Welcome to iGrow News, Your Source for the World of Indoor Vertical Farming

IGrow PreOwned 8/24/17 IGrow PreOwned 8/24/17

Urban Farming Initiative To Provide Long-Term Security For Local Green Spaces

The Three Rivers Agricultural Land Initiative will buy the land of existing projects, which will be chosen by a committee consisting of members of Grow Pittsburgh, the Allegheny Land Trust and the community. Allegheny Land Trust President and CEO Chris Beichner said this step will ensure the land will be protected from future developments.

IGrow PreOwned 8/24/17 IGrow PreOwned 8/24/17

Will Zeal For Profits Hinder High-Tech Farming From Feeding People?

.In the future envisioned by Dr. Dickson Despommier, author of Vertical Farming: Feeding the World in the 21st Century, cities and the surrounding communities will house intensive agricultural production.

IGrow PreOwned 8/23/17 IGrow PreOwned 8/23/17

This Vertical Farming Startup Is Valued At $27.5 Million

What's vertical farming? In Bowery Farming's first indoor farm, located in a warehouse in New Jersey, proprietary computer software, LEDs, and robotics are able to grow leafy greens without any pesticides, using 95% less water than traditional farms. CEO Irving Fain describes his company as a tech company "thinking about the future of food."

IGrow PreOwned 8/23/17 IGrow PreOwned 8/23/17

Lean Plate Club Blogger Sally Squires On The Rooftop Farming Trend

In D.C., there’s the equivalent of about an acre of rooftop farming spread out across the city, overseen by an outfit called Up Top Acres.

IGrow PreOwned 8/22/17 IGrow PreOwned 8/22/17

He’s Spent Most of His Life Perfecting Lettuce

Why should a greenhouse worker be granted an 0-1 Visa? The document is granted by the US government only to noncitizens who demonstrate “extraordinary ability or achievement.” For Dutchman Pieter Slaman, it’s because he had proprietary knowledge of commercial horticulture that was needed for a new high-tech lettuce farm in Devens.

IGrow PreOwned 8/21/17 IGrow PreOwned 8/21/17

Next Gen Urban Farming Is Here to Stay

As Owen Lynch of Big Tex Urban Farms says, “A food desert is a health desert is a job desert is an infrastructure desert.” Next generation urban farming is taking root, contributing to communities at the grassroots level, where people are learning to take care of themselves – and each other.

IGrow PreOwned 8/20/17 IGrow PreOwned 8/20/17

Canadian Retailer First Of Its Kind To Install Rooftop Garden

The project is managed by Ligne Verte (The Green Line) and has a year-round fulltime staff of two and a six-month contract position to supplement busier times. “It’s the largest commercial rooftop garden in Canada,” says Tim Murphy of Ligne Verte.

IGrow PreOwned 8/20/17 IGrow PreOwned 8/20/17

Jesse Leadbetter Grows a Local Urban Food Business From Scratch

Leadbetter, a fresh-faced entrepreneur with a trim, ginger beard, grew up in Texas, went to Oklahoma University for a degree in marketing, and landed in Charlotte seeking "somewhere different that wasn't flat and hot." He worked for eight years in the sports collectibles industry before realizing he wanted more.

IGrow PreOwned 8/19/17 IGrow PreOwned 8/19/17

Atop a Parking Garage in a Staten Island Residential Development, an Urban Farm Builds Community and Thrives

Empress Green Inc. is an urban farming business specializing in organic food production, education, and consulting. Bates and her husband, Asher Landes, started the company in 2016, shortly after moving into the residential development Urby, a 500+ apartment complex that sits on the north shore of Staten Island, New York.

IGrow PreOwned 8/19/17 IGrow PreOwned 8/19/17

Nabeela Lakhani Grows Hydroponic Kale In A Box in Brooklyn

Inside her designated "Leafy Green Machine," her crops grow in verdant columns stretching 9 feet from the metal floor. Outside, nine identical containers shelter highly efficient, humidity- and temperature-controlled Freight Farms that make it possible to cultivate produce anywhere, all year long.

IGrow PreOwned 8/19/17 IGrow PreOwned 8/19/17

When Entrepreneurship Meets Agriculture, You Get An ‘Accelerator’ Teaching ‘Vertical’ Farming

“We wanted to come up with a model that scaled small urban farming, so literally every consumer of food can have a direct relationship with a farmer,” Square Roots co-founder and chief executive Tobias Peggs told Fast Company (the company’s other founder is Kimbal Musk, whose brother is…yes, that guy).

IGrow PreOwned 8/18/17 IGrow PreOwned 8/18/17

This Midwestern Greenhouse Has Perfected The Art Of Growing Quality Tomatoes Year-Round

A few years ago, as a food industry entrepreneur in Chicago, Gary Lazarski started to notice something that bothered him. “My office back in 2010 was in the Loop; there were a bunch of different lunch places around there, and every sandwich and every salad you bought would have these tomatoes on them,” Lazarski tells Fast Company

IGrow PreOwned 8/17/17 IGrow PreOwned 8/17/17

A Nonprofit Farms Rooftops of Nation’s Capital with Triple Bottom Line in Mind

“We’re a nonprofit landscaping company but instead of mowing lawns we build gardens and maintain gardens for residential, commercial and community partners,” says Thomas Schneider, Executive Director of nonprofit Rooftop Roots.

IGrow PreOwned 8/17/17 IGrow PreOwned 8/17/17

Hydroponics: the future of farming

The earliest published work on growing plants without soil was Francis Bacon’s 1627 book Sylva Sylvarum. Water culture quickly became a popular research technique following the publication, but it was not until the 1920s that the idea really took hold.

IGrow PreOwned 8/17/17 IGrow PreOwned 8/17/17

Why Suburban Lawns Are Becoming Farms

New York City isn't known as a farming destination, but green thumbs in Long Island have come up with a creative way to grow crops by turning their front yards into farms.

IGrow PreOwned 8/15/17 IGrow PreOwned 8/15/17

In The Future, Your Grocery Will Likely Come From The Building Next To You

In recent years, hydroponics, a technique that involves growing plants using nutrient solution and water as medium has gained popularity. But startups such as Plenty and Aerofarms use what they claim is an even superior technique called Aeroponics. The roots of the plants are suspended on a misty medium rich in nutrients.In either case, these indoor farms do away with soil and sunlight.

IGrow PreOwned 8/15/17 IGrow PreOwned 8/15/17

Urban Farms: Projects From Around The World

As social entrepreneurs find novel ways to make agriculture an integral part of urban life, I would like to share 10 innovative approaches with you from around the world.

IGrow PreOwned 8/14/17 IGrow PreOwned 8/14/17

Grow, Eat, and Learn With Urban Roots

When you say the words farm to table, often that means it’s a very elitist, exclusive club. There’s some amazing farm to table restaurants in town that we love, and they charge a good amount because they are worth it and they value their employees and farmers. Unfortunately, farm to table sometimes doesn’t mean everybody is invited.

IGrow PreOwned 8/13/17 IGrow PreOwned 8/13/17

Urban Farm Grows Ugly Greens In Brooklyn, NY

Food waste is a concerning issue for consumers, something all retailers and growers should keep top of mind. Puri says that in the US over 70 billion pounds of food is wasted each year which amounts to 250 pounds per person.

IGrow PreOwned 8/13/17 IGrow PreOwned 8/13/17

Thomas Paine Plaza Will Transform Into A Big Urban Farm in 2018

Goodbye, larger than life Parcheesi pieces, hello 2,000-square-foot urban farm: Next summer, the Thomas Paine Plaza in Center City will be transformed into a large community farm that’s estimated to produce about 1,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables