"We’re Hoping For A More Domestic Type of Farming”

By Jenneken Schouten

August 9, 2021

“Whilst living in a 9-square meter student residence, the idea of being able to use this really small space to sustain myself with well packed nutritious food was what sparked the idea of Vita” Walid Brahim, CEO with Élever Group explains.

A small personal farm for everyone, a revolutionary product that combines aesthetic looks and the implementation of the most advanced technologies to date. That is the idea behind Vita that Élever Group recently launched.

The main aim of creating Vita was to bring a new level of transparency to food production, powered by blockchain technology, permitting users to safely buy and sell their harvest within small-scale communities. “We noticed that France, despite being a nation known for its agricultural scene, has experienced somewhat of a downfall regarding the people’s confidence when buying or consuming the goods grown in their own country. With Vita, we aim to rebuild this confidence,” Walid explains.

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“We Can Put 90 Strawberry Plants Per m2 Where A Greenhouse Would Put Only 10-12”

By Rebekka Boekhout

August 9, 2021

“I spent my first 25 years on a farm and the next 25 years in technology. Vertical farming is the bridge between those worlds,” says Yves Daoust, chief operating officer and founder of Ferme d’Hiver. The company was founded in 2018 and aims to develop a network of indoor farms and become a global hub for vertical farming.

In May 2021, Ferme d’Hiver announced that it had secured $5 million in funding from Investissement Québec, Haystack and Mavrik during its most recent funding. This funding will help Ferme d’Hiver build its first commercial indoor strawberry farm, which will cover roughly 1000 square meters and be located in Vaudreuil, Québec. Winterberry production is expected to begin in October 2021.

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AmplifiedAg Inc. Completes $40MM In Capital Raise, Expanding Global Technologies And Vertical Roots Indoor Farms Across The Southeast

August 9, 2021

CHARLESTON, S.C., /PRNewswire/ -- AmplifiedAg Inc.™, fast-growing agtech industry leader on a mission to provide global access to safe food, announced today that the company has completed $40 million in equity financing. The funding will support the continued expansion of the company's world-leading hydroponic container farm, Vertical Roots and further development of the company's holistic operating system, AmpEDGE™, which uniquely combines environment monitoring and controls with business operations for end-to-end indoor farm management.

"Our demonstrated ability to scale our indoor farms and technology is leading to discussions with strategic and financial partners, and we expect to consummate additional financing later this year to further accelerate Vertical Roots' presence across the Country," said Don Taylor, CEO of AmplifiedAg.

Vertical Roots' rapid success exemplifies the time, profitability, operational growth efficiency, and superior product quality AmplifiedAg farms and technology achieve. In less than four years, Vertical Roots has grown to be the largest hydroponic container farm in the world growing multiple varieties of mature, fresh leafy greens. The company currently operates three farm sites in Charleston, S.C., Columbia, S.C., and Atlanta, Ga. with produce available at 1,700 major grocery stores across 12 states including retailers such as Publix, Harris Teeter and Whole Foods, as well as schools, universities, and restaurants.

The current round of funding will support the installation of farms in north and central Florida, extending Vertical Roots' dominant position as the leading CEA and vertical farming business in the southeast market.

AmplifiedAg implements a distinctive strategy to operate Vertical Roots farms directly at distribution facilities, eliminating a massive leg of produce transportation in order to reduce emissions and provide communities with fresh, locally grown produce. Vertical Roots current focus is on nutritious, mature lettuce varieties that are celebrated for their flavor, freshness and being 100% pesticide-free.

Taylor added, "We're dually focused to deploy Vertical Roots farms across the country as close to the point of consumption as possible, while advancing and expanding AmplifiedAg's global network of proven technologies and farms to others in the CEA industry."

About AmplifiedAg, Inc.

AmplifiedAg, Inc.™ is an agtech industry visionary on a mission to provide global access to safe food. The company manufactures indoor vertical container farms, hydroponic systems, and disruptive seed-to-sale SaaS-based technologies. AmplifiedAg provides holistic indoor farming solutions to sustainably grow and distribute food anywhere in the world. 

AmplifiedAg owns and operates Vertical Roots, the largest hydroponic container farm in the World with produce in over 1,700 grocery stores nationwide. Learn more at www.amplifiedaginc.com. Growing Food for a Growing World.

80 Acres Farms Secures $160 Million In Series B Led by General Atlantic To Accelerate Global Farm Expansion & Product Development

August 9, 2021

HAMILTON, OH / ACCESSWIRE / 80 Acres Farms, the industry-leading vertical farming company, has secured $160 million in additional funding in a round led by General Atlantic and joined by Siemens Financial Services, Inc. (the U.S. financing arm of global technology company Siemens). The company intends to utilize the capital for continued expansion and product development, building from its current footprint of vertical farms that yield a diverse offering of high-quality produce.

The funding round also included Blue Earth (formerly PG Impact Investments) and General Atlantic's Beyond Net Zero team, in addition to participation from existing investors including Barclays and Taurus.

80 Acres Farms' vertical farm systems grow the widest variety of produce commercially sold at scale by any vertical farm to-date, including leafy greens, herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers, and microgreens. The company's breakthrough growing technologies and advanced data analytics capabilities have enabled this industry-leading product breadth, driving over 450% revenue growth since the end of 2020. 80 Acres Farms now services over 600 retail and food service locations, including its recent expansion with Kroger, announced earlier this year to 316 stores in the U.S. Midwest and to the e-commerce channel powered by Kroger - Ocado Solutions' partnership. With farms co-located near customers, 80 Acres Farms' produce travels significantly fewer food miles, shortening the farm-to-table footprint and reducing overall food waste. Growing methods at 80 Acres Farms use 97% less water than traditional farming practices and are powered by renewable energy.

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To date, 80 Acres Farms operates eight indoor farms and is committed to supporting and building high-tech production facilities close to regions where fresh produce is consumed. The company has transformed a former factory in Hamilton, Ohio, to a world-class tomato indoor farm, and in 2020, 80 Acres Farms completed construction on a new, 64,000-square-foot, state-of-the art farm with 10 levels of cultivating space. 80 Acres Farms is currently engaged in identifying new farm locations for additional commercial farms to operate at similar scale.

Shaw Joseph, Managing Director of General Atlantic, said: "80 Acres Farms is building an incredibly exciting vertical farming business that provides high-quality produce through innovative practices. With global food consumption increasing and growing threats impacting supply chains and food security, there is a pressing need for healthy, fresh and local foods that are grown in more sustainable and cost-effective ways. We look forward to working closely with Mike, Tisha and the broader 80 Acres Farms' team as they scale."

Jason Thompson, Vice President of Sustainability and Growth Equity at Siemens Financial Services, said, "We are committed to help scale sustainable vertical farming technology. 80 Acres has demonstrated their ability to build and operate profitable farms, and Siemens is enthusiastic about the opportunity to support its global expansion with both our capital and technical know-how, including our recently established Center of Competence dedicated to supporting companies in realizing their digital transformation."

Kayode Akinola, Head of Private Equity Directs at Blue Earth Capital, said, "We are excited to be partnering with General Atlantic and Siemens to provide growth capital and support to Mike, Tisha and the entire 80 Acres team to help scale their operations within existing and new markets."

Mike Zelkind, CEO of 80 Acres Farms, said: "We are proud of what our team has been able to accomplish and enthusiastic about the road ahead. We are also honored to be supported by such a high caliber group of strategic investors who are enabling us to continue to lead this evolving and fast-growing industry. The investment is a quantum leap for the business to build more farms both nationally and globally.

Tisha Livingston, CEO of Infinite Acres, and Co-founder of 80 Acres Farms, said: "The new investment positions the company as the leading proven and profitable technology provider prepared for rapid expansion. In addition, this enables 80 Acres to focus on their operational expertise and deep research and development capabilities beyond leafy greens."

As part of this funding round, Shaw Joseph will join the 80 Acres Farms board. Eli Aheto, former 80 Acres Farms board member, led BeyondNetZero's contributions to this round. "I am pleased to be able to continue and grow my support of 80 Acres with this contribution from the BeyondNetZero team. 80 Acres has proven a farm design that is poised to reduce food miles, food waste and the resulting negative carbon emissions that exist within our food supply chain," said Eli Aheto.

Barclays acted as sole placement agent to 80 Acres on the capital raise.

About 80 Acres Farms

80 Acres Farms is a vertical farming leader providing customers with the freshest, and most nutritious fruits and vegetables at affordable prices. Utilizing world-class technology and analytics, the Company offers customers a wide variety of pesticide-free food with a longer shelf-life that exceeds the highest standards in food safety. Consumers can find 80 Acres' products of just-picked salads, tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, and microgreens at Kroger, Whole Foods, The Fresh Market, Dorothy Lane Markets, Jungle Jim's Markets, and key National Foodservice Distributors including Sysco and US Foods.

Media Contact

Rebecca Haders / rebecca.haders@eafarms.com / +1 513-910-9089

About General Atlantic

General Atlantic is a leading global growth equity firm with more than four decades of experience providing capital and strategic support for over 400 growth companies throughout its history. Established in 1980 to partner with visionary entrepreneurs and deliver lasting impact, the firm combines a collaborative global approach, sector specific expertise, a long-term investment horizon and a deep understanding of growth drivers to partner with great entrepreneurs and management teams to scale innovative businesses around the world. General Atlantic currently has over $65 billion in assets under management and more than 175 investment professionals based in New York, Amsterdam, Beijing, Hong Kong, Jakarta, London, Mexico City, Mumbai, Munich, Palo Alto, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore and Stamford. For more information on General Atlantic, please visit the website: www.generalatlantic.com

General Atlantic also recently formed its BeyondNetZero (BnZ) team to seek out growth companies delivering innovative climate solutions. BnZ looks to identify entrepreneurs with technologies that enable companies to meet and exceed Net Zero emissions targets, with a focus on de-carbonization, energy efficiency, resource conservation and emissions management.

Media Contacts

Mary Armstrong & Emily Japlon / General Atlantic media@generalatlantic.com

Faustine Rohr-Lacoste / Spendesk faustine@spendesk.com

About Siemens Financial Services

Siemens Financial Services (SFS) - the financing arm of Siemens - provides business-to-business financial solutions. A unique combination of financial expertise, risk management and industry know-how enable SFS to create tailored innovative financial solutions. With these, SFS facilitates growth, creates value, enhances competitiveness and helps customers access new technologies. SFS supports investments with equipment and technology financing and leasing, corporate lending, equity investments and project and structured financing. Trade and receivable financing solutions complete the SFS portfolio. With an international network, SFS is well adapted to country-specific legal requirements and able to provide financial solutions globally. Within Siemens, SFS is an expert adviser for financial risks. Siemens Financial Services has its global headquarters in Munich, Germany, and has around 2,800 employees worldwide. www.siemens.com/finance.

About Blue Earth Capital

Blue Earth Capital is a global investment firm focused on sustainability and impact investing. Headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, with operations in New York, London, Singapore, Luxembourg and Guernsey, Blue Earth Capital seeks to invest in businesses that address pressing environmental and social challenges, whilst generating market-rate financial returns. Initiated in 2015 by Urs Wietlisbach, one of the founders of Partners Group, and backed by the Wietlisbach Foundation, Blue Earth Capital was incubated and built up with the support of Partners Group.

