• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

A mix of red and blue light helps promote optimal plant growth in controlled environment agriculture settings. © kynny/iStock/Getty Images Plus pg 22 03.19 • www.ift.org BY MARY ELLEN KUHN Will controlled environment growing remake the landscape of modern agriculture? Pioneering indoor growers believe that it’s time for farming to go high tech. t its most idyllic, a traditional farm scene calls The challenges that CEA presents are equally clear: to mind the vivid hues of nature. Think rich It’s difficult and expensive. Starting an indoor growing brown soil and rows of leafy green plants operation is capital intensive, and the labor and energy sprouting under a bright blue sky and a costs required to operate it are high. A radiant, golden sun. Growers must be vigilant about food safety, and entre- Indoor farming conjures up somewhat different preneurs who come from outside the produce world may imagery: the slightly eerie, pinkish-purplish glow of LED underestimate the complexity of building a fresh food lighting, metallic-gray shelving units, and sterile white supply chain. growing trays. In the bold new world of controlled environment The Rising Profile of CEA agriculture (CEA) in which crops are grown in enclosed Despite the challenges it presents, indoor growing has spaces ranging from smart greenhouses to high-tech some high-profile fans and funders. Celebrity chefs Carla vertical farms, much more than the color palette of farm- Hall and Tom Colicchio invested in Kearny, N.J.–based ing has begun to change. Futurists have long theorized Bowery Farming, which closed a $90 million funding about the potential that indoor farms have to help feed a round in December 2018 with funding from investors growing global population, but such farming operations who include the CEO of Uber (Zaleski 2018). In July have tended to be experimental and relatively small in 2017, South San Francisco–based hydroponic grower scope. In just the past couple of years, however, the busi- Plenty secured the largest ag tech investment to date, ness of indoor growing has moved closer to viable raising $200 million in a funding round led by a huge commercial reality thanks to new sensor technologies, Japanese tech fund (Cosgrove 2017). And earlier this advances in LED lighting, and state-of-the-art climate year, Cincinnati-based 80 Acres Farms announced a control systems, not to mention machine learning and major investment, which AgFunder News (Burwood-Taylor advanced data analytics, all of which are coming together 2019) put at more than $40 million. to transform growing practices. “At any given time, it is very difficult to say how many But where will these changes lead? What do they indoor commercial growers exist in the world, as new mean for the world’s food supply? Is CEA truly scalable? indoor farms are constantly being launched, and many And can the ambitious pioneers who’ve put a stake in the continue to fail,” says Henry Gordon-Smith, founder and soil-free ground of indoor growing make a go of it? managing director of Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Agritecture The appeal of CEA is clear. Growing in a controlled Consulting. “The industry is still waiting on data for indoor environment is local and sustainable; it requires far 2018, but what is clear is that 2017 was a very good year less water than outdoor growing, and it doesn’t deplete globally for agricultural technologies in which we saw a the soil. Because of their closed systems, many indoor record $10.1 billion in early-stage investment.” growers use no pesticides. And produce can be bred for Indoor growing has grabbed the attention of private garden-fresh taste rather than for the ability to withstand equity investors because they see the potential for big the rigors of a distribution cycle that spans thousands of wins, says Allison Kopf, who in 2015 founded Brooklyn, miles; most indoor growers proudly tout the fact that N.Y.–based Agrilyst to bring to market a web-based soft- their products are free of GMOs. ware platform for managing the indoor growing process. »» 03.19 • www.ift.org 23 pg “Venture capitalists are really interested in massive, massive market opportuni- ties where you can deploy technology and get a really big outcome,” notes Kopf. “Agriculture traditionally has been a very massive industry that has been underserved by technology.” The way Kopf sees it, indoor farm- ing is just starting to scale up and growers have a lot of learning left to do, but the opportunity is there for compa- nies that get it right. “I think you’re going to have a lot of companies go under in the next few years, but you’re going to have companies that become really successful,” she predicts. Farm Models Differ Thanks to their short growth cycles, leafy greens are ideally suited to indoor growing and represent the bulk of CEA Greens from Bowery Farming are available crops. Indoor farmers also are growing at retailers in New York City and New Jersey. Photo courtesy of Bowery Farming microgreens, herbs, tomatoes, and cucumbers, and they are experimenting with additional crops. 