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Farmers, Nonprofits Sue USDA, Saying Hydroponics Can't Be Organic
Center for Food Safety (CFS), along with a coalition of organic farms and stakeholders, filed a lawsuit challenging the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) decision to allow hydroponic operations to be certified organic
Center for Food Safety (CFS), along with a coalition of organic farms and stakeholders, filed a lawsuit challenging the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) decision to allow hydroponic operations to be certified organic.
The lawsuit claims that hydroponic operations violate organic standards for failing to build healthy soils, and asks the Court to stop USDA from allowing hydroponically-produced crops to be sold under the USDA Organic label. The plaintiff coalition includes some of the longest-standing organic farms in the United States including Swanton Berry Farm, Full Belly Farm, Durst Organic Growers, Terra Firma Farm, Jacobs Farm del Cabo, and Long Wind Farm, in addition to organic stakeholder organizations including organic certifier OneCert and the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association.
"Healthy soil is the foundation of organic farming," said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of plaintiff Center for Food Safety, "Organic farmers and consumers believe that the Organic label means not just growing food in soil, but improving the fertility of that soil. USDA's loophole for corporate hydroponics to be sold under the Organic label guts the very essence of 'Organic'."
CFS's lawsuit cites the federal Organic Foods Production Act, which requires farms to build soil fertility in order to be certified organic. Hydroponics cannot comply with federal organic standards because hydroponic crops are not grown in soil, the CFS claims.
"The federal organic law unequivocally requires organic production to promote soil fertility," said Sylvia Wu, senior attorney at the Center for Food Safety and counsel for plaintiffs. "USDA's decision to allow mega-hydroponic operations that do nothing with soil to be sold as 'Organic' violates the law."
"Healthy soil is critical to producing nutrient-dense foods that benefit both people and the environment," said Paul Muller, one of the farm owners of plaintiff Full Belly Farm in Guinda, California, a diversified family farm that has been farmed organically since 1985. "Healthy soil increases and improves the availability of soil nutrients and beneficial microorganisms, and enhances the land's ability to sequester carbon and retain nutrients and water."
"While I welcome the work that my friends in the hydroponic industry are doing, hydroponic production does not conform to the soil-building precepts of organic farming," said Jim Cochran, owner of plaintiff Swanton Berry Farm, one of the oldest certified organic strawberry farms in California. "I would be perfectly happy to have my strawberries compete with properly distinguished hydroponically-grown strawberries, without the latter piggybacking on an Organic label that has taken more than 30 years to develop and establish in the minds of consumers. Certifying hydroponically-grown crops as organic devalues that label."
"The USDA's claim that hydroponics can be certified as organic is disingenuous and false," said Sam Welsch, president of plaintiff organic certifier OneCert, Inc. "Until the USDA started telling certifiers that they could ignore the parts of the law and rules that required fertility to come from organic matter in soil, no one was certifying hydroponic systems as organic."
For more information:
Center for Food Safety
www.centerforfoodsafety.org
Publication date: Tue 3 Mar 2020
Elon Musk's Brother Wants To Transform Farming
Vertical farming is an indoor farming method in which crops are grown in stacked layers, often without soil. The practice is becoming more popular and important as urban populations grow dramatically and available farmland decreases
February 28, 2020
New York (CNN Business)Plant-based foods are all the rage right now, and vertical farms are capitalizing on the trend.
Vertical farming is an indoor farming method in which crops are grown in stacked layers, often without soil. The practice is becoming more popular and important as urban populations grow dramatically and available farmland decreases.
While vertical farming isn't a new concept, these eco-friendly indoor farms are now rapidly expanding.
Elon Musk's younger brother, Kimbal Musk, who was named "Global Social Entrepreneur" of the year by the World Economic Forum in 2017, started Square Roots, an indoor urban farming company based in Brooklyn, in 2016. Square Roots' mission is to bring fresh, local food to cities around the world by empowering younger generations to participate in urban farming.
"When I was a kid, the only way I could get my family to sit down and connect was by cooking the meal," Musk, co-founder and executive chairman of Square Roots, told CNN Business in an email.
Kimbal Musk teaches students how to plant a vegetable garden in California.
"Getting involved with the internet, especially in the late '90s, was very exciting and I wouldn't change anything about those experiences, but my passion has always been food," Musk said. "The moment Elon and I sold Zip2, our first internet company, I knew I wanted to pursue food and become a trained chef." He moved to New York and enrolled at the International Culinary Center.
Musk said the company plans to open a Square Roots "Super Farm" — with 25 climate-controlled shipping containers, cold storage, biosecurity infrastructure and everything else needed to run a vertical farm at scale — in less than three months.
Since its inception, Square Roots has grown more than 120 varieties of crops, including greens, vegetables, and strawberries.
The company isn't the first of its kind. Startups like Silicon Valley's Plenty, which was founded in 2013 and is backed by Jeff Bezos, are also beginning to dominate the space.
"Environmentalists, urban farmers, architects, agronomists, and public health experts, among others, have been joining this mini-revolution as they partner to work out a way to salvage a food-scarce, ultra-urbanized future," Kheir Al-Kodmany, a professor of sustainable urban design at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said in a report.
It involves various techniques, such as hydroponics, which uses mineral nutrient solutions in a water solvent; aquaponics, which uses aquatic creatures -- such as fish and snails -- and cultivates plants in water; and aeroponics, which grows plants in the air.
As for job creation, rapid climate change will put millions of traditional farmers out of business, but vertical farmers won't be affected, according to microbiologist Dickson Despommier, an emeritus professor of public and environmental health at Columbia University.
Although vertical farming was first introduced in the early 1900s, it was recently popularized by Despommier. More than 20 years ago, he began teaching a class at Columbia called Medical Ecology.
Despommier spent a decade growing crops indoors with his students. "Ten years ago, there were no vertical farms," he said, noting that LED grow lights have vastly improved farming efficiency over the last five years, making indoor growing cheaper and more reliable.
Basil growing at the Square Roots farm in Brooklyn.
"People want local food because they've lost trust in the industrial food system that ships in high calorie, low nutrient food from thousands of miles away with little transparency as to who grew the food and how," said Peggs, the Square Roots CEO.
At the same time, the world population is growing and urbanizing rapidly. Peggs said climate change is threatening existing supplies of food, forcing the industry to figure out new ways to grow food quickly.
Peggs is optimistic about raising money for vertical farming. "A lot of smart money and capital is entering the space," he said. "The quality of food that can now be produced in these indoor systems is at least on par with the best organic field-grown food you can buy."
Despommier said that cities will eventually be able to grow "all they can eat" from indoor farms located within city limits. "If an outdoor farm fails, the farmer has to wait until next year to start again, he said. "Indoor farms fail too, but the indoor farmer can start again within weeks."
Kyoto’s Spread Co., Ltd. Brings Large-Scale Expertise to the AVF
Established in 2006, SPREAD has grown to become the leading Japanese vertical farm operator, with two farms capable of producing over two tons of lettuce per day
MARCH 3, 2020
KYLE BALDOCK
Established in 2006, SPREAD has grown to become the leading Japanese vertical farm operator, with two farms capable of producing over two tons of lettuce per day. By focusing solely on large scale vertical farming systems, they are leading a huge domestic industry in terms of production and profitability. I spoke to JJ Price, Manager of International Business Development, about their pioneering strategy and plans for the future.
Kameoka Plant
Taking the lead in a large domestic market
If the vertical farming market has matured anywhere in the world, it would be in Japan: current market research shows that there are just over two hundred vertical farms in the country. In 2007, Spread began their journey by constructing the Kameoka Plant, a non-automated vertical farm that is capable of producing 21,000 heads of lettuce per day. This large scale operation became profitable in 2013, but Spread looked to grow even bigger. In 2015, they announced the concept for an even larger, automated vertical farm to be constructed in the Kansai Science City. Fast forward to today and the Techno Farm Keihanna is operational, capable of producing a further three tons or 30,000 heads of lettuce per day.
Techno Farm Keihanna
While the level of automation and key technologies differs between the farms, Spread is now one of the largest vertical farming companies in Japan to be operating multiple farms. Their flagship products, the Vegetus brands of lettuce, are in 2,500 supermarkets across Japan and they recently hit the benchmark of 60 million products sold in total. When it comes to market share of vertically-farmed products on supermarket shelves, Spread is, again, the leader. Crop wise, they only focus on lettuce for commercial development, although various other products are in the works. Currently, 70% of the Vegetus brand production goes to retail and 30% goes to foodservice and ready meal products.
Growing even bigger with a partnership business model
With two farms operational, Spread is hoping to expand further through a partnership business model. With multiple agreements already in place, Spread will work with the partner company and provide expertise, support sales activities, advise on technology and the business model. The first farm under this model was announced on June 24, 2019, with Spread’s partner and member of JXTG Group J Leaf starting construction on Techno Farm Narita, one of Japan’s largest automated vertical farms. Recently, Spread entered into partnership discussions with Kyushu Electric to build the world’s largest automated vertical farm with production capacity of 5 tons of lettuce per day. With this model, Spread hopes to have 10 farms completed by 2025.
Looking outside of Japan, Spread is focused in the shorter term on particular markets. JJ Price told me they are looking closely at the US, Europe, and the Middle East. With the scales growing ever larger, and their reach going global, Spread makes sure that its customers come first.
Connecting with the consumer
Vegetus is a strong brand with Japanese consumers. The Spread team told me that in Japan, most open-field lettuce is iceberg, or a red variety called Sunny; all the varieties that Spread provides are different, milder and sweeter. The packaging of Vegetus clearly demonstrates that the products come from vertical farms, and the advantages are listed: no pesticides during cultivation, better texture, and flavor. In the supermarket itself, the product is set apart from traditional lettuce. In order to overcome negative perceptions of the product, the sales team goes round the supermarkets, holding events to engage consumers and promote the products. Overall, the perception of vertically-farmed produce is much more positive in Japan than in Europe or the US.
