VIDEO: Is the Future of Agriculture Micro-Farms?

July 2, 2021

Is the future of agriculture micro-farms? When the pandemic hit, the retail food landscape changed dramatically. With “big food” supplying most restaurants and grocery stores, they faced numerous challenges— from labor shortages, redistribution challenges to distribution sites with long travel times— causing many individuals to turn to smaller, local farms.

In this week’s episode of TheSquare Podcast, we have a curious conversation with Jeff Bednar, Owner and founder of Profound Microfarms and Profound Foods. The Profound family business started as a 2.6-acre farm in Texas growing leafy greens, edible flowers, culinary herbs, and microgreens in 17,000 sq ft of hydroponic greenhouses.

Source: Vertical Farm Daily

­US Farming Is Tasteless, Toxic And Cruel

View fullsize

By SHEILA DILLON FOR THE DAILY MAIL

19 September 2020 

And its monstrous practices have no place here: Radio 4’s veteran food presenter Sheila Dillon decries ministers’ dangerous plans

British farming and food production are a remarkable success story. In recent years, this sector has been at the forefront of a revolution that’s transformed the quality of our food — and acted as a guardian of our countryside.

Through the vision and dedication of our farmers, Britain is increasingly a global leader in animal welfare, environmental protection, and high standards of produce. Now all these achievements are at mortal risk. As we prepare to leave the European Union at the end of this year, our impressive agricultural system could soon be wrecked by ruthless competition and a flood of cheap imports.

The most serious threat comes from the U.S., whose vast and unwieldy farming industry is far less regulated than ours.

In the name of efficiency, it has built a highly mechanised, intensive, and shockingly cruel approach which keeps animals in conditions so appalling it’s hard for us in the UK to grasp. Meanwhile, an arsenal of chemicals that are banned here are also deployed on these poor creatures.

It is not the sort of produce that should be allowed to swamp our own. When Brexit supporters spoke of ‘taking back control’, they did not envisage the destruction of British farming caused by mass-produced goods soaked in chlorine and cruelty.

In an attempt to prevent this grim eventuality, a last-ditch battle is under way at Westminster aiming to establish essential safeguards in post-Brexit Britain.

As the Agriculture Bill — which sets out a new domestic, post-Brexit alternative to the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy — makes its way through Parliament, MPs in the Commons and peers in the Lords have tried to impose amendments to keep Britain’s high standards of animal husbandry and environmental care. So far the Government has rejected all such proposals. Desperate to reach a trade deal, ministers seem unwilling to block the hugely influential U.S. food and agriculture lobby from gaining access to our market.

Their argument is that, in the brave new world of deregulation, consumers will enjoy more choice and, crucially, will have access to ‘cheap’ food. But cheapness will come at a huge cost to our health, our countryside, our rural economy, and our animals.

The reality is that choice will be restricted — because British farmers and producers will find it impossible to compete. From the supermarkets to takeaways, this ugly juggernaut of American food will sweep all before it.

The Agriculture Bill is about to go to the final stage of its passage through Parliament. There is one last chance for legislators to stop a free-for-all from which our agriculture would emerge the loser.

As someone who has covered the food industry for 20 years presenting The Food Programme on BBC Radio 4, I am deeply alarmed at the prospect of the advances British food has made in recent decades going into reverse.

Before COVID, British food was flourishing as never before. I think of the surge in high-quality bakeries, of our farmhouse cheeses beating rivals across the world — we produce more than France.

Even McDonald’s UK now uses free-range eggs and organic milk and recently won an RSPCA award for its animal welfare standards. I need hardly say it’s not how McDonald’s operates in the U.S.

It’s all part of Britain’s deep and enduring compassion for animals. We have 25 million free-range hens here, more than any other country — and more free-range pigs than anywhere in Europe.

In frequent talks with farmers, I have been struck by how they see themselves, not just as producers, but as custodians of the land, a vital role they fill with imaginativeness in an age of mounting concern about climate change.

The U.S. farming model is completely different. Its aim is not to work with nature but to dominate it. Industrialised and chemicalised, the entire system is a monument to the denial of biology.

I am not in any way anti-American — I’ve lived across that wonderful country in Indiana, California, Massachusetts, and New York. I’m married to an American: my son and his family live in Pennsylvania.

It’s precisely because I visit regularly, and have seen at first hand the harshness of U.S. food production, that I feel so strongly.

The ‘chlorinated chicken’ has rightly become a symbol of U.S. farming at its worst, but few ask why poultry has to be washed in chlorine before it can be sold. It is because the birds are kept in such over-crowded squalor and so pumped with chemicals during their brief, unfortunate lives.

The same applies throughout American industry. Even the British Government’s farming Secretary George Eustice has admitted U.S. animal welfare law is ‘woefully deficient’. Pigs are reared in grotesquely inhumane battery farms. More than 60 million are treated with the antibiotic Carbadox, which promotes growth and is rightly banned in the UK.

Similarly, U.S. cattle are fed steroid hormones to speed growth by 20 percent — the use of such chemicals has been illegal in Britain and the EU since 1989. And as the cattle are kept in vast confined feeding pens, they need regular antibiotics.

Incredibly, some staff processing carcasses at huge meatpacking plants wear nappies because they are not allowed time off to go to the lavatory. In arable production, pesticides are used on a scale far beyond anything in Britain. In recent decades, the U.S. has banned or controlled just 11 chemicals in food, cosmetics, and cleaning products — the EU has banned 1,300.

View fullsize

Polar opposites: Cows in a British field, and in beef pens in Texas

In U.S. farming there’s almost no effort to mitigate climate change yet here the National Farmers’ Union is committed to achieving zero carbon production by 2040. What will happen to that commitment if cheap U.S. food floods in?

The U.S. genetically modified crops to be resistant to Roundup weedkiller — but after weeds grew resistant to Roundup and flourished, one U.S. farmer told me proudly crops were now engineered to be resistant to the infamous Agent Orange, a defoliant used by the U.S. military to kill vegetation in the Vietnam War.

Environmental devastation and health problems — including disabilities to as many as a million people — were caused in Vietnam by Agent Orange. Is this a road we want to go down in Britain?

The so-called cheapness of American produce is a delusion. These farming methods carry a heavy price in quality and health. A battery chicken is tasteless compared to an organic one, just as factory-farmed salmon has nothing of the flavour of wild.

Cheap, low-quality foods have brought with them disturbing health problems including obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

The coronavirus crisis proved the need for resilient supply lines. But that cannot be achieved if we ruin our own domestic agricultural system and become reliant on imported food.

In World War II, when the survival of the nation was imperilled, the Government attached huge importance to domestic food output, reflected in the propaganda campaign ‘Dig for Victory’ and the Women’s Land Army. We need that collective spirit today.

It would be stupidity beyond measure to obliterate our farming industry for a short-term, unbalanced trade deal with the U.S.

A trade deal without agricultural safeguards would be a calamity for British farming and our prosperity. One in eight jobs in Britain is in food supply, while food exports brought in £9.6 billion to the economy. All that will be lost if cut-throat competition prevails.

And a vital part of our heritage will also be lost. From the robust imagery of John Bull as a yeoman squire to William Blake’s Jerusalem, with its evocation of our ‘green and pleasant land’, the countryside has always held a central place in our national soul. It must not be sacrificed on the altar of illusory cheapness or trans-Atlantic subservience.

Lead photo: It’s all part of Britain’s deep and enduring compassion for animals. We have 25 million free-range hens here, more than any other country — and more free-range pigs than anywhere in Europe

Sheila Dillon presents BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme.

­US Farming Is Tasteless, Toxic And Cruel

View fullsize

By SHEILA DILLON FOR THE DAILY MAIL

19 September 2020 

And its monstrous practices have no place here: Radio 4’s veteran food presenter Sheila Dillon decries ministers’ dangerous plans

British farming and food production are a remarkable success story. In recent years, this sector has been at the forefront of a revolution that’s transformed the quality of our food — and acted as a guardian of our countryside.

Through the vision and dedication of our farmers, Britain is increasingly a global leader in animal welfare, environmental protection, and high standards of produce. Now all these achievements are at mortal risk. As we prepare to leave the European Union at the end of this year, our impressive agricultural system could soon be wrecked by ruthless competition and a flood of cheap imports.

The most serious threat comes from the U.S., whose vast and unwieldy farming industry is far less regulated than ours.

In the name of efficiency, it has built a highly mechanised, intensive, and shockingly cruel approach which keeps animals in conditions so appalling it’s hard for us in the UK to grasp. Meanwhile, an arsenal of chemicals that are banned here are also deployed on these poor creatures.

It is not the sort of produce that should be allowed to swamp our own. When Brexit supporters spoke of ‘taking back control’, they did not envisage the destruction of British farming caused by mass-produced goods soaked in chlorine and cruelty.

In an attempt to prevent this grim eventuality, a last-ditch battle is under way at Westminster aiming to establish essential safeguards in post-Brexit Britain.

As the Agriculture Bill — which sets out a new domestic, post-Brexit alternative to the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy — makes its way through Parliament, MPs in the Commons and peers in the Lords have tried to impose amendments to keep Britain’s high standards of animal husbandry and environmental care. So far the Government has rejected all such proposals. Desperate to reach a trade deal, ministers seem unwilling to block the hugely influential U.S. food and agriculture lobby from gaining access to our market.

Their argument is that, in the brave new world of deregulation, consumers will enjoy more choice and, crucially, will have access to ‘cheap’ food. But cheapness will come at a huge cost to our health, our countryside, our rural economy, and our animals.

The reality is that choice will be restricted — because British farmers and producers will find it impossible to compete. From the supermarkets to takeaways, this ugly juggernaut of American food will sweep all before it.

The Agriculture Bill is about to go to the final stage of its passage through Parliament. There is one last chance for legislators to stop a free-for-all from which our agriculture would emerge the loser.