Media Contacts

Urs Baumann / CEO Blue Earth Capital urs.baumann@blueearth.capital

Geoponica Greens, Indoor Vertical Farm, To Open Facility In Hamilton Twp.

August 4, 2021

Geoponica Greens, an indoor hydroponics vertical farm business based in Chesilhurst, is expanding its existing operations to the historic Mill One warehouse in Hamilton Township this fall, the company announced.

Desmond Hayes, founder and owner of Geoponica Greens, said the company utilizes hydroponics, an agricultural practice of growing plants without soil, using only water and nutrients — while avoiding the use of pesticides or insecticides.

By delivering the nutrients straight to the plants’ roots, this grow method is also able to shorten crop cycles, produce the best flavors and level of nutrition and increase the lifespan of the crop, he said.

“Geoponica Greens is dedicated to changing the way food is both grown and realized through our low-waste model and our hyperlocal interaction within nearby areas,” Hayes said.

“New Jersey is strategically located between New York City and Philadelphia, making it the perfect place to reimagine farming. We are especially excited to reach minority communities, Opportunity Zones and food deserts, and introduce our sustainable methods of agriculture to new areas.”

The new warehouse space will support Geoponica Greens’ efforts to provide fresh microgreens, leafy greens and herbs to the local communities, with plans to hire three to five employees and interns in the first year.

Because the produce will be grown in an indoor farm, it is not subjected to the effects of climate seasonality, so the facility will be able to harvest 2-3 tons of greens per year at full capacity, Hayes said.

Geoponica Greens also plans to create a local Community Supported Agriculture program aimed at bringing a subscription-based model to customers.

A minority business owner, Hayes founded Geoponica Greens in 2014.

Choose New Jersey provided Geoponica Greens with state resources information, economic development connections and site selection assistance and will continue to support the company’s success in New Jersey.

Choose New Jersey CEO Jose Lozano said his group was happy to keep such an innovative company within the state.

“True to our nickname as the Garden State and the most densely populated state in the country, it is no surprise that New Jersey is on the forefront of the urban farm movement,” he said.

“Geoponica Greens is an integral part of that movement, and Choose New Jersey is proud to support their continued growth in our state as they bring agricultural innovation to Hamilton and its surrounding communities.”

Geoponica Greens, an indoor hydroponics vertical farm business based in Chesilhurst, is expanding its existing operations to the historic Mill One warehouse in Hamilton Township this fall, the company announced.

Desmond Hayes, founder and owner of Geoponica Greens, said the company utilizes hydroponics, an agricultural practice of growing plants without soil, using only water and nutrients — while avoiding the use of pesticides or insecticides.

By delivering the nutrients straight to the plants’ roots, this grow method is also able to shorten crop cycles, produce the best flavors and level of nutrition and increase the lifespan of the crop, he said.

“Geoponica Greens is dedicated to changing the way food is both grown and realized through our low-waste model and our hyperlocal interaction within nearby areas,” Hayes said.

“New Jersey is strategically located between New York City and Philadelphia, making it the perfect place to reimagine farming. We are especially excited to reach minority communities, Opportunity Zones and food deserts, and introduce our sustainable methods of agriculture to new areas.”

The new warehouse space will support Geoponica Greens’ efforts to provide fresh microgreens, leafy greens and herbs to the local communities, with plans to hire three to five employees and interns in the first year.

Because the produce will be grown in an indoor farm, it is not subjected to the effects of climate seasonality, so the facility will be able to harvest 2-3 tons of greens per year at full capacity, Hayes said.

Geoponica Greens also plans to create a local Community Supported Agriculture program aimed at bringing a subscription-based model to customers.

About Mill One and Geoponica Greens

The historic Mill One warehouse was once home to notable Atlantic Products Corp. during the World War II era in the Trenton area. The 2,000-square-foot warehouse was selected because of its important features that will support Geoponica Greens’ hydroponics operations. With high ceilings, skylights and exposed brick walls, the impressive existing warehouse is being renovated to become a modern, sustainable space.

A minority business owner, Hayes founded Geoponica Greens in 2014.

Choose New Jersey provided Geoponica Greens with state resources information, economic development connections and site selection assistance and will continue to support the company’s success in New Jersey.

Choose New Jersey CEO Jose Lozano said his group was happy to keep such an innovative company within the state.

“True to our nickname as the Garden State and the most densely populated state in the country, it is no surprise that New Jersey is on the forefront of the urban farm movement,” he said.

“Geoponica Greens is an integral part of that movement, and Choose New Jersey is proud to support their continued growth in our state as they bring agricultural innovation to Hamilton and its surrounding communities.”

Lead Photo: Geoponica greens uses hydroponic techniques to grow produce. - Geoponica Greens

SRUC To Build Vertical Farm

By Michael Barker

August 9, 2021

Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) will be the first higher education institute in Scotland to open a vertical farm for research and education.

The project, which has received a £200,000 grant from the Scottish Government, will be used in key research into plant and crop science, and will also be used by students. SRUC will build the half million-pound facility at its King’s Buildings campus in Edinburgh next year.

The facility will grow nutrient-dense fruit and vegetables that have specific human health qualities. It will also analyse crop yield and growth rates with all resource inputs to compare their carbon footprint to other production systems.

It will operate on renewable energy sources from the national grid, supported by battery technology to manage peaks in energy demand. The project will be going out to tender in the coming weeks.

With only a handful of commercial vertical farms in Scotland, the facility will be important for demonstration and knowledge exchange with farmers, growers and small businesses, giving vital support and promoting innovation, SRUC said.

Mairi Gougeon, cabinet secretary for rural affairs and islands, said: “As we look to produce more fruits and vegetables locally, vertical farming could provide us with a way to make better use of our land. It’s an exciting and innovative field that could bring us real benefits and it is important that we have the skills in Scotland to take advantage of this technology.

“By supporting the industry at an early stage, we can assess these benefits and help to focus our long-term strategy. We will also be reaching out to the wider industry to explore in further detail the opportunities low-carbon vertical farming offers. We will work together to establish the future of vertical farming in Scotland.”

Lead Photo: New facility will grow nutrient-dense fruit and vegetables that have specific human health qualities

Why Lettuce Greenhouse Sector's Growth Is Focused In The U.S.

By Peter Tasgal

August 10, 2021

Greenhouses for lettuce and leafy greens are being built at a rapid pace across the U.S. In contrast, in neighboring Mexico there is no similar greenhouse production and in Canada there is very little — the primary exception being 11-acre Whole Leaf Farms located in Coaldale, Alberta. 

Based on my research, the primary driver for this U.S. phenomenon is investor comfort in making U.S.-based investments in leafy greens greenhouses, which are more expensive to build compared to tomato, cucumber and pepper greenhouses. 

For example, AppHarvest’s latest tomato greenhouse is expected to be 63 acres and valued at $139 million — just over $50 per square foot. In contrast, Bright Farms’ 280,000-square-foot leafy greens greenhouse in North Carolina cost $21 million, or $75 per square foot. Gotham Greens built a 100,000-square-foot leafy greens greenhouse in Providence, Rhode Island, that cost $12.2 million, or $122 per square foot. 

In addition to investor interest in the U.S. market, other potential factors affecting this phenomenon include:

• Temperature variance;

• Pricing certainty;

• Equilibrium capital leading the charge; and

• Generational knowledge in Canada.

Temperature variance

Lettuce and leafy greens perform best at cooler temperatures, up to 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, in comparison, grow best at temperatures in excess of 70 degrees Fahrenheit. 

As the U.S. has a more moderate climate than either Canada or Mexico, a band of greenhouses across the U.S. takes advantage of the more temperate climate. Historically, leafy greens greenhouses have been built in the middle and upper sections of the U.S. However, boundaries have moved. Revol Greens, for example, has a 10-acre greenhouse in Minnesota and is expected to build a 20-acre greenhouse in Austin, Texas, to be completed in 2022. 
 
Historically it has been more costly to keep a greenhouse cool rather than to heat it. However, alternative sources of energy and energy pricing incentives in parts of the southern U.S. have made it increasingly cost competitive to build greenhouses in this area. 

Pricing certainty

The cost to build a leafy greens greenhouse is more than a tomato, pepper or cucumber greenhouse on a per square foot basis and on a per pound basis. As a reference, the cost of AppHarvest’s tomato greenhouse is approximately $3 per one year’s production of pounds of tomatoes. In comparison, Bright Farms’ recent leafy greens greenhouse is over $10 per one year’s production of pounds of lettuce and leafy greens. 

This large cost structure variance requires greenhouse-grown lettuce to be priced at a premium. In contrast, greenhouse-grown tomatoes can and are priced directly with field-grown tomatoes. In the U.S. today, greenhouse-grown tomatoes make up the majority of fresh tomato sales. 

The risk for an investor in a premium product is demand fluctuation. Economic and other market conditions will have a greater effect on premium product demand compared to product with more commodity-like traits.

Equilibrium Capital leading the charge

Equilibrium Capital is a leading investor in the North American controlled environment agriculture sector. It closed its second fund (CEFF II) this past month, with a capacity of $1.022 billion. Its first fund, CEFF I, had a capacity of $336 million. Recent investments made by Equilibrium include:

• AppHarvest: $91 million non-dilutive investment to support the building of its second tomato greenhouse in Kentucky.

• FINKA: Expansion capital for the Mexican greenhouse company, which operates tomato, pepper and cucumber greenhouses, the product of which is primarily sold into the U.S. and Canada. This was Equilibrium’s first investment outside of the U.S.

• Little Leaf Farms: $90 million of debt and equity financing for the company, which is currently building a lettuce and leafy greens facility in Pennsylvania and is expected to follow with a facility in North Carolina.

• Revol Greens: $110 million of debt and equity capital to support its building of a large lettuce and leafy greens greenhouse in Texas.

FINKA is Equilibrium’s only investment outside of the U.S. to-date. 

Generational knowledge in Canada

According to the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers’ website, the organization formed in 1967 has “220 members who grow greenhouse tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers on over 3,000 acres.” 

Two of the largest growers in Canada, Mastronardi Produce and Mucci Farms, have invested primarily in building their current greenhouses. To the extent each has branched out, it has been primarily to berries and eggplants. Mastronardi and Mucci have little to no owned lettuce and leafy greens production across North America. 

Of note, in 2019 AppHarvest entered into a Purchase and Marketing Agreement with Mastronardi, under which “Mastronardi will be the sole and exclusive marketer and distributor of all tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, berries and leafy greens” at its Morehead, Ky., facility (currently producing only tomatoes). 

Per the 10-year agreement, Mastronardi has a right of first refusal for any additional facilities established in Kentucky or West Virginia. The take-away is Mastronardi is willing to distribute and market greenhouse-grown leafy greens, venturing a reputational risk, but has not yet chosen the investment risk of operating its own greenhouses.

