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EU: "Hydroponics should be labeled as organic"

Earlier this year, many vertical farms, especially hydroponic farms and their investors received a cold shower after an EU decision. Although hydroponic farming offers high-quality, pesticide-free, green, nutrition products it hasn’t been acknowledged by the European Parlament’s Committee on Agriculture…

Hyderabad's agri-startup using modern tech for pesticide-free vegetables

A Hyderabad-based techie who had returned from Australia after a span of 20 years, has recently set up an agri-startup that offers modern technology such as machine learning,…

Bergen county partners to provide families in need

The Bergen County Food Security Task Force has joined with a Hackensack vertical farm to provide ongoing healthy food options to families in need throughout the county. Greens Do Good, a four-season hydroponic, vertical farm in Hackensack, NJ and the Bergen County Food Security Task Force have partnered…

"Are online marketplaces the future trading platform for fresh produce?"

Selling via online marketplaces offers many advantages for farmers, buyers and sellers. It overcomes time and space constraints, provides inclusive market access, cuts costs,…

UK: Derby council urged to agree £17m support package to secure 5,000 job scheme

Derby City Council’s Cabinet is being asked to agree a package of support, worth up to £17.5 million, to enable the development of a new food production campus, which could bring 5,000 jobs to Derby. SmartParc wants to create the innovative £300m food manufacturing and distribution park on the former…

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Vertical greenery: impacts on the urban landscape

With the increase of urban density and the decrease in the availability of land, the verticalization phenomenon has intensified in cities all over the world. Similar to the vertical growth of buildings, which is often a divisive issue for architects and urban planners, many initiatives have sought in the…

European Commission seeks feedback on future plan to ensure food supply

Today, the European Commission launched a targeted consultation on a contingency plan to ensure food supply and food security across the EU in times of crisis. This…

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The status of AI in hydroponics in India

Currently, AI in Hydroponics in India may be in a fledgeling state. Although a few successful Hydroponics startups have managed to raise capital and innovate with AI, there is still a lack of general awareness about the potential of AI-driven Hydroponics farming.  AI in Hydroponics in India is currently restricted…

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Creating agtech campuses in Kansas that use renewable energy

Kansas Freedom Farms is a technology company based in Overland Park, Kansas with a goal to build multiple state-of-the-art agtech “campuses” as commercial real estate developments across the state. Planned for 2021 to 2026, the construction will typically occur in five phases with each including an…

How vertical farms are revolutionizing agribusiness

Nigeria is one of the most promising African nation because of its age pyramid. But with a large young population comes questions around food and water access and today, more than 170 million Nigerians need prolonged and sustainable access to these resources. Nigeria currently imports $3.5 billion worth…

The food sustainability dream in the Gulf countries

Food Security is everyone’s responsibility in the GCC. According to Satvik Jaitly, Consultant for Food & Nutrition at Frost & Sullivan in a special report to SME10x, the volatility in oil demand and trade disruptions due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has raised concerns about the current status quo…

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Arlington's commercial farm to double production

Since recently, Arlington County has a working commercial farm. The farm, which is located in a commercial building along Lee Highway, uses hydroponic technology to grow a variety of edible plants indoors. And it’s about to expand. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced this afternoon that Fresh Impact…

Swegreen’s new in-store farming service "Scandinavia’s biggest"

Swegreen's innovative in-store service will make the Ica Maxi megamarket in Linköping, located in Mid-Sweden, the first of all Sweden’s megamarkets to offer fresh herbs and salad grown from seed to finished plant inside the store. Every day, several hundred fresh leafy vegetables can be harvested for the…

"The market needs logistics specialists that offer integrated solutions on a turnkey basis"

Four companies have set up a joint venture for the data-driven automation of internal logistics for greenhouses and packing centers within the international greenhouse horticulture sector. Hortilogics aims to unburden growers, producers, packers, investors and greenhouse builders completely in this area.…

Karma Verde Fresh

Introducing vertical farming to Mexico and beyond

Karma Verde Fresh (KVF) is a vertical farm based in Monterrey, Nuevo León (northeastern Mexico), producing a variety of seedlings, leafy greens, strawberries and beans, and manufacturing its own cultivation systems which can be installed in any urban environment to promote local agriculture. First…

Qatar: Sales of local vegetables up 60% in three years

There has been a significant increase in the volume of sales of local produce through ‘Qatar Farms’ and ‘Premium Qatari Vegetables’ marketing programmes; sales soared by more…

Urban farmers leave Vancouver due to legislation

Less than four years ago, inside an industrial warehouse on East Vancouver’s streets of Powell and Victoria, Aaron Quesnel was living his microgreen dreams. Under stacks and stacks of towering shelves, amid the hums and florescent hues of grow lights, Quesnel and his farm staff spent their days tending…

Belgian Bio-Planet now sells vertically-farmed coriander too

Just under a year ago, Bio-Planet first introduced its basil to the market. This came from this Belgian store's self-developed vertical farm. "This cultivation method differs from conventional farming. It requires less water and space and fewer nutrients. That results in herbs with tiny ecological…

USDA Farm Labor Survey

2021 Adverse Effect Wage Rate finally revealed

With the release of USDA’s Farm Labor Survey on February 11, farmers that utilize the H-2A program finally know the minimum wage they must pay their H-2A workers in 2021. Usually, this wage rate, known as the Adverse Effect Wage Rate, is known when the Farm Labor Survey is released in November, but…

USDA

US: Road closures and power outages contributing to shipping delays and increased truck shortages

Extreme weather across much of the Midwest and Northeastern U.S. is curbing consumer demand for many produce items. Road closures and power outages across Texas, temperatures far below zero across the Midwest, and snow cover across much of the country are all contributing to shipping delays and increased…

The North Wind

Indoor Agriculture receives $100,000 grant from MDARD

NMU’s new indoor agriculture program recently received a $100,000 grant on Feb. 12 from Michigan’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to help offset the costs for a self-contained growing center. According to MDARD’s page, the grants are to help “promote the sustainability of land-based…

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Technical mission introduces Taiwan watermelons to Middle East desert

A Taiwanese technical mission has successfully grown three varieties of Taiwanese watermelons in Bahrain, introducing "Taiwanese pride" to the desert. About 92 percent of Bahrain's land is desert. Due to water constraints and lack of arable land, the kingdom relies heavily on imports to meet local food…

YASAI

Introducing circular food and systems to vertical farming

While vertical farming already boasts considerable efficiency in energy, space, and water use, YASAI is pushing it one step further through the company’s commitment to circularity. YASAI is a vertical farming system provider based in Switzerland offering “farming as service”, meaning that the company…

Light bar to grow healthy plants

Vitabeam produced their first LED light bar, which emits a combination of light wavelengths called VQe (Vitabeam Quantum energy). The wavelengths are all safe for human exposure and have properties…

Huge increase in Qatari vegetables’ sales during 2020

Compared to previous years, the Premium Qatari Vegetables and Qatar Farms programmes have achieved significant sales during the year 2020. The sales of Premium Qatari…

Image: Harriman/Gyde/courtesy Vertical Harvest]

US: These buildings combine affordable housing and vertical farming

Some vertical farms grow greens in old warehouses, former steel mills, or other sites set apart from the heart of cities. But a new series of projects will build multistory greenhouses directly inside affordable housing developments. “Bringing the farm back to the city center can have a lot of benefits,”…

Josh Siteman / handout via Reuters

Investors seed indoor farms as pandemic disrupts food supplies

Investors used to brush off Amin Jadavji’s pitch to buy Elevate Farms’ vertical growing technology and produce stacks of leafy greens indoors with artificial light. “They would say, ‘This is great, but it sounds like a science experiment,’” said Jadavji, CEO of Toronto-based Elevate. Now, indoor farms…

"New lettuce concept meets demand for greater convenience for grower and consumer alike"

The Teens concept was introduced last year to respond to the customers’ demand for convenience. The lettuce leaves that could be turned into a salad in no time at all, the Teens concept attracted the attention not just amongst customers. "Just like babyleaf, Teens can be grown in a fully automated…

Hawaii: Comments wanted for $50K economic diversification grants

A vertical high-density environment-controlled farming facility, mental health training, and a land-based coral nursery are all projects currently up for public discourse in…

Philippine congressmen pushes for the promotion of urban agriculture

A bill promoting urban agriculture authored by Pangasinan fourth district Rep. Christopher De Venecia and other congressmen has been passed by Congress on the third reading.…

Facebook: Bowery Farming

Continuing innovation on the tech- and supply side of business

At one point in the not-so-distant past, vertical farming’s role in our future agricultural system was far from certain. Growing leafy greens in warehouse-like environments controlled by tech seemed like a compelling business, but one that had yet to prove itself either economically or as an important…

BrightBox-Venlo

10 ways to grow the indoor farming market

The number of indoor farming companies seems to grow almost daily, each claiming to be more innovative than the last. And yet, there is a lack of data pertaining to profitability, yields and sustainability of the indoor farming industry. The Center for Excellence for Indoor Agriculture (COE) was…

Bowery Farming

The grand challenge of AI for indoor farming

In recent years, AI leaders have urged machine learning experts to consider understanding the world’s oceans and tackling climate change grand challenges on par with building autonomous vehicles, beating a computer at a game of chess, or robotic grasping. Combining computer vision, logistics, robotics,…

Urban farm and plant-based marketplace open vegan mobile market in Las Vegas

Starseeds was started because of microgreens. Travi and Clark were growing microgreens for restaurants and hotels pre-COVID. But when the pandemic hit the twoo transitioned from business-to-business to the public. They partnered with other farms and local producers to create a local plant-based market…

CAN: How to off-set higher labour operating costs

Let’s start with the good news first: total sales from Canada’s greenhouse fruit and vegetable sector increased by 5.0% to $1.6 billion in 2019, continuing a trend of increases that began in 2013. The leading provinces were Ontario at (65.0%), followed by British Columbia (19.2%), Quebec (9.3%) and…

Penang island to join vertical farming boom

Penang Island encompasses an area of 293km2, with a population density of 2,465.5/km2. Most of the land is allocated for infrastructure, urban and rural planning. According to research by Penang Institute (2018), agricultural land use in Penang for fruit production steadily decreased from 7,149.8…

Farming in Malaysia goes indoor

The pandemic has shone a light on many of the gaps that exist in the country’s economy. And one of these is the need for better food security, an issue that resonated with Gerard Lim long before Covid-19. Many years ago, he started noticing that most of the vegetables sold in local supermarkets and grocers were not necessarily…

"Cityponics: ensuring food security in Singapore"

Food security and access to safe and nutritious food in Singapore is a challenge on several fronts as Singapore is a small city-state with limited resources, with only 1 per cent of land available for food production, and over 90 per cent of food is imported from an increasingly disrupted world. The…

Singapore: Disabled jobseekers turn to urban farming as COVID affects employment

“I was not a farmer. I never even bought vegetables when my wife was around.” To his surprise, Mr Nithyaseelan N. now finds himself surrounded by cartons of Xiao Bai Cai and Red Pak Choy, inspecting every leaf and stem for discolouration and spots, five times a week, seven hours each day.  The 66-year-old…

A ‘fragile’ food system: US urban farmers see new interest during pandemic

The phone call came this past March. The woman on the other end of the line was having trouble finding produce. Empty shelves because of the coronavirus pandemic. She wanted to know if April Pandora had any to sell. “They needed produce, and we had it,” said Pandora, who owns and operates an organic…

Microcosms and hi-tech plants - a new frontier for agriculture?

There is increasing talk of indoor crops, i.e. productions that are immediately available to consumers because they are grown inside supermarkets and can be harvested and placed in carts. Basil under white-spectrum diffused light (OLED) Is this the ultimate purpose of the ISAAC project (innovative…

New Covent Garden Market predicts fruit and vegetable trends for 2021

New Covent Garden Market, from which more than 100 wholesale traders supply fresh fruit and vegetables to London’s restaurants, has predicted that yuzu fruit, avant garde…

Lack of available skilled labor means some US ports are facing unloading backlogs of weeks or more

Shipping issues and weather conditions continue to impact arrivals and domestic harvest volumes. Lack of available skilled labor means some US ports are facing unloading backlogs of weeks or more, with an increasing number of empty containers piling up. Wet fields, cold temperatures, wind, and other…

German, French, and Dutch consumers favor 0 percent VAT on fruits and vegetables

A recent study found that German, French, and Dutch consumers favor a 0 percent VAT rate on fruits and vegetables. Jeroom Remmers is the director of the TAPP Coalition. In an…

"Competition in the market is necessary and makes us better and smarter"

For Agrolux, the market for assimilation lights in horticulture offers tremendous growth opportunities. To expand its leadership team and drive further growth, Agrolux has therefore recently appointed Nick Boelen as its new international sales director. Shift toward LED lighting"Agrolux plans to grow…

Vertical farm offers locally grown leafy greens and salads to US supermarket

Four SKUs of locally grown fresh leafy greens and ready-to-eat salads from Fifth Season, a Pittsburgh-based vertical- and robotic-farming company, are now available at more than 75 Giant Eagle and Market District locations in the Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, and Pittsburgh metro areas. “We are committed…