As someone who has covered the food industry for 20 years presenting The Food Programme on BBC Radio 4, I am deeply alarmed at the prospect of the advances British food has made in recent decades going into reverse.

Before COVID, British food was flourishing as never before. I think of the surge in high-quality bakeries, of our farmhouse cheeses beating rivals across the world — we produce more than France.

Even McDonald’s UK now uses free-range eggs and organic milk and recently won an RSPCA award for its animal welfare standards. I need hardly say it’s not how McDonald’s operates in the U.S.

It’s all part of Britain’s deep and enduring compassion for animals. We have 25 million free-range hens here, more than any other country — and more free-range pigs than anywhere in Europe.

In frequent talks with farmers, I have been struck by how they see themselves, not just as producers, but as custodians of the land, a vital role they fill with imaginativeness in an age of mounting concern about climate change.

The U.S. farming model is completely different. Its aim is not to work with nature but to dominate it. Industrialised and chemicalised, the entire system is a monument to the denial of biology.

I am not in any way anti-American — I’ve lived across that wonderful country in Indiana, California, Massachusetts, and New York. I’m married to an American: my son and his family live in Pennsylvania.

It’s precisely because I visit regularly, and have seen at first hand the harshness of U.S. food production, that I feel so strongly.

The ‘chlorinated chicken’ has rightly become a symbol of U.S. farming at its worst, but few ask why poultry has to be washed in chlorine before it can be sold. It is because the birds are kept in such over-crowded squalor and so pumped with chemicals during their brief, unfortunate lives.

The same applies throughout American industry. Even the British Government’s farming Secretary George Eustice has admitted U.S. animal welfare law is ‘woefully deficient’. Pigs are reared in grotesquely inhumane battery farms. More than 60 million are treated with the antibiotic Carbadox, which promotes growth and is rightly banned in the UK.

Similarly, U.S. cattle are fed steroid hormones to speed growth by 20 percent — the use of such chemicals has been illegal in Britain and the EU since 1989. And as the cattle are kept in vast confined feeding pens, they need regular antibiotics.

Incredibly, some staff processing carcasses at huge meatpacking plants wear nappies because they are not allowed time off to go to the lavatory. In arable production, pesticides are used on a scale far beyond anything in Britain. In recent decades, the U.S. has banned or controlled just 11 chemicals in food, cosmetics, and cleaning products — the EU has banned 1,300.

View fullsize

Polar opposites: Cows in a British field, and in beef pens in Texas

In U.S. farming there’s almost no effort to mitigate climate change yet here the National Farmers’ Union is committed to achieving zero carbon production by 2040. What will happen to that commitment if cheap U.S. food floods in?

The U.S. genetically modified crops to be resistant to Roundup weedkiller — but after weeds grew resistant to Roundup and flourished, one U.S. farmer told me proudly crops were now engineered to be resistant to the infamous Agent Orange, a defoliant used by the U.S. military to kill vegetation in the Vietnam War.

Environmental devastation and health problems — including disabilities to as many as a million people — were caused in Vietnam by Agent Orange. Is this a road we want to go down in Britain?

The so-called cheapness of American produce is a delusion. These farming methods carry a heavy price in quality and health. A battery chicken is tasteless compared to an organic one, just as factory-farmed salmon has nothing of the flavour of wild.

Cheap, low-quality foods have brought with them disturbing health problems including obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

The coronavirus crisis proved the need for resilient supply lines. But that cannot be achieved if we ruin our own domestic agricultural system and become reliant on imported food.

In World War II, when the survival of the nation was imperilled, the Government attached huge importance to domestic food output, reflected in the propaganda campaign ‘Dig for Victory’ and the Women’s Land Army. We need that collective spirit today.

It would be stupidity beyond measure to obliterate our farming industry for a short-term, unbalanced trade deal with the U.S.

A trade deal without agricultural safeguards would be a calamity for British farming and our prosperity. One in eight jobs in Britain is in food supply, while food exports brought in £9.6 billion to the economy. All that will be lost if cut-throat competition prevails.

And a vital part of our heritage will also be lost. From the robust imagery of John Bull as a yeoman squire to William Blake’s Jerusalem, with its evocation of our ‘green and pleasant land’, the countryside has always held a central place in our national soul. It must not be sacrificed on the altar of illusory cheapness or trans-Atlantic subservience.

Lead photo: It’s all part of Britain’s deep and enduring compassion for animals. We have 25 million free-range hens here, more than any other country — and more free-range pigs than anywhere in Europe

Sheila Dillon presents BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme.

Energy Use In Food Production

By The Choose Energy Team

November 26th, 2019

We use a whole lot of energy to produce our food

The U.S. food system uses a massive amount of energy from start to finish. In 2018, the U.S. consumed 101.1 quadrillion Btu (British thermal units) of energy. The food system makes up 10 percent of that total, landing it at about 10.11 quadrillion Btu.

That number might not mean much at first glance, but put another way, the U.S. consumes as much energy preparing and transporting food as France uses to power the entire country for a year.

Where does that energy come from?

Food systems around the world account for about 30 percent of the world’s total energy consumption. Since most food systems are run primarily on fossil fuels, that means they also account for 20 percent of our global greenhouse gas emissions.

These emissions take place at every step of the food chain. Manure and fertilizer give off nitrous oxide while cattle and other animals produce methane. Machinery requires diesel and gasoline, and the entire process is fueled by coal and natural gas power plants, creating carbon dioxide.

How is that energy used?

The energy in food production can be broken down into four parts: agriculture, transportation, processing, and handling.

View fullsize

Agriculture

Agriculture uses about 21 percent of the total U.S. food production energy. This accounts for everything involved in the growth and cultivation of food crops. 60 percent of this energy is consumed directly in the use of gasoline, diesel, electricity, and natural gas, while the rest is indirect through fertilizer and pesticide production. In total, agriculture consumes roughly 2.1 quadrillion Btu of energy each year, enough to power the entire country of Norway.

Transportation

The transportation of food from farm to table accounts for just under 14 percent of the energy that goes into producing food. Romania could power itself for a year on the 1.4 quadrillion Btu it takes to ship avocadoes from South America (among other tasty imports).

Food Processing

Food processing refers to the transformation of raw ingredients into a food product, in other words, turning raw corn into cereal and the like. This section of the system makes up about 16 percent of the total. This breaks down to about 1.6 quadrillion Btu per year, equivalent to the total energy use of Nigeria.

Food Handling

Food handling is by far the largest sector of energy in producing food, and accounts for nearly half of the energy used in food production – over 49 percent. This piece of the system includes retail, restaurants, packaging, and consumers. The energy used to package milk and keep it refrigerated in the grocery store and at home falls into this category. At 5 quadrillion Btu, the food handling sector’s total energy is more than enough to power a year of life in Taiwan.

Energy-efficient foods

Certain foods require less energy to produce than others, whether because it requires less land and water or because there are fewer industrial processes needed to produce it. The most energy-efficient foods include wheat, beans, fish, eggs, nuts, and other non-resource-intensive products.

The least energy-efficient foods are animal-based products, particularly beef, lamb, and goat. This is because beef requires up to 20 times more resources and emits 20 times more greenhouse gas emission than plant-based protein sources. Poultry and pork use slightly less energy but are still far bigger emitters than plant products.

This doesn’t mean you have to be a vegetarian to cut down energy use. Just reducing the amount of meat and dairy you eat can allow you to have a much lower impact diet. Regardless, both meat-based and vegetarian diets rely heavily on fossil fuels, so neither is sustainable long-term in the current food system.

How to reduce food system energy use

Because so much of the energy used in food production comes from non-renewable resources, it’s important to make the food system more energy efficient. A few key ways to start making a difference at home are:

1. Buy only as much food as you eat. One of the easiest ways to help conserve energy in food production is to waste less. It’s estimated that 40 percent of food in the U.S. goes uneaten. In 2017, that added up to 38 million tons of food waste. As a comparison, that’s the weight of 38 million polar bears, 5.5 million elephants, or nearly 300,000 blue whales.

2. Buy food that is locally sourced. Shop at local farmers’ markets instead of buying produce at the grocery store. You’ll be supporting local farmers and saving the energy needed to transport perishable foods from across the world.

3. Invest in energy-efficient food storage. Get an EnergyStar refrigerator, which use 20%-30% less energy. Also, keep your refrigerator fully stocked. If you don’t have enough food, keep containers of water in there instead. It may sound counterintuitive, but your refrigerator works most efficiently when it’s full.

CubicFarms Announces Sale of Control Rooms To Global Agtech Leader, Terramera

VANCOUVER, BC, AUGUST 31, 2020 – CubicFarm® Systems Corp. (TSXV:CUB) (“CubicFarms” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce the sale of three Control Rooms to Terramera, a global agtech leader transforming how food is grown and the economics of agriculture. Terramera is a British Columbia-based company on a mission to reduce global synthetic pesticide use 80 percent by 2030 with its revolutionary Actigate™ technology platform, named a 2020 World-Changing Idea by Fast Company.

In June, CubicFarms offered its Control Room system for sale to growers requiring complete control over the growing environment that is so crucial for high crop yields and quality. Each CubicFarms Control Room is assembled inside a proprietary stainless steel, fully insulated growing chamber with the option to customize features such as lighting, automated irrigation, and nutrient delivery, providing full climate control for temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide levels. The system has a variety of sensors available, all of which can be remotely monitored and controlled.
 
Dr. Travis Good, Terramera’s Chief Technology Officer commented, “We required a closed space with precise controls to isolate each environmental variable and produce uniform, plentiful and high-quality plants for our research. CubicFarms’ Control Room system is an ideal solution and helps us scale our Actigate™ technology with the goal of dramatically reducing the use of synthetic pesticides in agriculture.”