Vegetus Brand
In the end, the price is what counts, and Spread has a major advantage because of its scale: 1 head of Vegetus retails for 158 yen (suggested retail price), only 10-20% more expensive than outdoor-grown lettuce. This is central to Spread’s strategy: they are not looking for niche or premium brand products. They want Vegetus to be accessible and affordable for as many people as possible. In order to maintain this market position, I wanted to find out how Spread is innovating to drive down costs.
Innovation and automation to drive down costs
Spread does the majority of its R&D in house, from crop research and development to technology development, trialing and implementation. It is this spirit of innovation that led them through six years of trial and error to become a fully profitable vertical farm. But they are not averse to working with other market-leading companies: they developed their automation equipment and lighting in collaboration with leading Japanese companies. They have been working with the NTT Group to develop IoT and AI technologies that will optimize the growing environment and production processes. In terms of driving down costs, JJ Price told me that they are always on the lookout to improve hardware and automate labor-intensive processes. Furthermore, they also focus on improving the efficiency of human operations. These are the keys to driving down costs and increasing profitability moving forward.
Partner with Spread Co.
Spread is eager to partner with companies in the AVF network. They have invited interested parties to visit the website and connect. Please write to info@vertical-farming.net and ask for an introduction to Spread and we will be happy to connect you.
CubicFarm Systems Announces Its Largest Sale To Date - A 100-Machine Commercial-Scale Vertical-Farming System in Surrey, BC
The Company has a current backlog at C$24.7 million representing 144 machines under deposit and awaiting installation - demonstrating continued sales momentum due in part to the growing demand for its systems. The current backlog is anticipated to be recognized in revenue in mid-2020 to mid-2022
March 2, 2020
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 2, 2020, / CubicFarm® Systems Corp. (TSXV: CUB) ("CubicFarms" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has finalized an agreement for the sale of 100 CubicFarms growing machines, and received a deposit in the amount of C$1.2 million from a commercial grower and agricultural product wholesaler based in the province of British Columbia, Canada. The customer had previously provided a deposit for a 12-machine system and now has applied its deposit toward this revised order for 100 machines.
The 100-machine system represents a total of C$16.5 million in sales revenues to the Company, and is expected to be installed in two phases in Surrey, BC. The first phase, consisting of the installation of 26 growing machines and an irrigation system, is planned for installation this year, with the remaining machines planned for installation by mid-2022.
The Company has a current backlog at C$24.7 million representing 144 machines under deposit and awaiting installation - demonstrating continued sales momentum due in part to the growing demand for its systems. The current backlog is anticipated to be recognized in revenue in mid-2020 to mid-2022.
The sale represents CubicFarms' largest to date, following on its 21-machine sale to a customer in Montana, USA - its largest sale in the US - and its 23-machine sale to a customer in Calgary, Canada.
Due to the close proximity of the customer's Surrey site to CubicFarms' headquarters, CubicFarms will provide a turn-key solution to the customer, by facilitating and managing site preparation and installation of the CubicFarms system - leveraging the experience the Company has gained from its R&D and production facility in Pitt Meadows, BC.
CubicFarms CEO Dave Dinesen commented: "We are extremely encouraged by the growth in sales we've enjoyed and the trend toward increasingly larger facilities. It reflects the demand emerging around the world for commercial-scale growing technology. Once installed, the system in Surrey will be one of the world's largest automated vertical-farming systems.
"We are excited to be working with our customer, an established multi-industry group with investments and operations in the agriculture, technology and health space. Our customer understands the importance of using technology to significantly improve yields in an environmentally sustainable manner, and we look forward to helping them scale up production of fresh local vegetables for their market in southwest British Columbia and beyond.
"We are also pleased to receive ongoing feedback from our existing machine customers about the quality of produce from our systems and the resulting growth in demand for that produce."
Concurrent with the 100-machine sale, CubicFarms has entered into a Shareholders' Agreement with the customer and its associated companies with respect to a joint venture entity that will own and operate the 100-machine venture. As consideration for CubicFarms' 20% ownership in the joint venture, the Company will provide approximately C$342,000 in the form of a zero-interest loan.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor it’s Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
About CubicFarm® Systems Corp.
CubicFarm Systems Corp. ("CubicFarms") is a technology company that is developing and deploying technology to feed a changing world. Its proprietary technologies enable farmers around the world to grow high-quality, predictable crop yields. CubicFarms has two distinct technologies that address two distinct markets. The first technology is its patented CubicFarm™ System, which contains patented technology for growing leafy greens and other crops. Using its unique, undulating-path growing system, the Company addresses the main challenges within the indoor farming industry by significantly reducing the need for physical labor and energy, and maximizing yield per cubic foot. CubicFarms leverages its patented technology by operating its own R&D facility in Pitt Meadows, British Columbia, selling the System to farmers, licensing its technology and providing industry-leading vertical farming expertise to its customers.
The second technology is CubicFarms' HydroGreen System for growing nutritious livestock feed. This system utilizes a unique process to sprout grains, such as barley and wheat, in a controlled environment with minimal use of land, labor, and water. The HydroGreen System is fully automated and performs all growing functions including seeding, watering, lighting, harvesting, and re-seeding - all with the push of a button - to deliver nutritious livestock feed without the typical investment in fertilizer, chemicals, fuel, field equipment, and transportation. The HydroGreen System not only provides superior nutritious feed to benefit the animal but also enables significant environmental benefits to the farm.
Information contact
Kimberly Lim
kimberly@cubicfarms.com
Phone: +1-236-858-6491
www.cubicfarms.com
Cautionary statement on forward-looking information
Certain statements in this release constitute "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including, without limitation, statements with respect to the anticipated benefits to the customer; timing and the completion of machine installation by mid-2022; benefits to the Company of the sale; the anticipated revenue recognition in mid-2020 to mid-2022; and the joint venture that will own and operate the 100-machine venture. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of CubicFarm Systems Corp., or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. Such statements can be identified by the use of words such as "may", "would", "could", "will", "intend", "expect", "believe", "plan", "anticipate", "estimate", "scheduled", "forecast", "predict", and other similar terminology, or state that certain actions, events, or results "may", "could", "would", "might", or "will" be taken, occur, or be achieved.
These statements reflect the company's current expectations regarding future events, performance, and results and speak only as of the date of this news release. Consequently, there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Except as required by securities disclosure laws and regulations applicable to the company, the company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if the company's expectations regarding future events, performance, or results change.
SOURCE: CubicFarm Systems Corp
Growing Sunflower Shoot Microgreens
We tend to know sunflowers as the beautiful flowers that we see while strolling through a trail, or neighborhood park. Sunflowers, although beautiful, aren’t just ornamental, but they can be used for other purposes too
Microgreens Facts
February 28, 2020
We tend to know sunflowers as the beautiful flowers that we see while strolling through a trail, or neighborhood park. Sunflowers, although beautiful, aren’t just ornamental, but they can be used for other purposes too. The use of sunflowers has been around since the time of American Indians. The American Indian tribes would often use it for cooking, snacks and medicinal purposes. Most of us are familiar with snacking on sunflower seeds or the use of the oil through cooking, but did you know that they are also gaining popularity during the first shoot. Did you know that you can actually consume the shoots? There are incredible health benefits that come from consuming sunflower microgreens. The shoots are high in unsaturated fats, fiber, protein, calcium, iron, and other nutrients.
Here are some facts about sunflower shoots:
Sunflower Sprouts contain approximately 25% protein and are a rich source of vitamins A, B complex, and E and minerals including calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus and zinc.
Sunflower Shoots also contain, healthy fats, essential fatty acids, fiber, and phytosterols. Numerous clinical trials have demonstrated that daily consumption of foods enriched with at least 0.8 g of plant sterols or stanols lowers serum LDL cholesterol.
Both sunflower seeds and their shoots contain high amounts of vitamin E. Vitamin E works synergistically with vitamin C and selenium to reduce blood pressure, increase the elasticity of arteries and prevent heart disease.
The sunflower shoot is a natural expectorant for chest congestion: In Ayurvedic medicine, these sprouts are thought to have the ability to encourage clearance of the lungs. Natural expectorants may also be used as a preventative measure against lower respiratory infections to deter the invasion of pathogens.
Sunflower shoots at first may not look very impressive but when applied to food they tend to steal the show. Sunflower shoots tend to elevate any dish, from throwing a few on a simple salad to a Michelin star restaurant gracefully placing a shoot on top of something extraordinary. Sunflower shoots are graced with a nutty flavor and a crunchy texture.
We love sunflower shoots so we’ll be giving you some tips on how to grow them. Here are some of our tips on how to grow them.
Cycle: 9-11 days from seed to harvest
Soak:
Room temperature water, 8-12 hours
60 minute sanitize can serve as soaking
Key Growing Strategies:
Soak seeds in room temperature water
Minimized, but optimized light exposure
Do not let lodge when covered
Water stress leads to hardier shoots - they can recover from severe wilt in a matter of hours
Uncovering:
Sunnies should be uncovered when shoots are about 2 inches long or shorter.
A better indicator than shoot length is that they should be uncovered when still perfectly vertical and before the weight of covering trays causes them to lodge
light.
Minimum 2 days light in summer; 3-4 days better in winter, 4 days optimum, depending on conditions.
Double up cover trays to prevent light pockets through drainage holes.
Avoid excess or overly intense light as this can cause an undesirable texture.
