Welcome to iGrow News, Your Source for the World of Indoor Vertical Farming
Exploring Cannabis Vertical Cultivation
Conceptually, vertical cultivation is not really easy to visualize. Simply put, vertical farming is the practice of growing cannabis in vertically stacked layers. This growing practice could either use conventional soil, hydroponic or aeroponic growing methods. Vertical farms can help produce cannabis in otherwise challenging environments
Conceptually, vertical cultivation is not really easy to visualize. Simply put, vertical farming is the practice of growing cannabis in vertically stacked layers. This growing practice could either use conventional soil, hydroponic or aeroponic growing methods. Vertical farms can help produce cannabis in otherwise challenging environments.
As some growers have come to know, cultivating cannabis indoors can be a costly affair. Real estate costs coupled with energy bills, significant staffing requirements, and a host of different elements needing to come together in precise tandem are required for an indoor grow to be operational. It then becomes crucial to be consistently profitable. And that can only be achieved by increasing plant yields. Maximizing the grow space is one way to reach this goal and that’s what brings us to the many aspects of vertical growing; the practice of producing plants in vertically stacked or inclined surfaces.
Primarily vertical farming can be done in one of two ways.
Stacked Vertical
The most common method of vertical farming is a stacked vertical setup. Here levels of plant racks have LED lights above each rack. Plants are topped and defoliated to keep them short and bud-heavy. This may lead to growers stacking in the flower stage - despite the plants being large and top heavy.
True Vertical
In true vertical growing, plants are grown out of the side of a column, with water and nutrients dripping down from the top.
The LED and the Ramp
Cannabis cultivation is going vertical in a big way and the primary reason for that is the vastly improved performance of indoor LED lighting systems. This is resulting in more and more cannabis growers investing in powerful multi-tier (or ‘vertical farm’) lighting systems. With fully functional LED system in place one can expect reducing production time on both the retail flower market as well as for oil extraction. More associated benefits include decreased energy consumption, reduced ventilation, air conditioning and heating needs, decreased cycle time, doubled production because of increased crop yield and of course, the overall reduction of the cost per pound of the finished product. It is also known to significantly reduce water and fertilizer usage. Most growers swear by it for the consistent, year-round flower quality and chemotype with denser trichome development in buds.
Environmental Conditions Get Complex Quickly
Maintaining optimum temperature, humidity, and air circulation is tough for all cannabis grows. But in vertical growing there are more variables in macro and micro environmental conditions because there are more plants, making absolute control more difficult. For the atmospheric variability, the use of sensors to detect data points like moisture changes is recommended. Generally, commercial growers use a single temperature/humidity sensor to monitor a room - even for grow areas spanning over 20,000 feet. In such cases, it is prudent to recommend air circulation systems that push air right in between the racks above the plants, usually with small ducts that take air from the edges of the room to the center of the racks.
Expensive to Set Up and Maintain
While growing plants vertically provides several fundamental advantages for cultivators, it also stands to reason that the increased yield comes with some added costs. This may include increased energy usage from artificial lighting, the upkeep and maintenance of state-of-the-art climate control systems, extra infrastructure required to facilitate a logistical equilibrium and of course, paying high-skilled technicians to constant upgrade and modify the equipment.
Certain Cultivars Work Better Than Others
The most successful cannabis cultivars for vertical growing are those that are short but have big buds. They will also need to have fewer leaves, so less defoliation is necessary. But if you are a confident defoliator, you can broaden the range and diversity of the cultivars used.
For more information:
Frontier Botanics
Lindsay Gayman BScN, Medical Cannabis Educator
+44 (0) 203 993 8250
info@frontierbotanics.com
frontierbotanics.com
Publication date: Wed 30 Oct 2019
© MMJDaily.com / Contact
VIDEO: Growing Up: How Vertical Farming Works | The B1M
Shedding the restrictions of seasonal weather patterns, overcoming transportation challenges and enhancing yields - the growing trend of “vertical farming” could herald the future of food production
March 6, 2019
Shedding the restrictions of seasonal weather patterns, overcoming transportation challenges and enhancing yields - the growing trend of “vertical farming” could herald the future of food production. For more by The B1M subscribe now: http://ow.ly/GxW7y
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Bowery Raises $50M More For Indoor, Pesticide-Free Farms
Indoor farming startup Bowery announced today it has raised an additional $50M in an extension of its Series B round. This comes just nearly 11 months after it raised $90 million in a Series B round
Indoor farming startup Bowery announced today it has raised an additional $50M in an extension of its Series B round. This comes just nearly 11 months after it raised $90 million in a Series B round that we reported on at the time.
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In a written statement, Bowery said the add-on was the result “of significant momentum in the business.” Temasek led the extension and Henry Kravis, the co-founder of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., also put money in the “B+ round.” The financing brings the New York-based company’s total raised to $172.5 million since its inception in 2015, according to Bowery.
The startup, which aims to grow “organic, sustainably grown produce,” also announced today its new indoor farm in the Baltimore-DC area. The new farm is 3.5 times larger than Bowery’s last facility, according to the company. Its network of farms “essentially communicate using Bowery’s software.” according to the company, and benefits from the collective intelligence of 2+ years of data.”
How It Works
Bowery’s proprietary software system, BoweryOS, uses vision systems, automation technology, and machine learning to continuously monitor plants and all the variables that drive their growth.
“Because we control the entire process from seed to store, Bowery farms use zero pesticides, 95 percent less water, and are 100+ times more productive on the same footprint of land than traditional agriculture,” the company claims.
Co-founder and CEO Irving Fain said at the time of Bowery’s last raise that in general, the company is focused on creating “scalable solutions for an impending climate and food crisis.”
“And we deeply believe in the power of technology to make drastic, necessary improvements to the food system,” he added.
Since the last raise, Bowery says it has extended its computer vision system and increased automation.
Bowery’s produce is currently available at select Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh, Westside Market and other retailers.
The market for organic food is growing, and so is the number of startups working in the space. Last December, Paris-based Agricool, which has its own take on Agtech innovation, picked up a $28 million round. That company has developed a way to grow produce inside of its “cooltainers,” which are essentially large shipping containers.
Previously, Crunchbase News writer Joanna Glasner reported that funding for venture-backed U.S. agricultural companies spiked in the first half of 2017, with investors seeking to fund companies applying robotics, data, genetic engineering, and other technology to farming practices.
Illustration: Li-Anne Dias
FINLAND: New Chairman of The Board Appointed For Netled
Mr. Rintamäki brings solid key experience to Netled. In his previous career, he has acted in leading financial positions in various operations of Kone Oy and later in Konecranes PLC in Finland and overseas
Netled announced that Teuvo Rintamäki (M.Sc. Econ) has been elected as Netled’s new Chairman of the Board. Mr. Rintamäki brings solid key experience to Netled. In his previous career, he has acted in leading financial positions in various operations of Kone Oy and later in Konecranes PLC in Finland and overseas. Last eight in Konecranes he held a position of CFO.
Rintamäki has also next to 10 years of experience in guiding and leading start-ups as a Board Member and Chairman of the Board. He has a history of successful company listings and sales. Currently he operates as a Chairman of the Board in, for example, companies like Safedo Oyj, PowerProfPartners Oy and Saunaranta Invest Oy, as well as a Board Member and Board Advisor in various companies. In the 2000s, he also served as a member of the Committee on Strategic and Economic Affairs of the Technology in Finland.
Teuvo Rintamäki
”I´m very excited about this new position. Netled is currently in a very interesting growing phase; the company is taking off as an internationally recognised technology provider and notable player in the global market. In addition, Netled operates in a rapidly growing business field. Vertical farming is more efficient compared to traditional ways of cultivation, and it’s also more ecological and sustainable way of farming”, says Teuvo Rintamäki.
Netled’s CEO Niko Kivioja comments: ”We are extremely pleased to have Teuvo Rintamäki as our new Chairman of the Board. He has a vast know-how of globally operating technology companies as well as experience in working successfully with start-ups. We are certain that his professional background will give our company the boost for future growth.”
For more information:
Netled
netled.fi
Publication date: Tue 29 Oct 2019
Farming Goes Underground In Seoul Subway Station
The project is called Metro Farm, and the Sangdo location is the first of five subway farms slated to open by the end of the year in a partnership between the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Farm8, a South Korean agriculture company
SEOUL, Nov. 1 (UPI) — For the past month, commuters at Seoul’s Sangdo subway station have been met with a surprising sight: a fully functioning farm growing leafy lettuce, sprouts and microgreens.
This underground farm doesn’t rely on soil and sunlight but uses special LED lighting, hydroponic growing trays and a smart network that controls factors such as temperature, humidity, CO2 levels and light intensity.
The project is called Metro Farm, and the Sangdo location is the first of five subway farms slated to open by the end of the year in a partnership between the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Farm8, a South Korean agriculture company.
The Sangdo farm opened in late October, and a second branch recently opened in Dapsimni Station.
The farms highlight the changing face of agriculture in rapidly urbanizing societies, said Kim Sung-un, senior manager of Farm8.
“As South Korea is aging and the rural population is rapidly shrinking, this is the future direction of farming,” he said. “These farms use less space and take less time to grow vegetables.”
The operation in Sangdo certainly looks like something from the future, more space station than a subway station.
Lettuce is grown on vertical shelves in the main facility, a brightly lit glass-encased 4,240-square-foot) cleanroom that must be entered through an airlock. The Sangdo farm produces around 66 pounds of greens per day, with seeding and harvesting the only human interaction necessary.
Growing times are reduced in this hydroponic system, taking around 38 days to grow lettuce from seed to harvesting, as opposed to more than 50 days in soil. The farm also absorbs CO2 and pumps out oxygen, contributing to the air quality in the subway station.
A smaller space nearby contains a fully automated robot farm that grows sprouts and microgreens, while a Farm Café sells salads made from the plants at the Metro Farm. The station also hosts an experience center that offers tours and interactive demonstrations of the farm to families and schools.
