Welcome to iGrow News, Your Source for the World of Indoor Vertical Farming
A Vital Question: "What Are The Best Crops For Vertical Farming?"
Written by Chris Michael
"Vertical farming is not about how much production you can possibly cram into a space. It’s about growing better food closer to market and maximizing your production as a function of the resources you invest, such as capital, light, water, energy, and labor." - Chris Michael, Bright Agrotech
Vertical farming with ZipGrow is one of the most efficient type of growing in modern farms, but one question that people get hung up on is:
What can you actually grow on vertical planes?
It's a vital question! Anyone considering a vertical farm should be planning out their crops as part of the process. As a farmer, you have to make sure that you can actually sell what you grow and that your production costs won't be too high.
Part of that is good crop choices.
Although choosing crops should be part of a whole feasibility study for your farm, we thought a guide on some of the best vertical crops for vertical farming would be helpful to people in the middle of the planning process.
What can you grow vs. What should you grow
With the right set-up, you can grow almost anything in a vertical farm.
Just because you can, however, doesn't mean that you should. Here are several factors to choosing an appropriate crop for your vertical farm.
1) Economic viability
Even if a crop is biologically viable (you can grow it) it might not be economically viable (you can't make money on it!).
If you can't make money on a crop, there could be several reasons:
Lack of demand (no profit)
Inappropriate technique (high production costs)
Climate (high heating, cooling, light costs)
Of course, each of those factors require a little balancing to master. "High" cost is relative to the margin that you're getting on the output.
Once you understand your demand, budget, and climate requirements, there are a few other factors to consider with your crops:
2) Timing and liability
A "turn" is the time it takes from the seedling going into the system to the mature plant coming out and going to market.
Focusing on crops with really fast turns (lettuce, mustard greens, collard greens, basil, mint) allows you to minimize your liability by never being more than six weeks or so away from production.
Slow-turn crops (like herbs and fruiting crops) are typically a bit trickier but can have higher margins than greens, depending on your local markets. We typically recommend a high greens-to-herbs ratio. For example, a new farmer could start with 80% of his space planted with greens and 20% planted with herbs.
When you know what you do and don't want, you can start browsing through crop lists and seed catalogs! Here are some of ours and our farmers' favorites:
Lettuces (Romaine, Butterhead, Red Leaf, etc.)
Lettuces have fairly consistent demand across much of the world and throughout the year. There are dozens of varieties of lettuce, making it fun to grow and offer to customers. Some markets are excited to branch out and trying new varieties and crop mixes (perhaps your very own spring mix), this is where you can start building niche markets and setting yourself apart from other vendors.
Kales (Tuscan, Winterboar, and Dinosaur)
Kales are fairly easy to grow, although the crop requires extra care when harvesting if farmers are to get the highest yield. Each type of kale has its own variation on the rich taste and dark colors. Tuscan kale is one of the most popular varieties, Blue Curled kale has a very robust flavor profile and is also popular.
Chard & collard greens
Collard greens are like a thicker, deeper version of spinach. They can get quite large in the proper conditions.
The gentler version of collard greens, chard is a French green that cooks like spinach. Like kale or collard greens, chard can be harvested multiple times (taking only 30% of the plant each time) and grows back for larger yields later on.
Chives and mint
Chives and mint are some of the best crops for beginners. Although categorized with herbs, both chives and mint have a quick turn and grow densely like a grass. It is also easy to harvest.
Basil (Sweet, Lemon, Cinnamon, etc.)
Basil is possibly the most loved ZipGrow crop. It grows better in the ZipGrow Towers than any other technique in the world and – because of it’s charming aromatics and bold flavors that add to nearly any dish – creates demand almost everywhere it goes. While a bit trickier to grow, harvest, and store, many farmers include basil in their crop offering. Some farmers even specialize in the popular crop.
Small woody herbs
Small woody herbs like rosemary and it's kin, thyme and oregano, represent a rather picky group of crops. As woody herbs, they prefer "dry feet", and have a relatively slow growing cycle. Since the shrubby herbs are so potent and unique, many farmers still find the traction to sell them in their markets. These woodier crops can be less finicky, however, when it comes to harvesting and packaging, which should also be taken into consideration – especially if market demand is high.
Learn more about crops
Want to learn more about individual crops? Learn more at Upstart University:
Here’s What You Need to Know About Growing Bok Choy in Hydroponics
Best Conditions & Methods for Growing Parsley in Hydroponics
Everything You Need to Know About Growing Chard Without Soil
OR see which crops farmers like you are growing all over the world through their own pictures and posts.
Seeding The Right IoT Architecture To Build A Better Farm
AeroFarms is using data-driven insights from an IoT deployment to increase yields, conserve resources and improve the flavor of its produce.
Dell EMC
Enterprises around the world are working actively to capitalize on the opportunities brought by the convergence of high performance computing, data analytics and artificial intelligence. And we’re not talking about just the big, global players. Small and midsize businesses are very much in this game — in a big way.
That’s the case at AeroFarms, a U.S.-based company that is on a mission to build and operate environmentally responsible farms throughout the world by enabling local production at scale.
This young company is dedicated to nourishing communities with safe, nutritious and delicious food. To carry out its mission, AeroFarms runs the world’s largest indoor vertical farm, which yields up to 390 times more produce than a traditional field farm — all without sunlight, soil or pesticides, and all with 95 percent less water.
AeroFarms builds vertical farms in urban areas that aren’t known for agriculture — such as Newark, New Jersey, where the company has its global headquarters, as well as indoor farming operations. In these and other facilities, AeroFarms is proving that through a high-tech, data-driven method of misting nutrients directly on to the plant roots, as well as directing appropriate amounts and wavelengths of artificial light, leafy greens can thrive in an indoor farming environment.
All of this, of course, takes more than great ideas and great execution. It also takes a lot of great technology to harness the data that helps AeroFarms gain insights into operations and make informed decisions. This is where Dell Technologies enters the picture. Through its partnership with Dell Technologies, AeroFarms is well positioned to implement the right data-driven machinery into its industry-leading processes. Using data related to temperature, humidity, airflow, nutrients, light, water and food safety, AeroFarms automates and analyzes everything from seed to package.
The IoT journey
To begin its IoT journey, AeroFarms worked with Dell Technologies Consulting to determine its use cases, design a technical architecture that met its business requirements, and then to develop an implementation roadmap to achieve the company’s business goals.
From an IT architecture standpoint, AeroFarms faced several unique challenges and considerations. Here’s a look at some of these higher-level issues, and how Dell Technologies approached them.
Dell EMC
As part of the architecture, we recommended the use of Dell Edge Gateways for IoT to help the research and production farms accelerate the analysis of plant health instrumentation data. We also included a Dell EMC PowerEdge 740xd high-performance compute node to support artificial intelligence, deep learning and advanced, custom analytics. These capabilities can help AeroFarms improve growing conditions — for example, by automating image recognition and classification to adjust plant nutrients, light and other factors.
Key takeaways
Ultimately, AeroFarms is a technology company that is leveraging science and engineering to redefine what’s possible in agriculture. In this quest, the company is equally vested in harvesting not just its plants but also its data to gain a closer understanding of the symbiotic relationships among biology, environment and technology, and to drive better performance.
AeroFarms is a fascinating example of how technology advances human progress, and we’re proud to be part of the company’s story. In providing strategic and technical guidance, Dell Technologies Consulting has helped AeroFarms implement a scalable architecture that meets business requirements, including custom grow analytics, and that also works within the unique parameters of an emerging company.
To learn more about our consulting services and the work we did at AeroFarms, watch the video “Achieving Scale with Big Data and IoT.”
Laddie Suk leads a cross-functional Dell Technologies Consulting team focused on digital transformation and industry solutions.
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Food Pantry to Receive Lettuce Grown Hydroponically At UW Oshkosh’s Polk Library
by Laurie Schlosser | March 19, 2019
Books, computers and…lettuce?
A nook at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh’s Polk Library is housing a state-of-the-art hydroponic unit. The tender green lettuce that is sprouting—especially throughout winter and spring—will provide a welcomed healthy produce option at Lutheran Food Pantry in Oshkosh.
“My hope for this partnership is that it will be a tangible example for students, staff and the community of what it looks like to have various organizations working together to benefit the community,” said Abigail (Knoll) Miedaner, of Jericho Road Ministries (JRM) Lutheran Food Pantry, recipient of the harvested lettuce.
A 2013 UW Oshkosh graduate who majored in biology and minored in chemistry, Miedaner said the lettuce can be grown from seed to harvest in as little as three weeks. Growth, though, is dependent on many variables.
