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Trending: Are Shipping Container Farms The Future of The Industry?
BY LUKIE PIETERSE ON APRIL 19, 2019
Could shipping containers be the future of farming? According to Cleveland Containers in the UK, they can. The company states that shipping containers could provide an answer to the rapid demand for local produce.
According to the company, the trend for local food has risen over the last few years and as a result, the demand for local produce is showing no signs of slowing down. With this in mind, farmers are being forced to get creative in how they can deliver the volume needed for local supermarkets, whilst still keeping hold of the nutritional value in its fruit and veg.
So, how could container farms shape the future of the industry? Johnathan Bulmer, Managing Director of Cleveland Containers, explains.
“Many are unaware that containers can be fitted with heating and water systems, as well as gas and electrics and therefore offer a whole host of benefits for crops and farmers alike.”
“Creating your own farming space inside a container enables you to grow crops all year round and once modified, allows you to control growing conditions such as climate, soil quality and heat and light exposure.”
Read the full article in Future Farming here
Related article: Indoor farming technology market to grow to $ 40.25 billion
This Solar-Powered Cannabis Facility Is Biggest In U.S.
Written by Peter McCusker
The first commercial-scale solar-powered cannabis farm is a “green” template for the industry to follow, says the company behind its creation.
Californian cultivator Canndescent spent $3.75 million retrofitting its 11,000-square-foot growing warehouse in Desert Hot Springs. The commercial-scale solar cannabis project uses 734 solar modules, on seven different carport structures, and can now produce enough power to charge an estimated 20% of U.S. smartphones for a day.
Canndescent founder and CEO, Adrian Sedlin, said in a press statement: “We commissioned the solar project because the modern cannabis consumer deserves and demands that we create exceptional products using exceptional practices.”
“As an industry coming of age right now, it’s natural and appropriate for the cannabis industry and Canndescent to lead the business community in addressing some of the world’s pressing challenges,” he continued.
Desert Hot Springs, CA
The state-of-the-art, clean energy system has a capacity of 283 kilowatts and will reduce the facility’s annual carbon emissions by 365 tons. Two-thirds of U.S. commercial cannabis production facilities are indoor operations, while a further 20% are at least partially indoors. Indoor cannabis facilities require large amounts of energy for lighting, heating, air-conditioning, and dehumidification systems, said the press release.
Indoor cannabis greenhouses are said to consume around 1% of US electricity, according to industry experts. Whilst outdoor growers tax local water resources. As the first cannabis company to use renewable power at a large-scale production facility, Canndescent says it has “created a ground-breaking template for sustainability… uniting water efficiency, energy efficiency and pesticide-free growing in an indoor format.”
Canndescent constructed the project in eight weeks after a two-year struggle to win approval and financing. The project consists of custom carport structures since solar could not be installed on the facility roof due to fire codes, reports Solar Power World.
Canndescent’s Chief Compliance Officer Tom DiGiovanni said: “Given the restrictions around cannabis banking and lending and the complexities of energy projects and California civil construction in general, this was extraordinarily difficult to pull off. Nevertheless, we got it done and have established a template for the ‘green industry’ to go greener.”
Canndescent was set up by Harvard Business School graduate Adrian Sedlin and opened the first municipally-permitted facility in California in 2016. Desert Hot Springs, where Canndescent is based, went bankrupt in 2001 and almost did again in 2014. The town then decided to become the first place in California to allow indoor cannabis farming on an industrial scale, and has experienced a renaissance since.
California legalized the sale and use of marijuana for recreational purposes in 2018.
Jury Convicts Former South Dakota Aquaponics Company Official of Fraud
APRIL 29, 2019
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SIOUX FALLS, S.D.
A federal jury has convicted a former executive of a South Dakota company accused of defrauding investors in a scheme to build an $11 million fish farm.
The jury Monday found Timothy Burns guilty of five charges of wire fraud for his role in soliciting investors for Global Aquaponics in Brookings. He will be sentenced later.
Burns was the one-time chief operating officer of Global Aquaponics. The company sought investors to build an indoor fish farm and hydroponics facility.
But the Argus Leader reports construction on the fish farm never started. Investors who put a minimum of $25,000 each in the project lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Businessman Tobias Ritesman earlier pleaded guilty to all 18 counts against him in the alleged scheme. Ritesman also awaits sentencing.
In This Toms River Greenhouse, Fish Help Grow Organic Lettuce
Producing Aquaponic Greens is a Group Effort
For The Family Behind HS Farms.
By Lauren Payne | | April 23, 2019
Appears in the April 2019 issue
Photo by James J. Connolly
Heather and Mike Scannell started growing aquaponic lettuce in 2016 in their garage. Their three children gobbled it up. Next, the Toms River couple moved their garage system to their backyard. After a successful growing season, Mike, a financial advisor, cut back his work hours to focus on growing more greens.
Heather Scannell places a lettuce seedling into a styrofoam clip that will hold it in one of the holes on a floating raft (pictured below). In 55 days, the sprout will develop into a perfect head of lettuce.
Photo by James J. Connolly
Today, Heather and Mike operate HS Farms, the state’s only organically certified home-delivery aquaponics farm. Aquaponics is an agricultural method that combines aquaculture (growing aquatic animals) with hydroponics (growing plants in water). This symbiotic process can yield a perfect head of lettuce in about 55 days, much faster than the average 90 days for lettuce grown the traditional way, in dirt.
At HS Farms, the process starts with fish. The two 300-gallon tanks in the Scannells’ 1,500-square-foot greenhouse each hold about 50 fish—a mix of goldfish, cod and tilapia. Their waste feeds tens of thousands of minuscule shrimp in a smaller, connected tank. The shrimps’ digestive systems and bacteria help convert the waste to nitrates; the nitrate-rich water then spills over a tank of clay balls, crushed clam shells and worms, further enriching and filtering the water.
Finally, the water is fed into troughs covered with floating foam rafts.
Michael and Heather Scannell with children,
from left, Allison, 12; Ryan, 11; and Jacqueline, 8.
Photo by James J. Connolly
“The process is chemical free and entirely sustainable,” says Mike. Seedlings of spring greens, romaine, butter-crunch lettuce and kale are clipped in place through holes in the rafts, their roots dangling in the enriched, pH-balanced water. The resulting produce tastes incredibly fresh. “I haven’t bought store-bought lettuce in two years,” says Heather.
Michael and daughter, Allison, survey one of the 300-gallon fish tanks. Photo by James J. Connolly
Mike tends the crop daily. Heather, a physical therapist, puts in several hours each week, planting seeds and separating seedlings. On weekends, Allison, 12; Ryan, 11; and Jacqueline, 8; all pitch in, planting, feeding the fish or, in Jacqueline’s case, digging for baby worms nestled deep in the clay balls. “I love worms,” she says. “I name them all Squirmy and Fasty.”
The Scannells deliver their produce to families in Ocean and Monmouth counties. Mixed greens run $4 for 5 ounces. Their organic lettuce is also available at the four Dean’s Natural Food Market locations in New Jersey.
Heather and Mike plan to build two more greenhouses within the next several months. “Our goal,” says Mike, “is to grow everything you need to make a salad.”
Pittsburg State University Showcases Aquaponics Project On Campus
Project Creates Sustainable, Healthy Food
By: Chris Warner
April 24, 2019
PITTSBURG, Kan. - Hydroponics involves growing plants in water instead of soil, and a project at Pittsburg State University has turned that into aquaponics by adding another element.
"It started out as a hydroponics operation so, it's basically growing lettuce primarily, but other food through water rather than soil, with the aquaponics, that incorporates fish into the system so it's more of a closed loop." Erin Kruse is one of two students giving tours at Pitt State to showcase their new aquaponics project.
Aquaponics, as Kruse mentioned, incorporates fish, in this case, tilapia, into the hydroponics system. Kruse says "So the fish actually generate the nutrients for the plants and then the plants actually clean the water for the fish."