CubicFarms CEO Dave Dinesen commented, “We are pleased to call Terramera a customer as we share the same strategic investor, Ospraie Ag Science, and vision to transform how food is grown with the use of leading-edge technology. Terramera is a natural fit for a synergistic partnership in the future as both companies look to develop our machine learning and AI capabilities to further advance our respective technologies.”

Photos: The CubicFarms Control Room, complete with LED light fixtures, an automated heating, cooling and ventilation system, and wired environmental controls.
 
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor it’s Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

About CubicFarm® Systems Corp.
 
CubicFarm Systems Corp. (“CubicFarms”) is a technology company developing and deploying technology to feed a changing world. Its proprietary technologies enable growers around the world to produce high quality, predictable crop yields. CubicFarms has two distinct technologies that address two distinct markets. The first technology is its patented CubicFarms™ system, which contains patented technology for growing leafy greens and other crops. Using its unique, undulating-path growing system, the Company addresses the main challenges within the indoor farming industry by significantly reducing the need for physical labour and energy, and maximizing yield per cubic foot. CubicFarms leverages its patented technology by operating its own R&D facility in Pitt Meadows, British Columbia, selling the system to growers, licensing its technology, and providing vertical farming expertise to its customers.
 
The second technology is CubicFarms’ HydroGreen system for growing nutritious livestock feed. This system utilizes a unique process to sprout grains, such as barley and wheat, in a controlled environment with minimal use of land, labour and water. The HydroGreen system is fully automated and performs all growing functions including seeding, watering, lighting, harvesting, and re-seeding – all with the push of a button – to deliver nutritious livestock feed without the typical investment in fertilizer, chemicals, fuel, field equipment and transportation. The HydroGreen system not only provides superior nutritious feed to benefit the animal, but also enables significant environmental benefits to the farm.
 
About Terramera
 
Terramera is a global agtech leader fusing science, nature, and artificial intelligence to transform how food is grown and the economics of agriculture in the next decade. With its revolutionary Actigate™ technology platform, which was recognized by Fast Company as a 2020 World Changing Idea, Terramera is committed to reducing the global synthetic pesticide load 80% by 2030 to protect plant and human health and ensure an earth that thrives and provides for everyone. The privately-held, venture-backed company was founded in 2010 and has grown to include a world-class bench of engineers, scientists, advisors, and investors. Terramera is headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, with integrated operations in Canada, the US, and India that include research labs, a greenhouse and farm, and more than 240 patents in its global IP portfolio. For more information, please visit terramera.com

Cautionary statement on forward-looking information
 
Certain statements in this release constitute "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including, without limitation, statements with respect to CubicFarms’ future partnership with Terramera; and the development of machine learning and AI capabilities by CubicFarms. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of CubicFarm Systems Corp., or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information including the Company obtaining the approval of the Offering from the TSX Venture Exchange. Such statements can be identified by the use of words such as "may", "would", "could", "will", "intend", "expect", "believe", "plan", "anticipate", "estimate", "scheduled", "forecast", "predict", and other similar terminology, or state that certain actions, events, or results "may", "could", "would", "might", or "will" be taken, occur, or be achieved.
 
These statements reflect the Company's current expectations regarding future events, performance, and results and speak only as of the date of this news release. Consequently, there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Except as required by securities disclosure laws and regulations applicable to the Company, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if the Company's expectations regarding future events, performance, or results change.

Information contact:

cubicfarms.com

Kimberly Lim
VP, Corporate Communications & Investor Relations
Mobile: 236.858.6491
Office: 1.888.280.9076
Email: kimberly@cubicfarms.com

Freight Farms in Montrose Colorado - Eatin' Greens Farm - Locally Grown Produce

The deserts of the west meet the Rocky Mountains, blocking any rainfall that might come their way. ⁠⠀

Instead, the town relies on snowmelt to irrigate their valley so they can grow beautiful crops of corn, alfalfa, peaches, apricots and apples, and more.⁠⠀

But for the past 2 years, the area has been experiencing a drought and the availability of water for next year depends entirely on the amount of snowfall the mountains receive this winter.⁠⠀

“These cycles certainly make my wife and I appreciate the Freight Farm," says Steve Arnold of @eatingreensfarm. “We have been container farming for 3 years now and we were in agriculture in this area since 1970, so we have been through a few cycles of wet and dry years. We are able to grow consistently all year long no matter what the weather is like. We only use about 3 or 4 gallons of water a day, so drought or no drought we aren’t affected.”⁠⠀

What Are The Pros And Cons of Hydroponics?

AUGUST 28, 2020

Hydroponics is a type of aquaculture that uses nutrients and water to grow plants without soil. It is an increasingly popular growing method in urban areas and regions with extreme climates. There are many benefits to hydroponics as an alternative form of agriculture, including fewer chemicals, higher yields and greater water efficiency. 

However, hydroponics is not a perfect solution. The initial setup is expensive, and the whole growing system is heavily dependent on access to electricity and a clean water source. Here are just a few pros and cons of hydroponics.

Pros

The benefits of hydroponics are myriad and include:

1. More Water Efficient

Growing plants can require a lot of water, and conventional agriculture is historically wasteful of this resource. For example, a single walnut requires almost 5 gallons of water, and an orange uses nearly 14 gallons. Globally, over 70% of freshwater is used for agriculture. 

Compared to traditional growing methods, hydroponic systems are much more water-efficient. Growing in a climate-controlled environment allows cultivators to use the exact amount of water required for healthy plants, without any waste. Overall, hydroponics utilizes 10 times less water than conventional agriculture.

2. Higher Yields

Since crops are grown in a climate-controlled environment, hydroponic farmers are not limited by extreme weather or annual rainfall, resulting in higher crop yields. There’s more control over the setup of the system, and crops aren’t limited to a specific growing season. 

Additionally, when comparing vegetables grown in soil, hydroponics can sometimes grow plants at up to 16 times higher density. Hydroponics allows growers to do this without using significantly more nutrients or other inputs. 

3. Less Space

Some crops require a lot of space, and many conventional forms of agriculture are inefficient when it comes to using land. For example, row crops like soybeans and corn take up most of the arable land in the United States, but the harvest is used mostly for livestock and processed food, not human consumption. 

In contrast, hydroponic systems focus on cultivating fruits and vegetables, providing nutrient-dense food for consumers without taking up significant amounts of space. Additionally, researchers at NASA are studying how to incorporate hydroponic systems for longer-duration space missions by providing the right balance of light, carbon dioxide, and water. 

4. Community Resilience

Many cities have significant food deserts, and access to quality and affordable items is significantly limited. Urban hydroponic systems enable communities to cultivate their own crops, increasing food security for vulnerable populations. 

While hydroponics requires significant operational costs, there is also some proof that it may be a possible solution for countries that struggle with food insecurity or need back-up options during months of extreme drought. 

For example, in the United States, many agricultural enterprises grow food in one region but ship it to another for consumption. Many rural communities struggle with access to healthy produce because of this. Hydroponics may help foster community resilience by setting up an accessible system.

5. Fewer Chemicals

Many advocates of hydroponic systems stress that hydroponics reduces the need for synthetic chemicals. Since plants are most often grown in greenhouses with strictly controlled environmental inputs, pest pressure is almost nonexistent. Considering the detrimental impact of pesticides on the environment, using fewer chemicals is a huge advantage for hydroponics compared to traditional growing systems. 

However, there is an ongoing debate regarding how to qualify hydroponic crops, and whether they are eligible for organic certification. According to the USDA, this refers to the care and maintenance of soil without chemicals. Since hydroponics do not use earth, many traditional organic growers feel that they are not eligible. Regardless of how crops are labeled, the fact that hydroponics uses fewer chemicals is a definitive advantage compared to conventional agriculture.

Cons

Despite the many positives, hydroponics also has some challenges to overcome.

1. Technology Reliance

Hydroponics is a high-tech process. Most commercial operations utilize specialized equipment that regulates water temperature, as well as acidity and nutrient density. Because plants are cultivated in a completely climate-controlled environment, there is a significant reliance on technology. Hydroponics is considerably more high-tech than other growing methods, and there is an opportunity in agtech to improve yields and decrease inputs. However, the amount of tech also makes it cost-prohibitive for beginning growers.

2. Initial Investment

The hydroponics market is expected to grow from $9 billion to $16 billion in the next five years, so there is certainly an opportunity for investors to consider vertical farming as a viable operation. In traditional agriculture, is it hard for new and beginning farmers to get started, as many face difficulties with land access and infrastructure investments. 

However, getting into hydroponics is not necessarily any easier or cheaper. Despite a growing market, the initial investment in hydroponic systems is steep, especially on a commercial scale. For this reason, many of the largest growers are established agriculture corporations that already have capital in place. The initial investment limits profitable hydroponic operations to a few large farms, making it tricky for smaller growers to enter the market.

3. Organic Debate

As mentioned above, there is an ongoing debate in the farming community about whether hydroponic produce can be labeled organic according to USDA standards. Without a clear definition of the nutrient profile of hydroponics, nor stringent guidelines on which fertilizers or chemicals are permissible, many consumers remain cautious about hydroponic produce. This affects the industry’s success, as many consumers don’t know how crops are grown or what’s added to the water.

Without a clear definition from the USDA, there remains some question over self-labeling of hydroponic crops as organic when synthetic chemicals may still be added.

4. Equipment Requirements

While a home gardener can easily utilize some plastic bottles and storage containers to build a small hydroponic system, commercial farmers have significant equipment requirements. In addition to the initial costs of setup for infrastructure, there are also necessary and costly machines to consider. Pumps, tanks, and other controls can be expensive, not to mention electricity and access to filtered water.