Watering:
Do not water upon uncovering - give at least one-day stress
Water consistently afterward for good growth; wet soil also makes trays easier to clean
Be sure to water trays consistently - back of trays often neglected
Rotate trays 180 degrees every 2 days in winter growing conditions
Excess water in hot conditions creates rapid growth but a flavorless and inferior sprout
Drainage is crucial
Stressors:
Restricting water early in the uncovered stage leads to a redder stem and nuttier flavor
Colder weather stunts growth can also cause reddened stems
Excess heat causes rapid, weak growth
Disease:
Susceptible to mold with poor air circulation and warm, wet conditions
Mold susceptibility varies between seed lots
Minor disease can be present in 5-10% of trays with little effect on yield
Disease presence on new seeds is to be expected as they adapt to conditions in the greenhouse; 3-5 weeks may be required for the greenhouse ecosystem to adapt to new seeds
These are just some general tips on how to grow sunflower shoot microgreens. We’re in love with Sunflower shoots over here at Nick Greens. If you have any questions feel free to contact us.
Tags: microgreens sunflower micro shoots microgreen growingtips growingfood growing microgreens
Harvest Fresh Canteen Vegetables On-Site
In schools and universities in America, the catering and service provider Sodexo plans to produce fresh vegetables all year round via indoor farming. To this end, the company is cooperating with the US hydroponics provider Freight Farms. The salad should grow vertically in containers on campus
by Frauke Brodkorb-Kettenbach
February 15, 2020
In the container greenery of the US company Freight Farms, Sodexo grows fresh vegetables for its cafeterias directly on campus. CAROLINE KATSIROUBAS / FREIGHT FARMS
In schools and universities in America, the catering and service provider Sodexo plans to produce fresh vegetables all year round via indoor farming. To this end, the company is cooperating with the US hydroponics provider Freight Farms. The salad should grow vertically in containers on campus.
Over 500 vegetables, such as Salanova Green Butter Salad (pictured), can be grown on a commercial scale in Freight Farm’s containers with 320 square meters of vertical acreage - regardless of the season and without pesticides or herbicides. Delivery routes are also eliminated with this type of vegetable cultivation.
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With the cooperation, Sodexo is pursuing its strategy of operating as sustainably as possible and at the same time being precisely informed about the origin of its food for customers in the education segment.
In addition, students could monitor the stages of growing their food. For example, schools could integrate hydroponic farming into interactive curricula or school subjects such as technology, agriculture, nutrition, and economics, according to Freight Farms' approach. The vertical farming provider also sees similar advantages for employees when using the containers in companies.
CAROLINE KATSIROUBAS / FREIGHT FARMS
So far, vegetables grow in freight farm containers in 25 countries and 44 states in the US - in small and medium-sized businesses, hospitals, as well as in retail and non-profit organizations, the information says. 35 school facilities now work with the hydroponics system. By working with Sodexo, the number should grow rapidly.
SODEXO, USA
Sodexo USA offers building management and catering services to schools, universities, hospitals, senior citizens' communities, venues, and other key industries. The parent company Sodexo Quality of Life Services, with headquarters in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, was founded in 1966. According to its own statements, the group offers Benefits and Rewards Services and Personal and Home Services daily for 100 million people in 72 countries. In 2019, it had an annual turnover of 22 billion euros with 460,000 employees worldwide. The portfolio includes reception, security, maintenance and cleaning services, catering, facility management, restaurant, and gift vouchers and fuel passes for employees.
Bowery Is Sprouting In Baltimore With A New Automated Indoor Farm
Using technology that allows farming to go beyond the limits that the land imposes, the company has a mission to democratize access to fresh produce. It initially opened two farms in Kearney, New Jersey, serving the tri-state area
With a mission to democratize food access, the indoor farming startup sees the White Marsh location as a mid-Atlantic hub.
By Stephen Babcock / STAFF / 2/20/20
Inside Bowery's indoor farming operation. (Courtesy photo)
On land in White Marsh that was once associated with a working farm, new growth is taking root. But it didn’t require clearing away the building on the site: All of the growing is done inside.
“We are turning what was once an industrial warehouse back into a modern farm,” said Katie Seawell, chief marketing officer of Bowery Farming.
In early November, Bowery Farming opened a new indoor farming operation inside the warehouse on Franklin Square Drive and has been ramping up operations.
First flagged by Fast Company, it’s the third and largest farm for the New York-based startup, which in 2018 raised $90 million in a round led by Google Ventures.
Using technology that allows farming to go beyond the limits that the land imposes, the company has a mission to democratize access to fresh produce. It initially opened two farms in Kearney, New Jersey, serving the tri-state area.
With the expansion to Baltimore, the company is seeking a wider foothold in the mid-Atlantic. Seawell said the White Marsh location will open up distribution into a 150-mile radius where it can reach a potential 25 million people.
The company looks to hire locally even as it thinks regionally, and Seawell said White Marsh proved to be a transit-accessible location.
When it is fully-staffed, Bowery Farming expects to have about 80 farmers working at the space, in a mix of hourly and supervisory roles. Even for folks with no prior farming experience, Bowery looks to offer opportunities for farmers to move up within the organization as they gain skills. The farmers rotate through different roles on the farm, learning different aspects. Seawell recalled one farmer whom she met in the early days of the Kearney farm when he had a role in the packing section.
“I just ran into him last week and he was now in a support role for the ag science team,” she said.
They also seek out opportunities to support growth. In New York, the engineering team recently taught a coding class.
Inside the farm itself, hydroponics — the process of growing plants without soil — is key to the vertical farming operation, and technology plays a big role, too. CEO Irving Fain teamed with cofounders to apply technology to a big mission area. The team devised a system called BoweryOS to run the farm, which uses visual systems, sensory systems and automation. With data-gathering techniques and machine learning, the company sees its farms as a network, so the data is helping to build on what’s been done at the other two locations.
“Even though it’s the newest farm, it’s the smartest farm we’ve ever had,” Seawell said.
Bowery Farming from above. (Courtesy photo)
When it comes to the crops themselves, the farm has leafy greens and herbs in the market now. They’re available through Amazon Fresh, and Bowery is working on developing retail partnerships in the region to bring produce in the spring and summer. The company is also working to move beyond the “leafy green” category, which is often a staple of indoor farms and is testing other crops. It also has a partnership to regularly deliver hundreds of pounds of produce to the Maryland Food Bank.
Vertical farming doesn’t only upend the traditional growing model. With a wider food system that often involves food being shipped long distances, Bowery’s indoor farming approach yields lots of promise to bring production closer to where it’s eaten, employ local folks and offer a pesticide-free product.
Still, indoor farming remains new, and it’s entering an existing market with plenty of other produce players. As such, it has to make a product that’s attractive to folks, as well, and Seawell said the company has also put a lot of time and care into not just the operations, but also how it tastes.
“We believe we have a great-tasting product,” Seawell said.
Institute For Advanced Learning And Research And Virginia Tech Launch The Controlled Environment Agriculture Innovation Center in Danville
The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR) is partnering with the Virginia Tech School of Plant and Environmental Sciences and the Virginia Seafood Agricultural Research and Extension Center to launch a Controlled Environment Agriculture Innovation Center on IALR’s campus in Danville, Virginia
By urbanagnews
February 17, 2020
The partnership will create a hub of innovation and economic development in an industry expected to grow to $4 billion
The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR) is partnering with the Virginia Tech School of Plant and Environmental Sciences and the Virginia Seafood Agricultural Research and Extension Center to launch a Controlled Environment Agriculture Innovation Center on IALR’s campus in Danville, Virginia.
The Innovation Center will leverage technology and research to accelerate advancements, economic development, and regional participation in the developing industry of indoor farming. The value of U.S. greenhouse-grown food crops is expected to exceed $4 billion this year.
“We are delighted that the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research and Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences have combined their expertise to create a top program in controlled environment agriculture. This collaborative effort is creating tremendous energy and excitement because of its potential to provide innovative solutions to the agricultural community,” said Alan Grant, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “Partnerships like this will help us realize the vision of the SmartFarm Innovation Network Initiative to support the agriculture industry.”
Convening industry, academia and producers, the Innovation Center will be housed primarily within a modern greenhouse complex on IALR’s campus. Features will include various hydroponic systems, which grow plants in a soilless root medium with optimal amounts of water and nutrients. Vertical growing racks will maximize space, and high-tech engineering and technology will be integrated and on display throughout the center.
High-value demonstration crops will include lettuce, herbs, strawberry, blackberry, hemp, and more. In addition, faculty and staff involved in the center will research and educate on raising fish in controlled environments using aquaponics, or recirculating aquaculture systems that integrate plant and fish production. While traditionally viewed as separate fields, plant and fish production share many similar technologies, issues, and needs.
“We are excited to partner with Virginia Tech, a fellow champion of cutting-edge innovation, to expand the impact of agriculture in promising new ways,” said Mark Gignac, executive director of IALR. “While agriculture is a longtime industry of Southern Virginia, economic factors have demanded a new identity. We believe controlled environment agriculture is one of the defining solutions, and we are proud to work with Virginia Tech to introduce the concept to our region’s growers and attract industry.”
According to Michael Schwarz, director of the Virginia Seafood Agricultural Research and Extension Center, this new collaboration will further bolster domestic seafood production.
“The U.S. currently has a national seafood trade deficit in excess of $15 billion, with more than 50 percent of the seafood we consume originating from aquaculture,” he said. “Through this new programming and leveraging of expertise and infrastructure, we have the opportunity to drastically increase domestic seafood and produce production within the state, region, and country, enhancing food safety, security, sustainability, and, most importantly, socioeconomically within our agriculture economies.”
Controlled environmental agriculture helps protect plants from disease and stress while providing ideal growing conditions for high-quality, quick-to-harvest food products — sometimes in as fast as two weeks depending on the crop. In addition to hydroponic systems, the Innovation Center will use data management, sensors, and vertical structures to ensure ideal distribution of water, energy, capital, and labor. Plus, strict entry protocols will prevent pests. Together these factors result in a high-quality, consistent product with significantly more harvests than outdoor conventional production methods. Other advantages of controlled environmental agriculture include uniform, year-round production, potentially pesticide-free agriculture, and greatly reduced land and water requirements.
