"Central And Eastern Europe Can Be The Powerhouse of Global Food Security"

July 6, 2021

"Closed-system farming helps tackle the biggest challenges in global food supply security", says Tungsram president & CEO Joerg Bauer.

Climate change causing extreme weather conditions in certain areas, overpopulation, soil contamination, the depletion of areas suitable for agricultural production, urbanization, and growing demand for quality food all point toward the increasing importance of local indoor farming and urban vertical farms. The world’s population is predicted to reach 9.7 billion by 2050 (2 billion more than today), with most of the growth set to take place in Africa and developing countries where climate change hits the hardest. Moreover, in just 10 years, humanity will need 50% more food than today (calculating with a current annual growth rate of 5%).

"We are convinced that outdoor farming alone will not be able to meet these challenges. The much-needed technological advances of precision agriculture, improved seeds, and irrigation will be needed to counterbalance the adverse impact of climate change alone: innovative solutions designed to ensure food security must complement this huge undertaking. Indoor farming stands out as one of the best-suited solutions," he explains. 

"Indoor farms are highly water-efficient installations that take up considerably less space, and are independent from weather conditions and the change of seasons. Paired with other technology-driven solutions, these farms can be the guarantees of basic human wellbeing for billions of people, where basic wellbeing is defined by 2,200 calories of healthy, balanced food intake and 10 liters of water (for drinking, basic hygiene and cooking) per person a day."

Joerg Bauer with Tungsram

The company supplies LED / Vertical Farming solutions

Innovation and investment
However, for this exciting disruptive technology that balances on the thin line between agriculture, industry 4.0, and digital technology to provide real global solutions and be able to produce staple food for the masses, including integrated ecosystems that can also feed animals in a sustainable way, a lot of innovation and investment is necessary. "Humanity will have to embrace sources of food that go beyond the traditional approach, such as algae, bacteria, or insects, which often have a much higher conversion rate of feed intake to edible food. By cleverly combining different elements such as vertical farms, animal husbandry, insects, and fish, we can get very close to a zero-waste cluster with optimal productivity – allowing strategic autonomy even in countries with adverse climatic conditions."

Although Central and Eastern Europe do not typically bear the brunt of the most severe consequences of climate change and food scarcity, an increasing number of European initiatives focus, for example, on the impact of the 24% decline in water sources on the continent in the last few years.

"However, the CEE region could play a much bigger role than simply making the necessary investments to solve its own looming climate problems. I have always looked at the CEE region as a historically well-established bridge connecting Europe with developing countries in need and working closely with North Africa and the Middle East. It is up to the nations of this region, to us, to understand what happens to geopolitical stability if we fail to help these developing countries to deal with all the negative, sometimes catastrophic consequences of climate change and fast population growth. In addition to being our basic social responsibility and humanitarian obligation to offset these effects, it is also in our very own interest to act. Innovation is needed to propel sustainable food production forward and end hunger in the world," Joerg adds.

"Central and Eastern Europe’s commitment therefore should be to become a global food security powerhouse that develops and starts scaling the solutions, which will allow the citizens of developing countries to live a sustainable and worthwhile life in their home regions."

What should governments and businesses in the region do to achieve this?
"They should acknowledge that the CEE region could potentially play a significant role in these solutions and provide funding for research and innovation to scale food security. By doing so, we would all be working to make the world more livable and we would physically be sowing the seeds of human happiness."

Written by Joerg Bauer President & CEO of Tungsram, originally published in Globsec Disruptive Tech Trends in CEE

For more information:
Tungsram
Keith Thomas, Commercial Leader
keith.thomas2@tungsram.com
agritech.tungsram.com

Startup Raises Millions for Vertical Green Production

By Torben Salomonsen

June 25, 2021

The production of vegetables in vertical farms is gaining ground all over the globe and in Denmark, indoor agriculture with coastal light has also found a market.

Now the Danish startup Nabo Farm has received DKK 3 million from investors to expand their version of an "urban agriculture" and will open farm number two in the capital, rather on Amager, it says in a press release.

Since 2018, Nabo Farm has had production of green from a disused car workshop in northwestern Copenhagen, but will now expand with another farm, which will simply be the first in a series of several, according to the founders Sebastian Dragelykke and Jens Juul Krogshede.

"For us as a start-up company, it is a great thing that we have succeeded in raising such a significant amount, because it means that we can now focus on scaling the Neighbor Farm concept further by opening another farm. At the same time, The investment from Danban and Vækstfonden also means that we can, at a societal level, help to spread the knowledge of sustainable food production," says Sebastian Dragelykke.

The 3 mio. As mentioned, this comes from the business angel network DanBan and Vækstfonden, and Nabo Farm currently sells green on a subscription to a clientele that includes canteens, catering companies and restaurants such as Compass Group, Aamanns, Meyers and Alchemist.

The goal of the company is to attract "more and larger investors" to fold the ambitions to produce even more food via LED lamps and a self-developed automatic irrigation system.

Lead Photo: The company Nabo Farm has raised capital to build a new indoor green production in Copenhagen.

Farm.One Cuts The Ribbon on New Urban Farm In Prospect Heights

By Jackson Ferrari Ibelle

June 29, 2021

Farm.One, a pioneer in New York City’s urban farming scene, opened the doors on its first neighborhood farm in Prospect Heights last Thursday.

Located in a 10,000 square foot warehouse space on Bergen Street, the new farm will grow a wide variety of species including many microgreens, herbs and flowers available for purchase.

The crops are grown using vertical farming techniques, where plants grow indoors, under artificial light, using water-based methods such as hydroponics. These practices allow for a controlled environment conducive to an urban setting, and have skyrocketed in popularity in recent years.

Scenes from Thursday’s ribbon cutting. Photos: Farm.One.

“When we started, vertical farming was really new,” Rob Laing, founder of Farm.One told BK Reader. “Nobody really knew if it was going to actually be a thing.”

Still, he isn’t all that surprised by the industry’s growth. “New York has acres of rooftop space, thousands of unused basement spaces. We have a lot of resources here and a lot of smart people — I think it’s inevitable that we have become a hub for urban agriculture,” he said.

In addition to the new farm, there is also an event space with a glass wall, allowing for a full viewing experience of the crops. This space will be used for tasting tours where over 100 unique plants can be sampled, as well as lectures on food and agriculture. There are also talks of a cocktail menu and daytime cafe service.

This ambitious undertaking was born out of changes made within Farm.One out of necessity during COVID-19. Originally founded in 2016 to grow rare and unusual plants for chefs at high end restaurants looking to locally source their menus, Farm.One saw its operations slow when the restaurant industry shut down in March 2020. As a result, last summer it began growing for consumers. 

“Obviously it’s more difficult and time consuming, but it was something we really believed in,” Laing said. 

He was particularly concerned about making operations even more sustainable than they already were. In October the team began selling plant products in reusable containers, which were delivered by bike and then picked up to be repackaged again. They sold out before the end of the month.

Greens are now being sold in reusable containers. Photo: Farm.One.

This left Laing and his team with a growing waitlist and a need for new farm space. They settled in Prospect Heights where they hope to establish themselves in the community and offer good paying jobs to people interested in careers in agriculture. Farm.One even recently hired a young person who had been trained by Teens for Food Justice (TFFJ), an organization that teaches kids hydroponic farming techniques in local schools.

Laing said he hoped to continue these types of connections with Brooklyn organizations, perhaps even formalizing the connection between TFFJ and Farm.One.

A rendering of the new farm. Image: Farm.One.

And TFFJ is right there for it.

“TFFJ looks forward to its continuing partnership with Farm.One as it brings good food and good urban agriculture jobs to New York City’s residents and creates a workforce pipeline for students who complete the TFFJ program at their schools,” Katherine Soll, founder of TFFJ, said.

Soll, along with Latoya Meaders, CEO of Brownsville’s Collective Fare, spoke at Thursday’s ribbon cutting, signalling the communal nature of urban farming.

“We are trying to make New York City a place where urban agriculture is really happening and is thriving and is helping people get access to good food,” Laing said. “It’s obviously not just one organization that can do that. It takes a bunch of different voices.”

Farm.One will begin planting seeds at the Brooklyn farm in the coming weeks, with the first deliveries going out in August.

Lead Photo: The 10,000 square foot Bergen Street farm marks another addition to Brooklyn's growing urban agriculture scene.

Farmers At Growing Underground Launch Fresh Branding As They Announce B Corp Status And Growth Plans

Growing Underground announces its status as a B Corp brand, making it the first B Corp salad brand available in mainstream UK supermarkets. Meanwhile, owner Zero Carbon Farms (ZCF) is the first certified B Corp vertical or controlled environment farm in the UK and Europe. B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. Growing Underground boasts a fully net carbon negative growing system, meaning that it off- sets more carbon than it emits.