5. Waterborne Diseases

While hydroponic systems may reduce or eliminate pest pressure, certain waterborne diseases are more prevalent in hydroponically grown produce. The most common ones affect the plant’s root structure, such as Pythium, which includes several water mold species. 

Proper hygiene and cleaning practices can reduce the risk of plant disease, but it is often impossible to avoid completely. Because of this likelihood, many hydroponic growers incorporate bio fungicides to prevent breakouts.

Soil-Free Growing

Hydroponic growing can increase crop yields while reducing water usage. The benefits of hydroponics are significant, and the industry is expected to grow astronomically in the next five years. However, there are also some disadvantages to growing hydroponically. Improving access to infrastructure and making technology more accessible will enable more beginning growers to enter the market.

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Special Report: How Farming Is Gaining Ground in UAE

Photo Supplied by VeggiTech

8/24/2020 11:00:45 PM

(MENAFN - Khaleej Times) The UAE has implemented a range of policies, measures and strategies to ensure constant food supplies from abroad and scaled up agricultural production at home - and this is evident as businesses come forward and share their roles in aligning their strategies to boost food and water security.

On Sunday, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said: "Food and water security are among the priorities of the UAE government for the post-coronavirus period, and the objective is to launch specialist initiatives that will ensure our readiness to confront all types of crises."

The farming sector is aggressively working towards boosting local production of agro produce. Agrotech company VeggiTech, for instance, is addressing the key challenges of traditional farming through its design of protected hydroponics and grow lights-assisted hydroponics.

"We have chosen the challenging conditions of UAE to demonstrate the positive use of agro technology to create sustainable farms aligned to the UAE's vision of food security," said Hemant Julka, co-founder and COO of VeggiTech.

In the last 18 months, the company has built and is operating over 30 hectares of farms with protected hydroponics and is also in the process of going live with 4,500 sqm of indoor vertical farms that employ grow light-assisted hydroponics.

"We produced over 1.6 million kg of produce last year and this year [including the summer months] and we will produce more than 1.9 million kg with over 500 tonnes of organic produce from our farms between August 2020 and July 2021," added Julka.

Similarly, Dake Rechsand's primary focus is enabling desert regions to expand their agriculture and long-term water storage capacities and create food and water security.

"Our strength is being able to achieve this using simple, ordinary and abundantly available sand as a raw material. We are ramping up production and expect our technologies to enable farming and greenery for at least 10,000 acres across the UAE or for half-a-million trees by the first half of 2021," said Chandra Dake, executive chairman and group CEO of Dake Group.

"Within the same period we also expect to be ready with a comprehensive strategy for harvesting and usage of rainwater, which will allow us to enable 10 cubic metres [two million gallons] of water storage from harvested rainwater. In fact, we are ready to take on pilot projects during the upcoming monsoons next month and work with the government bodies to showcase how our products and technology can help harness rainfall and deliver immediate and tangible results for the UAE."

Tech disruption
VeggiTech produce utilises less than 10 percent of the water used in traditional farms and is pesticide-free. In addition, they have deployed technology for complete food transparency through QR codes that give complete visibility of the growing process of the vegetable produce from farms. The firm is in the business of offering "farming as a service", where the firm builds and operates digital smart farms that are sustainable and environmentally friendly.

In the first half of 2020, despite the Covid-19 circumstances, VeggiTech signed contracts for 13,000 sqft of grow area for indoor vertical farms and building protected hydroponic farms of 80,000 sqft.

"We are upbeat on the current pipeline of projects [over 10 million sqft of farms - protected hydroponics; more than 200,000 sqft of indoor vertical farms] to be signed in the third and fourth quarters of 2020 and these would start producing over 25 million kg of produce every year from 2021-22. The optimal use of land assets combined with the reduction in water resources and pesticide free crops are an ideal example of using technology to align with the UAE's food security goals," added Julka.

Desert farming
The Middle East, including the UAE and GCC, is enriched with desert sand. However, most of these desert regions import a bulk of their food commodities. Dake Rechsand has what it calls 'magic sand', a technology enables the sustainable production of organic food in the desert using up to 70 percent less water than conventional methods. At 65 percent of total use, the agriculture sector is the largest consumer of water in the UAE.

"On average, about 11 to 12 litres of water is being used to irrigate one sqm of land per day in the UAE. If we reduce that requirement by 70 percent, we could conserve about 45 percent of the total water consumed in the UAE. More importantly, this can be achieved while increasing the UAE's agricultural production significantly," said Dake.

Dake Rechsand creates breathable surfaces for roads, kerbstones and pavements, etc, which can absorb water, and harvest it.

"Coupled with our decentralised mini-reservoirs made from the same material, we can help harvest rainwater and keep it fresh for up to seven years, without any energy inputs. This can not only result in creating a new, reliable and cost effective water source, adding to the UAE's water reserves, but also one that is much cleaner since rainwater is a better source than desalination," added Dake.

"Our approach towards maximising water retention in sand is what propels desert farming and is both economically as well as organically efficient. That means one can get organic products grown from these regions very easily. Our products are designed scientifically, and they contribute to environmental sustainability."

ICBA committed to boost food and water security
The International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) completely supports every effort towards the food and water security of the UAE's vision.

Dr Ismahane Elouafi, director-general of the ICBA, said: "Like national security, food and water security must be a priority for all countries. Thanks to the UAE's wise and visionary leadership, the country has always been at the forefront of ensuring food and water security in the country. During the recent disruption to global food systems, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the UAE set an excellent example of its efforts towards food security. It was one of the few countries where the food supply remained uninterrupted. Even though the UAE is short of arable land and freshwater resources, and has harsh climatic conditions, the country harness the benefits of innovation to make agriculture possible and profitable in the country."

The UAE's National Food Security Strategy 2051, which was launched in 2018 with a vision to become a world-leading hub for innovation-driven food security, also prioritizes agricultural research and development. The country rose from 33rd place in 2017 to 21st in 2019 in the Global Food Security Index, compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The ICBA has been working on several technologies and innovations to boost agricultural productivity and improve farmers' livelihood, in non-arable lands and harsh ecosystems.

All of the ICBA's research and development programmes are directly beneficial to the region, particularly to the UAE.

"We have introduced what we call climate-smart and resource-efficient crops such as quinoa, pearl millet, sorghum, and Salicornia, among others, in countries in Central Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. These crops are nutritious and resilient to heat, drought, and salinity, therefore fit for ecosystems such as UAE. Furthermore, our crop development and research trials have been mostly conducted in our experimental farm in Dubai. Hence, all data and results are very relevant to the UAE," added Dr Elouafi.

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THAILAND: "We Are Lacking Research Here To Backup The Benefits of Indoor Growing"

Thai startup Wangree Fresh has been in the market for over two years now. Krisana Tamvimol, Founder and CEO has done research on more than 200 local vegetables. Eventually, he decided to grow four different vegetables in his Wangree Fresh farm: kale, spinach, rockets and swiss chard. Wangree Fresh has had no problems with incoming orders during the pandemic. 

He says: “We’ve had an increase in orders as people wanted more clean and home-delivered vegetables, in the comfort of their own house. Having reached our capacity, we haven’t been able to grow any further beyond that. Now with the pandemic, our company growth is put on hold as we cannot get into new investments and expand our business to meet the growing demand. Our supplies are still constant and we will keep producing at maximum capacity.” 

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Founder and CEO, Krisana Tamvimol

Under construction
The Siam Pun Sun factory, an 1800 m2 farm, will supply 50 tons of vegetables per month. The construction is about 80% completed and will be fully completed at the end of this year. The new farm is looking into giving educational courses as well. Wangree Fresh will provide educational courses on the new property as well. “I want to share my knowledge of vertical farming and my researches. So, I would love to train more people and teach them more about vertical farming so they can become engineers, scientists, or other”, Tamvimol adds. 

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The farm's end result

It is no coincidence that Tamvimol has established his new farm there. The farm will be located nearby the Wat Pra Baht Nam Phu temple, which is 120km north of Bangkok. The temple is run by monks who are treating people with medical needs and therefore many underprivileged people are relying on their help.

Tamvimol sees the new farm as a corporate social responsibility project because, once the construction has been completed and the net revenue has come in, all revenue will go directly to the temple. “This will help with the operations of the temple and its maintenance, so the temple won’t be in need of donors anymore. Essentially, the temple will return Siam Pun Suk’s fresh produce to its formal donors as a sign of gratitude.”

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The 1800 m2 Siam Pun Sun factory

Supermarkets as a direct competitor
The company sells four different kinds of vegetables, namely kale, spinach, rockets and swiss chard. Simply because we have a pretty good calling price for them. Normally, vegetables of the same species are much more expensive in supermarkets than to what we offer. Our quality is even better. “We are competing with supermarkets in terms of price and quality. We are still researching and looking into strawberries and other fruits, but for now we haven’t gotten that far yet in terms of production”, Tamvimol says. Currently, Wangree Fresh consists of one farm and sells its products under two brands: Wangree Health, the organic wing and Wangree Fresh, using new technologies the company has been reversing over the years.

The farm currently produces at maximum capacity

Although supermarkets have been in the market for a longer time, they can’t produce in the high volume and quality like Wangree Fresh can. He continues: “Quality-wise, we are the best producers of these kinds of vegetables in Thailand. We haven’t been able to address demand in supermarkets yet”, Tamvimol confirms. He says that high-quality and clean food is mostly preferred in urban areas. However, supermarkets in the sub-urban areas do not sell this kind of high-value vegetables.

“We haven’t been able to address the demand in supermarkets so far. Simply, because we have a subscription model and we haven’t been able to address the demand of our subscribers just yet”, Tamvimol says. Since February, the company has gone from 1000 to 2000 subscriptions. Previously, we used to have 1000 subscribers and home-delivered vegetables to them on-time.”