Kim said that only three employees are needed to maintain the farms across all five subway locations, and these positions are being filled by retirees and disabled workers.
“The best thing about urban farming is that it can improve the lives of people who are socially excluded,” Kim said.
The benefits of the subway farm for Seoul are widespread, said Choen So-young, who heads the Smart Farm initiative in the city government, ranging from minimizing transportation to providing a stable food supply.
“As the vegetables produced in the stations can be distributed right away, we can minimize the cost of distribution and logistics,” she said. “And the farms are located in urban areas so we can have an easy supply of manpower. In addition, as the smart farms are not affected by climate change including fine dust, they can have a stable production to supply clean and safe vegetables.”
While interest in vertical and urban farming has been on the rise in cities around the world, questions remain about its economic viability on a broad scale. One study in Japan last year found that 60 percent of indoor farm operators are unprofitable because of the cost of electricity to run their facilities.
However, South Korea, with limited available land, extreme seasons that make growing year-round difficult and electricity prices that are among the lowest in the world among developed nations, could prove an ideal urban farm market.
“Compared to the traditional outdoor farming, the vertical type of smart farming can maximize the production volume per unit area throughout the year with a stable condition,” Choen said. “So the cost efficiency is the strongest point.”
What is certain is that the coming decades are going to require radical new approaches to feeding the world.
A United Nations report from 2013 predicted that the world will need to sustainably produce 70 percent more food by the year 2050 to feed a population of nearly 10 billion. And an August report from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that arable land, which has been declining globally for decades, is under critical pressure from climate change and human development.
In the meantime, commuters at Sangdo Station are getting a taste of the future.
Kim Jie-eun, a 30-year-old teacher, said she lived nearby and was intrigued by the new addition.
“I come through the station often and I noticed the farm,” she said while eating a salad from the Farm Café with a friend.
“It was the first time I had ever seen something like this and I wanted to try it, especially because I eat a lot of salads. I like the fact that it’s really fresh. And the idea is really new, innovative and creative. I hope more residents will try it.”
ROMANIA: Metro Store In Bucharest Grows Its Own Aromatic Plants In Indoor Vertical Micro-Farm
German retailer Metro Cash & Carry, in collaboration with Microgreens Romania, will bring this month a smart indoor vertical micro-farm to its store in Baneasa, in northern Bucharest, that will grow aromatic plants. These fresh plants will then be sold to the store’s customers
30 October 2019
German retailer Metro Cash & Carry, in collaboration with https://microgreens.ro/, will bring this month a smart indoor vertical micro-farm to its store in Baneasa, in northern Bucharest, that will grow aromatic plants. These fresh plants will then be sold to the store’s customers.
The project’s aim is to “provide HoReCa (foodservice industry e.n.) customers with the freshest ingredients possible,” the retailer said in a press release.
The automated farming installation supports the simultaneous growth of 175 pots with micro-plants. The Metro store in Baneasa will thus grow and sell the most common aromatic plants used in restaurant kitchens, such as parsley, basil, coriander or mint.
The plants stay in the tiny greenhouse until they reach a weight of 30-40 g, which takes about two weeks, and then they are put up for sale. Production is controlled through an app that provides specific information on temperature, humidity or brightness, which allows the cultivation of plants under optimal conditions.
Metro plans to install similar in-store vertical micro-farms in five other cash & carry units in Romania.
Metro Cash & Carry entered the Romanian market in 1996 when it opened the first store under this brand in Bucharest. The group currently has 30 cash & carry units in Romania.
newsroom@romania-insider.com
(Photo source: Metro)
Misconceptions About Hydroponics Yield
There are many reasons why gardeners choose to grow their crops using soil-less hydroponic methods instead of traditional soil-based methods. Some of hydroponics key advantages include more space-saving, more energy/water efficient, less weeding, and fewer pests to contend with
Hydroponics Yield
There are many reasons why gardeners choose to grow their crops using soil-less hydroponic methods instead of traditional soil-based methods. Some of the hydroponics key advantages include more space-saving, more energy/water efficient, less weeding, and fewer pests to contend with. Hydroponics also allows the grower more control and creativity their crops so that they may provide the most ideal conditions for plants. However, the single most compelling reason for gardeners to switch to soil-less gardening is its ability to significantly increase crop yield. Let’s review the factors that influence hydroponics yield in order to demonstrate why this type of gardening is better than soil in nearly every respect.
Misconceptions about Hydroponics Yield
Some people are under the impression that hydroponics will produce much larger plants than soil. This isn’t necessarily the case. Each seed has its own genetic code which determines the plant’s size, flavor, and yield potential. In other words, you can’t transform a cherry tomato into a Roma tomato, but you can turn a cherry tomato seed into the genetically best possible cherry tomato plant if you provide the perfect growing conditions. Hydroponics gardening gives plants the best opportunity to reach their full genetic potential. More often than not, this translates into healthier, larger, and more flavorful crops.
Hydroponics Yield vs. Soil Yield
It can be difficult for plants to reach their highest genetic potential in common soil. This is because there are hundreds of variables in soil’s makeup that can influence a plant’s growth. Hydroponics, on the other hand, gives the grower the ability to micromanage and control the growing conditions so there are no surprises from Mother Nature. Soil-based plants use a lot of energy to seek out their food source, while hydroponics plants are given exactly what they need when they need it. Thus, hydroponically-grown plants can direct all their energy into producing higher yields, denser vegetation, faster growth, and more flavorful crops. It is more likely that hydroponic crops reach their genetic potential, and thus, is often considered a superior form of agriculture.
Hydroponics Yield: Lessons from Dr. Howard Resh
In his book “Hydroponic Food Production,” hydroponics pioneer Dr. Howard M. Resh makes a compelling case for ditching the dirt and going soil-less. He discusses the main advantages of hydroponics over soil culture, especially for regions of the world that have non-arable land. Resh outlines the efficiency of regulating the nutrients and water, the low cost and ease-of-use to sterilize the medium, as well as how hydroponics allows for higher density planting and – ultimately – increased yields per acre.
In the table below, Resh compares the yields per acre in soil vs. soil-less culture:
As you can see, his findings are quite dramatic. It is no surprise that urban planners and policymakers are often proponents of hydroponic gardening. Hydroponic gardening has wide implications for the future of practical, efficient, and cost-effective farming across the world. Because crop yields of hydroponically-grown plants can be up to an astounding 100 times higher than crops grown in the field, hydroponics yield is the clear winner.
Hydroponics Yield Factors
So why exactly are the crop yields so much greater for hydroponics? Let’s look at the most important factors of hydroponics yield.
1. Year-Round Gardening Means More Crops Per Year
One of the most important factors influencing hydroponics yield is its ability to grow crops indoors and year-round. Field crops are often limited to one harvest per year because of frost and other weather variations. Since greenhouse and hydroponic crops are grown indoors – away from Nature’s elements – you can cultivate 12 one-month crops, 5 seventy-day crops, or whatever crop harvesting time frame you choose. As a result, you can increase crop yield each year by a factor of 2x to 8x by growing indoors and year-round with hydroponics.
See our Hydroponics System, Best Grow Tent, Grow Tent Kits, and Hydroponic Weed System, pages for the tools to grow successful hydroponic crops.
2. Higher Plant Density Allows for More Crops Per Acre
Hydroponics allows for higher plant density in one or more of the following ways: hydroponic crops can be grown 1. closer together than in soil, 2. grown vertically as opposed to horizontally, 3. in layers, and 4. with much less walking space between rows. Employing any one of these methods can increase crop yields, but incorporating several can result in even more plant density. Overall, you can increase plant density by a factor of 4x to 16x with hydroponics.
3. The Crops you Choose May Increase Yield
Which variety of crops you decide to grow can influence the hydroponics yield. While you can cultivate nearly any crop in a hydroponics system, some will give you better results and a higher yield. For example, leafy crops – like lettuce, chard, kale, and arugula – produce great results, as do herbs like basil, chives, parsley, and sage. Tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers can also result in high yields with hydroponics. Certain crops present more of a challenge – like watermelons and strawberries – but with special attention, they can also produce great results. On the other hand, root vegetables, corn, and plants that vine are not recommended for hydroponic gardening. Depending on the crop variety you choose, hydroponics can increase yields by 2x – 4x over soil farming.
4. Proper Lighting is Key
Plant growth is dependent on adequate lighting. They tend to do best with a light of wavelengths in the 360 – 760 nm (nanometers) range. Plant photosynthesis responds to blue light (around 430 nm) and red light (around 660 nm). Plant germination, stem, and flower growth thrive when red light is around 660 nm and infrared light wavelength is around 735 nm. White fluorescent lights provide a light spectrum that includes these preferred wavelengths. While field-grown crops depend entirely on the sunlight for their growth, greenhouse or indoor hydroponic crops utilize grow lights to mimic the sun’s natural light. With the proper grow lights, hydroponics plants will receive the optimal spectrum of light throughout the year regardless of what the sun is doing outside. Good lighting can increase hydroponics yield by 1x – 2x.
5. Water Plays an Important Role in Crop Yield
Water is clearly one of the most important factors influencing crop yield. After all, the water-weight of fruits and vegetables is 86% and 90%, respectively. Field-grown crops are susceptible to droughts and inconsistent rain patterns – too much or too little water can wreak havoc on crops. Water can be managed much more efficiently with hydroponic and greenhouse crops. The proper water management can translate to a 1x – 2x increase in yield.
6. The Efficiency of Hydroponic Fertilizer
In hydroponics, a fertilizer is mixed with water to create the nutrient solution. This nutrient solution is typically pumped into the grow bed to feed the plant’s roots. Hydroponics allows plants to get the correct nutrients they need when they need it. Soil grown crops don’t have it as easy. If they don’t get the proper nutrients at the right time, crops will suffer. Hydroponics provides a much more efficient way of delivering nutrients to plants. Yield can be multiplied by a factor of 1x – 2x if greenhouse or hydroponic crops are feed properly.