And it's this unique system that officials like Matt O'Malley with Live Well Crawford County, are excited to see. O'Malley says "We are hoping to increase access to healthy foods for everyone in the county and thought this could be a really neat way to get that in communities that might not be able to do a garden project or something like that."
Kruse says the Students 4 Sustainability group, agree. "We really think, as students for sustainability, that local food production, sustainable food production is something that's always going to be paramount, especially in rural communities."
For O'Malley, he says he's looking at an even bigger picture. O'Malley says "We like to dream big and how cool would it be if every high school in Crawford County had an aquaponics system and they grew their own lettuce for their own school lunch salad bar, and so that's what we're kinda dreaming about with this project."
The project is still in it's early stages but Kruse says they hope to see it continue to grow and expand to serve the county.
The project was originally started by another group on campus before the students for sustainability group took over.
Urban Crop Solutions Appoints Tom Debusschere As New CEO To Manage Its International Growth
Urban Crop Solutions, the global indoor farming solutions provider headquartered in Belgium, appoints Tom Debusschere as the new CEO of its group. Co-founder Maarten Vandecruys will continue to lead the R&D division and will spend more time for international business development.
Tom Debusschere has an engineering and business background. Over the last 10 years, he lead two multinational industrial companies headquartered in Belgium, Deceuninck Group and Balta Group, both listed on the Brussels Stock Exchange. Urban Crop Solutions has grown tremendous in the last quarters. The company now has a proven technology and an expanding customer base in Europe, North-America and Asia; and is ready for international growth. The appointment of a seasoned leader will accelerate this process.
The goal of Urban Crop Solutions and Tom Debusschere as its new CEO is to develop the company into a leading total solution provider for the fast emerging indoor vertical farming industry.
Tom Debusschere also subscribes substantially into the Company’s series A capital round, targeting a 6m EUR capital increase, expected to close in the coming months.
“With the appointment of Tom Debusschere, we validate the ambition of our group and our shareholders.” explains Frederic Bulcaen, co-founder and chairman of Urban Crop Solutions. “Tom’s proven leadership, combined with his engineering background and his experience in building global organizations is a perfect match with the long term strategic plan that we are rolling out.”
Tom Debusschere: ”When I met Frederic and Maarten as a prospective investor, they were extremely transparent and offered me the opportunity to take a deep look into the Company’s superior technology, research projects, customer base, order pipeline, and above all their ambition. That’s when I truly got excited and offered them to help grow Urban Crop Solutions globally. The international potential is considerable. In 2050, the world population will grow to 9 billion people, of which 70% will live in cities. Indoor farming offers exciting opportunities for reduced water consumption, efficient land use, and bringing pesticide-free, healthy food close to consumers. Urban Crop’s research also focuses on efficient farms for use in pharmaceutical and cosmetics applications. I truly look forward in getting to know our Customers and Partners and help build sustainable factories for this fast emerging branch in the agricultural industry”
“Tom’s experience will bring tremendous value for our customers and to our team.” explains Maarten Vandecruys, the company’s co-founder. “The timing is perfect, as we feel that our products and services get traction in all parts of the world. As we are growing, we need to hire talent and develop our team. With Tom we gain the multinational and operational experience for our global roll-out, while my focus will lie on delivering superior solutions for our clients in both existing and new markets. This kickstarts the next phase in our company as we will build teams in various countries and time zones to guarantee our high standards of quality and support.”
Urban Crop Solutions develops tailor-made indoor vertical farming solutions for its clients. These systems are turnkey, robotized and able to be integrated in existing production facilities or food processing units. Urban Crop Solutions has its own range of standard growing container products. Being a total solution provider, they can also supply seeds, substrates and nutrients for clients that have limited experience with (indoor) farming. Currently the company has developed plant growing recipes for more than 220 crop varieties that can be grown in closed environment vertical farms. Some of these recipes (ranging from leafy greens, vegetables, medicinal plants to flowers) are developed exclusively for its clients by the Urban Crop Solutions team of plant scientists. With headquarters in Waregem (Belgium – Europe) and operations in Miami (Florida, US) and Osaka (Kansai, Japan) they are globally active.
Automation: The Final Frontier of Vertical Farming
Article Blurb: Vertical indoor farming is poised to become a transformational and indispensable part of our food system — and system-wide automation is the key to unlocking its full potential.
By: Sam Bertram, Co-Founder & CEO of OnePointOne
It’s no secret that the world’s food system needs help. Our growing global population is urbanizing at a rapid rate – it’s estimated that 9 billion people will live in cities by 2100 – and traditional food sources will fall woefully short of being able to meet their needs. Vertical indoor farming is poised to become a transformational and indispensable part of our food system as we face the challenge of feeding those people. We’ve begun to see the first glimpse of successful vertical farming in the market, and system-wide automation will be the key to unlocking its full potential.
Already, urban dwellers around the world are enjoying freshly harvested produce grown locally on spare rooftops, in old shipping containers, and in repurposed warehouses. These farms provide tremendous benefits to consumers and producers: they can grow pesticide-free, nutritious leafy greens year-round in a controlled, space-, time- and resource-efficient way. The industry has experienced a rapid acceleration of growth and interest, with the likes of Jeff Bezos and Eric Schmidt placing early bets on the potential of this industry. Along with substantial investments, major partnerships with airlines, retailers, and governments are increasing the presence of vertically grown produce in our day-to-day lives.
However, despite the demonstrable consumer demand and investment around vertical farming, there is a significantly low volume of vertically farmed produce in the market. Why would this be? These farms are offering fresher and cleaner food than urban consumers have traditionally had access to before, and these products are arriving at a time when the local and organic food industries are positively booming.
What it comes down to is a simple fact that vertical farming is currently not a profitably scalable venture. In 2017, 73% of vertical farms were not profitable, even considering the premium at which their products are often sold. The vast majority of vertical farms have not been able to successfully expand to different locations and different markets. Overcoming this hurdle is essential if vertical farming is to capture a meaningful share of the retail and food service market in the US and abroad. The only way that vertically farmed produce can become a mass-market product is through system-wide automation.
Currently, no vertical farm has automated sufficiently or successfully enough to scale effectively or be price competitive in the current mass-market supply chain. This is not due to a lack of intellectual or capital resources, but rather the tremendous inherent complexity of automating the growth of a living plant and replicating it continuously. An apt analogy is Tesla. Tesla has run into enormous difficulty with automating the fabrication of what should be a predictable assembly line. Even with substantial financial and human capital, Tesla went through hell to make robotically automated car production lines a reality. Now replace the car with living organisms, and the profound complexity of this effort becomes apparent. Given this incredibly high barrier to entry, why would developing system-wide automation be a worthwhile endeavor?
Agrilyst reported that in 2017, labor accounted for 56% of production costs for vertical farms. Labor remains the single highest operating cost for even the most well-capitalized vertical farms in the world. Vertical farms must find more efficient ways to operate through strategic and sparing use of human labor in order to overcome this tremendous barrier. Total system automation must be developed if vertical farms hope to deliver on current promises and change our global food system.
Vertical farming companies have known this for a long time. The phrase “automated vertical farming” has been touted for many years, although without a clear definition, standardization, or validation process. Below is the first proposed framework to standardize levels of automation in vertical farms. Taking principles from categories of car automation, the framework below can be used to categorize the current and future automation potential of vertical farming companies and technologies.
The majority of commercial vertical farms exist in Level 2 (basic growth and automation). A small number of vertical farms – in pursuit of scale and improved margins – have managed to operate commercially in Level 3 (conveyor automation). Only a subset of the most well-capitalized vertical farms has attempted the jump from Level 3 to Level 4 (adaptive automation) – unfortunately with little commercial success. Here, complex logistics and decision-making will become the responsibility of the machine; it will be the most difficult of all the transitions. In addition, almost all vertical farms do not have the necessary ingredients to even attempt such a leap: patient investors, sufficient capital, plant science expertise, automation/robotics expertise, software expertise, etc. For those without sufficient resources, hundreds of profitable niche markets remain to be satisfied around the world. For those with sufficient resources, cost-competitiveness with the traditional supply chain awaits, along with multiple billion-dollar market opportunities.
Current farms are concentrated in technologically advanced and affluent cities. If they hope to expand their reach and become seriously competitive players in the mass market, they will need to drastically reduce operating costs with capital-efficient automation. Most consumers buy on price, and vertical farms will never compete on cost if they remain stagnant in Level 3. Incredible profit and scale await the vertical farms that can crack Level 4, as well as the capacity to feed people outside of the global top 1%. What’s exciting is that with the right combination of plant science and automation robotics, that future is sure to be right around the corner.
Relationships And Trust Help Hort Americas Mark 10 Years In Controlled Environment Agriculture
Horticultural distributor Hort Americas is celebrating its 10th anniversary of working with controlled environment growers. General manager Chris Higgins said it has been 10 years of forming trusting relationships with the growers and vendor suppliers that Hort Americas works with
Hort Americas 10 years of providing controlled environment growers with timely technical information and innovative products to solve their problems.
Horticultural distributor Hort Americas is celebrating its 10th anniversary of working with controlled environment growers. General manager Chris Higgins said it has been 10 years of forming trusting relationships with the growers and vendor suppliers that Hort Americas works with.
“Hort Americas doesn’t make a single product,” Higgins said. “What Hort Americas does do is we use our technical expertise to assist in the development of new products used to solve growers’ problems. This process takes a lot of trust. Our customers have to trust us about sharing their information. Some of that information could be proprietary. It could be information about their business that they need to be comfortable sharing. It could be information that allows us to look into the future and identify problems growers see coming up. By partnering with our grower customers and vendor suppliers, Hort Americas has been able to develop the technology, products and services that help controlled environment growers.”
At the same time that growers have to be able to trust Hort Americas, Higgins said a similar relationship has to exist between Hort Americas and its suppliers.
“Whether it’s working with our suppliers to develop new substrates or lighting fixtures, Hort Americas often has to share sensitive information. We need to have trust that sensitive information is going to turn into products that are going to be equitable in terms of helping everyone along the supply channel grow their businesses profitably.
“There is a lot of trust involved and that trust can’t be built off of non-disclosure agreements. That trust needs to be built off of years of experiences, cooperation and deliverables. If someone can’t deliver what they say they are going to deliver when they say they are going to deliver it, then trust is going to be lost. And the desire to want to cooperate is going to be lost too.”
Forming trusting business relationships
Higgins said forming a trusting business relationship should not have anything to do with the size of the company whether it’s a grower or supplier.
“Many businesses find themselves on a one-way street,” he said. “Many business people today only care about the value they create for their own business. And while it has probably always been this way, it feels this is more the case today than ever before.
“Trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to repair.” – Author unknown
“This can happen with suppliers that haven’t set up a true supply channel management strategy. Distribution partnerships may seem needed, but are truly not necessary. Therefore some suppliers don’t really care about the health or well-being of their partners or partnerships. They just want to get as much of their product out the door as possible. Fortunately for Hort Americas we have been able to find those suppliers that are exceptions to the rule. Hort Americas must then remember that it is on a two-way street. We must create a situation that is not only good for our grower customers, but are vendor partners as well.”
Chris Higgins, general manager at Hort Americas, with Daniel Lee, sales development manager at Current, powered by GE.
Partnerships in the Information Age
Higgins said today’s Information Age also creates challenges for companies trying to form strong partnerships.
“In this Information Age companies don’t necessarily see the value of networking,” he said. “They don’t see the value of how long it takes to build trust along the supply channel.
“Hort Americas goes out on a limb every time it takes on a new business relationship whether it’s with a grower or supplier. Every time we begin to build a new partnership we have to expect we may never receive the invested money or time back. There’s two to three years of never knowing whether all of the resources we have invested are going to take on any sort of return.”
Higgins said there is an inherent amount of risk that one takes when forming business relationships.
“Sometimes companies build these relationships and they go very well for five to six years,” he said. “Then one person at the top changes the management strategy of an entire company and everything implodes. This could be a change in personnel. This could be a stress fracture created by the need to find increased profitability. There could be a change in market dynamics such as competition, demand or price. Based on this list of changing conditions, companies need to be able to find the ability to trust each other.
“Partnerships are based on trust and that takes time. Hort Americas and GE have been working together for 5 years and we could not be happier with what we have been able to accomplish together.” —Dan Lee, Current, powered by GE
“Just like in a marriage, if something drastic happens, the marriage can end in divorce. Being able to maintain that relationship has to do with the ability to change and adapt. The way you treat somebody, the professionalism and the ability to be empathetic to the position that a customer might be in, those are going to speak volumes in terms of one’s ability to create strong business relationships.”
From bicycles to horticulture
William Fry, who is Hort Americas longest serving employee, started as the customer service manager in 2012.
“I came from the world of bicycles, Fry said. “Bicycles were a passion of mine, including riding bikes all the time. That led me to the business side of bicycles. I owned a bicycle shop and worked with a bicycle parts distribution company. That experience translated well into horticultural distribution when I came to Hort Americas. It doesn’t really matter what the commodity is that you are trying to get from one side of the world to the other, it’s very similar.
“Coming to Hort Americas I had no knowledge of greenhouse technology–what went where, what was needed for each crop, etc. But since I had learned about thousands of bicycle parts, I figured I could learn anything I needed to know about what goes inside a greenhouse.”
Fry, who is now Hort Americas operations manager, said the reasons he has stayed with the company is it’s a fun place to work and he really enjoys working in the horticulture industry.
“Hort Americas and the industry constantly challenge me, both by the technology that is coming out and how they are ever evolving,” he said. “I have to constantly educate myself from a product standpoint.
“From a logistics standpoint, our products are shipped from all over the world. The challenge is to bring them in in a logical way. I’m constantly trying to beat myself as to how I can do things more efficiently and bring costs down for us and for our customers.”
Trying to grow its customers’ business
Fry said one of the major reasons that growers enjoy working with Hort Americas is the company is constantly trying to bring new technology to market.
“We’re trying to bring proven technology to market,” he said. “We aren’t just going to have an idea that a product might work and then offer it to growers. We are going to test it in a research greenhouse first. We are going to send it to growers who we have great relationships with for them to trial. And we are going to work with universities to prove that these products will serve a purpose in this market and work before we bring them to market. That has been fun and interesting.”
Hort Americas general manager Chris Higgins (center) with the Hort Americas team look to provide their grower customers with the expertise they have acquired on controlled environment production.
Another benefit that Hort Americas offers its grower customers is its efforts to be very economical.
“We try to buy at the best price, sell at the best price and ship at the best price,” Fry said. “We are constantly working to provide excellent customer service and to save people money. We are trying to help our customers grow their business so that our business can grow. We try to be a cheerleader for our customers. I have always tried to value every single sale that we have made and try to make our customers that much better so that as they grow we grow.
“Developing our own network of logistics partners has given Hort Americas the ability to cherry-pick the best combination of price vs. speed depending on the situation. With this network we feel confident that we can respond to whatever needs our customers have, whether it is saving money on shipping or delivering an emergency order to them ASAP. We can lean not only on our logistics network, but also on our network of vendors who have much larger buying power.
Looking for supportive suppliers
Fry said good vendor/suppliers provide a consistent, high quality product in a timely manner with logistical excellence.
“Good vendors back us with sales and marketing materials and trial materials for our customers who want to try a product to prove it will work for them,” he said. “They also have a good customer service team on their end as well.