She said she is very interested to find out about the variables in Polk Library and how the lettuce responds. Small plugs of rockwool growing medium that contained tiny romaine and green star lettuce plants were inserted into the hydroponics unit Feb. 27. By late March, the first crop of lettuce should be on someone’s table for dinner.
The hydroponics unit will be operated at Polk Library for the spring semester and likely be moved to another location for summer. The unit may be returned to Polk when school is back in session in fall.
“Fresh produce in food pantries is difficult to obtain and keep, especially in winter, and we have no control over the quality of the produce we receive,” Miedaner said. “One of the ways that we are seeking to address this issue is to grow produce ourselves right at the food pantry.”
The Flex Farm hydroponics machine at UW Oshkosh was donated by Aurora Health Care and is the fourth machine generating crops for the JRM Lutheran Food Pantry. The machine is the newest Flex Farm hydroponics grow machine available from Fork Farms, based in Appleton. Schools, restaurants and nonprofit businesses are among Fork Farms’ clients.
Lots and lots of lettuce!
With hydroponics, plants mature in a growing medium with a nutrient solution. The practice allows plants to grow year-round and it minimizes exposure to environmental damage, disease and insects.
Monthly cost of electricity, water and supplies is estimated to run around $50. The units produce about 150 heads of lettuce a month—equating to around 33 cents each.
The Lutheran Food Pantry serves 350-400 Winnebago County families monthly. Each client can use the pantry once per month, so leaders stress the importance of high-quality, long-lasting food being available.
UW Oshkosh senior environmental studies student Elijah Tesch, of Oconomowoc, is overseeing the planting of seeds and harvesting of the lettuce.
“My role in this project is to maintain the machine and make sure the lettuce is growing,” Tesch said. “When the lettuce is fully grown, I’ll harvest it and bring it to the Lutheran Food Pantry on Division Street.”
Tesch stops by several times a week to check on water level, pH and nutrient level of the water. Once a month, he’ll harvest and then re-plant the hydroponics unit.
Lights are on 24 hours a day to start. A timer reduces the amount of light to 18 hours per day and then 14 hours a day, as it mimics a natural light cycle.
Focus on sustainability
There are some unique opportunities in partnering with the University, Miedaner said, adding that they would like to try some other crops, including spinach, in the Flex Farm unit.
“The University has equipment, which would allow us to gather data that may be beneficial for us and other growers,” she said, “and would provide additional opportunities for student learning and engagement.”
Kevin Crawford, a chemistry professor who is director of the University’s Sustainability Institute for Regional Transformations, said hydroponic and aquaponic startup companies and nonprofits are appearing throughout northeastern Wisconsin. The partnership with Jericho Road Ministries gives students an opportunity to gain hands-on experience while helping address poverty issues in Oshkosh.
Seedo Partners With Kibbutz Dan For First-of-its-Kind Fully Automated Indoor and Containerized Commercial-Scale Cannabis Farm
AI-powered climate control technology serves growing demand for pesticide-free products around the globe
NEWS PROVIDED BY Seedo Corp.
TEL AVIV, Israel, March 19, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --
Today, Seedo Corp., "Seedo" (OTCQB: SEDO), a high-tech company providing the world's first fully automated and controlled indoor growing machines for the pesticide-free cannabis and agricultural markets, announced today it will be partnering with Kibbutz Dan in Northern Israel to establish the first fully automated, commercial-scale, pesticide-free containerized cannabis farm in Israel. With Israel's recent approval of medical cannabis exports, Seedo is positioned to become a key player in this emerging market as its technology can achieve reliable and uniform production goals to meet pharmaceutical-grade standards. Within 36 months of operation, the project is estimated to produce a minimum of 14 tons of dry cannabis bud, generating an estimated revenue of $24 million dollars.
Introducing the Seedo Farm, automated, commercial scale container
In legal cannabis markets around the world, new research has brought to light concerns surrounding the prevalence of pesticides, solvents and bacteria present in the current supply chain. This poses a serious threat to consumer safety, especially for patients that are increasingly dependent on medical cannabis for treatment of a variety of illnesses. Seedo's revolutionary technology can control the purity of the crop to meet stringent compositional standards set by pharmaceutical and beverage companies looking to supply clean and consistent products to the market.
"We are entering a new era of growing where demand for pesticide-free products will only continue to increase," said Seedo CEO Zohar Levy. "We're thrilled to partner with Kibbutz Dan to provide a business model with governments that the world can look to. We've built our commercial-scale system to reflect our philosophy that technology can provide precise and reliable results without sacrificing yield."
This Landmark installation includes Seedo's first commercial-scale product to meet growing demand stemming from maturation of the worldwide medical cannabis market. Seedo is now applying its proven technology, originally developed for home-grow devices, towards containers for commercial scale. This new offering will allow Seedo to leverage and adapt its existing and proven AI-powered technology to commercial farming applications, thereby maximizing the quality, yield and reliability of crops regardless of local climate conditions. By taking the guesswork out of the cultivation process, communities will be able to grow both native and non-native products with less labor, energy and water than ever before. The airtight, stackable containers will allow cultivators to optimize land-use and reduce the environmental footprint of their farming operations. Each one of Seedo's containers can provide a minimum quantity of 326 pounds of dry cannabis bud per year.
Seedo will also look to provide its commercial product to agricultural regions in need of healthy and reliable food supplies. Each container features maximum daylight illumination, built-in carbon filters, automated air conditioning, and a smart post-harvest drying system that allows farmers to minimize cultivation costs and provide high-quality food with extended shelf life. As rising temperatures and urban population growth encroach on global food supplies, Seedo's turnkey technology will allow communities to grow their food locally without fear of crop loss from external climate or weather conditions. As its network of systems continues to grow, Seedo will be able to leverage aggregated data to discover the ideal growing conditions for every type of fruit and plant species, even bringing some back from the brink of extinction.
As part of Seedo's recent momentum, the company recently appointed Daniel Birnbaum, CEO of SodaStream, and Dr. Jendayi. Frazer, the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, to its board of directors. Mr. Birnbaum's expertise in building global brands and Dr. Frazer's work in international development and governance will inform the development of the commercial product to serve vulnerable communities around the globe.
About Seedo
Seedo is a market leading high-tech company providing the cannabis and agriculture industries with the world's first fully automated and controlled indoor growing machine. Seedo provides growers with the freedom to cut costs while generating high yields of lab-grade, pesticide-free herbs and vegetables. Seedo's AI-powered, turnkey systems enable anyone from average consumers to large-scale producers the ability to grow without prior experience or ample space. Seedo is a publicly traded company backed by a group of international investors including Cannabics Pharmaceuticals and is headquartered in Israel. For more information, visit http://www.seedolab.com
Contacts:
Seedo Corp.
+972-546-642-228
General Information: info@seedolab.com
Media inquiries: seedo@antennagroup.com
http://www.seedolab.com
Disclaimer:
Certain statements contained in this release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include, but are not limited to statements identified by words such as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "intends," "plans," "targets," "projects" and similar expressions. The statements in this release are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of our company's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Numerous factors could cause or contribute to such differences, including, but not limited to, results of clinical trials and/or other studies, the challenges inherent in new product development initiatives, the effect of any competitive products, our ability to license and protect our intellectual property, our ability to raise additional capital in the future that is necessary to maintain our business, changes in government policy and/or regulation, potential litigation by or against us, any governmental review of our products or practices, as well as other risks discussed from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, our latest Form 10-K Report filed on January 15th, 2019. We undertake no duty to update any forward-looking statement or any information contained in this press release or in other public disclosures at any time.
SOURCE Seedo Corp.
How To Rank Agtech's Top 50, According to SVG-THRIVE
Several “next-gen” farming operations made the Top 50, including the New Jersey-based vertical farm operation Aerofarms and Bright Farms, an indoor farming company based out of New York.
How To Rank Agtech's Top 50, According to SVG-THRIVE
Jenny Splitter Contributor
Food & Drink I cover the intersections of technology, farming and food.
Farmers work at the Bowery Farming Inc. indoor farm in Kearny, New Jersey, U.S., on Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2018. Photographer: David Williams/Bloomberg© 2018 BLOOMBERG FINANCE LP
The agtech landscape is littered with disruptors, but when “everyone is either disrupting or being disrupted,” as Jill Lepore wrote in a 2014 New Yorker piece entitled “The Disruption Machine,” how can you tell the difference between hype and a company that could bring about real change? “It’s a good question,” says John Hartnett, CEO of agtech investment firm SVG Partners, and it’s one he’s prepared to answer. As part of its THRIVE AgTech platform, SVG has just released its Top 50 Report ranking the best growth stage companies in the industry.