7. Managing Temperature and CO2 can Increase Yield
Temperature and CO2 are important factors in plant growth. Each crop variety has its own preferred temperature, and this varies depending on its phase of growth. However, most plants respond best when temperatures are kept in the 75F to 85F range. With hydroponics, the yield can be multiplied by 1x – 2x if temperatures are kept within ideal levels.
As for carbon dioxide, the more CO2 in the air, the faster a plant grows. Dr. Howard Resh proposes that two to five-time the normal amount of carbon dioxide may be the optimal amount. He states that tomato and cucumber growth rates can be increased by up to 20% – 40%, while the faster growth rates in lettuce can allow for an extra crop grown each year. Carbon dioxide enrichment can increase yield in hydroponically-grown crops by 1x-2x.
8. Other Factors that Influence Hydroponics Yield
There are several other factors that affect plant growth. These include relative humidity in the growing environment, the amount of oxygen the plant’s roots are exposed to, and the proper pollination. Hydroponics allows you to control all of these things to the ideal levels, but it requires close attention to get it right. Another clear advantage to growing crops indoors and without soil is the protection from storms and bad weather, as well as the near elimination of pests. While insects, mammals, birds, pathogens, and weeds can destroy around 33% of field crops, indoor hydroponic and greenhouse crops experience very few of these problems.
One issue hydroponics gardeners must prevent is waterborne disease, as this can devastate an entire crop. Grow media should be sterilized after each grow so as to prevent diseases from one grow to the next. Certain organic soil fertilizers – like manure and waste – can also introduce disease, whereas a hydroponic nutrient solution mix of water and fertilizer eliminates this risk. In total, all of these “other factors” can increase hydroponics yield by 1x -2x.
Hydroponics Yield – The Clear Winner
When you multiply all of these factors together, the crop yields of hydroponically-grown plants can be up to an astounding 100 times higher than crops grown in the field. The benefit of controlled-environment agriculture and vertical systems have wide implications for not only at-home gardeners and commercial growers, but also for global hunger advocates, policy makers, and urban planners. Since hydroponic farms can be built on low-cost and/or non-arable land, greenhouses and hydroponic farms can be built in areas where conventional soil farming is not possible. Urban hydroponic farms can provide jobs for city residents, a source of healthy, locally-grown produce, and minimize the environmental costs associated with shipping produce around the world.
Hydroponic grown-crops nearly eliminates the problems associated with soil-based agriculture – it is not weather dependent, it’s more space-saving and water/energy efficient, and there are fewer pests to deal with. And most compelling, hydroponics provides higher yields and a more reliable food source due to its year-round growing and frequent harvesting. Make the switch to hydroponics!
Thanks for reading and best of luck with your hydroponics garden! For more helpful articles on hydroponics and aquaponics, feel free to browse through other pages on uPONICS.com.
Westcore Lands Vertical Farmer Plenty Unlimited at Industrial Asset
Bay Area-based Plenty Unlimited signed a 10-year lease to take Westcore Properties’ entire 94,875-square-foot warehouse development project currently under construction in Compton, CA
October 29, 2019
Bay Area-based Plenty Unlimited signed a 10-year lease to take Westcore Properties’ entire 94,875-square-foot warehouse development project currently under construction in Compton, CA. The vertical indoor farming company will take occupancy at 126 E. Oris St., which is slated for completion next month.
The Class A building’s ceilings soar to 32 feet making the facility a good match for the vertical rows of sustainably grown, leafy greens, like kale, Plenty will cultivate at the property.
Plenty will make a multi-million-dollar investment into the build out and technology for the farm at the Compton property. The farmers growing technique requires a tiny fraction of the water and land of conventional farms, and allows plants to grow independent of seasonal or weather variations through use of hydroponics and LED lights. The controlled environment also eliminates the need for pesticides.
Savills’ Zack Jamail and David Gordon represented the tenant. Kidder Mathews’ Marc Bonando and Brad Connors advised the landlord.
Bringing Fresh Produce To The Philippines One Rooftop And Patio At A Time
Ralph, the founder of Urban Greens, is combining technology with sustainability to sell local, pesticide-free, vertical-farm-produced produce to restaurants
Food and diet in the Philippines get a bad rap for good reasons. Like a lot of island nations, there is a growing trend towards obesity-related health problems. Most food there is imported. The Philippines has one of the highest numbers of fast-food restaurants per-capita in the world. But food tech entrepreneurs, like Ralph Becker, are working to change some of this.
Ralph Becker inspecting produce in one of his vertical farms
Ralph, the founder of Urban Greens, is combining technology with sustainability to sell local, pesticide-free, vertical-farm-produced produce to restaurants. Inspired by a stint in Japan where he saw plant factories producing food in the middle of big cities, he built a vertical farm prototype as a side project for fun. He didn't expect a business to blossom from it.
However, he noticed how interested friends and family were in his little "window farm". Concurrently, he saw an abundance of unused outdoor and indoor spaces around him in Manila.
A business opportunity came to mind--he could grow healthy food on underutilized rooftops and basements to help offset the typical imported and processed staples so prevalent in the Philippines. Just the presence of vertical farms on a neighbor's balcony could be an opportunity to help educate people about food.
Publication date: Tue, 22 Oct 2019
Entrepreneurs And Government Are Teaming Up To Boost Food Security In The United Arab Emirates - And Beyond
This approach to indoor agriculture, known as vertical farming, has been gaining popularity in many parts of the world recently — the business consulting firm Grand View Research, Inc., estimates the global market will reach US$9.96 billion by 2025
From vertical farms to fish caves, new
technologies aim to boost food production and vanquish hunger
Photo courtesy of Masdar Farms
WRITERRabiya Jaffery
@rabiyasdfghjkl Freelance journalist
October 29, 2019 — Tucked away in Masdar City, a quiet planned neighborhood in the emirate of Abu Dhabi that combines earth-tone Arabic architecture with wind turbines and other innovative technology, is a cluster of container-style buildings.
These containers are the site of Madar Farms, co-founded by Abdulaziz Al Mulla, a Kuwaiti entrepreneur now based in the United Arab Emirates. Al Mulla began getting interested in food security while at the management consulting firm McKinsey & Co., where he worked with several of the region’s governments addressing a variety of national risk challenges. He left McKinsey after one particular project introduced him to the national security threats food and water challenges will bring to the region. He decided he wanted to do something about it, and ended up purchasing old shipping containers and transforming them into these indoor farms as a way to increase local food production. Today lettuce, basil, kale and other leafy greens grow without soil in trays that sit under red and blue LED lights, stacked in levels much like floors in a building.
“I was overwhelmed by the numbers: less than 5% of land in the Arabian Gulf is arable farmland. Despite this, over 80% of water use in our drier climate is used for agriculture. If we keep going at the same pace, we will deplete a significant amount of our natural resources in the next 50 years,” says Al Mulla. “This didn’t make sense to me, and I knew there had to be a better way. A week after this project, I resigned and began Madar Farms.”
This approach to indoor agriculture, known as vertical farming, has been gaining popularity in many parts of the world recently — the business consulting firm Grand View Research, Inc., estimates the global market will reach US$9.96 billion by 2025 — but is still an emerging concept in the Middle East. Madar Farms — along with many other innovations attempting to lead to sustainable agriculture in the region — represents the humble beginnings of a new bid the UAE is taking on to end food shortage globally.
Home Grown
Although the UAE currently is not short on food, its harsh climate and limited supplies of water and arable land offer little opportunity for agriculture, and over 80% of its food is imported. With increasing uncertainty around food production in the face of climate change and global political instability, the Middle Eastern country is looking to take on more of its own food production.
In November 2018, UAE minister for food security Mariam Al Mheiri launched a national food security strategy that aims to implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production. This primarily involves increasing investment in research and development of agriculture technologies and facilitating a market that supports agribusinesses.
Hina Kamal, a UAE-based food and nutrition researcher at United Arab Emirates University, explains that much of the focus is on boosting the use of agricultural technology required in both indoor and outdoor farming to increase homegrown produce. Kamal has been studying which produce is best suited for growth in UAE’s climate.
While Madar Farms is one of the first companies capitalizing on this interest, it isn’t the only one catching onto the trend. A growing number of companies, including more traditional outdoor farms, see similar opportunities.
Drones flying over fruit farms in Abu Dhabi provide aerial images researchers and farmers can use to improve food production practices. Photo © iStockphoto.com | ZambeziShark
Fruit farms in Abu Dhabi, UAE’s oil-rich capital, and Ras Al Khaimah, another emirate, for example, have already started testing and implementing drones to map farming areas that supply farmers as well as farming researchers with images, from bird’s-eye views of the fields to up-close images of individual plants. According to Fatima Al Hantoubi, head of environmental protection and natural reserves at Dibba Al Fujairah Municipality, a few organic farms in Ras Al Khaimah have started using sensors and artificial intelligence to improve seed selection, determine the amount of fertilizer needed for specific crops in specific soils and detect early signs of diseases.
In the Khor Fakkan area, meanwhile, the Ministry of Climate Change and the Environment has installed artificial caves in the Persian Gulf. The hope is to further contribute to food security by boosting fish stocks and promote sustainable fish farming.
Al Hantoubi explains that the caves were built out of eco-friendly materials and then placed along a stretch of the coast using cranes.
The initiative also includes the establishment of coral gardens over 850 square meters (9,100 square feet) along the coast to help rehabilitate natural marine ecosystems in the area and to promote research and studies in marine biodiversity, which will also enhance the fisheries stock.
Food Waste
While Al Mulla and others are using agriculture technology to boost food security, other approaches are also helping the UAE become self-reliant with respect to food.
Among them are efforts to address the issue of food waste. On average, each UAE resident wastes an estimated 197 kilograms (434 pounds) of food per year. Over 30% of that waste happens in restaurants, and another 30% is leftovers that get thrown out after family and corporate celebrations.
One of the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and the Environment’s newest projects is encouraging the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in kitchens, particularly in hotels and restaurants, to track food waste and guide kitchens on how to minimize it.
