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Planting The Seeds For Dramatic Changes In Agriculture
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently released an important report titled “Climate Change and Land,” which chronicled the impact the agricultural industry is having on climate change
August 15, 2019
marsraw/Pixabay
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently released an important report titled “Climate Change and Land,” which chronicled the impact the agricultural industry is having on climate change. Demonstrating the significance of that report, Alan Sano, a farmer in the San Joaquin Valley of California, wrote an op-ed in the New York Times titled, “Farmers Don’t Need to Read the Science. We Are Living It.”
But what is most interesting about the IPCC’s report is that they assume that traditional farming practices can be modified to address the crisis we face. Their recommendations are mostly focused on dealing with the fact that “global food production is now thought to be responsible for up to 37% of greenhouse gas emissions.” But there are other issues that make our traditional approach to farming unsustainable.
The global population will reach 9.7 billion by 2050.
Every hour, we lose 175 acres of farmland to real estate development.
A third of the planet’s land is severely degraded and fertile soil is being lost at the rate of 24bn tonnes a year.
Scientists say that the earth has lost a third of its arable land over the last 40 years.
A quarter of humanity faces a looming water crisis.
Agriculture accounts for about 70% of global water withdrawals.
Nitrate from agriculture is now the most common chemical contaminant in the world’s groundwater aquifers.
Those are just some of the reasons why those searching for a sustainable solution are exploring the alternative of hydroponics—specifically with something that has come to be known as “vertical farming.”
Rick LeBlanc identified the additional benefits of vertical farming, including the fact that it “allows us to produce more crops from the same square footage of growing area.” For example, “1 acre of an indoor area offers equivalent production to at least 4-6 acres of outdoor capacity,” while using 70-95 percent less water than traditional farming.
As Danny Danko explains, “hydroponic cultivation — the growing of plants without soil — is a science as ancient as the fabled Hanging Gardens of Babylon and as modern as a future NASA mission to Mars.” It has even played a role in feeding U.S. troops since World War II.
During World War II, American troops overseas grew vegetables hydroponicaly to ease the burden of transporting perishable food to barren islands in the Pacific Theater and the arid regions of the Middle East…
The military kept growing hydro long after WWII, as Lt. Col. Marcus E. Cooper, Quartermaster, 1st Cavalry Division reported during the Korean War, “While we were in Kumchon we began to receive our first shipments of fresh vegetables. These were airlifted from the hydroponic farms in Japan. We had a standing priority on fresh foods for the hospital, then for the front-line troops. These vegetables were a real morale-builder.”
LeBlanc points out that the biggest downside to vertical farming right now is financial feasibility, due to the high capital costs associated with start-up. But he notes that “the financial situation is changing, however, as the industry matures and technologies improve.” That is where the federal government could play a huge role, similar to what was accomplished with renewable energy by the stimulus package, as described by Michael Grunwald.
Obama promised that he would double renewable power generation during his first term, and he did. In 2008, people had the sense that renewable energy was a tiny industry in the United States. What they forget is it was a tiny dead industry — because these wind and solar projects were essentially financed through tax credits, which required people with tax liability, and everybody had lost money, so nobody needed [the tax credits]. By changing those to a cash grant, it instantly unlocked this industry.
Any so-called “Green New Deal” will need to provide seed money (pun intended) to explore dramatic changes to how we think about agriculture and farming. The potential we’ve already seen from hydroponics and vertical farming could lead us in that direction.
CombaGroup Awarded Solar Impulse Efficient Solutions Label August 2019
To achieve this recognition, CombaGroup underwent a rigorous assessment process performed by external independent experts, based on a verified methodology and against several criteria that included technological feasibility, environmental and socio-economic benefits, and economic profitability
CombaGroup is proud to receive the Solar Impulse Efficient Solutions label awarded by Dr. Bertrand Piccard’s Solar Impulse Foundation.
Following the success of the famous solar powered flight around the world, the Solar Impulse Foundation decided to award the "Solar Impulse Efficient Solutions" label to 1000 products or services that meet high standards of both sustainability and profitability. A portfolio of these solutions, that includes CombaGroup, will be brought to decision-makers to encourage them to adopt more ambitious environmental targets and energy policies.
Swiss-based CombaGroup is honoured to have received this label in appreciation for its achievements in efficiency, sustainability, and profitability. For CombaGroup, the label serves as a new and credible symbol that is applied to products, processes and services in order to bridge the gap between ecology and economy while proving that protection of the environment is profitable.
To achieve this recognition, CombaGroup underwent a rigorous assessment process performed by external independent experts, based on a verified methodology and against several criteria that included technological feasibility, environmental and socio-economic benefits, and economic profitability.
CombaGroup contributed to 4 of the sustainable development goals (SDG):
SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
SDG 9: Industry Innovation and Infrastructure
SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities
SDG 12: Responsible Production and Consumption
“Imagine the impact that this will have on the world! 1000 clean and efficient solutions with a label proving their profitability. They have the potential to create jobs and boost clean economic growth, while also reducing CO2 emissions and preserving natural resources. This is much more than ecological, it is logical!” says Bertrand Piccard, Initiator and Chairman of the Solar Impulse Foundation.
Serge Gander, CEO of CombaGroup said: “We are honoured to have been distinguished with the Solar Impulse Efficient Solutions label because the vision that is behind Bertrand Piccard’s drive to efficiently, sustainably, and profitably impact the planet resonates fittingly with CombaGroup’s mission to innovate for an efficient, sustainable, and profitable agriculture—that is clean, green, locally-grown, and pesticide-free all year round.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
About CombaGroup
CombaGroup is a Swiss agro-technology company that provides farmers and industrialists with innovative mobile aeroponic farming solutions for growing fresh, environmentally-friendly, nutrient- rich vegetables. CombaGroup’s patented technology significantly reduces water consumption and contamination risks while offering maximum productivity per square meter and minimising environmental impact. Mechanised irrigation and spacing systems produce clean, quality, pesticide-free salads, cabbages, and aromatic plants all year round, thus providing consumers with healthy, responsible products.
For more information
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About Solar Impulse Foundation Efficient Solutions
https://solarimpulse.com/efficient-solutions/mobile-aeroponics-farming
Fresh Produce, Brought To You By Robots
IN SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA, UNDER LED lighting in a controlled, 8,000-square-foot environment, a team of autonomous robots is whirring night and day between rows of leafy greens
A Family-Owned Market In California
Is Now Selling Robot-Reared Leafy Greens
BY LUKE FATER AUGUST 08, 2019
An industrial robotic arm with custom gripper and sensors constantly reorganizes plants as they grow. IRON OX
IN SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA, UNDER LED lighting in a controlled, 8,000-square-foot environment, a team of autonomous robots is whirring night and day between rows of leafy greens. There is no dirt, there are no pesticides, and on this indoor farm, the only humans work behind screens. This is one of the world’s first autonomously operated commercial farms, and their produce is now flying off the shelves.
As a child, roboticist Brandon Alexander spent summers in Oklahoma helping his grandfather grow potatoes, peanuts, and cotton on a 6,000-acre farm. But as CEO of Iron Ox, the start-up company behind the automated farm, he says traditional farming is now his biggest competition—and granddad understands. “He knows that for farming to survive, this is almost inevitable,” says Alexander.
At Bianchini’s Market, a family-owned grocery in the San Francisco Bay Area, the two worlds are competing for the first time. As it stands, the robots are holding their own: Between retail buyers and several local restaurants, including San Francisco’s Trace, Iron Ox saw sales more than double last quarter.
Compact spacing techniques unique to hydroponic farms allow Iron Ox to grow 30 times the yield per acre compared to outdoor farming, according to Alexander. IRON OX
The San Carlos operation is not completely automated just yet. Human staff still plant the initial seed and handle post-harvest packaging. But the rest is left to robots.
Angus, a half-ton aluminum porter, roams the “field” of trays, or pallets, 24/7 with an overhead camera. On traditional farms, plants need space for their roots to absorb nutrients; on hydroponic farms, however, seeds can be planted in their trays mere inches apart. As they grow and begin crowding each other, though, this does require more attention from, say, a sleepless robot. Angus carries the 800-pound pallets in need of rearranging to a separate, industrial robotic arm that gently re-shuffles the growing pods into new compact rows. Angus is also responsible for IPM (integrated pest management) and scanning for aphids, mildew, and browning.
The robotic arm’s stereo-camera (“two cameras that kind of mimic your eyes,” Alexander casually explains) creates a 3-D model of at-risk produce that’s run through a machine algorithm to diagnose the issue and quarantine or prune accordingly. “The Brain,” a cloud-based AI software, coordinates all these autonomous functions while monitoring light, nitrogen, and water levels. “It’s a neighborhood farm,” says Alexander.
A 1,000-pound aluminum porter named Angus scans for crowding, carrying plant pallets to a separate robotic arm for rearranging. IRON OX
He’s not wrong. Produce from Iron Ox travels less than a mile to reach Bianchini’s—itself a mere 25 miles from downtown San Francisco. In fact, evening shoppers at Bianchini can buy produce robo-picked that morning, and at price points that compete with outdoor farms: A bunch of basil sells for $2.99; four heads of baby lettuce for $4.99; and a bunch of red-veined sorrel for $2.99.
Typically, the cost of human labor required for indoor hydroponic farms has made their produce inaccessibly expensive. Jake Counne of Backyard Fresh Farms, a similarly autonomously assisted farm in Chicago, told the Chicago Tribune that employing robotics reduced his labor costs by 80 percent. For this reason, building a farm around robotics and A.I. could crack the code of making indoor farms feasible. And while Alexander’s leafy greens remain local, the consequences of Iron Ox’s success may not.
Using robotics to make indoor hydroponic farms practical could alleviate a host of agricultural problems. In 2016, World Water Forum cited farming as a major contributor to global water scarcity. But farms like Iron Ox use 90 percent less water than outdoor farms. In a 2019 report on the challenges of feeding 10 billion people by 2050, The World Resources Institute cites concern over “the difference between global agricultural land area in 2010 and the area required in 2050 … if crop yields continue to grow at past rates.” According to Alexander, Iron Ox yields 30 times more produce per acre over the course of a year than conventional farms, and without using any arable land. A 2016 report from the National Center for Biotechnology on Chemical Pesticides urged a “drastic reduction in the use of agrochemicals,” and indoor farms alleviate the need for herbicides and pesticides.
This vision-enabled robot runs 3-D scanned models of the plants through a machine learning algorithm for quality control. IRON OX
For now, Iron Ox’s goals are more pointed. “How can we make your salad pop? We try to prioritize that,” Alexander says. Following the success of the San Carlos location, he does plan to set up robotic farms near other U.S. cities, though he’s not announcing anything yet. Iron Ox is, however, hiring humans for plant science and growing teams.