Speaking to the OGVG, most greenhouse operators in Ontario have chosen to put their resources into products they already know. When asked specifically about lettuce and leafy greens, OGVG said the cost to build this type of greenhouse is very expensive per unit of output.  

Recap

Some of the most seasoned greenhouse operators in North America are growing a range of produce types in the Ontario, Canada, area largely focused on tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers.

Each of these products grows best at higher temperatures than lettuce and leafy greens. Canadian operators who have been in the business for generations are potentially willing to distribute and market leafy greens, yet they have not been willing to make significant investments in the area. 

While leafy greens were once only grown in the Northern parts of the U.S., Revol Greens, backed by Equilibrium Capital, is building one of the largest greenhouses in Texas. Equilibrium Capital, the “smart money,” has only invested in U.S. CEA companies to-date. The exception is FINKA, which operates in Mexico but sells exclusively to the U.S. and Canada. 

Based on my research, until lettuce and leafy greens greenhouse production can be priced competitively with field-grown product, it will continue to be a U.S. phenomenon. At least until that time, Canadian and Mexican operators will leave greenhouse lettuce and leafy greens production to U.S. operators. 

Peter Tasgal is a Boston-area food agriculture consultant focused on controlled environment agriculture. 

80 Acres CEO Reflects on Vertical Farming Post $160m Raise: ‘There Will Be Losers With Very Big Names’

By Lauren Manning

August 11, 2021

The indoor farming sector is dazzling investors and attracting its fair share of nine-figure deals. But as the space grows more crowded and competitive, questions are sprouting up regarding market saturation, the right business models, and whether indoor mega-farms like the one Minnesota’s Revol Greens is planning are the way to go.

For Mike Zelkind, CEO at Ohio-based vertical ag operation 80 Acres Farms, not everyone will make it to the finish line.

“This is the way the market works. There will be winners and losers and there will be losers with very big names,” he tells AFN.

“But the world needs this and even the losers [will have been] very well-intentioned. My heart will go out to everyone who does not win because I know they fought the good fight.”

80 Acres just announced the close of a $160 million Series B round led by US growth equity firm General Atlantic.

Other investors in the round included Siemens Financial Services — the US financing arm of German tech giant Siemens — as well as Barclays, Blue Earth, Taurus Investment Holdings, and General Atlantic’s impact-focused BeyondNetZero team.

Although Zelkind views the indoor farming space as big enough for many players to do well, he thinks some recent valuations are exaggerated. 

In his opinion, 80 Acres sets itself apart through its partnerships, like its joint venture with e-grocer Ocado and tech provider Priva. The trio formed the venture, Infinite Acres, in 2019 to help growers enter the tech-enabled indoor farming space.

Staying close to the consumer

80 Acres takes a decentralized approach to getting its produce on consumers’ tables, building its farms close to areas where its customers are located. The startup runs eight farms, and sells its products in around 600 retail and foodservice locations. Without sharing specific figures, it claims to have posted 450% growth in revenue since the end of last year.

Building close to its customer base has also been a foundational aspect of 80 Acres’ business model, Zelkind suggests.

“I don’t think there are any other farming operations today that have built a farm as close to the distribution center of their customer,” he says. “Just getting a little closer to the customer is not good enough.” 

Zelkind claims that 80 Acres had a lot of options when it came to choosing investors for its Series B round but that funders with strategic angles were the winning choice. General Atlantic focuses on world-changing technologies, including foodtech, while Siemens can assist with continued industrialization of the startup’s capabilities, he adds.

80 Acres will use the new funding to expand its footprint while supporting product development. Based on his own observations of rival startups’ activities and claims, Zelkind argues that his company offers the widest variety of produce in the vertical farming industry, selling leafy greens, herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers, and microgreens, among others.

“I’m not aware of anybody even making a claim that they are commercially growing these items, and we’ve had the product in the marketplace for the last four years,” he says. “It’s not a claim – it’s a fact.”

Lead Photo: Mike Zelkind, CEO, 80 Acres Farms. Photo credit: 80 Acres Farms Facebook page.

Urban Crop Solutions Awarded As Best-In-Class Vertical Farming Solution Provider

August 2021

Urban Crop Solutions has been awarded a ‘Best-in-Class’ award for their production systems by the Center of Excellence for Indoor Agriculture. They were selected as the winners for the category of ‘systems starting between $250k-$500k’. Each finalist went through a rigorous review process and was evaluated according to several criteria. Emphasis was given to sustainable farms and equipment manufacturers that efficiently use resources such as land, energy, labour and water to produce the highest yields at an affordable price in indoor farm settings.

“The award is definitely a recognition for our team that is continuously working on state-of-the art growing solutions which optimise the sustainability of our industry, whether this is in an existing building or for a greenfield project.” says Maarten Vandecruys, Founder and CTO, Urban Crop Solutions.

“Today we are rewarded with a prize for our approach, but to be successful for our customers, the knowledge of the plant science is as equally important as the engineering part. We keep on striving for a more sustainable impact, not just on the consumption of our natural resources, but also the yield, which positively impacts the financial sustainability” he adds.

"We are enormously proud of the entire team! A team that works together for the future. A team that is there for each other, to give the best of themselves. Looking at our latest realisations, the ModuleX and the FarmLab, and our 24/7 support both technically and biologically, as a team leader you can look forward with a broad smile!" says Jean-Pierre Coene, CEO, Urban Crop Solutions.

Jean-Pierre Coene operating the ModuleX

ABOUT UCS

Urban Crop Solutions is a Belgium based pioneer in the fast-emerging technology of indoor vertical farming. It has developed over the past six years, 220+ plant growth recipes in its research centre in Waregem, Belgium. To date, UCS has delivered over 25 projects in multiple global locations. Their farms are being operated both for commercial and research purposes. Uses range from the production of leafy greens, microgreens and herbs for food retail, service and industrial use, and scientific research across multiple institutions.

Website: www.urbancropsolutions.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/urbancropsolutions
Twitter: www.twitter.com/U_C_Solutions
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/urbancropsolutions

CONTACT

Filip Meeuws – Sales Director, Urban Crop Solutions          
fime@urbancropsolutions.com

Maarten Vandecruys – Co-founder & CTO, Urban Crop Solutions  
maarten.vandecruys@urbancropsolutions.com

Jean-Pierre Coene – CEO, Urban Crop Solutions     
jpco@urbancropsolutions.com

Lead Photo: Maarten Vandecruys in the UCS Research Centre

Lettuce: Meet The Salad Kings of SA

By Glenneis Kriel

August 6, 2021

Not knowing what to do after finishing his military service back in the 1970s, Michael Kaplan set off to work on a kibbutz in Israel, where he was exposed to banana, dairy and chicken production.

From there, he backpacked through Europe, and was particularly impressed by the new technologies that farmers in the Netherlands were using to protect their crops and improve production efficiencies.

Back home in East London in 1978, he made the decision to become a farmer, an option that was met with criticism from family and peers who did not have farming backgrounds.

“My mother, Ethel, was a doctor and my father, Lewis, a lawyer, so they thought I was completely bonkers when I told them I wanted to farm,” recalls Kaplan.

In pursuit of his dream, he wanted to study agriculture at the Elsenburg Agricultural
Training Institute in the Western Cape, but entries had already closed by the time he applied. So he began working at what was then the English Trust Company farm in Stellenbosch, thanks to an introduction from his childhood friend, Bruce Glazer, who already worked there.

Dew Crisp was co-founded by childhood friends Michael Kaplan (left) and Bruce Glazer.

“It really was a case of being in the right place at the right time, as the English Trust Company was one of the first to introduce farming tunnels in South Africa.

“They produced tomatoes using the nutrient film technique [NFT] and experimented with the gravel flow technique [GFT] to grow butter lettuce and celery,” says Kaplan.

These hydroponic techniques, he explains, are similar in that both entail the circulation of a nutrient solution in a closed system. The difference is that with GFT, gravel is used as a growth medium, whereas, with NFT, plants are suspended and their roots exposed.

Early days
Kaplan worked at the English Trust Company for two years. He then learnt that the Joburg Market sold up to three times more vegetables than its Cape Town equivalent.

Deciding it was time to spread his wings, he drove up to Johannesburg, where he began looking for a business partner and land on which to grow his own produce.

“My mother lent me R10 000, which I used to rent land near Heidelberg [about 50km south-east of Johannesburg] and produce celery under 2 000m² of nets using GFT,” says Kaplan.

In 1981, Heidelberg was hit by a severe snowstorm. It destroyed almost all of Kaplan’s infrastructure, but he managed to save most of the crop and used the income from the sale to rebuild his operation.

“I kept costs low by doing almost everything myself, and using the income to grow the operation, reaching 8 000m² by the third year of production,” recalls Kaplan.

In his fourth year of operation, he started looking for land closer to the Joburg Market and with more favourable production conditions.

“These are actually two of the most important prerequisites for farming success; you need to be close to the market, and farm in a region where the climatic and production conditions are suited to the crop you want to grow. I learnt the hard way that the Highveld is unsuited to salad production in winter,” he says.

Financing
With a clearer idea of what he required, Kaplan bought land near Nooitgedacht and applied to the Land Bank for a loan.

Being unfamiliar with hydroponic production, the bank declined his application, but Kaplan managed to secure a loan from First National Bank at an interest rate of 26%. Fortunately, the market was far less competitive and demanding in those days, which enabled him to repay the loan quickly.

“It would be almost impossible to accomplish the same today; land, labour, infrastructure and production costs are exorbitant. And you buy everything in dollars and euros but get paid in rands,” he says.

Costs are driven up even further by international production standards and auditing programmes such as GlobalGAP and HACCP, which are required to supply most markets today, while market access is complicated by retailers and big buyers demanding huge supply volumes all year round.

An impressive growth path
In the intervening years, Glazer had studied agriculture at Elsenburg and thereafter also worked on a kibbutz in Israel. On his return in 1984 he bought a farm near Kaplan’s, and two years later the two decided to amalgamate their businesses to create better economies of scale.

The new company was called Dew Crisp. To add value to their produce, they sold ready-to-eat lettuce in pillow packs, a market they dominated for over six years.

Since then, Dew Crisp has grown into one of the largest value-added salad suppliers in South Africa, expanding their geographical footprint over time to lengthen their production season and mitigate climate and production risks.

Today, they have 10ha under production in Muldersdrift, 200ha near Bapsfontein and 140ha near Philippi, as well as processing plants in the West and East Rand of Gauteng and in Franschhoek in the Western Cape.

Dew Crisp also sources produce from between 15 and 20 selected farmers across geographically diverse regions, some of whom have been supplying the business for over 25 years.

The company’s empowerment arm, Rural Farms, supports and sources produce from five previously disadvantaged smallholder farmers.

In 2009, Agri-Vie, the Africa Food & Agribusiness Investment Fund, bought a 49% share in Dew Crisp, which enabled Kaplan and Glazer to grow the business and place greater emphasis on financial administration and corporate governance.

“We realised that it wasn’t enough to simply follow the market; we had to create our own destiny by becoming market leaders.

“To achieve this, we needed to be innovative and have a really good understanding of consumer trends. We’ve introduced many firsts on the market,” says Kaplan.