“If I look at the last five years,” says Hartnett, “investment in this whole category has increased 500% plus.” Across all of that investment, Hartnett acknowledges “there’s been quite a bit of hype across the digital side,” but he believes the top 50 have earned their ranking for a reason.
Hartnett offers Farmers Business Network as an example. The online network is kind of a central information hub for farmers, where they can analyze data collected from farm machines and find up-to-date pricing for things like seed and fertilizer. “Farmers Business Network [came] in...out of nowhere and [now] they’re disrupting the biggest companies,” he argues. “I kind of look at that as a real live example of a company making big traction.”
Infographic representing SVG-THRIVE Top 50 Ranking SVG-THRIVE
Robotics companies also made the list, says Hartnett, because the technology could help solve problems like labor shortages or demand for herbicide alternatives. And the technology is being put to the test in the field, which is an important data point for Hartnett. “Somebody like Driscoll’s berries, largest berry company in the world,” he says, is now beginning to use robot fruit pickers combined with artificial intelligence to ensure the berries are being picked when they’re actually ripe.
“There’s [also] a company that came to our accelerator called Farmwise,” says Hartnett, “[who uses] AI in conjunction with robotics automation solutions to be able to identify what’s a weed and what’s a plant to be able to target and get rid of the weed.” Farmwise made THRIVE’s “Ones To Watch” list, a list of contenders that fell just shy of making the Top 50.
Several “next-gen” farming operations made the Top 50, including the New Jersey-based vertical farm operation Aerofarms and Bright Farms, an indoor farming company based out of New York. Though vertical farms were initially met with skepticism by the industry, Hartnett says these days the technology looks far more scalable. “Vertical farming is still a small percentage of the overall pie of farming, but...there’s significant investment going into these companies,” which helped these startups become serious contenders.
Biotech—long a leading category in the overall agtech field—grew even more exponentially over the last year. The category captured 62% of the funding pool, a feat Hartnett suspects was helped along by an activity-driving boost from last year’s mega-mergers between agriculture giants like Bayer and Monsanto as well as DuPont and Corteva. Biotech companies like Indigo Ag and Gingko Bioworks made the Top 50 Report, due in part to this funding boom.
MicroGen Biotech, an Irish biotech company founded by a Chinese scientist with funding from both Chinese and Irish investors, is another company that made the “Ones To Watch” list. Hartnett, who is originally from Ireland, was intrigued by the company when he first came across it a few years ago. “They’re taking an interesting approach to reducing [impact from] metals in the soil [by] using their technology to protect the seed” rather than treat the soil directly.
Brad Goehring, owner and operator of Goehring Vineyards Inc., stands for a photograph at one of his vineyards in Lodi, California, U.S., on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2016.Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg© 2017 BLOOMBERG FINANCE LP
“This year’s awardees are developing incredible solutions that enable the agriculture and food industries to respond...to urgent environmental challenges, labor shortages, food security and human health concerns” says Hartnett of the rankings. “Top 50 companies are critical assets to the industry and we are proud to highlight the incredible spectrum of innovation.”
Jenny Splitter Contributor
I’m a food, science and health writer whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, New York Magazine, Slate, Mental Floss, SELF and the Breakthrough Journal. Since 2015, I’ve been fascinated by the intersection of technology and food, from cutting edge cattle feedlots to new formats like cellular agriculture and lab meat. I especially enjoy writing about genetically engineered crops, food and agriculture policy, and sustainability in agricultural and food technologies. I grew up in Northern California, not too far from the farms of the Salinas Valley “Salad Bowl,” and now live in Washington, D.C. with my husband and two kids. You can find me on Twitter at @jennysplitter.
Rhode Island Governor To Welcome New Urban Greenhouse Farm In Providence
Event on Thursday March 28
Rhode Island Governor Gina M. Raimondo, Providence Mayor Jorge O. Elorza, Rhode Island Secretary of Commerce Stefan Pryor, and other members of the community will join Viraj Puri, co-founder and CEO of Gotham Greens, for an official announcement and construction preview at its first urban greenhouse farm in New England, located at the site of the former General Electric Base Works facility in Providence, R.I.
The 110,000 square foot farm is slated to open in early fall 2019 and will create approximately 60 permanent and 100 construction jobs, the company said. The facility will operate year-round to supply residents, restaurants, and foodservice customers of Providence and the greater New England region with 10 million heads annually of lettuce and leafy greens.
When: Thursday, March 28 2019
10:45am - Noon
11:00am speaking program
RSVP to jackie@gothamgreens.com
Who: Confirmed speakers include:
• Rhode Island Governor Gina M. Raimondo
• Providence Mayor Jorge O. Elorza
• Rhode Island Secretary of Commerce Stefan Pryor
• Co-Founder & CEO of Gotham Greens Viraj Puri
• Providence Director of Long-Range Planning Bonnie Nickerson
Where: 555 Harris Ave. Providence, RI 02909
Please consider appropriate footwear, as this is an active construction site
For more information:
Nicole Baum
Gotham Greens
Ph: +1 (718) 935-0600
media@gothamgreens.com
www.gothamgreens.com
Spectrum King LED Granted US Patent For Proprietary Plant Spectrum
Spectrum King LED is proud to announce that we have been granted US Patent No. 10238043 for our proven proprietary plant spectrum.
This gives us exclusive rights to the full spectrum technology used in all of our grow lights. The result of over 10 years of detailed research, plant studies and multiple prototypes has brought us to this great day. This new patent reinforces our claim of being the leaders and founders of full spectrum horticultural lighting technology.
Russia: Vertical Farm Upgrades LEDs to Save on Energy
In greenhouses, supplemental lighting is often used, enhancing the sunlight and boosting the natural mechanism of photosynthesis in plants. In iFarm's vertical farms that are assembled in closed units with no access of light or air from the outside, LED lamps are used. They provide the plants with the required light spectrum for growth.
“In the beginning we purchased special lamps with various spectrums, bicolor and full spectrum ones, but we were not happy with their efficiency: they got as hot as radiators but provided little light”, shares the general director of iFarm, Aleksandr Lyskovskiy.
The first vegetables in the company's experimental bio-vegetarium were grown with the usage of such lamps. Further, iFarm began cooperation with a light equipment producer and got an opportunity to use the lamps with the most efficient LED existing at that moment. They showed a good result in terms of crops and energy consumption, requiring twice as little energy as the analogues, but they were rather costly.
iFarm specialists were confident that they could improve those lamps. For that purpose the chief engineer and head of the R&D department of the iFarm Project, Pavel Zeeman, unscrewed every singe lamp ever acquired by the company, browsed through tons of literature and recalled everything that he knew about LED lamps.
Square lamps were used in the vertical farm in the summer of 2018. As a result of their own research, iFarm determined the parameters for improved lighting under the conditions of a vertical farm, one of which is a high humidity level.
According to the chief engineer, iFarm lamps produce white light that includes blue, red, yellow and green spectrums, therefore fully replacing the sunlight. "Bicolor ones, which are often considered the most efficient ones", produce only the red and blue spectrums, which is much less healthy for the plants.
Due to the usage of highly efficient LED lamps, the company has reduced the energy consumption significantly, to 90 Watt per square meter. That allows for the decrease of greenery production cost and therefore makes the technology even more accessible for the franchisees.
Currently, a new big vertical farm is being constructed in a plot owned by the Vega Absolute company. The latter is acting as a technological partner of iFarm in lighting for the new project.
For more information:
iFarm
ifarmproject.ru
Publication date : 3/19/2019
Agriculture in Orange? An Indoor Farm Could Soon Be Approved
By Jared Kofsky
March 19, 2019
Aerial view of proposed development: 182 Hill Street, Orange. Image via Google Maps.
While agriculture might have once been a major industry in parts of Essex County, the streets of the county’s 22 municipalities tend to be lined with houses, apartments, stores, and office buildings today rather than farmland. At first glance, it might appear that farming is a thing of the past in the Garden State’s third largest county, but over the last few years, a different kind of agricultural business has started to boom in the Newark area.
Instead of the traditional outdoor farming that one might be used to seeing in sparsely populated corners of the state, the latest trend in the industry tends to be centered around locations that would previously never have been thought to be associated with agriculture. For instance, AeroFarms operates what has been described as the “world’s largest vertical farm” in Newark and owns additional indoor farms in the city, including a “research and development farm” in the middle of the downtown district. New York-based Radicle Farm also runs a smaller greenhouse in Newark’s North Ward.