A monitor developed by food tech company Winnow lets restaurant kitchens characterize wasted food as a first step toward reducing it. Photo courtesy of Winnow
Huzaifa Waheed, an entrepreneur and a developer for food-waste-tracking software that is to hit the market soon, says that one of the main reasons this technology can prove to be effective is because it is offering businesses a major cost-saving incentive. “And it helps the government meet its sustainability targets, making it a win-win,” he adds.
Over 100 of the biggest kitchens in the country, including major hotel groups such as Emaar and Majid Al Futtaim, are already using AI to reduce food waste.
The computer vision-based product, launched in the UAE by the government and made by a food tech company called Winnow, uses a camera that sits over the kitchen’s bin to take pictures before and after food is thrown away. It then runs a classification algorithm to identify the discarded food, as well as its weight and cost. That information can be used to identify and address specific sources of food waste, such as spillage or preparation techniques.
The AI program was launched as a proof-of-concept project in 2018. Through this program, the government is encouraging UAE’s lavish hospitality sector to save the equivalent of 2 million meals’ worth of wasted food in 2019 and 3 million in 2020, thanks to better decision making based on data. Several significant public and private entities in the UAE, including Dubai Municipality, Etihad Airways and Hilton Hotels, have already pledged to incorporate the program in their operations.
International Cuisines
An issue that the UAE has yet to tackle is how to accommodate the discerning palate for international cuisines in a country that is currently home to over 200 nationalities and that has a high per capita consumption of staples such as rice, which require acres of tropical land to flourish.
“The major emphasis must be in increasing local production by focusing on targeted major staple foods and enhanced efficiency in the agriculture sector through constant investments in agricultural research and development for modern farming techniques,” Kamal says.
What this means is that in order to most effectively become self-reliant, the UAE needs to have an accurate sense of what food needs to be grown and how to do it at competitive prices.
According to Kamal, a more “holistic food security” is the only way UAE can proceed toward this goal. Government bodies, research institutions, and commercial ventures, Kamal adds, need to work together to address the issues of research, technology, human capital and other factors that arise through the process.
“And perhaps not keep a specific year as the end-all target that has to be reached because it is not a realistic way to conduct research and development — at least not in a sustainable way,” Kamal says.
Overall, while the UAE’s efforts to tackle its food dependence can boost food security in the region and diversify its economy, the success of its strategies will depend on how it tackles the many challenges in a sustainable way.
Editor’s note: Rabiya Jaffery wrote this story as a participant in the Ensia Mentor Program. The mentor for the project was Rachel Cernansky.
7 of The Best Crops For Vertical Farming
Along with a number of other key factors — including a good location and an appropriate pricing strategy — smart crop choices play an essential role in helping vertical farms keep costs down and ensuring that farmers are able to sell the majority of what they grow
One of the biggest decisions that can make or break a vertical farm is the question of which crops to grow. Along with a number of other key factors — including a good location and an appropriate pricing strategy — smart crop choices play an essential role in helping vertical farms keep costs down and ensuring that farmers are able to sell the majority of what they grow.
According to a recent blog post from ZipGrow, a leading provider of vertical farming equipment and services, the following are two of the most important points to consider when choosing crops for a vertical farm:
Economic viability — ZipGrow and many other experts in the vertical farming industry are quick to remind aspiring farmers that just because something can be grown, this doesn’t necessarily mean it should be grown. With the right resources, it’s technically possible to grow just about anything in a vertical farming facility, but not all crops are economically viable. Some crops just aren’t able to make money when they are vertically farmed because their production costs are too high (for example, the crop requires hotter temperatures or more light relative to other crops), or simply because there is a lack of market demand for the crop. To make smart crop choices, vertical farmers need to be realistic about balancing likely costs with projected profits.
Timing and liability — The time period that elapses between a seedling entering the farm’s system and a mature plant being harvested and sent to market is known as a “turn.” In general, successful vertical farmers find that focusing on crops with fast turns, like salad greens and some herbs, helps to minimize their liability. This is because fast-turn crops mature so quickly that farmers are rarely more than about six weeks away from production, which limits the amount of resources that will be lost in the event that the crop fails. However, this doesn’t mean that there is no place in a vertical farm for slow-turn crops: some of these, like fruiting crops, can offer higher margins than fast-turn crops, potentially making them a good proposition depending on local market conditions (of course, while the profits may be higher, so is the risk).
What are some of the best crops for vertical farms?
While ZipGrow recommends that the process of choosing crops should be part of a comprehensive feasibility study undertaken by aspiring vertical farmers before launching their operations, the company does offer a basic guide to some of the most successful and popular crops currently being cultivated in vertical farms. These include the following:
Lettuce — Lettuce and other leafy greens are by far the biggest crop grown by indoor farmers (according to the Agrilyst 2017 State of Indoor Farming Report, 57% of indoor farms, including vertical farms, produce leafy greens). It’s not difficult to understand the popularity of the humble lettuce: it’s quick and easy to grow, inconsistent demand all year round, and available in dozens of different varieties so that farmers can switch up their product from time to time without having to change to a whole new crop.
Kale — Despite the predictions of some naysayers, the booming popularity of kale is showing no signs of decreasing. Not only is kale a nutrient powerhouse — ounce for ounce, cooked kale is richer in iron than beef — it’s also delicious, incredibly versatile and, like lettuce, available in many different varieties. A great choice for vertical farmers serving health-conscious markets, kale is fairly easy to grow, although farmers must take some care when harvesting in order to get the highest yield.
Chard and collard greens — These dark, leafy green vegetables are not quite as popular as kale, but they come close. Like kale, they can grow quite large in the proper conditions, and they can be partially harvested multiple times, each time growing back with a larger yield.
Basil — In many ways, basil is an ideal crop for vertical farming. Basil is sensitive to cold temperatures — when grown conventionally in soil, basil is only available for a few months each year — so it responds very well to the climate-controlled conditions of a vertical farming facility. In addition, some studies indicate that hydroponically-grown basil is richer in flavor than field-grown basil because it contains 20–40% more oils. Finally, compared to most other crops, basil can command a very high dollar amount per pound, and because it is an important ingredient in a great deal of restaurant cooking, it can often be sold in larger amounts to local restaurants or other institutions rather than by the ounce to individual customers.
Chives and mint — These two herbs are some of the best crops for new vertical farmers to start with. Chives and mint alike are easy to care for, have very quick turns, and are easy to harvest due to their dense, grass-like growing structure. Their distinctive flavors also make them very popular with customers.
WRITTEN BY Mark Crumpacker
Mark Crumpacker is a passionate marketing specialist with years of creative storytelling experience.
Indoor Farming Technology Leader SANANBIO (R) Debuts UPLIFT (TM) Vertical Farming System
SANANBIO firmly believes that agriculture technology should be based on science paired with input from farmers
10/02/19
SANANBIO®, a leading provider in LED horticulture lighting and vertical farm technology, announces the commercial release of its fully automated vertical farming system: UPLIFT™ (Unmanned Platform of Lean and Intelligent Farming Technology). Decades of manufacturing and automation experience, combined with successful multi-year vertical farm operations through parent company Sanan Optoelectronics, have given SANANBIO the expertise necessary to design and prove the concept of UPLIFT.
SANANBIO firmly believes that agriculture technology should be based on science paired with input from farmers. Michael Yates, Sananbio VP of Sales, said, "With over one million square feet of commercial vertical farms currently using RADIX, farmers and investors in more than 10 countries believe in our company's highly engineered grow technology. The proof is in the plants as our customers like to say."
Sananbio UPLIFT
Fully automated vertical farming system
UPLIFT is based on RADIX™, SANANBIO's highly successful manual vertical grow system being used in farms today. "Farmers and investors in more than 10 countries and a combined one million square feet of commercial space believe in our company's highly engineered grow technology. The proof is in the plants as our customers like to say," said Yates.
UPLIFT offers a full suite of automation for growing vertically. From seeding and germination to transplanting and harvesting, the high-stack, high-cube configuration offers the latest advancements in vertical farming solutions that reduce labor while achieving higher yields. The UPLIFT farming platform also benefits from an industry-standard production and inventory management system facilitating crop management, farm production planning, and crop traceability.
"Labor costs continue to be a major challenge for vertical farm operators while also maintaining profitability," stated Dr. Charlie Wang, Sananbio U.S. CEO. "The UPLIFT system will help operators significantly reduce labor costs so they can sell more fresh and healthy produce and, therefore, receive better returns on their investment. The system also provides an open platform to integrate technology that enables farms with more intelligence and controls, allowing for maximized yields and profitability."
SANANBIO's is prepared to work with leading farmers and investors in the industry who share the same passion to build ground-breaking projects in controlled environment agriculture using this cutting-edge technology.
ABOUT SANANBIO®
SANANBIO^® is a trademark carried and backed by Sanan Sino-science Photobiotech, a company invested in by Sanan Optoelectronics, one of the world's largest LED chip manufacturers. Supported by an elite R&D team comprised of plant scientists, researchers, and engineers, SANANBIO utilizes state-of-the-art technology that enables growers in the horticulture industry to increase the quality and quantity of their yields. Years of extensive research and real-world deployment and operations allow SANANBIO to offer its customers proven, scalable, efficient and cost-effective solutions in LED horticulture lighting and Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) vertical farming grow systems. SANANBIO empowers growers with the technology and knowledge to achieve unprecedented results in farming operations. Learn more at https://sananbious.com/.
History of The Tower Garden®
I applied for a patent on the Tower Garden on August 11, 2004. I also applied for the trademark “Tower Garden” at the same time. I was successful in selling the Tower Garden to the local market, mostly in Greenville, Spartanburg and Anderson, SC
By urbanagnews
October 30, 2019
By Morris Bryan, Inventor of the Tower Garden
In 1974, I graduated from The Georgia Institute of Technology like the majority of the men in my family – my grandfather, father, two uncles, and three brothers – with a diploma I thought would change my life, but it wasn’t until that summer when I visited my mother in Athens, GA that I would stumble upon the beginnings of my true passion.