AeroFarms, a leading controlled environmental commercial producer based in New Jersey, recently announced the world’s largest indoor farm to be located in Cane Creek Centre in Pittsylvania County, just minutes from IALR. While this industrial-sized operation demonstrates scalability, Michael Evans, director of Virginia Tech’s School of Plant and Environmental Science, believes the technology is accessible to even small farmers in the region.
To encourage market growth, and in line with IALR’s role as a regional catalyst for economic transformation, the Innovation Center will introduce controlled environmental technologies to regional parties interested in entering the market. Conferences, workshops, site visits, and a web presence will comprise part of the outreach and educational activities. According to Evans, controlled environment agriculture is a rapidly growing sector that offers many potential opportunities in Southern Virginia.
“We are excited to house this facility on the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research’s campus and to benefit from both the technology developed and the associated economic development opportunities it provides for the region,” said Scott Lowman, director of applied research at IALR. “Consumer demand for healthy, local, and pesticide-free produce is high and will continue to increase in the coming decades. We look forward to serving this need through controlled environment agriculture.”
The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research serves Virginia as a regional catalyst for economic transformation with applied research, advanced learning, advanced manufacturing, conference center services, and economic development efforts. IALR’s major footprint focuses within Southern Virginia, including the counties of Patrick, Henry, Franklin, Pittsylvania, Halifax, and Mecklenburg, along with the cities of Martinsville and Danville. For more information, visit www.ialr.org.
For more information on IALR, contact Allison Moore at allison.moore@ialr.org or 434.766.6766
Indoor Ag-Con Announces Marketing Alliance With Produce Marketing Association
The three-day conference program will offer insight from keynote speakers and 50-plus subject matter experts in four tracks focused on Business, Science & Technology, Alternative Crops and Greenhouses & Precision Ag
Conference Pass Discount, Expanded Educational Offerings, Cross-Over Business Growth Opportunities Among Promotional Partnership Offerings
LAS VEGAS, NV, February 25, 2020 - Indoor Ag-Con, the premier indoor agriculture conference and trade show, has announced a marketing partnership with the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) for the 8th annual conference taking place May 18-20, 2020 at the Wynn Las Vegas.
The three-day conference program will offer insight from keynote speakers and 50-plus subject matter experts in four tracks focused on Business, Science & Technology, Alternative Crops and Greenhouses & Precision Ag.
Designed to showcase the business growth opportunities both organizations offer to association members and event attendees alike, the alliance will give PMA members access to all of the education sessions and exhibit hall for a 20% discount, among other promotional features.
"We are thrilled to be partnering with the Produce Marketing Association and invite their members to our event to learn from the experts on vertical farming, indoor agriculture, the practice of growing crops in indoor systems, using hydroponic, aquaponic and aeroponic techniques," said Brian Sullivan, co-owner of Indoor Ag-Con, LLC.
"We will also feature an idea-packed panel discussion with PMA's Vonnie Estes and some of the association's members detailing business opportunities they see for indoor growers." Indoor Ag-Con is owned by event industry veterans Nancy Hallberg, Kris Sieradzki and Brian Sullivan.
A highlight of the Indoor Ag-Con Business Track line-up, the PMA-sponsored session entitled "Growing Relationships: Selling Your Indoor Crops to Grocery Chains," will be held on Tuesday, May 18 from 11 - 11:45 am. Look for more details coming soon.
"Indoor Farming is an exciting, growing new part of our industry and we look forward to bringing our members access to this industry leading event," said Vonnie Estes, Vice President of Technology for PMA. "Prior to the event, our members will have access to a PMA Webinar on modern agriculture, which will spotlight Indoor Ag-Con, as well as a 20% discount off the registration for the event. We look forward to this gathering in May 2020 in Las Vegas to explore all new options together."
Register Now & Save, Use code IGROW520 ›
Indoor Ag-Con is the gathering place for the indoor/vertical farming industry. From starting or sustainably scaling up to buying from or selling to indoor/vertical farms producing a growing variety of crops, the tech-focused event offers new opportunities to connect all agriculture supply chain stakeholders. A robust exhibit hall will offer a showplace for robotics, automation, AI, breaking technology trends and product innovation.
Indoor Ag-Con offers an unrivaled education program with sessions focused on How to Get an Indoor Farm Up & Running Fast; The Latest Developments in Aquaponics; Disaster Proofing Your Greenhouse; The Next Technical Frontier for LED Lighting; Financing Alternative Crops; Where to Site Your Indoor Farm; Global Trends & Alternative Crop Markets; AI & Robotics: What's Economically Viable & Usable for Indoor Farms Today; Tackling the Challenges of Scaling an Indoor Farm; Growing in Space with Help from Government, Industry & Academia; and How to Build a Shipping Container Farm, to name a few.
For access to an up-to-date conference agenda, click here.
ABOUT INDOOR AG-CON LLC
Founded in 2013, Indoor Ag-Con touches all sectors of the business, covering produce, legal cannabis, hemp, alternate protein and non-food crops. In December 2018, three event industry professionals - Nancy Hallberg, Kris Sieradzki and Brian Sullivan - purchased Indoor Ag-Con LLC from Newbean Capital, setting the stage for further expansion of the events globally.
For more information, visit: https://indoor.ag
About Produce Marketing Association
Produce Marketing Association (PMA) is the leading trade association representing companies from every segment of the global produce and floral supply chain. PMA helps members grow by providing connections that expand business opportunities and increase sales and consumption.
For more information, visit https://www.pma.com.
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR GROWING ROSTER OF
SPONSORS, MEDIA ALLIES & INDUSTRY PARTNERS
Survey Shows Influence of Outbreaks, Recalls On Consumers
Fifty-six percent of U.S. shoppers are more concerned about food safety than they were a year ago, according to a survey from British consulting firm Lloyd’s Register
February 27, 2020
Fifty-six percent of U.S. shoppers are more concerned about food safety than they were a year ago, according to a survey from British consulting firm Lloyd’s Register.
According to a report on the survey, 46% of respondents said they have changed their food shopping or consumption habits in the last 12 months due to a food safety scare.
Lloyd’s Register conducted a survey of more than 1,000 U.S. consumers in November. Survey questions did not mention fresh produce or outbreaks tied to romaine lettuce but referenced food safety overall.
Media coverage of various incidents as a key factor.
The extent to which this kind of coverage damages consumer confidence seems clear,” Lloyd’s Register wrote. “ ... Interestingly, just under half of the men polled said they were more concerned, while over 60% of women said the same. Those polled in younger age groups also tended to express greater concern than older generations, who were more evenly split.”
The report suggested that the food industry figure out how to minimize the fallout from outbreaks and other food safety incidents.“
It is therefore within suppliers’ interests to alleviate concerns and question how to better manage food scares that are reported in the media,” Lloyd’s Register wrote.
The report delved into U.S. consumer attitudes toward food waste, plastic, meat alternatives, and other topics.
Related stories:Year in Produce No. 2 — Food Safety
Dr. Oz features industry input on romaine outbreak
Related Topics: Food safety Recall Produce Retail
Containerized Vertical Farming Company Freight Farms Secures $15 Million
Freight Farms — a global innovation leader of containerized vertical farming — announced that it has raised $15 million in Series B funding
By Noah Long ● February 15, 2020
Freight Farms — a global innovation leader of containerized vertical farming — announced that it has raised $15 million in Series B funding
Freight Farms — a global innovation leader of containerized vertical farming — announced that it has raised $15 million in Series B funding led by Ospraie Ag Science. Spark Capital also participated in the round. Including this funding round, the company has raised over $28 million.
“It’s a big step forward for the industry when financial markets recognize and champion the value of creating a distributed food system,” said Freight Farms CEO Brad McNamara. “Aligned on mission-driven growth as a team, there is a massive opportunity before us to scale across global markets, propelling meaningful technology that’s already doing good.”
Freight Farms’ Greenery is able to produce over 500 varieties of crops like calendula at commercial scale year-round using 99.8% less water than traditional agriculture. Four rows of the company’s panels on a flexible moving rack system are able to house more than 8,000 living plants at once thus creating a dense canopy of fresh crops.
This round of funding will be used for advancing the Freight Farms’ platform through continued innovation with new services designed to benefit its growing global network of farmers and corporate partners. And this investment follows the announcement of Freight Farms’ strategic national partnership with Sodexo to grow food onsite at educational and corporate campuses nationwide and will support ongoing contributions to collaborative research projects and partnerships.
“Freight Farms has redefined vertical farming and made decentralizing the food system something that’s possible and meaningful right now, not in the ‘future of food,'” added Jason Mraz, President of Ospraie Ag Science. “Full traceability, high nutrition without herbicides and pesticides, year-round availability – these are elements that should be inherent to food sourcing. Freight Farms’ Greenery makes it possible to meet this burgeoning global demand from campuses, hospitals, municipal institutions and corporate businesses, while also enabling small business farmers to meet these needs for their customers.”
Launched in 2010 by McNamara and COO Jon Friedman, Freight Farms debuted the first vertical hydroponic farm built inside an intermodal shipping container called the Leafy Green Machine with the mission of democratizing and decentralizing the local production of fresh, healthy food. And this innovation, with integral IoT data platform farmhand, launched a new category of indoor farming and propelled Freight Farms into the largest network of IoT-connected farms in the world.
Freight Farm’s 2019 launch of the Greenery raised the industry bar, advancing the limits of containerized vertical farming to put the most progressive, accessible, and scalable vertical farming technology into the hands of people of diverse industry, age, and mission.
“With the Greenery and farmhand, we’ve created an infrastructure that lowers the barrier of entry into food production, an industry that’s historically been difficult to get into,” explained Friedman. “With this platform, we’re also able to harness and build upon a wider set of technologies including cloud IoT, automation, and machine learning, while enabling new developments in plant science for future generations.”