Glazer and Kaplan have also drastically diversified their market risks by supplying all the major retailers, various prepared-meal manufacturers such as the Rhodes Food Group, and food service companies such as KFC, McDonald’s, Nando’s and Burger King.

Production
Dew Crisp’s produce is grown under nets, in plastic tunnels and in open fields.

“Tomatoes, English cucumbers and peppers don’t like water or cold [air] on their leaves, so we generally produce them under plastic,” says Kaplan.

Shade nets are used in the production of salad vegetables, as these are sensitive to sunlight, heat and wind. The nets also protect against hail and bird damage while reducing the impact of rain by breaking up the droplets. In addition, they help to absorb heat and keep the production area cool.

Open-field production is highly seasonal and limited to hardier vegetables such as sweetcorn, onions and cabbage.

Most of the produce is grown in hydroponic systems, where the plants are supplied with nutrients via a nutrient solution. In most cases, Dew Crisp uses closed hydroponics (recycled water).

“Closed hydroponics is used for salad production in GFT, whereas open hydroponics is used in the production of tomatoes and cucumbers, as they are really sensitive to diseases that might spread with the water. For this reason, each of these plants has access to its own dripper,” explains Kaplan.

Sawdust and coco peat are used as growth mediums in the open hydroponic systems.

“Some farmers sterilise these mediums to reuse them, but I prefer using them only once to prevent disease outbreaks. We do, however, reuse the gravel in the open gravel system, after cleaning it with a chlorine solution at the end of each production cycle.”

In the same way, the crops that are planted in the soil are rotated to prevent a build-up of diseases.

Water quality largely determines the success of a hydroponic system, so a farmer should not even think of using it if the irrigation water is of poor quality or has high levels of chlorine or sodium. Water can be pretreated to rectify mineral imbalances, but this drives up costs. Water should, in any case, be filtered before use.

Dew Crisp has worked with scientists for years to refine its plant feeding programmes based on the nutritional requirements of various crops during different development phases.

“The trick is to supply exactly what the plant needs. An undersupply leads to plant deficiencies, while an oversupply is wasteful and might result in damage to the system and plants. To prevent this, we constantly monitor the recycled solution, plant growth and climatic conditions, and tweak the nutritional programme accordingly,” says Kaplan.

Achieving this with open-field crops is even more challenging due to soil differences. Soil, nonetheless, has a higher buffering capacity and is thus more forgiving.

The farm does not employ any climate-control technology because of its high capital and running costs. Instead, tunnel windows are opened and closed to augment ventilation and reduce the interior temperature.

Even without climate-control technology, production is energy-intensive, as the water has to be recycled continuously. Back-up generators are a necessity, as most of the salads will die within hours if water flow is interrupted.

Advice
Farming, and especially farming under protection, has become highly specialised over the years, with low profit margins leaving little room for error.

“In the past, when a buyer ordered a hundred frilly lettuces, we could plant 150 and it didn’t really have an impact on the bottom line. These days, production costs are so high that we plant to order and programme,” says Kaplan.

The shift has also made it increasingly important for farmers to make use of consultants to fill their knowledge gaps.

“If you want to be successful today, you need to surround yourself with people who are better skilled than you are in their respective jobs.”

Email Michael Kaplan at mkaplan@dewcrisp.com.

Lead Photo: Shade nets are used in the production of salad vegetables, as these are sensitive to sunlight, heat and wind. Photo: Dew Crisp

Technology Is Shaping The Future of Food But Practices Rooted In Tradition Could Still Have A Role To Play

By Anmar Frangoul

August 6, 2021

From oranges and lemons grown in Spain to fish caught in the wilds of the Atlantic, many are spoiled for choice when it comes to picking the ingredients that go on our plate.

Yet, as concerns about the environment and sustainability mount, discussions about how — and where — we grow our food have become increasingly pressing.

Last month, the debate made headlines in the U.K. when the second part of The National Food Strategy, an independent review commissioned by the U.K. government, was released.

The wide-ranging report was headed up by restaurateur and entrepreneur Henry Dimbleby and mainly focused on England’s food system. It came to some sobering conclusions.

Its executive summary said the food we consume — and the way we produce it — was “doing terrible damage to our planet and to our health.”

The publication said the global food system was “the single biggest contributor to biodiversity loss, deforestation, drought, freshwater pollution and the collapse of aquatic wildlife.” It was also, the report claimed, “the second-biggest contributor to climate change, after the energy industry.”

Dimbleby’s report is one example of how the alarm is being sounded when it comes to food systems, a term the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN says encompasses everything from production and processing to distribution, consumption and disposal.

According to the FAO, food systems consume 30% of the planet’s available energy. It adds that “modern food systems are heavily dependent on fossil fuels.”

All the above certainly provides food for thought. Below, CNBC’s Sustainable Future takes a look at some of the ideas and concepts that could change the way we think about agriculture. 

Growing in cities

Around the world, a number of interesting ideas and techniques related to urban food production are beginning to gain traction and generate interest, albeit on a far smaller scale compared to more established methods. 

Take hydroponics, which the Royal Horticultural Society describes as “the science of growing plants without using soil, by feeding them on mineral nutrient salts dissolved in water.”

In London, firms like Growing Underground are using LED technology and hydroponic systems to produce greens 33-meters below the surface. The company says its crops are grown throughout the year in a pesticide free, controlled environment using renewable energy.

With a focus on the “hyper-local”, Growing Underground claims its leaves “can be in your kitchen within 4 hours of being picked and packed.”

Another business attempting to make its mark in the sector is Crate to Plate, whose operations are centered around growing lettuces, herbs and leafy greens vertically. The process takes place in containers that are 40 feet long, 8 feet wide and 8.5 feet tall.

Like Growing Underground, Crate to Plate’s facilities are based in London and use hydroponics. A key idea behind the business is that, by growing vertically, space can be maximized and resource use minimized.

On the tech front, everything from humidity and temperature to water delivery and air flow is monitored and regulated. Speed is also crucial to the company’s business model.

“We aim to deliver everything that we harvest in under 24 hours,” Sebastien Sainsbury, the company’s CEO, told CNBC recently.

“The restaurants tend to get it within 12, the retailers get it within 18 and the home delivery is guaranteed within 24 hours,” he said, explaining that deliveries were made using electric vehicles. “All the energy that the farms consume is renewable.”

Grow your own

While there is a sense of excitement regarding the potential of tech-driven, soilless operations such as the ones above, there’s also an argument to be had for going back to basics.

In the U.K., where a large chunk of the population have been working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic, the popularity of allotments — pockets of land that are leased out and used to grow plants, fruits and vegetables — appears to have increased.

In September 2020 the Association for Public Service Excellence carried out an online survey of local authorities in the U.K. Among other things it asked respondents if, as a result of Covid-19, they had “experienced a noticeable increase in demand” for allotment plots. Nearly 90% said they had.

“This alone shows the public value and desire to reconnect with nature through the ownership of an allotment plot,” the APSE said. “It may also reflect the renewed interest in the public being more self-sustainable, using allotments to grow their own fruit and vegetables.”

In comments sent to CNBC via email, a spokesperson for the National Allotment Society said renting an allotment offered plot holders “the opportunity to take healthy exercise, relax, have contact with nature, and grow their own seasonal food.”

The NAS was of the belief that British allotments supported “public health, enhance social cohesion and could make a significant contribution to food security,” the spokesperson said. 

A broad church

Nicole Kennard is a PhD researcher at the University of Sheffield’s Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures.

In a phone interview with CNBC, she noted how the term “urban agriculture” could refer to everything from allotments and home gardens to community gardens and urban farms.

“Obviously, not all food is going to be produced by urban agriculture, but it can play a big role in feeding local communities,” she said.

There were other positives, too, including flood and heat mitigation. “It’s … all those benefits that come with having green spaces in general but then there’s the added plus, [which] is that you’re producing food for local consumption.”

On urban farming specifically, Kennard said it provided “the opportunity to make a localized food system” that could be supported by consumers.

“You can support farms that you know, farmers that you know, that are also doing things that contribute to your community,” she said, acknowledging that these types of relationships could also be forged with other types of farms.

Looking ahead

Discussions about how and where we produce food are set to continue for a long time to come as businesses, governments and citizens try to find ways to create a sustainable system that meets the needs of everyone.

It’s perhaps no surprise then that some of the topics covered above are starting to generate interest among the investment community.

Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” in June, Morgan Stanley’s global head of sustainability research, Jessica Alsford, highlighted this shift.

“There’s certainly an argument for looking beyond the most obvious … ways to play the green theme, as you say, further down the value and the supply chain,” she said.

“I would say as well though, you need to remember that sustainability covers a number of different topics,” Alsford said. “And we’ve been getting a lot of questions from investors that want to branch out beyond the pure green theme and look at connected topics like the future of food, for example, or biodiversity.”

For Crate to Plate’s Sainsbury, knowledge sharing and collaboration will most likely have a big role to play going forward. In his interview with CNBC, he emphasized the importance of “coexisting with existing farming traditions.”

“Oddly enough, we’ve had farmers come and visit the site because farmers are quite interested in installing this kind of technology … in their farm yards … because it can supplement their income.”

“We’re not here to compete with farmers, take business away from farmers. We want to supplement what farmers grow.”

Lead Photo: Fruit and vegetable allotments on the outskirts of Henley-on-Thames, England.

Growing Up: The Next Frontier In Farming Is Vertical And It Could Cut Canada's Reliance on Imported Food

By Jake Edmiston

July 30, 2021

The spicy mustard micro green begins its short life in a plastic tray of mud, filed away in a germination warehouse at an industrial park on the outskirts of Guelph, Ont. It spends several days in hot and humid darkness, using all its energy to open itself, push through the top layer of soil and unfurl its first two tender leaves.

In the germination room, trays of mustard greens all sit on shelves the size of ping pong tables, stacked in rows up to the roof. The plants are ready after about two days and the automated growing system comes to retrieve them, pulling the shelf from its stack and ejecting it through a slot in the warehouse wall.

Soaring crop prices will catch up to consumers

Next, they enter another, larger warehouse, with more shelves stacked up three to four storeys high. Here, the spicy mustard greens feel light for the first time. More than 14,000 LED lamps shine for 14 to 20 hours a day, using only the part of the light spectrum that the plants will need: red and blue. So the warehouse is always a thick, glowing magenta.

After spending two days in the darkness of the germination room, a large flat of spicy mustard greens is moved into the 45,000 square foot vertical farming grow room. PHOTO BY GLENN LOWSON FOR NATIONAL POST

“It’s always a beautiful, spring day,” says Juanita Moore, the executive director of operations at GoodLeaf Farms, which owns this indoor farm in Guelph.

It is incredibly important that these mustard greens survive, not just for GoodLeaf — the company uses them for its Spicy Mustard Medley and Ontario Spring Mix — but also for the long-term stability of the Canadian food system.

Canadian agriculture scholars are warning that the country’s dependence on California and other southern growing regions for fresh produce through the winter has become a national security risk.

“We have to really ask the question, ‘How secure are we?'” said Evan Fraser, director of the University of Guelph’s Arrell Food Institute. “On fruits and vegetables, we are not secure at all.”