The very first Tower Garden in 1974
As we reminisced and she congratulated me on my hard-earned degree, I looked through her window into the backyard and saw flowers and vegetables growing out of concrete blocks and pipes and stacked terra cotta pots. Even though I had spent the past four years studying engineering, the landscape appeared entirely alien and almost mystical. My mother credited the growing systems behind her flourishing garden to her friend named Michael Dillon of Flowers, Inc.
Not long after, I met Michael at his nursery and our friendship sparked instantly. In addition to his innovative mind, I admired his foresight and the convictions that fueled his “towers.” Long before climate change and sustainability became a major global concern, Michael believed that the world was running out of usable land for crops and that future human survival depended on growing food differently or as he saw it, vertically. Together we made hydroponic towers from pots, concrete, used tires, garbage bins, and anything we found that we could stack and plant.
It’s important to note that while Michael introduced me to the concept of hydroponic growing, the practice itself was not new. However, what made Michael’s approach unique was the way he utilized existing structures as vessels and modified contemporary fertilizers by crushing them into extremely fine particles and put them into solution. He documented his nuanced approach to hydroponics within “The Dollars and Sense of Tower Gardening,” a text that became my lifeline to a new way of thinking about gardening. Michael passed away in 1987 but I would continue to carry the impact of our intellectual companionship and his vision for the rest of my life.
Although by that time tinkering with towers began to take on a smaller role in my life as I devoted myself to the family business of textiles, I never stopped growing and so too did the hydroponic industry. Companies like American Hydroponics, General hydroponics, and others evolved and released new and exciting growing systems and nutrient solutions that were ready-made for the consumer. The network of hydroponic engineers expanded internationally with the Dutch and Israeli markets leading the way. Hydroponic nutrient quality improved dramatically, and indoor gardening became popular thanks to the equally overwhelming rise in marijuana use.
My daughter picking tabasco peppers from a prototype in 2002
Amidst these swift and vast changes, my life continued to evolve as well. In 1991 my daughter Samantha was born and not long after we moved to Anderson, South Carolina after selling our family textile business. There, I began working on a new type of vertical gardening system and this product would become the Tower Garden as recognized today. Samantha was the creative catalyst I needed. She would wander into the garage to inspect my latest prototype, shake her head with the finicky disapproval of a preteen. I took these rejections, although playful, to heart and stayed focused on improving the Tower until I finally got a nod of her head. With the support of my family, it was then I knew the tower was ready for the market.
I applied for a patent on the Tower Garden on August 11, 2004. I also applied for the trademark “Tower Garden” at the same time. I was successful in selling the Tower Garden to the local market, mostly in Greenville, Spartanburg and Anderson, SC. After selling a few hundred units, I enlisted Bloomington Wholesale Garden Supply or BWGS as the exclusive distributor of the Tower. They gave my invention great exposure and enabled me to participate in the indoor gardening expos held in San Francisco, Tampa, and other cities. It was there that I made many friends in the hydroponic industry and established valuable relationships that I still maintain today.
Shortly after I filed for my patent, J.B. Jones, my friend, fellow hydroponic enthusiast, and technology director at the Fayfard horticultural media company, took some information on the Tower to a seminar he planned to attend at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. When he returned, he informed me that a person from Disney was there and requested additional info on the Tower. That person was Tim Blank. It is important to note that I had filed my patent prior to Tim Blank having knowledge of the existence of the Tower Garden.
In late 2004, I sent a Tower to Tim at Disney World where it was displayed in the entrance to Epcot. This gave me a huge boost of confidence and faith in my idea that propelled me into the next few months as I continued to sell towers with BWGS and through my own personal efforts. I spent several weeks traveling throughout the South selling Tower Gardens to hydroponic retail stores and making numerous invaluable and lasting friendships that reminded me of my time with Mr. Dillon.
After almost 2 years from the 2004 filing date, the Tower Garden patent was issued to me on June 6th, 2006 (patent # 7,055,282).
The first Tower Garden order in 2005 from my distributor Bloomington Wholesale (left), and the our patent (right)
I did not hear from Tim for 2 years. Then, in early 2006, I received a phone call from Tim Blank, and he stated he had left Disney and had started a new company called Future Growing where he would be interested in being a distributor of the Tower. I agreed and Future Growing replaced BWGS as the exclusive selling agent for the Tower Garden. As is the case with most distributor/manufacturer relationships, Future Growing requested that changes be made to the Tower Garden, based on consumer feedback. Several modifications were made, and some were denied due to expense or feasibility. Future Growing continued to be the exclusive selling agent for the Tower Garden and was successful in generating sales and increasing the visibility of the Tower.
My beautiful wife Angela enjoying a Tower Garden in 2006
In 2010, I realized that for the Tower Garden to be a commercial success, I needed either a huge influx of capital or to sell the patent to an entity that could provide higher volume distribution channels than Future Growing was providing. By chance, Future Growing was introduced to the Juice Plus Company located in Collierville, TN and the sale of the patent occurred in 2011. I became the manufacturer of the Tower for Juice Plus at my facility in Anderson, SC and produced 30,000 units until they requested assistance to transfer the manufacturing to their own facility in Memphis, TN.
Now, with tens of thousands of distributors and an established place in the wellness industry, Juice Plus has been able to provide the critical mass necessary to carry the Tower Garden forward into the future driven by the same values that inspired its humble origins.
The long yet rewarding journey of the Tower Garden and the continued encouragement of my family and friends have stayed my inventive spirit and I have now received three additional patents on new hydroponic growing systems: The Solar Salad®, the Solar Salad®Pro series, and a modified Tower Garden for Juice Plus issued in February, 2019. In addition, I have continued to refine and develop the Tower with the additions of the Micropot, the grow clip, and the plastic dolly which I created and designed with Juice Plus.
‘Chaotic’ Culture At SoftBank’s Vision Fund
SoftBank says the culture has improved in the year since that report, but there are more reasons for scrutiny, aside from the fund’s write-downs on its investments in Uber and WeWork. Indoor farming startup Plenty, dog-walking app Wag and robot pizza maker Zume are all worth less than what SoftBank invested
By Cory Weinberg
October 31, 2019
Source: The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal paints a bleak picture of the inner workings of SoftBank’s Vision Fund, where investment decisions are often made in minutes. Employees told outside consultants last year about a “chaotic” culture where investors are “incentivized to gamble to look good” and build their personal brands.
Another related detail in the story is perhaps more damning: Startup executives seeking money from the Vision Fund were “taking advantage of the fund’s disorganization,” one executive told the consultants.
SoftBank says the culture has improved in the year since that report, but there are more reasons for scrutiny, aside from the fund’s write-downs on its investments in Uber and WeWork. Indoor farming startup Plenty, dog-walking app Wag and robot pizza maker Zume are all worth less than what SoftBank invested, the Journal notes.
As for SoftBanks’s second Vision Fund, key investors like Singapore’s GIC sovereign wealth fund and the investment arm of Koch Industries, have pulled out of their initial commitments.
Trying to right the ship is Vision Fund leader Rajeev Misra, a former Deutsche Bank executive who ingratiated himself with SoftBank boss Masayoshi Son by knowing how to find cash when it needed to buy cell phone carriers and controversial bets. He says the company will spend its money more slowly next time it raises its giant tech fund.
Vertical Farming Bootcamp
Want to learn more about Vertical Farming, Aquaponics and the technology behind it? Do you have a business model in mind and need to learn the components to execute it? Were you unable to attend last time? Now is your chance! Sign up for our Vertical Farming Bootcamp
Our VERTICAL FARMING BOOTCAMP is BACK!
We Are Excited To Announce Our Second Vertical Farming Bootcamp In Partnership With Seneca College!
Want to learn more about Vertical Farming, Aquaponics and the technology behind it?
Do you have a business model in mind and need to learn the components to execute it?
Were you unable to attend last time? Now is your chance!
Sign up for our Vertical Farming Bootcamp!
Date: Saturday, November 23, 2019
Time: 8:30 am to 5:30 pm
Location: Seneca College - Newnham Campus
Click the link to sign up:
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/vertical-farming-bootcamp-tickets-73285576131
MIT Media Lab Scientist Used Syrian Refugees To Tout Food Computers That Didn't Work
Media Lab’s Caleb Harper claimed success for a deployment of food computers to a refugee camp in Jordan, but an investigation by IEEE Spectrum reveals that it never happened
Media Lab’s Caleb Harper claimed success for a deployment of food computers to a refugee camp in Jordan, but an investigation by IEEE Spectrum reveals that it never happened
Photos: Left: WFP Innovation Accelerator; Right: Andreas Gebert/picture-alliance/AP
Left: A food computer at the World Food Programme office in Amman, Jordan. Right: Caleb Harper speaks during a panel discussion of the DLD17 Conference on January 15, 2017 in Munich, Germany.
“So we just put these last week in a Syrian refugee camp in Amman, Jordan,” Caleb Harper of MIT’s Media Lab told an audience at the Georgia Technology Summit in late March 2017.
He was referring to machines developed by his Open Agriculture Initiative (OpenAg) at the Media Lab, where he is a principal research scientist. The machines had been delivered to a United Nations World Food Programme project that aimed to give refugees in the Azraq camp—located in the Jordanian desert 90 kilometers from the Syrian border—the means to grow their own food, right inside the camp.
The vehicle for this agricultural miracle is called a personal food computer (PFC): an enclosed chamber the size of a dorm-room refrigerator loaded with LEDs, sensors, pumps, fans, control electronics, and a hydroponic tray for growing plants. PFCs are programmed to control light, humidity, and other parameters within the chamber to create the perfect conditions for growing a variety of plants. It’s a simple yet potentially revolutionary idea: a portable box that can grow practically any kind of plant just by downloading a recipe and planting some seeds.
The refugees fleeing war in Syria, leaving their homes, loved ones and possessions behind, had no idea where or when they would leave this temporary desert encampment or how they would make do while they were there. But what the refugees really needed, Harper contended, was “to be connected to other growers to share knowledge.” He added: “So super proud that that’s happening.”