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Israeli firm sets its sights on saffron market

Saffron Tech, an Israeli, wholly owned subsidiary of Seedo Corp, is developing a technology for automated, year-round saffron growing in a bid to capture a slice of the lucrative US$1 billion annual market in saffron supply. If successful, the solution has the potential to challenge the global Iranian…

NZ: Recall of salads to manage listeria risk

New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS) is advising the public to return or dispose of specific batches of various ready-to-eat salads as they may contain listeria bacteria. South…

America's food waste from a strawberry's perspective

At a small, quiet farm on the northern border of San Diego County, Kenny Feitz plants rows of bright red strawberries starting in October each year. Feitz might be the world’s biggest fan of strawberries. He’s just one piece of California’s enormous agriculture industry. The Golden State produces more…

Vertical farm now sells salads to cubs stores in Midwest US

Living Greens Farm (LGF), a vertical, indoor aeroponic farm in the U.S. that provides year-round fresh salads, salad kits, microgreens and herbs, announced the addition of significant new retail distribution of its products in the upper Midwest. Starting December 2020, LGF’s ready-to-eat bagged salad…

Why is cannabis cheaper to grow than food in vertical farming

More than a decade ago, microbiologist Dickson Despommier floated the idea that nations with little arable land like the UAE could become self-reliant by growing food in skyscrapers with perfectly optimized artificial light and heat. He called it vertical farming and argued that it could reduce world…

Rethinking controlled environment agriculture as an economic driver

While COVID-19 has placed an emphasis on supply chains and strengthening local food systems, the self-sustainability of the global agricultural system is still threatened by insufficient profits, according to Daryl Gibson. Daryl currently works as a consultant for “Innovation from the Ground Up.”…

GoodLeaf greens now available at whole foods market stores

GoodLeaf Farms’ leafy greens are now available at Longo’s and Whole Foods Market stores across Ontario, adding to stores owned by Loblaw Companies — including Fortinos and Zehrs — where they have been available since 2019. “It’s exciting for us to make more Ontario-grown food available to Ontario…

Vertical farming project in Ohio to add over 1,000 jobs

Central Ohio stands to pick up 240 jobs from two projects that received approval for state tax incentives on Monday, including plans by crafts and fabric retailer Joann to…

"We can choose to grow better"

That the world population and the proportion of people living in cities are growing, is no news for insiders in the vertical farming industry - nor is the fact that, the demand for healthy, fresh, and locally produced food is rising at the same time. For exacly those reasons, many other players get interested in the industry.…

46% of Israel's export comes from the high-tech industry

Israel's exports of high-intensity technology imply a growth of almost more than 10-fold, coming from $12.4 billion dollars in 1990 to $101.3 billion in 2019. "Technology mostly implies agrotechnology solutions,"  says Edouard Cukierman, Managing Partner at Catalyst Funds. Recently, the 'GoforUAE-Israel Food…

'High potential for soil-less agriculture'

Hydroponic cultivation isn't new. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, dating to the 6th century B.C., may be a precursor to today’s hydroponics if they existed. (Historians disagree on that as well as where the gardens were.) Then, as now, technology is a key to giving growers, not Mother Nature, more…

Vertical Field

Agreement signed for installment of multiple farms in the UAE

Guy Elitzur, CEO of Vertical Field said: "This collaborative project is a first-of-its-kind partnership that offers Vertical Field's innovative agricultural technologies to the Emirates and the Gulf Region. The Makalde Group brings forty years of experience and wide knowledge in the field of agricultural…

"Rise up and start again"

One of the areas that the notion of ‘building back better’ most resonates with is infrastructure and the idea of either rebuilding existing amenities or improving them along sustainable lines. ‘There is always an emphasis on “build back better” when it comes to infrastructure,’ said Colm O’Connor, lead portfolio manager on the…

The future of sustainable urban agriculture

A recent podcast by Steve Wells highlighted the future of sustainable urban agriculture. Joining him during the podcast is Diana Davidson, Founder and Managing Director of Vertemis.  Agriculture is responsible for 9% of all Greenhouse Gas emissions in the UK, according to Farm Carbon Toolkit. These emissions…