Now, Orange could become the latest community to see indoor farming in action. A legal notice that was issued that month shows that a company called Intravision Greens NJ, Inc. is looking to begin hydroponic salad production at 182 Hill Street, which is located in an industrial area between Route 280 and the New Jersey Transit train tracks.
The firm is seeking approval from the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment, including a use variance, in order to “permit the use of these premises for the growing and harvesting of salad foods for wholesale distribution to local food purveyors,” according to the notice.
The matter is scheduled to be heard by the board during its meeting on Monday, March 25, at 7:30 p.m. Intravision Greens NJ reportedly wants the board members to “recognize hydroponic salad production as equivalent to light manufacturing.”
It is not immediately clear who is behind Intravision Greens NJ. Property records indicate that the site is owned by an LLC that is registered out of the Illinois offices of the Timber Hill Group, but the website of Team Resources, Inc. mentions a seven-year 13,500-square-foot lease by a company called Intravision Greens USA. Last year, plans for a Canadian indoor farm by a firm known as Intravision Greens were revealed, but it is not known if there is a connection between the business north of the border and the proposed one in Orange.
Note to readers: The dates that applications are scheduled to be heard by the Orange Zoning Board of Adjustment and other commissions are subject to change.
WeWork Launches WeWork Food Labs, an Innovation Lab & Accelerator For the Future of Food
By Jennifer Marston -
March 14, 2019
Image via WeWork.
Affordable workspace is hard enough to come by in old New York when you’re an independent company on a shoestring budget. For independent food startups, it’s twice as difficult because it involves finding both office and kitchen space. Unless you have deep pockets and a good realtor, looking for either of makes getting your wisdom teeth removed sound fun.
To provide both and also foster young, innovative companies across the food chain, WeWork has launched WeWork Food Labs, an innovation hub for food companies that rolls physical workspace, programming, a startup accelerator, and a food industry community into one package. And, as the name suggests, it’s specifically aimed at startups across multiple areas of the food industry, from food robotics and AI to alternative proteins, new ingredients like CBD, kitchen appliances, and logistics — all areas WeWork suggests are areas ripe for disruption.
According to materials obtained by The Spoon, WeWork calls Food Labs “the first of its kind workspace and global platform dedicated to startups impacting the future of food.” The program is designed to help startups grow and at the same time tackle issues in the food industry that become more pressing each year: How do we feed a predicted 10 billion people worldwide by 2050? How do we do so while also lowering carbon emissions, cutting back the amount of land we use, and teaching consumers about chronic disease like diabetes and obesity?
Food Labs will use two different programs, or “tracks,” to work with companies looking to solve those issues (and others).
The first track is what WeWork refers to as its “continuous programming.” Pretty much any startup in the food industry is welcome to apply. WeWork will choose between 40 and 60 companies from the pool of applicants. Those companies then get get access to the WeWork Food Labs facility, which will be housed on the eighth and ninth floors of the WeWork offices at 511 W 25th St. in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood.
The space will look and function much like a regular WeWork space, with both open and private desk areas, conference rooms, phone booths, and other WeWork office fixtures. In addition, Food Labs will also house an R&D kitchen, a photo studio, showcase space for CPGs, a mock merchandising area, and a tasting table. The rooftop will hold space for urban agriculture along with other green spaces. Startups working out of Food Labs will also have the chance to use the space for events.
While space is the biggest benefit here, it should also be noted that participating companies will, by joining Food Labs, get access to The We Company’s 400,000-strong body of members, all of whom are potential new customers. WeWork noted that “Food Labs can create massive impact by powering sustainable, accessible, nutritious and delicious food solutions for The We Company’s global community.”
Those companies selected to be part of the track are encouraged to hang on to their membership for at least one year. Given the lack of space in New York City for food businesses, I doubt that will be an issue.
You can see a few renderings of the forthcoming space at the end of this post.
Food Labs’ second track is more of a traditional startup accelerator format: a shorter-term program that helps startups move from one specific stage of growth to another. As is the case with most accelerators, selection criteria is more rigid here, and WeWork will select between six and eight companies to participate in each cohort. Selected participants take part in a five-month program and get opportunities for grants, equity investment, and follow-on funding. They can also use the WeWork Food Labs space sans membership fee.
For the accelerator, WeWork has allocated $1 million to be shared across the selected companies.
WeWork getting into the food innovation game isn’t completely surprising news. The company has long been a champion of cutting edge startups, and the food and beverage industry is teeming with them right now. As well, WeWork has tried to be at the forefront of certain movements in the food industry, most notably by cutting meat from its menu and meal-reimbursement policy in July of 2018, citing environmental concerns as the chief reason for the move. And the company invested in foodtech earlier this year by backing (an undisclosed sum) surfer Laird Hamilton’s superfood startup, Laird Superfood.
WeWork hasn’t yet chosen participants for its accelerator. According to a press release sent out today, the company is currently taking applications. Food Labs Programming kicks off in Spring 2019; the flagship space in Chelsea will open in October 2019.
According to materials sent to The Spoon, the NYC Food Labs location will be the first of several. There aren’t specifics yet, but Denver and Seattle are on the list of potentials, as are places where food insecurity is an especially an especially urgent issue to fix. For those locations, WeWork has said it will work with organizations like The World Food Programme and “propel innovation” and make food “more accessible, nutritious and sustainable.” Right now, that list of cities includes: Mumbai, India; São Paulo, Brazil; Belo Horizonte, Brazil; Barranquilla, Colombia; and Bangkok, Thailand.
Disclosure: The Spoon is a launch partner with WeWork Food Labs.
Read Mike’s Publisher’s Note here to learn more about why we’ve teamed up with WeWork and the editorial standards we’ve put in place for coverage of WeWork Labs companies moving forward.
NL: How Vertical Farms Make Safe Food More Accessible
Seven Steps To Heaven is a company from Eindhoven founded by Gertjan and Lianne Meeuwswhich, grows fresh produce in the high-tech vertical farm using LEDs instead of daylight in combination with temperature and evaporation control. The CEO of the company, Gertjan Meeuws, says that the biggest difference between traditional farming and vertical farming is that an indoor farm can operate where the consumers live – even in the centre of a big city. “Instead of having a long supply chain where the source of your fresh produce is the whole world, all the necessary vegetables come from one local farm. Indoor farming is the new supply chain,” says Meeuws.
Organic farming 2.0
“Vertical farming is not invented by the farmers,” the CEO of Seven Steps To Heaven says. “Usually traditional farmers work far away from the consumers and they have to focus on the yield on making a living most of all. Breeding companies are developing new varieties of vegetables with the emphasis on the resistance, high yield but not on the taste and nutrition. Indoor farming is also about yields and making a living just like traditional farming is, but in addition to those we also focus on growing safe, tasty, nutritious produce – as close to the market as possible.”
Meeuws believes that traditional farming and indoor farming can cooperate – it is not only the one or the other: “For instance, our company can grow young plants that can be planted in a greenhouse or in an open field and they are more vital than the plants grown in the traditional way. We can make young tomato plants that have extra energy, so when they leave our nursery, they still benefit from that energy during the first weeks after being planted in the greenhouse. That even allows the growers to use zero or hardly any pesticides because these plants are so strong. There are lots of ways in which our technology and know-how experience can support traditional farming and breeding.”
Quality, taste and nutritional levels
All the plants have photosynthesis – they take carbon dioxide from the air and produce oxygen and glucose. Meeuws explains that there are three levels of plant metabolism. On the first level the plants produce just enough sugars to merely stay alive, on the second level they produce enough glucose for maintenance and start growing, on the third level the plants make more sugar that they need for their growth and start producing secondary metabolites – they are better known as vitamins and antioxidants, which have enormous importance to our health and wellbeing. Secondary metabolites are important to the life of the plants just as well: plants use those substances for the protection against pests or for the attraction of insects involved in pollination. Meeuws says: “When the plants reach the third level of metabolism, they start giving something like a signal “Environment, don’t eat me!”
Making the plants reach the highest level of their metabolism that would fill them with vitamins is easier if the plants are grown in the controlled environment of an indoor farm than in the open field. In addition to this, a vertical farm operator doesn’t have to harvest the produce unripe for transportation reasons because the concept of an indoor farm involves local consuming. “Most of the fresh produce that we eat today is harvested way too early – the plants don’t reach their full potential, so they are not as tasty and as nutritious as they could have become,” says the co-founder of Seven Steps To Heaven.
Read the full story at innovationorigins.com
Publication date : 3/13/2019
Cornucopia Institute Takes Aim Against Certification Companies Over Organic Production Systems Incorporating Containers
The Cornucopia Institute released late last week a Guide to Organic Certifiers. The apparent point of the document is to encourage growers opposed to certification of organic production systems that include containers to switch their certification companies
The Cornucopia Institute released late last week a Guide to Organic Certifiers. The apparent point of the document is to encourage growers opposed to certification of organic production systems that include containers to switch their certification companies.