Because the subscriptions doubled during the pandemic, the home-delivery time became longer as well. “We were at maximum capacity already, but we wanted to keep making our customers happy. A guarantee to deliver the fresh produce within 24h e.g., to maintain the freshness of the vegetables”, he adds.

Franchise model
In the future, Wangree Fresh might consider having a franchise. “As in, people signing up to use our system. However, at this point, I have my hands dirty on researching the entire growing system. There might come a franchise model where people can sign up for the consultation of our design and construction of the system. The system needs fine tuning all the time, so it’s not easy to sell it off as one package”, Tamvimol states.

Vertical farming system
“There are two main difficulties in vertical farming here. One is the adoption of new technologies. The Thai people and mostly farmers are not bold enough to try new things. They use their own systems that have been used for over decades” Tamvimol says. It’s hard for Tamvimol to get them involved and for them to try the new systems. “The second thing is that there aren’t many vertical farming systems available in Thailand. Next to that, most of the academic works are conducted by foreign researchers and we are lacking researches here to back up the benefits of indoor growing”, he says. 

An impression of Tamvimol's growing system

Tamvimol has done a lot of research on technology, hardware and factors of finetuning his system. He grew up in Chiang Mai, where the main business is agriculture, and used to work in the computer hardware business. After an academic tour to Japan, he became involved with vertical farming. That’s when he decided to combine his experience in digital technology and agriculture. After spending the past few years on research: finding the right formula to grow any kind of vegetable and how many vegetables he needs to grow to generate a good return on investments.

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For more information: 
Wangree Fresh
Krisana Tamvimol, CEO
krisana@wangreefresh.com
www.wangreefresh.com 

Publication date: Mon 24 Aug 2020
Author: Rebekka Boekhout
© HortiDaily.com

Smart Acres CEO on The launch of The UAE’s Latest Vertical Smart Farm

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August 24th, 2020

Smart Acres Is Here With Lettuce At The Helm. In An Exclusive Interview With Abu Dhabi World, Smart Acres CEO Abdulla al Kaabi Reveals What This Means To Abu Dhabi And The Farming Community On The Whole. 

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words Derek Issacs

If you love healthy produce, and who doesn’t, then this news is going to please you and your tastebuds no end. The only draw back at the moment is they’re not for sale in supermarkets just yet, but it won’t be long before they are.

The launch of Smart Acres, the UAE’s latest addition to the hydroponic vertical farming industry, this week means that a line of the freshest, most nutrient-dense greens for UAE residents and businesses alike is now being produced in containers on the Armed Forces Officers Club in Abu Dhabi, with the aim to expand across the UAE.

So we headed over to the St. Regis Abu Dhabi to meet Smart Acres CEO Abdulla al Kaabi to find out more.

Tell us about your background?

I am from tech and farm background. My father has a passion for farming and gardening; he’s very  strict about anybody who messes around with his garden or farm. My father has a few farms across the UAE, where he grows crops and dates.  When he heard that I was pursuing a project in the agriculture sector he got excited and actually gifted me a farm, which I am grateful for and will keep. However, Smart Acres, rather than the farm my father gifted me, is an urban farm.

How was Smart Acres first developed?

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CEO Abdulla al Kaabi (centre)

Smart Acres was founded in 2017 and local testing began in July 2019. Smart Acres was developed by a team of experts,  including myself, Director Sean Lee and Lead Project Manager, Aphisith Phongsavanh with the aim of improving food security within the United Arab Emirates and developing the country’s farming capabilities, providing a solution to potential socioeconomic threats such as pandemics and climate limitations the Middle East currently endures.

Tell us more

We planted lettuce and after a few harvests, we decided to expand from two containers to eight containers. From the two insulated containers the yield was 3.5 tons annually, which was our proof of concept. For the proof of concept, our target weight for each lettuce head was 140g. However, we have reached an average of 200g per head. I don’t think any other vertical farm here reached that quality or weight in terms of vegetables at this size.

How would you describe Smart Acres?

It is a one-of-a-kind agriculture system that is designed to produce some of the highest yields of crops within the UAE’s vertical farming industry, while introducing a new future for clean foods and allowing both business to business (B2B) and business to consymer (B2C ) sectors to locally source produce.

Tell us about the containers

We invested heavily in the containers, not just financially, and it took us a while to partner up with n.thing, a South Korean vertical farming technology company, to bring the best vertical farm here in the UAE. We had talks with other companies before and we decided to go with this one, in terms of risk, in terms of technology they are using. And the system we are using in the containers is hydroponics (growing plants without soil)  which has been used by growers for hundreds of years.  Techno advancements means we were able to implement the Internet of Things for operations, which helps us to monitor the entire farm in terms of humidity, temperature, and even the nutrients that goes inside the plants. Now we have our expansion plan from eight to 78 containers, which eventually will produce more than 140 tons of produce annually. We are currently in talks with private and public entities in terms of the expansion. We are also planning to have a research and development centre in order to start growing our own potato seeds in a controlled environment.

Will Smart Acres just be growing lettuce?

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In our current eight containers, we grow four types of lettuce;  Lolo rosso , green glace, oakleaf Batavia, but we are able to grow 30 types of lettuce.  Currently we are testing new methods to improve quality and weight of the existing lettuce. The results of last month’s test resulted in lettuce whose individual heads weighed  more than 200 grams on average. However, we aim to grow more than just lettuce. We have plans to eventually grow baby spinach, mature spinach, and baby arugula. Smart Acres’ vision is to expand to meet the demand of popular produce in the region such as strawberries,  and, as I previously mentioned, a shift and emphasis on cultivating potato seeds.

Where can we buy your smart lettuces? 

We are now supplying restaurants and hotels for free to get ourselves known, and we have had great feedback from them. We have also partnered with several restaurants and cafes around the country including Inked and Fae Cafe, and have plans to have our produce in the kitchen of dozens of other F&B outlets. The recent initiative by HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Presidential Affairs, and Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA), stating that all major grocery stores in the capital must allocate space for local produce means we are perfectly poised to enter local supermarkets. We have had lots of offers from Abu Dhabi Holding and other government entities that are members in the food security committee to buy our whole produce. Currently we are focused on our actual produce itself, in terms of quality, weight.

Posted in Features, Food, Life, News

Tagged agriculture system Abu Dhabi, CEO Abdulla al Kaabi, Clean foods UAE, food security UAE, SMART ACRES Abu Dhabi, st regis abu dhabi, UAE Climate Change Risks and Resilience, UAE farms, UAE’s vertical farming industry, vertical farming Abu Dhabi

UAE, Israel Both Expect To Benefit From Agricultural Ties

TARA KAVALER

08/23/2020

Emiratis will have access to Jewish state’s agritech while Israelis will gain financially

The United Arab Emirates, where less than 1% of the earth is arable, is set to reap major growth from its agricultural sector with the help of Israeli technology after the two countries normalize relations.

Israel, a world leader in agriculture under conditions with little water and high heat, will sell its expertise to farmers in the desert nation where the average temperature in August is 43°C (109°F) and the average annual temperature is 30°C (86°F). Israeli growers also plan to export food to the UAE, from where it may be re-exported to currently unreachable markets.

The UAE and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries have been trying to become more self-reliant in food, most of which they import. The UAE has already seen an explosion in agricultural growth, particularly in vertical farming and other next-generation planting techniques. It plans to start using hydroponics, soil-less crop cultivation, before the end of this year. The regional government in the capital, Abu Dhabi, announced in April that it was investing approximately $100 million in vertical farming.

“Any food production here requires a technological solution,” Nicholas Lodge, a UAE-based agricultural expert, told The Media Line.

“It doesn’t make sense to grow almost anything in terms of arable crops, except for higher-value crops like tomatoes that are grown in greenhouses, with the latest technology, like hydroponics, where minimal water is needed,” Lodge said.

Dr. Yaron Drori, an Israeli agronomist and co-owner of Etza Agriculture consultants, told The Media Line: “There are very sophisticated greenhouses all over the world, especially in northern Europe, but what is special about Israeli equipment is that we know how to deal with the excess of heat in the structures.”

“Most of the year in our greenhouses, we are trying to avoid overheating. This is the opposite of what you are trying to do in Europe, where you are trying to gain heat,” added Drori, whose company specializes in desert farming in southern Israel.

The greenhouses in Israel use shade nets that can be turned on automatically with a “smart” control system that monitors temperature, radiation, and humidity.

The system also activates cooling sprinklers, or a “curtain” of water, which brings outside air into the greenhouse to change the high temperatures and low humidity that make desert agriculture difficult.

The device also irrigates plants without wasting scarce resources. Saving water is one of the centerpieces of Israel’s “advanced innovation” in agritech, Drori said.

Associate Prof. Zvi Peleg of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem spoke to The Media Line about his work at the university’s Robert H. Smith Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture to reduce the amount of water plants need.

“We are working now on how to improve water-use efficiency, meaning the plants will produce more biomass by using less water.”

“We are trying to change the plant … so it will be more suitable for the climate,” Peleg said. “We are changing the root system to become deeper … to get to the water more easily and reduce the size of the root architecture so it will not take so much water from the soil because it’s a very limited resource.”

He also explained some of Israel’s latest agricultural technology.

“By using sensors to check the water status in the soil and the plant, you improve productivity because you irrigate whenever the plants need water, not whenever you feel they need water,” Peleg said.

“We are also using thermal imaging to see if a plant needs water or nutrients. There are a lot of techniques now related to drones and different kinds of cameras to detect the plant’s growth, as well as diseases and other problems the plant has,” Peleg said. There is “a lot of technology that can benefit many regions, including the UAE.”

Meanwhile, the UAE is doing high tech agricultural research of its own. Dr. Mohammed Abdul Mushen Salem Alyafei, an associate professor at The College of Food and Agriculture at United Arab Emirates University, said studies are being done in the Emirates on an “open-top chamber,” which encircles a plant to examine the impact of carbon dioxide levels and an “aeroponic control unit.” Aeroponic devices grow plants in the air in a moist environment.