Bloomberg

Depending on the cheapest lightbulb, vertical farming could feed world's poor

Abu Dhabi’s giant Yas Mall isn’t the most obvious location for embracing nature. The sprawling complex, which houses a 20-screen cinema, leads to a Ferrari-themed amusement park. At its heart is the Carrefour SA hypermarket. There’s no natural light or soil, yet floor-to-ceiling shelves offer shoppers…

US (WA): Boosting CEA through farm-to-fork project

Seattle architect Melanie Corey-Ferrini’s kiosk-style lobby pop-up concept called G2 is the ultimate in farm-to-fork dining. Protein-rich grains and greens are grown on-site…

Winning urban farming ideas for Mars

Mars City Design is an innovation and design platform founded by architect and filmmaker Vera Mulyani. Every year since its inception, the organization hosts the Mars City…

The 15-minute city

A presentation by Cindy McLaughlin, Envelope's CEO, and Eldad Gothelf, Director of Zoning Services. During the presentation, both are elaborating on the 15-minute city concept, which is an…

Standardization to build a vertical farming industry or building customized farms that keep cost high?

There are a lot of new ideas being trialed within the indoor farming space. “One of the hurdles I see is that it’s expected that there are standardized products available that will fit the new vertical farming systems being developed. Many farmers request that manufacturers develop custom components and…

Biological innovation is key to the economic & environmental sustainability of CEA

As the global population rapidly urbanizes, we need to move our agricultural production to within urban and peri-urban areas. The environmental and social costs of large-scale, industrial farming are huge, and include the fallout from widespread pesticide and chemical use, the depletion of land…

SmartParc

UK: SmartParc submits plans for a 155-acre food processing campus

SmartParc announced that it has submitted plans for its 155-acre high-tech food production campus in former Celanese near Spondon. The planned installation of 1.8 m2 will supply production facilities, start-up incubation equipment and a prospective location for a center of excellence in food production…

These farms have big plans for 2021

When the pandemic exposed major issues with our lengthy food supply chain, in the form of shipment delays and inadequate demand forecasting, local vertical farms and indoor growing operations (aka controlled environment greenhouses in urban or rural locations) were called upon to fill in the gaps in a…

Seed industry grants $5 million for research into downy mildew on lettuce

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, will use the genomics of lettuce to combat a pathogen that causes losses in the $3 billion industry each year. The Foundation of Food and Agriculture Research, or FFAR, awarded Richard Michelmore, professor and director of the UC Davis Genome Center,…

“The Singaporean market is not only suitable for vertical farming, but also has a great ecosystem”

“We’re about two years on the Singaporean market now as we’ve always had a plan to build a farm there. We managed to obtain co-founding from governments and our shareholders to supply the remaining part,” says Henner Schwarz, CEO of &ever. According to Henner, the Singaporean market is an interesting…

What to expect for indoor farming in 2021

Controlled-environment agriculture — also simply known as indoor farming — had a big year both in terms of activity and investment dollars. While once we might have questioned the sector’s economic viability and ability to actually feed a growing global population, a lot of those doubts have diminished…

2020’s indoor farm venture capital bonanza

In the face of a dismal year, indoor agriculture saw record fundraising from venture capital and other private investors in 2020. "The industry raised US$565mm in 2020. This figure excludes several notable rounds where the amounts raised were not publicly disclosed," says Nicola Kerslake, CEO of Contain.…

AI and robot-run farms are transforming agriculture

“Imagine a 1,500-acre farm. Now, imagine that fitting inside your favorite grocery store, growing up to 350x more. That’s efficient,” Plenty wrote on its website. Co-founder Nate Storey, in an interview with Forbes, said.  One of the oldest and most fundamental professions in the world is agriculture and farming…

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Celebs are getting into agtech

Food and farming are attracting celebrity investment including from Meghan Markle, Oprah and Katy Perry to name a few. While food and farming are increasingly in the limelight in part driven by the pandemic. COVID-19 has catapulted food and farming to the forefront of the minds of ordinary folks who have had first hand…

Who will win in indoor agriculture?

According to Allison Kopf, CEO of Artemis, there are five ways big players will enter indoor agriculture. "The indoor agriculture (both greenhouse and vertical farming) market is one of the fastest-growing industries. Big companies in agriculture and technology are trying to figure out ways to capitalize…

Where technology meets nature

Walking down the stairs from exit No. 2 of Sangdo Station in southwestern Seoul, its not easy to miss a white and green signboard that reads “METRO Farm.” A method of what‘s known as “smart farming,” Metro Farms can create nature-friendly environments while being located inside urban subway stations, using AI and Internet of…