Freight Farms has been an integral part of scientific and academic research studies in collaboration with industry-leading organizations, including NASA (exploring self-sustaining crop production) and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (exploring the integration of CRISPR seed genetics and vertical farming to create commercial opportunity).
The company’s customers hail from education, hospitality, retail, corporate, and nonprofit sectors across 44 states and 25 countries, and include independent small business farmers — who distribute to restaurants, farmers’ markets, and businesses such as Central Market, Meijer, and Wendy’s
Safety Aspects of Indoor Farming Signal A Change In Agriculture
An indoor agricultural evolution is in the making. That’s how some people see the surge of interest in growing leafy greens in greenhouses. No doubt about it, this approach
February 24, 2020
An indoor agricultural evolution is in the making. That’s how some people see the surge of interest in growing leafy greens in greenhouses. No doubt about it, this approach to farming has increased dramatically in every corner of the country, even the South.
Not surprisingly, food safety has been one of the driving forces pushing indoor farming forward. Repeated recalls over the past several years of romaine lettuce contaminated by the potentially deadly E. coli O157:H7 pathogen grown in the Yuma, AZ, and Salinas, Calif., regions have been enough to have consumers shying away from the popular lettuce and often other leafy greens.
The most recent romaine outbreak just before Thanksgiving 2019, originating in Salinas, CA, growing area triggered yet more apprehensions about the lettuce.
Advice to consumers from the CDC just after Thanksgiving solidified those fears. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised consumers not to eat any romaine at all from the Salinas growing area until the outbreak was over — unless it was grown indoors. That outbreak has since been declared over.
In effect, the CDC was giving greenhouse-grown romaine a food safety thumbs up.
“Hydroponically and greenhouse-grown romaine from any region does not appear to be related to the current outbreak,” said the agency on its December 2019 update about the outbreak in the Salinas growing area. It also noted that the lettuce might be labeled as “indoor grown.”
That came as welcome news to greenhouse growers — and also to buyers such as restaurants and other foodservice establishments that wanted to keep offering romaine to their customers. In many cases, demand outstripped supply.
“The more outbreaks we have, the more this trend will probably grow,” said Kirk Smith, director of the Minnesota Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence, one of six centers around the U.S. designated by the CDC to strengthen the safety of the nation’s food system.
“There’s an upswing in interest in a big, big way,” said John Bonner, co-owner of Great Lake Growers. “I’ve seen consumers’ knowledge base about this increase. They like that it’s safer, fresher and lasts longer. It’s almost like ‘why wouldn’t you buy greenhouse salad greens.’ It’s a catalyst for change.”
Looking ahead, he believes indoor growing will happen on a bigger scale yet, although, as he quickly concedes: “It might take 20 years. “But it’s coming,” he said.
Ryan Oates, founder and owner of Tyger River Smart Farm in South Carolina, sees hydroponics as “the future of farming” because there are so many advantages to it, among them conserving water and nutrients. Also, you can do it year-round.
“We’ll see more and more of it,” he says in a video on Tyger River’s website. “You’ll see a lot of crops moving in that direction.”
As for food safety, Oates said the biggest advantage is that you’re growing inside greenhouses, which allows me to keep things really clean. “It’s a lot easier to do that than growing outdoors.”
Because indoor growing is a controlled environment, the farmers don’t have to deal with wildlife, domestic animals, and birds flying overhead — all of which can contaminate the crops.
Bendon Kreieg, a partner and sales manager at Revol Greens said that the government’s advice on this is definitely helping.
“We are seeing an uptick in demand from retailers and restaurants because it has such a major impact on their business when they suddenly can’t serve salads,” Kreieg said.
A spokesperson for Gotham Greens, a New York-based operation with three locations in New York City, two in Chicago, one under construction in Baltimore, and more underway in other states, told a reporter that the farm has been selling out of its greenhouse-grown leafy greens every day.
Janeen Wright, the editor for Greenhouse Grower magazine, said that although the publication has always covered greenhouse cultivation of vegetables — as well as ornamental and nursery plants — it has been covering the vegetable side of the industry a lot more recently.
Referring to the romaine recalls in 2018 and 2019, Wright said growers have told her that the recalls have really helped them “get a name for themselves.”
“Unfortunately, all of these recalls will be a concern for consumers,” said Scott Horsfall, CEO of the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement. “The plantings (for romaine lettuce) are down but there’s still demand for it.”
As for whether greenhouse lettuces and greens will overtake field-grown lettuces and greens, Horsfall doesn’t think that will ever happen especially considering the vast quantity of the crops that are field-grown.
“I certainly haven’t seen concerns about this on the production side of the industry,” he said.
Even so, greenhouse farming is making important strides. During the 52 weeks ending Sept. 29, 2019, sales of produce marked as greenhouse-grown increased 7.6 percent and sales of produce described as locally grown increased 23.2 percent, according to the latest Fresh Facts on Retail report from United Fresh Produce Association, a trade organization.
The “local” aspect is important because greenhouses are located in many regions of the country and therefore lettuces grown in them don’t have to be shipped across the country from Yuma and Salinas during the winter months. Because the lettuces and greens can be grown year-round they have an extra “local” advantage.
In the winter, more than 90 percent of the lettuces and greens in the United States are grown in the Yuma, AZ, and Salinas, CA, growing regions. Salinas is often referred to as America’s “Salad Bowl,” and Yuma, the “Lettuce Capital of the World.”
Yuma is home to nine factories that produce bagged lettuce and salad mixes. Each of these plants processes more than 2 million pounds of lettuce per day during Yuma’s peak production months, November through March.
“It’s a long way from Yuma to Cleveland,” said John Bonner, co-owner of Great Lake Growers based in Ohio. He pointed out that the difference in distance between the two is part of why the lettuces and greens don’t arrive in stores and restaurants as fresh as they do when they arrive in establishments that are near his greenhouses.
In addition, consumers’ interest in locally grown food has risen dramatically. Some are even referring to the lettuces from the Yuma and Salinas growing regions as “corporate lettuce.”
Controlled-environment agriculture, another way to describe greenhouse cultivation when done according to certain standards, is helping grow the local food market. The USDA estimated they would reach $20 billion in sales by 2019, up from $12 billion in 2014.
Peace of mind about food safety is another important part of the puzzle when it comes to increased demand for greenhouse produce. A spokesperson for Gotham Greens agrees that the food safety scares originating from large-scale farms have buyers looking for lettuces and greens grown on a smaller scale and closer to home.
For the most part, greenhouse growers don’t use pesticides or other harmful-to-humans chemicals on their crops, and many follow strict organic standards.
Greenhouses: The indoor option
When you think of farming, you think of soil.
In contrast, most indoor farming — or greenhouse growing — does away with soil. Instead, crops are grown hydroponically in controlled sterile environments.
In most hydroponic systems, plants are grown in nutrient-rich water, instead of in soil. The water is rich in phosphorus, nitrogen, and calcium.
At the top of the list when it comes to the advantages of hydroponics is that it requires only 10 percent to 16 percent of the same amount of water to produce vegetables as conventional irrigation systems in outdoor farming. That’s because the water in a hydroponic system is captured and reused, rather than allowed to run off and drain into the environment, according to indoor growers.
That’s especially important in areas where water is scarce. In California, for example, conventional outdoor agriculture accounts for 80 percent of total water use.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has been implementing hydroponic farming in areas of the world beset with food shortages. There are currently ongoing projects to establish large hydroponic farms in Latin American and African countries.
NASA has even gotten into the act. In the late 20th century, physicists and biologists put their heads together to come up with a way to grow food in space. They began by growing plants on the International Space Station, opting for hydroponics because it needs less space and fewer resources — and produces vastly higher yields — than growing in soil.
In 2015, astronauts actually dined on the first space-grown vegetables.
Although there hasn’t been much government funding for research on greenhouse agriculture, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently gave Michigan State University $2.7 million for research into indoor growing techniques. In addition to that, the researchers have won industry grants bringing the project total to $5.4 million.
A focus of the research will be gathering information on the economically viability of greenhouse growing.
Food safety and hydroponics
Food-safety scientist Kirk Smith, who has been leading investigations into food safety outbreaks for many years, said one thing that has emerged in outbreak investigations is that E. coli contamination in produce almost always comes from irrigation water used on fields.
Making things more complicated, the Food Safety Modernization Act, signed into law by President Obama in 2011, has yet to establish definitive standards for agriculture water quality.
Leafy greens, including romaine lettuce, are chopped and washed in huge volumes as part of the bagged salad production process. This allows bacteria on one head of lettuce to be spread to hundreds or thousands of bags. Photo illustration
Another challenge beyond irrigation is washing the field-grown produce after it’s been harvested. That step is when using clean water is especially critical, otherwise, contamination from one head of lettuce can spread to the rest of the produce in the factory.
Food safety scientists warn that even though a package of bagged salad greens that have been field grown says the greens have been triple washed, that doesn’t mean there’s no chance of some of the greens being contaminated. In the case of E. coli, for example, the pathogen can hold on tight and resist being washed away.
In contrast, most greenhouses use municipal water and many wash their greens with running water instead of dunking them into a tank. Some don’t even need to wash them since they never come into contact with any water simply because it’s the roots that are being watered, not the leaves.
Bonner said that his farm makes sure the water it uses is clean and tested.
“We have extensive testing for E. coli,” he said. “We’re monitoring it every second.”
As for farmworkers, Bonner said one part of the audit his company goes through is dedicated strictly to food safety and farmworkers.
“We’re in a building, and the bathrooms are right there,” he said. “And we have handwashing sinks all over the place.”
Because most greenhouse farms grow food year-round, there’s no need to rely on a seasonal workforce. In Bonner’s case, the company works with a local Amish community whose young people are eager to work for his company.