On fruits and vegetables, we are not secure at all

EVAN FRASER

The pandemic has given companies and consumers a glimpse at how a global crisis can stymie supply chains and push trading partners to hold back exports. And the extreme drought and wildfires that have threatened California’s vast crop production this summer are just the latest example of a glaring vulnerability in the Canadian food chain, which relied on $11.2-billion worth of imported vegetables, fruits and nuts last year. Farmers in the United States supplied $5.4 billion of that produce — $3.1 billion of which came from California.

“Suddenly this idea that California might not be able to provide food is not that farfetched at all — to the point I’m actively kind of worried about it,” said Lenore Newman, director of the Food and Agriculture Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley. “My worry is, we’re going to start having shortages, because California’s production is going to fall. They don’t have the water.”

Fraser and Newman are part of a growing chorus of professors and industry leaders calling for Canada to stop relying on imports from the U.S. and Mexico and start feeding itself, fast. The best hope to do that, in a country with only five or six good growing months, is to farm indoors.

Juanita Moore, the executive director of operations at GoodLeaf Farm, in Guelph, Ont. PHOTO BY GLENN LOWSON FOR NATIONAL POST

“If the trends continue, we’re in real trouble in North America,” Newman said. “Growing all of this food intensively in one location and moving it all over the continent is not going to work. So we may as well start now. I mean, we should have started five years ago but now is good too.”

This ambition for Canada to grow its own supply of fresh produce in the dead of winter isn’t as implausible as it might sound. The country actually isn’t bad at growing things indoors. Canada’s greenhouse industry is already proficient at growing tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers — to the point that 81.2 per cent of the domestically grown supply of cucumbers come from a greenhouse, according to Statistics Canada.

Historically, the problem with greenhouses has been that they rely on the sun, which means production dips in the darker, winter months. They’re also expensive to heat. Even in summer, the sun can be confounding, as Newman put it. It’s bright one day, obscured by clouds the next. It hits the plants unevenly, making it tougher to produce the sort of uniform crops that the market demands.

The new frontier in farming, Newman said, is to sideline the sun. Advancements in more efficient LED light technology have reduced the cost of growing plants indoors, allowing greenhouses to add lights to augment the sun and effectively extend their growing season.

Cheaper LED technology has also made it possible to farm without any sun at all, in the sort of windowless warehouses “you’d put a Costco in,” Newman said.

LED lights are calibrated to only emit the red and blue of the light spectrum. PHOTO BY GLENN LOWSON FOR NATIONAL POST

This new generation of indoor crop factory can pump out more production per acre because the farmer doesn’t have to worry about sun exposure, droughts or pests. In vertical farming — a common method in the rapidly changing world of closed environment agriculture — the plants are stacked one on top of another, in soil trays or in hydroponic fluid, with LED lights in between.

“You can take a 100-acre farm, compress it into a one-acre farm, and put the rest back into wilderness,” Newman said.

Vertical farms can recycle much of the water they use, and often cost little to heat through winter thanks to warmth from the LED lamps and the plants themselves. But possibly the most important perk, she said, is that “everything will taste better.”

The general vision, for Newman and others, is to have vertical farming operations supplying produce to every region in the country. That would drastically reduce the distance between farm and market, so producers would be able to focus on making varieties that taste good instead of the “wooden” varieties preferred in California because they travel thousands of kilometres without bruising.

Major food and technology companies have been funnelling capital into the indoor farming sector, including French fry giant McCain Foods Ltd.’s roughly $65-million investment to become the single largest shareholder in GoodLeaf.

A sampling of three of the six varieties of leafy greens GoodLeaf cultivates in it’s indoor 45,000 square foot vertical farming operation in Guelph, Ont. PHOTO BY GLENN LOWSON FOR NATIONAL POST

But vertical farming hasn’t quite proven itself to be a profitable option yet, according to one analyst who follows the sector. The building costs for new vertical farms and other large-scale indoor models can range as high as $30 million to $50 million per site. Even when the facilities are built, high energy bills and labour costs make it difficult for the farms to make consistent profits. So most operations focus on crops that grow quickly, can be packed into tight spaces and sell at a premium.

“A lot of these groups are still losing money,” said Steve Hansen, managing director at Raymond James Ltd. “The big challenge is, ultimately, getting to profitability.”

And the goal isn’t just to reach profitability by competing with organic farms on expensive niche products like spicy mustard greens. If the true purpose is to replace Canada’s $11.2-billion reliance on imported produce, indoor operations need to be able to reach the sort of scale that will allow them to compete in the broader fruit and vegetable market. More advancement in LED lighting and automation inside the farms are expected to keep tamping down energy and labour costs.

“The vertical industry is still not quite yet on par with field-grown product,” Hansen said. “They’re getting down there and they’re getting closer but they’re still not there.”

Hansen estimated that globally, capital investments into vertical farms and next-generation indoor farming technology are now in the “billions of dollars” globally.

“It’s become a large sector very quickly,” he said, adding that some established operations are finally starting to reach a scale where they’re able to make a profit. “The development we’ve seen on the indoor space has really happened in the last five years.”

Samples of the latest daily crop of leafy greens are taken for testing before shipping to customers at GoodLeaf. PHOTO BY GLENN LOWSON FOR NATIONAL POST

Still, vertical farms are mostly confined to growing salad greens, which grow within a matter of days and allow the farms to constantly be turning over product.

Branching out to other crops will be a challenge, Hansen said. Tomatoes and cucumbers, for example, can be too tall for vertical farming, which means the farm has to pack fewer rows into the space before hitting the ceiling. (Interestingly, greenhouses actually benefit from the height of cucumbers and tomatoes because they’re essentially vertical farms in and of themselves, Newman said.)

Other vegetables that take months to reach market size mean months’ worth of energy costs have to be included in the price — which Newman suggested could lead to potatoes that cost $20 per pound.

Seed companies, however, have started to turn their attention to breeding varieties of crops that will work well indoors, though the developments are still in the early stages, Hansen said. “Very little effort has been done on short, stubby plants that can produce really high volume, because why would you have ever wanted that?”

Fully grown spicy mustard greens await packaging at GoodLeaf. PHOTO BY GLENN LOWSON FOR NATIONAL POST

The GoodLeaf vertical farm in Guelph is currently able to produce more than 800,000 pounds of micro greens and baby greens annually, though it’s currently producing less than half that. Hospitality and restaurants were intended to make up half the business, so the pandemic-related shutdown in that sector has significantly impacted sales. But the business is able to break even at an output of around 400,000 to 500,000 pounds, selling boxes at $3.99 for micro greens and $4.99 for baby greens in major Ontario supermarkets , including Whole Foods Market Inc., Metro Inc., Loblaw Cos. Ltd.

But even a top capacity of 800,000 pounds of greens is considered light. A new GoodLeaf facility in development in Montreal is expected to reach up to 1.4 million pounds, with an expansion option that would double that output.

“We won’t build farms as small as this one going forward,” GoodLeaf’s Juanita Moore said during a tour of the Guelph plant last week. “Every generation of farm will have kind of perfected it a little bit more.”

Fully grown spicy mustard greens grown at GoodLeaf in Guelph, Ont. PHOTO BY GLENN LOWSON FOR NATIONAL POST

In Guelph, the spicy mustard greens spend about six days in the glowing purple growing room. In that time, they extend themselves to half a finger long. There are hundreds of them per tray, a mix of vibrant greens and purples, all of them never knowing the sun or a bug or a breeze.

The automated lifts move the shelves of plants from one end of the growing warehouse to the other end, a little bit at a time, gradually pushing the mustard greens through the stages of their lives. At the end of it all, there is what appears to be a blue garage door.

When the greens are ready, the blue door cranks open and white light shines in. A worker in an overcoat and hardhat pulls them out of the growing warehouse and into a cold, sterile room with a conveyor belt in the centre.

Here, the greens meet the man who made them. As the move along the conveyor, Cesar Cappa, the head grower at the Guelph plant, stands over them and stares.

Agronomist and head grower Cesar Cappa inspects spicy mustard greens at GoodLeaf Farms in Guelph, Ont. PHOTO BY GLENN LOWSON FOR NATIONAL POST

He calls them by their technical name, cotyledons — the first little leaves to sprout from a seed. He watches for deviations in the cotyledons, aware that any problem means the micro mustard greens could rot and spoil the lettuce when they’re together in the spring mix.

“It can be something small,” he says, dressed in a lab coat.

After the inspection, the mustard greens continue along the conveyor belt toward a vibrating blade at the end of the line. It saws back and forth at high speed, aimed at the necks of the mustard greens. The trays move closer and closer in a slow, inevitable march. Each stem meets the knife and it severs them, clean and quick. From there, the greens are packaged, and the trays of roots and dirt are sent for compost.

Afterward, in an open-concept office connected to the vertical farm, Moore passed around paper plates of micro greens and lettuces grown at the facility. Everything tasted of the outdoors.

“It takes me right back to my grandpa’s farm,” she said.

Lead Photo: A tray of spicy mustard greens grown at GoodLeaf’s vertical farm in Guelph, Ont. PHOTO BY GLENN LOWSON FOR NATIONAL POST

Strengthening Ties With Qatar To Grow In The Middle East

August 3, 2021

At iFarm, we will remember June 2021 as the month of Qatar! We announced an agreement to build a vertical farm based on our technology in Doha, hosted two high-profile delegations from Qatar at a lettuce farm, and held a series of important discussions regarding cooperation in the country.

Background information on the Middle East region

The Arabian Peninsula has an extremely hot and arid climate (it’s one of the hottest places on the planet), and Qatar is no exception. There are sands and dunes in the north, sandy hills in the south — with a rocky desert in the middle. In the summer months, temperatures can reach 50 °C. The country has no rivers and obtains most of its freshwater by desalinating seawater. As a result, Qatar has extremely unfavourable conditions for growing edible plants such as vegetables, berries, and herbs. However, where tomato plants wither, date palms thrive. The “Queen of the Oasis” has been bearing excellent fruit throughout the entire Middle East region for thousands of years. It’s just, you can’t live on dates alone.

99,1 %

Qatar’s urbanisation rate
(one of the highest in the world)

90 %

of food in Qatar is imported

Although Qatar ranks among the richest countries in the world in terms of per capita income, it relies heavily on imports to feed its population. Local agriculture only covers 10% of the country’s needs, and food security remains high on Qatar’s agenda. With its abundant financial resources, the country can use state-of-the-art technology to grow crops. Due to this, we believe local, year-round cultivation of vegetables, berries, and herbs on vertical farms is one of the best solutions for this region.

“By working with iFarm, Qatar increases its share of locally grown products, and we can showcase how our technology can be used in a region with extreme climatic conditions. The use of translucent greenhouses can be a problem given the hot climate: they need to be shaded and cooled. Vertical farming, on the other hand, is a perfect match. This is an excellent tool that can help Qatar achieve its ambitious food security goals.”

Alex Lyskovsky

president of iFarm

As you may recall, Qatar has adopted a National Food Security Strategy under which the country aims to reach 70% self-sufficiency in food production by 2023.