On its face, the project sounds like one of the most ambitious and altruistic uses of high-tech agriculture you could imagine. In his talk in Georgia and presentations elsewhere as recently as this year, Harper enthusiastically conveyed a vision for the PFC that mimics how regular digital computing is scaled: PFCs would find a home in classrooms and home kitchens; food-computer “servers” would be housed in shipping containers to supply, say, a restaurant; and data center–scale vertical farms would feed entire cities.
As the name of the OpenAg initiative suggests, the food computer’s hardware and software are entirely open-source—that is, the equipment specs and code are available free to anyone with the desire to experiment with indoor agriculture. “Nerd farmers,” the hashtaggable moniker given to members of the OpenAg maker community, build their own machines and then test their “recipes”—consisting of an array of controlled environmental parameters such as nutrient mix, temperature, carbon dioxide and pH levels, and light color and intensity. The recipe’s purpose is to arrive at a specific expression of a given plant’s phenome, which is an organism’s physical and biochemical traits expressed in response to the interaction of its genes and environment. Nerd farmers share their experiences via the OpenAg community forum and wiki, and can even upload their recipes to a Github repository, allowing others to replicate that exact plant phenome in their own machines.
Launched in 2015, OpenAg differed from other indoor farming efforts in both its ambition and its scope. While the operators of urban indoor farms are careful to locate them in areas that have access to water, electricity, and cheap real estate, often using proprietary software and equipment, open-source food computers could be built by anyone and would be deployable virtually anywhere. Data from food computers all over the world would be fed to machine learning algorithms to optimize recipes and help people grow, say, the most flavorful basil (the subject of this peer-reviewed PLoS-One paper authored by Harper et al.) or replicate an Aleppo pepper grown in Syria in a food computer in the Jordanian desert.
It’s a nice idea—if your food computer works.
But the situation on the ground never matched the fantastic claims that Harper made about the WFP project in public appearances during the spring of 2017 and in briefings for corporate patrons of the Media Lab in the spring and fall of 2017. Harper and a colleague also cited the personal food computer’s successful deployment in the Azraq camp in emails to potential partners and patrons for the Open Agriculture Initiative and for Fenome Inc., a spin-off company that Harper founded in 2016.
Even as Harper took the stage in Georgia, it was clear to those working with the food computer at the World Food Programme (WFP) and at Fenome that the project wasn’t progressing as the team had hoped. Indeed, in September 2017, the WFP project officially ended without any of the machines having completed a single grow cycle, according to the official in charge of the project. The WFP’s personal food computers weren’t even deployed at the Azraq camp, home to some 35,000 Syrian refugees, but rather at a facility run by Jordan’s National Center for Agricultural Research and Extension, in Mafraq, an hour’s drive from Azraq.
Harper did not respond to detailed questions about the WFP project sent to him by IEEE Spectrum for this article.
Photo: WFP Innovation Accelerator
May 2017 photograph of two food computers at the World Food Programme office in Amman, Jordan.
Recently, the OpenAg initiative has come under scrutiny following the departure in September of Media Lab director Joichi Ito. He was a champion of the project, which started during his tenure and seemed to exemplify his “deploy or die” approach. (In a 2014 TED talk, Ito announced he was changing the lab’s motto from “demo or die” to “deploy or die,” focusing researchers’ efforts on real-world implementations of the technologies they were developing.) MIT is now investigating OpenAg, following allegations that staff were told to demonstrate food computers with plants that were not actually grown in them. Business Insider and the Chronicle of Higher Education first reported these allegations.
Perhaps the only unqualified success of OpenAg was Harper’s ability to sell his idea. His first big public unveiling of the food computer came in a 2015 TED talk that has been viewed more than 1.8 million times. Audiences and the press alike swooned. Glowing reports about the food computer, including one in Spectrum, quickly followed, and continued right up until the most recent revelations. And Harper helped raise the capital to start up his OpenAg spin-off, Fenome.
Last month, The New York Times reported that four former researchers connected to OpenAg have complained about some of the claims Harper makes in his talks, including that the average age of an apple in a U.S. grocery store is 11 months sometimes and 14 months other times, statements refuted by a U.S. Department of Agriculture official in an email reviewed by the Times.
It’s one thing to get an incidental fact wrong. It’s quite another to repeatedly state that refugees were benefiting directly from food computers and enjoying a taste of home, when they were doing no such thing.
The WFP project started off with the best intentions. According to Nina Schroeder, Head of Scale Up Enablement at the WFP Innovation Accelerator and the World Food Programme official in charge of the Jordanian hydroponics project in 2017, the long-term goal of the project was indeed to deploy food computers at refugee camps. “First we wanted to come up with a concept that we could bring to a larger scale that actually makes sense to deploy. For the early research phase, it wouldn’t have made sense to deploy it inside the refugee camp.”
As Schroeder described it, the pilot program would let researchers evaluate the technology and determine if it was appropriate to install PFCs at the camp. If everything went well with the pilot, then the Azraq camp would receive the food computers.
The project launched at the end of January 2017, when a team from Fenome went to Jordan to assemble and install the food computers. At the time the company was based in Salt Lake City, with a staff of 17 there plus two employees in Boston and one in Seattle. Four food computers were placed at the WFP’s office in the Jordanian capital of Amman and six at the National Center for Agricultural Research and Extension (NCARE) facility at Al-Khalydeha Salinity Research Station in Mafraq, about a one-hour drive from the Azraq refugee camp.
The plan was that after installation, the project would be monitored remotely from Utah via the Internet and by three NCARE staff on site in Jordan. The NCARE experiments focused on testing the technology using local water and changing the light spectrum of the food computers’ LEDs and the nutrient mix of the hydroponic solution, according to a person close to the project who spoke with Spectrum anonymously for fear of retaliation. Plants tested included cucumbers, basil, and baby lettuces. The source confirmed that Fenome’s team communicated regularly by phone with their Jordanian counterparts.
Photo: Joi Ito/Flickr (CC by 2.0)
November 2014 photograph of Caleb Harper (left) and Media Lab director of operations and strategy and Fenome board member Barak Berkowitz, taken by Joi Ito.
According to corporate filings and internal Fenome documents obtained by Spectrum, Harper had helped raise $4 million for his startup, where he was executive chairman and a director. Barak Berkowitz, director of operations and strategy at the Media Lab and Mitchell Baker, chairwoman of Mozilla, also served on the board. Other directors included representatives of two venture capital firms that funded Fenome: Lucas Mann from Campbell Soup’s VC arm Acre Venture Partners and Ignacio Martinez of Flagship Pioneering, founded by Noubar Afeyan, who is also a member of the MIT Corporation, as the school’s board of trustees is known.
Martinez declined to comment on the WFP project or Fenome. Berkowitz, Baker, and Mann did not respond to questions posed by Spectrum.
But despite all this money and brainpower, things soon went awry in Jordan. Schroeder, in a phone interview, told Spectrum that the conditions at the NCARE site were harsh, with a very dry desert climate and high indoor temperatures. The power frequently failed, which shut down the building’s air conditioning and the food computers’ LEDs. When the air conditioning conked out, it sometimes reached 45 °C (113 °F) inside the lab.
Worse, the Wi-Fi was unreliable. A Wi-Fi connection was necessary to remotely monitor some of the parameters inside the grow chambers, which were equipped with cameras and sensors that measured temperature, humidity, and pH levels. Whenever a food computer went down, it had to be connected to Wi-Fi so that the remote team could reboot it. The software was still quite buggy, so not all features could be controlled locally at the NCARE facility. The Fenome team returned a month after the initial deployment to modify the boxes and some functions, and to allow the machines to be rebooted locally, according to our source close to the project.
But while Fenome might have solved some problems, others cropped up, according to Schroeder. Algae grew inside the containers, possibly because of low-quality water and light shining through the food computers’ clear acrylic access doors. The doors also deformed due to the heat, creating gaps that let ambient air into the grow chamber and contaminated what is supposed to be a controlled environment.
In all, the Fenome support team visited NCARE four times to set up the food computers, train local teams, and adjust the personal food computers. The last visit was in May 2017.
In late April, just a few weeks after OpenAg Inc. officially changed its name to Fenome, Inc., 15 of its 17 employees in Utah were dismissed. In the fall of 2017, the company left Utah and relocated to offices at its VC partner Flagship Pioneering, in Cambridge, Mass.
“When they closed down the Utah office, that made it very difficult to continue the experiments that were going on,” says Schroeder. The WFP officially ended the Jordanian project in September 2017. Not a single grow cycle was successfully completed, Schroeder says.
“The food computer we tested there wasn’t ready for our purpose, and it was still in the development stage,” Schroeder says. Her team is now deploying lower tech, locally adapted hydroponic systems to food-insecure communities in Algeria, Chad, Jordan, Kenya, Namibia, Peru, and Sudan.
The concept of the food computer “is so attractive that you have the possibility to grow locally,” she says. “But you need to have the right kind of environment. That food computer version was too early.”
While it may have been the most high profile, the World Food Programme wasn’t the only Fenome partner left high and dry.
Photo: Charisa Moore
Charisa Moore (right) and her students experimented with three food computers.
In the fall of 2016, Charisa Moore, a biology teacher at Bainbridge Island High School in Washington state, watched a recording of Harper’s TED talk. The food computer sounded like just what Moore had been looking for to beef up her curriculum with content centered on ecology. Moore called Harper.
She says Harper told her he could talk about what OpenAg had done in putting food computers into Boston-area schools but warned her that they didn’t work in a lot of the schools where they were deployed.
“Well, I can make it work!” Moore told Harper. Harper invited Moore, another teacher, and a star student to MIT for a week to learn how to build, program, and troubleshoot the food computer and experiment with plant recipes. Fenome would provide Moore’s school with the hardware, help her and her students build the units on-site, and support them free of charge.
When she got home in late April 2017, Moore and her team decided to give a TED-esque talk themselves to about 400 people in the Bainbridge community about the project they were about to embark on with the help of Fenome.