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Denver Urban Farming Trend Grows From A Sloan’s Lake Condo Tower To A Larimer Square Parking Garage
“If you grew this in California and transported it here, it wouldn’t taste nearly this strong,” Altius co-founder and CEO Sally Herbert said, holding up a particularly spicy variety of mustard leaf
Entrepreneurs and real estate developers are taking urban agriculture to new heights at a Mile High
Emily Lawler, farm manager, works outside at Altius Farms, in the RiNo neighborhood, on July 26, 2019 in Denver. The urban agriculture sells items to local restaurants.
By JOE RUBINO | jrubino@denverpost.com | The Denver Post
August 4, 2019
It was 8:15 Tuesday morning and the greenhouse was just waking up for the day.
Spurred by an electrical panel that serves as its brain, its roof vents had popped open, letting in the cool, morning air.
Meanwhile, the human staff of Altius Farms was already busy doing its work. Moving among rows of aeroponic growing towers the pickers plucked leafy greens, herbs and edible flowers like Genovese basil and red Russian kale, washed them and packed them in coolers.
Within hours the harvest would be distributed to some of Altius’ three dozen odd regular and seasonal customers in the Denver area including top restaurants and grocers like Choice Market and Marczyk Fine Foods.
“If you grew this in California and transported it here, it wouldn’t taste nearly this strong,” Altius co-founder and CEO Sally Herbert said, holding up a particularly spicy variety of mustard leaf. “After 1,500 miles in and out of cold storage, the flavor degrades. The nutrient density degrades, too. As much as 80 percent.”
All of the work, mechanical and mammal, was taking place far from Colorado’s agriculture heartlands on the Eastern Plains and Western Slope. Altius is farming in the heart of Denver at 2500 Lawrence St. Its 7,000-square-foot greenhouse sits atop (and helps supply) chic sushi restaurant Uchi and is the visual centerpiece of sustainability-focused condo project S*Park.
The greenhouse is a shimmering glass example of the growing urban farming trend that is now setting down deeper roots in Denver, both in new projects like the soon-to-be-completed Lakehouse tower near Sloan’s Lake and in historic city anchors like Larimer Square.
RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post
Emily Lawler, farm manger, works outside at Altius Farms, in the RiNo neighborhood, on July 26, 2019 in Denver. The urban agriculture sells items to local restaurants.
S*Park was a Denver Housing Authority property before Westfield Co. bought the land it sits on and two other parcels for $7 million. Part of the deal required Westfield to preserve a community garden on the property. The company has done that. Herbert, formerly in the Air Force Reserve, is looking for a fellow veteran to tend to that outdoor plot which was planted earlier this summer. Westfield has also gone beyond that directive by bringing in Altius as one of the marquee tenants in the 91-unit community.
Westfield partner Jonathan Alpert said the goal at S*Park was to find tenant businesses that matched with its sustainable design and mission. Other businesses on the block include a juice bar, a yoga studio and a forthcoming bakery.
Altius plays more than one role there.
The development is dotted with metal tubs residents can use as their own garden beds, with Herbert and crew offering help with cultivation techniques. Altius is establishing a community-supported agriculture or CSA program where S*Park residents and people from across the metro area can subscribe and share in some of what’s harvested as long as they are willing to come pick it up.
“I think all of the communities we build and are involved in are focused on what’s next,” Alpert said. “That was always the goal, to make it easy for people to live this lifestyle in the heart of the city.”
For Christi Turner, S*Park’s focus on sustainability is no fringe perk. Turner, who is renting a studio unit owned by a friend, is the founder of Scraps, a bike-powered compost pick-up service focused on the heart of Denver. S*Park provides her with easy access to her customers and proximity to like-minded businesses like Altius. She hopes to establish a compost drop-off point for her staff on the property.
“It’s hard to grow food in the city. It’s hard to find space, it’s hard to afford space. At the same time, it’s incumbent upon us to figure out solutions,” Turner said. “You throw in vertical gardening that does not require soil … how cool to have that be the showpiece of where you live?”
RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post
Nick Gruber, farm manger, works outside at Altius Farms putting down seeds, in the RiNo neighborhood, on July 26, 2019 in Denver, Colorado. The urban agriculture sells items to local restaurants.
The 196 condos in the 12-story Lake house tower are on pace to be ready for move-ins this fall, but a rooftop farm there is already growing salad-ready produce. The 3,000-square-foot patch on the building’s second-story terrace uses traditional, soil-based methods to grow peas, tomatoes, greens and a host of other veggies, according to Quint Redmond, co-owner of Agriburbia Development.
The Keenesburg-based company has been working with Lakehouse developer Nava Real Estate Development to cultivate the project for four years, consulting on designs from the earliest stages, Redmond said. Where Altius is a startup — S*Park is its first urban farm, though another, larger project is in the works, Herbert said — Agriburbia has been involved in urban farming for a decade, working on projects across the U.S. and other countries. Redmond believes Lakehouse, where a rooftop farm was part of the plan from the beginning, is the first project of its kind in the country.
“It’s not designed to feed everybody in the building. It’s designed to educate everybody. It’s designed to be part of a broader wellness program,” Redmond said. “The main thing was to get food growing on a brand new building and to make it part of the culture. It was a joyous occasion when we harvested radishes there last week.”
Urban farming has already risen to prominence in some coastal cities, aided, in the case of trend standard-bearer San Francisco, at least by tax subsidies. But real estate trend watchers expect it to goes mainstream across the country as people get more in tune with where their food comes from and demand more fresh, healthy options.
In a trends report published in November, researchers with global real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield wrote, “We expect indoor cropping operations to be a major growth industry in the years ahead.” Projects mentioned in the report include a 26-tower indoor garden at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport supplying herbs, greens and more to airport restaurants that serve upward of 10,000 people every day. Indoor farming options are viewed as particularly positive because of their low water use, and year-round production, per the report.
In Denver, Cushman & Wakefield broker Joey Trinkle is on the lookout for industrial space to accommodate Castle Rock company Farmbox Foods. Farmbox converts old shipping containers into self-contained mobile hydroponic and aquaponic farms. It wants access to rail so it can send it products to any metro area where it might find clients, Trinkle said.
With competition for industrial space in Denver fierce right now, Trinkle said he isn’t aware of many other urban farming startups looking for space. The big players in the industrial market from a food perspective remain online retailers looking to speed grocery delivery to customers and meal-in-a-box delivery companies like Blue Apron.
“I think we may start to see more sort cues of that sort of thing shifting into Denver,” he said, “but none that I am familiar with at this point.”
One of the most storied blocks in Denver — historic Larimer Square — is embracing urban farming. Earlier this summer, property manager Urban Villages cordoned off the roof of the block’s six-story parking garage on Market Street, built garden boxes and planted 100 plus varieties of plants including more than 50 types of vegetable. It eliminated more than 90 money-making parking spaces in the process.
The company partnered with Larimer Square owner Jeff Hermanson in 2018 to unveil controversial plans to build new, tall buildings along the square, with aims to bring affordable housing and a hotel to the block. Those plans, which would require City Council sign off because Larimer Square is a protected historic district, are up in the air but rooftop gardens, also part of that initial proposal, was something Urban Villages CEO Grant McCargo decided could not wait.
“We’re in a global food crisis. The world doesn’t know it,” said McCargo, who also heads up Urban Villages sister company Bio-Logical Capital and recently helped bring the eco-friendly Slow Food Nations festival to the square.
McCargo said the challenges brought on by climate change mean people need to be growing food everywhere, including on rooftops downtown. “This is not a for-profit venture up here,” he said. “This is for our education so we can plan for the reimagination (of Larimer Square.)”
The operation is being managed by Mike Spade, a New York City native who previously worked on a rooftop farm atop a hospital building at his alma mater, Stony Brook University. The roof is open for public tours on weekdays, with Saturdays being added soon, Spade said. He is exploring additional possibilities for public education and agrotourism on the roof. All food grown there is being given away.
Urban agriculture is not a new concept in Denver. The nonprofit Denver Urban Gardens manages dozens of community gardens across the metro area where people can rent plots. In the Elyria-Swansea neighborhood, GrowHaus is nearing its 10-year anniversary. That nonprofit operates a hydroponic and aquaponic farm to stock its fresh food market (where prices are set on a sliding scale) and fill subscription food boxes as it strives to support a community-driven, neighborhood-based food system that is accessible to people of all income levels.
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But things are clearly growing too new levels. Earlier this year, the nonprofit Focus Points Family Resource Center was awarded a $100,000 state grant to plan future community gardens in the Elyria-Swansea and Globeville neighborhoods. Colorado State University is preparing to build a food and agriculture innovation center as part of its three-building campus at the National Western Complex. While it could never replace traditional farming and rural food production in Colorado or elsewhere, Tom Vilsack, the former U.S. secretary of agriculture and Iowa governor now advising CSU on its National Western project, said urban farming does have a role to play in the future.
In part, “it provides opportunities for community development, it provides business opportunities and opportunities for job growth,” Vilsack said.
Kayla Birdsong, executive director of GrowHaus, is all for more locally grown produce. With more people moving into Denver all the time, there are that many more people who need, fresh healthy food. But as entrepreneurs and for-profit businesses get in on the act — each of which competes with her nonprofit organization — she hopes they’ll operators will continue to look for ways to give back, whether it be donating extra food or providing jobs in the neighborhood like GrowHaus does.
“There is a responsibility in the business community that is in it for profit to very intentionally map out their road to contributing to their communities directly and ensuring that they are actively working towards equitable food access, especially in neighborhoods that struggle so much with food insecurity every day,” she said.
Building A 2.76M Square Foot Sustainable Greenhouse In Job Starved Appalachia
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change just released a report highlighting the alarming effect climate change and the rise in global temperatures are having on fertile soil—and on the world's ability to produce enough food to feed the planet's growing population
Anne Field Contributor Entrepreneur
AppHarvest facility rendering | APPHARVEST
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change just released a report highlighting the alarming effect climate change and the rise in global temperatures are having on fertile soil—and on the world's ability to produce enough food to feed the planet's growing population. There’s also an increasing depletion of the global water supply.
Jonathan Webb, founder of two-year-old startup AppHarvest, thinks his company can help address those urgent crises. Specifically, he plans to produce more food with less water using massive controlled-environment, sustainable greenhouses. In the process, Webb, a native of Kentucky who also worked in renewable energy, also hopes to help revive the struggling Appalachian economy.
“There are technical solutions to many of these problems,” says Webb. “But much of it is a matter of execution at scale and at a rapid pace.”
His plan: build a 2.76 million-square-foot controlled-environment agricultural facility on 60-acres in Morehead, Kentucky, using hydroponic growing techniques, which rely on a nutrient solution, instead of the usual soil. As a result, according to Webb, it will be able to grow pesticide-free tomatoes and cucumbers year-round using 90% less water than traditional farming—and do so in the middle of coal country. Water will come from rainwater kept in a retention pool and there will be circular irrigation systems. The whole project takes its inspiration from the Netherlands, which is a top exporter of tomatoes, potatoes and onions, among other food, thanks to its pioneering work in climate-controlled agriculture.
The facility is also in a strategically-situated location that’s within a day’s drive of 70% of the U.S. population, according to the company. That should slash the amount of gas used in transportation compared to imports trucked across the country to the East Coast, while supplying markets with fresher produce. The company is working with distribution partner Mastronardi Produce.
In job-starved Appalachia, where one in four residents live in poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the facility also could provide a boost to the economy. While AppHarvest is buying components from the Netherlands, Webb estimates that the project will create 285 full-time positions, plus 100 construction jobs. The company will also work with local universities to add job training classes.
Webb recently closed an $82 million all-cash deal with Equilibrium Capital to build its greenhouse. Plus, it raised more money in a Series A round led by Value Act Spring Fund and joined by existing investor Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund.
The mega-greenhouse is projected to be up and running by mid-2020. As for building similar facilities in other parts of the country, Webb says he wants to see that happen, but by different parties. “We’re in Appalachia,” he says. “But I hope other people will be building throughout the country.”
I'm an award-winning journalist with a particular interest in for-profit social enterprise, as well as entrepreneurship and small business in general. I've covered those areas for many many places, including The New York Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, Crain's New York Business, Inc. and Business Insider. As an entrepreneurial journalist--ie, a freelancer--I work from my home office in Pelham, NY.
Spotlight On Urban, Vertical And Indoor Agriculture
Should food be grown in cities? If so, how? These questions have a long history, with the last few hundred years taking in the Garden City movement where towns were designed to include homes, industry and agriculture, the ‘Victory Gardens’ of the First and Second World Wars and, more recently, the food miles debate
By Helen Breewood, originally published by Food Climate Research Network
January 22, 2019
Should food be grown in cities? If so, how? These questions have a long history, with the last few hundred years taking in the Garden City movement where towns were designed to include homes, industry and agriculture, the ‘Victory Gardens’ of the First and Second World Wars and, more recently, the food miles debate.
Meanwhile, futuristic visions of the food system often feature city-centre skyscrapers full of fresh fruit and vegetables, carefully tended by a fleet of robots, with precise doses of fertiliser, water and exactly the right wavelengths of light administered by an intelligent computer – and perhaps open to city dwellers looking to unwind among some greenery or learn how their food is produced. Entrepreneurs Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler, for example, paint a rosy picture in their book Abundance, in which they claim that just 150 thirty-storey farms could feed the whole city of New York.
But look closer, and the picture becomes less clear. Isn’t urban farming an old tradition, in the form of allotments or community gardens? Aren’t commercial greenhouses already highly automated? Is it really more efficient to build a huge structure and use artificial lights, instead of just transporting food from farmland using rapid modern supply chains? If high-tech skyscraper farms are really more efficient (in terms of resource use or environmental impacts per unit of output) than field-based farming, why limit them to urban areas where land is expensive?
This purpose of this blog post is to disentangle some of the many intertwined concepts here: urban, indoor and vertical farming. The diagram below is one attempt at showing how several different forms of food production can be classified as urban, indoor, vertical or a combination. I’ll outline some of the main factors and questions surrounding their implementation. This post does not aim to answer all the questions raised, nor make a judgement on which types of urban, vertical or indoor farming are ‘best’ or most sustainable. Its purpose rather is to stimulate ideas and discussion among FCRN members. Do give your thoughts and feedback via the FCRN Google Group.
This post focuses mostly on high-tech farming rather than, say, allotments. It also focuses on higher-income countries. However, urban farming is of great importance in the context of lower-income countries – see, for example, the paper Sustainable urban agriculture in developing countries. A review and the work of the RUAF Foundation, which is a “global partnership on sustainable urban Agriculture and Food Systems”. For more information on different aspects of urban, indoor and vertical farming, see the resources listat the end of this post.
Image: one possible way of classifying agriculture according to whether it is urban, indoor, vertical or a combination of these. An alternative visualisation of these categories could be a 3D graph with three axes: rural to urban, outdoor to indoor, and horizontal to vertical. In this latter option, individual items could be placed at the appropriate point along each axis, instead of being classified as strictly urban or rural (say).
Urban agriculture
Image: Fadi Hage, Greenhouses at Lufa Farms, the world’s first commercial rooftop greenhouses. Montreal neighborhood of Ahuntsic-Cartierville. Wikimedia Commons.
The location of agriculture can be defined on a spectrum from rural to urban, with urban or semi-urban encompassing a wide variety of situations such as windowsills, allotments, private gardens, public parks, multi-storey farms, industrial estates, rooftop gardens and even disused underground rail tunnels or ‘guerrilla gardens’ (areas of land that people cultivate without having formal legal rights to do so, such as unused building sites).
Proponents of urban agriculture claim that it has both environmental and social benefits.
On the environmental side, these include lower transport emissions, introducing green areas and biodiversity into cities, food waste reductions, greater efficiency of water use, and greater ease of using urban waste streams as a farming resource or linking with renewable energy production.
On the social side, listed benefits include fresher food, community cohesion, stress relief and mental health improvements, training and employment opportunities, and increased access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Matt Barnard, CEO of hydroponics startup Plenty argues that fruit and vegetables can be made cheaper by cutting out transport costs – and that therefore more people might be able to afford to buy them.
However, not all these benefits have a strong evidence base, not all apply to all types of urban agriculture, and there are also potential disadvantages to consider.
An example of a benefit that only applies to a specific form of urban agriculture is aesthetics. Anna Birgitte Milford, Research Scientist in the Division of Food Production and Society at NIBIO, is currently studying rooftop greenhouses in Bergen, Norway. She argues “A rooftop greenhouse can also, if done well, become an aesthetic landmark in any city, and this has a lot of social value.” However, commercial urban farms might not be open or visible to the public – and, as Milford points out, the aesthetic aims of a greenhouse may conflict with achieving optimal plant growing conditions. Mike Hamm, who is C.S. Mott Professor of Sustainable Agriculture at the Centre for Regional Food Systems, Michigan State University, adds that while one of the arguments used to promote some urban farms is that organic agriculture would be easier because pests can be excluded, this attribute would be absent in the case of open green spaces.
Similarly, while employment opportunities may be created by some types of urban farming, highly automated urban farms may not create many jobs. Nevertheless, social enterprises can be designed specifically to provide educational opportunities, access to green space or other social benefits (see for example the box below about Gorgie City Farm).
There could be trade-offs between emissions savings from transport reduction and the high energy or material use of some forms of urban agriculture (for more on the resources used by indoor agriculture, see below).
According to Milford, it is difficult for rooftop greenhouses to be economically viable because of the additional material cost required to safely construct rooftop greenhouses and because of the higher costs of urban compared to rural land. However, successful examples do exist: Lufa Farms, which operates commercial rooftop greenhouses in Québec, claims to be running a profitable business.
While Hanna Tuomisto, Associate Professor at the University of Helsinki, says that freshness is one possible advantage of urban agriculture (indeed, many urban agriculture companies focus on freshness as a selling point, including Plenty, Lufa Farms and Farm.One), freshness is only important for some types of crops, such as salad leaves and soft fruit. There will almost certainly be little advantage in growing less perishable crops, such as grains, in urban locations.
Image: GroCycle Urban Mushroom Farm, Grocycle press kit
According to Peter Wootton-Beard, Lecturer in Agri-Technology at Aberystwyth University, another advantage of urban farming is that it becomes easier to use so-called ‘co-located’ resources or waste streams as inputs for the farm, including “nutrient recycling technologies such as anaerobic digestion, insect production, micro algae production (both for protein) and the use of waste heat and CO2 from CHP [combined heat and power] plants or electricity generation.” Thinking along similar lines, Diamandis and Kotler have suggested that the energy to run artificially-lit urban farms could be extracted from sewage, a waste stream that is readily available in urban areas. Another enterprise taking advantage of urban resource streams is GroCycle, which uses waste coffee grounds from cafes as a substrate to grow mushrooms in a disused office building. It would be less practical to transport the coffee grounds to a rural area, because they go mouldy quickly.
Gorgie City Farm: An example of urban agriculture
Image: Kim Traynor, Gorgie City Farm, Geograph, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic
Gorgie City Farm in Edinburgh, UK, is an urban farm designed to promote education, volunteering opportunities and social inclusion. It offers free entry to visitors along with educational tours and workshops. As well as selling fruit and vegetables to local shops and restaurants, the farm showcases traditional animal farming methods. The farm is a charity and accepts donations rather than being economically self-sustaining through food production.
Indoor agriculture
Image: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team, Surrounding the town of El Ejido, Almeria Province, southern Spain is a sea of greenhouses, stretching for tens of kilometres.
Indoor farming encompasses a range of food production methods such as cold frames, polytunnels, unheated greenhouses, heated greenhouses and so-called controlled environment agriculture (CEA), with tight control over many aspects of the growing environment (e.g. LED lighting with tuneable wavelengths to replace or supplement sunlight). What these methods have in common is a greater ability to control the growing environment than with outdoor production.
Some claimed advantages of indoor farming include better working conditions (e.g. less heat stress compared to working outdoors), greater control over pests and diseases, improved food safety, less vulnerability to extreme weather, the ability to produce all year long, lower emissions of pollutants such as excess nutrients and pesticides to the air, soil or waterways, and the ability to fine-tune crop flavours by adjusting growing conditions.
However, the energy and resource use of indoor farming can be high, depending on climate. For example, it takes so much energy to heat greenhouses in France that tomatoes grown in them have a higher carbon footprint than imported tomatoes grown in unheated greenhouses in Morocco, even after accounting for transport (Payen et al., 2015).
Speaking of relatively high-tech indoor systems, Mark Bomford, who is Director of the Yale Sustainable Food Programme, says “CEA comes at a higher energy cost per unit than field production for the same thing, which in most analyses means a higher environmental cost”, citing the thesis of Yoshihiko Wada, who in 1993 used real-world data to calculate the environmental impacts of tomato production in comparable hydroponic systems with conventional open-air farming. According to Bomford, Wada found that “sustaining the production of 1t tomatoes in a high-yield CEA system would actually require 15 times the ‘ecological footprint’ land for the same 1t of tomatoes in a low-yield field system [emphasis added]”. Bomford has advised several CEA startups, and mentions that these startups have generally viewed the high environmental impacts of CEA as a challenge to be overcome through greater efficiency.
Bomford does think that CEA has some advantages – namely, making working conditions safer and employment more seasonally stable – but suggests CEA may be best suited to single-storey sun-lit systems on relatively cheap rural land, and that multi-storey CEA farms on expensive urban land – i.e. the popular futuristic skyscraper farm vision – may be limited to a small market niche. Hamm agrees.
The relative ease of automation in indoor systems raises questions over control and ownership of technology and knowledge. For example, Infarm remotely controls all of its growing units (see box below). Although cofounder Erez Galonska says that the system will “re-empower the people to take ownership of their food”, might it actually mean that growers no longer develop expertise in recognising and responding to a plant’s needs? Plenty won’t share details of its hydroponics technology (source), but Liverpool’s Farm Urban, in contrast, gives out free instructions for building mini aquaculture kits.