Target-busting investment shows industry and individual support for the vertical farming movement
Since 2015, Growing Underground crops have been generating proprietary data, improving technology and methods to increase yields and reduce resources to create a net carbon negative growing system. Now the AgTech brand has formed a strategic partnership with one of the leading fresh fruit and veg suppliers to the UK, Reynolds, allowing the brand to distribute nationally. 

To scale up its innovative farming mode even further, ZCF is currently undertaking a share offering. The financing has met with strong industry interest and investor endorsement and included a deliberately targeted crowdfunding campaign that hit its target in less than 24 hours. The offering has been over-subscribed and in total over £4 million has been raised, which will be used to expand into a second site in North London this summer.

“Growing Underground continues to grow in every sense,” comments Richard Ballard, Co-Founder & Farmer-in-Chief, Growing Underground. “We’re looking forward to translating our carefully crafted model and sustainability credentials into an industrial-scale distribution network, accelerating the world’s transition to carbon negative farming and continuing to transform the future of sustainable food production in the UK.”

Read the complete article at: Fresh Plaza 

For more information:
Growing Underground
www.growing-underground.com 

9 July 2021

The Future of Agritech: Inside Singapore’s Vision For Food Security

Melvin Chow, Senior Director, Food Infrastructure

Development & Management Division,

Singapore Food Agency Discusses The

Role of High-Tech Urban Farms.

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By Justin Tan

9 JULY 2021

Early last year, Covid-19 restrictions led to hordes storming supermarkets. Eggs, butter, and even toilet paper were flying off the shelves.

As a small city-state with limited resources, Singapore is especially vulnerable to such disruptions. It imports over 90 percent of its food from other countries, and only one percent of its land is set aside for agricultural use. How can it ensure its food supply remains stable amid today’s volatile world?

Local farms are turning to tech to increase food production. Melvin Chow, Senior Director, Food Infrastructure Development & Management Division at Singapore Food Agency (SFA), shares how that’s bolstering the city-state’s food security.

Stacking production

Singapore aims to produce 30 percent of local nutritional needs by 2030. To reach the goal, the country will increase local production of commonly consumed food such as fish, eggs and vegetables. These are also more perishable and vulnerable to supply disruptions, Chow says.

With limited land spaces and resources, the nation needs to optimize the limited land resources they have through “intensifying each unit area”, he adds.

A local farm, Sustenir Agriculture is using tech to optimize farming spaces. It uses LED lighting to grow vegetables indoors across multiple floors. Their system is designed to fit into existing multi-story buildings such as industrial areas, eliminating the need for specialized new compounds to be built.

Sustenir Agriculture is a high-tech indoor farm that taps on hydroponics and a controlled environment agricultural system to grow crops such as kale and lettuce.

These indoor farms will be more “resilient to some of the impacts of climate change”, Chow says. Urban farmers can incorporate sensors that will help to ensure factors like air quality, light, and water are optimally balanced.

Apollo Aquaculture Group is another local innovator that is maximizing production with eight floors of vertical fish farms.

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Apollo Aquaculture Group’s indoor multi-story fish farm utilizes Recirculating Aquaculture System which treats and recycles water to reduce waste.

Each floor will be equipped with a tank system that will purify, monitor, and recirculate water within the farm. Only five percent of the water will need to be replaced when contaminated by fish waste. That reduces water wastage compared to traditional farms that regularly clean out whole tanks, reported Smithsonian Magazine.

Such innovative farms help to produce up to 10 to 15 times more food product per hectare as compared to traditional farms, Chow says.

To overcome land constraints, SFA is also looking to use alternative spaces for farming. The rooftops of multi-story car parks have been used to grow vegetables. Citiponics, one such farm in the Ang Mo Kio neighborhood, sells pesticide-free vegetables and provides job and training opportunities for senior residents.

These community farms will help to raise public awareness and support for local produce, Chow told CNA.

Sustainable farming

To encourage more sustainable farming methods, the SFA recently launched a new agricultural standard for local farms. This will ensure farms are using resources efficiently and recycling waste. Non-edible crop waste, for instance, can be used for composting before it is disposed of.

Singapore currently incinerates up to 95 percent of food waste, which is a “waste of resource”, Dr. Per Christer Lund, Science and Technology Counsellor at Innovation Norway told GovInsider.

Food waste can be converted into animal feed – recycling nutrients back into the food production loop, Chow says. SFA is looking to improve the efficiency of tech that can convert food waste into animal feed, Chow says.

The National Environment Agency is moving to support this, as large restaurants and food factories will have to segregate their food waste for treatment from 2024.

Singapore is also hoping to encourage “green citizenry” that consumes and wastes less, Chow says. Singapore’s Green Plan 2030 – a nationwide agenda to advance sustainable development – plans to educate youths on sustainable living habits, reported CNA.

Support for the industry

SFA is providing funding for the adoption of innovative tech. Last year, the organization launched a “30×30 Express” grant which offered SG$39.4 million (US$29.1 million) to nine high-tech farms to boost local food production.

One of the farms, I.F.F.I, will set up an indoor vegetable farm that uses AI to monitor the growth of produce. It will also set up a water treatment system that reduces the amount of bacteria and extends the shelf life of crops, reported by The Straits Times.

SFA’s SG$60 million (US$44.4 million) Agri-Food Cluster Transformation fund also encourages farms to adopt tech-enabled and sustainable farming practices, Chow says.

As the farming industry transforms, the workforce will need to be trained. Young people must also be attracted to join the industry. “By 2030, we expect about 4,700 jobs to be created and upskilled in the agri and aqua-tech food industry,” Chow says.

On this, the agency is working with local farms and institutes of higher learning to roll out internship programs and diploma courses. 20 students studying aquaculture at local polytechnics have been placed in internships at ten local fish farms, SFA reports.

Existing workers in the sector or workers looking to make a switch can take the SkillsFuture Continuing Education and Training courses, Chow says. The courses include part-time diplomas in aquaculture and agriculture technology.

The turbulence of the past year has underscored the need for governments to bolster food security. Innovative and sustainable farms will help Singapore reduce its reliance on food imports.

Images by the Singapore Food Agency

PinDuoDuo: Building A More Resilient Food System With Technology - July 14 -15

The pandemic has shone a light on how fragile and intertwined our global agri-food supply chain is, making it even more pressing to push for food systems innovation and change. Can we leverage technology to build a more resilient food system that feeds more people and feeds them better?
 
Join us virtually for our inaugural Food Systems Forum, which will convene experts from around the world to share their insights and spark further connections and potential collaborations.

Register To Join The Conversation

VB Ready To Double Capacity For Little Leaf Farms Again

July 5, 2021

Devens, Massachusetts-based Little Leaf Farms' mission is to provide fresh, locally grown lettuce grown sustainably all year round to their New England consumers. To be able to achieve this goal, it is extremely important to grow and supply products in a sustainable way all year round.

This is why Little Leaf Farms asked VB again to build the most modern and innovative greenhouse to date to grow leafy greens. A system that provides the smallest possible chance of disease, an optimal growing climate, and no need for human hands to be involved in the cultivation process. After three consecutive phases for LLF realizing an ultramodern greenhouse is a challenge that VB knows how to handle. 

Inside the Little Leaf greenhouse

The climate on the US East Coast is a challenge: winters during which -25 C is no exception, and summers during which the mercury rises to +38 C. A considerable amount of energy is required to be able to cope with these extremes. The solution had to be more sustainable than transporting the lettuce by truck from the West Coast to the New England area.

With an advanced automatic cultivation system that systematically moves through the greenhouse, the sustainability challenge has been overcome. In collaboration with a team of specialists, as well as the customer, VB was able to take an in-depth look during the design process at what was needed to create an optimal growing climate inside the greenhouse.

The Little Leaf Farms greenhouse in Devens

Active cooling system
VB has integrated a unique active cooling system, with which the inside of the greenhouse can not only be kept cool during the winter through the use of outside air, but also stays cool during the hot summers. LED lighting helps compensate for the shortage of natural light during the winter. With the use of sun protection screens, excess sunlight is blocked during the summer.

The result? The climate conditions can be optimized for the cultivation process, the growth process is accelerated, there is more control over the nutrition the plants receive, available cultivation space is used in the most efficient manner, and virtually nobody needs to enter the greenhouse.

Edward Verbakel (VB) & Paul Sellew (Little Leaf Farms)

Doubling and doubling again
The first greenhouse in Devens MA was completed in 2016 and shortly after two additional phases were built by VB for Little Leaf Farms to reach 10 acres of modern growing space.

In the course of 2021 LLF and VB were able to agree again on the construction of the new Little Leaf Farms greenhouse facility in McAdoo Pennsylvania. With this expansion Little Leaf is doubling its capacity to 20 acres. Construction will start this summer and completion is expected for early Spring 2022.

 McAdoo facility, Pennsylvania

For more information:
Edward Verbakel
VB Group
info@vb.nl
www.vb.nl

No Sun, No Soil, And Robot Farmers: Is This Tomorrow’s Food Crop?