“I’m looking for vendors who treat us as a customer and as a partner, not as a middleman. The same thing that I expect Hort Americas to deliver to our customers, I expect from our vendors. Offer good products, deliver them to us in the best manner possible and help us market and promote them. Be there as a partner and work with us as a team to accomplish a goal. The training that has been by provided by GE lighting engineers along with the hands-on installation of new GE fixtures and factory tours with Grodan representatives to understand the rockwool production process have been invaluable.”
Kyle Barnett (left), regional sales manager at Hort Americas, talks with Bruno D’Amico, design and product manager at GE, about the lighting company’s newest LED fixtures.
Fry said Hort Americas tries to pull from its staff’s experiences when developing new products and working with its vendors to develop these products.
“Sometimes we find a product and it really works well,” he said. “Sometimes we decide the market just isn’t big enough for a product. Or a product may not work in trials as well as we thought it would and we scrub it before ever bringing it to market. We are always looking for those products that make us special to our grower customers. We have also been much more responsive in how we bring on new products in order to lower costs for our customers and for Hort Americas.
“The other half of this product development is training our staff to work with the products. Our staff has a lot of hands-on experience with the products. Depending on the supplier, they may not have the employees who understand the niche industry that we’re in. That is where Hort Americas comes in with staff members who are experts in controlled environment agriculture.”
This article is property of Hort Americas and was written by David Kuack, a freelance technical writer in Fort Worth, TX.
University of Guelph UAE Study Summary
CO2 GRO Inc. (TSX-V: GROW, OTCQB: BLONF, FRANKFURT: 4021) collaborated with the University of Guelph to do several business cases including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) greenhouse market.
In the past, GROW retained the University to perform scientific hydroponic lettuce and pepper grow trials using its licensed gas infusion technology that dissolves CO2 gas into water without bubbles.
Baseline lettuce and pepper plants were grown at a typical greenhouse level of 800 PPM of CO2 gassing. The best result was a 100% wet and dry lettuce biomass increase using dissolved CO2 hydroponic water over lettuce grown at 800 PPM of CO2 gassing.
Their UAE case led in part, to GROW’s Chief Operating Officer Aaron Archibald speaking at the UAE Sustainable Ag Tech Conference held April 1-2, 2019 and visiting a number of UAE greenhouses after.
UAE
UAE is one of the wealthiest per capital GDP countries globally at over $40K per capita ($407B in 2017). Its current inflation rate is under 2%. There are seven Emirates with Abu Dhabi being the largest city at 1.4M population.
The country is extremely oil revenue reliant. It is now focused on economic diversification before its oil revenue depletes with sustainable agriculture a priority.
UAE Greenhouses, Locations and Key Growers
UAE has supported greenhouse growth from 8,363 in 2010 to 15,340 in 2015. The vast majority of these cannot use CO2 gas due to ventilation.
GROW visited key greenhouse areas Al Ain (an oasis) with 9,394 greenhouses and Al Dhafra with 3,816 greenhouses. Major greenhouse growers in Al Ain include Madar Farms, Pure Harvest and Badia Farms.
As cannabis and hemp are banned in the UAE to date, the primary greenhouse crops grown are cucumbers, peppers and lettuce – micro greens. GROW has substantial grow and scientific trial data on peppers and lettuce – micro greens.
$272M Announced for Sustainable Ag Tech Research in the UAE
GROW met with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) that oversees investments into the UAE including the recently announced US$272M for Ag Technology investment support.
UAE Free Trade Zone
100% Foreign Ownership allowed
Zero taxes
Proposed Next Steps
Determine joint venture and/or licensing strategy and most likely partnerships with local CO2 gas supply companies, greenhouse manufacturers, irrigation companies and investment partners in the Middle East.
GROW is currently engaged with a number of these possible Ag Industrial partners to determine the optimal international market strategy for its patent protected CO2 Foliar Spray technology in 2020.
For more information, please visit www.co2gro.ca or contact Sam Kanes, VP Communications at 416-315-7477.
Crop One Holdings Wins Best Innovation In Indoor Farming Award For Joint Venture With Emirates Flight Catering
Crop One Holdings, the world’s leading vertical farm operator through its FreshBox Farms brand, has won the Best Innovation in Indoor Farming Award at the 2019 Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture (GFIA) conference in Abu Dhabi, UAE
Oakland, Calif., April 29, 2019 -- Crop One Holdings, the world’s leading vertical farm operator through its FreshBox Farms brand, has won the Best Innovation in Indoor Farming Award at the 2019 Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture (GFIA) conference in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Crop One Holdings was recognized for being a leader in confronting core environmental, economic, and social issues, combining spatial optimization with resource efficiency to grow leafy greens year round.
The company announced a $40 million joint venture agreement with Emirates Flight Catering last year, to build the world’s largest vertical farming facility in Dubai, UAE. The controlled environment facility in Dubai, will be 130,000 square feet and use 99 percent less water than traditional fields to produce three US tons of high-quality, herbicide- and pesticide-free leafy greens daily.
“This award is a testament to our commitment to responsibly feed our planet’s 7.4 billion people,” said Sonia Lo Crop One Holdings chief executive officer. “We are firm believers in building a more sustainable world, and aim to continue being a thought leader in this industry.”
Seven years after its founding in 2012, Crop One is now the world’s largest vertical farmer and the only one to consistently maintain a gross profit. The company’s patented grow process, created and augmented by top plant scientists and systems engineers, allows its farm to grow 400 acres worth of outdoor-grown produce in 1 acre of warehouse space. The GFIA judging criteria was on four main criteria: environmental sustainability, innovation, productivity and impact.
“The GFIA Innovation Awards celebrates some of the world’s most pioneering developments in agriculture,” said GFIA Event Director David Stradling. “Crop One has a proven dedication to providing innovative solutions to one of the world’s most complex problems by combining soilless hydroponic growing technology with advanced plant science to produce local, fresh greens globally.”
GFIA was founded in 2014 and is the global authority on innovative, sustainable agriculture practices and food production. Its Innovation Awards are designed to celebrate innovations that help to improve global food security while maintaining and improving sustainable agriculture practices.
About Crop One Holdings
Oakland, California - based Crop One is a vertical farming holding company for two subsidiaries – FreshBox Farms, Millis, Massachusetts, and a joint venture with Emirates Flight Catering, Dubai South, United Emirates. Crop One has been in commercial production longer than any other major vertical farmer in the U.S. It produces the highest crop yield per square foot, at 25% of the capital cost, of any vertical farm, due to its unique combination of proprietary technology platform and best-in-class plant science.
For more information about Crop One and vertical farming follow the link to cropone.ag.
About Emirates Flight Catering
Emirates Flight Catering is one of the world’s largest catering operations. Offering airline, events and VIP catering as well as ancillary services including laundry, food production and airport lounge food & beverage, Emirates Flight Catering is a trusted partner of over 100 airline customers, hospitality groups and UAE government entities. Each day, the company’s 11,000 dedicated employees prepare an average of 225,000 meals and handle 210 tonnes of laundry.
University of Toronto Is Planning A Net-Zero Vertical Farm
April 23, 2019
© University of Toronto Press Release
Sprouting up in what used to be horizontal farmland, this is wrong on so many levels.
The University of Toronto and Centennial College, at their Scarborough campuses, have announced the EaRTH District:
EaRTH, which stands for Environmental and Related Technologies Hub, will be a knowledge and training centre at U of T Scarborough focused on the development of clean technologies. Among the partnership’s plans: apply innovative technologies to food production in an urban setting through the development of Canada’s first net-zero vertical farm....The proposed vertical farm, a state-of-the-art building, will create training and research opportunities in a variety of fields, including waste management, clean energy, sustainable building design, water conservation and urban agriculture, among others.
TreeHugger has been dining on vertical farms for a while, and I find them to be an amusing diversion. They make some sense in Singapore, where they have a lot of people and not much land.
Toronto Archives/Public Domain
Scarborough, on the other hand, is now in Toronto, but not that long ago was mostly farmland. I looked for a photo of it around the campus but all I could find was this one, far closer to downtown. Today it is mostly sprawl development poorly served by transit. Adam Stein once noted about a proposed vertical farm in Manhattan:
Brooklyn was once one of the most agriculturally productive regions in the United States. Manhattan was once home to innumerable factories. There's a reason that farms and factories decamped to more suitable locations. Using urban real estate in this manner is incredibly wasteful: bad for the economy and bad for the environment. Local food has its merits, but that's what New Jersey is for.
And that is what Scarborough used to be for, and what the Greenbelt, a few miles north of the Scarborough Campus containing 4,782 farms, does now.
The Greenbelt preserves some of the most productive agricultural lands in Canada, providing fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy, beef, pork, and poultry products and grapes for prize-winning wines. Specialty farms in the Greenbelt produce everything from sheep and lambs, mushrooms, maple syrup, and horticultural goods (flowers and plants).
The greenbelt is under constant threat from developers, and may well be opened up by Doug Ford, the Premier of Ontario. The giant parking lot to the right of vertical farm building in the rendering (far bigger than the vertical farm) is necessary because Doug Ford and his late brother Rob killed the light rail transit plan that would have been built by now, taking thousands of cars off the road and off that giant highway shown behind the building in the top photo.
© University of Toronto
Professor Bernie Kraatz, vice-principal research at U of T Scarborough, says in the press release:
The vertical farm will become a key resource in assisting communities across Canada in tackling issues related to food, water, air, energy, waste, and advanced design and integrative systems. These are all key areas in understanding how to create resilient communities in the face of climate change.
A vertical farm in Scarborough, surrounded by parking and backed up by Highway 401, is exactly the opposite; it is a monument to failure – a failure to get people out of cars, a failure to preserve farmland, a failure to prioritize what needs to be done to deal with the problems of with water, energy, waste, and carbon. It is the opposite of resilient, needing pumps and batteries and serious loads of high-tech equipment, not to mention the fact that everyone working there probably has to drive.
There are other issues. There are the upfront carbon emissions of the building itself, and – since it is going to be Net Zero – to make the acres of solar panels needed to convert sunlight into electricity to make the artificial sunlight. (I am assuming that there is more to the vertical farm than the planted decks shown in the rendering, because if that is all there is, then it is not technically a vertical farm at all, it is a rooftop garden.)
© Lufa Farms
There are probably a million acres of rooftop in Scarborough that could be turned into urban farms under glass, like Lufa Farms in Montreal. There are probably another million acres of parking lot that could be farmed if everybody didn't have to drive. If you want to grow stuff inside, there are probably thousands of square feet of existing warehouses in Scarborough that could be converted much more cheaply and efficiently, like AeroFarms in New Jersey.
And of course, just to the north, there is the Greenbelt. That's the biggest problem with the vertical farm fantasy; it is a diversion from the real battle to preserve our horizontal farms. That's why I have noted before that vertical farms are wrong on so many levels.
If the University of Toronto and Centennial College want to teach people how to build resilient communities, they would be saving and utilizing what we have, instead of jumping on a bandwagon that everybody got off a decade ago.
Notes:
I have asked the University for more information about the architects, etc. but they have not responded. More on vertical farms below in related links, but I also recommend Ruben Anderson in the wonderfully titled Vertical farms: the greatest hope for cities, or a band-aid on a sucking chest wound?
I was going to point to a great article by Philip Proefrock and Hank Green in EcoGeek, but it apparently is no more, so I quote them here. The economics are a bit better with LED bulbs and net-zero electricity, but it is still relevant:
A farmer can expect his land to be worth roughly $1 per square foot...if it's good, fertile land. The owner of a skyscraper, on the other hand, can expect to pay more than 200 times that per square foot of his building. And that's just the cost of construction. Factor in the costs of electricity to pump water throughout the thing and keep the plants bathed in artificial sunlight all day, and you've got an inefficient mess.
Just looking at those numbers, you need two things to happen in order for vertical farms to make sense. You need the price of food to increase 100 fold over today's prices, and you need the productivity of vertical farms to increase 100 fold over traditional farms. Neither of those things will ever happen. And as much as I hate to burst bubbles, the main claim to the efficiency of vertical farms (the elimination of transportation costs) is not valid.
Achieving The Impossible: Growing Food In The High Arctic
April 13, 2019
David Nikel Contributor
He [caption photo credit="Polar Permaculture"] POLAR PERMACULTURE
Flying north over the vast permafrost and glacial mountains of Svalbard is quite the sight. Midway between the north of Norway and the North Pole, the endless white doesn’t inspire confidence that anyone could survive here, let alone thrive. Yet people do.
Ben Vidmar transplanted himself from the USA into this incredibly remote corner of the Arctic circle. He works as a chef in Longyearbyen, the main settlement, and has his own business, Polar Permaculture. He told the Life in Norway Show of his love for the archipelago: “Svalbard is so raw and pure. It is one of the only places left where you can experience true silence. This is a place where you only find people who want to be here. People who do not love the place leave.”
Breaking the cycle of importing and waste
Longyearbyen is the world's northernmost permanently inhabited community, with a long history of polar exploration and a true frontier spirit. Almost everything that is eaten on the island has to be imported from mainland Europe by boat or plane, while a lot of the waste ends up in the ocean. When Vidmar began working as a chef in some of Svalbard’s best restaurants, he quickly found frustration. When fresh food does arrive, much of it is spoilt and has to be thrown away.
Through Polar Permaculture, he aims to solve one of the biggest headaches of life at 78 degrees north: obtaining fresh food while reducing waste. However, deciding to do something about the problem and making that happen are two very different things. The headaches are many. Average temperatures - while rising fast - are low year-round. In the winter there is no direct sunlight for four months, and no light at all for more than two of those. Even at the height of summer, mountaintops surrounding the settlement are topped with snow.
Microgreens proved popular
Not to be put off, he poured substantial time and savings into creating the first and only gardening operation on Svalbard while still working as a chef. He began by growing microgreens in an insulated room and the produce was quickly snapped up by local hotels and restaurants. The operation has since expanded to a temporary greenhouse, in which he grows all kinds of plants from May to September, and an indoor hydroponics lab running year-round.
Inside the Arctic hydroponics lab of Polar Permaculture | DAVID NIKEL
He follows the principles of permaculture - developing an agricultural ecosystem designed to be sustainable.
Permaculture uses organic gardening and farming practices but it goes beyond these practices and integrates the garden and home to create a lifestyle that impacts less on the environment. Permaculture brings production of food closer to consumers and the consumer’s wastes back into the cycle. It also reduces the energy wasted in transporting the foods by producing the foods where the people are. In permaculture the people contribute in their daily life toward the production of their food and other needs. - Permaculture Visions
Vidmar isn’t doing this to be trendy. He believes that sustainability is the only option. “Everything here is imported so we want to create locally-grown food for Longyearbyen. We try to collect back the waste, which we compost. We then use the compost we produce to grow more food,” he says.
Different kinds of challenges
By researching other Arctic projects, he discovered the possibilities of using red worms to produce a natural fertilizer from food waste. Because the worms are a non-native species, he had to obtain special permission. Even cats aren’t allowed on Svalbard. Local authorities vetoed his plans to keep chickens to produce eggs, while even his greenhouse only has temporary permission as the settlement has strict zoning rules.
It’s a challenge Vidmar is meeting head on, because he believes a focus on sustainability is the only way to give the settlement a future. While he is inspired by projects like the Inuvik Community Greenhouse, whose hundred or so members grow fruit, vegetables and even flowers in Alaska, it’s not so easy to replicate such a project on Svalbard. The community is a temporary one. There is a hospital but there is no welfare system. “If you want to live here, you have to be able to fend for yourself. You cannot be born on Svalbard, and you’re not allowed to die here either,” he explains.
Sustainability brings possibility
Still, his vision is to create a truly sustainable community for the few thousand people that currently call Longyearbyen their home, however long they stay for. “It can happen, but it takes everyone working together. There are over 1,000 dogs here but their organic waste is just thrown away. That manure can be used to create energy. We want to connect all the other companies and help make everything more sustainable,” he says.
He continues to work part-time as a chef while he looks for ways to raise funds for the business. He now offers tours to interested visitors, ranging from a 2-hour hands-on farm tour to a ‘Day in the life of an Arctic farmer’ experience, on which you see every part of the farm and his life.
As for the next project? He plans to open his own zero-waste restaurant called the Greenhouse. “We want to do on a small-scale what we would like to see for the city. We will provide fresh, locally-grown food, use less single-use plastic, and compost the waste,” he says.
My latest book, How to Find a Job in Norway, is available now in paperback and eBook. My 450-page travel guidebook, Moon Norway, is here.
David Nikel Contributor
I was born in the UK but moved to Norway in 2011 and haven't looked back. I run a website and podcast for fellow expats, authored the Moon Norway travel guidebook, help Norwegian companies with their English, and spend my free time touring the country to discover more about the people and places of this unique corner of the world. I write for Forbes with an outsider's inside perspective on Norway & Scandinavia.
Italy: Lidl Trials Its First Shop To Have An Urban Garden
Spanish retailers follow the trend
A few weeks ago people were talking about the plans of El Corte Ingles to install a vertical garden in their store in Valladolid, now their focus is on Lidl, which has put into operation its first store in the world with an urban garden.
The discount company has opened this pioneer establishment in the Italian city of Turin. The store has 1,400 square meters of plant spaces on the roof of the building, which will be managed by Re.Te, a non-profit association that develops cooperation and social inclusion projects for people in need.
"Today we are not only here to inaugurate a new point of sale, but also to announce a unique project: the first Lidl store in the world, and there are already more than 10,500 of them, with a urban garden on the roof," stated the Regional director of Lidl Italy, Maurizio Cellini.
The urban garden will be administered in collaboration with other associations and will be entrusted to the inhabitants of the neighborhood, taking into account their income, work and personal situation.
"This is a story of which we are particularly proud and which expresses Lidl's willingness to meet the needs of the territory and to be part of a social inclusion project that will feature neighborhood families," added the director.
In this sense, the vice president of Re.Te, Luca Giliberti, stated that the urban garden would be administered in collaboration with other associations and would be entrusted to the inhabitants of the neighborhood, taking into account their income, work and personal situation.
The gardens will be used for awareness activities for school groups and labor reintegration, as well as to test agricultural techniques to combat the effects of climate change and support international agricultural projects in Latin America, the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa.
The new store offers an assortment of more than 2,000 items, 80% of which are manufactured in Italy. It is also equipped with photovoltaic panels to reduce energy needs.
In this way, Lidl joins the trend of developing vertical and urban projects in food distribution, especially at the international level. In fact, similar initiatives have already been launched by chains such as Carrefour, Auchan Retail, and Mercadona. Specialized retail has also started to implement projects of this type, just as Ikea has recently done in Sweden.
INDIA - VIDEO: A Vertical-Farming Startup Cultivating Organic, Healthy Greens in Space-Crunched Mumbai
The hyper-local farm delivering freshly-harvested,
leafy greens right to your doorstep
A vertical-farming startup cultivating organic, healthy greens in space-crunched Mumbai. Watch the journey of Herbivore Farms in the video below:
Mumbai Couple Grows Organic Produce through Hydroponics on
Commercial Level
25 April, 2019
By: Dr. Sangeeta Soi
A Mumbai based couple - Oshua Lewis and Sakina Rajkotwala decided to take the leap after a visit to Auroville in Puducherry in 2017 where they got inspired by Krishna Mckenzie, a native of England, who’s “honouring Mother Nature through local food.”
They named it as Herbivore Farms, Mumbai’s first hyperlocal, hydroponic farm. Today, the farm grows 2,500 plants, and sells fresh, organic vegetables to customers across Mumbai.
As told to Mumbai Foodie, the couple said, “Herbivore Farms is Mumbai’s first hyperlocal farm located in Andheri East. We grow super-healthy varieties of leafy green vegetables like Swiss chard, kale, rocket, and lettuce using hydroponic methods of cultivation.”
The farm is actually made at a place which was earlier used as a warehouse in an old industrial estate. It is spread over 1,000 sq ft, and houses over 2,500 kinds of plants in a temperature-controlled indoor setting.
According to the couple, the hydroponic method they use to grow their vegetables sets their produce apart. They also stated that there is no real-time solution to all the questions that they had in hydroponic farming so the trial and error methods usually works.
The irrigation system used here is re-circulating type which uses 80 percent lesser water to grow the produce. Other than this no pesticides are used in order to keep the environment sterile and safe completely. The water in which the plants are grown contains macro and micro-nutrients that facilitate the growth of the plant. Growing the plants in a vertical format has helped the couple to grow five times more the normal produce their farm would have otherwise done.
The couple also makes sure that they can deliver their products through home delivery, maintaining freshness, nutrition, and flavour.
They also reported that in spite of the higher cost of boxes the fresh organic produce are always in demand among customers.
#Mumbai #hydroponics #OshuaLewisandSakinaRajkotwala #Herbivorefarms#hydroponicfarm #recirculating
The Global Impact of Biophilic Design In The Workplace
Aramis Velazquez on March 27, 2019
Photo: Jakob Rope Systems
Mike Steer of CNN Business writes:
Biophilia is our instinctive human love of nature, and it is behind a growing design movement in workplaces that is making employees healthier and more productive. At a time when the World Health Organization (WHO) has dubbed stress as the "health epidemic of the 21st Century," could surrounding office workers with nature really offer a meaningful path to change?
One advocate for biophilic design is Oliver Heath. The Brit has worked on biophilic design for seven years and says it “most certainly” helps companies. “I have been teaching architects all over the EU about the business and the ROI (return on investment) of biophilic design. Research suggests that it is an essential component of supporting healthy people,” he said. His claims are well-supported. A 2015 report commissioned by the modular flooring company Interface and led by organizational psychologist Professor Sir Cary Cooper, titled “The Global Impact of Biophilic Design in the Workplace” details international research into the benefits of nature in our workspaces.
The impact of the work environment is already well established in Robertson Cooper’s ‘6 Essentials’ model – a robust model, validated by research with over 100,000 employees – that shows the key aspects of working life that affect workplace well-being and employee engagement. It is designed to guide the process of making well-being work for an organization.
Among the ‘Essentials’ is ‘job conditions’ – this concerns how our work environment makes us feel. Job conditions are defined as those elements of the physical environment that impact employee experience – that could be anything from being sat next to a noisy printer to having an uncomfortable workstation. While the 6 Essentials model emphasizes the importance of removing the barriers to well-being created by ‘job conditions’, biophilic design adds a new and positive approach to the area. Rather than simply removing those ‘hygiene’ factors that block individual well-being, it’s clear that biophilic design can positively influence one of the 6 Essential Factors, and consequently be a direct driver of well-being.
Greenery in the office, such as plants and green walls, was associated with higher levels of creativity.
LiveWall Indoor Living Wall Livens Up Coava Coffee’s New Café Location, Portland, OR, USA:
GSky Wall in Long Island Marriott, Long Island, NY, USA:
Watch a video from Interface:
Solar Microgrid To Power Indoor Farm All Year Round
So you want to buy local produce, but you also want strawberries in December? Soon you can have your cake – scratch that – vegetables, and eat them too. Up to 100 varieties of vegetables, including lettuce and kale, will soon be grown in an indoor warehouse in New Jersey, supported by a solar microgrid to keep plants growing all year round.
Bowery Farming’s facility will be be powered by batteries, solar panels, and on-site gas generators to enable it to operate independently from the electric grid. Scale Microgrid Solutions will build, own and operate the microgrid, and Schneider Electric will provide most of the infrastructure and software for the indoor farm.
Bowery is well acquainted with high-tech agriculture, making waves with its “post-organic” vertical farming which landed it $20 million in investment in 2017. In fact, its produce is grown in trays and requires no soil at all, using 95% less water than traditional farming due to a finely-tuned hydroponic system. Now, it is adding microgrids to its tech-repertoire.
One doesn’t normally associate microgrids with the realm of agriculture, and Scale Microgrid Solutions CEO Ryan Goodman thinks it might a first. “I believe no one has ever done microgrids in the indoor agricultural space like we’re doing here,” Goodman said, according to the Energy News Network. “There are some differences, but primarily they’re related to the load profile and how we’re using the assets.”
15% of the power will come from solar, while some of the power will still come from the grid, and the rest from the natural gas generator and batteries. So while New Jersey winters will bring cold winters, with short days lacking in sunlight, the indoor farm will be unaffected. Schneider Electric’s lithium-ion battery energy storage system will store solar energy that can be released to lower demand from the grid.
Schneider currently has more than 300 microgrid projects on the go in the US, and is using its EcoStruxure Microgrid Advisor software platform for cloud-connected, demand-side energy management. It’s integrated into the system to enable a look at current electric rate tariffs and optimization of energy usage – but does so faster than any human could.
This, combined with Bowery’s hydroponic system that uses 95% less water than is normally needed to grow plants, enables the creation of a super high-tech urban agriculture startup that will perhaps change the way we think about farming. Bowery Farming is set to begin the microgrid project this year, we can’t wait to see some tasty results.
Images: Bowery Farming
Tags: Bowery Farming, New Jersey, Scale Microgrid Solutions, schneider electric, vertical farming
About the Author
Erika Clugston Erika is a writer and artist based in Berlin. She is passionate about sharing stories of climate change and cleantech initiatives worldwide. Whether it’s transforming the fashion, food, or engineering industries, there’s an opportunity and responsibility for us all to do better. In addition to contributing to CleanTechnica, Erika is the Web and Social Media Editor at LOLA Magazine and writes regularly about art and culture.
Ikea Now Grows Lettuce In Shipping Containers At Its Stores
04.11.19
The salad with your meatballs will now be ultra local.
[Photo: Ikea]
Outside its stores in Malmö and Helsingborg, Sweden, Ikea is now growing lettuce in shipping containers. The company soon plans to begin serving the greens to customers at its onsite restaurants.
[Photo: Ikea]
For the company, it’s a step toward more environmental sustainability. “There is a need to find better solutions to produce more healthy food using less land and water and at the same time decrease food waste,” says Catarina Englund, innovation and development leader for the Ingka Group, the company that runs most Ikea stores globally. “Urban farming has the potential to transform the global food value chain, as it aims to produce local fresh food within close proximity to meet demand, all while using less natural resources.”
[Photo: Ikea]
Inside each shipping container, a hydroponic growing system holds four levels of plants, or up to 3,600 heads of lettuce. There’s no soil, no pesticides or herbicides, and, like other indoor farming, the system uses up to 90% less water than growing crops in a field. LED lights, running on renewable energy like the rest of the Ikea store, are tuned to help the plants grow as quickly as possible. The lettuce also gets nutrients from food waste.
[Photo: Olle Nordell/courtesy Bonbio]
“What we feed the plants is actually [made] out of food waste,” says Fredrik Olrog, the cofounder and managing director of Bonbio, the company providing the indoor farming system to Ikea. “That’s our uniqueness: We’re actually trying to make the future of farming circular.”
Bonbio is a part of a larger group, OX2, that makes fuel from food waste, and discovered a way to capture critical nutrients for farming–like nitrogen and phosphorus–as a by-product of making that fuel. It means that food waste from Ikea’s own restaurants can be used to help more food grow. “At these two sites, we’re doing a fully closed loop system–we’re actually taking their own food waste,” Olrog says.
[Image: Ikea]
For Ikea, food is a relatively small part of its overall carbon footprint (despite the popularity of its restaurants). But as it works to improve sustainability across the company, moving to a circular model and experimenting with renting the furniture that it sells, food is a piece of the solution. Globally, more than 30% of climate emissions are connected to food. At its restaurants, the company has started moving to more plant-based food–from veggie meatballs to veggie hot dogs–and is working to cut food waste in half. Growing food itself is the next step. Ultimately, the company aims to become “climate positive,” meaning that it reduces more emissions than it creates.
[Photo: Ikea]
As it works with Bonbio, “we will explore how to become self-sufficient in growing our own local fresh, healthy, and sustainable salad greens in vertical farms–at the same or lower cost levels as conventionally grown food,” says Englund. As with most indoor farming projects, it’s starting with greens. “For the time being, it’s easiest to grow vegetables with short growth cycles that can generate high yields per surface area, for instance, lettuce and kale,” she says.
The cold, dark winters in Sweden make it a particularly good place to test the system, since lettuce is imported for much of the year. Greens grown on-site can be better tasting (having lived in Sweden as a Californian, I can attest to the sadness of Swedish produce departments at grocery stores) and avoid the emissions of transportation. In tests that will last for a year, the partners are studying how much lettuce the system can grow, and how the unique nutrients that the system is using can improve the nutrition of the final food.
“The aim is to learn to be able to optimize and establish best practices and proof of concepts for vertical farming within Ikea operations,” says Englund. At the pilot stores, Ikea plans to initially serve the lettuce in its cafes for its own employees, and once it is satisfied with the production routines, will begin serving the lettuce to customers in its restaurants.
“In the long term, Ingka Group hopes to be self-sufficient with locally grown, circular lettuce and other leafy greens,” she says.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adele Peters is a staff writer at Fast Company who focuses on solutions to some of the world's largest problems, from climate change to homelessness. Previously, she worked with GOOD, BioLite, and the Sustainable Products and Solutions program at UC Berkeley.
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Japan Plant Factory Association Announces Innovative Approach To Sustainability With Plant Factories With Artificial Lighting (PFAL)
Industry: Agriculture
A New approach to sustainability with plant factories was announced this month by Toyoki Kozai, Japan Plant Factory Association (NPO)
New York City, NY (PRUnderground) April 18th, 2019
Plant Factory is a facility that aids the steady production of high-quality vegetables all year round by artificially controlling the cultivation environment (e.g., light, temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide concentration, and culture solution), allowing growers to plan production. Japan leads the world in the cutting-edge technology contained in plant factories and it continues to motivate entrepreneurs and start-ups.
In the book “Smart Plant Factory: The next generation indoor vertical farms”, Toyoki Kozai has tried to provide readers with an accurate understanding of plant factories. The book presents an overview of the role of plant factories in the 21st century. Furthermore, it comprises of a lucid description of the concept, characteristics, methodology, design, management, business, recent advances and future technologies of plant factories with artificial lighting (PFAL) and indoor vertical farms.
According to the Shift, indoor farming is the future of urban farming as it allows vertical farms that grow all crops, in any place, at any time. It has been observed that there is an emerging interest around the globe in smart PFAL R&D and business and this book tries to cover smart solutions in PFAL et al.
In another book, “Light-Emitting Diodes, the readers can gain insight into the latest theories, technologies, and applications of LEDs based on III-V semiconductor materials. Jinmin Li and G.Q. Zhang describe the latest developments of LEDs with spectral coverage from ultra-violet (UV) to the entire visible light wavelength.
The book is a highly recommended read for all the researchers and students working with semiconductors, optoelectronics, and optics. It delves into the various novel ways LEDs can be used, for example, the benefits of LEDs in healthcare and wellbeing or the innovative solutions LEDs can provide in horticulture and animal breeding. The foreword of the book is written by Hiroshi Amano, one of the 2014 winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on light-emitting diodes. Overall, the book is an interesting, thought-provoking read.
In a research paper, “Benefits, problems, and challenges of plant factories with artificial lighting (PFALs), T. Kozai has discussed the potential and actualized benefits of the PFAL, the current unresolved problems of PFALs and the challenges for the smart PFAL. According to the Kozai, the global and local trilemma on foods, resources, and environment can be solved with the help of PFALs. According to Kozai et al., the benefits of the PFAL are high resource-use efficiency (RUE), high annual productivity per unit land area, and the production of high-quality plants without using pesticides.
However, high initial investment, electricity, and labor costs remain a challenge which has further led to a limited number of profitable PFALs. Kozai suggests that it is vital to understand the concepts behind the benefits and the methodology before designing and operating a PFAL to actualize the potential benefits of the PFAL. In addition to the above, a considerable amount of systematic research, development, and marketing with the appropriate vision, mission, strategy, and methodologies is also crucial.
The research on PFALs shows that actualization of potential benefits is relatively easy compared to a greenhouse in which the energy and material balance and the plant-environment relationship is much more complex. Hence, the straightforward approach with respect to the PFAL is helpful.
Tags: AI, artificial intelligence, factories, News, plant, Science
Hydroponic Farming: Why the Future of Food Is Indoors
Hydroponic farming needs a fraction of the water and space needed
to grow crops compared to conventional farming.
Hydroponics could help meet the world’s growing food pressure.
Pixabay
There are about 7.5 billion people on the face of the planet. With every new person born, there’s a new mouth to feed.
In just a few decades, we might just hit a Full-Earth scenario.
By 2100, the global population will be around 11 billion. To feed this many people, we need 0.22 hectares of cultivated land on average per person. That gives us 2.4 billion hectares. Currently, there are 1.5 billion hectares of cultivated land in the world. So, we need about 1 billion more hectares of farmland, roughly the size of the United States.
That’s not even thinking about all of the water needed to irrigate these crops and the strain this will put on the world’s water resources.
Besides being unfeasible, it’s just an unsustainable model that we used and tested for a very long time.
Non-conventional agriculture systems, like vertical farming and urban farming, could help produce more food, while also easing environment issues related to food production.
Hydroponic farming is another method that allows growing plants to not only meet quantity needs but also quality standards.
Indoor Hydroponic Farms: no Soil, no Pesticides, and Very Little Water
If hydroponic farming sounds futuristic, the concept itself is about as old as agriculture with many instances of hydroponic farms throughout history and civilizations.
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, is the first known example of hydroponic farming. The Aztec built chinampas, floating farms that used hydroponic systems.
Hydroponics is basically an irrigation system that allows growing plants without soil.
Leveraging robotics and data analytics, many companies are taking indoor hydroponic farming to levels never before reached.
One such company is Bowery Farming, a startup founded in 2014 in New York that specializes in indoor farming.
The company claims its farming system to be 100 times more productive than traditional farming while using 95% less water and zero pesticides.
A combination of tech solutions enable Bowery to produces a wide variety of crops, twice as fast, and take them to market within a few days after harvest.
Irving Fain, Bowery CEO and co-founder, told Clean Technica:
“BoweryOS, our proprietary software system, uses vision systems, automation technology, and machine learning to monitor plants and all the variables that drive their growth 24/7, while combining software and automation with industrial process management to optimize production, fulfillment and distribution. By applying proprietary machine learning algorithms to millions of points of data collected by an extensive network of sensors and cameras.”
Because indoor farms offer a closed and controlled environment for greens to grow, there’s more to these products than just their little resources requirements.
They are safer to eat because controlled environment technology minimizes the risk of contamination from different sources, like animal waste, water, or irrigation run-off.
In the case of Bowery products, because they control “the entire process from seed to store, our greens aren’t matriculated through large distribution and fulfillment centers that often lead to additional exposure to contaminants”.
Zayan Guedim
Trilingual poet, investigative journalist, and novelist. Zed loves tackling the big existential questions and all-things quantum.
Indoor Ag-Con Announces Full Conference Schedule For May 22-24, 2019 Las Vegas Edition
Keynote From Bowery’s Irving Fain
Kicks Off Comprehensive Schedule
LAS VEGAS (April 1, 2019) – Indoor Ag-Con, the premier event covering the technology of growing crops in indoor systems, using hydroponic, aeroponic and aquaponic techniques, has announced the full conference schedule for the 7th annual edition, May 22-24, 2019, at Red Rock Resort, Las Vegas, NV. Featuring 50+ sessions, panel discussions and keynotes, the comprehensive line-up spans five tracks: Grow Equipment, Crop Selection, Customers & The Supply Chain, Business, Policy & Societal Impact.
The full conference schedule is available at https://indoor.ag/lasvegas/las-vegas-2019-schedule-sessions/
“We built our conference sessions around the show’s theme, ‘Growing The Future,’” explained Jim Pantaleo, Conference Chairman, Indoor Ag-Con. “From indoor farm success stories to the latest innovations in artificial intelligence, LED lighting and control systems, to the impacts of the farm bill, we’ve gathered a full roster of industry experts to address today’s most pressing topics and issues.”
On opening day, Wednesday, May 22, 2019, Irving Fain, co-founder and CEO of Bowery, the modern farming company growing food for a better future by revolutionizing agriculture, kicks off the conference with a presentation from 9:15 – 9:55 am.
Bowery’s large scale commercial indoor farms combine the benefits of the best local farms with advances made possible by technology to grow food for a better future.
Since launching publicly in early 2017, Bowery has secured over $122.5M in funding, and expanded distribution of 8 product SKUs to retailers like Whole Foods, Foragers, Peapod, and various restaurants and fast-casuals in the Tristate area.
In addition to the keynotes, attendees can chose from an expansive line-up of sessions and panel discussions led by top industry executives and thought leaders from some of the biggest names and up-and-coming innovators in the indoor ag space.
Among them: Suncrest USA, AeroFarms, Signify, Shenandoah Farms, MVP Farms, Fluence Bioengineering, Farmbox Greens, Urban Crop Solutions, Sananbio, Vertial Harvest, TapRoot holdings, Pulse Labs Smallhold, Germains Seed Technology, MVP Farms, Argus Controls, AgEye Technologies, HSG-AME Certified Laboratories and many others.
The hemp and cannabis sectors are also well represented within the 2019 programming, with sessions like Hemp and the Farm Bill, Hemp|Cannabis Genetics Landscape, HVAC and Accounting For Cannabis Grows and others.
Indoor Ag-Con welcomes a number of other features in addition to the comprehensive educational conference, including an exhibition floor filled the vendors showcasing the latest in everything from equipment to climate control systems. Networking opportunities are also an integral part of the event, including receptions on May 22 and 23, continental breakfast and lunch gatherings daily. Other programs include extended networking breaks between conference sessions.
The 2019 edition will also see the hard release of a new white paper from Contain Inc., an alternate finance provider to indoor growers, entitled “ Automation, AI and the Next Generation Of Indoor Agriculture.” Each attendee will receive a copy with their welcome gift bag.
ABOUT INDOOR AG-CON LLC
Founded in 2013, Indoor Ag-Con has grown into the premier event in indoor agriculture, the practice of growing crops, raising fish and insects in indoor systems, using hydroponic, aquaponic and aeroponic techniques.
Its events are tech-focused and crop-agnostic, covering produce, legal cannabis, alternate protein and non-food crops.
It hosts events in Las Vegas, Singapore and the US East coast.
In December 2018, three event industry professionals – Nancy Hallberg, Kris Sieradzki and Brian Sullivan – purchased Indoor Ag-Con LLC from Newbean Capital, so setting the stage for further expansion of the events globally.