In other cases where greenhouses are located in cities, farmworkers live in city apartments. This stability in housing and location gives greenhouse farms a stable workforce.
Nothing’s perfect
Of course, there’s no guarantee that a foodborne pathogens will never occur in greenhouse settings.
And because most lettuces and greens are eaten raw, they don’t go through a “kill step” to kill pathogens that might be on them.
Many of the foods popular with indoor growers — lettuces, sprouts, fresh herbs, microgreens, and wheatgrass — carry the highest risk of outdoor produce, some of that because it grows so close to the ground.
That’s why prevention is so important, the greenhouse growers say. This would include paying attention to how water, tools, animal intrusions, pests, and human handling plays a role in preventing food from being contaminated.
What is it about romaine?
Romaine lettuce is “particularly susceptible” to E. coli, said Keith Warriner a University of Guelph (Canada) professor, in an interview with City News.
During the research, Warriner said, scientists discovered that out of all the lettuces, E. coli likes romaine the best.
A study the food safety scientist conducted showed that extracts of romaine lettuce actually brought E. coli out of a dormant state when it’s in the soil. Once out of its dormant state, which can last up to a year, it can flourish.
The FDA included this Google Earth view in its memorandum on the environmental assessment related to the E. coli outbreak. It shows a section of the Wellton canal that is adjacent to a 100,000-head feedlot. Portions of this image (in gray) were redacted by the government. However, the FDA report says the image shows the locations of the feedlot, sites where E. coli-positive water samples were collected, unlined sections of the irrigation canal, and a retention pond at the feedlot. The water in the canal flows from west to east.
Warriner describes several reasons why romaine is particularly susceptible. To begin with, the crop is mostly grown in Arizona and California. That’s cattle country, and irrigation water used on the romaine fields can become contaminated with bacteria from animal feces via water runoff and dust in the air.
Added to that, because both states have hot weather, the lettuce needs an abundance of water.
Warriner pointed out that even though other leafy greens like spinach and kale are also grown in the same areas, and under similar conditions, their leaves are, as he described them, “as tough as nails.”
Romaine is considered the most nutritious lettuce when compared to red leaf, green leaf, butterhead, and iceberg.
Although it’s low in fiber, it’s high in minerals, such as calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and potassium. It’s also naturally low in sodium. Another plus is that romaine lettuce is packed with Vitamin C, Vitamin K, and folate. And it’s a good source of beta carotene, which converts into Vitamin A in the body.
(To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News, click here.)
Tags: California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, CDC, FDA, Food Safety Modernization Act, FSMA, Gotham Greens, Great Lake Growers, greenhouse vegetables, greenhouses, Revol Greens, Tyger River Smart Farm, USDA
MEXICO: Grow Food Anywhere! The Mexican Startup That Innovates In Agriculture
A Mexican startup is offering the possibility of growing vegetables within the city in a healthy enclosed space and harvesting up to 100 times more than normal.
A Mexican startup is offering the possibility of growing vegetables within the city in a healthy enclosed space and harvesting up to 100 times more than normal.
Juan Succar and Jorge Lizardi, graduates of the Tec de Monterrey Leon campus, created the Verde Compacto company, which follows the new global trend of urban and vertical agriculture. This type of agriculture is ideal for supermarkets, restaurants, hotels and real estate developments.
Verde Compact obtained third place in the Heineken Green Challenge at the entrepreneurship festival, INCmty, as one of the ventures to follow in 2020, according to Entrepreneur in Spanish.
Mexican technology for a worldwide trend
Urban agriculture is growing in the world and already accounts for 15% of all agriculture, according to UN data. The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) itself is promoting this alternative, although there were not so many options in Mexico.
Verde Compacto ensures that, unlike other similar foreign companies, they are the first to use only Mexican technology, which makes them pioneers in Latin America.
Growing food in enclosed spaces
Urban agriculture goes hand in hand with vertical agriculture, which allows sowing in enclosed spaces and at various height levels, thus maximizing space.
Verde Compacto launched Huvster, an intelligent vegetable growing system in a recycled trailer container. The system allows growing up to 200 times more vegetables per square meter with less water.
Fully Automated
The container has a system that circulates the water and an LED-lights system in the germination zone that simulates the conditions needed by the seeds to grow.
The plants are located in vertical towers and are watered via drip irrigation. Here, they grow until they are harvested. "The system has sensors that measure CO2 levels, ambient humidity, and temperature," Juan stated.
Characteristics
According to the company founders, this option also has these advantages:
It has an intelligent system for measuring and controlling temperature, humidity, irrigation, and other aspects of vegetable cultivation via hydroponics.
It allows having savings of 90% in water, and 80% in fertilizers when compared to a traditional method.
The system measures the plants' nutrition levels and regulates them so that they all grow at the same speed.
It decreases the risks of having pests.
It can produce, for example, an average of 730 lettuces per month, or 20 kilos of oregano, coriander, or other herbs per month, as well as 30 to 35 kilos of vegetables.
It can also impact agribusiness in several ways, avoiding distribution costs if installed near consumers.
In addition, the vegetables can be grown at any time of the year.
The company stood out in INCmty
Verde Compacto became one of the leading startups at INCmty, Tec de Monterrey's entrepreneurship festival.
This venture was also part of the Heineken Green Challenge, an initiative that recognizes companies that innovatively solve problems in Mexico, where it achieved third place in the 2019 edition.
Source: tec.mx
Publication date: Tue 7 Jan 2020
Shipshape Urban Farms $1 Million Financing, K Dale Speetjens Submitted Nov 29 D Filing
Shipshape Urban Farms is based in Alabama. The firm’s business is Agriculture. The form D was signed by K Dale Speetjens President and CEO. The company was incorporated in 2019
Posted by Jean Kramer on November 29, 2019
Shipshape Urban Farms Financing
Shipshape Urban Farms, Inc., Corporation just had published form D announcing $1 million equity financing. This is a new filing. Shipshape Urban Farms was able to sell $150,000 so far. That is 15.00 % of the round of financing. The total offering amount was $1 million. The offering form was filed on 2019-11-29. The reason for the financing was: unspecified. The fundraising still has about $850,000 more and is not closed yet. We have to wait more to see if the offering will be fully taken.
Shipshape Urban Farms is based in Alabama. The firm’s business is Agriculture. The form D was signed by K Dale Speetjens President and CEO. The company was incorporated in 2019. The filler’s address is: 600 Clinic Drive, Mobile, Al, Alabama, 36688. Kenneth Dale Speetjens is the related person in the form and it has the address: 600 Clinic Drive, Mobile, Al, Alabama, 36688. Link to Shipshape Urban Farms Filing: 000179551019000001.
Analysis of Shipshape Urban Farms Offering
On average, firms in the Agriculture sector, sell 63.30 % of the total offering amount. Shipshape Urban Farms sold 15.00 % of the offering. The financing is still open. The average fundraising size for companies in the Agriculture industry is $287,000. The offering was 47.74 % smaller than the average of $287,000. Of course, this should not be seen as negative. Firms raise funds for a variety of reasons and needs. The minimum investment for this financing is set at $1. If you know more about the reasons for the fundraising, please comment below.
What is Form D? What It Is Used For
Form D disclosures could be used to track and understand better your competitors. The information in Form D is usually highly confidential for ventures and startups and they don’t like revealing it. This is because it reveals the amount raised or planned to be raised as well as reasons for the financing. This could help competitors. Entrepreneurs usually want to keep their financing a ‘secret’ so they can stay in stealth mode for longer.
Why Fundraising Reporting Is Good For Shipshape Urban Farms Also
The Form D signed by K Dale Speetjens might help Shipshape Urban Farms, Inc.’s sector. First, it helps potential customers feel safer to deal with a firm that is well-financed. The odds are higher that it will stay in the business. Second, this could attract other investors such as venture-capital firms, funds, and angels. Third, positive PR effects could even bring leasing firms and venture lenders.
Market Data by TradingView
UK’s Urban Agritech Sector Welcomes Announcement of Official Representative Collective
UKUAT brings together the UK’s key players in modern agricultural technologies
UKUAT Formalized As A Membership
Organization For Urban Agriculture
06 February 2020
The UK’s evolving agritech sector today welcomes the formation of a new membership group – the UK Urban AgriTech Collective (UKUAT).
UKUAT brings together the UK’s key players in modern agricultural technologies. It is a cross-industry group devoted to promoting the application of high-tech food production in urban areas to improve both local and wider food security by relieving dependence on resource-intensive supply chains. It will also be exploring the social, operational and metabolic synergies urban agritech can exploit through its integrations with the built environment which are conducive to more dynamic local economies and richer placemaking.
UKUAT’s 25-strong membership includes commercial urban farmers, multinational technology companies, renewable energy companies, architects, built environment professionals, academics, research-based organizations and more. It hopes to grow this number to 75 over the next two years and operates with a common representative voice to share information, educate and advocate for further adoption of urban agriculture in the UK. It will influence policy and help shape the debate around how high-tech food production in urban and peri-urban areas addresses increasing demands for a more transparent, sustainable and resilient UK food system.
Founder and Director Mark Horler commented: "We founded UKUAT to amplify the collective voice and activities of the agritech industry in the UK. As it continues to grow rapidly, and with that rate of expansion accelerating, the UK is positioned to be an international leader, both in the development of agricultural technology and its implications for more sustainable and resilient food systems"
Oscar Rodriguez, Director of design consultancy Architecture & food and UKUAT member said: “The UKUAT community is coming together at a very interesting time. Concerns over UK food security have emerged following Brexit and UKUAT believes leveraging agricultural technology and expanding our indigenous food production capacity while engaging urbanites to be more conscientious about their eating patterns are crucial ends of a worthy proposition.”