As efforts supported by Cornucopia to pass a National Organic Standards Board recommendation to modify USDA Organic Regulations in order to prohibit hydroponic systems failed, a new avenue to achieve their goals is to economically damage USDA approved and regulated certification companies to the point where those certifiers would drop growers that produce some portion of their crops in containerized production systems.
The Washington Post did publish a story on Friday on the subject (a repost of the story can be found here). The article states that the purpose of the certifier scorecard "is mostly a mechanism for shaming certifiers and the organic businesses that employ them."
CCOF Chief Executive Kelly Damewood responded in the article by saying "We are a federally accredited certifier and cannot deny certification based on philosophy or values alone. The scorecard is showing that they have an issue with the National Organic Programs allowance of hydroponics, not with CCOF."
Your Membership and Activity Still Needed
The efforts of growers and other members of the organic community like yourself helped to create more regulatory certainty and to safeguard your rights to select the most appropriate growing methods in your organic operations continues.
Join the CSO if you have not done so already. Our sustained efforts on behalf of the hydroponic, aquaponics and container industry around the country and in Washington, DC rely on dues from farming operations like yours.
Q & A With Kettering Graduate Who Is Changing The Future of Agriculture
03/18/2019
Brian Falther ‘10 is the co-founder of Bowery Farming, a modern, indoor farming company that grows vegetables and greens with less water and less space than traditional farming.
The New York-based company was founded in 2015. Farms in New Jersey and the New York City area grow non-genetically modified produce using vertical rows, LED lights, no pesticides, and efficient techniques. The produce uses 95 percent less water than traditional agriculture, and the company is 100 times more productive on the same footprint of land.
Falther studied Mechanical Engineering at Kettering and he launched three different food production-related startups, including Urban Tech Farm: Project Grand Rapids and Future Farm Tech.
He answered questions about Bowery Farming and how his time at Kettering University helped him become an entrepreneur.
What were the most valuable experiences at Kettering University?
Three vivid experiences at Kettering completely changed the trajectory of my life.
The first involved the tail-end of my time on campus in which there was this program introduced called “Entrepreneurship Across the Curriculum.” Several of the classes I took involved entrepreneurial-based projects. I’m confident that’s what catalyzed any dormant notions of entrepreneurship to emerge from within me. There are a few examples of this that have stuck with me:
In senior seminar, one of the books we read in Dr. Ezekiel Gebissa’s class was entitled “The Power of Unreasonable People.” This book in particular had a really big impact on my view of the world at the time. I think it ultimately led to cultivating a passion of entrepreneurship in me through refusing to accept the status quo.
The most impactful classroom experience I had was the class taught by Business faculty members Larry Navarre and Art Demonte called “Business Innovations and New Ventures.” This was probably my favorite class at Kettering. We learned the fundamentals of pitching (they had an investor that came in and critiqued our pitches live) and how to develop a business plan along with building out a financial model to support it. My group conceptualized a company called DISCovery, and the product that we had created for it was a disc-golf disc that had a tracking device in it which could be tracked by your cell phone when you inevitably lose your disc in the trees or tall weeds. There were moments when we seriously thought about pursuing the design and manufacturing of the idea into a real business.
The second experience was studying abroad in Germany at Hochschule Ulm. It was an absolutely incredible time in my life. Living in Europe for a term allowed me to increase my worldly empathy in a way that I’ve been able to more successfully navigate international business relationships throughout my career.
The third and most valuable experience, was meeting my wife, Julie. Both of us were members of the climbing club and we we met on one of the annual West Virginia trips. She was a B-Section Electrical Engineering student and I was an A-Section Mechanical Engineering student—we normally wouldn't have crossed paths otherwise. She alone has had the single greatest impact on everything I do, and I wouldn’t be where I am today without her.
How has Kettering made an impact on your career?
The co-op experience at Kettering has had an asymmetrically-positive impact on my career. Having the opportunity to gain a tremendous amount of application specific real-world experience is invaluable. I worked for two automotive suppliers in my co-op career. That experience is what allowed me to know extremely early on in my career that I absolutely didn’t want to work in automotive. I had discovered my ‘anti-career’ earlier than one may have in a more typical environment.
Kettering offers the capacity to gain more than two years experience in the field, coupled with the fact that the classroom environment is much more fast-paced than a typical schooling environment. Those two things combined have certainly enabled me to operate in a fast-paced environment.
When did you found Bowery Farming and what is your role?
I started experimenting with the idea that eventually became Bowery in 2010. In the process of discovering Bowery, I iterated through three separate attempts at building a business on the exact same idea from 2010 to 2014 before ultimately co-founding Bowery with Irving Fain and David Golden in early 2015.
My role at Bowery historically seems to evolve about every six months, and it’s been an incredible ride. It began with designing, building, and operating the very first proof-of-concept grow system in the basement of our house in Grand Rapids. From there it evolved to designing and building our first large-scale commercial indoor farm to helping to lead the design and engineering of our largest production facility. I love this type of work because of the all the interaction and integration of different competencies. The most recent evolution of my role at Bowery has been focused within systems engineering. I’ve been specializing in automation and robotics for our grow system.
Where did your interest in this kind of company come from and where the idea originated from?
Ever since I was young I’ve always had an interest in starting a company, but I didn’t really have a solid idea of what I wanted to work on until in late 2010. I came across a TED talk called “The Other Inconvenient Truth” given by Dr. Jon Foley. In his talk, Dr. Foley mentions that if we continue to farm the same way we do today, we’re going to run out of arable landmass by the year 2050. The notion of this idea really struck me and stuck with me—I couldn’t shake it. So, I started to think about what solutions could look like to solve this problem and started to look for companies that were working on solving this already because I wanted to work there.
What I found was, at that time, there really wasn’t anyone working on this in the way that I thought the problem could be solved. I figured I could do it myself. So I really became obsessed with learning about food production systems, designing grow systems, and learning to grow. I felt that if agriculture was able to be coupled with technology, software, and fundamental manufacturing principles, then the world could realize a food production system more efficient than humanity has ever seen. I had this ‘A-ha’ moment when I realized I could leverage my experience in the world of automotive manufacturing and apply that to food production.
There were a bunch of unoccupied warehouses, and I had originally started thinking about how to create a fully automated indoor food production system. At the time I was in my early 20s, and it was really tough to convince anyone that I was ready to raise the millions of dollars needed to execute on that vision. It would be several years later when I realized that raising money is not my core competency. I needed to find someone who could execute that part of building a business in a way that I knew I wasn’t going to be able to. So I was fortunate to have met Irving Fain, who’s done an incredible job for us as co-founder and CEO.
Bowery received Series B round of financing - what does this mean for the company?
Yes! In December, we announced a $90 million Series B fundraiser, bringing our total funding amount to $117.5 million to-date. As access to safe, fresh food becomes even more critical, Bowery will use these funds to expand our operation quickly and sustainably, to meet the demands of an ever-growing population. We’ll be opening farms in new cities by the end of 2019. We’re going to continue tackling complex agricultural and environmental issues through investing in technology and innovation across the company, maintaining the highest level of food safety, and hiring top talent.
What do envision for the future of Bowery Farming?
I think the most exciting aspect of Bowery stems from the fact, everybody eats. They always have and always will. The core mission of Bowery is to grow food for a better future by revolutionizing agriculture. What we envision is a farm in every major city in the world, and ultimately I foresee us continuing to accelerate the world’s transition to a more sustainable food production system for generations to come, on Earth, and perhaps even beyond.
Anything else you'd like to share?
You can find out more about Bowery at https://boweryfarming.com/. I tweet on occasion, feel free to reach out to me at @BrianFalther.
Written By Lindsay Knake | Contact: Lindsay Knake - lknake@kettering.edu - (810) 762-9639
Can Vertical Farms Be Profitable?
Can Vertical Farms Be Profitable?
By David Kuack, UrbanAgNews.com
March 13, 2019
Although vertical farms producing leafy greens are receiving most of the press coverage, there are a variety of other crops being being grown and innovative growers are finding these crops to be profitable.
When you think about a vertical farm what picture comes to mind? Ricardo Hernandez, horticulture professor at North Carolina State University, said most people think of vertical farms as indoor growing operations that produce leafy greens, primarily lettuce.
“There are both small and large leafy greens vertical farms,” Hernandez said. “Some of them are going out of business and some new ones are opening up. All of them have similar challenges.
“The main challenge is that even though they can produce a lot of leafy greens because they are able to stack the plants, there is a bottleneck in terms of how fast they can produce the crops. The bottleneck is tied to the plant genetics. With the current plant genetics and cultivars that most vertical farm entrepreneurs are using, it is very hard to outperform the lettuce crops coming out of the field. This is especially the case if the field conditions are suitable to grow lettuce such as in California and the southern part of Arizona during the winter.”
For many of the cultivars being grown in the field, including butterhead, red leaf lettuce and baby greens, the same seed is being used in vertical farms.
“In order for the leafy greens produced in vertical farms to actually gain significant market share, the genetics have to be changed in those plants,” Hernandez said. “This can come through conventional breeding or gene editing or through targeted breeding using molecular tools. A new set of cultivars is needed, a new set of genetics that are specific for indoor farms. Right now we are using the genetics that are good for field production. These field cultivars have high plant uniformity in terms of growth under a large variability of environmental conditions. The field genetics enable plants to look the same even if there is a lot of variability in the environment.”
Ricardo Hernandez, horticulture professor at North Carolina State University, said one of the biggest challenges facing vertical farms growing leafy greens is the lack of cultivars bred specifically for these production facilities.
Photos courtesy of Ricardo Hernandez, N.C. St. Univ.
Because vertical farms provide a stable environment, Hernandez said the types of genetics that are needed are specifically for an environment that can be controlled. The genetics for field crops of maintaining high uniformity and minimizing large variability are not a concern with vertical farms.
“Unfortunately, the market for breeding companies to develop varieties specifically for vertical farms is small,” Hernandez said. “There is not an established market for vertical farm growers. There hasn’t been a significant effort by established breeding companies to start developing cultivars specifically for vertical farms. Maybe some startups will be able to develop new cultivars or university researchers may be able to give those efforts a boost.”
Cost of production
One of the major hurdles with vertical farms is cost of production.
“There is a lot of technology and utilities associated with producing leafy greens in vertical farms,” Hernandez said. “That cost of production is very high compared to the leafy greens grown on the West Coast even when the shipping costs are added on.
“There actually are some vertical farms making money. Some of those are in boutique markets. These growers are able to get more money for a head of lettuce than the competing product that comes from the field. However, it is going to be difficult for growers who are selling to boutique markets and who receive a premium price for a head of lettuce to break into the mass market. Most consumers are not willing to pay the higher boutique prices.”
Hernandez said in order for vertical farms to acquire a significant share of the market, they are going to have to bring down the price of lettuce so more people will be willing to pay for the product.
Making money with transplants
One area of vertical farm production that Hernandez said growers can be profitable is producing transplants or starter plants.
“I’m convinced based on economic studies that we have done in my lab, using vertical farms or indoor growing is economically viable for growing transplants or starter plants,” he said. “Growing transplants is a very economical way to successfully adopt vertical farm production. These starter plants are a high value product and they can be grown under very high density in vertical farms, even higher than they can be grown in a greenhouse. These transplants are inserted into the current supply chain and will be sold to greenhouse and field growers who will produce the end products.”
Hernandez has started a transplant vertical farm, Grafted Growers, with his business partner John Jackson. Hernandez said growers looking to produce transplants in vertical farms should choose crops considered to have the highest value.
“These would be transplants that benefit the most from being grown indoors,” he said. “The clean controlled environment of a vertical farm can ensure a very high germination rate and a lot of plants can be produced in a small area. The controlled environment of vertical farms also provides a desirable outcome including finished plants that flower sooner or plants that have more dry mass.”
The controlled environment of a vertical farm used to produce transplants can ensure a high germination rate and can produce a lot of transplants in a small area.
Hernandez said the uniformity and quality of transplants grown in a greenhouse may not always match transplants grown in vertical farms.
“If there is good solar radiation levels, greenhouse growers can produce very good transplants,” he said. “If growers are trying to produce those transplants in greenhouses during the fall or winter, they may have to supplement the natural light levels or the quality of the transplants may not be as good. There may be a difference in quality and uniformity between seasons.
“Growing transplants in a vertical farm the quality of the transplants is consistent no matter what the outdoor conditions are. Comparing transplants grown in a vertical farm with transplants grown in a greenhouse during the winter, which is when many transplants are grown, the vertical farm transplants usually have a higher dry mass and are more uniform.”
Hernandez said a grower producing transplants during the winter may be able to match the quality of vertical farm transplants if a lot of supplemental light is used.
“It’s not only the amount of light that is important, but also the quality of light,” he said. “Even though transplants grown in a greenhouse may be receiving enough light with the use of supplemental light, depending on the light spectrum the transplants could end up stretching because they are planted at a high density.
“In a vertical farm the transplants can be kept from stretching by controlling the light spectrum so that they can be grown compact in a very high density. By taking the sun out of the equation and controlling the plant growth with artificial light eliminates the potential for stretching.”
Having the right vertical farm setup
Hernandez is quick to caution growers considering starting a vertical farm that different crops require different production setups.
Different crops require different vertical farm setups. The production setup that is optimum for for transplants may not work for leafy greens.
“Growers can create a lot of microclimates and have poor uniformity when they have the wrong vertical farm setup,” he said. “The vertical farm that works for leafy greens may not work for transplants because the requirements for transplants uniformity are different from those for leafy greens. If growers don’t have the right vertical farm to grow transplants, it’s not going to be easy and it could become a bigger problem.
“Growers need to listen to the plants and know what the plants need. Growers can incorporate a lot of technology, including robotics and sensor control, but if they are not listening to what the plants need, the technology will only deliver marginal improvements. The most important thing in a vertical farm is the plants. Everything else is just details.”
For more: Ricardo Hernandez, North Carolina State University, Department of Horticultural Science, Raleigh, NC 27695-7609; rhernan4@ncsu.edu; https://hortenergy.cals.ncsu.edu.
This article is property of Urban Ag News and was written by David Kuack, a freelance technical writer from Fort Worth, TX.
Want To Grow Plants in Space? Go To The Coldest Place On Earth
A land of unrelenting wind and ice, Antarctica is about as far from verdant as any place can get. Yet cucumbers are growing on the continent’s coast. Next to them, bunches of leafy Swiss chard, fresh herbs, and peppery arugula thrive.
These greenhouse vegetables are the stars of one of several scientific projects underway at Neumayer Station III, the third iteration of a German research facility run by the polar science-focused Alfred Wegener Institute.
The greenhouse’s primary purpose is pretty lofty: It’s a laboratory for studying how to grow food in outer space. Specifically, the researchers working there want to know whether astronauts can make fresh produce part of their diets if humans finally make it to Mars.
Read more at National Geographic (Catherine Zuckerman)
Publication date : 3/19/2019
Video: CEO of CO2 GRO Explains How Their Patented CO2 Foliar Spray Technology Accelerates Plant Growth
CO2 GRO’s outlook is based on an expanding clientele and increased acceptance of their technology.
No Time, Space to Farm At Home? Hyderabad Hydroponics Firm Has a Doorstep Solution!
With help and guidance from the UrbanKissan, you can now grow fresh produce including lettuces, herbs, greens and exotic vegetables round the year.
by Gopi Karelia March 18, 2019
Population explosion, drastic climate change, and the commercialization of the farming sector leading to the wear and tear of soil, the future of the country’s agricultural scenario looms gloomily above us. This is not a mere hypothesis but an actual fact. The fifth report of US-based The Global Harvest Initiative predicts that by the year 2030, agricultural production will only meet 59 percent of India’s total demand. On the other hand, a NITI Aayog report suggests that the country’s water demand will be twice the supply implying severe water scarcity. Two problems that seem almost insurmountable.
Do not worry, we have a solution! Exclaims 25-year-old Vihari Kanukollu from Hyderabad who has embarked on a mission to change the face of farming. His “farming fields”, however, will be in an urban set up.
With the help of ‘Hydroponic Farming’, a technique largely practiced in Europe and America, he hopes to reduce the burden on traditional farmers by helping urban dwellers grow their own food.
‘Hydroponic Farming uses 95% less water and no soil
Breaking down the concept of hydroponic farming in simple terms, Vihari says that this technique uses 95 percent less water and the food can be grown in any climate or location without soil.
It was during Vihari’s stint in the Finance sector in 2017, when he learnt about hydroponic or vertical farming. Talking to The Better India (TBI) about the trigger that set him on this path he says,
Though I was preparing for a career in finance, I was always concerned about social issues that impact the society at large. In 2017, I came across a report that underlined the increasing gap between demand and supply of food in India.
On researching further, the grim statistics and minimal steps taken to resolve issues startled him.