80 Acres Farms least two crops thanks to their ability to that they give the effect of walls of has strawberries and grapes in the R&D create microclimates inside their grow- greens. And some companies, particu- stage, for example. According to an ing facilities. larly those that use a greenhouse model, Agrilyst survey conducted in 2017, 80% Among the major CEA players, use low shelving units. of the indoor growers polled raise at there’s no single approach to growing. Growers employ sophisticated cli- Most companies have developed their mate control systems to maintain the own systems over the course of years of perfect balance of air flow, light, water, Figure 1. Breaking Out Indoor Farming Growing Systems. (based on responses to a 2017 survey of indoor growers)* From Agrilyst’s State of R&D and trial and error. and humidity in their facilities. In the Indoor Farming 2017 Hydroponics—growing plants in a most advanced operations, hundreds if nutrient-rich, water-based solution—is not thousands of sensors track plant Hybrid (Aquaponics, the method of choice for the largest per- growth. Machine learning and artificial Hydroponics, Soil) 6% centage of indoor farming operations; intelligence technologies enable growers 49% of the respondents in the Agrilyst to interpret the data their sensors col- survey opt for hydroponics. Aquaponics, lect and use the information to Aeroponics 6% which involves raising fish and plants in continually tweak their growing prac- an integrated system, is used by 15% tices, adjusting inputs like water and (Figure 1). nutrients with great precision, ensuring Newark, N.J.–based AeroFarms that plants get exactly what they Aquaponics 15% grows greens using a system called aero- need—no more and no less, thus reduc- ponics in which the roots of plants are ing waste at the same time they are misted with water and nutrients rather ensuring optimal growth. Hydroponics 49% than immersed as they are in hydro- To efficiently manage its operation, ponic growing systems. The company the team at Bowery has developed a has patented its process, which employs proprietary software platform, a cloth growing medium made from BoweryOS, which uses vision systems, Soil-Based 24% recycled plastic. automation technology, and machine At AeroFarms, which operates one learning to monitor plants and “all the farm in a former steel mill and another variables that drive their growth 24/7,” in a onetime paintball arena, plants are according to the company. “Now more grown on shelving units stacked 12 lev- than ever, we need scalable solutions for * Totals exceed 100% due to rounding els high. Plenty grows greens on 20-foot an impending climate and food crisis, vertical towers located so close together and we deeply believe in the power of 49+pg 24 03.19 • www.ift.org 24+15+6+6 technology to make drastic, necessary improvements to the food system,” says Making Produce Even Better for You cofounder and CEO Irving Fain. When its Hamilton, Ohio, facility ne of the benefits of controlled environ- the same every time.” now under construction is complete, ment agriculture is the potential it Marketing produce for enhanced nutri- 80 Acres Farms will have automated Oaffords to yield produce with enhanced tionals would be challenging, however, growing from seeding to harvesting, nutritional content as well as superior taste. Mattson notes, because nutritional labeling the company says. Neil Mattson, a plant scientist at Cornell isn’t required for produce sold in the United At San Carlos, Calif.–based Iron University, explains how it works. “Many of States. “Because there’s not currently a Ox, which opened the doors of its these nutritional compounds in plants or the nutrition label on produce, it may be some- robotically powered indoor farm this compounds in plants that contribute past fall, a robot named Angus lifts 800- to flavor and aroma are actually pound containers filled with seedlings compounds that plants make in the and carries them around a 2,000- environment in response to stress,” square-foot growing area. Seedlings are says Mattson. transplanted via a robotic arm (Smith Plants grown outdoors have 2018). The company describes its developed defense mechanisms in approach as “human led, robotics first” response to environmental stress- and its produce as “grown by robots ors, he says, because “plants can’t with love.” move around and get away from Automating the farming process is a those stressors, so what they have priority for many companies because to do is form pigments of protective the cost of labor is one of the biggest compounds to ward off these challenges that growers face.

Load more

  8

Copy Link