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

IGrow PreOwned 11/2/17 IGrow PreOwned 11/2/17

Little Box Farms Turns Vacant Crown Heights Lot into Container-Farming Facility

Tech investor Travis Ally has leased a plot of vacant land at 827 Bergen Street in Crown Heights for an urban farm concept called Little Box Farms, housed in repurposed freight containers that have been converted in growing pods.

IGrow PreOwned 11/1/17 IGrow PreOwned 11/1/17

Urban Agriculture Advocates Flock to NYC City Hall in Support of Groundbreaking Legislation

Supporters of new legislation to create a comprehensive plan for urban agriculture in NYC packed today’s public hearing at City Hall.

IGrow PreOwned 11/1/17 IGrow PreOwned 11/1/17

Kimbal Musk Defends His Container Farming Accelerator

Musk’s solution is simple, if a tad controversial: The accelerator’s first yearlong field experiment did away with the need for a field entirely. Instead, its 10 farming containers are located in a Brooklyn-based parking lot. “So far, we’ve seen a lot of enthusiasm if you can bring the farm to the farmer,” Musk added.

IGrow PreOwned 10/31/17 IGrow PreOwned 10/31/17

Urban Farm, Set to be Largest In The US

A farm in the city? Yes, and just like other farms, the first step in converting land to fields is removing the “rocks.”

IGrow PreOwned 10/31/17 IGrow PreOwned 10/31/17

Shanghai’s Edible Rooftops

Atop Red Star Macalline Group’s headquarters sits a rooftop farm called Yiyun, which translates as “leaning on the clouds.” Chilies, white gourd, eggplant, chives, and other vegetables flourish across the 4,600-square-meter garden cultivated by the company, which is China’s largest national furniture retailer. The harvested produce is used in the staff cafeteria, and the farm also provides thermal insulation for the building’s top floor, which houses expensive rosewood furniture.

IGrow PreOwned 10/30/17 IGrow PreOwned 10/30/17

UGA Professor: Today’s Students Will Live to See Food Shortages

University of Georgia students will see food shortages in their lifetimes, UGA professor David Berle predicts. It’s impossible to tell how a future of food scarcity might play out, or how deep that scarcity could be, Berle said in a recent talk in the auditorium of UGA’s Odum School of Ecology.

IGrow PreOwned 10/30/17 IGrow PreOwned 10/30/17

Saudi Arabia Is Building a Futuristic Mega-City That Will Cost $500 Billion

The country’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, announced the $500-billion plan, which will create a futuristic city in the northwestern region of the country. Dubbed NEOM, the mega city will cover 26,500 square kilometers in total, spanning territory within Egypt and Jordan as well.

IGrow PreOwned 10/30/17 IGrow PreOwned 10/30/17

IKEA & Top Chef David Chang Round Out Financing for $40 Million Series D Round for AeroFarms

AeroFarms just built its ninth farm to date in Newark, New Jersey that is the world’s largest indoor vertical farm based on annual output. Having raised in total over $100 million in corporate and project financing, AeroFarms will used the latest round of funds for continued investment in leading R&D and technology and additional farm expansion around the world.

IGrow PreOwned 10/29/17 IGrow PreOwned 10/29/17

Urban Farms Gain Support

New York City’s government announced last month that it is providing $500,000 to create two urban farms. Both will use space in New York public housing developments. The new farms will join four other farms already operating with city government help.

IGrow PreOwned 10/29/17 IGrow PreOwned 10/29/17

Farm Bill Discontent: Urban Ag Supporters want Changes

Sonia Finn, Danielle Marvit and Raqueeb Bey are passionate about agriculture. And they believe U.S. farming practices are dangerously off course and need to be corrected, starting with the 2018 farm bill. "The farm bill isn't right for agriculture. People need to get involved and work to change it," Finn said.

IGrow PreOwned 10/28/17 IGrow PreOwned 10/28/17

Kimbal Musk Has a Silicon Valley-Style Plan to Feed America

Kimbal Musk’s food philosophy —that “real food” should sustain not just the human body, but also the planet and the food producer—is actually very similar to the community garden or farmers’ market philosophy.

IGrow PreOwned 10/27/17 IGrow PreOwned 10/27/17

Toronto Entrepreneur Brings Vertical Farms to Windsor

The old Forster high school’s computer lab houses the steel frame work for four vertical farms, including one that’s teeming with several types of kale and lettuce along with thyme, arugula and Italian dandelion. It has the potential to grow 70 plant varieties year round.

IGrow PreOwned 10/27/17 IGrow PreOwned 10/27/17

Growing Urban Agriculture

In Paris, post office workers have successfully raised chickens and grown vegetables on the rooftop of a mail-sorting center. In Chattanooga, the city council just loosened zoning rules to allow urban dwellers to keep livestock. And in Ekurhuleni, South Africa, an urban resident is successfully growing vegetables including chilies, spinach, and onions to supply restaurants.

IGrow PreOwned 10/26/17 IGrow PreOwned 10/26/17

New Urban Farm in D.C. Is About More Than a Food Desert

The lack of access to fresh food is a factor in great health disparities in D.C. Residents of Wards 7 and 8 are several times more likely to be obese, and have diabetes and other food-related illnesses than are residents of wealthier communities just across the Anacostia River.

IGrow PreOwned 10/25/17 IGrow PreOwned 10/25/17

What Will it Really Take For Vertical Farms To Succeed?

Vertical farms like AeroFarms, of course, have their critics. But proponents say they are the future, and judging by the sheer volume of vertical farm-related headlines, you might conclude that those proponents are right—that all we need to do is sit back and watch while conventional agriculture withers away, farms revert to wildland, and sparkling, non-polluting growing facilities become a new part of our cityscapes.

IGrow PreOwned 10/25/17 IGrow PreOwned 10/25/17

The Future of Farming May Be Below The Soil

The operation, called Growing Underground, is competitive with traditional farming because their model excludes many of the costs large agribusiness has to contend with, Dring said. The startup sells locally, meaning it doesn't have to ship produce long distances.

IGrow PreOwned 10/24/17 IGrow PreOwned 10/24/17

Urban Farming? It's Operations, Stupid

Vertical farming, and urban farming at small scales, are new practices. There is no rule book. There is no workforce of managers with prior experience to draw on. Everything is being rewritten from scratch.

IGrow PreOwned 10/24/17 IGrow PreOwned 10/24/17

Houston’s Urban Container Farm Unfazed By Harvey

A 320-square-foot container just north of downtown Houston is not where you would expect to find a farm, but that’s exactly where is located at. Acre in a Box consists of two shipping containers retrofitted to grow leafy greens.

IGrow PreOwned 10/19/17 IGrow PreOwned 10/19/17

Seven Miles to Heaven // Katie Martin

The Lab is two years old, but it’s built around a quarter-acre urban farm that’s now in its fifth growing season. Since the Lab’s inception, Freiberg, a team of volunteers, student interns and partner organizations in New Haven have built a barn, a patio and a “WikiHouse” (more on that later); terraced a hillside to create a medicinal herb garden; installed beehives; and begun cultivating mushrooms.

IGrow PreOwned 10/18/17 IGrow PreOwned 10/18/17

U of M Secures $2.5 Million Grant to Improve Quality of Life in Cities

The grant is part of the NSF’s Smart and Connected Communities initiative, which is investing $19.5 million nationwide to develop interdisciplinary and community-engaged research to revolutionize the nation’s cities and communities with more responsive and adaptive infrastructures, technologies and services.