Infarm: an example of indoor farming
Image: Infarm, First vertical farm to table restaurant opens its doors, Instagram
Berlin-based startup Infarm makes modular, automated farming systems that are designed to be used in locations close to consumers, such as supermarkets, restaurants, bars and schools. Infarm happens to be not just indoor but also vertical and – generally – urban.
The systems are remotely run by Infarm’s central control system to provide the right light spectrum, temperature, pH and nutrient levels for the crops. Retailers and others who hire the growing units won’t have to control the units themselves, other than to harvest the produce.
Infarm claims that one in-store farming unit is equivalent to 250 m2 of farmland (presumably in terms of production capacity) but uses 95% less water, 75% less fertiliser and no pesticide. It isn’t clear how Infarm’s carbon footprint or energy use compare to field-based farming.
There are also economic implications if the demand for manual labour decreases through automation. While it may benefit farmers in some circumstances – for instance, some UK farmers are concerned that there may be a labour shortage under the UK’s proposed post-Brexit immigration system – might automation also put people out of jobs or contribute to the concentration of wealth in the hands of those who own the technology?
Wootton-Beard says that indoor farming “means the possibility of near complete control over the environment, opening up the possibility to tailor the environment to alter flavour, nutritional profile and other characteristics of food plants.” However, such a tightly controlled growing environment may imply strict biosecurity and hygiene measures and a lack of public access – which would preclude some of the social benefits cited by promoters of urban and indoor farming. Wootton-Beard notes the discrepancy between public perceptions and what might realistically happen, saying people “have seen the concepts for urban skyscrapers and food production integrated with living accommodation, which whilst not impossible, is much less economically viable [than] a factory style production line approach.”
Another question is reliability: while Wootton-Beard points out that indoor farming is “agnostic of climate change, political instability, trade deals, and supply chain complexities”, might high-tech indoor systems instead be vulnerable to failure through mechanical breakdown, electronic faults, or malicious hacking of the control systems? Are these risks higher or lower than the risks of pests and extreme weather in outdoor systems?
Some indoor farming businesses say that fewer pollutants are released to the environment, compared to outdoor systems. For example, hydroponics startup Plenty says its system means “absolutely zero pesticides going into the soil, groundwater, and your food.” However, Bomford suggests that comparing controlled environment agriculture (CEA) to conventional farming is “not really fair” unless the same crops are being compared, saying “Advocates of CEA often miss their targets in their marketing material, pointing to the environmental abuses of agricultural sectors that will never be viable indoors (i.e. they might invoke the ‘dead zone’ in the gulf of Mexico, despite the fact that CEA tech will not change corn and soy practices, or invoke the subsidence of land in California due to groundwater removals, despite the fact that CEA tech will not change tree nut, cotton, or alfalfa growing practices) and then present a solution for a completely different sector – generally niche specialty crops.”
Vertical agriculture
Image: Farm. One press kit
Vertical farming can refer both to multi-level farms where the plants grow on stacked shelves of horizontal substrates, and to systems where the growth substrate itself is vertical, as in the Leafy Green Machine™, a ‘farm in a box’ where vertical strips of plants hang under artificial light in a converted shipping container (see the box below for more information). ‘Green walls’ of plants are also used for decoration, air purification, cooling of buildings or reducing stress, and less commonly for food production (e.g. the Edible Walls exhibit at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum, curated by FCRN member Judith Friedlander). Vertical farming is highly compatible with growing techniques such as hydroponics, aquaponics and aeroponics, which don’t need soil.
One significant benefit of vertical farming is space-saving, relative to conventional ‘horizontal’ farming. This is particularly useful in urban areas, where land is more expensive than in rural areas. Vertical farming therefore offers the possibility of providing very fresh food by squeezing into urban locations near consumers – albeit perhaps at a premium, due to the energy use and high land costs. Perhaps vertical farming could compensate for some farmland lost to urbanisation. However, Tuomisto points out that some people are concerned “whether the plants from hydroponics have the same nutritional value [as] plants grown on soil.” For further discussion of this question, see this piece from the New York Times: Are Hydroponic Vegetables as Nutritious as Those Grown in Soil?
On the other hand, perhaps urban land would be better used to provide housing to reduce emissions from commuting – particularly since urban land is expensive compared to rural land. Furthermore, the space-savings benefits of vertical farming could also be applied in non-urban settings, such as growing food in cargo ships which would otherwise be empty on their return journey.
As Tuomisto tells me, vertical farming generally requires artificial lighting because otherwise the lower layers of plants would not receive enough sunlight. For this reason, vertical farming systems also tend to be indoor systems (although outdoor multi-level cropping systems could conceivably be classified as a form of vertical farming). Artificial lights, together with cooling systems to remove the heat they produce, require a lot of energy. Tuomisto says generating this energy sustainably may be a challenge, but adds that vertical farming systems may become more efficient in future through optimisation of lighting, cooling and fertiliser and water usage. However, Hamm suggests that gains in energy efficiency can’t beat using sunlight.
The cooling requirements of vertical farms are a contrast to horizontal heated greenhouses. In the latter, the relatively large ratio of surface area to volume means that a lot of light can get in, but that heat is lost rapidly (at least in a cold climate).
Perhaps there is an optimum shape of vertical greenhouse (maybe with only a few layers) where the heat produced by both natural and artificial lighting is approximately balanced by the greenhouse’s passive rate of heat loss. Such a greenhouse might need relatively little additional heating or cooling.
Tuomisto also cites high material costs as a disadvantage of vertical farming, raising questions as to whether vertical farming provides environmental benefits (see below for a discussion of the carbon footprint of one vertical farming system). We may have some answers soon, as Tuomisto is in the early stages of conducting a Life Cycle Assessment study of a four-layer hydroponic system in Finland. As well as considering the direct environmental impacts of novel farming systems, we should also consider interactions with the wider food system. For example, might land spared by vertical farming become available for carbon sequestration, e.g. through reforesting or BECCS?
Freight Farms: an example of vertical farming
Image: LED lights, Freight Farms Press Kit
The Leafy Green Machine™ (LGM) produced by Freight Farms is a vertical hydroponic growing system inside a shipping container. It has been used in urban areas such as Paris and Oslo and has also been placed on some conventional rural farms, where it adds the ability to grow herbs and salads all year round.
Freight Farms claims that its system, which has an area of around 30 m2, can produce as much food in one year as two acres of farmland (it isn’t clear whether this is measured by weight) and uses 90% less water use compared to conventional agriculture. The system costs $85,000 to buy and around $13,000 per year to run (including electricity, water and growing supplies), according to Freight Farms.
Freight Farms gives some illustrative figures for inputs and outputs, although these vary according to the outside climate: per week, 875 kWh of electricity, 160 litres of water, 15-20 hours of labour and $75 worth of nutrients can produce (for example) 52 kg of butterhead lettuce or 23 kg of spinach.
Freight Farms doesn’t give the carbon footprint of growing food with the LGM. However, if as a very rough estimate we take a carbon intensity of 414 g CO2 eq. per kWh of electricity (the UK’s electricity mix on 3 January 2019, according to Electricity Map), then the electricity to run the Leafy Green Machine™ for a week would cause emissions of roughly 362 kg CO2 eq. That’s around 7 kg CO2 eq. per kg of lettuce, or nearly 16 kg CO2 eq. per kg of spinach – only accounting for electricity, not fertiliser, water or construction of the LGM.
How does that compare to conventional production? According to Clune et al., who reviewed the carbon footprints of food production across the world, typical carbon footprints are 3.70 kg CO2 per kg of lettuce (based on heated greenhouse production) and only 0.54 kg CO2 eq. per kg of spinach. That means food produced in the LGM has a carbon footprint at least 2 to 30 times higher than for conventional production, not accounting for transport.
Does reduced transport compensate for the increased carbon footprint of growing food in an LGM? It seems unlikely: transporting food across several thousand kilometres might only produce around 0.7 kg CO2 eq. per kg of lettuce, according to Mike Hamm.
Of course, if the LGM were to be used with lower-carbon electricity, the carbon footprint of the food produced would fall. In France, for instance, where the large contribution of nuclear power means the electricity mix produces only 74 g CO2 eq. per kWh (3 January 2019, Electricity Map), the LGM carbon footprints would fall to (as a minimum) 1.2 kg CO2 eq. per kg of lettuce and 2.8 kg CO2 per kg of spinach – which, for spinach, is still much higher than conventional production.
The LGM may have some advantages, but climate impact is not necessarily one of them.
In conclusion
There is a great deal of enthusiasm for new forms of farming. Milford even tells me “I have probably never been met with more enthusiasm when searching for stakeholders to a project.” However, perceptions are not always realistic. Wootton-Beard says “I have found that people tend to be orientated towards the utopian visions for indoor farming, and imagine it to be some sort of science fiction strangeness”, while Bomford claims “Public perception of CEA often seems a fantastical construction.”
Urban, indoor and vertical farming encompass a wide variety of systems, each of which have different benefits and drawbacks. Perhaps many of the systems considered here do have some role to play in our future food system, with each type being suited to serving different environmental, social or economic goals.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to our interviewees and to other FCRN members who have helped to produce this blog post by pointing out useful resources, including Anna Birgitte Milford, Hanna Tuomisto, Peter Wootton-Beard, Mark Bomford, Mike Hamm, Judith Friedlander, Annie Leymarie, Steve Gillman and Angelika von Heimendahl.
Tags: building resilient food and farming systems, urban agriculture, vertical farms
Indoor Farming New Buzz Across Globe
Urban farming is taking over from conventional farming at many across the globe. A BBC report states that ten shipping containers dominate a corner of the Brooklyn parking area, each full of climate control tech, growing herbs that are distributed to local stores on bicycles
Representative image. Courtesy: MarketWatch
Urban farming is taking over from conventional farming at many across the globe.
A BBC report states that ten shipping containers dominate a corner of the Brooklyn parking area, each full of climate control tech, growing herbs that are distributed to local stores on bicycles.
The containers are owned by Square Roots, part of America’s fast-expanding vertical farming industry, a sector run by many tech entrepreneurs who believe food production is ripe for disruption.
The world’s best basil reputedly comes from Genoa, Italy. Square Roots grows Genovese seeds in a container that recreates the city’s daylight hours, humidity, Co2 levels – and all fed hydroponically in nutrient-rich water, the report added.
An artificial intelligence expert, Peggs founded Square Roots with investor Kimball Musk (Elon’s brother) two years ago.
They’ve signed a deal with one of America’s big distribution companies, Gordon Food Service, to locate herb-growing containers at some its 200 warehouses.
The report quoted him as saying that the deal represents everything about indoor farming’s potential – locally grown, quick-to-market, fresh produce that can be harvested year-round and is free of pesticides and harsh weather.
Jeffery Landau, director of business development at Agritecture Consulting estimates the global value of the vertical farming market will rise to about $ 6.4 bn by 2023, from $ 403 m in 2013, with almost half that attributed to growth in the US.
Plenty, another major US player, raised funds from Softbank chief executive Masayoshi Son and former Google head Eric Schmidt.
The company has ambitions to build hundreds of vertical farms in China. In the UK, food delivery and robotics company Ocado is investing in indoor farming.
In neighbouring New Jersey, however, Bowery Farming, takes a different approach. The five-year-old company runs industrial-sized farms.
Outside one huge, grey windowless warehouse a heat haze shimmers off the concrete.
It’s a sharp contrast to the chilly interior where an aroma of fresh farm produce hits you immediately, the report added.
Sustainable Living: Hydroponic Mobile Farms To Let Anyone Grow Vegetables In Hong Kong, Slashing Carbon Footprints
Shops, restaurants, schools, and households could grow their own fresh produce, reducing need for imports, if mobile farming trial is successful. Technology is the latest brainchild of team of University of Hong Kong MBAs behind urban farm that supplies restaurants vegetables and herbs grown without soil
Shops, restaurants, schools, and households could grow their own fresh produce, reducing need for imports, if mobile farming trial is successful
Technology is the latest brainchild of team of University of Hong Kong MBAs behind urban farm that supplies restaurants vegetables and herbs grown without soil
13 Aug, 2019
Farmacy grows vegetables and herbs hydroponically in Causeway Bay, and is trialling mobile farms. Co-founder Raymond Mak talks about cutting Hong Kong’s carbon footprint and delivering fresh produce. Photo: Jonathan Wong
As a social movement gathers pace on the city streets this summer, there’s another growing revolution – a green movement.
This one is all about groundbreaking farming technology that cuts lengthy supply chains to allow easy access to fresh produce rich in nutrients and bursting with flavour.
Farmacy (farmacyhk.com), an urban farming technology company launched in January 2018, has been offering herbs, micro greens, and edible flowers to restaurants, hotels and home cooks. It will take things to the next level in a couple of weeks with the launch of its first “mobile farm”.
“That’s a farm that is so mobile it can be stored in your home, restaurant, school or supermarket. In the future, supermarkets won’t need to import vegetables, you can grow the vegetables fresh – lettuce, pak choi, choi sum, whatever,” says Raymond Mak, Farmacy’s CEO and co-founder.
Farmacy grows vegetables and herbs hydroponically. Photo: Jonathan Wong
Using hydroponic technology, the greens will grow in-store so that consumers know exactly where their food is coming from – they can actually see their vegetables as they grow. The pilot mobile farm will be launched in mid-August at the organic convenience store JustGreen in Sai Kung.
“They want to first roll it out at the Sai Kung store because there’s more room and they have a good relationship with clients who are open to trying new things and are more demanding about sustainability and freshness,” says Mak.
Customers will be able to order vegetables that can be harvested and delivered within minutes or hours, instead of the usual four-day minimum for imported goods. Photo: Jonathan Wong
We are in the firm’s hydroponics farm in Fashion Walk, Causeway Bay, a 200 sq ft space with two glass walls that allow the curious a peek at the herbs, micro greens, and edible flowers growing in their shallow blue tubs. There’s no air-conditioning in here – the plants like it warm – and just a fan to cool things down a bit if necessary. At 11am it’s time to turn on the lights and “wake up” the greens. “They need eight hours sleep, just like humans,” says Mak.
Hydroponic basically refers to the way that the plants absorb nutrients, which is through water instead of soil. Farmacy uses organic nutrients bought from the United States which has US Federal Drug Administration approval, and adds it to water. An advantage of indoor farming is that it’s very “clean” – there are none of the pesky insects and pests you get with soil and outdoors – and it also saves water.
“Compared with soil-based farming, where a lot of water is lost, goes underground, hydroponic farming saves 90 per cent more water,” says Mak.
Tastes like chicken? Why maggots might be the future of food
Hong Kong imports an astounding 98.3 per cent of its vegetables, with 70 per cent of the imports coming from China and 28 per cent flown in from around the world. All the emissions involved in getting our greens into Hong Kong is a massive black mark in terms of sustainability – and it’s also bad for our health. As soon as produce is harvested, the roots stop supplying water to the leaves and stem and the plant starts leaking goodness, with much of the nutrition going as the plant’s water evaporates.
“University of California studies show that vegetables can lose 15 to 55 per cent of vitamin C within a week and some spinach can lose 90 per cent of vitamin C within the first 24 hours after harvest,” says Mak, one of five University of Hong Kong MBA graduates who teamed up to found Farmacy.
The beauty of a mobile farm is the ability to buy your greens with the roots still intact, take the produce home and cut it up and cook it while it’s still super fresh and packed with goodness.
Raymond Mak co-founded Farmacy with four other HKU MBA graduates. Photo: Jonathan Wong
He notes the irony of consumers forking out high prices at high-end supermarkets for organic goods from Italy and France when the long travel time seriously affects its nutritional value. The four days minimum it takes to get from farm to supermarket represents a huge loss of nutrients. Even produce from Yunnan in southwest China – where much of Hong Kong’s vegetables are grown – takes one to two days to reach Hong Kong, Mak says.
The longer it takes to transport produce, the more flavour it loses. Mak proposes an impromptu tasting session.
First, we try a purple flower, oxalis, which is super sour, then a yellow cucumber flower, followed by lime basil, and a nasturtium (known as Empress of India) which knocks our socks off with a powerful wasabi hit. Harvested just moments before we ingested them, the flavours are full of zing, so it’s easy to understand why Michelin-starred chefs want to get their hands on them. French restaurant Le Salon de Thé de Joël Robuchon was an early adopter.
University of California studies show that vegetables can lose 15 to 55 per cent of vitamin C within a week and some spinach can lose 90 per cent of vitamin C within the first 24 hours after harvestRaymond Mak, Farmacy’s CEO and co-founder
But Farmacy isn’t about just catering to celebrity chefs – it’s got a bigger mission in mind.
“We don’t want this to be a small, niche thing, we want it to be accessible to the public, to all citizens, we want to make it a movement,” says Mak.
The movement is taking hold elsewhere. In Germany, the Berlin-based Infarm (infarm.com), founded in 2013 by two brothers, has partnered with 25 major food retailers and deployed more than 200 in-store farms, and is harvesting 150,000-plus plants monthly. Farmshelf (farmshelf.com), started by Andrew Shearer in a San Francisco garage in 2015, is now leading the urban farming pack in the US.
Closer to home, the idea has taken root in Singapore. Earlier this year the city state announced its intention to have all the island state’s needs home-grown by 2030, including vegetables cultivated in climate-controlled greenhouses under special LED lighting to maximise yields.
“Singapore has quite aggressive targets. Hong Kong needs to catch up and we want to play a role in it,” says Mak.
The Farmacy team – nine staff, including the five founders – have been using the Causeway Bay operation for research and development and a base in Cyberport to develop the mobile farm technology. Beyond the hydroponic technology, Mak says the team is developing even more sustainable and efficient farming technology, but they’ve taken it slow the first year to develop their green thumbs.
“You have to understand the plants before moving to the technology, or else it has no soul,” he says.
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: green movement to turn city slickers into farmers
Sustainable Living Health and wellness Veganism Food and agriculture Singapore Environment
UK Tech Pioneer Conjures New Future For Farming Out of Thin Air
Change is in the air for agriculture and indoor farms developer LettUs Grow is breaking new ground with a system that produces more plants more quickly by growing their roots only in a nutrient-rich mis
Change is in the air for agriculture and indoor farms developer LettUs Grow is breaking new ground with a system that produces more plants more quickly by growing their roots only in a nutrient-rich mist. A pioneer within the field known as aeroponics, this air-based method uses 95 percent less water than conventional farming.
By MAISHA FROST
August 12, 2019
LettUs Grow Director Aims to ‘Inspire’ Food Production Generation
It can also involve lower carbon emissions compared to other soil-free systems such as hydroponics where plants are dipped enriched water. LettUs’s patent-pending technology introduces more simplicity and consistency to aeroponics while maintaining yields, explains managing director Charlie Guy. “We have developed a very efficient way of growing plants, from leafy vegetables to soft fruits, in completely controlled environments.
“Our aeroponic systems are easier to use than others on the market where water is pushed through nozzles to create an aerosol that can get clogged.
“Ours just needs a wipe down and is modular so can work with operations of all sizes, from a single layer to an entire controlled environment farm unit.
“Ostara, our software management can automate, control and collect data from the operation. That integrated licensed approach makes aeroponics accessible to anyone enabling farmers around the world to benefit from this game-changing technology.”
The clock is ticking and on LettUs’s side – by 2050 it is estimated the world must increase food production by 70 per cent to feed more than nine billion people.
Managing director Charlie Guy (Image: Jack Wiseall)
The Bristol-based firm was founded in 2015 by Guy, and fellow graduates of the city’s university Ben Crowther and Jack Farmer.
Their mission to tackle food waste and supply chain inefficiency “has always been to reduce the environmental impact of fresh produce by allowing anyone to grow food near its point of consumption,” says Guy.
“The past decade has been defined by the environmental crisis, but now food can be grown in the most unstable of climates. Any building can be converted and millions of transport miles saved.”
Two big tech changes paved the way for LettUs: cheaper, more efficient LED lighting and cloud computing enabling the harvesting of big data.
The company’s technology can match lighting to roots to optimise growth and precise delivery of the nutrients tailored to plant variety and stage of life.
The plants don't need as much water (Image: Picasa)
Systems are assembled in Bristol and pay back for growers estimated to be under five years. Overseas interest from the Middle East, Europe, Africa and US is accelerating.
More than £1million of funding, both in grants from government-backed Innovate UK and private investment, has gone into LettUs which sees potential further applications for its technology contributing to the likes of reforestation programmes.
The Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Hub, geared to maximise the potential of next-generation entrepreneurs, also played a crucial role in helping LettUs commercialise its innovation.
Crowther took its SME Leaders Programme, a grant-aided, coaching and mentoring support scheme for early stage engineering and technology firms with high growth potential and “that has been invaluable in accelerating our development”, says Guy.
After starting with laboratory projects such as research into plant-based proteins and pharmaceuticals, LettUs’s sales are increasing to growers and the business has plans to raise more investment this year.
The team, now 15, “is very plant-focused but diverse,” says Guy. “Not just engineers but ex-farmers and plant scientists. All our kit is made by growers for growers.”
LettUs Grow is breaking new ground with a system that produces more plants (Image: Jack Wiseal Photography)
IDEA Teaching The Future of Growing Food With Leafy Green Machine
One of the ways is through their Leafy Green Machine at the San Benito campus, which is an old refrigerated shipping container that has been converted into a hydroponic farm for growing leafy greens and lettuces
by Jolanie Martinez. CBS 4 News
August 14th 2019
To View The Video, Please Click Here
The Leafy Green Machine at IDEA Academy San Benito (Source: KGBT)<p>
With a new school year in full swing, IDEA Public Schools is working to educate students on how to eat healthy.
One of the ways is through their Leafy Green Machine at the San Benito campus, which is an old refrigerated shipping container that has been converted into a hydroponic farm for growing leafy greens and lettuces.
"It being only 300 sq. ft. yet it's able to produce annually,” said Jordan Roney, a farmer at IDEA Public Schools in San Benito. “The same amount of lettuce and greens that you could grow on two acres of land."
The hydroponic farm gives an inside look on the future of growing food at the intersection of agriculture, technology and conservation.
"All the water that is brought into the farm is used, nothing is wasted,” explained Roney.
The system also delivers nutrients directly to the plants’ roots and uses ten gallons of water a day, which is 90% less water than traditional methods.
IDEA is the only school district in Texas to have the Leafy Green Machine.
"It is also extremely productive meaning that all the seeds that we germinate in there are not exposed to a lot of the outside pressures of pest and pets that you see in traditional farming,” said Roney.
The hydroponic system is part of an after-school program.
"My favorite part of the class is putting my time and effort to help students eat very good,” said 8th Grader at IDEA, Michael Martinez.
"We are here with our friends to try to help people be healthier and do better, so they don't have problems,” said 8th Grader at IDEA, Faith Mantis.
All the items harvested from the Leafy Green Machine goes directly to the cafeteria and used in the salad bar or served in the lunch line.
Future of Food Summit
For the first time, EatingWell and the International Food Information Council Foundation are bringing together thought leaders across academia, agriculture, manufacturing, retail and the media to discuss the Future of Food and how our food system needs to change for the better
For the first time, EatingWell and the International Food Information Council Foundation are bringing together thought leaders across academia, agriculture, manufacturing, retail and the media to discuss the Future of Food and how our food system needs to change for the better.
Panel Topics
Sustainable Food Production
Our Protein Obsession
Innovations in Nutrition and Health
The Consumer Experience
With panel members representing GE Appliances, National Cattleman's Beef Association, North Carolina State University, Perdue, Perfect Day and more!
BUY TICKETS
PANEL TOPICS
9:00 – 9:30 AM
OPENING REMARKS JOSEPH CLAYTON, CEO, IFIC
Joseph Clayton is Chief Executive Officer of the International Food Information Council (IFIC) and IFIC Foundation. He joined IFIC in 2016. Clayton previously served as Interim President of the American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI), the trade association representing the public policy and regulatory interests of the frozen food and beverage industry. Prior to AFFI, he served as Executive Vice President at Golin International and CEO of Widmeyer Communications. He began his career in the U.S. Senate, where he worked on the legislative staff of former Illinois Senator Alan Dixon (D-IL). A graduate of the University of Illinois, Clayton serves on the Advisory Board of Illinois in Washington.
OPENING REMARKS JESSIE PRICE, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, EATINGWELL
Editor-in-chief of EatingWell since 2013, Jessie Price oversees the editorial content across all media platforms including the magazine, books and brand extensions. After graduating from Williams College, Jessie cooked in restaurants in California and Colorado and worked in advertising in San Francisco. She began testing recipes for EatingWell when she moved to Vermont in 2003 and soon after joined the team full time. She has worked on more than a dozen EatingWell cookbooks and is the author of the James Beard Award-winning The Simple Art of EatingWell. Jessie has represented EatingWell across national and local media, appearing on NBC’s Today show, TV Land’s Best Night In and video news network Cheddar, among others. Under her leadership, the magazine has been named Publication of the Year twice by the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP), in 2016 and 2019 (and was a finalist in 2017 and 2018).
9:30 – 10:45 AM
KEYNOTE ALI BOUZARI, PH.D.
Ali Bouzari is a culinary scientist, author and educator. He is co-founder of Pilot R&D, a culinary research and development company, and Render, a new food company that collaborates with the best restaurant chefs in the country to reinvent the way food lovers eat. As a chef with a Ph.D. in food biochemistry, Ali has helped to lead the charge in changing the way we think about cooking by teaching and developing curriculum at top universities, and collaborating with the country’s most innovative restaurants, including State Bird Provisions, Eleven Madison Park, and the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group.
10:45 AM – 12:00 PM
The Consumer Experience–Shopping, Cooking & Restaurants
Are robots going to be stirring the pots on our stoves? Will grocery store produce departments be stocked straight from vertical farms on their roofs? How will concerns for sustainability, health and social justice reshape both fast-casual and high-end dining? This panel will tap into the changes that will revolutionize how we interact with food every day.
MODERATOR
Jessie Price, Editor-in-Chief, EatingWell
PANELISTS
Chris Bissig, Director Industrial Design, GE
Maisie Ganzler, Chief Strategy & Brand Officer, Bon Appetit Management Co.
Hunter Lewis, Editor-in-Chief, Food & Wine
Mario Ferruzzi, Ph.D., Professor of Food Science & Nutrition, NC State, Plants for Human Health Institute
1:00 – 2:15 PM
Sustainable Food Production
Precision technology, gene editing, vertical farming, regenerative practices and other innovations are helping growers be more productive, use fewer natural resources, sequester carbon, reduce waste and improve soil health. How can we harness technologies like these to make our food system more resilient and healthy in the years to come?
MODERATOR
Dave Kurns, Editor-in-Chief, Successful Farming
PANELISTS
Jason Rowntree, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Animal Science, Michigan State University
Bruce Stewart-Brown, D.V.M., SVP of Food Safety, Quality and Live Production, Perdue
Mark Guiltinan, Ph.D., Professor of Plant Molecular Biology, Penn State University
Marc Oshima, Co-Founder, AeroFarms
2:30 – 3:45 PM
Plants to Animals: Where Is Our Protein Obsession Headed?
Americans love to focus on the health benefits of protein, but we’re worried about its impact on the environment. What’s a thoughtful eater to do? Stick with meat, go lab-grown, turn to plant-based alternatives? The options are evolving by the day, especially with help from an influx of investment capital.
MODERATOR
Sophie Egan, MPH, Author & Director of Health and Sustainability Leadership, Strategic Initiatives Group, The Culinary Institute of America
PANELISTS
Ephi Eyal, CEO, Hinoman USA
Katharine Richards, Senior Director of Marketing, Perfect Day
Renske Lynde, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Food System 6
Jennie Schmidt, M.S., R.D., “The Foodie Farmer”
Sara Place, Ph.D., Senior Director of Sustainable Beef Production, National Cattleman’s Beef Association
3:45 – 5:00 PM
Innovations in Nutrition & Health
What will be the biggest influences on dietary and nutrition science in the next ten years? In 2020 the USDA will release the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which help drive food and nutrition policy. What are we likely to see there? Probably small incremental changes. But promising emergent fields including personalized nutrition, microbiome research and sugar replacement alternatives are likely to shake up what we eat to feel our best.
MODERATOR
Lisa Valente, M.S., R.D., Digital Nutrition & News Editor, EatingWell
PANELISTS
Anna Maria Siega-Riz, Ph.D., IFIC Foundation Trustee
Rachel Sanders, CEO, Rootine Vitamins
Megan Meyer, Ph.D., Director of Science Communication IFIC Foundation
Dipnath Baidyaroy, Ph.D., Director of Strategic Alliances, Codexis
Allison Kuhn, Director of Nutrition, Kroger Health
BUY TICKETS
New York's Rooftop Farms Provide Fresh Local Produce - And Help Stop A Sewage Problem
High above the streets of New York, more than 36 tonnes of organic vegetables are grown every year. And the farms that produce them aren’t just feeding residents – they’re helping to stop sewage polluting the city’s rivers too
21 Aug 2019
Douglas Broom Senior Writer, Formative Content
High above the streets of New York, more than 36 tonnes of organic vegetables are grown every year. And the farms that produce them aren’t just feeding residents – they’re helping to stop sewage polluting the city’s rivers too.
Covering a total of 2.3 hectares (5.6 acres), the farms sit on top of three historic industrial buildings. Their soil is just 25 cm (10 inches) deep, but it absorbs millions of litres of rainfall each year – water that would otherwise flush straight into the city’s drains.
New York has long had a problem with what is known as Combined Sewer Overflow, where rainwater inundates water treatment plants causing the sewers to overflow directly into the Hudson and East River.
Sewer systems around New York can become overwhelmed during heavy rainfall.
Image: Open Sewer Atlas NYC
Growing business
The city has made progress in recent decades, spending $45 billion since the 1980s on wastewater treatment to reduce discharges into waterways. But with more than 70% of its area paved and upwards of 8 million residents, the problem still occurs when it rains heavily.
Brooklyn Grange, which operates the three rooftop sites, built its first farm in 2010. It broke even in its first year, moved into profit two years later and now employs 20 full-time and 60 seasonal staff.
Its founders believe commercial urban agriculture can help cities become cleaner and greener. And they measure their success against a “triple bottom line” – profit, the environment and impact on people.
Image: Brooklyn Grange
A buzzing project
Green roofs help urban areas reduce the heat that otherwise radiates on summer nights from conventional rooftops. That not only helps to make the city cooler in summer but also reduces the amount of energy needed to keep the buildings cool.
The rooftop farms use waste food to produce compost. Half their produce is sold to restaurants and they run two weekly markets and deliver locally through a community-supported agriculture scheme, which connects farmers directly to consumers. They are home to 40 beehives, too.
The farms have so far hosted 50,000 young people on educational visits to learn about sustainable city farming. They run public courses on everything from sustainable dye-making to making hot chilli sauces. They host yoga classes and even weddings.
The company has now expanded into designing and building mini farms and wild flower gardens for private clients across the city.
Show
Almost 70% of the global population is predicted to live in cities by 2050. And while cities drive the global economy, they are also responsible for three-quarters of global CO2 emissions.
So projects like these will become ever more important, according to the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Cities and Urbanization, if urban areas are to meet targets such as those set out in the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Lead Photo: New York has spent $45 billion on wastewater treatment since the 1980s. Image: REUTERS/Seth Wenig
Have you read?
Fifty Percent of Consumers Would Buy 'Vertical Agriculture' Products
Rising populations and worsening weather conditions due to climate change make it difficult to produce enough healthy and fresh food. A contribution to solving this problem could be provided by so-called vertical agriculture
Georg-August-University Göttingen observes:
Rising populations and worsening weather conditions due to climate change make it difficult to produce enough healthy and fresh food. A contribution to solving this problem could be provided by so-called vertical agriculture. Here, the vegetables and fruits are grown on floors one above the other. This system requires neither direct sunlight nor farmland, as the plants grow in nutrient solutions under artificial light or daylight. A team of scientists from the University of Göttingen has investigated the acceptance of vertical cultivation systems. The results have been published in the journal Sustainability.
Researchers from the Department of Marketing for Food and Agricultural Products surveyed around 500 consumers from Germany on various vertical farming systems. The rating was for a refrigerator-sized appliance for home use, a medium-sized greenhouse in supermarkets, and a vertical farm that can be built into former industrial buildings. For 81 percent of consumers, environmental friendliness is an important issue.
Only seven percent had already heard of vertical agriculture. Interestingly enough, half of the participants would buy fresh products from vertical farming systems. It also shows that the larger the system, the higher the likelihood that it will be considered sustainable. The small systems for household use were rated worse overall.