Cooperation with Agrico

Our first talks about building vertical farms powered by iFarm technology in Qatar go back to 2019. The Qataris are very cautious in choosing partners, but once they get involved, you can be sure it’s going to be serious and long-lasting. We recently announced a joint project with Sadarah that includes building a commercial pilot farm based on the Agrico Farm in Al Khor, 50 km from Doha. iFarm supplies hardware and software, and will oversee the farm once it goes live and help the partners manage the technology. The second phase of this joint effort involves the commercial distribution of products to the local market and the extension of vertical cultivation technology to other farms in Qatar and neighboring countries. Contractors are currently erecting a purpose-built environment specifically for this vertical “plant factory” project.

Cooperation with Lulu Group International

LuLu Group International is iFarm’s signature partner in the Middle East. It is a multinational corporation that operates one of the largest retail chains in Asia and the Persian Gulf. LuLu is among the fastest-growing chains in the world and employs more than 57,000 people around the world. We are in talks with LuLu Group’s representative office in Qatar regarding building vertical farms right in the supermarkets. At least one side of the pilot farm is designed using transparent material, so that customers can see the process of growing and harvesting plants from “smart” beds. In early June 2021, the project was discussed at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg. It is of great importance to us because it can be scaled up throughout the entire chain, covering more than 200 stores in 22 countries.

Qatari delegations visit farms powered by iFarm technology

Indoor cultivation in a fully controlled environment still attracts a lot of attention and investment due to its obvious benefits, including land and water conservation, reduction of CO2 emissions, absence of pesticides, etc. Vertical farming is a sustainable method of farming, and although it won’t replace conventional farming everywhere, in many regions it is, perhaps, the only way to harvest high-quality fresh vegetables, berries, and herbs locally throughout the whole year.

Two delegations from Qatar visited a farm powered by iFarm technology in June. The head of the country’s investment promotion agency (IPA Qatar), Sheikh Ali Al-Walid Al-Thani, was one of our guests. The agency aims to attract direct investment in Qatar and assists entrepreneurs throughout the entire investment process providing services on a ‘one-stop shop’ basis.

 We also had the pleasure of welcoming Masoud Jarallah al-Marri, Director of the Food Security Department at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment. He is responsible for the national certification of agricultural products and takes special care to verify the performance of any technology that is going to be introduced in Qatar.

Both guests inspected all of the production areas at the vertical farm, saw how the engineering equipment and software work, tasted a range of products grown on the farm, and left satisfied!

“Qatar is developing rapidly, and I am amazed at the pace of change in this country, which is literally turning into a huge beautiful oasis in the middle of the desert. Doha, for example, has a state-of-the-art, fully automated subway running under the city’s skyscrapers. Qatar has welcomed many foreign investors and businesses in recent years, thanks to its national vision, efforts to diversify the economy and the country’s role as hosts of the FIFA World Cup in 2022. We are happy that iFarm technology will provide guests and locals with delicious greens, vegetables and berries, and will enhance the country’s food security in the long term.”

Alex Lyskovsky, president of iFarm

Source and All Photo Courtesy of iFarm

5 Ways Vertical Farming Is Improving Nutrition

August 3, 2021

Vertical farming has taken cities by storm, enabling urbanites to grow produce within their own homes and entrepreneurs to meet the growing demand for fresher and higher quantities of locally-grown produce.

We often hear about vertical farms using water sustainably, 95% less than traditional open field harvesting, to provide superior tasting crops.

But, how is this soilless farming technique impacting human health?

#1: Harvesting On Demand At Peak Freshness 

&ever’s Grow Tower; image sourced from &ever

With the power to farm vertically within one’s own home, consumers can now harvest their crops only moments before consumption, resulting in a higher nutritional value, better-tasting greens, and significantly less food waste.

&ever’s Grow Box is a one-stop-shop system for leafy greens and can even be operated by untrained staff, according to &ever. The proprietary technology of the climate cell creates a steady microenvironment to allow plants to grow independently of weather, seasons, and pests, plus the use of “dryponics” helps keep the plants alive until the consumer is ready to harvest.

The key here is the freshness of the crops. Produce no longer has to travel miles and miles through countries or states to get to your kitchen table. This time saved in travel is also nutritional value preserved in the crops. Another benefit is that no artificial preservatives, like wax coatings, are needed to keep the produce consumer-ready.

#2: Growing Under Perfect Conditions 

Vertical farms generally use hydroponics or aeroponics to grow their plants in nutrient-enriched water that can be carefully monitored through digital sensors. This degree of control over plant nutrient supply means that the fertilization strategies are designed to match the plant needs for all 14 essential plant nutrients throughout the growth period.

Control mechanisms are also utilized to balance temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide levels in the grow facility and deliver the optimal combination of these factors for the specific crop or crops being grown. With climatic conditions playing no part in the crop’s success, growers have reliable year-round production of greater quantity and the highest quality.

In this sense, vertical farms are able to spend more time enhancing nutritional value and less time worrying about the success of their harvest. The SKY HIGH program led by Dr. Leo Marcelis of Wageningen University in the Netherlands, is one such program exploring factors that increase crop nutrients.

#3: Tailoring The Development Of Genetic Varieties

Vindara argues that the difference is in the seeds.

By designing seeds specifically for indoor vertical farms - “entirely through analytics, not gene-editing or GMOs” - this company claims to amplify crop yield, appearance, nutrition, and flavor.

Their seed-design system takes a data-driven approach to deliver any kind of genetic variety, tailored to each customer’s needs. According to Vindara, each property is individually editable.

Today’s seeds are still being bred for resistance to disease and pests, designed for long storage and transportation that isn’t as relevant for indoor vertical farming operations. This results in genetic tradeoffs that reduce nutritional value. Vindara removes these limitations that traditional seeds impose by delivering nutrient-dense seeds to growers.

#4: Growing Foods Adapted To Dietary Needs

Alongside fresh and flavorful food, there has been a growing demand and need for foods adapted to specific dietary needs.

Prime Delica, for example, has conducted research with Tamagawa University, CCS, and Signify to determine the optimal light recipe to increase the vitamin levels and nutritional value of lettuce. Dr. Céline Nicole from the Philips Lighting Research team has similarly studied the effects of the daily light integral (DLI) and light quality on the nitrate levels of arugula and spinach, alongside the vitamin C levels of arugula and tomatoes.

Through vertical farming, the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) has also successfully produced low potassium kale with increased glucosinolate content as a novel dietary option for renal dysfunction patients.

Growing foods with adapted dietary needs could thus make a world of difference in ensuring that we receive greater control over our diets, and allow us to design food-as-medicine alternatives to conventional produce.

#5: Food Safety

In using controlled growing environments, vertical farms are intrinsically free of harmful pesticides. Because of implementing biological controls, there is no need to contaminate crops with potentially toxic chemicals.  

According to the CEA Food Safety Coalition, “traditional food safety risk profiles associated with conventional farming include examining the physical hazards and microbial hazards from water use, herbicide, and pesticide use, and impact from animals and animal byproducts. These do not impact CEA growers in the same way, if at all.” Even though the risk of contamination isn’t zero within CEA facilities (as seen in this recent news), CEA-grown produce has a reduced risk of such occurrences.

Compared to traditional field-grown crops, we find that the EPA regulates pesticides individually and not collectively, meaning that the pesticides can have a cumulative toxic loading effect on human health.

Studies have shown that pesticides most impact farmworkers and pesticide applicators with symptoms like nausea, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, dizziness, anxiety, and confusion. This long list of side effects tells us that pesticides are not to be taken lightly. As a result, it’s best to avoid them at all costs. Fortunately, vertical farms help us do precisely this.

Click here for more information. 

Source and Photo Courtesy of Agritecture

Smart Farms: Getting To the Heart of The Matter

August 3, 2021

Take a look behind the scenes of vertical plant automation and find out what it takes to bring a smart farm to life with exciting exploded-view diagrams.

Labour costs account for up to 50% of the market price of vegetables, berries, and herbs. However, just like the tractor that once transformed agriculture, the new technological revolution greatly reduces the need for manual, skilled and specialist labour. Today, the work is done by a team of robots, sensors, artificial intelligence, and a core team of highly skilled professionals who manage hundreds of farms at once using special software. As a result, we witness the “battle for the harvest” moving into the IT domain.

A vertical farm functions as an organism, and its equipment can be compared to human organ systems. Its sensors and senders are the nervous system, its air conditioners and dehumidifiers act as the respiratory system, while the solution supply pipeline represents the circulatory system. We can compare the nutrient mixing unit to the endocrine system, tray conveyors and lifts to muscles. Naturally, this organism has a “brain” — the Growtune IT platform.

The degree to which the brain can accurately and confidently “take control” determines how ready various systems, nodes, and technologies are to operate without human intervention. Below, we describe all of the tech that lies inside a vertical farm. How, where, and at what production stages does the automation work? For this purpose, we’ll leverage the somewhat forgotten “exploded-view diagram” style. This way, we'll be able to show all the devices the farm uses to take care of the plants.

1. Breathing: ventilation and air conditioning

Let’s remember biology classes. Plants use photosynthesis to turn light, water and CO2 into oxygen and energy. By doing so, they can consume far more CO2 than is normally present in the air. Since the farm, like a space station, uses a closed-loop air exchange system, with no air inflow from the street, creating an optimal environment and climate for plants is purely an engineering challenge. This includes purifying, conditioning, and adding some CO2 to the room to allow plants breathe freely and grow intensively.

“People who walk into a vertical farm for the first time notice how nice and clean the air is. That’s no surprise because it doesn’t contain any dust — there’s nowhere dust can appear from in the closed-loop circuit of the farm.

Alexey Novokreshchenko, Head of Automation at iFarm

The farm has multiple air conditioning units. It’s not just a matter of maintaining a certain temperature and humidity. We need to make sure that the climate is as homogeneous as possible throughout the entire arm, including at different heights. So, instead of one super-powerful unit, we install several medium-sized devices. This provides the right air circulation and creates a failure-proof system.

Hydroponic technologies tend to create a lot of moisture, and the farm air typically needs to be dehumidified (iFarm has developed and patented a dehumidification system that allows you to reuse this water to feed your plants). There are times, though, when you need to do the opposite: for example, you may need to humidify the air, especially at the initial stage of starting a farm when you don’t have a lot of plants.

2. Energy: grow lights

Photosynthesis, that is the conversion of light energy into chemical energy, only occurs when there is light. Agronomists call artificial lighting of plants “supplemental lighting”. It may vary from one area of the farm to another, depending on the crop and its cultivation phase. The light control unit creates “day” and “night” conditions for plants. The most frequent setup resembles a nice summer day: 14–16 hours of light and 8–10 hours of darkness. Darkness is crucial: the night is when cellular respiration occurs and other important processes take place.

“The plant depends on the day-and-night schedule. Its structure and maturation phases vary depending on the light cycle. Keep the microgreen sprouts in the dark a little longer, and they'll stretch out but will become coarser. By changing the lighting, you can experiment with taste. For example, if you keep sunflower microgreens in the dark for 10 days and then expose them to the light for a full day, you’ll get long and very sweet sprouts.”