It was during the same time that he met Dr Sairam, a scientist and a family-friend, who was practicing farming in his own backyard. After conducting a series of successful experiments on hydroponic farming, the duo decided to launch their own company. Srinivas Chaganti, Vihari’s relative got on board to deal with the Internet of Things (IoT).
Thus, was born UrbanKissan, a company aiming to integrate the concept of ‘In My Backyard’ in sustainable farming.
Vihari, Dr Sairam and Srinivas Chaganti
When asked if the hydroponic method of farming is a threat to traditional farming in any way, Vihari says, “No, in fact this type of farming is an add-on to the traditional method. This is for people who want to grow their own food. Our project aims to unburden the traditional farmers by making urban dwellers contribute to the process.”
How To Be An #UrbanKissan
‘I want to grow my own food but in a hassle-free manner? I cannot grow food because I lack expertise, time and space’
If you ever had these thoughts that deterred you from farming, worry not. With help and guidance from the UrbanKissan, you can now grow fresh produce including lettuces, herbs, greens and exotic vegetables round the year. These can be grown anywhere – from rooftops to balconies.
The company offers a range of options, from a model kit of 18 to 36 plants. The kit consists of seeds, coconut waste and a mix of nutrients.
Grow your food in a hassle-free manner
Once you place an order according to your preference, the company will assist you in choosing the site and delivering logistics.The staff will come to your house and help you set up the farm.
After the farm is set up, all you need to do is take out a couple of minutes from your busy schedule every day to water the crops.
“The main role of soil is to provide rich-nutrients to the produce. We broke down these nutrients and prepared an ingredient with it. The seeds can be sown inside the coconut waste and water can be supplied from below. It requires less manual work and is a one-time investment,” says Vihari.
This method allows you to harvest and consume the produce within the same day. This way you get the benefit of fresh produce that is not only nutritionally rich, but also available all year round at a consistent quality.
Among the services provided by the start-up, the feature of marketing customer’s produce is something that the company is leveraging on to encourage indoor farming.
The scalability of this project is from individual households to commercial spaces. If a customer is willing to produce enough to be able to sell in the market we provide our assistance, adds Vihari.
So far, the trio has been successful in setting up 8,000 plants across five states. “After I read articles about heavy metal contamination in green and leafy vegetable that causes cancer, I decided to grow food in my own balcony. UrbanKissan helped me set a kitchen-garden in my house and now I know what I eat is safe and fresh food,” says Lasya, an Urban Kissan in Bengaluru
An Effort To Reduce Food Wastage
As per a World Economic Forum report, India’s annual food requirement is 230 million tonnes and the agricultural output is 270 million tonnes, which means that close to 40 million tonnes of produce is wasted each year during production, processing, retailing and consumption.
From spoiling of food to retailers stocking extra, there are several reasons that are responsible for India’s food wastage problem. We have come up with a solution where the food is produced according to customer’s demand, says Vihari.
The trio is currently developing a vertical farm in the heart of the bustling city of Hyderabad.
Commercial vertical plant in Hyderabad
The first commercial vertical plant being developed at Jubilee Hills Road No 36 has the capacity to produce 50,000 crops (10 tonnes of yield per month). The farm, spread over 2,000 sq feet, will yield vegetables equivalent to 70,000 sq ft in traditional farming, points out Vihari. In other words, almost an acre of produce is grown in the size of an apartment.
Explaining the concept of vertical farming in Hyderabad, Vihari says,
One can walk in and order growing vegetables and watch the entire process of harvesting.They can take back with them fresh produce that contains no pesticides or harmful chemicals.
Sharing the company’s future plans, the trio aims to make major cities that lack space like Mumbai sustainable. They plan to set up vertical farms in these cities and help bridge the demand and supply of food.
Urbankissan plans to set up vertical farms in other cities like Mumbai and Bengaluru
“We’re re-thinking what agriculture looks like in a world where water is scarce, people live in cities waking up to the dangers of pesticides. We want to ensure that everyone has access to safe food by building more farm next to where people live. With our produce we want to have a positive impact not only on our health, but the health of the world,” says the trio.
Want to know more and take a sustainable step? Get in touch with UrbanKissan: support@urbankisaan.com
(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)
BREAKING: Court Finds That Monsanto’s Roundup Caused California Man’s Cancer
In the second of many cases involving Roundup and cancer, a court ruled on Tuesday that the herbicide did indeed cause one man’s non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
Mar 20, 2019
By Dan Nosowitz
In the second of many cases involving Roundup and cancer, a court ruled on Tuesday that the herbicide did indeed cause one man’s non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Over 11,000 cases have been filed against Monsanto—and now its parent company, Bayer AG—alleging that Roundup, Monsanto’s glyphosate weed-killer, causes cancer. This case, with Edwin Hardeman as plaintiff, is only the second to go to trial. But as in the first case, the court sided with the plaintiff.
Monsanto developed glyphosate, which it sells under the brand name Roundup, in the 1970s, and since then it has become the world’s most popular herbicide. (The company doesn’t release specific sales numbers, but this much is known.) The most important development in its connection to cancer happened in 2015, when the World Health Organization labeled it a “probable” carcinogen. Studies have variously indicated that it does and does not cause cancer; the science is muddled as much of the research is industry-funded (or comes directly from Monsanto itself), and the industry obviously has a vested interest in findings that mark glyphosate as clean.
Last summer, the first case on whether glyphosate causes cancer went to court; initially, a jury awarded the plaintiff, a school groundskeeper, $289 million, though that was later reduced to $78 million, and Monsanto/Bayer is still appealing that verdict.
In this case, Hardeman, who used Roundup consistently on his property for decades, finds himself in a two-part trial. The first part, which just concluded, aimed to decide whether glyphosate caused Hardeman’s cancer, and whether Monsanto misled him, and the public, about the safety risks of the product. In a unanimous verdict, a six-person jury decided that glyphosate was a “substantial factor” in Hardeman’s cancer, according to the New York Times.
The second part of the trial, beginning Wednesday, will decide the possible liability of Monsanto, whether the company knowingly downplayed the connection between glyphosate and cancer in order to sell more product.
In response to the verdict, reports Reuters, Bayer’s shares took their biggest drop in 16 years, reducing the company’s valuation by a whopping $9.1 billion.
We’ve reached out to Monsanto for a statement and will update if they respond.
Photography Sheila Fitzgerald / Shutterstock
This Airline Is Working With The World's Largest 'Vertical Farm' For Fresher In-Flight Meals
BY ALEX FITZPATRICK MARCH 21, 2019
In-flight meals that are actually enjoyable are few and far between. In part, that’s because ingredients often need to be shipped hundreds or thousands of miles from farms to airports, meaning sometimes they’re not exactly fresh. Singapore Airlines is aiming to change that with a “farm-to-plane” partnership announced Thursday with AeroFarms, a vertical indoor farming company.
At AeroFarms’ Newark, New Jersey headquarters, a variety of leafy greens are grown with only light, nutrients and oxygen — there’s no sunlight or soil to speak of. The operation, which TIME toured on Thursday, resembles a data center, but instead of racks upon racks of servers and other hardware, it has rows of plants in various stages of growth.
AeroFarms’ plants are grown atop a layer of cloth suspended over a chamber about the size of a small bathtub, into which nutrients are pumped. Instead of sunlight, the plants are exposed to LED light, the color of which can be changed depending on whatever’s best for a particular species. The company closely tracks the progress of each batch of plants, providing data that can help it refine the combination of light, nutrients, fertilizers and other factors involved. AeroFarms says its process uses 95% less water than typical farming, and doesn’t use pesticides or similar chemicals.
The company’s “aeroponics” approach, says co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer Marc Oshima, is 390 times more efficient in terms of land usage than an equivalent traditional farm. And because the indoor farm is temperature-controlled and protected from the elements, AeroFarms’ growing techniques can be highly customized. “It’s a type of control and precision you can’t ever get out in the field,” says Oshima. He adds that the Newark facility is the world’s largest indoor vertical farm.
It takes about 12-14 days for baby leafy greens to grow at AeroFarms’ facility, Oshima says, compared to 30-45 days at an average outdoor farm. That quicker growth means food can be grown and supplied faster. But it also allows for the kind of rapid prototyping more commonly seen in the software world — if AeroFarms wants to experiment with a different technique for a certain plant, it won’t take long for it to see the results and adjust as needed.