Israel’s successful efforts to make its own desert bloom have resulted in exports of its desert produce.

Some “60% of Israel’s [agricultural] exports, which include tomatoes and watermelon, come from the Arava [in the southeast], which is very similar to the UAE, with bad soil and poor [quality] and limited amounts of water,” Shafrir Godel, an agricultural business expert, told The Media Line.

“Everything is against the farmer, and yet it is the major export region for Israeli produce [sent] to Europe and America,” said Godel, founder and managing director of Israel-based AgriQuality, an international consulting company.

Long-distance exporting is very expensive, but Israel has figured how to do it profitably; this know-how could help the UAE.

“The chain from the seed to the supermarket shelf abroad is something that Israelis do well and cost-effectively: starting with the variety [of crop] to plant, the methods and technical solutions for growing, sorting, picking, the plastic you are using to extend shelf-life, and getting them to the right companies that have a hold on the main markets.”

Israeli growers are also looking for new markets.

“Over the years, Israeli farmers have grown with a capacity that is way beyond Israelis’ ability to eat. We need other markets. It is a new market, and it could be a transit station to places that we normally would not sell to,” Godel said.

The UAE is one of the world’s top three re-export hubs.

Agricultural expert Lodge noted that “the UAE has built a reputation as a transport hub serving many countries.” “It’s quite interesting what you might be able to do with that mix of location, technology, and capital for certain crops.”

Both countries’ agricultural businesspeople are excited about the potential for the new alliance.

“The UAE has a history of looking at where it can forge partnerships, where it can make investments where there’s a mutual benefit,” Lodge said. “Israel is an acknowledged leader in arid farming and the application of technology to make farming possible. I’m sure it’s one of the areas that could and should benefit both parties.”

Etza Agriculture’s Drori said: “If you bring the practical and academic knowledge and all the technology that we have to the UAE, we can all benefit from it, both the Emirati and the Israeli companies.”

“Israel gets business, so it benefits financially. But beyond that, it would be fascinating to work there. It’s a new place, you learn and see new things,” he said. “It’s a new world for us.”

Lead photo: Dr. Effi Tripler, a soil and water scientist, stands next to a solar-powered sensor that helps a drip-irrigation system know when and how much to water a crop of sorghum at the Central and Northern Arava R&D facility on May 21, 2015, in Hatzeva, Israel. The soil and water R&D facility tests and produces various crops in the dry, harsh climate of the Arava, near the Jordanian border. (Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images)

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The World's Largest Indoor Farm Is Creating 300 Jobs In Kentucky

AppHarvest's new indoor farm in Kentucky is creating jobs and shows an alternative, sustainable form of agriculture and farming.

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The world's largest indoor farm just created 300 jobs in Kentucky. | AppHarvest/Instagram

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August 21, 2020

High-tech greenhouse developer AppHarvest just opened the world’s largest indoor farm in Kentucky, creating 300 full-time permanent jobs.

The 2.76-million square foot controlled environment agriculture facility is based in Morehead, Eastern Kentucky. A region where unemployment is 44 percent higher than the national average. AppHarvest aims to develop this area into an agricultural technology hub.

“Eastern Kentucky, with its central U.S. location, provides the perfect place to build AppHarvest’s indoor farms,” said Johnathan Webb, the founder, and CEO of AppHarvest. “While also providing much-needed jobs to a ready workforce.”

AppHarvest combines agriculture with cutting edge technology to promote sustainable change within the industry. The new indoor farm drastically reduces the land needed to increase food production. It uses no pesticides and no GMO products.

All water needs are met exclusively by a closed-loop, recycled rainwater system. This also minimizes the water runoff unavoidable with traditional agricultural methods. Overall, AppHarvest’s sustainable greenhouses use 90 percent less water than other farming.

“It’s time for agriculture in America to change,” continued Webb. “The pandemic has demonstrated the need to establish more resilient food systems, and our work is on the forefront of that effort.”

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The transportation of fresh produce can have significant carbon emissions.

The Future Of Farming

In addition to job creation, the new farm’s location will also reduce production costs and carbon emissions.

Morehead is less than one day’s drive from 70 percent of the U.S. population. This means a reduction in diesel fuel costs by 80 percent and allows for more competitive pricing against low-cost foreign imports.

AppHarvest recently closed on its $28 million Series C round of fundraising, making a total of over $150 million in just two years. The company has also expanded its board to include investor and author J.D. Vance, Rise of the Rest Seed Fund partner Anna Mason, and AOL co-founder Steve Case.

Impossible Foods CEO and plant-based food proponent David Lee and lifestyle icon and keen vegetable gardener Martha Stewart also sit on the AppHarvest board. Stewart said: “The future of food will be, has to be, growing nutrient-rich and delicious produce closer to where we eat.”

“That means food that tastes better and food that we feel better about consuming,” she added. “AppHarvest is driving us towards that future and working from within Appalachia to elevate the region.” 

• TAGS sustainability Sustainable Farming vegan jobs Indoor Farm

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Liam Pritchett

STAFF WRITER | BRISTOL, UNITED KINGDOM | CONTACTABLE VIA: LIAM@LIVEKINDLY.COM

Liam writes about environmental and social sustainability and the protection of animals. He has a BA Hons in English Literature and Film and also writes for Sustainable Business Magazine. Liam is interested in intersectional politics and DIY music.

Automated Vertical Indoor Farming Set To Sprout

Vertical Farms Could Make Use of Abandoned Professional

Spaces As The Pandemic Grinds On

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By Greg Nichols for Robotics

August 20, 2020

A Finish startup has been climbing the walls during the pandemic. At least the crops it helps grow in vertical gardens have been, including greens, berries, and vegetables in areas like the Middle East.

Vertical farming, which utilizes vertically-stacked layers of crops grown in climate-controlled facilities, utilizes significantly less water and soil than traditional agriculture. Increasingly we're seeing examples of the concept scaling to industrial-levels, which is good news with populations booming, arable land in ever-shorter supply, and waning interest in agriculture among city-bound youth.

iFarm has figured out a smart value proposition in the still-nascent market as a developer of vertical farm management technology, essentially an operating system that utilizes tremendous volumes of sensor data to fine tune automated crop growing. The company believes it's entering a market primed for steep growth.

"Investors can participate in the worldwide network of vertical farms and receive a rate of return well above bank deposit rates.", says Alex Lyskovsky, co-founder and President of iFarm. "We already have a group of financial partners involved in the development of our farms, and now there is a direct opportunity for this type of investment in Finland, UK, Switzerland, Netherlands, Russia and UAE."

One of the interesting advantages of vertical farming, particularly in a pandemic when so many professional spaces stand empty, is that it's possible to utilize the urban environment to facilitate crop growing. By growing crops closer to city dwellers, the company can offer logistics efficiencies and unparalleled freshness. 

This at a time when traditional farming is less and less viable. Global agricultural productivity is suddenly slowing for the first time in decades. No one is quite sure why, but it's likely a systemic problem related to the rise of monocultures and the overuse of fertilizers, which add harmful salts to soils. Farmers are also aging globally as younger generations migrate to cities. That's largely because a productivity boom over the last century has kept food prices low, which makes farming unattractive economically. It's a double whammy now that that productivity can no longer be taken for granted without major rethinks to the food supply chain.

Vertical farming and other smart agriculture innovations may offer realistic alternatives, and they've captured imaginations due to novel use of space and cutting edge technologies. iFarm's Growtune tech platform allows growers to leverage technologies like computer vision, machine learning, and huge volumes of data. The system can enable farming operations to spread vertical farms across distributed networks while still maintaining centralized control. And if there's any doubt that farming has changed, the level of control is staggering. The Growtune platform can determine the plant's weight, as well as growth deviations or pathologies, and build a system that improves crop quality and characteristics on its own. According to iFarm, the optimization will reduce labor costs for crops like strawberries, cherry tomatoes, sweet peppers, radish, and others. 

"The 2020 pandemic exposed the problems of the global food system – food supplies, sowing and harvesting were disrupted across the globe", says Mikhail Taver, Managing Partner at Gagarin Capital. "iFarm is taking a novel approach to agriculture, offering an automated solution to grow crops close to the consumer and ensure food security. We believe that the future of the food market lies in modern technologies and are excited to support the project on its way."

Dubai's Green Revolution Starts At Its Vertical Farms in The Middle of The Desert

Erika P. August 18, 2020

Dubai is determined to start its green revolution through its ultra-modern vertical farm in the middle of the desert. The country decided on this project, hoping to end its dependency on food imports. One of the vertical farms in Dubai, Al-Badia market garden farm, grows a range of vegetable crops in a multi-story set-up. Inside the facility, they make sure that the plants get proper lighting and irrigation while recycling 90% of the water the facility uses.

Basel Jammal, the farm's director, said that their project is a green revolution located in the middle of the desert. It is as if the crops were a guest in a five-star hotel complete with amenities essential for its survival: the right amount of light, humidity, heat, and water.

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Inside the futuristic indoor farm that could revolutionize agriculture in the UAE Screenshot from YouTube ( Photo: YouTube)

Dubai's Vertical Farm

The United Arab Emirates relies heavily on food imports, and Dubai is no exception to that. However, food security is of concern, especially in a region where geopolitical tensions may arise unexpectedly.

The UAE started buying and leasing agricultural lands in east Africa and in other countries to prevent food shortages even in times of crisis more than ten years ago, . But they aim to eradicate dependence on food imports, giving birth to different agricultural strategies, such as stockpiling and ultra-modern agriculture.

Jammal said that his farm is the "choice for the future" as high-tech computers control the facility. They aim to produce their own crops all year round without relying on imports, or worrying about climate change, drought, or rainfall.