UKUAT was founded in 2017 by Mark Horler and formalized in January 2020. It continues to grow its presence in the UK and is collaborating with numerous international organizations to advance agritech solutions in urban and peri-urban environments across the world.
- ENDS -
Sent on behalf of UKUAT. For more information please contact: Mark Horler, UKUAT - email: info@ukuat.org
Urban Farming: Technology And Tradition
As we enter a new decade, the human race finds itself faced with worldwide political turmoil, economic injustice, dizzying technological achievements, and an existential threat in the form of a spiraling climate crisis
By HARRY MENEAR
February 13, 2020
As we enter a new decade, the human race finds itself faced with worldwide political turmoil, economic injustice, dizzying technological achievements, and an existential threat in the form of a spiraling climate crisis. In order to rise to and overcome these challenges, humanity is going to need to drastically reevaluate the way it caters to some of its basic needs.
The global urban population has grown rapidly, from 751mn people in 1950 to 4.2bn today. Almost 70% of the world’s population is predicted to live in urban areas by 2050, according to a report by the United Nations (UN) released last year. At the start of the 1800s, more than 90% of the population (in the US) lived on farms and, on average, a farmer grew enough each year to feed between three and five people. Throughout the subsequent centuries, advances in agricultural technology and technique meant that farms produced more food using less labor. In 1900, an acre of land used to grow corn only produced 18% of the yield achieved on the same piece of land in 2014.
Today, farmers represent a mere 1.4% of the US population, and the average size of farms has grown dramatically. The ratio of people in cities to the farmers that feed them is already at a huge disparity and, as that relationship becomes more and more imbalanced, the strain put upon the agricultural industry has the potential to spell disaster for a global food supply - to say nothing of biodiversity, quality of diet and cultural connections to cuisine itself.
Massive demand for year-round, mass-produced, cheap produce today is already causing problems, from the incipient extinction of the honey bee to the wildfires and droughts exacerbated by overfarming water-wasteful crops like almonds and avocados. One of the most prominent issues, however, is the fact that as more people move into cities, the supply chains required to feed these swelling urban populations get longer and less sustainable. Food grown and produced to last for long periods of time contains more indigestible fats and sugars.
“Diets are changing with rising incomes and urbanization— people are consuming more animal-source foods, sugar, fats and oils, refined grains, and processed foods. This ‘nutrition transition’ is causing increases in overweight and obesity and diet-related diseases such as diabetes and heart disease,” noted a report on Changing diets: Urbanization and the nutrition transition by researchers at the International Food Policy Research Institute.
In the UK, despite all the advances of modern medicine, life expectancy for lower-middle-class and working-class males is - when adjusted for infant mortality - three years lower than it was in the mid-Victorian era. “The implications of a better understanding of mid-Victorian health are profound. It becomes clear that, with the exception of family planning, the vast edifice of post-1948 healthcare has not so much enabled us to live longer but has merely supplied methods of controlling the symptoms of non-communicable degenerative diseases, which have become prevalent due to our failure to maintain mid-Victorian nutritional standards,” write Dr. Paul Clayton, a Fellow at the Institute of Food, Brain, and Behaviour, Oxford; and Judith Rowbotham, a Visiting Research Fellow at Plymouth University.
The mid-Victorian diet that Clayton and Rowbotham espouse the values of was fairly one-note, but had spectacular benefits. “The Victorian urban poor consumed diets which were limited, but contained extremely high nutrient density,” write Clayton and Rowbotham. “Bread could be expensive but onions, watercress, cabbage, and fruit like apples and cherries were all cheap and did not need to be carefully budgeted for. Beetroot was eaten all year round; Jerusalem artichokes were often home-grown. Fish such as herrings and meat in some form (scraps, chops and even joints) were common too. All in all, a reversion to mid-Victorian nutritional values would significantly improve health expectancy today… the current pandemics of obesity and diabetes represent in many ways an acceleration of the aging process. We need to go back to the future.”
The population of the UK in the mid-Victorian era was about 30mn and, despite being at the height of the Industrial Revolution - was a lot less urbanized than it is today. In 2019, more than 83% of the UK’s population live in cities and towns, the country employs fewer than half a million farmers and produces less than 60% of the food it consumes.
How do we fix it?
The key to improving nutrition and shortening the supply chains between rural farms and urban consumers may be deceptively simple. While, “just grow the food in the cities,” might seem like a somewhat glib response to a nuanced issue, there are compelling cases around the world for doing just that.
In an unassuming warehouse in New Jersey, serried rows of kale, lettuce and other leafy greens are stacked in shelving units and trays that reach up into the air. The climate - light intensity, humidity, nutrient balance in the soil - is meticulously tracked by a network of sensors and cameras that feed oceans of data into a proprietary operating system that allows the facility’s operators to grow food 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in conditions that are as close to perfect as can be found anywhere. This is Bowery Farming, an urban agriculture startup founded in 2015 by Irving Fain, David Golden and Brian Falther, backed by Google Ventures. In an interview in 2018, Fain - who is also Bowery’s CEO - claimed that his company’s urban farming techniques use no pesticides and "95% less water than traditional agriculture, all while remaining 100-plus times more productive on the same footprint of land.”
Urban and vertical farming techniques are growing (sorry) in popularity across the world as a potential way to solve a number of the challenges posed by increasing populations, climate instability and food deserts (areas of rural, suburban or urban land without farms or grocery stores, making it next to impossible to obtain quality, fresh food in an affordable way and offering only convenience food chains in their place - food deserts are playing a major role in the deterioration of urban population health).
The practice has its roots (again, sorry) in times of economic scarcity and turmoil - the Great Depression and the Second World War both saw a huge increase in the number of urban farms - and can be as low-tech as growing a head of lettuce on your bathroom windowsill, or as futuristic as a fully-automated, end-to-end hydroponic facility operated by artificial intelligence (but more about Stacked in a minute). At the moment, urban farming operations are turning to vertical farming, the practice of using (typically) climate-controlled environments to grow plants across multiple levels - a practice that can turn a 3,000 sq ft allotment in a city center into effectively a 9,000 sq ft agricultural facility.
Regardless of the level of technology employed across their operations, there are a few key vertical farming techniques that are being adopted in an effort to solve one of the key problems facing modern agriculture: water wastage.
Hydroponics
The practice of growing plants without soil. Hydroponics uses a nutrient-rich liquid solution to submerge the roots of plants, which are placed in an inert medium (gravel, sand, clay pellets) for support. The method can drastically reduce water usage and increase yield.
Aquaponics
Adding an additional layer of sustainability to the hydroponic technique, aquaponics uses fish as the generators for the nitrate-rich plant food. Fish create ammonia-rich waste in their tank, the water from which is then pumped into an inert medium that contains plants. Bacteria in the bed turns ammonia into nitrates which the plants use for food, cleaning the water in the process. Then, the clean water is cycled back into the fish tank for the symbiotic process to begin again. Fish like perch or catfish can also ensure that the method provides two sources of food.
Aeroponics
Invented by NASA in the 1990s as a way of potentially raising crops in space (where tiny soil particles can be a nightmare for delicate instruments and electronics), aeroponics doesn’t use a liquid or solid medium to cultivate crops, instead using a nutrient-rich mist. It uses 90% less water than conventional hydroponic techniques.
Feeding plants using closed systems like these gives farmers an enviable amount of control over the condition of their crops. In Bowery’s system, a simple tweak of the lighting and nitrate levels in the soil can deliver a crop of kale that’s less chalky. As with any industry undergoing a digital transformation - and the data-driven, high-tech operations at Bowery’s three farms are certainly indicative of that - old roles and new roles are being constantly combined. Katie Morich, a Bowery farmer explained in an interview with Food & Wine that her job has become half farmer and half data scientist.
The combination of traditional and tech has been yielding promising results at Bowery, which is scheduled to open its third farm (an operation some 90 times larger than the company’s first operation in New Jersey, situated in Baltimore) in 2020.
However, despite the success of startups like Bowery, and the promise of urban and vertical farming techniques, the industry isn’t immune to teething troubles. While environmentally sustainable (although a number of urban farms still use pesticides), vertical farms have been struggling to compete financially as a combination of electricity costs, small scale operations and higher rent in urban areas conspire to make profitability a challenge. According to a report by Emerald Insight, less than a third of urban farmers in the US are making a living from their operations. There are, it would seem, two solutions to this problem:
It’s not about the money
One of the major benefits of vertical farming systems is that thanks to a technique like aquaponics, and increasingly cheap IoT technology, urban farming doesn’t need to be a full-time job. A majority of urban farms in the US are registered non-profits or community projects. Dividing the work among a neighborhood or even a block of flats could make for self-contained farming communities in the city that are free from depending on imported, expensive produce.
Founded in 2009, Colorado-based company The Aquaponics Source specializes in providing small scale aquaponics systems for schools, institutes, and household use. Startup AquaSprouts sells self-contained home units with a focus on education and home use that cost under US$200, although the internet assures me you can build an industrial-scale system to grow edible fish and leafy greens for significantly less (assuming you know a guy who’s looking to get rid of a giant rainwater barrel). Going small and cooperative may provide a look into the way urban farming can help support the global food supply. After all, it’s how the practice began.
Go big or go home
Operations like Bowery and Brooklyn Grange (a 44,000 sq ft rooftop farm in Long Island) are significant scale operations and some of the few for-profit urban farms to have shown serious longevity in the fledgling industry.
Capitalizing on the idea that bigger is better and makes more money is French urban farming startup Agripolis. In collaboration with Cultures en Ville, the company is set to open the world’s largest urban farm in Paris early this year.
“The goal is to make this urban farm a globally-recognized model for responsible production, with nutrients used in organic farming and quality products grown in rhythm with nature's cycles, all in the heart of Paris,” the company said in a statement. The farm will grow more than 1,000 fruits and vegetables a day when in season.