Nikolai Podvigin, Head of the Agrolaboratory at iFarm

Agronomists at pilot farms refine cultivation flow charts. For example, they are currently experimenting with variable brightness to grow pine strawberries: the lamps are equipped with a dimmer so you can gradually add brightness. It seems that the agronomists’ hypothesis holds true — the berry evidently "enjoys" long dawns. Through smooth, incremental changes in lighting, the osmotic pressure in the stem and leaves grows gradually, whereas its surge upon sudden light exposure can have a tissue-damaging effect.

Sometimes you have to focus not only on what the plants need but also on organisational or purely economic factors. For example, the cost of electricity. True, the lamps we manufacture and install in racks are highly energy-efficient: they convert every watt of electricity into 0.6 watts of photosynthetically active radiation (FAR). Still, energy costs make up a large portion of the costs of growing herbs indoors. Automation can (and should) be leveraged to ensure optimal load distribution. If the farm can use a night rate, we change “days” with “nights” and reschedule the supplemental lighting for the nighttime to minimise operating costs.

3. Nutrition: irrigation and nutrient solution supply

The nutrient solution is made from several components stored in individual containers which can easily be replaced. The solution is prepared in the mixing unit, a sophisticated automated system capable of mixing dozens of litres of stock solutions with high precision and in the right proportions.

The nutrient solution is delivered to the roots of the plants through a tube system. Since the specific recipe depends on the type of the plant and its cultivation stage, the system continuously monitors (and sometimes adjusts) the composition of the solution.

“Plants eat and plants drink. We provide them with both by mixing nutrition with water. This water continuously runs through the rack. To create an individual “menu” for each plant type, we divide the farm into different watering areas and install an additional storage tank in each of them. Each area is equipped with an additional set of sensors that dynamically monitor the changes in the solution. In fact, these sensors control whether the plant “ate well” today and whether they have everything they need.”

Alexey Novokreshchenko, Head of Automation at iFarm

The water used for preparing the solution is added to the system after it is properly treated with a reverse osmosis filter. This removes contaminants, such as minerals, heavy metals, bacteria and viruses, leaving the water virtually pure.

4. Well-being: IoT sensors

The purity of the source water, the ratio of nutrients in the solution, its acidity, the brightness of the light, the amount of carbon dioxide in the air, temperature, and humidity — you need to control all these things with precision. A large farm can have hundreds of sensors.

Based on sensor measurements, the farm's central processing unit controls the equipment and hardware in real-time, always keeping climatic and biochemical parameters within the limits set by the cultivation flow chart.

If these limits are exceeded, it triggers an alarm and remote technicians are alerted. The algorithm helps identify potential human errors, among other things. For example, it will immediately alert you if a technician incorrectly replaces the cans with the source materials for the solution.

“Plants can be extremely sensitive, some may “dislike” even a one-degree deviation from the usual temperature. We covered the racks with sensors and cameras so we could understand what a crop is sensitive to during cultivation. Now we’ve stabilised the process by defining the optimal number of devices to ensure accurate environment control.

Nikolai Podvigin, Head of the Agrolaboratory at iFarm

5. Analytics: computer processing of Big Data

The “head” of the system is a cloud server. It collates and computes data indirectly from the array of actual measurements collected. For example, it calculates the efficiency of air circulation across the farm based on the data from all of the climatic sensors. What’s even more important is the ability of Growtune, the farm management software platform, to process all of the Big Data collected on the farm.

“The algorithms we use to prepare nutrient solutions are based both on recipes and on the processing of collected data. The outcomes of plant nutrition in previous cycles affect future mixing. The controller monitors the plants’ reaction to “dinner” on the previous day and adjusts the solution accordingly. And, after reviewing the combined data from different farms, we gradually optimise the flow charts.”

Alexey Novokreshchenko, Head of Automation at iFarm

Farms are increasingly using machine vision in their “nervous system”. Images from the cameras installed on the racks are analysed by a neural network trained to determine if the plants are healthy. Technicians can also use this neural network by uploading a picture of plants through a chatbot to gain critical information about its health. Another neural network calculates the dynamics of herbage mass accumulation using the same stationary video cameras or drone cameras.

6. Movement: automation of tray movements

Problems usually dealt with by rare and expensive specialists, agronomists, biochemists, and phytopathologists can be solved using artificial intelligence, special equipment, or remote consultants. But, until recently, there hasn’t been a fully automatic farm where electronics also handle routine manual work, such as moving trays.

In February 2021, iFarm engineers implemented and tested a design prototype of a fully automated vertical farm. It features a conveyor belt that moves trays with pots through the planting, germination, growth, ripening, and cutting areas. The farm can also be equipped with individual robot modules for packaging products and preparing trays for the next cycle.

7. A human helping hand

As with any sophisticated modern equipment, an automated farm has special service message protocols. Naturally, these protocols are intended for a person, such as an employee of a certified service provider. Automatic warnings about errors, worn-out nodes, or the need for consumables to be replaced translate into assignments for replenishment or troubleshooting.

The reports of deviations in the growth of herbs are handled by an iFarm agronomist. The first thing this expert does is double-check that the actual conditions match the ones in the flow chart. They then go through a list of tasks almost identical to the sections of this article. So, what’s happening with the air, climate, energy, and nutrition of the plants on the farm? Do the sensors provide correct data? When suspecting a technical failure, the agronomist connects a service employee to the diagnostic interface with one click. They can also connect to the technician’s camera or AR glasses if the employee is already on site.

“We have several continuous operation circuits, millions of second-by-second measurements, sensors, robots, conveyors, drones, cameras, and neural networks. It seems we’ve automated almost everything we can. The only thing you can’t automate is the R&D process itself. This is why people in the company focus on this process. And this is exactly why we are fighting for strategic investments.”

Indoor Ag Sci Cafe Talks About Propagation And Transplants

August 5, 2021

This presentation ‘Precision Indoor Propagation for High Quality Transplants’ was given by Dr. Ricardo Hernandez (North Carolina State University) during our 32nd cafe forum on August 3rd, 2021.

Upcoming Cafes:

• September 21st (Tuesday), 11AM Eastern – ‘Introduction to Aquaponics‘ by Dr. Paul Brown and Dr. Cary Mitchell (Purdue University)

• October 26th (Tuesday), 11AM Eastern – ‘Vertical Farming – Past, Present and Future‘ by Robert Colangelo (Green Sense Farms)

• November TBA

• December 7th (Tuesday), 11AM Eastern – ‘Plant-Made Pharmaceuticals under Controlled Environment‘ by Dr. Nobuyuki Matoba (University of Louisville)

Interested in giving a talk to share your thoughts and experiences? Please contact Chieri Kubota

The Advantages of Local Food Production

By Dennis Allen

August 5, 2021

My last article focused on creating food security in Brazil with the accompanying benefit of strengthening community. There is a growing movement worldwide, including in our tri-county area, to encourage local farming. This is a rich agricultural region, but most of what is produced is exported, while more than 90 percent of what we consume is imported. 

A similar situation existed in Rosario, Argentina, when the economy collapsed in 2001. A quarter of the work force was unemployed, half the population dropped below the poverty line, and food shortages became common. To address this crisis, the municipal government started its Urban Agriculture Program to create employment and counter hunger. The city partnered with 700 families and made available unused land for farming. Two decades later, the program is still vital and has expanded to the surrounding region. Within the city limits, there are 2,000 acres of gardens and orchards. Gardens are in every corner of the city, including abandoned factories, old dumps, and empty lots. Rosario has just been awarded the World Resource Institute’s coveted Prize for Cities, the global award recognizing transformative urban change.

Cities around the planet are incentivizing local farming, returning to an old pattern linking food production and consumption, and often small scale. There are community farms, rooftop gardens and greenhouses, vertical hydroponic farms, aquaculture ponds, orchards, animal husbandry, front-yard and backyard gardens, beehives, and herb gardens.

Locally grown food is less expensive, in part because there is minimal or no transportation involved. It is fresher and more nutritious, features which diminish the farther away the food is produced. Several studies have documented that small-scale, family farms use less energy and less water. Often, rainwater is harvested to grow these fruits and vegetables, and sometimes wastewater can even be used.

The Community Environmental Council (CEC) is working with farmers, researchers, educators, and policy makers to develop a comprehensive food program locally. Our many farmers’ markets and network of family and community gardens provide a strong component for what is envisioned. The underlying principle of CEC’s approach is tackling climate change — reducing carbon emissions, turning food waste into resources, shifting to renewable energy, and building up soils to hold more water, nutrients, and carbon. 

One of the biggest hurdles in our area is the cost of land. Many small farmers are forced to lease fields with an attendant precariousness. Some activists are starting to work toward greater permanence and ownership. Local municipalities and our three counties need to give priority to lands they control for permanent food use, including curb strips, degraded lands, and even parts of parks and school yards.

CEC, with its 50-year history of approaching challenges through theory, policy, and practice, is uniquely positioned to develop partners and alliances to transform our food sector to be more resilient and climate friendly. 

Lead Photo: Localizing Our Food Will Produce Health, Economic, and Climate-Offset Benefits

AeroFarms and Nokia Unveil Partnership for Next Generation AI-Enabled Plant Vision Technology

August 5, 2021

NEWARK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AeroFarms and Nokia Bell Labs today unveiled a groundbreaking multi-year partnership to combine their expertise and expand their joint capabilities in cutting-edge networking, autonomous systems, and integrated machine vision and machine learning technologies to identify and track plant interactions at the most advanced levels.

As part of this partnership, AeroFarms, a Certified B Corporation and global leader in indoor vertical farming, contributes its commercial growing expertise, comprehensive environmental controls, an agriculture-focused data platform, and machine vision core foundation. Nokia Bell Labs, the world-renowned industrial research arm of Nokia, contributes its groundbreaking autonomous drone control and orchestration systems, private wireless networks, robust image and sensor data pipelines, and innovative artificial intelligence (AI) enabled mobile sensor technologies. This combination of innovative technologies allows AeroFarms to reach the next level of imaging insights that further enhance its capabilities as an industry leading operator of world-class, fully-connected smart vertical farms that grow the highest quality plants all year round.

AeroFarms and Nokia Bell Labs have been working together since 2020 and have reached an important milestone of achieving a proof of concept for this state-of-the-art integrated system and testing the technologies with AeroFarms’ current commercial crop varieties. Together, they are now ready to scale this system to all of AeroFarms’ crops and future indoor vertical farms, including the next ones in Danville, Virginia and Abu Dhabi, UAE.

The integration of Nokia Bell Labs’ AI-enabled drone-based sensors and advanced machine learning, computer vision and data analytics technologies with AeroFarms’ existing machine vision tools enhances and elevates AeroFarms’ position as an agriculture platform and capabilities organization dedicated to solving food and agriculture supply chain challenges.