“We did basically Caleb’s presentation using his Fenome team. And then that week we built the computers.”
Students and teachers started running experiments with the food computers. The food computer cameras and sensors sent data to Fenome in Utah, and the Utah team communicated with Moore on what they saw happening in the machines.
“And then it kind of got really weird,” Moore recalls. “We started not hearing very much. We used [the food computers] through the summer. Starting the next [school] year, we started to hear Fenome was going to go out of business. So that team was not able to then really troubleshoot any of our stuff.”
Without tech support from Fenome, software maintenance proved difficult. Moore struggled to push updated software that had been published on Github to the machines. “It’s very complicated,” she told Spectrum. “This is way beyond my expertise. I can only barely code in Python.”
Hardware bugs were even more difficult to fix. “The equipment is really not sustainable,” Moore says. “It corrodes. You have a cooling unit on it, the Freon comes out, it freezes—it just becomes messy. So to clean it, you have to go and order the stuff and replace those items. And good luck finding them.”
Her team did come up with a solution for one glaring, design-for-demo’s-sake specification: the food computer’s clear acrylic door, which let in ambient light and contributed to the algae problems in Jordan.
“The thing about the food computer that sort of didn’t make a lot of sense to me was that it’s open.... It’s not controlled,” says Moore. At her students’ urging, she went to Home Depot and bought some silver wrapping and clad the chassis with it to shut out unwanted light.
Photos: Charisa Moore
The students modified the food computer by wrapping the door. They added a flap on the small rectangle to keep all light out.
Moore says that she and her students continued to experiment with their food computers, uploading plant recipes to the OpenAg open source forum. They also set up an experiment to see which equipment grew microgreens more effectively: a food computer or a basic UV light bank shining down on plants potted in soil. Moore’s team found that the conventional indoor setup grew microgreens at four inches per week—twice the rate of the food computer.
Moore concluded that the food computers “are pretty much not usable, because they just are not user-friendly. They’re too hard to troubleshoot. Any Joe could not just walk up and figure out how to do it. You couldn’t market that to put in your pantry at home unless you knew how to do all that stuff.”
Moore found herself with three food computers on her hands. She gave the “most unusable” one to a student, who took it home and converted the box “into a kind of a simplistic one with [manual controls] instead of electronic ones.” He used it to earn a Boy Scout merit badge.
Even as Fenome and its partners were struggling, Harper continued to enchant audiences with his tales of nerd farmers around the world. Harper, who holds a master’s degree in architecture from MIT and is a member of the World Economic Forum and a National Geographic Explorer, managed to parlay the exposure from his TED talk into a lucrative side gig as a speaker. He earns $20,000 to $30,000 per talk, according to his agent’s website. He also used a version of the TED talk at a pitch meeting with investors in the summer of 2016 to help get his company its first series of funding according to an email obtained by Spectrum.
In May 2017, Harper repurposed his Georgia Technology Summit talk for a Red Hat conference. He again spoke about how a refugee camp in Jordan was using the food computers. He also described what the refugees grew and the significance they attached to the machines: “We didn’t tell them what to grow. They decided to grow things that they missed from home. Things that they can’t get any more.”
“The food computer,” he said, “became a cultural object more than just a manufacturing object.”
Meanwhile, Harper’s startup was laying off staff and planning its relocation to Massachusetts. Just days after the Red Hat appearance, Harper posted about Fenome to the OpenAg Community Forum: “hey guys—the startup (fenome) in its infancy has had a couple gaffes (oops) and obv communications is one of them.” He explained that the Fenome team was working to fix bugs and upgrade these “crazy expensive and not fully functional” “1st run prototypes” so that the company could start selling PFC kits. He told the forum that “after some development we all think its [sic] better to be based in Cambridge and is in the process of moving.”
Trouble at his startup did not derail Harper’s traveling show.
Less than a month after Red Hat, he dusted off his talk and delivered it at the EAT Stockholm Food Forum. He repeated his claim that the food computers at the Azraq refugee camp had created much more than mere plants:
“We’ve deployed in the world with the World Food Programme in Amman in a Syrian refugee camp. We did not tell them what to grow. Turns out they wanted to grow things from home. It became a cultural object for them. They missed the flavor of the place that they were from and that creates their culture and creates happiness for them.”
Harper’s story about Azraq evolved further in an interview earlier this year with science journalist Miles O’Brien at a Purdue University event on 26 February. This time, he revealed how St. John’s Wort plants had been grown by a “person at the camp that happened to be a Ph.D. on St. John’s Wort.” Harper claimed that the person started a business selling the medicinal plant to treat a population “rife with depression”:
Besides these public claims posted to YouTube, documents obtained by Spectrum reveal that Harper and at least one associate also misrepresented the World Food Programme project in email correspondence with potential funders and partners.
In a February 2017 email chain that included Nest cofounder and iPod coinventor Tony Fadell, Harper and his assistant tried to arrange a meeting with Fadell, now principal at Future Shape LLC, an investment and advisory firm based in Paris. Harper sent links to a couple of blog posts, one from 2016 about his lab and another about the “2017 expansion of our ecosystem with a nonprofit and a venture.” He ended his 14 February 2017 email with “Btw we just deployed food computers to a Syrian refugee camp in Jordanon [sic] a contract with the UN. Pretty cool. C”.
And about five months after the project at NCARE had ended, OpenAg was in talks with a group at Google about supporting research at OpenAg, according to another email chain obtained by Spectrum. In an email dated 30 January 2018, Google’s Jess Holbrook, senior staff UX researcher and UX manager, asked several questions regarding food computers, including “Has anyone picked up the design and adapted it to specific use cases like edu, refugee groups (I know you mentioned Jordan), etc.”
Hildreth England, the OpenAg Initiative assistant director at the time and currently co-director of the Media Lab’s PlusMinus program, answered the next day, “...yes, the PFC v2.0 was deployed in a Syrian refugee camp with the World Food Program.” England declined Spectrum’s request to comment, citing “an open inquiry being led by MIT’s Office of the VP for Research.”
Around the same time as the exchange between England and Holbrook, Dr. Babak Babakinejad, then the lead researcher for OpenAg, was testing a food server being set up in a shipping container in Middleton, Mass., at MIT Bates Research and Engineering Center. Babakinejad told Spectrum that he documented several problems with the equipment, including differences in temperatures in various areas inside the food server, in what is supposed to be a controlled environment, and a lack of control over carbon dioxide levels, humidity, and temperature. He told Spectrum that he had reported these issues to the OpenAg team.
Photo: Babak Babakinejad
Food server set up in a shipping container at MIT Bates Research and Engineering Center.
Babakinejad showed Spectrum an email he sent on 16 April 2018 to officials with MIT Environment, Health and Safety to report that OpenAg was discharging nutrient solutions beyond state-permitted limits, a controversy that was examined last month in a joint report by ProPublica and WBUR. Babakinejad also took his concerns about OpenAg and Harper to Media Lab director Ito.
In an email to Ito on 5 May 2018, Babakinejad stated that Harper was making claims in public talks about “implementations of image processing, microbiome dosing, creating different climates and collecting credible data from bots across the world that are not true.”
In addition, Babakinejad wrote, “He [Harper] takes credit for deployment of PFC’s to schools and internationally including a refugee camp in Amman despite the fact that they have never been validated, tested for functionality and up to now we could never make it work i.e. to grow anything consistently, for an experiment beyond prototyping stage.”
Ito responded and asked Babakinejad if he could share these concerns with Harper. That’s the last Babakinejad says he heard from Ito on the matter. Within a month, Babakinejad had taken a leave of absence. He officially left the OpenAg project in September 2018. Two months later, Harper was promoted to principal research scientist at the Media Lab, a position that as of this writing, he still holds.
If you have any information about MIT’s Media Lab or its Open Agriculture Initiative (OpenAg), you can contact Harry Goldstein at h.goldstein@ieee.org or on Twitter (DMs open, ask for Signal number).
US: Pennsylvania - Building A High-Tech Indoor Farm In The Steel Town of Braddock
Next door to U.S. Steel’s Mon Valley Works, Fifth Season is building an indoor vertical farm that will integrate high-tech elements like artificial intelligence, data analysis, and robotics to seed, harvest and package leafy greens to ship to local grocery stores and restaurants
STEPHANIE RITENBAUGH
October 21, 2019
In the shadow of one of Pittsburgh’s long-standing steel mills, a startup is hoping to cultivate a farm out of the grit of Braddock.sritenbaugh@post-gazette.com
Next door to U.S. Steel’s Mon Valley Works, Fifth Season is building an indoor vertical farm that will integrate high-tech elements like artificial intelligence, data analysis, and robotics to seed, harvest and package leafy greens to ship to local grocery stores and restaurants.
Fifth Season, which was founded in 2016 as RoBotany Ltd. and incubated at Carnegie Mellon University, developed its technology with two research and development vertical farms on the South Side.
The company’s leafy greens, grown without pesticides, have been sold at Giant Eagle and Whole Foods Market grocery stores in the South Hills, as well at restaurants such as Superior Motors, honeygrow, and Kahuna.
Now, the 60,000-square-foot facility is a hive of construction as crews prepare the building for its first seeds in December.
The Braddock farm is expected to produce more than 500,000 pounds of lettuce, spinach, kale, arugula, and herbs from a 25,000-square-foot grow room during the first full year of operation.
That’s quite a jump from the few thousand pounds a year produced at the South Side facility, said CEO Austin Webb, who co-founded the company with Brac Webb and Austin Lawrence. Mr. Lawrence is also chief technology officer.
On 30-foot-tall racks arrayed like bookshelves, trays of lettuce, spinach, kale, arugula, and herbs will be stacked on to shelves.
Along the aisles, a robot can be directed to, say, harvest seven trays of spinach when the time comes, rather than have a human use a ladder or scissor lift to remove trays by hand, Mr. Webb said.
The environment can be controlled around the clock in each area of the facility. In the grow room, the temperature, humidity, nutrients, light spectrum and even how long the day will be, will be closely monitored.
