“This past Fall, we were elated to install 12 of our Flex Farms in Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, and Barbados. This project strives to achieve long-term food security for those living in these island communities, and also offers experiential, hands-on learning opportunities, ultimately providing lifelong skills in areas such as nutrition, agriculture, science, and entrepreneurship,” says Alex Tyink, CEO and Co-Founder of Fork Farms.
Alex Tyink
The Wisconsin-based agtech supplier has seen numerous of its farms being installed in the country. In terms of Flex Farms, the company has more than 2,400 installations in 43 states and nine countries.
However, they weren’t tied to borders as they also have been working on a pilot that was recently launched to address food insecurity in the Caribbean, Fork Farms supplied its farming solutions as the project aims to produce fresh food all year long. The project was conceived by the Caribbean Climate-Smart Accelerator (CCSA) and seeks to tackle persistent climate issues, high food prices, and food insecurity in the Caribbean.
The Caribbean Climate-Smart Accelerator
Large-scale growing walls
“With the addition of the Flex Acre, we look forward to expanding into new areas and servicing more communities worldwide. With empty commercial space still abundant, we’ve noticed that many companies are thinking of ways to use their space for the benefit of their community.”
The company’s newest product, the Flex Acre, is a large-scale growing wall for personal- and commercial-using ends. Fulfilling the growing demand of customers and partners, Fork Farms introduces a vertical growing wall whilst meeting modularity, flexibility, and scalability. Each Flex Acre is a 9-feet (274cm) high by 9-feet long by 3-feet-wide (91cm) growing system capable of producing more than 100 pounds of leafy greens or other vegetables every month.
The new Flex Acre
Turning offices into farms
The largest Flex Acre installation project, and the first to utilize the Acre Command will begin this summer on the fourth floor of Rockwell Automation’s headquarters in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This vertical farm, carrying the name Clocktower Farms, will occupy 7,300 sq. ft. (680m2) of space and house 72 Flex Acre units.
The farm will produce 540,000 plants and almost 150,000 pounds (68039 kg) of food annually. This translates back into 1,200,000 servings, which is enough to feed roughly 5,000 Milwaukee households annually.
Control software
In addition, Fork Farms recently launched an in-house developed technology, the Acre Command, which is a fully integrated HVAC, power, and plumbing solution that recaptures the room’s energy and water.
According to Alex, this minimizes the number of facility updates required to install an indoor farm, lowers capital costs, and shortens installation timeframes. And, ultimately it provides new opportunities to drive economic benefits while scaling up sustainably and responsibly.
For more information:
Fork Farms
Alex Tyink, Co-founder and CEO
info@forkfarms.com
www.forkfarms.com