Several vertical farms have also started in Dubai in the past years, such as in less-developed areas in Al-Ain and the mountainous Ras al-Khaimah.

Abdellatif al-Banna uses the hydroponics technology in growing his pineapples that he sells online. He experimented with growing fruits, vegetables, and wheat on his farm. Even in colder months, he was able to produce enough grain for his family in what he hopes as a prototype.

Meanwhile, in an area not far from the skyscrapers of Dubai is a farm that cares for cows in air-conditioned sheds, helping the local market to produce dairy products. They were also rearing salmon in large tanks overseen by a control room despite the scorching heat outside the farm.

Dubai Has More Than Enough Food for the Entire Country

Although these vertical and high-tech farms are privately owned, the government is even encouraging such innovations, said Dubai's Food Security Committee chair Omar Bouchehab.

The Emirati government has launched a plan to raise agricultural production in Dubai by 15% in 2021 and boost using agricultural technologies, Bouchehab said.

AT THE BEGINNING OF THE PANDEMIC, Dubai did not experience shortages in food supplies, unlike other countries that saw shelves stripped of tinned goods, pasta, and toilet papers. It's all thanks to the airborne cargo services of the giant carrier Emirates. The country even promised to re-export various goods to its neighboring countries."

Dubai has an adequate infrastructure and a stock capable of meeting the needs of the United Arab Emirates, and even the needs of neighboring countries," said Fresh Market Executive director Redha al-Mansouri.

Coronavirus Crisis Fuels Interest In Vertical Farming

The coronavirus pandemic has been a major worry for many British farmers, threatening access to agricultural labor and complicating international supply chains. But for proponents of indoor farming, the crisis has offered an opportunity.

David Farquhar, chief executive of technology developer Intelligent Growth Solutions, says the pandemic has prompted a spike in interest in ‘vertical farms’, where batches of crops can be individually watered, fed and lit using LED lights, allowing them to be grown year-round with minimal labor near their markets, regardless of local soil or weather conditions.

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At the company’s demonstration farm in Invergowrie near the Scottish city of Dundee, trays of produce stacked in 9 meter-tall towers are managed remotely from seeding to packaging. Humans only need to enter the towers for occasional maintenance. “You can run it entirely on robotics . . . You probably need to go in once every six months,” Mr. Farquhar said. 

This higher productivity will have particular appeal to British farmers, who are facing a steep increase in costs because coronavirus restrictions have affected the arrival of seasonal workers from eastern Europe. Brexit may also make it more difficult to access labor from the bloc when the UK’s transition period expires at the end of the year.

Colin Campbell, chief executive of the James Hutton Institute, a research organization that hosts the IGS farm and another vertical farming company, Liberty Produce, said the global food supply system had generally worked well during the pandemic. But he added that the crisis had highlighted worries about food safety and the risks of relying on seedlings or produce grown far away from where it is consumed. “Covid-19 is making a lot of people rethink how we want to grow our food,” he said. 

Read more at FT (Emiko Terazono)

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Publication date: Tue 18 Aug 2020

Farming In The Desert: Are Vertical Farms The Solution To Saving Water?

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Deutsche Welle

Jul. 23, 2020

By Isabelle Gerretsen"

When I told people I was going to grow tomatoes in the desert, they thought I was crazy," Sky Kurtz, founder of Pure Harvest Smart Farms, told DW.

With just an average 12 days of rain a year, less than 1% arable land, a desert location, and an 80% import rate for food, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) seems an unfavorable place to set up a farm.

Kurtz is one of several entrepreneurs using high-tech farming techniques to boost crop production in the Emirates. Pure Harvest built the first climate-controlled greenhouse in Abu Dhabi in 2017.

Prompted by arid conditions and a desire for greater food security, the country is investing millions in technologies — such as vertical farming — that could make it an unlikely agricultural pioneer.

Vertical farms can grow a rich variety of different crops by stacking them in layers under LED lighting in climate-controlled greenhouses and watering them with mist or drip systems. The process is tailored to each crop's specific needs, resulting in high-yield, year-round harvests."

It takes 30 to 40 days to grow leafy greens out in the field. We can grow that same crop in 10 to 12 days," says Marc Oshima, co-founder of Aerofarms. The company received funding from the Abu Dhabi Investment Office to build the capital's largest indoor vertical farm, with 800 different crops, by 2021.

Water Scarcity and Fossil-Fuel Reliance

The technology uses minimal land and up to 95% less water than conventional agriculture.

The hydroponics system places the plants' roots directly into a water-based and nutrient-rich solution instead of soil. This "closed-loop" system captures and recirculates all the water, rather than allowing it to drain away — useful for a country like the UAE suffering from extremely high water stress.

Globally, agriculture accounts for 70% of freshwater withdrawals, and UAE is extracting groundwater faster than it can be replenished, according to the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA)."

Water is very expensive over in the UAE, but energy is cheap as it is subsidized," says Jan Westra, a strategic business developer at Priva, a company providing technology to vertical farms.

The artificially controlled environment is energy-intensive because the air conditioning and LED lights need a constant source of electricity.

This bringing forth of life in the desert could come at a high environmental cost. Most of that energy comes from carbon-emitting fossil fuels, even as the Middle Eastern country feel the effects of climate change.

By 2050 Abu Dhabi's average temperature is predicted to increase by around 2.5°C (36.5 F) in a business-as-usual scenario. Over the next 70 years, patterns of rainfall are also expected to change.

Integrating Renewable Energy 

Although Pure Harvest is building a solar-powered farm in neighboring Saudi Arabia, its UAE operations get electricity from the carbon-intensive national grid.

Investing more in renewables "is a goal of ours," Kurtz told DW. He said the company has not set a clean energy target but is working on various green power projects, including a plan to integrate solar power generated in UAE into its operations.

However, Willem van der Schans, a researcher specializing in short supply chains at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, says sustainability and clean energy should be "inherent in the technology and included in plans when starting a vertical farm."

He argues that many vertical farming companies are not sustainable in terms of energy as they still view clean power as an optional "add-on."

Ismahane Elouafi, director-general of the government-funded ICBA in Abu Dhabi, acknowledges that vertical farming has some way to go before achieving "real sustainability," but she believes the innovations are "promising."

Improved battery storage, increasingly efficient LED lights, and cheaper solar panels will help, she adds.

Local Solutions

 By 2050, the UAE government wants to generate almost half its energy from renewable sources.

Fred Ruijgt, a vertical farming specialist at Priva, argues that it's important to factor transport and refrigeration into the energy equation. Vertical farming uses more energy to grow crops than traditional agriculture, but because crops are grown locally, they do not have to be transported by air, sea, or truck over long distances."

The energy-saving is difficult to calculate exactly, but the advantages of locally grown crops are huge," he says, adding that those grown in vertical farms not only use less water and pesticides but that they also have a longer shelf life due to minimal transportation time.

Food Security and Coronavirus

 In 2018, the UAE set out its vision to become a hub for high-tech local food production.

Companies and investors have flocked to the region, attracted by the 0% corporate tax rate, low labor costs, and cheap energy. With their help, the UAE aims to reduce its reliance on imports and make its food system more resilient to shocks like climate change and pandemics.

Oshima from Aerofarms says the coronavirus pandemic has brought "greater appreciation of how fragile the supply chain is and raised questions about food safety and security."

When the UAE went into lockdown in April, imported supplies of perishable goods like vegetables fell and business boomed for local suppliers.

ICBA's Elouafi said they have helped keep the UAE well-stocked during the pandemic."With the help of local food production and adequate imports, there has been absolutely no shortage of food in the UAE," Elouafi told DW.

Climate change, however, poses an altogether more complex threat to the country in the long-term. Given climate change's likely impact on food production, she says vertical farming has shown it is "an economically viable proposition even with harsh climatic conditions."

Reposted with permission from Deutsche Welle.

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TAGS: farming farmers water food food security agriculture renewable energy

Could Three Bristol Graduate’s LettUs Grow Sow The Seeds For a Second Green Revolution?

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July 25, 2020

By Hana Azuma, Third Year, Biology

LettUs Grow, a Bristol-based company, founded in 2015 by Charlie Guy, Jack Farmer, and Ben Crowther, utilizes a unique ‘aeroponic’ irrigation system, which may hold the key to solving the global food crisis. The three University of Bristol graduates hope to tackle core issues surrounding food security, along with decreasing CO2 emissions and ecosystem collapse in the process.

By 2050, the global population is predicted to reach 10 billion. In order to ensure sustainable and nutritious diets for everyone, we must increase food production by 70%. This proves to be a difficult challenge as, along with the rapid, exponential population growth, agricultural land and resources worldwide are decreasing.

Since the first drop in crop production during the 1950s, followed by the onset of the first ‘Green Revolution’, we are in the midst of another major halt in the growth of food production.

Fortunately, despite the omnipresence of food insecurity and waste, we are currently producing enough food to feed the world. The main challenge is the unequal geographic distribution of adequate agricultural land.

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LettUs Grow was founded in 2015 by three Bristol University graduates: Charlie Guy, Jack Farmer and Ben Crowther | Jack Wiseall

Nearly 80% of fertile land has some extent of soil erosion. Due to the changing climate, extreme weather events are predicted to occur more frequently and intensely. Together with population growth, it will be extremely tough to meet the global demand with the current practice.

LettUs Grow hopes to help farmers who are in such situations, to be able to grow their food regardless of the environmental conditions, feeding themselves and earning stable income all-year-around in the process

LettUs Grow were able to reduce water usage by 95%, whilst boosting the crop production by 70%

LettUs Grow has developed aeroponic irrigation systems for indoor vertical farming, which are not only easy to install in cities, but also use zero soil and little water. Crops are grown on a rack, where their roots are exposed to nutrient-rich mist and water spray.