By Megan Backhouse

July 2, 2021

Even by the unconventional standards of modern-day urban agriculture, Geert Hendrix’s set-up is unorthodox. It is in an Alphington warehouse, with no windows and no soil, and is filled with the most diminutive of crops.

Tiny purple radish stems, miniscule basil leaves and microscopic watercress seedlings are the heavy hitters here. Their stems strain towards LED lights and their roots stretch down through hemp fibre and coconut coir into fish-tanks.

Geert Hendrix with one of his indoor growing systems. CREDIT: JUSTIN MCMANUS

Other leafy greens are growing on illuminated shelves that have nutrient-rich water recirculating inside them. Lettuces are being cultivated – in a sealed glass cabinet – on nothing but air and a regular misting of another nutrient solution. Other plants are tended by robot.

Freewheeling, this place is not. Space is carefully allocated, lighting is monitored and close tabs are kept on waste. Nothing is left to chance. Hendrix, part of a growing band of people working to make food production more sustainable and reliable, is using his indoor farm at the Melbourne Innovation Centre to help turn traditional methods of food production on their head.

He says the range of growing systems – some of which are at more experimental stages than others – is predominantly aimed at showing high-school students what is possible.

Purple radishes growing in trays of hemp fibre atop a fish tank. CREDIT: JUSTIN MCMANUS

As anyone growing vegetables as microgreens in trays of soil in a sunny spot in their kitchen will tell you, growing baby plants doesn’t have to be high-tech. You need to be rigorous with your twice-daily rinsing, but then, in little more than a week, you will invariably have a good yield of aromatic, nutritionally dense miniature greens at the ready.

Hendrix says it’s the very ease and speed of growing microgreens that makes them such a powerful educational tool. “I see them as a gateway to help people become full-spectrum farmers in the future.” He expects that, over the next 10 years, big shifts in agricultural processes will create new opportunities for farming, and he wants to inspire young people to take advantage of them.

Lead photo: Lettuces growing in a sealed glass cabinet. CREDIT: JUSTIN MCMANUS

Feds To Spend $4.95M On Vertical Farming Project, Research In Northern Manitoba

By Marissa Turton

July 6, 2021

The federal government says it will spend nearly $5 million on a partnership that will see food growing smarter in several communities.

The funding will see the University of Manitoba partner with Opaskwayak Cree Nation to develop a smart vertical farming initiative for the First Nation.

The $4.95 million, to be doled out over the next six years, will support programs at the U of M, the University of Guelph, and McGill University, as well as seven additional institutions.

As part of her project, U of M professor Miyoung Suh will collaborate with Glenn Ross, executive director of OCN Health Authority, on developing real-world solutions to food and nutrition security in the community, according to the U of M.

This project began when Ross introduced a vertical smart farm concept, complete with real-time automation, to the community. From there, he began working with Suh and others in the faculty of agricultural and food sciences at the U of M.

The first step of the project was successful, and now the pair will collaborate with other communities in the area that struggle with easily accessible fresh food, especially in the winter.

Click to View Video: Fighting Food Insecurity

“Of particular concern is the high incidences of gestational diabetes and spontaneous abortions in pregnant mothers” in areas where there is little fresh food, said the U of M.

“The researchers will test if fresh vegetables from the vertical farms, eaten during pregnancy, decreases these incidences.”

“Food is a basic entry point for building healthy communities,” Suh said in a press release. “The availability of fresh produce up north is limited, but smart technology involving local food production could be a simple solution in transforming those communities.”

Ross added that the “SMART cities project and concept is the way of the future.”

“The world is now changing faster than we have ever seen and we are just starting to see how bad climate change can be and the threat it has on our grandchildren.

“The high quality of foods from the smart farm program will eliminate many diseases and help make health care sustainable in Canada. It will also help us sustain the earth for many generations to come without destroying our planet. This is our ultimate goal.”

The funding announced Monday comes from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Lead photo: Miyoung Suh's new project will continue to research food insecurity in northern Manitoba. ST. BONIFACE HOSPITAL RESEARCH MEDIA SERVICES

Crowdfunding Developers of Herb Tower Succeed

July 6, 2021

In recent weeks, the entrepreneurs of Local Indoor Farming (LIF) ran a crowdfunding campaign to bring their innovative herb tower to the market. Successfully so, because thanks to the support of 88 investors, the herb tower can now be taken into production. The first specimens are expected in September.

The entrepreneurs, Harm, Marnix, and Ard-Jan from LIF, want to make high-quality fresh herbs available to everyone. They developed a herbal tower based on the principle of 'Local Indoor Farming'. This tower ensures that herbs can grow under ideal conditions. Because of the flexible design, the tower fits in any interior.

Minimum start-up capital exceeded
The required start capital to take the herbal tower into production was raised through a crowdfunding campaign. A total of 108,000 Euro was raised from 88 investors. The minimum amount of 80,000 Euro has thus been amply exceeded.

Even more important than the initial capital, according to the entrepreneurs, was the attention that they could draw to the herbal tower in this way. Quite a few towers have already been sold and there is also a great deal of interest from the catering and business sectors. This ensures a flying start for the young company.

First units
In the coming weeks, the finishing touches will be added to the production of the first units. They will be delivered from September onwards. The herb tower is offered in combination with a subscription for fresh herbs, so that the customer always has sufficient choice from a diverse range of herbs.

The entrepreneurs have developed a care package for the hotel and catering industry, so that companies do not have to worry about the maintenance of the tower. Customers can also order individual herbs and accessories via their webshop www.lifkruiden.nl.

The entrepreneurs want to stimulate the use of fresh herbs and combat waste. They inform about the use and maintenance of herbs by means of a herbal information package, which can be requested for free via www.lifgroup.nl/kruideninfopakket.

For more information:
Harm Keurhorst
LIF Group
hkeurhorst@lifgroup.nl
www.lifgroup.nl

Agrify Enters Into Multi-Year Vertical Farming Research And Development Partnership With Curaleaf

Partnership To Study Impact

of Cultivation Environment on

Plant Health And Harvest Yields

July 06, 2021

BILLERICA, Mass

Agrify Corporation (NasdaqCM:AGFY) (“Agrify” or the “Company”), a developer of highly advanced and proprietary precision hardware and software cultivation solutions for the indoor agriculture marketplace, today announced that it has signed a definitive Collaboration Agreement (“the Agreement”) forming a long-term research and development (“R&D”) partnership with Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. (“Curaleaf”). Curaleaf is one of the largest multi-state operators (“MSOs”) in the United States and the largest vertically integrated cannabis company in Europe as Curaleaf International.

The research will be focused on evaluating the impact of certain environmental conditions created and controlled by Agrify’s Vertical Farming Units (“VFUs”) and Agrify Insights™ software platform on harvest yields, plant terpene profiles, and flavonoid concentrations. It will also explore and analyze techniques to enhance the aesthetic appeal, aroma, and overall chemical profile of cannabis flower. In addition, the joint research team plans to study the effect of regulated environments on the overall health and longevity of cannabis plants, including research on the maturation of the chemical profile of the plants over their lifecycle.

“We are thrilled to announce our first MSO collaboration and honored to partner with Curaleaf to advance this important research,” said Raymond Chang, Chief Executive Officer of Agrify. “Curaleaf is a cannabis industry leader, and our shared research will demonstrate the critical importance that an optimally controlled environment can play on the cultivator's ability to consistently produce high-quality flower. I am proud to showcase our cutting-edge indoor vertical farming grow cultivation technology and assist Curaleaf in growing the high-quality, consistent cannabis they are known for in the most cost-effective manner possible.”

“Since our inception, we have been committed to providing our customers with premier and innovative cannabis products and experiences, with a relentless drive for quality,” said Joseph Bayern, Chief Executive Officer of Curaleaf. “The cultivation environment plays a critical role in the plant’s chemical composition, and we believe this research will help to further increase understanding of the conditions required to optimize a plant's genetic potential.”

Under the terms of the Agreement, Agrify will supply its VFUs and provide use of the Company’s Agrify Insights™ software platform for a period of three years at Curaleaf's primary R&D facility located in Massachusetts, with an option to extend another three years. The collaboration combines Agrify’s technology and expertise in creating optimized cultivation environments with Agrify Insights™-based data and Curaleaf’s expertise in cultivation and production of quality cannabis products. All test data collected by Agrify Insights™ will be jointly owned.

About Curaleaf Holdings, Inc.

Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. (CSE: CURA) (OTCQX: CURLF) ("Curaleaf") is a leading international provider of consumer products in cannabis with a mission to improve lives by providing clarity around cannabis and confidence around consumption. As a high-growth cannabis company known for quality, expertise and reliability, the company and its brands, including Curaleaf and Select, provide industry-leading service, product selection and accessibility across the medical and adult-use markets. In the United States, Curaleaf currently operates in 23 states with 107 dispensaries, 22 cultivation sites and over 30 processing sites, and employs over 5,000 team members. Curaleaf International is the largest vertically integrated cannabis company in Europe with a unique supply and distribution network throughout the European market, bringing together pioneering science and research with cutting-edge cultivation, extraction and production. Curaleaf is listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol CURA and trades on the OTCQX market under the symbol CURLF. For more information, please visit https://ir.curaleaf.com.

