Transportation, processing, and marketing account for up to $0.85 of every $1 spent on fresh produce. However, up to 40% of fresh produce ends up in landfills before it even reaches the consumer.
Removing the need for distribution has many benefits – fewer food miles, less plastic packaging, higher nutrient density, and fresher produce.
Modular, onsite indoor farming solutions are an emerging segment within the vertical farming industry. They enable businesses and institutions to grow the food that they consume, reducing waste, improving quality, and engaging their clients/customers with
a year-round indoor growing experience. One current option for onsite farms includes utilizing vertical farming consultants that can
build bespoke farms for customers (for example, Urban Crop Solutions and Farm. One).
In addition, shipping container farms take advantage of retrofitted freight containers to create modular indoor farming solutions (for example, Freight Farms, Growtainer, and GrowBox, among others).
Both of these options require high capital expenditure, significant horticultural expertise, and labor commitments on behalf of the host
location. These attributes make their product/service offerings applicable to niche markets with limited abilities to scale into broader market segments. The establishment of a remote management
platform could provide a meaningful solution to such challenges, enabling companies to control semiautomated hydroponic systems through the cloud and aggregate the data from all the farms in their fleet.
Read the complete article at FoodBeverages Magazine