David Rosenberg, CEO at AeroFarms, said: “With Nokia Bell Labs, we have developed the next-generation system that can image every plant every day in a cost-effective way at scale. This level of detailed imaging and insights helps us be better farmers by monitoring our plant biology dynamically and allowing us to course correct as needed to ensure the highest level of quality all year round. When I watch the drones autonomously imaging our plants, I am blown away by how this truly represents the power of harnessing leading-edge technologies and bringing brilliant problem solvers together from diverse groups to grow the best plants possible.”

Roger Buelow, CTO at AeroFarms, said: “AeroFarms’ expert team of plant scientists and engineers have been working together for two years with Nokia Bell Labs’ top researchers and engineers to train these complex learning systems with a nuanced understanding of plant biology. We have created a cross-disciplinary understanding at an industrial scale to develop the latest imaging technology to help accelerate our ability to introduce new crops and ensure the highest quality for our commercial operations.”

Nokia Bell Labs’ machine vision technology has enabled the most precise data capture yet, down to the level of individual plants, using leaf size segmentation, quantification, and pixel-based scanning to identify consistency and variation. Going beyond what even the human eye can perceive, this state-of-the art imaging technology enables the gathering of immense insights about a plant including its leaf size, stem length, coloration, curvature, spotting, and tearing. The end-to-end system is flexible and robust, built to take advantage of Nokia’s industry-leading 5G private wireless network with cloud processing technology, designed for low latency and high privacy in an on-premises network. It also provides intelligent industrial analytics capabilities as an integrated service that can be deployed quickly and efficiently anywhere.

Thierry Klein, VP, Integrated Solutions and Experiences Research Lab at Nokia, said: “Nokia Bell Labs is driven to solve hard and impactful problems, and together with AeroFarms, we are building the ability to see and identify plant interactions at unprecedented levels. The fundamental technologies of this partnership are our strength, and vertical farming is just the beginning. With the AeroFarms platform, we are exploring the power of network driven intelligence for industrial outcomes. These capabilities can expand into a multitude of indoor industrial operations, including logistics, warehousing, distribution hubs, and manufacturing.”

The multi-year partnership between AeroFarms and Nokia is anchored on shared values as mission-driven companies with the vision to scale technologies for the greater good. AeroFarms’ vertical farming platform is more sustainable than traditional farming with up to 390 times greater productivity per square foot annually, while using up to 95% less water and zero pesticides. In addition, vertical farming provides local food options for communities, reducing the environmental impact of trucking and shipping produce long distances and helping combat food waste.

Additional resources
AeroFarms website
Nokia Bell Labs website

About Nokia

At Nokia, we create technology that helps the world act together. As a trusted partner for critical networks, we are committed to innovation and technology leadership across mobile, fixed and cloud networks. We create value with intellectual property and long-term research, led by the award-winning Nokia Bell Labs. Adhering to the highest standards of integrity and security, we help build the capabilities needed for a more productive, sustainable and inclusive world.

About AeroFarms

Since 2004, AeroFarms has been leading the way for indoor vertical farming and championing transformational innovation for agriculture. On a mission to grow the best plants possible for the betterment of humanity, AeroFarms is a Certified B Corporation with global headquarters in Newark, New Jersey. Named one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company two years in a row and one of TIME’s Best Inventions in Food, AeroFarms patented, award-winning indoor vertical farming technology provides the perfect conditions for healthy plants to thrive, taking agriculture to a new level of precision, food safety, and productivity while using up to 95% less water and no pesticides ever versus traditional field farming. AeroFarms enables local production to safely grow all year round, using vertical farming for elevated flavor. In addition, through its proprietary growing technology platform, AeroFarms has grown over 550 varieties and has developed multi-year strategic partnerships ranging from government to major Fortune 500 companies to help uniquely solve agriculture supply chain needs. For additional information, visit: https://aerofarms.com/.

On March 26, 2021, AeroFarms announced a definitive business combination agreement with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: SV). Upon the closing of the business combination, AeroFarms will become publicly traded on Nasdaq under the new ticker symbol "ARFM". Additional information about the transaction can be viewed here: https://aerofarms.com/investors/.

No Offer or Solicitation

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

Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements included in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as “believe,” “may,” “might,” “will,” “estimate,” “continue,” “contemplate,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “expect,” “should,” “would,” “could,” “plan,” “predict,” “project,” “potential,” “seem,” “seek,” “future,” “outlook,” and similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. All statements, other than statements of present or historical fact included in this press release, including those regarding the expected benefits of the partnership, improvement of plant yields and quality and Spring Valley’s proposed acquisition of AeroFarms are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on various assumptions, whether or not identified in this press release, and on the current expectations of the respective management of AeroFarms and Spring Valley and are not predictions of actual performance. These forward-looking statements are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to serve as, and must not be relied on as, a guarantee, an assurance, a prediction, or a definitive statement of fact or probability. Actual events and circumstances are difficult or impossible to predict and will differ from assumptions. Many actual events and circumstances are beyond the control of AeroFarms and Spring Valley. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including changes in domestic and foreign business, market, financial, political, and legal conditions; the inability of the parties to successfully or timely consummate the proposed transaction, including the risk that any regulatory approvals are not obtained, are delayed or are subject to unanticipated conditions that could adversely affect the combined company or the expected benefits of the proposed transaction or that the approval of the stockholders of Spring Valley or AeroFarms is not obtained; failure to realize the anticipated benefits of the proposed transaction; risks related to the expansion of AeroFarms’ business and the timing of expected business milestones; the effects of competition on AeroFarms’ business; the ability of Spring Valley or AeroFarms to issue equity or equity-linked securities or obtain debt financing in connection with the proposed transaction or in the future, and those factors discussed in Spring Valley’s Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, final prospectus dated November 25, 2020 and definitive proxy statement/prospectus dated July 26, 2021 under the heading “Risk Factors,” and other documents Spring Valley has filed, or will file, with the SEC. If any of these risks materialize or our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. There may be additional risks that neither Spring Valley nor AeroFarms presently know, or that Spring Valley nor AeroFarms currently believe are immaterial, that could also cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements reflect Spring Valley’s and AeroFarms’ expectations, plans, or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this press release. Spring Valley and AeroFarms anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause Spring Valley’s and AeroFarms’ assessments to change. However, while Spring Valley and AeroFarms may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Spring Valley and AeroFarms specifically disclaim any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Spring Valley’s and AeroFarms’ assessments of any date subsequent to the date of this press release. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed upon the forward-looking statements.

Contacts

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

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

AppHarvest Names Julie Nelson EVP, Operations to Build Industry-Leading Manufacturing and Supply Chain Capabilities and Drive Performance Across Network of Farms

August 5, 2021

AppHarvest to leverage Nelson’s proven experience at PepsiCo, McKinsey to drive productivity across the company’s network of high-tech indoor farms and optimize operations to support profitable growth

MOREHEAD, Ky., Aug. 05, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AgTech leader AppHarvest (NASDAQ: APPH, APPHW), a public benefit company and certified B Corporation focused on farming more sustainably using up to 90% less water than open-field agriculture and only recycled rainwater, has named Julie Nelson its executive vice president, operations. Nelson will lead efforts to scale AppHarvest’s network of farms and to build manufacturing and supply chain capability to ensure efficient delivery of consistent, high-quality products to major grocers and restaurants.

“Julie’s deep experience optimizing complex manufacturing and distribution networks for major consumer goods companies and her proven ability to drive productivity across the supply chain will help us to deliver improved profitability as we scale,” said AppHarvest President David Lee.

Nelson will play an integral role as an executive management committee member, reporting to President David Lee, and will aid in developing company strategy, establishing operations and driving efficiency to reach productivity and cost goals while ensuring quality and customer satisfaction.

“Julie has battleground-tested experience in scaling operations across sites,” said AppHarvest Founder & CEO Jonathan Webb. “Her recent focus on improving sustainability in the food and beverage supply chain by reducing food waste, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions makes her a natural fit at AppHarvest.”

Nelson joins AppHarvest most recently from McKinsey & Company, following a long tenure with PepsiCo, where she led supply chain teams in the North American beverage business and the global operations team. Her focus areas included network optimization, scaling new digital technologies and end-to-end value chain productivity.

“AppHarvest’s mission aligns with my personal values,” Nelson said. “AppHarvest’s vision of combining the best that nature offers boosted with world-class technology to sustainably and affordably grow nutritious fruits and vegetables is inspiring, and I look forward to building a best-in-class operational team in support of this mission to build a climate-resilient food supply.”

Nelson holds a bachelor of science in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is an advisory council member for the West Virginia University Global Supply Chain Management Program.

About AppHarvest

AppHarvest is an applied technology company in Appalachia developing and operating some of the world’s largest high-tech indoor farms, designed to grow non-GMO, chemical pesticide-free produce, using up to 90 percent less water than open-field agriculture and only recycled rainwater while producing yields up to 30 times that of traditional agriculture on the same amount of land without agricultural runoff. The company combines the best that nature offers boosted with world-class technology including artificial intelligence and robotics to improve access for all to nutritious food, farming more sustainably, building a domestic food supply, and increasing investment in Appalachia. The company’s 60-acre Morehead, Ky. facility is among the largest indoor farms in the U.S. For more information, visit https://www.appharvest.com/.

MEDIA CONTACTS: Travis Parman, Travis.Parman@appharvest.com;
Blair Carpenter, Blair.Carpenter@appharvest.com
IMAGE/VIDEO GALLERY: Available here

Lead Photo: Julie Nelson will be joining AppHarvest as its executive vice president, operations.

Vertical Farming Congress Raises Expectations

August 4, 2021

The 2nd Vertical Farming World Congress on 20-22 September will now be held entirely online, to ensure complete certainty for participants and to avoid potential travel disruption.

“We have the most fantastic programme, featuring numerous industry leaders and innovators alongside awards, workshops, panels, exhibits and networking,” commented organiser Richard Hall, Chairman of food and drink consultancy Zenith Global.

Highlights include:

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

• Future visions from 80 Acres, Bowery, CubicFarms, IGS, Vertical Field and Vertical Future

• Market overview from Hort Americas and Rabobank

• Regional pioneers from Chile, India and Japan

• Retailer and investor panels with IKEA and Metro plus KPMG and S2G

• Key innovators from the United States and United Kingdom to Malaysia and Sweden

• Association leaders from North America, Europe, Africa and Japan.

“Our theme of Raising Expectations really does reach for the stars with a science briefing on space crop production from NASA.  More stars will be celebrated by the first Vertical Farming World Awards.  Future stars will be nurtured by an intensive half day workshop with Agritecture on Planning an Urban Farming Business,” added Richard Hall.

“We have also developed stellar new online features that worked so well last year, including virtual vertical farm visits, quick fire Vertical Venture delegate presentations and informal regional networking receptions. With the added advantages of time efficiency and recorded content, we feel the event should prove immensely valuable to any business wanting the latest insights on this rapidly taking off sector,” he concluded.

The Congress is sponsored by several leading industry suppliers including platinum sponsors Vertical Future and IGS Limited, gold sponsor CubicFarm Systems and silver sponsor Roto-Gro International.

Full programme and booking details are available online at  www.zenithglobal.com/events/vfwc2021, with concessions for start-ups or company groups of 4 or more and early discounts up to 13 August.  For further information, email events@zenithglobal.com.