About Agrify (NasdaqCM:AGFY)

Agrify is a developer of premium grow solutions for the indoor agriculture marketplace. The Company uses data, science, and technology to empower its customers to be more efficient, more productive, and more intelligent about how they run their businesses. Agrify’s highly advanced and proprietary hardware and software solutions have been designed to help its customers achieve the highest quality, consistency, and yield, all at the lowest possible cost. For more information, please visit Agrify’s website at www.agrify.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 concerning Agrify and other matters. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding the research to be performed under the Agreement. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "could," "intends," "targets," "projects," "contemplates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential" or "continue" or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions. The forward-looking statements in this press release are only predictions. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events that we believe may affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties that affect our business, including those described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including under the caption “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 with the SEC, which can be obtained on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this communication. Except as required by applicable law, we do not plan to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of any new information, future events or otherwise. You are advised, however, to consult any further disclosures we make on related subjects in our public announcements and filings with the SEC.

Agrify
Niv Krikov
Chief Financial Officer
niv.krikov@agrify.com
(617) 896-5240

Investor Relations
Rob Kelly
ir@mattio.com
(416) 992-4539

Media Contact
Renee Cotsis
renee@mattio.com

BrightBox Farms’ Gideon Saunders Sees Alaska’s Future For Agriculture In Hydroponics

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By Staff Reporter

July 8, 2021

Nestled next to an otherwise ordinary house on Kodiak is a shipping container. It looks out of place, but the garden in it is even more noticeable. The growing area of ​​the BrightBox Farm looks like a prop from a movie about space exploration – the vertically oriented hydroponic farm has its own perfect microclimate.

The use of this shipping box has enabled Gideon Saunders to conquer the seasons that otherwise rule Kodiak Gardens.

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“There we worked with Freight Farms, who build 40-foot containers, high cubes, 2.50 m high, 2.40 m wide, standard containers, only slightly higher, very insulated, highly insulated R-28. So we agreed with them and picked out a unit and then delivered it to us, ”Saunders said.

Freight Farms made the interior of the shipping container. Inside, there are shelves with lettuce and other greens, interspersed with panels of blindingly bright ultraviolet light. A panel filled with nutrients feeds into a water tank on the back, which in turn feeds drips into the hydroponic system. The air is supplemented by a carbon dioxide tank, which ensures that the plants do not lack for anything.

The container is completely controlled by an app. And it even comes with built-in bluetooth speakers. But for the container, function is more than form – Saunders boasts that he could grow 1,000 heads of lettuce a week in less than 30 hours.

It doesn’t just look futuristic. Saunders believes systems like this will revolutionize agriculture.

“I think it’s the future. I mean, we can get into the politics of agriculture and water rights and freshwater use worldwide, and global warming and all these hot topics – 8 billion, 9 billion, 10 billion people, how do you feed them? The population is growing – how do you become more efficient with your food? Well, when it comes to vegetables and leafy greens and what we do, we use 95% less water than traditional farming. We do not use herbicides, pesticides or insecticides. So no glyphosate, no Miracle Grow. Chemically nothing bad. You can control it. So it’s the future of agriculture, ”Saunders said.

This type of production is not cheap. Saunders says the device costs around $ 100,000 with shipping and handling. But as technological advances inevitably push prices down, it becomes more cost-effective for smallholders to invest in such equipment.

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And Saunders says it’s already inexpensive, although its container is complemented by a small homemade addition in its garage. He sells microgreens as a subscription service, in which he provides his subscribers with bags of greens for a monthly fee, and through sales at the local farmers’ market. Even on an island known for its horticultural and merchant shipping challenges, herbivores can enjoy fresh, locally grown produce year round.

USA - MIAMI, FLORIDA: Three Local Men Hope To See Their Work On ISS

By Community News Releases

July 7, 2021

Three South Florida men with diverse backgrounds — and all volunteers at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden — have teamed together in a unique collaboration to design a plant-growing method that they hope will someday be found on the International Space Station (ISS).

It’s all part of the nationwide Growing Beyond Earth Maker Challenge that calls for contestants in three team categories — High School, College and Professional — to submit designs for growing plants in space. Six finalists remain out of the 60 original submissions in year two of the three-year contest.

Jack Hahn, a photographer, heard about the program while working as a volunteer in the Fairchild Imaging Lab, was intrigued and submitted a proposal to grow “veggies in space that do well in microgravity.” His proposal impressed the judges — Dr. Gioia Massa, NASA Plant Research; Trent Smith, NASA Procurement, and Ralph Fritsche, NASA Veggie Project Manager — and he became one of the six finalists in the Professional (non-collegiate) category.

According to Dr. Carl E. Lewis, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden director, each year of the competition is intentionally getting more challenging.

“We have been involved in this program with NASA for years, after conversations about the challenge of growing plants in space,” Lewis said. “Year One was about how to make the best use of limited growing volume on a space craft. This year is about automation. Can you set it and forget it? Next year will be about robotic planting and harvesting. We’re looking forward to seeing what you [contestants] come up with.”

After Hahn was selected for phase two of the competition, the Kendall resident realized he needed more assistance.

“I was very excited to hear that I was a finalist,” said Hahn, husband of Marjorie Hahn, executive and music director of the South Florida Youth Symphony. “But I realized that I needed to put together a team with various skill-sets and talents to go further.”

So, in May, Hahn met with the other two Fairchild volunteers who responded to an email he sent — Coconut Grove’s Nic Brunk, a molecular biologist (and crew coach for the Miami Beach Rowing Club), and Shenandoah’s Allen Diehl, a photographer with a degree in mechanical engineering.

Their goal is to grow high-density vegetables (with a high Vitamin K benefit) in a limited amount of space (a 50 cm cubic growing environment) using an autonomous system that won’t require any further human interaction (after initial seed planting) over a 30-day period.

Together, the three South Florida “scientists” have come up with an eye-catching design (with the limited constraints on size per NASA’s specs) that, well, looks like something from outer space. It has three levels (heights) for the difference phases of growth of the red romaine lettuce most competitors are using.

And, in a bold move they hope will impress the judges — and be used in future growth models in space — the threesome is growing their plants hydroponically.

“Even though you think of ‘weightlessness’ in space, weight is everything, including in the space shuttle bringing supplies to the ISS,” Brunk said. “Soil is weight and messy to deal with, especially in space.”

Diehl said, “Hydroponics is definitely the way to go. It eliminates the soil factor, and you can recycle or repurpose the water.”

Basically, the automation model the threesome has developed works by small computer, which turns the growing lights on/off, and activates fans and pumps. Additional automation to replenish the nutrient solution levels will follow.

But all three agree that the small monetary prize which awaits the winner of the NASA/Fairchild collaboration, which will be announced in July/August of this year, is not the reason for the countless hours of sometimes tedious work.

“This competition will provide NASA with valuable input and data, which will someday enable those on the International Space Station as well as Moon and Mars missions with a means of complimenting their diet while giving them something live and green to look at in a sterile environment,” Hahn said. “It will be great to know that our team had something to do with that.”

Lead photo: Jack Hahn (left) has joined with Nic Brunk (center) and Allen Diehl in the Growing Beyond Earth Maker Challenge to find effective ways to grow plants in space.

How AppHarvest Is Investing In The First Generation of High-Tech Farmers

By Jennifer Marston

July 6, 2021

Agriculture may have been slower to digitize than other parts of the food sector, but these days a lot of folks would agree artificial intelligence, automation, and other technologies have a role to play in the future of farming. The presence of such things means farming will soon require lots of new skills, which in turn means training a whole new generation on a whole new set of tools. It means, in the words of AppHarvest’s founder and CEO Jonathan Webb (pictured above), “getting young people to really visualize what agriculture is” in a way they haven’t before.

Standing under a tent in the middle of a downpour outside Elliott County High School in Sandy Hook, Kentucky recently, Webb explained to me how his company is training the next generation of farmers while simultaneously investing in the company’s own future as a high-tech agricultural powerhouse.

We, along with with students, parents, teachers, and Kentucky governor Andy Beshear, were at the launch for the latest unit of AppHarvest’s high-tech educational container farm program, which teaches high-tech farming to Eastern Kentucky high-school students. Launched back in 2018, the program retrofits old shipping containers to house controlled-environment vertical farms that grow leafy greens. Farms at each school serve as hands-on agricultural classrooms where students can learn not just horticulture but also how to use the technologies powering the next wave of farming innovations around automation, connectivity, and data.

“What we’re doing here is trying to plant the seeds of what it means to be in an exciting industry and get that groundswell early,” Webb told me. 