One driver behind Fifth Season’s strategy is to increase access to fresh food and to reduce waste.
Growing food in a neighborhood, with the end-users accessible within 24 hours of harvest, is much better than shipping produce over a long distance that means eight to 10 days until it’s on the store shelf, Mr. Webb said. “It has a much longer shelf life.”
The hydroponic facility also uses 95% less water than traditional techniques, and by reusing water that has been treated, runoff doesn’t go into waterways, Mr. Webb noted.
At full build-out, the Braddock facility plans to employ 40 to 60 people.
“We want to hire local as much as we can,” Mr. Webb said.
While vertical, indoor farming has been around for some time, the practice has gained traction in recent years as urban farming has become more popular amid concerns about food access and available farmland.
Allied Market Research expects the global vertical farming market to grow. In a September report, the Portland, Ore.-based firm said the industry accounted for $2.23 billion in 2018 and is expected to garner $12.77 billion in revenues by 2026.
But efficiency and profitability is a challenge for the sector.
Those are issues that Fifth Season hopes to address, using the technology it’s developed to control the growing process, costs and “optimize key factors such as energy, labor usage, and crop output,” Mr. Webb said.
“We are trying to create a new standard for our industry,” he said.
The company has raised more than $35 million to date, led by Drive Capital and other private investors with close ties to CMU.
Stephanie Ritenbaugh: sritenbaugh@post-gazette.com; 412-263-4910
Special Brand Developed For Vertically-Grown Products
The first vertically grown products have recently become available at Van Gelder fruit & vegetables. This is the result of the collaboration between Van Gelder and vertical cultivation specialist PlantLab
The first vertically grown products have recently become available at Van Gelder fruit & vegetables. This is the result of the collaboration between Van Gelder and vertical cultivation specialist PlantLab. Joint efforts were made to grow and market-fresh vegetables with a lot of taste and high nutritional values as sustainably as possible.
Van Gelder Indoor
To market the vertically grown products, Van Gelder introduced the new "Van Gelder Indoor" line. This is an exclusive fresh line of vegetables available from Van Gelder. These quality products are produced locally and sustainably, irrespective of the season or climate, with consistent quality and a high level of food safety.
Leafy vegetables and lettuce varieties
The first products of the "Van Gelder Indoor" line will be available from 24 October: two salad mixes and five types of leafy vegetables. "We have deliberately chosen to start growing lettuce varieties and leafy vegetables because these products are currently largely imported from abroad," said Gerrit van Gelder, Managing Director. "With this, we shorten the chain which immediately saves on transport costs."
Vertical cultivation in Experience Center
In the meantime, PlantLab's two Plant Production Units (PPUs) have also been taken into use in the Experience Center in Ridderkerk. These PPUs offer inspiration in the field of vertical cultivation. "We will soon start the search for new products with special flavors in cooperation with our customers," explains Commercial Director; Anton van Gelder. “The demand from our customers in this search was the driving factor. Together with them, we will start experimenting. In this way, we want to continue to distinguish ourselves with exclusive and quality products."
For more information:
Van Gelder
Handelsweg 70
2988 DB Ridderkerk
T: +31 (0)180 42 50 77
E: info@vangeldernederland.nl
www.vangeldernederland.nl/indoor
Publication date: Fri 25 Oct 2019
"The Time Is Now For A Shift To Indoor Cultivation In India", Srishti Mandaar, Red Otter Farms
Indoor growing is at a very nascent stage in India. While there are significant policy changes being adopted by the government, there is still a severe lack of trained personnel in indoor environment management
Indoor growing is at a very nascent stage in India. While there are significant policy changes being adopted by the government, there is still a severe lack of trained personnel in indoor environment management. "It is only when this gap is addressed that the true potential of indoor growing will be leveraged", according to Srishti Mandaar, co-founder of Red Otter Farms.
Srishti points to the need for a concerted effort to bring the various stakeholders – infrastructure developers, produce based experts and professionals linking production to market – to come together and enhance the indoor growing community.
Non-linear trends
First things first though: the consumer, because consumer demand can be a catalyst for growth in the indoor ag market. Identifying singular trends in food can be quite difficult when it comes to India. With nearly five different geographical diversities, a multitude of cultures as well as social status, the consumption patterns vary vastly. From the coast to the high mountains and the deserts, climatic conditions have dictated the food patterns for centuries.
Interestingly, however, over the past two decades, with increased ‘globalization’, urban centers are now witnessing the first wave of food democratization. Food from different cultures are being adopted and adapted to local communities’ preferences. "As an example, the momo is a standard fare in the northeastern mountain regions – usually stuffed with meats and eaten with a spicy chili sauce", Srishti says. "Today, the momo has gained a place as an integral street food with mobile carts being set up but with a twist… it's even served with cream sauce."
So when it comes to the Indian consumer, trends are clearly non-linear. "In the metros, where we will typically find the primary consumers for indoor growing due to their paying capacities, the requirements have shifted. Supermarket shelves have gone international – they stock standard staple produce for a variety of cuisines. Yet, the awareness of the consumer is still limited.
While they now understand that there are at least three or four different types of pasta, their understanding of varieties within product classes is low. The Indian kitchen still buys tomatoes or cherry tomatoes and it will take time before they understand the difference between curry, soup and salad tomatoes."
Connecting with local partners
There is potential for growth in the Indian indoor ag market - but how to tap into that growth? According to Srishti, suppliers can do more to cater to Indian growers. "One of the issues we faced and still often face is technology, seeds, etc. that are offered have no research/data backing their use/trial in the Indian environment. For any of the seed or tech companies to make inroads, they need to believe in a longer-term strategy. They will initially need to invest in finding local partners who can help them demonstrate results over a few months. Agricultural production in that sense is driven by local success."
Opportunities for controlled environment agriculture
Given the very low monetary return from crops, Indian farmers need to improve their production, Srishti says. "Given the weather patterns across the country, CEA has immense potential. It not only mitigates crop losses due to weather but effectively will also enhance farm incomes.
"Proponents of CEA, as well as the infrastructure providers, need to adapt their deliverables based on geographical climate, power availability as well as for the produce being grown. At Red Otter Farms, we have had to go to the drawing board to develop a controlled facility that can address the needs year-round and are currently testing our second prototype. Our own example gives us a clear indication of the benefits of adopting CEA, yet the lack of trained resources and cost-effective technologies has led us to undertake a research route at present."
"Market size should not be a concern"
Srishti also notices a growing awareness amongst the consumer regarding the use of chemical fertilizers, insecticides, and pesticides in their food. "In addition, there is also a realization amongst them that there are options available such as organic and soilless cultivated. The potential for high quality, chemical-free produce is therefore high."
In addition to the growing interest in organic produce, research shows that the Indian plate has been seeing a rise in the use of vegetables as a source of nutrition over the past three decades. "With all these factors aligning themselves, the time is now for a shift to indoor cultivation", Srishti concludes. "And the market size should not really be a concern. India is a country with the largest population of millennials – aware, well-traveled and cares about the quality of the food they eat – and equally ready to pay the premium it may need."
For more information:
Red Otter Farms
www.redotterfarms.in
Publication date: Wed, 23 Oct 2019
Author: Jan Jacob Mekes
© HortiDaily.com
Ag Firm Signs Electric Works Lease Muncie Business Uses Fish Waste As Plant Fertilizer
This is the second tenant announcement for Electric Works featuring an agricultural technology company in two weeks. Last week, the developers announced that Sweetwater Urban Farms had signed a lease agreement. Sweetwater Urban Farms uses aeroponic technology to produce nutrient-rich greens and herbs
SHERRY SLATER | The Journal Gazette
A Muncie company that uses fish waste as plant fertilizer has signed a lease for space in Electric Works, officials announced Monday.
Balance Holdings Inc. is a commercial regenerative agriculture technology company that uses 1% of the water needed for traditional farming and less than 20% used in hydroponics, a process of growing plants without soil, officials said.
The company will grow fish and crayfish in tanks. The waste-filled water, which is full of nutrients, is channeled to plants that produce fruits and vegetables. The plants filter the water, which is then cycled back to the fish tanks, creating a closed-loop system with no waste.
Glynn Barber, the company's founder, said that “growing better food is more than just putting a better tomato into the grocery store – it's about growing a better future” for the next generation.
“We believe healthier food produces healthier people, which produce healthier communities – and we see an exciting and unique opportunity for ECSIA to make a profound impact on this community, partnering with healthcare providers and higher education institutions at Electric Works,” Barber said in a statement.
More than 300 varieties of fruits and vegetables have been grown using the company's patented system in Indiana, Texas, and Haiti.
Balance Holdings plans to sell fish, fruits, and vegetables to restaurants in the region and directly to the public at an on-site store in Electric Works.
Jeff Kingsbury, a partner in Electric Works developer RTM Ventures, said the new tenant checks a lot of boxes for the type of businesses RTM is trying to attract.
RTM Ventures, he said in a statement, is looking for “firms that are exploring new technologies and market-based solutions through strategic alliances and creative partnerships with other businesses, as well as healthcare and education institutions.”
“At the same time, (the company's) impact will be felt in the neighborhoods surrounding Electric Works – areas of the city that have struggled with access to healthy food in the past,” Kingsbury added.
This is the second tenant announcement for Electric Works featuring an agricultural technology company in two weeks. Last week, the developers announced that Sweetwater Urban Farms had signed a lease agreement.
Sweetwater Urban Farms uses aeroponic technology to produce nutrient-rich greens and herbs.
Aeroponic systems nourish plants with nothing more than nutrient-laden mist, according to the Modern Farmer website.
Electric Works is a mixed-use district of innovation, energy, and culture, developed as a public/private partnership between RTM Ventures and the city of Fort Wayne. The 39-acre campus just south of downtown is the former location of General Electric.
RTM Ventures plans to convert 1.2 million square feet in 18 historic buildings into space for office, educational, innovation, retail, residential, hotel, and entertainment uses.