Focus on sustainability
"Our results show that the development of vertical farming systems should focus in particular on sustainability. Only systems that are truly environmentally friendly will convince consumers," says Kristin Jürkenbeck, PhD student and lead author of the study. "The topic of sustainability is becoming increasingly important for consumers in all areas of life, as illustrated by the public discussions. This must not be ignored by the big companies," says Prof. Dr. med. Achim Spiller, Head of the Marketing Group for Food and Agricultural Products.
Publication date: 8/12/2019
We Need To Change Our Farming & Eating Habits Or Face 'Catastrophic' Global Warming Says UN
When it comes to global warming, it's not just logging and pollution that's making things worse. It's also that our everyday lifestyles are wasteful. Now the UN says if we don't get it together and change our diets, we could be in for catastrophic levels of global warming
Gwyn D'Mello Aug 08, 2019
When it comes to global warming, it's not just logging and pollution that's making things worse. It's also that our everyday lifestyles are wasteful.
Now the UN says if we don't get it together and change our diets, we could be in for catastrophic levels of global warming.
IMAGES COURTESY: REUTERS
This is the organisation's first comprehensive on the link between climate change and human land usage. It suggests that we need to change our diets to avoid food waste, and also adopt more sustainable means of farming, in order to tackle climate change.
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that human activity has caused significant land degradation, deforestation and destruction of natural habitats. All of these effects together have resulted in a significant amount of carbon dioxide being released from the soil and into the atmosphere.
The report says that we need to adopt diets with more plant-based foods such as grains, nuts, fruit, and beans, as well as animal-based food produced with low greenhouse gas emissions.
Until now, the land has been responsible for absorbing a lot of carbon dioxide, thanks to photosynthesis in plants and the like. Cutting down all those trees, plus other climate-change effects like wildfires and desertification has resulted in all that land now releasing at least a third of all greenhouse gases into the air.
"This is a perfect storm. Limited land, an expanding human population, and all wrapped in a suffocating blanket of climate emergency," said Professor David Reay from the University of Edinburgh. "Crop yields are already being hit hard by climate change, staples like wheat, maize and rice are all at risk. The global web that is our food system means that impacts on farms thousands of miles away ripple right back to our own dinner plates."
"Earth has never felt smaller, its natural ecosystems never under such direct threat."
The report indicates that the Earth's soil now holds only about one percent of the planet's total carbon, as opposed to the seven percent they earlier held. The solution to this problem, the UN says, is to immediately stop deforestation, and stop degrading the soil with exploitative farming methods.
We also need to diversify our farming to avoid leaching the soil of its nutrients. Farmers need to instead start relying on a mix of farming a mix of crop, as well as raising livestock, in order to allow the land to be more resilient to the effects of climate change.
For instance, that could mean mixing banana plantations with coffee. The former provides shade to the latter, and the mix of crops allows the farmer to be less reliant on a single crop. And the key to promoting this experts say is to first and foremost end subsidies on big single crops like corn and sugarcane.
International Indoor & Controlled Environment Agriculture Set For September Summit In Durban, South Africa
The 2019 edition will tackle the agricultural concerns many countries have about weather and pests problems, food security, climate change and environmental preservation challenges. Commercialization of vertical farming and urban agriculture is catching on in Asia, Europe, USA, Russia, and now Africa
The 2019 edition will tackle the agricultural concerns many countries have about weather and pests problems, food security, climate change and environmental preservation challenges. Commercialization of vertical farming and urban agriculture is catching on in Asia, Europe, USA, Russia, and now Africa. Many private companies are interested in growing crops in hydroponic, aquaponic and aeroponic systems in warehouses, greenhouses, containers and skyscrapers.
In addition, this year’s Summit will also address the burgeoning interest in the production of medicinal plants in vertical farms following the new rulings on cannabis production for medicinal use.
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Dube AgriZone will be hosting a field visit for participants. Dube AgriZone is Africa's first integrated perishables supply chain and the most technologically-advanced future farming platform on the continent.
International participants will also want to take advantage of the City Tour sponsored by the Summit's Destination Partners - the Durban Convention Bureau - which will showcase some of Durban's memorable experiences and attractions.
Conference Organiser Magenta Global's CEO, Maggie Tan commented: “This is an important knowledge-sharing and networking platform for the indoor agriculture industry. Since the previous Summit in Johannesburg last year, we have seen promising developments in Africa of indoor urban agriculture initiatives. Innovating how we produce food to feed the growing urban centres is crucial to food security and sustainability. Much needs to be done to transform the agriculture sector”.
Contact us below for more Summit information and follow / like the event's Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/events/384938988754324/)
and Twitter channel (https://twitter.com/josemaglobal).
Media Contact:
Mr Jose Carpio
International Marketing Manager DID: +65 6846 2366
Email: jose@magenta-global.com.sg
About Magenta Global – Owner & Organizer
Magenta Global Pte Ltd is a premier independent business media company that provides pragmatic and relevant information to government & business executives and professionals worldwide. The organization provides the opportunity to share thought-provoking insights, exchange ideas on the latest industry trends and technological developments with thought leaders and business peers. With a strong focus in emerging economies especially in Africa, Middle East & Central Asia, Magenta Global works in partnership with both the public and private sectors. www.magenta-global.com.sg.
Singapore, 26 August 2019 - Urban Agri World 2019 Summit, the third edition of the conference series highlighting progressive farming developments for the indoor agriculture industry, will be held next month on 17-18 September 2019 at the Durban International Convention Centre (Durban ICC), South Africa.
This is the region's leading urban agriculture event focused on hydroponics, aeroponics and aquaponics techniques in farming. It will bring together agriculture officers, growers, investors, produce buyers, academics, policy makers, technology and system integrators, and CEA business owners. The Summit will feature practical sessions on the hottest topics, exhibits, lunch table discussions and unlimited networking opportunities, connecting services and solution providers.
Delivering the Summit Keynote Address will be MEC Bongiwe Sithole-Moloi of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Some of the exciting presentations and their expert speakers include: "Vertical Farms & PFAL (Plant Factories with Artificial Lighting)" by Graeme Smith, Managing Director, Graeme Smith Consulting (Australia); "Future Technologies Driving Indoor Urban Agriculture" by Maartin Vandecruys, Founder & Managing Director, Urban Crop Solutions (Belgium); and "Marrying Proven Western Technologies with Localised Business Models to Create Pioneering Indoor
Farming Businesses" by Michelle Adelman, Managing Director, Accite Holdings (Botswana).
International experts from Australia, Belgium, Botswana, Canada, Kenya, Lesotho, Nigeria, the USA, South Africa amongst others, will be sharing their project experiences and best practices.
Mucci Farms Acquires Orangeline Farms And Announces Expansion Plans
Mucci Farms announces that it has acquired controlling interest of Leamington, Ontario based Orangeline Farms, including its existing greenhouse and warehouse facilities, and additional land with plans for expansion. Subsequently, the company also announced additional expansion plans in Canada and the United States
August 21st, 2019 (Kingsville, Ontario)
Mucci Farms announces that it has acquired controlling interest of Leamington, Ontario based Orangeline Farms, including its existing greenhouse and warehouse facilities, and additional land with plans for expansion. Subsequently, the company also announced additional expansion plans in Canada and the United States.
Duffy Kniaziew
Bert Mucci
“It’s an exciting time for the company as we continue our aggressive expansion plans to increase our local and regional production,” says Bert Mucci, CEO. “The Orangeline acquisition comes with a 32-acre greenhouse and a warehouse with additional land totalling 100 acres. Consumers are demanding more local production, and we’re listening. We also have plans in place to build on the additional land that was received as part of the agreement.”
Founded in 2000 by the Kniaziew family, Orangeline Farms is an award-winning grower predominantly known for their unique pepper offerings grown under the Zing!TM Healthy Foods brand. “In searching for growth opportunities for both Orangeline’s staff and our ever loyal customers, the chance to partner with a world class organization like Mucci Farms was an easy decision to make,” said Duffy Kniaziew, Founder. Mucci Farms will continue to use the Zing!TM brand for the foreseeable future as it has quietly established itself among retailers and consumers. “Duffy and his team have done a great job with the brand and it’s familiar in our region, so we’re not looking to make any dramatic changes at the moment,” said Emily Murracas, Director of Marketing.
Originally a 60-acre project in Huron, Ohio, the company has also acquired additional land adjacent to the current property to increase the totality of the enterprise to 75-acres. “The first 24-acre phase is in its second season of harvesting, and we’ll be building two more identical ranges. Phase two construction is already underway,” remarked Bert Mucci. “The Ohio program has gotten off to a great start and we’re looking forward to growing our presence in the community and the regional market.”
Mucci Farms is a vertically integrated fruit and vegetable grower that owns and operates 250-acres of tomato, pepper, cucumber, lettuce and strawberry greenhouses in Canada and the United States, with a partner-grower network of 1500 acres across North America. Committed to maximizing efficiencies, the organization makes sizeable investments in automation and technology to provide consumers with the most flavourful fruits and vegetables in the market.
In addition to harvesting and packing equipment, these investments include a significant acreage of grow lights that allow the company to grow locally 365 days per year, with an end goal of equipping 100% of their hi-tech glass facilities with High Pressure Sodium and/or LED lights.
US, OHIO: Great Lakes Ag Tech Summit - September 23, 2019
Join Urban Ag News, Hort Americas and Current, powered by GE, for the inaugural Great Lakes Ag Tech Summit on September 23. The summit will be held at at the historic Nela Park campus in Cleveland, Ohio
By urbanagnews
August 14, 2019
Join Urban Ag News, Hort Americas and Current, powered by GE, for the inaugural Great Lakes Ag Tech Summit on September 23. The summit will be held at at the historic Nela Park campus in Cleveland, Ohio.
The one-day event features keynote presentations and panel discussions from leading researchers and innovative growers in the Great Lakes region. Attendees will be able to connect with growers, scientists, researchers and entrepreneurs as we shape the future of food and move controlled environment agriculture forward.
Keynotes
Optimizing Plant Production Under a Controlled Environment – Research and Education Programs at the Ohio State University
Dr. Chieri Kubota – The Ohio State University
Dr. Kubota’s research mission is to serve in the development of science and technology in the area of controlled environment agriculture (CEA). Her projects are in an interdisciplinary area that encompasses plant physiology and horticultural engineering to enhance understanding and efficiency of CEA plant production systems such as greenhouses, warehouses (vertical farms), and growth chambers.
Are Consumers and Growers Putting Dollars in the Local Food Industry? Insights on Technologies and Preferences
Dr. Ariana Torres – Purdue University
Dr. Torres’ background combines field experience in agriculture with theoretical and applied research on agricultural economics. She has worked on projects looking at the impact of marketing choices on technology adoption for fruit and vegetable growers; the economic implications of social capital on entrepreneurship; and the role of community support on the resilience of small business after disasters.