When compared to hydroponics (another soil-free agricultural system), LettUs Grow were able to reduce water usage by 95%, whilst boosting the crop production by 70%. Additionally, neither pesticides nor fertilizers are needed and the whole growth condition is automated by LettUs Grow’s own management software, Ostara.

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In June 2020, LettUs Grow, the University of Bristol, and John Innes Centre collaborated on a paper published to the New Phytologist Trust. It revealed the high efficacies of aeroponics and identified the key knowledge gaps that must be explored to accelerate further development. Moreover, the senior author and the former staff at the University of Bristol, Dr. Antony Dodd, mentioned the possibility of using this new system in space.

‘Vertical systems allow us to extend the latitude range on which crops can be grown on the planet, from the deserts of Dubai to the 4-hour winter days of Iceland. In fact, if you were growing crops on Mars you would need to use this kind of technology because there is no soil’, said Dr Dodd.

Bristol graduate’s Bottle Farm begins to bloom

Aeroponic farming has proved to produce high-quality salads, pak choi, herbs, and more. LettUs Grow is now tackling more challenging crops, such as strawberries and potatoes, as well as the propagation of trees for both fruits and forestry.

It is thrilling to see how this award-winning aeroponic system is evolving as an efficient and sustainable candidate to combat food security. Could this be the start of the Second Green Revolution?

Featured: Jack Wiseall / LettUs Grow

Research For Workforce Development in Controlled Environment Ag: What Makes a Successful Indoor Farm Manager?

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By urbanagnews

June 8, 2020

As indoor agriculture has grown, finding, training, and retaining a skilled workforce has emerged as an important challenge to the industry. A unique combination of plant production, tech troubleshooting, and innovation is needed among employees managing these operations.

What are the critical skill sets, and how can we create a larger pipeline of individuals trained in these skills so that they can contribute to CEA business success?

At Cornell University, a group led by Professor Anu Rangarajan (Director, Small Farms Program) seeks to provide answers as part of a National Science Foundation-funded research project on CEA Viability in Metro Areas.

Rangarajan’s team has conducted extensive research to date in order to understand the workforce needs of the hydroponics industry, including greenhouses and indoor vertical farms—and the research continues.

With the long-term goal of creating robust curricula for training CEA employees in mind, a team from Cornell University conducted many in-depth interviews with professional CEA growers in 2018 and 2019.

The team then organized a workshop, in consultation with The Ohio State and Agritecture Consulting, that invited a focus group of CEA operations managers to model in detail the diverse activities that they perform on the job.

The resulting chart is a detailed, peer-reviewed list of duties (responsibilities) and tasks (activities, skills) that describe the work of the expert Indoor Farm Operations Manager.

The chart is currently being reviewed by peer growers worldwide, who are asked to verify how important each skill is, and how frequently it is conducted.

Based on this input, the Indoor Farm Operations Manager chart will be used as a starting point for prioritizing future CEA training modules. After that, a deeper analysis of key individual skills will be conducted in order to translate the foundational research into a teachable vocational curriculum.

Right now, however, Rangarajan’s team is actively seeking more responses to the verification survey.

“We need your help,” she emphasizes, speaking to professional CEA growers. “We want to learn your priorities for a CEA curriculum that will enhance the skills of current or future employees.”

The survey takes approximately thirty minutes to complete and can be completely anonymously. CEA growers who complete the survey will also be provided with an Amazon gift card for $25 as a token of appreciation, although they must provide their names and email addresses in order to receive this gift.

To take the survey, register here. The Cornell team will send a survey link directly from Qualtrics.

As Rangarajan notes, “Grower input will help us prioritize the core education and training relevant to indoor agriculture,” helping provide the industry with the skilled workforce it will need to scale.

For more information about this study regarding the future of the CEA workforce, please contact project lead Anu Rangarajan (ar47@cornell.edu) or research associate Wythe Marschall (wmarschall@fas.harvard.edu).

• TAGS Cornell University Education Indoor Farming

Elon Musk’s Brother, Kimbal, Is Pretty Accomplished Himself

08 Jun 2020 by Jasmine Stone in Berry & Donaldson, Business, Elon Musk, Lifestyle, Partners

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[imagesource: @kimbalmusk / Instagram]

When your older brother is Elon Musk, you probably get used to growing up in somebody else’s shadow.

Just over a year separates Elon and Kimbal Musk (above left), with the former grabbing headlines in the wake of SpaceX’s successful launch of astronauts to the International Space Station.

Makes a nice change from some of his other headline-grabbing antics, but let’s chat about Kimbal.

In 2016, he co-founded Square Roots with CEO Tobias Peggs, to grow non-GMO crops in reclaimed shipping containers.

Based in Brooklyn, New York, Square Roots has developed and installs “modules” — hydroponic farms in reclaimed shipping containers that can grow certain non-GMO vegetables around the clock and without pesticides. Today they are producing mint, basil, other herbs and leafy greens. The company made CNBC’s 2019 Upstart 100 list…

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Image: https://squarerootsgrow.com/

The modules, which employ software-controlled LED lighting and irrigation systems, can be set up in the parking lot of a grocery store or even inside a large warehouse or industrial building, enabling a food maker to access fresh ingredients locally for use in their dishes or packaged products.

Kimbal, who also serves on the board at Tesla and SpaceX, says that whilst they’re currently working on providing food for people here on Earth, the same farming technology “can and will be used on Mars”.

While freight containers are working hard to grow veggies, their former life saw them shipping goods around the world, which is no mean feat, either.

South African-owned shipping logistics company Berry & Donaldson knows all about the business of moving goods and has been handling every step of the complicated process for more than 50 years, but they’re happy to leave the veggie-growing game to Kimbal and his team at Square Roots.

The company also hopes to inspire more people to become farmers, running a Next-Gen Farmer Training Program aimed at teaching city dwellers about agriculture.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Square Roots has also provided hundreds of kilograms of produce to Rethink Food NYC, an organization that provides nutrient-rich food to the needy, all of which was grown in its Brooklyn shipping container.

For Kimbal, it’s quite a pivot from how he originally cut his teeth. In a recent profile on 5280, his journey was summarised as follows:

In 1999, after the $307 million sale of Zip2—which he’d founded with his brother—Musk left Silicon Valley to train at the French Culinary Institute in New York City (now known as the International Culinary Center).

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Image: Chris & Ruth Photography

Kimbal [above, with Elon, sister Tosca, and mother Maye back in 2018] ended up in Colorado two years later with his first wife, artist Jen Lewin. That he had moved into the “food space,” as he calls it, and eventually turned one Boulder restaurant into a formidable chain of locally sourced eateries across the country made him something of a star in the industry.

Whilst the pandemic has seen some of his restaurant empire take a real hit, Kimbal still seems in good spirits.

You can read the rest of that interview here.

Not a bad set of accomplishments for the Musk family, with Tosca running a streaming service called Passionflix, as well as having producer credits on more than 30 movies.

[sources:cnbc&5280]

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Is Pontus A Technology or Agriculture Company?

By Steve R McArthur, Partner, Founder & CTO of Pontus Water Lentils | February 26, 2020

Both, actually!

Not long ago, nor very far away, my Company, Vancouver-based Green Oasis Foods developed the CEVAS™ (Closed Environment Vertical Aquaponics System); arguably the most advanced soil-less organic growth system developed to date. Our main consideration was to build a closed-loop Aquaponics system that ensured there was no way for contaminants to enter the growth chain. The resulting efficiency and product quality as a result are quite startling, almost like having a built-in anti-malware program for crop growth.

Good Things Come in Threes

All ’ponic’ grow systems have unique benefits and challenges. Still all markedly increase yields and, to varying degrees, lowers the use of power and water. Each also can be set up to be custom complementary systems. Green Oasis’ CEVAS™ is a hybrid aquaponics system currently being used by Green Oasis and Pontus Water Lentils, the latter owning an exclusive worldwide license to the technology. 

Full disclosure, I am also CTO of Pontus Water Lentils. Ultimately, through an agreement with Amwolf, Pontus plans to obtain a public listing in approximately Q2/2020.

Before that, we plan to crowdfund through FrontFundr for $1.5 million and a like amount in a sponsored Private Placement. We plan to use the initial funds to build a 10,000 square foot grow facility. It might be useful to define the main types of soil-less grow systems.

Let’s Translate the Main Types of ‘Ponic’s

Aquaponics: A symbiotic relationship with the system; housing fish producing waste to provide crop nutrients

Hydroponics: Continuous water system, but nutrients are added to the growth media that replaces soil

Aeroponics: is a variation of hydroponics, but instead of using a grow bed filled with media, the plants are instead suspended, with roots facing a sprinkler system connected to the main nutrient reservoir.

The difference between a standard Aquaponics system and CEVAS™ is analogous to a Prius versus a Tesla, with the latter having a much more efficient with less impact on the environment. We decided it made sense to start with Water Lentils as the first crop as its grow characteristics and high market price are very attractive. 

We are Reinventing Agriculture™

I sincerely believe that our system brings a fundamental and profound change to growing soil-less crops successfully and in greater numbers than other methods. Here are some key points:

CEVAS™

• A combination of the best of both Hydro- and Aquaponics

• Completely closed-loop system customized by Green Oasis

• Utilizes state of the art, data-driven analytics

• Optimize machine learning and artificial intelligence to produce superior and consistent crops

• Uses 5% of the water of traditional agriculture

• CO2 captured and recycled

• Symbiotic air exchange

• Bio Security systems to remove all possible contaminants from any human interaction

• Solids filtration

• Biodigestion; fish waste turned into plant nutrient through aerobic digestion

The Pontus Water Lentils farming practice was created in Vancouver Canada and is licensed Worldwide

For more information visit: https://pontuswaterlentils.com/