He was talking specifically about the container farm program but might as well have been referring to the entire company’s MO. AppHarvest, itself a product of Eastern Kentucky, is both a Public Benefit Corporation and a Certified B Corporation, which means the company has to strike a balance between profit and less measurable purposes like environmental impact, transparency, and social good. 

The company’s main business is headquartered about an hour away from Elliott County High School, in Morehead, Kentucky, where AppHarvest operates a 60-acre high-tech greenhouse that grows different varieties of tomatoes. Two additional farms, one for leafy greens and another for tomatoes, are under construction, and the company just broke ground on a couple more last month. All of these farms provide or will provide produce for restaurants and grocery retailers within a day’s drive. They will also provide jobs for a local community that’s seen unemployment rise as the coal industry declines.

The high school container farms are altogether smaller and somewhat different in terms setup and technical specs, but the idea is the same: grow crops in a controlled environment and use technology to improve plant yield, quality, and nutrition profile. In doing so, people from the community get an opportunity to learn the kinds of skills that will be relevant as agriculture gets more and more digitized.

“We’ve tried to say at AppHarvest we’re not building facilities, we’re building an ecosystem,” said Webb. “Obviously our large production facility is the core critical centerpiece of that, but us investing in a high school education, we’re truly trying to create an ecosystem that includes facilities and the brainpower to be able to operate the facilities.”

This isn’t just feel-good talk, either. Technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, sensors, and analytics are coming to agriculture in response to multiple problems looming in the near future for the global food system. As McKinsey notes, “Demand for food is growing at the same time the supply side faces constraints in land and farming inputs.” With a population expected to grow to 9.7 billion by 2050, the planet needs to produce around 70 percent more available calories. At the same time, inputs like water supply and arable land are shrinking, raising costs for farming and negatively impacting an already burdened planet.

Part of the promise of controlled environment agriculture formats like high-tech greenhouses and container vertical farms is that they can grow more food faster, at a higher quality, and closer to the buying public. Many of these facilities operate via hydroponics systems that recirculate water, saving on that resource. (AppHarvest’s greenhouse runs off rainwater collected from the facility’s roof.) In the case of vertical farming, less land is required because plants are stacked. AppHarvest’s container farms, for example, can pack three to five acres of leafy greens into a forty-foot-long shipping container. Other large-scale vertical farms a la Kalera or Plenty are growing pounds of greens that number in the millions and also exploring additional crops such as berries.

Most individuals in this industry I’ve spoken to agree that indoor farming isn’t “the savior” that will wholly replace traditional agriculture. Nor was it never meant to be. Rather, greenhouse growers, vertical farm companies, and those operating container farms believe we need all of these formats working together and alongside traditional agriculture practices to try and resolve the above issues.

One of the many things needed to make that a reality is a new generation of young people interested in farming as a career and able to navigate the technical as well as horticultural aspects of agriculture. 

Right now, that’s a challenge. “We don’t have our brightest young people inspired to go into agriculture,” said Webb, adding that the issue is, “How do we inspire them early to get into agriculture and the technology sphere of agriculture?”

AppHarvest started investing in its education program before its main facility was ever complete, spending $200,000 of its initial $1 million investment on the program. “I’m not sure if there’s ever been a venture-backed company that’s taken 20 percent of their raised proceeds early and invested in education,” said Webb.

In 2021, AppHarvest has five different container farm programs operating at Eastern Kentucky high schools, all of them operating independently but also networked together, just as AppHarvest’s larger farms will eventually be networked. 

Students learn a huge range of skills working on these farms, from horticultural-related ones like seeding and harvesting to technology management across multiple farms to food safety, data entry, marketing, packaging, and creating a budget. Via a screen inside the farm, students can learn to track the pH levels of plants, carbon dioxide levels, temperature, humidity, and all the other variables present in a farm. And since farms from every high school are networked together, students can view one another’s activity. Elliott County High can see data from Shelby Valley High School in Pike County and vice versa, for example.

Webb says the farms are also an opportunity for schools and students to collaborate using different skillsets, whether technological, horticultural, or otherwise. “Some students might have more of a background or interest in horticulture. Some students might have more of a background or interest in craftsmanship. All we’re trying to do now is say, ‘Here, it’s your thing, bring it to life, and openly share information.’”

And while there’s no pressure, the hope is that some of these students eventually bring their skillsets to AppHarvest’s main operations and help improve them, along with indoor ag, over the coming years. “Hopefully in four years we have students that might end up at MIT. And then they’re telling us what to do,” said Webb, adding that the ROI here isn’t quick. The true impacts of the company’s investment in school programs probably won’t be seen for another five of six years, which is a few lifetimes when we’re talking about tech. 

“We get judged on quarterly earning calls, [but] that’s not the way I think,” he said. “I want us to think, first decade, second decade, third decade, and these are very long-term investments.”

He hopes to see more tech companies investing in high schools, and AppHarvest isn’t quite the lone wolf when it comes to this. Freight Farms, which deals exclusively in container farms, has a partnership with Sodexo to bring its units to K-12 schools and universities in the U.S. AeroFarms, also a Certified B Corp., has partnerships with various schools and community centers, too.

For AppHarvest, the educational program is is an integral part of the operation, and one tied to the company’s long-term success. “It’s not a ‘nice to have,'” Webb told me. “It’s something we truly believe is going to give our company a competitive advantage medium to long term.” 

VIDEO: Signify Expands LED Installation At Walters Gardens With Philips GreenPower LED Toplighting Compact

July 6, 2021 

Eindhoven, the Netherlands – Signify (Euronext: LIGHT), the world leader in lighting, is supplying Walters Gardens with the Philips GreenPower LED toplighting compact to expand their existing lighting installation. Walters Gardens is a market leader in the ornamental industry from Zeeland, Michigan, in the United States.

They first trialed Philips GreenPower LED toplighting in 2014 - one of the first growers in North America to install Philips horticulture LED grow lights over ornamental crops, with the aim to jump-start their spring perennial production.  

As a result of the trial’s success, Walter’s Gardens partnered with Signify again, when expanding their lighted growing areas in 2019 - 2020, with the Philips GreenPower toplighting compact.

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“It was a really easy decision to go with the Philips LED toplighting compact”, says Aren Philips, finishing lead grower at Walters Gardens. “The tops are fuller, the roots are more active, we are able to finish our hostas product 1 to 2 weeks ahead of schedule.”

Together with the high efficacy of the toplighting compact, and the easy 1:1 replacement of the HPS, leading to a great ROI, Walters Gardens knew the expansion would pay off.

Learn more about the Philips LED grow lights for floriculture here.   

--- 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.

Contain Inc Announces Finance Arrangement With Edible Beats For FarmBox Foods Container Farm

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NEWS PROVIDED BY

Contain Inc

July 07, 2021

Contain Inc announces a financing agreement arranged between Edible Beats Restaurant Group & a prominent lender for a FarmBox Foods container farm.

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Image courtesy of FarmBox Foods

With the FarmBox Food container, we can grow hyper-local, organic, year-round produce that will be featured at all of our restaurants. We feel this is just the beginning of what we can grow”— Justin Cucci of Edible Beats Restaurant Group

RENO, NV, UNITED STATES, July 7, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Contain Inc is pleased to announce a financing agreement arranged between Edible Beats Restaurant Group and a prominent lender for a controlled-environment container farm, FarmBox Foods. Edible Beats is a locally owned Denver-based restaurant group known for its diverse menus and healthy, plant-based dishes that highlight local and seasonal ingredients. Edible Beats will be able to grow herbs, leafy greens, salad greens, and various produce organically and year-round with the container farm that will be attached to their Vital Root location.

“We have always sought opportunities to be more responsible to the sourcing, growing, and handling of the incredible ingredients that we get,” said Justin Cucci of Edible Beats Restaurant Group. “With the FarmBox Food container, we can grow hyper-local, organic, year-round produce that will be featured at all of our restaurants. We feel this is just the beginning of what we can grow, and we are eager to add the mushroom grow operation in the future”

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Image courtesy of Unsplash

Edible Beats purchased the container from FarmBox Foods, a Colorado-based company that builds automated farms that grow gourmet mushrooms, leafy greens, and culinary herbs. To FarmBox, controlled-environment agriculture is the future, and this deal is one of many leading us towards a more decentralized and eco-friendly food system.

“I think we’re going to see a lot more of these types of programs going forward,” said Chris Michlewicz, Chief Public Relations Officer at FarmBox. “Restaurants are realizing that their produce is fresher and has a longer shelf life when they have a container farm on site. It’s a reliable and sustainable source of food, and it’s more eco-friendly because you no longer have to transport food in from elsewhere.”

Image courtesy of Unsplash

Likewise, Contain Inc is thrilled to support Edible Beats as it ventures into indoor ag. “We're delighted to have assisted SemiMojo and FarmBox Foods in this innovative initiative. Contain is always excited to see more fresh food made available to consumers. Customers appreciate freshness and quality produce, year round. Restaurants and container farms make this possible”, said Doug Harding, Head of Leasing & Vendor Relations at Contain Inc. “We are thrilled to have collaborated with Edible Beets and Farm Box Foods on this project. It aligns perfectly with Contain's mission of supporting the controlled environment agriculture industry in its financing needs”.