Whatever shape the future of urban agriculture takes, it may be one of humanity’s best shots at overcoming the challenges of the coming decades.
Food Safety At Plenty
Our crops are grown in a hermetically sealed environment that sits within a highly controlled space designed with the highest possible food safety in mind
READING TIME | 10 MINUTES
February 26th, 2020
By Plenty Farms
At Plenty, health is our number one priority. We grow healthy food to nourish healthy people, and foster a healthier planet. As a vertical farming company that functions as both a grower and a manufacturer of food, Plenty cannot seek to restore human health without also seeking to improve and advance food safety in the agricultural industry. That means growing the tastiest and safest produce by monitoring exactly what and who goes into Plenty plants — and just as importantly, by controlling what we keep out of them.
Plenty produce doesn’t have to be washed before eating because our crops are already clean when they’re harvested. So they are ready to eat as soon as you purchase them from your local grocery store. Plenty crops are grown clean: no pests, no pesticides, no chemical sprays, no exposure to potential sources of contaminants like contaminated water or debris, and therefore, no need to wash them at home. We don’t have to spray any pesticides or other chemicals on our crops because Plenty’s high level of control over everything coming in and out of our vertical farms means there’s minimal risk of pests getting to our produce in the first place. Not to mention, the fact that we grow indoors means our plants aren’t impacted by Mother Nature.
Our crops are grown in a hermetically sealed environment that sits within a highly controlled space designed with the highest possible food safety in mind. Though Plenty produce is already at a very low risk for encountering pests, we operate an extensive integrated pest monitoring program that includes ultraviolet lights outside of our farms, air curtains on every door to control the air that enters and leaves our growing rooms, filters on all of our HVAC systems, as well as extensive pest monitoring performed on a regular basis.
And because Plenty plants aren’t exposed to pests, there’s no reason for us to ever spray them with pesticides. Which means those non-existent pesticides never need to be washed off — not by you nor by us.
Leafy greens have long been considered a high-risk crop because they’re usually eaten raw. Typically, after a bunch of kale, or a head of lettuce is bought from the grocery store, it’s taken home, given a quick rinse, and put on a plate to be eaten. And while rinsing produce is a habit that’s likely been ingrained in most consumers since they were old enough to reach the sink, it is not, in fact, a particularly effective habit. At best, washing produce with water simply knocks down the population of any existing pathogen, but to truly clean something harmful like E. coli off of a plant, you would need a chemical to interfere.
As that’s not likely a science experiment you’d like to perform every time you make a salad; leafy greens should be arriving to your kitchen ready-to-eat, free of all pests, pathogens and pesticides. Traditionally, the way to mitigate the risk of contamination in leafy greens has been by performing a triple-wash on them between harvest and sale. Triple-washing involves a pre-wash, a saline wash, and bathing the greens in a sanitizing solution like chlorine. Not only do leafy greens lose flavor and texture, but in the effort to reduce pathogens, bathing greens also runs the simultaneous risk of spreading any existing pathogens even further if performed incorrectly.
The more a crop is handled after harvesting it, especially by humans, the more likely cross-contamination is to occur. The triple-wash process means that after harvest, an outdoor-grown leafy green is: transported to a processing facility, sorted, rinsed, put in a spinner, given a second rinse, spinner again, third rinse, sorted again, packed, and finally transported to your grocery shelves. Further, during all of this, it must be considered that water is a vector if the process isn’t performed perfectly; it spreads pre-existing pathogens far faster than human hands or surfaces can.
When you shop at the grocery store, you see a lot of packages claim that their greens are “triple-washed” or “pre-washed”. Sanitizing solutions can kill pathogens in theory, but the introduction of water could potentially introduce pathogens. If one leaf of lettuce is contaminated with E. coli and then put into a package to be delivered to the grocery store, only that one package of lettuce is contaminated. But if that lettuce is first put into a water bath where it transfers its contamination to other lettuce, and then put into another bath, and then another…like wildfire, that pathogen could spread rapidly. As the numerous recent instances of leafy greens recalls demonstration, triple-washing is clearly not a foolproof process.
It’s time to change the way we grow leafy greens.
Plenty eliminates the need for triple washing by dramatically reducing the risk of contamination. Outdoor water sources can pose a high risk of contamination due to everything from livestock proximity to seasonal shifts. Contaminated agricultural water can pool inside every nook and cranny of a plant, creating a tiny ecosystem that is difficult to clean and where microorganisms thrive; threats rise further in the rainy season when higher temperatures and humidity encourage bacteria’s survival.
On a Plenty farm, there are no seasons — no rises in humidity or fluctuations in temperature – nor long gaps between harvesting and packaging . For every potential contamination variable that outdoor farms must attempt to mitigate after harvest, Plenty has a system in place to dramatically reduce from the ground up, before our crops are even planted.
Plenty’s irrigation water is drawn from filtered, potable water, and each crop’s container is designed so that no irrigation water ever touches the part of the plant we feed to customers. In addition, our growing and processing rooms are hermetically sealed, meaning our produce can’t be exposed to outside elements.
We also perform extensive sterilization and supplier control to make sure that the inputs to our farm, such as seeds and nutrients, are clean and safe. Because we can control the safety and cleanliness of the materials that enter our farms, we can even further control the safety and cleanliness of the fresh produce that exits them.
Every decision we make at Plenty, every plan we put in place, every control, variable, and measure is designed to improve the health of people, plants and planet, and that means prioritizing food safety in any and every way possible. We feel lucky to be at the forefront of a new industry that is not only restoring consumer confidence in leafy greens, but setting a new standard for how safely fresh foods can be produced.
It is not easy to make leafy greens 100% safe — but it is possible to dramatically lower the risk. Eliminating the need for pesticides and controlling variables like water and weather mean that produce can enter your home clean and ready to eat. Consumers shouldn’t have to clean their produce with chemicals or risk their health in order to eat well, and it is our mission to make sure they never have to. Plenty is growing clean, safe produce to fuel healthier lives for people, plants, and the planet.
Farms Inside Shipping Containers Could Grow More Local Produce
Instead of trucking vegetables across the country, one company wants to help food service providers grow food right where they are, no matter how little experience or land they have
The Crops Grow Vertically Under LED Lights
Tuesday, February 18, 2020
Four rows of panels on a flexible moving rack system house more than 8,000 living plants at once, creating a dense canopy of fresh crops. (Photo: Courtesy of Freight Farms)
Instead of trucking vegetables across the country, one company wants to help food service providers grow food right where they are, no matter how little experience or land they have.
“That’s at corporate campuses, university campuses, health care facilities,” says Brad McNamara, CEO of Freight Farms. The company sells what it calls the Greenery.
“It’s a 320-square-foot shipping container like you would see on a boat, a train, a truck, outfitted with an automated growing system,” he says, “to grow about 3.5 acres worth of produce with no pesticides, no herbicides, and about 98.5% less water.”
Inside the Greenery, plants grow vertically, with their roots in a nutrient solution instead of soil. Sensors, pumps, and LED lights automatically maintain ideal growing conditions, so you don’t have to be an expert to start farming.
“You plug it in and you’re growing the same day,” McNamara says.
As the climate changes and the world’s population grows, McNamara says it makes sense to farm in a way that produces more food with fewer resources and less transportation.
“Instead of making more bigger farms,” he says, “We make hundreds, then thousands, then millions of people into independent successful farmers where they live and work.”
Reporting credit: Stephanie Manuzak/ChavoBart Digital Media.
Irma To Introduce Vertical Farming In 35 Stores In Denmark
Coop Denmark has announced plans to introduce vertical farming in some 35 Irma outlets, in collaboration with Germany's infarm
February 18, 2020
Coop Denmark has announced plans to introduce vertical farming in some 35 Irma outlets, in collaboration with Germany's infarm.
The retailer plans to roll out the technology in its stores over the next two months, after a successful pilot project in its Østerport store last year.
'An Innovative Concept'
Infarm has devised an innovative concept that allows retailers to grow herbs and certain leafy vegetables in stores, using vertical farming units.
The cultivation of the herbs and vegetables require very little water and no synthetic pesticides.
The process also minimizes the requirement of transportation from farms to store shelves.
Commenting on the initiative, Irma director Søren Steffensen described vertical farming as the "way of the future to grow vegetables. With this collaboration, we unite Irma's goal of promoting the most sustainable forms of production and the best possible quality of taste."
Read More: Financial Cost Of 'Vertical Farming' An Impediment To Sector's Expansion
Founded in Berlin in 2013, infarm is now present in France, Luxembourg, Switzerland.
In September 2019, it partnered with Marks & Spencer to introduce the technology in its Clapham Junction store in South West London.
Two months later, US retailer Kroger announced plans to launch the concept in its outlets across North America.
Fresh Produce tagged: Trending Posts / Sustainability / Denmark / Copenhagen / Irma / Vertical Farming / infarm
© 2020 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
How Much Does Vertical Farming Cost?
Indoor food production has long been cited as the ideal way to help feed an ever-growing population
Indoor food production has long-been cited as the ideal way to help feed an ever-growing population.
Currently, vertical farming is increasingly being seen as the way forward to produce higher volumes of better-quality crops all year round, bring food production closer to customers, and into urban areas.
For leafy produce growers, a move to vertical farming can massively reduce the reliance on conventional farming methods – which are affected by the weather – and ensure consistent, quality crops to keep customers happy.
The key, of course, is to ensure the vertical farming costs and business case stacks up. In recent years, this is why people have increasingly sought out the expertise of the team at CambridgeHOK.
In an in-depth article, they try to explain how and why they help – including detailed insights into:
Vertical farming start-up costs
Why indoor farming is taking off
The realistic profits achievable
Why the industry’s future is bright
Read more at the CambridgeHOK website.
Publication date: Mon 17 Feb 2020