Dr. Torres uses economic analysis to support the economic viability of the horticulture industry. Her research focuses on the intersection between the horticulture industry and marketing decisions. Her goal is to conduct innovative outreach and applied research in specialty crops marketing, with the end of promoting economic sustainability for horticultural businesses.
Dr. Torres is currently working on a project evaluating the market, economics, and potential barriers to produce export-quality dried apricots from smallholders of southern Tajikistan. She is also working on evaluating the adoption of a solar dehydrator for selected dried specialty crops in Indiana and Georgia. Lastly, she is collecting foundational data and establishing long-term pricing reports for Indiana farmers markets.
Vertical Farm Production of Young Plants, From Hemp to Tomatoes
John Jackson – Sustainable Indoor Growing Systems, Inc.
John is the CEO of Sustainable Indoor Growing Systems, Inc. (SIGS) born from an USDA funded industry-academic partnership with Grafted Growers, the University of Arizona, and North Carolina State University. John is an award-winning entrepreneur and University of Arizona alum with an MBA from the Eller College of Management. John has successfully launched investor and grant funded businesses and operated tech based companies to early stage revenue. Born in Compton, California, John continues his grandfather’s legacy as a sharecropper of tomatoes in rural Texas.
SIGS gives plants what they need to express the features that the market wants.
Sustainable Indoor Growing Systems, Inc. (SIGS) is a clean agricultural technology company that uses controlled environment agriculture to induce young generic plants to express enhanced physiological traits customers want – while increasing the economics of propagation. This is made possible by scientific discovery and development of unique growing recipes which are learned and enabled only by the SIGS multi-layered growing platform and architecture.
Click Here to Register Now! Seats Are Limited!
Location
1975 Noble Rd. Cleveland, OH 44112
Date & Time
Monday, September 23, 2019
9 am to 4pm
Registration
Early bird admission price is $30 if registration occurs before Sept. 16.
Regular admission: $50
Hotel
Hyatt Legacy Village
24665 Cedar Rd
Lyndhurst, OH 44124
The rate is $129 for the night of 9/22/19.
• Call the toll-free number at 1-888-492-8847 for Hyatt Place Reservations and ask for the “Great Lakes Ag Tech Summit” or code G-GLGT
• OR use this link https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/ohio/hyatt-place-cleveland-lyndhurst-legacy-village/clezl?corp_id=G-GLGT
Click Here to Register Now!
About Urban Ag News
The mission of Urban Ag News is to be the leading science communicator for the commercial hydroponics, greenhouse vegetable, vertical farming and urban agriculture industries. Urban Ag News educates readers and provide an understanding of the industry’s latest technologies and luminaries.
About Current, powered by GE
Current, powered by GE, offers cutting-edge innovations in horticultural lighting. We’ve spent years perfecting our lighting technology and working with growers, systems integrators and plant scientists to establish the specific needs of the horticulture industry. The result? LED grow systems that maximize the potential of greenhouses and indoor farms by enabling efficient growth at an industrial scale.
TAGS Ariana Torres Chieri Kubota Conference GE Lighting Greenhouse Greenhouse Technology Hort Americas Indoor Ag Technology LED Grow Lights Ohio State University
Purdue Field Day Provides Info On Small-Farm Crops
According to attendees and organizers alike, this year’s Purdue Small Farm Education Field Day, which consisted of lectures and on-farm demonstrations, provided excellent guidance for small-scale growers
August 19, 2019
Petrus Langenhoven is explaining to attendees how to grow sweet peppers in a high tunnel and reflects on results from a high tunnel bell pepper variety trial that was conducted in 2018 at the Purdue Student Farm. (Courtesy photo)Download image
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – According to attendees and organizers alike, this year’s Purdue Small Farm Education Field Day, which consisted of lectures and on-farm demonstrations, provided excellent guidance for small-scale growers.
Hosted by Purdue’s Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, the field day featured lectures on planting and sustainability, soil care, high tunnels, cover crops, small-scale equipment, food safety and more. The day started in a classroom and ended with participants watching and listening to demonstrations put on by Purdue staff at the Student Farm.
“The event was a resounding success,” said Petrus Langenhoven, Purdue’s horticulture and hydroponics crop specialist in the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture. “Attendees love the fact that they can learn some theory in the classroom in the morning and then go for a hands-on session at the farm. It’s like you can feel the energy and passion of growers when they attend our field day.”
Langenhoven said the event attracted three times as many participants than the first, which was held last summer.
“We were surprised that interest has grown so much in one year, but it clearly shows that horticulture farmers in Indiana are in need of information to increase the profitability of their farming businesses,” he said. “Attendees were very engaged and showed lots of interest during the on-farm tours. Some of them have told me it was the best field day they have attended and that they will be back next year.”
Chris Adair, the Purdue Student Farm manager, demonstrates to attendees the different applications of a power harrow and rototiller when used in conjunction with a walk-behind tractor. (Courtesy photo) Download image
Lori Jolly-Brown, Extension events and communications coordinator, said, “We had more new attendees this year who complimented us on the program. Return attendees said they appreciate keeping up on new educational information to put to good use on their farms.”
Participants of the program were a diverse group — from beginners and experienced growers, to hobbyists and small business practitioners. Rocio Rodea, a teacher from Gary, came looking for advice she could apply to a community garden she helped establish and eventually will use as a tool for her students. She was particularly interested in the morning food safety session. Langenhoven said attendees in general were very attentive and asked a lot of good questions in the morning sessions.
“I was super interested in the food safety portion because Gary has started to put on several farmers markets throughout the week, so every urban farm or garden will have its turn to host,” Rodea said.
Sierra Yeary, a participant hoping to grow some vegetables for a brewery restaurant she is opening next year, learned about cool and warm season vegetables for the first time.
“I didn’t even realize that we should be planting cover crops,” she said. “We only do tomatoes now, and they were saying in the session that we should be planting cool season veggies too, to keep the soil going. I had no idea.”
Along with a networking lunch, the afternoon consisted of six informational stations where attendees learned about high tunnel tomato and bell pepper production, the practical applications of leaf mold composting, field production of onions and tomatoes, the use of solar dryers for postharvest processing and vegetable wash station design.
“The student farm was a hive of activity with over a hundred people enjoying the perfect weather and exchanging all manner of tricks of the trade,” said Steve Hallett, a professor of horticulture who presented one of the afternoon stations.
Johnny Washington, a grower with a small vegetable market in Gary, said he learned new techniques to implement on his operation during the afternoon stations.
“I don’t have a hoop house, so sometimes when it rains hard the dirt splashes up onto the leaves, and I learned that can cause diseases,” he said. “A light bulb sort of went on in my head — so I’ll be looking more closely into putting plastic around the base of the plants.”
Shelly Janowski and her husband attended the field day to learn new techniques and planning for their already-established small fruit and vegetable farm.
“We’re looking at some of their techniques of planting, weed suppression and harvesting,” she said. “This has been very valuable. If you can learn something to make things easier, to have it take less time or increase your production, that could be a game-changer.”
Demonstrations on how to use a rototiller, power harrow and tractor-mounted seeder were also part of the afternoon stations.
“We can’t afford to spend $40,000 on a piece of equipment,” said Janowski’s husband, Mark. “But if there’s something small or used we can get, or something to use in a way other than what was intended, that’s very helpful.”
Langenhoven, who initiated the Small Farm Education Program, has plans to expand its reach to other Indiana cities, especially those with large numbers of urban and peri-urban farms such as Gary, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis. He and his collaborators would like to find more funding and the right partners to move that plan forward. For now, the next Field Day is scheduled July 30, 2020, at the Purdue Student Farm, and will showcase additional technologies and information useful to horticulture growers.
Sources: Lori Jolly-Brown, ljollybr@purdue.edu
Petrus Langenhoven, plangenh@purdue.edu
Steven Hallett, halletts@purdue.edu
Agricultural Communications: 765-494-8415;
Maureen Manier, Department Head, mmanier@purdue.edu
Green City Growers Names Christopher Grallert As Company President
Grallert has 25 years of experience in the sustainable agriculture industry globally. Since joining GCG in 2015, Grallert has served in multiple roles for the organization, starting as a investor and advisory board member, then moving in to a more intensive operational role in 2017
SOMERVILLE, Mass., Aug. 20 /CSRwire/
Green City Growers (GCG) has announced the promotion of Christopher Grallert to the position of Company President. According to GCG’s CEO and Founder Jessie Banhazl, “Chris’s extensive background in business management, agricultural systems, fresh produce, and operations, combined with his vision of what future food systems can look like, make him a great fit to lead the company through the next phase of growth.”
Grallert has 25 years of experience in the sustainable agriculture industry globally. Since joining GCG in 2015, Grallert has served in multiple roles for the organization, starting as a investor and advisory board member, then moving in to a more intensive operational role in 2017. Since then, Chris has overseen the building out of the back office and operational components of the company. He has led GCG’s commercial growth and has been instrumental in tactical and strategic developments. Grallert’s efforts, Banhazl said, “have helped to take Green City Growers from a Massachusetts-focused business to a regional company that has almost tripled in size since his involvement.”
In assuming the company president position, Grallert will manage GCG’s overall business operations and staff. Grallert will continue to support Banhazl as she continues to take on a larger role in shaping GCG’s strategic growth, overseeing marketing efforts, and driving business development.
“I’m very excited about the future of GCG and proud to have been chosen to lead the company,” Grallert said. “As urban ag continues to gain traction nationally, we will continue to focus on innovations that will bring integrated food production to more and more communities”.
“I couldn’t be more excited to have Chris taking the lead on the day to day operation. We’ve been working together side-by-side for a few years now, and I feel 100% confident in his ability to lead us as we continue to grow,” Banhazl said. “It feels amazing to know the company I founded is in such good hands.”
Green City Growers was founded in 2008 to provide edible landscaping and urban farm installation and maintenance. The company has evolved to serve a wide array of commercial businesses, including global property management and real estate companies and manages farms on top of Whole Foods Market and at Fenway Park. The company was just awarded a USDA Farm to School Grant to continue a multi-town school gardening program.
With more than 100 sites throughout MA RI, CT, and NY, GCG annually grows 35,000 lbs of organic produce, converts over 20,000 sq ft of unused space into food-producing landscapes, teaches 2,000 kids how to grow their own food, and engages ½ million individuals in urban farming through their programs.
VIDEO: How To Feed 10 Billion People?
The American news platform Bloomberg launched a new video ‘How to feed 10 billion people’ in the series called ‘Problem Solved’
The American news platform Bloomberg launched a new video ‘How to feed 10 billion people’ in the series called ‘Problem Solved’. These videos focus on how scientists are trying to solve some of the biggest challenges the world faces.
How to feed 10 billion people by 2050? That is one of the questions to which NPEC research can contribute. Photosynthesis is at the heart of plant production, and while we thought this cannot be improved, we now know it can. If only one can measure photosynthesis accurately and at high-throughput, which is exactly what NPEC will provide for several crops.
For more information:
NPEC
www.npec.nl
Publication date: 8/20/2019