The container farm is being built and customized for Edible Beats, and will produce ingredients for all of the EB concepts, Linger, Root Down, Vital Root, El Five, and Ophelais.

About Contain Inc
Contain is out to empower the indoor ag industry of tomorrow. Our first and key mission is bringing easier and faster financing to controlled environment agriculture, but we aren't stopping there. We create platforms to move the industry forward, and most importantly, find ways to make indoor ag more accessible to farmers of all stripes.
Contact Contain:
Doug Harding, Leasing & Vendor Relations
doug@contain.ag | 760-330-1199

About Edible Beats
Edible Beats is a locally owned independent restaurant group that operates such diverse concepts as Linger, Root Down, El Five, Ophelais, and Vital Root. “Walking the walk” is important to us and the various aspects of sustainable & local food sourcing, up-cycled design, and authentic Hospitality.

About FarmBox Foods
FarmBox Foods was founded to help provide a sustainable, eco-friendly food source to places where there is a lack of access to farm-fresh produce. The company’s mission is to use container farms to decentralize the food supply chain and empower local communities.

Doug Harding
Contain Inc
doug@contain.ag
Visit us on social media:
Twitter
LinkedIn

Vertical Farming World To Meet In September

With the theme of ‘Raising Expectations’, the 2nd Vertical Farming World Congress will host industry members, from global leaders to new start-ups, on 20-22 September at a hybrid event online as well as in person.

“This will be the most substantial dedicated event of the year, featuring many of the world’s leading companies and technologies, offering unparalleled networking opportunities as well as training for new entrants,” commented Richard Hall, Chairman of event organiser Zenith Global.

“We’re hoping as many people as possible will attend in person, so we’ve selected a hotel within the London Heathrow airport complex. Many others will wish to join us online, using a platform that allows for full participation including networking and questions. One advantage for everyone is that all sessions will be recorded and available for review later,” he concluded.

Congress sessions and speakers include:

• Industry leadership panel with InFarm, Kalera, Plenty and YesHealth

• Market opportunity and strategy with HortAmericas, Rabobank, VeggiTech and Vertical Future

• Crop and technology innovation with 80 Acres, Bowery, Fork Farms, Grow Group IFS, Swegreen

  and Vertical Field

• Science briefing from NASA on vegetable production at the International Space Station

• Industry policy forum with industry associations from Africa, Japan, UK and US alongside

  Association for Vertical Farming and Farm Tech Society

• Regional pioneers AgroUrbana from Chile, UrbanKisaan from India and 808 Factory from Japan

• Customer and investor panels.

  Other highlights include:

• Agritecture workshops on planning an urban farming business

• Vertical Future farm visit and fresh produce tasting

• Presentation of 2021 Vertical Farming World Awards

• Welcome and networking receptions.

  The event is supported by Platinum sponsors Vertical Future and Intelligent Growth Solutions, and Gold sponsor CubicFarms. The awards are supported by Headline sponsor Cutlivatd.

  Full programme and booking details are available on www.zenithglobal.com/events/vfwc2021.

• For further information, email events@zenithglobal.com

No Lives At Steak, IDTechEx Predicts How Food Will Be Made In The Future

IDTechEx

BOSTON, July 6, 2021

Syntheti bolognese

From free-range chicken to food miles on alfalfa, eating ethically is becoming more and more of a head-scratcher. Even for vegans, there are the questions of how sustainably agave was sourced, or whether environment-damaging pesticides were used to grow kale – and all that is without even considering how the food tastes.

Advances in the food and agriculture industry could answer every one of these questions, plus some of the regular consumers hadn't yet thought to ask.

For a slaughter-free spaghetti bolognese, a beef burger where no cows were harmed, and fresh produce growing from the walls of skyscrapers, food technology is turning science fiction into science fact one innovation at a time.

Plant-based burgers are on a roll

Meat alternatives are not new. Tofu and seitan have been around for over 1000 years and veggie burgers have been on supermarket shelves for decades. However, these have typically only appealed to vegans and vegetarians, a niche market perhaps prepared to compromise on how meat-like the product is for their own ethical reasons. With the advancement of new food technologies, that may no longer be a compromise that needs to be made; plant-based food is becoming increasingly convincing as meat. One example of plant-based food appealing to a more carnivorous palette is Impossible Foods, who used genetically modified yeast to make a vegetarian burger that bleeds.

But could the search for sustainable, guilt-free burgers go further? Cultured meat says yes.

Culture shock: meat the new burger on the block

A burger, made from 100% real beef, but no cows were harmed in its making? New technologies in cultured meat offer a potential solution for the burger-lover who feels bad about it.

Cultured meat involves directly culturing the same (or very similar) animal cells that make up conventional meat. Therefore, it is theoretically possible to create meat products completely indistinguishable from conventional meat, and without the need for slaughter.

Since the world's first cultured burger was produced in 2013, the industry has grown at a rapid pace, with start-ups around the globe competing to be the first company to commercialize a cultured meat product.

In December 2020, the industry received a major boost when Singapore became the first region in the world to grant regulatory approval for commercial sale of a cultured meat product, a hybrid product made from plant protein and cultured chicken cells produced by Eat Just. Many in the industry are hoping this will be the first of many approvals over the next few years, helping cultured meat transition from the prototype stage to consumer products.

For more information on how cultured meat is made, and promising companies in this area, see the IDTechEx report "Cultured Meat 2021-2041: Technologies, Markets, Forecasts".

Vertical farming takes agriculture to new heights

Let's not forget the lettuce and tomatoes! A successful vertical farming future could see people buying their veggies at markets mere meters from where they were grown. Food miles could become a thing of the past.

Vertical farming is a method of growing crops indoors under controlled environmental conditions, with crops grown in vertically stacked layers to save space. This could enable yields 20-30 times higher per acre than normal agriculture. By using advanced growing methods such as hydroponics and LED lighting tailored to the exact photosynthetic needs of the crops, vertical farming can achieve yields hundreds of times higher than the same space of conventional farmland.

Because it doesn't need large amounts of arable land to grow crops, it's possible to do vertical farming in urban areas, closer to population centers. This both frees up arable land and reduces the distance that food must travel to reach consumers.

Almost any location can be used for vertical farming, with companies operating out of old shipping containers (Freight Farms), disused warehouses (AeroFarms uses a warehouse in New Jersey for its indoor farming) and the walls of skyscrapers. The only limitations are being able to get resources in and harvested plants out.

Precision agriculture

Increasing agricultural yields in a sustainable manner will be crucial in feeding the world's growing population. Precision farming is a promising emerging approach, in which individual plants (or at least regions of a field) can receive targeted treatment. Furthermore, planting and harvesting can be tailored to ground conditions in a particular area and to the status of a particular fruit or plant.

Achieving this technological transition from the incumbent, broad-brush farming methodologies requires multiple new technologies, spanning robotics, imaging, machine vision and low-cost sensors. Indeed, this revolution in farming practices provides a substantial market opportunity for technologies perhaps more commonly associated with industrial automation.

Hyperspectral imaging

One technology that can monitor plant health and catch diseases early, minimizing the risk of wastage and lost crops, is hyperspectral imaging. Insight into plant health can be gained through hyperspectral imaging. Rather than expressing an image as red, green, and blue (RGB) values at each pixel location, hyperspectral imaging instead records a complete spectrum at each point, creating a full 3D data set. By obtaining a complete reflection spectrum for each pixel, far more information can be gained than from a standard image, enabling supervised machine learning to quantify chemical composition more precisely and hence determine ripeness or disease.

Extensive details of the wide range of competing technologies for SWIR and hyperspectral imaging, along with other emerging image sensor technologies and market forecasts for their adoption in different industries can be found in the IDTechEx report "Emerging Image Sensor Technologies 2021-2031: Applications and Markets".

Agricultural robotics and drones

Once agriculturally relevant data has been harvested and converted via AI into actionable insights, these need to be carried out. This will require agricultural robots, which can use this data to deliver precision-targeted planting, fertilizing, weedkilling and harvesting. Imagine varying planting densities across a field in response to soil conditions or targeting specific areas of a field with pesticides.

Short-wave infra-red imaging

To appropriately target fertilizer and/or weedkillers, the attributes of individual plants need to be ascertained. While this can be done via algorithmic image analysis, conventional cameras in the visible spectrum cannot necessarily identify subtle differences between leaves or fruit at different stages of ripeness.

Short-wave infrared (SWIR, 1000 to 2000 nm) imaging resolves some of these challenges since surfaces that look similar under visible light can show substantial differences under SWIR light – bruised fruit is an excellent example. An additional advantage of SWIR imaging is that scattering by clouds, dust, or mist decreases as wavelength increases, thus facilitating imaging in otherwise adverse conditions.

