where each phase is developed to ensure the client’s requirements are accommodated by detailed consultation agreements," says Francois. 

“We believe that the time has come to harness innovative technologies to enable responsible and efficient food production, meeting the challenges and demands of the years to come,” says Francois. CAN-Agri’s operational procedure allows an advantage, that a farming unit is flexible in design and scalable to suit client needs. The vertical tower growing units allow for improved product quality and quantity through all seasons. Rows of fresh produce are harvested daily, opening space for new seedlings to be planted, forming a continuous daily production cycle.

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Upcoming projects
As the travel restrictions are lifted, CAN Agri has encountered visitors both diplomats and private investors from several African countries. The interested parties are currently in negotiation processes and according to Francoise, the company foresees that its units will be established in these countries. “The earliest construction of a CAN-Agri greenhouse will probably start early August 2021, in our close desert neighboring country, Namibia.

This year, CAN-Agri has worked closely with a major retailer in the development of an additional market to amplify the supply and demand of its lettuce produce. Francois adds, “We have grown the sales of private markets to the extent that we are currently at full capacity. Our long shelf life, no-wash technique, and clean, great quality produce have been openly accepted by all of our clients, the demand keeps growing daily.”

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Hybrid benefits
According to Francois, CAN-Agri’s patented technology allows providing an unmatched scalable, commercially viable farming solution that is grounded in both scientific research and credible data. The company has developed an innovative hybrid farming system. In this way, they can share the knowledge and technical support to allow their clients around the world to create a successful farm. “We continue to prove that our system provides better yields through our enhanced methods.”

As of now, the company does not make use of additional lighting. “We have done in-depth studies with regards to the implementation of lighting coupled with the installment and operation of additional lighting, mainly for use in other parts of the world with low solar radiation. Operating in sunny South Africa it is currently unnecessary to implement additional lighting as ample solar radiation is available to the plants,” says Francois.

In terms of cost-efficient production, the company identified common limiting factors and found solutions to the challenges of successful production in hybrid greenhouses. “Our extensive research and development on operation specifics are always ongoing. We have our commercial-scale testing facility CAN-AGRI Greenhouse RSA and continuously produce and record empirical data to support our model.”

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For more information:
Francois Duvenage, R&D plant propagationist
CAN-Agri
info@can-agri.com  
https://can-agri.com  

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3 May 2021
Author: Rebekka Boekhout
© HortiDaily.com

Lead photo: Francois Duvenage