AeroFarms’ proximity to Newark Liberty International Airport, which serves the New York metro area, means that greens grown there can be on a Singapore Airlines passenger’s plate within hours of when they’re harvested, allowing for fresher and tastier meals. The airline hopes to have the first AeroFarms-grown food available on flights by September. Singapore Airlines’ culinary experts are particularly interested in AeroFarms’ bolder, spicer greens, which can help overcome passengers’ decreased senses of smell and taste in dried-out airplane cabins. (TIME enjoyed a taste test of those bolder, spicer greens and can report they’re also excellent while on terra firma.)
Singapore Airlines sees the AeroFarms partnership as a way to further differentiate itself in the crowded, commoditized aviation world. “Food is an area where we can stand out,” says Singapore Airlines VP of PR James Boyd. Some examples of potential Singapore Airlines menu items that could feature AeroFarms greens include soy poached chicken, a garden green salad, and heirloom tomato ceviche. (AeroFarms also sells greens to local grocery stores under the brand name Dream Greens.)
AeroFarms’ approach has benefits beyond fresher salads in first-class and coach. It’s also one potential solution to the problem of so-called “food deserts,” or areas that don’t have enough access to fresh, healthy foods. Some people have looked to rooftop farming as a fix for that problem in urban neighborhoods, but there’s only so much viable rooftop real estate in any given city. But indoor vertical farms like AeroFarms can make use of an entire building to produce food, echoing the way cities have built upwards over time when they run out of room to grow sideways.
Write to Alex Fitzpatrick at alex.fitzpatrick@time.com.
Can Amazon Reinvent The Traditional Supermarket?
Amazon’s plans to launch physical grocery stores this year is just the latest affirmation that, ironically, bricks-and-mortar stores are crucial to the e-commerce giant’s future growth. Amazon may launch as many as 2,000 supermarkets in major U.S. cities, according to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal
March 21, 2019
Wharton's Barbara Kahn and Columbia's Mark Cohen analyze Amazon's plans to open supermarkets in major U.S. cities.
Amazon’s plans to launch physical grocery stores this year is just the latest affirmation that, ironically, bricks-and-mortar stores are crucial to the e-commerce giant’s future growth. Amazon may launch as many as 2,000 supermarkets in major U.S. cities, according to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal. It will be Amazon’s sixth physical retail format after Whole Foods, Amazon Books, Amazon Go, Amazon 4-Star and Amazon Pop-Up.
Amazon’s plans are likely to rattle major grocery purveyors such as Kroger’s and Walmart, whose shares fell on the news. But the expectation is that Amazon will introduce a different business model — one that merges bricks-and-mortar and online experiences, then powering it with data analytics, according to experts at Wharton and Columbia University who spoke about Amazon’s grocery-store strategy on the Knowledge@Wharton radio show on SiriusXM. “It was a natural next step,” said Wharton marketing professor Barbara Kahn. Opening supermarkets makes sense for Amazon because its business model is to offer low prices and convenience, which is what shoppers look for when getting groceries. “If you look at their bookstores or Amazon Go (fully automated convenience stores), they’re fine stores, but they’re not beautiful stores. They’re the kind of stores where you can get what you want at a cheap price, fast and convenient,” she said.
Amazon’s expansion of its grocery business — it already has Prime Pantry, AmazonFresh and Whole Foods — also lets it collect consumer data more frequently since people shop for food regularly and prefer to do it in person. “Their game is data and they need to have frequency. What’s really attractive about grocery is not really the margin; it’s the traffic,” Kahn said. “When you go into an Amazon store, you have to log in with your app and everything you do in that store is then connected with everything online.”
The Journal said Amazon’s supermarkets will take up about 35,000 square feet compared to 60,000 square feet for a typical grocery. Talks reportedly are underway to open stores in Seattle, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
It’s About Data
Whatever retail store format Amazon uses, it “would be built upon this tremendous capacity they have to gather, analyze, understand and use what customers are saying to them every day,” said Mark Cohen, director of retail studies at Columbia University who had been CEO of Sears Canada. “Amazon is proof-positive of the value of big data and the way in which you collect it and the way in which you examine it and use it.”
Cohen cited the smart use of data by 7-Eleven, the convenience store chain. “7-Eleven has enterprise-wide systems that enable it to manipulate, modify or not modify its assortments to be extremely relevant and also extremely efficient so that not only is the right brand on the right shelf at the right depth, but it’s in a place in the store where customers expect to find it.”
Amazon’s opening of physical grocery stores also could solve some hurdles to growth. “Amazon has a fundamental barrier to its organic growth, and that is that there are may be millions of customers who can’t participate in e-commerce either outright or who find it inconvenient,” said Cohen. “That’s largely because they don’t have a place a package can be delivered because no one’s home and they’re not comfortable or in any way or willing to have something left on a doorstep.”
Physical locations are helpful also for folks who cannot buy online because they don’t have or cannot get credit cards — or don’t want to use them. “Having a network of locally convenient places with which to interact with those customers like an Amazon grocery convenience store that will accept cash would give them access to an enormous number of customers who very well might want to do business with Amazon but who can’t at the moment.”
Testing Bricks-and-Mortar
Amazon’s supermarket plans follow other forays into physical stores, the biggest of which thus far was its June 2017 purchase of Whole Foods for $13.7 billion. It gave Amazon nearly 470 stores, including about 20 in Canada and in the U.K. Six months ago, the company launched Amazon 4-star stores that carry the most popular products from its online store, including consumer electronics, devices, toys, books and home items.
“What’s really attractive about grocery is not really the margin; it’s the traffic.”–Barbara Kahn
In January 2018, it opened Amazon Go convenience stores where consumers take what items they want and leave without seeing a cashier or checkout counter. Sensors track their purchases, which are automatically charged to their Amazon accounts. There are now 10 Amazon Go stores with more to open soon. In addition, the company has opened 17 Amazon Books locations. Amazon also has Pop-Up stores in malls, Whole Foods and Kohl’s, but it is closing all 87 of them because the format didn’t work out.
As for its coming supermarkets, Amazon could redesign the traditional grocery format. Typically, staples like milk purposely are placed in the back so shoppers will spend more time in the store. Kahn said Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos could have a different design in mind. He could say, “Let us design the store so you can find what you want as fast as you need to find it and get in and out of there,” she said. “I bet once they start working on it and use their data, they will change things that make sense from the customer perspective. So that’s going to be pretty cool to see.”
The Journal said Amazon’s supermarket concept strongly resembles ideas from a 2013 report by former Deloitte consultant Brittain Ladd, who now works for AmazonFresh. That report sees Amazon’s supermarkets combining its discounting strategy with online capabilities, adding drive-through grocery pick-up and placing Amazon Lockers inside. The goal is to create “an ecosystem of channels centered on food and groceries capable of meeting the needs of all customers through all available channels,” he wrote.
As for concerns that Amazon is entering a low-margin business, Cohen said it doesn’t have to be problematic. “They view that as an opportunity in many cases,” he said. “At the end of the day, I think this is [about] creating more and more of an efficient connection to customers, especially those who they’re not doing business with, who would like to do business with them.”
Dynamic Pricing
Kahn said one of Amazon’s dilemmas in selling groceries is how to manage the costly effort of delivering to each home and business, the so-called ‘last mile.’ Amazon has to deliver because until it purchased Whole Foods, it didn’t have a lot of stores where people can shop, unlike traditional supermarkets. Walmart got into the grocery business and handled the industry’s thin margins by focusing on “operational excellence” to lower its costs. “They are a low-cost supply chain master,” she said.
“Amazon is proof-positive of the value of big data.”–Mark Cohen
Amazon’s priority is customer convenience. But deliveries can be quite costly because they’re inefficient, Kahn said. Therefore, opening more physical grocery stores could work so there will be more places for customers to pick up their orders. “They need it because their model is so different from a typical operationally-excellent grocery business,” Kahn added.
Moreover, Amazon will find it tough to convince competing bricks-and-mortar retailers to let it open one of its Lockers in their stores. Amazon has been “aggressive in trying to place those lockers throughout the realm. Many stores just don’t have room for them and some don’t really want Amazon delivering through a locker [the same products] they’re trying to sell,” Cohen said. “Amazon is not likely to convince Target to install Amazon Lockers, unless some incredible combination occurs.”
By opening its own stores, Amazon also gets control over pricing and margins. Kahn pointed out that it already uses “dynamic” pricing. At Amazon 4-star stores, prices are in digital form and match the ones on its website. However, the prices “can change as things happen,” she said.
Similarly, at Amazon Books, no prices are displayed. Instead, customers have to open up the Amazon app to find how much the books cost. This way, Amazon could play with the pricing too, perhaps setting different prices for Prime and non-Prime members. “In both of those ways — with ‘price’ and ‘place’ — Amazon is redefining the model,” Kahn said.