Biostimulants and biopesticides

Synthetic chemical pesticides and mineral fertilizers are growing less and less sustainable. They are responsible for greenhouse gas emissions and environmental damage, with the overuse of certain pesticides leading to the growing problem of resistance. However, much of the world's food supply still depends on them.

Agricultural biologicals – crop inputs derived from nature – could form part of the solutions. Biostimulants could boost crop yields while reducing the need for fertilizers and boosting soil health and biodiversity, while biopesticides could provide much-needed new modes of action, without causing environmental damage.

One other solution to the pesticide problem would be to genetically engineer plants to withstand certain common pests and diseases.

Genetic engineering

Although many aspects of agricultural biotechnology remain controversial, the technology has enormous potential as a way of improving food security.

Crop biotechnology is a set of tools and disciplines that modify organisms for a particular purpose, e.g. increasing yields, or developing an innate resistance to certain diseases in order to reduce crop losses and pesticide requirements.

The basis of agricultural biotechnology is genetics, with scientists using an understanding of DNA to develop methods to improve agriculture. The ability to identify genes that can confer advantages to certain crops and the ability to work precisely with these genes can significantly enhance breeders' abilities to improve crops and livestock.

IDTechEx, a leading market intelligence provider, offers a wide range of technical market research on the food and agricultural technology industry. For more details visit www.IDTechEx.com/Research/AgTech.

This research makes up part of the extensive research portfolio from IDTechEx covering many emerging technologies, building on a long history of analyzing these technologies, markets, and applications. All reports include a detailed analysis of established and emerging technologies, their potential adoption barriers and suitability for different applications, and an assessment of technological and commercial readiness. These reports also include multiple company profiles based on interviews with early-stage and established companies, along with 10-year market forecasts. A full list of IDTechEx reports and services can be found at www.IDTechEx.com or contact research@IDTechEx.com for more information.

Lead photo: Creating a burger with future food technologies

About IDTechEx

IDTechEx guides your strategic business decisions through its Research, Subscription and Consultancy products, helping you profit from emerging technologies. For more information, contact research@IDTechEx.com or visit www.IDTechEx.com.

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Natalie Moreton
Digital Marketing Manager
press@IDTechEx.com 
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SOURCE IDTechEx

Grodan Plugs Are A Key Factor In The Success of Smart Indoor Gardens

Lynn Radford

Finland-based Plantui produces smart indoor gardens for sale to consumers. The company has doubled its sales volumes over the past year, driven by a number of macrotrends including sustainability, food safety, local sourcing, healthy eating, and home cooking. Besides the innovative LED technology and closed-loop irrigation system, the Grodan plugs in which the edible plants are grown are a key factor in the success of these miniature ‘vertical farms’ in the home.

Biotech company Plantui Oy is aiming to solve some of today’s and tomorrow’s food challenges by enabling consumers to grow edible plants in their own homes. Founded in 2012 in Turku – a major hub for agriculture, manufacturing, and the high-tech inudstry in the southwest of Finland (which, incidentally, has been ranked the happiest country in the world for the third consecutive year) – it has developed a range of indoor ‘smart gardens’ that combine Nordic design and functionality with cutting-edge technology. The plug-and-play devices come with simple instructions, making it easy for consumers to produce fresh, ready-to-pick herbs, lettuces, tomatoes, chilies, and edible flowers for use in home cooking.

“The recent changes in the world such as urbanization and the COVID-19 pandemic have further spurred the grow-your-own food movement. People are looking for safe and sustainable solutions, and hydroponic growing is a good fit with this because it requires no soil and no pesticides,” says Kari Vuorinen, CTO of Plantui. “We’ve put all our knowledge and research related to plant science, nutrients, light, and technology into creating a patented indoor hydroponic growing method, from seed to plant. Our unique artificial lighting solution is based on a special photon stream that replicates the light of Finnish Lapland and optimizes photosynthesis. This results in more green mass and better quality, meaning the plants are much tastier and more nutritious than the ones you can buy in supermarkets.”

Automatically regulated
The device is sold with everything included: horticultural LED lighting, a water bowl with an integrated pump system, seed capsules, and nutrients, which are adjusted by the integrated microcontroller in line with the growth phase algorithm recipe. “After extensively testing relevant light spectra, we’ve programmed the computer in the device to automatically regulate the wavelength and intensity of the light and the water-pumping rhythms as the seeds progress through the germination, seedling and growth phases,” explains Martina Angeleri, head of plant science at Plantui. “So all the customer needs to do is fit the device together, fill the water bowl, insert the capsules, plug the device in and then keep the water and nutrients topped up roughly once a month. At the end of the harvesting period, they simply clean the device – and everything is dishwasher-proof – and then they can buy new capsules and start all over again. This solution supports local year-round growing, irrespective of the season. An indoor garden can produce three to four harvests a year, depending on which types of plants people choose to grow.”

Besides the automated lighting and irrigation system, the substrate is equally important in ensuring that Plantui can deliver on its 100% guarantee of success. “If the seeds don’t germinate you won’t have any plants, so the growing medium has to be failsafe,” says Kari. “That’s why we tested lots of different solutions when we first started out in 2013, including peat, sphagnum moss, coconut fibre and stone wool. Sphagnum moss was very promising in the growth stage but it’s not easy to get hold of. When we tested it against Grodan’s plugs, we found that they were just as good in the growth stage and actually achieved better performance in the germination stage – plus they are readily available in large quantities, so we’d hit the bullseye!” Plantui initially sourced the plugs through the Grodan distributor in Finland, but later started working directly with the company in the Netherlands. “Grodan has played a big part in our success with the plants and the device. For example, the company has tailored the existing plugs specifically to our needs by creating a slightly bigger hole for the seeds in the capsule.”

No risk of contaminants
Grodan’s plugs offer other important benefits in the Plantui Smart Gardens, according to Martina. “Stone wool is a homogeneous inert substance. Unlike with an organic material such as peat, we know for sure that the plugs are clean and pure with no risk of contaminants such as insects, bacteria or fungi. Therefore, we can rely on uniform and reproducible support for plants. This allows us to make things as easy as possible for users, as they don’t need to check the pH before adding the nutrients,” she explains. “Additionally, the density of the stone wool helps to prevent light from penetrating into the root zone, thus protecting the roots and avoiding the formation of algae in the substrate. And last but not least, no organic fibres can leach into the water and clog the active pumping system.”

Sustainability
Sustainability is a top priority for Plantui; its devices are energy-efficient, produce 100%-natural food with no pesticides or other additives, and help to reduce the carbon footprint in terms of food miles and food waste. “Stone wool is a good fit with this because basalt is an inexhaustible resource. Additionally, Grodan is the only company of its kind that is EU-certified for environmental excellence. At the end of the harvesting phase, the stone wool plugs can be separated from the plastic holders and both parts can be recycled, which supports our ‘100% recyclable’ message,” states Kari.

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Path to sales growth
The company is already selling tens of thousands of devices annually, both to high-end department stores across Europe – including in the UK and Italy – and through its own web shop. It is on track to double its sales this year, having received a major boost from an agreement between Plantui and a leading European producer of home appliances which has recently started marketing and distributing Plantui’s products under its own brand. Additionally, promising negotiations are underway with retailers in countries including Switzerland and the Netherlands.

Exciting future
The future not only looks very exciting for Plantui because of the increasing sales of its devices, but also because it has patented its technology and growing method globally. “We ourselves are focusing on consumer products for now, and there may be opportunities to branch out into other channels such as food service. For example, a couple of hotels and restaurants are already using our devices. We’ve even developed a specific lighting programme exclusively for a chef at a one-star Michelin restaurant who now grows his own unique-tasting dill!” exclaims Kari. “But the technology itself is ready for use on a larger scale and we’re now licensing it to other companies. In fact, we’ve recently sold licences to two small-scale vertical farms. We believe that networking is the key to success nowadays, so we are looking to build a good network of partners around the world – including in the USA and China – who can help us to further expand our market, and we are pleased that Grodan forms a part of that,” he concludes.

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Martina Angeleri PhD from Plantui Oy examines a liquorice seedling in a Grodan plug from a Plantui Smart Garden.

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No Soil. No Growing Seasons. Just Add Water And Technology

A New Breed of Hydroponic Farm, Huge And High-tech, is Popping Up in Indoor Spaces All Over America, Drawing Celebrity Investors And Critics.

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By Kim Severson

July 6, 2021

MOREHEAD, Ky. — In this pretty town on the edge of coal country, a high-tech greenhouse so large it could cover 50 football fields glows with the pinks and yellows of 30,600 LED and high-pressure sodium lights.

Inside, without a teaspoon of soil, nearly 3 million pounds of beefsteak tomatoes grow on 45-feet-high vines whose roots are bathed in nutrient-enhanced rainwater. Other vines hold thousands of small, juicy snacking tomatoes with enough tang to impress Martha Stewart, who is on the board of AppHarvest, a start-up that harvested its first crop here in January and plans to open 11 more indoor farms in Appalachia by 2025.

