Vertical farms grow the food of the future

Source: The Hill | January 1, 2020 | Eileen Abbott

Indoor farms offer a number of advantages, and they can help conserve resources.

On a cold, blustery day while bare tree branches sway in the winter wind, vibrant, leafy salad greens packed with nutrition and bursting with flavor are flourishing at FreshBox Farms, an indoor vertical farm — where it doesn’t matter what the weather is outside — in Millis, Massachusetts, about 30 miles southwest of Boston.

With the world’s growing population expected to exceed 9 billion by 2050, the U.S. Department of Agriculture sees indoor vertical farms — which can operate year-round — as having potential in addressing food security. In a vertical farm, crops are grown in vertically stacked layers to save space and in a climate-controlled system to optimize growing conditions.

FreshBox Farms, which has been operating since 2015, joins a growing number of indoor vertical farms that have been sprouting up in recent years and spanning the country. These include 80 Acres Farm in Cincinnati, which claims to be the world’s first fully automated indoor farm, all the way to the West Coast, where kale, tatsoi, beet leaves, arugula and mizuna greens thrive at the California-based Plenty.

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A report in AgFunder Network Partners estimates that it is “3 to 5 times more costly to grow in a vertical farm compared to conventional farming.”

However, Crop One Holdings — the platform under which FreshBox Farms’ brand falls — reports that technology is reducing costs and that the product is competitive as a result. “Crop One now has accumulated the largest database in vertical farming – a critical basis for AI/predictive agriculture,” says a company spokesperson in an interview with Changing America. “The company has invested in best-in-class plant science, software and control systems that control plant growth to generate the best outcomes – increased yields and reduced costs.”

In fact, Crop One says the success of its profitable farm in the Boston area is why it will expand across the globe, growing in Dubai in 2020. “The $40 million joint venture with Emirates Flight Catering will be the world’s largest vertical farming facility — a 130,000 square-foot controlled environment that will produce three U.S. tons daily of high-quality leafy greens at capacity,” reports a company spokesperson.

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