In a much more industrial setting near the Hackensack River in Kearny, N.J., trays filled with sweet baby butterhead lettuce and sorrel that tastes of lemon and green apple are stacked high in a windowless warehouse — what is known as a vertical farm. Bowery, the largest vertical-farming company in the United States, manipulates light, humidity, temperature, and other conditions to grow produce, bankrolled by investors like Justin Timberlake, Natalie Portman, and the chefs José Andrés and Tom Colicchio.

“Once I tasted the arugula, I was sold,” said Mr. Colicchio, who for years rolled his eyes at people who claimed to grow delicious hydroponic produce. “It was so spicy and so vibrant, it just blew me away.”

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The tomatoes at AppHarvest were delicious enough to attract an investment from Martha Stewart.Credit...Luke Sharrett for The New York Times

The two operations are part of a new generation of hydroponic farms that create precise growing conditions using technological advances like machine-learning algorithms, data analytics and proprietary software systems to coax customized flavors and textures from fruits and vegetables. And they can do it almost anywhere.

These farms arrive at a pivotal moment, as swaths of the country wither in the heat and drought of climate change, abetted in part by certain forms of agriculture. The demand for locally grown food has never been stronger, and the pandemic has shown many people that the food supply chain isn’t as resilient as they thought.

But not everyone is on board. These huge farms grow produce in nutrient-rich water, not the healthy soil that many people believe is at the heart of both deliciousness and nutrition. They can consume vast amounts of electricity. Their most ardent opponents say the claims being made for hydroponics are misleading and even dangerous.

“At the moment, I would say the bad guys are winning,” said Dave Chapman, a Vermont farmer and the executive director of the Real Organic Project. “Hydroponic production is not growing because it produces healthier food. It’s growing because of the money. Anyone who frames this as food for the people or the environment is just lying.”

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The sprawling Kentucky farm is one of a dozen that AppHarvest hopes to open across Appalachia.Credit...Luke Sharrett for The New York Times

The technical term for hydroponic farming is controlled environmental agriculture, but people in the business refer to it as indoor farming. What used to be simply called farms are now referred to as land-based farms or open-field agriculture.

“We’ve perfected mother nature indoors through that perfect combination of science and technology married with farming,” said Daniel Malechuk, the chief executive of Kalera, a company that sells whole lettuces, with the roots intact, in plastic clamshells for about the same price as other prewashed lettuce.

In March, the company opened a 77,000-square-foot facility south of Atlanta that can produce more than 10 million heads of lettuce a year. Similar indoor farms are coming to Houston, Denver, Seattle, Honolulu, and St. Paul, Minn.

The beauty of the process, Mr. Malechuk, and other executives say, is that it isn’t limited by seasons. The cost and growing period for a crop can be predicted precisely and farms can be built wherever people need fresh produce.

“We can grow in the Antarctic,” he said. “We can be on an island. We can be on the moon or in the space station.”

That’s easy to picture: The farms are staffed by a new breed of young farmers who wear lab coats instead of overalls and prefer computers to tractors.

Today, the more than 2,300 farms growing hydroponic crops in the United States make up only a sliver of the country’s $5.2 billion fruit and vegetable market. But investors enamored of smart agriculture are betting heavily on them.

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Lettuces at a Kalera vertical farm destined for nutrient-filled water begin in small plugs of growing medium.

Credit...Courtesy of Kalera

In 2020, $929 million poured into U.S. indoor-farming ventures, more than double the investments in 2019, according to PitchBook data. Grocery chains and California’s biggest berry growers are partnering with vertical farms, too.

“There is no question we are reinventing farming, but what we are doing is reinventing the fresh-food supply chain,” said Irving Fain, the founder, and chief executive of Bowery, which is based in Manhattan and has the indoor farm in New Jersey and one in Maryland, another under construction in Pennsylvania, and two research farms in New Jersey.

Mr. Fain said his farms are 100 times as productive as traditional ones and use 95 percent less water. Other companies claim they can grow as much food on a single acre as a traditional farm can grow on 390.

Vertical farms can be built next to urban centers, so lettuce, for example, doesn’t have to sit inside a truck for days as it makes its way from California to the East Coast, losing both quality and nutritional value. Vegetables can be bred for flavor rather than storage and yield.

The new systems are designed to produce a sanitary crop, grown without pesticides in hygienic buildings monitored by computers, so there is little risk of contamination from bacteria like E. coli, which forced large recalls of romaine lettuce in 2019 and 2020.

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Bowery, the largest vertical-farm company in the United States, is growing hydroponic vegetables that have attracted the attention of chefs. Credit...Brian Fraser for The New York Times

Still, many farmers and scientists remain unpersuaded. Mr. Chapman, of the Real Organic Project, served on a U.S. Department of Agriculture hydroponics task force five years ago, and is leading an effort to get the agency to stop allowing hydroponic farmers to certify their produce as organic. The very definition of organic farming, he and others say, rests on building healthy soil. In May, the Center for Food Safety, an environmental advocacy group, led an appeal of a federal court ruling that upheld the agency’s policy.

Although the nutritional profile of hydroponic produce continues to improve, no one yet knows what kind of long-term health impact fruits and vegetables grown without soil will have. No matter how many nutrients indoor farmers put into the water, critics insist that indoor farms can never match the taste and nutritional value, or provide the environmental advantages, that come from the marriage of sun, a healthy soil microbiome, and plant biology found on well-run organic farms.

“What will the health outcomes be in two generations?” Mr. Chapman asked. “It’s a huge live experiment, and we are the rats.”

The divide between soil loyalists and ag-tech futurists is playing out on a much more intimate scale between two influential brothers: Dan and David Barber, who founded and own the organic farm Blue Hill and its restaurants in Greenwich Village and at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, N.Y.

In 2018, David Barber created an investment fund to support new food tech companies, including Bowery. But Dan Barber, a chef whose 2014 book “The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food” devotes an entire section to soil, believes that truly delicious food can come only from the earth.

“I am not buying any of it,” Dan Barber said of the hydroponic fever.

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The chef Dan Barber, a soil loyalist, is skeptical of the claims made for hydroponic farms.

Credit...James Estrin/The New York Times

Trying to enhance water with nutrients to mimic what soil does is virtually impossible, he said, in part because no one really knows how the soil microbiome works.

“We know more about the stars and the sky than we do about soil,” he said. “We don’t know a lot about nutrition, actually.”

There is a cultural cost, too. For centuries, cuisines have been developed based on what the land and the plants demanded, he said. Regional Mexican diets built on corn and beans came about because farmers realized that beans fixed nitrogen in soil, and corn used it to grow strong.

“The tech-farming revolution is turning this equation on its head,” Mr. Barber said. It aids efficiency in the name of feeding more people but divorces food from nature.

His brother, David, had long been skeptical of hydroponics, too. “Most of my career was about good soil leads to good agriculture and good systems and ultimately good flavor,” David Barber said.

But the environmental advantages of next-generation hydroponic food production can’t be ignored, he said. Nor can the improvements in taste over earlier hydroponic produce. “They are combining outdoor and indoor thinking, and science and history, to create something special,” he said. “There are not going to be many winners in this space, but it is going to be a part of our food system.”

At Bowery, “there is no question we are reinventing farming, but what we are doing is reinventing the fresh-food supply chain,” said Irving Fain, its founder, and chief executive. Credit...Brian Fraser for The New York Times

Indoor farm companies view their competition as the large, industrial growers that produce fruits and vegetables bred to withstand processing and shipping — not smaller farmers using more natural growing techniques. The battle, they say, is against monoculture, not farmers who maintain healthy soil and feed their communities. Hydroponic farms can help develop new and more diverse plants, and reduce overall pesticide use.

“The only thing we are trying to do is get as good as farmers were 100 years ago,” said Mr. Malechuk, the hydroponic lettuce grower.

Indoor farming is a bet on the nation's agriculture, said Jonathan Webb, the Kentucky-born founder and chief executive of AppHarvest.

“The American farmer is already obsolete,” he said, pointing out that the United States imports four billion pounds of tomatoes from Mexico every year. “Our hope is we can get farmers back on U.S. shelves.”

Even Mr. Colicchio, who led a campaign against genetically modified food and has long been a champion of small farmers, said the two styles of farming can coexist. “We’re going to need a lot of tools in the toolbox,” he said.

Ouita Michel, a chef in Kentucky, likes AppHarvest because the company is creating jobs and growing tomatoes she is happy to use in her restaurants.

But technology, she said, will never trump the magic of soil. “Nothing will ever replace my summer Kentucky tomatoes.”

Lead photo: AppHarvest, the nation’s largest hydroponic greenhouse, opened in January in Morehead, Ky. — one in a new breed of huge indoor produce farms that use technology to fine-tune flavor, texture, and other attributes. Credit...Luke Sharrett for The New York Times